Sissi looked around the virtual classroom that they had all been sequestered in for the past hour. It was a simple but spacious math classroom with faux windows that showed a partly cloudy daytime sky and a rolling green meadow with the occasional tree rising from the ground. The view was probably meant to be cheery without being interesting and if that was the case, well, it succeeded on at least one measure. Turning her head away from the window she glanced at the large tables, noting that Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita were currently occupying one while she and William sat at opposite ends of another. One went unoccupied and Jeremy was trying to teach Odd at the fourth.

Floating above the table that Jeremy and Odd occupied was a bluish hologram with one of the homework problems displayed. Jeremy manipulated the letters with his hands, sounding like he was losing patience with Odd who himself sounded like he was losing patience with Jeremy. Listening to the two work or fight or argue or whatever it was made her miss Lyoko proper. That despite the fall upon entry and the very weird feeling of not having all five senses.

Opening her eyes to the freakish sight of purplish mountains simply floating in the sky had been strange to say the least. But the short fall to the ground and her embarrassing yelp as she started to scream before hitting the ground and landing on her butt was the worst. No one had warned her and all had laughed before William pointed out that everyone had fallen on their first time in. And probably because of the glares that all but Jeremy and Aelita gave him, she had believed him. Recovering some of her dignity, she snickered as she imagined Yumi falling on her ass in front of Ulrich.

Standing up with the assistance of Odd had been the next experience. His hand, his very large, clawed hand, had no texture or warmth to it. Though for some reason she still registered it as feeling something like human despite the fact that it most definitely did not look so. The first look at his purple, cat-like suit resulted in her yanking her hand away and scrambling backwards, falling down once again. From what she had been told by Aelita afterwards, the look on Odd's face had been priceless. Being the laughing stock of the group had not been though and she batted what turned out to be William's hand away as she stood up for herself, turning away from the group in the process.

At least until she saw how close to the edge of the platform, mountain thing she had landed on she was. A backwards scramble to get away from the very long drop to certain death, and she wasn't at all confident in the program that was supposed to recover her if she fell, resulted in her ramming into Ulrich and getting a glare from Yumi. Odd, Aelita and Jeremy found it funny though they had the good sense to constrain their laughter while William helped her up and steadied her.

That gave her the third impression of the virtual world she was in. William looked very different here. He was wearing a white shirt, navy blue and light grey pants that seemed to fit and accentuate his muscle tone in a very flattering way. But the most prominent feature of his Lyoko self was the enormous sword he held beside him. The massive weapon was practically as tall as him, it's tip resting on the ground hear his very high boots and the handle at his shoulder. The blade practically glowed with power and pride and it screamed smug overconfidence. In fact, the weapon seemed to perfectly fit what she knew of the real William. But she couldn't stop herself from wondering how he managed to move around and actually fight with the thing.

Her attention had then turned to the rest of the assembled 'warriors' and she was surprised by their outfits. Instinctively seeking out her competition she first looked over Yumi's Lyoko outfit. The older girl was wearing a very dark body suit with red shorts and boots, dark purple, almost black leggings and a sleeveless top that could have been a one-piece bathing suit. Lighter purple straps came over her shoulders, which were protected with shoulder pads, and came together at her middle where there was a metal looking belt. She also had on fingerless gloves that went almost all the way up to her shoulder. The overall effect was to make Yumi look like a combat ready and battle hardened foe. And she probably was, all things considered.

Feeling self-conscious and somewhat inadequate she scanned over Aelita's form and was assaulted by pink. Two shades of the color made up the form fitting body suit that seemed to run seamlessly from her neck to her toes. While her feet did look like they were booted, there was no discernable separation between the footwear and the rest of the suit. Around her waist was a translucent skirt split into four portions. Traveling upwards she had on a top that looked like a metallic band around her chest. Like Yumi she wore fingerless gloves that went almost all the way to her shoulders. Unlike Yumi she had a star shaped bracelet on her left wrist. All combined the effect was decidedly more playful than Yumi's but stilled conveyed a sense of confidence that could Aelita didn't often display in the real world.

