Author's Note: This is the chapter that I'm… just… absolutely POSITIVE shall disappoint you all. The angst-ish-ness starts to go away. Yay

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko.

Chapter Nine: Return to the Past

Jeremie felt numb. He could see himself as he pointed the gun to his counterpart. He could see the temporary madness in his own eyes. Normally, he'd find it very strange that he was watching this moment from a place other than his own body, but it felt right for some reason. He couldn't hear what the cyborg's first sentence was, but he could hear his second one, because it mattered.

"Are you willing to kill yourself?"

He saw his own lips form the word 'Yes,' while unable to hear it. He watched as he seemed to pull the trigger in slow motion. At the sound of the gunshot, he was suddenly pulled back into his own body.

His eyes were just as wide as his counterpart's. He watched the cyborg as he stopped and placed a very shaky hand on the hole on his head. He stumbled forward a bit, and looked up at him, directly in the eyes. It was almost as if he had been asleep this whole time, and he had finally woken up. He could see sorrow, terror, and pain in his eyes. Behind all that, though, he could see a great release.

The current world's Jeremie fell to the ground, dead.

OoOoO

Aelita stumbled and fell as she entered the tower. She got up on her hands and knees, sighing as the feeling of security swept over her from being in the tower. She stood up and rushed to the center of the room. She closed her eyes and threw her head back, feeling the sensation of weightlessness as she began her ascent to the top platform.

She opened her eyes when she felt it was right to do so and held out her foot as she touched down on the platform, the floor lighting up. She approached the center and a screen appeared before her, a part to the side forming a square. She placed her hand inside the square, allowing the computer to identify her. Her name was written upon the screen in seconds, allowing her access.

"A-Aelita?" she was surprised to hear Jeremie's trembling voice.

"Jeremie?" she said, blinking. Her eyebrows lowered as her eyes narrowed slightly. "Wait, how do I know that's not you?"

She heard a shaky sigh. Despite being cautious, she couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for not trusting this voice. She felt it was necessary, though. "Turn on your visual," Jeremie's voice simply said.

She did so, feeling relief when she saw his face, no mechanical parts attached. She had been told how this world's Jeremie looked beforehand, and knew what to look for. "I'm so glad it's you!" she beamed, leaning close to the screen.

"Aelita, we're going to do something a little different today, okay?" the boy said, his voice still a little unsteady. "Do you remember that program we found a while ago? The other return program?"

The girl frowned and nodded. "Yes, Jeremie, but I thought the information on the process itself was deleted. Wouldn't it be deleted in this world too?"

"Apparently not. I found the whole thing right here."

"But you're not planning on using it… are you?" Her eyes widened a bit when she saw him nod. "But, Jeremie, that will make us all forget! If we go back far enough, we'll forget about the factory and all about XANA! Sure, it'll bring people back, but we won't be able to fight against XANA if we can't remember anything about the factory! Besides, even if we go back to before this attacked happened, if we don't remember it, we can't prevent it!"

"We don't even belong here. We do not exist here, so we will not be affected. We haven't even been here for as long as I'm going to bring us back, so it won't affect us."

The girl hesitated for a moment before she slowly nodded and started using the information the boy sent her to begin the process on her side. She could see Jeremie begin on his side. She could see there was something different about him… something had happened. She remembered the gunshot.

"Jeremie… what happened?"

"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly.

"What happened?" she repeated. "You can tell me."

The boy shook his head slowly, stopping in his work. "Please… not right now, okay? I promise to tell you later."

The girl nodded, though she was still worried. The two of them resumed their work at readying the program.

It took only a minute or two, but to the two geniuses it seemed like forever. Knowing that their friends were in trouble made them very nervous. When it was finally done, though, Jeremie looked over it and found no bugs.

"I've set a location for us, and I've set a separate one for XANA."

"Are you sure we won't be affected?"

The boy didn't respond, hesitating for only a moment before he pressed the return key.

OoOoO

In the cafeteria, Sissi stopped in her taunting the Lyoko Crew for a moment and her eyes widened. She clutched at her chest and began to cough furiously. Next to her, Herve was doing the same, except he was clutching at his neck. Jeremie and Aelita, along with a bunch of other students and teachers began to cough frantically. Some people didn't, though, which was very strange.

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd, along with the few other students who weren't coughing, were clutching a part of their body as if it was in terrible pain. Yumi gripped her side while Ulrich held his leg, sucking in air through his teeth, and Odd gripped one hand to his head while the other was clenched in a tight fist.

Jeremie had both his hands pressed against his forehead while Aelita had her arms wrapped around her abdomen, both of them coughing as if they'd been holding their breaths for way too long.

This only lasted for a moment, before everyone who was coughing seemed to calm down.

Sissi breathed a bit deeply as she stared off into nothing, looking a little afraid as she kept a hand on her chest, right over her heart. She turned to Herve and saw he was rubbing his neck tenderly, while Nicholas seemed mostly fine, though he was rubbing his head as if he were getting a headache.

Without a word, she pivoted around and began to walk away, the two boys quickly recovering and following after her.

"What just happened?" Odd asked, rubbing the side of his head.

"I-I don't know," Jeremie said, fighting off the urge to cough anymore.

"Do you think it might somehow be XANA?" asked Aelita in a low voice.

The fair-haired genius frowned, looking thoughtful. "Maybe…" He stood up, followed by his friends. Quickly, they ran to the factory, taking one of the many hidden passages.

OoOoO

"Virtualization," Jeremie announced as he pressed the return key on his keyboard, sending two of his friends to Lyoko. A minute later, the other two that were left on Earth also joined the two on Lyoko. The boy had run a superscan and hadn't found any activated towers, but it was better to be safe.

