Hey, here's another chapter. It didn't take me long to write this. I really wanted to get to this chapter...really. I'm just ecstatic. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Chapter Nine

"There's the tower!" cried Aelita, picking up speed.

"Yumi! Behind you!" cried Jeremy, sweat poring down his forehead. Yumi immediately turned around and threw her fan, whipping out two of them. She caught her fan as it flew back towards her. The other two blasted her with fiery balls. "You just lost twenty points, Yumi. You've only got twenty left."

"I know," said the Chinese girl, getting her fan ready again. "Go ahead, Aelita." The redhead nodded, and swam faster towards her target. She threw her fan at them just as they blasted their fire balls.

"Yumi! Oh great," said Jeremy, running a hand through his hair. He sighed. "Well, at least Aelita's almost there." Aelita swam right into the tower's base, and proceeded towards the middle of Xana's symbol. She floated upwards, towards the second platform. She landed timidly on it, and walked towards the middle once again. A screen appeared in front of her, and she laid her palm upon it. Her hand's imprint stayed for a moment, before disappearing, to be replaced by her name, only to be replaced once again by 'CODE:' She typed in 'LYOKO', and closed her eyes, as everything around her started to slow down. "Return to the past, now," said Jeremy, pressing the 'enter' button. A bright bulb engulfed everything, before disappearing completely.

"That was one heck of a mission this time," commented Yumi. "Now I'm going to have to redo the dance again tonight. How tiring..." Jeremy agreed, and smiled.

"Hey, let's go find Orrick and Od," he said. Yumi smiled at him.

"I bet they're in the cafeteria," she said. They started walking down the hall towards the cafeteria for breakfast. After they got their trays, they headed towards their usual table. They noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Od?" asked Jeremy, sitting down. Yumi did also. They looked at each other as they noticed the dark glare on Orrick's face as he jabbed his food. Jeremy placed a hand on the other boy's to stop him. "Dude, it's already dead," he said. Orrick dropped his fork forcefully, before finally looked up at them. They saw red around his eyes.

"What's wrong, Orrick?" asked Yumi, concerned for her friend. "Why've you be crying? Did something happen?"

"It's...Od," Orrick answered, glaring down at the table to hide his sadness.

"What happened to him?" asked Jeremy, completely confused.

"He didn't wake up this morning," Orrick said, as the memory of what Vanessa said rang through his mind. ...It needs time to affect the heart and mind, which is why Od is unconscious...

"Well, that's not unusual for him," said Yumi. "He's always sleeping in." Orrick turned his glare on her, scaring her out of her wits.

"You don't understand," he said. He gripped his knees so hard that his fingertips were turning white. "This is Xana's doing."

"'Xana'?" repeated the blonde, looking at Yumi in confusion. "But we already deactivated the tower."

"Like I said, you guys don't understand what's wrong!" Orrick cried, standing up in a rage. All eyes in the cafeteria were on him, but he didn't seem to notice. "Od is being attacked by a virus!"

"Do you mean he's sick?" asked Yumi quietly, trying to calm him down.

"NO!" Orrick said in frustration.

"Then what do you mean?" asked Jeremy, standing up also. "We won't be able to help if you don't explain it to us!"

"Just...follow me," Orrick said, before walking out of the door. Jeremy and Yumi looked at each other, before following as well, leaving their uneaten food behind. After they left, the usual bustle and talk of the kids in the cafeteria was multiplied by two at the abrupt departure of the three. Sissy's eyes suspiciously moved towards the door from which they left, before turning back to Herb.

Out in the hall, Yumi and Jeremy tried desperately to keep up with Orrick. "Where are we going, Orrick?" inquired Yumi, trying to keep her breathing steady. She glanced nervously at Jeremy. It wasn't that the blonde was unfit; it was just that he had trouble with physical exercise when he was at it for too long. Orrick didn't answer. He just kept walking. This continued until they reached his bedroom. He unlocked the door, and stepped in, followed by his two friends. They looked to their right to see Od sleeping in the bed. His skin was paler, and sweat was poring from his forehead, but other than that, he looked to be fine.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Jeremy, looking at Orrick curiously. Yumi kneeled down next to him, and felt his forehead. She withdrew her hand with a flabbergasted expression on her face.

"I don't know what's wrong," she said. "But his temperature keeps changing. First, it was colder than ice, and then it turned into searing hot!" Orrick sat down on his bed wearily, and leaned back against the wall. He took a deep breath, and exhaled it, before beginning to explain.

"While we were locked up in the gym at the dance while you guys were at the factory," he started, closing his eyes to rest them, "Od lost consciousness, and I met a girl named Vanessa. Somehow, she knows about Xana, and is somehow related to him one way or another. He started to delete her before she could tell me what he was to her, so she explained his plan instead. He placed a virus in the punch. It only affects those who can enter Lyoko, so no one else was affected. I didn't drink it, but Od did." Jeremy looked at Yumi, before looking back at the tired brunette.

"What does it do?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer. Orrick paused, before explaining.

"...It locks away the heart, and rids the mind of everything it knew about love. It allows the victim to remember those it loved, but not the love the victim felt for them."

"But this still doesn't explain why he's unconscious, and why he's still sleeping after we went back in time," Yumi insisted. Orrick opened his eyes, and stared at them.

"It takes time for it to affect both the mind and the heart, so it puts the victim in a dormant state to make it easier for it to maneuver. Also, Vanessa said that Xana designed it so that even if we deactivate the tower and returned to the past, it will still be there." Yumi fell to the ground in shock, and she stared wide-eyed at her friend.

"Is there an antivirus?" asked Jeremy. Orrick shifted his eyes towards the dormant blonde, before looking at Jeremy, his eyes so filled with hurt and hatred that Jeremy felt guilty for nothing.

"...No..."

Well, hope you enjoyed this one too. Later. Got a lot more to write.