A/N: Thanks to all of you who reviewed! I love them and I'm glad that you guys liked the latest chapter! Here's another one!

Chapter 37

"Leave it up to XANA to find a way to stop us from shutting down the super computer," said Caleb.

"And he involved Jace, too. I wonder if she knows," said Aaren.

"I'd guess yes. She transferred the virus onto me, anyway," said Kevin.

Emma frowned.

"That doesn't sound like Jace. She wouldn't do something like that. Especially, for XANA," she said.

Annie and Jasper agreed.

"Maybe she's under XANA's control," suggested Jasper.

"Or being black-mailed," added Annie.

Emma nodded.

"All I know is that Jace isn't like that. She's loyal to her friends. She'd never put anything else above them," she told her brother.

Kevin thought hard.

"I guess, but that was the real Jace. She wasn't pretending either. Even if she was black-mailed, she was serious when she said that she didn't want any of it. Maybe, she's helping XANA for some other reason," he told them.

"I agree with Kevin. Jace isn't one to do something against her will. I think that maybe she's doing this willingly," said Aaren.

"Maybe, but there has to be another reason behind it," argued Emma.

"I'm going to have to agree with that," said Annie.

"Me, too," said Caleb.

"Maybe...but for now, she's dangerous. If she has the ability to transfer a virus into Kevin then she might be capable of harm," said Aaren, his face held no trace of foolishness or any want to crack a joke.

"So what do we do if we do see her?" asked Emma.

Kevin and Aaren looked at each other, silently asking permission from the other to proceed with the verdict. Kevin, as Jace's boyfriend (erm, ex) and Aaren as her brother.

"If we see, we do everything in our power to bring her to the factory for interrogation. As much as I hate to say it...we may have to do some physical harm to get answers out of her," said Aaren, his eyebrows pulled tightly together.

"But won't hurting her hurt Kevin, as well?" asked Emma.

"I can take whatever pain Aaren throws at her. If there's any chance to find Jace and find out what she's doing for XANA, I'm willing to sacrifice a little pain to get some answers," Kevin said.

Caleb sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"So we'll need a plan to find her and bring her to the factory for an interrogation," he said.

Annie nodded.

"So our first priority is to find out what XANA wants and how it relates to Jace's involvement."

…

Wandering the hospital halls was a young boy with black hair, Jin Stern. Ulrich and Yumi had gone off to talk to the doctors about Kevin and when he could be let out so Jin decided to walk around to kill some time. He felt kind of useless there, standing around and doing nothing. Kevin was always closer to Emma so Jin saw no need to be there, ever the odd one out. He didn't really care about where he was going, just that he wanted to be alone at the moment. He didn't notice that the number of people was starting to decrease until he was in an empty hallway.

Jin rounded a corner and bumped into someone. That someone both knocked him down and was knocked down by him. He got to his feet and moved to help the girl he had slammed into. His eyes widened when he recognized her face.

"Jace! I thought you left for Paris!" he said in a surprised tone, pulling her up to her feet.

The teen girl stared at the boy in front of her. Jin was the same height as her so she saw eye-to-eye with him. Jace stared at him. Unfortunately, things had gone according to XANA's plans and now she was to fulfill his orders. Jace was glad she was such a great actress, otherwise, she'd have to beat the hell out of him before he'd listen to her. She put on a fake smile and giggled.

"Hey, Jin. Uh, yeah. I left but school doesn't start until January so I decided to come back and give my last goodbyes," she said.

Jin smiled.

"So you're going to see Kevin? He's in the hospital, y'know. He had a heart attack but the doctors said that he's all better now. I'll bet that he'd like to see you, right now," said the boy.

Jace stared at him before grinning.

"Actually, I came here to see you," she said in a soft tone, brushing back a lock of hair from his face.

Jin froze at her touch, not knowing what to do. After all, Jace was his brother's ex-girlfriend. She was taboo, off-limits. But Jin had always harbored a small crush on her, making this situation very awkward for him.

"Uh, for what?" he asked, trying to get the thoughts of her actually liking him out of his brain.

She probably just wanted him to tell the gang something for her. Jace grinned and pulled on his collar, bringing him into the nearest room – which happened to be empty – and pushed him up against the door, her hand pressed hard against his collarbone. Jin became frigid as he saw the glint in her eyes change from sweet to hostile. Jin took in her appearance. She wasn't wearing her normal jean-and-shirt combo. She seemed a lot more...hot. She was wearing purple shorts with a black hoodie that clung to her skin and knee-high boots, making her slightly taller than him. He liked the way she looked. It was a nice change that his twelve-year-old body greatly appreciated.

