Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 18- Theory

Ruby had officially given in her letter of resignation to Principal Sissi Dunbar. Vice Principal William Dunbar seemed to understand the situation as soon as we explained it. He didn't mind that we got in trouble, but he told us to be careful. "I know what's like to be young and reckless. Wouldn't want to make the same mistake I did, do we?" We didn't know what he was talking about. Was he referring to his love life and how he got rejected by Yumi, or was it his Lyoko adventures?

Ruby had now made the guest room her own, and was now part of the family, which I guess is nice. The only nice thing is, she doesn't remember that test she was going to give us. The bad thing was that mum had taken up the temporary position of Maths teacher to get her mind off the pendant and the video and pretty much everything else.

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"Is it ready?" Alex asked from the overhead speakers of the scanner.

"Yup!" Kyoko and I chimed. The scanner doors closed with the stray dog barking viciously at us. It was such as shame but sacrifices had to be made.

"Well?" Rick asked from behind us. The scanner opened again to reveal a cute little puppy. As soon as I touched it, it shattered into digital dust. "Well, that didn't work. I told you so. You just killed another dog." I glared daggers at Rick, but he was right. This was our third attempt but we still had no successful results.

Grimly, we headed back where Daze, Alex, and Ruby were. "What are we doing wrong?" Alex asked himself, shuffling his messy black hair.

"I have an idea," Ruby said. "The supercomputer has my molecular structure from when I was your age, right? Maybe we can use that to 'rejuvenate' me."

"And our test subject?" Daze asked.

"We'll go without one." We all looked at her surprised. "And we'll have Jeremie on standby- just incase something happens."

Alex seemed keen but the others, not so much. She headed to the scanners, and we followed. She stepped inside. She gave us a smile, crossing her fingers. "I hope this works!"

The door closed in front of us. There was a loud whizzing and soon the scanner opened but she wasn't inside. "Alex! She's not here!" I shouted. "Is she on Lyoko?"

"I- I don't know!" he panicked. "Someone get in the scanners to go check!"

I stood inside the closest scanner. It closed around me, the blood in veins were running. "Virtualisation."

I fell to the familiar Desert sector, the place where we had initially started out journey. "Well?" I heard a voice ask.

I looked around and saw her, lying unconscious on the ground. There was nothing but then, something flicked and I saw her. "She's here!" I ran to her. "Ruby? Wake up!" I gave her a good shake before she woke up.

She sat up holding her head. "What... what happened?"

"You fell unconscious," I replied. "Alex? Can you figure out why she keeps disappearing off the map?"

She stood up, brushing virtual dust off herself. "I think it's my power. It's a subconscious thing. Growing up, I wanted to always erase my presence, to make it less awkward. I guess it must have translated here."
That explained a lot, like why she kept disappearing off the screen all the time.

Alex brought us in. I stepped out of the scanner. The others crowded around the scanner in anticipation. A flurry of smoke filled the air as it finally opened. And out fell Miss Renaud.

We all jumped on her as soon as she fell out. "Guys! I can't breathe!"

"We thought you died!" Kyoko cried on the verge of tears.

When we all separated, we took a good look at her. She was indeed a teenager again, her suits looked way too big on her. Rick gave her his jumper from around his waist. "Here. Wear this. It'll be a bit bigger, but not as big as those clothes." She wore the jumper, awkwardly taking it from his hand.

We all headed to the lab, where Alex and Daze looked worn out. "So, who's going to break the news to your parents?" Daze asked.

"Who else but me?" I said. We all headed back to the Hermitage. I handed a few of my clothes and she wore them way better than me, almost made me jealous. Almost. But I definitely wore the colourful ones better.

Dad was building something in his office, Mum was mixing some turntables. I had gathered them in the living room. "For the past couple of days, we were working on a project. Related to Lyoko. We thought we could make an adult a kid again with the scanners."

I didn't even finish, they already looked horrified. I brought Ruby in. "Hey," she waved sheepishly. "It worked! It worked!"

They both stood up. "How did you-"

"Alex did," I explained. "You can ask him. But what we wanted to ask you was if we could enrol her into Kadic as Miss Renaud's cousin. Could we?"

They looked worried as they shared a glance. "Alright," mum said quietly. "But we'll need some answers now."