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
It's the final stretch now, not just of the season but also of the story itself. And like I said before, more wrenches will be thrown into the plot here.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"A boy named Patrick Belpois comes to Kadic, and his arrival leads to the breakdown of the group's lies on Jérémie's behalf."
Episode 64: Cousins Once Removed
(Based on Wrong Exposure & Cousins Once Removed)
Aelita would never feel comfortable searching the Hermitage by herself. It felt like an invasion of the Périns' privacy, especially since Jérémie was still alive and remembered living there. So she always made sure that she had Jérémie with her whenever she went there.
The two approached the front gate, as Jérémie asked her, "Are you sure we'll find something useful in my parents' house? We've already got everything that seemed important."
"We left everything behind that we thought was useless," Aelita told him, "and that was our mistake. I mean, we did find your parents' notes thanks to your dreams of Mister Pück leading you here to the storybook that gave you the hint as to where the key was. A storybook, Jérémie."
Jérémie chuckled in response, "It's just as I thought: you're really desperate." After all, those dreams came to him during his first two months post-materialization, when he had no idea who he was before. They were likely there to lead him in the right direction.
"It's just that," she replied, "well, I don't want to leave anything to chance when it comes to fighting XANA."
That was fair. So he shrugged, "If you insist."
He led her to the front door, and opened it. He barely managed to hide his wave of sorrow from her upon seeing how abandoned the place still looked (she saw it anyway). He'd never get over it; it just reminded him of how alone he was.
He took a quick breath to steady his nerves, "Well, where should we start?"
"Try upstairs," the pink-ette replied. "I'll look downstairs."
He nodded, and the two went their separate ways. Aelita chose Michel's study first.
Meanwhile, Jérémie went upstairs and found himself approaching his parents' bedroom. He stopped just inside the doorway. He softly gasped as a brief image flashed over his vision, showing him what this room looked like before it was abandoned. This room and his own were the two places in this house that were still painful for him to visit.
Unable to stop himself, his subconscious took over and led him to a nearby shelf. On it were a few books and a photo album. He reached for the photo album.
No!, he berated himself. You should be looking for ways to help the others fight against XANA! Not reminiscing!
But he couldn't help it.
Downstairs in the study, Aelita was looking at a history book on the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. Skimming through the book, she didn't find anything that jumped out at her concerning Lyoko or XANA. She shook out the book to see if any loose pieces of paper fell out, but none did. Oh well, she thought as she put the book back on the shelf.
"Aelita?" Jérémie called to her as she was reaching for the next book.
He needed her. Knowing this, she abandoned her mission and practically ran up the stairs, fearing the worst (knowing XANA, it was unsafe to assume anything else).
She found him in his parents' room, sitting criss-cross on their bed. In front of him was a photo album, and in his hands was a photograph. He was unharmed, thankfully. The only thing she found out of place was an expression of sad recollection on his face.
"You find something?" she asked.
"Yeah...my former life..." he trailed off.
"What is it?" she asked, curious.
"Nothing, just a picture of...of my parents holding me as a baby..."
"A baby?" she smiled, as she took a seat next to him. "That's so cool that you found it! Can I see it?"
He handed the photo to her, allowing her a better look at it. Like he said, it was a photograph taken in the Hermitage's study, with a bookshelf and a chalkboard behind them, and Michel and Sophie holding their infant son as the focus.
"You all look so happy..." Aelita noted. Michel and Sophie, despite both looking exhausted, were especially so. Despite the hard work involved with taking care of a baby, neither looked like they'd rather be anywhere else.
"We were," Jérémie replied. "And this is just proof that Hervé's mistaken about me being an AI."
It was also proof that Jérémie's parents loved him.
A silence fell over them as Aelita looked back at the photo. She held it up close to squint at something. "Hold on...what's that there...behind your parents?" There was something written on the chalkboard.
She felt Jérémie look at the photo over her shoulder. "It looks like...formulas of some kind..."
"They are!" she exclaimed, a smile on her face. "I can read some of them! It's a rough draft of a programming code! We have to blow up this photo!"
"Woah, hang on!" Jérémie shot her amused smile. "There's a one-in-a-billion chance that those formulas have something to do with the supercomputer!"
"Maybe not," she replied, "but I love challenging the law of probability. Besides, we know that Sophie's initial intentions for the supercomputer were not of Lyoko." Right. She originally built it for a company that let her go because 'she was a woman'. "You also said I was desperate, right? So what do we have to lose?"
Jérémie couldn't deny that, so he didn't.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Back at Kadic, the Einsteins' friends were having lunch. Ulrich, Yumi, and William were watching Odd eat his mashed potatoes, concerned.
"Odd," Yumi said, "you only took two rounds of Shepherd's pie today. Are you sick?"
Odd swallowed his mouthful, "No, I'm okay." No, he wasn't. He sounded rather down.
"Is this, by any chance, about Sam?" Ulrich asked, already knowing the answer.
"It's incredible!" Odd glanced over at Sam, who was sitting at another table, chatting away with her roommate Emilie Leduc. "I want to talk to her about us becoming official, but she's never available long enough. I need something that draws her attention to me!"
"Have you tried high heels?" Ulrich quipped with a grin.
Odd stood up and leaned forward, annoyed, "You wanna try wearing today's lunch?!"
"Relax, Odd," William stepped in here. "Let the moment come by itself. There's no need to rush things. The talk will happen when it happens."
Odd sat back down again, his arms folded in annoyance.
"He's right," Yumi agreed, as Jérémie joined them with his tray of food, sitting down at the head of the table. "Hey, Jer! So, did you leave Aelita behind at the Hermitage?"
"Very funny," the blonde genius replied. "No, she's in her room. She said we could have her portion."
"Guess that means you struck gold while you were there," Ulrich commented.
"She seems to think so," Jérémie said. "Apparently, there may be something useful in an old picture we found."
"Really?" William asked. "What does she think she's found?"
"A programming formula," the blonde answered. "I personally question its usefulness, but if Aelita is able to find something in it, then it's good news for us. I plan to check up on her after lunch." Because despite his skepticism, he was interested in what that formula said.
"We'll go with you," Yumi immediately told him.
He responded with a quick smile.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita opened the photo up on her computer. She zoomed in on the chalkboard and used a filter to enhance the various formulae that had been rubbed off.
"I was right! It is a program!" she exclaimed, before typing away.
A few minutes later, she was burning the now-finished program on a CD, when there was a knock at her door.
"Come in!"
Her door opened and in stepped her friends, led by her cousin.
"Hey, Superstar!" Odd greeted, as William closed the door once they were all inside the room. "Jérémie said you found something in a picture."
The CD ejected from her computer, the program fully loaded. As she put it in a CD case, she replied, "I did. It's just a reinitialization program, something to reboot the supercomputer if it ever needs to be. Nothing groundbreaking, but it could come in handy one day."
"It's nice to have something like that in our back pocket," William commented.
"It is," Aelita replied, handing the photo back to Jérémie. "But we'd better keep the photograph a secret. The last thing we need is a picture of Jérémie with his parents to fall into the wrong hands."
There was a sudden pounding on the door that made them jump out of their skin. "Belpois! Are you in there?!" It was Jim.
Jérémie hid the photograph behind his back as he opened the door. "Yes, Jim?" He blinked in surprise. "Um...who is this?"
Beside Jim stood a boy as tall as William. He had brunette hair gelled up, brown eyes, and very light skin. He wore jeans and a black biker jacket. His hands were in his pocket, and despite his outfit, he had a kind smile on his face.
