A/N: This chapter happened faster than I expected. I was having trouble with it until last night. All the sudden this happened. I'm pretty satisfied with it and I think it goes really well with what happened last chapter. We are super close to their Christmas break which is when things are going to go down. Some of you have some great day theories. I love reading them but if you're right? You won't know until you read. Now on with the show.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko.

It was around three o'clock in the morning and Aelita was still awake. Her nightmares had woken her around one and she has been up ever since. At first her tried to go back to sleep with no success. She finally gave up and decided to work on her literature paper. But after an hour of writing, she was exhausted. She put her laptop up and tiptoed downstairs, hoping not to wake anyone up. She was making tea on the stove to help soothe her when she heard footsteps. She jumped, turning around.

"Yumi! You scared me!" Aelita cried, her hand going over her heart as Yumi walked in wearing a robe over her pajamas.

"Sorry," Yumi whispered, pulling the robe around as if she was cold. "What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Can I have a mug?" Yumi nodded to the tea that brewing.

Aelita nodded, getting out two mugs. When the tea finished, she poured the mugs full, then handed one to Yumi. They both sat down, sipping in quiet. Aelita sighed after awhile and placed her mug down.

"Was it nightmares?" Yumi asked, placing her mug down as well and leaning towards Aelita.

"Yes," Aelita sighed. "They're getting worse."

"Want to talk about it?"

Aelita looked down, stirring her tea with her finger.

"Aelita, you told us a few hours ago to talk to someone instead of bottling it up. So talk."

Aelita smiled at Yumi for using her advice against her. "There's this one reoccurring one. I'm always a little girl at our old cabin. It's snowing and I'm running around playing in it. Then my mother is either kidnapped by the men in black or I'm being chased by wolves. Some nights it's so bad I can't go back to sleep like tonight."

"How long has this been happening?" Yumi asked.

"Since I left Lyoko."

"Why haven't you talked to anymore?"

Aelita rubbed her head, a headache forming. "I thought I could handle them. Plus I wasn't going to talk to a stranger about it. What was I suppose to say? My father placed me in a virtual world for ten years then I was attacked by a computer virus for two more years?"

"No but you could tell them how your father was killed and your mother was kidnapped. A professional might be able to help, Aelita," Yumi suggested.

"I'll think about but it doesn't sound like a good idea." Aelita smiled, assuring Yumi she wasn't completely throwing the idea out. "Then again nothing does."

"What do you mean?" The raven haired girl looked at her confused.

"I can't explain it but I have a bad feeling about something. There's this voice in my head telling me something's wrong."

"Do you know what?"

Aelita shook her head, wrapping her heads around her mug, warming her hands. "No, it's just a feeling."

"Are you sure it isn't the fact that exams are coming up? Or your new job?" Yumi implied.

"No, it's not that at all."

"Well whatever it is, let's hope it doesn't come true." Yumi stood up, now finished with her tea, and placed it in the sink. "Let's go try to get some sleep. We both have to work tomorrow."

Aelita nodded, placing her mug in the sink next to Yumi's then followed her upstairs, the two parting ways at Aelita's door.

Yumi snuck quietly into Ulrich's room, hoping not to wake him but to her surprise Ulrich was already awake, sitting up in bed. She closed the door then crawled back into bed before turning to him. "What are you doing up?"

"I woke up and you won't there. I couldn't go back to sleep," He replied.

Yumi smiled. "Nightmares?"

Ulrich nodded. "I'm fine when I know you're beside me."

"Ulrich-"

"Just listen to me, Yumi," Ulrich interrupted. "Most of the nightmares I have are you falling into the digital sea. I see it all the time but once I realize you're still here, I'm okay. Well until the next one."

Yumi smiled, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Then I'll stay."

The next morning things seemed to be back to normal for Odd but he kept feeling tension around the others. Jeremy left early as usual. Ulrich helped Aelita cook breakfast then saw them off. They each drove separate since the girls had work right after class. So when Odd mentioned meeting for lunch, Yumi gave him a sharp yes and was off. Aelita, on the hand, just nodded then drove. Odd knew he probably made a mistake with the movie but he didn't regret it on bit.

