Hello all, here is the next installment of Desires. It should explain a lot, and set some things to rest. If you ever were considering not reading any more because I killed a character, I believe that this will encourage you to read again.
Oh, and here is your chance to really affect the story. I need a good description of this story to use as the blurb that everyone will read when looking at the story's title. If you e-mail me one that will fit I just might use it, though depending on how many I get, if there is only one, then yeah... Uh, anyway please send me what you would like to see as the story description. Thanks.

We were carrying Jeremie to the nearest hospital, or, more specifically Ulrich and I were carrying him. Sissi, Sam, and Yumi were either looking for someone that might be able to give us help or checking on Jeremie. He was alive, we knew that now. Sissi had not felt a pulse because it was very weak, but he was alive. Still, though, we didn't know why he had collapsed. That was the first reason we had decided to take him to a hospital, the second was because of how Jeremie had been acting. There was no denying it, he was having some kind of mental break down, and after what had happened to Aelita I really couldn't blame him.

"Anyone?" Yumi asked Sam as she walked back to us.

Sam shook her head. "There isn't even a single sign of any people. It's literally like they all vanished."

"Oh, sure, live a normal life, they said." Ulrich muttered to himself. "But how can we? When all these things keep happening to us how can we live a normal life?"

"Come on Ulrich, if we lived a normal life there would be no story, and thus no television show." I said. "We have to give the people what they want, action, adventure, drama..."

"Shut up Odd." Ulrich muttered. "Unless you want to switch, since you have the legs and I have the rest of the body."

"If you were getting tired you should have said something." I replied. "We can switch."

We stopped and put Jeremie's body on the ground; then Ulrich and I switched positions and I took Jeremie's torso. We picked him up again and started walking again. Now I understood what Ulrich had been complaining about, Jeremie may not look it, but he was very heavy. I was surprised that Ulrich had been able to carry him as far as he had.

"Hey, guys," Sissi called to us from further down the street. "Look what I found!"

Sissi came flying down the street on one end of a stretcher elevated on wheels. It looked like the kind that were in hospitals and ambulances, and I could only imagine where she had found it. But this was a good thing, now we wouldn't have to carry Jeremie so much as push him. It would be a lot easier that way.

"Where did you find that?" Ulrich asked.

"Over with an ambulance." Sissi said. "Don't worry it was abandoned. It really seems as though the entire city has been abandoned. There aren't any people anywhere, even in the any of the buildings."

"How far away is the ambulance?" Sam asked with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Why, it isn't like any of us can drive..." I said. "Unless you want me to give it a try."

"That isn't entirely true." Sam replied. "I can."

"What?" we all asked at the same time.

"But you aren't eighteen." Ulrich reminded her.

"I know."

"And we can't drive until we are eighteen."

"I know."

"Besides, you haven't taken a class to learn how to drive."

"Really?"

"Not in school."

"Does it matter?"

"Ulrich you aren't going to win on this one." I said. "Believe me. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, it isn't like there are any people around to get hit."

Ulrich decided to let it go and after we put Jeremie on the stretcher we made our way to the ambulance that Sissi had found. It wasn't really that far, and when we looked for the keys we found them already in the ignition. Sam got into the drivers seat and started the ambulance. The rest of us got in back, except for Yumi, who got into the passengers seat. After everyone was seated we started moving, and Sissi got up and started looking at the equipment. She had recently told us that she wanted to be a nurse, or a doctor, I wasn't entirely sure. I guess she was taking a look at what equipment the ambulance had to see what she might some day be working with. After a few moments she checked Jeremie's pulse again and then turned on a machine and connected part of it to one of his fingers. A little green light appeared and showed Jeremie's heart rate. A few minutes later we were at the hospital and we brought Jeremie inside.

---

The city was empty, I could literally feel it. All the noise that was normally in a city was gone, both the normal and the meta-normal. I couldn't hear the noise that normally went on in people's minds, the everyday noise from thoughts and simply being alive. It was... creepy; lonely. I hated this feeling. I was so use to the noise of living in a city that in this emptiness with only Ulrich, Odd, Sissi, Sam, and Jeremie creating any kind of thought noise I felt an oppressive silence pushing against me. I felt claustrophobic; I couldn't breathe...

