Code Lyoko : Virtualization

Aftermath

Scanner Room

Stepping out, he still sees his body glowing and feels, as if, he was getting his strength back. He then hears Laura crying out his name and enters the elevator going up.

Supercomputer

As soon as the doors opened, Hiroki couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everybody was glowing. Except Laura was glowing a light yellow color, like the color of her hair. Laura's glow faded away. Then, so did everyone else's.
Checking in on them, Hiroki and Laura see Tamiya and Sam wake up stretching, and rise up stretching, like they just woke up. The two were relieved that not only that their new friends were okay, but that the worst was over. 

For now...

The Next Day...

Kadic Academy, Laura's Room

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad Odd and his friends aren't around." Sam says, leaning on the end corner of the room.
"I don't understand though, who is this XANA? And why are they only focused on us?" Tamiya asked, sitting down on Laura's bed next to Hiroki.
"Yeah. And that glow? It happened again. I saw it on Sam before I entered the tower." The three stare at Sam.
"Do you remember anything?" He asks her.
"No, I don't. But the strangest thing was that I heard his voice." Sam looks down at the floor, sad. From the look on her face and her response, Hiroki and Tamiya knew who it was.
"Was it Odd?" Tamiya asks Sam.
"Yeah."
"What did he tell you?" Hiroki then asked.
Sam looks up facing him, trying to remember, "It's complicated."
"Why?"
"Because he said the same thing everyone else said to me after he disappeared."
"What did he say?"
Sam looks down again and said, "Let it go."
Laura interrupted, "I really doubt that's what he meant, Samantha."
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"Yeah. She's right. Because when I had the glow around me, I didn't remember anything except Yumi's voice before facing those dang monsters. And then Aelita's voice when I entered the tower." Hiroki getting up walking towards her corner.
"So what are you trying to say, we're crazy?" Sam asks both of them.
Laura simply answered, "Odd was trying to help you release something. And from the looks of it on Lyoko, you did."
"And you looked very strong. Especially with the cat suit you had on." Hiroki said laughing. Sam slaps him upside the head and everyone laughs, including Sam. Hiroki sits back down rubbing the back of his head.
"No worries, Samantha. If you want, I can change the color. Unfortunately I can't guarantee that you can change your physical overall appearance. " Laura tells Samantha.
"It's alright. I like it this way." Sam sits down next to Tamiya as she crosses her arms.
"Yeah, but I really doubt that it's over." Laura said lifting up her eyebrow and rubs her chin trying to think. "This has already happened twice. Odd. Then the whole gang. And then what?"
"We go back." Hiroki stands up tall and serious in front of everyone. "Look, I don't know what's going on, either. But I'll tell you this, my sister and her friends are alive. If anything, we need to get 'em out of there. Whatever that thing controlling them is, this XANA, needs to be stopped. Whatever the cost."
"Yeah, good luck. We barely got lucky taking them head on in Lyoko. Out here, we're nothing. I say it's best if we just shut it down and let the authorities handle it." Sam argues.
"And let Odd be lost forever. The first thing they're gonna do is get attacked by them - "
"- They're not that stupid. I'm sure they'll try shutting it down -"
"-And have Odd be gone forever?"
"Hiroki's right." Laura comes in and supports him. "If we shut the supercomputer down, then they'll really disappear for good."
"But you don't know that." Sam talking back to her.
"Wanna go for it then? Then do it." The two stand face to face looking hard into each other's eyes.
"I'm with Sam. It's too dangerous having this thing going on."
"Alright then. Since Sam really wants to go for it, then let's go to the factory and see if she really means it. I know where the main core is. So let's go right now."

Factory

As the gang come back entering the factory, they look around in case of an attack. They already had enough surprises after last time. Sam, Tamiya, Laura, and Hiroki walk together towards the elevator. All of them remained quiet. Quiet until the time came for the truth. Will Sam really shut it down? Or not?
Laura pushes the down button on the elevator and the four descend to the lower level. It was lower than where the supercomputer was. Lower than where the scanner room was. The four continue to remain quiet at each other, nervous. Sam felt more nervous than anybody because she wanted to shut it down, leading them to this. The elevator finally reaches to a halt. The doors slowly open and before them, the room shines a temporary bright light. Everyone in awe except Laura because she had already been here before.
The three still in awelook around and see the light everywhere. The room was brighter than the scanner room. In front of them, they see the source. Laura presses the door key and a small door opens up. With it, a lever appears. Laura looks straight at Sam as she presents to her the lever. Sam walks slowly, nervously, having this been her first time ever being here. But she was also nervous because of earlier. She reaches the lever and puts her hand on it. Tamiya was afraid that something might happen so she held her hand tight onto Hiroki's hand and holds him, closely. Hiroki wanted to do something, but he wanted to see for himself if Sam would truly be willing to shutting it down, throwing Odd's life away trapped in the virtual world, alongside everyone else, including Yumi's. It was time for the moment of truth.
Sam puts her hand on the lever. Then, her hand begins to tremble. She was hesitant. She was afraid only to think about what she's risking to lose by doing this. Sam only wished Odd were here by her side to tell her what she should do. But he wasn't here. Not anymore. She thought to herself as she closed her eyes. Slowly, she pulls the lever down. Everyone nervous and afraid. Suddenly, Sam scared, let's go. She puts her hand on her face and sheds a tear.
"I only want Odd back! That's all I want!" Sam could feel the pressure and breaks down. Now, unwilling to pull down the lever, she lets go. The group feeling sympathy over her, pick her up and share a group hug together, except Laura.
Then, their bodies start glowing again, all four blue.
They then see a vision of Jeremy coming down here being chased by a dark cloud. It was XANA. Coming to the core room they heard his last tiring breath saying his final words before the dark mist went inside of him, trying to take possession, "You'll never have it, XANA! Never!" With his hand on the lever, he pulls it down hard and everything shuts down. And then, they see Jeremy vanish into thin air. Like a dark cloud, his body evaporated only showing a faded cloud of the eye, and then disappears.
Laura, Sam, Hiroki and Tamiya snap out of it and see themselves in the floor.
"Did you see what I see?" Sam asked.
"Jeremy?" Tamiya barely waking up.
"It was Jeremy!" Hiroki rises up quickly.
"I don't believe it. They're trapped." Laura finally figuring it out. The four look at each other with a look of shock. They now know the truth about what happened to them.
"So what do we do now?" Tamiya asks as they all rise to their feet.
Sam and Hiroki look at each other face to face. The two who were against each other for a moment, nodded at each other, showing a sign of truce. At the same time they said, "We're gonna get them back!"
The room echoes and ends in silence with the four up and ready to take on the fight to XANA, in an effort to save Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi.

Milly and Tamiya's Room

A few doors from Laura, Milly was bored and all alone. She'd been by herself all day since Tamiya left to join Hiroki. She sighed. Alone in her room, she pulled up old newspaper news she'd published a while back to distract her. "Seen it. Seen it." She told herself, flipping page by page.
She opens up a different one from her archives and see the one she and Tamiya published about the gang missing. Looking down and depressed, she swings it to the side and the paper falls to the floor. She lays down and was about to sleep when she sees a small picture of someone she used to know here in Kadic. It was a gossip topic called: "Secret Admirer Revealed!" She sat up and wondered, "But if they're missing, then is William, too?" She looked closer to the picture and asked herself again, "Where is William Dunbar?"