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
This chapter begins the final stretch of Season 2, which is filled with lots of lore and the answers everyone's waiting for. So stay tuned!
Update: I have been corrected by dunnoduo. "Père" is French for "father", while "papa" is French for "dad". I've fixed that error. I'm very sorry to all the French speakers.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Jérémie is remembering his nightmares now, but the trauma they bring quickly becomes too much for him."
Episode 31: Footprints
(Based on Déjà Vu)
To be honest, the words on the pages in front of Jérémie's eyes would always be ten times more interesting that getting to know his fellow eight-year-old classmates currently scattered around the playground, climbing on the jungle gym, running around and playing tag, and overall laughing together. Besides, even at eight years old, he was physically inferior and would never be able to keep up with any of them.
So reading it was. Even if he had read this book twenty times already.
As he turned to the next page, his teacher, Miss Moreau, sat down against the wall beside him.
"Hey, Jérémie," she gently greeted, and he acknowledged her by sending her a quick smile before turning back to his book. "That must be a good book. You're pretty absorbed in it."
He shrugged, "It's alright. It's just the only book I brought today."
"I'm sure you'd find it more interesting," the teacher suggested, "if you talked to others about it."
Jérémie liked Miss Moreau. She was nice and would make a great mother if she ever chose to be one. But he knew what she was trying to do here. She was trying to encourage him to make some friends, as she had done since she first met him and noticed how he was always by himself. But her attempts always failed for a reason.
"I've tried," he quietly admitted. "No one else likes reading as much as I do." Except for his parents, but he was referring to people his own age.
"I'm sure that's not true," Miss Moreau softly reassured him. "It probably just feels like it."
"Yes, it is true," he replied, his voice next to a whisper. "I watch everybody and study them, try to recognize patterns in their behavior, so I can see how friends are made. But whenever I try to put my notes into practice, I chicken out..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence.
Fortunately, he didn't have to. The teacher caught his gist, "You chicken out because you're afraid of rejection more than the idea of your notes being flawed." He nodded. It was always the rejection. "Believe it or not, when I was your age, I was the exact same way. But now, I have four friends who I know would do anything for me."
He turned to face her, "How?"
On Miss Moreau's face was an encouraging smile, "Well, as I grew up, I gained more confidence in myself. I knew who I was and that I was different, and I reminded myself every day that I was perfectly fine the way I was. Eventually, I started putting myself out there more and more, and doing kind things for others. Then, I met my friends."
He let her words sink in, before admitting, "Maman once told me that real friends often come to you in the most unlikely of places. I guess it makes sense that to find those friends, you'd have to do some exploring."
Miss Moreau's smile got even wider, "Your mother sounds very smart. And before you start exploring, you'll want to prepare yourself for anything you might come across."
"She is," he beamed with pride. "She's smarter than Papa."
Jérémie glanced back down at his book, before closing it. He could do this. He could put himself out there, and he'd start slow. Maybe instead of reading against the wall of the school building, he'd instead choose a spot under a tree closer to the playground. He could do this.
As he stood up, however, there was a sharp pain in his head. It was manageable at first, but it grew the longer he was active and in the sunshine. He was heading for the shade of the largest tree next to the monkey bars. If he could get there before his sudden headache got a lot worse, he'd be fine. He just had to rest. He stopped and closed his eyes for a second, feeling the heat of the sun beam down on him. He could do this...
But when he opened his eyes, he was somewhere else. Somewhere painfully dull and painted entirely in an off-color white. He could no longer feel the heat, but now he was a tad too cold for comfort and his head was pounding.
"Mon chéri!" his mother suddenly came into (his slightly blurry) view. "Thank goodness you're awake!" She immediately began stroking his hairline to relax him. "How do you feel?"
"My head hurts." Not a lie. "Where's Papa?"
"He's on his way," she reassured him. "He was in the middle of a class when he got the call."
Jérémie swallowed in an attempt to get rid of the dryness in his throat. "What happened?"
"I was hoping you'd tell me," his mother admitting, before explaining, "Miss Moreau told me you were at recess when you just stopped." Jérémie nodded; he remembered that. "She called out to you because you were starting to sway as if you were tired, but according to her, you didn't answer. You just...collapsed. The nurse couldn't wake you up, so the school called the hospital and us." So that's what happened. He had a feeling, but he could only remember halting in his tracks in the middle of the playground. "When I got here, the doctor in charge of you told me that he was running some tests because you still hadn't woken up. In fact, he had found something that was concerning and was actually on his way to get a second opinion when I ran into him."
"Did he...did he tell you...what it was?" He wasn't actually sure what he was hoping, but he was positive that he wanted it to turn out as a minor problem, like a concussion or something.
She shook her head, "No. But I'm glad he didn't. We need your father here first."
Said man arrived five minutes later, just as concerned as his wife, and Jérémie's head was still hurting when the doctor returned an hour after.
As it turned out, Jérémie did receive a concussion from the fall, but said concussion actually opened up the door to something far, far worse. If not for it, the real problem likely would've never been found until it was too late. Yet, despite the supposed blessing in disguise, that simple fall was one he would never recover from...
In real time, Jérémie woke up to the sound of his own screaming. Sweat was making his hair stick to his forehead, but that was the least of his concerns.
Normally, he didn't scream, usually because he never remembered his nightmares. But this time, somehow, he could recall every single detail clearly.
He couldn't go back to sleep, not after what he just saw in his nightmares. His screaming haunted him, as if the memory Jérémie wanted to scream in that moment but couldn't until now. So he left his room and trudged to the boys' shower room, unaware he'd left his glasses behind until he was staring at himself in the mirror.
But even then, he didn't care.
He turned on the faucet and began splashing his face with the cold water in order to clear his mind. Before he could see if it was working or not, the door behind him opened and revealed the blurry outline of Hervé Pichon.
Hervé was scowling, "Was that you screaming?" He narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "What did I say about you waking me up like that, huh?!"
"I'm sorry, I..." Jérémie trailed as he felt his eyes being filled with unshed tears. He didn't know why he was crying—maybe because it's what the memory version of himself wanted to do at the time—but he couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
Hervé evidently wasn't expecting that, "W-What...? Why are you crying?"
"Pichon, Belpois?" That was Jim. Apparently, he woke up when hearing the commotion. Fantastic, Jérémie thought. First Hervé, and now Jim. Who else did he wake up with his scream? "What's all this about?"
Hervé answered for them both, "It's Belpois, Jim. I don't think he's feeling well." His voice was surprisingly soft, as if he was afraid of causing more trouble.
"What about you, Pichon?" Jim approached the two. "You're not sleeping either."
