A/N: Sorry to make you guys wait. Here's the next chapter. Remember, if there's anything mentioned in passing to have happened during the past year, and you're confused about it, re-read 'The Theory of Evolution'. It's a very important piece of the puzzle.

And, if you want concepts on the main characters' appearances, go to my DeviantArt page (same penname as here) and search my gallery for "A World Without Danger".

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

EDIT: Beta read by FP7ETDP43

TW: Cyberbullying

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!

"When XANA attacks Jérémie during special circumstances, yet another revelation is revealed, but it's not quite what the gang expects."

A World Without Danger

Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite

Season 5, Episode 3: Contingency Plan

Jérémie was startled out of his slumber, in his pajamas with his head resting on his keyboard, thanks to his cellphone ringing. It was resting right by his head, so it was loud. He picked up and answered, "Hello?", as he took off his glasses and massaged the bridge between his eyes to rub the soreness away.

"Good morning, Einstein!" It was Odd. He'd recognize that chipper voice anywhere. "Rise and shine!"

The genius resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "It's not morning, idiot. What are you doing calling me in the middle of the night?"

Odd just laughed, startling Jérémie with the sudden loud sound in his ear. "Did you fall asleep at your computer again? It's 7:15 in the morning!"

Jérémie put his glasses back on as he glanced at the watch on his wrist, and then his window. Sure enough, Odd was right. Breakfast hour was half over, and the sun was out and about. He groaned, "Sorry." He felt like the idiot now. "I planned to sleep after taking a couple hours to look over our mystery avatar's profile. I shut my eyes for three seconds and before I knew it, you're literally giving me a wake-up call."

Odd laughed again, "You're forgiven, but you better get down here before all the good croissants are gone."

The genius snuck another glance at his watch, "Give me ten minutes and I'm there."

"Okie-dokie. See you then." Odd then hung up.

As soon as he did, Jérémie leaned back in his computer chair and sighed. Seriously, where would he be without friends who cared about him enough to lecture him on his self-care habits?

He didn't mean to fall asleep, just rest his eyes for a few minutes. Yet, those 'few minutes' turned into hours. With his glasses still on and using his keyboard as a pillow, no less. Odd would never let him live this down, would he? Not for the next few hours, at least.

It had been two days since they all agreed to pick up the fight again. Since then, Jérémie was trying his best not to let his old nasty habits resurface, but was clearly failing, given how he was starting to fall asleep at his computer again. However, there were far worse habits to get back into than going to sleep at an ungodly hour, and thankfully, those had not resurfaced yet. And if he had any say, it would remain that way.

He was nearing the end of getting dressed, in the middle of slipping on his shoes, when his phone buzzed with a text. He immediately tensed up, knowing who it likely was. This made him very reluctant to read it, but he forced himself to anyways, knowing it could also be his friends.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

'Wakey, wakey, Mr. Genius! Maybe today's the day you defeat me.'

Jérémie sighed, feeling his stress multiply tenfold.

About nine months ago, this person had begun sending him texts just like this one. He had no idea who this person was. There was no name attached to the number (which he did not recognize), and no matter how deep he dug for an IP address, he could never find one. Once, he tried to respond to them, only for his message to fail to go through. Whoever they were, they were good at hiding themselves from him, a technological genius.

They also held a pretty big grudge against him, as they wanted him to feel powerless no matter what he tried to do.

His phone buzzed again. They had sent a follow-up text.

'Just kidding. I'll never be defeated, least of all by you.'

"Shut up..." the blonde muttered, before pocketing his phone, grabbing his schoolbag (in which was his laptop), and leaving his room, locking it behind him.

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

Despite his cyberbully rudely interrupting him, Jérémie managed to make it to the cafeteria within the ten minutes he promised Odd. He entered the line near the tail end of Rosa serving (after which she and her co-cook Gaston began cleaning up from breakfast as well as preparing lunch), and he felt better knowing that Odd hadn't stolen his portion like he had done before.

As he sat down at the table his friends had claimed, he inwardly groaned because the expressions on their faces confirmed that Odd had told them how the genius had woken up today. Aelita (seated next to him), especially and expectedly, looked as if she was about lecture him.

"Odd told us you fell asleep at your computer," she sternly, yet softly told him.

Taking a bite of his croissant and too tired to deny it, Jérémie replied, "Yes, I did, but I didn't mean to." He planned to work for only two hours, but then, like he said before, a few minutes of resting his eyes quickly turned into a few hours of deep sleep.

"Odd said you were trying to crack the mystery of our mystery guest," William said, referring to the thing (or person) that snuck onto Lyoko's network in the midst of the group finding and deactivating XANA's tower at the beginning of this week. "Any luck?"

"Key word: try," the genius flatly answered.

"In other words," Ulrich translated, "no luck at all." Aelita's shoulders sunk a little in disappointment when hearing this, but she didn't say anything.

"Sorry," Jérémie muttered. He then began explaining, "Our mystery guest excels at technology. In order to encrypt an entire digital profile, one needs to be an expert at coding."

"Encrypt?" Aelita asked, catching his wording. "Not encode?"

"What's the difference?" Odd asked, rightfully confused.

"Encrypting and decrypting requires a cipher key. Encoding and decoding don't," the pink-ette explained. "By using 'encrypt', Jérémie is suggesting that our mystery's profile needs a key to decipher, much like my father's diary. Right?" She directed that last word to the blonde genius himself.

Said blonde nodded, "Right. The coding used on this profile is too detailed to be reversed by simply employing the same algorithm that encoded the content."

Yumi had a little pout on her face and her eyes were slightly narrowed, a clear sign that she was thinking. "Okay, Belpois, I've encrypted my digital profile. What's your first assumption?"

His answer was automatic, "You're trying to hide from someone. Encryption is used for maintaining the confidentiality of data, and the key used is usually kept secret."

"Like Hopper's diary?" Ulrich softly asked.

"Yeah," Jérémie continued his explanation. "Except in that case, I knew where to start looking for data to build the cipher key because of Hopper's clear connection to Lyoko and how XANA immediately sought a means to destroy it as soon as we found it. In this case, I have no idea where to start digging. Long story short, it's going to take a while."

"Well, the Sector Five interface picked up their intrusion into Lyoko's network," Aelita suggested. "We could start there."

"That's a safe bet," Jérémie admitted, "but not today. Maybe tomorrow when I'm not as tired." He emphasized this with an involuntary yawn that he covered with the back of his hand.

Aelita nodded in agreement, as William asked, "Who or what do you think our mystery guest is hiding from?"

"That's difficult to say until I know who this profile belongs to," Jérémie replied. "But knowing they share similar coding to what Hopper used to encrypt his own profile as well as his diary tells me two possibilities. One: They crossed paths at one point, like Hopper and Tyron, or Two: They're related in some way."

Which in turn meant, they would also be related to Aelita, which was why no one was surprised when she replied to all of that with, "I hope you do find the answers, Jer."

"Me too," he confessed. "I'll try my best, but remember that this person is hiding from someone or something for a reason, and I'm going to respect that."

He would definitely tell Aelita no matter what, as she had shown such a fierce (and understandable) interest in this topic, but if he had to keep the others in the dark, then he would. Unless it pertained to XANA or Lyoko, of course.

Odd merely shrugged, "If you say so," before turning to the others, "So, William, you saw Wheelchair Zombie 5 last night?"

Grateful the spotlight was no longer on him, Jérémie dug into the remainder of his breakfast.

"Yep, I sure did," the dark-haired boy replied. "And I'm sorry to disappoint you, Odd, but this one is a straight-up cash grab."

Odd's shoulders immediately fell. "Aww, really?"

"Really. There's no story or unique characters to root for," William explained. "There's no continuity from the previous movie, nor is there any follow-up to the second movie's cliffhanger."

"Still?!" Odd groaned, before sighing. "Look, the third movie had an excuse—it was a prequel—but the fourth and fifth ones don't! Don't get me wrong, I still want to see it, but fans have their breaking points, writers!"

"So, this Saturday?" William asked.

"Of course!"

Jérémie was content with just listening to them. He wasn't really paying attention, though, because their topic of choice wasn't one that really involved him. Besides, his phone vibrating in his pocket stole his attention. It was short, signaling that it was a text.

'I bet your friends are having fun without you.'

Really? This cyberbully didn't have anything better to do with their life than tear others down?, he thought as he slipped his phone back into his pocket.

But the others did look like they were enjoying their current conversation, the one about zombie movies and one that didn't really include him. Seeing them having fun and joke around without him did sting a little, and that was something he's always felt. There were times where he'd felt like the third wheel of the group, so to speak, and even after Yumi promised and proved that they could be friends without Lyoko, that feeling still popped up from time to time.

And it wasn't just around his friends. It was around any group that was majorly outgoing, a group that (sadly) included his own family. People, as well as himself early on, suspected that it was because he was introverted, but as he got older, he began to suspect that it was because of something else. However, his mother, Sophie Belpois, had wisely advised him not to worry about that. So he didn't.

