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". This chapter is the first appearance of Jérémie's new avatar (upgraded so that it matches the others').
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~~~!
"Ulrich and William's rivalry returns to the forefront as the gang struggles with Jérémie's choice to include William in the fight this time."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 4: Rivalry
As Ulrich and Odd left their shared room that morning, and padded down the hallway towards the boys' shower room in bare feet and carrying their respective toiletries bags, the purple-loving boy had only one thing on his mind.
"Don't lie, Stern! You totally cheated!"
"It's not a lie, Della Robbia. Besides, it's impossible to cheat at foosball."
"You took advantage of me distracted by Nicolas tripping and falling on top of Naomi!"
"That's your own fault. Stay focused on the game next time."
To be honest, it was more of a coincidence. Ulrich, whose back was turned, had gone for the goal right as it happened, and Odd, having a full view of the commotion, had taken his eyes off the game for a second to see what was going on.
Odd's expression turned into a teasing one, "Y'know, I did you a huge disservice by not describing to you what I saw."
"I know, Odd," Ulrich rolled his eyes. "I saw the aftermath. Nicolas had tripped on the frame of the rec room door and fell on top of Naomi, who was just leaving."
"And he fell on top of her," Odd finished, a knowing smirk on his face, which Ulrich did not like one bit. "Their faces were so close together, it took them both a while to notice that his hand was on her, ahem, chest. That remind you of anything, good buddy? Maybe a certain attack at a pool?"
"What did I tell you about the swimming pool attack, Odd?!" the brunette erupted, exactly what Odd had wanted—the expression on Odd's face said it all. Realizing this, he sighed with a reddened face, "Fine, I'll give you that one. But, one of these days, I'm going to have something on you just as embarrassing as the pool attack is for Yumi and me, and trust me, I will be savoring every bit of power that gives me over you."
Odd snickered, "I'd love to see you try to find something. You know how open I am with people."
"Challenge accepted."
By this time, the two had reached the shower room. Odd opened the door and let Ulrich go in first, before he quickly followed, closing the door behind him.
The two were greeted with a few of their fellow male boarders, but both sets of eyes locked directly on the familiar blonde in blue pajamas and the tall, black-haired boy beside him, both standing by the sinks.
Their friends were deep in a conversation that they were intent on keeping to themselves, given how hushed their voices were and how close the two were huddled together.
Ulrich and Odd approached them, before the latter caught their attention by clearing his throat. Once he had their somewhat bewildered eyes on him, he asked, "You two okay?"
William immediately shrugged off their concern and curiosity, "Yeah, don't worry about it," as if they had just caught him red-handed with something and he was now lying his way out of trouble. He gently nudged the genius next to him, "Go on and take your shower, Jer."
Jérémie didn't budge. "Are you sure?" His eyes were filled with worry.
The elder of the four waved him away, "Yeah. We'll talk more later."
That clearly didn't ease Jérémie's concerns, but he relented, "Okay. If you need anything, call me."
He followed Ulrich and Odd into the shower area, his gaze lingering on William until the latter left the room, closing the door behind him.
Once the elder boy was gone, Ulrich asked, "What was that about?"
"Just a private matter between William and me," Jérémie replied, clearly being intentionally vague.
"Is it something we need to be concerned about?" Odd asked, trying his best not to sound suspicious.
"Not at the moment," the young genius answered. "He'll tell you when he's ready."
When he was ready? What was going on? Was William hiding something from them?
Probably not. It was likely just a nightmare he had last night. He and Jérémie had been having those kinds of talks for almost a year now, so the sight of them talking had gotten very familiar to Kadic.
But then, why did he change the subject as soon as Ulrich and Odd showed up...?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
About fifteen minutes later, the three boys were on their way to breakfast now.
"You have shadows under your eyes, Jer," Ulrich noted aloud, "yet despite that, you're...happy."
"I am," Jérémie hummed with pride. "I made significant leeway on a massive project last night."
"Tired, yet accomplished, huh?" Odd asked with intrigue. "You mind telling us what this 'massive project' is?"
"Yes, I do mind, actually." The genius's smile didn't fade. Instead, his expression changed to a teasing one. "You'll just have to wait until it's ready."
By this time, the trio reached the cafeteria door. Ulrich stepped forward to open the door for his friends, before following them inside, the door closing behind him.
Aelita's pink hair always stood out, so it was no wonder they spotted her so quickly.
She had claimed a table near the back right corner, next to a window. William had already joined her, and the two were ignoring their respective breakfast trays in favor of a conversation. It seemed to be intense, complete with hushed voices, as the two didn't notice their friends approaching until Odd set his tray down at an empty seat.
"Hey, guys," he greeted with a smile.
Just like before with Jérémie, William immediately backed away, looking as if he was just caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do.
"Hey," William returned the greeting with a strained smile—not fake, but not completely real either. He whispered to Aelita, "We'll talk more later."
The pink-ette wore a concerned expression that matched Jérémie's from earlier. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," he replied, before turning to the three that just sat down. "So, Jer, you said something about a project you've been working on the past couple days."
He was clearly trying to change the subject, but it worked.
The young genius merely smiled into his hot chocolate, "I'm not sharing it with any of you until it's done."
"Not even Aelita?" Odd teased. To help, the pink-ette turned a knowing, faux-questioning gaze to her boyfriend.
"I know what you're trying to do, Odd," Jérémie shot the other blonde a pointed look. "And it's not going to work. Sorry, 'Lita, but all of you are going to have to wait until it's completed."
"How much work do you still need to do?" Ulrich asked.
"Geez," Jérémie sighed, "you guys need to be more patient. And just for that, I'm going to leave you all hanging."
Odd began to pout, but Jérémie wasn't paying attention to him at all, instead turning his focus back to his breakfast.
The topic of conversation then changed a second time thanks to Yumi approaching them immediately after.
"Hey, guys." On her face was a bright smile.
"Hey, Yumi," the others all greeted her as she gave Ulrich a quick hug.
"Sorry, I can't stay here for long," she said, before turning to her classmate. "Hey, William, I got an idea for our history project last night, and I was wondering if we could talk about it in private."
William shrugged, "Sure," before getting out of his chair, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
Both missed Ulrich's gaze lower into a glare of disdain as they left the cafeteria.
Jérémie's curt "Ulrich," made the brunette snap out of it. Once his eyes were on the blonde, said genius continued, "Relax."
Ulrich hadn't realized his fists were clenched until now. Whoops.
As he relaxed his muscles, Aelita softly reassured him, "They're just working on a project together."
"It's not just that," Ulrich groaned. "Why is he involved in the fight this time?"
That was, evidently, the wrong thing to ask, as Jérémie's face held an expression of anger and exasperation. "I already told you guys my reasons, so this is the last time we will have this conversation. I made a promise to keep William in the loop if XANA ever returned, and he's also immune to the Returns to the Past. So, even if I erased William's brain pattern from the supercomputer—which I see no need to do—it wouldn't do much good, because he'd still know about Lyoko and that XANA is back."