"Oh, um...I was in bed and he, uh, he screamed and it woke me up," Hervé quietly explained. "I-Is he...okay?"
The tears were starting to die down now, as Jim felt Jérémie's forehead with the back of his hand. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare. Sorry I woke you up, Hervé."
"Th-That's fine." Said boy's voice was still soft, and his concern felt genuine. It made Jérémie believe that Hervé's dislike of the blonde was solely out of jealousy rather than being a bad person. "Jim?"
"You're a little warm, Belpois," Jim told him. "Let's get you to the infirmary. Pichon, go back to bed. I'll take it from here."
No, no, no, no, no! The infirmary was a bad place! That's where it all started! "I'm fine, Jim. Really. I just want to go back to my room."
The gym teacher was leading the boy out of the shower room and down the hall anyway. "I know it's probably nothing, but if you are coming down with something, it's best to nip it in the bud before everybody else catches it."
A blessing in disguise, huh? Then how come it didn't feel like it?
Jérémie's thought train halted when that came to mind. Preventing others from getting sick before it got out of control was a good thing, so he agreed with Jim completely, even if he had a sudden fear and dislike of the infirmary.
He needed to separate the nightmares from reality. And fast.
On the way, the two passed by a door that opened. From it, Jérémie heard Ulrich's voice ask him, "Jer? You okay?"
"What's going on?" Odd added. Perfect. Just great.
Jérémie barely stopped himself from turning around, "N-Nothing. I'm fine. Go back to sleep." He wanted to tell them; he was sure they'd understand. But not when it was still dark outside. Not so early in the morning.
Behind him, he heard a few doors open as well. Clearly, other people had heard the commotion and had gotten woken up by it. Now, they were peeking out to see what was going on.
Fortunately, Jim had him covered there, "Okay, go back to bed. All of you, go on."
Jérémie began to relax when all the doors began to close.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Later that morning, when the sun was out, Jérémie sat on a bench in the courtyard and his friends quite literally flocked to him. Of course, the first thing they asked him was about last night, so he told them everything.
"But I don't get why I screamed," he admitted, after explaining his nightmare to them. "There was no jumpscare, no scary monsters, nothing. But it was something I really wanted to do."
"And your fever?" Odd asked, the four of them already knowing where Jim was taking him. It was standard procedure, after all.
"Just a slight raise in temperature due to stress," Jérémie relayed. "Nothing else. Just a bad dream, I guess."
"Yep, you said it," Yumi replied, offering him a soft smile. "It was just a bad dream. Don't get worked up over it; it happens to everybody."
"I'm sure it happens to Odd every time he takes a math test," Ulrich quipped, getting a few chuckles from the others.
"That it does, good buddy," Odd, instead of getting mad, played along, to his credit. "One time, I dreamt I was on a date with Sissi. Don't get me wrong, she's a good friend, but I don't like her like that."
"Speaking of which," Yumi cut in, "how's your internet pen pal?"
"Fantastic!" Odd exclaimed. "Man, Kadic's new open forum is great! I no longer have to come to you guys for homework answers! I can just ask someone else!"
Yumi and Ulrich both rolled their eyes, as Aelita replied, "Odd, the purpose of the open forum is not to cheat. It's to keep in touch with your fellow classmates and with your teachers."
"And the teachers are constantly monitoring for that kind of stuff," Jérémie softly reminded him.
"I know that. I was just kidding," Odd said. "I don't know who they are, but my cyber-friend is good at academics and doesn't mind tutoring me. They're also really nice to talk to."
"Obviously," Ulrich cut in. "You stayed up late last night exchanging chat messages with them. I didn't sleep at all, thanks to you." Jérémie then noticed the shadows underneath the brunette's eyes. "So don't feel guilty, Jer. You didn't wake us up last night. Odd and I were already awake."
Jérémie merely responded with a soft smile.
Odd continued, "They're also surprisingly romantic. I told them about Sam and how unofficial our relationship is," he pulled out his phone and read off of it, "and they told me that, 'Love is not looking at one another'–"
Aelita cut him off, "–'It's looking together in the same direction', huh?"
"Yeah," Odd glanced over at her. "How do you know that?"
"It's a poem by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry," Aelita explained, "the guy who wrote The Little Prince. Your friend may be romantic, but they're not very original with their advice."
"But it is good advice?" Odd asked.
"Yes, it is," his cousin explained. "It means that as long as you and Sam are on the same page with your relationship, it doesn't matter how unofficial it is."
A bell then rang throughout campus—the five-minute warning bell—and Ulrich checked his watch. "Well, it's time to get wet. Are you gonna cut swimming, Aelita, like you were planning to?"
"Nope," Aelita answered, somewhat reluctantly. She had planned to skip gym today to work on new angles for Jérémie's anti-virus. "Jim overheard and forbade me from skipping. 'No dumb excuses, ya hear?' Now, I have no choice but to attend."
"It's okay," Odd reassured her. "At least you'll be able to show off your new swimsuit." He winked, making the pink-ette blush.
As the five teens all got to their feet, Jérémie glanced between his friends in confusion, "'New swimsuit'? What was wrong with the old one?"
"W-Well, it was last year's," Aelita stammered. "So it was a little small."
"I'm sure you'll like it," Odd slung an arm around Jérémie's shoulders. "She picked it out specifically for you."
"Odd, shut up!" the pink-ette yelled amid the blonde genius's confusion.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Thirty minutes later, the tenth graders were all in their respective swimsuits and Jim was giving them his standard pre-exercise lecture.
"The human body is made of 90 percent water, and that is why it floats! Because, contrary to what you might think, water...floats. Don't forget Archimedes' principle: any body blunged into a liquid and um...is, uh...a, uh..."
"Comes out wet?" Odd joked, throwing out a random guess.
"Uh, yeah, right. No, that's not it," Jim regained his train of thought. "Now, no one has to be scared of the water, unless, of course, you're lost at sea somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In that case, you would certainly have the right to say, 'good grief, why must there be so much water on the surface of this darn planet?!'"
"Azra?" Odd murmured to himself, trying to guess who his internet friend could've been. "No...I know who it is! Yeah, sure, it's Tania! She kinda fits the profile of all those chat messages."
"What makes you think it's a girl in our class?" Ulrich whispered back. "And what makes you think it's even a girl? It could very easily be Hiroki or Johnny."
Meanwhile, Jim was droning on, as he paced in front of them, "That reminds me of when I was a combat diver in the French Navy!"
"You used to be a combat diver, Jim?" Nicolas raised an eyebrow in intrigue.
"I'd rather not talk about it," the man averted his eyes from his students.
