Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ulrich had always liked the idea of having a sibling. Someone he could pick on, take care of, be responsible for. One of his uncles was the father of three children, and though an age gap was present, they all three seemed generally close.

Maybe he wouldn't feel as lonely all the time.

When Ulrich was five he finally mustered up the courage to ask his parents about it.

"Why don't I have any brothers or sisters?" He'd asked during breakfast one morning. His parents, although far from talkative, suddenly grew quiet. His mother in particular looked visibly upset by the question.

"Because you don't," is what his father answered, his voice gruffer than usual.

"But wh-"

"I won't repeat myself!" His father boomed over him, making both Ulrich and his mother flinch. His dad let out a sigh and rubbed his temple. "Finish your breakfast. You have piano lessons at 9:30,"

And that had been the end of that.

Ulrich didn't think much of the idea of siblings much after that. Through his own eventual reasoning, the chances of it happening were slim to none anyway, so why bother thinking about it? By the time he'd enrolled at Kadic, he barely even remembered ever asking about it.

Then he met Aelita.

He admittedly, didn't think much of her first. He felt just as strongly as Yumi or Odd in the want to see her materialized, and considered her a friend, but little beyond that. It wasn't until she was back on Earth for good that their bond formed. He wasn't sure what it was about her, whether it was her genuinely innocent naivete or the lost, puppy dog like look she wore on her first few trips Earth, but something about her brought out his protective nature.

It was one of her first days at Kadic, during lunch that it really showed. She and Odd appeared in front of him with their trays in hand. She smiled upon seeing him, as if she hadn't just spent the last several hours in classrooms with him.

"Hey. Enjoying your first real day of classes?" He asked.

"Yes, very much," she affirmed. A sheepish expression overcame her face. "It's still all a bit overwhelming though. I'm not sure how you all do it everyday,"

"Heh, no one said we were good at it," Odd laughed. "Anyway, enjoy the experiences while you can, Princess, cause the routine gets old pretty fast,"

"Then I'll be sure to take in as much as I can," she smiled.

"Hey, where's Jeremy?" Ulrich then asked. The blond genius was nowhere in sight, but he could definitely remember seeing him in class.

Odd gave a strange wave. "Oh, you know Einstein. Always raring to work whenever he can on Lyoko stuff,"

"He's trying to make some headway on my antivirus," Aelita elaborated. "Although I do hope he doesn't work himself as bad as he did with my materialization. The amount if times he was up pas-"

"Well, if it isn't Kadic's newest brainiac," A shrill voice cut in. Aelita was startled, to the point that she almost dropped her fork. One look at who it was and Ulrich groaned.

"Go away, Sissi," he said tiredly.

She gave him a smirk. "I hardly think it's a crime to want to get to know Kadic's newest student. Why, our dorms are next to each other but we've hardly spoken at all. Why is that exactly?" She gave Aelita an uncomfortably close stare.

Aelita squirmed. "Well, uh..."

"Because she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to," Odd said with a slight scowl.

"You don't have to answer for her, she can talk just like the rest of us," Sissi shot back. She returned her focus on Aelita as if Odd had never spoken in the first place. Her sickly sweet smile returned as well. "At least, I assume so. You didn't say much in Mrs. Hertz's class today. Say, what's your story anyway?"

"M-my what?"

Ulrich clenched the edge of the table tightly, his knuckles turning a hot white. "Back off, Sissi," he warned, straining to keep himself from growling at her. It was one thing to mess with him, Jeremy, or Odd, it was another matter entirely to mess with her. If Sissi heard, she gave no indication of it.

"Your story. Y'know, what you did before Kadic, your family, friends, your life? Everyone wants to know, you're quite the mystery," Sissi stopped for a moment and tilted her head. "And what's with the pink hair? That shade is so last spring."

"W-well-"

"What part of 'go away' do you not understand?" Odd said, glaring.

"Did you dye it? Figures you're just like your cousin, bad taste and all," Sissi sighed and shook her head. "I guess it's not entirely your fault. I'd probably just as bad off if I were related to Della-"

That was the last straw. He slammed a fist onto the table, scattering their utensils and creating a loud boom. The usual buzz of noise suddenly grew still as everyone began to stare at him. He didn't care though; they hardly mattered. His blood was boiling.

He kept his gaze low with a dark expression. "I'm not going to ask you again: buzz off, and leave us— Aelita —alone," he all but snarled. "Or else,"

"Uh– oh! I think I hear my father calling me. Goodbye, Ulrich!" Sissi stammered before running off, her lunch long forgotten. Ulrich let his fist relax only after Sissi had left the cafeteria.

Odd stared for a moment in shock, then shook his head. "Hey, mind your own business! Nothing to see here! Go back to your food!" He shouted to the others still staring. The usual noises returned in full force after a few moments of them scrambling to tear their gaze from them.

Aelita, face red, looked down at her lap. "I, um... thank you, Ulrich," she stammered.

He nodded. "No problem. And be sure to tell me if she starts up again. She won't be for long if she does," he told her.

"Honestly, after that performance I'm not sure Sissi will come near you or Aelita ever again!" Odd said a grin. Ulrich allowed himself to lean back again.

"If only," he smirked. They both laughed, only stopping when he noticed Aelita looking a bit flustered. "You alright there, Aelita?"

"I... is it normal for my face to feel this warm?" She asked, her tone implying she knew how silly it sounded. Ulrich and Odd shared a look before cracking grins. Not out of enjoyment of her confusion, but out of Aelita being... well, Aelita.

"I dunno if I'd call it 'normal' there, Princess. But it does happen from time to time," Odd explained.

"You can ask Einstein about it later, but you're good," Ulrich assured her.

Yumi approached moments later with a confused look. "Did I miss something? Because I just saw Sissi running off to the dorms and she almost had a panic attack just looking at me," she asked as she sat down.

Ulrich, Odd, and even Aelita to an extent, all burst out into laughter again. And seeing Aelita getting progressively more comfortable with the conversation, he couldn't help but smile.

Ulrich was proud to see that very few dared to mess with Aelita after that. And their strange sort of relationship only grew after that.

It wasn't growth in the most obvious ways, like how her relationship with Jeremy was, but it was there. Like how she started going to him more for answers for certain questions she had, usually pertaining with how to deal with certain other students in class, or about other skills that Jeremy wasn't good enough at to answer.

Or how some mornings she'd flock to his and Odd's dorm room, if only because she knew he wouldn't ask about the dark marks forming under her eyes. Or that when she did bring up the reasons, he would listen without interrupting once.

Or how she started to look over his work and made corrections, all while assuring him that, 'no, you're not an idiot, anyone could've made that mistake. This is how you really do it,.'

Ulrich didn't have siblings, and he suspected he probably never would.

But who said siblings had to be related by blood?

Chapter Text

"And that's all there is to it," Aelita said, putting her pen down. She looked down at him with a proud sort of look, though whether or not it was intended for him, he wasn't entirely sure. He was too stunned to comprehend.

"How do you do that?" He asked suddenly.

She raised a brow. "Really? I just showed you,"

"No, not that." He shook his head. "I mean, how do you remember it so easily?" He clarified, motioning to the paper that was filled with her markings. They were all steps to some complicated math equation that Ulrich was certain he would never use outside of physics class, and she remembered them all without even a glance at her notes.

And that wasn't the only time that ever happened. Outside of helping him study, he rarely ever saw Aelita studying anything beyond maybe Italian or maybe history. And she still somehow managed a 95 grade point average.

She gave a sad smirk. "Spending 10 years of your life inside a quantum computer does have its benefits,"

He snorted. "Gee, I'll have to try it some time." The smirk he had vanished completely when he saw the vacant look in her eyes. Her eyes, while not glazed over, were unfocused and staring at something beyond the desk in front of them. Ulrich decided to let the moment pass in silence, interrupted only by his pen clicking.

She jumped at one click about a minute later. She look around for a moment, looked at Ulrich, then away again with a sheepish expression.

"Sorry," she muttered, fiddling a bit with some loose strands of hair. He let out a hum of acknowledgment. His fingers rapped loudly and rhythmically against the desk as a thought came to him.

"Do you ever wonder about it sometimes?" He asked suddenly.

"Wonder about what?" she asked quietly.

"About what your life would be like without the supercomputer?"

She was silent at that. She closed her eyes. "I..." she sighed. "Yeah, I really do. Does that sound bad?"

"No, it just means I don't have to call you out for lying," Ulrich commented, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

Aelita looked up towards the window with her brow furrowed. "How can I not think about it? It's played such a big part in my life and impacted it so much," she looked back down again, eyeing a picture that Ulrich had of the five of them on the desk. "Impacted all of our lives so much."

Kiwi popped his head out at that moment. One look toward Aelita and Kiwi was rushing to her, just waiting to be pet. She gave the mutt a small smile as she rubbed him behind his ears. He let out a content moan and closed his eyes, satisfied with the attention given to him.

Ulrich stared at the photo. It was a picture taken during his birthday. Odd had wanted a party, much to Ulrich's chagrin. It ended up not being so bad, just the five of them eating more sweets than they probably should've and playing some board games they had lying around. Ulrich frowned at the photo, regardless of the happy memories.

