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.
Note: Remember, any episodes not mentioned either as the inspiration for a chapter or just in passing are not part of the AU, mainly because the roleswap makes them useless, and those only mentioned in passing are just filler and/or would be the same no matter who has what role.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Aelita has to go on holiday, but she doesn't want to leave Jérémie all alone. With no other choice, she relents to an out-of-character action in order to stay."
Episode 4: Vacation in the Mist
(Based on Holiday in the Fog)
Aelita didn't want to do this. But she had to. It was the only way to stay.
It was nighttime. Everyone was asleep, or supposed to be.
She saw Ulrich give the signal that the coast was clear, and the two snuck out to the building that housed the vending machines. They approached the wall, and Ulrich took out from his pocket two cans of spray paint and shook them, before handing one to Aelita.
Inside the dorms, Odd watched as Kiwi wandered into Jim's room as the man was sleeping. Personally, he didn't agree with Aelita's plan, but the world was at stake here, so he was willing to make an exception.
He heard Kiwi howl and a few seconds later, Jim's voice, "Hey! What are you doing here?!" Kiwi ran out of the room, with Jim hot on his heels, "You mangy mutt! Wait until I get my hands on you!"
Odd managed to stay hidden throughout the entire thing, and after the two ran past him, he whispered, "Way to go, Kiwi."
By this time, Aelita and Ulrich were almost finished with their piece of art. Then, Kiwi started barking, and Ulrich stood up from his crouched position. He looked both ways, and whispered, "Good luck, Princess."
She nodded, and he ran away, back to his dorm.
Aelita turned to watch Jim chase Kiwi. Normally, she would've laughed, but not this time. Not when she was doing something her own moral compass was screaming at her to abort now, it was not worth it.
But it was.
Just as she planned, Jim saw her in his peripheral. Because of course he did. She had pink hair; she never really blended into the environment very well.
"Schaeffer! You mind explaining what you're doing up so late?!" Jim demanded, before his eyes caught the painting behind her.
It was a portrait of him with a big and goofy open mouth, complete with bunny ears. Aelita had another idea, one that was actually flattering, but this was Odd's idea; if it was designed to be insulting, then Aelita was sure to face punishment.
Aelita watched Jim's cheeks puff out in anger, and she swore she could see steam pouring from his ears.
He looked back at her, and her moral compass forced her to don a sheepish expression.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The next morning, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd all waited outside of Mr. Delmas's office in the administrative building's waiting area. Aelita was inside. Jim had kept a close and angry watch on her the entire night. He was not happy, which was obviously mostly due to the insulting nature of Aelita's (and Ulrich's) art.
The door opened, and Aelita walked out, with Mr. Delmas telling her, "I hope this will teach you a lesson, Miss Schaeffer. I don't understand it. A model student like you? You should be ashamed."
"I'm sorry, sir," Aelita replied, acting resentful of her actions. "It won't happen again." Hopefully.
"I hope not," Mr. Delmas said, before closing his office door.
Once she was outside in the waiting area, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all stood up and spoke at once, "So, what's the verdict?"
"One week of detention," Aelita replied. "The entire vacation." She smiled, "Mission accomplished."
"Nice one!" Odd exclaimed. "Mr. Delmas really let you have it."
"As far as punishments go, you're a champion," Ulrich said.
"I couldn't have done it without you guys," Aelita admitted.
"Aelita, are you sure this was the right choice?" Yumi asked, her face contorted into a concerned expression. "Couldn't you have asked your parents? I've met them. I'm sure they'd understand."
Aelita frowned, "Sorry, but I couldn't risk it. Not as long Jérémie stays virtual. Besides, we're supposed to keep this all a secret, remember?"
A couple weeks ago, XANA launched an attack on the school's pylon, overloading it and then releasing it all on a nuclear power plant, which would cause it to blow up. Seeing the situation was dire, Yumi has suggested they warn the authorities, with Ulrich backing her. Aelita could see her point, but she declined solely to protect Jérémie. If the government knew about the supercomputer, they would either shut it down or run their own experiments. Odd agreed with her, but Jérémie's vote broke the tie: he was all for telling the authorities.
They didn't believe Yumi at all, and a Return to the Past erased their memories, but the risk was still there and still great.
"Anyways," she changed the subject, "XANA doesn't take vacations, so it's up to us to make sure it doesn't launch any surprise attacks, especially while we're away."
Nicolas, Herve, and Sissi watched the four leave the administrative building.
"Am I dreaming," Nicolas asked, "or does Aelita look happy to be punished?"
"Yeah," Herve agreed. "It's like she did everything she could to get punished. Weird, coming from a girl who is a goody two-shoes and can't get a bad grade. You'd expect that kind of behavior from Odd, but not Aelita."
"And who's this XANA she was talking about?" Nicolas added.
"I agree," Sissi cut in. "It's weirder than weird. I'm going to find out exactly what Aelita Schaeffer is up to."
"And how will you do that?" Nicolas asked. "Don't you have to leave for vacation with your father?"
"Well, change of plans," Sissi said, before heading towards her dad's office.
Nicole Weber, her father's secretary, smiled at her, and confirmed that her father was in his office. So Sissi went right on in, without knocking.
Her father was busy signing some papers, and he looked up when she started speaking, "Daddy, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sorry, Sissi dear, but I'm rather busy at the moment," he replied.
"It won't take long," she reassured him, before taking a seat on his desk. "Well, you see, there's this girl I know. Her grades aren't very good, and the best thing to do is to study over the vacation. But she's supposed to go see her grandparents over vacation."
"I see," her father said. "And who is this-?"
She shushed him, "I'm getting to that. She knows that when she gets to her grandparents, she won't feeling like studying. So what do you think she should do? She needs your advice, as the principal."
