A/N: Devastating to hear what happened in Paris. Thank God no one was injured or killed, but 850 years of history, just...burned down. It's absolutely awful. My heart goes out to all the French.

Akiko Ishiyama lifted the dog carrier out of her car like it was made of china. Lychee had been cleared to leave the vet this morning, but he was still so fragile in her eyes. Half of one ear was just gone, and there were other scars that wouldn't heal. And of course, he was quieter than usual. Listless, sleepy.

With her free hand, she fumbled for her house keys. She recited the vet's instructions to herself as she unlocked the door. Check the wounds twice a day, don't let the bandages get wet, cover them with plastic bags when he needs to go outside...

The feeling of something being wrong didn't quite register, at first. She was distracted by making sure Lychee was comfortable in the living room and installing a baby gate in front of the stairs. He shouldn't exert himself in these early days, especially by trying to climb or descend floors.

But then, as she moved to the kitchen to get Lychee some water, she stopped. Carefully studied her environment. Frowned.

Something was strange. The broom-she'd left it against the other wall, hadn't she? And she could have sworn she hadn't pushed that chair in.

A chill ran up her spine. Someone had been in her house!

No, she dismissed immediately, shaking her head. You're getting older, forgetful. That's all.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that the walls were less safe than they had been.

Math class, XANA had decided, was an insult to his intelligence. He was able to run the most advanced calculus in nanoseconds and arrive at the correct result. It took absolutely no effort. And here the teacher, Meyer or something, was droning on about mere geometry as if it were a complex matter. She didn't even know what she was teaching, he wagered, or that quaint equation, y=ab, wouldn't be on the board.

He was starting to understand some of the human childrens' complaints about school. He'd been here for all of two days and he already wanted to kill all the teachers. Especially this foolish math one.

He rested Eva's chin in her palm, fighting back the urge to sigh. It was a human act and accomplished absolutely nothing. Instead, he turned his attention inwards, contemplating his achievements in his brief time here.

His investigation into the surveillance around Aelita's room was complete. His capacities on the Internet were almost unlimited, and it only took him a short while to uncover the identity of the third party. He'd been most pleased; Hannibal Mago and the Green Phoenix had the potential to be very strong allies in the future.

As for another side project, he was still collecting the materials. XANA rarely used the same plan twice; a fallacy the first time was likely to be exploited by his enemies in the future. Keeping them guessing was his favored approach. However, he was willing to make exceptions now and then...and this was one of them.

The bell rang, pulling him out of his musings. The idiot teacher hollered last-minute instructions, about page eighty-seven or whatever, as the swarm of teenagers stashed their things in bags and ran for the door. As he stepped outside, XANA swept calculating eyes over the crowd, trying to locate Aelita.

"Eva!" Ah, there she was. He faced the girl as she hurried towards him, pulling Eva's lips up.

"Aelita! Hi!"

"Hi! Um, you mentioned you wanted to hear to my music sometime, and…" She pulled out an MP3 player and a set of headphones. "I brought some of my tracks, if you wanted to listen?"

Better and better. "Sure, thanks!"

As she fell into step beside him, she handed the items over. By now, he'd seen enough humans wearing them to know how they worked. He slipped them into Eva's ears, pressed a few buttons, and...

Hm. There was a certain rhythmic beauty in the beating of the percussions. Sound wasn't as riveting to him as smell, taste, or touch, but he had to admit, this was pleasing. "This is really good."

"Thanks! I had a lot of fun experimenting with the instrumentals in that song-oh, and the one after it, I added a bit of overlap to..."

As she rambled on, XANA studied Aelita out of the corner of his vessel's eyes. She looked much the same as ever, still wearing lots of pink, still with her short hair. A gleam of gold, swinging back and forth, told him that transmitter was still around her neck.

Time to probe. "Your pendant is pretty. Where'd you get it?"

Aelita's expression twisted, became something odd. He tried to analyze it-she was smiling, but only a little, and her eyes seemed grieving. "It's a family heirloom," she said.

