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~~~!
"Someone wants to get into contact with the group, and it's not XANA."
Episode 33: The White Tower
(Based on Contact & Tip-Top Shape)
Aelita hung her head and sighed at the all-too familiar error message flashing on the computer screen.
Today was Kadic's medical check-up day, and all classes besides gym had been canceled to let Yolanda and the teachers focus on the students' health. So, after her own check-up, Aelita had retreated to her room to work on the anti-virus. The sooner she finished it, the sooner they could shut down XANA, after all.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though all of her recent ideas on leads had reached a dead end, as evidenced by the error message on her monitor. She needed to find a new avenue, and fast.
A knock came to her door, bringing her back to reality. "Come in," she replied, and her door opened.
In stepped Ulrich and Yumi, the latter of whom greeted her, "Hey, 'Lita," as the brunette boy closed the door behind them.
"Hey," she replied. "How'd Jérémie's check-up go?"
"Pretty well," Ulrich replied, starting with what he knew was Aelita's biggest concern. "Yolanda didn't think twice about his lack of medical records. She shrugged it off as him being an orphan."
Thank goodness for that cover story of theirs, Aelita thought as she sighed in relief. It's worked wonders for them so far.
"Physically, despite being a little underweight, he's perfectly healthy," Ulrich continued. "Odd and I are fine too."
"What about you, Yumi?" Aelita asked. "I heard you won Jim's metaphorical 'athlete of the day' award."
Yumi shrugged, "It's no big deal. I just beat the school record."
"100 metres in 14.35 seconds," Ulrich revealed, glancing at her with pride. "That is certainly something to be proud of."
Yumi waved it off, "It's just from nearly two years of fighting XANA."
"Maybe so, but still," Aelita replied. She paused briefly, "Is Sissi still freaking out about her being two kilos overweight?"
"Probably," Ulrich chuckled. "Meanwhile, Yolanda's realized that Odd's so scrawny because of his fast metabolism, and Jérémie's managed to convince Julien that glasses aren't all that bad."
"Oh, he failed the eye test?" Aelita amusedly remembered how Julien Xao was memorizing the eye chart in Yolanda's office while they were waiting for their names to be called, just so he wouldn't have to get glasses.
"Didn't get a single one right," came the brunette's response. "Anyways, how's it going with you?"
"Yeah, you look awfully down," Yumi added. "What's wrong?"
The pink-ette sighed once more, "I've been spinning the wheels in my head for days now on Jérémie's anti-virus and decrypting Périn's diary, but I keep running into dead ends. Even with the latest data we got from Sector Five yesterday, I haven't moved ahead one micron. Why can't the real Michel just...give me a sign? Nudge me in the right direction?"
"Relax," Yumi reassured her. "I'm sure it's just a question of time."
"You think so?" Aelita, however, didn't look very convinced. "What if I'm just...not good enough?"
Ulrich quickly stepped in, "Uh-oh. I think that's our sign to air out your neurons a little." None of them liked seeing Aelita, who was normally confident and self-assured, so insecure like this. Especially not Jérémie. "And we know just how to do it. Tonight is Kadic's annual Short Film Night, and Odd's slated to go on first."
A smile immediately broke out on Aelita's face. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Has he revealed which one he's showing yet?"
"Nope," Yumi replied with an amused smile. "Everything about it is completely under wraps. He won't show anyone, not even us."
"Do we know who's starring in it, at least?" Aelita asked, curious.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Said star of Odd's film was giving an interview to Milly and Tamiya later that evening. "Humbly speaking," Sissi was saying, "I don't think it's unfair to say that this first role will reveal to the entire world my true star personality."
The trio was in the hallway right outside the auditorium, which had been converted into a makeshift theatre. It was also after dinner hour, and Yumi's parents had let her and Hiroki stay for this Short Film Night, probably because it was Saturday, and thus not a school night.
"Can you sum up the story for us in just a few words for the Kadic News?" Milly asked, Tamiya behind her holding the camera.
"Uh, well...that is, uh, it's..." she immediately began stuttering, "well, it's a love story, and at the same time, it's a thriller! With suspense, and of course, it's got a good dose of psychology, and-and-and it's very funny!" She giggled nervously, trying to hide that she didn't actually know. Odd had kept the full script a secret from her. "A real comedy, and uh, quite satirical!"
"So, you have no idea," Milly stated, already knowing the answer.
Sissi cringed. Was it that obvious? "I, uh, gotta go. Someone's calling me."
Milly and Tamiya both giggled as Sissi raced off into the auditorium.
Odd was already inside, seated next to four empty chairs that had on them little signs that said 'reversed'. As one of the featured directors in tonight's event, he had the power to save seats for his friends.
He then blinked and suddenly his friends were there, sitting down next to him. He offered them what he hoped was a real enough smile, but they saw through it anyways.
"How's it going, Odd?" Ulrich asked. "Still got butterflies?"
So it was that obvious. "No, I'm-I'm-I'm cool," Odd stammered.
"You'd never guess," Ulrich smirked, as Aelita softly giggled.
Odd sighed, "I don't know why I'm so nervous! This isn't my first Short Film Night!"
"Relax, Odd," Jérémie offered a reassuring smile. "I'm sure it'll be a great film."
"Thanks, Jer," the Italian boy smiled back. "Well, to be honest, thanks to our fight with XANA, I didn't have any time to film a new one this year, so I had to dig deep for a short film I hadn't shown anyone yet."
"Ah," Yumi realized what he meant. "No wonder you're nervous. You're not sure if anyone will like it because you think it's not your best work."
"That," Odd confessed in a low voice, "and it was made before we became friends with Sissi." Meaning it likely showed her in a not-so-flattering light, his friends realized. "So you could say I'm fearing her reaction more than anything else. I've decided to just let her yell at me."
On the other side of the auditorium, Sissi was bouncing her knee up and down rapidly out of nervousness of her own. Odd had warned her that it was an old film, but he hadn't told her which one.
"Relax," Nicolas whispered to her, placing a comforting hand on her knee. "I'm sure you're gonna be great!"
"Thanks, that's sweet," she sarcastically replied, before lowly growling, "Now, move your hand or lose it at the elbow."
Nicolas quickly took his hand away, unaware that he hadn't actually touched her knee until she said something.
Fortunately, in that moment, Mr. Chardin walked up the podium and cleared his throat, "Hello, everyone! I'd like to welcome you all to this year's edition of Kadic Academy's Cinema Club's Short Film Night!" There was a burst of applause from the crowd. "The short film is, was, and always will be an important art form, and can say as much as a full-length feature. That is why I'm going to stop speaking now and leave the talking to the imagery of our films tonight. Without further ado, our first film is by Odd Della Robbia, titled, rather poetically, as 'Natural Grandeur'."
