Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 17- Major Steinback

Since it's Christmas Day tomorrow , I will publish three chapters. Enjoy!!!

I don't consider myself lucky in any way, but we sure were lucky today. Since Ruby wasn't here to teach us, we had a supply teacher, and for some reason she seemed familiar. She said that she specialised in science but she was quite proficient in high school maths. "I'm Mrs Hertz." Why did that sound familiar? She was an elderly woman who seemed too old to teach.

"Now, can anyone tell me what the what the vector of AB is?" she asked.

I put my hand up. "-a+2b."

She gave me a nod. "I see you've inherited some of your parents' brains."

"You know my parents?"

"I know of them," she responded, returning back to the board.

After class, I approached her. "Mrs Hertz?" I questioned. "How do you know my parents?"

"Who doesn't know Jeremie and Aelita Belpois? But I suppose you caught me," she smiled. "Not that I was hiding it."

I frowned at her, taking a few steps back. She knew my parents, that was never good. "Who are you?"

"Some call me Suzanne," she began. "Others call me 'the science teacher', but you may know me as Steinback."

My jaw dropped. "You're the Major Steinback? The one who helped grandpa forty years ago?"

"Oh. You seem to know a lot already. But we should talk somewhere more discreet. Shall we head to your house?"

"I don't think we should," I countered. "We're currently going through a few... breakdowns. It won't be pretty. Is out in the courtyard fine?"

I had called the rest of us outside. Some of us *cough cough Daze* seemed more curious and confused than others. "So why are you here, Major?" Rick asked, his arms and feet crossed as he sat on the bench.

"It was you who visited me," she explained. "Ruby, Yumi and umm..."

"Daze Winters," Daze said. "I'm new to this Lyoko thing. I only found out about two days ago."

"Right. So I was contacted by Dido- the head of the FBI, who told me that I had a few visiters. And once I found out, I was elated to visit you all again."

"Don't get me wrong, Major," Kyoko continued. "But your timing couldn't be more off. We're sort of going through a problem."

"If you're worried about Yumi and Ruby's memories, we have them safely in our archives. We're planning on returning them soon."

"Planning?" Rick questioned. "So it hasn't been confirmed?"

She looked at us glumly. "I'm afraid not. No one except me really know about Project Carthage so they're searching through their memories to see if they can find anything interesting."

"But all the useful information won't be accessible to you anyway," I said. "Because what you need isn't Ruby's memories, but Skylar's!"

"Who's Skylar?" she questioned.

"It's a long story," Daze nodded. "But we were hoping you would shed some light on Project Carthage for us, in exchange for information about Skylar." I nudged Daze and he just shrugged at me. "We're you really one of the people to help Franz Hopper build the supercomputer? Along with Mr Belpois, Mr Stern, Mr Della Robbia and the Ishiyamas."

"I was," she confirmed.

"Could you read this and tell us if we're missing anything?" I handed her the sheet Ruby wrote for us about all the events. "Well?"

"Nothing seems to be missing. This is all quite accurate as well. Seems like you know about the secret room and the reason why adults can't go to Lyoko."
Skylar did tell us that any adult who went to Lyoko would end up traumatised, because Lyoko takes your subconsciousness into account when creating your avatars. People who've experienced more are bound to be more traumatised.
"Who wrote this?"

"Skylar," I said, taking the sheet back. "So now we can confirm that the FBI are the Men in Black. But that still leaves one question, who is the Green Phoenix?"

"I'm afraid all I can tell you is that they're a criminal organisation. They were around even before I retired," she shook her head.

We thanked Mrs Hertz and walked to Rick's room. "Well? Do we tell our parents?" I asked as soon as we settled down.

"Definitely. They deserve to know," Rick said.

"No way!" Kyoko screamed. "Dad would murder everyone in the FBI if he finds out! Besides, they're already dealing with a lot of... stress, don't you think?" We all gave her a nod. "What we can do is tell Miss Renaud. She's the only one who won't murder or freak out, because she already knows everything!"

"How do you suppose we tell her? My parents became super overprotective of both of us," I groaned. "If only she was a kid who attended our school!" I said in frustration. I paused at what I said.

"I hope you're not thinking of what I think you're thinking," Daze complained. My smile grew wider. "Yep. She's definitely thinking that we can revert her back to a teen."

"Well, think about it!" I threw my hand in the air for emphasis. "If the supercomputer made my mum twelve for ten years, and it can go back in time, then we could bring back her teen self! And she'd blend right in!"

"And who's going to pay her tuition fee?" Alex asked. I almost forgot he was there.

I had to think this one through. "My parents? It'll be fine! What's the worst that could happen?"

"We could lose the only person who knows everything about everyone and make her into nothing!" Rick retorted.

"I think I can do it," Alex said. We all turned to him. Kyoko, Rick and Daze looked horrified. The calm, collected and obedient Alex was taking my side? It was an honour. "But we should use a test subject just in case. Think we can find any stray dogs lying around?"