The Boy in the Computer

by SepticAbzies

Lyoko is back and the heroes have been upgraded, but XANA has shifted its goals yet again. / Jerlita Roleswap AU / Current Episode: Fight to the Finish / S1-3: Done, S4: WIP

59. 57: The Beauty of Kadic

A/N: Here is the next installment of my Jerlita Roleswap AU. Hope you all enjoy it~

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.

Note: Remember, any episodes not mentioned either as the inspiration for a chapter or just in passing are not part of the AU, mainly because the roleswap makes them useless, and those only mentioned in passing are just filler and/or would be the same no matter who has what role.

Beta read by swordsdownforreview

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

"Sissi hosts a beautiful pen pal from Iceland, whose attention-seeking ways drive all of the boys crazy and the girls jealous."

Episode 57: The Beauty of Kadic

(Based on Kadic Bombshell)

"And, at the end of the play," Ms. Kensington was summarizing a classic Shakespeare play to her class, "Juliet drinks a potion that makes her appear to be dead. Romeo, thinking he's lost his young bride, poisons himself. And when Juliet wakes up and sees the lifeless Romeo, she drives a dagger through her heart."

Sissi was tearing up, deeply moved by the story, "That is so beautiful...!"

"That is so idiotic!" Odd, however, felt differently.

Aelita (his deskmate) just rolled her eyes, right before the bell rang. The students all stood up and began packing up their things. As they left, Ms. Kensington called out to them, "Don't forget to review both this passage and the balcony scene for next week! See you on Monday! Have a great weekend, all of you!"

It was a Saturday, a half-day, which meant the four Lyokowarriors now had the time to relax. And confront Odd for his opinion on the Romeo and Juliet story.

"What didn't you like about it, Odd?" Aelita asked her cousin, curious. "It's a wonderful love story, isn't it?"

He rolled his eyes, "That's just it, Aelita. It's a story. Killing yourself for love? That never happens."

The four stopped walking. Jérémie turned around to wink at Odd, "You're just saying that because no girl has killed herself for you before."

"No, I'm saying it because it's totally cheesy!" Odd vehemently defended himself. "But you'll have to excuse Shakespeare. They didn't have television back in those days."

Jérémie frowned, "I really don't see what that has to do with it."

"Well, without television, they had to do something else to kill time," Odd explained. "So they made up impossible stories where people die for love. Listen, if you ask me, that would never happen! It's just a fantasy!" He turned to his roommate, "Would you be ready to die for Yumi, Ulrich?"

The brunette's response was automatic, "Better believe it!" However, he quickly realized what he just said, as Yumi herself walked up to them with William at her side. "Well...I'm, that is.."

"Hi, guys!" She greeted them. "What are you talking about?"

A startled Ulrich began blushing. William raised an intrigued eyebrow at Jérémie, Aelita, and Odd's bright smiles that appeared here.

"Oh, about tragedy and true love," Odd teased. "And Ulrich was just saying–"

Ulrich quickly cut him off, "–That it's totally idiotic!"

Yumi sent him a confused glance, but William, having caught on, just sent him a knowing smile. Ulrich, however, just kept his face away from them, if only to hide his embarrassment.

Jérémie chose to change the subject, "Hey, Aelita, I think I figured out a way for improving the source logarithms that you showed me." Yesterday afternoon, she had come to him for help on a new program.

Said pink-ette smiled in response, "Great! Let's discuss it over lunch!"

She then ran off towards the cafeteria, and he quickly followed. The others heard her giggling on the way.

Fondly staring after them, Ulrich asked, "Do you think Aelita and Jérémie would be ready to die for each other?"

"For love, I don't know," Odd shrugged. "They might die of boredom, though. But I have something else to focus on. Someone has a birthday today~!"

His shout captured said birthday person's attention, and they walked over to him. "You rang?" Sam smiled at him.

"Happy birthday, Sam!" Ulrich said. Today was her eighteenth birthday, so she was now the same age as Yumi and William (eighteen; legally an adult), who had wished her the same thing earlier this morning, due to being in the same classes as her.

"Thank you," she replied. "I've been getting wishes all day, but the only ones that matter to me are the ones from you guys." But especially Odd's, went unsaid.

"Prepare yourself for tonight, Sam," Odd told her, a huge excited smile on his face. "I'm taking you out to your favorite restaurant. Get ready to get blown away!"

"I'm looking forward to it, Odd. Thank you," she replied, blushing. "That's very sweet of you!"

"Anything for my favorite person in the entire world!"

"But you won't die for her," Ulrich muttered under his breath.

Odd immediately whirled around with a death glare, "Shush!", while ignoring Sam's confusion.

But Yumi was focusing on something else. "Hey, look. What's that all about?"

The other four followed Yumi's gaze. A group of students were gathered outside the door to the dormitories, asking various questions.

"What's your name?"

"How long are you here for?"

"Is that your real hair color?"

"Could you invite me to Iceland?"

"How do you know Sissi?"

Their questions were all being directed at a girl none of them had ever seen before. Said newcomer was tall and curvy, with long blonde hair, beautiful green eyes that pierced into your very soul, and a strange aura that drew boys in and girls away. She was very attractive, so the next few questions made sense.

"Would you like to go out with a guy like me?"

"No, not with that idiot. With me!"

"No, me!"

"Hey, I asked her first!"

Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, William, and Sam all approached the group, and got a better look at the stranger standing at Sissi's side.

"Come on," Yumi rolled her eyes in unamusement. Sam reacted very much the same way. "Give me a break." She turned to Milly and Tamiya, both of whom were just standing there not asking questions, "Who is she?"

"Sissi's overseas pen pal," Milly explained. "She's visiting Kadic for four days. Her name is Bringa Erad...uh... Erud..uh... whatever!"

Fortunately, Tamiya stepped in with the correction, "Bringa Erinsdottir. She's from Iceland."

"Where is Iceland?" The questions weren't stopping.

"Do you like it here?"

"No, for real, how do you get your hair like that?"

Milly continued, "Sissi doesn't look too happy, though. I mean, when Jérémie came to Kadic, Aelita was ecstatic. Sissi, here, on the other hand, looks almost annoyed. I don't think she likes the attention she's getting very much."

"Yeah," Yumi agreed. "I think it's because Bringa's just eating it all up. After all, she's Bringa's pen pal, not any of the boys'." Sam could only nod.

"Do you live with your parents?"

"What will you be doing over the next twenty years?"

Sissi finally interrupted all the people asking questions to her pen pal. "Okay, the show's over." Like Milly said, she indeed sounded very annoyed. "I need to take Bringa to her room." She then led the blonde stranger into the dormitory building.

The students laughed as thought in a love daze, but the crowd began to disperse. Soon, only Yumi and Sam where left, with the three boys, who were all grinning stupidly.

Yumi clapped her hands, "Alright, time to wake up. Now!" She then crossed her arms in annoyance.

"Wha...?" was William's reaction.

"I'm awake!" Odd exclaimed.

"What'd you say?" Ulrich asked.

Sam sent Odd a stern look, "That's the last time you get to give any other girl that look, understand?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Crystal."

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

A few minutes later, the six Lyokowarriors had regrouped in the cafeteria. They were now at a table, eating their respective lunches.

Aelita was passionately talking with Jérémie a kilometer a minute, "So you've found a way to make my program improve the wavelength of gamma waves by doubling the frequency of incident light? Is that it?"

Jérémie chomped down on a Brussel sprout, "Yeah, that's right. Which means that it should provide much faster visualization, so our response to attacks will be...wow..."

He had just spotted the newcomer: Bringa, Sissi's pen pal from Iceland. Boy, was she attractive...

"What?" Ulrich, Odd, and William all turned around to see what he was looking at, and didn't have to wait for long to spot it. Or rather, her.

Bringa and Sissi both smiled as they took their trays from Gaston. The students already in line stood back to let Bringa go before them, only to step back once she was past. Thus blocking Sissi's way.

"Hey, let me through! She's my pen pal!" No one listened, so Sissi huffed in annoyance.

The group watched—the boys in a dazed state, the girls in an annoyed one—as Matthias pulled out a chair for Bringa, and she sat in it. Emmanuel brought her tray of food and placed it in front of her. Hervé filled up her glass with water.

"Thank you," Bringa finally spoke words.

Hervé took the jug away, back to the kitchen, as he dreamily commented to no one, "Oh, she said 'thank you' to me!"

"I wonder what the boys see in that string bean..." Yumi bitterly muttered.

Aelita was the only one who heard her, "The girls aren't any better." Because she was just as sour. "Look at them. They're all chasing after her to find out her beauty secrets."

Over at Bringa's table, a few girls had gathered around to talk to her. Sissi, finally through the line, walked over with her tray, but couldn't seem to get past the crowd. "Hey, I'd like to sit down, if you don't mind! Let me through, will you?!"