That was indeed an old one. It was created two years ago, about a month or so before the group first met Jérémie. At the time, Odd was deeply interested in short films but still figuring out how it all worked, and working on how to refine the process. 'Natural Grandeur' was the very first film Odd was legitimately proud of, but it was still fairly flawed. And Odd knew that.
The projector at the back of the room turned on, shining light on the screen, as Mr. Chardin sat down in an empty chair in the front row.
The title screen showed an image of Odd in the dorms staring at someone's (very familiar) silhouette in fear, as the title 'Natural Grandeur' appeared in scary font at the bottom of the screen. Sissi raised an eyebrow when she saw the shape of the shadow, but she said nothing.
"Help!" Odd ran through the halls. "Help! She's awake! We're all doomed!" His path was blocked by someone in a red jacket very similar to the one Jim wore.
"What's all this racket about?" Romain Le Goff, playing Jim, asked.
The students in the audience all laughed at Romain's imitation of Jim's voice. Jim was also laughing until he realized they were laughing at him. So he stopped and instead glared at the students, crossing his arms, unamused on the outside but secretly enjoying it on the inside.
"Jim, please! We have to get out of here!" Odd cried out. He was obviously scared of something, but that something continued to remain off-screen. "Sh-She's coming, I tell you! And she's as big as her ego!"
Odd glanced down the hall in fear, and Romain-Jim followed suit, but saw nothing. He then placed comforting hands on Odd's shoulders. "Be real, Della Robbia. That's impossible. Do you know how big that would make her?"
The audience laughed again, as Sissi raised an eyebrow. Odd had warned her that she was in this film, and now she had a pretty good idea who this 'she' was. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"I think you've lost your senses," Romain-Jim said, as he led Odd outside of the dorms. "Let's go to the infirmary and get you checked out."
The students were still laughing at Romain's impression of Jim, who was frowning deeply, but a smile was beginning to form, twitching at the corner of his mouth, despite Odd making fun of him. Jim had to admit that it was pretty funny.
Meanwhile, the real Odd was relaxing the more people were enjoying his film. While he was far from proud of this one, it still held a special place in his heart as the first film of his that he actually liked even remotely.
"No! Not outside! She'll find us!" Screen Odd begged, but Romain-Jim didn't listen, his clear concern being Odd.
However, once outside, the ground began to shake as if a giant was creating footsteps. The two both stopped in their tracks and gasped as they looked up.
It was a giant Sissi, approaching them from the forest and walking slowly to help sell her giant stature.
"It's too late!" Odd cried, as he and Romain-Jim backed up. "We're like rats in a trap! This time, it's all over!"
Sissi gasped in horror, glaring at the screen, remembering filming this for Odd. He told her to 'walk through the forest and be herself'.
Just as she feared, the Sissi on the screen then looked at her hand, slowly and loudly exclaiming, "Oooohhhhh raaaatsss, IIIIIIII juuuuuussst brooooke aaa naaaaiiiiilll!"
Sissi growled in anger as her classmates started laughing even louder at her stupid comment, before storming off.
Odd and Romain-Jim screamed as the giant Sissi got closer before it cut to black.
Everyone turned to the projector to see a furious normal-sized Sissi standing next to it. She was actually growling as she stormed up to Odd.
"Odd, you moron! You are nothing but a–" A black ghost emerged from the project without anyone seeing it, miraculously, and began slinking around her. "Nothing but a–" Her body was suddenly covered in static, as if she was a computer program glitching out. She looked around and her gaze centered on Jérémie, "Su s'ti, nos..."
The blonde genius raised an eyebrow at her words, not understanding what she was saying.
Mr. Delmas quickly got up from his seat and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Elizabeth, sweetheart, is something wrong?"
But Sissi focused her gaze on Aelita, staring intently at her, as if she was telling the pink-ette something that was important, a matter of life and death, "Uoy pleh nac ew. Nirép eihpos dna lehcim laer eht era ew. Won uoy htiw tcatnoc otni retne ot hsiw ew. Uoy pleh nac ew."
It was important, Aelita knew, but unfortunately, she was taking too long to figure it out.
Jim approached the scene, "I'll take care of this, Mr. Delmas." He placed both of his hands on Sissi's shoulders, causing her to freeze up as if she was scared of him. "I think you lost your senses. Let's go to the infirmary."
Some students laughed, remembering that Romain-Jim said the same thing, the exact same way, but Mr. Delmas silenced them all with a glare as the real Jim walked off with a stammering Sissi.
"Forgive me, Mr. Chardin," Mr. Delmas said, "but I believe it's best to postpone this Short Film Festival for a later date when everyone is in perfect health. Everyone, back to your dorms."
As the students groaned but followed their principal's orders, Yumi leaned in to her friends and whispered, "You think it could be XANA?"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Fifteen minutes later, Aelita was on her computer, inspecting the superscan with Jérémie, Odd, and Ulrich intently watching.
No alarm. "Nothing. No activated towers. No system alerts. Apparently, XANA's got nothing to do with this."
A knock came to the pink-ette's door, before it opened. Yumi walked in and shut the door behind her. "Yolanda said that Sissi received an electric charge from turning off the projector so fast. She's in shock, but fine. There's nothing to worry about, but Yolanda's keeping her in the infirmary overnight just to make sure. Mr. Delmas's orders."
Made sense. This was his daughter, after all, who was exhibiting strange behavior.
"Poor Sissi," Odd faux-lamented, a hand resting on his cheek. "She had a shock seeing herself on screen, yeah, but from that to blowing a fuse. Quite literally."
"Yeah, her acting was really electrifying," Ulrich added with a smile.
The two boys chuckled as Aelita grinned in amusement. "Yeah, well, in any case, it's a false alarm. We can all sleep easy now."
Ulrich began stretching his arms, "That works out just fine for us. 'Cause tomorrow is Sunday, and on Sunday–" He trailed off on purpose.
"–We sleep in!" Odd finished.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Later that night, however, Aelita began stirring from her slumber when she heard her door quietly creak open. She burrowed deep into her covers as her visitor got closer and loomed over her, as if she could pretend they weren't there, or it was just a dream.
At least, until she heard, "Pu ekaw."
She opened her eyes to see Sissi standing there with the same blank yet slightly frightened look she had earlier. The pink-ette immediately sat up in alarm.
"Sissi, what are you doing here?"
"Uoy pleh nac ew. Won uoy htiw tcatnoc otni retne ot hsiw ew."
