Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is owned by Moonscoop.

This chapter was written by me and edited by AeroJester203.

Mary is owned by AeroJester203. Cameron is owned by Undeadmonkey8.

To Save a Friend

POV Aelita's

In Mary's house

"Maybe we should wait…" Yumi suggests. "At least until after the end of year dance? Why rush it?"

"That might be for the best," I agree. "So, Mary… what do you think? Should we do this?" I ask her, almost pleading with my brown eyes.

"Aelita…" Mary sighs. She looks at us and sees that we're all content with our decision. "Okay, if you feel you must change time… do it knowing that you may never have the chance to come back to this future. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," I nod.

The others look at me, most of them with concern, but I can tell that Jeremy is dreading this. He gets up from the sofa and makes his way to the front porch. I follow after him.

"Aelita-" Ulrich starts, but I hear Odd interrupt him.

"Don't. Let them talk this out."

Outside on the porch

Jeremy is already standing by the railing of the porch when I open the door, one hand rested on it as he stares at the surroundings. I go to stand next to him.

"Jeremy… are you okay?" I tentatively ask.

He takes off his glasses, and I notice he seems really upset. Is…. Is he crying? I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looks at me. I've never seen his brown eyes like this; they're overflowing with tears. Has he really been holding in this much pain? Jeremy stifles his sobs and fixes his glasses, pushing them to the bridge of his nose.

"Sorry, Aelita, I… I feel responsible. For all of this," he explains.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "Jeremy you didn't kill Lila."

"I did though… by starting that supercomputer…" Jeremy replies with a shake of his head. "I never thought anyone of us would die. I was her father, Aelita… I let my daughter down."

"Jeremy… I've been thinking about this for the past few weeks. About Lila, I… I think I've figured out something, something she and Mary didn't want either of us to know."

"What?" he asks me, puzzled.

"Jeremy… I think I am her mother," I say. "It… it only makes sense. Think about it… She was always overprotective of us. Especially when you told me she punched… What was her name? Taelia?"

Flashback

POV Jeremy's

Inside the lab

"What's going on in here?" I hear Mr. Delmas asking. I turn in my chair and see the detective from earlier and two of his policemen with Mr. Delmas. At the same time, Lila arrives from the hatch leading to the scanner room below. I know it's her since she was just devirtualized.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy… the Bloks got me," she explains. "And Taelia…" At the venomous tone, I glance over my shoulder to see Lila glaring at her as if offended by Taelia's very presence. She flinches, and I can't help but feel like a total idiot. How could I think this person was Aelita?

"It was a mistake telling her," Lila says.

Taelia scoffs, as if knowing we can't do anything with the police there,

"Whatever."

"From our understanding, you kids decided to unleash some sort of evil into the world," the detective states. "We're ordering you to shut the computer down."

I start to protest, but Taelia cuts me off, "It's just a computer! Big deal, some girl who looks like me is inside of it! She's fake; she's not even real!"

"She's – she's not even real?" Lila repeats in a low tone. I can hear the anger bubbling under the surface.

She closes the distance between them in a few quick steps and rears back her fist before slugging Taelia across the face, knocking her back a few steps before she stumbles and manages to catch herself before falling. One of the policemen grabs hold of her before she can do anything more, but she still glares at the redhead. Rubbing her hand against her face, Taelia wipes away a bit of blood from her lip.

"See, Mr. Delmas?" she exclaims. "They're dangerous! She just hit me for no reason!"

Lila growls and struggles to free herself from the officer's hold to attack her again. I am completely stunned by all of this… I've never seen her so enraged before.

"Belpois, kill this thing," Mr. Delmas orders. "You'll have to answer some of our questions at the police station."

"I can't, sir. My friends are still in danger," I reply. "And Lila… I'm sorry. You were right; I shouldn't have told Taelia."

"It's okay, Jeremy, I get it," she replies after calming a bit. "You wanted to see Aelita so badly. After all, she's the girl of your dreams, isn't she?"

I blush a bit and nod.

End of Flashback

Back to Aelita's POV

"Now that makes sense, Aelita… She punched Taelia because she made fun of her parents. But… I thought Lila's mother died of a sickness?" Jeremy asks.

