A/N: Guys, the reception I got was phenomenal and I'd like to thank each and every one of you! I hope you enjoy this chapter, still a lit bit of setting the scene, but the plot thickens a small tad. I'd like to thank Beavertail96 for going over this for me.

Innocent until proven guilty.

One of the many things that if Jim knew, he'd rather not talk about it. Or think about it. And you could forget all hopes of him living his life by that. Let alone his job.

Which meant that Ulrich was in detention. Detention, in and of itself didn't bother him. (He had accumulated his fair share of detention over his stay at Kadic and he was past the point where it left much of an impact on him. Odd, on the other hand, had gotten so many detentions it was like a party because he got on great with almost all of the teachers. Outside school hours, of course.)

This detention, however, had the unfortunate timing of being right over a three day weekend.

And no one wanted that. Except for Jeremie. And even that was only one time.

But supercomputers and evil programs were really extenuating circumstances and didn't count.

Of course, it was the one weekend where Yumi was out of town, Odd was visiting his family with Aelita (They had been rather accepting of the cousin thing. No questions asked, just extra dessert served), even Jeremie was off with his parents at some conference he had been looking forward to for months

And that left Ulrich here. Alone at Kadic. With no one to even sock skate with.

Life could be cruel.

His detention finished around lunchtime, but then he was doomed to spend the rest of his time alone at Kadic. Well, he had Kiwi for company; Odd deciding that it would be easier to leave him under the watch of Ulrich than try to find a way to drag him on the train for his and Aelita's rendezvous with the Della Robbias in London. But even Kiwi was in an uncommon fit of lethargy.

So he was left to face the ghost town that Kadic had suddenly become.

He mostly resorted to walking around the campus and investigating all the nooks and crannies. There was a hidden door into the cafeteria he would hold over Odd's shoulders and a concealed staircase that could take you to the roof of the gym.

And then he found it.

Surrounded by small evergreen trees and large rocks there was a small garden, a little away from the main office. He spent some time looking around the place. Small stones were set into ground with benches and in the middle was soil with plants. A small plaque at the end said 'in memory of' but the name was too beaten by the weather to read. Flowers grew all around and there was a small fountain surrounded by the plants. The garden appeared as if it was maintained regularly and Ulrich absently wondered how many people knew about this place. He didn't even know if he wanted to tell anyone about this.

Though he could imagine bringing Yumi here. The perfect spot for a discreet picnic. He would set candles around and give her a bouquet of flowers he picked from here and they would sit on the edge of the fountain and talk.

She would appreciate that. And there would be no Odd to get in his way.

After he left the garden, he walked over to the factory. The river was peaceful, gently lapping along the shore. The sun was slowly being overtaken by clouds, and he slipped inside.

The factory had always been…eerie. It was old and abandoned, and the wind would whistle through the broken windows and sagging walls. He went to the very top, looking at all the leftover supplies and giant windows.

He stopped by the main computer and sighed. It hadn't been that long since they turned it off, and he was still adjusting to not being woken up at three in the morning because of some XANA attack. He kind of missed it. And kind of didn't. But such was life.

So he turned away from the supercomputer, this time for the last time, and walked away from the factory. He took the scenic route, walking all the way across the bridge and down the road to Kadic. The trees were blooming with new found buds of leaves and the birds were back, chirping happily as the sun beat warmly on his back.

It was so perfect it was disgusting.

He had detention the next morning as well, of course, and still no one was around the entire school. At least, that's what he thought until he heard the scream.

It was a scream that he (unfortunately) had heard before. One that could come from none other than Kadic's very own stuck-up beauty queen herself, Sissi Delmas. He had heard that same sound coming from her mouth so many times he could place it as instantly as the stench of Odd's feet or Hertz's droning science lectures.

It was like a classroom with one kid scratching his nails on the chalkboard on one side of the board and another kid drawing with squeaky chalk on the other. Only worse because in that classroom, neither of the kids had to be Sissi, and here there was no way it wasn't.

Sissi had a 'one size fits all' type of scream, meaning that the atrocious sound that came out of her mouth could cover a multitude of events. From Herve getting on her nerves to her lipstick being gone, to Odd insulting her, to being attacked by inanimate objects due to the world's favorite evil computer program. She had perfected the talent of adapting her scream to any situation.

