Elie closed her eyes, sighing. She was finally home. On Lyoko. XANA was trying to trick her into giving him something vital that he needed, but she was far more clever than he'd expected. XANA had kindly offered to transfer the data to her as he had been before, to get her curious enough to come looking for her memories. She declined, knowing she could get the data her offered her from the terminal in Sector Five, even if she had to look hard for it there. She'd be damned before she let XANA in her head again.
Life on Lyoko was much as she remembered it. Simple. She had little to fear from the monsters since she had daggers, unlike before. Mostly she stayed in the mountain area building defenses around her tower-home and making the area around it more to her liking or re-learning how to use the towers. She had started similar projects in the other three sectors, but for now she wanted the Mountains to be her home.
She wanted to go to Sector Five, but XANA knew that's where she'd go. She would bide her time, wait for him to drop his guard. He'd send the stupid jellyfish after her and she'd know he'd be out of patience.
Elie's plan to wait it out, however, didn't work. It had been less than a day when she felt XANA activate not one, but six towers. She cursed, wishing she had more time. She didn't know how to shut XANA's towers down without actually going to that tower yet. If she had more time... But that was probably why he'd done this so quickly. She wouldn't have time to learn what she needed. She'd have to come out in the open, and Jeremie would probably send Aelita and the rest of their friends to fix the problem.
Thinking about that reminded Elie of Odd, a subject she was avoiding like the plague. Thinking of him hurt to much and made her want to return to earth. She missed him so desperately... No. She wasn't going to think about him. In time his memory would fade, and she would be able to go on with her life and her new role.
Elie called her Overwind and headed toward the tower activated in the Mountain area. It wasn't to far away and in a mater of minuets she was there. But just as she was about to walk into the tower, it deactivated on it's own. Elie looked around, just to be sure Aelita or Ulrich or anyone wasn't around. The area was empty... That didn't make any sense. Then she felt four of the other towers turn off as well. There was one left... but Elie had no idea where it was. Maybe if she worked at the tower she could find it?
Back at her home tower, Elie scanned the data, looking at the list of towers. None were active, but Elie could clearly feel one, though the pulsations were faint. Then what? Sector Five didn't have towers, only the terminal, and XANA couldn't use that to affect the real world anyway. So what?
Hesitantly Elie pulled up the surveillance data for the Factory. There, in the computer room, Elie saw Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd. Seeing him made Elie's heart hurt so badly she wanted to scream, but she remained silent. He looked tired, so sad... Devastated even. And it was her fault. She had caused him and all of her friends so much pain. But in time, they would forget her. They would move on too. He would move on. Maybe if she said it enough it would be true.
But there was someone else there. Someone Elie knew couldn't be there. Sitting in the chair, working on the Super Computer, was Franz Hopper. But he couldn't be there. Now Elie knew what the attack was, but could she learn how to work the towers in time to stop him? Elie turned to pull up new areas of data and began to work.
Two and a half days later, Elie was no closer to finding XANA's tower, or to learning how to remotely shut one down. She had, however, recently come across an interesting bit of data. She could use that. Especially since everyone had fallen for XANA's trick. Even Jeremie, who Elie thought would be able to see threw the attack.
She had been keeping a close eye on the Franz imposter and her friends and things were going down hill very very quickly. The group was falling apart, but Elie knew without the fake Franz there, things would get better. And since she couldn't find the tower to stop the attack, Elie would have to use the data she'd found a few hours ago. Elie opened a new panel and put her hand on it, using the code Sarah to activate her tower. XANA would try to stop her no doubt, but he'd find it much harder to take over this tower than he'd planned. Elie closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was in Jeremie's room as a Phantom.
She hadn't learned how to give her image a physical form yet, but for this trip the image was all she required. Maybe it was for the best this way. She moved around in the new form, finding it comfortable, almost like her own body. She could see things, hear things, but the world had no physical sensation. Her hand went through a lamp when she tried to turn it on. Now she would have to wait.
Jeremie didn't make her wait long. After a few minuets he stormed into his room, not noticing he had a guest until Elie cleared her throat to draw his attention.
Jeremie turned in surprise, then his eyes narrowed in a glare. "What are you doing here?" He demanded.
Elie shrugged. "Trying to save you."
"Yeah right. What happened to your friend Shade huh? Why didn't you try to 'save' us from him?" Jeremie shot back at her, clenching his fist.
"I did." Elie said, looking down. "I gave you the knives to get you free, I drew their attention to me so you could get out. I acted like i didn't care about you guys so they wouldn't hurt you. I should have trusted you more and told you about them, but I didn't. It was a mistake and I regret it. Those are the facts, Jeremie. Whether you believe me or not doesn't mater right now. You are in danger."
Jeremie turned away from her. "We don't need your help anymore Elie, they've got Franz now. So just go away."
"Franz is an imposter. It's an attack from XANA."
"Oh please." Jeremie scoffed and turned to face her again. "There aren't even any activated towers."
