Hunter Moebius and I don't own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC's and the plot.

Once out into the hallway, I lowered my mental shields, letting my facial expression go into full-on worry. "Remember when I had that nightmare last night?"

Yumi raised an eyebrow and her voice back to normal volume. "You're still thinking about that?"

"In a more different way, Yumi. I saw the m—the v-v-v—the monster that scared you all…" I couldn't bring myself to say it. The word still carried an extreme amount of malice and fear, and I'd probably be lying in the fetal position, with my eyes watering like crazy before the word would even come close to leaving my lips.

Now her other eyebrow inched toward her forehead. "But Cassidy, that only happened once. This time, you really are worrying over nothing."

"Yumi, you all told me to be more upfront, to be more open about everything! What if it happens again? I don't want to scare everyone and rip the very fabric of time and space again. I would cause more panic, and possibly send Hunter into another catatonic state!" My feet started pacing back and forth, out of habit.

My geisha friend's expression turned slightly curious, as she watched me walk in circles. "We're pretty sure we know how it happened the first time, so all we have to do is keep an eye open, and if we see those same signs, we'll just try doing something different. But you shouldn't worry about that. You've been worrying ever since you got up this morning. Maybe we should just skip breakfast, and take you right to the spa?"

I stopped in my tracks. "The spa doesn't open until noon, Yumi, remember?"

She scrambled to change tactics. "Then… take Georgina into the bathroom with you, that way you can take your clothes off, and she can give you a nice, long, slow full-body rub, and massage? Maybe even a body wipe, too?"

"Maybe. We'll just have to see if she's up at this point. But, Yumi, you told me that we all need to both express ourselves and listen to each other more. Y'all promised," I pressed. "Remember what happened?"

Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. "You're right… okay."

Reopening her eyes, she adopted a calm expression. "What made you worry that the monster might come back?"

"When I said I 'don't do repeat performances,' to Jeremie" I blinked, taking a deep breath.

"And I know you still feel bad about that, but we've already forgiven you dozens of times for it. 'Repeat performances' could mean anything, as well."

"Right…" I nodded, tears springing to my eyes. "I wish I wouldn't worry so much. It's making me a wreck."

"Cassidy…" Her voice became soothing, as she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm snuggle. "I know it's a bad habit. But you can do it if you try hard enough. Your nightmare has you all wound up, that's all. Nothing crazy is going to happen. We've got Max and her flock keeping an eye out, and we're all going to have a great time at the spa, later, and the hot tub, too."

"Yeah. I guess I'm worried that I'll have the same recurring nightmares again. Those really—" I took another deep breath, tears about to spill over my eyelids. "—I don't want to have them again…"

Her hands began to softly and soothingly caress my back, in circles. "And you won't… You'll see. After a while, you'll feel better."

"I wanna feel better…" I whimpered.

"Then, why don't we start with some breakfast?" she soothed, noticing the room service cart approaching our suite, out of the corner of her eye. "It looks like it's here."

I nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

Yumi and I then followed the bellhop back into our suite, as he passed out each food item that we had ordered, and after a few moments, we dug in. The cuisine truly was terrific; we indeed got what Jeb paid for. The eggs and bacon, the pancakes, the bagels… if the food tasted this good, we could only imagine what the restaurant's food tasted like, or if this breakfast even came from there.

A warm meal felt really good in my belly, which, in turn, helped me feel better. "That really hit the spot."

"You can say that again," Ulrich agreed, before pointing at Odd, with his thumb. "And Odd's only on his third helping!"

Both Aelita and I burst out laughing at that. It hit us both all at once, just imagining the looks on the chefs' faces, when they heard the gargantuan order Odd put in, along with the bellhop having to bring in five carts, just to carry it all.

Yumi grinned warmly, as she noticed my complete change in behavior. "Much better now, right?"

"Yeah…" I giggled more, wiping a tear of laughter from my eye.

Sister soon walked over with a big grin on her own face. "I love it when my sister is happy! All you needed was a big breakfast! It does wonders for Odd, so of course, it would work for you, too!"

"Yeah, I guess an empty stomach does more than inducing chills," I smiled.

"Y'see? Now what did I tell ya?" mi novio jumped in. "And you guys don't think I know what I'm talking about! It's the most important meal of the day, after all!"

"I get your point, Odd," I giggled.

"And don't worry, Odd," Jeremie jumped in, his face bearing a grin that made him look like he could start laughing at any moment, "I wasn't going to skip breakfast this time."

A gasp escaped Kaitlyn's and Patrick's mouths, making me stiffen. Raising my mental shields, except for Jeremie, I thought, They didn't KNOW?!

He turned a wide-eyed look of surprise toward me. I, uh… kinda forgot to mention it… and I really wasn't thinking clearly enough, just now… me and my big mouth...

Well, the octopus is out of the bag now, Einstein. You have to tell them the truth, I argued gently.

He lowered his gaze to the ground, closing his eyes as he let out a quiet sigh. You're right… what a mess…

Turning to face his two cousins, he put on his best sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see, Kaitlyn, Patrick… back before we materialized Aelita… and even on the search for her breaker/antivirus… I would occasionally… decide to skip breakfast. It wasn't until she got her memories back when I started eating breakfast again… I realize that it wasn't the best decision I could make… but at the time, I tended to hyper-focus on certain aspects of our fight against XANA… and those took a higher priority. I'm sorry."

"No wonder you looked a little lighter when I first saw you!" Kaitlyn exclaimed, shaking her head. "I knew I should have sent you a couple pamphlets of eating disorders in a care package! But my mother of all people told me, 'He's a smart kid. I'm sure he's doing fine, Kaitlyn.' I shouldn't have listened to her…"

Jeremie quickly waved his hands in front of his chest, starting to look a bit more worried than he had been. "I-i-i-i-it's okay, Kaitlyn. If anything, all that would have done, was give Odd more of a reason to pester me with food, whenever I didn't eat, but I don't know how well that would've worked out."

"And he did eat lunch and dinner as much as he could," I pointed out, coming to Einstein's defense. "That kept him from passing out from a nonstop programming binge."

That knocked the wind out of Kaitlyn's sails. "That's…kinda better, but you shouldn't have ignored breakfast."

"You're right," Aelita entered the conversation with a warm opening statement, "and we're all going to make sure he doesn't try it again. Or any of us, for that matter."

"He's had about five months, and he ate three square meals so far without even passing up one," Ulrich smiled. "I think he's taking a step in the right direction."

"And it also helps that Mrs. Schaeffer coaxed him into eating," I giggled.

"I saw Jeremie," Aelita added, with a giggle of her own, just from the memory. "He couldn't say no to my mother."

"I saw how red his face became," I smiled. "It was so cute."

"You're right, Cassidy. It really was cute." Aelita giggled, gaining a slight blush in her cheeks as she continued.

Jeremie started to blush, too, but his reason was different; while Aelita thought favorably, Einstein felt almost like his cheeks would heat up, at the mere mention of what he and his darling pink-haired girlfriend were, no matter how right it was.

"Jeremie…" I started laughing, only thinking it was adorable.

And that only made his blush worse, as he sent a half-sheepish, half-embarrassed expression my way. "W-w-what's so funny?"

"N-not funny… Cute…" I cackled. "Aelita doesn't call you 'the wind beneath her wings' for nothing."

His face getting redder, he gently pulled the collar of his brown turtleneck forward, as he let out a small, sheepish chuckle. "Y-yeah… right."

"You'd better be careful, Cassidy," Ulrich cracked, noticing the change in the color of Jeremie's face, "any more, and we'll have 'Einstein the thermometer!'"

"Oops…" I giggled, pulling back on the proverbial "reins." "Sorry, dude."

