The Boy in the Computer

by SepticAbzies

A new school year begins and the gang is back at odds with XANA. / Jerlita Roleswap AU / Current Episode: Nobody in Particular & Double Trouble / S1-2: Done, S3: WIP

20. 19: Fragmented Reality

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.

The title of this chapter/episode is an homage to Cybra's "Fragments" story on FFN, which, once again, is an inspiration for this chapter.

Edit: The added scene in the cafeteria is an idea courtesy of dunnoduo on AO3.

!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!

"Aelita finds a way for Jérémie to live on Earth, but XANA suddenly switches tactics."

Episode 19: Fragmented Reality

(Based on New Order & Uncharted Territory)

Deep within the Mountain Sector, Yumi studied the path in front of her from a platform above it, plotting the course in front of her. Once she had her route figured out, she spread out her arms, and muttered, "Here we go."

She jumped off the platform, and landed on a boulder below, which she used as a launching pad, flipping off of it and landing on the path she was studying just moments before.

Anticipating the wide gap ahead, she took out her fans (yes, plural) and used them to jump and spin herself fast enough to jump over the gap. Unfortunately, she miscalculated her jump and almost wound up in the Digital Sea below, but she managed to stop herself just in time.

While she needed to practice this move a little more, she was grateful she now had it in her repertoire. Before, she'd need Jérémie's Creativity to even feel comfortable jumping over a gap like that, but thanks to Aelita, she now had a second fan.

Similarly, Aelita had also programmed ten thousand Laser Arrows for Odd, so he didn't need manual reloading every ten minutes, as well as a shield, to protect him from the shots taken at him whenever he was hit with a Future Flash.

Back to Yumi, she was stuck now. There was no other path to go down. As she was surveying her surroundings once more, a narrower path was formed right in front of her.

This path was not meant for running like the one behind her, but she understood real quick what the intention was.

She treated it like a balance beam, both of her arms spread to her side as she carefully traversed it.

However, halfway down the path, it began to glitch out. Knowing what that meant, Yumi cartwheeled her way towards the very edge of it.

When she turned back around, sure enough, the narrow path was disappearing, and fast. She glanced around again, and stopped when she saw some trees sticking out from the side of a nearby mountain.

Smiling, Yumi took out her two fans and threw them at the trees. Her fans sliced off the leafy ends of the trees, allowing her to see where to go next. She managed to leap off the narrow path seconds before it disappeared completely.

She reached out and grabbed one of the trees, saving her from falling, and the momentum made her immediately swing to another. Quickly glancing around, she saw the tree trunk she needed to climb to.

Swinging to gain momentum, she eventually let go of the tree trunk she was holding onto and flipped through the air, landing on the trunk she was aiming for with her legs. Once she was standing on top of it, she came face to face with Jérémie, who himself was standing at the top of the mountain.

"Great job, Yumi," he said, smiling at her as if she was his prized student who had just gotten full marks on a hard test.

Yumi's reply was sarcastic, "You're evil. That was a really tough course," as she climbed up a little further to stand on the top with him.

Jérémie just shrugged, "What? You said you wanted to be challenged."

Yes, it was him who had created, and subsequently deleted, that narrow path. He had also picked out the platform for her to jump down from and land on.

And he was also right. She was the one who told him to make the course tough. She got her wish.

Jérémie's smile softened, "Besides, did you really think I'd let you fall?"

No, she didn't. That's why she wasn't scared; because she knew Jérémie would save her if she ever slipped up.

But she knew that very often, if she made a mistake, there'd be times where she was all alone, where if she fell, no one could catch her.

Knowing this, Yumi's smile and voice also softened, "So, how'd I do?"

"Excellent," he admitted. "You're getting used to that extra fan pretty quick."

"It's not that hard, actually," Yumi confessed. "It feels like an extension of myself."

"Like you're meant to have it," Jérémie finished her thought. "I know what you mean." Of course, his Creativity was probably the same way. "Now, shall we go watch Ulrich and Odd's race?" He motioned to the new vehicle a couple meters away.

Also on top of the mountain with them was a hover-scooter called the Overwing. It seemed that, like Aelita, Jérémie was also busy during the past six weeks upgrading everyone's equipment, by creating new, faster modes of transportation for the other four. The Overwing was intended to be Yumi's vehicle.

"Of course!" Yumi exclaimed, hopping onto it. "Though, if Odd wins, I don't think we'll be able to call him 'scrawny' anymore!"

Jérémie hopped onto the Overwing, taking up a position behind her, as he quipped, "That would be a real catastrophe, wouldn't it?" His goggles were over his eyes, and he pointed to their right, "The way tower to the Desert Sector is that way."

Yumi piloted the Overwing in that direction, enjoying how fast her new vehicle was traveling as opposed to crossing this vast expanse on foot. She loved it.

As she approached the way tower, she began to slow down in preparation of getting off, only for Jérémie to stop her, "No, no, through the way tower!"

"On the Overwing?!" Yumi asked. "Are you absolutely sure about that?" Was it even possible? Was it safe? She was so used to traveling to other sectors on foot.

"Well, yes," Jérémie replied, as if it were that simple. "There's no reason you couldn't."

"If you're wrong, I swear I'll–" Yumi warned, before cutting herself off as she entered the way tower on the Overwing.

It was the same process. Go down, below the first platform, and let the data stream carry you to the connecting sector. Yumi didn't fight it, letting the data stream do all the work, only taking over the Overwing's flight path once they reached the platform on the other side.

Emerging from the tower, Yumi was greeted with the Desert Sector. "Huh..." was all she could say.

"You swear you'll what?" She didn't need to turn around to see the smirk on Jérémie's face.

"Um, nothing," she muttered, before asking, "When did you get so sarcastic?"

"When I met you guys," he replied, and she smiled.

Because he was right. His new teasing and enjoyment of it was only ever their fault.

It wasn't long until they caught up with the other three, with Ulrich up ahead, and Odd and Aelita both flying beside the Overwing.

Ulrich's vehicle was the Overbike, a one-wheeled motorcycle, and Odd's was the Overboard, a purple-colored hoverboard that was also somewhat modeled after a cat. And what about Aelita?

Well, Jérémie had given her a pair of wings, controlled by the star bracelet now located on her right wrist.

"Yahoo!" Odd cried out, clearly having fun. He maneuvered the Overboard to speed up, so he was getting closer to Ulrich, still up ahead.

Jérémie smiled, "I see you guys have mastered your new vehicles."

"You really did a great job, Jérémie!" Odd called back. "XANA better behave itself now that we've got these things!"

"Be careful, all the same," Jérémie replied.

"Don't worry, Mr. Einstein!" Odd lowered his stance, getting ready to boost forward to catch up with Ulrich. "I know how to ride! No way am I going to let Ulrich beat me!"

He zoomed ahead, and Aelita rolled her eyes before using her enhanced senses to narrate the following race, "Odd speeds up. Ulrich accepts the challenge and steps on his own gas. And the two are off." Pretty soon, the two became small dots on the horizon. "As they enter the canyon, Ulrich is still in the lead. Odd rides against the right wall, before he switches over to the left. He finally catches up to Ulrich and begins rubbing it in his face. But Ulrich is still confident that Odd won't win. The end of the canyon is approaching, and on the other side is a ramp that leads to the rock columns."

"Uh oh," Yumi muttered.

Jérémie called out in vain, "Odd, be careful! I haven't yet perfected the program that calculates trajectory!"

"Sorry, Jer," Aelita continued. "Odd can't hear you. He hits the ramp. He's flying! Aaaand...his Overboard hits the first rock column, and he wipes out, while Ulrich executes the move perfectly, winning the race."

By now, she, Yumi, and Jérémie have caught up to them. As the Overboard returned to Odd's side, Aelita landed, de-summoning her wings, and ran over to Odd.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

As Yumi set the Overwing down, Odd shrugged off his cousin's concerns, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He turned to Jérémie, as the latter hopped off the Overwing. "There's still some work to do on the Overboard, Jérémie."

Only for the blue elf to retort, "Maybe it's the rider who needs to work."

Ulrich dismounted from his Overbike and walked over to Odd, teasing, "What happened, Odd? You miss a step?" He then laughed, which Odd didn't find amusing.

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you on an Overboard!"

Ulrich's smile remained, as he made a ocean wave motion with his hand, "Sorry, but surfing's not my thing!"

The mood suddenly changed when Aelita's enhancing hearing picked something up, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Yumi asked the pink-ette, as Jérémie slipped on his goggles. "What are you hearing?"

"A clinking sound," Aelita admitted. "But I can't pinpoint what it is."

"Whatever it is, it seems like trouble," Ulrich commented. "Big time."

"It's a new monster," Jérémie cut in. He was facing to their right. "Be careful. I haven't seen it before. XANA must have just created it."

On the horizon, where their Lyoko resident was currently facing, the group could now see a dust cloud moving closer to them, quite fast. In no time at all, it stopped right in front of them, and they could see that it had a large, yet narrow cylindrical body, with four legs like a spider's. On its head, there was the eye of XANA, notably smaller in proportion to its body unlike the other monsters they've previously faced.

Jérémie still had his goggles on, and he warned the others, "It has more than twice the amount of lifepoints than the others. Approximately 125."

The thing knelt on its two hind legs and aimed its two front legs at them. The group immediately tensed up, quickly realizing where its lasers would fire from.

"Jérémie, run to the nearest tower and materialize yourself!" Aelita ordered. "We'll hold this thing off!"

"Good luck!" the blue elf called back, before taking off towards the tower his goggles were indicating, toward the group's left yet somewhat forcing him to graze past the monster.

Interestingly enough, the new monster didn't give Jérémie another thought, letting him run off toward the tower. Instead, it chose to face the four that had remained behind, the four that could fight.

"On my signal," Ulrich said, as the others gathered around him. "Aelita, you cover Jérémie's path. Yumi, you attack first. Odd, you and I will keep it busy."

