Code: Memories

by Undeadmonkey8

Cameron Hopper is a normal kid with normal hobbies. Video games, building robots, and oh yeah, saving the world from Xana alongside the rest of the Lyoko Warriors. One of whom is a perfect copy of his sister who went missing ten years ago. Something out there must be messing with his head, too, because now she's his cousin. No pressure. Sequel to Code: Cameron.

4. A Great Day

I do not own Code Lyoko
I'm BAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Code: Memories
Chapter Four
A Great Day

Cameron's legs dangled over the side of the platform, gazing out into the Celestial Dome. Aelita was working madly at the terminal near the end of the platform, delving deep into Xana's archives. He sighed and leaned back onto the platform, "So . . . any ideas on when our seafood dinner should be arriving?"

Odd shrugged, "I'd say any minute now. Xana sure is being a slow chef today."

Ulrich pointed over towards the wall of the dome, where the membrane had begun to stretch, "Looks like our waiter is on the way though."

Pulling himself up Cameron stretched out and pulled out his coin, giving it a flip and snatching the bow as it dropped towards him, "Aelita, we almost ready to pull out? Things are gonna get hot here in a minute."

The girl grinned, "Just a little longer, we've never had access to this much data."

"The data isn't going anywhere," Jeremie's voice echoed throughout the dome as the mantas began to puncture the membrane, "Let me take over now, okay?"

Aelita sighed and began to log out of the terminal as two Mantas burst out of the Celestial dome. Odd stepped to her shoulder and pointed them out, "Aelita . . . I don't want to rush you but uh . . ."

A burst of laser fire slammed into the ground near Cameron's foot, and the boy jerked back, "Jeremie! Some vehicles would be nice right about now!" He fitted an arrow to his bow and fired it off, but the manta he was aiming at swerved gracefully out of the way.

"I've got things under control. Four vehicles, coming right up!"

As Jeremie finished speaking, four wireframes virtualized around the platform. The OverWing and OverBoard were floating to the sides, and the OverBike and OverRide hummed gently in front of the group. The Lyoko warriors jumped onto their respective rides, and if they had been in cars, there would have been a high squeal of rubber against pavement as the four vehicles shot away from the platform, dispersing quickly through the rapid volleys of laser fire. The other lyoko warriors rode straight out from the platform as Aelita boarded behind Cameron, but a volley of lasers forced the boy to deactivate his engines and drop straight down before reactivating them and riding after the others.

The pair of mantas swept down, firing at them in such quick succession that Cameron was forced to weave around the blasts instead of splitting his attention to return fire. As he grew nearer to the mantas, he activated the buzz saw around the edges of the OverRide, and cackled maniacally as he turned the disk vertically, bisecting one of the Mantas flying at them. Aelita screamed and grabbed the back of his jacket before remembering that they were magnetically held to the vehicle, then smacked the back of his head, "Don't do that!"

"Don't do what princess? Give Xana a run for his money?" Cameron wove around the other manta, joining the rest of the group, "What's up everyone?"

Odd pointed to the top of the dome, "Blue bits of data?" The cat twisted around to look at the mantas pursuing them, "I wonder if our last baby's a boy or girl?"

Ulrich laughed from the other side of Cameron, "They've got to be a lady judging by the temper." Another laser flew past his head as he drew his saber and dropped back, "But I'll show 'em what it means to be a guy."

Yumi groaned and shook her head, "Jeremie, do I really need to listen to this?"

"Sorry Yumi, but you did choose your friends."

Cameron laughed and nocked an arrow, "Do you want me to devirtualize him for you? That would shut him up."

Behind them, Ulrich yelled out, and Cameron turned the OverRide so that he was facing backwards as the vehicle continued to move forwards. As Ulrich stabbed the manta while he was standing on it, Cameron groaned, "My friends are idiots sometimes."

He drew his arrow back and shot Ulrich in the stomach as the boy fell, grimacing as Ulrich grunted and blew away into minute blue particles, and Jeremie sighed over the speakers, "Was that really necessary Cameron? You know it's a pain to materialize you guys from Sector Five."

"Would you rather materialize him from the Digital Sea?" As Jeremie was silent, Cameron nodded, "Didn't think so. Can you open a tunnel for us?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Jeremie spoke again, "Tunnel open."

The remaining three fighters swerved out of the dome and through the digital passage, zipping through the way passage and out into the landscape of Lyoko. A moment after they landed, Aelita returned to the tower, and Cameron, Odd and Yumi dissolved into digital particles.

When the scanners opened, Ulrich was there to greet Cameron with a punch in the arm, "Thanks for the help. I'll remember that next time you're falling into the digital sea."

Cameron shrugged, "It's better than being virtualized forever?" He half asked, half stated, trying to ward off Ulrich's ire.

Ulrich's ire was not warded off, "You could have caught me instead. Getting shot in the stomach hurts you know."

Another shrug was Cameron's response, "I wouldn't, actually." The boy said, grinning, "I've never tried to shoot myself in the stomach. I've never been that desperate to get off of Lyoko."

The two boys joined the rest of the group in the elevator, moving slowly up to the laboratory, filling the ride with idle chatter. When they arrived, Jeremie swiveled around to face them, "The data looks good, but there's a lot of it to process. I've started a program that will sort through it overnight and prioritize whatever looks good for progress on the antivirus and store the rest in the supercomputer's long-term memory." The genius hopped out of his chair and joined them in the elevator, "It's autonomous, so it will run on its own. I've got other work to do back at school."

The doors closed, and Aelita poked Jeremie, "Unless that 'work' involves your pillow, then you aren't getting to it tonight. It's already late, and you've been working hard, you need to sleep or you won't be able to function as well."

Jeremie frowned, "I worked on little to no sleep for a good year and a half while you were on Lyoko Aelita, I'll be fine to get a few more hours in tonight."

Aelita glanced at Cameron, and the boy shrugged before slinging an arm around Jeremie's shoulders, "Well, Jeremie, if that's your response, then I'll unplug your computer and tie you to your bed. Aelita's right, you do need to sleep more, or even your grades will start to suffer. And then so will Odd's because he copies everything off of you. So will Ulrich's, because we're the ones he goes to for help in math and sciences, and if you stay up all night working, then I'll have to stay up as well because I'll feel guilty leaving you to work alone. Then Yumi will lose sleep because she'll be worried about Ulrich - ow!" Cameron rubbed his arm where Yumi had hit him, "Jeez you hit hard woman! I was only speaking the trut - Ow! Ulrich! No teaming up with your girlfrie - OW!" The boy retreated from the two 'just friends' of the group, holding his hands up defensively, "Alright! Alright! I get it, you can stop hitting me!" He rubbed his shoulders, "You two hit too hard."

