The transporter swept into the arena and swiftly deposited the three teens (minus one Ulrich) down in sector five in a silent swirl.

"Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick." Yumi moaned while rubbing her stomach.

"Oh, yeah! The transporter does make me feel like throwing up. Tough break for you." Odd grinned. Heels may have had a painful learning curve, but you never get over the nausea of being spun around over and over again. Somehow the transporter always got him feeling worse than the vomit comet at fairs back home. Who knew computers could program virtual motion sickness?

"Watch out, the wall is about to open." Aelita motioned for the others to get ready to run.

Odd was the first in, he couldn't get over how much faster having long legs could make you. They ran through a short path leading to another dead end that opened up in a kaleidoscopic motion, creating a geometric rose bud looking passage with no horizontal surface to stop on.

The three leapt from slanted surface to slanted surface, trying their best not to fall behind and lose any valuable time. Xana already knew they were there judging by the welcome wagon it rolled out on the ice sector, and the longer they took, the more monsters it could send.

"The countdown has started so hurry it up!" Jeremie's voice echoed around the softly lit blue room. All three of them were panting with exertion at this point. Lyoko may have been a virtual world, but the cardio was as real as it can get.

They ran into a long corridor with a catwalk down the middle. Glowing 3D rectangles lined the walls and floors like someone had haphazardly stacked together a room of mismatching Lego blocks. They all jumped down onto the next connecting rectangle that resembled a pathway. Odd noticed Aelita panting more than usual. They really needed to get her to participate more in gym class.

They continued their marathon into a doorway where their pathway ended as abruptly as it began. There was no more room to run. This time Xana's puzzle firewall to get into sector five barely qualified as a puzzle. It was just a large open room with what could be an infinite drop. There were maybe a few scattered blocks about twenty or thirty feet down, but between them looked to be open space. Odd considered trying to jump for it, but Lyoko had fall damage and none of them knew what would happen if you fell in sector five. Jeremie had figured it was a direct route to the digital sea and so they'd all tried to avoid it as best as they could. Plus the walls were so smooth there would be no way back up if they were to jump for it.

"Problem here!" Aelita called out to Jeremie.

Yumi leaned her head out cautiously over the edge, "Xana's a pretty lame architect, he forgot to put the stairs in!"

Aelita pointed to their right, catching sight of Xana's familiar symbol. "There's the key!"

The key was placed in plain sight on a far wall, completely unreachable to anyone who wasn't a bird.

"Great, anyone know how to fly?" Yumi asked while throwing her arms up.

Odd was the last to see the creeper slithering along the hallway they had just come from but Yumi's body's reflexes kicked in at the last second and he dodged the blast it had been charging up. Yumi flung her arm out protectively in front of Aelita as they leaned to the opposite side. Odd watched her try to fire one of his laser arrows and miss by a mile.

"Great shot! You missed a creeper at ten yards in a hallway?" He taunted while he flung one of Yumi's fans. It flew in a wide arc toward the creeper and then over it's head and towards his own. He ducked, and Yumi expertly caught it over his head, laughing at Odd's blunder. With a flick of her wrist she sent it in a straight path toward the creeper. It groaned and slithered away underneath the platform they were standing on, causing the fan to clip the doorway with a metallic clink. Odd thought about commenting that she missed it with her own weapon too, but figured it might be best not to push it when their lives could still be in danger.

Instead, Odd crept to the edge and scanned beneath them. It was probably too much to hope the creepy crawly just fell off harmlessly and ended up in the digital sea. Regardless he didn't spot it and turned back to Yumi and Aelita and shrugged. Silently, so as not to alert the hiding creeper, he walked to the other end of the platform, pushing Aelita back with his arm so she wouldn't be hit by any stray lasers.

As soon as his head was visible over the edge the creeper fired off a shot, nearly singing Yumi's tiny little bangs. Odd yelped and stumbled backward. The heels kept him from regaining his balance and he teetered over the edge of the platform they stood on, arms pinwheeling wildly. The creeper, seizing its chance, shot him square in the chest. The momentum carried him over the edge. Odd closed his eyes, waiting for his stomach to stay in place while his body plummeted and the inevitable crunch and splash of bouncing off a block into the digital sea.

