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~~~!
"After an argument with Jérémie, a typing error traps Aelita in Virtual Limbo. To save her, Jérémie must travel to all four Sectors alone."
Episode 11: What is Love?
(Based on Frontier)
Aelita could feel the exhaustion hit her from all sides as she forced herself to focus on the program in front of her, the program window that laid out the codes for Jérémie's materialization.
It was in the middle of the night, as per usual, but she was close; she could feel it.
She hit the button to run the program, and it started. "It's fine up to now..." she muttered, not understanding why it always failed in the same spot. She could feel herself sweating as the program in front of her ran a simulation of the materialization of Jérémie's avatar.
So close, so close, so close!
Waiting felt like agony, but the result was even worse.
Because just like she anticipated, the program had failed in the exact same place as last time. The program window on her monitor started flashing a red exclamation mark, and the simulation results told her that if she were to run this version of the program, she would just end up deleting Jérémie instead.
She dropped her head to her desk, the resulting sound being a soft thunk. "Oh, come on!" she groaned. "Why does it always happen right then?!" She was already tired and stressed out, and being this close to success was just the cherry on top. She called out, "Jérémie, did you deactivate the external sinusoidal modules like I asked?"
"Of course," Jérémie replied, his interface now showing on her screen. "And I even defragmented the inertial matrix."
That explained it. But her stress combined with her exhaustion made her answer differently, "But I already did that!" She got up from her computer chair, if only to stretch her legs, but her current physical state made her pace. "The system is bound to screw up if it keeps getting the same data twice! If we keep working against each other, we're never going to succeed! Never!"
Her back was to the computer when she heard Jérémie's soft voice respond with a quiet, "I'm sorry..."
She immediately turned back around to face him, "N-No! I'm the one who's sorry, Jérémie! Forgive me! I shouldn't have gotten so angry..."
Despite her desperate attempt to fix things, Jérémie didn't seem take her apology seriously. His expression told her that he was still under the impression that she was mad at him. "It's okay," but it wasn't, she could see in his eyes, "but I think we should stop for tonight."
"Uh..." Despite her wanting to keep talking to him, and fix her mistake, she couldn't deny that he had a point. She needed to get some sleep.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he continued.
"No! Wait, Jérémie!"
But he ignored her, his gentle voice finishing with, "Good night," before severing the link.
A speechless Aelita was left standing in the middle of her dorm room, completely immersed in darkness.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The next morning, Aelita felt awful. She felt guilty about her argument with Jérémie, and that, in turn, had affected how well she slept. What made it worse was that she hadn't heard from him since last night.
Ulrich and Odd joined her by the vending machines, not really noticing her foul mood since they were instead talking about their game competition from last night. She didn't really know, but right now, she didn't really care.
Her mind was too focused on how she would make it up to Jérémie. He was already suffering from low self-esteem, feeling that he wasn't worth all of this effort. That argument may have been the last straw. Hopefully, he didn't just throw himself into the Digital Sea and end it himself.
Aelita pushed that thought into the back of her mind as quickly as it came. She really didn't want to think about that.
Fortunately, it was helped by the arrival of Yumi. Aelita turned her attention to the others now, hoping to take her mind off of Jérémie for a while.
As Aelita got herself some hot chocolate, Yumi greeted her friends, "Hey, guys. Well, it looks like I'm not the only one who got to sleep late last night. All three of you look like zombies. What were you guys doing? Studying?"
"Is if!" Odd scoffed. Knowing Odd, it would never be studying.
"Not exactly," Ulrich replied, before bringing out Odd's GameBoy. "Tetrix Annihilator! 'Til three in the morning!"
"I should've guessed it was something like that!" Yumi smiled, almost giggling. "Nice going!"
"Thanks," Ulrich returned the gesture. "How'd you know I won?"
"Lucky guess," Yumi shrugged, before turning to Aelita. "Judging by the frown on your face, Aelita, I take it you were working on Jérémie's materialization, and I'm going to hazard a guess and say it didn't end well."
Aelita swallowed the lump in her throat, not realizing that her sulking was obvious. Her hot chocolate in hand, the pink-ette muttered, "Jérémie and I got into a fight..."
"Oh?" The other three looked at her concerned, and Ulrich was asking now, "About what?"
"It doesn't matter," she quickly told them. "The point is I need to apologize, but I'm not sure how."
Odd shrugged, "Just say 'I'm sorry'. Two simple words. How hard can it be?"
"N-No, I mean..." Aelita struggled to say the right words. "I need to say it in person." She needed to make sure Jérémie was still alive, and wouldn't just log off because he didn't want to listen. Apologizing face-to-face was the only way to make things right.
"Then, come with us to Lyoko later," Yumi proposed. "I mean, we're going to visit him at lunch, for training. The three of us could just take our training elsewhere to give you two some privacy." Recently, the four had begun trading their lunch hour for training on Lyoko. Before, they would wait until after school, but training in lieu of lunch was one of their ideas to send a message to Jérémie that they were taking this seriously.
Aelita's frown slowly turned into a smile the more she realized what a good idea that was.
"Not so fast, Princess," Ulrich softly reminded. "We have Mrs. Meyer's class first."
Of course, math. Odd's least favorite class.
But that didn't dampen her mood one bit.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was sitting by an oasis in the Desert Sector when he got Aelita's call. He was expecting it, remembering the training mission she and the others had proposed the day before. They were planning to trade their lunch hour for training on Lyoko. Part of him didn't agree that they were sacrificing sustenance their bodies needed, but the rest of him was glad they were treating XANA like the threat it was.
"Jérémie, you there?" Aelita sounded anxious, and he didn't really understand why. However, remembering their argument the night before, he supposed she was scared he wouldn't respond.
