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Okay, before I start, I am going to apologise some-what profusely for posting this chapter after almost one year of NOTHING. Last year has been a horrible year for me, barely getting through school, my new job, friendship problems and to top it off, a ton of writers block on all my stories. Also, this year is probably going to be the same as last year, but worse since I've started senior in high school. Fan-f***ing-tastic.

But enough of the depressing stuff. Now, onto Chapter 4!

"What have you got Jeremy?" Yumi asked as she and Ulrich entered the janitors closest where their friend was hiding to get on his laptop, having just managed to get away from the rest of the school unnoticed.

"Do you want the bad news or the very bad news?" the genius asked, looking up from his screen.

"Neither sound good but I'll take the very bad first," Ulrich commented, closing the door and sitting in front of him next to Yumi.

"OK," Jeremy begins, turning the laptop around so his friends can see the screen. "See this?" he asked, pointing to a window opened on the screen.

"Uh, the one with a big rainbow-coloured ball and a bar that's raising very slowly?" Ulrich observed blankly, looking very confused.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Yes Ulrich, that one. It appears to be a Replika-"

"What?! But I thought we destroyed them all!" Yumi exclaimed, thankfully not loud enough for everyone else to hear outside the small room.

Jeremy quickly shushed her anyway before continuing. "As I was saying, the 'big rainbow-coloured ball', as Ulrich referred it to as, is a Replika, hopefully the only one XANA managed to protect when we destroyed the others. The bar here," he pointed to the bar that Ulrich called 'a bar that's raising very slowly', "is the energy level of the Replika rising. Most of this is made up of XANA's rising energy signature, meaning that XANA has most likely been gathering energy in the past year. He could be using that energy for anything, regaining his strength, mass producing old and new monsters or worse, taking over more supercomputers around the globe for his plans."

All he got in response were two very confused friends. "So… in other words, we're doomed?" Ulrich asked blankly.

Jeremy sighed at his friend. "Pretty much."

"Hey, just out of curiosity, where's this Replika located?" Yumi asked.

Her friend typed something on his laptop before answering. "The Replika design appears to be based off the Mountain Sector and is located in the Great Ocean Road cliff face in Australia."

Yumi looked impressed. "Sounds nice. Always wanted to go to Australia."

"Hang on, then what's the bad news?" Ulrich asked, effectively reminding his friends of the current problem.

"Right," Jeremy quickly answered, "Anyway, there's something very strange on Lyoko."

"Is Aelita in the tower yet?" Yumi asked quickly.

"She was," was the answer they got and both Ulrich and Yumi raised an eyebrow.

"Was?" Ulrich repeated, "What happened?"

"She went in after Odd defeated all the monsters but something strange happened. There was someone else already in the tower," Jeremy answered.

Ulrich clenched his fist. "XANA," he growled.

"Well… not exactly," Jeremy said nervously, confusing his two friends.

"Huh?"

"Well, this new avatar seems to be similar to your avatars in terms of structure and properties. They have their own weapon and special powers but they seem to have tower control like Aelita but has access to a wider variety of data. I'll have to scan it to find out more and-"

"Mind getting straight to the point?" Yumi interrupted her friend before he got off topic.

Jeremy mumbled an apology and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Anyway, this new avatar doesn't seem to be one of XANA's monsters or slaves but whoever they are, they attacked Aelita and is now battling Odd."

"Yeah, well they better hurry up or otherwise we'll be burnt to a crisp," Ulrich says, standing up, "I think I can smell smoke in the building now. Yumi, we better go help the others."

Yumi nodded and stood up as well. "Keep digging Jeremy," she said and left the small room.

Jeremy flexed his fingers. "Alright then," he muttered to himself before he resuming typing. "Who are you exactly?" he muttered to himself as he went through another program.

Meanwhile, on Lyoko, Odd stiffened when he heard his name and whipped around to face the tower.

"Aelita?" he called. A moment later, Aelita ran out the tower, panic written all over her face.

"Aelita! Are you alright?" Odd asked worriedly, putting a paw on her shoulder.

"Th-there's someone else in the tower!" Aelita managed to gasp through her heavy breathing.

"Huh?" But before he could say anything else, they hear the sound of someone exiting the tower and turned around immediately. A figure walked out, about as tall as Ulrich's avatar. Aelita gasped at the sight as took a step back.

