104: Fragments

Memories.

Lost for nearly twelve years, she had finally regained her memories after her father managed to give them back to her and save her. But although she treasured her memories more than anything else in the world, her memories were haunting her.

On the second level of the Kadic Academy dorms, a girl was sobbing. Her soft cries wove their way to the four corners of the room, and muffled sounds could be heard from outside in the hallway.

Bright early-morning light shone through the paned window into the dormitory room. Aelita sighed, staring into nowhere as she wiped the tears with the back of her hand. Mister Pück lay on her left, wrapped in the mess of blankets and forgotten.

Something started to ring. Aelita got out of bed and picked up her cell phone from the nearby table. “Hello?” she said. Although she had been up for a while now, her voice was still sleepy.

“Aelita?” said a voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get you up.”

“Hi, Jeremie.” Aelita got out a new set of clothes to change into from her pajamas. “No, it’s okay. I was getting up anyway.”

“I was wondering…do you think you could come over to my room right now?” Jeremie shifted on his chair, the computer monitor in front of him lighted with open windows. “I was continuing the search for your mother last night, since I took a break from finding the Replikas’ key to materialization and rescuing William.”

There was a pause. “Sure,” came Aelita’s muffled voice. “I’ll be there.” She hung up. Jeremie went back to loading the rest of the data.

Aelita started to dress in silence. As she put on her dark purple overcoat, she thought of her latest nightmare. Aelita suspected that all of these dreams were due to the fact that her memory was still piecing itself back together, but she wished the pain of loosing both her parents didn’t have to haunt her sleep.

“I just wish they would end,” Aelita choked, whispering to herself. “It was bad enough that I had to loose them, and now I’m just being reminded that I’m an…” She stopped and wiped the rest of the tears from her face. Aelita glanced in a nearby mirror, trying to compose herself so that she didn’t look like she had just witnessed a death.

“Come in,” Jeremie called as someone knocked on the door. Aelita walked into the room and pushed the door shut behind her.

“So, did you find anything new?” Aelita asked as she pulled up a chair. “I mean, you know…besides that record of escaped prisoners.”

“That’s exactly what was bugging me,” Jeremie replied, opening the window to show Aelita. “I had a suspicion, and I did a little hacking. That site was forged.”

There was silence. Aelita breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks for checking that out, Jeremie,” she said. She forced a reluctant smile to display itself on her face. “Now I don’t have any reason to believe that my mother was a criminal.”

“If anything, I doubt she would have reasons for any bad actions without a good reason,” Jeremie guessed. “But anyway, I was wondering: can you remember anything else? A word, or a phrase, or something that may lead us to find your mother?”

Aelita’s smile disappeared. “No, I can’t,” she said, her expression sad. She started to say something, but changed her mind. It was her problem to deal with the nightmares haunting her, not anyone else’s.

“Okay,” Jeremie said, not noticing Aelita’s unspoken words. “Well, I stayed up all of last night going through your father’s diary. There aren’t any leads that we have to go off of from that, except the mysterious and infamous ‘Project Carthage’, which I still can’t find anything on.”

Jeremie noticed that Aelita was quiet, and apparently hadn’t taken any of his words in. He also now noticed that there were bags under her eyes. “Aelita?” he said, placing his hand on hers. “Are you okay?”

Aelita glanced up. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, trying not to show her hurt emotions on the outside. After considering it, Aelita finally decided that it was best that at least one person knew of her struggles. “Well…not really. I’ve been having more…nightmares lately.”

“What?” Jeremie said, his eyes widening. “I thought those would have cleared away, especially now that your father is…” He stopped and cut himself off, cursing under his breath at his idiocy.

“They haven’t,” Aelita replied quietly. “I think it’s because my memory is still piecing itself back together. I can remember a lot more about my past life. But I still can’t remember anything about…” She trailed off, too frustrated and sad to continue.

“Your mother?” finished Jeremie.

Aelita glanced at him, and then nodded.

“It’s okay,” Jeremie said, reaching out and giving her a hug. “It’s not your fault that, you know…”

“I can barely remember anything about her as it is,” Aelita said, sealing her eyes shut. A tear splashed onto Jeremie’s shoulder. “I don’t even know why she disappeared that one day; I only remember that she disappeared, and I can’t even recall the last memory I have of her. It’s just…” Aelita was sobbing now, and speech became impossible as the tears overtook her.

Jeremie hugged Aelita tighter. “Well, the best we can do for now is to try and locate her,” Jeremie told her. “And the best way to do that is to conjure up the memories that you do have of her. I was thinking…we could try looking around the Hermitage for clues.”

Aelita’s eyes flashed. “Well…if you think it will help,” she said, trying to mask the reluctance in her voice.

Jeremie smiled. “Okay. I’ll call the others, and we can head down right now.”

---

Jeremie and Aelita sat on the steps of the Hermitage. Aelita wiped her finger across one of the grimy stairs, trying to focus her mind on something else.

The sound of footsteps padding across grass sounded. Jeremie and Aelita slowly stood up as Odd, Ulrich and Yumi ran into view.

“Sorry,” panted Ulrich, putting his hands on his knees. “We only just got your message.”

“Now that we’re all here, we might as well go,” Aelita said swiftly. Ulrich and Yumi exchanged glances; Aelita seemed more tense than usual.

Aelita lead the way up the wide stairs and onto the front porch. She glanced at the door in front of her, its round glass window shattered. Dropping an almost inaudible sigh, she pushed open the door.

The Hermitage was exactly as all of them remembered it. They all remembered their last visit, although Odd’s had only been a few days ago.

