Code: Wings 3 point 0

by Teen-Lyokofan7777

The vortex. Thanks to its mystery, the whole world knew about their secret. But what if it didn't stop there...? What if it alerted others from other universes to their existence? One mystery could give them the ride of their lives... literally. Cover by cutewolf1233 on deviantART.

8. Preparations

Hunter Moebius and I don't own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our OC's and the plot.

Once I finally got to sleep, the next morning seemed to come a lot quicker than I expected. Except for Yumi and I, everyone else woke up refreshed, and curious about what the day would bring. Like I mentioned before, we had all gotten quite accustomed to having tests done on us, so the fear and mystery had all but worn off. But I could tell that there was something in the air. Something that Yumi possibly knew about as well, whether she already had the idea in her mind or the day's events would force it to the front.

I turned to her, whispering, "Do you smell it, too, Yumi?"

She returned a cautious look. "It's been a week and a couple days… they must be preparing us for it, or they're going to start, soon," she whispered.

I forced the saliva down my throat. "I know I usually put my emotional shield up by this point, but this is making me feel scared. What should we do?"

She looked all around the room, before returning her gaze to me. "First, I think we should lay low. Let's just wait and see what happens. If they lead us into an operating room, move our beds out with us on them, get us to change our clothes or anything that involves preparing our bodies, then we should try to distract them, and sneak out if we can."

"Yumi, we'll get caught, and you know it. Remember, Erasers…? And I don't want the whitecoats to sting our necks for such a reckless plan," I shuddered, rubbing where it used to hurt.

"Hmm… you're right." Yumi nodded, placing her hand over her chin. "But we should do something, even if we just try to hide someplace."

"Nuh-uh… No way. They would catch our scent and possibly find us. That would probably not end well. Then we would likely wind up back with the failings of plan A. I don't want to surrender any more than you or I do, but they might see through our plans," I muttered.

Her expression soon carried frustration. "Then we might just have to wait, and see if Jeb has any ideas for us. If anyone should know when they're going to operate on us, it should be him."

"Plus we don't know if he or Ari got into contact with Max and the rest of the flock, yet," I nodded. "Sorry if I'm being very negative, Yumi. I—"

I came to a stop as I felt her softly rub my back, her expression softening. "It's okay. You're right, though; those Erasers are gonna make it hard for us to try and resist. And they probably already know what we have up our sleeves. So if anything, we'll just have to try something completely different. Something unexpected."

My eyes looked into hers. "Like what, Yumi?"

She shrugged. "I don't know; I'm running out of ideas. Maybe Jeremie might know something."

"Me, too, and the only ones I'm coming up with are caricatures of when the flock got caught in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, the first time," I shook my head. "I don't know what to do with a zebra, a bunch of bubbles, and beef jerky."

She merely let out a grunt through her gritted teeth. It looked as though we might have to play this one by ear, the thought of which was quite scary.

"Sorry, bad time for a joke, I know," I blushed, a sheepish grin forming on my face.

"It's okay," Yumi nodded. "Let's just hope they don't try anything like that today, and wait and see what happens. Maybe that's all we can do."

"This is scary. It makes me wish we were back at Kadic in Lyoko HQ, in a sugar coma from the cake," I muttered.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a comforting hug. "We'll be back there, soon. Don't worry. It might not be right away, but I know we'll go back."

"I sure hope so, Yumi." I rested my head on her shoulder. "We have to think of something."

"Hopefully we'll have enough time," Yumi admitted, as I felt her hands softly and slowly rub my back.

"I do, too." I let her soft back rub relax me.

A few seconds later, Odd opened his eyes and stretched his arms. "Ahhh… now that's the best dream I've had since we got here!"

"What was i-it about?" I asked, attempting to sound convincing.

"I dreamed it was raining fries!" he chuckled. "And then a trio of hamburgers showed up, and asked me if I wanted to meet their friend! Turns out, she was a strawberry milkshake!"

That made me chuckle, albeit uneasily.

"Did she have any brothers or cousins?" Yumi quipped, trying to lighten hers and my mood.

"I couldn't stay long enough to find out," Odd replied. "But I did see a hot fudge sundae running around in their backyard."

"That must've been their pet," I began to laugh a bit half-heartedly.

Odd must have noticed this, as his face fell a slight bit. "Hey, Cat Girl, are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?"

"She's afraid of what the whitecoats might do to us today," Yumi explained, still softly and slowly rubbing my back.

"If you're worried about them giving you a physical," he guessed, "she'll probably have Hunter wait in another room."

"There's something in the air, Odd. Yumi and I can detect it. Something's not right," I blinked.

Raising an eyebrow out of confusion, Odd sniffed the air.

"You're right!" Odd's other eyebrow rose, raising my hopes slightly. "I can't smell any food! It's like they've forgotten it's breakfast time!"

Before he knew it, I slapped my forehead. That wasn't what I meant in the first place.

"It's true!" Odd scratched his head. "I don't smell anything! Unless they're just gonna serve us cold, soggy cereal like they did the first time…"

Before I could reply, I heard the soft, gentle yawn of Aelita, who slowly sat upright in her bed, following a stretch. She soon looked over at me, before a look of surprise overtook her face.

"Yumi, Cassidy," she asked calmly, "is everything okay?"

"Aelita, do you feel there's something different about today?" I asked, almost two seconds away from giving Odd a glare.

She looked around the room. "I guess… something feels strange… but I can't quite put my finger on it."

I smiled, giving a small relieved, self-vindicating laugh. "See, Odd?! Aelita agrees with me!" Maybe mi novio was wrong about female intuition, after all.

"We've been getting this strange feeling," Yumi commented, "like something terrible is going to happen today. Cassidy and I think we know what it is, but we're not sure. And even then, we don't know what to do."

"You don't think they're…" Aelita began to look worried, "...going to do anything horrible, do you?"

"We really don't know, Aelita," my geisha friend shook her head, "but it sure wouldn't hurt to keep your eyes open."

Aelita slowly nodded, her expression unchanging as she clutched the sheets, and her Mister Pück, close to her chest.

Soon, Jeremie was the next to wake up, flinging his arms into the air in a morning stretch. Reaching for his glasses, he glanced around the room, before happening upon Yumi, Odd, and I, noticing the geisha and I looked cautious. "Did I miss something?"

"Jeremie, do you…" Yumi paused slightly, as she gave Einstein her attention, "...does something feel slightly… different to you?"

"Hmm… now that you mention it… there is a slight bit of tension in the air. I can just barely feel it. I don't know what it could mean, but it is slightly unnerving," he admitted.

The next one to awaken was Hunter. I glanced over in his direction as he, too, stretched his arms out, before sitting upright and rubbing his eyes. Once he looked over at Yumi, Odd, and I, he raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Huh? W-what's going on?" he asked.

"The girls and Einstein are worried about something," Odd shrugged. "Something about there being something weird in the air. All I can tell is they're not making breakfast like they normally do."

"Something in the air?" He started to look all around the room. "W-why? W-what does it feel like…?"

"It…" Yumi began, searching for the right words to say, "It's like a feeling of… foreboding. It feels like something terrible could happen today, but we're not sure what."

I nodded. "Even I feel it increasing."

A nervous look appeared on Hunter's face, as he shrugged. "I… hope it's n-not… anything… s-serious… but it is kinda… s-s-scaring me…"

That was when Ulrich woke up. As he yawned and sat upright in his bed, I could tell he was thinking the same thing Yumi and I were.

"Does anyone else feel like something weird is gonna happen today?" he inquired, looking over at Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, Aelita, Hunter and I.

Other than Odd, the rest of us raised our hands or fingers, whichever felt comfortable to use.

"That's what I was afraid of," Ulrich lamented.

One by one, the rest of my friends woke up. William, then Patrick, and Kaitlyn, Sam, Sister, and then finally Kiwi, all slowly opened their eyes, one after the other. A few of them, such as William, Patrick, and Kaitlyn, started to feel the same way Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, Jeremie, Hunter, and I felt, while Sam and Sister were left confused, just like Odd had been. But the majority vote was that today was going to be quite unnerving. The scary part was, I hoped my geisha friend and I were wrong, especially considering the next part in the first book in the series. The thought of that made every hair on my body stand on end.

At first, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The room stayed the same. My friends chatted amongst themselves, Yumi, Aelita, Jeremie, and I tried to come up with a plan, for if my geisha friend's and my fears ended up being true, and Odd, when he wasn't belly-aching about no food, spent most of his time obliviously playing with Kiwi. The rest of us just lied in wait, fearfully.

"Going by the variables, Cassidy, I don't think zebras, bubbles, and beef jerky would help us in the slightest," Jeremie reasoned with me.

"That's what I thought, too," I agreed. "Plus Odd would probably eat the jerky."

"That would be funny to watch," Aelita nearly giggled, before her face fell once more, "but he's right, Cassidy. We wouldn't be able to form any kind of plan with those."

"Thanks for agreeing with me, Aelita," I smiled. "At least we can all agree on that."

Yumi nodded. "But that still doesn't solve our problem. We need to figure out what we can do if the whitecoats start preparing us for surgery."

"I know. Plus, I haven't seen a laundry cart," I blinked. "There goes plan 116 down the drain."

