Code Lyoko Reloaded: Book 1

by Encantrix

Without XANA to keep the Lyoko Warriors on their toes, socializing and adjusting to normal life at Kadic is nigh impossible. Aelita knows that shutting the Supercomputer off was just running from the problem, and that her mother cannot be left in enemy hands. With or without the other Warriors' support, she resolves to reunite her family, but what else will she find in the process?

1. Episode 122: Deception

Ephemeral, swirling white. Little juvenile hands packed the resplendent snow into a ball, yet the sight was fleeting, almost ethereal. The milky sphere was surely reaching the height of the hands' owner as she rolled it alongside the wall of tall, brooding pine trees, and blurry pink hairs danced about in her vision with the icy breeze.

"Stay near the house, darling!" Turning, she saw two figures, a man and a woman, standing near a cozy chalet. Long, elegant hair the color of rosé flowed from the woman's scalp, matching her own. At this woman's response, a child's laugh echoed from her own lips.

"Look at my giant snowball, Mummy!" she squealed as she paused briefly, her hands still pressed into the snow. She smiled proudly, waiting for an answer.

"Well done, my angel!" called the man, a grey-haired fellow with a bushy mustache, hazy glasses and a bright yellow coat. The woman with the long pink hair leaned into his chest, smiling blissfully. Another innocent laugh, and she turned back to her creation.

Suddenly, a horrible, mourning baying reverberated across the trees, and their pine needles seemed to tremble ever so slightly. She looked around, confused. Just as she began to disregard the disturbance, and turned to her snowball once more, she found herself looking into the primal amber eyes of a massive wolf, perched on a small bank right in front of her. The animal howled once more, and the girl screamed.

"Mummy! Daddy!" She turned, but in her parents' place were two imposing, muscular men with sunglasses and black suits, hands behind their backs. She screamed again, then began to run for dear life, sprinting to the chalet. Flinging the door open, she found that it too appeared deserted. Again, she called for her parents, and throwing a glance out the window, she saw her mother being dragged along, hand outstretched to the chalet, then unceremoniously thrust into the back of a black van by the two imposing men.

"Aelita!" cried her mother, hands pressed against the back window. Quickly, she ran back out of the chalet, pumping her little legs as fast as she possibly could, trying to reach her mother.

"Mummy!" she wailed, tears falling. "Mummy, no!" She tripped in the snow, falling on her face, but she wasn't deterred by the icy sting as her eyes continued to swell with tears. Quickly she scrambled back to her feet, clumps of snow falling from her as she breathlessly ran.

"Aelita…!" Her mother's eyes were wide, and she pressed her hands to the back windshield again. The girl continued to race after the vehicle, but to no avail, as it tore away through the snow. Another howl pierced the air again, and another joined it. The girl collapsed, sobbing bitterly between pleads for her mummy. The van was long gone, and it seemed as if the snow was only falling harder in the desolate field.

"Aelita!" called her father. She looked up and immediately gasped; his clothes were torn, his hair disheveled, and his nose was bleeding!

"Daddy! What's happening?" she wailed, but he did not answer. He scooped her up and charged toward the chalet, and she began to weep harder. She shrieked in terror when she realized there was a second black van, and two more men were exiting it to pursue her and her daddy. Holding her to his chest in one hand, he flung the door open, slammed it shut behind him and locked it in one movement with his other hand. Through the cozy living room, he ran with her, past the staircase and to the back door.

"Mister Puck!" she suddenly sputtered between tears. She reached desperately to the chair closest to the back door, hoping to grasp the little doll with elven ears, burgundy shawl, and pointed blue hat. Her father paused to open the back door, allowing her the slightest of moments to lean out ever so slightly from his grasp and wrap her juvenile fingers around the long, trailing sash that the plush wore. A heartbeat later, her daddy had cast the door open, taking her to the family van.

He opened the driver's side door and hastily plopped her across to the passenger seat. "Seatbelt, Aelita!" he gruffly ordered, urgency shading his voice several tones more intense than she had ever heard him speak to her. In terror she obeyed as fast as her little hands allowed, and no sooner had she clicked the buckle in did the car begin to zoom away at top speed. The family car hurtled down the little unpaved road, marked only by tire tracks that the snow worked to conceal, and pine trees flanking either side of the path.

Once more, the girl screamed. Two of the suited men were at the end of the path, blocking the way. They held horrible weapons in their hands that produced small flashes of light with an awful bang, pockmarking the little car with terrible little holes. Her father clenched his jaw and did not slow down. At the last second, the two men dove to the sides of the speeding vehicle, and he swerved past them onto the road winding down the mountainside.

With a short sigh of relief, he immediately gritted his teeth again. "Your mother is fine, dear. She's just taking a long trip, and we must go on a trip too. You mustn't cry, Aelita." Nonetheless, she quietly wept, quietly pleading for her mummy to come back.

---

A pulsating, sky blue sphere engulfed in a magenta halo arrived in front of the solid blue catwalk of the Celestial Dome of Lyoko, set against the deep blue walls covered in binary code. Quickly, two Mantas glided up next to the sphere and opened laser fire, but it made no attempt to dodge, and every laser made its mark, causing the sphere to flash repeatedly.

"Daddy! No! Energy Field!" Her hand moved practically of its own accord, launching a surging pink orb of plasma at one of the Mantas. Unfortunately for her, it missed, as the Mantas began to circle the sphere.

"What is he trying to do?" murmured a voice that filled Aelita's ears, as if she were wearing headphones. "The power! Aelita! Try running the program right now."

"What? But… my father…!"

"Your father is supplying the energy that we need. Try to run the program again. Now!"

She doubled over and shook her head. "No… No!" In a wild swinging motion, Aelita spun and threw a second energy field, barely missing the sphere she wanted to protect, and missing the Mantas she intended it for as well.

Gravely, the voice in her ears continued, imploring her. "Aelita… If you don't launch the program now, then your father will have sacrificed himself for nothing! Do it. Do it!"

She begrudgingly returned to the interface, glancing almost constantly at the sphere, and enlarged the window that corresponded to the multi-agent program window. After a few more hits, the sphere turned a deep red, then burst.

"No!" she cried, distraught. Furiously, she slammed her hand into the screen. The word CONNECT appeared, then the entire interface vanished. The multi-agent program exited the south pole of Sector 5, the white orbs composing the program fluttering around the massive blue spherical structure. She shielded her face as they passed by, destroying the two Mantas in an instant. As the flecks of light dispersed and exited the Celestial Dome through the four tunnels to sweep through the rest of Lyoko, then the Digital Sea itself, Aelita sobbed quietly.

"Aelita… We've done it. XANA has been destroyed. I'll bring you home, now," offered the guiding voice. Her body began to dissolve into a white wireframe from her feet and continued upward until her head disappeared, at which point her vision was flooded with an ephemeral, swirling white.

---

"Daddy!"

Aelita sharply drew in breath, sitting straight up almost immediately. Her sweaty fingers scrabbled to pull the sheets off of her equally sweaty body as she panted. She swung a leg over the edge of her bed, finally freeing her from the smothering grasp of her covers, then the other. With a quiet sigh, she brought her palms to her face, rubbing the remnants of sleep away. It came as no surprise to her when she felt tears on her cheeks, yet her entire body quivered all the same. With heavy, laborious breaths, and merciless, feverish heat, she still felt suffocated, and couldn't help but pull at her oversized, pastel pink shirt in an attempt to get it to stop clinging to her body. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand, seeing that she had woken up a solid half hour before her alarm was scheduled to wake her. Beside the clock rested the ever-present Mister Puck, and she allowed herself to reach out and take him into her hands, holding him tightly as she attempted to soothe herself.

When would these horrible nightmares cease to plague her? It almost seemed that when they were at the height of things after she'd regained her memory, they were far less common than these times without XANA, or Lyoko, or anything to fear. How was it that they were able to remain so jovial when their lives were in the most danger? Now, almost every night was like this. She knew she was not the only one; over summer, before XANA had returned, she knew the others had their own nightmares, flashbacks to all the times XANA had nearly taken their lives, or horrific visions of attacks that never happened, conjured up by their own traumatized minds. She could only assume they continued. Yet Aelita's nightmares tended to extend further back into the turmoil her life had really always been in; this wasn't the first dream of those times that she'd had, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. Not as long as her mother remained trapped in her marriage to that awful maniac, working for him all hours of the day. She squeezed her eyes shut even harder than she already was at the thought. Sure, he'd abandoned his idea of trying to abduct Aelita herself as soon as the team destroyed his Supercomputer, but how might he be punishing her mother in return, right now as her friends were attempting to return to normalcy?

Slowly, once she felt she was sufficiently calm, Aelita gently leaned forward and let her socks touch the floor of her dorm room. Placing Mister Puck back onto his spot, from where he could view her entire room and guard it accordingly, she stood. Silent as a ghost, she strode across the room and pulled her door inward, opening it with scarcely a creak. Then, after shutting it behind her in the same manner, she stole into the dormitory hall, which was completely deserted at this early hour. Her destination was the ladies' communal showers. She always enjoyed the relaxation she found when allowing the hot water and the steamy vapor to ease her tense muscles and clear her mind as best it could. Once in the locker room that preceded the shower room, she slipped off her nightwear and stepped into the showers. She then navigated to the farthest shower head in the farthest corner, turned the hot water on, and inhaled deeply as it began to wash over her. Aelita tilted her head back and exhaled, using breathing exercises she had learned from some book when she'd first come back to Earth and wanted to learn everything she possibly could all at once.

"Who is XANA?" she asked, suspicious. The pure white bubbles that embodied her father congregated about a foot in front of her, at her eye level.

Inhale, hold… exhale.

"You mustn't forget me! Ever! Never forget, Aelita!" her father implored her. Then, the Tower walls began to darken, and everything went black.

Inhale, hold… exhale.

"What you want most is to see your mother again," he said simply, never breaking eye contact, "but if we destroy the Cortex, you never will."

Inhale, hold, exhale.

"I saw her in the Cortex. It seems impossible, but I'm sure of it! She's alive!" She couldn't help but break into a smile as she opened her arms, yet the Core of Lyoko continued to simply glow and lazily rotate in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel downcast again. She had to believe her father could somehow hear her through there. "Daddy, I promise you I will do everything I can to find her. Everything."

Inhale, hold, exhale.

"Mom? It's me, Aelita! I'm alive! Can you hear me? I'm alive!"

