In the desert sector, it's into Sector Five the heroes go. Past the walls of code, they're in the Celestial Dome, fighting off Mantas. They're here to get more data for Aelita's antivirus. All four warriors dodge the lasers as best as they can. Yumi destroys a Manta with her fan as Ulrich ducks from another. She catches her fan, blocking a laser with them.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," She turns to Aelita. "Are you almost done, Aelita?"
"Yes, almost," She continues working with the interface. A Manta comes flying in, firing straight at them. Ulrich blocks the shots, ducking as Odd hits the symbol with his arrow. Ulrich then slices through it. The Manta comes back and Odd fires at it again, Amy throwing her spear. They both duck as Odd fires once last time, getting rid of the Manta for good. Amy's spear comes flying back to her. Ulrich then gets hit in the leg.
"Watch out. Another squadron of Mantas is headed your way," Jeremy warns, the girls looking up to see three more approaching. They fire one by one.
Aelita finds what she's looking for with a smile. "Done. The controls are all yours, Jeremy." She stops what she's doing, sending the data over to him.
"Great. Here come your vehicles." He materializes the Overwing, Overbike, Overboard, and OverRunner. Ulrich jumps onto his bike first, Yumi getting onto her scooter. Ulrich takes off and rides around, waiting for an open tunnel. Jeremy opens one in a matter of seconds.
"Okay guys, the passage is open."
Yumi ducks as Mantas come back firing. She stops in front of Aelita, who jumps on. The Mantas then focus on Amy and Odd, who backflip onto their rides. They fly off following Ulrich into the open tunnel. The Mantas give up and fly away.
Jeremy smiles at the job well done and materializes everyone. He sighs in relief that everything went like it should, leaning back in his chair. He really hoped that this was one step forward to helping Aelita with the antivirus...and that XANA would at least hint on what the heck he wants with Amy. Her memory was obviously important since the Scyphozoa tried to steal it...but what would XANA want that for?
He types as he waits patiently with the others. "So?" Aelita leans in. "Anything good?"
"No. I wouldn't call it good."
"Huh?" She asks in confusion, wondering what he meant.
"More like amazing!" He smiles happily.
"Huh?!" She repeats again.
"With this, I bet I can crack the code of Franz Hopper's diary," Jeremy points to the screen.
"Way cool," Ulrich comments as Jeremy taps his chin.
"The only problem is I'm gonna need a supercomputer to process such a large amount of data," Aelita points out. "I'll have to activate a tower or two." They all glance at each other, remembering what happened last time.
"Uh, that didn't go very well last time. XANA hates it when we play with his toys," Yumi crosses her arms.
"Yeah, and I don't want to take that risk of losing someone in the group again..." Amy frowns to herself. Just the thought of it unnerved her. And it didn't help that it was Odd who was in risk of death...she couldn't handle that again, there was already too much going on in her personal life/her life with XANA.
"I know," Jeremy leans in, thinking about any other options...there were none. "But we don't have a choice."
"Alright, can we go eat now? It's mashed potatoes today!" Odd clasps his hands in glee.
"You can have mine," Jeremy waves it off. "I better stay here to prepare the mission. That way, you can set out right after lunch."
"Yeah!" Odd silently cheers to himself, taking Amy's hand as they leave while Jeremy gets to work.
At lunch, Rosa puts down mashed potatoes for Odd. "Um, Jeremy's not coming. He said I could have his portion too, Rosa."
"Hm," Come to think of it, she hadn't seen him...and Odd wasn't one to lie. She puts down Jeremy's portion for Odd. "With everything you put away, I just don't understand how you can still be so...scrawny."
"I am NOT scrawny," Odd corrects her. "I'm svelte."
She just chuckles at him. "You keep an eye on him, Amelia."
"Rosa, you and I know both know Odd's your favorite student," Amy smiles, gesturing to him. "I can't control him."
"I can't be tamed, Ames!" Odd puts an arm around her. "I was born this way!"
She laughs and they sit down at their table. "So come on, Ulrich, stop holding out on us," Odd takes a spoonful. "What's your overall average?"
"73 for the term," Ulrich says solemnly. His parents, or his father, were not going to be happy.
