11-4: Something Missing

It took me a while to get this up b/c I've been focusing completely on a fantasy story for my Creative Writing class and it's finally DONE! Hopefully y'all won't roast me alive for making you wait. Just be prepared to wait for the next chappie too.

(((-4-)))

The gang left the factory, somewhat worse for wear. Jeremy promised he would return to the past to fix the last few days once they figured out how to break X.A.N.A.'s hold on Janika, a project which he was already working on in his head. The one thing that puzzled all of them equally, though, was the 'fire-maiden' and whatever the computer virus wanted with her.

There was no possible way Aelita could be the girl X.A.N.A. wanted! Well, notwithstanding the fact that he had been after her since they had discovered Lyoko, there had to be another explanation for the strange message. Right?

Yumi looked like her spirits had risen and walked arm in arm with Ulrich, talking in animated whispers. Glancing over at Odd, the computer whiz noted the immense change that had come over his friend. There was a liveliness in his step that hadn't been there before and the muscles in his face were relaxed, as if he was sure everything would be fine.

If only Jeremy was so confident. Aelita still refused to look at him, even when he asked her how she was. Or maybe that was just a really dumb question. Either way, she wasn't speaking to him.

He pushed away the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something. A good night's rest would put things in perspective the next day.

(V)

In a dorm at Kadic, a young girl twisted beneath her sheets as if to escape something. Memories of a twisted world with strange dimensions and a destructive power she wielded came to her in a jumble of confused colors and emotions.

Finally Sissy woke up sweating. Rivulets ran down her brow and soaked her pillow, but the nightmare had only half-wakened her. The real problem was that she was so hot! Why Jim set the temperature to boiling was beyond her, but she felt as if she was sleeping in a furnace.

The window slid up and she hung outside as wintry breezes caressed her face. They hardly helped. Sissy angrily waved her hands frantically to fan herself, but nothing seemed to work. She knew it was the Flame.

It had awakened with her only a few days earlier, and never seemed to leave. If she ignored it, the Flame came to her; but if she paid attention to it, the Flame hid. She couldn't control it unless she concentrated really really really hard.

This strange ability had frightened her, and still did. She felt so alone with a secret like this, but every time she'd approached Ulrich in the past few days…it was as if he saw something about her that alarmed him. At first she thought he knew about the Flame, but the more she watched him, the more she realized he was afraid of what she might be, which confused her to no end because Sissy was herself and no one else.

Or was she?

The Flame consumed her hands in a smokeless fire. It traveled up her arms and all over her clothes without burning. Each strand of her hair was adorned with a shadow of red fire. Her eyes changed, shifting so that she could see heat. There, there, and there through the walls were sleeping figures in their beds, and even those below her through the floor, or above through the ceiling.

By chance she glanced at the window, its shade drawn, but four small shapes glowing with orange and red heat waves hurried across the school grounds toward the dorms. She knew instantly who they were, though she hadn't seen Odd, Aelita or Jeremy in quite some time. In fact, not since the day before the Flame came to her…

Her fiery cloak dwindled and Sissy's second sight failed. She was left momentarily weak from the drain the Flame placed on her, but she knew now. There was no doubt in her mind who could tell her about her new ability.

But would they be able to help her? Perhaps waiting for morning would be best.

(V)

The Tower had nothing in it remotely entertaining. No company or window to look out at the world. What exactly had Aelita done during all that time she was stuck here by herself? How had she kept sane? Hours passed slowly and she felt every lingering second tick arduously past. There was nothing to do! At least it would be morning soon.

And then she felt it, like the beat of a pulse.

Janika could feel him: X.A.N.A. inside her. He couldn't control her for some reason, but she felt him there all the same. It was a message sent to all his minions. More like instinctive knowledge than actual words, but she understood it perfectly.

An alert: A Tower has been stimulated—3XF5. There will be delay enough to possibly destroy the Warriors. Prepare in the Forest Quadrant.

She ran to the edge of the platform, leaping off into the darkness and floating through a whirlwind of digital information to land neatly inside a new Tower. The cheetah-girl exited smoothly and the evening light of the Forest Region cast shadows that concealed much among the huge trees. She knew the active Tower was on the far side.

