CHAPTER 9: PAST FUTURE

YEAR 2005 (ORIGINAL TIMELINE)

Aelita and Jeremy had just arrived at Geneve. The sky was grey, it seemed like it was going to rain soon. They waited at the train station, as they had been told someone would pick them up. Then, a black limousine appeared in front of them. The back door opened and someone got out from the car.

- Hello! You must be my new apprentices. I'm Dr. Thyron, but you can call me Lowell -said the scientist very happily while stretching both of their hands.

- Hi, I'm Aelita, nice to meet you!

- I'm Jeremy, thank you for giving us this chance.

- What chance? This is a privilege! I have two of the brightest young minds on the entire continent. We're all going to learn a lot from each other. Come on, let's hop into the car before it rains.

The three of them got into the car and the chofer then took them to Thyron's lab on the Particle accelerator complex. The couple looked out of the window and, even though it was cloudy, the views of the town were beautiful. A lab in the middle of the mountains, it was a fantasy made true for Aelita.

- So… How was the trip? You came by train right?

- Comfortable -answered a still nervous Jeremy

- Oh, come on Jeremy, relax! I'm not a teacher, I'm not here to judge you. We're going to be companions, even friends at the end. We need to be close.

- Yes sir.

- And Mr. Thyr- sorry, Lowell, what will we be exactly doing?

- Well, I saw some of the work that Jeremy has done for some physics contests -I'm sorry Aelita but I haven't seen anything from you, I don't think you've never submitted anything, have you? Anyways, I was fascinated by the amount of knowledge you have from physics and I spoke to Mrs. Hertz and she recommended you too Aelita, so I decided that you could help me program something for my investigation.

- And what's your investigation about? We haven't found a lot of information about you -said Jeremy.

- I'll show you when we arrive.

Jeremy and Aelita got out of the car and looked around them. They were fascinated by everything their eyes met, so when Thyron saw their faces, he offered them to make a tour.

They checked every machine, every computer, every piece of the particle accelerator. Eventually, they arrived at Thyron's lab. It consisted on a room with a big circle on the middle. Aelita looked up and saw some stairs that went to another room. They went upstairs and it was full of computers, with a wide window on one side with a view of the downstairs room and a giant screen on the opposite wall.

- And this is my home.

- Wow, this is incredible. Look how many computers there are, and they're all from new generation -said an amazed Jeremy as he looked at every each of them.

- You must have a big team if you have this many computers.

- Actually, now it's just me and my wife. I did have a big group, but I send them to another project overseas and, unfortunately, the project was cancelled because of a terrible accident.

- Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Are they alright? -said a worried Aelita.

- I hope so.

- And what's that down there? Under the circle -asked Jeremy.

- You're clever, boy. Well, that's just the heart of my investigation.

Thyron pressed a button on one of the computers and an alarm started sounding. The circle was divided into two parts that retracted. Smoke came out of the hole between the platfotms. Suddenly, a giant black cube with lights on its sides emerged from the hole and around the smoke.

- Is that… -said a terrified Aelita

- Yes! A quantum computer. What I'm trying to do and the reason I need your help is because I need to create a virtual space in order to safely keep information on the computer. With it, I can save everything I want inside and distribute it all around the net, but anyone will be able to get inside my computer.

- I'm- I'm sorry Thryon, but I think we can't help you with that. It seems really difficult, we're just some high school teens. -said an anxious Jeremy.

- Yeah, and it also sounds dangerous. Someone could take advantage of it and control the communications of the entire world.

- And that someone is going to be me.

- What?

- And you're going to help me.

- No! Why would we do that? -shouted Aelita

- Because if you don't-

- Honey! Are the students here already? Their rooms are ready -said a lady who just entered the room.

- Let me present you to my wife: Anthea -said Thyron proudly as he grabbed the lady by the hips and kissed her-.

- Who is that? It reminds me of-

- MOM! -cried Aelita

- Now, if you don't help me -Thyron suddenly took out a gun and pointed it at Anthea

- Honey, what are you doing? -said Anthea terrified.

- I'll kill your mother.

- WHAT ARE YOU SAYING THYRON? WE DON'T HAVE ANY CHILDREN! -cried Anthea

- As you may notice, she no longer has memories of you, your father or anything before arriving at this lab. I made her my wife and we were leaving happily until both of you came and destroyed my lab.

- What are you even saying? We've never been here! -shouted Aelita

- Don't act so stupid. I'm not talking about this lab, I'm talking about the one in the Amazone jungle. First, that virus came in and took control of the supercomputer that my group was developing and started experimenting with the cyborg spiders that the other group of investigation was creating.

- So you're old team was the one possessed by XANA? -asked Jeremy

- You call it that? XANA? Yeah, I don't know if they're still alive. I just know that both of you came in and started fighting them. And a few weeks later you, blondie -Thyron pointed at Jeremy-, went again and destroyed the computer generators and exploded the whole lab!

- Is he mistaking me for Odd?

- I think so.

- SILENCE! -shouted an angry Thyron while pointing the gun at them.

- As you destroyed my work, now you're going to work for me if you don't want anything to happen to Anthea here.

- Thyron, you're being delusional. STOP POINTING ME! -begged Anthea

- But what do you want us to do? We're not scientists! -Aelita asked.

- Stop trying to fool me! Do you think I'm that dumb? I saw everything you did by the lab cameras and then I followed you and tracked your ID. You somehow teleported from France to a forest-like virtual world and then to the Amazon, all in those strange outfits. I still don't understand why you're a purple cat by the way.

- He's definitely mistaking me for Odd

- So, what I want you to do, is to replicate that forest I followed you to. That way I can put there that virus that invaded my lab. It was easy to track it the first time he tried to break my computer's security down. I followed it to that forest and then to a giant candle, where I found its main database. I started analysing it and forgot that it was trying to hack me, so when I remembered it was already late.

- You've… replicated…XANA? -said Aelita between breaths. She felt that the air was starting to go away, this couldn't be true. They thought they had killed every bit of XANA alive. Did this mean that her father died for nothing?

- Yes, at least to original state. Now, start working!