"Right," the other three replied.

Ulrich unsheathed his katana, exclaiming, "Now!" He rushed forward as the monster began firing its lasers (sure enough, they came from its two front legs), and he blocked them all with his katana.

As he did so, Aelita leapt over to the left, to the path that Jérémie had taken, guarding it with her life in case XANA changed its mind.

Meanwhile, Yumi flipped over to the right, before flipping over the monster and landing behind it.

The thing turned around using all four legs to face her, as she backflipped to give herself more room, before unsheathing one of her fans and throwing it at the monster. She was aiming for its eye of XANA located on its head.

But the thing managed to shoot her fan down before it could reach its target.

Before Yumi could be fired on, Odd whistled, making the monster turn to him, "Hey, you overgrown spider! Looking for me?"

The monster knelt on its two hind legs and pointed its lasers at him within a split second, causing him to leap toward the rock columns nearby. He jumped up on one and began climbing it, avoiding the lasers on his way up.

Odd finally reached the rock on top and once he was standing on it, the monster fired at the base, where the rock met the column. Sure enough, the rock came falling down, with Odd still on it, until he used it as a launching pad.

But as he was flying through the air, he got hit in the chest.

"Odd, you okay?" Aelita asked, not moving from her spot. "That's one powerful laser..."

"I'm fine!" he called back. "Something tells me we're gonna need to find some good insecticide!"

The monster turned its lasers back to Ulrich, who kept blocking every single one without much trouble.

But for a moment, he glanced down the path Jérémie took, seeing him smaller on the horizon. Ulrich smiled, only for the monster to fire at him three times, and the brunette boy was devirtualized.

"Ulrich!" Aelita cried out, before turning her attention back to the fight. "Use your vehicles!"

The Overboard was at Odd's side in a second, while Yumi backflipped to reach the Overwing. She landed on it without any trouble.

"I'll go first!" Odd said.

"Go on," Yumi replied. "I'll cover you!"

Odd nodded, before flying towards the monster, concentrating his fire while avoiding the thing's 'anti-aircraft' fire. He circled around it, firing barrages of Laser Arrows. A laser barely missed him, and he reared up his Overboard, climbed into the sky, and performed a large loop. When he realigned himself with the monster at ground level, he rushed at the monster.

The monster fired at him, and Odd chose to block the lasers with his newly obtained shield. At least, until one laser hit his leg (the one place his shield didn't cover), and the sudden impact forced him to drop his shield. Before he knew it, another laser hit his own unprotected chest, devirtualizing him.

Seeing that she and Yumi were the only ones left, Aelita began to panic. What would it take to destroy this thing?

The monster turned back to Yumi, to Aelita's confusion. So far, this monster was ignoring Jérémie. Why? Did XANA change tactics or something? Or was it just waiting until all four protectors were down? Aelita guessed the latter as the truth.

As the monster began firing at Yumi, Aelita's enhanced hearing picked up Jérémie, in the distance, entering the tower. Knowing Jérémie was safe now, Aelita waved a hand over her star bracelet, and once her pink energy wings formed, took off.

Yumi maneuvered the Overwing to avoid the monster's laser fire, only for one to hit it anyway. This caused the Overwing to disappear due to taking more damage than it could handle. Fortunately, she managed to recover, performing a one-handed cartwheel to avoid more laser fire, and throwing a fan mid-flip.

Like before, the monster simply shot her fan out of the air, rendering it useless. But before Yumi could throw the other fan, she was shot in the chest, forcing her to devirtualize.

Aelita quickly approached the ground, flying parallel to it as she got closer to the monster. She formed an Energy Field in both hands and threw them one after another, just as the monster shot at her in quick succession.

The first shot took her wings away, grounding her. The second shot forced her to fall to the ground. The third shot devirtualized her.

Meanwhile, the monster dodged the first Energy Field, only to move its path directly into the trajectory of the second, thus destroying it.

Jérémie entered the tower at a run, hoping this new monster wouldn't mess with his friends' digital profiles. He was hoping it was just stronger than the others, except for the Megatank.

He approached the center of the platform and summoned the interface. He placed his hand on it.

JEREMIE_

The system accepted his handprint, before letting him type out the code he wanted.

CODE_

EARTH_

With that, he felt his virtual body depixelate like it had for the past six weeks.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Late in the afternoon, the five regrouped in the lab. They were lounging around, but the topic of conversation didn't say 'relaxed'.

"If XANA's going to start programming new monsters," Aelita leaned back in the computer chair, "it means our troubles have only just begun. It really bothers me how it just keeps finding ways to increase its power."

"You think it's still evolving?" Ulrich asked, out of curiosity.

"Absolutely," the pink-ette replied. "I don't how, but I'm going to find out."

"Whatever the case," Odd cut in, "we'll have to find a way to program our vehicles faster. They're cool and all, but Aelita's is the only one that's automatic."

"I'll work on it, Odd," Jérémie promised, from his seat on the ground next to Yumi. "But honestly, it's not really my top priority."

"You should still try," Odd replied. "Otherwise, we don't stand a chance against those Tarantulas!"

"Tarantulas?" Yumi asked, just to make sure that's what he said.

"Yep, my name for the new monsters," Odd confirmed. "I named the others, didn't I?"

Ulrich and Yumi both rolled their eyes.

Aelita cut in, "From now on, we have to be ready for anything and everything."

Jérémie stood up and approached the supercomputer monitor, "In that case, I should get back to Lyoko. If XANA activates a tower, I'd better be there."

"Umm...should we tell him?" Aelita's comment made him turn around to face his friends. To his confusion, she sounded excited and that she could barely contain it.

"Of course, we should tell him!" Yumi replied, smiling and sounding just as excited. "Why keep good news like that a secret?"

Jérémie looked around the room at his friends, clear confusion on his face and in his voice as he asked, "What good news? What's going on?"

Aelita began the following explanation, "Over the past six weeks, on top of updating Odd and Yumi's equipment, and your anti-virus, I've also been working on a new tower-detecting program."

"A superscan, if you will," Odd cut in with a smile. "Leaps and bounds ahead of the old one. And way more accurate too."

"And with instant detection," Aelita added.

"Meaning?" Jérémie asked. He already knew, but he had to make sure.

"Meaning, you don't have to stay on Lyoko all the time," Aelita explained. Judging by the smile in her green eyes, she was waiting for this day to come for the past six weeks. Jérémie wouldn't be surprised if Aelita had been working on it since the day he told the others he had to stay on Lyoko.

"You mean I...I get to live...?" the blonde in blue found his voice and words cutting themselves off. He couldn't believe it.

"Yep," Ulrich confirmed. "Here, with us. We've already enrolled you at Kadic as a boarder."

"Complete with your own dorm," Yumi added, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Everything's all set up. We wanted to surprise you."

Jérémie found himself conflicted. On one hand, this was exactly what he wanted, to stay on Earth with his friends. But on the other, what if the superscan bugged up? What if it didn't work, or XANA found a way to work around it, or evolved past it?

"But...do you really think that's wise?" He asked, needing to get this concern out in the open. "If XANA really has gotten more powerful..."

But the look Aelita gave him in response surprised him. "The question isn't whether it's wise," she admitted. "It's whether it's better and more fair. XANA has no right to dictate our lives, least of all yours, and personally, I'm tired of only seeing you for three hours each week, so my mind's made up."

Jérémie saw Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all nod in agreement.

"And we also know that XANA doesn't want to get rid of you anymore," Odd added, bringing up a good point. "Since it infected you with that dumb virus, you're its only guarantee that we won't turn off the supercomputer. But it can still capture you to stop you from deactivating the towers."

The pink-ette turned back to the blonde in blue, finishing Odd's thought, "So, it's better if you come live with us."

Hearing this, Jérémie finally convinced himself to no longer worry, as he remembered that they just wished for him to live.

So, he smiled, accepting their invitation.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

A couple hours later, Jérémie, holding a single suitcase that held all his belongings up to now, was led into a small, empty room by Jim Morales. He was just taken on a tour around campus, with it ending at his new place of residence.

It was a fairly small room, and it was a mirror of Aelita's. The bed was against the left wall, rather than the right. His desk was next to the window, rather than by the door. And his closet was against the right wall, rather than the left.

"And this is your room," Jim said. "It's not very big, but I'm sure you'll like it here, Mister, uh..." He trailed off, silently asking for a name.

"Oh!" Jérémie exclaimed when he realized this. "Belpois. Jérémie Belpois." He couldn't disguise his eagerness in his voice.

Jim returned his smile with one of his own, "Well then, Mister Belpois, there are a couple of rules you should know. Breakfast starts at 7 AM, lunch is at 12:30 PM, and dinner's at 7 PM. It's against the rules to be in your dorm between 8 AM and 4:30 PM, AKA: during school hours. And it's lights out at 10 PM. You can ask your friends Della Robbia, Stern, and Schaeffer to fill you in on the rest of the rules." The gym teacher turned and scowled at where Jérémie knew his friends where, standing in the open door frame. "That is if they can remember them!"

Jérémie didn't turn around, knowing that if he did, he wouldn't be able to stop laughing. So he instead chose to bite the inside of his cheek in order to hold in his laughter.

"Alright, then. I'll let you get settled in," Jim said, before leaving.

Once the burly man was gone, Jérémie turned back to his friends, who piled into his new room one by one. "Does he suspect anything? Given that I brought virtually nothing with me?"

Aelita shook her head, smiling, "Nope. That's the beauty of you being known and enrolled as an orphan. No one will look twice at how little stuff you have, or how sheltered you are. Your connection to us is also easily explained away as you being already known as my pen pal."

Feeling humbled by how much work his friends had put into this, Jérémie softly said, "Thank you."

"No problem," Ulrich said, before offering, "Want some help setting up?"

Realizing that he had very little idea of what to do now, Jérémie sheepishly replied with, "If you guys don't mind..."

