Hey! Wow I haven't updated in a LONG time. Stupid high school! So, I have Candy and Vanessa's bio's up on my profile if you ever want to look at them. I'm considering making a website where I can post a bunch of pictures, facts, and character bios. I'll work on that. I don't own code Lyoko, or Uggs Australia, or Pepsi, Crisco, or really any big brand names. I made up the name Sharlot Ananomy, so if there really is someone out there with that name… congratulations? Oh, and my apologies to all my readers who are against cussing, but Vanessa uses some in this chapter.

Ulrich awoke to the sound of banging on the door. He sat up in bed, being careful not to hit his head on the top bunk. He heard Odd shift in the higher bed, having awoken from the noise as well.

Ulrich rolled out of bed, and was almost crushed by Odd as he jumped down from the top bunk.

Odd smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Ulrich rolled his eyes and walked over to the door, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He pulled the door open, and was immediately encountered by Aelita.

The girl was wailing, tears running down her cheeks as she hugged the older boy, the older brother figure she had known since her awakening in Lyoko. Ulrich, confused and stunned, looked over at Odd for help. Odd looked equally confused, and stood in place as dumbfounded as Ulrich.

Ulrich pulled his arms around the younger girl. "Aelita? What happened?"

Aelita continued to scream and cry into his chest, and she finally looked up at him.

"Yumi committed suicide."

Ulrich shot up in bed, gasping for air. His eyes darted around the room, full of panic.

"Odd!"

Odd shot up. "Who? Wha? Did the cafeteria blow up?"

"Odd! Is Yumi ok?" Ulrich shouted, jumping out of bed.

Odd blinked. "Wha? How should I know? It's like, 11 o'clock at night Ulrich!"

Ulrich began to calm down, realizing what happened. "I dreamt that Yumi committed suicide."

Odd blinked once more, before he let out a groan and fell back into his pillow. "You woke me up for that?" He whined.

Ulrich ignored him, already pulling his winter coat on over his black pajama t- shirt and green plaid pajama pants.

Ulrich grunted as he pulled himself over the railing. Normally, it was easy for him to get up onto Yumi's balcony. He had done it, what? Ten times? It had become a habit of him, and Yumi wasn't surprised anymore when he showed up at two o'clock in the morning wanting to talk to her. She had offered to give him a key so that he could go in without having to knock, but Ulrich said that it felt more normal for him to knock before entering his girlfriend's room. Yumi then pointed out that they, and the rest of the gang for that matter, weren't normal. Ulrich still insisted on climbing up the stupid tree and knocking though.

Now that it was December, a thin layer of ice coated the railing, and when he had been climbing the cherry tree, tons of snow would fall from the branches above him and cover him in the white stuff.

He walked across the wooden planks, shivering as the winter winds blew at his face. He looked up at the sliding glass doors, a thin layer of ice frozen onto it. He brought his fist up to the glass and lightly tapped on it.

After a moment of standing in the cold, he saw the curtains covering the glass door being pushed aside, giving him a clear view of Yumi's room and Yumi herself.

Hand still holding the curtain, Yumi was rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her hand dropped from her face and landed on the doors lock. Ulrich heard a click, and the door slid open.

"Ulrich…" Yumi gasped a bit as Ulrich's eager lips met hers and his arms wrapped around her. Yumi gave into the kiss for a moment, kissing him back with equal fever.

She gently pushed him away, and looked up into his eyes. The winter winds nipped at her skin. She was only wearing a lacy black tang top, light blue fuzzy pj pants with penguins on them, and penguin slippers.

"Get in here. It's freezing out there."

Ulrich nodded and stepped inside. Yumi slid the door shut behind him, locking it. Ulrich shrugged off his coat, letting it fall to the floor. He stepped out of his boots, and turned to Yumi.

"Are you feeling alright Yumi?" Ulrich asked, grasping her arms.

Yumi nodded, a little confused.

"Like, you haven't been feeling depressed or anything lately, right?"

Yumi shook her head. "No. I've been feeling ok."

