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.
In this chapter, we catch up with Tyron and where he is now. For reference to his appearance, check out zhinyart's concept art of him on Tumblr.
Chapters (of this story) to re-read before reading this chapter: "Old Acquaintance", "Contingency Plan", "Countdown"
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~~~!
"Special circumstances force Jérémie to stay virtualized overnight, but it's not as bad as it sounds. In fact, he meant for it to happen that way."
A World Without Danger
Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite
Season 5, Episode 7: Suspicions
All of Kadic was asleep and lost in dream land, save for one person. Unsurprisingly, it was Jérémie Belpois.
The boy was in his pajamas as he typed in the commands for a test run on the program he was staying up so late to work on. He refuses to take his eyes off of the screen for even one millisecond. When the results came back clean, he breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.
Good. Now, everything was ready and he could sleep away the remaining hours of the night. If he could, that is.
He put his computer to sleep before standing up. His body was stiff from sitting in the same position for the past four and a half hours. As he stretched out the aches, his gaze was captured by the sky outside his window—more specifically the stars.
"I'll protect Aelita and Lyoko, Mr. Hopper," he whispered, "I promise. But to properly do that, I need more information on who I'm protecting them from."
He knew what he had to do. Everything was all set. He was ready, but sleep did not come easy to him that night.
After all, there was still so much that could go wrong.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie wasn't surprised one bit that he was the last of his friends down to breakfast the following morning (more accurately, when he woke up next). Even Yumi—a day student who always had breakfast at her house—had gotten to the others' chosen table before he did.
But he had chosen to shoulder the burden of sleepless nights so no one else would have to. It wasn't really anyone's fault but his.
He found himself not as hungry as he normally would have been, but he didn't say anything to Rosa, knowing Odd would gladly clean up any leftovers.
He was physically tired on top of the mental exhaustion that had existed since they found out more about XANA's new hideout. And both were obviously showing on his face as he sat down next to Aelita with his tray.
"Hey, Jer," Odd greeted him. "What the hell happened to you? You look like crud!"
Jérémie relented to putting his head in his hands and resting his eyes by closing them. "I know," he muttered his response. "Thank you."
"What happened?" Aelita repeated Odd's question, concern clear in her voice. "Did you get any sleep at all?"
"Yes," he answered, "about three hours."
"Just three?" Yumi asked. "What were you working on?"
"A hacking bug for the Cortex," he revealed. "If it works, it will allow me to sneak into the database undetected, so I can gather more intel on the person who created the supercomputer that XANA chose to hide a version of itself in. I'll insert it and dig for more information, while you guys keep an eye on those Ninjas. Meanwhile, Aelita will be at the controls, monitoring everything."
"Sounds like a plan that's easy to follow," Odd replied. "But it doesn't sound so complicated that you need to walk us through it with baby steps."
"It's not," Jérémie told him. Though he responding to Odd, he was actually talking to all of them. "That's not why I'm going with you this time."
"Then why are you joining us in Aelita's place?" William asked.
The elder was really only asking out of curiosity, but Jérémie ended up snapping at him anyways. "That's classified, and no, none of this is up for debate."
At the end of his response, he finally opened his eyes, if only to glare at his friends until they let this go. However, he was almost thrown off by concerned they looked. Almost.
Aelita, fortunately, stepped in, "Just drop it, guys. His reasons are his own."
Exactly! As long as he knew what he was doing and had to do (and he did, for your information!), then who cared about the why?! If he was right, he would tell them everything anyway! But this was something he had to do, and right now, the last thing he needed was anyone trying to talk him out of it.
"Thank you, Aelita," he softly told her.
"You're welcome," came her gentle response. "But tonight, do try to get enough sleep."
Though tired, he let slip a smile, "I'll try my best." And he meant it.
"I have just one more question," Yumi cut in, quickly adding, "Don't worry, it's solely about the mission."
He blinked slowly. "Okay."
"When is it scheduled?" she asked.
He nearly breathed a sigh of relief. Finally! A normal question!
"Today, after classes," he replied, willfully ignoring how Odd was stealing food from his tray.
Today was Saturday, a half-day, and that was on purpose.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Jérémie had history class with only Ulrich today, so they were, like always, deskmates. As their fellow students and classmates were coming in and getting situated, Ulrich took out his notebook, before pausing his gaze on his friend.
The blonde sighed, knowing that the brunette clearly had a question. He could feel it.
He softly asked, "Yes, Ulrich?"
The German boy thankfully seemed to snap back to reality quickly. "Um, nothing. You said it wasn't up for debate, so why bother asking 'why'?"
Of course. He would really appreciate it if the others dropped this subject.
But this time, Jérémie was feeling a bit generous. "Let's just say that I have my suspicions."
"About?"
"That's what I can't tell you," Jérémie quietly confessed. "I don't want to freak any of you out unnecessarily in case I'm wrong." He really didn't, but it was also a lot deeper than that.
"Fair enough," Ulrich shrugged, and Jérémie finally felt himself relaxing. "But if you're right..." He trailed off on purpose.
The blonde quickly finished, "Then I will explain everything to you guys, I promise."
Ulrich just sent him a reassuring smile, as Mr. Fumet began his lecture.
