Crazy trouble with love part 4
Zelda and Odd
Series: Code Lyoko
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jeremy was crunching numbers on his laptop during lunch while focusing extra hard on the data. "I think I almost got it Aelita. Take a look."
She looked over at the data and was amazed. "Wow, you managed to get this far all in one night?"
"This new program will be a really game changer in our fight against XANA. And it only cost me five hours of sleep."
"What is it Einstein?" asked Odd while eating a piece of toast.
"Well, Aelita and I have been thinking of ways to take out XANA's forces on a larger scale. So we're making a new weapon, and to keep it simple, let's call it a bomb."
"Be careful what you say, nowadays people go nuts over that." replied Ulrich eating from his tray. "And you sure this kind of weapon is a good one? Remember the marabunta?"
"Yes, vividly." Jeremy replied adjusting his glasses. "Except this program works like a black hole for data, specifically monster data."
"That sorta makes it worse." replied Yumi. "I mean if the marabunta could spread out and nearly cover Lyoko, couldn't this end up sucking it all up? And let's not forget William is still XANA's prisoner."
"Not necessarily, I only put a limit amount of power in it so it will collapse in on itself once the power runs out. As for William, well that part I'm unsure of cause I didn't account for him, at least not yet. If we're lucky he won't show up before the hole closes. And if anything does go wrong we can simply use the return to the past program."
"You sure about that? We don't need XANA getting anymore stronger." spoke Ulrich.
"It's a gamble yes, but I'm positive with this new program we can take the risk." he nodded. "Even if we go back in time this program can take on any monster he throws our ways, but first we need to test it out. And regrettably the only way to get XANA to send any of his monsters. We'll Need Aelita to act as bait."
"What? Has your brain finally fried from lack of sleep?" asked Odd.
"I'm aware of the risk Odd. It was my idea in the first place." Spoke the pink haired girl.
"Say what?" spoke Yumi in surprise. "Aelita are you sure? I mean that just makes this whole thing even more risky."
"The program only works on monsters, so there's no danger of it sucking her in, but as long as you guys are close by to set off the weapon it should be fine." Jeremy explained. "One of you will have to carry it."
"Ooh me!" Odd said holding up his hand up. "I can do it."
"Odd? You're alright with being near something like that?" asked Ulrich.
"This is me you're talking to, remember?" he smiled. "Besides, it just means if it works I can get front row seats to seeing those monsters go down the drain. Besides you guys hardly ever trust me with the important stuff."
"Well when are you guys gonna try it out?" asked Ulrich.
"Free period, we'll head to the factory then."
Later as they had to deal with the usual classes that bored them, Jeremy, Aelita, and Odd headed down the tunnel and skated towards the factory. They rode the elevator down to the computer room. Jeremy got in his chair while Odd and Aelita headed down to the scanners.
"Okay Aelita you be careful, I don't what I-er, we would do without you." Jeremy said over the intercom.
Aelita blushed with a giggle as she stepped into the scanner while Odd snickered and got in his own.
"Don't worry Romeo, I'll make sure Juliet is safe and sound." he said as the scanners closed.
Jeremy blushed and frowned while inputting keys. "Scanning Odd. Scanning Aelita. Virtualization." he spoke as their forms were scanned on the screen before hitting the key as we cut to the Forest sector of Lyoko.
They appeared in mid air before landing on the ground.
"Okay Odd here comes the bomb."
In another minute a black orb with purple circuitry appeared in front of Odd. "Cool."
"Be very careful, I want you to set it down in the proper spot and step back to keep out of sight so none of Xana's monsters get an idea on what's going on."
"Gotcha. So Aelita, how long do you think it'll take XANA to notice we're here?"
"Not long." she shook her head while looking around and spotted something moving towards them. "Odd!"
"Jeremy where should I set this down?"
"Anywhere is fine, Just make sure the monsters are close enough to get caught in it's pull."
"Can do, but how about next time you make it into a grenade Einstein?" he quickly set it down before running over to hide behind one of the trees and gave Aelita a thumbs up while hiding himself.
"Guys you got a Megatank, a few Krabs, and a Tarantula. No sign of Will, but be on alert especially for the Scyphozoa. I'm particularly fond of seeing that monster get deleted."
"Xana didn't hold anything back." muttered Odd while looking around the side to see the monsters heading right towards Aelita who was doing all she could to stand in place and hope they didn't notice the orb yet. Suddenly a familiar tentacle came up from the edge behind them and Jeremy's scanner started going off.
"Look out! Behind you."
They turned and went wide eyed seeing the Scyphozoa rise up from the side of the path with one of it's tentacles reaching out towards Aelita at seeing the vulnerable prey.
"How you miss that one Jeremy?"
"Ugh, it was hiding underneath the Sectors terrain, I really need to work on fixing that." frowned the genius as the jellyfish like monster started to scan Aelita's mind. "Odd I'm gonna activate the bomb. Get ready to grab Aelita."
"On it."
"I hope you're watching XANA." Jeremie glared before typing and hit enter. "Because this one's gotta hit you right where it hurts."
