A World Without Danger

by BlueAbzies

When Jeremie gets an alert from an old program that's been silent for one year, he faces a dilemma that will reveal a secret that changes everything the Lyokowarriors know about Project Carthage and Aelita's parents. / Season 5/Evolution rewrite / Sequel to The Theory of Evolution

2. 97: Old Acquaintance

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, re-read 'The Theory of Evolution'. It's a very important piece of the puzzle.

Special Announcement: I changed the date mentioned at the end of the previous chapter. Now that I've created a solid timeline for this universe, I realize that the one I originally wrote doesn't make sense. It's been corrected.

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

Note: The first two lines of this chapter are the last two lines of the previous one (which, remember, ended on a cliffhanger), just so you guys remember what they're talking about.

Again, if you want concepts on the main characters' appearances, go to my DeviantArt page (same penname as here) and search for "A World Without Danger". Especially pay attention to their Lyoko forms, because there are a couple of differences from the canon suits that I've added to make their look feel more like an authentic step in their evolution (so to speak).

EDIT: Beta read by FP7ETDP43

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

"The superscan picks up an alert for a new replica, but given the recent revelation concerning XANA, it doesn't make sense. What is this new world on the network?"

A World Without Danger

Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite

Season 5, Episode 2: Old Acquaintance

"Forgive me for asking the obvious," Yumi cut in, "but can't we just shut our supercomputer off and trap XANA forever?"

"You're forgiven," Jérémie replied, "but you didn't let me finish. Something else used this commotion to sneak onto Lyoko's network, something that shares very similar coding with Franz Hopper."

Honestly, all Jérémie had to say was Hopper's name and he would get the group's attention no matter what they were talking about.

The others were immediately alarmed, Aelita especially, as she leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse of it on the computer screen.

"Do you know what this 'something' is?" she asked, eager. "Do you have more information?" As Hopper's daughter, the others told themselves, it made sense that she'd be so interested.

"No," he didn't want to give her the bad news, but he had to. "Who or whatever they are went to great lengths to hide their identity. Their entire digital profile is encrypted, and honestly, I'm...not sure I can decode it."

That was a massive surprise to the others. Jérémie was the group's hacker, being the computer and coding genius that he was, and he was an expert at it. He did hack into a government satellite once, after all, and would have succeeded in taking it over if it weren't for XANA. So for him to admit something like that out loud told them all a lot.

It told them that this 'something' was better at coding than he was.

"Please, try," Aelita urged.

The two Einsteins connected eyes, with her green pleading with his blue to understand her position, her interest. And he did, remembering her explain her nightmare to him earlier. Whether it really was her mother (or something connected to her) or not, it having similar coding to Franz Hopper's style was very telling.

Jérémie gently sighed, "I'll try my best, but I can't make any promises."

Saying those words pained the blonde genius; everybody could tell, but no one said anything.

Instead Ulrich said, "So, we all agree...we keep the supercomputer on until have a more clear picture of what's going on. Right?"

Aelita carefully watched as one by one, Yumi, Odd, and William all nodded their heads, all showing their support and willingness to power through this unwanted situation for the sakes of the world and of their pink-haired friend.

When she saw this, she smiled, breathing a light sigh of relief, "Thank you."

Odd cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but we should probably head back to school now, so we don't miss dinner. Especially since a certain someone," he narrowed a playful glare at Jérémie here, "already missed lunch."

Aelita immediately rounded on him too, mentally thanking Odd for reminding her about that. In response, Jérémie, knowing he was outnumbered here, just sighed and took out the earpiece, "Fine. We can continue this conversation afterwards."

He placed the earpiece back on top of the keyboard and stood up from the chair. He briefly stretched out his joints before following the others to the lift, his laptop bag in hand and Kiwi in step beside him.

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

When the six emerged from the manhole cover in the park, the sun was halfway gone, making the sky be colored in various shades of orange and purple. It was a beautiful sight, but it forced Jérémie and William to realize just how long they'd been at the factory. Six hours...

The blonde genius held up the rear, letting Kiwi jump from his arms first before he himself climbed out next, and as he reached the surface, an alarm began sounding from his laptop. It wasn't very loud, but the others were still close enough to hear it, so they immediately tensed up and turned to Jérémie, as he sat on the edge of the tunnel entrance and took his laptop out of his bag.

"XANA's on the attack again already?!" Odd asked, alarmed. At his feet, Kiwi was alert and waiting for the target he needed to attack.

"That was a quick recovery," Ulrich muttered.

"It's not a tower," Jérémie reassured them, looking at the information on his laptop. "It's a..." he raised an eyebrow in confusion, "new replica?"

"Replica?" William asked, rightfully confused. "What is that?"

"A copy of one of Lyoko's five sectors," Yumi explained to him, "created by XANA." That's right, she thought, that's something he wasn't present to learn. In fact, there was quite a bit that William didn't know. They should probably catch him up on everything.

"But how is that possible?" Aelita asked. "If this version of XANA is from the time where it was still trapped inside of the supercomputer, then how could it have access to the network? It needs the Keys to create a replica, and this version doesn't have them." Yet, but she was right.

"Jérémie's Anti-XANA program also destroyed all of the replicas, right?" Odd asked, wanting to make sure.

Jérémie had been rapid typing in commands to find more information. "It's not a replica, actually," he explained. "It's another virtual world that the superscan had picked up because it shares a few hundred codes with Lyoko."

The others were alarmed. "Another Lyoko?!" Ulrich asked. The replicas were all one single sector, so for a complete replica of Lyoko to exist was alarming.

"A few hundred codes out of millions, sorry," Jérémie corrected himself, "but it's still a concerning amount." He shook his head, "That's too many codes to be a coincidence." He recreated Lyoko, with Hopper's help, after all. He knew all of Lyoko's codes by heart.

Aelita kneeled down beside him to get a better view of his laptop screen, "Do you think someone stole those codes from my father? Or that my father stole them from someone else?"

"Mostly likely," Jérémie softly answered, "but I don't have enough information right now to be sure."

Yumi gained a sudden realization, and she took a deep breath before sharing it, "Jer, is there a chance that this new world could be connected somehow to Project: Carthage? I mean, we still don't know all that much about it, despite knowing that Lyoko and XANA were both created to fight it."

Jérémie and Aelita were both quiet as they digested this, and Yumi immediately felt a small amount of guilt for indirectly bringing up Franz Hopper. The two always got quiet whenever the deceased man was brought up, and the others weren't quite sure what to do to fix that, nor were they sure that they could fix it. Hopper's sacrifice had hit all of them pretty hard, but none more so than Aelita (obviously) and Jérémie (surprisingly).

"There's a good possibility," Jérémie was quiet as he responded to Yumi's inquiry. "But, again, I need more information to be sure."

"That means exploring this new world, right?" Odd asked, his adrenaline starting to flow. He always got excited when exploring the replicas.

"Well, yes," Aelita replied. "There's no other way to get more data at this point."

"Awesome!" Odd cheered, his excitement growing more and more obvious by each passing second. "So what are we waiting for?!"

"For me to build a new Skid," Jérémie replied, interrupting Odd's excitement and tearing it down with seven simple words.

"That's true, Odd," Ulrich remembered. "The Skid was destroyed by the Kolossus, and Jérémie never built another."

"Because XANA was destroyed not long after," Aelita added, as Jérémie closed his laptop and placed it back into his bag. "Then we shut the supercomputer down, so the Skid was no longer needed." When Jérémie got to his feet, she then placed the manhole cover back over the open tunnel, hiding it once more.

The six finally continued to trek back to school.

On the way, Jérémie softly revealed, "Actually, I did start on a new one. I just didn't get to finish it."

"How far did you get with it?" Yumi asked, out of curiosity.

"Pretty far, up until the framework," the blonde genius admitted. "But my attention was soon taken over by the Anti-XANA program as my brain had decided it was more important." And for that, the others were grateful.

"Can you continue where you left off?" William asked. "Or is that impossible now because the supercomputer was off for a year?"

"I can. It shouldn't take me very long to find where I left off," the blue-clad blonde reassured the group.

"How long will it take you?" Odd cut in, clearly impatient.

Jérémie gently rolled his eyes at his friend's lack of endurance, "Let's see. Without sleep and only working on the Skid, about..." he did the calculations in his head, "three days."

"Only the Skid?" Ulrich asked. "What else do you have to do?"

The blonde genius gave a sigh that was loaded with palpable stress, despite not actually working yet, "I have to update the superscan as well as your digital avatars, plus make sure everything on Lyoko and the supercomputer is the exact way we left it."

"Forgive me for asking a stupid question, again," Yumi slowly replied, "but is updating the avatars necessary? I mean, I'm fine with the one I have now."

