Hi guys! Hope y'all had a merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate!

With this chapter, we have the final result of…THE PRESENT DAY SUBPLOT! YAAY! I'm not good at writing action sequences, so…yeah. This was a really hard chapter to write. Thanks for your patience. And thanks to everyone who voted in the poll!

DISCLAIMER!: "I love you, you love me, CL is not owned by me…"

Chapter 17
Meanwhile, Back At The Interruption…

Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooommmmmm….

"Aelita, why is the engine making so much noise?"

"Because it's working, of course! We don't have time for these kinds of questions." Aelita groaned, exasperated. She looked down over the Replika that they had just entered. It was indeed the smallest Replika she had ever seen- it had only one, desertlike plain, with a tower at one end. It would have been rather quaint, almost kind of cute, if it hadn't been covered with monsters of every shape and kind, looking up at them like they were something delicious to eat. There was no doubt now that this was their stop.

"Ok…there's the tower. Now we just have to land properly." She pressed a few buttons, and moved her controls downward, turning the Skid towards the plain.

The monsters, though stupid, didn't waste a minute. As soon as the Skid was within firing range, they scrambled to follow it, sending a barrage of red lasers into the sky as they went. Fortunately, they were all focused in one direction, and the Skid, being faster than the lasers, was able to avoid them by simply swerving sideways.

Finally, Aelita brought it to a halt at the western edge of the plain. It was halfway between the northern edge and the tower, and in the most isolated spot possible. The monsters, realizing their target was no longer in sight, began moving closer to it, their laser paths pivoting across the sky like a lawn sprinkler. Judging from their speed, the gang had about fifty seconds to spring into action.

"Okay, here we go." Aelita jammed several different buttons on her interface. One by one, with a small crackle, the warriors disappeared from their pods. To them, it felt as though they were melting out of the ship- which, in a way, they were. With another small crackle, they rematerialized on the ground directly in front of the Skid. The tangle of monsters, only a couple dozen yards away now, ran even faster. Ulrich glowered at them with distaste.

"With a friend in danger, we can't afford to waste any time," he muttered darkly, unsheathing his swords with a flourish. "Aelita, go directly to the tower. Don't worry about us." She nodded, though he couldn't see. "Everyone ready?"

"You already know the answer to that, good buddy!" Odd shouted with glee. He grabbed his wrist, Yumi opened her fans, and Aelita braced herself. There was silence for a split second, and then, on an unconscious, unanimous signal, they split. Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd ran in one direction, towards the monsters, and Aelita ran in the opposite direction, towards the tower. The battle was on, and they were ready for anything.

The monsters had split into groups. The Krabes, being fast and versatile, went straight in the warriors' direction. The Megatanks, having enormous lasers but not much in the way of movement, rolled towards the Skid. The Tarantulas split themselves between the two objectives. The warriors themselves, knowing that both they and the Skid had to be protected, stopped as quickly as they could to assess the situation.

Yumi took a swift glance at both parties, and shook her head. "Well," she remarked dryly, "How do you want to die, food poisoning or spider bite?"

"Eh…" Odd cast a manical glare at the Megatanks rolling away. "Being crushed by a bowling ball sounds more dramatic in the long run. But seriously, Yumi, lighten up. You know we're gonna win this, doncha? Here we go!" With a wild whoop, he ran for the Skid, throwing out random shots wherever he could. No one followed him. Ulrich stared after him for a moment, then gave Yumi an uneasy look.

"Well, I was never one for drama," he said. "C'mon, let's just lob their heads off and get it over with." He whirled towards the nearest Krabe. "Super sprint!" In a flash, he was yards away, jumping onto its head. Yumi gave him a small smile, then followed suit on a nearby Tarantula. Too easy, too familiar.

Aelita, thanks to her friends, found her way clear. The terrain was perfect- there weren't even any rocks to dodge. She tried not to let any thoughts enter her head as she ran, least of all any thoughts about Jeremie. It was just another tower deactivation, that was all…an unusually elaborate one. Almost…admirably so. But, still, it all seemed too easy, too convenient to formulate a plot around.

The tower was bare yards away…she could just touch its outer membranes…when she ran into someone, someone squishy and black. With a startled squeak, she bounced off of him, and landed on the ground in a heap.

A shadow covered her over. The person she had run into was now standing over her, laughing. He had dark hair, dark eyes, wore a dark spandex outfit, much like the rest of the warriors, and held an enormous buster sword. The largest difference between him and the rest was the eye-shaped insignia across his chest, and the wicked, hungry grin on his face. It was William, under XANA's possession.

" 'Ello there," he said, in a maniacally gleeful tone.

