Mission to the Past
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Odd took a deep breath. He and Aelita stood back as Ulrich and Yumi stepped into the scanners, waiting to be transferred into the supercomputer's memory in preparation for being sent to the past. He checked the new wrist band he had on his left wrist one more time. All he had to do if something went wrong was hit the button on it, and he would be yanked back to the present.
The scanners shut, and Jeremie transferred Ulrich and Yumi into the memory. Aelita and Odd stepped into the scanners and awaited their own transfers.
Nothing would go wrong, though. They were being sent more than ten years into the past, to the beginning of the day when Franz Hopper virtualized himself and Aelita, and XANA took Franz prisoner. All they had to do was delete a much less powerful XANA, and the entire world would be as if the whole war with XANA had never happened. Of course Odd and his friends would remember it all, but it was always like that when they used the supercomputer to tamper with the past. This time though, they were doing it a lot differently, actually going into the past themselves rather than resetting the world.
The scanner doors shut, and Odd awaited his transfer. He was bathed in light as was so familiar to him, then he felt himself being yanked into the supercomputer like he always was.
Back up in the lab, Jeremie launched the program he had written to insert Odd, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi into the past, on June 6, 1994. They were only able to travel to the last iteration of it, where XANA was powerful enough to imprison Franz Hopper in Lyoko, but XANA would still lack the keys to Lyoko, and the supercomputer would be significantly less powerful.
The computer finished processing the command. A "Command Successfully Executed" message popped up on the screen, indicating that the trip had been launched successfully. The next instant, the computer indicated that one person had returned through a scanner. Only one though… Something had gone wrong.
"Jeremie," he heard Odd's panting voice say. "You need to send me back."
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Jeremie climbed down the ladder from the lab into the scanner room. The elevator was inoperative, lying in a heap at the bottom of the shaft.
When Jeremie reached the bottom, he saw Odd sitting on the ground leaning against a scanner. There was a huge rip across his shirt, a large bump on his head, and there was a blood stain on his right arm, as well as a hole in the middle of it that looked like it was made by a bullet. He was breathing very heavily, and he had his eyes closed. It almost looked like he was trying to stop himself from crying.
"What happened?" Jeremie asked.
Odd began talking very quickly, the despair clear in his voice. "XANA, the men in black, they were waiting for us."
"What are you saying, Odd? Slow down."
"There was never any way to delete XANA. He booby trapped the scanners. And then, the elevator…" Odd's voice trailed off. "You need to send me back. I gotta save them, I gotta try."
Jeremie examined Odd visually one more time. If he were to materialize Odd into the past again, his body would be unhurt. However, the preliminary transfer into the supercomputer's memory wouldn't affect his frazzled mental state at all. Of course, then there would also be two Odds running around, and Jeremie didn't know how that would affect the time stream. Given the alternative though, the risks seemed to be worth it.
"Come on Jeremie," Odd pleaded, distraught by Jeremie's hesitation. Odd slowly rose to his feet, using the scanner to lean on. As he stood, another bullet wound became visible on the back of his left thigh.
Jeremie gritted his teeth, exhaled, and then nodded. "Get into the scanner," he said as he approached the ladder. He climbed back up the lab and sat back down in the chair.
For the second time in two minutes, Jeremie transferred Odd into the supercomputer's memory, then launched him back in time to June 6, 1994.
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Odd felt himself be yanked through time for the second time that day. Just as before, he felt himself being set down in a secluded part of the forest, in order to prevent the supercomputer's own time flux field from interfering with the time placement process.
About a second after he materialized, he saw another shape begin materializing next to him. It was Kiwi, and he had a note and a CD tied around his neck, in addition to a collar version of the wrist band that would return Odd to his own time. From the looks of Kiwi's new collar, it would probably work if anything pressed the button. The wrist bands Odd and the others were wearing were sensitively keyed to only be able to be intentionally activated by the wearer.
"What do you have there, boy?" Odd asked, trying to calm his own nerves. He took the CD, looked at it, and placed it in his pocket. He then grabbed the note and read it.