"And you know that you're loved by everyone in our group? Right?"

"Yeah…"

"That we would all be crushed if you were gone? That I would die if something happened to you? That I love you?"

Yumi looked up at him confused. "Ulrich… what happened?"

Ulrich pulled her close to him, staring into her eyes. "Just promise me you'll never do anything to hurt yourself. Please. I need to know that you're safe. That you're ok."

Yumi rested her head on his chest. "Ulrich… I'm fine. I'm perfectly happy. Don't worry. I'm not planning on committing suicide or anything stupid like that."

Ulrich nodded. "Ok."

She tilted her head up, and softly smiled at him. He smiled down at her, before swooping down and meeting her lips.

After what seemed like forever, they parted. Ulrich pulled away from her, turning away towards the door. "I gotta get back to the dorms before Odd wakes up and finds out I'm gone."

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and turned back around to Yumi.

She was frowning. "Ulrich, it's less than ten degrees Fahrenheit out there. You're going to freeze to death. Odd won't care if you're not there. It's Friday."

Ulrich softly smiled. "I love the faith you have in my best friend."

Yumi rolled her eyes, and firmly gripped his arm. "Whatever. I'm not letting you go back out in the cold." She spun around, and walked over to her bed. She grabbed a remote from her bed side table, and pointed it at the gas fire place on the opposite wall. Pushing a button, the fire burning in the fire place slightly grew, warming the room.

Yumi set the remote down, kicked off her slippers, and climbed into her bed, leaving enough space to make it obvious that she wanted Ulrich beside her.

Ulrich blushed. "But, what if your parents come in? They might think we, err, you know…"

Yumi blushed a little bit, but rolled her eyes to cover for herself. "Dad's away on business until next Tuesday, and mom took Hiroki to see our grandmother for the weekend."

Ulrich was still blushing, but he finally gave up. He cautiously made his way over to Yumi's bed, and slipped under the covers.

Immediately, Yumi snuggled up against him. Ulrich gave in, wrapping his arms around her and as she tucked her head beneath his chin. He liked being in that position with her. He felt like he could protect her, and keep her safe from all the terrible things in the world. She was his to protect, love, and care for.

He was almost asleep, when he heard Yumi's soft voice.

"Ulrich?" Yumi mumbled.

"Hmm?"

"I love you." Yumi said softly, drifting off to sleep.

"I love you to." Ulrich whispered, as the two of them drifted off into dream land together.

"I'm just saying. It doesn't make any sense." Odd said calmly.

"ODD. It is backed by scientific evidence." Jeremie stated.

"So? Science isn't always right. What about that theorem that if you push on a wall you will pass through it without breaking it?"

"Stupid!"

"Jepsis!"

"That isn't a word!"

"You're not a word!"

Aelita, Candy, and Vanessa sat on the bench they usually sat on. They looked back and forth between Jeremie and Odd, trying to keep track of the bickering.

Vanessa sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbow on her knee and head in her hand. "What are they fighting about again?"

Aelita shrugged, leaning back against the bench. "I don't know, but they've been going at it for twenty minutes."

Candy looked between Odd and Jeremie, lightly smirking. "It started out with Odd saying something about Icicles on the trees falling and stabbing people, retorting with Jeremie saying that the icicles wouldn't pick up enough speed to pierce skin, which somehow led to if the longest flight of a chicken is really thirteen seconds, leading up to whether or not Lewis Carrol actually had micropsia, or if he was just insane, and Odd calling Jeremie a jepsis, and ya dee da dee da."

Vanessa blinked. "What the heck's a jepsis?"

Candy tilted her head to the fight taking place in front of them. "That's what they're fighting about right now." Candy noticed the two boys angrily starring at her.

Odd crossed his arms. "Well, Miss I'm-so-perfect-and-know-the-answer-to-everything-because-I'm-such-a-Marry-Sue. Why don't you enlighten us and tell us what you think."

Jeremie crossed his arms to. "Yeah. I wanna hear this."