“Wow,” Odd said, as the five of them filed into the home. “It’s like no one was ever here, not even the Xanafied people and me a few days ago.”

“What exactly are we looking for?” Yumi said, crossing her arms.

Jeremie glanced at Aelita, who shrugged. “We’re looking for information on Aelita’s mother,” Jeremie said, answering for Aelita. “Franz Hopper’s diary left us almost no information to his personal life aside from the supercomputer, so we have to try to find anything that may lead us to Antea Hopper’s current whereabouts.”

“This place is still really big,” Ulrich said, looking around. “We might as well split up.”

Jeremie nodded in agreement, and he immediately walked off down the hall. Odd and Yumi, after glancing around, headed toward the family room.

As Ulrich headed after Jeremie, he stopped and looked back at Aelita, frowning. She was frozen, seemingly lost in thought.

“Aelita?” Ulrich said to her, walking over. “Are you okay?”

Ulrich’s voice interrupted her chain of memories. Aelita glanced up, realizing that she was still back in the present. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, rubbing her head. “I’m going to go up to the bedrooms.” She walked off toward the staircase heading up.

Ulrich, after casting an apprehensive glance after her, went to the study.

Odd and Yumi walked into the old, dusty room. Papers scattered the floor, and on their right were a few glass doors, the glass shattered like the front door’s window. In front of them were two windows on either side of a fireplace black with old soot, and a mirror sat upon the mantle.

 “This was where we came after Xana destroyed Lyoko,” Yumi remembered. “We found that Franz Hopper hadn’t really died. And so much more…”

“Let’s get to work,” Odd said. He and Yumi started to pick up papers from the ground. The ones they deemed useless were thrown in a pile, while the more important papers were put in another pile.

Ulrich walked past Odd and Yumi sifting through the papers. He carefully opened a bent, damaged door and past an extremely old easel. “Find anything?” he asked.

Jeremie turned back from the shelves of books, an old, battered-up, brown book in his hands. “Remember this?” he said, holding it up for Ulrich to see.

On the cover, etched in gold, was the picture of a man sitting upon a raging elephant. Two other men held spears at the elephant as it reared up on its hind legs. Mountains could be seen in the background. “The Punic Wars book,” Ulrich noted.

Jeremie nodded. “The book that led us to discover Sector 5,” he sighed. “Aelita’s not the only one who has memories here now; we do as well.”

“Does it happen to have any notes about…you know?” Ulrich asked.

Jeremie groaned with annoyance. “No, not even a single computer code scrawled in a corner,” he sighed. “The only notes are the passwords to Sector 5, and now that we’re able to access it, they’re worthless.”

“There’s got to be something here…” Ulrich walked closer to the bookshelf and started taking out books at random and glancing through them. Jeremie put the Punic Wars book back on the shelf and did the same thing as Ulrich.

The fifth member of their group wasn’t bothering to search for anything; her memories occupied her mind enough. Aelita sighed as she entered her old bedroom. On her right was her old large cupboard, one of its doors bent and the other one completely fallen off. Her desk stood next to it, the old lamp still in its position, although its light bulb had broken and shattered. Her bed was in the corner; it was extremely dusty from the years no one had spent sleeping on it. On the wall in front of her was her mirror, and she was almost unable to see her reflection in it.

The crack in the wall was still there, the one in which Mister Pück had sat, smiling his happy little smile, for so many years until Aelita had found him again. Aelita wished she had brought him to see his old home again.

The window. The window she had looked out of twelve years ago, the window through which it all began. Aelita almost thought she could hear voices of the screech of car tires, the voices of the Men in Black, shouting at her and her father to get out of the house and go into the yard.

The voice of her father, asking her if she remembered where Mister Pück was, and then taking her hand and guiding her down the staircase. The glint that the light had cast across his dark green glasses as they ran down into the basement, into the backyard and through the secret passage to the sewer and to the Factory, where it had all come to an end.

“But…where are we?”

“In my laboratory. Come on.”

“Where?”

“To a world where we will be safe. You and I, forever.”

“See you in a minute, my dear.”

“See you in a minute, daddy.”

The image of her father in a separate scanner fading as Aelita’s scanner door closed shut.

Lading on the green pathway; her first image of Lyoko: the Forest Sector. Seeing her father in the form of energy orbs, telling her that he could not materialize in human form as she could.

The clanks of metal joints. Strange cockroach-like creatures appearing before her, a black eye-like symbol upon every one of them. They fired at her as she ran away into the tower.

A voice calling to her out of the inside of the tower, the blue light casting the tower dark.

“Aelita.”

“Daddy!”

“Aelita, I have to make contact with Xana. Persuade him that we can live in peace with him.”

“Who is Xana?”

“A multi-agent computer program I created. It’s achieved self-awareness and autonomy, and it’s trying to eliminate us now.”

“But why, Daddy?”

The energy orbs that were her father disappeared around Aelita.

“Daddy?”

“Whatever you do, don’t leave this tower!”

“Daddy!” Aelita cried, desperate and alone once more.

Running out of the tower to find her father being attacked by hornet-like creatures.

“Daddy!”

“No Aelita, get back to safety! In the tower!”

Falling to the ground in agony, not being able to help her father.

“You possess the Keys to Lyoko, Aelita. Xana must never get his hands on them. Do you understand?”

The Hornets increased their firing, and shots flew around her.

“It’s over, Aelita. Xana is too powerful. He’s become a threat to all mankind I’ve got to shut down the supercomputer.”

