A/N: Here is the next installment of my Jerlita Roleswap AU. Hope you all enjoy it~
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.
Special Note: This chapter is not canon to the rest of the roleswap, mostly because of the ending, and I'll emphasize that by writing this chapter in present tense, rather than past tense. I got a review on FFN from someone who was worried about Hervé still sort of knowing the truth in Aelita's diary, and the official storyline will address it again, I promise. For now, enjoy this little short story about the worst case scenario involving that plot point.
The timeline of this chapter within the Roleswap AU: Not long after "A Girl's Diary", but before Jérémie is first materialized.
This was written with help from FP7ETDP43 over on DA. For art on this chapter, go to my DA and type in their username in the search bar.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Aelita's cousin, Taelia, comes for a visit, and Hervé decides to ruin everything."
Special Episode: Worst Case Scenario
(Based on The Girl of the Dreams)
The night before, Aelita Schaeffer had a breakthrough on Jérémie's materialization. She was up all night, only taking a break when she was forced to go to class by Odd and Ulrich.
"Time to launch it!" she exclaims, after typing in the last necessary lines of code. She then types in a command, and hits Enter.
She waits for an agonizing three seconds, and she groans in defeat when that all-too familiar red exclamation mark pops up.
"Come on! Not again!" she bemoans as she stands up and shakes her head in dismay, angry and upset. "Darn it! I'm so useless! I'm never going to do it!"
"And I'm sure you will, Aelita," comes Jérémie's voice from his interface on her monitor.
She sits back down, as she sarcastically responds with, "Thanks for the encouragement. But I'm useless, I tell you!"
She doesn't see Jérémie put on his thinking face, as if he's just gotten an idea, but she does hear his response, "Aelita? Do you think we'd get along well in the real world? I mean, as well as we do now?"
She glances up at him, "Yeah, of course." Them not getting along once he was here is one of her biggest fears. "Why?"
His expression is soft, "Well, because I'm not so sure I'd like to have a best friend who's useless. You understand?"
Aelita finally smiles, "Ha ha, very funny."
A knock comes on the door, and Odd opens it, "Get, get a move on, Aelita! You're going to be late for our last class of the day!"
It's Saturday, which means a half-day.
Aelita checks the clock and quickly finds that Odd is right. It's five minutes away from their final class of the day, "Oh, sorry! I didn't expect time to just fly by! I'll be right there!" She turns to Jérémie, "I'll see you later!"
"Good luck," the blue elf replies before logging off.
With that, the two cousins leave the pink-ette's room, with Aelita closing the door behind her.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
In Lyoko's Mountain Sector, Jérémie is pensive as he crouches on a platform.
There were no pulsations. Everything was quiet on the XANA end.
This leaves him with plenty of time to (what humans would call) daydream of what he would do when he was finally materialized, of all the things he wished to explore or to do.
Remembering that most of those things involve Aelita in someway, Jérémie smiles.
He doesn't like her being so hard on herself, and he knows how tall an order materializing him is, so he always tells her after every failure that he doesn't mind waiting.
Besides, being trapped on Lyoko allows him to closely monitor XANA's digital activity.
His train of thought is derailed by the sudden appearance of clouds. Jérémie glances up, and immediately knows he must move to the nearest tower.
A snowstorm.
He stands up as he slips his goggles on, and begins to run in the direction the holomap points him to.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It's after class now. The four Lyokowarriors are now at lunch, ready to finally relax.
As Odd happily stuffs his face, Aelita doesn't bother to stifle her yawn.
"You know, Aelita," Ulrich says with a smile, "most people use the night hours to sleep."
"I was trying a new program for materializing Jérémie," the pink-ette explains. "With this last one I was trying, I almost succeeded. I was nearly there."
The group is then approached by Principal Delmas, with a red-haired girl at his side, carrying a suitcase. "Miss Schaeffer, you have a visitor."
Four sets of eyes turn to the red-haired girl, who has been quiet until now. The resemblance is uncanny. She has the exact same face as Aelita, except her hair is red and her eyes are a dark blue. The smile is also softer when compared to Aelita's constant wide smiles
"Hello, Aelita," the mystery girl gently greets.
"Taelia!" All evidence of Aelita's exhaustion goes away as she jumps out of her seat and happily wraps her arms around the girl's neck and shoulders.
The girl, Taelia, stumbles a bit due to the sudden force behind Aelita's hug, but she quick regains her footing and returns the embrace. "It's good to see you, too, cuz."
"I'll leave you two to get reacquainted," Mr. Delmas says, before leaving the cafeteria.
"'Cuz'?" Yumi asks. "You mind introducing us, Aelita?"
Aelita breaks the hug, wearing an apologetic smile, "Oh, sorry. Guys, this is Taelia Stones, my cousin."
Oh, that explained the close resemblance.
On the other end of the cafeteria, Hervé Pichon can't take his eyes off the new girl.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The group is in the courtyard now, after Taelia admits to them that she's already had lunch (they had offered her a portion from Rosa). Taelia sits on the bench, with Odd and Ulrich on either side of her, and Yumi and Aelita standing, hovering nearby.