He stood up from his chair, "Well, my advice would be to give up her vacation, and stay home and study. What's this girl's name? Perhaps, I could talk to her."
Sissi responded with giving her father a great big hug, "You just did, Daddy! It's me!" She kissed his cheek, before leaving his office. "Thank you for the advice! I promise to study hard! Kiss Grandma and Grandpa for me!"
Nicole Weber was confused at Sissi's unusual behavior, but she didn't question it. She had more important things to think about.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd walked in silence as Aelita took the inevitable phone call from her parents. They had just heard about the spray painting incident from Mr. Delmas. Her stomach was in knots and she had to swallow hard to avoid getting sick. Her moral compass was going nuts. She knew it was a bad idea, but it was her only option to stay.
"We are very disappointed you, angel," her father, Waldo, was saying. "I hope you know that."
"I do, Papa," she replied softly. "I'm sorry."
"We're happy that you have friends at Kadic, Aelita," her mother, Anthea, said, "and we know you're young and away from home. The both of us did stupid things with our friends when we were young too. But vandalizing the school? That isn't like you."
"I know." She hated how her voice was soft and trembling. Her parents are right; this wasn't like her at all, but the sooner she could get Jérémie here, the sooner she could stop worrying about XANA. "It won't happen again." Again, hopefully.
"You're a good girl, Aelita," Waldo said. "You always have been. We've told Grandpa Guenther and Grandma Annaliese that you're staying for extra tutoring. We don't want to worry them."
"Right." Her stomach was clenched in knots. Yumi was right; there was definitely another way to do this. Extra tutoring was the perfect excuse. She could've used that; her family definitely would've bought it, because it was in character for her. "Don't worry. I'll see you two for the next holiday break."
"You better," Anthea replied. "We love you, Aelita. Just remember that, and if you ever need to talk to us about something, we're just a phone call away. We may not answer back right away, but we will try our best."
Her father was a college science and history professor, and her mother an ICU nurse. Both of them had long hours with most of them being at night, hence why they had sent Aelita to Kadic in the first place, so she would be well taken care of, even if they couldn't get the job done themselves.
"I know, and I appreciate it," Aelita replied. "Don't worry, it was just a stupid mistake. I love you guys, too. Bye-bye." She then hung up, her heart still sinking. That phone call, while she normally enjoyed their calls, didn't make her feel better in the slightest.
The other three were quiet as she placed her pink cellphone back in her pocket. Odd broke the silence, "How did Uncle Waldo and Aunt Anthea react?"
"They're disappointed," Aelita replied. "But they've decided to tell anyone who asks that I've stayed behind for extra tutoring."
"Extra tutoring," Odd said. "Got it." He was her cousin, and they'd be spending the last three days of vacation together, visiting their mothers' parents, Grandpa Eugene and Grandma Evelyn (they were more understanding with technology, thankfully). They would've been, that is, if she weren't in trouble with the principal.
"Don't be so down," Ulrich reassured the pink-ette. "Remember why you're doing this." Right, for Jérémie. "Besides, detention with Jim can't be as bad as what my parents consider as my vacation. Odd gets to go back to Italy, and Yumi gets to go back to Japan. And what do I get? A whole week of math tutoring."
Aelita's stomach clenched even more. Tutoring Ulrich in math was an even better excuse, and it would've been true, because she was always tutoring Odd and Ulrich whenever they needed it, in any subject.
Odd slung his arm around Ulrich's shoulders, "If your parents think they can make a perfect student out of you, they better keep dreaming. Math sucks."
"Hear, hear," Ulrich agreed.
Yumi turned to Aelita, "Are you sure you can manage without us? Maybe I should stay too."
"No, it's okay," the pink-ette immediately offered a fake smile that she hoped wasn't fake. "You guys enjoy your vacations with your families. Besides, I won't be alone. I'll have Jérémie for company."
Her heart sunk even more. Jérémie knew about vacation, and he didn't know about their plan to get Aelita to stay, their plan that worked.
But if XANA left her alone, then she could get some work done on Jérémie's materialization.
"She'll also have me," came Sissi's voice from behind them. The four turned to face her. "Guess what, Aelita? I'm staying at school too. I'll be your guardian angel, watching your every move."
Aelita frowned. She didn't like the sound of that.
"Boy, Aelita, aren't you lucky?" Odd was completely sarcastic.
"Alright, Schaeffer!" Jim made his presence known. "You think this wall's going to clean itself?! Get to work NOWWWW!"
Aelita had no choice but to obey him. Jim was angry, and she was regretting her agreement to this plan more and more with every second that passed.
Sissi was laughing from her gut. She clearly found this funny.
But Jim wasn't done. He rounded on Sissi next. "Go on. Laugh while you still can, young lady. Your father told me to monitor your studying, and that's what I intend to do!"
Sissi looked extremely disappointed, and that just confirmed to the four Lyokowarriors that Sissi had clearly only stayed to spy on Aelita, which she couldn't do if Jim was watching her every move.
Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich watched all of this go down without a word, and now, they were just as helpless as they watch Jim march Aelita and Sissi back to campus.
"I don't know why," Ulrich commented, "but all of a sudden, my math tutoring doesn't sound so bad."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita heard Jim pop open a can of soda as she scrubbed the paint off of the wall. Or tried to. This thing was painted just last night! How could it have dried so quickly?!
But she sincerely was resentful of her actions, from start to finish, so she would do everything she could to prove that to Jim.
"Put a little more elbow into it, Miss Schaeffer, and it'll come right off," Jim told her. He seemed to be calming down, perhaps because he sensed how genuinely resentful she was, though it was more likely because of how he liked being in charge. He turned to Sissi, "How's that math problem, Miss Delmas. You make any progress solving it? I sure hope so."