Yes, he was different from his friends, but that wasn't a bad thing. If he claimed it was, then he'd be a hypocrite, because the others were different from each other as well, in numerous ways.

"–look at Jérémie!" and the shared laughter immediately afterwards brought the mentioned boy back to reality.

Looking around with what he was sure was a bewildered expression, Jérémie asked, "What was that? Sorry, I was lost in my own head until I heard my name." It was probably just a joke about him, but he didn't really care. Friends made non-harmful jokes about each other all the time, after all.

Odd's smile didn't fade as he complied, "I was saying that I didn't have to see a zombie movie at all because all I have to do is look at you! Y'know, because you always look like one due to never sleeping."

Jérémie felt unusually vulnerable right now, which he contributed as the reason to why he just snapped, "Shut up, Della Robbia! If our roles were switched, you'd look like a zombie too!"

He regretted saying it as soon as it left his mouth. The smiles on the others' faces immediately fell, especially Odd, who backed off like a dog whenever their owner yelled at them.

"There's that classic temper," Ulrich quietly muttered. "Good to see it after a year-long hiatus."

Earlier, Jérémie had mentally admitted his gratitude that his worse habits than using his keyboard as a pillow had not resurfaced. Well, his nastiest habit just did—he never liked how he often he tended to lash out at his friends due to stress. The outbursts always came out on impulse, and he could never control them.

After shutting the supercomputer down last year, they regressed back into his mind. This was the first time they had re-emerged since then.

He tried with all his might to ignore the concern on his girlfriend's face, "Jérémie, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, his voice now soft, almost in a whisper. "Just tired and stressed out." He really was, but this time, he couldn't find the source. "Sorry, Odd. Excuse me." He then got up from his seat and left the cafeteria, his bag slung over his shoulder.

Thankfully, none of his friends followed him.

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

Jérémie made a beeline for the boy's restroom, immediately approaching one of the three sinks and turning on the faucet. After taking off his glasses, he then promptly splashed some cold water on his face, as if hoping that could either snap him back to reality or magically stop all the stress he was under.

As he wiped his face dry with a paper towel, he felt his phone vibrate with a notification of another text. He put his glasses back before taking a look.

'A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. They're better off without you.'

This time, Jérémie seethed with unfiltered anger, "Shut up," through clenched teeth. It was a lot harsher than the one he directed at Odd, because this one not was dictated by stress, but rather emotional exhaustion.

Because the source of his current stress, he just realized, was this person. This cyberbully who apparently had nothing better to do than insult others. And they were clearly trying to break him with the 'your so-called friends just tolerate you out of politeness' angle.

He just stood there hunched over the sink, suffering quietly and alone (and tightly clutching his phone in his hand as if wanting to crush it into pieces), until his wristwatch beeped the five-minute warning for his first class.

He wasn't ready to leave, but he forced himself to.

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

He made it to class with about two minutes to spare. Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd were already in their seats when he walked in, and they were talking amongst themselves. As he got closer, he heard them say his name in a questioning manner. He didn't hear anything specific, but he knew deep in his gut that they were talking about him.

He greeted them with, "I heard my name." Again.

Like he expected, the trio all turned to face him, and after sharing a glance with each other, turned back to him. "We'll tell you after class," Ulrich promised, his voice soft and reassuring, all three of them knowing that his greeting also doubled as a question asking what they were talking about.

The logical side of his brain was reassuring him that they would keep that promise, because class was just about to start.

But the emotional side—his insecurities, rather—was taunting him with a reminder that it was possible that they wouldn't, because perhaps they didn't fully trust him after all.

Trying his best to hide the hurt he really felt, he offered them a relenting smile and this, "Fine." He then sat down in the empty chair next to Aelita.

Said pink-ette's eyes followed his every move, "Are you feeling okay?"

He tried hard to make sure the smile he gave her was real, as he replied, "I'm fine, just stressed," but he failed. His smile ended up being more sad and scared than convincing, and he was positive that Aelita (at least) knew that, but she didn't say anything.

Instead, Odd leaned forward from his seat behind Jérémie, "I'm sorry, Jer. I didn't intend for that joke to be mean."

"I know," he softly replied. "And I'm sorry, too, for yelling." He honestly didn't mean to. In normal circumstances, he would've simply rolled his eyes in jest at the joke, even when it was just Lyoko and XANA he had to worry about.

But this time was different. This time, he was also being faced with a cyberbully, which the others were not aware of. He had chosen not to tell them, due to a multitude of factors.

Any further conversation was cut off by Ms. Hertz, "Alright, class, let's resume our lesson on page 53."

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

After Ms. Hertz's class, there was a half-hour break, and the four younger Lyokowarriors took the time to regroup with the elder two in between classes. William and Yumi, the aforementioned duo, were chatting away next to the vending machines.

The first thing Yumi did was turn to Jérémie, worried, and ask, "Are you feeling better, Jer?"

The blonde genius resisted the heavy urge to roll his eyes, tired of people asking him if he was okay. "I'm fine, just stressed." He then promptly changed the subject, turning to Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd, "So, what were you three talking about before class?" They had promised to tell him, after all.

Aelita shared a knowing look with Ulrich and Odd, and then with William and Yumi surprisingly, both of whom nodded at her in encouragement, before turning back to him. "Okay, but before we start," the pink-ette told him, "we just want you to know that none of us will judge you for your choice."

Jérémie raised an eyebrow in confusion. But before he could express that confusion, William cut in with, "Let us explain first, Jer, before you ask any questions."

So, they were giving him a choice, all of them. But a choice with what?

Jérémie felt unnaturally trapped as he relented, which he conveyed to his friends not with words, but by crossing his arms.

Aelita continued, "Before you came down for breakfast, we were talking about how William never learned how to properly fight with us on Lyoko. The one who was fighting us was XANA, after all, not him. So we were planning on training him on Lyoko, so he can get used to fighting with us. The conversation then led to a debate on whether or not to train you as well."

"Right," Odd agreed, telling Jérémie which side he had taken in that debate. "That way, if you're ever needed there, then you're prepared to fight like we are. And in return, you can better train us with the supercomputer."

He couldn't fight on Lyoko. He didn't trust anyone besides him and Aelita at the controls.

Before the blonde genius could voice that, Ulrich cut in, "We know what you're about to say, but our reasoning is that it's only in case of emergencies. Like you said, none of us know how strong this version of XANA is, or if and how fast it'll get stronger. So, we think it's a good idea."

Jérémie turned to William and Yumi, the latter of whom admitted, "Yes, we agree with them. We're the ones who brought it up."

"But, again, it's your choice," William cut in. "The last thing we want to do is force something on you."

Jérémie was quiet as he thought it over. He appreciated the others' caution and wish to give him as much of a choice as possible. Him at the controls was mostly out of necessity—it was too dangerous to leave the supercomputer unattended while the others were virtualized—but he'd be lying if he claimed there wasn't some personal choice behind it.

His first time inside the scanners was just to put his brain pattern on file, so he'd be immune to the memory wipe effects of the Return in time. It wasn't that bad (he was only being scanned, after all), but it wasn't pleasant either.

His second and third time inside the scanners involved him actually being virtualized. He had no way to prove it, but he was very confident that virtualization felt like being a particle inside the LHC, the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. And that wasn't getting into his respective experiences afterwards. The second time resulted in him being temporarily trapped in Virtual Limbo, while the third involved Ulrich and Odd teasing him relentlessly, not about his lack of combat experience, but rather about what his avatar looked like.

(In the immortal words of Jim Morales, he'd rather not talk about it.)

But his mind kept going back to the words instead typed out by his cyberbully: A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Knowing those words were directed at him, that meant they implied said weak link to be him and him alone. He wasn't weak, just different...

He sighed, "I'll think about it." And he meant it. He didn't want to be the weak link.

The others clearly weren't expecting that answer, though, as evidenced by how Odd asked, "W-Wait. Really?"

"Yes, really," he replied. "Did I stutter?"

"No, we heard you," Ulrich replied. "But we were expecting you to dodge the topic altogether or insist that your place is at the computer before shutting the idea down. Why?"

"Because you're right. It always pays to be cautious when concerning XANA." While he agreed with this reason, he couldn't tell them the truth. "As for William, I agree. We have no classes this afternoon, so we'll start after lunch."

Odd immediately cheered, "Awesome! Don't worry, William!" He slung an arm around the elder's shoulders. "We'll soon make you and Jérémie great fighters like the rest of us."

William smiled as he rolled his eyes, but Jérémie reiterated, "I said I'll think about it, Odd."

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

Later that afternoon, the six snuck off to the factory like they planned during that break. Fortunately, no one got suspicious and followed them. They had expected Sissi to get hurt over the fact that they were hiding something from her, because they were friends with her now, but when they had warned her about it, she advised them not to worry about her; they weren't her only friends now, so she'd be okay.

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were virtualized into the Forest Sector first, and they only had to wait a few seconds before William and Aelita arrived as well.

Once William landed and stood up, he glanced around the green-colored sector. "Where's all the monsters?" he asked.

"Nowhere in sight," Jérémie replied from the lab. "The holomap is all clear."

