Ulrich startled awake. For a moment, he was terrified. All of his senses had been stripped from him, leaving him floating numb in an empty, hellish void. Then his memory returned, file-by-file, as the supercomputer booted up.

It wasn't the first time his friends had come to visit. There was always a little time to say hello before the timer appeared and his life points began dropping like flies. Jérémie, of course, had the timing down to a science, and he was working on prolonging the counter so they could converse more and more freely.

Jérémie had hooked up a webcam so he could look them in the eyes now whenever the computer was turned on. Ulrich always knew what to expect. Odd's cheerful facade would take a moment to wipe out his brief expression of worry or sorrow. Aelita would be wincing in sympathy—only she knew what it was like to wake up inside the supercomputer. Jérémie was hard to read, considering the computer screen often reflected on his glasses and obscured his eyes, but he would usually be smiling. William would shoot him a thumbs-up or laugh about some inside joke, always keeping a respectful distance from Yumi, who would be standing in the background, stone-faced until she heard his voice.

Even if his avatar screwed up or the painful 'notifications' were activated, Ulrich benefited from these visits. Living inside a computer made his mind adapt whenever it was switched on. He could finally understand half the stuff Jérémie had always prattled on about. And when he tried hard enough, or accessed a panel, he could actually affect Lyoko with certain codes.

As usual, when Ulrich's three senses were granted to him, and he found himself lying curled up in the center of a way tower. He was already virtualized, so there wasn't any data the computer needed to retrieve. Jérémie had taught him how to open a panel and bring up visual so he could see his friends, and Ulrich did so as their voices came over the speaker.

"Happy birthday!" All five of them yelled at once, nearly breaking the microphone in the process.

He paused. "Birthday? Again? Seems like I turned 22 about three minutes ago." Once again, he was startled at the changes that appeared in his friends. William had gotten a haircut and was working on a beard. Jérémie was wearing a different style of glasses, and Yumi had pinned her overlong hair in a bun on top of her head. And while Odd's outrageous wardrobe choices would never be tamed, his garish clothing was currently only half-visible under the apron he'd been provided by the catering company he worked for. Aelita was the least affected by change. She sat in the computer chair, her husband at her side.

"Oh, come on, Ulrich, it's been at least six minutes for you." Jérémie crossed his arms.

Ulrich innocently tapped the panel, bringing up a command box. "Hmm, I guess. Did you bring me a present?"

"I baked a cake, but I ate it."

"Thanks, Odd. Nice to know you care."

"I try."

Ulrich typed a complicated code in the box, his finger hovering over the Enter key. "Hey, Jérémie, can I ask you something real quick? Is my avatar on here damaged? What's the deal?"

"Well, no." Jérémie's glasses had begun to slip down his nose. He pushed them back up quickly. "On Lyoko, you're physically fit as the metaphorical fiddle. But your earth body was really badly damaged when we got it here, so that carried over when you were virtualized."

"But the digital info, it's stable on its own, right?"

"What are you getting at, Ulrich?" Aelita asked, scrolling through information.

Ulrich tapped the Enter key. "I'd kinda like to talk to you guys for more than like three minutes at a time." His fingers entered in a few more lines of code. It was a fairly simple process, just like sending a few files to the recycle bin on his own laptop. Except with his fingers instead of a mouse.

A beeping started up in the tower, right on cue, and Jérémie leaned over the keyboard. "Counter's started up. I'm shutting you down again."

The avatar shrugged. "I got time."

"What the—Ulrich, did you lock us out?"

He smirked, then shook the expression from his face. "Sorry, guys, I'm gonna do something stupid."

Panic shot across Odd's face. "Ulrich, no, what are you trying to do?"

Yumi had charged over to the terminal. "Ulrich, please don't give up hope! You're the reason I joined medical school! You—you promised!"

"Whoa, not that stupid." He laughed as he entered the program.

It took a minute to take effect, then the beeping abruptly ceased. All four monitors went black, and everyone in the room froze.

Jérémie' was speechless for a moment, but his logical side quickly reminded him there wasn't any time to waste. "William, Odd, go see if he was devirtualized. Aelita, try and—"

The screen flicked back on.

