The group was congregated in the Control Room, fiercely arguing. Odd and Aelita stood against the wall while Jeremie sat at the interface, and Yumi and Ulrich near him, leaning against the Holomap.
"We don't need him!" Ulrich clenched his hands into fists. "William is a liability."
"I can't believe you're still jealous of him!" Odd snarled, getting up in Ulrich's face. "The more Warriors we have, the easier it will be to stop X.A.N.A.! It was Laura's fault he got repossessed, not his! And he saved your life!"
"We stopped X.A.N.A. already, except your 'cousin' let him out! Look, he's a good guy but he could be possessed again and yesterday he didn't check his phone once while he was out skating. That's not acceptable!" Ulrich argued.
"Don't act like Aelita isn't your friend! She is our friend and we should have helped her from the beginning!" Odd retorted.
"She shouldn't have turned the Supercomputer back on!" This time Jeremie was the one to yell. "I told her not to and she still did!"
"If you had helped her, maybe she would have been able to help Franz without helping X.A.N.A.!" Odd spat.
"She should have known better on her own and because of her Franz Hopper is dead!" Jeremie shot back.
"No, he isn't!"Aelita screamed at the top of her lungs. "If X.A.N.A. is still alive, then so is he!" The rest of them cringed as Aelita started to cry. "He has to be alive! I know he is."
"Even if he is, he has to be so weak that he can't help us." Jeremie pushed on the bridge of his glasses.
"But William can." Odd insisted. "He is a Lyoko Warrior just like us. We had no way of knowing X.A.N.A. left that backdoor, and as I recall it he has no reason to even know to check his phone in case of X.A.N.A. attacking. Aelita removed the backdoor, so long as he gets some time on Lyoko with us he'll be every bit as resistant as us."
"We can't be sure Aelita totally fixed it, we don't need to be fighting X.A.N.A.'s knight again." Yumi looked over at Ulrich. "Don't get me wrong, I like William, he's a great guy. But just for now, the risk is too high. We can bring him back into the fold later on."
"Yeah, and we have no idea what he can or will do. He's barely able to handle a Tarantula anyway." Ulrich grunted, but Odd laughed. "What?"
"Our first time against a Tarantula, we lost, all of us. William is better than we were then." Odd pointed out, causing Ulrich to scowl.
"Well, we outvote you. It has to be unanimous." Ulrich crossed his arms.
"Oh, shut up, would you? He's already a Warrior. We aren't kicking him out because X.A.N.A. used him again. And he didn't know to keep his phone on him because nobody even told him to," Aelita spat through her tears, growing angrier as she went. "How many times did you decide to sit in your room and endanger the entire human race during an attack because you were upset about Yumi? Even now you won't just tell her you love her and get it over with.
"Aelita!" Jeremie burst, horrified, but Aelita did not stop.
"Honestly, Ulrich, your opinion on this matter is worthless. Here we all thought you were growing up and learned to stop being so bitter, but no. Maybe you should borrow your dad's happy pills."
The other four simply stood there in shocked silence at her outburst. "Um... yeah! Come on, Aelita." Odd said after a moment, awkwardly walking over to the elevator with Aelita in tow.
"You really do love me, Ulrich...?" Yumi finally managed to break the silence as the elevator doors closed.
As he and Aelita rode the elevator to the Factory floor, Odd got his cell phone out.
"What are you doing, Odd?" she asked, having stopped crying after telling Ulrich off.
"Calling William," he answered simply.
"But they voted no-oo," Aelita mocked, making a face and stifling her tears.
"I don't care. They should be happy I haven't gone and tried to virtualize everyone in our group. We could have an army fighting against X.A.N.A., just imagine the likes of Varric and Ashanti all fired up, trained up and coming after some monsters. But it's just William, he was already one of us." Odd rambled as the phone rang. "Hey, William, what's up?"
"Are you finally calling me in?" William immediately asked, setting down his paintbrush.
"What?" Odd asked, confused.
"X.A.N.A., he's back, are you finally calling me in?" William repeated, standing up from the stool he was sitting on.
"But, how did you know? We hadn't told you yet." The elevator door opened, and Odd and Aelita stepped out to the Factory ground floor.
"You think I wouldn't know he possessed me? Even if I tried to convince myself it was a bad dream, Varric told me Sissi somehow electrocuted him while trying to choke Ulrich yesterday, then forgot all about it. Do you really think I wouldn't notice going from my room to the Factory, then being told that?" William explained. "I'm kind of insulted, honestly. I thought we were past all this."