"Then, how long will we have to wait for them?" William asked, looking as if he was disappointed.

Odd was the one who answered him, "We're training you, William, in order to build up your experience, both solo as well as teamwork-based. We don't necessarily need XANA's monsters to do that."

"Yeah, we mostly just spar with each other," Ulrich added.

William's hesitance immediately weighed over them all, like a blanket. It was palpable, to the point where the others were feeling like it actually came from them (to an extent).

That's why they weren't surprised when he quietly told them, "I...I don't think I can." Because they expected it.

He didn't want to hurt them—he didn't have to say that out loud.

"It's okay," Aelita gently reassured him. "We all have lifepoints, and the only danger we're really in is if we fall into the Digital Sea. Besides, Jérémie will tell us if any bugs pop up, so maybe the teamwork training can start with you learning to trust us to know what to do."

Because they did. They had been doing this for approximately two years before they recruited him, and to be honest, they should have done something like this before he went to Lyoko for the first time. Maybe then, William wouldn't be missing almost nine months of his life.

William quickly glanced at Yumi, who gave him a nod of encouragement. He then sighed, "Okay."

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

"Maybe the teamwork training can start with you learning to trust us to know what to do."

Those words resonated deep within Jérémie the moment Aelita said them. Because she was right.

Every single one of them had their own role in the group, and they all performed those roles the best they knew how. No one was weaker than the others. They were all stronger together, yes, but they were also strong separated, all in their own unique ways. Jérémie's role in particular was important—the lives of the others were in his hands, quite literally.

That cyberbully was wrong, and a smile slowly came to his face the longer the blonde genius thought about this. XANA was back, yes, but that hardly changed how they handled things now. Jérémie still sent the others to Lyoko, which in turn helped them reach the tower and solve the problem.

"So, how do these spars work?" William asked, addressing the others.

"They're usually one-on-one, with the others watching," Ulrich explained, "but sometimes we have free-for-alls, with the last one standing as the winner."

"Oh, the free-for-all sounds fun," William commented.

"And we'll do that," Yumi told him. "However, since we need to build up your experience in fighting alongside the rest of us, we're going to be doing a two-on-two spar today."

"Okay."

"Great!" Odd exclaimed, before telling him, "First up, you and me against the two spicy lovebirds." Jérémie watched his and William's green arrows move to face Ulrich and Yumi's, smiling at Odd's nickname for the two (Jérémie and Aelita were called the 'sweet' lovebirds). "Aelita will be the referee, meaning we listen out for her calls to start or stop the fight. Now, don't worry so much about winning, Willie. Focus instead on following and matching my moves, and in return, I'll focus on following and matching yours."

"Got it," William replied. "But please don't call me that."

"Aw, c'mon!" Odd playfully whined. Jérémie shook his head in amusement. "Everybody else has an Odd-patented nickname. Why not you?"

"Fine. A compromise: you can only call me Willie if I'm being an idiot. It'll be a nice wake-up call."

Odd accepted this arrangement pretty quickly, "Good enough for me. You two spicy lovebirds ready?"

"We've been ready," Yumi replied. She sounded amused herself.

"This whole time," Ulrich added. "You're the one who got side-tracked with nicknames."

"Hey!"

"Easy, Odd," William said. "Attacking in anger won't end well. Stay cool."

"Oh, wise advice, buddy," Odd agreed. "Good point."

Jérémie could practically feel Aelita's amusedly shaking her head as she cut in, "You guys ready? Here we go." A soft alarm began sounding on his screen. "Get ready...and–"

He quickly cut her off, "Hold on. Six Hornets are approaching you guys. Direction, north by northwest."

All arrows turned in that direction, which happened to be right behind Aelita, just as six red circles appeared in frame, moving towards them.

"Spotted!" Yumi confirmed, before the holomap showed her and the others engaging in battle.

Aelita attacked first via an Energy Field, destroying one. Yumi destroyed two more, at the same time thanks to her fans. Odd destroyed two more, before Aelita's Energy Field took out the last. William and Ulrich understandably had no kills due to both solely having close-range weapons.

"Too easy!" Odd exclaimed, celebrating their easy victory, especially since none of them had lost any lifepoints. "C'mon, XANA, what else you got for us?!"

Jérémie was about to remind him about this version of XANA being so much weaker than the original when more red circles invaded the holomap. "You just jinxed it, Odd. Fifteen more Hornets are replacing the ones that you destroyed. Direction, south by southeast, this time."

"Cut one down," William commented, as the screen showed them engaged in battle yet again, "and two more appear in its place." A dark green spot suddenly appeared on screen, and it began to spread rather quickly. "Whoa! What is that?!"

"Poison," Ulrich answered, as he destroyed a Hornet. "It's something you want to avoid."

"Interesting. Do these enemies have any other attacks I don't know about?" William asked, understandably freaking out a little.

"Sometimes, they dive-bomb their targets by tackling them," Aelita replied, her Energy Field destroying another Hornet. "Other than that, no. Unless XANA 2.0 reprogrammed them..." That was their nickname for this version of XANA.

"The holomap isn't picking up any differences between these and the originals," Jérémie relayed. "But I'd be careful, regardless."

On his screen, in that moment, an alert popped up, showing the wireframe of a tower turning red.

"Red alert!" the genius told his friends. "The superscan's picked up an activated tower!"

"Finally!" he heard Odd exclaim, as two more Hornets were destroyed. "I was wondering when XANA would attack next!" After a week, their enemy finally attacked again.

Jérémie was about to respond with the coordinates of the tower when a group of cables to his back-left began sparking with electricity, the commotion of which he had seen in the corner of his eye. He turned around to see what the problem was, only to see a black shadow emerge from the sparks and form into a familiar man who was supposed to be dead.

XANA's polymorphic spectre had taken the form of none other than Franz Hopper.

Before he could say anything to the others, the Hopper imposter shot a bolt of electricity at him, and he next saw black.

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

Deep in the heart of the Forest Sector, the others were fighting against and dodging the various lasers of now seven Hornets.

Odd taunted the bug monster in front of him, which fired at him, but the cat disappeared in a flash of green before the laser could hit him. The Hornet was then attacked by a slice from William's Zweihänder before it could express confusion.

Having Teleported to a spot inside the nearby hollow tree trunk, Odd emerged from his hiding place the moment that Hornet exploded and gave William a high five, "Nice one!" in celebration of their improving teamwork.

Now with six Hornets left, Aelita took cover inside that hollowed trunk to give herself time to talk to her boyfriend, "Jérémie, are you going to give us the coordinates to that tower or not?" No response. "Jérémie? Are you there?" Still no response.

The other four joined her at her hiding spot. All five of them were missing lifepoints, but none of them knew the exact amount.

"Where's Jérémie?" Odd asked. "He hasn't told us where that tower is yet!"

"Or brought up any vehicles!" Ulrich added.

"I don't know," Aelita replied, as the six remaining Hornets continued firing at their cover. "He's not responding." He always did. Even at his nastiest in the past, he never once ignored her, and she knew how to use that to her advantage.

"XANA's activated a tower," Yumi reminded them. "He was probably attacked by a spectre or something."

The others sharing knowing and suspicious glances with each other, before William added, "Well, there's only one way to find out."

Yumi nodded, "Right. Ulrich, devirtualize me."

Her boyfriend promptly struck her down with one of his katanas without a second thought or any more words.

"Good luck, Yumi," Aelita whispered, before turning to her remaining guard. "Let's go. Wherever the tower is, the only way is through them."

The boys all nodded in acknowledgement, before all four then jumped out from their hiding place.

Aelita dodged a couple of lasers and then a shot of poison before destroying a Hornet with an Energy Field.

Odd ran up a tree as the nearby Hornet was focusing on William, who was using his Zweihänder to block lasers. Once he was high enough, the cat pushed off of the tree with his feet, flipping over and firing a Laser Arrow at the Hornet. It exploded as he landed next to William.

With four Hornets now remaining, the four Lyokowarriors finally heard Yumi's voice from the lab, "Aelita, the lab is empty. Jérémie's nowhere to be found, and there's no sign of XANA either." She sounded panicked.

"Check the superscan," Aelita instructed. "Where's the tower?" It may be Jérémie's only hope.

"Um..." Yumi paused, before relaying the results, "a tower was activated in the Mountain Sector, but it deactivated by itself a couple minutes later."

Odd and Ulrich immediately shared a concerned look, as William asked Aelita, "What's the purpose of XANA deactivating its own tower?"

"It would only do so if the tower's purpose was complete," Aelita explained, remembering the time they had decoded the diary. XANA's tower was powering the spectre that attacked Odd and then took his form. Once the spectre was virtualized in Odd's place, however, XANA deactivated the tower it used to lure the group to Lyoko earlier than they had planned, having no further use for it.

Her gut sank with a fear she'd never felt before. XANA deactivating its tower and Jérémie being gone, at the same time, meant that whatever XANA had planned, it involved Jérémie and the AI had accomplished it. And that scared her.

