It's been a year since the super computer was shut down and life has been pretty normal for the Lyoko Warriors. Without XANA to constantly disturb them, their lives have looked up with big changes.

Jeremy spends less time on his computer and now spends more time with the gang. He's surprisingly the best at foosball, much to the disappointment of Odd and surprises the gang every so often, taking them out to the nearby video game arcade to see who has the most tickets and the best prize by the end of the night, even inviting them to stay with his family last summer holidays. One of the things he was afraid about when shutting down the super computer was losing his friends but that has been proven wrong since his bond with the rest of the gang has gotten much stronger now that he doesn't have any projects that require him to stay up all night but his strongest relationship is with his girlfriend, Aelita.

Aelita is still struggling to move on, even though XANA is gone. Her nightmares still plague her at night but now they're about XANA coming back to life, which is impossible in reality since her father sacrificed himself to destroy XANA on their last mission on Lyoko. Thankfully, she has friends to comfort her at day, always going to Jeremy or Yumi for help first. Yumi, because she's her best friend and Jeremy because… well… you get the idea. Aelita has become a friendly face at Kadic, being the school's friendly neighbourhood DJ. The Subdigitals even gave her a chance to record her tunes and sell them in her own album and immediately she said yes. She promised her friends that they would get a copy each of 'New Age' as soon as it comes out.

Yumi is finally at peace with her relationships. Her parents finally trust her fully, she's managed to get William of her back (after he tried to force her to kiss him which ended with a kick up where it really hurts) and now she trying to work things out with Ulrich. She also helps Jim teach Pencak Silat with Ulrich with the usual members being her brother Hiroki and his friend Johnny, Sissi (who still says it as 'Pancake Salad') and sometimes Odd, Aelita and even Jeremy would join in every so often. It's now been three years since she proposed that she and Ulrich would be 'just friends and that's all' but after Odd's constant nagging and Jeremy and Aelita shaking their heads at it, she's starting to reconsider it and maybe give Ulrich a chance.

Ulrich is much happier with his life, his grades and point average have gone up, his father doesn't yell at him as much, Sissi has finally given up on him and he thinks his relationship with Yumi is actually moving away from the friend zone. After watching Yumi kick William in the weak spot after he tried to 'kiss' her, his feelings for her have only gotten stronger, even though Ulrich's jealously went sky high after watching them 'kiss'. Of course he definitely won't admit that he was jealous, especially to Odd, who's now helping him to get over his vertigo by climbing the rock climbing wall in the gym. Ulrich thinks that climbing comes naturally to Odd just because he had cat claws on Lyoko to help him climb but his best buddy disagrees.

Odd has finally given up on his goal to date all the girls in his grade-mainly to avoid the painful slaps and insults that came with each girl he dated. He broke up with Sam just a couple months after the super computer was shutdown. Sam did a graffiti artwork of Jim as an ugly pig on the wall behind the vending machines and signed it was Odd's name. She even left the cans in Odd and Ulrich's room so Jim and Principal Delmas would find it and frame them instead of her, which nearly got Odd suspended. But he managed to redeem himself but looking at the bottom of the spray cans which had her name on it. Odd broke up with her because she just caused too much trouble for him and the group, especially when William got possessed by XANA on his first trip to Lyoko, which led to more late nights for Jeremy and . In the meantime, Odd has been working on an art portfolio called 'Code Lyoko'. So far, it has scenery landscapes of the Forest and Mountain Sectors, inside a tower and himself riding a manta with more to come.

William on the other hand, has been trying to put the events of Lyoko and XANA's possession behind him, while trying to rebuild his reputation at Kadic since his clone wrecked it while he was possessed. A week after the super computer was shutdown, he started having nightmares of XANA's torture and fighting the other Lyoko Warriors. The first thing he did was to see Yumi and talk to her about them but when she refused (to help Ulrich with his vertigo with Odd), he made a desperate move by kissing her but that didn't end well for him and it left him unable to sit down for the next couple days. He went to Jeremy afterwards but Jeremy couldn't find anything on his laptop and he refused to turn to super computer back on to find out. His parents took him to see 5 different psychologists and when he told them what happened, they all said the same thing: that's way too far-fetched for them to help. Well, that's been a lot of help, hasn't it?