Odd chuckled slightly, "Well, you should have seen it coming Cameron." The blond stifled a yawn, "But man, I also have work to do when we get back to school, and it's a thorough research on how soft my pillow feels after a trip to Lyoko."

()()()()

"Good morning Kadic, it's 7:30 monday morning and let me tell you, it is going to be a gre-"

The radio alarm shut itself off by yanking its plug out as Cameron smacked it away from his bed. It made a muffled thump against the pillow placed below it specifically for that purpose, and the two boys occupying the room let out nearly simultaneous moans as they forced themselves out of bed. There was a knock on the door as Cameron started to pull a shirt on, and he glanced over at Jeremie, "Can you get that?"

The blonde nodded as he shifted his glasses slightly, settling them in a more secure position before moving to open the door. As he looked out into the hall, was was greeted by a momentary flash of black hair and a pink shirt before he found himself stumbling back into the room as Sissi waltzed past him, shutting the door with her foot without saying a word.

"Sissi?!" Jeremie exclaimed as he picked himself off the floor.

Cameron jumped slightly and withdrew from where he'd been digging through his closet for his phone and turned to look into the room, instinctively thinking of what could be linked to Lyoko and therefore what needed to be hidden. Their computers were off, so that was out, and the boy frowned as Sissi sat down on Jeremie's bed, holding something that looked like a . . .

Something that looked suspiciously like a recorder.

The girl flashed a smile, "That's my name Jeremie, don't wear it out." Her smile didn't falter as she continued, "Now, when you escorted Ms. Einstein to her room last night, I couldn't help but overhear that you had the most interesting conversation, and since I didn't want to forget something that was so intriguing, I happened to record it." She waved the small recorder idly, "Care to imagine what might be on this?"

Jeremie's face went pale, and Cameron's frown deepened slightly as he put a few dots together. First, Sissi seemed happy with something, which never boded well for the gang. Second, she seemed confident that she had clearly incriminating evidence, and she didn't seem afraid to use it. Third, an interesting conversation that was making Jeremie act like that indicated that it had something to do with Lyoko.

Well, that or the conversation was about Jeremie and Aelita secretly dating, in which case Cameron would be having words with him later.

He slung a towel over his shoulder and headed for the door, "Well, Sissi, I would say it's a pleasure to see you, but it really isn't. I would be quite pleased to not see you for an entire week, so you being in my room before I can even shower makes me want to puke." He grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet as he passed, "So here's what's going to -"

"I don't think so, Cameron dear." Sissi yanked her arm away from him and returned to her seat, waving the recorder again, "You see, this conversation concerns you as well, since it's about your cousin. I'm sure it won't take long, and then you can discuss things with your group at breakfast." She smirked, "I'll even leave you alone until lunch, does that seem fair? I'd think it's plenty of time to come to a decision."

Cameron glanced over at Jeremie, but the genius was showing a mixture of disbelief, anger, and - was that shame? His gaze slowly slid to Sissi, and he sat across from her, "Alright, I'll bite. What sort of decision?"

The girl smiled and held a pair of headphones toward him, plugging them into the recorder. He took them as gingerly as he would have taken a rabid squirrel, and slowly set them so he he could listen to what she wanted him to hear.

It took him all of six seconds to pull the headphones back out and pause the recording. Cameron glanced over at Jeremie, "Go on ahead Einstein, I'll deal with her. Get ready for school."

Jeremie looked like leaving the room was both the first and last thing he wanted to do, and Cameron nodded towards the door to give him a bit of encouragement to scurry on out. With a little luck, he would warn Ulrich and Odd, and the three of them would be able to figure something out while he delayed Sissi.

He set the earphones back in place, and hesitantly listened to the rest of what Sissi had recorded.

When the recording finished, Cameron's blood was cold, and his hands shook slightly as he gave the headphones back to Sissi. The girl's smirk said a lot, but not everything, so he took a moment to compose himself before he simply said, "What do you want?"

Sissi smiled, "What do I want? Well that's simple Cameron. I want to be a part of your group."

There was a long moment of silence as Cameron processed that. Then, he smiled, "Oh is that all? I thought you wanted exclusive rights to Ulrich, or failing that, me. If all you wanted was to be part of the group, you could have just asked."

She frowned, "Are you kidding me?" In a flash, she was on her feet and waving the recorder in his face, "If I had asked without something like this, you guys never would have said yes, would you?"

"Precisely." Was Cameron's cool reply. Sissi looked stunned, but he wasn't finished, "Had you asked yesterday, we would have told you to buzz off. And do you know something Sissi?" The boy stood as well, wishing that he had either a stepstool or some boots to make him at least eye level with the girl, "The answer is exactly the same. Buzz off. We don't like you, Sissi. You've never done anything to earn our respect, or our friendship. If you think that having a little recorder with something that can easily be replicated, altered, or fabricated, and wouldn't stand up to any sort of investigation against someone who knows how to work an editing program, will change the answer to that, then you're dead wrong. I don't care if you have 'proof' that Aelita is 'fake' because she's as real as you and me. On top of that, do you know something else?"

He leaned forward slightly, prompting her to do the same, before he snapped his arm forward and grabbed her wrist, then twisted it until the recorder dropped from her hand. The device tumbled through the air before coming to a sudden halt in his free hand, and Cameron smirked, waving the recorder the same way she had earlier, "You no longer have any form of 'evidence' that that conversation ever happened."

Sissi lunged for the device, but Cameron placed a palm against her stomach and shoved her back onto Jeremie's bed before he opened the recorder and plucked the tape from its resting place. As Sissi gaped at him, he tossed the recorder back to her before setting both hands on the cassette and snapping it cleanly in two. She stood up, clutching the recorder tightly, "You - you -"

Cameron wasn't finished though. Picking up the remote for his Wasp, he wound the actual recording tape tightly, tied it into a thick knot, then handed it to the flying drone before piloting the robot out the window and up to the roof of the school. When the small ball of tightly wound tape was deposited into the gutter, he flew the wasp back down into the room and turned to Sissi, enjoying the 'O' that her mouth was making as she stared dumbly at him. He smiled, "So, you were saying? Some crazy theory about how my cousin was fake and infected with some alien virus?" The dumbstruck look on her face was absolutely beautiful, and he couldn't help but take one last jab, "Now that we've established that you have absolutely no leverage, allow me to reiterate," he moved forwards and leaned so he was about two inches away from her face, "Buzz. Off."