"Patrick Belpois," the boy replied. "It's nice to meet you." He stuck out his hand.
Jérémie accepted the offer and shook his hand, knowing it would be rude if he didn't. Patrick here had the same surname as he did—surely that was just a coincidence.
Well, it would be if Jérémie didn't have a lingering feeling that he had seen this boy before somewhere...
"Jérémie, this is Patrick," Jim said. "Patrick, this is Jérémie. You two will be temporary roommates until we can prepare a dorm for Patrick."
Wait, what?! 'Temporary roommates'?! There had to be a mistake! What about hiding the secret of XANA and the supercomputer?!
Relax, Jérémie, he told himself, it's just temporary.
Jérémie didn't know how he managed to keep up his poker face. "Okay." He turned to Patrick, "Shall I take you to our room then?"
"Good idea," Jim cut in, a proud smile on his face. "I have a feeling the two of you will be good friends. It would do you some good, too, Belpois, to make friends other than the ones you have now."
Jim was right. Jérémie was an introvert, after all. He's always found it hard to make friends. Easy to keep, but difficult to find.
Jérémie shot Patrick an uneasy smile as he led the brunette to their newly-shared dorm. Behind him, he heard Jim tell the others, "Speaking of whom, don't you five have classes to get ready for?"
"Well, yeah,"Ulrich said, "but we were hoping to meet Patrick for ourselves."
"You can do that later," Jim replied. And that was that.
Frick. He was hoping the others would be there to help him. Right now, he needed them with him more than ever.
Because he couldn't help but think that he'd met Patrick from somewhere before...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie unlocked his door and led Patrick inside, somewhat conscience of the poster of Albert Einstein's silly face over his bed.
Patrick set his suitcase down beside the cot Jim had set up for him earlier. "I take it you're the nerd in your friend group."
"Y-You could say that," the blonde replied, as he put the photo away in his science notebook, as discreetly as he could. "But I don't really care. They're really nice. I'm sure you'll like them."
His back was to the brunette, but he could tell that Patrick was looking around and looking for something to say. Anything. "Um, it's Jérémie, right?"
"Yeah."
"Look, Jérémie, I'm sorry that I'm being so awkward." Jérémie turned around to see Patrick scratching the back of his neck nervously. "I just feel like I've met you before."
A jolt suddenly ran down the blonde's spine. Patrick found him familiar too. But the memories were too unclear for them to have this conversation now.
So Jérémie chose to shrug him off, "I doubt it," complete with a forced smile. "I'm sure you've just mistaken me for someone else."
"Right," Patrick replied. "Sorry. Anyway, thank you for letting me stay here until I get my own room. Uh, you can rejoin your friends. I can unpack by myself."
"It's no problem," Jérémie said. "I'll be in the courtyard if you need me." He then left the room, hoping that Patrick wouldn't think to question the photo he was hiding.
Once the blonde was gone, however, Patrick crossed over to the desk, where Jérémie's science notebook was. He carefully took out the photograph, as if he was handling a very fragile cup made of glass. The moment he saw it, he knew he wasn't mistaken.
But then why did Jérémie act like they hadn't met before? Did he have amnesia or something? And why did he look like he hadn't aged a day? If memory served Patrick right, then Jérémie should be a decade older than he looked now, right?
"Look who the cat dragged in," came a nasally voice from the propped-open doorway. Patrick turned his head to see a boy with black hair, acne on his face, and glasses. "What did Belpois do to deserve a roommate?"
"Patrick Belpois," the brunette said. "And it's just temporary until a separate dorm opens up for me."
"Hervé Pichon. And 'Belpois', huh?" Hervé asked. "You Jérémie's long-lost cousin or something?"
"I-I don't know..." Patrick found himself stuttering. "But I've seen this photo before."
"What photo?" Hervé entered the room and began to look at said picture over his shoulder. "Huh, that's interesting. Jérémie's an orphan; he's not supposed to know who his parents are. So who sent him this?"
That confused Patrick. If he wasn't mistaken, Jérémie wasn't an orphan at all. "I swear I have a copy of this exact photo at home in Reims. He looks just like my older cousin..."
Unseen by Patrick, Hervé smirked. This was his chance. "I think Mr. Delmas needs to be notified of this."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"I cannot believe this!" Mr. Delmas muttered, looking at the photo. He, Hervé, and Patrick were in the man's office, having just been told by Patrick what the deal with the photograph was."I had no idea that Michel Périn had family connections with Jérémie Belpois."
"And who is Michel Périn?" Hervé asked. He was leaning over the desk to get a better look at the photo.
"A former teacher here at Kadic," Delmas replied. "He disappeared one day twelve years ago without a trace, and Giles Fumet took his place." He rubbed his chin. "Now, I don't see the issue here. Jérémie could've just been sent this photograph in the mail by his family friends, the ones he met over summer break."
Patrick shook his head, "But that doesn't add up to why I have an exact copy of this picture too! It was taken in 1981, sir!"
"That's impossible," it was Delmas' turn to shake his head. "Jérémie's files indicate he was born a decade later, in 1992." He reached into a drawer and pulled out said file and opened it. "See? Name 'Belpois, Jérémie', born '28 October, 1992', known relatives 'none'."
"Maybe it's a coincidence," Hervé offered, "but there's also a possibility that he's lying. That he's not really who he says he is." This was his chance to get the answers, to get the truth out in the open.
"Perhaps," Delmas replied. "Pichon, go to class. Belpois, stay here and wait outside. I may need you later."
"Yes, sir."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was standing in front of the vending machines, acting as if he was about to get a soda or hot chocolate, but he made no move to put in a coin or press any buttons. He was too bothered by what Patrick said.
"Maybe I shouldn't have shrugged him off..." he muttered.
"You have no way of knowing if he's right or not, Jer," Ulrich reassured him. He had just told his friends what Patrick said to him earlier in their now-shared dorm.
"We're not sure either," Yumi added, "but we have an alibi in case he decides to do some digging."
"And a secret member we recruited for that exact purpose," Odd said.
His friends were right. "I wish I knew for sure," Jérémie quietly told them. "But some memories are still too fuzzy for me..." Whether or not he even had extended family was in that category.
"We'll figure it out together," Aelita reassured him. "Hopefully, when he finds proof, he'll come to us first."
Jim suddenly came running up to them, approaching them for the second time today. "Hey, Belpois! The principal wants to see you in his office on the double!" Jérémie almost jumped out of his skin. Jim didn't sound very happy. "And while we're at it—Schaeffer, Stern, Dunbar, Della Robbia, and Ishiyama—you five go with him! I'm sure that Delmas has a bunch of questions for you as well!"
"But, uh, we've got class in a few minutes," Yumi reminded him, her instincts telling her that whatever Delmas wanted to see them about could not be good.
But Jim just pointed in the direction of the administrative building, "You heard me. Get going!"
The six had no choice but to obey.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The moment they saw Patrick sitting near Mrs. Weber's desk, they knew what it was about. Aelita's hope that Patrick would come to them first was immediately dashed. He, in fact, had not.
The six were now in Delmas's office with said principal and Jim. Jérémie was standing in front of the desk, his five friends off to the side awaiting their turn.
"You heard the principal, young man!" Jim was strict. "No more fun and games! I've had a whole lot tougher nuts to crack than you! So, last name, first name, occupation!"
"U-Um," Jérémie stuttered, "Belpois, Jérémie. Uh, boy? Student at Kadic?"
Jim pointed at them accusingly, "You think I'm an idiot, don't you?! Huh?!"
