Disclaimer: I do not own Code: Lyoko. You can bet that if I did, the UxY kiss -would- happen, Thomas Jovilet would dump Anais for Odd, and XANA would sing showtunes.

Winterfall

A young man, in his early teens, stretched and yawned as he walked down the hallway towards his room. It was getting late-- around 11 o'clock, and lights-out was at ten. Luckily he made it through the dormitory building unoppressed, as it seemed that the nightly watch was either somewhere else or had gone to sleep. The old style architecture and furnishings of Kadic Academy were strangely comforting and soft as he slipped through the dark; it had become his home ever since he began his schooling there. All was quiet, spare for snoring coming from other students' rooms, or perhaps shuffling around as they walked around either avoiding sleep or attempting to cram for a test. Glowing from the golden lamps hanging on the stone walls of the school outside filtered in, creating eerie orbs of light at each window, like strange eyes were watching him, knowing that he had done something wrong. Perhaps he shouldn't have gone to that party; after all, his mother had warned him not to get involved with "those types of people," as she had done in high school. All sorts of things that he could barely remember because of his throbbing headache went on in there, mostly from the loud music and snuck-in booze.

Clarke D'Agnon looked around to make sure no one was watching, inserted his key into the lock on the doorknob, and slowly turned it. It clicked, and he opened the door as quietly as he could. He exhaled a sigh of relief, and then flopped onto his bed, glad that he was a single-room boarder and no one shared it with him. This time, his room was completely dark, and warm, heated by the faithful boiler that thankfully never had any problems. For a moment he stared out his window, looking at the silent grounds that would soon become frothing with activity at next light, and the stars above that twinkled omnipresently, like guardians that had shone brightly on the world for ages. It was all so peaceful. And yet... Clarke was discontented. He didn't exactly feel like going to sleep. He averted his gaze. His eyes landed upon the computer resting on the wooden desk, which provided for every student, but the computer itself had been given as a present from his father. That is, before he died.

It might not be a bad idea to surf the net for a while before laying down, he thought. He got up from his bed, and walked over to it. Sitting down in his chair, he reached towards the button to turn it on... only to discover that it already was. It was quite odd-- he was sure he turned it off long before he left. Oh well. Maybe there was a power outage and it restarted or something. He didn't think much of it. Until... the screen came on.

D o... y o u...

"Wh... what is this?" Clarke looked at the screen through disbelieving eyes. It seemed as though... words were spelling themselves out on the screen. Like some sort of instant messenger, but in code. This had to be some sort of joke-- maybe one of the geeks spread some virus through the school. Maybe that Belpois kid; he was always messing around with his fancy little laptop. But the message continued...

D o... y o u... b e l i e v e...

Now it was getting freaky. Clarke felt his heart rate increase, his breathing become shorter and more rapid. He had to calm himself down, remember, it was only a prank. It's only a stupid prank. Just a silly little joke...

D o... y o u... b e l i e v e... i n ... a n g e l s...?

Angels? he thought. What sort of joke was this? He had been expecting something silly and annoying, like his screen filling with dancing monkeys and his hard drive being wiped or something, but this definitely wasn't what he expected. Of course, then he began to jump to conclusions. Was this some kind of message...from God? Suddenly Clarke began to realize that his room was getting cold. Very cold. Had someone turned off the heat? He shivered a little, and looked around. No more letters appeared on the screen, as if it were waiting for him to respond. But... how should he respond? Should he respond with the truth, which was yes? Or should he see what would happen if he said no? Should he simply turn it off? His mind began to fill with all sorts of questions, but for some reason that he couldn't explain, his hands began to reach for the keyboard. He spelled out the letters, Y, E, S.

Yes.

G o o d...

The screen blanked. Clarke frowned. He had expecting something a little more spectacular than the damn thing just turning off! That was the worst prank virus ever. He was about to just give up and go to bed, when something even stranger began to happen. The monitor began to blink, on and off, and it even gave off electrical discharge. Was it malfunctioning? He backed away from it, fearing an explosion... when suddenly...

I b e l i e v e... i n... a n g e l s... t o o...

Clarke's vision was filled with white, and he felt a surge of pain before completely losing consciousness.

