The group walked inside the elevator and rode it up to the laboratory. Aelita was still slightly shocked by what she experienced in Lyoko, and it prompted her that she needs to find her father if she had one in the first place.

Jeremie didn't question Aelita yet, because seeing her like this, he wanted to give her a space. Jeremie knew she will tell him once she felt comfortable enough.

The elevator door opened, and they all walked to the displays, where they saw the kitten sitting on Jeremie's seat. Aelita, still quiet, picked the kitten up and hugged her.

So she's keeping it. Jeremie thought, as he sat down on the seat and opened a program.

"This program detected what the tower does, and it just shows the program to reboot the supercomputer." Jeremie sighed. "And since XANA knew that we were going to shut it down, it prepared by using the supercomputer itself to protect the tower."

"And what about the nightmares?" Aelita asked, surprising Jeremie. He didn't know that Aelita had a nightmare too. Or maybe she really didn't; what if she had a normal dream that felt real?

"I am not sure what caused it," Jeremie said. "It could be that XANA doesn't need a tower to control certain things."

"So XANA is still alive." Odd said, as they all nodded. "The fight continues. Just as I was on my way to begin a long-term relationship."

"With what? Yourself?" "Haha, very funny Ulrich." Odd said. "I'm trying to get together with Sam."

"Sam? Isn't she the student from the...special school?" Yumi asked, as they all nearly burst into laughter.

"Yes." Odd embarrassingly said. "But she's nice and funny!"

While the two were laughing at Odd, Jeremie felt a presence next to him. It was Aelita, using the height of the chair for her own good; she had her head on Jeremie's shoulder, looking at the screen.

"The entity...was pretending to be my father." She whispered, obviously not wanting the others to hear.

"Your father?" "He explained that my scanner was corrupted when I got first transferred to Lyoko, so that's why I can't remember anything," Aelita explained her experience with Lyoko. "Also, he knew your name even though I didn't tell him. That was what revealed him."

"XANA?" Jeremie asked as Aelita nodded.

"But I think he was right; I could have a father in Lyoko." Aelita continued. "He said his name was Franz Hopper."

Jeremie thought for a moment after hearing the name. He knew the name from the history of the school they were forced to read once in detention.

"He was a physics teacher many years ago here in Kadic," Jeremie said. "But I don't think any records stayed."

Aelita looked at him, sadness in her eyes. He wanted to help the girl really much, but he just didn't know how except going to look for any history.

"Okay, I'll try to look for anything that would link us to him," Jeremie said, as Aelita smiled, and hugged him, even though he was still in the seat.

"Thank you!" Aelita chirped.

/-/-/-/

Everyone left back to the school, leaving Jeremie alone in the laboratory. Well, not really alone. He had Maya in the laboratory with him. Maya was the name of the kitten that Aelita found, and she left her there with Jeremie, promising she will come with some food and water for her, and maybe bring her back to the dormitory.

Jeremie's eyes were getting red more and more while he was looking through the files that were on the supercomputer. He found a diary, a video one to be exact, but it was encrypted on a level Jeremie never knew existed.

He pushed himself off the keyboard and took down his glasses. He had enough. He failed Aelita. He made a promise that was supposedly not achievable and therefore he would make a disappointment of himself.

Just then, the program he used for searching found a single file named 'annex'. It piqued his interest since the query he used was nothing like the name of the file. He put his glasses back on and leaned closer to the display.

Pressing open, it prompted him with a password consisting of 6 characters. No more, no less.

What could it be? Jeremie thought. This was the only file that required a password, not an encryption key.

He typed in one word that was in his mind 24/7; Aelita. It was 6 characters long, and, if all was true, Aelita is the daughter of the person who supposedly could have created the file.

And it unlocked.

He opened the file again, revealing a text document.

Aelita Schaeffer-Hopper:
age: 12;
gender: f;
dnasequence: -981.7. .88. .37.44.267-;
dnaavailable: TRUE;
dnaused: N/A;
lyokocharacteronline: FALSE;

Her name is Schaeffer. For real? Jeremie thought, reading the text. He thought that Aelita came up with the name herself to sound believable, not that it was her real name. Well, one of her last names. She was also Hopper, confirming her assumptions.

She was indeed the daughter of Franz Hopper.

Scrolling down through the file, he came to the end of the info codes for Aelita and found another person.

Waldo Franz Schaeffer:
age:46;
gender: m;
dnasequence: N/A;
 dnaavailable: FALSE;
dnaused: N/A;
lyokocharacteronline: TRUE;
 lyokocharacterposition : N/A;

Jeremie stared at the last line so much that he didn't even hear the elevator door opening, and someone approaching him.

"What's this?" It was Aelita, leaning over him to see the screen. She read the text and was shocked.

"I...found this," Jeremie said, Aelita now looking at him. "Locked with a password 'aelita'."

"This...this means..." "XANA knew about the history before us," Jeremie said, adding a sigh at the end. "That's how everything you saw was real. Franz Hopper is really your father."

"And is he...alive?" Aelita said, looking again at the code. Reading it, she saw that his DNA code wasn't found.

