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 FP7ETDP43
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Following the revelation of the Kolossus and how it's powered, the group prepares to finally take on the mysterious Volcano Replika."
Episode 66: The Lucky Seven
(Based on Down to Earth)
That morning, Jérémie emerged from the showers, refreshed and ready to face the day. He had used cold water this time to wake himself up, having worked with Aelita on a couple of projects for Lyoko all weekend long with very little rest. Now, it was Monday and it was time to switch gears to schoolwork.
Clad in his pajamas, he carried his toiletries bag over to the sinks and claimed one. Just as he took his toothbrush out of his bag, Patrick entered the room. The elder's eyes surveyed the room, while his body was facing the showers, all of him looking exhausted. However, Patrick perked up when he saw Jérémie; apparently, that's who he was looking for.
"Hey, Jérémie," he greeted, as he walked up to the blonde.
Jérémie sent back a subdued smile (due to thinking about the new monster, the Kolossus), "Hey, Patrick. Good morning."
"You too." The elder then leaned in close and lowered his voice. "Listen, my parents are coming to Kadic tomorrow."
The blonde was just about to brush his teeth, only to lower his toothbrush as a nervous expression appeared on his face. Patrick's parents...his uncle and aunt...it had been so long since he had seen them... His heart was pounding.
Patrick continued, "They're coming by to see how I'm doing here. Given how I was expelled from my last school and they don't see me every day, they're naturally concerned. I personally think they deserve to know the truth, but it's entirely up to you if you want to reveal yourself to them. I just wanted to give you a head's up."
Uncle Arthur and Aunt Éloïse would definitely react to his face just like Patrick did. That is, knowing he was familiar from somewhere but double-checking to make sure they weren't mistaken. That meant questions, more specifically serious questions that he, truthfully, was not ready to answer...
Nervousness pooled in the pit of Jérémie's stomach while his heart pounded in want. He wanted more than anything to let his family know that he was okay, still alive, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to face them yet. He didn't have to, but he certainly wanted to.
"I'll think about it," he whispered in response.
Patrick shot him a smile of reassurance, "Okay. You have until tomorrow morning." The brunette then left him alone, heading towards the showers, leaving Jérémie to stew in his thoughts.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
After getting dressed for the day, Jérémie made his way outside to the courtyard. He spotted his friends quickly and with ease—they were a strange bunch, after all—by the vending machines. The only one not present was Aelita, but he knew why. He managed a smile before heading over. As he got closer, he noticed they had someone else with them.
Sissi. Don't get him wrong; he was comfortable around her. She was their friend, and he trusted her. But lately, she'd been hanging out with his friends more often than not, mostly talking. He couldn't help but wonder what their conversations were about.
He reached them just as Sissi turned away to leave. "I'll see you guys later. Hey, Jérémie," she greeted him with a bright smile before walking away.
He waved a 'goodbye' at her, before turning back to his friends, "Good morning, everyone."
"'Good morning' yourself, sunshine," William replied. "We can see those shadows underneath your eyes."
Jérémie just shrugged, "Aelita and I pulled an all-nighter, two nights in a row."
Odd leaned in, preparing himself to produce relentless teasing, "Oh? What were you two doing? Were you inspired by Ulrich and Yumi's hooking up Friday morning?"
"No, we were working." Jérémie was giving his friend an unimpressed look. He was happy for Ulrich and Yumi no longer beating around the bush, but that didn't mean that he and Aelita were ready for that same step. They had promised to wait until XANA's defeat, after all.
"Hang on," Odd held his hands up to silence the other. "Let me get this straight. You and my cousin spent an entire weekend together and all you did was...was work?!"
"Well, we had to update the Skid's shields, for one," Jérémie told him.
"I can't believe it," Odd muttered. "I was wrong; you two are worse than Yumi and Ulrich!"
"Hey!" Ulrich frowned in annoyance as Yumi's eyes widened in alarm.
"Don't boo me," Odd shrugged. "I'm right! You two were always trying to convince us that you're 'just good friends' and all that stuff, and yet, the moment we leave you to your own devices, you two confess your love to each other. Am I wrong?"
Yumi and Ulrich looked at each other with blushing faces.
"Hey, what about you?" William asked the crazy-haired blonde. "It took you an argument for you to finally tell Sam that you loved her."
Odd pouted and crossed his arms with a reddened face. "Oh yeah?! What about you and Laura?!"
William promptly joined the blush party.
"You know, Odd," Yumi spoke up, "William has a point. Yes, you confessed, but you and Sam aren't official yet. Ulrich and I technically beat you."
"If we're making this a contest," Jérémie cut in, "Aelita and I won. We're just waiting until XANA's gone."
"Whatever," Odd replied. "By the way, where is Miss Einstein the Superstar?"
Jérémie's expression turned into a concerned one, "I don't know, and I'm kinda worried she's getting sick. Ever since we found out that XANA had infected hundreds of supercomputers around the world, she's been very tense. All weekend, she refused to sleep and she only ate if I brought her something first."
He was about to continue when his phone rang. He looked at the screen.
"Oh, that's her now!" He picked up. "Yes, Aelita?"
A pause, as the others saw Aelita poke her head out from around the corner behind him. She quickly pressed her lips, telling them all to keep quiet.
"Well, I was beginning to worry. Where are you?"
"Right behind you!" Jérémie jumped out of his skin when he heard her voice not only on the phone, but also in the area, as if she was indeed right behind him. So, he turned around to see if she was right.
She was, and she was smiling, brightly. And he was glad to see this side of her re-emerge. He had missed it, because it was the part of her that he loved the most, as well as the part of her that had to take a back-seat as long as XANA existed.
He hung up, chuckling, "You're so silly!"
"Aelita the comedian?" Ulrich asked, amused. "I think you were right to be worried about her, Prince Charming. I don't think she's all there." Jérémie chuckled at his friend's quip.
"You seem very happy this morning, Aelita, despite the revelation we got last Thursday," Yumi said. "Got some good news or something?"
"Jérémie and I certainly think so," the pink-ette revealed. "We finally figured out a way to wipe out XANA!"
The responses she got were all stunned stares.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita had taken them up to her room, where she and Jérémie gave their friends the explanation they were sure they were waiting for. She was sitting in her desk chair, while Jérémie and William were on her bed, and Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd all stretched out on the ground.
"A multi-agent system?" Yumi repeated. "Are you sure that will work?"
"Yep," Aelita replied. "We decided to go over all of the Périns' notes again, as well as the data in their message to us back in October."
"And the data we've gathered traveling in the Skid," Jérémie added.
"That too," the pink-ette continued. "And that's when the two of us realized that since XANA itself is a multi-agent system, the only way to destroy it is also through a multi-agent system."
"Sounds pretty dangerous," Ulrich cut in. "I mean, you said the Marabounta was a multi-agent program too, and remember how that turned out."
"'Marabounta'?" William asked, confused. "What is that?"
"We'll tell you later, Will," Odd quickly told him, before addressing his cousin. "Ulrich's right, 'Lita. That was a pretty creepy invention!"
"Will you stop worrying?" Aelita said, slightly embarrassed at her failure. "Yes, that was a mistake on my part, made while trying to deal with the insecurities that led me to even considering trying out that headset, remember?" The others went quiet; they did remember. "But I've learned a lot since then, especially about Lyoko, from the creators of the supercomputer themselves. You may not have realized it, but my avatar wasn't the only thing upgraded when we rebuilt Lyoko. So chill out. Jérémie and I are not going to launch that program until we're one-hundred and ten percent sure it's going to work!"
