A/N: Here is the next installment of my Jerlita Roleswap AU. Hope you all enjoy it~
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.
Note: Remember, any episodes not mentioned either as the inspiration for a chapter or just in passing are not part of the AU, mainly because the roleswap makes them useless, and those only mentioned in passing are just filler and/or would be the same no matter who has what role.
Sorry this chapter took so long. I have a beta reader now!
Beta read by swordsdownforreview
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Jérémie's nightmares lead the group back to the mysterious Hermitage. What will they find this time?"
Episode 20: The Book
(Based on Mister Pück)
The small elf boy sprinted through the various and vastly overgrown trees that made up this forest. His legs and lungs were both screaming for mercy, with throbbing pain radiating throughout his body. He needed to stop and catch his breath, but he couldn't. Not when those wolves were still after him.
He needed to hide. He couldn't run from them forever. Fortunately, sweet relief came to him in the form of a hollow tree trunk, which he immediately climbed inside of.
Now able to catch his breath, he hid inside the tree as he waited for the pack of wolves to slink by. In his mind, there were so many questions:
Where was he?
Why was he here?
Who were these wolves?
Why were they after him?
Who was he? He didn't know his name, his origins, nothing. Why him? Why him? Why him?
He was caught off-guard by one of the wolves suddenly in his face.
He screamed.
Jérémie screamed in tandem with the elf boy, before waking up in a cold sweat, his bedsheets twisted unnaturally around his body.
Seconds after he stopped screaming, however, his door slammed open, revealing an angry and sleep-deprived Hervé standing in the door frame, his own door open across the hallway, in which stood Nicolas (who looked like he just wanted to sleep).
"WHAT. IS. THAT. NOISE?!" Hervé demanded.
"Sorry..." Jérémie muttered, still shaken up by his nightmare.
He had only been here at Kadic for a week, and those nightmares being narrated by that woman were still happening, still ruining his nights.
"You should be!" And others' nights as well, apparently.
"Sorry..." Jérémie repeated, his brain unable to come up with anything else to say.
"Wh-What?" Hervé seemed flabbergasted. "Why are you apologizing? Stop it!"
"R-Right, sorry," the blonde replied before immediately cringing. He just did the very thing Hervé told him to stop doing.
"What's going on?" That was William's voice, and it made Jérémie look up from his bedsheets to his open door frame.
What was William doing here?
"N-Nothing," Hervé admitted. "Belpois just woke us up by screaming."
"Nightmare," Jérémie muttered in response, unable to stop himself from repeating, "I'm sorry."
"I...I forgive you," Jérémie was surprised by Hervé's response. As the dark-haired nerd went back to his shared room with Nicolas, he added, "Just don't let it happen again."
Hervé closed the door to his and Nicolas's room, leaving just Jérémie and William.
"I can't make any promises," the blonde whispered, before raising his voice to address William, "That was...nice of Hervé..."
"Only because he knows I'm one of your defenders," William muttered.
But Hervé's reaction to the blonde's repeated apology stuck out to the latter. Almost as if Hervé was becoming less convinced that Jérémie was an AI, seeing that he was a human after all.
"You okay?" the elder boy asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jérémie replied. But he wasn't. His heart was still racing in illogical fear. "It was just a nightmare." But it wasn't. It was more than that. It was a sign.
"You need me to get Ulrich or Odd?"
What?! "No." The blonde's answer was immediate. "No, I'm fine." He didn't want to get his friends involved. At least, not at 3:23 in the morning.
"You sure?" William looked genuinely concerned.
Jérémie nodded. These were his nightmares; he'd investigate them on his own.
"Okay," William shrugged. "But if you need anything, don't be afraid to ask."
The blonde sent the elder a soft smile, "I will. Thanks. Also...I'm sorry if I woke you up."
William used his hand to wave the apology off, "Don't worry about it. I was on my way back from the restroom." He added, "Get some rest now," before closing Jérémie's door, leaving the blonde alone in the dark.
Jérémie's heart was still racing as he laid back down on his bed. But he couldn't get back to sleep, and it wasn't the fault of the poster of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out at him that Odd got for him.
It wasn't a nightmare. It was a sign.
He had to go explore the Hermitage. He didn't care if the others thought he wasn't ready. He had to. He needed answers, and his instincts were telling him that he'd find them at the Hermitage.
He didn't care if he was alone, even if the logical side of his brain would forever hate him for it. He needed to go.
Tired of just tossing and turning, Jérémie Belpois got out of bed and changed into his day clothes.
He hadn't been at Kadic long enough to memorize Jim's patrol patterns, so the blonde considered it a miracle that he managed to sneak off campus unseen.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A few hours later, 10 AM hit and the rest of Kadic rose with the Sunday sun.
Odd groaned when he heard the alarm clock go off, and hid further under the covers. Meanwhile, Kiwi just stretched out before walking to his owner's face and licking it.
The Italian boy giggled before scooping his dog up and kissing him on his head, "Okay, you mangy mutt. I'm up."
The door opened to reveal Ulrich, hair damp and a towel over his shoulders, "Oh, Odd. You're up. Good." The German boy looked concerned.
This is why Odd sat up in bed, more attentive than before. "I sure am," he replied. "What's up?"
"Jérémie's not in his room," Ulrich revealed. "I checked before and after my shower."
"He could be outside in the courtyard," Odd reminded his roommate, not understanding the concern.
"Well, you didn't let me finish," Ulrich replied. "While in the shower room, I ran into William. Apparently, Jérémie had another nightmare last night, but when William asked if Jérémie wanted to let us know, Jérémie denied it, despite looking like he wanted to."
"You think something happened to him?" All the exhaustion Odd felt was gone. One of his friends may be in trouble.
"I don't know, but I just called him, and he didn't pick up," Ulrich admitted. He leaned over the pat Odd on his shoulder. "Get dressed. We have a friend to find."
The two got dressed in record time, in only two minutes. Odd then fed Kiwi a quick brunch as Ulrich sent Aelita a text to wake her up if she wasn't already.
Fortunately, the pink-ette was already awake and dressed by the time the boys got upstairs to her dorm. She was in the midst of completing her day look by putting on her boots when they knocked on her door.
"Come in," they heard her say, right before they obeyed by opening her door. She was sitting on her bed, "What's the emergency?"
"Jérémie's nowhere to be found," Ulrich explained, "and he's not answering his phone."
Aelita immediately jumped to her feet, utter concern on her face, "What happened? Did he give any sign that he was going to run away again?"
"We don't think he ran away, actually," Odd slowly admitted. "William said he had another nightmare last night."
Aelita paused, "The Hermitage," before sitting down at her computer. The two boys closely watched as she tracked down Jérémie's cellphone, as the satellites located him in the nearby forest, in the same area where that creepy old house was. "Bingo!"
"You were right," Ulrich said. "He's at the Hermitage."
