Chapter 2: X.A.N.A. wants Freedom

Anja's eyes got wide and she couldn't find any words to say about her current situation. Anja didn't expect for her new found enemy on Lyoko to be a woman, but something felt off about X.A.N.A.'s appearance. She almost seemed familiar to Anja. The face on X.A.N.A. looked somewhat similar to Aelita's face.

"Your name is Anja, correct?" She asked Anja.

Anja nodded and looked around the core of the Cortex. Everything looked strange to her and she couldn't seem to see an exit anywhere.

"Don't try to escape Anja," X.A.N.A. continued, "the core won't allow you to leave as long as I am inside of it." Anja didn't know what to do other than listen to whatever it is X.A.N.A. has to have her help for.

"Now that I have your complete attention," X.A.N.A. started as she approached Anja, "I need your help to destroy the supercomputers and release me from this place."

Anja gasped at X.A.N.A.'s request of her. She had no intention of destroying any supercomputer, let alone freeing X.A.N.A. at all. "Why should I help you," Anja asked X.A.N.A. while preparing herself for a fight. "For the past month you've tried to destroy my school, the factory, my friends, and me. So why should I even consider helping you?"

X.A.N.A. backed away from Anja a little bit and gave herself some space to move her arm. She outstretched it in front of Anja and suddenly, a cylinder came out of the floor and to where X.A.N.A.'s arm was. She held it in place and showed Anja what it was.

"Do you know what it means to be digitally reconstructed out of the human world and into the virtual, Anja?" X.A.N.A. asked her.

"No. At least I don't think so." Anja replied while slowly backing away.

"I'm going to imprison you inside of the virtual world for the rest of your life if you refuse to help me destroy the supercomputers." X.A.N.A. started to walk slowly toward Anja with the lightly blue cylinder. As soon as Anja was about to fall off the elevated platform, she jumped and started to fly away from X.A.N.A. and her strange cylinder. Anja flew around the entire core, until she noticed X.A.N.A. wasn't even trying to chase her. She stopped for only an instant to see what X.A.N.A. was up to.

"I already told you that you can't escape here." X.A.N.A. told her. Anja didn't forget about this and was trying to think of some way out of the core.

X.A.N.A. was just staring at her, amused by her attempts to escape. She knew Anja would try anything to get out, but she didn't think Anja would attack her.

Suddenly Anja swooped down with her chain whip in hand and began to fight her captor. X.A.N.A. threw the cylinder away and began to dodge all of Anja's swings. It was only until X.A.N.A. was at the edge of the platform and was about to fall that Anja finally was able to wrap her chain whip around her.

"Now that I got you," Anja started, "let me out of here now."

"If you want to leave, then you'll have to figure out on your own." X.A.N.A. said as she jumped off the platform. The scales on Anja's chain whip tore into X.A.N.A. and devirtualized her leaving Anja alone.

Outside the core

For almost an entire hour, Aelita had been trying to get the door to open, but to no avail. Odd was freaking out, Ulrich and William were guarding the bridge, and Yumi was trying all she can to help Aelita.

"Jeremie," Aelita began in an almost exhausted tone, "are you sure she's in here?"

"I'm pretty sure she is Aelita," Jeremie said over the comms. "It's the only place we're being completely restricted from seeing and going inside of, so my best guess is that X.A.N.A. has Anja trapped in there."

Aelita nodded her head in agreement and laid down to rest. Yumi and Odd went to her side to see if she was alright.

"Jeremie," Odd started in an irritated tone, "have you two figured out something yet?"

"Unfortunately, no Odd," Laura said with a sigh.

Odd was even more upset than when the transportation orb stole his girlfriend earlier.

At the lab

Jeremie and Laura had tried everything they could to open the door to the core.

"I don't understand," Jeremie started, "why would Tyron and X.A.N.A. want to capture Anja?"

Laura shrugged, "I don't know Jeremie, but we have to get her back before they do something terrible to her."

Jeremie agreed with her and was about to continue with his work, until the screen lit up for a second and the image of the door turned green. Jeremie and Laura were completely surprised by this and told the others.

Aelita began to open the door and Yumi yelled at William and Ulrich to come on over to them. Odd rushed into the core and waited impatiently for the others to arrive. When they were on the teleporter pad and were sent to the core, Odd immediately ran in and shouted as loud as he could.

"ANJAAAA!"

Anja had been sitting on the same platform she was on when X.A.N.A. brought her to the core. She heard Odd's voice and stood up. She looked down from where she was and saw her purple cat boyfriend standing there. Their eyes met and Odd ran and jumped up to her, and Anja way flying down to him as well. They embraced each other and the others just stood back and watched.

"Guys…. Can anyo- ear me?" Jeremie was trying to reach the others but for some reason he was having a very hard time trying to connect. The Lyoko Warriors didn't know what was going on so they left the core and returned to the docked Skid.

"There you guys are." Jeremie started, "I've been trying to reach you guys but the signal was too choppy in the core. Is Anja with you?"

"Don't worry Einstein," Ulrich started while looking at the red dragon and purple cat hugging each other, "I'm pretty sure Odd isn't letting her out of his sights right now."

"Well that's a relief," Jeremie started, "alright, I'm bringing you guys in."

Anja, Aelita, and Yumi were the first to be devirtualized back to earth, and Odd, Ulrich and William were next. Once Odd got out of the scanner, he and Anja were all over each other again.

"Okay you two," Aelita started with a smile, "I think we need to go up to talk to Jeremie."

The others nodded and went to the elevator. They took it up to the lab and Jeremie and Laura were relieved to see that Anja was with them.

"So what happened in there Anja?" Aelita asked her as everyone was gathering around the holomap.

"It was X.A.N.A.," Anja started, "but she was really-"

"Wait a minute," Odd interrupted, "'she'? As in X.A.N.A. was a girl?"

Anja nodded and continued. "She wanted me to help her destroy the supercomputers for some weird reason."

Jeremie and the others gasped at Anja's words. "What did she say to you specifically Anja?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, she asked me to free her from the where she was. I suppose that's what she really wanted me to do."

Jeremie and the others were starting to get very worried now.

"Did you see anyone else there Anja?" Aelita asked her. "A man or a woman I mean."

Anja couldn't recall seeing anyone else there. She began to ask why to Aelita, but she didn't feel like answering Anja.

"Tyron and Anthea," Jeremie started, "Tyron is another man with a similar supercomputer, and Anthea is-"Aelita stopped him before he could finish.

"My mother. Anthea is my mother." Aelita held her head down as she said that. Jeremie held her by the hand to try and get her to smile. "Tyron has her and he married her, so that makes him my legal guardian."

Anja was starting to understand and then suddenly remembered on very important detail from all of this. "Wait a sec, Aelita do you know what your mom looks like?"

Aelita nodded her head, "Just think of me as an adult Anja. Why?"

Anja stood up and said, "Because when I was there X.A.N.A. looked an awful lot like you Aelita."

Everyone else gasped at Anja words and wondered what exactly did this mean for them.

At Tyron's lab

"I just need to convince her of my real intentions." A female voice said to a monitor in the lab. She stood up and turned around to look at a body. Her long pink hair was covering her eyes and she was very pale.

"Sorry 'honey'," she started as she walked closer toward the body, "but it seems that I will need to keep using the scanner and X.A.N.A. if I want to be with my child again."

She smiled and turned away from the bloody and lifeless body of Tyron.

That's the end of chapter 2. I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this one up, but now it is up. Leave your reviews if you liked it and I will put the next one up. See ya'll then and as always PEACE.