Aelita walked back into the tower. “But does that mean we’ll die?” she asked, scared of the answer. She had almost been captured by the Men in Black, and now she was about to be lost forever!

“No! But you mustn’t forget me! Ever! Never forget, Aelita!”

“Daddy…”

And this was the last time she had heard her father’s voice.

Her father had told her never to forget, but she had forgotten. And all because of Xana. After he stole her memories from her, right before she was materialized, it had taken her years before Franz had been able to give them back to her. And by then, it was too late. One thing led to another, and her life had gone faster than she had anticipated. And the last time she had seen her father in flesh and bone was in her memories.

“Aelita?”

Someone was calling out to her through the darkness, the person’s voice worried with shock.

“Aelita, wake up!”

Could she recognize the certain texture of the voice? Was it…her mother?

“Aelita!”

Aelita shook her head to stop the memories running through her head like a movie. She slowly sat up to find Jeremie and the others around her, looking at her with eyes of worry.

“Are you okay, Aelita?” Jeremie asked, relieved that she was conscious once more. “We finished searching the rest of the house, and we came up to the second floor and found you like this!”

Only a few minutes had past, and although the memories that had just ran through her mind totaled not even a day, she felt like she was years older. I’ve grown so much, but my past life still haunts me, Aelita thought quietly to herself.

“I must have…drifted off,” Aelita said, trying to adjust to being in the present once more. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Ulrich asked, his expression apprehensive. “We can go back to Kadic if you want.”

“No,” Aelita replied, telling it to herself as well as to the others. She slowly got onto her feet. “We’re here, and we might as well finish the search.”

“There’s only one room left,” Yumi said. “It’s the one down the hall from here.”

“My parents’ room,” Aelita told them. The others exchanged glances as they walked out into the hallway. Jeremie walked forward and pushed open the door.

They were greeted with the sight of a room that seemed like it had not aged in the least. A king-sized bed faced the wall on their right, almost no dust covering its white sheets. A small, brown nightstand sat on its right, holding a lamp. On the wall that included the door was a dresser, and on the left was a large closet.

Odd walked over and pulled a finger across the top of the dresser, inspecting the amount of dust. It was less than a pinch.

“It’s strange,” Ulrich said, frowning. “It’s almost like time hasn’t even touched this room.”

Something reflecting the glare from the window caught Aelita’s eye. She walked over to the top of the dresser and discovered a ring. A pink diamond the size of a fingernail sparkled on its band of gold. She couldn’t quite place it, but there was something familiar about the ring.

Odd stepped forward and opened the top drawer of the dresser, and the others searched through its contents. Old, dark clothes and towels…nothing remotely of interest.

Amidst the dark clothes, something caught Yumi’s eye. Something pink poked its way out of the sea of clothes at the back of the drawer, and she extended an arm. She frowned as she pulled a pink sheet of paper out of the drawer. “What’s this?”

The others looked at the paper. Symbols were written across the paper in purple ink, although they formed no words Yumi could recognize.

“That handwriting…” Aelita’s brow furrowed. “It’s too neat to be my father’s. My father’s handwriting was almost illegible.”

“Must be something to do with braniacs,” Ulrich said, rolling his eyes at Jeremie. “Apparently it’s a habit between them.”

“If it’s not your father’s, then do you have any idea whose it is?” Yumi asked, glancing over at Aelita. “Notes written by random people don’t just mysteriously turn up at the back of drawers.”

“Unless it’s some sort of code hunt,” Odd said. “Oh, I love those! Except I can never solve them.”

Aelita’s eyes widened. “I think it’s my mother’s… I remember now. Her handwriting was the neatest in the family. It was she who wrote the card that came with Mister Pück, and she read it to me,” Aelita added quietly to herself.

Jeremie stepped forward, and Yumi handed the paper to him. Scanning his eyes across the sheet, he gasped. “I think… No, it can’t be.”

“What?” Ulrich asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I think it’s a code,” Jeremie said, wiping his brow with his sleeve, which had started to sweat at the realization. “A code that can be entered into the supercomputer.”

There was silence.

“Well, there’s what we’ve been looking for!” Odd said happily. “I mean, it’s got to be something, right? Not just a paper of scribbles and doodles that someone decided to leave in the dresser?”

“Unless someone wanted to leave us a false lead,” Jeremie said. “I doubt it. I’ll head over to the Factory later to check it out, but for now, we have class.”

“Let’s go,” Aelita said, motioning to the others. “Science class is about to start.”

“And we missed breakfast!” Odd complained crossly. As if in agreement, his stomach rumbled loudly.

Ulrich sighed. “We might as well make a quick stop at the cafeteria,” Ulrich said. “We don’t want your stomach to be answering Mrs. Hertz’s questions for you.”

As they walked out of the room, Aelita tried to hide her anticipation. Any possibility that her mother could still be found made the blood thunder through her body, and she didn’t want to crazily let it show.

---

“Daddy, no!”

The Flying Manta ignored Aelita and continued firing at Franz Hopper.

“Energy Field!”

The Manta dodged the pink sphere, and a second Manta joined the first. The Mantas continued their fire.

“What is he trying to do?” Jeremie asked uncertainly.

Jeremie glanced at the window, and his eyes widened as he saw the energy bar increasing.

“The power… Aelita, trying running the program right now!”

“What? But…my father!”

“Your father is supplying the energy that we need. Try to run the program again, now!”

“No…”

The Mantas continued their firing. Franz Hopper was getting weaker by the very second.

“No!”

Another Energy Field flew at the Mantas. It missed.

“Aelita, if you don’t launch the program now, then your father will have sacrificed himself for nothing!” Jeremie said desperately. “Do it. Do it!”