I shake my head, "Maybe that was a lie Jeremy… maybe that's the truth. I'm not really sure."

"Okay… so what do we do now?" he asks while staring at the trees again.

"Do we just sacrifice everything on the hope this time jump works?"

I look at him. "Yeah, I think we have to."

Jeremy turns back to me, "Then… if we're sacrificing everything, Aelita. I guess I should tell you I-"

He starts to say the three words, but I interrupt him giving him a surprise kiss on the lips. The contact only lasts for a few seconds, but Jeremy remains stunned for a moment after I pull away.

"I, uh- I, Aelita- I mean, I, uh-" he stutters while blushing. "You too?"

"Yeah," I nod with a smile.

Jeremy and I then realize we made a mistake when we hear Odd say,

"Finally!"

We turn to the door seeing everyone else gathered in the now open entrance. Our friends and Mary are smiling at us, and my father is giving a stern but approving look. Jeremy and I can't help but smile.

A few days later

The night of the end of the year dance

Inside the gymnasium

Word got around that Jeremy is my date for the dance tonight. But it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, really.

I'm dressed in a pink gown-like dress and Jeremy is wearing a black three-piece suit and a red bowtie. He thinks they're stylish… and it does look rather nice of him, but I can't say I'm a fan of them. Still, I think he can win me over. All of us are dancing, and we're all dressed up nice. Even Cameron looks normal as he's dancing with Emily. The music starts slowing down for some reason.

"We'll be taking things slow now. So for all of those who brought a special someone with you, here's a song to make this a night to remember. And for those who didn't bring a date… get off the floor! Haha, just joking, but seriously give the lovebirds more room, please," Christophe M' Bala, the DJ, requests.

A lot of people go back to the benches, but Sissi and William remain in the crowd with us, as they've been dancing together the whole night. Probably because Yumi and Ulrich finally asked one another out. Maybe came from Jeremy and I kissing; I'm not really sure. Milly and Tamiya are recording the event from afar. Yumi and Ulrich pull each other closer, moving to the slowness of the song along with the rest of the couples.

Jeremy and I awkwardly stand across from each other and can feel the other students' eyes on us. Jim can't help but smile at us, and Jeremy offers his hand. I accept it and he pulls me closer to him so we can dance in each other's arms.

Afterwards

In the park

Back in our regular clothes now, having decided to leave the dance early, I have the time machine necklace safely tucked under my hoodie. My friends and I have decided to search for the gun in the park. We still haven't found it, and the dance surely must have ended by now.

"Anything yet?" Odd calls out.

Ulrich replies, "No, nothing."

"Are you guys looking for this?" a familiar voice asks.

We all whip around to the source and see that it's Cameron. He's… he's holding the gun, and my eyes widen.

"Cameron… what are you doing with a gun?" I ask him, trying to keep to the charade.

He shakes his head, "Oh stop it Aelita. I… I… remember."

All of our eyes widen, and Yumi shakes the shock off first.

"But how?" she asks.

"It started a few weeks ago," Cameron explains. "I've been having really bad dreams of her… of Lila. Eventually, my mind put the pieces back together. I guess immunity from the scanners wasn't accounted for when Mary made that return trip to the past."

I slap myself on the head, "Oh, of course! Stupid!"

He puts the gun on the grass beside him, still looking down when he stands up again, "I just have to ask… why? Why let me get away with this?"

I'm about to say something, but Odd speaks up.

"You were a victim, Cameron, for a long time… probably since the night of Aelita's first mix. We never knew until Mary took off your watch. From there it was just about deciding what to do about you, and we voted to do the right thing," he explains.

"Thanks… I, uh, appreciate this. But when the new term rolls around… I won't be back. I don't deserve to be back," Cameron says. "I'd better be getting back to Emily… she's waiting for me to walk her back to her dorm."

I look at him, "You like her?"

"Yeah," he nods morosely. "Shame I'll have to break her heart, though."

"Just….treat her right, while you can."

