C o d e - C r I s I s

Episode 9

F I N A L - D R A F T


"X.A.N.A? You're…in my head? No! NO! Get out!" William was still trapped in the black oblivion of his own subconscious. Between him and a great white light was X.A.N.A, in the form of William's dark former self. X.A.N.A just chuckled.

"I intend to. I've been here long enough already." X.A.N.A smiled, blinked his empty black eyes and started to turn towards the light.

"Wait!" shouted William, "What are you talking about?" X.A.N.A sighed, and stopped.

"To be honest, I'd rather the prodigy explain it to you later. But I suppose after all we've been through – and the immense service you've done – you deserve to hear it from me." X.A.N.A turned back to face William, hands clasped together as it prepared to explain. "Belpois is a very intelligent individual, and a very satisfying rival. So to save time I'll start by telling you the things he probably won't know. You may tell him, if you wish. At this point it will make no difference in the slightest."

"What won't make a difference?" asked William suspiciously.

X.A.N.A tilted his head slightly. He seemed perplexed that William hadn't figured it out.

"That you are the vessel I used to store my sentience."

"What?" William stepped back, aghast.

"While humans seem insistent on using their minds in a profoundly inefficient manner, this did not keep me from noting – and exploiting – the human mind for my purposes."

"This isn't possible!" gasped William, "When did you…?"

"Don't you remember? Before Belpois launched the program he thought would destroy me, I managed to…'draft' you...one final time. I had hoped to take you subtly, but since you saw me coming I couldn't just implant myself and then leave you benignly. You would be suspicious, and certainly tell the other interlopers. So I used you to attack them; I knew it was futile, of course – I never expected to stop them from launching the multi-system agent in the first place. I allowed it in order to give me time to prepare my final push."

William was on the brink of having a panic attack, "You…used me…again!"

It was hard to tell, but X.A.N.A rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I thought we were past that. The rest is, as you say, history. The agent eliminated my Replikas; mere decoys, just enough to make you think they mattered, and when Jeremy flipped the switch of the supercomputer, the first phase of my design was complete. The plan was elaborate, yes, but the goal was simple: to fake my death."

"But WHY? What did you accomplish? Other than the murders of thousands of…"

"I had to get your attention somehow, didn't I? And after three years of silence, why not come back with…style?" X.A.N.A smiled broadly, his human mannerisms had improved too much for his own good. William was burning with rage and charged straight at him, getting a punch ready. X.A.N.A's smile turned to a solidly stern expression. Quick as lightning he summoned a sword, like of Ulrich's sabers, out of nothingness, and with one smooth motion rammed it straight through William's chest. He gasped weakly before falling to his knees at X.A.N.A's feet. X.A.N.A pulled out the sword. It was stained with blood. He studied it with a cold interest, then looked at William. "No," he sighed, "that won't stop you, will it? You have much more willpower than THAT!" With sudden and intense anger X.A.N.A started to plunge the sword, over and over again, in and out of William's chest. Blood flew everywhere, but anything that didn't land on X.A.N.A or William simply disappeared into the blackness that surrounded them. After nearly a dozen stabs X.A.N.A seemed satisfied and pulled out the sword a final time, kicking William to the ground to bleed out. The sword vanished into the air. "Don't worry, you're not dying," he explained, just as calmly as before his outrage, "this is only in your mind. It's not your body I've slaughtered, merely your will. Perhaps now I can finish explaining this to you without…INTERRUPTION!" X.A.N.A stared at the battered warrior with a fierce gaze, his fist clenched tightly at his side. Not a moment later he was calm again, and continued to speak. "Forgive me, William. I do appreciate you. I just remember a time when you would do as I ordered, when I ordered, without question or hesitation. But that is just the nature of humans, I suppose, to be ever changing, corruptible, insatiable? I gave you everything and you threw it back in my face!"

For lack of better words, Will felt like a puddle of mud – on fire. Everything hurt; every bone, and joint, every single hair on his head. He wasn't really there as a human, he was just a figment in his own mind, and right now his entire consciousness was in pain. But that meant that it still wasn't over. As long as he could still think, he must've still had some control. Slowly, and with great pain, he managed to lift his head.

