Chapter 9:
Rendezvous
She was on a hospital room, and could hear more than see. She heard the erratic beeping of a heart monitor. Then the flatline.
A bunch of doctors were bustling around the surgery table, trying to revive a little girl. The urgency in the doctor's voice was absolute.
"We're losing her. Come on. Come on!"
After a few minutes, the flatline cut off. The only sound left was silence, and a sigh.
"I have to go tell the parents" The doctor said wearily.
A sound of footsteps coming from the hallway startled Selina. A young boy, wearing a backpack and a black hooded sweatshirt, entered the operating room. The doctors could not believe their eyes.
"Excuse me, young boy? You can't be in..."
The boy raised his hand and fired a wave of energy that left everyone present mesmerized. He approached the surgical table and carefully picked up the infant's body, gently stroking the red fluff on her little head. He placed the corpse in the backpack and then turned to the door.
"Moony, honey, come here please"
A little two-year-old girl came running out of a corner into the arms of the boy, who caught her on the fly and hugged her tightly, whispering words to her that Selina couldn't understand, but were full of affection. Then he knelt down to be at her height and held her by the shoulders.
"Moony, I'm so sorry, but I have to leave you"
The girl began to cry, while the boy stroked her long red hair.
"I want to stay with you!" She sobbed, as he tried to comfort her.
"And I want to stay with you too, but the bad guys are after us, and if they find you, they're going to kill you. I have to hide you and get you to safety"
Selina gulped, frightened. Now that she realized it, both the boy and the little girl had really tattered clothes, and the girl's clothes had stains of what appeared to be dried blood on them. What on Earth had happened to they?
"Don't leave me alone, Alex!"
"I will never leave you alone, Moony. I'm always going to be in your heart and I'm going to help defend you from the bad guys"
He placed a hand on her forehead and murmured a few words. Suddenly the girl's blue eyes lit up and a kind of electricity ran through her. It seemed as if her blood was made of neon.
"Now you'll be able to defend yourself against the big bad wolf, Moony. No one will be able to take away your powers. But you have to promise me something"
"What?"
"That you'll always be brave"
Selina's vision was beginning to blur, but just before her world melted to black, she could hear Alex's words.
"I'll be back for you, Selina. I promise"
The girl snapped her eyes open and sat up in bed, panting. She got out of bed and looked out the window, contemplating the darkness of the night as she tried to assimilate what she had just discovered.
Yumi had been right in her suspicions: Selina was really like a changeling. Her parents' real daughter had died on the surgical table in her dream. And she'd been placed in that room for them instead. Like a cuckoo in the nest, and they never even suspected.
But what had left her really thunderstruck was Alex's face. Alex was the same boy who had visited her in her dreams since she was a little girl, the same one who had always protected her whenever she had nightmares. Her guardian angel. But that guardian angel wasn't a figment of her imagination. He was a real boy, a boy of flesh and blood.
The problem was that this boy was the one who had swapped her for her parents' biological daughter. That boy was most likely responsible for his cyberkinesis. Or at least he knew who had done it. He may have even known her birth parents.
She focused on that part, the part that Alex most likely knew her birth parents and knew what had happened to her. Because Selina was physically unable of accepting the truth: that XANA had possessed a boy and given her the ability to control anything that used electricity, and that boy had accepted with the intention of protecting her. Maybe XANA wasn't the ruthless AI that everyone thought he was and once upon a time had a heart.
That thought removed the remnants of drowsiness she had left. Unable to sit still, she took off her pajamas and put on a black tank top, black jeans, military boots and her black leather jacket with rivets. Then she stuffed her sketchbook into her backpack and bolted out of her room. She needed to explain to her friends what she had discovered.
Jeremy was sleeping soundly when his cell phone started beeping uncontrollably. Still dozing, he grabbed his glasses and turned on his cell phone, to see what was going on. What he saw woke him up more than a good cup of coffee: XANA was attacking.
More awake than ever, he called his friends and filled them in on the situation, making sure they got the message and got out of bed. He then threw on his clothes at full speed, worried about what XANA had in store for him and curious as to why Selina didn't answer his call.
William and Yumi were walking in the park. They looked from side to side, fearful that someone was following them, but no one was there. Even the birds were sleeping. Still, William seemed to have grown eyes up to his neck. No matter how much Yumi tried to deny his suspicions, he was convinced that at any moment someone would discover them.
"It's alright, the way is clear" Yumi assured him, but William shook his head.
"Shh! We're going to get spotted!
"By whom this time?"
"I'm talking about a specter, not... Watch out!"
Seeing an unfamiliar figure a few yards away, the boy held her by the shoulders, partly to protect her, partly to keep her from running away, but held back a laugh when he saw who it was.
It was Jim, and he was doing Tai Chi. He looked so ridiculous that the two teens couldn't help but burst out laughing. I'm sure Milly and Tamiya, the school reporters, would give anything to get a picture of the gym teacher looking that hilarious.
"I can't believe it" Said William, chuckling. "Jim doing Tai Chi..."
"I don't think specters are fond of that" Yumi joked, giggling.
Making sure that the professor could not see them, they resumed their journey into the sewers. Let's see what little surprise XANA had in store for them.
As the gang made their way to the factory, Aelita slept oblivious to everything. Her phone hadn't picked up any of Jeremy's calls, so she was still sleeping soundly.
