Chapter 11

ETA 1 hour

Aélita had sent that text when they had first taken off in Grandmére's private jet. The flight had given the two enough time to tell her what had really happened and why they were in such a hurry to get back to Kadic. Now Aélita and Jérémie sat in their plush, overstuffed chairs, facing Grandmére as she took in the information they had just told her.

Aélita didn't know what the Xana attack was, how Yumi was faring, or even how the town was doing. All she knew for certain was that they would be touching down any minute now.

"A virtual world that you can actually go to," Grandmére said more to herself. She looked at Aélita and asked, "And your father, Franz Hopper was it, built it? Is actually stuck inside it?"

Aélita nodded her head.

"I feel like I should know that name," Grandmére mumbled. She looked at Jérémie and asked, "And you say he created a time reversal program?"

"It works off both Tesla and Einstein's work on time travel," Jérémie offered. "Though it only ever sends us back in time that have gone through Lyoko. No one else notices the effect."

"Then I'm not going to remember any of this once you're done, am I?" Grandmére asked, sounding clearly disappointed.

"We've been thinking about telling you," Aélita admitted, exchanging a glance with Jérémie.

"Mrs. Belpois, were about to land," the pilot's voice announced over the speakers.

Aélita noticed the two reach for their seat belts, getting her to do the same. She didn't remember flying before and wasn't sure what to expect on landing.

"So who of your friends will be meeting us?" Grandmére asked as Aélita could feel the slight change in the plane.

"Yumi for certain, Ulrich might be there if he could escape his parents," Jérémie admitted.

"What about Odd, where's he?" Grandmére asked, clearly knowing Jérémie's friends.

"New Zealand, with family," Aélita offered.

Grandmére looked at her a moment as the sound of the plane's wheels touched down. As the plane slowed to a stop, turning out of the runway, she unbuckled and asked, "Any idea what the Xana attack is?"

Aélita glanced out the window, her hands frozen on her seat belt as the runway filled with green pines and blue firs. "Trees," she stated, simply.

"Trees?" Jérémie asked as he and Grandmére got up out of their seats to look out Aélita's window. Trees were working their way across the tarmac, wobbling to and fro as they shifted on their roots. A purple spark of electricity connected them all through their nettles. "He sent trees after us?"

"Uh, ma'am?"

Aélita turned to see the pilot walking through the door separating him from the cabin, his face confused.

"I don't' know what's going on out there, but maybe it's for the best if you stay here," the young man offered.

"Sorry Vincent, not happening," Grandmére said, pushing herself away from Aélita's window. She stepped over to where emergency equipment was kept and unstrapped an ax, holding it in both hands at the ready. She looked over at Aélita and said, "Send Yumi a message, we're on our way."

-.-.-.-

"This was an old car factory? And they put a supercomputer underneath it?" Grandmére asked now that the three could catch their breath in the elevator. It had been a strange fight getting both to the car waiting for them at the private air strip and through the city. Never before had Aélita had to fight trees. Her hands felt like she might have a few splinters from the ordeal.

"The government bought it in the early nineties," Aélita offered, indeed finding a splinter in her thumb knuckle. She picked at it a moment before giving up, afraid she might shove it farther in. The elevator stopped and she punched in the code to retract the iron curtain.

"I hope you tell me all this again once we're back to the proper timeline," Grandmére said as the curtain rolled up and the door unlocked to show Yumi sitting at the computer while Ulrich climbed down the ladder from above.

Ulrich dropped to his feet, shedding a few branches and nettles as he did so, and turned to see the three in the elevator. "Good, I don't know how much longer I can hold them off," Ulrich admitted, wiping his hands together to brush off more nettles. "How'd you get here so quickly?"

"My Grandmére," Jérémie admitted, walking over to Yumi with the woman following slowly behind.

Aélita smiled at the woman's awed state, Grandmére looking up at where the wires came down from the ceiling.

Yumi jumped out of the computer chair and said, "Activated tower's in Lyoko, mountain sector. William's waiting for us."

Jérémie took his seat, grabbing the mike to place on his ear as he said, "Might as well go and say hey." He looked over at Ulrich as the teen passed him and asked, "Any idea on how the clone's doing?"

"He video messaged me like we told him to," Ulrich said, turning to walk backwards into the elevator. "His dad just thinks he's going through a teen faze."

"I guess that works," Jérémie said, his face glued to the screen as his fingers worked away on the keyboard.

Aélita pushed the button to get the elevator working, closing the door.

"How did his grandma get you two here so quickly?" Yumi asked as the elevator started running.

"She's actually my sponsor, and an inventor," Aélita offered. "Her private jet got us here."

"Your sponsor?" Ulrich asked.