"Yumi!" Ulrich started. "Are you ok?"

I snapped back to reality at the sound of my name. Taking a deep breath I turned to look at Ulrich and I nodded. I was ok, but something very wrong was going on. What could have caused all the people in Paris to have suddenly vanished? This couldn't possibly be a X.A.N.A. attack, so then what?

I followed Ulrich and the others as they brought Jeremie's body into the hospital. Suddenly as I crossed the threshold into the building I was hit by a wave of thought. It felt like every person in the city had suddenly reappeared, yet there still wasn't anyone around. The lobby was empty except for us. That meant that something else was causing this. I focused on the thoughts trying to separate them from one another, but every time I 'touched' a mind it suddenly disappeared. The first few times I was surprised but after that I simply continued doing what I was doing until they were all gone. After a while, and as we turned a corner, I was left with only ten minds. I was now able to sense them far better than I had been able to before; I also knew that five of them were my friends. That meant that the other five were fake, yet something felt different about two of them. They seemed stronger and somehow familiar. Quickly I got rid of the remaining fakes and was left with the two. I slowly reached out my mind towards one of them but it retreated away. This really surprised me, no one had ever done that before, and it also meant that that mind was real. I began moving towards the second but just as I was about to reach it the first suddenly rushed into me. Our minds collided and I felt my body drop away...

When I awoke I found myself lying in thick dark woods. These woods also seemed familiar, and yet at the same time different than I would have remembered them. The trees were thick and old, and very little light reached through their branches. I couldn't see my surroundings very well but I could sense the presence of someone, or something. There seemed to be five of them, but only two were the same. The two that were the same seemed to be angry for some reason. They also seemed vastly different from the other three, more real somehow. The other three were three different kinds of creatures. One of them seemed old, not like an old person, exactly, but wise, and having lived a long time. I suddenly realized that the first two were also old like that. The fourth one seemed very young, but in the same sense that the other three seemed old. And the fifth I couldn't read or understand enough to describe at all.

I began to get up, I was after all lying on my back in a place that I didn't know with five unknown creatures watching me. As I moved I felt the creatures stir. They were moving, and not away. I froze and listened; since I couldn't really see anything my hearing had become more acute. I listened for any noise that might be threatening. If I had to I would fight, though other than the martial arts and the telekinesis that I could do I didn't really have any way of fending off anything.

"What should we do about the human child?" an airy, rustling voice asked. The voice sounded almost like wind through leaves of a tree and yet at the same time it sounded like a young girl. The other thing that I noticed was the words were not French yet I was still able to understand them.

"We should inform those whom need to know. They will be able to take care of her." another voice, this time it sounded more like a cat's cries than a voice but there was something distinctly human about the way the words were formed. And again the words were of another language but I was still able to understand what was said.

There was a moments pause and then as if in response to something said a series of screeches sounded from one of the creatures. This I knew I should not be able to understand; it didn't even sound human at all, yet I was still able to understand what was said, "No, we mustn't harm her. It is against the code that we all live by to harm a human. They would kill any of us if we broke that code."

"Then we will report this meeting. Someone will be here for her shortly after they are notified. That is how it always works, even though it is so rare." The first voice said. "You should go" I couldn't understand the name, "it would be fastest."

There was a rustling sound and a sudden flash of light, and for a brief second I was able to see the remaining creatures. There were two wolfs, but something was wrong with them, they were green, and deformed. There was a young girl who had leaves of some kind around her body and through her hair, and there was a short man who was wearing fur cloths that completely covered him. The only ones who looked very threatening to me were the two wolves.

"Um, hello?" I called out to them.

She speaks. A voice within my mind said. The voice was a voice that not only used sound but emotion and images as well. It was almost as though I myself were thinking the words.

"Who are you?" I asked.

If you do not already know then you are not to. We can not tell you as there are only five whom are aloud to do so. That is the rules we all live by.

This was getting stranger and stranger by the second. As a telepathic person I had always been able to read minds. The thoughts and emotions that leaked out of people were like sounds, smells and images to me, but this was different. This was far more advanced than anything that I had ever felt before. This was...

