Chapter three:

"Ah...help...Please...…" Damon Okoyl asked the pink haired stranger. Aelita took a small step back, her mouth gaping open. Damon staggered to his feet slowly, leaning against the wall for support.

Coughing up a small amount of blood and spitting it to the side, he tried to explain his situation to the stranger.

"Something…big…like a bee…stung me…help…" he stuttered, losing his footing and falling to the ground, losing consciousness before he even hit it.

"Jeremie!" Aelita cried, "Jeremie!"

Jeremie, who had been absentmindedly tapping away at his Virtualisation program, nearly fell out of his chair as the sound of his love's voice filled his ears. The digitised voice of Aelita was shouting for help, and Jeremie regained his composure, tapping at the keyboard.

"What's wrong Aelita!" Jeremie asked in a panic.

"I don't know…" Aelita replied, her voice shaking, "it looks like a human, but it can't be….he's bleeding…Can you see?"

"I can. You better get away from him, Aelita. It could be a trap; XANA could have set this up," Jeremie warned her.

"But Jeremie…he…I know this person…" Aelita murmured.

"How?" Jeremie replied, "Are you telling me that this thing is connected to your memories somehow?" Aelita nodded,

"Mmhm…I think I'm supposed to take him to a tower…" Aelita said,

"Absolutely not!" Jeremie argued. "What if it is a trap and this thing does something to the towers!"

"I'm willing to take that chance…Jeremie." Aelita said, crouching over the fallen one.

"Well I'm not, Aelita." Jeremie replied firmly. "Get away from him and wait for the others."

"If I wait, he'll die, Jeremie." Aelita replied, equally as firm. Ignoring Jeremie's protests, Aelita dragged Damon's unconscious body towards the tower.

Jeremie resigned himself to assist and remained silent as Aelita and Damon disappeared behind the walls of the tower.

Aelita slowly pulled Damon by his foot onto the Lyoko symbol within the tower. She laid him in the centre dot of the symbol and backed away slowly, feeling drawn to do these things by something inside of her. She squeaked in surprise at a huge flash of light that came from within the tower, pushing her out. Aelita flew back and gently bumped on the icy ground outside the tower.

"Jeremie!" she called, "Something's happening inside the tower!" Jeremie tapped rapidly at his keyboard, replying to her, angrily thinking that Aelita should have listened to him.

"Okay Aelita, hold on, I'm checking if there's anything wrong with the tower." Tapping a few more keys a picture of the tower came on the screen, perfectly neutral. "This can't be right. According to this scan, the tower is completely normal, Aelita…"

Aelita pushed her hand against the tower to see if she could enter. Her hand pushed through and she followed it inside. She saw Damon's body floating in midair above the Lyoko symbol, his body upright and his arms at his sides, hovering above them slightly. Aelita approached his figure, looking up at him as she walked. Another flash of light appeared, knocking Aelita back. Aelita landed with a bump, still inside the tower this time, and Damon fell to the symbol on his feet, slumping down to the ground in a crouch. Damon stood up slowly and stared at his hands, turning them over slowly and examining them. He then lifted his hooded top and checked his stomach, noticing that the wound had been completely healed.

"What happened…?" Damon asked, noticing the pink haired stranger nearby, "I'm all better…"

"You were hurt badly in the ice region," Aelita replied, stepping closer, "I brought you here and you were healed..."

"Who are you?" Damon asked, clenching his fists and taking a small step back, "and where am I…?"

"My name is Aelita, and you are Damon…we're inside a tower…" Aelita replied,

"How do you know my name? Get away from me!" Damon shouted, backing away slowly and tripping backwards over his own feet. He went tumbling out of the tower and back into the ice region of Lyoko. Damon rolled gently onto his knees and looked up, his palms against the ground.

"I know this place..." Damon mumbled, as Aelita stepped out of the tower and stood beside him, holding her hands behind her back. "This place...ice-world...this is the place from my dreams...I come here all the time...except my clothes are different now..."

Aelita stepped forward and looked down at Damon. "You know this place?" she asked, intrigued.

"Yes..." Damon replied, nodding and looking from side to side. "I must be dreaming...but how do I wake up..." Damon stood up and walked to a nearby rock. Pulling back and punching it as hard as he could, Damon let out a short cry of pain. "Aaah..!" Damon pulled back, placing his palm over his knuckles and wincing slightly. "Ngh, that...wasn't supposed to happen...pain is supposed to wake someone up, isn't it...does this mean I'm not dreaming...?"

Damon stood slowly, looking around still. Sighing softly and closing his eyes, Damon remained silent. "This place feels weirder then usual...I can't smell anything..."

Aelita stepped forward again, this time standing in front of Damon. "I know the feeling," she said, smiling slightly, "I like to be able to touch and smell things in the real world too."

"The real world...?" Damon asked, "Then where are we...?"

"This place is called Lyoko," Aelita replied.