"I thought so too. But Aelita and I agree with you," Odd offered.
"How long have you been fighting him?"
"Only that one attack, actually. Well, the Princess has been fighting him since January. She did it on her own but then we found out."
"So what's the attack?"
"X.A.N.A. isn't attacking, he doesn't usually attack multiple days in a row. We're calling because you're one of us and we don't care what Ulrich and Yumi want."
"Why?" William narrowed his eyes suspiciously, pacing back and forth in his room. "You especially weren't my biggest fan last time we fought X.A.N.A. together."
"It doesn't matter. William, you're a Lyoko Warrior. The next time X.A.N.A. attacks, either Aelita or I will call you," Odd insisted.
"Okay." William couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad to know I'm wanted by some."
"Duh." Before Odd hung up he had one last question. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew?"
"Because if you didn't want me in the group I wasn't going to force my way in. Nothing good would come of doing that again. If I wasn't wanted, then, well, I wasn't wanted."
"Trust me, we want you in the group. The more help we have, the better," Odd assured him. "Talk to you soon." He hung up.
"So he knew?" Aelita asked and Odd nodded. "Well, that makes it easier for us."
"Yes, it does, Princess. Shall your Knight escort you home?" He smiled his dopey Odd smile and held a rope out to her for her to climb up to the bridge.
"Yes, my Knight shall." Odd and Aelita both laughed as they began to make their way up. The day was still young, and neither of them wanted to worry about X.A.N.A. or their friends for the time being.
Jeremie, Yumi and Ulrich were on their way through the sewers back to Kadic Academy later that evening, when Jeremie's laptop started to beep in his bag. "Superscan." Jeremie and the others stopped as he slung his bag off his shoulder and gently pulled out the computer. "Sector 5. It's only 8:30, if we hurry we won't need a Return to stay out of trouble. Someone call Aelita and Odd." Jeremie announced before he turned around and started to walk back to the Factory.
"Why don't you call them?" Ulrich called after him as he stormed off. Jeremie didn't answer Ulrich's question and kept going.
Aelita, meanwhile, was in her room, getting undressed to get in the shower. As she pulled her pink towel over her slender frame, she smiled a bit. She was always sheepish about her body, but it was nice to remember once in a while that there wasn't anything wrong with her. She sighed and turned around to leave just as one of X.A.N.A.'s spectres exited her alarm clock and floated up to the window. She stopped and turned around again to pick up her cell phone, just in case she needed it, when the window shattered. Aelita screamed and grabbed her face as her towel dropped and glass shards rained inwards, scattering all throughout her room and cutting her entire body. She whimpered and tried to bend down to pick up her night clothes to cover herself again, but found herself stepping on glass and screamed again.
At the same time, Odd had just gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed in his and Ulrich's room when his mobile rang. He picked it up and glanced at the little screen before answering. "Ulrich?"
"Attack. Get Aelita." Ulrich then hung up before Odd could respond.
"Don't have to be rude," Odd muttered. He dropped his mobile into his pocket and hurried up to the girls' floor.
Aelita screamed again and finally managed to pull a shirt on, covering herself enough to feel comfortable making her way to the door. Now that she was wearing slippers, she made a mad dash over the glass-strewn floor as the spectre flew around the room, tearing things apart. A large textbook slammed into the back of her right knee, which buckled from the impact. She hit her chin on the doorknob on her way down and saw stars and swirly patterns dance in her vision as she collapsed.
Odd slid to a stop in front of Aelita's room and heard a strange array of crashing and thumping sounds on the other end of the door. He grabbed the handle and pushed the door open in one move, but gasped when he hit the prone Aelita with it, making her whimper. "Aelita!" He pushed his way into the room, looked behind the door and saw her bed sheet wrap itself around her. It started to drag her towards the window.
"Leave her alone!" Odd dove and grabbed Aelita's ankle. "Aelita!" A CD case flung itself at him from a shelf, breaking on his arm and cutting him, but he ignored it.
"Odd!" Aelita's scream of both panic and pain was muffled under the sheet. She didn't know where X.A.N.A. would take her and Odd yanking on her leg certainly felt like he was going to rip it out of the socket.
"Let her go!" Odd pulled hard and the sheet relaxed its hold on her, tossing her out at Odd. She landed on him and quickly sat up, making sure she didn't have a wardrobe malfunction among the chaos. While she was learning to be comfortable with her 'assets', she had no intention of giving a show with them.