"Wait!" Jeremie raised his hand, suddenly. "What about the laundry cart? You think maybe one or more of us can sneak around that way?"

"Or escape that way. But again, never saw one, so we can't exactly get out of here with that element, Einstein," I shook my head.

"Rats!" Jeremie lowered his hand. "I was sure we had something, there."

"So, that's why Plan 116 is ixed-nay, Jeremie." I sighed. "Hm… It's obvious that we can't use the vents again. The thing is too high, and they'd find us in no time."

"And since we don't have a map, we could end up getting lost," Aelita pointed out.

"It's not going to be as simple as our original escape plan. So Plan A—originally Plan 1—won't work," I pouted.

Jeremie folded his arms. "I didn't think I'd say this, but I'm seriously starting to consider having you tie my laptop to my back, Aelita. That way I can't ever lose it unless someone takes it away from me."

"Hey! That was my plan," I growled, ticked that he would consider taking credit for an idea I had. "Plus, your laptop would fall off and break if we tried rope. That's why I considered either Velcro or duct tape."

His eyes widened, suddenly. "Wait, you're right! I'm sorry, Cassidy. But I still don't like the idea of using duct tape. What if it never comes off?"

"Fine, we'll use something else, but focus, Einstein! We need to escape with our humanity—or doggyness, considering Kiwi—more or less intact," I hissed.

"That's the hard part," Yumi lamented. "Maybe it's like I suggested to you earlier, Cassidy. What if we have to do something they're not expecting us to do?"

"Like what, Yumi?" I asked, raising a brow. "It's not as though the equivalent of Brad Pitt is going to burst in, guns blazing, and we go riding off into the sunset, to the tune of the 80s."

That got Yumi giggling a bit, even though she still tried to think hard. "Well, I was thinking… they've seen the monster, so they know nearly everything we're capable of. So, why don't we do something they've never seen us do? Like, why don't we let Odd come up with a plan?"

"Odd?! ¡Mi novio tiene hambre ahora mismo, Yumi! He's bound to place food-related things in the plan, forcing us to nix it," I hissed.

"Okay, you're right." Yumi closed her eyes, looking a bit frustrated. "But you know what I mean. We should do something they're not expecting us to do, and that's how we can trick them."

"Hm… How about instead of Odd… we could have Hunter come up with something," I blinked. "He's new, and—oh, wait… Then that would make him a scapegoat. Hm… Sam!"

"Neither of them were shown by the monster, so they wouldn't know what to expect, aside from what they've already told their whitecoats," Yumi admitted. "But how do we know Sam wouldn't be a scapegoat, either?"

"Because we've met her before," Jeremie argued. "None of us really know Hunter all that well, but we know her slightly more than we do him."

"Exactly! Plus, she's been to the factory, at least once," I smiled. "So that counts for something."

Yumi's eyes widened. "That might actually work!"

"She does have slightly more experience," Aelita agreed. "She could probably throw the whitecoats off quite well."

"So here's to hoping Sam would come up with some good plan!" I grinned.

Of course, before we could have Sam get everything planned out, the door opened, and in walked all of our whitecoats. Naturally, I could feel myself tensing up. What were they going to do?

Each one of them walked over to their respective subjects, spoke to them, and led them out of the room. My nerves multiplied as I watched Georgina walk over to Hunter and talk to him before he followed her back over to where I was standing.

"H-hi, Georgina," I muttered.

"Good morning, Cassidy," she greeted me with a friendly smile and tone. "I'd like to examine you and Hunter. Could you come with us?"

"Oh, sure," I grinned, still unsure what was going to happen, but with the knowledge of the books in my mind, I could tell things were going to be quite interesting, to say the least.

Following after my friends and their whitecoats, Georgina, Hunter and I soon split from them as we walked down the long hallway, before she brought the two of us into another examination room. Once we were inside, she closed the door behind us.

"Ladies first," she announced, in a gentle voice.

Realizing that meant me, I slowly climbed up onto the examination table, and waited.

Georgina went through the usual motions, checking my pulse, looking through my ears, testing my reflexes, and then listening to my heartbeat in a few different places on my front and back. As she worked, she made sure that the stethoscope she used had a chest piece that felt warm to the touch, and that her presses, especially on my chest and belly, were soft and gentle, even though I was ticklish. It felt as though I was undergoing a checkup, but being cared for by a very gentle doctor.

After a few more tests, including an eye check, as well as an eye test, Georgina had finished.

"You can sit in this chair, now, Cassidy," she smiled, pointing to an empty seat next to Hunter.

I nodded and hopped off the table, sitting beside him. That wasn't too bad, even if my worries were raised slightly still. But the day was still young, and anything could happen.

"Hunter, sweetheart, it's your turn, now," she announced in a gentle tone.

"Okay," I heard him reply, with a bit of nervousness, as he slowly got up, walked over, and sat on the examination table next, trying to keep a calm smile on his face.

She went through the same battery of tests with him that she did with me. She checked his pulse, blood pressure, and heartbeat, looked at his throat, listened to different parts of his back as he breathed deeply, checked his ears, his reflexes, and his eyes, before having him read off the same eye chart she had me read from, first with his right eye covered, then his left.

"And you're all set as well, Hunter," Georgina replied soothingly. "The two of you are quite fit and healthy for your ages. I'm very pleased to hear that."

Two words stuck out in her speech. All set. Sure, Jeremie used those words before, so it wasn't a bad triggering thing, but something felt slightly off hearing them from her. All set for what? Yumi would probably be able to remind me what part of one of the books they reminded her of right away, and I was sure those words would set off alarms in her head, as well.

After dealing with my thoughts for a few seconds, Georgina turned to look at the two of us, as Hunter hopped off from the examination table.

"Now, there's something special I'd like to do with the two of you," she began, in the same gentle voice she had used before. "Would you like to come with me into another room?"

"Sure," I smiled, still a bit unsure.

"Yeah, sounds good," Hunter replied, even though I could tell he was a little jumpy, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

With a gentle wave, Georgina opened the door and led us out of the room. A short walk down the hallway brought us to another room, and as soon as we walked in, and Georgina turned the light on, I started to realize her plan. This room had a long, shallow, raised up plastic bath tub that was five feet off from the ground and had a ladder in front of it. Next to it, there was a hand shower that hung off from a metal pipe. The tub also had two taps next to the hand shower, as well as two pipes, one running through each end of the bathtub. Next to the tub, there were two empty chairs, with a cabinet against the rightmost wall.

"Wow…" Hunter and I chorused; myself in awe, him in surprise.

Georgina turned to look at the two of us, with a calm, encouraging smile. "I thought I would do something nice for the two of you. We've been giving you all these tests, and we haven't really given you much of a chance to relax. So I thought I'd help you with that. I'm going to give the two of you a soft, gentle massage, to make sure there aren't any raised bumps on any part of your body, and then I'm going to wash the two of you, softly, slowly, and thoroughly, from head to toe, including your hair. I only hope neither of you are allergic to the soap and shampoo I'm going to use."

Looking over at Hunter, I could tell he was a bit surprised by this proposition.

"Uhh… what kind are they?" he asked, looking a bit skeptical.

"Just your basic Dove soap and shampoo," she replied. "They're moisturizing, but nothing special. They're not scented."

"That's fine. When I get back to Kadic, I'll be sure to use my own for a while. But since the School has their own brand for use, it's okay," I nodded, turning to Hunter. "What about you, Hunter?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, that'll work for me, too. I think those might actually be better than what I've been using."

Georgina smiled. "That's great!"

She then gestured toward the bath tub. "Now, I could wash the two of you at the same time, which would save time, or would you like to take turns?"

"Taking turns!" I answered at once. "I don't like the um… m-male anatomy… all that well…" The thought made me uneasy, considering that seeing Ulrich in nothing but a towel, then having a mouse's eye view from the floor in his and Odd's old dorm was a brief, but bad, memory. I swear, if Samurai didn't get dressed after mi novio had his little speech about his parents, I would have been seven seconds away from bolting from the room in a frenzy.

Georgina blinked, but her face expression stayed the same. "That's fine. I could have the two of you back to back, instead, if you like. But whichever you like better. I don't want to make either of you uncomfortable."

"I'd rather do it one at a time, please," I muttered.

Hunter glanced over at me, with a bit of a curious look on his face. I started to wonder if he really wanted to bathe with me, or was curious about why the whole notion made me squeamish.

Then I heard his next thought. That might make things kinda awkward… but then again, I don't think I'm gonna like this very much, either… but I bet she thinks I want to see her naked. That's up to her, and I don't care if she sees me naked, but I really don't wanna get into that tub…

"I-Is it okay if I go first?" I added. "Just so h-he gets an idea of what would happen after all."

Georgina nodded, her warm, friendly smile seeming almost glued onto her face, as it hadn't drooped, once. "That's a great idea. There's really nothing to worry about, Hunter. Once I help you out of your clothes, and into that tub, you're gonna be so relaxed, you won't want to get out, even after I finish washing every inch of you."

Hunter blinked, almost as if he forgot I could read his mind. "Uh… y-yeah, I bet you're right."

He then turned to look at me. "D-do you want me to… turn my back… when she u-undresses you?"