"Well me, I got 75. I beat ya," Odd winks at Amy, frowning to himself. It wasn't bad, but Amy would probably want someone who's smarter...like Jeremy. Her father had very high standards, and if Amy did ever plan on telling him that she and Odd are more than friends...he'd definitely forbid them from seeing each other. If he didn't step up his grades, he wouldn't be able to give Amy anything she wanted in the future...
"Only because you made up some points in art class," Ulrich retorts back. "What about you, Aelita? What's your grade-point average?"
"95.2," She reveals, the others staring at her in shock. That's lower than Jeremy. "Um, but it's only because of Math," She waves it off. "And you, Amy?"
"96..." She cringes, the boys turning to her in surprise that she's higher than Aelita. "I got behind in History. No one's perfect," She shrugs, grinning at Odd. "Which is why I don't care about what grades you get, Odd. I like you for you."
He smiles at her in relief, Aelita smiling at them. That's so sweet.
"Yes, but still. You two must've gotten good grades in all your classes. That's great, especially since Aelita's not really..." He stops cutting his meat, the others staring at him. They were in public, and people could overhear. Not to mention that fact was still very touchy sometimes. "Uh, I mean..."
Aelita nods at him in understanding. "Don't worry. I know very well I'm not really human. Still, sometimes I get a strange feeling as if...as if I've already lived here." She glances away in thought. She had been feeling this way for a while...ever since she learned that Franz Hopper created her. It was like she had a life out there that she's already been through... "Weird, huh?"
"Oh, that's just the magical Odd effort," Odd jokes, pointing to her. "You know, you see me once, and you feel you've known me forever."
"Hey magic Odd effect, you know you got some mashed potatoes right on your face," Ulrich points to his nose, Aelita and Amy laughing. Amy hands Odd a napkin, giggling.
"I wish I lived a different life," She suddenly huffs, hands on her cheeks.
"Why? You've got friends, battles on Lyoko, you discovered your dream of being an artist," Ulrich points out, leaning his head so that he can see her.
"Are you kidding? All of that doesn't matter to my father. He's gonna ground me for not having 100 percent average..."
"Amy, he knows that's impossible, right? You'd have to be a supercomputer to process that kind of intelligence," Aelita raises a brow.
"Impossible is a word that doesn't exist to him," Amy crosses her arms. "If it's a challenge, he'll take it. He won't stop telling me that I've got 'potential,' and that I need to stop chasing dreams ever since the trial."
"Okay, then he's insane and a jerk," Ulrich jokes, Amy chuckling a bit. She stands up, grabbing her tray.
"It's all in his deranged brain," Amy points to her head. "Which I thankfully didn't inherit. I'm gonna go check on Kiki. See you later."
"Do you want me to go with you?" Odd offers as she walks past him.
"No thanks, I know better than to get between you and your food," She laughs at the thought, walking away.
"Food is forever, and so are you!" He calls out, the girl smiling. She knew fully well that he said it for two reasons: To put a smile on her face, and to make sure that she knew it.
"Aww," Some girls comment at him.
Odd gets a text, looking at his phone. "No way!"
"Something wrong?" Ulrich and Aelita stare at him.
"Not really. Ames wants me to meet her in the woods."
"You're kidding. Why?" Aelita asks curiously. The girl had literally just left; it's a bit weird that she texted him just after.
"She didn't say. No doubt about it. It's just another way to spend some alone time with me. She's crazy about me," Odd sighs happily as he walks off towards the park. He couldn't wait to see what she had in store for him...probably a kissing session.
"You know, Odd, your love life was like something out of a soap opera," Ulrich comments dryly.
"Oh yeah, and yours is real simple, hm?" Odd turns back with a smirk, knowing fully well about Ulrich and his obvious feelings for a 'friend.' Aelita smirks at Ulrich knowingly, laughing as she walks off. He just rolls his eyes.
Jeremy continues trying to decipher the codes when an activated tower alert arrives on his screen. He sighs slowly at the distraction. "An activated tower. Oh boy, that's all I needed."
He calls Ulrich first. He's in the courtyard with Aelita. "Yeah, Jeremy?" She glances at him curiously. "Huh? Okay. We're on our way. Activated tower. You call Yumi, I'll tell Odd and Amy."
Aelita stands up and pulls out her phone as Ulrich dials Odd's number.
Odd runs into the forest to meet Amy, but so far, there's no sign of her. He stops at an intersection. "Uh, are you there, Ames? My little Ames? It's me, Odd!"