He nods and simply walks off without saying a word. Going over to the gun, I bend down and pick it up to put it in one of my hoodie's side pockets. I turn to the others.

"So… we're all certain, then?" I ask.

Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Jeremy nod in unison.

"I'll explain to Delmas that you decided to leave school to spend time with your family in Canada. Since you were Lila's adopted sister, I'll explain to Delmas it's your 'real' family you'll be spending time with. I'm… I'm really going to miss you Aelita," Jeremy says.

"Me too. I'm going to miss all of you so much." I take the time machine necklace off and press the red button before placing it on the ground. All of us step back as the time machine necklace starts glowing and unfolds into its true form while growing. Eventually, the shining light dies down and all of us see the beaten-up time machine. Stepping into the gap where one of the doors used to be, I sit on the chair.

The others approach as I start up the interface, and the broken hologram screens appear. I start typing in the date where Lila got shot the first time. The coordinates screen must've been broken since I didn't see anything to enter them, but we are already in the park so that hopefully means that it'll lock to the same position in the past.

"If you see Lila… tell her we said hi," Yumi says.

"If I see her, I will," I promise. "I'm going to try my best to fix Cameron… if he lets me."

Ulrich looks down, remembering how Cameron was under Xana's influence on Lyoko, "We can only hope."

I enter the date fully and look at Jeremy, "Jeremy I really am… sorry you know?"

"I know…" he nods solemnly. "Try to get back safe…"

"I'll try," I reply while giving him a slight smile. But something tells me I won't be back.

Odd gives a tentative smile back, "We'll miss you, princess."

"I'll miss you all too," I say.

I strap myself in, the seatbelt being a bit loose since the time machine was meant for Lila's use when she was an adult. I pull the red lever, and the time machine hums while levitating into the air before everything disappears.

In the vortex

I'm traveling in what's called the time vortex. I've been brushing up on time travel theories, and this was one that could never be proven. But here I am traveling through it. It's sort of like a tunnel… but with a blend of different colors blurring at high speeds. My vision, however, starts turning white.

Afterwards

In the woods

Waking up, I gasp. For some reason, I am unable to see. I can still smell the thick ozone emanating from the sparking electronics, though. Even without my sight, I can tell that the time machine is in one piece despite the condition it's in, seeing as how it didn't explode upon arrival. I think back to what Mary said to me just after she told me the mechanics of time travel.

Flashback

"One more thing… there are a few side effects to time travel. You may experience the ones I've told you about. Nausea, age regression or increase, loss of sight."

"Loss of sight?" I repeat worriedly.

She nods, "Only temporary. I just hope you don't regress in age… that would be a worst-case scenario."

End of Flashback

Okay, Aelita, just remain calm and your eyesight should restore itself soon, I tell myself.

That being said… how am I going to take care of Cameron? How should I even convince him to remove the watch or let me get close enough so I can figure out how to short-circuit it? Ugh… If he doesn't give me a choice… I think I'm going to have to kill him. Just breathe, Aelita. Wait for your sight to return.

My vision returns in a few minutes, dim and spotty at first before it clears up as I blink. Opening my eyes, I can see that the time machine is now in much worse condition around me. I unfasten my seatbelt and get out of the chair.

Going to the button on the time machine's underside, I press it. It shrinks down and folds into the treasure chest shape for carrying. I put the time machine necklace on and pull up my hood to be more discreet. I start walking in the direction of the park since it shouldn't be long now. I need to get there before 3:00 pm; that's when he makes his first attempt at killing Lila.

At the park

Hiding in a bush, I see Cameron is walking to the bench with the same gun as before in his hand. He puts it in his pocket and sits down. I watch him for a while from my hiding place as he just sits there muttering to himself.

What is he muttering about? I wonder. Is he talking to himself? Is he contemplating his decision? If he is… maybe I can still reach him in time.

I get up from the bush, rustling its leaves as I do so. Keeping my head shadowed, I start walking up to Cameron.

"Who's there?!" Cameron exclaims. I feel his eyes on me.

"Answer me… or else," he threatens. Apparently, for some reason, he can't think straight. My pink hoodie and dark purple jumper dress should make it rather obvious, but I reveal my identity to Cameron anyway, making eye contact as I do so.

