Sorry about the long wait for an update. This chapter is now dedicated to Dragon C. Chan and Fox Kitsune because they got it right! Everybody else gets a cookie (except for NATE because that was a weird answer. You only get half a cookie) Anyway, if you want to know why it took so long to update this, look at A Dark Secret ch 27, I explained it there and I'm too lazy to explain again. Anyways heres a new chappy!

(Odd P.O.V.)

After breakfast, I figure I need to go and talk to Ulrich. I run back to our dorms and walk inside. He's there of course, sitting on his bed. It looks like he's been crying.

"Ulrich, it's okay." I say soothingly.

"No it's not okay!" He yells at me and turns away.

"I talked to Yumi, I explained what happened."

"You did?"

"Yah, she understood completely. You're lucky guy."

"How am I lucky? I feel like my heart's been ripped out."

"You're lucky to have a girl like Yumi. When I found her, she was crying her eyes out."

"Really?"

"Yah. And all because she thought you cheated on her."

"Oh damn, do you think she'll want me back?"

"She asked the exact same question."

"And?"

"You love each other, of course you'll take each other back."

"Thanks Odd. For once, you cheered me up."

"No prob. Now lets get to class before we're late." We run off to our first periods. The whole school day was normal, our math teacher was crazy as usual, Mrs. Hertz said we were nearly failing, again. Same old, same old. After class, Ulrich and Yumi did the normal 'kiss and make up' stuff.

"Hey guys, I'm going to go and see if I can find where Avery is."

"Go on lover boy, go find your lover girl."

"Shut up Ulrich." I run off towards the dorms. I find Avery's and knock. But of course, there's no answer. I try the doorknob, still locked. Then my phone goes off.

"Hey."

"Odd. Head to the factory. XANA has launched an attack."

"Okay, I'm on my way." I run off towards the boiler room, it's the fastest way to the factory. As I enter the factory, something feels weird. Like something is terribly wrong. I shrug it off and go into the elevator. As I enter the control room, I get the feeling again. I walk out of the elevator and to the computer. Everyone is there.

"What's going on, did you already finish?" I ask.

"No something weird is happening." Ulrich says.

"XANA has activated three towers, but nothing is happening. He hasn't possessed anyone, he hasn't even been able to do anything outside of the factory." Aelita says.

"Any explanations?"

"Yes. Someone has put up a massively large firewall around XANA's section of the supercomputer. XANA can't get past it; it's practically impenetrable." As soon as Jeremie finished, the screen goes blank. The hologram disappears, everything is black.

"Aelita!" I turn around just in time to see Aelita just fall, like her legs just gave out. I reach down and catch her, along with Ulrich. Ulrich presses his fingers to her wrist.

"She has no pulse." He says. I put my ear by her mouth.

"She's not breathing." I say and stand up. "Something happened to XANA." I run off to the elevator with Yumi close behind me. We head down to the next level, where the supercomputer is.

(Avery P.OV.)

I've been sitting here for hours, but I'm not making any progress. A firewall, almost as big as mine is blocking me out completely from the computer here. This is where the virus came from, but I can't find a way to destroy it. I had to spend half my time putting up firewall after firewall on my laptop to keep the virus out. I've set up 37 different ones, but it's managed to get past 26 of them. I stand up to stretch my legs and examine the computer. There's nothing special, just the main power switch for it. I plan to use that as a last resort, this is a really nice computer. I look at the time; it's nearly two o'clock. I sit back down and keep working.

By 2:45, I decide I've had enough. This computer has a nearly impenetrable firewall, and I can't get past it with the limited resources I have. I walk over and pull the main switch. All the lights on the computer go dim, and then out completely. As I do, I get a horrible feeling, like I just killed someone. I shrug it off and unplug my laptop from the supercomputer and put it back in my backpack. As I stand up, the elevator door opens, and out walks Odd and a girl, she looks familiar….

(Odd P.O.V.)