Two boys were seated at a table in the cafeteria, both seeming to be waiting anxiously for someone. One of the boys, with gelled blonde hair, vented his frustration by inhaling any available food source nearby, and the other merely fidgeted incessantly.

"Odd," The fidgeting one said, with an edge of annoyance in his voice. "If you keep eating like that, you're going to make yourself sick."

"Don't worry about me, Ulrich. You seem to forget who won the pie-eating contest last year, exactly three and a half pies after everyone else threw up!"

"I swear, you must've had Yolanda numb your stomach that day."

"Nah! I just have high metabolism!"

"High metabolism wouldn't-- ugh, I don't even know why you're joking at a time like this," Ulrich shifted in his seat. They were both quiet. There was a constant dull murmur behind the everyday chit-chat of the Kadic students. Like everyone was whispering under their breath every few minutes. Eyes were shifting back and forth, and there was inherent excitement-- a buzz, like something was going on. Something big. An Asian girl dressed in black from her shoulder-length hair to her stylish boots walked over the table, with such a rush in her step that the food on the tray she was carrying bounced a little. She hastily sat down next to Ulrich.

"Yumi," he said, looking at her with serious eyes. "Did you hear?"

"Yeah, of course I did. I heard that the gates are closed and the police won't even let the media in. The teachers and staff are all really hush-hush too."

"Well, I heard that the security guard got so scared that he quit his job. I think he's moving to Borneo or something," Odd said. They were all whispering, the spirit of rumors and a mysterious scandal overtaking them, just as it had done the rest of the students in the cafeteria. No one was really eating anything, and besides, Rosa, the chef, had been so distracted that she completely forgot what meal she was supposed to be serving that day, and poured gravy on the vegetables, and syrup on the roast beef. It went unnoticed, however, and even Odd didn't seem to mind it that much. The group silenced themselves whenever someone walked past, until finally a boy with glasses in a blue turtleneck, and a red-headed girl in a pink jumper walked over to the table, both as eagerly and hastily as Yumi did. The boy pulled out what appeared to be a newspaper from underneath his tray.

"I picked up a copy of the school newspaper. Milly and Tamiya tried to gather as much information as they could before they got booted out, but they did manage to get a pretty decent article. It's on the front page," he said, flopping it onto the table for everyone to see. The only thing more shocking than the picture showing the wreckage done in one of the dorms in the east wing, was the title:

Angel of Death?

By Milly Solovieff

Photos: Tamiya Diop

Last night, something happened that put all of Kadic into a deep panic, and shocked the city of Paris. One of our own students, Clarke D'Agnon, was found at 7 AM this morning during the routine wake-up call of one Jim Moralés, curled up in the fetal position and rocking back and forth, babbling incoherently about "angels." His room was completely and totally destroyed, in what seemed like a blast radiating from an epicenter where his computer and desk used to be. His bed was crushed, leaving wood splinters everywhere, the walls singed, and electrical sparks coming from exposed wires nearly caused a fire. Clarke himself had suffered severe trauma to his head, and also appeared to have two broken limbs. An ambulance was quickly called to take him to the hospital; however, upon its' arrival, the medics discovered that he was no longer inside the ambulance, and a hole had been torn in the roof. Little is known about the details of this, and information from both Kadic staff and hospital officials is extremely limited. But the question remaining on everyone's lips is simple: was this an act of terror, or perhaps… something… else?

Jeremie let the others finish reading the article before saying anything.

"Well?"

"That's..." Odd began.

"That's what? Impossible? Mega insane?" he inquired. Odd looked at him pensively. Jeremie raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Jeremie... we discussed this. You swore you would never, EVER say the words 'mega insane' together in one sentence again!"

"Odd! This is serious!" Jeremie shouted.

"Well... naturally we should assume the worst," Yumi said, taking a drink and then looking at everyone seriously. Aelita cleared her throat and shuffled in her seat, smoothing out her dress.

"If by 'the worst,' you mean XANA," Aelita spoke up for the first time. "Then…. It's possible. He hasn't been active these past three months since he escaped from the supercomputer, but in all likelihood he's been planning some sort of attack."