"I thought Odd was Aelita's cousin," Ulrich admits, before shrugging. "Of course, people can have more than one cousin, so what do I know?"
Taelia just sends him a gentle smile, "It's okay. Odd is Aelita's cousin on her mother's side. I am Aelita's cousin on her father's side."
Anthea Schaeffer and Marguerite Della Robbia are the only children to Eugene and Evelyn Hopper, thus making Aelita and Odd cousins through their mothers.
Meanwhile, Waldo Schaeffer and Millicent Stones are two siblings (out of five) to Guenther and Annaliese Schaeffer, thus making Aelita and Taelia cousins through the pink-ette's father and the redhead's mother.
Quite an extensive family tree.
"So, Taelia," Yumi asks, "what brings you to Boulogne-Billancourt, France?"
"Well, my parents are currently on a business trip in Paris," Taelia explains. "Since my school is currently on break, they decided to let me visit Aelita for the weekend."
"For the weekend? That's great!" Aelita is genuinely happy, but there's a problem. "But I should probably tell my pen pal that I won't be contacting him as much while you're here. I don't want to intrude on our limited time together."
"Go ahead," Taelia replies. "I'll be here."
"And we'll keep her company," Odd adds.
With that, Aelita sends her friends a grateful smile, before she runs off to her dorm.
"So, tell us about your school," Ulrich turns back to Taelia. "You mentioned it was in Germany, right?"
"Yes," Taelia answers. "It's a boarding school, just like this one, except we all have to wear uniforms."
"Oh, so it's that kind of school," Yumi realizes. A very prestigious, probably expensive, private school.
"Yes," the redhead confirms. "The rules are rather strict, but all of my friends are there. There's no other school I'd rather attend. Er, no offense."
They could tell. While Aelita is extroverted and artistic, Taelia is more introverted and scientific. The two, despite their high IQs and GPAs, are polar opposites.
"None taken," Odd reassures her. "We would definitely stand out at your school." Plus, at Taelia's school, they didn't have an abandoned factory housing a supercomputer nearby (allegedly).
Ulrich and Yumi both nod in agreement with Odd's statement.
Taelia giggles, before her smile fades as she notices someone staring at them from across the courtyard. "Umm, who is that?" she asks, slowly.
Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich all turn to where Taelia's pointing, and they see Hervé standing by the vending machines, staring at Taelia intently.
"Oh, that's Hervé Pichon," Odd explains, as the mentioned boy began walking towards them. "He's Aelita's unwanted admirer."
"'Unwanted', you say?" Taelia asks, before giving Hervé her full attention as he approaches her.
"H-Hi there, Aelita..." Hervé stammers, trying to find the right words. "Did you change your hair? It looks good on you."
Taelia raises an eyebrow, "I'm not Aelita. I'm Taelia."
"Oh!" Hervé exclaims, realizing his mistake. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Welcome to Kadic, Taelia! But you look so much like her!"
Taelia gives him a blank look. "If that's a pick-up line, it's worse than the ones Odd uses."
"And I've got some doozies," Odd adds, he, Ulrich, and Yumi all nodding in agreement.
Taelia continues, "Of course I look like Aelita. I am her cousin. Now, would you please stop staring at me?"
Hervé quickly averts his eyes and walks away, seeing clearly that he's beginning to piss her off.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
In her dorm, Aelita sits at her computer chair, initiating the connection to Lyoko.
"Jérémie? Do you read me?" she asks. No response. "It's Aelita!" No response.
She double-checks the connection. It's gone through. She's connected to Lyoko, but Jérémie isn't answering.
"Jérémie, please respond! Are you there?" she's beginning to become panicked.
What's happened to Jérémie? Did XANA finally manage to take away all his lifepoints? Was he captured in a Guardian, like the one Ulrich was trapped in?
Or did her materialization program actually work? Where the calculations she was running actually the right ones?
Both are very real possibilities right now, due to having no contact with Jérémie. But to be sure, she has to go the factory to check.
She sends a text to the others: 'Heading to factory real quick. Stand by.', before leaving her room.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita makes it to the factory without a hitch. The first place she checks is the scanner room. No one is there.
She then heads up to the lab, and checks the scanners memory. No one has used it in the past twenty-four hours.
Well, that knocks flat her theory that her materialization program finally worked.
Jérémie's still on Lyoko. She can see his ID card, but his lifepoint count is low and the ID card isn't attached to any yellow arrow on the holomap screen. She calls out to him, but she still gets no response.
She checks his last known coordinates and sees that he was last recorded to be in the Mountain Sector. But it's strange that she currently can't get clear readings for that sector.
She brings up Yumi's cell phone number on the monitor. She'll need help to location Jérémie.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Don't worry, Aelita. We'll be right there." Yumi hangs up after getting Aelita's message. She turns to Taelia. "Sorry, Taelia, but Aelita needs us for something. We'll be back soon."
Taelia smiles, "It's okay. Go on. I could use some time to myself anyway. Meeting new people takes a lot out of me."
The three smile back, before leaving for the park.
Once they're gone, Taelia takes a deep breath, taking a few moments to enjoy the view, before standing up and going to Aelita's dorm, where she would be staying for the weekend.
