Chapter 19 Lost at Sea

A.N. – Nothing much changes for this chapter except William finds the diary. Remember that William and Ulrich trade places, just dialogue changes. Let's begin this chapter!

Spectacular Webhead 11 – Glad you liked it.

Guest – I think William got what he needed for closure. Plus, I think that was the best way for Yumi to reach out to Ulrich. 1. William won't forget. Ulrich remembering will be the one in question. 2. I won't say who, but yes it will be with one of them, with the bet changing just a slight bit. 3. I could add that, I just have to find the right place where that fit in. I'm on episode 79 currently.

Disclaimer – I do not own Code Lyoko, the plot, or the story idea. The plot is owned by the creators and the idea was submitted by Voltronblues123.

Under the arches, William and Odd are walking together. Just in front of them, Aelita closes the door.

"Hey there, Aelita! Einstein isn't with you?" Odd notices that he's not anywhere near her. She shakes her head no.

"I haven't seen him yet today" Aelita responds.

William glances away. "Speaking of, look who!"

Jeremy runs up to them, panting as he stops to catch his breath. "Hello everybody!" There's a glaring mark on his forehead near his bangs.

"Let me guess," Odd rubs his chin. "You fell asleep in front of your computer again."

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"The imprint of your keyboard."

The others laugh as Jeremy rubs his forehead. "I was up all night working on a program. I came up with an idea for a way to find Ulrich, so we can possibly get the data needed to rescue him."

"Yumi did say that hos rescue was possible via the replicas" Aelita adds.

"Exactly and this program will help."

"Hey William?" Hiroki speaks up behind them. "Could I talk to you for a sec?"

"Uh, sure, why not? I'll catch up with you" William tells the others.

"Well, uh…everybody says that your smooth with girls."

"I just know a way to a woman's heart."

"Like my sister, for example."

"I doubt that. I tried for a year, and she rejected me. So, we're just friends now."

"It's Ulrich she likes, right?"

"I decline to answer."

"Anyways, I didn't want to talk about Yumi, but about…uh…Milly."

"The 7th grader, right?"

"Yeah, Milly Solovieff!"

They look away to see Milly talking to Tamiya in front of the cafeteria. "Yeah, I know about her" William tells him.

"Well, actually, I…kind of like her, but when I try to talk to her, I can't think of anything to say!"

"Take my advice. Use journalism to your advantage" William says with a smile.

"Great idea! Wouldn't it be great if I could find her a scoop? She'd be crazy about me if I did!" Hiroki smiles happily.

"Yeah, a scoop. Make it something interesting, no rumors."

"Oh, you can leave that to me William!" Hiroki looks away with a smirk. "I got a reliable source!"

In the cafeteria, William sits down in front of Odd.

"What did Hiroki want to talk to you about?" Jeremy looks at him.

"Advice on how to capture Milly's heart" William replies.

"He's crazy about Milly?" Odd stops slurping his soup, with the contents all over his mouth. "Now isn't that cute? But isn't the guy a little young for her?"

"No, he's not. He's just a little small for his age, and…what's more, he skipped a grade in school" Aelita points out.

"But he acts even younger than his age."

"Like you Odd" William says to him.

"Hey!"

"So, Jeremy, what's your grand idea for finding Ulrich?"

"Well, okay. Whenever a human being is virtualized, he or she emits a binary residue, which we can say manifests itself as an emanation of his physical person. Resequenced in a sort of digital format."

The others are silent. "Sis, please?" William turns to Aelita.

"When you got to Lyoko, you'd need a kind of digital trace. Something like a scent" Aelita explains simply.

"Why you got to be technical Jeremy?"

"Natural. Anyway, I came up with a program based on Ulrich's DNA sequence that I recorded when he was last virtualized. If I can upload this onto the Skid's sonar, we can hunt for him on the network every time we go there! And finally find out where Ulrich really is. And since the one I have on file has the virus as well, it should be accurate."

"So, what you're saying is the skid will become a sniffer sub!" Odd deduces, holding some bread and butter to his mouth.

"That's right Odd, and since we don't have class this afternoon, I was going to suggest we try it out!"

Yumi is sitting near the vending machines as she stands up, walking over to get a drink. Hiroki peeks around the corner, running over to where she was sitting. She puts in the coin as he goes through her bag. He grins at a little book, and she comes back to see him.

"Hiroki, what do you think you're doing?" she asks him. He attempts to hide the book, but she sees it, and drops everything. "Hey, give that back right now!" she chases after him.

"You sure look far away William" Odd glances at him as they're walking out of the cafeteria.