All he can see is the trees. His phone vibrates again and he answers it. "What do you mean, SOS XANA? No way, not now!"
He narrows his eyes in annoyance. Not only did he have to cut his rendezvous with Amy short, but he still had to find her first...but how was he gonna do that with no trace?
Someone approaches him from the forest. He hears a rustle from the bushes, turning around. The person gets closer and his eyes turn from annoyance to suspicion. He already knows it's not Amy...she'd never sneak up on him. She'd be waiting already for him. It's not her style to scare people unless it was for a prank, and he could tell this was not the case.
A whoosh passes by as the person zips past a tree. It approaches Odd, who turns around. "Who's there?" He sees something. "Oh, no! No! NOOOOOO!"
His scream causes birds to fly away as nothing else can be heard...
Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi descend into the lab and Jeremy looks up at them. "Where's Amy and Odd?"
"I sent him a text message, but he was supposed to be meeting Amy," Ulrich walks up to him, shrugging.
"Amy? Why?"
"Amy doesn't leave a reason unless she wants you to know," Ulrich raises an amused brow, wondering what they could be doing right now. Aelita and Yumi nod in agreement. Jeremy closes his eyes. He could've really used all of them...
"I hope they won't be much longer. Not only do we have to decode Franz Hopper's notes, but now we have to deactivate the tower as well. I hope they know that their little escapades can wait!"
"Okay, let's go," Yumi speaks as they enter the elevator again to go to the scanner room. Jeremy calls Odd, but it keeps ringing.
"Come on, Odd, pick up!"
Odd's phone is in the middle of the forest...with Odd nowhere to be seen.
"He's not answering. Forget them for now. They'll meet you later."
He calls Amy next. The girl is in her room, her phone on silent as she tries to look for it. "Aw man, I just had it. I swear, Odd is rubbing off too much on me..."
She throws a pillow over her shoulder and it lands on Aelita's bed. Kiki looks up as a chew toy flies past her from Amy.
Jeremy starts the process. "Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita. Virtualization."
He sends them to the mountain sector, all of them landing one by one. Yumi stands up as they look around.
The doors open to the scanner room. "Here I am, Jeremy," Odd calls out.
"Mm. Amy's not with you?"
"No, uh, she's dealing with a XANAified Jim," He lies through his teeth. Jeremy raises a brow at that. Odd would never leave Amy alone by herself with an attack by XANA, and vice versa. Something didn't sit right with Odd's sentence all of a sudden...
"Not a minute too soon. I've been trying to call you. I hope Amy's okay, she's not picking up!"
'Odd' steps into the scanner. "I was busy!" He retorts sharply.
"Huh?" Jeremy is surprised by the sudden tone in Odd's voice. "Well, get ready. I'll launch the procedure."
What he doesn't know is that he's sending an Odd specter from XANA to Lyoko... "Transfer Odd. Scanner Odd. Virtualization."
He then notices something wrong with the fake Odd. "What...?"
Jeremy continues to stare at it, wondering what was going on. He gasps as he looks closer. Clearly something has happened... "What's going on here?"
XANA Odd lands in front of Yumi. "Odd?"
"Everything's okay, I'm on Lyoko," XANA Odd says in a quiet, sinister-like voice. He almost sounded like the godfather if possible.
"There was a bug during the transfer. Oh, no way!" The activated tower suddenly deactivates. "Huh? The tower has just deactivated itself." He finds it weird that it happened just as Odd got onto Lyoko...
"Are you sure?" Ulrich asks in confusion.
"Yeah, the super scan shows all clear," While he's talking, XANA Odd is staring at the back of Ulrich's head creepily... "As if XANA has called off his attack."
XANA Odd crosses his arms, smiling to himself. "Well, that's one less thing for us to worry about, right?" Ulrich turns to Yumi. "Right, Odd?"
"Right..." He murmurs, staring off into space. Ulrich shrugs at the others.
"What's up with him? Is he sulking or something?"
"Maybe his rendezvous with Amy didn't go well," Aelita suggests, frowning in worry. Maybe Amy got upset that they had to call it off? Either way, he was acting off...more off than his usual self, that is.
"Here are your rides. Please remember that we have a diary to decode." Since there's one less purpose, they could at least use an advantage with Franz Hopper. The more, the better. Yumi jumps onto her Overwing, Aelita jumping on behind her again. "I've chosen the tower at 72 degrees south and 55 degrees west."