The blond genius seemed almost stuck in his choice of vocabulary, his fingers exploring the back of his head. "Well, uh… it's, uh… okay…"

"Besides, maybe XANA's behind on his phone bill," Kiwi yipped, hoping to switch the subject.

The blush began to slowly fade from Jeremie's cheeks. "Maybe you're right… he's been really quiet, ever since we weakened him… I know he's probably going to come back… but all this silence is worrying me."

"It is a bit disconcerting to me, too," I blinked, trying to keep an upbeat tone. "Even with that weird t-tower… Ugh…!"

At that moment, Odd put his arm around me. "But let's not think of that, okay? We're all going to get rubbed all over, and anything else we can think of! XANA can wait until we get back to France! He's probably on vacation, just like us!"

Then a soft hand began to softly caress my back, this time from Sister. "And besides, how are any of us supposed to relax, if all we can think about are crazy stuff, like XANA, and everything else we've been through! I say we march down to that spa and demand they open right now, just for us!"

"Not sure if the officials are there right now," Fang pointed out. "They take from eleven to noon to get ready. And it's already ten-thirty."

"Plus, we could wait until then, right, Sister?" I asked, slowly finding my way to Earth, so to speak.

"I suppose we could," Sister replied, calming down a bit. "Besides, if we really want a good, soft massage, we could always ask Georgina."

"Thanks, Sissi," Jeremie smiled. "And that is true."

"Georgina's having some tea right now," Fang came in. "She had driven through two states and one time zone."

"I guess that also wrought havoc on me, too," I theorized, giggling a bit. "I'm sure when we do get back to France—and Franz—we'll have to adjust from ending up going through this."

"Maybe it's something that only a few of us are used to," came Jeremie's theory. "It might also explain why Hunter's still asleep."

Then he smirked, looking over at me. "And I'm sure a good massage, steam bath, or even a coconut milk bath will help all of us modify our normal out-of-range behavior in some minuscule, yet gargantuan manner. And I'm sure both Franz and Anthea will be waiting for us in France… I think."

"And I'm sure they will, Jeremie," Aelita soothed. "But I'm not sure any of us understood what either of you meant."

"Same here, Aelita," I agreed, then giggled. "I can't wait to see them. And, well, um… basically, France and Franz are almost spelled the same, just that France ends in C-E, and Franz ends with just a Z."

My former first roommate giggled a bit. "And I think Jeremie was making fun of your entire sentence."

"Hey, your Einstein over there, he's practically becoming part-comedian," I scoffed, about to cackle. "I feel no offense."

At this, both Jeremie and his pink-haired girlfriend felt their cheeks heat up. The two shared a glance, as Einstein found himself rehearsing his vowels, slightly, with a few nervous giggles thrown in. Aelita soon found the best way to fix this was to snuggle him, even if it made his blush worsen.

My heart sang in happiness, seeing how cute the scene played out. I let out a contented sigh as I shored up my mental shields, thinking, Aw… That is so adorable…

While I was lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice Yumi getting a bit of a mischievous smile on her face, just from looking at mine. They're adorable, aren't they?

Before I could even respond to Yumi's inner statement, verbally or otherwise, I felt my body shiver involuntarily as my eyes snapped shut and my mental shields dropped. "Ooh… Get ready t-to st-strike if t-the vision's b-bad… o-or a-a-a m-m-monster h-hits…"

Just as quickly as they closed, they opened again, clouding my sight. Right away, a battle had started to ensue. An Eraser had gotten a hold of me, but my geisha friend managed to come in just in time, sending a gnarly kick to… Never mind, but that one was singing gritty soprano afterward. Okay… this is fine… No need for a smack to reality, yet… YOU GO, YUMI!

Suddenly, another snared Ulrich in a fierce chest hold. As he struggled to get free, and as Yumi rushed to him, a flying kick directly from the leader of the Flock saved him. Once he was free, Samurai smiled at her gratefully. "Thanks, Max and Yumi."

Good… Thank God for Max… Good… this is progress… Seems things aren't too bad yet…

No sooner had it appeared the battle was heading our way, then arms started going across my chest. "Damsel in distress, aren't we, Cassidy René McGuire?!"

DARN YOU, REILLY! I gritted my teeth, dropped through his arms and aimed a spinning kick to his ankles, like how XANA had Aelita kick Yumi off her feet. Not even waiting until he slammed into the ground, I hit him in the back with the same foot I used and sent him flying into a tree. And you say you know everything there is to know about me… Tsk tsk, Reilly…

The vision started to fade to a point where I saw Jeremie laying on the floor, unconscious. A closer look showed a syringe next to him, and I could hear the other whitecoat I hated the most chuckling evilly behind me. It wasn't hard to find out who had done it, especially from their voice. That voice… Darn you, Mandy! Can't Einstein get a break in my visions for once?!

Before I could see if I would turn and fight, I felt a hard slap bring me back to reality. My eyes unclouded, almost like a video transition, to reveal Sister staring straight at me, a concerned look on her face, and a hand held in midair, which was probably the one she used to slap me with.

"Sister, I'm back. What's going on?" I defended myself, tensing up in case she tried to do a second slap.

"What happened in your vision, dear sister?" She lowered her hand, as she looked into my eyes.

"A battle, Sister. I didn't get to see everyone, but Yumi, Ulrich, Max, and I were able to hold our own. T-the downside… my visions have got to deal Jeremie a better hand from the deck. He was only sedated, but still." I shook my head, before a happy grin flitted across my features, followed by a maniacal giggle. "At least I was able to kick Reilly's butt! And it felt so good…"

"That's great!" Sister replied, looking a bit excited initially before her expression slowly calmed to a warm smile. "We could also hear most of your thoughts, while you were having your vision. So everyone in this room, besides Fang, knows most of the things you saw… but we didn't actually see the vision."

"But I'd much rather be sedated," Jeremie commented, relief painting his tone, "than go flying out of the side door of a moving van, and fall off from a bridge."

"You won't believe who got you, Jeremie," I glowered. "And it wasn't him."

His mind went back to the thoughts he overheard while my eyes were snowy white, and he made a face that someone would make when telling someone their close relative was just hit by a car. "Ummm… it wouldn't happen to be, uh… Mandy by any chance… would it?"

"The girl who assigned me to the psycho in the first place," I confirmed, adding with a sigh, "unfortunately…"

Even though the situation looked bleak, Aelita tried to find a silver lining. "You didn't see the entire battle, though, did you, Cassidy? You just saw Jeremie about to have his neck stung?"

"He was already on the ground sleeping, Aelita. I heard her laugh from behind me, but as for the location, I don't know where it will happen. I only saw about five good guys and a few bad in the span of the vision."

That made even Aelita look a bit worried. Jeremie already had a look of fear on his face, even if he wasn't as afraid of that, as he was of other things that had happened to him during our ride. He only hoped that he was just being shown part of the journey, and not where they started.

"Oh, if only I had a vision journal to write and draw all of these down," I lamented, scooping up the pink hair strand in my hands. "I knew I should have bought a notebook and a sketch pad at Walmart, but someone told me otherwise…" I looked pointedly at William.

"Hey!" He held up his hands, defensively. "I thought your visions were over and done with after we left The School!"

"Obviously they weren't, considering the near death of our own Jeremie Elvis/Albert Belpois!" I growled. "Oh, and don't forget about Kiwi being welcome at this hotel or our Welcome Home party!"

Before mi ex novio could form a reply, I felt a pair of hands come to rest upon my shoulders, calming me down nearly instantly.

"Why don't we just calm down, okay, sister dear?" As if it wasn't already obvious who they belonged to, the gentle, cooing voice made it clear. "We'll go and get you another notebook and sketch pad, before supper. I'm sure there's another store nearby."

