This is the original "Chapter 1" for Code ANGEL. I'm rewriting it alone with the rest of the series, but here's just a little sample of where the story goes. There are a lot of changes to new version, such as a more realistic way that Zaber shows up, better characterization, and Zaber gets a significant power down, since his four elemental guns get reduced to two standard guns, and "Death Blossom" is removed entirely from his arsenal. But the basic storyline is the same. This is the first episode after the "bridge" between season 4 and the story, which I'm working on now.
Episode 1: NEWCOMER
It was the day before the first day of school and Jeremy awoke from a nightmare. He rubbed his hand on his sweating forehead as the familiar surroundings of his room came into focus. He got up, got dressed, and got ready to head for breakfast in the cafeteria when he slipped and fell on an envelope in his doorway. The letter was addressed to him, so he opened it.
Dear Student,
Due to a shortage of dorm rooms this year, you will be required to share your room this year. A staff member will come by and introduce you to your new roommate later today. We apologize for any inconvience.
Catic Academy Management
"Oh, that's just great!" Jeremy exclaimed sarcastically. Keeping the secret was hard enough now, but with a roommate it would be insurmountable. Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremy were all in Jeremy's room about an hour later, moving things and trying to figure out exactly how to conceal the big secret from the new student.
"Relax Jeremy, how bad could it be?" Yumi said.
"I just hope he not some kind of jock or a huge jerk." Jeremy answered.
"Thanks for the benefit of the doubt." Said an unfamiliar voice. All three of them turned towards the door to see a stranger standing there. He wore a pair of long black pants and a red sleeveless shirt, with a black leather jacket with half-elbow length sleeves. His hair red hair was gelled into solid strands, and each strand was strewn in every possible direction. His hair contrasted with his green eyes to create an unusual effect. Jim stood behind him.
"Jeremy, this is your new room... Wait, what are you all doing here?" Jim questioned Yumi and Aelita.
"We were just helping him get his room ready, Jim." Answered Aelita.
"Yeah." Added Yumi.
"Whatever. As I was saying Jeremy, this is your new roommate Zaber Ocrist. I believe you got the letter. Alright, if you don't mind, make sure you explain the rules to him and show him around, I have other things to do." Jim strutted off with even more swagger in his step than usual, as Zaber closed the door.
"He sure acts high and mighty for a gym teacher…" Zaber said sarcastically. Aelita let out a small giggle at this remark, and Yumi just smiled. "You're Jeremy right? And who are these ladies?" He asked casually.
"I'm Yumi."
"My name is Aelita." Zaber froze for an instant, nearly dropping the laptop he had just pulled out of his suitcase. He quickly acted like nothing had happened as he flipped the computer open.
“Nice to meet you.” Zaber said politely.
"You're into computers?" Jeremy asked him.
"I program some stuff. Mostly simulations and graphics. I can‘t really do anything useful. I just design a lot of theoretical stuff. I suppose one might call it a waste of time.” Yumi’s cell phone rang.
"Hello? Ulrich? Cool, you're in. We'll meet you at that... uh... you know where... yeah. OK, see you in a bit." She hung the phone up. "Ulrich and Odd are in. We're going to meet them. We'll let them know why you couldn't come." Yumi said as she and Aelita walked out the door.
"See you at dinner Jeremy." Aelita said as she walked out. There was an uncomfortable silence for a short time, and Jeremy tried to restart conversation.
"So... how come you came here from your last school?" He asked.
"That's none of your business." He said, clearly displeased, as he plugged in his laptop and booted it up and turned his back to Jeremy. "Go ahead with your friends. I'll be fine." Jeremy hesitated for a moment, and then left the room and headed for the secret passage to the factory. Zaber stared blankly at his computer screen for a few moments, waiting for it finish starting up, when a gust of wind blew in Jeremy's window. Several sheets of paper, which had been sitting in one of the boxes they had been packing, blew around the room. Zaber walked over and shut the window, and headed back to the bed. One of the papers was lying on his keyboard, and he quickly brushed it away, but pulled it back in front of him in the same motion. His eye had been caught by numerous hastily scribble notes, calculations, and drafted lines of computer code. He began to closely scrutinize the paper, recognizing certain phrases of code. It looked unusually suspicious. Zaber glanced about the room, and noticed that Jeremy’s computer had been left on. Zaber stepped across the room and turned the monitor on.
