Sorry to everyone. I meant to get this up on Saturday, but I totally forgot. Either way, this is up now. So it's all good, right?

(Macas P.O.V.)

The fight between us and the samurais has been going for too long. Neither of us has made any headway against them, and I've been hit a couple of times. My arms are beginning to get tired, along with my calves. I look over to see Ulrich doesn't seem to be hurt at all, but he doesn't seem to be fighting with the vigor I see normally. He isn't striking back, merely blocking or parrying every attempt to kill him.

Unfortunately, that glimpse at Ulrich nearly cost me my life. I have to duck way too far to avoid the next attempt to decapitate me, and I can't maintain my balance at such an odd angle. I crash to the floor, leaving me open for a killing blow from my adversary.

In my peripheral vision, I see both Ulrich and his assailant stop for a brief second to look at me. The samurai above me brings his sword up, so I attempt to bring up my own sword to block. He stomps down on my wrist, preventing me from raising it any further, and swings his sword up again for more power.

"SUPERSPRINT!" Ulrich yells, and a flash of yellow light appears in front of me. Ulrich didn't bother to attack him, no, he just rammed his shoulder as hard as he could into the other samurai, sending him sprawling to the floor and leaving his ally looking stupefied. He isn't stupefied for long though, and he jumps towards me. I raise my feet up to meet his chest and flip him overtop of me, sending him crashing into his just barely standing teammate and they both go crashing to the floor again.

"Ulrich, what's up?" I ask as he helps me to my feet. "You aren't fighting to your full potential!" He looks at me for a second before answering.

"I can't kill. I can't murder these people."

"Ulrich, I don't mean to be rude, but snap out of it! These aren't people with actual lives, they're just basic AI programs created by Xana to kill us! You need to do what…" But I have to stop in mid-sentence for a vision enters my head of the samurai launching at me ferociously, leaving himself open for attack.

Screw it, I'm ending this!

I crouch down as the samurai jumps, and jump towards him just afterwards. He's surprised by my movement, and leaves himself completely open. I don't even hesitate to bury my sword into his stomach as we collide in midair. When we hit the ground, I keep a good hold of my sword and it comes free as my momentum throws me off of him. He's been devirtualized by the time I get up.

Ulrich looks at where he was, a glazed look upon his face. I see the other samurai take advantage of his distraction and leap at him.

(Ulrich P.O.V.)

I stare at the spot where the guy was, where there's still a little blood remaining. I don't like the idea of killing. I absolutely loathe the idea that I have the power to take away someone else's life. Monsters on Lyoko is one thing. They're mechanical, they have no lives. But a living, breathing person, just like me? I can't do it.

"Ulrich!" I hear Macas yell at me, and I whirl around to see the guy in mid-leap towards me. Not even thinking, I raise my sword up to stop him.

It buries itself in his stomach.

He still lands on top of me, and we go tumbling down the steps. When we hit the bottom, he stops but I keep rolling. When I finally stop, I get up and look at him.

The first person I have ever killed.

My sword is still embedded in his stomach, and blood is flowing freely onto the floor. I can't move, not even to look away. Macas walks down the steps, puts one foot on the guy's chest as leverage and uses it to yank my sword out. Only then does he vanish into wireframe and disappear.

(Back to Macas P.O.V.)

I see Ulrich look up and stare at the guy on the floor, but he looks as though he's staring at a maggot-infested rotting pile of filth. I don't like it, I hate bloodshed myself. But I force myself to do what has to be done.

I walk down the steps, place my foot on the guy's chest and pull out Ulrich's sword. The second samurai turns into wireframe and disappears beneath me, leaving a small puddle of blood. I use my already blood-stained shirt to wipe Ulrich's blade clean and walk over to him. He has looked away, but he's still on his hands and knees and looks like he wants to vomit. I kneel down next to him and place a comforting hand on his back.

"Ulrich, you okay?" I ask, but he doesn't respond. He just stares at a spot underneath him intently.

"Come on Ulrich. Let's go catch up to the others." I say, grabbing him by the shoulders and hoisting him to his feet. I place his katana back in it's sheath and my arm around his shoulders, helping him stand. We begin to walk, slowly but surely up the stairs and into the corridor.

The corridor is furnished similar to the entrance hall: gleaming white marble and a red rug down the middle. At the end, there's a large mirror, and two doors on either side. We walk down to the end and look at both the doors, wondering which one they went through. I open the door on the left, and see that it leads down a dark staircase. It's pitch black down there, so I can't see a thing. I close the door and open the one on the right. This one leads down a brightly lit hallway.

"You think they would take this one?" I ask Ulrich, who has found the strength to stand by himself again.