"You're…just guessing…aren't you?" he wheezed, blood raining down his face. "You're mad because…you really don't know how I feel…how I felt when I was under your control…how I could hate you, even with all the power you gave me…" X.A.N.A gritted his teeth, his eyes glowed intensely and seemed to burn. Red smoke rising from them as the rage grew. "You're just part of X.A.N.A, the part that makes him want. But what you want is to understand us. You've hid that part somewhere else and…" he finally pushed X.A.N.A over the edge, "you don't know where it is anymore…do you?" An intense, fiery aura of red energy burst from X.AN.A. William could feel the heat but couldn't move. He tried to avert his gaze.

"BELIEVE ME," he shouted, reverting to his broken electronic voice, "THAT IS MY NEXT STOP." Letting out a loud shriek, X.A.N.A spread his arms and disintegrated into a thin cloud of black smoke that flew like a cyclone into the bright light. William closed his eyes. When he opened them he was back in the cathedral, still in the grasp of the Scyphozoa. Gingerly, it released him and, utterly drained, he collapsed to the floor. He struggled to stand as the Scyphozoa disappeared through the large painted glass window behind him, leaving only an image of X.A.N.A's eye behind it. Just then Aelita burst up through a door in the floor, she flew to the top of the room and looked around, charging an energy blast until she saw William. She quickly landed next to him and helped him to his feet, Odd and Ulrich crawled out of the hole and joined them.

"William!" she cried "Are you all right? What happened?" Ulrich looked around. There didn't seem to be any signs of a struggle. William was still only half conscious as Aelita pulled him up. "C'mon," she said, "Let's get him back to the Skid." Suddenly William's eyes opened and he was alert and strong, he knocked Aelita away and picked up his sword. He started pointing it around crazily with a desperate look in his eye. Odd and Aelita jumped back. Ulrich drew his swords with a stern expression on his face, ready to fight. William's eyes were darting all around the room, looking for something.

"Wh...where is it?" he rasped, "WHERE IS IT?"

"Calm down!" shouted Ulrich firmly, "What are you talking about? Where is what?"

"That THING...the...the Scyphozoa!"

"Scyphozoa?" gasped Aelita, looking around cautiously, "Did it catch you?"

"Yes..." moaned William, "but it didn't want me. It wanted X.A.N.A...He was in me...the whole time...this whole time he was manipulating me, just like before...just like before! HE USED ME AGAIN!!"

"Watch out!" shouted Ulrich, he wasn't sure what was going on, but if he knew William he had an pretty good idea of what was going to happen next. He pushed Odd and Aelita aside and dodged just as William sent a sword streak towards them. But they weren't the target; the wave went and struck a painted glass window far behind them, but shattering it revealed nothing but stone wall behind it. In a berserker rage William sent wave after wave of energy attacks all over the cathedral, shattering all the windows but revealing nothing behind them. The others could only back away mournfully as he continued his rampage...and try not to get hit. Finally he turned around to face the biggest painting, which the Scyphozoa had escaped through while he was downed.

"Can't let it get away..." he rasped, "it won't GET AWAY!" He charged his sword with intense energy and plunged it into the window. A huge ripple of energy blew out from the impact point until all the glass shattered in a magnificent rainbow of explosive shards. Ulrich and the others took cover behind the seats, William just stood there, facing it head on and letting the glass cut where it may. When the smoke cleared it revealed a tapestry hanging behind the glass. At the top was X.A.N.A, shown again as a benevolent, glowing entity. Beneath him was William, dressed as a cherub with angel wings spread wide – but he was falling, and his wings were coming apart. He was falling from X.A.N.A's 'graces' into a fiery pit of damnation, in which were the demonic Lyoko Warriors, sinister grins on their faces as they reached up to snare him. William gazed deeply at the picture and started to sob loudly. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees. Aelita quickly rushed and put her arms around him, whispering comforts. Ulrich and Odd stayed put, silent.