The purple circuitry on the orb lit up and the other monsters noticed it as it slowly rose up into the air before it began glowing. It then opened up into a purple and black vortex that started to pull the monsters in.
The Tarantula gave a cry and tried bracing itself while they were slowly pulled towards it with the Scyphozoa trying to keep it's hold on Aelita while getting pulled in too.
Odd rushed out and grabbed her feet. "Oh no you don't!"
The Megatank tried rolling back, but even then the pull made it roll towards the vortex while the Krab, whose legs scraped against the ground in a desperate attempt to escape, also went into the hole followed by the Tarantula.
"Yes! It's working!" Jeremy smiled.
"Not quite Einstein, old jelly head is a fighter." spoke Odd as he tried to pull Aelita free from the grasps while the monster was being pulled towards the vortex. He took aim with one of his paws and smirked. "Laser Arrow!" before an arrow flew out and cut one of the tendrils as he slowly worked on each one before Aelita was freed and the monster was pulled into the vortex.
Aelita sighed in relief as Odd helped her back to her feet. "Thanks Odd, for a second I thought it was gonna pull me in with it."
The vortex started to recede into a black orb which sparked with electricity as an error warning appeared on Jeremy's screen.
"Oh no, this can't be." he muttered hitting keys frantically. "There can't be something wrong, I triple checked the data."
"Uh Jeremy? Please tell me you're joking around." spoke Odd.
"This is no joke. I'm pulling you guys out before things get worse."
"Good idea, things aren't looking too good." spoke Aelita as they saw the orb shaking while giving off more sparks.
Back at school the four Lyoko warriors looked at the abnormality on Jeremy's laptop screen.
"It's been like this ever since it started." he explained while typing in keys and getting another error. "So far it just sits there and nothing else has been happening."
"Knew this was gonna happen. We try out a new weapon to make things easier and then it goes haywire." spoke Ulrich. "Think this might be Xana's fault?"
"No, it's mine." Jeremy admitted. "I don't know how I missed it, but there was a feedback loop in the program."
"Any idea what might happen?" asked Yumi.
"It might be they're forever or it'll eventually go out, and that's the best case scenario."
"But can it still suck up monsters? Cause if so I wouldn't mind letting it stay there, heck we could do the same for the other sectors too, leave our own little portal vacuums." spoke Odd.
"Probably not the best idea, but I'm not giving up on the monster bomb. We'll give it a day and if it's not gone I'll run some tests." he shut his laptop. "In the meantime though, I don't think XANA can get any of the data the Scyphozoa got from Aelita while it's inside, so that's a good sign that Aelita's help won't be for nothing."
"I was just happy to see it go." Aelita said with a smile.
"Well I'd love to stick around, but I've gotta get to class." spoke Ulrich. "Let me know if anything changes."
"I'll come with, we've got the same class." smiled Yumi with Ulrich mirroring it as they walked out of the room.
Odd frowned at noticing and let out a sigh.
"Something wrong Odd?" Aelita asked.
"It's nothing, it's just….well it feels like everyone around here has that certain someone ya know? Ulrich and Yumi still haven't made it official, but those two are nuts for each other. And you and Jeremy are like two peas in a pod. Me? I got no one."
Both of them blushed while Odd turned and walked out.
"I'll see ya later." he said putting his hands in his pocket as he left. He stared at the floor and sighed. 'If I knew I'd be left in the dust maybe I should have really thought about a real relationship. Now I feel like a big jerk with every girl in school, none of them would get with me to save their life.'
Later that night Jeremy was working on his bomb program. He was running scan after scan on it and was still getting no response from it. "Come on, what's the matter with you?"
"Hey Jeremy?" spoke Aelita opening the door a little. "Still busy working on the program?"
"It's been nine hours since detention and it's still not responding." he groaned holding his head. "I can't even check to see if it actually destroyed the monsters or if they're just being held there." he held a hand to the the screen which showed a red X and the word ERROR above it.
"Well maybe you can see if it changes in the morning, it's getting pretty late."
"Yeah. You're right,*yawn* I need to make up for the sleep I lost last night." he rubbed his eyes and shut the computer down. "Good night Aelita."
"Good night Jeremy." She waved to him and walked out of the room.
He moved over and got in his bed then set his glasses aside and turned the lights off. While he was starting to get cozy the screen briefly flickered to show the error screen with the vortex twitching before it went back off.
The next morning he was up bright and early. He walked over to his laptop and took a look at the program but to his surprise it was now on the move and registering as five separate monsters at once. "Oh no, this can't be good." he quickly grabbed his phone and dialed the others as he raced out of his room.
With Yumi she was brushing her teeth right as her phone started ringing and after seeing Jeremy's name before answering. "Wha'."
"Yumi, something's going on with the bomb, I need you to head down to the lab as fast as you can."
"Okay." She replied before quickly gargling and spit.
Odd was with Ulrich as he was taking a stance and getting ready for a high kick before hearing his own phone buzz. "Odd, can you get that?"