There was that weird gibberish again. Aelita thought some rest would snap Sissi back to reality, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Sissi seemed to understand that the pink-ette just wasn't getting it, as she stopped speaking and crossed over to the pink-ette's computer desk. Pulling out a piece of binder paper, she then began writing her message down with a nearby pencil.
Unfortunately, Sissi didn't get very far with her writing, as Jim entered the room not long after.
"What's all this racket about?" The man noticed Aelita's visitor. "Sissi, you should be in the infirmary!" He grabbed her shoulders, and she dropped the pencil in the same manner as earlier—she just froze up as if afraid of him. "Geez, your father's gonna have my head again!" He then ushered her out.
Aelita watched them leave, with Jim closing the door behind them, before she turned back to the piece of paper Sissi was writing on. She picked it up and began closely studying it.
It was the same gibberish the principal's daughter was speaking earlier, but it was clearly important if Sissi felt the need to break out of the infirmary late at night to say it out loud. And both times, she was intent on addressing Aelita.
What if...?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The others emerged from the elevator the next morning to find Aelita seated at the supercomputer. The pink-ette had called them all to the lab fifteen minutes earlier, despite it being a Sunday, the only day they could all sleep in.
"You mind telling us why you called us here on a Sunday morning?" Ulrich asked, as he and the others gathered around the monitor.
"Sissi's message last night was a code," Aelita explained. "I ran the supercomputer all night to translate it. I wanted you guys to look at what it turned up."
They all carefully watched the program she was running on the screen as it took Sissi's handwriting from last night and translated the incomprehensible, mysterious symbols into a language they could all understand.
"'We can help you'?" Yumi read aloud, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"It has to be a trap by XANA," Ulrich immediately suggested, shaking his head. "It must've managed to somehow possess Sissi without activating a tower."
"I don't think so," Jérémie softly protested. "Otherwise, Sissi would've gone after me. She would've tried to get me onto Lyoko, so the Scyphozoa could steal my memory. Instead, she went to Aelita to give her that coded message."
"He's right," Aelita agreed, deep in thought. "Besides, the superscan isn't bugged up. If you ask me, someone or something wants to contact us through Sissi, but it's not XANA. The message, after all, says 'we', not 'I'."
"True." Odd then asked his cousin, curiously, "Who do you think it is?"
The pink-ette shrugged, "No idea. To find that out, we have to talk to Sissi again, and let her finish her message."
"I'll bring her over," Yumi volunteered, before glancing around at the lab. "Anyone care to join me?"
"I will," Odd replied. "I'm your man, Yumi." Ulrich immediately shot him a glare. "W-Well...you know what I mean."
Yumi just shrugged in amusement as she led Odd back to the elevator. As the doors closed, with them inside the cabin, Ulrich turned back to the screen.
"I want to take a closer look around Lyoko," the brunette voiced his concerns. "I need to make sure XANA isn't setting some sort of trap."
"I'll go with you," Jérémie immediately offered, to Aelita's dismay.
"With the Scyphozoa around? No way! It's too dangerous! I'll go with Ulrich."
"Aelita, I'm the only one who can feel pulsations," he reminded her. "I appreciate your concern, but it has to me."
He had a point. If a tower had indeed been activated, Jérémie was the only one who could track it down without the assistance of the superscan.
Unable to deny the truth in that, Aelita reluctantly sighed, "Fine. But it's just a reconnaissance mission, so make it fast." She seemed to aim that last part more at herself than them, though.
"We know," Ulrich replied. "Relax. We won't go crazy."
Aelita rolled her eyes in jest as the two boys climbed the ladder down to the scanner room below.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The door was propped open when Yumi and Odd reached the infirmary. As they approached, they saw Sissi lying down on one of the beds, with her father at her side holding her hand and Yolanda monitoring her vitals.
"Her heartbeat is normal," the school nurse relayed. "Her blood pressure is normal. Nothing appears to be wrong with her."
"But she is unresponsive for a reason," Mr. Delmas stressed.
Sissi was just lying there, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes.
"I know, sir," Yolanda replied, a hint of concern in her voice. "I'll keep her here in the infirmary for another day or so. If, by tomorrow, she's still like this, I'll call the hospital."
The principal sighed, "Very well."
Yumi and Odd shared a knowing glance with each other before, before Odd softly knocked on the open door frame. The two adults glanced at who was visiting.
"Hey," Odd offered, "um, we heard about Sissi. I was wondering if my film last night had anything to do with it. I'm sorry, I should've picked a different one."
It was the truth, Yumi noticed. Despite the more pressing task at hand, Odd felt genuinely guilty about not picking a movie that showed Sissi in a better light. She was their friend, after all.
"I'm sure your film has nothing to do with it," Mr. Delmas reassured him. "She just received a nasty shock from the projector."
"Maybe she'd do better with a breath of fresh air," Yumi suggested. "Unless she's not well enough..."
Mr. Delmas turned to Yolanda, who replied with, "She should be fine. I don't think it can hurt anything. That is, if she responds to you."
As if on cue, Sissi (still in her pajamas) slowly sat up from the bed, and—to the two adults' surprise—got to her feet and crossed over to Yumi and Odd. She remained close to their side, as if she trusted them more than Mr. Delmas or Yolanda.
Mr. Delmas sighed, "Very well. I must get to work now, so I leave her in your hands." He addressed the two teens directly and sternly, "Take care of her." Yumi and Odd both nodded, fully intent on keeping that promise, and the principal turned to the nurse, "Let me know of any changes in her condition immediately."
"Of course."
Satisfied for the time being, Mr. Delmas left the infirmary.
Yolanda addressed Odd and Yumi, "I'll give you three until lunch time. Bring Sissi back then and we'll see if her condition has improved. Let me go get Sissi a pass." She then wandered over to her desk.
As the woman was filling out a slip of paper with Sissi's name and the people who were taking her outside the infirmary, Yumi's phone rang.
She picked up, "Hello?"
"Watch out. XANA's on the offensive," Aelita relayed. "Activated tower in the Ice Sector."
"Thanks for the warning," Yumi replied in a low voice, so as to not alert Yolanda. "We'll be there soon."
Just as Yumi hung up, however, the three teens were suddenly alerted to their nurse screaming. They turned to face her just in time to see her being engulfed with a black spectre. She just sat there in her chair, her body slumped over as it glitched, before she lifted her head to look at the three teens.
The eye of XANA was flashing in her irises.
In a flash of yellow, she pounced, landing on Sissi, who immediately attempted to defend herself against her attacker.
Yumi stepped forward, only for XANA-Yolanda to punch her to the ground. Fortunately, Sissi was spared as XANA chose to focus on Yumi, picking her up by the collar and lifting her up into the air. Before XANA-Yolanda could slam her back into the ground, Odd hit the woman from behind with a clipboard from the desk, causing her to fall to the floor, her body glitching out.