I nodded with a blush on my face. "Please…"

He nodded, looking almost as if my reply had made him tense up even more. "O-o-okay… um… j-j-just… let me know when… y-you want me to… t-t-turn back around."

Georgina turned to look at me and gestured for me to follow her. She and I walked over to the tub, before she walked over to the cabinet, and pulled two big, white towels, as well as two white washcloths out, and set them on one of the chairs. Closing the cabinet, she returned her attention to me, as she placed her hands on my shoulders. "Let's get you undressed."

I reached behind my back and spun my index finger in a downward spiral in Hunter's direction.

I heard a few footsteps as Hunter turned to face the wall next to the door, almost as if it was a knee-jerk reaction, as Georgina began to untie my shoes.

"After all those tests, it sure feels nice to have them off my feet," I smiled as I lifted them out. As soon as my socked feet touched the tile, my nerves sent up a sense of relief. Sure, I took my shoes off every night, but with things so tangled, I figured it would be okay to sleep with them on in case something were to happen in our favor.

"I can understand that," Georgina happily replied, as she started with my socks, next. "I heard you did quite well in your marksmanship test. Nearly every single target destroyed! That has to be a new School record!"

"Three hundred out of three hundred and one. That last target ended up missed because I was getting exhausted," I giggled a little, shivering as my bare feet met the cold.

Georgina returned her hands to my shoulders, adding a small laugh of her own. "You'll have to excuse the cold floors. We don't have bath mats here, unfortunately. Now, shirt or pants, next?"

"Pants. Luckily my boyfriend let me keep them, even though it was an accidental discovery," I chuckled slightly, helping her with the button and zipper.

She and I had soon undone each, and she slowly eased them down my legs. "Oh yes, I've heard about that. Odd seems like a wonderful boyfriend to you."

"Yes, he and I temporarily dated when I wasn't emotionally strong enough from my breakup with William, but when things got even more traumatic, we decided to keep dating," I nodded, then blushed, remembering that I was wearing underwear with ponies on them.

She nodded, understandingly, as her hands went for my sweatshirt, next. "It sounds like it turned out for the best. Are William and you still on good terms?"

"Yeah. He brought my Hippity to the hospital, apologized to me for things he did, and even helped out with the defeat of XANA, doing everything we told him. He even helped me out of a rough patch in between the defeat and the hospital," I nodded.

Her smile seemed to increase. "That's wonderful! It's great when things between former boyfriends and girlfriends can end up so wonderfully."

"Exactly. I was happy when he brought my stuffed bunny to the hospital since I hadn't seen him since the time I accidentally slept in Jeremie's room. Apparently, it had been a while since I saw everyone," I noted, slipping off my sports bra.

She slowly walked her fingers down my sides, almost as if she was trying to tickle me, before stopping at my waist. "Really? Had something happened before that?"

"After I unleashed the monster, I had fallen into a coma for three months. My pulse was low for two of them. I had no idea that I did, but my friends do. In fact, they fought to keep me alive the day the doctors thought I was a goner and wanted to cut my life support. Sure, two or three of them ended up lightly sedated, but they bounced back."

Her eyes widened with surprise, as she placed her hands on the sides of my underwear. "Wow… those are some incredible friends you've got there. I don't know any group of friends who would fight hospital staff tooth-and-nail to save someone they were afraid of losing."

"Yumi told me there were three security guards that proved to be tough, but the fighting stopped when I started opening my eyes," I giggled, thinking that as a fond memory now.

The smile soon returned to her face, as she began to slowly slide my underwear down my legs. "Three security guards? That's incredible."

"It was three against eight," I nodded. "Odd even said, 'if only you were awake to see it.'"

Soon she had pulled my underwear all the way down to my feet. "It sounds like it was quite the battle. Bodyguards, sedation… it sounds almost like an episode of a TV series."

"I know, right? Plus I think that would've made for a compelling medical drama," I giggled, helping her with my clothes.

As he faced the wall, Hunter's face cycled through a mixture of emotions, as he listened to my conversation with Georgina. I could overhear him thinking about the battle in the hospital, and how interesting it must have been to be there and see that. I could also tell he was wondering if I would have him stare at the wall for the entire time, or what my plans were. Reading his mind told me he was afraid of overstepping any boundaries and didn't want to lose a friend he had gained, despite the fact he hadn't known me for very long, which I could understand.

"I'll let you know when you can turn around, Hunter, okay?" I yelled over my shoulder. "Trust me."

He raised a shaky hand into the air. "O-o-okay!"

Georgina soon pulled a hamper out of the cabinet, and she and I placed my clothes into that. "We'll wash your clothes as well, so you'll feel nice and clean for your next set of tests."

In the back of my mind, I still felt a bit suspicious of Georgina's and the other whitecoats' plans but kept myself from hurting her. Besides, I didn't know how smooth the tile was, nor did I want to hit someone older than me. This wasn't like the terrible twins, Part 1, where I fought for Jeremie's wellbeing. She was real.

"That would be nice," I smiled genuinely. "I think they are so soaked with sweat. I wish we could have had a chance to have our clothes shipped here. That would have helped us a lot."

"You'd have to talk to Jeb about that, but I think that might be difficult, if not costly to do," Georgina admitted, before offering me her hand. "Let me help you into the tub, now."

I took it, the back of my mind insisting that I was making a deal with a devil, but I dissolved the thought. It couldn't be that bad if she wanted us to enjoy something of a spa day, right? It wasn't going to kill me.

She helped me up the stairs, and into a sitting position, within the tub. The inside of the tub was a soft, smooth plastic feel, somewhat warm against my bottom. Once I had found a comfortable position, she walked over to the chair, picked up one of the folded towels, and began briskly rubbing her hands against each side.

"Don't want you to shiver under my touch, sweetheart," she said with a giggle, as she walked over to me, towel still in her hands. "Which side would you like me to start on, for the rub?"

"The back. The masseuse told me I had a few knots the last time I was at a spa," I admitted. "I was surprised that there were that many."

Her usual warm, friendly smile returned to her face. "Well, once I check your entire back half for any raised bumps, I'll be sure to give those knots a good, gentle workout. How long ago did you say you went to a spa?"

"About a month ago. Sister paid for it after I had that rough patch. Jeremie ended up so relaxed after that," I remembered.

She nodded understandingly, as she draped the still-folded towel over the side of the tub, before walking over toward my head. "I've always found a spa can revitalize just about anyone, and I hope my soft, gentle rubs, massages, and even washes, will help you relax just as much."

"That would be so delightful," I smiled. "I mean, Sister was going to pay for another around this time after we got about a week into Kadic. But looks like we might be diverting the plans for a while."

She beamed warmly, as she held out her hands in front of me. "There's always a chance you might be able to go for another one. I don't know if they'll wash you as soothingly and thoroughly as I will, but you never know. And besides, the scientist assigned to Sissi should be giving her a treatment similar to what I'm about to give you, and later Hunter, right now."

"I bet she'll be satisfied. She loved going to the spa the last time we were there," I giggled.

Once Georgina had helped me into a laying position, she had soothingly rubbed nearly every inch of both halves of my body, and given me a relaxing, invigorating massage. She noted the scar I got so long ago during her initial exploratory rub and pointed it out to me during my massage, but I told her that it didn't hurt anymore. Once both of my halves had been rubbed, she turned the taps in front of the tub, sending a soothingly warm flood of water to surround me, which she followed with a gentle spray of water across every inch of my body. The entire scrubbing process was just as relaxing as the rubbing, with Georgina soothingly, slowly, softly, and thoroughly washing every inch of skin on my body, sending me into a feeling of relaxation I hadn't felt since I went to the spa with the others. In a manner of twenty minutes, despite seeming longer, Georgina had thoroughly washed every inch of my body and hair and softly dried my body in a similar fashion, with a soft, gentle towel that was soon wrapped around my body for the moment.

Then it was Hunter's turn. Coaxing him out of his clothes was easy, but he still reluctantly climbed up the ladder with Georgina's help, even though he seemed slightly relieved she would rub him first. A soft, invigorating rub across both halves of his body revealed his entire body, like mine, had no strange growths or raised bumps, and a relaxing massage soon followed. When she turned on the taps, filling the tub with four inches of water, I could hear Hunter starting to freak out in his mind, wishing I could control him slightly to help him relax, but knowing that that power was really a fluke. Instead, I merely let Georgina know what he was thinking, and she began to calm him as she talked, cooing softly as she gently sprayed him with soothingly warm water. She then began to wash him, and in a matter of moments, as the soft washcloth explored his body, I could feel him calming down, and starting to enjoy the bath. She spent an extra bit of time on him, trying to keep him calm as she washed him, but soon she had soothingly and thoroughly scrubbed every inch of skin on his body, and his hair was washed similarly, not five minutes later. I couldn't help but giggle as I remembered his earlier thoughts, as he now didn't want to climb out of the tub, once his bath was over.

A soft, gentle drying rub with another towel soon followed, Georgina making sure every inch of his skin was as dry as mine, before wrapping the towel around him, remembering my sensibilities from earlier.

It was then that something happened, that reminded me of my fears, earlier that morning.

Once Hunter had been dried, Georgina then walked over to the cabinet a third time, but what she pulled out surprised me. In her hands looked like two hospital gowns, one slightly smaller than the other, which she soon brought over to Hunter and me.