"We don't know how strong this version of XANA is," Jérémie responded with a good point, "or how powerful it's going to get, or how quickly if so. Nor do we know what that new virtual world has in store for us. Call me paranoid all you want, but I just want to be prepared."

He's going to start overworking himself again, was Aelita's first thought. No. Not again. He was already getting stressed out enough, as evidenced by that sigh a few seconds ago, and he was just thinking about his to-do list.

That was why she grabbed his hand as she told him, "Why don't you just focus on the Skid, Jérémie? I'll handle everything else."

Their eyes connected again, and she knew he was remembering their heart-to-heart earlier, where she had expressed her wish for him to trust her more. He was always the one who was stressed out the most concerning XANA, while she eventually realized that she could easily help him (so she did).

To her relief, pleasure, and mild surprise, he softly smiled, "Thank you." His face was filled with relief.

By this time, the six had reached the courtyard. It was filled with boarding students saying goodbye to their day student friends, including Milly, Johnny, and Tamiya saying goodbye to Hiroki once they saw Yumi emerging from the treeline (since the two siblings walked home together, as per their parents' rules).

Yumi relented, "I have to go home now. Keep me updated, okay?"

"We will," Aelita promised, as Yumi moved towards the front gates.

Ulrich moved with her, "I'll walk you home." Which was nothing new. He always did this.

Yumi didn't protest. She never did.

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

The next day, the group barely heard from Jérémie, but they weren't surprised, given how much work needed to go into making a new virtual submarine, and the estimation of time he had given them (as well as the factors used in his calculations). They barely heard from Aelita either, only seeing her for classes, during which she was taking two sets of notes per class, obviously for her boyfriend, who had skipped classes today to work on the Skidbladnir.

At the end of that day's classes, Aelita sent a message to the other four, requesting that they join her in the rec room after classes were done for the day.

Odd was the first one there, and he was sitting on the red-colored couch next to Aelita by the time Ulrich and Yumi came in together.

"You wanted to see us, 'Lita?" Yumi asked, as she and her own boyfriend approached the apparent meeting area.

"Yes, I did," Aelita replied, briefly looking up from the binder of notes she had taken for Jérémie's benefit. "Let's wait for William, though, before I tell you why."

It was a professional meeting then.

Aelita turned back to the binder of notes, going through them to make sure she didn't make a mistake while writing them, as Ulrich and Yumi sat down on the bench next to the red couch the pink-ette and Odd were sitting on.

"I'm not trying to be rude," Odd slowly said, "but someone please tell me why we're letting William fight with us this time."

He was their friend, yes, and they felt comfortable enough around him to let him join them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were willing to take it slow with him, something William himself had confessed that he was fine with. But XANA's return had forced their issues back to the forefront, and now things with William were moving too fast. Now, they were struggling to let William join every mission now.

Last night at dinner, Jérémie had vehemently defended his decision to send William to Lyoko, admitting that he was no longer going to keep their sixth member away from the scanners. If they needed William, he would not hesitate to send him in. And they were not surprised one bit that Aelita was on Jérémie's side on this one.

"Because a version of XANA is back," Ulrich reminded him, quietly so as to not alert anyone else of their conversation, "and since it didn't attack with its tower yesterday, we don't know the full extent of its powers or abilities just yet." The blonde genius, and de facto leader, had brought this up as his main point last night.

"Being cautious does pay off," Yumi added. Even if they didn't fully agree with Jérémie on his decision about William, he did have a good and undeniable point there.

"It does," Aelita agreed, before revealing, "but that's just the reason he told you." She raised her gaze at them, and her forest green eyes pierced their very souls. "There's also the fact that Jérémie trusted William yesterday to make sure he wasn't going insane and not us because he was too worried about our happiness." The other three visibly deflated as they let that sink in. "I know you guys aren't completely comfortable with Jérémie's choice, so I advise that each of you have a long conversation with William and get everything out of the way so you don't trip on it later." She went quiet, "Besides, we made the unanimous decision to include William in the first place, so some, if not all, of the blame rests of us."

No one could deny that either.

"She's right," Odd replied, almost in a whisper. "The safety of the world rests on this, and we'll need everyone we can get."

"Okay, Aelita," Ulrich sighed. "You win."

The pink-ette beamed and went back to the notes for her boyfriend, just as William entered the rec room. He briefly studied the room, until Ulrich gave him a wave.

William approached the group, "Hey, you wanted to see me, Aelita?"

"Yes, I did." She shot him a smile, as she closed the binder of notes. "Please, sit down."

As William took the empty stool in between the bench and the couch (the group was in a corner), Aelita put the binder back in her bag and took out her notebook and a pen. After opening it and setting it to an empty page and clicking her pen, she got down to business.

"I've already upgraded the superscan and brought everything else up to date," she told them. "It cost me six hours worth of sleep in total, but it's done. All that's left is to upgrade your avatars. I asked you all to meet me here because I want to see if there's any requests, any changes or additions from your previous upgrade. Within reason, of course, since I can only build upon existing codes within your profile." A beat of silence. She sighed, "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

"Um," William spoke up first, "can my suit be changed to black?"

"Of course," Aelita replied, writing down William's name and a note to change his color to black. "Any other colors?"

"Anything but red," William replied. Aelita understood, because when the Scyphozoa captured you, all you could see was the red of its tentacles as it did its work. "Jérémie also told me that my original power was a light version of Super Smoke. Could I keep that power dark?"

"Sure," the pink-ette said, writing down those two notes.

"Thank you. That's it." He turned to the others, "I'm sorry. I know it will probably just bring up bad memories for you all. It's just–...the black just feels right."

"It's alright," Yumi reassured him, despite the fact that it was bringing up bad memories at this moment. "It's your avatar." She went next, "As for me, I don't need anything to be changed, but if you're taking aesthetic requests too, maybe something like a mini-dress?"

Aelita understood what the elder meant. The leotard was a bit awkward, wasn't it? She smiled, "Of course."

Yumi returned the gesture, "Thank you."

Ulrich shrugged, "I'm fine with what I have now."

"So am I," Aelita confessed, writing down more notes. "Odd, that leaves you."

The other four turned to view the expression on Odd's face, one that showed he was deep in thought, and immediately inwardly groaned. "Heavy emphasis on the 'within reason' part, Odd," Ulrich stressed.

"Hey, relax!" Odd protested. "I was just wondering if Jérémie deleted that Teleportation power and wanted to know how to ask if I could be given a second chance at it!"

Teleportation could've been really interesting to see, especially with Odd's form of fighting on Lyoko (acrobatics and teasing his enemies). It was actually a shame to see him reject it in the end.

"By just asking, you dork," Aelita replied. "And no, he didn't, just in case you ever changed your mind. At least, that's what he told me. Did you?"

"Yes, and before you ask, yes, I'm sure," Odd said. "But will me admitting that I just want to see how I can weaponize it against monsters keep you from giving it to me?"

"No." The pink-ette wrote down a note underneath Odd's name. "But it will make me excited to see the results."

"As it should, Princess. As it should." Ulrich and Yumi both rolled their eyes at Odd's antics. "Also, please let me keep the ears. It goes along perfectly with the tail, just completes the look. Other than that, I have nothing else."

"Says the one who initially thought he looked dumb," Ulrich cut in.

"Oh, don't worry, I still think being a giant purple cat is dumb," Odd admitted, "but I've embraced it."

Aelita wrote down another note, as William asked her, "Aren't you going to change Jérémie's avatar too?"

"Oh, he never goes to Lyoko," Odd cut in, before the pink-ette could respond. "He's too scared of the scanners." On his face was a smirk, a teasing one, like always.

William raised an intrigued eyebrow, "Really? I mean, I can't blame him. Part of me is scared of the scanners too." 'Because on Lyoko, I could easily be possessed again', went unsaid.

Odd deflated (to Aelita's immense pleasure) when hearing William's answer, having clearly heard the unsaid portion in the tone of the elder's voice.

Meanwhile, Aelita was shaking her head at Odd's teasing of Jérémie. She never appreciated Odd making fun of Jérémie's fear of going to Lyoko, especially when one time, it resulted in him being trapped in Virtual Limbo and almost deleted because he was being confused with an outdated file. "I can't blame him either, William." The elder turned back to her. "Every time Jérémie's gone to Lyoko has resulted in a situation that could be considered traumatic or embarrassing. There is no in between for him. So Jérémie has resolved to stay at the controls and keep watch over the rest of us. His talents, after all, lie more with a keyboard rather than a virtual weapon."

"Makes sense," William replied. "But if we're trying to be prepared, Aelita, maybe you should consider his avatar too, just in case." Aelita thought about it, before nodding. As she wrote down a couple of notes under Jérémie's name in her notebook, William changed the subject, "Speaking of whom, how's Jérémie coming along with the new Skid?"

