A/N: Alright, back to Laura! No, you don't need to re-read TTOE for this one. You just need to remember that there's a couple of red flags about Laura's backstory so far.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or CL: Evolution in any way, shape, or form.

Beta read by FP7ETDP43

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!

"It's Heritage Week at Kadic, and a family tree assignment forces Laura to seek the truth about her parents. What will she find?"

A World Without Danger

Code Lyoko: Evolution Rewrite

Season 5, Episode 23: Truth and Consequences

The entire student body was gathered in the gymnasium one Monday morning. Jérémie wished that was an exaggeration, but it wasn't. The large building suddenly looked unusually packed and crowded. It didn't help that the announcement for all students to gather here at this specific time did not have a single explanation as to why.

Jérémie was seated with his friends (of course), and he was carefully studying the room for any indication of this meeting's purpose.

Beside him, Odd groaned, "Come on...", clearly bored out of his mind. "What are we all doing here? I'm so hungry..."

"Patience, Odd," Aelita gently cut in, an amused smile on her face. "The rest of us know as little as you."

"But he's got a point," Ulrich said, ignoring Odd's resulting 'thank you!'. "What are we all doing here? Seriously," he motioned all around the vast room, "every single student from every single grade is here."

Yumi shrugged, "I wouldn't worry about it. Mr. Delmas probably just needs to make an announcement."

But William only added more fuel to the proverbial flames of curiosity, "He could just use the intercom system, or go around to each class. This must be really serious."

Odd leaned in closer, a teasing smile on his face, "Exactly! Thank you, Willie!" The elder rolled his eyes at the nickname, but the crazy-haired blonde continued. "So what do you think the announcement is?"

Yumi just shook her head, annoyed yet also slightly amused.

"No idea," Ulrich said, before turning to their resident pink-ette, "What do you think, 'Lita?"

Jérémie strictly interjected, "Cut it out. Speculating won't get us anywhere." His exhaustion was clear as day, and the others were definitely not helping here.

Seeing their genius friend's lack of energy, the others obeyed. It was about a week since Hervé's expulsion, and Jérémie was still feeling the aftershocks of what had happened that day. While he was getting better, the recovery seemed to be going rather slowly, probably because he only really opened up to his friends when they were alone.

Whatever was about to be said next was cut off by the main set of double doors opening. In stepped Mr. Delmas, along with Jim and, of all people, Mr. Fumet. It only took Jim loudly clearing his throat for the chattering to die down.

The room now silent, Mr. Delmas finally started giving answers, "Thank you all for joining here on such short notice, but I have a very important announcement to make. This week is Heritage Week, the one week of this school year where students and staff alike will celebrate their heritage, as the name suggests. Because of this, there will be no classes this week, and thus no homework." Students began cheering, until their headmaster finished, "Save for one exception."

Here, Mr. Fumet stepped up, "Only one project will be assigned to you this week. All students will research their family trees and create a diagram, going back at least four generations, but as many as you can find is encouraged. This assignment is due at the end of the week first thing Saturday morning. If you have any questions or concerns, I will always be available during school hours."

Jim stepped in, "But don't get too comfortable! The rest of Saturday's short hours will be dedicated to my infamous annual cross-country!"

To this, a good majority of the students groaned.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

About ten minutes, now released, students were strewn all around the campus. The Lyokowarriors had taken refuge in the rec room, since the dorms were still off limits during school hours, even when no one was in class.

The hexad was lounging on the couches next to the television, all of them scribbling down names and various notes in their notebooks. What all they each remembered about their families varied in quantity and detail.

"Four generations!" Odd exclaimed. "Who remembers relatives past their grandparents?" He turned to Jérémie, "Who all do you remember, Einstein?"

Said blue-clad blonde responded with, "Let's see, off the top of my head, there's Papa, Maman, Papa's brother Uncle Arthur, Aunt Éloïse, and of course, cousin Patrick. Plus other relatives from Maman's side. Au contraire, Odd, it's easy to go farther than four generations if you know who to ask."

"Yeah, but finding exactly who to ask can be hard," William cut in. "I don't think my parents keep in touch with many relatives. So I only know my parents and my older sister."

The conversation halted, with Odd throwing his hands up in a surrendering manner, "Woah, woah! Hold on, Willie!"

Choosing not to comment on the nickname, William instead asked, "What?" The other five were looking at him like a group of deer caught in some headlights.

Aelita blinked in surprise, "You have a sister?"

Understanding his friends' collective shock, the raven-haired boy explained, "Oh. Yeah. Caitlyn Dunbar. She's in university. Sorry, she never came up before. No one ever asked. Now, Della Robbia," he turned to Odd, "how many relatives can you name off the top of your head?"

Odd began counting off his fingers, "Um... there's Papa, Maman, and my sisters—Adele, twins Pauline and Elizabeth, Marie, and Louise. Oh, and Kiwi, of course. Papa and Maman both have siblings too, so I have lots of relatives."

"Don't forget, Odd," Yumi leaned in, her voice low, "Aelita is one of them."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten," Odd offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Princess. I'll help you. Since we are 'cousins', it won't look weird if we work on our projects together."