Her gaze then turned to William. "William sweetheart just… forgot, that's all."

"Sorry, Ex-y…" I sighed, a grin slowly slicing through the angry and worried frown I held earlier. "Ironic as it may seem, I forget that people are likely to forget, too, sometimes."

He smiled apologetically at me. "Oh, you're fine, Cass."

Sister's hands began to give my shoulders a few soft rubs, relaxing me even further. "Yes, it's true, dear sister."

"You said you saw a battle, but do you know where it's taking place, Cassidy?" Aelita asked, finally finding the words to speak. "And at least you didn't see Jeremie falling off a bridge, this time."

"I'm just glad it's better than the last vision I had of Einstein," I sighed happily in agreement. "One thing is for sure, though: We didn't have that battle out on the highway. We'd probably end up as roadkill, no humor or pun intended."

Aelita got a bit of an uneasy look on her face, just from the thought. "But… didn't you say that we had Max, Fang and the others to help us out?"

"Yeah, I was just saying that we didn't have our fight literally on the road," I gently shot back, not wanting to argue with her. "Max saved Ulrich's day, after all."

"At least it's a long ways away," Sam jumped in, seeming the most relaxed about the entire situation. "It's not like they're gonna find us here. So relax!"

"Right," I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

As I started to calm down, Odd walked over to my bed and sat down upon it, so his legs were dangling off the front. "Oh, don't sweat it, Cat Girl. We have all the time in the world, while we wait for the spa to open!"

"That's true," Yumi nodded in agreement, before turning her attention toward the door, getting curious. "And speaking of the spa, I wonder if Hunter's awake, yet. He's gonna sleep right through it."

"I'm sure he is. He may be a heavy sleeper, but he's gotta wake up some time," mi novio came in.

"And how would you know that?" I asked, almost word-for-word what Yumi said to Ulrich one time.

"Think of it this way," Odd replied, extending his right hand forward. "If someone was going to take your clothes off, and rub and wash every inch of you, would you wanna sleep through that?"

"Possibly not," I giggled.

"The spa isn't open yet, so maybe he'll wake up in time," Yumi suggested, looking hopeful.

"Maybe. It would be no fun without him," I raised that point.

"I know!" Odd suddenly jumped up, raising his right index finger, and arm, into the air. "Let's call room service! We'll have them bring some food into his room, and if that doesn't wake him up, then maybe someone snuck into his room, and switched him with someone else who looks like Hunter, but is secretly a polymorphic specter! I'll bet he's waiting for us to come in, and make sure he's okay, so he can—huh?"

I started to quake, bringing my knees to my chest, which brought him to a screeching halt. Instead of making me laugh, he was freaking me out, giving me the impression that XANA had come back sooner than we had expected, and was planning on doing crazy things to Aelita and me, first under the guise of Hunter.

Mi novio's eyes widened, realizing he had accidentally gone too far, as a look of fear completely destroyed his comedic expression. "Oh, no… I'm sorry, Cat Girl." He immediately scooted over, and wrapped his arms around me, snuggling me warmly, with his arms slowly and softly rubbing my back in circles.

Right away, his massage started to work its magic. I uncurled from my position, shaking the fear out of my head and heart. "I-i-it's okay, Odd, just remember that XANA also unleashed Hell on me, too. He gave me a Harry Potter-like scar. Almost let—uh…never mind… Sore spot in all our memories."

The room went silent, and I could tell a few of my friends were thinking about what I had suggested, but most had put the thought out of their minds. Thankfully, about ten minutes later, I was able to put the idea down as well, just as a familiar face opened the door to the suite.

"Good morning everyone." It was Hunter, still sounding a bit groggy, like he had woken up a few minutes prior. "Sorry I'm kinda late."

"Morning, Hunter. It's okay," I smiled, walking toward him and gently wrapping my arms around him. Sure, I may not have the same capabilities as Sister did, but I still wanted him to feel welcome in our room.

It took him a fraction of a second to wrap his arms around me, gently resting his head on my shoulder. "Those beds are really soft and comfortable. I almost didn't want to get up."

"Same here, but—" I shot Ulrich a playful glare. "—somebody thought it would be funny to try to prank me awake."

Ulrich smirked mischievously, as he folded his arms. "Well, at least I didn't get the Gasman to imitate the super-scan! But I figured Max wouldn't want me to do that."

Hunter glanced over at Ulrich. "You do realize that'd freak Aelita out, too, right?"

"Plus, Ulrich, he probably doesn't know how the sound goes yet—wait…" My eyes widened as I let go of the black-haired programmer. "How do I keep forgetting? He saw it, and possibly the audio's recorded in his mind. How silly of me!"

"You just didn't think about it, that's all!" Sister reassured me calmly, closing her eyes as she smiled.

"True. I guess it didn't hit me until just now. Anyway, so, Hunter, are you hungry? Odd can order room service, and the breakfast is delicious," I smiled, ruffling the slightly heavy-lidded electric-green eyed boy's hair.

I heard him chuckle a bit, grinning as I messed with his already somewhat-disheveled hair before he looked up at me. "Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. My stomach's probably going to start growling at me, any minute."

Odd soon found the black-haired programmer's grin to be contagious, as he directed him over to the phone, picking it up while handing Hunter the menu. It took him a minute to look it over, and tell the spiky blond his request, which mi novio promptly relayed to the room service clerk. With a reply indicating a slight amount of time before it arrived, Odd thanked the clerk and hung up the phone.

"Gracias, Novio," I smiled, reaching over, cupping his chin, and kissing his forehead.

He started to grin widely, letting out a slight giggle, before calming down a bit. "Wow, Cat Girl! You sure know how to let your lips do the talking!"

My smile grew as I lifted my chin, pride washing over me like a wave. "Yep."

I could hear Sister giggling in the background, her eyes still closed as her clenched teeth held back a fountain of laughter. She could see the way Odd and I acted as boyfriend and girlfriend, and it was nothing short of cute in her eyes.

I could feel another wave of relief hit me as though I was in an ocean of emotions. Throwing my mental shields up, I thought, still smiling, Sister really does care about me… Why did I let that stupid nightmare rule my ethos?

It wasn't long before Jeremie looked over and saw me lost in my thoughts. "What's on your mind?"

"Just happy to be alive," I answered.

Even Yumi couldn't help but grin at that since it was genuine. For once, I didn't look like I was thinking about something terrible; I was just happy. And that made her even gladder.

"I love it when my dear sister's happy, too, Yumi, darling," Sister chimed in, noticing Yumi's smile. "It really makes my heart sing with joy."

My shields went down. "Thanks, Sister."

And soon Odd had come back from the astral plane. "Wow… what a morning!" he commented with a chuckle.

"And it's just eleven-oh-two," Kaitlyn smiled.

Fang nodded, his facial expression unwavering. "I'll join Max and do some extra reconnaissance tomorrow. The Erasers and whitecoats won't know what hit them."

"That's great. Thanks, Fang," Aelita smiled.

"Don't mention it. We're going to get you home no matter what. Hearing you all were victims of The School was bad enough." He shook his head.

"Good thing you, Jeb, Georgina, Ari, and the rest of the flock came when you did," I grinned.

"We just couldn't let any more cruelty happen to you. Nudge worried about all of you, chattering our ears off, and even Max couldn't cut her off."

Aelita couldn't help but giggle when she heard that. All she could think of was the absolute shower of comments Nudge poured upon her when Max and her flock rescued them from The School. To her, that girl was one heck of a chatterbox.

"But you all saved us, Fang," Yumi reassured him. "I bet that calmed her down a little."

"Well, she is still All Nudge, All the Time," I smiled. "Just not when she's groggy."

