Aelita and Jeremie were walking back to the campus, now hand in hand and close to each other. Jeremie would never think that he would have a girlfriend that's this beautiful. And he was going to make sure that Aelita was happy at all times.
And Aelita was happy since she finally understood the meaning of love and got into a relationship with someone really close to her heart right from the beginning.
"Jeremie?" "Yes, Aelita?" Jeremie responded.
"I...don't want everyone to know that we are together," Aelita said. "Not yet at least."
"Of course, princess," Jeremie said and smiled. "As you wish."
Aelita felt a sense of relief coming to her to know that Jeremie was so understanding. No, she wasn't embarrassed or anything, but...she wanted to have some private stuff that not everyone knew about.
She already told too many things to everyone in their group, which she would've rather kept to herself. Still, the only person who didn't question a thing was right beside her, a person whose shoulder was acting as a pillow for her head right now, a person who loved her just as much she loves him.
"Hey, isn't that Odd?" Jeremie said, pointing at the entrance to the campus. Aelita looked to the way he was pointing. There was Odd, talking with a girl. Neither could see the girl, as she had a hood over her head.
But this was different Odd; he had a rose in his hand and was giving it to the girl.
"He seems...polite," Aelita said. "The rose, the posture. I think he really likes her."
Suddenly, it was as if she felt Jeremie being sad. She looked to her side to confirm her assumptions.
"What's wrong?" Aelita asked.
"I wanted to give you a flower, too. On our first date." Jeremie said as Aelita chuckled. "Hm?"
"Jeremie, you bringing me to this world is a gift no one else can beat. Not even yourself." Aelita said, as she looked towards Odd and the mysterious girl again, and Jeremie did too.
Suddenly, Odd took down the girl's hood, and Jeremie nearly fainted.
It was Aelita.
"AGH!" Jeremie screamed, waking up the girl beside him at the same moment.
"Jeremie???" Aelita said in shock. "What happened?"
Jeremie looked around, seeing he was back in his room, with Aelita next to him, and looking out of the window it was morning.
"I-" "Nightmare?" Aelita asked. Jeremie nodded, clearly knowing Aelita was right; it was a nightmare, a cruel one to be right.
"Aww, I'm here Jeremie, don't worry." Aelita soothingly said, holding Jeremie's hand under the blanket. "It's just a nightmare."
The words coming out of Aelita calmed Jeremie down enough to make him stop sweating and shaking. Aelita wrapped her arms around Jeremie, nuzzling his chest with her head.
Jeremie, now red in the cheeks, put his arms around Aelita and sighed in relief. This was reality, and, sadly, Aelita wasn't his girlfriend. However, he had a different problem...
The nightmare felt too real. He felt everything, which wasn't supposed to happen in a nightmare or a dream; and when Aelita kissed him, it felt really real.
Something's going on. Jeremie thought. He immediately blamed it on the one possible answer in the world.
XANA.
But that can't be...right?
/-/-/-/
"Okay." Jeremie ran to the trio consisting of Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. "Did anyone have a strange dream or nightmare?"
"If you are talking about being chased by a giant trash monster, yes," Ulrich said. "Why do you ask?"
"I had a nightmare, a real one," Jeremie said. "So I'm trying to know how it happened."
"You think it has something to do with XANA?" Yumi asked as Jeremie nodded. "But how?"
"That's the problem; I don't know." "But we shut down the supercomputer, didn't we?" Odd asked as they all nodded. "So then? It's not like it leaves the supercomp...uter."
They all looked at each other. Odd was right. XANA could have left the supercomputer.
"I'm going to the factory, anyone wanna come?" Jeremie asked as they all shook their heads. "Okay, bye."
And he sped up towards the factory, only to again find himself in front of Aelita, who was walking out of the cafeteria, an apple in her hand.
"Hey, Jeremie. Where are you going?" Aelita sweetly asked.
"Uhm..." Lie? Not an option when it came to Aelita. "To the factory."
"Factory? What's there?" "If you want, you can come with me. The more, the better." Jeremie offered.
"Sure, but why though?" "We'll see because I'm hoping I'm wrong now," Jeremie said, and they both began walking toward the forest close to the campus.
Jeremie wanted to tell Aelita what his nightmare was, but he rather didn't, because he didn't know how would Aelita react. And in addition, he woke her up.
"Mmm, I like apples," Aelita said after she took a bite from the apple.
"Really?" "Yeah, this is my second one," Aelita said. "Rosa for some reason gave me two, saying she literally dreamt of me being hungry with just one."
This is more and more confusing...and it sounds like XANA even more. Jeremie thought. Out of worry and because he was scared he unknowingly grabbed Aelita's free hand. Aelita immediately noticed it, however, she didn't move her hand away, because it was nice holding hands with someone.
