A/N: Sorry to make you guys wait. Here's the next chapter. Remember, if there's anything mentioned in passing to have happened during the past year, and you're confused about it, re-read 'The Theory of Evolution'. It's a very important piece of the puzzle.
And, if you want concepts on the main characters' appearances, go to my DeviantArt page (same penname as here) and search my gallery for "A World Without Danger". It's also where you can get a good view on how I've designed Laura in this story (and Sissi too, for that matter).
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
"There's a new student at Kadic, a girl, and she's drawn the sweet-hearted Aelita's ire with one simple move."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 5: Secret Admirer
It was the morning after when Laura Gauthier was allowed to meet and mingle with her fellow students. Last night, she had arrived well into the dinner hour and just went straight to bed in her new dorm room, not feeling very hungry at the time.
Well, she was now.
The principal's daughter—named Elizabeth, despite everyone else calling her Sissi—met her outside the girls' shower room after they were both dressed and ready for the day. When Laura had asked her what she wanted to be called, the response received was, "Whatever you want. I don't really care."
Alright. 'Sissi', then. Just to fit in.
Standing out, after all, was not always a good thing. Her father had warned her, before she came here, that not everyone had her academic talents, and that showing them off was not the reason she was here.
So, she entered the cafeteria quiet and reserved (but not shy), with Sissi at her side, and the moment she did so, she locked eyes with a blonde-haired boy with glasses covering his beautiful blue eyes, standing in the breakfast line.
What was this feeling? She'd never felt anything like this before...
It didn't last long, since the boy quickly turned to the pink-haired girl next to him, while Laura herself was ushered into the line by Sissi.
It didn't last long, but it left a significant imprint afterwards.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
That boy was in her chemistry class (quite fitting, actually) later that day. He was sitting next to that pink-haired girl again—they seemed to be friends, along with those brunette and crazy-haired blonde boys sitting at the table behind them.
The teacher, Ms. Hertz, wrote down a complicated equation on the board to start off her lecture. "Who'd like to take a crack at this one?" she asked.
Laura saw a lanky boy with black hair and an acne-filled face eagerly raise his hand. She was also about to raise her own hand—she could solve it easily—but Ms. Hertz seemed to already have someone in mind.
The teacher ignored the lanky boy—Herve Pichon, according to Sissi—in favor of, "Belpois?"
Oh god...it was the boy Laura had gained such an interest in.
Jérémie Belpois...what a lovely name...
Herve seemed to glare at Jérémie, but Laura paid no attention to that detail whatsoever as she watched the blonde boy bashfully shrug and walk up to the board. Taking the piece of chalk from Ms. Hertz, Jérémie proceeded to solve the equation at a speed only Laura herself could match.
Ms. Hertz was beaming at him with pride, "Correct, Mr. Belpois."
Jérémie shrugged shyly once again. Apparently, he was the smartest in his group of friends, and that fact embarrassed him to an extent. Why? Being an intellectual was something to be proud of; that's something her father always taught her.
Either way, Laura's face felt hot as she watched him sit back down next to his pink-haired friend.
Seriously, what was this feeling?!
Was it, perhaps, what other people called 'love'?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
That night, Jérémie flopped face-first onto his bed after finishing a patch to update the Skid's shields. He was so tired...
His eyes were closed, and he had nearly drifted off when a soft knock came to his door, quickly followed by the sound of a paper being slipped underneath his door frame.
Sour at being interrupted, he reluctantly got out of bed and stalked to his door before opening it, only to find an envelope lying on the ground and nothing else. He blinked.
Not a soul in sight.
What? This envelope had to come from someone. Right?
He sighed before picking it up and taking it inside his room with him. Once the door was closed, giving him total privacy, he opened the envelope and revealed the letter that was inside, using his blue computer screen as a light.
It was no mistake—this addressed him as the sole recipient. But it had to be some kind of joke or a trick of the light or-or something!
This was a–!
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita was practically skipped the moment she got out of bed the next morning. She didn't have any nightmares last night—which she always saw as a good thing. She could feel the broad smile on her face as she entered the cafeteria, got her breakfast, and joined her friends at the table they had chosen.
However, their own smiles didn't grow when they saw hers, when they normally would have—that was her only warning as to what was about to happen.
Her focus immediately centered on her boyfriend's troubled expression as she sat down next to him. "What's wrong?" she asked.
He handed her a piece of paper, a letter, asking, "This isn't your handwriting, is it?"
He sounded as if he already knew the answer.
"No," she replied, as her eyes scanned the contents.
This was a...love letter.
Jérémie sighed, "I thought not. You don't write me stuff like this anyways."
No, she didn't. It wasn't her style, or Jérémie's, for that matter. Instead, the two flirted using little brain teasers and wordplay riddles, stuff to exercise the mind—which they've been doing ever since they first met. Yes, Jérémie was a nerd, but most people failed to realize that Aelita was a nerd too.
He was socially awkward and had the tendency to avoid talking about his emotions, but she made up for that by keeping him from getting lost in his own head; at times, she was the only person who could. In return, he made her feel safe. The men in black that took her childhood from her could find her at any time, but she wasn't afraid, because she had faith in Jérémie to protect her.
No one else but her could keep up with his vast intellect anyways, and he always treated her as a human being, even when the group thought she was an AI.
Yes, she was perfectly happy with Jérémie, and no, there was no one better than him—in her mind, at least. So shut up already.
"Aelita doesn't write you love letters?" Odd asked, as Jérémie took the letter back from the pink-ette. "Then how do you two express affection?"
"None of your damn business!" Jérémie snapped with a reddened face.
Aelita ignored that and instead addressed something else—the more important thing, "Hold on. What all this means is that...Jérémie has a secret admirer?!"
"Yep," Yumi replied, giving the pink-ette a sympathetic glance. No wonder the others didn't return her smile; they already knew this.
"Someone has a crush on Jérémie!" Odd sang.
Jérémie, however, quickly covered the crazy-haired boy's mouth with a hand, harshly whispering, "Shut up! The whole school doesn't need to know!"
