Chapter VI

"What the hell were you two thinking?!"

Of course, Jeremie had called an emergency meeting to his room as soon as everyone realized a return trip had been initiated. The group remained silent as he continued to berate Aelita and William.

"You know what happens when we do a return to the past," he said, crossing his arms. "XANA's strength doubles. And, what's more, I can't even believe that either of you thought it was a brilliant idea to take Jim to the lab!"

Aelita stood, glowering. "We had to test the program on someone! Jim and Sissi are the only people who have been directly exposed to the lab on multiple occasions. We didn't have any other option." She placed her hands on her hips. "Thanks to William's help, you seemed to have fixed the holes in the code for the RTTP program – can't you at least be happy about it? Now we won't have to deal with more people having déjà vu!"

Jeremie turned red with anger. "You should have come to me first."

"You hadn't slept in two days," William interjected. "No offense, but you weren't exactly in the right mind to help us make that decision."

"Plus, it worked," Aelita continued. "I spoke to Jim earlier and asked him if he heard of a secret underground lab, or a virtual world called Lyoko. He told me to stop reading so much manga."

"At least he didn't accuse you of reading too many Japanese mangoes," Yumi chimed in. Everyone laughed, save for Jeremie.

"I can't believe you went behind my back," he said.

"Jeremie, it's done. Get over it." William stood up to face him. "There's something more important, though: We can salvage the multi-agent program you used to destroy the Replikas. With a few tweaks, we should be able to code it so it can pull the rest of XANA's fragments out from the internet and dispose of them."

"How long do you think that'll take?" Ulrich asked. "I mean, XANA's been pretty quiet for the most part, other than the occasional specter."

"If we work diligently," Aelita started, "I'd say we could have it done before Christmas."

Everyone started speaking at once.

"That long?!"

"I don't know if I can keep doing this."

"We already fought for three years, this is ridiculous!"

"This was supposed to be over as soon as we shut down the supercomputer!"

"This is bullshit!"

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

Everyone turned to Giana, who sat quietly on the floor with her back against the side of Jeremie's bed. Vega was curled into a ball beside her, the harness removed and laying on her other side.

"I mean," she continued, "I know we can't exactly code, but maybe just be super aware of our surroundings or something?" She stood, the dog lifting her head wearily. "Maybe, Sissi and I can finally be taken seriously and get off backup duty?"

Jeremie held her gaze. He shifted his weight, and uncrossed his arms.

"Alright," he said. "The more of you who can fight, the better."

The bell rang for dinner. They filed out of Jeremie's room and headed down to the cafeteria together, in silence.

A few days had passed, and the XANA attacks were still few and far between. Giana was sitting on her bed. She looked up from her laptop to find Aelita standing in the doorway. Vega walked over and sniffed her, wagging her tail. She gave the dog a pat on the head.

"What are your plans for Toussaint?" she asked.

"My parents wanted to purchase me a plane ticket home, to Boston," she started, "but since it doesn't line up with my brother's school break, I told them it wouldn't have been worth the trouble. Plus, I didn't want to deal with the jetlag." She closed her laptop. "Then, my mémé and grand-père wanted me to stay with them. They live in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and since it's so close by, it would've been a more logical choice." She smiled. "However, I told them I'd rather be here. I figured I should stick around in case XANA rears his ugly head. Plus, my mémé is incredibly overbearing."

Aelita smiled back. "Good. Usually it's only Jeremie and I who stay during the holidays. It'll be nice to have some extra company."

"I heard Sissi and Odd are staying, too."

Aelita arched an eyebrow.

"Sissi told me she doesn't want to go to her grandparents' with her father. I guess the last time she stayed at school for Toussaint, it was really boring and she was stuck here the whole time doing math homework. She said that since her grades are better, she wants this break to be more fun, and with us staying, she figures we can all go do things together."

Aelita remembered that time. She hadn't been materialized yet, but that holiday two years prior had been when XANA attacked with the fatal purple fog.

"As for Odd, I think he just wants to stay away from his sisters."

That was typical.

"William's staying too," Aelita said offhandedly. She came into the room and sat in Giana's desk chair.

The girl raised an eyebrow and shoved her laptop away, leaning back against the wall. She gave her a pointed look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You two have been getting close."

"He kissed me and I slapped him across the face because of it. It's hardly this year's budding romance."

They laughed.

"We should go to Disneyland Paris," Aelita suggested. "Odd and I have annual passes. His parents graciously got one for me last Christmas."

"I have one, too. My grandparents would always get annual passes for my brother and I when we'd fly out to visit them for the summer. Since I'm going to school here now, they renewed it as a surprise." She faltered. "There's one more thing."

"What?"

"I got an invitation to le Bal des Débutantes. My grandparents are seriously on my case about attending." She wrung her hands. "They're incredibly wealthy and this is, like, the biggest opportunity ever, as le Bal is invitation-only and they only select between twenty and twenty-five girls to participate."

"That doesn't sound so bad. You get to dress up like a princess and show up with a male friend to escort you, right? And then you dance and drink champagne?"

"I have to waltz. My brother and parents are even flying out for the ordeal since it's taking place over Thanksgiving weekend in the US."

"Well, you have some time to prepare, then." Aelita smiled. "I would try to stay positive about it." She paused. "Do you know who you want for your cavalier?"