Aelita reluctantly opened the program once more on the interface. She glanced back up, and her eyes widened in shock.

A final shot hit the large blue sphere lined in pink, and the form fizzed. Franz Hopper exploded. He was gone…forever.

“NO!” Aelita cried desperately, but there was no one to hear her cry of agony.

In one step, Aelita moved forward and pressed her hand to the interface. The interface blinked and disappeared.

“Come on…” Jeremie said, gripping the sides of his chair.

Far in the reaches of the Core Zone, directly below the Arena, white agents glittered out of the Core of Lyoko. They carried their light with them as they flew out of the chamber and into the Celestial Dome.

As the army of agents swarmed in her direction, Aelita shielded herself, but there was no danger to shield herself from. The agents ignored her and went straight for the Mantas, which exploded at their touch. She looked down as the agents disappeared out of sight.

It didn't matter anymore. Any of it. Xana was destroyed, but the person she most wanted to see was now gone.

Tears came to her. Aelita wasn’t sure if it was possible to cry in the virtual world, but she could feel water rolling down her cheeks. She drowned in a wave of sorrow at the thought that she would never see her father again. And she let the sorrow take over her, for as far as she knew, she was now an orphan.

“Aelita, you okay?”

Aelita shook herself out of her daydream and back into the lunchroom. Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were looking at her, concerned expressions upon their faces.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Aelita said, starting to shovel food into her mouth again, not meeting the others’ still questioning gazes. “I just had a…daydream of sorts,” she finished lamely.

A phone started to ring. Aelita, relieved at the opportunity to forestall the questions about her visions, took her bright pink phone out of her pocket. “Hello, Jeremie?”

“Aelita?” Jeremie’s voice was excited. “You four have to come over to the Factory right away.”

“Why?” questioned Aelita.

“Just come over; I’ll explain when you get here. It’s really important.” He hung up.

Aelita frowned and stowed her mobile back in her pocket. She turned to the others, who glanced up at her wearing expressions conveying their interest. “We’re needed at the Factory,” Aelita told them. “Jeremie says it’s urgent business.”

“Just when I was about to finish second helpings!” Odd complained; Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita stood up and picked up their trays. Odd, gobbling down the rest of his burger in one bite, reluctantly followed.

---

Ten minutes later, the four Lyoko Warriors arrived at the Factory almost a mile away.

“So, what’s this big news of yours, Jeremie?” Odd asked, a slight whining edge to his voice. “I had to rush through seconds because of this! It had better be important.”

“Yeah, because what else can be more important than second helpings?” Ulrich said sarcastically. Odd threw him a dirty glance, and Ulrich sighed.

“It is important,” Jeremie said, turning his chair to face them. “I just finished analyzing the code, and my suspicions were correct. The code was made to unlock information in an encrypted part of the supercomputer.”

“So what’s this information?” Ulrich said. “Surely something important?”

“Well…that’s the problem.” Jeremie scratched his nail. “I don’t know what it unlocks. Because of its age and all the updates since it was created, some of the code was lost. To make the code functional again, we have to find that lost part and enter it with the rest of it.”

“Kind of like a missing puzzle piece?” Yumi asked. Jeremie nodded.

“But how are we supposed to find the missing piece?” Ulrich inquired. “If you haven’t been able to find it yet, why did you call us to the Factory just to tell us this in person?”

“Actually, I have found it,” Jeremie replied smoothly. “I’ve located it in the Desert Sector Replika.”

“But…why would it be there?” Odd said, confused. “Unless Xana’s just messing with us now.”

“There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this,” Jeremie explained. “It’s rather simple. When Lyoko was destroyed, random bits of data were lost from the supercomputer and spread out over the Network. It’s possible that when Xana recreated his Replikas, he accidentally took some data into one of his supercomputers.”

“Are you sure it’s not a trap?” Yumi said, raising an eyebrow. “Xana’s been known to do stuff like this before.”

“Ninety-nine percent,” Jeremie replied. “The other percent still leaves room for my doubt.”

“Well, we might as well go right now,” Ulrich said, leading the way to the elevator and pushing the button. “We don’t want Odd’s grumbling stomach to change his mind on us and make Odd go back to the cafeteria.”

“You’d be surprised, but it actually has done that,” Odd agreed. The others gave him looks of disbelief as the elevator door closed.

---

The Skidbladnir rocketed out of Lyoko’s entrance gate and into the Network. “Retro brakes!” Aelita called, slamming her hand down on the red button. The Skidbladnir slowed to a halt.

The Internet shone a calm, pale blue as Aelita piloted the Skidbladnir towards the interconnected databases. “Jeremie, I’ve received the coordinates of the Replika. I’m charting a course for our destination.”

“Good,” Jeremie replied, scanning the area. “No monsters in sight yet.”

“Xana must be taking a day off,” Odd commented. “Like we should have so that I could finish my lunch!”

“Are you ever satisfied with only one serving?” Yumi asked the grumbling Odd. “Most people are, you know.”

“Consider me the exception to the generalization,” Odd replied.

Suddenly, the light reflecting off of the Skidbladnir turned to a deep red. As if in response, a few red dots appeared on the sonar sphere next to Aelita.

“We’ve got company,” Aelita sighed. “Jeremie, did you manage to complete the update to improve the NavSkids’ autonomy?”

“With more important stuff like finding the key to materialization from the Replikas and freeing William, I haven’t had a lot of spare time for much else,” Jeremie said. “But I think I was able to do it a bit of justice.”

