Sorry about the really long delay, but I got caught up in a rush of severe senioritis and had to cut some things out of my life to keep up with my schoolwork. Plus, with Prom and a new job, I was temporarily overwhelmed. All's good now, so let's resume where we left off, 'k?

I do not own Code Lyoko. OC are mine.

"Jeremie," Kailey whispered, eyes flickering shut. "What were you going to tell me earlier?"

Jeremie had turned his attention to his laptop after Ulrich and Yumi had left, but, at Kailey's whisper, he set it aside. "Just something about your DNA," he said, standing up. "Its complicated to explain, but all the data's in the supercomputer."

"Try to explain," Kailey whispered. "I need to know."

Jeremie moved his chair closer to Kailey's bed, gathering his thoughts. "I should really have the displays," he muttered absentmindedly, "but I guess I could explain it without them." He looked at Kailey, her dark lashes resting gently on the white bandages covering her face. "Your DNA isn't exactly human. The- you have the normal genomes but, well, you have extra genomes. I don't even think we can call them genomes. They're more like computer codes."

Kailey stirred briefly, and Jeremie stopped. He was confusing himself, and he was supposed to be the expert. Gathering his thoughts again, he watched Kailey breathe. He knew she was alert, just waiting for him to continue.

"What I'm trying to say is, the reason you collapsed on Lyoko is because the codes in your DNA clash with the codes used to virtualize you," Jeremie continued. "I can rectify the problem with numerous combinations, but I'm not sure how it will affect your human DNA. I was planning on running tests when you got there."

"What type of codes?" Kailey whispered. "What exactly do the codes do besides hurt me?"

"I don't know," Jeremie said. "They're encrypted in a way I haven't seen before. I can only guess."

"My grandfather always said, 'The best way to find the solution is to understand the entire problem,'" Kailey whispered. "I'm not telling you how to do your job, but maybe you should understand the codes before you play with them."

Jeremie sat back in his chair. He never thought of that before. Unfortunately, the time it would take to find the key to the code would allow Xana time to succeed. He sat there pondering it as Kailey drifted off into sleep. He was still wondering about it when Ulrich and Yumi returned.

"Is she alright?" Ulrich asked, returning to his post.

"She's fine," Jeremie said absentmindedly. "Just gave me some food for thought. What did Odd say?"

"Apparently, Kailey is a key to the sector where Xana has the activated tower," Yumi said, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway. "Then Xana's attack took effect and Odd went unconscious."

"I don't want Kailey here alone," Ulrich said, reaching out gently to touch Kailey's hand. "I don't know what Xana's willing to do to keep Kailey down."

"Are we sure Xana knows Kailey's the key?" Jeremie asked. "Maybe he only attacked her to get to you."

"Either way, Kailey's still in danger," Yumi pointed out. "He'll find out sooner or later that Kailey didn't die in that fire, then he'll be looking for her to finish the job."

"The doctors won't let anybody sit here all night unless they're blood relatives," Jeremie said, "and we can't risk moving her until she's more stable."

"We have to think of something," Ulrich said. "I can't just leave her here and let Xana waltz in here and do who knows what."

"Let's go back to the factory and think of something there," Jeremie said, tucking his laptop under his arm and standing up. "Chances are, Xana doesn't even know Kailey survived yet. We'll be back as soon as visiting hours begin tomorrow to make sure she's fine."

Jeremie walked out of the room, and Yumi followed him, leaving Ulrich alone with Kailey. Ulrich walked over to Kailey and leaned over her, brushing his lips gently against her bandaged cheek. He watched her eyelids flutter for a moment, then turned and followed his friends out, shutting the door softly behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ulrich, let's do a recon mission," Yumi said as they boarded the bus back to the factory. "See if we can find where this secret sector Odd was talking about is located."

"I don't want to be unreachable if Kailey needs me," Ulrich said, staring out the window.

"You should do a recon," Jeremie muttered, tapping away on his laptop. "If something comes up concering Kailey, I'll pull you out. We can't just sit around and wait for Xana's next attack."