"Just thinking, wondering if I ever had a chance with Yumi" William responds.

"Forget it. She knew and was flipped over Ulrich before you transferred here."

"Yeah, figured that much."

Hiroki slides in front of them, running up to the duo. He runs into Odd.

"Oh! Sorry" he runs off past them towards the park.

"What's wrong? Does Sissi wanna go out with him or something?" Odd jokes, to the amusement of William. Yumi suddenly runs past them.

"Whoa! Yumi, wait!" William calls out, but she ignores and keeps running.

"Whoa…" Odd says as they look towards each other. William picks up a book.

"Whose book is this? Is it yours?" William asks Odd.

"Huh? You are kidding me?" he responds while adjusting his hair. "A notebook with a dark cover and a flower is not my style."

Hiroki pants as he hides behind a tree, sweating in fear. He looks behind him and smiles, pumping a fist. Yumi suddenly grabs his collar, lifting him up angrily.

"Give it back right this second, you brat!" Yumi tells him.

"Aw come on sis, I was just kidding," he smiles nervously. "It – look here it is." He lifts up his shirt where he hid it, but it's no longer there. "Well, it was here."

"WHAT?!" she exclaims, dropping him.

"Um…well, you're gonna laugh, but uh, I dropped it, I think…"

"You'd better be kidding!" she glances at her brother.

William flips through the book…to see a picture of Ulrich inside. 'Well, I know who's this is now.' William thought.

"Hey, that's a pretty good shot of Ulrich. Who's the secret admirer, let me see," Odd asks. William stands up, closing it. "It's Yumi's right?"

"Diary," he stares at the book. "That's why she chased after Hiroki."

"If you ask me, this a good chance to see what she wants in a guy, or what makes Ulrich better than you" Odd suggests.

"Not a chance. Yumi told me enough. Reading this would ruin our friendship and invading her privacy. I'm not that kind of person."

"Hey, you want to know how you stack up. Perfect opportunity."

"I know already. Plus, she wants Ulrich, and if they both confess, then who would I be to break them up?"

"A complete jerk?"

"Exactly."

The bell rings, letting everyone out for class. Odd steps out to find William and Yumi close by. Yumi seems stressed.

"Hi Yumi!" Odd greets. "Any luck?" he whispers to William.

"Not yet" William responds.

"What's the problem?"

"Oh, my stupid brother. He stole…" she turns away. "Something important to me and he lost it."

"Ah Yumi, I-" William was about to give it to her when Jeremy and Aelita walk up to him.

"Okay, I got it. I upgraded the skid's sonar, we're all set!" Jeremy exclaims.

"All set for what?" Yumi asks.

"Oh, right, you don't know yet. I'll tell you all about it. I might have found a way to bring back Ulrich!"

"Oh, cool" she'd be jumping for joy if Hiroki didn't steal her diary.

"Yumi-" William tries again.

"Yumi?" Hiroki walks up to the group next. "I've been looking for you. I…I wanted to apologize for this morning, I had no right to take your diary."

"Did you find it?" she asks without looking at him.

"No…but I…I looked everywhere; I swear."

"Well, until you find it, you can consider yourself an only child!" she declares.

"What happened?" Aelita asks.

"Oh nothing. Some diary straights. We'll tell you about it. William, can I see you for a minute?" Odd asks.

"Well, so what do we do now?" Aelita asks Jeremy.

"We go to lunch" Jeremy responds.

"So, what's the deal?" Odd raises a smug brow once they're a few feet away. "I thought you were gonna return the diary."

"Sorry, but Hiroki has to be the one to return it. It's the only way for those two to make up" William responds.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, we gotta make it to where he finds it and returns it to Yumi. Yumi gets her diary, Hiroki get his sister."

"Yeah, great. But how do you plan to do it?"

"Hide it under the leaves, I'll handle Hiroki," William says handing Odd the diary.

"Okay but give me a few minutes. I've gotta go get Kiwi first, I forgot to walk him this morning."

"Deal." William approaches Hiroki as Odd walks back to his room.

"I totally messed that up William…" Hiroki says.

"Making mistakes is normal. Nobody is perfect. If I know Yumi, she'll forgive you."

"Yeah, whenever she gets her diary back. The only problem is I looked everywhere for it. I even retraced my steps back to here, nothing! I don't know what to do!"

"Yeah, I did see Mr. Riley raking leaves earlier today."

"So what? He's a groundskeeper, that's his job."

"What if he raked up the diary?"

"Well, that's dumb. Why would he do that?" Hiroki asks in confusion.