"Poor thing," Odd joked. "She had hypertension."
"Bravo, Doctor Odd," Yumi replied as she got to her feet. "Come on, let's hurry!"
As she escorted Sissi out of the infirmary, Odd placed the clipboard back onto the desk and grabbed the pass for Sissi before he followed them.
On their way to the park passage, Yumi called Aelita back, "'Lita, we've got Sissi!"
"Great job," the pink-ette replied. "Hurry and bring her to the factory!" There was a bit of eagerness in her voice, clearly from wanting to know who was trying to contact them.
"It won't be easy," the elder warned. "XANA possessed Yolanda to stop us. It seems like it doesn't like the idea."
"Oh boy..." was Aelita's response.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich stopped the Overbike when Jérémie asked him to. The elf immediately hopped off and knelt down, placing a hand on the ground of the Forest Sector. The samurai could only watch his friend sense the digital footprints of their enemy, which he had picked up the moment the two were virtualized.
Jérémie stood up with a start and climbed back onto the back of the Overbike. "South by southeast. The pulsations I'm feeling lead in that direction."
"Ulrich, Jérémie, everything okay with you guys?" Aelita asked, clearly noticing whenever they stopped.
"We're fine," Ulrich replied, as he drove the Overbike in the direction Jérémie pointed out. "Has the superscan picked up an activated tower in this sector?"
"In the Forest? No. The only tower I'm seeing is located in the Ice."
"Then how come Jérémie is picking up XANA's pulsations here?" the samurai asked.
"It's not XANA," the elf corrected. Ulrich glanced back in time to see Jérémie shaking his head. "I can't explain it, but these are different somehow."
And familiar, but he kept that to himself.
Sure enough, a tower appeared on the horizon, but there was something strange about it. It was just one difference, but it was significant enough to stand out.
"And I think we can see why," Ulrich replied. "Do the pulsations lead to that tower?"
"Yes..."
"What's going on?" Aelita asked them.
"Aelita, are you sure the superscan hasn't picked up a second tower? Of any color?" Ulrich asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. Why?"
"Hang on, I'll send you a visual," Jérémie said, before sending her his current view.
The tower's halo was white, instead of XANA's red or the neutral blue.
"What the heck?!" was the pink-ette's response. "What is that white tower supposed to mean?"
"We were about to ask you the same thing," Ulrich told her, coming to a stop a few hundred meters away from the tower. "Do you think this tower has something to do with Sissi? Or the being who's trying to contact us?"
"I don't know," Aelita softly confessed.
"Get closer," Jérémie told Ulrich. "I'd like to see it up close."
"Sure thing." The samurai then took off, heading towards the white tower.
"Behind you guys!"
The two boys glanced behind them and saw two Megatanks rolling after them. Ulrich cranked the hand of the Overbike for more speed. Even though they were indeed going faster, the Megatanks were still gaining on them.
"Faster!" Jérémie cried.
Ulrich pressed on the pedal as he glanced at it, "I've got it floored!"
The elf glanced around briefly before tapping the samurai's shoulder, "Turn left."
"Are you sure?! There's nothing to the left!"
There seriously wasn't. There was just a straight-forward path to the tower.
But when a new path began appearing, he understood. He turned a sharp left, towards the short path Jérémie was creating. They barely scraped against one of the Megatanks before he slid to a stop, panting.
The two watched as, intriguingly, the Megatanks didn't turned back around to attack. Instead, they went straight for the white tower.
"Well done, Jérémie," Aelita cut in. "But it's really weird that they didn't come back to attack you. Something's not right..."
The Megatanks stopped at the base of the white tower and opened up. Both of them charged up their broad lasers before striking the tower with them.
"Aelita, it wasn't us they were after," Jérémie replied.
"They're attacking the white tower!" Ulrich explained. "What do we do?"
"If XANA wants it destroyed, then it has to be important," Aelita said. "That, plus XANA possessing Yolanda to stop us from bringing Sissi here to the factory, tells us all we need to know. Jérémie, go to the Ice Sector and deactivate XANA's tower. Ulrich, stay here and guard the white tower. You have to hold XANA off until Sissi completes her message."
As the Megatanks continued firing at the tower, The Overwing virtualized next to the Overbike. Jérémie climbed off the bike and hopped onto Yumi's personal vehicle.
"Good luck, Ulrich!" the elf said before taking off towards the nearest way tower.
"You too!" the samurai replied, before revving his bike and speeding off towards the white tower. "Hey, you guys feel like a game of bowling?"
"Ulrich," Aelita sighed.
"What?" he asked as he unsheathed his katana. "Odd's the only one who's allowed to make bad jokes?"
He dragged his sword along the grass as he zipped past the Megatanks, getting their attention. They turned their lasers on him, firing at him as he hopped off the Overbike, leaving it resting behind a tree as he Super Sprinted towards and then up the white tower. He jumped off near the top, landing on top of the one of the Megatanks. He stabbed the eye and jumped off to avoid the explosion.
The second Megatank closed and readjusted itself, as Aelita relayed to him, "Jérémie's in the Ice Sector now, and Odd and Yumi are on their way to give you a hand. Hang in there for another five minutes."
The Megatank opened back up, charging up its laser and fired at him, but he managed to avoid it by dodging.
When he landed, two more Megatanks joined the remaining one.
"Easier said than done," he muttered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Yumi arrived at the factory with Sissi hot on their heels. As they ran across the bridge from the sewer passage at the other end, the possessed school nurse quite literally skated across the water and jumped up, landing in front of the entrance to block their way.
The three teens immediately halted in their tracks and could only watch as XANA-Yolanda held both of her hands up into the air and formed a yellow ball of energy between them. She then threw it, XANA puppeteering her face into a smirk, clearly confident that they wouldn't be able to dodge this attack.
But Yumi quickly pushed Sissi and Odd out of the way, so only she was hit.
"Yumi!" Odd called out in worry. On Sissi's face was an expression of equal concern.
XANA-Yolanda slowly and menacingly approached the Japanese girl as she slowly got to her knees, her entire body in pain.
"Go."
"What?!" Odd demanded. "We're not leaving you here!"
"I said 'go'!" Yumi shot back as XANA-Yolanda's fists began sparking with more yellow energy. "Someone has to hold XANA back!"
Odd couldn't deny the truth in that, but what made him go along with her plan to buy some time was Sissi standing up and heading towards the ropes. Grabbing one, she gracefully slid down, and once her (bare) feet were safely on the ground, she pressed the button to call the elevator, before looking back up at him expectantly.