"What do you think your life would've been like without Lyoko?" Aelita then asked, still focusing on petting Kiwi.

"Life without it?" Ulrich repeated. "Well, more boring I guess. Wouldn't have to sneak around after hours and try and get out of class every other day." He left it at that, but he knew there was so much more; too much to say it all.

He and Jeremy probably would've never been anything more than acquaintances, let alone friends.

Odd might not even have still been there, given his initial opinions on Kiwi and wanting him gone.

And then Yumi... He didn't even want to know what would've happened with her. Would they have become friends? Stayed as they'd been?

Been something more?

He almost choked at the last thought and felt his face turn red. He stared back down at his desk again, towards the photo. He felt his gaze go over to Aelita's face in the picture, a smile partially obscured by the card she had up from whatever game they'd been playing.

"What about you?" he asked, then turned to her face. "How would your life be?"

She went quiet, wearing a thoughtful expression, then stopped petting Kiwi and pushed him aside, much to the dog's dismay. "Different in more ways than I can count,"

She let out a wistful sigh and closed her eyes. But what surprised Ulrich most of all, was that when she opened them again, a smile returned to her lips as well. "But I think it all worked out for the best, given the circumstance."

"Huh?"

"My father built the supercomputer for a reason, Ulrich: to escape from whoever his 'enemies' were. Even if he hadn't built it, those men in black still would've found us, one way or another. Just like they did when they took my mother," she frowned at the memory. "And then who knows what my life would've been life: maybe it would've all worked out just fine, and I would've had a normal life. But maybe I would've lived a life of fear and in hiding. Or worse,"

Ulrich stared at her, his pen twirling in his hand, and a look of slight awe on his face. Here was a girl who'd been through so much in her life, and she still managed to find a positive in the outcome.

"You've given this a lot of thought," he noted after another beat of silence. He felt dumb saying that, of course she had, it encompassed a part of her life that she could never get back. "I'm not sure I could ever see it like that,"

Aelita shrugged. "I can't change any of it, no return to the past could ever change it, even if I wanted to." Much to Kiwi's dismay, it was this time that Aelita scooted him off her lap. "I don't see any reason to dwell on the lost possibilities at this point. Yes, I lost my family, and I've accepted that. But this entire ordeal has given me a second—potentially better—one."

"Second family?"

"Of course. Odd's a great, if a little annoying cousin, and you and Yumi are the best siblings I could ever ask for," Aelita said, another smile creeping on her face.

Ulrich's thoughts drifted to his own family only for a moment.

Aelita was right, this one they'd forged was definitely preferable.

"Hey, wait a sec. What about Jeremy? You didn't mention him," Ulrich pointed out. The squeak Aelita let out at that was both adorable, and extremely satisfying.

"I'll uh... let you know when we figure that out," Aelita stammered, her face turning a bright red. Ulrich cackled. "Don't you have more physics work to do?"

"Oh no you don't! You never let up on me and Yumi, it's only fair you get it back!" He grinned wickedly. "Besides, from what I hear, older brothers are supposed to give their siblings hell about everything."

"Ulrich Micheal Stern, you are terrible and I take back every nice thing I've said about you,"

Chapter Text

PE was one of the few classes Ulrich felt he thrived in. Instead of being cooped up in a dreary classroom and being forced to try and memorize useless facts about science or history, he could stretch his legs, quite literally. Where he fell in academics, he rose in athletics.

He felt no small amount of satisfaction at being able to dominate his peers in the various activities Jim presented them.

At least, he did for most. As for the less athletically inclined...

" Belpois! Get that confangled machine out of my sight before I take from you! If I don't see you doing something physical in the next three seconds... well, I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it! "

...Ulrich was more than content to let them keep to themselves, for their own safety more than anything.

It was a bit of a 'free day' in phys ed today. Any athletic activity that they could do on the field was available. The whole class was scattered across to do whatever they felt would be fun.

As for Ulrich, his attention was immediately caught by the soccer balls scattered by one of the goals. He almost immediately went for one of them and began to bounce it and show off. He got it up to his shoulders before he felt someone's eyes on them. He let the ball fall back down before he turned to meet whoever it was.

He was surprised to find Aelita was the one staring at him. Or rather, she was staring at the ball.

Ulrich bent down to pick said ball up. "Oh. What's up?" He asked.

She shuffled on her feet awkwardly. "I'm... I guess I'm just not entirely certain of what to do?" She'd only been here for a few weeks, and while she was starting to become acquainted with people outside their group, she was still finding it hard to fit in. "I can go find Odd instead if you-"

"No, you're fine. I'm just surprised not to see you with Jeremy. You've been kinda sticking to him like glue," he smirked at her confused expression. "It's another figure of speech, Aelita."

"Oh," she breathed out. She was silently thankful she didn't have to wonder how glue came into her friendship with Jeremy. "Well, there's a lot I still need to learn about Earth, and Jeremy's a great teacher for a lot, but uh... I'm not sure he's the person I should be asking about these kinds of things." To demonstrate her point, she motioned to her left towards the track. Ulrich had to try not to laugh at the sight.

Jeremy was begrudgingly trudging across the track at an almost snail level pace, and the expression he had was absolutely priceless.

"Fair enough," Ulrich admitted, struggling to keep any laughter from getting out. He shook his head with a chuckle and looked down, his attention returning to the ball he was holding. "You know how to play?" He asked, motioning to the ball with his eyes.

She gave him a look that screamed 'Really?'

"Right, dumb question..." he mumbled. She was definitely beginning to pick up on the finer points of sass, whether she realized it or not, and Ulrich wasn't sure if he found it hilarious or terrifying. He shook his head. "Rephrase: do you want to know how to play?"

"Er, play what exactly?" She asked.

Ulrich blinked at her for a moment, having to remind himself who he was talking to. "Ok, well... god, how do you even explain that? How much do you even know about sports?"

"Only a little bit. There was so much to research to do about Earth life while I was still on Lyoko that I didn't give it as much time as I would've liked," she admitted, frowning slightly.

He ran a hand through his hair, nodding. "Ok, ok... so uh, god I guess you're gonna need the basics first. Ok, let's start with this." He set the ball on the ground. "This is a soccer ball, which we use to play soccer. The goal of the game-" he stopped for a split second to cringe at his accidental pun, "-is to get the ball into that goal over there," he explained, pointing to the goal not too far from them.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Aelita said, nodding as she absorbed the information.

Ulrich smirked at her naivete. "Right, it sounds easy, but there's a catch: you can't use your hands to do it. You have to use your feet to guide the ball to your opponent's side, and then kick it it."

"You can't use your hands at all?"

"Not unless you're the one protecting the goal anyway. Or if you need to throw the ball back in I guess, but that's different," he chuckled at her stunned face. "I had the same reaction when I started playing too. It's not as bad as it sounds. Here, you wanna try kicking it in the goal?" He walked a bit closer to the goal and set the ball down in front of it.

"Er... sure, I guess," Aelita answered hesitantly. Seeming very unsure, Aelita went behind the ball, staring down the goal with a confused look.

"Yeah, just try to kick it in," Ulrich encouraged from beside her. She gave a forceful nod, then reeled her leg back before kicking the ball as hard as she could...

...Which sent the ball flying towards one of the posts holding the goal. She let out a squeak as the ball bounced off of it and soared over her head, landing a few feet behind them. It bounced a few more times, then rolled back before coming to a complete stop. Aelita, lowering her hands that she's used to guard her face, gave a sheepish expression.

"That was pretty terrible, wasn't it?"

He laughed. "That was better than some first attempts I've seen. I remember one kid I once saw try and kick the ball and it ended up hitting the coach in the-" He glanced at Jeremy nearby and thought better of sharing that particular detail. "Uh... well, it hurt him a lot anyway," He trailed off and laughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the confused expression she was now giving him. "A-anyways, it wasn't bad for your first try, really,"

"You don't have to try and make me feel better about it, Ulrich,"

"No, really. Everyone starts somewhere, and there are worse places to start off than where you are," Ulrich encouraged with a gentle smile. He'd seen worse in his time. At least her issues seemed easily fixable. She smiles back at him, then went over and grabbed the ball, her silent way of saying she was willing to try again. "Alright, first of all, you gotta be careful of your foot when you're kicking it..."

And that was how Ulrich spent his free time in phys ed that day. He didn't spend it how he'd initially planned, running around with his classmates playing an intense match of soccer, but rather, doing the thing he hated most: teaching and educating. He'd laugh at it later, but he didn't regret it.

By the time class was ending, Aelita has successfully managed to get three goals in a row (And one time of accidentally hitting Jeremy in the fact with the ball, but that was good enough to count as something extra special in Ulrich's eyes!)

Chapter Text

"Aelita?"

"Yes, Ulrich?"

"How long have we been here?"

"Approximately 45 minutes."

Ulrich let out a groan and fell back against his back onto the ice. Digital ice, that was, as he was currently stuck on Lyoko's Ice Sector on watch duty with Aelita. It had been requested by Jeremy, who'd said the superscan needed maintenance. Aelita could listen for pulsations the old fashioned way of course, but both of them said they'd feel much better about it if someone was with her should XANA rear his ugly mug—or Williams, which he wasn't really sure which was uglier at this point. And given the track record, it was likely to happen.

