(A/N) Thanks for the review Starlight Girl, and I guess that's what everybody would expect her mother to be that kind of way. I just beat everyone else to the punch. Any who, welcome back to Dedoko Lyoko! This is still Act 1, so, don't be asking for Act 2 for a bit. I'll let ya know when it's Act 2, or any other Act basically. In the mean time, sorry I've been taking so long to update. I've been very sick lately, but healthy enough to type at least. But you don't care what I have to say, you're here for the fic!

Dedoko Lyoko

By Dark Magician Boy

Act 1, Chapter 2: Growing up on the Run

"Where are we daddy?" Aelita asked. It was one of the very few words she knew at the time, since she was four years old.

Franz looked up through the window as the search light passed over the house.

The government wanted him for some more work, but he didn't want to go back. But the problem was, what government wanted, the government got.

It passed over again, not seeing his face peeking out of the basement window. He, Tia, and Aelita were hiding in the basement cellar.

"We're at the bottom of our house cause we don't want the bad men to find us," Tia said in her baby voice, and Aelita looked exited.

"Is it a game?" she asked excitedly.

"Um, yes. And we have to stay as quiet as possible until the bad men go away," Franz said, and Aelita put her finger to her lips and nodded.

"Do we win anything?" she asked excitedly in a whispered voice.

"Um, yes! We get to go on a trip to the mountains for a while," Tia said, and Franz looked at her.

"The government would never look for you there. Not as much technology up there," she said, and he nodded in agreement.

He had told her the full story by now. How he had worked in the government, how he had quit, how he had run…

They leaned against the wall, listening as the agents bashed through the house, looking for Franz.

"We should probably just move to the mountains for a while," Franz decided.

"A year at the most," Tia said, and Franz nodded.

"A year in the mountains. Sound fun Aelita?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Shh! The bad men are still looking for us!" Aelita whispered, and she leaned harder against the wall.

Tia laughed as quietly as possible and picked up Aelita, hugging her softly and tossing around the pink hair that had started to grow on Aelita's head.

Video Diary Log 5

We have packed up everything and are about to head off to the mountains in a few minutes.

I will not be able to come to my lab while we are gone, so I can't make any diary logs for quite a while.

If anybody finds this video diary while I am absent, please, leave this lab be. Forget that you ever saw it, and never come back.

"Mommy, can you put in another video?" Aelita asked, still looking up at the credits at the TV.

"Sure. What do you want to watch?" she asked, looking back at her.

"The one about the goblin and the princess!" she said happily, and her mom pulled back into her seat, pulled out The Princess and the Goblin video, and put it into the VCR.

"I swear, that little gizmo of yours has kept Aelita quiet on these car trips of ours," Tia said as Aelita's movie started on the screen in the middle of the car.

Aelita leaned forward to watch, and listen through her headphones.

Franz just smiled as he drove further through the heavy snowstorm.

Not many people lived up here. It was a nice cabin, and pretty big. Very secluded, it was the only one in the area.

The real estate agent didn't even ask why they had bought the cabin so quickly, only that he got a lot of money out of it.

They drove for another two hours or so, and then they came to it.

It was over next to the base of a mountain, and looked pretty cozy against all of this snow.

They sped the car up through the snow, and clicked the garage opener the agent had given them.

The garage struggled under the weight of the snow, but when it opened to the correct angle, the snow piled off, and the garage opened with ease.

They parked the car in the garage, and pulled out all of their luggage, and ran into the lodge.

It was pretty cold inside, but when Tia found the fireplace, and Franz found all of the light switches, it was very warm.

They unpacked, and a few hours later, the moving van arrived, and their furniture was brought in, and paced about the house in a nice fashion.

"Be careful with that computer!" Franz said cautiously as they carried his high powered computer through the house.

"Where do you want it?" one of the moving men asked gruffly.

"Um… Put it in the room left of the front hallway. No, not that room, the other one. The one with all the books. That's right," Franz instructed, and they stared at him confused, and moved it into the correct room.

Other then a few cold areas where the ventilation didn't reach, it was perfect. A perfect little hiding place away from the world.

XXX

"Do you see mommy?" Aelita asked as she ran around the field of snow happily.

"Don't go too far sweetheart!" Tia called after her, and she stood next to Franz, enjoying a cup of cocoa.

Aelita rolled the ball further around the field as it grew in size, and she put it in another spot, starting another ball, and putting it on top of the larger ball.

She started another ball as Franz made his way inside, and to his computer.

"I need to finish this program tonight," he said, typing on some more keys as an eye symbol came up on the screen.

Franz sighed. His new XANA program was very new, and even though it was only a security program, it was bossing everything on his computer around.

"XANA, what's wrong now?" he asked into the computer's microphone, and text appeared on the screen.

I found some more viruses sir they read.

"And your point is?" Franz asked, typing more hastily.

Your program is complete

"Wonderful," Franz said, and he reached into a box atop the computer.

Inside was a warm, giant, pink pearl. It glowed in the whiteness of the snow outside, and Franz focused on the center.

In the center was a chip with XANA's symbol on it.

"I don't approve of you putting your mark on the chip, but thank you for finishing it," Franz said. The artificial intelligence stayed quiet.