"Aelita? But it's impossible. Am I dreaming?" Her mother gaped in disbelief. Much to Aelita's dismay, Tyron heard her, and came storming up to the camera.

"Who are you talking to?" he demanded. She scowled, considered telling him off, swearing at him, taunting him, but instead focused entirely on her mother.

"Mom, I'm begging you, listen to my voice! I'm your daughter, Aelita, I'm alive!" she pleaded. Tyron glared at her through the screen, even though there was only audio on their side, before moving to a nearby keyboard and beginning to type. "I love you, Mom! Mom!"

"But my daughter is dead! Who are you, what is going on?" her mother demanded, her face filled with pain and anger as if this had to be some sick joke.

Desperate, Aelita knew she had to hurry to convince her mother that she was really herself, before he cut them off for good. "Mom, please, I survived thanks to daddy! He took me to Lyoko!"

The screen flickered. "Mom, I love you! Hear my voice, Mom!"

Inhale, exhale.

"Lyoko?" her mother whispered. Aelita knew that her mother had been taken long before her father had even begun to work on Lyoko. Did her mother even know what that was? Did she know what he planned to create? Her mother had to believe her before it was too late! "Franz..."

Then, recognition clicked, and her mother turned to look directly at her once again, even if there was no video on that end. Aelita almost broke down just seeing the belief in her mother's eyes, almost forgot about Tyron and the Cortex and everything else. "Aelita!"

The screen went black.

Inhale, exhale.

"I can't wait to see you again. I love you, Aelita." The recording ended, and with a horribly saccharine smile—she knew exactly what lurked underneath it—Tyron withdrew her mother's precious medallion from his suit pocket. Principal Delmas's eyes shifted from Tyron to her; how was she supposed to justify her refusal to go now?

As he blathered on, something about her mother wanting her to have medallion, then asked for a few minutes of privacy, she felt a lump swelling in her throat. She wanted to scream at Delmas and Jim not to leave her alone with him, but how could she? She'd simply appear more unreasonable, and make Tyron look more and more a martyr, with his kind facade, for tolerating her brattish behavior. No, instead she just kept her eyes fixated on the photo of her and her mother within the little pendant.

Yes, now that he was alone with her, the mask came right off. He threatened her, demanded she and her friends stop the plan, commanded her to obey him. Or she'd never see her mother again.

"No."

Exhale.

"Let me in! Aelita!" That was Yumi! The door swung open, and Yumi came skidding to a halt as she saw Tyron. Confusion and fury danced across her face as Aelita stood, pocketing the medallion.

"Yumi! Run!" she cried as she dashed past Tyron, dodging his swift attempt to grab her. Yumi glared at the man for just a moment more as she turned as well, and the two ran as fast as their legs would take them, past Jim, past the stairs, to the safety of the park.

Exhale.

"The Supercomputer just intercepted a GPS signal. It's coming from… you!" Jeremie warned through the phone, on speaker where she and Yumi could both hear. "Whoever has the receptor just entered the park."

She and Yumi glanced around cautiously, suddenly hyper-aware of every single bit of movement or sound around them. Peeking through the trees, she looked keenly for anything— there! A glimpse of black; she inched closer, peering into the gap between branches to see Tyron's crony holding a little device, and slowly walking in their direction. Quickly, she lowered the volume on her phone and held it closer.

"Jeremie... the wire is in the medallion. What do we do?" she whispered as she held the precious thing in front of her, all while glancing past it to keep an eye on Tyron's lackey. It pained her, for something so dear to her heart to be twisted against her by that disgusting man, yet even so, she knew she'd have to let even this go for everyone's safety.

"Give it to Yumi, who's going to get as far away from here as possible. If Tyron were to find the Supercomputer, it'd be the end for us."

Aelita gasped for air once again, and immediately reached to turn the water off. For the second time that morning she found herself overheating and panting for breath, and she quickly exited the shower to dry off. That was a much less productive attempt at de-stressing than she had hoped it would be.

---

As she exited the girls' locker room, one pale blue towel around her torso, Aelita grimaced at the sight of other girls beginning to populate the halls. Turning away and drawing her towel tighter to herself, she began to flee to her room in hopes of being left alone.

"Aelita!"

Aelita started at the shrill call, freezing to the spot with a grimace. With all her strength she managed to muster a wan, tired smile as she turned to see the ever-present Sissi Delmas, daughter of Principal Delmas. The girl was not one Aelita had gotten along with when she first began attending Kadic Academy, but she could not deny that in more recent months, she had come to enjoy Sissi's company; the girl had become a friend of not only hers, but the entire team. Even so, Aelita was, admittedly, still a bit intimidated by the self-titled diva; Sissi was quite a loud presence. It didn't help her inflated ego that she aspired herself a star actress and had won three beauty pageants to date. But, although she used to be quite the nuisance, she had shown her caring side more and more often lately.

"Look. Back to black!" Sissi announced as she flipped her newly-dyed hair over both shoulders. "They said blondes have more fun, but I have fun no matter what the shade."

"Um, yeah… It looks nice," Aelita agreed simply, keeping her polite, but forced, smile.

"You, however, look like hell. Are you okay?" Sissi asked bluntly, arms akimbo, with all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Nothing new.

"Not really," Aelita admitted. She pulled her towel even tighter as she continued, "another nightmare."

"Oh. Well, that sucks. I'm sorry," Sissi replied. She clearly did not get the memo as Aelita nodded her thanks then turned toward her room again, and instead continued to pry. "What was this one about? You seem to have them a lot."

"I don't even know," Aelita lied as she turned again. Her smile faded, and even Sissi could tell that this conversation wasn't going anywhere.

"Well, you should go get dressed. If you want, I'll wait for you," she offered. At that, Aelita managed a more genuine, grateful smile, and nodded again before ducking into her room.

---

The Kadic Academy cafeteria was bustling by the time Aelita and Sissi arrived. It was a more-or-less calm morning; that could be attributed to the intimidating presence of coach Jim Morales, who was positioned just past the entrance, arms crossed as he surveyed the room. His stern gaze lingered on the girls as they passed, and Aelita could not help but eye him cautiously as she went, though Sissi paid him no mind. The stout, middle-aged man had always been suspicious of Aelita and the team; it wouldn't be unlike him to stop her for any reason to make sure she wasn't up to anything.

"Good morning, Ms. Stones, Ms. Delmas," Jim barked once the girls were well past him. As they turned around to face him, Aelita presented her best diffusing grin, while Sissi did not attempt to veil her contempt at his passive aggression.

"Good morning, Jim," the two replied in vastly different tones.

"You can go straight to the line, girls. No shenanigans will be happening on the first class day of the semester, you hear?" he warned, staring them down.

"Yeah, got it," Sissi answered with a roll of her eyes. As she and Aelita turned and continued on their path, she whispered conspiratorially, "Can you believe the nerve?"

"Yeah," Aelita replied absentmindedly. She caught and corrected herself immediately, saying, "I mean, no, I can't. Um, listen, Sissi, I'm not really hungry. I'm going to go sit down with everyone."

"Suit yourself," said Sissi with a shrug before she joined the breakfast line.

As Aelita made her way down the rows of tables to the one she knew her friends would be sitting at right now, she found that many of the students she passed were staring at her. She couldn't help but think to herself that the meanest-looking ones were generally less intelligent, but scary nonetheless. The ones that gave her pitying glances were the extra dangerous ones, because they were more calculating. Most of them seemed kind of nice at first encounter, but wouldn't hesitate to mercilessly tear her apart when she wasn't around. That was something she learned the hard way when people first began to take notice of her and her night terrors, when she was new to Earth and vulnerable, trusting, naive.

Still, it wasn't long before her reprieve came into view. The long table, decorated with little but trays, drinking glasses and scars of smeared pencil and red marker, extended up to the window on her right. Most of note to her were the people who occupied nearly every seat around the table, and the first friendly faces she saw were the most familiar. That subset consisted of a tall, wiry boy wrapped in an army-green quilted coat, an also tall and lean girl clad in all black, the same color as her hair, and a short, scrawny boy whose blonde hair was spiked straight up like a flame, with a splotch of purple in the middle that matched his ensemble. Ulrich, Yumi and Odd were all engaged in conversation, as was the one that stood out to her most of all; a fragile, bookish young man with round glasses perched on his nose and blonde hair worn slightly long. The four of them, grouped near the end of the table, would always hold a special place in her heart for being by her side through everything, but Jeremie was in particular was always the one that lifted her spirits to see, and as soon as he caught sight of her approaching he met her gaze with an awkward, but inviting, grin, and pulled out the seat to his right for her. There was, of course, also William, sitting at the other end by the window, the latecomer to the team, with his shaggy dark hair and a punk-rock wardrobe that matched his strong-willed, rebellious personality.

Of course, these five weren't the only ones who were already seated at the table. In the times after both shutdowns of the Supercomputer, the group was gradually able to adjust somewhat to normal life and make a couple new friends without the presence of XANA breathing down their necks. Of particular note to Aelita, however, were two girls she didn't recognize, sitting beside Odd. The one closest to Odd was a peculiarly-styled girl with piercings lining her ears, as well as one in her left brow and a hoop in her left nostril. Her long, black hair was pulled into half-up space buns, streaked with green and violet that matched her attire. She had plump cheeks and skin of deep olive, and her narrow, angular eyes casually passed over Aelita as she spoke to the others at the table. Beside that girl was another, whose face Aelita could not see as her head was turned in conversation, covering her face with her coarse hair, grown out in springy coils down to her shoulder. Her rich dark skin was complimented by her smart blue dress, speckled with white polka dots, and a matching white jacket.

"It turns out that when winter break starts in February, my parents will be taking me and Hiroki to Japan. I'll miss you guys but I'm really happy to visit Japan for a while. We're going to stay in a traditional ryokan and everything," Yumi was saying as Aelita passed her and took a seat across from her at the end of the table, beside Jeremie. Yumi immediately grinned as she saw her friend and cheerily greeted her. "Good morning, Aelita! Good to see you."

Aelita smiled sheepishly as all of her friends peppered her with greetings, salutations, questions of how she was doing and how her holiday was, save for the two strangers.

"It was great, thanks, guys. I missed you all so much," she replied sincerely, looking to each of her friends to address them.

