The elevator doors opened and Gavin, a man, and a woman were standing before her eyes. No, Gavin, Benjamin, and Abba were standing there.

Abba was rambling on about how incompetent her bodyguards were, leaving the two "captives" unattended, and then she halted. She tilted her head and stared at the girl. Benjamin nudged Gavin into the room before stepping out of the elevator himself. Aimee recognised them instantly.

"Mom? Dad?" she addressed them.

Benjamin's eyebrows were thicker and his stubble grew too - though it still was not a beard, even after twelve years. He glanced at her, and then at Abba, letting her speak first.

"You must be Aimee?" she responded with an unequivocal French accent.

"And you're my mother," her voice was breaking. "You died in front of me at the hospital when I was five years old. How could you have been alive all this time and not once thought about me?"

Tears covered Aimee's eyes and ran down her cheeks.

"Not once thought about you? I think about you every day," she admitted. "Do you even know where we are, Aimee?"

Aimee wiped her tears. "In France," she replied.

"This building, do you know what it is called?"

"I'm not really here by choice."

"These two know," Abba gestured to Stefan and Gavin.

"Of course they know, they brought me here," Aimee glimpsed between the three of them.

"Shouldn't have," Stefan murmured.

"This is more than just a building, Aimee," continued Abba.

"Enemy headquarters, your headquarters," she replied.

"Aimee, do not delude yourself!" scolded Abba. "This is your building. This is AIM."

"What?" Aimee was staggered.

There was a moment of quietness in the room. Abba nodded slowly, letting Aimee sponge it all in, along with her tears. Stefan was tearing up too; he felt remorse, sorrow, and slight anger for Aimee.

"What do you think of the place?" Abba queried. "I tried to make it look like your old bedroom, with a little more French theme to it."

"Why did you leave me?" Aimee posed back. "Why would you let me think you were dead?"

"Well, we knew you weren't ready to be a part of all this, Aimee," explained Abba briefly.

"But now you are," Benjamin added, keeping his focus on Gavin.

Aimee tried to ignore her father's remark. "A part of what exactly?"

Abba swiftly walked passed her and Stefan and towards the desk in the centre of the room. She stepped around it and opened one of the many drawers on its front.

"Well, come see," she said, pulling out a large sheet of paper from the top drawer and unrolling it on the desk.

"Come on," Stefan gestured Aimee along.

They neared Abba slowly, cautiously. Stefan could only imagine what was on that A2 sheet.

"Oh! No, not you, you're still the enemy," Abba told him.

"The enemy?" Aimee wondered what she was on about this time.

Stefan sighed. "It's okay, just... brace yourself," he said to Aimee, his hand on her shoulder for a few seconds.

He stepped away from the desk before being summoned by Benjamin.

"You see, Aimee, we are going to change the world," Abba grinned quite freakishly; her red lipstick emphasising the width of her simper.

Aimee looked at the paper and noticed that it was a map of the world and its continents, but she could not comprehend what it was for.

"A map?" she questioned, puzzled.

Abba hurriedly had her right hand over Aimee's mouth. "Not just any map," she whispered in her ear.

She placed her left hand on North America and pulled the continent right off the map. It was a sticker that covered what lay beneath. The ocean and several red beacons that shaped North America. Abba removed her hand from Aimee's mouth and turned to the map.

"What are those?" Aimee questioned in worry.

"Well, I cannot tell you if your friends are in the room," she glanced at Gavin and Stefan. "I should not keep my enemies too close."

"They're not going anywhere," Aimee eyeballed her.

Abba turned back to face her and chortled. "Take them away," she said.

She raised her arm to Benjamin and shooed them out of the room. She sauntered up to the window. Aimee trailed behind once the elevator doors enclosed Stefan, Gavin and Benjamin.

"Look out this window," Abba disregarded the question. "Can you see that wall in the ocean?"

Aimee rolled her eyes. She had to press her hands on the window, her head on her hands and gape into distance. She could see a few helicopters, but no wall. She was starting to think her mother was insane. She shook her head and looked up at Abba, whose attention was still outside.

"What are those red beacons?" Aimee requisitioned.

Abba did not say anything; she kept staring out into the waters. Aimee was getting annoyed. She sighed and went back to the desk and strived to understand the map.

Aimee noticed that South America was not completely flat; there was a flap at the top of the continent. Aimee glimpsed at Abba out the corner of her eye, making sure that she was not watching as she peeled off South America. More red beacons. She neatly put South America back and scratched over the other continents, just to see how many of them were beaconed. It bothered Aimee that her mother would not tell her what they were in reality. She scratched on Europe, Africa and the rest of the world, but they were not removable.

She tapped her finger on what used to be North America, and looked around for the sticker. Aimee found it on the leather office chair. She picked it up and pressed it in place, and then put her thinking face on. After a moment, she took her finger off her lip and ran it across the ocean around the area Abba was staring at. A sticker strip stopped her finger and she peeled it off with her nail and thumb. The wall. Aimee could not see it in the physical ocean, but it was on the map. Was it under the ocean?

"It is going to be huge," Abba came up from behind her.

Aimee jolted, "You startled me," her hand on her chest.

"Then you scare too easily," laughed Abba.

"Well, excuse me for being human," mumbled Aimee. "Will you tell me what those red things are now?"

"Only if you behave," Abba moseyed to the kitchen area. Her hand was soon on the fridge door handle.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Aimee shadowed her.

Abba pulled the fridge door open and grabbed a container of chocolate mousse.

"Over lunch?" she offered.

"That's not lunch," remarked Aimee.

Abba examined the container. "Oh, you are right," she said. "It is better."

She obtained two dessert bowls from her crockery cabinet and set them on the glass placemats on the dining table. Aimee shut the fridge before tailing her. She would admit that the mousse looked extremely appetising, but she had never tasted mousse before. Her parents allowed her to eat desserts less than often - unless they were the unpopular free cakes from Molly's workplace. Aimee sat down slowly on the chair at her bowl. The table was large, square, and it centred eight chairs. Aimee glimpsed up at the wall. There hung a picture of the logo in big bold letters.

AIM

She wondered if she was named after it or if it was named after her. She read the slogan: Technologie Évolutive. Evolutionary Technology? Shouldn't it be revolutionary?

"Bon apetite," Abba dished the mousse out into their bowls.

Aimee came to the present. "Oh, thanks," she managed a faint smile.

She gripped the dessert spoon in her hand as Abba sat down next to her. For the first five minutes, they sat and ate in silence.