"Yes there is, but it's not anywhere I can find on Lyoko. Jeremie, listen to me! If you don't get your ass back there, XANA is going to win! He'll take Aelita's memories, probably kill our friends. Use your brain Einstein! You know he's not who he says he is."
Jeremie was still glaring at her, but slowly his eyes softened. "How did he know his diary got destroyed...?" Jeremie asked, more to himself than to Elie. He turned and pulled the brief case full of broken CDs out from it's hiding place in his wardrobe and examined them.
"Because he's XANA." Elie said softly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Jeremie nodded and turned to her. "Elie, where have you been?"
"It doesn't matter. Just go. Aelita needs you. You can't let her go to Lyoko."
"Come with me, Elie. If that's true, the gang is going to need your help on Lyoko."
Elie shook her head. "I can't. Jeremie, you can't tell them you saw me. I want you all to forget me, ok?"
"Elie..."
"Just forget me." Elie repeated, then let her image fade. When Elie looked up again, she was back in her home tower. Talking with Jeremie had been much harder than she'd thought it would be. Now she had to make her way to Sector Five and pray that she was right. If the tower wasn't there... There was no way she'd be able to save her friends without them seeing her.
Elie used her Overwind to get to the edge of the sector, then called the transporter. A moment later she was in sector five, running through the corridor. The main room was open and empty, so she continued forward. There they were, fighting creepers without any effort. Odd's arrows hit the target no mater how he shot. Yumi's fans hit four or even five Creepers before returning to her. Ulrich's sword shot waves of energy. For now, they were safe. Elie stayed in the shadows where she wouldn't be seen and waited. If she knew XANA he'd make his move soon. Elie didn't have to wait long for her friends to run into trouble.
Odd grinned, aiming at a creeper that slithered up to him. "Hey Ulrich, whoever kills the most wins." Nothing happened. Odd moved his wrist around, but still nothing. Then Yumi's fans vanished. A second later Ulrich's sword vanished too. The three looked at each other and the creepers took the chance to attack, hitting Ulrich and knocking him back.
"Franz, we need help!" Odd yelled, but nothing happened. XANA had made his move. Ulrich stood and the three ran through the corridor.
"No... It's not Franz." Yumi said, pointing forward. Elie looked where Yumi was and saw the sixth tower she'd been looking for floating a few yards away from the platform. If she could get to it...
The creepers rushed forward, shooting at her friends. Elie knew she wouldn't be able to get to the tower yet, it was to far away. She Phazed and ran into one of the creepers, turning it on it's fellow monster. Odd had started a boxing match with one creeper to her right, and Yumi and Ulrich were fighting two more to the left.
Elie shot the two near her, then turned her attacks to Yumi and Ulrich's attackers. They went down easy, and Odd softened up the last one. The three looked at Elie's creeper, but before they could attack or talk to her (Elie wasn't sure which was worse), she took her creeper and fled back to the main room. As she left her monster, she caused it to self destruct. She then phased into a wall. As she'd expected, Odd and the others ran in after her.
While they were looking for the creeper, Elie went back toward the tower. She sang a platform into existence so she could get to the tower. As she was walking across, someone called her name. Ellie turned to see Yumi and Ulrich standing behind her. Odd was still running and ran into her, holding her tightly. "Elie..."
Elie closed her eyes and pulled away. She didn't need her eyes to see the hurt in his eyes. "Elie...?" She still didn't answer him and turned away. Odd grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "You just vanish for days and show up out of nowhere and you won't even talk to me?!" He demanded. "Do you know how worried I've been."
Elie looked down, but Odd's hand gently lifted her head to look at him again. Her throat closed up and she started to shake. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to get in, get out, and above all they weren't supposed to know she was there. Odd wasn't...
"Where have you been?" Odd asked softly.
"Here..." Elie said softly, shaking still. "I've been here."
"Why? Why did you run away like that?"
"I got you guys hurt." she said softly. "Almost killed because I didn't trust you enough. I thought it was better if i just vanished. So I did."
"Elie, that's not..." Odd hugged her again, resting his head on her shoulder. "Come back, Elie. Don't leave me again."
Elie bit her lip. "How can you... After everything that happened, how can you say that Odd? I hurt you, lied to you, almost got you killed."
Odd lifted his head and grinned in that classic way that Elie loved so much. "Because I love you."
Elie closed the small gap between them, touching her lips to his in a gentile yet passionate kiss. "I love you too. But I have to take care of this tower. I'll come back." Elie smiled at him, then turned and walked into the tower. She let the power lifted her to the second level and entered Code: Lyoko onto the panel. She smiled softly to herself. "Tower Deactivated."
Elie kept her word and returned to earth with Odd, who wouldn't leave her side. It seemed that Jeremie and Aelita had forgiven her, but Yumi still had her reservations. Ulrich didn't trust her at all, but she couldn't blame him. She could barely believe she was even back on earth. She had wanted to stay on Lyoko, learn more about herself, but... She couldn't disappear now. Not after Odd's declaration. Maybe things could go back to almost normal, but Elie didn't know. Honestly, she had no idea what would happen now.