"Or his cellphone is, at least," Aelita corrected, as she took out her own phone and dialed Yumi's number.
The Japanese girl was half asleep when she picked up, "Aelita, it's Sunday..." There was no school today, hence why they all woke up so late (except for Jérémie).
"Sorry, Yumi," Aelita said, "but we have an emergency. Jérémie had another nightmare and he went to the Hermitage in the middle of the night."
Yumi seemed more awake now, "I'll meet you there." There was some rustling, probably her changing into her day clothes. "Why is he at the Hermitage by himself?"
"Answers, would be my guess," Aelita replied. "We all agreed to explore that house together, so I guess last night's nightmare was the last straw."
"Well, there's only one way to find out," Yumi reminded the pink-ette. "Ask Jérémie."
But first, they had to find him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The four teens gathered at the front door of the Hermitage. Hoping their fifth was inside and unharmed, they went in, preparing for the worst.
It was cold. Cold and dusty. That's why seeing Jérémie sleeping on the worn-down couch in the family room was both a relief and a surprise.
He was fine. He was uninjured. Just sleeping. But how could he sleep on such a dirty, cold couch that was no longer soft?
Odd silently pointed to an old piece of paper resting next to Jérémie's head. On it was a sketch of an elf boy that looked a lot like Jérémie, just with darker hair.
Who was that? Where did Jérémie see them before? Why did it look so much like Jérémie's Lyoko avatar?
Aelita sat next to Jérémie's sleeping form, and gently shook the blonde's shoulder.
A pair of blue eyes opened, but it took a while for their owner to remember where he was.
"Oh, it's you guys," he muttered. "What time is it?"
Yumi checked her watch, "10:41 in the morning," as Jérémie sat up.
"Did you come here right after your nightmare?" Odd asked.
Jérémie was quiet, "William told you?" It was more a statement than a question, but he received four nods in response. Seeing this, he was quiet, "Yes, I did. And yes, I've been here this whole time."
"You can't..." Aelita muttered, before stressing, "Jérémie, you can't do that. Going off on your own is exactly what XANA wants."
Two days ago, the AI went so far as to insert a virus within some data they retrieved from Sector Five (they had explored it three days prior) that allowed it to take over the Return in time function. During one of the takes (the last one), it trapped Jérémie on Lyoko and possessed Sissi to hold off the others.
Yes, apparently, XANA had increased its power to the point where it could take control of human beings now. Fortunately, Sissi didn't remember being possessed, or nearly beating Ulrich to a pulp, which was good, but it was still concerning.
XANA wanted something buried in Jérémie's memory, and it was beginning to show just how far it was willing to go to get it.
Knowing this, Jérémie's voice was soft, "I'm sorry, especially for worrying you. But I can't ignore my nightmares anymore. They're just...getting worse, and I'm positive that this place has the answers."
"Y'know," Ulrich admitted, "this place is owned by Michel Périn. It's becoming increasingly possible that you and he are related somehow."
"I think so too," Jérémie confessed.
"But their surnames are different," Odd sounded and looked confused. "That can't be right." He just wasn't on the same wavelength as the others just yet.
"First of all," Yumi said, "people don't have to have the same surname to be related." Possibility number one.
"Second," Aelita added, "'related' doesn't always mean family. It could mean friends or coworkers." Possibility number two.
"And third," Jérémie finished, "Belpois isn't my actual surname. I just said it sounded right." Possibility number three.
Odd held both of his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright, geez! Steam roll me, why don't you..."
"You did ask for it, good buddy." Ulrich ignored Odd's glare and instead turned his attention to the sketch still on the table in front of the couch. "This who you've been having nightmares about, Jer?"
"Yes," Jérémie admitted. "William made the suggestion that I...draw out my nightmares to make better sense of them."
Yumi raised a curious eyebrow, "Is it working?"
"Sort of. I mean, I finally know what my virtual avatar is modeled after, but not much else," Jérémie replied. "His name is Mister Pück."
Aelita finished his thought, "But you have no idea how you know that." The blonde confirmed this by shaking his head.
"Well, it's Sunday," Odd reminded his friends, "so we don't have classes to worry about. So take your time, Jer. There's no rush."
"Odd makes a good point," Yumi admitted.
"Alright, I'm just not sure where to start," Jérémie confessed.
"From the beginning," Odd shrugged, as if it were that simple. "Where else?"
But Jérémie was shaking his head, "But I don't know where the beginning is, either."
"Then, let's find patterns." Ulrich asked, "What do your nightmares usually consist of?"
Jérémie nodded at the sketch on the table between them, "They consist of him, and they're always narrated by a woman, like they're chapters in a story or something!"
As soon as he said that, though, he paused as he digested what he just said.
"And now we're getting somewhere," Odd quipped.
"A story," Yumi muttered, thinking. "So, we should start with the books."
Ulrich finished, "And find those that have this Mister Pück as a character in them."
"That could take forever," Odd complained. "I mean, have you seen this guy's personal library?"
"Well, it could very well be a story book," Yumi replied. "This Mister Pück sounds like a fictional character to me."
"And there's five of us," Ulrich reminded his roommate. "We can split up if we have to."
"Or," Aelita unamusedly interjected from halfway up the stairs, "we could just let Jérémie lead the way."
The three were so into their little argument that they missed Jérémie seemingly go into a trance and head up the stairs, with Aelita worriedly following him.
Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd caught up with the other two in time to see Jérémie slowly walk towards a door slightly ajar on the left side of the hallway at the top of the stairs.
Jérémie opened the door a little wider and immediately gave a little gasp.
"What's wrong?" Aelita asked, before joining him to getting a better view of the room. Once she did, she gave off a similar gasp as she held a slightly shaky hand to her mouth.
It was a male child's bedroom, but not what most would consider a normal room.
It was a makeshift hospital room. There was an unhooked IV by the bed, which itself was unmade, as if the residents had to leave quickly. The connecting bathroom had a cabinet full of medication, both over-the-counter and prescription, though the labels were so old, they were no longer legible (they could barely make out the surname 'Périn').
The room was empty, the house still officially abandoned, but it was still quite a sight.
The silence was broken by Yumi placing a firm hand on Jérémie's shoulder, "You okay, Jer? You're trembling."
"I-I'm fine." He hadn't realized he was. "I just...don't feel comfortable being here."
Aelita took a gentle hold of Jérémie's shaking hand. He immediately clenched her hand tightly. He was putting up an impressive front, but this was just proving how shaken up he was.
But her close proximity was comforting. When she pulled him over to the room's bookshelf, he followed her, and when they reached it, he went back into the trance-like state.
The four watched as he let go of Aelita's hand and pulled off the shelf a book with a hand sewn binding. He opened it, and the group was greeted with a familiar sight on the first page.