"Well, I'm a little stuck here," Sissi replied, looking up from her math book. "Maybe if I could help Aelita with that wall, she'd be willing to help me study."
Jim looked at Sissi, pondering, before turning to the pink-ette, "Aelita?"
Aelita shrugged, "It's fine with me, Jim." Sissi definitely wanted something. She was just trying to get rid of Jim.
"Good idea, Sissi," Jim stood up. "Stay here. I'll go get you a sponge." He then ran off, leaving the two girls alone, as Aelita kept scrubbing.
Aelita's hunch turned out to be correct, because as soon as Jim was gone, Sissi immediately started acting condescending, "My, my, my, what a shame to have to wipe all that off."
Aelita rolled her eyes and continued to scrub at the paint she and Ulrich used, "I made a mistake, Elizabeth Delmas, so I alone must clean it up."
"It's Sissi," the black-haired girl snapped. She didn't like being called by her given name for some reason. "And I was about to tell you that I guess I'm not the first person to recognize your talent. It's really well done, a work of art. Did Odd help you?"
"Nope," Aelita replied. "I did this all by myself." Well, Ulrich helped her, but this plan was all her own doing. She alone had to take responsibility for it.
"Are you sure?" Sissi asked. "Maybe it was your friend XANA who helped you."
Aelita immediately tensed up. Where had Sissi heard that? Was it in the administrative building earlier? She did remember seeing Sissi, Herve, and Nicolas nearby, talking amongst themselves.
The only other possibility was that Sissi still had her memories from before that first Return to the Past, but Aelita really didn't want to think about that right now.
She just kept scrubbing away at hers and Ulrich's work of art.
"I overheard you talking about this XANA to your friends earlier," Sissi explained, releasing a weight on Aelita's shoulders right then. Thank goodness. Sissi still didn't remember her own betrayal. "Who is he? Your boyfriend?"
"Nope," Aelita turned around and offer Sissi a condescending smile. "It's a codename for the Pop Rock Progressive's new song." Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi had a new band, created a couple of weeks ago. They had Nicolas as their drummer, and Jim as their trombone player. "It hasn't been released to the public yet," Aelita turned back to her work, her smile still on her face, "and I highly doubt you'll catch it, not with all the junk you listen to."
Sissi frowned. Aelita could feel it searing into her back. "You think I'm an idiot?!"
Aelita shrugged, "You said it. Not me."
"What's going on here?!" Jim announced his presence. He didn't sound angry, but he didn't sound happy either. In his hand was a sponge for Sissi. "Sissi, are you distracting Aelita from her work?!"
"N-No, I wasn't!" Sissi attempted to defend herself.
"Yes, she was," Aelita was entirely truthful as she continued scrubbing. Sissi was diverting her attention away from washing off all that paint. "But it's okay. I'm used to working through distractions."
"Glad to hear it, Miss Schaeffer," Jim seemed pleased. He handed Sissi the sponge he grabbed for her. "Now, get to scrubbing, Miss Delmas, or you'll be stuck on that math problem for a long time."
If looks could kill, then Sissi's death glare would've killed Aelita here ten times over. As Sissi joined Aelita in scrubbing off the paint, Aelita tried hard not to hide her smugness, proud of herself for having gotten the best of Sissi without the help of her cousin and friends for once.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
That night, Sissi was glad to be back in her room. She was on the phone, talking to Herve.
"Aw, I ache all over," she groaned as she lie down on her bed. "I swear, I've never worked that hard in my entire life. I never thought it was possible to have blinking hurt too."
"Sissi, you should go to sleep," Herve told her. "You have an entire week of this ahead of you."
"You had to remind me?" Sissi asked. "Why couldn't you have stayed?! You like Aelita!"
"Because you're the one who volunteered," Herve reminded her. "Besides, my mom goes ballistic if I miss a holiday break. Now go to sleep."
Sissi got out of her bed, "Are you kidding me?" She went to her door, her heart-shaped mirror in hand. "I can't. What if Aelita tries something tonight?"
"Like what? Sneak out after dark and spray paint another building?" Herve was being sarcastic. Sissi knew that, but she ignored it.
"I don't know," she replied, holding up her mirror from behind her door, pointing it at Aelita's door down the hall. "But she's up to something, I'm sure of that. And I'm also sure that this XANA has something to do with it."
"What did Aelita say this XANA was again?"
"A codename for her friends' next song," Sissi said. "Y'know, the band Nicolas plays for now?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"But I don't believe her."
"Of course you don't."
"Oh, and you do?!" Sissi asked, incredulous. "Of course you would. You're so head over heels for her that you can't even think straight anymore!"
"Sissi," Herve warned, "I'm curious as to what Aelita and her friends do too, you know that. But I think it's best if you, me, and Nicolas all tackle it together. Now go to sleep."
"No way!" She shut him. "Tonight's the night, I can feel it! Tonight, I'm going to find out the secret of Aelita and her weird cousin and friends!"
She ignored Herve's exasperated sigh.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A couple doors down, Aelita was also talking with someone, a certain someone with blonde hair, blue eyes, and goggles that rested on top of his head, but on her computer rather than her phone.
"This is more difficult than I thought," Aelita was saying, as she typed away at Jérémie's materialization. "Your codes are pretty well integrated into the supercomputer."
"If, as an artificial intelligence, I'm meant to be Lyoko's guardian," Jérémie told her, from his usual window on her screen, "then it makes sense."
Aelita sighed, "But your codes don't support you being an AI."
Jérémie raised an eyebrow, clearly confused and surprised, "They don't?"