"Looks like a system reboot," Aelita noted, rapidly tugging her hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. "I can't tell what he did yet, or if..."

William and Odd were halfway to the elevator when Ulrich's voice came again. "You guys should have seen your faces."

"Ulrich, you jerk!" Yumi was quaking visibly.

When his face appeared onscreen, he looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Yumi, that was pretty low of me, huh. But you didn't really think I'd pull my own plug, did you?"

Aelita entered several keywords into a text box on one of the smaller monitors, but search results came up negative. "Oh, Ulrich," she sighed.

"What'd he do?" Jérémie leaned over to read.

"He deleted his genetic code information and cut off all ties to his original body." She tapped her fingernails against the keyboard, supporting her face on her other hand. "He's just like I was nine years ago, except he copied all his memory files."

"Turns out computers are easier to understand than I thought, Jérémie!" He shrugged. "I mean, I still don't understand algebra, but I guess it's like learning a foreign language. If you get exposed to enough of it, you start picking up words and phrases here and there."

"Why would you do that?" Yumi's hands balled into fists. "How could you?"

"Yumi, I just...I'm tired of not being able to live my life. You guys are all aging and moving on without me."

"You promised!" she snapped, slamming one hand down on the arm of the chair. Aelita flinched away in alarm.

"Watch the equipment, there," Jérémie said nonchalantly. "...You know, Yumi, I could always write him new DNA codes."

"That would take days," Aelita argued. "We're adults now. We don't have that kind of time. I agree with the idea, but it wouldn't be possible unless..."

"Unless we went back to when we did have time," Odd casually suggested.

"That kind of thing doesn't work," Jérémie muttered. "It's why this happened in the first place, remember?"

"What are you guys talking about?" William bobbed his head, miffed at feeling out of the loop for the first time in years.

"Actually, me and Ulrich..." Aelita pulled the ponytail back out of her hair and swiveled to face Jérémie. "We've been adding minor touches to the supercomputer, and we found some data...We wouldn't be able to reconstruct his body now that that information is lost, but it would recreate everyone else, and Ulrich would oversee the process from inside Lyoko."

Jérémie just stared at her. "You're kidding me. How would I have missed a process as important as that?"

"It wasn't so much of a pre-existing process as something we made up as we went along," Aelita confessed. "That timer we worked on together? That was a large part of it. Obviously we couldn't keep the supercomputer on for more than a few minutes at a time, so it was slow going, but Ulrich had some very...different theories."

Ulrich grinned. "She just means I'm so dumb that I accidentally had a good idea. But I didn't actually mean for you guys to do this. You've already had to make a lot of tough decisions for me and you all have your own lives now. It'd be crazy to abandon that and go back to high school."

"Well, why not?" Odd shrugged. "We know all the ins and outs, I'd get to see Kiwi again, and I've kinda missed Old Jimbo and Mrs. Hertz."

"And Sissi," Aelita cut in. "Don't even bother denying it."

"Sissi was a huge pain." Odd grinned. "But I always got a kick out of beating her to her own punchline."

"Are you guys seriously talking about time travel? I thought you were messing with me when we talked about that as kids." William chuckled. "Guess I've seen stranger things."

"Yeah, William, would you be okay with this?" Jérémie turned to study him. "We'd have to repeat the tenth grade through college."

"I didn't go to college." William paused. "To be honest, I wouldn't mind a second chance at improving my grades. And if it means finally being a real Lyoko warrior with you guys..." he trailed off, hoping he wasn't being presumptuous.

"That's one thing I'm afraid of." Aelita bit her lip. "This program could reawaken XANA. We know it can't bring the dead back to life, but considering XANA was never a living being..."

Ulrich tilted his head. "I can't believe you guys are actually considering this."

"And what about you, Yumi?" Jérémie asked. "What do you think?"

"I'd fight for Ulrich in a thousand different timelines if it meant bringing him home," she said quietly. Odd rested a hand on her hunched shoulders, smiling, and she looked up, revealing a faint blush across her cheeks.

"This is so cool." William's old eagerness crept into his grin.

"Let's go for it, Einstein!" Odd punched the air.

