I do not own anything in this story.

Anthea Schaeffer wakes up when the sun's rays go through the blinds and land on her face. She opens her eyes and leans up not recognizing anything in the room. She turns her head to see her daughter sleeping softly when everything that happened the day before came back to her. She smiles down at her daughter and stares at her daughter for a few seconds before getting out of bed. She puts on her robe and exits the room quietly shutting the door behind her. She walks down the hall into the living room where Janet Van Dyke was drinking a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper at the kitchen table.

"I honestly thought no one reads the paper." Anthea speaks up as she walks into the kitchen.

Jan looks up from the paper and smiles, "Yeah, I usually don't, but Hank has my tablet for some science notes he needed to look over." She gets up from her seat at the kitchen table setting down the paper and the cup of coffee. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Just some water." Anthea tells her before sitting down on the chair on the other side of the coffee table. "I'm a bit surprised that Aelita has some older friends."

Jan laughs lightly as she grabs a glass from the cabinet. "Actually, we have barely hung out as two girls. She's actually best friends with my cousin, and she has another friend who lives here with me as well." Jan explains as she sets the glass on the counter and opens the fridge.

Anthea was a little surprised by the explanation. "Wow, I am meeting more of daughter's acquaintances than her friends."

Jan grabs the pitcher of filtered water and pours the water into the glass. Jan shrugs her shoulders in response. "Don't think too much of it. Things were crazy and hectic yesterday especially after Aelita lost her boyfriend before meeting you." Jan explains not realizing she made a mistake. Jan puts the pitcher back into the fridge and turns around to face Anthea and stops when she sees Anthea's shocked face. "Oh no, I shouldn't have said that." Jan sets the glass of water down on the table and sits down on the chair opposite of Anthea. 'How do I fix this?' She thinks trying to think of a way to avoid explaining the events that happened yesterday.

"My daughter had a boyfriend." Anthea mutters before looking down at the table in shock. "What happened to him?"

Jan sighs and turns her body away from Anthea. "I said too much, but if you really want to know you need to ask Aelita. She should be the one explaining everything to you not me."

Anthea sighs, "You're right." She looks back up at Jan and notices how uncomfortable Jan looked. "I have so much to catch up with my daughter, but she never mentioned anything about losing her boyfriend."

"I should have figured." Jan mutters not liking the fact she revealed something she shouldn't have. "The events leading up to Aelita finding you weren't easy for any of us."

Anthea sighs and grabs the glass of water. She looks down at the glass and decides to change the subject. "Who is your cousin that my daughter is friends with?"

Jan smiles in appreciation for Anthea to change the subject. "His name is Danny Fenton. He and Aelita met when Hydra attacked her old school in France. He saved her and her friends from Hydra, and due to some circumstances, your daughter chose to join the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."

Anthea blinks a couple times. "Did you just say Xavier Institute?" She asks carefully.

Jan nods and grabs her small cup of coffee. "Yep, both of them go there."

Anthea leans back on her chair and sighs, "So she lives at a place for special people…" Anthea shakes her head misinterpreting what the place was for. "What did she do to get into that place?"

Jan smirks, "Sorry, but that's her story." She takes a sip of her coffee and leans back a bit. She lowers her cup and looks up in thought. "I will say one thing though. Aelita's friends are some of the greatest people she has ever made. She's lucky to have people like them."

"You're not saying that to protect your cousin right?"

Jan waves it off and laughs lightly, "No, I actually met all of them. They're very good kids or teens if you want to be technical about it."

Anthea smiles, "That's good to hear. Could you tell me more about your cousin?"

Jan sets her cup down and looks up in thought. "Well, he and Aelita have been friends ever since they met. He helped her get settled down here in New York. She normally would only talk to him until Stark decided to move your husband's equipment for Lyoko from the factory to one of his buildings. After that she's talked to all of us just fine except Stark, but she doesn't trust him for some strange reason."

"It's because I feel like he wants to use dad's work for his own personal gain." Aelita says as she and Yumi walks into the living room.

"Stark isn't that bad." Jan counters not really believing those words.

Aelita and Yumi roll their eyes and sit down on the other two chairs. "You know as much as we do that Stark can get a bit overbearing." Yumi says as she crosses her arms over her chest. "All he did was rebuild the supercomputer and the scanner, but if he actually had the time to study the information on Lyoko, he could come up with so many possibilities for technology."

