Hunter Moebius and I don't own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois.

You remember that vortex? That gigantic, scary thing my friends said I had summoned before I fell into my coma? You remember how everyone in the whole entire world saw it, ranging from those rapscallions that took Aelita's mom to even Samantha Knight? Now, do you remember when Kaitlyn told me that if anyone evil had seen the vortex, they would have done something about it?

I really wish she had been wrong and kept her mouth shut like Ponyboy Curtis did during an encounter with the Soc gang!

Why? Because someone evil had seen the vortex, just as I feared! And if we thought XANA was bad… well, XANA never did anything quite like what these guys did to us…

I awoke from the bed I claimed the night before sleep overpowered me. The first thing that surprised me was how low to the floor it was. It was as if it was only a mattress, and someone had stolen the bed frame in the middle of the night. Of course, those thoughts changed, once I looked over and saw Yumi's purple plush cat thing. Man, I must have been really tired last night, if I couldn't even find my own bed…

So, if I fell asleep in Yumi's bed—which was actually more comfortable than I thought it would be—then… whose bed did she fall asleep in?

Patrick's.

I slowly sat up, feeling slightly disoriented from the change in beds, and glanced over at an interesting setup: Yumi had fallen asleep in a strange position, where her hands were near the top of the bed, behind her head, as if she fell onto the bed in that position, last night. Of course, what was even worse was the person who slept in the bed next to hers; Kaitlyn's, to be exact.

Jeremie happened to at least have enough tact to take his shoes off, before plopping down on his cousin's bed. He always was able to resist forces trying to overtake his body, until he was able to complete a task; I guessed sleep was just another one of those forces. Of course, he also didn't happen to be wearing any socks, either. Good thing his feet smelled better than mi novio's used to.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Yumi's sleeping position. She had her hand right under Jeremie's bare foot… and she happened to wake up, first.

Guess what happened next.

Jeremie woke up laughing. And that was followed by anger; he thought Aelita was sleeping in the bed next to "his," as she was the first one to pull that stunt on him. So imagine his surprise when he sat up, eyebrows fallen, preparing to yell at his girlfriend… when he found Ulrich's, instead.

"Yumi?! What the heck happened here?!" Einstein exclaimed.

That got through to Sister, who ended up taking Jeremie's bed. She was next to sit up before Yumi could even say anything. "Jeremie, honey… It's Saturday…"

He adopted an embarrassed look. "Sorry, Sissi, go back to sleep."

"Too late, Einstein. Once Sister's awake at this time, she isn't the type to go back to sleep." I smiled.

Getting onto my hands and knees, I took another look around the room, to see where everyone else ended up. What I saw next made me cackle uncontrollably and land back on Yumi's bed: Odd ended up atop Ulrich, as though they were trying to outdo each other in an impromptu wrestling match during the night and my wildcard ended up having him pinned, having taken Aelita's bed. If I had my camera from my earlier exploits, and this room sooner than now, I'd have this as an interesting pic for the school paper. I guessed in a way, Odd had Ulrich beat for once.

Next, I found William sleeping in my bed, but I didn't mind that. Hopefully, he found it quite comfortable. I liked my soft mattress, after all.

Patrick found himself in Sister's bed, which I found interesting, considering what had happened before the return trip. At least his head wasn't against her "I Love You" pillow; that would've made me wish I had my camera even more.

Kaitlyn's bed of choice was Ulrich's, an interesting one; only because I wondered what she'd do when she opened her eyes and saw a pair of shuriken and a nunchaku, along with the katana that Jim gifted him in the hospital, on the wall above her. But I shrugged it off, thinking that since she had a hardcore personality, she wouldn't mind it.

So, where did my former first roommate end up? On Odd's bed, of all places. I don't even know how soft, or how firm my boyfriend's bed is, but I only hope it wasn't too firm. I mean, I know that when someone's exhausted, they'll sleep on nearly anything, even the side of the road, but still.