Thankfully, the others quickly came to the same conclusion, as Ulrich and Odd shared another glance, this one filled with the same type of fear that Aelita was currently feeling.

"What was XANA's plan?" Ulrich asked.

"And where's Jérémie?" Odd added.

"Those two questions actually have the same answer," Yumi cut in. "According to the holomap, XANA virtualized Jérémie into the Mountain Sector."

"...What?!"

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

~Flashback: 2 June, 2003~

In the city of Reims, eleven-year-old Jérémie Belpois was walking home from school, mentally preparing himself for that school year's final exams. They were much more important than all of his schoolmates calling him 'nerd' in a derogatory way or dwelling on how much of a loner he was.

However, he hadn't stepped off campus for three steps when a familiar voice made him stop and turn around, "Belpois!"

It was the school's popular kid, Alain Geiger. On his face was an angry expression, and deep down, Jérémie knew he was in trouble, though on the surface, he kept up a decent poker face. Behind Alain were his two friends, Denis Moreau and Mathieu Tourneur (all of them were a year older, age twelve, and in his grade), though they would be better described as his lackeys. Alain was in charge of the entire school, and no one was ever really brave enough to say otherwise. It didn't help that the only adult Alain listened to was the headmaster, his mother.

"Hello, Alain," Jérémie was quiet, knowing what was coming, why Alain was angry.

"Don't 'hello' me like you don't know what you did!" Yep, he was pissed. "I was waiting for you to turn in my homework like I asked you to, but you didn't!"

Wrong. Alain did not ask. He demanded.

"I never promised to," Jérémie reminded him. To be honest, he never felt afraid of Alain or his lackeys, nor did he understand why everybody else was so afraid of him. Looking back on it now, that's probably why Alain always picked on him and not really anyone else, because he needed everyone to fear him, and Jérémie was never afraid of him. Hurt, yes, but never afraid.

No, Jérémie Belpois's problems lay elsewhere.

"You're smart enough to skip a grade," Alain shrugged. "That's why I picked you. Why is that so hard for you to accept? You should be grateful that I recognize how smart you are!"

Looking back, it was clear that Alain was jealous of how easy academics came to Jérémie, but the young genius always considered what others called a 'gift' as more of a 'curse'. People like Alain were the main reason why.

"Anyways," Alain continued, "thanks to your failure, if I don't pass the final exams with a average of 17 or higher, then I have to repeat the year!"

"My failure?" That pissed Jérémie off. "It's your homework! I don't mind tutoring people, but I expect others to do their own work!"

Alain suddenly growled and began quickly pacing back and forth. His rage was prominent to the point where Denis and Mathieu, both of whom had kept quiet and remained in the background to this point, nervously backed away to avoid being accidentally caught in the crossfire.

Alain suddenly lashed out, punching Jérémie in the stomach and sending him to the ground. His glasses fell off in the commotion, but before the young genius could retrieve them, they were crushed beyond repair by the unrelenting foot of Alain.

As the tears began to pool in Jérémie's blue eyes, Alain growled out, "Fine, I'll let you tutor me, because I don't really have a choice. Tomorrow, after school. Don't forget or be late."

Alain then left, with Denis and Mathieu following, leaving Jérémie to clean up the mess they made by himself.

Jérémie managed to withhold his tears as he picked up what remained of his glasses and pocketed the pieces, before trudging on home. Fortunately, he was nearsighted, so his vision wasn't affected too badly, and the path from school to home (and vice versa) was permanently etched into his memory.

But that was as far as the good news went.

Contrary to what most people believed, even after this, he still never feared Alain or his lackeys, and he had tutored the elder boy for that year's final exams solely because it was the right thing to do, because he was raised by Michel and Sophie Belpois, both of whom were saints in their own rights. Even five years later (the present day), he still didn't fear bullies.

No, he feared being forever a loner.

At school, no one wanted to be friends with a nerd like him, and those who claimed they did just wanted someone smart enough to do their homework for them. Even when he did make a friend, his much cooler and more popular cousin Patrick just stole them away (at least, that's what he thought at this time), which always happened because Michel and his twin brother Arthur were inseparable, as were Sophie and Arthur's wife Éloïse (who happened to be friends from le lycée), so Patrick was over more often than any normal cousin would be.

He entered his house after fumbling with his house key for a few seconds, due to his trembling hands. He had kept his cool about having no friends ever since he first started school so long ago, so why was this the final straw?!

Sophie Belpois greeted him from the living room the moment he stepped inside. She was basically a female adult version of her son, in both personality and appearance (including the bad eyesight), albeit with brown eyes rather than her husband's blue. She was now stuck in a wheelchair, however, thanks to a car crash two months ago. Despite her pain, she wore her own poker face as to not worry her husband and son.

That was why Jérémie was able to see how the smile she gave him here didn't really reach her eyes, despite the hurt he was feeling.

"Welcome home, mon chéri," she wheeled around to face him, and her smile faltered when she noticed the lack of glasses on his face. "Are you alright? What happened to your glasses?"

He put on a fake smile of his own, trying hard not to fiddle with the broken pieces of his eyewear in his pocket, "I'm fine. I just had trouble getting home, and my glasses broke. We still have that spare pair, right?"

"Of course, they're in the master bathroom." Meaning, the restroom inside hers and Michel's bedroom. "Go do your homework while I call the eyeglass store and order a new pair for you."

"Thank you," he quietly replied before heading to his room.

Due to Sophie's injuries from that car crash resulting in her being permanently stuck in a wheelchair, they had to move to a single-story house. Fortunately, Arthur, Éloïse, and Patrick lived in the same neighborhood in such a house, so the two families of three simply switched houses. The process required a lawyer or two due to the deeds of the houses needing to be properly switched, but it was a lot less painful than simply selling their house and buying a brand new one, especially since they needed to adjust to the new normal at the time.

Honestly, Michel, Sophie, and Jérémie were very fortunate to have such a loving and understanding family who immediately jumped in with the idea of switching houses in the first place the moment they knew Sophie was struggling just to climb the stairs to her own bedroom.

Jérémie's new room had a bay window, which he actually liked. It helped him think. His only homework at the moment was studying for the final exams, most of which he already knew. So for the moment, he was free.

After closing his door and setting his backpack against the wall, he took the smashed pieces of his glasses out of his pocket and set them on his desk next to his keyboard. Being reminded of what had just happened forced the unshed tears to finally fall.

As he sat down in his bay window, he asked himself, yet again, why this was the last straw. He was fine up until this point. He was a loner, and while he didn't like it, he could deal with it. Even five years later (the present day), he still didn't understand why.

He wanted friends, and not just ones who needed him to help them with homework. He wanted friends who would understand him, who would stand up for him, who would always ensure that his safety and happiness would be at the top of their priority lists.

Yes, he had a loving family, and he was forever grateful to have them in his life (especially five years later when one of his friends had parents who were dead and/or missing, and another's who were emotionally abusive), but he was lonely.

He needed someone to talk to his own age, someone who wasn't friends with him just because he was smart. He needed someone to talk to who didn't care that he was socially awkward, who didn't mind teaching him about all the necessary cues. That's what friends did, right?

But he was afraid that he'd never find out. He wasn't scared of bullies, but rather of always being alone.

He was crying into his knees when he heard his door open. There were no footsteps, only the creaking of the door as it slowly swung open.

"Oh, mon chéri, what happened?" It was his mother, like he expected.

She knew how to read him, like an open book despite her own social awkwardness, so he didn't doubt that she had her suspicions in the living room earlier. But now that she was seeing him crying freely, as well as his smashed glasses on the table, she knew for sure, and he honestly didn't really care.

Call him a momma's boy all you want, but he felt a tighter bond with his mom than with his dad. He was close to Michel, don't get him wrong, but there was something about Sophie that made Jérémie feel safe. Maybe it was because they were so much alike...

She wheeled closer to him until she was close enough to place a comforting hand on his shin. "You don't have to give me any details, but...was it bullies again?"

He nodded, still crying into his knees. He was calming down, but not enough to where he trusted himself to speak.

"I'm sorry," her voice was soft. "I don't understand how anyone could be so mean to a sweet boy like you." A pause. "I've ordered your new glasses, two of them just in case. They'll be ready in approximately seven to fourteen business days, so wear the spares until then."

Jérémie nodded again, still crying, still not speaking. Honestly, the spare glasses had slipped his mind; he hadn't retrieved them yet. He then turned towards the window, looking out at the sky to remind himself that there was an entire world outside of his own head. His father got him and Sophie both into this habit, to prevent them from getting trapped in their own minds.

His mother didn't speak for a while, leading Jérémie to believe that she had left. That was until he heard rustling and the sounds of someone struggling against a mattress. He turned his head to look at the source of the sounds, only to find that his mother had not gone anywhere.

Sophie was slowly but surely climbing into his bed by herself. She was still recovering from a sprained wrist and two broken ribs, with her doctor firmly requesting that she have someone help her out and into her wheelchair until she was fully healed. Once she was safely seated on the side of his bed, she connected eyes with him.

"Join me."

