Author's Notes: All right peoples, another chapter posted. This was the most stubborn chapter ever…friggin' fight scene writing…grrrr… Anyways, a huge thank you as always to all my reviewers, you have no idea how much your feedback is appreciated. Everyone has been so positive and encouraging, it really means a lot.
Heh heh, a few people didn't like Xana stomping on Odd's self-esteem, eh? Well, there's good reason for it, you'll see…

: Chapter Six :

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A scanner activated, breaking the heavy atmosphere with its familiar humming. Surprised, Xana turned to regard it, blinking at the light that began to glow from within, showing faintly through the cracks in the doors.

"Jeremie…" Ulrich breathed as he realized which scanner it was.

Xana gave Odd a grin. "Well, it looks like you'll have another friend to take care of." The humanoid suddenly released his grip around Odd's throat, causing Odd to fall to his knees gasping for air. "I was going to just kill you outright," Xana murmured thoughtfully, "But now that I think about it, it will be much more satisfying to let you watch your friends die first."

Odd raised his eyes helplessly to the scanner. "No…"

"If he's sustained enough damage to rematerialize, he'll be either dead or dying." Xana's voice was light and free of concern. "Better get over there to help him out in case he's still alive!" He smiled, glancing back and forth between Odd and Ulrich. "Well, have fun while I'm gone. I'll be back later to dispose of you permanently."

He shifted, and so did his form. He became more transparent, and less visible, the edges of his figure almost blurring into the familiar dark smoke that he was truly made of. In the next moment, he slid through the solid wall as silent as a ghost, and disappeared.

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There was a light around him, and a door slid open. Jeremie fell out of the scanner, landing on hands and knees, breathing hard. He lifted a hand to his shoulder, where Yumi's fan had sliced him and the burning sensation remained. His fingertips came away, lightly tinged with red. He twisted his neck, turning his eyes to see a thin line of crimson that marked the wound. It matched the shallow, crescent shaped one on his forearm, and he knew it wouldn't bleed for more than a few minutes.

Pulling himself to his feet, Jeremie caught sight of Yumi's scanner, just across from his own. The metal swirled with a dark infection, the infuriatingly familiar symbol of Xana pulsing in the center. Jeremie grit his teeth in frustration.

He stood, casting about the rest of the room. Ulrich and Odd were present, Ulrich leaning against one wall, half in a kneeling position while Odd stood nearby.

"Where is he?" Jeremie demanded. "Where's Xana?"

Both boys were staring at him wide-eyed. Odd took a step forward, almost as though he were uncertain. "Jeremie? You're…you're all right!"

"Where's Xana?" Jeremie repeated, ignoring Odd's comment.

"But…how did you get out of Lyoko without getting hurt?" Ulrich asked.

"I didn't." Jeremie looked bitter and uninterested at the same time.

Odd moved towards him. "Your shoulder!" he exclaimed, catching sight of the blood. "Is it bleeding badly?"

"It doesn't matter!" Jeremie snapped. "Where is Xana?" For some reason, his expression darkened and he focused on Odd. "Did you let him get away?"

"I didn't let him get away!" Odd answered defensively.

Ulrich narrowed his gaze, surprised at Jeremie's anger. "Jeremie, you don't need to get so upset."

Ignoring his question, Jeremie met his gaze, a strange distance in his eyes. "What about you? Are you okay?"

Ulrich scrutinized his friend for a moment, then nodded slowly.

Odd tried to give a half smile. "Yeah, and he was threatening Xana just a minute ago, so I think he's fine."

Ulrich smirked.

Turning away, Jeremie gave a curt nod and began heading for the elevator.

Odd raised an eyebrow and called after him, "Hey, where are you going?"

Without turning, Jeremie answered darkly, "I'm going after Xana."

"All right," Odd moved after him swiftly. "I'm coming—"

"No," Jeremie interrupted, not even glancing back. "Stay with Ulrich, and keep an eye on Aelita and Yumi."

Odd halted, a confused look on his face. "But I can help—"

"No, you can't!" Jeremie's words echoed harshly in the empty surroundings as he whirled to face Odd. "You can't even handle yourself!"

Odd blinked at him, shocked.

"If you knew how to take anything seriously, we wouldn't even be in this mess!" Jeremie fumed. "Xana wanted me to be inside Lyoko before he revealed himself, so that I wouldn't be able to stop him from materializing here! He was just toying with you when he sent all those drones, and if you hadn't been messing around and sacrificed all your life points like it was some kind of stupid game, I wouldn't have had to go in for you!"

