I'm gonna keep calling the older Odd; "Jonas," just so everything isn't overly complicated.
Chapter 9:
Jonas sighed as his real name was spoken and lifted a hand to rub a finger of his paw between his eyes.
"Yeah, Princess," He finally admitted with another smile as he looked down at her again. "It's me."
"Odd?" Yumi repeated as she walked up as well and quietly grabbed his hand to inspect the claws at the end, which finally convinced her that what she was seeing wasn't some kind of illusion.
"You're –" The younger Odd stated in shock as the boys approached too. "You're – me."
"How is that possible?" Jeremy added sternly.
"Honestly, guys." Jonas proclaimed sourly as he glared at them lightly. "Do you really need to act so shocked? I don't look that different – do I?" He added quietly in Aelita's direction, only for her to nod in response, causing him to sigh again.
"But – how?" Ulrich finally put in, leaving the older version of his best friend to look at him.
"You know we do technically have a time machine. Is it really so strange to think that someone from the future would visit once in a while?" He proclaimed only to earn another round of nods from everyone in question, which left him to glare at a wall. "Why do I even ask these questions?" He muttered to himself before turning back to them again.
"What are you doing here?" Jeremy quickly added in a stern tone, seemingly understanding that he would only be in their time if there was a serious problem with the future.
"I'm not really sure how much I should tell you." Jonas admitted quietly before sighing again. "But than again – if my mission is successful my timeline won't even exist anymore."
"Mission?" Aelita repeated questionably leaving Jonas to smile before lifting his hand to press a button on the clasp of his belt, which caused his Lyoko form to shift back into his earlier appearance, minus the light gray hoodie he had donned to hide his identity, instead featuring a dark purple button down shirt with the sleeves roiled up and covered partly by a black vest.
Though it wasn't nearly as crazy as his younger look; and actually seemed to posses a level of style not originally present, the color, of course, screamed of who he really was. On top of that, his hair almost single-handedly made him impossible to identify.
Without the use of color treatment that his younger self was usually so found of; it had return to the dark gold of his natural color, and what's more, it was missing the strange style that keep it spiked to a point; instead just allowing it to lay calmly around his face without any real effort.
Clearly taller and far more mature than his younger counterpart; it seemed that despite his earlier quip, Jonas really had been counting on the fact that he looked completely different to hide who he really was, and it had worked. If they hadn't seen the familiar tail and claws of his Lyoko form they might have never figured it out.
"You see; this is why I wanted to keep my identity a secret." He informed them sourly after they had continued to just stare at him for another minute leaving him to sigh loudly and turn to look at a wall as he grumbled something else. "Aelita told me it would be like this; I just didn't want to believe her."
'But I guess this is better than the universe imploding.' He added as a thought to himself, remembering the words of Back to the Future's Doc Brown, regarding the misfortune caused by meeting one's younger/older self. It would seem that Xana really had helped in that regard, granting them a certain level of acceptance for the impossible.
"Aelita?" Jeremy repeated as he realized that he wasn't talking about their Aelita, but the one from his own time. "Is she the one you've been communicating with?"
"Yeah," Jonas stated tiredly as he backed up a few steps in order to lean against a beam and slid down it to sit on the ground, clearly very exhausted. "She's the one who sent me here."
"Are you okay?" Yumi put in worriedly, as she finally shook herself out of her shock and approached him, though still a little reluctant.
"Just tired, despite what you may think, being a specter takes a lot of effort." He explained before leaning his head back to close his eyes. "I need to rest for a minute, regain my energy. Can I trust you not to kill me in my sleep?" He added as he turned to look at Ulrich in particular with a small smile.
The kid promptly made a disgruntled face, but it slowly reformed into something more understanding and he nodded.
"Thanks." Jonas stated before closing his eyes again and fell into the same trance-like sleep he had done before, leaving Yumi to kneel down at his side and carefully reach out to check for a pulse.
"He's not a specter." She stated after a moment. "He's possessed."
"It's no wonder he's so tired." Jeremy put in. "To be possessed for this long puts a lot of stress on the body. On top of that it has to take a lot of energy to change forms like that."
"Is he gonna be okay?" Aelita added, causing her friend to shake his head.
"I'm willing to bet that the only reason he was possessedto begin with is because his trip into the past would have killed him otherwise." Jeremy explained solemnly, causing everyone to look at him in horror. "If the specter were to leave his body now it would likely have the same effect. This is the only way he can survive here."
"But – why would he do this to himself?" Yumi stated emotionally, before turning slightly to look at Odd; who had remained unusually quiet throughout this discovery.
"There must be something wrong with the future." Jeremy continued sternly. "That's the only reason he'd come here. The only reason he'd need to go this far."
"Like what?" Ulrich put in, but Jeremy only shook his head again.
"I don't know." He admitted as he looked down at Jonas once more. "But it can't be good."
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