Chapter Twenty-Two: Time Change (continued)

Ulrich emerged from the scanners, somewhat startled but mostly wondering how in the world he could have been de-virtualized so easily. It didn't seem fair, he thought, that the rest of the gang was in LYOKO.

He ran to Jeremie to tell him that he wanted to go back.

"Jeremie, we're here!" gasped Aelita from the back of the over-wing. The field appeared empty, but they all knew that there were monsters scattered across the field- faceless, soulless, merciless.

Yumi sped up her over-wing and halted Odd in his tracks. "I have a battle strategy," she said matter-of-factly in a low voice.

"You call this a battle? I call it all in a day's work," he beamed as Aelita giggled.

"Okay, here it is," she paused for a dramatic effect, "I want you to start shooting things at random."

There was a long awkward moment of silence. "You're serious?"

"Totally. You do that, and I'll get Aelita into the tower." Odd took the hint and sped off into the open field.

Yumi had a different problem. XANA had coated everything so that it was invisible, and she could clearly remember how she crashed into the invisible mountain. She couldn't speed and go around; if she crashed, then she would lose more life points than she could afford.

Of course, scooting above the open field was dangerous as well. There wouldn't be any mountains to crash into, but the monsters would surely corner Yumi and Aelita and knock the pair into de-virtualization…

… or worse.

"Ulrich!" Jeremie exclaimed, mildly surprised. Then, more smugly, "Didn't I tell you there were monsters?"

The brown-haired boy was still in his suit and tie, albeit disheveled, and at Jeremie's remark he scratched his neck humbly. "Okay, you win," he muttered.

"Are you going back?" Jeremie turned back to his computer to check the status on the three that remained in LYOKO.

Ulrich stared google-eyed at Jeremie. "Go back? That's never been done before!"
"Well, what harm could it do? Let me check to see if your stats are back to normal." A few clicks of the keyboard and Jeremie shook his head.

"It's okay. I'm sort of exhausted anyway," he slumped down near the foot of Jeremie's computer chair. He stretched his arms out and let out a yawn. "Jeremie, how's Yumi?"

Jeremie perked up but didn't move his eyes from the screen. "Uh, she's lost ten of her life points from crashing the over-wing. Other than that, she's sort of zooming around aimlessly- Yumi!" he shouted at the computer. "What are you doing?" he screeched.

Ulrich jumped up startled. The screen showed the over-wing making figure eights and sharp turns- but the vehicle was moving more slowly than anything else. But Ulrich noticed that the monsters and Odd were on the complete other side of the screen.

"Yumi!" Ulrich whispered loudly.

"What?" her voice grumbled through the speaker.

"What in God's name are you doing?" Jeremie finished Ulrich's thought. Ulrich loosened the tie in his shirt.

"Trying to figure a way out of here," Yumi replied flatly. "I need to get to the tower, but I don't know what the best way is to get there," she admitted sheepishly.

What interrupted their conversation was the ring-ba-ring-ring of a mobile. "Ring-ba-ring-ring!" it shrilled again as Ulrich spotted it across the room.

"Odd's cell phone!" he cried as he raced to answer it. He picked it up and answered, "Hello?"

"Yumi, we don't have much time!" Aelita complained.

Yumi jerked the over-wing slowly. "I know, but I can't think of anything to get us through to that tower!"

Aelita removed her hands from Yumi's waist and put them together as if in prayer. Her voice, loud and clear, was like a beacon that summoned the rocks from the field upward. A ridge bumped up from one end of the field and a giant hole appeared at the base of the tower.

Yumi halted the vehicle. "What is that?"

Aelita closed her mouth while opening her eyes. "It's a tunnel," she responded after a few moments. "There's a small opening near us- can you see it? Now we should be able to reach the tower quickly and without any monsters!"

Yumi laughed, "Wow, you're just as smart as Odd- only I know that you actually are smarter than him!" She nose-dived the over-wing, sped it up, and turned into the tiny tunnel entrance.

"Wow, this is a great battle strategy, guys," said as Odd sarcastically as he got hit with yet another laser.

"Hold on there, big guy," replied Jeremie. "Yumi and Aelita are on their way to the tower- though I'm not really sure how they did it."

Odd harrumphed and fired five laser arrows one right after another. "Good for them- what about me?"

