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.
Beta read by swordsdownforreview
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"XANA uses Jérémie's friends against him to get what it wants from him for the first time."
Episode 23: A Rock and a Hard Place
(Based on Missing Link & Ultimatum)
Aelita checked the supercomputer's clock for what seemed like the millionth time, and it read 6:25 AM. "What could Yumi be doing?" she asked, mostly to herself, as she tapped her foot impatiently while she sat in the computer chair. "We agreed to meet here at 6 AM on the dot."
It was an early Friday morning, and the group had scheduled a trip to Sector Five in order to, obviously, get some more data on Jérémie's anti-virus or some more codes to help them build the cipher key to Périn's diary. Or both, if they were lucky.
However, seeing as how Yumi was late for some reason, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to get their hopes up.
Down in the scanner room, Ulrich replied, "It's not like her to be late." The other three were waiting there, Aelita having told them to not step inside the scanners just yet.
Ulrich was right. Yumi was always on time. Maybe she had a family emergency to take care of first?
"Maybe she's with William," Odd suggested. A pause, before he continued, "I said 'maybe'." Judging his reply, Ulrich had clearly given his roommate a glare.
Ulrich cleared his throat before changing the subject, obviously wanting to put his mind on something else, "Anyways, Jérémie, why don't you explain to us your fancy thingy upstairs?"
"It's not a 'fancy thingy'," Jérémie dryly explained. "It's an EMP bomb. I made it to help us out against people possessed by XANA."
"It's his first experiment with robotics, guys," Aelita cut in, "so be nice." It was true. Ever since Jérémie had admitted he had taken a liking to robotics and technology, he was always head deep in either a book about the subject, fixing something that was broken, or working on a project. But given their war with XANA and how serious he was about it, it made sense that Jérémie would make things to help them.
"We are, Aelita," Odd replied, before addressing Jérémie, "So you're saying that your thing-a-ma-jig can destroy someone under XANA's control?"
"EMP bomb," Jérémie corrected again. "And just temporarily, enough to let you guys get away. It makes an electromagnetic explosion that affects anything electronic, which includes cellphones, so be careful. Sorry it's not perfect; at the moment, it's just a prototype."
"Don't worry about it," Aelita told him. "As long as it works. Even if it is a little on the big side." It was big and heavy, which the pink-ette knew for certain since she helped Jérémie carry it here. It was currently resting on the factory floor right next to the elevator.
Jérémie gave a little chuckle, before he asked, "By the way, Aelita, have you made any headway on the anti-virus recently?"
She was hoping he wouldn't ask that. That's why she was reluctant as she admitted, "Well, it's going kind of slow, actually. I'm missing a lot of important codes."
Jérémie was quiet, and Aelita felt guilty. She was trying her best, and Jérémie knew that, because she was aware that he didn't want to spend all his life worrying about that stupid virus. She didn't want to either.
Fortunately, Odd cut in, reassuringly, "But with a little luck, we'll find them today."
"And then it's 'ciao, XANA'," Ulrich added. "We'll finally be able to shut down the supercomputer."
She appreciated Ulrich and Odd saying these things to cheer Jérémie up, so she didn't want to correct them, but something told her that shutting XANA down wouldn't be all that simple.
She looked back at the supercomputer's clock, and relayed the time to the others, "6:30 AM."
"Should we..." Jérémie asked, "forget about Yumi?"
If they continued waiting, then they would be late for class. They could ask Yumi what the hold-up was later.
"Yeah," Aelita replied. "Get into the scanners. You're going in." She typed in the commands, bringing up their ID cards one by one. "Transfer Jérémie, transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich!" Their avatars began loading. "Scanner Jérémie, scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich!" Once they were all finished loading, she pressed the 'enter' key. "Virtualization!"
Three arrows, one yellow and two green, appeared on the holomap in the Forest Sector, just as the elevator doors swung open.
"Yumi!"
The Japanese girl was breathing hard, as if she had ran all the way here, "Sorry. I got held up."
"You can explain later," the pink-ette told her. "For now, head to the scanners. I'll tell the others to wait for you." Yumi ran to the ladder, and climbed down in to the scanners.
While Aelita was interested in what exactly held Yumi up, she didn't care enough to put this trip to Sector Five on hold until she got answers.
She just hoped the others shared the same sentiment.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Virtualization!"
Yumi's avatar formed mid-air, before she dropped to the ground, in the middle of the three boys who were already there, waiting for her.
"Hey, Yumes!" Odd greeted her with a smile, "A little longer and we would've started the party without you!"
Yumi shot him a smile to show she knew he was joking, as Jérémie asked her, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," she reassured him, still smiling. She meant it; everything was fine.
"Where were you?" Ulrich asked, bitterly.
Here we go, Yumi thought, as she turned her back to him. "I had something to do." She knew her answer was vague, but it was none of his business.
But Ulrich scoffed, "Yeah, right, like being with William."
She tried her best to ignore the uncomfortable glances Odd and Jérémie sent each other here, and instead turned around to face Ulrich, feeling the need to defend herself, and William, who was innocent in all of this, "Hey, don't you get tired of being jealous all the time?"
"Ha, I knew it! You were with him!" But the boy she truly loved continued to be aggressive, when there was no need to.
"Believe whatever you want!" Yumi snapped back. "Be a jerk if you want, too!" Seriously, why was he like this?!
"Do you think I'm dumb or something?!" Ulrich retorted. Yes, actually. Quite a bit. But she didn't say any of that out loud.
"Cut it out!" Jérémie stepped in between them, literally. "We have a mission in Sector Five, so let's get going already!"
"Too late," Aelita cut in. "You guys have visitors."
Three Kankrelats were approaching them from the north path of the crossroads they were at.
"You two settle this later, okay?" Odd asked Ulrich and Yumi, before turning to Jérémie, "Take cover, Jer. I'm gonna give 'em a little Odd acupuncture." He cocked his arms the way one would a gun.
Jérémie nodded and ran for the nearest tree to hide behind as Ulrich and Yumi unsheathed their respective weapons.
One of the Kankrelats opened fire, and Odd dodged it without barely moving, before firing a Laser Arrow at it. It was destroyed on impact.
"Ah, one down!" Odd quipped. "Great way to start off the morning!"
Yumi jumped into the air, and threw one of her fans, but her fan missed its target. The Kankrelat she was aiming for fired at her as she caught her fan, and she backflipped to avoid it. She landed behind Ulrich, who was deflecting lasers with his katana.
Odd fired another Arrow, but backflipped himself to avoid the laser.
"Be careful!" Aelita warned. "More Kankrelats at five o' clock!"
Odd turned in that direction, seeing two more of them approaching them. They opened fire at him, and he tried to flip to the side, only to get hit by one of the lasers regardless.
Ulrich sped over to help, deflecting a laser before stabbing a Kanreklat in its eye.
The remaining Kankrelat there jumped to immediately turn itself around, and fired at the samurai. Ulrich tried to block it with his katana, only for him to miss. His shoulder sparked where the laser hit him, as he watched Yumi's fan fly through the air and hit its target from behind, destroying it.
Yumi caught her fan perfectly. The two shared a brief silence, before continuing the fight.
Odd ran away as a Kankrelat fired at him, before jump upside down and fired at it as he flew backward. It was also destroyed.
He landed near Ulrich, who was backing away from another Kankrelat. It prepared to fire, but Ulrich front-flipped, slicing it with his katana on the way.
Jérémie continued to hide as he watched this all go down. "Pretty interesting welcoming committee," he commented as two more Kankrelats arrived.
"What do you expect?" Aelita replied. "XANA hates it when we go fishing in Sector Five."
Ulrich glanced behind him to check on Yumi. She was running towards them to help, having taken care of the other Kankrelats. Seeing this, he turned back to the last two enemies, "Just two more."
But as soon as he turned his back, Yumi was stopped in her tracks by another monster, a much larger, more dangerous one...
