Well, I believe that I may have managed to insult a few of my audiance by, uh, well, killing off one of the charictors. Things have changed, but they will always be for the better. No matter how bad things can get there is always a light at the end of every tunnel. Anyway, please continue to read to see what I mean.

It had been a week after the death of Aelita, and because of the strange nature of the way that Aelita died we had had nothing to burry. It was probably best that way since there would have been no way to explain who she was, how we knew her, or how she had died. Jeremie had not taken it well at all, but none of us had expected him to. Odd had become oddly morose, and he hadn't made a joke since before the incident. Yumi had become strangely pensive, and she was usually lost in thought and very quite.

I wasn't entirely sure how I was taking it. Aelita had been a very good friend to all of us and we all loved her, but still I couldn't find any similarity to the others in the way that I was acting. I hadn't been in love with her as Jeremie had, and it wasn't like Yumi had died. I didn't know why Odd was acting the way he was, or why Yumi was acting the way she was either.

After Aelita's death we had decided to shut down the supercomputer. There was no reason to keep X.A.N.A. online now that Aelita was dead. There was also no reason for us to continue to come back to the factory. As we shut down everything there was a feeling of regret, loneliness and sorrow. The factory, Lyoko, and Aelita had been the center of our lives for the past year and a half. Now that it was gone we really had nothing left to do. I had always imagined this day to be a relief, a day of joy and celebration, but then I had also always imagined Aelita being with us.

As we walked out of the factory door and onto the bridge preparing to close the door Jeremie turned to look at the factory for the last time. He stood in a mournful manner, as though he were at a funeral, and began to speak, "Though we only knew her for a short time, Aelita Lyoko entered all of our hearts. There will always be a place there for her, no matter where she is. She may have left us from this world, but she had always been in another in the first place." He paused briefly taking a breath. "Aelita, we will miss you and whether or not there is a heaven I know that you are in a better place..."

Jeremie turned away and Yumi closed the factory door. We crossed the bridge and entered the sewer passage. On the way back to school no one spoke, but no one felt that they needed to. We reached the school just in time for our next class and went our separate ways...

---

It was a week later, Ulrich's gang had been wondering around the school in a near constant state of misery. I had tried to keep Nicolas and Herb from saying anything to damaging. I knew what was going on, none of them thought that I did, but I knew. They had all lost someone that they all loved dearly especially Jeremie. I knew that it had happened to them before; the entire school had been affected by that death though. This time no one else knew about the death of the person they were mourning. I had lost someone very dear to me as well. My mother had died when I was very young and it had hurt me very badly. I guess that was part of the reason why I was so mean to everyone. I had to hide my self from them, from the pain...

Because I was the only one who knew, and because I knew, I felt that I should do something. I felt strongly for Ulrich and for his group of friends, and I had always wanted to be a part of their group. I knew what everyone thought of me, but for some reason I had rarely been able to act like the person that I really was, the two most recent times were once before the incident, but at that time Ulrich had become possessed by something evil. I had felt that presence but had tried anyway. The second time was after, but in the same way. The second time he had agreed to talk with me later, but then after that their friend had died...

Now I knew what I needed to do. It was lunch time and Ulrich's group was sitting at their normal place in the lunch room. I picked up my trey and acted like nothing was different, but as I passed by their table I pretended to drop something. As I bent down I turned to look directly at Jeremie and said, "I'm sorry... I know what it's like to loose someone." Then I stood up straight and walked away as though I hadn't said anything.

Walking toward Nicolas and Herb I began to wonder how they had reacted. I couldn't turn around to see for myself because that would ruin the mystery of what I had done. Sighing I joined my only two friends in the school. They were looking a little confused but that was natural. I had made sure to make it appear to everyone else that I had simply dropped something, and only Ulrich's group should know what I actually did, so when their reaction came it was only natural for everyone else to be a little confused.

"What!" it was Jeremie, raising his voice in shock and outrage.

"Jeremie, calm down." Yumi said, in a hushed practical voice. "I am sure Ulrich meant it in the best of ways."

"Yeah, sure..." Odd said mockingly.

"Well, what I said stands." Ulrich replied.

Wait. I hadn't heard what Ulrich had said, apparently it was important, and it angered two of his friends. I could think of a few things that might do that, but I hoped for the best, which was simply that he would come and talk to me. I hoped that what he had said wasn't that bad, or it just might break up his group, and that wasn't something that I wanted. I simply wanted to talk with him.

Lunch passed and we went back to our classrooms. The class was uneventful, and I began to get board. There seemed to be some discomfort between Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich. I began to get nervous. This wasn't looking good, but I would simply have to wait until after school to find out if I had caused something.

The school day ended abruptly, in the middle of our teacher's sentence and we filed out calmly. I began walking towards the dorm rooms and past the gate. Nicolas and Herb were following me but not too closely, they had learned that sometimes I needed my space... Just as I was passing the gate, which was open, I heard a car screeching. I had just enough time to look past the gate and see a black sports car rushing at me, not five feet away. Oh, god, I'm going to die. I thought as I realized what was happening, but then suddenly I felt something else hit me from behind and push me forward out of harms way. I heard the car hit the school wall and come to a crashing halt, but I was safe...

When I got up I saw Ulrich lying on the ground next to me. He wasn't moving... I gasped and faintly heard Yumi scream and come running at us, but half way Ulrich coughed and began to get up. He was alive! I sighed with relief, as I am sure Yumi did as well.