"She's how Jérémie's been able to pay for me going to Kadic," Aélita explained. "We're thinking about telling her the truth when she can remember."

"What?!" Yumi exclaimed as the elevator came to a stop.

"Maybe all of us should talk to her," Ulrich said as Aélita reached over to open the door. "Odd included."

Aélita walked out and towards the middle scanner as she admitted, "She already figured out I'm not related to Odd."

"When was this?" Yumi asked.

"Probably before I met her," Aélita shrugged. "She is a Belpois."

"Jérémie had to get his smarts from somewhere," Ulrich said, copying Aélita's shrug as he walked into the scanner on Aélita's right as Yumi took the last scanner.

"I'm ready to start the transfer process," Jérémie's voice said, coming from the speakers in the ceiling.

"Ready Jérémie," Ulrich said as the scanner doors started to close.

Aélita closed her eyes as the scanner's decontamination sequence blew upwards at her. Her mind went through the process the supercomputer and Jérémie would go through to send each of them to her father's world. It would break down her molecules and save them as virtual data, in her digital envelop, and reconstruct her as the digital avatar in her file. She kind of missed her old look, but appreciated what Jérémie went through when he upgraded their looks.

She felt her body be recreated, giving her enough conscious thought to prepare for landing in the purple expanse of the mountain sector. Aélita stood up, expecting to already see William as her friends took in the world around them.

"Activated tower's north northwest, William's on his way," Jérémie warned.

Aélita looked in the direction, the supercomputer aiding her mental compass as it always did to help her find the correct direction.

"What's coming with him?" Ulrich asked, looking up at the cloudy sky.

"His mantas, but there's three frelions coming up behind you," Jérémie said as the three vehicles materialized in front of them. "Ulrich?" Jérémie's voice wavered as Aélita stepped on the Overboard. "Is that fire ax still in the boiler room?"

The three started flying northward as the sound of beating wings raced behind them. Aélita looked behind just in time to call out "Energy field!" throwing her hand up to shoot a ball of pink energy out of her hand.

"I think so, but I don't know if you can get there," Ulrich said, pulling out a sword to deflect a laser just as Aélita's blasted frelion exploded. "The trees were in the old assembly room."

A moment passed with no response before Yumi called out, "Jérémie?"

The laser missed its shooter, the frelion dodging nimbly in the air.

"I guess the trees got to the lab," Aélita said as she focused on her flying, balancing easily on the barrowed board. She heard a laser blast come from behind her right side and quickly shifted so the board would fly closer to Yumi only to have the blast hit her leg.

"Aélita!" Yumi exclaimed as Aélita dropped down to a knee.

Aélita heard Yumi's tessen fly over her head as she managed to keep herself flying alongside the girl. An explosion of pixels sounded behind her as the strange electricity released her leg, letting her stand straight. "Oh no," Aélita mumbled, seeing what awaited them before the tower. It was the labyrinth.

"What's the problem? We just fly over it," Ulrich said, changing gears on his Overbike to get it flying.

"I wouldn't," Aélita started, something telling her it wouldn't work but she couldn't see why not.

Yumi and Aélita slowed to a stop, Aélita hearing the last frelion before she saw it come up from behind her right side. She quickly fired off a blast of energy, killing it before it had a chance to fire. She turned her attention back to Ulrich, who had reached the top of the rock mass, only for his whole body to be covered in the electricity that signified the loss of life points and his bike to be destroyed out from under him.

"Ulrich!" Yumi exclaimed, reacting faster than Aélita could. She flew her Overwing over and grasped Ulrich's body before he could hit the ground and risk losing more life points.

"Thanks, Yumi," Ulrich said as Yumi stopped and dropped him off at the beginning of the labyrinth.

Aélita stepped off her Overboard and walked over to them, looking at the foreboding mass. "Did you get to see much before you got hit?"

"No. How'd you know I'd get…" Ulrich looked for the right word as Yumi stepped off the Overwing, "electrocuted?"

"Xana wouldn't make it so easy," Aélita pointed out. "Last time he used this tower, we didn't have vehicles so he would've put in some preventative."

"I think that's a pretty good preventative. William!" Yumi exclaimed, pointing to his super smoke as the dark cloud floated through the ground just inside the labyrinth.

Aélita quickly ignited her hands as Ulrich and Yumi pulled out their weapons, taking stance in front of her.

"Yumi, do your best and get Aélita through that maze," Ulrich ordered as William appeared out of the ground. His two mantas flew up from just below the ground on each side, flanking him.

Aélita looked over at Yumi, making sure she was ready.

Ulrich let out a battle cry, jumping forward to catch William's blade in between his.

"Go!" Yumi ordered.