"Calm down, Jim," Delmas cut in. "There's no need for the third degree; it's nothing serious. I just have a few questions to ask, that's all."
"Right. Sorry, sir." Fortunately, the gym teacher stepped back.
Delmas slid the photo on his desk forward. Jérémie's eyes widened in recognition—that was the picture he was trying to hide from Patrick!
The principal cleared his throat, "What intrigues me about this photograph is the presence of both Michel Périn and Jérémie Belpois, and that you two seem to be very close. Knowing you from a baby is certainly close. So the obvious question is whether your name really is Jérémie Belpois."
Jérémie hoped the two men in front of him couldn't see him starting to sweat. "Yes, sir. Jérémie Belpois is my real name. I'm the son of, um," he thought quickly, "Oliver and Sharon Belpois." Those were Michel and Sophie's middle names, respectively. Good enough. "I told you, my parents' friends told me a lot about them."
Behind him, Aelita exchanged concerned glances with the others.
"And are you really an orphan?" Delmas asked.
"I am." Not a lie. It certainly felt like it to him.
"And is Aelita Schaeffer really your pen pal?" Delmas glanced between Jérémie and Aelita.
"Yes, sir. I wouldn't be here at Kadic if I hadn't met her." Again, not a lie.
Delmas hummed and looked over at Jim, who scratched his chin and hummed.
Said pink-ette stepped forward, "Um, with all due respect, Mr. Delmas, the baby in the photograph looks about two months old at the least, and you said it was taken in 1981, right?"
"Yes," Delmas replied. "What of it?"
Aelita continued, "Well, you said that Michel Périn disappeared about twelve years ago. So if that really was Jérémie in the picture, he'd be, if I'm not mistaken, about 26 by now. But as you can see, Jérémie is only 16, one year younger than Odd, Ulrich, and me. Thus, we can conclude that he can't be the baby in the photo, that he's not related to Michel Périn, and that he's telling the truth about being an orphan and my pen pal."
Jim and Delmas were both stunned at her deduction, and neither could deny that she made an excellent point.
The headmaster scratched his mustache, "Very interesting. While I'm checking out this identity business, you six are all confined to the library for the rest of the day, under Jim's supervision."
Ulrich and Yumi frowned. Aelita, Odd, and William gave looks of dismay. Meanwhile, Jérémie just stood there in shock. This was it, when everything began crashing down...
"Wonderful..." Jim muttered under his breath.
But Mr. Delmas still heard him, and sent him a slight glare.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Pulsations began racing from a tower in the Forest Sector, as the tower's halo turned from white to red...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Delmas was alone in his office, having a phone conversation. "I see. So then, La Rochelle's orphanage has no record of a Jérémie Belpois in their records." A pause. "Yes, I'll definitely keep you informed. Thank you. Goodbye." He then hung up.
Purple electricity suddenly shot out of a power socket and attacked the man. He growled and clenched his fist as he shook. Finally, he looked up, the sign of XANA replacing his irises.
Patrick continued to wait outside the headmaster's office, getting more antsy by the minute. He understood that this investigation would take time, but he was getting impatient. Mrs. Weber had gone on break, so it was now just him.
Finally, after a couple of hours, the office door opened and Mr. Delmas stepped out.
The boy stood up, "Well? Did you find anything?" He was hoping for some answers.
Patrick did not expect Mr. Delmas to suddenly grab the front of his shirt and throw him against the wall.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim lowered his comic book to look at the six kids sitting at the table in front of him. William was typing away on his laptop, doing homework. Beside him, Yumi was doing Sudoku in a book. Across from her, Odd also had a Sudoku book open, but he was eating a chocolate bar. Beside him, Ulrich was sitting in his chair, pensive. Beside Yumi, Aelita was also working on her laptop. On Ulrich's other side, Jérémie was resting with his arms and head on the table. Seeing that the six were behaving, none of them daring to speak, Jim went back to his comic book.
Jérémie felt like crying. They were about to get busted for his cover story, and it was all his fault. Not only was it meant to cover up where he came from (Lyoko), but he also didn't address Patrick's concerns enough.
Because he was sure he remembered who Patrick really was, where the two had met before...
But now, it was too late to have a conversation without revealing the secret of Lyoko to the world.
Jérémie was brought back to reality by the familiar alert of the superscan from Aelita's laptop. "Oh no!" she whispered. "Activated tower!"
The other five immediately looked over at her, worried.
"What?!" Ulrich asked, alarmed.
"Now?!" William added.
As the cherry on top, Mr. Delmas entered the room.
Jim discarded his comic and took his legs off the table. "Anything wrong, sir?" He got up and ran over to his boss, letting his chair fall over.
"Uh, Mr. Jérémie Belpois," the man said, "I'd like to have a word with you alone. Jim, make certain no one leaves this library."
Jérémie glanced at Aelita in worried surprise before getting up, fearing the worst. He'd try his best to make sure the others didn't take the fall for him, but he couldn't make any promises.
Aelita, however, frowned as Delmas took Jérémie out of the room, a hand on his shoulder. The man turned over his shoulder at Aelita, only for the girl to spot the XANA emblem in his eyes. Her stomach sank in dread; she knew what that meant.
She got up and ran around the table, "Jérémie, wait!" Just before she reached the door, Jim blocked her way.
"Where do you think you're going, Schaeffer?"
"It's Delmas!" she exclaimed, frantic with worry. She had to hurry! "He's been XANA-fied! Jérémie must not go with him, Jim!" Behind her, she felt the others all tense up.
"'Zazazazanified'?" Jim repeated. "I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but I don't know if I'd go that far. And by the way," he added, "that's Mister Delmas to you!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
XANA-Delmas opened the door to the school's boiler room, of all places, his hand still on Jérémie's shoulder. Said boy's instincts began flaring, telling him to get out, get away from this man right now.
"Um, aren't we going to your office, sir?" the blonde asked, confused, as he took a cautious step back from Delmas.
"No. We're better off doing this here." The answer was short and unemotional. Something was definitely wrong; the man was too sketchy for comfort.
Delmas closed and locked the door, and while his back was turned, Jérémie knelt down and picked up a nearby rake. "Well, I'd rather we went to your office, XANA! With witnesses!"
The man finally turned around and held out an electrically-charged hand—revealing the boy's instincts to be correct. He growled as he made his way to Jérémie, who held up his only weapon.
"You never learn, XANA, do you?" Jérémie growled at his greatest enemy who was once his best friend. "You'll fail like all the other times!"
He swung the rake, only for XANA-Delmas to easily catch it. The two briefly wrestled over it, before the man finally pulled on it and threw Jérémie across the room, screaming. He ended up slamming into the wall, and pain radiated throughout his body as a result.
As his world went black, he mentally apologized to the others for getting them all in this mess...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
All five teens were now facing Jim while he blocked the door. "Get back to your seats! No one's going anywhere!"
"But Jim, Jérémie's in danger!" Ulrich told him.
"No, he's not!" the man retorted. "He's perfectly safe with Mr. Delmas!"
Aelita simply narrowed her eyes and assumed an offensive Pencak Silat position. XANA was not the only reason that Jérémie's five bodyguards knew how to fight in the real world as well. There were also situations like this one.
Jim immediately noticed, "Ah, so you wanna do this the hard way, Miss Schaeffer. Fine. You five wanna get through, you'll have to go through me first." He took up a martial arts pose.
"If you say so," Yumi replied.
"Yeah, just remember, you asked for it," Odd added.
Aelita gave the order, "ATTACK!"