"Sure thing." he grabbed Ulrich's phone from his bag and answered it. "Yello?"
"Odd? Who answers a phone like that anymore? Never mind, listen we got trouble in Lyoko."
"Let me guess, the bomb went boom?"
"Not exactly, just grab Ulrich and get to the lab. I'll get Aelita and meet you there."
The five youths rushed to the the factory and made their way to the lab.
"So what's going on?" asked Ulrich.
"Somehow my program became mobile. It's roaming around the Forest sector and...wait. It's being followed by a swarm of hornets and is heading for a tower."
"Then I say we sit back and see what happens. It'll probably eat those bugs up for breakfast." spoke Odd.
"Odd I highly doubt-" Jeremy went quiet when ⅕ of the swarm was deleted. "Wha...Huh? How?"
"See what I mean?"
The rogue program approached the tower and disappeared inside.
"Impossible!" Jeremy exclaimed. "It went into the tower."
"But... Only Aelita can do that." Yumi spoke with confusion.
"Ok, now I know we need to check this out." spoke Ulrich before the four went back to the elevator and down to the scanner room.
"Scanning Odd, scanning Ulrich, scanning Aelita, scanning Yumi, virtualization."
Once they were in the forest sector they hurried over to the scene and saw the swarm buzzing around the tower.
"Uh guys, not to add more pressure but whatever is in the tower is trying to access it." Jeremy informed.
"That helps." spoke Yumi with sarcasm before she pulled her fan out and tossed it, hitting one of the Hornets and causing it to explode before the others took notice of them and flew towards them.
"Thankfully the tower is denying it. But it's probably best to get it out before it learns how to jump sectors."
"On it." spoke Odd before firing several arrows at the Hornets who began to fire lasers at them.
"Clear a path for Aelita!" Ulrich ordered. He used super sprint and jumped up before swinging his sword to destroy another one of them.
Yumi and Odd followed his instruction and once the swarm was thinned out Aelita raced for the tower. She slowly entered it body first and went wide eyed seeing a figure moving their sharp pointed fingers across the screen without looking at her.
"What on Earth?"
The figures head perked up before turning to the pink haired girl and looked at her.
One look at their face and Aelita's jaw dropped with a gasp.
The other Lyoko warriors had cleared yet last of the hornets and took a breath of relief.
"Wow, haven't had to fight that many in a long time." spoke Ulrich sheathing his sword.
"I don't know, I actually enjoyed the target practice." Odd said putting his hands behind his head.
"Guys, have you noticed something?" asked Yumi looking at the tower.
"Like what?" asked Ulrich.
"Aelita hasn't come out of the tower yet, and neither has that program."
It was then their friend came flying out. She rolled against the ground with a groan and shocking all of them.
"Aelita!" cried out Jeremy in concern. "Are you alright? What happened?"
Odd looked back at the tower just in time to see a metallic gauntlet with red clawed fingers. "Um guys? I think that thing made it happen."
They all look back at the tower as the figure full emerged, shocking them all. It was a girl whose face resembled Aelita almost exactly but she had green hair that was an aquamarine shade. Around the top of her head was a headring that had the Scyphozoa's head in the middle of it. She wore a normal shirt and pants that were green in segments across the front with the sides a light shade of brown. On her arms were silver gauntlets that had long red fingers with sharp tips with four VERY similar tentacles that lazily floated in the air before they wrapped around her arms and legs. On her feet were silver boots with half a spheres on them.
"Um, who's the new girl?" asked Odd while Yumi helped Aelita back on her feet.
"Jeremy are you seeing this?" Ulrich stated.
"Oh I'm seeing it alright, and I can't believe it." he spoke with wide eyes. "Guys, the signal from the program….is coming from her."
"Seriously?" Yumi asked when suddenly the counterfeit Aelita made an animalistic cry before the half spheres on her boots went down and she skated at them rapidly.
"Yes, but she has life points like you guys." he spoke while they quickly dodged her swipes. "Meaning if you can get them down, it might just delete her."
"Then let's take this fake down." spoke Ulrich before bringing his sword out and blocked her swipe while seeing her growl at him while sounding like a mix of a Tarantula and Krab. "I don't usually hit girls but I'll make an exception!"
She growled before jumping back as the tentacles unraveled and moved towards Odd and Yumi and lashed like whips.
"Watch out! Yumi cried as she and Odd ducked and jumped out of their path, but forgot Aelita was nearby as they wrapped around her and pulled her close and looked at her.
"No!" Yumi cried.
"W-who are you!" asked Aelita in fear.
The girl narrowed her eyes at Aelita while her eyes briefly flashed into Xana's symbol before looking the girl over as the other two tentacles moved over near her head and began transferring date from her head just like the Scyphozoa. "Mine." the green haired copy said as the tips of her tentacles lit up near Aelita's head.
"Oh no, not this time." Odd took aim before firing several arrows at the tendrils.
The copy fired blasts from her palms at the arrows before firing at the attacker.