"It would be a poor choice to launch it right now anyway," Jérémie softly cut in. "It's unfinished. At the moment, all we can destroy are two or three Megatanks. On the other hand..."
"Go on, we're listening," Ulrich said, after a very brief pause.
The two Einsteins shared a glance, before the pink-ette spoke up, "XANA made a huge mistake in Translating the Clone during Thursday's mission to the Ice Replika."
"So the data Jérémie found in the tower," Yumi asked, "was useful?"
"Was it ever!" Aelita exclaimed with pride. "Thanks to that data, we were able to write a program for destroying the Clone!"
William raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "You mean for good?"
"You bet for good!" Aelita continued. "And it's so simple! The program is already active, so all you have to do when faced with the Clone now is to devirtualize it!"
"Really? That's it?" Yumi asked, leaning back against Aelita's closet. "I suspect there's a catch somehow. I mean that Clone can be pretty strong, and need I remind you that it also can turn into perfect copies of any one of us?"
"I agree with Yumi," Ulrich said. "You think XANA is just gonna twiddle its thumbs while all of this is going on?"
Aelita shrugged, "I said it was simple, not easy. But we'll probably get our chance later tonight. We're finally going back to the Volcano Replika, remember?"
"Um, are you sure we should just leave the Ice Replika standing?" William asked, concerned. "I mean, shouldn't we destroy it before moving on to the Volcano Replika?"
"XANA now controls hundreds of Replikas all throughout the network," Jérémie reminded him. "Taking out the Ice Replika, we understand now, would barely make a dent."
"Jérémie's right," Aelita solemnly agreed. "We need to focus all of our efforts and energy into the Volcano Replika. It is where XANA lives now, so perhaps the answer to destroying it for good is in this Replika's supercomputer."
"And if we're wrong about that?" Yumi asked.
"We're not." The pink-ette was steadfast in her answer. Seeing this, no one made a hint that they were about to disagree with her.
"I think you forgot one little detail, cuz," Odd spoke up. "What if XANA sends us King Kong like the last time?"
"Who, the Kolossus?" she replied. "It's one of XANA's monsters, so we should be able to destroy it like the others."
Ulrich scoffed, "Better said than done. Maybe we should introduce you to it. Then you'd understand."
"Don't get me wrong, you guys are right," the pink-ette quickly replied. "We should be careful around the Kolossus. But in order for the monsters to work exactly as XANA intends, it has to design and program them with a weak point in mind. The Kolossus is no different; we just have to find it. Now, if XANA appears in its new body, however, then that's a problem."
XANA still hadn't brought said body back out yet, but based on their experience when first seeing it, XANA said it was occupying it with its core. It was strong like the Kolossus, and as fast as the Lyokowarriors. Not to mention it had the power over Creation like Jérémie did (at least on the Volcano Replika, that is); in that vein, it was possible it could now enter towers and enter the code: XANA itself.
So no one could argue against Aelita there.
"Yeah..." Odd muttered. "So tonight, right?"
"Yep," his cousin replied. "Prepare yourselves for new defenses from last time."
"Right!" came the scattering of multiple responses.
Jérémie had been quiet up until now, "Aelita," she and the others turned to him, "I'd like to be behind the controls this time."
"What? Why?" Odd asked. "OW!"
Yumi had sharply elbowed him in the stomach. "Idiot! Remember what happened the last time we were at the Volcano Replika?" XANA had lured Jérémie into a trap using the images of his parents, and actually succeeded in throwing him into the Digital Sea. "It's probably because of bad memories."
"Not really," Jérémie admitted. He did have bad memories of the Volcano Replika, but that wasn't the reason for his request here. "It's more because of a feeling I have..."
"You think XANA will attack the real world while we're exploring?" Ulrich guessed.
Jérémie nodded, "Yeah, and if it does, and I'm there with you, it's very likely it will refuse to let me go." He sighed to clear his nerves. "I just want to be prepared."
"And that's understandable," Aelita calmly reassured him. She would likely do the same thing if she were in his shoes. "Don't worry. I'll be behind the wheel this time."
"Thank you," was his response.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The moment Odd dropped down from the sky of Sector Five's Arena, he froze up against his will as his vision turned sepia-toned. This Future Flash scared more than any of the others he'd gotten in the past. His virtual heart was racing, and if he was back on Earth, he'd be on the verge of a panic attack.
He was brought back to reality by Aelita's concerned face as she shook his shoulders, "Odd! You okay?"
The cat couldn't respond. He wanted to, because he hated seeing his cousin so concerned about him. But what he had seen...
"Breathe, Odd," Ulrich cut in, urging.
Odd tried his best. Though it was hard—what he saw had shaken him up—he began to calm down after about ten seconds. Once he could speak, he did.
"S-Sorry," he softly told his friends. "I-I just had a vision of the Skid being destroyed. We were...we were on the Volcano Replika and the Kolossus just swatted at it like it was a fly..."
"Don't worry, Odd," Aelita reassured him. "Only two of us will be Translated this time, so three people will be guarding the Skid."
"Yeah," Yumi added, a gentle smile on her face. "And no matter who goes, those that stay behind will try their best to protect the Skid. Okay?"
Odd nodded, "Okay. Let's go." He trusted them with his life. He knew how serious they were. They would indeed do their absolute best to complete the mission.
The passage had long since opened, and William led the way to the Skid hangar. The cat, however, kept silent about what had actually shaken him up.
The fact that Aelita was still in the cockpit...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie closely monitored the blue arrow that was the Skidbladnir as it approached the coordinates he had entered earlier. He'd been on edge ever since Odd's vision—the cat had foreseen the Kolossus destroying the Skid. The others couldn't reassure him that it wouldn't happen, because it would. Odd's track record proved that, many times.
His first vision was foreseeing Jérémie (known then as Marin) being cornered by a Krabe. That came true a couple minutes later.
His second vision was foreseeing Jérémie falling down a crater towards the Digital Sea. That also came true soon after.
He also foresaw the method for destroying the Guardian, how to clear the passage to the tower XANA was using to control gravity, a warning whenever XANA was using something else to distract the group in order to destroy the Core, among other things like XANA's trap in the Volcano Replika previously succeeding. No matter what he saw, the vision always came true. It was the circumstances surrounding said event that was usually at question.
So, the Skid would be destroyed while on the Volcano Replika—that was a given. Whether it was this visit or the next remained to be seen, Jérémie could only hope that no one would be inside.
"Replika in sight," Aelita announced, the Skid coming to a stop at the entrance. "Digital Key, activated."
A window opened up on screen, and Jérémie was ready for it. However, it wasn't the classic password decoding window he'd gotten used to seeing. No, it was a window for hacking, as in deep-web stuff, like when Aelita was hacking into that military satellite. Interesting. So Aelita wasn't exaggerating about the firewall she had to hack through last time.
"Ten separate levels of encryption, I see," Jérémie said, before beginning his typing. "Give me a few minutes. This will take some time."
"So I was right," Aelita commented, as he tackled the first level. "XANA has indeed upped its defenses since last time."
"Which also means that Jérémie was right," Yumi added. "This place, in the very least, is very important to XANA. But why?"
"We'll find out," William replied, sounding sure in his answer. "In the meantime, get ready for anything."
Ulrich, on the other hand, was concerned about something else. "Hey, Jer, you've been rather quiet today. Anything bugging you?"
