There was a throbbing pain aching throughout Odd's body from the fall, but looking up at the flesh-eating-monsters standing over him, he doesn't really waste his time being concerned with that. He rests a hand against his temple,

"Believe you me, I know what it's like to be hungry," Odd says; scooting himself back until he's up against a light pole. Two of the zombies seem to be... well, zombie-like. Their groaning and drooling and look pretty stupid, in Odd's humble opinion. But the third one seems to be keeping his composure and doesn't look too decomposed. Not when compared to the other two, anyway. "What you guys need is a good cheeseburger. Or-or how about a big, greased up fried bologna sandwich?"

The zombies continue towards Odd, and the boy is too frightened to stand from where he's cornered against the light pole. "... Okay, well, what if I buy?"

One of their blue arms reach down and four strong fingers - plus one thumb - wraps itself tight around Odd's thin neck. The boy is then lifted and held up; his legs kicking freely below him and absolutely no air reaching his lungs. His hands wrap around the monsters but unfortunately his strength doesn't seem to compare to that of the decomposed.

"We have the girl," the zombie who seemed smarter than the others speaks, and Odd isn't sure if he finds comfort in that or not. He's leaning more towards not, since speaking is proving that XANA has gotten much stronger. "She is all who stands in the way of your destruction."

"Wha-?" Odd tries to choke out words - anything, really. What does this thing mean by his destruction? The whole world? The five lyoko warriors, or... just his?

The third, smarter zombie speaks again, "The past cannot be changed."

The grip on Odd's throat tightens considerably and the young boy is starting to see more of little black blotches than anything else.

"There are worse things than dieing. Your breath, for example," Odd continues to try and twist the hands away from his throat but is starting to see little hope or use in that. "... Or I could be just as ugly as you."

Odd's head is suddenly very woozy and screams for him to find air because otherwise he feels like both his suffering lungs and brain will explode. He gives one last push at the grip around his throat, and when there isn't a budge, it becomes clear that this might actually be the last couple seconds of his life. The whole, 'life flashing before your eyes' bit becomes real as millions of pictures shoot through Odd's memory and he knows that he doesn't want to die here.

... Only suddenly he hits the ground and there's a long, shaky breath filling his tortured lungs. He's not necessarily a religious guy by any means, but Odd thanks God for whatever it was that gave him a second shot.

He looks up and realizes that it was Ulrich.

His best friend stands in front of Odd's fallen body in defense; two fists clutched, and both hands up and ready to fight. Odd looks down and away from Ulrich to see that the decaying zombie who had been holding him by the throat is now down flat on the pavement - probably kicked by Ulrich - with a couple of fingers and some loose skin lying detached from the unmoving corpse.

"Are you alright?" Ulrich asks, making sure to keep his eyes directed on the two remaining zombies - including the one who had talked to Odd; before he'd had one of his dead buddies try and choke the life from the young boy.

"Yeah, I'm perfect," he ignores the throbbing in his head from being knocked down earlier and his hip from falling now, but to be honest, his throat still felt a weird burning from where the disgusting monster had been squeezing his throat. He wraps his own loose fingers around where there are now imprint marks from the awful grip it had. Like so many other times before, being so close to death doesn't just go away when there is a return trip to the past.

"The past cannot be changed."

Ulrich slims his eyes, "Odd, am I hallucinating, or did that zombie just say something to me?"

"I wouldn't call you crazy just yet, good buddy. He was barking at me earlier about the same thing," Odd stands up. Losing his balance only slightly, he stands up straight and steps up just behind his friend. "I don't think he has much of an imagination."

"We have the little girl."

"What?" Ulrich's eyes widen and he steps back in surprise; losing his fighting stance and feels a spurt of pain in his injured arm. The boy grunts and grabs at it, mentally hearing Yumi scold him, 'maybe you should be more careful'! He puts himself back together quickly and moves his attention back to the more intelligent zombie. He growls, "Where is she? Where did you freaks take her? "

The German boy wants to rush forward and get some answers the usual way; however, Odd holds him back, knowing better of it.

"The past cannot be changed," the zombie repeats itself, which is all it seems to be saying. Odd realizes it's not much smarter than the others at all; it was only taught to say such few things. The creature points a finger at Odd who still stands behind Ulrich; there is a grin on its face, which glitches twice into William's, shocking both of the young boys. "You will meet your destruction."