"Since Jérémie never deletes old programs, in case he wants to improve them," Aelita answered, "he's already confirmed the coordinates and started phase one. At least, that's where he was when I checked on him during lunch. Tomorrow, he'll work on and start the core program." She stretched out her body, having sat on that red couch for quite a bit. "Just be warned that it may take longer than three days. The human body does have limitations, after all." Which meant food and sleep.

"Which means we may find him asleep at his computer," Ulrich commented.

"Old habits die hard," Odd quipped.

Aelita shrugged, "Any program for Lyoko takes a lot of work and patience, no matter how small a program it is. Jérémie just makes it seem easy."

No one could deny that.

William placed his unopened soda can on the table, "For Jérémie. Make sure he drinks it," before getting to his feet.

The pink-ette gave him a grateful smile, "I will."

As the other four walked over to the foosball table, Yumi briefly turned back, "You take it easy too, okay?"

Aelita nodded. She turned back to her notes, made a mental image of the new avatars in her head, and then closed her notebook and placed it back into her bag.

She then left the rec room and headed for the dorms.

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

Aelita entered Jérémie's room after knocking and hearing his response, finding him still sitting in front of his computer and in the middle of stretching out his aching joints.

"Hey," she greeted. "How are you doing?"

He yawned as he replied, "Exhausted. On top of the Skid, I also had yesterday's homework. Not to worry, though, I got it done while waiting for the framework to finish." She looked at his screen. On it showed a program window showing that the new Skid was currently being built. Judging by the progress bar at the bottom, it was two-thirds of the way done.

Aelita brought out the binder of notes she took for him, "And now you have today's." He sighed in gentle exasperation, though a hint of a smile was on his face, as he took the binder from her. She then took out the soda can from William out of her bag and placed it on Jérémie's desk.

"What's this for?" He was referring to the soda can.

"It's from William. He told me to make sure you drink it," she explained as she sat on his bed.

The blonde's smile grew wider before he opened the soda can, saying, "Tell him 'thanks'," and took a long drink from it.

"I will." The pink-ette then brought out her equally pink laptop from her bag. "I'm about to work on the avatars. Everything else has been done."

"Great. Thank you. For everything." He meant it.

She sent him a smile, "It's no problem at all. Remember, we're partners." In more ways than one. He returned the gesture with one of his own, as she began typing in commands to bring up the group's avatars. "Any sign of activity from XANA?"

He turned back to his computer, "I've been keeping an eye out. No activated towers yet, but it's been scanning our profiles, all six of us."

"It's probably catching up with what this version has missed," Aelita theorized.

"My thoughts exactly," Jérémie replied. "It makes sense that it would want to know who its enemies are now and how we have evolved."

Translation: XANA was preparing itself as well.

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

The next morning, when Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd (all fully dressed and with their school bags slung over their shoulders) woke Jérémie up the next morning, they were greeted with the all-too familiar and nostalgic sight of Jérémie sleeping while using his keyboard as a pillow. Complete with him still being in his day clothes.

Odd motioned for the other two to stay quiet, before leaning over and whispering in Jérémie's ear, "Aelita's cheating on you with Nicolas."

The effect was instantaneous. Jérémie's eyes immediately opened in shock as Odd got a accidental elbow to the stomach. The jokester doubled in pain, while the genius looked at the clock and relaxed once he realized the actual situation.

"Morning, Einstein," Ulrich said, barely managing to stifle his chuckles at what had happened.

"Morning," Jérémie replied, as he got to his feet and stretched. "I didn't sleep through anything, did I?"

The superscan had been hooked up to Aelita's laptop too for the past year and a half, hence why she was the one who answered, "Nope. Everything's calm." She paused. "And you know Odd was just joking, right?"

"I know." Jérémie had come a long way since that fateful Valentine's Day, where his jealousy had gotten both him and Odd into trouble. "He just startled me."

"Which means you didn't have to elbow me in the stomach!" Odd complained, still hunched over a bit in pain. "Seriously, you're terrible at gym! How do you have such a strong elbow?!"

"Sorry, that was an accident," Jérémie replied, amused. "But maybe next time you'll think twice about waking me up that way."

Ulrich nodded at the program running on the genius's computer, "What's your computer doing?" Part of him wanted to change the subject. The other part was genuinely curious.

Jérémie glanced back at the screen to the program Ulrich was looking at, "Oh, I finished the new Skid last night." In two days, rather than the estimated three. "I'm running a simulation to make sure it's safe to use. The results should come back some time before lunch. If they come back clean, then we'll explore that new world tonight."

"Yes!" Odd cheered, forgetting all about the elbow to his stomach. "I'm so excited! It's gonna be an absolute blast!"

"'If', Odd," Jérémie cut in, as he placed his laptop inside his school bag. "Don't get your hopes up, or else they'll get torn down somehow."

Odd deflated, as Aelita said, "C'mon, let's get down to breakfast before all the good croissants are gone."

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

Later, in the middle of Mr. Fumet's lecture, Jérémie's laptop let out an alert. It was soft enough that only Jérémie, his deskmate Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd (both deskmates sitting behind the other two) heard. It was also short, indicating that it was likely not the superscan.

Jérémie reached into his bag and pulled out his laptop, not all the way onto his lap, just enough to where he could peek at the screen without alerting anyone around him. Odd and Aelita, due to where their seats were, couldn't see anything, but Ulrich could see a green plus sign flashing before Jérémie closed his laptop and placed it back inside of his bag.

He then whispered to Odd, "Now, you can get excited, Odd."

Translation: The new Skidbladnir was ready to go.

"We're good to go?" Aelita asked, as Jérémie resumed his note-taking position.

The blonde genius nodded, and Odd silently cheered.

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

While Aelita and Jérémie were hard at work, the others had moved their skateboards (and the two genius' scooters) back down to the sewers, with William adding his own. This obviously allowed the group to travel to the factory faster, but it also brought back memories of doing this exact trip many, many times in the past. For William, however, this was the first time he had done so with the others.

Said trip and the following virtualization happened without any roadblocks, figurative or literal. They first dropped Jérémie off at the lab, before taking the elevator down another level to the scanners.

Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi were sent to Lyoko first. William and Aelita quickly followed.

"Nice job on our new suits, Aelita," Yumi told her, as soon as the pink-ette had landed in Sector Five's Arena with William at her side. "They look nice."

"You're welcome," Aelita smiled back.

The suits were all slightly darker versions of their previous suits (though William's was all black with orange highlights, just as he requested), with geometrical lines decorating them. They were much more uniform than Jérémie's previous upgrade, but with just enough differences still so that they were all individualized and that you could tell what their original avatars were.

Odd was pounding his fists in a strange way, "I can't shoot any Laser Arrows." Oh. He was trying to make sure his signature weapon was still there.

"Because I upgraded them," Aelita explained. "When you need your Laser Arrows, imagine them appearing and they will appear, and you should all also be able to even summon your weapons back to you if they're ever knocked away." She had remembered numerous times where Yumi or Ulrich lost one of their weapons that way and never recovered them because they either got devirtualized or were too busy fighting.

Odd gave a pout, one that indicated he was imagining something, and two black gauntlets appeared on top of his paws. "Woah! That's cool! And three slots on each paw means rapid fire, right?"

"Yes."

"I hate to interrupt," Jérémie cut in, "but you guys can talk fashion later. Head for the Skid."

The wall was open, and the five took the passage, with Aelita leading the way. None of XANA's monsters greeted them on the short path to the lift, the one that would take them up to the Skid Garage.

As they boarded the lift and let it take them up, Yumi asked, "So, Jer, I take it that it's the same procedures as before?"

"Yep," Jérémie replied. "It was less work for me that way."

Understandable and very valid.

The elevator entered the Skid Hanger, and the five immediately noticed the familiar and welcome sight of the Skidbladnir 2.0 (still nicknamed the 'Skid', for simplicity), held in place by the docking supports. As Jérémie had told them, it was the exact same as last time. Same design, same color, same four Nav Skids (all color-coded) connected to the pole at the bottom, and same transporter pad (one large spot, surrounded by four smaller ones).

"Wow..." William muttered.

The others remembered that this was his first time seeing the Skid with his own two eyes, controlled by him and him alone.

"Yeah, she's a beauty, isn't she?" Odd replied.

The elevator stopped, allowing the five to get off. The group rushed to the transporter pad, with William following the others. He watched as they all got on a spot, with Aelita in the center one (obviously corresponding to the main cockpit), leaving one open. Realizing the empty spot was for him, William stepped onto it.

And with that, the Skidbladnir finally had a full crew.

"We're in position, Jérémie," Ulrich relayed to their mission control.

"Copy that. Energize."

Bright beams of light engulfed all of them, teleporting all of them to the seat of the Skid that corresponded with their spots. As usual, Aelita was in the main cockpit.