"I have no idea, but...it says he is on Lyoko," Jeremie said, pointing at the line. "But it doesn't know where."

"We need to find him, Jeremie, we must. What if he's in danger? What if XANA captures him? What if h-" Aelita stopped, feeling two hands on hers.

"Aelita," Jeremie began, standing up from the chair. "I'll do my hardest to find him. If it takes all of the energy I have, then I'll do it. If it kills me, so be it."

"Jeremie." "I want to make you happy, Aelita. I really do. And it's a price I'm willing to pay." Jeremie said, gaining all the courage he had inside, leaned closer to Aelita, and placed a kiss on her cheek, just like the ones Aelita gave him.

Aelita stood there, surprised at the sudden touch. She put her hand on the spot where Jeremie kissed her, her cheeks turning red.

"Thank you," Aelita whispered. "For doing it. For me."

"Anytime, Aelita, anytime," Jeremie said and smiled at the girl.

And he was fully aware that it will be hard to go to sleep now since Aelita came with a backpack that was ready for a sleepover. Blankets, food, snacks, water, sparkling drinks, and some food for the cat. Basically, she emptied Jeremie's secret stash.

Aelita laid out the multiple blankets, so they would have a place to lay down both of them, put the snacks and drinks in the middle, and she herself laid down, as Jeremie continued searching through the supercomputer.

She was really happy that she knew who her father was, and that she had a chance of having a real family now. Not that she didn't think of their group as a family.

"These are all the calculations for building the quantum part of the supercomputer," Jeremie said aloud, reading the notes he found. Aelita nodded, knowing Jeremie won't see her since he was looking right into the screen.

The kitten that was laying on Jeremie's sweater finally stood up and walked to Aelita, who began scratching its ear. Maya was a cute cat in Aelita's eyes, and she hoped that since Odd can have Kiwi in his room, having a cat in a dorm room should be even easier.

While admiring the cat, she saw Jeremie looking at her. She looked back, giving him a smile. That made him turn around, and turn all of the screens off.

"Jere-" "We can watch something." Jeremie offered, grabbing his laptop from the bag Aelita brought.

"Like a movie?" Jeremie nodded, sitting down on the blankets, and putting the laptop in between them. He was glad that they didn't really need to worry about the temperature since the supercomputer radiated heat like crazy. That said, he learned from Yumi that girls tend to be cold even if the room they are in is warm.

"Okay, you can choose," Jeremie said, opening a list of the movies he had downloaded some time ago when he used to go on trips with his parents, and passing the laptop closer to Aelita.

She scrolled through the list, until stopping at one movie; Iron Man. She pressed play and moved the laptop to the middle again.

"Can we shut the lights off?" Aelita asked, seeing the lights in the laboratory reflected on the laptop's screen. Jeremie stood up, walked to the panel close to the elevator, and turned off every bit of light that was possible. It was total darkness in the whole room, the only light was coming from the laptop's screen, which was illuminating Aelita's beautiful pink hair, and her beautiful face.

Jeremie sat back down on the blanket, the movie already past the intro. Suddenly, he felt a vibration in his pocket. Taking his phone out, he immediately saw a few messages arriving.

Odd: i dont care where u two are, but be ready
Odd: jim knows that you are stargazing
Odd: night

He looked at the time, reading that it was a few minutes after 9 in the night. He locked the phone again and muted it totally so they wouldn't be interrupted.

He wanted to continue his search for anything about Aelita's father, but he decided to go with a thing that Yumi in his nightmare/dream said; to spend time with Aelita, because it's more valuable to a relationship than anything else.

As the movie progressed, Aelita found herself moving closer and closer to Jeremie, since the cat decided to lie down on the other side of the blanket. Soon, she was right next to Jeremie and was willing to go more.

"Jeremie?" She asked as Jeremie hummed in response, looking now at her. "Would you cuddle with me?"

Jeremie blushed when he heard the sudden request coming from Aelita.

"S-Sure," Jeremie replied. Aelita scooted closer to him, laying her head on Jeremie's chest, and put Jeremie's arm around her waist just because she could. This made Jeremie blush like crazy since he had the arm right on Aelita, and on a spot where it felt really nice.

Somehow, throughout the movie, Aelita began shivering. She was still awake, fully interested in the movie, but cold. Without moving from the comfortable position, she reached for the nearest blanket and put it over her, and also over Jeremie. It also made Aelita melt into the embrace she was in more, now having her legs in between Jeremie's.

She was more than comfortable in this position; she felt safe. Safe being in Jeremie's arms, safe being just close to Jeremie. Safe being because of Jeremie.

"I love you," Aelita whispered, snuggling even closer to Jeremie, where now she had her head under Jeremie's chin.

But soon she realized that Jeremie didn't respond. She put her foot out from under the blanket and paused the movie with her toe. Having made the room silent, she tried to hear him. Jeremie was asleep, with no snoring coming out of him. She smiled, and let the laptop go into power-saving mode, while she turned around, her face buried in the crook of Jeremie's neck.