They fly above the path, Yumi pointing ahead. "There it is."
They spot a blue tower covered by rock walls. "Still nothing from Amy?" Aelita calls out. She couldn't explain it, but she had a bad feeling about all of this.
"No. It's weird, I don't know what's going on with her. No phone calls or anything...I'll try again."
Aelita raises a brow, glancing at a silent XANA Odd. So Odd comes in all broody, and Amy is suddenly nowhere to be found? Did they even meet at all? It wasn't like Amy to disappear without good reason. And there have been no reports of any attacks so far.
They land in front of the tower, Aelita entering inside. She goes up to the top. "As soon as I activate the tower, start the decoding process," Jeremy informs her. She flips and lands at the top safely. She walks up to the interface and logs in.
"I'm ready, Jeremy."
"Okay," He cracks his hands. "I'm activating the tower..." He presses the button. "Now."
The tower goes from blue to green. As soon as he sees it, he throws his hands into the air. "YEAH! It's working!"
"The decoding of the data is underway, Jeremy, but it might take some time," Aelita tells him. He pulls up his glasses as he could care less, it actually worked!
"No problem!" He smiles, putting his arms behind his head. "Whenever XANA leaves us in peace, everything's cool..." As long as he left them alone, they could accomplish anything!
The three wait outside the tower to guard it as it's getting foggy. Suddenly, it's all too good to be true. "Uh oh. I spoke too soon. Watch out. XANA's creatures heading your way."
"Where from? We can't see anything," Yumi speaks up, looking up at the sky. Ulrich steps up as they can't hear anything either. Suddenly, there's a familiar roar, causing Yumi's eyes to go wide. "Huh?"
Three Tarantulas walk down the path. "There," Ulrich points to them. "Wow, he pulls out his sword. "XANA's pulled out the big guns."
Yumi spins around, pulling out her fans. XANA Odd aims his arm, but he doesn't plan on fighting them. Instead, he hits Yumi just as she's about to throw her fan.
"Hey!" She falls to the ground and Ulrich turns around to see XANA Odd walking towards them. Yumi gets devirtualized from the one hit.
"Jeremy, XANA's taken over Odd!" Ulrich backs away slowly.
"What?!" Jeremy exclaims in shock. That's what the bug detected...!
Aelita gasps as she stops what she's doing.
Ulrich blocks all the lasers as XANA Odd continues firing at him repeatedly. "Yes, I'm sure of it!" The Tarantulas fire, thankfully missing. He flips over to his Overbike, flying away from Odd.
Yumi falls onto the metal of the scanner, slamming her fists to the ground.
At the Hermitage, water is seeping from the tap to an unconscious Odd. His clothes and hair are damp. He opens his eyes as he can feel the cold water seeping into his clothes. Odd looks up to the grate which is too high up to reach. He jumps up, trying to climb over, but his foot slips and he lands back in the water, now up to his waist.
He tries again, but the walls are too wet and slippery...
Amy groans in frustration, running a hand through her hair. She rubs her chin as she tries to find her dumb phone! Her friends are probably calling her right now and she could sense that things were wrong...
Ulrich rides down the bath, XANA Odd flying after him on his Overboard.
Ulrich ducks down to get away as Yumi goes up to the lab. "I don't know how XANA did it!"
Jeremy wonders that too, as his specters can't possess them...
The doors open as Yumi comes in, Jeremy still in thought. "I do. It's not the real Odd."
"What?" Yumi murmurs in confusion.
"It's one of XANA's creatures. A polymorphing specter."
"But where's the real Odd, then?" Yumi asks in concern. Jeremy tries one last time to call Amy.
Her phone shows the contact from underneath her bed and she peeks underneath. "I checked there!" Amy growls in frustration, but decides to forget about it and picks up.
"Hello?"
"Amy! Finally, where have you been?" Jeremy demands as soon as she answers.
"What are you talking about? I've been in my room ever since after lunch looking for my mobile," Amy places a hand on her hip.
"I thought you had a date with Odd. He said you texted him to meet him in the woods," Jeremy rubs his chin.
"Date? I never planned a date with Odd!" Amy rushes out the door as it means Odd is in trouble. Jeremy and Yumi gasp in worry.
The water continues flowing down the walls as Odd's foot slips. He falls into the water again, standing up.