"Alright, class. Today, we are continuing our study of the United States' founding era. Let's begin by covering the infamous duel of Hamilton versus Burr."
Jérémie blinked in mild surprise. How oddly specific and fitting to his aforementioned suspicions...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The journey through the sewers to the factory occurred without any roadblocks or interruptions.
When the lift reached the lab, Aelita got off and ran to the controls. Meanwhile, the doors closed behind her, and the elevator took the other five down to the scanner room.
As she placed the microphone over her ear and warmed up the scanners, the pink-ette continued to ask herself the question that her boyfriend clearly did not want to answer: why?
Why did he choose to go on this mission? What made it so special? Surely, it couldn't have been his hacking bug, could it? No, it couldn't; that didn't make any sense.
It didn't help that Jérémie was well-known to be stubborn.
"We're ready, Aelita," William's voice cut through her thought process.
"Right."
Without any more delays, Aelita sent Ulrich, William, and Odd to Sector Five first, before sending Yumi and Jérémie quickly after.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
There was a short delay due to a quick debate on who should pilot the Skid in Aelita's place. Odd argued that it should be him or Yumi, because they had done so before—a valid point—but Jérémie just rolled his eyes and said that he would, shutting everyone else down.
Surprisingly, he was a natural at the controls, despite this being his very first dive. When Ulrich pointed this out, Jérémie just reminded them all that he was the one who created and built the Skid in the first place.
Aside from that, no other snags were caught. XANA still did not have access to the Digital Sea and the Cortex's external security was still severely lacking, the password still being the same as last time.
Jérémie docked the Skid just beyond the boundary before disembarking himself and the others.
"Now, how do we activate your prediction program, Jer?" Odd asked him.
The three vehicles virtualized as soon as he spoke. "It's already active," Aelita was the one who answered. "Hurry, you guys only have ten seconds!"
Ten seconds until the next shift, she meant.
Knowing this, the three vehicles were immediately occupied by their usual, respective pilots, while William hopped on behind Odd, and Jérémie summoned his wings—all just before the landscape began to shift around. It lasted about a minute, but the five all hovered safely at the edge next to the Skid as they waited for the commotion to die down.
Once it did, Jérémie broke the silence with, "Mechanical..."
"What?" Yumi asked, confused his choice to use just that word.
"That was exactly one minute. I timed it," Jérémie softly explained. "Lyoko feels organic, but everything here feels mechanical. And I don't like it." He turned his attention to the lab, "Aelita, how much longer until the next shift?"
"Two minutes."
"That's how long we have to reach the core," Ulrich replied. "So, let's go."
He then took off the Overbike, and the other four quickly followed him. Ulrich and Odd turned it into a race, to which Yumi and Jérémie just rolled their eyes and hung back.
The five all reached the core unharmed, the vehicles untouched, seconds before the next shift. They wisely chose not to dismount until it was over.
Jérémie swallowed down his anxiety as he regrouped with the others.
The spiral door was closed, refusing the open for them as they approached.
Odd attempted to pry it open with his claws, only to fail. "Um, Aelita? We need you here. It won't open."
"I'm not the only one that has a key," she replied.
As if on cue, Jérémie stepped forward and placed both hands on the door. A soft, low note filled the air before the door opened.
"W-Wha–?" Odd stuttered, cutting himself off.
"You didn't have that power before," Ulrich commented in mild surprise.
"I did," Jérémie softly replied. "I just never got a chance to show it off until now."
With that, he led the others inside. Together, they teleported to the inner core, where the interface was. Once again, the short trip to that interface was uneventful and devoid of any roadblocks.
Jérémie quickly found his anxiety bubbling back up to the surface. It shouldn't be this easy. Due to the previous (and first) visit, he had expected much tighter security than this. So where was it?
He was standing next to the interface now, which meant it was time. All of his hard work last night boiled down to this. He took in a deep breath to steady his nerves before typing a sequence into the bracelet on his left wrist. Said sequence summoned a digital card.
His hacking program.
As he tightly clutched it, he told the other four, "Watch my back, okay?"
They all nodded in confirmation before turning around, their own backs now to him. Their weapons were out and ready to be used, their eyes constantly scanning the room for any danger.
Despite this, Jérémie was still very much on edge as he inserted the card into a slot on the interface podium. The interface and large screen both activated right away, but his program was delayed. It was working, but it hadn't gone through yet.
He'd have to wait. The only problem was the others. How should he tell them? He didn't mind waiting, but would they be willing to wait with him? In that vein, how long would it take for the program to get through?
His thought train was interrupted by Aelita's yell, "Odd, behind you!"
I was right, Jérémie thought, as he turned around just in time to see a Ninja emerge from the ground and struck Odd down from behind.
His scream was cut short due to him being devirtualized.
"Odd!" William called out, right as a second Ninja appeared behind him. Fortunately, he managed to block their strike with his Zweihänder just in time.
Ulrich was engaged in combat with the first, as he cried, "Thanks for the late warning, Lita!"
Jérémie summoned his visor and immediately saw the other three Ninjas hiding within the ground. "It's not her fault," he said, his eyes following each of their enemies. "They were virtualized before we got here."
