"You telling me no one has heard or seen Emi since the last attack?" Alexei glanced at his three friends. It had been three days since Emi deactivated the tower, curing everyone who was sick. During that time, no one told Alexei of their mission. They explained Emi's abustion as her working one the programs more then usual. Since this wasn't unsual for Emi, Alexei didn't question it. Until now. "Why am I just learning about this?" After school, the group decieded to meet in Kya's dorm. They caught Alexei up on the recent events, something he wasn't to happy about being left in the dark.

"After she entered the tower, we lost contact with her." Kya explained, even though she didn't known much more then Alexei did. "We all knew entering a tower with an activte firewall was dangerous."

Alexei shook his head, "This wouldn't have happened if the general did his only job." He glared at Cam, who worked on Kya's computer.

Before things got out of hand, Lynn stepped in. "Don't blame Cam, he has the hardest job of us all. But we're all needed equally to stop Xana." Glancing around the room, he saw no one was in a joyul mood. "We'll have to discuss our next steps. Without Emi, we can't deactivate the towers."

As the guradian of Lyoko, Emi was the only one able to deactivate the towers. They wouldn't be able to stop any future Xana attacks. "We've been lucky Xana hasn't attack since then. But I think we should turn the supercomputer off for now." All eyes turned to Kya, who was the only one brave enough to voice the suggestion. "Emi would want this."

Alexei shook his head, "She could still be on Lyoko somewhere. Turning of the supercomputer means giving up on her and everything we've done for the past several months." Looking at his friends, Alexei was shocked no one was protesting the idea. "Your not serious are you?"

Lynn looked away from Alexei's intension glare. "We're not agreeing, but it's an option we can't easliy dismiss. Emi's our friend, but we also have to think of everyone who'll be affected if we can't stop Xana."

"I'll put that idea on the back burner for now." Cam swung around in the chair to face the others. He appeared sleep depetive and stressed. "I've been searching for Emi everyday since then. I'll continue for two more days, after that. We'll have to recondiser turning the supercomputer off temporarily."

"I can't believe this!" Hopping off the bed, Alexei glared at his friends. "Your all willing to abandon Emi? She may be an A.I., but she's still our friend."

Pinching the bridge of his nose in frustation, Cam held in his annoyonce. "I never said we'd turn it off for good. Only until I can find a solution." Cam gave a grim smile, as he admitted something he didn't want to, but everyone neededt to hear. "It's possblie Emi maybe gone forever."

Before he could explain his theroy, Alexei had stomped out the door. Cam didn't bother going after his best friend. Alexei needed time to calm down and Cam needed to find Emi. This left Lynn and Kya in an awkward position. The two wanted to help their friends, but didn't know how nor want get in the middle of their arugment.

"Let's go." Taking Kya's hand, Lynn lead her out the room. Cam wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, even through it was Kya's dorm. Once he began working on something, Cam drowned everything else out. Kya also wouldn't be able to complete any homework with a stressed and annyoed Cam in her room.

Kya's POV:

"Do you think Cam will find Emi?" The late afternoon sun gave off a warmth that relaxed me. Stress has plagued our group since Emi's disappearnce. Alexei's outbrust dodn't help, neither did Cam's keeping this a sercet. Cam will probably night in the lab.

Lynn stopped strumming his guitar, lost in thought. "I want to believe he will. But we have to be realistic." He began playing again, working on his entry for the finals. The finals were less then two months away. They feel exactly two weeks after our group's one year anvieray. A year of friendship. batt;es, and ew experinces. At the rate things were going, we wouldn't make it another month.

"Stop worrying." Lynn stopped playing to take notes. "Things will work out. Besides, you have a competition soon."

"I totally forgot!" I've been so worried about everythubg else, I forgot to prepare for my figure skating competition. This will be my chacne to get revenge on Mara. The two of us have been rivials for years. People often compare us to each other. Our styles are polar opposisites. Mara always goes for flashy fancy moves. Her transcitions are trash, but the judges love have daring she is. My style foucses more on peractions, stlye, and skill. I worked hard to keep my skills pereice and sharp. Every routines' moves were made to flow effortly into each other. The judges rewared my hard work with high scores. "I should go practice!"

I began to get up, but Lynn pulled me down. A smirk on his face, he held up his notebook. "Another time. Today, we work on improving the lyrics." I hated singing, my parents tried to force singing lessons on me. When that didn't work, they tried figure skating. Lynn is the only person I'll willing sing for. We're best friends, sometimes we'll only listen to each other. "You don't have to sing anything today. Just help me rewrite everything."

I agreed to help Lynn, only if her accompanied me to practice. We maybe best friends, but there were somethings we still didn't want to do. Singing is one of mine. I'll help Lynn and he creates music to use during my competitions. Lynn insists he has to watch my routine before creeating the 'perfect' song.

