AN: Hello my faithful readers! Well, obviously I don't expect enough from you guys. I have taken you all for granted! Shame on me! Anyways, you guys are AWSOME! You rock! All I asked for was 120 reviews and I get 131! I hope you all know how amazing you are:) Okay, well I've done some thinking about this story and I'm so happy that this many people like it, however, it's getting to be very long, so my friends, this may be one of the last chapters. Now I understand some of you may be very angry with me right now, because I promised to have Aelita return. And I will, if the majority wants a sequel. So, with that said, here's chapter 17!

Chapter 17: Both Sides of the Story

The party was over, the New Year had begun. All the guests were leaving the Ulmer's home, except for one.

"See ya! Thanks for coming!" Yumi said as each one of the party animals headed out of her door. "Hey, uh, Miyu? Or Yumi, or well what do you want me to call you?" Jacques asked as he stepped outside into the crisp air.

"Remember the rules? What was said at the party, stays with the party. In other words, just call me Miyu. It would get too confusing around everyone at school and all." Yumi said and then let him continue.

"Well, this was a great party. Thanks for inviting me. We should, you know, hang out more sometime… As friends of course." Jacques suggested.

"Yea, that'd be fun," Yumi replied. She felt somewhat uncomfortable after her confession during Truth or Dare. They all had a strange look on their face, but soon got over the shock that they had been calling her the wrong name for two years.

She had simply told them that Miyu was her middle name, and preferred it over Yumi, which of course wasn't the truth. They had all accepted it though. It was a normal thing to use your middle name as your real name. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

Ulrich knew the real truth though. And he was absolutely ecstatic that he finally found his Yumi.

As Ulrich was walking out the door, Yumi stopped him. Hey, Ulrich, can you stay a little longer? I'd like to talk with you." She said with a warm smile that just made him want to melt.

"Sure Yumi!" Ulrich said, stepping back inside and closing the door behind him. He followed Yumi into the living room where the fireplace was burning making the whole room glow with warmth.

Yumi gestured for Ulrich to sit down next to her on the sofa. "So,…" she trailed off. "So,…" Ulrich repeated.

"Wow, well, it sure has been a long time since I saw you." Yumi started off the conversation. "Yea, too long." Ulrich said.

"Okay, well, first of all, I'm really sorry you had to find me this way. I mean, you actually had to find me. When this whole time I knew exactly where you were. The thing is, is that I was afraid of what might happen if I came back to France. Afraid of the consequences X.A.N.A would bring." Yumi sighed and looked over at Ulrich who looked very confused at the moment.

"Let me start from the beginning." Yumi said as the pictures from every scene that had played in her life after that horrible day started running through her mind.

FLASHBACK

"After I fell into the digital void, I knew I was sunk. The void is just one big giant hole that sucks you into nothing. I was stuck in black nothingness, with no sign of life, the only thing I could see was the pitch black all around me. It's a one way kind of thing. There's absolutely no way out.

"Unless, of course you have someone like Aelita to help you out." At this last statement, Ulrich looked appalled and couldn't even find the words to ask Yumi what in the world she was talking about.

"You see Ulrich, Aelita found a way to help me. However, she would be risking her own life. She found a way to convert the little human DNA she had, onto my card, which made it possible for me to materialize back to earth. I don't really know how she did it, for I was only able to talk to her for a minute before she disappeared.

"Aelita told me that by giving me her 'life', she had none left and would in turn, be sent to the digital void herself. I tried to stop her! She deserved to see the world, because I knew that one day Jeremie would find the right materialization code for her.

"But she refused to let me suffer, and said that I already had a life on earth, and that it wouldn't be fair to take that away from me. I thanked her greatly and waited for my virtual form to turn back to human.

"Once I found myself back on earth, I figured out it had been three days since I had last stepped foot on real ground. I noticed the place was deserted and figured that you guys would be trying to think of a way to tell my parents about my absence. So I decided to start a new life."

END FLASHBACK

Yumi paused here and looked up to see Ulrich was completely amazed at her story so far. She decided to ask him some questions of her own.

"By the way, what did you guys tell my parents?" She asked, curios to see what he said.

Then Ulrich began his part of the story.

FLASHBACK

"Well, after you left, we tried every way to get you back, as you probably already assumed. Jeremie worked for hours that day, but couldn't figure it out, so finally we just had to give up and try to give people some answers.

"Your parents were very worried, and so was the principal. Hiroki was hysterical and so was pretty much everyone else who knew and loved you. We told them we saw you being taken away with a guy in a truck that afternoon. Now that I think about it that was probably the stupidest reason we could have thought of.

"But Jeremie, Odd, and I wanted to make it possible, so that if you ever did come back, it would seem reasonable why you had returned. I mean, say that we said you were killed, then say you came back two years later. Everyone would be going nuts!

"So, of course your parents got the police and the best detectives in town to try to look for you, but obviously you were never found. After a whole year of not finding you, your parents had to give it a rest, just like we did, and soon all that was ever seen of you was your face on a milk carton at school.

"Yumi, don't get me wrong here, we were DEVESTATED. I know I cried in my room for you at least that whole first week. Jeremie was pretty much the same when we found out we lost Aelita too. We couldn't find her anywhere. Soon, Jeremie just figured she fell in the digital void too.

"That whole first month you were gone, all of our grades started slipping, we couldn't get any sleep, and we had to shut down Lyoko. Well, not all the way actually. Somehow, Jeremie found a way to shut down X.A.N.A temporarily, just in case Aelita ever showed up. You see, we didn't exactly know what happened to her, so we didn't know if she could just pop up one day. I guess, she can't though, if she's in the digital void…"

END FLASHBACK

Ulrich's voice trailed off as he thought about this last statement. Yumi looked as if she were lost somewhere. Like that day she had broken up with Jacques and she looked over at Ulrich with that distant stare in her eyes.

They sat there in silence for a while until finally Ulrich broke the silence. "So, how did you get all the way in America?" He asked Yumi.

Yumi snickered at this, remembering all of the insanity that took place with that event.

"Ulrich that is a completely different story!"

AN: Okay well, that was it for chapter 17. Now remember, there are only about two chapters left, but if you want to know how exactly Aelita helped Yumi, and how she is going to help Aelita, tell me you want a sequel in you reviews. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to get 140 at least. After the fourteen everybody gave me in the last chapter, I know I can count on having that goal made. Also, I'd like to thank raven1777 for her encouraging words in her reviews. Keep reviews like hers coming! And one more announcement, the answer to last week's QOTD, is me. I wrote that song in my spare time. It just sort of, came to me. Okay, well thanks for putting up with this extremely long AN! tinkerbellbt

Question of the Day:

I was just wondering how kids at boarding schools like Kadic get money.