"So…every time we go return to the past, Xana gets stronger?" Sissi nodded. "Then, all this time, we've just been giving him more power. I mean, he might have been causing all this havoc for so long just to get us to reverse time and make him more powerful."

"That's one of Jeremie's theories."

Yumi nodded solemnly. "He just never stops, does he?"

Sissi shrugged, and a pall of silence settled over the two girls. "Yumi…is something wrong?"

Yumi sighed. She wanted to tell her about her father's job trouble, and about how they might have to go back to Japan, but she couldn't. It didn't seem fair to burden all of them with her problems when she wasn't willing to shoulder theirs anymore. Even after the elephant attack, Yumi just wasn't ready. There was so much left unsaid, and Sissi's occasional briefings on Lyoko didn't help much. They just made her feel as if she was missing something.

"It's nothing. I…thanks for doing this."

Sissi shrugged dismissively. "It's no problem. It's a little funny, actually. I mean, that now I'm the one telling you about Lyoko." Sissi's head whipped around as she heard the door to the science building close and saw William come striding out. "I guess I should get going."

Yumi nodded and watched the shorter girl go, then turned and smiled wearily as William approached.

"I can't stand creative writing. I'm no good at this kind of thing."

Odd waved off Jeremie's complaints. "Oh big deal, it's just the world getting revenge for your being such a genius at everything else."

"But…a fairy tale? How am I supposed to write something like that?" Aelita looped her hand through Jeremie's arm sympathetically.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll think of something. If not, I'm sure Odd or Ulrich could come up with a good idea. They do tend to have overactive imaginations."

Odd shot Ulrich a glance. "Hey, do you think we should be offended by that?" Ulrich swatted him off, but more playfully than he would have a few days ago. He was starting to deal with it.

"Well, I don't have that kind of imagination. I'm better with figures."

Ulrich snorted. "Right, because nothing fantastic or unbelievable ever happens in our lives."

Odd chuckled. "Yeah, I can see it now. A beautiful, pink-haired princess is trapped in a Tower by evil magic, until a knight in shining turtleneck comes along to do battle with the demon…Anax…that holds her there, and break the spell with true love's kiss…"

Jeremie blushed from his chin to his glasses.

"Hey, Odd, that's not a bad idea. Maybe that'll be my story."

The blond gave Ulrich a soft punch on the arm. "Go ahead, take it, I got a million of 'em. For instance, how about the story of Kiwius, the Dog King, who fights off an army of crabs, cockroaches, tarantulas, and hornets with his own two paws…"

Ms. Mayer stepped out of her classroom. School wasn't over, but she didn't have a class the next hour, and she needed to stretch her legs. As she backed out into the hallway, she careened into Gaston wiping a smudge of grafitti off the wall. "Oh, Mr. Lagrange…I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

The man who served as both janitor and cafeteria worker smiled thinly. "It's all right, ma'am. Just trying to get at a stubborn stain."

Ms. Mayer nodded, paused for an awkward moment, then turned down the hallway. Gaston looked up and frowned as she went. Didn't see you there, Mr. Lagrange. No, no one ever did. Twenty five years at that school, and no one even knew he was there. Sometimes, he thought it might be better if they all just…

A spasm wracked Gaston's body, causing the scouring pad to fall from his limp fingers. When he stood up, he was grinning. Oh, yes. They'd all notice him now. Gaston picked himself up and followed the fading Ms. Mayer toward the stairs, his form twitching from the spasdomic energy that possessed it, as the purple glow that had suffused the hallway electrical outlet faded to black.

…

"Hey, how are you doing?"

Yumi shrugged as William ran his hand through her hair tenderly. "Fine."

"What was…you were talking to Sissi?" She nodded. "About what?"

Yumi shrugged, broke their eye contact, and leaned her head away from his hand. "It was nothing."

William dropped his hand to his side and sighed. "Yeah, you keep saying that. Yumi…do you trust me?"

"I…of course I do."

"Well then why won't you tell me what's going on? I mean, I thought you never wanted to see them again. I…I thought you were happy."