A sketch of Mister Pück.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The group was back at school, sitting on their usual bench in the courtyard, with that (apparently) handmade book between them and resting on Jérémie's lap.
"Let me get this straight," Yumi summarized their rather hectic day so far, "Jérémie's never read or seen this book before, but he knows exactly what's in it, and he knows the main character's named Mister Pück."
"As crazy as it sounds," Aelita replied, "that's all correct."
"I find it weirder that I knew exactly where this book was in the first place," Jérémie quietly confessed.
"Echoes of your life before Lyoko?" Ulrich offered.
"Maybe," the blonde in blue muttered. "I wanted answers, but I just ended up with more questions." He opened the book to a page with an illustration of Mister Pück hiding in a hollowed-out tree trunk, "For example, this passage here says, 'He was safe for now, but the war was just beginning. Because the treasure, the answers he'd been searching were, in fact, within him all along'. I don't know why but it sticks out to me for some reason."
"Because of the overall meaning?" Yumi slowly asked. But Jérémie just shrugged. "Fair enough." If she was in his place, she'd feel the same way. "I agree that it must be important somehow. Otherwise, you wouldn't be dreaming about it."
"Maybe," Ulrich softly suggested, "Périn's child donated one of their organs to you? It would fit with 'within him all along'."
Jérémie shrugged again. Without his memories of his past, he could neither confirm nor deny that.
"You know, it could be that there is no deeper meaning at all," Odd brought up a good point, "and that we're just overthinking this."
"Touché," Aelita admitted. "But it's obvious that Mister Pück is the stand-in for Jérémie, given their similar appearances." At least, on Lyoko. "And the story is from his point of view. The answers being with him the whole time suggests that Jérémie already knows the answers and he just has to remember, or something on his person is the key that unlocks the mystery we're being faced with."
"It could be referring to the thing that XANA wants from him," Yumi suggested.
Something in Aelita's explanation stuck out to Jérémie, as he muttered, "Something on my person..." The others followed his eyes as they wandered down to the pendant around his neck, the blue rectangular one with the eye of XANA on it.
As the blonde in blue took it off of his neck, Odd confessed, "I always wondered what that pendant was, but I didn't ask because I thought it'd be rude."
"It's okay," Jérémie replied, the pendant resting within the palm of his hand. "To be honest, I just brushed it off as something that wasn't important. That is, until seeing the emblem on it." Yeah, the eye of XANA was interesting.
"But your nightmares thought it was important," Ulrich reminded him. "The question is why is it important."
The pendant was suddenly snatched out of Jérémie's hands, to the group's surprise. "Why would this thing be important?" It was Hervé, of course.
Jérémie immediately leapt up from his spot on the bench and snatched at his pendant, "Give it back!"
"What?" Hervé asked, yanking on the cord of the pendant to pull it away from Jérémie. "I just wanted to know what it was!"
Ting!
The unusual sound drew everyone's attention. On the ground was a key. The rough treatment the pendant was receiving had split it in half, revealing that something was hidden inside.
Hervé let go of the half of the pendant he was holding, letting Jérémie have both parts, as he dove towards the key, but a boot landed on it first. The dark-haired nerd looked up to see William, "Don't even think about it, Pichon. His necklace, his key."
"I-I just wanted to see why it was important," Hervé stuttered as he straightened out.
But William shook his head, "I would believe you, Pichon, if you didn't already have a history of bullying Belpois."
The younger of the two glowered at the older, but backed down, resuming his trek to the vending machines. Once Hervé was gone, William bent down and picked up the key from under his boot, before giving it to Jérémie.
"Thank you, William," the blonde shyly said. He was beginning to feel guilty that William was coming to his defense so many times.
"No problem," William winked, before walking away.
Jérémie hurried back to his friends, all of whom had risen in their seats in preparation of chasing Hervé for that key, only to relax once William had stepped in.
As the blonde sat back down on the bench, Aelita asked him, "Can I see that?"
"Sure," Jérémie muttered, before giving her the key and then putting both halves of his pendant back together and slipping it back around his neck.
The pink-ette immediately began studying the key. It was important, and judging by the eye of XANA on the pendant it was hiding in, it was definitely connected to the supercomputer. She turned it over and over in her hands. All that was marked was a number and company logo that indicated it belonged to a luggage company of some kind.
It was definitely for a locker. An airport? No, they didn't have those. A bus station? Doubt it.
She gasped, "Of course! It's the key to a train station locker! It's not far from here."
"After lunch, please," Yumi interrupted.
Odd immediately agreed, "Yes, please. I think I'm about to die!" Ulrich and Yumi both rolled their eyes at his phrasing.
As their purple-clad jokester led the way to the cafeteria, Aelita gave the key back to Jérémie. As he placed it back inside his pendant, she wondered what they'd stumble into this time.
Because last time, she ended up involving herself, her cousin, and her two best friends in a war against an artificial intelligence that wanted to destroy humanity.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
After lunch, once they'd all been refueled with food and drinks, the group made their way to the train station Aelita had pointed out on the key.
Even thought it was only mid-afternoon, the train station was packed with people. Strangers rushed from platform to platform, thoughtlessly pushing each other aside to quicken their pace by an extra second to get wherever they needed to go.
This was probably why the five teens slipped by and into the lockers area unnoticed. The number on the key in Jérémie's shaking hands was '167'. Once they reached it, the bespectacled boy's entire body was trembling. Yumi gently patted his shoulder reassuringly.
Jérémie took a deep breath, before muttering mainly to himself, "Let's hope we don't regret this in a minute."
He then stuck the key into the lock and turned it. For a moment, it seemed as if it wouldn't work due to the accumulated rust on the lock, but there was soon a pop as the lock finally unstuck, and the locker opened to reveal a black suitcase.
As Jérémie pulled it out, Ulrich read the initials on it out loud, "M.S.J.? What does that stand for?"
"Music Studio and Jazz?" Odd jokingly queried.
"I don't think so," Aelita admitted. "I think it's maybe Michel, plus two other people that were involved."
"His wife and child, maybe?" Yumi asked.
"Maybe," Aelita replied, as Jérémie set the case down on the bench behind them.
The blonde in blue opened the case to reveal about two dozen CD cases.
"Cool! Music!" the wild-haired boy chirped.
"Certainly not," the pink-ette retorted, sending her cousin a playful glare as she sat down in front of the case and pulled out her laptop from her bag. She knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but this was not the time to be doing such a thing.
As she inserted one of the discs into her laptop, Jérémie sat down behind her, and leaned over and rested his chin on her shoulder, before quietly replying, "Agreed. From what we know about him so far, it doesn't seem as thought Périn would go to all this trouble to hide his music collection."
"Right. So it has to be data of some kind, right?" Yumi asked, trying, with limited success, to not smirk as the tips of Aelita's ears turned bright red while Jérémie obliviously continued watching the laptop.