“We might as well test it out now,” Aelita said, as three creatures appeared in the distance and started swimming in their direction. She pulled three of the four small levers on her left. “NavSkids, away!”

The three NavSkids broke away from the Skidbladnir. “This’ll be a good time to test my latest moves from Galactic Invaders IV!” Odd called happily as he, Ulrich and Yumi piloted their NavSkids toward the oncoming monsters.
 
As the monsters moved into the light, the Lyoko Warriors recognized their forms. Two Kongers and a Shark swam toward them. They opened their jaws, exposing their rows of teeth.

“You don’t scare me,” Ulrich teased them. “I’ve seen worms with more teeth than you!”

As the three of them got closer toward the monsters, they split up. Odd and Yumi went left, while Ulrich veered a hard right. The Kongers growled and followed Odd and Yumi without hesitation, while the Shark turned and followed the lone NavSkid off in its direction.

The Shark wandered through the Network in the direction that it had seen Ulrich take off in. It heard a noise from its left, but just as it turned, a NavSkid rammed it and sent it spinning.

“Here I am, fishfreak!” Ulrich called as he whooshed away. “Catch me if you can!”

As the Shark recovered and followed him in a cloud of bubbles, snarling at him, Ulrich noticed something on his sonar. “Hey Odd, care to give our unwelcome guests the ol’ one-two?”

“I don’t see why not,” Odd replied.

Ulrich spun, dodging the Shark’s torpedoes. “Ready?” he called, checking to see that Odd was in position. “Here we go!”

Ulrich suddenly turned. As the Shark rounded a bend, it frantically tried to change directions as it saw what was coming at him. But it was too late. The Shark flew backward and exploded, hit by a torpedo.

“One!” Odd called. He and Ulrich zoomed past each other, circling as they flew by. Ulrich fired a torpedo at the Konger that was stalking Odd, and it hit its target. “Two!” called Ulrich in response.

“You guys really should think of a new name for that one,” Yumi commented as her Konger exploded.

“Why? The name seems to suit it,” Odd said, grinning.

“Okay, enough chit-chat,” Aelita called over as the Skidbladnir drew up to the three of them. “We have a mission, remember?”

The Skidbladnir flew out of the Digital Sea and up into the yellow sky. “We’re here,” Aelita called as the Skidbladnir drew to ground level and floated over a large plateau.

“All you have to do is get to a tower and access the sector’s database,” Jeremie’s voice instructed. “The closest tower isn’t too far away from where you are now. It’s in the canyon on the far side of your plateau.”

“We see it,” Yumi said. In the distance, the plateau faded into the horizon. It seemed to end in a thick yellow line, which was apparently the canyon.

“Disembark!” Aelita called out. The four of them disappeared, reappearing in front of the Skidbladnir on the plateau.

“Odd, do you want to come with me?” Aelita asked.

“Sure,” Odd replied. “It’ll give me something to think about besides my empty stomach,” he called, directing his last words at the sky.

“Here’s your taxi,” replied the voice from the sky. “It shouldn’t take you guys too long to get to the tower, and we should be finished with just a little time left of lunch period. Then you can have another go at the food, Odd. Oh, and don’t forget: since I haven’t yet found the key to rematerialization from the Replikas, if you get devirtualized it’s game over for good.”

“I guess another snippet is all I’ll be getting,” sighed Odd. Aelita jumped onto the Overboard behind him, and they zoomed off into the distance.

---

After riding for a few minutes, Odd and Aelita were already bored. “It seems like that tower will never come,” Odd whined.

The radar window on Jeremie’s screen beeped, almost as if in reply. Five red dots appeared. “Well, you’ve got company,” Jeremie replied. “Maybe they’ll manage to entertain you.”

Aelita heard the sound of flapping wings, and she turned to see five Hornets flying toward them at full speed. “Odd, it looks like we’re about to get a flying lesson,” Aelita told him, tapping him on the shoulder and pointing.

“By who? Those flying inspectors?” Odd said. “If they have the nerve to ask for a flying license, then I’m going to have to shoot them down!”

“Might as well start shooting,” Aelita replied as laser shots flew toward them. The Overboard swerved to dodge the shots, and Aelita threw an Energy Field back at the approaching monsters. A Hornet caught it in the eye. Aelita and Odd fired their attacks at the Hornets and scored one apiece.

“Jeremie!” Aelita called, irritated as one of the remaining Hornets dive-bombed them, and they spun, barely avoiding it. “Is there anything you can do to help us?”

“Uh…” Jeremie glanced at the radar window again. “There are some rocks up ahead. Try to maneuver through them to loose your guests!”

“Wouldn’t that be bad host etiquette?” Odd questioned as they saw the long, dark, thin rocks ahead of them in a formation.

“Well, these guys are obviously not appreciating our hospitality,” Aelita replied, as the two Hornets fired more shots at them. “So I don’t see any problem with repaying them the favor.”

The rocks rushed at them fast. Odd wove through the spaces between them, almost hitting one of the rocks. The Hornets attempted to follow, but one became so tired at weaving through the rocks that it flew head-on into a rock. The last Hornet followed the duo as they reached the halfway point of the rock field.

“Darn, that Hornet is fast,” Odd called as he noticed the last monster following them at a steady pace. “Might as well teach him a lesson on hospitality!”

As the Hornet wound around a rock, Odd aimed and fired. The Hornet caught the Laser Arrow and exploded.

“Looks like it’s smooth sailing from here!” Odd called.

Two more red dots appeared on the radar window. “Uh…not quite,” Jeremie replied. “Be careful!” he warned.