"Another reason why you might like that other spa better," she joked, trying to keep the mood light, "is that they actually have bathrobes. The most we have are those soft towels you're wrapped in, and those soft washcloths I washed each of you with. But you two can wear these, just until we get your clothes washed."

It was at this point, despite how relaxed I could tell Hunter was, after his extended head-to-toe wash, that I heard alarm bells go off in his mind, immediately bringing to its eye the observation I had made, earlier. Wait a second… Cassidy and Yumi told me something terrible was going to happen today… and now I can't help but wonder if these hospital gowns have something to do with that...

Cassidy, you need to escape right now, my thoughts yelled at me.

Why? They gave us a bath. Nothing more or less. Such a pleasant experience…

While lost in my thoughts, Georgina unfolded the smaller one first, walking over to me, and reaching for the towel around me, while holding the gown in her other hand.

Didn't you learn the last time you were lured into a trap? You're going straight into the lion's den, they growled.

What are you talking about? This bath was so nice…

In a matter of moments, she had undone the towel she wrapped around me earlier, while making sure Hunter's eyes weren't staring in my direction, and began to unwrap it.

Your brain is digging at a memory you have lost, Cassidy! Once it has brought it in, you'll see for yourself. You are too soothed by this honey trap, this time.

The towel was soon freed from my body and gently placed into a chair. Georgina then spread out the gown in each hand, waiting for me to slide my arms into the sleeves.

I obeyed the order. I don't know what you're talking about. This is so great…

Once my arms had gone into the sleeves, Georgina wrapped the gown around to my back, tying it snugly, yet not too tightly, so it covered both halves of my body, but stopping above my kneecaps.

It's still digging, girl. Just hold on!

She then retrieved the bigger gown, unfolding it, before taking off Hunter's towel, as well. While he obeyed the gentle directions just like I did, I could hear him worrying in his mind, albeit not as much as he was, during his bath. I really, really don't like the looks of this…! I really wanna be wrong! I wanna be worrying too much! They'll just wash my clothes and give them back to me, just like Georgina said. She's gentle, calming, soothing… she's helped me relax on at least two occasions… I want to trust her… can't I?

With his gown soon tied snugly behind his back, Georgina stepped back in front of us, a warm smile gracing her face, once more.

"There!" she declared. "Now you two are nice, clean and freshly washed, and hopefully quite relaxed, as well. Let's head back to your room."

I nodded, following her. "Yes, ma'am."

Hunter nodded as well, at nearly the same time I did. "Okiday."

Reaching for the hamper that contained both Hunter's clothes and my own, she led us out of the room, following behind, before returning to the front, hamper in her arms. A short, thought-filled walk down the long hallway took us back into the big room, where Georgina left us, before continuing down the hall with the hamper.

Almost got it, Cassidy! Be ready for a vision, my thoughts churned.

A WHAT?! I haven't had one in ages! What makes you so sure that…

Just trust your conscience. It won't end with an earthquake, another monster, or you in another coma. It'll be okay…

I gulped a tiny bit. My thoughts have got to be kidding me… A new vision?! How could I possibly get a new vision?! After all this time I thought I couldn't get another one, and now my thoughts are daring to prove me wrong! This was seriously creeping me out!

In five, four, three, two… NOW!

Instantly, my eyes clouded in front of me. I could see a whitecoat carrying a bag, which bore a label written in Sharpie Marker, "PRECIOUS DNA, INJECT TO SUBJECT 12 IMMEDIATELY!" in thick, block letters and quadruple-underlined. I watched the whitecoat walk up to an unconscious figure, lying on a cot of some sort, various different wires running to and from its body into various different machines, with the whole entire setup looking as though it was yet another room in The School. I watched the whitecoat grab one of the wires, before opening the bag he carried. As he reached into the bag, I was able to get a closer look at the unconscious figure, before getting the shock of my life. It was ME!

Out came a syringe from the bag, which contained a weirdly-colored liquid of some sort. My face tensed up as I watched the whitecoat insert it into the line he held, grinning the entire time evilly.

Strangely, as if the voices in my head had been wrong, an earthquake did start, only this one wasn't created by my psychic powers; this was a natural earthquake. One that Hunter and everyone else in the School could feel, except me. If I could have seen him, I would have seen him tense up, drop to his belly, and cover his head, out of fear.

With the earthquake in progress, the whitecoats in another room of the School immediately set to work determining the epicenter and magnitude of the quake, checking various Richter scales and seismographs within one of their research rooms.

"Hunter! We need to warn the others now! I now know why we haven't eaten anything since last night…" I whispered to him, feeling a shaking sensation stop.

He quickly looked up at me, seconds after the sensation ended, pulling his hands off from his head.

"It's got something to do with these hospital gowns, and that bath, doesn't it?" he whispered back.

"Partially. I don't know! This was their idea of a trap, and I nearly fell for it. We need to tell the others."

A few seconds later, Odd, Kiwi, and Jeremie walked back into the room, the two boys also wearing hospital gowns, with unnerved looks on their faces. The two immediately looked in my direction.

"Was that you, Cat Girl?!" Odd asked me.

"The vision, yes. Earthquake, no. I felt that, too, after I came out of my vision," I answered swiftly. "Boys, we are in danger."

"What confuses me," Jeremie began, "is that you had a vision, one that is usually accompanied by an earthquake; however, this vision was not, yet a natural earthquake occurred nonetheless."

"California is on a fault line, Einstein," I deadpanned. "The San Andreas fault? We learned it in Geography with Mrs. Hertz."

He extended a finger in my direction. "You're right. That full body rub, relaxing massage and invigorating bath seems to have left me a bit too relaxed."

"It's a trap, Jeremie. We're all in danger! I don't know what is going to happen, but I know why we haven't gotten anything to eat. Have you all heard the expression, 'Nil by mouth?'"

Surprisingly, Odd raised a finger. "It was when I was very little. I had somehow gotten a pearl the size of a quarter stuck in my throat. I still don't know how it got there. The sign was hung over my door." His eyes widened. "Cat Girl! Is that why we didn't get breakfast this morning?!"

"Yes. We need to warn the girls, Patrick, and William, and try to escape while we still can. Yumi was right! I can't believe that I was blinded by the kindness of Georgina's nice bath!" I gulped.

Hunter got to his feet, grimacing as he looked at me. "Don't worry about it, Cassidy. They're probably trained to make it as soothing and relaxing as possible, so nobody freaks out when the time comes. Besides, I fell for it, too. I can't remember the last time someone other than me washed me, and once I got into it, I just loved it and didn't want it to stop. Now I'm wishing I hadn't let her take me into the tub, either!"

"We all fell for it," Jeremie lamented, slightly lowering his head in shame. "I worried about the possibility of everything being a set-up. The full body rub didn't faze me, but as soon as Mark began to massage both halves of my body, and then wash them thoroughly, I completely let myself forget. What's even weirder is, Mark was gentle the entire time. He's usually slightly rough in places, and during the whole bath, nothing disrupted my relaxation, at all!"

"That's the point of a honey trap, Jeremie! Aelita and I fell for it—figuratively and literally in the same day—before, and I still blame myself for that day!" I bowed my head a little bit. "But this isn't XANA… I know that. He wouldn't have done anything of this caliber."

"Of course not!" Odd agreed. "XANA would never have rubbed or washed us like that! Unless it was with poisonous soap!"

"Focus, Odd Della Robbia!" I gritted my teeth. "Think of why you just got that rub, massage, and bath!"

"Okay, okay! So what happened next in that book?"

"This is unfamiliar territory for me. They kept the flock in cages before the tests, and we got beds. And they tried to kill Max through Gasman before. But nothing like this… We still need to escape! We need a very thought-out plan—and we can't blitz the place. We don't have enough ammo. There goes Plan 15 down the drain…" I moaned.

"Wait!" Jeremie raised his left index finger. "Earlier, we decided that we would try to plot something that the whitecoats wouldn't expect from us. Do you think we should try to find Sam?"

"But where would we get enough time to get Sam?! We don't know where she is in this lab," I asked him. "And she hasn't exactly returned from wherever she was."

"And even then," Hunter interjected, "we probably shouldn't just burst in on her. There's a really good chance that'll set off her whitecoat, and we'll all get our necks stung. If we do it, we should be subtle."

"And I don't want to walk in on her naked!" My hand went over my chest. "Ugh… An ex-girlfriend of Odd's vs. me… The chances of getting KO'd on my end are very high…!"

Odd walked up behind me and placed his hand upon my shoulder. "Oh, relax, Cat Girl! She's not gonna freak out if you see her that way! Besides, once she knows what's going on, she's gonna wanna get out, as much as the rest of us!"

"Yeah!" Jeremie agreed.

Even though he reassured me the sight of her naked body wouldn't bother her in the slightest, I still couldn't help but worry about how she might react to me being alone with her. All I could think about was her thinking I stole her potential boyfriend away from her, and what lengths she would go to, to "fix" that. Maybe she knew Pencak Silat, just like Yumi, Ulrich, Sister, and to a lesser extent, me. She's usually quite secretive about her plans, so it could really be anything. And it was this uncertainty that bugged me like very little else.