"Yes, I'm here," he replied. "I've been waiting for you guys."
Aelita seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but she didn't address it, "Good. I'm sending the others first, before sending myself. Keep an eye on the time for us?"
He softly smiled, "Of course." Only he could see the timestamps as recorded by the supercomputer, so it was his job to remind the others when it was time to go back to their school.
A couple minutes later, three avatars formed on his left. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all landed perfectly. They waited for Aelita's avatar to form and land before seemingly splitting up to do their own thing. Ulrich and Yumi began sparring with each other without the use of their respective weapons, while Odd had found some columns and began climbing them to practice the grip on his paws.
He was confused by this. Normally, they all remained in the same area and helped each other. But not this time.
This time, Yumi just gave Aelita a wink and said, "Good luck."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aelita nod apprehensively, before turning to him. After sitting down next to him by the oasis, there was a tense silence between them before Aelita broke it.
"I'm sorry, for last night," she said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you."
He smiled, finally eased of that burden, "I forgive you. I thought you were mad at me."
"I thought you were mad at me!" she replied, before releasing another sigh of relief, this one verbal rather than mental. "I'm glad we got that off our chests."
"Me too." He sincerely was. This was the first argument he and Aelita ever had, and he quickly discovered that he hated it. He hated the actual argument, hated the thought of Aelita being mad at him, hated how he felt waiting for her next call, because he had felt more alone than ever. He had to ask her, "Aelita, do you think we'd fight more once I lived with you instead of here?" He hoped not.
Judging by her reluctance to answer, he realized she hoped for the same thing, "I really don't want to think about that, but realistically, yes. We probably would, but it's okay." She changed her voice to sound optimistic. "Very often, people who get along well have fights, because disagreements between any two people are common and understandable. What matters most is communication."
Communication? "What does that mean?" he asked. She said it's what mattered the most.
"Well, it means talking to and understanding each other," she explained to the best of her ability. "Any argument has at least two sides. Solving the problem properly requires both sides to be heard."
A thought came to him, "Do you think we'll ever get to the point where we'll be able to understand each other without speaking?"
"Of course," Aelita sounded confident, if not a bit confused. "Why do you ask?"
He sighed, his blue eyes looking at the surface layer pond in front of them. "Because I don't know what emotions are, or what my own mean." He didn't mean to sound so sad, but this was something that was festering deep within him for the past nine months, ever since he first met Aelita. "If I was told before Lyoko, I don't remember. I can't. And you've told me before that it's difficult to explain them to me in a way that makes complete sense." He didn't doubt her; he just wished it was easier.
Aelita looked like she wanted to say something, but before she could, they were interrupted by Yumi, "Hey, Jérémie, what time is it?!" She was calling out to him from a distance. Ulrich and Odd were also on stand-by, waiting for the answer.
Jérémie slipped his goggles on and relayed what he was told, "Fifteen minutes until 1 PM."
Aelita's shoulders immediately sagged, "Already?"
Odd shrugged, as he, Yumi, and Ulrich approached the two elves, "Sorry, 'Lita. But you know what we agreed on. It takes time for us to travel from here to the school, and vice versa."
As Odd and Ulrich approached each other, with Ulrich unsheathing his katana on the way, Yumi whispered to Aelita, "Don't worry, we'll head back first to give you some time to say goodbye," before joining the other two, brandishing her fan on the way.
As the three all struck each other, using friendly fire to send themselves back to Earth, Aelita turned to Jérémie, "I wish I could just...find a way for you to read my mind. That way, you'd understand what emotions are. But I can't." She looked just as sorrowful and longing as him. "I'll read some books and try to find some that are thorough in their explanations. I'll help you understand what emotions are. I promise."
She was standing, and he was still sitting, but he smiled, no longer feeling that distance, "I know you will."
"Aelita?" Yumi's voice sounded from above. "You ready?"
"Yes," the pink-ette replied. One last time, she addressed Jérémie, "We'll talk more later, okay?"
The blonde nodded, still smiling, "Okay."
In that moment, Aelita's avatar's colors began to fade into cyan, before her outline began to depixelize into her wireframe, and soon, that disappeared too.
Yet, despite the fact that she had returned to Earth, he no longer felt alone. She was not mad at him; she never was. And that meant the world to him.
However, the feeling was interrupted by Yumi's sudden panic, "Jérémie?! Jérémie, we've got a huge problem!"
He sent his interface's signal to the supercomputer monitor and activated it. Now he could see Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd's faces for himself, and they all looked as panicked as Yumi sounded.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
The news Yumi delivered made his heart immediately sink.
"Aelita didn't come back!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Where was she?
At first, she was feeling the familiar pins and needles that came with virtualizing and devirtualizing to and from Lyoko. Then, all of her muscles seized up simultaneously and painfully, and then...
Nothing.
Her ears were ringing with inaudible noise, and she could see a bright light, despite being unable to open her eyes. She couldn't feel any ground beneath her feet, so she could only guess that she was floating. She tried calling out to Yumi, to anyone, but her jaw wouldn't move. Her body wouldn't respond to her.
Neural desynchronization, if she had to guess, the equivalent of not being on the same page. The virtual equivalent of her brain was still loaded in and was mostly conscious and attached to her body, wherever it was located, but it wasn't loaded enough to be able to control that body.
It was a terrifying feeling.
Seriously, where was she? She wasn't on Earth, but she wasn't on Lyoko either.
But then, she felt two pair of eyes stir and focus on her.
Who are you?, asked a man.
What are you doing here?, asked a woman.
It wasn't someone speaking to her, but at the same time, it wasn't a thought either. Was it XANA? Did it somehow disrupt the process and trap her here?
