A/n: The third installment of my attempt to write a season three for Ace Lightning. I've been playing with a new writing program I got when I was writing this. Not sure if it helped or not, it's probably more suited to larger projects. But it makes me organised, which is an accomplishment in itself. Enjoy the fic and please review. :)

It's been a long week, Pete. I thought that I was through the worst of it once I'd finished with all the police interviews. It's almost impossible to believe that what came next had slipped my mind. But after everything that happened I can hardly think straight, so maybe it isn't such a surprise. But I've got to face it now, no matter how much I want to run from it, no matter how much I think I can't. Pete, after everything that's happened... now... now I've got to go back to school.

Mark threw his bag into his locker with more force than he had intended. No one was staring at him. They weren't talking about him. It was just his imagination that the conversations in the packed corridor had died as he walked past the huddled groups of high school students.

Mark closed his locker door, glanced across and made eye contact with Wayne. He didn't mean to. The other boy was half the corridor away, but still managed to catch his gaze. Wayne held if for a moment, and then broke in to a grin. "Hey check it out everyone," he shouted. "Hollander made bail!"

Mark started fumbling with his locker door again. Unfortunately, it wasn't large enough to hide in, or at that very moment he would have quite happily crawled inside and remained there for the entire day.

"Quit blocking the corridor, Wayne." Chuck walked past Wayne and gave the other boy a rather unnecessary shove.

"What the... did anyone else see that?"

Chuck kept walking and stopped at Mark's locker. "Dude, the congestion in here..."

"Thanks, Chuck."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Chuck shrugged. "Hey, but how's everything going? I haven't seen you all week..."

"I have been kind of busy..."

"Look, I know, dude. But you're not, you know, in trouble for being there..."

"With the law? No, Chuck. I... I think it was fairly obvious I didn't do... what happened..."

"Man..." Chuck shook his head. "I know I never really had a job, and I know he spied on us and everything, but I can't believe Rick's gone. I mean... you saw. What did Kilobyte..."

"I've just spent the last week telling the cops about it Chuck; I don't need to be interrogated!"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Chuck held up his hands.

Mark sighed. "Sorry."

"No, dude. I mean it, I get it. But look, if it isn't already obvious, it's not exactly a secret what happened. And I think Kat knows you said something about visiting her being why you were out at night..."

"What else was I supposed to say?!"

"I know! But... just a heads up."

Mark hugged the books he'd retrieved close to his chest. "I'm not so sure coming was a good idea..."

"Relax, dude," Chuck patted him on the shoulder. "Chuckie's got your back."

Mark managed to avoid any direct contact with Kat until lunch time. Truth be told, he was attempting to avoid contact with most people. Chuck had been giving death stares to anyone who looked even mildly interested, which hadn't really been helpful. But at least those seemed to have kept Wayne at bay.

It was as he sat down to eat in the cafeteria that Kat slid into the chair next to him. "Hey there, Hollander."

Mark tensed and swallowed hard. He'd been mentally preparing for this all day. "Kat... I... listen, I know you're probably mad at me and, but, I had to... well can you think of any other believable reason a teenager has to be out at night?"

Kat frowned. "Mark, you don't have to explain. Sure, I had a bit of a run in with my mom over whether I actually knew anything about boys coming to visit me in the middle of the night... and I expect you're not going to be invited over to dinner anytime soon. Look, I get that something happened with Ace... and that guy being found dead in his store has been all over the news. I can connect the dots. Mark..." she reached out a hand and grabbed his arm. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

Mark let out a huff and put his head into one hand. "I'm..."

"Mark?"

Mark looked at her and gave a faint smile. "I'm glad you're not mad."

Kat returned it. "What about you? I mean, your parents... are they..."

"I don't think my parents have figured out what to do with me just yet. I don't think they know... "

At the Thunder Tower, Sparx was sitting at the desk, poking some of the equipment that Chuck had left. She was trying to distract herself. If it wasn't bad enough that Ace and Lady Illusion had taken over use of the ping pong table, the television, and the chess board, now they were doing something on the sofa that didn't look quite right.

"Are you sure this is how we're supposed to do it?" Ace's voice came from across the room.

The desk was about as far enough away from that sofa she could get without having to leave the Thunder Tower. From there Sparx could see the back of the sofa, and hear both Ace and Lady Illusion discussing their current endeavour.

"Try pulling this off," said Lady Illusion. "It was what I saw them doing on the television."

"Righteo." Ace stood up briefly so he was visible to Sparx, and then he disappeared again. He grunted and the sofa wobbled around a bit. A cushion went flying up into the air.