"So they were expecting us!" Yumi realized, right as she took out the Ninja cornering William with her left-hand fan by throwing it, before promptly being taken out by a third Ninja that popped up on that (now defenseless) side.
Jérémie quickly took out one with a couple of daggers, as Ulrich was devirtualized by the first Ninja, who was swiftly taken out by William.
The blonde's visor alerted him to a fourth emerging from behind him. He promptly ducked the incoming strike and used three more daggers to take them out, as William was ambushed by the fifth.
"William, twenty lifepoints left," Aelita relayed. "Jérémie, fifty."
Said genius briefly looked back to the interface behind him. His program still hadn't gone through, but the interface had deactivated due to lack of use. In that moment, he had his choice.
"William." Said boy glanced back at him. "Do you trust me?"
The other immediately nodded in confirmation, and Jérémie immediately felt relief.
"Smoke screen."
It would devirtualize William since Super Smoke cost him twenty lifepoints here, but it needed to happen. It was the only way.
Fortunately, William obeyed, turning his entire body into black smoke. The Ninja couldn't see anything through the dark cloud that quickly appeared and began to spread. When it faded, both teens were gone. It glanced around the room one final time before being materialized, not seeing any more intruders around.
Jérémie's bug remained undetected...
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The moment William came out of the scanner and Jérémie didn't, despite what had just gone down, he knew something was up. He had a feeling when the blonde had asked if William trusted him, but now he knew for sure.
He took the lift back up to the lab with Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd—all of whom were confused. Fortunately, Aelita had the answers on her screen.
"He's still there, isn't he?" William asked her.
She nodded. The holomap, on the screen in front of her, showed Jérémie's yellow arrow stationed on a small, square-shaped platform hanging from and directly underneath the main one.
"Thought so," William replied. "He said, and I quote, 'smoke screen'. So that's what I did."
"Blindly?" Yumi asked, raising an eyebrow in intrigue.
William shrugged, "I assumed he had a plan." He then focused on and addressed the blonde still virtualized. "Uh, you do, right?"
"I do," came Jérémie's response. "Thanks for trusting me."
"I'm glad you're safe," Aelita told him, "but the mission has failed. We weren't able to retrieve any more data. It's best to come back later. I'm bringing you in now."
He immediately protested, "No, don't!"
The others were caught off-guard by how desperate he sounded.
"Jer, your bug failed to get through," Odd gently told him. "But it's okay, You can improve it and we'll come back another time."
"It didn't fail," he finally revealed. "It did get through. It's just been delayed."
"'Delayed'?" Ulrich repeated, skeptical and curious.
"Yes, delayed," Jérémie explained. "Because it's looking for something specific, and it clearly hasn't found it yet."
"What is it looking for?" Odd asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
Jérémie tried and failed to hide his exasperated sigh at Odd's question, "If I'm right, I will explain everything when I get back." He then turned serious. "Listen, my bug hasn't been retrieved yet, and the longer it remains in the Cortex's system undetected, the more likely it is that it will find what I've programmed it to look for. I don't know how long it will take, but once it goes through, I'll only have fifteen minutes to dig for information without being detected."
"Just fifteen minutes?" Yumi asked. Forever was the most preferable (obviously), but why not an hour or thirty minutes? Fifteen minutes was not a long time.
"Whenever you buff one aspect of a program, you have to weaken another," the genius softly explained. "Sorry, it was the only way I could get the bug to work. But what's why it's important for me to stay here."
"Are you sure?" Aelita asked.
"Yes."
"But I'm used to it," she blurted out on instinct, "you're not."
"Aelita..." Jérémie was quiet, "I appreciate your concern, but it has to be me this time."
The pink-ette was quiet, the debate born from her concern clear on her face. She sighed, before relenting, "Okay." She paused. "Should I...bring the Skid in?"
"Yeah."
Aelita proceeded to activate the auto-pilot program. The screen showed the Skid leaving the Cortex.
"How long do you plan on staying?" Ulrich asked.
"However long it takes," Jérémie replied. And he sounded like he meant it. Knowing him, he very likely did.
"Don't worry," Odd reassured him. "We'll cover for you. You're lucky today is Saturday."
Which meant his next class was phys. ed. with Jim on Monday morning.
"That's not 'luck', Odd," Jérémie corrected. "That's 'planning ahead'." Of course. Knowing their resident Einstein, it was on purpose. "And thank you."
"We're heading back to school now. You'll give me hourly updates, right?" Aelita asked.
"Of course."
"Good luck," the pink-ette offered, before removing the earpiece and joining the others in the elevator.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The group returned to Kadic a few minutes later, emerging from the forest into the courtyard. Said area was just as busy as it normally was on a Saturday afternoon—that is, not very packed, due to most day students having left for home by now and most boarders in their rooms.
Aelita headed towards the dorms. "I'm going up to my room. If I'm not down by five minutes 'til seven," which was dinner hour, "then come and get me."
"Okay," Odd waved at her as she walked away. "I'm off to find Sam, if she's still here. Maybe we can go see a movie together. See ya!" He then ran in the opposite direction, where the vending machines were.
William amusedly shook his head, "He makes it way too obvious."
