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 'After All This Time'

Key: Scene change

Code Lyoko: The Road To Recovery

By. Tate Icasa

Mela had turned two shades lighter by the time Cara had finished.

"A ghoulish prospect, isn't it?"

"Are we really going to die if we don't go through with it?" Mela whimpered.

Cara nodded solomnly.

"Well, then," She gulped. "I'll send for them. I'll send for them. Just, give me a minute to, to recover my composure."

Yumi woke to a strange beeping. She glanced around the room.

Odd, Ulrich, Milly, and Timiya, and herself of course, formed a strange circle around Sissi, still cradling Aelitette in her arms.

The beeping persisted and Yumi stretched.

"Hey, guys, wake up." She yawned.

"Mmm. Just five more minutes. . ." Odd murmured, turning over. No one else even moved.

"That's it." Yumi said. "GET UP ALL OF YOU NOW!"

Everyone bolted upright.

"Huh? Yumi? What is it?" Ulrich asked, still half-asleep.

"I have no idea, since none of us can actually use the interface. I was hoping Aelitette could find out what that beeping was."

"Oh, right," Aelitette said. "Yumi, came stand behind me. You understand more than I do." She walked over to the interface.

Jeremie woke seconds before Aelita did.

"What's beeping?" Aelita said.

"Summoning." He said with a frown. He walked over to the interface. "To the Malo-Swamp Tower, it appears." He searched the list. "Look at this." He said softly.

"What?" She joined him.

Underneath a list of familiar names, four amazing words stuck out.

Underneath Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama. Underneath Odd Della Robbia and Elisabeth Delmas. Underneath Milly Solovieff and Timiya Diop. Even Underneath Ritanalia and Aelitette of Malo-Swamp.

There, underneath them all. At the end of the summons.

Aelita Lyoko.

Jeremie Belpois.

"I don't want to die." Meal said for about the hundredth time in the last half hour.

"You won't die." Cara said. It was the same conversation.

"How do you know?"

"Because I won't die?" Cara suggested dryly.

"How do you know?"

"I don't."

"Don't you have any fear of death?"

"Apparently not."

The conversation would end there. At least until it began again.

"I'm not going." Jeremie said finally.

"Why not?" Aelita asked.

"I'm not going near her again." He shuddered.

"Well, I am. I'll go alone, if I have to." She drew a deep breath. "There's a saying I once read in one of your Earth books. 'Things always get worse before they get better.'" She paused. "Thiss could be the first step."

"I'm not going." He repeated. "I'm not."

Aelita sighed. "Ok. Fine." She said, calmly. She turned and began to walk. "I'll gind out why she used our real names myself." She shrugged. "See you later."

"NO!" The word exploded out of him, knocking him back against the wall. "No! You don't. . .you don't know what she's capable of." He stopped. "You can't fight her Aelita. Belive me, I tried." He sand into a sitting position. "If we go, she'll get her hooks into us again. And this time I don't think there'll be anyone left to bring us back."

"Do you think ignoring the summons will help?" She asked.

He didn't answer for a long while. When he did he looked up at her sandly. "I don't know anymore." He got up slowly. "Alright, we'll go."

"Well?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know. We've been summoned to a tower."

"A tower?" Milly asked. "What's an O-ko-yl-an Tower like?"

"Jeremie and Aelita were the only ones who've gotten close enough to tell." Sissi said.

"Wo, do we go?" Timiya asked.

"I guess so." Odd said. "I don't see as we have a chice. Besides, we need to get to Mela anyway."

"I agree." Said Aelitette. "I can show you the way to the Malo-Swamp tower, come on."

"I don't want to die." Mela said again.

"You won't." And before Mela could reply she opened her eyes, stretched, and stood up. "They're here."

"Finally." Meal breathed. "I promise, I won't hurt you." She called.

Slowly, hesitantly, they came near.

"Cara!" Ulrich said.

"Hello, Lyokans. And Ritanalia and Aelitette." She added. "Come. Sit. Let me tell you a story."

Aelitette cocked her head and sat. The others hesitated before sitting down.

"A long time ago, there were only two virtual beings. Your Lyokan Aelita, and an Okoylan princess. By any terms, they were sisiters. But Lyokan Aelita stayed safely in her world. She used the information she was permitted to see. She never tried to break into restricted areas. Our Okoylan princess, on the other hand, was less than cautious. She was always breaking into restricted areas. There was no one to tell her not to. But one day the princess found an area she couldn't get into. So she made her way to the control room. But she discovered too late that it was a trap. Her consciousness was split into two bodies. One of light and one of darkness, because she was only one consciousness. What she hadn't realized, was that that split, if not undone, would destroy both of the halves."