"Oh, she couldn't sleep at all until the day we rescued you. She was so worried sick, all she would do was talk. Angel couldn't even calm her down; even with her powers of control, it kinda made things worse. If she wasn't chattering on about one subject, she would turn to another. But that's in the past now," Fang reassured, still with a trademark scowl.

Jeremie grimaced a bit, rubbing the back of his head as he let out a slightly nervous chuckle. "At least she, uh… knows we're doing okay now, doesn't she?"

"Yes, and she's finally getting some sleep, but she's doing patrols with Max, too."

"Right now, things seem to be going easy, but I don't want to tempt fate, considering the first time I did that, we—" I caught a dry glare from the disheveled electric green eyed programmer and stopped myself from going any further. "—I mean, never mind. We're totally safe now."

"That's right!" Odd jumped in, walking over to me, and wrapping an arm around me. "And we're so safe, we can spend the whole day relaxing! And we should! Let's just stay at the spa the whole day! And don't forget the four R's, Cat Girl!"

"I would love to enjoy that," I sighed happily.

"Then, why don't we!" Sister raised her hands into the air, excitedly. "Let's spend as long as we want to at the spa! I'm sure Jeb's got enough money so we can spend the entire day getting massages, baths, body scrubs… or anything we want!"

"He did say he and Georgina had a lot of money, and that we shouldn't worry about it," I noted, giggling.

"When was the last time we had a chance like this to really pamper ourselves?" Yumi asked, starting to get slightly excited at the thought, as well. "I think all of us, especially you, Cassidy, really deserve this. We could even go for every single treatment they have."

"I still refuse to go into steam rooms or saunas, and zilch on the wraps, Yumi," I reminded her, keeping a smile on my face.

"We know, sister dear," Sister reminded me, gently. "You can go into whatever treatments you like, that aren't any of those. You should see how many different kinds of baths, massages and body scrubs this place has!"

"And hey, what's with the shift to Cassidy all of a sudden?" Kaitlyn asked. "Wasn't it Hunter who had the nightmare?"

I subtly winked to Hunter, hoping he would pick it up as a sign. Throwing my defenses up, I sent a thought to him, Just roll with it. Right now, they think you had a nightmare and not me.

Hunter was milliseconds from raising an eyebrow in confusion before his eyes widened in reply to my thoughts. His expression began to morph into one of fear as if he was really trying to play it up.

"I was really hoping to forget about that!" Sounding worried, he squeezed his eyes shut, gritted his teeth, and placed his hands on opposite sides of his head, above his ears. "Those stupid cockroaches were all over me! Ugh! They climbed up my legs, went up my shirt, up my sleeves… they were even in my hair! AGH! I thought I had finally put it out of my mind!"

"Sorry, Hunter," Kaitlyn blushed.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her, still appearing quite frazzled by his "dream." "It's not your fault… I never really told you how bad it was… I mainly kept it to myself, because I was afraid someone was gonna try to pull me into the bathtub, or even the shower, thinking they could wash me, to get me to relax! But they were even in there, too! They knew someone would take me there!"

"Just be glad that we didn't get into contact with them, either," I soothed, reaching over to rub his back to calm him down. "And that you have brilliant friends to help guide you into a better night's sleep."

"Yeah… you're right." He leaned forward, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. "Hopefully I don't get that dream again. Otherwise, that might come in handy…"

"It's okay, Hunter sweetheart," Sister smiled. "We all get nightmares."

Of course, mi novio jumped in. "Yeah! Like one night, Kiwi had turned into a giant, and he was flying around the sky dropping poisoned meatballs. And there I was, swimming around in an ocean of fish batter, but I couldn't drown…the stuff was too thick."

Kiwi opened his mouth, surprised, and slightly weirded out, by what his master had just said. "I was a giant dropping poisoned meatballs?! What did you eat that made you dream that up, Odd, Master?!"

"And, fish batter?" Kaitlyn shook her head. "You have such weird food-related dreams and nightmares."

"Potato epidemics that scared him to think that French Fries were about to be taken off the school's menu, and there was that one from The School about it raining the titular fries, hamburgers being his buddies and them hooking him up with a strawberry milkshake, with a hot fudge sundae running around in their backyard," I listed, giggling. Sure, the memory afterward turned relaxing, then dangerous, then back around and so on, but now, the dream mi novio had was more of a funny one.

"And she was really delicious, Cat Girl!" Odd commented, remembering the dream just as well as I did. "Oh, you should have been there! Kiwi would've been really good friends with that hot fudge sundae!"

"You remember what Odd dreamt at that hellhole?!" Kaitlyn stared at me, as though more of my hair had turned pink.

"I was awake for him to even recite it to Yumi and me," I defended, a smile on my face.

Odd couldn't help but chuckle at this. "That's my Cat Girl! Her memory is as good as mine!"

My cheeks heated up. "Oh, please, Odd. I'm just remembering. Remembering along, that's me."

Jeremie smiled in agreement. "She does have an excellent memory, that's for sure. She's even helped me remember to double-check lines of code that I wasn't sure about, whenever I'm programming."

"Yeah, but most times were due to my powers helping you out as much as they could manage. When I started to lose their strength, I could barely code anything, not even a bouncing dot to save our skins," I blinked but kept a smile on my face.

"But now that they're back," Odd looked in my direction, with a grin on his face, "you can help him out again! Maybe even Hunter can help you, Einstein, and Aelita, too!"

"I guess so, but I don't know if they remember how to program things. They feel a little different, but as to what, I don't know." I shook my head.

"We can figure that out when we get back to Kadic," Ulrich jumped in, hoping to stop me from feeling terrible, again. "Right now, we don't need to worry about writing programs to try and stop XANA, do we? For all we know, no news is good news."

"And he's been weak. No activated towers," Jeremie noted. "And this time, the Super-Scan isn't resetting itself, so I'm sure I'm getting the right results."

"At least it's actually studying, Einstein," Odd cracked.

While Fang looked slightly confused, the twelve of us burst into laughter at Odd's comment. Not long after, we heard a knock at the door, followed by a busboy bringing a cart of food in; Hunter's breakfast.

"Epic! Now that's galactic dancing!" the black-haired programmer exclaimed as he noticed the food cart before the busboy handed him a couple of plates. He soon thanked the man, who then left.

"Eat up, Hunter," I giggled. "You need it."

"Thanks!" he replied with a slight chuckle of his own, as he sat down upon one of the beds, placing the second plate nearby while holding the first in his hands.

Interestingly, before he started eating, the eleven of us heard him think about something that we weren't expecting. Mmm… thank you, Lord, for this wonderful food that I have received...

We subtly nodded, smiles across our faces. Almost as if he caught himself, he looked up, with a slight expression of worry, before calming down, as he noticed our smiles. We didn't mind him praying quietly since it didn't really harm anything.

"Dig in, Hunter," I encouraged.

He chuckled a bit more, calming back down again as he reached for a fork on the plate that had since moved into his lap. "With pleasure."

And with that, he started in, going for the egg and bagels first, the latter of which had been covered in cream cheese.

"So, after he gets done, how about a nice day at either the spa or at any of the amenities?" Aelita suggested, looking around the room at the others.

"Sounds good to me," I smiled. "I definitely need to relax."

"You're right," Sister agreed, smiling warmly at me. "And I think we all need to. Let's just spend a good part of our day at the spa. Why don't we come up with what we're all going to do, so we can plan our spa day out?"

"I definitely would love to do aromatherapy, a facial, then a coconut milk bath, followed by a nice massage," I chimed in first.

Sister walked over to one of the drawers and grabbed a notepad, which had been placed atop it. Taking the pen near the room service menu, she began to jot down my spa treatment suggestions underneath my name, before starting to scribble something else underneath the massage.