"Then, what do you know about them?" Ulrich asked his roommate, still whispering, still referring to Odd's cyber-friend.
"Well, they are a tenth grader, this isn't their first year at Kadic, and they have a brother who also goes to Kadic," Odd listed.
Ulrich raised an eyebrow, "And nothing about their gender?" Odd shook his head. "Exactly. So don't assume."
"Stern and Della Robbia!" Jim pointed to them both accusingly, causing them to turn to him in surprise, and somewhat guilty at being caught. "I'm sorry if I'm boring you! Alright, on deck! Let's see what you two can do!"
Aelita turned to Jérémie, who was sitting next to her. After complimenting her new swimsuit (it was blue, his favorite color; and yes, that was on purpose), he had gone quiet. Judging by his expression, he obviously zoned out in the middle of Jim's lecture just now. "Jérémie?" she gently nudged his side. No response. "You okay?" Still no response.
Meanwhile, Jérémie's head was pounding again, and his mind was far away.
He opened his eyes to find himself staring up at his own bedroom ceiling. Where were his parents? They should be here, right? Maman, at least, reassured him that she'd be staying home today.
She must've been downstairs.
Knowing this, Jérémie climbed out of bed, ignoring the pain in his head that was still there even after two months, and powering through the overall grogginess that plagued his mind and body.
Odd and Ulrich stepped up to the diving boards, preparing for the small race their teacher had just assigned them to do. Jim blew his whistle, and the two dove in.
Please don't let him be by himself. He hated being alone, especially after his diagnosis two months prior. It was essentially a death sentence, and he had been filled with an unnatural amount of fear and anxiety ever since.
However, the moment he stepped outside of his room, his legs gave out and sent him tumbling to the ground.
Fortunately, a familiar face caught him before any damage could be done.
"Don't push yourself, mon chéri," said familiar face—his mother—softly told him. "You're sick, remember?"
Of course, he remembered. He'd never forget.
Ulrich won the race, and he cheered as Odd joined him at the other edge of the pool. However, both of them gasped when, out of nowhere, Jérémie suddenly stood up, clutching his head as if experiencing a headache. He stumbled towards the edge of the pool, and fell in.
But he didn't swim back up to the surface. He instead began sinking towards the bottom.
Before anybody could react, Aelita dove into the water without hesitation.
She swam towards Jérémie and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, before pulling him towards the surface. As she did so, she ignored her concern.
Something was wrong, and she had to find out what it was...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was awake, safe and sound in his room, in his bed clad in his pajamas, by the time the others returned from the pool, with Yumi in tow. Yolanda had pronounced him healthy physically, but mentally, he was clearly freaking out.
"Jim was droning on and on, so I just started daydreaming," Jérémie explained. "It was just as detailed as last night's." Aelita was sitting on the bed next to him, while Odd was at the desk, typing away on his purple-colored laptop, messaging his cyber-friend.
"Yolanda and Jim both said you passed out from the cold," Yumi gently told him, she and Ulrich hovering close by. Obviously it was a lie. He had passed out from his daydream-induced nightmare.
"That's fine," Jérémie shrugged it off, "but I don't normally remember my nightmares. I don't know why these are different! Or where they're coming from!"
Aelita placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Take it easy. We'll figure it out. But let's wait until after today's classes. For now, you just get some rest."
"Agreed," Yumi said, before glancing at her phone. She then began freaking out, "Oh, I gotta go! I'm gonna be late!"
"Us too," Ulrich looked at his own phone, as Yumi left the room. "Ms. Hertz is gonna kill us."
"Wait a minute!" Odd called out from the desk. "I'm just about to find out who they are!"
Ulrich closed his roommate's laptop, "Come on, Odd. You can talk to your cyber-friend after class."
"Or just take the computer with you," Aelita offered, standing next to the open door as Ulrich walked through it.
"Great idea! Thanks, cuz!" Odd was beaming as he walked out of Jérémie's room with his laptop under his arm.
Once it was just them, Aelita turned to Jérémie and smiled, "I'll come back and check on you after chemistry class." She offered a wave as she closed the door behind her.
Jérémie returned her wave with a smile until the door closed.
The moment he was alone, his smile had faded into a scared frown. He had to find out what was going on; he needed answers—right now. He couldn't wait until classes were over. He had to go now.
And his only option was to go by himself.
Knowing this, he climbed out of bed and walked over to his wardrobe for a fresh change of clothes.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Chemistry class was starting as Sissi approached her seat, her deskmate Laura fully prepared for class already. As the principal's daughter was taking out her books, Odd, who was walking backwards as he spoke to Ulrich behind him, bumped into her.
"Hey!" Sissi was angry as she turned around, but her expression softened when she saw who it was, "Keep your eye on where you're going, you clumsy dork."
"Sorry, Sissi," Odd quipped back. "I must've mistaken you for a doorpost."
She stuck her tongue out at him as she took her seat next to Laura. Meanwhile, the moment Odd sat down next to Ulrich, he took out his laptop and began typing a quick message to his internet pen pal.
"Hey, they're in this class," he whispered to his roommate. "They said they're scheduled for chemistry with Ms. Hertz right now."
Ulrich raised an eyebrow, "But you're the only one with a laptop out."
"They could be using a phone," Aelita, sitting in front of them, cut in. "but they're likely putting it away right now to focus on class."
Odd glanced around the room, only to find at least ten different students putting their phones away, as Ms. Hertz clapped her hands to catch everyone's attention, "Well, I'm glad the school's new open forum is so popular, but it's time to start class now."
As their teacher began her lecture on metals, a sudden thought came to Aelita's mind. "What if...?" she whispered, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her laptop.
"What are you doing?" Ulrich asked her, his own voice low.
"Checking something," she mumbled back. To her horror, as well as her delight, an alert from the superscan popped up on her screen. "Bingo. I was right. Activated tower in the Ice Sector."
Ms. Hertz smacked her ruler down on her desk, "Settle down and be quiet, please! Open your books to page 99!"
Aelita raised a finger, "Ma'am, may I please go to the bathroom?"
"Uh, me too!" Ulrich frantically added.
Odd chimed in as well, "Me too!"
Unfortunately, Ms. Hertz was in a foul mood. "Absolutely not! It's always the same with you three! You should have gone before class!" She then added, "And put both of those laptops away before I take them away!"
The trio had no choice but to obey. Right now, they could only wait.
Hopefully, Jérémie was fine by himself. They didn't exactly know what XANA's attack was this time, but its target was probably the blonde genius. The AI's past attacks didn't exactly make that fact subtle.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie approached the Hermitage, not stopping despite his returning headache. He rubbed his aching temples as he entered through the front gate and climbed up the stairs.