On the digital world of Lyoko, Aelita frowned uneasily as she glanced around. She knew the others couldn't feel it, but there was something very different about the world. "Jeremie," she said as the three vehicles were virtualized before them. "Would you mind if I check something in a tower before we go off searching for an activated one?"

"Alright. Just hurry up, okay?"

With that, Aelita hopped aboard the Overwing, grabbing onto Yumi's waist. The four children set off toward the nearest tower. Upon reaching it, the elfin girl entered. Within, she approached the center of the main floor, and raised to the top platform. She entered her access code by placing her hand upon the screen.

When she saw what she did, her brows furrowed in confusion. She tried searching, but could find nothing what she was looking for. This was quite disturbing, because she was looking for something that couldn't possibly be missing.

XANA.

All his data, all his minions, gone. It was as if he never existed, but she could remember so well that he did.

"Jeremie," she said softly, barely daring to believe what she was about to say. "I don't think XANA exists anymore…."

"What?" she heard the boy exclaim, unbelieving. "You're joking, right?"

"No. All of his data is gone. It's as if he never existed!" She began to grow excited.

"Hang on a second. Go with the others to the edge of the forest. If XANA doesn't exist anymore, then neither does the fifth sector."

The girl nodded and disconnected from the computer. Quickly, she exited the tower and boarded the Overwing once more. After a short explanation, the four of them flew off toward the edge of the forest where their transport to Carthage should be.

When Jeremie had tried to even activate the program that would ask him for the password, the computer insisted that there was no such file.

"What's going on?" Jeremie shook his head as he thought deeply on this.

"Think maybe we're finally free?" Odd commented, his eyes growing wide with excitement.

"But it can't just be that easy," Ulrich frowned. "The last time we fought with XANA, it wasn't even that hard."

Aelita shook her head, grinning. "It doesn't matter! The simple fact that XANA doesn't even exist on the supercomputer anymore, means that he's gone!" She began to laugh and grabbed the first person closest to her in a hug, who just happened to be Odd. "It's finally over!"

Odd, after recovering from his surprise, began to laugh and jump around with the girl.

"It's over!"

Jeremie sat at his computer, the thoughtful look not leaving his features. He frowned deeply as he felt something at the back of his mind. In his mind's eye, he saw a flash of eyes full of madness, blood, death, before it suddenly faded away and he couldn't remember even having anything in the back of his mind. He pumped both his fists in the air and began to cheer with his friends, feeling a weight seem to lift off his shoulders, leaving him feeling absolutely wonderful.

Above him, looking down from above the rungs, a pair of eyes watched.

"So what did you set XANA's location to?" Aelita's hushed voice was heard, and the eyes turned away.

Jeremie turned back to the others. Aelita was sitting just behind him while Odd and the others were standing a few feet away. Yumi stood unusually close to Ulrich, still shaken by his death. When they had come back, Ulrich had started coughing furiously, just like the other people who had come back to life.

"I set it to a nonexistent one, effectively destroying him."

"Too bad it won't work in our world," the pink-haired girl shook her head. "Luckily, this world's XANA was still stuck on Lyoko."

Jeremie nodded and stood up, stretching his back. "Well, shall we head home?" he asked, sounding a little nervous.

"Bring out the doingerbox!" Odd exclaimed, quietly enough, though, so the children below wouldn't hear.

"Why do you insist on calling it that?" Jeremie asked, a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

"Well, it's better than calling it something everyone else would call it," the boy said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Let's just go home already," Yumi insisted.

The boy nodded and pressed a button, causing the large, transparent orb to appear before them one more, This time, they all entered a lot faster than before.

Jeremie and Aelita were the last two again. Before she stepped inside, the girl turned to Jeremie, looking him in the eyes. It was only for a second that their eyes met, but in that second they exchanged the equivalent of a whole conversation in silence. Her eyes questioned, and his eyes assured. After that, she smiled warmly and surprised him when she pulled him into a hug. The boy hesitated for a moment before hugging back, feeling a wave of relief wash over him.

A moment later, she pulled away from him, leaving the both of them feeling so much better. She stepped inside. Jeremie approached the orb, looking a bit nervous. He took a deep breath, crossed his fingers, and stepped through once more.

The End

Author's Note

-barely able to contain excitement- Dear god I'm finally done! At least with this part, though. -grins mischievously- Hopefully I'll be able to write the sequel. This story actually ended up the way it is by complete accident. I might not, though. I know everything that's going to happen in the sequel, (since the beginning I knew, but it wasn't in two stories before) but I'm not sure if I'll be able to write it out. Now that I'm done with this part, it… I dunno…. Part of me wants to leave the story like this so I don't overload myself. The sequel, if it is ever written, will be a LOT longer than this story. I know the ending. I know what'll happen in between. I've already written a little bit of the beginning. I can't seem to get myself to write it all down. Maybe I'll update randomly? I know that there are hundreds of abandoned stories on my computer that I still come back to sometimes and write a bit more to. Very few of them have gotten finished yet, but I think I did finish one in this way…. I think I need to stop now. I'm rambling.

I hope the ending wasn't too corny, was it? I kinda really wanted a happy ending for the dimension they visited. This is why I think it's so disappointing, though. I'm sure of it. I made it way too easy that they won, didn't I?

Oh… um… I actually have a question for you. This is just out of a small curiosity in the back of my nagging little mind…. I feel quite uncomfortably self-conscious asking this... but did this story, in any part, make anybody feel… well… emotional or anything? Even a little? Either make you actually contemplate shedding a tear out of sadness or happiness? Or even want to find out my address to come beat the crap out of me for making such a horrible story? Even a little?

…

That was a dumb question. -proceeds to hit self with a textbook-

Well, anyways… there's gonna be a bonus chapter after this. ;) Now that there is no cliffhanger, I can relax a little for how long it takes to get it up. :D