"Maybe he did it by accident."

Hiroki smiles. "Hey, the diary could be under a bunch of leaves! Let's go check!" he runs off.

Yumi walks up the steps of the cafeteria, Hiroki running past. "Hey Hiroki, wait up!" William calls out after him.

Yumi wonders what the two are up to.

Hiroki searches the pile of leaves near the garden shed. "Anything?" William asks.

"No, nothing" Hiroki responds.

"Keep searching," Odd appears behind him. "Where did you put it?"

"Hiroki will find it soon enough, you'll see," Odd says in amusement. "Kiwi, there you are! How are you my little diggity dog? Get in!" Kiwi jumps inside.

"I found it!" Hiroki waves the book in his hand…but finds all the pages missing. "Huh?!"

"You mind telling me what you're doing?" Yumi walks up from behind and sees Hiroki with an empty book.

'This is the worst possible time for this to happen!' William thought.

"I'll never forgive you for this Hiroki!" Yumi storms off.

William gives Odd a look. "Don't look at me like that, it was all there when I hid it!" Odd protests.

The elevator descends down to the lab, Jeremy stepping in. "Get to the scanner room. I'll start up the virtualization process."

Odd silently elbows the button and the doors close. He puts on the microphone. "All set? I'll launch the procedure. For once, it won't be ladies first."

William and Odd look to each other in concern over Yumi's heated silence.

"Transfer William. Transfer Odd. Scanner William. Scanner Odd. Virtualization." Jeremy taps a key, and they virtualize in Sector 5. They land in the center.

"Yumi's in afoul mood," Odd stands up. "You'd better tell her the truth about her diary.'

"Okay, but you better be signing your death certificate when I'm talking to her" William responds.

"Okay, bad idea, bad idea."

They look up to see the girls arriving, and they land in front of the open door. "Let's go" Yumi tells them, and they run off.

All four of them run towards the hanger.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your elevator's waiting," Jeremy taps a key, the elevator stopping in front of them. They step on slowly and go upwards to the skid. They can see the skid as they arrive in the room. "Everyone get on a teleporter spot." They do so and wait. "Energize." Everyone lands inside the skid, ready for takeoff. "Everyone ready? Standby for liftoff, releasing support now!"

The supports holding the ship move away from the skid, leaving it open for launch. Aelita presses a button, grabbing a lever.

"Vertical propulsion operational," Aelita says as the wings turn vertical. "Liftoff!" The skid flies forward, going out into the open.

"Get ready to dive into the digital sea," Jeremy rubs his chin. They go to the desert sector, hovering above the digital sea. The ship dives straight in. "Holo web system connected." Jeremy looks up at the map that appears. The entrance to the network opens and the ship goes inside.

"We've left Lyoko Jeremy. Rotation," Aelita tilts a lever, and the ship turns horizontal. "Turbo propellers launched." The skid goes forward, Jeremy smiling a little.

"I'm running the program. Stand by to receive initial coordinates."

"Roger" Aelita replies. However, an error screen appears.

"Oh no!" Jeremy holds his head.

Aelita's screen appears in front of her to show images flickering. What's going on?"

"A problem princess?" Odd asks.

"We've got a system error. I think the skid has malfunctioned a part of its sensory capacity" Aelita states, tapping a button.

"Yes, I see it Aelita," Jeremy looks at his screen, seeing the problem. "It's my program that bugged up the skid's sonar. The mission's too dangerous without a sonar. Gotta end it now."

"Roger, returning to dry dock." Aelita turns the ship around and it goes in the opposite direction.

"Okay," Odd cracks his fingers together. "Next mission: diving into my pillow and burying myself under the covers. Objective: a good night's sleep to clear my head."

The sea turns red. "Sorry, but you're gonna have to postpone your nap Odd. I've got three kongers heading straight for the skid" Jeremy informs them.

"Navskids away" Aelita pulls down all the tiny levers, releasing them. Yumi gasps as one approaches her straight forward.

"Taste this, fishface!" she releases the torpedoes, hitting it dead on.

"Not bad. Yumi's pretty effective when she's mad!" Odd looks over his shoulder, and something hits his skid from behind. "I've got one on my tail! They stick to you like glue!"

A konger is right behind him, William firing at it. He hits it dead on.

"Got ya!" William says.

"Nice one William!" Odd compliments him.

"Team up?"

"Yeah, let's do it!" Odd agrees, flying upward.

"Fire!" both of them exclaim at the same time. They both miss and the konger goes after them. Suddenly, they disappear. The two come from different directions, both hitting it.