Candy rubbed her chin. "Well, if the icicles were big enough, they could probably pierce skin. I'm not exactly sure about the science of all that, but I remember my uncle Paco telling me about the time he was hit in the head with an icicle and got a concussion... but that's debatable. Lewis Carol was probably both insane, and suffering from micropsia. But either or, he was still creepy enough to write Alice in Wonderland. And I don't know if Jepsis is legit. Californians create some pretty weird stuff, so it might be a real word. As for the Chicken thing, the longest flight I've seen from a chicken was seven seconds long, and that was on my Uncle Carlos's farm where he feeds the chickens Crisco, so then that comes into play…"

Odd cut in. "I swear I've seen a chicken fly for at least fifteen seconds! It was when my family was vacationing in Montana four years ago! Vanessa, you were there! You saw it fly!"

Vanessa grasped her head and groaned. "Odd…! Jeremie's a walking computer. I think he knows how long a god damn chicken can fly for."

Odd looked at Jeremie, frowning when he saw the boy smirking in satisfactory. "Sorry Odd, but according to Sharlot Ananomy's research, a chicken is only capable of flight for thirteen seconds."

"But I know this chicken flew for fifteen!"

"Then why didn't you call Sharlot Ananomy and tell her she was wrong?" Candy shouted, annoyed with the completely pointless argument.

Candy smiled at the boys surprised faces, and satisfyingly leaned back on the bench. The other two girls laughed, and Aelita pointed at Jeremie and Odd.

"Ohhhh! Burned by the ginger!"

Odd frowned. "Hey! I'm the one who taught you what a ginger is, and what a burn is, Aelita! You can't go around declaring burns on your teacher!"

Aelita giggled and kicked at the snow, gently flicking some at Odd.

Odd smiled at her, and was ready to kick some snow back at her when something caught his eye. He looked past the three girls sitting on the bench, towards the gate where two people were entering.

Odd smiled. "Yo Ulrich! I was worried when you didn't come back from Yumi's house last night!" Odd shouted across the snow covered yard, making sure everyone heard him.

Ulrich and Yumi blushed, and Ulrich angrily glared at Odd. "Odd, I'll give you a ten second head start to run!"

Odd yelped and turned, running away from the others as he darted through the deep snow. Ulrich soon took off after him.

"Hey! That was only five seconds!" Odd shouted over his shoulder.

Yumi walked over to her friends and stood next to Jeremie, resting her elbow on his shoulder.

"Hey guys."

They smiled and said their hellos, before getting down to business.

"Ok girls," said Jeremie. Odd and Ulrich's yells could be heard in the background. "I've been working on Aelita's antivirus program but I need more information. What do you say to a little field trip to Sector 5?"

Candy looked up at him, confused. "Sector 5? I thought there were only four. The mountain, ice, forest, and dessert."

"Sector 5 isn't like the other ones." Aelita said. "It's the center of Lyoko, and where we can collect important data."

"So what do you say, ladies?" Jeremie said, watching Odd and Ulrich dart across the white yard.

Aelita smiled. "I'm in."

Yumi nodded in agreement. "Me too."

"I'll go." Vanessa said.

Candy nervously bit her finger nails. "I guess I'll go too."

Odd who had been running past, slid to a stop behind the bench. "If the ginger's in, I'm in!" Odd looked to his right and yelped just as Ulrich trucked into him sending them flailing into the snow.

The gang loaded off the elevator into the computer room, and Jeremie walked over to the chair. He shrugged his red winter coat off and sat down. He was wearing a navy t-shirt with a red long sleeve shirt underneath, blue jeans and sneakers.

Yumi walked up and stood behind him, peering at the screen as she pulled off her navy jacket.

"So do you think you'll be able to create the antivirus soon?" She was wearing a long sleeve white shirt with thick black stripes, and a black bubble vest over the top. Black jeans covered her legs and black boots covered her feet.

"Yeah, sure. Cause creating a deactivation code to a code that binds a digitally impaired human to a mentally impaired AI whom wants to kill us isn't hard or anything." Jeremie said sarcastically.

Yumi lightly swatted him on the back of the head. "Don't sass me."