"No, they don't," Aelita explained. "I wasn't going to tell you right away. I know you're dealing with just waking up and listening for XANA's pulsations twenty-four-seven. But since you brought it up, I guess it's better to get it out in the open. The codes that make up your profile indicate that you're human, just like Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, and me, but they also indicate that you have a deep connection with Lyoko, one that can't be broken easily."
"But if I am human," Jérémie sounded like he was in shock, "then surely I would remember...what did you call them? Parental units?"
"Parents, yes," Aelita said. "My best guess is that you were taken to Lyoko years ago, and your brain was scrambled due to the supercomputer being turned off."
Jérémie was quiet for a moment, before he shook his head, "I can't remember anything. The earliest memory I have is waking up and meeting you."
"Yeah, sorry to spring that on you so suddenly," Aelita apologized. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out together. Eventually."
Jérémie paused again, before sending Aelita a knowing look, "Speaking of parents..." she tried to avoid his gaze, "Odd told me what you guys were planning to do in order for you to stay behind." She inwardly seethed. Dangit, Odd! Did you have to tell Jérémie?! "I don't know your parents personally, but would they not have understood if you told them the truth?"
Oh great, this again. She sighed, "They would." Truth. Her parents were very understanding. Her grandparents (on her father's side, at least) not so much, but it was mostly because they were old school. "But they don't allow electronics while visiting family, and I can't exactly tell them that I have a friend who's stuck in a virtual world, and I need to work on a program that can free them, now can I?"
Jérémie smiled, "Of course not. But you could have told them that you have a pen pal you talk to online who has no one to visit during the holidays. So you want to stay by your computer to keep them company. That way, you would've told them the truth without revealing our secret."
"Yeah," Aelita sighed again. Yep, that was another option. "Look, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even have thought about it at all. But I cannot rest as long as you are virtual. Anyways, I'm sure I'm almost on the right track with this human DNA thing." She typed a couple more lines of code. "But I'll need the supercomputer to make sure. I'm going to head over to the factory."
"You should rest, Aelita," Jérémie told her. "XANA appears to be stable, and I don't feel any pulsations at the moment. And you know it's not the end of the world if I stay virtual one more day."
"You're not the one who has to spend your vacation with Sissi and Jim," Aelita told him. "I don't know how I'm going to survive the week." She stood up from her chair as she said, "I'll check in with you once I get to the lab."
She turned away from the monitor as she heard Jérémie softly say, "Aelita? I can't thank you enough for everything you're doing for me."
Aelita was glad she was facing away from him. Her face felt red and hot, a sure sign that she was blushing, "Anything for you."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A couple minutes later, after Jérémie had logged off, Aelita tip-toed her way out of the dorms. Sissi's door was open, and Aelita peeked inside to find Sissi sleeping on her bed, with her heart-shaped mirror tightly clutched in her hand. The pink-ette smiled at Sissi's attempts to find the factory foiled yet again, before continuing her long and silent trek to the lab.
Aelita ran once she was outside, not stopping until she reached the gymnasium. She opened the door and peered behind it, and seeing the gym completely empty, she snuck inside, making her way to the boiler room, where the passage was.
But on her way there, she heard some clanging inside the janitorial closet. Surprised and intrigued as to the sound and its mysterious origins, she opened the door only to find a nauseating violet-colored gas on the other side.
Her lungs and throat immediately began to close up, and she started to cough, sounding like she did when she had the flu or a really bad cold.
She quickly closed the door, trapping the gas inside, but the coughing did not stop, not until several seconds had passed. Even when the coughing stopped, she still felt weak as her lungs instinctively began gasping for breaths of fresh air.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Jim standing right behind her.
"Now, don't try to give me any excuses as to why you're up so late again, Miss Schaeffer," Jim told her. "I've heard them all, even sleepwalking, so don't even try."
"Sorry, Jim," she croaked out, her lungs still hot, but the pain was subsiding now. "I couldn't sleep. I thought a walk would help, but that's not the point! There's something terrible in there, Jim!" She pointed at the door she just closed. "Take a look!" He had to believe her.
Jim opened the door, and Aelita peered at the sight from behind him. She was surprised when the gas was nowhere in sight. The room was empty save for the barrels that contained a cleaning agent used to clean up tough spills around campus. Those barrels were all knocked over, with the fluid spilling out from all of them. Despite her confusion, Aelita knew that's where the gas had come from.
But the room was empty.
"Huh? It looks like there was a hurricane in here!" Jim exclaimed. "This had better not be your doing!"
Aelita was taken back by the sudden accusation. "It wasn't me! There was smoke in here! It was toxic! But now there's no trace of it..." She then gasped and whispered, "XANA!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim dropped Aelita off in her room. She sat on her bed, as he lectured her, "Don't even think about leaving this room! You are in big trouble, young lady! Tomorrow, I'm calling your parents! Just wait until they hear about this! You've got some serious explaining to do!"
He slammed the door, and Aelita winced. She cursed herself for not thinking of tutoring Ulrich in math as the excuse she used to stay. She wasn't used to being in this much trouble. If not for remembering why she was doing this in the first place, the guilt would've been too unbearable a long time ago.
Speaking of that reason, she got up from her bed after hearing Jim's footsteps get farther away. She down at her computer and turned on her monitor, "Jérémie? Are you still there? Please, it's urgent! We've got a big problem!"
Jérémie's screen popped up, "You're not the only one. XANA's woken up. I'm on the trail of its pulsations, but it could take a while to find the activated tower."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita barely slept a wink. She was on edge the entire night, waiting for either the smoke or Jérémie's next call. She woke up thirty minutes before Jim always did so he could start pounding on doors and wake up students who were a little slow in waking up.
