"How are you calm about this?" Alexei asked Cam. The group was inside Emi's dorm at Kadic discussing the events of the previous 'day'. Alexei and Kya were shocked that someone else had been on Lyoko with Emi and Lynn. Cam shared that during her arrival the supercomputer hadn't detected anything unusual.
"Panicking won't help or change anything." Cam stated. "I've had a program running scans while we were in class and nothing has appeared." He wasn't sure if the girl was a program or human. It was the latter he worried about. If she were human, that meant there was probably another supercomputer out there somewhere and an unknown person had access to it.
"She helped us, isn't there a change she's on our side." Emi suggested.
"I'm with Lynn on this one." Kya added. "She could be an advanced program created by Xana to get us to lower our guard."
"We can't rule anything out yet." Cam stated. "There's nothing aside from continuing to run scans that we can do without her prescenes. For now I'll set the supercomputer to alert us when someone other than us enters Lyoko. That's the best we can do."
"I still think your to calm about this." Alexei was the reckless on of the group, but even he could be cautious.
"It's like Cam said, we can't do much if she isn't around. The supercomputer didn't detect anything, thus for now she's not what we should concern ourselves about." Emi reassured Alexei. "It'd be something different if she accessed the mansion. Since we were all inside the lab or Lyoko when she appeared, that's not the case."
"Let's put this discussion on pause." Lynn suggested. "Cam did you finish?"
"Yup." During lunch Cam checked the updates he made to the supercomputer. With the matrtialztion data Emi retrieved from Sector 5, they could be devirtizlated from Sector 5 without worry now. "We're all set for the next adventure to Sector 5."
"We're going back already?" Kya asked.
Emi shook her head. "No, now that we know Xana's execepting us to visit again. We thought it best to wait a few days. Don't want to be ambushed again." That was how Kya and Alexei had been devirtiazed during their mission in Sector 5. Xana had been on step ahead of them.
"In the mean time we'll focus on Tundra and Island sectors." Cam stated. "Which works out since there's a more pressing matter we need to attend to there." After anazlying the data from the day before, Cam came to a conclusion, Alexei's theroy might be right.
"Did you find another key?" Lynn stopped strumming his guitar to join the converstion.
Cam shook his head, "No, but the data you guys collected shows it's highly possbile."
Kya's mouth dropped. "You mean Alexie was right? Say it ain't so."
"Hey!" Alexei chimmed. "I resent that."
The other day, Alexei theorized that in the three hidden sectors, there could be more keys. This would also mean Xana could be after them. It wasn't much, but it was the first solid lead they had in a while.
"So, how do we fully confirm the exeistion of more keys?" Emi asked.
"You guys go back to those sectors and help Emi access data from four towers. This will allow me direct access to the sectors. I'll be able to find more information ." After finding the Island and Tundra sectors, Cam had tired to access them from the supercomputer to obtain more data. However, he discovered these sectors were blocked for some reason.
"Why four towers? There's only two sectors?" Lynn asked.
Cam pulled up an old version of the holo-map on Emi's computer. "This is the Lyoko we're all familiar with." He added the two newest sectors over top. "The Island and Tundra sectors are both twice as big as the other four."
"Because of this, each of those sectors is like two mini sectors in one." Emi explained. She'd worked late with Cam the other night looking over the data they'd collected. "Good news is we think the two halves of each sector connect to each other at speific points. So we don't have to find new access points in the other sectors. We just need to find those speific points in the Island and Tundra sectors."
"Okay, when do you want to do this?" Alexei glanced up from his homework.
"The sooner the better." Lynn stated.
"We were thinking tomorrow." Emi suggested. "Since it'll take most of the day, we'll have to do it during school."
Kya was unsure about that. "It'll be easy for you to leave most of the day. But not for all four of us. Why don't we start after school tomorrow and continue working over a series of several days?"
"There's a chance that if we don't complete this within eight hours, Xana could gain access to the sectors." Emi explained.
