Sero Discovers His Hidden Past and Battles XANA in Lyoko

*Chapter 3
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I woke up with a groan and a yawn, at least there was no one to share my room with or else I would go insane. looking at my alarm clock which said 6:00 AM, APRIL 18th, I gave myself some assurance. I always wanted to wake up early since my damned nervousness makes me extremely scared of showering with people nearby. Using this opportunity, I grabbed my clothes for the day, which included my casual jeans and my special hoodie along with socks and boxers, and went to the showers. luckily, no one else was there, I sighed in relief as I stripped down and went to shower, My natural streak of green hair went in front of my left eye. Sweeping it out of my eye, I started finished up, as I finished getting dressed, other students were pouring in, telling myself that it was about 6:45 AM.

"Well, at least I got some peace and quiet" I said as I went back to my room to finish my other routines of the day, which included brushing my teeth and then my hair, keeping my green streak between my eyes with a small bit of gel. finally done with my personal hygiene, I checked my phone which was more as a watch than an actual phone with how I used it, it said 7:05 AM which meant that it was time to go get breakfast now.

Making my way towards the food court, I saw Jeremie behind me as I got in line, but I didn't want to say anything to him as to spook him away from me and my love for him.

"Hello Sero, do you like it here?" Jeremie said to me as I was waiting for my food.

"Oh um, hi Jeremie, how are you? It's decent here." I said with some fright in my voice, I always hated social interaction, but I decided to suck it up since he could be in love with me and I WON'T let him go.

"Nothing much, do you want to eat with me and the others? I'm sure it's better than the cold wall." Jeremie said as Odd and Ulrich waved to the two while the pink-haired girl was focusing on her food.

I thought about this, but decided to agree and come since it will let me know Jeremie and his friends.

"Okay sure, good to know more than just myself at this school here." I said with a bit of nervousness in my voice.

"Don't worry, Odd and Ulrich will be nice, just don't try to crack a joke near Odd." Jeremie said with a smile and slight blush on his face as he took me to the table with Odd, Ulrich and that girl, Aelita? I can barely remember names, but I pushed my doubts away from my mind as I sat near Jeremie and Aelita.

"So this is the student that made Sissi go mad without even saying a word, I have to say, you know how to push buttons silently!" Aelita said with a face of satisfaction towards me as she was finishing her food.

"Well, lets just say I can use my ignorance of others to my own advantages." I said with a smug look on myself. Ignoring others was a talent of mine and I believe that girl Sissi is still mad at me for giving her my signature silent rejection.

"Either way, we thought that you could hang out with us. You know, so we can know each other better, just in case something happens." Ulrich said. Obviously, they all wanted to know me better and I didn't object. even though I want to be alone, it's always good to have a friend or two to back me up and it would let me get closer to Jeremie.

"Okay then, even I know that having a friend or two is good." I said, removing all fear and nervousness from my voice. I finally found a group to hangout with, and even I couldn't believe the speed at which I did it, usually it took half of a school year for just one person with the exception of the teachers, to know more about me than just my name, and I already have five friends just within the second day of being at this school.

"So now that we told you about us, why not talk about yourself?" Jeremie said. me, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, and of course, Jeremie himself were in Jeremie's dorm room. we met after our classes were done. After the other five talked about their own personal lives, they asked me about myself. I noticed that Jeremie had a killer computer set-up, definitely better than mine, but I always preferred a simple gaming laptop over his computer which seemed to have been completely decked out in nearly every single possible way.

"It is very complicated and will take a while, but here I go, excuse my nervousness please." I said to the group. I knew they were holding some information behind, but I decided to ignore it for now.

"It all started at birth, my biological mother and father were drunk at the time of my birth, so they couldn't think straight for my name, so my dad just blurted out 'Sero' and the doctor wasn't sure if they were serious so they just attached that name to me, like a curse." I said, taking a brief pause to catch my breath, I wasn't used to talking for this long. usually my average sentences are 'yes' and 'no' and 'go away'.

"Later when I was about five or six years old, my Biological parents became abusive towards each other and me. That day I decided to run away, becoming an orphan. what seemed like weeks later, I managed to find an orphanage. After staying there for a year, a family of three decided to adopt me." I said, taking in a long breath.