"Let me get dressed. Can't be running around in just a shirt and shoes." Aelita stammered. Odd nodded and got up to leave. "No, if X.A.N.A. comes back, I'll need help. Um... just turn around."
"Okay, just tell me when you're ready." She nodded and pulled the shirt off to change once he was turned.
Soon the two were headed through the park for the Factory and were looking out for any spectres or other signs of X.A.N.A. attacks. Aelita frowned, looking over at Odd then down at herself. He wasn't ripped or athletic like Ulrich or Varric, but his scrawny, no, svelte body was attractive in a different way. She wondered briefly whether Odd would think she was attractive and found herself feeling less proud of her blossoming body.
He's been with plenty of girls, surely he's seen his fair share. Skinny girls, big girls, all kinds. Kimi is a little heavy, but so pretty, too. Does he think I'm pretty?
Her mind wandered to Jeremie, though, and she shook her head. She loved Jeremie and he thought she was beautiful. He wasn't really exceptional, and he had become a slight bit stocky himself over the few years they'd known each other, but she thought he was lovely, too, and took no issue with his body type either. Even then, he was most attractive in the way he treated her... except for recently.
"Here we are!" Odd called from behind Aelita. She turned, realizing she'd run right past the sewer entrance in her daze. Odd stood by her no matter how bad things were...
"Coming, sorry." She shook her head and dropped down the ladder, forcing the thoughts out of her mind.
Meanwhile, Jeremie was sitting in the computer chair looking at the on-screen map of Sector 5 while Ulrich and Yumi watched from behind him. "Like I said, it's one of the two Sector 5 Towers. You'll have to make your way there from the Arena, but at least there's no key to hunt down or maze to figure out every time." Jeremie zoomed in on the Arena and mentally traced the path the Lyoko Warriors would probably have to take.
Aelita and Odd were halfway through the sewers when Aelita stopped. "Do you have your phone?" she asked as Odd came to a stop on his skateboard beside her.
"Yeah, why?" he replied.
"We need to call William. I almost forgot about him," she explained. Odd nodded and pulled his mobile out, then put it to his ear and waited.
"Odd?" William was laying in bed when he answered, very close to falling asleep. "X.A.N.A.?"
"You got it. Meet you in the sewers." Odd then hung up. "We should wait for him." He sat down against the wall and crossed his legs.
"Why?" Aelita asked, leaning her skateboard against the wall a little further down.
"If we tell the others about William without him already being there with us, they might refuse to send him. They're still pretty sore," Odd answered, looking up at her. Aelita nodded her agreement and sat down next to Odd. Trying not to think about Odd's svelte body or his possible experience with women, she instead worried about the attack. It could change into anything now that X.A.N.A. had left her alone, she knew.
Jim was marching across the courtyard toward the dorm building. "We'll just see about this wild party nonsense." He was just rounding the corner when he saw William run out of the dorm building. "If he's going out to get more party supplies he's about to have a big surprise," Jim whispered to himself, turning to follow William into the woods.
Jim came around a tree, expecting to pounce on William, but the young man was gone. "Where'd he go?" He looked around for a little bit, grumbling, then headed back in the direction of the dorms to catch the party there.
William was leading the group once he'd rejoined Aelita and Odd, and he pushed against the sewer cover at the Factory. He had his fingers at the top and was just about to climb up when a spectre slammed the cover back into place, shoving William's fingers off and knocking him down on top of the other two.
"What the hell was that?!" Odd screamed as William crawled off of him.
"Something shut the cover."
"X.A.N.A.! If we can't get out here, we will have to go somewhere else." Aelita started to worry and bit her lip. Without her on Lyoko the gang couldn't stop the attack.
"Let me try." Odd cautiously ascended the ladder while the other two stood clear, ready to catch him if necessary, and slowly pushed against the sewer cover. He slid it out of the way carefully, and nothing happened. "Come on." Odd climbed out and the other two started as well. Once Odd was all the way out, he screamed.
"Odd!" Aelita cried. She and William clambered up as fast as they could. The spectre was floating around Odd, suffocating him. "X.A.N.A., you can't possess him!"
"But he might be able to get to me." William backed away from the spectre. "I'm going to the Factory to get virtualized." He turned and sprinted across the bridge as fast as he could.
"Leave him alone!" Aelita ran to Odd and clawed at the black cloud around his head, but it was gaseous and she couldn't harm it. She grabbed Odd's arm and pulled on it, dragging him slowly across the bridge as the spectre continued its attack.
"Ae-" Odd coughed, "Aelita." He choked and gasped as the black mist continued to suffocate him. "Run."
