I'm back! Yay! School holidays, so I'll try to write alot more. Anyway, the title gives this chapter away, but there's more to come. So basicly I think this chapter is really important. Anyways, r&r
"Tegan? Teeeeegan!" Odd called. "There's a Xana attack! C'mon Tegan!" He shook his head. She wouldn't answer anyway. She clearly hated him, although he wasn't sure why. "Tegan! I'm serious. No matter how much you hate me, you got to help us fight!"
Odd looked around. He was near the hermitage. He was sure he wouldn't find her there, but he had a feeling that there was something there. And he had to check it out.
He looked up and noticed smoke coming from the roof of the Hermitage. He looked closer and realized it was on fire.
"Tegan?" He asked. He heard a scream from the building and realized she was inside.
"Yeah, well, maybe if we protected her better, she'd be able to get to the tower."
"Oh, so this is my fault is it?"
"What? No, I said if we protected her better."
Yumi looked out from behind the slab of ice. William and a group of eight crabs, two Megatanks and three tarantulas were standing in front of the tower, waiting for them to do something. She wasn't sure why they were still there. It wasn't like they could do anything.
"Jeremie, when can you send Aelita back?"
"I can't for another hour."
"Why?"
"Because her atoms would be weak from the devirtualization. We can't run the risk of letting one break away because we had to transfer her again."
"Jeremie, can't you at least try? What if Xana's launched an attack on the real world?"
"I can't do anything. If you guys made sure she didn't get devirtualized in the first place…"
"Jeremie…"
"I'm sorry, Yumi. I can't do anything."
Yumi looked over at Ulrich, who was staring off into the distance. Yumi looked from Ulrich, to William, then back to Ulrich again.
Maybe I shouldn't have let William get so close to me. Letting him on the team was a mistake.
She looked at her hand and noticed a small ring on her finger, which she didn't have before. It was gold with a red colored gem in the middle. It glistened brightly, even though there wasn't any sun in Lyoko. She gazed up at Ulrich and saw he had one, too, although he hadn't noticed it yet.
"Hey Jeremie, any reason why we have these rings on our fingers?" Ulrich looked at her, before looking at his hand. His eyes went wide.
"Rings?"
"Yeah, rings. We both have them." She noticed Ulrich's gem was green.
"That doesn't sound right, because you've never had them before, right?"
"Yeah. They're… weird." She gazed at her ring. It wasn't doing her any harm, it was just there.
Suddenly, she heard Ulrich gasp. She looked at his ring, which was now glowing brightly. The green color faded, and turned black just as Ulrich collapsed.
"Ulrich!" Yumi yelled. She ran over to him and noticed he didn't look right, but she couldn't figure out what was different about him.
"What happened?"
"The ring on Ulrich's finger started glowing and turned black. He just… fainted."
She looked at the sky, just as Jeremie called out to her. "Yumi, get away from him now. He's not himself, it's not Xana, though… It's…"
"Jeremie, what's happening?" She asked. Ulrich was floating. His eyes opened slowly, but he didn't have the Xana symbol in them. Instead, they were a dark blue, unlike his usual brown color.
"Ulrich, are, are you ok?" She asked. His eyes connected with hers, but they weren't his, they were somebody else's.
"Ulrich?"
"I'm not Ulrich…"
Her eyes widened. She recognized that voice.
"Wait, William?"
"Tegan, wake up! Come on!" Odd shook the girl, but she wouldn't wake up. He sat on the bed in Aelita's old room with Tegan lying next to him, unconscious. He could barely see because of the smoke. "Tegan, please, wake up!"
He looked at the door, wondering whether he should try to get out or not. He could see a few shadows flickering on the walls. She started coughing violently in her sleep, which he guessed was from the smoke.
He looked at her and sighed inwardly. If he didn't get her out she'd suffocate. There was only one way out.
He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder (AN: Not the nicest way to carry a girl, really…) and headed for the door. The roof was starting to cave in and he could barely see anything. He tried breathing as little as possible as he stepped through the rubble.
He ran through the house, trying to get out as quick as possible. He dashed down the stairs before they collapsed and heard a loud crash sound, before seeing bits of plaster fall down the stairs. He realized part of the roof must've caved in. He ran out the door and tried to get as far away as possible, stopping near the edge of the woods. He leaned Tegan up against a tree and reached for his mobile.
I must've lost it in the hermitage. He thought. He realized he had no way of telling Jeremie to launch a return to the past. He looked down just as Tegan opened her eyes.
"Odd, what happened?" She asked, before looking at the burning building.
"Um. I'm not sure. I think you better rest, though."
She looked from Odd to the Hermitage. "Was it Xana?"
Odd sat down next to her and sighed. "I, I think so."
They sat in silence, watching the old home burn to the ground together.
"Jeremie, William tried to contact us, and he did through Ulrich."
"And he passed out again and woke up as Ulrich when the ring changed color?"
"Yeah."
"The same time the tower deactivated itself, and Xanafied William went after this yellow tower instead?"
"Yeah."
"Did he say anything?"
"He only got to say 'I'm not Ulrich' to me before fainting."
The group stared at the floor. Jeremie shook his head.
"Well, William must be getting stronger and smarter, seeing as he can contact us, but what are the rings for?"
"He used the ring to posses Ulrich?" Tegan asked. Jeremie shrugged.
"Yeah, maybe. I don't understand why Yumi has one, though." He looked at the ring Yumi held in her hand. It was still on when she came out of the scanners. The same thing happened to Ulrich.
"What about my home?" Aelita asked. Jeremie stood up and gave Aelita a hug.
"I couldn't do anything to save it. The return to the past is still bugged, so it wouldn't have done anything even if Odd managed to tell me to."
Aelita stepped away from Jeremie and wiped her eyes. "It, it doesn't matter. Besides, we should be figuring out how to help William, and why Xana keeps attacking Tegan."
"Yeah, that's true." Odd said. He and Tegan were talking now, although Ulrich wouldn't say anything to him.
"And we need to figure out what happened to her in the first place." Yumi added.
"And we need to fix the return to the pasts." Ulrich mentioned. Jeremie put his hands in the air.
"Yeah, ok, we have a lot of work to do, I know. Look, one thing at a time, ok?" The rest of the group nodded. Jeremie took a deep breath.
"Ok Tegan, do you remember anything at all?"
"Not really." She thought for a second. "I had this really freaky dream the other night, but… it's probably nothing."
Jeremie and Aelita exchanged glances. "No, it could give us all the information we need. We learnt a lot of things from Aelita's dreams…"
Tegan ran her fingers through her hair. "Well, I'm walking down this street…"
How romantic, they watched a house burn down together. Well, it's the thought that counts...
I'm in one of my random moods, so yeah. Hehe. Love you all and thanks for reading, even though it's taken me this long to update. I'm shocked you guys are still interested