"Hey! Is anybody there?! Yoo hoo! HELP!"
But no one can hear him...
The Tarantulas walk forward to guard the tower in case Ulrich comes back or Aelita leaves. XANA Odd flie after Ulrich.
"Talk about a tailgater! Worse than Sissi!" He mutters bitterly.
"Ulrich, it's a trap. He's trying to lead you away from the tower."
"But why?" Ulrich wonders, XANA Odd firing at him again.
"Jeremy, what's going on?" Aelita asks as she can hear the Tarantulas. "Is there a problem?"
"Oh man!" Jeremy sees the tower blinking green and red. "XANA's trying to gain control of the tower. Abort the mission! Stop decoding and come back to Earth."
"Okay," She starts to stop the process.
"Yumi," Jeremy calls the Japanese girl. She had left to go find Odd. "Where are you?
"In the woods. I don't see Amy, and it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
The second screen shows Odd's phone. "Wait. While I was hacking into the network, I managed to locate the emergency telephone closest to Odd's phone."
"You can do that?" Yumi asks in surprise.
"Of course I can. If Odd still has his cell on him, then he's in the northeast corner of the woods."
Yumi smiles gratefully for the lead. "That's near the Hermitage. I'm off!" She hangs up and runs down the path.
The Tarantulas are waiting for something to happen, looking up.
"Jeremy, we've got a problem. I can't stop the decoding program. It's taking up too many resources, it's out of my control now."
Jeremy clenches a fist at their bad luck. Things were going so well, but now XANA's ruined everything...
"Bad news: If XANA manages to get control of the tower now, he'll be able to get into the restricted access part of the supercomputer!" He reveals in panic. "I can lose all the data in Franz Hopper's diary!"
"Not to mention everything you programmed in yourself. Our combat gear, the vehicles, the transfer codes...and my materialization program," Aelita reveals the last sentence gravely.
"This is a nightmare!" It felt like his whole world was crashing down on him. "Ulrich! XANA's about to take control of the tower! You have to stop it!"
Ulrich unsheathes his sword, blocking all of XANA Odd's arrows from behind. XANA Odd growls at Ulrich. "Uh, right." How he was gonna lose the fake Odd to help, he had next to no ideas. "Okay, but how?"
"You have to isolate the towers. Try and cut the cables, hurry!"
Ulrich leans back to go in the other direction, XANA Odd right on his tail. The cables glow red behind the tower as the Tarantulas prepare themselves. Ulrich comes in and they immediately fire. He blocks the shots and jumps off, his bike pushing a Tarantula to the wall and destroying it. He lands on top of the second one and stabs it in the eye, jumping to the cables, but he gets hit. He looks up at XANA Odd, who fires at him again.
"You're wasting your time, XANA. Odd has never beaten me yet!"
XANA Odd smirks, thinking that it was time to change the playing field. His body glows red before turning into a clone of Ulrich. His skin is grey while his colors are black and orange. He even has a sword like Ulrich's.
"Uh, yeah, well okay, uh, that changes things," Ulrich stammers nervously. Him and his big mouth.
XANA Ulrich runs up to him and they block swords, sparks coming from them. He stares at his clone in the eye.
The water is up to Odd's head now as he tries to swim, but he's too far. "Help!"
Yumi stops in the middle of the forest, calling Odd's phone. However, it hangs up, but she can still hear his phone ringing. She follows the sound and finds the phone near her feet.
"Yumi!"
Yumi looks up to see Amy running towards her. Her phone was dialing Odd's number. "Finally, I could use some help," She says as Amy comes to a stop, panting.
"I-I've been looking all over, but I can't find him," Amy starts crying. "W-What if he's hurt? Or worse? Odd...!"
"Calm down," Yumi places a hand on her shoulder. "We'll find him, Amy. We'll find him."
Amy engulfs Yumi into a hug and she returns it. Yumi could tell that Amy looks lost without Odd, and was fearing for his safety.
Yumi picks up the phone, looking around. "Come on, he can't be too far away. Odd? Odd!" They run down the path towards the Hermitage.
The tower slowly turns red and Jeremy sees it on his screen. "XANA's going to do it, Aelita. Is there anything new?" He cringes, biting his nails.
Aelita presses the stop button, but nothing new happens. "There's no way to stop the process," She explains solemnly. "Everything's buggy."
