Chapter 16:

"What?" Aelita asked in shock as she, Yumi and Odd located Ulrich again, only to find him standing in the middle of the path with an almost pained expression on his face, as he squeezed his firsts so tightly that he was drawing blood.

"Xana," He repeated angrily. "The virus he's carrying, it's Xana," He answered loudly.

"No that – that can't be right," Yumi tried again, until she heard something from the ground and quickly picked up Ulrich's phone to speak into it. "Tell me it's not true Jeremy," She begged but he couldn't give her that.

"He played us," Ulrich screamed in frustration, "He's been playing us the whole time."

"If that's true than why would the ninjas attack him?" Aelita countered sternly.

"Xana probably just used them to get us to lower our guard," Ulrich yelled angrily, before gripping his head in frustration as he continued his rant, "Damn it, I TRUSTED him."

"There has to be another explanation," Yumi attempted, "If this is Xana, why isn't there an activated Tower?"

"I don't know," Jeremy admitted from the phone she was still holding to her ear, "Ever since he escaped from the computer, I haven't been able to track him. For all I know, he may not even need the Towers anymore."

"But –" Yumi stated again, desperately trying to find a way to explain this, but found that she couldn't.

"Guys," Odd suddenly put in with a tone of voice they didn't often hear him use, which caused them to look at him again, "I don't know if this means much coming from me, but – I don't think he was lying."

"What makes you say that?" Ulrich asked in a tone that didn't suggest he was doubtful or even disbelieving; instead he was just wanted to know.

"I honestly don't know why," Odd admitted sadly, "I just – when we touched that – that feeling – guys, he's me. I don't know how to explain it, I just know."

"I agree," Aelita put in causing them to look at her next, "He may have Xana inside him, but Xana doesn't command him. He's too kind, he's too –" She added passionately before finally voicing what was on all their minds, "He's too human."

This left them all in a quiet state of contemplation as they took in her words and realized that deep down they all believed the same thing.

"And he needs our help," Odd added after a minute causing them to look back at him, and after another moment of eye-contact between them, they agreed.

…

"Jeremy, can you track him?" Ulrich asked into his phone as they reached the edge of the forest, coming out on a paved road with not a lot of people around.

"He doesn't have his hard drive anymore," The genius proclaimed truthfully, "But I'm gonna try something else. Maybe I can track his specter."

"How long will it take?" Ulrich countered as they started walking down the sidewalk, scouring the area around them, trying to find anything out of place, but all seemed quiet.

"Just give me a couple minutes," Their non-present member stated as Ulrich listened to him typing away on his computer.

"Jeremy, I don't know if we have a couple minutes," The kid commanded sternly, "They were planning to kill him."

"I don't know; the grunts didn't seem like the type to take action without their leader," Odd pointed out truthfully.

"All the same, we still need to find him," Yumi added before Jeremy's voice interrupted them with a loud chirp of approval.

"I found him," He announced happily, "And he's nearby."

"Where?" They all demanded as one.

…

"Why here?" Odd complained loudly as they looked up at the familiar image of the abandoned house, known more appropriately as the Hermitage, "Honestly, what does this house have against me? What did I ever do to it?"

"Be quite!" Yumi ordered as she reached over to cover his mouth, before leading the way through the gate and started their search around every corner of their missing friend.

"You're getting closer," Jeremy spoke from the phone, before fading out a little as he typed something else, "You better hurry; it's getting harder and harder to see him. I think his specter is dying."

"What's that gonna do to him?" Aelita asked quietly.

"I don't know, but given how weak he's become, it can't be good."

"Are we gonna be able to restart the specter if it dies?" Ulrich asked next.

"I doubt it," Jeremy admitted, "But I may be able to possess him with one of my own, that might help."

"Might?" Ulrich repeated angrily.

"I don't know enough about his condition to know how to help him Ulrich. I'm doing everything I can."

"Shush!" Yumi suddenly ordered as she ducked behind a wall and they all crowded around her before looking over to find the back door to the house had been torn right off it's hinges and thrown across the yard.

"Come on," Ulrich took charge and led the way to the entrance, once again looking around the corer to find the ninjas standing at the end of the hallway, protecting the place he knew all too well as the boiler, he room he and Yumi had nearly lost their own lives in not even a year before, "You know something Odd, you may have a point. This house is trying to kill us."

"Told you," His friend grumbled sourly.

"Let's go," Aelita ordered, causing the boys to quickly move inside to hide behind a large dresser, where they checked again to make sure they hadn't been seen, before running around to duck underneath the staircase, allowing the girls to follow suit.

They realized pretty quickly that these so called ninjas were not very attentive, or they could have simply only been programmed to apprehend their captives before waiting for their leader to come back and finish the job.

All the same the Lyoko group was able to make it all the way to the door of the boiler room without being seen, which was when they realized the creatures had had their backs to them the whole time.

It was hard to tell which way was the front with these things, considering they looked almost exactly alike from both angles. But this helped them in the long run, as they were able to take them both out without having to fight at all.

Once dispatched, they quickly searched the area for more of them, though they knew only two had taken their friend, before rushing into the room, where they finally located Jonas hanging from two chains that had been wrapped around his wrists, suspending him against a wall.

"Jonas?" Aelita asked worriedly as she reached him, carefully lifting his head to find that he was unconscious. "Odd," She tried kindly, praying that he would respond to his real name, but he remained quiet as Yumi and Ulrich moved to get him down.

"We need to get him back to the factory," Yumi ordered as they each got under one of his arms and walked him carefully out of the room and down the hall.

"Start up your Jeremification program, Einstein, we're on our way," Odd stated into the phone, making sure to stay well back, so he didn't come into contact with his older self again.

"Wait," Aelita interrupted as they made it outside and they stopped as she rushed up to Jonas again. "Something's wrong," She insisted before touching his face worriedly then checked for a pulse, "He's not breathing."

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