"Odd's afraid of the dark. He doesn't mind it when there's some light source, but he won't go where it's pitch black." He says. Nodding in understanding, I walk down the hallway to the right, Ulrich right behind me. At the end of this hallway is a solitary door, painted red. The hallway is illuminated by several lights, but I'm not sure what they are. They don't seem to be lightbulbs, but it definitely isn't flame. Large cylindrical fixtures are attached near the top of an 8 foot ceiling, about every five feet in the hallway. One nearby is cracked and not working, throwing a small section of the hall into shadow. Looking closer, there's a small burn mark near the crack and extending outward, as though a flame has erupted from the crack.

"I wonder what happened there?" I say, looking at Ulrich. Ulrich peers at it for a second, then blinks twice.

"Odd was here. He probably wondered how they worked, so he shot one. Not the smartest idea, but it does sound like Odd."

"You've got a point there." We reach the door, and find it locked.

"Back up." Ulrich says, and I do so with haste. He charges at the door, and lands a good flying kick into it. The door bulges outward, but doesn't break.

"No way… I put everything I had into that kick." He says. Suddenly we both hear a scream from the other side, and we both tense up.

I step in front of Ulrich, pushing him out of the way slightly. I pull out my sword and ignite it, it's red glare matching the door perfectly. I quickly slice from the upper frame down to the floor, separating the hinged part from the rest of the door. I scoot to the side in time to watch Ulrich kick the door again, and it flies open.

We rush in, both swords ready, to reveal a horrible sight.

Odd is lying face-up on the ground, blood soaking through his purple shirt.

(Yumi P.O.V.)

We rushed through the hallway, even though my heart is being wrenched out as I do. I'm leaving the love of my life behind to fight someone… to possibly kill someone. Or to be killed.

I reach the end first, and see that we only have two options. Two doors, one on my right and one on my left. As I turn to the one on the right, Odd turns to the one on the left. We both open them at the same time. Mine opens to reveal a brightly lit hallway, with a deep red door at the end. Nothing too special. I turn around to hear a door slam, and Odd slumped against the wall.

"Odd? What's in there?" I ask nervously.

"Nothing… it's dark… I can't see anything…" He says, slightly short of breath, and he looks like he's trying to keep his fear under control.

"Odd? Are you okay?" Aelita asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. He shakes his head and stands up a little straighter.

"Yeah… I'm fine… I just… don't like darkness." He says, somewhat timidly. This being the first I've ever heard of this, I nod my head slowly.

"Then you'll be fine. I think we should go through this hallway." I say, and open the door wider for them to see. I wince as a hear a loud clanging sound coming from the hallway we just came from, signaling that Ulrich was fighting with one of the samurai.

"Sounds good to me." Odd says, regaining his normal composure. He dashes through the opening and into the hallway, everyone follows suit. We ran for only about 30 feet when Odd stops suddenly and I almost run into him trying to stop in time. Unfortunately, Aelita, who was behind me, didn't manage to stop in time and crashes into me. I then process to topple down onto Odd and bring him down with me, leaving us all in a tangled heap. Karyssa and Jamie laugh behind us while we try to untangle ourselves and regain our composure.

After I finally manage to get up, I whirl around at Odd.

"Odd! Why did you stop?" He looks dumbfounded for a second, but he just smiles.

"I was going to ask what you thought those were." He says, pointing at the strange light fixtures. I slap my forehead, as does everyone else at nearly the same time.

"Odd, don't do that! We're all too antsy in here as it is, and we don't need to be scared like that." I say reprimandingly, although I do have to restrain a smile at that. It's amazing how Odd can always manage to lighten the situation, no matter what it is.

"Well, do you know what it is?" He asks innocently.

"Who cares?"

"I do."

"Looks like an ordinary light bulb to me." Jamie says.

"A light bulb? In a medieval castle?" Odd says skeptically.

"Well? What else do you have in mind?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out."

"How?"

"Like this." He says, and points his fist up at the fixture and fires a single arrow. An explosion erupts from the light source when he hits it, scorching the wall.

"Woah. That was weird." Jamie says.

"Yeah. Wonder what made it do that."

"Who cares! Sorry to be a party pooper, but we need to keep going." Odd sighs and turns around. He begins walking silently, and everyone else follows him.

When we reach the red door, I reach for the handle and twist. The door opens on smoothly oiled hinges to reveal a room, modeled after a martial arts style practice room. Mats cover the floor, and four square pillars are on each side. We walk inside and see the door on the other end, heading for it.

"There's someone above us!" Karyssa yells suddenly. I don't know how she knows all this, but I look up to see she's right. There's a black cat-warrior, almost identical to Odd, hanging from the ceiling by his claws. He releases and falls down, aiming for Krys.

Yeah... in case you didn't figure it out, the part where it switches to Yumi's point of view is right after the fight started in the last chapter. Just to clear that up.

So anyways. For some reason, I got reviews on the last chapter, but I never got an email. (shrugs) I dunno. It's weird. I felt all sad cause I didn't think anybody reviewed.

Reviews are awesome, they are like an author's best friend. The more reviews the merrier, right?