Chapter 4

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yumi asked while watching Layla sit on Jeremy's bed, cross-legged.

The redhead shrugged and looked down at the floor, trying to ignore the fact that everyone in the room was staring at her. "I've done some bad things, I've dealt with some bad people, I am a bad person. I didn't want you to know that," was her explanation.

"You're not a bad person," Ulrich stated.

"Yes. Everyone does bad things. That doesn't necessarily make them bad people," Aelita agreed with a single nod, sitting beside Layla on the bed.

"Have any of you ever killed anyone?" Layla asked, causing everyone to immediately become shocked and scared. She looked up with a smirk. "Well, that's good, 'cause I haven't killed anyone, either." With a sigh, she looked sadly down at the ground. "I've only come incredibly close on several different occassions."

"Did those people deserve it?" Jeremy asked, receiving a shrug from Layla.

"Some did, some didn't," the girl stated. "All of them were caused by rage blackouts."

"Rage blackouts?" Ulrich asked.

Layla nodded. "Rage blackouts, blind rage, whatever you wanna call it. It's where one gets so angry they pretty much blackout and do whatever their instincts tell them to. In my case, instinct tells me to beat the hell out of whoever pissed me off."

"Is that why you almost hit me?" Aelita questioned softly from her spot on the bed beside the redhead.

Layla slowly nodded once more. "Yes. I had some control of it then, though, so I managed to keep myself from hurting you, making you a very, very lucky girl." She looked around at all of the people staring at her. "By the way, if I ever do happen to snap, be sure to pry me off of whoever I happen to start beating to death. That's the only way you can really stop me."

Everyone nodded, then silence fell across the small room, broken moments later by a question from Odd.

"So, when are we gonna let her into the club?" he asked Jeremy, smiling.

At this, Layla arched a thin red eyebrow. "Club...?"

Her question went unheard as Jeremy said, "I don't really think we should let her in at all. Not this soon, anyway."

Layla sighed and rolled her gray-blue eyes. I just love it when people talk about me like I'm not even here.

"But she's proven herself trustworthy," Ulrich stated, looking over at Jeremy

The blond shook his head and said, "No, she hasn't. She'll have to do a lot more to help us if she wants to be considered trustworthy enough to be one of us."

The way he phrased this made Layla arch an eyebrow. "You guys aren't vampires or something, are you?" she asked wryly as she looked from one person to the next in the crowded room.

Everyone stared at her for a moment, then they all began laughing simultaneously.

"No," Yumi managed to get out between laughs.

"We aren't vampires or anything. We're just humans," Jeremy threw in around his own loud laughter.

"What exactly do you mean by 'one of us,' then?" Layla questioned, obviously rather lost.

The laughter slowly died away, and Odd just grinned. "You'll see."

"Shouldn't we be getting to our own rooms now?" Aelita said after a moment of somewhat awkward silence.

"Yeah." Yumi seemed to be more serious now, appearing to be a little worried, too. "I was supposed to be home a while ago."

A chorus of byes could be heard as everyone left the room, Layla still looking rather confused as she walked.

-

The next day, Layla talked to the gang of suspected vampires a little bit in the morning and during lunch, although nothing of importance was ever said. Everyone learned that Layla's favorite color was red and that she hated anything related to math in any way, shape, or form, but since when were such things really 'important'? It wasn't until after school that something of slight importance happened.

Aelita was walking past Layla's room, minding her own business, when she heard something. It sounded like music...Violin music...

She paused, made sure she wasn't hearing things, then cautiously moved closer to the door. Pressing her ear against the wooden surface, she listened intently to the elegant violin music. The song was slow and sad, but undeniably beautiful. Every note was perfectly in tune, played at just the right volume for just the right amount of time, until...

"Son of a bitch!" Layla yelled, the music stopping after a note that was only the slightest bit flat was played.

Aelita opened the door slowly and peeked into the room. There Layla stood, right next to the window, a violin resting on her shoulder, a bow in her right hand, and a stand with a few pages of sheet music on it in front of her.

"It's an E natural, Layla," she growled to herself, glaring at her music and not even noticing Aelita. "Not an E flat. Play it right."

She let her bow rest on one of the violin's strings, calmed herself, then began to play again. After only a few slow, sad notes, her slightly angry expression vanished, turning into a peaceful one that had an openness the ever-closed Layla wouldn't want anyone to see. She reached the part where she had messed up the first time and played it correctly, soon finding herself at a part full of quicker sixteenth notes. As she played the swift notes, a slight smile graced her lips, which she didn't even seem to notice.