"I don't know… Plan 120 could get sabotaged very easily. Considering there are other whitecoats, Erasers, and who knows what else?" I put every ounce of fretting into that. "We can't be too careful."

"Hmm…" Hunter's eyes glanced toward the ceiling. "I wonder if maybe we should go undercover? Like, dress up as whitecoats? That way, we can search the rooms without being detected, and when we find Sam, her whitecoat won't think anything of it."

"Oh, sure… A five-foot whitecoat, looking as though the coat is dwarfing her in all dimensions," I scoffed. "That is Plan 87, and it still has a chance to fail badly. Plus their coats are in the American sizes. I'm used to the European sizes since I moved to Kadic."

"Well, when you put it that way…" Jeremie lamented. "It does sound like a terrible idea, even if I could help you with the measurement conversions, and I'm sure Hunter still remembers American sizing, since he, like you, came from this country."

"Still, I haven't been here in years, other than that one mission where I had to speak Spanish. Look at it that way. And it might not even work. Especially since they're bound to find us all missing."

"O...kay, so we can't pretend we're one of them," Odd admitted. "So, what do we do? Just sit back and wait for her to come back in here?"

"I don't want to see her naked, Odd," I fumed.

As Odd was about to reply, the door opened once more, revealing Yumi and Aelita, both wearing hospital gowns like the rest of us. Like Jeremie and Odd, they were more unnerved than relaxed, as they quickly ran over to me.

"Yes, I had a vision and no, the earthquake didn't appear from my powers," I answered both their unanswered questions in a fell swoop, my mind springing into the details. "Long story short: We're all in danger."

"They got us really good, didn't they?" Yumi commented, a tinge of anger popping up in her voice. "I should have known that body rub, massage, and bath was all a trap! Pauline was really gentle and thorough, and she even washed every inch of me, before I got into the tub, just like in Japan!"

"And Jeb had disappeared, so I had a different whitecoat this time," Aelita added.

"This is going to end badly! Unless Sam comes back, we're not going to make it," I griped. "I fell for it, too!"

"We all did," Yumi echoed. "I'm sure even Sam, Ulrich, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and Sissi did, too. And we don't know where any of them are, so we can't just go and grab them!"

"See what I mean, Einstein! We have no idea… We'd end up getting lost."

He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"¡Esto es un desastre! I can't believe that I fell for it!" I growled.

Yumi wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm, comforting hug. "Don't worry, Cassidy. You probably thought that they were just being nice to us, and taking care of us, just like we all did. There's no need to beat yourself up over it."

"I've beaten myself up every time I remember that, in a matter of speaking, I killed Aelita! I know XANA did the job, but in a way, I feel that I did so! I feel responsible for every mistake I made in judgment. 'Cassidy, you should've supervised Jeremie a bit more in the materialization research.' 'Girl...you should have been calmer with your argument with Jeremie.' 'Cassidy, it's your fault Aelita died!'" I mimicked the voices in my head.

While I kept babbling on and on about every mistake I made, I watched Yumi grimace, almost as if what I was saying was really bugging her, before she did something I really wasn't expecting, at least not from her, and definitely not when my powers weren't controlling me.

She slapped my cheek. Not hard enough to leave a bruise, but just sufficient to shove my head in the direction she slapped, and frazzle me.

"Y-Yumi?" My eyes widened.

"Cassidy, knock it off!" Returning her hands to my shoulders, her tone became firm, yet there was a slight feeling of gentleness I could pick up. "We all make mistakes, okay?! I'd be lying if I said I was perfect! But we can't keep beating ourselves up over things we've done in the past, especially if we've already been forgiven for this stuff! No, you didn't kill Aelita! You didn't know XANA was going to pull you out of the Celestial Dome! If you seriously think you killed Aelita, then so did Ulrich! So did Odd! And so did I! And who's to say Jeremie didn't, by sitting there at the computer screen, powerless to change anything?! You have to tell yourself, 'yes, I messed up, but I'm not going to let it rule me!', and you move on!"

Near the end, she softened up. "Cassidy, please… you're only harming yourself by hanging on to these things! You have to let them go! We've all forgiven you! Please, forgive yourself! You can do it! We have faith in you!"

All of Yumi's words turned into a gigantic wrecking ball, destroying my defenses completely. As they started to sink in, I felt myself lose my composure, and tears began to fall from my eyes. It was at this point that I felt Yumi pull me into an even warmer embrace, comforting me like a big sister, softly rubbing my back as I tried to forgive myself for everything I had done, for all of those things that slowly ate away at me.

Aelita, for her part, had adopted a look of shock while I berated myself, and its result. But she soon came out of it, and walked over to me, reaching up to softly rub my back, along with Yumi.

"Cassidy, I don't blame you for what happened to me, that day in Sector Five," her soothing, calming voice wafted into my ears. "That wasn't your fault, at all. None of that was in your control. None of us knew XANA was going to trick us like that. I wanted to recover my missing memory fragment, and I didn't even know it was a trap. But you didn't get me killed, figuratively, literally, or metaphorically. So please, don't blame yourself for that. I don't blame you, or anyone else; not even myself."

That was all I needed. With her soothing, encouraging words, I felt that final lock on my heart completely dissolve, taking an enormous weight off from my shoulders. I wrapped my arms more tightly around Yumi, just letting her comforting hug, and hers and Aelita's soothing back rubs comfort me completely.

It was while this happened that the door opened once more, revealing a similarly-outfitted Ulrich, bearing a slightly worried expression.

"That was a magnitude 3 earthquake," he declared. "That wasn't you, was it, Cassidy?"

"Vision? Yes. Earthquake connected to aforementioned vision? No. I experienced the very same thing coming out of it," I said, feeling a bit more free.

"I just passed by their research lab as I came back here," he continued. "Apparently the epicenter was not far from here. About three miles, actually."

"Thank heavens," Aelita murmured.

"That's still really strange, though," Jeremie remarked. "First Cassidy gets a vision, the first one she's had, since her coma, and the earthquake we normally feel when one of those visions takes place was a natural one? This doesn't make sense."

"Weird, right?" I grinned. "I didn't feel the ground move when I came out of a vision, but this time I did."

"Very weird!" Jeremie agreed. "So weird, in fact, that I don't have any idea how to explain it!"

"Call it a coincidence, Einstein," Odd smiled. "Maybe the next vision she has won't come with an earthquake."

"Then maybe that monster did more to her psychic powers than we thought," Ulrich guessed.

"Do you think her powers are unraveling?" Yumi asked.

I folded my arms against my chest, feeling as unimportant as a five-year-old child in an adult situation. "I'm right here, ya know!"

A sheepish, yet apologetic smile appeared on my geisha friend's face. "Sorry, Cassidy. We didn't mean to make you think we were ignoring you."

"We're about as confused about all this as you are," Einstein added.

"What about you, then, Cat Girl?" Odd turned Yumi's question in what he assumed was its proper direction. "Are your powers unraveling?"

"I think my powers might not be as weak as Jeb thought, but I don't believe that they're coming apart. I mean, if they had, they would have gone away by the time I deactivated that weird tower. I shouldn't be able to keep reading human and animal minds, but I am. My thoughts unveiled that vision because they told me that we were being led into a trap. I don't remember where it came from," I shook my head. "They only told me to be prepared for a vision."

"But there's definitely something going on here," Odd pointed out.

Suddenly, Aelita blinked, letting out a slight gasp of surprise.

"I just remembered something!" She turned to me. "Cassidy, do you remember what happened, the day you deactivated that tower on the Old Desert Replika?"

"The screen turned white, then dark, but what does that have to do with any—?"

Before I could finish, the elven princess asked her next question. "Do you remember anything you yelled, between the time the screen went dark, and the Replika exploded?"

"I said an 'Ow…' when I failed to commit virtual suicide and shouted for Yumi and Odd to help when they called my name…" I remembered, the memory making my chest clench.

Aelita seemed to tense up a bit, when I replied. As she spoke, I figured out why.

"We heard you shout something that sounded like 'this has to be fake, it can't happen, it's not real,' before Jeremie yelled your name. We started to wonder if your powers had taken over you."

My eyes widened. "They must've been, my brain was said to be digging it up from my memories, but usually, I don't forget a vision. In between the white and black screens, I must've had a vision, but I think the tower made me forget it."

"Maybe the vision you just had might have something to do with the one you had in that tower?" she posed, trying to put the pieces together in her mind.

"My thoughts told me that I had lost a memory," I considered. "It could be that very same one. It felt so familiar."

"Now I'm starting to wonder if the things you yelled in that tower caused your mind to block out that memory," Jeremie hypothesized, "and at some point after yours and Hunter's baths, something Georgina must have done to you triggered its reemergence?"

"I think I'd remember emotional trauma, Jeremie. Remember when I kept Aelita up all night when William suddenly used my nickname?"

"Did you have a vision at any time, before that moment?" was his next question.

"After waking from my coma? No. I only woke up feeling as halfway there as a Bon Jovi song."

Einstein was trying to sort out the pieces. "Then something in that vision must have been so emotionally distressing, that something caused it to disappear, up until a few minutes ago."

"Do you think that the white and black screens have anything to do with it?"

"You said that something might have happened in-between them," Aelita reminded me. "Do you remember any strange feelings at all, when the screen turned white after you entered 'Code Lyoko?'"

