That Was Fast

A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! X3 I'm only getting three a chapter right now, so if anyone else is reading I'd love to hear from you! X3 I know you're there because you've got the author alert or the story alert. XD

To the story!

"Mr. Stern, you do realize that your parents were here just yesterday telling you to behave and yet you didn't?" Mr. Delmas asked Ulrich as he and Alice sat in his office. Alice was nearly asleep and he was pretty tired as well.

"So what? Everyone in this room knows that I'll get sent back to rehab one way or another so why prolong it? Why keep fighting something that's inevitably going to happen anyway, no matter what you do?" he asked, thinking about their old fight against Xana. It was inevitable that they'd end up losing against the malevolent computer virus. He'd figured that out a long time ago.

"No, we don't know that you'll be sent back to rehab. Nothing ahead of us is definite. When your parents brought you here you were here with a clean slate. You could have modeled yourself to a perfect student if you'd had the drive. What happened to that boy that loved soccer?"

"He's gone. Addiction is a bitch, huh?" he asked as he stood up and made his way to leave the office.

"Mr. Stern, this was your last warning. Next time we catch you means expulsion," he told the brunette as he left the room, having woken Alice and dragging her with him.

"Stupid adults trying to make sure that we don't get to have any fun," Alice yawned out. "I'm going to head home. Visit later if you feel up to it, 'kay?"

He nodded, gave her a quick kiss, and left toward his and Odd's dorm silently.

-Odd-

"Let go of me!" he shouted at Aelita as he tried to jerk his arms free from her grip with no luck.

"Odd, let me-" Jeremie began, holding up his hands in a 'truce' kind of way.

"No! I hate you, Jeremie! Okay? The only reason I'm in this still is because I'm not going to let Aelita, Yumi, and Sissi down because you can't think of helping me with anything! I was nearly paralyzed! I could have died! The doctor said that I'm lucky I can still walk! I lost the ability to do my favorite thing on Earth! I lost my dog! Do you understand any of that? Were you listening when the doctor was explaining?" he shouted as Yumi entered and joined Aelita's effort to restrain the blonde.

"Of course I do, Odd," Jeremie said. He was refusing to get angry. If he got angry he'd do something that he regretted. Again. "I get that you can't skateboard like you used to. I get that you lost Kiwi. I regret that decision."

"Like hell you do!" Odd shouted, trying harder and harder to break free of the girls' grip.

-Yumi-

"So what happened, Aelita?" Yumi asked as she tightened her grip.

"Ulrich and Alice were high and decided to play a prank on Odd, pretending to be a dog and leading Odd to the woods. After they got caught Odd got mad and came here to try and hurt Jeremie. He's been shouting practically the same things with Jeremie replying with the same things for a bit now before you answered your phone," she explained.

Yumi nodded and, after telling Aelita to let go, flipped Odd onto his back and bent down to his level. "You're not the only one that's lost something in the fight against Xana, y'know. The rest of us have lost plenty. We've lost Ulrich. We've all lost the ability to be normal kids. We all have to sneak around and therefore get in trouble a lot. We all have decided that we give up our lives to keep everyone else safe. Do you realize what this all has done to each of us personally, Odd? Or are you too worried about you to realize that the rest of us are hurting, too. If so, just go now. We don't need someone like that here."

The others looked at her stunned as she let Odd up. He was a bit shaky, but otherwise fine and frowned. "I know that everyone goes through stuff, especially with Xana around. Everyone here has had their lives saved by a return to the past and Kiwi is an honorary member of the gang and should be treated as such. He helped in Xana attacks and he was my best friend once Ulrich left… It's not that I don't care about everyone else, it's that in the course of a year I've lost two of my best friends…" he told her as he walked toward the elevator. "I don't quit. I just need time alone…"

-Ulrich-

He was curled up in his bed, contemplating everything that had happened over the year he was gone… Xana had gotten so much stronger and he could tell that his friends, wait, his ex-friends needed his samurai power… They needed him so that they could defeat Xana… So that they could save the world from Xana's control and he turned a blind eye to all of it… He ignored them and was mean to them and each time it felt like a small piece of his heart was being shattered into a million pieces. He hated doing this to them and it needed to end… Or did it?

(*)(*)(*)(*)The Next Day (*)(*)(*)(*)

"Ulrich, get up. It's almost time for breakfast," Odd said pretty quietly.

Ulrich got up out of bed and looked at Odd. He looked terrible. His shirt was ripped in several places and his pants and hair were matted with mud. "What happened to you?"

"None of your business, is it now?" he snapped as he turned to grab some new clothes.

Ulrich frowned at Odd and looked at his hands… He wanted to apologized, but he didn't know how to say it and Odd seemed really angry… "Odd, I-"

Odd spun around and cut him off. "I get it, Ulrich. You hate us and don't want anything to do with us. Stop reminding me, okay? We'll deal by ourselves and if we die trying then oh well. The world falls to Xana. Like you would care, anyway," he snapped again, storming out the door afterwards.

Ulrich grabbed his phone and called Alice. "I'm telling the teacher I feel sick and I'm sneaking over there. Get the beer and stuff ready 'cause I could sure use it."

"You know it's, like, seven something in the morning, right? Don't you have school?" she asked groggily, clearly she'd just woken up by him calling.

"I don't give a shit anymore. We can go to rehab together and pretend to be good and then runaway somewhere where your family lives and stay together. To hell with school and my parents," he told her as he slipped on his shoes.

"Even though I don't want to go to rehab again let's do it. My cousins are all gone and we'll have the house to ourselves. My cousin won't mind a few missing cans and bottles," she stated. He heard shuffling from the other end and water running. "I'll get everything ready and you get on your way here."

"Yeah, I'm leaving the dorm right now. See ya in a bit… Love you," he told her as he shut his phone and grabbed a jacket, slipping it on as he headed out the door.

A/N: Okay, so he felt guilty about it and then he ended up trying to make amends and was pushed off. Now he's decided that since it didn't work once he's going to get into rehab anyway! Good choice, Ulrich! (sarcasm) So, as a treat, I'm going to show a preview of the next chapter! XD

Ulrich looked at his shoes as his old friends all glared at him.

"Do you realize what you just did?" Yumi yelled, glaring him down. He knew that if looks could kill then he'd be better than dead by now…

"How could you be so selfish?" Odd yelled, joining Yumi in glaring at Ulrich.

Ulrich sat down against the wall and held his head. "I know you're mad, but please stop yelling… I did it because I knew it would get you all here… I thought that maybe you all would hear me out, but I guess I was wrong… Odd wouldn't listen earlier, Jeremie wouldn't listen when I turned to him before I left, and Yumi nearly punched me before left the grounds to meet up with Alice. You want to know what I was going to say? I was going to say that I was sorry for everything. I was going to say that I don't know why I did what I did and that I felt guilty about everything. That I was going to try and stop all the drug abuse and alcohol abuse. You want to know what I'm going to do now? I'm just going to watch you all die. I don't care anymore because you don't care to hear me out," he told them as he stood up and walked toward the elevator, hoping that maybe they'd follow and try to talk with him more. "And don't worry, because once you die I won't be too long after…"

Do remember that this is a rough guess about what's going to happen because I don't have the chapter typed up, but that's the rough idea. XD

Read and review!

~MoonlitxAngel