I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry it took me forever to put this chapter up! I was off the computer for a good three weeks, and I had written about half of it before. I will try and do better next time. It would also really help if I had a lot more reviews to get me motivated. Tell me what you want to see and what I should change. I'm sorry it's so short. It took me a while, and this isn't the best chapter. Anyways, here ya go! Oh, and I own nothing of this, except the plot and Zane.
Ch. 7
Aelita
She didn't figure that XANA would have found them this soon. It shot her hopes of just having an easy trip to Lyoko so that Zane could get familiar with everything. But unfortunately, XANA seemed to have other plans than that. What she didn't understand was what XANA wanted. Aelita was already in his clutches, forced to do whatever he wanted.
"William, to what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked him, noticing that Zane had protectively stood in front of her. Aelita knew that he would do anything to protect her, but for now, she needed him to relax. Based on his stance, he was still processing everything about Lyoko after having years away from here.
William stepped closer to her, and Zane moved towards him, but Aelita pulled him back. "I see you've brought our old friend, Zane Gray, back to Lyoko. And just in time, I've planned out my next attack. Of course, I still need you, so I won't be destroying you today, but I need to distract your friends," William said, his voice filled with pure hatred and evil. Aelita cringed at his every word, but she couldn't say anything back. XANA had her friends in his clutches, not to mention her, and so she didn't know what else to do.
Through clenched teeth, Aelita replied, "And what do you want me to do, XANA? Obviously you can distract them without my help." William laughed is stupid laugh, and walked towards them again.
"Aelita, Zane. I need you to distract your friends by keeping them busy. Keep Jeremy from his little computer and make sure that no one is suspicious. Also, I'll need you to come to Lyoko, tomorrow, say around midnight. Be here, or I'll be forced to activate the virus," William answered. Aelita felt her knees weaken, but she felt Zane grab her hand and lace their fingers. It wasn't a romantic gesture, but a gesture of comfort.
She couldn't speak, but luckily, Zane answered for her. "We'll do what we can. But if they end up stopping you, we can't do anything. I don't think you'd want to lose your little spies for a small mission, XANA," he spat.
William didn't say anything but he stepped up in front of Aelita. Zane squeezed her hand, but made no move. He had apparently remembered that they couldn't fight back, or Aelita and her friends would be hurt. "Aelita, my dear, how beautiful you are. It is a shame you won't submit to me. In time, we shall see. But for now, I expect you to distract them and do the best you can. I will be watching," he said. He turned to leave, but made one last comment. "Oh, and here is a Scyphozoa, don't try running away. Just submit. It won't take your memory, but what it does is for my benefit."
Aelita cringed at the memories of her past experiences with the monster but didn't move away. William disappeared in his black smoke, while the monster approached her, and she was lifted with its tentacles to her head. She felt it get inside her head, and within a minute, she blacked out.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in the scanners to Zane's face above her. He held out his hand to help her up, which she took gratefully, but collapsed in his arms. For the second time in a row of going to Lyoko, she came out unconscious and weak. Zane turned around and pulled her up on his back.
"What the hell happened back there, Aelita?" Zane asked as they made their way back through the factory. She leaned her head against his back and sighed.
"I have no idea. I blacked out after the Scyphozoa started through my mind. What happened after that?" Aelita asked.
Zane shrugged his shoulders. "I got taken out by another monster, so I have no idea. I stepped out of the scanners, and a few minutes later, yours opened. I'll kill XANA if he did anything to you. I've finally got you back, and I'm not going to lose my best friend twice," he said firmly. Aelita believed him, but within minutes she was asleep on his back.
When she woke up, they were outside the gates of the school. Zane seemed to hear that she was awake, because he set her down on the ground. Aelita stretched a bit, before glancing at her watch. She gasped, not realizing it was already midnight. "It is this late? How are we going to sneak back in?" she whispered to him.
Zane put his finger to his lips in a signal to be quiet. She nodded, and he led the way through the court yard, crawling on his knees. Aelita followed him, and within a few minutes they were in the bottom floor of the dorms.
