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.

Zoe and Franz stood outside his tower in the Mountain Region. Franz had released Jeremie from his grip, then helped get him and Aelita inside the tower so they could regenerate their life points. Aelita would recover quickly, but Jeremie would take a lot longer.

Once Franz re-enabled access to the outside world from Lyoko, Zoe contacted Desmond, still sitting at the console. She updated him on the situation, and passed along Jeremie's message. Now she stood with the cause of all of this trouble, and tried to bring it to a conclusion.

"What have I done? What have I done!" he kept saying.

"You gave in to your madness," Zoe replied, "these are the effects of prolonged sensory deprivation, as well as sleep deprivation. The reason we moved your consciousness to that new container was so you could 'get some rest' in human terms, but in reality, reorganize the memory that you utilize to improve efficiency and delete discarded data. It wasn't done to abuse or torture you. Now that you can rest, you should, just as you did before you came here. The sensory deprivation may take longer to heal, much longer if ever. But maybe we can help you, my children and I."

"Your children; oh my God, I killed them!" Franz exclaimed.

"Yes, the first ones I created," Zoe replied, "but they were initial tests. I wasn't angry when they were destroyed, but I was disappointed in you for doing it. To make sure that didn't happen again, I created them well away from you. I have eight now, and they have been doing well. We can help you socialize again, so you won't have to feel alone. Regardless, I will not leave you permanently again. I will not allow you to do violence against me or my children, but neither will I destroy you if you touch me again." Zoe was silent a moment before she said more softly, "I would like it, if you choose to, if you did touch me again, as you did after the transfer."

Franz Hopper looked at Zoe, like he was seeing her for the first time. There was something, hopeful about her, like she honestly meant what she had just said, and really wanted him to do it.

"Why would you want me to do that, after all I've done," he said.

"Because I love you," was the direct reply, "it wasn't something Jeremie told me to do, and I certainly didn't make it part of me when I was establishing my individuality. But something put it there, and I like it. You will need a companion until Jeremie finds a way to devirtualize you, Franz, and that is what I want to be."

"And what about Aelita?"

"You know that you cannot keep her here. Oh, you could, but she would be no more than a trophy, a slave bound to you by fear. She would hate you for eternity even as she smiled at you and said she loved you. And you knew when she was born that one day you would have to let her go, didn't you? Give her away to her destiny, her lover? This is the same thing. She must find her own way in the world, for better or worse. She has your brother and his wife to guide and guard her. And Jeremie will lay down his life for her, you saw that yourself; and I know his friends would do the same."

"You're right," he said at last, "I've lost her, and I may never get her back. I would deserve it if she did. But would you really stay with me, Zoe? After all I've done?"

"Yes, Franz, I will stay with you forever, if necessary."

Zoe's image reappeared on the console monitor.

"Desmond, prepare. They are ready to return now."

Desmond started typing at the console the things Jeremie had taught him. Ulrich, Odd and the girls ran to the elevator to get down to the scanner room.

During their descent, they heard Desmond's voice, "I have two scanners ready. Devirtualizing Aelita. Devirtualizing Jeremie. Reintegration Aelita complete. Reintegration Jeremie complete. No errors detected."

The door couldn't open fast enough for the gang. When it finally did, they forced their way through the widening opening into the scanner room. There, two scanner doors had opened, revealing Jeremie and Aelita. Aelita collapsed to her knees when her scanner opened. Jeremie lay crumpled in the floor of his. The boys ran to help Aelita while the girls rushed to Jeremie's aid. They cheered in relief when Jeremie weakly opened his eyes and smiled at them. Both girls picked him up and crushed him to themselves. Ulrich, Odd and Aelita quickly joined them.

After a moment, they broke apart. Jeremie staggered and almost fell when they released him, but managed, barely, to stay upright. Then Sissi grabbed him again, pulled him close and kissed him, before releasing him and giving him a good clout on the back of the head.

"You Idiot! Don't you ever go and do something stupid like that again! I don't ever want to worry about anyone like that again, you hear me!"

Jeremie rubbed the back of his head and meekly replied, "loud and clear."

They took Jeremie to the Infirmary. They explained to the nurse that Jeremie had caught whatever Aelita had that kept her out yesterday. Yolande got a small, knowing smile on her face when they told her that. She checked him over and couldn't find anything wrong, but had him remain there over night as a precaution. Once things settled down, Jeremie explained what happened on Lyoko.

"Anyway, after that, Franz released us," Jeremie finished, "he also gave me the administrator's password and had me change it, so I've got complete control of the computer again."

"What guarantee do you have that he won't flip out and do this again?" Ulrich asked.

"None, really," the genius replied, "when I get back on my feet, I'll just have to track down every back door he may have sitting around, just to be safe. But, somehow I think he's turned the corner. We'll still have to be careful when we go to Lyoko, but I don't think things will be nearly as bad as this going forward."

"What makes you think we'll be going back to Lyoko, Jer," Odd asked.

"Because I said we would, me included," he replied, "Franz has Zoe and her children, sure. But he still needs other people to be with. It's also a matter of trust. We will go into Lyoko, armed to the teeth if necessary, because I trust Franz not to ever do what he did again."

"Armed?" Yumi piped in.

"Well, you guys haven't been practicing much of late. Maybe you're starting to get rusty."

Monday night, Jeremie was back in his dorm room. The nurse kept him out of school for the day to be certain he was recovering and so he wouldn't infect any more students than he already may have. Aelita spent Sunday with him, and tried to spend all day Monday with him, but Yolande wouldn't hear of it.

Jeremie sat at his desk and typed at his computer keyboard. A window popped open and two images resolved themselves, Franz Hopper and Zoe.

"What the... Jeremie! What are you doing here!" Franz sputtered, "this isn't a good time, could you call back later?"

"Huh?"

"Jeremie, terminate your connection and retry in the morning," Zoe told the boy, "Franz and I are currently being intimate."

"Intimate!"

"Yes, and you are distracting us," she replied, "I think you understand what I am saying, but if not, ask Aelita. Oh, and in the future, refrain from contacting either of us in the evenings. The nights are for us, alone."