He opened the door and gave an elaborate 'ladies first' gesture, even going so far as to give a mocking bow. The anger burning off of the girl as she swept past him gave him plenty of reason to chuckle, but something occurred to him as she was about halfway down the corridor, and he leaned out of the room to shout, "And leave my cousin alone!"

The door at the end of the hallway slammed shut in response. Cameron smirked, and ducked back into his room to get his things for a shower.

()()()()

"So, Jeremie." Cameron started as he slid into a seat, "Let's talk about how you can avoid unpleasantness in the future. First off," the boy took a calm bite of croissant, "Don't talk about Lyoko in public. Do not talk about Lyoko in front of Sissi's room. In fact, just don't talk about Lyoko outside of our rooms or the Factory. In the future, I may not be able to get close enough to Sissi to obliterate the recording."

Relief broke out across Jeremie's face, "You really did? Cameron, you're a life saver."

"mm hmm." Cameron set his croissant down, then pointed his fork at Jeremie, "I didn't do that just for you Einstein, though now how you got the name is a mystery. I did that for Aelita and the rest of us too. Just . . ." he broke off with a sigh, setting his fork down, "I don't even know why I'm irritated with you over this, it's a stupid thing in hindsight, and we all make mistakes. Just try not to do it again. I may not have invested nearly as much time into Lyoko as everyone else has, but I've invested a whole lot regardless, not the least of which is my family. I've taken Aelita on as a cousin and I intend to treat her as one. Which, actually, that reminds me of something."

Jeremie waited for a moment for Cameron to continue, then prompted him to do so when he did not, "Reminds you of what?"

Cameron idly reached across the table and grabbed Jeremie's collar in one hand, raising his fork for inspection with the other, "You've been a good friend to me for quite some time, the whole keeping Lyoko a secret bit aside, because you had your reasons for that. And I know you've got feelings for Aelita. This is your first, and last, warning though." He looked away from his fork, staring Jeremie in the eye with a gaze cold enough to freeze a furnace, "If something comes of those feelings, and you break her heart, I'll break your arms. Deal?"

Jeremie swallowed nervously, "Deal."

The brunette smiled cheerily and released him, digging into his breakfast. Jeremie watched him eat for a moment, digesting what Cameron had said before threatening to break his arms, "Why, though?"

"Why what?" Cameron glanced back up at him, "Why am I eating two plates of croissants and eggs at once or why am I threatening to break your arms? Because I thought that was pretty clear."

"Neither." Jeremie sat back, staring at him, "I know that Aelita reminds you of your sister from way back when, but it's physically impossible for them to be the same person. One's human, the other-" Cameron raised an eyebrow at him, and Jeremie abruptly changed the subject, "Anyway, what makes you care so much? I've never seen you act like that, except maybe back when Nicolas and Herve accosted me in the hallway that one time."

There was a pause, then a slight clink as Cameron set his utensils down. He stared at his platter, and dabbed at his mouth with a napkin before taking a moment to form a response. Then he laced his fingers together and set his chin on them, eyes downcast.

"Why do I care so much?" He asked softly, "Jeremie, look at me. Who do you see? Someone with an above-average intellect? Because I'm that, for anything other than History and Italian. Someone who can leave most other athletes in the dust? I'm that, definitely. Do you see someone with a grudge against the past, someone who wants to tear the world down and build a new one from the ashes of whatever gods there are? Because I've been that person too."

Cameron's smile was full of pain as he looked up at Jeremie, "Think about who I was when I first came to Kadic, Jeremie. I flirted my way through the first two months of my time here, I built robots and repaired an old house, and I played every game that I came across. I hung out with you, yeah, but as a distraction, and really, only because we were roommates at first." He turned to face the window, watching as leaves blew past the window and students ran around in the yard, "Jeremie, Kadic Academy is the first time I've had real friends, real connections, outside of a foster family. I tried forging bonds with adopted families, I really did. It never seemed to end well. I told you about one case, remember? The mother died, and the daughter is still in a coma? That's not an isolated case. Every one of my past families has had something horrible happen to them. The family I'm technically a part of right now has little to no time for me and only adopted me to get checks from foster care. They're alright, I suppose, but they've got five foster kids counting me who share two bedrooms. It's not the best place to be. The most I get from them is a semi-decent allowance, to remind me that they're there. Even my coming to Kadic was sponsored by Franz instead of them. But that's fine, really, because I'm surrounded by pain and death Jeremie, I always have been. Before I came to Kadic, I didn't have any friends. I poured my time into developing myself, physically and mentally. But I had no connections with the people around me."

Another forlorn smile crossed Cameron's face, "I've never told you this because you never asked, in case you're wondering. I didn't want to burden you with it, like how you never wanted to burden me with Lyoko. When I came to Kadic though, you were there for me. You helped me dodge Sissi on day one, gave me someone who could compete with - heck, someone who could curbstomp - my intelligence - don't shake your head at me, you know it's true - and you gave me a friend. Someone I could relate to. You introduced me to Odd and Ulrich and Yumi. You gave me a family again, a reason to stick around Kadic long enough to meet Taelia. When Taelia left, you were there for me, and you gave me another family with Aelita."

He finally turned back from the window, "You ask me why I care so much? Jeremie, you've given me a better family than I've had in ten years. And best of all, you've stayed. Nothing horrible has happened, for almost two years now. You've shown me that there are people in this world who aren't going to get killed by being near me, and you've given me friendship when I wanted it and space when I needed it. You've given me people to whom I can give my heart and not have it stomped on by fate in stiletto heels." He laughed, a harsh, bitter sound, nothing like the cheery chuckle he normally gave, "That's why I care so much, Jeremie. The last couple of years have sucked considerably less than the ten or so preceding it. I've actually enjoyed life at Kadic, thanks to you. Are you satisfied, now? Knowing the answer, does it fill you with purpose to help, or pity for, me? Keep it either way, I have little use for 'help' from others who think they understand, and even less use for their pity."

Cameron blinked, as if surprised at what he had said, then stood suddenly, "I'm going for a walk," he muttered, "I need some air. You can tell the others, if you want, I guess. Doesn't change much either way."

Jeremie could only watch as Cameron slipped out of the lunchroom, shoving his hands into coat pockets as he nudged the door open with a hip. Never, not once in the two years that they had shared a room had Cameron simply come out and said so much to such a simple question. Jeremie got the feeling that he had done so a grand total of never in his life before Kadic. Which made him both glad that Cameron trusted him enough to say so much, and also sad, because the other boy had held so much on his chest for what was quite clearly a very long time. He was still staring at the door when the rest of the group sat down around him, talking cheerily and questioning him when he didn't join the conversation. Not wanting to turn Cameron's confession into gossip, regardless of how close the group was, he told them about Sissi's recording, steering himself away from the topic.

