Four

Jeremie went to his room after a long, painful day of school. He had been locked outside in the snow for the entire lunch period, and his emaciated form was finding it hard to warm up.

He found a letter under his keyboard.

Aelita and Odd had let him lock his room so no one could mess up Lyoko. They still cared for the world, even if they hated him.

Jeremie unfolded the letter. It was from Yumi, as he had expected. The only way they could keep contact was by slipping each other letters. Otherwise, Aelita and Odd might get suspicious, and that would ruin everything.

My eternal friend Jeremie

I hope all is going well with your work. I understand that waiting to strike is difficult, and is trying your patience. I can see the look on your face when they're together, or when they egg the students into attacking you, I see how you want to lash out. I hope you can keep your sanity together while we finish the details on our plan, then things will get better, I promise.

I know how both of us felt when we heard the full extent of their actions, and I know that nothing would have satisfied you more than to run in their rooms and cleave their heads in with a machete. But, we both know that nothing is ever as simple as that, and we both know that first instincts are rarely the best courses of action, especially when driven by a rush of emotion.

Onto more pressing details, are you sure Aelita's key has been completely transferred? It isn't that I don't trust you, but if the slightest bit is left in her, then it will be completely gone when she is. Are you sure she can't detect it's absence? I didn't feel any different when you gave it to me, but I'd just like to make sure. I am also certain of the matter in which we will handle things. I have nearly experienced quite a plethora of deaths, and know which ones will serve our purposes best. Besides, we need to keep things ambiguous, so that nothing can be traced back to us.

Anyway, I have to go. I'm being called downstairs. How I envy your being a boarder, no parents to order you. Like I said previously, have patience, the end of this will come with the end of them.

Your close, loyal friend

Yumi

Jeremie smiled at her letter and quickly wrote back.

My close, loyal friend Yumi,

I agree with you on the world not letting us get away with initial instincts. I'm sure of my transfer; there is no part of the key left inside her. I have also made sure that she would feel no difference post-key verses pre-key.

I have contemplated our previous notions that the world has cursed us, and have come to this conclusion.

The world is not a sentient, loving mother who looks out for and dotes upon her creations. The world is a large rock on which plants, animals, and humans thrive upon. The world doesn't care about us because it can't. There is no sense in waiting around for things to get better. Children in Africa are born, their parents die of starvation or some illness, and then they die the same way. The world doesn't look out for them. Life is not a storybook in which things 'always get better in the end'. Things don't. You could live being hated by all around you, despite what you do, and then die a painful, untimely death, without things ever getting better. The simple, cruel truth.

So, there are my cheerful thoughts for the day. Maybe you're right, maybe I am going crazy. And you're definitely right about having patience. Sometimes I think I'll go completely insane from waiting, sometimes I wish I could, as you say 'run in their rooms and cleave their heads in with a machete', but also, as you say, 'have patience'. And I will try, I will.

Yours forever, unwavering

Jeremie

As he sealed his letter, Jeremie couldn't help but smile at the odd formality they used when writing each other. It had always been present in his letters, and he was glad that he was not the only one who found it difficult to write casually.

Jeremie put the letter under his computer keyboard, where Yumi would find it. Odd and Aelita and both of his friends all had keys to each other's rooms. Jeremie's had been taken by Aelita, but the others still had theirs. Odd and Aelita never went in his room anymore, he had changed their keys to prove it. Only Yumi ever came in anymore, and that was only to pick up the letters Jeremie hid for her. She couldn't stay, or she'd raise suspicion.

Jeremie then set to work. He was really close to completing their plan. He just needed one more component fixed, and that would be done tomorrow. Just then, something happened that made his heart skip a beat.

His scan bleeped, indicating a X.A.N.A. attack.

He smacked his head into his head, how could they have been so stupid?

What was he supposed to tell Aelita when Yumi deactivated the tower? He couldn't ignore the attack! His and Yumi's plan was deteriorating in front of his eyes.

He called Yumi.

"Yumi, we have a problem," he said, the instant she picked up.

"Those two demons aren't trying to kill you are they. 'Cause if they are-"

"No, it's worse. X.A.N.A.'s attacking!"