Aelita returned his smile, "Thank you. I deeply appreciate it. But... I think I'm going to do two of these, one for the school and that keeps up the facade of who I present myself as, and the other for my own benefit... just so I don't forget who I really am."

"Don't worry, Aelita," Yumi softly replied. "We understand."

As the pink-ette sent her Japanese friend a grateful smile, Jérémie offered, "If you want, we can take another trip to the Cortex, or even contact your mother, just to see if we can find more information about your past." When he saw his girlfriend's hopeful green eyes, he blushed and averted his eyes, "I-I mean, o-only if you want to..."

Aelita giggled, stopping his stuttering, before kissing his cheek. "Thank you, Jérémie. Both are great ideas, and I can't wait to see if either one brings up anything."

"No need to ask, either, 'Lita," Ulrich assured. "Of course, the rest of us will come with you."

Jérémie added, "And I'll send your mother an encrypted message during the mission tonight." Due to being sent from the supercomputer, it would remain ciphered and under the radar, exactly how they all wanted it to be. "Until then, let's continue working on our projects."

He made a good point, so the others didn't protest, instead choosing to divert their focus on their respective family trees. While their friends were pretty well distracted, Ulrich settled into the couch next to Jérémie.

Whispering, the brunette asked, "Hey, it's been one week since the thing with Jerky McJerk-Face." That was their nickname for Hervé. "Do you want to bring up Laura's redo vote tonight?"

The young genius digested that, before replying just as quietly, "I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it."

"Hey!" Both boys nearly jumped out of their skin by Yumi's callout. Her teasing smile quickly mitigated their temporary fear. "What are you two whispering about?"

Ulrich and Jérémie shared a knowing glance before replying simultaneously, "Nothing."

"You two keeping secrets from us?" Odd playfully asked. It was meant as a joke, not to be taken seriously.

He and the young genius beside him both gently rolled their eyes, before Ulrich softly replied, "It's not going to be a secret for long, we promise. You guys will know eventually, just not right now, because it's Jérémie's call to make. It's his secret."

Concerned, Aelita turned to her boyfriend, "Jer, are you okay?"

Said blonde gave her a reassuring smile, "I'm fine. I just... haven't decided on when to make it public yet."

The others had no choice but to drop it for now.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

Laura was in one of the farthest corners of the library, needing privacy as she sent a text to her father, explaining the family tree assignment. Unlike (at least) most of her peers, she had no memory of her past and the only relative in her life was her father. Sure, her father's employees were prominent people in her life as well, but she could only turn to her father in this situation.

A few minutes later, she received a text from him in response, 'There's nothing I can do. I cannot help you with this assignment.'

She sighed in disappointment, though she didn't know why she kept her hopes up. There was nothing she wanted more than to learn more about her extended family, especially her mother. All she knew was her father and his company, and whatever question she asked them had answers that were carefully crafted as if she was part of the paparazzi or something.

The more time she spent here at Kadic, the more she realized that they weren't a family. She wasn't blind to their constant exacerbated sighs and gazes her father and his employees shared with each other whenever she was around. It was like she was a burden to them, like they'd rather do anything else than babysit her.

Then again, they were the ones who homeschooled her, before sending her to Kadic for her first solo mission, dubbed as her 'homework'. Her lessons were carefully crafted and her assignments required perfect marks for her to pass them. Maybe she was part of the company, but she wasn't part of the 'family'. They hadn't even told her what her mission was; all her father said was that she'd know when she found whatever it was he had sent her here to find.

She emerged from the corner and stepped out into the studying area, where she saw many other students diligently working on their family tree assignments. Laura suddenly felt emotional, and in order to hide her incoming tears, she left the library and headed towards her dorm, where she would be left in peace.

She had to go to Mr. Fumet about this eventually, but she wanted to get a better handle on her emotions first.

In the courtyard, however, she laid eyes on William by the vending machines, intent on getting something out of them. Maybe he could make her feel better about all of this. He always knew what to say. Making the detour, she approached him, filling with cautious hope.

"Hey, William," she greeted, clenching the strap of her shoulder bag with both hands in a tight grip. "What are you doing?"

He was placing a third soda can in his own shoulder bag, before putting in another coin and pressing the same soda button. "Hey, Laura. I'm getting drinks for the others. We're all holed up in the rec room, if you wanna join us. How's your project going?"

She was grateful that he brought up that topic himself, because she certainly didn't want to do it. As he bought a fifth soda, she explained the situation, "Not well. My father is the only relative I know, or who I'm aware of, but he remains tight-lipped about the subject. I explained to him that it was a school assignment, but..."

"I know how you feel," William said, buying a sixth soda from the machine. "My parents rarely keep in touch with our extended family, so asking them is going to be rather nerve-wracking for me. Um..." he suddenly seemed rather reluctant (because he had matured from the 'bad boy' he once was), "maybe you could do some digging without your father's knowledge?"

Laura perked up at that idea. "Maybe. I am great with computers, and my father does have a rather powerful computer." She didn't want to give up and admit defeat just yet, so this was her best bet.