But nobody moved. So Sissi just growled and stalked off.

"Thank goodness Hervé's not immune to her charm, though..." Aelita added. That was a relief for her—Hervé moving on to someone else, that is.

However, Sissi went to sit down next to Theo, like she usually did, but he pushed the chair in, stopping her from sitting there.

"Sorry, Sissi," he said, "this seat is taken. I'm holding onto it because Bringa promised that she would sit with me during dessert."

Sissi was fuming as she exclaimed, "You're an idiot, Gauthier!", before leaving the cafeteria.

Said surname brought William out of his daze, as it reminded him of a certain blonde that he was already pining for, one that was not from Iceland, but instead right here in France. He glanced over at the table Laura was sitting at.

She seemed to be sulking. He wondered why, until he remembered that Laura was the 'nerdy' type of girl. She was likely jealous of all the attention Bringa was getting without even trying to gain it.

Sitting with Laura were Nicolas and Naomi, and their conversation was also interesting.

Nicolas was rolling his eyes, "Theo is an idiot. That Bringa won't give anyone the time of day. I highly doubt she plans on having dessert with him unless she gets something out of it." He turned back to Naomi, "Besides, love is more than just beauty. It's about having a meaningful connection. To paraphrase Romeo and Juliet: would you be willing to die for them?"

"Would you die for me?" Naomi shyly asked him.

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "Um, to be honest, I don't really want to think about it. I'd rather not come across a situation where I need to answer that question. But I would live for you."

Apparently, that (very sweet) answer was exactly what Naomi was looking for, as her resulting smile was bright, almost blinding.

In response, affected by their conversation, William stood up with his tray in hand and walked over to that table, honestly not caring whether or not the others noticed. He sat down next to Laura and offered her a smile when she glanced up at who had arrived.

"Hey, William," she immediately greeted with a hopeful smile.

"Hey," he replied, as he sat down next to her. "Nicolas is right, you know. Beauty isn't everything. I like you, Laura, not because of your looks, but because of how smart you are. You're intellectual, you're clever, you're quick-witted, and you have many paths open for you in regards to your future, but you've chosen to work on coding games. I like you because you have a sense of confidence and self-assurance that not many people possess. Despite your introvertedness, you face life and the world without regrets, and I really admire that about you."

Laura was blushing by the time he finished, but she was smiling.

William turned to Nicolas, "You just keep surprising me, Nicolas. How are you so wise when it comes to relationships?"

The other boy just shrugged, "I think it's because my parents are divorced, so I have an example of what not to do."

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

When lunch hour was over, Odd opened the door and led the others out of the cafeteria. He blissfully sighed, "Well, this weekend is going to be great! Sam's birthday dinner, rest and recuperation, and maybe going to the movies too!"

The others (including William) followed him out the door. "You're not going to the pool tomorrow with Miss Iceland?" Yumi asked. "Seems everyone's going."

Odd put his hands behind his head and walked backwards, still facing the others. "No, I've got better things to do, like hours and hours of sleep and snacks!" He bumped into someone. Turning around, he saw that it was Bringa. "Oh, sorry!"

Said blonde was with Sissi, who fondly teased him, "Watch where you're going next time, you dork."

"Oh, I will," he replied, in jest. "One of these days, but today's not..."

He trailed off here because he met Bringa's green gaze. She was smiling at him, warmly. He couldn't help but give her a stupid grin in return.

"Oh, it is alright," she said, her Icelandic accent coming out clearly.

Sissi raised an eyebrow at her pen pal, while Ulrich and Jérémie gave each other a surprised and concerned glance.

This could only end in disaster...

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

Later on, the six were playing foosball in the rec room. Well, Odd and Ulrich were, while the other four watched. Yumi and Aelita were leaning against the nearby wall, both looking irritated, as Odd rambled on and on.

"I tell you, she's something else!" The Italian boy was loud and excited. "She's gorgeous and slim, and her hair's like gold! And did you see those deep, clear, green eyes! Absolutely incredible. Wow! And...did you get a look at that beautiful, soft skin she has?"

Ulrich was alternating between a grin and a blank expression depending on where the ball was on the table. Though Odd's ranting was not making it easy for him to concentrate.

"She definitely possesses the very essence of beauty! But Bringa's not just 'beautiful'. 'Beautiful' is not the right word. She's, I don't know, she's, well, she's..."

"She's worse," Aelita replied, "though I personally would use 'ugly'."

Odd was shocked when his friends all began to laugh at the jab.

"Yeah, you talk about her as if she's the eighth wonder of the world!" Yumi added, obviously mocking him.

"Listen, Odd," William cut in, "there's nothing wrong with admiring someone's beauty, but there's just one little problem here. Don't you already have someone you're in love with? Like Sam, maybe?"

Odd scored a goal, to Ulrich's displeasure. "Bingo! Those are the words I was looking for! Thanks, Yumes! Bringa is the eighth wonder of the world!"

"Odd, are you sure you don't have a problem with..." Ulrich trailed off.

But Jérémie finished for him, "...A slightly overheated brain?"

"Thanks, Jer!" Ulrich chuckled. "That's exactly what I meant!" He turned back to Odd, "You don't even talk about Sam this way! Are you sure you actually like her?"

Odd slid the last counter over, indicating another foosball goal. "It's not my fault I caught Bringa's eye and you didn't!" he bragged.

Ulrich just groaned, "She really has fried your brain, you moron! Can't you see that she comes on strong to everyone? She just loves having people at her feet!"

"You know something?" was Odd's comeback. "You're just jealous, good buddy!"

"W-What?!" Ulrich sputtered out. "Why would I be jealous?!"

Odd wasn't able to give an answer, though, because in that moment the door opened, and in stepped the source of the group's sudden tension.

"Oh, there you are, Odd," Bringa greeted. "Are those your friends? I'd like to meet them."

She walked inside, and Odd walked to the other side of the foosball table to greet her. Ulrich, Jérémie, and William all turned and smiled at her.

"Why sure, Bringa!" Odd replied, before gesturing to each of his friends in turn. "Aelita... Yumi..."

Both mentioned girls were both frowning and closing their eyes, as if not wanting to look directly at her, or to pretend she wasn't actually there.

"Hello..." Yumi greeted her as politely as she could muster. Which wasn't much.

"Bringa..." Aelita wasn't any better.

"William," Odd continued.

William gave her a quick wave and a soft smile, "Hello. It's nice to meet you." He was much more cordial than the girls—who were clearly jealous—but much tamer than the other boys.

"Likewise," Bringa replied.

Odd finished, "Ulrich... and Jérémie!"

Bringa immediately gave said young genius a smile, "Are you the one whose name is 'Mr. Einstein'? You look very intelligent."

A mad blush quickly appeared on Jérémie's face, "R-Really? Thank you!"

To this, Aelita's frown deepened. Clearly, Bringa wasn't told that the nickname was a mirror of Aelita's 'Miss Einstein' moniker.

"Ulrich!" Bringa turned to the brunette. "You are the one who likes to do martial arts, yes? Perhaps you could give me a demonstration!"

"I'd be...I'd be, uh, okay," he stammered, before winking at her.

To this, Yumi's frown grew. Was Bringa aware that Ulrich's only sparring partner was Yumi herself?

"It is nice to get to know all of you," Bringa continued. "I was hoping to also meet this Samantha Odd keeps talking about, but I don't see her here."

"You will," Odd reassured her. "She's just doing homework right now."

"Well, in the meantime, would you show me around the school, Odd ástkær?" she asked, as she took his hands.

"'Ástkær'!" Odd excitedly told his friends. "That means 'sweetheart'!"

He then laughed gleefully as he and Bringa ran out of the door, hand in hand.

William just blinked and asked the others, "Again, doesn't he already have Sam?"

But he got no response to his question. Instead, he got the following.

Ulrich scoffed, "I really wonder what she sees in that shrimp!" Interesting. Seems like Ulrich was actually jealous of Odd catching Bringa's eye, despite his earlier protests.

"Yeah, you're right!" As was Jérémie. "Bringa needs somebody a little more...intellectually developed."

Before William could say anything, though, Aelita cut in with a scolding, "Do you guys realize you're talking about our friend? Jealous, both of you. I don't believe it! All because of that girl. And you, Jérémie! Talk about fried brains, you take the cake. You're literally melting for her!"

Jérémie, however, didn't take too kindly to that, as he seemed to snap, "So?! It's not like you have the right to tell me who I can and can't find pretty and charming, you know!"

The pink-ette didn't say anything else to that, unable to because he was right.

"Look at you, Ulrich!" Yumi stepped up in Aelita's place. "Ever since that blonde ice cube showed up here, you've turned into a doormat!"

"Whatever," Ulrich easily dismissed her, however. "I really don't see why you should care. We're 'just good friends and that's all', remember?"