Aelita's heart was buzzing with anger. Not many girls were interested in nerds—Brynja just wanted attention; she didn't count—and both of Jérémie's female friends (Sissi and Yumi) liked Ulrich instead, so the pink-ette never thought that her boyfriend would have options. Only one girl had caught his eye (who exactly that was self-explanatory) and only he had caught hers in return.
Unless this letter was just a prank (likely from his cyberbully), but she honestly didn't know which scenario was more preferred in this case. Either way, one of them was going to suffer, and she believed they had suffered enough.
"Are you going to respond?" she asked her boyfriend, hoping he'd just throw it away.
"I have to," Jérémie curtly replied, as he put the letter into his bag.
"So you can entertain your options?" Odd jokingly asked.
He was swiftly rewarded by Jérémie delivering a painful kick to his shins. While Odd was hunched over in pain, it was quickly followed by the double-whammy of Ulrich taking Odd's chocolate pudding and giving it to Aelita.
"C'mon! That's just cruel!" Odd complained. "I'm just teasing! Can't anybody take a joke anymore?!"
"Next time," William replied, "don't say something like that in front of Aelita, and then we may actually laugh." Ulrich and Yumi both nodded in agreement.
"It's so I can politely let them know that I have a girlfriend," Jérémie corrected, his soft voice contrasted with his death glare in Odd's direction.
"Are you sure?" Aelita found herself asking without second thought. Her happy mood was gone, and it had been replaced with a sudden wave of anxiety.
"It's what you would do," was his response.
Her heart sank a little more. He was right; she would respond, even if to only turn them down. It may not be what anyone would want to do, but it was the right thing to do.
The five-minute warning bell interrupted her thoughts.
She inwardly sighed. Time for class.
Hopefully, things wouldn't get worse.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Later in Physics class, Ms. Hertz wrote down an equation on the board. "If we wish to find Earth's gravitational constant, we must solve this equation using the components we learned about last week." She turned around to face her class. "Who wants to try?"
Knowing Ms. Hertz was likely to call on him like she did yesterday, Jérémie snapped to attention. He didn't mean to get lost in thought; who his secret admirer honestly only occupied a small fraction of his mind space. However, it happened a second too late, but perhaps, it was a blessing in disguise. He saw Laura Gauthier—the new girl (he first saw her yesterday in the cafeteria)—slowly raise her hand in his stead.
Ms. Hertz saw, "Yes, go ahead, Miss Gauthier."
Jérémie honestly wasn't really paying attention—he could solve that equation in his head; and he did—until Laura started writing on the board.
She solved the equation with vigor, and when she was done, she turned around with a pleased smile on her face.
"Earth's gravity is at 9.81 meters per second squared."
"Very good, Miss Gauthier," Ms. Hertz replied. "That is correct."
As Laura sat down, she stole another glance at Jérémie, but he was too busy studying the board. Meanwhile, Ms. Hertz resumed her lecture based on the answer Laura just gave to the equation on the board, unaware of what was going through Jérémie's head.
That 'm' and 's' both looked vaguely familiar...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Yumi and william were chilling out by the vending machines later when classes let out. They didn't know what they were expecting the others to be talking about, and Odd relentlessly teasing Jérémie was nothing new—but in this case, it led to something else, something surprising.
"Will, Yumes! It's terrible!" Odd ran up to them, dramatically faking shock and sorrow. "Our Einstein is in danger of being dethroned!"
Jérémie was rolling his eyes as he, Aelita, and Ulrich approached the area. "Knock it off, Odd. It was just one question. A simple one, at that."
Yumi raised an eyebrow in Ulrich's direction—her way of asking for more information. Knowing this, he smiled and explained, "Ms. Hertz had an equation on the board and someone else raised their hand first."
William and Yumi both nodded in understanding, as Jérémie sighed, "I was distracted. As in, thinking about something else."
"You mean your secret admirer?" Odd teased. He was clearly enjoying this.
Jérémie sent the Italian boy a smoldering death glare, and this time, it was paired with Aelita's—which was honestly even scarier.
"Odd," the pink-ette lowly warned, "you're really itching for a bruising today, aren't you?"
"You want to lose your pudding at lunch, too?" Ulrich added, for good measure.
With this, Odd immediately hid within himself. He certainly didn't want to lose any of his food again, but he could tell he was on the verge of going too far.
Through gritted teeth, Jérémie explained, "Au contraire, Odd, I was thinking about the two projects I still have to complete before I feel comfortable sending you guys back to the Cortex."
"So we are going back?" William asked, secretly grateful for the change in subject.
"I'm not sure when, but yes," the blonde genius replied. He seemed much more relaxed now, as he took a seat on top of the nearby planter. Aelita sat down next to him, as he continued, "One of them is a patch to the holomap, to help me read and predict the multiple topological movements that characterize the Cortex. I'm almost done with it."
"And the second?" Yumi asked, before taking a sip of her soda.
"I'm trying to find a way to let you guys use your powers on the Cortex without sacrificing lifepoints." He then muttered, "I'm not really having any luck with that one so far."
"What's the problem?" Aelita asked.
"You know how Lyoko and the Cortex operate under different rules?" The other five nodded. "Well, there has to be at least one that I'm not aware of."
"Is it really that important to know all of them?" Odd asked.
"If you want the program to work properly," Jérémie responded, "then yes. If you're referring to being comfortable not using your powers for a long period of time, the answer is still yes. Without your special abilities, you guys only have your weapons and that means you're heading into enemy territory at a severe disadvantage."
"He's right, Odd," Aelita added, "especially if I will always need to open that door the same way I did last time." She then turned to her boyfriend, "If you want, I can take a look at it. Y'know, give you a second opinion."
Before Jérémie could respond to that, he was interrupted.
"What are you guys talking about?" It was Laura Gauthier, the new girl. "A second opinion on what?"
She was only asking out of curiosity, but that didn't stop Aelita from sending her a disapproving look, as if she wanted Laura to just go away (because she did).
"Oh, just a video game Jérémie and Aelita here are developing," William swiftly and casually lied, using the story they had agreed to use.