"It's more complicated than that."

"Yeah, I gathered that. So tell me."

Yumi frowned. "You wouldn't understand."

"Not if you don't tell me, I won't." William pushed himself up from the bench. "Yumi, I really like you, I just…it doesn't make me feel like much of a boyfriend if I know you're keeping secrets from me." He tried to make eye contact, but Yumi kept avoiding his gaze. "Do you still have feelings for Ulrich?"

"This isn't about Ulrich."

"But he's involved."

"…Yes."

"In what?"

"William, I…you wouldn't understand, can't we just leave it at that?"

Yumi tried to stand up, but his arm blocked her path. "No, we can't. What's so secret that you can tell those…kids and not me?"

Yumi shook her head. "Don't call them that."

"You should be hanging out with other people your age."

"Oh, come on, they're only a year younger, and besides, they're…"

"They're what? What's so special about those five?"

Yumi jerked William's arm out of the way and stood up. "You…wouldn't…understand."

William shook his head as she walked past him, then he jogged a few steps to catch up to her. "You're right, I…I'm sorry. I just…I don't like thinking there's some part of your life that I'm not a part of." Yumi's frown faded and she looked back into his eyes. "Can I walk you to class?"

Yumi sighed. "Sure."

Ms. Mayer had her hand on the door when she heard the footsteps come off the last landing of the staircase. "Ms. Mayer?"

The english teacher turned around and smiled uneasily. "Mr. Lagrange?" The janitor didn't say anything, but merely began walking toward her, his face blank. When he was within a foot of her, Ms. Mayer reached for the door, but Gaston's fingers clamped down around her wrist.

"Have you seen Yumi Ishiyama? I need to talk to her." There was something wrong with the janitor's voice. One moment it was too high, then too low, like a bad actor trying to imitate someone.

Ms. Mayer swallowed her breath. "She…class block C has math in five minutes, you know that."

The janitor stared at her for a moment, then nodded and released her hand. He pushed the door open, more forcefully than seemed necessary, and glided out into the courtyard. Ms. Mayer let out a deep breath, and only then noticed that the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end, as if from an electric charge. She stared after the janitor as he walked. It might have been her imagination, she thought, but it looked as if his image was wavering and spiking against the sunlight.

…

Jeremie tapped his pencil against the edge of the notebook. Aelita leaned over his shoulder, arms draping around him. "You're not still obsessing about that, are you?"

He shurgged. "Well, no, I just…" He sighed.

"You haven't made any progress?" Jeremie scoffed and held up the notebook for her to see. "Once upon a time…" Aelita looked down at him. "That's it?"

"I'm just not the creative type. Why couldn't the assignment be writing a short story about debugging a multi-tier function mainframe?"

Aelita smiled. "I guess some people just don't understand what's important." Jeremie looked up at Aelita and shook his head. She seemed to be getting more human every minute. "Come on, we have to get to class."

When Ulrich turned the corner, he was chatting with Odd and Sissi. That meant he wasn't watching the oncoming traffic. That meant he didn't see William until they were both stumbling to pick their papers back up. William shrugged himself up and tightened his grip on Yumi's arm. "Hey, watch where you're going, all right?" The taller boy brushed past, almost causing Ulrich to lose his balance again. As he watched them go, Ulrich could swear he saw Yumi look back, just for a moment. As if she was apologizing. Then it was gone, and Odd's hand was on his shoulder.

"Hey, you okay, man?"

Ulrich shrugged off the blond's hand. "Yeah. Fine."

Sissi pulled her backpack strap higher on on her shoulder. "Yeah, but are you really okay?"

Ulrich sighed, and slung his own bag back on. "Would you be?" Before she could answer, he'd pushed into the hallway. "Come on. We're gonna be late."

William hadn't looked back, and he hadn't said anything. It was like he thought Ulrich wasn't worth comment. Yumi flinched at that thought. No matter how she'd felt about him, she'd never thought that. It seemed, however, that that was the way William worked. There were some people he just didn't bother with. Yumi had thought it was independence for the first few days. Now it was starting to look like arrogance.