Turning her attention from the two girls, she spied Jeremy while Aelita giggled softly. Apparently Jeremy had been looking her over because he had a contrite expression that was slowly turning amused as his girlfriend kept giggling. Jeremy's mage like blue robes seemed out of place at first. They fit snugly enough around him to show some muscle definition that he most definitely did not have in real life. Like Aelita, Jeremy sported elfin features such as pointed ears and facial markings. His were blue however, and he had a watch instead of a bracelet. It fit Jeremy himself well enough but just didn't make sense with the more battle ready members of his group.

Like Ulrich. Knowing that she shouldn't, she couldn't help herself as she stared. Ulrich was simply too hot for words. The yellow headband fit perfectly with the yellow form fitting suit that showed off his perfect muscles. The brown vest like design on the front matching with the brown boots, shoulder pads and fingerless, long gloves that everyone but Jeremy and William had on. She stared open mouthed at him in wonder for a while and almost fainted as she noticed him seeming to check her out.

Odd snickered, catching her attention, as Yumi smacked Ulrich on the shoulder and he turned away. Her breath caught in her throat and she began to laugh as she took in Odd's purple body suit, cat ears, and tail. the effect was simply too much and she couldn't imagine what could possibly have made Odd look like that. The addition of an image of Kiwi peeing and the Kiwi heads on each of his shoulder pads seemed to make things all the more funny and she ignored Odd as his staring turned into an annoyed glare while she struggled to recover from her laughing fit.

"Odd... you've got to admit the cat outfit is pretty funny." Aelita had teased him.

At that point, Odd looked away at Aelita and actually seemed to have trouble not diverting his attention back. Wondering what she looked like, Sissi turned her attention to herself and looked down, surprised at what she saw. Her golden dress was an elegant affair consisting of a bikini like top supported partially by a pearl necklace. Shimmering gold fabric formed an inverted V that wrapped around her waist leaving her sides and, she assumed, most of her back bare. It continued down her body until if formed a skirt that ended at her mid thighs. Like everyone but William she was empty handed but that didn't matter. The other girls may have looked ready for a fight but she looked elegant, regal even.

"Sissi!"

The call of her name brought her out of her reverie and she looked up to see William waiting for her. Apparently they were all abandoning the simulation bubble and she jumped up, happy to be leaving the boring space. A glance back told her Aelita and Odd were staying behind and she couldn't help but wonder what was going on as she followed the others out.

[[]]

Aelita walked over to the table were Jeremy was attempting to tutor Odd with the logarithms Mrs. Mayes assigned as homework. Her boyfriend was starting to sound irritated and Odd seemed distracted which was probably why Jeremy was reaching the limits of his patience. A quick look around provided the answer, though it wasn't what she would have liked as there was no solution in sight. Having everybody bored within the simulation bubble and waiting on him was grating on Odd. But she knew, from the fit he threw before being half dragged and half cajoled into the tutoring session, that knowing everyone was outside playing would be just as distracting as having everyone inside. "Jeremy?"

Turning to face Aelita, Jeremy answered her "yes?"

"Why don't you take the others outside the dome and maybe give Sissi's character card a look and figure out what her abilities are."

Nodding gratefully, he answered "ok, thanks." After turning away and taking a few steps he turned back towards Aelita, "you sure you want to handle Odd?"

"I'll be fine... He knows how much meaner I can be than you." She replied with a bit of a laugh. She let her eyes linger on Jeremy while he lead everyone else out of the bubble and threw a last, somewhat worried look at her before his form rippled through the classroom door and vanished. With a sigh, she turned around to face Odd, "you know, Jeremy would go a lot easier on you if you'd just give this an honest effort."

"It's not that I'm not working Aelita, it's that... Jeremy just isn't a good teacher."

"He's not doing your work for you, neither will I." Aelita stated as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You need to learn to do this yourself."

Odd shook his head, though he really did want someone to just copy from as he did in days past. "I know that but Jeremy just barrels on ahead like this is the simplest and most interesting stuff in the world."

"I know" Aelita answered, looking down at Odd's problem sheet and realizing that Jeremy could do every single problem there in his head and further realizing that she could as well. "But it's not like you're helping the situation. Jeremy's getting frustrated."

"But how can he expect me to know all of this instantly?"

"He doesn't," Aelita replied raising her voice. "But he expects you to honestly try."

"I am!" Odd cried out, "but it's never good enough for him... Even Yumi's lightened up on me and Jeremy just keeps pushing."