We're not XANA, the man told her. We promise.
XANA doesn't have access to this area of the supercomputer, the woman admitted.
But then how else were they reading her mind? But she's still inside the supercomputer; that was a start, at least.
We're not predicting your thoughts or reading your mind, the man explained.
The woman continued, We're feeling the signals running through your neural pattern.
My emotions? she asked. It's my emotions you're feeling, then?
Yes, they both answered. It was strange; these two seemed to have a neural connection themselves, if they were speaking—sorry, feeling the same emotion at the same time. Now, who are you?
She didn't answer. She could only start panicking. There was no way to help the others if she couldn't contact them. Even worse, she couldn't tell them what to do if she didn't know what had even happened to her in the first place. She was the only one of the group who understood how the scanners worked, and how to properly fix them.
Wait, you're the one–, began the woman.
–who turned the supercomputer back on, the man continued.
Why?, the woman asked.
XANA is dangerous, the man said.
They both told her together, You must turn it off immediately!
I can't, was her immediate thought. She couldn't abandon Jérémie. She promised him that she would free him from his virtual prison, to bring him back to Earth, to give him a normal life because out of them all, he deserved it the most. She understood how dangerous XANA was, but she couldn't go back on that promise. She wouldn't.
Intriguingly, the two presences immediately backed off when her thoughts (or emotions) turned to Jérémie.
We're sorry for scaring you, the man softly apologized.
If we did so, the woman added.
You are currently trapped in what is essentially where the supercomputer's temporary memory is stored, the man explained.
It's the place you and your friends pass through whenever you're virtualized, and also when you're brought back, the woman continued.
They both told her, Something blocked your data from getting all the way through.
Virtual Limbo? she asked.
We never named this place, they both replied, but that's a good name for it.
So they created Lyoko? Both of them? Who were they?
Who we are no longer matters, the man told her.
The woman continued, What matters is getting you back.
She knew where she was now. That was good, another step closer to the solution. So then how could she get back?
Their shared answer surprised her, Call out to Jérémie.
Trust us, you're closer to him than you think, the man said.
Call out to him and tell him to collect data from four different passage towers in each of Lyoko's four surface Sectors, the woman explained.
He'll know what that means, the man added.
Once he does, then the portal to this place will open, the woman finished, and then, he can bring you back.
Okay, she thought. But then what about you guys?
He can't save us with this method, the woman admitted. She felt sad. At least, not how we are now.
But we're content with this fate, the man told her. Out of us three, Jérémie needs you the most, Aelita Schaeffer.
How did they know her name? Unless they discovered it through reading her emotions?
They ignored that question, and instead the man continued, We're sorry we cannot help you anymore than this.
But we wish you the best, the woman said.
They both said, Take care of Jérémie.
Wait! How did they know Jérémie? And so well, at that? Who were they? How did they know XANA? And the supercomputer? She had so many questions!
But they didn't answer any of them.
She no longer felt either of them with her.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was still in the Desert Sector, as he remained in contact with Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd.
"I just finished scanning the data chain," he relayed to them. "Yumi made a typing error that blocked the system," Yumi gasped, "which means that the memory used for transfer was deactivated at the worst time."
"Do you know where she is now?" Yumi asked, frantically.
"She wasn't transferred to Earth, and she didn't come back to me, so..." he trailed off, "she's out there and...blocked somewhere between us." But she was still alive; he could feel it. "But don't worry," he told them. "She's okay."
Jérémie!
"Aelita?!" He turned around to survey the desert around him. That was Aelita's voice for sure, but he couldn't see her anywhere.
The way she felt when she called out to him...it was panic mixed with helplessness.
Jérémie, you have to retrieve memory...
"Retrieve memory?" he muttered to himself.
Ulrich's "Jérémie, are you in contact with her?" brought his attention back to the other three, a reminder that he wasn't alone.
"Yes," he turned his attention back to Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi. "Well, let's just say I think what she thinks. It's as if she were part of my mind."
"What's she saying about 'retrieve memory'?" Odd asked. "Is that how we can get her back?"
"Yes," he told them. It wasn't false hope, at least, he hoped it wasn't. "If I'm understanding her thoughts correctly, then we have to recover the memory in four passage towers, one for each Sector, and redirect them to the three scanners to complete the transfer. I don't know for sure how she knows to do that, but she's right. It will take time, though."
"Well, that's a hopeful sign," Ulrich said. "How long?"
"According to Aelita, one of your afternoons," he replied.
"Then there's no time to lose," Ulrich told him.
"Alright, I'm off," Jérémie said before logging off. He then began running to the nearest Way Tower. It wasn't too far away.
However, Jérémie passed by a rock, and a lone Kankrelat appeared from behind it, watching Jérémie run off...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi intently watched Jérémie's yellow arrow move across the holomap, towards the nearest Way Tower. "Thank you, Jérémie," she whispered.
"Yumi, it's not your fault," Ulrich told her. "It's a mistake any of us could've made."
"I know," Yumi reminded him, "but this is the second time I've made a typing error. Last time, I virtualized you and Odd too far away from Jérémie, but this time, it could cost Aelita her life."
"We don't know that," Odd cut in. "Jérémie told us that she was still alive."
"True..." Despite Odd and Ulrich's best attempts, Yumi's fears were not alleviated. Her guilt still remained. "But what if XANA attacks?"
"Don't sweat it, Yumi!" Odd replied, a big smile on his face. "Jérémie's gonna get Aelita home soon, I'm positive! XANA won't have time to do anything!"
Yumi was quiet, before she broke it, trying to change the subject (sort of), "You two better get back to class. If we're all absent, the teachers will get suspicious. I'll stay here in case Jérémie needs any help."