The two Kankrelats opened fire, and Ulrich blocked the lasers with his katana. Odd cartwheeled to the side to avoid another, landing on a nearby tree and then launching off of it. He fired a couple of Arrows mid-air, defeating another monster.
"Oh, no! The Scyphozoa!" Aelita suddenly cried, sounding panicked.
Odd and Ulrich immediately turned around, expecting to see the jellyfish holding Jérémie, only to be surprised to see the thing holding Yumi instead, siphoning something from her brain the same way it always did with Jérémie.
Jérémie, meanwhile, had run from his hiding place and grabbed one of Yumi's fallen fans. He threw it at the monster, slicing off a few of its tentacles, thus making it let her go (thankfully). Ulrich Super Sprinted over to them as Yumi fell to the ground.
Both Jérémie and Ulrich knelt by Yumi's side as she stirred. "Yumi, are you okay?" Ulrich asked.
"I don't know," she admitted, as she sat up, holding her head. "I feel kind of funny."
"Don't push yourself," Jérémie warned. He knew what getting captured by that thing felt like.
"In any case," Odd cut in, "it seems to have scared the Kankrelats away." He was watching as the remaining monsters retreated.
"Because their mission has been accomplished," Jérémie explained. Their job was clearly to preoccupy the others so the Scyphozoa had enough to time get from Yumi's brain whatever XANA was after. "But why would XANA go after Yumi? Aelita, we should abort the mission."
"Agreed," the pink-ette replied. "Jérémie, the nearest tower is south by southeast." The blue elf ran in that direction. "I'm bringing the rest of you back now. Materialization Yumi. Materialization Odd. Materialization Ulrich."
The forest disappeared from Odd and Ulrich's vision, only to be replaced by the yellow and gold color pallette of the scanner room.
The third scanner opened, only to reveal...nobody.
On Aelita's screen, the scanners window showed all three scanners filling up with green bars, only for only two of them to disappear like they always did, while the third turned red.
"You must have tripped on your fingers, Miss Einstein," Odd told her from the scanner room. "Yumi isn't here."
"I know," she replied, trying hard not to stutter.
"A-Aelita?" Yumi stammered. The holomap read her position as still in the Forest Sector. "Is something wrong?"
"Um, no..." Aelita chose to lie. "I must've made a mistake somewhere. Hold on. Let me try again."
JEREMIE_
CODE_
EARTH_
Jérémie was returning now. So the pink-ette decided to do Yumi's in tandem with his. "Materialization Yumi."
On her screen, two ID cards began to disappear, as two scanner windows filled up with green bars, but only one person went through. The other window turned red yet again.
She was nervous as she heard Odd say, "Missed again."
Unbelievable! Why wasn't it working for Yumi?
"Aelita," Jérémie told her from the scanner room, "tell Yumi to hide inside of a tower. It's too dangerous for her to linger outside."
"R-Right," the pink-ette then addressed Yumi. "Yumi? I can't materialize you right now. Head to a tower and hide there. That way you'll be safe while we figure things out. Direction, south by southeast."
"Okay," Yumi replied, before her green arrow moved towards the same tower Jérémie materialized from.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The others joined Aelita in the lab. On her screens, the holomap showed Yumi inside the tower, her lifepoints back to the standard one-hundred.
"Don't worry, Yumi," the pink-ette reassured the geisha. "Jérémie and I will find the bug. In the meantime, you're safe inside the tower."
"I know you guys will. I have faith in you," Yumi replied. The others couldn't see her face, but they could tell that she was trying hard not to let her anxiety get to her. "And it's not XANA I'm worried about. It's the principal."
Jérémie raised an eyebrow in confusion, "How come? Are you in trouble with him or something?"
"No. I can't believe I almost forgot," Ulrich replied, realizing with fear what Yumi was referring to. "Today's the class picture!"
"Remember, Jer? We had ours yesterday," Odd reminded him. When a wave of realization hit the young genius, Odd continued his explanation, "Today is Yumi's, in approximately one hour. 'One day suspension for any unjustified absence'," he recited, before mumbling, "Thanks a lot, Delmas..."
"Can you just picture my parents' faces if I get suspended?" Yumi asked. "Even for one day? There's no way I can smooth things over with them if that happens!" Even a short time frame would upset Takeho and Akiko, especially since Yumi just smoothed over her always returning home late by excusing it as her 'being in love'.
"We'll do all we can, Yumi," Aelita reassured her. "We promise." But they had to hurry. The clock was ticking. One hour and counting down...
"Hey, I have an idea!" Odd cut in. "You guys know what a great actor I am, right? With a wig, a dress, and a little make-up, I can take your place in the photo! And bam! Signed, sealed, and delivered!"
Aelita immediately rolled her eyes at his dumb plan. She had seen him act as a passable girl before, but he was Italian while Yumi was Japanese. There was also the great difference in height.
"Signed, sealed, and suspended is more like it!" Yumi immediately objected from the tower. "Absolutely not!"
"Now, hold on, Yumi," Ulrich interrupted, appearing to be deep in thought. "That's actually not a bad idea."
"See?" Odd asked, sounding and looking like Kiwi just did the greatest trick ever. "Ulrich's finally admitted how great an actor I am!"
But Ulrich retorted, "You? You stink." Odd's smile turned into a pout, as Jérémie and Aelita could barely contain their giggles. "But I know a really great actress."
"Who do you have in mind?" Yumi asked, sounding like she didn't actually want the answer.
"Sissi. Why? Do you have anyone better?" Ulrich asked.
The geisha surprised everyone with her answer, "No, Sissi should be fine. But I'd bring William in on it. He knows me very well. Especially since Sissi and I are as different as day and night."
Ulrich frowned, but he managed to swallow down his jealousy, "Okay. Don't worry, Odd and I will take care of the school picture."
He turned to the elevator, and Odd followed him, calling out, "Good luck, Mr. and Mrs. Einstein!" as he did so.
The elevator doors soon closed, leaving the two aforementioned geniuses in the lab with Yumi.
"Are you sure, Yumi?" Aelita asked. "His mind immediately went to Sissi."
"Yes, I'm sure," the geisha replied. "Ulrich's worst flaw may be his jealousy," not that she was any better, "but I know he'd do anything for me. Anyways, let's get to work. What do you think the problem is?"
"I think that when the Scyphozoa attacked you, Yumi, it gave you some kind of bug," Aelita theorized.
"Could it have stolen of my memory?"
"Unlikely," Jérémie replied. "After all, it's my memory XANA seems to want."
"I agree with Jérémie," Aelita cut in. "I think that the Scyphozoa did take something from you, Yumi. I don't know what exactly, but we can easily find that out." She began typing in rapid-fire commands. "Stand still. I'm launching a digital analysis."
On the screen, a window appeared, showing Yumi's DNA sequence. The scan was searching for three separate strands. Two were confirmed to be there, but the third turned red, indicating that it was missing.
"S-Scan complete," Aelita announced.
"What's wrong?" Yumi asked, obviously having picked up on the pink-ette's stutter.
"The Scyphozoa stole the sequence code for your human DNA," Aelita revealed, reading the results of the scan from the window still open.
"What is that?"
"It's an important part of your avatar. It's what the supercomputer uses from memory to convert your DNA from digital to human, and vice versa, and basically guarantees that you still have a physical form to return to. You can't go back to Earth without it," Jérémie explained, and Aelita gasped in horror. "It means until we get it back, you're stuck on Lyoko and just as vulnerable as I am."
"Right, so stay inside the tower," Aelita added.
"Oh no...!" Yumi muttered, her voice full of despair. "This is a disaster!" Her green arrow showed her pacing back and forth within the tower. "What about my parents? And school? And my brother? You guys have to find a solution! My whole life is on Earth!"
"Don't panic, Yumi," Aelita gently reassured her friend. "We'll do everything we can."
"What...if...?" Jérémie muttered.
Aelita turned to him, "You have an idea?"
"I think so..." Should he share it with her? Would she even approve?
Before he could explain his idea, the superscan went off. Aelita typed in some commands to get a better reading, "Activated tower in the Ice Sector. Sorry, Jer, but your idea will have to wait."
