"Ugh."

Ulrich sighed and flipped a page in his textbook. His brow was furrowed in heavy concentration.

"UGH."

Flip, flip. The brunet remained seated at his desk, focused on his book, steadily ignoring him.

Odd groaned and fell back on his bed, arms spread. "UGH, this is killing me."

Ah, and finally, he got a reaction! Ulrich's book snapped shut. "Odd, you're killing me. You've done nothing but groan since dinner."

"Well what else am I supposed to do? There's nothing good on TV, I'm in an artistic rut, and I'm bored of video games! Bored! Of video games! And it's only eight!"

"You could study? Like I'm trying to?"

"Study, shmudy! Sitting around reading is the only thing more boring than this!"

"Then can you at least let me study in peace?"

Odd was tempted to whine, or ask Ulrich to take a break and play with him. But his roommate had really helped him by smuggling Kiwi out. So Odd sighed and sat up. "Fine. I'm gonna take my skateboard for a spin."

"You're not supposed to leave the room."

He waved a hand dismissively. "We weren't supposed to do a lot of things in the past two years! Besides, this'll get me outta your hair for a few hours."

That seemed to convince Ulrich-or maybe he was just happy to be left in peace. He grunted a "don't get caught" and then turned back to his book. Odd grabbed his phone-leftover habit, even though of course XANA was dead-and poked his head out to make sure Jim wasn't around. All clear! Tucking his skateboard under his arm, he hit the hall.

The dorms were pretty quiet; the hallway light was still on, but most doors were closed as students worked on their homework or relaxed after a long day of school. Briefly, he wished Eva was staying here-they could sneak around visiting each other, have fun breaking rules. Like Sam, he thought for just a second. He pushed her memory away with only a little regret. Sam would always be special, but she wasn't here now. He didn't know if she ever would be again, and, well, he liked to live in the moment.

Cautiously cracking open the stairwell door, he almost jumped out of his skin when he saw a shadow climbing up the wall. But-it was too small and feminine to be Jim's. As the top of the person's head emerged, Odd saw it was Sissi. Her scarf was still wound around her neck and the remnants of snow clung to her boots; she must have just come in from outside.

She arched an eyebrow when she saw him. "Aren't you confined to your room?"

"Why? You gonna tell on me?"

"Make it worth my while and I won't," she said, but from her tone of voice he could tell she was teasing.

Odd was about to reply when his phone rang. With a little flourish, he answered. "Hello, this is the number one charmer in all of Kadic!"

"Odd, something happened."

Yumi's tone made it clear this 'something' was serious. A million horrible scenarios ran through his head. XANA was alive. Yumi had to move back to Japan. One of his ex-girlfriends had prime blackmail material. He clutched his phone and hoped Yumi couldn't hear the forced levity in his voice. "What's up?"

"Kiwi snuck out. We found him, but he'd been attacked by some dogs."

Even the forced levity evaporated. "He-what?!"

No. Not Kiwi. Not his sweet diggity-dog. How could any animal want to hurt him? Why?

"He's alright," Yumi hastily added. "We brought him home and bandaged him. I've called my parents-they were out for the evening-and they'll be here soon to drive him to the nearest twenty-four hour clinic."

So much emotion-relief, fear, gratitude-hit him that he briefly lost his voice. "It's that bad?"

"I...I don't know. It's already rough externally, but internally...I don't know. And Odd, that's not all."

"What?" What more could she possibly say? What could possibly make this any worse?

"It happened at the Hermitage. We saw a man skulking about nearby, so we think he might have set his dogs on Kiwi."

That, as it turned out. "I'm coming over."

Sissi grabbed his sleeve. "Odd? What happened?"

"Odd, no. Your punishment confined you to your quarters. I just called because you're his owner and deserve to know."

"I'll only get in trouble if I get caught. And what if you need me to sign for surgery or something, huh?"

"Odd-"

"You're not here, so there's nothing you can do to stop me! I'm coming over!"

