Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is copyrighted by Moonscoop.

This chapter was written by me and edited by AeroJester203.

Cameron is owned by Undeadmonkey8. Mary is owned by AeroJester203.

Author's note: Readers discretion advised.

Decisions

Sector Five

POV Aelita's

"Where's Lila?" Mary asks of me again.

Swallowing my anxiety, I request, "Jeremy, materialize the others. I need to talk to Mary alone and privately please."

"Okay, Aelita," he replies, "Materialization: Odd, Materialization: Yumi, Materialization: Ulrich."

Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi devirtualize and I cut the link to Jeremy's headset in the lab.

"Mary… there's no easy way to tell you this…" I trail off. "Lila's dead…"

Mary's eyes widen, "She's – she's what?"

Looking to the floor, I let her take in the news, but she grabs me by the shoulders and begins shaking me with my head still hanging down.

"What happened?! Who did this?!" she demands.

Mary stops shaking me but still looks desperate to know, torn between rage and disbelief.

I take a deep breath and look at her, "It was Xana. He enlisted a young boy who went by the name of Cameron Jones. That boy infiltrated our group, got us to trust him… and at one point he made his first attempt at killing Lila by shooting her point blank. Though it didn't work; she survived, if with difficulty moving afterwards. But… he tried again, and this time he shot her in the head."

A look of grief overwhelms Mary, and she collapses to her knees as her slackened hands drop off of my shoulders into her lap.

"This shouldn't have happened. None of this should have happened. How – how did you kids beat Xana so early?" she asks.

I sit on the floor, across from her, "We used the copy of Future Jeremy's laptop. It had all the information we needed to wipe out Xana completely. He changed our friend's destiny, and we changed his."

"You changed the timeline's history," she replies in shock. Then she looks to me, "What will all of you do now?"

I sigh sadly, "Get on with our lives. What else can we do?"

Mary regards me for a moment before her eyes widen, "Is–is that Lila's necklace?"

"Yes. I've become its protector. For some reason, it seems to give a very specific ability to the person who wears it. For Lila, it was her magic, until Xana took that away. Then it sort of recalibrated itself to these new ice powers she… obtained. And for me, it's a force field."

"Forcefield? You mean like an Energy Field?" the spectre asks.

"Energy Field? You mean this?" I ask, holding out my hand, beginning to feel the tingling sensation in it again. A deep purple ball of spiraling energy forms in my palm.

"That's it, though it's a different color. In Lila's timeline, that was called an Energy Field. And… this also means you have the capability to devirtualize normally now," Mary explains.

"I see," I say, and lower my hand, dispersing the energy.

She seems to realize something else, and her brow furrows slightly, "How did you power the multi-agent system this time around?"

"Jeremy created a program that allowed us to use Lyoko's towers and redirected their energy into the program. He found some sort of connection between the tunnels and Lyoko."

Mary's eyes widen, and she stands up, "If that's true, then- Oh my God… you can materialize your father, Aelita!"

"I – I can?" I ask, getting up.

"The information should be on the copy of Jeremy's laptop," she explains.

Looking up, I close my eyes and reestablish the link with Jeremy.

"Jeremy, I told Mary," I report. "And she's just given me some news."

"Yes, Aelita?" Jeremy asks.

Mary speaks up, "Jeremy, this is Mary. Listen I need you to pull up the materialization codes in the copy of your laptop. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes, I do. It should be where I keep the codes now. What am I looking for?"

"You'll see a list of codes for you, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and someone named William Dunbar. He was a warrior for a little while in Lila's world. Anyways, keep scrolling past that and you should see a materialization code labeled 'FH.'"

"I see it," he confirms. "Whose code is that?"

"Jeremy… it's my father's materialization code," I answer.

"Really?! Then...Of course! Franz Hopper is your father! Aelita, you have to get to a tower so that I can rematerialize you to greet him!" Jeremy exclaims.

"There's no need to, Jeremy. Now that I have my memories back, Mary has told me I can devirtualize normally now, like all of you."

"What? Hang on, let me check…" After a pause, he adds, "She's right! You can! Okay… Materialization: Aelita."

"I'll see you back there," Mary says.

"Okay," I say as my body begins to devirtualize, Lyoko disappearing from view.