"In that case, there's a good chance it will work," William encouraged (as he remembered how on par she was with Jérémie concerning the supercomputer). He placed the sixth can in his bag, "I have to go now, before the others wonder if I ran away with their drinks." She let slip a giggle, before he turned serious. "Keep me updated, but... be careful. If your father really is stingy about this topic, then you may find something you'll wish you hadn't."

Laura nodded, acknowledging his warning but confident that she wouldn't need it, before the two went their separate ways.

She reached her dorm, in a much better mood than before. Her sadness was quickly being replaced with confidence. In order to remain undetected, she would need to work on a snooper program first. Once it was done, then she would be able to hack into her father's computer system.

Sitting down at her desk, she opened her laptop and was promptly greeted by her lavender-colored background.

This would be worth it, she told herself. It had to be.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

By the time Laura finished the snooper program, it was time for dinner. She was surprised that she had lost track of time, but she felt accomplished. Now, she could reward herself with some dinner.

And she was glad she decided to do so. Inside the cafeteria, she ran into William again when in the dinner line.

"Hey, Laura," he greeted, as he grabbed two trays and passed her one. "Have you made any progress with your digging?"

Her voice was quiet, "I just completed a program that will help me cover my tracks. My first target is my father's computer, which has a flaw in its security system that I know about and can exploit."

He chose to match her volume, "Are you sure you'll find something there? Most family records are physical pieces of paper."

"My father is very neurotic and obsessed with his computer," she replied. "He doesn't trust anything that resembles a safe when his computer is a better protection system, that he built himself, by the way. He keeps everything on there. Trust me, I'll find something."

Seeing her confidence, William chose to back off. He smiled, "Alright. Good luck. Tell me what you find; I'm too curious now."

"I will," she promised. "As long as you do the same."

His response was a wink.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

Once Jim finished checking the dorms on both levels to see if the students were all where they were supposed to be, he went to sleep himself.

Now that his rounds were done, five kids snuck out of their rooms and went straight for their secret passage. Their sixth friend was waiting for them there.

"Finally," Yumi teased. "I thought you guys would never get here."

"Ha ha," Ulrich replied, as Jérémie uncovered the manhole. "It's not our fault Jim's job is to enforce the rules."

"No, but it's not like we make his job any easier," Odd cut in, before following Jérémie and Aelita down into the sewers.

William wondered, "We should apologize to him at some point," as Yumi climbed down next. "But how?"

"Just an apology. When asked the reason why, we could just say that we'd rather not talk about it," Ulrich quipped, before following Yumi.

A chuckling William brought up the rear, recovering the entrance with the manhole cover once he was down below with his friends.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

The Lyokowarriors weren't the only ones breaking the rules tonight. In her pajamas, Laura waited patiently under the covers for Jim to pass by. Once he passed by her dorm, she quietly got out of bed and wandered over to her desk.

She booted up her laptop, before cracking her knuckles. "Alright. Time to get to work..."

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

"Virtualization!"

Aelita and Yumi dropped down from the sky of the Sector Five Arena, landing in front of Odd, William, and Ulrich. Everything was quiet, exactly how they wanted it.

Wasting no time, the five made their way through the wall that opened, to the lift that took them up to the Skid Hangar, and then onto the transporter pad. They each took their respective spots, Aelita in the center one as usual.

"Energize!"

Bright beams of light engulfed all of them, teleporting all of them to the seat of the Skid that corresponded with their spots. As usual, Aelita was in the main cockpit.

"Stand by for liftoff," Jérémie said. "Supports away."

The docking supports' lights grew dim as they moved away from the Skid, setting it free. Aelita pressed the red button underneath her left joystick, "Ignition, powering vertical," and then pulled both joysticks towards herself. She took a deep breath, "Here we go. Liftoff!"

The Skid lifted up and flew out of the hanger through the hole in the ceiling.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

The holomap showed the Skid, represented by a large blue triangle, leaving Lyoko through its floodgate. Once it indicated that his friends were in the network, Jérémie pressed the key to change the image of holomap projector, "Holoweb system, online. Head for bearing 1-70."

He didn't really need to say that. It wasn't like the Cortex could move locations at will, and XANA didn't have any Replikas without full access to the internet. It was really only for the sake of the mission logs.

"Roger that," Aelita replied, as the blue triangle on the screen began moving in that direction.

While his friends traveled to their destination, Jérémie opened up the messaging program. Anthea's username was still 'Memory', and it would remain that way until further notice.

His message read as follows: "Greetings, Memory.

Sorry to reach out to you on such short notice, but we have a family tree assignment due at the end of this week, and we are required to go back at least four generations. Princess intends on creating two trees, one to maintain her false identity and the other to remind herself of who she really is. Screwy is helping her with the fake one, but she would like your help with the real one. There is no pressure if you can't respond right away, but it would mean a lot to her if you did.

Signed, Hope."

Then a P.S. with an inside joke typed in Anthea's cipher, for security reasons.

After encrypting it, he then sent it. He breathed a sigh, filled with anxiety. If this brought unwanted attention to Anthea, it would be all his fault.

"I've sent Anthea the message," he updated the group, as the screen showed the Skid emerging from the hub. Aelita put on the retro brakes, stopping the ship cold. "Bearing 1-30."