"That's very interesting and all." Ulrich siad. "But I don't see what it has to do with us."

"Do you know that princesses name? Her name was-"

"Her name was Caramela, wasn't it?" Aelitette asked softly.

For a minute time seemed to freeze, and they all felt a chill that had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature.

And then Cara spoke, and Mela spoke with her.

"Yes."

And Cara spoke alone.

"There is a reversal. But it requires a Telepath and a Dual-Consciousness."

"That's Sissi," Ulrich said. "and. . .?"

"Me." Jeremie said, just realizing it.

"Are you sure about that?" Yumi asked.

"Y-yeah. Jeremie is not Baachek and Baachek is not Jeremie, and we're both idiots because we didn't realize it before." He smiled weakly. "Besides, if I'm reading that Interface correctly, if I'm wrong, the process just won't work."

"And if you're right?" Aelita asked.

He smiled again. "We'll have to find out." He turned back to Cara. "I'm ready. Tell me what to do."

Cara motioned. "Sit down, over here. Mela, beside me."

Once they had complied Cara motioned to Sissi.

"Sit between us."

Sissi sat and closed her eyes, letting Telepathic instainct take over. On of her hands went to Jeremie/Baachek fingers spread across his forehead. The other went to Cara and Mela, one finger on each of their heads. She gasped at the mental contact.

A strange glow spread from her head to her fingertips. Jeremie/Baachek, Cara and Mela awere encased in a blinding light.

Sissi

I arched my back, because it felt natural, while holding four consciousness's in my one body. I could vaugly sense that the other three bodies were. . .I guess you'd have to call it destructuralizing. Not a word, I know, but that's what hapened.

The bodies would have, had anyone been able to watch them, seemed to halfway devirtualize into wire-like frame-work, and then they seemed to deform until it only just resembled a person. Destructuralized.

It's hard to hold three other consciousness's, keep your dominant, and shuffle the other three into the correct bodies. While also splitting one, and combining two more.

It's hard to keep your sanity.

But I did, somehow, operating solely on instinct.

I melded Cara and Mela's consciousness and filtered that into the separate person-shape. I managed to hold It there while I eased Jeremie and Baacheks consciousness's and filtered them into sperate person-shapes.

I was aware, as I finished, that the bodies re-structuralized. I was exausted, too exausted to open my eyes.

Jeremie, Baachek, and Caramela opened their eyes when Sissi's hands fell back into her lap.

Caramela looked down at her hands. "I'm on person again." And she was. She had long black hair with beautiful silver stripes. Her outfit was gray and white. She had pale, almost milk-white skin, and large, dark eyes.

Jeremie had back his younger body, minus the fifteen years spent as Baachek.

And Baachek looked the way he had when they'd returned.

The others were sleeping nearby.

"Oh, ow," Caramela said, her voice musical, "I feel like I've been through a blender." She stretched, keeping one hand on her head.

Aelitette stirred and woke up.

"Hey!" She said, shaking Yumi, "Hey, it worked!"

"Huh?" Yumi said blearily, waking up.

Slowly, the others woke up.

"Jeremie?" Aelita asked tenatively.

"Aelita." He said in return, smiling sadly and looking away.

"Jeremie!" She said happily, running forward and hugging him.

"And Ritanalia hugged Baachek. Odd was at Sissi's side in a second.

Yumi and Ulrich stood side by side, holding hands and beaming because it had worked.

Milly, Timiya, Aelitette, and Caramela stood off to the side.

"Is Sissi going to be Ok?" Timiya asked.

"I think she's just tired." Milly responded.

After the happy reunion, Jeremie and the others decided to go find the program. After one last Malo-Swamp dinner. Even Caramela joined them.

They thought it would be best to let Aelitette join them, if she wanted to.

"No," She said, "I'm sorry, I can't go with you," She smiled. "We Okoylans, the others at least, don't believe things can get better even when it already has. I'm going to stay and halp. But there's one more thing." They looked at her expectantlyly. She turned until she was facing Aelita. "It's confusing, having names so similar. You can have it back now, you aren't dead."Aelita looked at her puzzeledly, but Aelitette had already turned to her parents. "I hope you don't mind that I'm changing my name."

"What are you changing it to?" Sissi asked.

"You're going to like it." Aelitette said. "It's really perfect for me." She smiled. "I think, maybe, it's been my name forever, and no one ever called me it, because they didn't know."

"Riddles, Aelitette," Milly said, "Please don't talk in riddles. Tell us what you're changing your name to."

Aelitette smiled, and suddenly appeared too wise for her five years. And she spoke one word, simply. One word that echoed into infinity and shone into the darkest night. And then she repeated it.

"Hope."