"Odd: Do not use your wrist band's return to the present function until Aelita runs the program on this CD on you and your other self while you two are in scanners. –Jeremie"
Odd placed the note in his pocket along with the CD, and began peering through the trees looking for his friends. He spotted the rest of the group, with the other him included. He knew that they were deciding how to get to the factory. He also knew that they would decide to enter the sewers through the door by the Hermitage.
He needed a plan. He couldn't just walk up to them, or they'd think that XANA had sent back a clone to distract them. He also couldn't just sit back and let everything happen the way it did last time.
"Come on Kiwi," Odd whispered while kneeling down to talk to his dog. "Let's go strategize."
The two walked away from the Hermitage until Odd decided they were far enough away. Odd sat down with his back against a tree, and thought. Petting Kiwi, he could see what his friends were doing now in his head now just as clearly as he did when he was actually living it.
The four of them stepped out of the elevator into the lab. Everything seemed so normal that only the absence of Jeremie reminded them that they were over ten years in their past.
"Okay," Aelita said. "I guess now is as good a time as any."
With that, she moved over to the computer and began trying to access the computer's memory. After a few quick searches, she found the block XANA was located on. However, she couldn't access it, let alone delete it.
"Permissions CD required," she read off of the screen.
"What does that mean?" Yumi asked, arms crossed.
"I think I know what it's asking for. My dad kept it in a locked drawer in his desk. The supercomputer won't let me remove XANA until we get that CD."
"Well what are we waiting here for?" Odd asked. "Let's get going. I wanna get back home in time for dinner."
"Come on," Ulrich said, already in the elevator. "There's no point in waiting here. Let's get that CD and go home before something bad happens."
Odd sighed. The permissions CD they were probably already heading back to the Hermitage to retrieve wouldn't help them. XANA had already changed his access codes. He stood up. It wasn't over yet. If he could get Aelita to remove XANA's deletion program from the scanners, they could all still get out of here safely.
"Let's go Kiwi," Odd said as he picked Kiwi up. "Time to leap into action."
Holding Kiwi in his arms, Odd walked back to the Hermitage. He arrived just in time to see the four of them exit the sewers and shut the door before quietly sneaking into the Hermitage through an open window. From this angle, however, Odd was able to see a stealthily patrolling man in black turn his head at the noise of the door being shut, and move into a position near the door.
"Well, I guess that explains a lot," he whispered to Kiwi. "No problem though. I have an idea!"
Quietly sneaking around behind the man in black, Odd set Kiwi down.
"Now just be quiet for a bit, okay?" Odd instructed Kiwi.
Odd snuck back around the man in black, and then moved so he was out of sight of him, but near the house. He didn't have to wait long. Not even a minute later, he heard excited yipping.
"What?" the man in black asked.
Odd peered out and saw that the man in black was busy looking at Kiwi. Seizing the opportunity, he quickly moved to the opened window, and pulled himself in.
"Okay," Ulrich said. "We found the drawer, but where's the key?"
"I don't know," Aelita said. "We'll have to look for it, but we need to be very quiet. We don't want my father or me to hear us. I'll look in his bedroom."
Tip-toeing through the house, Odd made his way to Franz Hopper's bedroom. The door was open, so he walked right in. Sure enough, Aelita was still there looking for the key. It would be Yumi who would end up finding it though.
"Aelita," Odd whispered.
"Huh?" Aelita asked. She turned to face Odd. Whispering back, she asked "did you find the key?"
"No, but I need you to come back to the factory with me. It's important. I'll tell you on the way."
Looking very unsure, Aelita then nodded and moved to follow Odd. Odd grabbed her arm.
"No, we'll be spotted if we go out that way. Let's try another window."
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"You're right Odd," Aelita said as she checked the console. "Something is very wrong with the scanners." She furrowed her brow and continued working. All of a sudden, her eyes grew very large. "Why, anyone trying to use the scanners would have been deleted!"
