The Legacy of Xion: A Code Lyoko Miniseries

by alliance

Two new students have been enrolled in Cadic, but they share a secret about Jeremy and the other's biggest problem. R&R plz! 'Director's Cut' added.

13. The Legacy of Xion

Disclaimer 1: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else. The only things within that I claim as my own are the created characters Aurora & Spire & Astra Xion, Treg Zorl, Axel Blade, and Armoru.
Disclaimer 2: Italics are dream sequences -OR- song lyrics.
Disclaimer 3: I do not own the songs 'Good Die Young' or 'How Come', both by D-12.

The Legacy Of Xion

Spire looks at his ringing alarm clock and starts to go back to bed, then realizes why he'd set it. "Damn damn damn." he says. "Damn! Get up! Get up!" Spire kicks his sister's bed. "We were supposed to be gone an hour ago!"
"What are you talking about, brother?" Aurora peeks from under her covers and, seeing Spire clad only in his black nightshorts, quickly closes her eyes. "You could at least wear something over that." She says.
"We were supposed to leave for the airport an hour ago!" Spire pulls the covers, and his sister along with them, off the bed. "Get dressed quickly, we need to go ASAP!" Spire runs to the door,grabbing a pair of pants and a shirt on his way, to leave Aurora alone to dress herself.
"What's with him?" Aurora asks herself as she stands. Walking over to her dresser, Aurora untangles herself from her bedcovers.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Spire down the hall. "I'll be in the car." Aurora couldn't believe her parents made her share a car with him.
"Of all the people." She pulls on a silky blue blouse and a denim skirt. Her brother always laughed when he saw her with those clothes on.

"So you two are the ones that are from America?" the Principal asks.
"White Am-" Spire starts, but Aurora hits him hard in the shoulder.
"Don't you dare!" She hisses at him. "Yes sir, we've been transferred from America." Aurora tells the Principal.
"Well, everything looks in order." the Principal looks over Spire and Aurora's transfer papers again. "You're free to go. Just don't be late to your classes tomorrow."
"Yes sir." Aurora and Spire say together.

"Different rooms? Why?" Spire asks his sister, who rolls her eyes.
"You moron." Aurora says and shakes her head. "Go find your room and I'll find mine." Aurora leaves a sulking Spire in the hall and goes off to find her room.
Spire looks around as he wanders the halls in a half daze. After a few minutes, he finds the dorm he was assigned. He looks down the hall and sees a blonde kid with black glasses leave a room two doors down. He and Spire lock eyes for a moment, and Spire knew. He didn't know how he knew, but he KNEW. Spire opens the door to his dorm and enters quickly, leaving the blonde kid to shrug and procede down the hall to the lunch room. Spire pulls out his cell phone and dials his sister's number. "Aurora, listen. The'res someone here that knows of Great-Grandpa's Project. I just got a bad feeling from the guy a few doors down."
"Look, they dismantled the Project after it killed three of Great-Grandpa's collegues. It can't be operating again." Aurora hangs up on him. Spire hangs his head and drops his suitcase on his bed. He left the room, his head still down. Suddenly, Spire finds himself sitting on the floor, staring into the eyes of a pink-shirted girl. "I'm terribly sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." he says.
"You're darn right you weren't watching! Hitting a pretty girl like me." the girl stands and turns her nose up. Two guys come running around the corner, one with a green shirt, glasses, and denim pants, while the other wore a blue shirt with red short-shorts, practically knocking the girl over again.
"There you are, Sissy. Lunch is almost over." the one with the green shirt says.
"Watch where you're going Herb!" Sissy tells him.
"But lunch-" the other boy starts.
"Lunch sounds good right about now." Spire says.
"You don't know who you've just bumped into, do you?" Sissy asks Spire, who shakes his head. "Figures. I am the Principal's daughter. Sissy's the name." she offers her hand to Spire, in friendship and for aid.
"Spire, Spire Xion." He takes her hand ands stands up. "I just transferred in from the States."
"That's nice." The boy with the blue shirt says.
"Shut up Nicolas." Sissy tells him. "Spire? That's an odd name." she turns back to the new student. "You can tell me all about the States at lunch." Sissy wraps herself around Spire's arm, drawing a death-glare from Herb, and drags him towards the cafeteria.

Upon entering, Spire spots his sister sitting with the blonde guy from the hall, another blonde guy(this one with purple & pink clothes), a brunette guy with a greenish-brown jacket, and a black clothed & haired girl. Aurora sees him and waves, then stops when she notices Sissy. "Hey, who's that?" Aurora asks the black-haired girl.
"That's Sissy, the principal's daughter. She's a major pain." she replies.
"You don't have to be so nice about it, Yumi. She's stuck-up and that's all to it." the brunette says.
"Oh, Ulrich." Yumi says. Aurora gets up and walks over.
"Hey Spire, who's you're new girlfriend, hmmm?" she gets in Spire's face after looking Sissy over, drawing a slight blush from him with her words.
"Girlfriend! How dare you!" Sissy says.
"If you're not his girlfriend, then why're you holding his arm?" Aurora smiles evilly.
"Well, uhh, ummm." Sissy stammers, releasing Spire's arm and drawing laughter from the table Aurora had left.
"She's finally off my back Odd!" Ulrich says to the purple-clad boy between his laughs.
"About time. Some people just can't take a hint, huh Ulrich?" Odd says.
Jeremy snickers and gets up from the table. "I'll see you guys later."

---

"So, what's with Jeremy and his computer?" Aurora asks Odd, she had managed to catch him leaving his room alone. Her dorm had ended up being right next to Odd and Ulrich's, sticking her with another girl in their grade. "He's always leaving meals early for his room."
"Well, it's kinda hard to explain." Odd scratches his head. "There's this girl that he talks to that, uhhh, that he, met over the internet! Yea, that's it. He met a girl over the internet." Odd says.
"Oh really?" Aurora drapes her arm around the boy's shoulders. "Look nobody, and I mean NOBODY spends THAT much time talking to a cyber-pal."
"You'd be surprised." Odd says with a smile, looking at Aurora.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aurora pulls Odd closer with her arm. "Tell ya what. If you tell me what Jeremy's doing, I'll go out with you for a month." a crooked smile forms on the girl's face at the stunned look worn by Odd. "I'll give you a while to think about it, Cutie." Aurora removes her arm from Odd's shoulders and runs ahead to the lunch room.

"Hey Sissy, can I ask you something?" Spire says after they sit down for breakfast. They had shaken Herb and Nicholas for a while and he wanted to make the most of it.
"What is it?" she looks at him.
"Why do you hate Jeremy and his friends?" The question caught Sissy off guard, but not fully unprepared.
"Because they have Ulrich, and I don't." Sissy replies.
"What's the big deal about him? He's just another boy." he asks.
"Big deal? There's everything that's a big deal about him. He's always dissapearing with those other three. They somehow manage to get out of everything."
"And what's the problem there? They are his friends, and yet, you act as if he schould be alone with you all the time." Spire says.
"As well he should be."
"The world doesn't revolve around you. It revolves around those that have found their purpose in life. Ulrich and his little group have found their's. Not many people have." As soon as the words are out of his mouth, the lights above flicker off. "Oh great, electrical problems."
"Heya Spire." Aurora walks over. She had entered just before the lights cut out. "Whacha do'n?"
"Nothing." he says.
"Look, I've been thinking. Remember those little problems that've been poping up recently? What if you're right, if, somehow, Great-Grandpa's Project still exists. What would it do? You listened to Grandpa's stories more than I did."
"What are you talking about?" Sissy asks.
"Oh, hey Sissy. Look, I need to talk to my brother real quick." Aurora turns back to him. "What was the Project designed to do?"
"It was designed to hack into foreign mainframes to disable their radar and satellite weapons." Spire says, drawing a nod from his sister.
"Alright, so it was a hacker. Anything else?" Spire shakes his head.
"You'll have to find that out on your own. And I need to finish before classes start." Just then, the lights flicker back on. "Must've been a power surge." Aurora leaves Spire to the rest of his breakfast. When he looks up, Sissy is gone.

Aurora runs down the hall to Jeremy's room and bangs on the door. "Jeremy! Are you there?" after no answer, she tries the doorknob, success! She enters the room, and sits at the on computer, watching the numbers scroll down the screen. After a few minutes, a girl's face appears in a window that opened itself up. "Great-Grandma?" Aurora looks at the girl in shock. Her face looked so much like the pictures of her great-grandmother from when she was younger. The girl on the screen also looked surprised. She mouthed some words, but Aurora couldn't hear them. She spotted an earpiece on the keyboard and put it on.
"Who are you? Where's Jeremy?" the girl on the computer asks.
"I'm Aurora. I don't know where Jeremy is, I was looking for him. Who are you?"
"Aelita. You don't know where he is?" the window dissapears and Aurora removes the earpiece.
"So, Aelita. You want Jeremy. I really wonder where he is?" Aurora leaves the room and closes the door, making sure that nothing looked out of place. Completely and utterly bored, Aurora heads to her room, but stops at her door. Instead of entering her room, she knocks on Odd and Ulrich's door. No answer. Shaking her head, Aurora pulls out her cell phone and dials Odd's number, but gets no response. She then tries Jeremy's.
"Hello?" Jeremy's voice asks.
"Jeremy, this is Aurora. Where the heck are you?" she says.
"Why should I tell you, since you went snooping in my room." his voice was irritated.
"Snooping? I was going to ask you something, but you weren't there. Then this girl appeared on your computer."
"Aelita, yes. Tell you what." Jeremy sighs. "Come to the forest, Odd'll meet you there." Jeremy hangs up.