Whoever was possessing Sissi knew how to get down to the lab, and they only reacted to him and Yumi in the infirmary earlier. That plus XANA attacking Sissi presumably just to get rid of this person meant that the teens could very likely trust them.
Odd relented, "Okay, Yumes. Just don't die."
He then slid down the rope, landing beside a patiently waiting Sissi just as the elevator arrived at the surface.
Yumi took another ball of energy to the chest just the lift door closed and began descending. Odd winced at the sound of her scream, but he didn't halt the elevator. He had to get Sissi to the lab, where Aelita was—that was more important.
He looked over at Sissi. Interestingly enough, she didn't seem all that shaken up at an evil AI was after her, intent on killing her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
She looked at him, smiled, and then nodded, before sending him a concerned look asking him the same thing—the same look a parent would wear.
"Don't worry, I'm fine too. Hopefully, Yumi can buy us enough time though..."
Sissi nodded in agreement.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita was closely monitoring Jérémie and Ulrich's respective positions on the holomap, nervous since they were both alone with equally important missions. Her focus was interrupted by the elevator doors swinging open, and she immediately tensed up, expecting the worst.
But she breathed a huge sigh of relief when Odd and Sissi stepped out into the lab. "Finally!"
"Sorry it took us a while," Odd explained, "but we should hurry. Yumi's upstairs facing off against a possessed Yolanda. And apparently, it's managed to upgrade its victims to use giant energy balls like in Yumi's cartoons!"
"Anime," Aelita swiftly corrected, now worried. "How is she doing?"
"Not good," her cousin solemned admitted. "I don't think she's going to last much longer."
The pink-ette paused, "What if...?"
"'What if' what?" Odd asked, mentally nudging her to finish her thought.
"What if we could do battle with XANA on equal terms?" she suggested, before typing away. "Ulrich's guarding that white tower by himself and Jérémie's all alone deactivating XANA's tower. Without Yumi, we're down one person."
"Honestly, I'd love give XANA a taste of its own medicine, but how do you propose we make that happen?" Odd asked.
She focused intently on the program she was currently setting up, "I've been studying XANA's spectres for a while now, and if I can activate a tower, I might be able to create one of my own and pixelize one of us."
"You mean you're going to turn us into people like the ones possessed by XANA?" Odd asked. "Only instead of being 'XANA-fied', we're going to be 'Aelita-fied'?"
"Let's call it 'pixelization' to make it less weird-sounding," Aelita replied, "but in a nutshell, yes."
"I volunteer!" Odd exclaimed.
Aelita immediately turned to her cousin in shock and concern. "Odd, no! There's still some flaws and risks to hammer out! It's better if I do it!" She was obviously remembering the Marabounta and neuronal headset incidents.
"Obviously, there's going to be some risks!" the boy countered. "You're going to have a virtual ghost possess me, for Italy's sake! But we don't have any other choice! Yumi's in danger and we're stretched thin enough as is! To properly keep XANA-Yolanda occupied, we need someone who already knows how Pixelization works! Sissi still needs to deliver our mystery contact's message, and you're needed behind the controls! So I'm the best choice!"
The pink-ette paused before sighing. "Fine," she relented, before continuing to type out the parameters for her program. "I'd prefer having ideally three months' time to perfect this, but I'll try my best to speed things up."
Meanwhile, Sissi—during all of this—quietly approached the monitor and carefully watched Aelita work. Once the pink-ette was done, she was about to hit the 'Enter' key when Sissi reached over and corrected a parameter a few lines above.
Aelita and Odd both stared at Sissi, who merely nodded at the pink-ette encouragingly. Choosing to trust her—or more accurately, whoever was possessing her—Aelita finally hit 'Enter'.
The superscan, a couple seconds later, popped up with a new alert, this time showing the wireframe of a tower turning from the neutral blue to a bright green.
"Yes!" Aelita cheered. "I did it! I activated my own tower! You ready, Odd? Thanks to this tower, I can now send a spectre as a digital impulse throughout the network towards the exit I choose. Once it emerges from these cables, it will enter you and you should become invincible."
"Sure, but, uh...if this ends badly, 'Lita," Odd asked, "will you promise to take care of Kiwi?"
"Odd," Aelita replied, dryly, "if this ends badly, there will be nobody left to look after Kiwi."
"Good point." He sighed. "I'm ready."
His cousin pressed 'Enter' again, and she and Sissi both watched as a spectre emerged from the cables above and entered Odd's body. The boy glowed a bright yellow, and on the screen, his power levels increased from human level '0' all the way to superhuman level '100'.
"Odd?" Aelita asked in concern. "How do you feel?"
Odd's eyes were closed, but he opened them to answer her. "Fully charged."
His voice was doubled, just like XANA's possessed victims.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
XANA-Yolanda chased Yumi all the way to the corridor, only to find the door to the boiler rooms locked. She forced herself to turn around when she heard the AI use the nurse's voice to growl.
The woman charged up an energy ball and threw it at the girl, forcing the latter to fly backwards into the closed door.
Yumi's entire body ached, and she prayed that Jérémie would deactivate XANA's tower soon. She didn't know how long she'd last.
Just then, something strong knocked against the door behind her, almost shoving it off its hinges. Yumi ducked just in time for the door to give away, and a small humanoid figure emerged from the doorframe and launched at XANA-Yolanda, tackling her to the ground.
"So, Miss Nurse, do you think I look scrawny now?"
"Odd?" Yumi asked, surprised. What had happened? His voice was doubled with a robotic one. Was he also possessed?
"Go on, Yumes," said boy replied.
The girl chose to listen, and limped through the doorframe just as XANA-Yolanda glared him and made her hand into a fist. A ball of energy appeared, forming into a shield that knocked Odd away from her.
He backflipped and landed between her and the empty doorway.
"This way, lady! If you want to treat me, you'll have to catch me!" he teased, before running through a side door.
XANA-Yolanda growled as she followed him.
He led her her to the sewers part of the factory.
XANA fired another ball of energy, but he easily avoided it by jumping up into the air, before firing a ball of yellow energy of his own, Hadouken style.
The blast knocked the woman clean into the water.
Proud of himself, and honestly riding high on the success of this plan, Odd patiently waiting for XANA-Yolanda to emerge from the water.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita was now carefully watching Odd's power levels when Yumi called out, "Am I imagining things, or has Odd turned into a superhero?"
The pink-ette and Sissi both glanced behind them to see Yumi climbing down the ladder that led to the boiler room.
"You're not imagining things," Aelita explained. "I activated a tower to give Odd more power to fight XANA on equal ground. But there's still some risks involved, so you need to join Jérémie in deactivating XANA's tower as soon as possible."
Thankfully, Yumi did not ask any more questions. "Got it." She then climbed down the ladder.
