Hello to all... sorry I havent updates for a while. School finals suck, but I'm done as of the end of this week thank god. Then I can update asap. Thanks to my reviewers- patattack: the last chapter was mainly filler I really didnt like writing it too much to be honest. Eaglator23: oh snap is right hahaha. Piscesprincess00: there won't be any WxY story line... can't stand that HATE IT. Ilovepepper77- glad you like the story and I believe that it will get better I only own Hunter Adams... no Lyoko so let's go.

(Ulrich's POV)

I drop directly into sector 5, feeling surprised but then I remember XANA opened the direct passage. The room spins and I only have one thing on my mind. Okay... so maybe 2 things. The first is to get Yumi back, the second is to bash Hunter's skull in and get him away from XANA.

"Ulrich, be careful." Jeremie warned me. "There's about a dozen creepers in the corridor after you leave the stadium." I heeded Jeremie's warning as I sprint out of the area and into the hallway for the core zone. Running as quick s I can, I see Jeremie was right. Laser after laser fire past me, and too many creepers to count. "Hunter's past all of these monsters. Get past them and you can go for the ringleader himself."

I put on a smile of amusement, as I unsheathe both of my swords. All of them surround me, all prepared to fire and send me back to earth. Six fire on one side, and I swing my swords blocking every shot. An idea pops into my mind to make this go quicker. "Triplicate!" Two more of me go back to back with me. I nod my head, as do they since we all know the same thing.

The first one jumps in the back and no one can see him. He supersprints and slices four of them in the blink of an eye. The other tries the same, but doesn't have as much luck. The creepers start to shoot all over the place. "Ulrich you gotta hurry this up, Hunter's on the move." Aelita screamed to me.

I make a quick haste, pushing off my clone and slice four others on the way through. I jump through a hole in the wall, which crushes everything now in between it. My clone gets smashed in the process but it allowed me to catch up to Hunter. "HUNTER!" I scream to him.

(Normal POV)

Hunter turns to face Ulrich, turning around to meet Ulrich's eyes. Ulrich sees his eyes and double checks. Hunter's eyes were black with a white XANA symbol before and now they're normal again. "Glad you could make it to the party Ulrich." Hunter jokes as he places Yumi down and aims his laser at Ulrich.

"Hunter, are you there? XANA's controlling you fight it!" Hunter ignores him and fires. Ulrich blocks his shot and runs to a structure to hide. "Jeremie. What's going on? Hunter's eyes are normal again but he's still fighting me."

"I don't know why that is. He's not under XANA's control anymore." Jeremie replies. Hunter finds Ulrich behind the structure and kicks him straight to where Yumi is.

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet, and yet they call you Einstein." Hunter mocked. Ulrich rose to his and pulled his sword to Hunter's throat. "Go ahead Ulrich, do it put me out. But if you do, then Yumi's gone. I'm keeping her like that and if I go then she goes." he warned him.

Jeremie couldn't believe what Hunter was telling them, he checked Yumi's profile and Hunter's. They were connected. "Ulrich, he's right." Jeremie said sadly. "Hunter's connected his life points to Yumi's. If you devirtualize him Yumi will come back as an empty shell."

Ulrich felt his anger rise, and his grip tighten. He felt the urge to slice the sword through Hunter's throat. Now it was Hunter pulling all the strings, not XANA. Not anymore. Hunter was just being pure evil, manipulating XANA's power fro his own, and doing a good job of it. "Well?" Hunter whispered. Ulrich flinched lightly at the whispered voice interrupting his train of thought.

"You know you want to. You want to make me pay for what I've done." Ulrich was beside himself, feeling his anger rise more and more. Clouding his judgment and ready to have him exact his revenge.

"Ulrich NO!" Aelita screamed to him.

"What?"

"Don't do it, you know you won't forgive yourself if you do this. It'll mean the end of Yumi, she'll be gone." Aelita pleaded as she was in hysterics.

Ulrich leaned toward Hunter with an evil grin on his face. "I'm sorry." he whispered. Hunter shared in his grin. Ulrich gave a deep breath, then kicked Hunter in the face about 10 feet. "I'm sorry that you're not getting away with it that easily Hunter."

Hunter was calm, but mentally extremely angry. He was hoping that would work and it would cause a domino effect among them all. "Regardless.. your still not going to save Yumi." Hunter said with determination, aiming his lasers at Ulrich.

Hunter open fired on Ulrich, Ulrich sliced each laser one after another. "What I wanna know... is why you... chose... to leave us... for XANA.!" Ulrich screamed as Hunter ran out of ammo.

Hunter walked over to him, leaving his arms in the air in surrender. "Can't you see, I'm more powerful now. I can work for XANA in my own way, I get more power than William and I get to go with no leash." He explained.

"Really? 'Cause right now it looks like you've got nothing." Ulrich taunted. Hunter just laughed and laughed at Ulrich when he said that. "What's so funny?"

"You think this is all I have... this isn't even scratching the surface." Ulrich wondered what Hunter meant by his statement. Unfortunately, he got his answer. Hunter's hands began to glow black as orbs of darkness formed in his hands. "This is what I can do with XANA." Ulrich braced himself for the blow from the orbs, which never came. Ulrich saw as the darkness welled inside Hunter's hands, extending to great size and collided together as he forced them upon each other.