The others soon opened their eyes, discovering someone had played a terrible game of "musical beds" during the night, as they sat up, still feeling disoriented, although that wouldn't last very long. Ulrich especially pushed Odd off of him, looking as though he would unleash his Pencak Silat training upon mi pobre novio.

And my poor wildcard of a boyfriend was rolled over onto the floor, jolting from his sleep as soon as his face plant into the carpet woke him up. Because of that, he ended up finding out that nobody had slept in their designated beds while wondering how he ended up on the floor if everyone else got a bed.

"I vote our parties be short enough for us to sleep in our own beds." Jeremie raised a finger, attempting to hide his chuckles at seeing Odd on the floor.

"Jeremie, do we have to? Yumi's bed is comfy," I whined playfully.

Yumi couldn't help but giggle, as well. "Thanks. I like it, too."

"It's true. I bet it could hold more than one person if need be," I smiled.

Before Yumi could think of anything, I happened to overhear Ulrich confronting his former roommate about the weird position he found the wildcard in.

"Odd," he looked over the side of the bed, looking down at mi novio, "why did you fall asleep on top of me?!"

"I was tired!" Odd interjected. "Did you expect me to be able to make it all the way to my own bed when this one was much closer?"

"Oh, Odd, you know I oughtta…" Ulrich grumbled.

"HEY!" Patrick and I yelled, trying to calm the two down. "Easy… We're all in this same room juntos."

Odd turned to look at me. "Yeah, you're right, Cat Girl."

Ulrich gave a nod, but he still looked a bit upset. "Yeah… alright."

"Besides, it's a brand-new day," Sister smiled.

"Time to start it," Kaitlyn yawned. "Ready for a shower?"

"First, my sister should get hers!" the principal's daughter looked at me, giving me a nod. Wait… did she just tell everyone I should go first? She was always the first one to shower, and somehow hogged the girls' bathroom. I still couldn't get completely used to how the vortex changed Sister, but I was getting there.

"O-okay…" I smiled uneasily. "Thanks, Sister…"

I knew there wasn't any time to question it, so instead, I gathered my supplies and headed to the showers. There were a few other girls there, but no crazy line leading from the door, thankfully. When I got inside, I heard a familiar voice call out to me, as I started to get ready.

"Hello, Cassidy! Did you sleep well after the party?" Emily smiled.

I nodded. "Most definitely. XANA's weakened, but not gone, yet. We almost didn't have enough energy, but we took some resources from Sector Five, instead of a human sacrifice."

Emily's smile got bigger. Somehow I could tell she still didn't understand some of what I said, yet, but she was happy, anyway. "That's great!"

"Yep. Jeremie still has calculations to run, but he's thinking about taking a break today."

While I was talking with Emily, I happened to hear another girl come walking in. I glanced over to see Tamiya, in her light blue bathrobe, smiling as she came over to me.

"How are the interviews doing?" I asked, as though in greeting.

"We have several notebooks' worth. It's going to be a little while until the Herrald is published," she announced. "We have to get the photos developed to give them to you. Jim only allows us in there for an hour a day, so we have to choose which groups of them will become available. We're nearly halfway through."

"Wow… I hope you got Odd's good side, otherwise y'all won't hear the end of it until the non-talkin' cows come to call," I said, gradually slipping into my almost correct Southern accent.

I got both of them giggling after that one, causing a smile to grace my features.

"You still got it, Cassidy," the first of my then-few friends grinned at me. Other than the other Lyoko Warriors, I knew her and Milly since the time that practically the whole school thought I was weird, and ostracized me for no reason.

"I guess I do. I'm just glad to get a start on the day."