"Let me see." Lynn happily handed over his notebook, perferring to two on the music. He played several different melodies, never playing one for longer then a through the lyrics, they felt different from Lynn's normal stuff. Lynn doesn't have a set music genre, he writes and plays what inspires him. This newest song felt fake, a false kind of joy. The words describled a happy feeling, but the way it was written felt forced. "Lynn, did something happen?" Lynn's music betrayed how he felt. I knew him well enough to notice the slight difference in his music.

"nothing new." Lynn's voice was netural, but his playing became sobmer.

"Lynn." Placing my hand on his gurtiar, I got his full attention. "talk."

Lynn shrugged,
"There's nothing to say. My dad found out about the competition and wants me to drop out." He's voice grew bitter the more he spoke. "I said no, he yelled. Same old tale." Lynn's father was a retired soccer player. He wanted his only son to follow in his footsteps. It didb't help that Lynn can easily adapt to playing any sport.

"Don't let that affect your music." A thought came to mind. "You need to relax. Let's do some parkour!" Parkour is mine and Alexei's thing, sometimes Lynn joins us. I haven't been able to go recently, neither has Lynn.

A smile appeared on Lynn's face. "You have the most random ideas." Laughing, he picked up his guatiar. "Lead the way." We headed back to the dorms to chance, agreeing to meet up in the quad later. For two hours, we wouldn't worry or stress about anything. We'd be two normal students hanging out, together.

Alexei's POV:

Frustation drained away, the faster I ran. Working out, allowed me to forget my anger. Finding Emi took prioty over how betaryed I felt. My feelings about Cam didn't matter. Cam is a good guy, who'd do all he could to find Emi. My earlier outbrust was about them lying to me. Had they been truthful, I wouldn't have been mad, only shocked.

"Alexei!" Mara came jogging over with Ally and Avery. Unlike the girls, Avery is a jerk. Being on the same teams as him is touture. Averynever works with us, yet bosses the team around. Coach keeps him around, because Avery's always our best defender. Avery is like Lynn, he easily adapts to any sport he plays. Great athle, offul teammate.

"Hey, Mara." Taking the headphones out, I went to greet them.

Mara's long dark hair was tied in a ponytail. She wore a purple tracksuit with grey sneakers. She appeared to have been working out, based on the sweat coding her forehead. "Can we join you?" Avery glare and Ally's indifference were something I couldn't deal with right now.

"Sorry Mara, I perfer to be alone right now." Putting my headphones back in, I sprinted away before Mara could protest.

Cam's POV:

Three days of searching Lyoko and nothing. Emi's digital signature disappeared without a trace, yet her avatar card still appeared. The only sign she hadn't been devirtualzed were her life points. Every few houts they'd decearse, currently she had fifty life points. "Where are you, Emi? Give me a sign?"

Searching the supercomputer for some kind of program that could help, my locator progtam began going off. It showed four keys, one in each sector. "The program must be bugged." Three keys had been recovered, only one remained. Althought this information wasn;t confirmed. Our theroy is based on the fact that so far one key has been found in each sector. Leaving the desret secotr the only place we haven't detected a key.

Worried the loactor could be correct, I called Lynn. Leaving my explaintion vauge, I asked him to come to the manison. While waiting, I recorded the loaction of the 'keys'. Lynn arrived fifteen mintues later. Covered in sweat, he appeared to have been working out. 'Why so serctive?"

Quickly explaining the situation, Lynn agreed to check Lyoko.

Lynn's POV:

"I'm feeling you Cam, there's only tower here." Having checked the forest and desret sectors I'm currently in the mountion sector. The corrations cam sent m, only led to a tower each time. "Your program is probably buggy."

"I'll feel better if you check the ice sector as well. There's a way tower ten degrees south." Cam instructed.

Following his directions, I found the way tower. Entering, I walked to the platforms edge. Holding my arms out beside me, I 'fell' off the edge. 'Falling' 'down' into the data stream, I ended up inside another tower. Exiting the tower, Cam guided me to a 'key's' location. Suprsingly, this one was close to the way tower. Once again in the ice sector, I noticed the area looked familiar. Dashing through the valley, I realized where I was. It wasn't until I saw the tower, I share my information with Cam. "Cam, the corrations took me to the last tower Emi deactivated."

"That can't be right." Cam said.

While waiting for him, a laser whirled pass my head. On alert, I took flicked my wrist, summoning my chakram. A metal bracelet slide into my hand, quickly expanding into it's full size. "I've got three unwanted guest." Ducking behind a rock, I sheilded myself from the hornets' lasers. One flew over my head, then circled back around. The chakram flew from my hand, easliy slicing through the horent like butter. Two more ambused me from behind. My body clashed to the ground, as both hornets rammed me.

"Get out of there Lynn, you only have twenty left points left." Cam's warning came to late, a single laser devirtaulzed me.