"What's taking him so long?" Aurora paces back and forth. She had been in the forest for ten minutes, and was thinking of calling Jeremy again, when she heard a metalic knocking sound. Knowing that the trees would be the hardest thing to camo from metal, she shrugged and slowly walked back to the school, her head hung. She almost misses it, but out of the corner of her eye she spots the top part of Odd's body from the ground. "What the heck?"
"Hey Aurora! Over here!" he calls to her. Aurora walks over and kneels down.
"Where the heck have you been?" Odd motions for her to come down the manhole he was in.
"The deal's still on, right?" he asks. Aurora nods. "Jeremy's cyber-pal is Aelita."
"Hmmm." Odd hands her a skateboard.
"You know how to ride this?"After a little demonstration, Odd laughs. "I think that's a yes. Follow me." Odd gets on his skateboard and leads her to the Factory.

"This is amazing!" Aurora looks around from the elevator.
"Yea, it is. The most amazing part is down a few levels." Odd pushes the button and the elevator descends to the Control Room.
"Aurora, glad you could make it." Jeremy says when he spots her. "We've got a problem, Odd. Aelita's been pined down by two crabs, and Yumi and Ulrich have both been frozen, there's still two minutes left."
"Too bad I can't go back." Odd says.
"Why not?" Aurora asks.
"Something about being killed multiple times not good for your health. I wasn't really paying attention when Jeremy explained it to us."
"Send me." Aurora tells them.
"Should we?"
"Ok, Odd. Take her to the Scanners." Jeremy instructs.

"Just enter when you're ready. The going's not too rough, but the return trip is bad." Odd says. "Have fun." Aurora steps into the scanner and is transported to Lyoko.

Aurora virtualizes in Lyoko's desert region, and then she drops to the ground, her wings brushing the ground. "Wings?" she reaches back and can feel the feathery softness of the elegant wings. She tries some experimental lift offs, and, succeding, flies to Aelita's aid. In her flight, a sword vitrualizes in her hand. Not thinking about it, Aurora heads straight for one of the crabs and slashes through it. The other turns from trying to get Aelita to attacking Aurora. It's first two shots miss, but the third hits the girl's right wing. "Damn!" Aurora drops to the ground from her flight, barely missing Aelita. Aurora stands, leaning on her sword, and then running-charges the crab, taking a direct hit in her left shoulder.
"Watch out Aurora, three more hits and you're gone. Yumi and Ulrich will be there soon, they've got a few more seconds." Jeremy's voice echos across the desert. Aurora ignores him and plunges the sword deep into the crab. It explodes and throws Aurora back. Meanwhile, Aelita had reached the tower and was entering the code. After a few more seconds, Jeremy's voice is heard again. "Return to the past now."

"Heya Odd." Aurora drapes her arm around Odd's neck. He sighs, thinking she wouldn't remember her deal.
"Hey Aurora. Listen, do you remember anything about, well..." he pauses.
"Let me think." She says, then kisses Odd's cheek. "Yes!" she says and hugs him. "That was great! Odd, I could fly!" Aurora exclaims.

---

Aurora streaches and yawns, noticing that her roommate was gone, like she almost always was, even on weekends like this. She rolls over, looking at the wall, when a knock comes at the door. "Hey, sis. Can I come in?" Spire's voice comes through the door.
"It's open." Aurora calls as she rolls over to look at the door. Spire enters, and Aurora's surprised to see him in the clothes their parents had given him for 'special occasions'. "Well, well, well. Who is it?" She sits up.
"I just wanted to ask a few questions." Spire sits on the end of his sister's bed. "How would you want a boy to ask you on a date? When should he do it and where should he take her?" the words spill out of Spire's mouth.
"First off, every girl is differant, how I would like could be such an extreme as to, say, Sissy." Aurora pause, and notices the downcast look and blush on Spire's face. 'Bingo.' she thinks. "You should ask her as soon as possible. Where not many people will hear, if you want. And it all depends on the girl where to take her, but most like to go shopping, and you DO still have the two hundred mom and dad sent last week, right?" Spire nods. "Good. Offer to take her shopping and, if she won't let you pay for anything, then at least carry most of it for her. That's all the advice I can give." Aurora playfully kicks her brother off the bed. "Now, if you don't mind, let me get dressed." Spire nods and leaves. "My little brother is growing up." she sighs and removes herself from the bed towards her dresser, picking out the silvery-silk skirt and matcing blouse that her parents had given her for 'special occasions'.

Aurora makes her way quickly to the cafeteria, planning on making good on her deal with Odd. She bursts in and spots Odd, alone, stuffing his face with three breakfasts. "The others gone already?" Odd nods, his mouth full of food. "Want to know something more important than food?" Odd swallows, wipes his mouth on his sleeve, and speaks.
"More important than food? There's not much..." he stops mid-sentance because of the tight hug Aurora gave him. "Ok. So what do you want to do?" he pushes away the food and she giggles.
"First, I want you to get out of those purple clothes. Then we can go into the city."
"What, you want me to go naked?" Odd asks, drawing more giggles from his friend. Aurora drags him from the table and down to his room, into, and over to the dresser.
"Let's see... oh!" she had pulled out Odd's bottom drawer and Kiwi jumped into her lap. "Aww, he's so cute!" Aurora hugs Kiwi, who licks her face. She sets the dog down and goes through Odd's other drawers. "Let's see... purple, purple, purple, what's this?" Aurora pulls out a black shirt with a red & silver tribal-style design. "Now this I like." She tosses the shirt to Odd and goes through his pants, looking for something that matches. After a few seconds, she pulls out a pair of black pants with tribal-style designs on each knee. "Wow, a boy after my heart." Aurora pulls up her blouse, revealing a similar tribal-tatoo around her belly-button.
"Did it hurt?" Odd asks. Aurora, ignoring his question, lets her blouse drop to how it was and puts the pants on his head and over his face.
"Come out when you're done." She leaves the room and sits next to the door, waiting for her friend, letting her head nod.

"My child..." a voice says. Aurora looks up, quickly looking around.
"Who said that?" she asks worridly. A glowing symbol comes into her view. A circle with two circles within it, three prongs at the bottom and one prong on the top.
"My child... You are here." the symbol's glow pulses with the words. "You are mine, my one and only." the symbol comes closer to her.
"Who, who are you?" the girl asks. The symbol's light becomes red.
"I am that which was destroyed many a time. I am that which was destroyed long ago. I am that which you destroyed not long ago. I am that which destroys all that destroy me. I am XANA, and you are my one and only, Aurora, Princess of Lyoko." the symbol flares a bright reddish-yellow.

"Aurora!" Odd shakes her, not softly but not too hard either. Her head snaps up quickly, banging into the wall.
"Ow ow ow!" she holds the back of her head. "What was that?" she looks around for the floating symbol.
"What was what?" Odd asks.
"N-n-nothing." Aurora stammers, smiles, and stands with Odd's help. She grabs his arm and snuggles against it. "So, where to?" she leans her head against his shoulder, trying to forget the strange dream and the symbol that called itself XANA.

Odd and Aurora stop in front of the local movie theatre. "Wanna see a movie?" he asks her and Aurora nods, lifting her head from his shoulder. She looked at the posters and pointed to one of the posters and Odd leads her in.

Spire stands outside Sissy's room, his hand up to knock, but he couldn't bear himself to do it. He drops his hand in defeat. "I'm hopeless." he sighs and leans his forehead against the door with a soft thud. He hears the shuffling of feet and barely removes his forehead before the door opens.
"Oh, Spire." Sissy says. "I wasn't exspecting anyone this early." Sissy was still wearing her nightclothes.
"Good morning, Sissy. I was wondering.. that is.. would you like to..." he stops.
"Would I like to what?" she asks.
"Would you like to go into the city with me?" Spire blurts, his words leaving Sissy temporarily speechless.
"Well, I guess so. Can you give me a minute to change?" Spire nods and Sissy closes the door.
"Did I do that well?" he says softly, wishing that he had written down what he wanted to say. After a minute, Sissy opens the door wearing her usual clothes.
"So what did you have in mind?" she asks.
"I really haven't thought it out that far." Spire sheepishly answers, drawing a short laugh from Sissy. She grabs his hand and leads him out of the school building.
"We'll find something to do." Sissy says.

"Well, I should've exspected this." Spire had been towing several of Sissy's bags around for a while and his arms were getting tired. "Sissy, think we could rest for a while? Maybe get some lunch?"
"I guess so. It IS getting about noon." Sissy leads Spire into a small restaraunt. He dumps the bags on the floor next to him and moves to pull the seat back for Sissy to sit in. "Thank you." She sits and he takes the chair opposite her.
"Sissy, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a while..." he pauses.
"Go on." Sissy listens attentively.
"I, think I love you." he says and quickly looks down intending for Sissy's voice to show him her answer.