Odd looked as though he didn't know whether to feel hurt or angry, but the words that came next were hard and bitter. "So you think if it had been Yumi or Ulrich who had lost all their life points first, you wouldn't have done the same thing? If it had been either of them, you wouldn't have taken their place?"

"It never would have been one of them, Odd! Xana targeted you first because he knew that you'd be the easiest to get rid of inside Lyoko, and that even if you were outside in the real world, you still wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him. And you know what? He was right."

Odd was silent.

The light caught Jeremie's glasses as he began to turn away again, obscuring his eyes. "Just like you never take him seriously, Xana doesn't take you seriously. And neither do I."

For a moment the only sound was Jeremie's heavy footsteps as he strode towards the elevator. The doors pulled open, yawning for him to enter.

Then, as the elevator began to slide closed, Odd's voice sounded just above the low hum. He sounded hurt, his words almost a hoarse whisper as his throat tightened. "Yeah…Xana told me that, too…"

Jeremie didn't look back.

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Yumi could feel it pushing at her consciousness, at her sanity, and it burned and crawled beneath her skin with ever-growing intensity.

She knew Jeremie was gone, and Aelita was fleeing towards the tower. It knew this as well, and it was pushing at her, trying to seize control and urge her to give pursuit. To what end, she didn't know, but she resisted with every fiber of strength she could muster, crouched into herself, head touching the ground, her hands clenching the sandy earth as if it were the last solid thing she could cling to. She had to remain here. She couldn't move, she couldn't give in. Because if she did…

The pain doubled, and she heard a scream of torment echoing back at her from her own throat. Something was cutting into her head, branding itself into her will.

The screaming stopped, and Yumi suddenly stood. The independent light behind her eyes had died, and the mark of a third eye on her forehead seemed to burn itself deeper into her skin. Without breaking her empty gaze from the retreating target, she waved a hand at the surrounding creatures in restraint.

"No," she breathed, absently feeling the pulse of the virus as it surged through her veins. It was familiar now, no longer something foreign and invading that she needed to fight against.

She turned her blank eyes, still tracking the movement of the pale humanoid, a dark grin with hidden malice playing across her painted, pale features. "I will handle her myself…"

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Odd stood in the center of the room, silent and rigid, his gaze locked on the elevator doors where Jeremie had disappeared from sight.

Ulrich was looking at him, a hurt mixture of sorrow, pity, and comfort behind the pain on his features. "…he didn't mean that, Odd…"

His words died in the air, and for another long moment there was silence. Then Odd spoke softly. "Yes…he did."

Ulrich didn't know how to respond. He looked on from where he sat, half-upright, feeling helpless.

Suddenly Odd turned, and was glaring at him. "And what about you? Did you mean what you said?"

Ulrich blinked up at him, confused. "About what?"

"When Xana said you were still a threat, and you agreed with him. Would you have fought him, even in that condition?"

Ulrich's expression darkened. He looked up at the smaller boy, trying to discern the emotion on his features. "If I had to."

"Good," Odd answered sharply, his tone ringing in the surroundings. "Then I'm sure you can get up to the computer room and operate for me."

An expression of shock registered on Ulrich's features. "What?"

Odd was no longer looking at him. Instead, he was crossing the room, heading for the empty, bloodstained scanner. A serious, angry tone of command laced through his words, sounding as though it didn't belong with his voice. "Go up to the computer room and load Aelita's spare sequence into my scanner. I'll use that to get back inside Lyoko." When he heard no response, he turned, glaring at Ulrich. "Jeremie made a spare sequence, didn't he? I'm going back inside Lyoko, and since my sequence is already gone, I'll have to use that one."

Ulrich pulled himself into a standing position, still leaning heavily against the wall. "Odd, you don't have to prove anything—"

"I am not a weak link!" Odd shouted, the fury ringing in the stark surroundings. He glared daggers across the room, his voice lowering as the echo died. "I'm going back inside Lyoko to fight. Are you going to operate for me or not?"

For a moment the two boys stood, staring at each other in silence.

Then, without a word, Ulrich turned, limping towards the elevator, one hand clutched to his side, the other braced against the wall as he moved. He reached the elevator doors, punched the button for them to open, and pulled himself inside.

Odd watched the doors close, then stepped into the scanner.