Inside the scanner room

My vision returns as I find myself in the cabin of the scanner once again. The doors open while I regain my bearings, and I hear the freight elevator's doors opening. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi rush inside when they see me, and I step out to meet them.

White smoke emerges from one of the grates in the floor and forms into Mary. She appears much paler than she looked on Lyoko.

"Jeremy, I've arrived in the scanner room now. Launch the process," Mary says.

"Okay… Materialization: Franz Hopper," Jeremy announces anxiously.

All of us huddle up and look at the center scanner as it whirs to life. It hums for a while, longer than it usually took for us, and then opens at last. Smoke wafts out, obscuring a hunched figure leaning against the back wall, coughing. A hand exits the fog to grab at the doorway of the scanner. Using it to support himself, he stands up straighter in an attempt to leave the scanner as the smoke clears. My eyes widen at the sight of my father, exactly as I remembered from my memories without having aged a day.

"It's – it's really you," I say, stunned.

As Odd and Yumi cheer, Ulrich pumps his fist and exclaims, "Jeremy you did it! Hopper is with us!"

"Aelita – is that really you?" Franz asks.

"It is…" I answer gingerly. "A lot's happened, dad," I answer.

He looks at all of us and nods, "I see you made a few friends. I'm glad. Could you help me out of the scanner and into my lab? I'm afraid I'm a little unused to having a body again."

I nod, going over to him. I help him out of the scanner and support him as we walk to the freight elevator.

Inside the lab

Jeremy gives my father the monitor chair to sit in, and he takes it with a relieved sigh, inviting us to explain what happened during his absence while the fatigue wears off. Well over half an hour later, after giving him a condensed version of the events from meeting Jeremy to the present day, he manages to adjust himself to sit up straight.

Franz has his hands folded in his lap with a grave expression, looking up momentarily to say, "I'm proud of you kids. All of you took the chance to do something good. To become heroes, and fix my mistakes."

"It wasn't easy sir," Yumi says.

He shakes his head, "I believe you. I'm very sorry about your friend. About the young man that took her from you… what will you do about him?"

We all look at each other.

"Cameron's dead, isn't he?" Ulrich asks.

Franz rubs his chin, "No, I don't believe he is. From what you've explained to me, it seems the young man may just simply be lost in the Digital Sea. Or more likely, upon devirtualization he was redirected to Xana's home in Sector Five. He's possibly asleep."

"Then… you're saying we can materialize him?" Jeremy asks, to which my father nods.

I frown slightly, "Should we? He killed Lila, Jeremy… he doesn't deserve our forgiveness."

"I'm not saying we should forgive him, Aelita. But people are going to want answers as to why he killed Lila too. There was the notice put out for him a while back, and people will begin to wonder how a young man escaped the police for more than a month. We should at least try to find some things out first, before bringing him in for questioning," Jeremy reasons. "And if we can save him… then we should take that chance too…"

"I agree with Einstein. I still think he was possessed somehow… that's why I think we should save him too..." Odd mutters.

I look at Odd, then the others. Even Mary seems to agree to this, and she has the most reason to hate Cameron.

"Okay…" I reluctantly agree.

"I'll meet all of you downstairs in the scanner room," Mary offers. "If he tries something, I can protect you. Even if in my current state, I can still do some damage, but I need to be careful about the amount of energy I use."

"Thank you, Mary," Yumi says.

We all head downstairs to the scanner room as Jeremy stands by my father at his chair.

Inside the scanner room

All of us stand to face the center scanner, taking up defensive positions.

"Okay… Materialization: Cameron," Jeremy announces.

The scanner starts humming, growing louder over time before it finally opens and reveals Cameron. Sure enough, he's asleep as my father predicted.

"Jeremy, did you see that?" Franz asks.

"Yeah, I did," Jeremy answers. "Guys, there was a bug during the materialization process. It originated from Cameron's watch."

Mary goes over to look at Cameron, stooping down a short distance beside him. Part of me hopes she's going to hurt him for the pain he caused us, but instead she stares at him unblinkingly, almost as if she's scanning him.

She leans her head down and looks closely at the watch. All of us are silent as we see her hands begin to generate pink electricity. Mary moves them to Cameron's wristwatch and shocks it specifically.