He snapped his phone shut. Sissi was staring at him with wide eyes. "What's going on? Surgery? Who's hurt?"

"No time to explain! I've got to go!"

"Well-I'm coming with you!"

He didn't have time to argue. "Fine. But don't get me caught!"

"Excuse me?! You're more likely to give us away with that hair of yours…"

The light bickering was familiar, an anchor. Though he'd certainly never tell Sissi he was grateful-she'd never let him live it down!-Odd stayed focused on it as they hurried away. It was better than thinking about what had happened to Kiwi.

Neither noticed the two pairs of eyes that watched them go.

Odd laid a trembling hand on Kiwi. His poor, sweet dog was lying in Hiroki's lap, wrapped in a blanket. From what was visible of his squat body, Odd could see bandages had been wrapped around him. One ear had been gnawed on. Kiwi's stumpy tail thumped up and down a few times at his owner's touch, but it lacked his usual enthusiasm.

Behind him, Sissi was making a soft, crooning noise of horror. "Oh, no…oh, poor thing."

There was too much emotion clogging Odd's throat. He had to-he had to let some of it out. He went for humor, but even that came out too vulnerable. His voice cracked. "Thought you hated him."

"I mean, yeah, but that doesn't mean I wanted something like this to happen."

Yumi was off to one side, rubbing her arms, a contrite look on her face. "I'm so sorry, Odd. I...Hiroki and I were arguing, and I should have kept a better eye on him."

Hiroki's face was stained with tears. "No, it's my fault! I wasn't-"

"Stop!" The word came out too clipped, too harsh. He swallowed, forced his inner turmoil under control. "I'm not interested in blame. Can you explain in detail what happened?"

Yumi gave the barest glance towards Sissi, but there was really no reason to exclude her. Odd listened to her recounting-Kiwi slipping out through the window, hunting for him through the streets, finding him by the Hermitage, the strange man. The more she spoke, the more a desire for action pumped through him. But what could he do?

Before he could brainstorm ideas, Sissi leapt to her feet, aghast. "We should call the police! If this guy is squatting on property, sicking dogs on other people's pets, he should be arrested!"

The police? Odd thought. When had the police ever been useful, honestly? It wasn't the police who'd fought XANA for two years. It was them, a group of young teens. They were way more capable than the so-called professionals. Call them, and the police would just poke around the Hermitage incompetently, or worse, screw up their investigation

But of course, he couldn't tell Sissi all that. "And tell them what? We don't know what this guy looks like, not even his shoe size!"

"W-Well, then let's look for clues!" He blinked, amazed; Sissi looked as if the mere suggestion would make her faint, but there was a kind of fire in her eyes. "That way, we could give a better report!"

He shouldn't have been surprised, he supposed; Sissi had shown herself capable of great bravery in several of their adventures. But that was usually when faced with danger; she wasn't the type to seek it out.

Bah, it doesn't matter. He just cared about getting help for Kiwi and finding out who did this. And as if summoned, he heard the rumble of an engine and saw the bright glare of headlights rolling up the driveway.

"That's our parents," Yumi said. "Look-I'd really appreciate it if no one mentioned anything about the stranger to them, alright? Just let them think it was a wild dog."

"Sounds good to me," Odd answered.

In the scant time before Yumi's parents entered, the small group divided up who would go where. Odd and Hiroki were the most worried about Kiwi, so they'd go with them to the vet; Sissi and Yumi would head out to search the Hermitage. Yumi decided to call Jeremie to let him to know what they were up to, so he could get backup if needed. Ulrich and Aelita wouldn't be disturbed unless necessary, which Odd privately thought was a smart move. No need to risk more people sneaking out, and thus the chances of getting caught, unless they had to.

What was I thinking? Sissi wondered, for about the tenth time in the past hour, as she and Yumi stepped into the cold Parisian night.

The answer, for following Odd when he got that call, was easy enough: she'd been worried. But this...going out into the night, where some mutts had attacked Kiwi, with some lurking guy? This was a whole 'nother level. So, why, again, am I here?

