Nicole pushed the button just as the timer hit zero. Cher Ami let out a relieved sigh. He entered a few more codes to find their parents exact location. The Creepers had left and a new door opened. Cher Ami gasped.

"Through that door is our parents guys."

The three friends looked at each other. They couldn’t believe it; they were so close. In unison they took at deep breath and slowly walked into the room. They stopped after only three steps.

The room was dark; the only source of light came from the red glowing chains that imprisoned the seven people before them. It was as if they were looking at themselves. They recognized five of the beings as Odd, Yumi, Jeremie, Aelita, and Ulrich. They looked as if time had done nothing to them; they still looked like the kids from the diary. The other two people, a man and a girl, they did not recognize. Hope slowly walked over to Aelita in a stunned trance. She placed a hand on the girl’s cheek and whispered one word.

"Mom?"

Aelita looked up. She had not heard the group walk in.

"Hope?"

Hope nodded. Tears rolled down the two girls’ faces.

"Jeremie! It’s Hope!"

Jeremie looked up. His eyes grew wide with disbelief.

"It is you. Odd! Ulrich! Yumi! Sissi! We’re saved!"

With that Alvan and Nicole walked into view. Alvan ran up to Odd and hugged him around the middle.

"Dad! Where’s mom?"

Odd laughed.

"Good to see you to. She’s right there."

Alvan looked at the young girl he was unable to recognize. She had long black hair that was tied up into a bun. She was wearing a white flowing dress. She looked up and smiled. Nicole meanwhile was in a conversation with Ulrich and Yumi. She was talking fast and the other two were trying to keep up.

"I can’t believe what I’m seeing! We found the video diary you guys made and then we came right here after hearing Aelita say you were alive. How are you two still kids? Shouldn’t you be older now?"

Yumi finally got a chance to speak.

"Well we are older. When we came to Lyoko we just kept our kid appearance. You look just like me, only with your father’s hair. We missed you so much. We always thought about you."

Cher Ami wiped a tear from his eye. When he started speaking, his voice was shaky.

"I hate to cut this short but you guys have to get a move on."

Nicole took out a fan and started hacking at the chains. She broke Yumi’s first and started working on Odds while Yumi worked on Ulrichs. Alvan and Hope walked over to the man who did not lift his head when they announced their presence. Unlike the others he looked was elderly. His hair and eyebrows white and his face full of deep wrinkles. Odd lifted up on of the man’s eyelids. A mutter escaped the elderly man’s lips.

"Yes?"

Odd and Hope jumped back. Sissi turned towards them.

"Do not be scared of him. That’s Franz Hopper. You know; Aelitas father? He’s alive, just old."

When their chains had been destroyed and Hopper was slung carefully over Ulrichs back the group walked out. Cher Ami said he had no idea how they were to get out of there. Aelita told them they had to get deverualized and he could do it when they were out of Sector Five. The procession made its way out of another door and out of Sector Five to the data bank.

Upon their arrival a laser hit Nicole and she vanished. Alvan cried out her name. He turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Ulrich looking at him.

"Don’t worry Alvan. She was just deverualized."

"How Ul-I mean Mr. Stern?"

"Mantas." He pointed to a group of flying Manta rays.

"Oh. At least those things are better looking than the Creepers."

"Haha. I guess. Jeremie you better explain to Cher Ami how to get us our rides while we take care of these guys."

As Jeremie gave commands to Cher Ami Ulrich laid his burden on the ground. Odd, Yumi, and Alvan shot arrows and threw fans at the monsters as Sissi tried to gain control over the beasts. At one point Alvan tripped over the man who was propped up against the wall. He fell backwards just as a vehicle materialized behind him. He looked down to see what looked to be a skateboard. Hope jumped on with him.

He saw Ulrich load the elderly man on a kind of unicycle. Odd and Sissi boarded another skateboard while Yumi and Jeremie got on a hovercraft.

"A tunnel is open to your right," came Cher Amis voice.

The group, dodging lasers, flew out of the tunnel and found themselves back in the forest region.

When they were safe Jeremie started giving Cher Ami instructions on how to deverualize them. Hope saw something in the distance.

"MONSTERS!"

Ulrich also looked out; his eyes became wide.

"A fleet of them! HURRY CHER AMI!"

Cher Ami began typing madly. He was unable to get them out in time however. The screen started beeping.

"Dad! A bunch of codes I can’t make sense of are coming up!"

Jeremie looked up in alarm.

"What!? That’s impossible! What type of codes?"

"Codes for everything. Even Lyoko itself. NO! The codes are being deleted one by one!"

The ground below the group in Lyoko started to disappear. They ran for their life. Nicole came up behind Cher Ami.

"What’s wrong?"

"XANA’s destroying Lyoko. He knows he’s beat. He sent a fleet of monsters after them and the codes are being deleted. If the monsters don’t recapture them they will fall and be deleted forever. I HAVE to make sense of this!"

Nicole looked at him not bothering to hide her alarm.

"WHAT! They can die! You NEVER told us people could die in Lyoko! You just said to watch out for the digital sea! We thought you meant that we would be sent back. Cher Ami you IDIOT!"

Cher Ami’s eyes became wide and his face red.

"WHAT! You’re blaming ME?! I’m just as confused and scared as you are Nicole! I can be minutes away from losing my best friend, mom, dad, sister, and grandfather! Now SHUT UP AND LET ME THINK!"

Nicole became silent. One part of her felt Cher Ami was being selfish. Another told her that he was right. She wasn’t the only one who would lose someone. When she spoke again her voice was calm.

"What can I do to help?"

Cher Ami didn’t look up from the screen.

"Hope I can get us through this."

Back in Lyoko the monsters were gaining on them. An idea came to Hope.

"Wait! If we get hit with the lasers we will be sent back right? So lets just go up to the monsters and let them fire away."

Yumi shook her head.

"It won’t work like that. They aren’t shooting. They’ll recapture us and we’ll be in more trouble then ever. Just run. WATCH OUT!"

Yumi pulled Hope away from a newly formed cliff. They continued on their vehicles. Cher Ami managed to get enough codes fixed to slow down the process of Lyoko’s disintegration. Tears ran down his face from frustration.

"I’m sorry Dad. Mom. Hope. I’m letting you down."

Aelita looked up.

"Cher Ami you can never let us down. It’s like Jeremie once told me: ‘It’s not your problem; it’s all of ours.’"

A tear ran down Jeremie’s cheek. He quickly wiped it away. "I’ve got an idea." He grabbed one of Yumi’s fans from her belt and threw it at Hope. It hit its mark. Hope gasped with pain and shock.

"Dad what are you doing?"

"If Cher Ami can’t bring us back. I will."

He kept throwing the fan at Hope with Yumi’s help; he was having a difficult time catching the fan once it came back around. When Hope vanished he turned on Alvan. Alvan flew away from him.

"No. Get our parents out first.