The new mysterious avatar wore what looked like a light blue skin tight sleeveless jumpsuit under a grey crop top vest and a matching mini skirt. Attached to the vest was a black hood that was pulled over her head. There were also grey knee-pads on her knees over the jumpsuit. She had bright blue eyes that looked like they were cackling with electricity that peered out from under her back bangs and a black bandana that covered her mouth and the tip of her nose. A pair of long elven ears poked out of the sides of her face, a small earring similar to Aelita's but blue and silver dangling on her right ear. Brown leather guards were wrapped around her fore arms and shins and tightened with buckles over black finger-less gloves that reached just above her elbows and black boots with no heel.

"Who is that?" Odd asked his friend.

"I don't know," she answered, "I found her in the tower and she attacked me!" Odd's bright amber eyes narrowed.

"XANA," he growled as the avatar came closer. He quickly took a fighting stance and held his paw out while Aelita help up both hands.

"Laser Arrow!"

"Energy Field!"

A barrage of laser arrows and two energy fields were sent flying towards the avatar but she calmly held her hand out, palm facing the feline and angel. Sparks generated in her palm as a blue disk cackling with electricity formed and expanded in front of her, acting as a shield. Which meant that the attacks were useless and disintegrated on impact.

Both Odd and Aelita's eyes widened as their attacks disintegrated to pixels. The avatar began to advance closer to them during their shock, her force field still active. Odd gulped while Aelita took another step back. If that force field disintegrated their attacks, then who knows what would happen if their own avatars came into contact with it?

"Aelita," Odd said, not taking his eyes off their opponent, "That tower still needs to be deactivated, now. You have to hide while I take care of this and as soon as the coast is clear, run for the tower, got it?"

Aelita gasped at his statement. Odd had sounded uncharacteristically serious, she had never seen her friend act like that, not even during their previous battles against XANA. "Odd, I-"

She was interrupted by a blue orb flying towards them and the two threw themselves to the sides as the orb hit the ground where they were standing just seconds ago.

"GO!" Odd roared as he loaded another laser arrow and lunged for the girl while Aelita reluctantly ran for a nearby rock. She peered around the side and watched her friend fire laser arrows from both paws, clenching her fist.

"Odd, please be careful," she whispered.

Meanwhile, the girl had managed to dodge all but a few laser arrows. Odd smirked but his victory was short lived when the girl ran up and launched a swift roundhouse kick to his face. He bent backwards to avoid the attack and quickly back-flipped away to put more ground between them. She took out what looked like a small silver pole with a blue stripe in the centre from behind her back and extended it to a more suitable length and began wielding it like a staff. He blocked the staff that tried to jab him a few times before throwing a punch to her face. She quickly caught it but instead of a look of panic on his face, was a smirk and a charming wink that melted her insides slightly before she stumbled backward, having been kicked in the stomach.

"Aelita! Now!" Odd shouted as he began to shoot rapid fire laser arrows at the girl, who had dropped her staff and was trying to endure the laser arrows.

Aelita didn't waste time this time and waved her hand over the star bracelet wrapped around her wrist. A pair of pink angel wings that glowed appeared on her back and she took off after admiring them for a few seconds. She made it in no time and landed in front of the tower but hesitated again. She looked back at the two avatars who were fighting far away from the tower.

"Be careful Odd," Aelita whispered before slipping into the tower again.

Odd watched his friend enter but he suddenly yelped when he felt a searing pain on his back. He fell onto his hands (well, paws) and knees and glared up at the girl while trying to control his rapid breathing. He was exhausted and didn't know how many life points he had left. The previous battle with XANA's monsters was starting to take its toll on his body and he knew that he wasn't going to last long at this rate. But he had to, for Aelita who was deactivating the tower and his friends and everyone else back on Earth.

Meanwhile the girl was just as exhausted and low on life points as well. She had picked up her staff after knocking the feline avatar down and was leaning on her staff for support. Her body was still burning with pain from the laser arrows she had endured, all because she got distracted by a simple wink. A wink?! She had to admit, she felt… different from that gesture and she couldn't figure out why. He must be using a hidden ability or something. Nothing special.