His eyes widen, "Ae-Aelita? Is that really you?"

"It is… in a way," I reply. "I'm the Aelita from the future of this current timeline."

"You… you traveled into the past? But why –" Cameron starts to ask me, and I interrupt him.

"Don't bother lying to me Cameron. I know all too well you plan on killing Lila. At least… I know you plan on making your first attempt."

"My first… You mean… I failed the first time?" he asks, expression closing up.

I nod, "Lila survives the first shot, but you crippled her, and then after going AWOL you eventually finish the job… You kill Lila, Cameron."

Cameron's eyes widen, and he looks sadden to hear the news.

"I've been trying hard to fight his will. But he's too powerful."

"Cameron, I know it's the chip that's controlling you," I reply. "All we need to do is deliver a short electrical shock into the watch, and it'll fall off. We can free you."

Cameron lurches back as his whole body starts trembling, "How… did you find that out?"

"Mary figured it out in the future. Please… I can help," I say while taking a step closer.

"Stay away from me!" he shouts while getting up quickly with his hand still in his pocket.

Using my own hand, I start trying to grab the small gun that's in my pocket. Cameron catches on, and draws his own as I fumble for mine. We both aim our guns at each other, but my hand is shaking while his is held steady. I thought I'd be up to this challenge, but now that I'm here… I'm terrified.

"You won't do it," Cameron says. "No matter what happens here, the future will still stay the same. You can't change destiny."

"I can, and I will. I'm a different Aelita than the one you currently know. Please don't make me do this, Cameron. I can help," I plead.

"No… just stay away!" he demands.

Cameron puts his finger on the trigger, and I do the same for mine. Thankfully the safety is still off on my gun.

"You have a choice here, Cameron. There's always another choice!" I try to reason.

"Not this time Aelita," Cameron replies.

My hand continues shaking and I try to aim the gun to his head as I can feel he's aiming at mine. But I'm not going to make it in time with my hand shaking so much. If I don't shoot first, then this entire attempt to save Lila will be for nothing.

"Cameron, last chance. Don't. Please don't make me do this," I urge, trying to sound surer than I am. But I'm starting to cry since I'll either have to live with taking a life or die having achieved nothing.

Ignoring my bluff, Cameron fully pulls the trigger. I try to aim my hand a little higher as I pull the trigger a split-second after him. But he had ducked towards the ground immediately after firing. I have no time to react as I'm hit by the bullet.

Afterwards…

POV Lila's

Making my way toward the park, I look at the time on my cell phone, seeing that the time is 2:59 PM. I hear two very loud bangs overlapping each other.

"What was that?" I wonder. "They sounded like… No they couldn't have been! God, Cameron, please be alright!"

I start running to the direction of the gunshots. Reaching the park, I see two people on the ground. One of them is wearing a familiar pink hoodie with her head largely covered.

"Oh my- Oh my God! Mom…?! Mom!" I cry out.

Seeing Aelita's vacant face with a bullet wound still fresh before I know what I'm doing, I run to her and get on one knee beside her. I lay my hands on her face, away from the still running blood. I can't help it, though—my eyes drift back to her wound.

One cold comfort is that it's a clean shot to the end with no brain matter. Her face…her eyes… her eyes are still wide open… and I notice her brown eyes. They seem more… more depressed. I just left Aelita in our room… she seemed happy.

She is cold and growing colder… I feel cold too, and hollow. How could…Why? I have to… It's almost too much, but I have to do it. I gently bring a hand to her face and wipe her tears away… and then close her eyes for her.

And then I just cry hot, disgusting tears, cradling her head closer.

I can't believe it… my mom's gone. I turn to the second body on the ground and I realize it's Cameron. Going over to him, I see a gun in his hand and my eyes widen in surprise. He seems to be knocked out… or lying in wait for a trap.

Hoping it's not the latter I quickly take the gun away from his hand by sliding it out carefully and throwing it to the side. I then turn Cameron's body to see his face, and… he's okay. I sigh in relief before growling since it seemed he was responsible for my mother's death. I want answers. When I grab him and yank him so that he's half sitting up, he immediately starts rousing.