He hesitated upon reaching for the front door handle, unable to pinpoint why he felt like he was returning home after a long time away.
(Why? Did he go somewhere?)
He peered inside the window before opening the door. He was greeted with the messy entryway. He had seen it like this before, so he wasn't sure why he was now so heartbroken when seeing all the dust and cobwebs coating everything.
Suddenly, an image overlayed his current view, showing him how the entryway should've looked like, how it looked without all the years of abandonment. It looked nice and clean, and home-y.
The image only appeared for a couple of seconds, but it was long enough for it to remain in his mind.
He walked further into the house, stopping right outside the room that used to be the kitchen. Why did this room look so familiar, and why did it have the lingering smell of a tarte Tatin, as if that was the last thing that had been prepared there?
(He only liked it when his mother made it, though.)
He moved on to the family room, where his view changed yet again to how the room was supposed to look.
The new imagery contained the blonde woman playing a melody on the piano. He didn't know the name of the tune, but it sounded familiar.
He slowly approached her as her fingers moved across the instrument eloquently. She sounded like she knew how to play and that she enjoyed playing, like it was her favorite hobby.
He reached out to gently grab her shoulder, only for the room to turn back to normal—as in, its abandoned state—unfortunately taking the woman with it.
She was gone. Again.
And Jérémie couldn't help but tear up.
He shook his head to clear it, before heading towards the stairs. On the way, he passed by the study. Inside the room, he saw the brunette-haired man taking a book from the shelf before sitting down at his desk.
Like with the woman in the family room, he reached out towards the man, only to snatch his hand back. He squeezed his eyes shut, whispering to himself, "Stop it. It's only in your head."
He counted to three, before opening his eyes. Sure enough, the man was gone, and the study was back to its messy appearance. More tears began to sting his eyes.
The boy took a deep breath before heading up the stairs. Looking down the hallway, his eyes centered on the child's bedroom at the end.
When he approached the door, he gently pushed it open a bit more. Once more, a vision appeared, telling him how it originally looked prior to abandonment.
Unlike the others, however, a second vision overlayed the first, showing him how the room looked prior to it being turned into a makeshift hospital room. His eyes especially focused on the poster of Einstein over the bed.
His squeezed his eyes shut again and shook his head to clear it. "Stop it!" he told himself. "Calm down! This is ridiculous!"
He had to separate the visions from reality, quickly, but he wasn't sure how.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Mercury freezes at 38 degrees below zero Celsius," Ms. Hertz lectured as she drew a diagram on the board to help her. "At room temperature, it is therefore in a liquid state. We use it in certain devices such as thermometers for instance, because it expands with heat."
As Ulrich and Odd were busy taking notes behind her, Aelita glared at the clock on the wall, silently hoping the bell would ring soon. The quicker class ended, the sooner they could make sure Jérémie was okay and stop XANA.
With such a huge time advantage, the AI could do anything it wanted.
"It is also a very heavy metal, which means what?" Ms. Hertz turned around to her class. "Miss Delmas?"
Sissi was drawing a heart of a blank piece of paper when she was called on. She looked up, completely unprepared, "Um, it means that a kilo of mercury weighs at least, uh...at least a tonne?"
The class laughed, as Ms. Hertz gave a look of unamusement. "Miss Gauthier, what does mercury being a heavy metal mean?"
"The term heavy metal refers to any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations," Laura answered without missing a beat.
"Correct," their teacher replied, obviously planning on expanding on Laura's answer.
However, she didn't get the chance because the bell rang in that moment, signaling the end of class.
Aelita immediately stood up and rushed out of the room. Ulrich and Odd were quick to follow her.
"Call Yumi," she told them once the trio were outside in the hallway. "I'll get Jérémie. We'll meet up at the factory."
"Right."
As Aelita headed towards the dormitory building, Ulrich dialed the Japanese girl.
It was a clear shot to Jérémie's room. The pink-ette didn't run into anybody, which was good, because it meant there were no more delays. Ms. Hertz refusing to let them go was enough delay.
"Jérémie?" She knocked on his door, before opening it. There was no response, but maybe he was sleeping.
Nope. He wasn't here.
There was Mister Pück, resting on the boy's pillow, but no sign of Jérémie. The bed was slightly messy, indicating that he had left either in a hurry or he didn't see the need to make up the bed. Or both.
Her concern grew tenfold as she glanced around his room for any hints as to where he could be.
Even more so when it started to thunder outside. It was going to rain soon.
Where was he?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie ignored the darkening clouds as he let his visions lead him outside. He wasn't sure where they were taking him, but they all seemed to be small pieces of a much larger puzzle.
Before he knew it, he was out of the house and in the garden around the back. He took in a deep breath to calm his nerves and smelled something sweet, despite the garden being overgrown after who-knew-how-many years of being unattended to. It was another vision, this time olfactory rather than auditory or visual, like the tarte Tatin smell in the kitchen.
"Peppermint..." he breathed.
(His parents grew some in their garden.)
He placed a hand against the nearby wall of the house to steady himself, his knees feeling weak and his head beginning to ache once more. He needed to lie down, so he did. Amid the peppermint and other overgrown vegetables that had been planted in the garden.
It was about to rain soon, but he didn't care. He closed his eyes, pillowing his head by stretching his arms out behind it.
He should've brought the others here with him, and he planned to, but right now, he needed to be alone.
(But he hated being alone...)
"How is he?" he heard his mother ask, her voice soft and muffled. Everything was groggy and slow. His head felt as though it was on fire.
The doctor's voice, a male, faded in and out, "...got most of it...still in danger...will need another surgery..."
He dozed off again, without meaning to. He wanted to hear more—the doctor was talking about him after all—but his body and mind were too exhausted.
When he awoke next, the doctor was standing next to him, taking note of his vitals. When the man saw he was awake, he leaned over, staring intently at the blonde.
"How do you feel?"
Jérémie woke up in real time with a sudden start, gasping. The rain was now pouring down and fortunately washing away the sweat that was making his bangs cling to his forehead. He hadn't meant to fall asleep; how long was he out?
He had to sort out the real from the fake. Fast.
The rain was real, alright, he decided as he stood up and hid inside via the back door. The peppermint smell from the garden was fake, just a vision. As was the nightmare he just had. The phone ringing in his pocket was real, though.
Wait, his phone?!
He quickly picked up before it could go to voicemail, "Hello?"
"Jérémie! Finally!" It was Aelita. Were classes over already? "Where are you?"
"The Hermitage," he replied, his anxiety slowly beginning to subside, but still there.
"But you should be resting!"
