Chapter 16: He gave up
The past few days Jim wasn't given much rest. There was loads of business that needed to be done, including disabling the destroyed Krabs, the guarding of the entrance, the healing of the wounded and burying the dead. There only was a small amount of deaths (6 or something) but loads of wounded, and Yolanda – who came with Jim to the factory – couldn't take in all the wounded at once, so Jim had decided to help her. Emily had thought of this as well, but Jim didn't want her to help the wounded, because she could help with those few who weren't wounded, to increase their defense value. They would both gladly switch places, but they didn't tell each other – speaking of politesse and the fact they wouldn't want to leave their posts, because the refugees were counting on them.
Jeremy was… alive. You can choose yourself if he's okay or not. At this point, he was in a critical condition. He'd lost a lot of blood at that head-wound, and partly his ear. Jim had found Jeremy right on time because of his screaming. On his way he had grabbed an iron stick and had knocked two of the legs of the Krab off of its body. That was also the point when the stick broke in two – he saw no other option than to put the sharp pointy end in the thing that looked like an eye, destroying this Krab. He had found Jeremy lying unconscious, lying with his head in a puddle of his own blood. Jim had used his headband to try and stop the bleeding, so there wouldn't be anything serious. It ruined the only headband he could bring with him to the factory, but Jeremy's life was more important than his headband. In the meantime, he had brought Jeremy to Yolanda, who had tried to heal him, and she was very worried. She told him it would be better for him to be resting for three weeks (so three weeks unconscious) or more, because his brain is heavily damaged and needed time to recover, and it wouldn't be fully recovered if he were to wake up within the three weeks. Too bad they couldn't see if it were really bad, because they didn't have the right equipment to examine his brain.
Jim wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his hand. He had dumped that headband – it still felt weird to him, so naked, and hoped he'd soon find a replacement. Nobody really noticed this change, except old Kadic students/teachers; they were surprised to see him walking around without his headband.
"A new look, Jim?" he heard Emily say. He sighed when he turned to her.
"You know, it's not funny anymore after the ninth time!" Jim said, "but tell me, what's so important that needs my assistance?" Emily pointed at one of her classmates.
"Well, Larissa needs help with the treatment of Marco's foot – you know, he spread his ankle – and we both know Marco's a bit of a pain with those things, so…"Jim was planning to get into action, until someone called out his name. A fifth-years came to him, and Jim saw that it must be urgent, looking at the way he came running. He stopped in front of the gym-teacher, panting.
"Jim, Yolanda wants to talk to you about a Jeremy…?" Jim nodded. Finally! Jeremy's woken up! It's been hard without him – the technical part was hard, but they could handle the rest. Only Jeremy knew the code to reach all handles, he had programmed the force field, so Jeremy was supposed to 0reboot the system and reprogram it. He put his hand on the shoulder of the fifth-year.
"Thanks for sharing, Leblanc." and he walked to Jeremy's room already, where the genius's been lying all time. Emily looked at him, disappointed.
"Hey, you're supposed to help me with –"
"Leblanc 'll help you," he quickly said, and he made his way to Jeremy's room. It was a short walk, and that time Jim spent worrying. The three weeks weren't over yet, so wouldn't that have any negative consequences for the whole factory? And if yes, how long would it take before that army of XANA's would wipe them out? And how long would it take for Jeremy to recover?
"Hey there, Yolanda," he told Kadic's nurse, "How's Belpois doing?"
"He's fine," she told him, "as long as he won't freak out and has enough rest, he should physically be okay in no time." Jim pulled up an eyebrow.
"You said 'physically'." Jim pointed out, "did you notice any strange behavior?"
"Well," Yolanda began, "he doesn't remember the monsters. Just try to be careful with him, Jim," she warned him, and he walked into the boy's room. Jeremy lay flat on his back on his bed, eyes closed. He still appeared a little pale, and the bandage around his head was good enough coverage for the wound at the ear to heal. He looked quite… peaceful, actually, even in their situation.
"Belpois?" Jim said carefully – if Jeremy hadn't answered, Jim would've waited until Jeremy eventually woke up. Jeremy opened his eyes while his fingers were already searching his glasses. He greeted him with a nod when he had put on his glasses, and Jim nodded back. Jeremy smiled weakly.
"Hi, Jim. How are you doing?" Jim shrugged.