As Odd and Aelita flew around the last rocks, they heard the unmistakable sounds of laser shots being fired from in front of them. Too late to change directions, Odd flew the Overboard straight out of the rocks, and straight into the fire of two Megatanks.

“Ahh!” Odd screeched as the two thin walls of laser flew at them. He sped forward, and Aelita had to lean forward to avoid getting hit.

“That’s not fair!” complained Odd and turned around to face the two Megatanks behind them. They closed shut and rolled after the Overboard. “I don’t take you guys by surprise like that, so don’t do that to me ever again!”

“Odd,” warned Aelita, tapping him on the shoulder. Odd turned forward again and swerved to the right, barely making it into the canyon.

“I have an idea,” Aelita said to Odd. She closed her eyes and turned back to face the oncoming Megatanks, and extended an arm.

As the Megatanks closed in on the entrance, a triangular-shaped rock, long and dark, appeared over the entrance. The Megatanks desperately tried to pick up speed, but the rock caught them just as they entered the canyon. There was a large explosion from behind them, and Aelita turned back around, opening her eyes.

“Nice one,” congratulated Odd. Aelita smiled, and they continued into the canyon.

A very long distance behind them, Ulrich and Yumi felt the ground shake. They quickly stood up as the ground shook again. “Jeremie?” Yumi called to the sky. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Jeremie said, frowning, not seeing anything on the radar window. “But I doubt that Xana’s just making earthquakes just for the fun of it.”

Suddenly, another window opened, indicating the Network’s virtual worlds. Jeremie’s eyes widened. “Uh oh…” he said. “Xana’s consolidating energy from his supercomputers, and you guys know what that means!”

“I wish we didn’t,” Yumi sighed. “Where’s our big, fat volcano friend?”

Not far away was a large rock formation. And something now lumbered out from behind it, shaking the plateau and creating massive cracks each time it took a single step.

“Jeremie?” Ulrich called as the Kolossus started slowly toward them. “Vehicles would be nice right now!”

“They’re on the way,” Jeremie replied. A second later, the Overbike and the Overwing appeared in front of Ulrich and Yumi.

“Remember to be careful,” Jeremie warned as Ulrich and Yumi hopped onto their vehicles and started toward the Kolossus. “I still can’t materialize you guys from the Replikas, so being devirtualized isn’t the best thing to do!”

“We hear you, Einstein,” Ulrich said as the Kolossus uttered a loud groan. A fireball charged in its only hand, and it swung its large body and threw it at them. Ulrich and Yumi swerved out of the way of the oncoming inferno, and it exploded as it hit the plateau, creating a massive explosion. Sand spewed up around them as the Kolossus continued toward them.

“Jeremie, we’re here,” called Odd as the narrow pathway opened up into a circular clearing in the middle of the canyon. In front of them, the tower shone a bright blue.

“You guys had better hurry up,” Jeremie said. “The Kolossus just appeared, and the Skidbladnir seems to be on his menu!”

Odd pulled the Overboard to a stop. “Milady, your tower awaits,” Odd said to Aelita, gesturing and bowing. Aelita smiled, and jumped off the Overboard, running into the tower.

“You there, Aelita?” asked Jeremie.

“I’m here,” replied Aelita as she landed gracefully on the second platform. She stepped to the middle, onto the circle, and the interface appeared. “I’m accessing the interface,” she said as she pressed her hand to the transparent window in front of her.

“Try to access the sector’s database,” Jeremie instructed to Aelita. “The code should be there.”

Aelita nodded, and opened a window on the interface. Data began to pour into the window, but as Aelita scanned an eye across the information, she couldn’t see anything out of place. “Jeremie…are you sure you located the code here? I can’t find anything that shouldn’t be here.”

Jeremie frowned. “I’m…pretty sure. Can you check again?”

For another minute, Aelita searched the database, but was unable to locate the code. “I still can’t find anything,” she called, a slightly frustrated tone exiting her lips. “Are you sure it was here?”

Jeremie brought a window back to the front of the screen. Peering at it, he sighed in exasperation. “It should be there, unless…” Jeremie groaned. “I can’t locate it anymore!”

Aelita’s eyes widened. “Then that must mean that this whole thing was a setup. A decoy.” She closed the interface and jumped off of the platform, slowly landing on the large platform below. “I’m heading back right now.”

Aelita ran out of the tower and groaned, seeing what awaited her. Odd was blocking and dodging shots from three Flying Mantas. They flew around the clearing, trying to devirtualize them.

Odd turned and saw Aelita. “Were you able to find anything, Princess?” he asked, as he shielded himself from another shot.

Aelita shook her head in frustration. “Odd, we have to get back to the Skidbladnir right now,” she told him quickly. “It was all a setup!”

“What?” Odd exclaimed. Then he looked at the sky, his eyebrows meeting in a frown. “You mean I wasted the last of my seconds for nothing?”

“Odd, you can worry about your food another time,” Jeremie retorted. “The Kolossus is about to destroy the Skidbladnir, and you guys have to get back before you get devirtualized!”

“Can you rematerialize the Overboard, then?” Odd called, jumping out of the way as three shots hit where he had been standing a split second ago. “Our flying friends don’t seem like they want to let us leave!”

“Give me twenty seconds,” Jeremie replied. He started to type, trying to reload the vehicle materialization program as quickly as he could.

Suddenly, as Aelita flung an Energy Field at one of the Mantas, she heard a sharp hiss from behind her. She froze as she recognized the sound. “Oh no!” she gasped, turning around as the unpleasant arrival slunk out from behind the tower.