Krabs, Hornets and even a couple Megatanks traveled through the area. Janika tensed as one of the spiderlike machines approached her, dropping one hand to her waist to feel for her ninja stars…only they weren't there. X.A.N.A. had stolen them!

A familiar spell of anger flared, but as she reached for her Special Ability, the cheetah-girl felt like she struck a brick wall with her bare head going 30 miles an hour. Her Bloodlust was just on the other side, but no matter how angry she was, it wouldn't come to her.

So that's why he wasn't concerned. She was defenseless!

If the Krab could have made any facial expressions, it probably would have smirked. As it was, the robot merely turned its back on her as if she was absolutely no threat. Well, she did have X.A.N.A.'s signature printed all over her digital profile even though she was a purple humanoid. Maybe they thought she was one of them, so she started following.

Strangely enough, she felt more like a ghost than anything. The Hornets and Roachsters and everything else didn't molest her or even acknowledge her presence after the first Krab. It made her feel invincible, but of course without her weapons it was a little hard to attack and defeat such an army, so she ignored them as well.

The activated Tower came into sight and Janika stared. Wouldn't Jeremy have been alerted by it on his computer? Maybe he was tired from so many sleepless nights or maybe not in his room where he could hear the warning. What sort of 'delay' had her enemy referred to in the message to his minions?

But as she stood outside the Tower, X.A.N.A.'s plan suddenly became obvious. Hornets were flying into the red-rimmed spire. Only a few, of course, but the mode of attack was plain enough: he was materializing them.

She impulsively strode up, acting like she had business there, and stepped confidently into the Tower after five or so Hornets had flown in. She tried to calm her wildly beating heart and followed the foremost monster.

It hovered in the center of the platform where it glowed for a moment before vanishing in a sudden flare of light. Janika knew this could possibly kill her, but she was too concerned with the welfare of her friends who lacked an edge now that their Special Abilities had been taken away in the real world.

She had to do something!

Janika walked dutifully to the center of the Tower where she began to float. It was almost identical to when she saved her sister's life, except that Jira wasn't there to inspire her to continue. There was only the thought of her friends helpless…

(V)

X.A.N.A. felt the circuits flare wildly in response to an invader in the activated Tower. What was happening there? He connected to the Tower just in time to be thrown out! Something had changed his programming; something he had not foreseen.

He scanned the area for the trapped Warrior and found nothing. Not even a glimmer. Could she have discovered a way to deactivate the Tower…? No. It was still dynamic, but something in its program had changed. He just had to figure it out, and also what happened to that annoying little Warrior.

(V)

Jeremy checked his alarm and mashed a palm down on the snooze button. Why had he decided to set it for 5:30 anyway? He hadn't had a decent night's sleep in what seemed like years, and it woke him up from a very nice dream where Aelita hadn't been mad at him. Quite the opposite and…hey! Mind your own dreams!

He might as well rise and get started on that decoding project. There were a few things he could start with. Absently reaching for his glasses, he flipped on the computer with his other hand and stifled a yawn, but suddenly grew attentive when the loading screen popped up and froze.

"Oh no…" he gaped at it. "It can't be! The…the Blue Screen of Death!"

The solid blue screen had two lines of indecipherable code stretching across the top and directions that, when followed, never worked.

Finally the memory returned to him: taking several crucial parts and disks of information from this computer to help at the factory. He'd even left his laptop there plugged carelessly into the main monitor!

Could X.A.N.A. have realized this mistake and taken advantage of it? Probably not, otherwise why on earth would he send them a letter asking for the 'fire-maiden'?

(V)

Janika opened her eyes. They didn't exactly feel like her eyes, but more like the scanners of some kind of robot—oh dang it!

Lately I decided to learn sign language and it's been really fun. But if you knew it and wanted to make fun of some bully right in front of his face, what would you say out loud and what would you be signing at the same time? (I'd get a little glassy-eyed and say: "You really have this amazing aura about you" while signing: "Did you roll around in road kill this morning?")