"Never, Odd, you wouldn't leave me behind!" Aelita kicked at the black mist but her foot passed through it. "Please, X.A.N.A., leave him alone!" Tears formed in her eyes as beneath the smog she saw Odd's face turn shades of red and purple.
William hastily stepped off the elevator as soon as it opened to the Control Room. "Jeremie, X.A.N.A. is attacking Odd!" he barked.
"What are you doing here then?!" Ulrich stood off of the floor and shoved William back into the elevator. "How do we know you're not possessed?!" He pushed William again.
"Because I'm telling you what the attack is! Look at my eyes, there's no Eye of X.A.N.A.! We need to help him and Aelita, come on." William turned his gaze to Yumi. "Please."
She regarded him silently, then sighed. "We're coming." Yumi entered the elevator while William stepped off.
"Send me before he can possess me again, please," he pleaded with Jeremie. He received no response except for a head tilt in the direction of the ladder to the Scanner Room. "Thank you."
Yumi and Ulrich ran out of the elevator and onto the Factory floor where they heard screaming.
"Leave her alone!" The spectre had left Odd and was now suffocating Aelita. "X.A.N.A., attack me, coward! Leave her alone!"
"Aelita!" Ulrich called. He and Yumi each grabbed a rope, climbing up to the bridge to run to Odd and Aelita.
"What do we do?" Yumi asked nervously while she watched the black mist, unsure how to make it leave Aelita.
"Forget it, we need to carry her to the elevator." Odd wrapped his arms around a leg as Ulrich grabbed Aelita's left arm. Yumi took hold of the other arm. "Sure would be nice if William was here to help, don't you think?" Odd continued.
"Shut up, Odd." Ulrich spat. "He came anyway, just got virtualized so he didn't have to face X.A.N.A. like a coward."
"You shut up, Ulrich. If X.A.N.A. possesses him again it's bad news for us all."
"Quit bickering and help me figure out how to get Aelita down there," Yumi interrupted, looking over the edge down at the Factory floor. "It's a long fall and she obviously can't swing on the ropes."
"I'll go down and catch her." Ulrich jumped and swung down. "Hurry, who knows how long she'll survive!"
"Don't drop her!" Odd warned as he and Yumi carefully lowered Aelita over the edge and let go. A thumping sound rose from the lower floor.
"Are you okay, Ulrich?" Yumi grabbed a rope and swung down to check.
"I think so," Ulrich groaned. He had strained his back but had caught Aelita, or at least broken her fall, and both were sprawled on the ground. "Please help me up." Yumi did so, pulling Aelita aside as Odd swung down.
"We better hurry." Odd grabbed the same leg he had earlier as the other two grabbed Aelita's arms and carried her over to the elevator.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, the three helped Aelita into a Scanner. "Send her now, Jeremie!" Yumi shouted. The Scanner doors closed around Aelita and the black mist escaped, hovering out to attack Ulrich.
"We're going to have to go all at once." Yumi pushed the suffocating Ulrich into a Scanner and backed into her own while Odd took cover in the third as soon as Aelita was gone. The Scanner doors closed, leaving X.A.N.A. with one last target on Earth.
"Scanner Odd, Scanner Ulrich, Scanner Yumi! Virtualization!" Jeremie watched the map of Sector 5 and waited for Ulrich, who was using Super Sprint to scout the way, to get near the Tower. "Do you see it?"
"Yes, Jeremie, without the key to trip it didn't take long." Ulrich unsheathed his swords cautiously, then began to run back to the Arena. "No monsters yet."
"William, wait outside of the Arena so I can send the vehicles to your location. X.A.N.A. is probably waiting for Aelita," Jeremie ordered as he began to type. William obeyed his command and stepped outside.
"Why're you in that outfit again?" Ulrich asked curtly as he came to a stop. "I thought you liked the black."
Sure enough, William was wearing the white and pale-blue uniform from his first Lyoko visit once more. "Aelita said when she deleted the backdoor in my mind she restored my Lyoko avatar to its oldest state to be absolutely safe," he answered, trying to smile to diffuse the tension. Ulrich didn't smile back, but he wasn't frowning or glaring anymore, either.
Finally the Overvehicles appeared just outside the Arena, but Jeremie screamed as the spectre threw him from the chair and began to invade his airways. The others on Lyoko heard him choking but there was nothing they could do.
"We have to hurry," Aelita barked while she ran out of the Arena to the first passage, where the vehicles and Ulrich and William were waiting. Creepers began to crawl out of the Sector's many crevices. "We have to save Jeremie," she continued while jumping on the Overwing. She went rigid and had to stop herself from complaining when William, rather than Yumi, mounted the vehicle behind her.
