Author's note: This chapter is going to be all in one POV, Elazul's, and is set in the past.

Side Chapter 1: The Wayward Defender

:Elazul, reflective:

I was sitting at home, beside my computer. I think I was playing Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. I heard a message alert come from my computer. I turned rather quickly to see a message I thought would never come, I figured he'd died or something fighting XANA, especially since Maggie could easily take care of herself. I had been taking excellent care of my core, just a relic of the four times I visited the Smith Center Lyoko System...but of course I didn't have much of a choice, you see, this core, a Lapis Lazuli that's imbedded into my body just below my throat contains all of my life force, if it gets damaged I get really sick.

I never knew basing myself off a character from a game that Otritzi and I had played as teens would prove to be such a bad idea. It was cool at first, I could take shots everywhere else on my body and not get actual damage unless they hit one specific spot on my body, I became their shield...I always wondered how Otritzi came up with his persona...I never would have thought he'd have a thing for the pyrotechnics...but I'm rambling again, I'll get back to the story.

The message read something along the lines of needing me to come back and help him protect Lyoko...he had found a seriously amazing program that allowed him to go to other Lyoko Systems. I was skeptical at first, but I decided to visit the old haunt anyway, just for nostalgia's sake. I'd been having to relive days more frequently anyway and I was wondering why. I arrived at the old lake railroad bridge and found the door open and Maggie's ACA standing in the elevator, still as beautiful as the day I met her two years ago.

She looked like she'd had a few upgrades though. I could tell she was more combat ready, she not only had a sword strapped to her waist but also an energy cannon hanging on her back that I can only guess Otritzi made in Lyoko and materialized for her. Otritzi and Maggie had been searching for a way for Otritzi to be able to use the Lyoko Systems to travel between Lyoko Complexes...I guess I should have seen what was coming a mile away.

As I rode down the elevator with Maggie she told me of some of the stuff that Otritzi and Maggie had prevented and seen. Including two instances where Otritzi was unable to be devirtualized but had survived in Lyoko until the situation was remedied, that little bit of news surprised the heck out of me...he usually got himself devirtualized so fast, I guess he'd found a way to pick up the slack while I was away, maybe he modified his character profile to include a way to create barriers or something. As the elevator came to a stop and opened up to reveal the Holo-projector room of the Smith Center Lyoko Complex I saw him for the first time in almost a year and a half. He was standing there next to the terminal with a teenage girl with red hair that had blonde streaks in it.

Otritzi looked up from his little discussion with the girl and saw that I was there. I guessed he sent me the message so he could introduce his little friend...maybe not though, cause the next thing I heard from his mouth scared me completely.

"I found a way to travel between Lyoko Systems." The moment he said that my jaw fell wide open. "I've gotten in contact with a group in France, they're working alongside THE Aelita, the one that's supposed to be capable of controlling all of Lyoko." If it was possible, my jaw dropped even farther. "Part of the reason I called you here was because I need your help now more than ever, XANA's pissed at me and has started activating multiple towers at once, most of the time on different systems...I need you to take some of them, even I can't be everywhere at once." At this I realized my mouth was open and snapped it shut. "By the way, this is Alexis, she saw me come down here last night and I was planning on having her help out in Lyoko. You're just in time to help me create her character card, Elazul."

How he can say stuff like that and not act like it's a big deal baffles me, I swear, nothing ever seems to phase this guy. I bet he's even found a way around that two hour time limit between virtualizations.

"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to get to the other Lyoko Complexes yet. The Kadic group's working on Materialization programs just in case we run into one of XANA's new monsters called a Void Crawler...It's supposed to be capable of trapping people inside of Lyoko, much like the Digital Void does."

Otritzi had never surprised me so much as he did that day, here he was, a guy who rarely asked for help on Lyoko, was accepting help from a group of complete strangers...calling me back into the fold, even after our falling out, and even inviting this teenage girl to help him with Lyoko...XANA must really have had him backed into a corner.

The three of us set up Alexis' card, and even assigned her the call sign 'Mysti', as well as recorded her cell phone number into the supercalculator's database. Her appearance in Lyoko reminded me of Sango, from the anime Inuyasha, except her hair was a bright fire red and she didn't use a Hirakotsu, instead she used giant throwing stars that acted like boomerangs and Kunai knives and had a special ability, Freeze Frame, that allowed her to move at almost the speed of light, slowing time to a crawl for her without hindering her.

After we finished creating the profile we headed down to the Scanner room to go into Lyoko, there was still a few empty scanners in our complex, four empty scanners with the inclusion of myself and Mysti to the normal team of one that had been so routine for Otritzi. We heard Maggie's voice calling out her commands.

"Profile: Mysti, Transfer: Otritzi, Transfer: Elazul...Scanner...Virtualization!"

The three of us dropped from about ten feet in the air into the Smith Center Aquas Region. I'd have to say it was one of my favorite regions, there was no void, you swam through the place and avoided the currents, the only real enemies you had were the Mantas...and they couldn't fire on you very easily, especially when the place tended to counter XANA's usual laser based weaponry, the Mantas had to launch little suicide bombers to attack us for the most part, and those weren't that hard to dodge, even if they were homing shots.

Looking at myself I remembered so much about my current form, how cool I thought he had been, how powerful he was in the game I got him from, and most importantly, I remembered his damn weakness, this little gem that sits below my throat, how I hate it...it has its bonuses...but they come at a heavy price...I can't remove it or I'll die. I'm a Jumi, it sucks ass!

Mysti floundered a bit while she realized that she didn't need to breathe to survive in Lyoko, odd...that was Otritzi and my own reaction our first time there as well. Maggie swam up to us a few seconds later, she had four Mantas tailing her, even though they weren't firing. I drew my sword from it's holster and launched myself toward Maggie's pursuers. A few seconds later I had sliced through two of them and Otritzi had boiled one of them, causing it to explode. Mysti used her power a few seconds later as she vanished and reappeared floating easily next to Maggie with a Kunai in her left hand as the last Manta thrashed in the water for a second before exploding.

"Very good, Mysti, it took Otritzi a while to figure out how to kill them when he first came here."

Mysti merely growled at that comment. She hadn't killed it in one hit she told me later, she'd hacked away at it for most of the time her power had been active. The three of us swam toward the tower floating in the distance, it took us the better part of twenty minutes to swim there. Mysti complained a bit, saying that she was tired of swimming. Maggie chuckled at Mysti's comment and swam into the tower, the three of us followed her in, watching her float up to the upper platform.

Otritzi pointed out several bits of code that floated on the walls of the tower and what they did. I didn't pay too much attention to what he said though, I was too busy examining the new girl. We watched in silence as the screens began falling to the bottom of the tower and a bright white light expanded from the bottom of the tower, engulfing us as time was rewound to the point where XANA's attack began.

End Side Chapter 1