She looked around at all of the controls, memorizing the layout, since it had been a good, solid year since she had piloted the Skid. And she smiled, "You're right, Jérémie. Everything is the exact same."

"I told you," he sounded amused.

Knowing this, Aelita promptly typed in a command, "Opening interface." Three blue screens appeared, one on her right, one on her left, and one in the middle, right in front of her. All three of them were showing her important information, like shield levels, communications relay power, etc. "Cockpit to Nav Skids, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Aelita," Yumi replied, from her red-colored Nav Skid located right beneath the main cockpit.

"Same here," Ulrich added, from his yellow-colored Nav Skid located on Yumi's right.

"Me too!" Odd chirped, from his purple-colored Navi Skid located on Yumi's left. "I forgot how fun this was!"

"All good here, Aelita," William said, looking at all of the panels from his blue-colored Nav Skid behind Yumi's.

On Aelita's screens, it showed all four of them secure in their Nav Skids. "Standing by, Jérémie."

"Roger that. Stand by for liftoff. Supports away."

The docking supports' lights grew dim as they moved away from the Skid, setting it free. Aelita pressed the red button underneath her left joystick, "Ignition, powering vertical," and then pulled both joysticks towards herself. She took a deep breath, "Here we go. Liftoff!"

The Skid lifted up and flew out of the hanger through the hole in the ceiling.

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

The holomap showed the Skid, represented by a large blue triangle, leaving Lyoko through its floodgate. Once it indicated that his friends were in the network, Jérémie pressed a button on his keyboard, changing the holomap projector beside him from the image of Lyoko's four sectors to the image of the vast and numerous tunnels that made up the network.

"Holoweb system, online." He typed in a couple more commands, bringing up the alert from the superscan they had received a few days ago. Reading the coordinates it had picked up for that new world, Jérémie plotted the group's route. "Aelita, set your course to 1-70. Your destination is a hub."

"Roger that," she replied. "Turbo propeller engaged."

And they took off.

Jérémie watched that blue triangle very carefully. He knew that XANA wouldn't likely be waiting to attack them here on the network, given how this version of XANA was created before the original had access to the network. But he couldn't help but be paranoid.

A couple minutes later, which was filled with rather tense silence, Aelita announced, "Hub in sight." Jérémie saw the Skid slow down as it approached the hub. "Everybody ready? Hyper fluid aspiration in three seconds."

A window popped on his screen, showing that the Skid was travelling through the hub. The trip only lasted a couple of seconds, and on the other side, the Skid was now in another area of the Network, one they had never been to before. Judging by the coordinates, Jérémie suspected they were currently in what would be considered Switzerland's internet.

Aelita used the Retro Brake to stop the ship cold. Once stopped, as she was obviously turning on the lights, she asked, "Where to next, Jérémie?"

"Bearing 1-30," he relayed to them, double checking his calculations to make sure he was leading them the right way. "It shouldn't be too far away from the hub."

The blue triangle started moving again.

"Forgive me for sounding pessimistic," Ulrich said, "but I don't think these lights of ours are doing any good." The lights on the Skid, he meant.

Concerned, Jérémie asked, "Why not? What are you guys seeing?" He could only see what was on his screens, not what they were seeing. He recalled asking them multiple times for a visual just to get a good look at what they were being faced with, for more information if nothing else.

"Darkness," Yumi told him. "And it feels creepy, like we're not supposed to be here."

"That's a good indicator that we may be in enemy territory now," the blonde genius replied. "So be careful."

"We're not being attacked though," William said. "By XANA or anyone else. Is that a good sign?"

"Probably, but there may be a security system waiting for you. There's nothing on my screens yet," he reassured them, "but at this point, that could mean absolutely nothing."

A pause.

"Jérémie, are you sure of your bearings?" Aelita asked.

He understood why she asked. "Yes." Truth. "The signal isn't very strong like the replicas were, but you should see it now." The shell that surrounded the world was now visible on his screens, and it had multiple protrusions.

"Well, forgive us, Einstein," Odd said, "but it's really dark where we are."

The blue triangle was too close to it now for comfort. Seeing an inevitable collision, he ignored Odd's statement and suddenly yelled out, "Stop!"

Fortunately, the triangle stopped in time. Not for the first time, Jérémie praised and thanked Aelita's quick reflexes.

"Geez, give us a heart attack, why don't you?!" Ulrich muttered.

"Forgive me," he shot back, "but you guys were about to run right into it. Can you really not see anything?"

"Sorry," at least Yumi sounded genuine in her apology. "I think our eyes took a while adjusting to the darkness, because now that you mention it, we do see a wall. At least, I do."

Jérémie sighed with relief, glad that the others trusted him enough to know to stop when he told them to. "Head for the south pole of the dome, but don't go too fast. There's multiple protrusions in the wall that you could easily crash into if you're not careful."

"You know us," Odd quipped.

"And that's the problem." He could've sworn he heard Ulrich and Yumi try to stifle their chuckles here, but he didn't care.

Aelita piloted the Skid slowly downward.

"It looks like Lyoko," the pink-ette admitted, "but not as nice. It looks...almost chaotic..."

The Skid finally reached the south pole of the dome. The triangle representing it stopped in front of the gateway. Evidently, it did not open for them, which was not a surprise to Jérémie.

"Digital Key, activated," Aelita announced.

On his screen, a window popped up showing the decryption of the password. On the top, it read, and Jérémie relayed aloud, "'Welcome to the Cortex'. Give me a few seconds to find the password."

As he typed in commands to help him, he heard Yumi ask, "So this world's called the Cortex?"

"Most likely," Aelita replied.

"This is it." He could feel Odd's excitement from here. "What do you think we'll find? New monsters? A volcano sector? An exact copy of Lyoko only with the colors inverted or something? Last chance to guess."

"Maybe a world with four brand new sectors," William offered. That would be cool, Jérémie had to admit.

Finally, the password window showed a green plus sign flashing, as the password itself read '25121987'.

"25th of December, 1987," Jérémie muttered.

Odd scoffed, "Thanks for contributing, Einstein, but I don't think we'll find the recreation of a specific date in there."

"That's the password, you cretin, not my guess," he replied, before hitting the 'enter' key. The holomap showed the Cortex's gateway opening.

"The password is a date?" Aelita asked. "Why that date in particular, though? Why is it so significant?"

"No idea." But something told him that the date held a certain significance to Aelita. He wasn't going to ask here, though. Not in front of the others, and not while they still had a mission to do.

He watched the blue arrow representing the Skid enter the now open gateway.

Once it was fully inside, the holomap projector changed again, this time from the image depicting the worldwide network to an image depicting a series of circular platforms rotating around a core, an image that matched what the holomap was showing him now, relating to the virtual world the others were now emerging from the digital sea to explore.

Interesting, but not surprising.

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

"Cortex system, connected," Jérémie announced, as Aelita flew the Skid out of the Digital Sea.

The Cortex's Digital Sea was an ugly yellow-ish gold color. So was the sky. In fact, it was a little difficult to tell where the sky ended and the sea began.

However, the sky also had clouds of a lighter yellow color and a sun that shone bright. Knowing the impossibility of that sun being real, it and the clouds were likely all virtual. But it was still interesting, as none of Lyoko's sectors had a sun.

In the center of everything were a series of circular platforms, making the Cortex look like it was supposed to be a city in the sky. It looked like a ring rotating around some kind of core. As Aelita continued to fly up, they all studied the terrain. The platforms appeared to have a metallic texture, unlike Lyoko.

The Forest Sector's texture was meant to look and behave like grass, the Desert's sand, the Ice's ice and snow (obviously), and the Mountain's rock and stone. Sector Five was the only one that had metallic-like platforms, but Aelita was certain it was also meant to look like an ancient city or a tomb. It sort of gave off that vibe.

The Cortex's landscape was entirely technological. There was no sign whatsoever of any plant or animal life, any sign that it was meant to represent a biome like four of Lyoko's sectors.

"Be careful not to devirtualize while you're here," Jérémie warned. "I don't have the code necessary to bring you back if you are."

"We'll try our best," Ulrich replied.

"Then, our first task is to find an interface," Aelita told them, "and retrieve the code so we don't have to worry anymore."

"The interface can be found in the core," Jérémie relayed. From his position, the holomap saw everything they couldn't. "The database this world has is massive..."

There were no towers. At least, not the ones they were used to seeing on Lyoko. Once she found a good spot to dock the Skid, Aelita disembarked all five of them, including herself.

She teleported to the ground, with Ulrich and Yumi appearing on her left, and Odd and William on the right, and as soon as she stepped foot on this world, she knew that, despite the two sharing too many similar codes to be a coincidence, this was not Lyoko.