"Okay," Ulrich said, as he and Odd grabbed their bags and walked towards the elevator. "Call us if you need any help."
Yumi nodded, though deep down, she had no such intentions. This was her fault. She's the one who suggested Aelita go to Lyoko to apologize to Jérémie, and she's the one who was responsible for bringing Aelita back to Earth.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Roux?" Ms. Hertz called out, performing roll call.
"Present!"
"Schaeffer?"
No response.
"Schaeffer?" Ms. Hertz glanced around the room. "Aelita isn't here?"
"Sorry, ma'am," Odd came forward with the excuse he and Ulrich had agreed to use, "but Aelita ate something at lunch that didn't agree with her."
"Ah, in the infirmary, then," Ms. Hertz marked Aelita absent with a red pen. "Stern?"
"Present," Ulrich replied.
"Suares?"
"Present!"
Hervé leaned in to Odd and Ulrich, "Is that really true? Or is she sneaking out to see her 'pen pal'?"
Odd and Ulrich shared a knowing look with each other, before they both turned back to Hervé. "Why?" Ulrich asked. "Are you jealous?" What Aelita did with Jérémie was none of Hervé's business.
Hervé turned back to the chalkboard, pouting, "No, of course not!"
Odd and Ulrich tried hard to stifle their laughs. Hervé was a terrible liar.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Reaching the tower in the Desert Sector had gone off without a hitch. Jérémie was in the Ice Sector now, and he was approaching the next tower.
And he relayed this to his guide, "Yumi, I'm approaching the second Way Tower."
As he entered by phasing through the walls, he heard her ask, "Good. Any sign of XANA?"
She was asking this periodically, and he fully understood her caution. "No. I don't feel any pulsations from the Ice Sector. For now, at least."
He reached the center of the first platform, before letting the datastream carry him up to the second platform.
He approached the center and was greeted with the interface popping up. After it accepted his handprint, he began his work, deleting windows he didn't need and rearranging windows to the proper places in order to retrieve the data. Once he found it, he tapped on the main window, sending the data to Yumi.
"Got it," Yumi relayed to him. "Two towers down, two to go."
"Good," he replied, walking to the edge of the platform. "I'm off to the Mountain Sector."
He spread his arms and let himself fall forward.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
As the holomap showed Jérémie's yellow arrow switching sectors, the elevator doors opened, revealing Odd and Ulrich, having finished their last class of the day (physics with Ms. Hertz).
The two immediately ran to Yumi's side. "How's it going?" Ulrich asked.
"We've just finished retrieving data from the second tower," Yumi told them. "He's heading to the Mountain Sector now. Things are going well, almost too well."
"It means that XANA isn't aware of the situation, right?" Odd asked, not really understanding her suspicions.
"I don't think it does," Yumi admitted. "Usually there's, at least, a random patrol, but Jérémie hasn't run into any yet."
"I'm entering the Mountain Sector now," came Jérémie's voice from the computer, the holomap showing that he successfully switched sectors.
Ulrich placed a hand on Yumi's shoulder, "Hey, Yumi, why don't you head to class now? Aelita has an excuse, but you don't."
"That's right," Odd added, agreeing with his roommate. "Ulrich and I can take over, and you can come back when you're done."
Yumi sighed, "Okay." She took out the earpiece and placed it on the keyboard, before standing up and heading for the elevator. "Keep me posted," she said, her schoolbag in hand, as the doors closed.
Once she was gone, Ulrich took her place, sitting in the big chair and putting on the earpiece. Odd remained at his side.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Jérémie?" came Ulrich's voice, as the blue elf was running through the mountains. "Yumi's gone back to class. I'm taking over."
"Okay," he replied. Honestly, he didn't really understand the idea of school or why kids needed to attend one for most of the day. But his friends were forced to schedule their lives around XANA. Who was he to disrespect their schedules when XANA wasn't attacking? "I'm on my way to the third tower now, but I'm nowhere close to it."
"Is Aelita okay?" Odd asked.
"She's a little worried," Jérémie relayed, feeling her concern as if it were his own, "but she's fine."
He came to an abrupt halt when a Kankrelat came out from behind a group of rocks surrounding a roundabout.
"Jérémie?" came Ulrich's voice. "I get the impression you're not alone anymore."
"It's not an impression," Jérémie replied, shaking his head, as a second Kankrelat came out from behind the same rocks, but from the other side.
Both Kankrelats began firing at him, but he managed to dodge both lasers. He jumped over them and continued down his desired path, with the two monsters following.
He quickly came upon a summit, where three more Kankrelats were waiting. Once those three were in sight, all five Kankrelats opened fire, forcing Jérémie behind a boulder for cover.
"Jérémie, to your left, there's another platform," Ulrich told him.
To his left, however, there was nothing, and down lower, a layer of fog. Was there a platform within that fog?
Well, Ulrich was the one with the holomap.
"I have faith in you, Ulrich," Jérémie whispered, before slowly, so as to not be be noticed, picking up a nearby stone from the ground.
He threw it at another boulder to his right. Sure enough, lured by the noise the stone made when it landed, the five Kankrelats hurried to that direction, opposite of where he was hiding.
Using this to his advantage, Jérémie left his cover and left himself run off the left side of the cliff, where Ulrich said that platform was.
Ulrich was right, though the platform met him sooner than he expected, so Jérémie's landing was a little...rough.
But he was okay. He didn't land in the digital sea, nor did those Kankrelats follow him. What's more, that third Way Tower was in sight now.
Smiling, he got back to his feet and ran towards that tower.
"Well done, Jérémie," Ulrich said. "Aelita would be proud of you!"
"I'll get you connected soon," he replied.
In no time, Jérémie entered the tower and retrieved the data.