Her calm look turned angry after another slightly flat note, her bow stopping suddenly. "Oh, come on! This is easy stuff! Why do I keep screwing up?!"

Aelita shifted slightly, and Layla instantly turned to look at her, slightly surprised. She stared at the pink-haired girl for a moment, then asked, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Since you last yelled at yourself," Aelita answered simply. "You play very well, by the way."

"Thanks, but that's not true," Layla said as she turned back to her music, glaring at it. "I'm terrible."

"No, you're not. A few mistakes don't make you terrible." Aelita stepped into the room, closing the door behind herself.

"They do if you're a perfectionist," the violinist sighed. Then, before Aelita could say anything, she began playing again, this time playing the whole thing straight through without any mistakes, although she made sure to keep her expression emotionless as she played.

"An audience makes you even better, apparently," Aelita said with a smile once the song was over.

"I guess so." Layla shrugged, now looking over at Aelita. When the girl didn't say anything, Layla asked, "Did you want something, or did you just come here to stare at me?"

"Neither, but I'll leave if you want me to."

"Please do."

Aelita left the room without a word, thinking that Layla was a very rude person.

-

The next morning, Layla found herself wishing she had told Aelita not to tell anyone about her violin-playing skills.

"So, Aelita tells us you play the violin," Ulrich said casually.

"Are you any good?" Odd threw in just as casually.

The redhead rolled her eyes and said, "Nope. Not at all. Now shut up."

"Oh, come on. You can't be all that bad," Odd continued, not realizing that this was a subject Layla really wanted to change now. "Maybe you could play for us somet-"

"No. Not going to happen. Now shut. Up," the girl said slowly, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.

"But you co-"

Layla spun, her dark skirt flaring as she aimed her fist at Odd's face. She stopped just before she hit him, instead flicking his nose lightly as she leaned down to whisper in his ear, "Shut. Up."

She then turned and walked away, not realizing that she had just scared the hell out of everyone.

At lunch, she sat down with Ulrich and the others, cocking her head when nobody even looked at her.

"Um...What the hell?" she asked, glancing at everyone. No one responded, causing her to growl. "Fine." Leaving her lunch there, she got up and went outside.

"Freaking assholes...What the hell did I ever do to them?" she mumbled as she walked aimlessly along a deserted path, unconsciously heading toward the park.

The badass jumped when she heard a soft noise to her left. She instantly turned toward the sound, tense and ready to slaughter...an innocent white cat. She rolled her eyes at herself and relaxed, deciding that the pretty animal wasn't out to get her.

"And what, might I ask, would one such as yourself be doing out here?" Layla asked the cat as she kneeled down a few feet away from where it stood beside a bush and held out one pale, long-fingered hand.

Its white fur was dirty and its small ribs were visible, signifying that the poor thing had been stuck without a home for at least a few days now. It approached her outstretched hand cautiously, sniffing her fingertips. When it smelled the scent of food on her light skin, it immediately began to lick her fingers, ravenous.

When its teeth sank into her finger, she pulled her hand back and said, "My hand is not food, child." She could see the cat's pink nose twitching as it continued to smell the food she had recently touched, causing her to sigh. "Wait here," she told the animal, standing up. "I'll bring you some real food."

She began to walk away, the kitty immediately disobeying her orders and beginning to follow. She just sighed again and kept walking. Not like she could do anything about it now...

The animal had to stay outside when the cafeteria door was slammed in its face, though.

Without a word, Layla took what remained of the food on her tray, not looking at any of the people staring at her as she did so. She then turned and walked back out of the building, heading toward the park once more with the cat following close behind.

Once the girl had reached the spot where she had first met her new friend, she carefully crouched down, putting the food down on the ground before the cat. The starved creature began to devour the food without bothering to inspect it first.

While the cat ate, Layla sat down on the ground, pulling her knees up to her chest and not caring that anyone who walked by could easily see up her skirt.

"I should name you," the girl muttered, watching the cat thoughtfully. After a few seconds, she listed a few names. "Snowflake, Snowball, Whiskers, Sally...Maybe I should see whether you're a girl or not before I decide on a name." She checked, which annoyed the kitty, who was still trying to eat, and found out that it was indeed a female. "Hm...How about...um..." She looked at the cat's white fur, pink nose, and pretty blue eyes, and eventually said, "Screw it. I'm calling you Gorgeous." The cat didn't react to this, merely continuing to eat what it had been given.

Several minutes later, the food was finally gone, and Gorgeous was gazing up at Layla's face with those pretty blue eyes of hers.

"You probably need something to drink now, huh? Damn it...Why didn't I think of that while I was getting you food?"