"Like Ulrich said, it's no problem," Odd shrugged. "It's not like you have a lot of stuff."

His two male friends entered his new room, but Aelita gave them a small wave and told them she'd wait in the courtyard with Yumi, before leaving.

Confused, Jérémie turned to Odd and Ulrich, "Did we do something wrong? Why did she leave?"

Odd closed the door to his new room, which made Jérémie even more confused. Ulrich saw this and explained, "Considering that we're going to be explaining to you stuff that you should already know, we can't have anyone outside listening in."

"Okay, that explains the door," Jérémie replied. "But why did Aelita have to leave?"

He blinked and stewed in his own confusion as his two friends gave each other embarrassed looks. Why was it embarrassing?

Odd rubbed the back of his head, a habit of his that popped up whenever he was embarrassed, confused, or anxious, "One of the rules Jim was referring to was the fact that girls aren't allowed in guys' dorms with the door shut and vice versa."

The blonde in blue tilted his head to one side, even more confused, "Why not?"

The Italian boy coughed as the German boy nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Oh boy..." Odd muttered.

Ulrich managed to stutter out, "Well, you see, i-it's like this..."

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

It turned out that explaining to Jérémie the boys only-girls only dorms rule took a lot longer than actually helping him unpack what little things he had (everything he owned were things his friends bought him during the past six weeks). By the time everything was all set up, it was about one hour until dinner.

Honestly, Jérémie still didn't understand why Aelita couldn't be in his room with his door closed, or vice versa, but he did understand that it was a rule, so he resolved to follow it.

Happy that having dinner with Aelita wasn't against the rules, he let Ulrich and Odd lead him outside to the courtyard, where Aelita said she was waiting with Yumi.

Sure enough, there she was, her pink hair standing out. Yumi was nowhere in sight, though, which made Ulrich a little worried.

Aelita quickly ran over to them the moment she saw them. "Everything set up? What took you guys so long?"

Jérémie replied with a swift, "Yes."

But Aelita lifted an eyebrow in curiosity when she saw Ulrich and Odd's reddening faces. "What's up with you guys? Why are you blushing?"

The other two boys, however, refused to look at each other and at Aelita, much to her confusion.

Seeing this, Jérémie explained, "I was curious as to why you had to leave when they shut the door."

Aelita smiled, quiet for a moment, before she burst out laughing. Odd and Ulrich managed to blush even brighter shades of red, and Jérémie's confused face only made Aelita laugh harder.

"Hey!" Odd protested. "It was embarrassing enough to begin with!"

"Yeah, so if you're quite done..." Ulrich began.

Aelita's hysterical laughter began slowing to a light giggle, "Sorry, sorry. I'm just thinking how it's the perfect payback."

Jérémie finally understood. All the times the others left Aelita alone to explain something embarrassing to him. Now, it was Aelita's turn to laugh at their embarrassment.

"Touché," Ulrich replied.

Odd cleared his throat, "So now that we're even, where's Yumi?"

"Oh, she's talking to a new classmate of hers," Aelita pointed at the opposite end of the courtyard, where Yumi was waiting and talking to a tall boy with messy black hair and navy blue eyes. The two were chatting away, with wide smiles on both faces.

Beside him, Jérémie felt Ulrich immediately tense up and ask, "Who is that guy?"

The blonde in blue glanced at his brunette friend with concern, feeling anger radiating from the football star.

"That's William," Aelita explained. "William Dunbar. He's in Yumi's grade, and he's also new here." She paused, before addressing Ulrich, "They're just friends, Ulrich."

Ulrich just lowered his glare.

The group and courtyard were both quiet enough that they could hear their conversation.

"I wouldn't exactly call myself a rebel," William was saying. "I'm just a little rebellious."

"Well," Yumi replied, "you did manage to get yourself kicked out of your last school by putting up posters all over the place."

"I object, Your Honor," William raised a hand. "Extenuating circumstances by temporary insanity. They were love letters."

Yumi raised an eyebrow, "You mean...love makes you crazy."

William shrugged, "Makes me totally insane."

Yumi blushed, and Ulrich immediately frowned at the sight. He knew it! This William guy was completely snowing her!

"Actually," William continued as Yumi glanced around the courtyard, wanting to look at anything but William, "I don't do anything halfway. It's all or nothing with me. I just can't bring myself to be sensible. But hey, being sensible is just not sensible!"

Yumi immediately quipped, "You stole that line from the Subsonics."

"They're called the Subdigitals now, actually," William corrected. "You like them too?"

"Yeah, they're awesome," Yumi replied before her eye caught her friends standing there, waiting for her. "Oh, there they are! I'll see you tomorrow, William!" She waved at him.

He waved back, "See you tomorrow!"

Yumi ran up to the four people waiting for her, secretly glad that she had spotted them when she did. While she liked William, he came on a little too strong for her liking.

"You all settled in?" Yumi asked Jérémie.

The boy nodded, with a smile.

"Good," the Japanese girl replied. "To be honest, I was getting worried as to why it was taking so long." She paused when she noticed Ulrich and Odd's faces turn red. She nodded at them, asking Jérémie, "Any particular reason as to why those two are making tomatoes jealous?"

Jérémie raised an eyebrow in confusion, not understanding the idiom.

Fortunately, Aelita stepped in, "She means why are they blushing." She then addressed Yumi, "I'll tell you later. It's actually a really funny story."

"I honestly don't see why," Jérémie admitted. "I was just curious why–"

He was cut off by Ulrich and Odd hurriedly covering his mouth with their hands. "Don't!" Odd hissed at him. "Let Yumi laugh at us when we're not around to hear it!"

Yumi turned to Aelita with a knowing smirk, but Aelita shook her head, showing the guys some mercy, "Later. I already laughed in their faces earlier."

"Okay, fine," Yumi waved the proverbial white flag, accepting defeat. "But I better get the full story."

"Oh, you will," the pink-ette replied. "Bye, Yumi."

"Bye, see you guys tomorrow!"

With that, Yumi exited the gate and left for home.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

On their way to the cafeteria, Ulrich had asked, once more, who William was, and Aelita repeated what she had told him earlier: that William was a new student in Yumi's grade and who was expelled from his previous school in Scotland.

It was obvious Ulrich was jealous of Yumi's closeness with William, so Jérémie attempted to reassure him, "I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Ulrich. You know Yumi's crazy about you."

"Right!" Odd agreed. "So stop freaking out!"

"That's what you guys think," Ulrich muttered. "Actually, I have no idea..."

Odd rolled his eyes as they approached the cafeteria doors, "We can't figure you two out. Are you and Yumi going out together or not?!"

"Uh...yeah," Ulrich stuttered. "W-Well, yes and no. It's, uh...it's a bit complicated..."

As Aelita opened the cafeteria doors, she muttered, "Of course it is." As she let her friends go inside first, she gave her brunette-haired friend some advice. "Ulrich, listen. You and Yumi really need to talk, before your jealousy consumes you both. And us, if you're not careful!"

Ulrich was quiet all through the dinner line, mostly due to them needing to explain what to do here to Jérémie, who had obviously not done this before. But the brunette really was thinking about Aelita's advice. He had to tell Yumi how he felt about her, but he didn't know how.

The four found an empty table and quickly claimed it before anybody else could. Before the conversation could continue with the deal between Ulrich and Yumi, Jim approached them, a stack of books in one arm, and a piece of paper in the other hand.

"There you are, Mr. Belpois," Jim exclaimed as he stopped at their table. He set down the stack of books next to Jérémie. "Here are your school books. You'll need them tomorrow." He finished the stack by placing the paper on top, "And this is your class schedule."

"Thank you, Jim," Jérémie replied. Jim nodded before leaving. The blue-clad blonde took the paper from the stack and studied it.

He felt Aelita, who was sitting next to him, look at it over his shoulder, "Good. You're in all the same classes as we are."

Ulrich breathed a gentle sigh of relief, as Odd admitted, "That is good. That way we can keep an eye on you."

Before anyone could respond to that, a nasally voice cut in, "So, you're the newbie." Ulrich and Odd looked up and immediately glared at the newcomer. Aelita and Jérémie both turned around to see Hervé standing there.

"Yes," Jérémie decided to play nice. Last time, it didn't really start out so well, and there wasn't a crowd full of people to protect him this time. "I'm–"

Hervé cut him off, "–Jérémie, Aelita's pen pal. Yes, I know who you are."

No, you don't, Jérémie wanted to say. You think I'm an AI.

But he didn't.

"Hervé, be nice," Aelita cut in with a stern expression. "Please."

Hervé glanced at the girl he had a crush on, and Jérémie could see the other boy's mind being swayed. "Fine. Welcome to Kadic, Jérémie," he said, before turning around and walking away.

Jérémie was quiet, "Why do I get the feeling he didn't really mean that?"

"Because he didn't," Ulrich warned. "Be careful. Hervé's your dorm neighbor, just like Odd and me. If he starts giving you a bad time, don't be afraid to call out to us."

"Okay, but..." Jérémie had to ask, "why does he hate me already? He was like this last time too."

"Because he's jealous," Odd explained. "You're close to Aelita, and he doesn't like that."

"Why?" was the first thing out of the blue-clad blonde's mouth. "What Aelita and I do is none of his business."

As Aelita's cheeks became tinged with a light red, Odd smiled, "That's the spirit!"

"Just remember," Ulrich quietly warned, "that it was out of jealousy that Hervé stole Aelita's diary. Be careful. He may do something worse now that you're here in person."

"Noted," Jérémie replied, as he went through all the books Jim just gave him. "But I'm hardly scared of him. Not when I fight a rogue AI on a daily basis."

The others couldn't deny the truth in that. Jérémie had faced literal life or death situations before, all thanks to XANA. Hervé didn't even make a dent in this case.

Jérémie paused on his history book. He seemed to study the cover, before opening it, which he hadn't done with any of the others he was given (not yet, at least).

