Disclaimer: Same old thing; Code Lyoko doesn't belong to me.

Note: Everyday I come back to this thinking it will write itself and it never does.

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Chapter 9: Listen

Fainted. Odd Della Robbia had simply passed out and Sissi was currently too busy shaking him to let his friends find out why. "What's going on here?" She pointed toward the scanners "what are those things?!"

Why explain it again? She had been here before, multiple times. "Listen Sissi you can't tell anybody about this." She held the scrawny boy close like a teddy bear his large spike of blonde hair resting against her chest. "Why shouldn't I? If it's dangerous."

They couldn't say it wasn't unless they were going to lie. "Maybe you should just explain Jeremie…" "Right" he straightened his glasses and gestured for the principal's daughter to let Odd go and give him some room to breath. She did hesitantly as if any moment his own friends might finish him off.

Aelita came to examine their unconscious friend as their uninvited visitor went to listen to Jeremie's words. Sissi laughed at him like mad, as if the whole reason they risked their life was worthless and that she didn't care about the pink haired girl; just shut the computer down.

It filled in the blanks though, for all the stunts they were always pulling she finally had explanation that fit and she simply didn't want to believe it. "Then what happened to Odd?"

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Elisabeth had promised not to tell but a promise on her part had never meant much. In a sense it hurt to hold her word when these people she so longed to be friends with were in trouble.

Alone in her room she chewed on her cheek ignoring the knocks at her door. "Sissi?" Herb and Nicolas were curious to why she had locked herself up after classes. "GET LOST!" She chucked her pink pillow at the wood for nothing more then a very muffled thud.

She was thinking about Ulrich who had returned for the night; with dark circles under his eyes and glares of such dislike. He hated her but she could only feel pity in place of her once burning love for the boy. Ulrich had a spot in his heart for Yumi and only her.

It must be tearing him apart to see her lying there helpless on a hospital bed. Specially with their lifes in constant threat of ending.

Is that why she felt this way about Odd? She was worried that one day she might just find him gone and the world would continue without the optimistic boy. That his death would not be remembered for what he was trying to do for the people around him everyday. Why didn't she feel this way about the others?

She sunk back against her sheets, heavy from the worries which engulfed her in a terrifying fog. No, she wasn't worried about them being forgotten and she realized this now; the thing she was really worried about was Della Robbia.

That he would never know how she really felt about him. That she would never get the courage to tell.

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Every word merged together without fault even if spaces should exist, it was just too hard to focus. It shouldn't of been in this silence because not even Odd interrupted it with his snores of slumber he was too exhausted to make any on this hazy evening.

Ulrich knew he should be helping too. If anything happened to his other friends that would surely be his fault as well. He didn't know that his roommate was feeling the same though, blaming himself. Odd's mind simply did not work like that.

Though the words scribbled across the pages made no since, Ulrich continued to stare right through them. No one was watching, he could go ahead and cry for Yumi who still hadn't awoke but he didn't. What good would it do? None.

He wouldn't partake in such an exhausting activity for nothing, that much he had learned from his parents.

"You aren't looking so well Ulrich." Before now he hadn't noticed his friend had awoke and was sucking on hard candy out of all things. "Speak for yourself…" At his time his mood wasn't the best despite his faint relief.

Odd ignored him; the blankets sliding off his slim shoulders as he reached across the gap separating them. Seeing the bag presented to him Ulrich had lost his calm at his friend's continued happiness despite the terrible situations that surrounded them like a lightening storm.

He knocked the bag aside spilling all colors of the rainbow across their scattered belongings. The soft plunks the only noise in the dorm for a good moment "you're such a little kid Odd!"

Odd stared back with large purple optics filling to the brim with shock and despair.

"You need to grow up, don't you understand what's going on?! Don't you understand that Yumi might still die?!" He could see Odd's fingers trembling to the edge of his own bed clinging with claws that didn't currently exist. He didn't know why, were his words actually having an effect on him? "We could die!"

He saw the boy's shoulders heave up as in preparation to cry but he didn't. "I know…" because he saw. Odd's fingers stilled and his shoulders slumped as his whole body seemed to relax. Ulrich didn't know that instant his words had hit a lot harder then he saw. That his talk awoke nightmares in his best friend's mind.

"You think we can still eat that candy?"

He would probably never know of it either.

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It wasn't right for them to die and the boy secretly struggled to separate visions from dreams as his roommate scowled at him for picking the cadies back off the floor. Ulrich was hurting too but not the same way he was.

Odd was hurting bad, from physical to mental but he still had time to crack jokes that no one else ever seemed to find funny. His roommate was the one to keep emotions under guard but Odd was scared and he smiled anyways.

Was he worried about his friends knowing and becoming concerned? He really was.

They wouldn't die. No he wouldn't let them even if it meant another sleepiness night debating how stop these inevitable visions. That had been why he passed out though, his body reaching the limits of its supposedly endless energy. He didn't know if he would make it another night, he was about to find out.

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Same error. Tomorrow would be the only day to fix all this, it was the only day they had classes off this week. Odd would have to sit it out though and that left only Ulrich and Aelita to get to sector five and gather the rest of the information to put XANA's pile up of power to a stop.

Jeremie pushed up his slipping glasses and peered to the corner of his laptop's screen noting that morning wasn't to far off now. He picked up his cell phone with only the screen's electronic glow to locate the proper buttons.

It was his decision to give the others a fair warning of tomorrow.

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Odd Della Robbia's hopes of staying awake had slipped through his fingers. After a fitful night of sleep the rest he had managed to get did him little good and he found himself stumbling into the Cafeteria.

It took him a moment to realize the others weren't here, only Sissi, sitting at their table.

"Are you lost?" He glanced at her suspiciously slipping into a seat on the opposite side of the table beginning to shovel food into his mouth only to realize the girl had none of her own. He paused "what's… wrong?"

Sissi didn't reply or look up from the table top. "Where are Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita?" "…They went to the factory" He pushed his tray away and if she was to look now she would see just how pale he had become at her words. "A-already…?" He didn't even question how she knew about the factory, that wasn't what was bothering him.

Without awaiting the answer he arose and it was only when they were outside and away from the crowds Sissi stopped him. "Jeremie said that you can't go this time." She grabbed the purple sleeve of his arm her features stern and simple. "That if you try I have to stop you."

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This far from the grounds only the sound of the wind lurching through the leafs surrounded them, specks of dirt tumbling silently through the grass and around their feet. She saw Odd's expression in that moment as if he was debating the right action to take.

The moment he went to twist his arm free she knew what choice he had made and did the only thing she could think of, went hard for his gut, the pain which flared her cheek though made her stumble back giving Odd his freedom.

Since he had wanted it so bad, that he would act in such a brutal way. She could now feel the tears stinging her eyes as she slid her fingers to the reding mark. He… hit her? She couldn't move from shock only watch him go. The sorry he supplied whistling right past her ears.

He really hadn't wanted to do it. "I really am sorry Sissi…" but still he ran as fast as his legs would allow. That was the only thing he could think to do that was outrageous enough that it could skew his vision.

Odd would hate himself forever, if everything didn't turn out good in the end.

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Longest time so far on updating due to slacking. I wanted this story to only have ten chapters but since I just finished the ninth it's looking like it might have more.

Next chapter: Shattering the Inevitable

Go ahead, read and review.