As the elevator descends, I prepare myself for the worst. As soon as the door opens I run out to find Avery standing there dumbstruck.

"Avery?" I just stand there.

"Odd? What are you doing here?" Her question brings me back to reality. I run over and switch the supercomputer back on.

"Odd what are you doing?" She asks. She moves over and reaches for the switch.

"No Avery you can't switch XANA off!" She grabs the switch and turns it off again. I literally rip her hand off of it and switch it back on again.

"Odd, this computer is generating a huge virus! It has to be turned off." She moves to turn it off again, but I take her by the shoulders and push her away. I get goosebumps when I touch her… but I can't think about that right now.

"Odd! Let me go!" She struggles, but I hold her firmly.

"If you turn it off, you will kill Aelita." She stops squirming.

"What? How could I kill Aelita? She has nothing to do with this."

"She has everything to do with this." I notice Yumi has been standing there, saying nothing this entire time. "Yumi? Want to give me a hand here?"

"Ave? Ave is that you?" She says incredulously, taking a step forward.

"Yumi? YUMI!" They hug, and I just stand there dumbfounded.

"You two know each other?" Ulrich asks. Everyone else just walked out of the elevator.

"Apparently. I guess they really were cousins. Or well, something like that." I say.

"Guys, this is Ave. She and I used to be really good friends, before I moved to France." Yumi says.

"Yah, we've already met her." Ulrich says.

"Yup. Except we knew her as Avery." I say.

"Oh so this is Avery- Oh! This is the Avery! Okay…." Yumi realizes what happened. I give her a pleading stare that says please-don't-tell-her. Yumi just nods.

"Unless I get a really good reason within the next two seconds, I'm turning the supercomputer off. It's dangerous." Avery says, pulling away from Yumi. I walk towards her slowly and she backs into the computer.

"I already told you, it would kill Aelita." I say.

"And how could that possibly happen?"

"It looks like we have a lot of explaining to do." I say.

"And you'd better start." She says looking at me.

"Well, I don't know all the technical mumbo-jumbo, but the basic thing is that this computer holds a deadly virus named XANA."

"I know that."

"Ooookay. And this virus is threatening the world."

"Yah, most viruses do that."

"No, I mean this virus wants to rule the world."

"Right. Odd, have you possibly forgotten to take some medication this morning?"

"I'm not kidding, I'm not insane. Just hear me out."

"I'm listening."

"This computer runs a virtual reality known to us as Lyoko. XANA activates towers and uses them to attack and usually cause serious destruction in our world."

"Okay…."

"The only way to stop him is for us to go to Lyoko. Once there, we deactivate the tower, something only Aelita can do."

"Wait, go inside this virtual world? Like actually inside?"

"Yup. When we get there. We battle monsters sent by XANA to destroy us. We have to get Aelita to the tower so she can deactivate it. When she does, the tower shuts down and XANA goes to sleep for a while. Then it starts again when he wakes up."

"So why not just shut down the computer?"

"Because Aelita isn't really human."

"What? But she's standing right there." She points to Aelita.

"When we discovered Lyoko, Aelita was it's only resident. She was alone until we found her. When we are killed by the monsters, we just return here. But if Aelita were to be destroyed, she would be gone forever."

"Yah okay."

"So, the only way to stop XANA's attacks would be to shut him off, which we can't because it would kill Aelita."

"Oh, okay. But she's here now, why not turn him off?"

"Jeremie worked for a long time to try and materialize her. And he finally got it. But just before he did, XANA implanted a virus connecting him to her. So if we destroy XANA, we destroy Aelita. The only way to shut him off now is for Jeremie to make an anti-virus and free Aelita from XANA's evil grip."

"What happens to Aelita when XANA is turned off?"

"She basically just falls down, she stops breathing, her heart stops beating."

"So that means when I turned it off, I… Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Aelita!" She says and runs over to give Aelita a hug. Aelita receives it with open arms.

"It's okay. I know you were just trying to do what you thought was best."

"But I almost killed you!"