Instead he...floated? Odd felt a sensation akin to being on a boat bobbing in a calm sea. He experimentally flapped his arms like a baby bird and felt his body rise and fall slightly. He opened his eyes to see Yumi hitting the creeper head on with a laser arrow and it's pixelated parts exploding.

Yumi and Aelita turned to find Odd floating around in the air. "Wow, cool!" He did a front breast stroke back towards where they were standing. He took back what he thought about Xana's puzzle, zero gravity was awesome. He could really float like a butterfly and sting like a bee from up here. He latched onto the edge of the platform and pushed off with his feet into a back stroke that would have made Jim proud.

Back on the platform Yumi and Aelita laughed at how ridiculous it was that he could find a way to make fighting for their lives fun.

Odd peered over his fluttering feet back at them in time to spot a new creeper entering the room. "Hey!"

It fired between Yumi and Aelita, breaking them apart. Yumi returned fire and it exploded. Either Xana was losing it's touch or Yumi was getting way better at Odd's laser arrows.

Satisfied Yumi had things under control back on solid flooring, Odd continued trying to swim through the air towards the key. If Yumi and Aelita could hold out for a few more seconds he could put an end to Xana's puzzle and they could be on their way to a terminal and back to their own bodies.

"Odd, move it! We're coming to the end of the countdown!" Jeremie boomed overhead.

Odd continued to try to swim in the air, wiggling around like a fish stuck in a cube of jelly. "Darn, I didn't get enough momentum!"

"Odd, what are you doing?" Yumi yelled.

"Can't you see, I'm swimming through guacamole!" He was stuck only a few feet away from the key, so close yet so far. Xana must have made the key just far enough away to lead them into an unsolvable trap. Floating out here would make them sitting ducks for the next monster attack. He turned to look over his shoulder to see yet another creeper descending upon the girls. Xana must have had a cartoonishly evil factory pumping them out every few seconds. At this rate they would be overwhelmed before he could reach the key.

Yumi called up Odd's shield with barely enough time to hunker down before a wave of blasts came for her and Aelita. When the creeper had to take a break to recharge, Yumi fired off another volley of laser arrows. The creepers had been getting closer, and this one's dying explosion caught her and Aelita in the stomachs. The force caused them to each double over briefly as they skid closer to the edge of the platform. They were losing ground with each creeper.

Yumi got a flash of inspiration, "How many life points do you have left?" she yelled to Odd.

"Lots, why?"

Yumi braced herself and aimed carefully at her own back, straight at the bow that had become a part of her Lyoko uniform. A single laser arrow was all it took to get Odd the rest of the way to the key. With a grunt upon the impact he was propelled the rest of the way forward and pressed the key into the wall, stopping the countdown.

"Great job!" Jeremie cheered over his intercom. He could just barely hear Ulrich celebrating in the background as well. If only he was there to celebrate Odd's victory with him.

A door opened on the opposite wall from Odd and he kicked off the wall next to him, propelling himself to the edge and climbing up. He turned back to the others in time to warn them about yet another creeper. It was like whack a mole with these guys. One goes down, another pops back up a few seconds later.

Yumi wrapped one arm around Aelita's shoulders while firing at the creeper. She pushed off without hesitation, continuing the onslaught while trying not to let Aelita drift away.

The creeper was able to get one shot off and hit her square in the stomach, launching her backwards. This left Aelita a stranded in the middle of the room, with nothing to propel herself off of. "Aelita, no!" Yumi screamed gutturally.

"Aelita, the scyphozoa!" Jeremie's panicked voice filled the room.

Odd watched helplessly, too far to reach Aelita or Yumi. He felt a familiar staticky sensation and looked down to find his body phasing in and out of existence. "Oh no, not now!"

Across from him Yumi was experiencing similar issues. He could barely see her outline in the brightly lit room.

Odd felt desperate in a way he wasn't used to. Normally he could at least do something to help his friends but all he could do was sit and watch as the scyphozoa floated closer to Aelita. It had no issue with the zero gravity as it naturally floated everywhere it went.

Aelita was desperately flailing all of her limbs, trying anything to move even an inch away but it was too late. The cold tentacles wrapped around her body, pinning her in place. Glowing red tips touched Aelita's forehead and began their sinister work.