"Good morning," Jeremie said to her, a bit more privately, after everyone had more or less quieted down and resumed discussion. He, of course, already knew Aelita's Christmas had gone well; the two had spent it with his family. Mr. and Mrs. Belpois were objectively welcoming and made her stay cozy, but Aelita found it unexpectedly difficult nonetheless. Being party to the celebrations of a tightly-knit, loving family while knowing that her father had sacrificed himself for her, that her mother was suffering at the hands of the enemy, made it difficult for her to let go and enjoy her time there. She was haunted by visions of the Christmases she used to have. Further, she could not help but feel as an outsider, an other, intruding on the Belpois' intimacy. Yes, they'd welcomed her into their home, but only at Jeremie's request. The two weren't even dating, not now, not while everything weighed on her so heavily, yet here Jeremie was, ever kind to her. She reminded herself to focus on the here and now as she faced him.

"Good morning," she repeated back to him, doing a decent job of keeping her melancholy out of her voice. Apparently, he was handily fooled, as he faced everyone else at the table once more.

"Aelita!" Odd burst, grinning ear to ear. She leaned forward to face him, sitting on the other side of Jeremie, and he did the same to see her. "You need to meet our new transfer students from Diderot, especially my new girlfriend!"

"Oh, okay. Hi, I'm Aelita," Aelita greeted politely, waving to the girl sitting beside Odd who she assumed was the aforementioned girlfriend, and the girl sitting beside that girlfriend, whose face she was just seeing. She now could see that the other side of that girl's hair was side-shaved, and she had a short, wide nose and a dazzling smile, which she was giving Aelita now.

"Aelita Stones, the opening act for the Subdigitals in May of last year?" that girl asked, amazement on her face. "Oh my god, I had noticed the pink hair, but I wasn't sure that was you!"

"Uh, yeah, that was me," Aelita admitted, her cheeks flushing with mild embarrassment.

"Oh, wow!" The girl brought her hands to her face, then stood. She walked behind Kimi, Odd and Jeremie to stand near Aelita, and held out her hand. "My name is Iris De Graaf, my whole family does music. I love the Subdigitals and I thought your act was amazing!"

"Whoa, really?" Aelita asked, bewildered as she stood to accept Iris's handshake. "That's crazy. I mean, making music is one of my passions, but still. Um, thank you so much!"

"Oh, yikes, I'm being so rude!" Iris gasped, hurrying back to her seat. "Running up on you like that, I'm sorry, love. I just really am so thrilled to meet you."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Aelita assured her as she also sat. "Really, thank you so much for the compliment. That means so much to me."

"Hi," the other new student cut in, leaning forward and giving a small wave. "I'm Kimi Yohan."

"Hello!" Aelita greeted, waving back at Kimi. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Kimi said, giving a small smile. "I met Odd during the break. I had gone online looking for people who go to Kadic that are also students in seconde, since Iris and me didn't really know anyone from here, and we hit it off."

"That's smart," Aelita replied. She nodded her head thoughtfully; that was a clever use of technology. While she was used to sophisticated and very powerful technology, almost everything she did with it centered around the Supercomputer, Lyoko and XANA. She can't say for certain she would've thought of that.

"Well, it worked well for me at least," Kimi laughed, leaning against Odd's shoulder.

As the conversation shifted, Aelita's stomach began to growl and she had just begun to reconsider her choice to go without breakfast when the booming timbre of Jim Morales caught her attention. "Alekhine! Stern!"

"Yeah, coach?" That was the Russian-accented reply from Varric Alekhine, one of the newer friends Aelita and the gang had already made well before now, who was seated beside Ulrich, across from Odd. Varric was, like Ulrich and William, a tall and handsome young man, but Varric towered above even them at almost two meters. With pale gold hair styled up and back, dark green eyes, a sharp jaw and alabaster skin, he was also tremendously and thickly built under that grey tank top and vogue leather jacket, dyed juniper green and lined with white wool, that he always wore. After all, he had a strict workout regimen that he stuck to religiously, which no doubt Jim was about to check up on.

"I'm sure I don't need to remind you two that our first match of the year is in two days," Jim announced as he clamped a hand on Varric's shoulder, then his other hand on Ulrich's, and crouched between the two so his face was level with theirs. "I need you two to start the year strong and show top performance."

"No problem, Jim," Ulrich answered.

"I'll be prepared," Varric concurred with a short nod. While it wasn't the subject she had assumed Jim would bring up, this was hardly a surprise to Aelita; Varric had initially met Ulrich through the football team, though he was also acquainted with William and Yumi through their common enrollment in the literary stream for their final two years at Kadic. That was what brought him into the fold.

"Good, good." Jim took his hand off of Ulrich's shoulder and leaned a little closer to Varric, and attempted to lower his voice, though Aelita could still easily hear everything he said from where she was sitting, and presumably everyone else could too. Jim wasn't known for his inside voice. "Try to keep those grades up, Alekhine. The last thing I want is for you to repeat a year like you did your first year, because then you can't stay on the team. Not to mention passing the language and literature bac later this year."

"I'm actually doing quite well right now, sir," Varric replied with the kind of smirk one gives when they've been insulted but want to maintain a polite appearance. "Well, I was in the last semester, and the year before that, anyway. I'll keep doing my best this year too, though."

"That's what I like to hear," Jim laughed obliviously, patting the younger man on the back before standing and crossing his arms. "I want you two to report to the gymnaseum after class today. Especially you, Stern. You're my star player. Oh, and you come too, Gajos. Didn't see you there."

He was referring to Ludek Gajos, Varric's roommate. Aelita had to admit that she didn't really know that much about him, other than that he was from Poland, also on the football team, and played a lot of video games. He was fairly plain-looking, with hazel eyes, bundles of freckles on his pale face, and a shock of bright red curls peering from under his beanie. He didn't talk much, or at least not to her, and even now he just nodded at Jim and mumbled "Okay."

Satisfied, the coach walked off, returning to his spot by the door where he monitored the cafeteria once more. At about that moment, Sissi sat at the table with her breakfast tray, taking the open seat at the far end by Iris, evidently having waited for Jim to go away lest he bug her any more. Once he was gone, Varric sighed and turned to his right, where his small, thin counterpart sat between him and Ludek.

"I wish he wouldn't mention that all the time," he mumbled to Tomas. Tomas was in the same grade as Aelita and, as she understood it, had been best friends with Varric for as long as the latter had been attending Kadic, which was at least as long as she had been. While Varric had come into the circle of friends via Ulrich, William and Yumi, Tomas came into it shortly before that via his practical adoption by Sissi. He wore the fringe of his dishwater blond hair to his fair-skinned chin, parted slightly off center, while keeping it shorter on the sides and in the back, and he dressed fairly simply, with but a black hoodie over a gray shirt and jeans. Although Tomas was rather submissive, he was very kind, and very helpful; so much so that both Odd and Sissi, Aelita knew, recruited him more than once to help with all manner of projects.

"It's okay, Varric. Redoublement really isn't a big thing in France. Besides, they know you only struggled early on because you hadn't learned the language that well yet. You're great by now," Tomas assured him with a sincere smile. "By the time the bac rolls around you'll be perfect."

"If you say so."

"Don't feel bad, Varric! I almost had to repeat a year once. Ulrich too, he's been in and out of remedial classes like crazy!" Odd interjected cheerily.

"Shut up, Odd," Ulrich shot back, glowering.

"Why? It's true. William's had to, too!" Odd continued, turning to the far end of the table where William sat by Tomas. Aelita frowned; the only reason William had to was because his virtual clone unfortunately tanked his grades. She could hardly interject on his behalf in front of those who were not in on the secret of Lyoko, though, and as William glared at Odd she could tell he too wished he could tell what really happened. She could also tell that he would rather be sitting by Yumi; a part of her suspected that Yumi had chosen the end seat just to prevent that, but of course Yumi was on good terms with William by now. Besides that, she had only shown up during breakfast today so she could spend some extra time with her friends after the holiday. Normally she would eat at home before class.

"Thanks for telling everyone the news, Odd," William snipped, scowling. Aelita tried to shoot him a supportive smile, but was unsure whether he noticed before Odd changed the subject again.

"Oh! Speaking of news, I have some, and it's great!" Odd burst, exuding pure excitement. "I talked to my sisters on the phone during the break, and a certain diggety dog is coming back to Kadic soon!" He, of course, referred to Kiwi, the grey-furred miniature bull terrier he had secretly kept stashed in his dorm for his entire tenure at Kadic save for the last semester, despite the strict no pets rule.

"I thought you said you had good news," Iris joked, laughing.

"Dog? What dog?" Varric added, smiling thinly while Ludek chuckled and Tomas faintly smirked.

"Oh, we're glad to hear your nonexistent dog is returning," Kimi finished just before she shoved a hearty spoonful of cereal into her mouth with a wink.

"You know," Jeremie began, leaning toward Aelita, "I was wondering if after school we could go and see this new store." The young genius bent over and began to rummage through his belongings while the conversation at the other end of the table continued. A moment later he pulled out a crumpled, stained flyer for a technology store that opened in one of Boulogne-Billancourt's shopping centers; the store was about a kilometer away from the Academy.

"I've been looking for some upgrades. It's hard to get used to something so slow again," he explained, letting out a rather forced-sounding laugh.

"Um, sure," Aelita laughed in an equally forced tone. Even so, she did smile.

"Einstein, are you ever going to ask her out on a real date?" Odd blurted, interrupting his current conversation to lean on an elbow and wave a fork with a chunk of biscuit on the end. Jeremie and Aelita both simply sat in silence and blushed as Ulrich choked a little on his eggs, which forcibly suppressed his laugh. The rest of the group, on the other hand, was able to freely cackle at the two's embarrassment.

"That… doesn't have anything to do with me wanting to go to the store," mumbled Jeremie as the playful laughter died down, giving him a chance to regain his composure. Normally, Aelita would have at least attempted to think of a witty remark, but this morning, things were just too sore for that. The rest of breakfast seemed to pass in a blur as she remained passive, not participating in any conversation from then on. She was not dwelling on anything, now, but the world was just dull. Before she knew it, the first bell was ringing, and everyone was standing. She shuffled along, following her group of friends outside. The seconde students such as herself, including Iris, she noted, broke off from Yumi, Varric, William and Ludek, the première students, as she continued to her first class of the morning.

---

In Ms. Suzanne Hertz's class, she was relating the many uses of the Pythagorean Theorem to the seconde students. With her cotton-like silver hair that stuck in every direction, her thin, round glasses, and her pristine white lab coat, she was the spitting image of a scientist year after year. Aelita rested her head on her hand, only half-listening. She already knew everything she was hearing; it's not like she would fall behind. Her thoughts drifted off to other things; she had heard rumors in the past that claimed Hertz worked for the government before coming to Kadic, and considering that she'd been at the school for almost 15 years, that did leave room for such a career. She also had heard Hertz was involved in an off-the-clock romance with Jim. A third rumor posited that only one of the previous two was true.