Ulrich pushes the clone and they clash swords, hitting them against each other. He looks back at the Tarantula behind him. It fires at him and Ulrich super speeds away. XANA Ulrich follows him, speeding right next to him. As they run, they clash swords again. Ulrich tries as hard as he can to fend him off, but he's just as strong as him.
They both jump into the air, spinning while clashing weapons again. They land at the same time and take off, stopping on a platform with cables. Ulrich lands on one of them and so does XANA Ulrich. They charge at each other, Ulrich landing on another cable and going in again.
"Heeeelp!" Odd calls out, hoping someone had to be around by now. He had no idea how much longer it'd be before he started drowning. "Heeelp!"
Someone had to help...but he hears no one...
Ulrich and XANA Ulrich land on the platform. He stares at Ulrich through the evil symbols, holding up the sword. Ulrich charges first and spins around, the clack of the swords becoming familiar now. He spins and tries to kick, but XANA Ulrich jumps out of the way.
"Hey, you're not so bad there, XANA." If anything, the clone was just as good as him, but he couldn't let him know that. XANA Ulrich charges towards him and Ulrich clashes swords with him again. "Whoa, no surprises, huh?"
He bends down and swings his sword, but XANA Ulrich jumps over it. He knocks Ulrich's sword right out of his hand. Ulrich jumps, landing a few feet away.
"Hey, no fair!" Ulrich glares at the clone, clenching his fists.
Odd is almost to the top of the grate. "Figures. At least I don't have to climb anymore." He grips the bars, pushing against it, but it's no use. "Well I guess you can say I'm really up to my neck in trouble this time..."
The girls stop right in front of the Hermitage. Yumi glances at Amy, who nods. She had a feeling that Odd was here...she just hoped that she was right.
Yumi follows after Amy to the gate.
The tower is being very close to being possessed. "XANA is about to take over! Ulrich, what are you doing?!" Jeremy exclaims in panic.
"I've just got one last little thing to take care of," Ulrich says while dodging the sword. XANA Ulrich, holding both swords, spins around and kicks Ulrich away. He slides to a stop, getting himself back onto his feet. He moves around like a video game character, rubbing his mouth. He prepares his hands into fists.
XANA Ulrich just stares at him, wondering what he's doing. Ulrich eggs him on and XANA Ulrich falls for it, speeding over. He swings his right arm, but Ulrich catches the sword with his hands. He snatches it away and spins around, stabbing XANA Ulrich right through the chest, devirtualizing him. He stands up, sheathing his sword.
"All done, Jeremy." He super speeds over to the tower.
"Make it fast, now!" Jeremy's voice urges. Ulrich makes it back to the tower, stopping in front of one of the cables. He raises his sword and is about to cut when he's suddenly devirtualized by the Tarantula he forgot to take care of.
"Ulrich!" Jeremy calls out in despair, closing his eyes. Now XANA would be able to access everything...
Amy and Yumi stare at the old house. They step inside slowly, not knowing what to expect. If Odd really was here, that means XANA could've set a trap...
"Odd?" Yumi stops at the stairs.
"Are you here? Say something," Amy looks around in worry. Her face is full of sadness. If Odd wasn't here...she wouldn't know what she'd do.
Odd takes a breath as the shaft is full of water.
"Odd!"
He hears the voice, managing to free his mouth from the water. "Yumi! I'm here!"
They don't hear him and step forward, hearing a splash. Amy raises a brow at the puddle, running over to the tap. Yumi turns it off.
"Yoohoo!"
"Odd?" Amy asks in relief, turning around.
"Yumi!"
They can see his arm waving behind them. "Odd?!"
They run over to him. "Odd! Thank goodness," Amy smiles, both of them trying to pull at the cover, but it won't budge.
Odd takes a breath as they try again. "Odd!"
"Stay with me, Odd. Stay with me, pudding pop."
She covers her mouth shut, blushing at the sudden nickname. She didn't know where it came from, it just felt natural.
The tower gets worse as Ulrich comes in from the scanner room, rubbing his head. "Oh!" Jeremy hangs his head in despair. "XANA is about to steal all my data! We're done for..."
"Hey," Aelita notices something from the screen. It stops bugging as the tower turns white.
"What's going on?!" Jeremy looks up in shock. "Aelita?"
"I don't get it. It looks like XANA has lost control of the tower," She tries to explain it as best as she can.