Ulrich had foolishly volunteered for the job, and he was beginning to regret every second of it.

" 'The superscan only needs some tuning' he said. 'It shouldn't take that long at all' he said ," Ulrich let out a quiet grumble, covering his face with his hands. "This is the last time I let you two convince me on these things." He knew it probably wouldn't be, but it made him feel better telling himself that.

Aelita, sitting in the lotus position beside him, cracked an eye open to look at him. Shaking her head with a laugh, she looked up towards the sky. "Jeremy, how's the maintenance going? I think Ulrich's about ready to die of boredom,"

"He's gonna have to endure it for a little bit longer," Jeremy at least had the decency to sound apologetic as he crackled from above. "I've gotta make sure that this runs as well as it can. We wouldn't want to get caught off guard simply because the superscan was a bit too slow,"

"And how long is that gonna take you?" Ulrich asked, already dreading the response.

"Uh... about another half hour at least. Sorry, Ulrich!" Jeremy went quiet at that, and Ulrich let out another groan.

"God, I never thought being on Lyoko could be so boring! " He whined, sitting up again.

"Would you rather XANA try to throw me into the Digital Sea again?" Aelita asked dryly.

"Yes—I mean no, of course I don't want that!" He quickly added at her frown. It was a pain to have to stop from happening, and the last thing he wanted was for his friends to be in danger. "I just wish we had something to do other than just sit around."

"Better than having to run for our lives."

"I know, I know, I just-"

"No, you're restless, I get it." She let out a sigh and adjusted into a more comfortable sitting position. "I forget that spending long amounts of time on Lyoko like this without any action isn't something you're used to."

He blinked at her. Oh, that was right. It felt so long ago now, but this used to be Aelita's daily life. Stuck on Lyoko all by herself for hours on end with only XANAs monsters to keep her busy when Jeremy was too busy to talk. He'd never really thought about it before, he'd almost entirely forgotten about it actually, but it must've been incredibly lonely for her.

"How'd you live like this everyday?" He couldn't help but ask, a look of awe on his face. Surely she had to have gotten sick of it.

She chuckled at his expression. "It's not as if I had much choice," she reminded him. She then put a hand to her chin in thought. "It wasn't as bad as it seems now. As far as I knew then, I was just a high functioning AI. I didn't know what I was missing out on; monitoring Lyoko was all I knew, and I was fine with it, especially knowing what Jeremy was working so hard on. Not to mentioned I could research about Earth in my free time, and lord knows I never ran out of search material when it came to that topic."

She shrugged. "And it's not as if it was all so lonely. I got to talk to Jeremy every day when we worked on my materialization, and you all popped in when you could to talk. Overall, it wasn't bad for what it was. I would never go back to it for a multitude of reasons, but it wasn't unbearable."

"Huh..." she always seemed to surprise him with her perspective on everything on everything that'd happened in her life. He'd have to ask her how she could stay so positive all the time one of these days. He was about 90% sure he'd be way more bitter than she was, had their roles been reversed.

"But enough about that!" she suddenly said, standing up and dusting the invisible dust off herself. She smiled down at him as she stretched her arms above her. "C'mon, you said you were bored, and now I've thought of something to do!"

"Wait, what?" he asked, already standing up. His legs felt a little fuzzy, was it even possible for your limbs to fall asleep while on Lyoko? Maybe it was all mental. "What are we gonna do? Fight each other?" It was a joke question, but he'd honestly be up for it at this point.

"No, though I would like to see how you fight with one of your sabers these days, if you don't mind. Might come in handy, you never know," she requested. He nodded. "What I had in mind was more of a race: you and me, no vehicles, to the nearest Way Tower."

A beat of silence passed between them. And then Ulrich burst out into a loud laughter that almost made him double over.

Aelita wasn't impressed. "What's so funny about that?" she asked, arm folded across her chest indignantly.

"I just... you-" he took a breath to collect himself, having to put a hand in front of his mouth to stop him from smiling. "It's just... Aelita, I've seen you run before. No offense, but you're not exactly an Olympian sprinter. And I just- Another chuckle escaped his mouth. "A race between me and you, without the vehicles? No way,"

"What, afraid you'll lose?" she asked, a smug smirk having come over her expression. Well, he couldn't turn down an invitation like that, now could he?

"Of course not," he returned her look with a confident grin of his own. He moved to stand near her for their makeshift starting line. "But why the sudden interest?"

"Well, you're bored and we may as well check all the sectors anyway, just in case." She explained simply with a wink. "So, are you ready?"

He took a starting position. "You betcha." He grinned, he'd give her a race alright. A one sided one perhaps.

Her smirk didn't fade as she didn't move, standing as normal beside him. "Alright then. On your mark, get ready... GO!"

"Super Spr- huh?!" There was a flash of pink beside him, blinding him for a moment. When he looked to his right, Aelita was no longer standing there. Rather, she was flying there, pink angel wings spread out behind her.

She flew ahead. "What? I never said it was a foot race, did I?" She laughed as she looked ahead. "Keep up if you can, Ulrich!" she called back.

He was stunned for a moment. "Oh that is so not- argh! Super Sprint!" He took off in a streak of yellow to catch up with her.

She was SO on after a stunt like that!

Chapter Text

He finds them in the rec room. He'd just wanted to see if anyone there wanted to play some foosball or something. The room is empty, he finds out, sans a pair sitting in front of the tv with controllers in hand. The game on screen is paused and not one he recognizes. He hears the conversation between them drop as the door opens, heads jumping back to look at him. He swallows and feels his face scrunch up for a split second.

Aelita is hanging out with William.

Again.

"Oh." William lets out. A moment of silence passes between the three, long and extremely uncomfortable. His initial idea seemed a lot less appealing now.

Ulrich took a step back. "I'll just go-"

"No, don't. I was..." William glanced back at the controller in his hands and sighed. He stood up and placed it on the tv stand, then shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I was just about to head out anyways."

"William..." Aelita started, breathy as she sighed.

He raised a hand and silenced her. "Don't." He said. They shared a look with one another, one that he wasn't privy to the meaning to. William gave a ghost of a smile and nodded at her. "See you around." He moved towards the door, stopping for a moment in front of Ulrich. "Ulrich." He said curtly.

"William." Ulrich said back. They stared at one another for a moment until Ulrich stepped out of the way of the door frame to let him out. The older boy stalked out without another word. Ulrich watched until he disappeared around a corner.

Another sigh brought his attention back into the room. "Ulrich..."

"What? It's not like I made him leave." He frowned. It wasn't his fault William decided to book it upon seeing him, not that he was complaining that he'd done so.

"He knows how you feel about him; how all of you feel about him," Aelita responded, turning back around on the couch. "None of you hide it well."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well maybe that's because we aren't trying to." He folded his arms across his chest and glanced back out the door. "He knows what he did."

"Yes, he's very well aware of that face, Ulrich. You don't need to remind him every second of every interaction with him," she replied evenly. She hit a button on the controller that sent the game back to the main menu. It's cheerful techno electronic music, he noted, felt extremely unfitting. She seemed to agree, as she stood up from the couch and hit the power button on it, sending the room back into that ever-so-uncomfortable silence.

...He wished she'd kept the music on.

He moved towards one of the chair in the room and sat in it, it's back in front of him as he rested his arms on it and leaned forward. "I didn't say anything about that," he protested.

"That's not what your face said." She turned to him, one knee tucked under her. He rolled his eyes. She was looking too much into things; why was it that girls always did that? Yumi did that too and it drove him nuts.

"I just don't get why you're not in the same boat with the rest of us about him." He said.

The moments after William was finally freed and that they'd made sure XANA hadn't left any nasty tricks inside him (or taken something away again like he'd done before with Aelita), one thing was made painfully clear to him: he was not welcome in their group. It wasn't actually stated, but the looks they'd given him, the way they'd all treated him afterwards, including not inviting him to shut down the computer. How could they not after all he'd done to them?

Evidently, Aelita had disagreed. And he still didn't get it.

Ulrich's eyes narrowed at the memories. "He tried to kill us all the time. You especially," he reminded her.

She shrugged. "By that logic, you tried to kill us too."

He sputtered. "Hey, I wasn't in my body-"

"And so did Jeremy, too. And yet I don't see Odd shunning him for it." She continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Well-"

"Oh, and let's not forget that I got caught and possessed by the Scyphozoa countless times. And that I then tried to kill you during every time that happened, and got pretty far in the last attempt with you in particular," she leaned back with a frown. "So that excuse doesn't quite cut it,"

"Those were different!" He argued. "Those weren't as easily preventable as his was! He was being cocky and stupid! You said you warned him not to go off on his own and he didn't listen!"

"As if none of us were the same way when we all started. I can think of several incidents where yours and Odd's egos ended up making things much harder than they had to be in the beginning, and sometimes towards the end too." He voice didn't raise in volume, yet there was an undeniable power to it that still made him feel like she was yelling at him. "Our difference was we had time to figure things out. We threw him into the deep end without being able to teach him how to properly swim first, Ulrich. He had no chance."