"You cannot escape me." the symbol appears in front of Aurora again.
"No, please, go away." she tells it.
"Go away? No. Your blood created me, I will not leave." the symbol flares a bright, burning white.

Aurora screeches, but lucky for her, the movie she had chosen was a horror, and several other girls had screamed. "Hey, what's wrong?" Odd looks over to her.

"Nothing... nothing." She squeezes her eyes shut, still feeling the pain from the white light. "I'll be fine, I just need some fresh air." Aurora stands and leaves Odd, and she passes a person near the back of the theatre with large pupils the same shape as the symbol that called itself XANA, he watches her leave. She shudders and gulps in the outside air. Someone lays a hand on her shoulder, and Aurora sees Odd when she turns. "Odd, I'm sorry, but I need to be alone for a while. I truely wish we could stay together for the rest of the day. I just need to find something. I'll give you a call later?" she kisses his cheek and runs off. Aurora is out of breath when she reaches her room. Entering, she searches her side frantically for her black clothes. Finally finding them, she changes them with her current ones and walks to the school library, the cape she had dorn lightly flapping in the air conditioned building.

Upon entering, she immediately spots Jeremy at one of the tables. Somewhat avoiding him, she finds all the war encylcopedias she can that start with 'X'. She proceeds to Jeremy's table and dumps the seven books next to him, not very quietly. He looks at her angrily. Aurora pulls back her hood and sits across from him. "Jeremy, I need your help." she pleas.

"What with? Class research?" he looks at the stack of encylopedias next to him.

"Search those for information on Astra Xion. He's my great-grandfather." Aurora pulls half the books over next to her and she begins searching. Jeremy shrugs and begins helping with the stack she had left at his side. Aurora shortly finds something of interest, because she pulls out a notebook and scribbles something down. Jeremy, on the other hand, goes through two of them, and finds a very interesting section on Astra Xion. He reads the entry softly, barely loud enough for Aurora to hear.

"'American Scientist, Astra Xion, has been commisioned for the past several years to work on a way to defeat the Nazis that controlled France. To his credit, he created a super-computer that he named Yashin Kokka Kyushu Suru.' What does that mean?" He looks up.

"Loosely, it means Ambition for Nation Assimilation...." Aurora gasps. "XANA!"

"Huh?" Jeremy's face takes on a puzzled look.

"My great-grandfather always named things after himself, and the rest of the name in Japanese. Xion Yashin Kokka Kyushu Suru. Xion's Ambition for National Assimilation, or XANA, he had called it. Why did I not remember until now?" her eyes well up in tears, while Jeremy reads on.

"'Scientist Xion was turned over to the Nazis near the end of the World War after three of his assistants were killed by YKKS, and he was believed to have been executed. No proof for or against this has been discovered.' The Nazis. How terrible." Tears stream down Aurora's face.

"Great-Grandpa died while my grandfather was still two, leaving him alone with his wife." she says through sobs. "But Grandpa knew all about XANA. He always believed that Great-Grandpa was still alive. He could be, if I heard XANA right."

"Did you just say you talked to XANA?!?" Jeremy's eyes widen in shock. Aurora nods.

"Twice. After breakfast this morning, and not too long ago at the movies with Odd." she says. She remembered the pain from the second encounter.

"How? The only time that we've talked to him was when he captured Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd in the Artic Region of Lyoko." Jeremy replies.

"I didn't see him, though. I just saw that symbol that was on those monsters."

"You saw THAT? And it TALKED to you?" Jeremy asks. Aurora dries her tears and nods. "We need to talk to Aelita. XANA may be up to something." Aurora follows Jeremy to his room.

"Aelita, are you there?" Jeremy asks as he puts on his earpiece. Within moments Aelita's face is on the screen. "Have you noticed any pulsations recently?"

"No, why?" Aelita shakes her head.

"I've seen that symbol of his twice. It talked to me!" Aurora says, not remembering that Aelita couldn't hear her.

"How about this, Aurora: I'll take you to the scanners. We'll get Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich to come and we'll all try to figure this out together, on Lyoko." Jeremy removes the earpiece and Aelita dissappears from the screen. "Let's go." Jeremy pulls out his cell phone and calls the others.

Spire was relieved. Sissy had not given him a definant 'no', but he didn't recieve a 'yes' either. They had long since left the restaurant and headed back for the school building. "Hey, Sissy, do you feel like you're being watched, or is it just me?" he asks, trying to walk faster with all the bags he was carrying.

"No, why?" Sissy turns around.

"I've had this feeling that someone's been following us since we left the restaraunt. But it might just be something else." Spire shrugs.

Treg sits at his computer, deep within the Factory. He had been a student at the nearby Cadic Junior High, but graduated a few years ago. During his stay, he found the Factory and the deepset computer of the Factory's founder, Astra Xion. He had read Astra's notes on the hacker-virus. Treg's own grandfather had been a part of the assignment, and was in fact one of the three killed by XANA. He had, strangely enough, recieved summons from XANA a few months previous, when he had found out about Astra's great-granddaughter's transcript to the school. Even after seeing it done, Treg still could not believe that XANA had created a fifth Region within Lyoko. And wanted HIM to make the monsters that would guard the five towers within the region. Treg's assignment had progressed well, and he added the Dragon Guardians, Harpies, and Cannons to XANA's monster list. Treg knew about XANA's recent devitrualization of it's monsters into the real world, and locked the code for his monsters within many thousands of passwords, more than enough to keep XANA out of them. Nothing as dangerous as the Dragon Guardians should enter the real world...

Treg woke on the third morning after his return to France. XANA had him tailing the Xion children for the past two days, and today he was to reveal XANA's new Region to those that foiled XANA time and time again. "Alone, as in the past. Will I ever be used to it?" Treg asks himself. His parents had been killed by XANA, and this information he had kept locked deep within, hidden from XANA, along with his great hatred of the supercomputer. Treg stands and streaches, discovering a sore in his back that had developed from the chair near two newly created scanners. XANA had the robots in his Factory working while the children that were against him were away. XANA planned to send Treg to the Shadow Region to await those from the real world.

Treg stands from the desert ground, sensing that three from the real world had materialized in Lyoko. "So, you finally are here." he says, hearing them drop.

"Who are you?" Ulrich asks.

"I am Treg, the Soldier of XANA." Treg answers.

"One of XANA's." Odd says. The third, Yumi, throws her weapon at Treg. He catches it.

"Do not try to attack me. I could easily destroy each of you three from here. The Tower that has been activated is not hear. My signal is what your friend locked onto." Treg explains, and he hears another thud behind him. "Another? Ahh, his precious 'One and Only'." Treg turns to see the same girl that had been in the theatre, one of the Xion brats.

"What?" Aurora asks, confused.

"Too bad you four came here for nothing. The Tower XANA has activated is not here. Neither is Aelita, your little friend. Both are within the Shadow Region." Treg draws a sword and cuts a deep rift into the plateau. "If you ever wish to see your friend, you'll come with me to the Shadow Region. Hope you kids aren't afraid of the dark."

The trip had been rougher than Treg'd exspected. If he'd calculated correctly, then the Guardian would be within spitting distance, and once his eyes adjust into the Shadow Veil, he speaks. "And it is." He walks over to the Guardian and draws his sword across it, destroying it and releasing the captive Aelita. "Your friends are here." he says, listening to the four entering by the rift he'd created. Aelita backs away from Treg, who turns to watch the four from Earth stumble within the darkness. "If you can make fire, then you can see." he says. "But you might not like what is here. Especially those that fly overhead." Treg steps back and grabs Aelita's arm, pulling her to her feet. "You are nothing to me, except tools for my revenge. Cannon!" He yells and something rolls over to him. "Take this one to the Tower. No doubt XANA's causing mischief in the real world." Treg lays Aelita across the Cannon and it rolls off. "The reason you are here is because of XANA. He has caused much pain, hasn't he?" Treg asks, finding the sight of the stumbling people less amusing.

"How would you know?" Aurora stumbles closer to Treg's voice.

"Because he did the same to me. But know, you will see me again. The past is upon us."

Treg awakes again on the third morning. He knew XANA wasn't paying attention to his conversation with those that hated him. XANA only sent the monsters and never payed any attention. Treg leans forward and rubs his eyes. "Now what do I do?" He says to the empty void. After a few minutes, he looks up, a great gleam in his eyes.

"It's been a while, Treg." The principal says. Treg nods and adjusts hs dark glasses. He knew that the four from Lyoko went here.

"Yes it has. Three years I think." Treg agrees.

"What brings you back here?"

"Severe boredom, for one. And wanted to see what teachers were still left." Treg's left arm flexes from under his dark trenchcoat.

"Just don't get into any trouble with Jim on your first day back." The principal reffers to the gym teacher that wasn't more than ten years older than the 19-year-old Treg.

"Don't worry. I'll stay away from him like when I was here." he leaves the room, letting the door slam on the way.

