Zeratul perked his ears everey time a door opened to the cafeteria. He was a weary looking teenager, his brown t-shirt stained in several places with either grease or patches of dirt. His eyes were red, but burned with worn determination. He made sure his table was near where Odd and his friends sat. Jerimie and Aileta were still in line. He forgot about the cooling tea in front of him, much more in the mood for America's fine caffeine laden concoctions that dominated the landscape instead of some weak water tea.

And then he saw Yumi looking over at him in momentary interest and quickly shot his eyes back around, cursing himself quietly while paying much more attention to his tea. Yumi looked away, and Zeratul resumed watching the gang. I hope these idiots aren't as lax about using Lyoko...I don't wanna spend weeks playing stalker...this tea is reeealy bad thought Zeratul sourly. Jerimie seemed to be looking out the window at something. He quickly looked away, blushing. Zeratul sighed. A girl came rushing in, and bumped into Jerimie. "Sorry," she said, blushing. Jerimie said something back to her, also blushing, but Zeratul couldn't hear. The girl was now standing in the breakfast line with Jerimie. "I'm Liz," she said, still blushing. She looked Asian, and had hair like Yumi's only shorter. Zeratul looked away, absentmindedly stirring his tea. The line for breakfast moved very slowly for the next thirty minutes. Jerimie, Liz, and Aileta were still in line. Dear Bratollei, what is this? the Breakfast Club?...How many more people have to bump into these schmucks before he spells the beans on that internet scheme of his?...XANA, you will be mine, I have to spend twenty more hours today wtaching these idiots, I will. Zeratul stirred his tea lamely, now cold.

Something caught his eye. Yumi was leaving the cafeteria. Ulrich said something under his breath, then headed out after her. A few minutes later they both headed back in. They walked over to Jerimie and they started talking. They finally got their food, and they sat down at the table where Odd was. Liz came with them. Zeratul stopped observing the gang long enough to scratch his neck, before Odd burst out laughing. Zeratul looked over to see someone else, a guy, standing over by the table. Yumi was looking at him, with a very confused look on her face. "W-William?" she said. Another kid walked in, and drug William outside.

It started raining. Mumbling to himself, Zeratul eyes are already half-closed. "Why...did I think an all-nighter would be a good...idea?", he covers his head with his arms on the table, his tea well since cold as he tries to keep his ears trained behind him.

Then he hears it. Jeremie's small shout, barely in his sleep-like trance, "XANA!"

"Hu-what!?" muttered Zeratul groggily, knocking his tea over and turnig his head (still slumped) to the noise's general direction. "Ohhh, finally!...God, no wonder XANA wants these kids dead. I haven't even talked to them and I already feel like spending my life inside Lyoko...al-almost"

Then Zeratul hears another noise outside, quiter, he only gets a few words, "William...blown our...XANA"

"Oi" replied Zeratul to himself, picking his head off the table. "Guess even XANA can't outrun affirmative action...heh, heh," Zeratul chuckled at his own joke and then felt his eyelids dropped shut and thought a few minutes couldn't hurt.

That's when the thunder sounded, "WERE UNDER ATTACK!" shouted Zeratul, flinging his arms skyward...noticing the stares, "Ummm, false alarm, heh heh". Grabbing his tea, he quickly ran out of the cafeteria to avoid further embarrsement.

Things were not right in the world now. I had been working behind the scenes to help the gang fight XANA ever since the supercomputer was reactivated. They still didn't know about me. Several times a tower was activated that they did not know about and I fixed it for them. I actually have had several towers active myself, and I still do. These towers are surrounded by a purple mist.

The thing is, though, is that I have no idea why I'm on Lyoko, or how I know so much about it. Large chunks of my memory are missing. Things like my name, Kalto; or my age, 22; I can remember. I still have all of my skills, although most of the time, only my subconscious knows what I'm doing. My subconscious. Now there’s a mystery. I know that somewhere in my subconscious, my memories, amongst other things, can be found. They just need to be awakened.

Like anyone else, I do not appear on Lyoko as I would on Earth. Either that, or I’m not human. On Lyoko, my skin is a dark shade of gray, and I have glowing blue markings all over my body. My hair is extremely long, and is blue-silver. I’m sure that these traits are nonexistent on Earth. I am about six feet tall; my voice is something like a much more calmer, airier, much less sharp version of the doctor in one of the many TV shows I have taken the time to put on the databanks on Lyoko. The name of the show is Star Trek: Voyager. I have also stored many video games, books, and all of the movies that have ever been mentioned on the internet.

Outside, a conveniently placed telephone pole provided minimal protection from the increasing rain. Zeratul didn't like this storm. "This lighting's going off way too much...either the Earth core's stopped moving or someone's pissed.”

Closing his eyes, Zeratul tired to block out the constant booms and cracks of the rising weather and focus. It had been a while since he'd needed to do this and the greatest threat to any skill is time his creator had told him . . . the nice one anyway, the others just yelled a lot. With a mental command, the mechanics activated and he was gone. Anyone watching would have a flash like lightning and thought fearfully that it hit darn close to the cafeteria.

Falling to the forested ground, Zeratul collapsed in a mangy heap next a tree, "Of course, now I remember why I try to avoid doing that … it sucks!" he shouted in anger, massaging his stomach, already queasy. Biting back the need to hurl, he instead out his head to the ground, listening for him, for XANA, "Where are you? My ticket home." 

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Of course I was gonna laugh. If someone that I hadn’t seen in a while called my friend a mortal fool I was gonna laugh.

At breakfast on Friday, Ulrich had apparently said something that made Yumi unsure of some things. Not things you want to be unsure about. She had dashed outside, and Ulrich went after her. A few minutes later they came back in. Ulrich stopped at the doorway, apparently looking at something. I followed his gaze. He was looking at someone we had not seen in a while. William was sitting at a table not too far away from the door.

“William?” said Ulrich.

William had not noticed Ulrich until he said something, but when he did, William looked over at him, put on an evil smile, and said, “Greetings, mortal fool.” That’s when I laughed. Apparently it was too loud because Ulrich gave me a death glare and a very rugged guy over at the next table started observing me very closely. He looked like he had been up all night.

Yumi had followed Ulrich back into the cafeteria. “W-William?” She usually doesn’t stammer. She must have been thinking about him earlier. “What are you doing here?”

A guy who was a bit shorter than Ulrich sat down at William’s table. He had a slice of pepperoni pizza. For some reason or another, they were having pizza for breakfast today. He was wearing a white tee shirt, black jeans, and white sneakers. He had black hair was kinda like William’s but a little more spiky. He started whispering to William. I couldn’t hear him. They then headed outside. They stopped right next to the window. I was sitting at the table over from the open window, and they apparently didn’t know it was open, because the other guy began to speak. I couldn’t make out much, “William you idiot, you … cover. They know your … you there gonna figure out that I’m … going!” He walked away. William looked into the window at Yumi and said something, but I couldn’t hear it.