She typed in some more codes, and brought up the cell phone program, selecting Ulrich's ID card.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Let me get this straight," Sissi said, slowly. She, William, Ulrich, and Odd were standing in front of the Science Building, and the latter two had just the former duo about their request. It sounded a little crazy, so she had to repeat it to make sure she got it right, "Yumi can't make it to the eleventh grade class photo today due to an emergency, and certain circumstances mean her parents can't write her a note either, so you want me to take her place so she won't get suspended?"
"Yes," Ulrich and Odd replied simultaneously. Sissi was a natural actress, had natural black hair, and was the only girl either knew that was close to Yumi's height. It had to be Sissi, or else, their plan was not going to work.
"And you want me," William cut in, "to gaslight our other classmates so we won't get caught?"
"Yes," Ulrich replied. "Yumi requested that we bring you in on it. Said something about how you'd immediately know the difference."
"She did?" A light blush appeared on William's cheeks.
Odd smiled, "She sure did."
"And in exchange for your cooperation," Ulrich finished, "I'm willing to do anything you guys ask."
"Anything, you say?" Sissi asked, as she and William shared an intrigued look.
Ulrich did a mental double take, as he realized the gravity of that proposition, "Well...almost anything..." No matter what he did, he couldn't hide the blush on his own face now.
Sissi and William continued to share a glance with each other, clearly communicating through their eyes and without words, before Sissi turned back to Ulrich and Odd, smiling softly, "Okay."
"You'll do it?" Odd asked, sounding hopeful. "What do you guys want in return?"
"Nothing," William replied. "Absolutely nothing. You said it was to keep Yumi out of trouble. That's all you need to say to get my cooperation."
"As for me," Sissi added, "you and I are friends, Ulrich. Friends do favors for each other all the time without expecting any compensation."
"Oh, o-okay," Ulrich stammered, as he and Odd shared a glance of surprise. "We'll pay both of you back, though, somehow. We promise."
"It's no problem," William shrugged them off. "Now, the plan is for Sissi to dress up exactly like Yumi, while I convince everyone else that she really is Yumi, right?"
"Yep," Odd replied, as Ulrich's cellphone began to ring.
As Ulrich answered it, the four were approached by the principal.
Mr. Delmas's behavior was weird. He seemed angry, almost robotically so.
"Why is he outside of his office when classes are about to start?" William asked, mostly to himself. It was true. The most common time the rest of campus saw the principal out and about was around 3:30 PM, when classes usually got out.
"Good morning, Daddy," Sissi cheerfully greeted him. "Did you need anything?"
Then, he did something very out-of-character.
Without saying a word, he grabbed the forearms of both Odd and Ulrich, and the sudden contact made Ulrich drop his phone in shock.
"Hey! That hurts!" Odd cried out, as he and Ulrich began fighting his grip.
"Ulrich? Ulrich! What's going on?!" Sissi heard Aelita's voice coming through the phone. Her gaze lingered on it.
Meanwhile, William immediately ran up to the man, ready to fight. "What's the matter with you, sir?!" They soon gained an audience, as the rest of the campus watched William rushing to defend Odd and Ulrich. "You can't treat students that way!" He placed a hand on the principal's shoulder, not noticing the strange symbol in his eyes. "What are you doing?!"
Sissi gasped as she watched her father throw William through the door of the science building and landing at the bottom of the stairs. "William!" she called out.
Her eyes gazed Ulrich's phone, still on the ground. She could still hear Aelita's voice coming from it, "Ulrich, please! Answer me!"
Sissi chose to pick up the phone, "Aelita! Something terrible has happened!"
"Sissi?! Where's Ulrich?! What's going on?!" Aelita's voice sounded a lot clearer now and extremely panicked.
Sissi began to divulge the entire story as she checked on William, and she breathed a mental sigh of relief when she saw he was still breathing. He was in a lot of pain, but he was alive.
Meanwhile, outside, Jim rushed to the scene, as Ulrich and Odd noticed the symbol in their principal's eyes.
"XANA..." Odd whispered.
"Mr. Delmas, sir!" Jim called out, running to rescue the two students. "What are you doing?! That's harassment!"
Odd and Ulrich continued to try and break free, only to fail when Mr. Delmas picked them up and carried them both under his arms.
"Sir, stop it!" Jim continued to cry out.
Mr. Delmas's car doors all opened automatically.
"Jim, help!" Odd cried out, hoping Jim would actually catch up to them. He and Ulrich continued to protest and try to struggle their way free.
Odd then saw William limp onto the scene, trying his best to catch them as well. Meanwhile, Sissi stayed behind, seemingly on her cellphone already calling the police.
But Jim was too late, despite his best efforts. Mr. Delmas threw the two boys into the backseat and telepathically shut and locked the doors. He then got into the front seat and started the car.
"Wait!" William cried, only to fall to his knees in defeat when the car disappeared on the horizon. They had failed, and he was still hurt.
Jim knelt beside him, as Ms. Hertz ran up to them.
"Jim! Mr. Dunbar! What happened?!" she asked, frantically. She had seen everything from her classroom window.
"Call the police, Suzanne," Jim solemnly ordered. "Principal Delmas has just gone crazy and kidnapped Della Robbia and Stern. I need to take Dunbar here to the infirmary."
During all of this, Sissi had hung back and remained on the phone with Aelita. She had told the pink-ette what was currently going down, how Ulrich and Odd had just been kidnapped by her father.
In return, Aelita revealed the truth of their secret, the one that united them, the one that she bombed the audition for.
"So my father is...possessed?" She asked, her voice low. "Like in Hospital of Horrors, where James had been taken over by a demonic entity that made him do unspeakable things he wouldn't normally do?"
"Essentially, yes," Aelita replied, her voice calm.
"And in order to help my father, you have to go and deactivate a tower that's in a virtual universe?" Sissi asked, in slight disbelief.
"Yes," Aelita replied, still calm. "Please, trust us. It's the only way to save your father. The way he is now, he doesn't recognize you, or anybody. His mind has been completely taken over the one possessing him."
Sissi took a deep breath to steady her nerves, "What do you need me to do?"
"You say you gained an audience, so someone is bound to call the police. What we need you to do, Sissi, is keep the police occupied," the pink-ette's answer was surprising. "Trust us, if they get involved, they will only be harming rather than helping."
Sissi saw Jim help William to his feet, and she replied, "Okay," before hanging up.
But should she? Aelita said she and Jérémie could save her father, but their method of doing so was very outlandish.
Then again, she had just seen her father kidnap two students, something he's never done before...
Sissi put Ulrich's phone into her pocket, before rushing over to help Jim take William to the infirmary.
Regardless, she had to help.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was pacing as Aelita hung up from her phone call with Sissi.
"Why would XANA want to kidnap Ulrich and Odd?" he asked. "What is it planning?"
Aelita was about to answer, only for the supercomputer to sound a 'ping!'. It was an instant message.
"It's from XANA," she breathed, before reading, "'Jérémie in one hour in the Ice Sector to give himself up to the Scyphozoa. Obey or your friends Ulrich and Odd will be executed'." She turned back to Jérémie, "Leverage. That's what XANA's planning. It's trying to force an ultimatum on you. Which is more important: your memory or Ulrich and Odd? I don't know for sure, but I'm betting it's the same deal with Yumi."
Jérémie's eyes began to sting. He began feverishly shaking his head, "I-I can't just–..." If he gave himself up, his friends would be safe for another day, but XANA would have what it wanted from him. If he didn't, then...
His friends would be gone. He'd never see them again.
Yumi with her sisterly advice and warm hugs...Ulrich with his warmth underneath all that ice...Odd with his jokes no matter how bad they were...and if he wasn't careful, Aelita with her bubbly and outgoing personality was next.
"Send me to Lyoko." He had to save his friends.
Aelita blinked in surprise. She had never seen him so forceful before. "Has your brain been fried or something?! XANA wants you to go to Lyoko, so it can take your memory!"