"You mean once the mission starts we'll have eight hours to complete it?" Alexei asked.
Cam shook his head, "From tomorrow at eight am we have eight hours or Xana will gain access to the sectors."
"Why wait? We can get started right now." Kya offered. She didn't have practice today and the others were also free, making it the perfect opptuinrty.
"It's getting late, which means everyone having to sneak back in." Cam countered. "Lynn was already caught by Mr. C. He got off with a warning this time, but it to risky to chance it."
"How are we going to without raising suspision?" Lynn didn't like the idea of all of them missing school for this. One wrong portion of their 'story' would blow their cover. Cam missing class wasn't anything new, but Cam was beginning to push his luck. How would they convience the teachers that himself, Kya, and Alexei missing class wasn't weird. It was necessary.
"About that." Cam's voice trailed off. "This plan is different than previous ones." He explained to the group that Emi and Kya would be the ones going to Lyoko. He'd go with them before school to begin the mission than return during the school day to attend classes like normal. He periodically check in with the group, but they'd be on their own.
The idea was that since Emi is Kya's 'cousin' they'd create an excuse that required both of them to miss school for a day. The other option was to have Alexei go instead of Emi, problem was his mother. If he missed an entire day of school, she'd be notificed. Lynn couldn't go since he'd already been caught sneaking around once by Mr. C.
"Is that going to be safe?" Kya questioned. "We'll be alone on Lyoko, Xana could attack at any moment."
"Yeah, can't he access those sectors once Emi's inside?" Alexei added.
"We've thought about that." Emi smiled. In her spare time she played around with a cloning program. In it's basic stage, it could run on pre-made commands. "We'll create several fake clones of us that will travel across Lyoko. By the time Xana figures out their fakes we'll have hopefully completed the mission."
"Or you'll be free to assist on Lyoko when needed." Cam looked at Alexei and Lynn. "We'll have to hope for the best but be ready to go to Lyoko at a moments notice."
Kya had doubts about the plan, but trusted Emi and Cam knew what they were doing. She was just happy she wasn't doing Cam's role of guiding this time. A similar mission had been completed earlier when Emi had entered an actived tower with a still active firewall. Her digital data had been spread across Lyoko. Cam had to travel across Lyoko four sectors to enter four different towers to retrieve her data. Normally one Emi could access a tower's termial. However Cam's ability Override allowed him that same access. Although not easily.
"We'll end the meeting here." Cam announced. "As we've learned 'yesterday' we haven't been as careful as we thought." Before the Return to the Past, Mr. C along with the Principal of Kadic and Jim, had arrived at the mansion with Ally. Kit had lead them to the mansion after being found in Emi's dorm.
"And you." Cam turned to the kitten. "If someone other than us finds you, wait at Alexei's house for us. Don't lead them to the mansion."
"Meow." Kit lazily meow as if to say 'whatever'. She tucked her head into Emi's neck, snuggling into her.
"You know Kit does what Kit wants." Lynn placed his guitar aside to pat Kit.
"Speaking of Kit, who's taking her tonight?" Emi asked. Kit usually roams around were she pleases, but lately she's been hanging around them more. They've been taking turns keeping the kitten for the night. For Emi, Kya, and Lynn that was easier said than done. Pets weren't allowed in the dorms, thus they had to keep Kit hidden when she was inside their dorms. Otherwise, she roamed around campus until classes were over.
"We'll take her." Alexei offered. "Mom's been asking when Kit would visit." He took Kit from Emi and placed her inside his open bag. There Kit yawned than settled in for a nap.
They decided to call it a night and leave. It was still early enough were Kya and Lynn wouldn't have to sneak into their dorms. Alexei and Cam could even walk through campus without it being suspeces, since other day students would be leaving around that time.
Emi watched her friends gather their belongs to head to their respective homes. She wished she could go with them, not be left behind. Her time on earth had taught her to be grateful for being off of Lyoko, but could be lonely. If it weren't for Wave, Emi thought she'd go crazy from the boredom. Unlike her friends, Emi didn't have a specific hobby or interest. Her free time consisted of completing school work, things for their Lyoko missions, helping Cam, and spending time with the group. How had she managed her time alone while on Lyoko?