"That's only scratching the surface." Aelita points out. "Stark's a genius, and most people don't know what his mind is capable of when he uses information he knows little about."

"I'm glad he hasn't gone to Lyoko yet." Yumi mutters gratefully.

"That's because I threatened to take Lyoko somewhere else if he does go on Lyoko."

Jan nods her head agreeing with Aelita's threat. "He needs it. I'm just glad he doesn't go crazy when he doesn't get what he wants. Hank makes sure Stark doesn't get his hands on the Pym particles for good measure."

"Let's stop worrying about Tony." Yumi says wanting to change the subject. "How are things at the Institute Aelita?"

Aelita sighs, "Things are good."

"I'm sensing a 'but.'" Jan says not liking the down look Aelita was giving.

Aelita glances at her mother who was looking at her with curious shining in her eyes. "Professor X and I have started to come with disagreements on how things are going." Aelita admits. She looks at Yumi then back at her mom. "Mom, there's something you need to know."

"Aelita, I know there's a lot you need to tell me, but…"

"No mom, this is something that needs to be said before going back to the institute." Aelita stands up from her seat and walks into the living room with her mother getting up and following her.

Anthea watches her daughter as Aelita brought her hands up making two holo-screens appear before her. She watches in shock as Aelita starts moving things around on the two holo-screens and hears the television turn on behind Aelita and the lights in the kitchen turn off behind her. Anthea looks at Yumi and Jan and widens her eyes to see Yumi and Jan sitting there with empty hands. "Did one of you turn on the tv, or did it turn 'on' on its own?" Anthea asks not wanting to believe her daughter did it.

"We didn't do anything." Yumi says putting her hands up to show that they were empty.

Anthea hears the phone in the house ring, and Jan gets up and grabs the house phone hanging on the wall. "Hello?" Jan asks then turns her head to Aelita who was standing there with a holo-screen earpiece on her right ear. "It's for you Anthea."

Anthea blinks in confusion. "Who would know I'm…?" Anthea stops her question and turns her attention back to her daughter. She notices the holographic earpiece and asks, "Aelita, how are you doing this?"

Aelita removes her holo-earpiece and smiles sadly, "I can do this because I'm a mutant, mama."

"How did this happen?" Anthea asks as she walks closer to her daughter. She looks at the holo-screens in shock not completely processing everything.

"My powers started to show a couple days before Hydra attacked the school back in France." Aelita admits keeping her composer on the situation she was putting her mother in. "My friends and I were able to escape before Hydra had control of the school. I probably would be in Hydra's captivity doing their work if Danny wasn't there."

Anthea turns around quickly and stares at Jan with wide eyes. "Your cousin is just like daughter?"

"Well…" Jan trails off trying to figure out how to explain the situation. "Yes, he's a mutant, but he has different powers."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Mom," Aelita starts getting her mother to turn to look at her, "Danny's powers are more ghost related, and the others at the institute have different powers from the rest of us."

Anthea opens her mouth then shuts it trying to process the information her daughter dropped on her. "I need to lie down." Anthea mutters as she walks away to the guest bedroom.

Aelita watches as the door gets slammed shut and winces at the noise. Yumi gets up from her seat and asks, "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I hope so." Aelita whispers as she makes her holo-screen disappear.

"You left the television 'on.'" Jan points out. Aelita snaps her fingers turning the television off immediately. "Ok…I wish I knew you could do that."

Aelita walks to the door of the guest bedroom and sighs, 'Mama, please accept me.'

Danny walks out onto the porch to see his girlfriend, Rogue, sitting on the steps in thought. He sits down next to her and says nothing leaving her to her thoughts. "It must be nice." Rogue mutters getting Danny to look at her in confusion. "Aelita has been reunited with her mother. It must be nice to be back together with her mother after so long."

Danny sighs having a small happy feeling in his gut. "Yeah, she deserves this." Danny admits giving a small smile.

"What happened back there?"

Danny looks out at the view of the pool and puts his legs out in front of him and his hands behind him. "Where do I even start?" He mutters putting his thoughts together of yesterday's events. "Aelita was able to find the missing parts of Jeremy's mind, but she didn't mention the time window we had. We were able to connect his mind back together, but Hydra decided to attack us when we least expected it."