"Lyoko..." Damon mumbled, staring at the ground. "Lyoko...I know this place...but from where...where is it...I can't remember..." Damon closed his eyes tightly and muttered, "Lyoko...Lyoko...loco…right, well...who are you meant to be?"

"I'm Aelita," she replied, patting his shoulder gently. "And you're –"

"Damon," he replied interrupting, "So, this place is called Lyoko, huh...how did I get here, Aelita?"

"I really don't know," Aelita replied, a hint of sadness in her voice. Damon remained silent and slipped his hands into the pouch of his hooded top. Sighing slightly, he looked over the horizon of the ice region.

Back on earth, Jeremie's concern had overcome him. Picking up his cell phone, he dialled Ulrich's number.

"What's going on Jeremie?" Ulrich's voice replied.

"Where are you guys?" Jeremie asked, slightly annoyed. "It's been twenty minutes. It doesn't normally take this long for you to get here!

(Note: It also doesn't take me THIS long to write a story chapter but, meh, stuff comes up.)

"Yumi and I are coming up to the factory now. We'll be there before you know it," Ulrich replied, hanging up, and then dashing with Yumi into the factory and swinging down to land in front of the elevator.

"What the heck is that?" Ulrich asked, pointing to a corner of grey cloth hanging from Yumi's pocket. "Started carrying a handkerchief around?"

"Huh? No" Yumi replied, pulling the cloth out, showing a grey bandana with a very delicate stitch pattern running through it.

"Your mom fixed it already?" Ulrich asked, stepping into the elevator.

"Mm-hmm." Yumi replied, stepping in next to him, "She's really good huh?"

"I'll say," Ulrich said, looking closely at it. "I never would have guessed it was ripped if I hadn't already known. Damon's gonna be thrilled."

Yumi smiled and tucked the bandana back into her pocket as the elevator reached the bottom. Making their way to the central control room where Jeremy sat, Yumi and Ulrich stood either side of him, staring at the screen.

"What's up, Jeremie?" Yumi asked, staring closely at the screen, which showed a digital wire frame map of Lyoko, with two coloured triangles highlighted next to each other.

"Where have you been? Aelita's been in there for ages! What if she got deleted!"

"Calm down, Jeremie," Ulrich replied.

"Yeah! Chill Einstein!" A voice called from behind. Odd jogged in stopping beside the three, bending over and breathing heavily.

"Good, you're all. here. Now, let me say this in the nicest possible way...GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE SCANNERS NOW!"

"We're going! We're going!" Ulrich replied, as the three of them left the room.

"Am I the only one who's on the ball today, or what?" Jeremie muttered to himself. "Humph. Oh well. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Odd. Virtualization."

The three virtualized and landed in Lyoko's ice region. Ulrich looked around, scouting the area for any monsters.

"Hey, Mr. Moody," Odd called. "Where's Aelita?"

"Just keep heading in the direction you're facing and you'll see her. She's the pink one in all the snow. You can't miss her.

The three looked at each other and nodded, and then set off at a dash to the ice region. A few seconds after running, something flew up and smacked Yumi in the face. She stumbled and stopped, turning her head from side to side and pulling at something grey stuck on her face. Making muffled noises, she pulled the grey item from her face and examined it.

"What the..!" Odd exclaimed, walking to Yumi and looking at what she was holding. "Is that...?"

It was. Damon's grey camouflaged bandana lay limply in Yumi's virtual hands.

"What the heck is...that doing here...?" Ulrich asked, picking up a hanging corner of the bandana and holding it up, peering at it closely.

Nearby in Lyoko, Damon jumped slightly, raising his head to the sky as his eyes opened widely.

"What's wrong?" Aelita piped up. Remaining silent and frowning slightly, Damon raced forward, dashing as fast as he could.

"Jeremie, are you getting a look at this?" Odd asked, tracing his virtualised fingers against the bandana.

"I sure am, Odd..." Jeremie replied. "I'm trying to scan it but so far I'm not having any luck. The scan is picking up the bandana, but whenever I try to look at its coding, the computer freezes. I can't imagine what extreme levels of encryption there are on it. Yumi, you better destroy that before XANA gets his hands on it. There's no telling what it could do."

"Jeremie's right, Yumi," Ulrich said, "We better destroy that thing right away..."

"I...but Ulrich, what about Damon? You know how much this thing means to him."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes, Yumi. We can't risk this thing being dangerous." Yumi hesitated, but nodded slowly and handed the bandana to Ulrich, who threw it up into the air. "Odd, time for some target practice."

"Mhm." Odd muttered, straightening his arm and aiming it at the slowly falling bandana. "Laser Arro-!"

"STOP!" A voice shouted out. Odd jumped at the shout and so his arm jumped with him, an arrow flying out and shooting past the bandana. Each of the three, looked in the direction of the shout, and saw Damon running towards them, his hood up and concealing his face. Damon ran towards them, stopping with a slight slide, his hands clenched and standing in a fighting stance. "Don't you dare touch that!" He shouted, racing for the bandana still falling slowly to the ground. Odd jumped over Damon's head and grabbed the bandana. Damon turned quickly to watch the cat like creature in shock. "I must be dreaming…" Damon thought. "This has to be a dream. These are the same guys from my dreams…"

"Ulrich!" Odd called, scrunching the bandana into a ball and throwing it to him.