"And the way we have the recruitment process set up," Aelita softly added, "means that the fault partly rests on us for not preparing him enough."
She had a point. Any vote taken had to be unanimous with the entire group—which included which people to allow inside the scanners. The first vote to recruit William was shot down because Yumi had voted 'no', but when she changed her mind a few weeks later, that's when William officially joined the team. So Jérémie never had to worry about creating a program to target one single person during a Return, because they had never run into such a problem before.
"Which means he's here to stay," Jérémie agreed. He then sighed, his voice now quieter, "I know you guys have issues with this decision, and honestly, that's fine. Just don't let it cloud your judgement. William is focused on our mission, and that's all I ask of him, of any of you."
"William has his own trauma to work through, too," Aelita added once again. "I think we should start talking to each other about our respective experiences." Like she and Jérémie did with William. "It may help. It's the closest thing to a therapist that we'll get." Because who would believe them if they could tell a complete stranger without the worries of ghosts from Franz Hopper's past?
"Is that what William was telling you two this morning?" Odd asked, recalling the secretiveness and how the eldest of the six acted like he was caught red-handed.
The two Einsteins shared a knowing glance mixed with concern, before Aelita replied, "Yes. We promised not to tell anybody, so please don't ask us to. It's William's secret to tell, but don't worry, it doesn't involve any thoughts of betrayal or hard feelings on William's part."
"Right," Jérémie concluded. "Until you guys feel you can fully trust William, then just trust me."
Odd nodded, as Ulrich thought long and hard about those words.
They did trust Jérémie, so they would trust him on this.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Mrs. Meyer continued her algebra lecture by erasing the notes on the board and writing an equation, essentially putting her lecture into practice.
As she did so, Odd leaned in towards his deskmate Ulrich, whispering, "Hey, guess what. I just asked Elodie out. Y'know, that cute brunette in eleventh grade?" Ulrich nodded to show he was paying attention. Elodie was a new student here at Kadic. Odd continued, "She said she'd think about it, so I gave her my number. I guarantee this love letter I'm writing her will convince her to say 'yes'."
He knew that Jérémie and Aelita would provide him the lecture notes if he asked, so right now, he was free to write Elodie a love letter instead.
Ulrich's smile faded, though, causing Odd's thought train to switch from the Elodie track to the Ulrich track.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Ulrich replied, in an equally hushed voice.
"Well, because right now, you seem to be off in another world, clammed up like an oyster." Odd paused. "William's still bugging you out, isn't he?"
Ulrich was shaking his head as he muttered, "I'm just sick of Yumi spending so much time with him. She and I are dating now, on his urging, but I know he still likes her."
It was Odd's turn to shake his head, but it was more out of amusement than anything else. "It's like you're making a movie, good buddy, in 3D and everything. All I need is some popcorn." Ulrich couldn't hold back his smile here. Odd continued, more serious, "Relax, it's just a project. They're in the same grade, so of course they're going to spend some time together. Besides, you said yourself that William was the one who stepped down because Yumi rejected him and he wanted to respect that. So maybe the problem isn't William, but you. Learn to trust Yumi."
Ulrich sighed. "I know. I do."
"You better," Odd shot back, though still whispering. "You don't want to end up as 'just friends' again." It was his turn to sigh, "Jérémie and Aelita are both vouching for him, so they do have a point. If they trust him, then we can learn to trust him too."
"Yeah. I guess you're right." Odd knew from the look in Ulrich's eyes that the latter couldn't deny the truth in anything Odd just said.
Mrs. Meyer turned back to the class, her back to the complex equation now on the board, and issued her challenge, "Alright, who's up for answering this one?"
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
In the Desert Sector, pulsations were emerging from an activated tower, disturbing the water of the oasis next to it.
XANA stationed two Tarantulas on either side of a single Blok to guard it.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William and Yumi were outside in the courtyard, sitting on a bench as they worked on their project. Neither had class for another hour, so they had lots of time to get their presentation done.
When Yumi finished writing a paragraph in her notebook, she smiled. "Cool. Our intro's already out of the way." She closed her notebook and began putting it away. "I'm impressed. You took my idea and expanded on it."
"Well, it was a good idea," William replied with a shrug. "We're a team, y'know. We work together."
Yumi was quiet, "Yeah. We do." He was trying his best, she realized. He didn't really have to worry about grades—his clone was surprisingly smart and quick with homework—but his parents still called regularly to check up on him. However, he didn't place any blame on the others for the clone; it allowed him to excuse those nine months as 'going through a rough patch' whereas no clone at all would definitely lead to a missing persons report. "Want to hang out until class?"
William got to his feet. "No thanks, I'm going to go train in the gym." He had taken up pencak silat during the past year—just in case, as he explained it.
"Okay," she relented. It was his choice. "I'll see you later."
"Ciao," he waved as he left, heading towards the gym.
She watched him leave until he was no longer in sight. At that point, she also got up from the bench and walked over to the vending machines. As she was getting a soda, she sensed someone approaching her from behind.
On edge, she turned around in a flash, ready to defend herself.
It was just William.
She sighed in relief, feeling sheepish, "Sorry, William. I thought you were someone else." He didn't answer her, just giving her a blank look. "Did you forget something?" she asked as she turned back to the vending machine to get her soda.
He didn't answer her here either. But her back was turned, so she didn't see him aim his foot at her before kicking her in the back, knocking her into the vending machine.
Her head as she glanced back, readjusting herself to get a better view of her attacker.
Sure enough, it was William, his irises flashing with the eye of XANA. He had been possessed yet again. When would he ever catch a break?
XANA-William raised his hand, which began sparking with electricity, knowing and seeing that Yumi, his prey, was cornered.
However, before he could hurt her further, Ulrich suddenly jumped on his back, his arms wrapped around XANA-William's neck and the force forcing them both backwards. This allowed Odd to room to quickly step in and help Yumi to her feet.
"Get to the factory!" Ulrich yelled at them. "Deactivate the tower, quick!"
In his eyes was the familiar fury that only popped up whenever she was in danger.
Odd nodded before leading Yumi away from the courtyard and to the woods. He had placed her arm around his shoulders, supporting her, which she was grateful for. Her head still hurt from its impact with the vending machine. Her back also ached from where XANA-William kicked her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she softly replied, choosing to speak since it would hurt less than nodding.
"Good. Don't worry. Ulrich will handle William." Odd then pulled out his phone and pressed the first number on his speed dial, "Jérémie! Yumi just got attacked!"
Not surprising. In case of an emergency, Jérémie was everybody's first option for their respective speed dials. He was often the one at the controls, after all, keeping in touch with everyone to make sure XANA hadn't killed them yet.
Yumi was close enough to hear Jérémie's response. "I was just about to call you. XANA's just activated a tower. Aelita and I are already on our way."
"Okay. We'll meet you at the factory," Odd replied, before hanging up.