Of course, their school life has improved as well, even Odd improved overtime. Sissi and Jim finally gave up playing detective on them not only because the gang stopped skipping classes but Delmas got really fed up with their 'investigations'. Everyone else stopped looking at them suspiciously and the Warriors were able to make a couple new friends outside their circle, including Sissi, Emily, Theo, Nicolas and even Herb.

Their lives are perfect now. Without XANA around, they can finally live the life they want. But not any longer.

Deep in the Internet, there was a lone Replika that Jeremy's multi-agent system missed on that fateful day. Inside was a mountain scenery with floating islands with jagged pieces of rocks, a few bridges connecting some of the islands together and towers at the four points of the compass. It was like a floating maze but you had to make it to the centre to win.

In the centre of the Replika there was a tower, but it wasn't a normal tower. It was no longer circular like the others but it was more rectangular. Instead, it was black with the usual base but it has spikes scattered here for anyone who dares to enter and blood veins running on the sides of the tower. A blood red aura surrounded the sharp point of the tower which was like a skyscraper but bigger and deadlier. But the inside was just as deadly as its exterior appearance. There was the usual platforms but the binary codes on the walls were blood red instead of the soothing blue. At the top platform, instead of an interface waiting to be scanned, there was a figure, a girl, on her knees, head bowed down.

Chains from the walls cut into her wrists, which prevented her from using her powers. Suddenly her head jolted up, her bright blue eyes darting around the tower, making sure that the evil virus wasn't around. She smirked slightly, blowing a loose lock of jet black hair off her face before yanking on her chains hard. What XANA was 'defeated', she was taken from Lyoko while she was roaming the Desert Sector and was sent to this wretched place but lately, the chains started to feel weaker and less threatening.

She yanked them once again and the chains bursted into a million pixels before all that was left was the flickering red wireframe. She stood up slowly, wincing as her knees joints bursted in pain, as she was kneeling for a year and began stretching her other limbs. Once she was satisfied, she walked to the edge of the platform and jumped off and fell down to the ground platform. She walked to the entrance and cautiously poked her head out. There was no sign of XANA's ugly monsters for now as she walked out of the tower slowly, taking in the mountain scenery. I have to get back to Lyoko. But how?

She looked around, her eyes resting at the top of the tower, a Navskid, the one William used when he was possessed. The girl went back into the tower and floated back up to the platform. As she walked into the centre, a red interface appeared and she placed her hand on it. She removed her hand, the screen displaying her ID and a window immediately popped up with the words: 'Energize into Navskid?' This is too easy. What is he up to? She pressed her hand on the panel and it said 'Confirmed' before she disappeared and reappeared into the Navskid. The atmosphere around her started blaring red, meaning that XANA knows she's trying to escape. Oh crap he knows! But then again, I didn't think that XANA would let me out of here that easily.

The girl quickly smashed her fingerless-gloved hand on the screen in front of her, releasing the Navskid from the ugly tower. Two tarantulas, two krabs and three mantas virtualised in front of the tower in a flash of red pixels as she steered the Navskid away from the tower. Geez, XANA must really like me so much that he's sent security to stop me. She steered the Navskid over the edge so it's floating over the Digital Sea and quickly checked that the shield and sonar was on. She looked up to see the monsters standing at the edge, waiting to fire at her if necessary. So long suckers!

And with that, she plunged into the Digital Sea, finally free from XANA. But the girl knows that once she gets back to Lyoko, XANA will be trying to get her back because he needs her for his plans for human domination. She also know that she'll need help to defeat him again, without any miraculous resurrections. And she knows who to call.