"That's right," Jeremie added, pushing up his glasses. "The super scan hasn't picked anything up; but then of course it wouldn't—XANA is no longer trapped inside Carthage, so he really has no need to activate any towers."

"So… what do you think we should do?" Ulrich asked, poking his syrup-covered roast beef with a plastic fork.

"Not exactly sure. Wait... watch and see what happens. If it turns out to be what we fear, then we'll have to figure out how to deal with this. If the police start getting too suspicious, there's always the option of reverting back time… thankfully Clarke wasn't killed—you know what would happen then," the blonde genius said. Everyone nodded solemnly, remembering what happened during XANA's first attack. The girl who got killed. They had to cover it up, conjure up a story that she'd jumped into the river. It worked, and because of the return to the past, there were no witnesses. But it certainly was a gruesome event… especially when that mass of gray, dead brain matter appeared on the bridge to the factory. From that point on, they knew how serious it was, and how they had to absolutely make sure that no one lost their lives in the battle against XANA.

"What are you guys whispering about?" A female voice said, breaking their concentration like a needle popping a balloon. The group slightly grimaced as the principal's daughter leaned over their table, smirking. Sissi had actually started to be a lot more genial towards them in the past couple months, and there was a strange kind of respect between the two groups, but her constant meddling certainly remained an annoyance.

"Oh, nothing," Odd said, grinning, and if you knew him well enough, you could see through his eyes that he was coming up with some sort of retort, remark, or joke. "Just about how ugly that dress you wore to—"

Jeremie raised his hand to silence him. The Della Robbia boy gave him an odd look, but he submitted to the pseudo-leader of the group. Sissi herself raised an eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Sissi," he said, looking her in the eye. "Can you…. Can you keep a secret?"

The entire table silenced. Every one of them knew what that meant. Yumi paled.

Before Sissi could even form another word, Yumi was up on her feet. She walked briskly over to Jeremie and grabbed his arm.

"Excuse me, Sissi, but I need to speak to Jeremie in private. Now." Yumi promptly dragged him away from the table, and out the door of the cafeteria. She instantly regarded him with disbelief.

"Are you INSANE?" she asked, slapping him across the face. Soon enough, Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita had joined them.

"Yeah! Unless I'm a total idiot, I'd swear you were just about to tell Sissi about Lyoko," Odd said, in a vicious tone that quite frankly surprised the entire group. He was usually happy-go-lucky; it was rare that they'd seen him this angry before.

"Before you guys totally blow up at me, hear me out," Jeremie said, sighing and holding out his hands. "If the fight against XANA gets as bad as I think it's going to get, then we're going to need all the help we can find. I don't know if you've noticed it, but Sissi has been trying to redeem herself lately. And after all, she has helped us before. She's even the one that Franz Hopper chose to convey his message to us. Sure we have sort of a sour history with her… but who else do you think we could possibly choose?"

"Well, I…" Ulrich said with fire in his eyes, but after a moment, he realized that Jeremie was right. "So we tell Sissi. What then? What if we can't trust her? What if she goes to her father and gets the police involved or something?"

"Exactly. I don't think we can take our chances with this right now, Jeremie," Yumi said, shaking her head, her hair bouncing back and forth. "Especially not with someone—someone like her."

Her nose scrunched a little with that last statement. Aelita placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know how you feel about Sissi. But… Jeremie and I have discussed this for a while, and… don't you think it would be helpful towards our cause to have someone else on the team? Surely you can put personal differences aside, if it's going to help save the world."

Yumi looked at her. There was sadness, and a little bit of hurt in her eyes. Reluctance.

"I know… but…" Her voice cracked. Ulrich was there, and he consoled her as she leaned into his shoulder.

"Yumi… trust me, I don't want to do this either. But Jeremie and Aelita do have a point. Sissi… deep inside, she really isn't a horrible person. She's done some really mean things to us before, but you just have to learn… to forgive. And let her start over. As part of… part of our group."

Odd slung an arm around Yumi's neck.

"Yeah, he's right. Besides, you know how much I make fun of her. If I can forgive, so can you," He said, deciding to side with the others. He winked. Yumi smiled.