"What happened here? You need to wake up and tell me what happened!" I demand, forcefully shaking him.

"Lila?! What – are – you – doing?!" Cameron exclaims, his speech staggered by the shaking.

"Look what you've done! You've killed Aelita!" I exclaim at him, pointing over to her body. He seems to know what he's done and looks away.

"It's not Aelita…."

"But… it clearly is! Don't make excuses!" I raise a fist in rage, about to strike him for telling such a transparent lie.

"Look closely," he tells me before I can follow through.

Pushing him to the ground, I go over to Aelita's body. Trying to move past the fact that I'm handling her corpse, I examine her… and my eyes zero in on a chain around the back of her neck. Could it be…? I lift her head up lightly, trying not to look at her face, and I carefully lower her hood and take the necklace off. Gently putting her head back down, my eyes widen in shock.

"My time machine necklace?! But then…"

If… if I'm lucky… I quickly take out my mobile cell phone and call Aelita on speed dial. The phone rings and someone picks up on the other end. I carefully watch Cameron on the ground, making sure he doesn't try to go for the gun.

"Lila? Is everything okay?" Aelita asks through the phone. I sigh internally with relief before looking at the Aelita who was shot…

She must be from the future, I realize.

"No… um, it's not," I unsteadily reply before collecting myself. "Look, there's trouble. It's not Xana; we dealt with him three times today and that's enough. There's this other issue at the park… Just get the others and meet me here."

"Tell the others to bring restraints for me…" Cameron adds. "I'm starting to lose my will again."

I regard him for a moment before continuing, "And bring restraints—anything that can hold a person down. Tell Odd and Ulrich; they'll know what to get."

"Um… okay," Aelita says.

Later

Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Yumi run over to me. They gasp at the sight of the future Aelita's dead body. I glance over to Cameron as Odd and Ulrich get to work at tying him up with the rope they brought. Thankfully he has enough free will left so he doesn't fight back.

"What– what happened here?" Jeremy asks. He kneels down next to future Aelita.

"I can… explain," Cameron says haltingly. "This Aelita… she's from the future. She tried to stop me… from killing Lila…"

"Huh?!" all of us exclaim, including me.

He shakes his head clear as if suppressing whatever the problem was, before continuing, "That's why she came here, Lila—to prevent me from shooting you this time. Apparently, I succeeded in crippling you in the future before finishing you later, and she traveled back in time to change events. She saved your life… and she tried to kill me too. Can't say I blame her. But… she was scared, terrified even. Her hand was shaking so much, she just barely missed me. I think I briefly passed out from shock, though. But look… before she died, she figured out a way to save me."

"Save you?" Odd asks. "From what?"

"A chip. A chip Xana installed inside the watch… he put me under possession the night of Aelita's first mix," Cameron explains.

Jeremy's eyes narrow, "Impossible! Even if he did… the scanners would have detected the chip as a foreign object during your virtualization process!"

"Xana figured a way around it. Not sure how… but he did," Cameron ground out, appearing to strain in getting the words out. "Listen, I don't have much time left… Xana keeps making me forget things. He keeps erasing my memories so that I can… fully focus on one goal, killing Lila. But look… the future Aelita told me that if you deliver a short electrical shock to my watch, it'll short circuit and fall off."

"An electrical shock huh?" Jeremy cautiously repeated. "There's this one program I've been working on that could do the trick… but it's not ready yet! I'd have to put a rush on it, and what about the other Aelita's body? We can't just leave her here!"

"Just knock me out and restrain me at the lab!" Cameron demands while hunched over. His face is scrunched in pain as Aelita and I look at him in shock. Ulrich goes over to him and clasps his hands together in a double-handed fist.

"Now, Cameron, this will hurt you more than it will us," he says as he strikes him over the back of the head and knocks Cameron to the ground.

Yumi looks at him before turning back to us, "Now what do we do?"

"We have to get future Aelita's body to the only safe place I can think of…" I state. The others look at me as I continue, "The digital sea."

"That would work… Where's the necklace my future self had?" Aelita asks.