But before the five could move, Patrick suddenly jumped onto Jim's back from behind. Jim's eyes widened with fear, at the surprise attack. In front of him, the five teens took this chance to tackle Jim to the ground quicker than he would've normally gone down.
In no time, they all had Jim pinned to the floor. Ulrich and William were holding his legs, Aelita and Yumi both holding his arms, and Odd and Patrick crouching by his head holding his arms.
"Touchdown!" Ulrich announced.
"Hurry, guys!" Aelita ordered. "Tie him up!"
As Ulrich and William both took off their belts and began tying up Jim's arms and legs, Yumi and Odd turned to Patrick.
"Why'd you help us?" Yumi asked, sternly.
Patrick was catching his breath, "I'm sorry, to all of you. I didn't mean to get you in trouble. I just wanted answers, and Hervé—I think that was his name—he told me the best way to get them was to tell Mr. Delmas."
"You should've gone to us," Odd cut in. "Hervé has never liked Jérémie. He's always tried to get him into some kind of trouble."
"I know that now," Patrick replied, sounding as if he wanted to go back in time and fix his mistakes. "My maman always told me that I'm not the best judge of character. But Mr. Delmas, when he came out of his office earlier, was acting really weird. He just threw me against a wall without any warning. I got the feeling that something was wrong."
"You're right there," Aelita told him. "Something is wrong." She made her decision at that moment. "Come with us. We'll explain on the way."
"Okay."
Wasting no further time, the six teens left the library, leaving Jim bawling after them, "What are you doing? Come back! You can't leave me like this! You little scallywags!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
XANA-Delmas walked through the tunnel with Jérémie, unconscious, slung over his shoulder.
As he descended in the lift, the other Lyokowarriors were running through the park with Patrick in tow.
"Let me get this straight!" Patrick said, having just been given the run-down. "Mr. Delmas has been possessed by this evil, sentient artificial intelligence, and it's kidnapped Jérémie to lure out his parents in this virtual world!"
"We know it sounds crazy," Ulrich began.
"You're damn right it does!" Patrick cut him off. "But seeing Delmas' behavior change like that, I think I'm inclined to believe you."
"Good," William replied. "'Cause we're telling the truth!"
"Oh god," a sudden thought came to Odd's mind. "Just think what'll happen if the Return to the Past doesn't work! Jim'll kill us!"
"We've got a bigger problem to deal with first!" Aelita told him. "Compared to that, Jim's a piece of cake."
XANA-Delmas exited the lift and placed an out-cold Jérémie inside a scanner.
As the others skated through the sewers (Patrick taking Jérémie's scooter), the possessed principal sat down at the monitor and activated the virtualization process.
Jérémie remained unconscious as he was virtualized in the sky of the Forest Sector. Even after landing, he lied there, completely still.
Ulrich and Aelita led the way, emerging onto the bridge from the sewers and swinging down the ropes first. As the others joined them, Ulrich pressed the lift button several times.
"Come on..." he urged, concerned and impatient.
The lift rose to the top floor, and the door opened to reveal XANA-Delmas. The six immediately resumed their fighting stances.
"Whoa," William commented. "Somebody's having a bad day."
"He looks like he just got into a fight with Sissi or something," Odd quipped.
Patrick stepped forward, "Go on. I'll take care of him."
"But you don't know what he's capable of!" Yumi protested, worried. Patrick just arrived at Kadic; he was new. Did he even know how to fight?
"Jérémie needs you guys, right?" Patrick shot back. "So go."
Aelita was torn. Patrick was right—Jérémie needed her more—but she couldn't just abandon Patrick like this either. Fortunately, her cousin saw this and stepped forward, to Patrick's side. "Don't worry, cuz. William and I will help him."
A wave of relief ushered over her, "Okay." She then made a break for the stairs, the only other path to the lab, seeing as how the lift was being blocked off.
"Good luck!" Ulrich said, he and Yumi on Aelita's tail.
XANA-Delmas stepped out of the lift, ready to face off against the trio that had remained behind. Patrick chose to attack first, grabbing the man around the hips, but the man easily picked the boy up and tossed him, screaming, several meters away.
The possessed principal marched towards the stairs, where the other three were, flickering like static, but he suddenly tripped over. Glancing back, he noticed that Odd had grabbed his leg.
"Touchdown!" Odd exclaimed. Behind him, William was helping Patrick back to his feet.
XANA-Delmas stood up, as Odd got into a crouch.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie was groggy when he came to. Fortunately, it quickly went away as he blinked before getting to his feet.
"Aelita?" he asked, just out of habit. "Aelita, are you there?" Looking around, he was in the Forest Sector. Should've figured that's where XANA would send him.
"Yes, I'm with you, Jérémie," he sighed in relief upon hearing her voice over the comm. "Hang in there. Ulrich, Yumi, and I are on our way now."
Relief suddenly turned to dread when he heard the all-too familiar squealing of a certain monster, quickly followed by the unsettling sound of slithering tentacles. Jérémie turned around and his widened in fear. He was right.
The Scyphozoa.
He immediately began backing away from it, fearing what XANA's plan was this time. It didn't back down, floating towards him.
"U-Um, better hurry. I've got a, uh, slight problem..."
"You call the Scyphozoa a 'slight problem'?!" Aelita retorted. She just said this to lighten the tension, but it didn't work. His fear of the Scyphozoa was too great, and likely always would be.
Jérémie waved at the monster, scared, "Hello, you squirmy...ugly...jellyfish..."
It shot out its tentacles at him, and he just barely managed to dodge them. He quickly turned and ran down a path chosen at random.
"Just hurry!" he pleaded with the pink-ette. "I don't know what it wants from me this time!"
And knowing the Scyphozoa, it could be anything. It was XANA's version of a phishing program, a type of Malware specifically designed to harvest data for further manipulation. Specifically for data that XANA could not get its figurative hands on normally.
Aelita didn't respond to this. Three seconds later, however, she, Ulrich, and Yumi were virtualized very near Jérémie's coordinates. They landed just in time to see Jérémie running away from the Scyphozoa, not far from them.
"Ugh!" Ulrich muttered. "The Scyphozoa. It's been a while. I forgot how ugly it was..."
"What, you don't like seafood?" Yumi quipped.
"Not when it's in jelly," the samurai replied. "Let's go!"
Aelita summoned her wings and took flight. Ulrich and Yumi quickly followed her on foot. However, they were quickly cut off by two Krabes materializing in front of them. A trail of smoke slithering along the ground before appearing in human form—the Clone in its William mask—between the two monsters.
"Attack!" the Clone said, and the Krabes immediately opened fire.
Aelita landed as Yumi summoned her fans. "Looks like XANA's sent us some visitors, but they're not gonna stop us!" She threw a fan, but it went straight through the Krabes.
Ulrich somersaulted onto a Krabe's head and unsheathed a katana to stab its eye. He jumped off as the monster exploded. "I don't like jellyfish or shellfish! Aelita, you deal with the Clone!"
Aelita ducked to avoid a couple shots of smoke aimed at her face. "Already on it!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd backed away from XANA-Delmas, fists raised. The man stopped and started gearing up for some martial arts.
"Look at that!" Odd commented. "All of a sudden, our principal's a ninja."
He threw a punch and missed. XANA-Delmas tried a kick, only for Odd to dodge. Two more kicks, both dodged. Next, Delmas tried a punch and Odd jumped away to safety.
"This happens to you guys all the time?" Patrick asked. "How does no one else remember something like this?"
"We have a secret weapon," William told him, before spotting a piece of wood on the floor. he next addressed their possessed headmaster, "Pretty good there, Jackie Chan. Let's see how good you are at baseball!"