"I remember undergoing a vision, but then it somehow disappeared from me," I nodded. "I hadn't gone under my powers in four months, but I didn't know at the time. Then, I woke, and found the screen had turned black."

"If your mind told you it was digging at a lost memory, that might have been it," she guessed. "Otherwise, I'm just as confused as you are. Did you feel like screaming at all, as you watched it?"

"I did, and I must have out loud without knowing it."

Einstein and my former first roommate looked at each other as if something clicked within their minds.

"And what about this time?" Jeremie asked next. "Did you feel like yelling anything this time?"

"I wanted to recoil in horror, but I didn't yell out. I guess I didn't want to scare Hunter by screaming. It was crazy…"

"Can you remember if it felt anything like the time you were in the tower?" Aelita inquired.

"It felt exactly like that."

"It had to be!" Jeremie nearly exclaimed. "There's no other logical conclusions other than that! Cassidy, the vision you had just now, has to be the exact one the tower showed you!"

He quickly ran up to me. "You have to tell us everything the vision showed you! Maybe it can help us!"

I gritted my teeth but forced them to unclench. Even though I didn't want to relive it, I ended up explaining the entire thing, from the syringe to seeing myself lying unconscious on a cot, hooked up to different machines, to the injection. When I finished, everyone looked shocked.

"You sure that whitecoat wasn't Dr. Shrank?" Odd asked, and I couldn't tell if he was trying to lighten the mood, or if he was genuinely confused.

"I really don't know, Odd," Yumi shook her head, seeming about as confused as he was.

"Even though I never watched that series in full, Dr. Shrank is a saint compared to these whitecoats," I protested.

And at that moment, the door opened once again, revealing four more hospital gown-clad friends of mine: Patrick, Kaitlyn, Sister, and William. Out of all of them, Sister's face bore a mixture of relaxation and surprise, while the other three looked unnerved. I can just about guess why, too.

"That was incredible!" Sissi beamed, seeming as though she was oblivious to what had happened. "I thought that spa trip we took a week ago was great, but that rub, massage, and especially that bath was like heaven! When we get back to Kadic, I'm gonna talk to my father about putting a whirlpool bath into Lyoko HQ, and hiring someone to wash us, every time any of us want a bath! Oh, with something like that, I'd never hog the girls' showers again!"

I slowly began to grin at that thought. It sounded like she enjoyed her bath as much as Hunter and I enjoyed ours, and I know that we definitely enjoyed ours. But then I glanced over at Hunter, remembering how much coercing it took to get him into the tub in the first place, let alone getting him to relax while Georgina washed his entire body. Right away, I knew he was kinda worried about the idea, even though Lyoko HQ wasn't technically his room, just yet, as much as he tried to hide it behind a calm face.

"Calm down, Hunter," I grinned mischievously. "You know you'd love it, too, once you got into it if you ever start going to Kadic."

I knew it got him, because he blinked, and quickly spun around to face me. "Wh-wh-wha…? Wait, you… wha…?!"

Sister immediately picked up on this, giving Hunter a concerned look. "Does that bother you, Hunter dear? You're not afraid of taking a bath, are you?"

Hunter quickly spun around to look at her, rehearsing his vowels even more. "W-well… eh, y-you see, uh…"

"Oh, yes he is," I answered for him. "He didn't want to even go into the tub, at first. Georgina had to tell him she was gonna rub and massage him first, just to get him in there. He really loved those, but when it came time to wash him, I just had Georgina calm him down, and when she started washing him, he absolutely loved it right away."

Hunter began to grimace, and one of his next thoughts almost worried me. Great! Now Sissi's going to laugh at me! I know you know how I am with baths, Cassidy, but I don't know how she's going to react!

To his surprise, she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him, her concerned brown eyes gazing into his tense, electric green eyes. "There's no need to be worried about that! Baths and showers feel great! And letting someone wash you softly and thoroughly from head to toe feels even better! Take it from me! After my father gets the whirlpool bath in, and hires someone to wash us, even if you don't go to school with us right away, we should sneak you into Lyoko HQ, and make sure that we get every inch of your body and hair softly, slowly, soothingly, and thoroughly washed, until you see that you shouldn't be afraid of getting a bath!"

Hunter still looked quite tense, almost as if Sister's proposition barely fazed him. "Uh… u-uh, i-i-if you… s-s-s-say… so…"

She grinned at him, reassuringly. "Like my sister said, you'll love it, once you get into it."

With that out of the way, her tone and face turned to concern, as she looked at me. "Now, dear sister, did you cause that earthquake we felt, a few minutes ago?"

"Earthquake, no. Vision, yes," I explained, for what was either the fourth or fifth time.

She ran up to me. "You had another vision?!"

How could I tell her this…? "Yes? B-but if I told you, then you would probably freak out. But believe me, when I say, we are all in danger."

"I trust you, dear sister," she replied, closing her eyes as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "I may not know what your vision was all about, but I know you wouldn't lie about one, either! So, what do we do?"

"I don't know, all 119 of my plans have flaws and—and I don't know what to do," I admitted. "And 120 might not even work."

"Plan 120," Jeremie explained to the four recent arrivals, "is where we decide to have someone other than Cassidy, Aelita, Yumi, or I devise a plan. Someone they're not expecting. We decided that Sam would be the one to devise the plan, since the whitecoats have absolutely no information on her, aside from what she told her whitecoat, but we have no idea what room they're bathing her in. Furthermore, if we were to look for her, we're bound to be discovered, and unless we can come up with some very convincing lies, we're bound to have our necks stung, and wake up back here. Unless of course, we're able to find her…"

His cheeks suddenly went red at this thought.

"By the time they sting our necks, it could be too late," Yumi pointed out.

You know how they say "speak of the devil?" Well, that line would come in perfectly handy right about now, as moments later, the door opened, revealing none other than Samantha Knight herself, wrapped in a hospital gown, and looking about as refreshed as Sister did, before she questioned the source of the earthquake. Of course, she wasn't alone; her whitecoat was still following behind her, with a calm smile on her face. Sam didn't even get a chance to say anything to us, let alone comment on how wonderful her rub, massage, and bath were, which I could assume would be the first thing she would have said, before the other whitecoats soon came in after them, all bearing calm smiles on their faces, almost like an army. My nerves piquing, I quickly scanned the row of coat-clad scientists to see if I recognized any. My nerves intensified when I realized that neither Georgina nor Jeb, were among them.

The female whitecoat I came up to in the beginning, Mandy, came up to the front of the pack. "We are ready for you now. Follow me."

After she had spoken these words, it was as if everyone suddenly decided to lay low, and go along with things. Like an unspoken command, all but one of us—Sam was already quite relaxed for real; she didn't need to pretend—suddenly acted as if our conversation had never happened, and that we didn't suspect anything, besides an invigorating gesture of kindness. The twelve of us slowly filed out of the big room behind the whitecoats, as they led us down another similar-looking hallway. As I walked next to Yumi, my guard was raised as high as it could go, and I only hoped the others had heeded my warnings, earlier.

Yumi glanced over at me, before whispering in my ear, "What do you think we should do, now?"

"No sé," I muttered in Spanish. "Tengo miedo."

"I understand," she whispered back, understanding what I had said. "I'm… scared, too. But maybe it's… not what we think it will be?"

"Esto me asusta más. Citaron a Harry Potter." I tried to keep my body from shaking, nearly fighting to keep myself in the same relaxed stance as I walked.

"It's not time to worry yet," she soothingly hissed in my ear.

"Sí, así es. ¿Qué pasa si Max y su rebaño no nos rescaten a tiempo?"

"Maybe Jeb or Ari are calling for them, right now. You saw Georgina wasn't there, right? What if she's helping him call for them?"

"Quizás... Adivino que tiene un punto allí."

"Did she ever act strangely at all, when she rubbed, massaged, and washed you and Hunter?"

"Nada pareció del común. Pero entonces otra vez podría ser debido a su personalidad."

"I'm glad at least the three of us had some warm whitecoats. The others sounded like theirs weren't too bad, but I wish Jeremie's had been a bit better."

"Sí, Yumi. No me gusta cuando esto va en absoluto."

"I don't, either. Everything up to now seemed so subtle. The tests, the check-up, that rub to detect bumps or growths, the massage, the bath… but maybe that was the point. But whatever they've got waiting for us, we just have to hope that Jeb, Ari, and Georgina are planning the next step."

"Jeb, Ari, y Georgina al rescate, esperamos."

Yumi nodded, keeping a relaxed smile upon her features. This was going to get hairy, and we hadn't even sprung Plan 120. And then there was the worry of whether or not we'd have enough time. We didn't even know where they were taking us just yet, even though I was sure Yumi had about as much of a guess as I did. The thought of having to play it by ear scared me the most.

We walked for a short while longer before the team of whitecoats led us into another room. Looking around at our new surroundings, I found this room seemed quite spacious, even bigger than the one we had been in before. There were exactly twelve beds, but rather than the hospital beds we had slept on before, they had real beds, that looked quite ritzy, complete with soft sheets, double-stacked mattresses, and very comfy looking pillows. Whatever exciting effect the sight of the beds had on me was soon diminished when I saw the curtain-like walls in the background; they stopped about a foot from the floor, showing several sets of small wheels, and even table legs underneath, suggesting some sort of machines were hiding behind it. This was what piqued my nerves the most.