The cat hissed suddenly, surprising Layla. It hadn't wanted to be all bitchy to her before, and she had brought it food, so why would she get all mean and hateful now? That's when Layla realized the cat was looking over her shoulder, not at her face.

A large hand was suddenly placed over the girl's mouth, another one going around her waist and hauling her to her feet. She managed to get away from the hand for just long enough to let out a loud shriek that sounded more angry than frightened. That was the last thing she remembered before a sudden pain erupted in the back of her head and the world went dark.

-

Everyone sitting in the lunch room paused, falling silent for a moment. What sounded like a distant scream faintly reached their ears. The sound cut off suddenly, and everyone went back to talking and eating and having a good time.

Everyone but the Lyoko warriors, anyway.

Jeremy was staring blankly at the screen of his laptop, having frozen when that scream had started. "Activated tower," he managed to get out after a moment, beginning to focus once more. He looked around at his friends. "Who's going to the factory with me and who's going to go investigate that scream?"

"I'll investigate the scream," Odd stated.

Jeremy nodded. "All right. Everyone else can come with me, then." He closed his laptop and put it back in his bag before standing up. "Let's get going."

Everyone quickly left the building, Odd splitting from the group after a moment. As they all went along, they couldn't help but wonder...Was that Layla?

-

Layla opened her eyes and instantly found herself fighting back a groan of pain. Her head hurt like hell.

The redhead sat up, gently touching the source of the pain. She looked at her pale fingers, pleased to find that she wasn't bleeding or anything. She just had a small bump to deal with.

Her blue-gray eyes then began to take in her surroundings slowly.

She seemed to be in a factory of some sort. She was sitting on cool concrete, located right beside the closed doors of some weird elevator or something. She looked up and found a couple of ropes hanging from the ceiling a few feet away, next to a ledge high above her head.

"Where the hell am I?" she muttered to herself as she carefully got to her feet, every movement making her head throb painfully.

She whipped around when she heard the sound of echoing footsteps behind her, finding Jim heading toward her. He had a weird look in his eyes, though, one that Layla couldn't remember seeing before, even though she had. The man suddenly broke into a sprint, so the girl spun around like instict told her to and did the same, running away from him.

She would've absolutely loooved to stay and fight with him, but she didn't stand a chance against him if he was crazed and she was unarmed.

Why the hell did I stop keeping switchblades in my bra, anyway? the redhead wondered while darting up a random hallway. One of those would be so damn useful right now...

Suddenly, her legs were knocked out from under her, and she hit the floor with a soft grunt. She began kicking at whoever had a hold of her ankle, knowing that she needed to get the hell out of there sometime relatively soon.

It took several kicks to the face to get Jim to release her, but the second she was free, she lurched to her feet and took off again. She ran into a random room, slamming the door shut behind her. She quickly looked around, trying to locate something that could help her. A smirk made its way onto her face when her eyes landed on an old, rusty pipe laying on a rickety conveyor belt.

"Well, I just might survive, after all."

-

Jeremy was the first one to enter the factory, but the others weren't far behind him. The group quickly made its way down to the supercomputer and scanners, and soon enough, Jeremy was left alone in the factory.

Or so he thought.

Everything was fine for the first few minutes, but then the elevator doors opened, and there stood about five Jims, all with that strange symbol in their eyes. When they stepped out of the elevator, Jeremy managed to catch a glimpse of long red hair and familiar black boots.

"Layla!" he called, setting his headset down on his keyboard and springing to his feet, knowing he needed to either escape or get to Layla. Preferably both.

The girl's eyes snapped open the moment she heard her name, however, her fingers immediately closing around the pipe that was laying a few inches away from her. Jeremy's attention went back to the many Jims heading toward him as the redhead in the elevator got to her feet. She stopped to compose herself for a moment, then she ran past the group of men, sliding to a stop in front of them with her back to Jeremy.

"Keep doing whatever it was you were doing, Jeremy," she said calmly. "Just as long as it might help to stop this bit of weirdness, anyway."

"But what about y-?"

"Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." She looked back at Jeremy, eyes fierce even as blood dripped down her cheek from a deep cut just below her eye. "Just hurry up and fix this."

Jeremy nodded and obediently sat back down, sliding his headset on. He called Odd and told him to come to the factory, although he didn't give him any details. He didn't have time to. All he said was that this was an emergency, and that they really needed Odd's help right now.

Layla wasn't even paying attention to Jeremy anymore. She was currently occupied with fighting five guys who were all twice her size, which was sooo not her idea of fun.