Immediately after the last syllable leaves the monsters peeling lips, whatever life that had been in the corpse' is gone, and both bodies fall to the pavement in front of Ulrich and Odd.

"Y-you saw William too, right? In that things face?" Ulrich questions when he looks back at his friend, who still has his fingers feeling his now bruised throat.

Odd nods. "… And you saw him point at me when he mentioned meeting my destruction, yeah?"

"Sure did," Ulrich nods, too, and looks back at the three fallen zombies that lay before them. "So, there's that… Plus the Zombies being able to talk now, and double plus them having Natsumi somewhere… I think we're really up to our necks in it this time."

"Maybe when he talks to us again we should try and convince XANA to give us a vacation next time."

Ulrich smiles and rolls his eyes; reaching back to put a hand on Odd's shoulder to keep him secure, since he seemed to still be a little light-headed from the previous attack. "Yeah, I think you should be the one to suggest that to him. I'm sure it'll go just great for you."

.

.

One of the zombies leaps in front of Yumi - startling her and making her scream and turn on her heals. The zombie was definitely a young, pretty girl in a past life; the scariest part to Yumi being how much the corpse looked like herself.

When she turns she happens to see a flash of pink sprint towards the elevator, knowing already that it had to be Aelita. Jeremie is there with his hand up against the bottom of the metal door; holding it open so Yumi has a chance to reach them. The younger girl stops just before entering and cups her hands around her mouth to call out, "Yumi!"

Stopping a moment to glance behind her, Yumi can see that the young female zombie is catching up, and while her calves are burning and her lungs are dry and swollen, she knows she has to get there with enough time to shut the door and get below without so much as a problem. Yumi takes a deep breath and goes for it - trying to keep her breathing under control and focusing on anything to get her mind away from how terribly her body aches.

"Yumi, hurry!" Aelita calls out again. She looks worried, as does Jeremie, who is still holding the door open for their older friend.

"Let go of the door!" She calls back to them. She's still more than twenty feet away from the two, so Jeremie is a little weary about doing that. His hand remains, and so Yumi calls again, "Let it go! Trust me!"

Aelita turns her head to nod at Jeremie; sort of her way of saying, 'go ahead' to him. He bites at his bottom lip and removes his hand from the door. Instantly it starts to slowly scoot down. Yumi clenches her fists when she gets closer and breathes in deeply before she lifts her legs; falling down to her hip and using her built up speed to her advantage and slides a bit before rolling under the elevator door just as it slams shut.

The Japanese girl barely has enough time to take a breath and stand up before the female Zombie slams itself against the door, startling Yumi enough to fall into Aelita and both girls fall backwards against the back wall of the lift.

"Are you alright, Yumi?" Jeremie asks. He offers a hand for each girl to take, and Aelita does, while Yumi simply ignores it. Jeremie helps his girlfriend up and the couple looks to see their friend still on her knees; arms out to keep herself from falling forward, and long deep breaths choking out from her lungs.

"Y-yeah, all of that running just knocked the wind out of me for a second," she says after a few moments. The elevator jolts and they know their moving down to the computer room. Yumi looks up, "Did you happen to see Ulrich or Odd on your way here?"

Jeremie shakes his head solemnly, "We didn't see Natsumi, either."

"No, I figured you wouldn't." Yumi sports a sad smile and stands up just as the elevator docks and the door rolls up.

Jeremie is the first to walk off; heading straight for his computer while Aelita helps a still rocky Yumi over to the super computer.

"What happened?" Aelita asks, while she helps Yumi over by keeping a sturdy hand on her older friends mid-back.

"I'm not completely sure, I just... I only know that when Ulrich and I had woken up, she was gone," Aelita can sort of see the pain and worry in Yumi's eyes and grips her friends shoulder in comfort. Yumi sighs, leaning more against the super computer instead of Aelita when they get closer to Jeremie. "She was replaced by an infestation of zombies, so I figured XANA had to be behind it."

"The activated tower confirms your theory, Yumi," Jeremie adds; putting his headset on just in case he is able to connect with the future again.

An infestation was definitely the right word for it - the streets of Paris were crawling with zombies now, and he knew people were or would soon be getting hurt... he also knows that if someone were to be killed, he can't get them back on a return trip. For Natsumi's sake, they had to come up with something pretty quick, because when it all comes down to it Jeremie can't have people get killed on account of something he could have prevented.