"Jeremy..." Aelita paused, momentarily unsure how to explain this to Odd. "Jeremy expects you to give more than one hundred percent all the time, just like he does."

"That's not possible, even he should know that."

"He does." Aelita snapped before continuing more gently. "Or at least he's learning to. But you know your selfishness isn't helping."

"My selfishness?" Odd demanded indignantly. "I've given..."

"STOP!" Aelita shouted, growing angry with the boy. Forcing her tone back to a more neutral level she continued. "While Jeremy fought for all of us we lived the life he wanted to. And now, when Jeremy has a chance to learn to live life in balance we have this. He works out practice problems in painstaking detail so that you and Ulrich and even Yumi and William have ready access to the help you need. All last night Jeremy went over and over this same material to help the rest of us while you went girl chasing. Now you're using his free time to study and not even giving him the benefit of your full attention. He's got every right to be mad at you."

"What would he be doing instead? Working on a program or a robot?" Odd spat.

"Or maybe learning to ride an Overboard with me."

Odd responded instantly, scoffing at the idea. "Aelita, Jeremy wouldn't ride that if you promised..."

"Don't. Do not finish that statement." Aelita warned in a dangerous tone. "Riding the overboard was exactly what he and I spent the morning doing, no promise besides that I'd take it easy on him for the first few minutes required."

Odd sat silent for a full minute then made a face and burst out laughing. "That's really great Aelita... Jeremy on the overboard." The images of all the ways Jeremy could screw that up giving him some much needed entertainment. Somewhere in his laughter he noticed that Aelita wasn't amused in the slightest and the thought sobered him almost instantly.

[[]]

Yumi took a look at Jeremy's sour expression and walked over to him, Ulrich following behind her. The yellow clad boy spoke up as they approached. "You know Odd isn't really doing that badly. I mean in his other subjects he's improved considerably. Math just isn't his thing. In fact, it's probably his worst subject."

"I know." Jeremy replied as he calmed down. "I really just lost it with him and-"

"It's all right," Yumi soothed, "Aelita's got your back on this one. Just try not to let Odd get to you so much. Hard as it may be to believe-"

"He really is trying," Jeremy finished for her. "I know and the improvement in his science and literature work is amazing."

"Then focus on that Jeremy. You didn't learn to use the supercomputer instantly and Odd won't learn to be a good student overnight." Yumi smiled a little and added, "Odd can't push himself like you can and if he can't push himself, no one else can either. But Jeremy, we all know that no matter how selfish the kid can be, he'll find a way to come through for us in the end."

"Yeah, just like all the times you wouldn't go to Lyoko. But when you really had to for the good of the team you managed to."

Jeremy smiled up at Yumi and then at Ulrich, "thanks guys."

Yumi's look of reproach at Ulrich's statement about Jeremy and Lyoko melted away as she saw Jeremy didn't take any real offense at it. In fact, it seemed to be just the reminder he needed to recover. Glancing at Sissi and William Yumi looked back down at Jeremy and asked, "so what can they do?"

Jeremy tapped on his interface and pulled up William's diagnostic interface as Sissi and the aforementioned boy walked over. "Well, William actually has some of his supersmoke ability. He can transform into a ball of the stuff and basically move as fast as Ulrich. But he can't attack in that state though it would be nearly impossible to hit or trap him while he's a ball of smoke."

"And me?" Sissi questioned.

Jeremy tapped a few panels and a new image appeared on the floating computer interface. His eyes scanned the data presented and he turned to regard the girl. "First concentrate a bit and you should find your weapon."

Sissi looked at him like he was an idiot, "Where am I going to be hiding a weapon in this." She gestured down to her luxurious dress.

Yumi reached behind her and pulled her fans. Taking the hint, Jeremy held out his free hand and allowed a blue energy field to form in the palm. "This isn't the real world Sissi. You don't have to hide a weapon to be carrying it. Now hold out your hand and concentrate. If it helps you want a jeweled scepter to appear."