"I have to deactivate the tower!" he retorted. "It's the quickest way to save the others! Please, Aelita, we only have one hour." She was almost thrown off for a second; she had never seen him beg like this before.
"Exactly," the pink-ette replied, before placing both of her hands on his trembling shoulders. "We have one hour before the ultimatum is up. You heard what Sissi said. XANA possessed Mr. Delmas to kidnap Odd and Ulrich, rather than just destroy them outright. That means it needs them alive, and it's going to keep them alive until that hour is up. That gives me some time to come up with a plan to save them."
Jérémie wanted to cry. He felt as though she shouldn't be making this choice for him. He was the one XANA was after, no one else. But he managed to hold back to tears as he asked, "What's your plan?"
"Your EMP bomb is still upstairs," Aelita reminded him. "You said it would only work temporarily but we should have enough time regardless to get away." Jérémie nodded. "Good. You stay here and keep Yumi company. Do not go to Lyoko until you have Ulrich and Odd available as your bodyguards."
Though reluctantly, Jérémie nodded to show he was willing to follow Aelita's plan.
Without speaking a word, he could only watch her exit the lab through the elevator.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich woke up to find his head on Odd's shoulder. He hadn't realized the rough motion of the car had knocked him out until now. That was the first thing he noticed.
The second thing he noticed was how cold it was. That led into the third thing, which was their surroundings. It seemed like a warehouse. Mr. Delmas, clearly possessed by XANA, was guarding the only exit, a pair of double sliding doors.
"Odd," he asked, his teeth chattering already. "W-Where are we?" His voice was low, almost whispered, due to his fear of catching their captor's attention.
"Given the temperature," Odd replied, his voice just as low, "I would g-guess somewhere north of Siberia." Puffs of rather dense steam came from their mouths as they spoke, indicating just how cold it was. Odd turned serious, "We seem to be in one of those refrigerated warehouses."
"He's blocking the exit," Ulrich whispered back, his arms wrapped tightly around him. At least Odd had the benefit of long sleeves. "We'll n-never be able to g-get past him." He remembered an important piece of information. "I dropped my phone at Kadic."
Odd immediately reached for his pockets, remembering that he didn't drop his. But... "Mine's not here."
"He must've taken it," Ulrich nodded to Mr. Delmas. A pause, before, "How are we gonna get anyone to know we're here?"
"We'll have to escape ourselves," Odd whispered back, "before we freeze to death." He then stood up.
"Odd, he won't let us pass," Ulrich immediately protest.
"We'll never know unless we try." Amazingly, Mr. Delmas hadn't turned around during this, even as Odd approached him, "Uh, M-Mr. Delmas, sir?"
That's when the man reacted, turning around and pushing Odd back with an electrical pulse. Odd was sent back into the railing behind him and Ulrich.
"Odd!" Ulrich exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
The Italian boy leaned against the railing, no longer having the energy or desire to try that again, "Yeah, I'm fine. But I wouldn't count on him cooperating with us."
The man eyed the two boys, and did so until they both sat back down. Once he turned back to the entrance, Ulrich turned to his friend, "We better obey him for now. XANA needs us alive for something, but it's obviously not afraid to hurt us."
Odd could only nod.
A couple minutes passed, and Odd looked over to see Ulrich shivering and hugging himself tighter. Yeah, his friend's short-sleeved shirt definitely wasn't doing him any favors.
"Hey, XANA," Odd spoke up, causing Ulrich to look at him in mild surprise as well as intrigue. The possessed man did not respond, or move, or give any sign he was listening. "Apparently, you plan on keeping us alive or you would've already blown us away by now." Again, just silence. "Just so you know, cold can kill us humans too. So if I were you, I'd do something about it."
XANA gave no sign that it was listening to him until it controlled Mr. Delmas to take off his jacket and throw it in the duo's direction.
Odd smiled, glad that the theory that XANA needed them alive has proven correct, as he immediately wrapped the jacket around Ulrich's shoulders.
"Th-Thank you, Odd," the German boy replied.
"No problem," Odd muttered back, not taking his eyes off of Mr. Delmas.
A few more minutes passed, and it was quiet. Odd and Ulrich were leaning on each other, both feeling tired, despite the coldness (which was very bad). Every so often, they would pinch each other to make sure the other was still alive.
After one of these pinches from Odd, Ulrich readjusted his position on the ground. As he did so, he heard a thump from within the jacket that was keeping him warming.
He and Odd shared a curious glance, before Odd reached into the jacket's pockets and pulled out a cellphone.
His cellphone.
They shared another glance, this one knowing, before Odd quietly picked up his phone and send a quick text to Ulrich's phone.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi was sitting outside the infirmary as she waited for the police to call her in. They were here, rather than her father's office, due to William, an eyewitness, being taken here, and Sissi refused to leave William's side.
"I already told you everything I know." They were in the middle of interrogating him. "Mr. Delmas just came out of nowhere and kidnapped Ulrich and Odd."
"And they fought back?" the lead detective asked.
"Yes!" William sounded offended. "They were trying their best anyway! If you are insinuating that this was all a ruse by the victims, then I must ask that you leave!"
"We aren't insinuating anything, Mr. Dunbar," the lead detective interrupted, clearly trying to keep the peace. "We just trying to look at every angle."
"Can this please wait until my patient has had a chance to rest?" Yolanda interjected, her voice calm, despite the situation. "You are upsetting him."
Sissi's attention was taken off of the conversation when Ulrich's phone, still in her pocket, buzzed, indicating that it had been sent a text. She immediately checked it out.
It was from Odd, and it read, 'Whoever has this phone, only you can help us.'
She texted back, 'It's Sissi. Are you okay? Where are you?'
'We're fine for now,' Odd replied. 'We're at the refrigerated warehouses on the wharf just beyond City Square.' A pause, then, 'Tell Aelita.'
'Okay,' she answered. 'Any notable landmarks?'
But she didn't get a response. And that scared her.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
'Okay,' was Sissi's answer. 'Any notable landmarks?'
Odd was in the middle of texting his response when the phone suddenly flew out of his hand.
He and Ulrich watched in shock as their principal used his electrical telepathy to bring the phone to him, and when he made his hand into a fist, he crushed the phone to bits.
Well, frick.
The two could only hope that Sissi got the message.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi was panicking. She had just lost Odd's signal, and she was the only one who knew where he and Ulrich were (if that really was Odd texting her).
"Very well," the lead detective said, pulling her back to reality. "Elizabeth Delmas should still be outside. Call her in. It's her turn."
She quickly put Ulrich's phone back in her pocket just in time for one of the detective's subordinates to open the infirmary door.
"Miss Delmas," the subordinate said, "if you would please come on in. We have some questions we want to ask you."
Sissi nodded. She entered the room and saw the lead detective sitting at Yolanda's desk, his feet propped up on top of it. She knew Yolanda would be pissed if the woman wasn't already fully focused on William, her patient. Speaking of William, he was lounging on one of the bed's, with Yolanda at his side, taking his blood pressure.
The subordinate closed the door behind her.
"Hey, Yolanda," were her first words, "how is William?"
The nurse smiled warmly, "He should be fine. He'll definitely be sore for a few days, but he'll live. How are you, Miss Delmas?"
"A bit shaken up," she was truthful, "but also fine."
William gave her an encouraging smile, and in that moment, Sissi made her choice.
Just in time, as the lead detective called her over, "Please, sit down, Miss Delmas." Sissi obeyed him, sitting down in the chair placed there in front of the desk. "We understand that this is a scary situation, especially since this is your father. Now, has your father given any sign that he was going to do something drastic as he did today? Think hard. This is very important."
Sissi was quiet, actually thinking, though it was about what to tell them rather than telling them the truth.