It was her own words thrown back in her face, and she knew that. So, like Aelita, she couldn't deny that either. But that didn't mean she was happy about it.

Seeing the increased tension between them, Ulrich placed a comforting hand on Jérémie's back, "Come on, Jer. Let's go get some fresh air, away from them."

The blonde didn't protest to being led outside by the brunette.

Once they were gone, Yumi groaned in frustration and began ranting to Aelita, "Ugh! What's wrong with boys?! Are all of them this idiotic?!"

William cleared his throat, reminding the two of his presence, that he hadn't left.

When they turned to him, his expression read 'not happy'. "That's right. I'm still here. And yes, while us boys may be idiotic at times, you girls aren't any better in this situation." Before they could protest, he continued, "Jealousy or not, you two could've at least treated Bringa with way more respect than what you collectively gave her. At least Odd, Ulrich, and Jérémie actually met her eyes. If you don't like Bringa, fine. You have every right to be jealous of her. Just don't let it get to your heads. Next time, apologize and treat her like the human being she is. Besides, if a really attractive guy came to Kadic, you two wouldn't be able to stop admiring him, so spare the double standard here." He began to calm down. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I promised to take Laura to the movies later."

He then also left, letting his words stew in their minds. He was right, and they knew it.

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

Jérémie and Ulrich, meanwhile, were walking under the arches, trying to cool off from the events that just occured in the rec room.

"What is it with girls this year?!" Ulrich huffed.

"They're right, you know," Jérémie softly replied. He had stopped, so the brunette did as well. The blonde adjusted his glasses and pointed to his head, "That Bringa's really started messing with our heads. I mean, why were we badmouthing Odd like that? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Of course, we are," Ulrich replied, before sighing. "The girls are right. All because Odd caught Bringa's eye and we didn't. Why is she so special anyway? What does she have that Yumi and Aelita don't?"

"The effect her eyes had on me was strange," Jérémie muttered. "Bringa's, I mean. It felt like...like she was piercing right through me." He hugged himself for comfort. "Like a fish getting hooked..."

"Because that's exactly what she was doing, Jer. Luring us in." And Ulrich was beating himself up for not realizing before that his friend here had no experience with girls other than Aelita and Yumi, both of whom never sought to take advantage of him the way Bringa intended to. "But Aelita's eyes have a different effect, don't they?"

He already knew the answer, but Jérémie responded anyway, "Yeah...she makes me feel safe..."

Ulrich smiled, "Well, she is your knight in shining pink armor, Prince Charming. It fits. But Bringa..." He shook his head, "I would do anything for Yumi because I love her and I know she would return the favor in a heartbeat. With her, I don't have to put any walls up, because she understands me. Sometimes, we have conversations that are completely nonverbal."

"Because you just know each other that well," Jérémie finished. Ulrich nodded, grateful that his friend understood, likely having the same bond with Aelita. "So Bringa is..." He trailed off.

It was Ulrich's turn to finish, "She's just a pretty face. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with finding someone else attractive, but looks aren't what's important in a relationship. It's the conversations and experiences you have together, because they are what builds chemistry."

Out of nowhere, the two felt someone else bump each of their respective hips with their own. They turned in the directions they felt the nudges to find Aelita and Yumi there, apologetic smiles on their faces.

"Yeah," Yumi seemed to agree with Ulrich's previous statement, "we could dress up in nothing but garbage bags and neither of you would care."

Ulrich's eyes immediately softened, "Yumi...I'm sorry. You're right. I was turning into a doormat."

But the Japanese girl shook her head, "I'm the one who's sorry. You're right too. I was jealous, but we aren't together, so I had no right to complain about the attention you were giving Bringa."

"I appreciate it regardless—your honesty," he replied. "That is what we're striving for, right? Honesty and maturity?"

She gave him a sad smile, "Right...but I'm still sorry."

Aelita turned to Jérémie, "I'm also sorry. You're right, I have no right to hold you back." It wasn't as if he had asked to be trapped on Lyoko for ten years. "If you want to, ahem," what she was about to say clearly pained her to even think about, "explore your options, then I won't stop you."

But Jérémie was shaking his head, "I don't want to. Not if doing so involves me talking badly about my own friends."

In response, the pink-ette moved ever so closer to him.

"William's right, too," Yumi added. "Bringa's new, yes, and while she may be striving for attention from everyone, she's a human being, just like us. Whether or not she's leading Odd on, she deserves to be treated with respect."

"What if we just end up drifting farther apart?" Jérémie quietly asked.

Aelita grabbed his hand and squeezed it to comfort him.

"That won't happen, Jérémie," Ulrich vowed. "We promise."

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

Later that night, when Odd returned to his dorm to get ready for his night out, he came back to a rather unpleasant surprise. It didn't start out that way, though. At first, he was just surprised.

His five friends were in there, with Aelita and Jérémie each sitting on a bed, Ulrich and Yumi in the two chairs, and William standing in the middle. None of them looked joyful. It was something serious. Kiwi was also sitting on the floor in front of William.

"Huh?" He swung the door shut behind him with his foot. "Did I miss an episode?"

"Take a seat, Odd," William said. "This is serious."

"We need to talk," Yumi clarified. "So pay careful attention, understand?"

Odd only nodded, confused. But he remained standing (because there were no more empty seats).

"Look," Ulrich began, "ever since you started hanging out with Bringa, there's been a lot of friction in our group, and, uh–"

"And that's not very good for our mission, or for your current relationship," Jérémie finished. "Bringa is coming between us, and..."

"And we think the best thing for you is to stop hanging out with her now, Romeo," Aelita crossed her arms. "Instead, put your energy into your real Juliet."

Odd put his hands on his hips, not pleased, "You actually want me to stop being friends with Bringa just because you guys can't get along with her?! It's not her fault, or mine either, for that matter!" He opened the door, "The problem is you and your jealousy!"

He paused when William exclaimed, "Odd, wait! It's a big problem! You promised Sam you would never stand her up!"

"A problem for you guys, maybe, but not for me!" Odd protested. "Sam and I aren't even together, so it's not like I'm committing any sort of crime here! In fact, I have my first date with your problem right now! So ciao!"

He then left, closing the door behind him. The others could only exchange concerned glances.

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

Odd stopped at the door to the staircase. Bringa was waiting for him, leaning against the railing.

"You look a little upset." He glanced up at her. She seemed concerned. "If you don't want to go to the movies tonight–"

He quickly replied, "Of course I do!" He couldn't disguise his irritation, though. "It's just that my friends are being so lame." He began making his way down the stairs. "I'll pick you up later. I'm meeting Sam for her birthday first."

Bringa, surprisingly, stopped him before he could walk very far down the steps, "You can meet her later. Let us go to the movies now."

"I can't," he protested. "I promised her–"

She cut him by pouting, "Please? I really wish to see if your cinemas are any different from ours." A pause. "You can meet up with Samantha after."

Odd bit his lip. God, those green eyes were irresistible. Feeling like he had no choice, he sighed, "Okay."

But a tiny bit of his soul was telling him that he was about to make a big mistake. He wasn't, he told himself.

Again, he and Sam weren't together. At this point, they were still just friends. The restaurant didn't close until midnight, so he had time.

Right?

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

Aelita was sitting at the lab's monitor, Jérémie at her side. He watched her type in one last command and press 'enter'. A new window opened up on the screen—the program the two had been working on all day.

"The program will run all night," she said, as she got out of the chair and led him to the lift. "We'll come back tomorrow morning to check up on it, see how it ran."

The two entered the elevator, and she pressed the 'up' button, before noticing that he hadn't responded to her. She glanced over and saw why; he was in some kind of reverie, obviously deep in thought about something.

"Still thinking about Odd?" she asked, knowingly.

Jérémie's voice was soft, "I'm just wondering if our little group will survive this 'eighth wonder of the world'. She seems to be bringing us nothing but misfortune."

She shrugged, before attempting to comfort him with, "Honestly, I wouldn't worry. Odd doesn't get dates with girls all that often, but his flings never really last for more than two days in a row. That's probably why he's taking things so slow with Sam." Because he really liked her.

He closed his eyes, "I don't know. I think that girl has turned our court jester into a Romeo." He sighed, "I just hope he doesn't forget about Sam's birthday tonight."

"He won't," Aelita promised, though it was more reassurance for herself than for Jérémie.

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

The restaurant was more of a late-night diner than a fancy restaurant, but Sam dressed up in her nicest dress. It was a simple black and orange dress one would wear for a Halloween dance, not for a birthday dinner in early December. But Sam didn't care (orange was her favorite color), and neither would Odd.

The waitress that had led her to a booth in the corner handed her the soda she had asked for, and she took a sip of it as she began to wait for her friend (not date, shut up!) to arrive.

She was hoping she wouldn't have to wait long.

