Cassandra looked at William from behind her book. Mathieu had just left her, denied of friendship again, and now the boy was talking how about jealous he was of William who had not only been able to sit next to her at many lessons but also got a fair lot of attention from the girl at the swordplay club due to the boy's beginner level.

Cassandra wanted to keep her façade of disliking the boy, but she could not avoid admitting to herself that especially at the swordplay club sessions she had grown fond of the black-haired boy. She did not tell herself that they would ever become friends, but she knew that something was happening to her. She was afraid of it, but part of her told to escape the chains of fear.

The question was "how she could ever escape her parents?" That seemed impossible. If she allowed this to continue, she would just get beaten again, probably also dragged away from this good school to study at home. She wanted to avoid it so badly.

What on Earth should she do?

What could she do?

She could escape the chains of fear, but how could she escape those who were behind those chains?

"You were afraid back then," William said, breaking the reminiscence. "And you are afraid now."
"I know," Cassandra said, standing up and turning her back on the boy. "And I bet I will be afraid in the future too."
"Well, X.A.N.A. is not going anywhere anytime soon, so you probably have a reason for that in the future."
William, you don't know... You don't know what I am afraid of now... Cassandra did not say it aloud. Instead, she said, "Yeah. X.A.N.A. is a threat now and in the future until it's gone forever."
"I hope we'll get to see that day," William noted.
"What do you mean by that?" Cassandra turned her head and shoulders to look at the boy, her hands behind her back.
"Anything could happen. X.A.N.A. could kill us, or we could never stop it. Jeremy and Aelita seem worried about that Franz Hopper, too. We're all at risk," William said. "The risks were made very clear to me when I was invited to join."
"And yet you chose to join," Cassandra noted.
"It sounded exciting. And besides, Yumi asked me since they needed help, so I wasn't going to say no either," William said. "And that dream I saw, I think it was a sign that I should be fighting."
Or maybe it was X.A.N.A.'s work. A trap to lure you here, Cassandra decided not to bash her friend's source of determination to be there. She stayed silent and pondered.
"You know, I think this was fate. That we meet again here on Lyoko, when we are both fighting against evil. That I end up on Kadic and find my way here, while you were taken here by X.A.N.A. You, and no one else," William continued.
"I don't believe in fate," Cassandra remarked, looking away from William. "Makes shit too difficult to deal with. And makes good things too simply got. I prefer affecting on things rather than believing that some weird power will handle everything." She paused to think how to say it without hurting William. "I'd rather think that you got yourself kicked out of Riverain with your own actions instead of that fate decided you to get kicked out."
"So that you could blame me for it?" William asked, suspicious.
"No," Cassandra said. "So that I could blame myself for not talking you out of doing it. So that I can think that I could've done something to stop it from happening, even though I did not do anything about it." She turned to look at William again. "So that I can take the blame for being here in this situation and know that I could've done something about it."

William stayed silent, pondering the girl's words. It sounded farfetched and more like the wrong answer, but the boy knew that if Cassandra's words were ever farfetched, they were true. They were on a very personal level now, so William had to keep his mind open. His bias would not help at all.

Cassandra looked away again, willing to avoid the tense air, but when she looked away from William, her mind, despite seeing only the wall of the tower, set itself to think of another version of the boy: the Dark William whose fake copy most likely lurked somewhere out there, capable of striking her at any moment.

There they stayed, silent, one standing, one sitting, both pondering. Their conversation had hit a standstill, incapable of continuing on its own. Cassandra turned to look at William again to dispel the image of the Dark William from her mind. The real, Light, William in his mostly white suit was whom she wanted to remember, not the Dark one with his black suit.

Not seeing use in standing, the girl sat down in front of the boy so that she could look into his eyes, unsure of the reason. Perhaps somewhere under her consciousness Cassandra wanted to burn the image of the real William into her mind over the nightmarish version. She did not know.
"Cass, you know, we are alone here, we have privacy. What are you afraid of?" William initiated a conversation. Remembering how she had been ambushed, Cassandra looked over her shoulders, partly expecting the object of her fear to appear behind her back, before answering.
"There's something out there. Something capable of decapacitating me," she said as she looked back at her friend. "Something capable of beating every one of us."
"What is it? Do you know?" William asked.
"X.A.N.A.'s creation," Cassandra did not know any better way to say it without identification. "His new general."
"Is that why you don't want me to face the Scyphozoa?"
"Yes. I don't want any more enemies to walk around the sector than necessary."

Your replacement. A glorious general. The memory of Xanafied William saying that chilled Cassandra deep to the bone. Fear was very strong in her.