"I'm fine," Jérémie said, his answer automatic. He was used to saying this in order to avoid worrying his friends, especially since the final battle with XANA was on the horizon (he had a gut feeling). Their energy needed to be focused on the AI, not him. But he could use some advice, so he chose to be honest. "Patrick's parents are coming by tomorrow."
"Patrick's parents..." Odd muttered, as his brain connected the dots. "You mean...your aunt and uncle?"
"Yep." Jérémie pressed 'enter', and the first level of encryption was cracked.
"Will they react to you the same way Patrick did?" William asked.
"Probably."
"So you're faced with the choice of whether or not to tell them the truth," Yumi guessed.
He sighed, "Yeah." He cracked the second level. "I know it worked with Patrick, but they remember me more than I remember them. According to Papa, Aunt Éloïse was in the delivery room with Maman. They've practically watched me grow up, but my memories of them are fuzzy at best." He cracked the third level.
"There's also the issue of your disappearance," Ulrich added.
"Yeah. That combined with your diagnosis," Aelita revealed, "means that the official records have already stated 'Jérémie Périn' as deceased. They have hope for your parents, but not for you."
"That's right, and my family knows that," Jérémie softly replied, cracking the fourth level. "So I have no choice but to keep being 'Belpois'." He sighed again, this time loaded with stress. "I guess the main issue is that they're adults. Patrick was easy to handle, once I remembered who he was, because he agreed to keep it all a secret. Uncle Arthur and Aunt Éloïse, on the other hand..." He cracked the fifth level.
"You're remembering my parents, aren't you?" William asked, though sounding like he already knew the answer. "How, once they knew the truth, they immediately decided that they didn't want me involved with Lyoko anymore?"
"...Yeah." He cracked the sixth level. "There's no telling how they'll react."
"I think you should first ask yourself whether or not you want to see them again," Yumi said. "Do you?"
"Of course I do," Jérémie replied without a second thought. "I've always wondered if I had any family left. After meeting Patrick, though, I realized that they likely think of me as dead. So, in order to see any of them again, I'd have to explain what happened. The truth, which is a rather long story that we can't afford to spill to everybody we meet." He cracked the seventh level.
"In other words," Aelita softly cut in, "your heart says 'yes', but your brain says 'no'." It honestly would always amaze Jérémie how well the pink-ette could read him.
Jérémie remained silent out of confirmation as he pressed 'enter' again. The eighth level of encryption promptly unlocked. Just two more to go...
"You know, Jer, there's a simple solution," Odd piped up. "Go on and take the chance. Show them the factory and explain everything to them. And if their reaction to it all warrants one, then go ahead and launch a Return to the Past. We won't stop you."
"Are you guys coming with us?" He asked, as he cracked the ninth level. It was a good idea, and the plan would work, but he'd feel a lot more comfortable with his friends—and the people who had saved him in the first place—there to back him up.
"Do you want us to?" He could hear the sisterly concern in Yumi's voice.
"Yes." His answer was automatic.
"Okay," was Aelita's answer. "We'll be nearby for the entire meeting, and if you need us, we're just a text away."
He finally smiled, relieved, "Thank you," despite them not being able to see it. He pressed 'enter' one more time, at last cracking the tenth level of encryption. "Open sesame! Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for waiting so patiently."
On the holomap, he saw the gateway open and the Skid go inside. As it flew up to the volcanic platforms above, he eyed everything carefully, now tense again due to remembering what they were here for.
"Still no halos around the towers," Ulrich noted. "Are we sure the Translation program will even work here?"
"There's only one way to find out," Aelita replied, before flying the Skid to the highest tower on the Replika, according to altitude.
It was also the center-most one, but no one really thought much of it, assuming it was no big deal. Aelita just chose this tower because it being higher up meant that those chosen to stay behind would have better ground against any attacks from XANA.
The angel carefully maneuvered the Skid around the tower, before placing her hand on the touchpad. "Docking."
Pink wisps of light immediately appeared and began swirling around, connecting the Skid with the tower.
"Okay, that's a good sign," Odd said. "You can dock the Skid."
"Docking the Skid and activating a tower are two different things, Odd," Jérémie warned, typing in the necessary commands. "Okay, moment of truth." He pressed 'enter' again.
The tower gained a halo, colored green—also shown on the superscan. The others cheered in relief.
He himself smiled at the good news. So these towers weren't dead. Apparently, XANA just didn't like deactivated towers to have a white halo. Understandable, given the beef with his parents.
"Okay, Aelita, Odd, I'm going to Translate you," he told them, as he warmed up the program.
"Gotcha," the angel replied.
"Ready, Prince Charming!" the cat chirped.
"Be careful," he added. "I don't know what will be waiting for you. Knowing XANA, it could be anything. Translate Aelita. Translate Odd."
The two promptly disappeared from their respective cockpits, before Ulrich, Yumi, and William were teleported outside and reappeared on the ground at the base of the tower.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
In two identical flashes of light, Aelita and Odd appeared within the sky, in their Lyoko forms, and landed on the ground of an island—the Translation was successful. The vast ocean was behind them, and despite the bright blue sky, the ground in front of them was dark. In plain view was a volcano, currently dormant, and resting at the base was a single-level facility.
"Aelita, Odd, do you read me?" Jérémie asked, coming through in their earpieces.
"Loud and clear," Odd replied. "It looks like we're on a volcanic island."
"You are," the blonde in blue confirmed. "The map I have here reads that you're south of Hawaii. But I can't read what's inside the facility. You'll have to open the main door first."
"We're on our way," Aelita said, before she and Odd took off running.
The facility seemed to be abandoned. At the very least, there were no defenses waiting for them, nor were there any people rushing out to greet them. So it didn't take very long for them to reach the main door. To their surprise, said door was the exact same design as the lift doors back at the Boulogne-Billancourt factory, only in a red color.
"This is XANA's base alright," Odd commented. "No one else would have this door."
"Yeah," Aelita replied, her eyes wandering from the door to the keyboard on the left side. She approached it and studied it. "We're looking for a four-digit passcode. So, a year, perhaps?"
"Well, what would be an important year to XANA?" Odd shrugged, aware that the passcode could just be a randomized number.
"The year it first broke free of its initial programming," Jérémie cut in with his solemn answer.
Aelita didn't second-guess that, and she promptly punched in the date '1995'. It should've been no surprise to them that the guess was right, as evidenced by the doors opening to reveal a dimly lit facility on the other side. But it was, for some reason.
"I found the supercomputer," Jérémie said. "Take the staircase on your right."
The two spotted said staircase, and saw that it was heading down a level.
"Yeah, this isn't nerve-wracking at all," Odd quipped nervously.
"No, of course not," Aelita played along. "Let's go."
They took off running towards their destination, as Jérémie warned, "Better hurry. XANA's bound to rear its ugly head soon..."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Stationed at the base of the Skid tower alongside her partners, Yumi wanted so badly to pace off her nervousness. She was too antsy to sit down on a nearby rock like William, or patiently lean against a wall on the opposite side like Ulrich.
"It's crazy," she was muttering. "I can't believe that this may actually be the end!"
"Yeah," Ulrich agreed. "Two and a half years..."
"That's right," William recalled. "I keep forgetting that it's been a lot longer for you guys than for me. Has it really been almost four months since I joined you?"
"Yep," Yumi replied.
"Man. It feels longer than that..." the knight was deep in thought. "What happens after?" The other two glanced over at him in surprise; they hadn't really thought of it. "After we defeat XANA, what do we do then?"
"We...don't really know..." Ulrich muttered, solemn, almost sad. "The fight with XANA has taken up most of our energy and thoughts. Once XANA's gone..."