"Jeremy," whispered Ulrich sadly, "take us to the ship, please."

"I'll teleport you straight there," sighed Jeremy. "All the interference vanished with the Scyphozoa." He pressed a few keys and a moment later they way all in their respective Skids, Yumi had already moved back to her own, allowing Aelita to take the cockpit again. Yumi looked sadly at William, who was still crying inside his pod, huddled up.

"Get us the hell out of here," she groaned, and Jeremy guided them home.

They had arrived safely back home and devirtualized – all of the Krakken had vanished as quickly as the Scyphozoa did, and Jeremy had the answer.

"It was all...a trick," he sighed, "the Shriek, the Krakken, the Hellhounds, the Replikas even the GODDAMN PHONE CALL!" he slammed they keyboard with tremendous force, knocking several pens and notes to the floor and summoned an amalgam of windows and readouts on his screens. After a few deep breaths, he continued the exposition. "X.A.N.A wasn't 'alive' until he got back his consciousness from William. Up to that point, everything we'd been fighting was just a simple program. A failsafe, written by X.A.N.A and encoded into his remaining files to be executed when they had amassed the power to do so. That's why the Shrieks were getting weaker – not because they were radiating further from the source, but because the program he left was using up all of it's power. If we'd done nothing, it would've died out and X.A.N.A would've had nothing to return to, he may have even died out William's mind eventually. But he knew we wouldn't sit idle. He planned this massive attack so we would think he had returned, and think he'd gathered enormous power when in reality it was just was concentrated burst of power to scare us into..." he glanced over at William who was sitting alone in the corner, staring at nothing and still crying quietly. "I'm so sorry, William," said Jeremy, "but you were his ace in the hole. He knew we'd turn to you...and fast...so he implanted his sentience into your subconscious so it would bypass my scans – it only appeared like your personality had become a bit...enhanced, but..."

"It was him," choked William, "everything I've felt for the past 3 years – all the hate, the drive, the longing for revenge...it wasn't for me against him. It was for him against you. I was just his tool..." and he started crying again, before anyone could say anything he shouted at them "I'm not going back! Never again! Never again...I won't let him steal my life..." he went on and on, muttering promises to himself in the corner. Jeremy sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead.

"Does anyone else have Sissi's phone number?" he griped, the team was aghast. William seemed to be startled for a bit, then went back to being out of his mind.

"Are you serious?" yelled Odd, "Are you really serious?" Jeremy scoffed as he turned back to the computer, pulling up phone numbers.

"Do any of you have a better idea?" he sighed.

"Are you kidding?" spat Yumi, "I'd sooner have Jim than—"

"Moved away," said Jeremy, still typing. "Next?"

"Jean Aime?" offered Odd, shrugging, "He's pretty fit."

"He's also drunk on every day that ends with a 'y'. Aelita, suggestions?"

"I have a some friends," she nodded. "They don't know about Lyoko at all, but—"

"But do we really have time to explain it to them? Ulrich? You've been quiet." Ulrich has his head down in deep thought, when he lifted it he had but one recommendation.

"Saburo. He doesn't know about Lyoko but he's as good as I am at martial arts so he won't need much training, and he lost his brother to the first Shriek..."

"...Which makes him a liability!" groaned Jeremy, gesturing towards William, "The last thing we need is another vengeance-obsessed maniac on the brink of a mental meltdown!"

"Not like anyone else we know..." whispered Odd under his breath. Aelita heard and elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Saburo is not obsessed!" Ulrich stated, "But you're right, he may be scarred a bit too much to risk. He and Junichiro were very close – I was quite fond of the guy myself, and we only met a few times. But what makes Sissi any better?"

"Sissi is a very...unique individual, Ulrich, as you know. There were many times during our last adventures where it seemed like could've very well been a useful addition to the force, long before William arrived."

"Yeah," said Yumi sarcastically, "it's just too bad it takes the end of the world to bring out her good side." Jeremy mock frowned and nodded his head acceptingly.