After I showered and got dressed, I walked out of the bathroom, feeling quite content. Of course, that didn't last long, because as I made my way over to the double doors, I stopped as I saw something really strange through the windows. It looked as though one of Odd's horror movie dreams was bleeding out into reality; wolfish men seemed to pass by the door, as though they were awaiting their prey. But there wasn't a full moon outside, and it was morning. If Van Helsing was anything to go by, new werewolves change back at dawn unless cured before the last strokes of midnight. By all standards, these wolves should have turned back by now, but then I looked at the back of one of their necks. Strangely, one of them looked as though they had a weird series of numbers, separated by dashes, tattooed on the back of their neck, like a barcode. My eyes widened. That's not a serial number. That's…an expiration date. These aren't werewolves… They're—Erasers… That means… Oh, God!

Forcing myself to take a couple deep breaths, I hummed a random, tuneless ditty about the rain and walked back to Lyoko HQ. Opening the door, I walked inside and shut it behind me.

"What's wrong, Cat Girl? You look as though someone poured cold water on you in your warm shower as a prank," Odd inquired.

"Hey, Kaitlyn, remember when you told me if anyone evil were to see the monster I unleashed, they would have done something about it?" I asked, ignoring mi novio.

"What about it?" she asked.

"Well…" I tittered nervously. "We…happen to be—" Stay calm… Don't scare everyone in the room… "...SURROUNDED!" Nice going, genius…

Everyone leaped off from the beds they had been laying on, as though they had piping hot mattress pads under them. The looks on their faces ranged from fearful to tense, with some surprise thrown in.

"What?!" Yumi asked incredulously.

"Don't go through the double doors. Don't pass go and collect 189 Euro Bills," I ordered. "Take your showers, and then come back here! We're surrounded by Erasers!"

"What if there's no time for that?" Jeremie interjected. "They could hear us coming into the bathroom, and get us in there!"

While Jeremie was starting to freak out, Ulrich was confused. "But who are these Erasers, anyhow?"

I stepped in. "They are wolfish men that were always after Maximum Ride and her flock since the day Jeb, a human scientist/whitecoat, took them away from a genetics lab called The School. He disappeared one day without a trace, leading Max to take his place when she, her boyfriend/lover Fang, and fellow member Iggy were near twelve years old."

"Why does this sound similar to how Franz disappeared, huh?" Sister asked.

"I guess it's a bit of a stretch since things ended up complicated. But… these Erasers, thought to be thrown to extinction, were brought back somehow," I assumed. "It's very strange in some respects, I understand. The wolfish men ended up kidnapping their youngest member, Angel."

"And the flock got her back, remember?" Yumi asked, remembering when I lent her my copy of the book the day before we rebuilt Lyoko a Sector at a time.

I nodded. "We need to get away from here. But how? We obviously can't go through the doors. That's too easy. We'd end up cap—"

I was suddenly cut off by a blood-curdling scream, coming from another room farther down the hallway. After the room went quiet again, it only took me a few moments to realize who screamed: Samantha Knight!

To think she'd only started coming to school here a month ago, and already, crazy things are happening to her again...

"—tured…" I finished quietly.

I saw Ulrich grit his teeth nearby, as a look of anger slowly overtook his face.

"Well, what are we sittin' around here, for?" he declared. "Can't we fight them off?"

"No! Ulrich, we are all human—except for Kiwi—and even then, they would probably snap us like twigs!" I reasoned, heart quickening in panic. "I know you fought for my honor at one point, but listen to me. Erasers are not to be messed with by humans. Now if one of us had wings…"

"But we don't!" Jeremie rebutted. "None of us have wings, air sacs, or anything like that. And we probably can't get to the factory, so that also rules out the possibility of teleporting you all here, which would've at least allowed you and Aelita to fight them, if the rest of us couldn't."

"Then we won't stand a chance, Einstein." Fear overtook my face as I said that.

No sooner had I finished my sentence, then the ten of us heard a twinkly voice filter through the door, revving my nerves up to eleven. "Hey, kids… Why don't you go outside for some fresh air…?"

"Don't listen to them. Their voices sound convincing, but it's all lies. They could tell someone to jump off a cliff, and they'd do it," I warned.