Treg looks up and down the empty halls, remembering full well the havock that would be reaked in the next five minutes. He stands outside Mrs. Hertz's class, wanting to stop by his favorite teacher. As soon as he opens the door, the bell rings. His eyes scan the room, immediately spotting Odd, Ulrich, and Aurora. As they approach the door, Treg blocks their way. "You three, I want to talk to you in a minute." He says and moves to Mrs Hertz. "Hello, Teach." Mrs Hertz looks up.

"Do I know you?" she asks.

"How could you forget me? The half-done assignments, along with the perfect tests. How often do students come through like that?"

"Treg Zorl? Is it really you?" Mrs Hertz looks at him closer. "It is! Treg, what have you been doing with yourself?" she asks.

"Not really that much. Been working with computers in Japan and the States. Took me long enough to get used to Japan. Even longer for the States." Treg embraces his teacher.

"Computer work in the States? Really?" Treg nods.

"Unfortunately, I can only stay here for a few days, and I'll need to say hi to my other teachers. I'll try to come by when I leave." Treg Zorl leaves the science room for the last time.

"Good, you waited." Treg closes the door and connects eyes with the three students and one that he hadn't stopped. "You do not recognize me, but I did promise that you'd see me again. As for you, 'One and Only'." Treg looks right at Aurora and pulls off his glasses, revealing his XANA-smbol shaped eyes.

"You were in the theatre!" Aurora says.

"You told Mrs Hertz you were Treg." Odd looks supiciously at the older man.

"Yes. I am the same Treg that lead you to the Shadow Region. But there is something that you need to know, but I'd rather tell it to all four of you that were on Lyoko. Meet me in the Factory during lunch time." Treg leaves the building and crosses to the soccer field.

"About time." Treg rises from his seat in the elevator. "And you brought him too." he looks to the boy that he had not stopped. "One thing that you must know: XANA is here to destroy. He will not do anything else until his secret is fully safe."

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy, the one Treg had not stopped, asks.

"His goal is to first kill the five of you, then the other Xion kid. After that, it's me then the world. Nothing will stand in his way once the seven of us are gone. Which is why you must let me handle things on Lyoko for a while."

"Why should we believe you?" Yumi asks. She was the only one that had not seen him in the halls.

"Because I am the only one XANA trusts. And if I do succeed, then I will give you XANA's greatest treasure. His Omega Scanners."

"Treg. Awaken." XANA speaks to the sleeping man.

"Damnit. Why so soon?" Treg Zorl asks, and a shock flows through his body.

"I'm up. I'm up. Shit." Treg leans forward and creates a program on the computer, locking it within many thousands of passwords. "Well, now what XANA?" Treg asks the air. In response, one of the Omega Scanners opens and a Block emerges. "You're kidding me." The block ignores Treg and goes to the elevator. Other Blocks emerge and follow. "Damn, damn, damn, damn." Treg slides into the elevator just before it closes. It procedes upward, to the top level. "This cannot be happening." Treg counts thirteen Blocks. "Uber damn." As soon as the elevator opens up onto the floor, he hauls ass up the ropes and into the city, taking the cross-country route to Cadic Junior High.

Treg is out of breath when he reaches Jeremy's room. He'd known where it was because he'd tracked him there from the library where Jeremy and Aurora had found out about XANA. "Jeremy! Open this door!" Treg bangs on the door. Jeremy opens it slightly and Treg forces his way inside.

"What the heck?" Jeremy asks.

"Blocks, thirteen of them. Heading here." he gasps for breath.

"It was bad enough with the roaches." Jeremy says and reaches for his cell phone. "Odd, is Ulrich there? And Aurora? Good. Listen, XANA's materialized a bunch of Blocks. One of you call Yumi and I'll meet you all at the Factory." he hangs up. "You're coming with me."

"You know, Spire's going to be a target too." Jeremy turns from his door.

"Who?"

"Aurora's brother." Treg says. "I know more about this than you. And about the three secret passages to the Factory."

"Three? Where's the third?"

"Follow me." Treg leads Jeremy to the cafeteria. "In the freezer." He pulls open the door and motions for Jeremy to enter. "Too bad the thing's probly frozen over, the way the servers keep this place." Treg draws a short dagger from inside his trenchcoat. "Righ there." he hacks into the far ice-covered wall, revealing a small door, barely big enough for him to crawl through. "Just keep following." Treg crawls deeper into the hole and stands erect.

"There they are." Treg pulls Jeremy from the sewer, pointing towards three blocks at the Factory end of the bridge. "Let's see how they like this." he pulls out three throwing daggers and launches them deep into the Blocks, destroying all three. "Direct hit. Let's go." He runs into the Factory and slides down one of the ropes, followed by Jeremy. They find Yumi, Aurora, Ulrich, and Odd waiting in front of the elevator. "You want to live the day? We need to get to Lyoko." Treg pushes the button when everyone gets inside the elevator. They leave Jeremy at the Control Room and proceed down to the Scanner Room. "Ulrich, Odd, and I will go first. You two will follow." Treg enters one of the cylinders and the door closes.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Aurora asks Yumi.

"Be careful guys." Yumi says to Odd and Ulrich. Odd waves as the door closes. Within three minutes, the doors open again and Yumi & Aurora enter.

"This will be the end of this crap." Treg says once Aurora and Yumi enter the Shadow Region. "Eternal Flare!" He points his hand into the air and shouts. Immediately the Shadow Region is lit up, revealing five nearby towers(all activated), a circle of black stones around the plateau, and white stones from each tower to the others. "In admition of the deepest desire, the eternal life of darkness ends. In admition of the deepest desire, the pentagram will fall. Darkness nevermore, Guardians fall, Harpies burn, Cannons rust. End the life of Shadows, and activate the Treg Protocol!" Treg stands in the center of the pentagram as he speaks the words. "You must leave now and deactivate the four towers in each Region. This I have descided to take care of myself." The four dissapear at Treg's command, all appearing in the Desert Region.

Treg floats in an empty void. "You have betrayed me. Why?" a voice asks.

"You know full well why, you bastard." Treg says. An electrical shock runs through his body.

"You have one more chance." the voice sounds angry.

"Bite me, you damn machine!" Treg screams loudly as constant shocks run through his body.

"Why do you resist?" the voice asks. Treg remains silent, and the electrical shocks run through Treg's body, stopping only once his screams subside into a death-like silence.

Jeremy looks up from his computer. "What happened?" he asks himself. He remembered sending Aurora, Treg, and the others to Lyoko. He remembered the spell Treg had used and the deactivation of the Towers in the Forest, Polar, Desert, and Mountain Regions. He had a deep feeling in his gut that something had gone terribly wrong. Jeremy reaches for his cell phone and a message pops up on his screen. "'Do not worry about me.'" Jeremy reads aloud. "'As promised, the Omega Scanners are in your posession. They should be able to cure Aelita of the virus XANA put in her. We will meet again, but I will not know. I preffer it this way, in case XANA tries to get me to set-up the Omega Scanners for him. Signed, Treg the Redeemed.' What happened to him?" Jeremy asks himself.

"Good morning class. Today there's a new student. He's transferred in from Canada." Mrs Hertz says to the class that same day. The new kid walks in, wearing ninja-like black clothes with boots on his feet. "Welcome Treg Zorl." At the name Jeremy's head snaps up. He looks over to Odd, Ulrich, and Aurora. They recognized the name too. Aurora writes a note and has Jeremy, Odd, and Ulrich all read it. 'Is that the same Treg?' it read. For all they knew, it could be a differant person entirely, or it could be the one thet Betrayed XANA.

"Hello Cadic Junior High. Reporters Treg, Milly, and Tamiya here with a scoop on this year's annual school prom." Treg says, looking over to the doors leading to the auditorium.

"We were not given authorization to film on-the-spot, but the decorating's coming along quite nicely." Milly states in her best professional voice. Tamiya moves the camera over to look into the auditorium, zooming in on Spire, who's working to put up the disco ball. "That's Spire Xion, who transferred here about five months ago for those that don't recognize him." As soon as Milly finishes, Herb exits the auditorium, blocking off the camera with his palm.

"Hey!" Tamiya exclaims.

"What do you think you are doing?" Milly asks.

"Nobody cares about your stupid news reports." Herb says.

"That's not true." Treg clenches his right hand into a fist.

"It is and all of you know it." Aurora leaves from the auditorium.

"Are you terrorizing these kids again Herb?" she asks.

"He is." Treg says. Aurora shakes her head.

"You know that they're doing their best." Aurora criticizes Herb.

"It doesn't matter. Nobody cares about the reports." Herb snorts.

"Then I guess I'm a nobody. I care about what my friends do." Aurora crosses her arms in front of her chest. "And you should stop picking on those smaller than yourself." she pushes Herb out of the way and leaves, answering her phone on the way.

"You're lucky you're younger than me. Otherwise things would've been differant." Herb says.

"Don't let that stop you." Treg cracks his knuckles while glaring at Herb. Aurora peeks around the corner.

"Hey Herb, Sissy's in there alone with Spire." she says and ducks back around the corner. Herb grumbles and re-enters the auditorium.

"Aurora, have you found anything?" Jeremy's voice is heard over the light swirling of wind within the Desert Region.