A beeping alarm from the computer brought her out of her dream world. Still dozing, she got out of bed and walked over to the desk. The alarm was the notification of a message received in her Gmail account. Intrigued, she opened the message, but its contents stunned her.
Confidential. If you want to find out more about your parents, let's meet in the Hermitage now!
Her blood ran cold in her veins. For so long all she had of her parents were only a few memories, and a good handful of them belonged to Franz Hopper. And now she had a message that promised her something that seemed impossible, to be able to find out about her father's past and what had become of her mother.
Full of energy, she hurriedly changed her clothes, packed her backpack and ran out of her room. She didn't care what might happen: after so long without knowing what had happened to her mother, the possibility of getting a clue, no matter how small, burned any thought of cautiosness from her mind.
Although Yumi, William, Odd and Ulrich had traded the warmth of their beds for the coldness of the lab, they were surprisingly awake for being barely six in the morning. But the one who took the cake when it came to alertness was Jeremy. For him, a bout of XANA was more of a wake-up call than a good cup of coffee. Especially if it was an attack as strange as this one.
"You said it, Einstein" Odd responded to the obviousness of his friend's statement, letting out a yawn. "Attacking at such a time is not human!"
Jeremy shook his head. XANA usually attacked well into the day, but being in the lab at six in the morning was the least of it considering what the type of attack was.
"It's not using one, but two towers. They seem to alternate with each other. Probably to prevent you from deactivating them"
"XANA is not stupid" Replied Yumi. "If a tower is not active, then you can't enter it!"
"Fortunately, I could find moments when they're active at the same time. But those don't last long"
William blinked, understanding what Jeremy meant.
"You mean they can be deactivated only at those moments?"
"Exactly. I can see only one solution: split up the team"
"Two in the Mountain Sector and two in the Desert, right?" Said Ulrich.
"Wait, we're only four, someone is missing!" Exclaimed Odd. "Where are Aelita and Selina?!"
It was really strange that the two girls did not respond to Jeremy's calls, but in this case, the motto presiding over the course of action was one problem at a time.
"I'll call them back" He answered while dialing their numbers on his cell phone. "But don't wait for them. You've got to go now!"
Selina, looking from side to side to make sure she was not seen prowling the corridors at that time of the morning, knocked on the door of Aelita's dormitory.
"Aelita, are you there? I'm so sorry to wake you before the dawn, but I've discovered something you should know"
She received no answer. Sticking her ear to the door she noticed that there was no noise in the room, not even the quiet breaths of someone who was fast asleep.
Puzzled, she opened the door. The room was completely deserted and the bed was made, as if Aelita had been getting ready for class. The only thing that didn't quite add up was the open computer, with what appeared to be an e-mail message on the screen. Whatever that message was, it must have been very important for the girl to get the hell out of her room hours before dawn.
Selina walked over to the computer and opened the message. As she read it, all the blood in her body evaporated. It screamed trap on all four sides.
With a tremendous gut feeling, she took her cell phone out of her backpack and checked her messages, looking for missed calls. Her suspicions were soon confirmed: at half past five in the morning she had received a message from Jeremy alerting her about a XANA attack.
Fuck.
Selina didn't need anything else. More awake than ever, she bolted out of Aelita's room and ran down the stairs, in search of the outside air. She had to warn her friend before she stepped into the lion's den.
The elevator doors opened and William, Odd, Yumi and Ulrich entered the scanner room. It was to be seen who was going to the Mountain sector and who was going to the Desert sector, but a certain samurai was more interested in who he was going with on this mission.
"Hey, how about we team up?" Said the boy to Yumi.
"Okay"
"And what about me? I stink, eh?"
William held back a smile as he saw Odd's sulky expression. Although he couldn't blame him either. That pair, whenever they could, took every opportunity to spend some time alone. Even if it was in the middle of a mission.
"Looks like you're stuck with me, pal" Odd muttered, as William gave him a crooked smile.
Meanwhile, Jeremy had began the virtualization process. In less than a minute, Yumi and Ulrich were in the Desert sector, with the Overwing and Overbike already materialized. She immediately jumped on the Overwing, but stopped when she saw her friend standing there.
"Are you okay, Ulrich? Did you hear something?"
"Yes, silence" He replied, smiling relaxedly. "It makes you feel so well..."
"Don't you think you're being a bit harsh with Odd? He looks so stressed..."
"I'd rather say he's so annoying!" He replied as he climbed into the Overbike. "Come on, let's go, I feel zen enough now"
"Your tower is to the north-north-east" Jeremy said through the earpiece.
"Okay, here we go"
After the two teens were on their way to the tower, Jeremy virtualized William and Odd in the Mountain sector. Once there, and in the absence of the Overboard, they began to walk across one of the stone bridges that connected one mountain to another. As they walked, Odd asked the question that had been eating him with curiosity for a long time.
"Tell me, did you think of what will happen when we have no more codes?"
William rolled his eyes. Doesn't this guy have an off button?
"First, I don't have any codes!" Snarled, pissed off. "Second, when you're here, just forget about your little worries and problems, okay?! And, finally, I need an efficient teammate, not a chatterbox!"
"Me, a chatterbox?!"
"In case you didn't notice, this mission is not going to be a piece of cake! You've got to be good for once. Is that too much to ask?"
"For once?" He replied indignantly. Why did William seem so annoyed with him? "What do you mean? I rock every time!"