By the time she was in the factory elevator, Jim was probably awake by now. But no one had followed her here. Jim was asleep, snoring away, when she checked on him last, as was Sissi, to her amusement.
She sat at the computer, and searching the fluid those barrels contained online. She quickly found what she was looking for. "It's even worse than I thought. 'Though commonly used for cleaning, this agent contains toxic chemicals that are activated when used in a gaseous form'," she cited from her researching, "'which can prove fatal in cases of extended inhalation'. Oh no, Jim! Sissi!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Meanwhile, the violet gas started traveling through the school's ventilation system. Sissi slept on, with zero knowledge of what had transpired the night before, and unaware of the poisonous gas that was creeping up on her.
Jim had woken up and was stomping down the hall to Aelita's room. He immediately opened her door, not bothering to knock, believing she didn't deserve it. "Get up, young lady! Time to face the music!" He paused when he realized that the room was empty. "AELITA!"
Sissi woke up to a smoke-filled room. Being groggy, she at first thought it was a trick her mind was playing on her, but she quickly realized that it was real, "What's happening? Where am I? Aelita?! I can't see! I feel like I'm lost in the fog! What's going on?! HELP!"
Jim was halfway down the stairs to hunt for Aelita around the entire campus when he heard Sissi cry out.
Sissi immediately ran out the door and down the hallway, looking back to see if the smoke was chasing her. She was knocked back when she ran into the brick wall also known as Jim Morales.
Seeing him, Sissi was filled with relief. Scared, she immediately hugged him, "Jim! Over there! It's smoke, with arms!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Jim exclaimed, not believing her. "First Aelita, and now you?! This is a trick you two are playing on me, isn't it?!"
He glanced up to see a purple fog creeping ever closer. When did that get so close to them?!
"I believe you now!" Jim said, before pulling Sissi with him by the hand. "Let's get out of here!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita's monoscan, a program she ran last night to help Jérémie detect the activated tower, finally came back with a result. "Jérémie, I found the tower. Forest Sector, 37 degrees South, 83 degrees East."
"Okay, I'm on my way," Jérémie replied. "But I'm nowhere near it." Yeah, the holomap showed that Jérémie was in the Desert, an entirely different sector altogether. "And I'm going to need some help getting past XANA's welcoming committee."
Aelita smiled, "Don't worry. I know three volunteers who will be more than happy to cut their vacations short."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
In Rouen, France (a town up north), Ulrich tapped his pencil against the desk as he sat in his living room, listening to Miss Schmidt drone on and on. His parents were nowhere in sight, which he figured.
"You'll soon learn that mathematics is actually quite easy, young man," his tutor was saying, writing down some equations on the chalkboard she had brought with her.
This was so boring. He should've stayed at Kadic with Aelita. Anything was more fun than this.
As if on cue, Ulrich felt his phone in his pocket vibrate. As Miss Schmidt continued to talk, Ulrich pulled it out and read the text he just got from Aelita: 'S.O.S. XANA'.
Smiling, Ulrich slipped out of the room and eventually the house, with Miss Schmidt being none the wiser.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was at the airport in Paris, going through customs, the ticket in his pocket reading his destination to be Verona, Italy, and hoping these two officers (their badges read Marcel and Charlie) would let him take his bag without opening it.
"Hey, come and have a look at this, Charlie!" Marcel, who was sitting at the computer, said.
Charlie came closer, "What is it? Wow, that's incredible!"
Marcel turned to Odd, "What is that, kid?" He pointed at the screen.
"It looks like a skeleton," Odd tried to act casual.
"Yeah, that's right," Marcel said. "But don't you see anything strange?"
Odd pretended to look at the screen, "Oh, that's Kiwi! He's my dog!"
"You do know that dogs are only allowed in the luggage compartment, right?" Charlie asked.
"Well, yeah, I do, but uh..." Odd tried his best to fib, "I don't know what happened. He was supposed to stay here, with my grandma. I guess he slipped inside when I wasn't looking."
Charlie and Marcel both shot him the same suspicious look, as his cellphone rang. He answered it, seeing it was Aelita, "Oh, it's Gram! We were just talking about you!"
"What are you talking about, Odd?" Aelita asked, on the other end of the line, where Charlie and Marcel couldn't hear her. She was obviously confused. "It's me, Aelita! Listen, Jérémie needs help!"
An activated tower, of course. Just what Aelita was afraid of.
"Yes, of course I know it's you, Gram!" Odd said. "I'm sorry, I know you told me a hundred times that you don't like me calling you 'Gram'. Yeah, okay. I'm on my way. I'll bring back the dog. Bye, Gram!"
He hung up, sure that Aelita was still confused, before grabbing his bag with Kiwi in it, and running off, "Apologies, Marcel, Charlie. But I've got to run!"
Oh well, he'd explain to her later. Getting Jérémie to the tower came first.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"When are we leaving?" Hiroki asked. He was sitting in the back seat, his Game Boy on the seat next to him. Takeho, his and Yumi's father, was sitting at the steering wheel. Yumi, meanwhile, was outside of the car, stretching her legs.
Because Akiko, her mother, was still inside packing.
"I don't know," Takeho answered his son, "but we should have left two hours ago."
Yumi rolled her eyes, "You know how much she loves that dress."
"I don't even know what dress she's talking about," Takeho admitted.
Akiko opened the upstairs bedroom window and called down to her family, "I'm coming! I'll be down in two seconds!"
"Yeah, I doubt that," Yumi muttered, as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.
Hiroki's attention was brought from his Game Boy to his mother has she finally came down to the car, with her suitcase nowhere to be seen. "Takeho darling, you're going to laugh when I tell you-"
"Sorry, but I don't really feel like laughing," Takeho cut his wife off. "Have you noticed someone is missing?!"