Once Yumi was ready, Aelita warmed up the process, typing in Jérémie's current coordinates before bringing up the elder's ID card. "Transfer Yumi!" Her avatar began loading. "Scanner Yumi!" Once it was finished loading, she pressed the 'Enter' key. "Virtualization!"
Yumi's green arrow appeared next to Jérémie's (who was hiding behind a small glacier) on the holomap.
Feeling some level of relief, Aelita stood up from the chair (but still wearing the earpiece) and offered it to Sissi. "Your turn. Sorry for the delay."
Whoever was possessing Sissi said nothing yet understood what the pink-ette was offering. They puppeteered Sissi to sit down at the monitor before finally typing out the entire message.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd waited for Yolanda to emerge from the water for the next couple of minutes. Eventually, he just shrugged and turned around to leave, only for the nurse to jump out of the water, punching Odd and knocking him down.
She rushed towards him with another ball of energy, but he jumped over it.
He then began forming a ball of his own, only for it to suddenly disappear from his hands. He glanced them worriedly. Now that he thought about it, he was starting to run a little low on power...
"Uh-oh," he muttered, before ducking behind a nearby corner and pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Aelita, I'm starting to lose power. Something tells me that's not supposed to happen."
"Um..."
He sighed, "I thought so! You're using your 'I hate to say it, but you bombed the exam' voice!" He hung up, before peering out from behind his cover.
XANA-Yolanda stepped closer and throwing another energy ball at him. Fortunately, he managed to narrowly avoid it by jumping back behind his wall.
Looks like this just turned into a game of 'cat and mouse'...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi and Jérémie were also taking cover behind something, a glacier, as they studied the monsters guarding XANA's tower. Beside them was the Overwing, waiting to be used.
"Three Krabes," Yumi relayed. "I'll keep them busy while you use the Overwing to make a break for the tower."
"Right!" Jérémie agreed before hopping onto the Overwing. Yumi climbed on as his passenger. The elf then flew towards the tower. "Aelita, how's Odd doing?"
"Um, not good," the pink-ette replied as Yumi blocked a couple of a Krabe's shots with her fan before throwing it. Her fan hit and destroyed its target before returning to its owner.
"Well, it's not easy on this end either," the elder girl replied. "What's wrong with Odd?"
"Well, we've got a huge problem."
Yumi threw her fan at the second Krabe, destroying it, as Jérémie worriedly asked, "What's going on?"
"XANA has taken control of the tower I activated to power up Odd, and there's nothing I can do to regain control."
"How is that gonna affect Odd?" Yumi asked, concerned, as Jérémie flew the Overwing left to right to avoid the shots from the Kankrelats that had just appeared. "Will XANA take control of him too?"
"Apparently not. It seems as though it'd just rather pump him of all his energy."
"All of it?" Jérémie asked in horror. "You mean until...until he...?" He couldn't even finish his sentence.
"Yeah..."
"Where's your tower?" Yumi cut in, the tone of her voice tense and serious.
"In the Mountain Sector," Aelita replied.
Immediately, Jérémie turned the Overwing around and flew at full speed towards the nearest way tower.
"Got it," Yumi reassured her pink-haired friend. "Don't worry. We'll take care of it."
There was no choice to be made here. Saving Odd was their top priority now.
The two reached the way tower in no time, and Jérémie flew the Overwing through the wall and then below the first platform. After letting the data stream carry them to the connecting sector, Jérémie took over the Overwing's flight path once they reached the platform on the other side.
Emerging from the tower, the two were greeted with an immense amount of fog.
"You guys better hurry," Aelita urged them. "Odd's down to seventy-five percent power and it's only going to get worse. The tower's dead ahead of you. Can you see it?"
"Uh, no," Yumi replied. "To tell you the truth, we can't see anything."
All they could see was the fog and nothing else. Not even a platform.
"XANA's already pulled this trick on us before," Jérémie cut in, before the two heard buzzing behind them.
"Lean a little to the left," Aelita warned them. Jérémie did so, causing the Overwing to head to the left, just as a stray laser—obviously from a Hornet—fired at them from within the clouds above. The shot hit the Overwing, making it immediately disappear and the two jump off. "You're right at the edge of the cliff. You'll have to grab on while you're falling." The two held out their arms and hands, ready for grab on when Aelita gave the signal. "You're nearly there...now!"
The two hung on tight. They couldn't see the cliff, but they could feel it. Yumi briefly glanced at Jérémie, before the two climbed up and stood up on the edge.
"Listen to me very carefully, okay? I'll guide you two," Aelita slowly told them. "The path leading to the tower is dead ahead of you. Keep walking straight until I say stop."
The two walked forward, slowly just for precaution. Yumi held both of her arms in front of her, Jérémie right behind her.
"Stop!"
They obeyed, only for Yumi's next step to make her fall forward over the edge. Fortunately, Jérémie had grabbed her by the tail end of her obi and pulled her back up onto the path.
"Thanks, Jer," she gratefully replied. "Hey, 'Lita, next time, give me a little more warning, okay?"
"Sorry! I can't judge distances too well on my screen right now. Not when Sissi's still typing out her message." So her view was different, looking at the screen from the side, which the pink-ette was not used to. "Now, turn right."
They obeyed.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A Megatank looked around in confusion and three clones of Ulrich sped around. He stopped in front of a second Megatank and ducked out of the way as the one following his movement fired at him. The laser hit against the second, pushing it all the way to the edge. It teetered back and forth before falling over into the Digital Sea.
Ulrich smirked at the sight of the bright blue column of energy bursting forth, before he rushed off to deal with the other two Megatanks.
He ran up to one, which fired its laser, taking him out. However, it turned out to be a clone.
The real one was running up a tree, as was the other clone. They both jumped, and a laser destroyed the clone, leaving just the real one.
Ulrich landed on one of the two Megatanks and stabbed its eye, but the monster closed up, trapping his katana with it.
"Oh, that's gotta hurt," he muttered as he tried to pull his katana out.
However, the Megatank below him suddenly exploded, sending him flying. Fortunately, he landed safely on the grass, and he opened his eyes just in time to see his katana flying towards him.
Thankfully (again), he managed to roll out of the way just in time for his katana to land right where he just was.
As the samurai recovered from the blast, the third and remaining Megatank glanced between him and the tower, seemingly faced with a choice.
Ulrich was too late to prevent the monster from firing at the white tower once more. This time, the tower finally shut down.
As in no more halo whatsoever...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi suddenly stopped typing before she collapsed on top of the keyboard.
"Sissi!" Aelita called out, before tending to her.
As she did so, Ulrich's solemn voice sounded from the monitor, "Aelita? I'm sorry. I failed." The last Megatank, on the holomap, was retreating, seeing no need to remain there.
