Disclaimer:
The author of this fic, D Wolf Falls, does not, in any way, shape, or form, own Code Lyoko.
Last Time:
Ulrich had defeated Odd when out from behind a tower, none other than Yumi appears. She tells Ulrich all about XANA's plan from kidnapping her and Jeremie and Odd all the way to making imposters of her and Odd. She also informs Ulrich of Odd's death. While all this was happening, Aelita found out that the anti-virus is not actually held in the tower, but someone has it. She also uncovered a strange video. Aelita was the first to realize something was wrong when Ulrich and Yumi came in the tower to transfer to a different region. Aelita tried to warn Ulrich, but he didn't seem to hear her. In the forest region, after reaching another tower, Yumi attacked Ulrich. He revealed to her that he already knew that she was an imposter but went along with her to gather information. At the close of the chapter, Ulrich activated another program that did something to him. Now, read how the story further unfolds in the next chapter of "Dreams of Closure".
Ulrich and 'Yumi' stood facing each other. There was a deafening silence in Lyoko. It seemed that all stood still as the two fighters stood there, staring at each other.
'Yumi' was the first to break the silence. "You seem stronger now. That program, it healed you didn't it?"
Ulrich stood there, never letting his gaze drift from her. If things were different then he would have enjoyed being able to stare at her, not like this of course, but he remembered when he always dreamt about her, how one look at her beauty would make butterflies flutter about in his stomach. But that dream was crushed long ago. This, this wasn't her. Sure she appeared the same on the outside, but on the inside she was different, he could sense it. He didn't like it.
"Well?" came her demanding voice. It snapped Ulrich out of his thought.
"Yeah, that's right." he replied with distaste. He had to put an end to it. He spoke again. "You ready to do this?" His gaze never broke from hers.
"What's the hurry; can't we just stay here and talk, for old time's sake?"
Her voice. She used her voice for the last part of that sentence. He didn't like to here that, that thing use her voice. "There's no 'old time's' between us." Hatred poured from his low voice. "And never use her voice again; you don't deserve to use her voice."
A sly smile slid across her face. It was a smile of enjoyment, and not the fun go to the amusement park enjoyment, no, it was the enjoyment of seeing someone's anger and pain. "So, my using her voice brings pain to your heart. Perfect," she sneered.
If Ulrich's look could be filled with any more hatred than now would have been the time. He couldn't stand this much longer. He so badly wanted to just tear this imposter to pieces, but he knew that he had to keep his cool. He needed to keep a clear head through this, otherwise he would surly make a fatal mistake.
Ulrich decided not to waste anymore time just standing there. He slowly unsheathed his sword and got into his fighting stance. He stood there and continued his stare on her. His eyes were filled with pure hatred while his body was filled with determination and his head filled with thoughts of revenge.
Inside the Central Processing Tower there were two presences, one good and one evil. One had no physical form and was linked to the tower while the other was merely there on reconnaissance.
Aelita stood in the center of the tower contemplating her next move. Should she stay or should she go? Where would she be more useful? She knew that if she were to somehow locate Ulrich and that thing, she would only be a liability to his success. But she needed to get the anti-virus. And what about what she saw on the screen just a minute ago? She would have to investigate that further.
The omnipresent voice of XANA boomed throughout the tower. "To help or not to help, that is the question." It laughed as it mocked Shakespeare. "Confused are we my dear Aelita? Don't know what you should do?" It had her right where it wanted her. She didn't know what she was going to do, and if it wasn't for that blasted program that she activated that protected her then it would have already taken care of her. But it didn't matter, it knew that it would soon crack the code that kept that program running, then she would be completely vulnerable to it's attacks.
It was soon shaken from it's thoughts when it noticed Aelita beginning to move about.
She had conjured up a plan, and a good plan it was. She knew that she needed to try and help Ulrich, but she also knew that she needed to do more research. Like Jeremie once told her while he was working on her materialization, 'Nothing great was ever done without a little research.' For a moment her thoughts lingered on the boy that had fought so hard at rescuing her. But she soon got back on track. She knew that she had to use her time wisely because soon XANA will figure out how to break the program surrounding her. Her plan was to research as long as she needed to and get out of the tower before XANA would get to her.
Aelita moved her hand up to the invisible screen. Her handprint appeared and she was ready to begin researching again. But first things first, she needed to locate Ulrich.