"Gotcha," Aelita replied. "And thank you, Jérémie. It means a lot."

"Will she even reply?" Odd wondered, as the Skid began moving again, this time towards the Cortex.

"She will," Jérémie was confident. "It's from me, it uses all of the encryption protocols she told me to use, and it mentions Aelita."

"If you say so," Ulrich said, as the Skid approached the outer wall of the sphere that was the Cortex. "That being said, I really do hope she responds. It would kill me, not knowing anything about my past."

Stopping in front of the gateway, the Skid reverted to horizontal mode, before Aelita replied with, "Me too, Ulrich. Digital Key, activated."

On Jérémie's screen, a window opened, showing the decryption of the password. It wasn't an automatic process like he had seen previously with the date, so it only meant one thing, "Guess who changed the password yet again."

"Don't tell us," Odd quipped, knowing it was a rhetorical question. "Let's see... does the name start with 'T' and end with 'on'?"

Jérémie played along, feigning shock, "Wow, Odd. How did you guess? Please, show me your ways." He began searching for the password. Now serious, he added, "He added several levels of encryption this time. Give me a couple minutes."

"It's alright," Aelita reassured him. "We can wait."

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

Back at Kadic, Laura was also hacking, her speed matching Jérémie's. Many files popped up on screen, but she dismissed most of them.

However, her typing stopped when she found a folder that was labeled with her own name. In it was a birth certificate, the name on it reading 'Laura Gauthier'. She smiled, "Bingo." This was on her father's computer, just as she suspected.

But her smile began to fade when her eyes wandered down to her parents.

Her birthday was 21 August, 1992. Her mother was listed as 'Pauline Gauthier'. Her father was listed as 'Étienne Gauthier'.

The problem with that...

"Who is Étienne?" Laura wondered. That wasn't her father's name. All she wanted to check was who her mother was, and she'd accept having her mother's surname, rather than her father's, if that was it.

Relax, she told herself. You could just be adopted. (But then, why wouldn't her fake father say anything, then?)

Realizing this, she began searching through the same file for any adoption papers. Being about Laura herself and knowing her fake father, both documents would be in the same file. She skimmed through everything in said file, only to find...

Nothing.

A birth certificate, but no adoption papers. Why? What happened to her real parents? Why weren't they in her life?

Whatever happened, she was not her father's biological daughter.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

The virtualized quartet reached the Cortex's core in no time, having made the same journey many times before, mostly with help from the vehicles.

Aelita sacrificed half of her lifepoints to open the spiral door, and the others followed her all the way to the interface. As Jérémie sent her his snooper bug, William, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd all turned around and summoned their weapons—ready to defend their Princess from the enemy.

As she inserted the digital card, the pink-ette asked, "What should I look for, Jérémie?"

"Whatever calls out to you," her boyfriend replied, understanding that she wanted to search for any information on her parents, and maybe Project Carthage too, that they hadn't received yet. "Just be careful. My program got in easier and quicker than any previous time."

The quintet all froze. While anybody else would ask why that was a bad thing, the Lyokowarriors had learned from personal experience with Tyron that it was something to be cautious about.

"Do you have any idea why?" Yumi worriedly asked.

Jérémie paused briefly. "Yes. Someone else is hacking into Tyron's system at this very moment. They started before we got here."

"Should we abort the mission?" Aelita wondered, her primary concern being the safety of her friends.

"Not yet," her boyfriend replied. "Keep digging, and I'll let you know if either this hacker or Tyron notice or counterattack."

Aelita resumed her search for the information that her heart wanted, as Odd kept the conversation with the resident genius going, "You going to find out who our mystery hacker is, Einstein?"

They heard him cracking his knuckles in preparation, "Remember who you're talking to."

In response, all of them just smiled, as Jérémie used his snooper program alongside Aelita to get into Tyron's database.

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

Unable to believe the information in front of her, Laura kept digging through her father's database, desperately needing answers.

She soon came across a file labeled 'Anthea Hopper'. Laura opened and went directly to the first asset—a photograph of a woman with pink hair, obviously the Anthea in question. She was rather pretty and looked suspiciously like Aelita.

Further digging in that same file brought up the marriage certificate of this Anthea and a man named 'Waldo Schaeffer', and a birth certificate for one 'Aelita Schaeffer'. More photographs Laura found confirmed these two documents to be real.

Aelita... it was a very unique name, almost alien-sounding, and colored hair, while not unheard of, was a recessive gene. But if Aelita Schaeffer and Aelita Stones were indeed the same person like Laura was beginning to suspect, then Stones should be ten years older than she is currently. After all, Schaeffer's birth certificate read her birthday as 20 February, 1982...

Laura kept digging and found a video file dated 25 December, 1987. Playing it, she was promptly greeted with security footage from within her father's lab.

Said man watched as two men in black suits, both of whom Laura recognizes as her father's employees, dragged a woman in winter clothing into the room. "Hello, Anthea. Welcome to Deckard Enterprises."

"Lowell," the woman—clearly Anthea—spat at him. Despite this, she was released by her captives. "What do you want from me?"