Of course, it hadn't gone unnoticed, much to her surprise.

"Hey, Sissi… isn't that—?" Ulrich began.

"Ulrich honey! Didn't anyone tell you that it's impolite to read over someone's shoulder, huh?" she scolded gently.

Samurai's eyes widened, as he stopped himself. "Uh…right. Sorry, Sissi."

"I think I'd like to go for a body shampoo," Yumi suggested next, "and then I'll try aromatherapy, too, before I get a massage."

"I'll start with a body scrub," Odd followed with his suggestions. "As much as I enjoyed those baths, I can't wait to see how that Vichy shower feels! Afterward, I'll go for some relaxing rubs."

His attention then turned to a flyer for the hotel's spa, which was also perched atop the same dresser that also held the phone. Grabbing it, he gave it a once-over, to figure out exactly what kind of massages he wanted to get.

"Ah! Shiatsu looks great! And then… ooh, a sports massage! And a hot stone massage, too! Then a full-body massage, afterward. Odd the Magnificent's gotta have really soft, smooth skin, you know!"

"You know it, Odd, Master," Kiwi yipped. "Do they have any kinds of massages for dogs?"

"Yep!" Odd lowered the flyer to Kiwi's level. "They've got an animal massage!"

"Great!" Kiwi barked excitedly. "That sounds perfect for me!"

Next, he handed the flyer to Sam, whose eyes scanned it quickly.

"I love the idea of a sports massage," she began, reading off from the list of spa treatments. "Maybe I'll go for a hot stone massage, too. But I'll probably start with a body shampoo, then a scrub, and a seaweed wrap—it looks gross, but it's gotta feel good—before they give me a hot stone massage."

"Let me see that," William asked before the flyer was handed to him. "Hmm… hey, a body scrub sounds killer! A sports massage sounds good, too. Maybe a really long one."

He then handed the flyer to Patrick, who ran through the items in his head, before choosing a few. "Count me in for a body scrub, too… as well as shiatsu, sports, hot stone, and full-body massage. They all sound really awesome."

Then it was Kaitlyn's turn. "I haven't had a facial in I don't know how long! That, along with a body scrub, would be perfect! And nice, a coconut milk bath! I'll totally get one of those, too!"

She then handed it to Ulrich. I could tell Samurai already had a slight idea of what he wanted, but his eyes widened when he noticed all of the other available treatments. "Hmm… maybe I'll start with a steam bath. A good sports massage would be great after that. Then, how about floating in the isolation chamber? And a full-body massage to finish it off."

When she got the flyer next, Aelita was also amazed by the sheer number of things she could choose from. "I guess I could start with a coconut milk bath. It sounds heavenly. And what's this 'Rainbow Rain'? Getting water poured on you, like a shower, while someone massages differently colored clays all over your body? I think I'll try that, too. And a good, full-body massage, afterward. I wonder if I could get them to massage my whole body for a good, long time?"

"If we're all going to stay for as long as we want, Aelita darling," Sister commented with a warm grin on her face, "they should massage you all over, for hours on end, for all we care!"

Even Jeremie let out a slight chuckle at that, as his darling pink-haired girlfriend handed him the flyer, next. "Let's see, now… I could probably go for a hot stone massage… hopefully, the stones aren't too hot… but then a body shampoo might be a great idea. Then they could give me a full-body massage afterward—especially if I still have a few knots left over in my back. Yeah, that sounds about right."

Hunter had finished his egg, and was halfway through the first half of his bagel, as his eyes watched Jeremie holding the flyer. As I glanced over at him, knowing Jeremie was going to pass it his way, something told me he didn't want to be the next one to hold it.

"Hunter?" I asked.

He looked up at me and blinked, almost as if I had caught him off-guard. "Y-yeah? Uh… what's up?"

"Are you okay?"

He placed his bagel back upon the plate that sat in his lap. "Y-y-y-y… kinda. Why?"

"You look like you're about to, um…how did I put it at one point…laugh at lions," I blinked.

He found my blinking contagious, before quickly glancing over at Jeremie, as though he was wondering where the flyer went, before returning his gaze to me. "Um… really? I, uh… I guess I'm… well, I mean, I'm not sick… but, uh… I'm just watching you guys, uh… pick out what spa treatments you want… I guess."

"Are you worried about it?" Aelita asked, concerned, noticing the look on his face, as well.

His eyes darted over to her, and I could tell he was trying not to grit his teeth. "Well, uh…"

"You don't have to go on if you don't feel like it," I soothed, walking toward him and rubbing his back.

That did calm him some, as he closed his eyes, and let out a sigh. "I just… didn't want to bring any of you guys down… you're having your happy moment, going to the spa… and I didn't want to ruin the mood by saying no."

"But if you feel this way, Hunter dear," Sister jumped in, calmly walking over next to me, and softly rubbing his back as well, "then you really should go to the spa with us, too! There are so many wonderful things they can do for you!"

While he enjoyed the soft caress of both Sister's and my hands, the former snob's suggestion didn't really sit well with him. "Maybe… but I'd really rather not. Spas have never really been my thing."

"It's just because they offer baths, and other things that involve rubbing your naked body while you're soaking wet, isn't it?" she gently challenged him.

Hunter let out another sigh. "That's most of it. I listened to everything you guys picked out, and really… I don't feel the need to have someone else pay somebody to rub me when Georgina can do that for free. And at least they come out and tell you what they do with the coconut milk bath; with the body shampoo, it's a bit more cryptic, but it's still a fancy way of getting a bath!"

"Hunter, it's okay," Yumi came in, trying to calm him down. "You really don't have to go with us. Nobody's forcing you. You can stay in here, and rest and relax on your own, or even do something else if you want to."

"Yeah," Odd interjected. "The spa doesn't have to be for everybody."

"I even had an experience with a spa, and I wasn't even dressed in my bathrobe yet," I blinked.

He raised an eyebrow. "When did that happen?"

"About a month and a week or two ago," I guessed. "It was nothing serious, I can assure you. Um… Aelita, would you explain it? Because I know that Yumi and Sister were getting dressed elsewhere."

Aelita nodded, only taking a short moment to remember the sequence of events for herself. "Cassidy was worried, almost like you are right now, the first time she went to a spa. She felt like she was worrying too much, but she still had nerves about what was going to happen. But after she went through the treatments Sissi had picked out for her, she really got into it."

"And it untied my nerves so perfectly. I think getting smuggled over here took its toll on my psyche and retied every knot." I shook my head, about as exasperated as my former first roommate when William charged head-first into battle.

Hunter returned his gaze to the carpeted floor, and let out another sigh. "Yeah… I can understand that. Maybe that's what I'm worried about, too. The whole 'first time at a spa' thing… or the fact that you can actually get a team of masseuses to wash every inch of your body." He shook his head at that.

Doing my best, I took a really deep breath. "Yeah, you're right, Hunter. And I'm sorry that our darker memories kept resurfacing like recent debris in a shipwreck."

"It's fine…" he replied, his head staying in place. "Of course, I'm one to talk, because I sometimes get the same thing… but… sometimes it's just hard to fight. Hard to turn it off. Everyone else acts like there's some sort of magic switch on the back of your head that they can flip, and whenever you ask them to, they laugh."

"I think it affected your subconsciousness," I winked, keeping up with the lie.

His gaze lifted off from the floor, and found me once again, just as I did that. "Yeah, maybe you're right. So, let's say that I actually do come with you guys to the spa. If I just want a massage, they're probably going to drape me, aren't they… Georgina's the only one I know who will massage me while I'm naked, and I don't want them to—"

Suddenly, he ground himself to a halt, fearing what we would think if he finished his sentence. Whatever he was going to say that made him stop there, it really made me start to worry.