His gaze never left her. His feet never moved. His fingers twitched around the hilt of his sword as they knew what was soon to come. He couldn't help it. He so badly wanted to slice through her so that he would never have to live through this nightmare again. But he couldn't. If he let his emotions control him then he would most certainly lose. But there was some part of him that didn't want him to attack. She looked just like her and he would never want to do anything to hurt her. But that was only a small part of him. The rest of him knew for a fact that this wasn't her and had no problem with attacking her.
She just stood there, not even attempting to grab her fan or anything, she just stood there with a smirk on her face.
'Well it's now or never,' he thought. Ulrich brought his sword back and ran as fast as he could toward her. He got closer and closer with every passing second, but she never brought up her guard. 'Why isn't she trying to block?' Mere feet from where 'Yumi' stood Ulrich jumped into the air.
Time seemed to slow down as he flew through the air getting ever closer to her. She had yet to make even a single move. Then her smirk grew wider. He was mere inches away from her. She quickly pulled out her fan and brought it in front of her to block his attack. Ulrich's eyes grew wide as he witnessed her speed. Ulrich's sword slammed against 'Yumi's' fan. Now one would think that the force of the attack would have shattered the fan into little pieces, but amazingly it held together. The fan not only absorbed the impact of the blow, but it also knocked Ulrich several feet backwards.
As Ulrich lie on the ground, thoughts flew through his head. 'Her speed! How did she move so fast?' But this was not the time to be taking a nap as Ulrich soon found out when the metal fan landed about an inch from his head. This startled the boy and he quickly jumped up.
She laughed a mischievous laugh. It was nothing like the laugh he remembered. "Did I wake you from your nap? I'm sorry, but I thought we were going to fight."
Rage overtook control of Ulrich's body. He charged at her. Ulrich slashed at her right, she blocked. He slashed at her left, she blocked. He slashed at her front, she still blocked. He kept attacking and she kept blocking. Right, left, front, block, block, block.
"You know Ulrich," 'Yumi' said in between blocks, "I was a little surprised that you actually attacked me. You know why?"
"Could it be because you look just like one of my closest friends? Is that it?" He replied while still keeping up his attack.
"Well yes, but also because I know the feelings you have for this one, you love her."
"And how would you know that?"
"Besides through our interactions today, XANA. XANA saw what you two almost did a couple years ago."
Ulrich remembered the event. It was something that he would never forget. "How would XANA know about that?"
With her next block, 'Yumi' knocked Ulrich backward causing him to fall. "XANA sees everything that happens on Lyoko. That was but one event that it witnessed."
She smiled at the fallen boy. "So tell me Ulrich, how does it feel to be so close to death?" 'Yumi' smirked as she stared at him.
Ulrich was confused. She liked that. So helpless and confused, he's nothing more than a play thing for her.
'So, he's in the forest region at,' Aelita thought as she looked at the data in front of her, '20 degrees North. That won't be too hard to get to.' She closed the window she was just looking in and brought up another window. 'Now to figure out what I was looking at a few minutes ago. Hmm, you know it has been a little while since XANA last bugged me. It must be working hard on trying to crack the program.' Aelita let out a little laugh. 'It'll have fun with that; Jeremie did make it almost un-crackable.'
Aelita didn't know how right she was because at that very moment XANA was indeed trying to crack the code to Jeremie's program. It was working hard but kept coming up with errors and such. "How did this boy create something like this that is so unbreakable?" it asked no one in particular.
Ulrich stood back up and prepared himself incase she were to attack him. Then he spoke. "What do you mean 'so close to death'?"
"Think about it Ulrich, what almost took you away from reaching the Central Processing Tower?" She replied.
Realization suddenly struck Ulrich's face. "You mean the activated tower, XANA"
She cut him off, "That's right, life points are now active. When I kill you, you'll be dead for good." Her smirk widened.
After taking in all of the information, Ulrich returned to his pissed off look and low voice. "And what makes you so sure that you'll defeat me?"
"Because you're so weak." 'Yumi' walked toward Ulrich. "You're pathetic. You couldn't save your friends so what makes you think that you can save yourself." She stopped only a foot away from Ulrich.