The item sparks with electricity as if shorting out and snaps off of Cameron's wrist, falling to the floor. Mary picks it up and she looks at the clock face for a moment before taking it off and gasping. She turns around, showing the opened watch in front of us and all of us react with shock as well.

"Is… is that what I think it is?" Ulrich hesitantly asks.

I don't want to believe it, but I can see the object in Cameron's watch. It's the chip… the same kind of microchip that Jeremy destroyed not too long ago.

"But that means…" I gulp. "Cameron… He's a victim too."

"Do you think he'll have any recollection of what he did?" Yumi asks Mary.

"I… I have no idea," she replies. "This chip… I've never seen it before. But it appears as if it was controlling him."

"That was our theory on the chips, too," I confirm. "Jeremy… what are we going to do when he wakes up?"

"I have no idea Aelita…" Jeremy trails off.

My father speaks up, "Children if I may… I do believe I have a solution. The Return to the Past can bring you back in time, but it has a limit of two days. With the threat of Xana no longer an issue, the return to the past program can be used to wipe Cameron's memory, completely of Lila. It has that function – to use it specifically on one person."

Ulrich looks at Cameron with a slight frown, "Then…. That means he'd get away with killing Lila."

"I'm afraid it does Ulrich," Jeremy replies. "But remember now we know Cameron is a victim of Xana's manipulations too. And… at one point when he was sleeping in our room…"

He seems hesitant to continue, but does so anyways, "He talked in his sleep. He seemed to be asking Lila out on a date, which probably means he had a crush on her."

I pause at the information, thinking things over before I turn to Odd and Yumi, "What do you two think?"

"I say we save him," Odd replies with only a moment's thought. "It wouldn't be fair to lose someone that was close to us again."

I look at Yumi, who seems more hesitant, and she answers, "I…. I'll go along with whatever you decide Aelita."

Nodding, I look up and say, "Jeremy, did you get that?"

"I did, Aelita. But a thought occurred to me: What about the rest of the school? They'll still know Lila was… killed. How do we explain how Cameron lost all of his memories to the school? And the police for that matter? And what about that news notice that was put on him? The whole world knows he's a criminal."

Mary gets up and looks at all of us before sighing.

"Jeremy… if that's the case I'm afraid I'm going to need to modify the Return to the Past program so that Cameron and everyone else can forget about Lila entirely. A full memory wipe on the whole world. In doing so, no one will remember that Cameron killed Lila, because to them Lila will never have existed. While in my spectre form, I can move through the electric grid for swift travel to gather the evidence of Lila's existence… and destroy it. Including erasing any digital and physical evidence of Cameron's crime. I can create a program that would allow me to track any anomalies, let's call them, tied to specific mentions of Cameron's crime if the memory wipe isn't fully successful. lt can take a while erasing all of that data. If I weren't a spectre, I'd honestly say that would be impossible. It could be a matter of months before all of that data is truly erased from the world."

She seems to turn somber again at the thought, but continues, "I'll make sure that none of you forget, but this would best for everyone else… There's still the matter of Cameron's memory loss, yes, but I'll personally provide him a reasonable explanation as to why he lost his memory. However in doing this... I imagine the school has given you time off to grieve for Lila correct?"

All of us nod.

"I see... I'm afraid when I do this, everyone's memories at the school would, in turn, be erased so that they have no recollection of Cameron's crime, and Lila. Therefore Delmas would not remember giving you that time off to grieve for Lila's passing, because to him, there was never a Lila to begin with. Classes would resume accordingly. You kids will need to act as is if nothing happened… do you all agree to this?" The others nod, but I'm a bit hesitant.

"Um Mary… I have one request," I say.

"Yes Aelita?" Mary asks.

"Can… can you please keep Lila's grave? That way… we can visit her…" I trail off. Part of me wants to tell Mary that Lila isn't in the casket. The other part me… is concerned about how she'll react if she finds out that there isn't someone to say goodbye to. Perhaps it was a mistake in having a cremation for Lila.

"I'll honor that request Aelita. When I modify the Return to the Past program, I'll make it so it doesn't erase Lila's grave. It has the capability of not erasing certain targeted objects and places, besides erasing people's memories. It simply has… other limitations," Mary tells me.