"But please keep this on the down low," Odd added. "It's their first game, so they don't want to get anyone's hopes up."
Laura seemed to understand that, "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. But if you ever need help, Jérémie," and she was only looking at Jérémie, "I'm always available. I have rather extensive knowledge in technology and coding. And science."
She was blissfully unaware of the death glare Aelita was now giving her, despite it being in her line of sight. One would call it tunnel vision...
Jérémie blinked, flustered at Laura's proposal, before he softly smiled, "Thank you for the offer, Laura. I'll be sure to keep it mind, but I'm sorry to say that I already have a partner just as smart as I am."
Aelita immediately beamed. See? You're being ridiculous, she told herself. You and Jérémie are partners in more ways that one; he knows that. You two have been through too much together for him to just forget about you. He sacrificed two years of his life just to free you from XANA; there's no way he'd just forget all about that.
Laura frowned—to Aelita's immense pleasure—but she hid her disappointment well. "Oh, okay. Still, if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
She turned to walk away just as Jérémie remembered what he had seen earlier.
"Hold on," he called out, and Laura turned back around, expectantly. He got to his feet and walked up to her, saying, "There is something you can help me with. I think I blanked out during Ms. Hertz's lecture earlier. Can I see your notes?"
It was Laura's turn to beam, "Sure." She hastily took out her notebook from her shoulder bag and opened it before letting him read it.
She watched his gorgeous blue eyes scan the five pages (front and back) of the detailed notes she had taken. He seemed to be studying the words on the page, before he came across something that alarmed them. He didn't make any sounds, but she could tell from the widening of his eyes.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
He immediately recomposed himself, "Yeah, everything's fine. I know what I missed now. Thank you."
She smiled as she closed her notebook and placed it back into her bag. "You're welcome."
Jérémie watched her leave, a frown quickly replaced the smile he had been wearing.
"If you missed something," Ulrich said, "you could've checked our notes, y'know."
"That's not what I was checking," the blonde admitted. "I was looking at her handwriting..." He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, which failed to work. "I thought it looked familiar."
Yumi was the only one who saw how much anxiety he was feeling, "What's wrong, Jer?"
"Oh, nothing's wrong," he turned around to face them, no hint of a smile on his face whatsoever. "I just found my secret admirer is all."
It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita couldn't believe it. Laura was Jérémie's secret admirer. Well, not really secret anymore, but still.
Somebody else liked Jérémie—her boyfriend—the same way she did.
She thought she'd be okay, that she'd get over it in no time, but it was actually a lot to take in. And hard, a lot harder than she initially assumed.
She was currently with Yumi in the library, in Study Hall. The elder of the two was focusing on her homework, but the pink-ette couldn't focus on anything right now. Her head was resting on her arms, on the table in front of her—clearly sulking.
Yumi noticed her friend's suffering. "You okay, Lita?" she asked, whispering. "You seem distracted." That was an understatement.
Aelita took a deep breath to steady herself before softly asking, "Yumi, have you ever been jealous?"
The elder seemed to have expecting a question like that, because her answer was quick, "Yes. With Sissi, many times before she became our friend. And Emilie, once." That was a dark day for her, Yumi inwardly admitted. Never again. "Everyone has felt that way at least once in their lives."
The pink-ette raised her head from her arms, "So I'm not the only one?"
Yumi shook her head, softly smiling, "Nope. It's a natural feeling. You can cross it off of your 'being human' checklist."
That got a mini-smile out of Aelita, but unfortunately, it quickly faded. "If it's part of being human, then why does it feel so awful? And why can't I get rid of it?"
"Because it means you don't want have something to lose, and there's nothing scarier than that."
Aelita spoke the first thing that came to mind, "Jérémie..."
Yumi's smirk indicated that she knew the pink-ette would say his name. "Yeah, I figured. You're jealous of Laura, because you're afraid she might steal him from you."
"Yumi...you know why. I told you..." Jérémie was her most important person, the pink-ette had admitted to her friends with tears in her eyes.
"I remember," the Japanese girl reassured her. Now came the part Yumi still had trouble talking about, because it required her to admit aloud that hers and Ulrich's relationship wasn't as smooth as it was now. "Jealousy is normal, but don't let it cloud your judgement. Otherwise, you could end up like Ulrich and me during our 'just friends' era. Romantic relationships go two ways, and you need to remember that Jérémie's feelings also need to be validated."
Aelita sighed, before whispering, "What should I do?"
"Trust that he will make the right choice. The most you can do here is tell him how you feel." Yumi's voice got quiet, more reassuring. "But I wouldn't worry. Jérémie's always been crazy about you, no one else."
Aelita remained silent, unable to deny the truth in her friend's words.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
In the Forest Sector, pulsations raced towards a tower on an elevated platform connected by a ramp, and a set of steps leading to the base.
The tower's aura turned from neutral white to XANA's red.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Red and pink-colored transwatches began sounding a soft alert. It felt loud, due to being in a library, but fortunately, no one else gave the sound a single thought.
"Activated tower in the Forest Sector," Aelita relayed, whispering. They could prevent any deaths and injuries if they acted fast. "Operation: Head Jam."
Yumi nodded, and Aelita suddenly clenched her head as if in pain. Yumi slung a comforting arm around the pink-ette's shoulders and raised her hand to alert the teacher in charge of Study Hall.
"Ms. Kensington, Aelita has a headache. Can I take her to the infirmary please?"
"Of course," the woman replied. She was a pretty lax teacher, fortunately.
The two girls began packing up their stuff (books and notebooks) before leaving the library. Once outside, the duo's cover immediately dropped, meaning Aelita was 'miraculously' healed, and they made a break for the manhole cover.
As they ran, Yumi said, "Nice job, Lita. You're a pretty good actress."
"Thanks," Aelita's smile was bright. "I get it from Odd."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Meanwhile, the guys were cleaning up after phys. ed. class with Jim when their transwatches got the alert. Jérémie ended up checking his laptop out of habit, just to be safe, and on his screen was the same alert.
"Attack confirmed," he relayed to the other three. "Let's go."
He led the run to the manhole cover, but they ran into a roadblock when they reached the courtyard outside. Or more accurately, he did.
