Good morning, friends.

Here lies the next chapter of this story! Yay! It took me a while to perfect it.

Just in case you're wondering-I'm making it a new SEMESTER, not a new year. Otherwise, Yumi would be gone. And I don't know if they have UPS in France. Just assume they do.

Chapter Three: Fate is Cruel

The Dorm Building
Sometime before lunch

As all kids knew, on the first day of school at Kadic, classes were cut an hour short, in order that the boarding students could be assigned their dorms. (Day students just mucked around on the grounds.). This meant a good long time of standing in lines, one for boys, one for girls, as Jim took each student to their room individually. Thankfully, after years of this, most students had made up various ways of relieving the boredom.

"Steady...steady..." Odd's eyes narrowed intently as he slowly slipped the caterpillar down the boy in front of him's neck. He resisted a serious temptation to giggle, one sound, and the kid would know it was him.

Nobody wanted to be in front of Odd on the first day. Or behind him. But that's another story.

Further down the line, at least ten kids behind Odd, XANA was a bit less fortunate. He had no caterpillars. All he had to compensate for himself was a loose thread in his hoodie and the mole on the kid in front of him's neck. And the thoughts, thoughts that when his new world order was recognized, there would be no more loose threads, no more stupid moles, simply pain. Pain fulfilled XANA. Others' pain, however.

The classes of the morning had been nothing more than naps. The teachers would go on at length about stuff he already knew about. One of them tried to joke with him, offering him a tissue to clean up his drool. That got a few laughs, which XANA simply grimaced at. Stupid humans and stupid laughter. Stupid happiness.

The Warriors...Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita...would keep shooting him furtive glances, but these he simply chuckled at, and walked away before they could talk to him. They didn't exactly look like they wanted to talk to him anyway. He didn't care. But he REALLY didn't want to run into the Sissi human-which he didn't, thankfully. Maybe he was right.

Further up the line, behind one other kid, Jeremie fumed silently. Here he was, finally, his mortal enemy...it was indescribable. For so long, XANA had merely been a computer intelligence...nothing negotiable, nothing real. It was hard to grasp the concept of his humanity. So hard, there was no room to be angry. Or scared, or anything else. It took up that much.

But, slowly, fear found cracks. Now, he and XANA were in the same school. The same class. Opposite sides of the same blade. A blade that felt like it was being held to his back by the aforementioned terror.

He hadn't had any time to tell Yumi about Human XANA. Neither had Odd, Aelita, or Ulrich. Classes were very tight on the first day-they had forgotten. With only a minute between classes, some across campus, they had to rush, no time to talk. And with Yumi a day student, Aelita couldn't tell her in line. He wondered if she would ever know.

Finally, he found a distraction. His name was called.

"Belpois, Jeremie, follow me." Jim didn't really have to call. He grabbed his shoulder and ushered him down the hall. He was used to this. He had done it several times already. He had to admit he was a bit scared the first time. Okay, very scared. He threw up.

After a minute or two of the pain of ARMPIT, Jeremie was released in an unfamiliar part of the hallway. After a few deep breaths of fresh air, he opened the door and peeked inside. "Uh...Jim? This isn't my dorm. There's two beds in here."

"Yes, I know that. Due to overcrowding we've had to double up some kids...and one of them happened to be you. Your new roommate should be along soon...as soon as I get him. Yep." He ran off. Jeremie was sorta happy, with the space in his brain not occupied by the remaining shock. (You'd have to be blind not to know where this is going.)

Well, it was time for business. His computer had been brought onto one of the desks, and it would take a good half-hour to rewire. Those office people couldn't tell a USB port from a UPS truck.

Meanwhile, back in line, XANA was creeping ever closer to the front.

He saw numerous boys get trucked to their rooms. Since Odd and Ulrich-humans' room was right in the immediate area, he could see they were in the same room. Okay. He understood. He could end up with some stranger. He didn't mind. Test subjects were always welcome.

He heard a yelp from down the hall-the boy in front of the Odd-human had found the crawling tube. He saw several others check their shirts frantically. He chuckled. Humans were so stupid. "Let your screams out," he mumbled. "Better for me to feed."

He was so absorbed, he almost didn't hear his name. That, and the Jim-human pronounced it wrong.

"Okay, uh...Hopper, er...Zay...zee...Zay-na? Um...you kid in front. Follow me."

XANA's eyes narrowed. "It's XANA. Zah-nuh." He stepped forward.

"Okay. Trust me, after this, I'll never forget. You're a new student, right?"

XANA nodded slowly.

"Well then, welcome to Kadic...Zah-nay. Like I said...follow me." He was grabbed as the others were, and pulled away, being told at top speed about schedules and other crap he already knew about.

Finally, after several minutes, he was released in front of a door. He held his hand against a wall to steady himself as Jim-being talked on.

"...because there's severe penalties for that. Okay...here's your room. Your roommate is already in there...I think you'll bond, right?"

"Whatever." Bond...yes. Perhaps. That was a good idea.

Jim opened the door...