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

It was around midnight when Odd and Bringa returned to Kadic. One movie turned into a trip to the mall. They were entering the front gates now, not really hiding because Jim was likely asleep by now, so they were now taking a walk before returning to their respective dorms.

"You have such a sad face all night," Bringa said. "You're not happy to be with me?"

"Sorry," he softly replied. "I was just thinking about the fight I had with my friends earlier..."

"Don't worry," she told him, sounding confident in the advice she was giving him. "Sometimes you make friends, sometimes you lose them. When that happens, you make new ones."

It was good advice, and on the surface, it sounded harmless. But below the surface...

Odd stopped walking, making her do the same, "They're not just my friends. They're more than that, Bringa, and no offense, but I don't think you'd understand."

They were more than friends, and more than family too. He didn't know how to describe it, but the other Lyokowarriors were his most important people. Yes, Jérémie's fears of them breaking up were valid, but it was unlikely to happen. Their bond was too strong for that. After all, right now, Odd was defending them despite their argument earlier.

"Maybe not," Bringa replied, "but they have made you very sad." And he couldn't deny that. "Now that I'm here, with you, you don't need them."

He didn't take kindly to that. "No, it's really different with them." He would always need them. They would always be the only people who'd be able to keep his head straight. He looked away, his smile gone, sighing, "I told you, you wouldn't understand."

"Well, then explain it to me. Help me understand." He didn't grace that with a response. "What is the matter? Don't you trust me, Odd?"

He rubbed the back of his head, "Well, you see, we're..." He struck a fighting pose, "we're kinda like brothers in arms!"

"'Arms'?" she asked in confusion. "What does that mean?"

He was right; she wouldn't understand. "Nothing," he looked away, putting his hands in his pockets. "Forget I ever said anything."

He couldn't say anything more than that. Otherwise, he'd be giving away the secret.

Bringa folded her arms and started walking away, coldly telling him, "I thought that you trusted me, but you don't."

He rolled his eyes, seeing right through her attempts at manipulation, "Stop that. I do, just not with this."

She turned back around to face him, "I'm just trying to understand you better. You cannot fault me for that."

He couldn't deny that, so he didn't. Instead, he got an idea, "Okay, fine. I'll just show you. Maybe then, you'll see why my friends are so special." He crossed his arms, "But only if you swear to keep it all a secret."

She just smiled in response.

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

Odd pulled the blindfold off Bringa's head, "Here we are! Tada!"

She gasped at the sight in front of her—the lab, more specifically the supercomputer terminal. He had taken her to the factory. He knew he was betraying the others by bringing Bringa to the factory, but he trusted her not to tell anyone.

"Incredible! What is this place?" she asked, as she walked over to the chair.

"It's, uh, kinda complicated," Odd explained. "To be honest, I don't really understand it all. They're pretty top-secret scientific experiments, uh..."

As he was talking, she pressed a key, bringing the screen to life. Jérémie and Aelita's program was still running.

"...ultra-secret, phenomena, digital kind of stuff." He also wasn't giving any specifics. That was on purpose.

Bringa started tapping random keys, "Wow...!"

It was then that he noticed what she was doing, "Hm?" He wasted no time in stepping between her and the keyboard, arms out wide. "No! Bringa, don't touch anything!" Behind him, on the screen, an error window popped up for a brief moment before disappearing again.

She looked at him, irritated, "Alright, Odd. I'm not an idiot!"

A window showed code highlighted in red. This alarmed Odd, because that was never a good sign, "But the supercomputer was doing something! What did you do?"

"Me? Nothing at all! I hardly touched the keyboard."

He highly doubted that. "I think it's best if we leave now." He began walking towards the lift. Showing Bringa the factory was clearly a mistake.

She frowned, "But I haven't seen anything yet..."

He stopped, "Let's go. Please, Bringa." He was upset at himself for being so stupid.

She sighed after seeing his forced smile. Finally, she got out of the chair and joined him in the lift. Odd could only hope that the damage that had been done wasn't too severe...

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

He should've been more concerned about the other mistake that he had made, because it had caused way more damage than him showing Bringa the supercomputer.

Well past midnight, nearly one in the morning, Sam trudged back to the Kadic dormitories by herself. For once, she didn't care if Jim caught her, which was a testament to how she felt at the moment.

She stopped in front of a closed door and softly knocked on it, well aware that this was not her dorm, the one she shared with Emilie Leduc. There was a rustling on the other side, before the door opened, revealing the tired yet cheerful face of Odd's cousin, Aelita, dressed in her pajamas.

Sam felt a twinge of guilt for waking the younger girl up, but she really needed someone to talk to after what just happened to her.

Aelita was mildly confused, "Sam? What are you doing here? Isn't your dorm a few doors down the hall?"

Sam just sniffed back her tears, before letting them fall. The strength in her legs then gave out, as she collapsed into the pink-ette's arms. Fortunately, the other caught her without hesitation.

"Sam?" Aelita asked, surprised. "What's wrong? What happened?"

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

The next morning, Jérémie had a rude awakening, thanks to the superscan alert coming from his laptop. "Huh? What's going...?" Quickly realizing what was happening, he grabbed his glasses and went over to his desk.

Ulrich's phone rang, and he begrudgingly answered it, placing it on the bed next to his head, rather than holding it to his ear. "What is it?" he asked, groggy.

"You gotta get up!" Jérémie told him. "Activated tower in the–" Before he could finish, however, the superscan window closed on its own. "That's weird. Apparently, there is no activated tower anymore. Sorry, Ulrich, you can go back to sleep. False alarm." He hung up, confused by what just happened, "I don't get it..."

There was one person who would help him get to the bottom of everything, though. He promptly dialed her number.

Meanwhile, now sitting up in bed, Ulrich hung up and sighed. He looked over at Odd, who was asleep face down on his bed, snoring, his sheets only covering his feet while Kiwi was asleep on his back. Ulrich just sighed and laid back down.

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

It was a few minutes later when Jérémie and Aelita arrived in the lab via the lift. He had just finished explaining to her what he had seen.

"Don't worry, I got the alert too," she was telling him, the two of them rushing over to the monitor as soon as they were able to. "And if both of us got the same alarm, then I'm pretty sure that neither of our devices have gone paranoid." She sat down in the chair and began typing, thus waking up the screen, "So we've gotta hurry and find out what's going on. Okay, still no activated tower. Now let me check the log." She brought the mentioned window. "Bingo! There's a system alert, alright, but not from this morning. It was last night at...12:36 in the morning? Interesting..."

The superscan popped up again. She stopped typing, "Huh?"

But nothing happened. Not in the sector that the program was indicating, nor anywhere else.

"Just what is going on here?" Jérémie asked, intently staring at the screen.

"This is getting weirder every second," Aelita commented. "The supercomputer says that there's an activated tower in the Desert Sector, but in terms of digital activity, nothing's going on."

"What's the cause of these false alarms?" he asked. "You think it's a virus?"

"It could have been a problem with the program that we launched last night," she shrugged, "but I don't get it. We checked everything out." She typed in a command to bring up the program. "Here are the calculations we ran. Oh, no..."

"What is it?" he turned to the screen. "What's wrong?" He quickly found the problem, what she was seeing. "The program has been modified...?!"

"Yeah, some sort of phoney foreign data was entered into the supercomputer," the pink-ette explained, "like random keys were pressed without any thought at all. Someone came here last night, for sure!"

The two shared a knowing glance, before Aelita typed in the commands to bring up the security footage from last night, the time stamp being 12:36 AM.

The video showed Odd leading a blindfolded Bringa into the lab.

"Uh-oh," Jérémie commented, watching proof of his friend betraying the group. "Looks like Odd made a big, fat mistake."

Aelita paused the video and then fast-forwarded it, "No, I think his mistake is more like skinny and blonde." She shook her head in disappointment, "So this is where he was when he stood Sam up!"

Jérémie immediately turned to her in surprise, "What?! He never made it to the restaurant?!"

"No," the pink-ette explained. "Around one in the morning, she came by my dorm and explained that she had waited there for him for almost four hours."

Jérémie was shaking his head, but for a different reason, "No. No! Odd would never do that to Sam!"

"Looks like Bringa's changed him," Aelita replied. "I can't believe it either, Jérémie, but Sam's tears were real. The best I could do was let her cry it out before escorting her to her room when she finally tired herself out. Before I left for here with you, I texted Yumi and explained the situation, so Sam won't be alone today."

"Good," Jérémie muttered, as Aelita resumed the video.

The two watched as Bringa sat in the chair as Odd ranted as if he was glossing over specifics. She typed random keys, before Odd quickly stepped in and stopped her.

"No, Bringa! Don't touch anything!"

"Sorry, you're too late, Odd," Jérémie replied, despite the video showing a past event. "The damage was already done the moment she touched the keyboard."