They were halfway across when a familiar female voice called out to him. "Hey, Jérémie!"
The four boys turned around to see Laura running up to them, her view once again a tunnel vision with Jérémie front and center.
"Hey, Laura," he tried his best to be friendly. "Sorry, I'm in a hurry."
She stopped in front of him and began fidgeting with her sleeve, "This won't take long. I just wanted to ask you if we could have dinner together."
Jérémie turned back to Ulrich, Odd, William, "Go on without me. I'll catch up." The three nodded, before running off. Aelita could take over the virtualizations and they knew that. Now alone, he turned back to the girl waiting for him to respond, "Laura, I know it was you who sent me that letter. You never brought it up, but you're not really making it subtle." She was blushing, and avoiding eye contact. He took a deep breath; this was it. "I'm sorry, but I can't return your feelings." He turned around, "I have to go now. We'll talk more later." He then ran off. He couldn't stay here; he had to stop XANA.
Laura was left speechless and downhearted. She honestly wasn't expecting him to say that.
He couldn't return her feelings. What did that mean? That something was preventing him?
After a few seconds, she regained her words and determination. She took off after him, "Wait! Why not?"
She had to know.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Odd, William, and Ulrich arrived at the factory to see Aelita and Yumi at the entrance, laying down on their stomachs in the gallery. They seemed to be hiding from something the boys could not yet see.
"Hey, ladies!" Odd called out as he and the other two boys ran up to them.
Yumi and Aelita immediately turned their heads and shushed them before urging the three to follow their example.
They chose to obey. Now also lying down, the trio slowly inched forward and finally saw what the two girls were looking at.
Two materialized Bloks were guarding the elevator.
Odd peeked out, and one of the Bloks immediately spotted him. Glancing up, it then spun around before firing its ice beam at his head. He just narrowly avoided the shot by leaping back with a shout.
"They seem intent on keep us here," William noted.
Odd slowly inched back to the edge of the gallery, as Aelita reminded the others, "Well, XANA's likely waiting for Jérémie. It needs his half of the Keys first."
"Or so it seems," Ulrich corrected her. He was right; there was still not enough proof to that theory.
"Regardless," Yumi cut in, "some Bloks could be out in the city, wreaking havoc. We need to deactivate the tower as soon as possible."
"Agreed," Odd said, standing up to a position that indicated he was getting to run.
He clearly decided to just go for it. He ran towards the ropes, jumping over the ice and grabbing one. He used it to swing down to the ground. Once he had landed, he whistled, catching the two monsters' attention.
One of them fired at him, but he easily dodged it by rolling to the side.
"C'mon, what're you two waiting for? An invitation?" He then began backing away in order to lure the two monsters away from the other four. "Get into the elevator!" he called to them. "I'll be right there!"
He ran away from the elevator, and the two Bloks followed them, letting the other four use the ropes to reach the factory floor. He lured the two monsters around the area in one giant circle, considering himself lucky that he was able to dodge every single shot the two monsters fired at him. By the time he returned to the lift, his friends were inside and the door was closing.
Ulrich was holding the bottom, as if attempting to slow it down (and failing), as he knelt down in order to address his roommate, "Hurry up!"
Odd fell to the ground and body-rolled inside just before the door closed.
The five teens hard one of the Bloks twirling around and charging up its ice beam as they descended down to the lab. But apparently, nothing came of it, as they reached their destination without any trouble.
It must've given up.
Aelita rushed to the computer the moment the doors opened. As she sat in the chair, she began typing in commands for the virtualization program. "All of you, get down to the scanner room. We're going in right now!"
In response, Yumi pressed the down button, only for the lift to remain where it was. The doors even refused to close. In fact, they seemed stuck.
Seeing this, Ulrich groaned, "Great..."
The Blok did not give up with its ice beam, after all.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Above on the factory floor, all of the elevator cables were frozen in ice. The Blok that had fired at them could only hope that the group was trapped inside. XANA would find out in a few minute, if they virtualized onto Lyoko to take care of the tower.
Above them, Jérémie arrived at the factory, only to, like the others, reach the gallery and immediately duck the moment he saw the two Bloks next to the elevator, the cables of which—he noticed—were frozen in actual ice.
So this is what XANA had in store for them this time.
The Bloks glanced up at him when his phone began ringing, but they didn't fire. He kept his eyes on them as he answered the incoming call, "Yes?"
"Jérémie, watch out for the Bloks guarding the elevator," it was Aelita.
"I see them," he replied. "They're blocking my path to the lab. Do you guys have access to the scanners?" Or were they trapped in the elevator?
"Yes," the pink-ette replied. "We made it to the lab."
He breathed a sigh a relief, "Good. Head to Lyoko without me. I'll catch up somehow."
"Okay."
Right as she said this, a familiar female voice called out to him yet again, "Jérémie, wait!"
He turned around to, sure enough, see Laura running towards him. On her face was a determined expression, but she was completely unaware of the danger that was (literally) lurking just around the corner.
"What are you doing here?! You shouldn't have followed me!" he demanded. He knew he probably sounded rude, but XANA had two Bloks down on the factory floor below him.
"We need to talk about my letter!" she replied, as she stopped next to him. But then, she glanced down and her eyes widened as she spotted the danger. "Wha–?"
One of the Bloks twirled around and fired a couple of fire rings at her.
She was only saved because Jérémie pushed her out of the way.
Unfortunately, he lost his phone in the process.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
There was the sound of fire rings being shot, then a loud crash, and then silence.
"Jérémie! Jérémie!" Aelita shouted, completely panicked.
No response. It only made her more concerned.
"Aelita!" William snapped her back to reality. She turned to look at him, and saw that behind him, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were taking the floor hatch down to the scanner room. "He's right. We have to go on without him."
Right. They didn't have a choice now. They had to deactivate the tower. If something had happened to Jérémie, then a Return to the Past might be his only chance at survival. And they could only launch one once the tower was taken care of.