"No, and the wind has never been this constant. But then, not much has been the same since the Shadow Region was destroyed." Aurora says, beating her wings to gain height. "How about the others? Have they found anything?"

"No. Yumi's found a few dead trees in the Forest Region, Ulrich some new ice flows in the Polar, and more plateaus in the Mountain Region with Odd. Nothing at all that could be anything important." Jeremy replies.

"I suppose you're right." Aurora dives straight into the ground, devirtualizing herself.

Spire sighs. He'd been hoping to have some more alone time with Sissy, but because of the prom, he'd been forced to help with that. He flops down onto his bed, hitting his arm on a box that hadn't been there this morning. Knowing that only the faculty had keys to the dorms, he assumed it had been delivered by one of the custodians. He shrugs and opens it, suprised to find a black button-down shirt with red and blue flames rising from the bottom, pocket, and sleeves. He'd never fallen in love with his clothes, but this one was differant. He'd always loved the red and blue fire designs, even had his room back in America painted with them. He'd never dreamed of having a shirt such as this in his life. He dumped the rest of the box onto the bed and found a pair of matching pants, and one hundred American dollars. He'd saved the last three hundred for transporting his car from the States, and he just needs one hundred more.

Aurora stumbles from the Omega Scanner. Now THAT had been very painful. "Note to self. Do NOT skull-bash the ground in Lyoko." Aurora looks about, noticing that only one of the normal Scanners was closed. "Jeremy, who's still in Lyoko?"

"Odd. He's been looking for a fun way to devirtualize." Jeremy's voice comes oveer the intercom.

"Fun way?" she asks. No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, than the Scanner opened and Odd stuck his head out, gasping for breath. "You nutcase." Aurora helps Odd from the Scanner.

"Huh? Oh, the fun thing. Apparently, skydiving within the Mountain Region isn't a very good idea." Odd laughs, Aurora just rolls her eyes and hugs him. Even though her deal had been for one month, she'd found herself missing him often, even though she was just a few doors away from him at night. "Let's hurry, otherwise we might be late for the prom." they had spent the better part of the afternoon on Lyoko, and they had only two hours to get ready for the prom.

"Race ya." Odd says and Aurora jumps on his back before he can even take one step. "Hey! Cheater!" he stumbles for a few steps, then runs for the elevator with her on his back.

Aurora opens the door to her room, not believing that her roommate was there. It was quite literally the second time she'd been seen in the room by Aurora, the first when Aurora arrived. "You're here? What the hell's happened to you?" Aurora asks sarcastically.

"Not that' it's really any of you're business, but after tonight I'm out of this school." the girl says.

"I don't have to get you a present, do I?" Aurora looks innocent.

"No, you don't you bitch." Aurora was stunned by the word. True, the two had never been friends, but to be outright called a bitch?

"Hey, watch you're language. French may be the primary language, but that's not an excuse." Aurora retorts. Her roommate storms out of the room. Aurora laughs and spots the box on her bed. "What's this?" she opens it and gasps at the beauty of the clothes within. A black blouse with embroidered silver tribal-style designs circled around the arms and waist, with a single embroidered silver barbed-wire strand around the neck. She knew the thing had to be made by her mother, knowing that nothing like this could be gotten in the stores. Aurora shifts the packing paper around and finds the knee-length skirt. Same black cloth with the same embroidered tribal designs. Aurora quickly changed out of her school clothes and into the ones sent by her parents. She could not wait to show Odd, and burst into his room, catching him, literally, with his pants down. "Oops, bad timing." Aurora blushes and slams the door closed, a few giggles escaping her mouth. Aurora smiles when Odd leaves his room, cheeks still flushed from her bursting in on him. "Sorry 'bout that." Aurora says and hugs him.

"No problem." Odd holds his arm out for her, and she takes it. "You DID startle me, though." Aurora just laughs and rests her head against his shoulder.

Treg knocks on Milly and Tamiya's door. He'd promised both the girls that they would all go together, now he stood outside their door in a semi-formal white suit. Milly opens the door in a dress of varying shades of red. Treg bows and offers the girl his arm. "What's taking Tamiya?" he asks, trying to peek around the door.

"She'll be out in a sec." Milly blocks Treg's view. "Just hold on."

"If it takes much longer, we'll be late!" Treg says and Tamiya emerges from behind the door.

"Well, what do you think?" she spins around for Treg to see. He gapes in awe at the beauty of Tamiya's grey dress.

Spire shuffles his feet pass the 'bouncer' that had just been hired as Jim's assistant. "Spire Xion, I assume." the new faculty says.

"Huh?" Spire looks closely at the man's face.

"You know, Sissy doesn't really care about you. Just like Nicolas and Herb. It's the same with them. What a charming girl, that Sissy is." the assistant stares directly into Spire's eyes. "You are just one of her pawns. Nothing more." Spire shakes his head and enters the auditorium, not remembering what the man had said. The man laughs and sees the next group entering: Jeremy & Aelita, Aurora & Odd, and Ulrich & Yumi. "Everything is not as it seems. Old enemies know deeper secrets than they reveal. Secrets held within our own hearts kept from our loved ones." He whispers as the six walk past. Aurora looks at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asks, but the man ignores her and thinks about this next triplet.

"He has special plans for you, traitor." Treg guides Milly and Tamiya into the auditorium, one on each arm. He looks questionly at the man and leads his dates far away from him. As the last of the students enter, the new faculty hand closes and locks the back door. He looks about and leaves towards the back of the stage, removing his black leather jacket. Behind the stage, Jim tosses him his bag of clothes.

"There's a curtained off area by the door back there. Change and be quick about it, Axel." Jim tells his assistant and enters the dance area. Axel quickly changes into his red silk shirt, red silk pants, and adds his favorite touch: his signature red-gold necklace. "Master, your plan is fully ready?" he asks the curtains softly. A black-ish-purple fog slowly drops from the above light. "So, you want it on the Xions, the traitor, and who else?" Axel looks into the fog and nods. "Ok, I've got it." he leaves the curtained area and the fog streaches to cover the floor up a foot. Axel makes his way through the dancing mass and finds each of his targets, placing a jewel from his necklace into each of his target's pockets. It took him not five minutes to get the first eight, but he had to sneak around for the last three. They had been avoiding him all night, and he'd finally developed a plan to get them. Silently the fog conceales him fully and he is able to sneak upon the final three. At last his Master's Jewels were in place. Nothing should be able to stop them now.

With the closing of the dance, the weekend is upon the students once again. Jeremy, Aurora, Odd, and Aelita walk to the factory, wanting to return Aelita back to Lyoko before anything bad happened. "Did any of you notice something strange about that new guy?" Aurora asks once they reach the factory.

"Strange? What do you mean?" Odd looks at Aurora.

"He said something about old enemies and deep secrets." Aurora explains.

"I heard him too. And he said something to Treg about being a traitor..." Aelita starts.

"You don't think that new guy has something to do with XANA, do you?" Jeremy turns around, looking at his friends.

"I'm not sure. He might just be a little crazy. But to be sure, we should check for an activated tower." Aurora says. Jeremy nods and slides down the rope to the elevator with Aelita.

"Do you really think the new teacher is working for XANA?" Odd asks, walking Aurora back into the city, taking the long way.

"I don't know. But we need to be careful." Aurora wraps her arms around his waist and leans on Odd's shoulder for the walk back to school.

Aurora tosses and turns in her bed, long after she had been walked back by Odd.

"They know more than you think." a voice says.

"Who's there? XANA, if it's you I'm going to unplug you PERSONALLY!" Aurora screams.

"No. XANA is not here. He will never return to haunt you. I will see to that." the voice assures.

"Why should I believe you?" Aurora asks softly.

"Because that is how I came to be in the first place. Do you remember?" the voice takes a more solid tone. "When you and Spire were sitting on your Grandfather's lap. Listening to him tell you stories about his childhood. When you first found out about XANA. You dreamed me as your Guardian."

"Armoru? Have you really returned after all this time?" Aurora asks with joy in her voice.

"I never left. Your un-belief in me drained me of power. But now, when XANA has been rediscovered, your belief has restored me. I will find a way to protect you, like when you were younger." Armoru sits next to his friend, his wispy form slowly solidifying. "You loved me greatly when you were younger. I kept your nightmares away." Aurora leans her head against Armoru's shoulder.

"Aurora." she feels a slight shaking of her shoulder. "Aurora. Wake up." the new voice repeats.

Aurora quickly sits up in her bed, knocking her head against Odd's. "Oww. Odd? How'd you get in here?" Aurora rubs her forehead.

"You left the door unlocked. And you sounded like you were talking to someone. Arm-something-or-other." Odd says. Aurora pulls her knees up to her chin.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Aurora his Odd with her pillow. Odd quickly stands from the bed and heads for the door.

"Ok, ok. Sheeze. Are you going to stay in here all day?" he turns from the door. Aurora throws her pillow at him, but he ducks out of the room, closing the door behind him. With the door closed, Aurora begins to cry.

Axel leans against the door leading into the shared dorms. He'd sensed that three of his jewels had started their work, and one had dissapeared shortly after the end of the Prom last night. He was worried about the missing one. "Where could it have gone? If it was destroyed I would've known. But to dissapear into thin air?" Axel shakes his head, thuroghly confused. "And why haven't the other ten done anything?" he knows something has gone wrong with his master's plans.