"Hunter?" I asked, concern rising as something familiar started to make my body shake—and I knew it wasn't a vision.

Before the black-haired programmer had a chance to reply, Sister ran over and slowly wrapped her arms around me, embracing me with a soothing back rub.

"Please calm down, dear sister," she cooed, hoping to stop me from shaking my way into a meltdown.

Slowly, her massage helped me relax. "S-sorry, Sister."

"Don't worry about it," she soothed. "I'm sure whatever caused Hunter to stop isn't something he feels comfortable sharing, at the moment. Maybe he'll come around, another time."

She then looked over at Hunter, as her hands continued caressing my back, through my shirt. "Besides, he doesn't seem very stressed out. I think he was more worried about us, or how we would think about what he was about to say."

"Right…" A smile slowly sliced through the anxious thoughts I had.

"I-i-i-it's nothing, anyway," Hunter tried to dismiss it, putting on his best smile, and waving his hand back and forth, like he was swatting at invisible flies.

"See?" Sister turned her attention back to me, slowly starting to grin, reassuringly.

I nodded, my body calming down. "At least you're helping me calm down. I would hate for my empathy to make me have another run-in with a sedative."

Jeremie grimaced a bit, letting out a nervous chuckle. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that anymore, Cassidy. Especially not with Sissi's healing abilities."

"Yes. She's helped me a lot," I smiled more.

"I would say she's helped all of us," Aelita chimed in, smiling warmly as well. "And a day at the spa will help all of us even more."

"What do you think, Hunter?" I asked.

Hunter didn't seem convinced, however. "Well… I really don't know…"

So Sister decided to try something. Gently breaking her embrace with me, handing me to Yumi, she gently sat down on the bed, next to the black-haired programmer, and wrapped her arms around him, as he set his plate down on the bed, on the opposite side.

"I really think you should go with us, Hunter dear," she cooed, as she then started to softly rub his back. "Whatever it is that you're worried about will go away. And I think you should start with a bath. A coconut milk bath, even. That way we can find out if that makes your skin slimy, too, or not. Besides, once they start washing you, I know you'll relax. Why don't you look at the flyer that Jeremie has? Better yet… let me decide for you. I happen to know a few things that you're bound to enjoy, even if you don't think you will."

That seemed to have an effect on him, as he took a deep breath. "...okiday."

"There… that wasn't so hard, was it?" she soothed, before turning her attention toward Jeremie, extending her hand, and receiving the spa flyer from him. "Here… look at all of the wonderful things they can do for you! All of the different kinds of massages… essential oils, clays… they've even got an isolation chamber! It's just a big pool of water that you can float naked in, and it helps you relax, because it plugs your ears, and you can close your eyes…"

I could see Hunter's eyes light up at a part of Sister's speech; however, the exact part was lost on me. "See? You seem happy to hear something that's straight up your alley."

Hunter chuckled a bit, slightly nervously, as he momentarily turned his gaze on me. "Yeah… you're right. Maybe I'll go for that, after my coconut milk bath, like Sissi suggested. And then… I could probably go for two of these massages…"

"That's great, Hunter. I'm sure you'll love it," Yumi commented, smiling warmly at him.

"Yeah," I agreed.

Hunter ended up going with two massages—a full-body essential oil massage, and a regular full-body massage, both multi-hour sessions, like the rest of us—in addition to the isolation chamber, and the coconut milk bath Sister suggested he get. With that, the principal's daughter's list of spa treatments had been completed, and the black-haired programmer, feeling better than before, returned to his food. Not long after he had finished, it had soon become noon, and time to head down to the spa.

A few of us were a bit nervous, as Jeremie, Hunter, Ulrich, William, Kaitlyn, Patrick and Sam left to return to their suites, while Sister, Aelita, Odd, Yumi, and I took turns in the bathroom, taking off all of our clothes, before putting on one of the soft, terrycloth bathrobes the hotel had left near the shower. Once it was my turn, I loved how soft and gentle it felt against my bare body, almost as if someone was giving me a warm snuggly hug, dressed in one of those cuddly monster costumes that's completely covered in a soft, felt-like fur. It even contained my wings just nicely. My robe in France seemed to run home crying to its mama.

With all of us dressed in our bathrobes, we all met up in the foyer of the hotel, to head toward the spa area. Once there, we split into each of our respective first treatments: a body shampoo for Yumi, an animal massage for Kiwi that Odd took him to get, before joining Patrick and William for body scrubs, a sports massage for Sam, a facial for Kaitlyn, a steam bath for Ulrich, a hot stone massage for Jeremie, coconut milk baths for Hunter and Aelita, and aromatherapy for me.

Upon entering the room where I would receive my first treatment, the relaxing, inviting smell of lavender filled my nostrils, almost calming me right away. I closed my eyes as I took a deep, peaceful breath, welcoming the wonderful aroma into my lungs, filling me with a feeling of relaxation. Of course, that was only a taste of what was to come; I was soon directed to stretch my arms outward, perpendicular to my sides, which allowed them to gently unfasten the ties that held my robe closed in the front. As I watched them slowly pull my robe backward and off from me, I didn't let bother me the fact that they could see every inch of my body; this was a requirement for every single one of my, and the others', spa treatments. Wearing a swimsuit, or being draped in some fashion just would not have worked, especially not for what had been planned for me.

I was soon led onto a very soft-looking bed, as one of the spa officials started playing some gentle, ambient music from a stereo sound system. As I laid on my belly, with my head turned to the right, I could see a wooden table near the bed, with different oils and creams placed upon it. Taking the time to look at the labels on a few of the bottles, the spa official who started the music walked over next to the bed, lifted one of the bottles, and poured a generous amount into her hand, before rubbing both of her hands together several times. It was only a matter of moments before her soft, cream-caked hands slowly touched down upon my bare back, but I didn't feel the urge to shiver; her hands were quite warm, and so was the cream, much to my slight surprise. She began slowly, softly and soothingly working the cream all over my bare upper and lower back, starting from the back of my neck, just below my head—my hair was gently moved out of the way, beforehand—down to just above my butt, exploring my back half in such a gentle, invigorating way, that the relaxation couldn't be stopped, no matter what sort of barricade you built. It started with a mild, essential oil-infused cream, which was soon rubbed all over my arms, my hands, my shoulders, my sides, the backs of my legs, and the bottoms of my feet—even though I tried not to laugh from my ticklish side—, before the official's hands were briskly rubbed against a towel several times to remove the excess cream, and a soothing, relaxing, gentle and soft massage began, further working the cream into my bare skin.

Once it was dry, she followed with a few different essential oils, soothingly rubbing them across each part, before gently helping me to flip over, so she could begin the process again on my front half, cream, oils and all. After my skin was given a chance to dry at the end, I was gently helped off from the bed, and my robe was slid back over my arms, and the rest of my body, before being gently tied in the front, again. After such an enjoyable experience, I couldn't wait to get to my next treatment, which was a facial.

Throughout each of my treatments, I felt each one of the knots in my back, the breakouts on my face, as well as the emotional baggage that had plagued me since the start of the adventure, slowly vanish. After the facial came a coconut milk bath, exactly like the ones Hunter and Aelita got, while I was undergoing aromatherapy. I could try to explain how indescribably wonderful and amazing that felt, laying in a deep tub filled with soothingly warm coconut milk, while two spa officials softly, slowly, soothingly, gently and thoroughly washed absolutely every inch of my body at the same time, with an invigorating cream-based bath soap, a process that took nearly an hour, if not longer… but let's just say that Georgina's got some competition. After a massage-dry with very soft, gentle towels, the full-body massage was fourth, and two hours later, every single knot was gone from my back, even some that I didn't even know were there.

