Do Or Die, part 1

Karen

White's friends flew through their classes, and afterwards, practically every teacher started trying to kill them! Kind Bronze, Pink-Gold, Small Brown and White went to the factory and…blue. Then – black.

My eyes snapped open and I almost howled in fright. What was that? Had I just dreamed of my death?

I stayed on the roof of the cafeteria all through my friends' classes. I had already told them that there was going to be a Xana attack involving every teacher getting possessed and that Ulrich and Yumi were going to hold them off, but I hadn't told them of the "black." How could I?

Yumi

Karen seemed extremely uptight during lunch. It was probably nearing the teacher-possession time. Then, sure enough, Jim nearly caught us! Ulrich and I started using our Penchak Silat to hold them off while the rest of the Lyoko warriors ran to the factory.

"Ulrich, did Karen seem kind of…nervous?" I asked.

"Yeah," Ulrich answered while he dodged Mrs. Hertz. "What do you think will happen on Lyoko?"

Odd

We got to the factory in record time, and I was riding on Karen's back. We all dropped into the Forest Sector and I looked at Karen. "What's wrong, Karen? You look like you're expecting the Scyphozoa or something."

"Actually, I'm expecting William." Karen's good; right after she said that, William rode up on a Tarantula. He had an entire seafood army behind him!

Karen yelled, "You people take on the others," as she took off flying, "William's mine!"

I shrugged and lunged in, firing off arrows. Aelita flew next to me, firing off her Energy Fields. But no matter how many we destroyed, more took their places!

"This is starting to get ridiculous! How many of these guys are there?"

Suddenly, Jeremie's voice came from above. "Karen, what are you doing?"

Her answer was in a roar. Had her voice left in favor of a dragon's?

Right after that, Aelita and I were devirtualized at the same time!

The scanners opened, and Aelita asked, "Now what, Jeremie?"

"Now…" he sighed, "we trust Karen."

Karen

My voice was gone. I couldn't explain it, it was just…gone. I blasted away William's ride and got him smoke-chasing me. Then when he returned to his human form again, I swiveled around and destroyed his sword, flipped through the air and pinned him flat. My feet were somehow gripping his arms, and my tail was around his waist, so there was no way he could escape even if he went smokey.

Xana spoke through William. "Now what, Karen? Are you going to destroy me?"

I growled at him.

"He really loves you, you know. Destroy me, and you lose him. Do you want that?"

Playing off my feelings. Very funny, Xana. Unfortunately for you, that won't work. I formed a fireball in my left hand and an ice ball in my right.

Xana smirked. "You're giving me a choice between immediate destruction or freezing?"

I shook my head and set the two together. The result was a pulsing yellow ball of light between my claws that was about as big as my head. I was imagining Xana leaving William in a black specter, William returning to Earth, all the monsters disappearing, and Xana taking on the form of…a dragon. That was the only thing I could imagine myself handling. This stunt wouldn't take a whole lot of power, any more than rescuing Franz Hopper would. It was going to be defeating Xana that would take the most power.

William's eyes got big when he saw that ball. He didn't know what it would do any more than I did. I only knew what I hoped it would do. I set the ball against his chest and pushed. He yelled out in pain and black smoke poured out in front of me from between my claws. All the monsters vanished, and so did William. I looked up as the smoke swirled and took on the form of a shadowy dragon with red eyes and a glowing red eye mark on its head.

It roared at me in frustration and anger. This was not what he wanted, I guess. I had restrained him to a corporal envelope, and he could not create any more monsters or run away. This was a do-or-die moment for both of us.