Chapter 26: Not Expected

It was already late when Jim heard them again. Those voices had come back again. To explain a bit: the last time, when he was about to fall asleep, he heard the voices of those Jim could not have saved while fleeing from Kadic, supposing they all died in the attack. E felt very guilty he could not save them, that's why those voices were there. At first, it was just Mrs. Hertz telling him he could have come back for her, but he dismissed it, being the sane person he is. A bit later, voices of several students joined Mrs. hertz' opinion about Jim's ability to save them, wondering where he was when they needed him – in those cases, Sissi was to be heard clearest, with Herve and Nicholas supporting her in the background. Right now, Jim was afraid Damian was going to talk to him about how he could have perfectly stopped Walt from doing what he was doing. How hard he tried to block them out, how hard he pressed his pillow over his ears, those voices reached out to him, right into his brain and heart. Jim clearly felt he slowly was going insane if those voices wouldn't stop.

"Jim?" the teacher groaned. No, not Sissi again! She was complaining the most out of everybody he has heard already and she kept telling him how she had to be saved 'cause she was the daughter of his boss, in a very Sissi-like way. He placed his hands on his ears, even though it was futile, and pinched his eyes together, as if concentrating can help him rid those haunting cries for help.

"C'mon, Jim, don't go crazy," he told himself, "You know very well they're not here. You're just imagining it. It ain't bad, you did what you could. I did what I could to…" He expected her voice to interrupt him in his speech, telling him otherwise and complain about being dead – seriously, a girl like her could have never survived this. When he heard footsteps, he probably really was going crazy. If he were to turn around now, he wouldn't be surprised to see projections of his imagination, of those he failed to rescue from the enemy.

"Maybe he's asleep?" a second voice suggested – it was Nicholas'.

"Let me try," a third voice said, but it wasn't Herve – it was one he hadn't heard for half a year now. Footsteps – other than the ones he heard just half a minute ago – came closer and stopped when he arrived at the seemingly asleep teacher. Two rough hands tried to role him over, to he could see the face, but those hands didn't succeed. When it seemed the hands gave up and Jim would finally be left alone, he was hit on his cheek with a flat hand, one of those two who tried to roll him over. Jim let out a short scream, sat straight up because of the impact and the person who had hit him grabbed him by his shoulders. "Wake up, Jimbo! You're not gonna sleep when people want to see you, are you?" he opened his eyes and when he got used to the darkness, a blonde boy (without glasses)looked at him, and after a while he noticed the purple stain in the center. All those time he was also rubbing his cheek this entire time, still hurting from the impact, and stared at the boy, surprised.

"Della Robbia!?" Jim asked, and Odd turned his head. His voice told the teacher he probably was smiling.

"I present you: Jim Morales! Awake, no headband to be seen! I could have used a bucket of water, but this took less time." Man, what did that kid think, hitting a teacher like this!that's when he realized Odd was talking to other people, and thus discovered Sissi and Nicholas standing there, all three with wet clothes. His mouth fell open in astonishment and for some unknown reason Odd started to laugh. Sissi and Nicholas didn't laugh like he did, and Jim's astonishment changed to small anger. Odd should know better than to laugh about him!

"Della Robbia!" he shouted, and Odd stopped laughing, "How did you get in here?" For a moment, Odd looked guilty and caught as if Jim had found out about what he and his friends – technically, the whole world did when the invasion was a success. Too bad the reality was harsher than it had been at school … then, Jim realized something – a thought that caused Jim to look at the young boy suspiciously. "Wait a minute! Aren't you supposed to be…"

"Dead?" Odd finished the question, "I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. And what's funny, it's the exact same thing Nicholas said when he discovered I'm alive." Jim felt as if his head was about to explode of illogically sense. Odd shouldn't be alive! And neither should Sissi and Nicholas. Because of this one discovery, he had to sit down again, and eventually had to say something.

"This is strange," he said truthfully, "This is all just a dream. And when I wake up, they are gone." Jim closed his eyes, and Odd frowned. He didn't like the fact Jim still denying their presence and existence - a fact which troubled him greatly. So he stepped up at their former teacher, and again slapped him hard in his cheek. Again, Jim yelled shortly and opened his eyes. To his surprise, the three youngsters were still in his room.

"You!" He said, standing up and pointing at them, "You're really here?" Odd nodded.

"Course we are, Jimbo! We're standing in your real room in your real presence, here in the real factory, really. Do I need to hit you again?" Jim's eyes widened at the seriousness in his voice when he said that last question.

"No need to do that!" he said almost immediately – he was the adult, so he should be the one dealing those hits, not him! He shook his head. "But, er… where's your friend? Pichon?" he saw how the facial expressions of Sissi and Nicholas changed to sorrow and how Odd simply shrugged.

"He isn't here anymore," Odd answered for Sissi and Nicholas, "But from what I've heard from my two companions… me and my friends save the world almost every week from XANA, but Herve is the real hero here – you can't bring a better sacrifice than giving your life so those who are dear to you can still live theirs." Now Jim was slightly ashamed – the next time he'd better shut up, because each time he asked about someone, they appear to be dead. Well, not all questions, because Odd was still here. Speaking about him, he turned to his comrades.

"Well, I did what I wanted to do here – now you can talk with him. He won't bite." And Odd walked out of Jim's room, through the well-known corridors of the factory while Sissi and Nicholas stayed with their former PE teacher. We are going to follow Odd – he does some more interesting things than Jim, who just has some 'boring' conversation with the two students, and later is also visited by recruit Walt, who is plagued by nightmares about what happened that same day. So Odd walked around in the factory with his still wet clothes, in search of a blanket, also deep in thought until someone walked against him.