"I'm fine, I guess. Just a bit tired, that's all."
"Same with me," Jeremy replied, "W-What exactly happened again? I… think I forgot, maybe, it's… I don't remember." Jim scratched his throat before telling what actually had happened.
"Those Krabs that have been in front of the factory here? They broke in here in the middle of the night, and one of them made his way to you immediately. That way, you've lost half an ear, and we still have to destroy the third one, but …" Jim was being interrupted by Jeremy at that point.
"Wait a minute, crabs?" For some reason he sounded astonished, "are there crabs in the river? And how can they make me lose half an ear?" Jim frowned; Jeremy didn't remember the Krab-attack (one was destroyed by Jim, the second killed, the third locked up in the boiler room. He didn't know much of brain injuries (he knew nothing), but he did know this couldn't be good.
"What kind of crabs are you talking about, because I'm talking about mechanical Krabs who destroyed part of this factory and wounded a lot of refugees, including you." Now it was Jeremy's turn to frown. If you were in his place, you'd be just as surprised as Jeremy and would think Jim was joking.
"Jim, if you try to cheer me up, I'll tell you this isn't going to work." Jim stared at Jeremy with big surprised-looking eyes, "What happened? And please, be serious this time." the teacher leaned forward and showed the blonde Einstein his most serious look.
"I've never been more serious, Jeremy. But, just one question, who's Odd Della Robbia again?" he asked. Jim suspected Jeremy had forgotten all about that baboon XANA, or at least those Krabs. If Jeremy hadn't lied to him on how Jeremy had gotten his friends, his answers would confirm what he remembered, and what he didn't. Jeremy thought about it before answering.
"Yes … yes, I know him, he's a good friend and classmate. A bit eccentric, he's got a roommate and if I'm not mistaken, also a dog named Kiwi." Jim was taken aback by this.
"WHAT? He had a dog!? That little… never mind. What about Ulrich Stern?"
"Also a good friend, good in some karate-like sport. Yeah, he's Odd's roommate and his best friend, a classmate, athletic, and a bit cranky."
"Yumi Ishiyama, maybe?" Jeremy had to think harder on this one.
"Er… Japanese, a good friend of Ulrich's. One year older, I guess. I think she has a younger brother?"
"And who is Aelita Stones?" For some reason Jeremy thought longer on her name than Odd, Ulrich and Yumi's. Aelita… the name sounded very familiar to him. And suddenly, it seemed as if someone had turned on the lights in his head. Aelita, the new girl, Odd's cousin. Aelita, a great friend, quickly accepted in their group. Aelita, miss Einstein, awesomely great with computers, a girl who could become more than just a friend. Aelita, a very brave girl, in a coma, lying in a bed somewhere here. And Jeremy tried to push himself out of the bed, in an attempt to get up and go to Aelita. Jim, ever worried about his student's well-being, softly pushed him back into his position.
"Whoa, Belpois, calm down, you've gotta rest!" But Jeremy couldn't be convinced.
"I've gotta go to Aelita. She…"
"…is completely fine. And now lay down!" Jim sounded demanding enough to Jeremy to lay flat himself. Jim allowed Jeremy to be worried, but only if Jeremy could be worried and lay down at the same time. After a while, he looked at his gym-teacher quizzically.
"Where are we exactly, Jim? I heard you mentioning a factory…" If Jim wanted to, he'd have face-palmed, but that could hurt Jeremy mentally, so he performed this action in thoughts. In the beginning, Jeremy had (once again) explained to Jim what their secret was. The video Jeremy made also helped expand this information. And now, Jeremy had forgotten he was at the place where it all started, thanks to him. Man, something's really wrong with him…
"Yes, the abandoned factory on the island in the river. That's where we are now. You were here first with Aelita before any of the others arrived – you remember the invasion, right?" To his delight, Jeremy nodded, "right. Some of these monsters look like enormous crabs, hence their names. Well, three of those Krabs broke in nine nights ago. But they were in front of the factory for a while, now, so now I'm wondering why XANA now attacked instead…"
"Wait, I can't follow!" Jeremy interrupted him, "Who's XANA?" Jim stared at him with big eyes.
"Are you serious right now?"
"Yeah, I guess. Who, or what, is XANA?" Jim sighed. Oh boy. How could you explain the meaning of XANA to the genius that had awoken him? Jim sighed again, and Jeremy still waited for his answer.