She sighed. She knew why. Sissi's instincts were honed to a needle-sharp point by years of study and practice. It was only by paying careful attention to what was in that she could get ahead of the latest trends, and that was the difference between a true queen bee and a wannabe.

And now, those instincts were telling her something was up. Something maybe related to why her friends were acting oddly. If she could find out why, then maybe…

"Up there," Yumi suddenly whispered, and Sissi pulled away from her thoughts. She peered up at the house and shuddered. It was a two-story villa, old and shabby; with the surrounding woods and rickety iron fence, it looked like it had come straight out of a horror movie. And that makes me feel so much better about my current situation.

She and Yumi exchanged glances. The walk over had been awkward, to put it lightly. This was the first time they'd been alone together since Yumi started dating Ulrich. Of course, now wasn't the time to discuss such things, but its weight still rested around her neck like a scarf that had been tied too tightly.

Why does it have to be her? Why not me? What did I do wrong?

Sissi didn't hate Yumi. On the contrary, she thought her rival was cool, independent, fierce. All traits Sissi admired. But she wasn't sure whether their friendship could survive the shadow of Ulrich's affections. And if a rift happened...would the group cast Sissi out into the cold again?

For now, though, she was glad to have Yumi by her side.

By unspoken agreement, they stuck close together as they slowly searched the grounds. Every snap of a branch or whistle of the wind made Sissi's heart hammer like a jackrabbit. Deformed shadows spread out along the ground, stark and monstrous in the moonlight. And ever on her peripheral vision, that house-the Hermitage?- loomed ominously.

Stop it, she scolded herself when she couldn't take it any longer. Yumi's got, like, a black belt, right? We'll be fine.

I hope.

Their search turned up little-the mildew near the garage wall had been scrapped away, which Yumi reasoned must have been from a shoe. But there wasn't anything definite. No conveniently-dropped ID.

Sissi sighed, and was about to suggest going back, when the sweep of her torch illuminated a set of pawprints. At first, it didn't quite register; the mantra in her head was reciting, snow, snow, more snow, pawprints, snow, and she moved past them.

But then it clicked. She swept the beam of light back, saying "Hey, Yumi, I-holy shit, that's big!"

Big was right. The pawprints were far larger than Kiwi's, and the claws had dug through the snow right into the earth. The dog that had attacked him must have been a real monster; Sissi was amazed Kiwi was still alive. A glance at Yumi revealed the normally-unflappable girl actually looked freaked.

Annnnnd I think that's our cue to leave.

She didn't think Yumi would argue.

Sissi followed Odd back into the dorms, slinking like shadows through the darkened halls. It was still only about nine or ten in the evening, and that was probably the only reason Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama hadn't insisted they stay overnight. They were teenagers now and Kadic wasn't too far; it should be a safe trip back, and indeed it had been.

When the Ishiyamas had returned from the vet, they'd been sans Kiwi. Sissi's heart had actually stuttered before she realized Odd's face wasn't as devastated as it would be if the little dog had died. No, he'd been kept overnight. Sissi hoped he'd be fine. Sure, Kiwi was annoying and ugly, but he meant a lot to Odd.

Odd…

She stole a glance at the blonde, who'd been subdued the whole trip back. Even his stupidly gelled hair seemed to droop. She didn't like admitting it, but she was glad to have his presence by her side as they traveled back to Kadic; those pawprints had really freaked her out. But it wasn't her dog that had been attacked. She hesitated, then opened her mouth to say something comforting-

"Well, well, well! Look who we have here!"

Sissi practically jumped out of her skin at the booming, triumphant voice. Up ahead, Jim Morales emerged from the darkened stairwell, arms crossed.

"Jimbo!" Odd said, grinning broadly and clearly trying to think of a way out. "My good friend! Fancy meeting you here!"