Odd took note of this, "You seem awfully interested in history, Jer. Six weeks ago, you were paying attention to Mr. Fumet's lecture on the Renaissance like your life depended on it. And now, you're going directly to your history book."

The blue-clad blonde only shrugged. "If you want answers, Odd, I don't have them," he admitted, as he flipped through the pages. "It just seems awfully familiar."

"You know," Aelita softly cut in, "Michel Périn was Kadic's history teacher before Mr. Fumet. Could that have something to do with it?"

"I don't know..." Jérémie muttered, as he turned the page, and he immediately paused upon seeing it.

The page wasn't anything special, just a brightly colored illustration of an elephant and an ancient warrior. It was just page 189, the first page of the chapter covering Hannibal and the Punic Wars.

He blinked and suddenly, he was no longer in the cafeteria, but in a house he'd never seen before.

There was a blonde-haired woman playing the piano that was next to the wall. He himself was sitting on the couch, with a brunette-haired man sitting next to him. Jérémie was snuggling him, feeling weak for some reason, and the man was reading to him from a book that the exact same illustration. Granted, this book had text circled in red pen, with some notes added in that same red pen.

But Jérémie knew that it was covering the same subject: the Punic Wars.

"Jérémie?"

Someone called his name, and he looked up at the man who was reading to him, then at the woman playing the piano. It seemed like they were the ones calling his name, but he recognized the voice.

"Jérémie!"

He snapped to attention and found himself back in the cafeteria, his three friends looking at him with concern, and Aelita's hand tightly gripping his arm, having shaken him out of his reverie.

"Jer, you okay?" Ulrich asked.

Jérémie nodded, though he could barely feeling himself doing so. He hadn't realized he was hyperventilating. No wonder he felt so weak all of a sudden.

"Do you want to go see the nurse?" Odd asked.

Jérémie vehemently shook his head. No, he was fine. He didn't know what had happened, but he was fine now.

Aelita's voice was soft in an attempt to hide the sheer panic she had felt, "What happened?"

"I've seen this picture before," was all he could manage to get out. His throat was dry. He needed some water. He closed his new history book as he took a long sip of his water.

What was that strange vision? Was it a trick by XANA, sent through the virus that connected them? Or was it something that had been long forgotten?

In any case, he didn't like it, but he knew he needed answers.

As if reading his mind, Aelita gently promised him, "We'll find the answers, Jérémie. No matter how long it takes."

Jérémie wasn't sure how to express his gratitude without words, so he just smiled at her. Well, as much as he could without it feeling fake.

He missed Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd all giving each other a knowing, and determined look.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Late that night, Aelita Schaeffer snuck out, meeting her cousin Odd Della Robbia and his roommate Ulrich Stern outside of the dorms building. The three were still dressed in their day clothes, with Jérémie sleeping.

As the three made their way to the Administrative Building, there was only one thought in each of their minds: they had to find out more about this Michel Périn guy.

Who was he? How did he know Jérémie, that is, if he did? Was he the reason Jérémie was taking such an interest in history?

They had to find out. They needed answers.

The trio snuck in through a window on the bottom floor, the window that led to the archives room. Ulrich and Odd kept watch, as Aelita tip-toed her way to file cabinets against the wall.

Using her phone as a flashlight, she went to the cabinet labeled 'Staff', and then the drawer labeled 'P-Z'.

Aelita cautiously opened it, and shifted through the folders that were in the drawer.

It didn't take long for her to find the folder labeled 'Périn, Michel', and she immediately opened it.

In it was all of his information, with his resume on top, then his official contract with the school, complete with his signature. Aelita took a quick picture of the signature, before continuing to dig through the file. In the folder was also a complete, simple biography, on which was his signature yet again, as well as his place of residence.

It was a house located in the nearby forest, simply called 'The Hermitage'.

Aelita took a picture of the address, before putting the file back in its proper place.

She turned her phone's light off, before climbing out of the window, where Ulrich and Odd were still waiting, still keeping watch.

Aelita just gave them a thumb's up after closing the window, to signal that it was a 'mission complete'.

The three snuck back into the dorms without any interference.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The pack of wolves stalked him through the trees, all of them intent on hunting down the intruder. This was their forest, and they wouldn't let him forget that.

He approached a cliff, only to find the leader of the wolves already up there waiting for him. He turned back around, looking for a path of escape, only to quickly discover that he was now surrounded on all sides.

Not knowing what to do, he picked a direction and ran.

Sure enough, the wolves were all following him, and they were faster than him. Much faster. And he was running out of energy. He had to find a place to hide until they were gone.

But where?

He had to decide quickly, before the wolves caught up with him and–

Jérémie was brought back to reality when his alarm clock began beeping, signaling 7 AM, the start of a brand new day.

He was covered in cold sweat, his bed sheets twisted around him like a pretzel. He'd just had a nightmare, something he'd already studied up on during the past year when Aelita started having them thanks to XANA.

But this was no mere nightmare. This felt like another vision, like the one he had last night at dinner. And the one narrating it sounded an awful lot like a woman's voice.

Jérémie tightly clenched his eyes shut, trying to rid the unnatural fear he felt. He focused his mind on the beeping of his alarm clock located on his bedside table. Once he felt calm enough to face people, he turned off the alarm, and got out of bed.

He grabbed his toiletries bag and his towel, and made his way towards the boys' shower room.

Ulrich and Odd weren't in there when he arrived. After his shower, Jérémie was disappointed when he saw that they still weren't there. He really needed to talk to them about his nightmare.

"Feeling lost, Belpois?" Hervé asked, and Jérémie snapped out of his stupor to look at the other boy with confusion. Hervé just leaned in closer and whispered in his ear, "Just stay away from Aelita, and we won't have a problem. Capiche?"

Jérémie, in return, just walked away, leaving the shower room and heading back to his dorm to change out of his pajamas.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

As it turned out, Ulrich and Odd had gone to visit Aelita first, where they discovered that, despite changing into her night clothes, she had stayed up all night.

"You didn't sleep at all?" Ulrich asked, he and Odd standing in their own nightmares in the open door frame.

"Sorry, but I was too busy," Aelita shrugged off their concern, continuing to type commands on her computer. "Once I found Périn in the archives, I couldn't stop digging."

"Does this mean I can have your portion?" Odd asked.

Aelita rolled her eyes, "You're a real walking stomach, Odd, you know that?"

Odd shrugged, "And you're a walking brain, so we complement each other. C'mon, cuz, we've been over this."

The pink-ette just glared at him.

Ulrich cut in, trying to avoid a fight, "Did you, at least, find something meaningful?"

"Oh, yeah," Aelita smiled, turning back to her computer. "I managed to find a copy of the current deed to the factory by hacking into the internet's database. Like you said, Ulrich, it has Périn's signature on it. It matches the signature on the file in the school archives."

"So, Périn the factory owner and Périn the history teacher are one in the same?" Odd summarized it.

"Yep," Aelita confirmed. "But that's not all. In the school archives, I also found his place of residence, a house in the forest called The Hermitage. I found a copy of the deed to that too, and guess what?"

"The signatures match?" Ulrich asked.

The pink-ette just nodded, barely able to contain her excitement.

"So we have something," Odd said. "That's good, right?"

"It's the farthest we've ever gotten," Aelita reminded them both. "We need to check out this Hermitage."

"Agreed," Ulrich replied. "Odd and I will go with you. That way, we'll be able to search it three times as fast and get back before anyone misses us. But we have class first thing after breakfast. We can't miss it."

"That's right," Odd realized. "It's Jérémie's first official day of school. We can't leave him all alone. We promised we'd be there."

Aelita gently sighed, "Alright. We'll go during lunch."

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

It was time to head for class, and the others still weren't there. Jérémie wasn't sure where Ms. Hertz's classroom was, so he asked Heidi Klinger, who was more than happy to lead him there. He didn't understand why most of the females at Kadic (if not all) were so attached to him already, but if it got him to where he needed to be, he didn't really mind it.

He sat down at an empty desk, and took out his Chemistry book from his book bag and placed it on the table.

With two minutes to spare, Jérémie saw Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd finally arrive. Ulrich and Odd took the desk behind him, while Aelita took the seat next to him.

"Where were you?" Jérémie whispered at the pink-ette, genuinely curious, and not really hurt.

"We'll tell you later," Aelita softly replied, as Ms. Hertz began taking roll call.

His name was called near the beginning, so Jérémie, after responding appropriately, had more than enough time to ponder over what his friends were doing, what was so important that they had to skip having breakfast with him. Whatever it was, Aelita looked pretty pleased about it, so it had to have been something good.

Maybe she found something last night? He hoped so. In any case, he trusted his friends to tell him after class.

Ms. Hertz was deep into giving her lecture, when she asked the inevitable tough question, "Now, who can tell me how many grams of carbon result from this chain reaction?" She glanced around the classroom.

Her two bests student, Hervé Pichon and Aelita Schaeffer, both immediately raised their hands, with Pichon eager and Schaeffer calm. Suzanne Hertz had no doubt they could solve it, but the new boy, Jérémie Belpois, was untested. Wanting to know just how much he knew, she instead called on the blonde.

"Mr. Belpois?"

As she predicted, Pichon's shoulders sunk, as he looked over at the poor blonde, annoyed yet smug, as if waiting for him to get the answers wrong and embarrass himself. Belpois was looking at her equations on the board, confused, but his blue eyes carefully studied them.

She honestly didn't want to embarrass the new kid on his first day, and while she could be cruel to slackers, not everyone in this classroom already knew the answers.

"Did you want me to balance the equations first?" Belpois softly asked.

Suzanne Hertz blinked, "I'm sorry?" She wasn't expecting that answer.

The blonde boy repeated, "Did you want me to balance the equations first?"

Ms. Hertz stared at him for a moment before a laugh escaped her. Not used to hearing their strict science teacher laugh, his classmates all began staring at Jérémie, causing him to slide down in his seat, his cheeks getting red with embarrassment.

