It's kind of amazing how much has changed in such relatively a short amount of time.

Can you believe it's been over 5 years since I started this story? I remember starting this extremely well: I was 13 years old, just on the cusp of turning 14, and halfway through the 8th grade, the very grade these children were in in my all time favorite cartoon.

Hard to believe I just turned 19 over a month ago now, and that I'm about to enter my second semester of college.

...And it's hard to believe it's been a year since I updated this story.

This story is and always will be a guilty pleasure of mine. The plot doesn't always make sense, the writing isn't always that strong, and I mean, it's a frigging self insert, but I still have a lot of love and pride in these stories. It taught me how to write, maybe not always well, but it taught me regardless, and I'd be remiss to abandon this entirely, even if my feelings on it are sometimes mixed.

I apologize for the delay on returning to this, but 2018 was not a good year for me in terms of CL writing (Danganronpa completely overtook my life for awhile, among other things). Here's to a better 2019 where we get to (hopefully) move onto season 3.

Chapter 13: Temptation

"Incoming!" I shouted as I flew just barely over Ulrich's head. A laser whipped by in an instant, forcing Ulrich to duck his head to the side. I point my staff back and shouted "Magic Blast!" I missed, and was given another laser sent my way for my troubles.

Ulrich sent me a harsh glare when I evened out to fly beside him. "Would you watch it?" He snapped.

"Gee, sorry for almost dying," I quipped with an eye roll. I let out another yelp as another laser flew by, this time barely missing my own head. I glanced back and took a sharp breath. Al arge squad of Hornets was still following our heels at breakneck speeds. "They're gaining on us,"

"Hmph," Ulrich glanced back and smirked at me. The roar of the Overbike died down immensely as he began to slow down beside me. Before I knew it, he was right in the middle of the cluster of Hornets that kept bothering us. Most of them got the idea quickly enough and veered off to go pester Yumi, Odd, and Aelita, but two were stupid enough to stick around. With a cry Ulrich leapt up from his bike and spun around his sword out, slashing right through the Hornets around us.

He gave me that self satisfied smirk once again as he landed and pulled back up to me. I rolled my eyes. "You know if you keep making that face it'll get stuck like that."

"I think I can live with that."

"Guys! Odd and Aelita could use some help over by the tower!" Jeremy suddenly barked. I moved my attention from Ulrich back to what was ahead. Odd and Aelita were flying erratically on a rapidly dematerializing Overboard. The gang of Hornets that had been bothering us had moved onto pestering them instead, it seemed, and didn't appear to have liked Odd's mode of transportation.

"On it!" I reported, then slammed forward. Moments later, I could see them both in a clearing ahead of me. Before the board disappeared entirely, both of them leaped off it. Odd clung onto a nearby tree with his claws, while Alita tumbled to the ground just as the wireframe of the Overboard smashed into another tree. Odd jumped off the tree to approach her on all fours as she steadied herself once more.

It was at that moment a squadron of Hornets decided to join in the fun. Odd held his arm up and nodded at Aelita. "Hurry! I'll cover you!"

Aelita wasted no time in moving, but before she could go too far, I screeched to a stop beside her. "Taxi?" I offered.

"Quickly!" She urged as she hopped aboard.

"Because I'm nice, I won't charge you for the speeding ticket XANA's gonna give me for this," I joked. The tires let out a squeal beneath us as we shot off once more, the tower clearly in sight. This one was surrounded by water, with the most easy access being some logs that Aelita had made long ago that you had to hop across. I kept a hand on my staff in case any Hornets decided to sneak by, but none seemed dumb enough to even try. That is, until we reached the floating logs leading to the tower. A small group of three were fast approaching, their lasers already charging.

"Oh dear, the cops are here. I'll take care of this," I said. She nodded and hopped out to make her way up. A few blasts hit the ground around me. "Cloak Guard!" I hid behind my cape as two shots nearly hit me chest. Emerging once more, I held my staff out. "Thunder Wave!" A blast of electric energy shot ut and the the center Hornet, as well as the discharge hitting the other two around it. "Haha!"

My celebrations were cut short when I heard the oh-so familiar sounds of the Scyphozoa. Sure enough, a look back showed that our old pal Squidward was advancing towards a clearly petrified Aelita. I started to run to her-

"Hiyah!" Yumi suddenly cried. Her fan easily cut through the tentacles before they could even grab Aelita, then returned to her as she skidded across the water.

"Nice job, Yumi!" Jeremy complimented. I nodded as a similar sentiment.

Aelita ran inside the tower, and it's menacing red aura soon faded to a much calmer blue.

Ulrich and Odd approached from behind as well, the former on his bike and the latter on all fours.

"Another job well done, if I do say so myself," I said in praise, giving a nod to my fellow warriors. I rolled my neck and shoulder for a moment as I allowed myself to relax just a bit. Now just to wait for the materialization home and-

"Ok! I'll start the return and get you all home," Jeremy said cheerfully.

"Or... not, apparently. What is he...?" My thoughts trailed off as I frowned. We all looked at one another in confusion.