"Thanks…. You know, you guys really are my best friends." They separated, and followed the genius pair back into the cafeteria. It was time to face the girl who had been standing by their table impatiently. Time to face the music.

Chapter Two

"So… Aelita's father's name is Franz Hopper. Right?" Sissi asked. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed in her pajamas, and the others were spread out in the room. They decided to have a sleepover in Jeremie's room as celebration. Eventually, everyone, including Yumi, had accepted Sissi as part of the group. Sissi had eagerly accepted the invitation, and despite what they thought, was very interested.

"Right," Jeremie said, his feet up on his desk.

"And… he built the supercomputer on… June 6th, 1994. Right?"

"Right."

"And, um… he named it Lyoko?"

"No. Lyoko is the virtual world that's inside the supercomputer."

"Oh. Okay. And XANA… was a virus?"

"No, not really. He was an AI that my father created to fight Project Carthage," Aelita said. She was lying behind her on the bed, reading a book. "Eventually he evolved out of control, and…. Well…"

"Okay. Yeah, I've got it straightened out now," she replied. Sissi smiled and bounced a little. Ulrich laughed. He could barely believe his eyes.

"Wow, Sissi. I didn't know you would be so… interested in this," he said from the floor where he and Odd were playing a game of cards.

"Yeah, well… I've always wondered what you guys were doing when you'd run off into the forest and then disappear. I had no idea that you were going off to save the world! And I've been dying to get away from those losers, Herb and Nicholas."

"Speaking of them… what are they going to do now?"

"I'm not sure… Nicholas actually made some friends with a bunch of band geeks, and I think Herb's going to some technological school in Issy-les-Moulineaux, or somewhere like that."

"We actually had Herb help us with one of XANA's attacks, a while back. He doesn't remember, though, since the return to the past," Yumi said. The others, Ulrich especially, had been worried about how she'd take this. Once Jeremie finally told their secret to Sissi in the cafeteria, Yumi still had a bad feeling about it. Even when they took a field trip to the factory to prove everything to her, she hung back with Ulrich and made sure Sissi didn't try to make a move on him or something. Sissi was amazed with everything, of course, and she said she even had a vague memory of being there before, like déjà vu. They also had to register her with the supercomputer, so if they ever returned to the past again, her memories would be retained. It was silent for a while. Ulrich and Odd went back to their card game, Aelita was busy reading, and Jeremie was surfing the net, reading world news articles. Yumi stared out the window. The night sky was peaceful, and easy to get lost in.

"So… do you guys think…" Sissi spoke up. She had previously been picking with her nails, but obviously she was thinking about something. The others in the room looked up. Though it pleased her to some degree to see those she'd secretly wanted to befriend since the seventh grade paying attention to her, she went on. "That kid…. Clarke D'Agnon…. What happened to him… do you think XANA might've had something to do with it?"

Jeremie and Aelita glanced at each other.

"My, you catch on fast. Well… we have our suspicions. But he hasn't attacked in three months, and… this certainly is a bit unorthodox for him."

"You know what," Sissi said. "I think I heard my daddy talking with some police officers. He said that…. Something like this has happened before."

"Really?" Ulrich asked, standing up. She instantly had everyone's attention.

"Yeah. In fact…." Sissi looked up to the ceiling, thinking. There was an eerie quiet. And… as she was about to open her mouth…. A blaring sound, worse than she'd ever heard, began ringing throughout the dormitory building. Odd was soon off the floor as well, covering his ears, and Aelita put a pillow over her head.

"What is that?" Odd asked. Red lights were flashing into the room through cracks in the door, and the thundering of what sounded like footsteps could be heard.

"It's certainly a horrible noise… is it some kind of alarm?" Aelita looked at Jeremie. He got up from his seat and walked over to the door. Before he got there, the doorknob shinked the sound of what could only be a master key of some sort, and it swung open, nearly hitting him in the face. Jim was at the door, looking very urgent.

"Everyone out, now. This is an evacuation!" All of them stood up and rushed towards the door. Jeremie stayed behind, hesitating. He reached behind one of his monitors on the desk, and produced a CD case which he promptly slipped into his pocket. He ran out, and walked right along with Jim as he went from door to door, getting the rest of the students. Some of them were so sleepy they didn't know what was going on.