His brows furrowed. What she was saying made sense and yet...

"He still should've listened to you and Jeremy. Or run away from the Scyphozoa at least."

She gave a nod in acquiescence. "I'm not disagreeing with you on that. But think back to your first time on Lyoko; can you really say that you really acted much differently?" She never saw Ulrich on his first visit to Lyoko, but she'd heard the story before. "And take my word for it when I say trying to run from that... thing , was much harder than it looked."

Ulrich could say nothing in response. He dropped his gaze to the floor.

Aelita hands fell into her lap. "I'm not trying to say that William didn't make a mistake; he did, and it was a big one, and it's one he will never forget about for the rest of his life. But I think he's paid enough for it as it is without you and the other needlessly twisting the knife." He watched as she then stood up from the couch and walked towards the door.

His throat felt dry. "How do you know?" He asked, swallowing in a vain attempt to make it feel normal again.

He hand fell just short of the know. "How do I know what?"

"That he'll never forget it. Or that he's 'paid' for any of it?" Ulrich elaborated. A heavy silence hung between them for what he knew was only seconds, yet felt like and eternity. Why did he have a feeling he wasn't going to like this answer?

She looked back at him, a familiar, haunted look in her eyes that made his heart sink. "Because I still can't forget what happened after every time the Scyphozoa caught me, and it was only for an hour at a time at most.," she pushed open the door. "And I can't imagine how much worse the feeling is after six months under XANA's control."

Ulrich couldn't even think up of a response before she pushed herself out of the room, leaving him alone in the rec room as the door swung shut with a loud bang behind her. He sat there for several minutes, feeling slightly numb.

No... wait... that was guilt he was feeling. About William of all people. He let out a groan and lowered his head onto his arms, still resting on the chair.

Why was it that things could ever be as simple they initially seemed in his life?

Chapter Text

Aelita let her head rest against her hand as she stared out the window of the rec room, watching as a light dusting of snow fell across the campus. The rec room was nearly silent, save for a peppy sounding tune playing at a low volume on one of the radios in the room. It was a strange sense of calm compared to how busy things usually were at Kadic. But, that was just the time of year, she supposed.

She sighed. The holidays were upon them once again. And she didn't know how to feel about them.

One one hand, she loved so much about the season. The music, the decorations, the tacky apparel and TV specials, the food, the general goodwill and cheer the time seemed to inspire in people, she loved it all. It was a welcome change of pace from her everyday life.

But... on the other hand, it was so bittersweet for her. Because with the holidays came memories.

Memories of wolves. Of men in black. Of screams.

Memories of cold, stinging tears stuck on her face. Memories of her confusion and fear. Of questions

Memories of a mother that suddenly vanished.

And memories of a father that was no longer alive.

She blinked back a few tears that had tried to form, then rubbed what remained of them away on her sleeve. She wanted to chide herself for thinking about those sorts of things; not now, this wasn't the time or place to do so. But she knew it was impossible to completely keep away such thoughts around this time of year. She'd learned as much last year.

Last year, staying with Jeremy had been a wonderful time, and even better distraction from her fragmented memories trying to haunting her. Jeremy's parents had been so kind and welcoming to her, and she'd had so much fun getting to spend time with Jeremy when he wasn't so focused on work for once that she'd barely had time to give her past any thought. And in the rare moments she did—because as much as she tried to ignore them, the feelings still occasionally slipped through—Jeremy had been right there to help her.

But that was last year. And this was this year. And she was not with Jeremy. She was still at Kadic, where she would remain for the entire break.

It wasn't due to a lack of an invitation on Jeremy's part. She let out a small chuckle as she recalled Jeremy's attempts, her breath fogging the window a bit. Jeremy had been eager to extend an invite to her again for the holidays, practically bouncing on his heels as he told her that his parents were more than happy to act as hosts again. He'd been so eager, in fact, that she nearly accepted the offer once again.

But then she stopped and thought about it. About how she'd already spent last winter with them, and a good portion of the summer as well, and staying again might look a bit suspicious to them. After all, if she spent so much time with them, when would she see her parents? It's not like they knew her history, they had no reason to assume anything. And she didn't want to impose anyway. So she declined, deciding to stay on campus this year.

And so here she was, sitting the nearly abandoned rec room, trying to distract herself from memories of holidays long since passed. And evidently failing quite miserably at it. She let her forehead rest against the cold glass of the window and huffed. The window fogged up again. She started to absently doodle on it with her finger.

Boredom, she was quickly realizing, was going to be her greatest enemy for the next few weeks.

Maybe she should go and find Sissi. She wasn't supposed to leave until a few days from now, and conversations with her never failed to be... enthralling, at the very least. She pulled herself back from the window and—

SLAM!

She startled as the door swung open and crashed against the doorstop. A hand flew to her chest as she turned around to find...

"Ulrich?" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice at the sight of him. Last she'd seen him he had been waiting at the gates for his parents to come get him, and that had almost been an hour ago. Surely they wouldn't have taken that long?

If he'd heard her, he didn't acknowledge it. He had a scowl plastered on his face as he trudged over to the couch, letting his bag fall onto the floor with a thud.

She frowned. This couldn't be good.

He didn't say anything as she moved over from the window to the couch, instead busying himself with pulling off his gloves and shaking off some loose snow on his shoulder. She carefully avoided said snow as she took a seat next to him.

"Ulrich?" she tried again. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but thought better of it after a moment, and just let her hand hang awkwardly just above his shoulder instead. "What are you doing here?"

"Not leaving, apparently," he grumbled, yanking his hat off.

"What?"

He didn't answer at first. He fished his phone out of his pocket and opened up what appeared to be some kind of message he'd received on it. His glare intensified at it. He looked almost ready to hand the phone to her, but hesitated. He let out another grumble and clenched the phone tight in his hand, plastic squeaking as he stared down at the phone again, rereading whatever message it was.

He kept his gaze down as he spoke. "My dad," he spat the words out like they were poisonous, "decided that I need to work on my grades more, and that coming home would be 'too much of a distraction'," He said, using air quotes, then glared at the phone again. He looked about half tempted to throw it, and she was concerned he might actually would.

She let her hand finally reach his shoulder to shake him out of his stupor. "'Too much of a distraction?'" She repeated, seeking clarification.

Ulrich lowered his arm and shrugged. He still refused to make eye contact. "He thinks staying in an 'academic environment' without the distraction of my 'good for nothing friends' might actually help my grades for once. So I'm stuck here." He shook his head and laughed a humorless laugh as he finally turned to look at her. "Joke's on him though, I guess," he said with a nod toward her.

Her expression fell. She gave his shoulder a soft squeeze. "Ulrich, I'm sor-"

"Don't be. I'm not." He interrupted her, pulling his shoulder out of her grip. He glanced down at his phone again, shook his head, and forcefully stuffed it back into his pocket. At her tilted head, he added, "I hate spending the holidays with him. It never goes well; we always end up yelling about one stupid thing or another, or we-" He stopped himself, then shook his head. "Never mind. I don't care. Just wish he'd warned before now. Wouldn't have had to try and pack everything. It's just like him, the jerk..." He gave his bag a light kick with the side of his foot as he grumbled under his breath.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. The wind howled outside as it started to pick up in speed. There was supposed to be more snow on the way, if the weather report was to be believed. She gave another glance out at the window, then back to Ulrich.

She didn't know much about Ulrich's dad, it just wasn't a subject he liked to talk about very much. She faintly recalled him saying something similar about the holidays last year too, about how his father was around that time of year. Ulrich had gotten up and left the car to come help her without much complaint, hadn't he? Come to think of it, the few other experiences she could think of Ulrich's father weren't exactly positive either...

A small part of her wanted to ask more, but she knew better. The fact that Ulrich hadn't immediately gone back to his room to sulk on the matter was a good sign. She didn't want to waste that. If he ever wanted to tell her, she could wait till he was ready.

In the mean time though...

She reached down and pulled Ulrich bag onto her lap. At the sound of her unzipping it Ulrich's head snapped toward her. A look of confusion overcame him.

"What are you doing?" He questioned. He reached to grab the bag, but the hand she held up stopped him. She ignored the stare she could feel he was giving her and continued to search the bag.

It takes a minute to find what she's looking for—his bag was a complete mess to comb through—but eventually she did. Moving aside another one of his shirt revealed what she had been searching for: a small package wrapped in a festive shade of green wrapping paper, topped with a small red bow. The small tag on it read 'To: Ulrich, From: Aelita'.

"Here," she said, and handed it out to him.

He gave her a strange look. "What part of 'we'll open them after break, for real this time' didn't you understand?" He snarked. She fought a smirk at that.

She instead rolled her eyes at him and held it out again. "Just open it, Ulrich. I think we could both use the distraction."

At her words, his brow furrowed. His mouth opened, as it he intended to say something, and she braced herself for the inevitable question, but it never came. Instead, he silently reached for the gift and pulled it out of her hand, muttering a small thanks as he did so. The room was silent, save for the music still playing in the background, and now the sound of tearing paper as Ulrich pulled at the wrapping around the gift.

