Photographs
Chapter 3: False Happiness
It had been at least a minute and a half since Ulrich had pried open the scanner, but no one had moved. They just kept staring at the empty space in a catatonic state of shock, unable to believe that there was really nothing where Yumi should have been.
Then something clattered to the floor, shattering the silence.
Odd snapped his eyes to the floor to see a long pole lying still on the floor beside Ulrich. The brown-haired boy's mouth was slightly agape, his eyes wide. He wasn't shocked like Odd and Jeremy…the emotion plastered all over his face was horror.
Odd watched as his friend's knees buckled, and his legs folded underneath him. Ulrich's knees smashed into the cold, hard floor as the boy dropped into a half-kneeling position.
And he didn't even flinch. His mortified expression never wavered, even as he brought his trembling hands up to hide his face from the world, and from the cruel twist of Fate that had reduced him to tears.
Odd watched as Ulrich's body started to shake, and a few tears trickled down his face to plop almost audibly onto the floor.
"Jeremy," Odd whispered to the blond, hoping to get his attention without alerting Ulrich.
Jeremy slowly turned his head ninety degrees to the right, facing Odd using only his neck muscles.
"We have to get him out of here," Odd whispered, pointing to Ulrich. If he was going to calm down, it needed to be far away from the scanners.
Jeremy nodded and moved over to where Odd was standing next to Ulrich.
"Come on, I'll help you up. It's going to be ok, you'll see. Now come on, get up," Odd encouraged as he slid one arm around Ulrich's waist and used the other to grab the boy's left arm and pull it around his neck. He then hoisted the taller boy up and mouthed to Jeremy to help him.
Jeremy quickly obliged, running over to Ulrich's other side, supporting him the same way Odd was.
And as they got into the elevator, Jeremy couldn't help but wonder when the next time they'd see the factory would be.
Odd laid Ulrich on his bed carefully as soon as he got to them to their room. They were alone, since Jeremy had insisted that Odd take Ulrich back by himself, as the genius needed to start running analyses on Lyoko immediately.
It hadn't been easy, either. Ulrich was heavier than Odd, making it difficult for the smaller boy to drag Ulrich all the way back to the school. Ulrich may as well have been dead for all the effort he made to help out.
Only now did Odd realize why Ulrich, who was usually helpful in even the worst situations, had been so uncooperative.
He was asleep.
No, Odd corrected himself, he had probably passed out from all the crying…or something.
But now being alone—save a sleeping boy—gave him nothing to do but think. And of course the first thing that blasted into his mind was the crisis at hand.
Yumi was gone. Really, really gone. Maybe forever.
He looked over to a picture frame on the desk. It was the four of them. They were all laughing and smiling and looking like the happiest kids in the world.
But they could never return to the past. They could never return to that past. Odd just knew it. He didn't know how, but it was like all those times on Lyoko when he saw something before it happened. It was overwhelming…the knowing that Jeremy would fail, that Ulrich would be crushed, that things would never be the way they were…
They would never be the four, happy, smiling kids they were in the picture ever again. He knew it like he knew that Jeremy wore glasses. He knew Lyoko was gone. He knew Aelita was gone.
And he just knew that Yumi was gone. Forever.
His eyes began to sting, and Odd became distantly aware that his eyes were flooding with tears. He didn't wipe them away though, and instead continued focusing on the laughing, black-clad figure in the picture.
Only…the more his eyes filled up with tears, the more blurry the figure became…until he just couldn't see Yumi anymore.