She doesn't notice Hervé's eyes following her every move.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Taelia reaches Aelita's dorm, where she finds a futon rolled out for her by Jim and Mr. Delmas. There, she sets her suitcase down against the wall, before sitting down and lounging on her cousin's bed, reading to pass the time.
She's an introvert. She much prefers reading than socializing with other people. And since she's only here for the weekend, it doesn't make sense for her to bother making any friends here. Well, aside from Aelita's friends, of course. That she doesn't mind.
A knock comes to the door, and she frowns because it's interrupted her reading. "Who is it?" she asks, trying her best to be civil. Her reading time is sacred to her.
The door opens and reveals Hervé Pichon, who enters the room without waiting for an invitation, "Taelia, listen to me. Your cousin has a huge secret!"
Taelia raises her eyebrow, unimpressed, "If that was a pick-up line too, I will admit it's more original than the one you tried earlier."
"It's not a pick-up line!" Hervé exclaims. "It's the truth! Aelita found a supercomputer in an abandoned factory! She turned it on and met an artificial intelligence! Now she's trying to bring him to Earth all because she has a crush on him!"
But Taelia remains stoic, "I think you need to get help. I realize you're probably tired of my cousin constantly rejecting you, and you're clearly trying to get back at her for it, but this isn't working."
Hervé paused, surprised at how well she could read people.
"People reading is my hobby," Taelia explains to him, a slight smirk on her face. "People are always surprised when I tell them." She then frowns, "Now, please, get out, before I call for help."
"Taelia, please, you have to trust me! I'm telling you the truth!" She had to believe him. He doesn't care what happened. He just wants Aelita to stop focusing so much on her 'pen pal'.
He's just a computer program. It's not like he's actually alive, right?
"I don't trust anyone who's stark-breaking mad!" Now, Taelia's getting angry. She's told this boy many times to leave, both verbally as well as through her body language. "Now leave!" A pause. "Now what are you doing?!"
Hervé's digging through Aelita's drawers. "There's proof here! I know there is!"
Taelia grabs his shoulder and pulls him away from her cousin's personal items, "Stop! That's just creepy! I don't think Aelita will take it well if she knows you were digging around her room!"
"Her diary explains it all!" Hervé admits. "She wrote down everything!"
"I'm pretty sure you won't find a physical copy," she sternly told him, sounding proud.
That's all she had to say. "Of course!" Hervé exclaims. "She moved it to her computer!"
He makes a move toward Aelita's computer, only to be physically stopped by Taelia. "Look! I don't know why I haven't thrown you out yet! Apparently, some guys really don't take 'no' for an answer! This is Aelita's private property!"
Hervé decides to try a different angle, "Aren't you the least bit curious about what I know? About what's in her diary? About what I'm talking about?"
Taelia frowns, "You won't find anything."
"You willing to bet on that?" Hervé asks. "There's only one way to find out."
"Fine," the redhead relents. "If I'm right, then you don't protest when I have the principal give you detention, or deny the reason why."
"Deal," Hervé smiles, knowing that he's right. "And if I'm right, then you set up a date between me and Aelita."
Hervé sits in the desk chair and turns on the monitor. Taelia rolls her eyes at the pink background, before her eyes are captured by something else.
"'Connected to Lyoko'?" she asks, genuinely confused. "What does that mean?"
Hervé tries his best not to smirk, knowing he's already won. "We'll find out if we keep digging."
Taelia frowns, "Fine."
Hervé's eyes scan the monitor, before seeing the file titled 'My Diary'. "Bingo. I was right. She moved it to her computer." He clicks on the file, only to be denied by a red X flashing where the cursor normally is.
"And it's protected by a password," Taelia shoots back. "She told me about you finding her diary and blackmailing her with it." Hervé is surprised to hear that, and it shows on his face. "Despite our distance, she and I tell each other things we wouldn't tell our parents."
"Did she also tell you that I'm a hacker too?" Hervé asks, before pressing in a few commands and then clicking on the file again.
This time, he gets in, to Taelia's immense discomfort.
Hervé clicks on the entry titled 30 September, 2004.
The two read together:
"Aelita Schaeffer's Diary, date: 30 September, 2005
Long story short, we have a really cool hangout now!
Let me explain:
Ulrich and Yumi have been disappearing after classes every day for the past week, only reappearing in time for dinner. Today, Odd and I got a little too curious, so this time, we followed them (into the sewers, unfortunately).
Their destination turned out to be the old, abandoned Renault factory, on the banks of the Seine River. We found them...sparring. That's it, just sparring, the thing they always do. Odd and I tried our best to stay hidden, because sparring is how Ulrich and Yumi flirt. It doesn't happen in public very often, but it's always so fun to watch. Anyways, despite our "elaborate stealthing" (Odd's phrasing), Ulrich and Yumi caught us anyways.
Apparently, Ulrich stumbled upon the factory nine days ago, and he liked being there, because it was a great way to train in Pencak Silat without any distractions. Two days later, he showed Yumi, who immediately thought the same thing. The two have claimed it as their private training area, to get away from everyone at school. Odd asked if "everyone" included him and me, and the lovebirds apologized. They really only relaxed when I reassured them that Odd and I wouldn't tell anyone, but only if they let us come here too.