"But unfortunately, they were even worse than my original parents. After I managed to file for a lawsuit on accounts for child abuse which included a broken arm and a fractured spine, I was able to gain enough money from the lawsuit to keep myself in boarding schools for the rest of my life. after some deciding, I thought that going to France would be a great choice, as I had heard that the school system there was better than the states." I added taking in a longer breath, I have never talked this long in my life. I seriously thought that I would faint from all of my talking.

"After some school searching, I found the closest exchange school was Kadic High of course. And here I am now. I'm in my 10th grade, trying to live from one school to another. I have no idea what my life will be after graduating." I finished with a large inhale, I thought to myself that I would never talk that much ever again.

The five of them just stood in silence. Possibly from shock, and possibly from my unfortunate life.

"I've never known someone who could go through all that and could still come out sane." Odd said. He clearly wasn't in a joking mood after he and the others heard my story.

"How could someone do that to an only child?" Yumi said with worry in her voice.

"I don't know why, but the schools I have been to have been my only sanctuary of peace, and I have been able to recover fully from the incident." I added, showing my fully recovered arm and spine, which had scars all over them. I swear that Jeremie blushed with how he looked away.

"Well don't worry now, you are with us. You're safe now." Jeremie said while he placed his arm on my shoulder, I blushed at the contact and I swore that he did a bit too. I knew from that point on that my new friends would protect me and that I would help them when possible, and I knew that would help me and Jeremie's relationship advance.

*Chapter 4
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Ulrich woke up with a shock. He had a dream about their new friend Sero and his first meeting with XANA, and the details made him enjoy it very little. While he thought about what it meant, Odd snored loudly into his pillow. Even though he did love Odd deeply, he always hated his extremely loud sleeping. He saw that the time was 6:45 AM, so he decided to attempt to wake Odd up.

"Wake up Odd, time to go to the showers if you want to get some food and hot water." Ulrich said, he wanted Odd to wake up, but wasn't sure whether he should talk about his dream. Unfortunately, he was still snoring with Kiwi by the edge of his bed.

"Wake up Odd or I'm giving all of my food to Sissi." Ulrich added with a smirk on his face, and just like that, Odd woke up as if someone just dumped cold water on his face.

"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE HER YOUR FOOD!" Odd said with what sounded like pure anger and fury.

"I'm just kidding man, now lets hit the showers." Ulrich said while trying to not laugh. he managed to kiss his lover to calm him down.

"Good thing it's Saturday today." Odd said with his usual grin on his face.

"Yeah. And you know it." Ulrich replied back.

"Let's hurry up or all the hot water will be gone!" Odd said back. Odd always was a fan of steamy showers...

After hitting the showers and doing their morning routines, the couples fussed with their hands as they walked to the food court to get breakfast early on Saturdays, so everyone else was still in the showers or sleeping. Once they got their plates of food, they caught a glimpse of Sero and Jeremie kissing. They waved to the couple as they broke their kiss with embarrassment. Ulrich and Odd took a seat at their lunch table to see if anything else was happening between the lovebirds.

"So I see that the two of you already made up for each other." Odd said with his trademarked grin.

"Uh..Umm.. Err..." Sero said dumbstruck while trying to hide his completely blushed face. he obviously doesn't know how to hide his affection very well.

"We were just getting to know each other better, honestly." Jeremie blurted out, rescuing his new lover from his wild emotions.

"Yes, we were doing that! Not what you were thinking." Sero said. his blushing was not well hidden.

"Oh come on Jeremie, we know that more happened." Ulrich said with some cockiness in his voice. Jeremie quickly denied that statement with a 'no'. "Oh, umm Jeremie, I need to talk to you about something. In private." He added.

"Oh, okay then. Wait here Sero." Jeremie said. He kissed his new boyfriend on the cheek, then followed Ulrich.

"Well Ulrich, now that we are in private what now?" Jeremie said. He got used to using his own room as a bit of a confession stand, he just didn't like private matters on short notice.

"I had this dream Jeremie. It was about Sero and... XANA. It was fuzzy and I couldn't tell if XANA attacked him or... Possessed him. I'm not sure whether we should protect him or if we should tell him about... you know." Ulrich said. he wasn't much of a person to tell the dead truth, he was used to using some white lies here and there. But since Sero and Jeremie's relationship was blooming, he didn't hide a thing.

"Wait what? When did you have this dream?" Jeremie said quickly. Ulrich could easily tell that the two were perfect for each other, and his tone told Ulrich that he would sacrifice anything for Sero.

