Odd was losing hope. His struggling battle against the black blobs was a losing one. His strength was waning. His body cried out for oxygen. He tried to breathe. Nothing came through. His mouth and nose were still pressed tightly shut, preventing any airflow. He couldn't help but cry. He never thought he would go like this, alone in his own mind.

He could hear Therizino's laughter in his head. He could almost see her face, staring down at him from the back of his mind, sneering at his pain. She was enjoying this. He didn't need to see her face to know this was true.

He stopped struggling completely. He fell limp in the black blob's clutches. He slowly closed his eyes. The lack of oxygen was getting to him now. He wasn't going to last much longer. He could only wait for the end. Therizino had won. They had failed to stop her. Odd's only regret is that he would no longer be able to help the others to stop her and XANA. If only...

Just then, a bright light formed overhead. He opened his eyes, squinting at the light's intensity. It rapidly filled the skies, and soon covered the ground. The monsters around him clung to him tighter. The light touched them and the monsters cried out in pain. They disintegrated, releasing Odd. Then Odd found himself enveloped in the white light.

sss

Odd's eyes snapped open. He took in a shaky, scratchy breath. He sat himself up with one arm. His hand was on his chest. He took in several breaths, each sounding just as fragile as the previous ones. His eyes were very wide and his mouth wide open. It took him several minutes to catch his breath. He coughed a few times, and looked up.

Standing over him was Aelita, her eyes wide in shock. In her hand, a cut wire with electricity sparking out of it. "It worked..." Aelita whispered before dropping the wire and wrapping her arms around Odd, pulling him into a hug. "You're..you're alive!"

Odd groaned softly. He weakly hugged her back. "Y-Yeah...you can't get rid of me that easily..."

The others gave a sigh of relief. Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie rushed to Odd's side. They helped him up to his feet and took him into the computer room. They set Odd down next to Jeremie's chair and backed away, giving him breathing room.

"I-I guess this is b-becoming like the new infirmary, huh?" Odd joked, pointing out the fact that him getting sick in the factory was becoming a common occurrence.

"We are just glad you are okay." Jeremie smiled at him.

"Yeah, we thought we lost you." Yumi whispered.

Ulrich placed a hand on Odd's shoulder and squeezed it. "Don't scare us again like that." He said sternly.

Odd could see Ulrich's smile. "Don't worry..." He tried to laugh, but it only came out as garbled coughs. After a moment, he said, "I guess..Th-Therizino is getting desperate to kill me."

Jeremie nodded gravely. "She almost killed you yesterday. And she almost succeeded today. We need to act fast before..."

Odd interrupted him. "She knows, Jeremie."

"What?"

Odd shook his head slowly. "She knows what your plan is. She knows everything I do." He looked at his friends and sighed softly. "That means that she will be prepared for anything. She might have moved that data..."

"It would be too risky. I doubt she'd tried that." Jeremie said. He scratched his chin. This was a problem he should have foreseen. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it before. What were they going to do? If Therizino could read Odd's thoughts, then no matter what plan he discussed, she would know about it. "This is going to be tough..." He said at least.

Jeremie thought about this for a while. He remained quiet, not speaking a word. Odd's news was grave indeed. No matter what he came up with, Odd would hear and so would Therizino. He didn't want Odd to feel left out by huddling with the others and whispering the plan. That could also backfire on them. If Odd doesn't know the plan, couldn't he accidentally screw things up?

They could take the risk and just go to Lyoko now. Therizino may have found a counter plan. But they could try to break through it. They could fight against Therizino's attempts to keep herself from being deleted and get to the Way Tower. Yet there was still that chance they would fail. Therizino had command of the monsters, according to what he had witnessed earlier. What if she had a whole army there waiting for them?

He leaned back in his chair. He continued to be in deep thought. He tapped his fingertips together, his head tilted slightly upwards. He looked up towards the ceiling. He could hear the soft chattering of his friends. He wondered if any of them were coming up with a plan. He hoped so. He couldn't think of a proper course of action that would work for them. He had only two ideas, to just go in now or to come up with a new strategy excluding Odd, and both could easily backfire on them all. He could use a different plan right about now.

"Hey Jeremie."

Looking up, Jeremie could see Yumi walking up to him. "What is it, Yumi?"

"Did you think of anything?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie closed his eyes and shook his head. "There's only two courses of action I can see we take, but both are filled with risk and we could...lose." He looked up at her. "Did any of the others think of anything?"

Yumi sighed. "No. We couldn't think of anything." She eyed Odd sympathetically. "If only we could get rid of that purple eye of his. It would save us a lot of grief."

"Yeah..." Jeremie stared at Odd. His eyes widened. "Wait..."

"What?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie didn't answer at first. He thought back to Aelita's actions. She had grabbed a live wire and hit Odd with it. The voltage had broke him out of whatever hallucination Therizino had trapped him in. He didn't think much of it at first, but now he had to wonder. Just how did it work? How was it the voltage didn't hurt Odd more? How did it bring him back?

He could still see purple in Odd's eye. So it didn't destroy whatever was implanted. But it was possible, maybe, that the voltage disrupted the signal. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully at this. What would happen if they subjected him to more voltage? No that was insane. They couldn't do that to him. What if it hurt him more?

But what if they went somewhere with a lot of electricity around? That might muffle the signal. It might give them an edge. His hopes were doused when he remembered Odd's purple eye. Even if they could discuss in secret, Therizino would still know the plan because Odd would surely think about it.

He lowered his head. "Never mind. I thought I had something." He clenched his hand into a fist. "Curse that purple eye!" He felt like kicking something.

Jeremie didn't notice Odd walking up to him at first. He was too caught up in his thoughts. When he looked up and saw Odd standing there, he was so shocked he almost fell back off the chair. After calming himself down, he looked at Odd.

"Odd, I didn't see you come over." Jeremie said.

Odd smiled. "I didn't know I scared you. Next time, I'll make more noise so you know I'm coming."

Jeremie narrowed his eyes. "I wasn't scared. I was...surprised."

Odd grinned. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Einstein."

"What did you want to say, Odd?" Yumi asked before Jeremie could retort. "You look like you've got a plan."

Shrugging, the boy said, "I guess you could say that." He turned to Jeremie. "I think we should just go to Lyoko, despite Therizino knowing the plan." Jeremie and Yumi looked at him shocked. From behind, Odd knew that Aelita and Ulrich were doing the same thing. "If we don't go now, who knows what she'll do?"

"Odd, you always were a reckless one." Ulrich said just loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm just saying. I think it's worth the risk to go now if it means Therizino will be destroyed." Odd explained. "If we wait, what if she..." He trailed off, not wanting to mention her wanting to kill him. He continued, "Let's just do it, okay?"

Aelita said, "What about Therizino?"

Odd smiled at her. "I will keep her busy."

Jeremie stared at him. He couldn't believe how insane Odd was being, and brave too. He was willing to go through with the plan even with Therizino knowing what they were going to do. He was going to use himself as distraction, to keep Therizino busy while the others went to work. Jeremie wasn't sure if Odd was being stupid or what.

He shook his head slowly. "Sometimes, you scare me, Odd." He paused for a moment. "All right, let's do it."