11-8: Final Code

At last my series is done! This is the final chapter of the final saga in my collection and I hope you've enjoyed them more than I have, b/c frankly, some of them were a pain to write! Especially when the Writer's Block attacked. But I made it through and you guys stuck w/ me. Thanks for all the support and hope you liked the polls. This one is dedicated to everyone!

(((-8-)))

Jeremy jerked back as the cameras up on the factory floor went fuzzy, one by one. He inspected the last working one and saw Janika aim her stinger at it and then it too went haywire.

Why had she done that? What in the world had possessed her to destroy the only means he had of keeping an eye on the—oh darn…

(V)

Sissy shrank back from the Hornet, but there was nothing she could do. Pure exhaustion overcame her, making her fall to the floor, and the flying robot aimed its stinger at her head. Before the Hornet could fire, a laser shot skimmed past it and another Hornet appeared on the scene!

Janika swooped down yodeling a battlecry and firing as fast as she could. Hey dingbat, get away from my cousin!

Unfortunately X.A.N.A.'s robot was agile and dodged the lasers almost easily. It had better aim, however, and its first retaliation clipped one of Janika's wings, maiming the limb. She spun out of control for a moment and landed awkwardly behind some empty boxes nearby.

Despite her injury, she managed to regain her flight and hid behind a column. Her enemy refused to sit still long enough for her to get a fix on it, though, and it was driving her bonkers. Jerk! Stop moving around so I can hit you!

Letting myself be destroyed would defeat the purpose of my mission, it responded calmly.

The girl-turned-Hornet was so surprised that she nearly got hit. You can talk? Okay, maybe that was a dumb question, but it was rhetorical. Say something smart for once, dummy! Why don't you leave Sissy alone? Your buddy back at Kadic was going to great pains not to kill her.

The Master has discovered a solution to his problem and the Fire-Maiden has become a liability. She is no longer useful as a drone and impossible to use as a Pawn. The Hornet took a cheap shot at the area over Janika's head and she barely dodged the falling debris.

She saw her chance and took it, coming up and smashing into the Hornet. It squirmed as she pressed it up against a column, wings shredding beyond use. Finally she heard a snap and flew backward. Her enemy fell to the cement, unable to fly or use its laser-tail.

You're done for. You couldn't have won anyway. In a few minutes Aelita will deactivate the Tower and you'll be history, bub!

Do you truly think the Master is that foolish? The Keyholder will destroy the virus and then he will spring the trap. But at least I can still rid him of the Fire-Maiden.

Suddenly she remembered the Hornet's other weapon! It spat a green glob directly at Sissy, who was only a few meters away.

Janika propelled herself forward to protect her cousin and felt the acid connect with her body. The sticky stuff plastered itself to her and bubbled as it spread. It was a feeling unlike anything she'd experienced before, as if her skin was more like armor, but once the green goo got beneath it, she couldn't help writhing in pain. Her inner workings were more sensitive than skin could ever be!

Even so, she aimed for the bug and fired a single shot straight for the bull's eye. There was almost a flicker of surprise in its appearance just before it exploded.

But the acid was still eating away at her. She couldn't believe this was how it all ended…lying on a cement floor being consumed in a body that wasn't even her own.

Just when the ooze was reaching her eye-sensors, a cloud of frozen steam covered Janika. She jerked in response, but the acid stopped spreading and solidified! After a few moments the metallic pain ceased as her body regained a sort of balance. Jeremy stepped through the white haze and she recognized a fire extinguisher in his hands.

"Thank goodness you're safe, Janika. I barely got here in time. Oh, and sorry about the mix-up, Sissy. One Hornet looks exactly like another to me."

The principal's daughter put a hand to her head as she sat up. "Look, even I know to show gratitude when someone rescues me. Let's kill it quickly."

Even though he couldn't understand her, she couldn't help screaming, The Tower is booby trapped! You've got to stop Aelita from destroying that Glitch!

All he heard was buzzing. "Relax, everything's under control. Too bad the elevator's toast and you can't fly. I doubt I'd be able to carry you downstairs either. Sissy, you'll have to go down to the scanner room and I'll lower her with a rope into the shaft. You two can wait there together."

"What?" Sissy gaped at him.

