A/N:

Hcbnc: Yes, it did, though the scene where it happened was very different.

Jeremie had been having a terrible day. The past three weeks had been busy, but this morning particularly so. After that business with William, Odd, and the Ishiyamas, Jeremie had returned to Kadic about one in the morning. He'd been woken up by Yumi and Ulrich calling that they'd taken the 6:30 am train, and they'd gone to her house, and where were her parents?! Then came their reports, working on the codes, planning today's later group meeting-oh, and fitting tomorrow's homework somewhere in there too.

And now, across from him, Aelita was scarfing down her food as fast as possible. She could have actually put Odd to shame! Jeremie, eating slower, watched in vague disbelief as she piled spaghetti in her mouth, threw back a glass of milk, and leapt to her feet. He couldn't help feeling a little insulted, as if she were trying to escape his company.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Richard's waiting for me in the café we went to yesterday," she said, grinning. "We're gonna continue our discussion-I can't wait!"

His chest tightened. "I don't understand what you find so interesting about him!"

"Come on, Jeremie! He was a friend! He knew me before I got stuck on Lyoko. He always came over to my place, and he knows so much about a time in my life that I don't remember anymore!"

Everything she was saying just made the coil around his heart squeeze harder. "Yeah, but you don't have to get so excited about it."

"Why not?" she asked, sounding hurt. Then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous, me?" he scoffed. "Are you kidding? Jealous of a fool who doesn't even know how to turn on a computer-"

"Jeremie, stop it!" she snapped. "You're being really mean."

"Mean?!"

"Yes! You're insulting one of my friends and getting huffy that I want to talk to him!"

"I'm not stopping you, am I?!"

"No, but you aren't supporting me! This is a piece of my past I've found! I don't understand why you can't be happy for me!"

Before he could retort, Aelita glanced at her watch and grimaced. "I've got to go. I can't be late."

She stormed away. Jeremie watched her pink hair vanish into the crowded Kadic cafeteria and ground his teeth.

She doesn't understand? Why can't she understand me? He just wanted a bit of reassurance that she still liked him...

He returned to his meal alone.

Wait...alone?

Jeremie quickly scanned the cafeteria. Ulrich and Yumi were visiting her parents, so their absence was expected. And he hadn't seen William today-Sissi had even asked him about it, then gone off to hunt him down. But more concerning...nowhere did he see that spike of blonde hair or hear an obnoxiously loud voice demanding thirds.

Odd never misses a meal. Where is he?

He'd said he was going to Eva's. Maybe with the storm that hit the city, he'd just gotten stuck there?

Jeremie snorted. Stuck with the girl of his dreams. How horrible for him.

Meanwhile, the girl of his dreams was angry at him and off to meet with another guy.

He sighed, suddenly not wanting to be here anymore. He snatched up an apple and began heading back to his room. He could get some more studying done of those strange Hoppix codes. Maybe this time, he'd discover what they were for…

But the moment he entered his room, he froze. He stared at his desk, petrified. The dossier wasn't there anymore.

And he hadn't made a copy.

Hoping against hope that perhaps it had just slipped off, or that he'd misremembered where he'd placed it, Jeremie frantically searched the rest of his room. When that failed to turn up the dossier, he sat back on his bed, head in his hands.

You idiot, Belpois. Didn't you learn anything from Franz Hopper's diaries? Always make a backup! Stupid, stupid of him to think XANA was the only one who would ever attack their resources.

After a moment of resigned horror, he rose to inspect the lock on his door. It hadn't been damaged in any way, but he knew he always locked it. If it hadn't been forced open, it must have been picked. And, given that nothing else in his room was out of place, whoever had done it must have known exactly what they wanted to take.

But who?

If anyone had been passing by Delmas's office at that moment, they would have seen an unusual and almost cruel smirk on Eva's face as she slipped out. They likely would have wondered how the girl had gotten past a locked door, or why she was there in the first place.

But, perhaps fortunately, perhaps not, no one was there. And so XANA made his exit unnoticed.

Offense and defense in one spectacular move, he thought smugly. Really, children, you should count yourselves lucky the principal didn't check on that dossier. I'm doing you a favor.

And at the same time, all the way back in Eva's house, XANA, in Odd's body, was feeding those codes into his laptop. A single glance at those sheets was all it had taken for him to memorize their contents with photographic quality. Now the dossier was back where it belonged, the codes were out of those kids' hands, and he was well on his way to winning this game.

Yes, XANA thought, actually humming a little, today was a very good day.

Aelita wouldn't say it, but the man with the dogs was scaring her. Between wandering around the Hermitage, attacking Kiwi, and now attacking Yumi's parents, he was shaping up to be a kind of threat they'd never faced before. Perhaps not as dangerous as XANA, in terms of sheer power, but dangerous in that they didn't know how to fight him or who he was working for. He could very well be the vanguard of greater troubles.

