Ulrich had never been so tired. Morgan had stayed until three in the morning, listening to music with Odd. The volume was so high, he knew that they listened to Slipknot, Korn, Linkin Park, and he thought he even heard some AC/DC in there. Now, he was lying in bed, with no sense of time, unable to fall asleep. He looked at Odd.

Odd felt like he was being watched, but that seemed to be common now. He didn't know why, but he had started feeling a little paranoid. Not enough to make her have a nervous breakdown, but just enough to feel like she was always being watched. She noticed that someone was watching her, she turned around to see Ulrich, staring at her from his bed. He had his everyday straight face.

"Ulrich...?"

"Oh, you're awake."

He turned back to the wall.

"What were you looking at?" Odd asked.

"Nothing, go to sleep."

Odd looked at the clock, it was 6am. She wasn't tired at all. In fact, she couldn't stop thinking about Morgan. She picked up her phone and called her. But it went directly to voice mail. That was weird.

Jeremie was sitting at his computer, he couldn't sleep. Jason was out like a light, he had had a thirty minute phone call around midnight. Afterwords, he just fell asleep. Jeremie was working on Aelita's antivirus, XANA may have not been a threat anymore, but Aelita was still connected to the supercomputer.

Jeremie thought that he had it, when his computer shut off, no, the power went out. Jeremie was already so stressed that he just laughed at this.

Jason was awoken by the sound of laughing. It was Jeremie, he laughing like a crazy person. Kind of like The Joker.

"Jeremie?"

"I give up," Jeremie said with an insane smile on his face, "I f*****g give up!" He slammed his hand on the desk.

Dee was sitting up in her bed. What had just happened? She was having what she believed was a nightmare, then she woke up and an electrical outlet had sparked. Her roommate, Sissi, was sleeping, completely out of it. Dee didn't know what had happened, but the strange electrical outage would cause a lot of students to be late for school.

Odd and Ulrich were woken up by Jim. He was running through the halls to get people up. Apparently, there had been a black out early in the morning. Odd was running out the door right when Ulrich grabbed shoulder. She looked back at him, and he held up the strip of cloth. Odd blushed, she almost ran out without a disguise. She ran back into the room and asked Ulrich to shut the door.

Dee was walking down the hall, she looked like a zombie with her blank stare. She walked right past Ulrich, not even acknowledging his presence. Jason ran up to Ulrich.

"Ulrich!" He shouted, he sounded scared.

"What is it, Jason?"

"It's Jeremie," The boy looked very shaken, "I think he just had a nervous breakdown."

"Odd!" Ulrich shouted through the door, "Meet me at Jeremie's room!"

"Will do Ulrich!" Odd shouted through the door as she was trying to tie the strip on her back.

Ulrich and Jason got to Jeremie's room. Jason opened the door slowly. Ulrich saw the genius sitting there, his computer behind him, the wood on his desk was split. Jeremie was holding his left hand. The pinky looked out of place.

"What happened?" Ulrich asked Jason.

"He was working on something on the computer, then there was a power outage, the computer died, and he went crazy."

"What happened to his hand?"

"He slammed it down on the desk. I think it's broken."

Odd ran up to the room and saw Jeremie.

"What's up Einstein?"

Ulrich smacked his forehead with his hand, the worst thing to do with an unstable person is to call them names.

"Nothing Odd..." Jeremie mumbled.

"It doesn't look like nothing," Ulrich said, "The desk is split and your hand is broken, what the heck happened?"

Then the three, erm, two boys and one girl heard a sick sound. Jeremie popped his pinky back into place.

"It's not broken..." He mumbled. Jeremie continued this popping until he could move his hand again, "It was just dislocated..."

The first idea that Ulrich had was that XANA had possessed him, but he had seen her walk by this morning. This was creepy, Jeremie looked insane, his hair was all messed up, his glasses were thrown on the floor, he was popping dislocated joints into place without even showing signs of pain. It didn't seem natural.

Odd stepped into the hallway and called Aelita.

"Yeah Odd?" She said answering her phone.

"Jeremie's having a, uh, freaky moment."

"A what?" The pink haired girl asked, confused.

"Can you just come down here? He's really freaking us out."

"Okay Odd, I'll be down there soon." She hung up.

Aelita ran to the dorm room. She was very worried about Jeremie, he had been overworking himself again. If something happened, he could possibly lose it. She got to the room, and saw the boy.

