After Aelita had finished, she took a few steps back. She looked almost proud of what she did. She gave me the harshest sneer she could muster. She reached out and patted me on the head. I was too stunned about the recent actions to respond. I hardly paid attention to her as she spoke.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it?" She said in a sickenly sweet voice. "I could have avoided this drastic measure, Odd, but you forced me to play this hand."

My eyes were shut. I turned my head to the side. I didn't want to look at her. I didn't want to see her face. I wanted nothing to do with her, not after what she had done to me. I expected her to get angry and slap me. Instead, to my surprise, she had turned to walk away.

Curious, I opened my eyes. She stopped and turned her head. I bit my lip. It was almost as if she could hear my eyelids.

A creepy smile appeared on her face. "I will leave you alone for a while. I trust that my...persuasion...will encourage you to make the right decision. If not, I will have to step it up a level."

As she disappeared out of the tower, I wanted to yell something at her. I wanted to scream and all her out on all the bullshit she put me through. I wanted to break free and claw out her eyes with my claws. There was so much I wanted to do to her. My mind was swimming with all these angry thoughts. It was like a soup of words, and I was trying my best to hold onto them mentally, lest they spill over and drive me insane.

Yet, I kept silent. Oh sure, I did glare at her. I did grit my teeth and growl. But that only lasted a few seconds. Not even a minute after Aelita left me alone, I felt my heart fill with so much ache. My ears drooped down and I felt tears fill my eyes. I know I'm a guy and I'm not supposed to cry. But screw gender expectations. Right now, I could care less about them. I let my tears fall, uncaring if Aelita came back to see them.

I just couldn't believe what had happened. I couldn't believe she did that to me. Never, in a million years, did I expect Aelita to...to...do that to me. How could she do that? I stared down at the floor. I could see the blood she had shed from me. The pain was still present there. It dulled only slightly. This made me somewhat thankful for the chains. I would have a harder time hurting myself via movement this way.

It hurt. Oh gawd it hurt so much. It hurt because Aelita, before her betrayal, would be the one to help with injuries. She would help me feel better. Now, not only did she cause me pain, but it was more excrutiating than anything I ever felt. It was the kind of pain that could not be so easily forgiven, so easily forgotten. It was damaging pain. It affected people not just physically, but mentally as well.

I couldn't get her face out of my mind. The sneer she had when she...did those things to me. The look of satisfaction she had when I did what she wanted me to do. I could still feel the pain there as she performed her actions. The only thing keeping me from crying, the only reason I did not plea for mercy was because I did not want to give her that satisfaction. My damaged mind was strong enough to at least resist that.

I could not allow her and XANA to get me to tell them about how my Future Flash worked. That could never be allowed. If I told them, they could use it against my friends, my real friends. And who knows if they had anything else planned. I don't know how far they would take it. And not knowing was a frightening thing.

But how long would I last? I pondered this as I watched my tears fall from my face. Her act, it was cruel and heartless. Would she do it again? Sure she would. She was that kind of person. The sympathetic Aelita never existed. This is who she really was. It made me sick just thinking about it. It also made me feel depressed, used, like she was leading me on. Well that was exactly what she was doing. Not just to me, but all of us.

I don't know if I could handle another of those actions. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she knew it was going to work eventually. Maybe two or three more times, and I would break, give in to tell her what she wanted. I would rather die before I let that happen, but, knowing Aelita, she would make sure I couldn't kill myself. She would hold back and keep me alive until she got what she wanted. I could delay her, but would it be enough? While I want to remain optimistic, at this point, nothing is certain.

I wanted to block the incident out of my mind. For a moment, I just wanted to forget it happened. I closed my eyes. Sleep would help me. Yes, it would help me forget, if just for a moment. I welcomed the darkness as my eyelids closed. I welcomed the exhausted feeling that swept over my mind and body. It was the only good feeling I had here today. I took in a deep breath as I left sleep start to overtake me.

The next thing I knew, I was in a large white room. Was I in a hospital? There were no signs of medical equipment anywhere. Just where was I? I walked around. I was alone. I didn't see anyone else with me. Even Aelita seemed to have vanished, not that I cared.

I continued walking through the empty room. There were no items on the floor. There was no signs that any human being was in this room. And why was it so massive? It seemed to go on forever. I had never seen a room this large, unless it was a warehouse. But the roof was too low. It was almost like this room was meant for a person to be on and just..do something.

The floor was soft, unusually soft. I wanted to say it was carpeting, but this felt even softer than that, much more cushioned. I looked down and saw that it was padded. But why would it be padded? It felt unnecessary. I then looked around the room. Suddenly everything seemed to be getting much smaller. The walls moved in towards me and stopped until it was about the size of a kitchen. I got a better look at the walls now and saw that they too were padded. I looked up. The ceiling was padded too.

But why? The only place that would have this would be...an isolation room of some kind. Usually a mental ward. Why would I be here? I wasn't crazy...I wasn't... I rushed towards the door and slammed against it, only to be roughly thrown back by...the door itself. It moved, it lashed out against me. It stretched out and slapped me again, sending me flying against the cushioned wall.

As I tried to get up, I was unable to move my hands or arms. I struggled for a few seconds before I finally realized what was wrong. I was wearing a straitjacket. The piece of cloth binded my arms hard against my body. I felt my heart begin to race. My breathing quickened. What was going on here?!