Ulrich still stared out the window. A million thoughts were tumbling through his mind, including something Yumi had said earlier about Odd.

"Where would we look if we go in?" he muttered. "We have no idea where to even begin the search, and we know from experience that it takes a long time to search Lyoko thoroughly."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," Yumi said. The group sat in silence for awhile, deep in their thoughts. "Jeremie, what if its like Sector 5? What if we need a code to get into it?"

"I'll work on that while you two are doing a physical search," Jeremie muttered. "If we can find this hidden sector, we can save Odd and find Aelita."

Yumi looked at Ulrich, eyes pleading. Ulrich turned back to the window, mulling through his thoughts. "Let's do it," he said as the bus rolled to a stop. "Kailey wouldn't forgive me if I sat by and did nothing when I could be helping."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Numbers and letters flew past, wrapping around her and left. She shrugged them off, trying to move forward. She saw the a glint of light to her left, and she turned to see what it was. There was nothing but more numbers.

"Kailey!" someone shouted. Kailey turned around, looking for the caller.

"Kailey!" they yelled again. Kailey knew that voice.

"Aelita?" she called out. "Where are you?"

"Kailey!" Aelita yelled, getting fainter. "Help me!"

"Aelita!"

"HELP!!"

Kailey's eyes flew open and she was about to jerk upward in reaction to her dream, but a spasm of pain stopped her. Every time she's been unconscious since the fire, she's almost the same dream: trapped in a sea of numbers. Carefully reaching her hand up to her bandaged face, she gently rubbed her eyes.

"How pathetic," a voice whispered. Kailey stopped, eyes wide with fear.

"Who's there?"

"I created you for greater things than this," the voice said, not answering.

"Who are you? What do you want?" By now Kailey was growing frantic.

"You're not to help them," the voice said. "You will resist their childish attempts to save this world. You will help create the new world."

"What do you mean?" she cried, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Kailey?" a very real voice asked. "Are you ok?"

"Who are you?" she whispered again, afraid to open her eyes.

"Kailey, its Amanda, the night nurse. You were yelling out in your sleep. Are you ok?"

Kailey removed her hands from her eyes, blinking in the light. Amanda stood at the side of the bed, pale face concerned.

"I'm ok," she whispered. "Bad dreams."

Amanda just stood there, uncertain. "Maybe I should call your boyfriend," she said.

"No!" Kailey said quickly. "Don't tell Ulrich. He'll just hover more than he already does, and he'll make himself sick. Just let him be."

"If that's what you want..."

"That's what I want," Kailey confirmed. Turning her head slightly, she let herself drift back to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

3 hours later.

"I don't understand why Xana isn't concerned we'll fine this new sector..."

"He isn't concerned because he thinks he has the two, maybe three people who know where the sector is out of the picture."

"Where do you think we should look next?"

"Let's go to the forest sector," Yumi said, stopping by a transport tower. "There's a lot of potential entrances there."

Ulrich stopped next to her and stared out into the desert. "Maybe we should split up," he said. "We'd cover more ground, find out anything sooner."

"I don't know, Ulrich," Yumi said, chewing her lip. "What if Xana does decide to attack. Two people are better than one."

Ulrich opened his mouth to argue when Jeremie's voice cut through the silence. "Ulrich, the hospital called."

"Is Kailey ok?"

"She had some bad dreams last night, and they want to know if you can come down there, you know, to talk," Jeremie said.

"Devirtualize me," Ulrich said, tossing a glance at Yumi. "We'll finish here later."

Yumi shook her head slightly. "I don't think this is a good idea. We need to find the sector."

Ulrich ignored her. Feeling the familiar tingle of devirtualization, he turned back to the desert.

Yumi watched as he went, waiting for Jeremie to devirtualize her. After awhile, when nothing had happened, she called out, "Jeremie? Is everything all right?"

"No," Jeremie said, sounding worried. "You should be out of Lyoko by now. I started your devirtualization process the same time I started Ulrich's."

Yumi stared at the tower. "You mean you can't devirtualize me?"

"No," Jeremie said. "Yumi, I think you're stuck on Lyoko."

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