"Most people assume that it has no use outside of mathematics and triangles, but that is not so. The Pythagorean Theorem can be used with any shape and for any formula that squares a number. We can multiply the Pythagorean Theorem by our area factor and come up with a relationship for the areas of any similar shapes," Ms. Hertz stated, rapping a ruler against the board to draw attention to her rudimentary chalk diagrams.

Aelita couldn't help but let her eyes drift to the clock and begin to watch the seconds tick by. Now that she had grown bored of wondering about Hertz's life outside of class, she found herself trying to avoid thinking of her nightmares. However, forcing oneself not to think of something, especially something so weighty, was nigh impossible.

"Remember, the line segment can be any portion of the shape. We could have picked the circle's radius, diameter, or circumference- there would be a different area factor, but the 3-4-5 relationship would still hold," continued Ms. Hertz.

Aelita had by now taken to finding patterns in the classroom ceiling tiles. As she plotted out little constellations and designs, she kept seeing glimpses of face-like patterns, and found herself even becoming annoyed. Now, this is just getting ridiculous. She sighed to herself as she picked her head up, deciding to force herself to instead actually pay attention to the lecture.

"Now, you may wonder why I am telling you this in a science class. Your project will be as follows; you will use what you learned in December to create a rocket. You will then launch your rocket for me next week, and you will find the highest point of the rocket's flight path using the Pythagorean Theorem. Additionally, you will be expected to calculate velocity, acceleration, time, direction and displacement. You'll be working in pairs, which I will list now, so pay attention. Sorya Abulabbas with Naomi Nguyen. Jeremy Belpois with Tomas Magnusson. Magali de Vasseur with Aelita Stones…"

After what Aelita was sure had been an eternity, Ms. Hertz finished reading off partners, had handed out the assignment sheets, and the bell rang. Once the students filed out of Ms. Hertz's door, Aelita and Jeremie quickly weaved through the crowd, outside and toward the gates, so they could go check out the new store.

"Jeremie, before we, um… You know, go anywhere…" Aelita stopped once they were a decent way down the sidewalk.

"What is it?" Jeremie stopped as well and turned around, clearly annoyed at wasting time.

"I had another nightmare about my mother," Aelita confessed. She crossed her arms, hoping she didn't become too emotional bringing it all back to the forefront.

Though Jeremie was initially anxious to get to their destination, his annoyance immediately faded, replaced by that sympathy and care that was just so Jeremie. He approached, and raised his hand as if to draw her close, but hesitated, as if knowing that if she wanted that she would initiate it. Instead, he remained silent, which, in a way, Aelita appreciated.

"Jeremie…" she began, choking on the words as she formed them. He watched her patiently, waiting for her to be ready, and she finally continued, "do you think she's safe?"

At that, he almost flinched, and Aelita couldn't help but grimace. That was hardly the reaction she was hoping for. He replied honestly, "I don't know."

"Do you think Tyron will come here again?"

"I don't know that, either. But like we said, we'll stick by your side no matter what if he does."

She sighed. It's not like she could really expect him to know. Her mom was in the hands of a madman that hated everything her father worked for, felt that he was entitled to all of it. She didn't even know how or what connection Tyron might have had to the Men in Black, given that he was kicked out of Project Carthage well before they came into the picture, but he had to have one for her mother to go from abducted and imprisoned, to married to him. And he knew where they were. How could Aelita be expected to just keep attending school and living life and pretending her mother didn't exist, while anything could be happening to her or around her?

Any day, she feared Tyron might show up and use his legal rights to abduct her in retaliation for their destroying his work. She couldn't realistically challenge those rights; if she did, then her admittedly flimsy cover would be jeopardized. If anyone were to really investigate, they would find that Aelita Schaeffer, who he had legal guardianship over through marrying Anthea, was actually born in 1981 and went missing in 1994. But Aelita Stones, the alleged orphan for whom Jeremie had forged records, for whom Odd's parents had so graciously agreed to play along with if someone asked about her, was a decade younger. In the course of such an investigation, she had no doubt that the Supercomputer's hacking job to create her records would be bulletproof, but it would be messy. Sure, the Supercomputer created fake death certificates with fake names showing that she was an orphan, and placed those same records in the proper databases, and with that, she could likely convince Principal Delmas that her parents were dead, that Tyron had the wrong Aelita, and that it was just a coincidence that other Aelita went missing.

But if Tyron pushed it, and she had no doubt that he would in such a scenario just to make her life difficult, Delmas would have no choice but to involve the authorities, and if they didn't accept those death certificates as enough proof to not warrant an in-depth investigation, she'd be cornered. They'd almost certainly want to contact Odd's parents, her alleged guardians, she didn't expect them to lie to government officials any further than saying that they had agreed to take care of her when her parents died. That meant ASE might take custody of her; anything could happen from then on. So yes, she appreciated the promise that her friends would stick by her side. But all they really had going for them was a bunch of broken memories, an abandoned house in disrepair, and the Supercomputer.

The Supercomputer…

That was her one concrete connection to her mother. To either of her parents, really. XANA still dwelt in it, ostensibly trapped there, but how long could they just sit by while anything could be happening? What if they could use the Towers to ward off Tyron if he ever showed his face at Kadic? What if she could find her mother with it? What if she could bring her father back and be whole again?

Aelita stared at the ground and made a ring in the dirt with her foot before finally mustering the courage to decide, to resolve her will, and voice what she wanted more than anything. Her eyes shifted upward from the ground, though her head remained tilted downward.

"I want to turn the Supercomputer back on."

Jeremie gaped, taken aback. Once again, that was hardly the reaction she hoped for. "Why, Aelita? We did it. We beat XANA, he's confined to the computer again! We don't need to turn it back on ever again. You wanted this, you said so multiple times and everyone heard it."

"I know what I said before," she said, a bit more sharply than she meant to. "I thought it was the right thing, but I didn't know at the time how much I'd…"

"Don't be unreasonable, Aelita. If we did this, XANA might break free again! We have to leave everything the way it is."

"You know that's not the end of this. XANA is alive, waiting for anyone to stumble upon the Supercomputer so he can strike again. Besides, what if he has a presence outside of Lyoko we don't know about and he's gaining power, preparing to take us all out? What if my father is still alive and we can use the Supercomputer to bring him back? What if we can bring my mother back?" Aelita quickly shot off questions left unanswered, having rehearsed this speech in her mind before, racked her mind trying to answer the questions herself, but never really gathering the nerve to vocalize it all. "Who knows what Tyron could be doing right now? He knows where we live. He could make our lives hell trying to take me. He has my mother. We can't just leave her!"

"I understand you want to see your mom again, Aelita, but I told you. If we destroy the Cortex, you'll never see her again. We chose to do exactly that. As for Franz… I'm sorry Aelita, but he died. We can't bring him back," Jeremie finally answered after a moment of silence, not even touching the subject of the morality of leaving XANA dormant.

"You've said that before and been wrong. I remember when you swore we'd find him after he gave me my memory back. Then, as soon as we got back from summer break and I began to remember more, you told me not to bother. When I decided to destroy the Cortex, you agreed to help me find my mother another way."

"But that's not the same, we watched XANA destroy him this time. We know he's lost for good. We can find your mother, but we have to find another way," Jeremie retorted, reaching for her hands. He sighed when she pulled them away and took a step back. "Aelita, I know this is hard, but you have to be reasonable."

"And you've said all that before too. Yumi fell into the Digital Sea and we found a way. William was on Lyoko when it was destroyed and we salvaged him from XANA's control. When you messed up trying to materialize a strand of my hair and I destroyed myself deactivating the Tower, you brought me back!" Aelita turned away, burying her face in her hands briefly and running her fingers through her hair before letting out a frustrated, exasperated groan. "How are we going to do any of this without the Supercomputer and Lyoko? We're up against forces we can't handle on our own, as normal kids."

"But we've always had ways around it. Yumi wasn't totally gone and the one shot materialization engine tracked her down. William was in XANA's control when Lyoko was destroyed so XANA was the one who protected him, and we freed him from XANA. With you, I had your hair to virtualize and you weren't, um… gone, like he is. You just lost your virtual DNA and virtualizing the hair put you back exactly to how you were when I materialized the hair.

"But Franz, he gave you his Keys to Lyoko when he restored your memory and revived you. Doing that gave you the ability to materialize without Code Earth again, but he couldn't materialize, period, just like you couldn't without yours before. Just like you would have been gone forever if you had lost all your Life Points back then. XANA destroyed him. He's gone, Aelita, I know you miss your parents, but we can't risk XANA escaping again. The elevator is password locked, the boiler room door is password locked, there's no reason to think anyone will be able to turn the Supercomputer back on before the battery runs out."

Aelita had heard enough of Jeremie explaining things she was already aware of, and she spun around on one foot to walk away while Jeremie continued his long-winded retort. "You said it yourself before. We'll still do everything we can to get information about your mother. We can search the Hermitage again, we can do research. But we can't release XANA. I know you miss her, but it will be okay."

"I can't miss her because I never got to be with her!" Aelita screamed with her back turned, storming down the sidewalk. Jeremie began to follow her to try to calm her down, but Aelita stopped and whirled around on him. "You need to give me space right now, you insensitive brute!" she hissed, clenching her fists furiously before taking a deep breath and sprinting away.

Jeremie hesitated, debating with himself internally as to whether he should follow her anyway. After a moment he decided it'd only make things worse, turned around, and continued on his path to the shopping center.

---

Aelita meandered down the sidewalk, holding back tears. She had run until she couldn't anymore, and it was getting cloudy. She heard a clap of thunder in the distance, startling her into lifting her head; a snowy thunderstorm was the last thing she wanted to be in. She looked around and realized she was at the Seine riverfront, and with a few more steps she'd be at the bridge leading to the Factory.

What if I did turn the Supercomputer back on?

She continued to the edge of where the road met the bridge, peering across the bridge and inside. The overcast skies darkened the windows, causing little light to filter into the decrepit structure. The entrance of the Factory beckoned like a shadowy, gaping maw that might swallow her up were she to step inside, making it her tomb just like it had her father.

What if I did it all alone? Could I find them? Could I protect them?

