Odd has been hiding behind the rock for over a minute, lasers flying past him in waves. William had attempted an advance seconds before, but, after being hit twice, he was pushed back with Aelita.

"Any ideas?" Odd asked, looking across the path at William and Aelita.

"Nothing yet. Just give me a sec." William replied.

"I think I can help." Jeremy's voice rang through the sector as he spoke. "I haven't been able to uncorrupt a lot of the files. Most of them will probably be unsalvageable, but I was able to quickly reprogram your overboard."

The board was virtualized piece by piece, just behind the wall of Krabs.

"Jeremy, I think I need the board more than the Krabs do." Odd said, his voice sarcastic with a hint of insult.

"It looks like the problem that placed you guys far from the tower also effects vehicles." Jeremy said, looking over the program again to prove his theory.

Odd looked over to William and Aelita, asking: "How am I supposed to get to the Overboard now?"

William shrugged, having no idea what to do.

Aelita moved past William to face Odd. "I think I have a plan." She said, her mind having worked quickly under the pressure a group of Krabs would impose. "Odd, you have to get over here with us."

"Odd looked around the rock, lasers flying past his head. He quickly moved back, saying: "Easier said than done, Princess."

Aelita began to sing an angelic song, her body radiant and light. A wall of rock appeared across the path, just high enough for Odd to crawl across.

"That sure makes things easier." Odd said, beginning his crawl across. He sprinted on all fours, his motions mimicking those of a feline, his speed consistent even at such a low level.

He reached the other side with ease, Aelita bringing them into a huddle to discuss their plan.

—

Jeremy looked frantically through files. He had discovered many files that were corrupted, most of them vital.

"Everything from virtualization to the return to the past program has been corrupted. It's like X.A.N.A. is trying to raise my blood pressure." Jeremy said, his headset resting by his keyboard.

He arched his head back, his neck popping as he reached the limits of his flexibility. He had begun the work needed to fix the corrupted files, but found that it was much more difficult than he originally thought.

"Every time I fix the code, it changes in a new way. There's no way I can fix this!" Jeremy said, his voice half-hearted and lacking confidence. "I just can't deal with all this work."

He stood up from his chair and began to pace around the room. His mind was lost in thought, thinking of the corrupt files, school, Aelita, but mostly, thinking about himself.

'I can't do this.' He thought, his mind running on negativity. 'X.A.N.A. has beaten us time and time again. First he almost kills Aelita dozens of times and we only get her back because we get lucky. He took William for months before we could finally get him. Worst of all, I spend all of my time working on a program to finally kill him, and it doesn't work. My life's work was all a waste!'

Jeremy knew deep down that things were different than he saw them now, he wasn't totally crazy, just blinded by stress. He walked over to his chair again and sat down. Before he placed his headset back on, he had one last thought.

'And that dream... What does it mean?'

—

"Okay, everyone understand the plan?" Aelita asked, having just finished explaining her idea for retreating Odd's Overboard.

"Ready to roll!" Odd exclaimed, getting into position.

"On three." Aelita said, walking over to the low area of the wall by William and Odd.

"One."
"Two."
"Three!"

William jumped the wall, using his supersmoke to get behind the Krabs. He reached the Overboard, firing it up quickly. He make it out just far enough to dodge the onslaught of laser fire from the monsters, executing expert flips and spins.

He flew the vehicle as quickly as he could, but he was taken off guard when a laser hit him in the back. William fell from the board, pieces of code flying down from where he once stood.

The Overboard fell exactly on target, Odd catching it in his hands.

"William, let your sacrifice not be in vein." Odd said, mounting his ride. "You ready for phase two Princess?"

Aelita nodded and activated her wings, preparing to launch into the air.

Odd flew strength up, spinning violently. Lasers flew past him, but none of them came close to hitting him. Aelita flew up behind him, preparing an energy field.

Odd dodged more laser fire, moving back down quickly. The Krabs were all formed in a line, the weakness Aelita planned to exploit. Odd flew towards the end of the line, flying under the line of Krabs. As he flew under each, he show an arrow into them, destroying the majority of them, leaving only a space few standing by themselves.

Aelita fired at the remaining Krabs, destroying them each one at a time.

"Great job, guys. I've been working on the return to the past, but I'm not sure I'll have it done when you deactivate the tower." Jeremy said through his headset. "You may want to hurry, Jim won't be showing Ulrich and Yumi and mercy."

Aelita and Odd nodded in agreement, flying quickly towards the distant tower.

—

Yumi and Ulrich lay silently on the floor, their bodies aching and sore from fighting their X.A.N. gym teacher.

Suddenly, a loud metallic noise roared through the factory causing Ulrich and Yumi to look over to their right. Above them stood Jim, holding a massive piece of twisted steel.

Jim pulled the metal behind his back, preparing to smash the two like flies. Ulrich and Yumi clenched hands, their eyes shut tight.

The air gusted around them, but after seconds passed, nothing happened. Ulrich looked up to see William jumping into Jim, knocking the gym teacher back, having just saved their lives.

—

Aelita entered the tower, stepping foreword onto the center of the platform. She flipped through the air as she rose, landing on a second platform with a terminal.

She pressed her hand on the terminals display, causing it to show: "Aelita"

"Code: Lyoko"

—

Jim had just punched William off of him, ramming him into a metal column. Jim went in for a final hit in the weakened William, when suddenly he fell over, the symbol of X.A.N.A. missing from his eyes.

"Looks like they pulled it off." William said, causing Yumi and Ulrich to crack a small smile.

Thanks for your patience, and sorry for all the breaks recently. School has kept me quite busy, and this episode will have one more chapter in it (sorry I couldn't write the whole 2000 in one chapter, time hasn't been my friend recently). Read and review!