"Oh great, this one can multitask!"
"I got this." Yumi threw her fan out at the tendrils which the girl quickly pulled out of the way while the data kept coming from Aelita. "Ok I'm starting to miss the old Scyphozoa." She remarked.
"Triplicate." spoke Ulrich running over and forming two clones as the three of them surrounded her with their blades out.
She looked around wondering which one to focus on. She guessed one and held her hands out before firing two lasers only to miss.
The other two lunged at her and swung their swords which cut the tentacles holding Aelita.
She let out a roar as Ulrich quickly caught Aelita and ran back to the others while the tentacles began to slowly regenerate.
"This thing is nuts!" Odd spoke. "Not to mention hitting someone who looks like one of my friends is a little conflicting."
She stood up and glared at them while her hands twitched and she looked between Aelita and Odd.
Odd held up his arms when he tried to fire only to find he was out of arrows. "Uh oh, a little help here guys?"
She let out a roar and use d her tendrils to grab Odd's limbs before holding him up and used her skates to roll down the path and away from them.
"HEEEELLLP!""
"Odd!" cried out the others seeing her quickly getting away.
"Hang on guys, I'm sending you your vehicles now." spoke Jeremy quickly sending the vehicles which materialized besides them.
They hopped on and pursued them.
"You okay Aelita?" Ulrich asked.
"Yeah….That was definitely different than the original."
"What even was that?" questioned Yumi as they rode off
"I don't know, but it wasn't like she was trying to steal steal my mind more like she was... browsing."
"Does anyone else notice how this all seems to come together? Jeremy, is she still giving off the signal to the bomb?"
"Yeah, wow she is fast." he remarked seeing her and Odd's points moving farther away. "Hmmm, tentacles, laser fire, similar appearance to Aelita, and the signature? Keep following her, I think I might have a hunch."
Odd was being dragged against the ground as the copy rolled off. "Ooh! Ah! Ow! Son of a-! Gah! Einstein!"
"Relax Odd, I'm keeping an eye on you both, and the others are on their way."
"Well at least give me some more arrows Jeremy!"
"Jeremy?" The copy repeated and looked around. "Jeremy?!"
"Um….yes?"
"Jeremy! Jeremy!" She called and looked around frantically. "Where are you? What's going on?"
"Hey you alright monster girl?"
"My name is Aelita!" She yelled.
"Uh... no, Aelita's back there. you look more like a Zelda to me." he replied while she slowed to a stop, held her head and gave another growl.
"Grah! My head! What's going on!"
"That's what I'd like to know." he muttered. "Uh, would you mind letting me go now? I mean I like that a girl is holding my hand, sort of, but the whole tentacle thing is a little weird. "
She growled while the tentacle tightened up around him.
"Ow! Okay, okay! We'll play it your way!"
She held her head and groaned. Flashes of memories played out while she was still confused. "My name is Aelita, it has to be! It's one of the most prominent things in my memory."
"Um, you mean the memory before or after you just tied up my friend?"
"I... Don't know why I did that. Honestly it got a little fuzzy." she remarked while looking down.
Odd noticed the tentacle loosening up and sat up just as he saw the others arrive.
"Odd, are you okay?" Yumi asked.
"Yeah, peachy. Although our new friend seems to be having an identity crisis."
"And I might have the answer to that." spoke Jeremy. "After running a few scans, my theory is right. It seems like the program not just sucked in those monsters, but wound up mixing their data into a new lifeform due to the feedback loop. The fact she looks similar to Aelita, thinks she's Aelita, but only can remember so much is because the Scyphozoa only downloaded so much of her data. This entail molded all the data together into a being similar to her, but giving her the powers of the monsters."
"Okay, so now we got to figure out what to do with her." Ulrich stated.
She fell to her knees and clenched her eyes shut while feeling conflicted.
"Right now she's just a patchwork of Aelita's memories and the instincts of the monsters that made her." Jeremy point out. "That's why she's so confused."
She growled and let out a loud cry before firing lasers from her hands in random directions while the tentacles lashed all around without any specific direction.
"Zelda, calm down!" Odd called out.
"Zelda?" Yumi Questioned.
"It was the name of this babysitter I had who dyed her hair green."
She looked at them and bit her lip before trying to take a deep breath. She reactivated her blades and rolled off.
"Zelda, hold up!"
"Let her go Odd." Said Jeremy. "We got bigger problems, classes start in ten minutes."
"But what about her? If she's like Aelita and can access the towers, doesn't that mean she could access some important data?" asked Ulrich.
"She can only get in, the towers won't let her access any data inside. Besides from what I've seen I'm sure she can take care of herself."
"I hope so." spoke Aelita.
They went back to school and made their way through the hall.
"I expected something big, but nothing like that." spoke Yumi.
"Well we can say the bomb works," Odd said to Jeremy "If you intended to make clones of your girlfriend ."
"T-T-That wasn't it at all!" he blushed out while Aelita's own cheeks turned red. "This is something I never planned for at all I swear!"
"Well after school we should really figure out what to do about Zelda."