"This place feels too chaotic and unstable," she quietly confessed. "Not at all like Lyoko's peacefulness and serenity."

"Interesting," William replied. "Maybe the virtual worlds' natures reflect the mind-sets of their respective creators at the time of their creation, like how an art piece can reflect its artist's mental state at the time it was made."

"Maybe," Aelita shrugged.

"In that case," Ulrich cut in, "I'd hate to meet the creator of the Cortex. What has to go wrong in your life for your frustrations to come out in your work on a virtual world?"

"I'd say let's not stick around and find out," Jérémie suggested, as the Overwing, Overbike, and Overboard virtualized in front of the group, all of them looking the same as last time despite them loading in differently here than on Lyoko. "The core is due north of your current position."

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all took of their positions as the usual pilots of these three vehicles, while Aelita summoned her wings.

Yumi turned to William, "Who do you want to ride with?"

"No one," he answered. "If you all don't mind, I'd like to test something out."

He held up his hand, as if studying it, before black smoke began surrounding it. He then jumped up and turned into a small cloud of black smoke that began to travel to the core. The others had no choice but to follow him.

"What just happened?" Jérémie asked out of nowhere. "William lost twenty lifepoints. Are you guys facing enemies I can't see?"

"No, it's all clear here," Ulrich replied as he shared a concerned glance with the others. "He just activated his Super Smoke."

"It must be an algorithm this world has in place or something," Jérémie muttered. "Stand by. I'll check it out."

As he did so, the ground suddenly started to shift. Being the only one not in the air, Ulrich tried to do some quick calculations in his head to know where to go from here. However, before he could reach an answer, the wall in front of him emerged from its hiding place without warning. He didn't have enough time to stop or turn, but fortunately, Odd grabbed his wrist in time and pulled him out of the way. The Overbike was destroyed, but Ulrich was still here.

Odd turned to the girls, "Fly higher up!"

As Ulrich regained his footing as Odd's passenger, Odd, Aelita, and Yumi flew up higher, to the point where they were now above the tallest structure of this strange new world. Now, they had an extra margin of error.

Meanwhile, William flew through every trap unscathed thanks to his Super Smoke.

"Hey, Einstein, the ground and walls are moving!" Yumi relayed to their mission control.

"It's the Cortex's security system," Jérémie replied. "It's made of modulator elements that plug into each other to form the global landscape. Each module moves separately as programmed by the Cortex's broad and complicated security system."

"Translation?" Odd asked.

"The entire area is in constant motion with traps that keep intruders at bay. Again, be careful. At the moment, I don't have the code needed to bring you back if you get devirtualized. So Odd, good save."

"Yeah, thanks," Ulrich added, addressing his roommate.

"No problem," Odd shrugged it off. "So far, we have the weird layout, check. Weird textures, check. And now the scary security system, double check."

"Double?" Yumi asked, an amused smile on her face. "One for the security system, and the other for it being scary?"

"Yep."

The five all reached the core at the same time. William de-summoned his Super Smoke as Aelita de-summoned her wings and the other four hopped off of their vehicles.

The core was a big black sphere located in the absolute center of the sector, which made sense, given how this was the 'core'. In the side of the core was a spiral-like door, a bridge leading up to it, as well as a circular walkway surrounding it.

At the current time, the five were on that circular walkway.

William took notice of the missing vehicle, "No Overbike?"

"It got destroyed by a wall," Ulrich replied, not understanding why he suddenly felt defensive, when William didn't mean anything by that question. "Jérémie told us you're currently missing twenty lifepoints."

"I am?!" William seemed startled. He clearly wasn't expecting that.

"You are," Jérémie cut in, "and I'm not entirely sure why. Just in case, William, don't use your Super Smoke in here anymore."

"I won't," their sixth member easily agreed. "Anyways, shall we head for the core?"

"Of course," Aelita agreed, before leading the way to the spiral door on foot, the others quickly following her, all keeping an eye out for any surprise enemies. "Jérémie, you said this world's database was massive?"

"Yes. Once you start digging, I'm not sure what all you're going to find."

"Answers, hopefully," Yumi said. She had a point. That was the only reason they had decided to keep the supercomputer on for the time being: for answers.

The group approached the spiral-like door, close enough to see the intrusions that indicated exactly how it opened. The door stayed shut.

Odd placed his paws on the door, using one of the intrusions to open it by force, but to no avail. The door remained closed.

"How do we open this thing?" He asked.

"Let me try," William replied, summoning his Zweihänder (the design of which was different than the original; it was sleeker and slightly smaller) and striking the door with it, only for it to bounce right off.

"Something tells me it doesn't work like that," Aelita said, before approaching the door.

"It doesn't," Jérémie told them. "It can only be opened from the Cortex's supercomputer."

"You just waited to tell us that?!" Odd asked.

"Would you have listened?"

Odd visibly deflated at being called out like that.

"Let me try something," Aelita interrupted, before placing both of her hands on the door. A soft note began playing, an indication that she was using her Creativity to force the door open.

And it worked.

The ground trembled, making the five nearly lose their balance as they watched the door spiral open, revealing another yet smaller black sphere in the center of the core.

"Aelita, you just lost fifty lifepoints!"

"All I did was use my power of Creation," she reassured her boyfriend.

"The same thing happened to me," William reminded the others. "What if using your special power here on the Cortex costs you lifepoints?"

Jérémie was quiet, "It would make sense, actually. Unlike XANA's replicas, the Cortex and Lyoko are not the same world. They both have different sets of rules to follow, similar to how each planet has a different field of gravity."

"Right," Yumi said, "so only use your special power in dire emergencies."

Which meant Aelita's Creativity, Odd's Teleportation, William's Super Smoke, Ulrich's Super Sprint (as well as Triplicate and Triangulate), and Yumi's Telekinesis were now all off the table. It would be difficult; each of them (aside from Odd) had incorporated their power into their fighting style, most notably with Ulrich and his Super Sprint. They basically had to relearn how to fight from scratch, and quickly. Who knew what was waiting for them in this core?

"Agreed," Aelita replied. "Shall we go inside?"

She got four nods in return, and she led the way, down a pathway that led to what looked like a teleportation pad. There was nothing else in here.

The five all shared a glance and then a nod, all having the same determination to keep going forward. So they all stepped on the platform together.

A couple seconds later, the five were teleported inside the second black sphere. It was a spherical-shaped room, with many platforms, like the ones outside and circling of the core, and walls with obelisk-shaped parts, much the protrusions of the world's shell in the Digital Sea. In the middle of the room was a glowing blue orb that reminded the group a lot of Hopper's virtual form, held in place by two large blue-and-pink-colored crystals. The orb must've been the actual core of this world, much like the heart of Lyoko was, well, Lyoko's.

One of the platforms near the bottom had a white-colored, circular terminal.

"That's probably the interface down there," Yumi pointed at said terminal.

"Let's go," Aelita said, before summoning her wings and flying down there, leaving the others hop down the platforms the old-fashioned way. As she landed on the platform where the terminal was, she relayed to their mission control, "Alright, Jérémie, I'm here. Moment of truth."

"Can you access it?"

Aelita placed a slightly shaky hand on the screen of the terminal. It was freaking her out; it looked like an eye. On the screen, below her hand, blue lines began appearing in a circle. Once the circle was complete, it appeared to raise off the screen and into the virtual world itself, which the circle changing from a loading kind into a radar kind. A pause, before the blue circle suddenly broke apart into smaller portions, like the pieces to a puzzle. When it did, a green-colored digital screen appeared in front of her, a very large one that filled up the entire wall.

"I can," she replied, not hearing any alarms.

"Good. Aelita, start digging. Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and William, you four protect her."

"Right!"

The other four all turned around, their backs to Aelita as she began her search for that devirtualization code and anything with XANA's name attached to it, as well as both of her parents' names, just for good measure. She did so by placing her hand back onto the screen, which made the separated pieces reform into a single circle before separating again into differently-shaped pieces.

Meanwhile, the other four kept a sharp eye on any enemies approaching. However, as it turned out, Jérémie could actually see them far sooner than they could.

"Watch out! Five enemies incoming!"

On the other side of the room, on an adjacent platform, five human-like green-colored wireframes appeared, and when the colors came in, the five mentioned enemies were clear and in sight.

"Confirmed," Ulrich said, unsheathing his twin katanas, as Yumi summoned her fans, Odd his two new gauntlets, and William his Zweihänder.

The five enemies were all uniform. They were all adult-sized humanoids, wearing dark green bodysuits (almost black), with white highlights, and having faces with eye-like white spheres inside their slightly translucent heads, giving off the appearance of them wearing masks. The teens thought of 'humanoid' (meaning human-like), because none of the five enemies had necks, just a cone-shaped head on top of their shoulders.