If Cameron wanted to tell the rest of the group, he would.

()()()()

A charcoal grey coat flapped around Cameron's thighs as a brisk wind blew through the forest. The boy ducked his head, burying his nose and chin in a dark blue scarf that warmed his face as he wandered through the forest. He hadn't meant to dump so much on Jeremie, even if the boy was his best friend. That had been a mistake, Cameron was sure, and it was going to come back and bite him in the rear sooner or later.

It wasn't much later, nor was it surprising, when Cameron found himself at the gates of the Hermitage. The house had seen more and more of him as time went on, especially now that he was renovating it. He looked up at his home, admiring his work. Having a tight budget, he 'borrowed' a lot of the materials from shop classes offered at the school, such as the new glass for Aelita's smashed window and wood for door and window frames. It looked a little haphazard, like someone had taken a bunch of random materials from a variety of locations - in his defense, shop class didn't have a ton of the same materials, more like samples so that people had plenty to choose from - but a few coats of paint would cover the differences up. He'd also found more to work with in a shed in the backyard, knowing Franz, most likely for bigger robots that he'd never gotten around to building.

Another gust of wind sent a little windmill he'd set in front of the porch spinning, and Cameron ran a hand along the banister as he ascended the steps. They no longer creaked, and the wooden rail was smooth if not polished. The air was cold, and he nudged the door open, breathing deep of the chilled air. Despite getting electricity throughout the house with some help from Jeremie and the supercomputer, the heater was shot from ten years of neglect, and Cameron didn't want to blow himself up trying to fix it. Basic functions worked, lights, water, but no, there was no furnace. So the house was pretty much freezing.

A light flared outside the window, and Cameron frowned, moving to look outside. His frown deepened as he saw the familiar wall of light rushing towards him, "What th-"

()()()()

"Good morning Kadic, it's 7:30 monday morning and let me tell you, it is going to be a gre-"

The radio alarm shut itself off by yanking its plug out as Cameron smacked it away from his bed. It made a muffled thump against the pillow placed below it specifically for that purpose, and the two boys occupying the room let out nearly simultaneous moans as they forced themselves out of bed. Cameron chucked a pillow at the clock for good measure, "So, what did you launch a return to the past for, Jeremie?"

Einstein groaned and rubbed his eyes before slipping his glasses on, "I didn't. There must have been a malfunction with the supercomputer. I'll take a look after class today."

Cameron thought back to their last mission, within Sector Five. At the time he'd been focused on escaping and getting Aelita to safety, but come to think of it . . . "Jeremie, you remember our mission the other night? Or, last night, rather? I thought that Xana was taking a while to send out the Mantas, and when he did there were only two. Normally there are three or four."

Jeremie rubbed his chin, "You're right, come to think of it. It was like Xana wanted us to -" the implications of what they were discussing struck him, and his hand fell away, "A trap. The data we recovered was bait to allow Xana access to more of the supercomputer. The program I ran was strictly within our section of the databanks, but if Xana allowed us to take a piece of his own programming, then-"

There was a knock at the door, and the two boys let out another pair of synchronized groans. They shared a glance, and Cameron grabbed a coin that he kept on the small table that held his alarm clock, "Heads or tails?"

"Tails."

The coin flipped into the air, catching the light as it spun. It landed heads up, and Jeremie sighed, then stood and moved to the door to deal with Sissi while Cameron smirked and went to his closet. The idea that Xana had outwitted them was irritating but not surprising, considering that he was a masterpiece artificial intelligence that Franz Hopper had created.

Sissi tried to grab Cameron's arm as he headed for the showers, but having dealt with her the previous version of the day, he simply shook her off and continued on his way. Seeing as Xana likely had control of the supercomputer's return to the past function, it was doubtful it would be the last time he knocked his alarm clock off of its stand. He could wait for the last run through to deal with her. Though considering the lateness of the hour that she must have taken that recording she was determined. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring her on board with everything. Never to take her to Lyoko, she wasn't nearly competent enough for that, but she was certainly influential enough to be useful on Earth. While Ulrich and Yumi wouldn't go for it in a million years, it was possible that the others might at least listen to his thought process before shooting it down.

Though on that note, why was he even thinking of that?

Cameron shook his head, "Humans. One of the least logical or reasonable races in the world, and yet we're still around after all this time. Sometimes I wonder how we've done it."

Aelita joined him on the stairs, "Do you know who set off the Return to the Past?"

The boy shook his head, "No, but I'm planning to go and check the supercomputer during first period. Can you give me a cover story?"

She thought for a minute, "First period is computer sciences, right? I'll just tell the teacher that you're busy debugging a computer."

Cameron smiled at her innocent statement. She was good at hiding it, but sometimes it was made clear that she was mentally young, despite intelligence that put many adults to shame. Aelita cleared her throat as he thought, and he snapped back to attention, "While true, it doesn't really have the delivery that we want. Just let Jeremie know that I'll need a coverup, he can handle it from there."

Aelita pouted slightly, "I thought that telling the truth was the best route? When did that change?"

There was a moment's silence as Cameron processed that, and then he laughed, "Aelita, there's nothing wrong with telling the truth. Among friends, telling the truth is typically the best route, with a couple of very specific scenarios where it's not." He glanced around, making sure that there was no one close enough to hear, considering the previous - current, whatever, the Return to the Past timelines hurt his head to think about them - day's fiasco. Satisfied that they were alone, he continued in a low voice, "But the teachers need to not be clued in about Xana and Lyoko. If that means lying to them, then that's what it means. We can't guarantee your safety if people in power know about the supercomputer, they might decide that one girl who they may not consider human isn't worth the potential lives of the city or the world."

"But I am just one girl who isn't really human." Aelita whispered back, "And I'm not worth the entire city, and certainly not the world. If Xana's attacks get too extreme I fully expect you to shut down the supercomputer regardless of what it means for me. I don't want people hurt because of me when my life can save thousands." Cameron stopped moving, and his head slowly turned towards her. Realizing that he had stopped, Aelita paused as well, "Cameron?"

He stared at her for a long moment, "Don't say that." Cameron said, his voice a hoarse whisper. Before Aelita could respond, he continued, "Don't ever say that you're not human, Aelita. Don't say that you aren't real or that your life is worth any less than the life of anyone else. You are more real than many people that I have met in my life, and one of the kindest people on this Earth."