She wasn't strong enough yet to get out of her wheelchair to do anything, much less lie down in bed, without someone else helping her. And yet, his mother did so anyways, because when her son needed her, even if he didn't say anything, nothing could stop her from performing her motherly duties. The thought made him emotional.

He obeyed her, climbing into bed next to her and kicking off his shoes as she carried her paralyzed legs up onto the bed. She then took him into her arms, cuddling him and giving him the affection he both needed and deserved.

"Let it out, mon chéri," she softly told him. "It's better than keeping it all inside." Another pause. "Not everyone is mean. You'll find real friends soon."

He shook his head in denial. No, he wouldn't.

"Yes, you will," she replied. "I was just like you when I was a kid. At school, I was only ever known as a nerd and the resident loner. But then I met Éloïse, who was my polar opposite in every way. I prepared myself for the inevitable letdown, because there was no way someone so bubbly and upbeat would be my friend willingly, but she stayed by my side and has never left me since. And the craziest thing is that we met in music class, a course neither of us wanted to take but had to because we needed the credits to graduate." She cuddled him ever so closer to her, and he could feel her smiling into his hair. "You will find your friends soon, I promise, and I guarantee that they'll emerge from the strangest of places."

He still didn't believe her, but his tears were beginning to subside, "I hate it there."

"Your current school?" He nodded. "Why?"

"Because the adults aren't the ones in charge." Alain was, with the only adult he respected being, again, his mother, the headmaster, but even she tended to coddle her son a little too much.

Sophie relented rather quickly, "Agreed. Your father and I will have to talk about it, but I promise that this will be your last year at your current school."

"You have some place in mind?" he quietly asked.

"Yep, the very school Éloïse and I met, but I can't tell you the name just yet. It's a surprise."

Jérémie finally let slip a smile, a real one, before he chose to place his trust in his parents. If his mother promised that things would get better, then things would indeed get better.

But he never expected to find his very first friend four months later inside of a freakin' supercomputer, or his four other friends through a virtual world inside of that supercomputer.

'Strangest of places', indeed.

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

~Current Day: Early May 2008~

Jérémie didn't know what exactly made him wake up (maybe it was the dream about his mother), but it didn't matter, because he was more concerned about where he was.

His initial view was of a violet-colored rock wall in his face, lying face down, and he quickly looked up to see more similarly colored mountains against an indigo sky. He'd only been here once, but he knew this to be the Mountain Sector. A sudden thought came to mind, one that scared him.

XANA sent him to Lyoko.

He was lying down on his stomach in the middle of a roundabout, and as he got to his knees, he caught sight of his avatar, which he still found embarrassing, even though he and Aelita had been dating for about a year now. He hadn't bothered to change it when he was upgrading the others', knowing the likelihood of him fighting was very, very minimal, and he probably should have.

Because his avatar was modeled directly after Mister Pück, just in a blue color palette. It was basically a blue version of Aelita's, complete with the elf ears, the single earring (except his was blue and attached to his right ear), and the face markings (with his being blue and looking like the outline of glasses). The only difference was a pair of steampunk goggles resting on top of his head that was connected directly to the holomap.

As he was processing his current situation (he was screwed), a voice sounded from above, "Jérémie? Can you hear me?"

Was that...? "Yumi?"

It was. "Jérémie! Thank god! Are you okay?" She sounded relieved.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, still looking around and studying his surroundings. "What's going on?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Yumi told him. "XANA attacked you, right?"

"Yeah, with a spectre of Franz Hopper," he admitted. "It then clearly sent me to Lyoko, but why?" That confused him the most. Out of paranoia, he remained where he was, kneeling in the pathway of the roundabout he was occupying.

"We don't know either," she replied, "but don't worry, we'll figure it out. Also, you don't look ridiculous at all. Ulrich and Odd were lying."

If one could blush on Lyoko, he would have here. He knew Yumi was just joking, but he couldn't stop the embarrassment from returning. "Are you kidding me?! It's basically one big statement on how I feel about Aelita!"

"Relax, Einstein, she'll think it's cute."

She would. That was no lie. But again, if Jérémie could blush in his virtual form, his entire face would be red by now. He then shook his head to clear it before changing the subject, "Are you able to access the materialization program?" That was one way to quickly get him out of here, and his gut kept telling him the sooner, the better.

"I...don't know..." She sounded unsure; he didn't blame her.

"It should be in close proximity to the virtualization program, given how they're two sides of the same coin," he told her, confident that she knew how and where to find that program. "Tell me where the nearest tower is. Once I'm inside, I'll guide you through the process." All while being in a safe place.

"Sounds like a plan," she sounded relieved. "Um, head 10 degrees north from your current position. It's a way tower and it's close enough to you that you can reach it on foot."

"I'm on my way."

But as he got to his feet, Yumi, out of the blue, alerted him to something she could see, "Watch out! Two Megatanks are converging on your location!"

He turned in the direction of the tower, only to find the path blocked by a Megatank, just like Yumi said. The walkway was already uncomfortably narrow, but any chance of Jérémie getting past this thing was immediately destroyed the moment the Megatank tried to get through the opening within the two rocks framing the entrance.

Because it got stuck.

And yet once it was trapped, it made no movement to free itself, strangely enough.

"Yumi?" He asked, needing an alternate route.

"There's another Megatank behind you!" she warned.

He turned around just in time to avoid the large circular laser of that second monster. Again, strangely enough, it seemed to narrowly miss him on purpose.

He wasn't defenseless; he had a weapon, just like everybody else. He excelled at defense actually, with poor points in offense, but he wasn't completely helpless. He remembered his weapons—energy daggers, 1000 of them per virtualization—and knew that it was time to use them.

So he produced a dagger and threw it at the Megatank that wasn't stuck. Clearly, the monster didn't expect him fighting back, as it didn't close up its shell, letting his dagger hit its eye and exploding as a result.

"Nice one, Einstein!" Yumi exclaimed. "There's another tower nearby if you take the open path, but it's farther away."

"That's fine. Which direction?"

"31 degrees southeast."

"Got it." He turned to move, but he couldn't.

The air had suddenly become filled with a strong magnetic field that somehow brought up every single inch of fear he had straight to the surface. In other words, he was literally paralyzed with fear, caused by this magnetic field now surrounding him, but he didn't know why or how this correlation was possible.

"Um, Yumi?" he called out. He hoped with all his might that she was still at the controls.

"Behind you, Jérémie!" She sounded extremely panicked, and when he turned around, he found out why.

The Scyphozoa was slowly floating towards him, right down the open path.

He took a step back, and another, and another, but his progress was halted when his heel bumped into the shell of the Megatank that was still stuck in between those two rocks. A small moment, but it made him realize that the monster had gotten trapped on purpose. XANA could've easily killed him with its Hopper spectre, but it chose not. That, plus both Megatanks deliberately trapping him here, meant that the AI wanted something from him.

"What does XANA want from me?" he asked to no one in particular the one question that remained.

"I don't know, but hang in there!" Yumi urged. "The others are on their way!"

Best case scenario, XANA would just take his DNA sequence code or possess him. Worst case scenario, the plan was to take something far more important, something crucial in keeping him alive.

He had nowhere to run, so he had no choice but to let the monster wrap its tentacles around him (they burned into his virtual skin). He then saw red and his mind went blank. He felt XANA quite literally invading his mind as Yumi's frantic calls out to him became muffled...

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

Back in the Forest Sector, a Hornet fired at an unsuspecting Aelita. However, Odd jumped in front of her, firing a Laser Arrow right as the shot hit him. The cat and the Hornet were thereby taken out at the same time.

Two Hornets remained, while the Lyokowarriors' numbers had dwindled down to three—Aelita, Ulrich, and William—with all of them having between 30 to 50 lifepoints left, according to Yumi.

Speaking of whom, Aelita had ordered Yumi to focus on Jérémie, which the elder obeyed, though addressed the others once to reassure them that their group genius was okay.

Yumi, once again, broke off her concentration on their sixth in order to address those still virtualized on Lyoko. This time, however, she sounded scared and panicked, "Aelita, Jérémie's being cornered by the Scyphozoa!"

"What?!" Ulrich and William both halted in their tracks.

"Did you say...?!" William trailed off.

"Where is he, Yumi?!" Aelita demanded, before anyone could ask about William's hesitance.

Fortunately, the Japanese girl answered quickly, "Still in the Mountain Sector! The nearest way tower from your guys' position is 18 degrees south by southeast!"

Aelita promptly waved her hand over her star bracelet, summoning her wings, as Ulrich asked to the others, "What does XANA want with Jérémie?"

"There's no time!" the pink-ette snapped, her virtual heart racing with the same fear she felt earlier. Her love was in danger; she had to save him. "Jérémie's safety comes first!"

She then took off, taking flight towards the tower Yumi pointed out.

Ulrich and William, when she left, shared a concerned and frightened glance with each other, as the Overbike appeared in front of them. "She's right," Yumi told them. "Better hurry."

The two then took off, with William as Ulrich's passenger, and the Overbike's speed allowed them to quickly catch up with Aelita, who was flying as fast as her wings would let her.