"Really? Why?" Yumi asked as she stashed her fan away. "XANA didn't even have time to launch an attack on Earth," she pointed out. As soon as the alert had popped up, we'd all rushed to the factory with minimal resistance. No terrifying possessed person chasing us, no natural disasters, nothing out of the ordinary really.

Well, minus the lack of death defying stunts on Earth I suppose.

It was all very strange really, and something about the whole situation was buzzing the alarms in my head, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Still, I couldn't really complain if the worst we had to deal with in an attack were some monsters on Lyoko.

"There isn't really any reason to this time," I agreed. "There's nothing traumatic to erase."

"You can't be too careful," Jeremy replied. An edge of annoyance had creeped into his voice, and I didn't like the sound of it at all.

"Uh, may I remind you that going back in time makes XANA stronger?" Ulrich cautioned.

"I know what I'm doing, alright!?" Jeremy snapped defensively. His voice echoed louder than usual through the sector, a tone usually only reserved for urgent orders.

"Well if you know, then explain it to us," Odd said.

Jeremy let out a frustrated grunt. "Just trust me, ok?"

I folded my arms and raised a brow, not that he could see it. "It's a little hard to trust you there, when you won't give us a reason why," I commented. This was strange; Jeremy was always concerned about these kinds of things. Why was he being so nonchalant about another return in time when there were so many risks now?

"That's my final answer," Jeremy insisted, his typing already able to be heard. Ulrich and Odd looked at each other with a shrug. Yumi let out a sigh, and I just hung my head. Nothing we could do now, I guess. "Return to the past, now."

White light engulfed us all, but with a stranger feeling to it than usual.

Kadic

Once more, similar to this morning, all of us stood by the vending machines, drinks in hand. Well, all of us except Jeremy, that is.

I leaned against the wall beside Ulrich and took a sip from my cup. "That was... weird, agreed?" Noises of affirmation came from everyone.

"Jeremy's really becoming a pain. He just flies off the handle for no reason at all," Ulrich glanced down at his soda. "He's... like a timebomb,"

"Who knows? Maybe he's got family problems," Yumi suggested. She looked away for a moment. I placed a hand on her shoulder, which she quietly thanked me for.

My fingers rapped against the cup in a senseless rhythm. "Still, it's weird he's been so pushy the last few days I think he's been like this for almost... a couple weeks now, right?" Another nod from Ulrich. "I'm kind of worried about him."

"Or else... he's only just realized he has a split personality, and that when the moon is full, he becomes the son of Doctor Shrank!" Odd made his fingers curl up to resemble claws and moved them... ahem, 'menacingly'. "Capable of grafting animal parts onto human beings! And he now knows that he must face up to a fate worse than death." Odd concluded, giving an evil smirk to us all.

"You've been watching Horror at the Hospital again, huh?" Ulrich said, a knowing look.

"How can anyone pass up such a fantastic program?" Odd asked, taking on a more relaxed stance. All of our hands shots up only a second after he said that, still holding our drinks. "You people have no taste," Odd accused.

"It's kinda hard to get into a show that revolves around one of the dumbest Jekyll/Hyde formulas I've ever seen. I mean honestly, what kind of hospital would even continue functioning after they found his first experiments? That goes against any regulation ever! And the fact that he never never even got investigated after-" Both the boys were staring at me. "What?"

"Spoken like a true critic," Ulrich chuckled and sipped his soda. Odd simply settled on giving me dumbfounded look.

Sue me for having strong opinions on a terribly written show.

"Oh, there he is," Ulrich noticed, glancing to the side. Just as stated, Jeremy was approaching, his hands shoved in his pockets and a deep look of concentration on his face. The wave I gave to him was either missed, or completely ignored by him. It was hard to tell.

"How's life, Einstein?" Odd greeted. Jeremy ignored him in favor of looking at the vending machine.

"Where were you?" Aelita asked.

"In my room. Why? Is there a law against it?" He replied snarkily, giving her an almost half glare. I almost took a step back in surprise at his tone. He never used that kind of tone with Aelita, not even when we were on Lyoko and the situation was desperate.

The others seemed taken aback too. "Chill, will you? We were worried, that's all," Yumi said, attempting to ease the tension.

Jeremy rolling his eyes at her was equally as surprising. "I'm a big boy now, so just get off my back,"

"Well, someone's in a pleasant mood, that's for sure," I mumbled under my breath. Going back in time didn't do any wonders for his attitude.

"You might just have something there with your Doctor Shrank theory," Ulrich noted dryly.

Odd nodded. "You see? I told you so." The bell signaling us to get a move on rang out. "Right, in the mean time, I've also got to face a fate worse than death,"

"That being?" I asked. I crushed my now empty cup before tossing it into the trash.

"Ms. Meyer's class," Odd answered. Judging by his face, he was completely serious.

Math Class

Odd may have been right by saying math was a fate worse than death. No matter how hard I tried, the notes I'd taken were doing me little to no good. And yet, Ms. Meyer was content to keep chugging along the confusing train.