Aelita was startled by the look in his eyes. He looked angry, afraid, and - something else that she couldn't quite identify. Tired, maybe? Tired of something. She just wasn't sure what of. She set a hand on his arm, "You're a good person, Cameron. I'm sorry, I didn't think before I spoke. Human it is."

Cameron set a hand over hers, as if affirming that she was there, then slipped away as they stepped outside, "Don't forget to tell Jeremie and the others, okay? I'll try to be back before second period, but no promises."

()()()()

The supercomputer whirred to life as Cameron stepped inside the laboratory. Almost immediately, he started seeing problems that reinforced his theory that Xana had laid a trap for them to blunder into. His hands danced across the keys, raising firewalls between areas of the supercomputer to give him some breathing room while he burned Xana out of one section at a time. Aelita's materialization codes, the Lyoko Avatars, their vehicles, and the unfinished antivirus were all in the same section of the supercomputer's databanks, and it was one that Xana hadn't reached yet. Five minutes after he arrived, there were approximately twelve different firewalls guarding the data that he had been working on while Jeremie and Aelita worked on her antivirus. He'd designed them specifically to block Xana off, and they were the result of many a sleepless night. An alert flashed up almost as soon as he'd finished putting up the final one, alerting him to the fact that Xana had broken through the first and was working on the second.

Cameron smiled. The initial firewall was easily the weakest, and was mainly there for the purpose it had served, to let him know when Xana was hacking through. He smiled and cracked his knuckles, "Okay Xana, enjoy my security protocols. I adapted them especially for you."

Each of the remaining eleven firewalls changed its code three times every two seconds. They were based off of security programs that Franz Hopper had left in the Hermitage. Cameron had simply found them and tampered with them until they were done. For a test run, he'd set them around the school's network and enjoyed the chaos that had ensued when no one could get online. It had taken hours for their computer teacher and tech staff to break through the first one, and about three days for them to get through the rest.

As a precaution, Cameron had set them up around the data that Jeremie had retrieved from the internet on Franz Hopper and the Hermitage, returning the 'restricted' access site to its restricted state.

A second alert popped up, warning that Xana had broken through the second firewall. Cameron snapped back to attention and started cordoning off different sections of the supercomputer, isolating Xana's codes before purging them one by one. As he worked, Xana broke through the third, fourth, and fifth firewalls before finally being delayed by the sixth. By the time that Cameron was able to locate Xana's manipulation with the return to the past program, Xana was working at the ninth wall. Unwilling to manipulate codes that had been designed by Franz Hopper and that he hadn't even edited before however, Cameron isolated the program from the rest of the supercomputer and searched out the data that they had recovered from Sector Five, leaving it unavailable to either party. Jeremie would probably be able to get a hold of the function, but until he arrived Cameron just wanted to keep Xana away from the program."

Xana hit the eleventh firewall mere seconds after Cameron located the data, and the two worked feverishly to overcome the defenses set around their respective targets. Xana against Cameron's, and Cameron against Jeremie's security, as the boy had thought it a brilliant idea to put security codes around the program scanning the Sector Five data. "Well, Jeremie," Cameron muttered as his fingers flew between the three keyboards, "you weren't entirely wrong to put them there. I just wish you'd made them a bit easier to get through."

Three screens popped up on the computer. One to let him know that Xana had reached the last firewall, another showing Cameron the data from Sector Five, and the third . . . was a chatbox. With a weird eye/target symbol representing the other end.

Hello there boy.

Cameron blinked in surprise. Xana . . . was trying to chat with him. The omnicidal, sentient artificial intelligence that had been trying to take over the world through electronics and - according to Odd - giant teddy bears, was chatting with him.

I don't like being ignored. Speak up, I can register the sound waves and interpret them properly.

"Sorry, Xana." Cameron said, "I was a bit more focused on the data that you left out for us to stumble across. Clever bait, by the way. How did you like my security protocols?"

Ah, so you figured that one out. Shame, I was hoping to be able to do it again in the future. As to your security programs, they're a bit better than the ones surrounding that collection of your people who think they run the world. Do I recognize Franz Hopper's work in those?

"Yep." Cameron muttered as he scrolled rapidly through the data, knowing that Xana was probably still hard at work on the last firewall. A thought occurred to him, and Cameron quickly changed screens, inserting CDs and copying down the files that Xana was trying to access onto them as quickly as he could. Jeremie was sure to have backups of his own, but it never hurt to be sure. When their codes were safe, Cameron started another program, virtualizing the vehicles onto Lyoko - or rather, under Lyoko - and setting up a program that would scan and virtualize a fighter as soon as they stepped in the scanner, saving the data for each fighter to each of the Scanners. Xana was still working on the last wall when he finished, and Cameron smiled. The twelfth firewall was his favorite, altering its codes three times faster than the previous ones, and it also had a little . . . surprise, for when it was broken.

I'm not surprised. It would have been too much to expect that a human other than him were able to delay me this long. Excellent work altering them though. You are at least a cut above most other humans. You and the yellow one.

"You mean Jeremie?" Cameron asked as he went back to the S5 data. Jeremie's security program had started back up, but this time Cameron hacked through it in a little less than a minute, knowing what to expect. "Yeah, Jeremie's pretty good. A bit better than me at Computers and leaves me figuratively in the dust in any other subject. Except Italian. Neither of us like Italian." It occurred to him that he was having a cordial chat with Xana as the two of them were actively trying to screw the other over as thoroughly as possible. The strangeness of the situation did strike him, and he made a mental note to not speak of this to the rest of the group unless it became necessary.

On that note, Cameron reached for his phone as the supercomputer began flashing rapidly, warning him that Xana had activated a tower.

Congratulations, boy. Came a new message, It seems that your security protocols are rather effective after all. I didn't think that I would need a tower today.

"Speaking of which," Cameron said, "What's with making today go over and over? Drive us crazy with the accumulated memory of the same day a thousand times?"

That would have been a rather fortunate side effect. Part of it was just seeing if I could. Testing the waters, as I believe your people say.

Cameron shuddered at the mention of water. He wasn't sure when it had started, but he'd become averse to water some time after coming to Kadic. According to Jeremie, it was probably due to one of the times he'd discovered the factory and almost drowned before coming onto the team properly, similar to how coming near to drowning as a young child resulted in the same condition with the memories often repressed. The event and subsequent return to the past had simulated the overall effect. Cameron frowned slightly, "See, Jeremie, this is why we don't play with technology beyond our comprehension. It has side effects like making me afraid of water. Seriously, of all the things to be afraid of, why water? The human body is mostly made of water for crying out loud!"

