Chapter 20: Without this powerful weapon

Why did the world have to be so complicated all of a sudden while it once had been so simple?

Apparently Jeremy had known those who invaded the Earth, led by someone whose name was Xana and apparently, this Xana didn't really like the blonde genius because that boy had thwarted him so much in the past. And even though Jeremy had tried to imagine it a billion times, he couldn't believe he battled this dangerous A.I., and that almost at daily base. He also couldn't believe his friends were involved in this dangerous fight, because Jeremy was fairly sure the five of them (he and his friends) had some great and normal lives without any dangers of a threat within a supercomputer.

Yet, there were a few situations when they were in big trouble, along with some other students at the Academy. A swarm of insects attacked them, just like a couple of birds and wild wolves; Sissi stole Ulrich's diary; nobody could get in or out of the cafeteria due to some defect that was fixed within two hours; Ulrich pretended to have amnesia to get back on Sissi for taking his diary; that one day he and his friends decided to ditch school for once. And that was only the first year they knew Odd and Aelita! Man, those were really good times…

Suddenly, Jeremy realized he didn't want to do nothing. If Jim had told him the truth and he really had been here earlier (this here was the factory, right?) it was time to refresh his memory and get out of his room and try to find out how this factory looked like again, hoping to find out more things about his past he'd forgotten. Besides, he didn't want to lay in his bed when all others helped around in the factory where they could, whoever those others were.

Carefully, he crawled out of his bed. He was already wearing his clothes; they hadn't undressed him when they brought him in severely injured ten days back. He slowly opened the door, not making any sound and after checking the hallway to see if Yolanda (the only person who could make him stay in his room) was around. When he noticed she wasn't, Jeremy sneaked out of the room, to the freedom within the walls of the safe heaven that was known as the factory.

The first half hour, he walked in circles. Not much later, Jeremy noticed and tried to try something else than just going to the right whenever he had the chance. And so he slowly reached uncharted territory, which could have been one of the routes he once took. He walked further and further, until he reached a bigger corridor (big enough for a Krab to fit in) with a small one which measured around four meters. When he looked into that small corridor, a cold shiver rolled down his spine. He did not like this place, so he decided to leave it be and continue his journey through the factory, in the hope to find something that looked familiar.

After a long time of wandering and doubting, Jeremy reached a long big hall with as source of lights those light bulbs at the ceiling and the sunlight falling in through the factory's entrance which was guarded by two heavily armored people: one of them was a fourth year at Kadic, and the other was an older man out of this region, he guessed. Jeremy looked around, and after a few minutes of observation he frowned. He had been here before, but if he had, he couldn't really remember it happening. He let his eyes slide over the iron construction, starting at the entrance, following the ropes dangling at the broken staircase up to the ground. Jeremy didn't notice he walked to the ropes, and he grabbed one of them. Images flashed by through his mind, images of him an his friends using these ropes to get down there. These were images he couldn't find a meaning for. These… I'll keep calling them images, these images lead him to a rusty panel in the wall, fairly close to the ropes. When he saw a big red button, the images showed him how a hand pressed this button. That's why Jeremy pushed that button, drawing the attention of both of the two heavily armored men, who stood guard because the force field still wasn't up yet. The panel rose up, revealing it was the entrance of an elevator and under the loud protest of the guards, he walked into this elevator. After pressing another big red button, the panel slid down and he was trapped inside the elevator, and the elevator started moving.

Jeremy guessed the elevator was going downstairs, and he tried his best to keep his balance, because the elevator was trembling so hard it seemed like it would be his death might he move too much. Yet, after a rather small descent, Jeremy still was alive and the doors of the elevator slid open again. Behind these doors lay something he just now had discovered for the second time, and it was just as impressing as it had been the first time. The supercomputer was just as grandiose as ever, and soon Jeremy went out to explore this for now still unknown location. He admired the construction of the supercomputer, the high level of techniques, everything else that could be seen. Such a pity he couldn't find that one button which could start up this marvelous piece of high-tech advanced technology.

It was very impressing to Jeremy – impressing enough not to make him notice the elevator was being called back up and did not hear how it brought someone down who didn't really like the idea of somebody looking around in that specific room. Rattling, the doors opened themselves and Jeremy, surprised by this 'sudden' motion, looked up, facing the person in the elevator.

"BELPOIS? What in the world are you doing here?" Jim exclaimed, being just as surprised as Jeremy. And the latter didn't really understand Jim's statement.

"Why? Am I doing something wrong now?" Einstein asked, and Jim walked into the space – he didn't let himself get distracted by the high level of technology in the room – straight to the young genius. Jim didn't really look happy, though he could understand why Jeremy would ask that question. Without his essential knowledge about the enemy, he could act very naïve, and almost sounded like a little kid.

"Technically, you're not, but in your condition we would not call you an exception anymore", Jim said, and he continued to explain the situation, "There's someone who doesn't like people down here, snooping around. The reason wasn't mentioned, but that didn't make this one rule not more breakable!" Jeremy raised his eyebrow, being interested.

"Really? I swear I didn't know! Who is it?" Jim sighed.

