Elie closed her eyes. They had found her. After everything she'd done, they had still found her. "What do you want, Shade?"

"Why, the same thing I've always wanted, Mouse." The man on the phone said sweetly. "You're head on a platter."

"Sorry. Not happening. Anything else I can do for you?" Elie slipped into her room and locked the door.

"She learned to bite!" Shade said with mock surprise. "Little Mouse, when did that happen?"

"Hm..." Elie pretended to think about it while her mind scrambled. Shade had Yumi's phone. Presumably, he had Yumi too. Probably her other friends as well. How had he found her? "I guess about the time I turned on you."

Shade laughed darkly. "You've gotten much more interesting, Mouse. I wonder if your friends find you interesting too?"

"I don't have friends." She said simply.

"Funny. That's not what our information says. I guess we can just kill these kids then."

"Oh please. If you were going to kill them, they'd be dead already. Why'd you bother with some brats anyway? Why not just come get me?"

"Because taking you wouldn't have been fair. We wanted to make you suffer for what you did to us." Shade sighed and paused. Someone was talking to him, though Elie couldn't tell who it was. "I see. That will be all."

"Shade, just cut the crap. Where should I meet you?" Elie leaned on her wall, drumming her fingers on her thigh. The wall or desk would have made to much noise and Shad would know she was scared or plotting, or as the case was, both.

"There's a factory not far from the school. We found one of your friends here. I guess you kids like playing around here, right?"

"I don't have friends." She reminded him. "But I know the place. See you in five." Elie pressed the end call button on her phone and rummaged around her room for the things she'd need and stuffed them into her back pack, then rushed out of the room and down the halls. It was surprisingly empty, given it was a Sunday. People were probably sleeping still.

The lunch room wasn't locked anymore, so she had to sneak around the staff to get the items she needed from there. If she had any hope of rescuing her friends, she was going to need knives, and lots of them. After wrapping the blades in a stolen kitchen towel, Elie shoved them into the bag as well. As she left she could hear one of the workers asking where the knives had gone.

Shade was not waiting outside the factory like Elie had thought, though that ended up being more to her advantage. She stuffed the many pockets of her pants with the things she would need and stuffed knives in just about every place she could on her body. She even had needles stuck in her hair. The knives would show, naturally, but Shade would know Elie wouldn't go down without a fight.

Elie slid down the rope and stopped in front of the elevator. It was closed still and she lifted the metal door to make sure it really was empty. It was, and there were not indications that it had been used recently. Turning, she looked for signs of recent , to the left, Elie found the gate to the stairs open and went down. Two levels down she found them. Her friends were tied up on the left side of a large open room. Around them were a few old gang mates. Razor, Sheila, Brick, a few others she didn't remember. On the other side of the room were more people. At the front of the room, relaxing in an old computer chair, sat Shade.

He was a well aged man who looked to be in his mid thirties, even though he was almost fifty now. His black hair was slicked back as usual and his black business suit was tailored to fit him exactly. He didn't have a tie, which was a shame; Elie could have used that. He was still handsome in a way that was just shy enough of fatherly that most girls flocked to him. He was toying with a gun as he waited and didn't acknowledge Elie for a few moments. He always liked to make people wait.

Elie glanced disinterestedly at her friends, bound and gagged against the wall. They were all there, and as far as Elie could tell they were unharmed. Well, Odd and Ulrich looked a bit beet up, but they'd recover.

"Mouse, it's been to long." Shade's voice drew her attention back to him and Elie crossed her arms over her chest. "Look how much you've grown. I still remember when we first found you. You were just a little thing then, abandoned by your father, living on the streets. And we brought you into our family. And this is how you repay our kindness? You go running off to the cops. Really, we didn't treat you that badly, did we? We gave you a home, fed you, clothed you. Gave you work you were good at."

"Yep. Made me steal things, shoved me into a cramped little room with five other girls, gave me six bits of clothes to wear. Hell, you even gave me two pares of shoes." Elie nodded, smiling sardonically. "Yep. Sure was the life."

"And you would have had so much more if we'd left you on the streets to starve?" Shade asked, leaning forward and pinning her with his eyes.

"Nope. I'd be dead probably."

"Then I'd like to know why you turned on us." Shade's voice was calm and reasonable, but Elie knew better. Under that calm business man's exterior Shade was a crazy cold blooded killer.

"Because you tried to whore me out. I was just a kid, Shade." Elie said, matter-of-factly. "You gave me off to one of your clients and you were going to let him do whatever he wanted to me."

"Well, yes." Shade shrugged. "Not that it worked. After you shot him and ran, things were quite a mess you know. He pulled his support. Couldn't you have at least killed him instead of shooting his arm?"