Rogue gives Danny a sympathetic look and mutters, "Sounds rough."

"It was. I wasn't on Lyoko though. I left my cousin to watch the group on Lyoko while I tried to distract Hydra from destroying Stark's defenses he installed, and I was about to get back in the room when Tony activated the specific defenses to protect the supercomputer. Those defenses just happened to be ghost proof."

"Wow, guess that means yah had to fight then."

"Yeah, we fought Hydra and won, but Tony figured out that Hydra had an ulterior motive to invade Lyoko when we would least expect it." Danny tells her getting Rogue to widen her eyes in surprise. "When we got in the room, everyone but Aelita was in the room ready to fight, but something worse happened. Jeremy decided to stab Aelita in the back so she couldn't stop him from destroying the Cortex."

"What?" Rogue whispered in shock. "Her boyfriend stabbed her in the virtual world?"

Danny lightly nods his head then lowers it sighing in defeat. "I went in with Hawkeye, Jan, Maurice, and Rachel to stop Jeremy and the army we knew was waiting to invade Lyoko, and with Stark's help we stopped the army but not Jeremy." Rogue removes her glove from her right hand and intertwines her fingers with his left hand. Danny looks up at her and continues his story. "I was able to get to the room to save him, but Jeremy explained his condition to me. He was losing his memory, and he said that he went over all the possibilities, but nothing would be able to save his mind. I knew I couldn't make him leave so I left him."

Rogue releases his hand and removes her other glove from her left hand. She gets off the steps and kneels in front of Danny to see the sadness in his eyes. "Yah don't need to hold it in Sugarh."

"I know, but if the others find out they're going to smother Aelita with worry instead of gratitude. She just reunited with her mom and lost her boyfriend in the same day. I honestly don't even know if I should be happy or sad." He admits sighing in defeat.

Rogue puts both of her hands on his face and makes him look up at her. "Yah made a tough decision. Ah get that, but yah never lost anyone. Yah have the right to feel bad, but in the end yah won and found Aelita's mother. The others don't need to know what all happened unless Aelita wants them to know." She assures him.

Danny grabs both of her hands and smiles sadly, 'I can't let her know about the conversation. If she finds out that Aelita might have feelings for me, things can go bad again.' "Thanks Rogue."

"It's no problem Sugarh." Rogue pulls him into a kiss and sighs happily. 'Ah'm just glad yah made it back alive.'

The two were unaware of their friend Kurt Wagner hearing everything. Kurt watches the two kiss then walks away with Danny's story haunting his mind. He puts his hands in his pockets and sighs, 'Is it going to be as bad as that if our kind is truly discovered?' He wonders as he walks by Logan who notices Kurt's down mood.

Logan puts his hand on Kurt's shoulder and asks, "Is there something wrong, elf?"

Kurt glances at Logan and smiles sadly, "It's nozing you need to worry about Logan."

"Now why do I find that hard to believe?" Logan crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "What's bugging you kid?"

Kurt sighs in defeat. "I overheard Danny tell Rogue on vhat happened yesterday, and it got me wondering if it vill be zat bad for us once zey know about our secret."

Logan sighs at the situation knowing exactly what Kurt as fearing. 'It's already starting Charles. It won't be much longer until the others figure out that their lives will never get easy.' "I won't sugarcoat it. Things won't ever get easier Kurt, and I doubt our secret will be a secret much longer. You and the others need to be prepared for the worst, and truthfully, we don't know what that could be, but I doubt it will ever end."

"Will people always fear us?"

"Someone always fears something, Elf. In this case people fear what they don't understand. You remember how Half-pint felt when she was here her first couple weeks."

Kurt chuckles uneasily, "Yeah, I might have been a little too focused on getting her attention."

Logan smirks, "You might have, but you catch my drift. Nothing will be easy up ahead Nightcrawler. You better make the most of it before you're too busy to live a normal life. I know I would have."

"Thanks Logan." Kurt turns around and walks away in thought.

"Glad I could help." Logan mutters watching the teleporter walk away. 'You better make the right choices, Elf. You're only in the easy times before the storm comes. Life won't be easy for anyone when our secret is out.'