He grabbed the piece of wood and held it up. XANA-Delmas merely stared at him before slicing said wood in half with his hand.
William blinked. "Um..."
Odd smiled nervously, "Hey, now, why don't we all talk this over like civilized people?"
XANA-Delmas growled.
"I guess that's a no," Patrick quipped.
Odd's grin turned into a frown as William tossed the broken piece of wood away before leaping at XANA-Delmas, aiming a kick.
William kicked their principal to the floor, where he lay on his side and flickered from his injury.
"Ha!" Odd chuckled triumphantly. "That's more like it!"
As the Italian boy approached, XANA-Delmas jumped to his feet. All three boys looked uncertain and afraid as the man took on a martial arts pose again.
"Hey, you really ought to enter a dance competition!" Odd joked, though it didn't sound like one due to him being so scared.
"We should retreat," William muttered. "Facing him directly won't get us anywhere."
"Good idea," Odd whispered back. He then addressed Delmas again, "Well, we really have to fight and run, but..."
With a nervous whimper, Odd turned and ran away, with Patrick and William on his heels. XANA-Delmas followed them at normal walking speed.
William grabbed a crowbar and hid behind a column, as Odd and Patrick hid farther from him. He looked around the corner, waiting for their enemy.
But there was no sign of the man.
"Where'd he go?" he whispered.
"Look out!" came Odd's shout.
William turned around. His eyes widened, and he dropped the crowbar, before leaping to the side, just in time to avoid a rusty sheet of metal being thrown at his head. Odd and Patrick quickly joined him.
Said sheet of metal was being held by Jim, now also possessed by XANA. XANA-Delmas joined his ally, cracking his knuckles.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie briefly turned around to fire two energy spears at the Scyphozoa, but it dodged them both.
"This can't be happening!" he muttered.
He reached out to fire an energy burst, but the Scyphozoa quickly batted his arm away. It seized him and lifted him off the ground, before beginning its work.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Clone was doing so well, Aelita thought. Using William's powers, it was constantly snaking back and forth to avoid her Energy Fields. However, when it morphed into its Odd mask, it lost that advantage. It took two Energy Fields for the Clone to realize that, but by then, it was too late.
Aelita had already taken it out. Unfortunately, she was shot in the back by the remaining Krabe soon after, so she was also devirtualized as a result.
The pink-ette exited the scanner angry at herself for getting devirtualized so quickly. She pounded a fist against the scanner wall before taking the side ladder up to the lab. The anger at herself only grew when she saw the memory count window open on the screen. The Scyphozoa was implanting data into Jérémie's brain, likely possessing him!
"Oh no..." She quickly slipped on the microphone, "Ulrich, Yumi!"
"Yes, Aelita?" Yumi asked, sounding stressed.
"The Scyphozoa caught Jérémie! Hurry! He's not too far from you!"
"We're doing our best, Aelita!" Ulrich replied. "We're just up to our ears in shellfish!"
"Not to mention, they had a head start!" Yumi added.
On the holomap, Ulrich's green triangle circled around the Krabe's red circle, before the kill went to Yumi.
"Krabes might just become my favorite fish," Ulrich commented.
"Hurry!" Aelita urged. "You can still free him!"
The two quickly took off running.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Still in the Scyphozoa's grip, Jérémie's eyes were closed as he lost all control over his body. The AI's work completed, the monster released him and he fell to the ground.
Ulrich and Yumi arrived just as the Scyphozoa was leaving, floating away and leaving behind a hunched over Jérémie, who was crouching and holding his head, as if he had a headache.
"Too late!" Yumi exclaimed. The two ran up to the elf, "Jérémie!" They were both worried; what had XANA done to him this time?
"Jérémie!" Ulrich called out, he and the geisha stopping when he was within reach. "Are you okay?"
He went to put a hand on Jérémie's shoulder, but as soon as he made physical contact, the elf whipped around and batted Ulrich's arm away. The emblem of XANA was in his eyes.
Ulrich and Yumi backed away, shocked, as Jérémie stood up. The samurai raised a katana towards their friend, and Yumi raised a hand over her mouth. They couldn't fight their friend. There was no way...
In response to the samurai's question, the elf replied, "I'm fine. Actually, I've never felt better!"
The two teens stared in shock—his mind had indeed been taken over by XANA. The Jérémie they knew would never say something like that after being attacked by the one monster he despised the most.
The elf formed a energy bow and fired an arrow at Yumi, but Ulrich pushed her out of the way and blocked it with his katana. She fell to the ground and looked up in time to spot two Tarantula's approaching.
"Ulrich!" she warned.
Ulrich drew his other katana, pointing one at his possessed friend and the other at the incoming monsters. Said monsters opened fire and Ulrich began blocking their lasers with rapid movements. Similarly, Yumi opened her fans and shifted to avoid a laser.
Meanwhile, XANA-Jérémie just smirked before turning around and walking away.
This was not lost on Yumi, "Jérémie!" She flinched from the incoming lasers.
Her friend was walking away from the fight, looking droopy and lethargic, as if he was in a trance of some kind.
"Aelita, where's he going?!" Yumi asked. "The only thing that's in front of him is the edge of the platform." She gasped in sudden realization. "The Digital Sea."
"XANA possessed Jérémie to make him throw himself in!" Aelita quickly, and frantically, explained. "You have to stop him!"
"Oh really?" Ulrich asked, his stress making him sarcastic. "And how do you expect us to do that? You can materialize him. Why don't you bring him in?"
"What do you think I've been trying to do?!" the pink-ette retorted. "But I can't! The Scyphozoa must have implanted some sort of inhibitor in his brain. You have to attack him."
Ulrich ran behind a tree and sat on the ground, his back to the trunk, "You've gotta be kidding!"
XANA-Jérémie was nearing the edge of the platform.
"I know it sounds crazy," Aelita replied, not a single hint of a joke anywhere in her voice, "and I know he's the real deal, and not the Clone. But I'm telling you to devirtualize Jérémie."
Devirtualize Jérémie. But then...who would deactivate the tower and save Odd, Patrick, and William? Would XANA just give up? Probably not.
But they couldn't risk letting Jérémie throw himself into the Digital Sea, and thus endanger his parents.
"On it!" Yumi replied, though uncertain. She didn't want to do this, but it was likely the only way to fix this current mess.
She summoned both fans and threw them at her friend's back. However, XANA-Jérémie heard them both coming, dodging one before blocking the second with an energy sword that he quickly formed. Only one fan returned to her—the one that he just dodged—while the one he blocked quickly stuck into the ground.
XANA-Jérémie then charged up to her, faster than she had ever seen him, and swung down his sword with the intent to devirtualize her. However, Ulrich suddenly threw one of his katanas at her. She quickly caught it and barely managed to block the elf's strike.
The unexpected force blew XANA-Jérémie back a few paces. He chuckled, the AI controlling him clearly anticipating the fight.
Yumi raised her lended katana at her opponent, accepting the challenge. Again, she didn't want to do this—Jérémie was her friend, her little brother—but she had no choice.
The two both took on fighting stances, Yumi's blade glowing blue as XANA-Jérémie's energy sword turned from a bright cyan to red. They slashed at each other a couple of times and missed, and then jumped back several paces.
Not far away, Ulrich blocked lasers from the Tarantulas with the katana he still had. He cartwheeled to the side, grabbing Yumi's discarded fan on the way, as he dodged lasers. Now, they were even—they each had one of the other's respective weapons. Better than just one.