"It's you. You'd rather see it nobody entered the elevator at all times. You never wanted to say why, but we respected this rule. But since you don't seem to remember this one rule, it means the reason will never be known unless you suddenly get your memory back." Jeremy nodded he understood, even though he didn't understand all of it. If nobody was allowed down here, he should have had a good reason to have made such rule. Jim kept staring at him, until he too nodded.

"Well … I don't know what crazy thought made you come down here, but maybe it's better for you and me both you wouldn't come here until a few memories have returned. So we could better …" Slowly, Jim's voice faded away and the images took it over from there.

They descended with the elevator, looking through the young genius' eyes. The doors slid open and in a hurry, Jeremy entered the room with the supercomputer. Soon, he found himself at the chair in front of the computer, putting a small earpiece in his ear. He did all of this while the others – Odd, Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi – descended even further, to the scanner room. He typed in several codes, and he told his friends the ladies would go first. When the screen showed him two of the three scanners were having someone in it; Jeremy started up the virtualization progress.

"Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Aelita. Virtualization!"

"Belpois! Eh, Belpois, are you coming?" during this flashback (he was sure this happened before) he had walked closer to the supercomputer until he stood at the keyboard. He did not sit on the chair – not yet, at least. Slowly, like an old ritual he hadn't performed in a long time, he typed in the virtualization code in correct order. He didn't know why, but this had a certain value which could have been important. Oh, now he would want to know what he'd forgot by that crab! This code was very important, this 'virtualization' code.

"Virtualization… somehow that doesn't make sense…" he muttered while he stared at the black screen. And he got the sudden urge to find out what secrets this supercomputer held, but first he needed to know where he could find the button to turn the computer on. With big steps, Jim walked towards the blonde genius and placed his hands on the young man's shoulders. The firm grip implied Jim didn't want to hear any resistance.

"Belpois," he started in a serious tone, "it might be better to stay away from here. You definitely did not want anybody to go down here, and because you forgot, you'd better not come here again. Anyway, I'm already late for…" At this point, Jim bit his lip and refused to to continue what he was saying. Jeremy frowned. He didn't really like Jim hiding something from them (except the 'rather not talk about it's).

"Late for what?"

"It's none of your business." he said, too quick not to sound suspicious, and just realized his error. Jeremy raised and eyebrow. What was he hiding?

"Jim," Jeremy threatened, "What is it you're not telling me?" Jim sighed, and eventually decided to tell him. Not because Jeremy threatened him, but because he was sorry for the amnesiac boy. If Einstein never were to remember XANA, he had the right to know other facts – even if he wouldn't really like it.

"Okay… I'm already late for defense course." Jeremy's face changed – from a self-assured and stubborn face to one signed with disgust – and Jim sighed again. "I knew you wouldn't like that."

"Are you crazy? Defense course, I can't… they don't need defense course, there are volunteers who…"

" … who will be killed if XANA uses a small army. Belpois, they need it to survive as long as possible. The barrier is gone, the moral is low and they wanted to learn how to defend themselves." Jeremy looked up at Jim, surprised.

"They wanted it? Who gave them that choice?" Jim shrugged.

"They gave it themselves. They wanted me to teach them a few techniques from my time as a military – at least, a big part of the refugees here asked for lessons." Jeremy mouth fell open in astonishment. He'd never thought Jim would give defense courses, let alone those refugees would ask for those courses. He might not remember much, but he did know the factory was a safe place, whatever Jim would say about that. It was safe because the stupid A.I. needed the supercomputer for way more powerful attacks, and it wouldn't risk blowing up his birthplace. Jeremy thought it was bad he remembered because of a fight with his old P.E. Teacher. "Jim…"

"I don't have time for this," Jim said and he walked towards the elevator, "Come on up again when you're finished." the doors of the elevator slid closed again and this construction brought Jim back up to the hall, leaving Jeremy all alone in the lab. And the longer he stayed, the longer the images showed him pictures which all happened in this lab. A big floating ball of lightning. No gravity. Very loud terrible music. The supercomputer almost broken, or run out of a chemical substance it needs to keep running. A second Jeremy, and three Odds. Aelita almost dead…

And so it happened Jeremy fell asleep with his head on the keyboard, again. For him, it always happened when he was busy for school, his friends knew this trait because he was too busy programming an anti-XANA program. Anyway, he woke up in his small room, which should mean Jim couldn't bear seeing the boy sleep in the cold dark lab. It was silent in the factory, so it was probably nighttime in this xanafied world.

"Aelita…" he whispered. Jeremy trembled from head to toe. He'd forgotten so much, he'd lost so much (apparent) important information. He felt simply unneeded. He would like to help defeat the enemy he once knew better than anyone else. "Aelita, I need your help…"

Update right on time, no delays or early updates (for now). I'm fairly sure the next udate is on the 22th of May, so don't worry about that for now. And yay, Jeremy's remembering something! Will he ever remember everything, and should Aelita ever wake up? What about Odd, Nicholas and Sissi now? Those two, shall they ever see what Odd truly is? Answers in the next chapters, in the third and last part of "Simulation". Besides, London was amazing. I've seen Wicked there, and it was awesome! On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (Yes, I did, and I didn't like it, but it was necessary. And yes, Yumi's up for revenge. Thanks for the review!)

See ya next time!

-Dutchwriters2