Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. But if you do own it, it would be an awesome birthday gift for me! I do own Musa, Cascada, this story's plot and anyone else who wasn't in the show.

Note: Last chapter I said there were three scanners. I changed that to four.

How Do You See Yourself in 7 Years? - Part 1

No one understood their reasoning. How could anyone? Even during the sanest of moments they were anything but sane. To the Lyoko gang right now, minus the two female artificial intelligences, they had just reached a whole new level of insanity. Let the good times roll!

Cascada and Musa spent a great part of the day locked up in the underground lab. The gang waited around in the broken down cabin for a while, hoping that the girls would come out and explain what they were doing. It was only when the sky changed from sky blue to a dark midnight blue and the freezing dropping temperatures did they leave. The wolf and plant A.I. had still yet to come out.

"I really don't want to leave them there," Aelita said looking back at the now shrinking cabin as they made their way from the cabin and to the hotel.

"Neither do I," sighed Jeremy.

"You just don't want them messing with your new toy," Odd teased.

"And you just want to suck face with Musa," Jeremy replied coolly causing the other blonde to blush though he didn't deny it…

"What do you think they have in mind?" Yumi asked.

"Who knows," William shrugged. "For all we know they could be planning for world domination."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Ulrich chuckled stuffing his hands in his pockets.

The group of teens finally returned to the hotel with a few hours to spare before they had to return to their rooms. They decided to split up and do what ever they pleased with this rare relaxing time.

Odd decided to go outside and walk around. He wasn't one to just stand in one place for too long. He walked around the outside of hotel, passing by some of his fellow classmates and other hotel guests. The blonde wasn't really paying attention to anything in particular; he was just trying to waste time till Musa came back. He was so whipped.

The cat warrior was just about to go back inside when he heard an all too familiar, annoying voice. "Sissi," he thought about to turn around and go the other way to avoid a confrontation with the girl until he over heard something.

"What? You think just because you can't talk people should pay more attention to you?" he heard the snide comment from the principal's daughter.

"Sitara," he thought with a frown as he headed over towards the voices. He wasn't too surprised when he saw Sissi, Herve, and Nicolas practically cornering the girl, providing no escape.

"Why do you either bother waiting?" Sissi asked, hands on her hips. "No one is going to come for a little wall flower like you. You're easily forgotten. Your friends probably ditched you."

At that point, Sitara looked distressed and on the verge of tears. Odd felt sorry for the girl. Actually he felt sorry for anyone who had to deal with the beast in disguise known as Sissi. The purple loving boy was just about to step in when the person he least expected to did.

"People who degrade others to only feel better about themselves are worst then scum," Nyx said stepping forward. Her dark eyes held such intensity that Sissi found herself involuntarily taking a step back.

"Isn't that hypocritical?" Odd wondered to himself as he continued to watch.

"W-who a-are you?" the principal's daughter stuttered.

"That really is no concern of yours," Nyx said sounding bored as she looked at her perfectly manicure nails. "But know this," she said turning her gaze once again on the raven hair girl, "this girl is an acquaintance of mine. If I find that you are causing her stress of any kind," she said taking a few steps towards Sissi before they were close enough for her to tilt the girl's chin up with her finger, making her stare into her eyes, "then there will be serious consequences that I doubt you could even think of. Remember, if I wanted to, I could be your worst nightmare." Nyx removed her finger from the girl's chin and took a step back as she watched Sissi struggle to stand up, her legs feeling like jello. Nicolas and Herve quickly assisted the girl away from the woman as fast as they could. Odd still stood, not too far away but still unnoticed.

Nyx watched as Sissi was practically dragged away before turning her gaze towards Sitara. She kneeled in front of the girl, reaching out a hand slowly towards the girl's face. Both Odd and Sitara looked at the woman questioningly before she surprised both them.

She flicked the previously crying girl in the middle of the head with her thumb and forefinger before standing up straight and turning her back on the startled girl and walking away. Before she was too far away she said over her shoulder, "Grow a backbone. You won't be any help to him otherwise," she said before walking off towards the waiting limo and getting in.

Odd decided that it was best to leave the girl to herself. He returned to the hotel thinking only this, "Was Nyx actually helping Sitara?"

Nyx crossed her legs staring at the people with her in the limo. "I hope you know that what we have been assigned is of the utmost importance," she said.

"Of course," a voice said.

"Nothing else is to be expected," another said.

"When do we begin?" asked another.

"As soon as the King's pawns move into play," Nyx said. "Then we'll get rid of them, one by one."

"Our payment?"

"Do you not trust our leader?"

No response.

Ozzy walked through the lobby. He had just finished making calls with several interested investors of Evanescent Dream. He had begun planning the first few performances that the hotel was eager to host. The bills were paid the paychecks were given out and any other financial necessities were filed and being taken care of. The wheat hair young man wondered how this business had gotten on without him.

When he had arrived everything was in disarray and nothing was file as it should be. Chris and Ken were "big picture" type of guys while Chris made sure every loose bolt was screwed tight and checked over a thousands times. He had learned from mistakes in the past to never assume and to always have a backup plan no matter how menial.

He was walking towards the elevators when he accidentally bumped into the manager of the hotel, Anita Emeraldson. "Oh I'm sorry," he said.

"It's no problem," Anita said waving him off with a smile. "I wasn't paying much attention." Ozzy gave the woman one of his rare smiles before they both continued on their way.