He was sitting in his normal seat, like he had just turned around, but the look on his face was not normal. It shouldn't be a look anyone gives. He was smiling, but his eyes were wide open.

"Jeremie," Aelita whispered, feeling terrible about his current condition, "What happened?"

"Aelita," He said, still smiling, but he had a sad tone to his voice, "I'm sorry, but I can't cure you... The power went out, and the 500 lines of code I wrote last night can never be recovered."

"Jeremie, you can do this, I know you can, you just need to take a break."

"That's what I'm doing, Aelita, I'm just taking a break," He sounded a little angry, "And when I'm done with this break, I'll work until it kills me."

He turned around, turned on his computer, and noticed a prompt to restore the previous session. Jeremie just stared dumbfounded at the screen for a minute, then clicked yes, picked up his usual bag of candy, and started working as if nothing happened.

"This was a waste of time," Jason said, sighing, "He nearly loses his mind, just to find out that he could have recovered the data anyway. Lilly used to be the same way, but that was with hacking."

Aelita glared at Jason, who was not even phased by the ironic turn of events.

"So," Odd trailed off, "What did we just miss breakfast for?"

"Well," Ulrich said, "I guess that Jeremie's a little unstable. I had kind of guessed it already, but to see him like that... Let's just go to class."

They were walking away right when they heard a thud. They turned around to see Aelita staring down at Jeremie. He had fallen out of his chair and was laying on the floor.

"What happened now?" Odd asked, about to freak out.

Aelita just laughed, "He just fell asleep."

They heard a light snore coming from the boy on the floor.

After Ulrich and Jason had picked Jeremie up and put him on his bed, everyone except for Jeremie went to their classes.

Through out the day, Ulrich felt uncomfortable. Odd had been looking at him very strangely. At lunch, he walked up to her and Morgan.

"Hey Ulrich," Morgan said, "What's up?"

"Why's Odd been staring at me all day?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know," Odd said, "I've been staring at a lot of things today."

Ulrich found that he wouldn't get anything out of her, so walked away. He approached Aelita.

"Any word about Jeremie?" He asked.

"He's awake," Aelita said, "Just really tired. I think the exhaustion got to him."

"That's good," Ulrich paused, Aelita's cell phone was ringing.

"Hey Jeremie." She said.

"There's another... (Yawn) activated tower," The half conscious programmer said, "In the mountain... (Yawn) sector."

"Okay Jeremie, you stay there, we'll go to the factory and deactivate it."

Aelita called Yumi. But she had a test to makeup. Not one that would be smart to miss either.

That left Odd, Lilly, Jason, her and Ulrich. William was in Yumi's class too. He was astonished at how fast the clone had dropped his grade, it didn't even show up half of the days it should of, but he wasn't high on the list to call for help anyway. Dee seemed to have been missing since the morning. Aelita hadn't seen her at all.

They decided it would be fine for the four of them to go. Odd had said that she wanted to stay with Morgan.

They took the normal route, Lilly and Jason had brought their skateboards this time, which were, of course, identical. They got to the elevator, punched in the code, and went down to the lab.

"I think I can use the system," Lilly said, "I'm just better at hacking, though."

They nodded and the remaining three went down to the scanner room. They entered the scanners.

"Okay, I'm scanning now," She said simply, "Virtualization."

The three landed and did a quick inspection to see that they were virtualized correctly.

"I'm picking up TAU's signature," Lilly said, "He's 30 clicks to the north of your position. No, wait, he's engaging you Jason."

"What-" Was all that Jason could get out before a blast hit him in the back, throwing him forward and devirtualizing.

He stepped out of the scanner.

"What happened?"

"You go shot in the back."

"No dip, Sherlock! By Who?"

"TAU."

"He's supposed to be friendly!"

Nikolai was stationed on the ground this time, he had requested it actually. He was trying to find out why the TAU had gone rouge.

"Otchegaw, TAU?" (Why, TAU?) He silently asked the computer. He noticed that Jason had been devirtualized, and that Ulrich Stern was being targeted. He knew the ultimate target was Aelita, he had to move fast. He grabbed his cellphone and called the Operator.

"Zdraast vooee che, Nikolai," (Greetings Nikolai) The Operator said, his voice disguised, "Shtaw vee kha tee tye?" (what do you want?)

"I want to be reactivated." Nikolai said.

"You do know that the Creed has not been disabled yet."

