Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. I do own Cascada, Musa, this story's plot, and any other character that isn't in the show.

Finders Keepers

"Night," Musa yawned as she and the other Lyoko girls waved good night to the guys who headed to their room. After the guys were out of sight, they all snuck back into their suite. Aelita, Yumi, and Cascada immediately headed to bed but Musa went to get some tea in hopes to put her busy mind to rest.

Flashback

"This is unbelievable," Jeremy gasped as he and the others gazed upon the lab. It literally made the one in the lab look like amateur work compared to this. The room was large, far larger than expected. Unlike in the factory, wires were not exposed and the computer itself looked way before its time. Four white and blue cylinders, of what could only scanners, were placed against a wall, gleaming in all their high-tech glory. A separate work area that held maps, blue prints and several other various books were off to the side. The group was slightly over powered by all of the white brightness.

"Why is it so…white?" Ulrich asked.

"The old man was paranoid, I'm sorry to say. I guess it helped to see if anyone who wasn't supposed to be here was…you know, here," Musa explained shrugging.

"Well someone definitely hasn't been here in a while," William said. "The whole place is covered in dust."

Cascada walked over to the supercomputer, sitting down in the seat that she expected to be dusty with time but surprisingly it wasn't which immediately caught her attention. She turned the computer on and instantly a 3-D screen appeared before them with the basic four Lyoko sectors.

"Everything seems to be running smoothly," the plant A.I. said. "Do you have the disks?"

Jeremy stepped forward with the bag filled with memory disk. "I can do it," he said.

"It'll take to long if you do it," Cascada said not even looking at him while she began the basic processing set-up. "If I do it, we'll be online in no time." The blonde computer whiz frowned before grudgingly handing over the bag. "Make yourselves comfortable guys, while mama works her magic," the strawberry blonde said with an eager grin.

End Flashback

Musa sighed. She remembered the look Jeremy wore on his face for the rest of the night. She knew the boy didn't like feeling useless. Cascada could have at least let him work on some of the files.

She raised the cup of tea she had just made to her lips, taking a sip before instantly spitting it out. For one, it was too hot, almost scolding her tongue, and second, it tasted terrible. She wiped her mouth, pouring the disgusting liquid down the sink, regretting that it was such a waste.

Once she cleaned up her mess she headed to her room. Hoping that she wouldn't wake Sitara up.

When she slipped quietly inside the dark room she saw Ichigo asleep, curled up on her pillow, Sitara fast asleep in her own bed, and a shadowy figure standing above said girl's bed.

The figure whipped their head to face Musa. They only looked at each other for a second but it felt longer. Suddenly, the figure turned around towards the opened window and jumped out. Musa quickly turned to Sitara. She seemed okay, so without hesitation she jumped out the window, despite being on the fourth floor, following the hooded figure within the woods.

Could his body be any more tired? He wondered. He tried to move his arms before grunting. That was a yes.
William sighed as he sat on the edge of his bed. His body was screaming for sleep but his mind was rushing with thoughts, not enabling him to drift off to a peaceful slumber. His head was also pounding beyond belief as if to explode. He rubbed his temple hoping to easy away the pain but nothing seemed to help. The room began to feel hot so he opened the window.

As he leaned forward, breathing in the refreshing mountain air, something falling down from the floor above him caught his eye. He watched, surprised as he saw a figure jump down and land seemingly unharmed on the snow covered ground before running at an unbelievable speed.

The shaggy hair teen was about to put what he saw as a trick of his mind due to his headache but he had a feeling it wasn't when he saw Musa jump down, just like the figure before her and take off after.

"What the HELL is she thinking?" William thought and without even realizing it he jumped out from his window, ignoring the fact that he should be seriously hurt after such a jump and followed after the wolf A.I.

Musa ran at super speed through the dark woods, dodging trees and keeping her eyes trained on the figure in front of her. He was eight yards away and he was weaving in and out of the greenery trying to shake her off.