Odd whispered into my ear next, keeping a relaxed stance. "So, what now, Cat Girl?"

I shrugged. I honestly didn't know what to do. I could try to have us all enact plan 120, but I had this nagging feeling that the whitecoats weren't going to leave us alone, this time. This was the moment they had worked us up to, and the nerves were killing me.

I could tell that if he wanted to break the relaxation charade, his face would have fallen, and he would have yelled at me. But instead, he acted cool as a cucumber. My trooper, Odd…

The whitecoats soon brought all of us into the center of the room, and I waited, with bated breath, to see what they would say, or do, next. My bare toes remained unclenched.

"We brought you all in here," Mandy spoke up, "because we realized the room we had placed you all in before was getting quite small for you. So now we're moving you into this bigger room, so you all will have more than enough room to stretch out."

Jeremie gained a relaxed, appreciative smile, even though I could tell he was nearly as worried as Yumi and I were. "Thanks, ma'am."

Showing an almost-genuine grin, I nodded. I sure hoped that I was wrong… Things were certainly leading up to a point where the worst could happen… should I actually start listening to the voices in my head, this time, despite all the harm they gave me in the past?

Apparently, yes!

Because no sooner had I started to convince myself to relax, then a familiar whitecoat, Reilly of all people, walked up to me, while another whitecoat, a kind-and-warm-looking woman, walked up to Hunter. But I didn't focus on what the woman was going to say to, or do with, Hunter; Reilly was coming toward me, and he had an evil grin on his face! Only in a remote galaxy, like ones in the movies mi novio liked to watch, would that actually be a good thing!

"Welcome, Cassidy…" he started.

"Reilly," I regarded in the most relaxed tone I could manage, cutting him off.

Yumi tried to stifle a gasp, once she saw the predicament I was in, but Pauline grabbed her attention before she could do anything else.

I took a cleansing breath, pretending that the bath had totally cooled my thunder. "Nice to see you again…" Oh, what I wouldn't give to pour ounces of sarcasm into that sentence, but I couldn't let him know that we could see through it.

"Oh yes, I'm absolutely sure." He sure didn't resist putting sarcasm into his reply, though, as I watched his eyes dart straight to my right arm. "I see that bleeding heart Markson took that shunt out of your arm."

If that was supposed to unsettle me, he was mistaken. But I kept a straight tone and smiled. "She told me I didn't need it in my arm anymore…"

"Of course not… like she actually knows anything… oh, that's right; she doesn't! That's why we fired her! And now you're rightfully mine, once again!"

I was expecting him to follow that with an evil laugh, but surprisingly, he settled for an evil grin, instead.

That wasn't true. He accidentally let out a thought I could detect in my mind: She isn't fired, but what I wouldn't give to actually do that. Keeping my eyes relaxed, I took a deep breath. However, I didn't like when he said I was his. "I think you're lying to me."

That actually got him to blink and turned his expression into one of surprise. "Me?! You think I'm actually lying to you?! Why don't you go ask Markson yourself, if you think I'm lying! Oh, that's right! You'll have to find her, first!"

"You forgot about what I can do, Reilly…" I almost had him, even if I sounded as stoned as Sam. "Did the monster teach you nothing?"

His eyebrows were slowly curving downward, and I could almost see a slight red tint overtaking his face. "I know everything there is to know about you, Cassidy René McGuire! I know about every single one of your psychic powers, so don't think you can fool me, even for a microsecond!"

"Full name ultimatum… heard that before, used that before…" He should've known better than to use that tactic upon me. "Believe me, Reilly. I have read a lot about you, too… Your coworkers all think you should work in a carwash, you use brute force against anything that fights or bites you. You even used a modified version of a cattle prod against… what was it you called her… 'Subject 11?' Angel." Man, XANA, along with Jeremie, did teach me some things.

And oh boy, did I really get him with that one. Poor Reilly just stood there, steam coming out of his ears, his face completely turning red, while the guy kept rehearsing his vowels, utterly flabbergasted by the tactic I used against him.

But that didn't last long.

"THAT DOES IT!" he screamed, before he launched himself at me, forcefully pinning me to the floor, with a look of pure anger on his face.

I lost my composure, giving a squeal of distress. "HELP!"

Keeping me pressed down as hard as he could, I watched Reilly reach into his pocket, and pull out a syringe. He brought it up toward my head, an entirely psychotic grin overtaking his face.

"THIS'LL TEACH YOU TO MESS WITH ME, MCGUIRE!" he yelled, as he brought the syringe closer to my neck.

Of course, that was when my friends immediately leaped into action, running toward my head. I felt Sister, Hunter, Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, and Sam grab my arms and try to pull me away, while Yumi, Ulrich, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and William ran behind Reilly, grabbing him by his arms, legs, and torso, and trying to pull him off from me. At the same time, they were helped by a majority of the whitecoats, giving them enough strength to completely tear Reilly off from me, wrapping their arms around him as the force flung them all backward.

"Are you okay, Cassidy?!" Yumi asked in concern.

"Nothing broken, but I think I'll feel that in the morning," I shivered. "Wrecked in the emotions department, but I don't feel bad for what I said."

"You really showed him!" Sam commented as she and the others helped me to my feet. "How'd you manage to sweet talk him like that?"

"Ripped a section out of XANA-Franz's book!" I grinned, panting from the pushdown.

"That's my Cat Girl!" Odd smiled.

Then, Yumi, Aelita, and Sister walked over to me. Yumi wrapped her arms around me, while Sister and Aelita walked behind me, the two giving me a soft, soothing back rub, to help me calm down.

"You did wonderfully," Aelita grinned.

From Yumi's shoulder, I watched another whitecoat, a male, walk up to me, with a worried look on his face. He quickly checked me over, hoping that Reilly hadn't broken any of my bones, scratched any part of my body, or anything like that.

"Are you alright, Miss McGuire?" he asked, concern also in his voice.

"No. I still feel shaky from what he did to me. He almost used a syringe on me," I panted, some of the trauma bubbling to the surface.

He grimaced, before sending a glare behind himself. "We'll make sure Reilly doesn't come near you or your friends anymore. Can we get you into another massage, or a bath, or anything like that?"

"W-with Georgina, please?" I whimpered.

His face softened. "I'll see what I can do. She should be around, someplace."

I nodded.

The man walked out of the room, through the door we came in, as my eyes turned to Reilly being forcefully dragged out of the room, through another door. As they pulled him out, he kept his rage-filled face on me.

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME, CASSIDY RENÉ MCGUIRE!" he screamed. "DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"That's a cliché," Yumi growled, keeping her hands upon my shoulders. "If you ever set foot near her again, you'll be hearing from us!"

To further illustrate Yumi's threat, she, along with my other friends, surrounded me, with her, Ulrich, Odd, and William, standing guard in front of me. Even Kiwi, who stayed mostly silent all this time, barked aggressively at the man, keeping by my feet. Odd, Master, hit me with toothpaste. I wanna look rabid! I want to shred his clothes!

As they dragged Reilly out of the room, Odd bent down by Kiwi, and softly stroked his diggity-dog. "Good boy, Kiwi! Show that evil whitecoat who's boss!"

I nodded, still shaking by this point. "T-Thanks… Kiwi…" Turning my head downward, I saw that the syringe had been knocked away from the guarding circle. "That w-was scary…"

"I hear you," Hunter agreed, as he joined Aelita and Sister in softly and soothingly rubbing my back. "I didn't even think it was going to get that crazy."

"Tell you the truth, I was trying to be biting to him…" My eyes welled up with tears. I still didn't blame myself for the words I said, but he caused a damaging blow. He didn't break my skin or any of my bones, but he certainly bruised my psyche. I knew he was mean, but I didn't think that pushing him over the edge would turn him into a psycho.

"You were trying to push him past his breaking point, weren't you?" Einstein queried.

"Y-yes… I t-totally d-didn't think he-he-he'd d-do that…" I whimpered.

Yumi soon wrapped her arms around me, with Odd doing the same from behind, as Ulrich walked up to me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"That's the thing about crazy guys like that," he tried to reassure me. "They talk tough because they don't expect you to talk even tougher back to them. But when you do, they try to knock you down a few pegs. But I'm sure we've seen the last of him, so don't worry, Cassidy."

"And I'm proud of the way you handled that… that psycho!" Sister was next, grinning at me reassuringly. "You definitely showed him, dear sister!"

I nodded, tears still streaming down my face. I was happy that they were proud of me, but all in all, I felt emotionally shredded. "T-thanks, Sister…"

"Don't mention it!" she replied. "And don't worry, either. You'll be okay."

That was when Georgina walked in, a concerned look crossing her features as she walked up to me.

"Cassidy, sweetheart!" she began. "What happened?"

"R-Reilly a-attacked me…" I trembled.

Georgina grimaced. "I heard something had happened in here. It looks like your friends are helping quite a bit. Can I help you calm down in any way?"

"M-May I have another massage, bath, rub down?" I asked.

Her grimace slowly turned into a sympathetic smile. "Of course, you can, sweetheart. Why don't you come with me? I'll take you into another room, and we can do it in there."

