Out of Darkness
Written by Villanseacow
It had been one year since X.A.N.A. had been defeated. Life at Kadic had become almost normal again. William was adjusting slowly back to normal life, talking and joking just as he had before his possession. Yumi and Ulrich had finally gotten around to dating. Odd and Sissi were on and off in a relationship and Aelita was recovering from losing her father. All was well, or so it seemed.
14 November, 2009, 14:20
Odd dove into his third serving of mashed potatoes as William sat down at the table. Sissi looked over at him and giggled, handing him a napkin to wipe his face off. "Odd, you look like one of Dr. Shrank's experiments." Aelita said, adjusting her hairband so as to keep her growing bangs out of her eyes. She had grown her hair down to her shoulder blades and was wearing a denim sleeveless jacket with a dark pink tee shirt underneath. She smiled at him as he embarrassedly cleaned off his face, before taking a few bites out of her shepherd's pie. Jeremie was on his computer checking on the news worldwide, still looking for any and all signs of X.A.N.A. around the world. He can't seriously still be that paranoid, can he? Aelita asked herself. Yumi and Ulrich pulled up some chairs and started talking with the group, laughing and joking as they had forever, but something was different. They both were happier than they had ever been while fighting X.A.N.A.
Jeremie looked closer at his screen, reading news reports from Spain and the U.K. As he was reading a report on how the Spanish government had been overthrown by some revolutionary group. As he scanned the article, he read the group's name. His blood ran cold and his face paled. "Guys, we have a problem." He said, his voice shaking with fear. Everyone quieted as he read aloud the article. "'Reports say that the revolutionary group responsible for over throwing the Spanish, Portuguese, and British governments came forward with their name, the Xanadu Liberators.'" Aelita dropped her fork and ran out of the cafeteria, tears welling up in her eyes. Sissi looked confused as Odd stood up to go comfort his "cousin". "What's so special about these 'Xanadu Liberator's'?" Sissi asked, "They haven't bothered France yet, so why do you care?" She didn't mean it harshly, but it did hurt the group nevertheless.
"I wouldn't be too sure." said Jeremie, "They are arriving in France in three days' time." He looked over at Yumi, William, and Ulrich, their unspoken communication louder than any noise in the room. "Can we trust her?" asked Yumi. Jeremie nodded. "She could prove to be a very valuable asset." Jeremie called Odd on his cell. "Meet us at the Factory. We're starting up the Supercomputer." he said. He hung up his phone and everyone but Sissi stood up. "Well, are you coming?" asked Ulrich. She nodded, confused at their strange behavior.
14 November, 2009, 15:20
The group and Sissi stood with bated breath as the Supercomputer rose from the coolant chamber in the floor, its menacing shape giving off a cold, malevolent shadow across the room. Jeremie took a step forward to turn on the horrible machine, but Aelita spoke up. "Wait!" She said, looking at the Supercomputer. "I want to do it." Jeremie looked uncertain. "Are you sure, Aelita?" Aelita nodded, and Jeremie stepped down. She walked up to the smooth, black and gold surface as a lever popped out. "I hope this is just a false alarm." She whispered. She took a deep breath and pulled the switch and hopped back. The Supercomputer gave off a massive gust of cold wind as it restarted, heating up the cold underground chamber instantly. Jeremie put a comforting hand on Aelita's shoulder as they stepped into the elevator. The doors closed and the elevator started moving, replacing the evil sounding hum of the Supercomputer with the grinding of the Elevator gears.
14 November, 2009, 15:45
Jeremie typed away at the interface while Odd explained everything to Sissi. She was taking the information rather well considering the circumstances. "And now we think that the Xanadu Liberators are just a front for X.A.N.A. to take over the world." Odd said. Sissi just nodded, still processing the appearance of the lab. "So if you destroyed this X.A.N.A. thing, how did he survive?" asked Sissi. "We're not entirely sure he did survive, this is just a check to make sure he didn't." explained Jeremie. "I need to send you five to Lyoko to do a check of the towers, just to be sure." Odd and William's faces lit up like Christmas lights. "We really get to go back to Lyoko?" asked William, excited that he would get another chance at being a Lyoko Warrior, even if it's just a sector check.
"You bet! I'm going to need to virtualize you all separately, though. I had to create five new towers in Sector Five in order to accommodate the anti-X.A.N.A. program, which means that we need one person to check there too." Jeremie said, somewhat excited that he would get to use the interface again. "Now get to the scanner room." Odd and William ran into the elevator, completely ecstatic. Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita were a bit more apprehensive about going back, but they too stepped into the elevator. The doors closed, and Aelita held back tears as the elevator cruised down to the scanner room. When the doors opened, Odd was the first in the middle scanner. The bronze doors closed and the scanner hummed as Odd was scanned into the computer.
One by one, everyone was virtualized onto Lyoko, with Aelita going last. She stepped into the metal tube and turned around as the doors closed. "Transfer, Aelita." The scanner hummed to life as it pressurized, blowing her hair upward and nearly taking her headband completely off. "Scanner, Aelita." The air current lifted her through the scanner ring, taking her bio-readings. "Virtualization." Aelita braced herself as the jarring burst of air took the wind right out of her chest, and the bright white light filled the scanner, taking her from reality and back to Lyoko.