Sunlight beamed brightly onto the walls of Kadic Academy, bringing with it an uncharacteristic warmth for late September. The sounds of crunching footsteps and chattering voices preceded the P.E. class as they rounded the corner. Jim marched at the helm, bringing his knees to his chest as he walked backwards, one eye on his clipboard and the other on the students in his charge.
"Okay, roll call!" he boomed. "Obviously when I call your name, I expect you to answer! Because you're here. Right."
Odd laughed to himself, elbowing Ulrich to get his attention. With a jutted chin and puffed cheeks, Odd did an impressive imitation of Jim's walk. Ulrich stifled his own laughter by clapping one hand over his mouth.
Jim cleared his throat. "Pichon!"
"Present!" Herve called with far more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary. A teacher's pet was always a teacher's pet, no matter the class.
"Gauthier!"
"Present." Theo raised a peace sign.
And on it went. One-by-one, Jim called out everyone's names until only Jeremie's was left.
"Despite already knowing the answer," Jim said, "I continue to hold out hope that, one day, Belpois will grace us with his presence. In the hopes that today is that day - Belpois?!"
His call was met with awkward giggles. The gathered students looked around, not surprised in the slightest.
"What's his excuse this time, huh Stones?" Jim asked, eyes signaling out Aelita in the crowd. "Is he sick, or did he lose his homework? Oh, I know - has little Timmy fallen down the well?"
"Uh, sick?" Aelita answered.
"Right." Jim marked something on his clipboard before turning away. "First things first, kids! Let's get some warm-up stretches in, then I want everyone to run three laps around the track!"
A collective groan sounded from the gathered students, Odd's being the loudest of all. "Why so much exercise before lunch?" he moaned.
"It builds character," Jim responded to his rhetorical question. The students reluctantly fell into loose lines before the gym teacher. "And, one! And, two!" Jim began, the kids copying his movements with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
"Psst, Aelita," Odd hissed.
"What?" she replied, glancing at Odd as the class collectively dropped into lunges.
"Where's Einstein, really? It's been like three days since I've seen him."
"Where do you think?" Ulrich interrupted, peering over his shoulder.
"Excusez moi, I was talking to Aelita."
"Am I wrong, though?"
"Nope, you nailed it," Aelita confirmed.
Transitioning into a sit-and-reach, Ulrich asked, "What do you think of all this, Aelita?"
She exhaled heavily through her nose. "I'm sorry, Ulrich. I really don't know." The timing of events was eerie, to say the least. First Jeremie received an anonymous message directly to his laptop on a server he hadn't accessed since Lyoko was functional. Then…
"Stern! Stones! Della Robbia! If you have enough breath to chitchat, you have enough breath to run extra laps!" Jim yelled from the front.
"What!" Odd stood up with his hands on his hips. "We're being punished for being in better shape than the rest of our class?" His question earned him glares from many of his classmates.
"Oh, I'm sorry Della Robbia. What I meant to say was two hours of detention!"
Odd groaned and resumed stretching. Aelita glanced at Ulrich worriedly. "Does that include us?"
Ulrich just shrugged.
~ ULRICH TITLE CARD
When the bell sounded signaling a change in classes, a horde of hungry adolescents descended upon the cafeteria, Odd leading the charge. He grabbed a tray and practically threw it in his haste to pick out lunch items. Ulrich and Aelita, following at a slower pace, were separated from their friend by several students. When Aelita eventually reached Rosa, she had two trays in tow.
With a raised eyebrow and knowing smile, Rosa asked, "Covering for Jeremie again?" Aelita smiled sheepishly and nodded. Rosa proceeded to fill her trays with food, spooning an extra helping of brussels sprouts onto one of them.
"And you all make fun of me for my appetite," Odd complained when Aelita set her trays down at the table.
"You deserve to be made fun of," Yumi remarked, pulling out a chair.
Aelita ate her food quickly, earning herself a competitive stare from Odd who began horking down his own food in response.
"I'm not sure she was challenging you," Ulrich laughed, watching the two stuff their faces while he himself ate at a more socially acceptable pace.
"Are you kidding? I would never turn down a potential challenge to my throne," Odd joked while practically inhaling his lunch. As could be expected, he finished first and threw down his fork in victory. He crossed his arms contentedly over his stomach and leaned back, the remains of his food all over his face.