Thunder clapped in the distance once more, and with it a heavy rain began to pour, spurring Aelita to cross the bridge slowly, as if it would collapse under her were she to hurry. At the threshold of the dark, cavernous interior, she stopped, peering down at the barely-visible elevator she had ridden so many times. She hadn't been here since they turned the Supercomputer off; she hadn't needed to be. Ghosts of events long passed haunted this place, and she shivered, not from the rain but from trepidation.

The others might never forgive me for going behind their backs. Jeremie might never forgive me. But what if I could use the Supercomputer to bring my father back and find my mother? Either I'll see them again, or know I did everything I could.

She stepped into the shelter, told herself it was just to keep from getting soaked, but knew that once she entered the Factory again, she wouldn't be able to turn herself around.

What do I have to lose?

She gripped one of the several ropes hanging from the Factory ceiling and jumped.

In a strip mall, at the corner, Jeremie proudly pushed the door of a small store open and stepped outside with a heavy bag weighing down each arm, filled with boxes and various parts in plastic containers, safe from the rain. "May not be as good as the Supercomputer but it will certainly do!" he gloated to himself as he began to stroll carelessly back to Kadic Academy, completely unaware of the events happening under his nose.

The old elevator lit up with power as the mechanism began to rotate and the doors parted. Aelita stepped out into the Supercomputer room, filled with light that cast a sickly glow against her. As she entered, the shutter in the center of the room began to whir, and the aperture opened. The ebony and gold monument that was the Supercomputer began to rise, painfully slow, forcing her to consider whether this was what she wanted. Even so, she continued ever closer.

Either I'll see them again, or know I did everything I could.

Facing her, a small hatch in the side of the computer, adorned with a gold Eye of XANA, slid open, revealing a handle. Aelita gripped it and steeled herself before flipping the switch. As the Supercomputer roared to life, it radiated a brilliant light, and she turned away, holding a hand over her eyes. Warmth filtered into the room from the now-active machine, its gold plating shimmering like flowing water under the surface.

As Jeremie casually traipsed under the dormitory arches, bags in hand, he found himself thinking of Aelita again. Struck with excitement, he entered the building, leaving the doors swinging in his wake as he launched himself up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Down the hallway he ran as fast as his un-athletic body allowed, fumbling with his room key as he went and sliding it into the handle of his door once he reached it. Then, pushing his door open, tossing his purchases onto his bed and slamming it shut again, he retraced his steps back to the stairwell before practically flying up another floor. Surely by now Aelita would cool off and see how unreasonably she was behaving, and maybe then he could take her somewhere nice and everything would be perfect again. He came screeching to a halt outside of her door and composed himself.

"Aelita?" he called, gently rapping his knuckles on the door.

"She's not there," a girl's voice answered from behind him. Jeremie turned to see a short girl with auburn hair, and realized she must be Aelita's science partner, Magali.

"Oh, have you seen her?" he asked hopefully.

"No, and she's my partner on that project. I don't have her number, so I can't call her. I thought she was supposed to be one of the smart kids, so I was hoping we could start right away," Magali grumbled, annoyed.

"Oh, um, I'll call her," Jeremie offered. Rather than reply, Magali simply stared at him expectantly, so he pulled his cell out from his pants pocket and held down the 1 key, which speed-dialed Aelita. Bringing the phone to his ear, he let it ring for several moments as Magali crossed her arms impatiently. Just when Jeremie was about to give up and end the call, the ringing cut short and he heard a light tap, followed by silence.

"Hello, Aelita? Where are you?" he asked cautiously when she did not say anything.

"Leave me alone," came the growl of a response.

"Aelita, Magali wants to work on the science project. Not only that, I'd like to talk to you."

"Fine. Tell Magali I'll be there in a little while, but you better not be there when I am," Aelita spat before angrily thumbing the red key on her cell, which ended the call, before slumping back in her chair and crossing her arms. And I just now started!

She was sitting in the chair in front of the interface screen, with two windows open. On one, gauges, bars and charts flashed by rapidly, while the other appeared to show a map of Lyoko. Only Sector 5 was visible, a sphere of light emblazoned with the Eye of XANA rotating lazily on its axis.

Well. This will take a while anyway. I suppose I could let the Supercomputer finish rebuilding Lyoko overnight. With that, all five Sectors will be back how they were, and I'll have all the Towers and their operating power. That'll give me enough to find them, and nobody will be able to stop me. Not Jeremie, and not XANA.

"I'll find you. I'll be back tomorrow," Aelita promised as she closed the Lyoko map window, but left the restoration process open. She stood and began to turn to leave, but stole one last glance at the screen before rounding the Holomap to board the elevator.

---

The next morning, Aelita came into the cafeteria with fire in her step. Jeremie beckoned her and pulled out a seat beside him, but she promptly ignored him, passing behind him and to the far end of the table to sit by the window. She then planted her earbuds into her ears, set her chin in her hand and stared out the window. Again, she had come without getting any breakfast.

"What did you do, Einstein?" Odd whispered concernedly, glancing at Aelita, then at Jeremie. Yumi was not there, as she usually wasn't in the mornings, so William had moved to her spot, allowing all four of the Lyoko Warriors present to sit closely together.

"What did you think of that I Am Legend movie from last month? Apparently, it's the top movie of December, but I thought it was pretty bad," Varric was asking in the meantime, engaged in conversation with the other kids.

"What! You're kidding. It's the best movie of the year," Ludek harshly rebuked.

"Maybe if you like derivative plot and two-dimensional characters," Tomas added, agreeing with Varric.

"Well, first of all, sci-fi is not all that. Besides, it came out in December, and the new year just started, so…can't be movie of the year. Duh," Sissi added her voice to the chorus.

"Why not enjoy a good movie for what it is instead of picking it apart?" Kimi voiced her thoughts.

"But a movie must have strong characters, an intriguing plot and realistic development to be good!" Iris cut in.

"Jeremie, seriously, what'd you do?" Odd asked again, his voice low underneath the din of the brewing debate.

"I didn't do anything. Aelita wanted to," Jeremie lowered his voice as well, then whispered in Odd's ear, "turn the Supercomputer back on."

Odd promptly leaned across the table to inform Ulrich, who then shoved his tray away and grumbled in William's ear. Fortunately, the non-Lyoko Warrior kids were hotly debating the topic of the new movie, and this afforded the Lyoko Warriors a moment to discuss.

"What is she thinking and why?" Ulrich spat, his appetite suddenly lost. Obviously, Odd didn't mind too much, as pulled the tray toward him and began chowing down on the food that had been freely given up.

Jeremie glanced down the table at the other kids to make sure they were still distracted before he answered, "She wants to look for Franz and Anthea. I told her he's dead and that if we destroyed the Cortex her mother would be gone too, but she still wants to look. I guess she'll be mad at me for a while, but we can't take the risk."

"What risk?" Odd leaned back in his chair. "If the Princess wants to look for them, what's the danger? We destroyed the Cortex. XANA is basically gone."

"That's not true. The multi-agent program worked as far as we know, and the Cortex is gone now too, so the only Supercomputer left is ours. That means XANA's just restricted to our Supercomputer again, and he can't do anything too bad without the remaining code in Yumi and Aelita. If we turn the Supercomputer on, it might allow XANA a chance to get his codes back, which will have the same result as him getting Aelita's Key the year before last; he will be able to operate even with the Supercomputer off. He can then make more Replikas and take complete control of the network. But as it is, with the Supercomputer off, XANA is off too."

As Jeremie explained, Odd slowly reached for Kimi's orange to take and eat it. Sensing the imminent disaster, William got up, mumbled something about heading to class early, and withdrew from the group. As Odd's hand neared, Kimi stopped speaking and stared directly at it from the corner of her eye. Just as his fingers brushed against it, she lifted her hand from under the table and stabbed her plastic fork into the foam tray, exactly where his hand would have been had he not pulled away. Ulrich and Jeremie both leaned away, horrified.

"Leave my food alone," Kimi growled before breaking into a playful smile and laughing, punching Odd's arm.

"Yeah, Odd, you vulture," laughed Sissi before returning to the original conversation, "but honestly, who even likes sci-fi that much? I much prefer a good rom-com or something grounded in reality."

"Well, better safe than sorry," Ulrich grumbled, pushing his chair away as he got up and joined William in exiting the cafeteria.

"I don't know if he means Kimi or XANA," Odd whispered to Jeremie. "But really, I don't know, I loved going there. It might be fun to go back to Lyoko!" Odd laughed, leaning back and reminiscing about his best moments.

"No, it wouldn't be," Jeremie chided.

"Just because you looked ridiculous doesn't mean we all did," Odd snickered as Jeremie made a face.

"Who was it who wanted a redo after landing on Lyoko as a giant purple cat?" Jeremie retorted, and Odd stopped laughing.

"It gave me my moves." Odd flexed his tiny muscles.

"Sure it did. You were every bit as scrawny before Lyoko as you are now."

"I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte!"

---

The day passed by in a blur. All Aelita could think about was the Supercomputer and her chance to find her parents. XANA couldn't even do anything right now; there were no Towers available to use until the restoration of Lyoko was complete. As soon as the final bell of the day rang, Aelita was the first one up. She didn't fail to notice Jeremie watching her as she pushed to the front of the flow of students out the door, and couldn't help but smirk with satisfaction when Tomas came and got his attention, presumably to discuss the project. Good for her; Tomas wasn't the budding genius Jeremie was, but he was smart enough and, while he would do his own part, he would also do his best to keep Jeremie focused on their work. The only problem was that Aelita wouldn't be surprised if Jeremie devoted only the minimal amount of time to his half of the project, since it would be effortless for him. As soon as she was in the hallway and free, she began to power-walk to the doors leading outside. Then, she grit her teeth with a scowl when someone called her name.

"Aelita, wait up!" Magali, her partner, insisted, jogging to catch up to her. She turned, putting on the nicest smile she could. Unfortunately, Magali, like Tomas most likely would for Jeremie, was apparently also going to do everything she could to make sure Aelita did her fair share. Yeah, okay, she really hadn't done any work when she came back to the school last night. Still, like Jeremie might, Aelita knew she had plenty of time and would have no difficulty finishing her part quickly, and her smile became slightly patronizing as Magali continued. "We need to get some work done on that project. I want to start the semester off with good marks so I really need you to do your part."

"We have a week, and I'm busy with something else," Aelita replied slowly and simply in an equally patronizing tone. With that, she turned and disappeared through the doors outside, ignoring Magali beginning to protest.

"But you…! Jeez, wonder what her problem is," Magali sighed, starting toward the dorms to go her room and work alone. "And I thought this was going to be easy. She's supposed to be a genius."