Everyone nodded in understanding. Hopefully, that was all it would take, and they wouldn't try a worse tactic on any of us.

"We are doomed! I can't believe that we're the ones trapped," Sister's voice quivered as she spoke, and I could feel she wanted to cry.

I waved my arms in front of me, holding in my own inner fear. "Don't panic. We just need to breathe."

Thankfully, it wasn't long before we got some breathing time. More footsteps came, and a gruff voice, belonging to only one guy we all knew, broke the silence.

"Hey!" It was Jim, presumably glaring at the wolfish men. "What are you all doing here?!"

"Itex business, sir! We have clearance from our boss in Death Valley, California."

My heart plummeted, slightly, when I heard that. I knew that place; Death Valley, California is where The School is!

"Did you get permission from Mr. Delmas, before you surrounded the dorm building?!" we heard him interject. "You have no business around here!"

This didn't make my nerves any better. Did he just say they surrounded the dorms?!

I walked over to the big window next to Sissi's bed, looking below. Indeed, black sedans, white-coated men, and more Erasers had stood around the perimeter. Some students, thankfully, passed by without any harm to them. I even recognized the dark-brown dots that I talked to earlier—Emily and Tamiya.

As I moved away from the window, heart hammering in panic, I could hear mi novio taking a deep breath, before looking over at me.

"So what should we do, now, Cat Girl?" His voice didn't sound very panicky, thankfully.

"I d-don't know… I never dreamed this would happen…" My inner torrents of terror rose slightly.

I soon felt a pair of arms embrace me, causing me to relax. It was Aelita, giving me a warm, comforting hug to try and calm me down. And it was working.

"Don't worry, Cassidy." I was sure she could remember the time the Men in Black came after her and her father, after they went so far as to kidnap her mother years prior, and how they got away. "Maybe there's a way we can still escape from here, without the Erasers getting us."

I nodded, taking a deep breath. "Jeremie… Um…You wouldn't uh…happen to have a s-schematic of the school's updated v-ventilation systems, do you?"

"I don't," Jeremie started with the words I didn't want to hear him say, at least at first, "but don't worry, Cassidy. I can download them in a snap."

He immediately got up and ran to his computer. "I'll have them in no time flat."

Outside, while we waited for Jeremie to download the plans, we heard a sound we were hoping we wouldn't have to hear; a loud thud, as if someone had fallen to the ground. All of us secretly hoped it was the Eraser, but with a noise that loud, almost two-hundred-fifty pounds, it could only have been Jim.

Sister was the first to react, as she started to scream.

Ulrich pulled the heels of his hands to his ears, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth. To say Sister's scream was bugging him would be the understatement of the year.

My own hearing organs ringing, I spoke a bit loudly, "Okay… Jeremie, how's that plan coming?!"

Jeremie was grimacing, too, but at least he seemed like he was getting some work done, even if he was surprised by my yelling, at first.

"Cassidy, not you, too!" he called out, his eyes widening, before they returned to normal size, a few seconds later. "I-I mean… I've almost got it. This website is going incredibly slowly, and it's taking—"

"Well work faster!" Odd ordered. "We don't want to end up as Eraser-style Pedigree here!"

Jeremie whirled around to face Odd. "It's like I told Cassidy; the website it's on is loading really slowly, and no matter how fast I am, it's still gonna take it a few seconds to catch up! I can try to—"

A ping from his computer pulled him back over to it and stopped Sister from screaming. "Yes! I can finally download it, now!"

"Thank goodness!" My heart, on the verge of panic, slowed down to a relaxed state. "Hurry and print it out! We need to escape!"

While I was commanding Jeremie, I happened to look over at Kaitlyn, and my face fell. From the grimace on her face, the way she was looking down at the carpet, and the way her hands were overlapping each other at chest level, I could tell she felt horrible about something. And she did; she had told me that thing about bad guys not doing anything after seeing the vortex to help me relax. Now that she had been proven wrong, it broke her heart into a million pieces.