"My men are searching for Waldo as we speak," Laura's father replied in his usual cold and stoic tone. "I will find him; he can't have gone far. He will come back to face me, no matter what must be done, because I know him. Waldo strongly dislikes loose ends, but something tells me that you being here will make him cooperate and perhaps even drop his guard. Now, you have a choice to make, ma belle. Your answer will determine your stay here. You can cooperate yourself, or you can be difficult."

Laura, in real time, watched on with curiosity and intrigue. Her father never talked about love, so this was an entirely new side of him that she was seeing.

Anthea scoffed. "Really? You seriously think a way to a woman's heart is to kidnap her? You're really not good with the female population, are you? Did you really expect me to say, 'Oh, Lowell, kidnapping me has told me that I made a huge mistake in marrying Waldo! Come here, you hunk, you~!'?! No! The only mistake I made was not rejecting you sooner! I tried to extend an olive branch by inviting you to the wedding, to give you a chance to come to terms with the reality and for you and Waldo to become friends again! You made your choice, and you still think you can have your cake and eat it too?!"

Laura saw her father's face fall before getting angrier by the second the longer this woman stood there insulting him. He suddenly snapped, punching Anthea in the face. Various feeds showed him dragging her all the way down to the prison block, something that Laura didn't even know existed because she was never allowed on certain floors, and violently throwing the woman head-first into a cell.

The video ended on what looked like a medic checking over Anthea for any injuries, them and other co-workers standing far back from their boss in surprise and fear. Judging by those reactions, they hadn't seen this side of Laura's father before either, nor did they ever want to see it again.

Now, Laura understood why he never talked about love and romance, why he saw it as 'useless'. He had never gotten over Anthea Hopper, and probably never would.

Laura switched back to the file with her name on it. She had previously skimmed through the entirety of it, and if her memory served her right, there was a video file in it as well. That format seemed to be very common with her father.

Bingo! There it was. She took a deep breath, not sure what to expect, before playing it.

Like with the previous one, Laura was promptly greeted with security footage, this time from what appeared to be a hospital room. A woman with hair as long and blonde as Laura's was lying on the only bed, sweaty and breathing deeply as a man with light brunette hair held her hand. In their arms was a baby.

"You did great, Pauline," the man softly said. "You're amazing. Absolutely incredible."

The woman, Pauline, shot him an exhausted smile, "Yeah, yeah. You only say that, Étienne, because you weren't the one who went through seven hours of labor."

Pauline? Étienne? Laura perked up. Those names... These two were her real parents!

"Hey," Laura's biological father—Papa—replied in jest. "The miracle of life just hit me now. Give me a break." Maman giggled. Papa continued, "So what should we call her?"

"Well, I like the name you suggested," Maman replied. "Laura. A name from the laurel tree, symbolizing victory."

Papa smiled, "Laura it is." He leaned down towards his daughter. "Hey there, little one. This world is seven kinds of messed up, but we'll teach you to see the good within the bad. We'll protect you no matter what, and just remember that we're always going to be proud of you."

Laura, in the present day, smiled, as tears began to fill her eyes. Her parents did love her.

The video cut to what appeared to be a science fair. Four-year-old her was standing by the table that her project, which had a first place ribbon stamped on it, was placed on. Said project was a self-sustaining generator, a bit crude and still needed work, but still far more impressive than any of her peers—current Laura wasn't aware how she knew that, though.

"Well done, Laura!" Maman exclaimed. "We knew you could do it!"

"Are you proud of me?" young Laura asked.

"Of course we are," Papa replied, kneeling down to his daughter's level. "We always will be." Little Laura smiled in response.

The sweet moment was ruined by a man slowly clapping his gloved hands. "Well, well, a self-sustaining generator is certainly impressive." It was Tyron, the man Laura now felt uncomfortable around. "For four years of age, your daughter has already proven herself to be quite the genius."

Current Laura noticed how her parents, in the video, had immediately tensed up as if an enemy had come into the room. It felt like they regarded Tyron as someone to be weary of, and to Laura, that was starting to seem like an understatement.

Tyron's falsely pleasant expression fell into a displeased smirk, "Étienne, Pauline, how have you two been?"

"Hello, Boss," Papa replied shortly, through his teeth.

A sudden cut in the video confirmed current-Laura's suspicions, as Tyron stood in front of a row of five adults dressed in strange cybernetic outfits, with five rudimentary-looking scanners in the background.

One of the employees asked, "Sir, how do you plan on doing that? He's just vanished, with no sign of where he could've gone." Current-Laura recognized that as the voice of her father, Étienne Gauthier.

Another cut before a second employee in the line-up spoke, "How do you know he has one? He could just want to hide." That was the voice of her mother, Pauline Gauthier.

Her parents were former employees of Lowell Tyron.

The video cut back to the science fair, where said boss of theirs continued as if there was no sudden cut just now, "Now, now, you two know better than to think I would just release you from your contracts without certain caveats. You both were part of the original group that was trained on the Cortex, after all. You two know too much to risk being set free just like that."

Papa had his arm out in front of Maman, protecting her, but Maman was the one who answered, "What do you want from us?"

