Disclaimer: "Nope." is the answer to the question "do you own this?"
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Chapter 2
They arrived at the factory in record time- the record being for the longest time it took them to reach it. Sissy hadn't been a particularly experienced skateboarder, though she had brought one along. Yumi's was missing, no longer in its normal position on the side of the underground tunnel; its absence was explained when they burst into the control room to find her already there, leaning casually against the computer. She raised an eyebrow. "Just talking to Aelita here." The pink-haired girl waved back from the computer screen. "Aelita, are you ready?"
She nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be." She looked past Yumi for a moment, her eyebrows furrowing at Sissy in the first sign of unfriendliness she had ever shown to a stranger. It just wasn't in her nature to be too hostile, but… "Introduce me to your new companion, Jeremie?"
He stepped forward and smiled. "Aelita, this is Sissy. Sissy, this is our friend Aelita. She lives on Lyoko-" he waved at the massive hologram in the middle of the room- "and she helps us. We're going to materialize her on Earth, and then we can disconnect X.A.N.A."
Yumi took some dark amusement in the fact that Sissy looked overwhelmed and bewildered, but it faded as she noticed Ulrich's arm around her waist. Subdued, she wrenched herself away from the sight. Her movement didn't go unnoticed. A pair of puzzled brown eyes lingered on her back.
Aelita nodded, still holding a subtle note of suspicion in her expression, and Jeremie took his place seated in front of the computer. "Proceed to the forest region. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, get down there. Sissy, stay with me. We need experienced people on this one; we can't afford any mistakes at all." Sissy grudgingly accepted this judgment, and stood beside his chair, watching the events unfold on the screen.
The trio walked into the elevator, and no words were exchanged until they stood in front of their scanners.
"Good luck and godspeed." Her voice was low, but they heard it.
No response was forthcoming, and then they were in their separate scanners, feeling the rush of air and adrenaline that accompanied virtualization.
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Ulrich dropped into a crouch, letting his legs absorb the impact of falling from the sky. He turned around, spotting Odd's cat-like figure and Yumi's stiff, alert stance as she scanned the forest for movement. He blinked; there was something different about her. But what was it?
"Over here!" A flurry of movement caught his eye, and he saw Yumi sprint towards Aelita. The virtual entity smiled at her friend, almost sister, and turned toward the west. "The tower is that way. Thanks for coming, everyone."
Odd winked. "I'd hate to miss the show."
Yumi agreed. "I hope this is our last time here…" She let her voice trail off, and judging by the frown that appeared on her face, was assailed by a none-too-pleasant thought. Ulrich blinked for the second time in as many minutes. What was she hiding?
Jeremie's voice suddenly knocked him out of his reverie. "You've got a nice cloud of Hornets and two Mega-tanks headed in your direction. Keep an eye open, guys." Sissy's voice timidly put in, "Take care of yourself, Ulrich."
He smiled slightly, feeling a boost to his ego, but he also noticed Yumi's fist clenched ever more tightly around her fan and Aelita's mildly disapproving stare. Odd seemed oblivious, instead looking toward the three Hornets approaching quickly. "We've got company…"
Yumi gave one sharp nod. "Odd, Ulrich, you take care of those Hornets, and there's one tank behind you. I'll get Aelita to the tower. Go!" Before she had even finished speaking, she took Aelita by the wrist and ran.
Odd paused. "Since when does she give the orders?"
Ulrich sighed, drawing his katana with a flourish. "Since now, I guess. You heard the lady." He could say no more afterwards, too busy dancing in and out of a net of laserfire.
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Yumi slowed for a moment, letting Aelita get her bearing together. "Ready?" The girl nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. "Okay, let's get to it."
They raced down the narrow forest path, coming to a clearing in front of the tower that she remembered all too well; it was here that she had fallen and nearly become a permanent fixture in the data streams. Backing away from the digital void-hole, she swallowed and gestured to the tower. "Good luck, Aelita. Jeremie?"
As Aelita melted into the tower, the blonde back on Earth sweated nervously. "I'm running the anti-virus. Give it fifteen seconds. And guard that tower, Yumi- you've got a tank at nine o' clock." Sissy, beside him, bit her lip. She didn't like Yumi in the least, but the inkling of respect she had for her was growing.
The geisha girl swiveled, and sure enough, an armored ball rolled up at her left side. She sighed. A day in the life of a teenager saving the world.
She flicked her fan opened with a practiced wrist, and the tank stopped. It whirled around in a motion almost too fast for the untrained eye, but Yumi was definitely more trained than the last time she had encountered them. Marking its moves down carefully, Yumi fell into a defensive position. The tank opened at the seam in the center of the sphere, and locked; pulses of light started to form around the eye-symbol at the center of its wiring. Yumi closed her eyes, and threw the fan so that it curved behind the machine-monster…
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"Laser Arrow!" With a last well-placed shot, Odd rose from a cloud of virtual debris that had once been a Hornet. "I'm the man."