Aelita was running like a cheetah through the park, eager to get to the Hermitage as soon as possible, when a noise stopped her in her tracks.
It was Jim, doing Tai Chi!
Holding back a laugh, she slipped softly through the trees to avoid his sight. A few feet away, however, a pair of blue eyes watched her movements intently.
"Odd, here's your Overboard" Exclaimed Jeremy. "It has been upgraded and is ready for action!"
The Overboard appeared and Odd held it as if it were a skateboard. He gave William a mocking look
"Mhh, maybe I should teach you how to use it?"
"What?"
"Give it a thought: When I lose all of my codes, I might feel so weak that I won't be able to go to Lyoko anymore"
"So what?"
"In that case, somebody could use my Overboard"
"Hmm"
"Wait, not only my Overboard! All the rest, too!" He began to make a will out loud. "I could give my console to Ulrich, and my dirty clothes to Yumi. She'll know what to do with them. And for Aelita... uhh..."
William was starting to get a headache from the spiky-haired blond's chatter, but he didn't have to worry much more. Two blocks appeared from a catwalk, but before they could even start shooting, William had already jumped on one and slashed it, while another was kicked off the cliff. Odd thought he was seeing things. Was he hallucinating or had William really taken out two Bloks in less than ten seconds?
"In life, there are those who talk and those who act!" William sentenced, transforming into smoke.
"What are you doing guys?" Asked Jeremy. "Let me remind you that the tower is to the south, straight ahead of you"
Odd grunted as he watched William take off, leaving him with a lot of unfinished business. For example, how he had taken out two Bloks in one fell swoop. With one leap, he jumped onto the Overboard and shot off in the wake of that trail of black smoke.
In the lab, Jeremy was monitoring the progress of the missions in the Desert sector and the Mountain sector, when an incoming call came up on the screen. It was Selina! What the hell had happened to her that she had given no sign of life all this time?
"Selina, where have you been?" Jeremy exclaimed, worried. "XANA has launched an attack!"
"Well, right now, I'm following Aelita to keep her from going straight into the lion's den!" She explained, all revved up, hiding behind a tree. "I couldn't hear the message because I was sleeping very soundly and didn't hear anything. When I woke up I wanted to talk to Aelita, but I found the room empty and the computer on with an anonymous e-mail. The message said for Aelita to be at the Hermitage at dawn if she wanted to get more information about her parents. But I'm sure it's a trap"
Jeremy's blood ran cold in his veins.
"That's why she wasn't answering my calls" He muttered, but then he realized something. "Wait a minute, why did you want to talk to Aelita?"
"That doesn't matter now" She replied bluntly. "Right now, what matters is to warn Aelita before she enters her childhood home and meet a specter in the guise of Anthea Hopper, Andrew Hopper or God only knows, who is going to trick her with sickeningly sweet words and suck her dry of codes!"
Her frankness gave him chills, because he knew it was true. XANA had once lured Aelita to Lyoko by posing as her father, Franz Hopper. The fact is that when it came to finding out about her parents, Aelita was willing to serve herself to XANA on a silver platter. The mere certainty of this made Jeremy unable to stay in his seat.
"I'm going over there right now!"
"Jeremy, even if you got up right now and bolted for the Hermitage, by the time you got there, the specter would already be making short work of Aelita" Replied Selina. "Also, with you out of service, who would take control of the Supercomputer?"
You could, Jeremy thought, but then dismissed the idea. Even counting the secret passage that connected the Hermitage to the sewers, it was very unlikely that he would get there in time to save Aelita. In addition, he could not leave the lab for even twenty minutes. Not when there were two missions going on at the same time.
"Alright, but please, be careful" Selina wanted to open her mouth to respond, but Jeremy's answer cut her off. "Selina, I'm serious. I know that your powers give you quite an advantage when facing XANA's specters, but try to be a little less reckless. One of these days you're really going to hurt yourself"
Selina snorted in annoyance, though deep down she was touched by his concern. She gave a curt OK and hung up the phone. When she looked up she was met with the gloomy silhouette of the Hermitage. The moment of truth had arrived.
It was almost daylight when Aelita arrived at the Hermitage. The light of dawn tinged everything golden, making her old childhood home look like something out of a fairy tale. Little did she know, that it was about to turn into a horror story.
She cautiously examined her surroundings, trying to discover any sign of danger. The possibility that it was all a trap still lingered in her mind, but the fact that she could find out what had happened to her parents overrode virtually all her survival instincts.
"Anybody here? Hello, anybody here?!"
The rustling of the wind against the tree branches was the only response she got, but she didn't give up. She kept moving through the backyard, until she came to that apple tree at the edge of the property. A tattered swing hung from it. Aelita remembered summer afternoons accompanied by her father, who pushed her so hard that she seemed to fly off. Now all that remained of that tree was a pile of ochre-colored leaves and two pieces of rope about to break.
"Oh, Dad, how I wish you were still here!"
"I wish Waldo was still here too" Whispered a female voice behind her back.
Aelita turned and found a woman a few steps away. She was tall and slender, with a pale complexion and auburn hair pulled back in a headband. Her white dress was a bit too light for the autumn morning, but she seemed not to be cold in it. The woman smiled sweetly at her.
"Hi, Aelita"
The girl took a step back, frightened. She felt memories that seemed forgotten rise to the surface of her memory like bubbles in a pond. But that could not be. No. No way.