"I have it," I reply. "I've just got my jacket zipped up right now because I don't want people to see me wearing both at the same time. If they ask to see the second one… they'll find it very strange that I have two identical heirlooms and might start asking questions we don't want them to ask. Ulrich and Yumi, you two take care of the guns. There's a bullet around here somewhere so you may want to find that too. I'll carry Aelita's body to the factory. I don't want to do it… but I don't want you guys dealing with this kind of burden."

"Okay… then Aelita and I will carry Cameron to the factory," Jeremy says.

"Right."

"We'll call you when we're done with the guns. And the bullet. Any idea as to the direction where it went?" Yumi says.

I sigh, "Not sure… but let's just get this over with."

"Okay, we'll get to the lab as soon as we find the bullet and have taken care of the guns," Ulrich says.

"Right," I nod.

Lyoko's Forest Sector

Having left Cameron in the lab, Jeremy is currently working on a new program of his, one that he says that can create his own spectre by activating a tower on Lyoko. Once he does this, he'll have one of us possessed – or "Jeremified," as Odd jokingly calls it – to use the spectre to give one of us the ability to short-circuit Cameron's watch. That must have been one strong hit Ulrich gave to Cameron because he's still knocked out.

Odd, Aelita, and I are currently on our vehicles. I'm flying Yumi's Overwing, the future Aelita's body resting behind me. The Aelita I know is using my broomstick. We soon reach the end of the sector and touch down on the ground, stepping off of our vehicles. Carrying her body over my shoulders to the edge, Odd and Aelita follow behind me.

"Um… should we say any words?" he asks.

"I can say we won't allow her sacrifice to be in vain," I vow. "She saved me… and she saved Cameron. We're forever in her debt."

Aelita nods. It must be awkward attending your own funeral…

"I'll add one more thing… If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be able to keep having these new adventures with you guys. I guess now… we should probably let her rest in peace," I say.

I use my magic to create a block of ice, laying the future Aelita's body atop it. Odd helps me push it onto the digital sea.

We stare at the block of ice as it begins to crumble from the digital sea eroding it. A spiraling pillar of energy comes out from the data, evaporating future Aelita's body.

"Are Ulrich and Yumi back yet?" Aelita asks, trying her best to be strong.

Jeremy replies, "Yeah, they are, and they've taken care of the guns. As well as the bullet, it seems they had found it. I'm grateful there wasn't blood at the crime scene... otherwise, I'm not sure what we would have done. The program is almost ready. Do any of you want to volunteer?"

"I'll… I'll do it," I answer. Odd puts his hand on my shoulder, and I look at him in surprise.

"No I'll do it," he says. "You've done enough as it is, Lila."

"Thank you, Odd," I say. You're really a good friend… I hope you know that.

"Okay, Odd. I'll start your materialization so I can bring you in and have my spectre possess you. Lila, can you bring Aelita to a way tower? There's one southwest of your position."

I turn to my broomstick that is still hovering nearby, "Right, let's go Aelita." I get on the broomstick and Aelita mounts it behind me, her arms wrapped around my waist. Jeremy dematerializes Yumi's Overwing.

"Materialization: Odd."

Odd vanishes from Lyoko, and I kick my broomstick into the air.

Afterwards

I watch Aelita enter the tower's "doorway." I smile slightly.

Now to save Cameron…

Inside the lab

Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and I look at Cameron who is laid against the holosphere's podium, making sure he stays down while Jeremy types.

"Activating tower… now!" he exclaims, and I see him press the enter button on the keyboard.

For a few seconds nothing happens, but then a black smoke figure similar to Xana's spectre emerges out of the computer and goes to Odd. His body seems to flicker as it sinks into his chest and envelops him, turning him grey and black for a moment, but then color starts coming back into him.

Ulrich takes a step closer and tentatively asks, "How do you feel, Odd?"

"Electrified," Odd says, his voice reverberating due to possession. He goes to Cameron's body and snaps the ropes off of him with a seemingly casual tug, beaming slightly at the enhanced strength. He then grabs the unconscious boy's wrist that had the watch on it and began channeling purple electricity. Odd kneels down on the floor and directs the energy to go into the watch almost instinctively.