He didn't know how things would work out here, but he was hoping that they would.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Aelita," Ulrich said, breathless, "things are getting complicated here. How're Odd and William doing with Delmas? We could use a little backup!"
Aelita's eyebrows furrowed in worry before opening the security footage of the factory ground floor. The camera showed Odd and Patrick sitting on the floor with XANA-Delmas coming towards them, holding a sheet of metal above his head.
Meanwhile, William was slowly backing away from XANA-Jim. He lunged at the boy, who barely managed to escape.
XANA-Delmas threw the sheet of metal at high speed, and Odd pushed Patrick out of the way. The sheet of metal scraped across the floor, missing Odd by a mere millimeter.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
XANA-Jérémie was on the offensive, and Yumi was concentrating most of her energy in dodging his attacks.
"Yumi, stop everything!" Aelita suddenly cut in, sounding on the verge of a panic attack. "You can't devirtualize Jérémie!"
Yumi jumped a few meters away from the elf, landing near a tree, "Don't worry, I wasn't even close! What's going on?"
"XANA possessed Jim too, so now Odd, William, and Patrick are getting walloped by both him and Delmas," the angel explained. "We have to get Jérémie to deactivate the tower somehow!"
In the midst of blocking and dodging lasers, Ulrich asked, sarcastically, "Why don't you just ask him?! I'm sure he'd be happy to accommodate!"
"Look, I don't know what to tell you!" Aelita retorted, stressed. "Either we lose Jérémie and his parents, or we lose Odd, Patrick, and William!"
Yumi and XANA-Jérémie pushed against each other's blades until she shoved him away. He came back with several swings, forcing her backwards, and then she did the same thing. The elf stumbled back a few paces. The two stood there, blades pointed at each other, for a long moment.
The geisha then lowered her katana, and the elf charged. She ran forward and grabbed his wrist, but he spun around, breaking free of her grip and knocking her away.
After another pause (seemingly XANA deducing its next move), the elf cried out and charged again. He slashed and Yumi ducked. XANA-Jérémie spun around and elbowed her in the face with his other arm, causing her to stumble backwards, touching her injured eye.
"Hey! Ulrich and I taught you that!" the geisha said.
The elf didn't respond verbally, only raising his hand and concentrating hard. A block of blue energy began forming around her legs—his recently discovered power of Petrification. Yumi attempted to break free, but she couldn't move her legs, and the rest of her body began to follow.
However, Ulrich threw the fan he had at XANA-Jérémie's face, breaking his concentration. Yumi, now free, stumbled back a few paces. Quickly glancing up at the elf's face, she could see the strain hitting him, despite using his new power for just a few seconds.
Despite the exhaustion, Jérémie ran, jumped, and attacked, but Yumi blocked it. The elf then kicked her in the back and sent her stumbling forwards. He immediately ran after her and continued his assault.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was running away with William and Patrick, the three of them truly retreating, when he suddenly tripped and fell to the floor. He held his leg and growled in pain.
"Odd!" William called out to him, as XANA-Delmas picked up the metal sheet again.
"This guy's out of his mind!" the Italian boy exclaimed, amidst the pain in his ankle.
XANA-Jim picked up a nearby crowbar, as Delmas held up the metal sheet above his head, ready to throw it. The two growled.
"They both are..." Patrick muttered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita couldn't do anything but watch the screens in front of her. It was a catch-22 situation. As shown by the security cameras, Odd, William, and Patrick were in trouble, endangered by Delmas and Jim—both possessed by XANA. On the holomap, Yumi and Ulrich were being cornered by Jérémie—also possessed by XANA.
And the one person who could stop all of this, who could deactivate the tower, was under their enemy's control.
She held her head in her hands. She didn't know what to do.
"I don't believe it..." she muttered. "If only I could erase everything and start over!"
She paused in sudden realization.
"But...I can!"
She smiled, filled with hope, as she took a CD out of her pocket. She inserted it into the slot on the side of the monitor.
If something good had come from this whole mess with the photograph, it was definitely the program burned on this CD.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich blocked a few lasers, before leaping backwards from the monsters, before throwing the fan he was borrowing from Yumi. One Tarantula ducked to avoid it, only for the second to get hit, exploding to signal its defeat.
He jumped behind a tree to hide from the remaining Tarantula's shots, as he caught the fan as it returned. The monster stopped shooting as he hid.
"Yumi, Ulrich, get ready!" Aelita cut in. "I'm going to reboot the supercomputer, using the program I created this morning."
Ulrich peered around the tree before looking up at the sky. The Tarantula opened fire again. "What? But couldn't that bug up the whole system?"
She was blunt, "Maybe, but it might just give us the kind of electroshock we need to release Jérémie from XANA's control."
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Ulrich asked, worried.
"We don't have much of a choice, do we?"
He couldn't deny that, so he didn't. It was an experimental use of the program; they didn't know what the outcome would be. But if it brought Jérémie back to his senses, then it would be worth it.
XANA-Jérémie knocked the katana out of Yumi's hand and kicked her to the ground. The blade embedded in the ground. The elf approached her, baring his teeth, and raised his energy sword up high.
"Here we go..." was the only warning Aelita gave.
In the lab, Aelita pressed the 'enter' key. The screen glitched and went dark before returning again and showing a loading bar. Jérémie's memory window and a code window opened. The pink-ette attempted to type, only for the screen to start glitching badly, freezing and turning pink in color.
She frowned, unable to do anything except let the program launch.
The entire Forest Sector began to shake. XANA-Jérémie paused his attack to look up in confusion, as an earthquake started to rock the entire sector. None of them knew it, but all five sectors were experiencing this phenomenon.
Ulrich and the Tarantula felt the tremors and looked around, confused.
A dark vortex opened up in the direction of the Core, drawing in black smoke until it and the smoke turned white. In a flash, a huge, white energy wall began sweeping over the sector.
Ulrich attempted to run away from the wall, but it passed over him and the Tarantula, causing them both to freeze in place.
As the wall neared XANA-Jérémie, he brought his sword down to attack Yumi, who shielded her face with her arm. The wall passed over them and froze the blade mere centimeters from the geisha's face.
The Core formed another black vortex, which turned white and sent another energy wall sweeping across all five sectors, thus unfreezing everything.
Weakened, Ulrich dropped to his hands and knees, his katana and fan both falling to the ground next to him.
Jérémie was still frozen, but it was more out of him seemingly emerging from a villainous nightmare than from the reboot. All of his energy left him and he fell unconscious. Yumi caught him in her arms before he could hit the ground.
"I think it worked, Aelita," the geisha reported. "But Jérémie might be low on lifepoints."
"Bring him to the tower," Aelita replied, sounding relieved. "They'll regenerate once he's inside."
Ulrich was dodging the Tarantula's lasers, "Unfortunately, it didn't put the Tarantula in a better mood!" He then ran off, towards his two friends.
He Sprinted in front of them, grabbing the katana Yumi had dropped before using both of his weapons to block the shots.
In Yumi's arms, Jérémie stirred. She sighed in relief when she saw his blue irises, despite how groggy he was. She helped him sit up, "Yumi? What happened?"
"You were possessed by XANA," she explained. "Aelita rebooted the supercomputer to free you."
The elf rubbed his head, "Thanks, Aelita." The exhaustion was clear in his voice.
"No problem," the pink-ette replied. "But you can rest later. There's a tower to deactivate; Odd, William, and Patrick are in danger."
"Okay..."
Yumi helped him to his feet, "I'll take him there, 'Lita. Send the Overbike."
"Roger."
Yumi slung Jérémie's arm over her shoulder as she led him slowly to the Overbike as it virtualized in front of them.
