"I don't see anything," Odd claimed, looking out at the desert. "I mean, I see... Sand. That's it. Why did we go here anyway?"
Robert smacked himself on the forehead as he left. "Because there might be a clue about Franz Hopper here."
"What about Yumi?" Ulrich asked.
"Forget Yumi. She's gone, okay? We lost her in the crash," Razputin growled.
"But what if she's dead too? I never got the chance to tell her how I feel, to kiss her, to;"
Odd walked up to Ulrich, and slapped him in the face. "Listen; you have no right to bitch. I lost someone I finally fit with. And now you're crying about someone you've never even held hands with. So you shut your mouth." Odd growled.
Odd had grown a lot colder to Ulrich, and was slowly becoming a lot colder in general. As Ulrich's simple mention of death came to his nerves, he felt his spine chill and tears well up in his eyes. "We're going to cross the fields of sun and sorrow, and we're going to find Franz Hopper. And then we're going to find out how to beat this god-forsaken game. So help me God."
Meanwhile, on Earth, it had been 3 days. The entire city was under a XANA ambush from charging his power while Team LYOKO was unable to stop him, and launching out tanks, army vehicles, and more. They had just reached Kadic.
"Oh no!" Sissi yelled, dodging a drum-fed turret's fire. She hid behind a desk, before sneaking up behind it and ripping off the turret, and flattening a tire.
"Wow," Nicolas commented. "I guess Sissi can do something after all."
"Of course I could," Sissi said. "I just keep it locked up. I wouldn't want people to think of me as some creepy manly woman."
"Tanks!" William screamed, running.
"Uh oh," Jim said. "Everybody evacuate!"
"We can't," William muttered grimly. "They have us surrounded. I know one place we can go to be safe; the factory."
"Huh?"
William led them into the forest, kicking open the sewer grate. "Everybody in!" He yelled, going in last, just in time to evade being spotted by a reconnaisance jeep. He brought the grate over his head, sliding down the ladder. "Now! This way!" He shouted, running towards the factory.
As they arrived, he found it in perfect condition, as he entered. He slid down the rope quickly, followed by everyone else; Sissi first. They headed for the elevator.
"We don't need to go that far," Milly questioned, "do we?" Tamiya meanwhile scratched down the details of this tragedy on her notepad. Sissi and William were especially brave, taking charge of the situation.
"We don't have to go that far just like we don't have to breathe." Sissi yelled up to them, as they all crammed into the elevator. William hit the button to the computer room.
"My god," the principal said. "This is amazing!" He marvelled at the world around him. As he walked forward, however, he saw rather than the usual globe of LYOKO, a projection showing the gang; sans Yumi and D'Artagnan, climbing through the desert dunes. Sissi looked at the controls with a sense of familiarity, and up at the screen, also projecting the image. "I know this... this computer. We can get them out, by going in. William and I will go in. For your own safety, everyone else stay out."
Everyone obeyed her; even her father nodded, as Sissi set the scanners to self-scan as she and William ran into them.
"Are you sure this is going to work, Sissi?" William asked.
Sissi nodded, as she felt her body turned to energy, and disappeared in a flash of white light.
Sissi and William appeared behind the gang, silently. "Hellooo!" Sissi yelled, wrecking any cover they previously had.
"Oh great, the peanut gallery," Ulrich growled. "How did you even get in here? We don't want you."
"Wrong," Odd said. "We want all the help we can get. I don't care how much you dislike them, they're coming with us."
The demon snickered, crawling out of Robert's pocket and onto his shoulder, as Robert felt him speaking directly into his mind.
"Go ahead and follow us, but watch your own backs because we won't watch 'em for you."
The sky looked dark above them. "Oh no," Razputin said grimly. "Everybody, start running for the ship, and don't stop until we're there."
"Why?" Robert questioned, still under the Demon's control.
"I can sense this sandstorm – it will be able to tear the bones off of us."
Everyone headed for the ship, seeing a whirlwind spawn from the ground behind them, catching up to them Ulrich stopped, looking behind himself. "Hurry up!" Razputin yelled, as Ulrich sprinted, unable to catch up. Everyone got into the ship, as the sand lifted from around Ulrich's feet. "Ulrich!" Odd screamed. "Nooooo!"
Razputin hit the door button. "Wait!" Odd yelled. "We have to save him!"
"We'll look for him after the storm."