Aelita walks up to the guest room with a plate of scramble eggs, buttered toast, and two small sausages and fazes through the door. She looks at her mom and sighs when she sees her mom staring out the window while sitting on the only chair in the room. "Mom…"

Anthea glances back at her daughter then turns her attention back outside. "Aelita, what are all of your mutant powers?" Anthea asks.

Aelita walks over to her mom and sets the plate of food down on the desk near the window. She gets down on her knees and grabs her mom's right hand. "Mom, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. My mutant powers allow me to access anything electronic to a certain extent. I am a living human hacker that can hack anything without being traced, but I never hack anything unless I actually have to." She makes a holo-screen appear in front of her mother and brings up a picture that her father put in the supercomputer. "Dad doesn't want us to waste our lives mom, and I plan to use my powers to protect people from those who abuse their power. It would be something dad would be proud of."

Anthea looks at the picture with a tear escaping her left eye. "You're right." Anthea mutters. "I just don't know how to process all of this."

"That's why I'm here to help mom." Aelita rubs her mother's palm of her hand getting Anthea to look at Aelita. "There is so much to tell you mom, but I needed to tell you about my powers in order to tell you about everything that happened after being stuck in Lyoko for over ten years."

Anthea grabs her daughter's hand with the hand her daughter was comforting her with and smiles gratefully at her daughter. "You have matured far beyond I could ever imagine." Anthea admits.

Aelita shrugs, "I had to in order to be a good example to the other students. A teacher has to be a good example after all."

Anthea's eyes widen in surprise. "You already have a job teaching?"

Aelita giggles at her mother's shock. "I teach the other mutants proper control of their powers mom. I don't teach anything else, but I do tutor the others that need help with electronics." She gets up and hugs her mom. "I'll tell you more about my life later mom, but we need to be leaving soon."

Anthea leans back from her daughter's hug. "Are we going to the Xavier Institute?"

Aelita releases her mom with a smile on her face. "Yep, Danny and the others are probably expecting us, and I don't want to keep them waiting." She grabs the plate of food and hands it to her mom who grabs it with a grateful smile. "You might want to eat and get ready. We don't need to keep the others waiting for us."

Anthea chuckles and nods her head. "You might be mature young lady, but I'm still your mother." She jokes getting Aelita to laugh lightly.

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind mama." Aelita leaves the room and sighs happily.

"I see things went well." Yumi says as she stops next to Aelita.

"Yes, and if you excuse me I have to make call." Aelita tells her friend before walking off to go talk with Danny about the situation.

Kurt walks out onto the front porch and sees Dawn tending to the plants in the front yard. He watches her with a small smile and leans his right shoulder against the door as he watches her. He watches as Dawn moves her hand out allowing a butterfly to land on her hand like it was normal. Dawn smiles at the butterfly and turns her attention to Kurt noticing the smile he was sporting. Kurt gets off the door and teleports right outside the small flowerbed she was keeping together in the front yard.

"Hey." Kurt decides to start out with.

"Hey Kurt, I see your mood is a bit mixed up this morning." Dawn encrypts getting him to become a little nervous. "It is strange to see you happy and sad at the same time though, but I guess the sad part might have something to do with us wondering what happened at the battle yesterday with our friends."

Kurt gulps and sticks his hands in his pockets. "Actually, I overheard Danny explain to Rogue vhat happened to zem yesterday."

Dawn turns to the butterfly and has it fly off before turning her attention back to Kurt. "I see. I'm guessing the situation wasn't good."

"You could say zat." Kurt mutters before rubbing the back of his nervously. "But it got me zinking about some dings."

"Hm," Dawn raises an eyebrow feeling curious about Kurt's thoughts, "you have my attention."

"Good, because I'm a nervous wreck trying to say zis." Kurt admits with a sheepish grin getting her to giggle lightly. He takes a deep breath and asks, "Dawn, vhat do you see when you see Danny and Rogue together?"

Dawn smiles genuinely at the question. "I see a piece of love a harmony going between them ever since I arrived." Her smile drops when something occurs in the back of her mind. "Although, I have been seeing a small shift every now and then from their aura whenever their relationship is interfered. It actually makes me a bit worried that something could happen to them."

Kurt blinks a couple times and mutters, "Ok, this might be a bit harder zan I was hoping."

"Why do you ask Kurt?" Dawn asks not hearing Kurt's mutter.