What she means is, it can't bring back anybody that died. I simply nod.

"Right…" I trail off. "Thank you, Mary."

All of us look at each other and head to the elevator. Once we're all inside, I press the red button. The doors close, and the elevator brings us up into the lab.

Later

Inside the lab

Mary is sitting on the chair as she types away at an incredibly fast speed, faster than I think any human can. It makes sense since she's a spectre, I suppose. My father looks at me, I believe because he can tell that I'm upset.

"Aelita… are you sure about this?" he asks.

I nod, "I am."

Though he doesn't look completely convinced, he turns to Jeremy, "I've been meaning to ask you… How did you find that connection with the tunnels, to program that multi-agent system of yours?" Franz asks.

"Well… it was already there. I assumed you put it in when you created Lyoko and Carthage," Jeremy replies.

Franz shakes his head, "No, no. I created them separately. In the very beginning, Carthage was a military program used to block enemy communications. When Xana became too autonomous, he took it over and made it his home. There's no reason he would make that connection; he'd make it separate from Lyoko entirely. The tunnels are rather interesting though. Perhaps he wanted to watch over Lyoko as the new master. But nevertheless, that connection should have been impossible."

"Then… how did…?" I wonder.

Odd raises a finger, "Could it have been MB's doing?"

Mary stops typing and looks at him, "MB? Who's MB?"

"We found this suitcase in my father's train station locker a while back," I explain. "It had the initials 'MB' on it. Someone specifically knew where to put that suitcase, and inside it was a laptop with an eight-digit security code. It seemed simple enough at first glance but became rather difficult to crack. Just six days ago, the laptop died because we had entered too many combinations."

"How many did you enter?" Mary asks.

I shake my head, "A lot, too many, honestly."

She stops typing momentarily, appearing deep in thought, "Right, well, I'm not sure who this MB person is, but if they knew about Lyoko and Franz Hopper, and if they didn't work with Franz at all on the supercomputer, then-"

Ulrich interrupts her tangential speech, asking, "What are you trying to say?"

"It's possible we're dealing with another time traveler," Mary reveals.

"Huh?!" All of us exclaim, minus my father.

Yumi regains her bearings first and asks, "Is there any way of finding out?"

"No, there isn't," the spectre answers. "We're not even sure where we would find this hypothetical time traveler. Aelita, Jeremy, you mentioned this laptop had multiple combinations, right? How many, exactly?"

Jeremy puts his hand on his chin, "Well if I remember right the laptop had about 40,320 possible combinations. Why do you ask?"

"Well… the math would be wrong. If it was an eight-digit coded laptop then it would have been impossible for you, Aelita or Lila to crack because there would have been one hundred million possible combinations. Did you forget to include letters, special characters like the sort you would use in an email, for example?" Mary asks.

Were the situation not so serious, I would've blushed in embarrassment at such an oversight. At length, I say, "Oh… Yes, we did… Our math was off, then—far off. Well, that's rather embarrassing, but it explains why the laptop died so soon."

"Um… Guys, why am I in the scanner?" Cameron asks from the scanner room, his voice coming from the speakers of the computer. "And why do I feel like someone used my body as a puppet?"

"Uh-oh, Cameron's awake," Odd whispers. "What do we do?"

"The program is modified," Mary reports in an equally low tone, silently asking to activate it. All of us nod.

Cameron continues calling, "Um, guys…? Hello? Lila, are you there?"

I wince at that… he really doesn't remember.

Mary types on the keyboard swiftly and she hovers her finger on the enter key.

"Return to the past… NOW!" Mary exclaims, pressing the button. All of us look at the holosphere, seeing a big red bubble forming inside of it instead of the usual white color. After a brief moment, it expands outward and brings us back in time.

Two days earlier

April 8th

Inside Aelita and Yumi's room

Waking up, the sun is shining through the window. Looking around, part of me is happy that Yumi is still here with me… but I'm still sad that Lila's gone. At least I have Lila's necklace and cane to remember her by... I think I'll be keeping them for a while.