Ulrich laughed, nodding in agreement.
"Anyways," the raven-haired boy continued, "I'm going to the library to do some homework. If you need me, my phone will be on vibrate."
"Okay," Yumi said as her classmate walked away.
Now, she and Ulrich were alone.
"Which just leaves us," said brunette commented. "You feel like doing anything?"
"Not really," she replied, sitting down on an unclaimed bench nearby. "Besides, we have to be ready in case Jérémie needs our help or XANA activates a tower in his absence."
Ulrich sat down next to her, "True." He paused, thinking about the exchange earlier in History class. "He said he had suspicions."
"Jérémie?" Ulrich nodded. Yumi continued, "Did he say what he was suspicious of?"
"Nope, 'cause he doesn't want to freak us out in case he's wrong. But he said he'd tell us if he was right."
"That's fair." She paused. "What do you think he's suspicious of?"
"No idea," he shrugged. "It could be anything, given how vast the Cortex's database is."
"True, but he programmed his bug to find something specific. So it could take days for him to find what he's looking for, and he only has until Monday morning."
"We can create a clone if we have to," he reminded her. "But let's file that into the 'worst case scenario' slot. Clone Jérémie is not exactly my favorite."
She giggled, "I know what you mean. It's not my favorite either, but neither was clone William. Nothing beats the original."
"Agreed." Ulrich preferred the nerdy Jérémie over the flirty one, and the rebel William over the idiot.
She leaned against him before resting her head on his shoulder. He responded by placing his head on top of hers.
He glanced down at her when he heard her softly giggling. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, just thinking about the old days." As if sensing his sudden embarrassment, she quickly added, "Not us. Jérémie and Aelita."
He cracked a smile, "Oh, because the two have switched roles for once?"
"Yeah. Jérémie would stay up all night to answer any question Aelita had, even during the six weeks we had Code: EARTH, but not the superscan."
"And now," Ulrich added, "Jérémie's the one staying virtualized overnight, and it would not surprise me one bit if Aelita was talking to him as we speak." He sighed with fondness. "They've come so far since then."
Yumi nodded, agreeing with him, before going quiet for a moment. "So have we."
"Yeah, we have." They were much more mature now, for one. "We were so awkward that first month. I'm so glad we figured things out."
"Me too." She was smiling. "We still act the same way we did as 'just friends'. The only difference now is that we don't deny that we're dating to anyone who asks."
Right. They were still best friends who were also sparring partners, who always had each other's backs on Lyoko. All that had changed was their relationship status, which allowed them to go on some really fun double dates with the two Einsteins.
"Though," Yumi continued, "I certainly will not miss all the drama."
"Neither will I," Ulrich replied. "Now, the only drama we have to worry about is waiting to find out if Hiroki or Milly will make the first move. And when."
Yumi just laughed in response.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita was almost at her room when she ran into a certain blonde named Laura Gauthier in the hallway. Her already unpleasantly pensive mood immediately turned foul, but she miraculously managed to keep on a convincing smile.
"Hello, Aelita," Laura greeted with what seemed like genuine cheerfulness. "Do you know where Jérémie is? I've been looking everywhere for him."
The pink-ette barely managed to hold back a growl of jealousy. "May I ask why you need to find him?"
"I just had a question about his expertise in robotics," the blonde explained. "I was interested in hearing him explain it."
Aelita recalled the cover story the group had agreed to use for now. "Sorry, he's taking a nap in his room. He's not feeling well." A relatively simple lie, one they had used before. When he supposedly recovered, and how quickly, obviously depended on when his bug went through.
To her credit, Laura quickly became concerned. "I hope he gets better. I'll go pay him a visit."
The blonde then headed towards the stairwell, and the pink-ette began to panic. They couldn't have anyone visit Jérémie, only to find that he wasn't actually there. "Sorry, you can't. He asked for peace and quiet." Fortunately, Laura stopped in her tracks. "But don't worry," Aelita offered what she hoped was a convincing enough smile, "I'll deliver your message to him later."
Laura smiled in relief, "Thank you, Aelita. I'll see you later." She then walked away.
Never again is most preferred, the pink-haired girl thought, as she waved goodbye. But since I have no choice, better later rather than sooner. Her smile fell back into the frown she was wearing before the moment Laura was out of sight.
Relieved that they had dodged a bullet, she then pulled out her phone and dialed Yumi's number.
The elder picked up rather quickly, "Yes, 'Lita?"
"Our cover story is officially in circulation," Aelita relayed.
"Already? That was fast..."
"Laura was the one who noticed and asked first."
"Ah, that makes sense. Don't worry, Ulrich and I will tell William and Odd, and keep an eye out."
"Thanks." She then hung up, before resuming her trek to her dorm room.
Her room was exactly how she left it this morning; she wasn't sure what she was expecting, honestly. Of course it had remained untouched. She locked it as she left for breakfast that morning, and she hadn't returned until now.
Maybe it was because something—or rather someone—was missing, and the world was still turning as if he was still here. And that felt wrong to her.
She took great care to close her door behind her. After setting her bag down on the bed, she sat down at her desk and woke up her computer. Staring intently at the pink background, she softly called out, "Hello, Lyoko. Is Proxy Pie there?"
