Chapter Three: Cold

Jeremie opened his eyes and blinked, thinking for a moment that he had never opened them. They were open, though it was so dark he could just barely tell. He sat up quickly, and regretted doing so the second he did. A wave if dizziness hit him and his vision went white as a wave of nausea hit him. He groaned softly as he held his stomach, resisting the urge to retch.

"I'm guessing he's awake," he heard a voice whisper.

"Jeremie?" he heard Aelita's familiar voice say softly to him as he heard footsteps coming closer. "Are you okay?"

The boy let out a breath slowly, feeling the nausea fade away and his vision returned to normal, though it was still too dark to see. "Yeah," he said quietly like her. "What's going on?"

"We made it."

"Huh?"

"To another world? We made it to the other dimension, Jeremie," she said softly, sounding happy. "I guess the travel between worlds isn't that great for us, but we made it."

"Really?" he looked up at where he supposed her face was. "Why is it so dark, though?"

"To keep HIm from seeing us," the voice from before said. It took Jeremie a moment, but he realized it was Sissi. Her voice wasn't its arrogant, high-pitched, and slightly nasally self, though. It sounded unhappy, broken like he had seen his friends. Her voice was almost unrecognizable from the one he knew in his world.

"XANA?" he asked, making sure he knew who 'He' was.

"Yes," the former prep responded. "Your friends are back at the base. We didn't want to move you while you were unconscious because that would be too risky. Dead weight and all." The boy nodded though he knew she couldn't see him. He could hear her standing up. "We'd better join the others now," he heard her say.

There was a soft sound of something moving and their darkness-adjusted eyes could see a hint of light. The boy realized it was the night sky. Now he could see the girl. She even looked different from the Sissi he knew. This girl had short, messy hair pulled up in a tight ponytail. Gone were her nice, pink clothing, replaced by cargo pants and a sleeveless shirt. She even had a bit more muscle on her, and a few scars and fresh cuts. There was one thing that stayed the same, though. The fiery look in her eyes was exactly the same.

OoOoO

The sadness and anger in the air was almost chokingly thick. For a boy like Odd who looked at life optimistically, it was near unbearable. He, Ulrich, and Yumi had been left in one of the rooms of the makeshift base. They could hear the low rumble of distant workings as the resistance worked to survive. Whispers could be heard though the many interconnected pipes running through the base, allowing one to be heard from long distances away within. There was a tense feeling in the air as everyone listened and toiled, wary of the monsters that could be sent to them at any given moment.

They looked up at the sound a door opening. In the dim light, they could see Aelita step inside. Jeremie was about to step in behind her when Sissi placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Come with me," she told him. "It's important." She turned to the others, nodding at them. "I'll bring you to a better room when I get back."

The boy nodded hesitantly, glancing at his friends before he began to follow her through the many twisting tunnels of the underground resistance base. As they walked along, he became aware of a mechanical sound. The sound of a machine working, but it wasn't one that they were passing by. Constantly near him, it would whir from a low pitch to a high pitch, be silent for a split second, then whir from high pitch to low pitch again, repeating this over and over. Looking down at the floor, he realized it was sounding in the same rhythm as Sissi's footsteps.

"Curious?" he jumped when he heard her voice. He looked up at her and saw her looking at him, a smirk on her face. He blushed at getting caught and she giggled at him, sounding much like her old self. She reached down to her right leg and pulled her baggy pants up a bit, revealing a glint of metal. His eyes widened in surprise. Her leg was mechanical. "Not too many of us are completely whole. There's usually at least a small part of us made of metal, now." She frowned. "That idiot Franz Hopper just had to create a death machine," she growled fiercely, her eyes seeing a harsh memory.

She let go of her pant leg and they continued on in silence. After a time, they stopped in front of a door. Sissi opened it, letting out a blinding light, forcing him to close his eyes. He felt himself being pushed inside and heard the door close behind him.

"Sorry. I forget how dark we have to keep the upper floors," he heard his own voice say. The lights were dimmed to a more bearable level and he was able to open his eyes. "The lights will gradually lighten again, just so you know. I need it."

Jeremie looked over at his counterpart, feeling a wave of cold shock run though him at what he saw. His counterpart no longer wore the normal blue sweater, but a lab coat now. That wasn't the thing that shocked him, though. He no longer had a left hand. Instead, it was replaced by a mechanical arm that acted a lot like a futuristic Swiss army knife. He felt slightly queasy as he saw himself working on a human body with it on an operating table. He didn't know who it was since they were covered up with a blanket, stained red with blood. When he looked up at Jeremie, he saw that even one of his eyes was mechanical. The cyborg Jeremie smirked slightly at seeing his shock.

"So you managed to come to us after kicking my friends rather rudely out of your universe, yes?" Jeremie didn't respond. "Wondering about these?" One of his mechanical fingers touched his metal eye, creating a 'ting' sound. "They weren't by accident like everyone else's, at least not my arm. I sacrificed my real arm for this, more efficient, artificial one that I made myself before… removing it. I am the one who operates on everyone, giving them second, third, as many chances as their bodies can take machines." He turned toward the silent boy, still smirking. "I see you haven't found your tongue yet. Do you want to know what happened to my, or should I say our, eye? Kankrelat laser. It disintegrated the whole thing. It was good, though, since now I can see microscopic things by a mere mental adjustment."

"But how can you stand doing this?" Jeremie finally spoke, not able to look at the bloody mess before him. He found his alternate very morbid and different.

His mismatched eyes looked directly into his. "It's simple. We had made a vow to protect our world from the evil that corrupts it. We will fight until the very end, for as long as we need to. We will win this fight. We will create a world without danger." He reached down and pulled the blanket away from the patient's face, revealing who it was. "No matter what the cost."

Jeremie's eyes widened as he saw the pale face of a pink-haired girl he knew so well. "Aelita!" he exclaimed, part of him panicking while another part repeatedly told himself that this had to be their Aelita and not his. He couldn't help feeling horrified, though.

"This is the result of war, Jeremie," his counterpart said, his voice cold. "Franz Hopper did not think of the consequences of his actions, creating a monster like XANA that has the capabilities of human destruction. He decided to ignore the fact that his actions could cause repercussions." He stepped around the table and up to Jeremie, actually a bit taller than him. "We need your Aelita."

"Wait! Won't she get hurt too?"

"We will be more prepared this time," his counterpart turned away from him and covered the girl's face back up, using his gentle, human hand. "Do you think I actually want this to happen again?"

The boy stayed quiet. It was his eyes he was looking into, but they were so different. He seemed so distant and cold. He even spoke a bit differently from himself. It was a scary thought, realizing how emotionless he could become….

OoOoO

This is the first time I've ever put up a story past two chapters! Woo!

Um… yeah. Phleh.. You know what? This is starting to sound a bit like this one other story I had started writing called Nightmare. It was for Invader Zim. Dib-haters would probably have loved the beginning of it. XP

Just so you know, yes I was thinking of Treasure Planet when I wrote Jeremie's alternate's description. At least I didn't give him a mechanical leg. ;)

Thanks again for all who reviewed. You know, if I'm doing something wrong or if something I write doesn't make sense, you can tell me in your reviews. I like constructive criticism. Just remember, it's called CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, not tell-me-my-story-is-crap-and-leave-it-at-that. Flames are quite useless, though I've never gotten any yet which honestly scares me.