"I'd never held a gun before." Elie shrugged to. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm trying to tell the truth every once in a while."

Shade nodded as if he expected this. Behind her, Elie could hear her friends struggling and crying out. She spared half a second to glare coldly at them, noticing that Odd was the one fighting hardest. The glare silenced him and Elie turned back to Shade. "So, you ended up in charge after Wrex and Flare got taken away?"

"Yep. I should thank you for my promotion, but you gave the cops intel on me too. I barely got away you know."

"Pity. I wish they'd shot you."

Shade nodded and laughed. "I bet you do. But someone else would have come in my place. Someone who wasn't as fond of you as I am."

"How did you find me anyway?" she asked.

"About an hour ago, we got a message. It wasn't even from one of the people we've had looking for you. I happened to be in the city, you see, so we came to find out if it was true. Hiding out in a school. Right in plane sight. I must admit it surprised me. I wouldn't have recognized you, what with your hair and eyes being so different, and the punk style too. I never would have pegged you as a punk, Mouse, but i guess that's what made it so brilliant. Your friend William told us about you though. A golden-eyed girl kissing him in the middle of the school yard. Really, you should have been more careful." Shade shook his head and Elie shrugged.

"My contacts must have slipped. I had hoped to use him, you see. Make him my boyfriend to add to my disguise as a normal kid." Elie waved her hand at Odd and the others. "They were my group of friends so I would blend in more, but you know people like us don't really have friends."

"So true. Clever, Mouse. Very clever. It's a pity we have to kill you. You would be even more useful now than you were before." Shade stood and cracked his knuckles.

Elie shrugged. "Yep. It's a pity I have to die. Just one thing before we get at it. Don't make the kids watch. You'll be killing them soon enough, right? I think they actually cared about me. Maybe I care a bit for them too. I'd rather they not see me die."

Shade grinned. "A last request? Sorry, I'm not feeling that merciful."

Elie nodded and braced herself as Shade lifted his right hand, which had been under the desk, and leveled his gun at her. She waited for the gun to get to the perfect spot... and threw one of her knives at Shade's hand. She was rewarded with a small glint of blood on his hand and the sound of the gun falling to the floor. She didn't have time to watch, though. Elie spun and dodged two baseball bats that hit the floor where she'd been standing a second before. She had a new knife in her left hand and in her right she had a small bottle of syrup. She dumped the content on the ground as she dodged and flipped out of attacking range. She grabbed the next bottle and did the same, then the third and fourth.

Elie's friends were struggling again, but Elie was to far away to give them her little gift. Two men slipped in the syrup and fell, dragging four other down with them. Elie rushed in and scooped up a fallen bat and tapped each on the head, knocking them out. Shade was reaching for the gun again, and she threw the bat at him, forcing him to dodge away from the pistol. Her next twist took her out of range of a wickedly sharp knife Elie was going to make sure she had when the fight was over. She kicked low and knocked her attacker, the woman named Sheila who taught Elie a thief's skills. As she backed away from the woman's reaching arms, Elie dropped a cluster of small knives near her friend's feet. Odd kicked them behind him before anyone could see and Elie was off again, dodging and using the syrup-covered floor to her advantage.

"You shouldn't have brought so many witnesses, Shade. In a cramped room like this, you really should have known better." Elie dodged a bat but got hit in the face with a fist that felt like a brick. The man named Brick, named for his punches, stood over her, glaring. Elie struggled to focus her vision and to see only one, not five, of her attacker. When she was fairly sure she knew which Brick was the real one, Elie flung a loosely tied sack of cloth at him, throwing dirt and small rocks into his eyes She missed, but someone behind Brick got hit and started swinging wildly with his metal bat. Elie heard the satisfying sound of metal against flesh and Brick fell.

Elie's left eye was swelling up, so she closed it and dove back into the fight. She hadn't planned to get hit in the face, knowing it would throw off her depth perception just enough to put her in danger. Shade had the gun in his hand again and was aiming at Elie. She dodged behind a mass of bodies as the roar of gunfire filled the room. Someone fell and Elie barely got out of the way in time as Razor, Elie's knife fighting teacher, fell clutching her shoulder and howling in pain.

There were only a few people up now, three thugs, Elie, and Shade. She didn't see her friends, but a quick glance at the spot they used to be at showed cut ropes. They'd gotten out, good.

Elie got new knives in her hands, the other one had been lost when she hid from the gun. In one arm she held a butcher's knife and in the other a boning knife. Very good blades, though maybe not the ones she would have picked. A throwing knife would have been better.