"You're right, Yumi. I guess it's a good thing its the end of the world, then. Make the call."

Sissi was on Kadic High's gymnastics team, and she was quite good. Right now they were having practice, and between long sessions she would chill in her room on campus dancing to old N'SYNC albums. Her dancing was actually very good, her singing, however, was a sin against God. She didn't even notice her phone ringing until it vibrated off her desk and landed on her foot. She didn't even bother to turn down the music when she picked up to answer.

"Hey babe!" she said loudly, trying to speak over the music – Jeremy had made it so that the call from his computer would appear as William's cell number – she probably wouldn't answer for anyone else...except maybe Ulrich, who wouldn't cooperate. "Where are you? You said you'd make it to practice? I'm wearing spaaaaandeeeeeex!" Jeremy shuddered. Physically Sissi was a very attractive person, but he was drawn more by a person's intelligence, which made Sissi seem like vulgar harpy.

"Sissi, it's Jeremy Belpois."

"Who?" she asked dumbly. Truth be told she did remember Jeremy, but was being mean, as usual. Jeremy saw right through it.

"Listen," he said sternly, "this is very important. I know you're busy but..."

"...My stupid boyfriend got his ass handed to him in Lyoko, had a nervous breakdown, and you need me to replace him 'cause I'm just so...damn awesome?" Jeremy and the others who were listening in by the computer speakers were dumbfounded.

"How did you...?"

"He texted me 2 minutes before you called."

Jeremy and the others looked over to see the still sobbing William typing into a small beeper device.

"Ah," sighed Jeremy, he didn't need to bother asking how she remembered Lyoko – William probably told her everything before they even recruited him. "Do you remember where the factory is?"

"Yes."

"A.S.A.P, please."

"Alright, alright," she sighed, "if the fate of the world is in my hands I suppose I can make the time, I just hope my team can survive the loss..."

"We'll be doing them a favor." said Jeremy, away from the screen.

"I heard that, nerd." snapped Sissi.

"Good. We'll be waiting." and he hung up.

-

"Excuse me madame, do you have an appointment?" asked Jean, bowing politely as Sissi approached the factory.

"You smell like booze and bile, get out of my way, freak." She walked far around him and continued to the factory. Jean was still bowed.

"How...charming." he sighed, taking a swig from his bottle before sitting down in the sun. The elevator opened as Sissi approached it and closed when she had entered, it automatically headed to the operations room where the team was waiting. Her first sight when the doors opened was Odd, right in her face, smiling at her.

"Miss me, beautiful?" he grinned.

"You smell worse than the hobo. Where's William?"

Odd frowned and nodded towards the corner. William was still sitting there. He wasn't crying anymore, just sitting with a deeply depressed expression on his face. Sissi walked over to him, looked him over, then kicked him gently in the knee.

"Get up, wuss." she said firmly. William glanced at her lazily, then went back to his moping.

"No." he groaned. Without a word of warning Sissi grabbed him by the arm and hoisted him to his feet, she then slammed him against the will and stared him in the eyes.

"What is your problem? All this time you act like nothing can beat you, then some digital bully says a few mean words and you melt? Come on!"

"You weren't there," said Will, quietly, "you don't know what it was like. So powerless..."

"Powerless? From what you told me you've kicked not only his ass, but all these losers' on a semi-regular basis...no offense..." she added half-heartedly, "Think, Will," she said softly, sounding genuinely concerned, "do you honestly think it was X.A.N.A that made you want to go back to Lyoko? Were you really that sick of the place?" William thought for a moment. He remembered how things had been during the tournament. Even though at first there were hard feelings all around, eventually it was just pure fun – they all just loved being there, and all the tings that they could do. "...And I know for a fact," she continued, "that it doesn't take some otherworldly influence to hate THESE guys...no offense."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and be offended, alright?" snapped Yumi, Sissi shrugged and continued her 'pep talk'.

"And William, did X.A.N.A make you fall for me?" William finally smiled,

"Well, you do seem like his type." he chuckled.

