Cassandra was alone just like always, reading another book. It seemed that she had taken up reading all the books of the local libraries. She just seemed to be reading all the time, and William did not understand how anyone wanted to be a friend of the unkind bookworm who certainly did not want anyone close to her. Everyone seemed to be a nuisance to her.

Mathieu approached her again against the advice on everyone else. He only got harsh words for his effort, and he returned back to his friends, beaten once again.
"Please, Mathieu, just stop. She is not going to like you," Allen said. "She's gonna hit you someday."
"She will crack someday, I am sure of it," Mathieu said. "There must be something under that shell of hers!"
"What if there isn't?" Manuel asked.
"There must be!" Mathieu insisted. "I am not giving up!"

Many sighed. William just looked at Cassandra; he could not understand what Mathieu saw, but he, too, believed that there was something under the nasty outside. He just could not name what was there.

The others looked at William.
"Well, I guess you now know what he saw?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah. There was a whole person hiding under the shell," William noted. "A person I wouldn't have believed to exist there, had I not seen it by myself."
"What kind of a person is she, then?" Odd asked, curious. William pondered for a moment. How could he describe the real Cass?
"Someone who needs a friend to count on," he told simply. He needed to tell nothing else.

Cassandra swung her sword and slay the Creepers. The replica of William's sword was heavy, but as she used her feet to keep her balance and changed her posture when needed, she could easily direct the momentum where she wanted.

Doing that was quite easy to her, as she knew what to do, but she could only wonder how she could ever teach it to William. It would be an arduous job, but if it made sure that the Dark William would never become reality, Cassandra was willing to do it.

She never wanted to see that nightmare become a being of flesh, especially when it costed her dearest friend's freedom.

She had to. Everything depended on it.

"X.A.N.A. is attacking again," came the alert in the evening. "Let's meet at the lab!"

Cassandra stood up and rushed out of her tower. She would get to the chamber of the Heart of the Lyoko first. She knew she had the chance to stop the attack on her own before anyone would make it to the factory.

Cassandra acted fast and precisely. She sliced the Creepers when they came close enough for her light one-hand version of a Zweihänder to cut in pieces. She jumped over every hole in the ground which appeared as the flooring devirtualized under her feet. The key was close and the time was abundant for her as she hit the key. The flooring stopped devirtualizing and she continued to the elevator. At the Celestial Dome she called Vert and rode to the Core Chamber. She was there soon.

Five mantas. Two of them plummeted down to shoot at her. Mines came at her faster than the monsters that dropped them.
"Let's put my creativity to test, then," Cassandra muttered, unsheathed her sword and concentrated on the first image she could make of a sword which would work as an umbrella-like shield. Bombs started to drum the simple shield which could never make any sort of damage. Cassandra said nothing as she made her way up. The shield deflected or at least stopped all the lasers which were shot at her; the girl did not see which one happened. As the other one of the Mantas which had come down cried and blew up, Cassandra knew that her shield was lucky at deflecting.

Then the second Manta blew up too. One was an accident, but two was intentional. Cassandra stopped and looked up. Something was wrong. The other three Mantas kept shooting. Was this just to confuse her or was something else up there?

Turning her shield into the light Zweihänder she liked to use when she needed slice and dice type of action, she kept going carefully. More mines fell down on her, but she simply avoided them or used her sword to block them.

Then she saw a glimpse of it. No, him.

Her virtual blood running cold, Cassandra stopped. This could not be possible. How could her nightmare incarnate?
"Hey, you!" she shrieked. The dark being which had taken the form of her closest friend looked down on her. This was the Dark William she had seen in her nightmares. The only step of becoming more real was the real William turning into that.
"How the heck are you here?" Cassandra yelled as her sword morphed into a sword of five blades. That should be able to hit the dark spectre – it had to be one! It could not be the real William under X.A.N.A.'s possession, she would know if such a drastic change had happened.
"X.A.N.A. created me and sent me here," the spectre answered.
"You mean you were virtualized here?"
"Yes."

Cassandra sighed, then attacked the spectre. It protected itself, but Cassandra's five-bladed sword reached past the spectre's blade, successfully devirtualizing the attacker. The other would have to deal with it on Earth. In the meantime, Cassandra would destroy the Mantas.

On Earth, in the scanner room, the spectre appeared in front of other Lyoko Warriors, keeping William's appearance.
"What's this? A clone?" the real William asked and walked closer to the spectre, but Ulrich stopped him, saying, "Don't. It's a polymorphic spectre. X.A.N.A.'s doings."
"A ghost? Please, that's so absurd!" William laughed.
"You still haven't learned anything about X.A.N.A.'s attacks?" Cassandra snapped via the communication line. "Why am I even trying?"

William looked down, hurt once again. If Cassandra was good at something social, it was hurting other people. He certainly had to do his best to fix that tendency for his own sake.
"Aelita, Yumi, I'll virtualize you to Sector Five so you can deactivate the active tower and get rid of this spectre!" Jeremy shouted.
"Okay, Jeremy!" Aelita said as she jumped out of the way of the spectre and to the scanner. Yumi followed her example, then shouted, "Jeremy, now!"
"Transfer Yumi, transfer Aelita, scanner Yumi, scanner Aelita, virtualize!" Jeremy said.

The two girls landed to the Arena and ran as fast as they could. But Cassandra did not bother going to aid them; she knew that they could do it on their own. And she was right: neither of the girls got even much damage when Aelita got to the tower.

The spectre evaporated.
"And there, mate, was your first spectre encounter," Odd said to the dazed William who had been thrown at the wall a moment ago.
"Cool," William muttered. "That hurt, really."
"Welcome to our life," Ulrich noted.
"Great," William muttered. "Is it always like this?"
"Not if there aren't spectres around," Odd said.
"Or Xanafied people," Aelita noted. "Let's get to the lab and see what Jeremy has to say."

It turned out he had very little to say; he was arguing with Cassandra about her not helping the two girls a moment ago.
"For the last time, you idiot, I calculated that they would fare on their own, and I was right!" Cassandra yelled. "The end of conversation!" The window closed.
"Is it normal for her to do that?" Jeremy asked William.
"Yes, if she feels that her message does not get through," the new Lyoko Warrior answered. "She finds it annoying. And actually for a good reason; she really doesn't talk if she does not have something important to say. I think you should listen to her or at least look like you are listening."

Jeremy sighed.
"If you think it'll work, I guess it's a good idea to try it," he said, though he did not believe that it could ever work. It was, however, the best choice to be made.

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Cassandra Delorien, Riverain and the rest of its original characters (c) Me/