Aélita kept an eye on the manta flying at her side as she ran to the labyrinth's entrance. The monster's nose started collecting energy, warning her it was reading to fire. "Energy field!" Aélita exclaimed, throwing a ball of pink energy up at the manta. She saw it make contact but not in the Eye of Xana. Instead of dealing with it, thinking the force field over the labyrinth would keep them away, she kept running for the entrance. She made it just before Yumi, stopping and turning around to watch the girl catch her iron war fan and keep an eye on the two monsters.

The mantas followed them, Aélita's blasting off another shot only to miss as Aélita quickly jumped back.

"You think they can follow?" Yumi asked, her fans both opened in her hands at the ready.

"Maybe not, look," Aélita said as the two monsters stopped just at the entrance. Yumi's manta shot at them, getting them to back step farther into the maze. Worry wormed its way into her mind, reminding her of those left on Earth, unresponsive. "Let's go," Aélita ordered, turning around to take in the maze.

Aélita heard Yumi's footsteps following her, getting her to look over her shoulder at the two mantas. To her, they looked like guards making sure their prisoners disappeared in a maze, never to be seen again.

"Do you remember any of this from the last time?" Yumi asked.

"No, not really," Aélita said, realizing that was about two years ago. "We wandered for a bit before Odd had a Future Flash that led the way."

They stopped at the end of the entry way, seeing they could go either left or right. Yumi flicked a fan away, leaving the one in her right hand opened and ready. "Let's go left," Yumi said, slicing her fan into the digital rock face to their left in a straight line. "Maybe this will help us."

Aélita nodded her head, letting out a sound to mean her understanding, before the two ran off to the left. All the while Yumi was slicing numbers into turns, crossing out those that had turned out to be dead ends, Aélita's mind raced back to the real world. She was sure Grandmére could take care of herself, she seemed to be a very capable woman, especially for her age. Jérémie was who she was worried about. As far as she knew, he had never been all that good in anything physical. He had brains, that's what attracted her to him, not brawn. How he was surviving against Xana's horde of Christmas trees, she wasn't sure.

"Aélita!" Yumi exclaimed, pointed upwards. "Look!"

Aélita's gaze followed Yumi's hand and saw the top of the activated tower peeking over the walls of rock. "I hope it really is that close," Aélita said, refusing to get her hopes up too high as she continued along the semi-circle pathway to where it branched off in another three directions. She placed her hands on her hips, debating which way to go. She opened her mouth to ask Yumi only to hear footsteps behind her. The two turned around to look, fearing William. Aélita quickly created a ball of energy in both hands as Yumi pulled out her second fan only to see Ulrich running after them.

"Don't shoot!" Ulrich called out, slowing down to a stop.

"What happened to William?" Yumi asked, retracting a fan again as Aélita dispersed the energy from her hands.

"I guess he got a little too close to losing all his life points," Ulrich said with a shrug. "I got a hit in and he retreated into the digital void."

"Weird," Aélita said.

"He could just be regrouping up ahead," Yumi pointed out. She turned back to the three directions in front of them, getting Aélita to turn as well. "Which way you think we should go?"

"You two seem to be doing fine," Ulrich said, holding up his hands in defense. "I've never been good with mazes anyway."

"You start from the end, don't you?" Yumi asked as she sliced in a 24 into the rock wall to their right.

"It got me the correct path," Ulrich said, giving her a smile as the three walked down the right path to find it curving around the activated tower.

Aélita looked up at the sky as they walked in silence. "I wish I knew what was going on out there," she said only to realize she had said it aloud.

"You and me both, Princess," Ulrich admitted.

AN: I love Grandmére's character, I'm so glad I fixed her from being just a onetime seen character to an important one.

Also, a problem I have while watching the French version of Code Lyoko. Aélita calls out "Champe Force!" when she throws her energy balls. I had to actually look it up, because it's been years since I saw season three or four in English. I know the last time I saw it in English, it was a recording from Cartoon Network, so that will say how long ago that was. Wish I still had that recording DVD.

ODD: You recorded the show, onto DVD? Why not DVR?

AN: Didn't have that back then. And sadly I never got to see most of season 4 when it was broadcasted. Or what of it had gotten broadcasted over here in the states, stupid Cartoon Network. We moved out of the apartment back in '07. I still remember handing a tape to one of my friends to get her to record an episode. I'm still mad that she taped over a Scooby-Doo movie that time, but it was worth it to watch the last new episode of Code Lyoko and Danny Phantom I would see for a while.

ODD: I was recorded to tape? Now who's dating themselves?

AN: A few episodes of Code Lyoko, season 1, got released on tape. Now we get to the real dates here.

ODD: Ooo, I got a tape release?

AN: and onto Google… there goes my computer.