Epilogue

The five of us sat in the Factory. We had launched a Return to the Past to erase XANA's evil effects on Earth, but that did nothing to affect his victory on Lyoko.

Despite all that had happened, we still had a journal to decode. I was prepping the mission with a grim face. That's when I noticed something weird about the Core of Lyoko.

"ANAX," I said. "Give me a read-out of the activity in the Core. Something seems strange..."

"Right away," ANAX said. Even he was more subdued than usual. We all were.

The analysis screen popped up as well as a flashing red exclamation point.

"What's all this?" I asked in confusion.

"What's going on?" Brittany inquired.

"I don't know!" I told her. "My access to the Core is cut off!"

"Sammy," ANAX said. "Take a look at this."

He highlighted a portion of code, one of the few that were displayed.

"That's XANA's digital signature!" I exclaimed in realization.

"Now take a look at this."

"No..." I said as I began to recognize what was going on. I brought up the files from some of our previous experiments and compared the two codes. Identical.

The lines of code referred to Sean's unique Lyoko Data pattern.

"This changes things," ANAX murmured.

It was late at night and the weak light of the moon shone into my dorm. We were discussing the latest developments.

"So what happened to me while I was on Lyoko?" Brittany asked. She described to us the burn marks that had appeared.

"Did you feel any extra pain from them?" I asked.

"No," She replied.

"Then I'm guessing it's just a new XANA tactic. He inserted some special code that added to Hannah's attack. I guess this only happens when you take heavy damage from her electrical attacks."

"So you think it's just some strategy to frighten us?" Alyssa asked.

"Probably," I said. "XANA doesn't really gain anything else from it."

"So what about the robots?" Tennent began.

"What about the robots?" I parroted.

"They were pretty much invincible. The soldiers' bullets didn't hurt them, and the EMP shots didn't disable them. What gives?" He expounded.

I was silent. This was shocking news to me, and I didn't know how to answer it. I was quite unnerved by XANA's ability to create near invincible robots.

"Allow me to try to explain this," ANAX said. "I believe this has to do with the way XANA was controlling the robots. When someone or something becomes XANA-fied, a static field is used to control all movements. For humans, XANA probably uses some mind-mask to stop the human's will from interfering.

"So instead of making a robot that could move fully on its own, XANA could have just made the robots with moveable joints. From there he possessed them to control their every movement. This force field reflected the bullets, and because the electricity in the form of a Spectre, the EMP did not affect XANA's ability to manipulate the robots was not impeded."

"Thanks, ANAX," I said after a couple seconds. "That seems like a logical explanation."

"Also," Brittany added. "Is it back to square one again with the journal?"

"Not really," I replied. "I could try to decode more from the original copy, but I've already done all the easy parts. The harder parts won't come without months and months of work without the Lyoko Data, and by that time XANA may have been finished in the Core. I'll keep working, but really the only thing we can do is to hope for the best."

"So let me get this straight," Sean said. I winced as I realized that it was painfully obvious how his eyes lacked their glow.

"XANA has blocked access to the Core so we can't decode the journal. On top of that, he's doing something in there with my data, and we have no idea what."

"Pretty much," I sighed as I swiveled my chair back and forth.

A few moments of silence passed.

"Is that it?" Alyssa asked. "Are we just going to let XANA win so easily?"

When no one answered, she continued, "Think about it this way. XANA captured both Sean and Tennent, and the world hasn't come to an end."

"Yet," Tennent added darkly.

She ignored him and went on with her speech. "It seems to me that XANA needs the data from all five of us! With the two that he got, he achieved something, but I don't think he's gotten everything he wanted just yet!"

Our spirits began to lift as we realized that she was right.

"We don't know what XANA can do with that data, but it doesn't mean we can't still fight against him!" I spoke up. Alyssa glanced at me appreciatively.

"Whenever XANA finishes whatever evil he's working in the Core, we can still fight him, no matter the odds."

"And we can also decode the data in the journal," Brittany added. "That's sure to help!"

"We'll never let XANA win!" Tennent said. "Because we're Lyoko Warriors!"

"I sense a group hug coming," Sean said drily.

It was impossible to resist. A few seconds passed, and we heard a noise from my computer. From our hug, we all looked at the screen.

"What about me?"

As we laughed, we realized that our zeal had been renewed. We were down, but not out. Whenever XANA showed his ugly face again, he could be sure that he'd get what's coming to him.

But in the weeks and months to come, we would see nothing of XANA or his monsters.

XANA cursed when ANAX accessed the Core of Lyoko. He had no idea what they were doing there, but now his cover was blown; they knew where he was.

But it didn't make a difference in his plans. Throughout the entire struggle, he was in control the entire time and he knew it. The Lyoko Warriors had never managed to offer much of an offense.

XANA resumed his coding, preparing the next stage of his plan.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Book 2 is now finished! Actually, it's a pretty sad ending, the Lyoko Warriors lost. And they'll be doing a lot of losing in the months to come...

Thoughts are welcome, I'd love to know what you thought of the story. :)

Keep an eye out for Book 3, which will be up soon!

Thanks for reading!