As he did so, he heard Odd ask Ulrich from the lab, "That's three down. Should we tell Yumi?"
"No," was Ulrich's response. "Let's leave her alone for now. She's dealing with enough already."
Why? Because of guilt? Jérémie wondered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"By the 1950s," Mr. Fumet was lecturing, "radio and television had become the most important means of spreading culture."
Yumi had long since tuned him out, however. Instead of writing notes like normal, she was drawing Aelita.
Her smile and bright personality...
Yumi didn't want to face the possibility that she'd never see her best friend again.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
At last, Jérémie had finally reached the last Sector.
"I'm in the Forest Sector!" he relayed to Ulrich and Odd as he started running to the last Way Tower. Hold on, Aelita. I'll bring you home soon.
It was in sight now, just a few more meters.
But he had no choice but to stop and hide within a hollow tree trunk when he saw what was waiting for him.
"Hey, Jer, why are you stopping?" Odd asked.
"Check the holomap," the blue elf told him, "and you'll get your answer."
It was the last Way Tower they needed alright, but it seemed that Yumi's suspicions earlier were correct. XANA had sent two Bloks to guard the tower. It didn't activate the tower, but it didn't need to for Jérémie to understand what its intentions were.
"Apparently, XANA's gotten the message," Ulrich muttered.
"Just as Yumi feared," Odd added.
"And there's no way I can get through," the blue elf replied. "The path to the tower is pretty narrow."
"There has to be a way, Jérémie!" Ulrich exclaimed, not wanting to give in. "We are not losing Aelita!"
"There is one," he admitted. "But it's pretty risky. The supercomputer needs to focus all of its current remaining energy on bringing Aelita back, so to send one of you here, we'll have to borrow memory from somewhere else."
Odd asked, "Where do we get it from? Another tower?"
"No, it can't be from the supercomputer," he shook his head. "It needs to be from an outside source."
"We only need one scanner," Ulrich reminded them both. "What if we used Aelita's computer?"
"We need to get Aelita back as soon as possible!" Odd objected. "Unhooking her entire computer setup and hooking it up here will take too long. What about her laptop?"
"That should be fine," Jérémie replied, "but retrieve it fast. I've got another problem on my end. It's becoming harder to contact Aelita! I'm afraid she's starting to delete herself..."
"Delete herself?" Odd asked, his nerves making more on edge with each passing second. "What does that mean?"
"She's disappearing," Jérémie closed his eyes. If he had a heart, instead of a virtual body, it would be beating hard right now. "The supercomputer is confusing her with an outdated file. We have to work fast." He couldn't lose Aelita. Not now.
"We're on it," Ulrich said, before Jérémie saw him (within his mind) type in Yumi's number.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi was still in Mr. Fumet's class, sketching out Aelita's smiling face, when her phone started vibrating in her hand (where she was holding it).
Mr. Fumet was still lecturing, so Yumi picked up and whispered, "How's everything going, Ulrich?"
"We have a problem," Ulrich told her. He sounded tense and anxious. "You need to get Aelita's laptop and bring it to the factory ASAP."
"Okay, I'll be right there," Yumi whispered back, before hanging up. She then stood up, "Mr. Fumet, may I please go to the infirmary?"
Mr. Fumet let her leave, and Yumi raced out of the classroom and to the dorms.
She found Aelita's laptop on her desk, where Yumi expected it to be, but when the Japanese girl left Aelita's dorm, she was stopped by Jim, who was standing menacingly right outside Aelita's door.
Holding Aelita's pink laptop in her hands, Yumi stammered for a good excuse, "Hey, Jim! It's always good to exercise your mind after phys. ed. class, huh?"
Jim only frowned, not convinced.
Suddenly, getting Aelita back seemed more and more like an impossibility.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was playing Tetrix Annihilator on his GameBoy, trying to distract himself from the current situation, when Ulrich groaned out, "Where is she? It's been fifteen minutes!" He typed in Yumi's number again, and she picked up, "Yumi, where are you?"
"Sorry, I got caught red-handed by Jim," Yumi whispered back.
"What?!"
"Look, I can't talk right now," Yumi told him, "but please help."
Ulrich wasn't able to say anymore, as she hung up right then.
"What's wrong?" Odd asked.
"Yumi got caught," Ulrich replied. "She's in the principal's office. And she's got the laptop with her."
"Then it's all over!" Odd exclaimed, fear suddenly coming over his expression. "There's nothing we can do!"
"Unless..." Ulrich trailed off, getting an idea.
It wasn't something he wanted to do, but this was a life-or-death situation. And he meant that literally.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich had gone directly to Sissi, the only person who had Mr. Delmas wrapped around her finger.
"Sissi, listen, I can't explain why, but I really need your help this time," he said.
Sissi's expression read reluctance, "Ulrich, you know I'm an advocate for students' rights, but this time, Yumi got caught red-handed. She was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. I'm sorry."
Ulrich began to get angry, "If this is out of jealousy–"
"It's not!" she interrupted him, her fists tightly clenched and trembling. "I swear it's not! This is me trying to follow and respect the rules, nothing else!"
Part of it was out of jealousy, Ulrich knew, but Sissi would never admit that. So he decided to appease that side of her, "If I go out with you for two weeks, will that be enough?"
Sissi paused, and Ulrich was relieved to see that she was legitimately considering it, "Make it one month."
"Two weeks and a down payment!" He replied. Aelita's life depended on this.
"Down payment?" Sissi was confused by that. "What kind?"
Ulrich grabbed Sissi by the waist and pulled her in close...by the lips.
He knew Nicolas was in shock (while Hervé couldn't care less), but Ulrich paid him no mind.