Afterwards

We returned to our classes as Mary instructed, after meeting her and my father in the lab this morning. We acted as if anything didn't happen. Thankfully Delmas remembered that Yumi was my roommate, so when he and Jim stopped by for an inspection, he passed off Lila's boxes as Yumi's. He and Jim didn't comment about my black hair dye. When opening mine and Yumi's shared closet, he was surprised to see a cane in there, amongst everything else. I explained to him that it was an object I found in the woods one stroll during an afternoon. Not giving it a further thought, he and Jim finished our inspection, passing us with flying colors. He and Jim left to do the other inspections.

After that Yumi and I went about our day, having lunch, and finishing up our classes. It's too bad Yumi can't have classes with us, but she is the oldest one in the group, so there's not much that can be changed about that. After they were done though, Yumi and I then decided to meet with the others for dinner. All of us were quiet given what we've been through. Jeremy did mention that he brought Cameron to Mary, earlier in the day. The three of them talked in the park about Cameron's memory problems.

Jeremy told us that Mary told Cameron that he had accidentally fallen off a ladder when working in cleaning up the Hermitage for Mary and my father, a job Mary hired Cameron for, but made up nonetheless. He seemed to be grateful the injury wasn't serious and Mary told Cameron not to worry about cleaning the Hermitage anymore, that she would take care of it. He did mention to Jeremy he remembered being friends with us, and Jeremy said that was because he met us through him, since they were roommates. It makes sense that he wouldn't remember, given he met all of us through Lila. At the end of their conversation, Cameron seemed to have agreed to his situation and went about his classes during the day. Before Jeremy left Mary, she apparently told him the tracking program is up and running and she'd be keeping the copy of Jeremy's laptop to run it.

During this conversation Jeremy relayed to us, all of us just nodded. We couldn't be more grateful that the Return trip to the Past program worked except... we paid a price for it. Before we started our classes today, we had found out that the supercomputer's battery was massively drained given what it had to do... and so we had no choice but to deactivate the supercomputer entirely. I think that's why most of us are quiet right now, that's not much to talk about with Lyoko missing from our lives. I could feel, as Jeremy was talking about Mary's program and how fast she created it, that there were some students staring at me for black hair dye. I ignored their stares and continued to listen to Jeremy.

After dinner, we had to burn Lila's things, including MB's laptop. A fat lot of good that did. I can honestly say that it wasn't a good experience. Nobody said anything since Mary could only stare at the memories of Lila turning to ashes, my father seemed unable to console anybody since he didn't really know Lila that well, and the rest of us had a funeral for Lila already on Lyoko. All we could do was resolve to carry Lila's memory on in our hearts. And I'm going to... I'm going to visit Lila's grave every chance I get. I think Mary will visit it daily... she has the time to do so.

Weeks later

Weeks have passed since I've visited Lila's grave. I can't bring myself to visit it anymore. It's too heartbreaking. I feel terrible for Mary.

All Mary has to remember Lila by is her diary and the spherical device she arrived in. She let me keep the cane and necklace, though she wouldn't say why, just that she could understand that we were close. Something tells me that there's more to that statement, but I don't want to pry since she's still in mourning.

My father and Mary have moved into a house. She predicted some lottery number a while back, and she still had quite a bit of money—a little under half a million Euros, to be exact. Who knew? The house is big, lots of rooms and a nice open studio style living room with two sofas. There's a big table in the living room for eating and a nice fireplace in the living room as well. I was rather impressed by it all when we first visited. During this time, she cleaned the chain, as she wanted to make sure no one would question a bloodstained necklace, I was reluctant to agree.

During that day I visited her, she took the necklace back to fix it up. I had the time to talk my father. He's been keeping his mind active through word puzzles. He mentioned to me that Mary has cooked all of his meals for him. He admitted to me he felt guilty, but he told me she said that she needed something to do to keep her busy. He has also told me that Mary does visit Lila's grave every morning before breakfast. He assumes it's because she is a spectre, she can travel quickly to different places. He's rather impressed by her recovery, given the amount of time she had was trapped in the Scyphozoa's mind. He can't imagine the physical and psychological torture Mary has been through... and I don't want to imagine it either.