Jérémie's ID card appeared on her screen, and happiness filled her entire being when she heard him answer, "No, this is Big-Fat Cheesehead. Proxy Pie is somewhere else."
Both were nicknames she had given him at random. However, 'Big-Fat Cheesehead' had quickly become a safe-word due to XANA's increasing intention on killing Jérémie back then, while Proxy Pie was reserved for when they were genuinely alone, for the very special moments.
She giggled at his joke, before sobering up, "Any updates?"
"Concerning the bug, no. It still hasn't gone through. Concerning myself? Don't laugh, but I have leg cramps."
She obeyed him, instead reacting out of slight concern, "You shouldn't get cramps on Lyoko."
"I'm not on Lyoko," he softly reminded her.
Right. He was on the Cortex, which had a different set of rules.
He continued, "What's new on your side?"
"Laura asked about your absence."
"Already?"
"Yeah. We've decided to tell everyone who asks that you're not feeling well and taking a nap in your room." And worst case scenario, they could easily activate a tower and have the clone take his place.
Though, personally, she preferred the shy Jérémie over the flirt, because he was way more fun to tease.
"Thank you for covering for me. Thank the others for me, too," he was quiet, and sounded a bit guilty. "I know I'm asking a lot."
She quickly stepped in, knowing and hating that she knew what a guilty Jérémie looked and acted like. "Don't worry, I will. And you're not asking for very much. Today's Saturday afternoon and tomorrow is Sunday, so you don't have to worry about classes until Monday morning. That's about a day and a half."
"True, but I'm still grateful."
She smiled, despite him being unable to see it. However, it faded as her mind went back to her earlier encounter.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Why did you chose to become friends with Laura?" She quickly amended, "I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just curious. I mean, she does have a crush on you, and I can't imagine that not being awkward..."
He was quiet. "Because she reminds me of myself, from before I met you. You know who I was before Lyoko, Aelita. A lonely, socially awkward nerd who didn't have any friends. Anyone who did talk to me just wanted to either bully me or use me for homework. If I can prevent that kind of pain from plaguing someone else, then I will. Don't worry, I'm not trying to guilt-trip you; I know you don't like her. But at the moment, Sissi and I are the only friends she has."
"And if I do befriend Laura?"
"It's your choice. I won't try to sway you to either side."
"Thank you."
And she meant it. She'd try her best, but it would take a while; something still felt off about that girl, and Aelita wasn't quite sure what it was.
But it certainly was just like Jérémie to want to fix a genius kid's loneliness. After all, he was the one afraid to turn off the supercomputer out of fear that he'd lose the friends he'd made without Lyoko as the glue that held them together.
She changed the subject, "Odd wants to know if he can have your dinner portion, if the mission lasts that long, that is."
He chuckled, before amusedly replying, "Of course, he can."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
The clock on the interface of Jérémie's bracelet was showing the time as 7:24 pm, meaning the others were having dinner right now, with Yumi at her house with her family and the others at Kadic's cafeteria. It also meant that six hours had officially passed. He'd been here for six hours.
Leg cramps may have been programmed into the Cortex's coding, but fortunately, hunger wasn't.
He hadn't moved from the small platforming he had chosen as his hideout. His eyes were intently watching the interface, which was still offline. It really seemed like he would have to stay here all night.
Out of nowhere, the green interface screen activated. On the screen was a webcam, which showed the aged face of none of than Lowell Tyron.
"Quick! Check who's there!" he ordered.
Jérémie just then caught on that a single Ninja had also appeared. He burrowed deeper into his hiding place, hoping to all things good that he would not be spotted. He was all alone, after all, with his only back-up being two separate worlds away...
(Idea: Find a way to make the Skid a relay for virtualization directly to the Cortex.)
From his now-narrow viewpoint, he could see the Ninja slowly stalk the platform above him. They glanced around carefully, clearly looking for him.
"Someone has to be there!" Tyron yelled. "Those kids were here for a reason!"
He didn't hear the Ninja talking, so Jérémie assumed Tyron had a microphone set that let him talk with them just like his own. Or maybe the Ninja's body language was just super easy to read...
"Don't give me that look!" the old man barked. "'But boss, the radar doesn't show anyone, nor can I see anything'! I'm positive that one of those kids is waiting by the interface! I don't know why but I'm sure of it!"
A pause.
"You could be right, that they've already left, but if that were the case, then they've stolen even more data!" Tyron groaned. "Curse that six-hour cooldown!" He sighed. "Come on back."
So that explained why the man took so long to check out his suspicions, even if they bordered on paranoia. A six-hour long cooldown period for the scanners.
Jérémie sighed in relief as he watched the Ninja materialized in a green wireframe form, before the interface screen turned off. Not long after, the interface itself went back offline.
Only then did he smile.
His intuition was just proving itself to be justified with each passing minute.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita let slip a low growl when, yet again, the lightest creaking of the dorm building woke her up. She was exhausted, but her mind wouldn't let her sleep.
But she knew exactly why, what exactly was on her mind that required so much energy and power to think of.
