Jeremie: Part 1

A/N: Little note really quick up here. The stuff that was happening with Odd, Jeremie, and William happened at the same time as the things with Ulrich. Meaning that Odd had just boarded the elevator as Ulrich started to rip the rope.

To the story!

Jeremie heard the scream before he even knew what was happening. It had been Yumi's and that's all he needed to know before he threw himself from the chair and made his way up the elevator, making it in before Odd had even had the doors shut with William following close behind.

When they reached the top and the doors opened they found Yumi lying on the ground dead.

All three walked up toward her and Jeremie checked her pulse before shaking his head.

"She's… dead…?" Odd asked, the shock of the situation clear on his face.

"Damn it!" Jeremie shouted, punching the ground with his fist, not caring when his knuckles started to bleed.

"What's been going on since I've been gone…?" William whispered, not really looking for an answer from either of the blonds with him, but still wondering.

"We should have listened to her and now he's killed her," Jeremie said, standing up and looking around.

"Jeremie, you don't know for sure that it was him. None of us do. For all we know it was just some random accident. I mean, look at the rope. It's broken. It's not cut, it's broken. Maybe it just finally loosened and broke after all the time of being used," Odd interjected, not wanting to believe Ulrich was behind it.

"Shut up, Odd. Just shut up. If he really is with Xana now, then you're just aiding him," Jeremie said, heading back for the elevator.

"Where are you going?!" Odd yelled after him, chasing Jeremie to the elevator and both going down to the supercomputer room.

William stayed there, looking at Yumi with complete and utter disbelief. How could this have happened? What had been going on since he'd been possessed? He tensed when her heard footsteps and clapping behind him, turning around to have his eyes meet with Ulrich's.

"Odd, shut up before I do something to you," Jeremie said through gritted teeth while working on the computer.

"That's funny. You can't hurt me, Jer. You know that and I know that. Quit automatically going to Ulrich being possessed still. We don't have enough evidence. The only thing you got from looking at the computer was that Xana blocked out the cameras. Which, yeah, should have ended up with an activated tower, but still? You don't know that it's Ulrich."

"Odd, just shut up for a minute, would you?!" Jeremie yelled at the top of his lungs.

"You're obsessed, you know that?" Odd asked before texting Aelita and giving her a brief summary of what happened and telling her to get there fast.

"William, what happened? What're you doing back?" Ulrich asked him, coming up to stand closer. "Is… Is she dead…?"

"I guess that Xana decided to let me go, but I don't remember anything from when we were all on Lyoko together on. I didn't even know that I'd been possessed until Odd and Jeremie said something," he replied, looking toward Ulrich. "And yeah…. She fell off the rope apparently." William was acting apathetic to the whole situation, but the truth was that he was crying on the inside. He wasn't going to cry in front of anyone else. That's a weakness he wasn't willing to share.

"W-William…? I think I did this to her…." Ulrich whispered looking down at the ground.

"What do you mean?" William asked, looking toward Ulrich and seeing the pain splayed across his face.

"I did it…. I-I-I…" he whispered, trying to get something out of his mouth and failing.

"Ulrich, c'mon, I know you hate me, but you can still tell me what's going," William said, placing a hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

"N-no…." Ulrich whispered, placing his hands over his ears and screaming. "Stay away from me! Get away!" he shouted, twisting down to the ground and rocking back and forth. "LEAVE ME ALONE! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

William backed away from the brunet and headed for the elevator, but it was just his luck that it didn't work.

A static-y laugh came from Ulrich as he looked up at William with a glare and then picked Yumi across the room with another laugh.

William went over and held her close. Ulrich just laughed.

"Is this what you've been planning all along?! Is this how you're going to play?! What's the point in killing them?!" William yelled, glaring at Ulrich.

"War is war, boy. People die for the ones they love in war. She loved my warrior, but he's working with me…. She chose to die and give him a chance to be freed rather than to save herself. Do you not understand that? Can you not comprehend that she would sacrifice herself for him? Whether it was all in vain didn't matter to her. I now understand humanly compassion and love, though I'll never feel it for myself," Xana spoke, using Ulrich's mouth to communicate.

"Xana, you're a monster that should have never been created. One way or another I'm going to bring you down and avenge our friends. I'll save him, too…."

Xana laughed and said, "You think that the three of you can take me and my warrior down?"

"We've done it before and we'll do it again. I won't let another one of them die."

The virus laughed again, nearly falling over. "That's a good one, boy. You'll never defeat me, not now. Do you even realize what you're up against?"

"I sure do and I'll figure something out."

Xana laughed even more. "Do you realize fully what you're getting into? Considering your first visit to Lyoko and how that turned out, you are a minimal threat to me. You ended up under my power and couldn't break free, proving how weak your resolve is. You'll have to get stronger pretty quickly if you even hope to defeat me."

A/N: Sorry about not posting. ^^" I was having some friend issues that made my inspiration plummet, but I promise a chapter out tomorrow and I'll try to post more over the weekend. =3

~MoonlitxAngel