'Oh, crap! Bad brain! She is TWO YEARS older than you, WAY out of your league and she is KEVIN'S EX-GIRLFRIEND!' he screamed in his brain.

He looked down at the gauntlet on her arm.

"Er, nice merchandise," he said, trying to ease the tension and trying to stop any 'bad' thoughts from entering his brain.

'She's my brother's ex. She's my brother's ex', was what he kept repeating in his mind.

"Thanks. Now, let's cut to the chase. I need you to do something for me and I don't want you blabbing your mouth to your siblings or any of Kevin's friends," she told him, raising her hand to his cheek.

Jin thought it was strange that she was demanding such a thing while acting all, well, hot. It was like she was seducing him or something.

"Jace, I don't think it would be right. I mean, I won't be able to get you out of my head and then they're gonna notice that something is going on and then they'll start asking questions...I'm not that good at keeping secrets," he told her in a nervous tone.

Jace grinned and Jin noticed a slight crackling sound coming from her gauntlet. His eyes focused on the skinny stream of electricity leaking out from the object.

"Er, Jace. You're thing is doing something weird," he said worriedly.

"It's supposed to do that," she said.

Jin looked like he was going to scream when a tiny line of electricity leaked out of her gauntlet and into his ear, going up to his brain.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going to give your brain a little jolt. Mainly in the parts of it where you store memories and where your ability to obey lies. So you are going to listen to me. Understand?" she asked.

A jolt of electricity hit one side of his brain and Jin felt an overwhelming urge to listen to her. An overwhelming urge to do whatever she said.

"Yes," he replied, his voice losing all emotion like some sort of zombie.

"Good. You are going to go to find Draco Trevelyan, the Civics teacher, and you are going to ask him for a red binder containing a bunch of codes and encryptions about a computer virus named XANA. You are going to tell him that Katerina Volta sent you. Understand?" she demanded.

"Yes."

"If you manage to obtain it, you will look find me inside of Kadic during the New Year's Day fireworks in Room F108. If you don't, come find me anyway. Do you understand me?" she asked.

Jin nodded as another wave of electricity went through to his brain. Jace looked at his eyes, searching for comprehension and found it.

"And you are going to forget all about this. You are not going to remember that I was here, that you saw me. All you will remember are my orders. Understand?" she asked, gently this time.

Jin nodded.

"I understand," he said.

Jace smiled and pulled her hand away.

"I'm sorry for using you, Jin. But you were the only one I could turn to," she said and swung her fist at him.

…

"Jin! Jin! Jin!"

Said boy jerked upwards with a start. He came face-to-face with his mother, Yumi. He blinked once before rubbing the back of his head. It hurt like hell but he couldn't remember what had caused it. Yumi sat next to him and Jin ran a hand through his hair.

"What happened?" he asked, looking around.

He realized that he was currently sitting on one of the seats in the hospital waiting room. Yumi smiled at him.

"Your father and I left to find out when Kevin could be released. Then I came back here and found you passed out on the seat. I just wanted to wake you up because we're leaving. It's getting dark," she said.

Jin nodded and got to his feet. Yumi stood up, too.

"I'll just go and call your dad and Emma and see if Kevin's other friends need a ride home," she said.

Jin nodded and watched her leave. He rubbed the back of his head. It still hurt a little but not so much now. He wondered what had caused it. Then there was that nagging feeling. He didn't remember falling asleep but maybe it had happened so suddenly that he forgot it. Jin just shrugged the feeling off as his family approached him.

"So we're going back to the academy?" he asked his mom.

She nodded.

"Ulrich and I are renting a room at the hotel until New Year's Day. That way we get to spend some time with you guys. Why? Is there something you need at the school?" she asked.

Jin thought for a while and something registered in his brain. An order. He had been given an order to do something. To get something from...Draco Trevelyan...the Civics teacher. There was also the order to keep his mouth shut. Jin sighed and shook his head at his mom.

"No, I was just going to see someone, one of the teachers but I can wait. I just need to speak to him before New Year's Day," he told her.

She nodded at him and they all walked out of the hospital and towards the Stern family van. Jin got into the back seat, sitting next to the window. The whole ride to Kadic, something was bugging him. After a while, Jin started to get annoyed.

'What is it that I'm supposed to remember anyway?' he thought.

…

A/N: If you hate Jace, I understand but all of this was necessary. Things will explain themselves in further chapters. Like Jace's newest weapon? I'd LOVE one of those. I could get people to do my homework! XD If it seems a little off...blame my family for not letting me get my appropriate 8 hours of sleep (I get about 4-6 hours) and my school for stacking project after project on me.

Anyways, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!