"I'm sorry," he softly told her, "but these visions are haunting me. I had to know where they were coming from."
"I know you have questions, Jérémie, and I promise I will help you get answers, but right now, XANA's on the offensive." The blonde's stomach sank in unexpected disappointment. "The others are at the factory. Don't move. I'll come and get you."
His heart began beating hard, "No, I'm on my way. Knowing you guys are already there, there's no way XANA will try anything on me right now."
She sighed, clearly worried but trying (and failing) to hide it. "Okay. Just hurry." She then hung up, leaving Jérémie by himself.
Why did XANA have to ruin everything? He was so close to finding out the truth!
His eyes turned towards the door that led to the sewers.
"Papa, where does that door go?"
"It leads to a magical place," his father answered. "But you can't visit yet; it's not ready."
"Will it ever be?"
"Of course. Your maman and I are working hard on it, just for you. But for now, you can't tell anybody else. It's our little secret, okay?"
"Okay."
On impulse, Jérémie ran towards the door and opened it, being greeted with the sewers. He was desperate, but there was no one chasing after him, reality or visions.
It was more because of the feeling that he may finally find his parents at the factory...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita had arrived at the lab not five minutes ago, and she immediately began pacing while keeping an eye on the clock on her phone.
"Sixty more seconds and you three can head for the scanners," Aelita told the others. "You guys can clear the passage, and I'll virtualize with Jérémie when he arrives."
"What is he up to, anyways?" Ulrich asked, out of curiosity.
"He said he was exploring the Hermitage," Aelita explained, "and that he'd be right over." She sighed. "I should've gone to pick him up. Where is he?"
As soon as she asked this, the elevator doors swung open, revealing their fifth with rain spots on his clothes and glasses.
"Jérémie!" Yumi exclaimed, before reaching into Ulrich's school bag and pulling out a towel. She then ran over to him with it.
As the genius dried himself off, starting with his glasses, Odd quipped, "Hey, Cinderella, we said midnight on the dot."
Aelita sent her cousin a glare, "This is no time for jokes," before turning back to Jérémie, noting the trouble expression on his face, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." No, he wasn't. He sounded as if he was about to have a panic attack. "The visions I keep having...are all of Michel Périn and a blonde-haired woman that I'm pretty sure is his wife Sophie."
"What about their son?" Yumi asked.
Jérémie shook his head, "I never saw him. I know it sounds crazy, but I think...the visions are his memories. And I'm just confused, because this is the first time I've been able to remember my nightmares."
A thought came to Odd's mind, "Hey, what if these visions are XANA's offensive?"
"What?" Jérémie turned to him, his eyes conveying the slight hurt he felt at one of his friends not understanding his fear. "Are you saying you don't believe me?"
"We do believe you, Jérémie," Aelita replied, hoping her tone was comforting, "but Odd has a point. XANA is perfectly capable of stimulating your cerebral cortex through the link it's established with you, whether it's a virus or something else. From that, it can paradoxically simulate in you an artificial sleep and the involuntary psychic activity that goes with it."
"In other words, you have no control over the visions," Ulrich translated. "XANA does."
"Exactly," Aelita said. "As to why XANA's showing you those visions...well, I have a theory, but I need to decrypt the rest of Périn's diary to prove it."
"But now, the question remains," Yumi asked, "why XANA is showing you these visions. To trap you?"
"Let's not hang around to find out," Odd said, walking towards the elevator. "We need to deactivate that tower."
Jérémie was quiet as he followed the others down to the scanner room.
Meanwhile, Aelita remained behind in the lab. Her eyes remained on Jérémie until the elevator doors closed. She knew he was torn—he wanted answers but defeating XANA was top priority, and always would be.
"I'm sending Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi first," she told the others down in the scanner room. "I'll bring you as close to the tower as I can." She was typing in the coordinates as she spoke.
"We're ready!" Yumi said.
"Okay, here we go," Aelita typed in the commands, bringing up their ID cards one by one. "Transfer Yumi, transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich!" Their avatars began loading. "Scanner Yumi, scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich!" Once all three were finished loading, she pressed 'Enter'. "Virtualization!"
Three green arrows appeared on the holomap in the Ice Sector, with the tower several meters away and being the same one they first deactivated one and a half years prior. Good, her coordinates were perfect. They were far enough away to prevent being blind-sided by any monsters, but close enough to the tower to still see it and what was waiting for them.
She then typed in the commands for the self-virtualization program, bringing up both hers and Jérémie's IDs. "You ready, Jérémie?"
"Yeah..." was all he said.
Aelita powered through her concern and pressed the 'enter' key. "Okay. Virtualization in one minute and thirty seconds."
She then got out of the seat and ran towards the ladder, making it to the scanner with eighteen seconds to spare.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The two Einsteins landed on the ground of the Ice Sector in front of the other three.
"C'mon," Aelita said. "Let's not waste any time." She then began running towards the tower, with Ulrich and Odd following her.
Yumi started to, before she turned around to the one that was lagging behind, "You coming, Jérémie?"
He seemed to snap back to reality, before nodding and falling into a pace beside her.
She glanced over at him and noted that he didn't seem to want to do this, to deactivate this tower. Like he wanted to focus on something else...
She didn't have time to wonder why, as the two soon caught up with the other three, hiding behind two large ice rocks on opposite sides of the path leading to the activated tower. They too peered around their cover, with Jérémie having slipped on his goggles by this point.
"Two Tarantulas and six Bloks," the blue elf relayed. "Do you see them all?"
"We'd have to be as near-sighted as you not to see them," Odd replied.
"Odd, Aelita, you two handle the Bloks," Ulrich ordered. "Yumi, you and I will take care of the Tarantulas. Jérémie, you wait here until the coast is clear."
Jérémie nodded, as the other four all went their separate ways yet charging straight towards the monsters.
Ulrich and Yumi regrouped next to the two Tarantulas, before unsheathing their respective weapons.
The Tarantulas fired at Ulrich, who rolled to the side to avoid the lasers, before deflecting three shots with his katana, sending them back at one of the monsters. Unfortunately, it failed to eliminate the monster, which continued to fire.
Meanwhile, Aelita had taken flight while Odd harassed the Bloks by hedge hopping them and firing volleys of arrows in between. His shots were skillfully aimed, as two monsters were taken out.
"Piece of cake!" Odd exclaimed.
However, two other Bloks return fire and hit him in the leg, making him cry out as he briefly felt the pain.
Aelita snorted, "Piece of cake, huh?" as she formed an Energy Field in each hand and threw them in retaliation at the Bloks that attacked her cousin.
Odd frowned, annoyed, as both of her impacts destroyed the Bloks.