Tuesday was a sunnier day than the evening prior, just under nine degrees Celsius, allowing the première students, plus Ulrich, to take a pleasant walk through Kadic's courtyard. Of course, Ulrich, William and Varric were still clad in their usual jackets as always, while Yumi and Ludek also had chosen to don one, but even so, the cool breeze was pleasant and facilitated comfortable conversation and making plans as they passed under the courtyard tree.

Aelita passed them on her beeline to the treeline, hoping to steal away into the park where she could continue to the Factory, but grimaced when William's gaze followed her and he waved jovially. "Hey, Aelita, want to go to the skate park with us?" he beckoned, forcing her to slow down.

"Not really," she flatly answered before continuing, silently praying he wouldn't press further.

"I guess she's still mad at Jeremie," William mused as he watched her go. Aelita had always been the one in his corner when he rejoined the Lyoko Warriors, yet any time she was around was also difficult, only more so when she seemed irritated; it was hard to convince himself it wasn't directed toward him. After all, XANA had always forced him to single her out, attack her, use his powers to override her will for XANA's vile plans, tried to end her life countless times. In his waking hours those memories were vague, yes, but at night, his memories plagued him just as hers did, flashes of his friends in agony at his own hands, of conquest. He knew she didn't hate him for it, and neither did the others; they'd told him countless times he was forgiven and trusted. He was just making progress, but then Laura spoke of striking and ending XANA all at once, and he got swept away in the cresting wave that promise was. Then XANA reconstructed the Scyphozoa and used it to control him like a puppet on a string, and it had brought everything back in a merciless deluge as he betrayed his friends in battle, no matter how brief, no matter that it was XANA's doing. But when he went behind their backs? That betrayal of trust was all him. Maybe they should hate him.

"But why would she be mad at us?" Yumi asked quizzically as she turned to Ulrich, unnoticing of William's plight. "Did you say something to her?"

"No. I'd say we should follow her, but…" he trailed off. Flashes of danger had passed in his mind seeing Aelita running off alone, but he reminded himself that XANA was no longer on the prowl as he continued, "it's fine for her to go for a walk by herself if she wants to."

"It's crazy how things have changed, isn't it, Ulrich?" Yumi murmured.

"Some things have changed." Others haven't. "Well, my skateboard is in my room. I'll go get it and we can get going."

"Mine too," Varric added.

"Mine's still at my house," said Yumi.

"Let's just meet at the park," Ludek suggested, and Yumi nodded her agreement.

"Actually, I don't feel up to it anymore," William admitted. The other four students turned to him, and he shrugged. "You guys can go without me. I think I'm just going to go to my room and work on my art or something."

"Suit yourself," Ulrich said, shrugging as well. Yumi, Varric and Ludek seemed satisfied, and with that the five split up.

Lines of complex code scrolled down the screen, and Aelita leaned forward, watching them intently. After a moment, she pulled up the Sector 5 map from the day prior and began to search for any indication of any sort of activity on Lyoko, whether XANA or, dare she hope, her father. She let out a frustrated groan as she toggled the map window, causing the Ice Sector to appear both on the screen and on the Holomap beside her. Before she could really begin to study the newly-recreated Sector, without any prompting, a window containing her father's video diary appeared.

"Daddy?" she asked, confused. That definitely wasn't XANA; her father's diary was in the secure access.

The video began to play, and Franz Hopper in the video started speaking, "I'm fascinated by the sheer potential in this pet project of mine. For security measures, I will be encrypting the following diary entries further. As much as it pains me to say, I'm reluctant to even allow my precious Aelita to hear of the horrors in these entries. If and when she is skilled enough to discover these, she will be mature enough as well." Static covered the video briefly, then it continued from what seemed to be a later point. "Project Carthage was presented as a privatized humanitarian project in Switzerland, designed to revolutionize communication and transportation systems. Myself and Anthea, my wife and mother of our daughter Aelita—"

The video abruptly stopped, and static filled the window once more. "Daddy?" Aelita repeated nervously, trying to piece together what was happening.

"…shortly after, object virtualization was achieved in 1984, thanks to constant work after the discovery and utilization of Exertanium in 1977. Then, Anthea and I discovered the KGB was pulling the strings all along, and planned to weaponize Carthage for militant use. That's when we discovered they wished to control and disrupt communications worldwide using the Towers, to use Scanners to instantly transport soldiers. They wanted us to find a way to materialize people anywhere in the world. So Anthea and I did what we knew was right, and I took as many components as possible while laying waste to the prototype virtual world Carthage had been working on up to that point."

Aelita gaped. She had never heard this part of Hopper's diary before, apparently by design. Even so, this new information was precious; a new connection to her parents. This was exactly the kind of sign she was wishing for to indicate her father was still alive, that she was right to turn the Supercomputer back on herself!

"Soon, I will be caught. I'm sure of it. Protecting Aelita is of the utmost importance. Hiding her from the remnants of the KGB, the so-called Men in Black, working on my own Supercomputer and AI weapon to end Carthage for good, all while being the father she needs me to be—" Again, the recording cut out and began again. "…after all these years, at last I know that my precious Anthea lives. XANA found a video file on the network, recorded less than a month ago and left deliberately so I would find it. She has been moved from location to location by the remaining hired muscle and ex-KGB agents that ran Project Carthage, displaced after the dissolution of the USSR. Day in and day out, they have been holding her under constant supervision in subhuman conditions, forcing her to work as one of their researchers. It gives me a twisted sort of comfort that she does not know what I know in regards to the Supercomputer; they will never be able to recreate my masterpiece. Even so, I am not only afraid for her safety, but also for ours. By XANA discovering that video, the Men in Black might be able to trace our location. I attempted to instruct XANA to use the Towers to rescue her, but he refused my command, stating that his sole directive was to destroy Project Carthage; showing me the video was simply incidental. I worry what might happen if I enable XANA to act outside of that directive, but I don't know if I have a choice. I don't even know if I will get to bring Anthea home before The Men in Black find me and my precious Aelita."

At last, the recording stopped entirely, and the window went black. This new information was simply priceless; where her mother had been, she could infer simply by piecing together what she knew already. But to know that her father was in the Supercomputer somewhere, and able to reach out to her this way!

"Daddy!" Aelita called, placing her hand to the screen. "Daddy, where are you? Tell me! I'll help you!"

The video diary seemed to rewind, then filled with static again. Aelita leaned back in the chair and watched, desperate for anything. Then, cutting between different parts of the entire diary log to choppily string words and syllables together, Hopper 'spoke' to his daughter, "Aelita, I'm here!"

"Daddy!" Aelita cheered, sitting on the edge of her seat once more. "Let me help you!"

"Aelita, I'm so weak."

"Where are you? I'll virtualize myself to you and help you. That way I know this is really you, too."

"Everything is dark… I can only feel the Heart of Lyoko. I need more power to move from here. Aelita, I have shown you a part of my diary that was locked deep in the secure access, separate from what I had on discs, never to be discovered until the time was right. That is all the proof I can give for now. Can you launch a Return, Aelita?"

"But then the others will know I turned the Supercomputer back on. If they find out, they'll be furious. They'll think you're XANA and turn it back off, and then you might not be able to come back," Aelita said despondently, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Daddy. After I bring you back, they'll know you're really you and they won't be able to be mad."

"Then we must find another way, darling."

"I… could try deleting, decompiling or compressing programs I don't need. We don't need a Superscan or the vehicles since we don't need to deactivate Towers or go to them… we don't really need the program to make a clone, or Odd's Laser Arrow reload, and we can go without a voice modifier… Oh! I certainly don't need the Megapod anymore, that will free up a lot of resources."

Aelita typed rapidly, zipping around to deactivate and compress the programs as she thought of them, diverting every drop of power she freed up. "Is that enough, Daddy?"

"Let me try… I'm afraid not, no. Still, I'm sure you'll find a way."

"I will, Daddy. I will," Aelita promised as she continued to type furiously.

"I love you, darling."

"I love you too, Daddy."

---

The next day after classes, Odd had dragged the entire group of friends to the gates. They stood around, most of them with their arms crossed or akimbo, and clearly none of them being pleased to be there. Least of all was Aelita, who tapped her foot impatiently and scowled. She had tried to tell Odd she was busy, but he guilt-tripped her, insisting she might never get another chance to meet his sisters, and how heartbroken he would be if she passed it up, and she had cracked. He was always there for her, and Daddy would be okay for now; if he wasn't actually on Lyoko, XANA couldn't strike at him from the shadows, nor did she think XANA would dare attack them on Earth and risk getting the attention of all of the other five Warriors.

"My sisters will be here any minute!" Odd promised, seeing the scowling faces of everyone around him.

"Why do we all need to be here? Aren't you just seeing your sisters long enough to smuggle your dog in?" Varric asked.

"Yeah, you know, I'm wondering the same thing. Won't you attract attention this way?" Yumi added.

"Jim gets paranoid when just a few of us are in the same spot," agreed William.

"Yeah, well, you can all stand in the way, so even if he tries to watch, he can't see me put Kiwi in my backpack. Besides, they really are visiting for a while," Odd answered, crossing his arms as if he was offended.

"So you didn't really invite us here to meet your sisters or anything like you said, you just wanted us to be your wall of protection," deduced Iris, who was clearly not impressed.

"Well, I can't say I would've have agreed to come if he had told us the real reason…" Kimi admitted, trailing off.

"Yeah, well, I have things I need to be doing," Aelita spat. Now she was really irritated; the guilt-trip was just an act all along?

"Shush, shush, they're coming!" Odd demanded as a bright red convertible, with the roof down despite the bitter cold, pulled up to the Kadic gates.

In the front seat, driving, was a tall, muscular woman, with sunglasses, long black hair tied in a ponytail save for a rebellious strand of blonde in the front, and very generously applied red lipstick with blue eyeshadow. In the passenger's seat was a brunette girl with her hair dyed pink at the tips, a matching pink bandana tied around her head, and the little bull terrier in her lap.

In the back seat, on the left, was a girl with an undercut, the long and gelled part of her hair a bright red while the side-shaved parts were a natural brown. She too wore sunglasses and had a lip ring along with various ear piercings. The girl sitting in the middle seat, the first of the twins, wore her blonde hair in a messy bun, dyed orange at the tips and a matching orange scarf. The other twin on the right in the back seat had her lighter brown hair with green streaks worn down, and she dressed simply with a camouflage hoodie.