"Okay," she said. "I'm launching it. Get ready!" One by one, she brought up their ID cards, "Transfer Yumi, transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich!" Their three avatars began loading. "Scanner Yumi, scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich!" Once all three were finished loading, she pressed the Enter key. "Virtualization!"
Three green arrows appeared on the holomap in the Forest Sector. Once she took note of the tower's coordinates, she brought up hers and William's IDs, and then the timer.
She took the ladder down to the scanner room, like the others before her. When she got there, William was waiting inside of a scanner. She claimed an unoccupied one.
"Hold on, Jérémie," she whispered right before the doors closed.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William and Aelita landed on the ground of the Forest Sector at the same time. As they got to the feet, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi were glancing around the area.
"It's going to be hard to know what enemies are waiting for us," Odd commented, "without Jérémie as our guide."
Fortunately, the tower was in sight, located north by northeast of their current position.
Her green eyes on the tower, Aelita ordered, "Let's go," before taking off. She led the group to the adjacent plateau (they had to go on foot, not having any vehicles). Branching off of it was a ramp leading up to the plateau the tower was on.
The moment they stepped foot on the first platform, the sound of buzzing wings began sounding behind. The group turned around to see eight Hornets approaching them.
"Go on," Odd said, as he summoned his gauntlets and Yumi her fans.
Ulrich, William, and Aelita obeyed, continuing their trek towards the tower. However, right at the entrance to the ramp, four Tarantulas virtualized, with two on either side of a single Krabe.
Aelita watched William and Ulrich both summon their respective weapons. William lured the two Tarantula's on the Krabe's left, while Ulrich did the same thing on its right.
"Go, Aelita!" the samurai told her.
Just one Krabe. She could deal with that. So she continued onwards.
Yumi threw her fans, both of which took out one Hornet each, as Odd climbed a tree to take out another.
As Ulrich blocked lasers with both katanas, William used Super Smoke to avoid the shots he was facing, snaking around and climbing on top of one Tarantula, and stabbed it from behind.
Aelita reached the Krabe, which began firing at her as soon as she was in range. He leapt to the side to avoid the shots before forming and throwing a single Energy Field. It hit its target, destroying it. She then made a break for the tower, but quite literally one step into it, she got hit in the back, sending her to the ground.
She quickly recovered, glancing behind her to see a second Krabe crawling towards her from the direction the group themselves came from.
It continued to fire at her, prompting her to take cover behind a nearby tree.
But now she was stuck. That tree was protecting her, but when she peered out, the Krabe fired another shot.
Apparently, XANA really wanted her devirtualized.
"So it really does need Jérémie's half first," William commented.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie was groggy when he came to. His vision was blurry, even as his mind began focusing more and more. He only realize it was because he was missing his glasses when Laura held them out to him.
"I'm so sorry!" On her face was an incredibly worried expression. "I didn't mean to make you take that hit for me!"
That's right. XANA used one of those Bloks to destroy her with fire rings, but Jérémie had sacrificed himself. His arm really hurt, but thank goodness he was still alive. Thank goodness she was still alive, too.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to place you in danger like that!" she continued to apologize.
As he placed his glasses back on his face, he interrupted, "Laura." She stopped, and he offered her what he hoped was a comforting smile. "It's okay. I'm not mad at you. But you should not have followed me." She surprised him by nodding in agreement. The guilt must've been influencing her here. "How long have I been out?"
He looked her over. Again, his right arm hurt, and he was a bit sore all over, but she didn't look hurt at all. Good. Thank goodness.
"About three minutes," she softly replied. "You got knocked out when you hit your head on that steel beam there." She pointed at said beam behind her. It was a beam that supported the entrance to the factory. "You don't seem to have a concussion, but one of those rings hurt your wrist." He glanced down to see that she was right. "I wrapped it up already with my gym shirt, but you should really go to the hospital." He flexed his hand, only for a sharp pain to erupt from his wrist to the rest of his arm, including his hand. He winced, which was not lost on Laura. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," he muttered through the pain. "What about the Bloks?"
"The block monsters?" She was on her knees, at his side, but here, she leaned over to view the factory floor. "They haven't fired at us since you went down. They haven't even moved."
"Because XANA doesn't want to hurt me," he mumbled under his breath. It needed him alive, after all, in order to retrieve his half of the Keys.
What should he do now? He couldn't type, or even climb down ropes or ladders, with his wrist so busted up like this.
Laura heard him, and was justifiably confused, "W-What? Who's XANA?"
In that moment, he made his choice. She was his best option, and likely the group's only hope.
"I'll explain later," and he meant it. He turned to her, staring at her right in her eyes. "You want to make up for this?" He held up his injured wrist, and she immediately nodded, vehemently. "Good, because I really need your help. We need to get down there and sneak past those Bloks. They won't dare fire at me, so if you stay behind me, you should be safe too."
"What?!" Her eyes widened in disbelief. "It's safer if we leave! We should warn the authorities! And you really need a hospital!"
"The authorities can't do anything about this," he told her the truth. "I'll explain everything once we're past those Bloks." He sighed. "Laura, listen. I really, really need your help, because what I need to do, I no longer can because of this." He glanced at his hurt wrist. He didn't mean to keep guilt-tripping her, but at this point, he was desperate, as well as afraid to let her out of his sight. "Or at least, not as well. Besides, it's best if we stick together." A pause. "I know this seems crazy, but you need to trust me. Okay?"
After a moment of clear hesitation, she nodded, "Okay. But the elevator is frozen. Literally."
"Don't worry," he reassured her. "I know a detour." He grabbed his phone from off the ground (Aelita appeared to have hung up already), and got to his feet. "Follow my lead, okay? And remember, stay behind me." Laura nodded again.
He leapt towards the nearest rope, and miraculously managed to grab and hang onto it. However, halfway down, his injured wrist suddenly spiked in pain, making him fall to the ground, on his knees, hunched over in pain.
Laura, thankfully, slid down safely and rushed to his side, "Jérémie!"
She was justifiably concerned. She was right; he really needed a hospital. He needed his wrist wrapped properly, and not make it worse by continuing to use it despite the clear emergency.
But he grinded the pain and got back to his feet, only whispering, "Stay behind me."