So she was relieved to find her friends shared her caution. Jeremie had, in fact, decreed they should keep themselves hidden as long as possible. And the best way was to hide in plain sight. So today they would be meeting around five o'clock at the Cafe au Lait.

They trickled in separately; Ulrich and Yumi arrived first, ostensibly for a date. Aelita came in next, chatting with William. Richard was third, just another adult grabbing a bite. Then Odd and Eva, holding hands-she smiled at the sight. Awww.

"No guesses as to where you two have been all day," Ulrich teased.

The pair only gave matching, conspiratorial grins.

Jeremie was last. Once he was there, they gravitated towards a table in the back, away from windows. She glanced at him guiltily-she felt bad for yelling at him as she had. But she was just so tired of him shooting down her enthusiasm. This, all those times with her music...

He didn't look at her as he got straight to business. "William, Yumi, and Ulrich each gave me a condensed report as soon as they got back to Kadic. I have an idea about what happened in Brussels-"

"We found a Replika!" William burst out. Aelita gasped. Eva and Odd looked intrigued. Richard looked puzzled.

"Yeah, and there was this ghost-"

"And then the men in black came-"

"And we split up to escape-"

"Calm down, you two!" Jeremie exclaimed, cutting off Ulrich and William's burst of excitement. "Share what you found, but in an orderly fashion, please."

Aelita's eyes widened when William and Ulrich described the city they'd seen. That was exactly like that one she'd visited Mr. X in! That was why neither she nor Richard could find anything about him! He must be an AI!

Then her heart sank. They'd said the city was empty and ruined. Had something happened to Mr. X? She thought of her nightmare, of XANA consuming that place and her friend, and shuddered.

A tiny seed of a suggestion tried to grow in the back of her mind. Her subconscious took one look at it and stomped it out. Before it could cross her conscious mind or even take root, it had been eliminated, discarded, and forgotten about. Aelita never became aware of it.

She absorbed the details of the city, the appearance of her father's ghost, the escape from the men in black. She was so proud of William's bravery and happy when Yumi and Ulrich commended it. Choked up about Daddy. Afraid of the reappearance of her oldest, most persistent enemies.

But there was no time for her to sort through all her feelings, for it was her group's turn to share stories. Yumi had already learned of what happened to her parents, but her throat still worked as Jeremie described the events of that night. Ulrich put an arm around her shoulder, his own expression stoic save for his concerned eyes. Eva's face was blank-with shock, Aelita thought-and Richard's empathetic.

"And they're fine?" the adult prompted.

"I saw them this morning, and checked on them again before I came here," Yumi said. "They're a bit confused, but not hurt. They've been released from the hospital, even."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Jeremie twisted to look at the other two blondes, who had been mostly silent thus far. "Finally, Odd found a strange disk that we think the intruder dropped. We decided to let Eva look at it. Did you find anything?"

"A virus," Eva said, wrinkling her nose. "It shot my laptop to hell. I think that guy may have dropped it on purpose."

"You think he was trying to sabotage us?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Are you sure?" Yumi interrupted suddenly. "Maybe Jeremie should take a look at it."

They all turned to her, surprised. "Yumi, what are you saying?" Odd exclaimed.

"Just that we don't know how skilled Eva really is. Teaching you something you didn't know about computers isn't exactly hard. Maybe this virus isn't as bad as she says."

And underneath, Aelita could read exactly what she wasn't saying: or maybe it doesn't exist.

Mortification at Yumi's suspicion flooded her. She turned to apologize to Eva, but her friend didn't seem upset. Instead, she met Yumi's stare evenly. She reached into her red jean jacket, withdrew a square piece of plastic, and slammed it on the table. "Go ahead," she said.

Silence fell.

"I know you don't trust me for whatever reason, but I like Odd and I like Aelita. I want to help them. And if Jeremie puts that in his computer, it's gonna wreck it, too."

Yumi didn't say anything. She just stared at the card, as if surprised. Aelita looked around the table. Suddenly, it seemed as if there were cracks spreading in their once-solid group. Yumi's hidden accusation had drawn a line in the sand, and people were starting to line up on its sides. She could envision how it would play out. Odd would side with Eva. William...since he knew the pain of being a suspected newcomer, probably Eva. Ulrich with Yumi. Jeremie with Yumi. Richard...she didn't know.

And her? How was she supposed to pick between one of her oldest friends and a newest? She hadn't known Eva that long, yes, but Aelita felt something between them. A kinship of kinds. Like she could just tell this girl anything.

But Yumi...Yumi had fought beside her more times than she could count. Given her someone to share girl talk with. Showed up for her concerts. Been a sister to her.

I can't let them fight. I have to figure out how to help them get along.