"Do it or I'm going to hurt you. Don't think I won't."

(V)

X.A.N.A.'s robots guided the gang along the Forest paths straight toward the spire. It was wreathed in the strangest aura they had ever seen: deep purple. Whatever the Glitch was, at least it had good taste in color.

The Tower stood guarded by two dozen creatures, all of which were surrounded by a hazy aura of purple light. Three enemy Megatanks began rolling forward, not opening to release beams. The Krabs opened fire but their lasers merely bounced off the tough shells. As the only two Tanks protecting the gang opened to greet the attackers, several Hornets came zooming down from above to fire a barrage of lasers and prevent them from using their red beams of destructive energy.

Six of X.A.N.A.'s Hornets came out of nowhere to assail them, but too late. The purple Tanks reached the group and two barreled into their counterparts, carrying them over the edge of the platform and into the Digital Sea. The last crashed into a feisty pair of Blocks.

More monsters wreathed in shifting shades of purple advanced, firing their weapons with precision. Odd leaped in front of Aelita and aimed for a Block. It saw him and stopped dead in its tracks. He fired and the creature didn't even try to dodge. A trio of Roachsters caught sight of him too and halted, ceasing their laser-fire to stare.

The panther-Warrior paused, completely taken aback. They didn't seem to want to fight.

"Don't freeze up on us, Odd!"

Before he could stop her, Yumi threw her fan toward the Roachsters. They didn't move a centimeter, practically letting her cut them down. He glared at her with ire. "What did you do that for? They weren't attacking!"

The geisha gave him a condescending look as she caught her weapon. "Sorry about that. I was going to let you get closer so they could mow you down, but I thought you'd take it personally. What's wrong with you? They're monsters."

She drew her other fan and sent them toward a Block and Krab coming forward. All the robots on the front line broke off their attack at the appearance of the spinning discs. Both creatures she'd aimed at fell in fiery explosions, even destroying some of their buddies who happened to be too close.

Ulrich left his post guarding Aelita and approached his friends. "What's wrong with them? What did you do, Yumi?"

"Nothing! I didn't dance or do anything that might have made them act this weird, I swear!"

The samurai surveyed the now-peaceful army. "Well don't kill any more. I wonder what confused them."

Unfortunately X.A.N.A.'s minions had other orders and paid no attention to him. They fired on the steady lines of silent robots until there were none left. Even the Hornets had been dispatched.

One of the Krabs nudged Aelita and she nervously started toward the Tower. The gang kept a close eye on the remaining enemies now that their common threat had been abolished.

The brown-haired leader motioned her forward. "Get in there and fix that thing so we can help Janika and make Sissy forget all this. If she remembers anything, we'll never be able to escape from her ever again. For the good of the world, please do this."

"No pressure!" Odd called helpfully.

(V)

The A.I. found herself inside a warped Tower. Instead of the inner walls glowing blue, everything had that strange purple aura about it. She floated up to the second level and opened the control panel, but the information running across the grid appeared to be from Sector 5!

Aelita shook her head and began searching for the source of the Glitch but unexpectedly heard an urgent whisper echo almost like wind past her ear. Trying to ignore it, she nearly missed the message among the data (the information was all scrambled as though something was trying to escape detection…).

Aelita. PT2U85T.

That code…

"Jeremy," she started, "something is very strange about this Glitch. It's not ordinary. I think it may be trying to talk with me. Do you think I should attempt contact?"

The computer's operator responded the way she had expected him to: not very encouraging. "I'm not sure. What if it infects you or something? It might not be wise to take that chance." Typical.

Aelita stared at the console in confusion. There was something about this Glitch that just didn't feel like a virus. And that code… She didn't care what X.A.N.A. said. Why should they trust him? He'd proven nothing, especially by having his robots slaughtering creatures that had ceased attacking. Or had they been defending?

The monsters controlled by the purple aura had gone to great pains to avoid attacking the Warriors although it meant their destruction. There was something their "ally" was not telling them, and she was suspicious.

"Aelita, both Sissy and Janika are standing by. Let me know when you've fixed the Glitch so we can get on with repairing them, okay?"