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Aelita ran, strangely aware of the physical fatigue that was suddenly plaguing her body. Her chest felt unpleasantly warm and hollow as she involuntarily gasped for air. Air, which in a place such as Lyoko did not exist, and should not have been necessary. Likewise her legs felt weak, as though she had over-exerted muscles that she technically did not have.

For the time being, Aelita ignored the discomfort and continued to run as fast as she could. The tower was becoming closer and closer, and this time she was sure she could make it.

Unexpectedly, a spiraled turn of cloth and metal whistled past her, inches from striking her torso. Aelita gasped, quickly dodging the lethal fan as it curved in the air to come back at her. She heard it cutting through the atmosphere as it continued past her, heard the impact of the object on flesh as its owner caught it expertly. Aelita didn't look back, didn't even slow down. Yumi was following her now—attacking her—but the last thing she wanted to do was hold her ground and be forced to fight her friend. Besides, she reasoned, Xana's monsters had become silent and still once again. Without them to slow her progress, she could outrun Yumi and make it to the tower first…

A blur of sudden motion caught the corner of her eye, and Aelita turned her head.

Yumi was right beside her, matching every step.

Aelita's eyes widened.

"Running away again, Aelita?" Yumi's voice taunted, and beneath it was a hard, mechanical edge that was not her own. A cruel smile twisted through her features. "You always were a coward, making the rest of us fight your battles for you…"

With a rancorous twist of her stride, Yumi kicked a foot into Aelita's knee. The humanoid went sprawling.

The dark-haired girl lunged at Aelita's fallen form, swinging her arm forward. Light glinted off the edge of her fan as she spun it in her grasp and sliced viciously at Aelita's head.

Instinctively, Aelita backed up and raised her arm, blocking awkwardly. The fan edged cleanly into the now-human flesh.

This time, there was no familiar spark of damage indicating the loss of life points. Instead, the fabric of her sleeve tore open, and the vulnerable skin beneath split to reveal a line of red. Aelita gasped at the sensation. It was as if she were back on earth, feeling a cold wind blowing against her body, the sting of a pebble in her shoe, and the burning of her lungs when she had been running—all ten times worse, and all in the same, small place on her arm.

In desperation, Aelita lunged forward, grabbed Yumi by the shoulders, and pulsed. It was nothing more than a short, concentrated burst of gaiakinetic energy, a controlled echo of Lyoko. It was far weaker than her normal summons of power—the meditation and call that could shift the landscape—but she could still feel it drain away some of her life.

Weak as it was, the burst of energy surged through Yumi's form, knocking her flat on her back. She hit the ground and a cloud of dark smoke expulsed from her body like dust that had suddenly been shaken from its resting place. The black tendrils lingered in the air around her figure, and the mark on her forehead flickered like something struggling between rekindling and extinction.

Aelita turned and ran, knowing that the paralysis wouldn't last long. As weak as the pulse had been, she was lucky it had worked at all, and the disruption it caused in Xana's control could only last for a short period of time.

Sure enough, it was only a matter of moments. The dark aura began to spiral inward towards Yumi's prone figure, settling into its victim once more, while Xana's mark seemed to sink ever deeper into her skin.

Yumi lay there for a moment longer, listening to Aelita's desperately retreating footsteps. The dark-haired girl grinned viciously to herself, and began to summon the familiar pale glow of telekinesis. But this time, the simple light was strewn with the darkness that infected it. Yumi's grin grew wider…and she vanished.

Aelita was in mid-stride when the light and smoke burst into existence directly in front of her, and Yumi materialized through an impossible feat of teleportation. The humanoid gasped and tried at the last second to dodge, but it was too late. Yumi held her fan, ready to strike, and she had materialized at point blank range…

Aelita could only gaze in disbelief as Yumi pulled her arm back to send her blade spinning for the lethal stroke—

—and the flash of a silver arrow flew across her vision, striking the fan from Yumi's grasp and sending it careening wildly through the air.

Yumi's head whirled around just in time to see Odd lunging at her. He slammed into her, and the hard collision knocked them both away from Aelita. Odd dug his claws into Yumi's figure, clinging as the two of them rolled across the virtual ground.

Odd came out on top, pinning Yumi to the ground with his knees. He cocked his arrow launcher at her head.

Before he could fire, Yumi grabbed his wrist and twisted. Hard.

Odd gave an incomprehensible shout in pain. He tried to pull his arm back into position, and in the process two arrows released consecutively, burying their tips into the ground right next to Yumi's left ear.