As Aelita reached out to give him a comforting pat on the shoulder, Ms. Hertz quickly regained her calm composure, "Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong." She took off her glasses to clean them, as she forced herself to calm down. "You simply jumped ahead of my lesson."

Jérémie didn't know if that was good or bad, but judging by Ms. Hertz's amused reaction, he guessed that she didn't mind it. If anything, to her, it was a nice change of pace.

He missed Hervé giving him a look of disdain.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

It was at lunch hour where things got really interesting, however.

It all started when Jérémie, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd met with Yumi in the courtyard after morning classes ended. The five were just about to head towards the cafeteria when they heard Hervé call out to the boy in blue.

"Belpois!"

The five all turned around to see Hervé marching up to them, pointing at Jérémie in what they all interpreted to be a threatening manner.

Jérémie looked confused, "Um, hello?"

"Just who do you think you are, huh?!" Hervé was pissed, as the group wasn't sure why until he continued, "Waltzing in here and acting like you're the smartest kid around!"

"I just answered Ms. Hertz's question," Jérémie replied, genuinely confused. "I didn't realize that was a crime."

"It's not. Ms. Hertz called on you," Ulrich cut in. "We told you yesterday, Jer, that Hervé was jealous of you being close to Aelita. Well, now it seems you're also threatening his position as the smartest kid at Kadic."

"B-But I didn't mean to make it look that way..." Jérémie stuttered out. He didn't want to keep giving Hervé reasons to hate him.

"So just shut up and play dumb!" Hervé retorted. "Then, we won't have a problem!"

The blue-clad blonde's temper seemed to flare, "I'm not going to act stupid just so you can look good. Nor am I going to stop hanging out with Aelita just to cure your jealousy. I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere."

"That's right," Odd cut in. "So you better fix your issues now, Hervé."

"Because the next time you approach him," Yumi practically growled at their unwanted guest, "the rest of us won't be as merciful." She and Ulrich were giving Hervé death glares and cracking their knuckles.

It would always amaze Jérémie how intimidating his friends could be, especially on his behalf.

"Fine then. Welcome to hell, Belpois," Hervé replied, before storming off.

Jérémie felt a low growl erupt from his throat. Hervé's jealousy should not have to be his problem. So, he had resolved to keep going about his day like normal.

Yumi quickly changed the subject, "Anyways, Aelita, you said you found something on Michel Périn?"

"Yes," Aelita's smile returned, and Jérémie turned his attention to his friends, eager to get his mind off of Hervé. "Last night, Ulrich and Odd helped me sneak into the school's archives."

"Did you find anything?" Yumi asked. "Is Jim right?"

"He is," Aelita nodded. "I found Périn's file, as well as his official signature and current address. For the rest of the night, I was hacking into the internet's database and I found two deeds, one to the factory and one to his current residence. The signatures match."

"So, you think the owner of the factory and the history teacher are the same person?" Yumi asked.

"We don't think," Odd replied. "We know."

"And let's face it," Ulrich cut in. "Finding two guys named Michel Périn in a radius of about a kilometer would sure be a real coincidence."

"That's true," Yumi admitted. "So where's his place of residence? Is it somewhere close?"

"Yep," the pink-ette replied. "It's a house in the nearby forest, that way," she pointed to the group's left, "called The Hermitage. Ulrich, Odd, and I were thinking about checking it out. Want to come with us?"

"Hold on," Yumi paused. "Now?"

"Yeah," Aelita replied. "Why wait? I mean, he currently owns the factory, and he bought it directly from the Renault company, the original owners. If anyone is a candidate for Lyoko's creator, it's definitely him."

"Or someone he knew needed the factory and he bought it for their benefit," Ulrich suggested.

"Either way, he definitely knows something," Aelita admitted. "If he doesn't, then it's a massive oversight. Want to come with us, Yumi?"

"I'd love to," Yumi replied, "but I can't. I have gym class at the pool right after lunch. I can't be late for the bus."

"I would love to go as well," Jérémie cut in, finally speaking up after being quiet for all this time. "I have...a lot of questions that need answering."

"We...don't think that's a good idea, actually," Aelita apologetically replied.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Why not?"

"Well, you're the new kid," Odd explained. "There's gonna be a lot of eyes on you and people wishing to help you settle in."

"Then, let's save the trip for after classes," Yumi interrupted. "That way, the only eyes on him will be ours."

"Sorry," the pink-ette apologized. "By then, it might be too late. We have to search it now, before XANA catches on to what we're up to."

"But–!" Jérémie attempted to protest.

But he was cut off by Ulrich, "Don't worry, Jer. We'll be back in time for history."

They weren't abandoning him, Jérémie reminded himself as he watched them leave. They'd be right back. They were right. XANA could catch on to what they were doing and hide evidence if they waited too long to find answers. That is, if XANA really was connected to Périn like they assumed. There was a chance he wasn't, but they couldn't take that chance.

Yumi wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders, "Are you alright, Jérémie? You're shaking."

He hadn't realized he was, "I-I'm not...actually sure..."

That certainly worried the Japanese girl, "What's wrong?"

"I-I don't think I can get used to living here," he stuttered out his explanation. "I keep having visions, and last night, I had a nightmare. I need to see that house for myself. To satisfy my own curiosity, if nothing else."

"Just give yourself time," Yumi calmly advised. "You haven't even been here for a full day yet. And you'll get your answers soon, I promise. For now, let yourself settle in first. That way, you'll have a safety net when you start searching for answers. Okay?"

She sent him a reassuring smile that he couldn't help but return, "Okay."

"Good. Let's go have lunch together," she suggested, as she led him to the cafeteria by the shoulders.

On their way, someone called out, "Hey, Yumi!"

The two turned to see Priscilla Blaise waving at her from underneath a tree. "Oh, that's Priscilla. She and I have an English assignment together. I need to go talk to her real quick. Go on in and claim our table, Jer. I'll be there soon."

"Okay," Jérémie replied, before trudging on towards the cafeteria by himself.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The other three approached the house at the indicated address in Périn's file. For good measure, there was a sign on the front gate that told them where they were: ''L'ermitage'.

"So this is the Hermitage?" Odd asked. "Looks insanely creepy."

It did. It looked like a haunted house straight out of a horror movie.

Aelita steeled her nerves, "Let's go."

She led the other two into the front yard, up the front steps, and into the front door, which was unlocked.

"Who would leave their front door open like that?" Odd asked.

"Someone who's not worried about thieves in the middle of the forest," Ulrich replied.

"Right, so Périn must've chosen this location specifically because it was out of the public eye," Aelita guessed.

"But why?" Odd asked.

Aelita could only shrug, "I have no idea." The trio looked at the hallway that greeted them. "This place was definitely abandoned. No one has lived here for some time. Look at all the dust, the cobwebs..."

There was a pause of silence as the trio took that piece of information in.

Ulrich broke it, "So what are we looking for?"

"Anything with the name Michel attached to it," Aelita replied. "And Jérémie, just in case. Split up, but keep your phone on. We can't take any chances in a place like this."

The trio split up, with Odd heading outside and searching the yard. Ulrich searched the kitchen, only for it to prove useless, and then the family room, where he found a few story books and some broken picture frames containing photos that had been worn down with age.

Meanwhile, Aelita searched the den, which was a treasure trove of books. There were hardback volumes of computer references and science, along with physics textbooks that a history teacher wouldn't normally have.

"Frank, Heisenberg, Schrodinger..." Aelita leaved through the various physics textbooks.

But then, she got to the shelf with all the history books, a more normal collection for a history teacher to have. And one stood out to her: a book on the Punic Wars. She opened it to see a bunch of notes scribbled onto various pages.

Just then, her phone rang, and she picked up quickly, "Yes, Odd?" Was he in danger?

"Come outside, around the back," Odd told her. "I found something."

The Punic Wars book clutched tightly in her hands, she raced out of the house, where Ulrich had already beaten her to where Odd was.

Around back, apparently, meant going down a set of stone stairs, where the house's basement was, along with two doors, one leading back to the house and the other leading to a separate structure.

"What'd you find, Odd?" she asked.

Odd merely motioned to the door to the other structure, which was already open. Ulrich and Aelita peered inside and saw that the door led to another set of stairs, this one leading to the sewers of all places.

"Why does Périn have an underground passage to the sewers from his yard?" Ulrich asked.

"Because he definitely has something to do with Lyoko," Odd admitted. "Don't ask me why this passage exists, though. I have no idea."

"I don't know either," Aelita cut in, "but it makes me confident that this has something to do with Lyoko too." She showed them to book she took outside with her.

"The Tunic Wars?" Odd asked. "What's that?"

"Punic," Ulrich corrected. "Not Tunic. The war between the Romans and the Carthaginians. We studied it very briefly last year. Don't you ever pay attention during class?"

"Of course not!" Odd replied, sounding offended. "I was too busy taking naps!"

"In any case," Aelita cut in, successfully making the two shut up, "he was definitely obsessed with this part of history." She opened the book to a page that showed a very familiar picture, which both boys leaned over to get a better view of.

Ulrich recognized the significance of it right away, "That's the picture Jérémie said he's seen before."

"Yes," Aelita confirmed. "And all the notes in red pen tell me that this book is important. I'm not sure how, but something tells me we'll soon find out."

As she closed the book and placed it inside her shoulder bag, where her laptop also was, Odd quipped, "You know, what you're doing is technically stealing."

"The guy's vanished, Odd," Ulrich retorted. "I don't think he'd mind."

Aelita couldn't ignore how the red markings in the book seemed to be some sort of reminder, as if telling the person who wrote those marks to not forget something.

A secret code or password perhaps?

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Jérémie put his tray down as he stared at the food choices in front of him. He was aware he was causing a back-up, but he was stuck. He didn't know what of these dishes were.