"William," said Sissi flatly, "I'm being nice here, do NOT waste this moment."

"OK." he said firmly, then kissed her strongly. This left the rest of them with the awkward position of watching someone they kinda liked make out with someone they utterly despised. When they finally finished pawing at each other he said, "...but I'm still not going." Sissi looked very angry for a moment, then suddenly became very calm.

"Alright," she said pleasantly, "suit me up, glasses. Or whatever it is you guys do." William looked very stunned, as did the rest of the team except Jeremy – who picked up on what Sissi was doing.

"To the lift," said Jeremy, "I'll send you straight the scanners, I'm going to load a training Replika for you." Sissi had no idea what Jeremy was talking about, but played it cool and entered the elevator.

"What? Wait!" shouted William,quickly jumping in with her. The others were about to follow but Jeremy signaled them to stay put. William held Sissi by the shoulders as the lift closed behind them. "Wait, Sissi! You don't know what you're getting into! You've never been to Lyoko, it's not safe..."

"...So? Teach me, then." she said. William sputtered nonsense, trying to think of a response. "It's easy," she said, "I've never been to Lyoko, you have. It's just a training exercise so X.A.N.A isn't going to show up, right? Just give me the basics, maybe show me some moves and then just leave saving the world to me." The doors opened and Sissi walked briskly into the scanner. She was so nervous she felt like she could faint, but keeping composure was a trick she'd mastered as part of being popular. She smiled at William as if to say, 'Your move'. William paused for a moment, but when Jeremy called for the scanner to close he quickly leaped inside the other open one. Sissi nearly panicked. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Jeremy? I wasn't supposed to really go, was I?"

"That was my plan," said Jeremy, smiling. "Executive override initiated! Identify: Jeremy Belpois, Code: Crisis! Virtualization!" the scanners filled with light as both William and Sissi started to dissapear. William was calm, the sickly feeling in his stomach was gone. Sissi was frantic, banging on the doors on the scanner as her legs shred into data.

"You dirty, slimy, no good, rotten shrimp! I'll get you for this! I'll rip that big brain of yours out your ear and shove it up your..." and with that she was gone, along with William.

"Where are they going, anyway?" asked Yumi, "I thought Dry Run was destroyed?"

"I've been rebuilding it, it's not complete but there's enough there for a good sparring match between two people. The shifting data gives it a very interesting appearance when you see it virtualized, I called it 'Run Down' as a joke."

"Are you really serious about adding Sissi to the team?" asked Ulrich.

"Well her D.N.A's been scanned into the supercomputer, so I guess we'll just have to see how she does." Aelita was worried, she didn't like how reckless Jeremy was being. But if Sissi could hold her own on Run Down, especially against William, she wasn't going to argue with Jeremy's decision.

William arrived on Run Down. Expecting Dry Run (or something like it), and he was very surprised at what he saw. The sky was dark and stormy with violet colored lighting leaping from cloud to cloud as well as striking the many stone boulders that were levitating through the sky in massive swirling circles. He himself was on a large stone island, about the size of a baseball field, floating over an electrical abyss. All around him were other floating islands of large and smaller sizes also drifting about, some crashing together to form more pieces of Dry Run, others just falling into the smoky darkness below. What he didn't see was Sissi. He didn't know what to expect in terms of her virtual form, but he thought she'd be virtualized next to him – he was very worried that she'd already fallen into the pit. Then, from out of nowhere, a bullet hit the ground in front him making a small but still startling explosion in the dirt. William looked up and saw, for the first time, Sissi's virtual form. She was wearing a pure black body suit with fierce looking chain-up boots and a short bodied black jacket with red trim. She had biker gloves and two long-barreled pistols with golden eagles embroidered on the sides and ornate sights on the top. Her hair was long and black with thin red bangs in front, and her eyes were pure black pools – they were creepy, but not emitting mist like X.A.N.A's red ones had in his vision. She stood atop of a floating rock, pointing her gun at him and smiling.