"Yahoo!" Odd cheers as they fly away.

"Mmhm," Jeremy nods in approval. "Nice job guys. Time to come home now."

"Navskids in," Aelita pulls three levers. All return, except for Yumi. "Hey…where's Yumi?"

Jeremy attempts to locate her but doesn't find anything. "I don't get it. I don't have any trace of her," he takes off his glasses, looking upwards. "I've lost her!"

"She must have got hit by a konger" Aelita deduces.

"No! Impossible!" William replies in disbelief.

"Einstein…you think she might've been virtualized for good?" Odd asks slowly.

"No, I…think so. The data recording from the fight doesn't show any sign of her having been eliminated…" Jeremy replies.

"That means she's still somewhere onboard her navskid, somewhere in the digital sea!" Aelita realizes, but there is one thing…

"Right, but the skid is in no condition to find her. You guys have to come back in for me to run a repair program" Jeremy pushes up his glasses.

"What?!" William punches the window of his skid. "You can't be serious! What happens if Xana gets to her first!? She'll end up like Ulrich! Another mindless slave!"

"Bro, no one's leaving anyone, but all of us run the risk of ending up like Ulrich with the skid's system down! And if that happens, Xana wins, achieves ultimate victory" Aelita tells him. She doesn't like it either, but they don't have a choice.

"With us to help him conquer the world…"

"Right."

"Let's go…" William says dejectedly. He just hoped they would find her before Xana does.

They sadly come back into the lab, William rushing over. "Estimated time of completion?" William asks Jeremy.

"Reprogramming the sonar is linked to balancing the by polarity of flux on the one hand. On the other-" Jeremy starts.

"I wasn't asking for a play-by-play of what you're gonna do, I wanna know when we're going back!"

"Soon, as long as you let me concentrate!"

"Don't worry bro," Aelita places a hand on his shoulder. "I'll help him. I'll call you as soon as we know."

He stares at the screens and nods.

"Can anybody hear me?" Yumi asks weakly, her navskid floating astray. "This is Yumi. I don't know where I am…oh, I'm in trouble! Almost out of power. Can you hear me? Answer me! Somebody please answer me!"

Kiwi is walking around Odd, who is leaning against a tree. William is on the opposite, eyes closed.

"First Ulrich, now Yumi" William says in dismay.

"Relax. You heard Einstein. She isn't gone from the network. He'll bring Yumi back, and then we'll hunt Ulrich down, don't worry" Odd assures him.

"It just seems surreal."

Kiwi seems to be digging for something, and he barks, coming back to Odd with something in his mouth.

"Hey, what you got there Kiwi? William! This is Yumi's diary!"

"You go to be kidding?" he responds in shock.

"Oh, I get it. Kiwi saw me bury it, but he thought it was a game, so I guess he dug it up and buried it here, right where we're sitting now!"

"Wonderful. We find her diary but lost her."

Yumi's navskid is still spinning around, the power very low. "Jeremy? Aelita? Can you hear me? This is Yumi. I'm almost out of power…" the last bits hanging on, but not for long. "It 's cold here and I feel all alone."

A konger heads straight for her. "Okay Yumi, you've got only one torpedo left, so don't waste it." She pulls the lever and presses the button. The torpedo doesn't launch on account of the low power. "Oh no…not enough power! I'm not done yet!" She moves the skid to miss the laser. "If I reduce power in my shield, I should have enough." She does so, seeing the power bar go up. "Yes!" The monster fires, but she dodges it. "Okay, you and me. Fire!" She fires it with enough power, destroying the monster.

Jeremy types away and the notices something in the network.

"What was that?" Aelita asks.

"An explosion. By a navskid torpedo!"

"Yumi" she smiles in relief, pulling out her phone to call the others.

Kiwi and Odd sleep as William's phone rings. "Sis? Huh? We're coming! Yumi's alive! Odd!" Odd is now standing by the sewer, fully awake.

"Well…" Odd questions.

"I wanna go home…" Yumi murmurs slowly. Despite her brother being a pain at times…she can still remember happy memories with him.

Her mother and her brother were nearby as she was laying down nearby. "Yumi…who am I gonna play with if you go away?" he asks. Some tears fell down her face.

"No Hiroki," she instructed him as she was helping him with his homework. "Foot becomes feet in the plural."

"How do you know that sis?" Hiroki looked up at her, and she just smiled in amusement.

Hiroki and her are communicating through morse code.

"Oh, what are you children up to this time?" Mrs. Ishiyama looked at the tow. They just laughed together.

Yumi finished timing the boy at the pool, and he lifted his head out of the water. "Well? How long?" he asked her.