A family heirloom? Was it from her mother or her father? The transmitter seemed more like Hopper's style, except XANA was puzzled by what he'd hoped to accomplish by passing down such a thing. He'd had no allies to send a distress signal or communique to.

XANA could, perhaps, steal or destroy it-even if he couldn't figure it out, at least she wouldn't be able to use it. He considered the idea for a bare second before discarding it. The girl might not even know what it was, and be keeping it out of mere sentiment. Stealing it wasn't worth the risk of jeopardizing his tenuous position with her.

"Tell me about your family," he prompted, carefully leading the conversation where he wanted.

"Well...I'm an orphan, but my cousin attends Kadic. His name's Odd."

There it was. XANA struck. "Oh, is he the one in our class with the spiky hair? He looks fun. I'd love to meet him now that school's out!"

She balked. "Um…we already made plans for today with our friends…"

And there wasn't room for one more. Which meant this translated to Lyoko Warrior business. Interesting. "Oh well. Maybe tomorrow at breakfast? You could introduce me to your other friends, too!"

Aelita brightened when he didn't press the subject further. "Sure, that sounds good. Oh! I've got to run, but why don't you just go ahead and borrow that for the rest of the day? You can return it to me later and tell me all about what you think!"

He smiled predatorily. "Aw, thanks!"

He'd tried to put that morning out of his head, but his thoughts kept drifting back to it. Spotting the Lyoko Warriors across the quad. The suspicion and wariness on Yumi's face when she saw him watching them. The whispers and glances and huddling up. Aelita's little, apologetic half-smile before she was pulled into the circle. It had stayed with him all day, made him snappish and sullen. He'd been poor company at lunch.

School was done for the day, and William was stalking through the halls, feeling utterly foul. Around him, alumni chatted with their friends. Strands of their conversation reached his ears as he passed.

"...comes out next week…"

"...insane, right? That test…"

"...Sissi's always been that kinda girl…"

He pivoted on his heel and stormed back. Who said that? William strained his ears for the voice he'd heard. It had been high, reedy, and male. Where had it come from?

Ah, there, from that empty classroom. The door was open, and inside was that twerp-Herb? Herve? Herve, that was it. One of Sissi's former minions, Jeremie's self-proclaimed rival. He was talking to Milly and Tamiya, holding himself in a self-important way. Milly was scribbling in her notebook, which meant Tamiya's camera was rolling. For once, Nicholas wasn't anywhere in sight.

"What was that?" William snapped, shoving himself between Herve and the girls. Good, a small part of him whispered, a fight.

Herve blinked owlishly. "Huh?"

"What you were saying, about Sissi. What was it you called her, 'that kinda girl'? What kind, exactly?"

"You know…" Herve suddenly looked much less sure of himself than he did a moment ago. "That kind. She's a cheerleader, rich, and the principal's daughter, so-"

"So what, she has to be some skank? Where are you even getting that from? She's been in love with Ulrich since elementary school. That doesn't sound like that kind of girl to me."

The shrimp straightened up, as if he had some conclusive evidence William knew nothing about. "Nicholas and I saw her sneaking off with Odd Della Robbia last night."

For a moment, incredulity blinded him so much he couldn't speak. "Do you realize how stupid you sound? It's a huge leap of logic to say that because a girl and a guy snuck out, they had sex."

Herve only sniffed, and it was then William realized: Herve wasn't jumping to conclusions. He was spreading false rumors. He was trying to tarnish the reputation of one of the only people to have paid William any kind of positive attention in the last year. Incredulity turned to anger, feeding into the mire he'd been in all day.

He grabbed the little twerp's collar and yanked him up. The younger boy yelped. William leaned in until they were nose-to-nose. "I better not hear you saying that kind of stuff about her again. Otherwise, there might be new rumors about you and your black eye. Capiche?"

Herve gave a terrified nod. Satisfied, William dropped him and turned to Milly and Tamiya. "Whatever Herve was telling you, don't publish it."