The watch starts sparking and falls off Cameron's hand. Going over to it, I look at the clock of the watch. Something pushes me to open it, and I remove the face from the accessory. Eyes widening, I turn to show the insides to the others, revealing the out of place microchip.

"That's the chip… So he really was telling the truth," Yumi says.

I nod and pull the chip out of the watch before throwing it to the ground and crushing it with my shoe. With that done, I close Cameron's watch again.

"And… deactivating tower," Jeremy announces, pressing the keys to do so.

The spectre leaves Odd's body before fading away, and he almost falls to the ground, but Ulrich and Yumi catch him just in time.

"Gotcha, good buddy. You okay? Say something," Ulrich says to Odd whose eyes are closed.

He wakes up shortly after and looks at Ulrich with a half-grin, "Something."

"Dork," Yumi scoffs. They help Odd up and we look at Aelita. She's been awfully quiet and is staring at the floor.

"You okay, Aelita?" Jeremy asks.

She looks up at us in slight surprise and replies, "I'll be fine. It's– it's just a lot to process."

We start hearing Cameron groan as he wakes up.

"Ugh… why do I feel like someone used me as a puppet?" he mutters.

Going over to him, I squat down to be at his level, "Good to see you again Cameron."

"Did… I go somewhere or something?" Cameron asks.

"A lot's happened Cameron… too much in fact," Jeremy says gravely. "This might seem rather sudden… but we think it might be best for you to leave school."

Cameron looks at Jeremy in shock, then notices I'm still holding his adopted father's watch. He also spots the broken pieces of the chip still scattered on the ground.

"What… what on earth happened here?" he asks while getting up. "And can I have my dad's watch back, please?"

"Here you go," I smile slightly and give him the watch back. He puts it on the same wrist he had it on before.

Aelita sighs, "You really don't want to know what happened here Cameron. But like Jeremy said… I think it's best if you left our group and the school. Spend some time with your family."

"If you're all certain…" Cameron trails off. "But what about you, Lila? I mean I always wanted to ask you to your favorite coffee place…"

"First off Cameron I drink tea, not coffee," I say.

He looks down to the floor a bit. Poor guy… he's been through so much and he'll never remember it. I can't hate him for something he had no control over… right? I mean what sort of person would I be if I did?

"But… I'll make an exception for you. This one time," I smile at him.

He looks up at me and smiles, "Thanks."

This part of our lives… this dark saga so to speak… I hope it's all over, I think. The future Aelita prevented something horrible from happening. She gave me a chance to live. She gave Cameron a chance to live.

The memory of her corpse appears in my mind's eye and I think back to when she must have been alive.

I'm so grateful to you… and I won't fail you. I promise, I'm going to get my revenge on Xana. For everything he did to you in the future. I can't thank you enough for your sacrifice… I'm going to make you proud, mom. I promise! I internally vow.

The end...

Changing Destiny: Lila's Journey! Will return in…

New Adventures: A Bad Turn

Author's note: We will now be returning to a much lighter season for the second half of Changing Destiny: Lila's Journey. This second half is going to be a lot more fun to read and will return to the fanfiction's usual T rating. However, the fanfiction will remain at M.

Author's Note: The scanner detected the chip in the bad future where Aelita came from because Xana was dead. Since he's still alive in the second branch of the timeline, the chip wouldn't have been able to be detected by the scanner.

Author's Note: The girl of his dreams chapter flashback was retconned just a bit. Unfortunately, I haven't gone back yet to update the chapter, but I will. Please do not consider it a continuity error.

To Undeadmonkey8, I felt guilty for the original plans I had for Cameron that you knew of. I hope you liked this new narrative as much as I did. Should I ever need Cameron again, I'll be requesting him from you in the future! And to my readers, I can't stress enough how good Code: Cameron is! It takes a new turn on having an OC in the Code Lyoko series. You'll surely enjoy it!

Changing Destiny: Lila's Journey! Will return in 2019! Until then, don't forget to review!

LyokoWarrior1994