Suddenly I felt as though I were being pulled from all around me. The woods became even darker and I was ripped off my feet. When I landed, softly, on the ground I felt as though I were sliding into place. I opened my eyes and saw that I was back in the hospital. The others were rounding a corner and I quickly ran to catch up with them. As I ran I tried to remember what had just happened but the harder I tried to remember the more easily the memory seemed to slip away.

---

We wheeled Jeremie into an open room in a hall that I knew. I checked his pulse again and noticed that it was stronger. It seemed that he was recovering quickly. This was good, it meant that he would wake up soon, not that that would help with our current situation. I knew that when Jeremie woke up we would have to explain to him what had happened, and if possible we should ask him if he remembered anything. Then we would have to find out what happened and a way to deal with it.

I turned to look at the others. They were sitting in various places around the room. Odd was with Sam, Ulrich was with Yumi, and of course I hadn't moved from my spot next to Jeremie. If you didn't know better you might think that we were like the others, but that wasn't the way it was. Jeremie loved someone else, and so did I. I had had a crush on Ulrich for a long time but that had ended fairly quickly. The reason I had still acted like it was real was because of how they had treated me. Shortly after I met him and the crush grew he met Yumi and Jeremie. Because of the way I had acted he had never really liked me, at all. Yet I respected and liked him, and I wanted to become part of his group. I had assumed that they were going to just be the three of them, but when they allowed Odd to join I felt as though I had actually been insulted. Still I tried to accept it, because I knew how I acted towards everyone. It was only when they started harassing me that I felt justified in how I was towards them.

Of course that all changed when I realized what was really going on. After the dreams that were actually memories of days that didn't happen for everyone else, the dreams caused by Lyoko, I decided to pursue the group again. But even though I had begun to change they didn't see it that way, and they continued to shun me. That was back when they first discovered Lyoko. I had never been sure if I were right or not, if the dreams were actually happening or if it were just my imagination, but when I finally decided to follow them to the factory I got my answers. Lyoko was real, and they were actually having to deal with threats on a regular basis. Finally, within the past month, I was able to escape Nicolas and Herb long enough to ask Ulrich if I could talk to him. Then, this long adventure began...

Suddenly I jumped as Jeremie began to move. I looked down at him and checked his pulse, it seemed to be back to normal. He was moving more and more and I realized that he was, in fact, waking up. Good, this would make some things easier. Now if only he would open his eyes and speak...

"Uh, where am I?" Jeremie asked looking around.

"Jeremie, you're awake!" Ulrich said.

Everyone walked over, to look at Jeremie. They smiled and cheered, and Jeremie received a number of hugs. When they were done being relieved that he was still alive we got down to business.

"What happened?" Jeremie asked.

"You started to become wild, you couldn't see or hear anything that was real." I told him. "They only things that you could see or hear were an illusion. You believed that Aelita was calling to you."

"I'm not so sure it was simply an illusion." Yumi objected. "While we were at the construction sight I thought I saw something where Jeremie had been trying to go. It was faint, and I almost couldn't see it but I am sure it was there. It also disappeared when Jeremie lost consciousness."

"I remember that..." Jeremie said. "I remember Aelita calling to me, and following her voice. Then when I reached the construction sight I saw her. She looked like she was in pain, bent over and writhing. I am not sure why, all she said was that she needed my help, was in pain, and that 'they' were hurting her."

"Did she say who 'they' were?" Ulrich asked glancing over at Yumi.

"No. She just said 'they'." Jeremie told him.

"There is something else you need to know, Jeremie." Yumi said. "The city is completely empty of people."

---

Deep in the universe of Aricitopia, on the planet of Aricitopia, obviously the home for the Aricitics, the traveler sat in a room in the capital city. He was watching out a window that covered an entire wall, though it was more like part of the room had been ripped away than a window. He sat on one of three chairs that were stationed in the center of the room. There were three other creatures stationed in the room with him but they were all behind him. One of the three was the dryad that Jeremie had met, another was an Aricitic, and the third was a human. They were all patently watching the traveler, or the window.

"He will be alright won't he?" the dryad asked.

"Shyofu, I believe he will be, but please, his powers have somehow activated. I don't know if he will be able to get them back home..."

"Oh, so you already know." A female voice said from a door in the wall opposite the window. "What should we do then?"

"Hello Ginda." The traveler said without turning around, or even moving for that matter.

