Two

Aelita sat in her bed that night, reading a diary of her mother's that Jeremie had found while searching Aelita's families old winter-house. While it thrilled Aelita that he had found this, she was worried that he continued to make these trips on his own. Aelita didn't like the idea of Jeremie traveling to remote locations, on his own, despite his assurances that he would be fine. But, she knew it was necessary, even though she didn't like their method of transportation.

Due to the lack of easy transportation, via the Skid, the Lyoko warriors had turned to more standard modes of transportation. Airplanes, trains, boats… anything to get them to their destination, generally replikas.

Aelita had felt really bad about this, at first. Jeremie would find a plane heading toward their destination, reschedule four of the passengers' , and give the tickets to the traveling Lyoko Warriors, via the supercomputer's impressive hacking system. Then, he would send clones to school in their places. He had worked a lot on the cloning process, making it hard for X.A.N.A to possess them. If X.A.N.A did, then the clone would lose its extra strength, making it not worth X.A.N.A's time. Besides, if there were clones out, it meant that the Lyoko Warriors were attacking his replikas.

But, Aelita had long learned to ignore the guilt of cheating people out of their plane tickets and making clones take their place at school. After all, as Jeremie had pointed out, there isn't an option. And, they are doing this to save the world, which is a little more important.

Aelita flipped the page in Anthea's diary, to find a picture of Aelita tearing through wrapping paper, on her third birthday.

Jeremie had told her that there was hope of locating her mother, one of the reasons he kept making these trips. Jeremie had it harder; his clone was the only one who did not have an exact copy of his personality. When he fixed the cloning process, he had made sure the clones would act the same as the person they were cloned after. That way, no one would be suspicious, and the clone could tell the Lyoko Warrior what he or she missed in class. Jeremie's clone was very much different from him, but Jeremie always already knew everything that they covered in class, so there was no harm done if his clone didn't tell him what they covered.

Aelita still wondered how he did it.

Suddenly the door burst open. Aelita jumped out of bed, in time for a bullet to be shot over her head. Aelita froze, staring at the assassin framed in her doorway reloading a sniper pistol.

The assassin turned toward Aelita, and held a finger up to its lips. Then it took aim again.

Aelita screamed. There really was no reason to not, it wasn't as if the assassin would show her mercy if she didn't. She cringed when she heard someone speak.

"What are you doing?" A calm voice came from the hall. The assassin whipped around. Aelita saw Jeremie and Odd in the hall, amused expressions on their faces.

"Really," Odd piped up, "is there any reason to kill Jeremie's girlfriend?"

Jeremie elbowed Odd. "It's been a while." He said to the assassin. "Why don't you come up to my room?"

To Aelita's shock, the assassin followed the boys up. Her mind raced for answers. The boys were clones, possessed by X.A.N.A. to hire an assassin to kill her. The boys were possessed. X.A.N.A. had told the boys that Aelita was possessed.

She shook her head, clearing it of her wild thoughts, and instead called Yumi, to ask for her opinion on what was going on.

While she waited for Yumi to pick up, she thought of something. The assassin's concealing, ninja-like garb was identical to the one that Jeremie wore when going on undercover missions, down to the clasps on the dark glasses.

Jeremie said he had made it himself, and that he would make identical outfits for the rest.

But Aelita's had been slightly different. Not overly noticeably, but different. The fabric was different, the shoes had a different pattern… Yumi's was different, too. So was Ulrich's. And…

No, not Odd's. Odd's was the exact same as Jeremie's. Which meant… something was up.

When Yumi's phone ran over to voice mail, Aelita told her to meet her at Jeremie's room. She called Ulrich, and told him the same thing.

Then, aware that it was, perhaps, a risky plan of action, but not willing to wait any longer for answers, Aelita left her room and headed for Jeremie's room.

She reached the room and listened in. She heard only whispers of some quiet conversation. Probably conversation between Jeremie, Odd, and the assassin.

When Ulrich arrived she beckoned him away from the door a little, so they wouldn't be heard.

"What is it, Princess?"

"Something's… not right," she said slowly.

Ulrich sighed. "You called me up here to tell me 'something's not right'?"

Aelita frowned. "An assassin just tried to kill me, actually. But, there's something weird about it."

Ulrich blinked at her. "Well, yeah something's weird," he whispered. "An assassin just tried to kill you."

"There's more than that, but I'm gonna wait for Yumi to come, so I don't have to repeat myself."

When Yumi arrived, Aelita filled both of them in on her thoughts as well as what had happened in her room.

Yumi frowned, puzzled. "What do the outfits have to do with anything?"

"Our stealth outfits are the same as each other's," Aelita explained. "But Jeremie's and Odd's are the same as the assassin's. I just thought it was weird."

"You're right," Ulrich said. "And the only people we're going to get answers from are in that room." He pointed at Jeremie's room.

Yumi looked hesitant. "Is that wise? If Odd and Jeremie are in cahoots with the assassin, then maybe we shouldn't break his door down now."

"Does it really matter?" Ulrich asked. "If Jeremie and Odd didn't want us dead, then they won't kill us. If they do want us dead, then they wouldn't have waited until we burst down the door. Besides, they'd just send the assassin to kill us later." He looked at the girls. "We know Jeremie and Odd don't want us dead. They keep risking their lives to save us on Lyoko. There's got to be a logical explanation."

"I agree," Aelita said.

"Alright," Yumi said, uncertainly.

Aelita went up and knocked on the door.

It cracked open to reveal part of Jeremie's face.

"Yes," he asked.

Aelita blinked at his natural tone of voice.

"Can I… come in?" She asked, cautiously.

"Now isn't really the best time," he said, apologetically. "Sorry."

"Well…" Aelita started.

"Oh for heavens sake!" Yumi said, pushing past Aelita. "We know there's an assassin in your room, and we know you and Odd know something about it."

Jeremie blinked, then sighed. His eyes shifted from side to side. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Jeremie," Ulrich said. "You know we can. We kept Aelita and Lyoko a secret."

"I guess so," he looked unconvinced. "Do you promise not to tell anyone? It really won't affect you if you don't know. The assassin won't come again, I promise."

Yumi shook her head. "You're not going to get away with that."

He sighed. "Do you promise?"

"Yes," Aelita said.

The others both agreed.

"Well, then, I guess you can come in."

He opened the door, and they entered his room.