"After hearing Danny's story I started to vonder vhat our lives would be like once ve're out in the real world and not sheltered here at da institute." Kurt starts explaining.

Dawn looks at the Xavier Institute then out at the street leading away from the building. "I might have to start thinking about that stuff too." Dawn mutters feeling surprised that Kurt was thinking about it before she has. She looks back at Kurt and asks, "What were you thinking about specifically?"

"Honestly, da zoughts started vid me out zere vid people knowing our secret, but my zoughts started to drift off to you, and after talking vid Logan I vas zinking a lot about vhat I would do once I'm old enough to leave." Kurt looks Dawn in the eyes and says, "But my zoughts always drifted back to you." Kurt turns his image-inducer off and cups Dawn's right cheek with his left hand. "I couldn't stop zinking on how my life could be if you weren't zere in my life."

Dawn gasps in surprise at the confession and glances at the hand on her cheek. "Kurt, what did Danny say that is making you feel like this?" She asks not knowing how she should be feeling in the situation.

Kurt removes his hand from her cheek and sighs, "Danny said that Jeremy sacrificed himself to destroy the virtual world owned by Hydra."

Dawn closes her eyes and lowers her head. "I see. Aelita lost her boyfriend for good this time." She mutters not liking the idea of Aelita losing her boyfriend for a second time.

"Now you know why I vas zinking about zis stuff…about us." Kurt puts both of his hands on her shoulders getting her to look up at him in surprise. "Dawn, I never dated anyone before, and I know I can flirt vid girls sometimes."

Dawn grabs Kurt by his shirt and pulls him down for him to look at her directly in the eye. "You're lucky your aura is telling me more than you are." She tells him before smacking her lips against his.

"Hey Kurt, do you think you…could…?" Scott trails off when he sees the two kissing. "I think I'll leave you guys alone for now."

Kurt pulls away and looks at Dawn whose eyes were closed. Kurt watches as her eyes open up and look straight into his eyes. "Dawn…"

"Don't say anything Kurt, because I don't have much of an answer as to why I kissed you." She tells him honestly. "Your aura started to go crazy, and I knew something was up with you when you were trying to explain everything."

"Why did you do it then?"

"It felt right." Dawn lets go of his shirt and turns around. "Kurt, I lived out in the country and never experienced the feelings that I have for you."

"Zat makes two of us." Kurt admits as he pulls her into a hug with her back against his chest. "I'll admit zat I liked flirting vid Kitty, but you…I really don't know how to explain it."

"Then don't. Your aura has already done enough for me." Dawn tells him as she leans back a bit feeling a little comfortable against his chest and his aura. "Your aura has changed since we first met."

Kurt chuckles, "Well, things have changed since then." He looks up at the wall the frown when Johnny 13 came to his mind.

"Don't let Johnny cloud your thoughts Kurt." Dawn says before his thoughts could go any further.

"I won't, but vhere do we go from here?"

Dawn shrugs her shoulders. "I never been in a relationship before, but I'm certain we could make things work." She gets off of Kurt's chest and grabs his arms getting them off of her. She turns around to see Kurt's confused look and smiles, "We'll worry about where this could go later. Aelita should be getting here soon, and I believe Scott was out here earlier wanting your help."

Kurt gives her a small salute and smiles, "I'll see you later den." He teleports to the front door inside the institute and sticks his head of the front door. He gives her a smile then sticks his head back into the building heading off to find Scott.

Dawn puts her right hand over her heart and smiles, 'I hope things actually go well.' She sighs happily and runs her hands over a couple leaves of the plant in front of her.

"I'm still not sure about this." Rachel says as she makes an invisible field under Kitty and Evan so they could put up the banister that says 'Welcome Back.'

"Everything would be fine. You need to stop worrying Rachel." Kitty tells her friend as she reaches up to put the banister in place.

"Yeah man, you need to relax." Evan says.

Rachel crosses her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow. "You're telling the girl who is holding you two up with her invisible fields to chill?" She asks rhetorically getting the two to sweat nervously.

"Ok, we get it, but could you push us up a bit more so we don't tire ourselves out for trying to hang this up?" Kitty asks desperately.

Rachel raises the two up a bit more allowing them to get the banister in place without any worries. "That should do it." Evan says wiping some fake dust off his hands.