"Look, there's Jim!" Aelita said, pointing at their gym teacher practicing yoga close to the entrance to the sewers.
"We must take the longer way, I don't want to get spotted by him," Jeremie said, leading Aelita out of the forest.
As Aelita finished her apple, and while they were walking through the forest, she picked up a few raspberries from the bushes that Jeremie wasn't aware of something growing there.
"Mmm, these are sweet," Aelita said, throwing a bunch of them into her mouth. "Want some?"
"Sure." "Open." Aelita stopped walking.
"Wh-" "Open your mouth," Aelita said, sounding like a demand. Jeremie obliged and opened his mouth. Aelita put a few raspberries onto his tongue and closed his mouth by grabbing his chin. "And eat."
Jeremie swallowed the fruit, tasting it was indeed sweet like sugar. He smiled at Aelita as if he was saying thanks to her, and they resumed their walk. Soon, they were walking on the bridge connecting the factory and its island with the town.
"Look! A kitten!" Aelita said in excitement, pointing at a furball laying in the factory close to the entrance. "She's such a cutie!"
"Yeah, she is cute." Jeremie agreed as Aelita continued to admire the kitten. He let go of Aelita and went down to enable the elevator while Aelita decides if she keeps the kitten or not.
The elevator worked on the first try, and it soon appeared on their level. By the time the door opened, Jeremie saw Aelita walking towards him, the kitten in her hands.
"She must have been cold this whole time," Aelita said. Jeremie closed the door and pressed a button to go down to the laboratory. He really hoped that everything will look the same as it had when they turned the supercomputer off.
The door unlocked and opened, confirming Jeremie's assumptions and completely obliterating the hopes he had.
"It's...online," Aelita said, looking at the monitors. Even the holo-map was active in the middle of the room.
"It is." Jeremie agreed. "But who turned it on is a mystery."
He sat down on the seat, Aelita standing next to him, the kitten still in her hands. Jeremie logged into the interface and opened the security footage. And what they saw was surprising to both of them. Well, rather what they didn't see.
The supercomputer turned itself on.
"This is really bad," Jeremie said and looked at Aelita. "The supercomputer is probably impossible to turn off because of something."
Aelita nodded, and looked at the holo-map, spotting a red dot in the ice sector.
"An activated tower." She said as Jeremie looked there too.
"We need to deactivate it." "Yes." Aelita agreed and put the kitten on Jeremie's chest. "I'm going."
"Alone?" "Yes, if you virtualize me close to the tower, then nothing will happen to me," Aelita said, already standing in the elevator. "But if you want, call the others."
And with that, the elevator closed and went down. Jeremie initiated a call to Odd while hearing soft purring coming from the kitten.
"Yes, Jeremie?" "An activated tower on Lyoko. Don't ask, just come." Jeremie quickly said.
"Sure, we will be there in a moment." "And take the longer route, Jim was practicing yoga at the entrance to the sewers," Jeremie explained and hung up.
"I'm ready." He heard from the headset. He took a deep breath and opened the transfer program.
But his fingers levitated above the keyboard. He didn't really want to continue virtualizing Aelita since he didn't really know why or how was the supercomputer on.
"I'm waiting, Jeremie." He heard again.
"It's...I'm scared." "Don't be," Aelita reassured him. "If anything happens, don't blame yourself, okay?"
Jeremie sighed and began running the commands for virtualization.
"Transfer Aelita. Scanner Aelita. Virtualization!" He pressed enter and virtualized Aelita almost right in front of the tower.
*"I'm here, and alive."* Aelita said, which made Jeremie let out a relieving sigh. *"But I need to get used to being virtualized."*
Soon, the elevator doors opened, and in them stood Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd.
"You got a cute kitten there, Jeremie," Yumi said, as Jeremie rolled his eyes, but chuckled, scratching the kitten's ear.
"Go to the scanners, Aelita is already waiting for you," Jeremie said, as the elevator doors closed. He thanked every god there was for having a working program, which meant that Aelita was not harmed and that the others won't be too.
"You can start, Jer." Odd said, as Jeremie began the virtualization program for the trio.
"Transfer Yumi, Odd, Ulrich. Scanner Yumi, Odd, Ulrich. Virtualization!" Pressing enter, he watched as the sensors stopped detecting anyone in the scanner, and then he saw three green dots standing next to a yellow dot, which Jeremie had coded in so he would know who is Aelita just by looking.
"Activated tower should be right in front of you." *"Yeah, but how should we deactivate it, Einstein?"* Odd asked. Jeremie looked at the holo-map and saw that the tower was glowing a bit of purple color too.
