Rabid hammering on his door pierced William's dream. Mumbling indecipherably, he rolled over, drifting away...

The hammering continued. His brow furrowed. He was so tired...couldn't whoever it was go away and let him rest? Fumbling, his hand found his pillow and bent it around his ear. There. Much better.

His phone started to ring, pulling him out of the warm, comfy embrace of sleep. With an angry hiss, he pressed the pillow around his ears harder.

The call went to voicemail. "William! William, wake up right now! William? WIIIIILLIAAAAAM! I'm gonna start singing if you don't pick up! ...Okay, you asked for it! Break, break-"

He threw off the pillow, snatched up his phone, stabbed the 'take call' button, and slammed it against his ear. "What?" he growled.

"Open your door!"

Stomping over, he tore it open. Odd was standing on the other side, his cell to his ear. Only his unusually serious expression stopped William from strangling the little punk.

Before he could say anything, the blonde burst out in a stream of words. "I know you're tired and I'm sorry to wake you but it's really important ok I went to talk to Jeremie and I saw that his room was broken into and he's not there and I think the Green Phoenix kidnapped him!"

William blinked. His slow, mushy brain worked to decipher the meaning of Odd's sentence. He'd heard the words, yes, but they just didn't seem real. "...What?"

"Jeremie's been kidnapped!"

Three words succeeded where many didn't, piercing the veil of exhaustion draped across his mind. As they did, William realized several doors along the hall were opening, grumbling students poking their heads out to see what the fuss was all about. He grabbed Odd and yanked him inside, slamming the door behind him.

"What?!" he repeated as soon as the door closed.

"Didn't you hear me? Jeremie's been-"

"I heard you. Plenty of times." William ran a hand through his hair, doing a mental checklist now that he was, unfortunately, up. His clock said it was sometime around three in the morning, and right then he hated all of existence. He hadn't showered, and he was still wearing the clothes he'd worn yesterday.

Four days ago.

Whatever.

Point was, he was way too tired to deal with this. But he didn't have a choice. With Jeremie gone, the Lyoko Warriors had been reduced to two. Two! And one of them was a too-cranky, too-tired mess! "Are you sure he's been kidnapped? Maybe he just went to the bathroom?"

Odd was pacing back and forth, hands fluttering with undirected, nervous energy. "I checked, and he's not there. He's not answering his phone either."

William felt that thin strand of hope snap and flutter away. He swore under his breath. They needed-they needed a plan. "What are we gonna do?"

Odd's pacing stopped, and he took a deep breath. Stroked his chin. Furrowed his brow. "We need to tell Professor Hertz," he said decisively. "And Dido. And maybe Principal Delmas too; if a terrorist broke into Kadic and kidnapped a student once, they could do it again. All our classmates could be at risk!"

Shit. He hadn't even thought of that. But it made a scary amount of sense. If the terrorists found out they couldn't enter the scanners, they had a school full of children, right here, for them to pluck guinea pigs from. And with XANA back, too... "Yeah, we have to tell him. Right now. Everyone here is at risk, we can't afford to wait for morning."

"Okay." Odd blew out air slowly. "Shit, I'm not looking forward to telling Jeremie's dad."

He wasn't either. "We don't have a choice. He's the only one who can program as well as Jeremie."

The other boy nodded grimly.

So Odd called Professor Hertz, who called Dido, who told them to go ahead and tell Principal Delmas, and that was how they came to be gathered in his office at four in the morning.

Principal Delmas's eyes were bloodshot, his hair uncombed. Halfway through the spiel of information they'd shared, he'd raised a hand, left, and returned with a bottle of wine. ...Which he refused to share even though Odd was looking at it hopefully, so boo.

Odd shivered his seat. A pang of envy for William shot through him. He had gone to sleep in his clothes, and so was still wearing a jacket. Odd only had his thin pajamas to protect him from the cold. If only he'd stopped a moment by his room!

After a long moment of silence, Principal Delmas removed his glasses, dragged a hand over his face, and let out a deep sigh. Putting his glasses back on, he laced his fingers under his chin and stared hard at Professor Hertz. "So you mean to tell me, some of my students are involved in an international plot, nearby exists a supercomputer which can be used as a deadly weapon, and you are allied with a secret agency to fight an army of terrorists?"

"Yes," Hertz muttered, looking rather like a chastised student.

"And that these same students have secretly battled a malevolent AI, with enough power and will to destroy the world, and this AI is now back?"

William stared at his feet. "Yeah."

"And you didn't think to tell me anything, until a terrorist broke into my school and kidnapped one of my students?"