"Thales' property allows us to calculate length. For example, in a triangle marked, A,B,C, with straight lines called RS and BC, which are parallel." Ms. Meyer lectured as she wrote on the board. "First, we calculate X, then SC. Hypothetically, ABC is a triangle. R is a point on AB. N is a point on AC..."

"It's official, I'm lost," I let my head rest against my hand as I stared at my notes miserably. How I ever managed without Aelita to guide me through, I've no idea. For all the praise my teachers liked to give me, I sure never felt that great in any of my math tests.

"...and that's it." Ms. Meyer suddenly concluded. My head snapped up to see that the blackboard was now filled to the brim with equations and work. I felt my face pale.

"I looked away for two seconds!"

"Ma'am?" I heard Jeremy. He'd stood up at some point and had a hand pressed to his forehead.

"Uh, yes Jeremy? Question?"

"May I go to the infirmary?"

Ms. Meyer's face took a more serious look. "Oh. Yes, of course,"

I could see Aelita whisper something to him, which he quickly and sharply replied to. Whatever it was, she looked surprised and almost a bit hurt by his response.

"Ahem, in any case. Today's assignment is just going over Thales's property, which I will pass out in a moment. You'll be working in pairs this time so... Emily, if you could move to sit with Aelita, and Heidi if you'll move to work with Julian, we should be even." I nodded and grabbed my stuff.

"Thank god," I whispered to her as I sat beside her. I stopped when she didn't react. "Aelita? You ok?"

"Huh?" She blinked at me in confusion for a moment. "Oh, yes. Sorry."

I frowned, and a better question suddenly sprung to mind. "Is Jeremy ok?"

"I think so..." she sounded unconvinced of her own words.

We both stared towards the door. "If you say so..."

Lunch

"Jeremy skipped history class?" Yumi asked incredulously as we filled her in on Jeremy's continuously baffling behavior.

"And gym class too. And now he's skipping lunch," Ulrich confirmed with a nod. We continued to move our trays down the line.

"Gym class and lunch, I can understand. But skipping history class is not Jeremy's style at all," Odd commented as he grabbed some food.

"Not to mention how weird he was in math class this morning. I think he would've walked out anyway, even if she'd told him no," I said, looking towards Yumi. He'd seemed so distant and apathetic, not like him at all. Sure, he had his bad moments—everyone does at some point—but never to this extreme.

Aelita frowned from her place beside me. Her tray was entirely empty. "I'm gonna check his room," she decided. At Odd's face she nodded and said. "And yes, Odd, you can have my portion today,"

"Yes!" Odd cheered with a fistpump. I rolled my eyes at him as he cheerfully informed Rosa about the change of plans.

"Call us if you need us," I told her before she wandered off. The four of us remaining Lyoko Warriors found our usual table and sat down with me sitting beside Yumi. Odd started digging into his food at his usual gusto. "You guys think Jeremy's doing ok?"

"You mean aside from snapping for dumb things. Oh yeah, he's great," Ulrich shrugged. "Yumi may be right, maybe it's something with his family. He doesn't exactly talk about them much,"

"I don't know..." I tapped my fingers against the table. "You know how he gets about his work; he's completely obsessive about it. I just can't help but wonder if..."

"It's all too much for him to handle?" Yumi finished. I gave a half hearted nod. "Jeremy's smart. He was able to figure out how to materialize Aelita, and that's probably harder than creating an antivirus."

"I know... but he can be so stubborn sometimes. The guy really needs to learn how to take a break. That's a lot of stress for anyone to handle, let alone someone our age-" I noticed Odd's hand reaching out towards some of the food I was mindlessly poking at. I brandished my fork at him. "Back off!"

"Hey! You weren't eating it. Why let good food go to waste?" Odd grinned back at me. I rolled my eyes, then stabbed my fork into some food and popped it into my mouth, just to spite him.

Lunch continued on in relative silence for us, Jeremy's strange behavior still weighing too heavily on our minds to focus on much else. The cafeteria slowly cleared out with time, leaving only the four of us left. Well, alongside Rosa, who was currently cleaning up what the other students had left. The wheels of her cart squeaked along quietly as she pushed it.

Yumi crossed her arms at Odd as he took the last bite of the mountain of plates in front of him. "You sure you're done now?" she asked. Before he could retort back, her phone went off. She pulled it out, nodding at whatever was being said. She nodded. "Ok, Jeremy, we're on our way."

"The usual?" I asked as she slipped her phone back into her pocket.

"XANA's launched an attack," she confirmed, standing up from her chair.

Suddenly, the soft squeaking of wheels stopped. "You over there! Sit back down!" Rosa shouted out, pointing at us with an angered expression. My blood went cold at the slight distortion in her voice. The boys looked at each other in shock, ignoring the order, and standing up anyways. "I said. Sit! Down!" Rosa uttered through grit teeth. My eyes widened as she reached down and grabbed a plate, holding it like a frisbee. The intent hit me quickly.

"Hit the deck!" I screeched right as she threw it at us. We all dropped to the ground, just narrowly avoiding the lightning fast plate. Had it hit any of us, I don't want to even imagine the kind of damage it would've done. It hit the wall behind Ulrich and Odd, shattering into a million tiny pieces.