Her hand had just unwrapped itself from his arm when she became aware of the footsteps running up behind them. As she turned, she was afraid it was Ulrich, about to do something stupid and heroic like he always did. The very last thing she expected to see was the janitor charging at her, teeth bared, image fuzzy and spiking with lightning from the excitement of his movements. Yumi didn't have time to shout out a warning before Gaston slammed into her. Not that, she mused as the breath went out of her and the man's glowing arm scooped her over his shoulder, it would have done much good. William wouldn't know what was going on. He couldn't handle it.

Ulrich was about to step into the history classroom when he heard glass breaking down the hallway. He turned, Odd and Sissi in tow, and skidded to a stop when they came around the bend.

William was standing at the edge of the broken window, staring down at the courtyard below. "Hey!" Ulrich yelled out, and the boy turned his head, "What happened?"

William turned around and his eyes narrowed. He should have expected. Anytime something weird happened, they were always around. "What do you think happened? Someone just kidnapped Yumi!"

…

Ulrich rushed down the hall, stopping just short of the shattered window. He squinted down into the courtyard below, an indistinct shape bounding off into the park, Yumi a black speck draped across its shoulder. "Did you see who it was?"

"Hey, what's going on here? Aren't you at least a little surprised that some guy just carried Yumi off?"

Ulrich brushed William off and turned his head halfway back down the hall. "Sissi, call Jeremie. Odd, come with me. He's probably headed for the warehouse district."

Odd nodded, and Sissi flipped out her cell phone. Ulrich tried to turn back toward the stairs, but William's fingers clamped down around his bicep. "Let go, William."

"No, not this time. Not until you tell me what's going on here."

"You wouldn't understand."

"No! You people don't get to keep saying that. I'm with Yumi now, not you, and I have as much of a right as anyone to know if something's wrong."

Ulrich gritted his teeth, then glared down at Xana's host fading into the forest. If William stalled them, they'd lose the trail for sure. He cast a glance at Odd; the blond shrugged. Ulrich sighed. "Fine. Come on." Ulrich sprinted ahead, catching up with Odd as they raced down the stairs. "Don't slow us down!" William blinked, then looked across at Sissi. The principal's daughter frowned into the phone and jerked her thumb toward the stairs. William shook his head in disbelief as he followed them down—these people were all crazy.

Under normal circumstances, a bathroom request would have been the standard dodge to get out of class. These weren't normal circumstances. Their teacher was halfway into asking them what they thought they were doing when Jeremie and Aelita, hand in hand, were racing out the door. Brandy narrowed her eyes. "Where are those two going?"

Nicolas shrugged. "Maybe they forgot to do the homework."

Brandy shot him a sour glance. She swore, those kids were always up to something.

"Sissi'll meet us at the factory. If we can shut down the Tower soon enough, it'll make Ulrich and Odd's job a lot easier." Aelita nodded as they ran, Jeremie dragging her hand a little, and smiled in spite of herself. It was kind of nice to see him taking charge.

They'd lost a lot of time going down the stairs instead of through the window, but Ulrich was fairly certain where it was headed. William was still shouting questions back at them. Ulrich was ignoring him, Odd kept shouting back for him to mind his own business. He was starting to gain on them, however. "Odd, tell him…something!" Ulrich sped up, leaving William to catch Odd by the shoulder.

"All right, what's going on? Who was that? What's he want with Yumi? And why do you guys know so much about this?"

"William…" Odd sighed. "There are things in this world that mankind's not supposed to know."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, Yumi's in trouble. We know why. We know what to do. We can't do it if you keep asking questions. If we all live through this, maybe we'll fill you in on the rest later."

Odd increased his speed, and William stumbled to keep up with him. He didn't understand any of this. And he was getting less and less sure that he wanted to.

Yumi grunted as Gaston dropped her unceremoniously against the wall of the storage locker. "What do you want from me, Xana?"

Gaston grinned. "Bait." His voice had already taken on the warble of Xana's possession.