"Ow!" Ulrich said as he put weight on his arm. "Oh, damn."

"Oh, no, is it broken?" Yumi asked, glancing at me.

"Here, let me take a look." I said, "I'm good at-" but they already knew.

I checked Ulrich's arm and found that it was indeed broken. Yumi and I helped him up and we took him to the infirmary. The nurse, who hadn't heard the crash, asked us what happened. We told her and her face when a pale cream color. She picked up a phone and called for an ambulance, then she turned back to Ulrich and a look crossed her face.

"You are sure it is broken?" she asked me.

"Yes, you can check it yourself." I replied.

"But, he should be in more pain."

There was a moment's silence. I thought to myself, shock? But that didn't seem very likely; he would have been out of it by now. Why wasn't he in as much pain as he should be. Then, suddenly, as if an after thought Ulrich began wailing in, what I was sure was, fake pain. The nurse came over and tended to him and Yumi glanced at me again. I knew what she was thinking, but I didn't think it was true, he would have done more for her...

---

I guess having gone to Lyoko so many times had dulled my senses. After all those shots to the body from the various monsters, not to mention the dull pain of being virtualized and materialized, the pain of a broken arm wasn't that bad... I had to pretend to be in pain simply to make them believe that I was, though I wasn't really sure if they bought it...

I had been following Sissi when Yumi met up with me. We had planed on talking to Sissi, since she had requested it, and Yumi and I had decided that she should go along because she had psychic abilities. If Sissi had abilities then Yumi should be able to tell. When I heard the screeching of the cars tires I had looked to see what was happening, then I realized that Sissi was going to get hit. Acting quickly I ran as fast as I could and pulled Sissi out of the way. Unfortunately for me I got hit by the car, but it only got my arm. I had been briefly knocked out, and my arm was broken, but it seemed that nothing else was damaged.

"All right, you will need to not use that arm for a while." The nurse said as I left the infirmary.

As we walked down the hall Yumi kept an eye on Sissi. I wasn't entirely sure what she was thinking, but the glances that Yumi threw at Sissi weren't threatening, nor were they inviting. She seemed more nervous than anything else, but I couldn't think why. I mean, sure I saved Sissi's live, but I would have done the same for anyone else. And besides, Yumi knew that I would do more for her, or at least she should.

It might have been that Sissi was acting differently. She wasn't acting like the spoiled brat that she usually did, but instead she was acting like a mature young woman. She had about her an air of kindness, friendship, self awareness; even wisdom. This was not the Sissi that we all knew and loathed, but instead this was the Sissi that had asked if she could talk to me, alone, and I had replied that I might.

"So, Sissi, you wanted to talk to me about something..." I started off, remembering both that time, and earlier today.

"Oh, yes." she said snapping back to reality out of some deep thought. "I wanted to let you know something, but first I want to say how sorry I am bout the loss of your friend. She was a good person..."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, wavering for a moment. "How do you know?"

"That was what I wanted to tell you. I know everything. About Lyoko, Aelita, the attacks done by X.A.N.A. everything."

"How?" it was Yumi, coming around back into reality as though she had been in the same place that Sissi had.

"About a year an a half ago I began to have dreams, they were like normal school days but something very bad happened in every one. In some of them I would see you all fighting some one or something. Then, I would suddenly awake while still standing or sitting and it would be the same day again, except you two, Jeremie and Odd would act different. Slowly I began to see more and more, not just what was going on around me, but I was usually watching you and your friends." She paused. "I always believed that it was my imagination, until that one day, the funeral... I had seen him die, I knew exactly how it happened, and when we came back earlier in the day he was dead. I knew that it couldn't be a coincidence, so I began to try and see if things would happen if I interfered. Usually I did stupid, mean things because I wasn't entirely sure if you all remembered it, but after a while you all started being mean to me. I then knew that I had been wrong and you always remembered the things that I did, but by then it was to late."

"So you weren't simply being an obnoxious spoiled brad?" I asked, a little harsher than I had meant.

"No, I was trying to test something, but I did it wrong... Anyway, I couldn't bring myself to face you until recently. That was before the last attack, but I am not sure it was exactly an attack. I had come to ask you if I could talk to you, alone because I didn't want to get ganged up on, but you were cruel. Then the time reset itself and I tried again, when you said that you might I decided to let it go for a little while. But then..."

"Then Aelita died." Yumi said. "You saw it happen, but why did you decide to talk to us the way that you did?"

"If I had simply come up to all of you and started talking you would have brushed me off, so I had to make it appear that I was doing something else." She took a breath. "I'm sorry if I caused Jeremie any more grief, or if I caused you two any trouble."

"That's ok." I replied. "I'm sure they will get over it soon enough, besides..."

"Besides?"

"Well," Yumi started in. "You are showing us who you really are, rather than keeping up with that front you show everyone else."

"Uh, yeah." Sissi said looking slightly uncomfortable. "I can't always help that."

"Besides, we will be able to return to our normal lives now." I said. "Even though someone won't be joining us."

"Normal..." Sissi said as though the word meant nothing. "There really isn't anything normal about the students in this school... besides-" but she stopped and turned to look in a different direction. "For better or for worse, some people won't allow it to simply go that way." She said, almost under her voice, and as though it were a matter of fact.

"As a poet once said, 'There are more things in heaven and earth...'" Yumi agreed.

"More than you can imagine." Sissi informed her.

"I doubt it."