Why are you babbling on about Dihydrogen monoxide, boy? Don't you have more important things to worry about? Such as ME?!

The boy snapped to attention and sent a message to the rest of the team, alerting them to the situation. He set up a self-virtualization and hurried down to the scanner room, then jumped into a scanner before his auto-virtualization ran its course.

()()()()

The forest sector looked very different from what Cameron was used to as the boy dropped onto it. Rather than the normal green ground and towering trees, the ground had turned black with red lines pulsing through the landscape. The trees had also been corrupted, and as Cameron looked around, he could see the black spreading across the part of the sector that was still green and untouched. Cameron cautiously poked one of the red lines with a toe, giving a short sigh of relief when nothing happened. A snap of his fingers had the OverRide zooming out from underneath the Sector, and he stepped on, twisting a heel to engage the razor blades. The effective saw buzzed reassuringly, and gave the boy some measure of normalcy among the blatant corruption of Lyoko. It also had the benefit of keeping him off of the ground, which despite not having any obvious and painful effect, was still something that Cameron would rather avoid touching. New things on Lyoko were usually also bad things.

Speaking of new things, a black streak whisked past Cameron's head as he observed the progress of the corruption, and he rapidly turned to look in the direction it had come from. A pair of shadows were standing over on the next island, a couple dozen yards away. For a moment, Cameron was very confused, and tried to identify the monsters. When he did, his blood ran very, very cold. The one on the right, garbed in a slim fitted vest and pants lifted an ornate black bow, drew back on the string, and released. A second streak flew at Cameron, and the boy ducked to avoid the attack. The other shadow pulled back its arms before flinging a pair of discs at him. Cameron darted behind a tree to avoid them, and dropped to the ground when the two discs buzzed back towards him.

"So that's what Xana was after." Cameron muttered as he risked a look around the tree. He ducked back as another bolt blew part of the tree to bits, this time getting a nice look at the arrow as it flashed past his nose. He glared through the tree where Xana's new minions were waiting, "The Return to the Past was a distraction, and he was hacking into our files to borrow data from our avatars to create copies. Clever." That meant either Xana had done so the first time through or had broken through the twelfth firewall. Judging by the fact that he was still on Lyoko, it was probably the former. Cameron pulled out his coin, "Copies of me and Yumi then. Since my doppelganger's got his bow out, then its my best bet." He peered out from behind the tree again, and again ducked back when another arrow flew past his face. His heel turned on the OverRide and he rose up to the canopy of the trees before he rode slowly and silently through the trees, keeping digital wood between him and the doppelgangers as he crossed the gap between the islands.

He ran his thumb along the edge of the coin, feeling for the slightly smoother rim along the heads half without taking his eyes off of the shadows down below him. His clone still had its bow trained on the tree he'd been behind, and Yumi's had its fans ready to throw. The silvery coin spun end over end, flickering in the dim light before falling into his hand and expanding into the longbow that he had become so used to. He pulled a single arrow out and drew it back, sighting along the shaft to take aim at Yumi's doppelganger. Time seemed to slow down, his breath was loud and his heartbeat thundered in his ears as the world narrowed to nothing but the two clones beneath him.

Wait . . . why were there only two?

Cameron jerked back, his arrow shooting randomly off into the forest as something slammed into his side, almost knocking him off of the OverRide. The vehicle flipped over and dropped, taking him out of immediate danger as he addressed the throbbing pain in his side from the sudden attack. Below him stood another doppelganger on the edge of the corruption, one arm pointed towards him with its other hand steadying its aim. Even without the spike of black hair, it was clear that Xana had pulled Odd out of production. Cameron swallowed hard as Odd's clone fired again, and he dropped out of the sky, falling until he was underneath the island and shooting away as quickly as possible.

"Jeremie! Please tell me that you're there!" Cameron shouted, looking wildly over his shoulder. The Lyoko warrior's vehicles were still floating where he had virtualized them, and he triggered his blades as he flew past them, dissolving the transports before flying away. There was no way he was risking Xana getting ahold of them.

"Cameron! What's the situation on Lyoko?" Jeremie's voice came clear through the speakers, "The others are on their way but I can't access the map of the forest sector. What are we dealing with?"

A sharp pain zipped through Cameron's eyes as he pressed hard against them, giving Jeremie a view of what Cameron was looking at. The boy looked up at the bottom of the corrupted forest sector and heard a sharp intake of breath on Jeremie's end, "Yeah." Said Cameron, "I was surprised too when I dropped in. I'm not sure how far out the corruption goes at this point, but I saw some of the forest wasn't covered when I first arrived, so it may not have affected the entire sector just yet."

Jeremie sighed on the far end, the sound reminiscent of radio static, "That's probably why I can't see most of the sector then. If that's all we're dealing with then it's not a big deal, we've beaten back worse attacks. I'm sending in the others as close as I can get them, but I'm not risking dropping someone into the digital sea because I can't see the map. As to what we're dealing with?"

"Yeah . . . about that." Cameron said, "Xana . . . might have created clones of me Yumi and Odd. I haven't seen one of Ulrich yet, but I don't see why Xana would leave him out of it." He dodged out of the way of a tree before he continued, "I believe Xana began the creation of these clones last n- yester- what time is it?"

"A little before noon."

"Around this time the last time it was today. Most likely, it set the Return to the Past off when it finished, maybe to draw us in, maybe to screw with us, I'm not sure." He paused to weave through another stand of trees, "Whatever its reasoning, I don't think it was planning for me to show up at the factory. I had to isolate the Return to the Past from the rest of the supercomputer and locked it out of our portion of the supercomputer. Aelita's materialization, the anti-virus, the stuff that we've programmed. I'll have to do a full look through later, since it may have gotten its fingers into our work before using the RttP, but since Xana was busy hacking its way through the firewalls that I left for it, I'm going to assume that it didn't." Cameron flew through a hole in the ground to the topside of the plateau, "If you're having trouble virtualizing the rest because Xana's screwing with the computer, I saved everyone's data directly into the scanners. It will only work for a single virtualization before I'll have to run it again, but it should be plenty for today."

For a long moment, Jeremie was silent. Then, "I have questions about how you did that, but it can wait until we've dealt with Xana's attack. I'm dropping the others on the edge of the blank area, do you have any idea where the activated tower is?"

Cameron shrugged, "No clue. Aelita should be able to find it the old fashioned way though. I never really figured out how she did that." He let the OverRide touch down as wireframes began to appear above him and waved to the others, "Yo. How are we doing on the Sissi front?"