She obeyed, carefully watching him inch his way towards the Bloks, with her matching his footsteps. He used his arms to direct her to a stairwell beyond the unusable elevator, remaining in front of her the entire time.
The two reached the stairs safely, and to her surprise, the two monsters didn't fire at them even once.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita tried yet again to leave her hiding place, only to retreat when two more shots narrowly missed her head.
Reluctantly, she turned to the others, "Guys, help!"
Two Tarantulas remained, but five more joined the three Hornets that remained.
Yumi was using her Telekinesis to control a cluster of rocks for her and Odd to use as cover. Said cat called back, "We're trying our best, Princess!"
But they couldn't make any promises.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie and Laura were halfway past the boilers now, and he had indeed explained everything to her, as he promised.
"So, this factory is hiding a quantum supercomputer that houses a virtual world called Lyoko, and those block monsters are being controlled by an evil self-aware artificial intelligence named XANA?"
He shrugged, "In a nutshell, yes." It was a lot more complicated than that, actually, but that was okay. That was all she needed to know. "My friends and I are the only ones who know how to stop it, and we're the only ones who can." Only he and Aelita could deactivate towers, after all.
Laura was smiling excitedly, "You have a really cool secret."
He returned the gesture with a smile of his own, "Oh, I know."
"It's the coolest thing that's ever happened to me!"
He still considered that the truth. It had lessened, though, with the revelations from Franz Hopper's diary, but it was still pretty cool.
The two had reached the ladder leading up to the lab, as shown through the small green-lit window above.
Jérémie hesitated instead of climbing, as he painfully flexed his wrist again.
"Are you okay?" Laura asked him, having a front row seat to his grimaces.
"No," he chose to be honest. "My wrist hurts, and if it's not broken, it's at least severely sprained."
"I'm sorry..." The injury was received protecting her, so it made sense that she'd feel so guilty.
"It's okay," he reassured her once again. "It's not your fault." It was his; he shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss her in the courtyard earlier. He was vague because he was in a hurry, but she deserved a complete explanation.
Not now, though.
He powered through the pain as he started climbing the ladder. The sooner he got to the lab, the sooner he could help the others, and the sooner he could explain to Laura why he couldn't return her feelings.
Laura, meanwhile, worriedly followed him without a word.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita summoned her wings and took off. She flew out from behind the tree, only to be shot down by the Krabe. She hit the ground and immediately scrambled to take cover behind another tree.
Damn this Krabe.
There had to be something she could do. C'mon, Schaeffer, think!
William used his Zweihänder to deflect a Tarantula's laser, sending it to a Hornet and destroying. That left just one Hornet, two Tarantulas, and one Krabe.
Except the second Tarantula hit him in the side, devirtualizing him.
"Poor William!" Odd joked, in the midst of dodging the last Hornet's shots. "Always the rebound guy!"
"Too many jokes today, Odd!" Ulrich warned, just before taking a couple of Tarantula lasers to the chest and getting devirtualized as a result.
Yumi retrieved her fans and she backflipped over to the two Tarantulas, only for the Hornet to hit her in the side. The force sent her over the edge of the cliff.
The situation was a familiar one: her in danger of falling into the Digital Sea.
In retaliation, Odd used a trio of Arrows to take out that last Hornet, before hesitating. Who should he help?
Yumi was hanging on for dear life, the Digital Sea below her.
But Aelita was trapped and needed someone to destroy this Krabe so she could deactivate the tower.
His faux cousin thankfully saw his dilemma, "Odd, go help Yumi!", and made the choice for him.
"Right!" he replied, before taking off to where Yumi was holding on.
But the two Tarantulas reminded him of their presence by cutting off his path by firing a few shots.
Unfortunately, Yumi, in that moment, lost her grip. She yelled all the way down, before going quiet, accepting her fate. She closed her eyes, waiting for that moment when she hit the water, waiting for the pain of being deleted for good.
But the impact never came. At least, not with water.
Her back suddenly hit a platform, and she immediately opened her eyes to see that she had instead landed on the Overwing.
That meant...
"Jérémie?" she smiled.
"In the flesh," came the very comforting response.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich was the first one that emerged through the floor hatch into the lab. William was right behind him, and when he was on solid ground, he noticed that the brunette seemed to be in (mild) shock about something. So the elder followed his gaze and immediately understood.
Jérémie had arrived and was wearing his usual earpiece, but he wasn't typing in any commands. Rather, Laura Gauthier was doing that for him, with her sitting and him standing at her side.
"Jérémie?" William asked, causing the two blondes to glance over at him. "What's going on?"
Jérémie nonverbally held up a finger—his way of telling them to wait—before talking through the earpiece, "Odd, Yumi's safe now. Go help Aelita."
"Roger that!" came the cat's response.
Jérémie turned to Laura, "See if you can bring up the Overboard." She nodded, turning back to the keyboard. "Isolate a small amount of the supercomputer's energy like before, then transfer that energy into the B-blocks in the third column this time. Then type in Odd's current coordinates and press enter."
She did as he said. A window popped up, showing the spawning of said vehicle.
Smiling, Jérémie spoke into the earpiece, "Odd, the Overboard's on its way." He then turned to Laura and softly said, "Nicely done."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The two Tarantulas jumped back in surprise when Yumi suddenly flew the Overwing above their heads, throwing both of her fans as she did so.
One of them hit a target, destroying it and leaving one Tarantula left.
This freed up Odd, and he backflipped onto the Overboard and steered it to where Aelita was still trapped, letting Yumi take care of that last Tarantula.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Meanwhile, William and Ulrich had been filled in on why Laura was here and helping them.
"You're doing great," Ulrich told her.
Laura immediately blushed. "I don't deserve praise. Jérémie got hurt only because of me."
"But you're atoning for it now," William softly replied, "by doing something that he can't."
She remembered Jérémie saying the same thing earlier, prompting her to let slip a tiny smile.
Meanwhile, Ulrich's eyes sharply darted down to Jérémie's wrapped-up wrist. "You okay?"
The blonde genius offered a quick, forced smile, "Oh, I'm fine."