Yumi shook her head. "They won't come for me. Not anymore."

The janitor's smile widened. "They will."

Ulrich rolled to his feet at the bottom of the steep hill that led into the city's indsutrial district. Odd scooted to a stop behind him. With a few stumbling steps, William came to a halt as the hill leveled off. "All right, I've been playing your little game here for too long. Who are you? What's all this about?"

Ulrich glared back at him. At first, he'd been telling himself William wouldn't be able to handle it because that saved time. Now, looking at him, he realized: William actually couldn't. He was the kind of person who was so sure he knew everything that any secret as earth-shattering as theirs would destroy him. He sighed.

"Yumi has a powerful enemy. So do we. That's what you get for knowing what we know. You don't want that responsibility." With that, Ulrich began running again, deeper into the tangled metal of the warehouse yards.

…

Sissi leapt onto the hornet's back as the robot dove toward her, driving a shuriken deep into its back and using the momentum of its explosion to fling her further upward. When she cleared the other two, she flipped a star into each hand and, without warning, three hornets were lying in puddles on the ground. Jeremie whistled appreciatively. "You're in very good form today."

Sissi grinned and shrugged. "It's all about being in the zone. Odd taught me that." The ninja turned back to Aelita, who was now brushing herself off and stepping out from behind her protective pillar of ice. "Let's go." The two girls took off, skirting the ice shelf that ringed the massive cliff between them and the Tower.

Odd glanced around at the rows of identical brick and steel warehouses that lined the wharf. "Which one? They all look the same!"

Ulrich's eyes swept the massive façades. "We'll split up. Take a direction, look for anything that could indicate where they went. Stay in contact. Go now!" Ulrich tried to run forward, but jerked back as William's hand clamped down around his shoulder. "Don't waste my time, William, I swear…"

"Hey. You think this is hard for you? Do you have any idea what it's like to go into something like this blind?" William stopped abruptly, then looked down at the asphalt. "The point is, I'm going. I…I do care about her, you know."

Ulrich sighed. "I know. And so do I."

William nodded and released the shorter boy's shoulder. "I know." Ulrich watched William lope down the street perpendicular to his own choice, then shook his head and began to run.

"Jeremie, can you send in our vehicles? The sooner we can get there the bet—" Sissi's words were cut off as she went spiraling toward the edge of the ice bridge.

"Sissi!" Aelita's fingers coiled around the ninja's just as she slid over the edge of the bridge. Aelita gritted her teeth and heaved, and Sissi was deposited in a limp heap next to her. Sissi shook her head, peered up over Aelita's side, and swore quietly to herself. This was exactly what they did not need.

After what seemed like an eternity of blurred sidestreets and identical backalleys, Yumi felt a sharp pain in her side as Gaston dropped her unceremoniously against a corrugated steel wall. Yumi groaned and, slowly, her eyes came back into focus. The first thing she saw was the janitor standing over her, expressionless, rippling with purple energy. They were surrounded by steel, solid walls and support beams—the industrial district. It was a good choice, she thought grudgingly; there were plenty of warehouses, and they were all but identical. Even if she could get a message out, or even escape, she'd have no idea where she was. As she blinked away the pain of Gaston's impact, she began to think. Ulrich, Sissi, and Odd were all right behind her. Ulrich would no doubt know the strategic value of this place as well as Xana would—even if he'd fallen behind in tracking them, he would probably still start searching here. He had a good head for that kind of thing. Then Yumi sat up with a start. What about William?

William skidded to a stop at the intersection of two wide lanes. One of the doors on the warehouse across from him had been broken inward, swinging limply from what was left of one hinge. The boy slipped his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Odd's number—the only one of theirs he'd bothered to learn. "Odd? I'm at 35 and Tartan. I think I found something."

"Jeremie! Vehicles, now!"

Jeremie was working as fast as he could. He had no idea where the tarantula had come from, and he was having enough trouble trying to help with the search for Yumi. He glanced from the blueprints of the warehouses back to the central screen and began to type. First the code to bring in the Overwheel and the Overwing for Sissi and Aelita, then to bring up the telephone dialer.