"I just arrived to tell you what was happening." She replied. "So what are we going to do?"

"Perhaps it is time we interfered."

"Oh, are you able to enter their universe yet, then?"

"No, but you and Gwydevis are." He replied. "Here is what I want you to do..."

---

I was exploring the hospital alone. It wasn't like anyone was around to stop me really, and the others were discussing there business with Jeremie. Earlier to day when they invited me, and even when Sissi and I were walking to Yumi's house, I had never expected to get caught up in something like this. The city was empty; there were no people other than us. I couldn't explain it, and I doubted that any of the others could. I knew one thing for sure; this was not what they called a X.A.N.A. attack. They had told me everything about Lyoko, and somehow I remembered everything as they told me it. I believed that it had something to do with Sissi but I wasn't entirely sure about that. Anyway after they told me about it, a week or so ago, I was transferred to their school. It was strange because I didn't see any reason for them to do that. I had been in a public school and I was being sent to a private school, I simply couldn't understand it, until I met more of the students at the school.

It seemed that Kaidac was a school for 'gifted' children, though no one actually knew it unless they figured it out themselves. I wasn't even entirely sure if the teachers and faculty knew about it. After thinking about it and what I had learned I came to a not to unreasonable conclusion that it had something to do with the original purpose of Lyoko, what ever it may be. From what I learned from the gang, when you entered Lyoko your natural abilities were enhanced. If that were true then why wouldn't who ever designed it want a group of innocent children to exploit? In any case it seemed likely that Lyoko and Kaidac had something to do with each other. I could see it in the buildings and on the grounds...

I turned around a corner and suddenly found myself face to face with a decent sized green wolf. It was simply sitting in the middle of the hallway almost as if it were waiting for me. At first I was shocked but I soon got over it and realized that the wolf wasn't gong to attack me. Now, with a little more assurance of my personal safety I looked over the creature a little more carefully. It wasn't actually a wolf, I could tell that right off the bat. Other than the fact that it was green its ears were wrongly shaped. Instead of tipping up like a normal dog's or wolf's they bent more to the side and curved slightly. Its eyes were wrong as well, instead of the goldish color that many animals had they were green, and more human like. The mouth was also different because it was slightly longer and wider with longer sharper teeth... I was starting to get crept out again.

Don't worry child. I won't harm you. a voice said in my head. It was a voice, yes, yet there was much more than that to it. I literally felt reassurance in his words. I could see that he wouldn't hurt me. It was not only words but everything that my mind could produce in one statement.

"Who are you?" I asked.

I am called Gwydevis. He said. I am surprised that you aren't afraid of me. Usually people are afraid of me. It is because I have an evil 'vibe' that seems to surround me.

"Oh, that doesn't bother me." I replied. "Don't worry about it. So, uh, what are you?"

Very direct aren't you? That's ok, I am in a form of an animal called an Aricitic. Don't worry about not knowing what I am, it is a species of another universe.

"You are from another universe?" I asked.

Yes but that isn't the point, right now we need to get you to the others.

"Why?"

I'll tell you when we get there, for now, give me a second while I change...

"What?" I asked startled.

Suddenly he began to, well, change. His fur and flesh began to bend and move and his bones began to readjust. After the entire process was over he was a man of about thirty standing in front of me wearing a black and white cloak. He looked oddly familiar but I couldn't quite place it.

"Alright now lets get back to your friends." He said.

---

I'm not entirely sure why but I was still sitting on the hospital bed. My friends were all around me and we were discussing what we should do next. We were in a city with no people in it and that wasn't normal, so we had to figure out what happened and how to fix it. We had, of course, already determined that this was not a X.A.N.A. attack, it simply couldn't be seeing as how the entire factory was torn down. It couldn't be a post apocalyptic world because we were all above ground and there was no attack... Obviously we hadn't come up with anything it could be yet.

"So, Jeremie, think you can walk yet?" Sissi asked.

"I don't know, I haven't tried." I responded.

I moved myself out of bed and stood up. I took a step forward and another... yep, I was able to walk alright. Now that that was settled...

"So, lets see if we can't find anyone." I said and started walking towards the door.

"Wait," Odd objected. "We need to wait for Sam."