"Isn't that Jérémie Belpois?" he heard the girl in the line behind him whisper to her friend. Claire Girard, was it? "The new boy from the orphanage?"

"I think it is," her friend whispered back. Magali De Vasseur, he believed. "He seems to be stuck."

"Then let's help him," Claire replied, before addressing him. "Hello, um, Jérémie?" He turned to face the two girls with curiosity and slight fear—he still only felt completely comfortable around his friends. "Are you okay? Do you need any help?"

This was his chance. "Yes, umm...what are all these dishes?" He honestly didn't know. They were all different than the ones presented to him yesterday, and Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita had seamlessly explained what they all were when he asked.

But right now, none of them were here to help. Yumi was talking to her classmate Priscilla, and Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich were off exploring that house in the forest.

Claire immediately got to work, pointing at each dish as she named them, "Oh, these are scrambled eggs." She pointed to a dish with green circular...things, "These are zucchini–"

He cut her off, "What is that? Zu-cchini?" Sounding it out was weird to him. He'd never had to move his lips like that before.

"Oh, it's just a kind of vegetable," Magali explained. "A healthy food." Oh, okay. That made sense. That meant it was good for you.

However, Naomi N'Guyen whispered to her Magali, "He doesn't even know zucchini. He must've lived a miserable life in the orphanage." On their faces were expressions of concern, and he immediately wanted to tell him that they weren't warranted. That he was fine.

Claire continued, not paying Naomi or Magali's whispering any mind, as she pointed to another dish, "And this is beef goulash." Then another, "These are..."

Goulash? What was that? Should he ask her about it and make himself sound miserable again? Or just choose the zucchini and be done with it?

"There's quite a few choices," Claire finished. He hadn't realized she was done until she said this. "Rosa makes a variety so that everyone is pleased. So just take something you like."

The smile she was offering him did not really comfort him. He would rather prefer to go through this with one of his friends, whom he could ask all the questions he wanted and needed without any stress. And right now, the only available friend was Yumi.

Where was she? Surely, discussing an English assignment shouldn't take this long, right? Maybe they just wanted to be thorough, so they were taking their time?

He turned his head to look out the window in time to see Yumi approaching the cafeteria, deep in a conversation with none other than William. He wouldn't have minded William sitting with him and Yumi, but that was until the two stopped right outside and leaned against a tree, clearly not going anywhere for awhile.

In that moment, a very painful, yet strangely familiar feeling returned. It was his hatred of being alone. He didn't know why he felt this way, or what had triggered it this time, but he'd had enough.

He wasn't really hungry anyways.

Without a word, he left the line, leaving his tray behind, ignoring Claire's, "What's wrong? You don't like these foods?"

He left the cafeteria, intending on going to his dorm, only to be greeted by a grinning Hervé outside, the other boy's arms folded across his chest.

"Enjoying your first day?"

Jérémie wasn't in the mood to rise to the bait, just choosing to walk on by.

"Why don't you just go home?" Hervé asked. "Back to the orphanage? I'm sure that's easier than trying to adjust to something you're not familiar with."

The blonde halted in his tracks.

Yes. Go home. Go back to Lyoko. At least there, he wouldn't be judged as 'miserable' by anyone. At least there, he could consult the Internet whenever he had questions without drawing anyone's attention. At least there, he would not be placed in any uncomfortable situations like in the lunch line just now.

Besides, fighting XANA was way easier than living here. At least then, he would just need to fight. At least then, he would know what he was doing.

Hervé may not have realized it; he didn't sound like he was being rude. But he'd hit a real sore spot.

"Fine, you win," Jérémie replied, having made his decision.

He didn't belong here anyways. He had no memories of his past, his parents, or who he was before. Everything he had now were things given to him by the others. Hell, even his current surname 'Belpois' was fake! Even if it felt right, he still had no idea if that was his actual surname.

He didn't belong here. He didn't belong at Kadic. He belonged on Lyoko.

"I'm going home." Jérémie ignored Hervé's look of surprise as the blonde turned towards the woods. "I'm even more alone here than I was there."

As he ran away, he ignored Hervé's sputtered response, "Fine! Good riddance!"

Hervé didn't mean to take things that far, but he wasn't going to object to the outcome.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

If only Jérémie had waited just one more minute...

Yumi entered the cafeteria with William, and she immediately searched the room for her blonde friend. But she didn't see him.

Seeing her concern, William asked, "Is he not here? You said Jérémie was waiting for us."

"He should be here," she stressed. "I saw him go inside."

William turned to the table on their right, and asked the four kids sitting there, "Hey, have you guys seen Jérémie Belpois?"

The four kids only shook their heads. They had seen him enter, but they hadn't seen him leave.

William and Yumi followed suit with the next five tables, only to get the same answers as the first table.

But when they reached the seventh table, they asked Sissi, Nicolas, and Hervé the same question. Sissi and Nicolas looked genuinely concerned, but Hervé looked smug as he replied, "He said he was going home."

"But he doesn't have a home!" Sissi reminded him. "He's an orphan!"

Hervé shrugged, "He said he was going back. Said something about feeling more alone here than there."

William glanced over at Yumi to see her suddenly being struck with an illness. She looked sick. "Yumi," he asked, "you okay? Do you need the nurse?"

"I'm fine," she shook it off, before turning to Hervé. "What did I say earlier about the next time you were being mean to Jérémie?!"

Sissi and Nicolas immediately rounded on Hervé, with Sissi shrieking, "You were bullying the new kid?! I thought you were better than that, Hervé!"

"Hey! I didn't mean to take things that far, okay?" Hervé attempted to defend himself. "I just wanted to remind him who Kadic's real nerd was!"

"And I warned you about letting your jealousy cloud your judgement!" Nicolas retorted. "Well, congratulations, Pichon! Your jealousy made someone run away!"

As the trio continued to bicker, Yumi leaned in to William, "I need to find Jérémie. Can you handle this?"

"Sure thing," William replied, cracking his knuckles. "C'mon, Pichon. I'm sure the principal will have something to say about you bullying a new student."

That was the last thing Yumi heard from them as she ran out of the cafeteria.

On her way to the school's boiler room, to the secret passage there, she pulled out her phone and called Aelita.

The pink-ette took a little too long picking up for Yumi's liking, "Yes, Yumi?"

"Aelita, we have a huge problem! Jérémie's heading to the factory!"

"What?! Why is he going there?! I thought everything was fine!" the pink-ette shrieked, surely catching Odd and Ulrich's attention.

"Well, it seems that Hervé told Jérémie to go home," Yumi explained.

"How do you know Jérémie's going to the factory, though?" Odd asked, his voice slightly muffled.

"He said Jérémie was going home," Yumi replied. "The only other place he can call home is Lyoko!"

"We'll meet you there, Yumi," Aelita said, sounding increasingly frantic and panicked by the second. "Whoever gets there first, try to talk him down!"

"Right," the Japanese girl said before hanging up, part of her feeling like this was her fault.

She had taken six minutes talking to Priscilla, when she ran into William on the way to the cafeteria. She wanted William and Jérémie, both new kids, to meet, so Jérémie would have a friend outside of the group.

If only she hadn't taken so long...

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi reached the factory first. She immediately went to the supercomputer monitor to confirm her suspicions.

Sure enough, the holomap read Jérémie's yellow arrow in the Mountain Sector, sitting on top of a boulder surveying the vast expanse all around him. He was clearly sulking, and she felt a pang of guilt for not being fast enough.

"Jérémie?" she called out after slipping on the earpiece.

"Yumi?" he softly replied, just as the holomap started showing a red circle approaching the blue elf as fast as it could.

"Jérémie, there's a Krabe behind you!" she warned. "Hide somewhere!" She knew what she had to do. "I'll be there in a minute!"

As Yumi typed in the necessary commands for the Self-Virtualization program, the holomap showed him being chased away from the boulder by the Krabe. "Don't drag your feet!" she heard the blonde say.

Yumi pressed Enter and immediately went down to the scanner room the moment she saw the timer window appear.

After what felt like forever, the scanner doors finally closed, and Yumi felt her body depixelate and reform in mid-air in no time.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The other three had taken the passage from the Hermitage, arriving at the factory just in time to see Yumi virtualizing herself to Lyoko.

But Aelita could see something Yumi could not: two red circles appearing at the same time as Yumi. "Yumi, be careful! Two Tarantulas are there to greet you!" she said, after putting on her headset in a haste.

"I see them!" Yumi replied. "And they're firing at me! Classic XANA welcoming committee!"

"Hang in there," Aelita told her. "I'm sending Ulrich and Odd in as back up." She turned to the mentioned two down in the scanner room. "You guys ready?"

"We're ready!" Odd answered.

"Alright, here we go," Aelita typed in the commands, bringing up their ID cards one by one. "Transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich!" Their avatars began loading. "Scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich!" Once both were finished loading, she pressed 'Enter'. "Virtualization!"

Two green arrows appeared on the holomap in the Mountain Sector, both near Yumi. In another window, it showed her three friends engaged in battle with the two Tarantulas.

"You mind sending us our vehicles, Aelita?" Odd asked.

"Coming up," she answered, as she began typing out the needed commands. Jérémie had showed her how to bring up the vehicles, but it was still a process she was learning. In the meantime, she checked the holomap for that familiar yellow arrow, "Jérémie's heading north."

"We'll catch up as soon as we can," Ulrich promised. "But these Tarantulas aren't making it easy!"

"Surprise!" The holomap showed Odd leaping out from behind a boulder and taking out of the Tarantulas, leaving just one left. "Looks like they're not all that invincible!"

"Good job, Odd," Aelita cut in, as she pressed Enter. "As your reward, I give you your vehicles."

The three vehicles showed themselves virtualizing.

"Thanks, Aelita," Yumi said. "Let's go!"

With that, the three green arrows took off, heading north faster than the last Tarantula could catch up to them. Trusting her friends to handle themselves, she turned her attention to her other friend, the one currently in distress. "Jérémie, hang in there. The others are on their way."

