Mary did her best not to drum her fingers against her Navskid's controls. It was downright agonizing to wait for the answers now that they were so close. Jeremy had not been able to create pictures of the duo inside the Guardian she had found, but either of them could very well be Daphne or Charlie's older sister Alice.

However, getting the duo back would be difficult; despite of their limbo they were under X.A.N.A.'s influence, so they had to be quick in returning to Lyoko before they would manage to destroy their Navskids and disappear — or at worst get someone else trapped in the Digital Sea as well.

Because of the huge risk, only a part of the group was now onboard the Skidbladnir; if something happened, they would not lose everyone. Only Mary, Eleonora, Sophie and Skidbladnir's driver, Odd, were onboard. The others waited at the lab, anxious and hoping for the best.

Surprisingly, despite of the monsters, capturing the Guardian, destroying it and now transporting the duo that was unconscious but still under X.A.N.A.'s influence was the easiest part. The hardest part was getting them out of X.A.N.A.'s possession, but even that finally worked out when Jeremy got his hands on the needed controlling codes and changed the program that had freed William on the first time to use them.

Only then Mary could breathe and look at the blond girl who now lay on the floor of the Desert Sector's Way Tower. They could not tell if it was Daphne or Alice — both had been blond the last time they had been seen — but the boy in Ice Sector's Way Tower was unknown to everyone. Although, reason said that this could be one of the twins who disappeared around the same time as Alice and Daphne. Nevertheless, they would not know anything until either of them would wake up.

The boy woke up first. He sat up, eyeing Ulrich, Odd and Sophie, who were in his tower, leery.

Knowing that neither of her comrades was particularly diplomatic especially with strangers, Sophie took over the matter when it became clear that the boy would not say a word. "Who are you?"
The boy frowned without saying anything.
"Just say something now," Odd snarled.
"Odd, don't," Sophie hissed. "Don't mind him; he's got a fire under his tail."
The boy's forehead got even deeper creases.
"Jeremy? Are you sure that he's not under X.A.N.A.'s control anymore?" Ulrich asked.
"Completely," Jeremy answered.
The boy reacted to this by looking up and cocking his head a little. Then he turned to look at the trio in front of him and spoke in English, "I have no idea what you're saying."
Ulrich and Odd did not hide their surprise, but Sophie seized the information she got immediately and switched languages. "It's okay. I know English."
The boy's eyebrows rose for a blink of an eye but otherwise he did not show a sign of surprise. "Who exactly are you?"
"I'm Sophie. Those two are Odd and Ulrich," Sophie presented. The boy snorted, amused, but Sophie ignored it. "Who are you?"
"I'm Alex," the boy answered. He looked around himself a little again. "Who was that invisible talker, by the way? It didn't sound like X.A.N.A."
"That was Jeremy, one of us," Sophie told.
"Okay... The name doesn't tell anything," Alex remarked.
"I don't think you've met any of us," Sophie stated. "Listen, I understand that these questions are coming suddenly, but what can you tell about how you ended up here into the virtual world?"
Alex scratched his forehead. "Good question. It's been a while, that much I do know." He paused. "How do I know that I can trust you?"
"We're fighting against X.A.N.A., and judging from the fact that we found you in a bubble created by it, I suppose that you're not on its side," Sophie remarked.
Alex shrugged, now clearly perplexed. "It did say that my brother and I would be on its side, but I haven't seen anyone else than Daphne ever since ending up here... What, is the name familiar?"
"Daphne... The blond girl with orange clothes, correct?" Sophie asked.
"Precisely," Alex answered, guarded. "What do you want of her?"
"We have been looking for her," Sophie explained. "She is the sister of one of our friends and we have believed that she got trapped here years ago too." She raised her head and said in French, "Jeremy, tell Mary."
"Got it," Jeremy replied.
Mary. That name, on the other hand, was familiar to Alex; Daphne had spoken of her and hoped that she had not ended up into this world too. "All right... I think I can trust you. Have you run into Axel, I mean my brother? Looks pretty much like me, or at least he did when I last saw him, I mean before I ended up here."
Sophie shook her head. "Unfortunately we have not, but if he's somewhere out here too, we'll find him for sure."
Alex nodded. "Okay... Okay, thanks... I guess." He looked around himself again. "Can one get out of here somewhere?"
"We could materialize you — and Daphne — back to Earth," Sophie told. "Do you know how long you have been here?"
"No idea," Alex stated. "Very long."
Sophie nodded. "What day is the last one you remember spending on Earth?"
Alex frowned. "I think it may have been 14th of October... Or 15th. Or 13th. Something like that."
"Which year?" Sophie asked.
"Um... 1989?"
Sophie looked at the floor for a while to gather her courage. "Today is 31st March, 2005."
Alex laughed. "Very funny."
"No. I'm serious. You and your brother disappeared almost 16 years ago on the other side of the canal. This virtual world is maintained by a supercomputer that is located in France." Sophie took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but there is most likely little left of the life you and your brother had. X.A.N.A. has taken almost everything feasible out of the rest of us who have been trapped here for years."
Alex stared at the girl in front of him, incredulous. Then he nodded and looked at the floor. "Okay."

After that, he said nothing more.

"Mary, we have new information," Jeremy said.
"What have you found out?" Mary asked.
"According to the boy, we found Daphne."

All the speculation of whether or not she was right ended immediately. Mary looked at the girl lying in front of her — Daphne — and breathed, "Thank you, Jeremy."
"Finally," William said quietly.

When Daphne woke up, she was surprised by a familiar-looking girl who hugged her before she had the time to recognize her properly and called her by her name.

She realized who was by her side when she heard the words, "Welcome back, sister dear."

All the years' hopes of Mary not getting taken away from her family shattered.

Still she was happy while hugging her long-missed sister.

At the same time, as Jeremy searched feverishly for further information on Axel Casterwill, who was most likely trapped somewhere out there as well, while waiting that the new addition to their group would recover from their long unconsciousness, X.A.N.A. prepared the next step of its long-term plan.
"The Lyoko Warriors are predictable, I am not. Soon, they will cry more than they think I am crying," it chuckled in its dark hideout no one would ever find it from.

It knew that it would soon get what belonged to it.

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