"Your daughter to work for me," Tyron answered, and current-Laura's blood ran cold. "As I said, building a self-sustaining generator, however much work it still requires, is impressive. It would be a shame to waste such intellect and talent. If you don't comply, I can take out all of your family members and even place evidence that indicates you two as the culprits. But it's your choice." He lowered his cold gaze at them, and whispered, "Choose wisely."

With no other choice, Étienne and Pauline turned to their four-year old daughter and knelt at her level.

"Laura?" Pauline said.

Little Laura blinked innocently, "What's going on? Why aren't you proud of me anymore?"

"It's not you, ma chérie," Étienne quickly replied. "Believe us, we're still proud of you, and always will be. It's just that... well, your project has caught the attention of this man." He motioned to Tyron, still standing there, expectantly. "His name is Alan Meyer," they made sure to use his fake name, due to being in public. "He's the headmaster of a very pristine school, and he wants you to attend it. If you accept his invitation, just know that you'll be going on a very long trip."

Her parents phrased it as a choice, but present-day Laura was getting the feeling that the choice had already been made for her. In fact, this almost felt like they were saying 'goodbye' forever, like they were the ones who didn't have a choice here.

Little Laura began bouncing up and down, clearly excited, before her smile fell. "Will you send me letters every day?"

Both of her parents' smiles were tight and obviously forced, as her mother softly replied, "We will try our best."

The video ended on four-year-old Laura willingly going with Tyron, while her parents could do nothing. They had put on smiles as she walked away with the man, but they fell the moment Tyron drove away, with their daughter in tow.

From that point on, Laura had somehow forgotten that she even had biological parents. For some reason, she had always believed that Lowell Tyron was her father. But now she had proof that Tyron was lying to her all along.

She kept digging in the file, and what next came up was a newspaper clipping, dated 8 October, 1996.

'Yesterday, on 7 October, Étienne and Pauline Gauthier were found dead. Their vehicle had been driven off the road, which was slick due to the night's rainstorm, and they are believed to have died on impact. While it has been officially ruled as a freak accident, forensics scientists believe the brakes may have been tampered with.'

Laura couldn't believe her eyes. Her instincts were right—her parents were saying 'goodbye' in a permanent way. They really didn't have a choice, because they knew that they would be killed, no doubt by Tyron, no matter what they chose.

Why? Because they were witnesses to his illegal activities, and he didn't want to risk them being able to go to the authorities with this valuable information.

Digging further, she came across a schematic of what appeared to be an invention of Tyron's. They were black-colored gloves, with cybernetic circuits attached to them.

"'Memory-snatching gloves'?" Laura whispered to herself, reading what the blueprints said. "'While crude, their purpose is in their name. They take the memories of a biological individual and contain them within the digital space that is the worldwide network. Special note: these are only prototypes, and thus imperfect. One false move could make the subject regain their lost memories'."

Given how these schematics were in a digital folder with her name on it, Laura began to suspect that she had something to do with them. Somehow. What if... they had been used on her?

As if on cue, Laura found her brain clench up in pain, as a memory she didn't remember before this suddenly came to mind...

Five-year-old Laura was in her room, staring at the blank and beige ceiling.

She was beginning to think that her parents had tricked her. They said that Mr. Meyer was the headmaster of a really nice school, but this was no school. It was a giant facility, and she was the only student here. While she was lonely and everybody was very strict with her, she knew that she needed to stay here. She had to make her parents proud of her.

A knock came to her door, and she instantly sat up just as the door opened. In stepped Mr. Meyer. He gave no greetings, other than, "Come with me."

She obeyed without second thought, following him in silence all the way to his personal laboratory.

"Um, Mr. Meyer?" she meekly asked as he locked the door behind them. "You never let me in here..."

"I'll make an exception this time," the man—Tyron— replied. "I need your help with something."

Eager to help and not wanting to be a useless kid, she chirped, "Okay! What do you need me to do?"

"Just stand right here." She obeyed, watching as he approached his table and got to work with whatever he needed her to assist him with. She couldn't see what was on his desk, but she could hear him saying something like "Subject 01, Laura Gauthier. Initiating experiment now," after putting on a pair of impressive-looking tech gloves.

Bored of the silence, she quietly spoke up, "Um... do you know why my parents haven't sent me a single letter? I mean, they promised to try, but they didn't even send me a card for my fifth birthday last week..." It bothered her, and tears were coming to her eyes from thinking about her parents breaking their promise.

She couldn't see the man's face, but she could hear him respond with, "I'm sure they're alright, but there's a way to forget about the pain you feel from their betrayal."

"There is?" she was hopeful.

"There is," he reassured her, sounding more and more sinister by the second. "All you have to do is hold still."

She didn't get a chance to respond.

The man reached out his hand. The cybernetics attached to the gloves felt like a jolt of electricity against her skin, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Her parents had to be proud of her. Her parents were okay. Her parents... her parents... parents...

Who was she thinking about again...?

Her mind went blank, and the black faded back into full color. A strange man was towering in front of her, both of them in what appeared to be a laboratory.

"Log number one," the man talked into a recorder. "Subject has collapsed to their knees from the shock but remains conscious." He directed his attention to her. "How do you feel?"