Odd appeared next to Yumi, looking at the screen. He had taken off his dual purple coat and was wearing a black t-shirt and a purple long sleeve shirt underneath. Dark purple jeans hung loosely at his hips, and orange sneakers snuggly fit his feet. "Do you think there will be monsters?"

Jeremie rolled his eyes. "I was hoping we'd have the element of surprise on our side, but knowing Xana, I can guarantee he'll be prepared to send monsters."

Odd pumped his fist and spun around, almost running into Candy.

"Hey! Now we get to see what Candy looks like on Lyoko!"

Candy giggled lightly at the boy. Having already taken off her chocolate colored coat, she was currently wearing a turquoise tunic that went a little past her hips, white jeans with a bunch of rips in them, and beige boots with an intricate stitching pattern. Her red hair was straightened, and the wisps of hair on either side of her face were dyed light blue, framing her face perfectly and looking like delicate feathers.

Vanessa appeared on the other side of Candy, smiling. She was wearing a dual purple loose, silky top that draped down her torso, with a thin black jacket over it. A thick silver belt wrapped around her waist, on top of the jacket. She was wearing dark skinny jeans and black Uggs. "Ready to go everyone?"

Ulrich dropped his green coat next to Yumi's. He was wearing a long sleeved grey button down, blue jeans, and black sneakers. Ulrich rested his hand on Aelita's shoulder. "Yup. Lets free our princess."

Aelita smiled up at him. She had already dropped her maroon coat, and was wearing blue skinny jeans and a pink loose top with pink sequins all over it. Her pink hair hung a little past her shoulders, and side bangs graced her forehead. She was wearing a pair of grey, classic cardy Uggs that Vanessa had gone nuts over and insisted on buying for Aelita.

The gang filtered back into the elevator, leaving Jeremie in the lab as they went down to the scanners. Aelita, Vanessa, and Candy hung back as Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd took their place in each scanner.

"Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Odd. Virtualization."

"Scanner Aelita. Scanner Vanessa. Scanner Caramella." Jeremie hesitated as he transferred Candy. Something looked… off about her coding. He shrugged, deciding to look at it later. "Virtualization."

Odd, Ulrich and Yumi landed on the dessert sector.

A moment later, Vanessa, Aelita, and Candy's forms digitalized, and the three girls fell, Aelita and Vanessa on their feet, and Candy landing a little rougher, it only being her second time on Lyoko.

Yumi examined Candy, before giving one of her incredibly rare girlish squeals. "Candy! Your outfit is sooo cute!"

Candy smiled, posing. "Right?"

Odd smirked. "I wouldn't mind seeing Aelita in that." He said, eyeing the semi-revealing clothing. He received a punch in the arm from Aelita, a light slap in the face from Candy, and swat upside the head from Yumi.

Ulrich also scanned the girl's body, but with different motives than Odd. "Weapon?"

Candy smiled, crossing her arms in front of her face and then whipping them to the side, causing the two silver blades to unfold themselves from the sides of her arms.

Ulrich smiled. "Nice."

"Alright guys." Jeremie said, cracking his knuckles. "It's a short ride to the edge of the sector, and the transport orb will take you from there."

The gang nodded as the four vehicles digitalized in front of them. Ulrich on the over bike, Yumi and Candy got on the over wing, Odd and Aelita on the over board, and Vanessa on the overdisk. (A/N: See chapter 16 if you don't remember it) Even though Jeremy had made the vehicle for Aelita, Vanessa started to use it because it made for sense for Aelita to ride with one of the others and have protection.

Yumi and Candy took off, then Vanessa, and just as Aelita and Odd were about to take off, Aelita caught Ulrich's eye. He glanced from Yumi, to her, back to Yumi, and back to her.

Aelita lightly tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, as if asking 'what's wrong?'

Ulrich just shook his head and sped off, following Yumi.

Confused, Aelita gripped Odd's waist tighter. He let out a small grunt.

"Jeez princess. If you wanted to go you could have just said so. You're squeezing the air out of my lungs." He said with a smile.