She took a breath, preparing a diplomatic plea-

And Jeremie pushed the card back to Eva, to Aelita's surprise. "We can't fight amongst ourselves. If we do, we won't accomplish anything."

Like a popped balloon, the tension drained away. Aelita wasn't sure whether to bless Jeremie's leadership, as he took charge again, or be disappointed by her missed opportunity. "Now, in the meantime, I've formulated a hypothesis about all this. If William and Ulrich both seemed to see Hopper in the Replika they found…"

"Uh, there wasn't anything 'seeming' about it," William said. "He was there."

"...that means the Replika was constructed by Hopper, and he inserted a copy of himself to give us clues."

"Or the men in black," Yumi said. Her voice was somewhat tight, but she was accepting Jeremie's decision. "Who knows how many times they've observed this mysterious city and spoken with him?"

The bespectacled boy frowned. "Yes, that is a problem. And I'd love to know what Ms. Hertz's role in all this is. But I think we can start to see a clearer picture: there are the codes in Richard's palm-computer, the codes in Hertz's dossier, and now this Replika. It's like a series of clues we have to follow."

Hope suddenly gripped Aelita's heart in a tight fist. She inhaled sharply. "Maybe...maybe they're clues for finding my mother."

"That's certainly a possibility. Hopper's last wish for you was to solve that mystery. But the problem is, the file with the code disappeared, and I don't know who took it or why."

"Professor Hertz, maybe?" Richard suggested.

"She never goes into the students' rooms. No, it was someone else."

"And we can't forget about the people who chased us in Brussels," Ulrich reminded everyone. "So now we've got two enemies we barely know about: the men in black, who were armed and had a helicopter and cars and who knows what else, and this man with two dogs, who's sniffing around the Hermitage and attacked Yumi's parents."

"Could he be part of the men in black?" William wondered.

But Jeremie shook his head. "Impossible. They operate in different ways. The man with the dogs acts alone, with technology straight out of science fiction, and he doesn't care about laws. The men in black seem more like a government force. Do you have any idea of the number of authorizations required to fly a helicopter above a city? The police definitely knew about them and left them alone. So, yes, Ulrich's right: besides us, there are two other groups investigating Franz Hopper."

A somber mood fell upon them at that proclamation. What have I done? Aelita thought. All she'd wanted was to find her mother, and yes, she'd known that would be difficult...but she didn't think it would be this dangerous. The men in black? Another unknown organization? Her friend's dogs and parents being attacked? She wanted to tell everyone "Stop! Don't get hurt for my sake!"

But this was bigger than just her. This wasn't just finding her mother, but protecting her father's legacy. This man had attacked the Ishiyamas; her gut told her not by chance. He may already know about them all. And in that case, pushing her friends away wouldn't protect them.

Still, if there was anything she could do to take the brunt of the burden unto herself, Aelita vowed she would.

Finally, Jeremie let out a long sigh. "Guys. We're gonna need to be very careful moving forward. I know you two…" He looked at Aelita and William. "...want to bring Sissi in, but this is a delicate situation. I don't think it's a good idea, at least not yet. We already have three new people, and I'd rather not introduce a new element so soon."

William's fist curled up, and Aelita thought that telling Sissi was more important to him than he let on. He was, she realized with a start, in the same position she'd been in not too long ago-trying to balance two groups of friends, lying to one for the sake of the other. Reaching over, she patted his arm with a small, sympathetic smile.

He exhaled and nodded slowly. "Alright. What's our first step, Einstein?"

"If you don't mind, Richard, I'd like to borrow your palm-computer and start studying the codes. I have a series of notes on the whole thing in my room."

"I can help," Eva immediately offered.

"No, focus on fixing your laptop. If that virus is as sophisticated as all the other tech that man has used, it could take ages to purge it."

She pouted. "Alright…"

"The rest of you can take shifts watching the Hermitage tonight. I'll tinker a bit, find a way to hook your laptops into the security loop there."

"Good to me, boss," Ulrich said, and various nods and murmurs of assent echoed around the table.

It was approaching noon, and Dido was alone. She'd even told Maggie to take an early lunch break with her friends. She didn't want anyone around to potentially overhear the conversation she was about to have.

Trust no one. That was her motto. Just because she had access to the best security technology on the market did not mean she should be lax. There was always the chance Maggie was listening in on and recording her phone calls.

Dido moved around her office, extracting three different keys from three different spots. With them, she opened a secret drawer in her desk. From it, she withdrew a tattered moleskin journal. It was filled with codes, most decoy; she flipped past them to the page she wanted.

Going to her computer, she entered the stream of numbers and letters-a very long password. Once it was in, the telephone numbered she needed popped up on the screen. Dido activated all anti-intercept protections she had, and dialled it.

On the third ring, the speaker answered. The voice was distorted by static, as was Dido's. But she could easily picture the face, its lizard-eyes and gold canines and smirking mouth. They'd only met thrice, but thrice was enough. "Madame. It's been a long time. The line is secure, I imagine?"