Yumi's eyes narrowed. She drew her knees up and kicked with both feet, sending Odd flying. He managed to land on his hands and knees, and quickly aimed the arrow launcher at Yumi in an attempt to hit her as she was still clambering to her feet.

But Yumi seemed to know that it was coming, and suddenly vanished in a flash of infected light. Odd's weapon spun through nothing but air.

She reappeared an instant later, just behind Odd. The moment she was solid, she grasped him from behind, wrapping one arm tightly around his neck.

All too aware of the vulnerable position he would be in if she managed to get a good headlock on him, Odd didn't waste a second. Before her arm could fully tighten, he snapped his head up and back as hard as he could, catching her face with the back of his skull.

The impact sent Yumi stumbling back several paces, hissing in pain. She flung her weapon, more with frustration than with aim. Odd back-flipped out of harm's way, landed back on his feet and brought his wrist up to fire again—

—and Yumi's foot smashed into his chest, crushing the air out of his lungs with an exploding force and knocking him flat on his back. For an instant, he was stunned.

The fan came flying back to its owner, and before Odd could regain focus, Yumi flipped the angle of the fan-blade in her hand and stabbed downward at his throat.

At the last second, Odd managed to regain the sense and the strength to bring his hands up and latch onto Yumi's wrist. For a long moment they grappled, Yumi exerting all her strength to press down and bring the edge ever closer to Odd's vulnerable flesh, and Odd digging his claws deep into her arm as he tried to wrest it away. Blood began to trickle down Yumi's forearm where Odd gripped her. The crimson slid over her fingers and onto the blade of the fan, finally dripping onto Odd's neck like a morbid omen.

Yumi grinned wickedly, shoving downward with all her strength and bringing the sharp edge to rest against the already-crimson skin. "Shinu, chikushou nekko!"

Odd grit his teeth…and launched an arrow. The projectile tore through the fan, ripping it apart and breaking the grappling stance. With an incomprehensible shout of anger, Yumi recoiled and teleported. She rematerialized a few feet away.

Immediately leaping to his feet, Odd tossed the broken fan blade to the ground. Smirking, he lifted his wrist to eye level and aimed at Yumi's still figure. "What's the matter?" he asked sarcastically, "Feeling defenseless?"

She merely glared and lifted both hands. Dark essence swirled around her palms, taking shape and solidifying into two new fan blades. "Not at all…" she muttered in response to his sarcastic inquiry, a smirk of her own sliding into existence on her features.

Odd didn't even have time to swear before both of the weapons were hurled at him. He rolled to the left, hearing the familiar whining sound as the blades whirled close overhead. Before he had fully come out of his evasive roll, his wrist was up and ready to fire—

—but the only sign that Yumi had been standing before him was the dark-tinted teleportation mist that was already dissipating.

The nekko twisted his head, looking desperately for any sign of where she would reappear. Instead he was greeted again by the sound of metal spinning through air as the fan blades whirled on their return course. Odd turned his attention to the nearest one, sacrificing an arrow in an attempt to destroy it. He swore as his shot went high, and quickly leapt behind the safety of a tree. In the next instant, the buzzing noise stopped with a thud as the fan lodged itself solidly into the other side of the trunk.

He stayed where he was for another moment, his back against the tree, listening, waiting. It was then that he realized that only one of the fans was accounted for…

As if in response to his thoughts, Yumi reappeared in front of him, the second fan in her grasp. Before she was even solid she was swinging the blade at his abdomen, as if to slice him in half.

Already in motion, Odd reached up behind him and grasped the tree bark solidly with his claws, then kicked off the ground as hard as he could in a vertical, backwards somersault. He landed, his stomach pressed against the tree and his feet braced against the rough bark, clinging upside-down to the side of the tree in true squirrel fashion.

Yumi's blade left a gouge in the trunk where he had been standing an instant earlier.

Odd turned his wrist so that the launcher was now level with the center of her forehead, and fired. Yumi blocked the shot quickly with a spin of her fan.

Knowing that it was unwise to stay in the same place for too long, Odd kicked off the tree, leaping over Yumi's head in the hopes of landing behind her and gaining a momentary advantage. It was a mistake.

Yumi grasped the fan tightly in both her hands and stabbed the edge upward as Odd leapt over her. It caught him full in the chest, and she blinked as several drops of warm, red liquid dripped onto her upturned face.