The kiss was deep, because Ulrich was putting his entire soul into this, for Aelita.
When he pulled back, Sissi was dazed, but she managed to get out, "D-Deal..."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"I don't understand your story, Miss Ishiyama," Mr. Delmas was droning on and on. Yumi was in his office, trying to negotiate her way out. She didn't mind detention for the rest of her life, as long as she could get Aelita's laptop to the factory. "Miss Schaeffer couldn't have possibly asked you to get her laptop for her, because she's not in school today."
"But she is on school grounds, Sir," Jim said, standing beside Mr. Delmas. "According to the roll call sheet, she's in the infirmary. Miss Ishiyama here was also reported absent for part of the day, but with no such excuse."
'Aelita has an excuse, but you don't.' Ulrich was right.
"Miss Ishiyama," Mr. Delmas said, "you and your friends have accumulated a number of reasons for being suspended in just a half day. Is there anything you'd like to say in your defense?"
Yumi was about to open her mouth, to give no reason at all (those exact words), when Sissi suddenly entered the room.
"Daddy, may I speak with you for a moment?" Sissi asked, approaching her father's desk. "It's important."
"Sweetie, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" Mr. Delmas retorted. "Miss Ishiyama's misconduct needs to be addressed."
"It's about Miss Ishiyama, Daddy," Sissi explained.
Yumi blinked in awe as Sissi seamlessly gave an excuse that Aelita had asked Yumi got her laptop in order to do her homework. Exactly what Yumi had excused her actions as (except she was thinking about the penpal cover story).
Yumi was speechless as Mr. Delmas finally accepted that excuse, gave Yumi the laptop back, and ushered her out the door, "Behave yourself, Miss Ishiyama. I won't be so understanding next time."
He then closed the door behind him.
Yumi ignored Ms. Weber and turned to Ulrich, who was sitting there in the seats.
"You're going to have to explain to me how you did that," she told him.
Ulrich hid his face in his hands, "I don't wanna talk about it. Say, Yumi," he snuck a glance at her, "you don't mind if we don't see each other for about two weeks, do you?"
Yumi raised an eyebrow in confusion, but gave no answer.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was still waiting in the Forest Sector, inside that hollow tree trunk, confused as to why retrieving Aelita's laptop was taking so long.
He had asked Odd, and Odd just told him that Yumi had been caught taking it, before advising the blue elf to keep an eye on the two Bloks.
Speaking of which, the two Bloks suddenly started moving forward, to his location. He gasped as Odd's voice rang out, "Watch out, Jérémie!"
With no other choice, Jérémie was forced to run away from the tower. A shot was fired, and it hit his shoulder. But he kept running.
A few paces away, there was a gap in the path, and Jérémie jumped over it, landing safely on the other side. He glanced back in time to see one Blok fall right over the edge. A bright spiral light shot up, indicating that it had been deleted.
Meanwhile, the second was pacing back and forth, as if deciding what to do now.
It fired, hitting Jérémie in the chest. It charged up another shot, but it missed as the blue elf quickly took cover behind a nearby tree.
"Hang on, Jérémie!" Odd urged him, as the blonde in blue tightly clutched his chest, feeling the pain radiate throughout his avatar. "The others are on the way!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The elevator doors opened, and Odd was greeted with this:
"Listen, Yumi! You don't understand!"
"Ulrich, it's your problem, not mine!"
"But it's not what you think, I swear!"
"If that's all you can think of to say, then don't say anything! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a laptop to connect, so save it, huh?"
Then there was a rather tense silence between the two as Ulrich pouted, borderline sulking.
As Yumi set up the laptop, Ulrich approached Odd, "How's it going?"
"Jérémie's down to forty lifepoints," Odd relayed. "One Blok fell into the Digital Sea, but the second still has him cornered." The holomap displayed Jérémie's yellow arrow hiding behind the wireframe of a tree, and then the Blok's red circle on the other side of a gap. "Even worse, it's getting a lot harder to contact Aelita." Aelita's ID card indicated that she only had, at the current moment, 37 lifepoints left, which was currently going down one by one. "What about you? Why are you and Yumi suddenly fighting?"
"You'll probably find out when we get back to school," Ulrich hung his head.
Odd suddenly started smiling, as he realized what had happened, "You...kissed Sissi?!"
Ulrich's pout immediately turned into a death glare, "If you tell Yumi, you're dead."
Odd just smiled, wordlessly promising not to say a word, but clearly intending on teasing him later, once all of this was over.
"Done!" Yumi exclaimed, and the two boys turned to her. She was standing up. "The computer's connected. Now, who goes?"
"You go," Ulrich immediately said. "You want to redeem yourself, Yumi? This is your chance."
Yumi's eyes traveled to Odd, who nodded, his gaze just as intent and serious as Ulrich's.
"Okay," she said, before heading towards the ladder and climbing down.
Meanwhile, Ulrich took back the controls from Odd. "Jérémie, hang in there. Yumi's on her way."
"I'll try my best," came Jérémie's shaky response. Ulrich remembered how feeling the pain of the lasers was different for Jérémie. For him, the pain lingered.
"You ready, Yumi?" Ulrich asked.
Over the comm, Yumi replied, "Do it, Ulrich. I have faith in you."
"Transfer Yumi." He typed in the necessary commands, and pressed Enter.
Yumi's ID and avatar both popped up, showing that she was being scanned.
But then a repetitive beeping sound occured, and the loading bar was flashing 'Not Enough Memory'.
"Ulrich? What's wrong?" Yumi asked from the scanner.
"There's not enough memory!" Ulrich said. "We need another ten bytes!"