And that's how the old factory became our secret hangout.
There was an elevator lift there, too, and I was about to check it out, but Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all warned me that it would probably break down if I tried to use it, so I didn't.
Don't tell anybody, but I can't get rid of the feeling that I should have ignored them."
"Well?" Hervé asks when they're done reading.
"Well what?" Taelia retorts. "They have a secret hangout? That's her secret? That doesn't mean anything!"
"Let's keep reading," he replies, hovering his mouse over the entry dated 9 October, 2005. "It really doesn't pick up until this day." He clicks.
"Aelita Schaeffer's Diary, date: 9 October, 2005
Omigod, omigod, omigod, omigod, omigod!
The coolest thing just happened to me! I have to tell you all about it!
Y'know that lift I've been so interested in ever since Odd and I followed Ulrich and Yumi to the factory? Of course, you do. Anyways, earlier today, during our usual visit to the factory, I had made the choice to come back here after dark, alone, to see where the lift went.
I kept my promise (made to myself), and I came back after curfew, after Jim made his rounds, and I finally took the lift down. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw I'd discovered a sort of computer complex with a lab, scanners, and especially this supercomputer straight out of a sci-fi movie!
And that's not all. Even though I was scared stiff, and hoping I wouldn't regret all this in a minute, I decided to start up the supercomputer. When I booted up the monitor, I discovered the last thing I ever thought I could find in an old abandoned factory.
There on the monitor was a sleeping boy against a dark green background made of binary code. He has a blonde hair, a pair of goggles attached to the top of his head, and what seems to be a blue scarf around his neck.
"Wow!" I exclaimed. "What is all this?! A video game?!"
Unfortunately or fortunately (I can't decide at the moment), my shout woke up the boy (revealing beautiful blue eyes). He seemed to look around, before finally centering his bewildered gaze on me, "W-What?! Who are you? W-Where am I?"
I promptly introduced myself as Aelita Schaeffer, a student from the nearby Kadic Academy. As for where he was, I just told him the truth, that he seemed to be an artificial intelligence program on this supercomputer.
He seemed to understand all the computer terminology, but as for me and Kadic, he came up blank and asked me to explain. I told him I was a human girl and that Kadic was the school I went to.
When he asked me about the pink hair, I stuttered out that I got it from my mother. (Gosh, he's cute.)
I could've very easily stayed up with him all night. He seemed very intrigued about my life and human culture, and I didn't mind giving him the answers. Unfortunately, it was past midnight when I finally checked my cellphone for the time, so I had to go. I apologized, but he stopped me and asked if I would be coming back. I smiled and nodded, promising him that I would be back during my free period after Chemistry class.
He smiled back and told me, "I'll be waiting."
See? I told you it was cool. I think I'll keep this as my little secret for now. Don't tell anyone, dear diary~"
"Okay, that's interesting," Taelia admits. "Her pen pal is actually an artificial intelligence."
"Like I said," Hervé cuts in.
"But is that really so bad?" she bites back. "It seems pretty innocent to me, even if mysterious. I mean, who built that supercomputer?"
Hervé shrugs, "No idea. Let's keep reading." He clicks on the entry dated 10 October, 2005.
"Aelita Schaeffer's Diary, date: 10 October, 2005 / Take: 2"
"'Take 2'?" Taelia asks. Hervé can tell she's intrigued now. "What does that mean?"
"Let's keep reading and find out," he's trying hard not to sound boastful.
The entry continues, "I never expected things to escalate so quickly.
Apparently, when I woke up Jérémie and Lyoko, I also woke up something else. I don't know what it is, but it wants to kill anyone who knows about Lyoko.
It attacked me with a vending machine and then my own lamp, forcing Yumi to come to my rescue and ask what was going on. Up until this point, I was fine with keeping Jérémie and the supercomputer a secret. But now that it was getting more and more dangerous, I had no choice but to fill Yumi in.
In the midst of us two testing out the scanners with Odd's dog, Kiwi, we instead brought Odd, Ulrich, and the principal's daughter, Sissi, into the fold.
The next day, the attacks escalated, this time with all of us as targets, not just myself, so we were forced to test out my theory that using a red tower on Lyoko would bring Jérémie to Earth, allowing him to live with us and not inside the supercomputer.
But it didn't work.
Furthermore, Sissi ended up breaking our pact out of concern for out safety. She told her father and Jim about the supercomputer and brought them there. Her father tried to get me to shut it down, but I couldn't. I didn't want to just abandon Jérémie.
So I instead launched a program called 'Return to the Past'. It rewinded time to the day before, thus erasing the memories of everyone, except Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and me, because we'd gone to Lyoko, and thus our brains were scanned within the supercomputer and are protected from the memory wiping effect.
That was Take 1.
Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi have allowed me until tomorrow morning to figure things out. I need to make sure that Jérémie actually has a chance to be brought here."
"More," is Taelia's reaction. "I need to know what she's unleashed."