"Franz Hopper," Jeremy realizes what happened. "Franz Hopper's helping us!" Aelita looks at the functioning interface. "What's going on on your side?"
"The decoding program...is going full speed."
Ulrich and Jeremy both gasp as the screen lights up. The screen to Franz Hopper's diary pops up and it fully opens.
Odd holds his breath as the water loosens a screw. Amy and Yumi pull again with all their strength to help him, finally managing to open it. Together, they pull Odd out. He gasps for breath, panting.
"Amy, you've never kept me waiting that long," He jokes, Amy laughing weakly along with Yumi and Odd. She stares at him, trying not to cry. Even though he could've died, he's still cracking jokes...just like he always would...
"Odd..." She hugs him as best as she can. She didn't care that he was soaking wet, she was just glad that he was okay.
"My sweet little Ames..." He sighs into her shoulder, happy to see her too. He pulls away and presses their lips together. Amy smiles and returns the gesture, Yumi standing up and smiling down at them.
Everything suddenly stops and the tower turns blue again. The Tarantula backs off, walking away from the tower. Aelita stares in awe of what happened.
"Amazing..."
Yumi dials Jeremy after helping Odd out. "Yumi!"
"I've got Odd," She's sitting on a rock as Amy shakes the water off her clothes. Odd squeezes his hair, tapping Amy's shoulder. She looks up and sees his messy hair, laughing. "How about you?"
Odd grins at Amy, glad that she's not crying over him anymore. He saw that look in her eyes.
Never again did he want to see that face.
"We're decoding Franz Hopper's diary," Jeremy looks up as the diary slowly opens...
Later on, after he's read it...he calls the others to his room. "Franz Hopper was the creator of XANA. In his diary, he wrote down everything that happened during the creation of Lyoko. Everything."
"That means you'll be able to find the antivirus!" Aelita says happily, but Jeremy doesn't look so happy about it.
"Yeah...it does," He turns around to his computer. "But there's something more."
"What? Come on, spit it out," Ulrich urges, all of them wondering why Jeremy looks so bothered.
"Well..." He turns around to them. "Before Franz Hopper virtualized himself on Lyoko...and before being taken prisoner by XANA...he lived here on Earth," He gets to his feet, not sure on how to say what he's been holding in.
"We already knew that," Yumi smiles knowingly.
"Yes...but what we didn't know...was that he had a child. A little girl," Jeremy says simply, holding up a finger. He gives Aelita a look, making her raise a brow.
"Really? Well, what became of her?" Odd asks curiously.
"He virtualized her on Lyoko at the same time as himself."
"And? Did she fall victim to XANA too?" Yumi asks expectantly.
"No...she stayed on Lyoko," At that he looks at Aelita...and by that look, she knew exactly what he was trying to tell her.
"Huh?" She gasps, trying to take this in. "But that's impossible! If Hopper's daughter were on Lyoko, I would've definitely would've known, I..."
Ulrich gasps sharply, Odd turning to them.
"...Oh!" Yumi realizes, Jeremy closing his eyes.
"I'm...not..."
Jeremy smirks at her and her eyes widen as she registers it...there was no one else. She...
Is the daughter of Franz Hopper...
"There's something else," He speaks up gravely. "Years ago...he helped out a young couple because the father couldn't produce any children. He was the provider of all of their technology, and Franz Hopper inserted sperm into the man's wife." Jeremy looks up at Amy. "It succeeded, and...they had a girl 9 and a half months later. A year before Hopper had his child."
Everyone gasps at the timeline being so close to each other.
"...What?" Amy asks slowly, backing away. No...it couldn't be...
"Amy...you have half of Franz Hopper's DNA and half from your mother. Biologically..."
"...No...it can't be true! If Franz Hopper is in my DNA and I also have my mom's, that means...it means..." Tears stream down her cheeks. This couldn't be right...that means her life has been a lie this whole time...
Odd walks up to her, looking at her sadly. In his eyes, she could tell that he wanted to say it, but he couldn't. Aelita covers her mouth in shock as Yumi's eyes widen. Ulrich looks between Aelita and Amy in shock. Finally, it was Jeremy who broke the tense silence.
"Stan Smith isn't your father. Franz Hopper...is. That's what we've been missing all this time."
...I'm Aelita's half-sister?!
She was getting further and further from the truth ever since they started.