Imminently in the next morning, the same tower was active again. Jeremy alerted the group and soon everyone except Yumi, who stayed at home because of her parents, arrived at the factory. Alex held his wounded shoulder, face a grimace; along the way, there had been a creature swinging with a sword, created on Earth by the tower. The creature had, of course, targeted him and nearly managed to strike the killing blow. Alex knew that Odd, who had pulled him out of the sword's way in time, was to be thanked for his survival.

"Will you be fine until virtualization?" Aelita asked in the elevator, worried.

"Yeah, I'll survive," Alex said, his eyes empty and desperate. "This reminds me about why I asked you to help me. I don't fare alone."
"Well, luckily we're on your side," Odd remarked. "We'll defeat Serafina for sure."

"True," Jeremy said. "If we do as well as yesterday, our chances are very good."

Alex forced himself to smile.

"Thank you," he said and forced himself to swallow the tears of affection and pain. He was truly happy that he had found such fantastic comrades and friends.

Jeremy's phone rang.

"Yes, Yumi?" Einstein answered.

"Jeremy, that sword-carrying creature is here," Yumi's voice whispered.

"What?!" Jeremy cried out.

"What now?" Ulrich asked, worried.

"That creature is at Yumi's place," Jeremy answered.

"No!" William breathed. "Is Yumi ok?"

"Me and my folks are fine yet, Hiroki is with Johnny today. We're hiding, but I don't know when that creature gets inside," Yumi whispered.

"Alright, hang in there, we'll deactivate the tower as soon as we can," Jeremy said. Yumi ended the call upon hearing some noise.

"Someone has to go to help her," Aelita said.

"I'll go," Ulrich and William both said and turned to look at one another right upon hearing the other say the same words.

"We can't send you both to help Yumi. Anything can wait on Lyoko," Jeremy said. "Which one of you goes?"

William and Ulrich stared each other into the eyes. Which one would go to Yumi's place? They both understood that the competition between them had begun again now that the inflamed relations had started to mend. The elevator stopped and opened.

"Let's see what the situation is on Lyoko and decide on it," William suggested.

"Fine," Ulrich said. They stood into the lab and went to the supercomputer to see what was shown on the screen.

"Serafina and the others, three Tarantulas," Jeremy listed and bit his lip. "You both would be needed here."

Alex looked at William and Ulrich. He wanted to get this decision done quickly, but he did not want to cause additional friction between the two now that they had seemed to get along so well in the previous evening either.

"One of you must come," Aelita said. "At least."

"Yumi can't be left to the mercy of that creature alone," Ulrich said. William looked at the screen and thought heavily. The longer they took to decide, the longer Yumi would be in danger. He decided to resolve the situation.

"Ulrich, go help Yumi," he said.

"Huh?" Ulrich yelped, astounded.

"You heard me," William said, walking towards the elevator. "Alex, Aelita, Odd, we have to hurry." At the elevator's door he looked at the others. "The longer we hesitate, the longer Yumi is in danger. We can't afford bickering."

"William is right. Just go, Ulrich, and be careful," Alex said, relieved that this had not become a fight.

"All right," Ulrich said, solemn. "Good luck." He hurried to the ladders and started to climb up; he would get to go faster that way than with the elevator which he would first have wait for. Aelita, Odd and Alex followed William to the elevator and to the scanner room.

"I didn't expect that you'd decide to help us and not Yumi," Odd remarked.

"I am helping Yumi," William noted. "Ulrich can do nothing but keep the creature from hurting her. Aelita is the only one who can stop it through Lyoko. When I help with stopping the creature on Lyoko, I am helping Yumi."

"Indeed," Aelita said while stepping into the scanner. "We would need Ulrich on Lyoko too, though. We're numerically disadvantaged."

"The Tarantulas have to be taken out first," Odd said. "When they've been dealt with, we can concentrate on the main meal properly."

"Alex and Odd, I'll virtualize you first. Be ready," Jeremy said. "The Overboard and the Overwing are waiting for you there already, so set off right away."

"All right, Einstein," Odd said and stepped into the scanner. Alex did the same without saying anything.

"Transfer odd, transfer Alex, scanner Odd, scanner Alex, virtualization!" Jeremy put out the commands. "Aelita and William, your turn."

"Let's go then," William noted, solemn while stepping into the scanner. They had to succeed, or things could go badly for Yumi. He did not want to let the creature harm the girl he loved, so he hoped that Ulrich could buy them enough time to deactivate the tower.

"Transfer Aelita, transfer William, scanner Aelita, scanner William, virtualization!"

William did not let himself fall all the way to the ground but shifted straight to Super Smoke from the air. Aelita had the time to see that and opened her wings, leaving the Overwing in place. They went right after Odd and Alex, who were going ahead. There was no time to lose.

Yumi breathes as silently as possible. Someone walked near the cleaning closet. It could very well be the creature Serafina's attack had created. Her parents held onto each other, fearful.

A sword penetrated the door, scraping a long wound to Yumi's back, and Yumi's mother could not help shouting when her daughter cried out and slumped on her knees. The sword detached and prepared for another strike, but it never got to its destination, as a cry and the following hard slam implied that someone had pushed it away. Yumi could not tell if the helper was Ulrich or William, and at that moment it did not matter to her. Whichever it was, that did not matter, as long as he would not hurt himself at least severely.

Another cry was heard. Now Yumi recognized it to be Ulrich's voice. A metallic clank. The creature had hit something else than Ulrich.

Hurry up, Yumi prayed the ones on Lyoko in her mind.