All of them carried blades similar to Ulrich's, though slightly larger and green-colored.

"They look like ninjas," Odd commented.

"I'm not sure that's what they are, but they also have one hundred lifepoints," Jérémie warned. "Be careful. The Cortex is probably their home, just as Lyoko is ours."

Once Odd named them, it stuck, so now these enemies, from here on out, were dubbed the Ninjas. As it turned out, these names were especially fitting, given how the Ninja in the middle suddenly sunk into the ground, only to emerge a few seconds later right in front of William, who just barely managed to block its attack with his Zweihänder.

Pretty soon, the other four Ninjas had joined the fight as well, all five enemies using similar stealth to dodge attacks and sneak up on the Lyokowarriors.

Aelita paused in her searching to ask, "Jérémie, should I help them? It's five against four."

"No, keep digging. Finding that devirtualization code is more important than ever now that they're engaged in combat."

She did as he said, but asked, "Are you sure we'll find one?"

"Positive. This is a virtual world complete with a way of sending people into it. I would be surprised if there wasn't."

"What?!" Odd asked, briefly caught off-guard by Jérémie's statement, but quickly caught himself before the Ninja he was fighting could take him out.

"You heard me. The Ninjas you're facing are human beings just like you. I have their profiles in front of me right now."

"So all we have to do is devirtualize them before they devirtualize us," William replied, before blocking a Ninja's strike.

"That's about it."

"Easier said than done," Ulrich muttered.

These enemies were tough, which made sense if they really were humans that had been virtualized here and not mechanical monsters that were being controlled by an artificial intelligence.

Aelita was in the middle of searching for that crucial code when she came upon something interested that she had to call out, "Jérémie, I found an encrypted video with my father's name attached to it! His real one!" Meaning 'Waldo Schaeffer', not 'Franz Hopper'...

"Download it. It has to be important then."

"Acknowledged." The pink-ette then pressed a 'download' icon on the bottom of the interface screen with the video selected. A progress bar appeared, showing that it was being sent to Jérémie's end. Aelita moved on, and quickly found what she was looking for: the devirtualization code for the Cortex, "I found the code, Jérémie!" She tried to press the 'download' icon again, only to be denied. "But apparently, I have to wait. I can only send you one thing at a time."

"Aelita, behind you!" Yumi called out, before Jérémie could respond.

The elf turned around, two Energy Fields formed in her hands, just in time to be greeted by a Ninja intent on attacking her from behind. In retaliation, Aelita hit them with both Energy Fields. To her surprise, the Ninja fell to his knees, and the other four enemies stared in seemingly shock as it devirtualized back into its green wireframe, before that wireframe disappeared.

"Nice job, Aelita," Jérémie announced. "He's been devirtualized."

"So they are human," Odd muttered, before the other four Ninjas re-engaged in the fight.

"Yes!" Jérémie sounded exasperated. "I told you they were!"

"He means that them being human translates to them being vulnerable," Ulrich translated, perfectly fluent in the language of Odd Della Robbia.

"And he couldn't just say that?!" Jérémie asked, before he sighed, and then relayed, "Video received, Aelita."

"Roger that," Aelita said, before turning around. It was time to keep digging. She hit the download icon again, this time, thankfully, being granted permission to send the code to Jérémie, now that he had received the video.

While waiting, she turned back around to help the others. The fight against the Ninjas raged on. Despite knowing that it was possible to devirtualize them, four Ninjas still remained.

One attacked William, only for the teen to narrowly dodge the Ninja's dual swords and promptly spin around and pierce its stomach with his Zweihänder. Another Ninja down; three more remained.

"Code received," Jérémie said. "I'm downloading it to each of your profiles now. Aelita, you can keep digging. Look for any possible connections to XANA or your father."

"Right," Aelita replied, grateful that her boyfriend was letting her continue searching for any information on her father, that he knew how important this really was to her. If the Cortex's database really was massive, as well as contained a video file with her father's real name attached to it, then there had to be more information on her father.

Maybe even her mother too.

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

Jérémie was typing in commands as quickly as he could. The sooner he could download that code to his friends' profiles, the sooner they could stop worrying about being sent to Virtual Limbo if they were devirtualized here.

Perfect timing, too. The moment he pressed 'enter', Odd's ID disappeared from his screens, quickly followed by Yumi's. Three Ninjas remained, and Odd and Yumi had just been devirtualized.

A panicked Ulrich immediately asked, "Jérémie, are they–...?!" He cut himself off, clearly not wanting to finish that thought.

"Stand by," the blonde genius replied, before turning his attention to the scanner room. The window showing that the scanners were in use showed two of them currently being occupied, before the green bars disappeared. He called out, "Odd, Yumi, are you two there?"

He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Odd replied, "Yeah, we made it. Thanks for typing so fast." He smiled, even if Odd sounded like he was sore.

"You're welcome. Yumi?"

"I'm here too," she replied, sounding just as sore and wiped out as Odd. "Their swords hurt, though."

"Doesn't surprise me. Remember, Lyoko and the Cortex are vastly different," he admitted, before turning his attention back to the other three still on the Cortex. Aelita was in the process of sending him something else, something with XANA's name attached to it this time. "Ulrich, don't worry. Odd and Yumi are safe and sound."

The holomap was showing him and William still fighting off the three remaining Ninjas. Aelita had the highest amount of lifepoints, which was still fifty, so that was a testament to how tough these Ninjas were.

"Thank goodness," Ulrich replied. "And in one piece, I hope."

"They are," the blonde reassured the brunette. On his screen, the third file had finished downloading. As Odd and Yumi emerged from the elevator and joined him at the computer, he relayed to the other three, "File received. It's time to leave."

"Agreed," William said. "C'mon, Aelita, let's go."

"B-But–!" She wanted to stay and keep searching for more information, but Ulrich and William both knew that they couldn't hold off those three Ninjas by themselves. Aelita understood this too, "Fine."

On the holomap, three arrows, one yellow and two green, retreated from the terminal and to the teleporter pad. The Ninjas followed them all the way out the spiral door, but didn't go any farther than said door. They just watched Aelita, Ulrich, and William head back to the Skid, Aelita using her wings, William on the Overboard, and Ulrich on the Overwing.

Odd commented on this, "Why aren't the Ninjas following them?"

"Probably because they just wanted to protect their database," Yumi replied. "We were intruders, after all."

Odd nodded, accepting this, as Jérémie cracked open that third file and dug into it.

Yumi noticed and it was her turn to comment on something, as she told Jérémie, "Aelita said that it had XANA's name attached to it."

"I know." The blonde genius did not once pause in his typing, as he cracked the rather simple cipher, easily decoding what the third file was saying. "And thanks to this, I think I understand what happened back then."

"Then explain it to us," Ulrich said.

"On 18 December, 2005," Jérémie explained, "after I first materialized Aelita with Code: EARTH, XANA was afraid of us pulling the plug on it, so it copied its own code at the time and placed it within the Cortex's database. Thinking XANA was a virus, those running the Cortex turned its supercomputer off, because they thought it was the only way to stop it from spreading. At least, until a few days ago, when they turned their supercomputer back on."

"So we found XANA's hiding place?" William asked.

"Yes."

"That's good," Odd said. "But then, why did they turn their supercomputer back on? For what purpose?"

"No idea," Jérémie shrugged. "It could be because they wanted a second chance at destroying XANA, but I still don't have enough information. Apparently, the reason why is hidden in a separate file."

"Then we'll just have to come back another time," Yumi relented.

On his screens, Aelita, Ulrich, and William reached the Skid. As they re-embarked back into the Skid, Jérémie materialized the vehicles, just in case.

Nothing followed the Skid back to Lyoko.

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

About fifteen minutes later, all six teens were back in the lab. As Jérémie worked on decrypting the video file Aelita found, the other five were deep in a serious discussion amongst themselves.

"There's something I still don't get," Odd said. "How come Jérémie's Anti-XANA program located and destroyed every single one of XANA's replicas, but it didn't destroy the Cortex?"

"Maybe the protrusions help the Cortex fend off viruses and outside attacks?" William offered.

But Aelita had a simpler answer, "The Anti-XANA program was designed to locate replicas that XANA itself created. The Cortex could've simply been unaffected because it was not created by XANA, but rather just hiding XANA within its database."

"Right, so the program may have just been unable to detect it," Yumi agreed, before rubbing her shoulder, which was still sore from the Ninjas' swords. "Man, our opponents today were tough."

"Because they weren't XANA's monsters like we're used to," Odd reminded her.

"That's right," William added. "Like Jérémie said, the Ninjas are humans virtualized directly into the Cortex from the real world."

"Glad you guys are finally understanding that part," Jérémie cut in without warning. "I finished decoding the video, and it's definitely something you guys need to see."