The conversation was interrupted by the elevator shaking, joined by a loud bang. It happened not once, but twice.
The second time, the ceiling of the lift gave away, and one of the materialized Bloks landed on the floor, leaving behind a hole that the second Blok quickly jumped down through to join its friend.
Laura was shaking in fear, until Ulrich told her, "You two focus on the screen. William and I will handle them," as he and William stepped in front of them, positioning themselves between Laura and Jérémie, and the two Bloks.
She didn't take her eyes off of the monsters until Jérémie spoke through the mike, "Yumi, Odd, Aelita, hurry! The Bloks are now in the lab!"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"We're doing our best," Yumi replied, as she used the Overwing to dodge the lasers of the lone Tarantula.
Meanwhile, Odd jumped off the Overboard and landed on top of the Krabe's back. Aelita hopped onto the Overboard and flew off as Odd destroy the monster with a trio of Arrows, before jumping off to avoid the explosion.
Yumi picked up a boulder with her mind and dropped it on top of the Tarantula, destroying it and leaving the passage clear.
Aelita finally reached the tower. She hopped off the Overboard and entered the structure at a sprint.
After ascending to the top platform, she logged into the interface with her handprint.
AELITA_
CODE_
Both Bloks were about to fire at Ulrich and William, both close-range and with the fire rings...
LYOKO_
...when the two monsters just shut down, no longer able to receive programming without the tower.
When she saw this, Laura leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh of relief, before turning to Jérémie, "Is it over?"
"Yeah," he offered her a grateful smile. "We did it."
To this, she smiled.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
About ten to fifteen minutes later, the seven teens were now all inside the lab. Knowing they'd be curious, Jérémie had explained to his friends what had happened, how he injured his arm saving Laura from the Bloks, and how in return, she had agreed to help him type in commands to help the others on Lyoko.
"So you're the one who saved my life," was Yumi's response. On her face was a soft smile aimed at Laura. "Thank you."
Laura's face became dotted with a light blush, "Don't mention it."
But Aelita was alarmed by something else. "Is your wrist still hurt?" she asked her boyfriend.
He uncrossed his arms to show them Laura's amateur first-aid work. "Yeah, but–" The pink-ette immediately raced to his side and gingerly held his injured wrist in her hands. "I'm fine," he finished. "I promise."
Laura's smile faded as the guilt came bubbling back to the surface, "I'm sorry."
"I told you, Laura, that I don't blame you."
This surprised Aelita, "You don't?"
He sighed, "No, I don't." He addressed Laura, "Your talent for coding matches mine, and you're almost as quick as I am. The only reason you're slower with Lyoko's codes is because I know them by heart and you don't." A valid reason. "But you saved my friends, and that's a debt I can never repay to you."
Unshed tears of joy were hiding within Laura's brown eyes. No one had ever praised to this extent, not even her own father.
Jérémie turned to the others, "I propose we make Laura a member of the team."
"What?" Laura asked. "What does that entail? What if the vote is 'no'?"
"We have a program that can rewind time, which in turn wipes the memories of those whose brains are not saved on the supercomputer," Jérémie softly explained to her. "If we bring you in, you become immune. If we don't, we press a button, go back in time, and erase everything about this factory from your memories."
"Everything?" she asked.
"Everything," he replied. "It will be like you were never here." He turned to his friends. "Thoughts?"
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all glanced at each other, sharing a quick nonverbal conversation, before turning back to Jérémie and nodding.
William asked him, "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
The eldest of the group relenting, "Okay."
But Aelita had a different reaction, "What? Jérémie, how can you say that?"
Get Laura out of here! This is your father's work! She doesn't belong here!, her heart kept saying.
"Aelita, the one who programmed the Overwing and saved Yumi's life was Laura. Not me." He was shaking, she noticed here. And it wasn't from his injury. "XANA's after both sets of Keys, and if it succeeds, then we die. It'd make me feel a lot better if you and I had back-up at the controls, someone who understands computers as much as we do in case the worst case scenario comes to pass. I'm not proposing that Laura fight with you on Lyoko, just that she be an extra set of hands in the lab." He finally turned to his girlfriend. "Please, Aelita, just think about it."
"You need to remember that Jérémie's feelings also need to be validated."
It was here that Aelita finally understood the meaning behind Yumi's words earlier. They were a team, yes, but they were still their own individual people. While Aelita's feelings for Laura were complete dislike, Jérémie, on the other hand, had a different experience and thus felt differently.
All eyes were on Aelita in this tense moment, with her friends hoping that she would do as Jérémie asked her to do and think about what he was proposing and why. Laura, in particular, was refusing to speak, nervous as she eyed the pink-ette, seeming to sense that her fate rested on and only on Aelita.
But the pink-ette's eyes couldn't help but wander back down to Jérémie's injured wrist.
Very reluctantly, she made her choice.
Aelita walked past Laura towards the interface, and Laura, in turn, braced herself for the inevitable.
The pink-haired girl typed in the coordinates for the time trip before pressing enter.
She turned back to Laura, who was sending her a guilty and disappointed look as everything was enveloped by the white bubble of the Return to the Past.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Time had reset back to the group's convergence by the vending machines after Ms. Hertz's Physics class. This time, however, they were watching as Jérémie contronted Laura in the distance about her love letter. None of them dared to take their eyes off of the two blondes as they talked.
"You know, Aelita," Odd lightly scolded, "what you did wasn't very nice."
"I know," she replied, her voice and entire body tight with anxiety and tension. "But there can only be one Mrs. Einstein." That wasn't the real reason she launched that Return, but she wasn't sure her friends would understand.
Meanwhile, unlike before—when he was in a hurry—Jérémie was calm and patient as he explained things to Laura. "I'm sorry, but I can't return return your feelings. I already have a girlfriend. The pink-haired girl you keep seeing me with?"
Laura nodded. "That's her?"
"Yeah. Her name is Aelita, and she and I have been crazy about each other for over three years now," he replied, sneaking a glance at the said pink-ette, before redirecting his attention to Laura.
