Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 4- Magnetic attraction (Part 1)

XANA hasn't attacked in a day. This isn't the XANA I know. Since I live in the teacher dorms, I keep all my Lyoko stuff there. Especially since Jeremie and Aelita had bought the Hermitage and now live there with Mia. We often keep in touch and I like to go over when I have free periods. I don't want Mia to know that I'm friends with her parents, though.

Alex was still new at being in charge of the computer so I pulled out the skid programming disk. "Back in the day, we used this to."

"To track down XANA in the digital sea, right?" he confirmed. "How do we know we're doing this right?"

"We don't," I said. "But neither did the original Warriors." An alarm went off on my phone. "Shoot. I have to go back. Lessons to teach. You keep cracking."

I walked through the streets toward the hermitage. Years ago, it was rowdy, with overgrown vines. Now it was well kept and beautiful. I knocked on the door. Aelita opened. "Hey," I smiled.

"Hey," she responded. "Are you alright? You missed the reunion." She invited me in.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "Something came up. Sorry. I wish I was there, even if I was a third wheel." I gave her a wink and her cheeks displayed little hints of red. I stopped in the living room to see Mia.

Aelita followed after me. "Mia! I thought you went out."

"I did but my plans got cancelled," she said standing up. "More importantly, why is Miss Renaud in our house?"

I gave Aelita a quick side eye glance. "We're here to discuss you."

She scowled at me. Aelita sat opposite me, beside Mia. "Mia's been doing pretty well in school. But her maths is quite lacking."

"Well, Mia's a lot like Yumi, when we were back in school. She excels in nearly all her subjects."

"You guys went to school together?" Mia questioned.

Aelita became flustered and I gave her a look that clearly read: don't you dare tell her. "Yes. But we're in the same class or grade. She was Yumi's classmate, so we never really talked, until now."

I forced a smile. I stood up. "Well. I wouldn't want to occupy more of your time." I walked to the front door. I checked my electronic watch and something was wrong. The eye of XANA was on it. Then I felt my arm being pulled toward the door handle, sticking like superglue. I pulled and pulled but nothing happened so I took off the watch. I headed to the living room where the electrical devices where stuck to the metallic door hinges, door knobs and the overhead fan.

"We need to go. Now," I heard Mia say. My bag felt weird and it was pulled toward the door again. "Miss Renaud! Are you okay?" Abandoning my bag, I stood up. "Everything's suddenly magnetic! Like it's been charge up or something."

"Charged up?" Aelita repeated. She gave me a horrified look. "It can't be... Can it?" She ran to my bag and looked for my phone, like everything else, it was stuck to a metallic hinge. What she saw terrified her. The phone had the eye of XANA. "XANA," she muttered. She breathed in sharply. "Jeremie!" She called from the bottom of the stairs.

Something fell and I saw my phone fall to the floor, then they flew towards us. "Duck!" I said. The three of us ducked. Jeremie came from upstairs. "Go to the back door!" I ordered.

The four of us charged through the back door. Aelita pulled a metallic door, revealing the sewers. "Through here." We all ran through the door and down into the sewers.

"What's going on? My computer suddenly-"

"XANA," Aelita informed.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Ruby saw it too. The eye of XANA."

He glanced at me. "Let's go."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" a voice asked. I completely forgot about Mia. "Mum, you lied to me. You said you didn't know Miss Renaud, yet you're calling her by her first name!"

"Sweetie. I'll explain everything later. Right now, we need to go." Mia glanced at me sternly before looking back to her mother.

Jeremie and Aelita led the way, then, they went up the ladder to the familiar bridge. "Never thought we'd be here again to fight XANA," Jeremie said. We went to the lower floor, but the elevator didn't work. "We'll have to go through the boiler room." After another five minute run, we climbed down into the lab.

"Uncle J?" I looked down and saw Kyoko. Beside her Rick stood by the holomap while Alex was working on the controls. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"It's complicated," Rick explained.

Jeremie understood immediately. "It's you guys. Isn't it? You guys turned on the supercomputer." The eyes of the four teenagers fell on me. Jeremie followed their gaze. "Did you know?" he asked.

I avoided eye contact. "That night. On our anniversary, I came here and found them fighting XANA. And I helped them on Lyoko."

"What?" Aelita spoke. "Then, Mia, you've been..."

"You're supposed to be the responsible adult!" Jeremie shouted. "Why didn't you stop them?"

"How?!" I shouted back. "If you know why they're keeping it on, you would understand!"

"Ruby," Aelita said. "What reason?"

I didn't answer, so Rick answered for me. "It's a long story but we don't have time. There's an activated tower so we need to go."

Jeremie sighed. "Alright. Ruby. Aelita. Go to the scanners."

"No way, dad!" Mia interjected. "The four of us are going too! We're the new Lyoko Warriors and we don't intend to back down from this fight." The others nodded in response.

"Fine," Jeremie mumbled. "Alex. You can stay if you want. You're the one who controls the supercomputer, right?"

The boy quietly nodded and watched as the five of us went to the scanners.