Back with poor Jer-chan

As he frantically tried to disconnect the mouse from the keyboard port, the now sweating Jeremie heard voices outside his room.

"Your roommate is already in there...I think you'll bond, right?"

"Whatever."

The first one he definitely knew as Jim. You could recognize that without hearing it. The second voice, which he assumed was a student, was indistinct through the door. Probably his new roommate. Ah well. He'd enjoyed the quiet while he could. He untangled his hands from the wires, desperately wiped the oil on his sheets (he now knew that side was his) and sat down. He took a deep breath and hoped for the best.

The door opened. Jim now filled the doorway, it was impossible for him not to. "Okay, go on in."

"Mm."

The boy walked in front of Jim-slowly, carefully. In comparison to Jim, he looked unnaturally small. Of course, everyone did, but that was beyond the point.

The boy looked straight at Jeremie.

Jeremie looked straight at the boy.

His face bleached.

"Oh yeah, introduction," Jim said out of nowhere. "Jeremie, this is...Zay-nan Hopper."

"It's Zah-nuh, inferior oaf." The inferior oaf was whispered. Didn't want to get kicked out in Phase A.

"Okay...XANA, this is Jeremie Belpois, your roommate. Er...bye." He shut the door, leaving the two alone in the room.

XANA looked around. The room was rather plain, nothing eye-catching. There was a bed, wardrobe, and desk on either side. On one side, there was a messed-up looking computer on a desk-he took careful note of this-and a half-hung poster of some old guy on the wall over the bed. The other side was near empty.

Then there was the middle. Not much there. Unless you counted the motionless, stammering Jeremie-human.

"You..." he whispered, in shock, in simple, raw emotion. "You...you..."

"I...I...I...is it customary for humans to repeat everything they say three times?" A smirk wormed across his face. He knew perfectly well Jeremie was afraid. But teasing enhanced the rush.

"You..." Jeremie couldn't go any further. He stepped back. XANA remained motionless.

"Well, well." XANA looked around. "This is a bit less then what I expected. Aren't you going to do it?"

"Huh?"

XANA loved this. "Try and destroy me? Reduce me to pieces? Isn't that what you want?"

"Uh..." In a rare burst of daring, Jeremie leaped back and grabbed his disconnected keyboard, ready to swing it at XANA's head. Or at least he hoped so. "I'm...I'm not afraid of you..."

"So I see." He stepped forward, slowly, carefully. He put one finger on the keyboard.

"I suggest that you keep your little toys in a safe place." He pressed down. A small shock, like static electricity, ran through Jeremie harmlessly, but it destroyed the keyboard. Pieces fell off, keys popped. Jeremie gasped and dropped it.

"You see? Now, you can't destroy me. But I can destroy you. That? I was just scaring you. But...soon enough, Jeremie...soon enough..." He laughed a little bit, and looked around.

"Okay, down to business. If I'm going to be...living...here, then I'll have to get used to it, won't I?" He pointed to the bed on the computer side. "I'm guessing that one of these is mine, since there are two of them."

"Yes. That one happens to be mine." At least he could try standing up to XANA.

"Hm." He walked away, picked up a few boxes that were by the door, and dropped them on the bed. He sat down, and looked back at Jeremie. "Now it's mine."

"Rrrgh..." He tried to tell himself that it was nothing to be angry about, it was just a stupid bed. Yet... He reluctantly picked up his suitcase, which was at the foot of the bed, and tossed it on the other bed. "Happy?"

"Pfeh. The way you identify emotion with action is amusing." He got up. "I am not limited by your standards. I am more complex than any set of words can fathom. And unless you understand this...I have a feeling that you will not have too much of that crap you call happiness."

"Now..." His eyes strayed towards the door. "The oaf told me that the time of your energy consumption ritual-"

"Lunch..."

"Is in a few of your human time units. I expect that I must go."

"Uh, yeah, sure..." He couldn't say anything else. Here he was...doomed to a semester sleeping three yards from his mortal enemy. He'd have to train himself to sleep with one eye open or something. Not to mention, no more safe place to meet and do research at the same time. How would the others react to this?

"Figured." He strolled casually to the door, opened it, and slipped out. Less than a second later, he remembered something. He stuck his head back in the doorway.

"Oh, yeah...don't even THINK of looking in my stuff." He ran off.

Of course, Jer wasn't thinking. He was obsessing. As soon as XANA had run down the hall, worming his way through students and to the cafeteria building, he jumped onto the bed and opened one of the boxes.

One had some rather worn-out sneakers in it. Another, a small laptop. Another...well, let's put it this way. As soon as light got into the box, a leg had tried to find its way out-a short, mechanical leg, followed by a small, brown body, with a familiar symbol on it. It cocked its head, and made a clicking noise.

That was enough.

"DARN YOU, XANA!"

He grabbed it, stuffed it back in the box, and tore out of the room frantically.

I think this is one of the best chapters so far. The best chapter in the entire thing is XANA's discovery of coffee-stay tuned.

-SP