Aelita giggled and loosened her grip a bit. The overboard sped foreword.

The six reached the end of the sector and abandoned their vehicles, getting as close to the edge as they dared. The transport orb appeared, circling around them and taking them to sector 5.

The six teen's found themselves in the arena, backs to each other in a circle.

As the walls spun around them, Ulrich glanced to either side of him, seeing Candy and Aelita. He looked over his shoulder seeing Odd between Vanessa and Yumi.

"Odd, we're outnumbered by the girls."

Yumi laughed. "Now you know how I felt in the first season."

The hallway opened up, and the teens filtered out. They entered the large blue room, walking out across a large beam. The ceiling was really high, and various beams shot across between the four walls in no particular pattern. They looked down, and they couldn't see the floor, just more beams shooting out across the open space below them.

They scanned the room with their eyes, in search of the key.

"Look for Xana's eye." Ulrich said to Candy. "That's what the key looks like."

Candy pointed up at the ceiling. "Found it."

The other five tilted their heads back, looking through the complex layers of beams to the ceiling, where they to, spotted the key.

"Nice going ginger." Odd said. He lowered his gaze to look at the others. He smiled, cat like. "It'll take someone with cat-like reflexes to get up there. I'll get it."

Odd leaped from the ground, reaching for the lowest beam. He dug his claws into the beam, before pulling himself up onto it. Now standing, he crouched down and then pounced onto the next beam, and quickly continued his accent.

Yumi's eyes drifted from Odd as she lazily scanned the room. Her eyes widened and with a gasp, she jumped in front of Aelita, blocking a laser with her body to save the younger girl. Yumi was hit in the stomach, and she was knocked backwards, narrowly missing Aelita as she fell to the ground.

"Yumi!" Ulrich dropped onto one knee as he put a hand on Yumi's shoulder, helping her sit up. He looked towards the source of the laser, and glaring when he saw several creepers coming towards them. "A little warning next time, Jeremie!"

Jeremie smiled sheepishly, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. You try processing twenty three different types of information at once."

Candy brought her arms up, unfolding her blades as Yumi did the same with her fans. Ulrich's sword was already unsheathed.

Vanessa stood in front of Aelita, a shield of purple energy already up as lasers began to come their way.

Vanessa looked up at her brother, scowling. "Odd, at any time, you could hurry up!"

Odd scowled as he leaped to the next beam. He came short, and only barely managed do dig his claw into the side, preventing him from falling all the way back to the ground.

Growling, he pulled himself up onto the beam. "Despite my cat-like grace, climbing up here isn't all that easy, V!"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Funny. That's not what you said when we were climbing the Himalayas."

Odd jumped to the side to avoid a storm of stray lasers, almost falling off the side of the beam. "Well there weren't any creepers firing lasers at me when we were climbing the Himalayas!"

"Would you just," Vanessa ended her sentence in a gasp as a laser shattered her shield. "Crap!"

Lasers pelted Vanessa's body, for she was too disoriented to bring up another shield.

She could only focus on one thing.

Protect Aelita.

With a hard thrust, Vanessa pushed Aelita over the side of the beam, Aelita letting out a scream as she fell. Vanessa pushed her arms down, palms facing the falling girl as she summoned a wall of shimmering purple energy to form beneath Aelita, forming a sort of slide, and Aelita slid down it safely onto a lower beam.

Just in time too.

Because just as the slide dumped the small girl onto the safety of the beam, Vanessa was hit by a final laser, devirtualising her.

The golden doors to the scanner opened, revealing Vanessa slumped against the base.

With a shout of frustration, her fist hit the cold metal side.

"Do I always have to be the first to be devirtualized?"

"You guys, Vanessa was just devirtualised. Aelita's alone a few beams below you!" Jeremie shouted into the mic.

Ulrich, Candy and Yumi were already preoccupied with a couple dozens of creepers however.

Candy caught Ulrich and Yumi's eyes. "I'll protect her. As soon as I get these things off my back." Candy said as she sliced through a creeper that was one swat away from taking her head off.