On the other side of the tower's base, Yumi threw her fans at the Tarantula she was fighting, who took the hit before retaliating by firing its lasers at the geisha. Yumi was forced to perform a perilous backflip to avoid the shots.
Fortunately, she landed gracefully and skillfully caught her fans as she did so. "They're pretty tough..." she muttered.
"I'll bring in reinforcements, then," Ulrich replied. "Triplicate!"
The samurai divided into three, and they all sprinted towards one of the Tarantulas. Moving at hyperspeed, he encircled it.
"Triangulate!"
The disconcerted Tarantula used its laser to take out one of the clones, but it didn't have time to react to the real Ulrich's jump. He threw his katana, hitting the bullseye, before fusing himself back together as the monster exploded to signal its defeat.
Yumi dodged the remaining Tarantula's shots by performing graceful somersaults, before getting up and gaining purchase on a nearby stalagmite, using it to jump. She threw one of her fans in mid air, and it hit right in the middle of the monster's target, making it disappear.
Aelita was in the middle of dodging lasers from the two remaining Bloks when her super hearing picked up footsteps. She turned around to see Jérémie no longer where they left him. Instead, she saw him approaching the edge of the plateau.
"Jérémie! What are you doing?!" she called out to him.
He seemed to be in a trance, and it did not break even as a shot took out Aelita's wings, grounding her.
Odd shot an arrow at the Blok that shot Aelita down, destroying it, before turning to study the commotion, "What's going on? Where's he going?"
From below, a familiar white sphere emerged.
"The Transporter?" Ulrich asked.
"Jérémie, stop!" Aelita yelled, hoping the elf would hear her. "I didn't call it up! What are you doing?!"
Fortunately, he did hear her, as he halted in his tracks, briefly turning to her, "Sorry, Aelita...but I need some answers. I have to find out where these visions are coming from."
Now, they understood. XANA was indeed the one giving Jérémie these visions, and it had called the Transporter, offering it as an invitation, knowing the boy would be curious.
"Don't do it!" Ulrich tried to warn him. "It's a trap!"
To steal his memory, whatever it was that the AI wanted. That was obvious now, and should've been obvious before.
Unfortunately, Jérémie didn't listen to them. Instead, he allowed the Transporter to sweep him away.
"Jérémie!" Aelita called, frustrated and scared, before turning to her cousin. "Odd, shoot me."
Odd did as she said, devirtualizing her so she could call up the Transporter again, this time to transport the other three to Sector Five.
Meanwhile, Ulrich used Super Sprint to run around the last Blok, blocking stray lasers. Yumi front flipped while the monster was distracted, throwing her fan mid-air as she landed inside the circle. Her weapon hit its target, destroying it.
The passage was clear, but Jérémie was no longer present to do his part.
"No more monsters, Aelita," Ulrich relayed. "Now what?"
"What do you mean 'now what'?" the pink-ette asked, from the controls now. "You guys are going after Jérémie! If you don't, XANA will win!"
In response, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd ran to the edge of the plateau and waited for Aelita to type in 'SCIPIO'.
Once she did, the sphere dropped from the sky and picked them up before heading towards the opposite end of the Ice Sector.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi commended Odd for powering through his motion sickness caused by the Transporter. This time, he was focused solely on finding Jérémie and getting him out of Sector Five, and not even the virtual equivalent of nausea could stop him.
The Arena spun around before opening up a path. "Let's go!" Ulrich said, before leading Yumi and Odd towards the corridor.
Which was not closed yet.
Not stopping, Yumi noted to Aelita, "The corridor's still open! Is that good news?"
"Yes," the pink-ette replied. "It means that Jérémie's not too far ahead of you. But the countdown is still ticking and he's currently being cornered by the Scyphozoa! So hurry!"
"We're almost there," Ulrich reported before using a quick burst of Super Sprint to reach the room.
The trio all came to a stop, coming upon a room full of pillars that were constantly moving up and down.
"Great, a leap frog contest," Odd muttered.
Across the room, they could see the Scyphozoa lifting Jérémie up and starting to take his memory.
Now they were pressed for even more time. "We need to hurry," Ulrich told the other two. "There's only one way. One," he backed up a bit, "two, three!" He Sprinted forward, shocking his two friends, fortunately landing on top of a pillar.
Yumi followed his lead, backing up before jumping. Her hands caught the edge of the column she was aiming for.
Ulrich continued to jump across, as Odd did the same.
"Hurry up!" Aelita worriedly ordered. "XANA's not taking its sweet time today!"
Ulrich backflipped onto another column, before retorting, "You think this is easy?"
Yumi flipped onto a pillar nearby, "At this rate, we'll never make it to him in time!"
Odd looked across the room at the Scyphozoa still holding his friend. Seeing an opening, he took aim and concentrated.
"Odd, what are you doing?" Aelita asked him. "Keep moving, or you'll get crushed!"
"Relax, cuz," he muttered. "I'm saving the day." He then fired a single arrow.
It flew across the room before hitting the jellyfish creature on its head, forcing it to drop Jérémie.
Odd cheered, but he didn't have time to savour his victory, as he was immediately crushed between two columns, causing instant devirtualization.
"Odd!" Yumi cried out.
"Don't worry. He's okay," the pink-ette reassured the geisha. "Annoyed, sure, but he'll live."
Ulrich used Super Sprint to jump across the remaining pillars in his way, before landing in front of a still-recovering Jérémie, using his katana to fight off the Scyphozoa because it hadn't left yet.
Fortunately, it seemed to see that it was outnumbered and retreated.
"Only ten seconds before the end of the countdown!"
Yumi backflipped onto another pillar, before spotting the key. She quickly pressed it with her foot as soon as she was in range.
With this, all the columns lowered to the ground, making it flat and level.
Jérémie was back on his feet by this point, and he followed Ulrich out of the passage that was now opened, with Yumi hot on their heels.
The trio jumped off the platform and landed on the elevator, having done so many times before. As they approached the wall that led to the Dome, Aelita told them, "As soon as you get to the Celestial Dome, get out of Sector Five and head for the Ice Sector. We can't leave that tower unattended."
"Right!" Ulrich and Yumi both said, while Jérémie remained silent.
The trio ran through the door as soon as it opened. The Overbike and Overwing were already there, waiting for them, and Ulrich and Yumi hopped on their respective vehicles.
But Jérémie instead activated the interface and began digging for...something.
"Jérémie, what did I just say?!" Aelita's temper flared. It was solely out of concern and fear that the Scyphozoa may actually succeed this time, but it was still scary to witness. "We're not getting any data today!"
"Jérémie," Ulrich warned. "You have to deactivate the tower."
