Jeremie's POV

"Jeremie…? Jeremie?"

Was—was that my angel? She sounded as if the Schyphozoa was attacking her. No. Her voice sounded close to me, and someone was shaking my shoulders. Did we—God forbid—did we die?

No. My head throbbed too much for me to register my death. I opened my eyes, feeling a weight on my shoulders. Years of shouldering my laptop made me used to it, but this weight felt heavier than what I was used to. I tried to rise into a sitting position. "Jeremie…"

I looked into the frightened green eyes of my angel, Aelita. "Y-you okay, Aelita?" Suddenly I registered that the sides of her soft lips were bleeding, making my heart clench. Her hands, ones that wouldn't hurt a single fly on Earth, had been coated with her blood. She looked like she had been through Hell, and my eyes watered with tears when I saw that she had cut herself in a few places. Her pink hair, usually pixie-cut, looked wild as if Odd thought it would be funny to rub two static-filled balloons near her.

My voice cracked from the shock. "What did you do?"

"I didn't have a choice! I had this weird contraption on my face. The tape XANA gave me told me that I had to dig through your computer to find the key—literally…" She trembled.

I looked at the mess. It looked as though a robot came in and threw up its contents all over the room. Beside the mess lay the contraption that Aelita had on her face, the metal teeth open. It looked like what a bear trap would look like before it snapped closed. The only exception was that the teeth were inverted. I looked into her tear-streaked face. "It's okay, Aelita, I can buy a replacement computer. I can replace files from backup CDs."

She threw her arms around me, her trembles making me shake. Once upon a time, feeling her unexpectedly hug me would make me freeze up, but here, she was traumatized. My eyes half-closed in sympathy. I wrapped my arms around her, one of my hands attempting to smooth down her hair the best it can. She would need extensive therapy.

I subtly looked around, realizing that some members of our group had vanished. "'Any ideas where our friends are, Aelita?"

I felt her head shake around my shoulder. "I was worried about getting that contraption off more than looking for our friends. It had a timer. XANA didn't tell me what it was, only that my roommate would know."

"Roommate…?" Then I snapped my fingers behind her back. "Cassidy gave me a list of traps that XANA might use on us. If that contraption is correct, it must've been a reverse bear trap. It's been prominent in all of the SAW films."

"But why did XANA target all of us?" she asked as I felt her starting to calm down. "He targeted only William and Cassidy before."

I shrugged, or would have, if my shoulders could lift the object. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"We need to get this collar off you," Aelita whispered.

"What collar?"

"It's around your neck."

I tried to look at it, but a fizzing sound made me sit up pin straight. We looked at my laptop screen to find a blood red eye of XANA with a spiral in the pupil. Blood dribbled downward to the bottom of the screen. I am so glad that this isn't going to leak out of my laptop.

"Hello, Jeremie… I want to play a game. Throughout the years, you, your precious 'Princess' Aelita, and your treacherous group of friends have had fun trying to tear me apart. Well, I am giving you what you deserve—my revenge. On your shoulders is the device that will lead you to your demise if your friends…perish."

I growled, looking at the collar for the first time. "You don't know that!"

"Oh, don't believe me? Feast your eyes on this…"

A screen popped up in front of a portion of his eye. William, Ulrich, Yumi, Cassidy, and Odd each lay on the ground, motionless with a collar around their necks. My eyes widened as I heard Aelita gasp. "J-Jeremie…?"

Well, damn it all!

XANA chuckled, reminding me of the time that he trapped Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd in that simulation bubble completely at his mercy. "You can only sit and watch as you would normally. Six shotgun shells surround your head. One friend dies, a shell goes off. One of your friends has already survived her trap. The first shell has been deactivated. It's up to your friends if they choose to live or die."

I turned to see Aelita's eyes fill up with tears. Her cut hands rose shakily to her mouth.

"Unfortunately, your computer has a limited life, so I will allow you and your friend…"

"We are more than that," I mumble.

"…to go on foot to your special factory to the lab. You take any other mode of transportation to it, the device will go off and the bombs I set up around the school will discharge, blowing your chance with the return trip. Your classmates and teachers are trapped inside the gym, guarded by highly sensitive Kiwi 2s. You make a move toward it, you and everyone else will cease to exist.

"Live or die, Jeremie. Make your choice." The eye vanished from the screen.

I slammed my laptop shut in disgust, and then I threw one of my old computer's wrecked contents. "Out of all the attacks and crap that he threw at us over the years, including William and Cassidy's Spike trap, this has got to be the high-stakes lowest he has made us go through."

"I don't want you to die, Jeremie…" Aelita whimpered softly.

I turned to her. "Sh… I promise I won't die." Now we might need a lot more than extensive therapy. We might need electroshock treatment. "Let's get to the factory."

She nodded, helping me out of my chair. The collar felt impressively heavy. "Remind me later to study all the traps with Cassidy so we can prepare ourselves for another round of hell," I softly said. "If XANA is going to keep trapping us like this, I want us to find out how to use common sense to destroy his chances. If we keep defeating him, then he'll get tired of it."

She gave me a small glare, and I could tell what she was thinking. Ever since our minds ended up melding in Limbo, it seemed that I could read her mind afterward. Cassidy had a similar power, in which she could read everyone else's, but that had vanished after Vortex Day. Aelita's thought was, We are in the worst hell XANA is dishing out, and you want to watch SAW after this mess?! Get your head in the game, Jeremie!

"Right, sorry." We started to race out of the dorms, seeing the charges lined up against the walls of the dorms. XANA wasn't kidding when he said he had charges set around the school. Right away, when we saw the gym, one of the XANAfied Kiwi 2s barked at Tamiya threateningly.

"Oh-okay, little robot doggie…I'll go back in, please don't hurt me."

My arms pumped at my sides as we reach the park. The collar started to weigh down on my neck and shoulders, making me slow down slightly.

"Jeremie! We've got to keep going. We don't have any time to lose."