Hiroki blinked in surprise and got out of the car.
When did Yumi leave?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita looked at the holomap, which told her that Jérémie was currently switching sectors. Once it indicated that he was in the Forest, she heard him say, "Aelita? I'm in the Forest now."
"Good," she replied. "Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi should be here very soon. They should know how to activate the Self-Virtualization program, but if they don't, you can tell them how."
"Of course," he sounded surprised, "but where are you going?"
"I need to head back to school and warn Jim and Sissi about the gas," she replied. "You'll be on your own for a while, but hopefully not for long. Be careful, Jérémie. There's bound to be monsters ahead."
"Good luck," was all Jérémie said.
"You too," she replied, before taking the headset out of her ears, getting up from the chair, and heading towards the lift.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim kept a sharp eye out for that smoke, as Sissi cowered behind him in fear. The smoke seemed to sneak past them, not seeing them, but when Jim checked again and motioning Sissi to be quiet, the smoke was moving down the hallway they were in.
Now caught in the smoke, the two felt their airways tighten. Through his coughs, Jim grabbed Sissi's arm and pulled her towards the janitorial closet. He closed the door once both were inside, before pulling off his jacket and placing it under the door so the smoke wouldn't seep through.
Great, now they were trapped.
"Help! Help us!" Jim began calling out. Sissi joined his cries not a second later.
No answer.
"It's no use! We're finished!" Sissi cried, slumping against the wall and sliding down until she was sitting.
"No, we're not finished!" Jim tried his best to be calm, and put on a poker face so Sissi didn't see how scared he was. "Be brave now. Aelita can't be far away. She'll help us out of this."
"Aelita?! That's definitely reassuring!" You didn't need glasses to see the sarcasm dripping from Sissi's words. "Nice to know that the closest thing to Samus from Metroid is coming to the rescue!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The campus seemed pretty calm when Aelita got there. Calm and empty. And devoid of any gas.
"Sissi? Jim?" Aelita called out. "Where are you?" Were they already dead?
But then she blinked, and suddenly the gas was all around her.
Yumi and Ulrich arrived at the front gates together, having met up earlier. "We'll cut through the boiler room! It's faster!" Ulrich said, as he and Yumi ran there.
Aelita had fallen to her knees, coughing.
Ulrich and Yumi came to a halt when they saw the purple fog that was covering the campus. "I guess the boiler room's no longer an option," Ulrich said.
"To the park!" Yumi said, and the two turned.
They were about to run when they heard coughing. They turned back to the fog and saw the silhouette of a person crawling towards them. Once the person got out of the fog, they saw that it was Aelita, crawling on her hands and knees, coughing her lungs out.
"Aelita!" they both called out, before running towards her and grabbing each of her arms and helping her to the passage in the park.
When Aelita came to a couple minutes later, her vision was blurry but she could see Yumi and Ulrich on either side of her. Her eyesight cleared, but she was still coughing.
"Jim...and Sissi...are still trapped inside," she told them. "The gas...is toxic..."
"I'll take care of them," Ulrich said, before running off in the direction of the school.
"Ulrich, wait!" Yumi called out. But it was too late. Ulrich was already gone.
"Yumi..." Aelita weakly called. "Jérémie's all alone on Lyoko. He needs help."
"Roger that," Yumi said, before slinging one of Aelita's arms over the elder's shoulders.
Aelita was glad that Yumi was helping her walk, although Yumi was doing most of the walking. The pink-ette barely had enough energy to talk.
As the two ladies made their way to the passage in the park, Odd suddenly emerged from some bushes.
"Hey! I didn't come too late to the party, I hope," he said.
Aelita could only find the strength to smile, as Yumi spoke for them both, "Not at all, Odd. You got here in the nick of time."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Unbeknown to Jim and Sissi, Ulrich was looking for them, a cloth over his face as he walked through the toxic gas.
But they were unaware, still trapped in the closet.
"To be honest, I didn't stay at school for my studies," Sissi confessed to Jim. "I only stayed to find out the secret of Aelita and her friends. Whatever it is, it unites them, and I'm jealous of that. I've been dreaming of being part of their group, ever since Ulrich befriended them a couple years ago, but I just don't get along with them. Now it seems so hopeless, because Ulrich refuses to be my friend unless I stop being mean to people. Do you...do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Jim was mildly started when she asked him that. He was too busy watching the door to see if that smoke had made it inside. "Huh? No. All I understand is that there's no ventilation in here. We're going to run out of oxygen soon..."
"I'd better stop talking then, huh?" Sissi asked, disappointed that Jim wasn't even listening to her spill her deepest secret. Jim looked at her, concerned at her tone of voice. "It's okay. I can take a hint."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita was slumped against the walls of the lab, trying to get her strength back, as on the screen, a news report was conveying the latest news on XANA's gas.
"A strange and toxic smoke, whose origins are unknown, has appeared and spread throughout the city. Everyone, especially children and the elderly, is strongly advised to stay indoors."
Yumi pressed a button on the keyboard, which shut off the news feed, "Looks like we don't have much time left."
"That's why you guys need to go to Lyoko and clear the passage for Jérémie," Aelita said, using all the strength she had left to try and get to her feet.
"You're not coming with us?" Odd asked, as he and Yumi walked over to her, holding out their arms to help her.
Aelita grabbed one of Odd's shoulders to use as a crutch, "Not this time. The Return to the Past needs to be launched as soon as Jérémie deactivates the tower. Besides, I don't know how much use I'll be if the scanners make my current condition worse."
Odd and Yumi snuck a glance at each other. Aelita made two very good points that were hard to argue with.
