"I've decided to stay here for the summer," Jeremy announced to the his friends when they sat down for lunchtime.

"How? Everyone expects you to go home," Yumi said.

"I'm not sure yet, I'll camp out, I'll tell my parents something, but I just can't leave you all alone here," Jeremy said.

"Don't worry about it. We're going home too," Ulrich said.

"He says 'you' meaning me," Aelita clarified.

"Way to go lover-boy. A summer alone with Aelita, now what could happen?" Odd teased. Jeremy and the others ignored him.

"I can't let you stay here, Jeremy." Aelita said.

"Aelita, I-"

"When's the last time you've been home?" she asked.

"It's been quite a while, but-"

"You can still see your parents, Jeremy! I won't accept you staying here to be a baby-sitter instead. Go home," Aelita insisted.

"Yumi," Sissi called, approaching the table interrupting the argument.

"Oh.... Hi Sissi," Yumi said tentatively.

"Why don't you come sit with me?" Sissi offered. "Don't worry about Herb and Nicolas, they know to leave me alone when- Well, you know."

"Um... I'll be there in a minute," Yumi agreed, laughing nervously.

"What's been up with her?" Ulrich inquired irritably.

"Huh?" Yumi snapped out of her daydream and looked at Ulrich.

"She's been really friendly," Ulrich said.

"Uh huh, yeah. Listen, I'll talk to you guys later," Yumi said. She picked up her lunch tray and went sitting by Sissi. The others were silent. They spied glances over at the two of them smiling and whispering to each other.

"There's something disturbing out that. I mean, Yumi having a friend to be all girly-girl with," Odd commented.

"Why? Yumi's friends with me," Aelita said.

"It's completely different with you, Princess," Odd said, using Aelita's nickname. "For one thing, you're actually cool."

"Why thank you." Aelita smiled. She looked over at Jeremy and then quickly looked away, her expression changing to an angry one again.

"Come on, you two. It doesn't matter if Jeremy leaves or stays. Who cares! It's nothing to fight about," Odd said.

"I care, but apparently I'm the only one," Aelita said. Odd hit his head, realizing he'd definitely said the wrong thing.

"I care about you, Aelita, that's why I'm staying," Jeremy defended.

"I'm certainly not in peril at the moment. And it's not up to you to protect me all the time. Excuse me, I'm going to finish lunch with Yumi and Sissi," Aelita look her leave of the table.

When Sissi had dragged Yumi over to another area, she begged, "Can you please try to be a little more discreet?"

"What for? I'm not keeping a secret about anything," Sissi said.

"I'd just rather not be the gossip of school," Yumi said.

"Does that mean there's something to gossip about?" Sissi asked.

"Um... Maybe just a little something," Yumi said. They both started to giggle, Sissi's being happy and Yumi's being nervous.

"We could see where something goes... Why don't we meet after school today?"

"I don't know..." Yumi paused.

"You aren't doing anything, right?"

"I don't think so."

"It's Friday, you can put everything off until later," Sissi said.

"All right," Yumi agreed, smiling over at Sissi. Sissi felt gleeful.

Aelita came and sat down with the two of them. "I hope you don't mind if I join you. The boys really aren't very good company today," Aelita explained.

Sissi frowned. She was hoping to have lunch alone with Yumi, she knew Yumi would want to be secretive around her friends. Why was Aelita pushing in? "Mr. and Mrs. Einstein, fighting?" she said.

"Well... Yes. We did disagree on something," Aelita confirmed. The rest of the lunch was silent, each girl uncomfortable to talk in front of the others.

After school that day, Jeremy sighed as he sat in front of the supercomputer. Aelita was avoiding him, not speaking to him at all. He couldn't fix however he had hurt Aelita's feelings, so he concentrated on his work tracking Xana. He'd be happy not to talk to her at all. He couldn't believe she couldn't understand, if not appreciate, why he was staying. They all had to make sacrifices, and he was making one himself. It wasn't as if he didn't care about his family.

Jeremy's eyebrow raised as an alert interrupted his work. Looks like he'd have to talk to Aelita after all. He called her first. "Yes, Jeremy?" Aelita asked calmly, although Jeremy could still hear the tension in her voice.

"Xana's activated a tower. I'm not sure what he's up to, but-"

"I'll meet you at the factory," Aelita said quickly, then hung up.

Jeremy called Ulrich and Odd next, they quickly also said they'd be there. However, when he called Yumi there was no answer. "Hm.." he frowned, but set the computer to keep trying to reach her.

Yumi was nervous as she knocked on the door of Sissi's dorm room. Sissi was excited as she greeted her. "Yumi! Early, I see."

"Let's fix you up to go out now," Sissi said, pulling Yumi inside.

"Fix me?" Yumi asked.

"Not that you aren't beautiful, but everything can be improved," Sissi said, and sat Yumi in front of the mirror. "And I have such nice raw material to work with," she smiled to herself. "Oh, may I?" she asked with excitement.

"Why not?" Yumi sighed. She was already there, might as well play along.