Aelita smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, for coming with me. I've missed you," she whispered in his ear. Zane wrapped his arms around her, and squeezed her. They pulled apart and were about to go their separate ways, when Jim just had to come down the stairs.
"Ahem. Stones, why are you out so late? And who are you? I've never seen you here before," Jim said. Aelita couldn't believe her bad luck. A good day had turned into one of the worst.
"Jim, I'm sorry, I was showing Zane, the new student, around campus and we went out so I could show him around town. Zane is the new teachers son, so I wanted him to get acquainted with the town. I'm so sorry we're late, Jim, I promise it will never happen again," Aelita babbled. Jim sighed, and Aelita noticed the bags under his eyes. Aelita was hopeful he would be easier on them because he was tired.
"Detention, both of you, tomorrow morning, during breakfast. Grab your breakfast tomorrow within five minutes, and you can serve detention after that. I'm letting you off easy because you both are good students, or so I've heard," Jim said. He waved them off, and they practically ran up the stairs with one last glance at each other. Aelita ran to her bedroom and collapsed on her bed, ready for the day to be over.
Odd
Odd walked into his room with Ulrich after their amazing night and couldn't help but smile at how events had turned in his favor. Sure, she had rushed off and been completely mysterious, but at least the rest of the night had been wonderful. He fell down on his bed and sighed. Nothing could have made it better.
Ulrich's face appeared above his head and gave him a questioning look. Odd sat up and Ulrich sat across from him. "Ok, Mr. Sunshine, you've been doing that sighing thing since Aelita left and the smile hasn't left your face since then either. What's going on?" he questioned. Odd didn't know if he should tell him or not, but considering Ulrich was his best friend, he figured that would be ok. Besides, this would mean he won the bet, which meant no homework or cleaning for two weeks.
"I asked Aelita out today, and she said yes," Odd almost yelled. He was so excited and happy, and Ulrich looked shocked. "You know, that means I win the bet. And now you have to ask Yumi out as soon as you can, or I'll do it for you."
Ulrich groaned. "And here I was, getting ready to congratulate you, then you had to ruin it. Do I have to ask her out? I mean, can't I just-," he started, but Odd cut him off.
"No, you have to. Tomorrow. So start planning, Romeo, because it better be good since you have waited so long," he said, obviously taking great pleasure in his tormenting of his best friend. "Oh, and you'll have a lot of homework and cleaning too, since that was part of the deal." Ulrich fell back on his bed and groaned again. Odd just laughed and threw a pillow at him. "Get over it and turn off the lights."
The next day, Odd whistled all the way to breakfast, which was strange considering it was so early. But hey, he was going to see the most wonderful girl he could ever imagine, and nothing could be better than that. Even Ulrich was barely getting up for breakfast when Odd was out the door and on his way. Aelita just had that affect on him. When he got to the cafeteria, Aelita was already there, slowly eating her breakfast in front of a laptop. She didn't even notice that he came in, and so he came up behind her and put his hand over her eyes. "Guess who, princess!" he whispered in her ear.
She laughed. "Well…could it be Ulrich? No, Yumi. Oh wait, I know, Odd!" she squealed. He lifted his hands, and she closed her laptop when he sat down next to her. "Well aren't you here early. And whatever could be the reason for that?" He winked but didn't answer as he got up to go get a big helping of the breakfast. This was his favorite part about the two of them. They could be flirty and friendly, without really changing anything or being too open about it. He sat back down and the two of them talked for a good 20 minutes before the rest of the group came. They had been holding hands and Odd started to let go, but Aelita squeezed his hand and flashed him a smile.
Yumi came in first with Ulrich trailing behind her, consciously rubbing his hands through his hair. She gave Odd a wink when she saw his hand with Aelita's. He smiled at her and shrugged. He didn't know how he could get this lucky. Ulrich smiled at them but his shoulders sagged when Yumi wasn't looking. Odd couldn't help but laugh.