"Jim," Jeremie said, struggling to keep up with the man. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. But the principal issued an evacuation, and I'm supposed to take everyone to the basement."

"Basement? But… don't evacuations usually mean you have to get out of the building?"

Jim simply looked at him.

"This is a special kind of evacuation," he said, starting up the stairs. "Now, you get on to the basement. Now."

Jeremie hung back, and walked along with the rest of the group. Aelita was with him in a heartbeat. It was obvious to everyone that she was really quite scared. She grabbed onto his hand, and Jeremie looked into her eyes.

"What did he say?"

"He said…. This is a 'special' kind of evacuation, and we have to go to the basement."

"The basement?" Yumi asked, running up alongside them. "That's… strange…"

"Did he say it was a Type 7 evacuation?" asked Sissi. She had sort of a faraway look in her eyes.

"No…. why?"

"Well… my father told me about what Kadic does in cases of emergency…. And Type 7 is when the school itself is under attack, and it would be too dangerous to go outside. So they send us to the basement. Not like a tornado warning or anything at all."

They headed down to the basement. All was quiet, spare for the murmuring of the other students as they got closer and closer to the space where everyone in their wing was gathering. The general mood of the student body was equal to theirs-- afraid, confused, worried. It was dark in the basement, except for the dim, flashing red glow of the alarm upstairs. They tried to squeeze in between all the students, but it was difficult. Some were sitting on the floor, staring at the wall, like they couldn't believe the world was coming to this. Some of the younger ones were crying. Jim finished directing some kids down the stairs, and shut the door.

"Now, listen up," he said, raising his voice in that gym teacher-like fashion. Everyone silenced. He hesitated, not seeming quite sure what to say, and that certainly didn't make them feel any better. "We're going to need everyone to remain calm. I don't know how long this is going to last-- could be hours, could be days. The principal and other members of the staff are taking care of the other portions of campus. But don't you worry, Kadic has taken worse blows than this before."

Again, someone hinting at this having happened before... what could this mean? Jeremie thought. With that, Jim regressed from his short, ineffective speech, and began searching around the small area of the basement for something. He found an old, rusted door and yanked it open. A utility closet. He removed what appeared to be an old radio, and a number of blankets.

"I don't think we have enough blankets here for everyone. But you can share, or something. Spread them out. Youngest get blankets first," he said, handing the various army-surplus looking blankets out amongst the student body. This really began to frighten some of them. It seemed like the school was preparing to keep them down there for a long time. But why? What was happening?

Jim retired to an old wooden chair, and began tinkering with the old radio. Everything in the basement appeared old. Yumi wondered when the last time anyone had been down here was. How old exactly was Kadic, anyway? She tried to remember. Jeremie found out that Franz Hopper was a science teacher here... and that was at least twelve years ago. Twelve years before that, before Aelita was born... 1982, at least. She glanced over at the radio Jim retrieved from the utility closet. Looked much older than that. And the style of the building itself suggests many more years than twenty four... Wait! Hadn't she seen some sort of plaque somewhere? Yumi thought about it for a while. Ah! In the administrative building... An image flashed in her mind.

Académie Kadic

Anatole Badout (Architecture de Bâtiment)

Edouard Redont (Paysage)

établi 1906

So, Kadic's been around since 1906... she gasped. That means-- 100 years! The school's a century old! The power of such a realization was staggering. The radio Jim was attempting to get working may have been one of the first invented! Kadic students across the generations have been through both world wars, the fall of France, and numerous other events in history. Yumi was still trying to get around this revelation, and she hardly even noticed Ulrich calling her name.

"Yumi! Hey! Snap out of it!" He said, waving a hand in front of her face. Yumi blushed.

"Er... yes, Ulrich?"

"Jim got the radio to work. I think you should listen in," he said, suddenly looking serious after a smirk that he seemed to have been trying to suppress. Yumi looked towards the direction of the slightly fuzzy male voice coming out of the quite old radio receiver.