"Of course, Hannibal."

"Good. So, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"The network in France is operational again. And we've just discovered that one of your men is there. Judging by his modus operandi, I suspect it's Grigory Nictapolus."

"A fine, educated guess, madame."

"It's not hard," she said drily. "Whenever you need dirty work done, you always send that man and his horrid dogs."

"So? Surely you didn't call just about that."

"So, I want to know: why, after all this time, did you send him to Kadic? What did you find? What is he looking for?"

She heard the man harumph. "You are hardly one to make such demands, madame. I'm still not pleased about your little intervention in 1994. The Green Phoenix sponsored Hopper-that factory and Lyoko rightfully belonged us! And you went in and mucked everything up."

She bristled. Mago knew how much she hated the reminder that Hopper escaped from her, damn him. "Hopper's work belonged with the government, not your...organization. I know the kind of things the Green Phoenix gets up to. How's Anthea these days?"

Mago tsk'ed. "Come now, you can't expect me tell you anything about her situation? I've never done so before. A new game has started, and I certainly won't show off my cards before I've played them."

Underneath the table, Dido clenched a fist. Wily old bastard…

But that was why he'd earned his nickname "The Magician". Once a poor, cultureless son of farmers, he'd manipulated, stolen, and murdered his way to the top of the criminal underworld in true cutthroat fashion. He'd spirited away Franz Hopper's wife, forever securing one of the best bargaining chips against the man should he find him. And furthermore, he'd found a way to keep Anthea, always thwarting rescue attempts until they no longer bothered.

"Then you're after the supercomputer again," she concluded.

From what she knew, Hopper had kept his lab's location an absolute secret. The only people who'd known had either been taken care of or vanished before Dido could extract it from them. She had cursed Hopper's paranoia countless times in her fruitless searches, but now, she was glad for it. Even if she didn't know where the fabled supercomputer was hidden, at least the Green Phoenix didn't, either.

"Really, must you sound so sour? I believe we're united in this matter. You want Carthage buried once and for all; we can do that. All you need to do is stay out of our way."

Fat chance.

She opened her mouth to throw a sharp retort at Mago, but he'd already hung up.

Her dream had been one of terrifying, disjointed images: the man with two dogs chasing her through that sci-fi city, Mr. X melting into a black puddle, her father's ghost turning into a ball of light and exploding, her mother's sobbing voice echoing around her. When Aelita woke up, she was covered in sweat, shaking in fear, and crying. She spent the next few moments sniffing and wiping her eyes.

When she'd put the ghost of the nightmare to rest, Aelita finally looked around to get her bearings. Yes, she'd sleepwalked again; this time she was behind a television set. The room was almost empty, save for a sofa. The door was so low one would need to crawl to get through.

Her lips parted. This is...the secret room in the Hermitage? In my sleep, I walked all the way through the sewers, to the Hermitage, to here?

She should consider herself lucky no harm had befallen her. But why had she come here? This was the third time her subconscious had brought her along this path; there must be a reason.

A bit lost, she turned back to the white wall she'd woken up facing. Examining it closely, she could see scratch marks all over, as if a desperate animal had tried to claw through. When she looked at her hands, she saw that her nails were full of plaster and the ends of her fingers had blood on them.

Aelita frowned. She pressed her ear against the wall and tapped it several times. Her eyes widened-it sounded hollow! Her mind flashed back to what that builder, Philippe Broulet, had said: "I had to return to the Hermitage and wall up a section of the house, so as to create a hidden room invisible room the outside."

A section, he said! Not just one room! There was more right in front of us and we didn't see it!

Excited, she hurried back to the storeroom to search for something, anything she could use to break through the wall. Let's see, bricks, sacks, mason tools...a pickaxe! That's perfect! It was lying at an angle against the wall; she dragged it into the secret room.

Then, Aelita began to push the television set away from the wall. Sweat poured down her forehead and into her eyes from the effort. Her breath came in short pants. Her muscles ached. But Aelita didn't care about fatigue. Not when she was so close to finding another secret.

Finally, there was enough space for her to strike at the wall. When she picked up the pickaxe, the handle slipped through her sweaty palms; her first strike merely chipped the primer. Gritting her teeth, Aelita wiped her hands on her nightgown. She shifted her grip on the pickaxe, took a deep breath, and swung again.

Dust and debris billowed out, stinging her eyes. She accidentally inhaled some and coughed in spurts. The wall had given way in one hit; it must have been built with the intent to be easily demolished. Her father had wanted her to discover this new secret room.

The hole she'd made was only thirty centimeters wide, so, taking the pickaxe again, she struck the wall a second time to enlarge it. When she was done, she stepped through and gaped. One thought ran through her head:

Jeremie has to see this right away...