He didn't move from his stance, he just tightened his grip on his sword. He wouldn't admit it, but that last comment really hurt him. The thought of lousing his friends always hurt him, and this time was no difference. "You may be stronger than the original Yumi, but I've gotten stronger too." Ulrich brought his sword forward. "And I've picked up on a thing or too." As fast as he could, he sent the blade forward. Without any time to react, the blade flew freely into her stomach. "It's kill or be killed now," 'Yumi' looked down at her wound and up to Ulrich as he pulled his sword out. "I thought you would have known that." 'Yumi' looked down at the new hole in her stomach. Ulrich sheathed his sword while she fell backward. He turned around and walked away.
"Now it's time to help Aelita and end this nightmare." he said as he walked back toward the tower that brought him to this region.
'So if I refabricate the matrix and send it through the scanners then it should work.' Aelita thought as she worked on trying to crack this problem. 'I can feel XANA getting ever closer to erasing the program. I better finish this up.' Aelita ran a simulation to make sure that everything would work.
While Aelita's scan was running, XANA was busy cracking the code that stopped it from attacking Aelita. It had just about completed it's task when it heard a, "Success," rain out through the tower. XANA needed to hurry if it ever wanted to finally eradicate this little nuisance that had stopped it from completing it's plans for all these years.
The simulation was a success! But now was not the time to celebrate. 'I better get out of here so that I can tell Ulrich about my discoveries, but before I go...' Aelita's thoughts trailed off as she returned to the screen in front of her. She typed at a speed only surpassed by Jeremie. 'Done. Now that should keep XANA from messing with any of those programs.'
Aelita walked away from the screen and floated down to the bottom platform. While she was descending, she had a feeling of uneasiness travel through her. She knew what it meant; XANA had just about broken the program. She didn't know how right she was because as soon as her feet hit the lower platform, XANA managed to break the protective barrier that surrounded her. She knew it and could feel it coming closer to her. Aelita went as fast as she could to the edge of the tower and jumped just when XANA was mere inches away from her.
Ulrich ran through the forest, back towards the tower that brought him into the forest region. He needed to get to Aelita to let her know about everything that he had found out, especially if there would be some way to get to Jeremie, that is if what 'Yumi' said was really true. He wasn't to sure if a follower of XANA could really be trusted.
After several minutes of running, Ulrich came to a stop. He could have sworn that he heard something up ahead. He wasn't sure who or what it was, so he did the best thing he could think of doing, he hid. Ulrich just merely stepped over to the side and hid behind one of the many trees while he waited for whatever was coming towards him.
Ulrich was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the person that he had heard came into full view. He moved out from behind the tree and halted the person. "Aelita, it's you. I was getting a little worried there." He seemed a bit at ease as he spoke.
"Oh Ulrich, I'm so happy that I finally found you." Aelita cried out. She seemed somewhat distressed, and Ulrich took notice to it.
"What happened in the tower?" Ulrich's voice was now full of concern.
"It's nothing big, XANA just almost got to me."
"You mean XANA broke Jeremie's program?"
"Yeah, I managed to get out just in time. But before it managed to get through, I was able to find some important information."
"So did I. It seems we have a bit of a problem though."
"What is it now?"
"You remember that activated tower?" Aelita nodded. "XANA made life points active and I've lost quite a few in the last battle."
Aelita looked horrified with what Ulrich said, but she didn't have time to say anything before he started again.
"But I do have some good news. Jeremie could still be alive." Aelita smiled. "I'm not sure if that's true or not, though, because it was that fake Yumi that told me about it. Unfortunately though," Ulrich paused. "She also said that Yumi and Odd were dead."
Aelita just continued to smile, even with this heartbreaking news. Ulrich gave her a puzzled look. Then she spoke, "Oh Ulrich, it's okay. They're alive, all of them!"
"What?" Ulrich practically jumped up and down upon hearing the news. "How do you know?" he asked after he calmed down.
Aelita continued to explain, "While, as I was going through the database, I somehow found them. The information just seemed to pop up out of nowhere."
"Where are they? Can you save them?"
"They're," a look of terror crossed her face, "behind you!" she yelled at Ulrich.
Ulrich turned around thinking that he was going to see his friends. What he saw instead was a metal fan flying right for his face. He quickly moved out of the way as Aelita got behind a tree. Ulrich quickly turned to look at whomever through the fan. Now, one would expect to see 'Yumi' standing there, holding on to her wound. But instead, she stood there, smiling, and no wound to be seen.
Ulrich looked surprised. He thought for sure that he had finished her off, but there she stood, perfectly fine. "You're healed." That was all Ulrich could manage to say.