They'd likely feel lost for a while...
Jérémie cut through the sudden tension, "Sorry to bother you guys, but, uh, speaking of XANA, it seems to be drawing energy from all the Replikas again."
They all tensed up, and the boys rejoined Yumi in standing at attention. "Speak of the devil," Ulrich muttered.
"Is it you-know-who?" William asked.
"Yep," Jérémie replied. "It's our good friend, the Kolossus. No sign of the Clone yet, but regardless, you guys have some time before the big guy arrives."
They would be ready.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Aelita, Odd, how's it going?"
The two had just walked through a door, entering a walkway overlooking a vastly cavernous room. Odd noted that it was like the one back at the Siberian base, except the walls here were much darker than bright silver. That told him that XANA had built this base itself, using design elements from its other bases, including the factory.
But then they looked down, and their eyes nearly bugged out of their skulls in surprise at what they saw.
"Uh-oh," Odd replied. "It's a little too crowded in here!"
"What?!" Jérémie was alarmed. "You mean there are people here?!"
"No, not exactly," Aelita revealed. "Cyborgs."
They were humanoid and tall, measuring about two meters tall. They had no head, instead being integrated into their armored thorax, judging by their binocular vision (their 'eyes') being directly positioned on their torso. At the center of the shell, on the sternum, was the eye of XANA. The right arm ended in a mechanical, four-fingered hand, essentially used for grabbing things. The left arm, however, ended in a number of interchangeable telescopic tools, like swords, pincers, and a laser cannon, among others. They stood, and likely walked, on human-like legs.
Aelita, though, had chosen 'cyborg', because essentially looking like robots, they also possessed a number of biological elements, visible between the pieces of their armor. It reminded the two a lot of the Megatank interiors.
"And a lot of them!" Odd added. "All lined up like an army waiting for orders!"
And there was more than one. It was an army, as Odd said, filling up the room below the walkway they were standing on, leaving only a single straight line down the middle of the room to the door on the other side.
The sight was anxiety-inducing, because the implications were obvious.
"So that could be XANA's secret plan," Jérémie muttered, "to use an army of cyborgs to enslave all of mankind." He then warned, "Get to the supercomputer room as fast as you can. Don't linger."
"Wise choice," Odd agreed, before following Aelita across the catwalk.
He was tense, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when his cousin spoke in a whisper, "So this is why we found strange things in all the Replikas' bases."
"What?" the cat asked, confused. "These cyborgs are the pieces of the puzzle combined?"
"Yep," Aelita delved into an explanation of what she just realized. "The Forest Replika base was running experiments on combining technology with living beings."
"So those cybernetic spiders were...were...?" Odd couldn't finish that sentence.
"Yes, they were." Fortunately, Aelita finished it for him.
They were real spiders—that's what the end of that sentence was.
"Don't tell William," Odd quickly whispered. Said knight would very likely start freaking out.
"Oh, I don't plan to." Aelita chose to move on, "Moving on, the Mountain, Sector Five, and Desert Replika bases were all producing technology, whether for more experiments happening in other bases or for these cyborgs specifically, it doesn't matter. But at the Ice Replika base, you, William, and Ulrich said you had found disconnected brains."
"Yeah, it was really weird," Odd replied. "And gross."
"It gets weirder," his cousin continued. "Those brains are likely now inside these cyborgs. Their biological components are probably there to prevent them from getting hacked and thus removed from their original programming."
The cat wisely chose not to say anything. Everything made a lot more sense now.
By now, the two had reached the staircase on the other side of the catwalk. They walked down and emerged out onto the floor below, where the cyborg army awaited.
"Hi, guys," Odd nervously greeted the cyborgs as they walked past, he and Aelita being able to see their reflections in the shiny metal armor. "Not much for conversation, I see..."
They approached the door by climbing a short staircase, one they needed to go through in order to reach the supercomputer.
"Open up, Grandma! It's Little Red Riding Hood!" He glanced at his cousin, who was smiling in amusement. "Uh, Pink, that is."
"I'm working on the door," Jérémie cut in. "Now that XANA knows you two are here, it's changed all the door codes."
"Okay," Aelita replied. She was watching the army. "It's scary looking at all those cyborgs standing at attention." She then turned around to face the door.
"It sure is," Odd agreed. He then walked across the landing to look out at the army. "Hey!" he suddenly yelled out. "One of them just moved!"
Aelita quickly turned around, "Where?! Which one?!"
But her cousin was laughing at her reaction. "Will you relax? I was just kidding!" It was a joke.
Just a joke. So Aelita huffed in annoyance, "Dumbbell!" She turned back to face the door, arms folded, as Odd covered his mouth and giggled.
But then the cat frowned, "Hey, one of them just moved."
The angel refused to turn around. "Not funny this time, either."
"Only it's no joke this time!" he revealed, sounding genuinely concerned.
She finally turned back around, only to see that he was right. The eyes of the cyborgs had lit up, as had the eye of XANA on their bodies—all of them glowing a bright red. Each row moved in perfect sync as they marched forward, towards the two teens.
"Uh, Jérémie?" Odd spoke up, stepping in front of Aelita. "Tell us you've hacked the door, 'cause things are getting kinda urgent here!"
"Not yet."
The cyborgs marched towards the two teens, getting closer to the stairs. As they got close, they charged up their laser gun arms.
Odd brought up his shield, protecting himself and Aelita from the cyborgs' attacks.
"Hurry up, Jérémie!" Aelita exclaimed in a panic. "The cyborgs are firing at us!"
"I'm almost there!" he reported. "Hang on!"
The cyborgs kept advancing while shooting.
"Easy for you to say!" Odd retorted, stressed.
From behind the cat's shield, Aelita formed and threw an Energy Field. All the cyborgs at the front of the group started smoking and collapsed onto the floor. Odd dropped his shield, as the next wave of cyborgs continued marching.
"Got it!" Jérémie announced, as the light on the control panel changed from red to green.
The door opened, as Odd and Aelita both fired individual attacks at the cyborgs while still under fire.
"Odd, let's go!" the angel ordered.
The two ran through the door, as the cyborgs continued advancing. The army followed the teens as they ran through the hallway.
"Jérémie! It's a nightmare!" Aelita breathlessly exclaimed.
"Try to find the supercomputer!" said blonde replied. "I need to check up on the others real quick."
The two stopped at a corner. Odd grabbed Aelita's arm and pointed down a hallway, "This way!"
The cyborgs opened fire again as the two took the cat's shortcut.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Replika suddenly began to shake. Yumi, Ulrich, and William all felt the tremors begin to emit at regular intervals: BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
Ulrich pointed to something in the distance, "There it is!"
Indeed, at the other end of the plateau, the Kolossus appeared from behind a volcano. It was progressing slowly yet surely towards the tower to which the Skid was anchored.
"Try to slow him down," Jérémie said. "Here come your vehicles."
The three vehicles appeared in front of them. Ulrich and Yumi boarded their respective rides while William claimed the Overboard.
"We're on it!" Ulrich said, before the trio took off towards the monster.
As they made their way towards the best, the closer they got, the more they realized just how big this thing was.
"Wow, it's humongous..." William muttered.
The Kolossus suddenly began to stand up from its perch within the lava lake. Meanwhile, three smaller balls of volcanic rock leapt out from behind its neck, before all leaping at the three teens. Said teens, however, knew what they were.
"Volcanoids incoming!" Yumi exclaimed.