Ulrich continued to block the Tarantula's lasers, as Yumi took off as the vehicle's pilot and the elf as her passenger as he leaned his tired head against her back. He glanced back briefly to watch them drive off towards the activated tower. He turned back to the Tarantula and prepared to fight, only to be devirtualized by a laser.
The monster then went after Jérémie and Yumi.
The geisha stopped in front of a tower. Jérémie, still weak, almost slipped off due to the momentum, but Yumi stuck an arm out to stop him in time, "Woah, easy there, Prince Charming."
"Sorry..." he muttered, his eyes closed.
"It's okay," she replied, "but you need to stay awake. You can take a nap later."
He nodded and let her help him dismount the Overbike, holding him to make sure he could stand. The Tarantula set up to fire not far away. Jérémie held his abdomen and started slowly making his way to the tower.
The Tarantula opened fire and Yumi drew its attention by cartwheeling away from her friend. She performed some spins in a handstand before jumping away. Only when she landed did she take out the fan she still had and began blocking lasers with it.
After taking a short pause to catch his breath, Jérémie entered the tower.
Seeing this, Yumi turned back to the Tarantula and teased, "Too late~!"
The monster took the invitation and devirtualized her.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The three teens watched as Delmas and Jim both flickered, being affected by the reboot. A quick pause, during which the trio shared confused glances with each other, none of them sure what just happened to make the two adults just freeze up like that.
Delmas suddenly became unfrozen and held the metal beam above his head. Odd screamed, only for William to pull him out of the way just before XANA-Delmas threw the beam at him.
JEREMIE_
XANA-Jim suddenly lunged at Patrick. The man side-stepped the teen's kick in response, before grabbing both of his wrists and twisting them around his back. Patrick cried out in pain this caused him.
"Woah, woah, take it easy, Jim," Odd attempted. Delmas grabbed a metal beam. "Okay, fine, you both win. We give up. Why don't you just give us all detention on Saturday instead of stomping us to pieces?"
CODE_
"What if we do your dishes for you?" William attempted, both he and Odd trying to talk XANA down in order to save Patrick's life, or at least prolonging this as much as they could in time for Jérémie to enter the code. "And all your daily chores for three weeks?"
XANA-Delmas raised the beam above his head, aiming for and preparing to hit Patrick.
LYOKO_
In the blink of an eye, the two adults suddenly collapsed, falling unconscious on the ground. Odd and William breathed sighs of relief.
"You two really disappoint us, you know," Odd quipped. "We thought you were stronger than that."
William helped Patrick to his feet, as the new student asked, "Is it over?"
"Yeah, it's over," William softly told him. "Thanks for your help. Too bad you won't remember any of it."
In the tower, Jérémie fell to his knees in tandem with the data windows descending around him. Despite being inside the tower and thus having a full set of lifepoints again, he still felt severely fatigued. Must've been a side effect of the reboot; XANA's hold on him was strong, and the electroshock required to bring him back to his senses had to be just as strong to cancel out the brainwashing.
"Tower deactivated..." he announced.
He heard Aelita breathe an audible sigh of relief, "I'm glad you're okay, Jérémie. Get ready for a jump back in time." He already was; it would bring his strength back. "Return to the past now."
A white bubble quickly engulfed everything.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Time rewound to earlier that day when the six Lyokowarriors were in Aelita's room. Like before, Jim pounded on the door, "Belpois! Are you in there?!"
Jérémie still hid the photograph behind his back as he opened the door, "Yes, Jim. I'm here." This time, he knew what this was about. His smile also remained as he addressed Patrick, the newcomer, "Oh, hello. I'm Jérémie Belpois. Who are you?"
He already knew, actually. But he had to keep Jim unaware.
"Patrick Belpois," he stuck out his hand, seemingly relaxing now that he knew the blonde was friendly. "It's nice to meet you."
Jérémie shook his hand. "Likewise." He turned to Jim, "So what's going on? Did you have him meet me because we have the same surname?"
The others noted how much more relaxed their protectorate seemed to be. Apparently, he had remembered something between the library detainment and now. Hopefully, he would tell them about it.
"Actually, yes," Jim seemed caught off-guard. "But whether you two are related or not, Jérémie, this is Patrick. Patrick, this is Jérémie. You two will be temporary roommates until we can prepare a dorm for Patrick."
"Okay," was the blonde's response.
"That's the spirit!" Jim exclaimed, a proud smile. "Again, it's only temporary, but good on you for being willing to make new friends. I know how hard that is for you, Belpois."
It was. But Patrick wasn't just a random new student with the same surname by coincidence.
Jérémie lightly blushed at the praise, but chose not to address it. He instead turned to Patrick, "Well, shall I take you to our room?"
"If you don't mind," Patrick replied, picking up his suitcase.
The young genius turned to his friends first, "Join us?" He was smiling, but they knew that he really wanted them there. "I mean, it's not every day we get new students." That wasn't the reason, actually. It was just for Jim's sake.
"Go on," Jim replied. "Just don't forget you six have classes in a few minutes."
"Don't worry," Aelita sent him a bright smile.
The gym teacher then left, and Jérémie began leading Patrick to their newly-shared dorm room. The other five trailed behind.
"So, Patrick," Ulrich began a casual conversation, "what grade are you in? Maybe you're in some of our classes."
"Twelfth," Patrick replied, carrying his suitcase. "It's a bit late into the semester to be transferring, but I had a dispute with someone at my old school. It was a case of 'I said, they said', so the headmaster saw the best solution being to kick us both out. I don't want get into it right now."
"That's okay," William replied. "You don't have to explain. But you're in mine and Yumi's grade. You'll likely be seeing us two a lot."
"Cool," Patrick gave the two a smile. "You guys seem like really cool people."
"Oh, we are!" Odd replied. "Not to brag or anything. Even if everyone here dresses in drab colors."
"Yeah, well, I guess that compared to the way you dress, anything seems kinda dull," Patrick gently shot back.
Odd ignored Aelita's giggles. "Hey! This is a classy outfit! It's based on Kung-Fu Commando!"
"A great game," Patrick said. "But I guess you're stuck at level seven, because at level eight, the clothes get a lot more tame."
Odd made a stunned sound, as the others erupted into laughter. Jérémie didn't join the conversation (yet), but he didn't need to. The others liked Patrick, and that made him more confident in what he was about to reveal.
"You two should get along," Ulrich commented, "a couple of joystick junkies."
"I don't just play video games," Patrick replied. "I'm into aikido, too."
This caught Ulrich and Yumi's attention. "Oh, yeah? That's cool," the German boy said. "We prefer Pencak Silat, though, but we could train together."
By this time, Jérémie had reached his room. As he unlocked it, he finally cut in, "You can do that later. We all have something serious to talk about." He then opened his door and let everyone else inside. He followed the rear and once he was inside, he double-checked to make sure the hallway was clear, before closing and locking his door.
"What's this about?" Patrick asked, confused. The others were confused as well.
Jérémie chose to cut right to the chase, "Patrick, you find me familiar, don't you? You're just not sure where we've met before." He already knew the answer.
Patrick was quiet. "How'd you know?"
"I have the same feeling." The blonde then held up the photo, the one of his parents holding him as a baby. "Do you recognize this photo?"
"Jérémie," Aelita began to warn. It was supposed to be a secret.
But he softly cut her off, "Let him answer."
"Y-Yeah," Patrick was surprised at how accurate his new roommate seemed to be in reading him. "It was taken in 1981. It's of my older cousin, taken a couple months after he was born. It's...it's the only photo my family has of him."
