Author's note: I thank those who reviewed/followed chapter two. Besides that, I don't really know how I'm doing. As promised, a new chapter. Enjoy? (It will get more exciting later on in the story, I promise^^).

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. Only my imagination:)!

Chapter 3: XANA's plan

At the hermitage, more than ten years ago...

Aelita found herself standing in the living room. Everything was the way it was before. The piano, the books, her bedroom, and even Mister Pück. Aelita was overwhelmed with happiness, but at the same time she realized that she was in an odd situation. "XANA,"Aelita sighed.

Aelita was precious to XANA. He would try anything to separate her from her friends. He had succeeded. But Aelita had never expected a long time travel. At first, she was perplexed that this had happened. However she had no right to blame one of her friends. They were all so occupied with the first attack. A second attack seemed rash, strange and out of the ordinary.

As quickly as she figured out that she needed to get to the factory, just as quickly she figured out XANA would go to great lengths to bring her there anyway. Basically waiting was all she had to do, but Aelita would try to escape, because her friends needed her as well.

Aelita imagined her father playing the piano, playing that familiar tune. She was calmed down slightly more than a couple of minutes ago. Now she could focus and escape. That is, if she could find an exit or anything that would cause a return to the future, to her present. No matter how disappointed and saddened she would feel after leaving her real home behind. Her memories were clear and Aelita was satisfied and happy she still had those memories. She was determined to fight until the end. For herself, for her mother and for her father. With these thoughts, Aelita searched the house.

Once inside her bedroom, which was the last room to search for clues, Aelita saw a bowl. It was lit very brightly and it was obviously waiting for her. Aelita already expected XANA to send some kind of sign or message that would guide her to the factory. Actually, she also hoped it. XANA would probably propose a deal. Consisting of a threat and an order, to make Aelita surrender herself. She approached the bowl and read: If you don't want your friends, Jeremy and Odd, to be hurt very badly, you'll take the transport device that will bring you back to the future automatically and wait for instructions there. Otherwise, some visitors might change your mind. You have five minutes to decide.

It was not necessary to think twice. Aelita took the device and she was about to teleport herself back to the future. But something held her back. Ignorant of the reason, Aelita put the device down and turned around. Odd stood there, looking exhausted. Aelita was shocked to see her friend here. How did that happen?

Odd began to tell everything that been taking place two weeks before the day of the attack. "Well, it's a long story. I'll summarize it. I passed out when we launched the return to the past. When I woke up, I was in the cafeteria. I had thought to myself that XANA must have done that to me and would probably have planned something for the others as well," Odd stopped talking to breathe, given the fact that he was exhausted from his trip.

"Luckily, after some time I realized a calendar hung there, from which I was able to tell I travelled back two weeks into the past, for everything would still be a mystery to me, if I hadn't seen it. Anyway, I tried escaping which was useless and boring too because I didn't get anywhere," Odd said, deciding to skip the details.

"Soon some sort of disco bowl neared me. It told me that you were in danger, because of a threat, and if I was given the choice of either taking a transport device and go back in time even further or being the cause of Yumi and Ulrich's death. You understand it was an easy choice. So now I am here, but I see you are not in danger. Because that would mean I am the threat and that is impossible, since I haven't tried to hit you with lasers or kill you," Odd finished speaking and laughed. "I also assumed you figured out more than I did, since you are a female Einstein."

"Odd, there is no time for jokes. We are in trouble. I was in trouble because of a threat. But the threat involved you and Jeremy getting hurt badly, if I didn't take this device and transport myself back to the day it all started. Which means that XANA has other intentions, he must have planned something else. XANA obviously has created a lot of tension and confusion. We still have to get to the bottom of all this,"Aelita said. Not wasting any time she pressed the button on the device, took Odd's hand and before they knew it, they were on their way to their own world. She hadn't even bothered to tell the remaining part of her story.

Meanwhile on Lyoko...

Jeremy had had a very rough landing. He had not anticipated that XANA was able to virtualize him on Lyoko. The question was: why did he do it? He blamed himself for the way it turned out. It was because of his inattentiveness. If he had paid a little more attention to the screens and the programs, he would have known. He wouldn't have put his friends in even more danger. But what else was he supposed to do? Jeremy had been just as upset about the attack on Earth as Yumi and the others. He had hurried to launch a return after the message was clear.

Jeremy looked at his ridiculous appearance, which reminded him of the day with the megatanks. Unfortunately for Jeremy, it was exactly the same day. Soon megatanks came rolling in from two directions and Jeremy found himself standing in the middle, shocked because of the sudden attack. Jeremy cursed and was ready to run, flee and hide. But he thought twice. If he would let the monsters devirtualize him, he would return to the factory and maybe he would then be able to fix the program.

However, once he was shot at with a laser that came from a block, he was actually hurt. He felt it, which was not supposed to happen. "The scanners must be off-line," Jeremy thought. "Well, last time I barely had the chance to fight. There is no guarantee I'll do better this time. That would be an hopeless attempt," Jeremy decided that dodging, running, and hiding were the best options left. He would have to get out of this mess and find the closest tower. Jeremy would have protection with the tower serving as a shield.

The megatanks fired, each standing diagonally left and right from Jeremy. Clever as he was, Jeremy just stepped forward, because the lasers would cross each other and miss him. Further ahead he saw a swarm of hornets nearing him. With a swarm of hornets on the way, two megatanks and a block on his tail, he would have a small chance of surviving this. XANA apparently wanted to kill me. On top of that two crabs had blocked the possible left escape route for Jeremy. "If I head right, I'll run towards the digital sea. I can't risk falling into the digital sea. I would be permanently 'devirtualized', never returning to Earth," Jeremy thought.

"Now I understand!" Jeremy exclaimed. "XANA wants me to fall into the digital sea, he wants me dead, in order for him to have more time to execute a plan. With me gone, the guys will have much more troubles to deal with. With me gone, XANA can become even stronger. I need to survive this. He'll probably take out Aelita after me." He had no choice, it was either left or backwards. Jeremy explicitly decided that finding his way around two crabs was more difficult than two megatanks and one block. The megatanks needed time to recover after firing, but the crabs could pin him down within seconds. He chose astern.

The megatanks rotated 90 degrees, making sure they were positioned vertically. They fired their lasers. Jeremy ducked as fast as he could and crawled ahead, while seeing the block getting destroyed. He was back on his feet and started to run. The megatanks rolled closely behind him, accompanied by the crabs that shot lasers aiming awfully correct because they only missed by an inch. The swarm of hornets had disappeared, but since they had the advantage in the mountain sector, Jeremy expected them to come flying down any time soon.

Time was ticking, minutes ticked by, counting the seconds of survival. With Ulrich and Yumi surrounded by monsters, Jeremy being chased by monsters and Odd and Aelita taking a time trip and soon to fight monsters, what more will befall them?