On the screen, a 3D image formed in the shape of a book. Aelita read the title that was then presented in binary code, and she smiled, "Actually, it's much better than that. This seems to be Michel Périn's diary." A window popped up, showing some lines of code rushing past. A green check mark appeared, before the window closed. Apparently, this was good news, as Aelita was still smiling, "Even better, do you guys remember that missing component we were trying to find? The one that firewall hid?"
"This is it?" Odd guessed.
Aelita excitedly nodded, and Ulrich let out an impressed whistle.
But that was all the good news they got. "Unfortunately," the pink-ette frowned, "it's encrypted. We'll have to decode it first."
"How much time to you need?" Ulrich asked the two teens sitting down. "One, maybe two hours?"
"Yeah," Odd agreed. "You're a pair of Einsteins."
"Try two years," Aelita corrected.
Yumi sat down just behind the laptop and peered over the top to get a look, "Why? What's the problem?"
"Actually, it's more like multiple problems," Jérémie explained, not taking his eyes off the screen. "First of all, we don't know the original algorithm Périn used in order to encrypt his data, so we don't know what decryption algorithm to use. We also don't have a key. It could be in a book in the Hermitage somewhere like the key to decoding Sector Five's password, but it would take us a long time to figure it out. Plus there's no guarantee that Périn didn't use multiple overlapping encryption techniques or simply create his own algorithm. It's not like a simple substitution cipher where A equals E and so on."
Odd stared blankly at the laptop screen, as Ulrich yawned. Yumi looked uncomfortable as she asked, "Um, how about we just take your word for it?"
They thought Aelita's technobabble was bad. Turns out, Jérémie's was far worse and way more boring.
Jérémie simply gave them a tired smile, his chin still resting on Aelita's shoulder, as the red-faced pink-ette added, "Luckily for us, we have a supercomputer. We can use it to analyze the encrypted files and then start trying to decode them based on the data collected."
"It will still be slow," Jérémie softly explained to the other three, "but hopefully, not as."
Yumi nodded her head. While she didn't really understand what exactly it was that Jérémie and Aelita were going to do, she trusted them to know what to do.
The Japanese girl's lips pulled up into a slow smile, as Jérémie finally stopped leaning over Aelita's shoulder to close up the suitcase. Aelita, meanwhile, still flustered, tried and failed to look completely calm and collected as she closed up her laptop and put it away.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It was a couple hours until dinner by the time the group got back. All five teens were exhausted, Jérémie especially, as they entered the front gates of Kadic. However, as Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi went in the direction of the courtyard, Jérémie and Aelita went in the direction of the passage in the park, the black suitcase in Jérémie's hand.
"Where you are two going?" Odd asked, as he noticed this.
"To the factory," Aelita admitted. "We're going to back up these files onto the supercomputer where XANA can't reach them."
After XANA took control of the Return program, Jérémie helped Aelita place said program into a restricted area of the supercomputer than only they could access. They also placed the group's digital profiles in that area, to prevent the malevolent AI from screwing with their avatars anytime they went to Lyoko.
"Not comfortable with only one copy, I see," Yumi muttered.
"Absolutely not," Aelita confessed. "Only an idiot would make just one copy of computer data since even normal computers are so ingenious at finding ways to destroy it."
"How long will it take?" Ulrich asked.
"About an hour," Aelita replied, shrugging. "So we should be back in time for dinner. But if we're not, yes, Odd, you can have our portions."
"Need some company?" Yumi asked, as Odd did a little victory dance.
"You guys don't have to come with us," Jérémie quickly cut in. "It will be incredibly boring. Take my rant from earlier and multiply that by ten."
"Sounds fun," Ulrich sarcastically replied.
"Yeah, well," Aelita shrugged, "welcome to the wonderful world of data processing."
The two geniuses began to walk away, only for Yumi to interrupt them, "I'll probably be gone by the time you guys come back, so in that case, I'll see you tomorrow." She paused, "And, uh, Jer, can I have that sketch? The one you drew of Mister Pück?"
Jérémie, confused, shrugged and took the piece of paper out of his pocket, "Sure," and handed it over to the elder girl. "See you tomorrow, Yumi."
He and Aelita waved and then, before the other three knew it, they were out of sight.
"Why'd you ask to keep the sketch?" Odd asked Yumi.
"My parents still want to pay Aelita back," Yumi explained to the other two. "Ever since I canceled us taking in Jérémie for a few days until he got his own dorm, they still haven't let me forget that it's something they really want to do."
That's right. Jérémie's first materialization never happened to anyone outside of their group. Jim didn't remember. Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama didn't remember. Hiroki didn't remember. Kadic didn't remember. To them, on Jérémie's first day of school, the Kankrelats didn't attack, but rather Jérémie ran away thanks to a bully.
"So you think you've found a way?" Ulrich asked, genuinely interested.
"Yeah, my mom knows how to sew," Yumi continued, "and Jérémie seemed to be sleeping much better at the Hermitage than in his own room." Ulrich nodded in agreement, unable to deny the truth in that.
"So you plan to make Mister Pück into a doll?" Odd summarized her explanation.
"Yeah. It may take a while, but if Jérémie has something familiar to him, even if he doesn't know why, then he won't have those nightmares anymore. Or, at least, not as bad."
"Hopefully."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The next morning, Odd awoke to the sound of his and Ulrich's alarm clock. His roommate was already up at this ungodly hour, apparently, as he gently shook Odd's shoulder.
"C'mon, Odd. Time to get up."
The Italian boy just burrowed deeper within his blanket burrito and mumbled, "Five more minutes..."
Ulrich just sighed, "I'm gonna go take my shower. If you're not up by the time I get back, you're getting water poured on you."
The door closed, leaving Odd alone, as he continued to rest his eyes.
But then Kiwi started barking and Odd felt something enter his ear. Immediately, he felt as though his body was on fire. Sharp pins and needles were stabbing him all over, his head, his arms, his torso, his legs, everywhere. He groaned in pain, vaguely hearing Kiwi barking in fear and warning.
It was only about three seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Odd sat up as the pain went away just as quickly as it came. With Kiwi pawing him in concern, the Italian boy just caught the tail end of a black cloud enter the electrical sockets.
"XANA," he breathed.
He had to tell the others. Knowing Ulrich was taking his shower, that's where he went first.
When he entered, he was greeted with frightened Jérémie, who said as soon as he was in sight, "Odd, I think XANA just tried to possess me!"
"You too?" This concerned Odd a great deal.
Jérémie's fear turned into curiosity, "What do you mean 'you too'?"
"One of XANA's spectres just attacked me in my room," Odd admitted, "but I feel fine now."
"XANA jumped me right before my alarm clock went off," Jérémie replied. "It didn't succeed." So XANA couldn't possess Jérémie? That was good, right? "We have to warn the others."
"Agreed. Where's Ulrich?" Odd asked.