"Aelita! Help me!"

She hadn't heard him so desperate in quite a while, and it really scared her. "Help is coming, I promise!"

"You don't understand!" he replied, completely panicked. "I'm running out of options!"

Aelita took a quick glance at the holomap, and to her horror, it proved he was right: Jérémie's yellow arrow, being pursued by two Krabes, were chasing him to the edge of the Mountain Sector. He meant that he was running out of room to escape.

"Use your Creativity!" she suggested to him, sounding increasingly panicked the closer he got to to edge. "Buy yourself some time!" She reopened the channel to the other three, "Step on it! We have a problem!"

"What's wrong?" Yumi asked.

"If Jérémie reaches the edge of the sector, he's cornered," was all she had to say.

Because Ulrich finished her thought, "And XANA wins."

"Exactly."

"Don't worry, boss," Odd chirped, somehow sounding serious despite his playful tone. "We'll step on the gas."

Aelita turned her attention back to Jérémie just as his yellow arrow approached the extreme edge of the sector. She watched as he turned around and faced the two Krabes that had cornered him.

"Aelita...?"

"I'm still here," she reassured him. "The others should be there soon."

"They're not firing at me," he slowly reported, meaning the Krabes. "It's like they want to keep me here."

"Be careful," she warned. "I have a bad feeling about this." A pause, before something strange appeared on her screens right behind Jérémie. "Behind you!"

The yellow arrow turned around, and exclaimed, "What is–?!", before he got cut off. He never finished his sentence.

"Jérémie?! Jérémie! Are you there?!" Aelita asked, as she searched the logs for what had happened. The strange thing on the holomap had disappeared, taking Jérémie with it.

"Aelita, we've reached the edge of the sector," Ulrich cut in, alerting Aelita of their current position. They were right. They were right where Jérémie was, or should've been. "But we can't see Jérémie. Or anything." The Krabes were gone too.

"He's already gone?! He must really be mad at us," Odd quipped.

"This is no time for jokes, Odd!" Aelita retorted. "I've lost Jérémie from my screens!" She had scanned and was rescanning the Mountain Sector high and low for the blue elf, but his signal had disappeared.

Yumi, understandably, began to panic, "You...you mean...he's..."

"I don't think so," she reassured her friends, despite her own panic clear in her voice. "His ID card would've recorded deletion. It's just as though he's...disappeared from my screens altogether." She scanned the other three sectors as well, only to get nothing.

There was a pause, a very tense, uncomfortable silence, until Odd broke it, "Cast your net wider, Lita. Trust me."

She chose to trust her cousin, and she extended her search to beyond Lyoko, the only other option she had. She got a hit, as shown by a new window popping up on the screen, "Holy–! Odd, you're right."

"As I figured," Odd replied, admitting, "I had a vision. He's still alive, but he's in bigger danger where he is now than he is here with us."

"No wonder you just froze up." Ulrich asked, "So, where's Jérémie?"

"Jérémie's not in this sector anymore," Aelita explained. "He's still on Lyoko, but in a sector that doesn't exist. A fifth sector." An alarm sounded from the holomap, so she warned the others, "Watch out. Twelve Hornets are converging on your location."

"We'll take care of them," Yumi vowed. "You just figure out how to get to that other sector."

"I need a password," she told them, as the holomap showed her three friends engaging with the twelve Hornets. "'Welcome to Carthage' is my hint."

"This is no time for a history lesson!" Ulrich exclaimed, deep in battle with their enemies.

"A history lesson?" Aelita asked, confused, before remembering the book she had taken from the Hermitage. "Of course! That's exactly what I need!"

With this, she got up from her chair and headed towards her book bag. Taking out the book she needed, she felt better about herself, knowing that her previous theory about the notes in this book being more of a reminder than an obsession was proving to be correct.

She smiled as she resumed her seat, the earpiece firmly in her ear and the book laid across her lap, open to the first page that had notes written in that red pen.

Hold on, Jérémie, she thought as she began typing in her guesses. We'll be there soon.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Jérémie hadn't realized that he passed out until that strange white orb he saw dropped him off an a spinning, domed room, lit from the floor. The room was mostly blue except for the ground, which was covered in white and emblemed with a giant eye of XANA, just like the orb.

Something told him that this place was XANA's domain, but because he could still feel his own 'admin controls' (Odd's phrasing) here, he couldn't tell for sure.

Regardless, he cautiously stood up as he surveyed the room he was in.

Finally, the spinning stopped, and part of the wall opened to reveal a hallway. He remained where he was, cautious as to why this was where XANA was leading him. Why? What did it want? To destroy him?

No, XANA could've easily done that with the Krabes earlier. Why make things more complicated than they had to be?

"Aelita? Can you hear me?"

Nothing but silence.

"No, of course not," he muttered to himself. "That would be too easy."

The sensible thing to do would be to stay put until Aelita contacted him, or the others arrived (or both, if he was lucky). But there could be a way out through the hallway.

Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, he cautiously began walking down the dark blue corridor.

Only for it to lead him to a dead end.

He turned back from where he came, seeing that the pathway there was still open. There was still time to turn back. But before he could take another step, in any direction, the wall opened up, revealing more of the path.

He glanced back at the room he emerged from, knowing this was likely his last chance. But remembering how badly his day was going so far, he honestly didn't believe it would get any worse.

So he trudged forward.

And he quickly found that there were creatures here. Human-sized brown slug-like creatures, in fact. He didn't know what they were called, but he didn't care, knowing Odd would give them a name soon, that is, if he ever escaped from here and lived to tell the tale.

He was just concerned by the fact that they didn't open fire on him. They just retreated when they saw him, opening up more of the path as he approached them.

But when he passed by them, they closed the path back up, blocking his only way out.

He reached an open room, where more of those monsters were. They still didn't fire at him, but they did, by all intents and purposes, block the only exit, trapping him in here.

Now, he was sure that it was a trap, laid out by XANA. But why? If XANA wanted to destroy him as it had in the past, then, again, it would've done it earlier using those two Krabes.

So why? Why here?

Suddenly, the monsters began scattering just as Jérémie felt a powerful and evil presence behind him. He had felt that presence before, when he was first materialized to Earth six weeks ago when XANA had infected him with that virus, and had felt during every materialization since then. He felt it whenever he entered a tower that XANA was currently using. But in those instances, they were faint.

This one was strong, almost as if XANA itself was here, rather than controlling a monster like the ones currently falling back, as if they were afraid of whatever this presence was. It probably wasn't XANA itself, but it was the strongest he'd felt this presence by far.

Jérémie finally gathered the courage to turn around, and was immediately met with a large monster with eight tentacles, floating above the ground.

He could feel a strong magnetic-like attraction in those tentacles, making him realize that running away from this thing would be tough. But XANA designed this monster that way, Jérémie realized.

[Alert: Target spotted.]

When the tentacle monster moved closer to him, Jérémie turned to run, deciding it was best to face the wrath of those smaller slug monsters rather than this one. He didn't know why, but his instincts were all telling him to avoid it at all costs.

But like he expected, the magnetic field surrounding those tentacles made it very hard to successfully get away, as the squid monster just reached out its tentacles and wrapped them around him.

They weren't touching him, but he was paralyzed, unable to even squirm, as they burned into his virtual skin. He tried to break free, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He tried to cry out for help, but his voice appeared to be gone.

Three tentacles hovered over his forehead, and when they turned red, he gasped at the sudden intrusion into his mind. But everything went numb. His body went limp as his thoughts grew hazy, unable to think at all anymore.

All he could do was let this thing do whatever it needed to do.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Things weren't looking any better on the others' end.

Aelita could see on the holomap the Hornets that continued to swarm around her three friends, as she frantically typed in various guesses that had been circled in the book. "Hannibal." Nope. "His father, Hamilcar." Nope. "Salammbo." Nope.

"Hey, Aelita, any day now!" Ulrich called out.

"I'm doing my best!" she hotly retorted, mostly due to the pressure she was currently under. "You guys try figuring out a history professor's password!" She typed in another guess, "Carthage's sworn enemy, Rome!" Nope. "Dammit!" She slammed her fists down onto the keyboard.

By this time, all three vehicles were destroyed by the Hornets, and the holomap was now showing her three friends back-to-back, cornered by XANA's monsters just as Jérémie had been earlier.

"Aelita, we need your help," Odd shakily cut in.

"I'm just going around in circles!" she groaned. "'Welcome to Carthage'!" She thought deeply about what that could've meant in a different angle. "Let's see, to be welcomed to Carthage, you have to go into Carthage." She gasped in realization. "You have to defeat Carthage! Who defeated the Carthaginians?!"

"Scipio?" Ulrich guessed.

"That's it!" Aelita smiled as she typed in the six letter word. "Please work," she whispered, before pressing enter.

SCIPIO_

Password Accepted.

The password window expanded into a new window showing the entrance to the fifth sector.

"Nice job, Aelita!" Yumi exclaimed. "Whatever you did, the Hornets are calling it quits!"

"Probably because of that ball," Ulrich pointed to the mystery thing on Aelita's screen, the same one from earlier. "What is that?"

"Don't fight it," the pink-ette advised her friends. "I think the password 'SCIPIO' made it appear."

She watched from her screens as the mystery object, the orb, engulfed her friends, the same thing that happened to Jérémie.

Except this time, she got to keep track of the trio's signals, because she was the one who had summoned the orb.

She watched as the sphere took her friends to the southern edge of the sector and towards the mysterious fifth sector.

The holographic map beside her suddenly changed from the entirety of Lyoko, to a physical representation of a large sphere, the shell of the fifth sector.

In the center of that sphere, on her screens, the transportation orb dropped her three friends off into an arena of some kind.

At that moment, a new window popped up, this one showing Jérémie's brain being drained by a strange monster, where a number was counting down, and Jérémie's lifepoints bar was decreasing at a concerning speed.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The orb traveled through a dizzying arrangement of moving walls, before arriving in what seemed like an arena.