"Alright," Yumi said. "Can you still type?"
Aelita offered a pained smile, "Of course, I can. Now help me to the controls."
Once the pink-ette was safely in the chair, Odd and Yumi took the lift down to the scanner room.
After typing in Jérémie's current coordinates, Aelita brought up Yumi's ID card, "Transfer Yumi," then Odd's, "transfer Odd." Two scanning windows popped up on screen, "Scanner Yumi, scanner Odd." Once the loading for both avatars were complete, she pressed the button. "Virtualization."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Hiding behind a tree, Jérémie saw the two avatars of Odd and Yumi form in the air in front of him. The two landed safe and sound, and as Yumi took a cautious look around, Odd called out, "Jérémie? We're here! Where are you?"
Jérémie stepped out from his hiding spot, "Over here." The two turned to look at him. "The activated tower is down this path," he pointed to the walkway on his left.
"Any monsters yet?" Yumi asked, as she and Odd walked closer to him.
Jérémie shook his head, "No, I was waiting for you two first."
"Guess you didn't look hard enough!" Odd exclaimed, pointing to something behind them.
Sure enough, there were three Kankrelats closing in on them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich kept the cloth to his mouth as he leaned against the wall. His phone was pressed against his ear as the gas was all around him.
"Ulrich, how's it going on your side?" Aelita was on the other end of the line.
"Still nothing," Ulrich replied, coughing. "I've cleared most of the building."
"Ulrich, get out of there, please," Aelita begged. "You can't breathe in any more of that gas. It's too dangerous. They may be outside already."
"I just have one more room to check," Ulrich reassured her. "Once I clear it, I'll be at the factory soon."
Ulrich walked up to the janitorial closet and tried turning the handle, only for it to be stuck.
"Jim! Sissi! Are you guys in there?!" he called.
"Ulrich! Get out of there now!" Aelita ordered. "Ulrich, what's going on?!"
But Ulrich was unable to answer. He was passed out, his phone and cloth both limp in his hands.
"Ulrich?! Ulrich!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"I don't want to rush you guys, but Ulrich's in danger!" came Aelita's voice from above.
"Oh, don't worry!" Odd told her, as he dodged Kankrelat lasers. "We made some new friends, and now we're having a chat!"
He fired a Laser Arrow as Yumi threw her fan, while Jérémie hid behind a tree at Yumi's insistence. His Arrow missed, but her fan hit its target.
Yumi saw another Kankrelat charging up its laser, "Odd, watch out!"
Odd cartwheeled to avoid the shots, only for one to hit him in the chest.
"Odd!" Jérémie called out, leaving his cover to help his friend.
"Watch out!" Yumi cried, before tackling Jérémie to the ground, so the Kankrelat hit her instead of him.
"Yumi, you okay?!" Aelita asked.
"No broken bones yet!" Yumi replied.
"Good. Having one will just make it harder to protect Jérémie."
It was a joke. The only pain you felt on Lyoko was the pain from the laser fire XANA's monsters shot at you.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich was pulled by his feet into the closet he was trying to open. Once he was inside, Jim closed the door. "There, you see, Sissi? I told you she'd come and rescue us." He took a closer look at who they had rescued themselves. "What the...Ulrich?!"
"He came for me!" Sissi exclaimed, seeing a spot of hope in this cloud of despair. "He came to save me! Just like I've always dreamed!"
Jim resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes. Sissi was acting like she was the only one in this situation.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Kankrelats kept firing at Odd, Yumi, and Jérémie as they hid behind a tree for cover.
"The only way to the tower is through them," Aelita told them, sounding apologetic. They had asked her if there was a detour. "Sorry, guys. You'll have to force your way through."
"I might have an idea for blocking them," Yumi admitted, before turning to Odd, "You take care of Jérémie."
"Right," Odd said, before firing an arrow. "Laser Arrow!" The Kankrelat he was aiming at was destroyed. Now there was just one left. Jérémie gave him a proud smile, which Odd returned before ushering him along, "Let's go!"
The two left Yumi where she was standing. She concentrated hard, faintly hearing the Kankrelat get closer and closer.
She could feel the weight of the rock she was picking up in her mind. She hovered it over to the tree she was standing behind. When she couldn't hold onto it anymore, she dropped it. The rock landed right in front of the Kankrelat, and she jumped on top of it and threw her fan.
Odd and Jérémie watched as her fan missed the monster she was aiming at, before it fired at her, hitting her in the chest, but they did not stop running.
The monster hit her again, and Aelita warned from above, "Yumi, if you get hit one more time..." she trailed off, knowing Yumi understood.
Yumi couldn't dodge the last laser in time. The Kankrelat hit her, and her avatar depixelated, sending her back to Earth.
But Odd and Jérémie had gotten through.
That's all that mattered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim noticed the cellphone in Ulrich's hand, and he picked it up. Now they could call for help. He said so to Sissi.
"Jim? Is that you?" Aelita was on the other end of the line.
"Aelita!" Jim exclaimed.
"Where are you?! And Ulrich?!" Aelita demanded.
"Still at the school!" Jim told her. "We really need help! We're starting to run out of o-oxygen in here!" He began coughing because the smoke was starting to sneak past his jacket still blocking the underside of the door.
He dropped Ulrich's phone, to Aelita's horror, "Jim! Jim! Stay with me!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Odd, Jérémie! You guys have to hurry!" Aelita sounded panicked.
"Don't worry," Odd reassured her. They had just crossed a tree bridge, and the activated tower was in sight. "We're at the tower now." It was on an island in the middle of a small pond. "But there's no bridge. How do we get to it?"
"Leave that to me," Jérémie told him. "You take care of the monster."