The memory of Xanafied William led to the Dark William, the torment when he had had Cassandra decapacitated. Cassandra wanted to cry out of fear or just do something, but she tried to keep her composure. She looked at the real William again, now consciously willing to burn his image over everything else. She wanted to purge herself of the fear that her time on Lyoko had brought.
"Why can't you come to Earth?" William asked quietly.
"I just can't," Cassandra answered. She did not want to explain. Her voice became a whisper, "I just can't."

William knew better than trying to prod for answers. He could see the fear and anguish in the girl's face. Instead of saying anything, he just moved next to Cassandra and wrapped his arm around her shoulder so that they were very close. Fear turned into genuine surprise, but Cassandra relaxed, leaning her head on her friend's shoulder. She was safe with William.

"I dare you, William, I double dare you!" Mathieu quoted a meme. "Go talk with Cassandra. Outside the club, she'll treat you just like she treats me, I'm sure!"
"Mathieu, please," William said, exasperated. "There's no need for that."
"Just do it. She won't kill you if she hasn't killed me," Mathieu looked at everyone else. "Right?"

Others looked just as exasperated, but William decided to give in. "Fine, I'll go. This once."

He walked towards the girl who, just like always, sat on a bench and read a book. Everyone in his friend group looked at the situation, unknowing that Cassandra had, once again, overheard everything.
"Umm.. Hi, Cassandra," William greeted carefully. The girl looked up from her book which seemed to tell about ancient swords.
"Do you want to mess with Mathieu or do you want be sent off like him?" she asked.
"I dunno," William looked at the group, especially Mathieu. "Messing with Mathieu could be nice since he dared me to come talk with you."
"Then sit down and let's chat," Cassandra took her bag off the bench, put her bookmark to the page she had stopped at and closed the book. William sat down next to the girl, not daring to look at the boys. Everyone looked surprised, but Mathieu looked the most aghast of them all.
"Well... What are you reading?" William asked. Cassandra handed to book to him, saying, "It's about swords during the Antiquity. It's pretty interesting, but I've read more interesting stuff."

William took a look at the pages of the book. He could not help but be interested; he played quite a lot of video games the protagonists of which used swords, and with the swordplay club he had grown even more interested in swords.
"Of course, it's amazing that people have been able to use metals for such things as swords even back then, but... it's just not as varied. It's just Ancient Rome and Greece. I prefer seeing the differences all over the world, not just one area, one continent," Cassandra noted.
"It's good to concentrate on some areas to learn more about them sometimes, though," William said.
"I know, but I want to see which is the most interesting area to start learning about," Cassandra said.
"Hi," Mathieu had walked up to the two talking students.
"Get lost, Mathieu, we're having an intelligent conversation here," Cassandra snapped at the boy who had just arrived.
"I can talk intelligently, too!" Mathieu said.
"I don't care. You are not interested anyways, so it doesn't matter if you can talk intelligent or not," Cassandra said coldly.
"I bet William's not interested at all since I dared him to do this!" Mathieu snapped.
"I wouldn't have done this if you hadn't dared me, but I'm genuinely interested, honestly," William defended himself. "You should try getting interested sometimes."
"Don't waste oxygen, I think your advice is wasted on him," Cassandra noted. "I've told him that and it hasn't changed anything."
"Well you don't even let me talk with you!" Mathieu said.
"Because I know you're not interested in what I'm interested in, that's why," Cassandra noted.

She would have said even more, but the bell ringing cut her off. William handed the book back to her, and after taking her bag, Cassandra left. She walked past the group of William's friends, all of them looking at her in awe. When had she accepted William as someone to talk with?

There were hardly any lessons during which William did not sit next to Cassandra due to the lack of free places. Therefore, he sat next to Cassandra even during that lesson, the double lesson of mathematics. Suddenly William's concentration was broken by a piece of paper Cassandra suddenly slid in front of his eyes.

Surprised, William turned to look at the girl who continued doing the exercises as if nothing had happened, so the boy decided to look at the paper. There was text on it: If you ever feel that you're done with Mathieu's shit, I think I can make some space for you next to me on the bench. Was it an invitation? William glanced at Cassandra again, getting the girl's attention now. She mustered a small smile before turning her eyes back to the exercises.

William smiled too. Something had happened, and the girl seemed to have accepted him. This was actually going better than he expected. Maybe they were becoming friends now?

Cassandra was glad to have broken some ice, but at the same time she was also afraid of where she was headed. This was dangerous, and she was deeply afraid.

She hoped with all her soul that she had done the right decision, if there was one.

Because it if was not, she would be ruined again.

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