"Look, I can see how you'd think this is bad…" Odd began.

"Bad? This is-" Delmas snapped his mouth shut. He downed another cup of wine. Looking closely, Odd could see beads of perspiration on his forehead. "This is a disaster. If those terrorists could get in once, they can do it again. We must get the children to safety."

"Today's Saturday," Odd said. "Just a half day. Make something up, cancel it. Send as many home as possible."

"Yes...I suppose you're right. I'll speak with Jim about converting the dorms into a safe space and keep those who can't leave there. Perhaps by pretending it's a drill…"

"You really think that's gonna work?" William asked. "People are gonna notice something's wrong if you cancel class, send students home, and hold a pretend shooter drill for hours or days."

"A weak excuse, certainly, but I think you underestimate the power of willful deniability." Delmas shook his head. "If there's one thing I've learned from my years as principal, it's that people can come up with as many excuses as they need to preserve their mental image of safety and normalcy."

Odd couldn't argue with that.

It was around four-thirty in the morning, and Odd could scarcely believe what he was doing. Just because he'd been the one to find Jeremie missing, Professor Hertz and the rest seemed to think he should be the one to lead this...war meeting. Okay yeah, maybe he'd spoken with adults before, as class rep. Maybe they meant they'd be inclined to listen to him...but this was out of his league!

But, well, someone had to grab the reins of leadership, and the other option was nodding off where he stood.

He looked around the physics lab. William was helping him tape a large sheet of paper to the blackboard...well, holding it up and fighting to keep his eyes open. On the front desk was a laptop, which displayed a video conference with some American woman-Dido, right? Principal Delmas and Professor Hertz sat at the table nearest to the front. Jim Morales, Richard, and the parents of Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie, were spread around the room.

Mr. Belpois was hunched over in his chair, head in his hands. Yumi's parents, clutching hands tightly, didn't look any better. Odd scowled at Ulrich's father, who seemed too nonchalant when his son was in danger. Man, Ulrich wasn't kidding when he said his dad was a chump.

Jim sat next to Mr. Belpois, patting his back. Odd could hear his loud voice booming, "Don't you worry, Belpois is a smart kid! And he's trained under me! He'll be just fine!" The lines of worry etched into his face undermined his words, though.

When William finished helping, he went to his seat and promptly fell asleep. Nobody disturbed him; he'd already heard the plans, and he was exhausted. Odd cleared his throat and forced a chipper tone into his voice. "Ladies and gentleman! For the first time in the history of my adventures and misadventures as a student of this school, I'll be the one who teaches you!"

Nobody laughed. Many of the adults frowned at him, shooting meaningful glances at the worried parents. Dido in particular had a glare that put tundras to shame.

Odd coughed. "Well...it seems your sense of humor is somewhat, if understandably, lacking. In that case, I'll get straight to the point."

Taking a long stick, he pointed at the paper he'd taped up earlier-a huge map of Kadic. "This is, as you can see, our school. After having discovered this morning, when defying the danger, that our friend had been despicably kidnapped…"

"Della Robbia," Professor Hertz said sternly.

"Fine," he muttered. "Professor Hertz and I have contacted Dido, who you can see on the screen right there."

He gestured, and the woman granted them a curt nod. "We've come to the conclusion Jeremie was kidnapped by the Green Phoenix, most likely by an agent named Grigory Nictapolus, aka 'the man with the dogs'. This man is responsible for, among other things, guiding the Green Phoenix to the supercomputer, using a memory-snatching machine on Yumi's parents, and likely neutralized three of Dido's secret agents who were keeping the supercomputer's location under surveillance.

"With his break-in at Kadic, we've decided the situation has become too dangerous for the school's students to stay here. Therefore, Principal Delmas will be making arrangements to send them all home once they wake up in the morning. For those who do not live in the local area or cannot find a place to stay on such short notice, we have to fortify Kadic as much as possible.

"Professor Hertz, Jim, and William did some reconnaissance, and found that Grigory broke in using the manhole in the boiler room, which is always unlocked. Our first step should be to block that entrance, as well as the one in the park, to prevent infiltration. Our next should be to reinforce the walls, close the gates, and create a safe, defensible location for students to hide, should an attack come.

"It's absolutely paramount that we organize an expedition to the Hermitage. Without the scanner there, we have no way of retrieving my friends or defending the virtual reality from the Green Phoenix. And without Aelita specifically, we have no way to stop XANA's attacks. And lemme tell you, that's one guy we do not want to be at the mercy of."