Spire lazily tries to sit up, and notices a weight on his chest. He looks down and sees Sissy's head resting there. "What the?" he says and she stirrs.

"Good morning, Spire." she says, turning to look at him.

"What happened?" he looks around. He sees his clothes in a pile near the closet, and he notices another pile not two feet away from him. Sissy's clothes.

"By God we didn't..." Spire starts, then looks back into Sissy's eyes.

"Would it matter if we did? There's noone else here. Not at school, not in the city. We are the only ones left." Sissy says seductively.

"I don't know." he reaches for his cell phone and dials his sister's number. The out of service operator answers. "That's weird." Sissy crawls up his chest and kisses Spire's lips.

"Is it so bad, being stuck here with me?" she asks him. Spire smiles, drops his cell, and pulls the covers over their heads.

Treg stares blankly at the infermary celing. He'd been like this since the night before. Milly and Tamiya had been at his side all night. "Treg. What happened to you?" Milly asks softly, tears welling in her eyes.

Aurora leaves her room, clad in the same clothes she'd worn to the prom. Making her way to her brother's room, she lightly knocked on the door. When he didn't answer, she tried the handle. Seems she wasn't the only one to leave their door open last night. Opening the door, Aurora sees her brother lying on the floor, as if he'd closed the door and just fell asleep. In a panik, Aurora drug him outside and over to Jeremy's room. "Jeremy! Open up! Jeremy!" She bangs on the door. No answer. "Damnit! Jeremy!" She yells.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Jim rounds the corner to see Aurora banging Jeremy's door.

"Jim! Something's wrong with my brother!"

"Let me see." Jim kneels beside the boy and places two fingers on his neck and looks at his watch. "His pulse is very slow. We should get him to the infermary." he picks Spire up and leads Aurora to the nurse's.

Aurora sits outside the infermary, waiting for Jim to come out. A few minutes later, Jim leads Milly and Tamiya out of the room. "Look girls, the nurse can't find anything wrong with him. He's going to go to the hospital in case they can figure it out." Jim looks at Aurora. "Same thing with your brother." he leaves the three alone, muttering to himself.

"Who else is in there?" Aurora asks.

"Treg." Milly sobs.

"No." she notices that Tamiya wasn't as affected by the incident as Milly. "Tamiya, I want you to go and find Ulrich or Yumi. Tell them... tell them that HE is causing problems again."

"Who's 'he'?" Tamiya looks puzzled.

"They should know who you mean. If they don't then make sure they knows that I sent you to find them. Now go!" Aurora pushes Tamiya towards the hallway.

Tamiya runs to Ulrich and Odd's room. She knocks on the door and calls for Ulrich. "Is anyone in there? Hello?" Ulrich opens the door.

"Tamiya? What's wrong?" Ulrich asks.

"Treg and Aurora's brother, they're both in comas. Aurora said that HE is causing problems again, and you'd know who she ment." Tamiya says slowly.

"Damn it. Tamiya, go back to Aurora and tell her we'll handle things." After Tamiya leaves, Ulrich dials Jeremy's number. "Hey Jeremy. XANA's done something to Treg and Spire. Yes, I know he hasn't been able to attack us directly before, but he can now! We need to get the tower deactivated." he hangs up. "You coming?" Ulrich looks at Odd, who'd been sitting on his bed, petting Kiwi since Aurora kicked him out.

"Huh? Oh, yea." Odd stands and follows Ulrich to the manhole in the forest.

After being scanned into Lyoko's Forest Region, Odd and the others search around for Aelita. "Where is she?" Odd says.

"Beats me. Jeremy, where's the activated Tower?" Ulrich asks the sky.

"To the north. I think there's someone ther already, though." replies Jeremy's voice. Yumi leads the group into a run for the Tower.

"We have to reach there before XANA's monsters emerge." When they get close to the Tower, Aelita pops out from behind a tree and points to the man in their way.

"He's been there since I felt XANA's pulsations. I've never seen him before." Aelita says.

"No, I think we have." Ulrich looks closely at the man's face when he turns in his pacing. "He looks like Jim's new assistant."

"Uhh, Ulrich." Odd taps his friend's shoulder. "He's gone!" he points to where the man had been just moments before. The three escort Aelita over to the tower without any incident.

"Return to the past now." Jeremy's voice is heard through the air.

Aurora rolls off her bed, slightly confused as to where she was. After rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she remembers the bright light. "We must've gone back." She says and Odd opens the door.

"Heya, you're not still mad at me, are you?" Odd asks softly. In response, Aurora pulls him in, shuts the door, and pushes him onto the bed. She climbs into his arms.

"Just sleep." are her last words and she falls back into a deep sleep, resting her head on Odd's shoulder and leaving him awake confused.

Treg's eyes move slightly, but just enough for Tamiya to notice. She grabs his right hand, and begins talking softly. "Come on Treg, snap out of it." With her words, his head turns to her and he smiles.

"What'd I miss?" he asks. Milly comes over and gives him a big hug.

"You've been out since early this morning." she explains.

"No, I mean about Aurora. She was here earlier." Milly and Tamiya look at eachother.

"Noone else was here. Just us and the nurse." Tamiya says.

"But, I could've sworn I saw Aurora for just a second and also Jim. And Spire." Treg sits up, a small red jewel falls out of his pocket. Milly picks it up and hands it to Treg. "What's this?" he closely examines the jewel and recognizes it. He does not know how he recognizes it, but he does. "Hey, Tamiya?"

"Yea Treg?" the black girl asks.

"Can you find Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Aurora? I think they'll want to see this." Tamiya nods and goes off to Ulrich & Odd's room.

After explaining to Ulrich what happened to Treg, Tamiya leaves him to find Jeremy. Ulrich calls Yumi as he knocks on Aurora's door. "It's open. Just don't make too much noise." Ulrich hears Odd's muffled voice. Ulrich opens the door to Odd shaking Aurora's shoulder in an effort to wake her. "Don't look at me. She wanted me to sleep in here with her." Finally he gets Aurora awake. "Hey girl. Have a nice nap?" Odd asks jokingly.

"Yes." Aurora nods, not noticing the joke-tone.

"Sorry to bother you two lovebirds, but Treg wants to talk with us. Yumi? You need to get up here and to the infermary ASAP." Ulrich closes the door as he leaves Odd and Aurora alone. Aurora crawls out of her bed and pulls on her clothes from last night. Taking Odd's hand, the two of them and Ulrich head towards the infermary, meeting Jeremy on the way and finding Yumi already there.

"Heya, Milly, Tamiya? Can I talk with them alone for a while?" the two young girls nod and leave Treg alone with the older kids. "I know that you five dissapear all the time. And, for some reason, I think THIS has something to do with it." Treg holds out the red jewel that had fallen out of his pocket. "This was in my pocket earlier. And the shape of the thing looks familiar." Aurora takes the jewel and closely examines it.

"HIM." is all she says and passes the thing around.

"Something this small, caused the two comas?" Jeremy asks.

"Two?" Treg looks puzzled, then he remembers. "Oh!"

"Spire!" Aurora gasps and runs from the infermary to her brother's room.

"Wait! Aurora!" Odd runs after her.

"So, Treg. What makes you think that you've seen this thing before?" Ulrich asks, sitting on the end of the younger boy's bed.

"I saw it when Tamiya woke me. As if I had been seeing it for several months." Treg answers.

"Sorry to say, but you used to work for the thing that this stands for." Yumi says.

"Huh?" Jeremy's voice drops low, so that Milly and Tamiya wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Before you came here, you worked for a Super-Computer named XANA. He had you construct this shadow-world within Lyoko. Do you remember anything about Lyoko?" Treg nods.

"A little. It's a virtual world with four natural regions. It's housed in the nearby Factory."

"Ok, so there's not much you remember. XANA had you working for him for a while, and he created these things called Omega Scanners, which YOU left in our possession after you destroyed XANA's Shadow Region, which I have not been able to get working at full probability. And, you activated something you called the 'Treg Protocol' when you destroyed the Shadow Region."

"That's what I call all my programs. I'll need to see the effect it's created to know which one it was." Treg says. Jeremy looks to the others, and they each nod.

Aurora kicks in her brother's door in, finding him in the exact same spot as last time. "No! Spire!" she falls to his side. Odd lays his hand on Aurora's shoulder in an effort to comfort her. "What happened?" she asks. Odd says nothing and rummages through Spire's pockets. He pulls out a small jewel. An exact copy as the one in Treg's posession.

"Empty your pockets." Aurora does, and in doing so reveals a third jewel. "XANA's targeted all of us. First Treg, then Spire, and you." Odd calls Jeremy. "Hey, you, Ulrich, and Yumi need to search your pockets from last night. Have Ulrich search mine while he's at it." he tells Jeremy and hangs up. "C'mon." Odd takes one of Spire's arms and Aurora takes the other. Between the two they managed to drag Spire to the infermary. Once there, Treg looks over at the three.