The assault continued on at a rapid pace. Pieces of glass from the plates continued to rain down onto us as they continuously broke against the walls. We all looked at each other with knowing expression.

"I shouldn't have said her mashed potatoes looked like barf I guess," Odd noted. His tone was humorous, but the expression he had betrayed him.

"If you ask me, this looks more like a XANAfication," Yumi replied. She eyed the door and nudged me. I gave her a noise in affirmation. "Cover us. We're gonna try to reach Jeremy and Aelita at the factory,"

"No problemo!" Odd and Ulrich nodded, the former having an almost giddy look on his face. "Ulrich, on three. One... two... THREE!" They both stood up with what remained of our lunch in their hands. With loud battle cries, they retaliated as best they could, throwing the plates from Odd's tray at her as hard as they could.

Yumi and I wasted no time in booking it towards the door. Rosa seemed to notice, but was a bit too busy using a pot lid as a shield to stop our escape. We rushed to the manhole as fast as out legs could carry us, and soon enough, we found ourselves inside the elevator heading towards the scanner room.

As the door opened, we could hear Jeremy above us wondering "What in the world are they doing...?"

"The best that they can, given the circumstance," I answered, catching Aelita's attention. "XANA possessed Rosa. The only way out was for them to divert her attention."

"We'll have to make do without them" Yumi said, heading towards a scanner.

"Hurry up, I'll start the virtualization process," Jeremy ordered. I frowned as I entered the remaining scanner.

"Snappy, aren't you?" I decided to keep that comment to myself. Lyoko battles were hard enough without the day to day tension in our lives.

"Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Emily. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Emily. VIRTUALIZATION!"

Lyoko

We landed in the Mountain Sector this time around. The tower was easily visible this time. However, something much more nasty was also in plain view as well.

"The activated tower should be straight ahead of you," Jeremy reported from above.

I scratched the back of my head at the view. "Uh, yeah, that's true but uh... I think XANA instilled a draft this time around." There was an entire army's worth of Kankrelats standing between us and the tower. They were slowly advancing, a line firing a laser before another moved up in front of it to repeat the task.

"I have a funny feeling we should take cover," Yumi commented.

"And I have a funny feeling that you're right. Come on." We darted towards a large boulder that stood not too far from the horde. We made it just fine, but they were gaining ground pretty quickly. We'd become quite efficient at killing Kankrelats, but with that many of them? They were a force to be reckoned with for sure.

"Are you three ok?" Jeremy asked, echoing from above.

"We'd be a lot better if you could materialize the Overwing and Overkart," Yumi responded, eyeing the approaching army.

"Ok, coming right up!" The outlines of the requested vehicles appeared in mere seconds. Another few minutes passed as we pondered what our best move would be. "C'mon ladies, get a move on! Odd and Ulrich are in a really bad way!"

"Yeah, we'll get right on that, Einstein," I muttered. A snarky remark died on the tip of my tongue as I resisted the urge to argue with him. It wasn't the time for that.

"Yeah, just give us some sandwiches and we'll have a nice picnic," Yumi retorted dryly. Her gaze went towards the rock I had leaned up against.

Aelita glanced behind the rock and frowned before looking back at us. "We'll never make it through."

"Hold on. I've a little idea," Yumi said, almost as if a light bulb had gone off. She motioned towards the boulder with her head. I grinned at the implication.

Aelita seemed to understand as well, although she was much more cautious about it. "Little or big, it doesn't matter as long as it works,"

Yumi put her hands on her temples, closing her eyes and a look of concentration taking over. Her both began to glow with a pale pink aura, as did the rock moments later.

I hopped into the Overkart and revved the engine a little. "Go with Yumi when she's done. I'll take care of the stragglers!" I let out a giddy laugh and rubbed my hands together evilly. We were about to turn the tide, how was I supposed to contain my excitement at that?

Aelita addressed me with a slightly wary look. "...Sometimes I think you're just as insane as Odd."

"I learned from the best!" I cheerfully informed her. Yumi, who had picked the boulder up through her telekinesis, suddenly thrust her hands forward, which sent it flying towards the Kankrelats. The monsters seemed to realize what was going on when it was too late. The boulder crushed most of them, although some were killed simply by falling down in the exact right way.

Still, a few remained standing, so as Yumi and Aelita boared the Overwing, I revved my engine once more loudly and took off towards them.

"Emily, just what are you planning on doing?" Jeremy questioned me, sounding slightly exasperated.

The grin I wore was evident in my voice. "Yumi didn't quite manage a strike, so I'm picking up a spare for her!" I laughed as I sharply turned my wheel and began to drift. The Kankrelats tried their hardest to scuttle away, but they didn't get very far. Four of the five remaining were hit by my kart and exploded on contact, but one remained standing. It had simply stood in place and watched as I drifted around it, only stopping when I too came to a halt. It shook it's head, seeming to have gotten dizzy.