"Who are you?"
The woman took a step forward and reached out her hand, caressing Aelita's face for what seemed like the first time in many, many years.
"I missed you so much, baby" Whispered the woman. "I've missed so much of your life that I don't know where to begin"
Aelita's mouth was dry as a stone, but she managed to utter one of the many questions that were going through her mind at the moment.
"What happened to you? Where have you been all this time?"
"I was kidnapped when you were three years old. The people responsible for all this wanted to use me as blackmail material to get your father to resume the Project Carthage. I have been trapped in Switzerland for twelve years"
Her eyes averted from hers, as if she was remembering something she would rather keep hidden in the darkest corners of her mind. Aelita's heart broke at that image.
"Oh, Mom"
She took a step forward and wrapped her arms tightly around the woman, who returned the embrace, gently stroking the girl's pink hair. But that moment of peace was interrupted by a piercing scream.
"No, Aelita! Don't!"
Startled, she broke away from the woman and turned to face the newcomer. It was Selina.
The mission in the Desert Sector shared a common trait with the mission in the Mountain Sector: that sense of apparent calm. When Yumi and Ulrich arrived at the tower, all that could be heard was the whisper of the wind blowing up the sand. But even so. they weren't convinced.
"I hope it's not crowded with monsters over here" Said Yumi as she examined their surroundings. "We'd better not take too long"
"Look! The tower keeps activating and deactivating"
Ulrich was right. Every few seconds, seemingly at random, the tower would turn from red to dark blue like the lights in a nightclub. Yumi blinked. This had no head or tail.
"So how do we do it?" She mumbled trying to think of a plan. "How can we know when both towers are activated at the same time? What do you think, Jeremy?"
Jeremy blinked. He had the fact that Aelita was willing to walk straight into a specter so stuck in his mind that he was barely aware of what was going on around him. He took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts and sort out the problem at hand.
"The first thing to do is to synchronize with the others" He said. But before he could explain the next part of his plan, he glanced at the map of the Desert Sector and went pale. "Watch out! Two Krabs!"
Two Krabs came out from behind a rock wall. Ulrich gave Yumi a nodding look. It was time to fight.
"Get ready!" he said, and they pounced on the Krabs.
"Odd, William? How are things going over there?" Jeremy said through the earpiece. Would they have the same problem with the towers in the Mountain Sector?
"Well, rather weird" Replied William. "Here, too, the tower keeps activating and deactivating"
"I figured as much. I think I have an idea, but I need you to get in position"
Odd stared at the tower, trying to figure out what was going on.
"What could XANA be up to?" He wondered aloud.
"Let's go there and we'll find out!" William sentenced, and turned into a trail of smoke.
Odd glared at him - why on earth did he always have to make such dramatic exits?
"I changed my mind. Yumi will have my Overboard and you'll get my dirty clothes!" He shouted, as he jumped on the Overboard and shot off towards the tower.
"Jeremy, do you have a plan in place?" Shouted Ulrich. "Things are getting ugly here!"
In the Desert Sector, the Krabs were giving them no respite. Hardly had they taken care of the first two, when four more appeared from behind the rocks. And to make matters worse, the tower was being activated and deactivated so quickly that it was impossible to know when to enter.
"I'm trying to figure out the on/off pattern of the towers" He muttered as he typed frantically. "It has to be some kind of numerical sequence" his eyes lit up when he found the pattern. "Bingo! Guys, I found the pattern. XANA is using prime numbers, you know: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11"
"I don't understand, Einstein" said Odd as he approached the tower with William, sword in hand in case XANA sent the welcoming committee. "Could you explain it to us in English?"
"XANA activates one tower, then the other, One plus one makes 2, okay?" He began to explain, making sure his friends were following his thread. "Then it turns off both towers for a second, and switches tower one "on", then tower two, then tower one again. That makes 3 switches. And so on until 11 switches. And here comes the interesting part. After 11 switches, it restarts the whole sequence and keeps both towers activated for a few seconds" He paused, making sure his friends understood. "It gives you just enough time to sneak into them"
Odd started running towards the tower, in case he had synchronized with Yumi and Ulrich, but all he got was a bump. With a sore head, he tried to get up, but a laser slammed into the tower wall. As he turned around he saw a squad of Kankrelats firing at them. William grabbed his arm and they took off running towards one of the entrances to the maze surrounding the tower, hoping to throw the monsters off the scent.
"I told you to act instead of talking, I didn't mean to rush in without any thinking!" Shouted William running at full speed, as the lasers passed within inches of his head.
"You're never satisfied..."
"Yes, I am" William replied, the two of them already in the shelter of a corner. "For example: I'll have your Overboard. It's not that bad after all"
"You're kidding me, I know you'll never use it..." A few meters away, two Kankrelats collided face-to-face with each other. "And it's too late anyway; I changed my mind, I'll keep it"
"Too bad" He said, chuckling.
Odd peeked out from behind the corner and glanced at the monsters swarming around the tower. But he should have glanced at what was going on behind his back, because suddenly, a Kankrelat fired, with the laser impacting a few inches from his head. As he ducked to dodge the shot, he fired a multitude of laser arrows. The monster exploded, but aside from an exclamation of admiration from William, that didn't solve the main problem: How could they get rid of the monsters and synchronize with Yumi and Ulrich before XANA left Aelita as a vegetable?