"W-Wha... what's going on?" she found herself asking. "Who are you? W-Who am I? Where is this place? What am I doing here?!" Her panic was growing the more questions she asked.

The man knelt next to her and, after removing his gloves, placed a hand on her shoulder. "Breathe. Your name is Laura Gauthier. I am Lowell Tyron, your father. You were in an accident that left you brain-dead. Healing you, unfortunately, has wiped your memories."

"H-Healing me?" He nodded. "I see... thank you..."

Laura Gauthier was now just a figment of her real self, a blank slate for Lowell Tyron to rewrite into who he alone wanted her to be.

Laura returned to the present thanks to a memory of William warning her earlier to be careful, or she may discover something she wished she hadn't. He was wrong. She was glad to have found this.

Her attention was redirected from the reality of her situation to the fact that her laptop had an alert on screen for the past hour or so.

"'Connection to the Cortex established'?" she wondered. She had heard that name in one of the video clips. "What is that?"

She latched onto that connection and began trailing down the digital bond. On the other end was a webcam file that was currently live. Without thinking, she opened it.

Aelita, or at least a digital version, was at what appeared to be an interface, in a spherical room that matched Tyron's aesthetic. Behind her, Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, and William were also virtual, the four of them fighting digital versions of the employees she had seen in that cut within the science fair clip.

There was no mistake. Those were her friends alright. What were they doing here? What was going on?

She saw Yumi egg a Ninja on, before leaping up and letting Ulrich devirtualize them. She saw Odd tease a second Ninja, acting very cat-like as he led his enemy directly into William's Zweihänder. A third Ninja snuck up on Aelita as she dug through the interface, but the pink-ette was warned in time by Odd, letting her turn around and fire two Energy Fields into her enemy's chest, devirtualizing them.

The fact that Odd had warned Aelita by calling her name only further solidified the realization that these avatars were indeed Laura's friends. Or five of them.

Aelita turned back to the interface and announced, "Download completed!"

"Well done, guys," sounded a sixth voice—Jérémie's—from over the intercom. "It's time to leave."

"Roger that!" Ulrich replied, as Aelita pressed a button and retrieved a digital card.

The webcam feed cut off on the pink-ette joining her friends in heading towards the exit, with the remaining two Ninja chasing them. The webcam now read inactive, so Laura exited out of the window, all while she connected the dots in shock.

Lowell Tyron, her supposed 'father', was intent on hunting down Aelita (likely for personal revenge), her friends (probably because of their previous dealings against Tyron), and Waldo Schaeffer's supercomputer. And he used Laura to do it. Her mission, the entire time, was to ensure that Aelita Stones and Aelita Schaeffer were indeed the same person, and thus, find Waldo Schaeffer's supercomputer.

William's words returned, hitting her like the impact that killed her parents all those years ago, 'Be careful. If your father really is stingy about this topic, then you may find something you'll wish you hadn't.'

She was wrong; he was right. But it wasn't finding out about her biological parents. She would never regret that.

No, it was the fact that she had just found out that the avatars that had been plaguing her fake father were her friends the entire time. Now, she knew the truth, and she couldn't take it back when she so dearly wished she could, for a multitude of reasons. One of those reasons was the fear of what Tyron would do to her friends.

What should she do now? Tell Tyron what she found here, and thus completing her mission and making her parents proud (like he'd no doubt lure her back in with), or keep it all a secret, thus making herself a walking time-bomb?

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~~!

Meanwhile, once the Skid was docked again in Sector Five, the group reconvened in the lab, where Jérémie had some news.

"I have good news, and I have bad news," he announced, leaning back in his chair. "Which do you want first?"

Odd hummed. "Bad."

"I couldn't find the hacker," their resident genius confessed. "Whoever they are, they know how to mask their IP address." He found himself going quiet over who that reminded him off, which worked in his favor, because his friends didn't ask for clarification.

In reality, it was a lie. He strongly suspected that it was Laura, given how the mystery hacker was using Lyoko's network, like them, but he had no proof.

"That's alright, Jer," Yumi reassured him. "What's the good news?"

He smiled, "Anthea replied."

Aelita leaned further towards the screen, "Really?!", eager. On the screen was a window, detailing a lengthy essay that looked at first glance like nothing but gibberish.

"Yeah," he barely managed to nip his chuckle in the bud. "The response is obviously encrypted, though, and the translation won't be ready until tomorrow afternoon."

"That's alright," his girlfriend replied with a gentle smile. "At least she replied. In the meantime, I can work on the Stones' tree with Odd."

Said faux-cousin of hers gave her a simple wink.

William nodded towards the screen, on which was a second window, "Is the information we got worth anything? I mean, it's files on Aelita's parents and Project Carthage, but like, is it legit?"

Said window was running Jérémie's trojan detection program. "We'll find out tomorrow morning," said blonde replied.

That sounded like a plan with the others, as there were no negative responses. However, here, Ulrich and Jérémie shared a look which only they knew the meaning of—it was a question from Ulrich. Like the question, the answer also went unspoken, a simple nod from Jérémie.

The others caught it. "Hey," Odd teasingly called them out. "What did we say about keeping secrets?"

"Sorry," the young genius softly replied.