She received the first round of lasers in mid-jump, but she managed to dodge the shots in a careful slalom. She then went to attack them head-on, just barely avoiding a collision with them, before the monsters all split up.
They each took a Lyokowarrior. One landed on the ground and attacked Ulrich.
The samurai carefully dodged its lasers, "I feel a storm brewing!"
William used the Overboard to dodge sprays of lava from the one attacking him, before summoning his Zweihänder. He waited for it to leap at him again, and when it did, he flew down so that he passed underneath it, allowing him to slice the monster's underbelly. He flew away from the resulting explosion.
The Kolossus was still advancing towards the Skid tower.
On board her Overwing, Yumi circled around the giant, followed by the Volcanoid chasing her in an attempt to intercept her. Holding the handle with one hand, she threw a fan with the other. The fan curved around and hit its target, causing an explosion.
Yumi made a sharp dive to intercept her fan as it finished its arc. She caught it in mid-flight, but at the moment, she found herself not far from the Kolossus' right hand. It attempted to grab her.
She barely dodged the hand, but the wind caused by the monster's movement knocked her off balance. She cried out briefly as she attempted to recover, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she did.
Just in time to see the giant stumble a bit before regaining its own balance. Looking down, all three teens could see the Kolossus now ankle-deep in a lava lake. It seemed to choose to keep walking, instead of going around.
Ulrich drove across the volcanic pathway, followed by the last Volcanoid. It sprayed him with lasers, guiding him away from the Kolossus.
"Alright, I've had enough of this!" the samurai cried, before skidding the Overbike, feinting the Volcanoid and forcing it to run past him.
Doing a U-turn, he drove back towards the Kolossus. His gaze was drawn to a detail on the behemoth: a sign of XANA, imprinted on its sword arm.
"What is that thing?" he asked himself.
But the Volcanoid was back, trying to intercept him, bombarding him with lasers and spits of lava. Driving around the lava lake, Ulrich tried to shake it off.
Yumi came to a stop in front of the monster, "I've got you now!" She then threw a fan into the eye on the Kolossus' face. It was a direct hit.
"Nice one, Yumi!" William called out on the Overboard, as all the black markings on the giant's face glowed gold.
But then the gold dispersed into a burst of particles. The monster continued onwards through the lava lake as though nothing had happened.
"Huh?" Yumi exclaimed in surprise. "I don't get it! I was right on target! It should have been destroyed!"
Ulrich, however, pointed to the cluster of XANA eyes on its sword arm, "No, I saw another target on its arm! We'll have to hit both at the same time!"
"So it's possible," William said. "Not as simple as Aelita made it out to be, but possible."
The Kolossus kept wading through the lava. Yumi flew away.
Jérémie cut in, "I'm going to give you guys a hand."
"How do you plan to do that?!" Ulrich asked.
"I'm gonna launch the multi-agent program."
"But you said it wasn't finished!" William reminded the blonde. "Do you know if it will even work?!"
"You're right. It's not finished," Jérémie explained, "but it might immobilize the Kolossus long enough for Aelita and Odd to destroy the supercomputer."
A white wireframe then appeared over the lava lake, before a layer of volcanic rock took its place, going from rather thin to thick instantly. Said rock formed via hexagons, and when it solidified, the Kolossus was frozen in place.
The beast smashed the rock with its fist, doing a small amount of damage that repaired itself almost immediately. It looked around, unsure what to do.
The last remaining Volcanoid suddenly screeched, as if XANA was crying out in dismay.
Ulrich smiled at the result, "Looks like it's working, Jérémie. The Kolossus seems to be stuck."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The holomap was showing the Kolossus—still represented by a large red triangle—trapped in the now-solidified lava lake.
"Fantastic, Jérémie!" Yumi complimented, her small green triangle circling around the monster's head. "It worked!"
"You and Aelita have really outdone yourselves this time!" William added.
Jérémie smiled, a surge of pride swelling in his chest. They were right; it actually worked. And despite it being unfinished, it worked on the Kolossus. Once it was done, XANA didn't stand a chance.
The good mood was ruined by an interruption from the superscan. Oh, classic XANA, never change...
"Uh-oh!" he muttered. "Activated tower in the Mountain Sector!"
All good feelings that were present just a moment ago were now gone just like that. They quickly were replaced with anxiety and panic. Why couldn't it have been a tower on the Volcano Replika? At least then they would know that it was a counter-attack on Aelita and Odd.
But the cyborgs had been activated without the use of a tower. Why? Because XANA had built that base itself, for itself.
With towers on the real Lyoko, there was no way to know for sure what XANA's goal was. Amidst their Volcano Replika exploration, it could be anything.
"Go on, Jérémie!" Aelita's voice cut through his thoughts. "We can handle things without you!"
"Yeah, the tower's more important!" Ulrich added. "That's why you're at the controls, aren't you?"
It was. "Yeah..." the young genius muttered. He then made his choice, beginning to type in the self-virtualization commands. "Okay. Good luck, guys. And Aelita, you can hack the doors yourself with your Digital Code. It might be faster, actually."
"Noted!" she replied. "Now, hurry! Before anybody gets hurt!"
He'd try his best.
Typing in rapid commands, Jérémie selected the Mountain Sector and typed in a set of coordinates not far from the tower. He then brought up his ID and a timer, before pressing 'enter', which started the countdown from sixty seconds. He raced down to the scanner room using the side ladder, and made it with fifteen seconds to spare.
The scanner doors closed on him, and the cabin filled up with light. One gust of wind later, he felt his body depixelize and then reform mid-air in the Mountain Sector. However, the moment he landed, his visor alerted him to a change in his digital profile.
'Warning: Devirtualization Unavailable'
Jérémie was frozen in place as he realized that XANA had trapped him once again. It had used his determination to protect others against him by sabotaging his profile—a card the AI had played before. Now, without a solid connection back to the scanners, Jérémie faced permanent deletion just like he did for a good majority of this war with XANA. This was bringing up so many memories of the times where he barely made it into a tower, with very few lifepoints left. Would he be so lucky this time?
The elf managed to regain control of himself and quickly hid behind a large rock as he studied what was waiting for him at the tower. Sure enough, he had a welcoming committee. Seeing it, he began to wish that he had kept someone in the lab with him, that he had some back-up right now.
Because that was XANA's plan: divide and conquer. It had taken advantage of the others focusing on the Volcano Replika. Its hope was clearly that Michel and Sophie would step in before Jérémie's data could be completely lost. No matter what the AI had to do, it wanted to destroy its creators, and it knew perfectly well that their one shared weakness was their son.
In this case, it would be killing two birds with one stone. And if the Kolossus destroyed the Skid with the others still Translated and/or virtualized, then three.
Jérémie had no choice now. His only way out of this mess was deactivating the tower. Doing so would release XANA's hold on his profile (which it needed to activate a tower in order to access). He had to do this. And he could. He had reached the tower by himself, without any weapons, before.
He was just wishing that there weren't five Megatanks to face first...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Aelita entered a room that seemed to be an office space. It was a large room filled with desks, on which rested old computers. Maybe XANA didn't actually build this facility from scratch, after all. Maybe it was a working facility that XANA just took over and then remodeled.
On the other side of the room was a set of double doors. Given how it was the only other exit in this room, the supercomputer had to be on the other side of it. The two teens raced up to the door, only to see the red light on the door panel: it was locked.
"Hurry, 'Lita!" Odd turned around as the cyborgs came into view from the hallway the duo just emerged from. "Open the door! We've got an emergency here!"
"Hang on!" the angel snapped back, stressed. "I'm doing my best!"
