Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or any of the original characters.

Authors Note1: This story was written before the second season and is based entirely off the first season.

Authors Note2: This story takes place immediately after 'Dark Regions, Part Two'

Key: Scene change

Lyoko

Earth/Other

Code Lyoko: Dark Regions

By. Tate Icasa

Sissi swam though the datastream until she came to a platform. She stood there for a second before stepping out of the tower. The word around her was lined with trees. She began to walk.

"What am I supposed to do now?" She wondered aloud.

"Well, to start with, you could avoid stepping into the marsh." A voice called.

Sissi hesitated and stepped back, narrowly avoiding a puddle of greenish liquid resembling Hornet poison. She looked up to see vines crossing the trees and a sliver haired, silver-and-white clothed Aelita hanging upside down from them. She let herself fall, flipping to land on her feet.

"Hi," She said, sticking out her hand. "I'm Cara."

"Sissi. Nice to meet you." She shook Cara's hand.

"I know." Cara said. "I followed you."

"Why?" Sissi asked after a second.

"Because I need your help."

Aelita waved her hand in front of Jeremie's face. He didn't even blink.

Mela appeared at the door.

"Finally!" Aelita exclaimed. "What did you do to them!" She pointed at Ulrich and Jeremie.

"Oh, oops." Mela said sheepishly. "I needed their cooperation, so I. . . oh, it's not important." She glowed for a second, and Ulrich and Jeremie blinked dazedly. "There. They should be back to normal in just a few minutes."

Ulrich began to pull on his chain.

"Don't bother." Mela said. "You can't break it. You'll only hurt yourself."

Ulrich glowered at her, but didn't try to break the chain again.

"What do you want, anyway?" Odd asked.

"I want you gone!" Mela exploded, her voice suddenly different. "I want to annihilate you!"

"Xana." Aelita gasped.

"Of course. Mela is my tool, after all. My. . .envoy, if you will." The voice still came from Mela's mouth. "But I can't just annihilate you, that would be too easy. Stupid programmers. You can't die on Okoyl."

"Then why bring us here?" Yumi asked.

"Because from here you can't be devirtualized. And you can't escape."

"Just out of curiosity. Why can't you just annihilate us?" Odd asked. "Not that I'm complaining, or anything. . ."

"Laws of the Universe. If I destroy you, someone else will take your place. It serves no purpose." He/She laughed "Besides, this is much more fun." Mela blinked. "Well, you could have told me you were taking over." She complained.

The others looked at her.

"You." She said. "Come with me."

"Why should we?" Yumi asked defensively.

"Ulrich, pet, mind explaining to your girlfriend why defying me is a bad idea?"

Ulrich stood and pointed angrily. "First," he began.

He never finished the sentence.

Violet electricity came out of the chain. Ulrich stepped forward.

"I wouldn't recommend doing that." Mela warned in a sing-song voice. She twisted the gray-black ring on her finger, and the electricity changed to orange.

"Stop that, you're hurting him!" Yumi protested.

"Well, of course I'm hurting him. That's the point." Mela said.

Ulrich stumbled closer, but by the time he reached her, he was on his knees.

"If I cooperate, will you stop?" Yumi asked.

Mela nodded.

"Yumi. . .no. . ." Ulrich protested weakly.

But Yumi had made her decision. "Where are we going?"

The electricity disappeared.

Mela knelt by Ulrich. "You're very lucky, you know." She paused, "You can stay here and erst today." She stood. "Come on now, we have work to do."

Sissi and Cara sat cross legged in front of the marsh.

"So my friends are with this Mela person?" Cara nodded. She held up a chain.

"Look familiar?"

"Yeah, Mela said it would let her harness and contol our energy."

Cara snorted. "Just like her, of course." She muttered. "Well, she's right, in a sense. The chain can be used for one of two purposes. The first, is to allow you no limits on your powers."

"Wait, what does that mean?"

"While wearing one, Odd can never run out of Arrows, Yumi can't wear herself out using Telekenisis, Aelita can synthesis without danger, etc."

"Ok."

"The second purpose is to turn your energy against you." Before Sissi could open her mouth, Cara answered. "Don't ask. You don't want to know." She sighed. "I could take the chians off, if I could get close enough to recalibrate them to my ring-code."

"Umm. . . ?"

"Just go along with it. I have to get into the castel. Mela is going to send a clone after you. So, here's the plan. . ."

The others re-entered the cell.

"Are you alright, Ulrich?" Yumi asked.

"Fine." Then, "You shouldn't have done what she wanted!"

"She was killing you!"

"You can't die on Okoyl. I could have taken it."