"But you didn't. I'm fine now, don't worry yourself over me."

"Okay… Odd, what were you talking about when you looked into my eyes? You said it's okay, no XANA."

"XANA has a nasty little habit of possessing people. The only way to tell is really if they're acting weird, or if they have XANA's symbol in their eyes."

"Oh, that explains it. So I guess the secret Sissi was talking about really did have to do with XANA."

"Yup."

"What? Odd you told Sissi?" Yumi looks at me worried.

"No, she was just prying into our conversation. I just told her to go away pretty much."

"Avery, we just told you our biggest secret. We've been keeping it that for years. I think you owe us an explanation of how you found this." Jeremie says.

"Okay, I guess that's fair. I have a laptop, and I take very good care of it. I discovered at an early age that I have a certain knack for computers. I created my very own virus at age eight. It accidentally destroyed my dad's computer. After that, I decided that instead of creating viruses, I would destroy them. When I got this laptop, I put eleven personal firewalls on it. Nothing has been able to penetrate them so far. A virus tried, it got past one. I found out and followed it back to it's source. I destroyed it within the hour."

"Wow. You must be really good." Jeremie says.

"I try. That particular virus had been dealing the U.S. government some serious trouble. When they found out it was gone, they tried to find out who could possibly do that. They tried to hack my computer and got past two firewalls. When I found out, I crippled their database and left a warning:

Stay Out of my Computer!

Ever since then, I've sought out and destroyed any virus that crosses my path. I've probably destroyed over three hundred by now."

"That's amazing." Ulrich says. "I don't know the first thing about computers, but I know that you must be like a super-hacker."

"Yah. I sorta considered myself a superhero, saving the world from evil viruses. I once hacked into a computer, and read an e-mail. My name is going around the underworld, telling everyone to stay away from me."

"They know who you are? That's dangerous!" I say immediately.

"No, I keep my real identity secret. Everyone knows me as Hacker Lucadious."

"You're Hacker Lucadious? THE Hacker Lucadious?" Jeremie says, his eyes practically bugging out.

"That's me. I see my reputation has spread to countries across the world."

"You're the most infamous hacker I know! Everyone else thinks your at least thirty and a supergenius!"

"Yup. I stumped them all, didn't I?"

"There's a firewall keeping XANA in place right now… did you put it there?"

"Yah, but I don't think it will last very long, not against XANA."

"How many firewalls did he get past?"

"At first, eight. I set up another backup, just in case. When I plugged into him just now, I had to set up a total of 37, and he got past 26. How is this virus so strong? I've never seen anything like it."

"XANA is artificial intelligence. He learns and he adapts. Just like humans."

"So we're going to have to shut him down soon, aren't we?"

"Is anyone up for a trip to Lyoko? I think Avery has earned one." I say.

"Sure. Anyone have any objections? No? Okay good." Jeremie says. We all walk back into the elevator. We drop Jeremie off first, of course, and head down.

"How do you go to Lyoko? Virtual reality helmet or what?" Avery asks.

"Nope, too low tech. We have scanners. They insert us actually into Lyoko." I say. The elevator doors open.

"Let's have Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita go first." Jeremie says over the speaker.

"Ooh, intercom. Nice touch." She says. The aforementioned step into the scanners, and Jeremie does the normal process.

"How do the scanners work?" Avery asks when they don't step out.

"I have no fucking idea."

"Odd!" Avery looks at me astonished.

"What?"

"Please don't cuss around me. I don't like it."

"Oh, okay. I'll try to remember that." I step into my scanner. Just before the doors close I hear Avery say something. Quietly, but still loud enough for me to hear, she says:

"Try not. Do." The doors close.

"Odd, have you possibly forgotten to take some medication this morning?" Thats hilarious! I just love that!
Okay, I have another thing for you to guess at. Anyone who can guesses correctly at what Avery will look like on Lyoko will get a dedication. Anyone who comes close will get an honorable mention. Anyone who guesses at all gets mini marshmellows. Happy guessing!