We stared at each other for a moment. It charged it's laser. I smirked at it. "Not today." I stomped onto the pedal, holding my staff out like a bat. I slammed it with a hard 'thwack', sending it flying through the air until it sailed over the edge if the sector and out if sight, presumably into the Digital Sea.

"Was all that really necessary, Emily?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes, yes it was," I answered with complete confidence. He let out a sigh.

"Right. I'm launching a return. Return to the past, now!"

And for a second time that day, the world was engulfed in white.

Kadic

We were all once again sent back to the vending machines, our drinks in hand. Well, again, minus Jeremy. We waited for several minutes for his arrival, but our favorite blond genius never showed.

Ulrich frowned. "What's he up to? He should be here by now."

"Maybe we should check his room," Aelita suggested. A look of concern was etched deep on her face. She dropped her unfinished drink in the trash without waiting for us to respond. We all wordlessly followed along. The trek to his dorm was short, but tense. Aelita rapped on the door with her knuckles before opening it.

The sight was... well...

"Jeremy!" Aelita gasped, horrified. There Jeremy was, lying in the middle of his room unconscious. His desk chair layed overturned behind him, as if he'd been sitting in it before collapsing. I swallowed thickly at the thought.

Recovering the fastest from the shock, Ulrich barged past the rest of us and kneeled besides Jeremy. He shook his shoulder a bit. "Hey, c'mon Jeremy! Nap time's over, you gotta get up now!" He shook a little more forcefully, but Jeremy didn't stir. He looked back at us, unsure what to do.

"This is bad..." I breathed out. I pushed into the room and reached for Jeremy's neck. There was still a pulse, thank god, and it felt pretty normal. "Well, at least he's breathing normally,"

"We still gotta take him to the infirmary, c'mon," Yumi urged.

Infirmary

Yolanda was certainly shocked when we brought Jeremy in. Odd and Aelita elected to stay in with him while Yolanda looked him over, leaving Ulrich, Yumi, and myself to wait in the hall.

I raised a hand to my chin, covering my mouth and closing my eyes as I tried to think things through. "Jeremy passing out... how do we get through this one?" I resisted the urge to pound at my head and settled on sighing in frustration instead. "C'mon... think! I know this happens, but why? And how do we get out of it?"

I'd run into a real problem lately: I was having difficulty remembering things about the 'plots' of our situations, at least the ones from the day to day basis. Not because things were changing as far as I could tell, but just... because? I had no idea why. It wasn't like I hadn't watched the show in a long time; I watched seasons 1-3 all the time! Season 4 was foggier, but I had time until then. Yet I was still finding a hard time remembering all the details. The big things, like Aelita's connection to Hopper or William? No problem remembering! Smaller stuff like this?

No idea how to resolve it. It all felt very weird.

I was pulled out of my musings moments later by the sound of the door opening once more as Odd and Aelita both walked out of it. "They're calling to take him to the hospital." Aelita grimly informed us.

Ulrich looked up at her from where he sat on the bench "What could have happened to him?" he asked.

"Something must of happened during the last return to the past," she figured.

"XANA?" Yumi suggested.

Aelita's eyebrows furrowed at the thought. "I have no idea, but I think it's worth checking out the supercomputer." She was already moving towards the door.

"I'll go with you," Odd said with a nod.

"Me too." I added, following behind them both. I paused for a moment at the door and looked back at Yumi and Ulrich, who were still sitting on the bench outside the infirmary. "What about you two?"

They glanced at one another for a moment before giving each other a firm nod. "We're gonna check out his room for any signs of what's wrong." Yumi said. "There might be something there that'll tip us off."

"Good idea. Call if you need us." I said, flashing my phone at them.

"Same to you."

Lab

The elevator let out it's usual creaks and groans as the doors forced themselves to open. It was the only thing that pierced the otherwise deafening silence that hung over us. Our trip to the factory had been completely quiet, no jokes from Odd or any musings from Aelita.

Aelita wordlessly made her way out of the elevator and into the computer chair where Jeremy normally sat and began to type. Odd hovered beside her and looked at the seemingly endless lines of code that appeared as she typed.

I tapped my foot impatiently, unsure of what to do. I took a glance around the lab, the strange lighting from the holomap wasn't helping my anxieties. There had to be something I could do...

"Hey, I'm gonna look around the lab. Maybe there's something hidden around here that'll help," I decided after a moment of contemplation. I heard a soft hum from them as I started looking.

Admittedly, there weren't many places Jeremy could realistically hide anything in here, but there were some loose panels in the walls that Jeremy had shown us before that one could theoretically hide something in. I started with the elevator, looking in the old keypad that used to require us to enter a code to get down here until Jeremy had to fix it after his stint as XANA's puppet. Nothing there except a dusty numberpad.

I looked in a few more of the panels in the lab, though most of them seemed to be on tight enough that anything you dropped in would be almost impossible to get back out. The holomap didn't have anything to hide either.

I let out a sigh and stood back up from where I crouched. "Well?" I asked.

"The logs are all normal," Aelita answered. Her gaze remained fixed onto the screen with a frown. "There certainly was a major discharge of energy during that last return to the past though. But they're no different from any previous returns to the past."