"How could you ever feel weak with all of this power? It's so exhilarating!" She fired a few more shots at him, he dodged the first two and tried to block the second – the hit nearly made him fall back. The bullets had surprising power; Odd's arrows were no comparison. She crouched for a minute, then with a quiet breath of exertion jumped high off the the rock, spinning like an Olympic gymnast as she span high over William, firing with both guns. Will ducked under his sword as the bullets hit, each one knocked him a little deeper into the ground, and then Sissi landed right on top of him – standing on the sword's flat side. "I thought you were the best." she sighed, then back flipped off and started firing repeatedly at the cowering William. Straining, he lifted his sword against the barrage, only to be slowly pushed back by the hail of bullet fire towards the nearest edge of the island. "I guess you were the best," sighed Sissi, forlorn, "now I am. If you're this easy, X.A.N.A should be a piece of cake." William was nearing the edge of the precipice when the revelation hit. Her words were all too familiar to him; they were his exact feelings after beating the others in the tournament.

"That's the same attitude..." he grunted, trying to fight his way back from the edge, "that cost me my LIFE!" He charged his sword with energy and then kicked it bodily towards Sissi, it acted as a shield and the energy helped to repel the bullets she shot to slow it down. Soon she had no choice but to leap out of its way. As she did she saw William running after it, he jumped up and grabbed the sliding sword by the hilt and carried it into the air with him. Still in hang-time he spun and launched the charged attack at Sissi, who rolled out of its path.

"What are you doing?" she asked, pretending to be surprised.

"I won't let you make my mistakes," he shouted as he landed, "I'll take you out right here and now if I have to!"

Sissi grinned. "How romantic." She pulled a secondary trigger under her guns and the golden eagles that decorated the sides of each pistol slid forward down the barrel like short swords, which they were. Shorter, curved blades popped out from under the barrel to act as finger guards. Crossing her gun-blades in front of her she charged at William, roaring loudly. He swung at her but she ducked under it and sliced at his side as she ran past. Wincing only briefly he turned to strike again – low this time – she did a short jump and stomped right on the blade, jamming it into the ground. He ripped it out with a roar, and she jumped off right over his hand and landed behind him, striking with a kick that send him flying forwards onto his stomach. He lost his grip on his sword and it landed in front of him. He reached for it but she shot it away off the edge of the island. William got up and jumped off the edge after it.

"Manta!" he called out, hoping for the best. Sure enough, his golden Manta virtualized under him, and he summoned his sword to him as they flew away from the island. Sissi was left bitter; she didn't have a vehicle of her own. So instead she leaped from floating rock to rock, giving chase. On and between every landing she would fire shots off and William, he would lean so that his Manta was always right under his feet, giving him something to press against while deflecting her shots. Between her attacks he would launch his own, but she would always leap away at the last second – the rock she left then getting blown to bits by the attack. Coming up was another large island. Spotting an opportunity, Sissi shot ahead and blew up a rock behind William, the pieces knocked him off his Manta. It tried to follow and save him, but Sissi charged a shot in each pistol and fired, blowing the Manta away like dust. William used his Influence technique on his sword to pull himself to the island, he landed with a clumsy and painful roll. Sissi landed and slowly walked towards him, just as cocky as ever.

"Sissi," he groaned getting up, "you can't underestimate X.A.N.A. You can't treat this like I did; like a game. If you do it could cost you everything." Sissi just rolled her eyes.

"If I'm sooooo bad at this, why don't you fight him, then?"

"I...can't." William sighed.

"...Then don't lecture me! Super Shadow!" Sissi pressed her palm against her fist and appeared to be concentrating intensely, under her feet her shadow suddenly started stretching out towards William at high speed. When it reached him it rose out of the ground as a perfect silhouette of Sissi with smoky white eyes. William swung at it, but his sword just went through without harming it. It punched him in the stomach, then face, and then spun around and kicked him hard in the chest – sending him flying backwards until he slid to a stop on the ground. He launched a sword streak at it but it too just passed through harmlessly, but a moment later it started to flicker. He looked to see that as the beam passed Sissi she flinched, loosing her focus. The shadow raised its leg almost straight up into it's face, aiming a crushing ax kick right for William's skull.