Said blonde girl was quiet. Then she asked, "What if she didn't exist?"
What if Aelita didn't exist? What if he never found the supercomputer? What if...Lyoko wasn't in his life?
"I don't know," he was quiet. "But I would be very lonely." He would have no friends, that's for sure.
Despite the pain and trauma he'd experienced, Jérémie was grateful for Lyoko for bringing them all together.
"But would that make you more likely to accept my feelings?" Laura asked.
He sighed. "I don't know," he repeated, softer this time. "But I don't really like thinking about what-ifs. You...flocked to me for a reason. Now let me ask you something." She nodded, giving him her permission. "Why?"
"I can just...see myself in your shoes," was her answer. "I thought that would make us...more compatible, I suppose." She shrugged. "I honestly don't know why."
A thought came to mind. He knew what she was capable of, and that she was willing to help him if he asked. She was an interesting person, and he could see himself in her shoes as well.
She is likely who he would be without Lyoko, with Aelita, without his friends. A lonely nerd desperately grasping at anyone and anything that lessened that pain.
He wanted to lessen that pain for her.
"Would you be willing to settle for a platonic relationship?" he asked.
This caught her attention. "What? Platonic?"
"Yeah," he explained. "As in, as friends. People who share a mutual fondness of and rely on each other."
"Friends?" she repeated, before letting slip a smile. "I'd like that. I have to go now. Sissi wants to introduce me to her friends." She prepared herself for leaving. "See you at lunch?"
"Yeah." He returned her smile with one of his own.
He waved at her as she walked away, towards wherever she had agreed to meet Sissi. Meanwhile, he turned back to his own friends, all of whom were waiting by the vending machines, exactly where he had left them.
"Sorry that took so long," he quietly apologized to them.
"It's alright," Odd waved it off. "But it's time for lunch now, and I'm hungry! Let's go!"
He headed for the cafeteria. William and Ulrich followed. Yumi remained behind, and asked the blonde genius, "You okay?" Letting Laura down like that couldn't have been easy.
Jérémie nodded, "I'm fine." He snuck a glance at Aelita and noted the expression on her face. "You guys go on. We'll catch up."
Yumi, thankfully, seemed to understand, specifically the request for privacy. He and Aelita needed to talk. Alone.
"Okay. Good luck." The Japanese girl then left to join the other three.
The two geniuses were silent, with Jérémie waiting for Aelita to speak, who herself was gathering up her thoughts. And she had a lot.
Seeing her hesitation, he chose to start, "I'm sorry." And he meant it. "I didn't mean to make you upset." He didn't stop to think what his proposal to have Laura join the team would do to Aelita's sense of self.
"Don't," she quietly told him. "I'm the one who needs to apologize. What you told me made a lot of sense. A little too much sense, actually, and that made me mad. I've been jealous of Laura ever since you showed me that letter. That's when I discovered a part of myself that I don't like very much. But then she revealed herself to be more similar to you than I am, which I honestly didn't think was possible."
"Aelita..." he jumped in to reassure her.
"I'm not done," she softly cut him off. "I'm sorry for not giving her a fair chance. I'll work on it, but for now, I just...don't feel right about that girl. And I don't know why." Until now, she'd been avoiding his gaze, but here, she finally met his eyes. Her voice was even softer now, borderline a whisper, "I'm especially sorry for doubting you. There was a moment when I did, when you were proposing that vote. Looking back on it now, I realize that I was wrong for that."
She wasn't overreacting, Jérémie felt. Her feelings were valid too. If Aelita didn't feel comfortable around Laura just yet, then that was fine.
He leaned in and pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead, missing how she blushed when he did. "Don't worry," he whispered. "There can only be one Mrs. Einstein."
And that was Aelita.
Knowing this, she finally smiled and slipped her hand into his.
The two then walked to lunch together, hand-in-hand.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Madame Einstein"
Up next: Episode 6, Countdown - "Samantha Knight returns to Kadic, elating Odd, while XANA tries a new tactic to protect the tower it's activated."
A/N: Title meaning: refers to the fact that Jérémie gains one in this chapter; pretty self-explanatory, really
-The tower XANA uses here is the same one used in "Swarming Attack".
-Fun Fact: The original intent with this episode was materialized Hornets, not Bloks. However, I changed it when realizing that the ice beams held more potential for what I planned to do than the acid pools did.
-Before anybody asks, no, Jerlita will not break up in this season. Nor will Ulumi for that matter. This season's romance drama will center instead around Odd and William (separately).
~Evolution concepts~
Evo didn't exactly make it clear if Laura really liked Jérémie the way Aelita thought she did. I'm leaning towards she didn't, but for the sake of this story, I have to entertain the idea that she did (but I'll touch on the other possibility later). Something I dislike about Evo is that Laura is portrayed as a bad guy from the very start. Her first scene of the series is her showing Jérémie up, solving a problem that he's unable to solve because his mind is on other (more important) things, and in the very next scene, she offers him her help with a project that he's already an expert on when he's already feeling bad about the prior scene, showing her to be condescending, or in the very least, unaware of human emotions. In Evo, whenever Laura gets involved, Jérémie and Aelita both take a noticeable drop in IQ, most notably in 'Virus' (don't even get me started on that episode). Don't expect that in this story; yes, Laura is intelligent and has a high IQ like our two favorite Einsteins, but I'll be focusing on her lack of social smarts more. Here, I've portrayed her as more neutral, with her crush on Jérémie controlling most of her actions. She had a lot of potential, but the writers dropped the ball by solely making her the bad guy from the start.
With Laura here, we also get a clear dichotomy of how her father tells her to behave versus how she wants to behave and present herself. That will be very important later and a major theme for her character going forward.
Meanwhile, with Aelita, the theme of her being threatened with losing Jérémie continues; that's why I've placed more emphasis on her jealousy here. I've said this before and I'll say it again: this is very important and I will be addressing it later.
Speaking of Aelita's jealousy, running the RTTP without the permission of the others just to erase Laura's memory is something that happens in both versions. However, Evo glossed it over and never spoke of it again, even implying that it was the right thing to do, while this story will for sure address it later as well.