Aelita finished eating a respectable time later, but didn't even spare a glance in Odd's direction. "Well, I'm off." She jumped up, stacking Jeremie's full tray on top of her now empty one. She made her way to the exit, dropping off her empty tray en route. As she pushed through the double doors and headed for the park, she glanced down at Jeremie's tray, making sure he would have everything he needed for a healthy lunch. Vegetables, protein, and dairy for calcium; she glanced at each portion in turn.
"Just where do you think you're headed, young lady?"
Aelita started as a hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned, Jim standing behind her with his other hand on his hip.
"Ah, um…" Aelita hesitated. "I'm bringing Jeremie some lunch."
"Last I checked, the dorms are in the other direction," Jim remarked, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder. "I may not be that bright to keep up with you kids and your shenanigans, but I know there is no reason for you to be bringing a tray load of food into the woods."
Aelita glanced in the direction she'd been heading, then down at the tray in her hands. She'd intended to use the entrance in the park but on second thought, the ladder may have proven problematic anyway. She smiled back at Jim. "You're right, Jim! I wasn't thinking clearly. Maybe I'm catching Jeremie's sickness."
She started to walk back towards campus, but Jim maneuvered his large form so he was blocking her way. "Listen, Stones. I know Belpois isn't sick," he began, hand rubbing the back of his neck. "But… just tell him he can't keep missing P.E. It isn't a good look on his record, even if he aces all of his other classes." He took a step to the side so her path was clear. When she didn't move right away, he cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"You're right, Jim," she said eventually. "Thanks for always looking out for us."
Jim's cheeks flushed dramatically with the praise. "I'm just doing my job," he said with a chuckle, looking exceedingly proud of himself.
Flashing him one last smile, Aelita headed in the direction of the dorms.
She would have preferred to take the route through the park. Despite it being longer and requiring two ladders – really, what had she been thinking? – it was quieter. Walking through the courtyard meant being under constant surveillance for flying objects and students not paying attention to where they were going. More than once Aelita almost dropped the tray, losing several brussels sprouts on the way.
She was more conscious of how it looked to be carrying a full lunch across campus courtesy of her run-in with Jim. Balancing the tray on one arm, she scanned for prying eyes before entering the boiler room.
The rest of her journey proved uneventful and she was soon riding the elevator down to the control room. When the doors parted, an unexpected sight beheld her: Jeremie actually looked up from what he was working on to the tray in Aelita's hands. She could practically see his mouth watering from where she stood. Rolling her eyes, she walked over to him. The dark circles under his eyes contrasted sharply against his fair skin.
He reached for the tray, but Aelita held it away from him. "Ah, ah, ah!" she chastised. "You need to tip your delivery girl first." She proffered the side of her face to him. Laughing, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and she handed him the tray.
Aelita cast an uncomfortable glance at the holosphere. Where once five sectors were displayed, there were now only two. More concerning than the lack of sectors was the sudden reappearance of one. Mere hours after receiving the mysterious message, Jeremie found something strange by tapping into the supercomputer.
The Desert Sector was back.
Hesitantly, Aelita sat on the edge of the holosphere. She was quickly distracted and watched in awe as Jeremie ate with uncharacteristic zeal. "Would you look at that," she observed after a few minutes of watching him. "Your metabolism seems to have caught up with Odd's!"
Jeremie choked on his last bite, whacking his chest. Swallowing with difficulty and dabbing his mouth with his handkerchief, he said, "At least I chew my food."
Aelita raised her eyebrows in mock disagreement, amused by his choking just moments ago. Growing serious, she continued. "How long have you been down here?"
Jeremie chewed thoughtfully and glanced at the date and time listed on one of his monitors. "Um," he hummed when his mouth was clear, "three days?"
"Wait, you haven't left here this whole time?!"
He only shrugged.
"Please tell me you've eaten something in that time?"
"Of course?" he defended poorly, glancing at the satchel resting by his feet.
Aelita stood to rummage through it. There were a couple of empty wrappers and half-drunk bottles of energy drinks. "Jeremie," she groaned.
He had the good sense to look embarrassed.
Sighing, she slipped an arm around Jeremie's shoulders and sat partially on his armrest. "Jeremie, this isn't sustainable."