Giving Jeremy an incredulous look she noticed everyone looking expectantly at her and waffled between yelling that what they wanted her to do was impossible to save her dignity and trying with the idea that Jeremy wouldn't be making jokes at her expense. Finally she decided and hold out her hand, focusing on making a nonexistent item appear out of thin air. When her arm suddenly felt heavy her jaw dropped and she started at the object that had simply shimmered into existence. It was indeed a jeweled scepter. Just a bit shorter than arms length, the shaft was made out of a shiny white metal that looked like platinum and had a wonderful spiral design to it. At the top was an ornate cage that held a large diamond within. At the very tip of the scepter, where the wire cage came together, was another gem that glowed with a soft, yellow light. Impressed with herself she looked up at Jeremy.

"So what does it do?" William asked.

"Well it's her weapon. Looks like she can use it as a temporary shield and it creates short ranged energy wave when slashed. It also focuses her Lyoko power, giving her the ability to charm and take control of a single monster."

Yumi and Ulrich looked between Sissi and Jeremy once before Yumi said "I can think of a few times when that would have come in handy."

"Yeah," both Jeremy and Ulrich agreed.

"So when do we get to fight?" William asked, drawing all attention to him.

"Fight?" Sissi asked. "What are we going to fight?"

"Well usually we fight monsters." Ulrich answered, eyeing William. "But we can fight each other."

William locked his gaze on Ulrich. "You're on Stern."

"Or we could fight monsters." Jeremy interjected as he tapped a few more controls. A moment later Ulrich and William's staring competition ended as everyone turned to watch a small set of Kankrelats materialize. Sissi shrieked and backed away from the small, bug-like monsters while everyone else advanced on the set of six. The shrill whine of lasers powering up quickly ended the curious looks and all weapons were made ready. Jeremy meanwhile stood back, having had to program the bugs with their targets, he wisely left himself out of the list. He was mildly impressed that all of XANA's monsters had their own, independent though simple, A.I. subroutines so that they could act without XANA's direct control.

[[]]

Odd looked up from his second to last problem and checked the clock in the room. It had taken him 45 minutes to get here and now that he was almost done his mind was starting to wander again. Among the thoughts distracting him were a question on how Sissi was doing on Lyoko and a more general curiosity on what the entire group of friends were doing. "Aelita, do you think they're having fun out there?"

Frowning, Aelita answered "you've got two more questions and then you can go see for yourself."

Odd turned back towards his two remaining problems and worked out one of them. When he had finished he turned back towards Aelita, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"How do you not find all of this boring?"

"I actually do... Odd, I could do your entire assignment in my head and so could Jeremy. There's no challenge here, it's all just busy work to us. But if you're really asking why I don't find programming and higher level math boring then it's because it's not. There's a real challenge in it and an opportunity to be every bit as creative as when I mix music."

"How can you be creative with math and science? Both are so full of unbreakable rules that's there no room for freedom."

"And yet it's math and science that created this whole virtual world. Math and science simply give us the tools to affect our world, it's like... It's like a mixing board really. The user's skill and creativity make the board's rigidly defined functions into great music. Jeremy and I do the same thing with our programs that you do with pencil and paper."

"But it's not the same Aelita... I don't have to think to create art, I just have to do. It's fun, not work."

"Actually, it's a bit of both really. Tell me Odd, did you have to learn that certain colors work well together and other's don't? When you make a new mix, do you just randomly push levers and turn knobs? There's a sort of science behind it that you just intuitively get but that you also had to learn."

"Yeah, I think I see your point. I don't know though, I mean you loved the thrill of flying on the overboard. I saw you up on that stage with the Subdigitals and I know you enjoyed that. Where is the emotion, the thrill, the danger... You know the general feeling of being more alive than everyone else?"

"To a point I did and on that stage, you're right, I really did feel alive and amazed that my music was giving others so much pleasure. But that's not all I need Odd. True, I've lived without the senses you take for granted and-"

"Which makes my point." Odd interrupted her. "Why do you want to compress the world into meaningless equations and numbers? You should be out there enjoying everything the life we won you has to offer."

With an annoyed huff at being interrupted, Aelita answered. "I'm trying to, and I'm making sure Jeremy gets to as well. But try to understand something here, just basking in my senses isn't enough for me. I'm still as curious as when I first came out of the computer. Older, wiser and less naive but still curious. It's not enough to just see the world for me and so it's amazing and fun to learn how it all works. Think of it as you being behind the stage at the Subdigitals concert. I saw you watching in wonder as they set up everything and the band members hung out without the usual fanfare. The math and science is the same for me, my own personal behind the scenes tour of the world."

