The Medieval Delusion

Chapter 1

"Jeremy? What's happening?"

"I don't know! The return to the past! It… Ah!"

Odd woke up with a headache. Then he realized he was lying in the grass. And Milo was right next to him. And they were both wearing medieval peasant clothes. Milo had a long, thin case strapped to his side and was carrying a bronze flag with a strange mark on it. A sword crossed with a rose. Odd recognized it as the symbol on the back of Milo's Lyoko ID Card. Odd himself had a blowgun and a pack of darts tied to his belt.

"Odd! Are you alright?" asked Milo.

"Milo? What happened? We were in the Factory and there was a return to the past…"

"Factory? What?" said Milo. He seemed confused. "Have you amnesia?"

"Why are we in this clearing? What happened to our clothes?"

"We fought off some of the evil wizard Xana's monsters. One knocked you out and you just woke up. We are on our way to rescue Princess Aelita and Sir Xanite from Xana's clutches."

"What? Xana has Aelita and Xanite?"

"Yes, he does. And unless we hurry Aelita will be forced to marry Xana."

"Where are Jeremy and Ulrich? And Yumi?"

"Speak you of the wizard Jeremiah? I know not of any Ulrich or Yumi."

"But what has been happening all along?"

"Aelita and I were in love when Xana saw her great beauty and kidnapped her. I set off to get her back, and on the way I met you and Xanite, Xana's brother. You pledged allegiance to my cause and we continued, Xana's minions hounding us the whole way. On the way, they kidnapped Xanite and sent him to be locked up with Aelita. We got here and were attacked. You were knocked out and when you woke up, you had amnesia."

"We have to keep on going," said Odd. "If we find Aelita, Xanite, Jeremy, Ulrich, and Yumi, one of them is bound to know what happened."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing. Let's go. Wait, are you armed?"

"Yes," said Milo. He pulled something out of the case. A sword with a blade coming out of either end, a hilt in the middle. "Now we go." They walked off in the direction of a looming castle.

"Sir Xanite," said Aelita as she paced the tower. She wore a radiant pink dress. "How are we going to get out of this?"

"I know not, my lady," said Xanite. He wore a full suit of armor, with an axe dangling from his side. "Weapons do little to the defenses, and your magic is blocked by the force field."

"Can we not find a way to trick our way out?"

"The guards ignore whatever we say. Even if we were to pledge allegiance to Xana here and now they would not let us go."

"It would not work. Your allegiance is already sworn to Sir Milo. Xana can see the bonds of the mind."

"We can do very little but wait for Sir Milo and Sir Odd to get to us. I will continue searching for ways to get out."

"I will help," said Aelita as Xanite walked over to the wall and traced his hand along it. "They may have the trapdoor sealed by magic, but I may be able to perform the counter-spell." They set about their work.

"What do you mean you sent Milo, Aelita, Xanite, Xana, Odd, and Ulrich to a fantasy game world?"

"I'm sorry, ok! Odd left his stupid computer game lying around and I put it in instead of the proper software. It put Milo, Xanite, and Odd into the roles of knights trying to rescue the princess, Milo being the one she falls in love with. Aelita is the princess, but she also knows a considerable amount of magic, so she should be okay. Ulrich has been turned into a mercenary. And Xana is a dark wizard betrothed to Aelita."

"But Xanite and Xana were dead. This was just a routine trip to Lyoko. It's not even the first annual check-up yet! I'm still fifteen, Aelita's still fourteen, and they're all still too young to do this!"

"Xana and Xanite being dead doesn't matter. The files still existed; they just weren't active. Of course, activating one would always activate the other."

"And now Xana is active again."

"But only on this software. It's the Code Earth Dilemma all over again. We can't scrub the game because that kills everyone along with Xana. Only this time a Code Earth can't fix it."

"What does?"

"They beat the game. Another downside is, even if they can, we still have to delete Xanite along with Xana or Xana can come back. It's the Xanite Moral Dilemma again as well."

"Is there any hope?"

"Yes. Odd still retains memory of the real world. I have to send you into the game. If you tell him what happened, he'll remember how to beat the game easily."

"Jeremy, if I go into the game, it's a fifty-fifty chance I'll lose my memory too."

"I know, Yumi. I wish you luck."

"Can you communicate with us? Or give me futuristic weapons that no one has ever seen?"

"No and no. You'll be wherever the game puts you, weapons-wise. If you can find Aelita, though, there's a good chance she can establish a link with me. I have an identity in the game too. Jeremiah the sorcerer. He's what I would be in the game if I went. He might be able to establish a link with me as well."

"All right. I'm going."

"I can cover for you for three days. You have to beat the game by then."

"All right."

"Scanner, Yumi. Transfer, Yumi. Translation, Yumi. Virtualization!"