"--not entirely sure of the cause. There appears to be some type of large gash in the side of the vehicle. Oh, wait-- this just in. Mayor Delanoë has just announced an evacuation of the city of Paris. It is highly suggested that you do not, I repeat, do not remain in your homes, and please attempt to leave the city in an orderly fashion." At this point, Jim turned off the radio.

The gang exchanged glances. Most had their mouths hanging open. Millie stood up from her seated position next to Tamiya, and walked over to the PE teacher.

"Jim," she said, using the full extent of her childish allure, though it was clear that she was quite worried, "didn't the newscaster say that--"

"I know what he said!" Jim snapped, turning towards her. "Now you go sit back down, is that clear, young lady?"

With that, Jim grumpily stomped over to a corner and pulled out a two-way radio, presumably to contact Jean-Pierre.

Aelita approached Ulrich and Yumi.

"Jeremie's got a news feed running on his laptop... he asked me to come get you guys," she said. They squeezed through the crowd, stepping over the students that had given in to exhaustion and gone to sleep. He was sitting behind a wall that cornered off into a bathroom door. The familiar faces of Angélique and Bruce, the two newscasters for Global News Network were on the screen.

"Once again, I apologize for having to remain here in the studio, but we'll run the news reports by the minute," Bruce said. "Now, back to the situation in Paris."

"The creature, which the police refuse to refer to as anything other than an 'unidentified flying object,' was last seen heading down Avenue du General Leclerc, in Boulogne-Billancourt. Its exact destination is unknown, but it has caused panic among the community, due to Boulonge's close proximity to a fairly respectable boarding school..." Jeremie looked up at the gang. Their faces were painted with obvious distress, but quiet, unsure of what to say.

"Now I don't have a doubt in my mind-- it's got to be XANA. I don't know how, but it is."

"C-creature?" Sissi asked, becoming quite worried. "Coming... here? What for?"

Their silence was her answer.

"...Oh."

"The military has been mobilized to combat this unknown threat, but as of yet no reports have been made about the success or failure of the operation," Angélique's voice cut through the brew of contemplations and emotions, that made the air feel as thick as soup.

"What should we do? Do we tell Jim?" Odd asked.

"I don't see what the point would be... the students and staff are all underground. The only logical thing I see is to head to the factory."

"But... XANA's not in the supercomputer anymore," Ulrich said. Aelita spoke for him.

"In case a return to the past is needed, which is likely. But I'm not sure if it's such a good idea, seeing how much his power has increased..." she began to choke up, feeling responsible. Aelita hadn't felt this way for three months, ever since the gang helped her cope with knowing that Franz Hopper was her father, and a lot of the gang's troubles were, by extension, her fault. Jeremie touched her arm.

"Remember our promise," he whispered. "We're all in this together."

The mobile rang, and Sissi withdrew her stylish Razr phone that she'd gotten for her birthday.

"Hello?" she called out in a loud voice, making sure everyone heard, while simultaneously pressing the 'end call' button with her thumb. "Daddy? Is that you?"

Jim looked up from his position on the chair, having nearly fallen asleep.

"You want me to what? Oh, but daddy... Alright. I understand," she flipped the cell phone closed. The robust gym teacher stood up from his chair and walked over to her, leaving his two-way radio on the table-- unguarded.

"What was all that about?" he asked, approaching her with such an air that screamed with the expectation that he had the right to know, and he had to know now.

"That was my father."

"What did he want?"

"Well..." Sissi glanced towards Yumi and Jeremie. The boy in the turtleneck flipped a few switches on the conveniently located fuse box, and instantaneously the entire basement was as black as a moonless night out at sea. Everyone gasped of course, and amidst the confusion, Yumi made a mad dash for the table that Jim left his radio. She scooped it up, and proceeded to sprint around the perimeter of the mass of sleeping students. Jim was enraged.

"HEY! I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF STUNT YOU'RE TRYING TO PULL HERE--" he exploded, fumbling about uselessly in the dark. Ulrich and Odd headed for the stairs, Sissi and Jeremie having already made it through, and Yumi was en route. She stopped short as her teacher, now on quite a rampage, stepped in front of her. She tossed the radio to Odd, who in an Olympic-like triumph received it just as Aelita passed him Her doom seemed inevitable, until suddenly, Jim toppled to the floor.

