"Aelita," Franz whispered, kneeling down by her bedside. "Wake up, my angel." She stirred in her sleep, rubbing her eyes as she slowly met the sight of the old man.

"Ah!" she shrieked, scooting backwards in her bed and hiding away under her blanket, peeking one of her eyes out. "What are you doing here?! Who are you?!" In response to her startle, the man moved backwards and placed his hand on his chest as if he had been stabbed in his heart.

"You… you don't remember who I am?" His lips quivered and he gently brought his fingers against them, his eyebrows bending backwards in despair. Aelita angrily gaped at him, confused but also frustrated.

"What?" she scoffed.

"I asked for you to never forget me, Aelita."

"I can't forget someone I never knew, you crazy old man!"

"You told him."

"Wha… what?"

Franz snapped his head towards her, the sorrow replaced by rage. Aelita cornered herself against her wall as she watched his wrinkled face morph into the smooth, young face of the devious man who had stolen her innocence and ruined her life. The thick bifocals cracked and revealed the glistening sunglasses that hid his eyes, his voice distorting from the comforting sound of Franz Hopper and into the raspy boom of the criminal.

"You told him, Ms. Schaeffer. I thought you made a promise, hmm?"

"I… I.." Aelita clutched her sheets between her fists, turning her head away as the man in black began to crawl towards her. Just before his nose touched hers, he whispered into her face.

"You broke your promise, Ms. Schaeffer. Remember that I made a promise, too? Unfortunately for you, I don't break my promises." His hand started to crawl down her arm, and Aelita let out a shriek.

The blood curdling scream echoed throughout her small room and Jeremie burst through the door.

"Aelita!" he cried, running to her side as her body shook underneath her covers. "Aelita, what's wrong?" The terrified girl hid away from Jeremie as if he were the criminal, hiding her face behind her pillow. Tears began to soak the thin cotton of the pillow case. "Aelita," Jeremie pleaded, tearing the pillow away from her. "Aelita, it's me! Jeremie!"

Her grip loosened on the pillow and she peeked one of her eyes open, looking upon the worried face of the blonde boy. Without saying a word, she threw herself into his embrace and began to scream more, before her desperate shrill turned into a pitiful sob.

"He's angry that I told him!" she shrieked into his chest, clutching onto his night shirt. "He knows! It's all over for me Jeremie! What have I done?"

"Aelita, calm down!" Jeremie begged, anxiously looking at the door and fearing Jim would hear her cries. "Aelita, sweetheart, you've got to calm down… it was just a dream, okay? I'm here, 'Lita. Just calm down."

She choked back her tears, sniffling and hiccupping against his chest as Jeremie tightly hugged his arms around her. "Please don't leave me again," she pled.

"I'm not going anywhere." Jeremie rubbed her back and sat in silence as she took deep breaths, calming herself down.

"Jeremie?" she whispered, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"What did you call me earlier?" she turned her head upwards, looking at Jeremie. Her wet cheeks sparkled under the light of the moon that snuck through the window. Jeremie stared directly into her eyes, which still had tears pooling in the corners. He took the edge of his sleeve and dabbed it onto her cheeks, drying away the drops.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, earlier, when you were telling me to calm down. You called me something."

"Lita?"

"No…you called me something else. I think you called me… sweetheart." Aelita playfully smiled at him, a mischievous look in her eyes.

"I… um… well…" Jeremie pulled at his collar, his nose and cheekbones flushing a brighter pink than the color of Aelita's hair. "I just… my tongue slipped."

"Maybe you should let it slip more often," she softly spoke and nuzzled her head against his chest. Sleeping came easy to Aelita as long as Jeremie was around, and she was gone within seconds. Jeremie chucked to himself and smiled, leaning his head against hers.

"Man, this guy sure doesn't like to make this easy," The hard-working man muttered under his breath as his fingers sprinted across the plastic keys. It was Sunday, so no classes; meaning Jeremie had the entire day to work at decoding Franz's heavily encrypted diary. The last dangling leaves of the quickly dying trees plucked themselves off of the frail branches, gusting away in the wind. It seems like just yesterday was the day that Aelita had walked into class after the event, completely silent. Weeks turned into months, and with each passing day she grew more frightened and vulnerable. Jeremie was more than concerned for her well-being. He wanted so badly to tell the others and personally hunt down whoever did this to her, but the question was to figure out how. Aelita would never trust him again if she found out he had told, but at the same time, it was really in her benefit. Jeremie realized he had lost his focus on his work, and quickly shook the distracting thoughts out of his head. He wasn't free for long, though, as Aelita, who had been sitting on his bed watching him work, piped up her little voice to disrupt the silence.

"You're awfully quiet."

