XxX Vision XxX

"Don't you see my little Aelita? You can't save anyone. You can try to fight it, but we both know. The dark powers reside in you. Don't fight it. It's so much easier to give in." X.A.N.A clutched Aelita's shoulder. Her eyes were fixated in a wide seemingly hypnotized stare. The dark energy surrounded his hand and flowed through her body.

Aelita succumbed to the dark power. She let it fill her, almost to the point of overflowing. Her fingers trembled with the power. Dark rays shot out of her, enveloping her surroundings in complete darkness.

"Yes! Let it fill you! Embrace it!"

XxXxXxXxXxX

Aelita opened her eyes to see... everything was falling? No, she's falling. The data was glowing around her. She could hear Odd's voice calling for her. She could hear Yumi sobbing. Why? She fell into the digital sea right? She wasn't dead.

Her feet landed on a platform softly. It lit up slowly and she stepped forward. Her shadow seemed to engulf her. She hadn't noticed that the whole time her fists were clenched, consumed by dark energy. Aelita clutched her head. The vision kept recurring behind her eyelids. She refused to give in. Tak tak tak.

"Who's there?" she prepared her hands in a fighting stance. The footsteps sounded louder as they came closer.

"Oh but you already have. Don't you remember? Just now before I brought you here."

"Wha- what are you talking about? Make sense now!" Aelita furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and anger. X.A.N.A stepped in front of her. "Ah-" he ran his hand through her hair. She felt paralyzed.

"But don't you remember?" He repeated chuckling wickedly. "You hurt Odd, you lashed out at your friends, why just now you pushed your friends away to get here my young apprentice."

"You- you're lying!"

"Oh am I?"

"I don't remember that! I would never-"

"Oh but you would," he snarled. His fingernails dug into her skin through her shirt. Her skin began to sting under his touch. "You would and you have."

"Agh! AGHHH!" She fell to the ground. Her body writhed on the floor. He leaned down close to the cup of her ear.

"That's right, remember."

XxXxXxXxXxX

He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. She pressed herself against him, as close as she could get. She had felt happy, that's all she remembered. Then, he was gone. Where had he gone? Wait. That's right.

"Odd, stop."

"Hmm?" Odd looked over at where she lay in the grass. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "Aelita, what's wrong?" He turned to her and laid his fingers on her face. Her eyes shot open wide.

"I said Stop!" An invisible force pushed him back and he flew across the ground. She walked over to him and smirked.

"Pathetic," her voice was harsh. She kicked him and he winced. "Did you think you could stop me?" Her dark energy emanated around her. Odd rose to his knees.

"Aelita-"

"Don't mention that name in my prescence," her voice distorted,"at last, haha, at last, the princess of darkness is free!"

"No." He stood. "You're wrong." He lunged towards her and she dropped to her knees.

"O- odd? Wha-" He stopped in front of her.

"Listen, Aelita, you have to fight-" She pointed her hand at his face. Her energy knocked him down to kneel in front of her.

"No, listen to me." She pulled the blade from her pocket and cut at his arms. She layed him back onto the ground and lifted his shirt slightly. "No one hurts me anymore."

"Aelita!" Yumi cried. 'Oh no, what happened?' She knelt down next to Odd's mutilated body. Cuts crisscrossed all over his skin. It looked even paler than usual. She looked around to see blood on the ground and no sign of Aelita.

"Yumi, we have company," Ulrich warned as X.A.N.A's monsters approached them.

"Where's Aelita?"

"Right here." Yumi blacked out from Aelita's attack. Ulrich was stunned by the sight. She used her dark energy and hit Ulrich with all her might. He layed sprawled next to Yumi and Odd.

Aelita fainted. Jeremie dragged Odd away.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Aelita stirred then sat up with a start.

"I hurt Odd?" she mumbled out.

"Now you see. Aelita, you can't control this darkness. You took the pain and turned it into rage. That raged turned into the dark energy you used against your own friends."

"But he said- he said Jeremie..." She looked at her shaking palms.

"Come Aelita. Let's leave. After Lyoko is destroyed, I can train you, and we can rule the world together."

XxXxXxXxXxX

"So why weren't we devirtualized?" Ulrich asked, helping Yumi up.

"This is it," he responded,"the secret section of Carthage. She led us here." Ulrich and Yumi looked around. The data began fading slowly around them.

"So Aelita is alive right?" Yumi asked. Odd sighed. Suddenly he looked very tired.

"I hope so."

"Well we don't have time to just sit around guys, we gotta' get movin'," Ulrich said. Just as he finished speaking an alarm sounded and the whole sector flashed red.

"Warning, deletion sequence 95% complete."

"Woah!" Yumi caught herself as the ground started to shake violently. The warriors braced themselves for falling objects. As soon as the ground stopped shaking, they started moving along the path quickly.

"So what are we looking for?" Ulrich asked breathing heavily.

"The tower," Odd replied.

"Uh oh, looks like we've got company." Yumi pointed ahead where a horde of monsters blocked their path.

"Hang on Aelita," Odd whispered.

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Yumi caught her fan when it returned to her. The warriors stood panting heavily as the last of the monsters was defeated.

"I don't see it!" she cried exhausted. Odd sighed in frustration.

"I don't see Aelita, I don't see the tower, maybe it was just a rumor."

"Guys, we can't just give up now. We've already come this far. We're all coming back together, remember?" Ulrich encouraged.

"Warning, deletion sequence at 97%."

"Well we better get going then," Odd smiled.

XxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Hahaha. Yes I know it's been a while guys, I finally got around to writing this. I promise the next update will be soon after this. I still really love this story. As always, reviews are very much appreciated! Oh, also, to all my readers I have rewritten chapter 18 so it is alot better in my opinion. Go read it! Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, it wouldn't be over if I did.