"Like you did much work." Rachel mutters bitterly. She lowers the two and walks away deactivating her powers in the process.

Evan and Kitty watch Rachel leave the room then look at each other shrugging their shoulders at the unasked question. They look up at the banner then at each other nodding in agreement that the banner looks good where they put. They turn to leave and continue walking just as Scott enters the room. "Hey, I see you guys didn't need Kurt's help after all." He says noticing the banner was already.

"Rachel was willing to give us a boost." Evan says as he and Kitty stop walking a few feet from Scott.

"Did you even get Kurt to help?" Kitty asks curiously crossing her arms over her chest. "I haven't seen him all day."

Scott gives them a smile. "I found him helping Dawn with the plants out front." He says leaving out what he actually saw. "Anyway, Jean needs you to help with the food." He tells Kitty before they could ask anything more about Kurt.

Kitty nods her head. "Ok, I'll see you guys later." She walks away leaving the two guys alone in the room.

"Is there anything else we need to do?" Evan asks Scott.

Scott shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. I'm just following orders from Jean since this idea is her and Stacy's idea."

"Oh yeah, we might want to find Stacy to see if we can help with anything else." Evan suggests pointing behind him though the only exit was in front of him.

"Hey Scott, Dawn said you needed my help." Kurt says as he walks over to the two teens.

Scott and Evan turn their attention to Kurt, and Scott smiles in appreciation. "Don't worry about it Kurt. Evan and Kitty were able to take care of it." Scott tells the teleporter. He crosses his arms over his chest. "Besides I thought you would be a bit busy with Dawn."

Kurt raises an eyebrow feeling confused by the last implication. "Vhat do you mean by zat?" Kurt asks curiously.

Scott gives Kurt and sly smiles and walks by Kurt saying, "Don't worry about it too much."

Evan and Kurt look at each other then back at Scott as he leaves them alone. "What was that about?" Evan asks his friend.

"I vish I knew." Kurt mutters unsure of what to think or act at the moment.

"Hey Evan," the two teens turn to their friend Matt as he walks up to them, "what's going on around here?"

"Wait, you don't know?" Evan asks. "I thought we told everyone that Aelita just reunited with her mom."

Matt's eyes widen in surprise. "Wait, she found her mom?!"

"Yep." Evan nods his head.

"Dude, that's great news man." Matt says putting his hands in his pockets.

"I know dude. Sorry that our trip to the skate park has to be canceled though." Evan says feeling sad that their trip had to be canceled.

Matt waves it off. "Are you kidding? This is a special occasion. I'm glad I didn't go with the other new mutants with Storm and Max to the museum of natural history or whatever we were supposed to go."

"Zey went to da beach." Kurt reminds the teen.

Matt blinks a couple times and sighs in defeat. "Now you tell me. Bobby told me we were going to the museum which wouldn't have been bad."

Kurt and Evan glance at each other then back at Matt. "Where have you been all this time then?" Evan asks raising an eyebrow.

"I've been wondering around cyberspace." Matt tells them without a care. "I was talking with Jackie and Inez catching up with them."

"Right, I forgot you said zat zey were your best friends back home." Kurt says snapping his fingers remembering that Matt mentioned those two friends of his back home.

"Yep, but enough about me, is there anything left that I can help with?" Matt asks.

"All we should have left to do is food, but the girls have that covered." Evan says pointing back at the kitchen.

Matt rubs his chin in thought. "Hm, what do you guys have planned for the Welcome Back Party for Aelita's mom?"

"I thought I told you guys not to go through with it." Danny says as he walks into the kitchen where the girls were cooking the food.

"Relax Danny. We're not making that much." Stacy assures her teacher as she rotates a ball of lemonade in the air. She sets the ball of lemonade into the two pitchers set on the table and smiles, "We're only making the specific snacking needs like: a 'welcome back' cake, chips, drinks, dipping sauces, fruit, and the normal snack platter."

"Hey Stacy, what did you guys want us to do with the special grill Jimmy made?" Scott asks as he walks into the kitchen with Jimmy and Poindexter behind him.

"It's not a special grill. It's just a grill that I made that will be safer for the environment. I didn't even enhance it to cook things faster." Jimmy protests.

"Just put it out on the back porch. We'll worry about the meat after Aelita and her mom get back." Stacy tells them before Jimmy could go into more detail.