Aelita paused the video on Odd forcing a smile at Bringa, as the blonde girl joined him in the lift.

"Well, no need to look any further, Jérémie," Aelita sighed, leaning back in the chair. "Not only did Odd give away our secret, but Bringa, by inputting those random commands, modified our program and thus, messed up the supercomputer."

"Can you fix it?" he asked her.

"Yeah, but the problem is that it might take a little while," she explained. "In order to fix Bringa's blunder, I'll have to delete the old version of our program and then re-code it from scratch. And of course, during that time, we're blind. At any time, XANA could–"

The superscan opened again.

"–Activate a tower!" she finished. "Though it could be another false alarm..."

"True, but we can't be sure," Jérémie told her. "Send me to Lyoko."

She immediately shook her head, "No, it's too risky."

"But not knowing what XANA could be up to is even riskier," he reminded her. "We need someone there, like before we had the superscan."

He was right. So she relented, "Yeah, you're right." She nodded at the side ladder, "Go on."

He offered her a reassuring smile, before running to the ladder. As he climbed down, she slipped in the earpiece.

"The activated tower should be in the northwest part of the Mountain Sector."

"Gotcha!" he replied from inside the scanner.

"Transfer Jérémie." His ID card was selected. "Scanner Jérémie." His avatar began to load. Once it was complete, she pressed 'enter'. "Virtualization!"

His yellow arrow appeared on the holomap, but she didn't think to double-check the sector she had sent him to until he told her, "Um, Aelita? I think you made a mistake. You sent me to Forest Sector."

"No, I didn't," she replied, confused. "I input the code for the Mountain Sector. I know I did." But when she checked the title of the holomap window, it indeed read ' '. Around Jérémie's arrow were wireframes of many trees. She sighed, "Oh boy, we really do have a problem..."

"It's okay," the elf offered. "I can use my Second Sight anywhere."

"That's not what I'm worried about, Jérémie," she replied, as she typed in Yumi's number.

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

Yumi was in Sam's room, the one the latter shared with Emilie. Ulrich and William were with them, though unsure of how they could help, or if they'd do any good. Emilie was reluctant to leave but entrusted her roommate's well-being to the trio.

Sam was sitting on her bed, crying into her knees. Yumi was sitting next to her, a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I'm really sorry, Sam."

"I can't believe Odd would do that," Ulrich added, legitimately angry.

"He was singing her praises, you know. Bringa's," William revealed. "Like she was 'the eighth wonder of the world'. He couldn't find a word to describe how beautiful she was."

"Why would he do this to me?!" Sam cried. "He promised me that he'd show up! I could care less about who he likes, but he broke his promise! Even if we aren't together yet, we're still friends, right?!"

Ulrich shrugged and offered, "Well, you know how much of an idiot he can be."

"'Idiot' is too polite of a word to use here!" she bit back.

"Agreed," Ulrich quickly relented, because he believed the truth in that.

Yumi's phone suddenly rang. She quickly picked up, "Aelita? What's up?" A pause. She scoffed, "He must be with his Icelandic icicle. Why?" Another pause. Her eyes widened, "What?! Like he needs another mistake added to the list!" A third pause. She rolled her eyes, "Be right there!"

The moment she hung up, Ulrich asked, "What did Odd do now?"

Yumi used code here because of Sam, "Odd took the 'eighth wonder of the world' to our secret hideout, and she messed everything up."

Before either William or Ulrich could express their disbelief or outrage, Sam cut in first.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Her voice was quiet, and indicated otherwise, but it was clear that she was about to blow a fuse. "You mean to say that Odd was taking that girl to such a private place to you all, somewhere he refuses to take me, while I waited for him at that restaurant for almost four hours?!"

Yumi could only reply with a soft, "Yeah..."

Sam got to her feet, giving a glare that would kill Odd a thousand times over. "Where is he?!" she growled.

"No idea," William replied, "but we'll find him together. We have a bone to pick with him too." After all, their secret was supposed to be a secret for a reason. "Whoever we reveal the secret to has to be from a unanimous vote from all of us."

The door was open, and they saw Sissi walk by in that moment, looking very grumpy. Fortunately, she stopped when Ulrich called out to her.

"Sissi, you haven't seen Odd around, have you?"

"Yes," she replied, angry for reasons of her own. "He's in the park with that traitor of a 'pen pal'."

So Theo was still under Bringa's charm. No wonder.

"Let's go!" Sam angrily said, before leaving her room.

Yumi, William, and Ulrich promptly followed, closing Sam's door behind them.

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

Jérémie meditated on a stone in the middle of a pond, amidst the Forest Sector, as he searched in every direction for anything unusual, any sign of XANA's activity, of its footprints.

Aelita's voice broke through his concentration, "How are you doing, Jérémie?"

He opened his eyes, glancing up at the sky, "I don't feel any pulsations. I don't think there's a problem." He got to his feet.

"Okay," she replied. "I'm going to bring you back in now."

He raised a curious eyebrow, "Wouldn't it be safer in the long run to have me stay here until you fix the supercomputer?"

"Probably, but I-I don't like you being all alone on Lyoko. Materialization Jérémie!"

He felt his body de-pixelize.

Then, he felt it reform in mid-air. He dropped down to the ground for the second time that day. Glancing around, he found himself still on Lyoko, specifically the Ice Sector.

"Uh-oh," he muttered. "Aelita? Another problem. I'm in the Ice Sector now." His visor indicated that he had two visitors approaching him from a distance. "And I'm not alone either..."

Two Tarantulas. XANA had clearly caught on to Jérémie being virtualized and was looking to take advantage of it. The monsters hadn't caught up to him yet, but they had him in their sights, because they were moving faster than just random monsters on patrol.

"Get somewhere safe, Jérémie," Aelita told him, "while I warn the others!"

He wasted no time in obeying her, running in the direction of the nearest way tower.

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

Bringa sat against a tree, stroking Odd's hair as he was lying with his head in her lap, both wearing content smiles.

"Odd!" He heard his roommate call out to him.

He sat up, and sure enough, Yumi, William, and Ulrich were fast approaching them, and none of them looked very happy.

"Oh, hi, guys," he said, well aware of what he had done last night.

"How was the movie last night?" Ulrich asked, crossing his arms. "Which one was it?"

"Uh, Jurassic Experiment."

"Oh yeah? You sure it wasn't 'Two Rats in a Factory'?" Yumi asked. Odd could feel the passive-aggressiveness rolling off his three friends in waves. Yeah, they knew. He could feel it.

"Uh, no!" he replied nervously. "What makes you say that?"

"Because Jérémie and Aelita have the whole film on video," William replied. "And funnily enough, the actors are the spitting images of you two."

Odd looked down at the ground, "Hey listen, it's not what you think. I was gonna tell you about it, I swear!"

Yumi just went off on him, "What's in that head of yours, sawdust?! Do you realize what you've done?! Did you think we wouldn't find out?! Now, the supercomputer is on the blink! I think you've just betrayed your way out of our group, but we'll make the vote later when the problem's been solved. In the meantime, you get to worry about something else."

Odd raised a confused eyebrow, but it didn't last long.

William and Ulrich both stepped aside, revealing an even angrier Sam.

That's right! He forgot her birthday! Frick, frick, frick!

He began to panic, "Sam! L-Look, I can explain–"

Bringa cut him off, "What is the problem? Yes, we visited your mysterious laboratory and he didn't show up to Samantha's birthday, but it's not the end of the world."

Sam's mouth dropped open in anger.

"For your information, Miss Iceland," Yumi growled, "it could be the end of the world!"

"And even if it wasn't and we were just exaggerating," William added, just as angry, "you have no right to invalidate something that's important to us."

But Sam and Odd were both focusing on something else.

"How could you do this to me?" Sam wasn't crying (yet), but she was getting there. "You forget my birthday and choose to spend it with her? You stood me up!"

"I'm sorry, Sam! I swear, I just lost track of time, and–!"

"I've stuck by you since primary school! I thought we had something special! And you gave it all up for her?!"

"I didn't! I really was planning on–"

"Save it." The tears were visible at the bottom of her eyes, though not falling yet. "The point is that you broke your promise! You said you'd be there, and you didn't show up! I waited for you for almost four hours, without a single call or text! And to top it off, you would rather give away your supposed secret to a complete stranger over me!"

Odd tried his best to ignore Ulrich, Yumi, and William's glares in his direction. "Believe me, Sam. I feel terrible! I-I'll make it up to you, I swear!"

But she just seemed to give up, "Do whatever you want. If you want to hang out with some girl you don't even know than remember my birthday, then go right ahead. I don't care anymore."

She then ran off without another word.

Odd got to his feet, "Sam, wait!"

"I think it's best to leave her alone for now, Odd," Ulrich warned him. Odd noted how the brunette didn't sound angry here, just disappointed. As if to say 'Don't make things worse, buddy'.