*"I'm sending you a visual, Jeremie."* Aelita said, and soon he saw the world from Aelita's eyes. It always fascinated him to see the world, even just by looking at what Aelita was seeing. But then he noticed it; a purple barrier-like structure, surrounding the tower.
"And no welcoming committee?" *"It's dead silent here. Almost unreal."* Yumi said. Jeremie looked at the interface, trying to find out a solution.
*"What if we tried to destroy it?"* Odd suggested. Jeremie couldn't come up with anything, so Odd's suggestion seemed good enough for now.
"Yeah, try it," Jeremie said. He looked at the screen, seeing that Odd was indeed firing at the barrier, but it didn't move or break a bit. Just then, Ulrich used his super-sprint and ran right into it, disappearing completely from Lyoko.
*"Okay, it's deadly."* Aelita said, as Jeremie checked if Ulrich was in the scanners, which he was. *"How are we supposed to deactivate the tower now?"*
"What if..." Jeremie thought for a moment. "...let it live for now?"
*"Did he just say to let the tower stay activated?"* Odd asked. *"That's not a good thing, is it?"*
"No, but I don't know how to remove it or make Aelita be able to pass through," Jeremie said, scratching the kitten's ear again. "Wait."
He opened a folder in the computer and began searching for a file. Soon, he found it and opened it, revealing a window.
"I should be able to see what the tower does," Jeremie said, running the program.
After a few seconds, it only displayed one value; a code to reboot the supercomputer the moment it's turned off, meaning it's impossible to turn off.
"There's no use. The barrier is unbreakable." Jeremie sighed. "I'll bring you in."
He began the devirtualization progress, but then he saw another entity on the map, just as he devirtualized Odd and Yumi. He quickly began typing the command for Aelita's devirtualization, but the stress that she could be in danger was too much and he misclicked almost every key.
No, no, no, come on!! He thought to himself, trying to type carefully.
*"Wait, Jeremie!"* Aelita suddenly said, making him stop. He saw that the entity was beginning to come closer and closer to Aelita. He also began sweating, nervous that she gets devirtualized, thrown into the sea, or anything bad in general.
*"It's...he's...he's talking to me."* Aelita said.
He? Who's 'he'? "Are you all right?" Jeremie asked, but back came nothing but silence.
---/LYOKO/---
Aelita looked at the floating sphere that radiated a white glow of light.
"Aelita." A quiet, but male voice came from it. Suddenly, it captured her, throwing her into some kind of white void.
But then she appeared in a house. A really nice house to be exact. She looked out of the window and saw that it was snowing. She also saw a mirror and a reflection of herself, now being dressed in the same clothes as before.
She walked around the house, only to begin hearing piano keys. She followed the sound, arriving in a big living room. And there sat a man, playing on the mentioned piano.
"Hello?" Aelita asked. The man turned around, his eyes hidden by thick glasses.
"It is really you, Aelita." The man said, looking at the girl.
"Do I know you?" Aelita asked, confused. How did he know her name? And how did she appear in this house so suddenly?
"I'm Franz Hopper, Aelita." He said. "Your father."
"My...father?" "Yes. I was the creator of Lyoko and XANA." Franz said. "And we both were supposed to be in Lyoko, protected forever."
Aelita didn't understand; was this a XANA thing? Was he really her father? How come he remembers everything and she couldn't then?
"I'm sorry...but I don't believe you." "I know," Franz said. "It's all new to you, so no worries."
"Where are we?" "A digital replica of my house. Well, our house." Franz said. "It's really close to the factory, it's called Hermitage."
"So we are in Lyoko?" Aelita asked as Franz nodded. "How did you survive?"
"Pardon?" "My friend explained to me that after the supercomputer booted up, my memory was long gone," Aelita said, leaving Jeremie's name out for a reason. "So how come you remember anything?"
"Well, the scanner you were virtualized in was corrupted, so you didn't know anything before the virtualization. The shutdown did the same thing but in a much less worrying percentile." Franz said, standing up. "But Jeremie did start up the computer, and your memory didn't come back."
"You aren't my father," Aelita said, stepping backward. "Because I didn't mention Jeremie."
His eyes immediately started glowing green and a XANA symbol appeared in his eyes.
Suddenly, pixels started appearing around her, and after a second she was back in a scanner. It opened, and she immediately saw everyone standing there, worried. Jeremie walked closer to her and waited for Aelita to lean onto him, which she did.
"It's okay, you are safe now." Jeremie, who was glad that Aelita was still with him, whispered into her ear.
But she didn't really pay attention and rather thought about her past. It made sense; she couldn't be a computer program. Jeremie did say that she had human DNA, and she looked human, so she must've been a human. Question is...
is Franz Hopper really her father?