Chapter 4: Kadic's Secret
Hermitage safe house
"Are you insane Jeremie?!" Yumi shouted out. Jeremie's plan made almost everyone in the room very uncomfortable.
"I know it's a horrible plan Yumi," Jeremie started while sitting in his chair, "but it's a sound one as well."
"Jeremie, this doesn't sound like a sound plan at all." Dante argued with his monotone voice.
"I know Dante, but it's the only thing I can think of to give us an advantage with this war against Xana." Jeremie said those words all while looking at the terabyte hardrive in his hands.
"But Jeremie, we don't know how all of this," Yumi started while motioning towards Anja and William, "even happened in the first place."
Yumi was right about that and the two in their Lyoko forms knew it. It still remained a mystery of how both Anja and William were still in those forms after all this time. Jeremie and Laura had been trying tirelessly to find the answer to this for three weeks now with absolutely nothing to explain this.
"So how would you even pull this off anyway?" Astrid asked Jeremie.
He turned around towards the computer and began to type. "Well, in all honesty, I believe that a scanner may be the key to this plan."
Everyone started to think back to the warehouse and that red scanner. Jeremie already explained that it was being used to transport Xana from one place in the world to another, but only as long as there is another scanner for her to come out of.
"Okay, I get the plan Einstein." Odd started while he was standing next to his girlfriend and Ulrich. "We just need to get that scanner from the rubble of the warehouse and bring it back here. Easy stuff Einstein."
Jeremie looked at Odd with an annoyed look and began to explain what they really need to do. "First off Odd, that scanner is most likely still on fire since our raid was only minutes ago. Secondly, we need a working scanner that can handle the energy the terabyte is producing. And lastly, we need a few certain parts from the original supercomputer in the factory to make the transition from human to Lyoko Warrior."
There was a deafening silence among all of them. Other than everyone else, Anja, Jeremie and Laura all knew how destroyed the factory was considering the fact that they were inside when it exploded. There was almost no guarantee that Xana wasn't keeping the remains of the factory under some sort of surveillance, and everyone knew that fact.
Anja took a deep sigh under her breathe and then asked him, "What exactly do you need from the factory Jeremie?"
Jeremie and the others looked at Anja in surprise and wondered why she sounded so confident about Jeremie's plan. "Well Anja, there's only a few parts I need." Jeremie started to name several parts from the remains of the supercomputer, the lab, and the scanners. Everyone followed Anja's determined example by listening to every part Jeremie named.
After a few minutes, Jeremie was finally finished. He named many things from the lab and the scanner room, but he only named one thing from the supercomputer. That made some of the warriors a little nervous, so Laura was the one to ask Jeremie about the part from the supercomputer.
"Jeremie," she said in an almost shaken tone, "isn't the power source from the supercomputer, radioactive?"
Jeremie hesitated to answer Laura's question, but he knew if he didn't, then it could do more harm than good for the rest of his friends. "Yes, it is." He said in an almost defeated tone.
There was another silence in the room and everyone knew that it would be impossible for any of them to attain the power source from the old supercomputer.
Suddenly there was noise upstairs at the doorway. Everyone started to become alert and scared at the same time. Questions of how did Xana find them and how she knew they would set up a safe house at the Hermitage.
Anja and William started to make their way up the stairs slowly with their weapons ready, until they all heard a voice that sounded like it hasn't been heard in a long time.
"Jeremie? Ulrich? Anja? William? Odd? Yumi? Anyone?"
Completely overjoyed, Anja flew up the stairs and went through the door shouting as loud as she could inside the house. "AELITA!"
Aelita heard the sound of her friend and ran down the hall to see her red dragon friend standing there at the basement entrance with a big smile on her face. Anja wasted no time flying over and giving Aelita a massive bear hug. She was always blaming herself for Aelita's disappearance three weeks ago, and she almost took it harder than Jeremie did.
Anja was followed by the rest of the original warriors and the new ones upstairs, and almost immediately, Jeremie was completely overjoyed to see his girlfriend back with them. Anja landed on the ground and let her go so everyone could see her. Her being in her Lyoko form didn't really surprise anyone considering that they were now fully motivated to make the plan work. Jeremie and Aelita stared at each other for a few seconds before they both embraced each other.
Everyone was happy to see their friend back with them, even though most of the new warriors didn't know her. The peace was ended though, when William noticed that Aelita wasn't alone. Someone was standing outside of the doorway with an all too familiar silhouette of a shadow.
"XANA!" William shouted as he drew his sword and ran for the door.
"No, wait William that's not Xana." Aelita said as William passed her by. It didn't stop him from trying to cut the look-a-like into ribbons. It was only when Aelita fired an energy field at the ground next to him that made William stop. "That's not Xana, William, that's my mother."