Back in the factory, Jeremy found Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita in front of him. "It's a good thing I noticed this now," Jeremy said. He looked over at Aelita, but she avoided eye contact.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm not sure what Xana's up to, but he's activated a tower," Jeremy said.

"Simple enough, let's go deactivate it," Odd said.

"I'll get the scanners ready for you," Jeremy said, turning back to the supercomputer.

The other two boys ran back to the elevator, but Aelita hesitated. She didn't enjoy fighting with Jeremy at all. She didn't want to be angry with him, maybe she should make it up now. "Jeremy?"

"Yes?" Jeremy said, not looking away from the supercomputer.

"Come on, Aelita!" Odd called from the elevator.

"Nothing," Aelita said, and then went with the other two. There was too much to say, and too little time. She'd have plenty of time afterwards, anyway.

Jeremy ran the programs to scan the three into Lyoko. They dropped down into the ice sector, and Jeremy virtualized their vehicles. Following Jeremy's directions, they ran toward the tower, no monsters blocking their path. "This is just too easy," Odd commented.

"Don't let your guard down," Ulrich warned.

"Nothing ahead, looks like you guys have a clear path to the target tower," Jeremy's voice announced to the group.

"Alright!" Odd flew around recklessly.

"Ah!" Aelita, riding on the same vehicle, held onto him tightly.

"Sorry, Princess," he said to Aelita. "It's weird though. It's almost like Xana wants us to stop him from whatever it is."

"I guess we're just a few steps ahead this time," Jeremy smiled, leaning back in his chair in front of the computer.

"I wouldn't count on it," Ulrich said. "There's always some kind of trap for us. Uh-" In Lyoko, Ulrich slowed to a stop on his vehicle as he stared ahead at the abnormal sight. Odd and Aelita caught up with him, but then also stopped, staring wordlessly. "Um, Jeremy? What is that?" Ulrich asked.

"Tower, dead ahead." Jeremy said, looking at his scans.

"Not like any tower I've seen," Odd commented.

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy asked.

"It's not a tower, Jeremy," Ulrich said.

"It's like a black hole. I've never seen anything like it here before, now or before," Aelita said.

"What do you mean?" Jeremy inquired. "The scanners just show a tower. Why would Xana-"

Jeremy was interrupted as he heard his friends shouting, and they all disappeared from the scanners. The activated tower also disappeared, showing no tower at all. "Um, guys?" Jeremy asked. He only heard silence in his headphones. Scanning all of Lyoko, Jeremy found nothing, no sign of Xana or his friends. According to the computer, they were no longer virtualized.

Jeremy threw off his headset and ran into the scanner room. "Aelita! Ulrich, Odd?" he called. No answer. He forced open all of the scanners. Still no trace of them, and he had no idea what had happened.

The night for Yumi was calm, and still pleasant. Sissi first made her up, curling her hair, then straightening it when she decided it didn't suit Yumi. Then she tried some make up and other things, until, at least in Sissi's opinion, Yumi was gorgeous. Yumi enjoyed this much more than she thought she would have. Afterwards, they both strolled the grounds together.

Yumi had grown to trust Sissi's intentions, strange as they were. Through their entire... Well, date might be a word for it... Sissi paid her more compliments, and told her silly stories about Ulrich and others in the same class. Yumi didn't return the compliments but did smile at the stories. Sissi really liked to talk a lot, as Yumi had noticed before. But now, she didn't mind as much. It was nice for her to have a friend with a tie that wasn't protecting the world, she thought.

Eventually, before both of their curfews, Sissi walked her home. "Maybe I can see you again... This weekend?" Sissi looked hopeful.

"I don't know, I have other things to do this weekend," Yumi said, although she really hadn't made any plans. She just was never sure what might come up...

"Well, then here's something to remember me by until Monday," Sissi said. She gave Yumi a playful kiss on the cheek. Yumi was surprised, and her expression clearly showed it. Sissi smiled and giggled a bit as she saw it. Yumi tried not to blush, then quickly went inside the house, forgetting even to say good-bye. Sissi didn't mind though... She was glad to see she could get this kind of a reaction.

Inside, Yumi began to think about that night. She began to wonder why she kept going along this. Well, it was a new experience. And, she had enjoyed herself. Why shouldn't she try something new? Or even being with someone new, if Ulrich was never going to come around. Now alone, Yumi did blush. It wasn't as if she was... Like that.

There was something weird about Sissi, Yumi couldn't deny that, given her recent actions. Yumi didn't know if she was that way herself, but being pursued and doted on was something she liked. This was much different than her experiences with Ulrich. Ulrich was hard to read, sometimes she wasn't sure if he liked her at all, and Sissi had been very open with her feelings and intentions.

Smiling, Yumi sat down at her desk. She heard her phone ringing. Oops, Yumi thought, she'd been so nervous that she'd forgotten to bring it with her. She answered it. "Hello?" There was a silent pause. Yumi looked at the caller ID. "Jeremy? What's up?"

"Yu- Yumi?" Yumi heard the distraught voice of Jeremy on the other end.

"Yeah. Is something wrong?" Yumi asked.

"Where- They- Yumi, something terrible's happened!"