Milly frowned. "You're asking us to go against our duties as reporters!"

They were young, William reminded himself. He took hold of the reins of his temper and yanked them, hard. "Yeah, but it's your duty to do research too. Publishing something hurtful without knowing all the facts is just slander. Or is the Kadic Herald a gossip rag now?"

Okay, so I could have worded that better.

The redhead bristled. "A gossip rag?! You jerk! The Kadic Herald brings our readers what they want to hear!"

He grinded his teeth.

If they wanted to publish this, William knew he couldn't really stop them. Herve might be intimidated, but he hadn't stooped so low as to threaten little kids.

He thought rapidly. If he truly couldn't do anything to stop them from publishing this stupid story, he could at least make sure Sissi had a defender. "Fine. Then interview me, and I'll tell you all about how Sissi and how she'd never do that."

Milly's face was still red with anger. At his offer, she pursed her mouth, but her eyes had a calculating gleam in them. "Since when do you know a thing about Sissi?"

"Since we became friends."

"They have been hanging out lately…" Tamiya said speculatively.

"I could even get you an interview with her later," he pressed. Hopefully this whole thing would blow over without her even knowing, but if it didn't, she was sure to straighten them out.

At that, Milly beamed. "Interviews from the two most notorious people at Kadic?! That's a great opportunity!" Her moods are more tempestuous than a storm, William thought. "Alright, William, consider yourself the lucky new interviewee of the Kadic Herald!"

"What about me?" Herve protested.

Milly made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "We've got your statement. If we need anything else we'll come by, okay?"

And with gusto, she grabbed William's arm and tugged him away, Tamiya trailing dutifully.

It took Jeremie and his friends most of the afternoon and evening to fetch the parts needed, assemble the cameras, and set them up around the Hermitage. They made it back into Kadic without being caught, travelling through the sewers to slip into the park. Then they had gone their separate ways.

Now, holed up in his room, Jeremie yawned. An array of monitors were spread out before him, casting a blue light on his face. His eyes drifted from one screen to another, studying the images displayed. The feed from the cameras were looping, displaying images from various angles. Right now, nothing had happened. If we have to stay awake all night to watch the Hermitage, it's gonna be difficult. Especially if this takes days-or more.

He could do it, he knew; he'd pulled off many sleepless nights back when fighting XANA. It was just something Jeremie would have preferred to never do again. He'd gotten too used to sleep.

Just then, he heard Ulrich's voice on the other side of his door. "Can I come in?"

Jeremie opened his mouth, about to respond sure, when it was slammed open. He swivelled his chair around; Ulrich was panting.

The dark-haired boy shook his head. "Jim's become obsessed! He nearly caught me."

"How's Odd?"

"In our room watching some lame concert on DVD. Another five minutes of that music and my head was gonna explode. How about you? What's happening with the Hermitage?"

He sighed, moving aside to let Ulrich see the screens. "Nothing, for now. I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait for that to change."

"You're not gonna try and pull an all-nighter on it, are you?"

He lifted his thin shoulders in a shrug. "If I have to."

Ulrich rubbed the back of his neck. "Look...I know none of us ever said anything back when we were fighting XANA, but you should take better care of yourself, you know? Sleep deprivation isn't good."

"It's hardly the same thing," Jeremie said, a little miffed. "For one, sacrificing sleep to stop XANA was necessary. For another, I doubt this will take as long as that did."

"Yeah, but still...take care of yourself, Einstein. Actually, how about I keep you company? Maybe we could take shifts or something."

"Well-" Jeremie wasn't sure what to say to that. He couldn't remember any of them worrying about his health when he'd been the guy programming and hacking and monitoring XANA. Or did they try and I was just too absorbed in work to notice? He did remember being awfully snappish. "Yes, that'd be nice. Thank you."

Ulrich dropped onto his bed, facing Jeremie and the computer. He picked up a periodic table that had been lying on the pillow, and his brow furrowed. Jeremie stopped working for a moment and watched his friend's mouth move in silent recitation.

