A/N: Okay, you guys win the best readers award. Seriously, the response was amazing. For that reason, I feel like I need to bring up another point. And I win the worst author award. I meant to have this up months ago, but the dialogue was off and I just couldn't fix it like, at all, so I may edit it eventually. Again, sorry and thank you! (Also, in that time I did come to an important decision regarding this fic, which is excellent.)

Jupiter Junction had always been a miserable little town, Elizabeth reflected as she and Odd pulled into the town limits, slowing down to a creeping twenty-five miles per hour and attempting to see through the rain pouring around them. Located just off the highway, it was much easier to find than to find a reason to stay.

And yet, a voice in the back of her head whispered in the deep recesses of her mind, she had been happy here.

And she had been. At least when she first came. She had been delighted by the tall trees in her yard, she had loved being able to walk to the gas station and single fast food chain without any worries. She had loved the fact that she could watch cars pass in front of her house, speeding off to wherever they happened to be headed. She had been content laying in the cool grass during the evening of a warm day and being able to smell the Earth and farms all around her. It had been peaceful and everything she needed.

But that was the first summer- and ghosts never stay hidden for long. It was only a matter of time until the stories of what had happened to her house's previous occupants became known. And it was only a little after that when the comfort she had felt turned into suffocation.

Odd, who had grown up there his entire life had been ready to leave. Not because he didn't like it (though as much as he tried to pretend, Elizabeth knew that the memories had been less than pleasant), but because Odd was as curious as a cat and as energetic as a puppy, and quite frankly, a town the size of Jupiter Junction would never be able to contain him.

So they had made plans in secret to leave when Elizabeth turned sixteen and that afternoon, on the hottest day of the year, they had sped away with every intention never to come back.

And yet, here they were.

"I know we're on a time crunch here," Odd muttered, "but I definitely think I could have done with a longer trip."

"Yeah," Elizabeth muttered, "much longer."

It early afternoon and the skies were deep grey. Heavy rain fell around them and the roads leading into the town were nearly deserted, as was the town itself. "Do you think anyone will recognize us?" Elizabeth questioned.

Odd shook his head. "It's been five years."

Odd didn't sound confident but Elizabeth didn't push the point either. The beating of rain on the roof of the car is accompanied by the beating of her heart, louder and louder as they get closer and closer. As much as Elizabeth had never liked the blues-country- alternative mix Odd favored in the desert, she liked the CD he listened to now less. It was one he had made before they left but never listened to. The songs were a mix of rock and alternative- but softer than what Sissi had expected. Deep lyrics and easy to sing along to. Odd however, had remained silent besides the occasional drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

And suddenly, they were in Jupiter Junction.

The Weeping Willow at the entrance to town was still there. The businesses, however, had changed- a little more commercialized than five years ago, but the old Mom and Pop Diner still stood proudly (no one knew what it's name was, it was just known as The Diner). The movie theater wasn't playing any movies; instead the marquee was advertising a museum a few miles down the road. Elizabeth's house stood and wondered idly if her father still lived in it. She honestly didn't know.

There were two stoplights and one that flashed yellow at all times. And then, less than three minutes later, they were out of the town, heading for a hotel about half an hour away. They had considered stopping here that first day they had run, but they had wanted to get as much distance between where they had been and where they were going and so Elizabeth had not stopped driving until sunset of the next day.

They pulled into the parking lot and Odd tossed her one of the two fedoras that he had bought at the airport during a forty-five minute layover that morning. Odd had always fancied himself a mob boss, and Elizabeth had never been turned off at the idea of being a mob wife either, if she was honest with herself.

The hat was cute enough, a plaid pattern of light blues and grays. Odd had gotten a hold of a plain black hat for himself and stuffed it over his head. Although his hair was now a crew cut and his blonde hair nearly transparent, he had never quite been able to part with his purple patch at the top of his head.

He also had purchased a pair of somewhat fashionable reading glasses that had been on display next to the fedoras. The frames were thick and black and overall did nothing to help disguise him- in Elizabeth's opinion. Of course, she figured, knowing Odd and being with him consistently for five years (and through countless disguises) probably gave her the upper hand.

The two confirmed their reservations and dropped their bags off in their room. There was one queen sized bed in the middle with a desk by a window, doing little to light the room and only contributing in blocking the downpour from view. The room's light added to the pale yellow walls to make the room seem dim. The air was nearly frigid and the knobs on the heater were stuck. The room has a refrigerator but a sticky yellow substance was stuck to most of the shelves.

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose as she walked out of the bathroom, holding up a soaking wet towel splotched with red. "This place is…interesting."

Odd smiled and leaned back on the bed. "Let's hope we don't have to stay here long, then," he said.

Elizabeth groaned and fell face first into the bed, next to Odd. He absentmindedly started playing with her hair as she ranted. "Yumi and William are getting married right now. Did you see the food list for their wedding? They're eating teriyaki chicken wings and filet mignon and we're stuck in this dump!"

"We'll send them out to hunt someone down during our wedding," Odd soothed.