Yumi hadn't found the transportation sphere pleasant, but it was nowhere near to beating Odd's reaction.

"Ugh," he looked a little green around the gills. "I think I'm gonna hurl."

"Is it even possible to hurl on Lyoko?" Ulrich asked, genuinely curious as to what the answer was.

"I don't know," Odd groaned. "But I think we're about to find out."

Yumi rolled her eyes, "We have bigger issues, guys. Aelita, did we make it?"

"Yep, with a little help from Michel Périn," Aelita explained, as Odd slowly regained his footing. "Welcome to Sector Five, everyone."

"Is Jérémie here?" Ulrich asked, as the wall opened up to reveal a passage.

"Yes, through the passage that just revealed itself," Aelita replied. "Better hurry! I have a countdown window up here, and I think Jérémie's also being attacked! His lifepoints are decreasing at an alarming speed!"

That was all she had to say, as the trio raced toward the footbridge, stopping at the dead end before that wall opened up as well.

"What's the timer at?" Odd asked as they crossed the corridor.

"Four minutes and counting down," Aelita relayed. "You guys are approaching the room Jérémie's in!"

Ulrich used a burst of Super Sprint to reach the room first, only to be greeted by a swarm of brown-colored slug-like monsters and the unwelcome sight of his blue elf friend dangling helplessly in the grip of a giant squid thing.

"Um, Aelita?" he said, as Yumi and Odd came up behind him. "There's this...thing in here that has Jérémie..."

"Destroy it!" she yelled, a form of panic that he hadn't heard from her. It worried him. "That thing is stealing his memories!"

Yumi threw one of her fans, as Ulrich used Super Sprint to slice through one of the slug monsters, before catching a falling Jérémie, who had been dropped thanks to Yumi's fan hitting the squid monster. It was like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.

Ulrich brought an out-cold Jérémie back to the other two, as they fought off the slug monsters, with Yumi blocking their lasers and Odd shooting at them. Unlike the Tarantulas, these monsters were easy to beat.

The yellow samurai turned back toward the squid monster and saw it retreating, seemingly admitting defeat for now, until he felt Jérémie stir in his arms.

"Jérémie?" Ulrich asked, as he saw those blue eyes open and focusing with each passing second. "You okay?"

"I am now," the blue elf softly replied. "What was that?"

"We don't know," Odd told him, still firing at the slug monsters, as Ulrich set Jérémie back on his feet. "But you gave us a real good scare."

"I'm sorry," Jérémie almost whispered.

"Don't worry about it," Yumi said, stepping back to let Ulrich step in and block lasers with his katana. She placed a comforting hand on the blue elf's shoulder. "We should probably get out of here. Aelita?"

"Agreed. The timer's reaching one minute. Go back to that arena," Aelita replied. "I can only summon that Transport Orb from there."

"Roger that," Yumi said, before she and Jérémie left the room through the entrance they came from.

Ulrich blocked a few more lasers before following them.

Odd was busy taking out more of those slug monsters to prevent them from following them, when Aelita warned him, "Odd, get out of there! You have fifteen seconds!", just as the ground beneath him began to shift.

Understanding his cousin's concern, Odd quickly made his way out of the room and back into the corridor, as the walls began to close around them, blocking the path behind them.

Yumi made sure Jérémie was in front of her, so he was the first one to emerge back into the arena, with Yumi and Ulrich soon following. Ulrich saw Odd's tail just barely make it out right as the wall closed behind them completely.

All four of them were safe and sound, back in the arena, their starting point. As Ulrich hovered over Odd, he saw Yumi kneeling beside Jérémie, who was on his knees trying to catch his breath.

Once he saw that they were all okay, he asked their fifth back on Earth, "Now what, Aelita?"

"Hold on, I'm re-entering the code," the pink-ette replied, right before the Transport Orb appeared and lowered itself from the ceiling.

"Don't worry, we've got your ticket out of here, Jer," Odd said. "Adieu, Sector Five!" He never wanted to come back here.

The Orb enveloped all four of them, before taking them to the Forest Sector right next to a tower via Aelita's input, where they were all materialized and brought back home.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Classes were over by the time they returned to Kadic. The five retreated to Jérémie's room, where Odd was hanging up a poster of Albert Einstein, a gift for his blue-clad friend.

"There we go!" Odd exclaimed, before hopping back down onto the bed into a seating position.

"Thank you, Odd," Jérémie softly admitted, holding Kiwi in his arms. "It's perfect."

"Glad you like it," Odd smiled, reaching over to scratch Kiwi behind his ears.

"It really suits you," Ulrich confessed.

Jérémie sent him a smile too, before it faded.

On the other side of him, Aelita looked at him, concerned, "Something wrong?"

"Are you guys sure you're not angry at me for running away?" he quietly asked, not looking at any of them in the eyes. "I...I don't know what got into me."

She scooted closer to him, despite her being practically snuggled into his side already, as she replied, "No, we're not angry. It's alright. We understand. Everybody gets homesick when they go away to school. It's normal. And everybody has it rough being the new kid. I should've put off the trip to the Hermitage until I was sure you were settled in. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Jérémie softly told her. "Just remember, during your trip, you found that book that helped you deduce the password to get into Sector Five."

"That's right!" Odd exclaimed. "You should've seen it, Aelita! All those Creepers, and in the middle, the Scyphozoa holding Jérémie!"

"Creepers?" Yumi asked.

"Scyphozoa?" Ulrich cut in.

"Yeah, the new monsters," Odd explained. "I told you. I prefer that my enemies have a name."

"Couldn't you have come up with something more...?" Ulrich trailed off.

"Creative?" Yumi finished, and Ulrich nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" Odd protested.

But Jérémie cut in before things could escalate, "I think the names are fine. I'm more concerned about what XANA wants from my memories."

"So am I," Aelita confessed. "But before we do any more exploring in Sector Five, I have to study it first. For now, it's uncharted territory."

"Same with the Hermitage," Jérémie added. Aelita nodded in agreement. "I know it's a lot of mysteries to solve, but for now, let's wait until we have a safety net, yes?"

Yumi smiled at this, "Agreed." Ulrich and Odd nodded with her.

Just then, a knock came to the door, and the group looked towards the open door frame to see Hervé standing there, "Hey there, Belpois. Welcome back." Hervé was shifting side to side, as if he was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you run away. Or make you miss all of your afternoon classes."

"Mr. Delmas has given Jérémie a pass," came William's voice from behind him. The group didn't know when he had arrived. "Due to it being his first day. Didn't he also say that your punishment was staying away from him?"

"He did," Hervé admitted. "I was just here to apologize."

He then left, while William remained behind.

"Did you make him apologize, William?" Yumi asked, out of curiosity.

William shrugged, "Nope. I guess he was honestly resentful of his actions."

"Or he apologized to throw us off," Odd guessed, almost grumbling.

"His issues are his own," Jérémie cut in, wanting to prevent a fight, not after a day like today. "We shouldn't have to deal with them."

"Wise words," William agreed. "You must be Jérémie Belpois, the other new kid." Jérémie nodded, offering the elder boy a gentle soft smile. "I'm William Dunbar, Yumi's new classmate. It's a pleasure to meet you all. Yumi talks about you guys so highly." Yumi's cheeks became dotted with a pink blush.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, William," Aelita replied with a bubbly smile, still not letting go of Jérémie, as if afraid he was going to disappear again. "Welcome to Kadic."

"Thank you," the Scottish boy said. "I just wanted to let Jérémie know that I know how he feels being the new kid and all. If you ever need someone to talk to, all you have to do is ask."

Still smiling, Jérémie nodded, "I will. Thank you."

"No problem," William replied, before reaching into his bag. "And last but not least," he pulled out a box wrapped in light blue wrapping paper with bubble print, "here's the package you asked for, Yumi. The exact model you said."

Yumi took it with both hands, ignoring Ulrich's sudden scowl, "Thanks so much, William. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow!" William waved goodbye as he also left.

Once the five were alone once again, Ulrich's scowl became obvious to his friends, as he asked, "What'd he give you?"

"Take it easy, Mr. Green With Envy," Yumi shot back. "This isn't for me. William was just doing me a favor. I bought it for Jérémie."

She handed the present to Jérémie, who looked at it with curiosity, before gently tearing the wrapping paper off of the box.

It was a blue colored cell phone, a model very similar to Yumi's, with a sliding keyboard and video call functionality.

"F-For me?" he asked, almost in a whisper. He couldn't believe that Yumi had bought this for him.

"Yep," Yumi chirped. "So we can stay one step ahead of XANA by making sure we can always keep in touch with you, and you with us. That way, if you ever need something, you won't be stuck waiting."

"Thank you," Jérémie muttered, unshed tears coming to his eyes.

Odd stood up and let Yumi take his seat on the bed, to let her and Jérémie hug. As they did so, he couldn't help but quip, "There you go, Jer. You're like a regular school kid now!"

!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!

Next Episode: 20 - The Book / Jérémie's visions lead the group back to the mysterious Hermitage. What will they find this time?

A/N: Further inspiration: Yumi's training video. You can watch it on Youtube. Just be warned; it's part of an arc with the other training videos as well as with the race videos. I chose this video, because I needed to give Yumi's second fan a proper introduction, rather than just having it show up out of nowhere.

Two deleted concepts for Season 2 will be kept here. One: Jérémie can materialize himself with Code: EARTH (like with the RTTP in this AU). Two: Jérémie's memory being drained by the Scyphozoa also takes his lifepoints away (which would explain why canon Aelita dies in "The Key").

Also, Odd keeps his Future Flash (you're welcome), and why running away from the Scyphozoa is hard is given an actual explanation here (I didn't think of it first, but I've adopted it as my own headcanon). And finally, I didn't want to make Hervé too mean, otherwise he would've gone past the point of no return.