Yumi was about to add something, only to get a call. She quickly picked up, "Yes, Aelita?" A pause. "Well, things could be worse, I guess." Another pause. "What?! Why did you send him out alone?!" A third pause, "Be right there!" She then hung up, before addressing the others, including Odd, "We gotta go. Aelita and Jérémie really need our help."

"Odd?" William said. "This is your chance to make it up to us."

Bringa stood up, annoyed, "I've had enough of these stories! I'm going to the swimming pool! Odd, you don't need these people! Come with me!"

Odd's response was immediate and forceful, "No! I've made mistakes that affected all of my friends, and I'm going to make it up to them! Starting with Sam! She deserves far better than what I've been giving her lately, and you don't get to act like you're more important to me than she is!"

He then ran off after Sam.

Bringa just huffed and walked away, her arms crossed.

Ulrich, in response, sighed, "What's with everyone today? Have they all gone crazy or something?"

William and Yumi only shrugged.

But there was still hope concerning Odd. Maybe, maybe not, with Sam, but with them, yes. They could only pray that he would keep his word and fix his mistakes as best he could.

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

The two Tarantulas were searching for Jérémie, and had been for the past four minutes. He could hear the clinging their four legs made as they patrolled the cluster of stalagmites surrounding the way tower that XANA had quickly realized the elf was heading to.

The elf peered out from behind an ice rock, glancing both ways. The tower was right there, just a couple hundred meters away from his current position. His visor—the holomap—kept track of the Tarantulas, and seeing that his path was clear, he began running full speed towards his destination.

As the way tower neared, he heard Aelita tell him, "Hang in there, Jérémie. Yumi, Ulrich, and William are on the way, and I'll be done fixing the supercomputer soon. Just a couple more minutes, I promise."

"A couple more minutes?" he couldn't help but say, feeling fear and desperation. "Aelita, survival out here is a matter of a few microseconds!"

But the others—minus Odd—were on their way to help. That made him feel better.

Relief filled his entire being the moment he phased through the tower wall. He ran to the center of the platform, before stopping and then approaching the edge. After mentally debating it for the next couple of seconds, he spread his arms out before leaning his body forward, letting momentum carry him down.

It was a familiar sensation, and he was glad to know that it hadn't changed with the creation of the new Lyoko. He let the data stream carry him to the connecting sector (which, if he was correct, was the Mountain Sector—the sector the superscan had supposedly picked up that activated tower in), before taking over his body's movements again once he reached the platform on the other side.

Once his feet were back on solid ground, he breathed the sigh of relief he'd been holding back for a while. "Whew! There we go," he said to himself as he approached the tower exit. "That's much better."

He planned on staying here, where he felt the safest and knew very well was meant to be a safe haven (hence why towers regenerated life points).

But his sense of security was shattered with one simple, innocent alert from his visor.

Behind him was the Clone, wearing its favorite William mask. The fear returned tenfold, as he remembered that the specialized Clone had the ability to enter towers and access the interfaces as well in the Jérémie mask. Apparently, it just needed said mask to access the interface, and it could enter towers in any.

Jérémie immediately began trembling with fear, because the towers were no longer the safe spaces they once were. He needed and wanted space between himself and XANA here. Should he just run for it?

Before he could decide, he was greeted by a solid kick to his back. The force from the Clone's attack made him fly through the tower wall, and he landed on the ground outside, out into the Mountain Sector. His injury sparked briefly with electricity as he quickly got back onto his hands and knees.

Glancing back at the tower, he saw XANA-William step out, creating a red ripple effect, before summoning its Zweihänder. "You can run, but you can't hide."

"Jérémie, watch out!" So Aelita was still keeping track of his position. That was good to know.

The elf formed a quintet of daggers before throwing them at the Clone. All five of them missed its target, barely, but XANA-William was forced to duck to dodge them. When it looked back up, it found its own target running down a long path, away from his enemy.

Jérémie jumped down onto a lower platform and kept running, well aware that the Clone was not far behind him.

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

Yumi, Ulrich, and William finally arrived in the scanner room, via the lift. Judging by the urgency in Aelita's voice, it was obviously an emergency, hence why the trio didn't stop by the lab first.

"We're here, Aelita!" William announced, as the three of them each ran up to a scanner.

"Thank goodness! You guys are going in right now!" the pink-ette exclaimed, tense thanks to the current situation. "Jérémie is in big trouble in the Mountain Sector, and he could use all of you there to help him."

"We're on it," Yumi vowed.

But Ulrich paused just before stepping inside the scanner, hands resting on the walls of the cabin. Yumi and William both followed his example, "Just a second, 'Lita. How do you plan on sending us to Lyoko if the supercomputer's all messed up?"

"No idea," she admitted. "I'm doing my best to fix it, but we have to take the risk. If we don't, Jérémie will remain at XANA's mercy!"

She was right. They didn't have much of a choice. Jérémie was their friend and there was no way in either of the two worlds that they would ever willingly choose to leave him to defend himself. So, they all stepped inside the scanner.

Ulrich commented, however, "Another crazy idea. Gets better and better."

William shrugged as the doors closed, "Just one of those days, I guess..."

"Transfer Ulrich, transfer William, transfer Yumi." The scanners began to warm up, with the circular bars ascending in a spiraling manner. "Scanner Ulrich, scanner William, scanner Yumi. Virtualization!" A burst of wind depixelized their bodies.

The avatars formed in mid-air, and they fortunately all landed on solid ground. But their surroundings didn't scream 'mountains'. They were instead sent to the Desert Sector.

"Hey, didn't you say the Mountain Sector?" Ulrich went off, annoyed. "Speaking of bright ideas, Miss Einstein..."

"Sorry, guys..."

William quickly stepped in to calm the samurai down, "Hey, Ulrich, chill out! It's not Aelita's fault. The supercomputer's messed up, remember?"

"Yeah," Yumi agreed, "we could've very easily wound up in the Digital Sea instead."

Ulrich couldn't deny that, so he didn't.

"I could always try to bring you back in," Aelita suggested, "and then send you to the right sector."

"No, we can't take the chance," Yumi replied. "We'll just find our own way. Where's the nearest way tower?"

"Due south from your present position."

"Let's go!" Ulrich exclaimed, before leading the other two in that direction.

They decided not to ask for vehicles, having a feeling that if Aelita tried to bring them up right now, it would only end in disaster.

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

Jérémie peered around the rock he was hiding behind just in time to catch the moment the Clone was forced out of its William mask and into its Odd one. Remembering what all they've learned about this Clone so far, it meant that the real William had just been virtualized (likely, and hopefully, along with Ulrich and Yumi), but the real Odd hadn't. That was good to know.

The downside to this development, however, was that the Odd mask could track down digital signatures like a scent. That was bad news when the elf was currently trying to hide among this cluster of rocks.

He glanced back from behind his hiding spot, only to panic when he found the Clone gone.

Then, a cat tail waved at him, and he glanced up to see XANA-Odd standing on top of the rock he was next to. The Clone smirked down at him from its perch.

Jérémie promptly sent out a energy burst. The Clone stumbled back thanks to the shockwave, before managing to recover before it could fall off. But the elf was one step ahead, having summoned his wings. He delivered a solid kick to XANA-Odd's chest, making it fall off the rock, before he flew away.

The Clone didn't remain on the ground for long, recovering quickly before taking off after him on all fours.

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

Ulrich was still in the lead as the way tower grew bigger on the horizon. "Aelita, we're almost at the way tower!"

"Roger that."

He, Yumi, and William promptly phased through the wall, not stopping.

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

The blonde elf was flying as fast as his wings would let him, and deep down, he was fearing that it wasn't fast enough here.

"Jérémie, I'm almost done fixing the supercomputer. Are you okay?" he heard Aelita ask him.

He was blunt. "Of course I'm not okay!" He worriedly glanced behind him as he flew. "No matter where I go, XANA's always waiting for me just around the corner!"

"Ulrich, Yumi, and William are on their way," she tried to reassure him. "Hang in there."

"Tell them to hurry up–!" He was cut off by a laser hitting his back. He cried out as his wings disappeared and he crashed to the ground.

As he slowly began picking himself back up, he glanced behind him once more in time to see a Kankrelat be joined by a second one as well as a Blok. Great. Just fantastic. XANA had called for back-up, the exact thing Jérémie himself needed.

XANA-Odd slid to a stop on all fours, before standing up on its hind legs. Jérémie attempted to stand up quickly, intending to run, only for the Clone to use a sudden burst of speed to run up and slash at him with its claws. The electric property the claws had was still effective, as the elf collapsed onto the ground, writhing in pain.

He wasn't given a chance to recover, as the Clone walked directly up to him before picking him up by the neck. Jérémie immediately felt his body go numb, as the claws dug into his neck, as the electric effect was causing paralysis. And speechlessness; he couldn't even physically cry out for help.