Aelita held back a cry of surprise as she felt Selina unceremoniously pull her away from the woman who claimed to be her mother and tried to drag her away.
"Let me go, Selina!" She screamed as she hit her in an attempt to shake off her grip. "That woman is my mother! Let me go!"
But Selina, despite her small frame, had strong hands and a will of steel. Her hands clamped like pincers on her shoulders, preventing her from escaping into the arms of the fake Anthea, who despite the syrupy smile she wore, her eyes were blazing with rage.
"She's not your mom, Aelita! She's a specter!"
Aelita felt her breath catch, like she had been hit in the chest with a baseball bat.
"What?"
"XANA tricked you. That woman is a specter. I don't know if you've noticed, but you got a missed call from Jeremy, saying there are two towers activated in Lyoko"
She shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"She doesn't have XANA's eyes. Nor did I feel anything weird when she hugged me. She didn't even try to hold me when you separated us. Why should I believe you?"
Selina gaped.
"You think I would lie to you on purpose to keep you from seeing your mother?"
"Not on purpose, but I'm not sure if all the times you said the guy over there is a specter, it was a matter of luck. What is it that tells you who's a normal, everyday human and who's a specter?"
Selina looked up and met the wicked eyes of the specter, who was practically savoring his victory. She knew that, as soon as she broke free of its grip, Aelita would leap straight into the specter's arms. An idea popped into her mind, one with dangerously unpredictable results, but certainly one that would guarantee to buy time for her friends in Lyoko to deactivate the two towers. She took a deep breath and played her last card.
"I know it, the same way one knows the sky is blue" She whispered. "Whatever XANA put in my head when I was two years old, before he switched me for my parents' biological daughter, makes me have some kind of connection with him" She stared at the specter, from whose eyes the maternal longing had disappeared giving way to pure shock. "The boy he possessed said he was going to give me the ability to defend myself from the bad guys. Of course, XANA didn't count on the fact that several years later, I was going to use the powers he gave me to be able to stand up to him"
Aelita's eyes widened, unable to believe what her friend was saying. This was absolutely crazy, but Selina's tone indicated that she wasn't bluffing.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I had a dream last night. I was in a hospital, and I watched my parents' biological daughter die on the operating table. A boy appeared and hypnotized the doctors, and while they were out cold, I saw myself as a two year old, with the boy giving me everything that looked like XANA data and source codes. And to top it off, it turns out that kid was treating me like I was a little sister or something. Yumi was absolutely right about XANA knowing my birth family and not randomly picking a random little girl to give her the ability to control anything with electricity that came her way"
If she wanted to distract attention from the specter of Aelita, she had succeeded. The fake Anthea's mouth dropped open in pure shock. No longer did she feign maternal longing in her gaze, now in her eyes there was only insatiable curiosity giving way at times to sheer greed. XANA had come looking for copper and found gold.
"Why are you telling me this?" Whispered Aelita, trembling.
"Because you're my friend, and I want to help you" The redhead replied, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. "I know what it's like to be desperately searching for information about your parents, grasping at straws. But I'm not going to let that straw hurt you. I want you to hug your mom, your flesh-and-blood mom, not a source-code-based imitation"
Aelita, her thoughts spinning in wild circles, took a deep breath. As she looked at Selina, she felt that sense of déjà vu again. That fiery red hair, those electric blue eyes... They reminded her of someone, but she couldn't tell who.
"I thought it was my mother, you know?" She whispered looking sideways at the specter, who was looking at Selina with undisguised greed. "Because everything he said made a lot of sense, and it was quite possibly what happened to my mother"
"Look, at least you have a thread to pull on" The girl said, smiling. "From what you've told me, XANA is a liar, but he bases his lies on real information. Even if he is sometimes quite short-sighted when it comes to processing that information" She smiled deviously as she saw the look of pure indignation on the specter's face. "Because let's see, even without being able to sense spectres, I still know that's not Anthea. No human lady in her forties would ever think of wearing such a light dress with this chilly weather. If I wanted to stage a touching mother-daughter reunion I'd wear a fleece and jeans. But it's clear that being an artificial intelligence sometimes means being a total ass when it comes to impersonating a human"
Aelita had to make a subhuman effort to hold back her laughter. Had her friend really told XANA to his face that he was a total ass?
"Let's go to the factory, we have nothing to do here"
She took Selina by the arm and they walked towards the fence that surrounded the Hermitage. But the specter of Anthea was not going to let them escape so easily. Especially when a curse-like gift had appeared so unexpectedly. She raised her hand and a bolt of energy struck Aelita, knocking her out on the spot.
"Aelita!" Selina grabbed her around the waist, keeping her from crashing to the ground.
She deposited her on the ground as gently as she could and stood up to face the specter, whose face was distorted with an evil grin.
"Don't worry, child, I just knocked her unconscious" He smiled sweetly at her. "I'm not going to kill her without first appropriating all her codes" He took a step forward and grabbed her by the wrist. "You, however, are a far, far more interesting piece. Now tell me, were you serious when you said that I am responsible for you having the capabilities you have?"
Selina swallowed, terrified. When she had planned to distract XANA's attention, she had tried not to think about the fact that she would be his new prey. But now that she had taken a step forward, there was no turning back. The hint of a plan formed in her mind. This plan could give her all the answers she needed to know...or it could to do her in. Either way, the time to go all in had come.