Fortunately, the more adrenaline that pumped through her veins, the less pain Yumi began to feel. It was still there, but her body was now in proper fight or flight mode.
Next time, she wouldn't be attacked from behind.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
For Jérémie and Aelita, the elevator doors opened on the sight of Odd kneeling next to Yumi, who was resting against the wall. The first aid kit was set beside them (they'd gotten one to keep at the factory after XANA first possessed Jérémie), and Odd was patting down the small cut on Yumi's forehead with a cotton pad dabbed with a bit of iodine.
A concerned Aelita immediately ran forward and knelt on Yumi's other side. "Yumi! Are you okay?"
Yumi lightly hissed at the iodine touching the cut on her head, before sending the pink-ette a slightly pained smile, "I'm fine, but I've definitely had better days."
"What happened?" Jérémie asked.
"It seems like XANA's possessed William again," Odd explained. "It made him attack her from behind. Ulrich and I saw everything."
"Where is Ulrich?" Aelita was looking around the lab for the brunette.
"Keeping William busy," Odd replied.
"He'll have better odds if we deactivate the tower," Jérémie reminded them. The other three nodded in agreement before standing up. "Yumi, you feel up to this?"
She nodded. She could still fight. Besides, the scanner would heal her injuries and feeling pain on Lyoko was not a thing.
"Okay, but be careful," he warned, before taking his seat at the controls.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Virtualization!"
Aelita, Odd, and Yumi all landed on the ground of the Desert Sector. Two seconds later, the Overboard and Overwing also appeared.
"The tower is 22 degrees East from your current position," Jérémie relayed. "It's next to an oasis, so it shouldn't be hard to spot."
Odd and Yumi both boarded their respective vehicles, with Aelita hopping on as Yumi's passenger.
"We're on it," Odd said, as the trio took off.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
As the three arrows moved towards the tower on the holomap, a phone call came through to the supercomputer. Jérémie promptly picked up, seeing the ID card attached, "Ulrich?"
"Jérémie! Finally! XANA's possessed William!"
"I know. Try to hang in there." Jérémie reassured him, "The others are on Lyoko now."
Ulrich grunted as it sounded like he was blocking a couple punches, "I'll try my best to hold him off, but I'm really counting on the deactivation of that tower. It's weird, though..."
That caught his attention. "Weird, how?"
"He attacks me whenever I'm in sight, and when I attack him, he fights back, holding nothing back—classic XANA behavior—but it really feels like I'm not the only one he's after here."
"If you're talking about XANA," Jérémie explained, "then you're right. It's after Aelita and me. We're its primary targets because of the Keys." It very likely attacked just to bring Aelita to Lyoko. The AI had done that before, so much so it was its primary tactic.
"Not just that," Ulrich replied, breathing deeply as if he had just sprinted to a wall he was now hiding behind. "It feels like I'm not its only target at Kadic. It keeps using William's face to look around as if it's waiting for someone or something. But who or what?"
Jérémie paused. "What if...?"
"'What if' what?" Ulrich asked. "Get there faster, please." He seemed impatient, which was understandable since he was currently risking his life to keep XANA-William occupied.
Maybe they had it wrong. "What if that's not really William you're fighting?"
"What?"
"It's the only thing that makes all the pieces fit, Ulrich," Jérémie explained. "If that really is a spectre you're fighting, then it makes that XANA would be seeking out the real William. He's part of this fight too, just as much as you are."
"I see," and the understanding was evident in the brunette's voice. "So XANA's using a spectre to make it seem like William's been possessed again to play on our trauma. I mean, that was our first thought."
Sad, but true. "But XANA tipped its figurative hand too far. Big mistake. You just survive, Ulrich. I'll call William and let him know."
"Okay, good luck." Ulrich then hung up.
This gave Jérémie the chance (and freedom) to dial William's number. But the call failed to connect, forcing the program to close by itself rather quickly.
William's phone was off.
Why was it off? It wasn't supposed to be off!
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"The tower's in sight, Jérémie!" Odd said, the activated tower quickly appearing on the horizon. Sure enough, it was resting next to an oasis, and XANA's guard was resting in front of it—two Tarantulas and a Blok.
The three monsters got into firing mode the moment they saw the trio of human avatars.
"Good," Jérémie replied. "Four monsters are waiting for you."
"Nice, nice!" Odd exclaimed. "That's one for each of us. Wait!" His thought train came to a screeching halt. "Four monsters?!"
"Yes," came Jérémie's response.
Before anyone could speak, the monsters began firing. Odd and Yumi immediately dodging the 'anti-aircraft' fire. Yet, despite them dodging every shot, both vehicles were still hit from lasers firing from the side, as opposed to the three monsters in front of them.
Aelita immediately got airborne, as Odd and Yumi were grounded. As the angel dodged lasers above, Odd wisely chose to take cover behind a nearby rock. Yumi stayed behind, unsheathing her fans to block the shots.
Unfortunately, as soon as she did, the shots from the side hit her leg, devirtualizing her.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
When she reappeared in the scanner room seconds later, Yumi punched the scanner wall in frustration before heading towards the elevator.
Now that was just rude, XANA, she thought. And right after she had resolved to not be attacked from behind again, too...
She entered the lab from the elevator and approached the controls, as Jérémie sighed in frustration.
"What's wrong?" she asked. What was making him so stressed out?
"William's not picking up," he practically growled. "Every time I call, it just goes straight to voicemail."
"Why are you calling William?!" Odd asked from Lyoko. "He's being possessed by XANA!"
"No, he's not," Jérémie shot back. "Once you've gone to Lyoko three times, the codes that protect you from XANA possession appear in your DNA sequence code. Right now, the only one of us that does not have those codes is me." Because he'd only been to Lyoko twice.
"It's a spectre," Yumi finished. "Our trauma is what made us believe it was the real William."
"Exactly," Jérémie replied. "And that's what XANA was counting on. But now we have a brand new problem. I can't get in touch with William. It's like his phone has been turned off."
"But you're not supposed to!" Odd exclaimed, his and Aelita's arrows on the screen showing they were both hiding behind the large rock. "That's one of our rules!" It just kept Jérémie from checking up on you during an attack, after all.
"That William likely doesn't know," Yumi reminded them. "This issue has never come up with him before."
In response, Jérémie promptly dialed Ulrich's number. The brunette picked up on the second ring.
"Jérémie? Everything okay? What's going on with the tower?"
The blonde got straight to the point, "Aelita and Odd are trying their best. Listen, you have to find William before the spectre does. I can't get a hold of him for some reason."
"His phone is likely turned off," Yumi cut in, mainly addressing her boyfriend. "He does that whenever he needs some time alone. When we split up, Ulrich, he was heading towards the gym. I even saw him go inside."
"Alright, I'll check," Ulrich replied. "I just need to distract the spectre first."
"Good luck, Ulrich, but please stay on the line," Jérémie requested, unable to hide his concern. He couldn't get in touch with William, and he didn't want to lose contact with Ulrich.