"Belpois, I hope you're lying comfortable here, 'cause this is gonna take a while."
"So, in short," Jim ended after two hours of explaining and a few uncomfortable questions from both sides. He had tried to explain it as good as possible, even with the help from a few bad drawn pictures. He pointed at something that was supposed to look like XANA's Eye, "anyone with this thing somewhere, is a bad guy."
"But, what…" Jeremy restarted the discussion about the Eye. They had spent fifteen minutes discussing the Eye, and the exact place of this Eye on everything you could think of. This was what Jim irritated, and yelled a bit harder than he first thought.
"Yes, it can be anywhere – people, devices, monsters, everything you can think of. I'm surprised he hadn't taken over any of our normal devices yet." Jim added. Before the others had come – or just way before the invasion – Jeremy should have programmed something that kept XANA from infecting their electrical devices. If he hadn't, the factory would've already be their enemy.
At that moment, Yolanda walked into the room, "Jim, now is really the time you let Jeremy rest. He needs it!" Jim shrugged.
"I can't help I answered a tiny question of Belpois?"
"Two hours?"
"This tiny question requested a long answer, or else he wouldn't get what I was talking about,"he explained while Yolanda dragged him out of Jeremy's room. He had to answer a few answers for Yolanda before she let him go back to his room. What he explained to Jeremy was exactly the reason why he was a gym-teacher. Now he also knew how Susanne felt with Odd three hours a week in her classroom.
Once he reached his room, he wasn't given his rest, because someone knocked onto his door immediately. When he opened the door, a brunette with glasses stood in front of it.
"You were supposed to help me with Marco," Emily said. She really was a sweet girl, but sometimes she really was persuasive and stubborn. And the case with Marco Dubois, he forgot.
"I'm sorry for that, Leduc, but Jeremy –"
"I'm Emily! Say, when are you gonna learn to talk to us with our first names?"
"Old habits never really fade. And I really had wanted to help, but Jeremy had a tiny problem that took me two hours." Emily crossed her arms.
"What kind of problem?"
"He remembers everything – he just forgot everything that has something to do with the enemy. Excluding Aelita." Emily huffed.
"Off course," she paused a while, "But that's not what I'm here for. Marco, Larissa and I have been asking around for the past few days, and we all agree you're allowed to be our leader." Jim looked at the girl, astonished.
"Me? Their leader?" He pointed at himself, voice filled with surprise, "wait, I'm allowed to be a leader?" Emily nodded.
"They rather choose someone who knows what he's doing – and I hope someone who knows about the enemy as well. At the moment you're more likely to be chosen than Jeremy, and it's not because he's obsessed with destroying the enemy." Jim nodded understanding. The blonde boy would sacrifice a lot of things if it were only to get rid of XANA, and to protect Aelita. A trait that might kill him later.
"Okay, I'm the leader… what is expected of me? In other words, what do the refugees want me to do?" Jim asked, and Emily smiled at him.
"A lot of the refugees are scared of the Krab in the boiler room. You know, it's not nice to know a threat isn't eliminated quickly," she told him. Jim nodded again, and he closed the door, so he and Emily were all alone in the corridor. He grabbed her shoulders.
"That's not a bad idea, Leduc. Let's go destroy some Krab!" together, they walked to the now noisy boiler room, even if Emily still was a bit irritated.
"Would you please stop…"
"Will never happen, Leduc!"
Well... Jeremy could have been worse. Yeah, he did lose a lot of information regarding XANA all the others didn't and they might miss some valuable information, but he's still alive, right? Anyway, what do you think of Jim's newly appointed job? What's Odd gonna do once he's at the factory? Will Nicholas stop not trusting Della Robbia? Next one's as usual, Thursday 24th April, with all new Odd D.R., Sissi D. and Nicholas P. on Simulation! (guest starring: the Laser-arrow!) On with the reviews:
Bluedog197 (I like UXY too! And who knows, maybe he'll come back [I myself am still doubting] maybe he won't. If you liked that chapter for all reasons you've listed there, then wait until the next Ulrich chapter. And yes ... I plan the ending to be unforgettable!)
See ya next time, and a Happy Easter!
-Dutchwriters2
PS. I think it might be safe to say the warning counts for the rest of the story, just 'cause I don't want to spoil if something's gonna happen or not - it's fully active now...