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 'The Road To Recovery'

Key: Scene change

Code Lyoko: Collection V

Part One

By. Tate Icasa

"This is ridiculous," Odd said, "How long have we been walking?"

"I don't have a watch, Odd," Yumi said. "I'd guess about an hour."

"An hour?"

"Yes, Odd, and hour." Siss said.

"You know, sixty minutes." Ulrich said, just to bug odd. Then he glanced behind him at Jeremie and Aelita, walking almost twently paces behind them.

"He'll be fine." Yumi said, squeezing his hand, "He just needs a little time to recover."

Ulrich nodded. "Hey, what's that?" He pointed.

Everone looked. "I think it's a tower." Sissi said inally. She turned around. 'Hey, I think we found it!" She called back.

Aelita and Jeremie exchanged glances and ran until they joined the others.

"That's the tower." Aelita confirmed. "Ready?"

He looked at her, then at the others, then the tower, and back to her. "Yeah." He said finally. "Yeah, I'm ready."

The world inside the Okoylan tower was huge. Great expanses of greenish liquid covered most of the ground. Thin, steep ledged paths and rocks dotted the landscape.

"Let's go."

They navigated their way across the swamp, qucikly and in silence, until Aelita slipped on one of the tocks.

"Whoa!"

"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted, reaching to save her. He was too late, and all her did was tumble in after her.

"This stuff could be poisonous." Aelita said, as they waded to the shore. "I can't feel my feet."

They collapsed side y side on the shore.

"I can't move." He said.

"Me neither." Aelita said. "I think we found Xana's trap."

"I think you're right."

"Do you think the others will find us?"

"I don't know."

The others were standing around.

"There are no monsters." Yumi observed after a while.

"I know. I wonder why not."

"Maybe Jeremie and Aelita are walking into a trap."

"Bet I can find out." Sissi said. She put her hands on her temples. Jeremie? Aelita? Are you Ok?

Sissi? Are you communicationg telepathically with us?

Yes. How are you?

We can't move. We fell into swamp water. We got out, but the water is poisonous.

Um, oh. Well hold tight, we'll come and get you.

She released the beam.

"They're. . .alright, considering. They fell into poisonous swamp water and are paralyzed."

"Ok, then. We go in, get them out, and then. . .?"

"Hopefully, they'll have ideas on that."

Milly put a clawed hand on the tower wall, then stepped in.

"Hey, this isn't like a Lyokan tower!" Sissi said. "There's a path."

"Then we follow it." Ulrich said decisively, stepping onto the path and out of the tower.

"Wow." Yumi said, looking around.

"Look, there they are." Sissi said, pointing.

"Hey, are you guys ok?" Timiya asked.

"We're fine." Aelita said. "We just can't move."

"Ok," Yumi said, taking charge, "Sissi and Milly, go back to the Malo-Swamp village and get Hope and Caramela. Odd and Timiya, go outside and watch for monsters. Ulrich, you and I are going to stay here and make sure they don't get worse."

"You heard her," Ulrich growled when no one moved. "Get moving!"

Still hesitant, they moved out of the tower toward their respective sections.

"I don't suppose you can tell me why we need Caramela and Hope?" Milly asked.

"I'd guess that Caramela can heal Jeremie and Aelita, and Hope can get the program."

"Why did Yumi split you and Odd up on this assignment?"

"You and I got along best with Hope." Sissi said. "Why?"

"I don't know. I just don't want it to be silent. This place gives me the creeps, here outside the village."

"Oh, well you're going to hate the Volcanoe region then."

"Why, what's that?"

"Um. . .it's like the mountains of Lyoko, except that they can explode, or disintigrate into lava, without warning."

"Sounds. . .interesting."

"So, why don't you tell me what life at Kadic has been like since we disappeared?"

"What's that?" Timiya asked, pointing at something in the distance.

Odd glanced up. "Dragonfly." He said tersely. "Get ready for a big battle, these things take forever to kill."

"I thought there was no death on Okoyl?"

"No human death. The Monsters are different, get ready."

Timiya pulled her paper-thin weapon out. "Ready."

The dragonfly loomed over them. It shot a saser down, exposing the gridwork beneath, before Okoyl automatically corrected and filled in the missing space.

"Powerful." Odd said, handspringing away. "I don't know how powerful yet. This is only our second encounter."

"Oh, well then. . .how do you suggest we beat it?"

"Uh. . .we learn as we go?"

Timiya sighed and shook her head. "Follow my lead." She whispered before sprinting toward the dragonfly.

"Timiya, wait!" Odd called.

But his warning went unheeded. Timiya stood directly in the center of the beasts shadow. She threw the weapon into the air, and it split the beast's underside, a hole carved through, which she sjumped through. She caught her weapon while still in the air and flipped forward, landing on it's head, like a horses back. "NOW!" She called.

Odd shot three arrows, but they all missed, causing the dragonfly to dodge through the air, jerking wildly.

She turned in her seat to the section behind her that connected the head to the body, the hard exoskeleton moving out of the way, together, apart, together, apart, each time it jerked. And then, apart, and she thrust the weapon between the cracks, pushing it down until the head actually disconnected and fell, with her sitting on it. She released the wapon, pushed herself off the head, tuck and roll to a stop, reached up to snag the weapon out of the air, all just in time to see the body crash into the ground three times before exploding.

She tucked the weapon away as she walked over to Odd, who was staring at her in awe.

"How'd you do that?"

"Animals are my specialty." She explained. "After journalism, of course." She shrugged. "Besides, that's how you dissect a dragonfly. I tried it once, didn't work quite as well." She raised her eyebrow. "And anyway, how long could you survive without a head?"