She leapt back when one of them tried to grab her, not realizing that she was pretty much throwing herself back into yet another one of the bastards. His arms wrapped around her tightly, pinning her arms to her sides and actually managing to keep her from breathing for a moment. With a growl, she threw her head back, slamming her aching skull into the guy's nose. He released her as blood began to flow from his nostrils, allowing her to spin around and slam the pipe she was holding into the side of his head. The sorry son of a female dog hit the floor, then suddenly seemed to explode into a million little pixels.

"Whoa..."

Layla gawked at where Jim had been for a few moments before snapping out of her weird little trance and turning to face the remaining Jims. She was picked up and thrown into a wall, not even getting a chance to react. Her back collided with the solid surface, causing the pipe to slip from her fingers and roll away. She let out a soft hiss as she slid to the floor, watching two Jims come toward her while the other two headed for Jeremy, who didn't even seem to notice.

She got to her feet quickly, ending up between Jeremy and the Jims again.

"You're so lucky I'm here," she stated as she got into a fighting stance, her gaze going from one Jim to the next and back around again slowly.

"I know," was all the blond boy said, too focused on his computer to notice that Layla was now unarmed and totally freaking screwed.

Well, I can't really get rid of them all now, but I should be able to keep them away from Jeremy until help arrives... The girl glanced at the elevator doors, which were still open, and got an idea.

Swiftly, she landed a taunting blow to each of the Jims' faces, then spun to face them as she backed toward the elevator. Luckily, they took the bait and came after her.

Her back hit the elevator wall, and she soon found four Jims standing before her in the small space. She reached around them and slammed her fist into the button that she guessed made the elevator go...somewhere. The doors closed, trapping her with her opponents.

As the two parties stared at each other, Layla thought, Oh, now what, genius? You managed to get them away from Jeremy, but what about you?!

A hand grabbed her neck suddenly, making her unable to breathe as she was lifted into the air. This caused som serious deja vu, but Layla ignored it and focused on kicking at Jim's chest while clawing at his hand. This did no good, though, so she aimed her next kick at his face. He let go of her as blood began to gush from his nose, and she smirked.

Damn, I'm good.

She kicked the man in the head as hard as she could, having to jump up to do so, and he fell to the ground, vanishing like the first one had.

Now the poor girl just had three Jims to deal with.

These ones didn't try to take her on one-on-one, though. They all came at her at once. One slammed her back into the wall while the other one began stomping on her body as soon as she had hit the floor, the last one joining in on the abuse after a moment and ramming his foot into her side.

The elevator stopped just as Layla leapt to her feet, blind rage beginning to take over. She barely noticed that she was now in the area where she had first woken up as she lunged at the Jims.

After that, she was gone. Couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel...Could only hit as fast and hard as humanly possible.

The next thing she knew, she was laying on the cool floor, panting while blood poured from several cuts she couldn't remember receiving. She hurt all over, especially around her stomach, where she had taken the most abuse in the elevator, but at least there weren't any Jims around anymore. Except for the one passed out on the floor a few feet away from her...

She disregarded that one and slowly rolled onto her stomach, wincing as she got to her hands and knees.

That's how she stayed for a moment, not moving until she heard a soft, "Layla...?"

When she looked up, she found Odd standing several feet away from her, looking both concerned and, sadly, a little bit scared.

The fear in his eyes only made her realize how much of a monster she really was, although she didn't look away.

"Sorry, Odd," she whispered hoarsely before falling unconscious once more.

"Tell them to hurry it up, Einstein!" Odd pretty much yelled into his phone as he fell to his knees beside Layla, who had a large shard of sharp glass rammed into her side and was well on her way to bleeding to death. "I don't care if they're having problems! Layla's bleeding to death here, and we need to go back in time!" And with that, the pissed off male hung up.

His eyes soon went from his phone to the bleeding girl laying on the floor in front of him.

"She got hurt protecting Jeremy...This should convince him to let her go to Lyoko with us sometime," he said to himself, obviously trying to find something good to say about the current situation. "She saved me and Kiwi once before, too, so if he doesn't let her join us now, he must be insane." He laughed weakly to himself. "Oh, wait. He already is insane."

He fell silent at that point, unable to come up with anything to say in order to amuse himself. He then realized that he should be helping Layla, but he didn't know whether pulling the glass out of her side would be wise or not, so all he could do was watch helplessly as her blood continued to pool on the floor around her.

Seconds later, she stopped breathing.

Odd went wide-eyed, unable to do anything for a moment, then he said, "Layla?" He shook her shoulder gently, as if that would wake her up or something. "Layla?!"

The red-haired girl didn't react. Then, suddenly, Odd felt himself returning to the past, hoping like hell that Layla didn't really just die on him.