Odd fell heavily, skidding on the ground as he gasped for breath. Between the new rips in his clothes, a long gash traced a scarlet line down his torso. He pressed a furred hand to the wound, gritting his teeth as it stung. But in the next few moments, as the initial pain lessened to more of a throb, he realized that it wasn't very deep.

Yumi grinned at his fallen figure, taking a moment to enjoy the damage she had wrought as she wiped the spatter of blood delicately from her white-painted features. Then the fan was cocked once more in her grasp, and she hurled it at her wounded opponent.

Odd rolled out of the way, feeling the spray of moss and dirt as the fan skimmed along the ground where he'd been. He came up in a semi-sitting position, planning to take full advantage of the moments while Yumi didn't have a fan to serve as a shield. Leveling both arms her smug expression, Odd rapidly fired two arrows from each wrist.

Raising a single hand, Yumi pulsed dark telekinesis. All four arrows arched away from their straight paths, curving around Yumi's figure harmlessly.

And then Yumi was charging him, more smoke and light forming around her palm and shaping itself into yet another fan blade. The weapon solidified and she pulled her arm back as she drew closer, ready to slash in close quarters.

Odd stayed where he was for a moment, teeth grinding with determination. He gauged the distance as she closed in on him, and then, when she was nearly on top of him, he leapt into a back flip. As he landed on his hands, he immediately swung his feet while they were still in midair to catch Yumi full in the stomach with a hard kick.

She doubled over, unable to gasp as the wind left her lungs. Then Odd was on top of her, bringing his fists down on the back of her head with as much force as he could muster.

Yumi hit the ground face first, sputtering in the dirt and trying to regain her senses. She heard the click of the arrow launcher as it loaded another projectile, and she lashed out with her hand in desperation. Her palm closed over Odd's ankle, and she yanked as hard as she could.

Odd felt his foot being twisted out from under him, and he couldn't shift his balance in time. He landed hard on his side as Yumi scrambled to get back on her feet and retrieve her weapon. She snatched it up from where it had skidded to a halt on the ground, then whirled on her heel and flung it with doubled fury. But Odd was already dodging out of harm's way and making an opening for his own renewed attack.

And the deadly game continued…

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Aelita caught her breath, watching her two friends fight each other like hated enemies. The last thing she wanted was to see them at each other's throats like this, but at the same time she knew that she should take advantage of the distraction that Odd was providing.

She ducked quickly behind the cover of a large tree. If Odd had been transferred back to Lyoko, someone had to be operating for him.

Taking a guess, Aelita called out to the atmosphere. "Ulrich?"

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Ulrich sat on the outside, staring at the screen, feeling strangely angry and helpless. He tried to shift his sitting position in the chair, and immediately regretted it. The wound in his side flared with heated pain, and he grit his teeth, hissing involuntarily. He took his eyes away from the screen for a moment to glance at the wound, and saw the side of the chair slowly soaking up the dark, crimson color. He swore under his breath and let go of the headset, pressing that hand against the wound.

The speaker crackled at him, and he recognized Aelita's voice.

Snatching the headset up again, he pressed it to his ear and listened intently. "Aelita? Aelita, what's going on?"

"Ulrich," he heard her repeat his name, her voice serious. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he answered, more concerned for his friends inside Lyoko than for himself at the moment. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"For now."

"What's going on?"

"Odd is fighting Yumi."

Ulrich's eyes scrunched. "He's fighting Yumi? What about Xana's monsters?"

The response was a moment in coming. "They're still not moving. I think…Yumi's controlling them now."

"Yumi controlling them?" Ulrich was disbelieving. Then he remembered what had happened when Xana had materialized. "Her scanner…" he breathed.

As though she had heard him, Aelita's next question mirrored his thought. "Xana did something to Yumi when he materialized, didn't he?"

Ulrich nodded, a sinking feeling hitting his stomach. "He infected her scanner."

There was a pause before Aelita responded, as though she hadn't wanted to hear that answer. "Xana's virus is doing more than just forcing her to submit to his control."

"What do you mean?" Ulrich's voice held a fearful tone.

"It's causing her to merge with him, and through him, she's becoming a part of Lyoko."

"What?"

"I can feel her, Ulrich. Just like I can feel Lyoko, and Xana, and the towers."

Ulrich was silent for a moment. Then he said darkly, "I'll warn Odd. Maybe he can get her to rematerialize before it causes permanent damage—"

The humanoid shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "That's not it."

A worried tone struck Ulrich's voice. "Then what is it?"

There was a pause before Aelita answered. "If she's injured too much…she's not going to rematerialize at all."

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