A/N: This was written years ago, as one of my first fanfiction, titled 'Running'. I was not particularly happy about how it turned out now that I'm older, but was guilted out of deleting it. So it's getting a ravamp on more chapters. I repeat: this will be a multi-chapter fic. Enjoy!

Around twenty minutes in, he started getting awfully philosophical.

And he had been running much longer than twenty minutes now. He didn't dare check to see just how much, but the thoughts still came.

He couldn't tell you exactly what he was thinking, because he was functioning on a higher level of thought than he had ever experienced before. Strands of ideas and notions would flit in his head and right back out, but not before transforming and shifting.

And even now, while his mind was wandering somewhere he could never really follow, it was still leading him and deciding for him. Gauche, adroit, gauche, gauche, adroit. It told him to zigzag through that tree, or jump over that log, or duck underneath that low hanging branch.

Because the location of Odd Della Robbia's journey was currently the forests surrounding Kadic Academy. The skies, that grey, were a dark and sickly grey- threatening a downpour but refraining from action. It was oddly still in the forest. There was no wind to speak of, even the howling wind that had raged that morning was gone. The trees themselves were absolutely still apart from when an animal chose to run across a branch. But even the animals were silent.

As if nature itself was holding its breath in anticipation.

Odd himself didn't think about all of this, but his newfound open mind did, as well as the fact that he was the practically the only one making a noticeable sound. And he was, as usual, going above and beyond in that respect.

He was panting: shallow breath in, shallow breath out. Quick tempo, as if he couldn't get enough air in. And his feet were striking against the ground with a ferocious power, snapping twigs and crushing the falling leaves underneath his feet. And was in addition to the rhythmic pounding.

But overall, Odd's mind was thinking Get away, get away, get away, get away, get away, GET AWAY!

So he ran. And ran. And ran for more than twenty minutes even though his pulse was racing and his lungs felt like they would explode and the only thing he wanted to do was to stop, lean against a tree, and proceed to collapse.

He had his chance not long later, when he had failed to see a stump in the ground and was suddenly sprawled on the ground.

He spit some dirt out of his mouth and examined his skinned hands as he quickly pulled himself up- he couldn't take this rest.

Because right behind him was XANA's most recent attack.

Possessing a group of people was far from the program's most original attack, but no one ever said it wasn't an effective one. Humans- even possessed- weren't as primal as rats or other animals, and more times than not they were more dangerous too.

So that's what XANA decided to do. And it was working.

They hadn't prepared for such a large scale attack. A human or two was one thing, but this was a giant group of them, far greater than any of them had the capability of fighting or holding off. But he didn't need to hold them off or fight them. He just needed to outrun them.

Which brought some many regrets of could haves and should haves and why didn't I put any effort into gym classes.

Because he had seen his classmates transform from people who could barely run to finely tuned machines that were ready for marathons underneath Jim's watchful eye. But of course, he had never been one who cared in any class. Plus, he was athletic enough to easily pass gym.

Just not enough to outrun a horde of possessed adults. Because when had they ever had XANA Survival 101. And Jim had lectured about the importance of a fit body to ward off things like diseases and afflictions. Not a computer virus.

If he could just make a break for the city…

If he could get there, he would be safe. Surely XANA didn't have enough power to possess all of the people in town. Did it? Surely there wasn't enough power. Odd thought back to the month- nope, there hadn't even been that many attacks, let alone Return to the Pasts.

As he hurried through the woods, he didn't mind as branches whipped across his face or even when an unfortunate stumble caused his right shoe to come off partially. He tried to shove his foot back in but the shoe continued to flap around.

He sighed and came to a stop to kick off his shoe, wiping the sweat from his forehead while he was at it.

A snap of a breaking twig caught his attention as his head turned to the sound. Principal Delmas walked into his view and Odd quietly climbed up the nearest tree, hiding in the branches as Delmas walked under the tree, looking for Odd.

He didn't dare breath, barely holding on and staring at the principal as he walked in and out of his vision.

Delmas picked up the tennis shoe, examined it, and the began walking away.

And then he was gone and Odd jumped to the ground. He didn't have time to lament the loss of his shoe as he quickly ran off in the direction of civilization. Or at least somewhat in the direction- even he wasn't stupid enough to go straight to town- they would be on to him.

As he was nearing the city, he heard a bloodcurdling scream to his right. There were two things it could be.

Real.

Or a trap.

XANA wasn't stupid, and neither were the people it possessed. And someone screaming just to lure him into their clutches wouldn't be unimaginable. If anything it was something to be expected; very predictable.

But he was a Lyoko Warrior.

And whether they had set out to become this way or not, they didn't just abandon people based on maybes. Because something about saving the world pushed those thoughts out of their minds and they really had no say in that matter.

So he went towards the scream.

It didn't take him too long to reach the source. On the outskirts of the forest, there was a little girl. She was sitting in the middle of a few trees and crying, wiping her nose and eyes on her frilly light orange dress. Odd ran over to her, but when she caught sight of him, she screamed.

"Ssshh," he hushed.

Tears were still streaming down her face. "Mo- mo- mon pére, et- et ma mere," she whispered.

He reached over to her, and she seemed to welcome his hug as she reached up. He picked her up and began walking out of the forest. The town was deserted- an odd sight for that time of day. He and the girl walked around, the girl clutching bunches of his shirt tightly in her hands.