But Odd was quicker at thinking. He turned around to face his GameBoy, which he had ditched a while ago.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie peaked out from behind his tree cover. The Blok was still there. It charged up its laser and fired three times, and Jérémie immediately resumed hiding. He breathed a sigh of relief when those three shots only hit the tree.
He peered out from behind the tree once more, only for Ulrich to say, "Jérémie, behind you!"
Jérémie turned around, only to be greeted by another Blok. It shot at his chest, bringing him to his knees and eventually to the ground.
His vision was getting blurry. He could feel how few lifepoints he had left (it was ten). One more hit, and he was done for.
He could hear the other Blok finally gain enough momentum to jump over the gap, landing safely on the other side.
This was it. Sorry, Aelita. It looks like I failed you.
The two Bloks charged up their lasers, preparing for the final shot.
"Virtualization!"
Jérémie didn't see what was going on, but he could hear Yumi give out a battle cry as she blocked both lasers with her fan, before throwing her fan at one, blocking the other Blok with her body. Her fan hit its first target, and she caught it and threw it at the second. Her fan hit its second target too.
Yumi caught her fan gracefully as both Bloks exploded, signaling their defeat.
"Jérémie, are you okay?" Yumi, during that entire time, had remained at Jérémie's side. Now she was kneeling.
He barely had enough strength to lift his head up, but he did and smiled when he saw Yumi's face, a sight he warmly welcomed. "Yumi?" he asked, weakly.
"Sorry I'm late," she smiled, before helping him to his feet. As she was doing so, she addressed the two still in the lab, "Where'd you two dorks get those ten bytes from?"
"A lot of the credit should go to Tetrix Annihilator," Odd said, a smile clear in his voice. "Hope you weren't planning on playing it!"
Yumi giggled, "Don't worry. I've got enough to do here without playing other games." She turned to her blue companion, still smiling, "Right, Jérémie?" It was clear she wanted a quip from him.
But he couldn't muster up that energy. He instead turned to her with a frightened look, "I can't hear her thoughts anymore..." Was it too late? Was she gone for good? He hoped not.
Yumi placed both of her hands on his shoulders, her expression now stern, "Listen to me, Jérémie. We're going to save her, you hear me?"
Jérémie lowered his gaze and nodded his head. He was close to tears, especially since he was still so worn out.
"Let's go," Yumi said, before leading the way to the passage tower, and Jérémie followed, both of them leaping over the gap in the path without any trouble.
Yumi kept a sharp eye out, looking everywhere in order to avoid a nasty encounter (Jérémie was still down to ten lifepoints, and he could feel it).
The two reached the base of the tower in no time. Yumi turned to Jérémie, "Your turn. Bring back Aelita."
Jérémie gave her a small, side smile in return, before limping towards the tower.
He phased through the wall, immediately feeling his strength return as his lifepoints were all restored. Feeling much more energetic, Jérémie then ran to the center of the platform, and let the datastream take up him to the second.
Once he was on the second platform, he practically ran to the center of this one too, and was greeted with the interface. Once it accepted his handprint, he got to work, switching and deleting windows in order to retrieve the data needed.
Once he was done, he tapped on the main window, sending the data to the supercomputer.
"We did it!" He heard Ulrich and Odd cheer. "We retrieved the scanners' memory!"
Meanwhile, inside the tower, the interface started expanding, and once it grew into a human-sized portal, it turned from a cyan color to a bright white-and-yellow mix.
Not wasting any time, Jérémie immediately entered the portal.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Aelita? Aelita, can you hear me?"
That sounded like Jérémie's voice, but it wasn't just in her head. This one sounded louder than the other times he spoke to her.
She wanted so badly to respond to him, but not even her feelings would respond to her anymore. It felt like she was being deleted, like she was dying.
She heard Jérémie call out to her again, but this time, he sounded like he was begging, "Aelita, please don't leave me..."
He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. Just faintly, she could feel his hatred and fear of loneliness, why he wanted so badly to return to Earth, to be with her.
She felt her body frown, and she tried opening her eyes again, and this time, she succeeded.
She was greeted with a bright white-and-yellow colored void, like an intermediate space, like those two strange voices had told her (though it felt more like a fading dream by this point).
"Aelita!"
There it was. That was definitely Jérémie's voice.
Now having control over her own motor functions, she glanced around the void for him. She finally found him, though he was far away.
But he was getting closer. He was flying towards her.
"Jérémie!" She reached her hand out, still feeling that relentless pull of the supercomputer as it sought to delete her.
Jérémie seemed surprise by her outburst, but he quickly reached out to her, mirroring her movements.
Closer, closer, just a tad closer...
Finally, their fingertips touched, and suddenly, Aelita could feel all of Jérémie's emotions all at once. She could see his deepest desires, his darkest fears...the depth of his true feelings for her...
Aelita was too in shock to notice Jérémie interlace his fingers with hers, that they were now holding hands.
She glanced into his eyes and realized that the same had happened to him, that when their hands touched, he could see everything inside her heart, her mind, as they completely opened up to each other.
And it had moved him to tears.
His tears of joy was the last thing she saw as she blacked out completely.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich, Yumi (now devirtualized by Ulrich), and Odd waited outside the scanner that had its doors closed tight.
It seemed to be for an agonizing long time, but it was only about a minute since the scanner had started warming up.
The doors finally opened to reveal an out-cold Aelita.
"Aelita!" The three all exclaimed together, before immediately running to their pink-haired friend.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita's dorm had an excellent view of that day's sunset. The other three had brought the pink-ette here to rest. It had been at least two hours now, so whatever happened in Virtual Limbo (as Jérémie described it) must've been taxing on her.
Finally, her green eyes opened, and she slowly sat up. Yumi sat down on the bed next to her, and asked, "How do you feel?"