The three easily phased through the tower wall. The two Hornets tried to follow them, in order to stop them, but while one was able to stop in time, the other bumped into the tower and exploded due to the impact.

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

Aelita emerged from the tower first, quickly flying high up into the sky of the Mountain Sector to find her boyfriend (he was in danger; she had to save him).

"90 degrees south, Aelita," Yumi cut in, and the pink-ette immediately turned in that direction, as Ulrich and William emerged from the tower in time to hear Yumi's direction.

Sure enough, in the distance, they saw the Scyphozoa and a blue figure surrounded in red in its grip. Jérémie...

Aelita took off the moment she saw him. Ulrich and William took off after her on the Overbike. The boys shared a nod, and both jumped off of vehicle, letting it ram into Megatank that was stuck between the two rocks that marked the entrance. It didn't do any damage, though, just budged it further in between the rocks.

While William broke his fall with his Super Smoke and remained behind, Ulrich used his Super Sprint to speed up as Aelita fired an Energy Field at the Scyphozoa's bulbous head. The monster wavered just long enough to be caught off-guard by Ulrich slicing off the tentacles that held his blue friend prisoner. It worked; Jérémie fell to the ground.

Aelita landed and quickly ran to Jérémie's side, kneeling beside him as she felt an immense amount of relief.

Ulrich remained beside them as he carefully watched the Scyphozoa retreat. He then turned and watched the Megatank unstick itself by rolling backwards. Thankfully, and interestingly, it didn't engage, just rolling past William, who had not moved ever since he dismounted the Overbike.

"Looks like XANA gave up for now," Ulrich relayed to everyone else. As he heard Yumi and Odd (from the lab) both breathe sighs of relief, he turned to William, just now noticing how the elder boy was shaking. "William, are you okay?"

Said boy seemed to snap back to reality, "W-What? Oh, y-yeah. Sorry for freezing up like that. I-I just..."

Everyone was quiet. "It's okay," Ulrich softly told him, mentally beating himself up for not remembering that William was afraid of the Scyphozoa (for good reason). He then turned his attention back to Jérémie, who Aelita was still carefully hovering over.

"XANA could've been after Jérémie's knowledge of the Anti-XANA program," Odd suggested, with an impressive amount of intelligence that he normally didn't show. "After all, it was scanning each of our profiles to find out who its enemies were and how we had evolved."

"That's certainly a possibility," Aelita quietly replied. "But we can discuss that after we get Jérémie out of Lyoko."

"Agreed," Yumi added. "We should abort the training mission." She couldn't keep the concern out of her voice as she then asked, "Jérémie, are you okay?" He was unresponsive, even though he'd been freed.

Ulrich knelt at Jérémie's side as well as the blonde finally stirred, evidently being able to hear the others clearly. "I'm not sure," he groaned as he sat up with Aelita's help. "I feel really dizzy."

"I think I found the materialization program," Yumi softly cut in. "Is it codenamed 'The Tails Side', as in a coin?" She was remembering Jérémie describing materialization and virtualization as being 'two sides of the same coin'.

Aelita replied, "Yes," not taking her eyes off of Jérémie. "All you have to do is select an ID card and type in the code. Just remember that there are only three scanners, and four of us."

"Okay. Materialization Jérémie, materialization Aelita."

The 'sweet' lovebirds (understandably) went first, before Ulrich and William promptly followed.

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

Aelita immediately ran to Jérémie the moment the scanner doors opened, for them both. She didn't know why, but she had anticipated that he would collapse without support. And she was right. He fell right into her arms.

He was still standing, but she was supporting a good amount of his weight. He was still breathing, but it was slow and slurred. He seemed to have both a fever and a headache.

She then remembered that the aftereffects of the Scyphozoa went away over time, usually within an hour, and went away completely if you entered a tower. However, if you were materialized or devirtualized soon after, then the effects were much worse.

Odd was there, watching them carefully, while Yumi climbed down the ladder as Ulrich and William both emerged from the scanners, but Aelita barely registered any of them, as her focus remained solely on her boyfriend.

"Are you okay?" she quietly asked him.

"I will be," he replied, his voice slurred and barely above a whisper, "but I'm still disoriented."

"You need to rest," she sternly told him.

"Let's take him to his room," Yumi suggested, and she gained no protests, except from Jérémie.

The young genius had complained that he was fine only once, before he shut his mouth, not feeling energetic enough to keep up the resistance.

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

The six retreated to Jérémie's room. Ulrich and Yumi rushed ahead to open the door, letting Aelita usher Jérémie inside, before they, William, and Odd quickly followed. The latter two hung out by the open door frame, while the former two hovered nearby, all four watching carefully as Aelita helped her still somewhat disoriented boyfriend sit down on his bed.

"Why would XANA go after me?" Jérémie asked, as the pink-ette sat next to him.

"We don't know, but don't worry, we'll find out," Aelita gently reassured him, as he took his cellphone out of his pocket and placed it on his desk next to his alarm clock. "You just rest."

"We know it's not your DNA sequence code," Yumi cut in. "You were able to return to Earth, after all."

"That means XANA likely failed to retrieve whatever its target is," Jérémie realized. "So it'll probably try again."

"We'll be prepared next time," Odd vowed. "All we need to do is find out what exactly is in your memory that XANA wants."

"Which we'll do while you rest, Jérémie," Aelita said. "If you need us, we're just a text or phone call away."

As if on cue, Jérémie's cellphone buzzed with a notification. The young genius, however, immediately tensed up and his eyes widened with fear, which was not lost on the others. That was why, when Jérémie reached for the phone like his life depended on it, Ulrich beat him to it.

"Give that back. Right. Now," the blonde seethed.

Ulrich merely raised an eyebrow to show his unamusement, "Why? Are you hiding something from us?" He was essentially holding his friend's phone hostage, but he didn't look at it.

The faux smile on the genius's face was obvious. "Why would I hide anything from you guys? It's just from my family."

"You mean your family who always calls you and never texts?" Yumi asked, before grabbing the phone and looking at the screen. However, she sharply gasped at what she was reading before stepping back in shock.

William and Odd immediately stepped forward, alarmed. "What's wrong?" William worriedly asked.

Ulrich, however, placed Jérémie's phone back on the desk, face down. "You don't need to see it." On his face was an expression worn by a troubled person.

"Why? What did it say?" Odd asked, he and William both concerned because of Yumi's strong reaction, when she was normally pretty well held together.

"Don't worry about it," Jérémie quickly and coldly cut in.

At the same time, Ulrich replied with, "Something mean." His voice then went dangerously quiet, "Jérémie...why the hell...didn't you tell us that you have a cyberbully?"

Aelita gasped, before getting up from her spot on the bed to reach for the phone, only for Jérémie to grab her wrist to stop her. "Don't. You. Dare, Aelita."

The pink-ette was surprised at her boyfriend's cold reaction, before noticing that he was struggling to keep up his poker face and failing horribly.

"Take his word for it, 'Lita," Yumi softly agreed, shaking her head. "You don't want to know." She would never reveal what she had read as long as she lived. It was so cruel, and she hated that those words were directed at someone she considered a younger brother.

Odd was uncharacteristically quiet and angry as he asked, "Who are they, Jérémie?"

The response was quick, "It doesn't matter."

"We're not asking, Belpois," William sternly shot back. "Who are they?"

"It's not important." Jérémie's teeth were clenched and he refused to look at any of them in the eye.

"Yes, it is!" Ulrich exclaimed. "It's the most important thing in the world!" He hated seeing any of his friends so hard on themselves. How could Jérémie insist that his problems were insignificant?!

"Jérémie, we just want to help," was all Aelita had to say for Jérémie to finally snap.

"Look, I don't know who they are either! They remain anonymous, no matter how deep I dig for an IP address, so I honestly don't see how you guys can help when I can't even help myself! So, please, quit bugging me about it!"

There it was. The continuation of this morning's outburst.

Jérémie never meant to be rude to his friends, and when he was, his friends gave him a reality check, after which he fixed things. Sometimes (and at first), it was solely due to his social awkwardness and that fact that he'd never had friends before. Then, as time went on, it was mostly due to stress from XANA, which was understandable, and it went away the more obvious it was that XANA was finally gone (that's what it looked like, anyway).

But this time, it was due to emotional distress, and it was far from being Jérémie's fault. No wonder he took Odd's joke the wrong way...

The room was quiet. No one dared to speak.

Aelita barely managed to hold her tears back as she placed a comforting hand on his trembling shoulder. "C'mon, guys, we need to go." They still needed to find the reason XANA would go after Jérémie, after all. Speaking of whom, she turned to him and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek, "Rest now. We'll be back later."

One by one, the others left, very reluctantly, with Aelita being the last. She gave him one last concerned glance (even though he didn't look at her) before closing the door behind her.

Despite the silence, and the others granting his wish to quit asking him about who his cyberbully was, Jérémie knew perfectly well that they were not done talking about this. All of this was far from over, and he was dreading their next meeting (which likely would be later tonight), because they would definitely be digging deep into him for more answers.