Back on earth, exshutation filled my body as I stepped into the lab. "Care to explain what that was all about." Crossing my arms, I stood behind Cam. "The other locations didn't have monsters. Why at this specific tower."

"I can't confirm anything now. I'll speak with everyone tomorrow during breakfast. Just make sure Alexei is there." Cam said no more, as he began working on something. Knowing the Cam wouldn't notice my presentation anymore, I left the manison.

The next morning

Everyone had gathered for breakfast, awaiting the news Cam had. Alexei refused to speak or look at his friends. Lynn has to drag Alexei out of his house that morning. Kya sat next to Lynn, looking over lyrics.

"Where is he?" Alexei impatiently tapped his spoon against his glass. "This had better not be about turning the supercomputer off."

"It's not." Cam's silent arrival startled everyone. Looking like death, Cam's skin was pale and appeared as if he hadn't eaten or slept in days. "May have found Emi."

Cam held up his hand to silence everyone, not wanting any interruptions. "Yesturday, my locator went off, detecting four keys. Lynn went to Lyoko alone, checking every sector. Every single location was a tower, the last one was the tower Emi deactivated in the ice sector. What made it more unusal, was that this was the only tower to have monster attack Lynn." Pausing, Cam ate some of his food, allowing his friends to aborsb the information. "Emi's avatar card never disappeared and she still has live points. All signs she's still somewhere on Lyoko."

Kya rasied her hand, "Does that means she's still on Lyoko?"

Cam nodded, "My theory is that Emi's digital data was scattered through four towers on Lyoko, one in each sector. The tower she deactivate probably holds the core of her data since that's where she disappeared. Theroically, her Lyoko Keys protected her...for the most parts."

"So, she's on Lyoko in pieces?" Alexei asked, now fully interested in the converations.

"Theroically, yes." Cam pointed his spoon in Alexei's direction. "By connecting all of the digital pieces from the correct towers, we may be able to put Emi back together again."

"Theroically, of course." Lynn smirked.

"Correct." Taking out a pen, Cam began drawing a diagram on a napkin. "We'll have to go to each sector, collecting pieces, before ending at the ice sector's tower. Since that's were Emi was 'scattered' it's where we'll have to reconnect her." Holding up the diagram, Cam explained his plan. "Problem is, we'll need some digital 'glue' to hold the pieces together. I'll also have to re'virtualz' her onto Lyoko. A tricky task since she was already on Lyoko."

Alexei shook his head, "This is to complaiced. But we can save Emi?"

Cam sighed, "Theroically, yes.:"

"How are you going to do that last part?" Kya asked, taking a sip of water. "You didn't even have a way to materzial her to earth. Now you have to viratalze her?"

"The materizaltin program is fifty percent complete." Cam took out his laptop, showing the others the materiazlion program. "This the virtualzion and deviartlaztion codes for Emi. I worked backwards, but this will allow me to finish the program."

"Your going to use this now, aren't you." Lynn stated.

Cam nodded, "Yes, it's the only way. Problem is," Closing his laptop, Cam sighed. "I'll only be able to use it once. The program isn't saved to the supercomputer. Once it's saved, I won't be able to modife it. If I use it now, I'll have to start from scatch and input everything again. That's several weeks, maybe months of work. I also have to complete the final half as well."

"There's no other choice." Kya placed her hand on Cam's shoulder. "If we don't use it, you'll have created it for nothing."

"She's right." Lynn's voice was full of determination. "We'll beginning planning afterschool and go tomorrow."

"We can't wait that long." Cam's voice was grim. "Emi's life points have been decreasing every few hours. At the rate it's going, she'll lose them all before five pm today. We'll have to go now."

The news shocked everyone, but Alexei gave a bitter smile. "How are we going to access the information from the tower if we do go today? Emi's the only one who can do that."

Again, Cam shook his head. "I'll go to Lyoko and do it." Everyone looked at Cam like he was crazy. "Emi had a theory that Override probably works on more then just Xana's monsters. We've never tried it out, but now's a good a time as any."

"It's settle then. Let's go now." Lynn started to get up, but Kya stopped him.

"All of us can't skip school." It was bad enough Cam had been late the last few days. There how group missing would cause the teachers to begin questioning. Coming from a big family, Kya knew this would happen if more then two of them left. "Only two of us should go."

"She's right." Cam agreed. "Plus, someone needs to keep an eye on the school in case of an attack. Also, all of going to Lyoko won't help if we need help should someone get devirtalzed." Glancing at everyone, Cam gestured to himself and Kya. "I have to go, because I might be able to access the towers. Kya will come with me, she's the only person after me who knows enough to work the supercomputer. Lynn and Alexei, you'll protect the school and cover for us."

Everyone agreed this was the best course of attack. Kya and Cam left soon after for the mansion, allowing Lynn and Alexei to leave for class. While sperarted, for now, they all hoped to save Emi.