"Well hurry." Jeremie said. "There are some creepers heading for her right now!"

Odd's ears perked at this. He leaped up onto another beam. "How am I doing on time Jeremie?"

Jeremie glanced at the countdown. "A little short of thirty seconds. Hurry up Odd!"

Two of Yumi's fans sliced through another creeper, causing another bright explosion.

Her eyes narrowed as a smile played on her lips, catching the fans in her raised hands.

The smile quickly fell, though, at the sound of an odd squealing sound behind her.

She turned, coming face to face with yet another creeper.

"How many of these things are there?" She muttered, drawing her fans out again. However, the creeper spun, knocking the fans away from her with its tail and off the side of the beam they were fighting on.

Yumi glanced over the edge of the beam, seeing her fans get lost in the abyss below them.

She slowly backed away from the creeper, muttering a curse in Japanese at the loss of her weapon. "Jeremie, I could use another set of fans."

"Coming right up. Just give me a minute."

Yumi frowned and dodged a swipe of the creepers arm. "I don't have a minute, I need them now!"

The creeper was about to fire at her again, when the familiar sound of 'triplicate!' echoed through the room, followed closely by 'triangulate!' Three Ulrich's surrounded the creeper and Yumi, and the creeper looked around confused, before turning back to Yumi, ready to shoot her.

To its shock, the girl was gone. It looked around confused again, and fully turned around, coming face to face with Yumi. She smiled again as the triangle around them disappeared, and with a swift kick to the creepers face, she sent it hurtling over the side.

Yumi turned to Ulrich and smiled, gently kissing him on the cheek. Then, she brought her fist back and punched him in the side of the arm.

Ulrich grasped his arm in shock. "Owwwww! What was that for?"

Yumi placed her hands on her hips. "I could of taken that monster all by myself. I can take care of myself Ulrich."

Ulrich shrugged and continued to rub his arm. "That really hurt Yumes."

Yumi rolled her eyes and smiled. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing Ulrich. You can't feel anything on Lyoko."

Their conversation was abruptly ended when a high pitched whimper rang through the room. All eyes turned down to Aelita as she backed along the beam she was on, trying to escape the creeper coming towards her.

Her back hit the wall and she had nowhere to go, and she could only watch as the creeper inches from her face charged up a blast.

But it did not fire at her, because with a slash of light, Ulrich's sword pierced through the creeper, making it explode. Within a millisecond, Ulrich was by Aelita's side. He pulled his sword from the wall (It had gone right through the creeper to get jammed into the wall) and returned it to his sheath. Before Aelita could say anything, he picked the girl up onto his back and supersprinted, jumping from beam to beam until they were on the beam Yumi was on.

Ulrich set Aelita down next to Yumi. Ulrich turned to Candy, who was just finishing up with the last of the creepers.

"What happened to protecting Aelita, Candy?"

Candy brought her arm through the torso of the last creeper, slicing it in half with the blade and making it explode. She turned to them, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry. I'm not really used to the whole fighting Xana monsters thing yet."

They heard a sort of beep, and looked up, seeing Odd who had successfully made it to the top and had hit the key. He was now jumping up and down, waving to them, basking in his success at climbing so high.

A large passageway opened up to the right of them, and they waited as Odd jumped down from beam to beam, going much quicker down than up.

When he got down to them, he grasped Aelita's hand. "You ok princess?"

Aelita smiled and nodded.

Yumi cut into their moment. "Hey, did you guys notice that there were a lot more monsters than usual this time?"

Odd nodded. "Yeah. I had to deal with several creepers up there. That's why I was so slow."

"Yeah. That's why." Ulrich scoffed.

"I'm serious guys." Yumi said. "Something just feels… weird. Like Xana really didn't want us to get through."

Aelita nodded, holding her chin. "The virus that ties me to Xana sometimes allows me to feel things Xana feels. A few minutes ago, one of his emotions broke through my mind. He felt… panicked."

"Well," said Candy. "Let's go see why Xana's so panicked."