Theo Gauthier just entered the room in time to hear Odd's question, and pointed at the shower room, "He's in there," before leaving the shower room and heading back to his dorm.
Jérémie and Odd both turned around just in time to see Ulrich, still in his pajamas, fall to the floor, surrounded by a dark gray glitching cloud, before the spectre trying to take him over escaped through Ulrich's mouth.
As Jérémie knelt beside Ulrich, who proceeded to cough his lungs up, Odd watched in awe as XANA's spectre retreated through the nearby electrical socket.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
With Ulrich and Jérémie in tow, Odd frantically knocked on Aelita's door before opening it without waiting for an answer (he'd apologize later; this was an emergency). However, the three boys were greeted by the sight of Aelita, in her pajamas, on the floor, coughing as one of XANA's spectres retreated through a socket.
Jérémie immediately ran up to and knelt beside her, "Aelita! Are you okay?"
Aelita let out one last cough, "Yeah, I'm fine. That's was incredibly painful, but I'll live."
"The same thing happened to us," Ulrich told her.
"What?!" The pink-ette was more alert.
"Don't worry," Odd quickly told her. "No harm done. XANA ran away." He motioned to Aelita's computer screen, on which was an alert for an activated tower, "But it's still on the loose. We should probably do something."
Aelita was still sitting on her floor as she confusingly wondered what their enemy's attack was now. "But why would attack us and then leave us alone?"
"It may have been trying to possess us," Jérémie explained. "Why, I don't know. Maybe because of the diary we found yesterday." He nodded his head at the suitcase initialed 'M.S.J.' that was sitting next to Aelita's bedside table.
"Maybe," Aelita admitted, "but it's still concerning." Aelita's phone, charging on top of her bedside table, started ringing, and the pink-ette immediately answered it, "Hello?"
"Aelita, something weird just happened!" It was Yumi, and Aelita had placed her on speakerphone. "I think XANA just tried to possess me!"
"And it failed," Ulrich finished, as Aelita sat down in her computer chair. "We know. The same thing happened to us."
"What's going on?!" Yumi asked.
"Stand by, Yumi," Aelita said, just as the alert on her screen started showing the wireframe of the tower turned from back to the neutral blue. "It seems as though XANA's aborted its attack. It deactivated its own tower."
"So it just gave up?" Odd wondered.
"Apparently," Aelita shrugged.
"I find it strange," Jérémie confessed. "XANA can possess humans, but not us."
"It must have something to do with sex appeal," Odd quipped.
"Yeah, right," Ulrich rolled his eyes.
Yumi shot back, "Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night, Odd."
Aelita checked the time, "Come on, guys. We better get down to breakfast. We have that joint phys. ed. today, and Jim's making us run laps."
"In that case, I'll see you guys later," Yumi said, before hanging up.
However, it was only after the three boys left, and a few minutes later when Aelita was all dressed and ready to go, when she grabbed her school bag and left her room, heading downstairs for breakfast, that XANA chose to strike again.
[New data added: Those who have gone to the virtual world more than once cannot be taken control of.]
So it couldn't possess the five teens. It could still possess their teachers and classmates.
Aelita's computer flashed with a new alert from the superscan, but it was notifying an empty room.
As William was heading downstairs to breakfast himself, XANA's spectre traveled into him by the ear. William stood there in a dark cloud, glitching, before he opened his eyes to reveal the eye of XANA flashing where his irises should've been.
XANA paused, before moving William's body back upstairs to where Aelita's room was. It opened the door, and immediately searched the room before resting on the suitcase next to her bedside table...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It was after breakfast now, and the group was preparing for their conjoined gym class. After changing, they met outside and traveled to the track field together.
"There's something I don't get," Ulrich confessed. "How come XANA's ghosts couldn't take control of any of us, but then have no trouble controlling Sissi?"
Jérémie just shrugged, as Aelita replied, "No idea. I wish I knew."
"Maybe it's because we're used to fighting on Lyoko," Yumi suggested. "So we have some resistance."
"Maybe," Aelita began looking hopeful. "I'll have to check, but I genuinely think there's some validity with that explanation. Maybe our avatars gain a certain code after enough trips to Lyoko."
"Either way, I'm glad XANA doesn't have the power to possess us directly," Jérémie confessed. "Because it if could, it definitely would've possessed me by now, to give myself up to the Scyphozoa."
"I'm glad too," Aelita agreed.
"Well, let's stop worrying about XANA so much," Odd said. "Right now, it's time for gym."
Jérémie groaned. During the past week, he had quickly discovered that while he was great at every other subject (except for maybe music), he was terrible at phys. ed.
"Don't worry," Ulrich gently pat him on the shoulder. "Just take pride in knowing that Hervé is just as bad at gym as you are. Maybe worse."
"I still don't like it," Jérémie bit back.
As the group reached the field, Yumi patted her pockets, only to find them empty, "Oh, I forgot my phone. Cover for me, will you?"
The other four nodded as they watched her run back to the locker room.
They approached Jim, who nodded at Yumi's retreating form, "Where's Miss Ishiyama going?"
"To the bathroom," Aelita seamlessly lied. "She'll be back in no time."
"Smart move," Jim said, marking Yumi down on his clipboard as 'present', "going to the restroom before class. Now, everyone, line up! It's time to get down to business!"
The students all sat down on the bleachers, and as Jérémie sat down next to William, he greeted the elder with a smile, "Hey, William."
William's reaction was less than stellar. The elder just returned Jérémie's greeting with nod. No smile, no words, nothing but a nod. Jérémie shrugged it off as a rough night (he himself didn't have any nightmares last night, though, which he saw as a win).
Jim began his lecture, "Running is the noblest event in athletics! Well, except maybe for the long jump, or the shot put, javelin, high jump, pole vault..." He trailed off. "Some of you may associate running with cowardice, as in running away. Nothing can be further from the truth. Since he who runs well, goes far! Dunbar, Belpois! Let's see how powerful your guys' strides are."
Jérémie inwardly groaned as he got up from his spot on the bleachers. It was only running, so he could pretend that XANA was after him. That usually worked, preventing him to tiring out so quickly.
Beside him, William stood up as well.
As the two got into running positions next to Jim, the man continued, "Now, for those of you with short-term memories, let me remind you that, uh, wh-what was I gonna say?" Nobody knew, Jim. Nobody knew. "Er, right, uh, may I remind you that we start when I say 'go'. Not on 'get set' and not on 'ready'. I mean, well, after 'ready, get set' is when...I say 'go'..." He finally stopped mumbling, and readied his stopwatch. "Right. Okay! On your marks, get set...go!"
Jérémie and William both took off. The blonde genius found that pretending XANA was after him was proving very effective.
But it was ruined when William suddenly cried out in pain, and Jérémie turned back (on impulse) to see if he was okay.
"You alright, Dunbar?" Jim asked.