"Super Smoke!" he vanished under the shadow's foot and speed quickly towards Sissi. Her concentration broke, but it seemed she had to wait for her shadow to retract before she could move again. It was a race between the Smoke and the Shadow. Straining, Sissi gained the advantage and just as her shadow returned she drew her gun, aimed at William's smoke at fired. The bullet hit with a large dusty explosion, out of which leaped William, sword held high and ready to strike. She could barely raise her head to look as William came down straight through face and down the center of her body leaving a bright white line as he sliced.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...!" she screamed as she devirtualized from the top down, her unfinished swear echoing on the rocks. William stood victoriously, exhausted, and tucked his sword in his scabbard.

"Take me home, Jeremy."

When William exited the lift Sissi was there waiting with the others, with a very angry look on her face. Will just smiled.

"So," he said coyly, "still think you're ready to join the ranks?" Sissi mock frowned and stared away.

"No," she sighed, "but I think you are." She and Jeremy smiled, William could see out the corner of his eye everyone else was smiling too. It became obvious what this had all been about; his confidence was back.

"I hate you guys." he laughed. Sissi walked up and embraced him.

"Even me?" she shined, making a puppy face,

"Especially you." said William, leaning in to kiss her. Quickly Yumi stepped in and split them them.

"Get a room, you two." she sighed, disgusted. Sissi grinned.

"Not the worst of ideas..." she said in a sing-song voice, William smiled.

"Sorry, gotta save the world. You know how it is." Sissi shrugged and pushed him away,

"Whatever, you know where I'll be. Well, see you guys later. Good luck with the whole...thing...here...that you do." and she headed for the elevator. Ulrich, surprised, stepped in her path.

"Wait, aren't you going to come with us?" he asked. Yumi was surprised.

"Hell no, get outta my way." she shoved him aside and entered the lift, it closed and Jeremy sent her on her way. This left an awkward moment between Ulrich and Yumi.

"Were you serious?" snapped Yumi.

"Hey, she was good!" said Ulrich, "More guns can't hurt, right?"

"She'll be our reserve." said Jeremy, "But she probably would've refused anyway if I'd told her where you were going next."

"What do you mean?" asked Aelita.

"The trace program you guys entered in Renaissance did it's job. I was able to find the real world database where X.A.N.A was able to place his consciousness after retrieving it from William, it's where I'll have to virtualize you – as Spectres – in order to shut him down once and for all.

"No offense, Einstein," said Odd, "but how do you know it'll work this time?"

"Don't worry about that yet, it's not even the biggest problem we'll have to face. Remember how big I said the database would have to be? And how few of those there probably are in the world?"

"Yes." they nodded.

"Well there's one factor I forgot: Security. It would have to be somewhere guaranteed to almost never be shut down or damaged to the point he would be in any danger, and also somewhere difficult for us to infiltrate in the real world. I must say, he made a spectacular choice."

"Where?" asked Odd, jumped with anxiety. Jeremy took a deep breath.

"Arlington, Virginia." he sighed.

There was a long silence as every one but Aelita was left confused.

"That's...in North America, right?" asked Ulrich, "The United States?"

"Yes, Ulrich. Yes it is."

The team was still scratching their heads except Aelita, who was pacing frantically, already trying to think up a plan. She knew exactly what Jeremy was referring to.

"Well what's so bad about that?" asked Yumi, "It's populated, yeah, but X.A.N.A's probably tucked himself in some out of the way place, we could easily..."

"It's the Pentagon, you guys!" Aelita finally shouted, "X.A.N.A is inside the goddamn Pentagon!" Everyone gasped loudly. Aelita swearing was always a bit breathtaking, but having to break inside the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense was a bit daunting too. There was more silence. No one could think of anything to say, but that never stopped Odd before—he only smiled.

"Road Trip!" he hooted.


Thank you for reading Code: Crisis - episode nine - "Final - Draft"

Next episode: "Extradition"