"Meet my sisters!" Odd cheered once they stopped and began to get out. "Marie," he gestured to the driver, "Louise," the girl holding Kiwi, "Pauline," the girl with the piercings, "Elizabeth," the twin in the orange scarf, "and Adele!" the twin in the camo hoodie. "All oldest to youngest, naturally," he added.

As the girls smiled and waved, Odd continued, "Girls, these are my friends, and my girlfriend, Kimi!"

With the basic introductions out of the way, the group was free to mingle with Odd's sisters, breaking up into small groups as introductions were in order.

Marie and Varric firmly shook hands, both squeezing tightly. "What's your max, bro?" Marie asked, still holding on.

Varric blinked, caught off guard by the lack of a proper introduction, then smiled. "145 kilos, single. 130 on reps."

"Ha! Not bad," Marie laughed, letting go of his hand, "for a boy. I'm Marie."

"Varric." He narrowed his eyes, a competitive streak coming out as a smirk played across his lips. "How are you at chin-ups, dead hang? My max is 26."

"28." Marie grinned cheekily.

"Why don't we head to the gymnasium and you can prove it? If you have the time, of course."

"Oh, we'll be in town until the weekend. But I promise it won't take me the afternoon to mop the floor with you."

"You're on."

"So you're Odd's girlfriend? How wonderful! Usually, Odd can never keep one for more than a week!" laughed Louise while Kimi smiled graciously.

"Um, Louise, enough of that. Can I please have Kiwi now?" Odd smiled, strained.

"Oh, were you there when that little Claire girl slapped him for dating this girl Magali at the same time, and Magali had just slapped him beforehand? That's my favorite story!"

"Oh, no, I just transferred here from Diderot. But that sure is interesting…" Kimi smiled wider, showing teeth now, but her dark eyes glared daggers at Odd.

"How about the time Heidi Klinger and Emily LeDuc told the entire school about his rotten feet? Oh, Odd couldn't get the smell out for weeks!" Louise howled with laughter, clutching Kiwi to her chest while Odd grit his teeth.

"Oh, yes, that one I've heard." Kimi answered. "I sure didn't know he dated Heidi and Emily, though."

"Louise, please, enough stories, just give Kiwi to me!"

"Oh, Kimi, he's dated every girl! The only reason he landed you was because you had no idea when you transferred!" Louise cackled, tilting her head back and holding a hand to her chest. "Well, he hasn't gone for the ones in your group, of course. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a little crush on some of them!"

"Louise, I am never telling you anything again! Give me the damn dog!" Odd snapped, snatching Kiwi from her hands while Kimi looked like she was going to explode.

"But… Odd…" Now, Louise looked as if he'd slapped her, and her voice began to wobble. "How could you say something like that?"

"Oh, no, not two emotional women…" Much to Odd's chagrin, this remark only made Kimi angrier, and Louise sadder, as they both closed in on him.

"Oh, my god, I love your hair! Your lip ring is kind of a disaster though," Sissi babbled to Pauline, pointing disdainfully.

"I didn't ask," Pauline spat, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses while she pushed past Sissi on her path to William, Ludek and Yumi.

"What? But I was just giving you constructive criticism!" crowed Sissi while they began to discuss.

"What sort of bands do you like?" asked William, certain he'd share a few just based on Pauline's appearance alone.

"Kiss the Bottle and 12xu."

"Wow! I like both of those." William grinned, and Yumi smiled as well.

"I'm an Belle Epoque fan also," she added.

"What about Nickelback?" Ludek asked, hands in his pockets. All three of them stopped, turning their heads to stare at him.

"Surely at least one of you is a Sheryfa fan. Jenifer?" Sissi pleaded as she walked up to the group again, trying to break into the conversation before giving up and looking around for someone else to talk to whom she knew would share her taste. "Tomas! Where'd you go?"

Meanwhile, the twins were making a point of handing out hugs to Jeremie, Tomas, Ulrich and Iris. Sissi let out a small "a-ha!" as she caught sight of them and began to approach.

"I love your hair!" Adele squealed to Iris, feeling the coils with her hand.

"Ooh, hands off, love." Iris backed away and pushed the girl's hand aside, smiling but obviously irritated. "You really shouldn't just touch a stranger's hair without asking!"

Elizabeth, however was sharing the same sentiment with Tomas. "How do you get it to stay like that?" she asked as she, too, touched it and found that it was not gelled.

"Um… water, I guess?" he answered quietly, pulling away awkwardly.

"It's so soft!" she squealed, undeterred. He frowned, obviously wanting to say something, but to his fortune Sissi came to his rescue.

"What are you doing? How rude!" she said as she approached, wedging herself between Tomas and Elizabeth.

"Hey, how about your hair? How'd you get it that way?" Ulrich interjected, hoping to ease the pressure before things soured further.

"It's natural." Elizabeth lied, her face perfectly straight as she turned to him.

"No it's not, you cow!" Adele yelled, letting go of Iris's hand, which she had taken to marvel at how soft it was. "You dyed it yourself!"

"Shut up, pig! Why can't you ever let me have any fun?" Elizabeth shouted back, storming up to her twin.

"Wow, they almost sound like you and Yumi when you're pretending you don't like each other," Jeremie teased Ulrich, who scowled.

"Shut up, pig," he grumbled.

"Aelita, tell him I'm right." Jeremie turned around, looking for support. "Aelita?"

---

The week passed by, as much a blur as each individual day that went. For most of the circle of friends, the first week of school was going quite nicely. For the Lyoko Warriors, they were deeply concerned by Aelita's sudden withdrawal from everyone. Every morning she sat as far as she could from them; this very morning, they had tried coming to the cafeteria early enough to spread themselves out at the table, and upon seeing this when she walked in she simply walked out. She didn't seem particularly concerned with eating most days, was constantly withdrawing herself, and even ignoring Magali de Vasseur, much to the girl's dismay. This new behavior, then, was why the Lyoko Warriors were now congregated in Jeremie's room, holding a de facto meeting to determine how best to help their friend out of her apparant depressive funk.

"Einstein, you have to be the one to talk to her," Odd said simply as he scribbled answers in on a sheet of homework, glancing at a sheet with immaculate handwriting and answers for guidance.

"And tell her what? She's just mad because I won't turn the Supercomputer back on to look for her dumb old parents. I told her Franz was dead and we would try to find Anthea another way, but that we can't use the Supercomputer to do it, and she got all mad."

"Not her 'dumb old parents,'" Yumi chided from her spot on Jeremie's bed where she sat cross-legged. "She loves her family and wants to do whatever it takes to save them. Just because that's the wrong way to do it doesn't mean you wouldn't want the same."

"There's no saving Franz, and she has to put that energy to work finding another way to save Anthea," Jeremie replied, shaking his head. He took his glasses off and rubbed his temples, trying to fight back the oncoming migraine that the subject matter was giving him.

"As much as I don't like my father, I can understand loving someone enough to do anything for them," Ulrich agreed, nodding his agreement with Yumi. "Maybe you could turn it on for a couple days and look. Have us there to be ready to go to Lyoko if XANA tries something."

"And end up fighting XANA for months on end all over again? Fat chance. He's probably got a plan ready to spring into motion as soon as the Supercomputer is on to get the rest of his source codes back from Yumi and Aelita."

"Couldn't you just turn the computer back off if he activates a Tower?" William suggested, but Jeremie shook his head.

"Why not, Einstein?" Odd asked when he didn't elaborate.

"It's too risky that he'll do something before we can react. If XANA gets his hands on the remaining source code, it'd be like when he took Aelita's Key all over again, but worse, and turning off the Supercomputer would do no good anymore, he could hide in another computer," Jeremie explained, causing Odd to frown.

"I don't want to hear about XANA anymore. Don't worry about that stupid wad of circuits. Just... talk to her, okay? I'll talk to her after you do, and we can just hope she's willing to try something else," Odd offered, which in turn caused Jeremie to sigh.

"I'll try calling again," he murmured as he slid his cell phone out from his pocket, thumbing a key to speed-dial the pinkette. He put the phone on speaker so everyone could hear it ring once, twice, and abruptly cut off in the middle of the third, going straight to voicemail. He hung up, not bothering to leave a message; he'd already left several that went ignored. "We'll just have to wait for her to come back. Hope it's before curfew."

Not for the first time that week, Aelita sat in the interface chair, closely examining numerous windows showing various charts and wireframes, trying to find ways to give the Supercomputer more power. "Maybe we could try activating a Tower and routing that power to the Supercomputer. I'm not sure I still can, though. Daddy?"

A screen appeared on top of everything else she was doing at the moment, and the makeshift speech using Hopper's diary began. "Yes, Aelita, dear?"

"If I activate a Tower from here and route the power to the mainframe, will you be able to access it?"

"Perhaps. We won't know if we don't try."

"Okay," Aelita murmured under her breath as she moved his window aside, calling up the map and activating a Tower in the Ice Sector, giving it a green glow on the map screen instead of its placid white.

"Alright, it's done. Do what you can." She felt excitement bubbling up inside her. Her father would be back on Earth soon, and it took less than a week! She was right; she could do this alone, and she did. When the others found out she'd gone behind their backs, how could they argue with the results, when her father stood right in front of her? Then, from there, they'd be able to find her mother. XANA and Tyron would be nothing once her father was home again.

Unable to wait any longer, she leaned forward and asked with bated breath, "Daddy, can you do it?"

"Just a moment longer, Aelita, dear." With that, the entire screen went blank as her father drew every drop of power he could. Aelita could hear a high-pitched whine from somewhere below.

"Come on, Daddy," Aelita whispered, crossing her fingers on both hands and biting her lower lip. She didn't dare touch anything, lest she disturb the process, yet just when the anticipation was becoming too much, the whirring noise stopped.

On Lyoko, the activated Tower's mist changed from green to white once more.

"Aelita, you've done it!" The screen lit up once more, the map of Lyoko front and center again, and the first thing Aelita saw was the white marker that signified Franz Hopper appearing on the screen near the Tower she'd activated for him.

"Daddy!" Aelita squealed with joy. Tears began to form in her eyes as she typed, opening the materialization window. "Daddy, hold on! I'm going to try bringing you back!" Just as she tried to begin, a red exclamation mark covered the window, then morphed into an Eye of XANA flashing across the entire screen, shifting all the colors on the display and causing it to distort. To her horror, the tower faded from white to a sinister red, and red blips signifying monsters began to appear around her father on the map. Panic struck her like a match, and the excitement bubbling within her curdled and became steaming dread.