"Okay."
Yumi placed a comforting hand on Jérémie's tense shoulder.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita peeked out from behind hers and Odd's rock cover, only to disappear behind it once more after a couple shots from one of the Tarantulas were aimed at her.
Odd emerged from their cover via Teleporting, and fired a couple Arrows at the Blok in front of the tower. His weapons hit their target, destroying it and leaving the two Tarantulas left.
Before he could do anything else, a shot hit him in the side.
Well, two Tarantulas and one mystery monster hiding somewhere...
Aelita watch in horror as Odd was devirtualized.
"Jérémie," she called out. "how many monsters are on your screen?"
"Three," he replied. "I can see all enemies on my screen, and none of them are moving."
"Keep an eye on the one hiding, please." She eyed the base of the tower carefully. At least, the mystery monster was likely not the Scyphozoa. Unless XANA upgraded it, it couldn't shoot lasers.
"I will," he promised. "You just be careful. I'm trying to get you back-up, but you're currently all alone."
Oh, she knew. That's why she was scared.
Because she hated the Scyphozoa with a burning passion.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie was lowly growling in frustration, "What's with this monster? It's not hiding yet Aelita can't see it!"
As the elevator doors swung open for Odd, Yumi suggested, "What if it's invisible?"
There was an intense pause as Jérémie pondered over that.
"She's got a point," Odd cut in, as he stood on Jérémie's other side. "XANA's pulled that trick on us before."
"Aelita?" Jérémie asked.
All he had to say was her name. "I heard them, and it makes sense. I'd just feel more comfortable with back-up. It's three against one, after all."
"I'm still working on that," Jérémie relayed. "Ulrich's trying to find the real William while dodging the spectre at the same time."
"In that case, let's switch," Odd suggested, addressing Yumi.
"Right," Yumi agreed. "Let's go."
Jérémie watched them leave, closing the elevator doors behind them.
Now alone in the lab, Jérémie began his rapid-fire typing, trying to find a way to expose this invisible enemy. Meanwhile, on the holomap, Aelita's yellow arrow occasionally peeked out from her rock cover, but she never engaged, instead wisely choosing to wait for Ulrich or William.
Preferably both.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich tightly clutched his phone in his hands as he raced towards the gym. The spectre was hot on his heels. Thankfully, he got there first and managed to shut the door before the William clone could reach him.
He was too busy barricading the double doors with a pommel horse, he failed to notice that someone else was in there, and temporarily forgetting about his mission.
His back against the door as he slid down to a sitting position on the floor, he was breathing deeply, his lungs demanding for air, when a voice called out, "Ulrich?"
Said brunette glanced up to see the one person he was tasked with finding.
"William, thank god," he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The elder of the two walked forward, his jacket on the bleachers nearby. He was concerned as he asked, "Are you okay? You look like someone is after you."
"Oh, I'm fine," Ulrich quite literally waved it off. "We're just being chased by a spectre using your face."
William was quiet. "Why didn't you call me earlier? Did you...did you think it was actually me?"
The brunette very reluctant admitted, "Yes..."
"Oh." Ulrich blinked. That was...not the response he was expecting. "That makes sense. Thank you...for being honest."
"I'm sorry," the younger immediately replied. "We all are. I swear, we didn't do it on purpose. That was just the first thought that came to mind."
"I know," William interrupted. "Don't apologize. Trauma...doesn't just go away overnight..."
Ulrich slowly got to his feet. "If it makes you feel better, it didn't take us long to figure out that it was actually a spectre. If it weren't for you turning your phone off, you would've gotten the call sooner."
"What?!"
As William pulled his phone out and turned it on, Ulrich replied, "Yeah. I guess we should've told you that one of our rules is never turn off your phone, solely for safety reasons. That's another error on our part."
"Thirteen voicemails from Jérémie," William read off his phone's screen.
"Yes, thirteen!" came Jérémie's voice from Ulrich's phone, on speakerphone and having heard everything. "Now, both of you, get to the factory right now! Aelita's alone on Lyoko!"
"Trauma, I can understand," William protested, "but why do you guys keep failing to tell me things? First the Scyphozoa and now the rule about your phone always needing to be on? What else haven't you guys told me?! And what's next?!"
Apparently, he was fine hearing the truth about the others' trauma response, but not telling him things was what set him off.
He probably sees it as proof of his exclusion from the group, Ulrich's brain told him. Just take his anger. Let him get it out. It's better to let it fade away and then talk to him, when he's less likely to lash out further.
But Ulrich's mouth moved ahead of his thoughts, "At least we're honest about this mistake! And now you know about it! We're sorry, okay?! It won't happen again! You, on the other hand, are impulsive and it's what got you into this mess in the first place!"
"Wrong!" William yelled back. "My refusal to accept Yumi's rejection is what got me into this mess! And yes, my impulsiveness did get me possessed by XANA, but I paid for that mistake for the next nine months! You want to know what I was talking about with Jérémie and Aelita earlier?! Fine, I'll tell you! I'm starting to remember the things I did under XANA's control!"
Ulrich immediately stopped. "W-What...?"
"I can't remember them when I'm awake!" William explained, beginning to pace back and forth. "Only through my nightmares! But I know that's what's happening because I always wake up with an unnatural fear! I didn't want to tell you guys because I don't know how to deal with it or how you guys would react! Jérémie and Aelita both told me to take my time but I–!"
"Breathe, William," Ulrich interjected. The elder was clearly on the verge of a panic attack.
"Ulrich," Jérémie interrupted, reminding the two that he was still on the other end of the line, "the same thing that's happening to William also happened to Aelita and me. Neither of us remember what XANA made us do exactly—the memories are still fuzzy—but the fear comes from the knowledge that we hurt you guys, and that's something we can never atone for."
That's right. XANA possessed Jérémie once, to destroy the physical copy of Hopper's diary. It also possessed Aelita approximately six times, once to give herself up to the Scyphozoa, four times to enter Code: XANA into the way towers and destroy Lyoko's four surface sectors, and once to throw herself into the Digital Sea. And for both of them, XANA also used them to hurt the others, solely because they were in its way.
XANA also possessed Ulrich, more specifically his body while it and his spirit were separated after the failed attempt at virtualizing into Sector Five. Since the two parts of Ulrich were separate, he never remembered what XANA did exactly with his body like Jérémie, Aelita, and now William did, but he did feel a pang of guilt that XANA was using his body to destroy Lyoko. Fortunately, it failed, but the guilt never really went away, sometimes nagging Ulrich to remind him of what could've been.
William, on the other hand, was possessed for nine months; that was a lot of memories to remember through nightmares. That, plus his hesitance in sparring against the others, as well as his fear of the Scyphozoa, and his fear of the others ostracizing him from the group again—that was a lot of trauma for William to work through. If only one of them could go to a therapist, it'd definitely be William who would be forced to go.