"Who's Zelda?"
The group turned and saw Sissi and her two shadows.
"Oh, um….she's Aelita's sister." spoke Odd thought quickly. "Twin sister actually."
"Twin?" she raised an eyebrow. "If that's true, how come she's not here with her?"
"She...Acts out a lot, not really social, so she's homeschooled." Aelita replied looking over to Odd.
"Well that's good, last thing the school needs is a pair of you walking around."
"Trust us Sissi, seeing you with a twin would really get us around, out and far away that is." smirked Ulrich.
"Does she have any particular hobbies?" Herb questioned adjusting his glasses.
"Uh, well she likes to rollerblade." Aelita replied.
"Is she cute?" Asked Nicholas with a smile
"Think of Aelita, but with green hair." Odd stated.
"She sounds like she's desperate for attention."
"And somewhat aggressive." Ulrich added. "But don't worry Sissi, no one can take that away from you."
Yumi held back a the remark.
Sissi frowned before they heard the bell ring for class.
"Let's go guys." Jeremy spoke.
They walked past the three while heading into their classes.
Throughout the day Odd was having trouble focusing on the lessons. He was more focused on Zelda. It was amazing how Jeremy's simple experiment could have actually caused a new life to be born. Now she was all alone, in one of the most hostile places possible. He got chewed out a few times for day dreaming but not as much as when he was in gym class.
"Odd! Focus!" spoke Jim with a frown. "It's your turn to climb the rope."
"Sorry Jim, I was thinking about this girl-."
"Well since you're so focused on her why not try visualising that bell is her and get to the top of the rope for once." he pointed at it while some of the other kids snickered.
Odd sighed and stood up before moving over near it and grabbed it before he grunted and began the effort of getting up at least a few feet. He was about to drop before looking up at the bell. He tried imagining Zelda's face there and saw her smiling, which made his motivation go up like a rocket. He grit his teeth and moved a hand up and kept going up with more ease that left Jim and get other students with dropped jaws.
"Huh, didn't think that'd actually work."
He continued to climb up and rang the bell. "Yes, I did it!...Uh, but how do I get down?"
'Hmm, that was weird.' thought Ulrich rubbing his chin.
Meanwhile in Lyoko Zelda was still zooming through the forest with a single thought running through her head. She approached the edge of the sector and looked out upon the digital sea and uttered the one question that was constantly pounding against the back of her mind. "Who...am I?"
"XANA's creation." spoke a distorted voice behind her. She turned and saw William approaching. "And he wants you back."
Her eyes narrowed as she stood up with a frown. "I might be confused with so many questions, but one thing I'm not, is an ally of XANA, and neither are you. He's corrupted you into being a puppet."
"You have changed form, but cannot fight what you are, a monster made only to serve on command and sacrificed if needed, and you will obey!" he said holding a hand out to her.
She felt her monstrous instincts trying to take over and yelped while grabbing her head.
"Obey!" William called out again annoyed by her persistency.
"No!" she shook her head with her tentacles raised up. "I'm not just another creature you can simply order around. I'm... someone new, I'm myself, and I'm definitely not serving XANA." she said shooting at him with her palm blasts.
He used his sword to block them and glared at her. "Ungrateful mongrel."
"I may have originated from XANA but my view of the world is cleared, it has no place for XANA's evil. I belong to no one, so I stand alone!" she declared before firing another volley of lasers at him.
William tried to deflect as many as possible but a few lucky shots made him stumble back and nearly fall. He growled before he took some of the shadows in his other hand and threw it at her.
Zelda jumped over the attack and grabbed a branch with her tentacles to swing over him and skate away.
"You can't escape!" William called out before he became shadows that sunk into the ground and went after her.
Zelda swung from tree to tree until she approached a clearing and on the other paths came more monsters. Three Cubes in total, one from each path accompanied by two Roaches as William popped back up behind her while they closed in on her.
"Nowhere to run now." he spoke with a chuckle.
Zelda frowned at each one of them while feeling an odd sensation in her tendrils. They flailed about before the ends of them started morphing into black orbs.
William stepped back while the monsters ignored them and started charging up their lasers.
Following her instincts Zelda moved her tendril close to each other and created a black Vortex. They started to suck in the laser blasts with ease before the suction got stronger and the monsters started getting pulled towards it. "Downloading."
William watched with his sword raised before cubic shapes appeared on her knees and elbows, and a helmet similar to Roaches shell materialized on her head with a red node over her forehead.
"Upgrade complete."
"Unbelievable." William remarked as she looked back at him. "It looks as though you're too much of a danger to XANA, you must be deleted."
"You're free to try, but that just means I won't hold anything back." Zelda shot back taking a defencive stance.
He let out a battle cry before running at her with his sword held to the side.
Zelda charged at him and as William brought up and swung his sword down before Zelda moved her hand to the blunt side to redirect it to where the blade buried into the ground before she shot his chest with her free hand.