"Kaitlyn, you were doing all you could to help me relax," I told her.

"I know, but…" Even her voice sounded as though it was filled with emotional pain. "...why couldn't I have been wrong?! How was I to know those Erasers from that book series you and Yumi read were gonna come after us?!"

"Maybe it was a one-in-a-million chance," I gulped. "I don't know. This is horrible. I should have realized this was going to happen, too."

I felt a soft hand gently rub my back, moments before Sister crawled over between Kaitlyn and me. She looked like she felt a bit better. "I don't think anybody knew this would happen. Don't blame yourself over it, dear sister."

"Okay, but I don't want us to go down like Jim did." I trembled despite the backrub.

More soft footsteps followed, and Yumi soon knelt between Sister and me, putting her own hands upon each of our backs, and giving each of them an even softer rub.

"We're not going to go down," she tried to reassure us. "Once Jeremie gets those plans, we'll find a way to get out, before those Erasers find us. We are, after all, Lyoko Warriors, right?"

"Right!" Odd smiled slightly.

Finally, we heard the sound of Jeremie's printer humming away, printing out the ventilation plans we had been waiting for. The moment they came out of the printer, Einstein quickly grabbed them and set them on the desk next to him. I saw him uncap a marker, as the nine of us surrounded his desk.

"Okay, this is where we are!" He gently pressed it upon the area. "And our outside is over there. We need to move slowly and quietly without disturbing the Erasers, which I'm gonna call E. Anyone get stuck, don't panic."

He turned to me, concern lacing his features. "Are you sure you want to go into the vents?"

"I may have claustrophobia, but it shouldn't bug me if I'm in this much peril." I nodded.

William walked up next to me, folding his arms. "I don't know…"

"We're in a predicament, Ex-y. And friends don't let friends become Eraser or even possessed lawnmower bait!" I looked him in the eyes. "Besides, the vents helped Ulrich and Yumi before."

"Yeah… you're right." Defeated, my ex slowly backed off. "But I still worry about you, Cass."

"And I thank you, really, William, now let's go."

Dropping to our hands and knees, the ten of us quietly crawled across the carpet, over to Sister's table, where the vent was. Leading the way, Jeremie quietly unscrewed the grating, while holding the map. Once it was free, he gently set it down next to the hole it covered, before each of us slowly and quietly crawled into the hole, one-at-a-time.

I was the fourth one to crawl through the ventilation shaft. And I was right; the further I crawled through, the less I thought about the tight space I was in. Three more crawled in behind me, and that was when the moment got crazier.

With seven of us in the vents, Patrick and Kaitlyn started to creep in, one after the other, leaving only Yumi behind. As she waited for Patrick to crawl far enough in, so she could squeeze in after him, she heard a bang, which accompanied the door to Lyoko HQ shaking, slightly. Gritting her teeth, she continued to wait patiently, until Patrick had gone far enough through the ventilation shaft, before she started in after him, as well.

Another bang followed her entry. Then another, and another. My gut swirled from the adrenaline coursing through my system.

Trying to take a quiet and deep breath, I held my mouth tightly closed as Yumi closed the shaft with us inside.

Looking back, Odd blinked at me in concern. Are you okay, Cat Girl?

A smile lifting my tense lips, I nodded. Thank goodness I could read minds. Why did I even doubt that that would be bad? Making a series of motions without banging my hands on the sides, I signed, +Yes, Odd. I'm doing fine. No claustrophobia so far. Just more worried about the Erasers than I am about my phobias at the moment.+

Reassured, he grinned and turned his head to follow Jeremie and Aelita. Glad to hear that, Cassidy.

Up ahead, I saw Jeremie start to turn a corner, with everyone ahead of me slowly and quietly following behind him. Once I got up there, I made the turn as well, wondering how much farther we had to crawl.