This was...strange ground to tread. He knew of Ulrich's academic struggles, but he hadn't, well, cared back in the war with XANA. He hadn't had time for anything that wasn't defeating that AI. And once everything was over, well...he supposed he just hadn't thought of it. Ulrich had actual time to study now, so surely that would be enough? It was for Jeremie.

But he was still struggling. If Jeremie's friends could make efforts for him, then why shouldn't he do the same?

"...Y'know, I could tutor you, if you want."

Ulrich's shoulders tensed, his face becoming stony. "My father already hired one."

"Well, not to toot my own horn or anything, but none of them have been me."

"Wouldn't matter. He's made it perfectly clear he doesn't like my friends, so he'd never deign to pay you for tutoring," Ulrich said, voice hard as flint.

Jeremie thought of his own father and how happy he was that his son had friends. He thought about Dad's light ribbing about Aelita, his support, his interest in his son's hobbies, his excitement for his son's achievements no matter how small. If Jeremie were struggling with a subject, Dad would have done whatever he could to help. He felt a surge of gratitude for the man-and a surge of anger at Ulrich's father.

"Alright, then no tutoring. We could just study together, and if you happen to have questions, I might happen to have answers."

The conversation paused as Ulrich considered the offer. "I'll think about it," he finally said. His tone was curt, and Jeremie nodded. He wasn't sure why Ulrich was being so stubborn. Perhaps it was a pride thing?

"Sorry," Ulrich added. "It's just...a sticky subject. I do appreciate the offer, really."

"No problem." Jeremie hesitated. "Uh...do you want to talk about it or anything?"

"Nah, I'm good. But thanks."

"Right."

Belpois, you are a master of eloquence, Jeremie thought as the conversation died. He couldn't help it. Give Jeremie a room of budding scientists, and he could discuss quantum physics for a week straight. Give him five minutes with another teenager and he felt like he was trying to drive at night in a foreign country.

But fortunately, Ulrich wasn't the type of guy who expected pointless chatter. A comfortable silence fell, broken up only by the clacking of Jeremie's keyboard.

Time trickled by; how much, Jeremie couldn't say. He fought yawns and drooping eyelids, made a mental note to resume drinking coffee if this lasted more than a day. To stay awake, he mentally filtered through plans, theories, coding information.

He was contemplating programming a bot to monitor the feed and inform him of disturbances when he saw it. He straightened up in his chair. A man wrapped in a greatcoat was vaulting over the Hermitage's gate.

"Ulrich!" he exclaimed. "Look!"

The other boy scrambled to his side. The stranger was now walking towards the porch, looking about. His behavior just screamed uncertainty and shadiness. Excitement and triumph struck Jeremie like a bolt of lightning. Yes! We've got him!

Ulrich's fingers tightened on the back of Jeremie's chair. "You think that's our guy?"

"I'd bet money on it. Hold on, he's moving towards the porch-" Swiftly, Jeremie changed to Camera #2. This one was above the doorway, wedged into the corner of the doorjamb. He was looking down at the intruder at a forty-five degree angle, seeing the back of his head. C'mon, show me your face…

Yes! The intruder was turning, glancing over his shoulder. He was young, with a patchy parody of a beard. Freckles dotted his nose and cheeks, and copper-colored hair stuck out at odds angles. His cheeks were round and babyish; all in all, he looked like the most unthreatening person Jeremie had ever seen. But appearances could be deceiving.

Jeremie zoomed in on the image. The young man hadn't rung the doorbell and was still looking around furtively. He dug a hand in his coat pocket, then removed it and flexed his empty fingers. A foot rapidly tapped up and down. Seeming to make a decision, he spun around and hurried to the back of the house.

"Jeremie, follow him!"

"I'm trying! I didn't think to build self-propelled cameras!"

He threw himself at the keyboard, scrambling to input the proper commands. Images rapidly flashed on the monitor. He had to guess where the intruder was going and hop to the nearest camera, hoping he'd be there. Or at least catch a glimpse-there!

