Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 8- Reunions

"What do you mean we can't do this alone? We have the junior warriors with us!" I said with a weak smile.

"This isn't a game anymore. They're just kids. This is something far bigger than any of them," Aelita said.

"This was never a game to me. And weren't we just kids when we first started this? They deserve to know. This involves their parents. What if the Lyoko Warriors can't come to Lyoko, or are kidnapped? They need to know so they can save us."

"And it would be best to let them learn from Jeremie. He started this and kept it on for me, he's known about Lyoko, its aspects and everything for the longest. He's made a career around it too! He deserves to know! He has to." I avoided eye contact, remembering the time when he did find out about Lyoko. "His radical thinking will be necessary."

I smiled at her. She believed in her husband, it's one of the reasons why she fell in love with him. As for me... I always viewed Jeremie as stubborn and arrogant, but he'd changed. And I had to believe in Aelita too. I had to, we'd been friends for so long. "Alright. Should we mention it to the other three as well?"

"Definitely." She turned toward the teens. "Alright. It's getting quite late, on a school night. We should head home. Then we can gather all at the Hermitage tomorrow afternoon. Sound good?" she turned to face me so I gave her a smile.

The next morning, I pulled myself out of bed and made my way through my morning routine. I grabbed my lesson materials, my Lyoko journal and phone. I had to call them all here and tell them. I handed my class of ninth graders (which included Kyoko, Rick and Alex) a pop quiz and sat to work, figuring out what time it would be in each of the Warrior's countries. I finally began collecting the papers and realised that an old page from my Lyoko diary was mistakingly given out, to Daze Winters. What rotten luck.

I made him stay behind. "Why didn't you tell me you had the wrong sheet?" I asked.

"Because your novel was so interesting, Miss!" he said eagerly. "Is there another chapter?" What? He thought it was a novel? Oh well. Works for me.

"I've only written a few pages but once I've polished up my next chapter, I'll give it to you, alright?" His smile widened. A simple return to the past will fix everything. As he left the class, I said: "And don't go checking out the old factory! That's tress-passing!" I could finally get to the calls.

Yumi stepped out of the scanner, her medium length black hair was radient and she was dressed in her iconic black wardrobe. "Hey Ruby." I smiled at her. "Kyoko." She embraced her middle daughter into a hug. "Have your grandparents been taking good care of you?" The brunette nodded as she cuddled her mother.

"Was the journey alright?" I asked sarcastically. I knew that Jeremie's scanners were top notch. They were incredibly useful. You could put something in one scanner, turn it into digital information, send it to another scanner and materialise it there. It took minutes, almost like teleportation. It even carried people too! Ulrich stepped out of the scanner.

"Hey Kyoko. How've you been?" he said coolly. He had still maintained his looks and athletic ability from twenty years ago.

"Great! I have so much to tell you, Dad! But that can wait." She looked over at me.

The scanner closed again and opened to reveal a blonde man with messy blond hair, dyed partially purple. "Hey Scrawny," I joked.

"I'm not scrawny. I'm svelte!" he replied with his iconic line. We all laughed except Kyoko who didn't get it.

"How's Hollywood, Director Della Robbia?" I asked grinning.

"It's alright," he admitted. "Not as great as here though."

After our little hellos and hugs we decided to head to the Hermitage where Odd was planning on staying, whilst Ulrich and Yumi stayed at the Ishiyama household. After the three had greeted the Belpois couple, we all sat down in a circle.

I saw Mia clutch her laptop nervously, almost dropping it in the process. All of the Junior Warriors seemed tense. We waited for one more addition that lived locally, William Dunbar. He still deserved to know and I think that's the reason why Alex, who's usually calm and soft spoken, seemed so agitated. The door bell rang and Alex clearly became tense. I stood up and welcomed the black haired man, who wore a dark grey suit and a blood red tie over a grey shirt.

Once he was settled in, a cleared my throat and everyone went silent. "It's so great to see all of you in here together again, but the reunion is to discuss something. Something that involves all of us." The eyes immediately flew on the children. "XANA's back." I heard a few gasps. I continued, "but we can't shut down the supercomputer."

"Wait. Back up," Yumi said. "XANA's back? How? Why? When?"

I looked over at Mia who hastily replied. "Um... a few months ago."

"Months?" Jeremie echoed. He looked over to me. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"It's not her fault," Aelita defended. "The kids got us a lead. One that may lead us to my mother. They were simply curious. They couldn't have known the dangers of XANA and all the bad things it's done."

The room was silent. No one dared to speak. "We've traced the signal across the network," I continued. "I know the place. It's called the cortex. If we can teleport to the real world location."

"Is this in your journal too?" Odd asked.

I couldn't read his expression but he seemed kind of happy. "Yeah. But this was supposed to happen when we defeat XANA twenty years ago. Not now."

"What do you think cause it?" Ulrich asked.

"Well... I only have one answer. Someone recreated XANA."

"That's impossible. Only Franz Hopper knows XANA's programme," Jeremie said. "How could someone-"

"His assistant. When Franz Hopper- rather, Waldo Schaffer- first worked on Project Carthage in Canada, he had an assistant, named Lowell Tyron. I think he recreated XANA by accident."

"How do you create a killer evil programme by accident?" William asked annoyed.

"My father created XANA as the guardian to Lyoko but something went wrong. We think that's why XANA's back," Aelita explained.

Jeremie looked shocked. "You knew? For how long?"

"A while," she replied. "I'm sorry... I just thought-"

"It's alright," he reached out and grabbed her hand. "You just wanted answers. Who could blame you, right now, we all do. And we'll find them, all of us."

"Isn't all of us a little... big?" Mia commented. "I count eleven of us." We all laughed, easing the tensions that I had put upon the room.