The day carried on as normal and by the time Odd was on his way to meet the girls, he already had four hours worth of homework. He walked into the small café on campus and grabbed a table, saving seats for the girls. A few minutes later, Aelita walked in. She smiled, placed her backpack down and sat beside him.

"Hi," She greeted. "How were your classes today?"

"Pretty good besides all the homework. My film professor just assigned another film but this one has to be at least two hours which means it's going to be huge."

"Well with all we went through in Lyoko I'm sure you'll have plenty of ideas," Yumi interrupted as she came up and joined them.

"Yumi!" Aelita exclaimed.

"Oh, come on, Aelita. You could've forgiven him that easily," Yumi retorted.

"As a matter of fact I have," Aelita countered, smiling at Odd. "I wish he had talked to us about it first but I understand why he did it. We shouldn't blame him for releasing his emotions in a healthy why."

Yumi sighed, blowing a piece of her hair out of her eyes. "Okay."

"Alright, lunch is on me. Whatever you girls want," Odd offered, standing up.

Aelita smiled in relief, telling Odd what she wanted. Yumi followed suit and soon Odd was off to get their lunches. Aelita turned to Yumi with a glare.

"What was that all about?"

"Me? What about you? Why did you forgive him?" Yumi demanded.

Aelita groaned. "I can't very well be mad at him for wanting to get what we went through off his chest. And neither should you. You told me last night to talk to you and I did. I told you my personal dreams and feelings. You can't judge Odd for doing the same thing."

Yumi stared at her best friend in shock. She knew Aelita had a temper but she had never been on the receiving end of it. "You're right," She admitted. "I can't judge him. I guess we all have ghosts and some of us are better at battling them than others. And apparently I'm not good at it."

"Yumi, you are good at it. You are so strong," Aelita disagreed, reaching over and grabbing her hand.

"Not like you or Odd. I've tried to push my nightmares aside, to act like they do faze me but they do," She paused, looking to see if Odd was still in line. "When you left, we all fell apart. Ulrich's dad pulled him out. Jeremy threw himself into school. It was just me and Odd for the longest but I was older than him. We drifted apart so I couldn't tell anyone what I was feeling. The people I use to tell everything to were gone."

Aelita squeezed her hand. "Well, we're here now."

Yumi smiled at her, leaning over to give her a hug.

"Here you go, my ladies," Odd said, coming up with their food. The girls broke apart, wiping away some stray tears. "And I ruined a moment."

The next few weeks, the gang slowly got back into their routine. Odd's movie was behind them and everything seemed to be going fine. Aelita was constantly focusing on work. She had started DJing weekends now and on top of that she had school work. Yumi was also busy at work with the holidays approaching creating more crowds. She went from working two or three shifts a week to four or five shifts. Odd was working on his two hour movie, this time having no trace of inspiration from Lyoko. Soccer practice had started for Ulrich, also keeping him busy. But no matter how busy the rest of them were, no one seemed to be as busy as Jeremy.

The program had finally started taking a toll on Jeremy. He pulled more all nighters than a senior did in their whole college career. His eating habits having been so poor, Vivien made a point to start calling Ulrich or Odd to force him to eat. Whenever she forced him to sleep, every time he closed his eyes, binary numbers ran through his head. His hair was a mess and it always took him three tries before he could get dressed. But he told himself once the program was over, he would sleep for a week.

Jeremy met up with Vivien in the factory more and more. Their supercomputer was running just fine. Vivien had checked it more times than he could count. They were currently putting together another sector in the factory. Jeremy was sitting in the chair, typing away as Vivien sat in the floor on her laptop, typing as fast as he was.

"And send," Vivien said, clicking one last button. "You should get it in a minute."

"Great, thanks," Jeremy responded, going to pull it up.

Vivien moved her laptop off her lap and wrapped her oversized cardigan tighter around her body. "It's freezing in here. Next time lets bring a heater."

"I don't think there will be a next time," Jeremy replied. "Look at this."

She stood up and rushed over to him, looking at what he pulled up. "It worked?"

"It worked!"

Vivien squealed, hugging Jeremy around the neck. "That was the hardest part."