After two long years of practice, Ulrich was hardly intimidated by the monsters anymore. He knew their different fighting styles, and could conform his own to their specific weaknesses, like their blind spots. Once he was on the back of a significantly larger monster, out of their line of sight and fire, their main weapons were powerless. But, they could buck him off. Or, if they were feeling particularly intelligent, tag-team him, with another monster following behind, trying to shoot him off. In fact, that was exactly what was happening.

"Hey, watch it!" he shouted at the Tarantula, though he knew it would do no good. He dug his sword into its back to keep himself rooted, and ducked as lasers flew over his head. The Tarantula roared and ran in circles, trying to bend its laser-tipped arms back to reach him, to little avail. The Krabe following them tried to keep up, but could not. It ended up standing in one spot, firing lasers at the Tarantula whenever it passed.

A shout broke through his concentration. "Looking good, man, looking good!"

He whirled around in his seat. Odd, barely visible across the plain, was completely ignoring his four remaining monsters. He was jumping up and down, waving at his friend enthusiastically. Odd was an expert at making these kinds of situations a sort of game- he'd jump around, tease and taunt the monsters, and then devirtualize them with show-offy jumps and acrobatics. It was just like him to stop in the middle of a battle to make smart remarks.

He groaned. "Shut up and watch where you're going, okay?"

"Eh, whate-hey!" A stray Tarantula shot him square in the back, knocking him over. Ulrich couldn't resist laughing. Stupid Odd. He really had to heed good advice like his. Like Yumi always did. He'd bet anything that she, on the far end of the stretch, had already done in tons of monsters by now, doing the right thing like she always did. Always…

A large buck from the Tarantula he was riding brought him back from what might have been a very pleasant daydream. He grabbed his other sword and stood up, trying very hard to hold his footing, and was about to plunge his saber into the monster's eye when he heard a scream to his right, in the tower's direction. He did a double take. Aelita was retreating from something, looking defensive, with two balls of energy in her hands. And in front of her…a boy, slashing his enormous sword at her, pushing her backward. Ugh. Possessed or not, he despised William. The monsters could wait. This had to be dealt with.

He grabbed his first sword out of the monster's flesh, jammed the second into its eye ("Impact!"), and jumped off its back onto the ground as it flailed, screeched, and then exploded into nothing. Ignoring the other Krabe firing behind him, he ran towards the clash, both swords drawn. "Aelita!"

"Ulrich?" She whirled her head around, trying to keep one eye on William and the other on her friend. "Go back to the monsters, I can handle him! Energy Field!" She threw one of her pink balls of light at him, which he evaded easily.

"No, get to the tower," Ulrich retorted. "This is more important!" He was only six feet away now. He jumped up in the air, and pointed both his swords down at him. He was ready to make XANA-kabob out of his target.

Despite the situation, William looked completely calm. He just looked up, raised his eyebrows, and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, please."

In a flash, his sword was up; Ulrich's swords bounced off the makeshift shield, and sent Ulrich, who was still holding them, face-first into the ground nearby. But, large blows to the head rarely daunted him. He got up, managed to free one of his swords from the ground, and with renewed vigor, charged at his enemy. The blades met again, but this time, the fight was more standard- Ulrich struck, William blocked, William struck, Ulrich blocked.

Aelita, finally accepting that Ulrich could keep William at the very least distracted, ran for the tower once again. She had barely gone three feet before, predictably, a laser grazed her shoulder. She looked up. Standing directly over her was a Krabe- the very same Krabe that was following Ulrich before, though she didn't know that. She swerved to run away, but another Krabe, eager to help its brother, was right behind her. They might have looked threatening- if she hadn't been threatened by them so many times before. She just smiled at them- and raised her hands. "Energy Field!"

One field hit the first Krabe, but did not devirtualize it, while the other Krabe dodged the attack. Unabated, they kept running towards her, perhaps hoping they had cornered her. But, she had one more trick up her sleeve. Grinning, she made a show of waving her hand over the star on her wrist. Wings burst from her shoulders, and she flew up into the air, out of their reach in less than a second.

Odd, nearly unaware of the struggle across the plain, had recovered from his fall. He was back to business, or at least his definition of it. He'd already shot down one Megatank and one Tarantula, and had three monsters to go. A Tarantula was running for him- perfect. He gave a running start, leaped up, did a flip in midair, and shot a laser arrow in midflip, hitting the monster barely a centimeter from the eye. He didn't do much but annoy it, though, and it just charged for him faster. He gave it a sly smile, and let two more arrows fly. One missed, but one struck its mark.

"Sucker!" He laughed at the monster as it exploded, and then moved on to the next one.

Yumi, at a direct diagonal from Odd, was taking things much more seriously. She was still doing her acrobatics, of course, but they were all functional, not made for attention. In the middle of one flip, she let her fans fly at two Krabes that had cornered her- one impacted, causing the Krabe to explode, but the other vanished from sight. As she landed, she saw a torrent of light in her peripheral vision. Of course it had to fall into the Digital Sea, she thought. The other came back to her hand, though, so she was still ready to exact doom on the other Krabe.