Ulrich shrugged as he pulled out his saber, "She told us what she wants and we told her we'd think about it. I thought about it for about two seconds before I came up with no."

Aelita frowned at him, "Ulrich, it might not be a bad idea to at least try to be nice to her. We might be able to start over and have her on our side in the future. At the very least we can give it a shot."

A response was about to leave Ulrich's mouth when a familiar buzzing noise caught everyone's attention. The group looked at Yumi, who shrugged and opened her fans to show that she had them, and Cameron put two and two together.

"Duck!"

The group scattered, and Cameron tackled Aelita behind a tree. When they looked back, a dark version of Yumi's fan was embedded in the ground before it was enveloped in a black mist and flew away. The group tracked the fan back to where it landed in the hand of Yumi's clone, and the entire group gulped audibly. The copy of the girl wasn't quite finished, nothing clearly visible from the head down, encased in writhing shadow, but the cold look on her face was enough to make Cameron's arms hurt from where he could imagine her punching him. As they watched dark Yumi was joined by the rest of the group's fighters, including the Ulrich clone that Cameron had assumed was somewhere.

On an unspoken command, the gang gathered around Aelita. Ulrich stood directly in front of her, saber ready to deflect attacks with Odd and Cameron flanking him, weapons aimed for the foreheads of their dark counterparts. Yumi stood behind them all, fans out and ready to fly at a moment's notice. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Ulrich and his clone leaped forward simultaneously, Cameron, Odd, and their doubles released their arrows, and the two Yumis sent their fans on deadly arcs for their counterparts. Aelita took cover as the battle commenced. Ulrich led his double on a chase away from the rest of the group as Odd and his clone climbed into the trees, sniping at each other and jumping between the trees, vanishing into the mists above. Yumi flipped out of the way of her counterpart's fans, caught them, and charged the clone, then tackled the dark girl out of sight. Cameron and his clone were suddenly alone, and Cameron turned his head slightly, just enough to have both Aelita and his double in view, "Aelita, stay down. Stay far down. I'm going to draw this guy off and give you a shot to the tower. Take the OverRide and get going, but be careful."

Aelita nodded, and Cameron whistled for the OverRide. His vehicle zipped over and he nudged it to Aelita, then waited for the girl to get aboard and fly out of sight before he returned his full attention to his clone. The dark mirror of himself said nothing, so Cameron spoke, "It's been a while, Xameron. Thought you'd never call me back."

For a moment, there was no reply. Then the darkness suddenly completely enveloped Xameron, before it receded and leached into the ground, expanding the corrupted area of Lyoko by several feet. What was left behind was a completed version of Cameron, the Eye of Xana on his forehead and his outfit turned black and red as opposed to Cameron's silver and grey. Xameron smiled, "This form is incomplete." He said, his voice echoing slightly, "Though even so, I expect it will be enough to deal with you. Your programs have proved . . . resourceful. The final barrier especially was remarkable, I wasn't expecting it to renew all twelve upon being beaten. However, I had enough time to collect the data to create these forms. Congratulations though, I was unable to destroy that pesky pink prat's materialization program, or the disconnection program you're trying to make for her."

Cameron shook his head, "Oh, no. I'm not the one working on that, that's all Jeremie and Aelita. The two of them together are better than I could ever hope to be, I'd only slow them down. I know enough to keep them from getting things overcomplicated, but that's about it." He reached back and drew an arrow, "I don't suppose that you'll let me go back up Aelita, will you?"

Xameron drew an arrow as well, "Of course not. This is a test run for my warriors, I can't simply let you go. As a fellow genius intellect, you must understand the value of experimentation."

"Genius?" Cameron laughed, "I appreciate the flattery, but I'm not a genius Xana. My firewalls were based off of very minor programs that were originally designed by Franz Hopper. I merely adapted and enhanced them. No, Jeremie and Aelita are geniuses, I'm just a bit smarter than most people. I can admit that much, at least." He shrugged, "However, I do understand sending drones out on test runs. So I'll give you your experiment. Just don't come crying if I smash your toys."

"Of course." Xameron nocked his arrow and drew it back, "Well then, shall we begin?"

Cameron copied the movement, "Let's dance."

The two arrows flew simultaneously. Both warriors shouted out a different command as their arrows passed each other, and Xameron was cloaked in a shroud of darkness as Cameron's world turned grey. Cameron sidestepped the arrow and fired off three more before the world returned to normal, grimacing as they simply bounced off of Xameron's guardian aura. Xameron smiled and fired again as reddish gold energy streamed away from Cameron's form, forcing the boy to drop to the ground and roll to avoid losing more health. As he pushed himself back to his feet, Cameron fired again, one arrow straight at Xameron's chest, and then one to either side, limiting his dodging space.

"Guardian!"

The dark aura failed to appear around Xameron's body, and the doppelganger took Cameron's arrow full in the chest. A confused frown appeared on the clone's face, and Cameron smiled, "Haven't you ever noticed that I only use that once per trip Xana? You really shouldn't have used it so freely."

Xameron frowned, "It is of little consequence." He reached up and pulled the arrow out of his chest, tossing it to the side, "These forms will grow more dangerous to you as I become more accustomed to them. I am not expecting them to stop you with them today."

Cameron shrugged, "Oh well." He drew back on another arrow, but Xameron jumped down from the plateau he was on, landing with a heavy thud on the same one as Cameron. The boy loosed his arrow, then flipped his bow into javelin and charged as Xameron did the same. They met in the middle and stabbed forwards, each dodging out of the way of the other's attack. Cameron quickly spun his javelin and stabbed again. Xameron's mouth began to move, and Cameron snapped out a command as well.

"HyperCounter!"

"Guardian!"

Silver power wreathed Cameron's body as Xameron stabbed forward faster than the eye could follow. Cameron could barely feel the impacts of the javelin against his chest, neck, and head, and grabbed Xameron's wrist as black smoke billowed away from the other boy, signaling the end of the attack. Xameron's eyes widened slightly, and Cameron smiled as he drew back his javelin, still enveloped by the invulnerable aura, "see you, little bro."

Xameron grunted as Cameron's javelin pierced his stomach, then dissolved into smoke that flowed over the edge of the floating island. Cameron looked up at the sky as a black-clad version of Odd fell from the trees, followed by three laser arrows that dissolved the boy in a similar fashion. Odd dropped nimbly down in front of Cameron and flicked his wrist a couple of times, "Well that was interesting. Jeremie, can you reload me on arrows? I'm all out."