"Have you...seen him at all in the last twelve years?" the blonde was quiet as he asked this. Again, he already knew the answer.
"...No.." was Patrick's solemn answer. "The three people in that photograph disappeared one day. The rest of us could only assume that my cousin had died–"
"–From his tumor?" Jérémie cut him off.
Patrick answered that without a second thought, "Yeah. And Uncle Michel and Aunt Sophie went off the grid out of mourning." He paused. "Wait...I never said anything about a tumor." He began eyeing Jérémie with suspicion. "How'd you know that? Lucky guess?"
"No," Jérémie finally revealed. "I know, because he's me."
The revelation hit all of them like a ton of bricks.
"What?" Patrick asked.
"Jer," Yumi cut in, "you mind explaining?"
"I am Patrick's older cousin," the young genius did just that. "I know the ages don't match up, but I promise that there's an explanation. It sounds crazy, but I have the proof." That's right; being on Lyoko made Jérémie stop aging. He should've been a decade older than the rest of them. "My father's birth name was 'Belpois'. When he married Maman, he took up her surname by choice."
"So that's why it sounded right to you," Ulrich realized. "You chose 'Belpois' because you remembered it, despite your amnesia."
"Yeah," Jérémie confirmed.
"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Odd asked, curious. It would've saved them all so much trouble.
"Because the memories weren't clear until now." To his credit, Jérémie sounded and looked extremely apologetic. Knowing him, he genuinely was. As he's expressed to them more than once, the last thing he wanted was for his friends to get in trouble because of him. "Some things are still fuzzy to me."
Patrick was quiet until now, likely digested everything he was just told. "This may be something you don't remember, Jérémie," he slowly said, "but if you can answer correctly, then I'll believe you. How did our parents all meet?"
Jérémie racked his brain. The memory was a bit distant, but he remembered his parents telling the story to him once. "Our fathers were twin brothers, and our mothers were friends in le lycée. Papa and Maman described it as a coincidence, but it ended up being a double date."
Patrick smiled. "That's how Papa and Maman described it to me." He sniffed back tears before he engulfed the blonde in a hug. "It's really good to see you again, cuz. We thought you died." Jérémie promptly returned the embrace, barely blinking back his own tears.
The other five were softly smiling. "So you believe him?" Ulrich asked Patrick.
"Yeah," said brunette loosened the hug, but refused to stray too far from his cousin's side. "There's too many things that he knows for there to be doubts. I just don't know what the deal with his age is..."
"We can tell you," Aelita quietly cut in. "But you have to promise to keep it a secret. There's a cover story we have in place in order to hide it, or else the consequences could be disastrous."
Patrick nodded, agreeing, "Scout's honor."
"Currently," Yumi began to explain, "Jérémie's name is Jérémie Belpois, born 28 October, 1992, and he transferred to Kadic from an orphanage in La Rochelle in order to be closer to his pen pal Aelita here."
Said pink-ette nodded, before adding, "That's the cover story, and it's worked wonders for us so far. But in reality, he's not an orphan at all. We know it sounds crazy, but we have proof. Michel and Sophie created a virtual world called Lyoko that is housed inside a supercomputer in the nearby abandoned factory. According to them, it was their last resort to get rid of Jérémie's tumor."
"Because all the other treatments weren't working," Patrick cut in. He sounded as if his brain was connecting the pieces.
"That's right," Ulrich confirmed. "It took them thirteen years to complete it. However, thanks to a program that can rewind time, they ended up reliving the same day for seven years. This caused XANA, the artificial intelligence they created to be Lyoko's guardian, to go insane with the power that the rewinds in time gave it."
"Lyoko got rid of Jérémie's tumor," Odd followed up. "So he's no longer sick. However, the AI turned on Michel and Sophie and took away Jérémie's memories to hold him hostage. So they were forced to shut the supercomputer down to contain XANA, with all three of them inside of it."
"Ten years later," William finished, "which was about two years ago, Aelita turned the supercomputer back on and found Jérémie still alive. I only joined the fight last October, but we need to stop XANA before it can destroy humanity. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the gist of it."
"Again," Aelita gently said, "we know it sounds crazy, but we have proof. All you have to do is ask to see it."
They were all cut off by the five-minute warning bell.
"I'm certainly interested," Patrick replied, "but the proof can wait for later. I think that bell means that you guys need to go to class." His classes didn't start until tomorrow, so he'd take this time to unpack.
"It does," Jérémie said, wiping his unshed tears away from his eyes. "I'll talk to you later."
"See you later, cuz." His brown eyes were soft and filled with unshed tears as well.
Hervé walked by in time for Odd to open the door. Inside the doorway, he saw Jérémie and Patrick share another hug. That caught him off-guard; it seemed to be rather emotional, like they were long-lost family reuniting. Interesting, wasn't Belpois supposed to be an orphan?
"Who's this?" he asked the group, prepared to catch any lies.
The six were smiling broadly. "Jérémie's long-lost cousin," Odd answered. Hervé studied him, all of them closely, but he could not see any hint that they were trying to gaslight.
"Yeah," Ulrich cut in. "Turns out that Jérémie has relatives, after all."
Upon hearing this, Hervé put himself in Jérémie's shoes for once. An orphan who had believed that they had nobody in their life, and moved to their pen pal's school the moment they could, and then ran into a relative they didn't know they had? Yeah, Hervé would be emotional too. He'd be happy.
He'd misjudged Jérémie all this time. Their rivalry was one-sided. Jérémie never sought to do or say anything malicious; he was just lonely, and according to third parties, it was hard for him to make friends. So it made perfect sense that he'd latch onto his pen pal and become friends with his pen pal's friends. Hervé could relate—it was difficult for him to make friends too—and he'd probably do the same.
Besides, he couldn't fault anyone for falling in love with Aelita. She was kind, bubbly, smart, and sweet. And she was her own person; she could love anyone she wanted to. And if she had chosen Jérémie, then...Hervé would just have to accept defeat. It would be hard, though. A girl like Aelita wouldn't be easy to get over.
"Good," he softly replied. And he meant it.
Jérémie had apparently finally found happiness in his life, and Hervé, now understanding his rival's position, didn't think he could rip that happiness away. If Belpois really was an AI, then he was a very convincing one.
But looking back one more time at Jérémie as he forced himself to separate from his recently-found cousin, he didn't seem like it. Maybe Hervé was the one that had gone crazy, after all.
Maybe Jérémie Belpois was indeed who he and his friends were saying he was...
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 65 - My Most Important Person / The group takes on the Ice Replika as Ulrich's reaction to a certain photo makes Yumi think twice about the choice she made last summer.
A/N: Believe it or not, but this was always the plan I had for 'Wrong Exposure'. Yes, Patrick will be remaining at Kadic, and his arrival will effect what happens after the finale. Just like in canon, Patrick's not a bad guy. He just has no idea about Lyoko. But when he sees an injustice, especially caused by him, he steps in to stop it.
Jérémie's family tree, as it stands now, is the following: Michel Périn (father, formerly 'Belpois'), Sophie Périn (mother), Arthur Belpois (uncle, Michel's twin brother), Éloïse Belpois (aunt, Arthur's wife, formerly 'Rochefort'), and Patrick Belpois (cousin, Arthur and Éloïse's son). As for Sophie's side, I haven't decided yet. Also, "le lycée" is French for 'high school'. The four adults are all around the same age; Jérémie was just born before Patrick was.
If you need a refresher on the Belpois surname 'sounding right' to Jérémie, re-read Chapter 18: A Brand New World.