"Friend my foot! Looks to me like you're breaking the terms of your punishment." Jim swung his head around to Sissi, who glowered back defiantly. "And you, Sissi Delmas, you know students are forbidden from leaving the school grounds at night!"

"We didn't leave Kadic," she said. "Why would we? All the stores are closed now, and there aren't any good movies playing."

"Don't think you can pull the wool over my eyes, missy! I have it on good authority you two were going where you shouldn't have been!"

Authority? Who-

And, with crystal clarity, Sissi knew. She remembered her encounter with Herve and Nicholas earlier that evening, the argument, the insults. The bone-deep pain on Herve's face before she left, the kind of pain you just had to pay back. And they'd clearly decided the best way was to spy on her.

They did learn from the best… The thought was half-deprecating, half-remorseful. She didn't dare voice her suspicion; she didn't want Odd to blame her. She'd come along because she was concerned about him, but now she'd gotten him in even more trouble. A whirlpool of misery and guilt spun in her stomach.

"REGARDLESS, you two have violated Kadic's rules-especially you, Odd! First bringing that animal here, now this? By the powers vested in me by Principal Delmas, I declare your punishment extended to a full WEEK! Sissi, since this is your first offense, you'll only be confined to your room for two days, starting-" he glanced at his watch, "-tomorrow."

Now indignation and horror joined the churning emotions. Images of multiple accessories, clothes and shoes vanishing into thin air flashed before her eyes. A two-day confinement? But-but the sales-!

"You can't do that!" she spluttered.

"I most certainly can! Now both of you, get to your rooms!"

Sissi wanted to dig her heels and argue further, but Odd grabbed her arm. "Trust me, we got caught in the act; best not to push our luck," he hissed, and tugged her away.

Hours later, in Washington DC, it was about nine in the evening. The time most would have gone home after a long day of work, to sit back and relax with their families, or kick up their shoes and see what was on television. For others, the day was just beginning. And for some, it never ended.

The woman, codenamed Dido, fell into the last category. Her sharp, mahogany desk was covered with paperwork, her hand jerking a pen across them. Her office had a long row of clocks hanging on the walls, one for each major capital of the world. A single window opened not to the Washington Obelisk or the White House, but to anonymous, grey skyscrapers, identical to the one housing this office. Other than that, the room was bereft of decoration. Some would call it sparse; she preferred the term spartan.

Her phone rang. She picked it up and answered in a dry voice. "Yes?"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to disturb you, but there's a call for you. From France," said Maggie, her secretary.

Making herself more comfortable in her revolving chair, Dido checked France's clock. In Paris, it would be somewhere around two or three in the morning. Her face didn't betray her emotions-it never did-but inwardly, she felt the first stirrings of curiosity.

To call at this hour means the matter is of some urgency.

"Put them through," she said. As she did, she pressed another button to ensure the line wasn't being monitored. In her other hand, her pen tapped errantly against the desk.

The next voice she heard was male, deep, and embarrassed. "Ma'am…"

"Agent Lone Wolf. It's been some time."

"Yes Ma'am. The computer science unit has turned something up."

The unit he spoke of wasn't really people, but a group of computers and bots. Day in and out, they monitored all searches made on the World Wide Web, hunting for suspicious words or phrases. Not only a massive task, but an illegal one-and oftentimes, useless. But when it did come through...

"We're on a secure line. Proceed."

"This afternoon, we detected a search made on a private Intranet. Someone was trying to obtain information first on Franz Hopper, then on his original name, Waldo Schaeffer."

Hopper. Again. The pen stilled. Dido's nostrils flared slightly.

His case was over a decade old, but she knew all the details by heart. She'd been on it, a young, promising official just starting her career. It was a black mark on her otherwise spotless record. "Thank you for informing me, Agent."

"That isn't all, Ma'am. The search was made on the internal network of Kadic Academy."

Dido's fist tightened around the pen, almost snapping it in two. Franz Hopper and Kadic Academy were four words she did not want to hear together.