He laughed, pitch too high. Crap. Could they hear the nervousness still in his voice? He'd hoped cracking a joke would cover it up...

"So, while Principal Delmas and Professor Hertz get the students out, William and Jim will start preparing defenses. Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama...and Stern…" Stern glared at the lack of 'mister' in front of his name. "...you three can help them. Mr. Belpois, Richard, and I will go to the Hermitage. Dido will try to get aid here as soon as she can." Odd stopped and looked around.

"Any questions?"

I always wanted to say that.

Her night was uncomfortable, punctuated by constant jerking awake at the slightest noise. By the time her internal clock told her morning had arrived, Aelita felt drained and miserable.

Grudgingly accepting she wasn't going to get any real sleep, she cracked her eyes open. She looked around. Daddy wasn't in the lab, and the computer was dark, silent. She didn't see XANA-either of him. Hesitant, Aelita uncurled herself from the ball and stared at the remote she'd tightly clutched all night. Should she continue without XANA? It wasn't helping any, to hear his vitriolic commentary about Daddy. But she'd promised to hear him out...

"Good morning," XANA said, gliding into the room, a paper bag in hand. Speak of the devil. "Do you want something to eat?"

She stared. She didn't know what was more bizarre-the words 'good morning' leaving XANA's mouth, the question about eating, or the notion of eating in the Mirror. "What? How?" she asked intelligently.

He pointed at the remote in her hand. "I've studied the system here. That's more than just a navigational device-you can use it to interact with objects of this world. Although, I can bypass the need for a simple remote by interfacing with the system directly."

Hence the bag. Aelita did her best not to flinch, yesterday's argument still fresh in her mind, as he sat beside her. Opening it, he pulled out a buttery pastry. "You still like croissants, right?"

"Yeah…" Her fingers brushed XANA's when she took the offering. Aelita's eyes widened as she felt the actual weight of the croissant, texture and everything. An experimental nibble coated her tongue in delicious, flaky bread. "How does this…? Won't it be missing from where it's supposed to be?" Now that was a confusing sentence.

"No. If we take something from this world, we take a copy, leaving the original in place. If you were to let go of the remote while eating that, it'd disappear."

Silence settled as she ate. It was...a weird sensation. It didn't make her feel full, since she wasn't even hungry. A virtual digestive system, avatars did not have. But the taste was nice, offering a small bit of normalcy

He'd remembered she liked croissants. He'd brought her one. She wasn't sure how that made her feel. And if she didn't know her own feelings, how could she trust herself?

How were her friends faring outside? Were Ulrich and Yumi-and Eva-still safe in the First City? What about Jeremie, Odd, and William? What plans were they throwing together even now? They had no way to fight XANA if he got back to Lyoko. Should she be trying to stop him? Was that what was expected of her?

But he hadn't done anything, not really. Not yet. And...Daddy had created a self-fulfilling prophecy by doing a pre-emptive strike.

Daddy. Her throat clogged. Her inability to sleep last night hadn't even produced a satisfying epiphany, to make it worthwhile. She'd just turned the revelations over and over in her head, trying in vain to find...something. She didn't know. Something to tell her whose side she should take?

All she'd understood was that the wound this had caused XANA ran deep.

Wiping her fingers on the paper bag, she took a deep breath to psyche herself up. "XANA…"

"Your friends with my other half are fine," he interrupted. "Tired and bored, but fine."

"Oh. Thank you." She twisted her bracelet nervously. "But I was actually going to say...I'm sorry about what Daddy did."

He blinked. Then, a satisfied kind of smirk curled his lips. "So you admit he was-"

"Whatever caustic comment you're going to make, don't." XANA narrowed his eyes as she held up a hand. "The Mirror is showing me a lot about Daddy that I'm struggling with. I don't know what to think anymore. But I know...you might not have ended up like this without his actions. And I know you're still very bitter over them. And I'm sorry."

For a long moment, he just appraised her. She tried to interpret the look on his face, comparing it to what memories she did have...but the XANA in her memories had been so much more open, emotionally, than this one. She'd seen merriment, joy, excitement. All she'd seen from the current XANA was anger, disdain, and cynicism.

And softness, something whispered inside her. Sometimes, there's a kind of old softness too.

No, softness sounded too...well, soft. Maybe fondness? Could she dare hope it was genuine? Should she?

Finally, he gave her a short nod-as much acknowledgment or thanks as she would get, she figured. He rose to his feet and spoke brusquely. "Are you ready to continue?"

She stood up and lifted her chin. "Ready as I'll ever be."