"You got it." Scott says giving her a thumbs up.

"I would like to point out that this grill cannot be taken lightly." Poindexter says trying to give reason.

"We'll worry about the actual explanation later." Scott tells the genius before he could explain everything about the grill. He grabs both geniuses and leads them out of the kitchen before they could say anything else about the grill.

"Grilling meat after she gets here?" Danny asks turning his attention back to Stacy who laughs nervously.

Stacy rubs the back of her neck nervously and smiles uneasily, "You're willing to overlook all of this, right?"

"You better hope Aelita will be okay with this Stacy. If she isn't we're doubling your training." Danny warns her lifting two fingers up for her to get the meaning.

Stacy gulps and gives a crooked grin. "You got it Danny. Everything will be fine." She says as she gives him a thumb up. Danny nods his head and leaves the kitchen leaving Stacy and Jean alone. Stacy sighs in relief and puts her right hand on her head. "I am so doomed."

"It can't be that bad." Jean tries to reason.

Stacy looks at Jean and says, "Can't be that bad? Jean, Danny has put me through so much training these past couple weeks that I can barely feel my body. The only good news is that we haven't trained yesterday and today for good reasons, but if my training gets doubled I'm going to be a puddle of water, and I mean literally."

Jean giggles, "You can already transform into a puddle of water Stacy. I see this as an opportunity for you."

Stacy rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. "Whatever you say Jean, but this welcome back party will be just fine. Danny and Rachel are worrying over it too much."

Dawn looks up from her flowers and sees Danny's truck coming down the road. She smiles at the truck knowing who was inside the truck and walks out of the small garden she was working on for the institute. She walks over to the garage as the gate opens up for the truck to enter the facility. Dawn opens the garage door and leans against the wall as the truck goes up to the garage as the door finishes moving up. She watches the truck enter the garage and walks in after it ready to meet Aelita and her mom. She watches as the passenger door opens up and smiles as an older woman with pink hair come out of the vehicle.

Anthea turns around to see Dawn and smiles at the teen. "Hello, are you a student or something?" She asks not really sure on what she should ask.

"Mom, that's Dawn, and she's one of my friends." Aelita explains as she glances over the back of the truck.

"It is nice to meet you Mrs. Schaeffer. I see that you are happy to be reconnected with your daughter." Dawn says giving a small nod to the aura she sees around Anthea.

"Is it that obvious?" Anthea asks feeling a little compelled that Dawn was able to read her easily.

"Mom, Dawn can read people's aura and talk to animals." Aelita answers as she walks over to the two on the passenger side of the truck.

Anthea blinks a couple times in surprise. "Wait, I don't see how that is so special."

"I can physically talk to animals and understand everything they are saying, and the aura reading has been a special gift of mine since I was little." Dawn explains trying to clear up the woman's confusion.

Aelita nods her head when her mom looks at her. Aelita looks at Dawn and asks, "Why were you in the front yard Dawn? I thought the other new mutants would be messing around outside."

"Professor Xavier and Ororo has taken them out to the beach."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because everyone thinks it would be a great idea to throw a surprise party." Danny says as he walks into the garage with his hands in his pockets. He glances at Aelita's mom then at Aelita and smiles at the picture. "How is everything going?" HE asks as he walks up to her

"What, no 'hello' to your best friend?" Aelita asks sarcastically.

Danny waves it off. "It wouldn't be much of a 'hello' or 'welcome back' anyway, but it's cool you found your mom."

Aelita smiles and gives Danny a hug. "Thanks Danny." She pulls away and looks up with a confused look in her eyes. "Did you just say that the others were planning a surprise party?"

Danny sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "Yeah, Stacy and the girls believe that you should celebrate being back with your mother."

"That's sweet of them." Anthea says as she walks up to the two teens. "It seems you have some really caring friends."

Aelita gives her mom a crooked smile. "You could say that."

"Let's get this over with then." Danny mutters before leading the two into the building. None of them noticing Dawn already left to continue working on the plants in the front yard.

Later that night

Aelita stands on the second floor looking over the railing as her friends and family were talking on the first floor. "I see you're enjoying yourself Pinkie."

Aelita turns her head to see Logan walking up to her with a glass of water in his right hand. "I still don't understand why you call me that. I thought I grew out of the nickname." She admits.