"It didn't look this hard when they were doing it..." said Lady Illusion.

"Hang on... I may be stuck..."

The entire sofa suddenly flung itself up into the air, flipped twice and crashed to the floor.

"Ha!" said Ace. "I got one."

Lady Illusion glanced across at the sofa. "You wouldn't think it would be that difficult. The human on the television just put a hand down the back of his chair and came up with a coin straight away."

Ace was indeed holding up a coin. He frowned at it in the light. "This isn't a doom dime."

"Really?" Lady Illusion took it off him. "That's not much good, is it?"

"Not like we can spend doom dimes here anyway... and technically with the sixth dimension being just a game..."

"Yes, this is true..."

"Really guys?! The sofa?!" Sparx stood up. "I sit on that."

"Hmm..." Ace glanced across at the sofa. It didn't quite look straight anymore, and it was sitting on its head. "Maybe I should ask Chuck how to get a new one. There's really not room for all three of us anyway."

"I don't need to sit on the sofa with you!" Sparx growled. "It's just... urgh, you're always... sitting on everything. Both of you! I'm trying really hard, but you do kind of take over the whole Thunder Tower sometimes..."

"Okay, maybe the sofa," Ace admitted. "How are we supposed to take over the whole Thunder Tower?"

"I don't know, you just do."

Lady Illusion folded her arms. "Maybe it would be a good idea to have some house rules..."

"Hey, don't go getting too bossy, Lady. We've lived here longer than you."

Lady Illusion raised an eyebrow. "I didn't throw the sofa."

Ace sighed. "I didn't throw it; I got stuck... Okay, so we've all got to live here. No matter how long we've been here. So what are we going to do?"

He wasn't quite sure how he'd done it, but somehow Mark had made it through the school day. No one had said or done anything to make him uncomfortable since Wayne's announcement. He'd finally arrived home, but he had no intention of staying there. The past week had been hectic, and the Hollanders hadn't really had the time to talk. Mark was dreading what any talking might entail. The boy had gone upstairs and dumped his gear, and now he crept back down, looking to see if his parents were around. They were nowhere to be seen. He let out a sigh, headed to the backdoor, and nearly ran into his father, who was just now coming in.

"Mark..." Simon appeared briefly startled and forced a smile.

"Ah... hi, dad. I was just going out..." Mark shuffled his feet.

Simon's smile faded a bit. "Oh... well, I was just going to ask you how your first day back at school went?"

"After I got accused of murder, you mean?" The words came out more sharply than Mark had intended.

Simon closed his eyes briefly. "Mark, no one for a second thought you did that... you were just there, they had to question you." He paused before adding: "I mean it was suspicious you were there..."

"We've been over this, dad! In an interrogation room!"

Simon let out a sigh. "Mark, look, when I was your age I had a run in with the police. I wasn't exactly truthful with them. But it was over a few stolen candy bars, not a man's life..."

Mark's words came out in a rush. "Dad, are you saying you think I lied on a police statement? Why would I do that? I'm smart enough to know if I got caught out I'd be in world of trouble... so why would I, because I didn't!"

"I know, I..." Simon took his son by the shoulders. "I know, Mark. But... your mum and I... you know you can tell us anything, right?"

For the briefest of moments Mark stared at his father, and then he shrugged off the man's touch and pushed past him. "I wish..."

"Mark!" Simon snapped.

Mark drew to a halt with his hand on the back door, waiting for the reprimand.

Simon still had his back to his son. His shoulders slumped. "Make sure you're home by seven," he said quietly.

"Sure, dad..."

When Mark finally walked into the Thunder Tower that afternoon it had changed. Just a little. The sofa (which looked a little sadder than it normally did) had been pushed into one corner with the television. And the transformer had a large square marked out around it in black duct tape with 'power-up zone' taped out in big, black letters. Mark gave this a wide berth, though he had never considered it overly dangerous before.

Sparx was sitting slouched, her chin resting on one hand propped on the desk. She had a scowl on her face that wasn't quite her usual bored expression.

"Are you guys redecorating?" Mark asked cautiously.

Sparx let out a sigh. "Fat lot of good it did. I didn't think of mentioning noise rules..."

There was music blaring from a boom box which was sitting roughly in the middle of the floor. Ace and Lady Illusion were dancing around the Thunder Tower, apparently oblivious to anything else that was going on.

"They seem to like doing that..."

"Yeah, with no thought to how annoying it is for everyone else."