Odd said nothing in response, only reforming his shield just as the cyborgs started firing at them again.
Meanwhile, Aelita gently pressed her hand to the door panel, closing her eyes to concentrate. Thanks to her Digital Code, she succeeded in unlocking the door. She smiled at her mini-victory as it opened, revealing a supercomputer inside.
"Open sesame!" she said. "Come on, Odd!"
Her cousin was still defending them both with his shield, as the cyborgs continued to fire at them.
"No, I'll hold them off!" he told her. "Go on and destroy the supercomputer! We're counting on you!"
He was right. These cyborgs could easily bust down the door, and since this was XANA's personally overseen facility, the AI could just hack the door code and change it to let the army inside. They had to split up; it was the safest move they could make here.
So she nodded, though filled with sadness, before running into the supercomputer room. The door closed and locked behind her—her own doing—as Odd dropped his shield.
The cat jumped down the stairs and shot multiple Arrows at the cyborgs, knocking several of them down.
Aelita, now standing in front of the supercomputer, studied it for a moment, before forming two Energy Fields and combining them into one large one. It was a direct hit, but like earlier with the Kolossus and Yumi, the supercomputer flickered for a short moment before resuming its running like nothing had happened.
The angel blinked in surprise, "It didn't work?" She should have figured. It made sense for the supercomputer powering XANA's new home to be so heavily protected.
So then...what would it take? What did she have to do?
There was a terminal in front of her. She lowered her gaze into a determined one, and began digging through the database. The answer had to be somewhere, and this was its most probable location.
Outside, Odd remained unaware of what his cousin was doing. He was more focused on the cyborgs that were continuing to march towards him. They walked around the pile of dead ones in the middle of the floor.
He shot several more Arrows, "Hey, uglies! Not so stainless now, are you?"
All cyborgs currently in the hallway were taken out, but more arrived to take their place. The new wave opened fire as well.
"Hey! Don't invite all your pals!" Odd exclaimed. "I can't entertain everybody!"
He tried to avoid them all, but he ended up getting hit by several lasers. His cry was cut off when he disappeared in a quick flash.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd reappeared inside his Navskid, unconscious.
Meanwhile, the action outside continued. Yumi and William both flew around above the Kolossus, watching it carefully, as Ulrich and the remaining Volcanoid squared off.
There was a sudden loud crack, and the three all glanced down in time to see the Kolossus pressing down on the rock trapping it in the lava lake with its fist. It pushed up with its body, and the rock around its waist shattered before the entire layer of rock over the lava lake disappeared.
"Guys, the Kolossus is breaking free!" Yumi warned the others.
"We can see that!" Ulrich called back, from down below.
"Remember, the multi-agent system isn't finished," William reminded them. "It doesn't have enough power to keep the Kolossus there."
Not paying attention to where she was going, Yumi flew straight into the Kolossus' sword arm, being devirtualized before she could cry out in pain or in simple surprise.
She reappeared in a scanner back on Earth, leaning heavily against the scanner wall.
"Ow, Mr. Kolossus," she snarked. "That hurt."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
But Yumi could still be useful. Remembering the activated tower, the controls were currently unattended. She made her way up to the lab and sat down in the chair. Seeing Jérémie still scanned into the system, she slipped in the earpiece.
"Jérémie?" she called out. "I'm in the lab now. How are you doing?"
"Badly!" he cried out, to her surprise.
Looking at the holomap, she finally noticed his position. He was hiding behind a rock as five Megatanks converged on him. With a stroke of luck, she managed to catch the exact moment the specialized Clone appeared, in its Yumi mask no less (now that the real one was devirtualized).
"I can't devirtualize right now, Yumi!" he continued, urgency staining his voice. "XANA's attack with the tower was sabotaging my profile!"
Meaning, he was back to essentially being trapped on Lyoko, just like how he was when missing that fragment of his. The AI had pulled this trick on them before, but in that case, Jérémie had bodyguards in the forms of Yumi herself, Ulrich, and Odd. Right now, he was all alone.
"If my ID didn't have an hour-long cooldown," she replied, "I'd send myself over to help you. I don't want you to wait, though. With access to your profile, XANA could sabotage other things too!"
Then, Yumi paused as a sudden thought came to mind. Jérémie didn't know who they were, but the others had agreed to only let them meet in case of an emergency, or XANA was defeated; whichever came first. And right now, that was an emergency.
Making an executive decision that she'd apologize later for, Yumi began typing. "Hang in there, Jérémie. I have a plan to help you, but it will take some time to set up."
She brought up an ID card within the calling program...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita continued to dig for more information at the terminal, when she heard the door behind her open. She turned around in time to spot the cyborgs now forcing their way into the room, to get to her. She growled in frustration, readying an Energy Field in either hand.
She was so close! Just a few more seconds and she'd find exactly what she was looking for!
She threw both Energy Fields at the cyborgs as they started entering the room. This attack knocked out the first wave long enough for her to turn back to the terminal and finish her search. She pressed 'enter', sending the data she found back to the supercomputer.
The angel then turned back to the door, just as the next wave of cyborgs arrived. "Too late, XANA!" she taunted, as she formed two more Energy Fields.
However, before she could throw them, she was shot several times.
"Nooo!" she cried, dismayed, as her image disappeared from the army's view.
Fortunately for XANA, this supercomputer remained standing for another day...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie's rock cover was destroyed by a Megatank laser. He stared sadly at the rock shards, before glancing up in fear at the five Megatanks closing in on him, while the Clone stood at the base of the tower, using Yumi's face to watch with a victorious smirk.
The elf began to slowly back away, well aware that the edge of the platform was just a few steps away. He was afraid to use his powers in case XANA had made it so that using said abilities would require lifepoints to do so. He had no confirmation of that, but Yumi's warning earlier was running through his mind.
But he had to try.
He was in the middle of forming a simple dagger when he heard something spinning through the air, and he looked up in time to see a green-colored double-headed spear stab the center-most Megatank in its eye. He covered his face to protect himself from the resulting explosion, before glancing up and catching the moment a girl with a green-colored avatar landed in front of him.
As said girl grabbed her weapon from the ground and stared down the remaining four Megatanks, Jérémie studied her. The girl was a bit taller than him, with long black hair. She wore a silver headdress with wings on either side, with the rest of her outfit an upgraded version of a Valkyrie's armor, one that matched his and the others'.
Knowing this, he remembered his friends revealing to him the existence of a secret seventh member, one whose job it was to dissuade other people from pursuing the secrets of the group and of the factory. He also remembered them reassuring him that he'd meet them one day, likely when there was no choice, as in: an emergency. Well, he'd certainly classify this current situation as an emergency.
There was no need to fear this girl, whoever she was. According to the others, she was their friend, someone they saw every day and were on good terms with. He racked his brain, and found only one person within his memories of Kadic who fit the profile.
"Sissi...?"
She turned around with a bright smile, "Hey, Jérémie. Sorry, I'm late. I wasn't expecting Yumi's call." With a simple flick of her wrist, her spear lost both blades and turned into a bo-staff.
"Yeah, sorry to call you here so late at night," Yumi's voice sounded from the lab. "Now, focus. Now that it sees you, Sissi, the Clone's headed straight for you."
Sissi and Jérémie both turned to the tower, and quickly found that Yumi was right. The Clone, still in its Yumi mask, was running towards them. And it was angry.
Because XANA wasn't counting on Jérémie having back-up—the elf knew. But his heart was bursting at the seams with hope. Thanks to Yumi and Sissi, he had a chance to reach the tower now.
