A/N: The virus is revealed! Kekeh. Review if you like.

The hornets were keeping their distance, though the lasers they shot were still dangerously close to their targets. A monster charged up for its attack and released a laser beam, which collided with an oncoming kunai, nulling the attack and destroying the weapon. Another throwing knife flew at the swarm, which managed to evade it. A laser fired, almost striking Hinata, but she moved too quickly. Lee was keeping up aside Aelita, who was leading the way to the not-too-distant tower. Apparently realizing that the real target was elsewhere, the hornets abruptly changed course, leaving Hinata to run after them. Aelita jumped out of the way of two simutaneous laser beams and held up her hand. A pink orb swirled around, and she called out, "Energy Field!"

Instantly, the ball exploded into tiny bits of energy shrapnel, and Aelita collapsed.

"Aelita! Are you all-Huh!" Lee dodged an incoming laser mid-sentence. "Are you all right?" The pink-haired girl was still laying flat on the ground.

"Did she get hit?"

"No, I do not think so." Lee picked up Aelita and slung one of her arms over his neck.

"What's going on?!" Hinata took out another monster and looked up. "What's wrong, Jeremy?" she asked, dodging another laser strike.

"I don't know, but Aelita's life points are disappearing, fast! Lee, get her to the tower, hurry!"

"Right!"

"Come on, he's got to be back by now!" Ulrich peered at the entrance and shook his head.

"No, nothing." The brunette knelt down next to Yumi. "Just hang in there, okay? Shikamaru should be back with help any minute now."

"What's that?"

"Huh? Is he coming?"

"No, it's not Shikamaru, but someone's coming!" Kiba started to get up.

"Maybe it's the nurse?" Odd suggested hopefully, though he sounded doubtful.

"Jeremy, how do I enter the tower?"

"You can't. Aelita's the only one who can go into the tower. Is she able to walk at all?"

"No."

A faint hum echoed through the air of the computer room.

"I hear something, too, but it's definitely not a per-" The brunette was cut off by the hum, which suddenly grew louder. The entrance exploded with X.A.N.A.-fied spiders, scuttling quickly toward the crew. Jeremy turned in his chair.

"What's going o-!" He whipped back around to the computer at the sight of the swarm of spiders. "Just-Just push her in, now!" Jeremy commanded, nervously adjusting his earpiece.

"Yes, sir!" came Lee's response.

On Lyoko, Lee swung Aelita's arm off him. He hesitated for a second, then shoved the girl into the tower.

"Aelita, can you hear me?" shouted Jeremy. He recieved no response.

"Uh!" Yumi doubled over in pain.

"Yumi! Just hold on a little longer, okay?" The brunette got nothing for a response but some heavy panting. "Yowch!" Ulrich expelled the spider from his hand with a quick flick of the wrist. "Ugh!" His hand flew to his back to rid it of its crawling sensation. He spun around to see how the others were doing. The spiders were showing no mercy, and the rest of the devirtualized crew was holding them off as best as they could. Odd had picked up a pipe of some sort and was smashing the arachnids with it, while Kiba had gotten a kunai and was slashing at them. Ulrich himself was stomping on the spiders and desperately trying not to let any reach Yumi.

"Aelita! Please, wake up!" The girl in the tower still showed no sign of doing so. "At least her life points stopped going down," Jeremy muttered to himself. "Come on, Aelita! If you don't hurry..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Can't you go any faster?!" Shikamaru yelled, keeping well ahead of the nurse.

"I'm sorry!" she called back. "I'm trying my hardest! If I just had my car..."

"You couldn't drive it through this forest, anyway!" the Nara growled. Forget it, he thought. It's not like she'll remember, anyway. He dropped his pace for a minute to let her catch up.

"No! Yumi, don't quit on us!" The girl was now laying flat on the ground, with a few spiders trying to get at her. "Get off her!" Ulrich screamed, smacking three spiders off the Ishiyama.

"Jeremy! Has Aelita gotten up yet?"

"No! Aelita, come on!"

"Aelita!"

A huge breath was inhaled. "What's going on...?" the girl said softly.

"Aelita!"

"What... What is it, Jeremy?" Aelita slowly stood.

"Aelita! You're awake!" Jeremy exclaimed. He took a moment to regain composure before he continued. "You've got to hurry, Aelita! You're in the tower already, just hurry and deactivate-" He abruptly stopped.

"Jeremy?"

Let's hope I have enough energy to do this, the black-haired chunin thought as the nurse caught up. "All right, here goes," he said to himself under his breath, the nurse now running beside him. Shadow Possession! The two pale shadows were united, and the nurse and the ninja sped up.

"Get... Off..." Ulrich said weakly, trying in vain to sweep the spiders nagging at his ankles away. A few more arachnids were atop Yumi, who was breathing so slowly and shallowly it was hard to realize she was breathing at all.

There was a soft ping as Aelita's foot tapped the edge of the second level of the tower. Her other foot made contact, and she stepped to the center of the platform, where a bluish interface appeared.

The brunette collapsed aside his already fallen friend. He peered at her through half-closed eyes, praying she would make it.

"Aelita" appeared on the screen and vanished just as quickly to reveal the word "Code".

"Jeremy!" Odd saw the bespectacled boy slump to the side of his chair. The tall-haired blonde made his way to the chair quickly. "Hey, wake up!"

The pink-haired girl gently tapped in "Lyoko".

"Tower deactivated," she said, her hand naturally falling to her side.

"Tower deactivated."

"Uh! Wait, how do I- Right!" Odd leaned forward over Jeremy and quickly typed the return sequence. "Return to the past, now!" he yelled, jabbing the enter key.

The crew appeared in the cafeteria, and Ulrich was the first to quickly look around. He relaxed, obviously, when he saw Yumi, alive and well.

"Good to see you're okay."

"Likewise."

"Okay, so we'll both do the jutsu?"

"Mmm-hmm. And then make sure to hook arms so we don't get separated."

"All right... What was it again?"

"Dragon, Snake, Ox, Ram."

"Got it."

"All right." The blonde swallowed.

"You ready, Choji?"

"Yep."

"Let's go!" The two made the four hand signs, locked arms, and faded into the green landscape.