Her-anger, if you wanted to call it that, only lasted a moment. She put the pen down, admonishing herself for the temporary loss of self-control. "I see. I want a man assigned to work through Kadic's communications. Telephone calls, internal searches, everything from the past two months until today. And prep a squad for deployment in case of emergencies."

"Yes ma'am."

Perhaps it was something innocuous. A clerk reorganizing the archives or something like that. But Dido was not going to chance that. That string of mysterious supercomputer destructions last year had her on guard. Everyone else had thought it was unrelated to Hopper, but she'd known, in her gut, they were connected. However, numerous complications-lack of leads, lack of further incidents-made creating a case almost impossible. Combined with the fact that only abandoned supercomputers (and that international space station, but no one was going to start calling sabotage when there was only evidence of a genuine environmental accident) had been affected, and it was deemed unnecessary to pursue.

Without saying goodbye, Dido hung up. She became a statue, staring darkly at the phone. She hated everything associated with the Hopper case. The man had taken all his secrets with him when he'd slipped through her fingers. And that was a huge security risk; for over ten years, she'd dreaded the day he traded them to their enemies.

But while part of her still wanted Hopper to stay wherever he'd disappeared to, another part was glad.

After all, this was her chance to turn her single failure into a success.

Aelita was in a good mood when she woke up. Her sleep had been untouched by nightmares, her dream a happy one. The details were already disappearing like morning mist, but she knew she'd been playing with that boy-what was his name-in that city. Content as a cat, she stretched, only slightly reluctant to leave her warm bed.

She hummed to herself as she trotted down to the girls' bathroom for her morning routine. To her slight surprise, there wasn't the usual line of girls waiting for Sissi to stop hogging the shower. In fact, she didn't see Sissi at all. Ah well, she was hardly gonna complain about the water still being hot.

One nice, hot shower later, Aelita dressed-jeans, white sweater, pink coat-and gathered her things. But as soon as she left the dorms, she was immediately set upon by Yumi. Before she could even speak, her friend was tugging her away, mouth drawn in a tight line.

She escorted Aelita to Jeremie and Ulrich, who were waiting at the quad. Aelita felt her good mood curl up and die; their faces looked normal, but she could just sense that little buzz in the air, hear a whisper of things gone south.

Something had happened.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

She listened, in dawning horror, as Yumi detailed the events of last night: Kiwi's escape, the man at the Hermitage, the dogs, Kiwi's wounded body, going back to search. And then, the news her parents had brought from the vet. Apparently Kiwi had received internal injuries so serious, he'd been left for an overnight stay.

When she was done, Aelita was chewing her thumbnail, Jeremie was looking at the sky thoughtfully, and Ulrich was groaning and pressing a hand to his eyes. "I shouldn't have brought him to you. If I'd known-"

"You couldn't," Yumi said promptly. "We were the ones who were supposed to keep an eye on Kiwi. It's more our fault than yours."

"Let's not discuss blame," Aelita pleaded. True, no one was throwing blame, but seeing her friends blame themselves was almost as bad. "It was just a series of unfortunate events. Where's Odd now?"

In response, Yumi simply pointed. Across the quad, her 'cousin' was trudging to breakfast, Jim right on his heels. Aelita winced. He got caught.

"I bet that's why Sissi wasn't around this morning," she murmured speculatively. "She probably got caught too and was upset."

"Sissi too? Damn."

"So what are we gonna do about the Hermitage?" Yumi asked.

After mulling a moment, Jeremie raised a finger. "I think the only solution is to put it under observation."

"Do you mean organize some kind of guard duty?" Please, no. With Odd in trouble, it'll be hard to watch the Hermitage and keep up with classes. And I don't want to get Hiroki or Sissi anymore involved than they already were.

Fortunately, Jeremie seemed to agree with her. "Actually, I was thinking along the lines of a closed-circuit television surveillance. I'll go to the factory and check if it has the components, and if not I'll run to an electrical store. Once-"

He clammed up as the pattering of feet announced an approach. It was Hiroki. Aelita did her best to compose her face into one of 'we weren't discussing anything secret'.