Logan chuckles at her small complaint. "You keep telling yourself that, but you and Phantom have grown that much I can admit." He leans over the railing turning his eyes to the people on the first floor. "Why are you up here instead of down there?"

"I needed to get away from it." Aelita answers without a second thought. "I know my friends mean to be nice about this, but before I found my mom Jeremy sacrificed himself to destroy the virtual world Hydra had." Logan frowns and turns his head to Aelita. "Now I can never see him again."

Logan sighs as he sees the tears start to form on her eyes and pulls her into a comforting hug. "I'm not really one for doing this, but you have to pull through this Aelita. Things happen for a good reason. I should know. I've been through too much to believe it would go away."

"How do you get through it?" She mutters sadly.

Logan sighs, "Honestly, it helps that I have friends who are there for me even if I am way older than all of you."

"I think I'll take it from here Logan." Logan looks behind him and smiles when he sees Danny walking up to them. Logan releases Aelita allowing Danny to grab Aelita in a hug. "You can get through this Aelita."

Aelita squeezes Danny in a hug and asks, "Can we talk about this privately?" Danny nods his head and picks Aelita up bridal style. He walks away unaware of the three sets of eyes watching them leave from down below.

Kurt turns his head to Scott who looks back at him before turning his head to Anthea who was staring up at the top of the stairs. Kurt and Scott look at each other again and nod their heads at the unasked question.

Danny sits down on Aelita's bed as Aelita keeps her head on Danny's chest. He removes his right arm from under her legs and puts it around her as the tears fall down her face. He decides to keep his mouth shut and lets her do what she needed to do. Aelita grabs Danny's shirt and asks, "Danny, why did Jeremy think that there's something going on between us?"

Danny sighs and rubs her back with his left hand. "I honestly don't know. It could be that we hang out more than Rogue and I should." Danny admits not really sure how he could answer that question.

"How did you and Rogue get together?" Aelita decides to ask since she has not heard the story before.

"It was shortly after her powers activated. She was confused about her powers and was afraid of the X-men because of Mystique." Danny closes his eyes and sighs, "Mystique tried everything she could to make Rogue hate us. It would have worked too, but I was able to talk with Rogue calming her down before she could cause any damage."

"Wow."

Danny chuckles, "We got together not too long after that. We learned that she could touch me, and we connected because of it. Honestly, I'm happy that we're together."

"That's good to hear." Aelita mutters feeling happy that he was happy with Rogue. She looks up at Danny and sees him give her a sad smile. "Thanks for being here for me."

"No problem."

It has only been a few days, and I have already started to reconnect with my mom, and everything between us has been going well. She's been great to have back in my life. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay at the institute with me, but Jan allowed her to stay at her place until mom finds a new place to live. I'm going to spend quite a bit of my time with her, and once we get dad back together, we'll see if he is still alive after all this time. I really miss him, but being back together with my mom feels nice.

I really miss Jeremy, but my friends are here for me. Jeremy wants me to move on, and honestly my relationship with Danny is strong. Jeremy believed I was falling in love with Danny, but I do not know what to believe about that. What I do know is that my relationship with Danny will not change as long as he is dating Rogue. I wish the best for the both of them from the bottom of my heart.

"Aelita, we need to go to school!" Kitty yells up to Aelita.

"I'll be right down!" Aelita yells back.

"Hurry, you said you'll drive us in your new car!"

Aelita giggles happily as she shuts the small pink diary on her bed. She flips it over to see the picture of her and her mom on the back of the book. "Thanks mom." She puts the diary under her pillow and grabs her bag off her bed.

Well, I guess this will wrap things up for the Jeremy Arc for good. I hope you guys got some of the subtle hints of things that could be happening in the future. There was so much that I could have written, but none of it related with the story. This is why the party was mostly cut out. If I had added the party, this chapter would be over ten thousand words with most of it being stuff we did not need. I will admit adding Matt, Jimmy, and Poindexter were amongst the things that did need to be added, but I didn't want the chapter to be short either.

The next chapter is an introduction arc for another character joining the battle against the GKND, and I bet some of you would know who that is. The chapter will focus mainly on the character meeting some of the characters like Phantom and Angelic Code, but they will only be minor characters in this chapter. If you can guess who it is, then PM me, and I will let you know if you are correct or not.

R&R