Odd winced at the mention of that. "Oh, yeah that would be bad."
"Odd, can you make it down to the scanner room?" Aelita asked.
Odd couldn't feel his right arm, and his left leg was starting to go numb too. He shook his head to say no.
"Okay," Aelita said. "I'm going to go down and delete XANA from within Lyoko. Just hit the Enter key when I'm in the scanner, and my program will do the rest. Once I'm there, enter the 'Scipio' code, and I can take care of the rest."
Odd nodded. He watched as Aelita went to the ladder and headed for the scanner room. He sat down in the chair, and nervously glanced over towards the elevator shaft, hoping it wasn't too late. He swallowed hard, and tried very hard to control his breathing.
"Okay Odd, I'm ready," Aelita's voice said over the communicator.
Like he was instructed to, Odd pressed the Enter key. The computer went through the transfer and scanner process, but rather than virtualizing Aelita, a "Deleting" status bar came up. Odd's eyes opened wide with shock. Before he could even think of what button to press to cancel it, the bar raced from 0 percent to 100 percent complete.
"Odd, are you alright?" Aelita asked. Odd had spaced out, and was biting his lower lip. Odd, suddenly snapped back to the present, shook his head a few times to clear the memories out of it.
"I'm fine. Just thinking is all. You know, never tried it before." Odd ended with a smile, but it was difficult for him to joke at a time like this.
"Well, the deletion script is gone." Aelita paused to think. "Why would XANA have a script like that in place though? We need to go back to the others and get that CD so we can delete XANA quickly."
"That won't work," Odd said somberly.
"What?"
"XANA has already removed permissions to delete him. Not even someone with the keys to Lyoko, like your father, can delete him, which is why XANA was able to imprison your dad."
"How do you know this?" It was clear that while Aelita trusted Odd, she was still somewhat wary.
"I was the only one who made it back the first time. Jeremie sent me back so I could try to save everyone." Odd handed Aelita the note and the CD.
Aelita took them both and looked down at the note. Halfway through reading it, she looked up with a very serious expression on her face. "Then the elevator isn't really out of order?" she asked with a deeply concerned voice.
Odd suddenly remembered the elevator. He had to stop Yumi, Ulrich, and himself from getting on it. He ran to the ladder up to the factory floor, but a loud metal SNAP told him he was too late. He sprinted over to the elevator door and slammed the button. The door opened just in time for him to see the elevator plummeting down the shaft.
The elevator crashed at the bottom. From above, Odd could see the damage just as well as he could when he had been in it.
Odd tried to stand, but there was no room. The crash of the elevator had somehow caused the roof to collapse in on them as well. But how had the elevator crashed, anyway? It must have been a faulty maintenance robot or something. Where was he again? Odd felt his head. The crash had given him a hard blow to his head, and he was having trouble thinking straight.
One sight was enough to bring him back to reality, though. Yumi and Ulrich had not been as lucky as he had been. Both of them were being crushed by the ceiling of the elevator, and weren't moving. He grabbed Yumi's hand, since hers was closest, and tried to pull. It was no use though, the roof had her pinned. Whatever had caused that crash had done a real good job. There was no way he could pull them out with only one good arm. He wiggled out of the elevator through the access door on the roof, and struggled up the ladder. Why hadn't the elevator cable snapped when Aelita used it? It didn't matter. All that mattered was getting help before it was too late, if it wasn't already.
Odd was at the bottom of the shaft. Hopping on to the roof of the elevator, he found the door, opened it, and got in. There was only about two feet of space between the floor and the ceiling at the spot where he was in now. A couple of feet in front of him, he saw his other self pulling on Yumi's hand. Suddenly noticing the sound behind him, his past self turned around.
"Huh?" he asked. "Am I seeing things, or what?"
"No," Odd answered. He looked over at Ulrich and Yumi. "Look, I'll explain later, but we need to hurry. Push against the ceiling with your legs, and I'll pull them out."