He went flying back and skidded on the ground with a growl before her tendrils wrapped around him and slammed him against the trees. Each slam sent a spike of pain through his body while she kept a tight grip on him. When she was finished she slammed him on the ground.
"Now go away, or I'll do something worse." she said before seeing a tower down one of the paths and headed towards it.
"You won't exist for long." he narrowed his eyes before becoming shadows and went off.
At free period the group gathered to discuss what to do about Zelda.
"Any thoughts?" asked Jeremy.
"Well we can't destroy her. It wouldn't feel right to me." Aelita spoke.
"I'm with Aelita, I mean she hasn't really done anything wrong." Yumi added.
"Well I'm kinda cautious. I mean if she's made up of Xana's monsters, wouldn't she end up listening to him?"
"It's likely that since she thinks she's Aelita she may perceive him as an enemy."
"I meant like couldn't he just take control of her or something?"
"It's a possibility."
"Ooh we should bring her here!" Odd called out.
"Wait what?" spoke Ulrich. "No offense Della Robbia, but I think you're nuts."
"Yeah, I mean remember all the stuff we had to do to help get Aelita here? Doing it a second time is one thing, but this is for a girl who we don't even know if we can trust." spoke Yumi.
"Oh come on, another member of the team could be a huge help."
"Odd, you sure seem quick for us to do this." remarked Jeremy.
"Especially since he had her on his mind at gym." spoke Ulrich. "He climbed all the way up the rope and rang the bell."
"Really? I've heard you haven't gotten over halfway." spoke Yumi in surprise. "Congrats Odd."
"Thanks, but back to Zelda, if XANA gets to her before we do what do you think he's gonna do to her? Especially if he tries to get that bomb out of her to use it against us."
"Well next time we go back, I'm gonna run a diagnostic scan to see if she can actually use it or have any access to the program. If we're in luck it might have dispersed when she was formed."
"Then let's go before our free period is over."
"You first, Romeo." smirked Ulrich.
Odd didn't even glare, he just rushed for the door.
"Any of you think Odd might be walking into another heartbreak too?" Ulrich Questioned.
"Well if he really already likes her this fast, maybe." spoke Yumi while Jeremy and Aelita nodded.
"Come on guys!"
"We're coming we're coming."
They went to the factory and were sent into the Ice Sector.
"Hey Einstein, you're slipping. We're in the wrong sector."
"You're in the right sector, Zelda's been using the towers to go all over Lyoko." he replied. "And it looks like she's just north of you at the edge of the digital sea."
"Then that's where we go." Odd turned and started running.
They raced over the Icy terrain and spotted Zelda sitting on a ledge looking down at the digital water below.
Ulrich was about to draw his sword when Odd stopped him.
"Let me see if I can talk to her." The blonde said before he started walking up. "Um, Zelda?" he called out before her tentacles rose up in defense.
"Stay away." she spoke without looking at him.
"Look I know you're a little confused, but I can help you." he took another step before seeing a laser shoot near the spot and saw her with one of her arms stretched out.
"I said stay away." she growled.
He gulped and stopped moving before taking notice of her new additions. "Did you get some new accessories? You look... Different."
"You could say I had an upgrade after absorbing more Monsters into myself." she replied before looking away back down at the sea.
"You absorbed monsters?" Odd Questioned.
"Yes, it seems whatever made me is easy to access now."
"Impressive," Jeremy muttered, "she's evolved to where she can use the bomb program inside he for her own needs."
"That might not be impressive if she's not friendly." whispered Ulrich.
"Well… it's not a bad look for you heh heh." Odd stated with a grin.
"No it's not. It's awful."she said looking down at her claws.
"What if said I might be able to help?"
"You can't help Odd, no one can." she replied looking down at the sea with sadness.
"I'm serious. Just give me a chance to help you and it might be what you need. You don't have to be in Lyoko alone."
"Maybe I should help." apoke Aelita walking over and standing next to Odd. "Zelda, I know what it's like to feel sad and alone. I've had to live on Lyoko for years that, but you already knew that, it was exhilarating when I met Jeremy. If anyone can find a solution, we both know he's the one to go to."
"What do you say, wanna cut your ties with XANA for good?" asked Odd.
"I was never with him to begin with." she glared. "I made that clear to Will when I fought him."
"Will?" the two Questioned before a blast flew past Odd's head.
"Incoming!" called Yumi as she and Ulrich pulled their weapons out and saw William riding a Tarantula with a total of three heading their way.
"We got this Zelda. You just sit back." Odd said.
"No." she stood up and walked over. "I can handle them just fine."
"But if you lose your life points you'll vanish." spoke Aelita.
"I don't think she cares." Jeremy said before a message appeared. But looking at the name of the sender shocked him. "Guys, you're not going to believe it, but XANA just sent a message."
"Seriously? Since when is XANA so social?" asked Odd.
"I take it it's not gonna be a sound of surrender?" Aelita inquired.
"No, more like a trade. He wants us to destroy Zelda in exchange... for Franz Hopper's freedom."
"What?!" they all chorused together in shock.
"My Father?" Aelita Questioned.