"I think I get it and... Jeremy's robots were always kind of cool. But I think knowing how they work takes some of the coolness away."

"And I think it just makes the machines all the more impressive," Aelita answered with a smile. "When I'm here in Lyoko I can see behind the textures you see on the walls and the desks. I can see the data flowing and the geometry that underlies this entire virtual world. And if I don't like it, I can close my eyes and sing, imagining how I want the landscape to change and laying out the geometry before asserting my will and watching it happen. You how no idea how much power I have in that and... Math and science can give that same power in the real world."

Odd smiled, though it held some amount of sadness. He had never really considered that there could be the same sort of power in the sciences as he had in his art and skateboarding. But to hear Aelita talk about it, to hear the inflections in her voice that told how much truth there was in her words, he knew she wasn't just acting to cover an indebtedness to Jeremy. "Ok princess. I just wanted to make sure you weren't..." Odd paused for a moment and was grateful for Aelita's patient and silent gaze. "I wanted to make sure you were enjoying the life we all won for you."

Aelita smiled gratefully, "thanks Odd and I am. I'm slowly but surely getting Jeremy out of his shell and I think he's enjoying that as much as I'm enjoying exploring the mysteries behind everything in the world he and the rest of my family worked so hard to make me a part of."

Odd nodded, and turned his attention back to the remaining homework problem while he mulled over what Aelita had said. Partly, he was hoping to find out that Jeremy and Aelita weren't working out as a couple. But that's not the sense he got from her and in a rare moment of thinking of someone else before himself, he let the idea of asking Aelita to leave Jeremy for him go. More because he didn't want to risk Aelita's happiness than out of any sort of loyalty to Jeremy. She had lost so much already that it just didn't seem right to ask knowing that he would dump her in a heartbeat if he fell for the next girl to catch his eye. That didn't mean he couldn't tease her though. "So how were all those dry, working dates you two had here in the factory?"

"Odd," Aelita smiled gently as she considered some of the jokes they left for each other in the comments and variable names in the programs they worked on. "It wasn't always just work for Jeremy and I. When we were on the same page, finishing each other's sentences and codes, marveling at the ways around the systems of Lyoko we each found and laughing at the jokes we exchanged-"

"Wait wait wait" Odd interjected quickly, "Jeremy telling jokes? Now that I don't believe."

Aelita chuckled, "ok so it was more like riddles we left for each other. Word games and things like that. Sometimes they were funny, but they always helped break the tension of all our hard work."

"So all those times I imagined you rotting away, slaving in front of a computer terminal, you and Jeremy actually spent the late nights flirting?" The accusation was clear in his voice.

Aelita laughed. "Not only can I not blush here in Lyoko Odd, but I don't think that would be enough to cause me to blush in the real world either." She smiled before adding in a light tone, "Now get back to work so we can go outside and play."

"Already missing your boyfriend?" Odd quipped.

"Odd..."

[[]]

Sissi watched in awe as the large red monsters called Krabes fought with the lyoko warriors. William hefted his oversized sword and cleaved one almost completely in half while Ulrich raced towards another one, dodging lasers as a long yellow streak. Yumi jumped and was doing back-flips about the battlefield as she dodged lasers that her Krabe was firing at her. Jeremy simply sat back, content to tap on his display and summon more monsters as the warriors dispatched them with relative ease. A holler caught her attention and she watched Yumi throw her fans which turned into purple and white flat, Frisbee-like objects that seemed to defy physics as they flew over the Krab and then down into it, slicing into the symbol on the top before returning to Yumi's hands.

In all honesty it really didn't look that hard and yet the blue sparking effect when one of them was hit and the momentary look of shock made her fear the pain that would come with getting shot. There didn't seem to be a reason to actually rush into the fight and risk injury just for the thrill of fighting monsters. A buzzing noise caught her attention and she gasped as a group of flying monsters swooped overhead and began firing on the warriors. But by now she was growing accustomed to the weirdness of the creatures that were part of this place. What she didn't count on was one breaking from the swarm and closing in on her. The ugly bug pulled itself into a hover and flicked its tail at her, the red laser approaching all too fast.