This was it. This was how his life would end...

"I told you, Jérémie Périn," XANA told him through the Clone's mouth, "that you cannot hide from me. But the good news is that you and I will finally have each other's company forever. Just what we both wanted, right?"

'No, thank you', was his first thought. The elf opened his mouth to respond, but words failed to come out.

Did XANA intend on permanently possessing him? Was that why it was after him, and why it needed him alive? Why? It already had the specialized Clone, which could do everything that the real Jérémie could, only mirrored.

No, that wasn't all. XANA was leaving something out here. The problem was that, right now, he couldn't ask for more information. Not when the Clone had Odd's claws digging deep into his neck.

The Clone's smirk faded when it heard the sound of tessen fans fly through the air. It looked up in time to see a fan strike its wrist, making it release Jérémie, before the fan returned to its owner. XANA-Odd stumbled back, before catching itself, now a few meters away from the defenseless elf.

Yumi caught her fans perfectly, as Ulrich and William—both with their respective weapons in hand—on either side of her.

"Hey, XANA!" Ulrich called out. "When are you gonna learn that we'll never abandon our friends?!"

XANA-Odd growled before firing numerous Laser Arrows at them, rapid-fire. Ulrich used Super Sprint, Yumi cartwheeled to the side, and William turned into his ball of light form, all dodging the Arrows with ease.

Ulrich Sprinted straight up to the Clone and made several swings with his katanas, forcing XANA-Odd back several paces, farther away from Jérémie.

Meanwhile, Yumi and William reunited, in human form, next to the Blok and two Kankrelats. The geisha used her fans to block a Kankrelat's lasers, before cartwheeling around it. The knight followed, both luring the monsters away from the elf lying on the ground nearby.

Jérémie was fine, just recovering from the temporary paralysis caused by the claws. He had collapsed the moment he was freed, and was now slowly regaining his strength little by little. He was relieved that his friends had arrived, just as Aelita had said.

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

Odd caught up to Sam in Kadic's courtyard. The girl was with Sissi and Laura by the vending machines, sulking. He felt a sharp twinge of guilt; she'd definitely had better birthdays, and this one was ruined all thanks to him. He never should have listened to Bringa...

He carefully approached the girls, fully aware that what he was about to do could just make things worse.

Sissi, the moment she saw him, stepped in front of Sam, protecting her, "She doesn't want to talk to you, Odd. Not right now. Give her time."

His shoulders sunk in disappointment. She was avoiding him, though for good reason. It was painful to process, but it made sense, given what he had done to her.

Laura seemed to sense that he really wanted to say something, so she warned, "Whatever you're about to say, Della Robbia, think twice before you say it. I highly doubt you wish to make things worse."

"I don't," he immediately replied. He took a deep breath, "Take as much time as you need, Sam. I don't blame you at all. I'm sorry. I'll find some way to make it up to you, I promise."

Confident that he had said all he needed to say, he then turned around and ran back into the park. It was time to address the other mistake he had made, the error he could still fix.

He would not lose everything here.

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

In the heat of battle, Aelita's voice cut through the tension, "Hey, guys, take it easy, okay? If any of you get devirtualized before I can fix the supercomputer, I'm not sure that I can bring you back to Earth again."

Yumi threw her fan at a Kankrelat, only to miss. She caught it with an annoyed expression, "And you're telling us this now?!" She then ducked to avoid the next flurry of lasers, only for William to quickly step in and block them with his Zweihänder.

Meanwhile, Ulrich dodged a swipe of XANA-Odd's claws. "Gee, thanks a lot! What's the bad news?" It was sarcastic, and Aelita knew that.

XANA, however, answered in her place, "Now that's interesting," through Odd's voice, catching all four Lyokowarriors' attention. "I'm gonna get four birds...with one stone. How could I possibly ask for more?"

Ulrich immediately began backing away, "We'll see about that."

"I intend to!" XANA-Odd charged at him.

The samurai continued backing away, dodging the Clone's claws. Finally, he ducked and managed to sweep its feet out from under it, making it fall to the round. Ulrich went in to attack, only for it to use Odd's shield to block his katana, before kicking the brunette away.

Ulrich backflipped to re-stabilize himself, and the two stood facing each other.

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

Aelita didn't dare take her eyes off the monitor in front of her, as she typed in rapid commands. She had to fix the supercomputer before any of her friends got hurt. On her right, the lift doors opened, catching her attention.

Once she saw her cousin inside, however, she pointedly said nothing and went back to typing. She couldn't help it; she was disappointed in him for both standing Sam up as well as showing Bringa the lab without their permission. He was better than that—she knew—but he had broken so much trust people had in him.

"Um...I'm here to help," Odd nervously said. "However I can."

The pink-ette was cold in her response. "Odd, you're not exactly welcome around here, and I know that you know why. I'm sorry but, right now, I have no time for chit-chats."

"Neither do I!" her cousin exclaimed, to her surprise. "You're right, we can't waste any time! Virtualize me right now! Our friends need help!"

Aelita sighed, relenting, "Okay." Don't waste this second chance, Odd, she thought. "But with the supercomputer all bugged up, you could be virtualized anywhere at all."

Odd offered her a reassuring smile, "That's my problem," as he pressed the 'down' button, closing the door.

She smiled and continued typing, now filled with hope that things would start looking up now.

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

Yumi flipped away as the three monsters chased after her, continuing to fire. She stopped and quickly threw her fans, but the monsters jumped over them and resumed fire. So she cartwheeled to the side, before her arms were frozen to the ground by the Blok's ice beam.

A Kankrelat shot the ice, breaking it and freeing her, but William once again blocked the next shot with his Zweihänder. This time, the laser was deflected back at the monster that had fired it, destroying it.

The Blok twirled around before firing a few fire rings. Unable to dodge them all, because it followed his movements, the knight was eventually devirtualized.

"William!" Yumi cried out in worry, before summoning her fans and throwing them again.

The Blok jumped over the first one but the second Kankrelat was destroyed by the second.

By this point, Jérémie had regained enough of his energy to sit up. Not enough to fight, but he could watch the fight and keep an eye on his friends. Hoping that William was able to return to Earth, he turned to the Clone.

It was still being preoccupied by Ulrich, on the offensive with the samurai blocking and dodging its blows. He eventually caught its claws in his dual katanas, and smiled as he twisted his blades around so that the Clone was essentially now handcuffed.

But XANA-Odd wasn't done. Both its fists were aimed at Ulrich's torso, and all it had to do was fire.

"Ulrich, no!" Yumi cried out as Ulrich was also devirtualized, before she herself was taken out by the Blok.

Said Blok was promptly taken out in revenge by Jérémie's energy arrow. The Clone turned to him in time to see him let go of the energy bow's form. By this time, he was strong enough to be up on one knee.

The Clone took on its Ulrich mask in a flash of orange. "Next time, tell your 'friends' not to bother. The next time they stop me, they may not be so lucky."

XANA-Ulrich unsheathed its dual katanas and slung one over its shoulder while pointing the other at Jérémie, who had no choice but to ignore the lingering pain and exhaustion and get back to his feet in preparation to fight.

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

Aelita's finger hovered over the 'enter' key. "Here we go. Moment of truth..." She pressed the key.

Up on the screen, to her relief, a window opened, showing the repaired version of hers and Jérémie's program.

She pumped her fists, "Yes! Transfer Odd!"

Down in the scanner room, the doors of one closed on the Italian boy's determined glare.

About a minute later, all three scanners opened to reveal William, Ulrich, and Yumi, all fine. The three paused to recover, before heading up to the lab to catch up on what they all missed.

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

XANA-Ulrich gave its smirk of victory as it slowly approached Jérémie, who could only back away. In no time, the back of his foot had hit the edge of the platform. He didn't have to turn around to see where he was.

"Virtualization!"

Jérémie looked up at the sky the moment he heard Aelita's voice, just in time to catch Odd's avatar form there. The elf immediately smiled, "Odd!"

XANA-Ulrich turned around to face the newcomer as the cat dropped to the ground, before standing up.

"You think I'm afraid of those popsicle sticks?" Odd asked, before firing three Arrows.

The Clone easily blocked the first two with the katana in its right hand, but the third hit its shoulder, making it briefly cower in pain.

The cat fired a flurry of more Arrows, and the Clone used both katanas to protect itself. Suddenly, however, it chose to rush at Jérémie, shouting at rage as it did so. It crashed into the elf, propelling him towards the edge of the plateau.

Odd immediately panicked, "Jérémie!"

He dashed forward and dove into the air as well. He was taking crazy risks here, but his friend was in trouble. Fortunately, he managed to catch Jérémie's hand in mid-fall while attaching his other paw to the wall of the platform. With the assistance of his gravity boots, Odd was now stable.