"Sorry, I'm just focused," he politely responded, giving the humanoid girl a brief smile before turning his direction back to the blaring light of the computer screen. Aelita leaned back on his bed and crossed her legs, happily watching him work so hard just for the sake of finding her anti-virus. Her dress snugly wrinkled around her abdomen, and she began to frustratingly tug at it. After a moment of fighting, she threw herself backwards and let out a defeated sigh.

"Jeremie," she said. "I'm going to go to my room for a moment."

"Why?" he replied, turning around in his chair. "Are you okay?"

"My dress is too tight. I'm going to find something else to wear."

Jeremie's glasses swiftly fell off of his face, landing directly into his ghost white hands that sat gently in his lap. "What did you just say?"

"I said my dress is too tight. Is that bad?" Aelita clutched her fingers together against her mouth, growing concerned at Jeremie's reaction. Jeremie replaced his eyeglasses back onto his face.

"No, no. I'm sure it shrunk in the wash." Aelita raised her eyebrows at him. Jeremie continued to make the situation clearer to her. "You know how heat makes things shrink compared to how cold expands, right? Well it's the same way with water temperatures and clothing. Hot water makes your clothing susceptible to shrinking."

"But I wash my clothes in cold water."

Jeremie blinked in response.

"Jeremie, you're scaring me."

The blonde shook his head rapidly, evicting the negative thoughts from his head. "Sorry," he apologized as he straightened up his hair. "Like I said I'm sure it's nothing. I'll be here when you get back." Aelita smiled and left the room, leaving the door open behind her. Jeremie turned his attention back to the computer screen, but was quickly interrupted once again.

"Hey, Jeremie," Yumi greeted as she helped herself into his room. "Can I talk to you?"

"About?" Jeremie spun his chair around, crossing his left leg over his right. Yumi nervously sighed, avoiding eye-contact and playing with her fingers. Jeremie, puzzled, raised an eyebrow at her before repeating himself. "Well? About?"

Yumi sighed again, slowly raising her gaze to Jeremie. "Aelita."

"Um, what about her?" Jeremie fumbled over his words, pulling at his collar. He knew that if Yumi asked him about what happened, he didn't have it in him to lie to her. Aelita needed to get help.

"I think you know, Jeremie."

"Uhh…" Jeremie stuttered and swallowed his words. He began typing away on the computer, attempting to look as if he was busy. "This isn't a good time. I'm busy."

"Listen, Jeremie," Yumi raised her voice as she slammed the door behind her. "Everyone knows that something is going on, whether or not we know exactly what. Look at the way she's acting. She doesn't talk to anyone anymore, she doesn't laugh or smile unless you're around, and she clings to you like a parasite. This is a girl who literally does not exist at all outside of Kadic academy. She has no family and doesn't even know who she is and why she's here, and yet she still managed to keep a smile on her face all the time regardless and give anything to her friends. Now all of a sudden you can't even get her to say hello. She almost let herself die on Lyoko! She's never needed this much attention before. She's never been this vulnerable. Something happened that changed her, and with the way she looks at you and follows you around like a lost puppy, I'm getting the vibe that she's told you what happened. And you're not getting rid of me until I find out myself."

"I don't know what happened, Yumi. Yes, she clings onto me and wants me around all the time. But it doesn't bother me, she won't tell me either, and I'm just trying to be there for her."

"Cut the crap, Jeremie! The look in your eyes right now is the same look Aelita carries when someone asks her if she's okay. You know, Jeremie."

"I don't, Yumi."

"Jeremie, please, just tell me!"

Jeremie turned away from her, crossing his arms as Yumi stood before him and clenched her fists against her sides. "Jeremie, I've seen the blood. She walks as if she's in pain. I've heard her crying in the shower and in her room. I hear her screaming when she has nightmares-"

"But Aelita has always had nightmares."

"Stop making excuses for her!" Something bad obviously happened and if you don't tell then it's only going to get worse."

"I can't tell you, Yumi. You'll have to get it out of her, not me."

"So you do know."

"What?"

"You admitted it."

"Admitted what?"

"This isn't funny, Jeremie!"

"No one is laughing, Yumi." Jeremie glared at her as he pushed his glasses up his nose. The coldness of his stare extinguished the flames in her eyes.

"Jeremie, what about the blood? She's been to Yolanda's twice now. I don't think she even knows what a period is so I don't believe her when she says that's all. She cries all the time. She shuts away everyone when all we're trying to do is help."

"Yumi, stop."

"I don't recognize her anymore! This isn't the Aelita we brought to Earth."

"Yumi!"

"Jeremie!" Yumi angrily pleaded with him, gripping her hands into his knees as he cornered himself against the back of his chair.

"Stop," he demanded.