"With pleasure," Hervé replies, clicking on the next entry.
"Aelita Schaeffer's Diary, date: 11 October, 2005
I've found out more about the malicious thing that wants to kill us.
It's an artificial intelligence named XANA. It's one just as complex as Jérémie, and it attacks on Earth by activating towers on Lyoko. That's why, when Jérémie deactivated the red tower in the first take, XANA was no longer able to sustain its attack. I don't know why, but it seems to want to destroy humanity.
Speaking of Jérémie, he's the only one who can shut down the towers XANA uses. I don't know why that is either, but in order to fight XANA, protecting Jérémie is our top priority.
Also, I can materialize Jérémie. I have evidence to support that claim, but it's going to take time. During that time, XANA can attack.
Jérémie told us that he was willing to be a sacrifice. He was fine with us shutting down the supercomputer.
But the rest of us? We couldn't abandon Jérémie, so we agreed to keep fighting XANA until Jérémie was here with us.
It's going to be a journey, a tough one. We have no idea what's in store for us. But we're willing if it means freeing Jérémie from his prison.
In the meantime, we'll have to keep this all a secret."
Both are quiet for a while.
"You believe me now?"
Taelia only nods.
She was expected, and hoping, that Hervé was lying to her, that he was crazy. But he's right. Even worse, he failed to mention that her cousin was risking the safety of the world just for a virtual boy.
"We need to tell the authorities," her voice is hard. "Right now."
"After you," is all Hervé responds with, letting her take the lead.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
When Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi arrive at the factory, the moment the elevator doors open, Aelita gives them a run-down on the situation.
Aelita can't get in touch with Jérémie. He hasn't been materialized, nor has he been deleted. He still has some lifepoints (not many, but enough to prevent deletion), and she's managed to narrow his position down to the entirety of the Mountain Sector. However, due to unexpected interference, she can't narrow it down farther than that.
That's where the other three come in. They'll have to search the entire Mountain Sector.
Now, Odd is here in the scanner room with Ulrich and Yumi, reading for Aelita to send them to Lyoko.
"Everybody ready?" Aelita asks, the three hearing her voice over the comm system.
"We're ready," Ulrich replies.
"Okay. Transfer Yumi." Her scanner doors close. "Transfer Ulrich." His scanner doors close. "Transfer Odd." Odd's scanner doors close, sealing him inside the cabin. "Scanner Yumi, scanner Ulrich, scanner Odd." The white circular bar moves upward in a swirl, scanning him as the wind blows his hair and clothes upward. "Virtualization!"
A large gust of wind hits him as he feels his body depixelize, before feeling it reform in mid-air.
He drops to the ground, Ulrich and Yumi on either side of him. Standing up, he sees purple mountains against an indigo sky.
"I virtualized you guys at Jérémie's last known coordinates," Aelita tells them. "Can you see anything?"
"Yes, Aelita," Ulrich snarks. "Mountains. Lots of them."
Aelita responds with a quip of her own, but Odd doesn't hear it.
Instead, he feels himself being thrusted out of this reality and into another. For a brief moment, he sees Jérémie lying on the ground, unconscious at the bottom of a crevice, covered in snow, right in the middle of a storm.
When he returns to reality, Ulrich and Yumi are both in front of him, both looking concerning.
"What did you see, Odd?" Yumi asks.
"Jérémie!" He gasps. "I saw Jérémie!"
"Where, Odd?!" Aelita asks, sounding panicked. "Where is he?"
"He's snowbound," Odd explains. "Caught in the middle of a blizzard."
"In the Ice Sector?" Ulrich asks.
"No, here in the Mountain Sector," Odd replies. "He may have been on his way to a tower."
"The nearest tower is to your southwest," Aelita relays.
The trio turns in that direction, and begin their run across the various, narrow platforms.
"Boy oh boy, finding someone around here is going to be harder than finding an idea in Nicolas's head!" Ulrich quips, only to lift his head as a few snowflakes begin to fall on his face.
Yumi and Odd notice as well, and the trio came to a stop as Yumi comments, "Aelita, it's starting to snow. I think we're close!"
Odd surveys the scene, and suddenly points in a random direction and exclaims, "There!" In the direction he's pointing, the trio can only see the top of a crevice, over which the snowstorm seems to be the most intense. "That crevice, and the snowstorm! That's what I saw in my vision!"
"Then, let's not waste any more time!" Yumi orders, leading the way to that crevice.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Unfortunately, the moment those snowflakes begin to fall, the comm system on Aelita's end suddenly starts bugging up. She can still hear them, but it's very difficult.
She anxiously watches the three green arrows representing her three friends move towards the crevice on the holomap, only for them to suddenly disappear the same way Jérémie had.
"Ulrich? Odd? Yumi?" she asks, slightly panicking. "I can't read you guys anymore!"
No response.
She looks apprehensively at her screen. The holomap shows not even the slightest trace of her friends' icons. Hopefully, they'll have the sense to bring Jérémie to a tower so his lifepoints can regenerate once they find him.
Then also being inside a tower should restore the comm link.
Until then, all she can do is wait.