"Are you okay, Aelita?" William asked quietly, noticing her stiffness.
"I'm fine, sorry," Aelita assured him. She tried to relax and took off for the Tower as Yumi got on the Overbike with Ulrich and Odd used the Overboard alone.
Once Jeremie slipped out of consciousness, the spectre left him and hovered over the keyboard, pushing keys with smoky tendrils.
As the Lyoko Warriors flew through the blue passages of Sector 5, escaping the Creepers, the Overvehicles all dematerialized one at a time. As each Warrior fell, they all let out screams, falling to the Sector floor unceremoniously. The Creepers focused their fire on Yumi first, devirtualizing her before she could recover.
"Super Sprint!" Ulrich charged at a Creeper, sidestepping and dodging lasers as he cut it down, then went for another.
"Shield!" Odd jumped in front of Aelita, blocking their blasts. "Princess, if we rush them, do you think you can make it?"
"I think so." She waved her left hand over her watch and her wings appeared. "William, are you ready?"
"I'm ready." William lifted his Zweihander. He felt a sense of dread flood him, but he shook it off just as he was hit by a laser. "Come on, X.A.N.A., show me what you got!" He ran at a Creeper with his sword out, blocking attacks.
Yumi climbed up the ladder and saw the black mist still typing. "What is it doing?" She cautiously approached and looked at the screen but didn't understand anything being written. "Jeremie would recognize it." She ran over to him and shook him, trying to wake him up. That was unsuccessful, but she could tell he was alive and breathing, and so he'd probably be fine for now. She turned and sat in the computer chair, but the spectre didn't even pay her any mind.
"Watch out!" Yumi put the headset on and yelled into it. "X.A.N.A. is sending more monsters, I can see the blips!"
"Where?" Aelita turned around and saw three Mantas. "Energy Field!" She threw an orb of pink plasma and hit one, destroying it.
"Laser Arrow!" Odd aimed and focused on the Mantas as Ulrich and William handled the Creepers.
"Ulrich, can't you use your clones?" William neared closer to a Creeper, continuing to use his Zweihander as a shield, as Ulrich sprinted in a circle around another.
"Yeah, Triangulate!" Ulrich split apart and confused his Creeper. One Ulrich cut its tail, another slashed its arm and the third deflected its lasers. "What about you? You've got powers of your own, use them!"
"I'm trying to!" William grunted, finding difficulty concentrating. "But I don't need any special tricks!" He pulled his Zweihander back and threw it as hard as he could, and it pierced the Creeper he was advancing toward through the chest. Although he missed the Eye, that did more than enough damage.
"A little help, please!" Aelita yelled to the two as she and Odd battled the Mantas, which circled around them firing lasers.
"Laser Arrow!"
"Energy Field!"
"We got this." Ulrich and his clones closed in on the last Creeper, destroying it, and they each sprung up onto the walls of the room, running vertically. Once they had reached the top, all three bounced off, falling onto the two Mantas. "Impact!" The two clones stabbed the one Manta in the Eye, while the original Ulrich finished the other. Ghostly white Manta chunks scattered and winked out as the three landed.
"Thanks." Aelita finally was able to fly to the activated Tower, landing gently inside. She stood on the center ring and levitated to the second platform, where she pressed her hand against the panel and entered the code, and the screens all over the Tower walls fell around her. "Tower deactivated."
"Aelita, there's a bunch of information on the screen," said Yumi, speaking into the headset, "X.A.N.A. was using the keyboard for something. Jeremie is out, so could you come here and look at it?"
"Sure. But we need to send everyone back now." Aelita left the Tower. "We need to go back, but Jeremie can't bring us back."
"Oh." Ulrich raised his swords and his clones followed suit. "I'll do it." One cut William down, another slashed at Odd, and the original finished Aelita. The three Ulrichs then turned to one another and struck simultaneously, sending him back to Earth as well.
Aelita sat in the chair in front of the interface, scrutinizing the code lines on the screen.
"X.A.N.A. was looking at the multi agent program Jeremie made. I... I can't imagine why. What if he wants to use it to eliminate my father? Or even destroy us next time we go to Lyoko?" said Aelita, considering the possibilities. Odd leaned over and hugged her gently.
"That won't happen, Aelita," he promised, then gave her a kiss on the cheek, and she flushed deep red.