"Right," Odd nodded, seeing the last Kankrelat jump onto and cross the tree bridge.
The purple cat stood in front of and covered the blue elf, whose back was turned and his mind on something else. Odd prepared to fire as that miserable little Kankrelat stopped right in front of him.
Jérémie concentrated hard as he held out his hand. He may not have had a weapon like the others, but his power of Creation all but made up for it (Odd had shortened it, though, to just 'Creativity'). Just like before with the ice wall, he felt power surge from his hands as what he envisioned, a bridge made of tree trunks, came to life.
Odd watched as the Kankrelat turned to Jérémie, as if it noticed what the elf boy was doing. He fired, and missed. The thing had moved to the side. The monster charged up its laser, and fired at Jérémie while his back was still turned, only for Odd to jump in front of him and take the hit instead.
Jérémie opened his eyes once he felt his work be completed. He smiled, before hopping onto the first tree trunk.
Odd had recovered in time to see Jérémie, on the first stump, about to leap onto the second, only to stop when he heard the Kankrelat come right up behind him. Jérémie gasped in fear.
"Hey you!" Odd called out, making the monster turn to face him instead. "That's right, you!"
Jérémie was almost at the last stump he'd created when Odd and Kankrelat both fired at the same time. Odd was devirtualized, but the Kankrelat was also destroyed, to Aelita's relief.
Jérémie entered the tower soon after with no delay.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The gas was continuing to pour into the small, cramped janitorial closet, despite Jim's jacket still blocking the bottom of the doorframe.
JEREMIE_
"Let's hope it's not too late," Aelita muttered to Yumi, biting on her fingernails. Yumi simply placed a comforting hand on the pink-ette's shoulder.
CODE_
LYOKO_
The gas had completely filled the closet when it suddenly stopped moving, as if put on pause. But no one was awake to see it. Not Jim, not Sissi, not Ulrich.
Aelita quickly entered the coordinates for the Return trip and pressed enter, "Return to the Past, now!"
A white bubble enveloped everything, including the closet and everyone in it.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Time had rewinded to the night before all of this, moments before the group put Aelita's plan into action. Well, this time around, while still her plan, Aelita wasn't participating in it. She had learned her lesson, and her moral compass would short circuit if she tried pulling the same stunt twice. Sissi was right; she was a goody two-shoes, through and through.
Instead, Aelita was on the phone with her parents, with Jérémie on her monitor.
"Yes, angel?" came her father's voice.
"Hey, Papa," she greeted. "Listen, I have a problem."
"Are you not going to make it home for holiday break?" her mother asked.
"Well, I plan to," Aelita admitted truthfully. "But it depends on you what say."
"What's the problem, sweetie?" Waldo asked.
Aelita snuck a glance at Jérémie, who merely nodded at her in encouragement. She smiled back and took a deep breath, "Listen, I have a pen pal here that I email frequently. I met him online, and...I-I just learned that he doesn't have anyone to talk to or visit during the holidays. I know that Grandpa Guenther and Grandma Annaliese frown upon the use of electronics during our visits, but...I can't just leave him all alone. So I'd like to ask if, this time, you two would either let me stay at Kadic for his sake or let me bring my laptop home with me."
"Aw, Aelita," Anthea cooed, "you're such a sweet girl. We'd prefer you come home for the holidays, so I think we can talk your grandparents into making an exception."
Aelita's face lit up in a smile, "Really?"
"Just this once," Waldo said. "But yes. You may take your laptop home with you. As long as your conversations don't interrupt family time."
"They won't! I promise!" she exclaimed, happier than she had been since the holiday break was first announced a week ago. "Thank you so much! I love both of you!"
"We love you too, angel," Aelita could feel her mother's smile through the phone.
"We do," Waldo added. "Be good, and we'll see you tomorrow."
Aelita was still smiling as her parents hung up.
Jérémie was smiling as well, "See? I told you they would understand."
"Yeah, they did," Aelita felt proud of herself. She didn't have to resort to doing something out of character to stay in touch with Jérémie. "And you're right. Telling them the truth without actually giving anything anyway...makes me feel a lot better. Vandalizing school property wasn't worth it, and not because XANA had attacked."
"Your mind kept telling you that it was wrong, yes?" Jérémie asked. "What is that feeling called?"
"Your moral compass," Aelita answered. "And yeah, mine was going nuts." Jérémie raised an eyebrow at her phrasing. "Figure of speech. It was short-circuiting."
"Ah," Jérémie nodded, understanding it now. "But you guys mentioned that your plan tonight was still being put into action. How come? I thought you said it wasn't worth it."
"Well, it's not worth it for me," Aelita corrected. "Ulrich volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on Lyoko while the rest of us are away. So if our plan is successful this time around, you'll be talking to both him and me."
"Won't his parents be angry with him?" Jérémie asked.
"Oh definitely. Jim too," Aelita admitted, before standing up and looking out her window. "Although, seeing what Ulrich painted this time, Jim can't be too mad at him."
From her window, she could see Ulrich spray-painting the building that housed the vending machines. This time, the painting was a smiling and noble-looking Jim wearing a golden crown and a robe fit for a king.
Just then, she heard Kiwi from outside, and she quickly closed her curtains, as that signaling Jim's arrival. She sat back down in front of her monitor, and added, "Although if you ask me, I think he volunteered mostly to get out of Miss Schmidt's math tutoring."
To this, Jérémie chuckled.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next: Episode 5 - A Girl's Diary / Herve blackmails Aelita with her biggest weakness.
Episodes Referenced: "Seeing is Believing" (which takes place after "May I Have This Dance?" and before this one)
A/N: The name 'monoscan' comes from the IFSCL game (specifically its story mode), which is excellent by the way. Go download it.