"Gone?! She's can't be gone! Too?! You said everyone else wasn't gone! You said we were going to rescue them!" Sissi shouted, completely hysterical.

"Yumi's fate is the same as the others' was," Jeremy rephrased his previous statement.

"Oh, and you're just fine with that, are you?" Sissi said. Jeremy didn't answer. He just began rummaging around in his backpack. "You're an awful person. I'm starting to think you aren't crazy at all, just faking crazy, so you can get innocent people to die for your sick experiments," Sissi said to his turned back.

Jeremy pulled Aelita's CD out of his backpack, then walked around and placed it in a dusty stereo in the corner. Music began to play all around the darkened room. Sissi just stared silently as Jeremy sat back down, looking deep in thought.

"Never mind. You're really insane," Sissi said. "And I'm going to tell everyone about it. I'm going to tell my father, I'm going to tell the police, and I'm going to have you locked up in a padded room for the rest of your miserable life."

"Go ahead, do what you want," Jeremy said calmly. He listened to the pleasant music that Aelita had composed just for him, so he could feel close to her, even when she was far away. No, he couldn't give up. He had to be able to do something to get them back. He tried to think of a way to help. He heard Sissi continue to talk about what was going to happen to him once she turned him in. Oh well, if she actually came back with the police and the emergency take away service, he'd just run a return to the past.

"Are you even listening to me, or have you really suffered a complete mental breakdown?!" Sissi demanded.

"I hear you," Jeremy said.

"Then why aren't you saying anything?!"

"I don't have anything to say. You know I've failed again, and I'm not sure how to fix things. You can leave now, there's nothing left for you to do here."

"I know exactly what I'm going to do! I'm going to call the police! And I'm-"

"Going have me hauled off to an asylum, I know." Jeremy interrupted.

"That's right. And you'll be sorry for everything you've done when you're being fitted for your first straight jacket. But first, first I'm going to get back my Yumi, and everyone else, too."

"I told you already, I can't get them back," Jeremy said hopelessly.

"Did I say you were going to get them back? No! You're obviously much too useless to do anything. I said I was going to."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Jeremy asked condescendingly.

"I don't have a plan, not yet," Sissi admitted.

"With your limited knowledge of Lyoko, it would be a wonder if you could survive by yourself, let alone actually accomplish anything," Jeremy pointed out.

"Jeremy dear, turn around and look at me," Sissi said in a sickly sweet voice. One Jeremy did slightly turn his head, she slapped him. "I won't let my girlfriend Yumi rot in some virtual prison because you're too pig-headed to accept my help!"

Jeremy held his face, fuming at Sissi. Then he suddenly started to laugh.

"And what's so funny?" Sissi said, also getting angry. "You and the voices in your head want to let me in on the joke?"

"Oh, so that's what's been your intention all this time. Yumi, your girlfriend. Sure, you can wish she was. It'll never happen."

"It's none of your business, but it already has!" Sissi insisted. "Now can you stop obsessing over things like that?"

"Fine, fine," Jeremy said. He had needed that laugh.

"Now, I suppose you plugged something into your brain to automatically know all about this Lyoko place?" Sissi asked.

"I don't know all about it, and what I do know I discovered through experience,"

"Oh, so even the great Jeremy doesn't know everything automatically. Now, maybe you can tell me a few things instead of implying that I'm far too stupid to be anything other than an empty-headed Aelita puppet. Did you even consider that I might have something to tell you?"

"Like what?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, you might want to know that Yumi was possessed by something when she stepped into that dark place that took her away," Sissi said.

"Oh really? Why do you think that?"

"Maybe because she attacked me, her sweetheart and one and only," Sissi said.

Jeremy smirked. "I thought we were going to stop with that."

"Well, she really does have no reason to attack me!" Sissi pointed out.

"She wasn't attacking you, she was saving you. Since you were devirtualized, you couldn't be, well, where she is now," Jeremy said.

"Oh, how romantic. Yumi protecting me to the very end," Sissi said dreamily.

"You're starting with that topic again," Jeremy pointed out.

"Oh, just grow up!" Sissi said. "Now, I'm going have to to be the one to save her from her fate," she began with her cheerful fantasizing again.

"I already told you, there's nothing you can do," Jeremy said.

"You're so pessimistic. Now, why don't you tell me what exactly it is that your darling Aelita can do to protect herself over there?"

"Aelita can create matter in Lyoko. Obviously not real matter, but since she hold the keys to Lyoko, sometimes she can modify it."

"Modifying it as in modifying it to spit out who's been captured?"

"Yes, I was hoping to do something like that in sector five."