"Oh, at least ten minutes!" she responds.

"Wow!" he exclaimed in awe, and she gave him two thumbs up in return.

"Hiroki." Yumi murmurs.

"I had no right to take your diary…" Hiroki murmurs sadly to Yumi in his apology.

"Until you find it, you can consider yourself an only child!" she responds.

He gasped as he looked at her, holding the empty diary.

"I'll never forgive you Hiroki!"

Now she wishes she could see him again…a thud is heard, and she gasps, looking around.

"Come on, come on…" Jeremy whispers to himself, the elevator opening behind him. The two turn around to see the duo.

"Yumi sent us a message guys" Aelita tells them.

"Great, we'll go and get her" Odd responds.

"I have to finish the calculations first. I've isolated the area, but it'll be impossible to find her exact location before I fix the skid's sonar," Jeremy explains to Odd.

"She fired a shot, which means Xana found her" William says, and hates for being right.

"I've transported the data from the explosion into the hollow web to get her position by a triangulation" Aelita states and they manage to find her.

"There she is! She must have gotten sucked into a hub. That's why we lost all trace of her. But the sonar is still down guys. So, going under right now is gonna be a big risk" Jeremy informs them.

"Hm…I'll go!" Odd states first.

"For Yumi, I'll risk eternal virtualization" William states.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Aelita smiles towards the others.

Once they're back in the skid, they move towards Yumi's location. "There's a hub dead ahead!" Aelita reports and they move towards it.

"I read you Aelita. I'm entering the coordinates from where Yumi fired her torpedo." Jeremy informs her.

The skid shifts position for hub entry. "Aspiration in hyper fluid in 3 seconds. Hang on tight." The skid dives in.

Yumi is flying away from a konger, which appears right next to her window. She moves her skid forward as best as she can, but bumps into a pillar and starts spinning. The monster reappears in front of her. "It's all over…" She notices that he hasn't attacked. "What's he waiting for?" The konger moves away…as Ulrich in his own skid is approaching.

"Fire!" he fires two torpedoes, and she gasps. The skid appears next to Yumi, protecting Yumi from the attack.

"So Yumi," Aelita speaks up. "Thought you wander off without telling us where you were?"

"It took you long enough to get here!" she responds.

William and Odd engage with Ulrich and the konger. Ulrich fires two more torpedoes which don't affect the two.

"I wouldn't mind a little fish soup!" Odd fires at the monster but misses. He looks on his target. "Guess I better cook it though first!" He successfully destroys the monster.

"William, behind you!" Odd warns him. He fires and misses towards Ulrich. Odd reappears next to him. "I can't leave you alone for a minute, huh? I leave and you're already fighting with Ulrich."

"He started it" he states.

Ulrich looks up ahead, the two separate. He looks both ways, growls, then follows Odd.

"Behind Odd. Here I come" William says turning around. "Got you now Ulrich! Fire!" He fires two torpedoes which hit and destroy Ulrich's ship.

The sea turns blue, and everyone returns. "Mission accomplished Jeremy" William reports.

"Hey, great job. Now anchor yourself to the skid and head back in. Ah, they're all coming home…" Jeremy says in relief.

"Not everybody…" Aelita looks out to the network. "But one day, we'll free you Ulrich."

"We will" Yumi adds.

It's now nighttime as Yumi has returned home. She steps into her room, where she notices her diary sitting on her bed. Hiroki shuffles into the room head down. "Yumi…I wanted you to know just how sorry I am for what I did."

She smiles, turning to him. "Thanks for bringing it back. You know, I understand now that what we have is more important than some old diary. I forgive you."

"What's the deal with you and Ulrich?"

"It's complicated. Get out of here."

William walks away, smiling.

William returns back to the room.

"So, what happened?" Odd asks.

"I reunited a family" William responds.

"I never asked you, but why did you do it?"

"Odd, do you love your sisters?"

"Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Until I knew Aelita was my sister, I didn't think that much of siblings in family. But now, I realize that if I lost her, I would be crushed. Basically, family is everything. Xana is temporary, but family is forever."

They both smiled and everyone knew they were one big family, and when Ulrich returns, they will be whole once again.

A.N. – Nothing much to say at the end of this chapter. Next time, the Lyoko Warriors enter the real world to find and destroy Xana's supercomputers. We are almost halfway through season 4. Only thing to do now is push forward. PM me with story ideas if you have any! Don't forget to review with questions or comments! I will respond! Stay safe and healthy out there! As always, till next time! See ya! -lyokowarrior97