"I know, Aelita," Jeremie groaned. "But someone's obviously trying to get our attention. The message? The Desert Sector? It's as if someone gained remote access to the supercomputer. Plus, with the dreams you and William were having…well. What if it's all related?"
"I don't know, Jeremie. All I know is I miss you."
Jeremie blushed. He removed his glasses to clean them, a nervous habit.
"We all miss you. Even Jim was expressing concern today." When Jeremie didn't say anything, Aelita sighed again. "Well, are you going to show me what you've been working on?"
He flashed her a tentative smile before scooting to the edge of his chair. Aelita let the arm that was resting across his shoulders fall to her lap.
"So first of all, I've begun a program that would enable us to track the accessor on the network. Hopefully, with this finished, we'll be able to locate them within a few days. On that same note, I've also made a lot of progress in debugging the Skid–"
"Wait," Aelita interrupted, and Jeremie blinked in surprise. "Why would we need the Skid? It's not like tracking X.A.N.A. on the network. Can't you just locate them with the supercomputer, like they did to us?"
Jeremie's eyes focused on an empty space off to the side, deep in thought. "Well," he began hesitantly, interlacing his fingers over his lap, "if this is somehow all related…. Honestly, it's all just a precaution."
Aelita narrowed her eyes, skeptical.
"I've also gone through the liberty of giving everyone's Lyoko forms some upgrades," he continued.
This was not the direction she'd expected the conversation to go, and she was starting to feel like Jeremie was raising more questions than answers.
"What about the Desert Sector?" she probed.
"What about it?"
"Well, do you have an explanation as to why it suddenly reappeared?" Aelita was growing agitated as the conversation dragged on. He was hiding something.
There was a short pause before Jeremie replied, "Ulrich and Yumi were probably right to believe it's a delay, of sorts. By turning the supercomputer back on, we initiated - or essentially - rebooted the whole system, and because the sectors were all missing, I believe Lyoko is just repairing itself."
"Jeremie, I spent ten years on Lyoko. The sectors emerged the same time I did; there was no delay!" Aelita protested.
"You're thinking too heavily on this," Jeremie snapped. "It's just a result of the multi-agent program."
Aelita watched in awe as Jeremie turned back to the terminal and continued typing.
And there it was, the very worst of Jeremie Belpois. He was stubborn, self-absorbed, and bossy. His work was his life; from missing concerts to endangering his own sanity, he would work. But these were all excusable to Aelita because, at the end of the day, he was doing it for those he loved. He threw himself away so the others could live: so Ulrich could make football matches and Odd could date anything with a pulse, so Aelita could make music, and Yumi could be there for her family.
After all they had been through together, especially all he and Aelita had been through, he still wouldn't trust them with information. Because he didn't want to burden them. Because he didn't see himself as worthy of love, so he had to earn the attention of his friends. He couldn't share all his secrets. If he did, he wouldn't be necessary.
He was devolving. Old habits that had improved post-X.A.N.A., locking himself away, forgetting to eat, neglecting his friends. But this, the secrets, were too much for Aelita.
"Fine!" she huffed, standing abruptly. Her hands curled into fists. "Don't tell me. Looks like not eating killed whatever brain cells you had that were capable of trust."
And she stormed to the elevator, slamming her hand against the button. Jeremie turned and watched in shock as the doors closed, his mouth hanging open.
A sudden alarm from the monitors drew Jeremie's attention back from the elevator. He examined the screen, frantically re-reading the same lines of code. "It's not possible…. How is this happening?" he whispered loudly.
Rotating his chair, eyes half-filled with worry, the holomap began emitting more light as the ice sector slowly re-emerged.
~ WILLIAM TITLE CARD
Aelita sat on Ulrich's bed with her arms crossed, reading each of her friend's expressions in turn. Yumi's was undoubtedly the same as when Aelita had first mentioned her nightmares. Odd, sitting backwards in the chair at his desk, continued to look sympathetic, but now his face betrayed a sense of determination. Ulrich remained stoic, but she thought she could see something sparking within the depths of his green eyes. He was leaning against Odd's wardrobe as he too read the room.
"Well, what're we waiting for?" Odd exclaimed, pounding his fist into his open palm. "It's time to go kick some butt!"