"Well, yes, now that I think about it," she replied. Part of her felt bad that she was essentially lying to the police and interfering with an investigation, but she had full faith in Aelita, who needed her to hold back the police. "He's been locking himself in the basement for hours on end, tinkering around, though I don't know with what exactly. The other day he told me that he was fed up with life, and I told him that it was only natural for a school principal with such a heavy load to feel that way. But then he started laughing in a really crazy way," she feigned fear, "and said he did have a heavy load but that he hadn't decided where to set it off yet. And then I also heard him on the phone saying he'd gotten some material. I-I didn't really get what he said, but it sounded like...decorators or destinators, or..." she trailed off.
The lead detective wasn't really paying much attention until he heard that last sentence. He immediately jumped out of the chair, "Detonators?!"
"Yeah, that was it," she replied.
He immediately turned to his subordinate, "Evacuate the school!"
Thanks to the panic when evacuating, Sissi was able to grab William and pull him to the nearby park, where she was sure they'd have some privacy. She had decided to tell him the truth, because he deserved to know who–or rather, what–had beaten him up and taken Ulrich and Odd.
"Ulrich was right to choose you to act as Yumi," William told her, telling her that he knew she was lying. "That was very impressive acting." She beamed with pride at the praise. "But why?"
"Because something more is going on," she told him, relaying what Aelita had told her, "and you deserve to know what it is. The police would only do more harm than good."
"Who told you that?" he asked, not believing her.
She didn't grace that with a verbal response, only pulling out Ulrich's phone and speed-dialing Aelita's number.
"Yes, Sissi?" Aelita picked up right away.
"The police are now looking for a bomb that doesn't exist," Sissi replied. "You're welcome. Please tell me you have a plan to save Odd and Ulrich."
"I do," the pink-ette reassured her. "All I need is their location, but I haven't gotten a single response from them."
"Odd managed to tell me before I lost his signal," Sissi told her. "He said something about the refrigerated warehouses on the wharf beyond City Square."
"I know where that is," William suddenly cut in.
"Is that William in the background?" Aelita asked the principal's daughter.
"Yes. Why?"
"Because he just said he knew where those warehouses were," the pink-ette said, before pausing. She then seemed to also make a choice. "Sissi, put me on speakerphone."
Sissi found the button and pressed it. "Okay. Go ahead."
"What I'm about to tell you guys cannot leave this conversation. Where are you two?"
"The park," William replied.
"Okay. Nearby is a manhole cover. Take that passage and follow the red arrows on the sewer walls all the way to old abandoned factory on the banks of the Seine River. I have a plan to free Odd and Ulrich, but I'll need your guys' help."
Sissi and William shared a glance and brief pause, and finally a nod.
"Okay," William reassured Aelita. "We'll be there soon."
"Thank you," Aelita replied. "But please hurry. We only have twenty-eight minutes left."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"An ultimatum, huh?" Yumi asked. "Fun." She was obviously being sarcastic.
She was waiting in the tower still, lying down with her hands cushioning her head and her legs crossed, as Jérémie had taken up the controls. He had just finished explaining the situation to her. Despite how bad things were going, she was grateful Jérémie was keeping her updated.
"Yeah, fun," Jérémie replied, equally as sarcastic. "There's fifteen minutes left, and our friend the Scyphozoa is in the Ice Sector, waiting for me. Hopefully, Aelita comes back soon. I'm tired of just sitting here and doing nothing."
"She just wants what's best for you," she gently reminded him.
He sighed, "I know, but I feel responsible for this situation, both Odd and Ulrich's as well as yours."
"It's not your fault," she immediately reassured him. "If I had my DNA sequence code, I could join you in the Ice Sector to deactivate that tower. By the way, what was your idea earlier?"
"It doesn't matter. I can't go through with it."
She raised an eyebrow, "C'mon. Just humor me."
He sighed again, this one loaded with severe anxiety, telling her just how stressed out he was right now. But he told her, "I was going to transfer my DNA sequence code to your virtual structure. Your place is on Earth, so I was willing to stay on Lyoko until we found a solution. I mean, I still am. I'm used to it; you're not."
Yumi found herself smiling, "That's a really sweet gesture. Aelita would definitely object, though. Is that why you can't do it?"
"No," Jérémie revealed. "As I told you before, without a sequence code, a person can't convert their digital DNA back to human DNA, so they become a part of Lyoko. That means that once my code transferred to you, my memory would be exposed."
Yumi slowly sat up at this revelation, "So XANA would be able to steal it at will?"
"Exactly," he sounded very down and depressed. "I'm pretty sure that's why the Scyphozoa attacked you." He took a deep breath to try to steady his nerves. "Then, XANA possessed Mr. Delmas to kidnap Ulrich and Odd and use them as leverage. Either way, if I go to Lyoko right now, I'm trapped. XANA gets what it wants no matter what I choose."
Yumi deflated. No wonder Jérémie felt guilty. He felt responsible for what was currently going on. "Focus on Ulrich and Odd. They're the ones in danger." At least, more than she was. "I can wait."
"No, you can't," his vocal tone was now in warning mode. "A Megatank is approaching the tower you're in."
One second later, the tower suddenly shook. Fortunately, Yumi was still sitting, so her grip on the platform didn't change much.
"What's going on?!" she asked, as the shaking stopped.
"XANA's attacking you to force my hand!" Jérémie replied. "Remember, if you lose all your lifepoints the way you are now, you'll be permanently deleted!"
"We have to find the solution then!" she said, kneeling to withstand another shake. "And fast!"
A pause on his end, before he realized, "XANA has stolen your DNA sequence code, so it must be in its memory! And remember, we have a way to access XANA's memory!"
"Sector Five," she realized, before the tower shook a third time.
"Exactly," he said. "The edge of the Sector is not far from you. XANA obviously won't let you reach it unscathed, but I can program you an Overwing. I'll meet you there."
Yumi withstood yet another quake from the Megatank outside, before she asked, "Doesn't someone need to type in the code for the Transporter?"
"I can set it on a timer," he reassured her. "We need to hurry though. That tower is not going to hold for much longer."
She made her choice. She was a Lyokowarrior, and she had faced these circumstances before. She was afraid, yes, but her faith in Jérémie was much stronger.
"Alright, here I go," she told him, facing the exit.
She then ran towards the exit, phasing through the wall. She ran right past the Megatank, wisely choosing not to engage unless she absolutely had to.
She didn't turn around as she heard it chasing after her. As she came to a crossroads, Jérémie told her, "Take the path to your right. There's a gap you can drop that thing down. Just don't stop running, or it might suspect you're up to something."
"Roger that," she replied, heading down the right path.
Sure enough, there was a gap up ahead, and she continued to run, jumping right at the edge and using her twin fans to propel her safely to the other. This time, she stopped spinning just before greeting the other edge of the platform.
She turned around in time to see the Megatank attempt the same jump, only to hit the edge of the platform she was on and fall down to the Digital Sea. A bright blue burst of energy shot upward into the sky, signaling its deletion.
"Nice job, Yumi," Jérémie said, "but you have two Krabes behind you."
She turned around and saw he was right, as two Krabes emerged from behind the nearby trees and wandering into the clearing she was now standing in.
"Hang in there," he urged. "I'm bringing up your Overwing now."
"Okay," she replied, as she unsheathed her two fans.
It was time to show XANA she was still dangerous, despite her handicap.
Her fans in hand, she ran up the trunk of a nearby tree, before launching off of it. In mid-air, she backflipped and landed on top of one of the Krabes. Its eye directly under her, she jumped, throwing both fans at it.
It exploded as she landed safely on the ground nearby.
The Overwing appeared as she caught her fans, and she immediately ran to her vehicle, sheathing her weapons back into her obi as she did so.
The other Krabe opened fire on her as she hopped onto the scooter-like vehicle and just barely flew out of its range.
"The edge of the sector is north by northeast, just ten kilometers away," Jérémie relayed to her. "I'm setting up the timers now."
"Please, hurry," she urged. That second Krabe, now that she was in its sights, was refusing to let her go.
Just as she reached the edge, her Overwing was shot down by the Krabe, causing her to fall and skid across the ground. Fortunately, she stopped just before she could fall over the edge.