The other five immediately crowded around his chair. There was a window open, showing a black screen with a date at the bottom, along with a timestamp. The time was shown to be around 1400 hours, military time (about 2 PM normally), but the date was what was interesting.

"12 November, 1987," Ulrich read. "Is that date significant to anyone?"

"Yes," Jérémie explained. "It's about one month before Hopper left Project: Carthage."

Aelita was quiet, her voice barely above a whisper as she told Jérémie to, "Play it."

Jérémie typed in a short command, and the video started, fading from black immediately into black and white, and shades of gray. It showed the view of a surveillance camera, as the feed focused on a prison cell, in which sat a man with brightly-colored (the exact color unknown due to the footage being in black and white), slightly crazy hair.

Another man walked into frame, with two prison guards at the end of the hallway, guarding the only entrance and exit down this path. Aelita gasped as she recognized the man, "Daddy!"

The other teens looked closer. The man that had approached the cell was indeed a younger person of Franz Hopper, or as he was known back then, Waldo Schaeffer.

"Lowell," Waldo said.

The man in the cell briefly glanced at his visitor, before turning back, "Leave, Schaeffer. I don't want to see anybody, least of all you."

"You only have yourself to blame," Waldo responded, stoically. "All I did was report the truth to the proper authorities." He paused. "I'm only here on Anthea's behalf. Despite what you've done, she still cares about you." Another pause. "Tell me the truth, Lowell. Why did you steal those files? Don't deny it. You were caught red-handed."

The man, named Lowell apparently, did not answer.

Waldo sighed, "Were you stealing them for Mark James Hollenback?"

Lowell did not reply.

"My apologies," Waldo continued. "I forgot you knew him best as Hannibal Mago."

Lowell immediately reacted, lashing out in evident anger, as he stood up and immediately ran up to the bars, "Don't ever utter his name again, Schaeffer! He was a far better friend than you ever were!"

Waldo just smirked, "I lied, Lowell. I wasn't sent here by Anthea at all. I was sent here by NATO. They were hoping I'd get a solid confession out of you, because you apparently have a talent of keeping your mouth shut and cool intact unless I'm somehow involved, at which point, you have the tendency to fly off the handle at me. Might as well tell the truth now. You're being filmed, after all." Aelita's father pointed to the camera, from which the six teens were watching this footage now, many years later.

Lowell sighed as he sat back down, "Hannibal Mago was the leader of the organization Green Phoenix, overseeing all criminal activities in this area and many other countries. I was his second-hand man. However, in May of 1985, Mago died of a sudden illness, leaving me in charge of everything. Satisfied yet?"

"No," Waldo was blunt. "Because on top of stealing certain files, I also caught you lying on another. Why? Why would you lie on a government document?"

Lowell shrugged, "Simple mistake."

"I would believe you, old friend, if you didn't already have a habit of lying your way out of sticky situations." That line shocked the six teens still watching the clip. Hopper was friends with this man?

"It's called 'padding the truth'." The teens could understand now why Hopper didn't fully trust this guy.

Waldo was steadfast, as he immediately corrected, "It's called 'lying'." He sighed in exasperation, "No wonder Anthea never liked you the same way you like her!"

"Don't bring her into this!" Lowell was enraged again, to Aelita's awe.

Waldo was just as vehement, "You brought her into this, Lowell! You're the one who brought her onto Project: Carthage when I wanted her to stay out of it!"

It quickly turned into a full-blown argument. At the top corner of the screen, the two guards positioned at the entrance/exit stepped forward in concern, but paused, knowing that this Lowell was still behind bars and therefore not dangerous, unless he somehow broke out.

"And why's that?!" Lowell demanded. "You don't own her!"

"Neither do you!" Waldo bit back. "And yet, she chose me!" He started calming down, as evidenced by his next line back to a normal volume, "I'm not going to tell you why, Lowell. You don't deserve to know. I don't need you tearing down any happiness I have. At least, I have the comfort of the knowledge that you're behind bars with a life sentence waiting for you."

Waldo Schaeffer then turned to walk away, only to stop in his tracks when Lowell called out, "Fine. Walk away, traitor. I would too to show we are indeed no longer friends if I wasn't in a cell."

"You're the traitor, Lowell." The six teens were mildly surprised to hear the coldness in Hopper's voice. "Not me."

Lowell just laughed, "Oh, I highly doubt that. Why don't you keep digging, Waldo Schaeffer? Look for who's really at the top, because I guarantee it's not the Switzerland government or Reagan. Then, we'll see who has the last laugh."

Waldo just narrowed his glare, "Challenge accepted."

The clip cut out right then.

Aelita was speechless, but not because of her father. She knew his name was attached to the file when she found it and sent it to Jérémie. No, she was speechless because her mother had been brought up. More than once.

She hadn't realized she was shaking until Yumi slung a comforting arm around her shoulders, and asked, "Who is that man?"

Jérémie's answer surprised them all, "Lowell Tyron."

Aelita looked at her boyfriend in a mixture of surprise and slight hurt. "How do you know that?" She didn't remember ever telling him, not when she herself never knew a Lowell from her past.

She and Jérémie connected eyes for a brief moment, during which she could see his unspoken apology, before he promptly typed in some commands. On the supercomputer screen, a familiar cyan-colored window popped up.

Franz Hopper's diary.

Jérémie then typed in another command to select one of the many pages it contained. Pretty soon, another clip played, this one straight from the diary of Lyoko's creator himself. They could tell, as the video showed Franz Hopper sitting in front of the supercomputer screen, in full color.

"17 March, 1989. A few months ago, I purchased the abandoned factory on the banks of the Seine River directly from Renault themselves. Given how they haven't used the place since they were forced to cut down production following World War II, they easily agreed to give the deed to me. Today, my supercomputer is finally a working device and now, my counterattack against Project: Carthage begins." He sighed, as though he was stressed out. He actually took off his glasses to rub his temples, giving the teens a view of his eyes for the first time (they were forest green, just like Aelita's), before slipping them back on. "I wish Lowell wasn't right..."

He sighed again, pausing just long enough for the six teens watching him to start asking questions. But no one bothered to speak.

Hopper continued, "Lowell Tyron and I were childhood friends in Germany. He and I came from upper-class families, and he was the only one who would talk to me. As we grew up, he was sent away to Switzerland for finishing school, while I was sent to England for university, where I met Anthea. A few years later, in 1974, I was requested by the Switzerland government to work on Project: Carthage, a project that they had agreed to finance. There, I met Lowell again, who had been asked to work on the same project. I could say that things were smooth sailing from there, but...I would be lying if I did. Lowell immediately took a liking to Anthea and started courting her, despite she and I already being engaged by this point. He didn't take the rejection lightly. Anthea sent him an invitation to our wedding out of the kindness of her heart—my beloved Anthea—but he never showed up. To be fair, it was probably best that he didn't. Knowing him, he probably would've shown up drunk and tried to ruin the event by making a scene."

Another pause, also long enough for the six teens to ask questions. But again, no one dared to speak, just letting that information sink in.

"At the time, I did not know where Lowell's allegiance truly lay. In 1985, his boss, who the rest of us knew as Mark James Hollenback—real name Hannibal Mago—died, placing him in charge of Green Phoenix, a criminal organization that controls most of Switzerland and numerous surrounding countries. Two years later, in June of 1987, I began to get suspicious of him. He was always in secret contact with someone, always being sketchy whenever I asked him to have a coffee after that day's work, so I began to spy on him, secretly of course. Later that November, my spying led to me catching him lying on a government document and stealing other equally valuable files. Despite him being my friend, I was forced to report him to the Switzerland government, who then called NATO, due to this being an international project. They weren't able to get a confession out of him until they called me. Sure enough, he hated me enough to lash out at me, thus unintentionally revealing to me that he had infiltrated Project: Carthage for the benefit of Green Phoenix. Needless to say, he was not happy about me selling him out, so we ended our friendship that day, for good. But then he surprised me by challenging me to 'keep digging'." He used his fingers to emphasize the quotations. "He seemed confident that I was just scratching the surface, so I did as he said."

He paused again. Still, not one teen broke the silence.

Finally, Hopper revealed, "He was right." He seemed suddenly weighed down by the entire world, clearly regretting what he had discovered. "My following research brought up evidence that Lowell Tyron was not someone who had infiltrated Project: Carthage for Green Phoenix. No. On 13 December, 1987, I discovered that Green Phoenix was the one in charge of the project, not the Switzerland government. Mago, and then Tyron, had tricked the rest of us into doing all of Green Phoenix's dirty work." He was ranting now. "It was supposed to be a simple project to keep track of enemy communications! How could it have had an inhumane, militaristic intent and purpose all along?! Once again, I had no choice but to report my findings. NATO immediately disbanded the project, and thanked me by granting Anthea and me immunity from any and all criminal charges concerning the project. However, when they went back to Tyron for answers, they discovered he had escaped confinement by staging a prison riot, during which he quietly slipped out of the emergency exit, out of sight, out of mind. To this day, they still cannot find him. I thought we were safe—Anthea, Aelita, and I—but we were not. Because on 25 December, 1987," the six teens immediately recognized the date as the one guarding the gateway to the Cortex, "two men in black kidnapped Anthea, my love. I barely managed to get Aelita out of there. It's been two years now, and she's stopped asking questions about her mother, but I can tell she's lonely. The homeschooling is definitely not helping. I'm sorry, my dear, but this is the only way you'll be safe."

