Disclaimer: I still don't own Code Lyoko.

Chapter Six: Back to Lyoko

The four children walked through one of the unfamiliar, lower floors of the factory. They had never been around this area of the building before, except for this world's Odd, who was the only one there that had been on this mission before. They could hear distant clattering coming from floors above.

"I was wondering," Jeremie whispered to their Odd. "Don't you think they'd be guarding the computer room?"

"No, not the room itself," he replied, shaking his head. "Ulrich and Yumi told me this, though, them being the only ones who got that far. I think XANA will be guarding the entranceways, but none of his monsters will be in the rooms themselves."

The boy nodded, though he didn't feel too reassured.

Eventually, they made it to a place where they had to start crawling again. This time, though, it was solid ground and not bars they had to crawl on. It wasn't as grueling and not even close to as long. They had to go single file, though, since it was so narrow.

"I didn't know there were so many secret ways around here," our Odd commented quietly.

Eventually, their Odd, who was first, stopped and whispered to the others to do so also.

"This is near the corridor, but we need to move quickly so XANA doesn't see us. We'll end up out in the open, so try to be quick and quiet," he whispered to Jeremie, who was right behind him.

He turned back and started crawling again as the fair-haired boy passed the message behind him. Soon, they reached the end. Odd glanced around, barely sticking his head out the hole as he made sure none of XANA's minions would see him. Swiftly, he got up and took quick strides over to the corridor's entrance, the door slightly ajar and full of dust. When he made it, he listened for any change in the monster's behavior, but there was none. He glanced around the door and gestured for Jeremie to follow suit.

The boy nodded nervously and crawled forward, glancing around like he did. His eyes widened when he realized how close the mechanical beasts were. These were ones he was familiar with, Krabes, but it still didn't matter much. They had lasers that had killed, and will do so again if given the chance. He took a deep breath and quickly crawled out, praying that they wouldn't see him. He felt panic run though himself as he approached the door as quickly as he could.

Aelita watched from just behind him with baited breath as he hurried away. She kept glancing over at the monsters and back at him. She sighed in relief when he made it to the door, slipping quietly behind it without incident. Now it was her turn. She crawled out, making sure to check the monsters, and started over to the door. Just as she reached it, ready to practically collapse in relief, her foot kicked a piece of junk, causing a loud clanging to resound throughout the room just as she slipped past the door.

There was a noise from the Krabes that, with a little imagination, sounded like a sort of mechanical gasp as they all turned to where they heard the noise. One of the Krabes stepped forward, it's red eye searching every aspect of the room. Finally, the red glow stopped at the door. It's sharp feet made clack sounds on the floor as it approached it.

It stopped in front of the door and bent down a little, leaning forward. The door pushed open a bit more, making a loud whining sound as its rusty hinges moved, and it looked down the stairs. It stepped forward and looked down the side of the stairway, but there was nothing it could see. It took one last quick look around the rest of the room, before backing out the door again, it whining again as it moved back to its previous position. It turned away and walked back near its comrades.

Hidden behind the door, the three children that had been cramped together breathed a sigh of relief as the door moved away from them again.

It was a few more minutes before Yumi entered the room.

OoOoO

Sissi nodded at them as she, being the last one this time, stepped into the room. With that, they all finally left the room, heading for the computer room.

They found the opening on the floor with rungs running down the side, forming a ladder. Our Odd, whispering very quietly, decided to make a comment at this moment.

"This seems a bit too easy, doesn't it?"

His alternate nodded grimly, finding it a whole lot easier than the first time he did this. The first time, he didn't even make it quite this far. Of course, they didn't take the same path as the first mission, but still.

As he climbed down the stairs, their Odd felt a wave of nostalgia at seeing the room once more. It had only been about a month since he'd last been there, but it felt like years. Even after all this time, the computer had remained on, the hologram of the four sectors still spinning in the center of the room.

He reached the floor and immediately walked over to another part of the room where another set of rungs led down to the scanner room. He glanced over to where the computer monitors were and grinned inwardly as he saw Jeremie take his seat. He began to climb down, his alternate, Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich following him. Sissi and Kiwi stayed up with Jeremie. Sissi remained not only because she hadn't been entered into the supercomputer, but because they didn't want to leave Jeremie alone, just in case. Kiwi was just there because he wasn't in the supercomputer either.

As they reached the bottom, they saw the scanner doors opening as Jeremie activated them. First, he, Yumi, and Ulrich stepped in. They didn't want to risk scanning two Odds at once. The computer genius stayed silent as they went through the virtualization process. Their Odd let out a mental sigh as he felt his body being stolen away from him and settling into his virtual body. It had been too long.

OoOoO

Jeremie watched as Aelita and Odd were virtualized. He had to make a copy of Odd's file and change it a little, since the computer refused to activate two of the exact same files at the same time. All he really did was change Odd's costume to blue rather than purple, but that small change allowed the computer to run both programs. At least they'd be able to tell each other apart on Lyoko.

"Hey- what the-?" he heard the voice of one of the Odds. It was most likely the blue one. "Jeremie, what did you do?"

The boy explained to him why he did it, though the Lyoko warrior still found it irritating. After this small, useless conversation, he heard Ulrich's voice asking him the question that would get them straight to the point.

"Where to the tower, Einstien?"

"It's actually in the fifth sector. I'll send you vehicles, but you'll have to share."

He typed a few commands, seeing the familiar screen with the vehicles as they were virtualized onto Lyoko. There was a shortly-lived argument about which of the two Odds would get to control the Overboard, but the current dimension's one won the fight due to the fact that it was truly his vehicle. Grumbling to himself, our Odd decided to ride with Ulrich, not wanting to have to ride his own vehicle if he wasn't the one who got to control it.

Yumi and Aelita, without any fuss, hopped aboard the Overwing.

With that, they headed for the edge of the forest where they would be transported to Carthage.

OoOoO

Author's Note

Oh, wow, this is turning out very different than what I was originally planning. Of course, the ending that I have planned will still fit in, but it'll take so much longer than I originally thought just to get there. I guess I'm not that great at knowing what's going to happen in my own story. It's as if I'm reading it, rather than writing it.

By the way, the next chapter is called Betrayal. OOooOOooOOOooOOh! Who shall betray? I'd love to see what your guesses are!

By the way, I have a question for DanMat6288... Funny Bunny? What?