Suddenly, the mysterious person broke through the woods and into a clearing. "I can catch up with him faster there," Utada thought putting an extra boost into her running.

When she came into the clearing she was surprised to see it was empty. She looked down at the snow covered ground and saw that the person's footsteps had just stopped in the middle before disappearing.

"Where…?" she thought before she heard the faintest of sounds of rustling branches coming from above. She looked above her to see the unknown person looking down at her from a tree branch.

He was young, though it was hard to tell exactly how old due to the lack of light. He wore black pants and a black, sleeveless, high collar jacket that's zipper opened up at the bottom and at the top. He was thin but not scrawny (what Odd would call svelte) and he had dark ebony hair with a streak of flaming red running through it. His eyes were hidden behind a dark red visor that was attached to a headphone like device on his ears. But what Musa found the most interesting about the boy was the upside down tattoo of Xana's symbol on his righ shoulder and the cyber hi-tech oriented flute he held to his lips.

"Kuso!" the wolf A.I. thought as she realized what the instrument was, "His weapon!" but it was too late as he blew a scale of notes into the slender instrument causing the wind to pick up around her and causing a tornado of snow to circle around her.

She raised her arms up to shield her face and spread her feet wide to keep her balance but she could feel the force of the attack pushing her back. That was until she felt something grab onto her arm. She looked next to her to see William holding her down from being blown away as he held onto a tree trunk with his other hand.

Red sparks danced from his finger tips and she could slowly feel her energy being sucked away but this gave her an idea. "William!" She said over the roar of the wind and the flute, "On my go!" she said, the boy nodding understanding what she meant as blue sparks of her own began to appear around her hand. "Now!"

They both broke through the whirl wind surprising the mysterious boy who was cut off from his playing. Musa and William jumped up sending sparks of red and blue electricity towards the boy.

He jumped back to another tree branch, easily avoiding their attack but he was cut off guard when Musa appeared suddenly behind him and sent a power punch towards him. He ducked, but the wolf A.I. grabbed his wrist. "Who are you?" she asked. Instead of answering, the ebony hair boy twisted his arm in her grip, managing to slip away.

The bi-color hair girl could have sworn she saw a slight flicker in his image but he put the flute against his lips once again, fingers flourishing with each note he played as another whirl wind appeared around him and then…he was gone.

"Musa! Are you okay?" William asked as the girl landed back on the ground.

"Yeah," the wolf A.I. nodded, looking at the spot where the boy had disappeared before looking down at her hand which held a silver circlet.

Cascada was awoken from her much needed sleep when her cell phone went off. "What?" she growled into the phone, obviously not a morning person.

"Cas, it's Yumi. Come to the cabin," the Japanese girl said over the phone, "William and Musa think they found something. Everyone else is here."

"Why didn't anyone wake me up before you guys left?" Cascada asked getting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"You know you're not the best person to wake up," Yumi laughed. "We thought it was safe to wake you up from a distance."

"Right," the plant A.I. scoffed. "I'm on my way," she said before hanging up. She looked at her clock. It was only noon.

She stretched out deciding to take a shower. As she made her way to the bathroom she thought of what Yumi had said. "William and Musa…William and Musa… what were those two doing last night together?" she thought turning the shower water on with a frown.

She trusted her sister and boyfriend and knew for a fact and with a doubt that nothing between them was beyond sibling feelings, but… She couldn't help the slight twinge of envy she felt when William seemed to worry more about Musa than her, his own girlfriend. The green eye girl knew that seemed selfish but she felt that she had given up on a lot of what she wanted for the better interest of Musa and Aelita. Couldn't just once she have something that was only for her?

She sighed as she let the slightly scalding water run over her skin reddening her back before she turned the water off and wrapped herself in a towel. As she made her way back to her room she past by Sitara who was heading out.