But the Krabe was slowly crawling towards her. She got to her knees as she reached back into her obi for one of her fans.
Luckily, she didn't have to engage, because in that moment, Jérémie virtualized and dropped to the ground, landing in between her and the Krabe.
The Krabe was just about to fire, and it immediately backed off when Jérémie appeared in its sights.
Yumi watched as Jérémie used his Creativity to form a giant rock right above the Krabe, before dropping it right on top of the monster, destroying it.
Both breathed a huge sigh of relief once they saw they were safe.
As she got to her feet, Yumi smiled, "Thanks for the save there, Jer. You know, this is a big risk you're taking for me."
He turned to her with a soft smile, "You're my friend. That's all that matters."
The two turned around in time to see the Transporter descend from the sky.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
William, Sissi, and Aelita searched every single door in the warehouse, with Aelita towing the EMP bomb on Yumi's skateboard. It was cold in here, that's for sure. Hopefully, Ulrich and Odd didn't freeze to death before they found them.
"Hurry," Aelita told the other two, checking the time on her phone. "One minute to go."
"We're trying our best," William replied, as he checked another room, and found nothing. "There are dozens of cold rooms here."
"Too late!" the pink-ette cried out. "Time is up!"
Sissi gasped in shock. What did that mean for Ulrich and Odd?
Elsewhere, the possessed principal suddenly growled as he turned around. Time was up. Ulrich and Odd stood up, on edge, as the man approached them, with Ulrich dropping the jacket in preparation to fight.
The man held out his hand, and an electrical impulse immediately hit the two boys, causing them to cry out in pain.
The trio suddenly heard a couple of screams and they immediately turned in the direction they heard them in. Those screams belonged to Odd and Ulrich!
They tracked the two down using their screams, finding the room within the next thirty seconds. Sissi and William, despite wanting to engage once they saw Ulrich and Odd being electrocuted by Mr. Delmas (who was growling with satisfaction), remained behind.
Instead, Aelita turned on the bomb before kicking the skateboard it was strapped to into the room. Once it touched the man's feet, it exploded and a bright white engulfed the area.
When it faded, Mr. Delmas fell to the ground in a heap.
As William and Aelita checked on Ulrich and Odd, Sissi immediately approached her father, "Is he...?" She trailed off, not wanting to say the word out loud. Was her father dead?
"No," Aelita reassured her. "Jérémie made his bomb specifically to attack the ghost possessing the person and leave the human uninjured. But your father still has not been helped, so be careful."
Sissi sighed in relief, before turning to Ulrich and Odd, "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Odd replied. "Thanks for trusting us. Both of you." He was addressing William as well.
"We're your friends," William told them. "Of course we're going to help."
"And you guys are the only ones who can help my father," Sissi added. "Or so Aelita says."
William turned to Aelita. "Now what?"
The pink-ette pulled out her phone from her pocket, "First, I call Jérémie and let him know we're all okay." But it wouldn't turn on. "Huh? It's busted." Without it, she couldn't call Jérémie.
"Well, Jérémie told us that his bomb fried anything electronic," Ulrich reminded her, "and he specifically called out cellphones."
'It makes an electromagnetic explosion that affects anything electronic, which includes cellphones, so be careful.'
Aelita smacked her forehead with her hand, "I'm such an idiot. I had forgotten about that."
"C'mon, let's get to the factory," Odd urged them. "We still have a tower to deactivate."
The five left the warehouse, with Aelita leading the way.
Once they were gone, the principal opened his eyes, which continued to flash the eye of XANA.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Transporter dropped the very vulnerable duo off at Sector Five's Arena.
As they waiting for the room to stop spinning, Jérémie reminded Yumi, "We need to hurry and press that key. There's no one at the controls to tell us how much time we have left."
"Right." Just then, the wall opened from the ceiling all the way to the ground. "Let's go."
She led the way, and he followed. The two paused, being forced to wait for a couple of seconds for the path to open up more. It did, opening in a circular motion, creating a series of platforms that spiraled deeper to where they needed to go. They skipped across these platforms, as Jérémie's goggles alerted them to a Creeper following them.
"Be careful," he warned Yumi. "We're no longer alone." The two didn't stop running.
Understanding what he meant, she asked, "How many?"
"Just one," he replied. "But that could quickly change."
The two reached a room, in which they easily spotted the key. It was on the other side of the room. But there was just one problem.
"XANA's a pretty lame architect," Yumi quipped. "It forgot to put the stairs in!"
It was a completely empty room. There were no platforms to jump on, not via the ground, or the walls. It was just an empty abyss.
"How are we gonna reach the key?" she asked. "You wouldn't happen to have a pair of wings on you, by any chance?"
"No," he replied, "but you can use your telekinesis to carry me there."
"Are you sure?" What if she messed up?
"We have to try it," he reminded her. "We're just running out of time."
She sighed, before getting into position behind him. But just as she was about to concentrate, that lone Creeper suddenly shot her in the side. The force knocked her off the edge.
Jérémie immediately turned around and used his Creativity to block off the open passage behind them. It worked, with the Creeper on the other side. He turned back to where Yumi fell, only to realize that she had not fallen at all.
She was floating in mid-air.
"Woah!" She was evidently just as surprised as he was, as she swam back to him.
"Looks like XANA modified the gravity in this room," he commented, as he grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the platform. "I've got an idea." He concentrated again, this time, creating a platform in front of them.
"Oh, I see," Yumi winked at him in realization.
The two boarded the platform Jérémie had made, and Yumi used her telekinesis to easily move the platform all the way to the key. Once they were in range, Jérémie quickly pressed it.
For a couple of seconds, the two waited in fear as all three levels of the key went into the wall, and on the other side of the room, another passage opened up.
"Bullseye!" Yumi exclaimed, as she and Jérémie shared a high-five.
She then proceeded to use her telekinesis to move the platform over to the open passage. Since her eyes were closed, due to needing to maintain her concentration, only Jérémie could see the Creeper that emerged from that passage.
"Watch out!" he cried.
Her telekinesis still active, Yumi immediately took out her fans as the Creeper charged up its laser, only for it to hit Jérémie, forcing him off the platform.
"Jérémie!" she called out, as him floating there in the abyss was only making him more vulnerable. "Behind you!"
The elf turned around to see the Scyphozoa creeping towards him. Unable to run away, all he could do was let it capture him.
Its tentacles turned red, indicating that it was now draining his memory, and Yumi immediately threw both of her fans, in opposite directions. One fan hit the Creeper waiting for them in that open passage, while the other sliced off the Scyphozoa's tentacles, freeing Jérémie.
The geisha sighed in relief as the giant jellyfish retreated, knowing it was useless without its tentacles. "Are you okay?"
Jérémie nodded, before Yumi used her mind to bring him back to her and their platform. Once the elf was safe again, the geisha redirected her focus to the platform.
The duo finally reached the passage without any more interference.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita, Ulrich, Odd arrived at the factory with Sissi and William. As they ran across the bridge, the possessed principal ran on top of the water and jumped up, landing in front of the entrance to block their way.
"What?!" William exclaimed in shock at the man's actions.
"We told you," Odd reminded their two tagalongs, "that he's being possessed by the ghost of a powerful AI."
"We need to deactivate that tower," Aelita cut in. "It's the only way to get him back to normal."
"Then go," Sissi replied, stepping forward. "I'll take care of him."
"Are you sure?" Ulrich immediately asked.
She did not take her eyes off of her father's possessed form as she quietly confessed, "You want to pay me back so much, Ulrich? Then, save my father. That's all I want from you."
She jumped into the air and aimed a kick at her father, only for him to reach out a hand and shoot a bolt of electricity at her.
The others ran past, but William remained behind, attacking the man from behind. His brave actions just made him end up getting thrown, but as he landed beside Sissi, she (in turn) felt braver. She wasn't alone; Ulrich and the others knew what to do.
She could do this. She would survive.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Jérémie, you are in huge trouble!" the pink-ette's voice was almost at a roar.