"This will only take a few seconds," he promised. "I know exactly what I'm looking for."
"Which is?" Yumi asked.
Before the elf could answer, Odd cut in from the lab, "Jérémie, we've already established that it's one of XANA's traps! It created these visions to lure you over to Sector Five and steal your memory!"
"He's right!" Aelita agreed. "And now, they're so intense that you can't even tell reality from the visions anymore! We know you want answers, but we have bigger problems to worry about!"
"Jérémie," Yumi softly asked, "what are you looking for?"
"My parents," his answer surprised them. "They're not at home, or at the factory, so they have to be here on Lyoko!"
"And what if they're not?" Odd asked, ignoring the obvious questions of who Jérémie thought his parents were and why he thought they'd been virtualized.
"That's a chance I'm willing to take."
Yumi and Ulrich heard familiar screeching in the distance and glanced up to see three Flying Mantas approaching them.
"Aelita, do you want us to...knock him out or something? Drag him to the tower by force?" Yumi asked.
The pink-ette was quiet. "No." Her answer surprised the others too. "Let him keep digging while you protect him from the Mantas. It's still a trap, though, so don't wander too far."
"Right." And the two flew off to greet the Mantas.
"Are you sure?" Odd asked his cousin.
"Not really, but this is the closest we've ever gotten to answers."
"Don't worry. It won't take very long," Jérémie reassured his friends. "I'm sure I'll find them."
"Just be careful," the pink-ette warned him. "Whether these visions really belong to you or not, they are still a trap and Sector Five is still XANA's territory. Next time the Scyphozoa captures you, you may not be so lucky."
"I know."
As she and Ulrich flew around the Mantas, Yumi pulled out one of her fans and threw it. It hit its target, taking out one monster and leaving two left.
A laser narrowly missed Ulrich, and he glanced back at the Manta firing at him. He boosted forward, only to see that it was releasing flying mines.
"Jérémie!" Aelita suddenly cried.
"It's okay," the elf said reassuringly. "I'm almost there."
"No, behind you!" Odd yelled.
Jérémie suddenly froze upon feeling that familiar magnetic field surrounding him. He slowly turned around, only to be greeted, sure enough, by the Scyphozoa.
"Yumi, Ulrich! The Scyphozoa's got Jérémie again!"
Ulrich glanced behind him, seeing a mine tailing him. He swerved to the right, only for the mine to follow his movements. He speed up, but it still persisted. He sighed, "We gotta deal with the Mantas first."
He looked up at the Manta flying above him and saw a mine right behind Yumi. He gasped and sped up as Yumi flew right in front of the other Manta. Fortunately, instead of hitting her, the mine hit the monster on its underside, destroying it.
"Yeah!" Ulrich cheered, before seeing the mine still following him. Three more appeared, and he narrowly avoided them, only to be greeted by yet another two new ones.
"Hurry! Jérémie hardly has any memory left!" Aelita warned them.
Yumi dodged a shot from the last Manta, flying past the Scyphozoa. She promptly turned around, not taking her eyes off of her blue elf friend, only for Manta to hit her Overwing.
The force sent her dangling upside down, struggling to hold on as the Manta returned and continued firing at her, clearly intent on devirtualizing her.
She used one of her fans to block as many shots as she could, but was eventually hit in her stomach, causing her to let go of her vehicle.
Luckily, Ulrich saw her falling and sped up just in time to catch her with the passenger seat of the Overbike.
"You okay?" he asked, briefly glancing back at her as he circled around back to the Scyphozoa.
"Yeah, thanks," she replied. "Now, c'mon. We have a friend to save."
He was already on it, with an idea firmly in mind. Yumi glanced back at the mines still tailing Ulrich, before the samurai made a sharp turn upwards the moment he reached the jellyfish, causing the mines following him to hit the monster instead.
This forced it to drop Jérémie, and it retreated yet again as Ulrich circled back around, coming to a stop in front of the platform Jérémie was resting on.
Yumi hopped off and immediately knelt at Jérémie's side. "You okay?"
"Yeah..." the elf muttered as he rubbed his forehead. "I...I think it's time I deactivated that tower."
Yumi used her telekinesis to restabilize her Overwing and bring it back to her, as Aelita replied, "Agreed. You only have fifteen lifepoints left." None of them said anything, but they were all relieved Jérémie had finally recognized what was real and what was fake.
The geisha jumped onto the Overwing, and Jérémie jumped on behind her, as Aelita selected the Ice Sector's data stream and typed in the commands to temporarily disconnect it.
"The tunnel's open," she relayed.
The last Manta didn't follow them inside.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich and Yumi escorted him to the tower right up to the base. After hopping off the Overwing, he could feel all eyes on him as he hesitated. It must've been obvious that he didn't want to cut off his only link to these visions. Once he deactivated this tower, the visions would no longer come and he'd lose his parents yet again.
But it was too dangerous to leave any tower activated by XANA standing.
Knowing this, he forced himself to phase through the tower wall.
He forced himself to run to the center of the first platform, constantly reminding himself to not take his sweet time. He let the data stream carry him to the second.
Once he reached the top platform, he approached the center, and the interface greeted him like normal.
He hesitated once more. He really didn't want to cut off his only tie to his parents. He didn't find them at home, or at the factory, nor could he find the program from Sector Five in time. So at the moment, his memories were all he had.
(Memories? They were just visions, weren't they?)
But it's not like he'd forget what he managed to remember this time. At least, he still had these memories.
So he placed his hand on the interface. It accepted his handprint.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
Papa, Maman...I will find you. I promise, he vowed.
LYOKO_
As the data windows around him fell, signaling a reboot of the tower, Jérémie's brain went through a similar process—it shut down before turning back on—causing him to collapse onto the ground. Unlike his nightmare last night, however, he was still conscious this time.
Who was he seeing in his visions? Who was he so adamant on looking for back in Sector Five? Why did he feel the need to look for answers at the Hermitage? It was all important; he knew that...
But he no longer remembered any of it.
All the visions he had today, the nightmares he kept having whenever he dozed off—all of it was gone.
He had returned to no longer recalling what his nightmares were about. Exactly where he was yesterday.
Jérémie Belpois never hated XANA more than he did right now.
"Jérémie?" Aelita asked, concern clear in her voice.
"I'm fine," he replied, still lying on the ground, knowing that he was being short. "Tower's been deactivated..."
"We know," she reassured him. "We're more worried about you."
"I'm fine. I just wish I could cry on Lyoko..."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
About an hour later, the five were in the cafeteria, claiming a table for lunch, with Odd typing away on his laptop, chatting with his online friend.