"As an AI, you should know how to detect the physical signs of a human's lies" Selina replied. Despite the danger she was in, her eyes were as hard as sapphires. "Tell me, do you detect physical signs in me that I am lying?"
The specter couldn't help but smirk. You had to hand it to her, the brat had guts.
"You're too honest for your own good" He moved slowly toward her, brushing a finger through a lock of red hair. "But I've seen what you're capable of. Destroy a squadron of Ninjas..." In his voice peeked the faintest hint of reluctant admiration. "If you let me help you, I could make you reach your full potential. Your powers, combined with mine, would do things that are beyond your wildest dreams. For starters, you could find your birth family. Isn't that what you want most?"
Selina was speechless. She knew what the price to pay in exchange for XANA's help was, and her conscience screamed no. But her craving for knowledge screamed even louder. Yet it was a memory that silenced both parties. The look of pure shock in the specter's eyes when he told her that he had switched her for her parents' biological daughter and that he was responsible for her cyberkinesis. It was a shock of What is this crazy girl talking about? XANA had no recollection of what had happened.
A twisted smirk appeared on the girl's face.
"It appears to me that you need my help unleashing your own potential" She said, breaking away from his grip and moving toward where Aelita was lying. "And unfortunately for you, there is nothing you could offer me in return"
A wave of fury swept over the specter. His next actions were more instinctual than anything else: he leapt at her and tackled her to the ground before she could escape his grip. His fingers dug into her neck so hard that Selina felt her world cloud over from lack of oxygen.
For the first time, XANA saw fear in his eyes. Not anger, not contempt, not hate: just pure fear. And that fueled his own strength, an unstoppable rage at that brat who had dared to defy him. He tightened his grip on her neck, enjoying watching the life begin to fade from her intense electric blue eyes.
"Mind you, if you won't give me the knowledge I seek, I can always get it by force"
Selina, despite feeling her entire body go numb, kicked and punched in a desperate attempt to get him off her. But that only made XANA tighten his grip. He couldn't electrocute her to death, but he could watch the life drain from her eyes as he strangled her.
Please Jeremy... Deactivate the towers the hell out!
"5... 7... 11... Go, go, go!"
At Jeremy's signal, William and Odd came out of hiding and charged at the Kankrelats, with Odd firing a multitude of laser arrows while William tried to dodge the monsters' shots.
In the Desert sector, Yumi jumped from the top of a wall and launched her fans at the Krab. Ulrich jumped from the top of a hole in the ground and katanas in hand, started attacking the monsters.
"Rush!" He shouted as he thrust one of his swords into the Krab's shell. "Don't pay attention to me!"
Yumi nodded and started running towards the Overbike. She hopped on it and set the engine revs to the red zone. As she stepped on the pedal, the vehicle shot off and flew over the moat surrounding the tower. He landed on the ground with a nimble somersault and started running towards the tower.
Odd was still firing laser arrows trying to keep the Kankrelats at bay, but William had a different idea. He grabbed the purple cat by the arm and threw it towards the tower, the way one throws a stone into a pond. Odd cried caught by surprise, but the dark-haired boy didn't care. He was the one who could disable the tower and William was the one who had to have his back, not the other way around. He turned back to the Kankrelats, and sword in hand, he rushed upon them.
"Now, I'll take care of you!"
Selina's blows at the specter were getting weaker and weaker. Still, she knew she had to fight with all her might, because it would do her no good to wait for a quick death. XANA was going to enjoy brutalizing her until the very last second.
Yumi and Odd walked to the center of the platforms of their respective towers. A bluish light lifted them into the air. As they landed on the top platform of the tower, a screen appeared. They placed their hand on the screen and typed CODE LYOKO.
Selina, unable to continue fighting the lack of oxygen, lost consciousness. As her eyes closed, she saw a glow of greenish light. Then nothing more. Only blackness.
Aelita opened her eyes. She felt as if she had been hit by a bus. Memories from before she lost consciousness came flooding back: the arrival at the Hermitage, the embrace with the fake Anthea, Selina's warning shout and... her chilling revelation. Then nothing. What had happened to her?
She sat up and looked around. There was no sign of the specter. She let out a sigh of relief. Jeremy, William, Odd, Yumi and Ulrich had managed to disable the towers just in time.
But as she looked at what was only a few feet away, she gasped in horror. Selina lay lifeless in the middle of the garden, her red hair covering her face, so still that she appeared to be dead. As she approached, she saw ghastly red marks across the skin of her neck. A wave of remorse knocked the wind out of her. Her friend had told the truth about her past to force XANA to change her plans. And that could have cost her her life.
"Selina, please wake up!" She cried out in desperation, shaking her in an attempt to bring her back to consciousness.
But she remained motionless. Aelita wasn't even sure she was still breathing.
"Selina, please, you've got to wake up!" Aelita's eyes were brimming with tears. "You have a lot of things left for you to do. You have to teach me how to sing so we can both do covers together. You have to find your birth family and give them a hug. I promised to help you find your parents, don't you remember? Selina, please wake up!"
Frantic, Aelita leaned over her friend and prepared to give her artificial respiration. But just then, Selina gasped and opened her eyes. Seeing how her friend was still alive, Aelita burst into tears of relief.