After spending a few hours with talking to my father about other things, Mary brings back the necklace. The chain part is no longer bloodstained, and I'm a bit surprised so I asked her how she did it. She tells me that she went out to look for the right chain that would look close enough to the original. She had brought Lila's necklace to Kadic's woods for privacy. She mentioned she transformed into her white smoke form, entered the treasure chest part and took off the old chain. From there she simply installed the new chain, while still inside the treasure chest part, and using her own electrical powers she wielded everything together. After a few minutes of doing this, she expelled herself out of the treasure chest part. Replacing a new chain was a simple task for her. Searching for the right chain was why she was gone for so long. My father and I didn't even notice she had left the house.

Mary gave me the necklace back, and I put it on and hid the treasure chest part under my t-shirt, that's covered by my pink hoodie I'm wearing.

A few days had passed after that.

I visited Mary again and she admitted to me she won the money because she has the ability to process and predict multiple numbers in an instant. The money is stored on a debit card that we didn't burn thankfully. She lied to Lila about getting numbers from Jeremy in the future. She probably could have cracked MB's laptop more quickly than us, if Xana hadn't taken her away. Mary still runs the tracking program daily, and there have been no signs of anyone remembering what Cameron has done.

After I visited Mary, I walked back to Kadic as I began to think just how much all of us are hurt that he's gotten away with murder, but we did what we had to do. Jeremy recently asked him to move into William's room, and Cameron agreed to it.

I can't seem to move on from losing Lila, even after all this time. While it's only been weeks since I last visited Lila's grave, it seems like years have passed to me. The others are almost back to normal, and I'm grateful Odd has his appetite back. I was worried about him. One bright spot, though, was that Sissi still stayed with us, acting friendly and joining in our activities during classes. While she seemed to be mainly inviting herself at first, we gradually accepted her since she seemed sincere.

I also decided to let the dye fade from my hair, returning it to its regular pink color. A lot of people questioned my new and confusing look when I still had it, but I simply ignored their stares. I didn't feel like I needed to give them a response. Even when Jim and Delmas gave Yumi and I that surprise inspection, I could feel that Jim and Delmas were concerned with my hair. I'm glad they didn't make comments about it like the other students have, but I no longer have to worry about it since my hair color is back to its usual color.

I still feel like defeating Xana was a hollow victory without Lila here too, I'm not entirely sure how I'm getting by without her if I'm being honest.

It's a good thing Mary's house is close by. I should really get a move on to get to Mrs. Hertz's class on time, I think.

Later that afternoon

In Mrs. Hertz's class

At least the end of the year dance coming up in just a few days… I just can't believe this term is almost over. I really wish Lila could be here for this dance… for a lot of things. I wish I could fix- I stop myself on that thought.

"Oh, Aelita, you idiot!" I sigh internally, mentally kicking myself for missing the obvious.

Mrs. Hertz looks at me strangely, "Ms. Stones? Is there something wrong?"

"Um… No ma'am, sorry for the outburst," I apologize.

I get a few stares from my friends, Sissi included, while the rest of the class laughs at my sudden statement. I'm grateful with Cameron is sitting in the back. He's been roommates with William, they've most likely gotten along pretty well together from what Jeremy has told me. He still talks to Cameron but most of their conversations are brief. I can't hear any laughter coming from Cameron, I guess he's taking this situation seriously too.

The only other person who isn't laughing is a new girl named Kayori Avalon. She's about five feet and two inches tall and has green eyes. Her skin tone is average, but she has a flexible build to her that suggests some athletic background, perhaps track or gymnastics. She has brown hair that goes down to her shoulder blades and wears a dark blue jacket over a blood red tube top featuring a wolf design. A dark blue short skirt and black ankle-length socks complete her ensemble.

Noticing something I hadn't before, I glance a bit closer at her to see that she's wearing thin chains around her neck. I know Lila only wore one necklace, the one I have… but I can't help but be reminded of her from how similar the chains are. I turn back to Mrs. Hertz as Kayori doesn't pay much attention to my interruption.

"Everyone settle down now please!" Mrs. Hertz calls. "We need to finish this lesson, so all of you can take your exams this upcoming week. Jim and I will be handing them, and they'll be graded by me as well as my colleagues. They're a big portion of your grade. Jim and I will be supervising you, so be prepared!"

A lot our classmates groan, including Odd. I smile slightly at him, with Sissi being part of the group, and showing her nicer side, he apparently remembered why he was interested in her when they first met. Even though she rejected his playful advances, she was never harsh about it.