The thugs were blocking the door, so Elie went after Shade, chucking the boning knife at him before he could get a clear shot at her. He dodged, though he didn't have to. Her knife lodged in the desk in front of him. But it gave her time to throw three of the dirt wads in his face. She was rewarded this time as he cursed and tried to rub the dirt out of his eyes. In that time she ran forward and put her free knife at Shade's neck. "Don't move." She said, her good eye flicking to Shade, then the thugs, then back again. The three men were backing away, careful not to step on the groaning people on the floor.

"Good work, Mouse." Shade said, smiling. His eyes were closed, but she could see the tears streaming down his face as his eyes tried to wash the dirt out. "Hell, maybe you are worth keeping around. We would have to punish you of course, but after this? I think it would be worth it."

"I'd rather die than work for you guys again." Elie turned, forcing Shade to kneel so her knife could rest more easily against his neck.

"Pity. You really should have accepted my offer." Shade snapped his fingers and William Dunbar walked into the room. Elie stared at him for a moment, not believing her eyes. He couldn't really be William... right? Or Shade had lied to him. William and she didn't get along, but he wouldn't work with criminals to get back at her.

"William, get her off of me." Shade said. But William didn't attack her. He shot purple lightning out of his hands and watched the three thugs fall.

"XANA..." Elie cursed. Of course this was his work... but why? What did he gain from this? William turned and shot the lightning at Shade, forcing Elie to back away.

"Sarah." William/XANA turned to Elie as Shade fell. "What will you do now?"

"What?" She couldn't have heard him right... could she?

"What will you do now, Sarah? Will you go back to your pretend life at school? Your friends have seen what you really are now. They will want nothing more to do with you. You know it is true." Elie remained silent, not wanting to listen to him. "Will you go to your Simmons? Tell him what happened and have him relocate you? You could, i suppose, but then you will be leaving the only link you have to your father. You could run, but that's the same as going to Simmons."

Elie felt the crushing weight of despair. He was right... All of it was right. What could she do? "I... I want to make sure Odd and the others are alright."

XANA nodded and motioned to the door. When Elie left, he fallowed. Odd and her friends were in the main room of the factory, outside of the elevator. She could hear them, but she didn't let them see her.

"Elie put us all at risk." Ulrich said, glaring at Odd. "You heard what she said. We were just there to help her act."

"That's not true!" Odd practically yelled. "She cares. She gave us the knives to free ourselves with."

"She dropped them." Jeremie said, glaring. "After she brought the fight over to our corner. She used us as bait to distract some of those people and left us. The knives just fell out of her pocket."

"She dropped them so we could get free." Odd said sharply.

"Why didn't she warn us then?" Ulrich yelled. "She had plenty of chances to warn us about those guys and she didn't. She always avoided it when we asked to many questions."

"She said she was in trouble. And she said she couldn't talk about it."

"How do you explain that look she gave us?" Yumi spoke up and Elie looked down. Hearing Yumi argue against her hurt more than she'd thought. "It was cold, just like that Shade guy."

"I've heard enough..." Elie said, slipping back down stairs. Her arms crossed over her chest and Elie leaned on the wall. "I guess there isn't a place for me back there anymore."

"Odd defended your actions." XANA said. Elie didn't look up at him. Knowing that XANA controlled William like that bothered her.

"It won't last. What about you?" she asked softly. "You sent them the letter, and I'm guessing you've been controlling William all day. You told them about my friends. Why?"

"I had hoped your Shade would kill some of them. I wouldn't let him kill Aelita, but I don't need the others anymore."

"You could have done that any number of other ways."

"True." XANA said, nodding. "I wanted you to come back to Lyoko with me."

Elie laughed bitterly. So that was it... "Why would I do that?"

"To learn about your past, if you still cared about it. Mostly to protect your friends. It's... mutually beneficial."

"I fail to see how anyone gains from my return to Lyoko."

"You will finally be free of the humans chasing you. You'll return to the work your father gave you, and you will get your memories of him back if that's what you desire. You can silently protect your friends."

"And what do you get?"

"I get the power you stole from me back, and I'll get the rest of my code."

"There's more to it, isn't there?"

"You were made to be my check, Sarah. But You have things I want. The best way for me to get them is for you to be on Lyoko."

"So we'll be fighting each other on there?"

"Yes. But I can handle you."

Elie looked up the stairs where she could still hear her friends fighting with Odd. She could never go back to them. She could run, keep whatever it was XANA wanted away from him, start anew somewhere else. But they'd find her again if she left.

"Fine. But I want you to do a return trip to before you let Shade know where I was."

"Of course." XANA smiled and motioned for Elie to lead the way to the scanners. XANA went to the computer room and Elie got into the scanner. "Good by Odd." she said softly. The machine whirred to life and when Elie opened her eyes, she was in the mountain region of Lyoko. There was a tower not too far away. It would do as a home for now.