William saw the tarantulas and stopped, returning to his human form. Alex looked at him in confusion when the others stopped too.

"I'll take care of those Tarantulas. You concentrate on Serafina and the others," William said.

"Are you sure you can deal with all of those three?" Alex asked, worried.

"Hopefully," William noted. "If you get a good spot, go ahead and shoot them for me, but since they need to be taken care of fast without ignoring the other enemies, I'll take of them. I get to attach each of them with Super Smoke fast and right after that to help you."

"I agree," Aelita said.

"Let's do that," Alex said.

"Yeah," Odd said. "For Yumi!"

"For Yumi," William affirmed and returned to Super Smoke. He hurried ahead of the others to be able to attack the Tarantulas right away. Serafina, Alicia, Lyra and Dan prepared for the attack, but upon seeing William heading towards the Tarantulas they turned their arrows at the others and shot. Aelita ascended higher to avoid hits and Odd covered her with his shield and, when needed, with himself and even his vehicle. Alex sped straight at the enemies with his machete ready. He did not mind the Tarantulas which concentrated on William, who was now losing his life points. Apparently, he had gotten hit and fumbled with controlling Super Smoke. However, Alex knew that William would not get hurt if he was devirtualized, so he concentrated on his own target.

Odd shot laser arrows at the Tarantulas and thus got William a moment long enough to recover the control of Super Smoke and lunge at the last Tarantula. Odd, however, decided to take care of it, but at the same time he made the mistake of ignoring Lyra. The blonde girl shot him off his Overboard into devirtualization with a grin on her face.

William hurried to attack Lyra and Dan to give Aelita the needed additional seconds to get to the tower. Something in him said that they were in a hurry now.

Metal clanked against metal. Ulrich breathed in through his teeth when the violent blows shook his wounded shoulder painfully. In addition to that, his body was starting to tire in this tough struggle.

"Hurry up," he muttered even though he knew that Aelita and the others did not hear him. Yumi glimpsed the situation cautiously through the slit of the cleaning closet's door, seeing how bad a condition the walls were in now. Moreover, she saw Ulrich's wounds. They would need a Return to the Past.

Yumi took her phone and called Jeremy again, "Jeremy, what's the situation on Lyoko? Ulrich won't hold up much longer."

"Aelita is in the tower soon. Hang in there," Jeremy answered. "What's the situation?"

"Ulrich and I have both gotten hits from the sword and my home isn't in a terribly pretty condition. We need a Return to the Past necessarily." Yumi felt her legs shake. She felt dizzy; did the sword do something else than just wounding?

"I understand. I'll prepare the Return to the Past ready," Jeremy declared.

"Good, thanks," Yumi said and hung up. Ulrich cried out when the blade got past his defense to scratch a flesh wound to his cheek. Yumi tried to stay silent so that she would not draw the creature's attention to herself. Please be quick.

Alicia hurled Alex further away and Serafina attacked William, giving Lyra a chance to take some distance and shoot. Serafina took her steel arrow and attacked, aiming at William's arms and sides with swift jabs. Only now William understood just how bad a situation he ended up into because of his sword; it was far too heavy to be controlled in such fast situations. He noticed he was retreating further away from Alex, who had now moved to attack Dan, who was covered by Alicia. With a machete in his hand he could shield himself from Lyra's attacks and slash his animal-shaped opponents. If he only got to hit Alicia, this would be over. Lyra and Dan could do nothing to him and William without their leader.

The picture of a saved world gleamed in his eyes when he attacked even more aggressively.

"Give up, sis!" he shouted. "You can't win this!"

"I am not your sister!" Lyra shouted. "Believe it already, idiot!"

"You've been brainwashed!" Alex shouted. "Lyra, you have to remember! You have to remember me! You have to fight against the wrong memories! They're just lies that Serafina has fed you!"

"Shut up already, I don't want to hear your claptrap!" Lyra shouted, shooting three arrows at her enemy. She did not stand how Alex insisted that same thing to her each time. When the effects of the hypnosis had faded, she had been able to remember how Alex had tried to convince her of it through the hypnosis.

Alex sighed, frustrated. It seemed that he could not turn Lyra's head anymore. Serafina's influence was too strong. Who knew what the girl had done to her, he pondered. He could not even imagine such a way to corrupt another person.

He could do nothing but fight more firmly and dodge the arrows. This fight had to be ended and fast.

William tried to get his sword under control to be able to hit Serafina with it. It was not an easy thing when he tried to dodge the vile jabs at the same time. Serafina's eyes were fierce and now William could see the person Alex had described to them. The wickedness seemed to radiate from the stabs that became more and more furious as they did not hit their target.

William did not turn a hair almost at all about Lyoko's monsters, but when the monster had taken the form of a human, he admitted to himself that he was afraid. Out of the monsters, only the Scyphozoa could capture him and truly harm him, but Serafina had the intelligence and understanding of a human. She could capture him and keep him well imprisoned easily by manipulation, threatening, extortion and violence especially now that she had gotten backup. If William got imprisoned again, he could not escape by any means.

When these thoughts came to his mind, he started to suspect if exchanging Lyra and Dan for Aelita had been such a good idea after all.

Serafina pushed the sword, the sudden lateral movement of which made William sway off balance. William could only see the hit coming at his face and feel a sting in his side. Next, he noticed that he was slumping to his rear in the scanner. Then white covered his view and he found himself laying on his bed.

Before the white came, he barely had time to understand Odd's comment, "Congratulations, your first devirtualization."

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Foes & Friends Remastered duology and its OCs (c) Me/