"Aelita, is that you?" The girl mumbled. Her neck ached horribly and she could barely utter a word. "Where is the specter? Why are you crying? You look absolutely terrible"
"You're alive!" Sobbed Aelita, rushing over to hug her friend, who miraculously didn't stagger. "I thought you were dead and not breathing"
"Well as you can see, you're wrong!" Selina replied, hugging the girl just as tightly. Aelita let out a shaky sigh of relief and tried to push out of her mind those terrible bruises on her friend's neck. "Please tell me the specter is gone"
"Jeremy and the others must have deactivated the towers" The pinkette replied, running a finger along the marks on Selina's neck. "I'm so sorry"
"It's not your fault. XANA certainly knows how to pull our strings. After all this time and with the things she said, it's normal that you thought she was your mother"
"But still, I should have believed you from the first moment, and not made you take such a risk. You purposely revealed the origin of your powers to force XANA to change his plans. And he almost killed you"
"That was because I insulted him to his face, don't you remember? And besides, don't think I'm any superhero" She bit her lip, feeling almost dirty inside. "While you were unconscious, XANA offered me a deal: betray you in exchange for helping me find my biological parents. He knows I can be a very valuable ally: he envies that I am able to easily destroy the Ninjas there are in Cortex"
Aelita stared at her, understanding what she was implying.
"And what did you tell him?"
"My conscience refused point blank, but my craving to know the truth screamed yes" She admitted quietly. "But then I realized that XANA had no memory of him giving me cyberkinesis, let alone knowing anything about my parents, and therefore his deal wasn't worth a damn to me. I told him what I thought about his deal and he went ballistic and tried to strangle me. The rest you know"
Seeing the embarrassed look on the girl's face, Aelita squeezed her hand.
"You thought about it, but you didn't. Selina, I don't know if you've noticed, but your greatest power isn't cyberkinesis, it's your ability to analyze every detail in cold blood. That's what saved us from XANA time and time again: your ability to analyze things and act accordingly. You don't need the help of an AI to find your parents. You have me and the others. We'll help you find your parents, I promise"
Selina smiled and put a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"And you have me to find your mom and help you destroy XANA once and for all" Her eyes twinkled with an idea in mind. "We could start a birth parent search club. Hopper & Levesque, specializing in reuniting separated families. How cool does that sound?"
Aelita couldn't help but smile. She approached the girl and hugged her tightly. Although she had only known her for a short time, Selina had become one of her most cherished friends. It was really nice to have someone with whom you could be yourself, be able to solve all your doubts with a few words. In short, to have someone else you could trust.
When Aelita and Selina entered the laboratory, they were practically tackled by Jeremy, who had risen from his seat to check on the new arrivals. The boy strode in a couple of strides across the space separating him from Aelita, anxious to know if she was all right.
"I've been so scared for you!" He whispered, holding her by the shoulders, as if she was about to volatilize.
Aelita relaxed into her friend's embrace, but the growing guilt over what had happened to Selina made her increasingly uncomfortable. The blond, noticing her worried expression, broke away, scowling at her.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Aelita shook her head, neither affirming nor denying.
"I think so, but Selina..."
Jeremy looked up and saw Selina a few steps away. She was unusually quiet, and her red hair looked like a curtain, hiding her neck and shoulders.
"Selina, are you okay?"
On the way to the factory she had found that besides her neck hurting like hell, her vocal cords were out of action. But before she could check if she could vocalize anything properly, William came up to her in a couple of strides and brushed several strands of hair away from her shoulder. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of the bruises on the girl's neck.
"My God, but what happened to you?"
"I'm fine, William" Selina mumbled, her voice raspy. She tried to concentrate on what she had to say, and not on the tingling sensation of the dark-haired boy's fingers caressing her neck. "I was foolhardy to tell XANA on his face what faults the specter of fake Anthea had, and told him my secret so that he would change his plans. And even on top of that, when he offered me a deal, I basically called him a moron and told him to fuck off"
William's fingers stopped running over his bruises. He gawked at her, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"You seriously told him that?"
"Yes. I should have bitten my tongue, punched XANA, grabbed Aelita and got the hell out of there. But when he offered me his help in exchange for betraying you, I realized that his offer was of no use to me and told him he could go fuck himself" Except for Aelita, everyone present dropped their jaws upon hearing this. "If I hadn't been such a big mouth, XANA might not have tried to strangle me"
A smile slowly appeared on William's face, to the point where he found himself laughing helplessly. Only Selina would think of insulting a psycho AI. To her, respect for any authority figure or any danger was nothing more than bullshit.
"Selina, one can be crazier than that, I'm think so, but one must to train"
The girl smiled, the first smile he had seen her make all day. It was as warm as the color of her hair, and as bright as the electric blue of her eyes. William felt something warm and sweet expand in his chest, like drinking hot milk.
A throat clearing brought the two teenagers out of that bubble of warmth. Turning around, she saw Jeremy frown at her, as if she was a physics equation he couldn't solve.
"Selina, what do you mean by your secret?" He inquired, his head about to explode. "And that thing about XANA offering you a deal?"
The redhead bit her lip. What she was about to tell was so insane that even she didn't believe it was true, but she knew that that dream was a memory, and what she saw in that memory made many things that seemed illogical suddenly make sense. She took a deep breath and began to tell the truth.
