Back at the scanner room, Jeremie was dodging sword strokes from the ninja from the scanner, and wondering just what the heck was going on in Lyoko. Was this ninja just a new monster or what? He had no more time to think as he had to quickly dodge a sword strike, but he groaned and fell to the floor as he dodged right into a pipe, the impact of his head resonating with a low pitched clang. The ninja monster or whatever it was wasted no time in taking advantage of his position, and struck quickly. The blade dug into the concrete right by his face as he just managed to roll out of the way, though the movement made him sick to his stomach. His stomach twisted even further as he heard the activation of a second scanner. Whatever was going on, those guys in Lyoko had better be taking care of it!

The gap that Aelita had created only gave them a moment of respite, before the army of monsters began to reform around them. The good news what that the tower was within sight. They just needed to make it a little further. They had to make it soon- everyone was counting on them, and who knew how far into the real world that the Shredder had made it! As they got right in front of the entrance of the tower, all the monsters converged at once, a final defense to prevent them from getting inside. Don knew that they would never be able to fight through all of those monsters, not on their own. He said as much to Aelita.

"It can't be hopeless! We can't just let the Shredder win!"

Thinking for a moment, and observing the massive obstacle between them and saving the world,
Don had an idea. A risky one, but…. "I didn't say that. I just said we couldn't fight all of them. Aelita, do you trust me to try something?"

"Sure"

With that, he grabbed Aelita, and chucked her over the army of monsters towards the entrance of the tower. Covering her face and trying not to scream, Aelita flew towards the entrance, and phased through it into the actual tower. It took her a half a second to catch her breath and realize that she had made it before she could actually stand up and start the deactivation process. "Come on, come on!" she urged the tower as it agonizingly slowly lifted her up to the computer she needed to shut down the tower. "Why do we always have to deactivate towers at the last possible second?" she muttered to herself. It seemed like every time they did this there was barely enough time to shut the tower down. And that was when they only had Xana to deal with. There was a chance that the normal deactivation wouldn't even work with the addition of the Shredder's powers. If this failed, they were out of ideas. Both the Shredder and, by extension, Xana, would escape into the world. Both sets of warriors would have failed. "I'm sure it will be fine" she reassured herself, as she finally touched down on the upper level of the tower and made her way to the computer screen. "Just need to deactivate the tower like any other time Xana has tried anything. Nothing too hard".

"The Shredder is starting to get into the real world!" Ulrich shouted to the others who were fighting off hoards of monsters in attempts to get at the Shredder himself, whose image had started to blur and look like double-vision.

"We need to stop him!"

"There's nothing we can do now! We just need to hope that Aelita has made it to the tower!"

"I really don't like this set up!" exclaimed Mikey.

"Yes, I am almost there!" boomed the Shredder, his large voice made even bigger by his increase in size and power, but also sounded slightly garbled as parts of him faded in and out of the virtual world. "In just minutes I can finally get back to the real world, AND I'll get revenge on you loathsome turtles! Maybe when I get back, I can find a way to banish you all to Saturn! Or I'll just kill you. Both sound great. Then I can finally return to ruling my empire!"

Something else was coming through the scanner. Jermie couldn't help but feel slightly panicked, as he heard the buzz and fizz of the scanner activating. The last couple of times this had happened ninjas had appeared, and he had barely been able to defeat them, and he hadn't been able to do it unscathed. So maybe this dizziness wasn't just terror, but a concussion, a removed clinical part of his brain suggested. If that was the case, he doubted he could handle another ninja. Please, Aelita, be deactivating that tower right now…

Aelita touched the screen, waiting for the computer to recognize who she was, and praying that everything went normally. She nearly collapsed with relief when the screen immediately showed her name, and went on to the next screen, asking her for the code. Sighing, she put in the code "Lyoko".

"What? What's going on?!"

"Guys, I think Aelita did it!"

"What is this?! My power!" The Shredder stopped phasing out, and started to come back into Lyoko. The monster army shuddered once, and then poofed away in a shower of digital bits. The Shredder screamed like he was immense pain, and it looked like he would finally be defeated, but just as was about to fade away, a second form appeared and started to break away from him. "It's Xana!"

"The Shredder is trying to jump ship!"

And he fear of what could happen to it, Shredder abandoned Xana's body and Lyoko, and the confused Xana also disappeared into hiding until he decided to strike again.