As soon as he could see what it was he let out a gasp. The latest version of a fighting game series he enjoyed playing. "This game's been almost impossible to find since it came out! How did-?" He cut himself off when he looked over at her. She whistled innocently. He shook his head and grinned. "Thanks, Aelita."

She smiled back. "Of course. Now..." she pulled the game case out of his hand and opened it, pulling the disc out. "are you ready to get your butt whooped at this version too?" she asked.

He was already moving toward the drawer where the controllers were held. After she loaded the game up, he held out a controller to her, a smug smirk on his face. "As if," he declared. "Last time was a fluke and you know it."

"Let's find out, shall we?" She laughed as she took the controller from him. The song on the radio switched to some jazzy cover of another holiday tune she couldn't quite remember the name of. It was soon drowned out by the sounds of the TV as they began their many brawls in the game. The first night of many to come over the break, she was sure.

The holidays were probably always going to be bittersweet for her now. And maybe they were never going to be the most pleasant for Ulrich either. She suspected both of them had plenty of negative memories they could be dwelling around this time of year.

But if this was what they did to keep them from getting too much to handle? Well, she could live with that.

Maybe this years holiday wouldn't be so boring after all.

Chapter Text

Today just was not his day.

It hadn't been from the moment he'd woken up—at a far earlier time than he would've liked and due to the foul breath of Kiwi as he whined near his face. And whined loudly at that. By the time he'd finally gotten the mutt to settle back down again (No thanks to Odd, he could probably sleep through a whole zoo storming their room) there were only minutes to go before the alarm was set to go off.

From there things had just gotten worse. Spilling hot chocolate everywhere, slipping on the stairs, getting yet another bad test grade back from Ms. Hertz. Really, the world was just determined to not give him a break. He'd been expecting a call from Jeremy about a XANA attack as icing on the cake at any moment, just to really top it all off.

But none of that was even the worst part: it was that no one would shut up.

He wasn't sure what it was, maybe all of Kiwi's whining had irritated ears for too long or something, but he'd felt aware of every single little noise all day. It didn't matter if it was someone clicking their pen, someone whispering in the back of the room, or even just some birds outside, he heard it all.

He knew they were quiet sounds and that they shouldn't have bothered him. Normally they didn't; he ignored them just like any other person would. But today…

Something about them was just too loud. They'd grated on his nerves all day, pulling at his attention and distracting him from the lessons he already knew he was behind on. He tried to fight it, he tried to force himself to pay attention, but all that did was leave him feeling exhausted.

By the end of classes, he wanted nothing more than to slap his hands over his ears and enjoy some peace and quiet for once. Just for five minutes, that was all he wanted. But none of his usual spots seemed to work: Odd was too focused on playing some old game he'd found at full volume, and the sound of Jeremy's keyboard was only going to drive him more insane.

In a last ditch effort, he'd decided to try and go to the library, knowing it was the one spot where being quiet was expected. At first, it seemed to work, but then…

"Oh, Ulrich!"

Sissi. Of course she'd show up.

"Why, I've been looking everywhere for you!" she'd said in a whisper. She slid into the seat next to him—of course picking a more secluded section would backfire—and leaned close. "I wouldn't have thought I'd find you here though. The gym, or something I'd get but… oh well. Now that I have you, I wanted to ask you…"

He'd grit his teeth and clenched a fist at his side as she continued to talk. He found her voice annoying on a good day as it was. On a day like today?

Borderline unbearable.

She seemed completely oblivious to his rising anger, however, and was content to keep whispering away about whatever it was she wanted to say. He didn't really know, probably about something stupid about some movie or how much better she (supposedly) was than Yumi or something. He didn't really care.

He just wanted her to go away.

"...Oh, and another thing! Can you believe that science test? Why should we have to remember that junk anyway? I think…"

He let out a low grunt and shut his eyes. She was still talking. Why was she still talking? Couldn't she take a hint? Oh, who was he kidding, this was Sissi he was talking about. She understood subtly about as well as Kiwi knew how to roll over.

He could feel his patience wearing thin and his temper begin to flare. He shouldn't cause a scene, he got into enough trouble as it was thanks to XANA. He shouldn't add more fuel to that fire. He knew that, but he was just so sick of her!

"Sissi."

His head snapped up. He hadn't said that. That had been someone new. He looked over in the direction it had come from, just behind Sissi.

Aelita.

Sissi whirled around to look and seemed surprised as well. "Oh, it's you," she said, tone flat. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yes, but," she shifted, adjusting the position of some books she was holding to her chest. "I just thought you should know that your father is looking for you.

"I'm sure it wasn't that important," Sissi waved it off, sending Aelita a dirty look.

Aelita, for her part, shrugged. "Well, it sounded important to me. Something about a test grade, I think?"

Sissi's face paled. "Oh, that kind of thing. I uh…" she quickly stood up from her seat. "D-don't you go anywhere, Ulrich! I'll be right back!"

Aelita looked back at her as she rushed by her. "He was at the science building last I saw," she told her, and then she was out the door. A moment later, she looked back at Ulrich with a smile.

Ah, finally… Relief. He let his tensed muscles start to relax. He leaned back in his chair, letting his shoulders drop. He looked back again when he felt the chair beside him move again, and found Aelita had taken the spot with a worried look on her face.

"Are… you ok?" she asked.

"I…" he sighed and rubbed at one of his temples. "It's just been a long day. ." He let out a wince when he heard some barely hushed cheers after someone managed to throw a wadded up paper in a trashcan nearby. "And no one seems to understand what the words 'peace and quiet; mean anymore…" He let his head fall against the table with a groan.

Aelita let out a hum, and out of the corner of his eye he could see her tap her finger to her chin. "Hm… well, if you're looking for somewhere quiet, you could come to my room for a bit," she offered.

He lifted his head and blinked. "Really?" Then, he made a face. "I don't know…" The last thing he'd want to do was snap at her...

"I don't have much going on, if that's what you're worried about, and it's usually pretty quiet there at this time of day," She was already standing back up as she spoke. "And besides, she's less likely to look for you there later, don't you think?"

Well, when she put it that way…

"Yeah, you're probably right," he admitted, and stood up to follow her out of the library. The noises became much more muffled as the doors into the hallway closed behind them. It was much more deserted out here, and already he felt like a weight had been lifted from him.

Finally…

As they walked, he gave a grateful look toward Aelita. Thank goodness that she'd been looking for Sissi…

Although, the more he thought about that, the more confused he was.

"Hey," he asked, "Why did Mr. Delmas ask you to find Sissi anyway? I would've thought that he or even Jim would've done that kind of thing."

"Oh, he didn't," she replied with a casual shrug.

He stopped in his tracks. "Wait… so you…?!"

She paused in front of the door, readjusting her hold on the books again. "Yes, I lied," she confirmed. "You had that look on your face that you usually get before Yumi warns you not to do something stupid on Lyoko, so I thought maybe you needed help, so I…" She trailed off at the sight of him gaping at her.

For a moment, he didn't answer. He was just so surprised. When had she gotten so good at lying? She'd only been here for a few months. Sure, lying came second nature to the rest of them by now, but to her? He wouldn't have expected that.

"Should I… not have done that?" Aelita's voice was quiet as she suddenly spoke again, pulling him out of his thoughts. She shuffled on her feet and stared down at the ground when he didn't immediately respond.

Ah, there was the uncertain look he was used to on her—the one she'd get when she wasn't sure about if she was doing 'Earth things' correctly. Maybe it wasn't as much second nature for her then…

But she was still scarily good at it.

"It's fine, Aelita," he assured her. "I just… you sure do learn fast, that's all." He laughed to himself, much to her confusion. She tilted her head and let out a befuddled noise, but he just shook his head and opened the door for her. "Don't worry about it. C'mon,"

She seemed fine with letting it go, and they made their way toward the dorm building together in peace. The whole time though, he couldn't help but wonder.

Maybe those jokes Jeremy liked making about the group corrupting her innocence had some truth to them after all.

Chapter Text

He really envied her some days, especially when it came to her relationship with her father.

He knew that was ridiculous. She and her father had a long and complicated history that he still couldn't fully wrap his head around, not to mention what happened to him in the final stand against XANA. He had no reason to be jealous of that mess.

And yet… there was just something about the way she spoke about him.

It was something in her voice whenever she'd tell stories about her father. Something about her tone, it…

It always sounded so fond.

The type of memory didn't matter—it could've been about some book he'd read to her as a kid or something that, in hindsight, made her sad to think about—that tone was always there. From the way she spoke of him, it was clear the man had done his best to be there for her.

A far cry from his own dad.

Hopper had been willing to go to the end of the Earth if it meant keeping his daughter safe; the supercomputer was physical proof of that fact.

His father wouldn't even put a fraction of that effort in if his son's life was in danger, he was sure of it. Maybe if it was to save his own skin, but definitely not for him.

He couldn't even remember the last time they'd spoken to each other, and they certainly would be speaking so nicely to one another whenever it next happened. Harsh, bitter tones were more likely.