"I don't care, it punished me before and I guess I haven't learned my lesson."

"Pe chey moo?" (Why?)

"Pe ta moo, I am going in there, no matter what you say. I just wanted to see what your thoughts were on the issue."

"I am fine with it, but yours and Gregory's handler may have something to say about it."

"Greg has nothing to do with this, I merely wish to be reactivated as a Moderator. An official one."

"I will decide what to do with your partner. He may be forced to join you."

"Spaasee ba, Operator Smith." (thank you)

The other end was silent for what seemed to be a long time, then, without a disguise, "Have fun, Nik." The line went dead.

Nikolai got out of the van he was in and ran to the abandoned factory across the street. He found the ropes that the others were using, but he was too big for it. He jumped from the ledge, fell ten feet, and landed on his feet. Those mutations he got from the prototype scanners were starting to prove useful. He ran to the elevator, punched in the code that had been so familiar to him, and went down directly to the scanner room. He squoze into a scanner, god he was getting big.

"Activate," He said. He was thinking about Smith's voice, it was so familiar. The scanner started up, filling with warmth. Then it spoke in a robotic voice, "Please state command prompt."

"Initiate command prompt: reactivation of moderator RSN."

"Please state pass key."

"148919."

"Warning: you are going against the Creed of this computer. This may lead to permanent affirmative actions by this computer."

"Pra klee naats Creed!" (Damn the Creed) By now, Lilly would have noticed that the cameras in the scanner room were on a loop. He had to speed this up.

"Access granted."

He felt the scanner take him apart molecule by molecule. He noticed that he saw the world appear before him, and Ulrich get shot in the leg, he was almost out of life points. He saw the tiny figure in the distance shift. Nikolai dropped to the ground and activated his shield.

Aelita had only a few seconds to respond, she could hide behind a rock, but the weapon could destroy those, she heard the shot, but suddenly a shield surrounded her. She turned to see her savior, but didn't recognize him. He looked around Yumi's age, had brown hair. He was wearing a blue tunic with black pants, and had the smallest weapon she had ever seen, a tiny knife. But the shield stopped the round in it's tracks.

In the distance, TAU was wondering what had happened. He had fired, but the girl did not devirtualize. There was what appeared to be an orb of electrical energy surrounding her.

"Laad na, TAU," (Okay, TAU) Nikoali said, "You turn on me, and I do the same for you." He concentrated on TAU, grabbed his knife and stabbed his hand, taking two life points, and said, "Plasma Stike." A huge bolt of electricity came down and hit the program. He lost 75 life points, and leaving him completely immobilized.

"I'll be right back, kiddo." Nikolai told Aelita. He concentrated at the area he wanted to go, then muttered said "Super Sonic" and disappeared. Aelita had the strangest feeling that she knew him from somewhere, and the way he had just talked to her, it was like he knew her well.

Nik appeared right behind the rouge program. He turned it around to see the strangest sight of all, TAU had ZETA's mark inside OMICRON's mark. That meant that ZETA must have absorbed OMICRON. He decided to end this program, so he grabbed his knife and stabbed the avatar on the new mark, relieving it of its last 25 life points. TAU turned into a wireframe, then disappeared forever.

Lilly just stared at the screen, Jason was leaning in a corner. He knew who it was, Lilly just caught the last of the manual override in the scanner. It had all happened so fast too. The second the man was in Lyoko, Lilly freaked out. She talked to the mysterious stranger.

"Who are you? How did you get onto Lyoko?"

Nikolai thought he should try to keep himself secret as long as possible, which wouldn't be too long because Jason undoubtedly knew who he was.

"Did you hear me?" Lilly asked.

"Ya ne gavareeu na angliskom," He said smiling up at the sky.

"What?"

Jason walked up to the computer and said into the mike, "Dad, I know that's you. Stop speaking Russian."

"Da, it's me."

To say that Lilly was shocked would be an understatement. The man who she thought was dead, was talking to her from Lyoko. He was perfectly fine too, it made no sense, the man had been missing for five years. No, hiding for five years.

"Daddy?" She asked, trying not to stutter., "Is that you?"

"Hey Lilly, I'm sorry that I've been gone for a while, but I'm back."

Lilly nearly passed out. This could not be happening. She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the two enemies heading towards Ulrich.

Ulrich was laying on the ground when Aelita helped him up. He saw the mantises, but they weren't mantises. They were much heavier built, had small heads, and looked very powerful.