The safest place for the program was with Tia. The chip contained override sequences that could take control of any system, which would be helpful in case XANA ever got any bugs.

Besides, tomorrow was Christmas Day, and it would be the perfect thing to give to her. He'd tell her there was a program concealed within it at least.

He attached a necklace to the ring around it, and placed it in a box on a velvet cushion. Closing the box, he wrapped it in scarlet paper, and tied it with pink ribbon.

Then he retrieved Aelita's present from the closet.

It was a doll. A doll of that Mr. Pück character that appeared in A Mid-Summer's Night Dream. Tia had gotten Aelita attached to it.

He placed the doll in a yellow box, and wrapped it up with a green paper and a velvet ribbon. After that, he took both to the Christmas tree, and placed them evenly under the branches.

He was walking back to the door so he could go back to Aelita and Tia. But then he saw the text on the computer monitor.

Don't I get a present sir?

"Oh, well, I'm sorry XANA, but I can't give you one. You're not real," he said, and he left XANA to be with Aelita and Tia.

And words appeared on the monitor as he left.

Not real…..

XXX

"Come on mommy, daddy! Get up! It's Christmas!" Aelita squealed happily, jumping up and down on their bed.

Tia looked at the alarm clock. It read 5:00 A.M.

"Hmm. She let us sleep in this year," Tia said, trying to look at Franz through the fuzziness in her eyes.

"Come on, let's go already," Franz said, standing up and putting some clothes on, and Tia did the same as Aelita ran around the room exited.

She ran out the door ahead of them, and they walked down after her.

"Santa came! Santa came, Santa came!" Aelita screamed excitedly, picking up all of her toys and trying to play with them all at once.

The morning progressed to when Tia opened the box with the necklace.

"Oh Franz, it's beautiful," she said, putting it around her neck.

"I placed a computer chip with a program inside it that can override anything, and I knew the safest place was with you," Franz said, and Tia hugged him.

"I'll keep it safe then," she said, fingering the necklace.

And then Aelita opened her present.

"Oh, he's so cute. What should I call him?" Aelita asked, lifting the doll out of the box and hugging it.

"What about Mr. Pück? It means goblin," Franz said, and she nodded.

"Do you like him?" Tia asked, leaning down and picking her up.

"Oh thank you mommy!" she said, hugging Tia softly, not asking that it was actually Franz that had given it to her.

Meanwhile, XANA had loaded himself into the monitor and was watching the happy family from the computer room.

And then the words not real passed through his thoughts again, as he continued to stare at the happy family on a Christmas morning.

And then he said something on the screen, but it vanished with him when he went back inside the computer.

I wish to go to the real world

XXX

Sir XANA interrupted as Franz wrapped up his work.

"Yes XANA?" Franz asked, putting the computer speakers in the box. They were moving back to the suburbs in a few weeks.

The scanners in your lab. They can be used to digitize things into my world XANA asked.

"Yes. Once your world is created, that's where you'll live of course," Franz said, not thinking where this was going.

Can they be used to materialize virtual objects?

"Well, I don't see why not," Franz said.

What about me?

Franz stared at the sentence for a few minutes, then laughed some.

"XANA, you can't come to the real world, that's that," Franz said.

Why not? XANA pushed.

"It just couldn't be done. You'd have no physical form. You'd be a, a, I don't know, a ghost of some kind," Franz said.

But I want to go to the real world! XANA pressed, and Franz stared at the monitor.

"XANA, are you threatening me?" he asked.

If it comes to that, yes

"XANA, I just can't allow you to come. You'd be emotionally unstable with whatever body the scanner gave you," Franz said.

And then his computer started spouting off sparks.

"XANA, calm down!" Franz said.

No, NO! I will come to the real world! I want to rule it all! He screamed in the computer.

"Have you checked to see if you don't have any viruses?" Franz asked, and XANA told him he didn't have any viruses.

I am running efficiently

"Well, just in case, your going through a de-fragmentation," Franz said.

Oh no. Please, no, not de-fragmentation

"Would you prefer de-resolution?" Franz threatened. "I know you may be a valuable program, but I can easily write another one!"

XANA thought on this, and gave his answer.

Commence with the de-fragmentation he said, but inside the computer, he was eliminating the de-fragmentation program, and replacing it with a doppelganger program. This program would not do anything to him.

In his artificial mind, he thought.

I will get to the real world. And to show that pompous Franz what I can really do, I'll take control of it. The world will know and fear the name of XANA!

Back in the real world, Franz activated what he thought was the de-fragmentation program on XANA, and walked back to the kitchen. Today was Aelita's birthday.

Tia squirted red icing lace on a pink frosted velvet cake.

"Aelita's going to love this. Velvet cake is her favorite!" Tia said, writing Happy 5th Birthday Aelita! in green icing.

A few minutes later, Aelita ran inside with Mr. Pück in her arms, knowing it was her birthday.

She saw the cake on the counter, and jumped up on a chair, ready for a piece.

"Happy birthday Aelita!" the two of them said, and Aelita helped herself to some cake, pretending to give Mr. Pück some.

XxX

(A/N) So, yeah, I showed you the birth of XANA and how he became evil, some memories of Aelita, and does anybody recognize that necklace of Tia's? Please review!