"Yumi, do you remember what you told me about the possibility that I wasn't my parents' biological daughter and that XANA had actually kidnapped me from my real parents when I was two years old?" The ravenette, beginning to understand what she was getting at, nodded. "Well look, it turns out you were right. Last night had a dream. I saw my parents' biological daughter die on the surgery table, and then a boy came in, knocked the doctors out. While the doctors were unconscious, I saw the boy call out to me, and then he put something on my head. I think it was XANA data and source codes" Everyone in the lab gasped in shock. But Selina, unable to stop, explained the detail she hadn't been able to get out of her head all day. "But the weirdest thing of all, that boy, Alex, treated me with affection. Not like I was a pawn or an unpleasant task I had to accomplish. He treated me like I was a little sister that he wanted to protect above all else"
A deafening silence exploded in the laboratory. Selina dared not look up, fearful of meeting their looks of derision and disbelief. She knew that what she had just said shattered everything they had known so far. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When he opened them, he looked up, searching for a reaction from his friends, either positive or negative. They were all silent as graves, and with a marbled expression on their features. Only Jeremy was staring at her with wide eyes and an unhinged jaw.
Very good, Selina. You've excelled yourself.
"Do you have any idea who that boy is?"
"What?"
"What I just told you. If you know the identity of that boy, or what his relationship is with you or XANA"
Selina shook her head.
"I know his name is Alex, and in my dream he was about sixteen or so, so he must be close to thirty now. I also know that he must have belonged to my biological parents' close circle, since he treated me like a little sister. Maybe he was their godchild, I'm not sure"
She kept quiet, thinking about whether she should tell them or not about that Alex had appeared in her dreams since she was a little girl. But a much more pressing question kept her from having to make that decision.
"But then, if that boy was her parents' godson, how could XANA have gotten in touch with him?" Wondered Yumi aloud. "XANA has no human form on Earth. At most, he could have sent a specter, but not bestowed his abilities on a human boy. Unless what..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless XANA contacted the boy and he agreed to the deal of being possessed by a specter. If it was true that you were in grave danger, that boy would do anything to protect you. Including being possessed by a specter so that an AI could give you cyberkinesis and swap you for your parents' biological daughter. I don't agree with his methods, but I understand why he did it. You do whatever it takes to protect the people you love, including giving them up"
Aelita stirred uncomfortably as she remembered what her father had done to get her to safety from the Men in Black. Truth be told, she and Selina were a lot alike in that respect. Aelita had been virtualized in Lyoko for ten years and given the keys to that virtual world, and Selina had been placed incognito in a family with barely two years and a pack of XANA source codes and data that had made her have cyberkinesis. As she dwelled on that detail, a question popped into her head - why did XANA give a little girl a pack of his own data and highly encrypted source codes?
"This is all crazy" Jeremy said aloud what everyone was thinking. "Selina, if you remember what that kid looked like, try to get a sketch, that we could go to the Hermitage to investigate if this Alex guy knew Franz Hopper or any other member of Project Carthage"
"I have in my room a sketch pad with a portrait of him. I don't know if it will be as good as a picture, but at least we'll have something to start with"
"Okay" The boy's face loosened into a smile. Aelita knew that one of the things that bothered him the most was the lack of solid data to investigate. Then she turned back to the redhead. "Aelita, I'd like to look at your Transwatch, to see how many source codes you've lost"
The girl nodded and held out her wrist so they could connect the Transwatch to the computer. Jeremy watched as XANA's power bar rose to 60%.
"XANA still has 40 percent to go before it takes control of the network. We still have time, but we have to hurry"
"I suck" Muttered Aelita, being unable to look at Selina. To her, the bruises on the redhead's neck were the price to pay so that they still had time in the fight against XANA. "I was so stupid"
Odd walked over to her and draped an arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her.
"It's not your fault. You really thought it was your mother"
"No it was my fault" She whispered, closing her eyes. But before she could think further about what might have happened, she felt Yumi's hand clutching hers.
"It could have happened to any of us, you know!"
"Don't worry. We're with you, you're not alone"
Aelita smiled faintly, but Yumi and Ulrich's words did little to help her handle the growing sense of guilt she felt. Aelita smiled faintly, but Yumi and Ulrich's words did little to help her handle the growing sense of guilt she felt. Selina had almost died because of her.
"I'm sorry. I was terrible with you" She whispered ashamed. "I should never have doubted you. It's just... it had to be my mother. That specter looked like my mother would look right now if she were still alive"
Selina smiled softly at her, squeezing her hand. But suddenly, his hand loosened and the smile was wiped off his face. A deathly pallor appeared on her face and she put her hand to her mouth, as if to stifle a scream of terror. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
That specter looked like my mother would look right now if she were still alive.
"A-Aelita" Whispered the girl, shaking. "How the hell is it possible that XANA could make a specter of your mother if he supposedly had no idea what she looked like?"
"I have no..." Aelita stopped dead in her tracks, understanding what it was her friend wanted to say to her. Oh God.
The girl took a step back, her legs shaking like jelly. Too many pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place at once. And the image couldn't have been more terrifying.
"What are you talking about?" Inquired Yumi, watching at her friend, who looked like she was about to faint from shock.
Aelita took a deep breath, trying to get some oxygen into her lungs. Her head was spinning, but now was not the time to faint now.
"I think I know why XANA was able to create a specter of my mother with the same appearance she would have now" She replied, trying to remain calm. "My mother is still alive and XANA knows where she is"