It was then that I was told about a fifth treatment, something that was not only unexpected, but I also didn't even realize Sister had ordered one. I hadn't mentioned anything to her, and while I had heard Samurai's random comment before being shushed and gently reprimanded, I had no idea what it could have possibly meant. A spa official offered to lead me to the treatment room, and when I got there, and my robe was once again gently removed, I got a pleasant surprise: Sister had arranged for me to have a Rainbow Rain—the same that Aelita was interested in earlier! She must have read up on what it was meant for, and decided I needed it. Laying upon another table, the gentle, soft shower across most of my bare body felt invigorating, as differently-colored clays, including ones that soothed nerves, and others that removed worry were softly and slowly rubbed all across every inch of my body. It was so much better than I expected, especially since I didn't even know I was going to get one in the first place.

Soon, six hours had slipped between our fingers and toes, much to our great surprise, and a few of us parted ways. Jeremie spoke to Hunter, before bringing him back up into their suite with him, Odd booked it for the restaurant, William, Patrick, and Kaitlyn on his heels, Max, Ari, and her flock went to do more reconnaissance, Jeb and Georgina went to the tennis court to have a round or two, while Yumi, Aelita, Sister, Ulrich, Sam, Kiwi, and I went up into our respective suites, exchanged our robes for swimsuits (except in Kiwi's case), and came back down to step into the hot tub for a nice, long dip, bringing an excellent full stop to our spa day.

"Ahh… That was great…" I exhumed, letting the hot tub's jets soothe me. "This is a spa day I'll never forget…"

"You're right," Yumi agreed. "And I thought that one spa we went to for our girls' day out was great."

"It still is, but I think my psyche really needed this, and I just didn't know it," I smiled.

"You have stressed out so much, dear sister," Sister replied. "I even added one more treatment to see if it would help."

"Well, it was a surprise, but that really hit the spot, Sister. Definitely soothed me down. I think I'll sleep well tonight."

Her tone then turned slightly sharp, though her voice was still pretty relaxed. "You're still not sleeping alone, ya got that, dear sister? I don't care how tired you were last night."

"That's okay, Sister. I wasn't planning on doing that, either," I agreed. "Considering…that…I'd rather sleep near a partner than get another one of those."

As we stopped talking for a moment, my eyes happened to land upon Kiwi, who was laying on the topmost rung of the small stairway that led into the hot tub, just staring at the water, almost as if he was watching something under the surface.

"Are you okay, Kiwi?" I asked.

"Yeah, just thinking that Tutu would've loved to sit in a ritzy hot tub like this," he woofed sadly.

Yumi's face fell a bit, as she sympathized with Odd's canine companion. I could even tell that she missed her family, too. "Aww… but don't worry, Kiwi. I'm sure when we get back to France, you'll have plenty of time to spend with her, and the two of you might even be able to soak in a hot tub then, too."

"And it's like I told the others today, Kiwi. I miss Milly and Tamiya, so you aren't alone, there," I blinked.

"We all have people we miss back in France," Aelita soothed, her calm smile matching the sympathy in her voice. "Almost everyone in this hot tub misses their parents, including me. But we know we'll see them again, soon."

"This has been hard for everyone, but hearing Franz's voice really helped me," I brought up.

"I guess it's not too bad," Kiwi nodded, sitting up. "Tutu is to me as Akila is to Total."

I reached over with a dry hand and petted him behind the ears. "Yeah… it might feel bad now, but we made it to Las Cruces yesterday. Tomorrow, we are going to Denver. Pretty soon, we'll be back to France before we know it."

He wagged his tail, his tongue hanging out in a goofy fashion. "You're right, Cassidy."

My former first roommate couldn't help but giggle at this, closing her eyes as she did, which only made her already sweet smile even sweeter.

"Besides, my Tutu will be waiting, and I'm going to treat her like a queen when I return!" he boasted.

That just struck my funny bone. He sounded exactly like mi novio, which sent me into a fit of laughs, clutching my belly as I leaned back against the edge of the hot tub. The others couldn't resist chuckling as they saw this.

"That sounds just like what Odd would do if Cassidy disappeared for a long time," Yumi commented in-between giggles.

Right away, my laughter ceased, eyes widening as a sheepish smile spread across my lips. "I, uh… think that Odd's already doing that, considering that I 'disappeared' for three months, then again for, as you all remember and I don't, three hours."

"Well, it's only fair," Sister replied, folding her arms as an all-knowing grin spread across her face. "After all the things my poor sister went through! Now he won't leave you alone, which is a good thing in my eyes!"

"It is a good thing in my eyes, too," I agreed, still feeling sheepish.

Aelita could hear the slight embarrassment in my voice, as she slowly reached over, and softly rubbed my upper back and shoulders, through my swimsuit. "Don't worry, Cassidy. Everything's under control now. And besides, Kiwi could always give you a belly rub, up in our suite, or in the bathroom."

In reply, I wrapped my arms around her, giggling. "Aelita, I'm so glad that, along with everyone else, you're my roommate."

"And I can always do that, Princess," Kiwi yipped.

Aelita started giggling, closing her eyes as she leaned forward, holding her left hand up by her mouth. It only served to remind her exactly how much Kiwi was totally Odd's pet dog if it wasn't already blatantly obvious enough.

"Well, we already know who came up with that nickname," Ulrich quipped.

I nodded in agreement. "And I fell in love with Kiwi's cuteness a long time ago."

It was then that Sam turned a curious eye toward me. "How long ago was it?"

"At first sight," I smiled.

"You had a view of my tail, though, Cassidy. Not very much cuteness back there," Kiwi grinned, his tongue still out in a goofy fashion.

"After I came into Odd's room alone, silly boy," I corrected.

"Was that the time you blindfolded Odd," Aelita asked, out of nowhere, "and brought him to the factory, the first time?"

At first, my eyes widened, as I wondered, with my shields raised, How the hell did she know? She was stuck on Lyoko at the time—wait… the monster. Then they relaxed as I nodded. "Yep. He was confused, but he got to be the first teenaged boy to be virtualized."

We spent another half hour in the hot tub, just chit-chatting back and forth about nearly anything before we all decided to get out. Taking some time to dry off, before draping our own towels over our shoulders, we made our way back to our individual suites to get changed and decide on what we were going to do, next.

As Sister, Yumi, Aelita, Kiwi, and I walked back into ours, we met back up with Odd, who looked quite pleased with the time he spent in the restaurant.

"Nice to see you all again, ladies," Odd greeted, rubbing his belly happily. "And I'm glad to see you, too, my little diggity dog."

"We had a great time, Odd, Master," Kiwi smiled, wagging his tail.

"Faaaan-tastic!" mi novio grinned, before gesturing toward my bed. My eyes lit up when I noticed what he was pointing at. "Oh, by the way, Cat Girl, Georgina brought Hippity, and all your stuffed ponies up to your suite, while we were at the spa. Cool, huh!"

Not only was I excited by this, but at first, the words buried themselves in my mouth. "Oh, Odd, that's just so…" And that was the last somewhat coherent sentence I was able to make before my vowels and consonants all jumbled themselves together in sheer gladness.

Sister soon saw this, walking over to me, and softly rubbing my shoulders, which immediately calmed me down somewhat. "Don't worry, dear sister. We all know exactly how excited you are to have Hippity with you."

"Remind me in the morning to hug Georgina when we pile into the van," I giggled.

"Oh, I don't think you'll forget something like that," she cooed happily before her tone turned slightly serious. "But don't forget what I told you, about who's going to be sleeping with you, tonight. Your bed is plenty big enough for you, me, and Aelita!"