"No, my ankle hurts," William muttered. Apparently, William had twisted his ankle.
"And that, students, is why it's important to stretch beforehand," Jim said. "Belpois, take Dunbar to the infirmary."
"Yes, Sir," Jérémie replied, before slinging William's arm over his shoulder.
Yumi left the girls' locker room with her phone in her left jacket pocket, zipped closed so it wouldn't fall out. She was greeted with Jérémie helping a limping William away from the field.
She paid it no mind, until she heard Jérémie ask, "William, you're not limping anymore. Has your ankle stopped hurting?"
She saw William respond by grabbing Jérémie's shoulder and sending a dose of electricity from his body and into Jérémie's. Jérémie opened his mouth to cry out, but no sound escaped. Within seconds, the blonde blacked out before he even fell limp.
Gasping, she unzipped her pocket and pulled out her phone, as William slung the unconscious Jérémie over his shoulder and started running towards the park passage.
Thankfully, Ulrich picked up, "Yumi, what's up?"
"I think William's been possessed by XANA!" she told him, as she ran out of the girls' locker room and to Aelita's dorm. "He had Jérémie in his arms, unconscious, and he was heading to the park! I'm heading to Aelita's room to get the location of the tower."
"Right, and we'll cut William off," Ulrich said.
Yumi made it to Aelita's room without any delays, surprisingly, but it made sense seeing as how everybody else was in class.
On the pink-ette's screen was the most recent alert for the superscan, and it was still active. The Japanese girl wrote down the coordinates on a notepad nearby, "Ice Sector, 57 degrees South, 31 degrees East."
She tore the paper off of the notepad, but as she headed towards the door to leave, she paused when she saw the suitcase with the 'M.S.J.' initials.
It looked a little roughed up. Opening it with her foot, she saw that the CDs inside were all completely busted.
Clearly XANA's doing, and it seemed as though Jérémie was correct.
But why? Why the diary?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie felt unnaturally slow as he woke up. What did the others call it? Groggy? Yeah, that was it.
And he hated it.
He felt slightly disconnected from his body, but he seemed to regain control the longer he was awake.
He was in William's arms as the elder (possessed by XANA) crossed the bridge to the factory. But Jérémie hasily shut his eyes, knowing his best bet was to pretend as though he was still out cold.
XANA needed him alive, so it wouldn't hurt him too badly, but he didn't want to be out cold when he was virtualized on Lyoko. That would just give the Scyphozoa an opening.
Fortunately, XANA never noticed that its prisoner was awake, and Jérémie never felt that second shock (at least, not while in William's arms here).
Instead, he heard XANA call up the elevator, just as Ulrich cried out, "Put our friend down, XANA!", and then three people use the ropes to swing down.
XANA-William dropped Jérémie on the ground, and not gently. Ignoring the pain, the blonde opened his eyes to see the AI facing Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita. William's hands began sparking with purple electricity.
Odd ran towards William, only for William to throw him to the side. Odd hit the metal pillar with a sickening clang.
William dodged Ulrich's kick before punching him in the stomach. Jérémie grimaced at how much pain Ulrich seemed to be in.
Jérémie and Aelita connected eyes, and hers told him to run. So he did.
Behind him, Aelita threw a punch at William, only for William to shock her and send her to the ground next to Ulrich.
He began climbing a nearby rope, hoping to get above XANA, only for XANA to use William's hand to grab the rope and send a bolt of electricity up to where Jérémie was. The shock wasn't bad, but it still hurt, and it made Jérémie let go, sending him to the ground.
Fortunately, XANA had William catch Jérémie before the blonde could hit the ground, but Jérémie was still in quite a bit of pain himself. He was back in XANA's clutches, and the elevator was rising up to the surface.
Then, he heard Yumi give out her own signature battle cry, and he opened his eyes just in time to see Yumi hit William on the head with a rusty wrench.
William fell to his knees from the shock, releasing Jérémie in the process, who immediately scrambled away from him and to his feet. Yumi quickly stepped in front of Jérémie, protecting him from the knocked down (but not out) William.
"Let's take care of the tower," she said, as the other three, all carrying visible bruises from their tussle with William, joined them at the elevator. She gave the note paper she had to Aelita, "Here are the coordinates."
But Odd stayed behind, "You guys go on ahead. I'll take care of our friend here."
"Are you sure?" Aelita asked.
"Don't worry," Odd shrugged off his cousin's concern. "It's always my pleasure to entertain guests."
Yumi pressed the down button, and the lift door shut, leaving Odd alone with William.
By this time, William had recovered. He stood up, his hands glimmering with lightning, and Odd moved away from the lift, "Come on, over here, twinkle fingers! I have a good feeling sparks are really gonna fly between us!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita dropped to the ground of the Ice Sector from the sky, landing perfectly on her feet. Yumi, Jérémie, and Ulrich were nearby, waiting for her. She hadn't brought up the vehicles, instead virtualizing the four of them as close to the tower as she could (the supercomputer didn't allow virtualization within ten meters of a tower; it would confuse the coordinates entered with the Digital Sea).
Jérémie had his goggles slipped over his eyes, and seeing his avatar right after that sketch and those illustrations made the others fully aware of how similar it was to Mister Pück from that story book (there were a few minor differences, but the similarity was uncanny).
"The tower is in sight, that way," Jérémie pointed to the group's collective left, where they saw a tower lined in a red aura on the other side of the large ice floe they had landed on, with about three paths leading to it. "No monsters in sight yet, but that will change."
"Then, let's not just stand here," Yumi said. "The sooner we deactivate the tower, the sooner we can save Odd from a beating."
The four took off across the ice floe, and Jérémie muttered, "I hope Odd can hang in there. Apparently, XANA's upgraded its victims to use electricity to attack now."
"I'm sure Odd will be fine," Ulrich replied, but he didn't look completely convinced himself.
The group reached the center of the ice floe, where Jérémie paused as his goggles alerted him to something emerging from the ice below them. "Four Bloks are appearing," he told the others.
Four small cracks appeared in the ice, surrounding them on all four sides. Hearing the cracks, Ulrich muttered, "Uh-oh, I don't like the sound of that." All four cracks grew wider and wider, until the ice broke apart into fragments, leaving holes wide enough for Bloks to slip through.
In no time at all, all four Lyokowarriors were surrounded by four Bloks.
"Jérémie, head towards the tower," Aelita said, waving her hand over her star bracelet and summoning her wings. "We'll take care of them."
The blonde nodded before taking off towards the tower still a few meters away. Meanwhile, Ulrich unsheathed his katana, and Yumi her weapons, while Aelita took off into the sky.
One of the Bloks followed each teen, with the Blok tracking Aelita firing its laser at her, but thanks to the speed her wings gave her, she easily dodged them.
The Blok tracking Yumi spun around, before charging up its laser, but when it fired, it fired rings of fire (literal circles).