Hopper paused again, and this time, Aelita broke the silence by taking in a deep, shaky breath, full of emotions due to the revelations she had just been given. Now, she and the others had realized what Jérémie was apologizing to her for earlier: that he knew something about her past that she didn't.

Lyoko's creator continued, "Tyron is still out there. I can feel it. As long as he is still alive, Aelita and I can never be safe. He is the very reason we are in hiding. Tyron is out for my blood. But I can handle that as long as he never learns about Aelita's existence. I was about to tell him, the day of our fallout, but I had decided against it. It's best if he doesn't know about her, because I fear that if he ever does find out she exists, he won't hold back. She is our child, a long-lasting symbol of the love Anthea and I share, so I fear that he will never forgive her for being born."

The clip finally ended, and the six teens were quiet, five of whom were speechless. The sixth, Jérémie, was silent as he let the others digest all of that.

Aelita's parents were apparently in some sort of love triangle with this guy, and he was currently in a position (the current head of a criminal organization) to do serious harm to them, Aelita especially if he ever learned that she existed.

After a few seconds of tense silence, the pink-ette finally spoke. She turned to Jérémie, "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because it didn't come up until now," the blonde genius was honest. "And you've never really asked me if you could view the entirety of your father's diary before." Just bits and pieces here and there when they were relevant to understanding something.

"Could I?" she immediately asked.

"Are you sure?" he replied, genuinely concerned. "A lot of what your father says in there is really heavy stuff."

"I'm sure," she whispered.

He was quiet, as the two connected eyes once more. They seemed to have a short, unspoken conversation, before he replied, "Okay. But let's wait until the events and revelations of today have sunken in."

Aelita could only nod in agreement, as Ulrich changed the subject, sort of.

"Do you think Tyron was the one who created the Cortex?" the German boy asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Jérémie admitted. "There's not enough evidence at the moment, but it was definitely someone connected to Project: Carthage. Nothing else would explain the connection to Lyoko and XANA."

William brought Yumi's previous point from a few days ago back to the forefront, "We can still shut our supercomputer down, right? Prevent any more attacks that way? Because this XANA doesn't have the freedom to leave Lyoko. Right?" He sounded like he wanted to be done with this; no one could blame him.

"No," came Jérémie's solemn answer. He always hated delivering bad news, and this was no different. "XANA showed up before we restarted the supercomputer. That means it's found a channel other than Lyoko to access the real world, and I guarantee you that it's the Cortex. Shutting down the supercomputer at this point would just be running away from the problem. You guys can back out, but I'm picking up the fight."

"The Cortex video and Hopper's diary," Yumi cut in, still having her arm around Aelita's shoulders in a comforting gesture, "also both mentioned Aelita's mother in relation to this Tyron guy. The Cortex could be a way to track her down, or at least get closure and find out what happened to her."

Aelita was immediately concerned, "Are you guys sure you're willing to keep fighting XANA for my sake?" She understood why Jérémie had to pick up the fight. In fact, she agreed with it, because she too had the same obligation.

But the others could back out of this right now and be free, just like they wanted.

Amazingly, she got four nods in return, none of them hesitating to do so.

"There's no way we're going to abandon you now, 'Lita. We made a pact, remember?" Odd reminded her.

'Fighting XANA is my job.'

'No, Aelita. It's our job.'

Aelita felt the tears come forth as she smiled at her friends with hope-filled gratitude.

It was official: the Lyokowarriors were back.

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

Inspiration: CLE's "Cortex"

Up next: Episode 3, Contingency Plan - "When XANA attacks Jérémie during special circumstances, yet another revelation is revealed, but it's not quite what the gang expects."

A/N: Title meaning: 'Old Acquaintance' is referring to Lowell Tyron being an old ex-friend of Franz Hopper (or Waldo Schaeffer; whichever you prefer), if it wasn't obvious. It could also refer to XANA in relation to our heroes, but as I was planning this chapter out, I was specifically thinking about Tyron.

-Thanks to Code Lyoko Beyond on Youtube for reminding me (indirectly) that the holomap projector (animated version, at least) would probably change when the group is on the Cortex, given that it changes for Sector Five as well as the Digital Sea/network. It's a small detail, I know, but I had to add it for the sake of consistency.

-The idea of using your special power costing you lifepoints is something from the Season 1 graphic bible but that the show dropped early on. Here I am bringing it back for something else. Also, everything that happens on the Cortex uses Evolution's animations. Lyoko's animations are the same as the animated show. Again, thank Code Lyoko Beyond for (indirectly) giving me that idea.

-The code used to unlock the entryway to the Cortex is indeed a date, a significant one, but the reason why it's important to Tyron won't be revealed until a much later chapter. Also, in canon Evo., everything the group learns about Tyron and the Ninjas happen over the span of the next ten episodes, but here, I decided to speed things up a bit, because I want to explore Waldo and Anthea's past with Tyron more. So bear with me. And, yes, I am using a couple of elements from the novels for this story, but I am not using the novels for the entire backstory of Project: Carthage or Tyron. I'm just putting my own spin on things.

~Evolution concepts~

First off, let's talk about Tyron and the Cortex. Evolution gave us a new virtual world to explore, with its own dangers and unique purpose, and tried to make it a big deal because the only other virtual world like it is Lyoko. However, I feel like its impact fell short because its backstory was never explored. Its creator's, Tyron, backstory was never really explored either, despite him being introduced as a human villain (which is a great idea, btw). We know he was formerly involved with Franz Hopper and that he later married Anthea, but it's never clear what happened. Fans (myself included) hoped that through the Cortex and Tyron, we would find out more about Project Carthage and maybe Aelita's parents too, but the writers didn't do any of that. They didn't even allude to Project Carthage even once, nor did they ever get around to explaining how Anthea became Tyron's wife. However, to be fair on the writers, all of this is probably due to Evolution being canceled after only one season and ending on a cliffhanger. Maybe they planned to explore it in their (maybe) planned Season 2?

Before anybody asks, Franz Hopper will not be coming back to life in this story. I've read/seen a few Season 5 rewrites that do exactly that, and I don't know why they do. Maybe it's to make Aelita happy again (and I do want her happy), but resurrecting Hopper just negates the purpose of his sacrifice at the end of Season 4. Granted, bringing back XANA also does the same thing, but I think it would be interesting to see authors and creators acknowledge Hopper's sacrifice by exploring the fallout of it. XANA is back, but Franz Hopper is no longer here to offer his assistance when our heroes need it: how does that effect the group and the fight? That's what this story will explore in later chapters. Evolution did briefly touch on the fact that Hopper's gone in one episode, but it was only for the sake of Laura, without permission, digging into Aelita's past, which she should never have gotten access to, because no one is supposed to know that Aelita Stones and Aelita Schaeffer are the same person.

Next up, William and the issue the others have with him. In Evolution, the group's stance is the same as in "Fight to the Finish", only they're a lot meaner about it (calling him a 'rookie'), and the one who sticks up for William has been changed from Aelita to Yumi (surprisingly; why the change?), the latter of whom is starting to feel guilty about how she's treated him. Evo's "Cortex" episode actually ends on a pretty decent note that I will commend the writers for, as the one against William joining the team again is Odd, which is justified due to William tricking him out of that day's mission, while the others all understand that the mission would've ended badly if William hadn't shown up. Only for the next two episodes to completely forget that fact, as it takes the group until "Rivalry" for them to let William join the group again. In this story, however, the group's hesitance is out of trauma more than anything else. That hasn't been realized yet, though, but it will soon, so the next couple of chapters will contain, you could say, reluctant teamwork.

Another thing I'll commend Evolution for is that the live-action scenes gave us more character tics and little details that make our heroes feel more human that the animated series couldn't really add due to limitations of the art style. For example, there's a few scenes in Evo. that show Jérémie yawning, stretching, or rolling his head because he's been working and/or in the same position for so long, and I love that.

Last, but not least, the fact that the Ninjas Tyron sends to the Cortex are all controlled by human beings is a concept Evolution never explored. Here, they are actually human beings virtualized onto the Cortex, but I will explore this fact in later chapters. So stay tuned.