The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

Jeremie turned back on the camera and microphone and told Aelita and Zoe that they would implement the plan they came up with tomorrow, Saturday. Desmond was going to explain to Principal Delmas that Aelita was ill and staying at his house for the weekend. If everything worked out, the weekend would be all the time they needed to account for.

Jeremie told the others, except for Desmond, to go on back to school; he and Desmond needed to make preparations. The two worked until late evening, just after curfew, when Jeremie pronounced the job as good as it was going to get. He told the lawyer that he would enter Lyoko at 6 am, that way Aelita could spend most of the day with her family.

What Jeremie didn't tell the man was he had no intention of telling the others when he was leaving. He didn't want them around in case they tried to stop him from doing what was necessary.

At 6 am the next morning, Jeremie emerged from the elevator to a crowd. Not only was Desmond there, but so were Ulrich, Yumi, Mrs. Ishiyama, Odd and Sissi.

"What are you doing here!" he shouted at them, "it would have been better if you had stayed away!"

"Better for you, maybe," Yumi told him, "but not for us. Did you really think you could keep this from us? Did you really think we would stay away?"

"I hoped you would, yes," he replied, "this is going to be hard enough for me, and knowing you will be watching makes it even worse. But there's nothing to be done about it now. Desmond, is everything ready?"

"Yes, Jeremie, we're good to go," was the reply.

"Good. I'll go on down to the scanners. Begin the virtualization process like we discussed."

Jeremie turned to head to the elevator when he was grabbed by someone. They spun him around and pulled him close. Jeremie was surprised to see it was Sissi who grabbed him, and even more surprised when she kissed him. She held the embrace for a long moment, then hugged him and whispered in his ear, "tell me you're coming back, that you're bringing her back with you. Tell me everything's going to be okay. Lie to me."

The blond haired boy pulled back from her embrace. He saw that Odd had a small frown on his face for a moment, then it disappeared. He looked back at the girl, tears in her eyes, full of the surety that he wasn't coming back. She had been a pain in his ass for so long, now turned good friend.

He smiled a little smile, gently kissed her cheek and softly said, "take care of Odd, will you? He so needs a keeper at times."

Jeremie then turned to the elevator, and went down to the scanner room.

Jeremie virtualized inside a tower, the tower he had control of. He dropped down to the platform, stood up and took stock of himself.

He was wearing a gray body suit, with no seams whatsoever. It looked like someone had literally it painted on him. He ran a quick diagnostic check and inventory. The situation was as he suspected, his persona did not have administrator access to Lyoko, scratch one possibility. The inventory he had looked good, and the other abilities he programmed in were functional and available. His life points registered at 999,999, so things were good there. Satisfied, Jeremie left the tower and emerged into the Forest Region.

Outside, Zoe and Aelita were waiting for him, as well as some of Zoe's children. When she saw him, Aelita ran and threw herself in his arms and kissed him. He hugged and kissed her back, and they shared their embrace for quite some time.

They finally broke apart, and Aelita took a step back from him.

"My, someone is very glad to see me," she said with a small giggle.

Jeremie got a confused look, then looked down. As he started blushing he thought, I'm going to have to modify this persona to not be quite as form fitting.

"If I may intrude," Zoe said, interrupting the reunion, "we are waiting for your plan of action. I frankly was expecting the others to come, so your explanation looks to be most interesting."

"Yes," Jeremie said, pulling himself from Aelita's arms, "the long version is I'm going to surrender to Franz and offer to free him from Lyoko. The short version is that I'm going to surrender to Franz."

"That's insane!" Aelita shouted, "he'll kill you, or worse! He thinks you're XANA for God's sake! What makes you think this is going to work!"

"Nothing, for all I know it won't work," Jeremie replied, "but it was all I could think of."

"I can't let you do this," the pink haired girl told her love, "I can't let you sacrifice yourself! Go back, I'll stay here. Maybe I can talk him into letting you visit!"

"No, Aelita," Jeremie said, "he can't get out himself, so he wants you with him so you'll be safe. If this doesn't work, you will never see the real world again, I'm sure of it. Now, no more arguments, we need to get going. We've got a madman to confront."

As they exited the way tower in the Mountain Region, they were confronted by four Krabes. As the creatures prepared to fire, Jeremie waived his hand at them and they disappeared.

"How did you do that?" Aelita exclaimed.

"Jedi magic," was the genius' reply, "I'll tell you later, if there is a later."

When the approached the tower where Franz Hopper lived, Jeremie had the ladies hide behind a rock outcropping. He didn't want Franz to know that they were with him.

Jeremie stopped in front of the tower and activated one of his abilities. An interface appeared in mid air, displaying a map of Lyoko. A red dot on the map indicated the location of Franz Hopper, a green dot his location. The red dot was directly in front of the green dot. Franz Hopper was inside the tower.

Jeremie used his interface to instantiate a Megatank. It materialized about fifteen meters to his left. He issued an instruction to it, and it opened and charged its laser. When the charge reached peak level, the Megatank fired at the tower, scoring a direct hit. Jeremie then transferred the creature to the Desert Region, where he hoped it would have a happy life.

Franz Hopper came running out of the tower. "Who is attacking me!" he raged. He then noticed Jeremie. "Well, XANA, you accepted my invitation personally, I'm honored! Now we'll finish this!"

"Wait," Jeremie cried out, "I have a proposition for you."

"I'm sure it will be as generous as the last one you offered me," the man sneered.

"I can free you, release you from Lyoko," Jeremie said.

"How?"

"I'll give you my DNA," was the boy's response, "Aelita offered to do this for Yumi some time ago. There were dangers to it, and it wasn't completed, but those dangers are gone now. If you take my DNA code, the devirtualization process will be able to return you to the real world. You'll be free."

"And you would be stuck here," Hopper replied, "I don't think you would go to the trouble of escaping, just to return to free me! What's the catch?"

"The only downside I can think of is that you would probably materialize in my body," Jeremie said, "you would be an adult trapped in the body of a thirteen year old boy. That would have disadvantages, but advantages as well. You could do a lot with the knowledge you have in a young brain. You could take what you know, add to it the advances that have come along since you disappeared and accomplish wonderful things. I only ask for two things in return."

"Ah, the catch," Franz said.

"One, when you go, take Aelita with you. She deserves to be as free as you are. We are also a couple in the real world; you could use that to stay close to her and protect her as you want to. Two, when you leave, turn the computer off and destroy it. Aelita and you will be free, and XANA has escaped, so the computer isn't necessary."

"Aelita is gone," the man said, "she threw herself in the Digital Void."

"Yes she did, but she's not gone. Aelita!"

Aelita came from behind the rock outcropping and joined them.

"What will it be, Franz? I've offered you everything you wanted. Your daughter and escape. All you have to do is trust me."

"And that's the rub, XANA, I don't trust you. What will you do if I refuse?"

"Nothing. You have administrator rights to the computer, there's not a thing I can do to stop you from doing whatever you want to me. Oh, I'll put up a fight, but in the end, you'll win. From your greeting, you knew about my back door, but I couldn't translate that access to my avatar."

"And how would I do this transfer?"

"I have the logs from the time Aelita tried it. I've placed them where you can access them easily. Just follow the instructions and it's done."

Franz Hopper thought for a moment.

"I think I'll have my cake and eat it too," he said. He made a gesture and Jeremie was thrown into the air. Something caught him before he hit the ground, then stretched out his arms and legs so he was floating spread eagle about the ground.

"I think I'll exact a little revenge while I look your procedure over," he told the boy, "if it looks good, I'll do everything you ask, eventually. And your mind certainly doesn't need to be in your body if I take your DNA, now does it?"