Ulrich blocked the lasers of the Blok that had kept its four eyes on him with his katana, parrying them all with ease.
However, the last remaining Blok carefully watched Jérémie run towards his objective. It spun and fired its ice beam. Jérémie nearly fell over when his right leg was suddenly frozen in ice. Now unable to move, all he could do was wait until he was freed (whether by one of the others, by the Bloks themselves, or by the timer the ice was on).
He watched as the Blok that had frozen him turned around to face the other three. It spun around and charged up its laser, aiming at Yumi, who was already preoccupied with her Blok and its fire rings.
Panicking, Jérémie concentrated and imagined a wall to protect Yumi. The Blok shot, only to hit an ice wall that was created just in time.
Jérémie breathed a sigh of relief as Yumi shot him a grateful smile.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
If the others thought they were having it rough, then they should've switched places with Odd. He definitely was not having a good time. He'd managed to lure XANA-William away from the elevator, but he had taken a beating in the process.
Fortunately, the factory floor held a large amount of weapons for Odd to use.
He twirled the length of a chain he'd found and wrapped it around the elder boy's foot, yanking it out from under him, and he grinned, "Ha! Not so tough now, are ya?"
XANA directed William's body to snap the chain easily and stand back up, but Odd twirled the shortened chain again and struck out at the other.
William's hand caught the chain and crackled dark purple, a bolt of electricity traveling along the metal and up the Italian boy's arm. Naturally, Odd screamed and collapsed, but the jolt hadn't been strong enough to knock him out.
He got up as quickly as he could, and climbed up the nearby rope, up to the rafters. "C'mon, pretty boy! I bet you're scared of heights!"
XANA puppeteered William's body to jump up and swiftly land on the rafters in front of Odd.
Well, frick...
"Okay, so you're not scared of heights..." Odd attempted to run away, only for XANA to use William's hands to send a large charge of electricity through the beam, hitting Odd and making him collapse on the pathway on the other side of the beam.
The purple-clad boy simply lie there, his body numb and useless and unable to move anymore.
He heard XANA-William jump back down and walk away, and then the elevator returning to the surface, and all Odd could do was mentally apologize for failing...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Still frozen in place, Jérémie could only watch as one of Ulrich's legs was also frozen by an ice beam. Fortunately, Ulrich used his katana to break free.
"I'm gonna knock your block off, you dumb blockhead!" the samurai taunted.
Yumi called back, "Sounds like you miss Odd! Your jokes are worse than his!", in the midst of blocking lasers with her fans.
Aelita was flying through the air, making circles as she made her wings smaller with every dip, and then larger as she went up, each time dodging lasers from the Bloks with ease. With the last dip, she dropped toward the ground, flying parallel with it. She summoned two Energy Fields in her hands and threw them at two of the Bloks. One hit its target, destroying it, but the other bounced off of its shell.
The one she failed to hit twirled again, and began firing at her, but she continued to dodge the lasers.
The Blok Yumi was facing began shooting fire rings at her. The geisha gracefully flipped through each and every one of them, before getting close enough to throw one of her fans. She gasped when the fan missed, but she quickly used her telekinesis to redirect its trajectory back to one of its four eyes, destroying it.
A still frozen Jérémie cheered at Yumi's victory. She was getting better at using her telekinesis.
Ulrich ran towards the last two Bloks, "Triplicate!" and split into three. Both Bloks started firing at him, and all three clones leapt up to avoid them. One of the clones landed on top of one of the Bloks and pierced its eye with Ulrich's katana.
The clone leapt off the Blok just as it exploded, and upon landing, Ulrich cried out, "Fusion!", thus reuniting all three Ulrichs back into one.
Now only one Blok remained.
It fired at Yumi, who tried to dodge, only to get hit one too many times, thus devirtualizing her. It then turned its attention to Aelita, and there was a hit, as evidenced by her losing her wings and falling back down to the ground (no loss of lifepoints, though; the wings acted as a shield). Aelita quickly got back up, only for her to materialize as if someone was at the controls.
Jérémie gasped at the implication, before the Blok then turned its attention on him. The blonde cowered, but the laser shot by the Blok didn't hit Jérémie himself, but rather the ice holding his leg in place.
Though confused, Jérémie quickly turned his attention back towards the tower, only to be greeted by the Scyphozoa, ready and very close to him.
"Jérémie, hold on!" Ulrich cried out, only for him to be cut off by the last Blok.
The blue elf tried to run, only for the magnetic field caused by the massive creature to hold him back. It didn't take much effort to the Scyphozoa to capture him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The window of the supercomputer screen showed Jérémie rapidly losing lifepoints the more memory he lost due to the Scyhozoa, as XANA-William smiled at the AI's progress so far. All it had to do was get to the Blok to take out Ulrich, and soon, it would be free. It had already materialized Aelita back to Earth, having gotten pissed off at the speed her new wings granted her.
It was about to materialize Ulrich just to get it over with, when it heard Odd call out, "Hey! Don't you dare devirtualize my friends!"
Odd then tackled William's body from the rafters out of the computer chair. Thanks to XANA's power, William easily overpowered Odd and lifted him up by his shirt.
Odd grimaced, knowing XANA was about to shock him again, only for Yumi to come from seemingly nowhere and tightly hold onto William's arm for dear life, as Aelita turned to the monitor and yelled something at Ulrich, still on Lyoko. XANA didn't know and it didn't care. It was too preoccupied with Odd and Yumi.
XANA first let go of Odd, before focusing on Yumi, throwing her into the wall behind her.
As Yumi slumped over, XANA's vision suddenly got darker, as Aelita jumped onto William's back and covered his eyes with her hands, clearly trying to save her cousin and friend.
She was harder to get rid of than Yumi, XANA had to admit that much, but the pink-ette was no match either, as it threw her into the nearby computer chair.
Once Aelita was down, the AI turned its attention back to Odd, who was getting back up.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Ulrich, hurry! Soon, Jérémie will hardly have any memory left!" was what Aelita told Ulrich.
Ulrich ran towards the last Blok, which was giving him a lot of trouble, "Triangulate!" and surrounded it with a yellow-colored triangle.
The Blok shot at one of the clones, leaving two left. It shot at another, leaving the real Ulrich, who leapt forward and drove his katana into one of the Blok's four eyes, destroying it.
Without waiting, Ulrich Super Sprinted towards where the Scyphozoa was, with Jérémie in its tentacles, siphoning out of the boy's brain whatever the AI was after.
The samurai leapt up and sliced off one the thing's tentacles, but one was all that was needed to make it release Jérémie and back off.
Ulrich took a protective stance in front of Jérémie as the elf stirred awake, "Thanks, Ulrich."
"No sweat," the samurai replied. "Head to the tower. I'll take care of this overgrown jellyfish."