She brought her scepter up too slowly and stumbled back, clutching her shoulder as electric blue sparks emanated from it. Yet as much as it shocked her, as the sparking faded there was no blood, no burn mark and no lingering pain. The bug-like creature shifted position and swung its tail at her again, sending another streak of red light that impacted her stomach before she could bring her scepter into position to block it. But the rapid motion of the scepter drew a golden arc that expanded forward a short distance before dissipating. Unnoticed by her as she dealt with the shock of being shot a second time, the monster was enveloped in a blue net and then exploded.

She looked across the battlefield in the direction of Jeremy's voice and heard him say, "... that, I'll exclude you from the target list."

Looking at the others while they bravely fought their own monsters, leaping and blocking while Yumi's fans sailed towards the aerial targets, she felt wholly unworthy of being here. She absently nodded yes to Jeremy and wandered over to him, considering asking to be sent back to earth so she could go back to school. This was just not a place where she belonged. Sighing, she opened her mouth but, for reasons she didn't understand herself, instead of asking for a trip home she instead asked him why he didn't join in the fight.

"I'd be willing to bet that Aelita would ask me the same thing if she were here right now," Jeremy answered in a surprised tone. "I'm not a fighter like them. I plan things out and program but I don't fight, I just don't get the enjoyment out of it that the others do. I guess in a way I'd rather create things than destroy them."

Turning away, Sissi considered his answer and considered staying. But Jeremy had been with the group from the beginning and she joined on the spur of the moment at Yumi's invitation. Of course it really hadn't been that simple and she had hoped that things would turn out better than they were here. Though in the past week she had been allowed to study with the group and it seemed to go over ok. She turned her head back towards Jeremy as he spoke, his voice wavering as if he wasn't really sure what he was actually supposed to do or say.

"Aerial monsters are always the hardest to deal with for people with short ranged weapons. You, Ulrich and William can dodge and block the lasers but you have no really effective means to attack them since they can easily stay out of range." He gestured to William who seemed like he should be getting tired with the way he was using his sword to defend against his attackers. "The best strategy is usually to block lasers while Yumi, Odd or Aelita use their ranged weapons to take them out." He frowned, seeing that the technical explanation for her poor performance wasn't helping. Taking an unnecessary breath he was saved from explaining his first performance on Lyoko by the shout of "LASER ARROW!"

The aforementioned projectiles rained down on the battlefield from above while a few well placed blobs of pink energy encased and destroyed the few remaining Krabes. All of the carnage was missed by Sissi who stared wide-eyed and jealous of Aelita's approach. Her graceful wings flapping as they guided her towards Jeremy and flaring outwards as she stopped and rose to a vertical orientation before dropping lightly to the ground. A casual swipe of her hand across the star shaped bracelet caused her wings to retract and she smiled at Jeremy and the awestruck girl beside him. "They were a gift from Jeremy."

Sissi stared wide eyed at Jeremy, uncertain how to reconcile the fact that Jeremy had given Aelita one of the most romantic gifts she could imagine, angel's wings, with the boy who had so often been neglectful of Aelita in the past.

"So is everyone having fun?" Aelita asked.

"No" Jeremy answered honestly, "One of the hornets attacked Sissi and she didn't do so well."

"I..." Sissi fumed before being cut off by Aelita.

"You never saw Jeremy try to fight on Lyoko and from what I've heard," Aelita started off with a mischievous and slightly evil smile, "saying he didn't do so well is being generous. But really, it took everyone, even Yumi, some time to acclimate to fighting here and really master their weapons. "She looked at Jeremy who nodded, not needing words to guess what Aelita wanted. "I can help you get used to fighting here if you'd like."

Both Sissi and Jeremy looked appreciatively at Aelita while the others, having defeated all the monsters gathered around. Jeremy signaled the approaching group and led them away, offering some of the more difficult monsters to play with, the Megatanks, Mantas and Tarantulas. With everyone's attention focused elsewhere, he spawned some of the lower monsters for Aelita and Sissi to practice with, setting the weapons on them to do far less than normal damage.

A/N: I think we'll stop here and see how Sissi does with her powers in the next chapter. When I started this interlude thing to take a break from the heavy drama, I never planned on it going this long. But it seems to be working so I'll go with it.