So to hear her speak so kindly toward her own...

Yeah. It made him jealous.

It was unreasonable to feel that way, he knew. It was stupid, and it definitely wasn't fair to her. She'd been through enough in her life as it was.

And so, she would never know.

She really envied him some days, especially when it came to his relationship with his father.

She knew that was ridiculous. She didn't know much about his dad, only what little scraps of information the others shared, but she knew enough that he and Ulrich didn't get along well. She had no reason to be jealous.

And yet… there was something about the way he spoke about him.

Her didn't speak about him often, but when he did, there was an unmistakable anger that shook through his voice. He didn't try and hide it, it was plain for all of them to see.

And there was something refreshing about that. Because it was just so… uncomplicated.

A far cry from her own father.

She'd loved him dearly, and her grief over his sacrifice would, she suspected, hang over her for a very long time. But…

What she'd said about him to Jeremy just before recovering her memory, calling him a "totally crazy, second rate magician"...

It wasn't inaccurate.

Her memories were still somewhat fuzzy and vague, but she remembered bits and pieces of her life from before. And while many of her memories were of a happy life, they were far from normal. Among all the happy memories of piano music and fairy tales, there were other things too.

A panicked look on her father's face when she'd ask to go ride her bike for a bit. Long and sometimes nonsensical sounding rambling about keeping her safe. Wistful looks towards a portrait of her mother. The strange hole that suddenly appeared in Mr. Puck before he told her to go hide him.

The feelings such memories gave her were… complicated. She certainly loved her father, but some of the things he did were nothing short of mad.

Ulrich's relationship, meanwhile, was much more straightforward. They didn't get along. They argued, if they bothered talking at all. That was all there was to it.

It was so simple.

Her feelings were… a lot more complex.

So, to hear him be able to rant and able to describe his feelings so succinctly...

Yeah. It made her jealous.

It was unreasonable to feel that way, she knew. It was stupid, and it definitely wasn't fair to him. Her own hang ups about the past were no reason to envy something like that.

And so, he would never know.

Chapter Text

“Come in!” Jeremy’s voice called from behind the door shortly after Ulrich knocked. 

Odd beat him in opening the door. When the two of them entered, they found Jeremy sitting in his usual spot in the computer chair. For once, he’d stopped his constant typing and had turned to face the two of them as they shut the door behind them. A window containing Aelita’s face took up most of the screen behind him. She gave Ulrich and Odd a broad smile and a small wave in greeting. 

Well, that explained the smile still lingering on Jeremy’s face at least. 

“Hey, Einstein,” Odd greeted. He moved to sit on the clear spot of the table next to Jeremy’s computer desk. “We missed you at dinner again,” he informed him before Jeremy could protest. 

Jeremy’s eyes widened. He whirled his chair around and looked down at the time at the bottom corner of his monitor. When he turned back around, he had a sheepish look on his face. “I didn’t realize it had gotten so late already,” he admitted. 

“Jeremy!” Aelita’s voice was soft, but clearly scolding in its tone. “We talked about this. You can’t skip out on meals like that just for my sake. It’s not good for you.”

Jeremy winced. “I didn’t mean to,” he weakly defended. “I just… lost track of time talking to you. Not that I dislike talking to you or anything! I just uh…” His face started to turn a bright red. 

Ulrich let out a laugh under his breath. He came to his rescue by slapping a hand on his shoulder and depositing some money into his hand.

“There’s still some time before curfew.” He nodded toward the door as Jeremy looked up at him, confused. “If you hurry, you can go get yourself something from the vending machines.”

Jeremy blinked at the money, then back up at Ulrich. “Are… are you sure?”

“Our treat, buddy,” Odd laughed. “Now go!”

“Right!” Jeremy hopped up from his chair. Before he made his way to the door, however, he stopped and looked between his computer and Ulrich. “Would you two mind uh…” He motioned vaguely between them.

Ulrich got the hint.

“We’ll keep Aelita company, don’t worry,” Ulrich said. “And I’ll make sure Odd doesn’t touch anything this time. Now hurry up before Jim sees you!” 

“Thanks guys!” Jeremy called over his shoulder as he rushed out of the room.

Odd made a face at him as soon as the door clicked shut. “Hey, last time I messed with his stuff it was an accident, and we got a functioning materialization program out of it. If anything, we should be letting me touch the keyboard more often,” he argued. His grin was wide as he held his fingers out in front of them and started to move them as if he was typing. “For all we know, I’ve got a secret talent for programming. Maybe I’m a savant with computers!”

“Right,” Ulrich huffed out a laugh and moved to sit in Jeremy’s well-worn computer chair. It squeaked underneath him as he leaned back in it. “We’ll let you try and recreate that fluke from last time, and next thing we know you’ll have managed to completely erase Lyoko.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Ulrich,” Odd snarked, though the grin on his face betrayed his true feelings.

“Actually,” Aelita suddenly chimed in. “I don’t think Jeremy has the ability to do something like that. At least, not on this computer.”

“Ha!” Odd pumped a fist in the air. “See? Aelita has faith in me!”

“Well… I didn’t exactly say that…”

Ulrich’s laugh was long and loud as he watched Odd’s confident face morph into one of shock at Aelita’s comment. After recovering from the initial surprise, Odd threw both his hands over his heart and looked dramatically toward the ceiling while saying, “Wow… Betrayed by some of my closest friends—my comrades in arms. I’ll never recover from this tragedy. Remember me fondly.”

Then, he allowed himself to fall from his spot on the table and flopped limply onto Jeremy’s bed beside him. Ulrich and Aelita both let out a laugh at the antics, though Ulrich suspected she may not entirely have understood just what he found to be so funny about it. Odd picked himself up and perched himself at the edge of the bed once the laughter started to die down.

Ulrich looked back at Aelita, a thought having occurred to him. “Can Lyoko actually be deleted?”

A thoughtful expression overcame her and she lifted a hand to her chin. “Hm… Well, Lyoko is ultimately still a program like any other on the supercomputer, albeit a very complicated one, so I imagine it could be but… given how important it is, I’m not sure where you’d get access to do such a thing to begin with, either on my end or on Jeremy’s.”

“Or why you would even want to,” Odd pointed out. “Unless you’re XANA I guess.”

The room fell silent for a moment, save the squeaky computer chair.

“Well, considering the fact that all four sectors are still standing, I think it’s safe to assume that XANA also doesn’t have access to that on its own,” Aelita noted reassuringly. “In any case, I wanted to thank you two for helping Jeremy. I try to make sure he doesn’t overwork himself, but I can only do so much, and it can be so hard to keep track of time for you all from in here.”

“Of course, Princess,” Ulrich replied. “We’ll make sure to keep an extra eye on him for you.” After all, Jeremy was their friend too; one he liked to think he was becoming pretty close friends with at that.

“Yeah, you can count on us to make sure Einstein gets all the food, water, and sunlight he needs to keep growing those brilliant ideas of his in his head,” Odd said. He leaned his arm on the table and added, “Although, we can’t promise he’ll start remembering to do those things on his own though. We may be experts in the field of genius tending, but we’re not miracle workers.” He let out a laugh.

Aelita, however, had a frown on her face.

“Problem, Princess?” Ulrich asked. The chair let out another loud squeak as he turned it to better face her again.

“No it’s just…” Her brow furrowed before she looked back up at him. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you two call me that?”

“Call you what?”

“Princess.”

Ulrich and Odd shared a look with one another.

“It’s just… I noticed you two started calling me that lately and I was curious as to why is all,” she hastily explained at their silence. 

“No, you don’t have to justify it or anything it’s just…”  Ulrich gave her a shrug. “There’s not a really grand answer or whatever. It’s just a nickname.”

“A nickname?”

“It’s sort of meant to be an endearing kind of thing; a name you call someone close to you because you like them enough to. Like how we call Jeremy ‘Einstein’. It just… fits you well, that’s all, ” Odd added. He’d moved from Jeremy’s bed to stand by Ulrich, leaning back against the table he’d been sitting on minutes before.

Aelita tilted her head. “It ‘fits’?” 

“Well… it’s just that you… Oh, I dunno,” Ulrich struggled to find the exact words. “Just something about you being the only person living on Lyoko and constantly being in a tower… It just kinda works.”

“Not to mention us rushing in to rescue you!” Odd said, rather unhelpfully in Ulrich’s opinion. He elbowed Odd’s ribs, which earned a squawk of protest from him. “Hey! I didn’t mean it as a bad thing! Aelita’s plenty brave on her own, but when she needs it, her knights in shining armor—those being you, me, and Yumi of course—come rushing in to help her out.” A mischievous looking grin overcame Odd’s features. “And, of course, Jeremy is her prince charming.”

“My… what?” Aelita blinked.

Ulrich struggled not to laugh at her befuddled expression. “You can ask Jeremy about it later,” he said. Aelita didn’t respond. After a beat of silence, he asked, “Do you not want us to call you that?”

Aelita seemed to consider it for a moment. “I don’t think I fully get it,” she admitted. “But I also don’t mind. Call me what you like,” she said with a smile. Then, an unsure expression seemed to come over her. “Do I… need to call you something else too?”

