Jeremie doesn't know how long he stares at the screen, after it happens. He can't tear his eyes away from the empty space where Aelita's ID card is supposed to be.
There are voices shouting at him through the comm link, but he can't hear them. Or, he doesn't want to hear them. He doesn't understand what could possibly be so important at a time like this. Nothing matters anymore.
The tear-tracks running down his face have long dried when someone finally jerks his chair backward from the supercomputer, spinning him around to face the opposite direction. He registers dimly that it's Yumi. She grabs him by the shoulders with both hands, looking panic-stricken.
"Jeremie, why didn't you answer me?" she asks, her face white. "I've just been devirtualized. There were too many of them, I couldn't fight them all. Listen, we need a plan, and now. I've just gotten off the phone with Ulrich—he says XANA's already destroyed the school. He's going to move on to the rest of the city, if we don't do something!"
Jeremie looks at Yumi without really seeing her. None of this information means anything to him. "A plan?" he echoes.
She nods frantically, digging her fingers into his shoulders. "I know this isn't the best time," she says, her voice pained, "And I'm so, so sorry, Jeremie, but we need you to be with us right now. XANA's still attacking, and lives are at stake. We have to figure out a way to stop him before anyone else gets hurt!"
Jeremie stares at her dumbly, uncomprehending. He registers that she's talking, he does, but the words just don't have any significance at all. "Yumi…" he says, his throat closing up unexpectedly. "Yumi, she's gone."
Her face softens. "I know, Jeremie," she says, loosening her grip and lowering herself a bit, so that their faces are level. "We lost her. We lost Aelita. I wasn't—I wasn't fast enough, strong enough to save her by myself. But right now, what that means is that we haven't got any way to deactivate the towers, and stop XANA's attacks from inside Lyoko. We need to think of something else."
She's not getting it. "It's not about the towers," he says quietly, hands curling into fists in his lap. "It was never about the towers. Or XANA."
Yumi blanches. "Jeremie, please," she begs, shaking him lightly by the shoulders. "I already tried shutting down the supercomputer's battery downstairs, and nothing happened. XANA really doesn't need it anymore. We need you to help us think up a solution!"
"There is no solution," he says flatly, slumping in his chair. Defeated. "Don't you get it yet? It's over. She's gone."
"Don't talk like that!" Yumi shouts angrily, shaking him again, harder this time. He flops like a rag doll in her arms, completely unresisting. "Jeremie, listen to me! XANA's forces are on the move in the real world right now! The police are swamped, they don't have any idea of what to do! We have to come up with a plan!"
She's nearing hysterics, now, terrified by his lack of response. Jeremie's face remains blank as he looks up at her, but even so, something clicks into place in his mind.
"It was the police," he says slowly, remembering. "They were the ones who held up Odd and Ulrich at the school, when the attack started. That was why they couldn't get to the factory, to Lyoko. If it weren't for that, Aelita might have had a fighting chance."
"Oh, Jeremie, no, don't say that!" Yumi pleads, her voice cracking. She looks near tears. "They were only trying to help! Nobody could have known this was going to happen. Please, there isn't much time left, the whole city's going to be destroyed in a matter of hours!"
"Let it burn, then," he says, feeling nothing. Without Aelita, everything is pointless.
When Yumi slaps him in the face he only laughs.