She, Ulrich, and Odd had just arrived in the lab, only to find the holomap indicating that Jérémie and Yumi had snuck off to Sector Five by themselves.
"I told you to stay in the lab!" Needless to say, Aelita was pretty pissed.
"No," Jérémie replied. "You told me to, and I quote, 'keep Yumi company'."
"Don't be a smart-alec, Belpois!" she retorted. "You're still in trouble!"
"What are you doing, though?" Ulrich asked. "What are you two risking your lives for?" Both of them, the way they were now, being in Sector Five, the sector that randomized every time it was visited, was a massive risk.
"Yumi's DNA sequence code," the elf told them. "It has to be in XANA's memory."
"And if it isn't?" Odd asked.
"It will be." Jérémie sounded supremely confident. "XANA stole it using the Scyphozoa."
Despite her anger, Aelita sighed, "You're safe from my wrath for now, Jérémie. You're lucky we have more important things to focus on. Are you two at the interface?" She asked, because if the interface was activated, the one at the controls couldn't do anything.
"Not yet. We're at the elevator now," Yumi replied.
"Okay, good," the pink-ette said. "Ulrich, Odd, you two head to the Ice Sector to clear the passage to the tower. Jérémie, Yumi, you two get Yumi's DNA sequence code. We can still win this."
"That's the spirit, 'Lita," Odd winked at her.
"Just get to the scanners already," she ordered. "Sissi and William are taking quite the beating." Ulrich and Odd took the ladder down, as it was faster than the elevator. Once they were inside the scanner, she started the process, "Transfer Ulrich, transfer Odd." One by one, she selected their ID cards, and watched as their avatars loaded in, "Scanner Ulrich, scanner Odd." Once they were fully loaded, she pressed the 'enter' key, "Virtualization!"
Two green arrows appeared on the holomap.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Virtualization!"
The moment Odd dropped to the ground, with Ulrich beside him, he got an out-of-body experience. He saw a sepia-toned image of the entrance to a tunnel on top of an iceberg. When he was brought back to reality, Ulrich was watching him carefully.
"Are you okay, Odd?" the samurai asked.
"I'm fine," the cat reassured his friend. "I just had a vision. Apparently, there's a tunnel that's important."
"Where was the tunnel entrance?" Aelita asked. "Do you remember?"
"On top of an iceberg," Odd replied.
"Hold on. I'll bring up your vehicles," the pink-ette said. There was a brief pause, before the Overboard and Overbike appeared. "The tower is located 65 degrees West, 31 degrees South."
The two hopped on board their respective vehicles and took off in the direction Aelita pointed them in.
As the two approached the mentioned coordinates, Aelita cut in, "The tower is right in front of you."
"Wrong," Ulrich told her. "Right in front of us is an iceberg."
"Wait! An iceberg!" Odd exclaimed, before flying farther and farther into the air. Ulrich turned on the Overbike's flight mode and followed him.
Sure enough, there was the entrance to a tunnel at the top.
"There, it is! That's what I saw in my vision!" Odd said.
"It looks like the entrance to an ice cave," Ulrich commented.
"The tower is down that tunnel," Aelita told them. Three Tarantulas were suddenly virtualized around the tunnel entrance. "Watch out. Your pals the Tarantulas are there."
"Thanks for the tip," Ulrich sassed.
"Cool, I've missed this!" Odd exclaimed, as all three Tarantulas opened fire on them.
The cat flew lower, before stomping on his Overboard, tilting it, just before it could crash into the iceberg wall he was fast approaching. Flying straight up into the air, he zipped past the Tarantulas, who all looked up.
Odd fired three Arrows, destroying one.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Do you know where to find Yumi's code?" Aelita asked, directing her attention to Yumi and Jérémie.
"Not really," Jérémie confessed, as he tapped on the interface at record speed, bringing up and exiting out of various windows he didn't need. "But I'll manage somehow."
"Better hurry," Yumi warned him. "We're about to have Mantas on our backs." She was keep a close eye on the next in the wall nearby. It was starting to bulge, telling them how much time they had left. She addressed Aelita, "How are Ulrich and Odd doing?"
"They're engaging with three Tarantulas. Well, two now. Watch out! The nest has hatched!"
Yumi was already waiting with her fans out as she watched three Mantas exit the wall. She threw one of her fans, destroying it, before using her other fan to block a laser aimed at her.
"I got it!" Jérémie exclaimed. "I'm sending it to you now, Aelita!" He pressed the 'enter' window on the interface, thereby giving control back to her.
"I've got it. Hold on, Yumi. I'll download it back to you in a second."
Yumi turned to Jérémie, a relieved smile on her face, "I'm gonna be really happy to go ho–"
She never finished that sentence. In that moment, she was hit by a Manta and devirtualized right in front of him.
"Yumi!" Fear stricken, Jérémie turned to Aelita, "Please, tell me you had time to reinsert her code!"
"I sure hope so!" Aelita replied, just as afraid as he was. "You get out of there!" The Overwing appeared in front of him. "The Ice Sector tunnel is open!"
Jérémie didn't waste any time. He quickly hopped onto the Overwing and took off. As he flew past the remaining two Mantas, he addressed the pink-ette at the controls, "Can you please check the scanner room? See if Yumi still there?"
"Of course," Aelita replied. "Just make sure when you deactivate the tower, you run a Return to the Past."
"I will," he vowed.
As he expected, when he entered the open tunnel, the Mantas didn't follow him inside. They never did.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie emerged from a way tower in the Ice Sector, and used his goggles to lead him to where the tower was. Soon, he approached an iceberg, which Ulrich and Odd were flying around, fighting a duo of Tarantulas.
He maneuvered the Overwing to join Ulrich, who was using his katana to block lasers. "Hey, Jer. Where's Yumi?"
Not wanting to answer that, knowing he wouldn't be able to with a straight face, Jérémie replied, "Tower first."
Ulrich paused, knowing there was something Jérémie was hiding, but he wisely chose to obey Jérémie's wishes. "Of course. The tower is down that tunnel. You're going to have to jump." Jérémie nodded.
The two Tarantulas looked up as Odd fired a few Arrows at them. He only hit the body of one, which was unfortunately not enough, as it began firing at him. Odd activated his shield, and a few lasers hit it, until he faltered when he was hit in the leg, then his now-unprotected stomach, devirtualizing him.
"Odd!" Ulrich called out, before turning to the elf flying beside him. "Change of plans. Wait for my signal." Jérémie nodded again, and the samurai jumped off of the Overbike.
He landed in front of the Tarantula that had just devirtualized Odd, his katana unsheathed. As Jérémie continued to circle around, the monster shot at Ulrich with rapid-fire, and the samurai successfully blocked every single one of them. Eventually, he managed to redirect a shot back at the one who fired it. The laser hit the Tarantula's eye of XANA dead on, destroying it instantly.
As the third Tarantula focused its attention solely on Ulrich, the samurai called out, "Now!"
Jérémie leapt off the Overwing, and the Tarantula turned around in time to see the elf slide safely down the tunnel.
Ulrich sighed in relief, and was rewarded with the Tarantula devirtualizing him.
Meanwhile, Jérémie quickly reached the end of the tunnel and hit the ground, rolling to a stop on his hands and knees. He got back to his feet and turned around, smiling when he saw the activated tower.
He entered it without any more interference.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich left one of the scanners after being devirtualized, relieved that Jérémie was safely on his way to the tower, if not already inside of it by now. He was greeted with the sight of Aelita cradling Yumi's body.
"Yumi!" He immediately leapt over the hatch in the middle of the room and gathered her in his arms.
On Yumi's other side, Aelita was smiling softly in relief, "It's okay, don't worry. She's out cold, but she's still here with us."
Yumi opened her eyes to see Ulrich smiling down at her. She couldn't help but smile back.
JEREMIE_
Sissi was nursing a broken arm as her possessed father continued to electrocute William. She tried to get up, to help William against her own father, but her bruises hurt too much. All she could do was reach out, as if that would do very much...
CODE_
William tightly squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the pain would stop soon. When would the others shut this tower down?