Aelita took a moment, before softly smiling and saying, "Enlightened."
The other three simply raised an eyebrow, but decided to let her be cryptic. Instead, Odd sat down next to his cousin, with Yumi on the pink-ette's other side. Ulrich, meanwhile, hovered close by.
"We were really scared," Odd admitted. "You were confused with an outdated file so the supercomputer was deleting you."
"Yeah, I figured," the pink-ette admitted. "It eventually got harder and harder to contact Jérémie. I felt like I wanted to sleep."
"How could Jérémie stay in touch with you?" Yumi asked. "I transfered to Lyoko to help clear the passage to the fourth tower, and I couldn't contact you at all."
Aelita shrugged, "My best guess is that it's the same thing that allows him to deactivate towers."
"Like admin controls?" Odd asked.
"Again, it's not confirmed," Aelita replied. "But I do believe that's the closest answer. It could've been a dream, but...at one point, I felt two people watching me. They're actually the ones who told me where I was and how to get out."
"That's pretty cool of them," Ulrich said.
"If that's true, then it probably wasn't a dream," Yumi told her.
"I know," Aelita said, "but the most surreal part, believe it or not, was how much they seemed to know about Jérémie and Lyoko. I mean, there was no hesitation. They know him. I don't know how but they have all the answers."
"You think they're the ones who created Lyoko and the supercomputer?" Odd asked.
Aelita was straightforward for once. "They didn't confirm or deny it, but yes, I do."
The air was tense as they all digested that. The next step was telling Jérémie. But would they? It was Aelita's experience, Aelita's choice.
Ulrich broke it after checking the clock on Aelita's bedside table, "Sorry, but I gotta go. I promised Sissi."
"What are you, her slave?" Odd asked, having heard the whole story from him while Yumi was on Lyoko, busy getting Jérémie to the tower. "With that down payment you gave her, she should leave you alone tonight!"
A suspicious Yumi stood up, "'Down payment'? What's all this about, Ulrich?"
Aelita, a bit scared of Yumi whenever she was like this, leaned away from her and into Odd.
Ulrich stammered, "Uh, nothing, uh, see you later!" He then made like a cheetah and ran out of Aelita's room.
"Wait, I want an explanation! Ulrich!" Yumi called out after him.
"Uh, yeah, catch you sometime!" was the last the trio heard of Ulrich for that day. At least, Odd and Aelita, much to Aelita's confusion.
What did she miss?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It was after dinner and after curfew by the time Aelita and Jérémie could finally finish their conversation. There was dinner first, and then Odd wouldn't really let her leave his sight until it was time for bed.
Now the lights were out, and Aelita, in her pajamas, was able to get in touch with Jérémie.
"You know," Jérémie was saying, his interface on her monitor, where it belonged, "I didn't actually mean for us to share our thoughts and emotions so openly." He was referring to that moment in Limbo when they touched hands. "That was an accident."
"It's okay," Aelita softly replied. She could feel her cheeks reddening. "I don't mind. Because I understand...how you feel...about me..."
He loved her. He really, truly loved her.
"As do I." She snuck a glance at his interface, and she could tell that if one could blush on Lyoko, he would be right now. "I still don't know how to word my emotions or what they mean exactly, so it was a stroke of pure luck that you were able to feel them for yourself. But I know now that you feel the same way about me that I do for you, and honestly, that's all that matters to me."
Aelita felt her blush deepen. He loved her, and she loved him. "I still stand by that promise I made. I said I'd help you understand emotions, and I mean it."
He returned her smile, "I know." His smile then faded a bit, "I just still find it unsettling that two people who are in love can fight."
"While it does happen," Aelita chose to be optimistic, "it doesn't happen all the time. Again, what matters most is communication. And I'd say we have it pretty good when compared to others." Odd told her the whole story behind Ulrich and Yumi's sudden tension.
Jérémie smiled, knowing that was a jab at their other two lovebird friends. He knew the whole story too, from her. "That sounds like advice you really need to tell Ulrich and Yumi."
Aelita immediately shook her head, "No way. I'd rather stay out of that one."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Outside of the dorm building, Ulrich was pacing, on the phone with his own true love, having just returned from his date with Sissi (for real, not ironically). Except this conversation wasn't going so well.
"Let me talk!"
"There's nothing to talk about! I am fed up with your lying!"
"But I'm not lying! There's nothing between Sissi and me!"
"Sure! Goodnight!" She hung up.
"Hey, wait, Yumi, let me explain! Yumi, are you still there?" No response. "YUMI!"
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 12 - The Cost of Pride / Ulrich's parents visit, forcing Ulrich into a difficult position.
A/N: Fun Fact: Frontier is one of my favorite episodes.
Instead of a virtualization error, it's a materialization error that's made. Since the self-virtualization program exists and the entire group knows it just in case they have to use it, as well as the fact that Aelita's been to Lyoko before, it had to be a materialization error, because the usual way to send someone back to Earth in this AU is friendly fire. Thus, it makes sense for Yumi to make a mistake when trying to bring Aelita back through the supercomputer rather than with her fan.
The oasis Jérémie sits by in the Desert Sector is the same one from "Seeing is Believing" (which, remember, still occurs in this AU). Odd's training is what he does in the video "Odd the Training", which you can find on YouTube.
The scene where Aelita is in Virtual Limbo is inspired by an AO3 story: Ghosts in the Machine by laurelofthestory. Go read it, if you haven't already.
Unlike in canon, I'll explain later why Jérémie (and the two strangers) can read Aelita's thoughts and feelings while she's trapped in Limbo. Not now, but later on in Season 2-ish. Also, what happens between them is only implied in canon. Here, it's made a lot clearer.