Fortunately, she doesn't wait for long. Unfortunately, it's not the distraction she wants.
The elevator doors open, revealing Mr. Delmas, with Taelia and Hervé standing on either side of him. Behind those three are four police officers.
Taelia and Hervé lead the party into the lab, and Taelia points at Aelita, or more specifically where she's standing.
"There!" she exclaims to Mr. Delmas and the four police officers. "It's this supercomputer right here. We don't know how, but it seems this XANA thing wants to destroy the planet!"
Aelita's eyes immediately land on Hervé, who's just standing there, his hands on his hips, as if he knows he's won.
"How did you find this place, Taelia?" the pink-ette quietly asks. She sounds calm, but on the inside, she's not.
"Your diary," the redhead admits, her voice just as low. She sounds guilty. "Hervé showed me the truth."
Aelita immediately rounds on Hervé, "So, Pichon, invading my personal space and reading my diary once already wasn't enough for you?!" She knows that sounding angry isn't going to help her case, but she can't hold back her emotions in this scenario.
"Don't blame him," Mr. Delmas interrupted her rant. "Mr. Pichon has just done his duty as a good student and good citizen." Hervé beams with pride, even more than he already is. "Now, Miss Schaeffer, I think you owe us all an explanation."
"There's nothing to explain." Her voice and heart are both cold now. She's been betrayed by Hervé and most importantly by her cousin. What matters most right now is ensuring that Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd find Jérémie, and then herself ensuring their own safety. "It's all in my diary."
"We'd like to hear it from you," Mr. Delmas quietly replies.
You did, from my diary, she wants to say, but she doesn't. She instead nods her head towards the holomap sphere projection in the center of the room, "That's Lyoko, the virtual world where Jérémie lives."
"And this XANA," one of the police officers cuts in, "does it also live in the same world?"
"Yes," Aelita replies. "Sadly, it's got total control. Jérémie is trapped there. I'm just trying to free him."
"Aelita," Taelia speaks, "I just want to know if you've really placed the world in danger just to bring a virtual boy to this world. I mean, this Jérémie belongs to Lyoko, doesn't he?"
"Jérémie isn't an AI," Aelita tells her. "He's a human just like us. I don't know how he was trapped, or why it's only him who can stop XANA. Those are answers we're still looking for. But I promised to free him. Like I said, he's trapped there."
Taelia takes a deep breath, "I think it's a noble cause."
"Hey!" a couple of the police officers turn to the redhead, aghast that she would say such a thing.
"What?!" Taelia angrily retorts. "I'm not allowed to have an opinion?! Besides, you didn't let me finish!" She turns back to her cousin, "As I was saying, I think it's noble what you're trying to do. Trying to help someone who's trapped is just like you, Aelita. But if all this stuff is so dangerous, it's time you destroyed it once and for all."
"Do you...?" Aelita asks, her voice cracking. She feels like crying. "Do you really think so?"
Taelia solemnly nods, and Aelita lowers her head in acceptance. She has no choice.
Tears coming to her eyes, Aelita takes off the earpiece and gets out of her chair. To everyone else's surprise, she lowers herself into a defensive position, one seen in Pencak Silat.
"Schaeffer," Mr. Delmas asks, "what are you doing?"
"I'm sorry," she swallows the lump in her throat, "but I can't let anyone touch this supercomputer. I wish XANA didn't exist either, Taelia, but it does. And right now, Jérémie's not the only one virtualized. Please, at least let me get my friends out."
"We're sorry, too," one of the police officers replied, before he and his three companions brought out their batons. "But if you throw the first punch, we'll have no choice but to defend ourselves."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
On Lyoko, the trio are right in the middle of the snow storm, Yumi is at the bottom of the crevice, with Odd halfway up thanks to his claws, and Ulrich waiting at the top. All three were worried.
Yumi brushes away the snow, revealing Jérémie, lying there unconscious. Concerned, she calls out to him, "Jérémie! Can you hear me?"
All of a sudden, Jérémie stirs and his eyelids shift. He seems weak, even his voice as he calls out, "Yumi...the Bloks..." He sounds on the verge of delirium, and he doesn't open his eyes, but it's a good sign that he recognizes Yumi's voice.
"Don't talk, Jérémie," Yumi responds to him in a soothing voice. "We'll take care of you."
"So he was attacked by Bloks on his way to the tower, to escape the storm," Odd says, as Yumi lifts Jérémie and hands him to Odd, who in turn lifts him up to Ulrich. "That explains it." Once Jérémie is out of the crevice, Odd then takes Yumi's hand and pulls her up and out of the crevice as well.
Ulrich has the out-cold Jérémie on his back, "We all need to get out of this darn storm. It's what's blocking communication with Aelita!"
"Let's get to the tower," Yumi replies. "That way!" She points to a tall cylinder to their right, off in the distance. "We need to regenerate Jérémie's lifepoints before anything else!"
With Yumi leading the way, the three (and unresponsive fourth) run towards the tower.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The four are inside the tower in no time. Surprisingly, there are no monsters in sight, no sign of XANA. They still can't contact Aelita, but at least the tower will regenerate Jérémie's lifepoints.