Odd's past self, rolling with the punches like he always did, nodded and got down on his back so he could push up with his legs. With all the physical stress, the bullet wound on his left leg felt like it had a hot poker being jabbed into it, but saving his friends was more important to him than his leg.
He only managed to budge the ceiling two inches, but that was more than enough for his other self to pull Yumi out. They repeated the process with Ulrich, and Odd's past self breathed a sigh of relief. Odd looked at the two of them. They were still breathing, and for that he was glad.
"Come on," Odd said patting Ulrich on the face. "Wake up."
Ulrich stirred. "Ow," he said with his eyes still closed.
Odd smiled. "Use your return to the present band, buddy. We're almost wrapped up here."
Ulrich sat up, and immediately looked over to Yumi. She was also starting to stir, and trying to sit up.
"What?" she asked. "Is XANA gone yet?"
"No," Odd said. "But we're all safe."
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"Okay Odds," Aelita said over the communicator. "Step into the scanners, and I'll run the merger program."
Both Odds obeyed and stepped into their scanners. The original, wounded Odd took a seat in the scanner since it was too difficult to stand. The scanner doors shut, and both of them were pulled into the supercomputer so it could merge their memories.
Aelita examined the monitor. The merger was complete. All she had to do now was to re-materialize Odd, and they would all be ready to go home. Yumi and Ulrich had already returned to the present. Aelita entered the command for the materialization, then hurried over to the ladder.
She climbed down quickly and reached the bottom just as the scanner door was opening. Standing inside the scanner was one fully healthy, very happy looking Odd. Aelita smiled, and the two of them climbed back up the ladder into the lab. All they had left to do was initiate a return to the past, bypassing its omission of Franz Hopper from its effects, and they could activate their wrist bands.
Once Odd was up in the lab, Kiwi immediately began yipping at the sight of his owner. Kiwi had followed Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi into the factory, and Odd had brought him down to the lab before going down to the scanner room.
"Okay boy, you're done here," Odd said to Kiwi, pressing the button on Kiwi's return to the present collar. Kiwi quickly de-materialized, as if he were on Lyoko and got de-virtualized.
"Is that everything?" Aelita asked.
"Sure is." Odd smiled. The euphoria of all of his friends being alive instead of dead still hadn't worn off.
Aelita moved to sit down in the chair, and entered a few commands into the computer. "Well then, return to the past now."
Before the computer's return to the past feature managed to overtake them, Aelita and Odd pressed the buttons on their wrist bands, and were flung forward to their own time.
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When Odd exited the scanner, he saw that Ulrich was standing by his scanner, Yumi was kneeling down to pet Kiwi, and Aelita was just getting out of her own scanner. Ulrich and Yumi looked totally unhurt. The four of them all looked at one another for a moment, before Odd broke the silence.
"I'm thinking 'group hug' over here."
"Agreed," Yumi said with laughter in her voice.
Ulrich smirked and Aelita smiled. Happy to all be back in one piece, they all hugged, and entered the operational elevator, and went up to the lab with Jeremie.
"Welcome back everyone," Jeremie said. "I hope you all don't mind that it's four hours later than when you left."
"Hours?" Ulrich asked. "I'm not going to complain over a few hours after what happened back there, but how? I thought it would be instant."
"It was. Until the time stream freaked out when it saw two Odds with time flux fields around them. That's why I had to send Kiwi back with the merger program. Not that hard a procedure, to be honest. Still, it took time to write. I also configured the scanners to reconstruct your bodies as you were when you left, not as you were when you activated your wrist bands."
Ulrich felt his rib cage. A few of his ribs had been broken in the crash, but they felt fine now. "Very thoughtful," he said.
"Well," Odd said. "We may not have gotten rid of the bad guy, but if it was only a few hours that means we still have time to hit the movies. I need some definite chill time after all that."
"I'm right behind you," Jeremie said.
In agreement, everyone headed into the elevator, talking about what movie they wanted to see to take their minds off of their nearly disastrous mission.