Yumi smiled as Ulrich extended a hand to her, and they both skidded around the remaining Kadic students, who were now chattering even more excitedly than they had been in the cafeteria earlier that day. The pair flew through the door to the hallway, and slammed it behind them. Ulrich began fiddling with the doorknob.

"What are you doing? Come on, Ulrich, we don't exactly have time for this!" Yumi said, in a panicky and rushed voice, bouncing up and down on her heels. The star soccer player looked back at her.

"Trick I learned," he said, pulling something, and all at once, the inner portion containing the lock spilled out, broken, but the doorknob itself was still in the locked position. It couldn't be opened. He smirked at her, and she had to look away for a moment. He expected her to look surprised. Instead, she gave him a quick hug.

"You're amazing," she whispered. Breaking away from the embrace, she grabbed onto his hand, and they were soon off down the corridor.

"Has anyone seen Sissi?" he asked. Silently, he wondered if he should have revealed the truth to her. It seemed like she'd been nothing but a nuisance, an add-on, a dead weight-- but no, she was vital to the whole scheme to get out of the basement. The others shrugged, Odd sort of shuffled a little. Jeremie zeroed in on him.

"Odd?" he said authoritatively, raising his voice a little. The shorter boy sort of winced at the sound of his name. It appeared to be bothering his conscience to be concealing something from Jeremie, one of his best friends, who'd hardly ever done any wrong to him. After repeating his name, Odd's fortitude crumbled.

"She said she was going to her room to get something," he said, not daring to look him in the eyes. He sort of gravitated towards Ulrich, who did nothing to comfort or hide him, but didn't push him away either.

"What could she possibly need so badly that she'd nearly risk her life--" Jeremie was cut short by a loud, shrill scream that would've made a banshee pack up her bags and go home. It was obvious who it was. The gang glanced at each other for a moment, and then dashed towards the stairs, a sense of urgency phenomenally imposing upon them.

"Hey, George," he called out cheerfully, and although he hadn't turned around, it was obvious he was talking to the frightening monsters. "What do you think of this?"

One of them merely opened its mouth and growled a deep, echoing, choppy growl that might've equated to a human sneer.

"Well if you don't like it you should've said something three months ago when I named you that. I have to call you something, don't I?"

Another growl.

No matter, the man thought. They're really unintelligent programs. Don't know how they managed to standalone from the Multi-Agent System...

The screen he was looking at was completely harmless-- A systems diagnostics report of Section Two. It had to be, of course-- the monsters weren't stupid enough to not know when he was doing something he shouldn't. And yet it was all a facade. All the real work was going on mentally.

He'd discovered that he could connect to outside towers through pure thought around five to eight months ago-- he wasn't sure of the time anymore these days. Not that it mattered, though; he was never getting out of there. He had done nothing more than had the impulse to see the data archived in a Tower. Within a nanosecond, he was staring at a holoscreen with the subdirectory to the Tower's information, through a type of double-vision-- he could either focus on his work in the tower, what he was doing in his horrible prison cell, or, occasionally, both at the same time. But he realized that with this power, he could connect to the outside world. He could get help. And, most importantly, he could find Aelita. He'd thanked God for giving him the instinct to create the Keys to Lyoko-- something the man hadn't done for some time.

And now, as he played his little game with the monsters, he watched the Global News Network with growing dread. What kind of evil his creation was concocting he didn't know. All he could do was fear for his daughter. Fear for her friends. Fear for the world.

"The military isn't releasing any information as to why the operation to stop the beast has failed, and why the soldiers involved are missing..."

The creature in front of her could hardly be described as an animal, or a human. It was something out of a book of fantasy... or perhaps horror. It was almost as if... it had intended to have the shape of a man, although not as tall, but something had gone horribly wrong. No, whatever it was that growled like a beast and yet had human features, that snarled as vile saliva dripped off of the fangs protruding from its mouth, was nothing ever seen before on this Earth. And yet, as they remained at a standstill in the hall, it looked somehow divine. Its wings were its only redeeming feature. They glowed with a luminescence that seemed fitting for some type of fanciful, beautiful thing, mostly golden, but at times looking aquamarine, rouge, violet. She could've almost been hypnotized by their glow. And now, as she stood looking at it, obviously quite devious but not yet attacking, she saw something. If you removed the horrible fangs, the terrifying red eyes, it almost looked like... almost like an...