No sooner did Yumi make the turn, then the ten of us heard a somewhat faint crash. I slightly tensed up, realizing that the Erasers had to have just broken our door down.

My hand went to my chest, checking the beats of my heart. It was pumping quite quickly, unsurprisingly. Swallowing my inner turmoil, I forced myself to follow the rest of the pack. This was the worst kind of time to panic. Nevertheless, before I unleashed that vortex, I would freak out massively when my XANAfied ex entered the scene if he wasn't in his Rorkal. I wasn't the best when it came to keeping myself from getting increasingly scared and anxious.

Everything okay up there, Cassidy? From behind me, Sister's concerned thoughts rang throughout my head.

I nodded, showing a thumbs-up. Not wanting to turn and sign to her—she still had a long way to go with both Spanish and sign language, but I kept being patient with her—I followed mi novio.

It wasn't long before Jeremie stopped in front of a grate above the dormitory hallway. Clenching my teeth, I tapped Odd's shoulder, who whirled around. Anything wrong?

+What is going on? Jeremie, we shouldn't be stopping like this! Pass it on.+

Dutifully, my boyfriend signed it forward. Einstein made some motions and passed it back. He's surveying the scene, Cat Girl. We should get moving in a few seconds.

My head bobbed up and down for a tiny bit. +Roger.+

A couple times along the way, the air conditioning blasted at us, as though trying to make us turn back. However, with our blond genius as our guide, we pressed on, until we hit a deep drop. Gulping another one of my fears down, I let myself fall into mi novio's arms. Helping Sister next, we helped assist Ulrich through his vertigo without talking.

It wasn't long until a different smell hit our noses, it smelled of...the outside. My mouth turned up in excitement, it hit me that we were about to experience our freedom. We only had to crawl for a short while longer, before we could hopefully try to escape through the grating that led out of the dorm building.

You're handling this extremely well, Cat Girl. You took every drop without tensing up, Odd's thoughts rippled with pride. We're almost there.

I tapped his shoulder and made some motions, +Well, we can't have me having a panic attack without alerting the enemy. That wouldn't end well.+

You're doing so good. You even handled that pill bug we saw without squealing.

+I don't mind pill bugs at all. It's anything from the bee family on Earth—wasps, hornets, and more—and some breeds of spiders I don't like.+

That's good. Soon we'll plot what to do next. Possibly in the forest.

+They might have that area covered, Odd… We can't be too careful.+

With a grin, mi novio soon turned back around, continuing to follow Jeremie and Aelita.

And not long after he did, Jeremie suddenly raised his hand, signaling for everyone to stop. I immediately got curious, hoping nothing crazy had happened, until I leaned my head to the right, just a bit, trying not to bang it against the wall next to me.

Jeremie had found the grate that led to the outside of the dorm building!

I felt my heart leap in my chest, as I hoped it meant we were finally home free.

Then he made some motions, passing it to Aelita, then to Odd. He's saying the grate hasn't been screwed in for a couple weeks, and it should be easy to turn. Pass it on.

I did as I was telepathically told, signing the message to Sister, who, after a couple tries, gave it all the way down the line, ending with Patrick signing to Yumi.

I held my breath, keeping myself quiet. +Message delivered to everyone.+

That's great.

At the front of the line, Jeremie quickly peeked through the grating to make sure there weren't any Erasers or whitecoats nearby, before slowly sliding his fingers through its holes, and pushing outward, harder and harder until the grate finally broke free. My teeth gritted as I watched Einstein slowly lower the grill to the grass below, placing it softly on the ground, before slowly working his fingers out of the holes.

Way to go, Jeremie! For a moment, my thoughts seemed to echo through my head, until I realized that, in front of me, Aelita had been thinking the same thing I was.

Once Jeremie was out, he turned around and let her out, gently. Odd softly climbed out behind her, and then he helped me climb out. It wasn't long before everyone else had climbed out after me, in sequence.