Roughly half an hour later, the group had assembled at the factory. The five of them we're laughing and enjoying their reunion. A lot had changed over the last year, they were now all in the tenth grade, and were still actively doing battle with Xana, but after losing William and nearly all of Lyoko, they also had to contend with FBI agents searching for William for a while. They no longer had to deal with towers or Xana attacks, since there were no towers left. As such, their only job was defending the core of Lyoko and taking information runs to find data on how to stop Xana.
"So how's your new roommate Jeremy?" Asked Ulrich.
"I'm not sure yet. He seems normal enough… but I‘ve just got this weird feeling about him..." Jeremy replied, as he sat at the supercomputer console, hacking into the academy student records. "Here's his file... he was kicked out of his first school after a big fight; same thing for his second school. It says here the third was for armed assault... but it also says in the margin he was in defending someone else. I don't know... but it still doesn't sound reassuring." Jeremy sighed.
"Don't worry about it Einstein. If he gives you any trouble, just let us know." Said Odd, as he cracked his knuckles.
"More trouble is the last thing we need Odd." Interrupted Yumi.
"“Well, we should probably all head back. School's starting in the morning." Aelita said as she headed back to the elevator.
"Yeah. I’ll see you guys tomorrow." Yumi said as she stepped into the elevator as well. They all left the factory, and made their way back to school. When Jeremy arrived back at his room, Zaber had already fallen asleep. What Jeremy hadn't noticed was that many of the papers filled with Xana-sensitive information were missing from the crate… and that a certain critical file on his desktop had been read.
The next morning, they all sat in the cafeteria eating breakfast, and Zaber had met the others. It was peaceful in general, but none of them we're particularly happy about the day of classes they had ahead of them. The first class was Science, which encompassed all of them but Yumi, but included Zaber. As Mrs. Hertz began to go over the rules of the class, their minds all drifted in different directions. Meanwhile, at the factory, the screen began to fluctuate with static energy. A window popped up, which displayed a tower, and the symbol of Xana appeared next to it.
"Now then... let's begin the lessons." Mrs. Hertz continued from her long-winded rules lecture straight into a science lesson, describing at length the parts and functions of cells. Jeremy and Aelita took detailed notes, Ulrich and Odd tried to pay attention but struggled to get it, and Zaber simply sat there, not making any effort to take in the material, his eyes closed. Mrs. Hertz seemed to notice this after a while. "And why aren't you taking notes? I don't know what kind of school you used to attend, but I expect my students to pay attention!"
"Sorry. But this is useless." Zaber replied in a cold tone, his eyes closed, leaning back in his chair.
"What did you say?"
"Look, mankind has existed for thousands and thousands of years. All this junk was discovered only a few hundred ago, but it's always worked the same way. I don't care how or why it works, just so long as it works."
"You are here to learn Science!" she said, becoming flustered.
"Yeah... and this kind of Science is useless." Zaber finished, still in the same tone he had begun with.
"Two hours detention and a trip to the office should change your mind!"
She yelled, pointing to the door. Zaber stood up, picked up his things, and walked out of the room. No one had witnessed such a direct opposition to a teacher before. Odd began to clap, applauding Zaber‘s defiance. “Della Robia!!! One hour detention!!!” Mrs. Hertz cried out.
An alarm sound went off from Jeremy's laptop, which he quickly opened. Two windows had popped up. The first was a warning that the core of Lyoko was under attack. The second was an activated tower warning.
"But that's impossible..." Jeremy muttered.
"An activated tower?" Said Aelita, staring in awe at the display. "But all the towers are gone!"
"I don't know how Aelita... we'll need everyone for this. There's only a minute until the bell rings. We'll slip out then." The bell rang. Jeremy and Aelita met Odd and Ulrich in the back of the room. "We've got double jeopardy today."
"Xana's attacking the core, and he's somehow activated a tower." Aelita finished his explanation.
"I thought the towers were gone!" Odd exclaimed.
"I did too." Jeremy responded. "Get Yumi. We'll meet you at the factory." They split up as Ulrich and Odd ran towards the library where Yumi was about to have study hall. Aelita and Jeremy bolted across the main grounds towards the forest and the secret passage.
"How do you think he did it Jeremy?" Aelita asked, referring to the tower.