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

Silence. Jeremie turned away from her, biting his lip so fiercely that it began to bleed. Like the blood that streamed down Aelita's legs every day for the first week. Yumi backed away, her chest rapidly rising and descending with each raging breath. Jeremie squinted his eyes shut, trying to imagine Yumi wasn't there; that he wasn't being interrogated. Aelita would kill him. He made a promise.

"Jeremie!"

"SHE WAS RAPED!" Jeremie snapped, screaming in Yumi's face as he shot out of his chair and then immediately turned his back to her. He clenched his fists so tightly against his sides that his knuckles turned white and his fingernails dug into his palms.

"Wha…what?" Yumi's heart began to pound inside her chest, almost erupting from her skin. The already miniscule color in her pale Asian features washed away completely.

"Aelita went for a walk by herself one night. It was dark, and her curiosity got the best of her. Someone had been watching her for a while. I don't know who, but it's someone who knows about her, Franz Hopper, and the supercomputer. He knows more about her past than we do. He followed her there, and he did it. That's why she cries at night. That's why she bleeds. That's why she won't talk to anyone. Are you happy? I told you," Jeremie choked as he took off his glasses and wiped away the tears that collected in his eyes.

"Oh my God," Yumi spoke, barely bringing herself to a whisper.

"And if that wasn't bad enough," Jeremie continued, "He is still after her. She tells me that she sees him everywhere she goes, and she always feels like he's being watched. He's been here. She saw him through her window one day. That's why she follows me around all the time. Because she's scared. Because she knows that if she's ever left alone again, he'll finish what he started."

"But… how could this happen? She's not… you know… human."

"I'm not so sure of that anymore…" Jeremie slowly turned to face Yumi.

"What?"

"Franz and the supercomputer obviously have some sort of connection, which means he also has a connection to Aelita. This guy is in her dreams and calls her angel and darling. That's awfully fatherly, if you ask me. She always has to go to the same child's bedroom when we visit the Hermitage. She knew about Mr. Puck without have ever even seeing it before. I used to think these visions of hers were just tricks on her mind via XANA, thanks to the virus implanted in her… but now, I'm not sure. If she wasn't human… she shouldn't really have… the right parts for this to have happened to her."

"Have you decoded any of the diary entries yet?"

"A little, but not enough to tell us anything. And I think we have a bigger problem on our hands, too."

"Bigger than this? What?"

"You'll know about this one more than I do…" Jeremie walked over to his computer desk and pressed his hands onto the countertop, leaning over his computer, loose blonde locks dangling in his face.

"What are you talking about?" Yumi irritatingly asked, lost in the eruption of despair.

"Do you remember that strange orb that has been popping up every time Aelita goes to Lyoko? And for some reason, XANA is very keen on destroying it?"

"Yes."

"Remember how I said I thought it was a fragment of DNA that separated during the transfer?"

"Yes…"

"Well, it was DNA, alright. And yes, it did contain Aelita's DNA… but… there was other DNA, too."

"So… um…" Yumi gnawed on her fingernails, trying to make sense of the information Jeremie was giving her. "What… what does that mean?"

Jeremie sighed. "She throws up… Every. Single. Morning."

"So?"

"Do you know what she said to me today?" Jeremie turned around, looking at the awe stricken face of Yumi. Her body was practically shaking from the overwhelming amount of news. She shook her head at him. "She told me her dress was getting tight. Around her stomach, Yumi."

"You don't think… that…"

Jeremie sighed and fell backwards onto his bed, letting his aching head drop into his hands. Yumi joined his side. "The last time we went to Lyoko, I was able to run a test as I scanned her. It acted as an x-ray, if you will…"

"So… you know for sure, then?"

"Not for sure, no. It didn't really show me much, just that something was there. We'd have to run an actual test to find out."

"What are we going to do?"

"The trouble doesn't end there."

"Oh, come on… what else could be there?"

Again, Jeremie sighed. "If she really is… Yumi…then… we can't send her to Lyoko anymore."

"Why not? We sent her before."

"Yes, but that was very very early on. That was what, over a month ago? The scanner doesn't know how to properly perform that action. It's past the embryotic stage and so at this point… if she goes to Lyoko… it dies. Maybe Aelita, too. I don't really know what would happen…"

"Oh, no."

"Jeremie."

Yumi and Jeremie's heads shot up, meeting the sight of a tearful, shaking Aelita standing at the door. She had been listening the entire time.

"Aelita," Jeremie and Yumi both gasped. Oh, no.

"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone," she angrily choked through her tears before charging down the hallway.

"Aelita, wait!" Jeremie cried, reaching his hand towards the now empty door frame.

"Looks like the trouble doesn't end here, either…"