Disclaimer: Code Lyoko and its characters are the property of Moonscoop, France 3, and Canal J. No copyright infringement is intended.

The laser blast hits her, dropping her to her knees. Grabbing her shoulder, Aelita senses that she's alone on Lyoko. A voice booms, "All of your friends are gone."

She cries out, "Jeremie!" But the voice replies, "He cannot save you. He doesn't care about you and he will not fight for you." She watches as the blok takes its final aim at her and fires.

Screaming, she springs up in her bed. Sweat rolling down her face. Fear grips her heart as a feeling comes upon her that this was more than just a dream.

In the morning on campus, Aelita finds Jeremie's table at the university's cafeteria. "Good morning, Aelita. Did you sleep well?" asks Jeremie. She says, "No, but I'll be alright." Jeremie, almost oblivious to her response continues to type on his laptop. Then, looking up at her with a serious expression on his face, says, "I think that it's time that we tell the others why I encouraged them to come to this school. And I sure hope they're ready, 'cause we're going in tonight." "Tonight?" asks Aelita.

"I don't think we have a choice at this point," states Jeremie. "Since we found X.A.N.A.'s replication of the factory near this university, we've diligently worked to eradicate the back-up he hid on its supercomputer. But he set it up as sleeper program and that means we're running out of time. We have less than 10 hours left before his program launches."

"You've been with me in its control room," Jeremie remembers, "as we ran algorithm after algorithm trying to destroy his program. I also attempted to break the internal launch sequences, but it kept locking me out. I've tried everything thing that I know how to do. I can't stop his program from launching, and so we'll have to be ready when it does."

"Are you sure that you'll be able to stop X.A.N.A. after he awakens? " asks Aelita. "Yes," affirms Jeremie, "then I'll have have access to all of his files; he'll be out in the open."

"I'm still worried," says Aelita. "If we can keep him from escaping into the internet, there'll be nothing to worry about," assures Jeremie.

"Jeremie, I had a dream last night," Aelita begins to recount in earnest. "I dreamed that I was on Lyoko and that X.A.N.A. had a new kind of super-blok that could take away 80 life points in a single shot."

"No way, "says Jeremie dismissively, "bloks just aren't that powerful. I think your imagination is working overtime."

"Maybe," responds Aelita. Then she lowers her head and hesitantly asks, "Jeremie, would you... fight for me?"

Jeremie looks at her and states, "What kind of question is that, Aelita? YOU KNOW that I would fight for you."

And in a very quiet voice, she responds, "Do I?"

Just then Odd walks up with his tray, "You look a bit stressed, Einstein. What's up?" Jeremie, now looking a little less worried, says, "I have a lot to tell you, but it'll have to wait until Yumi and Ulrich get here."

Yumi calls over, "We're here. And we've got news for you!" as she makes her way over to the table. Ulrich asks, "May I tell them?" With her face blushing, Yumi nods her approval. Ulrich declares, "I've asked Yumi to marry me!" Yumi adds, "And I said, Yes!" as she shows off her ring. Then Ulrich, in a more somber tone, adds, "You don't want to know how long it took me to save for that." Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd, smile with approval. Odd says, "It was bound to happen, you two were meant for each other."

As the five settle down to breakfast, Jeremie begins to explain his concerns. His friends are gripped in astonishment as they listen. Then Ulrich cuts in, "I thought he was gone for good." "I thought so too," says Jeremie, "but three years ago, I found indications that he made a back-up, and last year I discovered where that back-up was."

"Why didn't the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program work?" asks Ulrich. "Because THAT supercomputer was off-line, so the multi-agent wasn't able to reach it," responds Jeremie. "Besides, even if it could reach it, X.A.N.A. had his program protected by a multitude of security features; some of which I've never seen before."

Odd challenges, "So he's back, and you decided to wait all this time to tell us?" Jeremie reluctantly answers, "I didn't know if you'd be interested in fighting X.A.N.A. again." Yumi slams her fist on the table, saying, "How can we keep on fighting him?! How can we win?! He just keeps coming back again and again! We're just not strong enough!"

Ulrich puts his hand on Yumi's shoulder and says, "Don't worry. We'll beat him. We'll stand against him together... all of us." Jeremie adds, "His power should be limited if we can catch him soon enough. He shouldn't be able to activate more than one tower at this point." With limited assurance comes contemplation. Silence seems to consume those gathered at the table. Soon plans are made and directions are given. Especially for Ulrich and Yumi, this has not been the delightful breakfast that they had hoped for.