"It's all here in black and white, Give up Zelda or give up on Dr. Hopper."
"Wait, how can we trust him? For all we know he could be lying." spoke Ulrich.
"Lyoko Warriors!" William called. "My master has made you a fair offer. Destroy the abomination and the weapon inside and Franz Hopper will be freed!"
"Show us proof!" Odd called out. "We're not gonna take a chance unless we see the goods first!"
"Very well." William said before making a hand gesture.
"Another monster is heading for you, a Manta." Jeremy spoke.
The warriors looked up and saw the monster approach with a bubble stuck to it's underbelly. It flew down near William while they saw an elderly man in white robes sitting in the bubble.
"Father!" Called Aelita.
"Aelita!" the man called back putting his hands against the bubble.
"So that's what he looked like in Lyoko." Ulrich commented.
"There you go, now make your decision." spoke William.
"Can we at least have a moment to discuss it?" Questioned Yumi.
"...Fine, but take too long and I'll destroy this old man here."
The group huddled up with Zelda keeping watch.
"This is low even for XANA." Yumi stated
"I'll say, we either have to take a life to get another one." spoke Ulrich. "And we can't even try to take him without Willaim destroying him."
"XANA's really bent on getting rid of that bomb, but we can't just give up Zelda like she's junk." Said Odd.
"To be honest, I'd love to free my father from XANA's clutches….but at the same time, giving Zelda up is like giving up one of you." spoke Aelita.
"Hmm...Hey I think I got an idea." Odd grinned.
"What is it?"
He whispered the plan to them while William held his sword up. "Times out! Make a decision now or you will never see your father again!"
"Okay we made a choice!" Yelled Odd. "We'll take the doctor." he said before turning to Zelda. "Sorry Z. Nothing personal."
"I can't believe you!"
"Believe me everything will be better after this." Odd said taking aim. "Just close yours eyes and this won't hurt a bit."
William smiled in anticipation to see the one who had made a fool of him to be blasted into millions of bits of data. Suddenly Odd's hand pointed his way and fired at the Tarantula. The arrow hit the spot on the head causing it to explode to bits while Ulrich and Yumi quickly ran to Dr. Hoppers aid. Yumi threw her fan which curved in the air before hitting the Manta's weak spot and destroyed it and Ulrich popped the bubble.
The man dropped to the ground and on his knees with a groan while William started standing back up and glared at Ulrich and Yumi standing between them. "Thank you children, excellent strategy."
"Thank our friend Odd, now stay behind us." Ulrich said before raising his weapon.
"You will all pay." William aimed his sword at them. "Attack!"
"Here they come!" Yumi was about to throw her fan when Dr. Hopper put a hand on her shoulder. "huh?"
"If you wouldn't mind I'd like to take care of this one." the man said.
"What are you talking about?" asked Ulrich as the two Tarantula moved near them before getting into position to fire their lasers.
"I'm more than a feeble old man, don't forget I'm the one who created this world." Dr. Hopper held up his hand and two spears of ice formed in the air. "I know all it's ins and outs."
They went wide eyed as the spears shot out and stabbed clean through the monsters with ease. "Woah."
"XANA's not taking me back that easily." he said before looking over to William. "As for you young man, I'm going to free you from that monster's grip."
William snarled before turning to shadows and slithered away.
"Will, Wait!" Yumi called. "Let us help you!"
"It's alright Yumi, we'll get him back someday, but right now we've got other stuff to focus on." spoke Jeremy.
"Father!" Aelita called as she ran up to the man with tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
"Aelita." he smiled standing up just as she reached him and hugged him in happiness. "It's so good to see you're alright."
Aelita hiccupped and sobbed in his chest. "I was afraid I'd never see you again."
He returned the hug and rubbed her back. "It's alright Aelita, I'm not going to leave you again." he said softly.
Odd looked to Zelda who was glaring at him. "Oh...you're a bit mad about the whole pretending to give you up thing huh?"
She smacked his arm hard. "What do you think? I honestly thought you were gonna let me be deleted."
"Okay I admit that was a little uncool, but I was a little pressed for time, but I'm extremely sorry." he looked at the heartwarming scene and cleared his throat. "So, I'm guessing you wanna join them? I mean you're kinda like family."
"...I don't want to impose." she turned away while looking at the ice. "I might look, sound, and have some of her memories, but I'm mostly XANA's monsters melded together. Why would they even want to be near me?"
Dr. Hopper looked up at Odd and Zelda and had to look closer to notice the similarities to his daughter but also to XANA's monsters. "Who is that?" he asked his daughter.
She looked where he was looking and saw Zelda looking away from them. "Oh, she's Zelda. She's my...sister in a way. A lot has changed since we were first virtualized."
"Uh Zelda? I think they noticed you." Odd spoke, making her look back at them and folded her arms. "Go on, go introduce yourself."
She sighed and walked over to them before looking at Hopper. "Hello Doctor, my name is... Zelda I suppose."