From where he had been shakily preparing for what might be his final fight, Jeremie let out a sigh of relief as the ninjas pursuing him disappeared, and he fell to the ground, exhausted. He just wanted to stay sitting for hours, but he knew he had to check up on everyone else, and hopefully get some answers on what the heck just happened. So, groaning and trying to ignore how it made him sick to his stomach, Jeremie slowly stood up, and made his way back to the supercomputer. As he less than gracefully sat in the chair and pulled on his headset, he was immediately met with the sound of cheers. "Hey, guys" he said to everyone in Lyoko, finally making his presence known again, "While I'm glad that we (probably) just won, what the heck just happened in there?"

The Lyoko Warriors and Turtles looked up into the sky, the warriors with smiles on their faces and the turtles slightly confused.

"Jeremie! You're back!" exclaimed Yumi, "I was worried when I called for you before and you didn't answer".

"Yes, well, I had something in the scanner room to take care of. Something that would make a lot more sense if you guys could tell me what just happened" he replied.

"It's...a bit complicated" Yumi sighed, looking at the rest of her team for some help explaining everything.

Odd shrugged, and attempted to pick up the torch, "So, the turtles show up in Lyoko, right? Except they were being followed by this scary spiky guy called the Shredder, who apparently was trapped in the internet, and wants to get out and destroy the world and them? And then, I guess he made a deal with Xana or something, because next thing we know the two of them show up all buddy-buddy, except not really, because then Shredder takes over Xana and has all of his powers and stuff! And then it was like whenever Xana activates a tower, but a million times worse!"

"Ok, wow. So, why were there ninjas in here?"

"Uhhhh… well, You got me there", Odd conceded, loosely shrugging his shoulders.

"Because the Shredder is the leader of a dangerous ninja clan called the Foot" said Leo, glad to contribute something. Ulrich and Odd stifled a laugh at the ridiculous name.

"Guys!" came a voice from the distance. Everyone turned to look, and waved as Don and Aelita ran back towards the rest of the group.

"Don!"

"Aelita!"

"You guys did it!"

Don laughed slightly as Mikey threw his arms around him in a crushing hug. Meanwhile, Odd and Yumi pulled Aelita into a less aggressive hug, and laughed as Don pried his brother off.

"Okay, look" said Raph impatiently, bringing this way too long in progress story to a quicker end, "Can we please just get what we came here to get and go home already?! I mean, I'm glad we stopped the super cyber Shredder, or whateva', but I just want to get Splinter's bits like we were trying to do in the first place, and go HOME!"

"Oh, yeaaah" gasped Mikey, "With all the almost-dying, and the super epic fighting and all, I almost forgot why we even came here! Man, it sure seems like it was a long time ago that this was about finding Master Splinter, huh?"

"That's right" added Ulrich, who had also forgotten why the turtles were originally here, "We were supposed to help you get to the tower he was in! So, I guess we should do that, then. Which tower was he in, again?"

"I still remember" replied Aelita, "I can take us there".

With the feeling of victory in the air making everyone considerably more light-hearted, the group of cyber-heroes used their respective vehicles to finally travel to the other end of the desert sector and retrieve the object (or person) that had brought them together in the first place.

The group ascended into the tower, and Aelita made her way up to the control screen, Donny peering over her shoulder to aid in the search through the tower's data. Finally, after what felt like four years of searching, Aelita was able to find an icon of what could only have been Master Splinter.

"That's it!" exclaimed the purple banded brother, proving Aelita's assumption, "That's Master Splinter's data bits!"

"We found him!" celebrated Mikey, before pausing to think, and then add, "Well, more pieces of him, anyway".

"Finally" groaned Raph, "We can put this whole 'Lyoko' mess behind us".

"Just as soon as I get him for you" said Aelita, swiping and tapping at the floating screen, in what was surely a complicated-one might even say convoluted- series of technical wonders to move the bits from the data of the tower to a more physical realization in the virtual world. Eventually she did, and Don, for the first time since Aelita had met him, appeared to visibly relax, if only a little bit, his shoulders slumping, and his face forming something of a smile-if a bittersweet one. She felt a pang of sympathy for the turtle, then. After all, she knew what it was like to lose a father.

"Come on, Master Splinter" he said softly, tapping at the screen on his arm, "It's time to get you home safe". Locking the bits of his father into the virtual vault, Don allowed himself a sigh of relief.