"As long as I have life points," she caught the returning fan, "I'll be healed. It's one of the perks of working with XANA."
Ulrich quickly grew defensive when he noticed how 'Yumi' was holding her fan. He knew that he needed to protect Aelita, now more than ever before. But what could he do? This imposter had almost killed him earlier. If it hadn't been for her letting her guard down then he never would have been able to land a blow on her.
His life points were running pretty low, he could sense it. He had to of lost at least sixty life points from their earlier battle. So what now, keep fighting? He'd lose, that he knew for certain. Then Aelita would be left unprotected.
Aelita peered from behind the tree and as if reading Ulrich's mind, she yelled at him, "Ulrich! You need to use the 'special program' to beat her."
Ulrich's features changed from defensive to shock as Aelita yelled that to him. He couldn't believe that she would suggest using that program. "Aelita," he yelled back to her, "You know that that program was only experimental, Jeremie never finished it. We don't know if it'll even work. Besides, it can only be used once and if we screw it up then we won't have a chance."
Aelita knew he was right and had a right to be worried, she would be too if she was in his spot, but it was there only option. Nothing else they had would be able to bring down the imposter.
"It's our only option. We've got no other choice."
Ulrich spread his arms out. "Alright Aelita," he calmly stated. "Computer. Activate program 00179, Connection!" Almost immediately, Ulrich was raised into the air. "Program activated." the computer told him. A purple aura surrounded Ulrich.
'If he thinks that I'm just going to stand idly by while he powers up, then he's a bigger fool then I originally thought he was.' 'Yumi', with her fan ready, threw it at Ulrich.
Aelita saw all this unfold and knew that if Ulrich were to be disturbed while the program was working on him, then all hope would be lost. Aelita did the only thing that she could think of doing. She jumped out from behind the tree watching closely as the fan drew closer to Ulrich. Aelita jumped forward making her body parallel to the ground below her. Her body tensed, she hoped that her timing was just right.
END OF CHAPTER
Author's Notes:
Hehe, sorry for having to leave you guys with such a cliffhanger, but I figured this would be the best place to stop, and I just like leaving you with an evil cliffhanger. Well, as you probably have noticed, some things have changed. First off, the change in writing style. When I started writing this chapter about a week and a half ago, it just started flowing like this. You see, my writing style is improving, I can see that when I look back on the first chapter of "Dreams of Insanity". Besides that, I just feel that I should try and provide as much detail in my writing as possible. Next, you may have noticed the increased length of this chapter. That was caused by two things, guilt and need. I felt a little guilty about taking that couple week break and how horrible I've been at updating chapters for this story, so I felt that I should make this chapter a little longer to help make up for it. And, when I got to my usual stopping place, a little after two thousand words, I felt that this chapter needed more because, to me, it didn't seem like I advanced the plot enough. Also, you guys may have noticed that I changed the formatting for the chapter. Instead of having two big author's notes, I moved it down to one and put it at the end of the chapter. Don't worry though, all reviews will still be answered, their just coming up a little later. So yeah, those are pretty much the changes that I've made.
Now, as for my thoughts on this chapter, I'm very pleased with it. I've worked on this for about an hour or less each night for the past week and a half and it came out really good. This is the longest chapter that I've ever written, that's out of both stories. It's just over 3,000 words and seven pages long. I feel that this is the best chapter I've ever made, what do you think?
Review Responses:
top20fan13: Thanks for the awesome review. Yep, you're right, 2500 points to you. Haha, nope, made by XANA wasn't on here, but maybe it should have been. Yeah, she was a pretty good imposter.
Doggiegal: Yep, that's right. You get the 2500 points. That's a pretty good guess, we'll say 200 points for that. I'm glad that I've got you confused (I don't mean that in a mean way).
Question:
So the answer to the last question was pretty obvious, it healed him, but today's question will be much tougher. What is the purple, soon to be another color, aura doing to Ulrich? If anybody can get this right, it will be a whopping 5000 points. (This one's pretty tough).
As for how did Ulrich know that 'Yumi' was an imposter, I'll still leave that up as a bonus question. Points will be given on how accurate I judge your answer to be.
Remember, all points are located on my profile.
Well thank you for taking the time to read this long chapter, I hope it wasn't too much for you. Now I'm done so go ahead and leave a review, I love to hear people's thoughts.