He turned to Sissi, just as she turned to him. "Let's go."
"Right!" she replied. "Head for the tower!"
He nodded, before taking off towards his objective in a sprint. Behind him, Sissi readied her bo-staff.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
As Aelita was out cold within the main cockpit, the Kolossus was now on dry land and it was back on track, heading straight for the Skid as it remained docked at the tower. It slowly made its way up the ramp to said tower.
Down below, a spit of lava from the last Volcanoid took out the Overbike. Ulrich jumped to avoid it, brandishing both katanas. He blocked a couple of lasers before Sprinting towards his opponent.
"Triangulate!"
The Volcanoid was surrounded by a triangle of yellow light, with three Ulrichs at each point. It paused, glancing around, as if wondering what to do. However, before the real Ulrich could Sprint at it, the monster shot at him, devirtualizing him. Once he was gone, his two clones disappeared as well.
It was then promptly taken out from behind by William's energy slash. The knight ran past the explosion, before assuming his ball of light form. Using it, he quickly traveled up the ramp in order to beat the Kolossus to the tower. While he managed to succeed, he was taken out from behind by a laser the moment he reassumed his human form.
Out from behind the tower flew the Black Manta.
The lone monster glanced back at the Kolossus, which was continuing to make its way up the ramp. The Manta then turned back to the Skid and charged up its laser.
However, its eye was hit from behind by a Laser Arrow before it could fire. It exploded.
Odd emerged from behind a nearby rock and smirked, "Too bad, XANA. Better luck next time!"
Thank goodness he had woken up in time to see Ulrich and William both get taken out. Now, he just needed to wake Aelita up and they could get out of here. Maybe if they got back in time, they could help Jérémie.
Except his hopes were dashed when the loud thuds of the Kolossus' footsteps increased in volume and the ground shook. He glanced at the ramp nearby only to see that the giant's head had just peaked out from the edge of the platform.
Oh no! He was too late! The heap was already near the Skid! He began to panic. Aelita was still inside!
He ran up to the tower. "Aelita! Aelita, wake up!"
No, no, no, no, no! This couldn't be! His vision was about to come true!
A shadow suddenly loomed over him, over the place where he was standing. Odd turned around, and his eyes opened wide and dumbfounded at what the shadow belonged to. The Kolossus raised what constituted as its foot above him.
"Noo! AELITA, WAKE UP!" he cried out, as he was stepped on, and thus devirtualized.
The behemoth was now one step away from the Skid, and it slowly turned towards the defenseless ship...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi blocked a Megatank laser with her bo-staff. The force was pushing her towards the edge, and upon seeing this, she stepped to the side and let the laser go past her. She immediately then ran towards it, while its shell was still open thanks to using its laser, and turned her staff into a single-headed spear. She stabbed its eye, and jumped back to avoid the resulting explosion.
The Valkyrie was quickly sandwiched on either side by two more Megatanks. She waited as both shells opened and both lasers began charging. When both fired, she leapt to the side and let each laser hit the opposite Megatank, leading them to taking each other out.
She smiled at her victory until the last Megatank came rolling up behind her.
As Jérémie headed towards the tower, he fought the urge to watch her. She had clearly been training with the others, learning out to fight and build up her stamina both on Earth and on Lyoko. All somehow without his knowledge. He was proud of her.
But he chose to focus on the tower.
The only caveat to leaving XANA's welcoming committee to Sissi was, of course, the Clone. The elf stopped in his tracks, as the Clone stood in his way, its hands on its hips and a smirk on its face.
It paused for a moment before throwing both of Yumi's fans.
Jérémie ducked to avoid them, before firing a flurry of energy arrows.
The Clone blocked said attack with Odd's shield, before morphing in an orange flash into its William mask. It then fired an energy slash at him, and in an attempt to dodge it, Jérémie was forced back to the edge.
He briefly glanced back at the Digital Sea below him, before turning back to the Clone just as it assumed its Ulrich mask. Both katanas were promptly pointed at the elf's neck. "It's over..."
"I don't think so, handsome!"
The two were interrupted by Sissi suddenly picking up the last Megatank like it was nothing to her before throwing it at the Clone. Jérémie managed to jump back as the Clone was run over by said Megatank.
The monster fell over the edge, its deletion signaled by a spiraling white light.
But the Clone was a different story. Sissi and Jérémie watched as red pixels disappeared from its avatar, leaving behind only a red wireframe. It then began glitching before exploding, signaling its defeat.
Jérémie breathed a sigh of relief—the Clone had been destroyed. He turned to his new (in his perspective, at least) ally, "Thank you, Sissi. You were great."
If one could blush on Lyoko, she would be here, "Thank you. The passage is clear now. Your tower is served, with compliments of the chef." She ended that with a playful wink.
He chuckled, before making one last break for the tower.
But he didn't see the Kankrelat emerge from behind a nearby rock, the moment his back was turned. Sissi did, and she was quick to stab its eye with her staff in double-bladed mode. She twirled her staff in her hand like a baton, lifting the Kankrelat into the air, where it safely exploded.
The cheerleader in her had clearly influenced that move. And she was glad that she was fast enough. Yumi had told her about XANA's attack, and she knew that Jérémie's safety was the group's top priority.
Sissi smiled as she saw Jérémie enter the tower at a sprint.
Inside the tower, the elf ascended to the second platform, where the interface awaited him. He logged in with his handprint.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
LYOKO_
And he breathed a sigh of relief when he felt XANA lose its hold over his profile. Crisis averted.
He could only hope the others were doing okay...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita slowly woke up, being jostled around when the Kolossus took a step.
"Aelita!" Yumi suddenly cut in, sounding panicked. "Get out of there! Now!"
The angel opened her eyes, waking up completely thanks to her friend's voice. Her eyes widened, however, and she gasped, "Oh no!", when she saw the Kolossus.
It swung back its sword arm, before smacking at the Skid, forcefully detaching it from the tower (as the green halo was immediately lost). All at once, the windscreen cracked, electricity flew from wires in the cockpit, and the lights started flickering.
Aelita cried out as more windscreen cracks and electricity appeared. The lights turned to red emergency lights as she was tossed out of her seat and onto the control panel. She thanked the Périns for making pain unable to be felt while virtual.
The Skid hit the ground and slid along it in a show of sparks, fire, and smoke. One of the Navskids immediately disconnected and bounced alongside the Skid. The ship came to a stop teetering over the edge of the platform. The detached Navskid went flying off the edge and landed in the lava-like Digital Sea below, with a column of light erupting from the water soon after.
She sat back in her seat and held her head. The cockpit shifted and she looked up, just before the whole thing tilted dramatically.
"AELITA! NOOO!" Yumi cried out.
Said pink-ette screamed as the Skid tumbled off the platform. Another Navskid disconnected as the turbo-propeller crackled with blue electricity before exploding into flames. The Skid left a thick trail of smoke as it fell towards the Digital Sea.
It exploded on impact with the water. The Navskid fell in soon after and another column of light signaled its deletion...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A scanner opened, and Odd, William, and Ulrich all waited intently for the smoke to clear. A pink-haired girl came stumbling out of the scanner and they all breathed heavy sighs of relief.
Odd immediately ran up and engulfed her in a tight hug, "Aelita! Thank goodness! I'd never been so scared in my life!"
Yumi was climbing down the side ladder, her facial expression one of fear.
"It's okay, Yumes," Ulrich calmly reassured her. "Aelita's still here with us."
The elder girl also cracked a relieved smile, "Oh, good!"