Cameron looked back up into the mist again, "Jeremie, how's Aelita doing? I sent her to the tower in case things got hot here, didn't think that Xana might have had other monsters in store."

Jeremie's voice echoed over the area, "She's fine Cameron. There was a squad of Kankrelats in front of the tower, but she used the OverRide's blade on them and dropped the megatank accompanying into the digital sea."

The two boys whistled, "Didn't think she was already that good of a pilot." Cameron admitted, "I was expecting her to go along underneath the sector until she reached the tower. Give her my compliments."

"Will do." There was a brief pause, "Well, we've missed the rest of first period and we're late to second, so, you guys should know what comes next."

Cameron and Odd spoke in sync with Jeremie, "Return to the Past Now!"

()()()()

The door closed behind Yumi at twenty past seven, and the rest of the group lounged around Jeremie and Cameron's room. For a moment, they were silent, before Odd spoke up, "So, what are we doing about Sissi? She still has the recording of Jeremie and Aelita, and she won't show up for another half hour. What are we doing about her?"

Cameron sighed, "To be honest, I feel like we've been overly hard on her. When we think about it, what's she done, really? Tried to get Ulrich, tried to get me until Taelia showed up, and has acted towards us the same way that we've acted towards her. If we give her a clean slate and a fresh start, I think we could be pleasantly surprised. Also take into account that she's the principal's daughter, she can help us get out of trouble if we need to get to Lyoko in a hurry."

Jeremie nodded at the point, "Very true. If I'm being honest, she was actually rather nice to us originally. When we found out about Lyoko, she did originally know about it and was willing to help us with it. She panicked when Xana attacked the first time and told her father because she was scared, but that's really nothing to hold against her. We've all been terrified out of our wits at some point by Xana's attacks, Sissi just reacted in the best way she knew, by going to an authority figure. She's not trained to fight, we could hardly have expected her to react the same way Ulrich would."

Ulrich frowned, "Even so, she almost blew our cover the first time. If you hadn't found the return to the past our trip would have ended there. I don't know that we can trust her, and I don't like her, or the idea that she'll be part of the group."

"Consider it from an objective point of view, Ulrich." Aelita said, "Sissi has been mean to me before, but look at it from her perspective. I come out of nowhere and am instantly part of the group that she has wanted to get into for clearly a very long time. Her friends are Nicholas and Herb, not by her choice but because they follow her around. She has no friends, Ulrich. Maybe we should take a leap of faith and give her some."

Yumi's frown was deeper than Ulrich's, "I don't really want to bring anyone else into Lyoko. On top of that, for it to be Sissi," she shook her head, "I really don't like it."

Odd raised a hand, "She has helped us out in the past Yumi. When Xana possessed the bus, she kept them in contact with Jeremie while Ulrich organized everyone and tried to keep people from panicking. And tried to help you guys when Finson's monster was strangling the three of you. Plus there was the cell phone incident, and then when Xana possessed the Factory Ulrich, you said you would be nicer to her. She even helped get Yumi out of trouble so that you could pull Jeremie out of Limbo. I'm with Cameron and Aelita on this."

"You're forgetting other parts of that story, Odd." Yumi said, raising a hand to list things on her fingers, "she stole Ulrich's diary, drove wedges between us with her notes to Ulrich and Cameron, and bullied Aelita into going to Sector Five."

Aelita frowned, "To be fair, Yumi, she was really just the last nail in the coffin - that's the right phrase, right? Really, what drove me to going back to Lyoko was you guys not being around and going off without me to the Hermitage, and everything else that was so new and frightening. It wasn't just her."

Yumi didn't back down, "Okay, fair enough. That still leaves her trying to split us all up more than once." She looked over to Cameron, "And what was it she always called Taelia?"

A spark of irritation flared to life within Cameron, and he glared at the floor, "Red haired twig." He muttered.

Ulrich nodded, "And . . . we don't normally talk about previous Xana attacks, but at one point you lost your memory, and Sissi took advantage of that, bigtime. Would you rather I continue or leave the rest to your imagination? I'll give you a hint, it was after you and Taelia had started dating."

Cameron flinched and rubbed his head with a grimace as a headache assaulted him. He'd had several such pains since joining the group when he tried to remember events erased by returns to the past after becoming part of the lyoko team. Jeremie had said that it was the supercomputer trying to compensate for the time that it had saved but Cameron's mind did not. The group had agreed to avoid talking about such times to spare him the headache, but occasionally it was necessary in order to get a point across, such as now. It also had the semi-benefit of telling Cameron that the time they were talking about had actually happened.

Jeremie slouched slightly, "I'd almost forgotten about that time, and Yumi and Ulrich have very good points. I think that we shouldn't bring her into the group, but that we could be a bit kinder to her, the way Ulrich promised a while back. All in favor?"

Hands went up around the room, and Jeremie nodded, "So, we'll give Sissi a clean slate, but we won't make her a part of Lyoko." He clapped his hands, "Now that's settled, we've still got a few minutes before Sissi comes by to show me and Cameron her recording. When she shows up, Cameron, can you deal with the tape?"

Cameron nodded, "I'll do the same thing I did the first time. It shouldn't be much trouble." The headache had settled to a dull throb, easy enough to deal with. He opened the door, "In the meantime, everyone else should get back to their rooms. Yumi can go with Aelita, think of an excuse to be there if you're asked."

Everyone save Jeremie and Cameron filed out of the room, and Cameron shut the door before he flopped back onto his bed, "Sheesh. Who would have thought way back when I first came here that we'd be casually talking about moving back through time?"

Jeremie laughed softly, "Neither of us, that's for certain. We've come a long way, and we've got a long way to go. Aelita's antivirus is going to take time to create, and now Xana has his copies of you guys, this fight is getting harder."

End of Chapter Four

Hey guys! So . . . this chapter is long, long overdue, and I'm sorry about that. I've never been good about updating during school, and doing two stories turned out to be difficult. I really hope that there are still people reading this, since it's been so long since I updated. Please leave a review letting me know what you think!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Dihydrogen Monoxide Xana mentions is actually just Water. Some websites cry out for a ban on it, using that name and listing some of its effects, such as being capable of causing burns in gaseous form (superheated steam) and generally using it to prank those who didn't pay attention in Chemistry class.

Again, I'm sorry that it's taken so long to update!

EDIT: 11/24 - I am almost done with the next chapter and went back to re-read this one. I. Was. Humiliated. When I learned that I had left up a version of this which wrote out every single effect I used in computer code. I am so, so sorry that this happened and that I didn't notice for months, and hope that you all can forgive me.

Keep Writing! Keep Rocking!
Undeadmonkey8