Aelita jumps at the ring of her phone; such contrast from how quiet the factory had been. She reaches into the pocket of her jumper and answers it quickly. "Ulrich?"

"Hey princess, are you with Yumi?"

"Yes, Jeremie and I are with her back at the factory. She told us about Natsumi," Aelita replies. She feels very sad for her friends and can't imagine how frightened they must be. "I'm sorry. But we are going to find her, I know it."

"Right, of course," Ulrich smiles to himself. He's happy to know that Yumi is safe and with friends (more than likely trying to still find a way out of this horrible mess), and also how Aelita sounds when she's right and confident about something. "She's definitely with XANA right now; one of his un-dead goons told me so."

Aelita flips her phone to speaker so Jeremie and Yumi can hear as well. She thinks that maybe some new developments could be important ones. She furrows her brows, "Told you?"

"Yeah. Earlier in the factory one of them said, "gone", but just now with Odd, one of the zombies wouldn't keep his mouth shut." Ulrich continues, "he kept repeating how we "can't change the past", and "he has the girl"."

"It sounds like XANA is holding her hostage to present something from happening," Aelita wonders, "… What baffles me is what it could possibly be to make XANA go through so much trouble to stop it from happening."

Ulrich shrugs, grinding his teeth a little, "Yeah, don't know. Quite frankly, I don't care. This virus is mental to think that I'm just going to let him take my daughter hostage to—" His voice fades. My daughter. "—Point is, we have to stop him no matter what it is."

Yumi smiles a little at how proud she is of Ulrich and his being protective of their daughter.

"So maybe he's only holding her until whatever it is he's up to is over with," Odd tried to throw out a little positive light into the situation. "What are we going to do about deactivating the tower?"

"This is XANA we're talking about; he's just holding her until he doesn't need her anymore," Jeremie replies, ignoring Odd's question and turning away from his computer to face the others. "Who knows what he'll do once he's through with her?"

"I'm not planning on finding out." Ulrich says with a strong, sturdy voice.

Yumi crosses her arms. "We have to come up with something pretty soon, Jeremie. He could be hiding her anywhere."

"I actually have a theory," Odd steps forward and snatches the phone from Ulrich; ignoring any protests his older friend fusses about. "I've seen a lot of zombie movies – being the Hollywood geek that I am – and I know that if there is loud noise and bright lights, the un-dead is always attracted to the source…"

"… And?" Ulrich all but loses his patience.

"Well, think about it. XANA would have to keep there attention somehow, right? These are actual zombies that we're dealing with, not second rate possessions like the last time," the boy explains on, "Knowing that,… For the last five minutes, I've heard fire-truck sirens, but I haven't seen one fire-truck."

"XANA must be using the trucks to keep the monsters focused. He can't have them leaving his side yet, he needs them still." Aelita goes on, understanding what Odd was trying to explain in so many words.

Ulrich takes the phone back from his friend. "So I guess me and Odd are headed to check out the fire-station, then."

"Be careful," Yumi says, stepping closer to Aelita's phone to be heard more clearly. "Both of you. Please be careful."

Odd smiles, "No sweat, Yumi! Their just actual brain munching zombies, raised from the grave to kill everybody - but especially us. Nothing me 'n your boyfriend can't handle."

"He's joking, but he's right," Ulrich ropes an arm around his best friends shoulders. "We'll be fine."

.

Future

.

"How about it, Einstien, did we find the folder yet?" Ulrich asks when the elevator door rises and he steps out.

Yumi decided to drive Aelita and herself back to the Stern household an hour ago; after Aelita decided that she could be of more use after a hot shower and maybe a nap on their couch. Ulrich had decided to stay back and keep his old friend some company. After all, the very least he can do is give Jeremie someone to talk to, considering he's going through all of this trouble to get Ulrich's daughter back (and with some luck, maybe Odd, too!).

"Nothing yet... I legitimately can't believe it's taking this long for me to check my email. I was the biggest tech-dork in France; I checked my emails more than I checked over my math equations."

"I'm sorry, was the biggest tech-dork?" Ulrich laughs, "Did I miss something while you were away?"

Jeremie laughs too; rubbing his eyes because he's been starring at a screen for about two days straight now. "Okay, less than before. Aelita wouldn't stand for it."

