Author's Note: I do not own any part of Code: Lyoko, the show characters, or anything else. The only things within that I claim as my own are the created characters Aurora & Spire Xion, Treg Zorl, and Axel Blade.

Darkness Upon the Horizon

Aurora smiles when Odd leaves his room, cheeks still flushed from her bursting in on him. "Sorry 'bout that." Aurora says and hugs him.

"No problem." Odd holds his arm out for her, and she takes it. "You DID startle me, though." Aurora just laughs and rests her head against his shoulder.

Treg knocks on Milly and Tamiya's door. He'd promised both the girls that they would all go together, now he stood outside their door in a semi-formal white suit. Milly opens the door in a dress of varying shades of red. Treg bows and offers the girl his arm. "What's taking Tamiya?" he asks, trying to peek around the door.

"She'll be out in a sec." Milly blocks Treg's view. "Just hold on."

"If it takes much longer, we'll be late!" Treg says and Tamiya emerges from behind the door.

"Well, what do you think?" she spins around for Treg to see. He gapes in awe at the beauty of Tamiya's grey dress.

Spire shuffles his feet pass the 'bouncer' that had just been hired as Jim's assistant. "Spire Xion, I assume." the new faculty says.

"Huh?" Spire looks closely at the man's face.

"You know, Sissy doesn't really care about you. Just like Nicolas and Herb. It's the same with them. What a charming girl, that Sissy is." the assistant stares directly into Spire's eyes. "You are just one of her pawns. Nothing more." Spire shakes his head and enters the auditorium, not remembering what the man had said. The man laughs and sees the next group entering: Jeremy & Aelita, Aurora & Odd, and Ulrich & Yumi. "Everything is not as it seems. Old enemies know deeper secrets than they reveal. Secrets held within our own hearts kept from our loved ones." He whispers as the six walk past. Aurora looks at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asks, but the man ignores her and thinks about this next triplet.

"He has special plans for you, traitor." Treg guides Milly and Tamiya into the auditorium, one on each arm. He looks questionly at the man and leads his dates far away from him. As the last of the students enter, the new faculty hand closes and locks the back door. He looks about and leaves towards the back of the stage, removing his black leather jacket. Behind the stage, Jim tosses him his bag of clothes.

"There's a curtained off area by the door back here. Change and be quick about it, Axel." Jim tells his assistant and enters the dance area. Axel quickly changes into his red silk shirt, red silk pants, and adds his favorite touch: his signature red-gold necklace. "Master, your plan is fully ready?" he asks the curtains softly. A black-ish-purple fog slowly drops from the above light. "So, you want it on the Xions, the traitor, and who else?" Axel looks into the fog and nods. "Ok, I've got it." he leaves the curtained area and the fog streaches to cover the floor up a foot. Axel makes his way through the dancing mass and finds each of his targets, placing a jewel from his necklace into each of his target's pockets. It took him not five minutes to get the first eight, but he had to sneak around for the last three. They had been avoiding him all night, and he'd finally developed a plan to get them. Silently the fog conceales him fully and he is able to sneak upon the final three. At last his Master's Jewels were in place. Nothing should be able to stop them now.

With the closing of the dance, the weekend is upon the students once again. Jeremy, Aurora, Odd, and Aelita walk to the factory, wanting to return Aelita back to Lyoko before anything bad happened. "Did any of you notice something strange about that new guy?" Aurora asks once they reach the factory.

"Strange? What do you mean?" Odd looks at Aurora.

"He said something about old enemies and deep secrets." Aurora explains.

"I heard him too. And he said something to Treg about being a traitor..." Aelita starts.

"You don't think that new guy has something to do with XANA, do you?" Jeremy turns around, looking at his friends.

"I'm not sure. He might just be a little crazy. But to be sure, we should check for an activated tower." Aurora says. Jeremy nods and slides down the rope to the elevator with Aelita.

"Do you really think the new teacher is working for XANA?" Odd asks, walking Aurora back into the city, taking the long way.

"I don't know. But we need to be careful." Aurora wraps her arms around his waist and leans on Odd's shoulder for the walk back to school.