The group nodded and headed out through the passage.

Aelita however, hung back.

Ulrich popped his head around the corner, followed by his body as he reentered the room.

"Come on Aelita. We can't hack Lyoko without you." He said smiling.

Normally, Aelita would have laughed at that, but she didn't. "Hey Ulrich, can I ask you something?"

Ulrich cocked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

Aelita spun a strand of pink hair around her finger, nervous. "You've been acting kind of weird around me all day. Why?"

Ulrich bit his lip, and looked at the ground. "Oh."

Aelita watched him, trying to be patient. He looked up at her.

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing. I mean, with Yumi being my girlfriend and you being her best friend… and I know that it's wrong…"

Aelita's eyes widened as her fears were confirmed. Ulrich had a crush on her.

Ulrich took a breath. "I guess what I'm trying to ask you is, what do you think I should get Yumi for her birthday?"

Aelita's jaw dropped. That was not what she expected him to say.

Ulrich continued. "I mean, her birthday is coming up and I was thinking about getting her a necklace with her birthstone on it, but I don't know what the December birthstone is, and"

Ulrich however, was cut off when Aelita fell to the ground, laughing.

"Yeah I know. It's kind of lame that I don't know what to get her, but you don't have to laugh…"

Aelita, now recovered from her laughing fit, stood up and grasped his shoulder. "No Ulrich. That's not it. I thought you were gonna…"

She stopped when Odd popped his head into the room. "Yo Aelita! There's a digital interface out here waiting for your hands! Whoa. That sounded really dirty…"

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Odd, how much caffeine have you had today?"

Odd fluttered his eyes innocently. "Only one glass of pepsi, darling."

Aelita looked at him sternly. He averted his eyes. "Or two. Maybe three…"

Aelita and Ulrich laughed as they followed Odd down the hallway. Aelita took a step closer to Ulrich and stood on her tip toes and whispered so only he could hear. "And just so you know, the birthstone for December is a topaz. Get her a necklace with one on it. She'll love it."

With that, Aelita sprinted ahead to catch up with Odd.

There was a sort of anticipating aura floating among them as Aelita brought her hand up to the screen. She could even sense it among Jeremie and Vanessa back on earth. And when she began to search, she couldn't help but feel the same kind of feeling bubbling up inside of her.

Even when Jeremie told them that the mantis eggs would hatch in a few minutes, the hopeful mood didn't die.

And when Aelita let out a little gasp, their hearts all jumped at once.

"What is it Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

Aelita stared at the information in shock. "Jer, Jer, Jeremie."

"Aelita, what is it?" Odd asked, hand on her shoulder, careful not to disrupt her work.

Aelita gulped. "It's a letter from my father."

Silence fell among them as Aelita stared at the closed digital letter.

Finally, unable to wait any longer, Vanessa snatched the mic from Jeremie. "Well don't just stand there! OPEN IT!"

Slowly, Aelita tapped the digital letter opening it. She read a little bit of it, before letting out a breathy gasp. Her knees buckled, and Odd caught her just before she hit the ground.

"Aelita, what does it say?" Yumi asked.

Aelita was already standing, quickly sending Jeremie the contents as fast as she could. She ignored Yumi's question and spoke right to Jeremie. "The part that we need is encoded Jeremie. It will probably take us a while to decode it, it will probably take weeks because it's so complicated, but this is it. We have it Jeremie."

"Aelita." Odd said, grasping her shoulders. "What is it?"

Aelita looked at him, looked at him in such a deep way that it sent shivers down his spine. If people could cry on Lyoko, she'd be crying rivers of joy.

"The antivirus."

0_o Whoa! Long chapter! 5,478 words! I'll try to update soon, but if I fail midterms, it's your fault! Let me just clarify that this story is nowhere near the end. I actually was working on the finale the other day, and I can't wait until you guys get to see it. (It's a long ways away though, so don't get too excited.)Haha I broke the fourth wall in this chapter twice. That's just how I role. Sucky writing and fourth wall breaking. :)

Next chapter will be up soon!

~PSRose~