Yumi and Odd slowly relinquished their holds on me, before I followed Georgina out of the room, down the hallway, and into the same room she had rubbed, massaged, and bathed Hunter and me in, earlier. Once we were inside, Georgina wasted no time pulling another soft towel and washcloth out of the cabinet, along with a bottle of bath soap, and shampoo. The hospital gown was soon untied and removed before she helped me up the stairs, and into the tub. I laid down on my belly and was given another soothing, slow rub, from my feet to my head, before I flipped over, and the gesture was repeated. The soothing, gentle massage was next, and I could feel myself slowly relaxing under Georgina's soft, gentle touch as if she was working the kinks out of my psyche. Laying there, her massage seemed to take longer than it had the first time, as she made sure that I was completely calm. A good, relaxing, invigorating massage on both halves of my body ended with her hands going toward the taps, filling the tub with five inches of soothingly warm water. I laid on my back as Georgina gently sprayed my entire front half with more water, before she dunked the washcloth into the gentle water that surrounded me, and lathered it up incredibly well with the Dove soap, nearly caking the cloth in the process. That gentle, soothing, slow, soft, and thorough wash was what really hit the spot. A smile slowly returned to my face as Georgina slowly, softly, and thoroughly washed every inch of skin on my body and face, taking even longer this time, to really pour on the relaxation. Washing my front half felt like it took forever, and my back half nearly so, but I didn't care. That washcloth was incredibly soft and gentle, and she could've washed my entire body multiple times, for all I cared.

But soon, nearly an hour later, she had soothingly and thoroughly washed every inch of my body and given a similar amount of time to my hair. Gently helping me back out of the tub, she began to softly and slowly rub the towel all over my body, making sure that every inch of skin had been softly and thoroughly dried, along with my hair. Then she wrapped another hospital gown around me and tied it snugly in the back.

"There… That's better, isn't it?" she asked in a sweet voice.

I nodded, Reilly's attack a distant memory. I didn't know what it was, but Georgina definitely eased my stress off me. In a sense, she had the magic touch.

She beamed, relieved that I was feeling much better. "Is there anything else I can do for you before I take you back into the bigger room?"

"That was it, Georgina," I grinned.

"Wonderful." She approached the door. "Then I'll take you back into the bigger room. Your friends will be glad to see that you're doing a lot better, now."

I followed her. "Yeah, they'll be so relieved."

The trip back into the bigger room I had come from an hour before was short, and soon Georgina had led me inside. I found my friends standing in a group near the middle of the room, and their attention suddenly turned to me as we walked in, their faces lighting up in relief.

I smiled in reply, walking over to them. "Hi, guys."

"There you are, Cat Girl!" Odd exclaimed as they all gathered around me, with mi novio, Yumi, Aelita, and Sister the closest. "If we knew you were gonna take that long in the bath, we all would've gotten ourselves re-rubbed and washed, too!"

"It was because of the trauma, Odd, sweetie," Sister grinned. "My dear sister had been roughed up, and it's only fair that she gets a longer treatment."

"We're all relieved that you're feeling much better, though," Jeremie affirmed. "While you were off with Georgina, we happened to overhear the other whitecoats talking about something. And this is pretty big stuff."

I creased a brow and raised the other, in an attempt to look like a longer haired version of my former first roommate when she heard the news about Franz H—I mean, Schaeffer—being her father, but a more smiling version. "Hm?"

"There was a lot of movement in the other room over there." He pointed to the doorway that the other whitecoats dragged Reilly through before I left. "We could hear them talking about their plans. One of them said something that sounded like 'we have the extra set of DNA right here. Have you gotten the tools?'. Another one sounded as though she said, 'this should keep them out for a good five hours. It should give us plenty of time.' I think they're really planning something big."

"Sounds like it, Einstein," I blinked, my body not reacting the way it normally would. Considering the bath, rub-down, and massage I had, I couldn't blame it.

Seeing how I reacted, Yumi cast a quizzical gaze in my direction. "Are you okay, Cassidy? It sounds like they're getting ready to operate on us."

"It must've been the bath, Yumi," Odd pointed out. "Georgina must've really relaxed her."

Yumi gritted her teeth. "You're right. We'll just have to help her, then, when the time comes. I don't feel as relaxed as I was before, so the time she spent in the bath must have made our relaxation wear off."

Sam nodded, although I could tell that her relaxation still had yet to wane.

"Dear sister, maybe it's time we tried Plan 120 since everyone's here?" Sister suggested, her face starting to show worry.

Next, William walked over to me. "We can't do this without her. She's the only one who has anything close to a good enough plan!"

He looked into my eyes, placing his hands on my shoulders. "Cass, weren't you the one who told us this was a honey trap? That even though they told us that the full-body rub was to check our naked bodies for anything weird, they knew we'd love them anyway, along with the full-body massages, and the baths? That they knew they'd make us so relaxed, that we'd let them do whatever they wanted to us, without stopping them? How do you know Georgina didn't just spend her time soothingly washing every inch of you, just to make sure you wouldn't be able to fight back?

"C'mon, Cass! You fell for it, again! And when they see how well it worked on you, they're bound to make up a lie, pull us all into separate rooms, and give us all another soft rub and gentle massage, before washing us even more softly, slowly, soothingly, and thoroughly than they did the first time, for the same length of time Georgina just did you! We can't let them do this to us, no matter how much we loved the full-body rubs, massages, and soothing, head-to-toe washes our whitecoats gave us!"

I blinked. How could I be such a vulnerable Fluttershy?! Heck, even she could beat Discord, the god of chaos and disharmony, just by acknowledging her own weaknesses. Oh, but that massage was so divine… No! I couldn't bring myself to allow that rub, massage, and bath to make me lose track of everything! I needed to focus. My friends, mi novio, and I were in danger.

I shook my head, reoriented my position on the board, and looked into his midnight-blue eyes. "Right, I—"

Oh, if only my ex could have been faster!

The next moment, footsteps immediately filled our ears, slowly growing closer and closer, until whitecoats entered the room from both entrances. Their faces were neutral, which caused everyone else to tense up, and they each had something in their hands, which piqued everyone's (Kaitlyn's especially) nerves: syringes.

This was it. It was as if all pretense had been thrown out whatever windows this place actually has—if it even has any at all—and they were now just going full speed ahead with their primary tactic. If Sam and I hadn't been so relaxed right now, if my ex-boyfriend had tried to snap me out of it, just a few minutes earlier…

Mandy was at the front, as the whitecoats came to a stop, surrounding us on both sides.

"It seems our friends here know a bit too much," she remarked, her tone just as neutral as her face. "I think we'd better take care of that."

A strong arm went across my shoulders in front of my chest, pressing me against someone's belly. However, seeing that I was as limp as a ragdoll cat, the grip loosened slightly. My eyes widened slightly, my inner voice trying to yell at my body to wake up, struggle, something to get away from this dude. Get out of here!

I could see everyone else getting grabbed from behind. The ones who became wise to this tried to run away but were quickly caught from the front, before they could do anything. Jeremie, Aelita, Sister, and Kaitlyn struggled. Ulrich tried to squeeze out from underneath the arm of his attacker. Odd tried biting their arm. Yumi attempted to pull their arm away from her body with both hands. William, Patrick, and Hunter tried kicking their attackers. Sam started to become more than just a vegetable in the arm of her attacker, but by then it was too late.

"Game over!" Mandy smirked.

A whitecoat, a man, approached me, pushing aside my long brown hair and gently pressing my head against my shoulder. My eyes widened even more, remembering him as the one who made my neck sting to get me on the chopper. The feeling started to return to my hands, but they were shaking. What should I do? I was too relaxed, and we didn't have anything to eat.

"Cat Girl! NO!" Odd yelled, voice filled with terror.

"Looks like it's just you and me, my dear," he cooed. "Let me help you get some rest."

I struggled internally, crying out to every inch of my body to actually become useful, again. As I tried to fight my way out of my attacker's grip, my eyes darted around the room, noticing a few of my friends being braced by their attackers, especially Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Patrick, William, and Hunter, who were trying even more fiercely to escape before, as their attackers were bringing up the syringes they held, getting ready to sting their captives' necks. None of us could get out of this, no matter how hard we tried. I could feel my body going "fight-or-flight," just as much as the others', and nothing was working.

The next thing I knew, I felt a sharp pain enter my neck, before disappearing. My eyes widened, as I realized he was able to strike. I could feel my veins go ablaze with the fire I remembered from the attack at Kadic.

"Sh, sh… it'll be all okay, my dear… You'll wake up soon… Goodnight…"

I could feel the fire within my veins intensify, slowly pulling my consciousness with it. But I couldn't give up, even as I felt my arms, legs, and every other part of my body slowly going numb. Taking one last look around the room, I watched as each one of my friends slowly slumped over in their attackers' arms.

Jeremie.

Aelita.

Ulrich.

Yumi.

Odd.

Sister.

A few seconds later, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and Hunter soon fell completely limp, with Sam following not too long after.

My eyelids became like weights, slowly pulling themselves down over my eyes. It became harder and harder to concentrate, or even see what was happening. It wasn't long before my eyesight, aided with my glasses, slowly became worse and worse.

...

...and then all went black.

...

Seems like a recurring trend, doesn't it?