"Going to meet up with those friends of yours?" Cascada asked. The mute nodded, smiling. "Alright," the plant A.I. nodded. "If you need anything you can text either me or Musa, but we'll otherwise be out for awhile." Sitara nodded again before exiting, leaving Cascada alone in the suite, Sissi having left earlier too.

Not really feeling in a rush, she put on a green sweater with jeans and boots before putting her hair in the usual ponytail. She was just about to leave her room when she stopped and grabbed her sketch pad. Who knows? She might get inspired.

The plant A.I. left the suite and headed towards the elevator. When she was inside, she leaned against the wall, opening up her pad, she flicked through the pages, passing by drawings of people and turning to those of faceless women and men wearing beautiful designs of clothing.

When the strawberry blonde first arrived at Kadic she found herself attracted to fashion but none of her designs ever made it past the sketching stages. Making an outfit took a lot of time, time which she had used trying to get rid of Xana and was now using to find Mother and Hopper.

"Those are very stunning," a voice surprised her and she automatically closed her sketch pad and looked up to see a woman smiling down at her. The plant A.I. hadn't noticed that the elevator had stopped to pick up another rider.

The woman looked familiar though the girl couldn't pin point why. She was wearing a pink scarf tied around her head only allowing a few pieces to frame her face. She wore a pink shirt underneath a red knee length jacket with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows and flowing green pants. Golden bangles ran up her arms sparkling lightly in the elevator's dim light. The plant A.I. liked the woman's outfit to say the least. It was fashionable to her though a different fashionable than Mrs. Dunbar; another woman she thought had taste when it came to clothes. The plant A.I. wondered if she could somehow combine the two styles…

"Thank you," Cascada replied politely.

"No problem," the woman said with a bit of an accent though Cascada wasn't exactly sure. Musa would have known though. "Are you going to be entering the fashion contest?"

"I don't know," the blonde said unsure, "I really don't know that much about it and I might be too busy with other obligations to actually put my designs on a model."

"So busy for such a young girl," the woman sighed sounding disappointed before smiling once again. "Well, I hope you'll change your mind. I would love to see more of your work. You're very talented."

"Thank you," Cascada smiled before the elevator 'dinged' as it reached the lobby ground. "It was nice talking to you," she said.

"I always enjoy talking to fresh inspirational designers such as yourself," the woman grinned before looking at her watch and gasping. "Oh I must go! Good bye!" she said kissing the startled plant A.I. on both cheeks before running off, disappearing in the lobby's crowd. "Ciao!"

Cascada brought her hand up to her cheek where the woman had kissed her, "That was definitely…odd," she said before remembering that she had to meet the others and leaving the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the plant A.I., someone had watched her encounter. "This is interesting."

"What is Sissi?" Nicolas and Herve asked trying to look at the picture on the girl's digital camera.

"Nothing for you idiots to be worried about," Sissi said flipping her hair over her shoulder before walking away. Both boy's looked at each other with confused looks before shrugging and following their superior-er, friend.

"You're late," Jeremy said as Cascada entered the hidden lab, the others already there. He was still bitter about yesterday.

"Give me a break, four eyes. It's not like anyone waited for me at the hotel," the girl scoffed. "Now what is it that is so important that I had to be awakened?"

"This," Musa said stepping forward to reveal a silver band in her hand. Cascada picked it up examining it.

"And where did you find this?" she asked raising a questioning brow.

"That's not important," Musa said grinning. "Sis! Do you realize what this is?"

"I have an idea but it's very unsettling since you have yet to tell me where you got it from," Cascada said handing it back to the wolf A.I.

"Mind filling us in?" Odd asked as he, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi looked confused.

"Ever since we found out we can project your Lyoko forms onto Earth by being close to another supercomputer," Jeremy said, "I've been trying to figure out a way to do that same thing without being in the vicinity of one."

"And with this," Musa grinned holding up the silver circlet, "we can do just that!"