The other girl of the group, Kya wasn't close with Emi, not like how she was with the guys. She naturally got along better with males than females. In fact, she's never had a friend gal pal she felt close enough to share her worries and secrets with. Lilie was the only consist female figure Kya regularly spoke with that she considered a friend. But what about Emi?
She didn't dislike Emi but didn't know how close they were. Yes their friends. But was that because they'd bonded like she'd done with the guys or because of their Lyoko connection. Kya glanced at Emi, remembering when she first met her. Back than she was against keeping the supercomputer active, only staying with the group because Lynn refused to leave. That'd been over a year ago. Now she could honestly state she remained because these were her friends and she had their back like that had her's.
Like Emi, Kya also knew what it was like to be new at a school and know only one person. Her first few weeks at Kanna were difficult. While Lynn did attend the school, they were in different grades which meant they didn't have any classes together. Another reason she bonded with Avery. He was the first person in class who reached out to her. The two had little in common but got along well. Until he wanted her to chose between him and Lynn. The answer was simple, Lynn. Lynn would always come first. Still that didn't mean Kya enjoyed losing a friend.
"Hey Emi." Kya made a descion, she wanted to get to know Emi better and help her adjust to life on earth. They were 'cousins' after all.
"Yeah." Emi turned to Kya who had stayed behind.
"Are you free the day after tomorrow?" Kya asked.
Emi thought for a moment. Pending a Wave interruption, she had nothing planned. "Nope."
"Great. Wanna try ice skating? I have practice that day but we can skate for a bit afterwards." Kya offered. She hadn't had a chance to spend time on the ice just enjoying it. It'd be nice to ice skate without worrying about practice.
"I'd like that." Emi smiled. "You'll have to teach me. The ice sector isn't the best place to practice."
Plans made, they went their spereate ways.
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When they reached the edge of Kanna's campus by the forest, the group parted ways. Alexei and Cam made their way to the school's gate to head home with Kit. While Lynn and Kya went towards the dining hall. Dinner was ending, but they had time to grab a quick meal.
"When are you going to confess to Cam?" Lynn asked as they entered the dinning hall.
Kya nearly walked into the door upon hearing the question. "Do we have to discuss this now?"
"No, but I wanted say something the silence was annoying." Smiling Lynn entered the dinning hall. Since dinner was almost over half of the tables were empty. Those that had students were hanging out until they had to return to their dorms.
Kya and Lynn found an empty table and began eating. During their meal, Kya brought showed Lynn the picture she found the day before. The picture showed a woman with purple hair standing in between two children. Only the children's gender could be vaguely be made out. Other than that, nothing about the children could be seen since the picture was faded.
"Where'd you get this?" Lynn asked between bites.
"The mansion's library. It was sitting on the shelf." Kya answered. "This," she pointed to the woman in the picture. "might be the mansion's owner."
Lynn thought about Kya's statement. There was nothing to prove her wrong, but there was also nothing to prove her right. "Don't jump to conclusions Kya. All you have is a picture without any other information. We need to confirm who is she before doing anything else."
"I will going to ask Cam about it." She answered.
Lynn shook his head. "Don't. He has enough on his plate already. He might not show it, but he's stressing. Xana's no tricks haven't helped." He wanted to discuss Xana's new ability to proccess people and the four new monsters created. Xana suddenly getting stronger made no sense, there had to be a reason behind it. Lynn hadn't brought up these concerns to Cam because he knew his friend had a large to-do list regarding Lyoko already. The materizlation program topped that list. Which made sense, because if they could free Emi from the supercomputer, everything else became pointless. From the beginning their goal had been to free Emi and turn off the supercomputer, trapping Xana.
"Fine, I'll look into it myself." Kya had no idea how she was going to do that. Research was Cam's area, she was the assistant. The only research she'd done was for school, where the topics had plenty of easy to find information. Discovering who this woman was is a whole other level of difficult.