"Ulrich?" Damon thought, as he watched the samurai catch the bandana and dash forward. Shaking his head to regain his sense Damon tore after the samurai, growling with frustration as he watched the samurai throw the bandana to another warrior. "Wait, I've never seen that one…did I just dream her up too?"

"Yumi!" Ulrich called, throwing the bandana.

"Yumi?" Damon now thought. Skidding to a stop, he shouted as loud as he could manage.

"STOP!"

Yumi, who had only just caught the bandana by diving, got back on her feet but remained stationary, as Ulrich and Odd stood on either side of Damon, sword drawn and arrow poised. "Ulrich..." he said softly. "And…you must be Odd…" Damon slowly moved towards Ulrich, Ulrich stepped forward and held the point of his blade to Damon's throat. Damon remained silent, his face shrouded in darkness, as he watched Ulrich's expression. Ulrich remained silent, his expression frowning slightly, looking into the darkness of Damon's hood. Odd remained alert behind them. He had prepared to shoot an arrow but had decided against it, as the slightest move from Damon would result in a direct hit on Ulrich.

Damon slowly lifted his hands in a surrendering position, remaining silent. Gripping the sides of his hood gently, Damon lifted and slipped it back, showing his face, and staring straight into Ulrich's eyes. "These guys look and sound just like my friends…even the names match…oh well, it's worth a shot. I'll try to talk to them."

"Give it back, Ulrich," Damon said clearly. "Or I'll take it."

"Damon!" All three of them questioned at once. Ulrich remained still, holding his sword unmoving against Damon's windpipe.

"What the heck is going on?" Ulrich asked, unsure whether or not to lower his sword.

"What are you guys doing here?" Damon asked, trying to keep up a calm façade.

"That's our line!" Odd chipped in, standing by Ulrich. "What are you doing here!"

"Your guess is as good as mine…" I just fell asleep and ended up here. Then I almost get killed, somehow survive and then I find you guys here!" Damon replied, slightly annoyed at his situation.

"You almost died?" Yumi asked, approaching Damon from behind.

"Yeah, I almost die-yaah!" Damon jumped, having turned and saw Yumi in her virtual warrior costume. "What the…! Yumi!" Damon stated in a questioning tone, walking forward and touching her pale white face gently, then rubbing at her cheek hard in an attempt to see if it was makeup.

"Aghk...cut it out!" Yumi said, smacking away his hand.

"It is you…why in the world are you dressed like that?" Damon asked, trying not to crack up laughing.

"Never mind that! What do you mean you almost died? You look totally fine."

"All I know is, I fall asleep, wake up here, and find you guys here. Now I don't know how you guys got me here or even where here is, but just take me back and I'll ignore the fact that you guys kidnapped me. Who's the leader meant to be? You, Ulrich, or Odd? Maybe it's that weird pink girl…"

"What!" Ulrich asked. His blade was still trained on Damon, but he took a small step back, considering lowering the sword. "We didn't kidnap you, Damon."

"And I suppose we just happen to be in the same weird place at the same weird time. Not to mention the clothes and the blade. Look, I don't care how you guys got me here, just get me back. "

"We didn't kidnap you Damon, and we don't know how you got here. What matters is how we can get you back, because I need to take a serious look at you," Jeremie's voice interjected.

"What do you mean take a look at me?" Damon asked, slightly apprehensive.

"Yeah, Brainiac," Odd asked, "What do you mean take a look at him?"

"I need to get Damon into a scanner and scan his body immediately," Jeremie replied, a hint of excitement in his voice, "I think he may hold the key to materializing Aelita."

End.

This seems like a good enough place to leave it. Sorry this chapter took so long, and the next one will take awhile too since I got exams starting really soon. And then there's X-Mas coming. So don't hold your breath for the next chapter, or I'll have to come tickle you till you burst out laughing.

Give it up for the new (and hopefully permanent) editor:deviconMewberries:

So, all comments and reviews are welcomed. I know this chapter isn't as good as the others, but stay with me. This is going to be a great story.

Umm…what else to add…ummm….ok, working on an OC drawing, the nomad picture in my DeviantArt gallery is a vector art as myself, because as I've said several times before I see all my OC characters as myself, how I would personally act and fight if I were inside the show. I'm working on pictures of both Damon and the nomad, and also a picture of the character to be in my Shaman King fic, but that won't even be started until I finish both this story and the TT one. Speaking of which, I'm not sure if I uploaded the latest chapter of it, but meh, you'll see it when you see it.

Kinda going on now…but this is MY story, you stop reading when I tell you to stop!

Okayyy….stop.

Nnnnnnn…..now!

Now.