Ulrich interrupted them. "Well, Odd, your girlfriend called. She's breaking up with you."

"Oh, really?" Odd answered as casually as he could. "I never liked her anyway. Wait- why did she break up with me?" Another seven lasers were fired and two block monsters exploded.

"Well, she said something about you ditching her as the boulders were raining." Normally, this sentence would have sounded bad out of context, but Odd remembered that he was in LYOKO to fight off indirectly the invisible rocks XANA had sent from the sky above Kadic High School.

"Now wait a minute. We were looking for her- remember?" Another block exploded.

Ulrich coughed. "Yeah, but technically you ditched her. I don't blame her for hiding back in her dorm."

Odd glared at the invisible field. "Oh well, I'll move on and find another girl. I don't need her."

"Suit yourself," sighed Ulrich with a smirk on his face. "Charlotte, Odd's busy right now. He'll call you back later."

He hung up the cell phone and rested under Jeremie's chair.

"Jeremie! We made it!" exclaimed Aelita as she emerged from the tunnel with Yumi. "Get the return to the past ready!"

"Good job, ladies. Yumi, I'll de-virtualize you as soon as Aelita gets into the tower."

Yumi grinned. Another successful mission, and soon she would get to go to the dance. "Boy, Jeremie this was really easy for us- aah!"

A massive headache washed over her; she nearly fell off the over-wing. She sensed that something wasn't going as planned, something wasn't right… what was going on?

"Yumi!" Jeremie's voice called from the sky.

"I- I-" she struggled for the words, but she couldn't get them out. She heard Ulrich's voice next. "Jeremie will get you out of there as soon as possible, I promise."

"You promise?" replied Jeremie, surprised. "I thought I was supposed to make the promises that I would have to keep- not you."

Jeremie was interrupted by Aelita's crystal voice. "I entered the code Jeremie." She was annoyed at the lack of attention he was giving her.

A cough of embarrassment. "Return to the past now!"

Ulrich met them by the towers. Yumi was out first, but with a splitting migraine. "Oh, my head," she groaned as she slumped out of the tower.

Odd was next, followed by Aelita. Odd was plumb exhausted, and Aelita was just tired. It had been a long (and repetitive) day for the gang. Only Ulrich seemed to be rested, but not by much.

"Yumi, what's wrong?" asked Odd who seemed concerned. He put his hand on her shoulder but she didn't move her hand from her temples.

"I just got this massive headache and-" her head jolted up and her eyes glared straight ahead- "there's something wrong. I know it."

Ulrich offered a shoulder to support her; her periwinkle dress was wrinkled and torn, but he thought she still looked beautiful (she could see it in his troubled eyes). "You're probably just exhausted, that's all," he tried to simplify the matter.

"What time is it now?" she looked at Jeremie who emerged from the elevator.

Jeremie shrugged his shoulders and looked at his watch. "According to this, it's seven o'clock. That's strange. I put in a return to the past…"

Odd grew wide eyed. "Oh no! That means Charlotte's still mad at me!

Yumi realized what he was saying and gasped. "Oh my God- Turner!" She bolted from the tower room and raced out of the factory, all the while visualizing Turner's icy blue stare.

The dance was canceled. When Yumi came back, she found absolutely no one on campus. Except for Turner's Indian girlfriend sobbing on the steps of the gymnasium. But Yumi couldn't look at her…

She raced on and saw more and more people… a group of senior girls wept on each other's shoulders. "Why?" they cried and moaned.

The majority of the students were crowded around something- she couldn't see what. As she approached them, they all turned and glared at her with cold hard stares- with the same eyes that Turner had as he passed on into another life:

Cold, lifeless, accusing, unforgiving.

The ambulances made no noises even though the lights flashed and they zoomed from the school grounds to the hospital. In fact, she could've sworn that the ambulances disappeared into oblivion.

And the group parted ahead of her, like two doors, and showed the fruits of her labor in LYOKO. There he lay, exactly as if he were standing next to her and complimenting her dress, but with those same eyes as Turner. Why did everybody have those eyes?

She wanted to scream and call out his name, but she was suffocated by his heavy breathing. All she could hear was his heart, even though it was nowhere near her.

And as she watched the ambulance drivers take him away to the rhythm of his heartbeat, she broke down and cried under the unforgiving eyes.

It was 9:05.