"I have no idea. He hasn't launched any tower-based attacks since the last tower vanished. If he was able to, I don't know why he waited until now to strike. We need to... Gah!" A red laser bolt struck Jeremy in the chest.
"A tarantula!" Aelita yelled as she tackled Jeremy, knocking them both into the alcove in which the vending machines were located, but before they were in it's safety Aelita took a hit to the arm and Jeremy was shot in the leg. They both gasped in pain, their skin where they had been hit burned profusely, and the singed edges of their clothes where they had been shot. "Xana must have used the tower to control the scanners and materialize monsters! What are we going to do?" Aelita said, wincing in pain.
"I don't know..." said Jeremy, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. The tarantula let out a shriek and began to open fire on every one in the area, and pandemonium ensued. Nearly everyone got clear of the area safely, and when no more targets were in sight the tarantula dropped on all fours and sidled it’s way quickly over to the alcove where they were hiding. They we're still in too much pain to run.
As it rounded the corner, it locked its sight on them, and reared up on its hind legs, it's front blasters aimed at them. It let out another shriek and... BANG! The tarantula jolted slightly to one side, as if struck by something. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Five ear splitting sounds later, the tarantula toppled onto one side, six puncture wounds riddled its head and upper torso. Aelita cautiously looked around the corner, and saw a lone figure silhouetted against the nearest building. Zaber stood there, a smoking revolver in his hand, breathing quickly, but due to adrenaline, not fear.
"Zaber?" Aelita called out quietly. Zaber noticed Aelita and ran over towards them, sliding the revolver into a concealed pocket in the inside of his jacket.
"You two! What the heck was that?" He asked quickly.
"It was a tarantula…” Aelita tried to answer, but knew it would be futile to try and explain the entire Lyoko scenario to him. "Listen... we need to get somewhere. If we can get there we can stop anymore of those things from showing up."
"I think I understand what you’re saying.” Zaber said quickly as he picked up Jeremy, bracing him with his shoulder.
"Wait… what do you mean you “understand”?” Aelita exclaimed in reaction to his response.
“I’ll explain on the way. Come on, how do we get to this… factory?” Zaber responded.
“Hold on! How do you know about that?!?!” Jeremy cried out as he nearly stumbled in surprise and would have fallen had Zaber not been bracing him.
“You need to be more careful where you put information you want to keep secret.” Zaber replied. “I stumbled into some of your notes you left lying around the room.”
"You couldn‘t have figured that out just from my programming notes!”
“That sparked my interest… you left your computer on with just the monitor turned off. I read the file labeled “logbook”.”
“WHAT?!?!” Jeremy exclaimed. “But how?!?! I put class-two encoding on that file!!!”
"Just because I get profiled as a thug doesn't mean I'm not a genius. I can get around class-three encoding if I want too."
"So you know everything?!?!”
“Pretty much everything you wrote down. At first I thought you were just writing a story or something, but I guess it is real. And here I thought you had an imagination…” Zaber replied to him sarcastically, as if it was no big deal. Jeremy was incredibly embarrassed. He had figured class-two coding would have been enough. He had been the only one at the school who could get around even single-class encoding, teachers and administrators included. He hadn’t felt the need to take such extreme steps, and now everything about Lyoko had been at Zaber’s fingertips because of it. And worse… all of his feelings for Aelita had been poured into the logbook file as well… which meant Zaber knew those as well.
They then converged on the underground passageway and ran smack into the other three. The others we're shocked to see Zaber with them.
"What's he doing here?" Odd asked Jeremy, but before Jeremy could answer, the lid was blown off of the passageway. The heavy metal cover flew a few feet before landing in a tree, and several kankralots climbed out of the tunnel and opened fire, as everyone took cover behind some trees Ulrich, Jeremy, and Zaber we’re behind the same group of trees.
"Now what?" Ulrich said. Zaber gently dropped Jeremy next to Ulrich, and reached into the folds of his jacket.
"Wait here.” Zaber said, and drew out his handgun and two cartridges. He loaded one cart and rolled out from the trees, brining down two of the kankralots with four bullets. He dashed behind another tree without being hit, and looked between the tree’s forked branches to find his target, and then leaped from behind the tree and used one bullet to defeat the third. There was one left, but before Zaber could try and shoot it, Odd grabbed the top of it and threw it in the air, it's legs flailing wildly. Zaber shot it in midair, and a small shower of mechanical parts struck Odd’s head.