"True," I nodded. "I am so glad that you two helped me last night."

"We didn't want you to have another nightmare," Aelita replied with a warm smile. "You and Yumi have always told me how sleeping with someone, or something, always helps you sleep better."

"And we weren't about to let you have anything but pleasant dreams if we could help it!" Sister added, matter-of-factly. "Only the best for my dear sister, after all!"

I ended up giggling a bit at that, even though I knew she was right. With the two of them as my virtual teddy bears, along with Hippity and my ponies, if I had a bad dream tonight, I would have to blame it on something else. Besides, the beds were just indescribably amazing, just like our entire experience at this hotel. Could anything possibly ruin it?

While I was lost in my thoughts, a certain spiked blond spoke up, thinking about something he liked to think about, a lot.

"Hey, do any of you ladies feel hungry? I could call room service," Odd suggested.

I blinked, feeling my stomach growl in response. "Apparently, that sounds good to me."

"Yes, please, Odd, Master! I love the dog food here. Definitely helped me out," Kiwi agreed.

"That's a great idea!" Sister chimed in, grinning once more.

"I wouldn't mind going for something right about now," Yumi agreed, softly rubbing her towel against her shoulders.

"I wouldn't, either," Aelita added, bringing her towel up to dry her hair further. "I wonder what they serve for lunch and dinner, here?"

To answer her question, Odd brought her the menu flyer once more, which, after glancing at it herself, she passed around to Yumi, Sister, Aelita and I, before I handed it back to him. With our orders in mind, mi novio picked up the phone and directly told room service what each of us wanted to order. It was a somewhat-quick fifteen-minute delay, to which we chit-chatted again between getting back into our night clothes, before a few bellhops entered the room, bringing carts of different foods with them, and we all dug in.

You know how good I thought the breakfast food that came from the hotel's restaurant tasted? I didn't know the lunch and dinner food could taste any better… but it proved me wrong. Every bite was almost like someone gave me a warm snuggle and personally fed me. The word 'delicious' didn't even begin to describe it. I could just imagine Sister trying to figure out where chefs like these came from and possibly having her own, and my substitute, father hire similar ones, to work alongside Rosa and Charles in the cafeteria at Kadic. Of course, knowing her, she'd probably try to get Lyoko HQ private chefs of our own, but Mr. Delmas would have to draw the line, somewhere. Mainly if she was thinking of asking for what I thought she was going to ask for, back at the School.

"That was so good, Odd…" I sighed happily, copying the motion mi novio had done earlier.

He couldn't help but chuckle, his never-changing stomach in pure bliss, as well. "They should come to work at Kadic! Having their food, along with Rosa's, would be incredible!"

"I've only been in the cafeteria once, and I regret it," Kiwi lamented. "That stupid ghost! I really didn't mean to bite you, that one girl, or Jeremie, Odd, Master."

"Don't worry about it, Kiwi," I reassured, reaching over to rub his belly. "It was out of your control."

In response, mi novio's diggity-dog started laughing, kicking his hind-leg in the air. "You're right, Cassidy."

"I know you'd never bite me anyway, Kiwi," Odd further reasoned with him, bending down near his level, "if you could help it."

"At one point, he actually helped me get out of vision mode," I remembered. "Just a simple nip on my ankle, didn't break my skin at all."

Yumi also recalled that particular event, as she brought her hand up to the back of her head. "I was too surprised by what you saw in your vision to react in time, but luckily, Kiwi was faster."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Plus I did get a blinding headache that went away after he did that. My powers back then, I swear…"

"But you were under a lot of stress back then," Aelita calmly reminded me. "And they have calmed down quite a bit, up to now."

"Yeah, the only thing my visions do is just make me shake before they hit. I don't know why they do that now since my first one in ages didn't even come like that," I blinked.

"I don't think any of us understand that," Yumi lamented, looking confused. "Your powers have always been really confusing."

"Thanks for the encouragement," I sighed, lowering my head.

"She doesn't mean it like that, dear sister," Sister stepped in, sliding over toward me on my bed, and softly rubbing my back, through my shirt, between my wings. "Besides, your psychic powers have been more of a help, than a hideous."

I raised my head to hers, an amused smirk starting to grow. "That's a hindrance, Sister."

She paused her hands, momentarily. "Yeah, that!"

And that's when Odd decided to join in. "No, Cat Girl! Your powers have never been hideous, either! Think of how many things we might have gotten into, if you hadn't seen right through it, and stopped us!"

That did it. I swung back onto my bed and cackled. If anyone, besides Yumi, Aelita, Kiwi, and Sister, had any ideas on how to make my day happy, it was mi novio.

"Odd certainly knows how to cheer her up," Aelita agreed, giggling a bit herself.

"That's for sure," Yumi added, grinning with her eyes closed.

"Let's make sure she can get some rest tonight, too," Kiwi smiled.

"Yes!" Sister agreed, raising her right index finger into the air, triumphantly. "She'll get all the pampering she needs, and then some! I'm sure Georgina wouldn't mind giving her the works! An incredibly soothing, warm, soft and thorough full-body wipe, with a warm, wet washcloth! Then a nice, long, full-body rub, ending with an incredibly relaxing, soothing, soft, gentle, invigorating and rejuvenating bath in our whirlpool bathtub, joined by Georgina and yours truly, giving her the most relaxing, soothing, soft, gentle and thorough head-to-toe wash she's ever felt, second only to the coconut milk bath she was given at the spa! In fact, maybe Georgina might be able to get some of that milk, and even the cream-based bath soap they used, so we all can get a soothing, relaxing and thorough head-to-toe wash, and have incredibly soft, silky smooth skin all over! With the three of us, she'll sleep so soundly, the world would have to blow up before she woke up!"

"I meant just for tonight, Sissi. We have tomorrow to think about that after we get to Denver," he chuckled. "From the way she petted me, her hands feel really soft to the touch, now."

Sister giggled, somewhat sheepishly, in reply. "Well, I'm sure we could still do most of that, couldn't we?"

"Yep," I came up for air. "That was great."

Odd nodded, a smile on his face. "Ya see? She's eating out of my hand."

Soon, a few hours had passed, and everyone had had a chance to do their own thing, to some extent. Jeremie had challenged Hunter to program a small game within a limited time frame, and was careful not to overwhelm or overload the black-haired programmer—even if he was already quite relaxed from the spa—but was definitely intrigued by his skill, even though it wasn't any match for the blond genius' own. Ulrich read the newest Blaze comic he found at Walmart, before joining Odd, Sam, and William in the hotel's game room, starting with a few rounds of foosball and ending with a few arcade games. Yumi, Aelita, Sister, Kiwi, and I spent most of our time talking about one subject or another. Patrick and Kaitlyn went for a walk around the hotel, while Max and her flock, along with Jeb and Ari made a few sweeps of the surrounding area, before getting their own well-deserved spa experience, a few hours before it closed.

Before everyone knew it, the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, and the lights from Las Cruces lit up the night sky, blotting out all of the stars in the beautiful cityscape. Having a beautiful, fun-filled day, each of us soon took our turns in each suite's bathroom, getting ourselves ready for bed, before Georgina came in, to give each of us a soothing, gentle, and relaxing back massage, under our shirts and between our wings, including parts of our wings themselves. With this, most of us had no trouble falling asleep, especially me, with Sister and Aelita at my side, and my entire collection of stuffed ponies, including Hippity, to keep me company. After some parting words, and more gentle rubs from them, my eyes soon found they had a hard time staying open, and it wasn't long before I drifted off, my thoughts filled with wonder and curiosity about what awaited us in Denver, the following day.

Boy, would we get a big surprise…