Unfortunately, one thing that changed about Odd is that he won't let Kiwi back on campus, and I can't say I blame him after the zombie attack. Though something tells me it has more to do with Lila dying...

After class

By the vending machines area

We're now at the vending machines, and Ulrich gets a drink from one of them as Yumi meets up with us. Though I hated to do it, I asked Jeremy to text everyone to meet here in secret, without Sissi. She really has turned over a new leaf, but this is beyond anything she could understand.

"So, Aelita, what was that about during class?" Jeremy asks.

"It's… it's nothing Jeremy," I reply. "I just remembered something really important."

"Like what?" Odd asks, Ulrich and Yumi watching as well.

I look down slightly, "Well… I still haven't moved on from her, you know? And… I think I need to see Mary."

"Why?" Jeremy asks.

I take the necklace out and show it to the others, "I forgot this was a time machine. It's not limited like the return trip was… You guys, I think I can use it to go back in time and change things."

"No way," Ulrich replies in disbelief. "It only worked for Lila the one time… and besides, what makes you think you could change the time?"

I smile at him, "You'll see, Ulrich, you'll see. Come on, let's go to Mary's."

Later

Inside Mary's house

Yumi, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and I are sitting on the big sofa. My father is on a new chair that is currently is reclined, sipping a cup of tea while Mary sits on the other sofa.

"So what brought all of you here today?" she asks.

"Mary… I was wondering, is… Is this time machine still functional?" I ask, holding the necklace.

Mary frowns, "It was heavily damaged Aelita. The doors came off after the first time-jump; even the holographic screens were damaged. I had to melt the doors a while back, so no one would find them. Why do you ask?"

"If… if I were to go back in time, could I go back say… to the exact day, Lila was shot? And prevent that from ever happening?"

All of us look at her, hopeful.

She sighs, "Even if you do, it won't change our future, Aelita. You'll be changing the course of events, yes, but this future… since it already happened, it won't be erased. When you go back in time, and change the past, you'll simply be redirecting it. There's no telling if time will even be fixed and who knows if the new direction will have a far worse outcome. I would have told this to… to Lila, a while back. But I believe she would have used time travel in a different manner, that's why I had to act as if I didn't have the true knowledge to how time travel works. I even acted as if my memories were corrupted... I hated lying to her. But I did what I had to do because this is the truth about time travel and how it really works."

My father stops sipping his tea and puts it on the saucer resting in the cup holder of the chair's arm.

"I agree with what Mary did. Time travel is risky and tempting, it is reasonable to understand that she lied to Lila in the past. Basically, Aelita, from what Mary has told me and my understanding of it, is that the people in the new version of this timeline won't be you or your friends," he explains. "It won't be the Lila that died that gets to live, but this new outcome will simply branch out differently. It wouldn't be counted as a second timeline because, from what Mary told me, Lila's future was the original timeline. The timeline we're currently in would be the second one. So, think of it as a branch growing off of the second timeline, but still a part of it. From there, Mary is saying that something drastic could occur from such tampering—possibly even making things worse for those Lyoko Warriors and Lila."

"I think I understand," I turn to my friends, "What do you guys think? Should I use the time machine to go back and redirect events?"

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich nod. Jeremy, however, hesitates.

"I'm not so sure," Jeremy says, fixing his glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"It's still not our Lila. But… I do think Lila deserves to live."

I turn to face Mary again, "Mary… I want you to teach me everything about this time machine. I'll go back, after the end of year dance."

This way… I can at least have some good final memories with my friends in case the wrecked time machine doesn't make it. I'll also need to find the gun Cameron used on Lila… Mary never found it when clearing the physical evidence of Cameron's crime and Lila's existence. But all of this, what I'm going to do… is to save a friend.

TO BE CONTINUED...

IN: Chapter 5 of 5 of The Dark Saga

Author's note: Kayori Avalon is owned by decode9. While this is the first time Kayori has made her appearance in Changing Destiny: Lila's Journey!, it will not be the last. However, I cannot accept any further OCs into this fanfiction.

Error detected: William is not in the same classes as Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. That has been corrected.

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LyokoWarrior1994