"Lucky for me," Aelita added, "I was devirtualized just before the Skid was totally destroyed."
Two scanners had their doors close and heat up, before opening. They revealed a worried Jérémie and a Sissi in her pajamas.
"Aelita!" the young genius's eyes lit up the moment he saw the pink-ette. He ran up to her and joined in on Odd's hug. "Yumi told us about the Skid."
"Specifically that you were still inside," Sissi added. "You okay?"
The pink-ette shot her a smile, "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. And thank you for helping Jérémie." Sissi nodded, and Aelita's smile faded into a frown, "I'm sorry that the Volcano Replika is still standing. I tried destroying the supercomputer, but apparently, getting rid of it is not that simple. But I know how."
"How?" William asked. "Take out a force field or something?"
"Or a giant lava monster like a boss fight in a video game?" Odd suggested.
"No," Aelita replied. "Taking out the Volcano Replika is indeed how we can destroy XANA once and for all, and right now, it's our best option. According to the data I sent to our end before I was De-translated, we have to insert the finished multi-agent program directly into the Replika's central tower."
"The 'central tower'?" Yumi asked.
"The tower we were moored to," Aelita revealed. "If that tower takes even one point of damage, the data states that it causes XANA pain. That's why the Kolossus didn't touch that tower when taking out the Skid. It's XANA's core. Since we took it over, XANA couldn't go all out like it wanted to."
"So to destroy XANA," Ulrich said, "we have to go back to the Volcano Replika. But..."
"But there's only one issue," Yumi finished.
The sense of hope was quickly fading.
"The Skid was just destroyed..." Odd whispered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The next morning, Jérémie approached Patrick as the elder stood on the steps of the administrative building. The brunette immediately took notice.
"Hey, Jérémie," he greeted the other. "Have you decided?"
"Yes," the blonde replied, his hands fiddling with each other behind his back. "I've decided to take the chance." He had a plan in place, and his friends were backing him. "You're my family, Patrick, which means your parents are my family too. You're right; they do deserve to know."
Patrick smiled, before it faltered. "You sure? You're trembling."
It was miniscule, so Jérémie was surprised that the elder had noticed it. "I'm fine." He was; it wasn't about this, but about XANA. "For now..."
He had a gut feeling that the tragedy was yet to come. That it wasn't the Skid they were supposed to be mourning. And he couldn't get rid of it...
The brunette gently nudged the blonde's side in an effort to cheer up. And Jérémie pretended that it worked for his cousin's sake.
Perfect timing, as a white car pulled up to the curb, and out stepped a man who looked very similar to Michel, only with darker brunette hair, and a woman with short red hair, with a beauty mark just like Patrick's. Arthur and Éloïse...
Jérémie took a deep breath to keep himself from panicking. He watched as the two raced up to their son and wrapped him in a hug, while trying to also make sure that his staring was respectful. Meanwhile, the two kept stealing glances at him. His intuition was right; they did recognize his face.
"Patty dear!" Éloïse exclaimed with a bright smile. "We're so glad to see you again!"
Judging by the look on Patrick's face, he really didn't like the nickname. But it was his mother, so he had to keep letting her call him that to keep her happy.
"How has your first week here been?" Arthur asked.
"Oh, it's been great!" Patrick replied. "I feel like I fit in here, and the art teacher, Mr. Chardin, has started pointing me to the universities that teach architecture."
"That's great," Éloïse replied. "Have you made any friends yet?"
"Yes, actually, I have. And to be honest, there's one boy in particular I'm so close to that I feel like we're already family." The answer left his cousin so seamlessly that Jérémie felt like crying happy tears. Patrick turned the blonde beside him, who was struggling not to cry. "This is Jérémie."
Jérémie forced himself to glance up at the two adults through the tears beginning to pool in his eyes. "Hello." He forced himself to maintain contact. He wanted more than anything to hug them out of happiness. They were family.
"Hey," Arthur offered a half-into-it wave. He sounded almost lost in thought. "Forgive us if we're wrong, but...have we met before?"
"Jérémie Périn is dead," was how the blonde answered. "Legally. Given that he was terminally ill with a brain tumor when he disappeared approximately twelve years ago, the authorities have given up on him. They still hold out hope for his parents, but the boy has been declared deceased. And to be honest," the tears grew in volume, "it's a blessing in disguise. How I survived is supposed to be a secret."
Éloïse was tense. "How do you know about his tumor? Or about that name? Did Patrick tell you?"
"No," Jérémie replied.
"It was actually the other way around," Patrick cut in.
"Patrick and I first met because Jim saw that we had the same surname," the young genius continued, "so he thought that we could at least be friends. And Patrick had the same reaction as you do now. Yes, I am exactly who you think I am, and I can prove it."
Arthur was getting emotional, while Éloïse didn't hesitate in wrapping him in a tight hug, "Jérémie, it's so good to see you again! We thought something had happened to you guys!"
The tears were falling down his cheeks, "Well, something did happen, but it's a long story."
"We've got all day, Blueberry," Arthur reassured him.
Blueberry—Jérémie remembered that now. It was Arthur and Éloïse's nickname for him, because his favorite color was blue. Recalling this memory just made the tears fall harder as returned his aunt's embrace.
Not far away, the other six Lyokowarriors (Sissi included) were watching the family's interactions with Jérémie.
"You think he can live a normal life after all he's been through?" Yumi softly asked, referring to their blonde friend in blue.
"I hope so," Aelita replied. "But before that can happen, we need to take out XANA once and for all." She owed him that; she had made a promise, after all.
"I don't think we can hold on for who-knows-how-many months, Aelita, while you and Jérémie build a new Skid," Ulrich said. "We can't reach the Volcano Replika without it, but we can't afford to give so much time and ground to XANA."
"Don't forget that XANA also lost one of its most dangerous weapons, too," William cut in. "Thanks to Sissi, the Clone has been destroyed."
Sissi just shrugged.
"What about those cyborgs?" Odd asked, worried. "I get the feeling that they're just the advance guard, the tip of the iceberg..."
"All of that is why the only hope we have now," Aelita cut in, "is the multi-agent program. Finishing it will take a lot less time than rebuilding the Skid."
"But how are we going to travel back to the Volcano Replika without the Skid?" Sissi asked.
"I've decided to ask Michel and Sophie for help," the pink-ette revealed. "I know it's dangerous because XANA wants them dead, but we don't have a choice. The fate of humanity is at risk."
The six kept their eyes on a tearful, happy Jérémie as he explained the story to his family. The calm before the storm, and they were hoping it would last long after Arthur and Éloïse left later...
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 67 - Sacrifices / As Aelita continues to work on the multi-agent system, Jérémie has a premonition of his parents being killed by XANA.
A/N: Lots of deleted scenes were added back in here, mostly because they made more sense than the material in the episode script. One of these deleted scenes is the description of the robots, which I feel puts all the pieces of XANA's plan using the Replikas together better than the canon description. They probably changed it because the canon version was less disturbing; that or it was easier to animate, maybe both.
Yes, you get to see what Sissi's avatar is; you're welcome. She's a Valkyrie, with a bo-staff as her weapon (like Evo's Yumi; it can turn into a spear, single and double-ended), and super strength as her power. If you want to see what she looks like, I have a reference for her up on my DeviantArt page (same penname as here).
To refresh your memory on the incident mentioned with William's parents, re-read Chapter 59: "An Eye For An Eye". The activated tower in the Mountain Sector is from canon's "False Lead". And yes, Odd still has Future Flash. I haven't forgotten about it.