No one noticed the slip of paper that was exchanged from his hand to hers as they bumped into each other, going along with their jobs.

William paced back and forth the length of his room. He was tired. No, tired was an understatement. He was about to fall out at any second but he forced his body to keep moving, to keep staying awake. Black rings were beginning to form around his eyes, a sign of insomnia, of lack of sleep.

When was the last time he slept? The boy racked his mind. It was on the bus but that was about three days ago. Three sleepless days. The shaggy hair teen rubbed his temples as his head pounded. Along with the lack of sleep, his headaches were becoming more frequent. So far he was able to hide his pain from the others but he didn't know how much longer he could continue. He was already on pain killers.

He stared at his bed. It seemed to be calling him, to lull him to sleep but he denied, resisted. Sleep only brought more pain and the dreams. Memories more so then dreams but they weren't his. They were Leon's. They were two different people. He wasn't Leon wasn't him and he wasn't Leon. He wasn't a clone. He was his own person…right?

"Of course I am!" he thought slamming his fist angrily down on his desk. He breathed heavily before collecting himself. It was just then that his cell phone rang.

"Come to the cabin. We're done," Cascada said from the other line.

"Are you going to give me a hint on what you're doing?" he asked trying to make his voice seem less strained.

"Are you going to go to sleep so you don't kill yourself?" the plant A.I. asked surprising the boy.

"Cascada, how-?" she had already hung up, leaving him to stare at his phone before putting it back in his pocket and leaving the room

It took about twenty minutes for the entire Lyoko gang to gather in Franz's old study. The trap door at the foot of the bookcase opened, Musa and Cascada stepping out.

"Are you two finally going to tell us what you've been doing?" Jeremy asked impatiently. He didn't like to be out of the loop. It made him feel vulnerable.

"Just follow these directions," Cascada said handing the younger blonde a piece of paper with plans that would make any normal person faint but luckily, Jeremy understood the procedures though he still had no idea what the results were.

"After you do that, call a cab at the hotel," Musa stated handing William a piece of paper with an address on it. "Tell the driver to take you here."

"Anyone mind telling us what's going on?" Ulrich asked.

"Everything you'll need you'll find in your pockets after the scan," Cascada said ignoring the boy. She looked at Ulrich, William, and Odd. "We trust you three to get Jer into a scanner."

"WHAT!?" the boy yelled.

"Don't worry," Musa said trying to comfort him. "You're not going on Lyoko but for this plan to work everyone needs to participate."

"But what is the plan?" Aelita asked.

"We'll tell you when we regroup," Cascada said. "But for right now, the boys we'll go first as we girls go back to the hotel and make sure Jim doesn't suspect anything. Once we do that, the guys should be gone and it'll be our turn."

"I still don't understand why I have to do this," Jeremy moaned. "He had had several experiences with him and the scanners and he wasn't so sure if he wanted to hang around in a virtual limbo or a recreation of the real world.

"If not for us," Musa whispered into the blonde's ear.

"Do it for Aelita," Cascada whispered in his other ear. The computer whiz blushed before gulping.

"F-fine," he muttered stepping away from the two girls.

"Great!" Musa said excitedly. "Now we can start operation 7 Up!"

"Out of all the possible names you could think of," Cascada said deadpanned, "you think to name the operation after a soda?"

"And a fairly popular, school game," the wolf A.I. retorted.

"Hey! I remember that game!" Odd grinned.

"Heads down! Thumbs up! Time to play 7 Up!" both he and Musa shouted, arm in arm.

"They've lost it," the rest of the Lyoko gang thought sweat dropping.

The girls had left. Now it was only the guys. Jeremy typed in the code as directed on the sheet. He was confident that he had typed everything right. He wasn't confident that he could step foot inside one of those accursed cylinders.

"Come on Einstein," Odd grinned, head behind his head. "It's not that bad."

"You seem to forget that I've haven't had the best time with the scanners," Jeremy said turning away.

"And you seem to forget that it's one of you," William said smirking, "against three of us."

Jeremy gulped as Odd and Ulrich each took one of his arms and William pushed his back. Not even having a chance to defend himself against his handlers, the blonde computer whiz found himself inside the small space of the scanner. Before he could even move to get out, the doors closed around him locking him within the space.

As the air around him began to blow upwards he realized something. He was seriously claustrophobic. He would so get Musa and Cascada back for this!

Hey guys! Another update! Really excited about the next chapter! Anyway, lots going on in the story. And what is the plan Musa and Cascada set up...? I know! You might have some idea aout what it is but you don't know the whole deal! (insert evil laughter) LOL! I love being the author.

You know, I realized that I'm using alot of ideas that I decided not to use in Code Moon in here. Like, for example, Musa was actually supposed to be blind or at least she was supposed to be on Lyoko. What else can I tell you...? Can't really think of anything!

I'm so excited! My B-Day is two days away! March 31st! But it's on a Monday! That sucks! It'll be just my luck that I get a truck load of homework.

Ooooo!! As a special B-Day surprise for my readers if you guess how old I'll be turning you'll get a special sneak peek for next chapter. One of my reviewers already guessed awhile ago so they don't have to worry about guessing. Clue: Think about the classes I'm always complaining about.

Anyway, nothing more to say so...PLEASE REVIEW!!