A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update but my life has been really consumed by school work leaving me barely enough time for me to breathe, let alone write. But I managed to get some writing done and here it is. Oh, yea before I forget, to my reviewers: thanks so much for the reviews of encouragement and niceness. On to the story!

Disclaimer: I will never own Code: Lyoko unless I somehow magically won a lot of $$… Oh, well!

Lyoko en route to Xana

Sam tapped. Aelita fidgeted. Yumi sighed. The three princesses were in a stuffy transport pod. It held them and their overstuffed trunks on the journey to Xana. They were tired, cramped and extremely bored.

Sam sighed. "Hey, how about we play a game? Like, I Spy?"

Aelita looked up at her sister and pointedly said, "Of course we can. I've already won. The answers are: a white wall, one of us, our trunks, or something one of us is wearing."

"Wow, you're really good at I Spy." Sam said.

Yumi laughed. "Sam, if you look around, you'd realize that that is all we CAN see in this closed pod. Sometimes I worry about you."

Sam grinned sheepishly, " I promise I haven't been standing next to anything radioactive lately!"

Aelita giggled. "I know, it's just that this whole arrangement has made me extra nervous and irritable."

Yumi's head shot up from her lap to her youngest sister's worried face. She smiled inwardly. She wasn't the only one scared. She wasn't alone.

"Aelita, Sam, come here."

The girls got up and went to sit on either side of their big sister. They looked up at her with big, hopeful eyes. Yumi smiled. The two of them looked like scared puppies.

Yumi's POV

Now was my chance to try and make my sisters feel safe and unafraid of what is to come in our now crazed lives.

"You know, I bet I'm more scared of this whole thing than you two." I boasted.

"No, you're not. You don't want to go to this dumb Xana kingdom anymore than we do." Sam said bluntly.

"Yeah, you came close to tears when Father told us about this arrangement! Yumi, you are a horrible liar!" Aelita laughed.

"Alright, alright, you caught me!" I laughed " but you know, I'm more scared than I let on."

Sam looked at me pointedly. "Okay, you two are probably the only ones that share my feelings, but you are the ONLY ones. I have to put on a brave face all the time to make it look like I'm happy about all this when I'm really scared on the inside. I don't want to leave our beautiful Lyoko."

Normal POV

Aelita smiled at her troubled sister. "My dear sister, neither of us want to leave Lyoko either, but we all know that these marriages are for the good of both kingdoms."

Yumi and Sam sighed. Aelita was right. She was right most of the time even though she was the youngest of the three of them, she was the wisest. Now, this was a good thing. The girls smiled at each other and settled in for the rest of the ride knowing they would be together in this strange adventure.

Xana

CRASH! "Odd, what was that?" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Uhhh, nothing!" was Odd's reply. Ulrich sighed. Whatever broke was probably an expensive vase or a goblet or something like that. Odd needed to stop bouncing. That had to be the worse nervous habit there ever was. Whenever Odd got antsy or nervous, he would bounce around and break things.

And waiting for his princess, he was bouncing off the walls. Literally. Ulrich went into the room where Odd was. He was right. On the floor was a broken goblet. Ulrich shook his head. Odd would have to break something right before their princesses were due to arrive in Xana. But, Ulrich knew he couldn't control the bouncing.

"Sorry Ulrich, I know I'm bouncing again, but I just can't help it!" Odd cried.

"It's alright. I feel like I've worn a hole in the hallway carpet with all my pacing." Ulrich said, " Have you seen Jeremie? I want to talk to him."

"No, I haven't seen him since I left his room. Try the garden or his room."

Ulrich nodded his thanks and left the room. Odd was probably right about Jeremie being in the garden. Jeremie had always said that it was his favorite place to think. Jeremie was sitting on the stone bench in an alcove in the garden when Ulrich found him. He looked up when he heard Ulrich's footsteps on the cobblestone path.

"Hey Jeremie." Ulrich said softly, "Would you please come inside to save my from Odd?" Jeremie smiled.

"Is he bouncing again?"

Ulrich laughed, "Yes, and I'm pacing and you're hiding. Our princesses are coming soon, you know."

"Yea, I know, but I'm not ready to meet them. What if they don't like us Ulrich?"

"They will like us Jer. What's not to like? All of us are great guys."

"Yea, you're right."

"Come on, let's go inside and grab Odd and go wait in the main hall for the girls. They should be arriving soon." Ulrich said.

The mist curled out of a crack in the earth. It spun and moved, like it was waking up after a long nap. It folded over a nearby tree. The tree turned to ash within a second. The thing was alive.

A/N: OK I'm done for now. I think this is my longest chappie yet, but I'm not sure. Please review b/c you know the purple button is calling your name…