All of that was leaving out that XANA possession was forced upon you. Jérémie never asked to be forced to destroy Hopper's diary. Aelita never asked to be forced to destroy the world her father had spent years of his life to build. William definitely never asked to lose nine months of his life and forced to be replaced by a clone to avoid alerting the authorities about Lyoko.
And yet, despite all that trauma, the trio's greatest fear came from the fact that they would never be able to make up for hurting their own friends.
Whatever was about to be said next was interrupted by a harsh pounding on the doors behind Ulrich. The two boys turned to face said doors right as they swung apart, the pommel horse Ulrich stationed in front of them going flying.
The William spectre had broken through, and its irises were angrily flashing with the eye of XANA, with its hands sparking with sharp lightning.
William, the real one, immediately stepped in front of Ulrich in a protective manner. "Get to the factory, Ulrich. I'll handle this fake." He said the word with disgust.
"But–!"
The elder cut him off, "Don't object. Aelita's all alone on Lyoko."
Ulrich couldn't deny that William made a good point, so he relented, "Fine. Just be careful and keep your phone on." He then left the gym through the boiler room passage, with William remaining behind to hold off his XANA-clone. "Jérémie, I'm on my way," he said before hanging up the phone.
As Ulrich grabbed his skateboard, however, a sudden thought came to mind: was William staying back to make up for hurting him by instead protecting him?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Ulrich's first elevator stop was the lab. He was breathing somewhat deeply, due to running all the way here. Jérémie had turned his head to see who it was that was arriving, and Ulrich could see a bit of relief in his eyes due to seeing that it wasn't XANA's spectre.
"William's facing the spectre alone," Ulrich told him.
"I know," Jérémie replied. "Aelita's still alone on Lyoko, so head down to the scanner room. I'll let Yumi and Odd know about William."
"Okay." He was wondering why they weren't in the lab.
Instead of using the elevator, Ulrich instead went down the ladder, solely because it was faster.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"Virtualization!"
The moment Ulrich landed on the ground of the Desert Sector, he saw two Tarantulas based in front of the tower and Aelita hiding behind a large rock on the other side of the pond next to the tower.
All three immediately saw him, and one of the Tarantulas turned to him and started rapid-firing at him. None of the shots hit him, though, thanks to him using his twin katanas to block them.
Aelita saved him from the shots by destroying the Tarantula firing at him with an Energy Field, letting Ulrich slash through the second with Super Sprint.
He turned around to let Aelita know the path was clear, only for him to get hit in the side by a shot that came from seemingly nowhere.
"Hide!" Aelita called out to him.
He obeyed, Sprinting to behind her rock cover, now hiding with her. "What just fired at me?!"
"I don't know, but it's invisible," the pink-ette explained. "It fires at anyone who gets close to the tower, and now every time we peek our heads out from behind the rock. If not for its existence, I would've reached the tower a long time ago."
It had only been fifteen minutes since she was first virtualized, but it sure felt much longer than that.
"Can Jérémie see it on his screens?"
"Yeah, and he'll tell us if it starts moving. At the moment, according to him, it's stationary on top of that sand dune." Said sand dune was directly across from them, with the tower to their left across quite a wide gap with only a single bush as possible protection. "He's currently working on a way to make it visible again."
"So you decided to wait?"
"I didn't really have a choice. I tried to fire some Energy Fields at it, but none of them connected with anything." The pink-ette then changed the subject. "But that's the least of my concerns, to be honest. I've been alone for the past five minutes, but the Scyphozoa hasn't come after me yet."
That was certainly news. "Maybe XANA's waiting for William and me to be devirtualized, too."
"Maybe..." The expression on her face (a troubled one), however, suggested that she didn't exactly believe that.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
William's entire body was aching as he leaned heavily against the wall he was just thrown into. The fight had been led to the gymnasium's utility area, and XANA was not holding back, likely acting just as it did when it was possessing him for real. The clone had a permanent smile on its face, an scary one that the real William would never wear.
"You're the easiest to manipulate, you know," the clone told him as it cornered him. It raised its hands, sparkling with pink-violet lightning, clearly ready for the death blow.
Someone suddenly whistled, and the clone turned around to look for whoever had dared to step in between the AI and its target.
But there was nobody there. Just a couple of garbage bins, but nothing else.
While the clone was distracted, however, a familiar girl in black sent a sharp kick in its back with a loud and passionate "Hiyaa!"
Now, it was the clone's turn to be slammed head-first into a wall, and Yumi's turn to stand over her work with well-deserved pride, having turned the tables on the one who back-stabbed her first.
William smiled at the sight, as Odd emerged from behind the garbage bins with a huge grin, "Nice job, Yumes. XANA definitely deserved it."
"Thank you." Yumi turned to William, the real one. "You okay?"
"I am now." Odd held out a hand to help William up, and the elder boy grateful took it. "Thanks for coming to my rescue." He was standing now, but he was still hurting.
"No problem," Odd replied, before his smile faded a bit. "We're sorry."
William raised an eyebrow in confusion, "For what?"
"Because we're the ones who dragged you into this," Yumi was the one who explained.
"Don't apologize," he softly told them both. "You didn't drag me. I accepted your invitation because you needed my help and I wanted to help. That still stands now, because XANA is dangerous. That's why I asked Jérémie to keep me in the loop at all. Besides, I may not know everything that you guys do, but I do know that Aelita is my friend, who deserves to see her mother again, and I'll do anything I can to help make that happen." Yumi and Odd both warmly smiled here. "So I'm here now, and I'm here to stay."
The spectre hadn't gotten up yet.
Yumi noticed this as she briefly glanced back at it, "That's good to hear. Right now, Aelita and Ulrich could use your help."
"Right, so let's go," Odd said, before leading the other two to the gym's secret passage to the sewers.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The trio had arrived at the factory to witness the following from the lab.
On Lyoko, the two still hiding behind their rock cover Ulrich got an idea. "Stay here, Aelita. I'll focus on our pest."
He then emerged from behind the rock, Sprinting up to the sand dune and using one of his katanas to stab the air in front of him, exactly where Jérémie told them it was positioned.
But he failed to hit anything. Was this monsters invincible as well? Or the virtual equivalent of a ghost?
"Three Krabes are approaching you," Jérémie warned just as the invisible monster shot Ulrich in the knee.
This prompted Ulrich to call out to Aelita, "Get to the tower!"
She took off, making a break for her objective. Due to the bush in her path being too small to use as a shield, she just kept running.
But two more shots from their unseen enemy hit her in the back, achieving the near impossible.
The other five teens watched with horror as Aelita was devirtualized.
Another laser to Ulrich's torso made him Sprint back to the rock cover. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place...
Now what?
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita trudged back to the lab (via the elevator), not ashamed per se, but rather frustrated with herself. Hope wasn't lost yet, but if XANA had not been afraid to devirtualize her despite needing her half of the Keys...well, she had a theory, and if any good had come from this turn of events, it was the fact that it could be tested.