"Can't you do it in any sector?"

"No. It's complicated to explain. But what I want to accomplish can only be done in sector five."

"Why can't you just virtualize us right into sector five? Did you ever think of that?"

Jeremy gave an exasperated sigh. "It's currently not possible for you to be virtualized directly into sector five,"

"Why not?"

"Sissi, it's complicated to explain."

"And what sector is everyone in?" Sissi asked.

"They aren't in any sector."

"They aren't in Lyoko, and they aren't here. So they are dead? Have you been wasting our time with some insane raise the dead scheme?!"

"No. The simplest way to explain it is... Well, they aren't really anywhere right now, but they still exist somewhere in space."

"Really?" Sissi said. It didn't make any sense at all, but she figured that Jeremy would be smart enough to know how stupid he had sounded. "Well, then, I guess that's all we have to say to each other. Start the virtualization program. I'm headed to nowhere to save my heroic girlfriend."

"What?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"You heard me, get to it with your typing and all that stuff," Sissi said.

"No, you aren't going back there," Jeremy said.

"I just told you I was."

"Sissi, I refuse to send you back to Lyoko," Jeremy said, pushing up his glasses and looking Sissi directly in the eyes.

"Oh, why? Because you like me so much? Because it's far too dangerous a place, you couldn't possibly send anyone there, especially not your best friends? Stop it now with your heroic nonsense and fake morality, just do what you're actually good at," Sissi ordered.

"Fine, there is another activated tower," Jeremy said.

"You and your towers, you should stop thinking about them, and start thinking about actual people instead," Sissi sighed.

"Maybe if you remembered what Xana could do once he activated these towers, you wouldn't be so dismissive of them. However, there is a chance that it's another trap," Jeremy said.

"Yes, I do remember how good you are at leading us into those," Sissi considered. "So, lead away."

"Give me a moment," Jeremy said, considering a possible plan.

"Fine, I'll be waiting to be virtualized," Sissi said. She went down into the virtualization chamber, just to wait for Jeremy to finally decide what to do with her. Inside, she wondered what she was doing. She wasn't a tough warrior like Yumi, or smart like Jeremy, what could she actually do? She became angry then. Why did there have to be a stupid battle out of a science fiction novel between her and Yumi? Why couldn't they just be together, and have fun, without any of this? Sissi pictured herself snatching Yumi away from all of this before it even began, and just being with her without any complications. No matter what, she was going to be with Yumi anyway. No stupid computer could get between Sissi Delmas and what was her's.

The door closed and the virtualization program started. As Sissi felt herself be virtualized, all her doubt disappeared, replaced by a very focused determination. When she fell back down into the mountains sector, she wasn't even concerned as she saw herself begin to fade in and out.

Jeremy noticed something wrong from his point of view. Aelita, who Sissi was virtualized as, kept going in and out of the screen. "Um, Sissi, what's going on over there? Is anything wrong?"

"You tell me," Sissi said calmly. Nothing's going wrong, she thought as she stared at her fizzling hand. She honestly believed nothing was wrong, and that she was going to save Yumi somehow. Eventually it stopped, and left her hand solid again. "Everything's fine now," she relayed back to Jeremy.

"Oh, no," Jeremy said.

"What is it?" Sissi asked.

"The virtualization program, the one that made you become Aelita, it's malfunctioned."

Sissi looked down at her outfit, it was now a deep pink dress. She tossed her hair, it was also back to normal; long, black, and beautiful. Sissi was quite pleased. "Well, you and I would never work out anyway," she told Jeremy.

"This isn't a time to be joking, Sissi. I'll work on finding out what's gone wrong. You should-"

"Don't tell me what I should do," Sissi said. "Now where's this tower you've been rambling about?" she asked.

"That's just the thing, Sissi, you can't deactivate it now," Jeremy said.

"I'm not interested in that," Sissi said.

Jeremy sighed. He gave Sissi some quick directions, figuring the worst that could happen would be that she become devirtualized by being attacked by monsters guarding it. Of course it also could be the same trap again... In which case, she'd hopefully be able to see it from a distance and know to run away, Jeremy thought.

Sissi did indeed see it was the trap the captured her sweetheart from a distance. She looked at it, remembering that this Lyoko, a virtual world, was not like a real world at all. She could defeat a machine easily. Sissi touched her hair. Her hair was the same style as usual, only instead of being held back by a headband, there was a pink ribbon. Sissi took it off. "I wonder what it's like in nowhere," she mused.

"Sissi? Did you say something?" Jeremy asked.