"You mean…" Aelita eyes widened as realization dawned on her.

"You're looking at a portable scanner," William said.

"Fantastic!" Odd grinned.

"It is," Cascada nodded, "but once again, dear sister, where did you find this?"

The wolf A.I. looked over at the shaggy hair boy nervously before turning back to the other A.I. "There was some guy in my room with Sitara. She was asleep and I checked her out and she's fine but when he saw me he tried to make a run for it. William showed up and we tried to catch him but he got away."

"You let a petty burglar get into your room?" Cascada asked.

"He wasn't just any burglar," William said. "He had powers…Lyoko powers…"

Silence filled the room save for the soft beeping of the room's machines.

"And so," Cascada said breaking the silence, "Lyoko seems much more vast then even we could imagine," she sighed running her hand through her hair. "It's unsettling knowing that there is someone out there with enough technology and brains to make something of this caliber."

"Then we need to make sure we're prepared," Ulrich said. "Do you think you could reproduce something like this, Einstein?"

"I'm already working on it," the blonde computer whiz said typing on the computer whiz. "I got the basic schematics set up but we're missing some key components and I'm not sure where to even look for them."

"Like what?" Cascada and Musa asked simultaneously, looking over the boy's shoulder.

"Um…basically, the newest high processing computer chip and a battery that would put the Energizer Bunny to shame. I just need one of each though. I can use the scanner to make copies of them," Jeremy said.

"Why can't you use the scanners to make copies of this," Aelita asked pointing towards the bracelet.

"The bracelet is complex. It would take too much energy and time to recreate it," Cascada said. "It'll be easier if we just redo it ourselves. Also, there could be some unwanted effects that it may have and we wouldn't know about it until it happened because we were unable to see how it was built for ourselves."

"She's right," Jeremy said. "But that still doesn't tell us how we're going to get the stuff we need."

"Jeremy," Cascada smiled mischievously as she put an arm around the computer whiz's shoulder and leaning her head next to his as Musa did the same on the other side, making the blonde blush nervously. "You trust us don't you?"

"Uh, uh, uh," the boy stuttered nervously looking for some help from the other members of the gang but none of them provided any, not even Aelita, his only hope. "I'm going to regret this, I just know it," he thought. "Yes," he muttered.

"Good!" Musa said pulling away to clap her hands.

"So," Cascada grinned stepping away from him, "You'd understand when I say everyone is banned from this room with the exception of Musa and I for today."

Jeremy only had one thing to say about that. "WHAT!"

Pain coursed through him but he wasn't going to degrade himself by falling to his knees. "I hope you know that that item you lost wasn't cheap," a bored male voice said before him. He didn't reply. The pain made it difficult for him to hold himself up and speak. "I really don't understand why you were even there without my commands. Care to shed some light on this?" No reply. "Fine. Then suffer for your disobedience."

Pale blue eyes watched the exchange from a distance, too afraid to step in or draw any attention to herself. Her lips were pressed firmly in a thin line, keeping her mouth shut. She was surprised when she found herself collapsed on the ground trying to regain air.

"And why were you not there to support him?" the commanding male asked.

"P-please!" she gasped clawing at her throat for air. As soon as it had happened, it was gone.

"Get up," she was ordered. She did so, not daring to glance over at her partner. She knew that he was already unconscious by now. "Prepare for your next assignment. You'll have the assistance of the others."

"Yes sir," she bowed before leaving the room, not daring to take a close up glimpse of her partner. It was everyone for them self here. The term "partner" here basically had no meaning at all.

Okay, so here is the next update. It's okay, I guess but I'm really looking forward to the next chapter. That'll be fun to write... Anywho, one of the un-named characters here you have seen before but I'm not going to say who or from where. Wonder why that guy was in Musa and Sitara's room. Maybe he's a perv! LOL! He's not.

Anyway, nothing more to say so...PLEASE REVIEW!!