"Oh, I don't think you need to worry much about her." a very familiar female voice said from the door. "She will be coming along any moment now."

I turned around to see who it was and was surprised to see the woman I had seen three times before. She was standing in the doorway behind me leaning against it. The cloths she was wearing were very similar to the travelers except these were in color, blues and greens to be exact. She appeared to be about twenty seven years old but I was absolutely sure that her true age was far greater than that. In her right hand was a long white staff that was made of a material that I couldn't identify. It had various gems and stones embedded at intervals in it and at the top there were two pairs of wings: one was light and appeared to have feathers and the second was darkish and appeared to be bat like. If I had to guess the feathered one was made out of white gold and the bat one was made out of dark silver. Hovering between the wings was a large crystal that was very simple; it looked kind of like two pyramids with the bases connected, or kind of like the thing that hovers above the Sims heads. There were also three smaller ones attached to sides on the bottom half of it.

"Who are you?" Odd asked.

"My name is Ginois, but I am commonly known as Ginda. I am part of the traveler..."

"Don't you mean a friend of the traveler's?" I asked.

"No, I meant what I said." she replied. "Anyway, I have come here because we have finally decided to interfere directly."

"Now, wait a minute, I thought your rules were that you wouldn't directly interfere." Yumi argued.

"I don't know how she knows who you are, or about your limitations, but I have to agree. The traveler told me that you didn't interfere with the workings of a universe unless necessary."

"That's strange, I don't remember him saying that."

"Well he implied it anyway." I insisted. "So why have the rules changed."

She looked at me and laughed. "Isn't it obvious, young traveler, it's because the universe has changed."

"What?" we all asked at the same time.

"You see, when Jeremie left Yumi's house earlier today, he was feeling deeply depressed. He missed Aelita, as would be expected, but because he is fairly new to his powers, having played with them very rarely, he wasn't in control of them. His grief activated his abilities and created this universe in which no one really existed except for him and, well, Aelita. The problem was that since she is dead she couldn't be fully manifested by Jeremie. This led him to become mad, insane I mean, and the rest you know..."

"Wait, I created this universe?" I asked.

"And if no one but he and Aelita existed in this universe then why are we here?" Ulrich asked.

"Yes, Jeremie, you did create this universe. It isn't that big, just about the size of Paris, but that is still amazing for one of your skill level." Ginda told me. "And the rest of you are here as well is because of the bonds of friendship. You five realized, without knowing it, that Jeremie was in trouble, and were brought here as well."

"So what are we going to do now?" I asked.

"We are going to wait for about three minutes for Sam to return so that we can get you back to your universe."

I sat down in a chair and began thinking. This was very interesting. I had met the traveler a while ago in a dream, or rather in another universe while I was 'traveling'. Then I had met him again in his universe of Aricitopia when Lyoko began to act very strangely. The second time I swear he had said something about not interfering with what goes on in another universe, but maybe he didn't. In any case they were interfering right now, and I guess this time I was glad.

"Say, um..." I began.

"You are trying to bring back Aelita aren't you?" Yumi asked with an accusatory tone in her voice.

"Well, that was very direct." Ginda said. "If you must know... yes. We are doing all we can to bring her back to life. But please understand, resurrection is very difficult if we don't know where the soul is. We need to find the soul before we can give it a body again, and that is a very difficult process. Usually it takes us three years to do."

"Three years?" I asked, a whine creeping into my voice.

"I said it usually takes that long, though we aren't sure why... Anyway, it would be faster if we simply had a way to call the soul to us, but the only way to do that is something that a loved one can do."

"I'll do it." I jumped in. "I'll do it, what ever it is!"

"No, you won't. We aren't giving this as an option to you."

Suddenly I felt a blinding red rage build up in me. "What do you mean I can't do it? I-"

"Jeremie, you would die." Ginda told me. "And we aren't going to do that. Not if we can have both of you alive together."

"Um, what about what happened earlier, when Jeremie saw Aelita, I mean." Yumi asked.

"That would have worked, except this isn't your universe, and her soul, her being, was being ripped apart. She would have died as soon as she was given a body, and that time we probably wouldn't have been able to do anything to revive her."

"Sounds like there is a heated debate going on in here." A man said from the door behind where Ginda was standing.

"Looks like they are here." Ginda said.