To her credit, Elizabeth didn't even lift her head off of the covers. "Was that a proposal?" she muttered.

Odd continued stroking her hair and back but shook his head. "No," he said.

"You might want to get on with that, Odd Dear. You never know-"she yawned lazily, "you never know when I'll find someone else and leave you."

"You wouldn't leave me," Odd said, "because I would take Ruby Manor with me."

"It's my car," Elizabeth protested. "I bought it; my name is on the title. I pay the insurance and for the license plate."

Odd chuckled and leaned back so he was lying next to Elizabeth. "So I guess it's a good thing you're not leaving me then."

"I guess so," Elizabeth laughed.

After a quick nap, they both concluded that it was time to go start searching for the elusive Aelita. So they made the drive back into the miserable town of Jupiter Junction. The rain had not lightened up; instead it seemed to be worse than it had been. Odd drove in the middle of the road, avoiding the puddles on either side.

There wasn't a single other car that passed them and forced him to move over. They stopped at the gas station. The white floors were slippery and Aelita grabbed a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and a box of donuts. As they paid, they asked the cashier, a large woman with black hair tied back in a ponytail and a sour expression, if she knew where an Aelita lived. They said they were college students on their way to some big city and had stopped here to say hello.

The woman shrugged and said that she had heard of an Aelita, but didn't know where the girl's house was. Then, she pushed the bag towards them and looked purposefully at the person next in line.

Back outside in the rain, Odd and Elizabeth sat down on a bench underneath an awning for a closed business. The occasional raindrop still caught them, but it was relatively dry, if not a little cold. "Okay," Odd said. "So her family isn't listed in the phonebook, by any of their fifty names. But let's think about this. The Einstein goes to some professional, high class, technology-based, research university or something, right?"

Elizabeth nodded and smiled. "And if he met her there, then she also went to some professional, high class, technology-based, research university! Or something."

"So," Odd continued, "she must be into technology. Or something."

They both turned to look across the street. A plain sign simply read: "Computers, Music, Television."

"You think it's worth a shot?" Elizabeth asked.

Odd smirked. "Can't hurt, and at the very least it'll get us out of this rain."

They both ran across the street and into the shop. The air-conditioning was running full blast and at first it seemed deserted. Music CDs and records lined the front part of the store with speakers piled high and musical instruments displayed on the side wall.

"It smells like a shoe store in here," Odd whispered.

Suddenly, a small snicker turned their attention to a little further down in the store, where computers of every shape and size were sitting. Some were sleek and new and others had an obvious cote of dust.

A figure stepped out from behind a mountain of CPUs.

She was shorter than Elizabeth but had shocking pink hair- the same pink hair they were looking for.

"Are you Aelita?" Elizabeth asked.

The person smiled brightly. "I am," she said. She held out her hands. "And who are you guys?"

"I'm Elizabeth, this is Odd. We know Jeremie."

During the introductions, Aelita had had a weird look on her face, as if trying to remember where she had put her car keys, but at Jeremie's name, Aelita's smile widened and her original confusion seemed to have disappeared. "You do?" she exclaimed. "How's he doing? I haven't heard from him all summer! I was getting a bit worried."

"That's the thing," Odd said. "He's been trying to contact you but somehow nothing has been able to get through. So he asked us to deliver this to you." He pulled the letter out of his pocket and handed it to Aelita.

Aelita laughed and snatched the letter. "So you let him use you as his postal service?"

"Not quite," Elizabeth said. "He does owe us a favor now."

"I see," Aelita said absentmindedly as she tore open the envelope and scanned the contents of the message. "Well this favor must be pretty good if you flew all the way over here. What is it, exactly?"

"It's kind of a long story," Elizabeth said.

"Long as in long or long as in personal and none of my business?"

"Both, actually," Elizabeth consented. "But mostly because it's long."

"Well then," Aelita said. "You two must be getting hungry and I'm getting off in ten minutes. Why don't you two go get us a table for three at The Diner and I'll meet you over there and we can talk, okay. I'll pay."

Elizabeth and Odd shared a quick glance. The Diner had been a favorite hangout of theirs when they still lived in Jupiter Junction and although they had often spent starry nights laying on their backs and talking about how they would be willing to drive back to Jupiter Junction just to have one of the jam crêpes or chocolate chips waffles or steak, now that they were here it seemed risky. Odd's stomach took matters into its own hands and rumbled loudly.

"Food sounds good," Odd agreed and Elizabeth nodded. Aelita smiled happily and walked a bit further back in the store without another word. When she returned, she had a small packaged cell phone and quickly bought unwrapped it, scribbling a note on a post-it and leaving it in the bottom of the register. "They'll take it out of my pay," Aelita said. "Now go get us a table and order a diet coke for me, okay? Oh, and if they ask for the entrées, I'll have a…" she thought about it for a bit, "I'll take the Hungry-Boy Skillet."

"Now that is amazing," Odd offhandedly commented.