"Maybe it's because of how frequently we've been using them? Jeremy's been a little trigger happy with using them lately. Maybe the computer can't handle that many in quick succession." I threw out.

Aelita closed her eyes at the idea. "Possibly but..." she shook her head. "No, I don't think that's quite it. It's handled more before, like when XANA took control of it." She let out a deep sigh through her nose and fell back into the chair with a weary expression. "I just feel like I'm missing something here..."

Odd gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "We'll figure it out, Princess."

"I know I just..." Her fingers tapped against the arm in a similar manner that Jeremy always would. "I just want him to be ok. He's... he's been so strange lately that I can't even say he's the same person that he was when he turned on the supercomputer and I... I miss him."

"It'll be ok, Princess. We're gonna get through this, and we're gonna figure out what's up with him, and we're gonna get him back to normal." Odd reassured her. He flashed her a slight smile at her. She was silent for a minute.

"...Thank you, Odd." Aelita responded after a moment, giving a small, sad smile of her own to him.

I refocused my attention to the screen, and that's when I noticed something strange sitting on top of the monitors. A curled up corner of what appeared to be a piece of graph paper. "Hey, what's this?" I reached up and grabbed the corner of the pag.

On it appeared to be a drawing of some kind of headset? But they didn't look like headphones or even the earpiece he always wore. Maybe it was a helmet? I couldn't tell at all. I recognized Jeremy's handwriting on parts of the page, but there was some elses on it as well. Someone with a much blockier, yet also messier handwriting. I blinked at the page in confusion for a minute.

"What is it?" Odd asked. I held it out toward Aelita so they could both see it.

"It looks like... schematics to... well, something. I can't tell what it is exactly though." I said. "What about you? Jeremy ever mention this?" I asked Aelita.

She took a hold of the paper with a curious look. "No... I've never seen anything like this before." Before she could contemplate it further though, Ulrich's profile appeared on the screen.

"Ulrich?" she answered the call.

"We need you. Can you meet us in Jeremy's room?" he asked.

"Ok. We'll be right there." Aelita said. As Ulrich hung up, she handed the paper back to me and said "Hang onto that. I want to look at that more later."

"Gotcha." I tucked the paper into my pocket before we headed back to the elevator.

Jeremy's Room

"What'd you guys find?" I asked as the three of us entered. Ulrich was sitting on the bed while Yumi was on Jeremy's computer chair, arms folded as she nodded at us as we walked in.

"Not a whole lot, but there is some kind of file on here that might be useful. Called 'My Journal'." Ulrich reported, nodding towards Jeremy's computer. "Problem is he put a password of some sort on it, and we can't figure it out."

"I'll see what I can do." Aelita said. Yumi soundlessly stood up from the chair and offered it to her, and soon the familiar sounds of typing began, this time along with an occasional mouse click as she tried to access the locked file.

"What about you guys? Anything of note?" Yumi asked, looking back to Odd and me.

"Not really. Well, except Emily found this," Odd motioned towards me and I pulled out the folded sheet of paper.

Ulrich raised a brow at it. "What kind of sci-fi stuff is this?" he questioned.

"No idea, but it was above the computer monitor." I said. I paused when I heard Aelita let out a hum from behind me and turned around.

"And I... got it. It wasn't easy, but I got it." She said. We all moved our attentions towards the screen as the mysterious folder opened to reveal it's contents. "These are video files."

"Just open the first one." Yumi suggested. Aelita moved the mouse and double clicked on it.

A grainy, low quality version of Jeremy popped up on the monitor. He was sitting in front of his computer just as he always did. He pulled back as he finished readjusting whatever webcam he was using.

"Today I have decided to start a video journal, a bit like the diary that Franz Hopper kept. This way, if anything happens to me, others might be able to continue my research." We all let out small gasps as Jeremy kept on talking in the video.

"Jeremy, just what have you gotten into this time..." I gripped onto my jacket sleeve.

"My search to find the antivirus which will free Aelita from XANA has never been closer to total success, and it's thanks to Franz Hopper's diary, and thanks to the data recovered from Sector 5 that I was able to decode part of his diary that explains how to use the returns to the past to logarithmically increase your intelligence. I immediately tried it; it was amazing. It's as if my brain suddenly had the processing power of ten computers linked in series." Video Jeremy suddenly held up something familiar looking to the screen.

"A neuronal headset," Aelita noted.

"Hey, wait a sec..." I held up the schematics from before and compared them to the headset. A near perfect match. I grimaced at the others.

"Open the most recent entry." Yumi said. Aelita nodded.

"This one's from... yesterday." Another click.

Jeremy popped up again, and this time he had the headset on. "Everytime I use the headset, my mental and physical health gets worse and worse. But I'm moving so far forward in my research, I can't stop this close to success!" The video was short and ended at that. But the strange, far-off look in Jeremy's eyes, pixelated as the video was, is something I don't think I'll ever forget.

We were all quiet as the video ended and the player closed. I flinched as the superscan suddenly popped up.

"An activated tower..." I breathed out. "Of all the times to do it..."

"That's all we needed," Ulrich agreed with a groan.