Ace twirled Lady Illusion around and then caught sight of Mark. "Hey, kid." He let Lady Illusion down gently and then flew the short distance to Mark. "I haven't seen you all week... are you alright?"

Mark let out a sigh. "Ace, I had to talk to the police. It's not like you; you can just hide out here like nothing happened..."

"I'm not hiding, kid," Ace said with a frown. But then he put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "But I have talked with Chuck. I don't exactly understand what you had to do, but I get that I left you with a lot of stuff to deal with. I'm sorry."

Mark smiled faintly. "Thanks, Ace."

"And there's plenty of room at the Thunder Tower if things get too stressful..."

"Thanks," Mark frowned, "but I can't actually do that..."

Sparx let out a groan. "Seriously, we have room? It's crowded enough in here already!"

"Sparx," Ace growled, "I thought we worked this out already?"

Sparx got up from the desk and stomped around to face Ace. She threw a hand into the air in the general direction of the Tower's recent 'improvements'. "Ace you moved the sofa... and I don't know what you did to the transformer..."

"You both toss electricity around every time you use that," threw in Lady Illusion. "It's safer..."

"Lightning Knights are talking here, Lady!"

"I thought you two worked that out too!" Ace snapped. "Don't shout at her."

"I can defend myself, Ace..."

"Will everyone just stop shouting?!" Mark burst in. "My parents have been yelling at each other all week, do I have to put up with this too? God..." He sunk into the chair Sparx had vacated and covered his face with one hand.

Ace frowned down at the boy for a moment and then turned his attention to Sparx. "If you're going to cause trouble," he growled softly. "Maybe you could do it at the Carnival?"

"This is my fault?" Sparx snapped, though she too had lowered her voice. "You know what, whatever. But don't expect me to go to the Carnival and get pieces of the amulet whilst you two sit around here and trash sofas and dance."

Ace had calmed a bit. "It's not your fault, maybe we all just need some space... I don't know, go see Random or something..."

Sparx raised an eyebrow. "Wow. I've been here longer than her, and now I'm regulated to the junkyard? Good to know where I stand, Ace."

"Sparx, I'm not..."

"Whatever, I'm going." Sparx whistled down the Lightning Flash and zipped off through the roof.

Ace groaned. "Sorry, kid..."

Mark leaned back in the chair and sighed. "I'm fine, Ace. But... have you guys really just been hanging around here and... trashing sofas... I'm not sure I should ask..."

Ace shrugged. "What else can we do? We're just a game. What's the point of doing what the programming says if it's pointless?"

"Because it's not."

"My programming tells me to serve Fear," said Lady Illusion. She took Ace by the arm. "But... despite it not being real... right now I'm happy... we don't need to follow our programming."

"I know. But I'm not talking about programming. Kilobyte... whatever he wants, he's powerful. The game might not be real, but it still exists. Heck, it's nearly killed me any number of times, and..." Mark swallowed. "It killed Rick. Kilobyte is dangerous. And so's the game. It's powerful. So's that amulet. If we want to defeat Kilobyte wouldn't it be a good idea to have some pieces?"

"Maybe," said Ace. "To be honest, bringing some more knights here seems cruel. We'd be bringing them out only to tell them it's not real."

"And what about if Kilobyte gets what he wants?"

"What does he want?" Illusion asked.

"He wants revenge," said Ace. "But I think he also wants to help us... in some sort of twisted way."

Mark frowned. "He tried to destroy you, Ace. Why would he want to help you?"

"Rick tried to destroy us," said Ace. "And then Kilobyte did on his own terms, but only because we got in his way. This time, he tried very hard to convince me I wanted the same thing he did. And he may do the same thing with Fear. We may not need the amulet, but I think we do need to go to the Carnival."

"To...? " Mark pressed.

"To talk to Fear. Maybe the programming doesn't matter. And if so, I might have a chance of convincing him we need to defeat Kilobyte and lock him back up in the video game."

"Ace," Lady Illusion growled. "Don't be foolish, Fear betrayed you once already, even if he agrees to do this he could do so again."

"It's worth a shot. It's better than Kilobyte getting to him."

"Perhaps. But it'll be dangerous..."

"You don't have to come. I can talk to him alone."

"That's not what I meant. I meant it'll be dangerous for you. But if you're convinced this is what you want to do, then I've got your back. Might be better if I'm concealed though... I think my presence might upset him after out last encounter."

Mark frowned. "Wait, what did you do to Fear?"

Lady Illusion shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing much. I threw a few energy spheres at him; think I may have embarrassed him."

Ace looked at her and grinned. "She's a keeper."