The three only have to wait about a minute or so for Jérémie's blue eyes to open.
"Jérémie! You're okay!" Yumi exclaims. She's the first person he sees, as she's kneeling at his side, carefully monitoring his progress.
As he sits up, rubbing his head, "You guys found me at last. What about the Bloks?"
"Gone," Odd replies. He's kneeling too. "We didn't see any sign of them."
"Strange," Jérémie mutters. "They had the perfect chance to finish me off. I was trapped down in that crevice for so long."
"Either way, they won't bother you anymore," Ulrich reassures him. He's the only one standing. He then turns his attention to their fifth. "Aelita, he's awake! Aelita?"
Nothing.
Odd stands up, "Still no response? What's going on? Are the towers not safe during a snowstorm either?"
"They are," Jérémie admits, he and Yumi also getting to their feet. "That's why I was on my way here. And the only way to cut off communication with a tower is to destroy it. Aelita, are you there? I'm fine now! How's it going on your side?"
No reply.
"You think something happened to her?" Yumi asks the others.
Jérémie turns around and brings up the tower interface, "Hang on. I can calibrate my interface to act as a webcam."
"Creepy," Odd comments.
Jérémie shrugs, "It's how I usually talk to you guys." He presses and deletes windows, bringing up others. "Got it! She seems to be in some kind of fight."
The other three gather around to watch what's going on.
The interface window shows Aelita having been backed into a corner. She looks roughed up, bruises on her face, neck, and knuckles, with pieces of her clothes slightly torn. Despite her clear exhaustion, she still resumes her defensive stance.
Yumi gasps when the four police officers surrounding her all pull out guns.
Taelia, to their surprise, immediately steps in front of Aelita, "No! That was not the deal! She's still my cousin!"
"Don't worry," one of the cops calmly tells her, "these are just tasers. We'd never pull a gun on an unarmed minor."
"Tasers or not, I still don't agree with this!" Taelia admits. "I just wanted to talk some sense into my cousin! I didn't want her to get beaten up! And you!" She's facing Hervé. "You just did this to get back at her! All you're doing is standing there looking smug! No wonder she's rejected you! No wonder she hid her diary behind a firewall!"
Finally, Hervé's smirk falls.
From behind Taelia, a weak Aelita makes a break for the computer, clearly (to her friends) trying to launch a Return to the Past, but Hervé trips her before she can.
Now, Aelita's lying on the ground, and she doesn't react when one of the cops puts her in handcuffs. She's now out-cold.
Jérémie immediately shuts down the interface and turns to the other three. "One of you needs to devirtualize and run a Return. Now."
All of them sensing the urgency, Ulrich spreads his arms out to Odd, "Odd, shoot me!"
Odd aims and fires. Ulrich falls back onto the platform, but he is not devirtualized.
"What?" the brunette asks, mostly himself. "Why didn't that work? It usually does."
"It seems that the scanners are offline," Jérémie explains, his voice softer than before. The three look at him and he seems to be struggling to stay on his feet.
"Jérémie," Yumi calls. "You okay?" The blue elf suddenly falls to his knees, right into the geisha's waiting arms. "What's wrong?"
"Tired," Jérémie answers, his words sluggish and slurred. "The supercomputer has been turned off."
"What?!" The other three can't help but panic.
"But we're still here!" Odd exclaims. None of them notice that the various data windows lining the tower are all starting to disappear.
"How can you tell?" Yumi calmly asks.
"Because I've felt it before," Jérémie quietly replies. "This feels oddly familiar."
"You're also connected to Lyoko," Ulrich reminds him, before yawning. "Then why do I feel tired too?"
Odd yawns also, laying down and stretching out his body the way a cat does, "And me."
Yumi gently conks her head against Jérémie's, clearly feeling the exhaustion too.
"Sorry," Jérémie apologizes. "You three are now apart of Lyoko too. I'm sorry...for dragging all of you into this." He sounds like he wants to cry, and he looks it too.
"It's okay," Yumi softly reassures him. "At least, this time, you're not alone."
Jérémie smiles before leaning further into Yumi's side, before whispering, "Thank you."
The data windows are mostly gone now.
Ulrich sits on Jérémie's other side, he and Yumi both flanking him. In front of them, Odd curls up like a cat. By the time all the data windows are gone, the four are left in darkness and completely asleep.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
ENDING A
Aelita Schaeffer wakes up in a hospital, cuffed to the bed. She's been arrested on the charges on attacking four police officers. But after a lengthy trial, she is released due to the basis of it being self-defense as well as lack of evidence for any other crime.
With or without the supercomputer, there is no evidence whatsoever that Aelita was doing anything illegal. So they have no choice but to let her go.
Before her parents post bail, however, Hervé visits her in prison, offering to bail her out himself in exchange for one simple date, but she vehemently rejects him. He disgusts her now, and she legitimately wonders what was going through his head as he turned her own cousin against her, as he turned the girl he loved over to the police and was smug about it.
The supercomputer has been shut down, Aelita was told when she woke up, but no, there was no one inside the computer when they checked.