He wasn't sure when he would've been ready, but he definitely didn't want them to find out the way they did.

Also, why did he always have the most rotten luck snapping at his own friends, the people who only wanted to help him?!

Tears pooled up at the bottom of his eyes as he grabbed his cellphone to silence it. Doing so required him to glance at the screen, and when he read the text, he was immediately grateful that he had refused to let Aelita read it.

(Yumi was right; it was too cruel.)

Everything was going so well. His parents had sent him to Kadic to get away from all the bullying, but now, it was back. Now, he had returned to being cooped up inside his room and crying into his knees. As it turned out, nothing had changed. He was still the lonely loser nerd nobody liked and everybody loved to make fun of.

A light scratching sounded against his door. Confused, the boy got to his feet and opened it, only to see Kiwi pawing at the door, before lowering his paw and whining at Jérémie. It wasn't a selfish whine, though. It was sympathetic.

Again, Kiwi may have been a dumb dog, but he was the Lyokowarriors' dumb dog—had been and always would be—and he would always be able to sense when his humans were suffering.

Jérémie finally smiled (though tearfully) before scooping Kiwi up into his arms. Closing his door to give himself some privacy, he laid back down on his bed, this time with Kiwi snuggled up beside him.

He was wrong. Things had changed. He was still a nerd, yes, but things were different now.

This time, he had friends.

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

The other five had decided to split up, each of them seeing two different missions laid out in front of them that took equal priority. William and Aelita went back to the factory to focus on XANA's reason for targeting Jérémie, while Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd remained at the Academy with the intention of discovering possible suspects for Jérémie's cyberbully.

The trio split up and talked to every student (no adult just yet) they came across, one-on-one, keeping a mental list of those they found suspicious by judging their reaction when they broke the news (which they requested be solely on the downlow).

One such conversation was between Ulrich and Sissi.

"He's what?!" Sissi cried, before Ulrich immediately started shushing her (he didn't want to attract an audience). Fortunately, she obeyed him and whispered, "Are you sure?"

"I read the text myself," he sternly replied, "and correct me if I'm wrong, but a decent human being would never wish ill will on a stranger, much less on a friend." He was probably coming across as emotionless, but it was the only way to hold back his anger.

She was seeing right through him, however, given how she was looking at him with mild concern. "How are you and the others holding up?"

"We're upset. When one of us is suffering, the rest of us feel it too," he whispered, before raising his voice. "Anyways, if you could keep this on the downlow, that would be great. If this gets around, the cyberbully might step up their game."

He said this mostly because it was his, Yumi, and Odd's plan to weed out their suspects, but what Sissi said next was correct and valid.

"And in turn, hurt Jérémie more than he already is," Sissi finished. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed, I promise. I'll also keep an eye out for you."

Ulrich blinked in mild surprise, "Really? You are sure? You don't have to. We've got it covered pretty well."

"I'm sure," she offered him a soft smile. "We are friends, after all, aren't we?"

He returned her smile with one of his own. Once upon a time, she most likely would've been their top suspect, but she had become so much nicer (still sassy and a fashionista, but nicer nonetheless) during the past year. Now, she wasn't even on his list.

"Thanks, Sissi. Really."

She gently patted him on the shoulder, a gesture meant to be comforting, "Good luck," before walking away.

After about an hour, the three regrouped by the manhole cover that hid the entrance to the sewer passage. Now with abundant privacy, they began discussing their mental lists with each other in order to combine them into one big list.

Sissi, Milly, Tamiya, Johnny, and Hiroki, among numerous others, were off the list. To be frank, most people they talked to reacted with sympathy, along with either a promise to keep on the lookout (like Sissi) or a request to let them know what they could do to help.

There were a few people who shrugged the news off, but it was mostly because they had homework to do or were in a hurry. Nicolas was among these people.

"I don't think we should count Nicolas, actually," Yumi admitted.

"Why not?" Odd asked, being the one who spoke to Nicolas in the first place.

"Because he and Sissi are on excellent terms now," Yumi reminded him. "When Sissi first became our friend, she cut off ties with him and Hervé. Nicolas was the first of the two to reach out and rekindle their bond. I don't think it's him. I do think, however, that Hervé is particularly suspect."

"Because he's almost as smart as Jérémie and has always seen him as a rival?" Ulrich asked.

"Not only that," Yumi confessed, looking a little troubled as she explained. "When I talked to him, his reaction seemed...faked. Don't get me wrong, he was pretty convincing and would've had us fooled if he wasn't talking to me." She had the best instincts of the group, after all. "He acted kind and sympathetic when I broke the news, but the emotions didn't reach his eyes."

They had reached Sissi's, though. That's why Ulrich was confident in her innocence.

The three were quiet until Odd broke the silence, "Y'know, the cyberbully may not be anyone at Kadic, but rather someone in Jérémie's hometown. Or anywhere else in the world."

"You make a good point, Odd," Ulrich replied, "but the way that text was worded indicated that it was someone who was able to see Jérémie return to campus earlier."

"It could be XANA," Yumi brought up. "It's targeted Jérémie with schemes like this before." All three shuddered in fear and guilt at the reminder of the Fake Hopper incident.

"Maybe," Odd shrugged, "but we all have to admit that it's best to start at Kadic. And Jérémie may be mad at us for not dropping this, but if we ignored it like he asked us to, then we'd be bad friends."

Exactly. That's precisely why they had to hunt for this person and ensure they would face the karma they deserved and be brought to justice.

Yumi's phone then rang, and she quickly picked up, "Hello?"

"Aelita and I found something," it was William. His vocal tone sounded normal. He didn't seem to be panicking or worried. "Can you guys come back to the lab?"

"We'll be right there."

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

The trio made it to the factory in record time. As they emerged from the elevator, Ulrich asked, "What'd you find?"

Aelita was seated in front of the computer, with William standing at her side. She waved them over, "It's a visual." Once the five were gathered around the monitor, the pink-ette revealed, "XANA is after the Keys to Lyoko. It needs both halves, the first to escape the supercomputer and the second to regain the strength the original version had upon its destruction."

"So avoid the Scyphozoa," Odd said. "Cool."

"But, Aelita," Yumi cut in, confused, "you have your father's half, and the original XANA used the half it stole from you to create all those replicas. You and Jérémie said so yourselves, remember?"

"I remember," the pink-ette replied. "But where the half XANA stole went is what I find interesting and the reason I wanted you all to come here." She then turned to the monitor and brought up a window full of (what seemed like) random codes. "This is the source code for the Anti-XANA Program. Remember, my father sent us some data to help Jérémie finish it."

"Yeah, we remember," Ulrich reassured her. "And forgive me for asking, but what does that have to do with why XANA targeted Jérémie?"

"Everything," Aelita explained. "Most of the coding here I recognize as Jérémie's style, and some as my father's, but there are two codes in particular that stand out, because they were placed there for a task to be completed once XANA was gone and the replicas were all destroyed." She used the keyboard to highlight the first code. "This one told the multi-agents to gather up all the Keys XANA stole from me, because they were scattered around the network thanks to the replicas." She then highlighted the second, "Then, this one downloaded that half of the Keys directly to Jérémie's digital profile."

The room was instantly filled with confounded silence.

"Is that why Jérémie's arrow was yellow like yours, Aelita?" Yumi asked a surprising question, revealing something she had seen while manning the controls earlier. "I thought it was weird, because during that training mission to help him build resistance towards XANA possession, I remember his arrow then being green."

"Most likely," the pink-ette shrugged, her mind evidently on something else. "In any case, XANA found out this secret before we did thanks to scanning and studying all of our profiles. It tried to make an attempt today to steal Jérémie's half, and thankfully failed. But it will try again. And if it succeeds, Jérémie will die, because once you have even a fraction of Lyoko's Keys attached to your profile, you cannot live without them." That's why she herself died when XANA stole her half.

(Meanwhile, Hopper being Lyoko's creator was a good explanation as for why he survived after giving his half to Aelita to revive her.)

But the others' minds were on something else. "Princess," Odd was quiet as he exchanged a concerned glance with Ulrich, "we feel the need to point out that you're in just as much danger as Einstein is here." She held the other half, after all.

"But I'm used to it. Jérémie isn't." Her response was too much like Jérémie's earlier. She was trying to keep up a poker face and failing.

"He's been targeted by XANA before, Aelita," Ulrich softly told her. "More than once. He's used to the dangers as much as we are."

"But he's–..." She was trembling, and she got up out of the chair and walked a couple steps away from them, before turning around and revealing a tear falling down her cheek. She sniffed, "I lost both of my parents. You guys are the only family I have left. But Jérémie...Jérémie is special. He's the one who turned the supercomputer back on. He materialized me. He's always taken care of me." She paused, just letting the tears fall. "He saved my life. He's sacrificed so much for me when he didn't have to. Without him, I would not be standing here today. Whatever happens, he'll always be important to me. Always."

That fear she felt earlier when Yumi had told them, repeatedly, that he was in danger? It was the fear of losing him. She couldn't. She had to keep him safe, because she didn't know what she'd do without him.

