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6
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"I'm…sorry I ran…I just suddenly panicked…"
It was an odd mirroring of how they'd laid in bed the day before; her head on his chest, with him holding her warmly. Odd had shifted the two of them off the catwalk, and now they just lay on the dusty floor. Sissi had finally calmed down after several minutes, and a quick check had made sure that the bleeding in her foot had stopped; thankfully it was a smaller cut than he'd feared, and the sock had soaked it up and helped it clot over quickly.
"No, I'm sorry, for all of this…I should have realized it wouldn't be as easy to explain it all as I thought it would be." Odd kissed her head before continuing. "There are so many things with all of this are just normal, everyday routine stuff for us, and it made me forget how it could feel for someone normal coming into this and how shocking it might be."
Sissi nodded slightly against his chest. Finally, she spoke again. "How many times was I wiped?"
"I…don't know. We don't do it unless we have to normally. I don't even know how it all works; it seems like total sci-fi crazy talk. But there have been times when we had to. Like the teddy bear thing I mentioned; I know that whole thing sounds crazy, but it was totally true, and you can't cover up a giant Teddygodzilla smashing up the gym during prom." He paused for a minute, then added, "I've never asked, but I might have been wiped at some point. I don't know."
Sissi looked up at him. "Was there ever a time when you had to do it because of something I did? Me specifically?" Her gaze was intent, and Odd suddenly felt the lump forming again.
When he did answer, it was croaked out. "…yes…a few times."
"What did I do?"
"Well, one time you were trying to break up Ulrich and Yumi and followed them here, and you tried to bring the police into it. One time it was Herve and Nikolas trying to get us in trouble for you. Early on, when we first found the computer, you did help at first, but then you turned and told your father everything and he brought the police, so we had to wipe that." He looked down at her. "There have been a lot of wipes that weren't because of you though. And you didn't always do bad stuff. One time when the cafeteria had it's walls get electrified, you acted as nurse to the people who got trapped. And a couple times you found out about Lyoko by accident but tried to help us, only for something to go really wrong elsewhere and you got wiped in the process."
"…how many times have I died?"
Oh. OH. Oh hell. That's what made her panick. "Never."
Sissi's eyes narrowed, but Odd quickly said it again. "Never. You never died. Nobody else did either. That's actually the downside of the time reverse thingy; if someone died, they would have stayed dead even after the time went back. We know about that because of the stuff Jeremie has figured out with it, he's a freaking wizard at this stuff." Odd met her gaze as strongly as he could. "So you've never died. Ever. No one has. We've been that lucky so far."
Sissi's eyes softened, and she lay down again, thinking. After a minute, she spoke again. "Why haven't you just turned the computer off? Wouldn't that stop the XANA thing?"
Odd shook his head. "Originally we couldn't because we had to get Aelita out. Then we discovered that XANA had taken some of her memories and kept them in the computer, and if we shut it down, she'd fall unconscious and possibly die. We also discovered that using the time-turny-back stuff caused the computer to get more powerful somehow, and XANA used that; eventually, he escaped from the computer itself into the internet, with all the knowledge and stuff he'd had from being in the computer. He actually destroyed Lyoko entirely once too; Aelita and Jeremie had to rebuild it so we could use it to get online and find and fight XANA."
"When you say fight, do you mean actual physical fighting?"
"Yeah. Like how you saw Yumi go in and she had battle gear on? Ulrich and Aelita and I all have stuff like that too. XANA creates monsters that we have to fight. Because of Aelita's connection stuff to Lyoko, she can deactivate the towers XANA might use to attack places in the real world, so we have to get her to the towers safely past the monsters before any real damage can be done."
Silence fell over the two again as Sissi took more time to think and process. Things were starting to make a little more sense, though she knew the real cure for her head right now was listening to her boyfriend's heartbeat. It had been quick at first, from the adrenaline from chasing her and pulling her up, but now it was slower and steady. It reassured her.
Eventually, she slowly sat up again. "We should probably get back to the others…they're probably worried about you."
Odd sat up as well. "If they're worried, they'd be worried about us both. Don't sell yourself short; you matter to them too, not just to me."
Sissi nodded slowly as they both stood. As she put her feet down, she gave a small yelp and looked down; though her foot wasn't bleeding, it still hurt to put pressure on. But in a moment, she found herself yelping again as Odd suddenly scooped her up in his arms bridal style. She blushed intensely at the move, her arms going around his neck for support as he held her; she hadn't expected he'd be able to really pick her up, but he just gave her an easy grin and started off back up the passageway.
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It was several winding minutes before they'd made their way back to the computer room. Almost immediately, Ulrich, Aelita, and a returned Yumi rushed over to make sure they were both alright. Aelita carefully rolled Sissi's sock off and pulled gauze bandages and disinfectant out of a small first aid kit in her purse; though Sissi winced at it, she was grateful all the same. Odd explained the conversation they'd had, and Ulrich and Yumi listened and nodded, confirming what he'd said in spots.
Once her foot was bandaged up, Sissi looked up at the others. Surrounded by them, she was starting to feel at ease again. But she had one more burning question to ask.
"Have I been wiped since Odd and I started dating?"
Jeremie answered from across the room. "No. Ever since you two started dating, we've worked hard to avoid having to use the Return to the Past."
"We didn't want to accidentally mess something up for you and Odd." Yumi added. "There's been three attacks in that time, but nothing that necessitated a return."
Three attacks? "Was one a week and a half ago? And another a few days ago?" Sissi asked.
Yumi looked surprised. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
Sissi smiled a bit. "Odd had to cancel a date for one of them. And I saw him and Jeremie headed into the woods a few days ago. I admittedly sort of got into the habit of spying on you guys sometimes in the past because I always figured you were up to something. I just had no idea it would be anything this huge."
"Well, we've probably dumped enough info into your brain for now." Jeremie quipped, shutting down the computer screen. "Probably a good idea to let it compile for a while."
Sissi gave Jeremie an odd look. "Huh?"
The others laughed. Odd clarified for her. "He means let's all go home for the day and get some rest."
"Oh. Well I'm all for that then. Just…umm…can you still give me a lift Odd?"
Odd grinned and responded in an overbearingly English accent. "Why, milady, it would be my utmost pleasure."
Sissi groaned. "Oh shuuuut uuuuup." She held her arms up, and Odd scooped her up again carefully.
Ulrich grinned, keying for the elevator to open. "Going to be a gentleman all the way back to Kadic like that?"
Odd stuck his tongue out at his friend. "Try it with Yumi sometime! It's a big confidence booster!"
Both Ulrich and Yumi answered at once with a resounding "ODD!"
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Back in the broken catwalk room, down in the darkened abandoned room, wet puddles of groundwater sat here and there.
One, darkened further by the two drops of blood that had landed in it, was filled with thick moss that had started a slow climb of the wall.
The moss let out a soft groan, and pushed an inch higher on the wall.
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