Ulrich shook his head and finally let himself laugh. “Don’t worry about it, Princess.

The door behind him rattled. Ulrich turned the chair around just in time to see Jeremy come through the doorway. A couple bags of snacks were held in his arms, as well as a new bottle of water. 

“I’m back!” He announced as he closed the door behind him with his foot. 

“So you are,” Odd said. He leaned close as Jeremy as he walked by him toward the computer desk, inspecting the snacks. “Ooh, good choices!”

“You can get your own tomorrow,” Ulrich slapped Odd’s approaching hand away as he got up from the chair and traded places with Jeremy. Odd gave a shameless grin in response. 

Ulrich rolled his eyes. Aelita giggled.

Typical. 

“Take a break for once, Einstein,” Ulrich told him. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he does!” Aelita said, looking determined. Ulrich didn’t doubt her. 

“Ooh, you better listen to her, Einstein! I can tell: she means business!” Odd warned with a laugh. 

“Hey, I know how to take a break,” Jeremy protested. Almost smug like, Jeremy grabbed the bottle of water, opened it, and took a sip of it as he leaned back in his chair. As if it all proved his point somehow.

Incredible.

“Alright,” Ulrich started toward the door, Odd trailing along behind him. “We’ll leave you to it then. G’night,”

“Night!” Jeremy said over his shoulder. 

Ulrich could hear some plastic crinkling as he started to shut the door. Before it closed entirely though…

“Jeremy?”

“Yes, Aelita?”

“Are you my prince charming?”

“WHAT!?” 

Ulrich and Odd let out a mad cackle and dashed for their own dorm room. 

They were gonna get a lot of mileage out of this one. 

Chapter Text

Ulrich wakes up to the sound of three things this morning:

The wild strumming of an out-of-tune acoustic guitar over and over again. 

The unrestrained jingling of a tambourine.

And what Ulrich imagines pterodactyls screeching must’ve sounded like. 

None of which are his alarm clock. 

“What the-“ He flails in his bed and turns and sits up, ready to fight off whatever is attacking him this time. 

…Only to find it’s just Aelita and Odd. Standing right next to his bed, the guitar and tambourine in each of their hands respectively. Grinning at him. As if they weren’t just screaming bloody murder at him. 

He has so many questions. Not the least of which is where did they even get a guitar??

“What are you-“

“Rise and shine, Ulrich!” Aelita says with another horribly out of tune strum. She’s enjoying this too much. 

So is Odd, but Ulrich expects that. He gives the tambourine another jingle. “Wakey wakey!”

“You’re gonna miss out on the day like this!” Aelita tells him in a too sweet voice. Ulrich’s still half asleep, but there’s something about the glint in her eye he doesn’t like. 

He glances at his actual alarm clock. 

It’s 7 AM. On Sunday .

Oh hell no.

“ I’m gonna kill you both!” He yells, throwing off the covers.

Aelita and Odd are already halfway down the hall, cackling like maniacs as they continue to play their horrible, horrible music together. 

(He doesn’t wind up catching them. He’s almost willing to forgive them, until a few days later when he sees a picture of himself still in his pajamas chasing after them in the Kadic News. He swears he sees them giving Milly and Tamiya a high five when they think he's not looking. Traitors.)

Chapter Text

Aelita is… different, after getting her memories back. It’s not a bad different; in some ways it’s actually good. She seems more confident in herself, both on Lyoko and off. She hovers less and takes action more. She’s more sure of what she’s talking about and she understands their jokes more (even if she still doesn’t always find them funny). With her Energy Fields she can fight on Lyoko just like the rest of them—and she’s good at it. 

In general, she looks like she’s thriving.

But then…

There’s a quietness about her sometimes. It’s always been there, but before it always seemed to have a clear cause. Confusion about Earth. Uncertainty about participating in something new. Something to do with her nightmares that, at that point, had no clear cause to them. But moments like those were sporadic and usually overcome pretty quickly, almost immediately replaced with her usual bubbly and curious demeanor that they all know and expect from her soon after.

Now…

She hides it well most days. But sometimes she’ll smile and it won’t reach her eyes. Or her laughter will sound hollow and trail off just a moment too soon to seem natural. Or she’ll zone out during conversations or class, an intense look appearing on her face directed towards something only she can see. And there’ll be no immediate cause of any of it as far as he can tell. 

It’s like a constant cloud of fog hanging around her. Sometimes thin and easy to look past with barely a thought toward it; other times so heavy it’s impossible to ignore.

“It’s probably her memories,” Odd tells him as after Ulrich voices his concerns to him one day. “You know? The ones from before Lyoko or any of us? It’s probably a lot to have to take in,” he adds as he thumbs through the pages of a comic book. 

Ulrich frowns. He doesn’t disagree—he remembers how upset she was finding out she was human. She barely spoke the rest of the day. But… “Shouldn’t we do something to try and like… I don’t know. Help her with it or something?”

“Would love to, you know I hate seeing her upset. But I don’t think there’s much we can really do for this,” he points out, flipping to another page before he looks up at Ulrich proper. “Losing and getting back memories like that… None of us really get that, you know? It’s hard for any of us to relate to that kind of personal thing. They’re her memories, and if this is how she wants to deal with them then…” Odd trails off, leaving Ulrich to fill in the blank as he gives a nonchalant shrug and leans back, fully absorbed in his comic once more.

Ulrich taps on his knee. ‘Hard to sympathize’ for sure. 

He stares up at the window as a cloud covers the sun. 

…But maybe not impossible. 

At least, not for him anyway. 

“I had amnesia once,” he winds up bluntly telling her one day when it’s just the two of them, Odd having taken Kiwi out a while ago for an ‘adventure’ or something. They both sit on the floor of his dorm room, math homework laid out in front of him as she tries to explain whatever the heck imaginary numbers are supposed to be.  

He’s surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth. He hadn’t planned on saying them—or, he had, but not now? Or at least not like that?

He’s not sure anymore. He didn’t really go into this with a plan (though when does he ever?). But they’re out there now. Aelita, for her part, just looks surprised, pencil hovering just above where she’d been working on correcting his work on problem number 17 on the page. “I’m sorry?” 

“It was one of the earlier attacks, when you were still stuck on Lyoko. I don’t think we really talked much that time,” Ulrich explains, rubbing the back of his neck. Ironic, that some of the details of that attack are fuzzy to him now. Lyoko felt like such a blur that trip. But he still remembers the most important parts now; he closes his eyes. 

Pain, the worst he’s ever felt in his life, radiating through his head as he stumbled around campus in a haze, every brick feeling worn and unfamiliar to his touch. 

Being led around by Sissi, trying to be convinced by Odd that they knew each other; feeling like everyone had an agenda to use him, that he couldn’t trust anyone, not even himself. 

Everything seeming so familiar yet just out of his reach. Scrambling and scratching for little scraps of memories he could pull from the void in his head in hopes that anything could guide him somewhere he knew. 

The loss of who he was; the fear of what that meant for his future. 

He’ll never forget those.

“I couldn’t remember anything. Who I was, who you guys were. Nothing.” He lets out a deep exhale through his nose. Aelita’s watching him with a strange look when he opens his eyes again. “It sucked. Big time. The only reason I even found the factory was cause I kept having these flashbacks that wouldn’t go away about it all.”

Briefly, he thinks, that seems to catch her attention. But her eyes flicker back down to the math homework as she nods stiffly. “I see…” she mutters. 

“Look, I just…. I don’t…” Ugh, Ulrich’s not good at this. Maybe he shouldn’t have done this. He shakes his head. “I’m not trying to say it’s the same thing,” he starts. 

It’s not. He knows it’s not. He lost a lifetime of memories for maybe half a day. She lost out on an entire lifetime, memories included for a while. Apples and oranges at best. 

“I get that it’s different. I don’t get it, not really. But…” He shrugs. “I also sorta do too.”

“Ulrich…”

He shakes his head and looks back down at his homework. “Just thought you should know. You’re not as alone as you think.”

There’s silence afterwards. Maybe he overstepped. Maybe Odd was right, none of them can relate and he was stupid to try. He half expects her to get up and leave honestly. 

But then…

“Ulrich?” Aelita asks, barely above a whisper. He barely glances over at her before he finds himself tackled in a tight hug by her. “Thank you…” she whispers, wavering and watery sounding. 

He’s polite enough not to point it out. When it’s clear to him she’s not letting go yet, he hugs her back too.

“Any time, Princess.”

Chapter Text

Ulrich’s always wondered how Odd could feel like he was going to throw up in a virtual space when it came to the Sector 5 transporter. 

Today he’s beginning to feel like he understands.

“Aelita!” He all but hisses as the Overboard abruptly shifts to the left and narrowly misses crashing into a desert rock. The Hornet that had been chasing them explodes against it behind them as they shoot forward. He wants to be impressed, but he’s too busy trying to readjust his feet against the board to give it much focus. “Would you stop doing that?”

“It always seems to work for Odd,” is Aelita’s mischievous response. She doesn’t look back at him, keeping her eyes focused as she dodges more rocks below, but he can practically hear the smile in her words. 

