He Who Calls
Chapter 25
"You've got mail!" said the annoying voice on Milo's computer as he walked back into his room. Milo sighed, and opened it. He read William's last entry, then sent the notes on Xana to Jeremy and kept a copy for him. He would go over those later. He opened William's note to him. It read, 'Milo. By the time you read this I'll probably be dead. I don't care anymore. It's one thing to be possessed by Xana. It's another to let him into you. What I do want to do is apologize. For killing Eric, for kidnapping Bella, for killing Samuel, and for trying to kill you. I was under Xana's influence. But I'm not anymore. You've heard me say before that when you're threatened or pressured, you're not acting as yourself. I know how wrong that is. You always have the power to choose. I pretended I didn't. That's what I'm guilty of. Do well. Go far. William.'
Milo closed the file. He checked William's entries into his electronic journal. And he found one thing he didn't expect. Two pictures. At the very back. One of William with the Lyoko Warriors on the real world, laughing in front of the school. And one of him and Milo in Portugal, toasting slices of pizza they had stolen with Bella and Eric. Before Bella and Eric were together, before William had gone bad. Back when there were no enemies. Only people standing between the four friends and their next meal. Milo shut that file and turned off his computer. I'll do what you wanted, William, thought Milo. I'll go far. I'll stop Xana. And when the world knows about Xana and how we stopped him, I'll tell your tragic story, and how in the end you sent us the way to stop him. Jeremy had sent something back. A question. 'Where did you get these files?' Milo sent back, 'William. He's dead for sending them.' He attached William's last entry.
William was dead. Xana was going to have to answer for that. And everyone was still tired, but they had all been better. Even Odd had picked up and started joking again. Milo still knew they needed a vacation. So he had made the Mini-Scans to take to his aunt's beach house in Majorca in case Xana attacked while they were there. She had said he could invite up to five friends. He was looking forward to spending Christmas on the beach. And giving the Hoppers the Christmas reunion of their lives.
"Majorca? Are you joking?" asked Jeremy at the assembly of the Lyoko Squad. "With the Mini-Scans? Yes! Of course I'll go!"
"Me too!" said Odd.
"I'm in," said Yumi.
"Can't wait," said Ulrich.
"I don't even have parents to say no!" said Aelita. That deflated everyone else a bit.
"We have to call our parents now, don't we?" asked Odd. Jeremy nodded grimly. There was a quick flurry of buttons.
"My parents say they've been trying to get me to go to a beach for years," said Jeremy.
"My dad says hanging out with Milo Salian should be a good influence. He heard about your grades," said Ulrich, smiling.
"My mom gave permission reluctantly," said Odd.
"Same here," said Yumi.
"We're going to Majorca!" said Milo excitedly. "Pack your bags, we leave tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?" asked Aelita excitedly. Everyone ran off to pack. Aelita stayed one more minute. "Everyone needed this," she whispered to Milo. "I don't know how you do it, but you're still holding us together."
"Thanks for not letting me give up," said Milo. He grinned.
"Thanks for not letting me go emo," said Aelita, also smiling. And she ran off to pack. Milo already was, so he went up to his room and started the materialization program for Franz. It was going to take the week to perfect, but on Christmas he would finish the process. And then he could use the same program to isolate Xana, and they could go to the internet with Jeremy's programming, and they could finish Xana off. It was going to be a good Christmas.