The boy had stopped against the garage and was now leaning back. His eyes were closed. For a long time, the three of them remained frozen; the two teenagers tense and unseen, the young man slumped and defeated.

"What's he waiting for?" Ulrich said after a while.

"I'm not sure-wait. He's moving!"

But it was in the wrong direction. The stranger was slowly walking back to the fence, head low. He raised it briefly, checking the streets. There was no one Jeremie could see, and apparently neither could the intruder. Seemingly satisfied, the young man vaulted over the fencing. And then he was moving down the street, and Jeremie's cameras could follow him no longer.

She was alone, cowering. Mantas were circling like vultures, swooping upon a glowing orb of light-Daddy. In her ear, Jeremie was yelling at her to input the anti-virus. Her heart twisted. No! No, you can't ask this of me!

She tried to throw an Energy Field, but her arm was shaking, her emotions upsetting her focus. It went wide. The Mantas continued firing, Jeremie continued yelling-

And Daddy exploded.

"NO!" she screamed. Razors slashed her heart and let it bleed out. Daddy was-no, he always had a back-up plan! He couldn't be-

She slammed the ENTER command, as if she could undo what just happened. Streams of white light flowed through Sector 5, chasing out XANA-but Daddy didn't come back. Tears spilled over her cheeks. Her entire body felt numb. All she could think was, Daddy's dead, Daddy's dead, Daddy's dead…

Her phone's ringtone broke through the dream. Aelita muffled a sob. Daddy was dead and it hadn't worked. Daddy was dead and XANA was still alive, and now he was attacking, and that's why her phone was ringing. Someone was calling her to tell her about an activated tower.

Her hand blindly felt around for her cell, knocking into her alarm clock and several assorted trinkets before wrapping around the familiar plastic. Her heart felt split in two, but dutifully, she took the call. She rubbed her eyes and yawned; it hardly felt like she'd slept at all, but XANA waited for no one. "What's the matter this time?"

"Aelita!" Jeremie said. "Ulrich and I spotted the intruder. It's a young man."

And then she remembered. XANA was dead. He'd been dead for months. Daddy's death wasn't in vain. The thought was bittersweet, but Jeremie's words didn't give her time to dwell on it. She leapt to her feet. "What?!"

"Relax, he's already left. He only stopped for a few moments, and...well, he didn't look too dangerous in any case."

On Jeremie's side, she could make out Ulrich's voice saying something. The specific words, however, were beyond her. After a moment, Jeremie spoke, though she wasn't sure which of them he was addressing. "Yes, that's true. He seemed utterly hopeless. But we kept our eyes on him the whole time and now we know to be on guard."

Just because the man might seem hopeless didn't mean his dogs weren't, though. She remembered Yumi and Odd's descriptions of how injured poor Kiwi was, her own nightmares of large black canines, and shivered. She'd be perfectly happy to never run into such beasts. "Alright, I'll come over to your room."

"No, no, let's leave it for now. You need to sleep." Then why'd you wake me up? She thought, somewhat uncharitably. "But I've sent an MMS to you with a picture of the man; can you study it and call me if you recognize him?"

Oh. That was why. "Sure, no problem. I'll call you right back."

She hung up and found the message. It had arrived during the call. Fighting another yawn, Aelita opened it, not expecting much.

Her eyes widened.

His face! That nose, those eyes, those freckles. They were familiar features-not those of the boy from her dreams, but familiar nonetheless.

Suddenly, the floor seemed to spin. Her knees buckled. She quickly sat on her bed and pressed a hand to her forehead. Her head was throbbing; snippets of memory pressed forward and disappeared in the same instant. Aelita wanted to scream at their loss. Instead, she focused on deep breaths. Inhale...exhale...inhale...exhale...inhale...exhale…

Gradually, the dizzy spell receded. She still couldn't place where she'd seen that face before. But she knew she had.

She leapt up and ran to Jeremie's room.