Yumi put up her hand, stepping forward. "Now hold on," she warned, turning her full attention to Aelita. "While I understand your concern and the fact that everything so far has made you uneasy, Jeremie's behavior leads me to believe he may just need to shut it all down again. This can't be healthy; for either of you," she added.
"Something is going on," Aelita insisted, her brows furrowing. "You're right; I am uneasy, and this uneasiness makes me feel like something big is about to happen."
"That's just your nerves," Yumi calmed, moving to sit next to her. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, and Aelita looked into Yumi's eyes. "I promise you, once we get a bit further into the school year, this will all just look like 'that time you had the bad dream.'"
Aelita sighed, her shoulders drooping with defeat. She couldn't expect them all to understand her feelings. After all, they didn't have the same abilities she had; their dreams were just dreams.
"I believe her," Ulrich said simply. "What if it's-"
"It can't be," Yumi snapped. "XANA was killed by the multi-agent program. And even if it were back, there'd be no reason for it to remotely access the supercomputer. If it was hiding on the network somewhere, it wouldn't need to come back to Lyoko. And if it were back on Lyoko, well, that's not very remote, now is it?"
Aelita glanced around the room, watching everyone's expressions once again. She had thought it could be XANA, but Yumi raised valid points. If not XANA, then who could it be?
The warning bell for class sounded through the campus, snapping everyone to attention. They all grabbed their bags and slung them over their shoulders. Hand on the door handle, Aelita turned back to everyone else behind her.
"I hope you're right, Yumi," she murmured. Yumi just gave her a smile and a nod.
~ JEREMIE TITLE CARD
The sounds of crickets and other nighttime wildlife followed Jeremie as he snuck through the courtyard to the dorms, satchel in tow. The sliver of the waning moon shone down onto the Academy sparingly, giving Jeremie some cover in the shadows.
Upon reaching the dorms, he entered slowly, closing the door lightly behind him. As with it being such an old building, however, he was unable to hide the slight creak of the hinges as it shut. He winced, really hoping Jim didn't hear.
His fear was brought to life as the beam of a flashlight shone down the stairwell. "Who's there?" Jim's voice rang out, echoing through the large-domed ceiling.
Jeremie looked around in a panic for somewhere to hide, but as Jim made his way down the stairs, he dropped his shoulders in defeat. The beam shone directly into Jeremie's face, shielding Jim from Jeremie's view.
"Belpois?" Jim voiced. "What are you doing down here at this hour? You are way past curfew, Mister!"
"Uh," Jeremie began, hand to neck in embarrassment, "I don't have a good excuse for this."
Jim was silent for a moment before finally lowering the flashlight's beam, and his expression was revealed. It was full of concern and maybe a little pity. Jeremie couldn't help but feel surprised upon seeing it. The teacher opened his mouth to reply in rebuttal, but upon seeing Jeremie yawn in front of him, stopped himself.
"Just…promise not to miss another P.E. class again," Jim sighed, moving to put a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. "You need to stay healthy. You can't do that if you do nothing but sit in front of a computer all day," he added, eyes moving between his satchel and Jeremie's face.
Jeremie nodded after a moment, pushing his glasses back up onto his face. "I'll try."
"'Do or do not; there is no try'," Jim remarked, waving his finger in the air. Jeremie thought he recognized that quote, but before he could ask, Jim began pushing him towards the stairwell with one hand on his back. "Up you go. Get some rest. I can tell you haven't slept well."
Jeremie yawned once more, complying with Jim's movement. As the two of them reached the boy's floor, Jeremie unlocked his dorm. Hand on the handle, he turned back to Jim. "Thank you."
Jim's reply was a smug thumbs-up.
Setting his satchel down on the floor next to his bed as the door closed, Jeremie flopped onto his mattress with his shoes and clothes still on. He really didn't care; he was exhausted. Sleeping in the form of spurts in a chair was definitely not good for one's health. Now he understood why Aelita and Jim had been so worried….
His thoughts eased as his eyes closed and Jeremie drifted off into the world of dreams, his soft snores muffled in the creases of his comforter.
His monitor slowly booted to life, blinking with an eerily familiar logo. It was glitching, like it was having a hard time showing itself, creepily watching the sleeping blond-haired boy sprawled out on his bed. A low, guttural growl escaped from the speakers, but unlike the one it'd had before. This one was more primal; full of instinct rather than intellect.
And just like that, it was gone.