Furthermore, she is expelled from Kadic for now having a criminal record, even if she was only arrested once and then released without a conviction. Her parents take her back to Switzerland and homeschool her.
And now, Aelita has only one thing to live for.
Getting back to Boulogne-Billancourt, France, turning the supercomputer back on, and freeing her four friends now trapped on Lyoko.
She doesn't know if Ulrich, Yumi, or Odd know what happened. If their memories will be scrambled like Jérémie's was. If they'll be trapped just like Jérémie. Or even if they'll hate her for abandoning them.
But she has to go back and make things right.
Her parents don't punish her. In fact, they blame Mr. Delmas and the Boulogne-Billancourt Police Department for tarnishing their daughter's reputation. They know all about the supercomputer and the boy that's still trapped inside, but they don't hate her. Like Taelia, they believe her cause is (was) a noble one, because trying to save someone is just like her. That's their 'angel'.
It takes a while, but eventually she and Taelia make up. She understands that Taelia didn't intend for things to get that far. She does agree that the world is safer now that the supercomputer has been shut off, but part of her can't forgive Taelia for ignoring her warning about three other human beings still on Lyoko.
When she turns twenty-one, Waldo and Anthea let Aelita go, promising to support her whatever she chooses to do now.
Aelita returns, now a grown woman, now bitter instead of sweet, to Boulogne-Billancourt, France. She sets up camp inside the factory, only going out to buy food for herself. Her bed is crudely made, but it's more comfortable than the one at home because it's closer to the supercomputer.
She turns the supercomputer back on, and nostalgia hits her hard because the first face she sees is Jérémie's sleeping one. She wakes him up, gently this time and apologizes for being so late.
Fortunately, he remembers her, as do Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd. The four are still alive. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd are all able to be devirtualized, while Jérémie is still trapped, but they must stay in the factory for the time being.
Because Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and Ulrich Stern have been declared missing and then dead. They're gone now. So Aelita must make up new names for them.
But she can do it. She spent all those years studying computers and coding and hacking.
Despite all the work, however, Aelita feels right at home. She gets to work immediately on creating three new profiles and then for Jérémie's materialization. She suffers with the fact that she's now seven years older than her friends, but if she can save them and alone for her sins. It will all be worth it.
As she expected, when she awakens the others, she also reawakens XANA, so their job isn't over yet.
XANA's first target, however, is not either of them. It still tries to prevent Jérémie from deactivating the tower, but it doesn't try to do that by shooting at him.
No, this time XANA's first target is Hervé Pichon.
They don't know where he lives or what he does now, but despite Jérémie deactivating the tower as soon as he can, Hervé doesn't make it. They learn this over the news.
The other four act apologetic and guilty for not being fast enough for Jérémie's sake, but deep down, they don't blame XANA.
He's the one who betrayed them, after all.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
ENDING B
In another universe, Aelita manages to avoid getting tripped by Hervé. She manages to press the button in time, thereby launching a Return to the Past that takes them back to moments before Mr. Delmas tells Aelita that she has a visitor.
This time around, things are different. This time, Jérémie isn't caught in a snowstorm. He stays in a tower the entire time. This time, Aelita moves her diary directly to the supercomputer. Only she has access to it, because the supercomputer itself is impossible to hack into. This time, just in case, they keep Taelia far away from Hervé. Taelia doesn't blame them. All Hervé does is make himself look like a stalker, because he doesn't know why Aelita and Taelia look so much alike.
Taelia spends the weekend without a single hitch. Hervé doesn't try to get closer because Taelia, honestly, scares him. XANA doesn't attack because it used up a lot of its energy with that snowstorm the first time.
And life continues on, everyone blissfully unaware that in another universe, things turned out far differently.
Even though Aelita does have nightmares about that reality.
But she always wakes up, grateful that those are just nightmares to her.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next (Official) Episode (Still): 10 - Amnesia / Something happens to Ulrich after he and Odd get into a fight.
A/N: Again, this chapter is not canon to the rest of the roleswap, mainly because of the two endings. Remember, in this AU, Jérémie can only launch a RTTP from a tower he recently deactivated, meaning only Aelita can launch it in this scenario. But things had to go south, because refer to the chapter title ("Worst Case Scenario"). Also, I was asked to write two different endings.
That being said, there is some lore in here that is canon, such as the family tree stuff and how Jérémie notes that the sensation he feels when the supercomputer is shutting down feels familiar.
In reality (in this AU), Taelia Stones lives in Germany with her family and goes to a very prestigious private school, whose schedule doesn't really allow her any visits to Aelita outside of the holiday break. She's an introverted, and slightly ruder, version of Aelita, as well as one year older. In this AU, she's (sort of) swapped with Patrick Belpois, and fun fact: her surname here is just a simple homage to canon.
Also, I used the snowstorm that's in the original script rather than a Guardian, and there is no XANA attack, aside from the snowstorm, because I wanted to emphasize the real world problem. XANA doesn't attack here because, again, if it activates a tower, Jérémie can launch a RTTP from it. If it waits, it can see the group that has stopped it at every turn so far being taken out by someone else. Except, it backfires, because that someone else shuts down the supercomputer, thereby also shutting down XANA.