"Whatever," Jeremie scoffed at that sight. He was awake now, leaning against the Holomap for support. "I'm going back to the school." He got up and was very quick to enter the elevator.
"Wait!" Aelita got up and ran over to Jeremie to stop him from leaving. "Can you help me make sure he didn't change anything?"
Jeremie mumbled something too quiet for the others to hear, and she stood there in shock as he took the elevator up alone. Nobody said anything as Ulrich, William and Yumi waited for the elevator to return. As soon as it did, the three filed onto it to leave, and Odd stepped on too, but not before looking back at Aelita, who stared at them all blankly as the elevator doors closed and took them away.
"How could he say he wished he never found the Supercomputer? That... that'd mean I never would be materialized or even awake again, and I would be good as dead... he wants me dead. Jeremie wants me dead," she began to sob as she fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands.
Odd and Ulrich knocked on the door to Varric and Ludek's room, and the latter stood up to let them in. The room was one of the bigger ones, like William's. Varric sat cross-legged on his neatly made bed on the left side of the room, with sets of hand weights lined up on the floor at the far edge, while Ludek's bed was messy and had junk all over and beside it. Past each bed was a wooden dresser, and past the dressers were personal belongings. Varric's side held a desk with a fairly nice computer and a CD rack beside it. Above that was a single shelf lined with some books and some movies. Ludek's side did not have a desk and instead was all shelves and stacks of random items. Everything from a tuba to a ham radio to a slim laptop sitting at the top of the mess was found there.
Most noticeable of everything in the room was the fairly large plasma screen TV atop a small cabinet on the far side of the room. An Xbox, Wii and GameCube sat under the TV, and the cabinet was filled with games for each console.
"Game's already started, pick a controller and jump in," Ludek greeted casually.
"I still can't believe Halo 3 has been out and nobody told me!" Odd crowed as he picked a controller.
"I must've told you about it at least three times, Odd, you're just too busy blaring your stupid music all the time to notice," Ulrich snipped while picking his own and sitting down.
The four had just begun a match when the door swung open violently behind them, rattling the wall.
"Just who do you think you are?" Jeremie's voice was shrill. He didn't seem phased in the least that he'd disturbed the boys.
"What is your problem?" Varric growled, turning to glare at Jeremie after pausing the game.
"Odd! He's my problem!" Jeremie stormed over. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
"Trying to play Halo 3!" Odd offered.
"Not that! With Aelita! You think I won't care about you moving in on her? You think just because we're having a fight you can come to her rescue and comfort her and swoop her away?" Jeremie screamed, jabbing a finger into Odd's chest.
"In Odd's defense, she's just his cousin," Ludek said, trying to calm Jeremie.
"Yeah, just put yourself in Odd's shoes, stinky as they may be," Ulrich agreed, cutting a joke to diffuse the fight from happening in front of non-Lyoko Warriors.
"Shut up! You three don't have anything to do with this!" Jeremie glared at Varric, Ludek and Ulrich then turned his ire back to Odd.
"Excuse me? This is our room!" Varric shot back, standing.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?!" Jeremie shrieked at Odd, ignoring everyone else in the room.
"Um... you don't own her?" Odd grinned awkwardly. He couldn't think of anything better.
"I can't believe how stupid you are!" Jeremie cried, pulling his arm back. Before anyone could stop him, he punched Odd in the nose, then froze as if he was scared by what he'd just done. He backed away and ran out of the room before anyone could retaliate while Odd rubbed his face.
"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you, asshole?" Varric squeezed between the boys and furniture and chased Jeremie into the hall, but he'd already disappeared into his own room and locked it. "You can't just barge into my room and punch people!"
"Come on, let's get you to the infirmary and have Yolanda look at that nosebleed. We don't want to make it worse," Ulrich sighed, helping Odd out of the room as the purple-clad boy held a hand to his face.
"I'll come with you." Ludek put the Xbox to sleep and got up to accompany them. "We can be your witnesses."
"No, no, that's fine. I don't want Jeremie in trouble. We can finish the game tomorrow evening," Odd said, waving his free hand dismissively.
"But Jeremie cannot just go unpunished for barging in and punching you!" Varric stood his ground, crossing his arms.
"I really don't want him in trouble, Varric. If he does it again then you can tell someone, but this time, please just let it go," Odd insisted as he hobbled away.
"What is going on with them lately? Between this and Sissi's actions yesterday..." Varric murmured, well beyond suspicious.
"Maybe you're onto something, big guy," Ludek agreed. The two watched Odd and Ulrich go, then sighed and went back in, closing the door behind them.