Chapter 10: Epilogue

Chelsea woke up in her bed. She felt the cloth around her and saw that she was in her room at Kadic. It felt strange though. She could still feel the steady throb of Xana's pulse in her…an unwanted memory.

She didn't remember anything only that she had been possessed. She called Ulrich's urging voice and then losing consciousness but that was it.

A light knock came on the door.

"Come in," Chelsea called. She mused how hoarse her voice sounded.

In came the gang, looking brighter than usual but slightly tired. Ulrich leaned against the door as he shut it behind them. Yumi and Aelita plopped on Aelita's bed and Odd leaned against the wall at the edge of Chelsea's bed. Jeremy stood in front of her.

"Chelsea, we need to have a talk," he began. He glanced down at her, waiting for her to say something.

Chelsea breathed out a sigh. "I want to ask some questions first."

Jeremy looked to his friends and all of them nodded. They were ready for answering.

Chelsea sat up. "Okay…why do I feel as bad as I do? Didn't you guys do a return to the past?"

"No," Jeremy said.

"But William…he'll get in trouble, won't he?"

"We pulled some strings in my program to only push back Sissy's memory and those who she told. You and William are fine," Jeremy replied.

"I…what happened?" Chelsea asked softly. "I don't remember what I did or what happened. Only bits and pieces. How did you guys win?"

"Because of you," Ulrich spoke up. "You broke free of Xana's hold in the end and managed to keep fighting until Aelita pulled your code out of Xana's database."

"Will he be able to do it again?" Chelsea questioned.

"No," Aelita said. "Jeremy and I fixed a program so Xana can't enter anymore people into his database. You're safe and so is everyone else."

Chelsea sighed and leaned back on her elbows. "Okay…lay on the talk."

Jeremy nodded. "Chelsea you've been through a lot. Fighting Xana, momentarily thinking you were insane…struggling with our criticism. We apologize for not believing you."

"Yeah, Chels," Odd said. "We kind of jumped to conclusions when Ulrich told us about…your…issues."

Chelsea nodded, both her and Ulrich shifting uncomfortably.

"Yumi," Jeremy turned to look at her.

Yumi looked bewildered and then she groaned softly and muttered a single word. "Sorry."

Ulrich shot her an accusing look across the room. Yumi raised an upset brow at him before sighing and sitting up higher. "Sorry, Chelsea."

Ulrich, looking satisfied also looked at her, guilty even. "I'm sorry too. I…shouldn't have said anything about your secret. You put your trust in me…in all of us and we failed you."

"We also failed you when we didn't believe you about being controlled," Jeremy said. "I was stupid for not listening to you. It was…I guess I just wanted so much to believe that there was something so wrong with you that you could be forced off the team that I…jumped to conclusions."

The group was silent for a moment. Chelsea fiddled with her fingers and then sighed and spoke. "I guess I should apologize too. I just walked in on you guys without really knowing what I was getting into. I blamed you guys for this situation when it was beyond any of us and I really shouldn't have. I'm sorry about the way I treated you, too, Yumi."

Yumi looked surprised and then her face changed to a look that said without saying, "Don't you dare bring up what you said to me about Ulrich or else…"

Chelsea shrugged. If Yumi wasn't going to accept her apology she didn't have to. She looked back at the others. "What now?"

"Well…this whole thing turned out not to be your fault at all," Jeremy said.

"What do you mean, whole thing?" Chelsea asked cocking her head.

Ulrich walked over to her and sat down on the bed beside her. "Don't you remember when you were possessed and I told you about Xana's whole plan? That was when you fought back so hard and kept fighting until Aelita could take Xana out of your system."

Chelsea looked back and only recalled Ulrich's voice again only this time she was able to dissever the words. He changed your parents' job! He sent you to Kadic! He plugged you in the computer so you would remember the return to the past trips! It was all him!

Immediately a sinking feeling fell in her and more familiar fury began to rise. "That…jerk!"

"Chels…" Ulrich started but fell silent as he looked at her, once again feeling as horrible as he had when William had told him what Xana's plan was. Her whole life destroyed just because Xana wanted to win.

Jeremy took up where he left off. "Because of this Chelsea…the majority has decided to let you decide whether you want to be in the group or go back to before you even met us."

"What?"

Chelsea could hardly believe her ears. To be given the chance to go back to the way things were before she ever moved to Kadic. She'd see her parents more. She'd have her old, accepting friends back. She would forget that any of this ever happened. Chelsea almost smiled at the idea. Her life would go back to being simple, fun and happy. It was…a chance of a lifetime to be able to redo things.

She then stopped herself and looked at the other side of things. She looked at all the faces of the people standing in the room before her and realized maybe she wasn't ready to give this up. That had brought her into a world where she was a warrior. She had a purpose more than just being a photographer's daughter. She saved the world and shared it with these people. Would she be a coward to back out of such an opportunity just because her being there was almost an accident? Looking at her friends again she knew they would never judge her by the choice she chose to take.

Ad then there was leaving. She'd forget these wonderful, beautiful people whose characters can't be matched in any way. They weren't just any old friends off the street. They would risk their lives to save her just like they did on Lyoko. They were true friends.

Chelsea turned and looked at Ulrich, her green eyes shining. "So…when's the first practice?"

AAAAAAA

I have to thank ALL of my reviewers, old and new. You guys are really in the end what keeps me going. Even when Code Lyoko is temporarily canceled, all I have to do is go to my reviews to make my ego and my inspiration again.

A special thanks goes out to:

Janika

Rycr

StrugglinArtist

The Black Racer

UlrichxEragon

Acutekitty1

Akito Shaoku Mizukouken

long lost sorrow (my bestest buddy!)

Franken-XANA

and much much more. I especially wanted to thank you guys by name because you stuck with the story through and through and gave a review for almost every single chapter and I thank you for that. I also much thank EVERYONE who has this sotry on their watch! That makes me feel so SPECIAL that all of you like it enough to watch it and read, even if you don't review. So THANK YOU to all!

By the way, there will be just one more new character added to the SAA series and he's a permanent member, me peeps. He shows up, actually, in a small story linking the first book of SAA to the second one. So please, take a look at this. The link is in my profile!The guy who made the character is my idle so treat him and his wicked awesome character well. check it out and review! G-Force is literally one of THE best authors (and vocie actors) out there!