"You could ask for help." Calex slide into the empty seat beside Kya. "Whatever it is, it's best to start in the school library or a quick search online."
Lynn and Kya looked at each other. A silence conversation about what to tell Calex was shared between them. Telling him about the picture would reveal their connection to the mansion, a place Calex was already too interested in.
"How're you liking Kanna?" Lynn asked. He didn't care, wanted to devurt his attention to a different topic.
His question caught Calex off guard. He didn't know they were on causal speaking terms. Calex had tried making conversation with Lynn in the pass, but Lynn only gave short answers. Otherwise the two didn't speak to each other. Only reason they did speak was because of their relationship with Kya.
"Good, I've joined the newspaper club and met some people and friends there." He explained. "When tryouts start again, you'll be seeing more of me. Covering sports is one of my tasks." More so photographing them, since he was the newspapers photographer.
"No you won't." Lynn went back to his typical way of speaking to Calex.
"Huh?" Calex asked in confusion.
Kya jumped in to explain the music contest Lynn took part in and his prize as one of the runner ups. Him leaving for several months wasn't widely known. Only the Prinpal and Lyoko Defenders knew about it. Partially because Lynn was still hestiate about leaving. He remembered that the team struggled the breif time he'd left to focus on the contest. He didn't want to leave them down a defender, espically when he'd be overseas and not a phone call away.
During the conversation, Avery arrived with Ally. Seeing the two without Mara was like seeing Alexei without Cam, weird. Avery and Ally's relationship wasn't one of friends or enemies, but more of people who co-exist because of a common connection.
"Yo, Calex thought we were playing video games in my dorm." Avery interrupted.
"We are, I was just catching up." Calex stood and moved towards the two newcomers.
Kya and Lynn shared another look, asking 'when did they become close?'
Avery grunted at Calex's statement. "Why? They aren't that interesting."
Calex shrugged, "That's your opinion. I think their quite intriguing." He ended the converstation there, saying his goodbyes to Kya and Lynn. Than followed Avery and Ally out of the dinning hall.
Once they were gone, Lynn turned to Kya. "I told you he was bad news. Who befriends Avery and Ally?"
Kya had to agree, she didn't expect Calex to be friends with them either. "Need I remind you, I was friends with Avery in the beginning."
"Yeah, than you came to your senses." Lynn countered. Back than he hadn't been happy upon the discovery of Kya's friendship with Avery. He didn't understand what she saw in him that made him friendship material. Knowing Kya's personality and valuing their relationship, he hadn't protested their friendship. From what he knew about Kya, she'd sturnburnly aruge with him, leading to an even bigger fight. They wouldn't speak for a day or so then she'd ulimatly decide that while she disagreed with Lynn, they were best friends and that wouldn't change. Their friendship was more important to both of them. Thus she'd end her friendship with Avery, but both of them would feel guilty about it.
Taking all of that into consideration, Lynn voiced his concerns and disapproval once and left Kya to do as she pleased with her friendship with Avery. He only brought Avery up during his usual complaints and Kya said nothing more about her friendship with him. Unlike Avery stupidly gave Kya an ultimatum, a final choice him or Lynn. Kya hadn't hesitated, she chose Lynn and parted ways with Avery.
"Speaking of senses, how long has it been since Emi last had a vision?" Kya asked. Emi's visions started on her first day at Kadic. Since then they've happened several more times.
"About a week. She hasn't been mentioning them as often. Wonder if she's having them less or if they've stopped." Lynn answered.
While looking into the Hermitage, the place where Emi had her first vision, they also looked for clues at the mansion. As usual, nothing no new clubs had been found. That was until Kya found the photo in the mansion's library. Other then the furniture and supercomputer, the photo was the only piece of information they had on exisition of the mansion's owner. They now had a face, all they needed was a name.
Kya began to think about how she would find more information about the photo. Who could help her other than Cam?