And since he had the fortune of being stuck with her a disproportionate amount of his time, it fell on him more often than not to figure out what the cause was. Really didn't want to deal with this today.

The scream (which was still happening) was getting closer and closer to him.

So Ulrich, being the smart boy that he was, ran away.

There was a time when he would have sucked it up and gone to see what a problem was. But he had just been in the factory and the computer had been one hundred percent shut down, so the chance of it being a XANA Attack was a zero. And as the scream was persisting and not accompanied by a "you don't know who my father is!" he could only assume she wasn't in any real trouble.

So he ran to the most convenient spot he could think of that he was sure Sissi would never ever find. The garden.

He had forgotten, however, in his blinding haste that while he boarded on the Kadic campus, Sissi practically lived on it, and that in her time of distress she might seek out the same solace that he did. Which, as it turned out, was the garden.

He had just settled down, resting on the park bunch, looking up at the clear blue sky above his head and the angry grey clouds off to the side that were about to blow in over him. A storm was coming. Fantastic.

At least he would have an excuse to go back to his room.

But, as for now, he would stay right where he was and think and contemplate his life and human morality. (In other words, he was going to sleep.)

And that's when he heard the rushing footsteps and the rough panting. It was oddly high pitched, more of a combination of a gasp and a squeal. And that could only mean one thing. Sissi.

She raced through the small hole in the pine trees and rock, which is what Ulrich realized was the only way to get in (or out). As soon as she entered the area she sank to a sitting position, wrapping her arms around her legs and trying to get a hold of her breathing.

Ulrich didn't know what to do. He didn't want to get poked in a million different places with a million different pine needles, but he didn't want Sissi to discover his presence and she was in the way of the only non-piny escape route.

He could also go up and talk to her, but that was the most idiotic thing he could possibly do. Only a fool would talk to Sissi, especially if that fool's name was Ulrich Stern.

Which is exactly what he did.

Maybe it was because he was guilty about running away from her, or the fact that as a Lyoko Warrior he would always try to help people (something none of them would ever be able to shake which would lead to two of their deaths) or just him doing right on their offer to be her friend they had made at the end of their reign as heroes.

He walked over to Sissi and laid his hand on her shoulder.

The reaction was instantaneous. Her head whipped to his direction and she was suddenly on her feet, still panting but with her fists out- ready to put up a fight.

Then she caught sight of him and blushed, lowering her fists and instead using her hands to instantaneously fix her hair, which was wild.

Her barrette had fallen off sometime. There were twigs and leaves tangled in the normally pristine hair. She was sweaty too- something Ulrich had never really seen Sissi as, and because of it certain strands were clinging to her face or flopping around.

In short, she looked a little hideous.

He also noticed that she was shivering a bit, even though it was a nice temperature outside, all things considered.

"Oh, Ulrich," Sissi said hurriedly. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same thing about you."

Sissi smiled and waved a hand. "But Ulrich, dear, this is where I come to relax. Isn't it peaceful. And plus, Nicholas and Herve don't know about it and I'd like to keep it that way! But if you want to share this little secret with me, I wouldn't mind. You can keep a secret though, right."

"Oh you have no idea."

Sissi's eyes furrowed and she crossed her arms. "Of course you can. It was you and your little group of friends that ran around the last few years, doing everything you could to not let us find out." She paused, finger to her lips. "Come to think of it, you stopped a while ago. What happened?"

"Why did you scream?" Ulrich asked abruptly.

Sissi's demeanor changed abruptly. "It's none of your business, so if I were you I would scram, okay?"

Ulrich's eyes widened by a margin, but Sissi wasn't paying any attention to him. She was staring at the suddenly cloudy sky and the suddenly raging wind.

"Sissi," Ulrich said. "Is something wrong?"

Sissi pouted. "Even if I told you, you would just make fun of me with your horrible group of friends."

"My friends aren't here," Ulrich said, and mentally kicked himself because he had no idea why was he being nice to Sissi. Pigs weren't flying and to his knowledge, Hell hadn't yet frozen over. But here he was. Stupid Lyoko making him always the hero, always the martyr.

"Fine," Sissi said and she sounded angry. "If you must know, I think Leon Corbet is back."

Leon Corbet. The name was familiar. Jogging some memory from some time long ago, but for the life of him, Ulrich just couldn't remember what it was. "Who's Leon Corbet?"