LYOKO_
They both got their wish. For William, the pain stopped, while for Sissi, her father's eyes returned to normal. His body hit the ground with a thud, just as Odd arrived on the scene.
"You guys okay?" he asked, kneeling next to Sissi to check on her, noting that she was the most injured out of the two.
"We're fine," she quickly shrugged off his concern, before nodding in the direction of her out-cold father. "Is he...?"
"No, just knocked out," Odd replied. "Don't worry."
"What's going to happen now?" William asked. "I mean, with the kidnapping and everything." The way things were going now, Mr. Delmas would go to jail for kidnapping students, attacking another one who tried to stop him, as well as being under suspicions for working with a bomb. Plus, Sissi would possibly go to jail for lying to the police.
"Everything's going to be alright," Odd reassured him. "No one will remember anything, not you, Sissi, or you, William, or the police, or Mr. Delmas. It will be like it never happened."
"How?" Sissi asked.
"Magic," was all Odd replied with.
Because right then, a bright white bubble engulfed everything, and the injuries Sissi and William had suddenly stopped hurting so much.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Time had reset to this morning. Instead of heading to Sector Five to get some data, the group chose stay at Kadic, just so Yumi wouldn't miss the class photo. As Yumi focused on said photo, Aelita promptly chewed Jérémie out for disobeying her, and Jérémie listened to her lecture without speaking a single word.
Once Aelita got out all her anger, it was replaced with relief that he and Yumi were both okay, that they had both survived their trip to Lyoko's most dangerous sector with their shared handicap.
There was no punishment, no silent treatment, no petty revenge. Aelita was better than that, and besides, she understood how Jérémie was feeling when he made the choice that he did. She knew how guilty he was feeling, and she knew he felt like he had to do something. In all honesty, she would've done the same thing.
After that day's class let out, Yumi, still wearing her dress for the photo, joined the others in the courtyard. As she sat down on the bench next to Jérémie (with Aelita on his other side), Ulrich stepped up.
"Hey, Yumi, I, uh, wanted to apologize for before. You're right, I was being a jerk, and it was none of my business what you'd been doing. So, I'm sorry." Part of him didn't want to look her in the eyes, but he did so anyways, to prove he was being sincere.
Yumi, in turn, warmly smiled at him, "Apology accepted. Yes, it's not your business, but since you apologized, I'll tell you anyways. I was buying five tickets for next Saturday's Subdigitals concert. And it wasn't easy. Bad internet connection."
"So that's why you were late?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah," a light blush was on the Japanese girl's face, showing her embarrassment. "Sorry."
"It's okay, Yumes," Odd brushed it off. "We get it. The Subdigitals are very popular here in France, so you wanted to get the tickets before they sold out."
"Thanks, Odd," she told him, her smile back. "I was going to tell you guys after the mission was done, but then..." Everything went to hell, remained unsaid, but the others understood where her thought train was headed. So they didn't ask.
Jérémie had been rather quiet, ever since he deactivated the tower and ran the Return. Ulrich, being the silent type himself, had noticed, but only now did he decide to ask why. He caught the blonde's attention by gently poking his cheek, "What's eating you?"
He got a raised eyebrow of confusion in response.
So he corrected himself, "Figure of speech. What's bothering you?"
Jérémie glanced down at his lap, in which he was wringing hands nervously. His voice was soft as he asked them all a question they've heard him ask before many times, "Are you guys sure you want to keep fighting XANA for my sake?" He held up a hand to silence them when they all started responding at once. "I mean it. Think hard."
"Jérémie," Aelita asked, "what is this all about?"
"XANA stole Yumi's DNA sequence code, expecting me to consider transfering mine to her. If I had, it would've allowed XANA to steal my memory at will. Once I decided not to, it then attacked her, forcing me to consider changing my mind," Jérémie reminded them. "At the same time, XANA kidnapped Ulrich and Odd and held them hostage, forcing me to go to Lyoko within the next hour to give myself up or else it would kill them. No matter who I chose to save, we would've lost someone."
The other four were silent, as the whole situation they just went through being said aloud with actual words forced them to sit down and really think about it, to sort through their emotions.
Jérémie continued, his blue eyes stinging with unshed tears, "XANA could've very easily won this time, and whether it did or not, we could've lost Sissi and William too. I don't want to force any of you to go farther if you don't want to."
"Jer, this isn't the first time we've had close calls," Odd quietly reminded him.
"And I don't want to see those happen anymore!" Jérémie protested. "I'd rather live in the oblivion of a shut down supercomputer than have another ultimatum like that thrust upon me!"
The group was quiet as they thought about he was telling them. He was obviously shaken up about this attack, even if, in the moment, he was nothing but stoic and focused on the task at hand.
Yumi was the one who broke the tense silence, "Jérémie, trust me. We have thought about giving up before. Many times. But our answer is always the same for a reason. Yes, we're sure, because you're our friend, and that's all that matters."
She had parroted his own words specifically because she knew he had said them to her first. He meant them, and so did she.
"And I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you need to," she continued. "This is not the first time our lives were in your hands, and it certainly will not be the last." She was right about him not wanting to hear it, because he immediately averted his eyes from her, back down to his lap. "We'll try our best from now on not to let it get that close again, but with XANA, there are no promises."
Odd cut in, adding an important detail, "And just like how our lives are in your hands, Jer, your life is also in ours." His words made Jérémie glance up at him. "We trust you to deactivate the tower in time, while you trust us to get you to that tower. So, it works both ways. That's what true friendship is."
'That's what true friendship is.'
It was amazing, Jérémie felt, how the others could validate his fears and then subsequently squash them as if they were nothing in record time. He honestly didn't need to worry about anything when he was with them. As long as they were friends, he felt like he could face anything. Whether it was XANA attacking just to bring him to Lyoko, or trying to remember the dark abyss of his strange nightmares lately, or just exploring an aspect of every day human life, Jérémie Belpois didn't need to worry about anything as long as his friends were by his side, always ready to help in whatever way they could.
Understanding the point they were trying to make, he softly smiled at them, "Okay. As long as you guys are sure."
"We are," Ulrich replied.
"Good." The blonde in blue then admitted, "I just have one more very important question." The other four leaned in closer, thinking he was about to ask one along the veins of what they had just got done explaining to him. "Who are the Subdigitals?"
The other four all blinked in surprise, before letting relieved smiles break out on their faces.
"Only the best French band ever!" Odd exclaimed.
Jérémie raised an eyebrow in genuine intrigue, "Are they DJs like Aelita?"
"No," Aelita held back a giggle. "They make their music with actual instruments rather than a computer."
"So it's a different experience," the blue-clad blonde noted. "Interesting."
"That's the spirit!" Odd said. "And thanks to Yumi's hard work and sacrifice, you now have the chance to see them in person."
A slight frown appeared, "You guys will be there too, right?" It was an honest fear. He didn't feel comfortable going to any public outing by himself.
Yumi's smile was wide, "Of course, we will. I bought five tickets for a reason."
Jérémie would always be weighed down by the fact that the others were counting on him, that their lives were in his hands. But Odd was right: it went the other way too, as he always trusted them to clear the passage so he could get through and do his job.
XANA had tried to use their bonds against them, but it had failed.
And it would always fail for a reason.
The rogue AI would never understand that reason, and Jérémie felt sorry for it. After all, it was a wonderful feeling, something logic could never explain.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 24 - Common Interest / As the others worry about XANA's attacks increasing in intensity and frequency, Jérémie's virus suddenly catches them off-guard.
A/N: Episodes Referenced: "Exploration"
Remember, in this continuity, Jérémie can materialize himself by entering Code: EARTH inside a tower. I also fixed that inconsistency from canon, where Jérémie materializes Aelita without using Code: EARTH.
Don't mind me. I'm just adding some things to give Sissi and William some more chances to shine.
And yes, by moving Jérémie sneaking off to Sector Five here does indeed mean I have something else in mind for this AU's version of the "Aelita" episode.