"Oh, no," She could only muster but one horrified whisper as her father's marker fled toward the edge of the Sector, the legion of red blips pursuing him. She began to type, trying to call up any program she could possibly use to assist him, but before she could, a black mist emanated from the cords around the monitor and coalesced into a spectre, which quickly flung itself at Aelita. With a scream she fell out of the chair and crumpled to the floor, covering her face with her hands helplessly as the spectre invaded her nostrils. She jerked about on the floor, trying to free herself of the spectre as she began to struggle to breathe, yet just as her vision was becoming hazy the black mist surged from her body once more, disappearing into the ceiling presumably to find someone or something it could possess.

Aelita, not missing a beat, stood and stumbled back to the screen to see if her father had escaped. She leaned over the keyboard, not even daring to sit, and found that the map showed only the monsters congregated at the edge of the Sector, over the Digital Sea.

"Daddy, did you get away?" she whispered. She waited for a response, her laborious breathing the only sound in the otherwise silent room, for several moments, and her face fell more and more as nothing happened. "Daddy?"

---

The evening sky glittered with starlight and a full moon as a stiff January breeze blew over a quaint little wooden boat, floating on the Seine under the Factory bridge. In the boat were Nicolas Poliakoff and Herb Pichon, a pair of boys who had idolized Sissi for years, following her around, obeying her every whim and encouraging the vengeful streak in her up until she, put simply, found better friends. Nicolas was a dull boy in almost every way, while Herb was nerdy, for lack of a better term, more so than Jeremie in spite of his inability to surpass said rival in terms of intelligence.

In celebration of Nicolas's birthday, Herb had agreed to go on a so-called "breathtaking experience in the moonlight" to partake in the birthday boy's favorite hobby.

"I got another one!" Nicolas cheered, pulling a trout off his line and dangling it in front of Herb to show it off before throwing it back. Herb rolled his eyes then gave a toothless smile. They couldn't legally keep the fish, he knew, but apparently, Nicolas loved catching and releasing them. He stared out over the river; he was beginning to regret agreeing to come, birthday or not, and wished something new would happen.

The spectre of black mist, controlled by XANA, exited the Factory, hovering in the entryway before taking notice of the pair. Quickly and unceremoniously, it floated down, rushing Nicolas and invading his body, causing him to begin convulsing. Herb looked up, confused, and quirked an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you? If that's your victory dance, then you need lessons more than I do," Herb quipped, scowling when Nicolas had not stopped. A moment longer, Nicolas suddenly stopped all movement, his arms dangling as he was hunched over. His body straightened in a rickety manner, unnaturally, and he turned his head robotically, fixing his eyes on Herb. "What's wrong now? Something on my face?"

Abruptly, Nicolas thrust his arm out, punching Herb directly in the face. As Herb recoiled with an agitated screech, his glasses soaring off his face and into the water, Nicolas stepped forward, grabbing him by his sweater and flinging him into the river. After a moment, Herb's head surfaced, absolutely drenched and his nose bleeding. "Hey! What the hell was that for?" As Herb struggled to climb back onto the boat, the possessed Nicolas sprung, sailing through the air all the way to shore, where he landed with a thud. With hands and feet, he began to crawl like a spider at an inhuman pace up the riverfront and toward the Factory.

Aelita tapped at the keyboard, her ID card and a timer appearing on the screen. She was almost done when the elevator began to run, and her head whipped to stare at the elevator doors with a shocked gasp, freezing to the spot.

"It can't be them! Jeremie wouldn't have a way to know there was an activated Tower," she assured herself. "It must be XANA."

With that, Aelita entered the last command and made a mad dash for the ladder. The timer on the screen began to count down, the elevator doors opened and Nicolas stepped off.

"Hello, Aelita. So kind of you to activate the Tower for me and lure your father into the open!" Nicolas cackled madly in a distorted voice before lunging at Aelita, hands out like claws. She slid down the ladder, and as Nicolas peered down at her she sprung off of it while still a meter or so off the ground. She gasped as pain radiated up her leg from her ankle, but reminding herself the clock was ticking she limped desperately to the closest Scanner. Nicolas jumped down after her, unaffected by the height thanks to XANA's possession, and she sped up as much as she could manage, stepping into the Scanner right before the doors closed around her.

She flinched as a bang echoed through the little cabin of the Scanner, knowing Nicolas had flung his body at her once more. The Scanner whirred to life nonetheless, and a strong air current blew skyward, deconstructing her physical body as her virtual body appeared on Lyoko, pixels filling in the wireframe. When her body was complete, she fell from the Ice Sector sky, landing gracefully before immediately coming to her feet.

"I forgot to send any vehicles… I would have had to take the time to decompress them anyway." She passed her left hand over her right wrist and her pink-feathered angelic wings appeared, lifting her into the air and allowing her to get a much better perspective on her surroundings. Red pulsation rings appeared down a path to her right, and she began to follow them with ease from her bird's-eye view.

Nicolas' entire body, meanwhile, dissolved into a black cloud, passing through the ceiling of the Scanner Room and surging back through the Factory. Then, outside, the black mist unceremoniously dumped Nicolas's body on the shore of the Seine, where Herb had given up on getting back into the boat and pulled himself to the shore instead, soaking wet. Hearing Nicolas fall, he turned in that vague direction, scowling.

"Nicolas! What's wrong with you?" he demanded, pulling himself onto land. Nicolas remained unresponsive initially, then woke up with a start a moment later. "Don't ignore me! Just because I can barely see doesn't mean I don't hear you!"

Aelita had just flown around a large ice formation when she found the activated Tower in sight behind it, flanked by two Megatank guards. Last time we were in this Sector, XANA used the Kolossus to beat us… That won't happen to me because we destroyed the other Supercomputers. This should be a lot easier. Aelita found solace in those thoughts as she swerved to dodge a Megatank blast. Then, as the other was charging its laser and this first one was recharging, she saw her chance and dove, reaching for the activated Tower.

Jeremie called Aelita's phone again but received no answer. "It's getting close to curfew. If Jim sees me sitting outside her door, I'll get in trouble, and he'll wonder where she is, and she might get in trouble too." Giving up for the night, Jeremie let out a sigh and got up to return to his room.

On Lyoko, Aelita let out an abrupt cry as the second Megatank fired, clipping her wing and sending her spiraling downward into the Sector's icy ground. Shaking her head, she looked up and saw the Scyphozoa approach her, floating out from around the tangled black mass of roots that grounded the Tower.

"Not you!" she screamed. She formed an Energy Field from where she laid and fired it, but the Scyphozoa jerked to the side, dodging easily. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to begin to sing and use her Creativity, but a tentacle wrapped around her waist and jerked her into the air, cutting her off and making her body go limp. It placed three more tentacles on her head, one on each temple and one on her forehead, and globules of orange energy began to flow from her to the Scyphozoa's brain. After just a moment, it dropped her unceremoniously before squawking and beginning to flee. Aelita woke immediately upon hitting the ground, feeling more or less unaffected, and wasted no time scrambling to her feet to escape another Megatank blast. She jerked to her right to dodge another one, then went into a dead sprint for the activated Tower. Both Megatanks opened and charged blasts at the same time now.

"You pushed me in, you idiot!" Herb shrieked.

"I did not! I don't know what happened!" Nicolas yelled back. He shoved Herb to the ground then fell on top to pin him.

"Stop right now, you two!" On the ground, they both craned their necks toward the voice look to see an adult man in grungy clothing coming towards them. "I don't know what you're fighting about, but it won't be done out here! Get home, both of you, before I call the police!" Herb and Nicolas were quick to obey, breaking apart and sulking away toward the Academy, casting glares at one another all the while.

Aelita squinted her eyes shut hard, sure that any moment she would be hit, but forced her legs to keep pumping, keep pressing forward. She wanted to do all this alone, and she had to handle the consequences alone. She could make it. She knew she could. Hearing the Megatanks fire behind her, she let out a cry and sprung forward, reaching for the Tower. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes as she soared, almost expecting to open them on Earth, but when she did, she saw her hand make contact with the Tower. Creating ripples of light, she passed through the black roots just as the Megatank blasts rumbled, hitting the Tower instead of her.

With a sigh of relief, she stopped in the middle of the Tower's platform, stopped and looked downward, then pulled her head up. When she did, her body emanated a soft white glow as she began floating to the second platform. Aelita performed a careful backflip to avoid hitting her head on the upper platform, cleared it, and landed gently. Then, the control panel flickered to life at about shoulder level above the platform, and she placed her palm on it, her name flashing across. After that, the simple word CODE prompted her, and she entered LYOKO below it. The numerous layers of screens on the tower wall, each and every one full of binary, began to fall around her to the bottom of the Tower network.

"Tower deactivated." With that, she let out a sigh and simply activated a materialization from the panel, disintegrating where she stood off of Lyoko and returning to Earth.

---

A shaken Aelita had just returned to Kadic Academy, stealing through the sewer passage to save time. "It's a nightmare! It must be a nightmare. He did not kill my father. He didn't use the Scyphozoa to take the rest of my source codes, and he is not back." She shook her head as she climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories, trying to knock the horrible images dancing around in her brain out of her consciousness. She was so sure she could rescue her father after not saving him before, but now… "My nightmares have been so vivid lately, that's all this is. That is all this is." She opened the door to her room.

Herb and Nicolas, however, had to take the long way above ground and were soon caught by Jim outside of the dormitories, who clearly wondered what they were doing out so late and why Herb was soaked to the bone. Without saying a word, he simply loomed over the two and crossed his arms, waiting for their excuse.

"We went fishing by the river, Jim, and I accidentally fell in," Herb stammered, hoping to avoid trouble. "See? I'm soaked!"

"Fishing? I remember a time I was on an Alaskan Fishing Boat. We would haul in salmon by the tons. Why, I remember…" Jim began, preparing to spin one of his stories, but Nicolas cut him short.

"We are already late for curfew, we should be going to our rooms."

"Yes, well, nice try. I'll have plenty of time to tell you about the time I fell overboard in freezing water tomorrow. During detention," Jim answered gruffly, firmly planting a hand on each boy's shoulder to escort them to their rooms.

By then, Aelita had changed for bed, wearing her oversized pink shirt, and plopped down, curling up with Mister Puck to her chest. "My father is alive, and XANA is not back. My nightmares are long and vivid, but when I wake it will be a new day."

As she closed her eyes, though, she knew without a doubt she was wide awake.