"This XANA thing?" he asks and Odd nods. "We need to get to the Factory. We'll bring him with us..." Treg stands from the bed and walks to take Spire from Aurora. Just then, Odd's cell rings.

"All of them? That makes seven." Odd thinks for a moment. "You don't think XANA might've put those things in Milly or Tamiya's, do you?" he asks Treg, whose eyes grow wide.

The six meet in the Factory, laying Spire on the floor in the super-calculator room. "Does this thing record?" Treg asks, and Jeremy shakes his head. "Maybe this one doesn't, but I wonder..." Treg lets the sentance trail off and beckons for Odd and Aurora to follow him. They enter the elevator and Treg hits a few buttons. "Bingo." the doors open and the trio look upon the dust covered Private Computer of Astra Xion. "This thing should record." Treg punches a few buttons, kicking up dust from the keyboard. He watches the screen as a replay occurs from when the older Treg destroyes the Shadow Region. "I think I know now. Let's go back to the others." Treg leads the way back up to the Super-computer room. He paces around, gathering his thoughts. Aurora sits at Spire's side, Odd standing next to her. "Alright, here's what happened. When I activated this last 'Treg Protocol', here's what it did: Removed the Omega Scanners from the Private Computer to the normal Scanner room, shattered the Shadow Region & put markings from that Region in the other four, clouded my memory of the events involvnig XANA & the memories of me from the teachers at Cadic from when I graduated, and finally it created a new character for me."

"Very interesting, so. Do you know how to use the Omega Scanners to cure Aelita?" Jeremy asks, his voice filled with hope.

"Yes. But it requires a sacrifice of one person's greatest secret." Treg nods.

"Ok, so we'll tell everyone about XANA and Lyoko, right?" Treg blocks the frantic Jeremy from running to the elevator.

"You misunderstand. How I made thr program was that a secret kept by ONE PERSON, and ONE PERSON ONLY must give it up."

"Armoru." Aurora says.

"What?" Everyone turns to look at her.

"My Guardian. Armoru. He is my greatest secret." Aurora says.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?" a voice roars from the corners of the room.

"Armoru..." Aurora starts.

"You stupid human CHILD!" a black-winged man rushes from the darkest corner, charging straight at Aurora. Odd pulls her back and the man slams into the far wall.

"Is that...?" Odd asks Aurora, who nods.

"Armoru!" Treg throws a pipe at him. Armoru growls and lunges for Treg, putting both in the elevator. Treg hits the button and the door closes, taking them down to the Scanners. "Jeremy! Send us to Lyoko!" Treg pushes Armrou into one of the Omega Scanners and slams it shut.

"Why?" Jeremy's voice comes over the speakers.

"Do it! I can handle him there!" Treg jumps into the other Omega Scanner and they are both taken to Lyoko's Polar Region.

Armoru speeds toward Treg, bent on destroying the one that forced Aurora to give up his secret. "You damnable human!" Armoru spits. Treg calmly dodges Armoru's charge, his black cape flapping in Armoru's wake.

"What is your problem? Few imaginary friends take it this hard when others find out about them." Treg says.

"I am Aurora's guardian. She chose to create me, but I cannot let her destroy me." Armoru turns around, sliding somewhat on the ice, and tripping over an arc of black rocks.

"You must give up and go on, like all the others do."

"I am NOT like the others! I was more than a friend! I was her protector, her guardian, her first love!" Armoru throws a knife at Treg, who catches it.

"You have one more chance, Armoru." in his rage, Armoru charges at Treg in full speed, and flies out over the cold ocean waters of the Polar Region. His wings flapping frantically, Armoru tries to stay above the water. a hand on his shoulder draws Treg's attention away from Armoru and to the pink haired resident of Lyoko. "Aelita, I presume?" Treg asks.

"Yes. Jeremy told me you might need help." Aelita says with a smile.

"The best help would be something dropping on that guy's head." Treg turns around and gets Armoru's fist in his face, sending him flying to the edge of the floating glacier.

"Do you think I will be bested that easy?" Armoru grabs Aelita's arm. "Such a pretty thing you are." Armoru licks his lips. "Too bad you have to die with the human."

"Leave Aelita alone Armoru!" Aurora orders, drawing her sword. Armoru turns to face his former protected.

"Why should I listen to you? You betrayed me." he asks.

"What do I need a Guardian for, if he was powerless to stop XANA from invading my mind?" she replies. Armoru just laughs.

"Pitiful human. You do not realize where my power stems from." Aurora lunges at Armoru with her sword, who deflects it with his hand. "Your own emotions give me power." Treg pulls a bow and white arrow from under his cape.

"Armoru, by the Gods that command the Dreams, return to the darkness from whence you came!" he lets the arrow fly and it strikes, embedding itself deep in the Guardian's back. "Your power removed, your soul destroyed. Let the barring of the Omegas be lifted." Treg says loudly, wanting to make sure that Jeremy heard him. Armoru drops Aelita and lets out a horrible death-roar of rage.

"Aelita, you need to get to the nearest Tower. Treg says that we can remove XANA's virus from there." Jeremy's voice is overheard. Treg, Aurora, and Aelita head to the closest tower, unaware that they were being watched from their objective.

When the trio reached the Tower, they were greeted by Axel Blade, XANA's newest hitch in the real world. "You think that removing Aelita will be so easy? I think you overestimate your chances." Axel throws back his silver cape to reveal an arsonal of weapons. "This war you conduct against my Master will fall into his favor at the end of this fight." drawing two swords, Axel goes into a defensive stance, as if waiting for something. Minutes pass, neither side wanting to make a move, when four Crabs, two Mega Tanks, and three Hornets roll up behind Axel. "Ahh. My reinforcements. But, where's your's?" Axel grins evilly.

"Right here." Ulrich drops down from the virtualization process, his sword leading down toward Axel. He blocks with one and brings the other into a slash across Ulrich's stomach, draining one quarter of his life.

"Aurora, I need you and the others to distract them so I can complete a spell." Aurora nods and rushes over to the three Crabs. Yumi had started attacking the Hornets, and Odd was trying to get in close to the Mega Tanks. "Aelita, can you give me some cover?" she moves in closer to his side and calls an ice dome to cover them. "By the encoded from the past, let the Shadow Rise." the ground starts to rumble lightly. Aurora destroyes one of the Crabs and Yumi gets one of the Hornets. "Ressurection by my voice a Dragon Guardian of Shadow for my aid." Odd manages to destroy the first Mega Tank, but the second lets loose it's blast and devirtualizes him. "The Harpies of the Shadow regain your bones, and imprint across the Realm the power of Shadow." black stones appear around the fighting groups, floating slightly above the ground and higher off the water. One of the Hornets lets an acid blast that hits Yumi and one of the Crabs, effectively destroying the Crab and devirtualizing Yumi. "Ultamite power from the stars, let the Shadow be reborn." Aurora double slashes through the last two Crabs and turns her attention towards the Hornets, flying after them. Ulrich had Triplicated and one of the clones had destroyed the second Mega Tank. "Let Shadow reign where it has not, let the darkness retreat and the light with it. Shadows rule in the mix." White stones connect five points within the circle of black stones into a pentagram. "Destruction to my enemies, darkness or light. Reveal unto me the truth of this fight." Grey light shoots from the lines, the Hornets and Aurora running into them and shattering the three, Aurora devirtualized back home and the destruction of the Hornets. Ulrich and Axel are separated by the grey lights, both hesitant to go through the things.

"You!" Axel turns his attention to Treg and Aelita's ice dome. He begins hacking at it.

"Ice Burst!" Treg places his hands on the inside of the dome and it shatters outward, streaking straight into Axel, causing him to devirtualize and also Treg because of the exhertion. Ulrich touches the falling grey wall, unintentionally devirtualizing himself and leaving Aelita alone.

"Jeremy? What's happened?" Aelita asks.

"They are safe with me. It seems Treg had more tricks up his sleeve than he had let us believe." Jeremy's voice is heard.

"Aelita, when you get to the Tower, you need to get into the center of the platform." Treg's voice is heard, for he'd leaned close to Jeremy's mic and spoken.

"I understand." Aelita runs for the Tower, ready to leave Lyoko behind forever.

Aelita enters the Polar Tower and proceeds to the center of the platform. "Ok, I'm ready." she says.

"It would be best to let me take over for a while." Treg tells Jeremy, who nods and gets out of his chair. "Alright, redirecting devirtualization to the Omega Scanners. Activating the Anti-Virus program." Treg lets Aelita know his progress. "Code:Earth redirection. Activate Code: Freedom." the super calculator begins to do it's work as Treg, Aurora, Odd, Jeremy, Ulrich, and Yumi make their way to the Scanner room. Within moments after their arrival, one of the Omega Scanners opens and Aelita stands before the group, wearing the same clothes from the prom. "Well, Jeremy. You've done it." Treg tells the older boy.

"No, WE did it. The six of us did it." Jeremy confesses. "If it weren't for you all, then Aelita wouldn't have survived so many times against XANA." Aelita places her hand on Jeremy's shoulder, and a group hug commences. Spire awakens in the middle of everything.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Aurora breaks from the group and falls to her knees beside the boy.