Her friends were frantic, almost panicking.
"What are we going to do?" Odd asked. "Aelita's been devirtualized before she could reach a tower before, but in those cases, we were on a replica. Now, we don't have that back-up plan!"
"I don't know, Odd," Jérémie explained, "but I do know that there's a cooldown period for anyone that's devirtualized, because it takes at least one hour for your avatar to recharge. It's a precaution Franz Hopper programmed into the supercomputer to mitigate the dangers of being virtualized directly after devirtualization on both the body and the mind."
"In other words, we have to wait for an hour," Yumi replied.
"Should I stay on Lyoko then?" Ulrich asked from the said virtual world.
Aelita spoke up, "Yes. I have an idea." This was it, her chance to test her theory. She would not like her theory being proven right, at all, but whether she was right or not, the tower would be deactivated either way. "Jérémie, you have half of Lyoko's Keys, which means you have access to all of Lyoko's functions like I do, which includes the Annex Program."
"Meaning?" Odd asked, somewhat confused. Of course, he'd be a bit slow on the uptake.
"Meaning I should be able to deactivate towers too," Jérémie translated for him. He turned back to Aelita, "Are you sure?"
"Do you trust me?" was her response.
The blonde genius smiled, "Of course I do." He then sighed, "Alright, let's try it. William, let's go."
As he and William took the elevator down to the scanner room, Aelita assumed Jérémie's former position, slipping on the earpiece. This felt like the roles were being reversed—actually, they kind of were. This time, it was Aelita guiding Jérémie to the tower.
As she was warming up the program, however, the cables next to the wall began to spark with electricity. A black spectre emerged before assuming a proper human form. It was the clone of William.
Odd and Yumi stepped in front of the pink-ette. XANA wouldn't dare go after Aelita when it still needed her half of the Keys—they all knew that—but they couldn't take any chances, at least until they knew for sure why XANA had devirtualized her without cornering her with the Scyphozoa first.
"Focus on the tower, Aelita," Yumi told her, neither she nor Odd taking their eyes off of the spectre. "We'll handle the clone."
"Okay," she nodded before turning back to the screen.
"We're ready, Aelita," came Jérémie's voice from the level below.
"Roger that," Aelita replied, warming up the virtualization process. "Transfer Jérémie, transfer William." One by one, she selected their ID cards, and watched as their avatars loaded in, "Scanner Jérémie, scanner William." Once they were fully loaded, she pressed the 'enter' key, "Virtualization!"
Two arrows appeared on the holomap, one green and one yellow.
Meanwhile, Odd and Yumi engaged in battle with the spectre.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Nope. He still hated being virtualized, was Jérémie's first thought when he landed.
"Looks like Odd can't make fun of your Lyoko form anymore," came Ulrich's voice.
Jérémie and William both looked up to see that Aelita had virtualized them behind the rock cover, the same one Ulrich was still hiding behind. The blonde glanced down, however, to see that his Mister Pück-esque avatar had been replaced to one more closely resembling the others' suits. His shirt still had the Pück-like line on it, but his goggles was now a see-through visor he could summon and de-summon at will.
Aelita had clearly (and justifiably) been busy upgrading his avatar so that he was given the same privileges as the others. For example, he had a bracelet much like Aelita's (though on the opposite wrist as hers), and his visor allowed him to see that not only was it a mini-control panel but also for the activation of a pair of wings of his own (apparently, she wanted to pay him back for the pair of wings he had given her).
"Well," Jérémie replied, "if Odd takes a coding class and successfully creates a program on the supercomputer without my or Aelita's help, then he can redesign his avatar however he wants."
Ulrich shrugged, "That's fair."
Jérémie peered around the rock to see what was waiting for them. Sure enough, the trio of Krabes were all positioned in front of the tower. They all knew there were enemies behind that rock, but they did not fire.
"Aelita, where's our ninja monster?" Ulrich asked.
"Still perched on top of that sand dune, and it doesn't look like it's going to move any time soon."
Jérémie had unfortunately hit a dead end with his attempt to make it visible, so they had to be smart about this. At least they knew where it was, and the holomap was not fooled one bit.
"I think I have an idea," William said, causing the other two boys to look at him.
"What is it?" Ulrich asked.
A few seconds later, the samurai emerged from the rock cover and whistled to capture the three Krabes' attention. Said monsters immediately started firing at them, but he used both of his katanas to block the shots.
During this, William used his Super Smoke to slip into the water unseen. Emerging on the bank next to the tower, he then snaked around the Krabes' legs and then up to the top of the middle one's shell before reassuming his human form. He then summoned his Zweihänder and stabbed its eye, jumping off to avoid to resulting explosion.
Ulrich then used this commotion to Sprint up to a second Krabe and slice its two front legs off before stabbing its eye when it fell over.
Now just one Krabe and the unseen pest remained, with the Krabe solely focused on Ulrich and William.
Meanwhile, Jérémie also emerged from the rock cover, but took the long way around, running up the sand dune. William had suggested that since XANA needed his half of the Keys, then their pest likely wouldn't attack him, so he was the best choice to see what type of monster was actually perched there.
He didn't hit anything, however, at the top, sliding down to the bottom on the other side.
However, "Jérémie, you passed within centimeters of it," Aelita told him.
"Did I?" he asked, as he kept running towards the tower.
But a single shot to the back made him stumble forwards. Fortunately, he caught his footing, but he had to come to a dead stop to do so.
"Watch out, Jérémie! To your right!"
His girlfriend's warning sounded panicked, unnaturally so, as if she was more than afraid—as if she was horrified. But he could ask later. Because she was right to be concerned.
The Scyphozoa was slowly floating towards him. The field that it surrounded its target with wasn't strong enough for it to fully entrap Jérémie at the moment, but if he stayed there, soon it'd be too late to escape.
But he couldn't. There was a lake behind him, and the invisible monster was still close by, probably still perched on top of the sand dune.
A tentacle shot towards him, and he barely dodged it and another before a yellow flash sliced them all off. Jérémie had quite literally blinked and Ulrich appeared in front of him within a split second.
"You okay?" the brunette asked him, as the squid monster retreated.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Honestly, the Scyphozoa barely touched him this time.
After breathing a sigh of relief, William glanced down at the water and narrowed his eyes in curiosity and understanding when he saw the thing that the mirror-like effect of the water had reflected.
Smiling, he formed a ball of smoke in his hands as he warned the other two, "Behind you," before throwing the smoke at the top of the sand dune.
Jérémie and Ulrich turned around in time to see Willam's Super Smoke reveal the unseen pest.
A Kankrelat.
That's what had caused them so much trouble...?
The thing glanced at William, then at Ulrich and Jérémie, back to William, and then focused solely on Jérémie. The blonde just rolled his eyes before throwing a dagger, destroying it.
The third, remaining Krabe suddenly whistled as if to remind the trio that it still existed, before firing a shot that William suddenly flew in front of Jérémie to take.
