Mary watched as Odd went behind William and shot a laser arrow at the exact moment when William said, "Victory!"

William was devirtualized and Mary moved to Earth to watch the situation. It was revealed soon that William was free. But at the same time, Mary saw and heard when the Kolossus hit its sword hand on Skid. Skid flew to the Digital Sea.

"NO!" Mary shouted.

Then, to everyone's relief, one scanner opened and Aelita was in it. Mary observed how the situation developed, and it developed well. No outsider could suspect anything. Mary returned, stopped meditating and stood up on the iceberg she was on.

Earlier that day, she had heard that Jeremy had found a way to free William, and Mary had, blazing with zest, watched the situation sharply. Now she was happy that the mission was accomplished.

"This... this is unbelievable. William is finally free," Mary said and cried in happiness. Finally that horrifying threat, her Xanafied childhood friend, was away from her life. Now she was happy and also relieved. Lyoko's worst era had come to its end.

A week later her rage, however, arose, when some students said nasty things to William, even though the William clone created by Jeremy had been behind his odd behavior, not by any means William himself. These outsiders did not know it, of course, but ignorance did not justify those words nor made the unfair treatment fair. And do not even start on how the Lyoko Warriors treated William! Mary could not understand how the hostility had kept on continuing even though they all heard that the voice was different from that of XanaWilliam's. It was a completely different voice, she knew it and was sure that the other did as well.

When Mary heard that Hopper had sent a message to Jeremy, she rushed with the others to the factory so that she would not miss anything. It was worth it... More or less...

After some time, Mary watched how the group fought on Lyoko against the Kolossus and the Mantas, and when Hopper was destroyed, Mary shouted, horrified, "NOOOOO!"

X.A.N.A. was destroyed, leaving Mary alone on Lyoko. She felt that something had disappeared from Lyoko's atmosphere: the negative energy created by X.A.N.A. Mary was on her own on Lyoko now.

Although, at the factory she saw William, whom Yumi and Ulrich left to cope with the incidents completely on his own.

Mary looked away. She could not look at the view. She had never wanted anything like that to anyone, let alone to a good friend of hers. She could not understand why William's friends treated him like that.

What good "friends" they were...

Two months after shutting down the supercomputer, Mary reckoned that the air on Earth had returned to the way it was before and that she could show herself there via a tower she controlled herself. It would be exhausting but if she got back to Earth, it would be worth it.

Mary went to one of the towers on the Desert Sector and started concentrating on meditation and taking control of the tower. However, her meditation was interrupted when, nine minutes later, she felt how some negative energy raced through her and spread out to Lyoko. Mary startled, stood up and started to look around herself. What was that?

Not even a minute passed by when she already heard someone coming to the tower. Mary turned and saw William. They watched each other for a fleeting moment. Then Mary acted first: she flung William out of the tower before he would do something. Following the Xana Warrior she had flung, Mary exited the tower to face the old and familiar enemy.

X.A.N.A. had returned.

This would be far from a game.

Mary took up her familiar dragon paws and attacked XanaWilliam, rage winging her attacker.

Continues in X.A.N.A. Returns, Part 3.

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/