As the two tried to catch their breath, she thought back to her first encounter with the pink-haired girl. The cat-boy had called her 'Aelita' and the girl gasped when she thought about it. No, it's can't be her, can it? Oh God, please tell me it isn't. It if was who she thought it was, then her whole family would be in danger from this crazy computer virus. But do they still care about me? Do they even remember me?

She was suddenly brought back to reality when she heard a bang and felt her arm burn in pain. She grabbed her arm and snapped her head back up to glare at Odd, who looked just as exhausted but wore a determined look on his face. He refused to lose to this girl and he wasn't going to give up that easily. He fired two more arrows at the girl but she quickly twirled her staff in front of her, deflecting the arrows. She, on the other hand, refused to let this intruder and her sudden feelings towards him distract and defeat her so she decided to use her trump card to finally defeat him.

Odd was about to load another laser arrow when was stopped by a strange sight. The staff was now cackling with blue electricity as the girl held it up with one hand. It extended by a couple inches and a blue outline drew itself at each end, reminding Odd of the virtualization process. It gained colour and gleamed in the virtual sunlight.

Odd's eyes widened as the girl pointed the new curved blade of her now-transformed double-bladed scythe at him. He gulped audibly and cursed the first thing that came into his head.

"Oh, shit." He was in a lot of trouble now.

Back on Earth, things weren't looking good. In fact, it had only gotten worse. The fire had now reached the science building and was spreading quickly on the ground floor.

"Great, just what we needed," Ulrich muttered through the makeshift oxygen mask as he rested his head against the wall he was leaning on, while looking at the chaos around him. The teachers were running around trying to keep order amongst the students, handing out identical oxygen masks and stop the fire while the students were huddled in groups panicking or helping the teachers. "XANA sending all of us to Hell, with himself as Satan."

He turned his head at the sound of footsteps and saw Yumi sitting down next to him. "What's the update on Lyoko?" he whispered to her, loud enough for her to hear but quiet enough so the people around them didn't hear.

She shrugged, pushing her own oxygen mask to the side. "Nothing new, Aelita trying to activate the tower but the tower won't let her up and Odd's still fighting the girl, both with not a lot of life points left."

"Why do I have a feeling there's more to that?" Ulrich asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you really want to know that the mystery avatar has almost identical powers to Aelita and has a ridiculously powerful double-bladed scythe?" his friend quickly asked in response while pushing her mask back over her mouth.

Ulrich's eyes widened in shock at her answer. "Nope," he answered simply, popping the 'p' sound.

"Guys!" Someone shouted and Ulrich and Yumi turned and saw Jeremy pushing his way through the crowd, panicked written all over his face, "We've got a huge problem now!"

"Oh great, just what we needed…" Ulrcih groaned, before turning to the genius, "Why? What's going on?" But before Jeremy could answer, a loud boom echoed throughout the room, effectively ending the chatter in the room as everyone stopped to listen out for the sound.

"Wh-what's happening?" a first year girl stuttered fearfully, breaking the silence before being loudly shushed by a classmate.

Jeremy felt his stomach drop as he realised what was going to happen next. One glance at his two friends told him they had come to the same conclusion. "Oh no," he whispered. On the other side of the room, Ms Hertz's face paled. "Suzanne? What's wrong?" Jim asked, sounding uncharacteristically concerned.

The science teacher took a shaky breath. "There is a storage room on the ground floor, with materials, gases and chemicals, highly combustible ones, for experiments I conduct for my classes. There is also a-"

"Spare bottle of kerosene, a big one in case of an emergency. That is very flammable as well," Principal Delmas finished for her, now wrapping his arms tightly around Sissi, who gasped in shock.

Before anyone could do anything, another boom was heard, much louder than the last, causing the room to shake. Ulrich gulped. "I think the fire has found the kerosene."

A loud crack suddenly appeared behind Milly and Tamiya's class and everyone scrambled away from the crack to the other side of the room. Everyone but Tamiya, that is, she just stared at the growing crack, curled in an upright ball. "Tamiya! You gotta move!" Milly screeched at her best friend, tears falling down her face.

"Oh no, that area is just above the kerosene tank. Meaning that-" Ms Hertz began but was cut off by Jeremy.

"The fire has reached the kerosene and it has taken out either a support beam or the entire storage room fuelled by the other chemicals and gases," he finished shakily.

