I walked to the baggage claim and watched the conveyer belt move in a loop, entering and exiting the concealed area where the suitcases were set on the belt. I found my stuff and grabbed the two suitcases and turned to go find my taxi, walking right into Odd's arms.

"Odd!" I squealed and wrapped my arms around his svelte frame and kissed him furiously. "I didn't think I'd miss kissing you so much, but I guess I did," I said when I was done.

"I missed you too," he said and took both of my suitcases for me. "Geez, you got a lot of stuff while you were there," he stated.

"My father gave me his laptop," I told him with a grin. "They are all going to school and getting jobs… I'm so hapoy that they are doing well… Anyway, I bought some clothes and of course the painting is in there too…"

He nodded. "Well my break was really boring… and of course since Elisabeth, Adele, and Marie were just as bored as I was they enjoyed more than one joke at my expense… thank god Louise and Pauline are working, when Louise and Marie scheme together, that's when it gets really bad…" he told me and I laughed. "You could say that they are the evil geniuses of the Della Robbia sisters."

"You know they love you," I told him. "I guess messing with you is how they show that."

Odd led me to the taxi and the driver loaded my stuff into the trunk and took Odd and I back to Kadic, where other students were starting to return from their homes, hugging and catching up with friends, dreading the new school year. We went to the office first so I could pick up my new room assignment; Aelita and I decided to room together this year. We found my room and Odd hung around while I unpacked. I took the left side of the room because that's the side of the room my bed was in my old dorm.

The last thing I did was hang the painting of Odd and I above my bed. I put the suitcases on top of my armoire. When I was done I plopped down next to Odd on my bed. He was looking at my laptop, looking into the computer property data and looking at the control panel.

"This thing has an insane amount of space in it," he noted. "You said Marian built this like she built the big desk top you used in her apartment?"

I nodded. "She mentioned that this laptop is almost as powerful as her desk top. She said it will last me a long time if I perform maintenance regularly."

"Jeremie's going to be jealous, I bet," he said. "Bet it could even put the old super computer to shame or come close to it."

I thought about it, "Let's go see Jeremie and Aelita now. Their trip to England was cut short so they've been staying with Yumi."

"Why was the trip cut short?" he asked curiously as we got up to leave.

I thought for a second, "Something came up, I think. I'm going to text Aelita to let her know we're coming."

We walked to Yumi's house in silence, we didn't have much to say to each other, which usually never happened. It was kind of nerve wracking, usually he was a chatterbox! When we reached Yumi's house we found that Ulrich was there too and he didn't look pleased. He glared at me when Odd and I walked in.

"Why wouldn't you tell Odd and I what's going on right when you found out?" he demanded before I could even ask.

"He saw the blueprints…" Yumi said to me before I could ask how he found out. Odd looked at me questioningly and I bit my lip, looking away from them.

"It was Jeremie's idea to keep it from you two until we could figure out what we're dealing with…" I said. "We wanted to see how strong X.A.N.A. was and whether the woman who owns the computer knows about it or not."

"What the hell?" Odd asked abruptly. "When did you find X.A.N.A.?"

"The first night I was in Michigan. After I emailed you I saw a flash of the symbol on one of the computer screens and I dug a little bit into her hard drive and found the virus. I sent Jeremie some of the data I could access and he confirmed it," I explained.

"And they've been building scanners and he built a new fucking super computer. All during break and they didn't tell us," Ulrich said to Odd.

"Why would you guys keep that from us?" Odd asked, sounding hurt. He moved away from me, closer to Ulrich. "And you," he said directly to me. "You lied to me. Flat out lied. I knew something was going on but I chose to ignore that because I trusted that you would tell me if anything really was going on."

"Odd, I told her to keep it quiet," Jeremie cut in, probably seeing the anxiety in my faxe. "Ulrich, Odd, don't get upset about this. We can't afford to get upset now."

"Jeremie, you have to understand. I don't know how Odd feels but I for one feel betrayed. What are we to you? Just the guys who go in and kick ass for you?" Ulrich asked. "We deserve to be included every step of the way when it comes to X.A.N.A. because we're a team. We should be equal and since you guys kept this from us, it's like you don't think of it like that."

Odd nodded, "he's right."

"Well now that we all know about this…" Aelita said calmly. "Jeremie and I are going to explain to everyone what we've come up with. I'm sorry Odd and Ulrich. We didn't keep you in the dark because we don't think of you as equals; we just wanted to be sure of what we're dealing with before we freaked out. We didn't want to scare everyone and then it turns out to be nothing."

"That's right," Jeremie chimed in. "Odd, don't be mad at Emma, she wanted to tell you two right away but I told her not to."

"Guys, we should go to the warehouse and talk. My family is going to be home soon," interjected Yumi. "They said all they had to do was pick up Hiroki's paperwork for school and then they'd come right home."

Jeremie led the way as he took the five of us to the building we'd be using for the computer and scanners.

A/N: Things will start picking up from here... I'm sorry if this is long, I don't know how to condense stories.

Also, I forgot to mention this before. There will be explicit language in this fanfic, if you haven't already noticed.

Please don't post comments about the language. This is my story and I'll have the characters use the language I think they would use. To be honest the only reason they don't swear in the show is it's supposed to be a kids show. If I was in a fragment of the situations they get in i'd be swearing up a storm.

So yeah... comment/critique my work, but don't comment on the language or my rendition of the characters in general.