The original warriors were in complete shock to see that it was Anthea standing in the doorway with William's Zweilhander only inches from her throat. After hearing Aelita's words, William backed his blade away from Anthea slowly.
"Thanks William." Aelita said as she walked over to her mother. "Guys, my mother was there when the core was being destroyed. That's why she's like this."
Everyone had a hard time believing this, and something didn't make any sense to them. "Anthea," Yumi started, "how exactly did you gain control of Xana in the first place?"
All eyes were on Anthea now as everyone anxiously waited for her response. She took a deep breath and then answered Yumi's question.
"I used a virus tailored to Xana's digital matrix. It wasn't easy creating and took years to make, but once I used it on her, she was at my mercy."
The group grew wide eyed at Anthea's words and wanted to know more about the virus, but that was stopped by a sudden ping back in the basement. The group looked down the staircase and began to worry. The last time this happened, half of Kadic was turned to burnt rubble.
Jeremie was the only one who went down to check on the ping. He was silent for a few moments as he checked his monitors for the problem, but he was taken by surprise when he saw from a street cam that Xana forgot to destroy, a small resistance fighting off two Bloks by themselves. It wasn't the fact of what was happening that surprised Jeremie; it was who were fighting the Bloks that did.
"Guys, you gotta see this." He said with an almost overwhelming tone of joy.
Everyone went down and saw what Jeremie had been seeing this whole time. There were three familiar faces fighting the Bloks; Jim Morales, Sissy, and Samantha Knight. They were holding their own against the Blok, but it was clear that they might have needed help. Anja was the fastest out of all the others right now, so she volunteered to help and bring the three of them back with her.
Anja made her way outside and started to spread her wings. She then proceeded to fly into the air and made her way to where the fighting was taking place. She saw how well Jim was using his various skills set to dodge the Blok's laser attacks. Sissy and Sam were having a bit of trouble trying to handle the second one. When it fired its freeze ray and clipped Sam on her shoulder, that's when Anja swooped down and used her wing to slice through the Blok. Sam and Sissy were in complete shock at who they just saw save their lives, but Anja had no time to explain as she grabbed her chain whip and slashed through the other Blok.
"Well, that was fun." Anja said as she put her chain whip away.
Sissy and Jim were shocked to recognize the German student who transferred to Kadic only two months ago. It was only Sam who didn't know who Anja was, but something about Anja made her feel as though she could trust the red dragon.
"Hey Sissi, Jim and," Anja stopped when she looked at Sam. She's never seen her before around the academy before. "I'm sorry but I don't think I know you."
Sam extended her arm to shake Anja's. When they shook hands Sam introduced herself. "I'm Sam. Sam Knight."
"Anja, Anja Domenica Jade." Anja responded.
After the hand shake, Anja told them all to follow her back to the Hermitage where they would be safe, but Jim stopped her from going to tell her about their safe house.
"You guys have a place that's safe from Xana, too?" Anja asked him.
"Yeah, it's back at the academy." Jim explained.
Anja was shocked at his words. How could Xana not know about a safe zone that's almost right next to Xana's original base? This question surfaced itself from Anja as she asked almost hysterically about their safety.
"Whoa girl calm down." Sam told her. "We've been there for two weeks now, and yes it's safe."
Those words managed to calm Anja down, but there was still the question of why Xana overlooked this. It didn't matter to Anja at that moment because Jeremie had already scanned the area and told Anja that Kadic is actually just as safe as the Hermitage is. Anja didn't argue and went with the three back to the academy, and without a moment to spare. Right after they all left, a small team of tarantulas came over to assess the disturbance.
After a few minutes, the four made it to the ruined academy. It was just as Anja remembered it all those weeks ago. They went to what was left of the gymnasium and went inside. There, Anja noticed that there was no one here, yet Jim and the girls kept walking toward the back. Anja followed until they were at the door that led to sewers, but instead of going through the door, they turned left to some pipes.
"Alrighty then ladies, you know the drill." Jim said to Sam and Sissi. The two went to the pipes and, with Jim's help, began to lift them like they were all connected. Anja realized that it was another secret passage way. As the three struggled to lift it, Anja walked over and did it herself. The others were amazed at her strength. "Okay then, follow us." Jim told Anja.
They went down the passage for a few minutes until they reached a steel door that was sealed shut. Jim knocked on it and a muffled voice asked for a password. "I'd rather not talk about it." Jim replied, making Anja giggle under her breathe. There was clanking and rattling coming from the other side and the door opened to reveal Mr. Delmas.
Anja was shocked at who answered the door, but she was even more shocked at what was inside the room. It was another supercomputer, and one that looked older than factories supercomputer.
Sorry for the delay. College got in the way of me finishing this chapter, but now I'm done with this semester and I can post the next chapters on a weekly basis now. This story is NOT over yet. Hope ya'll enjoy it and as always, PEACE.