Chapter 6: Theory

I ran to the park has fast as I could and almost jumped down the sewer ladder with excitement and apprehension.

Once I got to the factory I pressed the button to go down through the elevator to the control room. I keyed in the pass code and ran through the mechanical opening doors to the computer seat as fast I could sprint. Then I tested my crazy theory.

I searched through Lyoko for the "fake" bodies my friends had scanned in. I finally found them. But something was wrong. Very wrong.

The bodies were moving.

They weren't just moving. They were running, even Jeremy I could see, but to where they were running I couldn't tell.

I didn't know what to think. So I decided to try to contact them. I pressed the few keys I needed to turn the microphone on.

At that moment I didn't know what to say. So I just timidly, tripping over myself said…

"Is anybody… out there?"

What I got back was definitely Odd's voice.

"Aelita!" he said with short breath as he was running, "Where are we? What happened?"

I still wasn't sure that this wasn't XANA speaking. He has been pretty good at imitating before.

"I…" I stammered and trailed off.

This was just too hard; I couldn't tell who was who. So I just had to leave.

"I can't talk right now," was all I could think of to say.

"But," I heard Jeremy answer back, "Aelita!-"

I took off the headphones and left with my eyes half closed and my head hanging back to Kadic.

I was suddenly hit with the fact that I had missed at least one class while I was gone.

I rushed to my room and looked at the calendar accidentally and noticed that it was Saturday. The 2:00 class was the last course I had for the rest of the day.

I didn't want to go see Jeremy or any of my friends then. I just needing to sit down and chew over everything.

After a while I decided to go talk to Jeremy.

He was still acting strangely. But I just had to talk to him.

After I told him about the "fake" group on Lyoko moving around, he stood up, almost mechanically.

"Jeremy…" I trailed off as he left the room without so much as a comment.

I walked slowly out of his room and looked around the corner to see odd, Ulrich, Jeremy and Yumi coming in my direction.

"Come on," He instructed me.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Odd looked at me directly in the eyes. "The factory." He stated.

I followed them all the way to the factory, wondering what they were going to do next.

Jeremy instructed the others to go to the scanner room.

Yumi pressed the button to go down to the scanner room. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd got out and stepped into the scanners.

"Let us go Aelita." Jeremy looked at me and smiled.

For one brief moment I saw the eye of XANA in his pupil. I opened my mouth in surprise but turned quickly so he couldn't see.

Following traveling up the shaft to the control room, Jeremy sat in the computer seat and got the scanners ready. He virtualized the gang, with the usual "Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization."

After they were in, he set a timer for virtualization again.

"Jeremy," I asked, "Why are Yumi, Ulrich and Odd going to Lyoko?"

He didn't answer. Instead he grabbed my hand with unnatural force. I cried out in pain as he dragged me to the elevator. He banged the button to go down to the scanner room and left a huge dent in the controller.

"Jeremy, "I begged, "Please! Your not acting right, something's wrong, I'm scared Jeremy! Please – Ahh!" He tightened his grip around my wrist to a point where I heard cracking.

As the door opened I saw the scanners. Two scanners were open, waiting for us.

"No!" I pleaded, "Jeremy stop!"

As if his strength was infinite, he dragged and tightened even harder. I shrieked out in anguish as my wrist bone broke all together. He threw me into the scanner and I banged against the back wall sobbing uncontrollably. I saw Jeremy step into the scanner beside me right before I blacked out.