"William was a pawn, this is what a night can do." The orbs collided and began to take shape. The shape became human, more and more. Ulrich watched in awe and horror at the form it took. "You can fight me no problem." The shadow person traveled to Yumi and disappeared into Yumi's form.

"But how about your girlfriend? Let's see how well you fight against the one you love." Hunter disappeared in a haze of black as Yumi stood in front of Ulrich.

"Here's the stakes." Ulrich heard Hunter announce overhead. "If you can defeat her, then you can fight against me and she'll be released from my power. But... if you lose, then you shall join my little army. Agreed?" Ulrich thought. He would either get Yumi back from Hunter or become a part of Hunter's army. Ulrich nodded, he had to save Yumi... even if it cost him something in return.

Yumi armed herself with her fans. Ulrich unsheathed his swords once again, reluctant to begin. Yumi's eyes were completely black, no sign of life, or mercy. "Yumi, if you're in there, I want you to know that I don't wanna hurt you." Ulrich warned her. Yumi only chuckled and threw her first fan. Ulrich flipped and narrowly avoided it.

'Doesn't look like she doesn't wanna hurt me though.' Ulrich charged to Yumi before her fan came back, swinging his swords one after the other leaving scratch marks in the floor of the arena. "You're gonna have to do better than that to get to the leader." Yumi cackled.

Yumi flipped back and to the wall, jumping off of it and throwing both fans to slice one of Ulrich's swords successfully. Ulrich threw his sword to the side, since it was useless to him now. "Triangulate!" Ulrich cornered Yumi with his clones, ready to slash her whenever she moved.

Looking left and right, she knew that he could slice her with one try. Kneeling down, Yumi kneeled to the floor in surrender. Ulrich noticed this and was concerned, but cautious. His clones on each side of him, Ulrich walked towards Yumi. "!" Yumi yelled to Ulrich as she threw her fans and destroyed his two clones.

Yumi sprinted towards Ulrich as Ulrich super sprinted away. He had distance in front of Yumi, but the arena changed as he ran. Structures of the arena changed and blocking any path in front of Ulrich. Swerving left and right, Ulrich was met with a dead end. "Nowhere left to run Ulrich." Yumi hissed.

Ulrich raised his one sword and watched Yumi raise her two fans. 'This needs to be just right'. Ulrich thought as he planned in his mind. Yumi threw her fans, ready to encircle Ulrich. Ulrich felt his sword glow in his hands, he didn't even know what was going on.

Hoping it would be a good thing, Ulrich sliced his sword. A ripple of energy flew from his sword. Demolishing Yumi's swords and then... to Yumi. The light dissipated, and Yumi laid there. A slice as a scar remained where the slice hit her. "YUMI!" Ulrich dropped his saber and rushed to her side.

"Ulrich..." she whispered. HE gripped her hand tight. "It'll all be okay..." her last words as she left the virtual world.

Ulrich felt his guilt free itself, and his rage towards Hunter return. The darkness arrived in blankets, pulling itself together forming Hunter. "Well... I don't know where that little burst of energy came from."

Ulrich walked towards him, and clashed him with his sword. Only to blink and see the sword in Hunter's hand. "Come now Ulrich." Hunter snapped his fingers and another sword appeared in front of him. Reaching out, he grabbed it and handed it to Ulrich.

Ulrich took it, but was rather confused. "Since Jeremie is... indisposed, I'm giving you your weapon back. I want this battle to take all you've got." Hunter snapped his fingers again, both Ulrich and Hunter were standing on the outside of Lyoko.

"You've got 5 sectors to choose from. Take your pick." he said at a wave of the hand. "I want you at your best, and you know what's the better sector for you to fight in." Hunter explained.

Ulrich thought deeply. He knew he could use his powers once since Hunter also healed him. Hunter also had powers from his own form. The elemental power in each sector. "Let's go with the desert."

Hunter zoomed into the desert sector, dropping both him and Ulrich there in seconds. "Now you remember the stakes?" Hunter asked as his lasers were loaded.

"You and I fight. If I lose then I join your team." Ulrich repeated.

"I'm also going to add a little something to the stakes. If you win, then I will grant one request that you ask of me."

Ulrich stood there, stunned. Any request that he asked. He could eradicate XANA, change his past. Fix his relationship with Yumi. Or... get rid of Hunter permanently. "Deal?" Hunter asked as he reached out his hand.

Ulrich was reluctant to reach out, thinking if he lost he would lose his will and all his memory. But the idea of the request deemed to much for Ulrich to resist. "DEAL" Ulrich shook his hand. Hunter released a black aura around Ulrich as he released his grip. Ulrich jumped back in pain.

"As the battles progresses, aura will transform you into one of my servants. If you're transformed before you beat me, then you lose." Ulrich felt his hand darken, as his open hand was replaced by a black glove with a XANA symbol on top.

"Without further ado... let the battle commence." Hunter yelled as he ran towards Ulrich, as Ulrich did the same raising his swords.

Sorry that this is short, I'm not good with fight scenes. I'll have the next chapter up as son as I can. Please R&R, anybody wanna guess what Ulrich's request could be. Or better yet, what the outcome of the battle might be. Anyway, more Reviews the faster I go.