Chapter 20:

When Ulrich, Odd and Yumi hit the ground in the virtual world, they quickly moved to the side and looked up at the sky again to welcome Aelita and their latest companion. It was hard to decide what to expect having two Odd's in the same place, but everything seemed normal as the older man landed in the Forest Sector as well, using his paws to cushion the impact.

"Whoa!" He stated calmly as Aelita touched down next to him and they all quickly walked to his side to help him up, but he only held up a hand to indicate that he was fine, "I'm okay, it's just – been a while since I was virtualized," He informed them, before standing up straight and looked around the area with a sigh.

"Something wrong?" Aelita asked kindly and he shook his head sadly.

"Not really," He admitted, "It's just that, for a moment there, my mind was trying to tell me I was home."

"It really has been a long time for you, hasn't it?" Yumi asked and he turned to give her a small smile.

"It's hard to track time when time does exist, and when you can't eat or sleep; the days only meld together that much more," He explained as he looked up at the sunless sky that never changed, "You forget things you never thought you could, how the air feels, what its like to touch something soft – or smooth."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Aelita put in gently and he smiled again before looking down at her.

"I wasn't alone," He pointed out, "I think that's the only thing that made it bearable. If it wasn't for you, I –" He started again, before cutting himself off as he turned to stare at the ground longingly, "Well – I don't think I would have survived as long as I did." He admitted quietly, which hit the rest of them hard as they realized what he was insinuating.

However, he didn't let them dwell on that too long, as he started to walk calmly through the sector as if looking for something.

…

"So –" Ulrich interrupted after nearly an hour of nothing but walking, "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Residents," Jonas answered simply causing them to start slightly in confusion and look at each other for a moment.

"Jonas," Aelita started again as she moved to walk next to him, "I don't know what Lyoko is like in your time, but here, Xana and me were the only things on Lyoko, and neither of us are bound to the computer anymore. On top of that we haven't seen or heard anything from Xana for nearly a month."

"Yeah, I figured that was the case," He admitted calmly, but still continued to walk.

"So than, what are we doing?" Odd put in.

"Just looking for a good way to send a message," He proclaimed as they walked up to a seemingly random Tower where he finally stopped and looked up at it. "Huh," He added curiously.

"What's wrong?" Yumi asked and he shook his head again.

"I'd forgotten what they originally looked like," He stated leaving them all confused once again.

"This is what they – always look like." Ulrich pointed out.

"Yeah," Jonas agreed, "Except in the future the supercomputer will evolve to better support itself. It seemed to decide that it likes squares and the color black."

"What?" Odd muttered in confusion.

"Never mind," Jonas proclaimed before walking toward the wall of the structure and entered without any issue, leaving them to follow him a moment later, where they found him bringing up the interface on the main platform, as if it was second nature, something only Aelita had ever been able to do before.

"How did you do that?" She asked in shock as she walked over to see what he was doing.

"With Xana in my body, I'm free to use the Towers however I want," He explained distractedly, before closing the program he was working on and carefully placed his hand against the virtual interface, causing the code screen to appear. "Jeremy," He said calmly and the genius responded with a simple 'yes', "You're going to see an activated Tower on your scan, but don't worry about it, okay."

"Okay," Jeremy acknowledge in confusion as Jonas proceeded to touch in a code on the screen, causing a word to appear a moment later. However, it wasn't the usual Lyoko code they were accustomed to seeing. It, instead, said in angry red letters – Code XANA.

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