Two Ulrichs turned towards the cat, who was flicking his tail from side to side smugly. "You're full of yourself," they said simultaneously. "Fusion!" Ulrich sheathed his katana, and shook his head. "I got rid of the tank. Want to go check up on Yumi and Aelita?"
Odd nodded. "Sure. The only thing that's bothering me is that there were only two Hornets. Where'd the third one go?"
The two of them dashed toward the tower, coming upon an astonishing sight. Yumi's fan was wedged in the back of the tank, holding the two halves of the sphere apart. Ulrich nearly smacked his forehead. She was still open to attack; she couldn't finish it off, since her only physical weapon was being held by the tank. He had greatly underestimated the girl he seemed to know less and less about, though; she was not defenseless. As the tank's eye started to pulse again, Yumi produced a dagger out of her boot heel and threw it at the tank. Her aim was flawless; it struck the center of the tank. Yumi's fan flew back into her outstretched hand, and the girl kneeled at the ground, looking up into the virtual sky. "Arigatou."
Not knowing who she was thanking, and not caring much, either, Ulrich just stared. She had quite a number of questions waiting to be answered once this was all over. Jeremie's voice, hoarse from surprise, sounded above them. "The anti-virus is finished…" He cleared this throat, and continued. "Aelita, get ready."
A flash of light beige caught Ulrich's attention. His eyes widened, and he cried out, "Odd! Behind you!" He saw the events play out in front of him in slow motion, seeing the arrival of the missing Hornet catching Odd by surprise, just knowing that he was too late even as he dashed to his friend with his katana drawn, watching him fall into the same void that had claimed Yumi…
Then he snapped back into the real flow of time and everything happened in one second.
All in the same instant, a dagger flashed out of nowhere, striking the Hornet and embedding itself in its eye-symbol; Yumi swept by and grabbed Odd's hand, yanking him back up with surprising strength; and Jeremie's voice echoed almost ominously: "Code: Earth."
A rumble of power surged through them, then receded; Aelita was gone. Yumi patted a dazed Odd on the back, straightened, and retrieved her dagger. Ulrich shook his head. "Yumi! What's going on?"
"I'll explain later," she tossed back. "In the meantime, I think we'd better save Aelita from being hugged to death." She lazily flicked her fan closed, and leaned back as she devirtualized with Jeremie's computer command.
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They stood around the scanners, everyone coming out; the last was Odd, Aelita having come out of his scanner when she was materialized. Jeremie was clutching onto her hand, looking as if he'd never let go; Yumi was smiling amicably at them, her gaze not completely focused; Ulrich and Sissy were off to the side, the latter clinging to the former, having been worried sick about him; Odd emerged from his scanner, shaking his head, and taking a place beside Yumi. "Heartwarming, isn't it?"
The Japanese girl chuckled. "Quite."
Aelita looked up at them, beaming. "Thank you so much, Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, for all your help." She nodded to Sissy also, and turned back to her dear Jeremie.
Seeing that the excitement was over, she said her goodbyes and reminded Aelita to come to her house when she was done, ignoring the questions in her friends' eyes. She got up, walked into the elevator, and leaned against its side with a sigh as it rode bumpily up the factory. She couldn't take being around Ulrich and Sissy any longer. No matter how much she had learned to shield her emotions, first loves were hard to dispel from one's mind. Her discomfort outweighed her wish to be there for her friends while they disconnected the computer; she also didn't want to dampen their moods with her knowledge that X.A.N.A's end only marked the conclusion of their role in the ordeal. She was just warming up for future troubles. She didn't want them hurt- they had gone through enough; therefore, they could never know.
She straightened as the elevator stopped; she picked up her skateboard and coasted along the underground passageway, the grating of the wheels echoing emptily in the silence. When she reached the ladder up, she didn't leave her skateboard at the side of the tunnel; she tucked it under her arm and climbed up the ladder. As she pulled herself up out of the manhole, she closed her eyes as the moonlight poking through the trees in the forest hit her face. Instead of walking towards the school, she turned and went deeper into the forest until she reached the largest tree in a clearing; she wove her way swiftly up the tree and sat on a branch two-thirds of the way up.
Yumi waited for about seven minutes, and then a soft chirp sailed through the air. She looked up, and a small reddish-brown feather floated down to her. Plucking it out of the air where it hovered, she closed her eyes. They had shut X.A.N.A down.
She leaned back, and her head hit the bark. "Now it begins."
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Yes, yes, stuff will be explained eventually. Have patience. And wow, this is the first time in a long time that I've updated more than once a week…
Linii-chan: Thank you very much! I love reviews like yours. As for the pairings, I'm going to play around with the poor characters quite a bit first. Muahaha. I never reveal pairings from the get-go. (ducks tomatoes)
Sanity-Stealing-Lawn-Gnome: Love the screenname. Thank you!