Odd ventured to one of his favorite cafés- there servings were a little larger than the rest and their sandwiches were out of this world. One step in told him that something was very wrong.

Chairs were strewn about and knocked over, along with some tables. Half-finished meals and drinks were still left on the upright tables or spilt on the floor. The lights were on- along with a television that appeared to be attuned to the news. Only there were no news anchors, just a blue screen. However, words were still scrolling at the bottom, calling for an evacuation. What had happened while he had been in the woods?

The girl, who in the light appeared to be about three, continued to sniffle. He motioned her to move behind the counter and then ducked down himself. He picked a few pieces of baguette from the table and handed one to the whimpering child.

She carefully ate it, her tears slowing.

Odd didn't know what to do in these situations, so he stroked her hair but didn't mutter any consolation. He had been running for so long, eh didn't know what to think of his short reprieve, but his chest was heaving and he could barely talk.

His vision began to turn grey and he leaned his head back. Before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep. They were in civilization. Abandoned civilization, but civilization nonetheless. With any luck, they wouldn't be followed and they were as safe as they could be.

Thumps and scrapes along with a few pokes woke him up. His eyes opened and he returned to his senses silently, immediately latching the girl in his sight. She was smart- keeping silent even as her lip quavered. She tapped her ears and again he could make out the thumps and scrapes that could only be people walking.

In an abandoned city.

He put his finger to his lip and whispered, "stay here, okay?"

The girl nodded and pulled her knees to her chest. He saw a few more pieces of bread on the floor and handed it to her, as well as a drink that was mostly still in a cup.

"Don't make a sound. I'll be back, I promise."

She nodded against and no tears escaped from her eyes. He stood up, and just as he did the windows and doors busted open and three possessed people entered the store with clenched fists and growls.

Odd stopped for just a second- his body didn't want to run again and quite frankly, his mind didn't either. Maybe he could fight them. But he knew he couldn't, and he had to lead them away from the girl.

So he ran towards the back, only turning around to see that all three were following him, and he led them outside.

And if he heard the tortured scream of a girl in the background, he ignored it.

Before he knew it, he was back in the woods. The abnormally silent woods. And he was breaking twigs and stumbling over rocks but he didn't care- even thought he was pretty sure that his foot was bleeding.

He could here the deep, guttural breaths of those chasing him and all he knew was that he had to widen the gap, had to widen the gap, had to widen the gap.

So he sprinted, against cursing and lamenting his work ethic in gym and not really thinking that he would get through this attack. Because surviving on Earth was Ulrich and Yumi's expertise, not his.

He felt his phone vibrating before he heard it ring, and with one hand he reached into his pocket and pulled it out. Jeremie.

"Einstein," he hissed out.

"Odd," Jeremie said. "Are you almost to the factory?"

"I'm a bit preoccupied," he said, tripping against a log again and picking himself back up. "Tell me you're almost done on Lyoko."

He heard Jeremie's sigh over the phone. "It doesn't look good, Odd. I don't know where XANA got the power to do an attack of this magnitude. How bad is it on Earth? I can't get any information from our area."

"We need to deactivate the tower, Jeremie. And fast."

Jeremie sighed. "We need another hand."

"Then call William or Sissi or someone!" Odd shouted, cursing as he ran into a tree. "I'll get there as fast as I can, but XANA probably has guards there already anyway."

"Just hurry. We'll try our best in the meantime," Jeremie said.

Odd snapped his phone closed with his fist but when he tried to shove it back in his pocket, his hand slipped as he hopped over a pit of mud and the phone flew out of his grasp. He considered going back for it, but in the time it took him to make his decision he was too far ahead to head back.

He made his way for the factory- at least the way he thought the factory would be. He had gotten so turned around in the forest, and when he finally emerged from the forest it wasn't to the sight of a river. It was to the sight of the town he had just left. Scowling, he ran in a different direction. There was a small lake not to far from where he was with the best rocks for skipping.

The factory wasn't far from there.

As he ran to the lake, he couldn't hear any signs of anyone following him but he didn't let up on his speed. Maybe he'd get there on time and save the world.

But then, within sight of the lake, he ran into a horde of people. As soon as they caught sight of him, they were running, usually nonlethal garden tools in hand. Said garden tools looking decidedly more lethal when considered with the menacing scowls that graced their features.

There was no way he was going to get out of this one, but he braced himself for a fight to the finish anyway. There was no way he was going to lose to a bunch of middle-aged gardeners without trying at least a little bit.

And then, one by one, they started to fall. First collapsing to their knees and then passing out. Odd allowed himself to smile.

Tower: Deactivated.

They had won and he was safe.

But the man closest to him wasn't fully himself yet, and he took his rake and, before Odd could notice nor stop him, struck the boy in the head.

Odd's eyes immediately rolled back and his body immediately crumpled, and the man, without waiting, picked the boy up and hurled him into the water where his body slowly sank.

And as his body slowly begun to sink into the icy waters, a bright white energy beam blasted into the sky and split, enveloping the world. Described by many as the most beautiful view in the world, it's too bad they couldn't enjoy it longer than a second.

And too bad that Odd couldn't see this one.