It took her a moment. Then "Oh, that's really bad. Can't you tell them it's a malfunction or something? Or maybe..." her voice trailed off. Then she exclaimed, "Who's trying to call me at this time of night? Sorry, Jeremie, Ulrich's trying to call, I just got a call waiting signal."

"That's it!" He exclaimed. Suddenly things didn't seem as bad. "Yumi, tell Ulrich that there's a X.A.N.A. attack. Don't tell Odd or Aelita. You and Ulrich will have to deactivate the tower on your own, but you should be able to handle it."

"What if Ulrich says something? What if he mumbles something about 'the attack last night'?"

"I'll tell him not to. Things get blurry for him when I talk to him, so he shouldn't say anything. Besides," he added, sinisterly, "we only have to count on his silence for the rest of today. Then it won't matter."

"You are a genius," Yumi said, smirking. "I'll tell him now, see you at the factory."

.

At the factory, things were not going well.

Yumi tore through the ice sector on her overwing next to Ulrich on his overbike. Both had about forty lifepoints, and just ahead of them, a megatank had arrived.

"Fall back, Yumi," Jeremie's voice rang out.

"I can take it," she said, unsheathing her fans.

"Maybe, but we can't risk it. You have the key now, remember. You can't be reckless. Ulrich take care of that megatank."

Yumi pulled back on her overwing as Ulrich rode closer. The megatank opened, and Ulrich leapt on top of it, stabbing his saber into its X.A.N.A. mark. The megatank exploded. Yumi felt a shot on her back. She whipped around, blocking with her fans. A single kankrelat stood behind her. A normally laughable foe, now turn life threatening by Yumi's alarmingly low twenty lifepoints.

"Yumi! Get out of there!" Jeremie's panicked voice cried.

Ulrich drove toward it, stabbing just as it devirtualized him. Another kankrelat stepped out from behind an iceberg.

Yumi's felt like her heart stopped. She threw a fan at it, then took off. She fell to the ground as it destroyed her overwing. She began running. She was too far away from the tower she'd never make it.

"Yumi what are you doing?" Jeremie shrieked.

"I have to fight it; I'm too far away to outrun it."

"You don't even have your fan!"

Yumi ducked behind a rock and pictured her fan, imbedded in the ice a few feet away. Hands to her head, she moved the fan toward the approaching kankrelat. Her face sliced through the air, just missing.

The kankrelat rounded the corner and began charging up.

The fan sliced back around, destroying the kankrelat.

Yumi breathed a sigh of relief, exhausted. Before X.A.N.A. could summon any more monsters, she entered the tower.

Deactivating a tower was like nothing she had ever experienced before.

Upon entering she felt an over whelming feeling of calmness flow through her. She began to float upward, like a puppet being pulled up gracefully.

She landed on a Lyoko mark, high above the entrance of the tower. She slowly placed her hand on the console that had appeared.

YUMI

CODE:

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated," she murmured instinctively.

.

Back on Earth, she talked to Jeremie, quietly. They had already seen Ulrich off, with the assurance he wouldn't say a thing.

"We can't let things get that close again," Yumi whispered, soothingly. She knew that he hated the idea of a new Lyoko Warrior. More because he was afraid of opening his heart to a potential friend, then because he was afraid of Lyoko being revealed.

He looked at her, sorrowful resignation in his eyes. "I know," he whispered. "You and Ulrich just can't manage it on your own."

Yumi smiled, sadly. She knew that Jeremie didn't mean this as an insult.

She kissed him lightly on the top of the head. "Don't worry, we won't let anyone bad enter our group." She looked him in the eye. He sighed and nodded.

"I know, I trust you. Goodnight."

As Yumi walked off, she thought bitterly of how many times Jeremie had told Aelita that.

It wouldn't matter after tomorrow.

She stepped in the elevator and looked at Jeremie. "Tomorrow?" She asked.

The worry and sorrow slipped off his face, leaving a stony, dark mask in its place.

"Tomorrow," he hissed.

They will get there revenge in the next chapter, I promise. I just had to clear a few things up first.