"I'm glad you guys are doing so well," the older boy admits. He goes on, "things were kind of all over the place a few years ago, and… It felt like we were all falling apart."

"Well, we did fall apart," Jeremie shrugs. He's looking at Ulrich, now, and wonders why they hadn't spoken too much in the last five years. They didn't have much in common; sure, they never had… But despite that, Lyoko brought everyone together. Without it, friendships sort of frayed out a bit. "Aelita and I left right after Natsumi was born. Other than her birthdays and a few occasional visits, we've missed out on most of her life so far."

"There's a lot more to her life left, if you're willing to stick around for it," Ulrich shoots. He has his doubts and fears about things going wrong, but he knows that he's going to get his little girl back. He knows that his past self would promise that to him if he could. "We could really use your company with another baby on the way."

Jeremie looks down at his lap so as to avoid eye contact with his old friend. "I don't think Aelita is quite ready for that yet."

Ulrich eyes Jeremie sympathetically. He asks, with a gentle voice, "Has she gotten any better with that?"

"With knowing she can't have kids? In some ways, maybe," he goes on. "She's fine when we visit here and Natsumi runs to her with a big Auntie-Aelita-hug, and she can deal at Christmas time when she passes the cute little baby outfits in the department store… But when she runs into our pregnant neighbor at our apartment building, she's facing what she can't have. She's looking at what she's missing out on in the face, and that sort of rips her apart a little on the inside."

"Have you two ever talked about maybe adopting?"

"We have, but… Aelita wants a baby with a piece of me, but especially a piece of her. Probably because her own mother was taken away, and we've never really even found out to where or what really happened,..." Jeremie looks up at Ulrich. "It's been five years, and it's gotten better, it has. We're just not there yet, I guess."

The German boy nods. He remembers the day he found out about Aelita's condition; two months after little Natsumi was born, Yumi had finally talked Aelita into seeing a doctor and finding out why she hadn't gotten pregnant after a year of trying, or rather, if he could possibly offer any suggestions to her.

Apperently there was just something wrong. The doctors said that it was common; some women just can't carry a baby to full-term... However, Aelita never believed the answer to be so simple. She believed that Lyoko and being connected to the super computer messed her up, and almost admitted that deep down she blamed her father for it, which made her feel even more guilty.

It got to the severity where Aelita seldom left the small apartment she shared with Jeremie, which at the time, wasn't too far from Ulrich and Yumi's house. Any time Yumi or himself saw their pink-topped friend, her eyes would be red and puffy from crying constantly.

Eventually, the couple had just decided to take a breather and get away.

Away from France, away from Lyoko,... And away from their friends.

"To be honest, Ulrich, after finding out that Yumi is expecting again, if it weren't for Natsumi being in danger, we probably would have left already."

"I'm sorry to hear that, buddy," Ulrich reaches out to grip his friends shoulder with a friendly squeeze. Jeremie shakes his head, as if saying, 'there's nothing anyone could have done'. It makes Ulrich wonder if things might have been different if Odd were still there.

His jokes were shotty and his pranks sometimes got out of hand – but if anyone needed a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen, Odd was there. Ulrich can't count on his fingers or his toes combined how many nights Odd stayed up listening to Ulrich when he complained over his then failing relationship with Yumi.

Ulrich realizes that it isn't just him that needs Odd to come back.

Ulrich realizes that it isn't just him that needs Odd to come back... The rest of their friendships almost depended on it.

"Come on, Nats..." Ulrich thinks, "bring your Uncle Odd home with you."

Wow. It's been, like... Four years, guys. I bet deep down you all thought I was totally going to bail on this story and never-ever update again, didn't you? Truth is, I thought about it. I had half of this story written on my phone from when I drove to Florida a few months ago and was too bored to think of anything else but write. Well, tonight when I accidentally clicked on a link that brought me to an episode of Code: Lyoko, I remembered how much this story and this fandom meant to me... What it still means to me. It made me decide that - screw having to study for tests at work tomorrow, and who cares if I have to get up early to get things done in the morning... I was finishing a chapter ONCE AND FOR ALL!

And since there's a little CL flame in my heart right now, chances are it's going to be lit for a while, and... I'm going to try and have this entire story finished and revamped by my birthday in late June! How does that sound? ... Hopefully I still have people reading this, and my four year absence didn't chase y'all away!

No dissapearing acts this time, guys. I promise!

xoMell.