"It's okay, Ulrich," she reassured him. "Sissi managed to type out the entire message. She was working on helping me re-enforce my tower when the white tower shut down. Now, head to the Ice Sector."
"And clean up," he finished before heading over to his Overbike, still behind the tree where he parked it. "Acknowledged."
His green arrow then sped off towards the Ice Sector way tower.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi and Jérémie were still slowly walking through the fog, their feet softly pounding against the invisible ground.
"Hey, Aelita, what's the next obstacle in our path?" the elder girl asked.
"A rock. Place your hand on it as you head to the left."
The two came to a stop, as Yumi reached her hand out. She touched something and immediately recoiled, before touching the invisible rock again. Jérémie followed her lead as they began moving to the left.
"What's next?" Yumi asked.
"You're almost there. After the rock, it's straight ahead towards the tower," the pink-ette informed them. "Oh no!"
"What?"
"You've got company! Hornets behind you!"
The two turned around, looking up, but they couldn't see anything due to the fog.
"Duck!"
They both obeyed her, leaping out of the way in opposite directions. They could hear the hum of the wings, but neither could spot them.
"Run straight ahead to the tower!" Aelita cried. "It's just three hundred meters!"
Right. They had to hurry. Odd was in danger.
The Hornets fired again, all shots narrowly missing the two as they ran straight towards the tower.
"Where are they now, Aelita?" Yumi asked.
"They're diving down straight at you!"
Yumi looked up and yelped, running forward as a flurry of lasers was fired at their feet. "Jérémie, run to the tower!" she called out as she pulled out her fans, blocking the shots away from the blue elf.
She backed up as she continued to block the shots, only to get hit in the stomach, sending her to the ground. She rolled away from a laser, and another one.
Jérémie slowly phased through the invisible tower wall, and Yumi smiled in relief, before rolling away from more lasers, only to end of falling off off the edge of the path.
She grabbed onto the edge tight.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was getting weaker and weaker the longer he ran from XANA-Yolanda. Eventually, another energy ball hit him in the back, sending him to the ground. He was shaking, feeling incredibly dizzy, as she approached him menacingly.
XANA used the nurse's lips to smirk, before it puppeteered her to walk away back to the corridor. Odd was confused until he realized that XANA knew what was going on.
The AI knew he was going to die, and it wasn't going to interfere with the slow process with the tower. It had chosen to kill him slowly, rather than quickly.
He was going to die. This was it. He was going to die...
JEREMIE_
Odd huddled into a ball as he waited for the inevitable moment to arrive. His heart was barely beating and his world was starting to go dark.
He was dying, and he was all alone...
CODE_
Yumi held onto the edge tightly as she used her remaining fan to block as many lasers as she could.
Hopefully, Jérémie would hurry up. Once the tower was deactivated, he could help her back onto the ledge...
LYOKO_
Just then, the fog immediately disappeared, revealing all the paths and plateaus. Yumi glanced down to see land form right below her. She smiled before letting go. She glanced up and saw the two Hornets cornering her.
"Spotted," she exclaimed, before throwing her fan, destroying them both in one go. As she caught her fan, she asked, "Aelita, any news from Odd?"
"No. He's not answering his phone."
"Jérémie's coming out of the tower now. We're going back to the Ice Sector tower right away."
"Okay. I'll program the Overboard for you. Ulrich should be there already, clearing the passage."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich saw what was waiting for him in front of XANA's tower—one Krabe. He sped up, heading towards it.
He dodged the lasers by driving left before pulling out his katana again. When he was close enough, he jumped up from his seat and flipped over the Krabe, stabbing its eye on the way, before landing back on his bike, just in time to see the Krabe explode.
Just then a trio of Kankrelats appeared next to the tower, and Ulrich glanced back at them. He spun around as they fired to gain more speed, before jumping up and letting his Overbike crash into all three monsters.
He landed agilely on the ground as they all exploded from the impact.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita glanced behind her as XANA-Yolanda climbed down the ladder, before sending a ball of energy at the pink-ette. The girl barely managed to avoid by leaping out of her chair.
She was forced into a corner, as the woman advanced towards her, merciless. The pink-ette gulped, feeling way too small right now.
A boy's voice cut through the tension. "It was pretty rude of you leave me in the middle of our conversation, Nurse Yolanda."
Aelita turned to the ladder to see her cousin standing there, smirking and both his hands on his hips.
As XANA-Yolanda turned to face him, exasperated, a smile automatically broke out on the pink-ette's face. They did it! He was safe!
"Odd! Boy, am I glad to see you!"
Said boy walked forward from the foot of the ladder. However, XANA-Yolanda shot an electrical ball at him. Odd was hit right in the abdomen, and he flew backwards, landing at Aelita's feet.
He gave his cousin a tired and pained smile, "Yeah, I'm glad to see me too!"
The possessed nurse jumped into the air, firing a blast at both of them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich had split himself into three. As a Krabe approached one, he unsheathed his katana, telling the other two clones, "Things sound pretty hairy at the factory! We better hurry and clean up!"
The second Ulrich was facing a Blok, while the third was facing a trio of Kankrelats.
The Blok fired at the clone it was fighting against, and the clone jumped into the air to dodge it, lunging forward and stabbing the Blok in the eye, destroying it.
The clone facing the Krabe blocked the rapid shots with his katana, when the clone that destroyed the Blok ran up and landed on the leg of the Krabe. He jumped up and landed on the top of the shell, stabbed the eye, and then jumped off to avoid the resulting explosion.
The Kankrelats fired at the last Ulrich, who easily dodged them. The other two clones ran up and got rid of the monsters on the outsides. The remaining Kankrelat glanced around in confusion at the three Ulrichs, clearly trying to determine which was the real one.
But it didn't have time, as one of the Ulrichs kicked it into the air, and the third Ulrich sliced it like he was hitting a baseball when it came soaring towards him.
Once all the monsters were gone, Ulrich recalled his clones with "Fusion!"
Just in time, too, as Yumi and Jérémie approached the tower on the Overboard. Jérémie hopped off the moment Yumi came to a stop.
"Finally!" Ulrich exclaimed. "I was starting to get a little lonely!"
As Jérémie ran towards the tower, Yumi glanced around at the empty plateau. "And the monsters?"
The samurai gave a large, mischievous smile, faking naïvety, "What monsters?"
The geisha just playfully rolled her eyes, as the elf entered the tower at a sprint.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita and Odd tightly clutched onto each other with pure fear as XANA-Yolanda prepared to deliver the final blow. Meanwhile, Sissi remained unconscious in the opposite corner.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
The two cousins tightly shut their eyes, waiting for the pain.