Casting its tentacles toward her was a monster floating in midair. It slowly bobbed up and down as it approached her. The eye of Xana was marked along its thin head, and its brain, if that was what it was called, was even larger, transparent and blue. Its eight tentacles swayed around its purple-and-pink body. The monster she feared the most, even more than the Kolossus, slowly started toward her.

“The Scyphozoa!” cried Jeremie in shock. “Oh no! Aelita, whatever you do, don’t let it possess you! If you get Xanafied, we won’t be able to devirtualize you!"

Aelita started to back away as the ugly jellyfish came closer to her. As it extended its two front tentacles toward her, Aelita threw a pink sphere of energy at it. The Scyphozoa dodged the attack, and it continued toward her.

Aelita screamed as it took hold of her, but her shriek was cut short as the Scyphozoa raised three tentacles around her head and began to Xanafy her.

Odd looked around at the source of the sharp noise and gasped. “Aelita, no!” he shouted. Their mission couldn’t afford to end this way! He ignored the Mantas and ran toward the Scyphozoa, firing Laser Arrows as he ran. The Scyphozoa caught three arrows in the back of its brain, and it dropped Aelita.

Aelita landed on the ground with a thud, but could not move because of the temporary paralysis it inflicted. As the Scyphozoa extended its tentacles toward her again, Odd fired more arrows and ran under the monster, standing between the monster and its prey, Aelita. The Scyphozoa sounded a frustrated hiss and backed away, giving up.

Jeremie sighed in relief. “Nice going, Odd,” he called as Odd slowly helped Aelita to her feet.

“Thanks,” Odd replied. “But that certainly didn’t put the Mantas in a better mood.” The three Mantas, apparently angry at the Scyphozoa’s defeat, circled around them even faster and shot lasers at them at a faster pace. “How’s the Overboard coming?”

In response, the Overboard appeared a few meters away from them.

“Thanks, Einstein,” Odd called to the sky as he and Aelita jumped onto the Overboard and sped out of the canyon. “Nothing like a little speed on your side!”

Back near the Skidbladnir, everything wasn’t going as smoothly. Yumi and Ulrich zoomed around the Kolossus as it groaned and tried to swat at them, but neither side could gain the upper hand.

“Be careful, Ulrich!” Yumi shouted as the Kolossus tried to step on him. The Overbike swerved out of the way as the Kolossus’ foot landed a meter behind the Overbike.

Ulrich glanced up to where Yumi was flying around the Kolossus’ head, and his eyes widened in shock. “Yumi, watch out!” he shouted, only hoping that she would hear his warning in time.

Yumi looked forward and gasped. She jumped off of the Overwing as the Kolossus swung its sword-like arm at the vehicle, and the Overwing exploded as the Kolossus hit it.

Ulrich zoomed toward the falling Yumi, and she landed on the Overbike, dazed but alive. “Jeremie!” Ulrich called as the Kolossus continued toward them and the Skidbladnir; it was only twenty meters away from destroying the Skidbladnir and their only hope of survival. “We have to change tactics! The Kolossus will destroy us and then the Skidbladnir in another heartbeat!”

“So pessimistic today, aren’t we, Ulrich?” called a voice. Ulrich and Yumi turned, and they were relieved to see Odd and Aelita heading toward them at top speed on the Overbike.

“What took you guys so long?” Yumi called, almost laughing in relief.

“Xana’s air force took up a little of our time,” Odd replied as he and Aelita skidded to a stop. “And it didn’t help that an unpleasant sea animal decided to reappear!”

“You guys can talk later,” the voice in the sky said, as the four Lyoko Warriors glanced back up to see the Kolossus coming closer to them and the Skidbladnir; it would soon be within arm’s reach. “Teleport!”

As the four Lyoko Warriors reappeared in the Skidbladnir, Aelita took hold of the joysticks. “Let’s get out of this dump,” she called, and the Skidbladnir dove into the Digital Sea as the Kolossus uttered one final cry of infuriation.

---

“Aelita? Hey, what’s the matter? Is anything wrong?” Jeremie looked at Aelita, his face just tainted with the slightest bit of concern. He didn’t realize that what was going through her head was far more important than any of his own needs.

“No. I…I was daydreaming, I guess.” Aelita refocused her vision as Odd arrived and said something about that Yolanda had found him a cure for his foot odor, but she wasn’t really listening. A single question pulsed in her mind, but she was afraid of the answer.

“Jeremie do you…do you think my father’s still alive?”

“Huh?” Jeremie, caught by surprise, didn’t understand the question.

“My father. Franz Hopper. Do you think it’s possible to rematerialize him?”

“No. Uh, what I mean is…there’s no way to.” Aelita noticed that Jeremie seemed rather sure of himself, and the sadness, fear and tension within her was fortified.

“But he managed to survive when Xana captured him the first time. Why not the second time?”

“Your father sacrificed himself for you, Aelita. And he had to have used whatever little strength he had left in him to bring you back to life!”

“I know, but…but I thought there might be a hope. That maybe you could find a way…” Aelita trailed off.

“Impossible! I checked every inch of Lyoko, and there isn’t the slightest sign of him.”

Aelita stared into Jeremie’s eyes, the slightest sign of defiance prickling within hers.

“Aelita, I’ve been working really hard on a way of getting into the world wide web, so that we can fight Xana, and you should think the way I think! I mean, think about the future…” Jeremie put a hand on hers.

Aelita angrily pulled her hand away. “And just forget my past, huh? You think it’s easy? You didn’t spend ten years of your life as some sort of computer software!” Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie were almost shocked that Aelita was acting like this; it wasn’t like her to hold this much hate in her voice. Aelita stood up and stormed away.