"Ow... nice shooting, Tex. Where'd you learn that?" Odd asked.
"I go to shooting ranges all the time." Zaber muttered as he reloaded his revolver.
"And what's he doing here?" Yumi said to Jeremy, emphasizing the "he".
"He saved up from a tarantula as we we're leaving the school. He’s already been spying on Jeremy enough that he knows about Lyoko.” Aelita said with some level of disgust.
“Hold on… so he blew all Einstein’s precautions out of the water?” Odd said with confusion. “Does that mean he’s smarter than Jeremy?”
“No Odd, I was just careless.” Jeremy said with slight anger. “It doesn’t matter. Once we launch the return he’ll forget all about it and I’ll put so many precautions in place he won’t know what hit him.” Zaber glanced at him suspiciously.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zaber asked him angrily.
“Once this is over, we’ll go back in time, and you won’t remember any of this. Then I’ll stop your from finding out about Lyoko at all.” Jeremy said, having for the most part recovered from the small injuries he had received from the tarantula. “We’re fine from here on out. Just make sure you stay alive until we get this straightened out.” Jeremy bent over to head down the shaft, but fell back with a shout as a hornet flew forth from the shaft. Before the hornet could even fire it’s laser, it struck the ground after another large bang, a bullet hold through it’s body.”
“The way I see it… you’re anything but fine.” Zaber said smugly. Jeremy glared at him.
“He’s a jerk…” Said Yumi. “But he’s got a point. Who knows what’s waiting for us in the sewer or at the factory?”
“Fine. You can come with us for now.” Ulrich stepped in. There was an uncomfortable silence for a short time, which was broken by Odd.
"Less talk, more action people!" Odd yelled, already at the bottom of the shaft.
They made their way quickly to the factory, encountering no monsters in the sewers, and swung down to the elevator, with which they quickly descended to the control room.
"So, you can still materialize up even though Xana's got the scanners?" Ulrich questioned.
"Yeah. The only thing is that after I do it he might materialize more monsters and destroy the scanners." Jeremy responded as he sat down at the computer, practically ignoring Zaber‘s presence. "Get down to the scanner room. We just need to deactivate the tower as quickly as possible. The tower has actually appeared in sector 5, so once you’re in, split into two teams, one to defend the core and the other to deactivate the tower." They all turned and entered the elevator, but Ulrich stopped Zaber.
"You’re not coming.“ He said.
"Why not?" Zaber asked.
"If you go to Lyoko, we won't be able to erase your memory. You'd be a liability." Jeremy said. “And to be perfectly honest, you’re an absolute jerk.”
"What? You don't trust me?" Zaber asked rhetorically.
"Hm… let me think about that… no!” Jeremy replied with intense sarcasm. Zaber stepped towards him menacingly, but then simply stood back and leaned against the wall.
“Fine. Do what you want, I don’t give a damn.” He said as he watched them intently as the elevator door closed, leaving Zaber and Jeremy alone in the computer room.
"Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Aelita. Transfer: Odd. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Aelita. Scanner: Odd. Virtualization." Jeremy said as he tapped the enter key. The three of them appeared in the arena on Sector Five. "Yumi will be joining you shortly. Guys, start looking for that key. Transfer: Yumi. Scanner: Yumi. Virtualization." The four of them on Lyoko ran out of the Arena and into the labyrinth. Meanwhile, Zaber tried to pick up a conversation.
"You know, you ought to work on your writing skills. You wrote this thing was huge, but you ought to be more descriptive.“ He criticized, almost as a joke. Jeremy glanced at him with annoyance. The logbook wasn’t supposed to have been read by anyone but him. He knew perfectly well what it looked like, so there was no reason to write it down. “So… is there anything going on here that wasn’t in your file?”
"It's a waste of time to tell you anything. You won't remember anyway." Jeremy replied with annoyance as he readied vehicle programs for when they reached the Celestial Dome.
"If I won’t remember, than why not tell me everything?”
"Would you just shut up!?"
"I read pretty much everything. I even know you‘re the one responsible for the disappearance of William Dunbar." Jeremy went silent. "No matter what you do, I‘m just going to find out again. You‘d be much better off if you just kept me on your good side and let me in on this." Zaber said quietly, almost threateningly as he began to examine the screens of Jeremy’s terminal. Jeremy said nothing in response to Zaber’s comments, resisting the urge to verbally jab back. The last thing he needed was to getting into a brawl in the real world while his help was needed in the virtual one.