"Are you guys talking about…" Hiroki lowered his voice to a whisper. "You know, the guy?"

"No," Yumi said instantly, voice hard as flint.

"Liar! You're totally talking about him. You're all huddled together looking sneaky."

"Even if we are, it's not your business!"

His face grew red. "Yes it is! He hurt Lychee, and you went out looking for him, and now Odd and Sissi are in trouble! I wanna help stop him!"

A few passerby were glancing over, drawn to the sound of raised voices. Aelita scrambled to think of a way to tell Hiroki to quiet down without raising his suspicions. Hiroki was sharp, too sharp. She absolutely could not put Yumi's family at risk for hers.

Thankfully, Ulrich came up with a response first. "Confronting him would be bad news," he said. Yumi shot him a grateful look. "We're just gonna look for evidence about him, so if you think you see him, you run away and call us."

Hiroki's eyes narrowed. "Why you and not the police?"

"Because we don't want to send them on a wild goose chase!" Aelita blurted, grasping on the first excuse she could. "We don't know what this guy looks like. What if you think you see him and call the police on an innocent person? That's why you should check with us first."

The youngest Ishiyama pursed his lips, but eventually nodded. "Fine."

Once Hiroki walked away, Jeremie cleared his throat. "As I was saying-"

"Watch for eavesdroppers," Yumi interrupted, staring hard at something over Aelita's shoulder. She turned-it was William. He was watching them, a speculative look on his face. Had he heard the shouting? Did he think something was up?

She tried to give him a weak smile, but a sudden yank on her arm turned her back forward. Her friends were huddling up, deliberately turning their backs to William. A spark of anger lit inside Aelita. He knows you don't trust him! You don't have to parade it!

She tampered it down. She didn't want to start an argument. But still, emotion boiled inside her.

Jeremie leapt back into his explanation in hushed tones. "Once we have the parts, I'll put the cameras together and place them around the house. I'll reassemble my main computer to monitor them from, so if by chance that man decides to return, we'll have an image of him. And then we can…"

He trailed off, possibilities flickering in his eyes.

"Report him to the police, right?" Yumi said forcefully. "Like we said we would."

Just the thought made Aelita's stomach twist. Report to the police? People who were a governmental force? Slivers of memory-of crying for Mommy as she disappeared, of holding Daddy's sweaty hand as they handed false documents over, of running as the men in black knocked down their door-all told her the same thing: she could not trust the government.

Ulrich and Jeremie seemed to share her mistrust, if their skeptical looks were anything to go by. Finally, Ulrich coughed. "It's just...when have we ever trusted adults to handle things? And don't say Hopper."

"There was Jim!"

"Jim's great, but other adults have just gotten in our way more often than not, or been useless."

Aelita shuffled her feet, rubbed an arm. Finally, she dared to voice her opinion. "Personally...I'm not sure if I can trust any force from the government."

Yumi's face was frustrated, and Aelita knew this had to be hard on her. Yumi had hated keeping secrets from her family, and she'd really hated anything that could put them at risk. That man with the dogs could have hurt Hiroki, her little brother. Of course she'd rather turn this over to the authorities.

But putting that kind of trust in such people-to seek out their power, when all she remembered was shying from it-

"We can decide what to do with him later," Jeremie said, derailing her train of thought. "At the very least, it would serve us well if we could interrogate or investigate him to see why he's lurking near the Hermitage. And to do that, we need leads."

A/N: In the novels they don't take Kiwi to a vet, which should probably have killed him. When a big dog attacks a small dog, they often pick them up and shake them like a toy. This can cause many dangerous internal injuries, even if outwardly the dog looks fine. Given how much the Ishiyamas and Odd love Kiwi, and Yumi's maturity, it made more sense for someone to suggest getting Kiwi checked out than not, so I rectified that.