Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the animated series, Code Lyoko and the television series Star Trek. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Jeremie quickly returned with the bad news. The scanners had been compromised, and it looked like robots were in the process of adding two more, much larger scanners. When Jeremie got up to the console room, he found that it had been totally gutted, there was no equipment there he could use. They had no way to find out the state of Lyoko or the supercomputer. He returned and gave Dr. Janeway the bad news.

"We might be able to fix that," Janeway said, "I can reestablish the interlink between us and the supercomputer. There must be one, otherwise the others wouldn't have take the equipment."

Just then, Aelita and the two police officers returned. "There's no sign of the other Borg anywhere in the factory," she reported.

"And I put out an APB on anyone that looks like them," one of the policemen said.

That caused Dr. Janeway to grimace. "This situation is rapidly deteriorating. For all I know, I've already damaged the timeline beyond recovery."

"Maybe not," Jeremie said, "if we can regain the control of the supercomputer, we can do a Return To The Past and wipe everything out."

"That's what I was hoping for," Janeway said, "but there's still the matter of the people heavily modified, like Odd and these police officers. You do a time jump now and they'll wind up wherever they were bristling with Borg technology, that the Borg back then can take control of. They'll be back in the same boat in no time, and ready for us."

"But what if you removed the technology before we did the RTTP?" Jeremie asked next.

"Hmm, that might work. My nanoprobes won't be affected by the jump, and we can use them to do any final clean up. And if my memories of your memories are correct, won't the RTTP erase their memories?"

"Yes it will," the genius beamed.

"Sounds like a plan."

By this time, Odd and Suzanne had returned to the group. Aelita immediately ran over and embraced Odd, telling him it was okay, they knew he couldn't help himself, that they knew how they were going fix him up. His face was still sad, but it was the sadness of fading sorrow, working its way back to acceptance. Out of another portion of the building, Kiwi ran in and jumped in his person's arms. Odd had a hard time making the catch, but he was able to without dropping his pet or falling on his butt.

"Odd, are you up for a little payback?" Dr. Janeway asked.

"If you mean paying those bastards back for what they did to me and made me do, yeah," he replied with no trace of humor as Kiwi licked his face.

It didn't take Janeway long to find the junction where the interlink to the supercomputer was. He instructed the nanoprobes to reverse the damage, then activated the link.

"Jeremie, you should have access to the supercomputer now," he said, "just imagine you're sitting at the console like normal and do what you usually do."

Jeremie stood where he was and concentrated. He didn't move for quite a while, causing Jim to get concerned.

"Uh, Juan, is Belpois okay?" he asked.

"Fine, Jim," was the reply, "he's pretending to be typing at the console of the computer that's at the the center of this mess. In a little bit, we should know whether we're almost done, or just getting started."

"Just getting started, I'm afraid," Jeremie suddenly said, "I just got done checking out the supercomputer, and found that the other Borg virtualized themselves onto Lyoko. There's two drones in every sector, and the head Borg is in Carthage."

"What's Carthage?" Jim said.

"That's like the main internal control area in Lyoko," Jeremie said, "XANA lived there and did all of its mischief from there."

"Oh. What's Lyoko and who's XANA?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, Jim," the blond said with a smirk.

"Jeremie, Dr. Janeway, I think we've got more problems," Aelita suddenly called out, "there are a lot of police outside the factory, trying to get in."

"That's okay, Aelita; I've put up a shield around the building so nothing solid can get out or in," Janeway said, "about how many police are outside?"

"All of them, I think," she replied, "it's a madhouse out there."

"Damn."

Outside the factory, there was chaos. When the captured police radioed their watch commander, they neglected to tell him that the situation was under control. The captain reasoned that whatever was going down was still in progress, and with officers in trouble, he mobilized everything he could.

When the first units arrived at the factory, the officers responding quickly crossed the bridge and tried entering the building, but were stopped by an invisible wall of some kind. When they radioed headquarters to report the situation, the captain freaked out even further and called the army.

Now there were hundreds of squad cars, military transports, news reporters and gawkers crowded around the old factory. The captain had finally come out himself to survey the situation, and was calling into the factory with a bullhorn.

"You! In the building! You are entirely surrounded, and there is no way out! Come out of the building with your hands in plain sight in single file!"

Inside the building, Juan Janeway was shaking his head.

"God hates me, that's all there is to it," he mumbled to no one in particular.

"Which one?" Aelita asked.

"All of them," he replied to her, "every last one."

He was silent for a moment more, then acted. Mentally, he jammed all of the communications equipment in the city. Radios, televisions, telephones, cell phones, any kind of device that radiated electromagnetic waves was suddenly rendered useless, except for the police captain's cell phone and the tape recorder it was attached to. It rang.

"Hello, this is Captain DuBois," the officer said, "who am I speaking to?"

"For lack of a better term, I'm the leader of the gang holding more than a few hostages inside here," Juan replied, "though I am not the one responsible for taking them in the first place. Make no attempt to enter the building; you will not succeed. Additionally, except for this connection, all communications devices within fifty kilometers of this location is now inoperative. If I receive any indication that this incident is being broadcast from anywhere, I'll increase that distance as far as I lave to."

"My friend, you cannot black out the entire planet," Captain DuBois said.

"Actually, I can," came the reply, "not only that, I can do in a similar manner as Klaatu did in 'The Day The Earth Stood Still.' I do not want to do it for a variety of reasons, but my options are rapidly diminishing. Now listen very carefully; the officers who have been taken hostage are alive and as well as can be, given the circumstances. They have been injured, but I will see to it their wounds are healed before they are released. And they will be released, Captain. Now, you say that you have this factory surrounded, and that's good. At this time, no one inside here is to be allowed out, under any circumstances. Some of the terrorists who originally took these hostages are still roaming free, and may use the confusion of your little tea party out there to escape. If you want to see the remaining hostages freed unharmed, stop anyone from leaving this factory, even if that means killing them; do I make myself clear?"

"I understand what you have told me, sir," the captain replied.

"But you aren't agreeing to my terms, your choice," came the reply, "look, I know you want to keep me talking, jerk me around, while your Hostage Rescue Team tries to find a way inside and kill me. Okay, be that way; but let me emphasize that there is absolutely no way into the building. I know I'm wasting my time and my breath, but I want to make sure you realize what I said is true; so when your ass is hauled up before a review board and they ask you whether or not you knew every possible access inside was bobby trapped, you won't be able to tell them you didn't."

That surprised the captain, who quickly waived to another officer, who told his strike team to stand down.

"Very good, captain, you too can be taught," Janeway told him, "remember what I told you, no one is to get out of here alive until you and I reach an agreement. I will be contacting you soon, hopefully."

Janeway broke the communication.

"Did you mean what you said about there being booby traps all over the factory?" Suzanne Hertz asked.

"Other than the ones Kiwi might have left behind when he couldn't hold it anymore, no," Janeway replied with a smile, "if I just kept telling him that there was no way in, he would just keep trying. By telling him that I've got every possible ingress point booby trapped, he'll be a lot more cautious. I'm sure he'll still try and send someone in, but he won't be so heavy handed doing so."

"Sir," one of the police officers said, "maybe we can go up and talk to him."

"Like that?"

The officer looked down a moment at his heavily modified body, then replied, "oh, I see what you mean."

"Look, friend," Juan told the man, "I'm going to get you out of here, and I'm going to fix you up. And if I can make it happen, I'll see to it that this whole mess never happens. Now, how about I let you and the others contact your families, so you can let them know you're okay?"