"Well, this is quite interesting." he remarked adjusting his glasses. "Aelita said you were her sister in a way, is that true?"
"Her memories did play a key part in the role in my creation." nodded Zelda. "It's how I sound and look like her, aside from the added features."
Dr. Hopper moved around and examined her. "Remarkable."
"It depends on who you ask, to me I feel confused." she remarked closing her eyes. "I'm part monster, part girl, and have no idea what my purpose in life is."
Franz made a chuckle. "Well, in my experience I've learned that one's life is what they make of it. Your choices are yours to make and your responsibility to bare."
"That doesn't give me a true answer."
"I think it means you choose what you wanna do." Odd said stepping up. "So what do you wanna do?"
She looked to the ground and began to think about what she was going to do next. She looked to the Lyoko warriors then over to Dr. Hopper and Aelita. After a few moments she had her answer. "I want to be a Lyoko warrior, and stay with Dr. Hopper."
"Really?" asked Yumi.
"Awesome!" Odd yelled pumping his fists.
"Woah, that's great." smiled Jeremy. "But, we might have a slight problem. I managed to get Aelita out alright, but for you and Franz, I'd need to run a lot of tests since the data used for Aelita might not work the same way. So this means you two are gonna be stuck on Lyoko a little bit longer."
"That's quite alright Jeremy." Dr hopper said. "I wasn't planning on leaving so soon anyhow. There are some things I need to take care of first and foremost."
"Well on the bright side, you two will have company." spoke Ulrich. "And with how you took down Will and his pets, I don't think we need to worry about XANA coming after you."
"Don't be so sure, I know XANA." Dr hopper frowned. "We may have won the battle but not the war."
"Then we'll make sure he doesn't win it."
"Aelita...Even though we're back together we need to go our separate ways again until we can keep it that way."
She looked at her father with a glum expression before nodding. "I understand father."
"I promise, once this XANA business is taken care of we'll go right back to our little house and be a normal family." he looked at Zelda with a smile before pulling both girls in his arms. "All three of us."
Zelda looked at him and her lips curved up into a smile. "Thank you….father."
The Lyoko Warriors smiled at the family of three with Odd sniffing and rubbing his eye.
"Are you crying?" Yumi Questioned.
"What, me? Course not." he wiped his eyes. "This cold is just irritating my eyes."
They went back to Kadic, and even though they got detention for missing half their next class, they didn't mind.
"There's one thing I don't get." spoke Ulrich to Odd in their room.
"What's that?" The blonde asked petting his dog Kiwi.
"Why did she grab you specifically and not do anything to you? Did she say why?"
"Maybe she likes me?"
"Or maybe you like her." he smiled. "Careful, otherwise you might have to go through Aelita and their dad just to ask her out."
"Huh. Never thought of that." he remarked with a smile. "Ya think she might really likes me?"
"Only time can tell."
Back in Jeremy's room Aelita got to see was it was like talking to someone on Lyoko from the real world as she spoke with her father and sister over the computer.
"So are you going to be using the towers for shelter?"
"Of course," Dr. Hopper nodded. "it's the only place safe from him. And I can use them to access the web."
"They can do that?" Jeremy asked.
"Only when I activate them. It's a failsafe I designed to keep XANA from getting loose into the world." he clarified. "It'll help me get updated on how much the world's changed since I fled to Lyoko with Aelita. Along with forge new Identities for us by hacking into the permanent records. I swear government systems are still as easy to hack as when I was a child."
"Wow, I never even tried that."
"Yes, you are quite brilliant my boy. I always thought that once XANA was shut down with someone in Lyoko they would be trapped forever. But you Jeremy, you manage to get my daughter out, and for that, you have my eternal gratitude."
"Aw shucks, it was no problem." he smiled at the thanks.
"So...what is your relationship with my daughter?" he questioned with a stern look.
Jeremy and Aelita's eyes widened while they looked away with blushes.
"Father!" Whined Aelita.
"What? I'm simply asking an honest question, unless there's something you two know that I shouldn't hear."
"No, no! Nothing at all. W-We're just friends." Jeremy defended with his hands up.
"That's not what I know." spoke Zelda on another screen with a knowing smirk.
"Zelda!" Aelita screeched at her new twin. "This doesn't involve you."
"Aelita's right, especially since I heard about how you came to be." spoke Franz. "And how you grabbed this Odd fellow. Care to explain?"
"...Well he was the closest one at the time...and I might have a memory of her kissing him."
"Oh really?"
"Oh would you look at the time, gotta go father, love you." spoke Aelita quickly cutting the connection. "Ugh, it's not going to be easy adjusting to this whole family thing."
"Look on the bright side, now all I gotta work on now is how to bring them back completely and we can say bye bye XANA for good."
"Don't forget Will, we can't just leave him in Lyoko."
"I know that, but I just think getting Zelda and your dad out should be more important. Besides I'm sure your dad can think of something to save him." he looked at her. "But what did Zelda mean by memory of you and Odd kissing?"
"Oh... heh heh nothing." she spoke before walking out of the room with a blush.