Finding and striking the key had been easy.
"Yumi, you and Aelita go after the tower. Odd and I’ll handle the core." Ulrich said, and the four split up at an intersection. Odd and Ulrich jumped onto their vehicles and headed out for the core. Aelita and Yumi began to make their way towards the tower.
"The tower isn't far away Aelita. Ulrich, Odd, the first shield just blew, pick up the pace." Jeremy updated them.
"You’ve got this down to a routine I see…" Zaber commented.
"Yeah. Is that a problem?" Jeremy replied without even looking at him.
Ulrich and Odd reached the core and began to battle the monsters. Ulrich leapt from one of the upper stories and hopped between several flying mantas, slowly brining them down. Odd began to bring down Creepers with his laser arrows. Ulrich was riding on the last manta, but was finished off by a blast from a Creeper combined with a steep fall into the crushing passage to the core. Odd blasted the Creeper that had defeated Ulrich, which left Odd with the single flying manta to deal with, and his LP were already low.
"Just you and me ugly..." Odd muttered cockily as he aimed his wrist at the creature which began to charge. "Laser Arrow!" The two shot each other at the same time and both were slain. The core was safe, but Aelita and Yumi were on their own. Ulrich and Odd stepped into the computer room out of the elevator.
"Well, we got our job done." Odd said happily.
"We're not out of the fire yet Odd." Ulrich said with his arms crossed.
Yumi and Aelita entered a long open hall. The activated tower stood on the opposite end of the room. Two tarantulas and six creepers blocked their path. Yumi drew out her fans.
"Any plans?" Yumi asked.
"We don’t have to kill them all, I just have to get in the tower." Aelita said.
"I'll see what I can do..." Yumi replied as she flung both her fans, successfully bringing down two Creepers.
"Energy Field..." Aelita shot a blast from her hand into the head of another Creeper, but was hit in the shoulder by a blast. All but one Tarantula and Creeper we’re left when Yumi was struck from behind and devirtualized. As Aelita drew into a defensive stance and prepared to dodge the attacks, but the creatures suddenly backed off.
"Aelita, what’s happening?" Jeremy asked her.
"They just backed off... this must mean..." Aelita began to respond, and Jeremy finished her sentence.
"There's a Schipzoa on my map! You've got to run Aelita, there's no one else left!" Jeremy yelled.
"AHEM!" Zaber loudly cleared his throat to indicate that he was still there. Jeremy gave him a cold stare.
"Never." Jeremy said coldly.
"I can't get away Jeremy! I..." Aelita suddenly stopped talking. The Schipzoa had her.
"If Xana possess her now he could use Code Xana to destroy Sector Five using the tower! That must have been his plan all along!" Yumi exclaimed.
"Damn it!" Jeremy slammed his fist on the console.
"Do you want my help or not?“ Zaber said sternly.
"FINE! IF YOU WANT TO GO THEN GO!" Jeremy shouted, angry at having to let Zaber into the group, but he had no other choice. Zaber either had to go to Lyoko or Aeltia would die.
"It’s about time.” Zaber said as he quickly descended the ladder to the scanner room. He stepped into one of the scanners.
"Transfer: Zaber. Scanner: Zaber." Jeremy began.
"Jeremy?"
"What?"
"I don‘t expect you to like me… but do you trust me?"
"No... I don’t. Virtualization.” He pressed the enter key.
Zaber appeared in the arena. His small black jacket had grown to a full-length long coat with long sleeves. His hair was no longer askew, it was smooth, neat, and shoulder length. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses.
"Which way?" He said.
"I'll guide you. Head straight, then left, go forward about 100 meters, then turn right..." Jeremy began to instruct him, and Zaber followed his commands exactly, his jacket rising up behind him as he ran at top speed. He finally came into sight with Aelita and the Schipizoa. "You have to sever the tentacles that are attached to Aelita before Xana takes over her mind. Hurry, there’s not much time!"