She wasted no more time—her mind was made up—as she got out of bed and tip-toed over to her computer, quiet so as to not wake up any of her neighbors.
"Jérémie?" she called in just barely above a whisper.
"Yeah?" Good. He was awake. "What's wrong? The last time we spoke, it was curfew."
"Sorry, I can't sleep. How it's going?"
"It's going fine. Bug still hasn't gone through, so I'm a little bored, because I can't sleep either. If one thing good came from this mission, it's the fact that I now know what you were going through for those eleven years."
Her heart sank a bit—she was hoping to at least spare him that pain. The only senses available being your sight and hearing, and not being able to smell or taste or feel the touch of another human being. Not being able to sleep. Having no need to breathe.
But she pushed that to the back of her mind. That's not what she wanted to talk to him about.
"I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine, Aelita."
"No, you're not. You insisted on joining this mission, taking my place no less, and I still don't know why. There's something you're not telling me, when we tell each other everything. No secrets." A realization then came to mind. He had said his bug was looking for something specific, after all. "If this is about my mother–"
"It's not," he cut her off. "It's about your father."
W-Wait, what?
"Daddy? What does any of this have to do with him?" He was dead. Gone. He wasn't coming back.
Don't tell me you've found a way to revive him, Jérémie, she mentally pleaded. Please. Don't get my hopes up.
"Everything, Aelita," he softly told her. "You're right. There's a lot I've been keeping from you, and I'm sorry about that, but you have enough things on your plate without them. Your father could've chosen to give those Keys to anybody in the group, even given them back to you. But he didn't. He chose to give them to me."
Oh.
"Even before listening to that audio file, I knew that it meant he was entrusting the supercomputer, Lyoko, and you all to me." He sighed. "Whoever created the Cortex is clearly connected to your father. Nothing else would explain the similarities with Lyoko, or the video clips in the Cortex's database with your parents tagged in them as important characters. And as per my promise, it's my job to protect you and Lyoko from them, whoever they are."
He didn't need to protect her; that's always bothered her. "You don't have to. I can protect myself, remember?" Because sometimes, he tended to take it a little too far.
"Aelita, the enemy we may be facing here is bigger than XANA, and probably more dangerous too. We need to be careful, and make sure we're never biting off more than we can chew."
She was quiet while digesting that. He had a point.
He paused briefly. "Someone's been trying to hack into the internet with the intention of finding Lyoko."
The alarmed her. "What?!" She froze up and listened closely for any sudden movements; she hadn't meant to get that loud. She turned back to Jérémie, whispering this time, "Are you sure?"
"The signal always comes through the hub that the Skid exits when entering the Cortex's network," he replied. "And speaking of which, the IP address of that signal perfectly matches that of the Cortex."
Why hadn't he told her about it?! This was serious! It meant that someone was trying to find Lyoko's supercomputer!
"Don't worry," he continued. "I put up a firewall, and to my knowledge, it's still standing. But I can't trust anyone who keeps XANA on their database. I have a theory, and this mission is to gather enough evidence to prove it. I insisted to go myself, because there's no way I could've asked any of you to take the risks I'm taking now without feeling guilty about it."
She was quiet. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you felt that way. But remember, while you hold one half of Lyoko's Keys, I hold the other half. That means that we are partners, in more ways than one, so protecting Lyoko is a job that both of us are responsible for." She was stern, knowing that he was listening.
"I know, you're right. And again, I'm sorry for not telling you all of this before. I didn't want anyone trying to talk me about this."
She finally smiled, "Yeah, we definitely would've tried. But it's because we care about you. You know that, right?"
"I do, and I care about you guys too. But that's why I had to deal with it myself. If anyone else took my place and something happened to them as a result, I'd never forgive myself for it. Especially if it was you..."
"Don't let anything happen to you either," she softly told him, returning his sentiment. She paused, before sighing, "This separation is killing me. I don't how you managed this...loneliness for over a year."
"It's killing me too." His voice was just barely above a whisper. "But it won't last forever." He was right; it wouldn't. "The bug will most likely get through sometime tomorrow." Her clock read 11:34 pm. "In the meantime, get some rest."
"Okay." She felt much better after talking to Jérémie. "My laptop will be on my bedside table in case you need me. Good night."
"Sweet dreams."
The ghost of a smile was still on her face as she logged off and she put her computer to sleep. She then trudged over to her bed, finally feeling the physical exhaustion that had eluded her before, and cuddled Mister Pück closer to her as she finally entered dream land.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita woke up later to a strange alarm sounding off to her right. She glanced at her clock—which read 5:42 am, pretty early—before her eyes grazed against her laptop. It was only then that she realized what the alarm was.
She quickly pulled the device onto her lap and opened it, "Yes, Jérémie?"
"Aelita, the bug's gone through! The fifteen minute countdown has started!"
"Okay. I'll be at the factory as soon as I can."
"Hurry," was all he said, before logging off.
Knowing what she had to do now—the entire list—the pink-ette quickly climbed out of bed, ready to begin going down said list.
First things first: As she started getting dressed, she dialed Ulrich's number to tell him the news.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Her appearance was a little disheveled by the time she reached the factory, due to having gotten dressed in a hurry. Ulrich had reassured her that he'd let the others know on her behalf, so that she could focus on Jérémie, which she appreciated. That was one less to worry about.