Meanwhile, the swordfight between Ulrich and William had hardly progressed from the striking-and-blocking phase. No one tried any sort of special tactic or anything for a long time. Then, slyly and subtly as he could, William…stopped fighting. His jaw dropped, and he brought his swordless arm up, pointing at a spot slightly to Ulrich's left.

Ulrich looked at the arm for a split second, and then stared back at his foe in disbelief. "Ha ha ha. If you really think I'm going to fall for that-"

"Oh, but you just did." In the seconds Ulrich had been talking, he hadn't been focusing. Quick as a flash, William sliced through him; he fell to the ground, dissolving into little, metallic blue-white squares. One down. Perhaps if the possession had allowed William a bit more emotion, he might have stuck out his tongue at him. But, he had better things to do. Such as destroying the little pixie that was still flying above his head, dodging and firing at his henchmen.

The sound of the devirtualization caught Odd's attention, however. He whipped his head around, away from the Megatank he had been about to destroy, towards the tower. He saw three things- a flying Aelita, a laughing William, and no Ulrich. He figured out what had happened instantly.

"Ey, you!" Forgetting the Megatank, he ran for William. He grabbed his wrist as he ran, arming a laser arrow. "Pretty boy!"

Aelita noticed him before William did. She threw an Energy Field at the one remaining Krabe attacking her, whirled in midair, and shouted, "No, Odd, he's gonna-"

"Hm?" William glanced over at the sound of Aelita's voice, and saw Odd. He rolled his eyes. He held up his sword, and made a stance as though he were about to throw it at Odd. But, a second later, as though he had changed his mind, he straightened and threw it up in the sky instead. His wicked smile returned, as though he knew something that Odd didn't.

Odd stopped in his tracks, and arched an eyebrow at him, and the flying sword. "Hey, what the-"

He didn't finish his sentence. An enormous sheet of laser power cut across the landscape, devirtualizing Odd right where he stood. The Megatank, the one that he had failed to destroy, had fired while he wasn't looking. It looked quite proud of itself- it was rolling round and round the area, making satisfied squeaking noises. William chuckled at it. Two down.

Clunk.

He felt a sharp knock against his skull, and whirled around. Aelita was floating a few feet behind him, holding the sword he had thrown into the air, and wearing a satisfied smirk. He groaned.

"Super smoke!" He thrust his hand toward the sword. It dissolved instantly into a smoky cloud, flew out of her grasp, and reformed solid in his hand. The smirk disappeared from her face, and reappeared on his. Then, his sword was flying, so to speak. He slashed at her any way he could, but she was always just out of reach. In retaliation, she threw as many Energy Fields as she could manage- but she was growing tired. It had been a long battle, and she had never used this many Energy Fields in one run.

Twang. Another laser wall burst from the Megatank, but missed its mark, cutting directly between William and Aelita, and splitting them momentarily. William was knocked to the ground, but not devirtualized. Aelita took the opportunity to fly as far up and away from William as she could. In the fight, she had been knocked several yards from the tower. She had to fly past this wall of death, and past William, to get to it. For now, though, all she could do was wait for the laser to recede…

"EEEEEEEEEEYAH!" There was a shrill metallic sound, then an explosion. The laser shattered immediately. Hopeful, Aelita glanced toward the Skid. The Megatank was gone. Yumi, still able to fight, was standing in its place, brandishing an open fan and looking menacing. She looked up at Aelita, and gave her a confident smile.

"There's just a Tarantula left, but he's no big deal. He's way on the other side of the plain. I'll just take care of him-" she gestured towards the unconscious William- "-and that'll give you clear passage to the tower."

Aelita nodded back at her. "Got it. But you might need some help." She looked up at the sky. "Ulrich? Anyone there?"

"Huh? Oh-" Ulrich's voice, like Jeremie's usually did, came out of some invisible place in the sky. "Yeah, I'm here. Just got back up."

"Is Odd with you?"

"Odd got devirtualized?" He mumbled an unnecessary expletive. "He's probably still down in the scanner room. What do you need?"

"We need a vehicle for Yumi." William's arm twitched. "Do you know how to bring those up?"

"Uh, not really, sorry…" he stammered. William groaned. A bead of sweat formed on Aelita's face. "I could try, but if I screw up…"

"Forget it then. She can take him down pretty easy- oh no." William began to stand up. "Gotta go."

"Good luck. Sorry there isn't much more I can do." He cut off. William stood up straight, looked around, and locked his eyes on Yumi. He grinned again. She grinned right back- and ran for him, throwing her fan as she went. "Aelita, go!"