And the moment Jérémie admitted to wishing he could cry in a virtual world, his friends understood what that meant. He had gone back to no longer remembering his nightmares and visions, and it was all XANA's fault.
"We were right," Aelita told her friends. "I just ran a full check. That tower was indeed controlling Jérémie's cerebral cortex through the alleged virus that connects him to XANA."
"But how can XANA control what Jérémie remembers and what he can't?" Yumi asked.
"And what does the virus have to do with that?" Ulrich added.
"No idea," Aelita shrugged, "but the fact that it activated a tower for this trap suggests that it's not something XANA can do at will. It tells me that the virus has pre-set parameters, ones that XANA has to use a tower in order to even access, much less mess with."
"That's probably for the best," Odd commented, briefly glancing up from his laptop, with the others unable to deny that. "And out of curiosity, cuz, does that information help you at all? Y'know, for the anti-virus?"
"I'll have to do more research, but yes, actually," the pink-ette replied. "It does. XANA may have tipped its virtual hand a tad too far this time."
"Lucky for us," Yumi quipped.
"I guess..." Jérémie, on the other hand, didn't seem too sure. "I still want to know where those hallucinations came from."
"Maybe XANA made them up," Ulrich suggested.
"Or maybe they were indeed the memories of the real son of Michel and Sophie," Yumi theorized, "implanted in you, a complete stranger, by XANA in order to scare you."
"Maybe." Jérémie was shaking his head, though, meaning he didn't actually believe either theory. "I don't remember what I saw, but I do recall the impression that I was reliving the events that I was seeing." He closed his eyes. "What's that called?"
"Déjà vu," Aelita answered. "Don't worry. We'll find the answers, because even if you forgot, Jer, we still remember what you told us."
"That's right," Odd offered a proud smile. "XANA can't control our minds, no matter what it does."
"Don't jinx it, Odd," Yumi warned. "Remember the polymorphic spectre?"
For the first time today, Jérémie let loose a smile (and the others found it beautiful), chuckling. "Thanks, guys."
There was still hope. The others still remembered what his visions contained, what it was he so intent on searching for in Sector Five.
"You're welcome." Ulrich then changed the subject, leaning towards his roommate with a grin, "So, Odd, how's your cyber-friend?"
"Really cool, actually," Odd was beaming. "She told me herself that she was a girl, good buddy, without me asking, and she considers herself to be on the nerd spectrum, but she's still awesome because she's considering coding video games when she graduates. I just asked her if she wants to meet up after classes later."
A ding sounded from his laptop.
"And I just got a reply." Odd relayed, "She's accepted." He closed his laptop and stood up with it underneath his arm. "Gotta go. I'm gonna meet her."
"When?" Aelita asked.
"Right now, at the vending machines," her cousin said, as he left the table. "Later!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd walked up to the vending machines, only for his heart to skip a beat when he saw Sissi leaning against one. He immediately hid, afraid of her seeing him. "I don't believe this!" he whispered.
Sissi was his cyber-pen pal?
Hervé and Nicolas approached Sissi, with the latter asking, "So did you meet your mystery computer boyfriend? What's he like?"
"He's not my boyfriend. And if he's a mystery, why would I tell you dorks?" Sissi gently retorted. "No, he hasn't shown up yet. But he still has time."
Well, there could be worse people to talk to, Odd supposed.
At the other end of the courtyard, the two Gauthier twins emerged. The two siblings seemed to wish each other 'good luck' before going their separate ways. To Odd's surprise, Theo marched right up to Sissi.
"Hello, 'The Other Pink Princess'," he greeted her, referring to her by her username.
"Hey, 'The Other Football Star'," Sissi was smiling. "How'd you guess that it was me?"
"Well, seeing as how the first 'pink princess' that usually comes to mind is Aelita Schaeffer, and my pen pal's username refers to themself as 'the other one', it could only be you, Sissi Delmas," Theo explained.
"Likewise, with your username," Sissi replied. "Because everybody knows that the primary football star is Ulrich Stern."
Unable to deny this, Theo nodded, smiling.
Oh...so Sissi was not his cyber-friend, Odd realized. She was actually Theo's. Okay. Good for them. Really. They seemed to have a legitimate chemistry. Even if said chemistry pissed Nicolas off.
He turned away from them in order to give them their privacy, only to be greeted with the unsure smile of Laura.
"Hey, Laura, how's it going?" he asked.
"Hey, 'Odd One Out'," she returned the greeting by using his username, one that only his cyber-friend would know.
Hence why he paused as he came to a realization. "Wait, you're 'Laurel Tree'?"
Her smile grew a little bit wider as she nodded. "Yeah. It's nice to meet you in person." Said smile then faded, "Um...what do you think?"
Sissi wasn't his cyber-pen pal. Laura was.
Honestly, he was happy, and he conveyed that with an encouraging grin, "I think it's great. I was not expecting us to get along so well, but we do." However, given how close he was with Jérémie, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. "So you want to code video games, huh? That's pretty cool."
She shrugged, "Yeah. I don't particularly like playing them. I'm just really interested in the coding."
"And that's okay. Whatever makes you happy. And if you ever need a play tester, you've got one right here."
"Oh, I'm aware, Mr. Never Sleeps At Night. I've heard rumors."
Oh yeah. This was definitely the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 32 - Michel Périn / The man is back after years of being missing, and he's on a mission: to defeat XANA once and for all. If that's true, then what's with all the red flags?
A/N: If you weren't already aware, "papa" is French for dad and "maman" is French for mom, and again, "mon chéri" is a French petname translating to "my dear". Tarte Tatin is a decadent version of the classic apple pie and it originated in France.
For those of you who haven't figured it all out yet, I made it really obvious in this chapter who Jérémie really is and who his parents are. So those of you who have already figured it out, celebrate because you're correct. However, Jérémie still can't remember because XANA has a solid hold on his memories. I think people tend to ignore the fact that it was the same deal in the canon episode with Aelita. Those memories were coming from XANA, and Aelita admits that she was "under the impression that I was reliving the events I was seeing", and remembering that the piece XANA stole from Aelita was the memories of her past, it makes a lot of sense.
The scene with Jérémie receiving a vision and waking up in the rain is inspired by/taken from IFSCL's story mode, Chapter 4: Ikigai. Also, peppermint being in Jérémie's parents' garden is something that was confirmed in "I'd Rather Not Talk About It".
Am I the only one who wanted the writers to keep the Theo/Sissi pairing they teased in canon 'Claustrophobia'? They were actually legitimately cute together, and it led to a really good character moment for Hervé. Also, when I said Laura's moments wouldn't just be to emphasize Jerlita, I meant it.