The menacing door opened up, this time not reaching out to attack me. There was a void-like space. Black as night, and dark-colored steam filled the room. Something ghostlike came in. It swirled along the walls before slithering on the floor like a snake. It reached me and wrapped itself around me. A pair of glowing red eyes stared back at me. But that isn't what frightened me the most.

The smoke had a pair of XANA-fied eyes.

I screamed and kicked at the smoke. It dissipated, but still hung around in the air above me, as if it were just taunting me. It then disappeared after a few minutes. After that, a nurse came into the room, perhaps to check up on me. I got up to my feet and rushed out the door. I stood in her path and began yelling desperately at her.

"Please! You gotta help me! There's a...!"

The nurse waved her hand dismissively. "I know, there's some weird black smoke following you everywhere. I know. You told us a thousand times, Mr. Belpois."

I froze. Belpois? Why would the nurse be calling me that? I wasn't Jeremie.

"I'm Odd! Odd Della Robbia! And why am I in a mental institution?!" I screamed at her.

She frowned at me and gripped my straitjacket. "There's no need to get testy, Mr. Belpois. Pretending to be your deceased friend isn't exactly going to be your ticket out. Now get back in that room before I have to force you in."

I was stunned. My eyes widened. My mind was almost completely blank. How could that nurse think I was Jeremie? How could she believe I was dead? What the hell happened while I went to sleep? How could this all be happening?

I just stood there, watching the nurse as she disappeared into the darkness of the building. I looked around. There were other people. Some looked at me. Others just ignored me. I felt as if the walls were closing in on me. I saw someone in complete shadow walking towards me. Instinctively, I moved back, soon finding myself pressing my back into the cushioned wall of what was apparently Jeremie's room.

The shadow person wasn't very tall. They were barely my height. As soon as they got within a foot of me, the shadows seemed to literally drop from them. Now I could get a good look at who this visitor was. My eyes widened at who it was.

"Aelita?" I glared at her. What was she doing here?

"Yes, Jeremie, it's me." She said, smiling an almost sweet smile.

"Cut the crap!" I snapped at her. "I'm not Jeremie! I'm Odd!"

Aelita looked surprised at first. Then just smirked. "I knew you would take Odd's death too hard, dear. But I never thought it would affect you this much." Her voice was disturbingly cheery. She talked as if she were just referring to the weather. "If I had known I would drive you this insane, I would have done this a long time ago."

I felt tears swell in my eyes. "Why...? Why would you do this?"

Aelita's smile never left her face. "You see, I needed a way to get you out of the picture. Without you, Ulrich and Yumi would not have been able to do anything to stop me and XANA. They can't get into Lyoko now. I made sure of it." Her smile broaded. "You, Jeremie, were the only obstacle in our way. Placing you in a mental ward was perfect. All it took was some...manipulation..."

I growled at her. I tried to lash out, but only ended up falling on the ground. I felt Aelita press her foot against my side. I craned my head to look up at her. "Traitor..."

"Oh Jeremie...Jeremie..." Aelita shook her head. "How could I be a traitor when I was never on your side to start with? You brought this on yourself, you know. You could have saved us the trouble and just joined us. You chose this path. Now you will have to live with it for the rest of your pitiful life..."

"No...no!" I struggled on the ground.

Aelita reached into her pocket. I winced, expecting her to be reaching for a gun. Instead, she took out a mirror. She lowered it in front of my face.

"Look at yourself. Look at what you allowed yourself to become."

I didn't want to. I did not want to look. But I did anyway. I looked into the mirror. And I gasped at what I saw. It wasn't my face. It was Jeremie's. He looked terrible. His face was paler than normal. His eye lids were dark, indicating he wasn't getting a lot of sleep. His eyes were full of sorrow and hopelessness. His hair was messy and covered in filth.

I slowly looked up at Aelita. She gave me, or rather Jeremie, an evil grin. "Why are you so suprised? Did you really think people were going to believe you when you told them Odd was killed by a virtual 'princess' and a computer program? What did you expect to happen?"

Then she laughed, and the whole room became covered in blackness.

That was when I woke up. My eyes flew open. My body was shaking from shock and fright. I felt myself covered in sweat. My eyes hurt from the tears they were shedding. I looked around. I found myself still tied up where Aelita left me. I could feel strong emotions of relief and disappointment overwhelm me.

Disappointment that I was still stuck in this wretched hellhole.

Relief that I was still alive and Jeremie was not sent to a mental hospital.

I heard footsteps coming from behind me. I looked over and saw Aelita leaning against the wall. I let my mouth open in shock. How long had she been there? How much had she seen? As she stood up, I got my answer sooner than I expected, or had hoped.

"I see I...affected you more than I thought I would." She crooned softly. I gritted my teeth. She walked up to me until she was inches away from my face. "I hope you will make the right choice, Odd. I don't want to have to do that to you again. If you cooperate, I won't have to do something worse to you."

My eyes grew big. "W-What are you..."

Aelita giggled. "What I did to you, I showed mercy. I could have done more, but I didn't. If you refuse this opportunity, not only will I do that again, but I will have to make some more...modifications to your body..." She held up a knife, a larger, sharper one than the one from before.

"No!" I cried out, horror filling my head.

"No?" Aelita said calmly. "If you don't want to lose something more..." She roughly grabbed my uncut ear and pulled hard. I tried hard not to yelp in pain. "Grant your Future Flash to XANA!" She held the knife against the ear, threatening to slice it.

I could only stare at her in fear, unsure of what to do.