"Take that!" Lily shouted, bolts of lightning hitting RITA's new monster, a dragon. "It's not going down!" Lily cried, dodging a stream of fire.
"We can do this, Lil, don't give up!" Yumi shouted back, enlarging her fans and throwing them at the beast, slicing its head off. "Go Theo!" Yumi shouted as the boy started running towards the tower. This time it was a guy who could deactivate the towers, and not a girl like Aelita. The girls ran behind Theo to protect him from any other monsters. Theo ran straight into the tower and quickly deactivated it. "That was easy!" Yumi exclaimed as Theo reemerged.
"Sure for you, look at me!" Lily snorted, and looking at Lily you could find her covered in head to foot soot and burns. "That hurt, like a lot."
"It still was easy, you have to admit that, Lil." Yumi replied rolling her eyes.
"Not anymore it's not." Theo said solemnly. "Your boyfriend, Ulrich right?"
"Yeah." Yumi replied, not sure where he was going with this.
"He's outside. He followed you here." Theo explained.
"What?" Yumi exclaimed. He followed me?
"Him and the boy that likes purple."
"Odd's here too?" What was going on?
"What are we gonna do?" Lily asked sitting down on a rock. "We can't stay here forever, there's nothing to do."
"Think, think." Theo muttered. "Okay, when we teleport out we will beam ourselves to the next street over. Yumi, get the boys away. We'll talk about this tomorrow."
"We can't beam anywhere except the lamp post, Theo." Lily sighed.
"Can't we do a back to the past?" Yumi asked, and Theo looked at her strangely.
"That could work, right Theo?" Lily questioned.
"Maybe, wait here." Theo ran back into the tower and suddenly an energy force washed over all of Lyoko and the warriors and continuing outward. A back to the past. Yumi remembered with a smile. Immediately, Yumi was back in her room, walking in, on her phone talking with Lily who had just stopped talking.
"Back to the past works! You were right!" Lily shouted happily.
"We always did back to the past in the past." Yumi smiled in success. "I thought it would work, and it did!" Yumi cheered. "I gotta go, I think I know where Ulrich and Odd hid." She told her friend, looking toward the oak in the front yard.
"Bye!" Lily chirped hanging up. Still looking at the oak she called to her Mom that she was going to bed walking towards the window, Yumi let out a sigh. She got that Ulrich probably didn't trust her, she was running back and forth between him and Lyoko after all, but Yumi was pretty sure Ulrich wouldn't stoop so low as to follow her around at night. Opening the window, she leaned out and looked at the tree knowingly.
"So how's it going in the tree, Ulrich? Trying to take a nap, Odd? We'll talk about your spying on me tomorrow." Ulrich and Odd's faces appeared in the leafy canopy, shocked and dismayed.
"How'd you...?" Ulrich trailed off, searching his girlfriend's face for answers.
"Tomorrow, Ulrich." She promised, and the boys dropped from the tree. "See you later, Odd!" She called out before shutting the window for the night. Can't get any trust these days, oh well. Sighing, Yumi dropped into her bed and fell asleep with a frown.
~(0)~
"You were spying on me why?" Yumi demanded the next days, arms crossed and glaring at the boys before her. Only half her mind was on the confrontation before her, the other half was dreading a calculus test she had to take later.
"No reason." Odd evaded.
"Okay, so for no reason you climbed into the tree in my front yard, and proceeded to spy onme...for no apparent reason?" Yumi asked with an arched eyebrow. "Just spill, it'll be easier this way, trust me."
"We just wanted to be in the tree, Yumi. I hear oaks are very comfortable to sleep in this time of year. Lots of leaves, lots of space, hey I could make it work, couldn't I?" Odd continued with a shrug. "So, how'd you know we were there anyway? We were silent!"
"I'll tell you if you tell me." Yumi replied, leaving the offer on the table. Ulrich and Odd conferred for a moment before turning back to the Japanese.
"I know you've been lying to me, or you've been at least keeping something from me." Ulrich finally replied.
"What? I would never keep anything from you!" Yumi lied.
"You are, I know it." Ulrich insisted. He was right of course. She had her secret, Lyoko. She couldn't tell him, no matter how much it killed her, because if she did Lily and Theo would have her head. She just had to lie. "Okay, so maybe I have a secret or two. Who doesn't? We all had Lyoko, didn't we? Now we have different secrets, Ulrich, some things we just can't share no matter how much we want to." Where had that come from? Yumi wondered. She had been going to lie! What had happened?
"Can't you tell us your big secret?" Odd asked gently.
"I would love to, but I can't. Anyway, Mrs. Richardson next door called saying she saw two boys climb up our oak tree." Yumi sighed.
"How'd you know which 'boy' in particular climbed your tree?" Odd demanded.
"Part of my secret. I gotta go, okay?" Yumi turned and walked away, heading for the woods behind Kadic academy. She hadn't been here in so long! But Yumi's feet remembered the way, and she ended up by an old manhole cover. She remembered all the times she had climbed in and out of that manhole and into the sewers with her friends when they had all been fighting XANA. On impulse, Yumi opened the manhole cover and dropped in, closing herself in. the skateboards and scooters were gone, leaving her to walk. Suddenly her phone started ringing. "Hello?" She asked, not reading the caller I.D.
"RITA alert!" Lily said quickly. "Please hurry up!"
"I can't Lil, I'm sorry. I caught a bug and I don't think I could make it there." Yumi lied. She wanted to go back to the old control center...
"Oh, okay. Hope you feel better!" The line went dead as Lily hung up. Yumi continued in silence, the only sound being her feet as she shuffled along and the sewer water. Finally, she reached her destination and climbed out. The abandoned warehouse loomed above her as she approached it. Yumi remembered coming with her friends in the before time, and wished they were here to help her and her new friends battle RITA. Taking the elevator down to the control room, Yumi wondered on how time would have aged the once important room. The impressive machines were now covered in dust, all the computers and wires, even Jeremy's old chair. Shaking the dust off the leather seat, Yumi sat down and stared blankly at the screen in front of her. Memories flooded her mind, and she let herself be drowned in them. All the happy times, all the sad times she'd seen with her friends. Yumi wanted to tell Ulrich the truth, she didn't want to keep secrets from him.
But she had to.
She wanted Odd to laugh with her and not stare at her coldly for keeping this from them, she wanted to go shopping with Aelita, be bored to death by Jeremy's technical terms, and she wanted William there to talk to. He had always been a great friend. Silently, Yumi rose from the chair and climbed down to the main power generator. She'd stood here before, in the golden days with her friends, when the power was turned off and they had relinquished their duties as Lyoko Warriors. Now, only Yumi was left with the power. She touched the lever that would return power to the generator longingly. It would be so simple, a quick flip of the switch and Lyoko would be back online like she remembered it being.
She had to.
She would.
But she couldn't
Right?
Taking a breath, she flicked the lever hard and a whirring sound started. Power returned to the machine, quickly flooding the room in lights.