"And we mean it," Ulrich added. "We know that we generally don't keep any secrets from each other, but this one wasn't kept you from you guys maliciously, we promise. A week ago, during the thing with Jerky McJerk-Face, when I found Jérémie, he shared something with me that I knew you guys needed to hear but respected that it was his choice to share it or not, and when."

Looking over at him, Jérémie clearly still didn't feel comfortable sharing whatever this confession was. To give him needed reassurance, Aelita tenderly grabbed him by the hand. He sent her a soft smile, before telling the others what he had told Ulrich last week.

"As you guys can probably tell, my mental health hasn't been at a great place lately. The stress I'm feeling was starting to build up behind the surface already. I guess the thing with... him just brought it to the forefront." He took in a deep breath to steady his nerves. "In the past, we've always had Aelita's father to help us. He was the one who revived Aelita, he was the one who gave us the data needed to rebuild Lyoko, upgrade our avatars, and construct the Skid, and he was the one who completed my anti-XANA program. Without him, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we are in this moment. But he's gone now, and I've been left to figure things out pretty much by myself." Before Aelita could cut in, like he knew she would, he quickly added, "I know what you're going to say, 'Lita, but we both know it's true. I'm the only one who can operate the supercomputer in its full capacity."

"Right," Ulrich stepped in. "And in response to that, I suggested that we redo the vote to bring Laura into the group. It would help us a lot if we had someone to help Jérémie in the lab. You guys don't have to give your thoughts right now. We can take a day or so to think about it."

A silence followed, as the others digested all of that.

Aelita was the one who broke it, "I agree. Let's do it. Laura deserves a do-over anyway. What I did wasn't fair to her."

"Sounds like a good plan," Odd added. "I mean, we've seen for ourselves what she can do."

"Yeah," Yumi agreed. "She did save my life during her very first time using the supercomputer. And according to you, Jérémie, she picked things up rather quickly."

"She was also able to multitask when the entire school's safety was on the line," William recalled. "She figured out the sequence of the towers too, right? I say she's perfect, and no, that is not my crush on her talking." He added the last part before Odd could say anything.

"He's right, Odd," Aelita cut in, with the crazy-haired blonde feigning betrayal. "It's not the crush. It's the fact that he's formed a bond with Laura, to the point where he feels like she can be trusted. We all have. She's our friend."

Jérémie's mood was lifted the more his friends agreed with Ulrich's idea.

Said brunette added, "I feel the same way, Jer. I mean, that's partially why I brought the idea up at all. You're right; she's perfect."

Wearing a real smile for the first time in what felt like a while, Jérémie said, "So, we agree to bring Laura into the group?"

His five friends all nodded in confirmation.

"Alright. Laura has officially been recruited," Jérémie said, "but let's wait until after Saturday's cross-country. According to you, William, this family tree project is apparently really stressful for her."

William nodded, in both confirmation and agreement.

Soon, they would upgrade to seven members. Seven was the lucky number, right?

Nothing would go wrong anymore.

TO BE CONTINUED_

!~~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~E~V~O~L~U~T~I~O~N~~~!

Up next: Episode 24, Mutiny - "As the group prepares to take Laura into their ranks, Laura is faced with a tough decision, one she really doesn't want to make."

A/N: Chapter Meaning: References what Laura finds out and the choice she now faces

-The family trees I mention in this chapter are mostly headcanon, save for the relatives we already know about from canon. I also have family portraits on my DA page (same penname) with their future kids, if you feel like taking a look at them.

-Jérémie's codename 'Hope' is a reference to an AU of Miracle's Trinity AU, and the name itself comes from Ani's Fragments AU. Miracle, according to them, basically just said 'What if I took Fragments AU and made it angstier?'. Refer to Miracle and Ani for more context.

-Odd's codename 'Screwy' is a reference to Tex Avery's Screwball Squirrel. Aelita's codename is self-explanatory. And yes, Ulrich, Yumi, and William have codenames too.

-The names of Laura's biological parents are references to Étienne Chicot, the actor for Laura's father, and Pauline Serieys, the actress for Laura herself. And yes, they're the Ninjas who called Tyron out in 'Suspicions' (Chapter 7/Episode 102).

-The 'Jerky McJerk-Face' nickname for Hervé' is an addition by FP7ETDP43. I originally wrote him as 'you-know-who', but my beta reader wanted a funny name to humiliate him.

~Evolution concepts~

The only one really worth pointing out here is Tyron declaring himself as Aelita's stepfather in the EVO finale. I have so many issues with that, which I've already pointed out, but the main one is that we never see anything come from that. EVO was never given a second season, so we'll never find out why Anthea married Tyron, or if it was even the truth or a way for Tyron to get under Aelita's skin. Here, Tyron pulls the same tactic on Laura, but unlike EVO, his reasons are revealed here.

The reveal back in the beginning of the Ninjas being virtualized human beings was mainly to set up this reveal of Laura's biological parents being former Ninjas themselves.

Also, here, Aelita actually acknowledges that what she did to Laura in 'Secret Admirer' (Chapter 5/Episode 100) was wrong, unlike her EVO self, who maintained that she did the right thing, with the narrative apparently confirming that.