“I wish I’d never recovered my memory.”

Memory.

Memories may be just that, memories. But they have an unbelievable way of altering the future in ways people would never expect.

“Any luck?” Aelita asked, her face betraying her low hopes.

Jeremie finished typing and clicked open the retrieved data. “No…nothing.” Aelita turned and started toward the door.

“Hold on a second, what’s that?”

Aelita turned. “What have you found?” she asked, a glimmer of hope pricking through her sadness.

“A fragment…of a DNA code sequence. That belongs to…Franz Hopper!” Aelita gasped.

“You were right, Aelita!” Jeremie said, smiling.

“My father might still be alive somewhere on Lyoko!” Aelita exclaimed. Her eyes wide, she looked at Jeremie, and he returned her gaze. Both of them understood what this meant: that all hope wasn’t forever lost.

Hope forever lost…all five of them knew what it was like when all hope seemed lost. But fate had a very peculiar way of changing this in a manner of seconds.

“We have no other way to fight Xana now,” Jeremie said, shaking his head as he understood what he was saying. “The whole world is in danger…”

“It’s impossible to even imagine it,” Ulrich sighed, his eyes locked, his expression carrying no hope.

“And William…” Yumi breathed. “Do you think he’s…”

“This is horrible!” exclaimed Odd sadly, putting his face into his hands.

“I was really hoping…” The immense longing and hope she had once possessed had drained from Aelita’s expression as she stared, empty-eyed, at the photo of a man in a brown sweater, wearing dark green round-rimmed glasses. “I’d see my father again…”

“I’m sorry…” Jeremie said regretfully. “I did everything I could…”

“I know you did, Jeremie,” Aelita whispered. And I guess it wasn’t enough, Aelita thought sadly. She put the photo back on the table.

Suddenly, Jeremie’s laptop started to beep. Everyone in the room turned.

Jeremie strode over and knelt down as he opened his laptop. “Hey! What the… This is incredible!”

“Well, tell us! What’s going on?” Odd said, practically on the edge of his seat.

“I just received a coded message,” breathed Jeremie, trying to comprehend it all. “A message directly from the Internet, and it’s signed…”

“Who?” Aelita asked, frozen. “Tell us, Jeremie!”

There was a pause.

“Franz Hopper.”

Yumi, Ulrich and Odd gasped. Aelita stared at the laptop, and although she felt immediate shock, the glimmer of hope sparkled back into her being.

The noise in the room descended to silence, and the only sound was Jeremie’s laptop as it received the message.

---

Aelita’s alarm clock started to beep. She glanced at it; it was six-thirty. Time to get up.

Sighing, Aelita reflected on the dreams that had overtaken her in the past night, but they had been…well, different. She was thankful that the nightmares of sorrow had decided not to harm her for at least one night.

It hadn’t even been a day since their unsuccessful mission, and yet it seemed so much longer. After they had returned yesterday, Jeremie had headed to the Factory right after dinner, claiming that he would not rest until he had restored the code. Aelita had her own doubts about Jeremie’s health, but she was thankful that someone else understood her concerns.

Aelita’s phone started to ring again. “Hello?” she answered.

“Aelita?” This time, it was Jeremie’s voice that was sleepy. “Are you up?”

“I think so,” Aelita said, yawning. “What about you? Please don’t tell me that you spent the entire night at the Factory again…”

“Well, I can tell you I didn’t,” Jeremie replied. “I dozed off and then came back to my room early this morning, and I’ve been up ever since.”

There was a pause. “So…is there news?” Aelita asked. She hoped that there would be news: her mother’s location, why her mother disappeared. Anything that could convince her that she was not alone in this world anymore.

“I was able to crack the code,” Jeremie said. “Can you come over before breakfast? It’s important.”

Before Jeremie had even finished the sentence, Aelita had dressed and rushed out of her room.

Aelita opened the door to Jeremie’s room. “What did you find?” she asked. Although she was relieved that something had been found, she was wary that it could just be another false lead.

In response, Jeremie opened a file on his desktop.

A photo appeared. Three faces that were extremely familiar to Aelita smiled at her from the image. On the right, Franz Hopper stood in his long-sleeved, brown sweater. Antea wore light jeans and a slightly darker blue sweater. Aelita stood in the middle between her mother and father in her pink blouse, and all three of them smiled at the photographer from the steps of the Hermitage.

And on her mother’s ring finger, Aelita saw a gold-banded ring, set with a beautiful pink diamond the size of her fingernail. She now remembered: Antea’s engagement ring.

Aelita took a moment to comprehend the photo. Although she liked being reminded of happy times such as this in her past life, she was a bit disappointed at what the code had revealed. “It’s…lovely,” Aelita said. “Thank you, Jeremie.” She slowly turned toward the door.

“Hang on a minute,” Jeremie said. Aelita stopped in her tracks. “That’s not all that I found.”

Aelita frowned, and turned around to look at Jeremie. “What else was there?”

Jeremie took a deep breath, as if what he was about to say held great importance and meaning. And it did. “There was a sound file. I spent a lot of the night here trying to unscramble it before I realized that I had unscrambled something very similar to it.” Jeremie turned back to his computer and clicked open a program Aelita had seen before.

“It was a recording.” Jeremie took Aelita’s hand, half-smiling, half-sad. “From your father. Right before…you know.”

Aelita’s expression was unreadable, but the old mixed feeling of shock, delight and sorrow hit her like a bullet.

“I’ll play it for you,” Jeremie said. He clicked the play button.