Ulrich was standing to fight them, when his head seemed to explode in pain. He fell over, clutching his head. He felt like he could die, it was pain that most people should never experience. Then, just as fast as it had started, it stopped. He shrugged it off and picked up his swords.

Nikolai used his Super Sonic ability to get over to Ulrich. He made a shield around himself.

"Who are you?" Ulrich asked.

"This is the worst time for questions!" Nikolai shouted, "But my name is Nikolai."

He threw a lightning ball at one of the creatures. It froze for a second, then kept moving.

"Forget this." Nik said. He ran up to one of the creatures, put his hands on it, and shouted, "Conduction!"

After the thing The monster fell back and exploded.

"Wo-" Was all Ulrich said when the first shot was fired by the other creature. He devirtualized...

The best way to describe it was that Ulrich felt like crap. The second he left the scanner, he knew he had a fever. He stumbled over to the elevator.

"Ka ra shaw, that sucks," (Ka ra shaw=well) Nik said when Ulrich devirtualized. He ran up to the other monster and used the conduction technique again. It fell over and exploded. He then grabbed Aelita, used Super Sonic, and had her by the tower before she even noticed he had grabbed her.

"How...?" She said, staring wide-eyed at him.

"Just deactivate the tower."

She entered the tower, and deactivated it, normally this time.

When Lilly figured out how to devirtualize them, Aelita came up to the Lab. The elevator went down again, but passed the Lab coming back up. Nik stepped out of the elevator into the abandoned factory. He climbed out, and ran over to the van. When he got in there, Wolfe freaked out.

"What the HELL! The Operator called me and said that you were reactivated! I guess that you see what it did to you?"

"Da, but it's not all that bad."

"God, how are we going to explain this to Smith?"

Wolfe's phone rang. He answered.

"Hello?"

"You know I can reactivate you, right? Don't say my NAME!" The line went dead.

"I told you he wouldn't be happy."

Meanwhile, the four Lyoko warriors left to go back to Kadic. It was around dinner time, so Aelita guessed where they could find Odd. Ulrich seemed to have developed a fever in Lyoko. He could barely walk, so Jason supported him the way back to his room. Ironically, Odd was not at dinner, and Ulrich's room appeared empty.

Jason and Ulrich entered the dorm room. Ulrich sat on Odd's bed without even looking.

"Hey! Watch where you're going Kiwi!" Odd said from under the covers.

Jason lifted the sheets up to find Odd curled up.

"What are you doing?" Jason asked.

"Sleeping."

"Why?"

"Well," Odd said, "I'm tired. What's wrong with Ulrich?"

"He got sick on Lyoko."

"Oh, that sucks."

Jason helped Ulrich into bed.

"I should probably go," The American boy said, "Hope ya feel better tomorrow, Ulrich."

He left the room. Odd pulled her sheets back up and fell asleep.

Ulrich was sleeping on and off all night. When he was asleep, he was having nightmares of falling into the digital sea, when he was awake, he was in so much pain that he wanted to scream. It was as if his body was boiling down to the innards of his cells. Around 2am, he felt a little better, so he got up, and walked to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror for god knows how long. He didn't look into it at all, too many bad dreams.

Ulrich walked back to the room. He laid on his bed, over the sheets. He noticed how Odd's snoring wasn't as bad as before her transformation. It was easier to sleep now.

He fell asleep...

XANA was walking back to her room. She had found out the truth. Her powers were returning. It appeared that it was her return to Lyoko that had sparked their return.

Currently, she could only control small electronics, but it was a start. She may be able to make a plan after all.

"Ulrich?" He heard Odd ask. It was Sunday, why was Odd trying to wake him up?

"... What is it Odd..." He asked in a groggy voice. It sounded kind of different, though.

"I just wanted to welcome you to the club." What? What was that supposed to mea-

Ulrich opened his eyes, that action hurt. Then he tried to move his arm to sit up. His whole body was-

"Stiff?" Odd asked, pointing to Ulrich's arm, "That's how I was right after I changed."

"... Oh god... Don't tell me I'm a-"

"Hey!" Odd said smiling, "You guessed it!"

Ulrich didn't really know how to react. At any rate, he was taking it better than Odd. He finally sat up, finding the truth as the new weight on his chest shifted. He really ached.

"Maybe we should call Jeremie." Odd suggested.