Sissi pulled the ribbon, and it grew longer, like unrolling a spool. She smiled, then spun it around a rock formation nearby. Two times, three times, four times, another few ought to do it. It's not as if she were limited like in reality. After making sure it was secure, she wrapped the other end around her hand, and started to run toward the black hole. "I'm going to find them, just to let you know," she said to Jeremy.

"Sissi? What do you mean? What do you see over there?" Jeremy asked. He noticed Sissi now disappeared from the screen. "Oh, no," he shook his head.

Sissi dove into the virtual black hole. Now inside, she was still aware of herself, but could see nothing. She also couldn't hear, or even feel anything, other than the ribbon around one of her hands. She tried to shout for Yumi, but couldn't hear herself do so.

Yumi was also aware of herself inside the vacuum. She had no way of telling how long she had been there, as she could both see and hear nothing. But it seemed to have been a long while. Then Yumi suddenly saw a pink beam of light, and she rushed toward it. Closer, she saw Sissi's hand, wrapped around the ribbon. She hugged Sissi, or at least thought she did.

Sissi also thought she could feel a presence around her, although she wasn't sure if she was just hoping for it or not. Either way, she should get out of there while she still could.

<HR>

"What happened?" Odd asked as he found himself in the mountain sector. He look around and saw Ulrich, looking as confused as him, and also Aelita, looking pleased.

"I was able to find our way out, thanks to this," she said, pointing to the ribbon, wrapped around the mountainous structure, and leading into the black hole.

"What is that?" Ulrich asked.

"Guys? You're there?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah, you mind letting us in on what happened?" Ulrich asked.

"You've been gone for days, you know! But, wait, do you see any sign of Yumi or Sissi anywhere?" Jeremy asked.

"I must be imaging things, I thought I asked us if we saw Sissi around here," Odd said to the other two. Ulrich shrugged.

The ribbon around the mountains disappeared, and in front of it, was Sissi, holding her original-sized hair ribbon, and also Yumi in her arms. "We're back," Sissi said happily. "And you? Are you all right, my darling?" she said to Yumi.

"I think so," Yumi said, allowing Sissi to help her stand up.

"Yumi!" the other three said happily.

"And... who's that?" Odd wondered, seeing the other tall dark-haired girl. He came up closer, and saw it was indeed, "Sissi?!" Odd exclaimed.

"It was a desperate situation. We had to seek outside help," Jeremy quickly explained.

"Oh, stop acting like I'm your tragedy!" Sissi said crossly.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Aelita started to laugh, and the others decided to join in. "You helped us, right? Thanks, Sissi," Ulrich said. Sissi look around. Aelita smiled at her, and even Odd nodded, agreeing with Ulrich's

<HR>

Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita, paired with Jeremy, walked around campus together, receiving well wishes from everyone. Jeremy had run a return to the past program to set back the damage one day at least, but they had still been gone for quite a while. Yumi and Sissi ran up to greet them. "Ew, why do you look, and smell like that?" Sissi said, holding her nose and waving her hand in front of her face.

"Because we've been stuck in a drainage ditch for days," Ulrich explained.

"Yeah, it really takes a toll," Odd added.

"Luckily, Jeremy found us and rescued us," Aelita said, looking happily over at Jeremy.

"Is the that best thing you could think of? Jeremy rescuing you?" Sissi asked. She continued to joke with the others.

"Aelita, listen," Jeremy pulled Aelita to the side as the others continued to talk. "I'm sorry, I should have discussed things more with you before deciding on my own,"

"Well, I know how you feel, we've just discovered you never know what could happen," Aelita said.

"Yes, when you were gone, I just hated having left it that way. I shouldn't have-"

"It's over now, Jeremy. I took my feelings out on you. There isn't a home I can go to right now, and so I just got angry with you because of it."

"I should have thought of that-" Jeremy said.

"Even you can't think of everything," Aelita pointed out.

"What's going on?" Sissi pushed into their private conversation. "Going to give your ditch searching hero a kiss?" she teased Aelita. Both Jeremy and Aelita blushed, and looked away from each other. "Well, I'm not nearly as shy," she said, pulling Yumi's close and quickly kissing her. "Thank you for saving me, Yumi. Now where's the kiss for the real rescuer of everyone?" she asked.

"Um..." Ulrich said uncomfortably, thinking Sissi was indirectly requesting him. Both he and Sissi were surprised when Yumi pulled Sissi close, giving her a long, passionate kiss.

Sissi was happy, to be kissed of course, but mostly for another reason. The fact she would show such affection in front of her friends meant that she was no longer ashamed of them. It was a nice start, she thought. She linked arms with Yumi, to walk together to school.