"I'll explain on the way back to school." she tells him, crying with joy into his shoulder.

There's a knock at Mrs Hertz's door near the end of the day's lesson. Jim's assistant, Axel leans in and whispers something to the teacher. "Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Treg, and Aurora. It seems that you are needed in the principal's office." Mrs Hertz announces. The five leave the room solemnly, as if off to a funeral.

"You've caused us alot of trouble, children." Axel says.

"What do you mean?" Treg asks sarcastically.

"You know full well. Destroying my Master's jewels, freeing the girl from Lyoko. But now, I can restore his secrecy." Axel pulls a gun from his jeans and levels it at Aurora's forehead. "Die, XANA's Bane! Die!" Axel fires, but the bullet never hits its mark. In fact, it seems that somehow the bullet went THROUGH Aurora and the wall and out of the building, not leaving a mark on anything. "But, how?" Axel whines.

"We are XANA's Bane. Astra's blood has set things right. Now YOU will be gone." Treg pushes Axel over, causing him to shatter against the ground into small computer parts. Odd picks up the red-gold necklace left behind.

"What just happened?" he asks.

The end of High School. They'd never thought it would happen, all of them together. Treg was there with them, even though he, Milly, and Tamiya had two more years to go. As the end approaches, Treg, Aurora, Spire, and the original Lyoko Team make a promise. "If we are able to, we will return to Cadic in ten years, and every ten after that." Jeremy says.

"To make sure XANA stays dead?" Aurora asks, and the others nod.

"Dead, and locked beneath the Factory forever." Odd agrees.

"The Scanners have been disconected, all five. Same with Astra's Personal Computer." Treg speaks his share, noting that Aurora and Spire gave no outward response to their great-grandfather's name.

"Guardians of a Grave." Spire nods.

"Hopefully this has been for the best." Aelita tells her friends.

"Hey Spire! Are we leaving or what?" Sissy calls from up the way, impatient to go. Spire shrugs and says goodbye to his friends, stopping in front of his sister.

"You know how to reach me." she nods and he leaves, possibly for the last time any of them will see of him.

For their Senior Pictures, Aurora and Odd had dressed in their tribal Cadic prom clothes, which barely fit either of them still. Aelita and Jeremy were just as casual as they could be, taking theirs in the same photo booth from Aelita's first night on Earth. Yumi and Ulrich had cutted out of the lines, either for the 'professional' photos or the booths, instead preffering the cameras of their parents for their last year. Spire talked Sissy into completely skipping the photos, dragging her along with him on a tour of Europe.

Original Ending: Good Die Young

(Insert professional Narrator voice here)It had been years since graduation, since XANA had been destroyed. Aurora and Odd have gotten married and their child is three. Jeremy and Aelita married, along with Yumi and Ulrich. Treg hasn't moved from the city, managing to get a degree on-line to be a principal, and being hired by Cadic Junior High. Milly and Tamiya have become reporters for the city news, and Treg proposed to Milly just a week before the return of Lyoko's Defenders. Spire, on the other hand, has been unreachable for the past four months, and Sissy seemed to have dissappeared too. Late on the night ten years exactly from the graduation of Aurora, Jeremy, and the others, everyone arrives in town to complete the promise they had made so long ago.

Odd helps Aurora off of their bus, and she their three-year-old daughter. The happy family turns to look upon the Junior High building. "Looks differant. Looks smaller." Aurora says.

"Everything looks big when you are small." Odd picks up their daughter and takes his wife's hand, leading them into the building, knowing that Treg would be there and ready with their room.

Treg greets the three, a sad look on his face. "Treg? What's happened?" Aurora asks, very concerned. Treg says nothing, but leads them inside his office. He motions for them to sit, Yumi, Jeremy, Ulrich, and Aelita were already there and seated.

"I have bad news, my friends. As you all should know, Spire and Sissy have dissappeared about four months ago. I just recently discovered why." He takes a deep breath, and continues. "Spire Xion ran off a cliff and into the English Channel. I was there myself three days ago when they pulled his car from the water." Treg stops, wanting the reality of his words sink in. They say the good Die Young. Aurora's eyes widen and after a moment she bursts into tears. Odd pulls her close and she buries her face into her husband's shoulder.
"Do they know details?" Odd asks slowly. It was like a knife piercing my chest and I couldn't breath I didn't wanna accept it, didn't wanna believe it I swear with this weight dawg, I cried so hard. Treg shakes his head.
"All they found was a cassette, but I haven't been able to make out the message." Treg holds it up. Thats why I think that you should have fun (when your young). He puts it into a player resting on top of his desk.
"They say the good die young, die young. Thats why I know that we go' have fun, In this life cos you only get one. When God calls for me, don't cry till I just went home. She has rejected it. Nothing left to live for. My heart aches with the pain, the life in his breath. We gotta have fun now, theres only minutes left. Evermore, nevermore. Life to live, nothing left. Ouy evol I Yssis." the tape says. Ulrich thinks a moment.
"Wait a second. That sounds sort of familiar." Yumi says before Ulrich can speak.
"It's, it's from an American CD." Aelita reveals. Ulrich shakes his head.
"I don't think that's what she meant. That end part. 'Ouy evol I Yssis'. It doesn't make sense." Ulrich disagrees.
"If only we could rewind to when he made this." Treg begins, but he is cut short when Aurora and Odd's daughter walks up to him with a piece of paper. "Not now." she begins tugging his shirt and waving a piece of paper in her hand. "What is it?" Treg grabs the paper and reads it silently. "Oh no." he lays it facedown on the desk, one hand covering it and the other over his eyes.
"What is it Treg?" Jeremy asks and moves to take the paper. Treg looks up and it stops Jeremy dead in his tracks.
" 'My life is over. She has rejected me. I know not what is left. Evermore my love was with her, nevermore shall it be seen. Ouy evol I Yssis.' Seeing it written makes sense of it. 'Ouy evol I Yssis.' It reverses to 'Sissy I love you'. This is a suicide note." That crash and the driver died, Treg sits in his chair and closes his ears, for Aurora had started sobbing louder when he finished.
"Odd, did Spire visit anytime recently?" Jeremy turns to his friend, who nods.
"Yes, just over four months... ago." Yumi gasps as Odd's words slow. When God calls for me, don't cry till I just went home.
"He'd had it planned for that long. He knew it would take them a long time to find his car, but he wanted us to know the truth of what happened to him." Jeremy says.
"When we were kids, before we transferred over here." Aurora says between sobs. "He said he would have 'Good Die Young' played as his farewell. It was always his favorite song." she pulls her daughter upon her lap and hugs her close. "Nothing in the world ment as much to me as him, until I met Odd. My brother was my only family left when we graduated." Odd lays his arm over Aurora's shoulder again and kisses her forehead.

Alternate Ending: How Come
(Insert professional Narrator voice here)Ten years since XANA has been destroyed, but the promise has been forgotten. Only one remembers, the one that remained behind, and he has been too busy to force the others to come, until one day during the summer, the eleventh year after their graduation.

Treg sits at his desk, waiting for an idea to come to him, not wanting to have his email sent out unplanned. "What happened? We don't talk anymore. They never called or anything... Ahh, good old Em." Treg nods, the basis for his email found. He could almost hear the song he'd remembered playing in his head. How come we dont even talk no more...We dont barely keep in touch at all...Aint no way no how, this bullshit can't be true
We family and aint a damn thing changed... "How long has it been? Have you forgotten? You all promised, swore. Why break your oaths. What if he came back? You would all know it, yes, but you all promised on that day, eleven years ago. One year has passed since we swore to meet, and none of you have shown. Where are you all?" Treg reads aloud as he types. He sends it off, and waits there, all night. The replies he'd been exspecting would have been welcome, but what was sent was completely surprising.
" 'You never ment anything. You did nothing to aid us. Why should we return, when you helped cause some of the trouble we had to fix?' " was Aurora and Odd's reply. The one from Yumi and Ulrich was even worse.
" 'What's the big deal? XANA is gone, can you accept that? You wish that he was still around, don't you? so we could have a use for you. Wastin my times with these snakes in disguise... when you talk its with bitter is fight And... it's my fault for what you did with your life.' " Treg lowers his head, fully exspecting something similar to the other two from Jeremy and Aelita, but this reply he got shocked him the most. It seemed nothing like what either would say.
" 'You think we'd really return to that dump? Why do you think we got away that same day? Nothing will make us return.' " Treg cries at the replies. He knew thay'd promised, he'd thought they believed enough in the cause they had. He was wrong.
"Treg? Are you alright in here? I thought I heard crying." Millie enters the office and sits on the corner of the desk. Treg hastily deletes the three replies.
"Crying? Me? Don't be silly. Come, let's go somewhere." Treg shuts down the computer and the couple walk from the school grounds and into the city, the rings on their left hands glittering in the sunlight. 'We haven't talked in eleven years. So be it. We will never talk again.' Treg thinks, embracing the morning sun and his wife.

End Note: It took me a while to descide on the song, was hard to choose between 'How Come' and 'Good Die Young'. 'Good Die Young' is the original ending, and 'How Come' is the alternate. I hope many of you enjoyed reading the mini-series & this little "Director's Cut".