But XANA-Ulrich managed to catch Jérémie's other hand.

Odd would have been stable, that is, had XANA not done that. Great. It was now hanging off the elf, who was hanging off Odd, who was clinging to the wall—all dangling above the Digital Sea.

The Clone morphed, in a flash of orange, into its Yumi mask. With an evil smile, it slowly raised a fan, preparing to throw it at the cat.

But Odd had caught something in that moment, and he frowned in concentration. "Jérémie, duck!"

Said elf promptly obeyed, lowering his head, thus putting the Clone right in the trajectory of Odd's Laser Arrows, due to all three of them being on the same axis.

Odd fired three more Arrows from the paw that was holding onto Jérémie. Said Arrows passed a few millimeters from Jérémie's back before directly hitting XANA-Yumi's forehead, making it let go and devirtualize as it fell towards the Digital Sea below.

No longer feeling the extra weight, Jérémie lifted his head and gave Odd a grateful smile.

In that moment, Odd took back his criticisms about Romeo and Juliet, the ones he had made the day before. 'Killing yourself for love' wasn't the right words; rather it was more 'sacrificing yourself for others'. That did happen, and Odd himself had seen it happen, when Jérémie turned off the supercomputer himself because he believed his life being lost was a fair trade for XANA being stopped, for his friends being safe.

Jérémie had made similar sacrifices before—such as letting himself be reformatted and deleted in order to stop Kadic's dormitory building from collapsing—while the Lyokowarriors all risked their lives to save each other.

Not all love was romantic. Some love was platonic. Brothers in arms...that was a type of love one would sacrifice themself for.

As Odd and his friends had done time and time again, and would continue to do as long as they were friends.

Hence why Odd swiftly return Jérémie's smile with one of his own.

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

The other four Lyokowarriors were waiting for Odd and Jérémie when they emerged from the scanners, having been safely materialized by Aelita, this time without any bugs or nasty surprises.

Odd stepped out of the scanner, as his friends were all looking at him. "Don't say it," he told them, his voice quiet with guilt. "I already know. I've betrayed you and your trust. Therefore, you think I should be punished or kicked out of the group." He lowered his head. "And you're right." He sighed, "I should never have shown the supercomputer to Bringa. It's unforgivable!"

"Don't worry, Odd, you're safe," Aelita calmly told him, as she walked up to him. "You simply forgot that inside that head of yours, there happens to be a brain."

"And you weren't the only idiot," Ulrich confessed. "You were right; we were just too jealous of you. We're sorry for that."

"Yeah," Yumi offered him a smile. "We all went a bit too far because of Bringa."

"If we hadn't," William said, "maybe you wouldn't have been driven to show her the factory in the first place."

"We're all at fault here," Jérémie informed his friends. "And I forgive you, Odd. Mostly. After all, you saved me from XANA."

Odd blinked in surprise. "You mean we're...still friends?"

The others all smiled at him in response.

"Yeah, still friends," Ulrich answered.

"Of course!" William added.

"It takes a lot more than human flaws to break us up," Yumi said.

"That's right," Jérémie agreed, his voice soft. "In that vein, I think we all learned a lesson here: our friendship must be protected as well as we protect Lyoko."

The others all nodded in agreement, and Odd's resulting smile was bright.

That's when he felt comfortable bringing up to following, "You know, there are a couple of ways to fix the mess I made. A little return to the Past, maybe? Or leaving it to our secret member?"

"Oh, I don't think either of those will be necessary," Aelita quickly confessed. "Something tells me that you only need to worry about Sam."

Odd's demeanor immediately changed at the mention of her name.

"Yeah, we might forgive you, Odd," Yumi softly told him, "but you did something really hurtful to Sam. And we're not sure how long it will take for her to forgive you. If she ever does."

He sadly sighed, "I know..." He placed his hands in his pockets, shaking his head in disbelief, "I can't believe I stood her up. I promised her that I would never do that to her!" An idea came to mind just then. "But I think I know how to make it up to her. After all, I have yet to give her her present."

His friends were confused, but they trusted him not to make things worse. As stupid as he may be at times, Odd Della Robbia had a big and honest heart.

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

When they got to Kadic later that day, the group found Bringa walking towards the front gates, where a taxi was waiting for her. Her suitcase in hand, she was waving at the people who were following her.

"Bye, Bringa!"

"Ta-ta!"

"See you!"

"Bye-bye!"

"We'll miss you!"

"Write, will you?"

"Have a great trip!"

"Yeah, bon voyage!"

The crowd followed her out into the courtyard and to the front gates. The Lyokowarriors were watching this go down from near the arches.

"Look at that," Odd sarcastically complained. "She completely forgot to say goodbye to me. How touching."

"Well, now do you see why I'm not worried about the supercomputer, Odd?" Aelita asked him, in a low voice.

She was right. Bringa was so superficial, only caring about receiving attention from others, that the supercomputer would be wiped from her mind by time itself, no supercomputer required. In fact, the pink-ette wouldn't be surprised at all if that had already happened. Besides, if Bringa ever did bring it up to someone else, Sissi could just easily write her off as crazy.

Odd shrugged, "Eh, who cares about her, anyway? Good riddance!"

"I second that," Sissi suddenly said from the group's collective right. They turned to face her, and noticed immediately that she looked immensely pleased with herself, a stark contrast to her sulking earlier and the day before.

"Hey, Sissi," Ulrich greeted her. "I thought that Bringa was going to stay here for four days, not two."

"Well, let's just say I convinced my father to send her out of town to my cousin's place," Sissi explained, nonchalantly. "She mentioned wanting to see the countryside, so I said 'why not?'."

"Wow," Odd commented. "Devious, aren't you?"

"I had no choice," Sissi's smile disappeared. "She was ruining relationships. But I am glad she came. It helped me realize how much of an attention-seeker she really is." She paused. "I'm sorry for all the trouble she's caused."

Odd shook his head, "Don't be. I was the one who made a mistake. You know where Sam is? Or does she still need space?" From me, went unsaid.

"I'm here," said girl spoke up from behind him, her voice soft. "What do you want?"

He took a deep breath. Here went nothing. "I'm really sorry for forgetting your birthday, Sam. I broke a promise to you, and I can never make up for that."

She seemed to go off on him, "How could you–...just forget? My birthday, your promise, our plans—everything! It just slipped your mind. I saw the look in your eyes earlier when I revealed myself. You had forgotten about me until that moment! If you no longer care about me, then just say so!"

He held out a small gift-wrapped box, orange with a black bow. She blinked in surprise.

"W-What is this?"

"Your birthday present. Open it."

She reluctantly took the gift from him and tore the wrapping open. Inside the box was a keychain, one that showed the image of a purple cat and an orange fox hugging each other with their respective tails.

"This is..." she breathed.

"That keychain you really wanted to buy," Odd reminded her, remembering the whole story like it was yesterday. "Last month, you and I went to that arts and crafts fair out in town, that day only. We came across a stall in which that keychain was on display. Unfortunately, you didn't have enough money to afford it, so I secretly bought it for you." A pause, as he struggled to hold back tears. "I do still care about you, Sam, and this is proof. I've had this present ready for the past four and a half weeks. Last night was a lapse in my judgement that I will never forgive myself for. Because of my idiocy, I let myself forget all about the girl that I love." His Juliet.

Tears filling her brown eyes, Sam blinked at him with a reddening face, "You...you love me?"

"I do," he softly confessed. "I've always known it, but I never had the guts to admit it aloud until now..." And he wished he had said it before.

Sam's hands tightly clenched the keychain, before bringing it closer to her chest. "Alright. I'll give you another chance." His heart began to soar. "But this is the only one you'll get. Don't screw it up, Della Robbia."

"I don't intend to." And he meant it.

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

Next Episode: 58 - Rocking the House / It's time for Aelita's collaboration with the Subdigitals, and everyone's looking forward to it, but she struggles to overcome her stage fright.

A/N: I referred back to a lot of the French line differences, because I think they just make more sense given the context. Same with the deleted scenes I chose to add back in. And before any of you tell me "it's spelled 'Brynja'!", the official sources and episode script all spell it as 'Bringa', so that's the spelling I went with.

About the pairings: I made the girls have a similar epiphany about their jealousy of Bringa that Ulrich and Jérémie do in canon. If I say so myself, here, it led to both Jerlita and Ulumi gaining some sweet moments between them. Both sides were in the wrong; all I did was have them both acknowledge it, and then make up on screen. And Odd and Sam are not together, not yet. Keep reading to see what happens to them all.

Nicolas's parents being divorced isn't canon; it's just for this story. Jérémie's encounter with the Clone inside the tower is from "The Lake". And yes, XANA is indeed leaving out an important detail: the fact that it needs Jérémie to lure his parents out first.