She was able to pat herself down while in the elevator, and the moment the doors opened, she ran to the chair in front of the monitor.
Once the earpiece was secured against her cheek, she called out, "Jérémie, I'm in the lab now." On her screen was a window that was reading what the bug had found and what the young genius was currently downloading, as well as the timer. "Seven minutes and counting down."
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
She didn't have to tell him. He could see the countdown on his bracelet. "I know."
His bug had worked exactly as he had intended it to. It took a while, but it had found exactly he programmed it to find—which was a specific tag. Now to see whether or not his suspicions were correct.
Now, he was digging through the tag, looking for any information that could be considered valuable. Honestly, he was rather surprised at how quickly he was adjusting to how this interface worked. Every so often, his eyes briefly drifted down to the timer on his bracelet. Any data he found was downloaded directly to the card he had inserted earlier, the one still connected to the system.
Meanwhile, his visor was keeping track of any enemies at his location. At the moment, thankfully, that number was at zero.
He added, "I'm working as fast as I can."
"Hang in there. I'm getting you some back-up," she said.
"The others won't get here in time," he protested, shaking his head.
"It's not a human being, Jérémie," her voice was soft, yet stern. "Trust me."
Partners. In more ways than one. He did trust her, with his life, times infinity.
"Okay," he whispered, resuming his digging.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
Aelita did not take her eyes off of Jérémie's yellow arrow on the holomap, even as the elevator doors swung open a second time. She knew exactly who it was; there were only four people who it could be.
Said four teens all rushed to her side and proceeded to watch the screen just as intently as she was.
"What's the situation?" Ulrich asked.
"Two minutes and counting down," Aelita relayed. "So far, he has no company."
"Good," William replied. "Let's keep it that way. If anything were to happen, we'd never make it in time."
"Yeah," Odd agreed. "Not while the Skid isn't docked on Lyoko." He nodded at the screen, where the holomap was showing a blue arrow on the edge of the Cortex's outer ring, just below the horizon.
"It was the best option I had by the time I made it to the lab," Aelita confessed.
"It may be a good idea to find a way to let the Skid act as a relay for virtualization," Yumi suggested. "It could come in handy."
"I'll work on it," Jérémie cut in, reminding them that he could hear them, "but at the moment, that's not really my biggest concern."
Completely fair.
"One minute, Jérémie," the pink-ette announced.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
He had to hurry, he thought as he checked the timer on his bracelet. Fifty-five seconds and counting down...
But he wanted to dig for as long as possible, download as much data to that digital card as he could.
His hopes were dashed by his visor warning him of an enemy presence behind him.
"Aelita, is that a Ninja about to ambush me?"
"Yes. Get out of there."
She was right. The timer was down to ten seconds now.
He finished his current download, before recalling the card (his bug) out of the Cortex's system and back to the interface. He quickly grabbed it before de-summoning it. Just in time—the timer was stopped at one second.
He then turned around and held his breath as his Ninja companion revealed itself, with four more Ninja friends, two on either side. Knowing he was outnumbered here, he chose to retreat.
"Adieu, gentlemen," he saluted them, before jumping off the edge of the platform.
The five Ninjas all rushed to the edge, trying to see where he went, only to stumble backwards when the boy flew up into the air, having donned blue-energy wings. After giving each of them a hard stare, Jérémie turned around and flew towards the exit.
He made it out of the Core Zone just before the main spiral door closed on him. Once outside, his visor then alerted to the back-up Aelita had told him about. He smiled, glad that he chose to trust her, before taking off in the direction the holomap was pointing him, using the speed his wings gave him to dodge the geological shift that occurred in the middle of his journey.
Jérémie breathed a sigh of relief as he landed at the edge of the sector. But, once again, his hopes were dashed, this time by the five shadows approaching him from behind.
He slowly turned around, and came face to face with the same five Ninjas.
And he briefly wondered...did Tyron tell them to follow him? They had never done this before. Interesting...
But he wasn't scared. He knew what was waiting for him below. So he just smiled at them, before falling off the edge once again.
The five Ninjas, again, scrambled towards the edge to see where he went, only to be confused when they found nobody there. With no other choice, they returned to the Core, defeated.
Their orders, after all, were to catch up with and capture the boy. Not kill or devirtualize him. And they had failed.
In reality, Jérémie's landing was safely on top of the Skid that was waiting for him just out of sight. Here, he breathed one final breath of relief—which he felt was well-deserved.
"Thanks, Aelita."
"You're welcome," she replied. "Now, come on home. I'm sure you have a lot to tell us."
Oh, he did. That's why he didn't argue or try to fight her teleporting him into the main cockpit.
In the lab, the others were finally able to relax, knowing their friend was no longer in danger.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!
"I was right," was all Jérémie had told them.
And knowing he'd tell them everything if he was, they were intrigued. That's why, later on before breakfast, the group was in Jérémie's room, crowding around his desktop and watching as he decoded one of the files he downloaded from the Cortex.
Everyone was quiet; no one dared to speak. Not until Jérémie tensely announced at last, "Done."