Yumi stepped forward without a word and wrapped the pink-ette in a tight hug. Aelita tearfully, and quickly, returned the embrace.

"Don't worry," the elder girl whispered. "You and Jérémie both have us."

"And you always will," Odd added.

Aelita smiled and nodded into Yumi's shoulder, grateful to have such amazing friends who understood her feelings, who were not afraid to stand by her side as her mind was becoming torn between preserving her past or securing her future.

Her mother or Jérémie? (Please, don't make her choose...)

But right now, she remained in the present, enjoying this moment with her friends (her family) while it lasted.

Because XANA would strike again, but next time, they would be ready.

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

Jérémie was stirred from his slumber (just a quick nap before dinner) by a knock at his door. Feeling Kiwi awaken in his arms as well, he softly said, "It's open."

He still had his glasses on as he watched his door slowly swing open and Aelita stepped in, "Hey. How are you feeling now?" She was smiling, but he could see the faintest hint of dried tears in her eyes.

But he chose not to bring it up. If she didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to be a jerk.

He sat up in his bed before stretching, "Much better. All I needed was a nap." And Kiwi.

Her smile remained as she asked, "You feel up to visitors right now? Or do you want to talk after dinner?"

That was code for 'the others are right behind me, and we may have some answers'. Knowing this, he replied, "Sure, let 'em in." As Aelita opened the door wider, letting the other four step into the room, he asked, "What did you guys find?"

The pink-ette shut the door once they were all in the room, before telling him, "Go to your computer and bring up your digital profile."

He blinked in surprise. "My profile?" The others all nodded. He was still confused, but he complied. As he got up from his bed and sat down in his computer chair (and Kiwi jumped into Odd's arms), he asked, "What am I looking for?"

"You'll know when you see it," was all Aelita told him.

This told him a lot, actually. It told him that either she was confident he could figure it out himself or a visual could explain it better than she could. Or both.

He used his computer's connection to Lyoko to piggyback into the supercomputer's database, allowing him to easily open the protected file full of the six digital profiles. The moment he brought up his own (with his ID card picture changing to one that showed his Mister Pück-esque avatar), he noticed something strange.

He hovered his cursor over that thing, "This file is new." He promptly typed in a command that ran a scan, in order to read the contents of the file. The results came back quickly and they surprised him, "'First downloaded 10 May, 2007'. That's..." He trailed off.

"The day XANA was destroyed with your Anti-XANA program," Ulrich finished, fortunately. That told the genius that the others all knew; he was the only one who didn't.

Jérémie continued reading the results of the scan, "The contents of this file are all of the Keys that XANA stole from Aelita..."

"That's right," Aelita confirmed, before explaining, "Two lines of code my father sent to you that day were solely for the purpose of gathering up those Keys and giving them to you. When it was studying our profiles, XANA came across that and figured out a way it could escape and regain the strength of the original."

"By stealing both sets of Keys," Jérémie finished. The pink-ette confirmed this by nodding. "So that's why XANA was after me."

"Yeah." Odd suggested, "We're thinking it likely brought you to Lyoko so it could steal your half first and get the hard part over with before it stole Aelita's." Because Jérémie never went to Lyoko, barring an absolute emergency.

That made a lot of sense, and Jérémie felt better knowing what this version of XANA was after.

William, however, leaned in and pointed at the screen, "Those scan results say there's another file in there, one that's not any of the Keys."

Jérémie double-checked the results, and found that William was right. "Right. It's an audio file. Should I play it?"

"It's likely from my father, knowing him," Aelita confessed. "Go ahead."

With that, the young genius clicked on the audio file, and it played. Sure enough, Franz Hopper's voice rang out clearly.

"Jérémie Belpois, you have surpassed every expectation I've ever had of you. Don't feel guilty for my death; it was my choice. I was a loose end, and you and Aelita both know how much I hate those. While I hope there is never a need for you to use these Keys, I'm entrusting Lyoko and my daughter to you. I wish you and your friends good luck in all of your future endeavors, because you all can give Aelita what I could not: a family and a home to return to. Farewell."

The message was short, but Aelita was crying by the end, replacing those dried tears with fresh ones. Seeing this, Yumi wrapped a comforting arm around the pink-ette's shoulders.

Also wanting to comfort her, Odd quipped, "So I guess this makes Jérémie and Aelita the new King and Queen of Lyoko, then."

The two 'sweet' lovebirds immediately turned to him, blushing fiercely, while Ulrich and Yumi shared a knowing and teasing smile with each other.

"Odd!" Aelita exclaimed with a reddened face.

"What?" Odd shrugged. "You two recreated Lyoko, after all, and the old King has retired, so we can no longer call you 'Princess'."

William rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, "C'mon. Let's go to dinner."

The six, one by one, left Jérémie's room, with Odd suggesting they drop Kiwi off in his room first. The atmosphere no longer felt tense; the problems had been resolved for now.

Jérémie's phone remained on his desk next to his alarm clock.

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

Later that night, however, as everyone else went to sleep, Jérémie sat on his bed with his legs crossed and in his pajamas. His phone was clutched tightly in both of his hands, as he stared intently at it.

He didn't have to wait long.

'So you sent your friends to hunt for me? Tell them that, yes, they met me, but if they ever guess who I am, then it's bad news for you.'

Jérémie took a deep breath, reminding himself which enemy of his was more dangerous (XANA, of course), before placing his phone back on his desk next to his alarm clock and falling to a slightly fitful sleep.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!

Up next: Episode 4, Rivalry - "Ulrich and William's rivalry returns to the forefront as the gang struggles with Jérémie's choice to include William in the fight this time."

A/N: Title meaning: definition of contingency - a provision for an unforeseen event or circumstance

-Jérémie's avatar in this chapter is his old one (refer to my DeviantArt page for the design; it's the same as the one he has in my Jerlita Roleswap AU, because it was easier for me that way), because he strikes me as the type to not change his avatar while upgrading the others. He's not going to be doing any fighting on Lyoko, so why bother? It will be changed in the next chapter, though, because sorry, Jer, but you will be forced to fight on Lyoko in this season.

-The flashback is inspired by Son-Neko's art piece titled 'Jérémie's Journey'. "Le lycée" is high school in France, and "mon chéri" is a pet name commonly used in France, translating to "my dear". Also, everything you read in this chapter about Jérémie's mother (and Patrick's parents, at that; names and all) are just my headcanons. For more information, go to my DA page and search for 'Belpois Family Tree'.

-Quick question: Does anyone want me to post my timeline for this story? I'll have to edit it, because it has spoilers for the final chapters, but if enough people want me to, I will post it as a special chapter.

~Evolution concepts~

First, the source codes. Again, it's a great idea (even if I would've liked a more in-depth explanation on them), and definitely something I can see XANA doing, and it makes sense for Jérémie and William to be left out because they never went to Lyoko during the final mission. However, the threat fell flat because as we see with Odd in "The Codeless", when they lose all their codes, they're fine and live to see another day, unlike with Aelita in "The Key", who legitimately dies and has to be revived by her father. Instead, in this story, XANA's after both sets of Keys to bring its power level back to the original (free from the supercomputer and all), because remember, this version of XANA is just a back-up copy, one much weaker than the original, so while the source codes do exist, they don't work as they do in Evo, nor are they needed. As to why I chose Jérémie instead of, say, William, it goes into another concept that Evo brought up: the idea that Aelita considers the other Lyokowarriors as her true family but there's no one more special to her than Jérémie (best shown in "Obstination"). It also goes into a concept that Evo failed to expand on: the fact that Hopper (in the animated series) kept entrusting Lyoko's secrets to Jérémie. I'll be exploring both concepts further in later chapters.

Second, the cyberbully thing. I'm just taking the idea presented to us in "Jeremy's Blues" and expanding on it, specifically the idea that Jérémie can be burdened by his insecurities to the point where he believes he's not good enough so he leaves the factory in the middle of a mission when he messes up one too many times, in order to prevent the others from getting trapped in his mistakes. But the cyberbully will be back; they're not gone just yet.

Third, William's training session. Tumblr user 'a-queenoffairys' made a post reminding people that William never learned how to fight alongside the others. Yet when he returns in Evo, he's fighting like a pro, even overshadowing the others at times because he always uses his Super Smoke while their powers are rarely, if ever, seen at all. Yes, he fights this well in Season 4, but remember, he spent most of that season under XANA's control, unaware of his own actions because he was being used as a mere tool for the AI's benefit. So, sorry, but this is where I need to condemn Evo's writers; they just dropped the ball of using this angle for character development for William, because they could have used this to make William the audience surrogate in Evo, but they didn't. Whether or not you agree with me on this, regardless, William is not a veteran fighter like the others; he's a newbie. So here, his fighting style has been downgraded quite a bit, because the others are used to fighting with seamless teamwork, while William isn't. It's something he needs to learn, and that's exactly what he'll do throughout this story.

Spoiler alert: I'll need to condemn the writers again for what they did to Laura, but we'll cross that bridge when I introduce her into the story.