Author's Note: Predictions, predictions. Make your fill of them. I will not reveal anything, until you read it. And I know the new boy has a lame name but oh well. An author can have only so many good names, don't you agree? Sorry about the late update, also. It was spring break and I went to Florida for the week (very fun, if you were wondering). For those of you who also have spring break or are having spring break or whatever, I hope you have a good one! I also must apologize for the shortness of the chapter, but the next one I'll try to make longer, okey-dokey? Thanks for all my readers and reviewers again! YOU GUYS ROCK!
Yumi woke up with her head hurting like hell. She didn't even attempt to try and get up as she first regained her senses. The air in front of her eyes swam and she was aware of a slight breeze blowing. A breeze? Wasn't she supposed to be curled up in the scanner that was just about ready to open by now, sending her back to the earth she knew and loved? Wasn't Lyoko supposed to be only on the computer screen again, her latest mission an unfortunate failure?
She was suddenly aware of how hard the ground she was laying on was. Tiny pebbles dug their way into her back. She wanted to turn over and get more comfortable, but she couldn't move. She didn't want to yet, for that matter. She felt like she was thoroughly broken.
That was when she realized how vulnerable she was, lying spread eagled like she was, wherever she was lying. That made her sit bolt upright…which wasn't a good idea.
Pain roared through her head and ears, making her wince. She forced it down and opened her eyes again just a crack. Black blobs hovered in the air before her. She shook her head slightly and waited a while more before trying again. This time the blobs looked like people.
With a start, she realized that she was in Lyoko and she was not alone. But it wasn't the people that she had come here with that were staring at her. No, she had come with people her age, but these were kids. With another start, she realized who they were.
"How…how…how…" she made herself take a deep breath and tried again. "H-How did you guys get here?"
"YUMI!" Yumi practically cowered into a ball when the ecstatic voice greeted her ears. "I am so glad you are all right! You are all right, aren't you?"
"Yeah, yeah, Jeremie, but stop screaming."
"I'm not."
"Oh, well it must be my headache then. Anyway, how did these kids get here?"
"I sent them."
Yumi stopped messaging her temples. "You did WHAT?"
Jeremie's tone resembled an innocent school boy's tone that was on the verge of getting in trouble. This was the only chance he had to bail himself out. "Well, there was nothing I could do. I had to find you guys somehow, but I couldn't risk going to Lyoko by myself with no one to run the controls. So I sent the next generation of fighters in. What do you think?"
Yumi scrutinized the teenagers that were new to Lyoko. They looked awfully nervous. "Well, I still think you're crazy for doing this. I mean, they haven't said a thing and they look positively terrified. Plus, we would have to train them…" As she said this, she remembered the original people she had come with. Immediately, she swiveled her head from side to side, searching. "Where's everybody…" The words died when she saw the other guardians. "Oh…"
"Well, I don't see them on the screen, but you just now popped up out of no where. I'm guessing that the kids found a way to break through the guardian you were trapped in. I'm also guessing that wherever Odd and the rest are, they aren't far away and they must be in guardians."
Yumi didn't say anything in response, but of course Jeremie was correct. Yumi gazed at the guardian containing Ulrich with anguish and she felt as if her heart were almost ripping in two. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself. Then she remembered what Jeremie had said. Her head whipped around to the kids. "You broke my guardian, didn't you? Can you break theirs?"
The four teenagers shook their heads sadly, almost embarrassingly. But someone spoke, and it wasn't one of the teenagers.
"I can."
Yumi turned in surprise to survey the last boy that had made himself known. She looked him up and down and then took in the peculiar knife he was clutching in one firm hand. The hilt was a rusted orange color with an odd pulsing orange jewel in the center of it that looked familiar. Yumi suddenly realized that she was looking at a piece of a guardian from Lyoko molded into the knife's hilt.
Before Yumi could react, the boy stepped up next to Yumi with confidence. Yumi noticed he also took a quick glance backward before doing so, almost as if he was afraid or searching for something. She had no time to think on it, however, because before she could stop him, he had thrown the knife directly at Ulrich's guardian.
Yumi couldn't help herself a little gasp as the knife sunk into the guardian's surface like it was cutting butter. The guardian started a violent quivering and cracked. Then it shattered into thousands of sparkling orange pieces, causing Yumi to shield her face instinctively. What remained was an Ulrich lying limp on the ground.
Before she could react, the new boy was. The boy swiftly knelt next to Ulrich and placed two fingers on either side of his temple again. The air seemed to hum with energy for the second time and when the boy stepped away from Ulrich, the air was unusually colder than it had been before. Yumi waited a moment before going over to Ulrich's side. She watched him as he slowly regained consciousness.
"Ah, ow, my head," he groaned after a while, trying to get up. Yumi reached out to help him. He woke up completely with a start. "Whoa, Yumi, what are you doing here?"
She couldn't help smiling. "We're still in Lyoko. We got trapped by guardians."
"Damn, those guardians have gotten stronger then. I feel like half my life points are drained."
"They are," Jeremie said matter-of-factly. "Each of you have lost half of the total you had before, which brings you dangerously close to the danger zone. You must be careful and you must conserve strength."
"Wow, that didn't happen with guardians before."
Yumi's smile widened although her words weren't exactly pleasant. "A lot of things didn't happen before in Lyoko that are happening now."
"I noticed," Ulrich said, staring directly into Yumi's eyes. She felt warmth curling up her cheeks as she almost drowned in his eyes. She pulled away at the last minute, blushing intensely, to look at the boy with the knife. He had retrieved it, and was already cocking back to throw.
In minutes, Ulrich had watched Odd and Aelita's guardian shatter with ease. He managed to stand up next to Yumi and watch the peculiar spectacle as the boy went to the two figures and revived them. "Who's he?" he muttered to Yumi out of the corner of his mouth.
"No idea," she muttered back. "But I'm really hoping right now that he's on our side."
When the boy had finished his job, he backed up quickly and gave a nervous look around again. Yumi wondered why he kept doing so. She looked around herself. There was nothing around them, just plain desert.
"Can I go home now?" Odd whined, sounding a lot like the age he was in Lyoko last time. Then he sat up slowly and noticed everybody else. "Oh, hello," he said weakly, embarrassed about his little whiny moment. "What are you all doing here?"
"We are still in Lyoko, Odd," Aelita said, sounding very weak. She pushed herself up with both arms and got to her feet. "Those guardians took a lot out of me. How did you…" She suddenly noticed the knife at her feet. The boy that it belonged to saw it as well and gave a start as she picked it up. "What's this?" She hefted it almost expertly. Then she regarded the hilt closely. "No doubt something from Xana's database."
"How'd you know?" the boy said, the second time he had spoken through all that time.
Aelita smiled at him, practically benevolently. "Sweetie, I was created here in Lyoko. I know almost everything about it."
"No you don't," the boy said defiantly. "You don't know who I am."
Aelita's smile froze. "True. Who are you then?"
"I am Lex and I am Xana's new minion…who's rebelled."