"My grandmother is trying to get a Count or something. Apparently, she has a friend who said her grandson would be perfect. But I'd feel more comfortable taking someone from school."

At that moment, the door flew open, and Sissi practically fell into the room. Vega let out a bark.

"How long were you standing there?" Aelita asked suspiciously.

Sissi stood up and made a show of dusting herself off. "Enough to hear that you, Giana, will be attending le Bal! That's probably one of the biggest honors a girl our age can receive!"

"I haven't given the committee a definite answer yet," the brunette told her. "The deadline's approaching, though."

Sissi scoffed. "Oh, please. A night to rub elbows with royals and gorgeous high society boys, and you can drink all you want?" She longingly stared off into space. "I'd give anything to do that."

She smirked. "Want to trade places?"

Sissi actually considered it for a moment, but shook her head. "Even though you'd be wearing heels, I'm still a bit too tall to pass as you. Plus, we look nothing alike."

She shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"I think you should go," Sissi commanded, sitting down next to her on the bed.

"She's not wrong," Aelita offered. "It's a great opportunity."

"I'm just not into that stuff," Giana replied. "But, I guess I should go anyway. It would make my family happy at least. Plus, now I have an excuse for all those years of etiquette lessons I was forced into." She sighed, flopping on to her back. "The invitation's on my desk, if you want to look at it."

Sissi shot up and strode over to where a heavy ivory envelope was propped up against the lamp on Giana's desk. It was addressed to her in fancy cursive script, and was sent to a home in Neuilly-sur-Seine. She assumed it was her grandparents' house. It had already been torn open, so she gingerly plucked the paper from inside and read aloud:

"'Miss Giana De Luca, we are pleased to extend an invitation for you to attend this year's le Bal des Débutantes, held at The Peninsula Paris. The event will take place on Saturday, November 25th. A social will be held on Friday, November 24th, to meet the other debutantes and participate in waltzing lessons. We require your RSVP, as well as the name of your cavalier, no later than Friday, October 20th. A member of the Bal committee will be in touch to answer any questions or concerns. We will also need measurements to pass off to a designer for your dress and shoes.' Wow." She kept reading: "'Please arrive at The Peninsula no later than noon on the 25th to begin sessions with MAC Cosmetics and meet the designers who will present your ensemble. Best, Ophélie Renouard, le Bal des Débutantes, Founder.'" She looked across the room at Giana, who was still lying on her back. "So. Who are you going with?"

"I don't know, but I better figure it out soon before I end up with a member of the royal family," she deadpanned. Vega stretched, and walked over to her owner. The black lab rested her chin on Giana's leg and started wagging her tail. "And, yes, I'm being serious: My grandparents have insane connections."

"What about William?" Aelita suggested.

She shot up. Vega took a step back. "Are you kidding me? I don't even know if we're on speaking terms after what happened a few days ago."

"Well, let's face it," Sissi started, "you don't really have any other options. Jeremie's too socially awkward to attend a huge event like this – no offense, Aelita." Aelita nodded in agreement. Sissi placed the invitation back in the envelope and propped it up against the desk lamp. "Odd probably wouldn't take it seriously – I mean, can you imagine him in a tux with that hair? And Ulrich wouldn't go because he's so in love with Yumi." She stood next to Aelita and leaned with her back against the desk. "Unfortunately, William's the best choice you have, at least in our friend group. That way, too, you'll both be together and can get out of there in case something weird happens."

"I hate to admit it, but she's right," Aelita said.

Giana groaned. "Alright, I'll ask him." She turned to Aelita, desperately wanting to change the topic. "How's work been going on the multi-agent program?"

The girl sighed. "Not as well as we'd anticipated. At first, William told me it would be easy to rebuilt it, but like we said in Jeremie's room, we might not have it done until Christmas. We've run into a lot of issues, though. There are tons of holes and restricted backdoors we weren't originally aware of. Jeremie's combing through my father's diary again, nitpicking it to see if there's any piece of leftover information we can use to our advantage. But I don't think he'll find anything."

"So, you're stuck," Sissi summarized.

Aelita nodded. "The program basically has to be completely retooled. Even though we used it to destroy the Replikas, having it find and destroy fragments of XANA is a completely different thing entirely. It's a lot more complex than we had anticipated, and honestly, I'm not entirely convinced we got all the Replikas. There may still be one or two out there."

"What if we could just find and destroyed them?" Giana asked.

"No, that would take way too much time. We're trying to get rid of XANA as quickly as humanly possible, but we're tired. It's daunting. Jeremie's barely slept since that first activated tower a few weeks ago." She paused. "And, it's cutting into our alone time."

"What, you don't like coding with him when you're alone?" Sissi teased, smirking.

Aelita glared. "I'm getting very frustrated."

"Well," Giana started, standing up. "I should go find William." She plucked her iPhone from its charger, and walked over to where Vega's leash and harness hung on their hooks. The dog happily stretched and walked over to her, wagging her tail as she clipped the leash to her collar and told her to "head in" to the harness, buckling it around her stomach. "I need to apologize to him and ask him to be my cavalier."

She opened the door, and the trio exited the room.

"Good luck," the girls said, smiling.

"Thanks." She shut and locked her door. "I think I might need it."