"I had it last night, but the worst part is that it was happening in the morning. Like right now." Ulrich replied with some fear in himself.

"Got it. Scanning for activated towers." Jeremie said with haste in his voice. "There seems to be no-Wait, Activated tower in the Forest Region!" He nearly shouted.

"Call Yumi and Aelita, I'll tell Odd to go to the factory. I think staying here to help protect the school and Sero will be the best choice." Ulrich said to Jeremie. If Sero really is... No, he can't think of that now.

"Got it. sending automatic voice messages... Now." Jeremie said. "Go tell Odd, and make sure Sero doesn't.. Doesn't..." he couldn't finish his sentence.

"Don't worry Jeremie, you're my friend. I'm going now." Ulrich said, putting his hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

"So Sero, how is your relationship with Jeremie?" Odd said to Sero, who was finishing his food up.

"Besides that... Kiss you saw, we haven't done much." Sero said, he was still somehow blushing from that kiss Jeremie gave him before he went with Ulrich to talk about something.

"Oh don't worry about that. Me and Ulrich had much WORSE incidents happen to us." Odd replied, slightly shaking when he thought of the time that Jeremie fainted when he walked in while him and Ulrich were having sex for the first time... "Just be careful to close your door and-LOOK OUT!" Odd screamed, pointing at the Spectre which was sneaking behind Sero. Thankfully it was early for a Saturday, so only Rosa was in the cafeteria.

'Wait what?' were Sero's only words as he looked behind him to see the Spectre possessing him. Sero kicked and nearly screamed before he got up with the eye of XANA replacing his pupil. He took one look at Odd before he flipped the table they were sitting on, nearly landing on Odd.

"ODD! XANA activated a tower! Get to the factory immediately!" Ulrich said right after noticing the eye of XANA in place of Sero's dark-green iris. "Don't worry about Sero, I got him!" Ulrich added after he made a lunge at Sero, motioning Odd to move.

"Aye-Aye! time to take out a tower in Lyoko!" Odd said, running out of the room before Sero pushed Ulrich off and threw another table at Odd.

"Come on Sero, its me, Ulrich! Stop fighting, XANA has controlled you!" Ulrich nearly screamed at Sero, hoping it would work. Unfortunately it didn't help the slightest bit, because Sero took only one look at him before shocking him and throwing Ulrich at the wall.

"Odd! You're here, anything happened at the school? Is Sero okay?" Jeremie said with worry. Odd was out of breath when he got to the scanner room. As he exited the elevator, Yumi got devirtualized.

"It's just your average XANA attack. Trust me Einstein, Ulrich has it under control, hopefully." Odd said, wheezing as he went to the scanner. He didn't want to tell Jeremie that Sero was XANA-Fied, or else Einstein may try to help Ulrich back at the cafeteria.

"I hope you're right Odd, I truly do." Jeremie said with slight sadness in his voice.

Ulrich was having no luck with Sero who was showing XANA's strength by Sero hurling him against the wall. Fortunately, Ulrich knew better than to take him head-on with an injured back. Unfortunately, Sero saw through his tricks and simply grabbed him.

"Sero please stop, stop before you..." Ulrich attempted to reason with him as he lost his breath, but it was useless as Sero started to electrocute him to death. Ulrich nearly thought that he was about to get fried then...

Then it all stopped. Sero let go of Ulrich and both fell to the ground, gasping for air. Ulrich mentally sighed in relief as a familiar white light covered both of them...

As the light of the return to the past went away, Ulrich found himself sitting at the lunch table with Jeremie, Odd and Sero.

"Um guys, did time just go... Backwards? And I heard something about a XANA and Lyoko and why did a shadow possess me?" Sero asked with curiosity. Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich glanced at each other. They had no idea what to say, it was as if the return to the past didn't affect Sero.

"Well guys? I mean you three don't look surprised at all. Is there something else going on?" Sero said, obviously he knew that his friends was hiding something.

After a short and silent talk between the three, Jeremie finally talked up, saying "Come to my room everyone, its best to talk about it in private." Sero looking slightly confused but then decided to follow the trio who saved him from the power of XANA.

"...And once a tower gets deactivated, XANA's influence on the world is weakened, well at least for a couple of days." Jeremie said, finishing his speech about Lyoko and XANA.

"I have only one question Jeremie; When can I help?" Sero said with a grin on his face.