"Is there anything we can do to save him?" Aelita asked.

"Let's head to the factory." Odd decided. He and Ulich already started for the door.

"I'll meet you there. First I have to stop by the infirmary; I wanna make sure XANA's attack isn't directed at Jeremy." Yumi decided.

Factory

The trip there was as uneventful as always, which in this case was both a good and bad sign. The elevator stopped for a moment at the lab, where Aelita stepped off.

"I'll send in you three first, then I'll follow behind." She said, looking back at us.

Odd gave her a mock salute. "Aye aye, Captain!" The doors shut again, then we went further down to the scanner room. All three of us dispersed and waited for them to close.

"Are you three in position?" she asked, echoing from above.

"Ready," we all chorused. There was no response from her, only the scanners closing around us. And soon enough, the familiar feeling of the virtualization process took hold of me.

Lyoko

The three of us landed in the Ice Sector this time around, and the tower was in sight off in the distance. Aelita joined us only a minute later, landing behind us.

"The tower's that way," she informed us, pointing in it's direction, then she turned and gave us an apologetic expression. "Sorry, but I didn't have time to materialize the vehicles. We'll have to go on foot."

And off we went. It was moments like these that made me truly appreciate the decision to bolster our equipment by making the vehicles, it made these treks so much more bearable. We went off in silence for a few minutes.

"What about Yumi?" I asked, glancing as Aelita to my left.

"XANA's possesed Jeremy's ambulance, so she's doing what she can to save him." She answered. I gulped at that.

"Oh, so no pressure then." I shook my head. I couldn't worry about them right now. All we could do was get to the tower as fast as we could for the time being.

We continued along the sector, running across the ice path that lead to a clearing right in front of the tower. We stopped for a moment as we reached it. "There," Aelita said. We made a move to keep going, but...

"Eep!" I slid to a stop as a group of about five Tarantulas appeared and virtualized from above us, each landing with a loud thud.

"...Maybe you shouldn't have said it so loud," Odd half joked, Still, this was no laughing matter: five Tarantulas was nothing to sneeze at, that's for certain. They all continued to cry out their awful cries as we stared them down.

Suddenly, Ulrich smirked a little. "I've got an idea."

"I love it when you say that," Odd said in an almost sing-song kind of tone.

"I don't, but any plan is better than no plan at this point," I said cautiously.

Ulrich took hold of his saber, doing a strangely cool flipping motion with it, then stabbed it straight into the ground. He wedged it a little further to cause cracks to appear all around it. Odd took a hold of his arm, seeming to get the idea, and fired a few arrows at the cracks, widening them even more. Sighing, I decided to join in too and prodded at the ice a little with the bladed edge of my staff to help the process. With a look from all three of us, Ulrich pulled his saber back out and looked to see what would happen.

The cracks spread further as soon as the sword was gone, all the way to the edge of the clearing. The Tarantulas let out disgruntled calls as the ice began to split from underneath them. One slipped almost immediately and dropped into the water with a large splash. The ice started breaking apart into smaller chunks of platforms, including where we were standing. Ulrich had to hop back onto our chunk before he could potentially fall in like our monster pals had.

Another Tarantula fell in, reducing the numbers again to three, and then another couldn't quite hold onto the iceberg it was stuck on. It's legs scrambled as it slid into the water, unable to get a good grasp with it's laser blasters... things. In the end of the chaos, we were left with only two Tarantulas left, a much better and more manageable number. But now we had another problem to contend with: how exactly were we supposed to maneuver around with all this water now?

"So, any more brilliant ideas up your sleeve there, Ulrich?" I asked dryly. We all watched as the remaining monsters struggled to regain their footing.

"Uh... well..." Ulrich stamered. Before he could say anything else though, one of the Tarantulas managed to get a good shot on him. He went flying and burst into a series of pixels as he was devirtualized.

"Man, that was not cool!" Odd chastised it, giving the monster a glare. He looked back us with a wink. "Don't worry ladies, I'll avenge him!" Before we could stop him, he was off. Literally. He leapt off of our iceberg and into the air.

"Odd!" Aelita and I exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

He didn't respond, only landed on one of the platforms with a Tarantula on it. The platform immediately tilted as he landed, causing the Tarantula on it to slip. Odd came close to what I presume is it's 'face', if you can really call it that. He too struggled to get a good grip, even with his claws it was still too slippery. Thinking fast, Odd chose to shoot the Tarantula in the leg. It's careful balance shattered, and soon it tumbled into the water. The platform tipped again, this time in the direction of the Tarantula. Odd once again lept off that platform and onto a much smaller one nearby.

He flashed us both a toothy grin. "You're welcome."

"Has anyone ever told you you're a madman?" I asked.

"Hm, once or twice, ha ha!" He laughed with a shrug. He stood upright once more and glanced back at the tower still looming ahead of us. "Now the problem is how to reach the tower."

"Yeah, and fast!" Ulrich's echoing voice suddenly cut in from above us. "Yumi and Jeremy have gone for a dip in an ambulance at the bottom of the river!"