The static feeling finally wore off and Odd reached behind him for one of Yumi's fans. He threw it the best he had so far, past Yumi and toward the scyphozoa's pulsing tentacles. It sliced clean through the glowing limbs surrounding Aelita's head. Yumi hit the monster with a few laser arrows for good measure and the scyphozoa released Aelita and retreated down into the depths of Sector Five.

Aelita bobbed up and down in the air, frantically moving all of her limbs as she regained control of her body. The group heard a sigh of relief overhead as Jeremie relaxed, the immediate danger to Aelita having passed.

"You okay, Aelita?" Yumi called from where she floated in the air.

"Yeah," Aelita responded meekly.

Knowing they may not have much time to get back to their bodies after that last fade out, it was time for a hail Mary. Odd backed up a few paces from where he stood in the doorway to get a running head start. He leapt off the platform he stood on and took a running jump worthy of the Matrix movies. He lost momentum as he floated up towards Yumi and she planted both feet on his back and pushed him towards Aelita. It was the last push he needed to reach her and kick her back towards Yumi. They were able to relay her all the way to the door on the opposite end to get her footing on the floor of the next room.

It may have been risky to leave him and Yumi stranded in the room with virtually no way to defend themselves or escape, but it would be the same result if Aelita couldn't make it to the interface in time to find the code to debug their programs and stop their bodies disintegrating completely.

With Aelita out of view, Yumi tried to maneuver herself towards Odd and yelled up towards the ceiling, "Jeremie! Every time we dematerialize, it lasts longer and longer!"

"Aelita had better find the code, and fast!" Jeremie responded back unhelpfully.

There was a brief moment of silence as Yumi and Odd were left alone floating in the room, their part of the mission coming to a premature unforeseen ending.

For all that Odd was dealing with, he was sure it was just as weird for Yumi. He hadn't really had time to ask her about how last night went with Ulrich. He could see the way they looked at one another when they thought no one was paying attention. It was obvious to everyone but them that they were head over heels for each other. He wasn't as close with her as he was with the guys, but he did have the unique experience of relating to being hopelessly in love with someone who struggled to see anything past his own nose. Maybe when this was all over they could commiserate in the cafeteria with one another over Rosa's croissants and hot chocolate. He wasn't sure how to do that without letting on he was gay, but he was sure he could disguise it with some benign freaky Friday debrief related reason.

"Careful, a creeper!" Yumi pointed at behind Odd's back.

They were able to squirm their way out of the first shot, but a sudden round of dematerializing caught them off guard and left them stuck in place. The second blow hit Yumi square in the chest. Jeremie was off talking to Aelita somewhere, so they weren't able to check how many life points she had left, but Odd knew it couldn't be that many.

A wave of fear rushed over him seeing Yumi take the hit in his body. He knew it was selfish, but if she was dematerialized before being debugged, what would happen to him? He looked so small and young, and above all scared. There were so many things left that he hadn't gotten to do. If he'd known he would have already experienced his last day in his own body he would have tried harder, done more. Maybe eaten an extra meatball sub, made sure Kiwi would have somewhere to go, told his family he loved them, or, hell, kissed Ulrich finally. He was just a kid, trying his best to save the world when it didn't even know it was in danger. He wanted to make people laugh and do the right thing, so why did it feel like he was being punished?

Yumi was hit again, growing weaker with each shot. He didn't know how to tell her not to give up, that they would be able to get out of this together, Aelita had to be at the interface by now, but he wouldn't even believe himself. He struggled in the air, trying to do anything but he had lost both fans and couldn't reach the opposite end of the room. Not even a return to the past could save them if they died on Lyoko. He'd thought his death would be something heroic, or at the very least some comedic, yet poorly thought out stunt. He wanted to go out under his own terms. He wanted people to celebrate his life, not wonder where he could have disappeared to, holding out hope that maybe he was out there when he had no chance of returning. Not helpless in a computer simulation they hadn't told any adults or parents about, with no way to fight back. Not with a whimper.

The last hit connected with Yumi, dematerializing Odd's body in a shower of pixels.

"Yumi, NO!" He screamed, feeling hot tears well up in his eyes. He turned back to the creeper, a mixture of terror and anger boiling in his body, making his ears ring.

He glared at the creeper, seeing a final shot charging up in its mouth. He couldn't do anything but watch the blast connect with his body in a sharp blinding hot stab that flung him backwards through the air. The ringing in his ears faded as his body dematerialized for one final time.