"Sissi!" a voice rang through her ears, shattering the silence that had held her for what felt like an eternity. She turned to see Jeremie running towards her from the top of the staircase.

"No! Don't come any--" she tried to warn. Too late. It may have only been half of a second before he saw what was at the other end of the hall before it vaulted forward, hissing horribly, with such a force that it shook the walls. Sissi watched in horror as Jeremie stopped in his tracks, the beast impacted with his body, making an excruciating crunching sound, and sank to the ground. Jeremie lay in a terror so undefinable that her fear had seemed like a child being nervous around a spider, as the winged creature was poised over him. Another beat of a moment passed, and suddenly a white spray came from the left, covering them both. The monster hissed towards the direction, though obviously weakened, and soon after a red fire extinguisher was hurled at it. It scrambled off of Jeremie, and then took flight-- going so fast that it looked like it disappeared into thin air. Sissi immediately ran towards Jeremie, setting the dog on the floor, and began analyzing his condition, looking for any broken bones, wounds that she could tend to. She hardly noticed that she was already surrounded by the others.

"Jeremie!" Aelita shouted, with such pain in her voice, as she threw her body over his, clutching tightly. He wasn't completely unconscious, but he didn't seem to be registering anything that was happening. His eyes were wide open, and his breathing was highly irregular, convulsing occasionally. The others instantly looked to Sissi, searching her face for any explanation.

"What... what was that thing?" Yumi asked, her voice trailing off at the end when she realized the weakness of her question.

"I... I don't... know. It was just... standing there at the end of the hall, staring menacingly with those wicked red eyes..." Sissi said. She stopped thinking about it, realizing that she might go into shock as well. Ulrich was trying to separate Aelita from Jeremie, explaining that if he had any broken bones that she couldn't be helping him. A cry of delight was heard from the other direction.

"Kiwi!" Odd shouted, squeezing the dog tightly, almost crying. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

In a moment, Yumi realized what happened.

"You came up here to get Kiwi?" she asked, looking at Sissi with near-disbelief. She nodded. "Why?"

"Well... I figured... if anything happened to the school, then nobody would be around to save him... I know how important he is to Odd, since he went through so much trouble to hide him from Jim and Daddy, and..."

Odd was next to her, smiling. Ulrich looked their way, watching.

"Thanks, Sissi. I didn't know you cared," he said, and gave her a hug. Sissi shook her head.

"No," she said, her voice wavering. "If it wasn't for me, this wouldn't have happened."

She looked down at Jeremie. Aelita sat on her heels next to him, tears streaming down her face. Sissi knelt closer, to examine him. She looked at each of his limbs closely, to see if they were in a wrong position. They all seemed to be fine, though his shirt was slightly ripped. And there was still the matter of his shock.

"I think, physically, he's fine. I don't see any fractures. I'm just worried about his ribcage. The attack must've sent him into shock, so he might not be able to respond to--" she stopped, feeling the others' eyes on her. It made her feel awkward. "What?"

"You sound just like... Yolanda," Ulrich remarked. No one else knew, but he'd already seen Sissi's knack for nursing. A while back, she'd tended to his arm after it was broken in the freight elevator in the factory. He still wasn't quite sure what to think of Sissi. She'd risked her life to get Kiwi? Odd was really grateful. It just seemed so out of character for her. Maybe he just didn't really know her before. ...And Odd was grateful. To her. No, that's not jealousy, he told the little voice in the back of his mind. He saw what Jeremie must've seen earlier that day, or yesterday, he wasn't quite sure what time it was-- she definitely was a good addition to the team.

After Sissi confirmed her pseudo-diagnosis, the gang stood awkwardly, entirely unsure of what to do. A frightening, immensely powerful creature was on the loose, likely to return at any time. And their leader was down. How would they survive? They already knew. They would trust in each other, like they always did, and band together to bring down this foe. But still, none of them was sure what the next step would be.