Code Lyoko Evolution: Like father, like daughter

Hours had passed since they'd left for their flight.
Hours...
Yet, to her, it felt like days... weeks even.

Anthea sat alone in the cafeteria, a cup of coffee slowly going cold next to her. There was also a newspaper folded next to where her elbow rested on the table, but it hadn't been touched. The last few weeks had gone so fast, yet so slowly... Her thoughts would jump from one thing to another, most of them about her past and confusing her to no end but they would all lead back to the same thing- Aelita, her daughter.
'She's alive', Anthea thought to herself, causing every fibre of her being to shiver with anticipation, even though she had known this fact for just over a fortnight.
Originally, she was confused, coming to terms with the news recieved from Aelita first-hand. It just conflicted with everything that Tyron had told her since he rescued her from the clutches of the Men in Black. But still... it couldn't have been a joke- it had to be her, no one else knew of their mother-daughter relationship and what's more, of Waldo. Due to this, she'd immediately become suspicious of Tyron, feeling as if he'd been hiding something from her. And sure enough, she'd found out that he had been.

Whilst in midst-conversation with her daughter via webcam, originally finding out about her daughter's existance, Tyron had ended the conversation by terminating the sound and video feed between Anthea's webcam and the Cortex. This action provoked much questioning from Anthea and soon developed into a massive argument between herself and Tyron, eventually ending with her being escorted out by some of Tyron's employed ninjas. Deciding to return home for the day, Anthea proceeded to Tyron's personal study. After managing to pick the lock with the help of nothing but a small hair-pin, she carefully but surely ravaged Tyron's folders and computer files for any trace of the names of her daughter or ex-husband.
The names 'Aelita' and 'Waldo' had been entered into Tyron's computer dozens of times, trying to find some sort of encrypted file that would explain everything to her.

Even if it was encrypted, she knew very well all of Tyron's passwords and how he protected his data, it would be no problem to access it. The search was tedious but she had finally managed to locate a very secure file with links to 'Franz Hopper' embedded in the file's comments. Upon accessing it, Anthea was presented with lines of code along with many comments and suggested alterations, presented on many different scanned-in pages. The code was all to familliar to her however, so much so that she knew, sraight-off, that it was a program written by Waldo, her late husband.That night had ended with Anthea managing to copy the file to her own USB drive and return everything in Tyron's office to normal before he came home to notice that anything had been altered in the first place.

Reading the whole document had been a task, especially when trying to understand it all and hide it from Tyron at the same time, but right now, Anthea was on the last page- reading the comments and alterations section. Comments, written by Waldo, warned that certain sections of code were not to be changed, for the sake that the program work as intended and also to prevent some sort of catastrophic event. Alterations however, Anthea could clearly make out, were written in Tyron's handwriting, cleary doing the exact opposite of what Waldo had warned of and instead developing the file's code. Upon reading through it, she had gathered that it was a type of virus file entitled 'XANA', originally intended for industrial espionage. But Tyron's alterations... oh, no... he had made it so much more, so much more dangerous...
And at the very bottom of the page, Anthea recognised the official documentation stamp that read 'Project Carthage'. And then it hit her, this was the program that Tryon had recently been working with. He'd stolen Waldo's program and turned it into something for his own use... something bad, very bad.

Then, it was as if everything suddenly clicked into place; Anthea understood everything. Her skin became as cold as the cup of coffee sitting next to her. She was compelled to read the last page of the file again and again, anyalysing every little thing, hoping that her conclusions were wrong. But unfortunately, Anthea was correct.
Tyron... this program... will take over the world... Coming into terms with what she'd just read, Anthea shook with sheer dread and fear. Tyron and Graven had left for France that morning, where, they told Anthea, they would locate Aelita and bring her back home, to Switzerland. Tyron had suggested before they left that Anthea record a message for her daughter, assuring her that Tyron was trustworthy and would safely bring her back to reunite them. It was only now that Anthea sensed that Tyron had an alterior motive for wanting to go and 'collect' Aelita from another country... Now, all Anthea could do was sit in total regret and fear for her daughter. After reading the file, she didn't know what he'd do with Aelita once he found her. One thing was for sure, she didn't trust him in the slightest. She didn't know what part Aelita had to play in this, why she was so important... but if Tyron wanted her, it was probably for a bad reason. All she knew now was that she'd made a mistake in asking her to trust Tyron, and hope that, whatever was going on in the bigger picture, she'd see past his lies or false intentions and make the right decision to do anything but trust him.