The window on his screen showed another surveillance video, this one from a webcam, with the date shown being 15 January 1988—about one month after Franz Hopper left Project: Carthage.
The video opened on a young Lowell Tyron pacing (more like marching) in front of a row of five adults dressed in strange cybernetic outfits resembling the Ninjas. In the background were five rudimentary-looking scanners—which just proved that the Ninjas they'd been fighting were indeed human beings.
"So, if any of you are captured by the authorities," he seemed to be finishing up a speech, "my name, as far as you know, is Alan Mayer." All five adults nodded, tense under their boss's stern gaze. "Now, our primary motive is capturing Waldo Schaeffer. He left Project: Carthage with the intention of shutting it down."
One Ninja spoke up, in a male voice, "Sir, how do you plan on doing that? He's just vanished, with no sign of where he could've gone."
"I know," Tyron growled. "But he is weak and naive. And I can use that my advantage."
The grin on Tyron's face made shocks of fear run down the six modern-day teens' spines. It was so unnaturally evil, one only seen in the movies.
"But let me worry about the psychological warfare. Our target is Schaeffer and whatever his counter-attack is."
"How do you know he has one?" a second Ninja asked, in a female voice this time (surprisingly). "He could just want to hide."
"Because I know him," Tyron shot back. "Like the back of my hand." Admitting that, the present day teens could tell, really pissed him off. "He'll have some type of counter-attack to Project: Carthage, and it's imperitive that we find him and shut it down before he can complete it and use it against me. That's why I'm sending all of you to train on the Cortex. Head to the scanning devices."
The Ninjas all headed to the scanners in the background, but the video didn't end on Tyron virtualizing them.
Instead, it went on for a few more seconds.
"I will find you, Schaeffer," Tyron vowed, his eyes burning with an incredible amount of hatred. "No matter how long it takes. And once I do, I guarantee you will admit defeat, because I have the perfect weapon to take you down..."
That was when the video ended, the frame stopping on the man's determined, yet evil glare.
The clear questions that were on the six teens' minds: 'What weapon was Tyron referring to?' and 'Does he still have it?'
But only Jérémie dared to break the silence. "I was right. It's not XANA we have to worry about. It's him. Lowell Tyron. The creator of the Cortex."
And that haunted the others more that the idea of Tyron's weapon ever could.
!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!
Inspiration: CLE's "Espionage"
Up next: Episode 8, Isolation - "A major computer bug at Kadic forces the Lyokowarriors to realize something they should've realized a lot sooner."
A/N: Chapter Meaning: refers to Jérémie's suspicions about Tyron, but could also refer to Tyron developing them about Jérémie and the Lyokowarriors due to the events of the chapter
-The Burr-Hamilton duel is infamously known for the duo's long-standing personal conflict driving it. Here, it's supposed to mirror the fued between Hopper and Tyron. That's why Jérémie thinks it's fitting to his suspicions about Tyron.
-Another mini-mystery solved; this time the 'Big-Fat Cheesehead' one. The idea of it being a safe word of sorts is from the aptly titled story 'Safe Word' by Acid Ice on FFN.
~Evolution concepts~
The only one here that really needs discussing is Jérémie's choice to stay at the Cortex overnight. In Evo, it's Aelita, who's waiting for her mother to appear in the webcam, so she can tell Anthea that she (Aelita) is actually alive. However, it happens near the end and leads directly into the season's cliffhanger, with zero closure whatsoever due to Evo not getting a second season. There's only twenty-six chapters in this story, and I plan on filling up any plotholes within all of them, including Anthea, so I've chosen something else for Aelita and Anthea's reunion (yes, they will reunite, but you'll have to keep reading to find out what I have in mind). But since I didn't want to completely erase the idea, I instead chose Jérémie taking the initiative to find out more about Tyron. It also continues to emphasize Hopper's trust in Jérémie throughout the show, and it begins with Tyron resuming his feud with Hopper in a way, this time through Jérémie.
Yes, I'm keeping in the Proxy Pie thing from Evo, because it's one my favorite moments, and it doesn't contradict anything in the animated show ("Crash Course": Aelita confirms to Yumi that she and Jérémie have at least one inside joke). The subtitles on YouTube, however, (I believe) translate it as "Proxy Puppy", and I honestly don't know which is cuter.
The video of Tyron and the Ninjas is from Evo's "The Warrior Awakens", which (in the episode) confirmed Ulrich's hunch that they were actually fighting human beings. In this story, however, the group already knows that the Ninjas are virtualized humans like them, so the video here is meant to instead reveal to them that their biggest enemy is not XANA, but Tyron. If you didn't get it, that was the center of Jérémie's suspicions and why he stayed on the Cortex overnight to find out.
Some may remember that Tyron's name was originally 'Alan Mayer' until Evo's first PDF presentation was leaked to the internet, so they changed it to 'Ikonov'. However, since that name was already copyrighted by another company, they finally amended it to 'Lowell Tyron'. In this story, Tyron is his real name, with the other two names being aliases. I'll probably bring this up again later, but he used 'Ikonov' when Project: Carthage was still ongoing, and 'Alan Mayer' (as seen here) when he'd escaped from prison and was on the run.