Kiwi raced toward a tree, marking his territory. This should learn 'em! No one messes with Kiwi's territory!

"Okay, Cassidy, what now?" Ulrich whispered.

"We need to find a spot we don't frequent regularly. The factory, Hermitage, Presto-Burger, and even the forest must be teeming with Erasers and whitecoats by now." I looked at him. "Those are our hotspots, and that would make them come after us."

"How about the airfield?" Jeremie asked helpfully.

"I love the genre, but heck no to the techno, Jeremie. I would rather face eternal virtualization than go there again." The thought of it made me grimace. He knew that place gave me the willies!

"How about the studio where we were chosen as the DJ's?" Aelita suggested. "It's a place we don't frequent as often—or even at all."

I gave her recommendation some thought. "That is good. We met Mattie and Elise, as well as Nico, Ben, Sophie, and Simon, there. Aelita, you are a genius. Let's go."

Sadly, that was where everything went wrong.

Just as we started to break into a run, the whitecoats spotted us. The ten of us quickly broke into a run, thinking we could outrun them, but even with Ulrich, Yumi, and even mi novio being as fast as they are, the Erasers that the whitecoats sent after us were quicker than all of us. Before I knew it, I felt a knee to my back, slamming me to the ground.

Jeremie, who had managed some slick evasive strategies, gasped. All it could make him think of was the time he and the others fought to keep the doctors from turning off my life support, the day I finally woke up from my coma.

"Ow! Hey! Any other ideas, Cassidy?!" Ulrich asked as his Eraser forcibly restrained his arms behind his back.

"We're not strong enough to fight them. And I don't have my visions back yet, but if you have any suggestions, then please, tell us. We would love to hear them," I quipped, knowing that wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.

"You what?!" Yep, I was right. "And how should I know?!"

"You had master strategies, Samurai… You planned out everything just as things were grim, or things were just getting started."

"But if we can't fight back, how do we get ourselves out of this?!"

My eyes welled up with the pent-up tears from the whole experience up to that point. "I—I don't—I don't know…" I looked at the ground, panic overwhelming me.

That's when Odd looked over at me, concern all over his face. "Don't cry, Cat Girl… we'll find a way out… there's gotta be a way out."

I tried to look over at him, to give him a nod. This may have been one of the worst days of our lives, but I couldn't let myself get scared. What would all of my friends say, if I showed them how much this was freaking me out? I know they wanted me to be more open, up-front, and honest with my feelings, but even Ulrich knows that old habits die hard. Besides, I was sure he was doing the exact same thing.

Of course, his girlfriend happened to turn and look at me, just as I thought that. And my shield might as well have been a window because she didn't buy it at all.

"It's okay, Cassidy," I heard her tell me, calmly. Sometimes I forgot how disarming her voice can be, almost like Aelita's. "I know you're afraid, and it's okay. We're all here for you, and we're all gonna go through it with you, too."

That did it. Her words were like the wrecking ball that destroyed my already-flimsy defenses, as tears dropped from my eyes like rain. I knew that if she could move her arms, she would have hugged me comfortingly. But I knew she was there, anyway, and that was all that mattered to me, at that moment.

The next thing I remember was a bit confusing, as my eyes were quite blurry from the tears. Before I could say or do anything else, I saw a pair of shoes step into my field of vision, stopping in front of me. The person then lowered themselves down, moments before I felt something in my neck. Turning my head to the left as quickly as I could, I noticed a whitecoat was also doing the same to Yumi, with similar things happening to the others. I closed my eyes upon hearing an unadulterated scream of terror, expecting it to come from Sister. Only it hadn't, this time; Kaitlyn was the one screaming.

Unfortunately, before I could even attempt to rise, a firm hand grabbed my head, holding me in place while I felt something fiery enter my bloodstream. I knew they had given me something, and realizing what it was scared me even further. But before I could form another coherent thought, I slowly felt my consciousness slip away.

And that's the last thing I remember.