Ulrich, on the other hand, lunged forward and quickly scooped up Tamiya in his arms. He was about to jump back to the others but the ground beneath his feet crumbled. He yelped in shock but quickly got a hold of himself and grabbed the ledge with his right hand and held Tamiya's with the other. Everyone in the room screamed in fright but then started coughing violently at the smoke flowing into the room.

"Ulrich!" Yumi and Jeremie shouted as they ran forward to help their friend, ignoring the teachers yelling at them to stay back.

Ulrich moaned through is oxygen mask and glanced down to check on Tamiya. That was a big mistake because his vertigo chose that exact moment to flare up and his vision started to go blurry. All he could make out was the burning room below him and Tamiya sobbing hysterically through the black plume of smoke, making him feel light-headed. He didn't register Yumi grabbing his right hand with both of hers and started to pull him up. Jeremie followed up by grabbing Yumi around the waist and tried to pull the two back.

"Aelita! Odd! Hurry!" Jeremy screamed desperately as he tugged at Yumi's waist again, not caring that everyone around them heard him.

Aelita tries to calm herself, as she rose up the tower again. She needed to have a calm mind to access the top platform and right now she was far from calm. There had been incidents where Aelita couldn't deactivate the tower because she was too tense and the tower wouldn't let her up, and today happened to be one of those incidents. She finally reached the top platform and quickly strode to the centre once she landed. An interface appeared the moment she stopped and she placed her hand on it. The screen flashed and her credentials appeared.

{AELITA_}

{CODE: _}

{CODE: LYOKO_}

"Tower deactivated," she murmured as binary programs zoomed down to the base of the tower, ending the attack on Earth. Without another moment of hesitation, Aelita turn around and jumped of the platform, back down to ground level. She had to go back out and help Odd.

Back outside, Odd had launched a double kick at the girl, who quickly blocked it with the shaft of her upgraded weapon but she was sent flying a few metres away from a kick to her unprotected stomach. Odd quickly glanced at the tower and a grin stretched across his features when he saw a stark white aura replacing the previously blood red colour.

"Great job Princess," he whispered underneath his breath. Suddenly, a cackling blue orb exploded at his feet, throwing him off balance but not before another one slammed into his stomach and sent him flying ten metres away. He landed on his stomach at the base of the tower, groaning as his entire body ached.

Aelita then chose that moment to appear out of the tower. She gasped in fright at the sight of her downed friend and immediately ran to his aid. The girl staggered to her feet as she charged up another orb, her weapon forgotten at her feet. Aelita looked up at the growing orb in her opponent's hands before standing up and charging up her own orb. She felt all her emotions, her worry for Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremy back on Earth, her growing anxiety at the supercomputer being turned back on, and concern for Odd, pour themselves into the orb. The girl was about to throw the orb but gasped at the size of Aelita's orb, it was bigger than the length of her weapon. Aelita let out a war cry as she hurled the giant energy field at the girl, sending her flying twenty meters away. Aelita was about to run after her and keep firing energy fields but before she could anything else, she was roughly pushed back into the tower, landing on her backside. Odd stood above her, looking very afraid.

"Stay in here Aelita!" Odd begged desperately, "Please." And with that, he ran back outside the tower. He would never forgive himself if anything bad ever happened to Aelita, or Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremy for that matter. The girl stood back up, clutching her stomach with one hand and her head with the other. Odd noticed that her hood and bandana had disappeared from that huge energy field of Aelita's but that was the least of his concerns now as he loaded a laser arrow in each arm and strode towards his opponent slowly.

Back inside the tower, Aelita groaned at Odd's stubbornness before changing her position so that she is kneeling. Her friend may be a jokester at heart but he had matured over the years to know when to be serious. She swiped to the left with two fingers and an interface appeared in front of her.

"Alright, let's see if I can find out anything about you," she muttered before opening a window. Another one popped up suddenly, making her blink in surprise but after reading it through she gasped in shock, her green eyes wide.

No… it's can't be…

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Sooo... that was that. Hopefully I will get the next update faster. Before I forget I would like to thank the very few people who have reviewed, favourited and followed this story. Your support means a lot to me.

Other than that, review, favourite and follow.

- queen123414