"Kadic's ghost," Sissi said, sighing in irritation. "He was killed about a hundred years ago while Kadic was being built. They say he still haunts the school to this day. You should know this, Ulrich, you were at the séance."

And Ulrich did remember. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean he's real. It was just Odd."

Sissi glared at him and he figured that admitting it had been one big prank was probably not the smartest thing he could have done. But then again, neither was talking to Sissi and while two lefts didn't make a right (but three did? Ulrich had never gotten that expression) maybe two dumb things could cancel each other out.

But since when did Sissi ever make things easy.

"Well then, Ulrich, you should be glad to know that he's back, and this time there's no Odd to fake us. I was walking past the boiler room and the door just opened and no one was there because I checked."

"Why does this make me glad?"

Sissi smiled. "Because you get to hang out with me all day while we go check it out. You never know, you may have to fight him!"

"You can't fight a ghost, Sissi."

Sissi shrugged and grabbed his hand, walking out of the garden. "Come on, let's go check it out."

In hindsight, he really should have faced the pine needles and left Sissi by herself.

'But at least it's something to do,' one side of his brain reasoned. Probably the side the little angel was sitting on.

'With Sissi?" the other side of his brain scoffed, 'You'd rather clean Odd's side of the room while Kiwi is shedding than hang out with her.'

But he really had no choice because Sissi's grip on his wrist was really, really, inhumanly tight and her eyes were narrowed and scrutinizing every single move he took. Because she might be obsessed with him, but she sure didn't trust him.

They walked to the boiler room only to find that everything was completely normal. No doors swung open. No objects picked themselves up. The temperature wasn't even different (taking into account the normal temperature changes of boiler rooms, of course).

Suddenly, a large crack of lightening made the room brighter for a split second and then, not even a second later, all the lights went out. Ulrich heard Sissi's terrified scream mix with the roar of thunder as he felt her arms wrap around him.

"W-w-we should get out of here," Sissi said. Ulrich nodded and they felt their way out of the dark room. When they got outside, it was to a downpour of rain. They sprinted across the grounds to the library (or Ulrich headed to the library and Sissi followed).

Sissi and Ulrich were wet and the library was cold. But it was out of the rain and relatively unhaunted. Ulrich had hoped that the storm would put all thoughts of Leon Corbet out of Sissi's head, but their haven only seemed to inspire her further.

She paced back and forth down one of the aisles. Ulrich sat at the end, reading a book about football that he had read countless times before. He flipped to page seventy-nine which illustrated the one technique he had been trying since before his arrival at Kadic.

"I don't understand," Sissi said angrily, "there's got to be some sign that he's there. I know what I saw, I just know it!" Her voice was getting into the dangerous level of high pitch. She quickly walked over to Ulrich and poked him in the chest. "You believe me, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course I do, Sissi," Ulrich said.

But she seemed to catch him in his lie and there was a fire in her eyes. But then they seemed to light up with something. "Hey, Ulrich, you know that factory not far from here? You know, the one right on the river."

"Uh, yeah, I've seen it."

Sissi smacked her hands together. "Well when was it created? Maybe it was made around the same time Kadic was and Leon Corbet worked on it right before Kadic or maybe just a little bit and he's there right now!"

Ulrich laughed nervously. "I don't understand. He died at Kadic, so wouldn't he, uh, be at Kadic."

Sissi shook her head. "Ghosts stay in places they had their greatest happiness or greatest sadness. Sadness would be death or something which explains Kadic, but maybe the factory was a bad job that he wants to forget or a job he loved!"

"Ulrich!" Her voice trilled with excitement. She bent down and grabbed his shirt and he had to look through her arms to see the step by step instructions and pictures. (He would practice it once the storm ended and he got Sissi out of his hair.) "We'll go check the factory out!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ulrich said.

Sissi abruptly stood up, hands on her hips. "Why not?"

"Well, it's abandoned and could be dangerous. I mean, students aren't really supposed to go in there, right?"

Sissi frowned but didn't say anything. Her frown, however, did continue to deepen.

"Are you alright?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know," Sissi said. "I'm trying to remember something but the memory just isn't coming to me, you know what I mean? It's so weird to, because I really haven't been in the factory that much…" she broke off, staring at the book shelf. "Do you remember that director that used the factory as a movie set?"