The cafeteria now felt very cavernous. The information that Anthea now knew compared to when she first walked in was overwhelming, so much so that she felt a sweat coming on, as if she were beginning to become afraid of Tyron, the man that she'd married believing to have a good heart.
Now she was seeing beyond that, more at the monster that he was.
'No', she forced herself to think positively. 'He's just a man, with a monsterous mind, yes, but still a man. Nothing to be afraid of'
Though she was fearing for herself, what would happen when and if Tyron found out what she knew, she couldn't help but worry herself sick about what he would do with Aelita- would he hurt her, would he use her as some sort of blackmail?
Upon trying to calm herself down, she thought of her late-husband; how calm he'd always been when a small crisis would rise up and how strong he'd been when dealing with it... not to mention how loving and supportive he'd been when trying to calm down his family. Anthea's expression then bore a sad smile.
'Oh Wally...', she shook her head a little. She would usually call him by his middle name, Franz, but 'Wally' was a nickname that she saved for more playful moments. In a way, she kind of wished that she'd called him that more often...

Over the course of an hour, Anthea sat dwelling on fond memories of her life before her own kidnapping when Aelita was a child, also wondering how old she was now and how she and Waldo had got on with life without her.
After much dwelling on the happy life that she used to lead, she eventually dozed off, using her arms that were folded on the table as a head-rest.

***

She awoke to the sound of a raised voice travelling down the corridor that went past the cafeteria, leading towards Tyron's office.
"R-really sir, you're sure? ...Alright then, I'll have it shut off immediately", she heard a young man talk into his phone as he strode quickly down the corridor.

Reacting to this, knowing that the young scientist was talking to either Graven or Tyron due to his shaking voice and his usual reaction to being talked to with their authority, Anthea quickly slipped the Carthage file into her unread newspaper and that under her arm, proceeding to catch up with the young scientist down the corridor.
"Mike", she called out to the tall brunette, making the effort of jogging after him, "Micheal"
After hearing his name the second time, the young man turned around to meet Anthea's eyes, but continued to walk.
"Sorry Anthea, can't talk now, Profess- I mean, your husband has requested that the supercomputer turned off immediately", the young man fretted.
Anthea was shocked for a second but- then everything made sense. The supercomputer, of course! This news was all she needed to hear, she'd been so shocked upon reading the Carthage file before that she hadn't thought that without that much processing power, that 'XANA' program wouldn't be able to power itself.
Not only that, that fact that the Supercomputer had to be turned off meant that Tyron experienced some trouble on his little trip to France. And Anthea had no doubt in her mind that 'trouble' went by the name of Aelita.

Upon hearing the news, Anthea tried her best to fake the expected reaction, of course, she wasn't going to let on that she knew anything she wasn't supposed to.
"Oh dear, well, did he say why?", she asked in a confused tone.
"Graven said something about a virus, I don't know. All I know is that I need to switch it off", Mike then ran off towards Tyron's lab, leaving Anthea standing still far behind him.
"A virus?", she repeated curiously.
She took a moment to think everything through. Clearly, Aelita was a threat to Tyron and this virus must have had something to do with her. Slowly, her face spread a small smile, knowing now that her daugher was probably more on the ball with what was going on than she was. Also, that she definately didn't trust Tyron. Overall, she knew that with the Supercomputer turned off, she wouldn't be able to be contacted by Aelita via the Cortex like last time and, what's more, she wouldn't be reunited with her thanks to Tyron any time soon. In a way, this pained her a little, knowing that she wouldn't be seeing her daughter as soon as she thought. Regardless, Anthea's smile remained fully intact as she turned to proceed to her own office where she could safely document the Carthage file without Tyron ever finding it.

All in all, she couldn't prove to herself that Aelita, at that moment, was safe from Tyron, but her mothering instinct wouldn't let her think otherwise. She was just so sure.
Anthea sighed, her smile getting that little bit bigger by the minute. That virus was her doing, she knew it. And she couldn't have felt prouder.
"Like father, like daughter"