"So, I guess you guys found what you were looking for" said Ulrich as the group made their way out of the tower and back into the virtual landscape. "I bet you'll be heading home, then, huh?"

"Yeah" replied Leo "This has been one long mission".

"You can say that again" groaned Raph.

"Gladly," obliged Mikey in an exhausted tone, throwing his arm over his eyes. "This has been suuuuch a loooong mission. Can we go home now?"

"Yeah" concluded Don in a quieter tone, looking down at the device on his wrist "Let's go home".

With that, the Lyoko warriors lead their newfound friends back to where they found the,so they could leave Lyoko and get back to the lair. They stood by the exit, neither party exactly knowing what to say or do. Suddenly, Aelita moved first when, without word or warning, she came up to the sad genius turtle and gave him a gentle hug.
"Hang in there, Donatello. I'm sure you'll get your father back soon".

The other Lyoko warriors, though less physical about expressing it, shared the same sentiment.

"And feel free to visit again!" said Odd in farewell, "Especially you, cool guy" he added, shooting finger guns towards Mikey.

"Just next time" interjected Jeremie from above, "Please try not to bring a psychotic ninja killer with you. We're really fine with just the one". After sharing a (slightly uncomfortable) laugh at that, and exchanging final farewells, the turtles left Lyoko and vanished into the virtual sea.

As soon as they were out of sight, as if by silent agreement, all of the Lyoko warriors collapsed into a pile on the ground.

"I don't think I've ever been virtualized this long in my entire life" moaned Odd.

"Man, and I thought Xana was bad. I mean, at least he shuts up. God, that Shredder guy was annoying" complained Ulrich.

"At least the turtles were nice" pointed out Aelita. Everyone agreed to that, before a silence fell over the group.

"Ok, so, Jeremie? Are you going to devirtualize us soon or what? I mean this conversation is basically for burning time at this point" said Ulrich.

"Huh, what?" said Jeremie, coming out of a daze, "Oh, right, yeah, I'll do that".

After everyone was finally standing (or, more accurately, slouching, leaning, and lying down on the floor) in the real world, they all filled Jeremie in on what had happened.

"That's all interesting, but I think I might need to go to the hospital" deadpanned Jeremie in response to the story. Laughing, Ulirch slapped the brainiac on the back, and immediately backpedaled when the genius nearly puked on the supercomputer's keyboard. "Ok, that's enough adventure for today" determined Yumi, leaning Jeremie on her shoulder and helping walk him to the door, "Let's just get Jeremie back to the school".

"And then maybe sleep for a few hundred years" added Odd, before laughing nervously at the slightly dirty look that Yumi and Aelita gave him, "I mean, after we make sure that Einstein is alright, of course" he quickly amended.

Rolling his eyes, Ulrich wordlessly stepped beside Yumi to help carry the injured teen out of the room and towards the elevator, followed closely by a worried Aelita and Odd. With any luck, they could use Jeremie's concussion as a reasonable excuse for why they were out so late.

At the same time, the turtles were also making their way home, and reflecting on the people they had met in that strange virtual world. Finally, the brothers collapsed into their lair (unknown to them, exactly like their allies were doing across the ocean), lying exhausted and inert wherever they could. All except for one, who was at their supercomputer, adding more pieces of their father to his never-resting work in progress, looking every bit determined and willing to go right back into the computer and continue the search.

"Let's wait a while before we go on another mission, alright?" groaned Mikey from where he was sprawled in the couch, to which his older brothers wordlessly groaned in agreement.

Shaking his head, Don smiled slightly, and silently moved away from the computer,joining his brothers before they all eventually went to their rooms, and brought this strange adventure to an end.

(OH MY GOD IT'S) THE END

Oh my God, I can't believe my flipping eyes, it's actually completed! (Kinda sorta) It only took four years! (Wow has it really been that long… O_o) Major major thanks to anyone who has actually been with this thing since the beginning and has stayed with it. Honestly, even I lost faith (many times, actually) that I would ever actually finish this and I thought it would just haunt me forever, a horrible label of "in progress" to forever loom above me. But HAH past me, you were WRONG. I did it. Not a pretty ending, maybe, but an ending, at least. Thank you for reading, and I highly doubt I will see you next chapter because an epilogue to this story is exceedingly unlikely. BYE!