Aelita stared at him suddenly as if all the pieces suddenly fit together and without being aware of what he was doing, Odd rushed to the door, dragging Elizabeth with him. "We'll make sure the diet coke is sitting their when you arrive," he said.

"So she pretty much knows that we lived here before now. Or at least we've been here," Elizabeth said as the faced the wind and the rain to make it to The Diner. This may make it easier," Elizabeth reasoned. "Or maybe she'll tell someone and by the time we get to The Diner there'll be a crowd waiting for us."

"Or maybe she didn't even catch it?" Odd said half-heartedly.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Elizabeth asked. "She figured something out. Not to mention I'm sure there've been mentions of us throughout the years. We did run away. That was sure to create a bit of a stir."

"We should have used our fake names."

"Yeah," Elizabeth agreed. "But we didn't and- oh shit, this place smells amazing."

They had entered the door to The Diner and were assaulted by the smell that everyone in Jupiter Junction would swear was the greatest smell on Earth. The Diner had undergone small renovations since they were last there, but said renovations only served to make it more inviting. It was warm and they were seated in a corner booth immediately.

They scoured the menu which had only gotten bigger in the past five years. Their waitress came by and Odd and Elizabeth were both startled to realize that they recognized her. Brynja, a girl they had gone to school with for a short time. She didn't seem to recognize either of them and they ordered their drinks: two coffees and a diet coke.

Brynja arrived with the drinks and a basket of rolls thirty seconds before Aelita walked in, drenched. She smiled at the owner and made her way to their table. "Great," she said, looking around. The restaurant was crowded enough that there was a healthy amount of noise, but no one sitting particularly close to them.

"So," Aelita started. "There's this legend in Jupiter Junction about two lovebirds who up and left one day and no one has seen them or heard from them since. Well," she amended, "one guy, his name is Theo or something, swears that he saw you them hunting ghosts in Connecticut two springs ago or something."

She looked at them closely. "And their names were Odd and Sissi."

"I used to hate the name Elizabeth," Elizabeth reasoned. "And by the time I realized Sissi was a stupid name, I couldn't really change it, could I?"

"So you guys really are the people from the story?" Aelita asked.

"Unless there are another Odd and Sissi who ran away that we don't know about," said Odd. "Honestly, it's an honor. I just wish people would remember me for my musical prowess as well. I made a song and a video for it once, you know. They were fantastic."

Elizabeth snorted.

Aelita, wisely, didn't pry. "So what's this about you guys ghost hunting?"

Odd laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, you see, we kind of picked up odd jobs for a while there. No pun intended."

"And then we found out that we were a lot better at…tracking," Elizabeth added.

"So you guys were bounty hunters or something?" Aelita asked.

They both simultaneously flinched. "No," they said together.

"We would start out looking for lost pets and stuff," Odd said, "and just returning them for some monetary award." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"And then, about eight months into our journey, we were hunting for a wolf who was killing a lot of animals in some rural, disconnected town a few states away. They didn't have many laws that cared about conservation of animals and no one was inclined to tattle so we don't even know if it was legal," Elizabeth continued for him. "So we went out searching and, well, we found it."

"It wasn't an animal," Odd said. "It was a person. He was infected with X."

Aelita didn't question what X was but she did look down and even when she looked back up she refused to meet their eyes.

"And we had never heard about this before, you see," Elizabeth said. "We had thought it was just a person with some mental issue or a practical joke. But as we were scoping this guy out, these two men came out of nowhere and tranquilized the guy and left. And then for the next four months, whenever we heard something weird, half the time these guys would be there. So we did some research and we confronted them, and eventually we pieced together what was up."

"And the reward for turning in someone who has the disease," Odd added and shrugged. "It was a good reward."

"And then we began piecing things together and have ever heard about Ulrich Stern?"

Aelita nodded minutely. "Well, we realized that it really fit that he had had it, I mean, everything," Odd said. "He was my best friend so I had been there during most of it and everything I saw fit with all of the symptoms of X. Every. Single. Thing."

"Only he's much more sane," Elizabeth said. "He didn't get an entire dose."

"And so, we just kind of made a job out of tracking down people with X and our name grew so sometimes we would track down people without X and things. And every now and then, a nutcase comes in and claims that her house is haunted and asks us to catch the ghost. Usually, the people are just batshit crazy and we just have to say a few mumbled words and they believe everything that we say. But," Odd continued, "we were never able to find Ulrich. He's way too smart and we knew we would need help."

Aelita nodded. "And that's where Jeremie comes in?"

"He's going to help us find Ulrich," Odd said solemnly. "That's really are goal right now."

Aelita nodded and looked down again. Odd and Elizabeth shared a glance. Jeremie had said that her father had created X. The terrible virus which drove people from themselves. Aelita and Elizabeth easily moved onto talking about some styles of shoes which Odd had effectively tuned out.

The bells on the door jingled, signaling that something was coming in or coming out and Odd turned absentmindedly to look at the man in the camouflage cargo pants and tan jacket and found himself staring at, speak of the devil, Ulrich Stern.

And saw Ulrich Stern staring right back at him.