LYOKO_
But it never came.
Instead, Yolanda's eyes returned to normal, and she briefly held her head before she fell on the floor, also unconscious.
"I think XANA needs to work on its bedside manner," Odd joked, "don't you?"
Aelita just smiled in relief.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
They didn't launch a Return in time. Instead, they took Sissi and Yolanda both back to the school's infirmary. Sissi had woken up on the way, and sure enough, she was confused. Despite her obviously wanting to ask questions, however, she remained quiet and helped them carry Yolanda back to Kadic.
Mr. Delmas and Jim were waiting for them when they got there. The moment he laid eyes on his daughter, the principal ran up to Sissi.
"Elizabeth! There you are!" he exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
She offered the man a reassuring smile, "Yes, I'm fine, Daddy. Yumi and Odd were right. A breath of fresh air really helped me snap out of it."
The Lyokowarriors were confused. Sissi wasn't supposed to remember being possessed. Granted, she wasn't being taken over by XANA like Yolanda was, but still. Aelita had theorized Odd retaining his free will as a parameter she herself must have set when she activated her tower, but Sissi, as far as they knew, didn't have such an excuse.
Sissi turned towards Yolanda, as Ulrich and Yumi placed the out-cold woman gently down on one of the infirmary beds. "I'm more worried about her."
"Indeed. What happened?" Mr. Delmas asked, he and Jim both stepping closer as Yolanda's eyes began to stir before opening halfway.
"She joined us on our fresh air journey," Odd explained. "I guess she wasn't feeling well herself, because she passed out."
"Must've been stress," Yumi softly added, shrugging.
Jim turned to the woman still resting on the bed, "Is that what happened, Yolanda?"
"To be honest, I don't really remember," Yolanda softly, weakly admitted. "It's as though I blacked out, but I don't see why Sissi, Yumi, or Odd would want to lie, and yesterday's check-ups did stress me out. So I believe them."
"Very well," Mr. Delmas relented. "Is Sissi free to return to her room?"
"She seems okay," the woman replied. "I don't see why not."
"Alright then. I must get back to work now. Jim, take care of Yolanda," the principal turned to the five Lyokowarriors, as the gym teacher gave a military-like salute. "You five, please escort Sissi back to her room."
The five teens all nodded, intent on keeping that promise.
They had to ask her something anyway.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Once alone in the dormitory building hallway on the girl's floor, they finally had a chance to ask. Sissi was now in her bathrobe and slippers, as she was still in her pajamas.
"Hey, Sissi," Ulrich softly called out, "do you really remember what happened?"
"Everything's a bit fuzzy, but yes," she quietly confessed. "I was in the middle of berating Odd for how he portrayed me in his film when a ghost suddenly possessed me. I didn't know what was going on, but I did know that the ghost had a message for you guys, and that Aelita was the best person to tell it to. The thing was, though, that the ghost only trusted you guys, and since you guys are my friends, I relented to letting them deliver their message to you without fighting them. When Odd and Yumi arrived at the infirmary earlier, they felt very happy."
"Because they only trusted us," Yumi cut in.
Sissi nodded, "Exactly. I must admit that I do remember you two taking me to that factory. I didn't really understand what was going on, but the ghost did tell me that you guys would protect me. So I chose to trust you. You don't have to tell me everything; I know I bombed my audition, but...that factory...that's your big secret, isn't it?"
The other five shared a knowing glance, before Aelita replied, "Yeah. Again, we'll tell you everything when it's all over, or earlier than that if we absolutely have to. But for now, keep it to yourself, okay?"
Sissi smiled at them reassuringly as they reached her dorm, "Don't worry. If anyone asks me, I'll just shrug it off as a hallucination of anger at Odd's film. Or maybe at being two kilos overweight." She winked at them, making them all chuckle, before entering her room.
So Sissi's possession did allow her to remember. She had said that she relented to letting the one possessing her complete their mission without her interference, so maybe it was a matter of consent. After all, Odd had willingly volunteered to let Aelita possess him.
Regardless, they knew they could trust Sissi, so they themselves relented to letting her keep her memories. For now, at least.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The five retreated to Aelita's room a couple doors down the hall. Ulrich waited until everyone else was inside before he closed the door behind him.
As he did so, he asked, "So Sissi was able to deliver the entire message?"
"Yep," Aelita replied, producing a CD case from her pocket as she sat down at her computer. "While you guys were focusing on the towers, she activated the translation program herself. Now," she took the CD from its case and placed it inside the CD-ROM on her computer, "we have the complete message. Hopefully, this will tell us who exactly was trying to contact us." A program popped up, the same one from earlier that helped them read the small portion of the message.
Odd read the start of the message, "'XANA has tried to use our names and faces to trick you. We cannot let that happen again'. What does that mean?"
Aelita shrugged, "No idea." But then she paused. "Wait a minute. What if...they're talking about Michel and Sophie Périn? They're saying 'we', as in plural. I mean, just recently XANA impersonated Michel, and there's also Jérémie's insane visions earlier this month." Right. The ones he had forgotten all about.
"There's also the two people who helped you escape Virtual Limbo," Yumi reminded the pink-ette.
"True," Aelita recalled her experience. "The subjects of the message are also speaking simultaneously. The two people in Limbo with me had instances were they seemed to share one mind. I don't know what that means, but..."
"Whatever the case," Jérémie softly told her, "if they were able to communicate with you like I could, that's probably important."
They had previously theorized that Jérémie had (what Odd liked to call) 'admin controls' that allowed him to talk to whoever was trapped in Virtual Limbo. If these two strangers had the same ability, and they knew how to get out of the Limbo space, then Aelita was probably right about them knowing more about Lyoko than they initially let on.
"Agreed," Ulrich replied, before continuing to read, "'We can help you. We wish to enter into contact with you now. We are the real Michel and Sophie Périn'."
"The real Michel and Sophie..." Jérémie muttered. The others turned to him, concerned.
He seemed to be in some state of shock...
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 34 - Revelations / It's time to decipher the diary, but XANA refuses to let the group discover the truth so easily.
A/N: In canon 'Tip-Top Shape', the scale notes that Jérémie weighs 31 kilos (or 68 lbs). I know he's just 13 years old, but is that normal or underweight? I mean, I'm not really surprised, given his lack of athletic ability, but still, someone please tell me.
Like in the English dub, possessed!Sissi's words are spoken/typed backwards here. So if you reverse the text in this chapter, you'll be able to see what she's actually saying long before the end scene reveals it. There's also something she says to Jérémie that's not in the message. Can you find out what it is?
So two twists in this chapter, one about Sissi and one about Michel and Sophie Périn.