This time, Aelita didn't waste any time with distractions- she flew straight for the tower. William, nimble as ever, dodged Yumi's incoming fan, but the resulting swerve gave him a clear view of the sneak. He hissed. Forgetting Yumi for the moment, he turned on his heels and ran for the tower. His sword was up, blocking any more prospective attacks from Yumi's one fan.

Aelita touched down about five yards from the tower. She hit the ground running- she didn't know how many life points she had, and she couldn't risk a loss. Though she didn't look back, she could hear William's heavy footfalls behind her, growing closer with every step. She had a head start, though, and she wasn't weighed down by an enormous sword. Before he could get to her, it was too late- she had entered the tower.

From here on out, the routine was straightforward. She walked to the center of the enormous symbol- one ring lit, two, three. Once she had stepped on the innermost circle, her feet lifted off the ground- not because of any wings, but seemingly of their own accord. She levitated a distance this way, before approaching a very familiar platform- the tower interface. She touched down, and pressed her hand against the semitransparent screen there.

AELITA. Access granted.

CODE:

…

Clik clik clik, clik clik.

CODE: LYOKO

"Tower…deactivated." She sighed in relief. The data processes within the tower slowly began shutting down. She smiled at them as they faded away. There was no further need to be in Lyoko now. With a slow, deep breath, she devirtualized herself.

Outside, the aura around the tower slowly faded from an angry red, to a calm white. Yumi smiled up at it. William scowled.

In anger and without warning, he whirled on Yumi. With a roar, he slashed at her stomach. She fell to the ground, dissolving, leaving a trail of squares behind her. He smirked. He watched the spot where she had lain, even long after she had disappeared.

"Well, sir?" He heard a metallic clank- several of them. The one remaining Tarantula was approaching. It stopped by his side, and leaned on its front legs, head resting on its lasers. With another metallic whir, it glanced over at the empty shell of the Skid, the only remaining evidence of the warriors' presence. "We, erm…lost. Again."

"Maybe," he replied, disinterested. "But the tower meant nothing to me. Its job was done. This loss is nothing compared to our coming victories."

His smirk grew wider. "A sizeable aspect of their resistance has been cut away. Even now, I could see them struggle significantly without his guidance." He laughed darkly. "I hope he's being horribly tortured right now."

"That would be good, sir." The Tarantula looked around. "What should we do with their ship, sir? It looks like they've-"

The Skid, previously still, began to tremble a bit. Then, without warning, it plunged into the Digital Sea. The Tarantula, startled, took a step back.

"-abandoned it."

William sighed. "I wouldn't expect that." He sauntered over to the edge of the plain, and sat down. "The humans do not leave anything behind. It's all a part of their…emotion of dedication." He picked up a sizeable rock. "I'm bored. Get me some Kankrelats."

"And…entering."

Aelita tapped some keys on the interface keyboard. From what she could see on her screen, the door to Lyoko had opened, and the Skid could enter. Using the arrow keys, she guided it through the exit arm, up through the digital sea, into Sector 5, and then to rest in its hangar. It was safe, for the moment.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and swiveled around, away from the interface, to face Ulrich and Odd. Until that moment, they had been sitting on the floor, counting the green chrome plates on the wall. "Mission accomplished," she said.

"Booyeah," Ulrich replied, with little enthusiasm. He punched the air.

"All in a day's work for us talented people." Odd grinned at her. He looked around. "Is Yumi here yet?"

"She's exited Lyoko…" She looked back at her screen. "She should be here any minute. Oh yes- there, look, the elevator's moving…"

Just as she spoke, there was a series of whirs and bangs- the elevator had arrived. A moment later, the door opened, and out stepped a very frazzled but completely alright Yumi. She smiled, waved at the others, wobbled over to the interface, and then collapsed beside Ulrich and Odd with a loud, heavy sigh.

"That was totally unnecessary," she groaned. "Devirtualizing me when he'd already lost. I could've done it myself with half the pain and twice the dignity." She laughed a bit- and then stopped. Her eyes widened. Thoughts flashed through her head. Abruptly, she sat up, and shook her head around wildly.

"Hey, uh, Aelita?"

"Hm?" She pressed a button sequence, and the computer began to shut down.

"Jeremie didn't come back, did he?"

Aelita tensed at the sound of his name. When she spoke again, her tone was icy- and shaky. "Erm…no. He didn't."

"But…" Now Yumi's voice was shaking. "If XANA activated the tower, and then did something to Jeremie with that tower…then if the tower was deactivated…wouldn't he just, you know, come back?"

They all sat in silence for a long, long time.

SCARY CIFFHANGER O.O

Haha. Well, I hope you still like it! Only three chapters to go after this. That's…really scary.

- Carth