Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's Note: Hey people, sorry for the long delay, but I'm kinda overwhelmed right now, working on four stories at once. But I hope this chapter is good and makes up for the delay. Please review!

On The Verge of Letting Go

Chapter 10: The Return of Xana?

Yumi pulled the phone away from her ear and just stared at it a moment; everything was moving in slow motion around her. She almost dropped the phone as Ulrich's words reflected through her mind…could this really be happening?

Jeremie looked over at Yumi and raised an eyebrow. "Yumi? Yumi are you okay?" he asked, waving one hand in front of her face. Yumi didn't move, she just stood there, her mouth wide open, not even bothering to blink.

He took his phone from her now frozen hand. "Ulrich? What's wrong with Yumi? Did you say something?"

Jeremie heard Ulrich take a deep breathe on the other line, obviously still very sick. "Jeremie, how is she? Is she okay? Xana hasn't tried anything to harm her has he?"

Jeremie looked over at Yumi, who was starting to collect herself. Tears pricked the sides of her eyes, but she tried to hold them in.

"Depends on your definition of okay Ulrich…" The Einstein-like boy replied. "What did you say to her? She was fine until a few minutes ago…"

Ulrich took another deep breath, and Jeremie could hear the strain in his voice. "Just get to the factory Jeremie, hurry!"

Jeremie agreed, hung up the phone, and grabbed Yumi's wrist. "Come on Yumi, we gotta go find Aelita!"

Yumi nodded, taking a look at her stomach, now a little rounder, and followed Jeremie towards Kadic. She kept her eyes peeled for the pink-haired princess, and hoped that no one was severely hurt.

That's when they saw her, her eyes glowed blood red and the symbol of Xana was encrusted on her forehead. She was pulling apart one wall to the school, the one for the cafeteria, with only her hands!

"What are we going to do?" asked Yumi, hoping that Odd and Sam were pretty far in Lyoko.

X

Ulrich hung up his phone and looked around, he was in the school, but it was hard for him to see where he was, because his vision was all fuzzy.

He continued walking down the halls, his appearance resembling more of a ghost as he continued, hoping to get to the factory in time.

"Where am I? It's hard to see…am I going blind?"

X

Odd and Sam raced through Lyoko, destroying every monster they saw. Sam wore baggy black pants, with a belt that held her dagger sheath. Her shirt was silky and white, that just barely covered her stomach. It was cut low and had flared out sleeves, and on her back hung an arrow case.

She strung her bow and shot again, hitting on of the blocks right in the Xana symbol. Odd smiled at his girlfriend, glad to be in Lyoko with her.

Suddenly three mega tanks rolled up, and they each were hit once, deducting 20 life points each. Unfortunately, they weren't keeping up with their life points and Jeremie wasn't there to tell them how many they had left.

"Laser Arrow!" yelled Odd, shooting an arrow at the mega tank, but it closed itself up before the arrow hit it.

"Damn it," muttered Odd, but the mega tank next to it opened up and shot a laser at Odd, hitting him right in the shoulder.

Sam shot an arrow at it, destroying it immediately, then hurried to Odd's side. "Are you okay? You gotta be careful…"

Odd nodded, "I'm fine, let's take them out!"

X

"It's Aelita! How do we get her to deactivate the tower?" asked Yumi, staring at the girl in front of them. She was wearing her Lyoko clothes…

Jeremie shook his head. "I dunno. I mean, we shut Xana down months ago when Aelita came to this world. I don't know how he's back…"

"Well maybe he was saving all his energy. You know we didn't have a single attack for two weeks before we brought Aelita. Maybe Xana was saving his energy because he knew you had the anti-virus, and even though we shut him down, this is like a final attack. You know, how people attack while they're dieing…"

Yumi looked at Jeremie. He fixed his glasses as he watched his girlfriend. "That might be it Yumi…I'm not for sure. But we need to figure out how to deactivate the tower…"

X

Odd destroyed the second mega tank, leaving only one left. Sam grabbed an arrow and aimed for it, but it closed itself up.

"Odd! That was my last arrow!" she said, Odd was almost out of Laser Arrows. "I'm on my last Laser Arrow too. Jeremie's not here to refill us… Dammit."

He put his hand up and aimed, waiting until the mega tank opened up. When it did, it shot out a laser that hit Odd. As Odd was falling, he shot his last laser arrow and destroyed the monster.

Odd hit the ground and couldn't move. Sam ran right by his side. "Odd?" she asked, tears reaching the corners of her eyes.

He smiled. "Don't worry, when I get back, I'll try to give you more arrows. Stay out of sight. I'm sorry Sam."

Then he was gone, divirtualized. His body turned into white lines, then he disappeared.

X

Odd traveled in the scanners back to his time, hoping Sam would be okay. But suddenly, something dawned on him. He'd been in that scanner for almost fifteen minutes!

He screamed, and it suddenly stopped. The doors were thrown open and he looked around. He stepped out of the scanner and into a completely white world. As soon as he left the scanner, it disappeared.

Now, he was stuck. The blonde haired boy looked around; there was nothing around him, only a completely white world…

X

Yumi looked over to Aelita again, and was about to take a step towards her when Jeremie grabbed her shoulder. She spun around and looked at him and gasped. Two tears rolled down his cheeks, pausing at his chin before falling to the ground.

"Jeremie?" she asked, looking him over. He had never cried before; well, not that she had seen.

"Yumi…there might only be one way to destroy Xana…" he replied. "How?' she asked, and he looked at the ground.

He didn't look up when he spoke again, "Xana isn't Xana anymore. He's left himself and now resides inside of Aelita…destroying Aelita might be the only way to destroy Xana…"

X

Yes I know, I'm evil, leaving it at this cliffie. Well I also know that this chapter was kinda short, but I think it made some interesting points. Find out all the answers to these terrible cliffies next chapter. Oh and if you review, I'll update faster!

Fox Kitsune