"Hold on..." Zaber opened his jacket in the front. Four unique handguns were holstered within, each gun was other a various design, and we’re inscribed with a name. The guns were named "Styx", "Cocystus", "Phlegython", and "Lethe". He drew Cocystus in one hand and Styx in the other and fired a shot with Cocystus into the general vicinity of the Schipzoa’s tentacles. Rather than sever them, the tentacles froze in chain reaction into a giant block of ice. Zaber fired six shots from Styx at the mass of ice, which crumbled to the floor, the tentacles breaking like brittle tree branches. Aelita fell to the ground, rubbing her forehead, but she was not possessed.
"Zaber, your LP just dropped. Using guns other than Styx drains your LP. I tried to avoid it if I were you!" Jeremy relayed to him. Zaber had felt some of his strength leave as he had attacked.
"I'll keep that in mind." He said, as he deposited Cocystus back into his jacket. "Come on, we have to get you to the tower." He said as he helped Aelita up.
"Zaber?“ Aelita asked, having no idea what had transpired. “Why are you here?”
“I didn’t have much choice Aelita. If I hadn’t sent him, we would have lost you and Lyoko to the Schipizoa.” Jeremy told her. Zaber shot the last remaining Creeper as they ran through the door into the hall with the tower. Zaber stared the tarantula down. "Aelita... when I make my move... run to the tower." Zaber leapt high into the air, he closed his eyes, which, when opened, were glowing a golden color. A laser beam shot from the gun, like a targeting reticule. When the beam crossed over the Tarantula’s xana mark, a red skull and crossbones floated above the creatures head, covering the mark. At the peak of his jump, Zaber did a front flip, throwing Styx even higher into the air as he did so. Zaber touched down on the ground as Styx reached it’s maximum height. A thin, nearly invisible wire ran from Zaber’s hand to the gun’s trigger. Zaber yanked the wire fiercely, and cried out “Death Blossom!!!”, as the gun began to spin in midair, firing repeatedly at the skull and crossbones, striking the Tarantula with several bullets before it exploded. Aelita ran into the tower and entered Code Lyoko. Outside, the others let out a sigh of relief. Jeremy brought them in, and Zaber and Aelita stepped out of the scanners below.
"Alright Zaber... there's some ground rules to lay out..." Ulrich began a few minutes later as they all stood in the computer room. Now that he had been scanned, Ulrich assumed that meant he would have to be on the team.
"Don't bother Ulrich. Just because he's been to Lyoko doesn't mean he's on the team." Jeremy interrupted him.
"But, we can't erase his memory now. We don't have much of a choice." Odd said. "Besides. His skills could come in handy. None of us can do anything in the real world compared to him."
"Enough Odd. We can't risk another William. This is our burden to bear, we can't let him get involved." Jeremy stopped him. Zaber stayed quiet for a moment and groaned angrily as he walked into the elevator. "Your secret is safe... but if this is the thanks I get I'm not helping you again. Thanks for nothing!" The door closed and the elevator rose.
"Jeremy... I know he was a jerk... but he did save us all. Maybe we should give him another chance..." Aelita said slowly.
"No Aelita. I’ve got a really bad feeling about that guy. I want nothing to do with him." Jeremy said spitefully.
"But..." Aelita tried to respond, but was cut off.
"We'll discuss this later... return to the past now." Jeremy adjusted his glasses as he entered the command.
The return to the past had carried them deep into the night before Zaber's arrival. The return in time had not changed Jeremy's nightmare. But after the events of the attack, he knew it was not just a nightmare, but rather, a premonition. He was in a dark room, frozen with shock. A lone light in the room was a gently swinging pendulum light that swung back in forth between two figures. The first was Aelita; her arm's extended as if she was protecting someone. Someone was huddled behind her, but Jeremy could not see him. The other figure had been unfamiliar to Jeremy the first time through. The boy was about fifteen, wore a long black coat, black sunglasses, and had long red hair. He had his gun aimed at Aelita. It was Zaber. The light swung away from Zaber and Jeremy heard a gunshot... but the dream was cut off as he woke up.
LOGBOOK ENTRY: AUGUST 27, 2007
There is no way to explain my dream. Before I even knew him, I had a nightmare of him killing Aelita. Is it a coincidence? A premonition? I can't be sure. But until I do know, I can't take any chances. The others are still suspicious, but they have no idea just how deep this runs. Whatever happens, I have to prevent this from happening. But I can’t tell anyone. This is something I know I have to do alone.
Episode 2: NEWCOMER... END