"No," Ulrich said, "he wanted to use the factory as a movie set, remember. But it had already been used so he chose a different location."

Sissi's frown didn't lighten for a few minutes, but then she sighed and looked up. "I guess you're right, but I could have sworn that he did." She shook her head. "All these ghost stories must be playing with my memories."

"Probably," Ulrich agreed. "Maybe we should save the factory for another day."

And he should not have said anything. Because there was a chance she would have forgotten about it (not a big one, but a chance).

"What? Of course we're not going to give it up," Sissi said. "What are you thinking? This could be our only chance!"

"I just don't think it's a good idea," Ulrich said.

"Well I'm going. And you don't have to come with me if you don't want to!" Sissi huffed.

Of course, this spoke to the fact that Sissi really never got a hold of the fact that offering Ulrich to not go with her was exactly what he wanted. But, to her advantage, she had unknowing stumbled into territory where there was no way Ulrich was going to not go with her.

Because if he couldn't keep her away from the factory, he would certainly keep her away from the supercomputer.

The fact that the biggest crisis of someone figuring out about the factory came from a stupid, misguided attempt to find a ghost was something that was not lost on Ulrich. And he hated that.

The storm ended too soon, and before he knew it, Ulrich was solemnly following Sissi on the way to the factory. Her boots splashed in the puddles and she nearly lost her balance three times in the first five minutes.

"So Ulrich," she asked as they walked across the bridge (him for the second time that day), "Why are you and your friends so obsessed with this place?"

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.

Sissi rolled her eyes. "Please, Ulrich Dear. You and your little group are always talking about the factory and I want to know why."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ulrich said. "I've never been there in my life. I think Jeremie has, though. He likes to look for scrap parts to build his robots."

Sissi raised an eyebrow. And they were at the factory.

"I'm going to find out what you guys have been hiding."

No one ever said that Sissi was a tactical mastermind. (No one had ever called her a genius either, if you looked past Nicholas, because most people considered his opinions of intelligence automatically null and void.) Case in point: she just admitted to finding the secret of someone to the person who's secret she was finding.

She came to the edge and saw the chains hanging from the ceiling. She reached for it and Ulrich stuck out a hand to stop her.

"I'm warning you Sissi, this won't end well."

She shoved his hand aside and hopped onto the chain. Ulrich predicted her move and had grabbed the other one. He reached out and held onto Sissi's chain. She growled and elbow him, pushing him off of her chain.

She was successful in that aspect it, but it wasn't the only result. And the second consequence was not one that either of them wanted.

Because when she pushed him off of her chain, she also pushed him off of his.

And he fell through the air until he abruptly landed.

It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.

Ulrich was aware just enough to hear something crack. (He didn't know what it was, but whatever it was, it sounded really bad). He felt the pain flood in from everywhere. And he saw Sissi come to a panicked landing and hurry to them. Water hit his face.

And then everything vanished.

In the time that followed where he regained consciousness, Ulrich didn't remember a lot. He somewhat remembered Sissi as she frantically called her father, and Jim and Delmas as they carried him to Delmas' car and brought him to the hospital.

Sitting in the waiting from was a little bit of a blur. Getting his legs and arms and back X-rayed and his head scanned (apparently had had a concussion, go figure) was a little bit more clear, as with the procedures.

But he didn't remember Sissi coming in, her face wet and eyes red, repeating 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry' over and over again. He didn't remember Jim patting his shoulder a bit too hard, pounding him into the bed. And he didn't see the older man as he bit his bottom lip and seemed to stare right through him.

The only thing he remembered with any clarity was the doctor coming in. Her face was considerate and her hair was pulled into a ponytail with strands lazily hanging out and she looked at him with a sympathy that he couldn't stand.

And even then, he didn't remember all the words she said, or the letters she used, or any of the terminology. But he knows that she said it, one way or another. Jeremie might have been able to understand it, but he was hurting too much to even try.

But there was one thing he could remember as clear as day. She had turned to him, and after the jargon and swirl of words and letters that had rushed from her mouth, she finished simply and memorably. He didn't remember the specific words, but the intent was clear.

He would never be able to play football again. He would never be able to play football again. He would never be able to play football again.

And he remembered falling asleep and that even when he woke up, his friends weren't there. And when they finally were- Odd and Aelita first, then Yumi, and then Jeremi- there was nothing they could say that could make it better.