Her hand hovered over the panel, ready to destroy the thing that had occupied the Tower, but instead she blocked Jeremy so that he couldn't communicate to her or interfere. Taking a deep breath, she rerouted several circuits and supplied energy to the central matrix of the activated Tower. A ghost of electrical currents appeared in the center of the platform in front of her and she addressed it.

"I promise I won't hurt you. Just tell me how you came to exist."

The pale specter took shape slowly, until it resembled a vague humanoid figure. "A question like that isn't worth the time it takes to answer. How about asking how I am?"

"Janika?" The pink-haired girl shook her head. "This is really getting weird!"

"I'm not exactly Janika. Usually we're the same person, but she left me behind when she was materialized by X.A.N.A.. Not on purpose, of course, but things like this happen."

"But if you're not Janika, then who are you?"

"I'm the true Warrior beneath the veil. The others have them too, otherwise they would appear on Lyoko as they are in reality. I've been hacking into Sector 5 since I became aware of myself. I even stumbled across a code for controlling his underlings, as you could see."

"So you are the Glitch controlling the Towers! Why?"

"I almost had the file with my DNA but that stupid X.A.N.A. locked me out, and ever since I've been draining power from the Towers here trying to keep from losing my hold on it. I had to protect myself, and that's where my own set of minions came from." The now easily-identifiable cheetah-Warrior shrugged. "Then you guys showed up and I couldn't attack my friends."

The A.I. knew she was taking a huge risk. "What can I do?"

"What? You mean you've decided to trust me?" the dark-haired girl looked at her friend with mock-suspicion. "I'll show you where the files are, but I doubt you'll be able to do anything. I'm using power from eleven Towers right now."

"I'll take my chances."

Aelita held her palms up and closed her eyes while Janika's ghost surveyed her a moment before placing her own insubstantial hands on top. Instantly their minds were both transported to Sector 5 where the cheetah-Warrior was gripping the correct file with her fingernails, barely able to hold on.

Can you help? she thought to Aelita.

Don't worry. I know exactly what to do, she assured the other. At least she hoped she knew.

(V)

Odd glanced nervously at his friends. "It's taking her a long time to deactivate the Tower, isn't it? What is she doing in there?"

Yumi looked at Ulrich. "Should we check on her? Maybe she needs our help. You don't think the Glitch-thingy got control over her, do you?"

Before he could answer, he saw one of the remaining Krabs turn toward them. He acted out of instinct, leaping into the air so fast that a blur of yellow was all anyone could see. The laser blasted into the Forest's landscape, revealing a patch of grids beneath the illusion before regaining its former appearance.

"X.A.N.A. tricked us!" Odd shouted as he attacked with his own weapons. Three Hornets zeroed in on him and before he could kill a single one, he was gone.

Yumi defended herself better, but not for long. A Megatank showed up and took her out from behind, though the samurai Warrior managed to avenge her devirtualization. But before he could regain his sword, a pair of Roachsters and a Krab pounced on him.

(V)

So complete was their surprise at the sudden ambush that all three of them materialized in the scanners in less than two minutes.

Ulrich opened his eyes when he realized someone was cradling his head and crooning. "Oh my sweet, dear, lovable Ulrich! What have they done to you?"

"Get away from him!" Yumi yelled.

She yanked the clingy girl away and was about to slap her across the face when Odd yelled, "Janika! What were you thinking? We could have taken care of this problem without you getting in the way!"

The girl couldn't reply very well, but the noises she buzzed at him sounded rather defensive. The trio of friends were amazed that she was still alive. Only shreds of a couple wings remained and the rest of her was practically crushed or torn away. A strange, disgusting green coating crusted the rest of her and they knew it was acid. The damage that stuff caused in real life was shocking!

"Jeremy, Aelita's still in there. X.A.N.A. really did set a trap for us and we just waltzed right into it!" Yumi spoke up.

"I can't communicate with her, guys. Aelita blocked me when I told her to destroy the Glitch and deactivate the Tower." The blonde sounded like he was biting his lip. "What should we do?"

"Jer, if X.A.N.A. caught her then we're doomed. One of us could go to the bottom floor and shut down Lyoko if we really have to."

"No… She'll make it. I know she will…"

(V)

Aelita forced the file open, sending alarms running through the entire Sector. In their pure digital form robots wouldn't be able to harm them, but X.A.N.A. had more than those at his disposal.