Shaking his head, Ulrich held up his hands. "Naw, come on, guys, you don't have to do this for me."

Aelita stood and proffered the computer chair to Jérémie. "Your Majesty, the royal throne is waiting."

"Haha. This is exciting." He sat down and craned his neck briefly. "You guys all ready for this? Return to the past, now!"

"And when's the last time you saw this kid?" The police officer cocked one eyebrow.

Odd shuffled his feet. "Nine ye—ah. It was three days ago. He lives at a boarding school, so I figured his family wouldn't have contacted the authorities quite yet."

"Well, thanks for telling me, young man. I'll ask around."

"Sure thing. See you." Odd jogged out of the station to meet Jérémie's stare. "I don't remember being this much shorter."

"Cheer up, you've got a growth spurt on the way." Jérémie flipped his laptop open on the bench. "We did it, Ulrich, you've officially run away from school to join a circus."

"Ha-ha," Ulrich deadpanned. "Long as you don't make me wear the clown costume."

Jérémie stroked an imaginary beard. "No, but you might be wearing the samurai outfit if I can get you translated here. Not quite the same as materialization, but it's better than nothing."

"Pf. Yeah, that would be fun. I could socialize all I want. On Halloween."

"You know, I'm already starting to miss the days when Aelita was the one who lived in my computer."

Odd whacked him on the back, unintentionally driving the breath out of the bespectacled boy's body. "We should head to the factory. Can't keep our damsel in distress waiting."

Jérémie closed the laptop lid and slid it into his backpack. "Who, Aelita? Yumi?"

Odd winked. "No, Ulrich."

"The laptop's still shutting down, Odd! I heard that!" came a tinny voice. Odd cackled and dashed away.

Jérémie couldn't laugh and run at the same time. "How was I this out of shape?!" he panted. "When was it we started training with Jim?"

"Not for at least another month. Race you there!" Odd called over his shoulder.

Jérémie shouldered his backpack properly. "I'm getting too old for this!"

"You're in your twenties at the oldest!"

"Sure, but if you add up all the Returns we've ever done...whoo! Wait up."

They reached the factory without incident, meeting Aelita, Yumi, and William in the lab room. It was strange to see the place in such good repair. It looked brighter and cleaner than they could remember. The Lyoko display whirred and spun in the center, lighting up their faces.

"What do you think, guys?" Jérémie took his place in front of the monitor. "Ready to go into Sector Five?"

"Uhm," Yumi cut in. "We still don't know what happened to XANA in this timeline. I think our priority should be to get William trained up."

William rubbed the back of his neck. "...Yeah, I don't think anyone wants a repeat of what happened last time..."

"We'll be there to help you this time," Odd promised.

"Well, go on! Get to the scanner room!"

Odd snapped to attention and saluted mockingly. "Sir, yes, sir! Ladies first. That includes you, Free Willy."

"I will kick your butt, Odd."

Jérémie turned back to the screens and settled into the chair. Sure, life as a computer professor had once held its appeal for him, but that was behind him now—or ahead, rather. He didn't have to focus on his future anymore. And nothing would ever beat the thrill and nostalgia of guiding the Lyoko warriors into battle.

"Odd, you'll to go last," he said through the intercom, starting the transfer process. He checked the cameras as the two girls and William each selected a scanner and stepped in. "Ready? Transfer: Yumi! Transfer: Aelita!" The two avatars appeared in separate windows with no error messages in sight. He typed the scann(start) command in at an alarming speed. It was something his fingers had never forgotten how to do.

"Transfer: William! Scanner: Yumi!"

More commands. When everyone had finally been scanned, Jérémie typed in the last few bits of data the computer needed. His finger hovered over Enter as he checked for errors on more time, then he brought it down with a satisfying click.

"Virtualization!"

Author's note: So yeah, that's it. Sorry for the convenience and...happiness of it, but this idea came to me pretty late into the fic and I liked it much, much better than what was originally going to happen. But, hey, I think I've successfully created an AU world where XANA is revived...and that return trip must have given him one heck of a power boost, so the 'kids' have their work cut out for them. I hope you enjoyed reading!