She’s having too much fun with this. In multiple ways. 

She’s definitely been spending too much time with them.

“That’s not the vote of confidence you seem to think it is,” Jeremy’s voice dryly notes around them. There’s an indignant squawking sound barely coming through the mic that Ulrich assumes is Odd protesting that assessment back in the lab. Aelita just laughs; without missing a beat her foot pivots a bit just before she leans confidently into a left turn just as a barrage of lasers comes at them from behind. The lasers crash harmlessly into another rock as they rocket up to the sky

How she can make piloting this death machine Odd calls a vehicle seem so easy   is beyond him. The thing is so awkwardly sensitive. The tiniest shift will send you barreling in a direction before you can even get a solid foothold on it. There’s no comfortable way to stand on it either. He constantly feels as though he’s going to fly off at any second. 

It’s far from his first choice in a vehicle. Dead, dead last in comparison to even the Overwing. But it was all Jeremy could send as a replacement.

“Maybe if someone didn’t always go for vehicular manslaughter as their first offensive tactic you would have better options,” Jeremy had told him when he complained about it.

He stands by his opinion that Jeremy doesn’t know what he’s talking about

Aelita though, she’d been so ready to take over on it. She'd jumped in front of him while he was still trying to stand on shaky legs and set them off towards the tower. “Don’t worry, Ulrich! I’m a pro at this!” she’d said when he voiced concern.

He can’t say she was wrong. The way she’s sending the Hornets spiraling and dodging lasers from behind them without even looking is amazing. He’s not used to playing passenger with her, but maybe he should let her drive more often.

His stomach lurches as she suddenly sends them into a nosedive as the Hornets close in behind them. 

…He just wishes she’d cool it on all the Odd-like, ridiculous stunts.

Based on the gleeful laugh she lets out as she proclaims, “Hang on!” as a ramp like rock approaches though, Ulrich doesn’t think he’s going to get that wish any time soon. 

Oh well.

Chapter Text

The tunnel goes deep—surprisingly so. The mouth of the cave had been wide, but once inside it quickly stretched out into a passage that only seems to grow more narrow the further they trek into it.

Ulrich lets out an irritated grunt beside her. She flicks her gaze over to him. His gait is stiff with caution. He’s got a hand gripped tight against the hilt of his saber, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice, and his face is pinched, brow furrowed. His eyes keep darting around the encroaching walls, as if waiting for something to crawl out of them.

He’s stressed. 

Aelita doesn’t blame him. XANA attacks are trying even under the best circumstances. And this entire situation has been… Well. Not that. Having Yumi and Odd stuck on Earth is far from ideal. It makes everything more difficult. 

It’s not an insult toward Ulrich’s capabilities. He’s an excellent guardian. All of her friends are. But being the only one around to protect her…

It’s a heavy burden to bear. One she doesn’t envy.

(And one she desperately wishes she could lighten, even if only a little.)

“How much further do you think it is?” Ulrich asks, voice strained taut with tension. A question aimed toward her because it’s been over five minutes since they last heard from Jeremy. Whether that’s because of the cave’s depth causing interference or because of something more nefarious, she has no idea.

It spurs her to move more quickly either way.

“It shouldn’t be much further. The pulsations are much stronger down here,” she replies. As if sensing her words, another string of angry red rings rumble past their feet and shoot down the path ahead. She hastens to follow after them. Ulrich keeps pace only a few steps behind her.

The tunnel gradually widens again and spits them out into a large cavernous hollow. Sharp stalagmites jut out and form an almost ring-like pattern across the cave floor. Larger and taller along the outer edge, shorter and smaller toward the middle. Almost like a bullseye. In the center of the room lies a large rock leading to four different paths.

The pulsations split across all of them.

Ulrich scowls. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Of all times for Jeremy to go AWOL on us...” he growls out. “How are we supposed to know which one is the real one? We don’t have time to check all of these.” 

He’s right. They don’t. But…

“There’s no need to,” she informs him, and he stares at her curiously as she kneels down and places a palm on the ground.

XANA’s pulled tricks like this on them before. It’s nothing if not sneaky. They may have fooled her then, but she’s grown wiser with her travels—as has the strength of her connection to Lyoko. Her eyes drift shut, and she waits. It doesn’t take long.

Rumbling thunders behind her. Growing closer. Even closer…

Finally, it passes underneath her, and when it does, she feels it. A feeling of utter wrongness suddenly slams into her with all the force of a laser to the chest. It’s unpleasant. Extremely so. Heavy and buzzing in her limbs in a way she can’t shake out. If she needed to breathe she thinks it would steal her breath away, it’s so intense. It screams at her that something is deeply wrong in Lyoko. That there is a problem and only she can fix it. 

The first time she had felt it, way back when Jeremy first restarted the supercomputer, it had been overwhelming. Now, she just lets it wash over her.

The pulsations march ahead. They split into four ways again, snaking down each corridor just as before. But this time, she feels an urgent tugging in her chest on a part sewn deep into the very fabric of her code. 

And it’s pulling her…

“That way.” She points to the leftmost path before her eyes fly back open. “They’re strongest going that way.”

“You can tell just like that?” Ulrich raises a brow with a hum. “That’s a handy little trick there, Princess,” he says, clearly impressed. She smiles sheepishly. “Alright, let’s get going then.”

She nods, about to follow. But just before her hand leaves the ground, she senses something else and freezes. A thin gasp slides out of her unbidden.

“Aelita?”

Without warning, she suddenly grabs Ulrich’s arm and drags him behind one of the tallest walls of stalagmites. 

He tries—and fails—to pull himself out of her grasp, seemingly torn on whether or not to be gentle with her. “Aelita!” he hisses out. “What are you doing–”

“Shh!” She cuts him off harshly with a raised hand. He’s so baffled by the move that he stops moving, just stares at her with wide eyes. She ignores it, closes her eyes again, and listens.

She hears the sound bouncing off the walls from further inside. It’s not loud exactly, but there’s too much of it to only be coming from one place. It’s fast approaching too. Not a wing flap or rolling though; more of a stepping noise. So no Hornets or Megatanks then (It couldn’t be the latter anyway. Megatanks don’t travel in packs; just one is more than enough to cause utter devastation.)

A legged monster, then. But it can’t be Krabs. Their legs sound much more mechanical than this when they move. And it’s much too fast. For as long as their strides are, Krabs don’t move this briskly—not to mention that they’re too tall for these caves. A poor choice for this environment; a mistake XANA is unlikely to make.

Only two options left. She turns her head. Strains to listen closer. 

Scuttling, clearly. Multiple legs, all moving quickly. A pause. A swivel.

Aha!

“Ulrich,” she speaks calmly even as he keeps staring at her, utterly befuddled. “There are Bloks coming this way. At least three. Maybe four. One in each entry, maybe.” She’s thinking out loud. The exact number is always hard to gauge with so many legs going at once, but four would make sense given the space.

“How are… Are you sure?” Ulrich asks, eyes still wide.

She nods. “Can you take care of them?”

His jaw sets, hand tightening on his saber’s hilt. “Of course I can,” he says, like it’s silly of her to even ask.

He splits into three and dashes behind rocks near the paths for cover. When four Bloks scamper out of them moments later (which, yes! She was right!), they don’t stand a chance. In less than ten seconds flat there are broken bits of monsters scattered everywhere slowly flickering out of existence. Ulrich doesn’t even lose a single clone.

The closest Ulrich rushes over to pull her up to her feet before it fuses back into the main one. “You have a secret monster radar you’ve never told us about or something?”

She nearly laughs. Wouldn’t that be nice? “Nothing that fancy. I could hear them coming, that's all.” A task made admittedly easier due to the Mountain Sector’s echoey nature; sound bounces so easily off the curved rocks. 

“Yeah but…” Ulrich tilts his head. “Hearing monsters is one thing. Knowing they were Bloks? And the number of them? You got all that dead on.”

“All of the monsters sound different from each other, and I’ve spent a lot of time running from them. I just learned what the differences were after a while.” She gives a sheepish shrug as she admits, “The number of them was just an educated guess though.” 

He’s no less impressed. “And you just have that kind of thing memorized?”

She offers up a small smile. There’s not a good way to say that she doesn’t have much else to do during all the hours she’s left alone but to wander around and memorize things. So she doesn’t.

Instead, she tells him, “There’s a reason XANA hasn’t managed to get me yet.”

“Einstein worries about you too much.” He lets out a chuckle, shaking his head as he tucks his saber away. “You should become Lyoko’s wildlife guide or something. Tell us all the fun facts you know about the monsters before we even see ‘em.” She’s pretty sure that’s a compliment. He’s smiling as he says it so… probably. She’s going to take it as one at least, and she sends a wide grin back at him.

A nice moment of respite, amidst all the danger.

It can’t last forever though. A stony expression returns to his face a moment later—but with less stress twisting it now. “Alright, c’mon.” He nods toward the correct path. “No time to lose. Let’s get this tower taken care of.”

“Right.” She nods, taking the lead again as they step into what looks to be another narrow tunnel. She pauses only for a moment, listening for anything moving in the distance.

All quiet. Good.

Time to get moving then.