As Ulrich stood in front of William to protect him, he called back to Jérémie, "Take care of the tower. We'll handle this."
Jérémie nodded before jogging up to the base of the tower, slowing down and stopping when he approached it. He had just realized that he had no idea what to do.
Aelita appeared to notice his hesitation. "Just place your hand on the wall, Jérémie, and let yourself fall through it."
He did as she said, placing his hand firmly on the tower wall. Sure enough, blue ripples began to appear and his hand fell through. Instead of fighting it, he took her advice and let himself phase through. On the other side was the deep blue circular walls with cyan data windows lining the walls, each presented in binary code.
Remembering what Aelita did many times prior, he walked to the center of the first platform (shaped like the eye of XANA) before relaxing and letting the data stream carry him to the second platform.
At the center of the second platform, an blank interface greeted him.
"Think about the code you want to enter," Aelita told him, "and then place your hand on it."
He obeyed, thinking about the code that would remove this tower from XANA's control, before placing his hand on the interface. It accepted his handprint.
JEREMIE_
Outside the tower, Ulrich Sprinted around the Krabe in a circle, confusing it and making it dizzy, as William once again used Smoke to snake up the leg and land on the shell, before using his Zweihänder to pierce its eye.
The two both jumped back to avoid the resulting explosion. Ulrich raised his hand for a high five, which William accepted with a smile.
CODE_
In the lab, Aelita was constantly making brief glances at Yumi and Odd as they continue to fight the spectre. Well...more like take a beating.
Odd was struck in the chest and he slid across the floor into a wall.
The clone turned on Yumi, using its William disguise to smile much like the real one did under XANA's control, its hands sparking with electricity.
She swallowed the lump in her throat as she prepared herself to take a massive jolt of lightning.
LYOKO_
But said jolt never came. The clone instead lost its William form, reassuming its black ambiguous shape as it slithered back into the cables of the supercomputer.
Odd and Yumi, both breathing hard, looked at Aelita almost in shock.
"He did it?" Yumi asked.
Aelita nodded, "He did it."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Due to the clone only interacting with the group, no Return in time was launched. Despite the small amount of collateral damage it did while inside the gym, the group didn't see a need. They had a first aid kit, both in the factory as well as in Jérémie's room.
Hours later, classes were over for the day and now the group was relaxing in the rec room. Jérémie had retreated to his room, as did Aelita, but they both returned to the others eventually. Aelita came back first, a thin folder in hand.
As she sat down on the couch next to Ulrich, she handed William the folder, "For you."
"Thank you," he accepted the supposed gift. He opened up the folder and read the first thing on the page—the title of the document. "'Rules Every Lyokowarrior Has to Follow'?"
"Yeah," Odd explained. "We worked on it throughout the day."
Ulrich was quiet, "You said you're tired of never being told anything, so here's our first attempt to change that."
"To be honest, we should've given you something like this when you first joined the group," Yumi added with a shrug. Maybe then, he wouldn't be missing nine months of his life.
"'Rule number one'," William read aloud, "'When someone outside the group catches you talking about Lyoko, always explain it away as a video game Jérémie and Aelita are working on. But don't give any details; instead, say that they're keeping it a secret because they don't want to get people's hopes up'." He paused, thinking about that, before nodding. "Makes sense. I should've figured there'd be a rule on the cover story. Y'know, make sure we're all on the same page."
"That's exactly why the rule exists," Aelita admitted.
William continued, "'Rule number two: In case of an emergency, always keep your phone on, especially during a XANA attack'. Again, makes sense. As you said before, Ulrich, for safety reasons."
Ulrich nodded, before speaking after a short pause, "I didn't say it earlier, William, so I'll say it now: I'm sorry. For everything."
The confession of remembering the bad things the elder had done while under the AI's control had made the brunette immediately stop and think about how exactly they had treated William upon his return. He didn't say anything to Odd and Yumi—he agreed that it was definitely William's secret to tell—but he honestly didn't have to. It was clear William's suffering was deep and vast, especially since it was nine months rather than a six hours at the most like it was for Jérémie and Aelita.
"We all are," Odd added. "Especially for treating you as the bad guy. It was definitely not fair on you to assume you had asked to be possessed."
The eldest sent them all a soft, reassuring smile, "Apology accepted. Yes, you guys at first thought it was actually me instead of a spectre, but honestly, that's okay. Don't feel bad for your own trauma. I mean, you guys had to fight me for nine months before you found a way to free me. How about this? You guys take your time, and I'll take mine. Working more and more as a team should help."
"It will," Aelita reassured him, all of them, as she and the other three all nodded, agreeing with his proposal.
"Good. Um, does this mean I'm officially in the group now?"
"You always were," the pink-ette immediately, and confidently, replied.
"And from now on," Yumi added, "you'll be treated as such."
A sixth voice cut in, "But if any time, you feel like you're not, then tell us." The five teens all turned around to see Jérémie standing there, carrying his messenger bag.
"I will," William replied, before changing the subject. "So, where have you been?"
"Putting the finishing touches on my special project," the blonde explained as he took the seat next to Aelita. "It's finally done. William, the 'always keep your phone on' rule exists for a reason. If XANA's attacking and I can't get in touch with you, I automatically assume that XANA's already gotten to you. Given the danger of the situation, it's unsafe to assume anything else. Yumi, you were also taken off-guard by the attack because you assumed it was the real William and thus trusted him enough to turn your back on him. Both points are just proof that I was right to develop these."
He reached into his bag and pulled out a medium-sized wooden box. He opened it to reveal six watches, all with differently colored wide leather bands and each with a small touch-screen.
"These are called transwatches," he explained as he placed the box on the table in the center of their little circle. "They do everything a normal watch does, but they're mainly a relay for the superscan. So whenever my laptop gets an alert, these watches will get the same one." He grabbed the watch with the blue band and hooked it to his wrist. "They also measure your vital signs and relay them back to the supercomputer. That way, you guys will know when XANA's on the prowl and I, in turn, will know if and when you're in trouble."
The others all grabbed the remaining five watches—Aelita took the pink one, Ulrich the green, Yumi the red, Odd the purple (obviously), and William the black.
"So if we need to turn our phones off, then we can?" Odd asked as he let William place the former's watch to his wrist.
"Well, technically yes," Jérémie replied. "But I'd prefer your phones being on, because I'll still be calling you all to confirm your safety." He then pulled out his laptop and began typing in some commands. "Now to test it out..."
A few seconds passed until all six watches flashed with an alert of a wireframe of a tower turning a different color other than the neutral white.
"Tower activated in the Ice Sector," Ulrich relayed.
"A tower activated by you, Jérémie," Yumi added.
The genius was smiling, "Good. You guys seeing the alert means it works." He typed in a couple more codes, and the alert went away, signaling that the tower was back to neutral.
"So this is what you've been working on," Odd said, as Jérémie put his laptop and the now-empty box back into his bag.
