Hope, Samantha, Rei, Anna, and the ninja I had seen during the summer were standing in front of the tower. All four of the girls were dressed like ninjas, but they weren't wearing masks.
"Hope…." I muttered
"I see you know my allies." The ninja said.
"Get out of our way!" Ulrich barked
"Give us one reason why we should let that virus through." Rei spat
"Virus..? Aelita..?" I looked at her for a moment; that was crazy, "Xana's the virus."
"Liar!" Samantha shouted as Anna threw a small dagger at me.
Yumi threw her fan, but Anna cut it in half with a short sword. "We cannot let you pass."
"Anna is right." The ninja said.
"Who are you?" Ulrich asked
"Isn't it obvious?" He asked
He pulled off the mask and red hair fell out, "I'm Xan, Xana's son. Or A Xana two point oh, I guess you could say."
"Let us pass!" Ulrich growled as he took a step forward
"Hope…" Xan sighed.
Hope took a step forward. She slapped her hands together then put her right hand below her chin and blew fire from her palm. We all jumped back.
"Stay back…" She muttered, not looking me in the eyes.
Samantha suddenly turned into a shadow and appeared behind Aelita with a dagger.
"Aelita!" Ulrich shouted as he pushed her out of the way and blocked the blade with his sword.
Anna jumped from rock to rock and lunged at Yumi as Rei charged at her. Hope tackled me to the ground.
"I'm sorry." She whispered before I felt a sharp pain in my back.
I felt a gush of air rush into my lungs as the door to my scanner opened. I grabbed the side of the scanner for support.
"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked.
"Yeah sure," I said, "if being literally stabbed in the back by a girl you love is your definition of okay."
"Ulrich made a path for Aelita; she's in the tower now."
Later that day I saw Hope walking down the street.
"We need to talk." I said as I walked up to her
"We don't have to do anything." She said
"No, we have to talk about this." I grabbed her wrist.
"Ow!" she hissed as she jerked her arm back
"Let me see your arm." I said, knowing she must have been cutting herself.
"Why should I?" she snapped
I just looked at her. She sighed and rolled her sleeve up. I gasped when I saw the scars on her arm; she must have had fifteen, at least.
"Hope…" I started
"Just shut up!" She barked, "Don't give me that 'I love you' crap! There's no such thing as love in this world. There never was and never will be, people just use the word love to get what they want from you!"
Hope ran passed me with tears streaming down her face.
"Hope wait!" I started to run after her but was stopped by Samantha,
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I don't have time for this."
"Well you'll make time." Samantha slammed me into a wall.
"There's something wrong with Hope!" I shouted
"Yeah, you're right. I'm looking at him too."