"Ulrich. . ."

"Don't." He said. "I don't want to hear it."

"So, now what? We just give up?"

He turned away.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Listen to yourselves." Aelita said. "We can't give up. How can you even consider it?"

"Squabbling like little children isn't going to help us." Odd said. "We need a plan."

Everyone fell silent. After a while, they faded into sleep.

Cara and Sissi watched Mela from the trees. Cara signaled with her hands. One. Two. Three. Go!

They dropped down from the trees.

Withing seconds the clone was mere pixels on the 'wind.'

Cara reached out and pulled enough of the pixels into herself that her appearance became like Mela.

She held out the chain. "Here."

Sissi put the chain on.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

They entered the tower.

Ulrich looked up. "Hey, look." he said, waking the others.

Sissi entered.

"Guys, listen. . ."

"With her in the other room?" Odd asked.

"Who? Oh! Oh, no, that's Cara. She's going to help us."

Ulrich laughed cynically. "I doubt it. But. . .well, what do we have to loose? Ok, Cara, work your magic."

Cara reached out and grabbed Ulrich's chain. After a few seconds the chain glowed red and shattered into a dozen pieces.

Cara did the same for everyone before leading them away toward the tower.

"Now!" Cara yelled, jumping into the datastream and leading them out into the cave.

"Ok, I'm going to Invert you back to Lyoko now."

"Can't you come with us?" Aelita asked.

"No, I'm sorry, sister. I can't leave her here unchecked."

"Sister?" Jeremie asked.

"Of course. Aelita, Mela and I were all made from the same root program. Maybe when you get back to earth you can work on a way to delete Mela."

"After I finish the anti-virus for Aelita."

"Of course." She said, sounding so condescending that Jeremie began to wonder if she knew something he didn't.

Just them, the world imploded, sending everyone's mind into oblivion.

"Goodbye."

They woke in a tower.

Jeremie looked around.

"I think we're on Lyoko again." Aelita said.

"Send me back to Earth so I can set up the return trip, Aelita."

"Ok." Aelita said. She called up the interface and sent Jeremie back.

"Ow." he said as he fell out of the scanner. "It's strange being human again." He went up to the super-calculator. "Return to the past now!" The white time bubble covered the earth.

"Hey, what's this?" Jeremie asked aloud, picking up a disc. He put it into the super-calculator.

"I don't believe it!"

"Believe what, Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

"This." He said. "It contains the anti-virus."

"Oh, that." Aelita said, smiling. "I sent it to you."

"What? How? When?"

"I sent it to you. Using TTP. And back in 1994. Really, Jeremie, can't you just launch the program?"

"Oh, right." He launched the program. "There."

"I can feel it Jeremie! The virus is gone!"

"Ok, I'm setting up the materialization program, now." Then he fell forward, unconscious. His head hit the enter key, and Aelita appeared in the scanner.

She ran up to the super-calculator.

"Wake up, Jeremie!" She said persistently. "That's it, I'm sending you back to Lyoko." She began dragging him down to the elevator. As she got in she pulled out Jeremie's phone and called Yumi.

"Jeremie?" Yumi answered.

"No, Aelita." Aelita corrected. "Jeremie is unconscious and I can't wake him. I'm going to send him to Lyoko. Call the others and meet me at the factory."

"Ok, Aelita, bye."

Aelita put the phone back and put Jeremie into one of the scanners.

She turned and went back up to the super-calculator.

"Transfer, Jeremie. Scanner, Jeremie." She paused for a minute to look at the data. "Well, that explains it." She muttered. "Virtualization."

Jeremie opened his eyes on the desert regaion.

"Jeremie, can you hear me?"

"Aelita? Where are you?"

"In front of the super-calculator."

"What happened?"

"You. . .something has altered your DNA on the subatomic level. You can't survive on Earth for more than ten minutes anymore."

"So. . .we still can't shut down Xana."

"No. I'm going to try to find a way to re-alter. . .that's strange." She typed some more. "Jeremie, a new program has been created."

"What is it?"

"Its. . .a program that can make Lyoko and Okyl run autonomously from Xana. But the program itself is scattered through all the regions. If we can find them. . ."

"Then we can shut down Xana." Said a voice from behind her.

Aelita jumped just about a foot in the air before she realized who it was.

"Odd! How long have you been there!"

"Quite a while, actually. Wo, where do we find the first part of this program? Yumi, Ulrich, and Sissi are already down in the scanners."

"In the desert." Aelita said, starting up the program. "Come one, I've set up the program. They should be on Lyoko by the time we get down there."

They stepped into the elevator. Down to the scanners. Virtualization.