Jérémie nodded, his smile indicating his pride in the success of this new invention.
"These are pretty cool," Ulrich admitted. "I will give you that. And the surprise was totally worth it."
The genius shrugged, as if it say 'I told you so'.
Aelita then changed the subject, this one more solemn that the previous one, "Something's been bugging me." The other five all turned to her with concern clear on their faces. "Despite having a clear shot at me for at least five minutes, XANA's only gone after Jérémie with the Scyphozoa. Twice now. It also was not afraid to devirtualize me. What if...XANA needs the Keys in a specific order?"
"Like each half has different codes that it needs?" Jérémie asked, troubled by what she was insinuating. She nodded. "It makes sense, I guess. Creating a successful program does require certain codes in a specific order, and it's the same way when updating an AI's programming."
This all suggested that XANA 2.0 planned to escape the supercomputer and reclaim its former version's strength all at once, and to do that, it needed Jérémie's half first, and then Aelita's.
"Jer, you're missing the fact that it means you're the Scyphozoa's primary target," William warned.
He wasn't, actually. He just didn't want to draw attention to it. "Until XANA proves otherwise," Jérémie quickly gave his own warning. "It may be playing mind games on us."
"Either way," Yumi cut in, "Jer and Lita, both of you need to be careful. Certain order or not, if you lose those Keys, you'll die."
The following silence was rather tense as the six teens all that that sink in. Aelita's theory had not been proven yet, but it was very, very likely that it was the case. Nothing else would explain XANA devirtualizing Aelita but sending the Scyphozoa after Jérémie.
Odd's phone ringing broke it. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. Seeing who was calling him, he smiled, "Speaking of mind games, this is a call I have to take." He answered with, "Hey, Elodie, you make up your mind?" A pause, as he heard her speak. "Yeah, I understand." Another pause. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just focus on yourself." A third pause. "Yeah, friends forever. Goodbye." The call then ended, and Odd lowered his phone from his ear. He was unnaturally quiet as he processed whatever Elodie told them.
"Odd? You okay?" William asked, he and the others now concerned for their friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he admitted. "She just rejected me. She thinks that we're good friends, but we wouldn't work in a relationship." He shrugged. "I'm fine. I guess I just haven't found the right girl yet. Well...either that or I already rejected her."
"You'll find her, Odd," Aelita softly reassured him as Ulrich threw a comforting arm around his roommate's shoulders.
Odd was good at hiding his pain of being rejected, but his friends knew him way too well to be fooled.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Later that evening, a girl with long blonde hair tightly clutched her shoulder bag as she stood in front the Mr. Delmas's desk. She carefully watched him go through all of her paperwork with nervous brown eyes.
He wrote down his signature on her application, sealing the deal. "There we go. All of the paperwork your father sent to me is in order. We also have an open dorm, so we can move you in right away. France is certainly a different experience than Switzerland, but I hope you enjoy your stay here, Miss Gauthier."
She nodded to please him, hiding the fact that she was actually here on an assignment from her father, so enjoyment or fun wasn't on her agenda.
"Just call me 'Laura', sir," she softly replied.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Rivalry" (obviously)
Up next: Episode 5, Secret Admirer - "There's a new student at Kadic, a girl, and she's drawn the sweet-hearted Aelita's ire with one simple move."
A/N: Title meaning: References how Ulrich and William's relationship started out, and where it is now
-Now, you have a good idea about what happened at the pool and gym attacks (with the gym attack being referenced in the first chapter, btw). You're welcome. This story will be full of little explanations like that, to tie up any loose ends I can think of.
-Ulrich, Jérémie, Odd, and Aelita are in tenth grade, while William and Yumi are in eleventh grade. Sorry I didn't say that before; I should have.
-A lot of people guessed that Aelita would be devirtualized more and more during this season like she was in Evo, and those people are correct. However, another wrench is thrown into the mix, because XANA, in this story, actually has a reason for wanting her devirtualized.
-Do you guys want me to post up all the rules? Or leave them to your imagination?
-Odd's love life is indeed a thread I plan on tying up by the end of this story. It's also tied to another loose end the show had. Stay tuned to find out how it ends.
~Evolution concepts~
Many fans will remember this episode as the one Moonscoop decided to dub into English first, and one reviewer on AO3 even admitted to me that this choice soured the experience of watching Evo entirely in English legally for them. Evolution's directors consider this episode to be the pilot for the series (Evo, that is) because "it's a very basic episode, because nothing happens", and they decided to dub this episode first because "the goal was really to show what an episode of Code Lyoko Evolution is like with the transition from the animated series to the live series. Therefore, the episode contains no major scriptwriting revelations", with them calling it, "in a way, 'the worst of the series', because it takes place after the freshness of the first episodes, but before the action really starts - the action starting from around episode 7" (episode 7 being 'Countdown'). I need to make a correction because something does happen in Rivalry, and that is William officially joining the team, with the aforementioned episodes barely including him aside from "Cortex". Honestly, the wisest choice would be the actual pilot of the season "XANA 2.0", because it explains why XANA's sending spectres, what the source codes even are, and why the others can deactivate towers now too. But I'm not here to talk about the dub version, and it's not a bad episode, but it is heavily flawed for many reasons. That's just my opinion, though; feel free to add your own thoughts in a review.
Let's start with the set-up about the group's problem with William. In Evo, the previous episodes establish that the group's stance on William is still the same one they have at the end of the animated series, with Ulrich admitting on Evo's Neuro-Virtual Transcriber (called 'Lyoko-TNV'): "I'm going to prove that we don't need William in the group!", even though the second episode "Cortex" has them admitting that the mission would've gone south if it weren't for William. And that's not even getting into their unawareness that the fault of William's possession partly (if not mostly) rests of them because they failed to warn him about the Scyphozoa. However, in this story, the others are fully aware of their failure and they've accepted it for the most part, so the main factor with their problem here is trauma. Evo reduced the problem as a product of the Ulrich/Yumi/William love triangle, but since I've made Ulumi canon in The Theory of Evolution (on William's urging, no less), this story's version of events is out of trauma that's triggered by the others believing William's hiding something from them. Evo's episode hardly has any emotional depth to the characters, which I guess is my main issue with it.
Briefly touching on "Spectromania" and how apparently entering a tower is 'intuitive' and how 'it won't work if you're stressed out', the animated series doesn't have any indication of that being the case. In the animated show and this story, unless XANA messed with something, or you're one of XANA's monsters, you can enter the tower with no problems. That's it. It's not complicated. I have no idea why Evo changed that.
As for the 12-hour cooldown period, which doesn't line up with the animated series, the simplest solution is to just decrease the time needed for the cooldown. Again, it's not complicated and it doesn't have to be.
Finally, for the Transwatches: I changed them to relays of the superscan because that's what I initially thought they were going to be prior to Evo airing and proving me wrong.
I'll touch on Laura and my issues with how she's portrayed in Evo in the next chapter.