"Yep which means before we leave for break, it will all be done," Jeremy told her, spinning around in his chair.

She smiled, crawled into his lap, and pulled him in for a deep kiss. She pulled away, sighing. "I love you."

Jeremy rubbed the small of her back, leaning his forehead against hers. "I love you, too."

Meanwhile, Aelita was spending another late night at the studio. Her boss asked her to continue her set for another hour and who was she to argue. She pressed the button to play her next track, took off her headphone, and leaned back in her chair.

"Only forty-five more minutes," A voice said behind her.

Aelita spun around to see a young black girl coming up to her holding a cup holder with two cups and a bag. "Nicolette, I thought you left an hour ago?"

"And leave my favorite DJ, no way," Nicolette replied, setting down the cup holder. "I came bearing gifts." She handed Aelita the bag.

Aelita rolled her eyes and took it, opening to up to find two boxes full of crepes. "Nicolette, you are a lifesaver."

"Oh, I'm not done yet." She handed her one of the cups. "One salted caramel mocha from Starbucks for you and one pumpkin spice latte for me."

Aelita moaned, taking sip of her salted caramel mocha. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably die," Nicolette shrugged, jumping up on the table beside her and sitting down. "I am your knight in shining armor."

Aelita laughed before digging into her crepe. "You know, Edmond is going to kill us if he finds out we're eating and drinking near the equipment."

"Oh, please, like he would kill his pink-haired pixie."

"Pink-haired pixie? Please tell me that's not my DJ name," Aelita begged.

Nicolette snorted into her latte. "God, no. We were thinking DJ Pink-haired Elf!"

This time it was Aelita's turn to snort. "Yeah, let's just let Lucas stick to the nicknames."

Nicolette shrugged but grinned.

The computer beeped, indicting to Aelita her track was almost over. She set down her coffee, spun around to put her headphones back on and chose another track. A few seconds later, she turned back to Nicolette and her coffee.

"How do you do it?" Nicolette asked, nodding to the computer screen that show the track being planned. "I tried to mix once and it just ended up sounding like a robot."

Aelita laughed. "It takes skill and patience."

Nicolette gasped, her hand going over her heart. "Are you saying I don't have skills or patiences?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Nicolette lightly shoved Aelita's shoulder in mock hurt. "I can't believe you just said that."

Aelita shook her head. "It's so great talking to you, Nicolette."

She smiled at her. "You too, elf. I bet it gets tiring living with a bunch of guys."

"Not all guys. Yumi's there too."

"Oh yeah, I like Yumi. But still, you need to branch out from your gang, elf. You can have other friends," Nicolette reminded her.

"I know. My 'gang' and I had a falling out four years ago and I thought living with them would help us reconnect," Aelita admitted.

"Is it working?"

Aelita shrugged. "I thought it was but I don't know."

"Oo, I have an idea!" Nicolette cried, bouncing slightly on the table. "Exams are coming up in like three weeks. Why don't you guys take a day and just do something together? You know to help the reconnecting." She joined her hands to together to emphasize her point. "It might help. I know you don't want to lose them. You like they saved your life."

"You know, that's not a bad idea."

"They didn't hire me just for my looks you know."

Aelita laughed, shoving Nicolette's shoulder this time around, feeling at peace for the first time in a while.

"Ulrich."

Ulrich stopped kicking the soccer around and looked up. He groaned, closing his eyes, willing the vision to go away. "It's not real. It's not real."

"Oh, I'm real, Ulrich."

He shook his head, not listening. "It's not real," He repeated, keeping up his mantra.

"You're not strong enough. You're not smart enough. You're not good enough."

"It's not real."

"You will always fail."

"IT'S NOT REAL!"

A/N: Ulrich is having a tough time. By the way, I came up with Nicolette on a whim. I wanted Aelita to have a friend outside gang. Unlike Vivien, Nicolette won't be involved in Lyoko. She is there for Aelita when Aelita needs to talk. She is really fun to write. And I know where she fits in this story unlike Vivien. Vivien snuck up on me and decided to stick around. Nicolette is there as a friend. Now that that's over, read and review. I love good, long reviews with lots of details. I also like to pm reviewers and discuss more. So R&R :)