Chapter 13:

"Odd!" Ulrich called as he raced to his friend and pulled him away, causing the strange effect to stop and the two quickly took in a huge breath of air, as if they hadn't been able to breathe until that moment. "Are you alright?" He demanded of his roommate, who still seemed to be in shock. "Odd!" He yelled again, finally bringing him out of it.

"Whoa!" He said quietly, before looking down at his hand as he opened and closed it experimentally.

"What was that?" Ulrich ordered sternly as he turned to face Jonas who was still leaning against a wall, trying to catch his breath.

"Two bodies of the same particles can't take up the same space." Jeremy answered as he came over to see if his friends were alright.

"Did you just call me a particle?" Odd asked sourly, which allowed them all to calm a little as they realized that he likely wouldn't have joked in such a way if he was badly hurt or shaken.

"Would you repeat that in English?" Ulrich ordered, still a little stressed out.

"They're the same person." Jeremy tried again, earning a glare from the other boy for his trouble. "The dimensional fabric of reality can only withstand the presence of one person of the same matter in the same space at a time. If they were to touch, they could cause reality to rip or extract them in order to correct itself."

"So, you're saying we could – disappear if we come in contact?" Odd translated simply and Jeremy nodded, leaving the kid to nod in agreement. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

"Yeah, great, but someone wanna tell me why no one mentioned this before?" Ulrich demanded as he turned to Jonas again who had finally managed to make himself comfortable against a wall of the elevator.

"I'm not gonna deny that I knew that might happen." He admitted simply. "But, to be honest, I've been a little – preoccupied."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Ulrich complained loudly, causing the man to look at him strangely from the corner of his eye.

"I know it's been a while since I've seen you, but I don't recall you being quit this uptight." Jonas stated truthfully, causing the kid to get to his feet in order to walk over and stare him down.

"You keep secrets that could hurt us and you expect me to just trust you?" He growled sternly, leaving Jonas to look at the floor in acceptance of that. "I don't care if you're Odd or Jeremy or who you are. My friends are here, in this time and I'm not gonna let you or anyone else hurt them."

"There, that's more like the Ulrich I know." Jonas countered, which did not go over well with said person, who promptly attacked him.

"Hey!" Aelita complained as she tried to separate them with Jeremy's help. "That's enough, Ulrich." She commanded when they had finally pulled him away and she stood between the two in order to keep him from starting the fight again.

However. while Ulrich looked ready to strike at any moment, Jonas just leaned back against his spot to wipe a little blood from his lip, seemingly content with what had happened.

"Feel better?" He asked quietly, causing the tension in his younger friend to relax slightly.

"Yeah," He admitted simply, causing Jeremy and Aelita to look between them in shock. However, Odd appeared completely unfazed but the small war that had just transpired.

"Someone wanna tell me what just happened?" Jeremy demanded sternly when Ulrich actually smiled slightly for the first time in days.

"Nothing important," Jonas proclaimed with a wave of his hand. "He just needed something to hit."

"What?" Aelita muttered in confusion, but the only response she got was for Ulrich, Odd and Jonas to laugh amongst themselves.

"It's okay, Princess." Odd explained kindly. "It's a – guy thing."

"You two do this a lot?" Jeremy countered.

"We're roommates." Ulrich stated as if taking of the weather. "Getting on each other's nerves is kind of part of the process." He admitted, which only left Jeremy to look between the three skeptically, clearly not getting it.

"'Guy thing'my foot," He muttered sourly as he relented to the argument and headed back to his chair. "Sounds more like an 'idiot thing' to me."

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