The final bell rang loudly, signaling the end of the day. I threw my books into my bag hurriedly trying to leave as soon as possible. Odd hadn't shown up to any of our classes and Aelita kept shooting me nervous glances. I caught up with her so we could walk to Yumi's dorm. She was released this morning since she said her ankle was feeling much better. The nurse said she couldn't be walking around while it was healing. We made our visit quick as we explained to Yumi our plan to find Odd. We had come up with it just last night.
"I can't let you guys go to the factory alone." I knew this wouldn't be easy.
"Yumi, we need this time to search for Odd, every second we waste is time we could be using to find him. We're not going to talk about this right now, I promise Ulrich and I will be fine," Aelita said hurriedly. Yumi sighed but we took that as an o.k.
"We'll be fine Yumi, I promise too, and if anything happens we'll call you," I assured her. She smiled and I kissed her forehead before Aelita grabbed my hand and we ran out.
We made it outside quickly enough, still running. I made sure to keep a hold on Aelita's hand so she wouldn't out run me. She gripped my hand tightly. I could tell she was worried.
"What do you think a Scyphozoa was doing here?" She asked out of breath.
"I don't know, but it can't be good."
"Do you think XANA is back?" she asked quickly, quietly. I didn't have an answer for that.
We slowed when we neared the manhole and began walking. It wasn't as dark out here tonight so it was easy to see where we were going. I led Aelita along and before I knew it, we were at the factory. As we stepped into the elevator, I got this eerie feeling. I shrugged it off as nothing when we reached the computer room. The supercomputer was on and the screen was lit. So maybe I wasn't being paranoid. Aelita stepped forward to take a look.
"Someone has definitely been here recently," she pointed out to me. I took a look over her shoulder and stared at the screen. A view of Lyoko's desert sector was on the screen. This can't be.
"I thought X.A.N.A was done messing with us."
"X.A.N.A may have been dormant but we didn't destroy him," she said grimly," I'm going to run a super scan so I can see if maybe Odd is there." She clicked away at the keyboard while I watched. "Just a second and... there!" She smiled triumphantly. The scan began and a few seconds later it began beeping. Aelita opened the window. The screen flashed red rapidly with the word error printed across the screen. "Oh no," her face fell and she began to type rapidly again.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"There's an error in the program, I think there might be a bug in the system."
"What can I do?"
"Hold on." A few more clicks and the screen stopped flashing. She turned around to face me. "We're gonna' have to go in and check it out."
"Lyoko, here we come."
XxXxXxXxXxX
I set up a program on the supercomputer to virtualize us as soon as the scanner's doors closed. We stepped in and I smiled beginning to close my eyes as the process began.
XxXxXxXxXxX
We landed on Lyoko a moment later. I looked around feeling a sudden wave of nostalgia wash over me. I breathed the air in deeply feeling the desert sun on my face.
"I'm home," I whispered. A slight breeze stirred greeting my face as if it too were happy I was back.
"Cool." I heard Ulrich say. I turned to face him to see what he was talking about. Ulrich was looking a his outfit. Apparently, being away this long changed our looks to match our age. Our jumpsuit looking outfits both gone (thank goodness) and replaced. Ulrich was clothed in a yellow kimono, a black dragon winding around him. The tail started on his stomach snaking around to his back. He unsheathed his katana happy to have it in his hands again. The hilt had been changed to look like the dragon that covered his kimono. The blade was a good five feet colored a rosy pink, shining beautifully in the light.
"Remind me why we stopped coming here," he told me smiling. I couldn't help but smile back.
"I know, I missed it too." I looked myself over again to get a good look at my outfit. It's a dress. There are ruffles on the top that stop a little before the middle where it cuts into a v-neck. The top of the v-neck was laced but as it got lower there was a zipper to close it from the front. The bottom of it puffed out slightly. For once it wasn't pink. The whole outfit was black but the lace was purple. The band around my arm was also purple. I looked down at my boots. Very nice.
"Come on, we've got a lotta searching to do," I said snapping out of my girly daze. We ran through the Desert sector and reached the tower. The first sector we checked was Carthage, I figured if X.A.N.A was holding him he would be there.
We spent an hour in Carthage searching every place we could reach, but to no avail. Ulrich and I decided to split up the rest of the sectors. He took the Forest and Mountain sectors. I chose the Polar sector.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Aelita and I split up our search in hopes of finding Odd. I got through the mountain sector easy enough, there weren't many places to search. I entered the Forest sector wondering where on this world he could be.
"Odd!" I called. No reply. I couldn't help but heave a sigh. It was frustrating not knowing. Not knowing what happened, not knowing where Odd went, and not knowing if X.A.N.A was really the one behind all of this.
Everything was still and silent so I figured I could just pass through without a problem. Big mistake. I fell down after getting shot in the back by a laser. I turned around to see three bloks and two hornets after me. When did they show up? I jumped up quickly to strike at the monsters. The hornets stayed close shooting at me from above while the bloks stayed back, shooting from afar. I went after the hornet nearest to me and slashed through it easily. The other circled around waiting for my next move. Before I could strike, a blok shot me again. I pushed myself off the ground to get above the hornet's head. I aimed directly at the eye and watched as it shattered from my blow. I used triplicate and ran triangles around the remaining monsters. I stepped out then slashed a blok in its eye. Two left. I was sure I was going to win but I didn't block their duo ring attack in time. There goes my life points. I was devirtualized immediately. I stepped out of the scanner and hurried up to the computer.
"Aelita," no response,"Aelita?" Damn, I was devirtualized at the worst possible time.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
A/N: Well when a chapter ends like that, you know the drama is coming. Sorry for the long wait! Okay chapter I guess. Any comments? Sucked? (Yeah, kinda.) Haha I promise next chapter will be much, much better. I've been kind of busy with a new idea that I fell in love with for a second Code Lyoko story. If you want the deets, PM me or leave it in a review.