"So, Aelita, what was up with you running off last night?" Odd asked her.
She shrugged. "Like I said, I had homework I forgot about, and I needed to do it," she replied. He thought that was strange, seeing as Aelita was usually the responsible one in this pair, but hey, everyone deserves a break sometimes.
"Look at me! The slacker actually got his homework done while the perfect princess didn't!" Odd exclaimed poking her in the sides. She giggled, and looked back to their friends who had just sat down at their table. "So, Ulrich, got anything special planned for today?"
Ulrich's head snapped up and he shot daggers at Odd. "Nothing yet, besides boring school," he said through clenched teeth. Odd chuckled and shrugged. He probably shouldn't push his best friend as much, or something really bad could happen to him.
Just then, Aelita's phone beeps, and she gets a weird look on her face, before she stands up. "Sorry guys, got an emergency. I'll see you at lunch," she told them. She gave Odd's hand a quick squeeze before bolting out the door in a flash. That's twice in two days. Was he just wearing bad cologne?
Aelita
Breakfast had been really great, especially holding Odd's hand throughout it, but then she got a text. Zane had said to meet her outside of the cafeteria right away, so it must be something urgent. She ran out of there as quickly as possible and he was waiting right where they had met the day before.
"Hey, Zane, what's the problem? Something with XANA?" Aelita asked, keeping her voice low. He didn't look up at her, but kept staring at the ground, shaking his head.
"No, well, maybe with XANA. This morning, I woke up, and started to get ready, but something happened, and I started having like a seizure kind of thing. The room and my body glowed yellow, and all of the sudden, it stopped. Then, XANA's symbol popped up on my computer screen. Care to tell me what that's all about?" he asked, obviously shaken up by the experience.
Aelita sighed. So he had been infected by the virus too. "You've been infected by a virus. The same virus XANA has threatened my friends with, and also me. That was probably just letting you know you have it, that XANA has control of you," she said. Aelita could have shot herself. How could she have forgotten that he could have been infected with the virus by going into Lyoko? "It's my fault, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have been so stupid to think that you wouldn't be infected." She turned to the wall that was behind her, and started to punch it.
Zane grabbed her hand, holding her back. "It's not your fault. You didn't know that I would be. Besides, we'll find a way out of this. There has to be a code or something to get it out of us, and we'll find it. We still have half an hour before class starts, so why don't we get started?" he asked. She nodded, and he pulled her towards the dorms. They talked on the way there, and Aelita felt a little bit better by the time they got to his dorm. She walked in for the second time and sat down, pulling his laptop open.
Aelita glanced up and felt hope that they could do this. Together.
Yumi
"Odd, what was up with her?" she asked, her eyes following Aelita out of the cafeteria. She glanced back to the goofball that was her friend who shrugged.
"Lately, she's been more mysterious than ever. I have no doubt that she'll be back to normal soon, but it's been a tough couple of days for her," Odd replied, but he was obviously more worried than he let on. Yumi stood up, and went out of the cafeteria only to see Aelita leaving with some guy. She didn't want to be a snoop, but this was her best friend, and she couldn't just leave this alone, so Yumi followed her up to this guys room.
She waited down the hall for almost 20 minutes before they came back out. Yumi saw her wave good-bye, and then Aelita came down the hall, right past her. "Aelita, who was that?" Yumi questioned accusingly. She didn't want to be rude, but at the same time, she didn't want any of her friends to be hurt.
"That is the new guy, Zane. I was showing him around yesterday, and then, he asked me to help him with something today," Aelita told her. Yumi stared at her, but found that Aelita wasn't lying. That made her feel bad that she had just assumed something was going on. Aelita wasn't that kind of person, and everyone knew that.
"Oh, ok, well I had wanted to make sure you were ok. You've been acting really strange lately," Yumi responded smiling at her friend.
Aelita's face dropped for a second but then the smile returned. "I've just been tired that's all. But hey, we'll worry about that later. Let's get to class before we are late," she told her, starting out the door. Yumi nodded and followed after her.