Ulrich didn't need to tell him twice. Jérémie took off towards the tower, and after taking one of the three paths, he entered it without any more trouble.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was unable to do anything as XANA stood over him. Electricity arced between William's possessed hands, and Odd's eyes widened in horror as he tried to move away, but his limps refused to respond. He was too exhausted, too injured.
JEREMIE_
XANA made William laugh evilly as more electricity started to build, making Odd squirm more. Twin XANA symbols gazed coldly back at him as he prepared himself for the worst, the hairs on his skin standing up at the electrical charge.
"Odd!" he heard Aelita cry out in horror.
CODE_
He was going to die this time, wasn't he?
Odd closed his eyes, waiting for the finishing blow.
LYOKO_
Only for said blow to never arrive.
Odd opened his eyes, just in time to hear Jérémie say from the computer, "Tower deactivated." It was the phrase he had started using, so the others would know that the danger had passed, for now at least.
Just as he expected, the electricity dissipated and William went limp, the elder boy face-planting right on top of Odd.
"Are you guys alright?" Jérémie asked again.
This time, Aelita used the computer chair as a crutch to ease herself into said seat, "Yeah, we're fine. All aching and definitely with bruises, but we're alive." She glanced back at Yumi and Odd.
Yumi sent a thumbs up as she crawled towards Odd to help drag William off of him.
"Should we...run a Return?" Jérémie asked. "I can still access it for the next five minutes."
But they couldn't. After exploring Sector 5 earlier that week, XANA had quickly devised a plan to insert a virus into some data they retrieved three days earlier. That's when they learned that going back in time made XANA stronger, at least when a tower was still activated. When XANA was asleep, it was probably no big deal, but they couldn't risk it.
"We'll survive," Odd cut in. "Dire emergencies only, remember?"
Right. That was what the group had agreed upon. Just in case.
"What do we do about William, then?" Yumi asked. "He's out cold."
"Jim's under the impression that I was taking him to the infirmary," Jérémie said. "Let's just take him there and pretend he passed out on the way."
Odd shrugged, "Sounds good to me."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
About thirty minutes later, William woke up in the infirmary, with Yolanda at his side taking his blood pressure.
"Good, good. It's returning to normal," she relayed to the five teens waiting. "He'll be alright."
Jérémie breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to William, "How are you feeling?"
"Dizzy," the elder confessed. "What happened to me? I remember making my way to breakfast, but after that, nothing. Just a black hole."
"Well, during gym class," Jérémie effortlessly fibbed, "you twisted your ankle and Jim had me escort you to the infirmary. You collapsed on the way."
"I don't remember gym class," William admitted. "Is that because I felt weird going to breakfast?"
"Probably," Yumi cut in, lying as smoothly as Jérémie did, looking concerned for good measure. "You did seem pretty out of it."
"It looks like a case of low blood pressure," Yolanda softly told her patient. "Don't worry. It happens to everyone. Rest now, and when I release you, get something to eat and get your strength back up. Okay?"
"Okay," William nodded.
The five teens left William and Yolanda in peace.
Outside of the administrative building, Yumi asked, "Are you sure we shouldn't run a Return this time? I mean, yeah, William's fine and both he and Yolanda bought our story, but XANA used William to destroy all of Périn's CDs." This was something she had brought up earlier too, but agreed to let go of for the moment, because preventing William from discovering the factory came first.
"Yumi, I told you, it's okay," Aelita reassured. "Jérémie and I copied all of the contents onto a restricted access part of the supercomputer, remember? Only Jérémie and I can access it."
That's right. Yesterday, after coming back from the train station, that's where the two geniuses went off to.
"I knew that 'Mr. and Mrs. Einstein' fit you two," Odd quipped, making the two blush.
Ulrich cut in, "I would like to know what was in Périn's notes that XANA had such a problem with. I mean, it definitely had an issue with the contents. Otherwise, it wouldn't go to such lengths to destroy them."
"The only way to find out," Jérémie replied, "is to decode the diary."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The group kept a close eye on William for the next three days, just as they did with Sissi prior. Sissi didn't pass out like William did, but the group attributed that to how XANA was on a particular mission with William. All it had Sissi do was hold the others back from helping Jérémie on Lyoko. Meanwhile, it had William destroy Périn's CDs.
But neither of them remembered anything, which was good, and that was all the group could ask for.
That Thursday, at breakfast, after greeting William as he passed by their table, Yumi entered the cafeteria and joined the other four.
"Good morning," she was cheerful.
"Hey, Yumes," Odd greeted. "You look happy today. Why? Did Hiroki accidentally run into another wall because he was so absorbed into his game?"
Yumi barely managed to stifle her chuckle, "No, not this time. This one's even better."
"What's up?" Ulrich asked.
Yumi unhooked her bag from over her shoulder, reached inside, and pulled out a doll with a very familiar appearance.
Jérémie set down his hot chocolate, "Mister Pück?"
"Good, your mom was able to do it," Odd smiled.
"Able to do what?" the blonde genius asked, confused. "Make a doll that looks exactly like the character from my dreams?"
"Yeah," Yumi replied, as if it was obvious. And it was, but Jérémie was genuinely in shock. "My parents still owed Aelita that favor, and ever since I had to cancel you staying with us seven weeks ago, they've never let me forget it."
"Sorry," Jérémie muttered.
"It's okay. It's not your fault," Yumi told him. And she meant it. It was XANA's virus, XANA's fault. "Anyways, I asked you for that sketch because I wanted to give it to my mom to see if she could make it into a doll for you. It took a couple of days, because Mom made it by hand, but she was able to do it. So, this is for you, Jer."
Jérémie's face was red as he took the doll from her, "Y-You guys don't have to keep giving me things! It's fine!"
"Jer," Ulrich spoke up, "when we found you Sunday in the Hermitage, you were sleeping way better than you ever have during the week before, and even for the past three nights. When Yumi told us her plan, we agreed because you seemed to sleep better when you had something familiar with you. In that case, it was the Hermitage. Here, it's Mister Pück."
The blonde genius softly smiled, and replied with, "Thank you."
Because they were right.
That night, he slept the best he ever had since he first arrived on Earth.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 21 - Be My Valentine / Jérémie is given a gift by a mysterious admirer, launching a wave of jealousy within the group.
A/N: Episodes Referenced: Exploration, A Great Day (both of which take place consecutively after 'Fragmented Reality' and before this chapter; I'm not adding them, because again, they're the same as in canon)
I told you Jeremie's pendant would become important later, and it being the key that unlocks the locker containing its creator's diary is why XANA held such an interest in it in "Cain and Abel". Also, this chapter is obviously where the supercomputer's backstory will differ from canon, because if everything was the same, then this would be a boring story.
Yeah, it's a good thing XANA can't possess Jeremie to give himself up to the Scyphozoa. That possibly can't be foreshadowing the next chapter, could it?