The two thieves were instantly bombarded by what appeared to be cages and claws of black shadow to their "eyes". Janika's counterpart fought them with sparks and clashes of bright light while Aelita wrestled the data from the safeguarded file and kept X.A.N.A.'s mental attacks at bay.

Finally she freed it and called to her friend. Got it! Janika, it's all here! Your DNA and Sissy's solution!

It's about time! These guys aren't the usual bogies. Let's get out of here and get me back together again. I'm starting to lose my hold on the Towers. They don't like all being activated like this.

Agreed, she said shortly before joining her companion and whizzing along pathways invisible and inaccessible to her more solid form. And then suddenly she was standing in the Tower again and the image of the cheetah-Warrior was fading. Aelita realized she was losing what power she'd gathered earlier.

"Hold on just a bit longer! It won't take much time to fix this now that I have what I need. Jeremy!" she said, turning on the Tower's speaker. "I have everything. Get Sissy and Janika into the scanners right now!"

"What happened?"

"Do it and don't ask questions!"

Information flowed across the panel so fast that Aelita barely caught it. She had to get this done now! In minutes her friend could be gone. Her hands flew from one option to another and she hoped that Jeremy had obeyed her.

The purple glow was fading from the inner walls and she panicked, entering everything and triggering the scanners with the two girls at the same moment that she deactivated the Tower. All the soft purple was replaced with blue so suddenly that Aelita shielded her eyes.

"Did it work?" she wondered, the initial silence after deactivation startling.

Jeremy seemed to be breathing a sigh of relief. "My monitor says it went smoothly. Perfect. It's time to rewrite history, Aelita."

She couldn't help smiling. "Go for it."

(V)

Janika stood at the bus stop beside Jiranda who was picking up her bags and checking to make sure she had her ticket. "Guess I'll see you after the semester's over," she said with a shrug.

"Give Mom my love, sis." She hugged her sister warmly.

"I will. She'll be happy to hear you're okay. Bye, Nika!"

Ignoring her twin's growl at the hated nickname, the more eccentric girl boarded the bus and waved animatedly from an open window until the vehicle turned a corner and vanished from sight. Janika turned to Odd as he began to speak.

"Well, how was that? Everything's back to normal and we can go about our usual business without fear of being discovered by any nosy popular girls who are related to you." He wrapped an arm around her waist. "Now about us…"

"Come on, Odd! I just got back this morning in time to see you hitting on my sister. You think I'm going to forget it this quick?"

"I explained myself! I thought she was you! It's an honest mistake."

She glared heartlessly at his puppy-eyes. "You're not getting off the hook that easily. I want you to grovel in a snake pit before I even consider forgiving you."

"How about a battle on Lyoko? That always cheers you up."

"Only if you let me win ten times in a row."

"Deal! Tonight?"

"I'll call you. I have to unpack all the boxes in my room and get that cinnamon apple-smell out of my sheets. Why Jira wears perfume to bed, I'll never know!"

"Oh…and Janika?" he started shuffling his feet slightly, as though nervous. "I really am sorry about the mistake Aelita made when she fixed you. Those things must be uncomfortable. I don't know how you can stand them."

She shrugged scratching her back. "I always knew Lyoko would leave its mark on me, but I just didn't know it would be so literal. See you later, okay?" She walked slowly to the Kadic dorms and climbed the stairs, ignoring the greetings of fellow classmates. Once in her room, she locked the door and rubbed her arms to smooth down her goosebumps.

Tentatively, she turned away from the mirror, craning her head over one shoulder, and pulled her jacket off. Aelita had helped her cut holes in her shirt so that the five pairs of gossamer wings there had a little freedom.

"I wonder if I can fly with them…" she whispered.

In response to her query, she tested them and nearly lifted off the floor. An impish smile crossed her face as she realized she hadn't given up the best experience of this whole adventure.

As a rule I try not to introduce very impulsive things at the end of a story that may require a continuation, but I couldn't help it even if it is corny. And as for the Last Poll Ever: Which was your favorite episode that I ever wrote?

I know I said This would be the last part, but I couldn't help myself. For anyone who's interested, check out Code: Janika and let me know what you think.

Thank you, everyone!