"..Ok that's a lot to process, not gonna lie." I blinked for a moment. "But in any case, we've still got one more spider to squash here."

"Shield!" Odd exclaimed as more lasers headed his way. How were were going to do this exactly, I had no idea.

"Odd, Emily, leave it to me." Aelita said from beside me. She dropped to her knees and started to sing, and soon enough a bridge of ice leading to the tower had appeared. Both Odd and I couldn't help but marvel at it.

"Nice one," He complimented. Apparently, the Tarantula was quite the critic about it though, as it took the moment that Odd was distracted to devirtualize him.

"Argh, go on Aelita. I'll get this jackass." I urged her. Then, without waiting for a response, I followed Odd's previous lead and leapt off of the platform and bounded towards the monster.

Before it could even fire of a laser I landed next to it. The platform was smaller than the one Odd had been on, leaving much less room to work with. And unlike Odd, I didn't have arrows to work with. So I instead settled on literally tackling the Tarantula into the water. In any other scenario this would've been one of my dumbest ideas ever, but with it's poor footing and constant sliding around, it actually worked. Unfortunately, while I succeeded in pushing it into the water, my own foot slipped as well, and I was soon submerged into Lyoko icy waters.

I have to say, the water in Lyoko feels extremely... interesting. It certainly has the feel of water down, I immediately felt like I was about to float as I flailed to stabilize myself, and I even felt a small chill shoot down my spine from the ice around me. But something about it still felt off, and to this day I still can't put my finger on it. I instinctively held my breath, though I have no idea if it was even necessary in a virtual world, and propelled myself back up. Swimming at least, felt a touch easier than it did in the real world. I emerged to the surface sputtering and clamored for the iceberg I'd been on.

I looked up just in time to see Aelita running across the bridge and towards the tower and allowed myself a sigh of relief.

A few minutes passed when Ulrich's voice returned, cautious and slow. "Return to the past, now," he said. And a bright white light engulfed us all.

Kadic

Yet again, all of us minus Jeremy returned to our spots at the vending machines. None of us were really interested in those drinks we were holding anymore though.

"Don't tell me he's out cold again," Ulrich bemoaned. I already started moving towards the dorms.

"Only one way to find out," I said. We all moved up the stairs and over to Jeremy's room.

Aelita knocked on the door again, just as she had before, and this time...

"Jeremy, no!" she exclaimed. He was in the process of stomping on that headset that had caused this mess to begin with.

"I checked the calculations I've done over the past few weeks, most of them were wrong!" He shouted. His shoulders heaved as he let out a breath of relief once he was done smashing the thing to pieces. Must've felt cathartic after all the hell he put himself through with it.

"So you were destroying your health without even improving your brain power? I wouldn't cal that a very good deal," Odd said, half joking and half serious.

"Do you think XANA had something to do with it?" Yumi asked.

Jeremy frowned at the idea and sat down in his computer chair "He certainly put me on the trap, but the information did come from Franz Hopper's diary."

"In some ways then, we have not one, but two enemies," Ulrich thought aloud, a worried look on his face.

Jeremy shook his head. "Hopper is certainly not an enemy, but his discoveries are out of our league. I think we better be careful," he looked back down at the remains of the headset again.

"I think it's important to remember that while Hopper may have been a genius, even geniuses can have some pretty terrible ideas. There's a reason some of the things in there aren't implemented in Lyoko. They could end up being just as dangerous as XANA." I said.

"Or possibly worse," Yumi agreed with a nod.

"Yeah... I realize that now." Jeremy admitted. He rubbed at his neck and looked away from us. "Still, I'm really sorry about how I treated you guys. You guys... didn't deserve all that."

"For now, the important thing is that you get back to being your old self again," Aelita reassured him with a soft smile.

"That's for sure! Seeing you grouchy, you were getting to be like Dr. Shrank. Or even worse," Odd turned to look at his roommate with his usual cheshire cat grin. "Right, Ulrich?"

He glowered. "Hey, I am not-1" He stopped, realizing his tone. "...grouchy."

We all struggled not to laugh at that. "Yeah, right!" Jeremy called him out. "Gimme a break!"

After a moment of our laughter, Ulrich couldn't help but smirk and chuckle at himself too. "Yeah, alright," he admitted. I grinned at them all when an idea popped in my head.

"Alright, you!" I pointed at Jeremy. "Have been working too much the past couple of weeks! So no working tonight! Instead, movies!"

"Movies?" He repeated, obviously confused.

"Yes, movies. You can bring your laptop for the superscan, but that's it! We are having a fun filled evening of just the six of us, and I'm not taking no for an answer." I turned to Odd. "Odd! Let us go procure the Disney!"

He let out a ceremonial cheer. "Yeah! Let's go!" The latched onto both my arm and Ulrich's as he dragged us out toward their room. Yumi chuckled and followed after us.

Although, I swear as I was being pulled away, I heard Aelita say to Jeremy, "So, what exactly were you going to tell me earlier?"

And I swear I heard them both smile too.

Better late than never. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I hope you'll stick around for the next time I update. (Hopefully sooner than last time)