He said nothing, and neither did she. For a while, they stared at each other, but this didn't last long because Yumi grabbed Odd and pulled her in an embrace, despite his wet clothes from his dive that night. She could almost not believe Odd was still alive and standing in front of her, and just also had bumped into her – the proof that she wasn't imagining it, because she had felt the impact and now was holding him. Odd now put his arms around her as well – because he was glad to see her and he thought the would like it if he hugged her back. Odd pulled back after a long time, and now also saw Yumi tried to fight back tears of happiness. Odd smiled weakly.

"Yes, Yumi, it's me. I should be dead, shouldn't I? Well, I am still surprised I'm here. And alive."

"Your clothes…"

"I'll be fine. I know where Jeremy keeps the blankets." Yumi's smiled widened even more, and didn't know what else to say anymore to her friend.

"H-how?" she asked, after finally starting to realize this really was Odd. She did want to know what happened to him in the amount of time he was separated from the others and was considered deceased.

"I'll explain it," Odd said, "It all started when Ulrich, Aelita and I attended Mrs. Hertz's science class when we got to know XANA attacked our school with a small army after Jeremy told us XANA activated a tower on a Replika. We ran out of class, we came across you. We…"

"That I already know," Yumi said – she didn't need to hear how Kadic became the prison it now was after they split up. Odd nodded.

"I'm sure you don't know this: Well, Aelita and I started to go our separate ways – Aelita progressed to the factory while I went to the boarding building to help Milly and Sissi, who were stuck there. Well, soon I realized we were trapped in there. Milly and Sissi ran to the roof when a Megatank tried to get in and I tried to stop it. But it didn't really go as planned and I just heard how Milly and… Say, Yumi, are you okay?" Yumi nodded – she did want to know what happened, but every time Odd mentioned Milly, the memory of her execution came back, just like the image of her head flying through the air, and she had hoped she would not be reminded of it ever again. Odd shrugged as if it didn't matter.

"Okay…" he thought of a way to speed it up, to make sure he wouldn't upset her much, "I got hit when the Megatank could get in, I fell magically in Sissi and Nicholas' camp, brought their stuff back to them and guided them safely back to Jim's room here. And now I'm standing here, talking to you." She had no idea why, but there was something about this story that just seemed illogical. Yumi didn't know what sounded illogical, but she didn't really mind this 'illogical' matter in his story; Odd made it here, which was the most important detail of that story. And then, she thought of something.

"So Sissi and Nicholas are with Jim now?" she asked, and Odd nodded, "I need to talk to him – are you coming with me?" and now Odd shook his head, and he explained why. He said he wanted to talk to Jeremy, to tell him he was still alive and to prove him he could survive for six months. That's why Yumi let him go – after she told him where Einstein was at this moment, and where you could find some blankets – and walked back to Jim herself.

Once she arrived at his room, she noticed only Jim, meaning that Nicholas and Sissi must have already left him; Jim greeted her with a nod, like always, and Yumi looked around in that small room. Eventually, she stopped looking and turned to Jim. "I thought Sissi and Nicholas were here."

"They were," Jim answered, "but they needed a place to stay, y' know. Walt's bringing them – well, he only wanted to do it after I could convince him he wouldn't do something like that anymore. He still thinks he's possessed and fears he'll do it again." Yumi nodded. It's never nice, being possessed, din things you didn't want to do. Her thoughts almost immediately trailed off to William. Sometimes Hiroki, too. But she didn't came here to think about boys who fell for XANA.

"When will we do it, Jim?" she asked him, and he sighed. Ever since he told Yumi his plans for the future, he wondered when she would stop asking when they would perform those plans. She wanted to know exactly when, for some unknown reason.

"I already told you, I still don't know," he said; Yumi crossed her arms.

"Then, would you at least tell me when you think we'll do it?" she asked. Jim just didn't know why Yumi absolutely needed to know. She was… different, at least. She wanted to get revenge on XANA, he could clearly sense that. The AI had done something, hurt someone, took something, might have killed someone to get her this pissed. He guessed this was about Ulrich or Hiroki, maybe both, and maybe William was also involved in her revenge plans, but he did not say anything about it yet. Eventually, he sighed.

"Maybe the day after tomorrow, but it might be better not to tell anyone. You can't tell because I can still change my mind, and I don't know for sure if we can do it then. Besides, it might be better if they heard it from me – nothing personal, really – and we can't have Jeremy to forbid us to do this. He might remember he's leader and can do that." he hoped Yumi was fine with this plan. At least she didn't seem to mind anything he had said. Yet. The Japanese nodded as an answer.

"Alright. For now, the day after tomorrow. Should I prepare or not?" Jim shrugged.

"Do whatever you want. I don't mind as long as they don't start to ask questions. And with 'they', I mean Jeremy." Yumi nodded again, wished him goodnight and left him behind in his small room. He lay down on his improvised bed again and, now he knew Sissi, Nicholas and Odd were safe, he went back to sleeping. And the rest of the night, he wasn't plagued by voices.

This chapter was okay for me, at least. Just a filler. No, nothing really important. But next chapter is important, and the chapters after the 27th are also important, so that's just balance work. So, yeah, what is the plan Jim made up? Why not tell Jeremy about this plan, since he probably will have no power to stop it? And what will Odd think about this certain plan, and will he help his friend out if she asked him for help? All those question will be answered next chapter, so you just gotta wait for the 3rd of July. And now, well... reply time!

Bluedog197 (Well... not Aelita, but he did go to Jeremy after bumping into Yumi. If you had an account here, you could tell me what you think is going on, or you could wait a little month for the last chapter to see if you're right. And thanks for the compliments!)

See ya next time!

-Dutchwriters2