Odd scratched his head. "Point taken."

"Are you still ok?" Yumi asked.

"Yumi! Nothing is wrong with us. We're only paralyzed."

"Sorry." She paused. "It just seems like it'd be a bad idea to let you doze off."

"You don't think we'd wake up?" Aelita asked.

"To be honest? No, not really." Yumi.

"You might be right." Jeremie admitted. "We really don't know anything about this poison."

"You don't sound worried." Aelita said.

"Should I?" He asked. "There's not supposed to be death here."

"On Okoyl maybe. Here in the tower? Jeremie, we just don't know. We could die!" Aelita said. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"Let's not talk about death anymore." Ulrich said quickly.

It should. Jermie thought. It should and it doesn't. I wonder why?

"Well then, what do we talke aout, huh?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing." Aelita said. "Why don't you and Ulrich go scout around. I'd like to talk to Jeremie alone."

Sissi held out her hand. "This pool wasn't here before." She said, making sure neither she nor Milly had touched the swamp water. "How do we get across?" The pool stretched onto the edge of the platform.

"I've got an idea." Milly said. She jumped back, onto her hands, and launched up into the air, catching one of the thick vines hanging above with her clawas and swinging up.

"Milly, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back!" Milly called over her shoulder as she darted away on her hands and feet down the vine.

Sissi sat down and waited.

Milly leapt down from the vine at the village outskirts and went straight to Hope's home.

"Milly!" Ritanalia said. When she let her in. "What are you doing here?" I thought you and your friends had gone to save 'Earth.'"

"Hey, Rita'. Yeah, we did go, but, um, Jeremie and Aelita fell into a poisnous swamp and we need Hope's help."

"Absolutely not!" Ritanalia exclaimed.

But Hope had been listening. "I'm going, mother."

Ritanalia grabbed her daughters arm. "You most certainly are not!"

Hope closed her eyes. "Split. Split. Split. Split. Split. Split."

Ritanalia was startled into letting go. The six Hope''s stared at her passively. One of them jumped up onto Milly's shoulders.

"Run." She said.

Milly didn't question the girl. She ran through and out of the town, and climbed one of the trees until they could sit on one of the vines.

"The others were just decoys. They're set to disappear within the minutes." She looked down. "This is how you got to the village? Clever."

"Listen, Hope, we don't need any riddles, ok? We need you to get the program program for us, an dthat's all."

"I understand." She paused. "You're different. Than the other Lyokan's, I mean."

"What does that mean?" Milly asked, almost angily.

"You treat me different. You treat me like an adult now, and they still treat me like a little kid."

"Would you like me to stop treating you like an adult?"

"If I asked you to, do you think you could stop?"

Milly opened her mouth to answer, then snapped it closed again. "No, probably not."

"Good. I wouldn't ask you to stop anyway. It's nice geting respect. Is Sissi motherly to you? I know that legally she's three years older than you. Does she baby you?"

"She used to," Milly smiled, "Before either of us knew about the virtual worlds."

They had reached the other side of the swamp.

Milly hung down and droped and Hope followed suit.

"Sissi, we're back." Milly said.

"You got Hope." Sissi observed.

"Well, yeah." Mily said. "Let's see if we can find Caramela."

"She'll be at the castle." Hope said.

"Then let's go."

"So," Timiya said. "You want to know about the two years you missed?"

"That'd be nice."

"Ok, then." She backflipped and landed on one hand, speaking as she balenced there. "Probably the biggest change was when your parents moved up."

"Our parents?"

"Yes, your parents. All of them. They're all living near Yumi's house. Just incase you come back. That was about two months after you disappeared."

"There's another one." Odd said, pointing to an approaching dragonfly. "Get ready."

"You understand how to beat it?"

"Yeah, I got it." He said, leaping into action.

"Jermie, what's wrong with you!" Aelita asked once they were alone.

"Um, I'm paralyzed, Aelita, duh."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Pretend I don't." He said, ust to be difficult, and knowing full well what she meant. "Explain it to me."

She sighed. "You're different."

"We're all unique."

"Jeremie Belpois, you stop being difficult right now, or I'll. . ."

"You'll what? Find a way out of paralysis? I hope you can."

"Are you being sarcastic?" She asked, irritated. Jeremie had never been sarcastic with her before.

"Maybe. I don't know."

"This is hopeless." She moaned.

"No, it's not." He said. Then, "I'm sorry, Aelita. I'm just scared."

"Of dying? I thought you didn't think we could die."

"No, Aelita. We could die. We could very feasibly die. But that's not why I'm afreaid. I'm not afreaid to die. I don't think I even care whether I live or die. And it scares me."

"That scares me too." She said. "Promise me you won't give up and die on me."

"Aelita. . ."

"Promise me!"

". . .I promise."

"Good."

And for the longest time they lay there in sielence, staring straight up into the hazy sky.

Ulrich and Yumi walked side by side along the swamp shore.

"You're aware," Yumi said, "That as of now, we're the only couple in the group that hasn't had a first kiss yet?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"No reason." She said quickly. "Just thinking out loud." She stopped, realizeing how that sounded. "I mean, um, just trying to start a conversation."

He nodded and they both looked in the other direction, blushing.

After a long moment of silence, Ulrich glanced back at her.

"Hey, Yumi?"

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you really bring that up?"

"Well, um, uh, well, Jeremi and Aelita said these worlds were romantic. . ."

"Yumi. . ."

". . .and we are going out. . ."

"Yumi!"

". . .so I was thinkg that. . .well. . ."

"Yumi!"

"Yeah?"

"If you want me to kiss you, you have to shut up."

"Oh." She said, and she shut up.

And they left Aelita and Jeremie alone for a very long time.