The other boys pulled up beside William—Ulrich had obviously been running hard. "What…did you find?" William pointed toward the door. Ulrich nodded. "Odd, we'll go in. William, you stay out here and…"

"No way, I'm going in there with you! I want to get to the bottom of this!"

"I told you, it's too dangerous…"

"Too dangerous for me, but not for you? Not for Yumi?"

"Don't try to make this about…"

The argument continued as Odd pulled out his cell. "Jeremie?"

"Odd, we…what's that noise in the background?"

Odd frowned. "Ulrich and William are having a calm, unbiased discussion about rescue strategy. Have you found something?"

"No, I need you to get over here as soon as possible. Sissi's been attacked by a tarantula, and she's already been hit once."

Odd nodded and slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Hey, ladies!" Ulrich and William spun toward him, finally silent. "Ulrich, Jeremie needs help at the factory. I'm leaving."

Ulrich stared askance at William. "What about…"

Odd shrugged. "You two can handle it. This is your chance to get better acquainted."

…

Sissi flipped into a handspring, a trail of laser blasts following her as she hopped onto the idling Overwheel and readied it for hover mode. Aelita was already on the Overwing, headed out across the ice sheet that separated them from the Tower. "Jeremie, lifepoints."

"Not enough for it to matter. One hit from that tarantula, and you're fried." The tone for an incoming call echoed from the speakers, and Jeremie tapped the keys to bring up the phone program. "Odd?"

"I'm almost there. We were already in the warehouse district anyway."

"When you get here, go straight down. Sissi's not in good shape."

"Come on, Jeremie, give my girl some credit." Jeremie disconnected Odd's call and glanced at the center screen; the tarantula was skirting along the edge of the semi-circular bridge that led to the Tower. It wasn't making the same progress Sissi and Aelita were, but it had clear aim.

"Sissi, Odd's on his way. Just duck and weave, there's no need to get fancy."

"Oh, come on, I've fought a tarantula before."

"And it stepped on you."

Sissi cast an annoyed glance at Aelita, who couldn't help but smile. "Just watch the numbers, Einstein."

Jeremie heard the elevator slide down behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. He activated the comm system. "Odd, get into a scanner. I don't know how much longer Sissi can last alone."

"Roger, Cap'n."

"Where's Ulrich?"

"He and William are tracking down Yumi."

Jeremie winced. "Well, that's going to end well."

Ulrich peered around the corner of a storage room, turned back toward William, and shook his head. The taller boy ran to the next door, peeked in, shook his head, and sighed. This was taking forever. "Why don't we make some noise? Call out for her. Maybe it'll scare him off."

Ulrich shook his head. "This…guy doesn't scare. Just trust me. There's nothing worse we could do than let him know we're here."

William sighed and nodded. Ulrich began to move on to the next door, but William stayed back. "I just wanted to be a part of her life, you know," he muttered.

Ulrich sighed. "I know."

"I…I just wanted to protect her."

"Yeah, I used to want that too." Ulrich was still walking, and William had no choice but to follow to stay in earshot. "Then I found out that Yumi doesn't need people to protect her." He paused for a moment, finally realizing what he should have apologized for. "I guess I forgot that for a while. That's why you're here and I'm…" He shook his head and moved on to the next door.

William checked the next two doors before he spoke again. "What about you?"

"What?"

"Aren't you protecting her? Isn't that why you're here?"

"I…it's not the same. We all protect each other."

William shook his head; the kid didn't have any idea how smug he sounded. "Yeah, you're just one big happy family, right?" He pushed past Ulrich. "If that's true, then why am I here?"

Odd kicked down to the left, the Overboard barely avoiding a barrage of lasers. "Aelita, follow my lead!" Sissi had just been vaporized, and Odd had already been hit once before he could manage to get on his vehicle. The tarantula had made up for lost time, and it was now blocking their access to the ice tunnel that protected the Tower.

He flew low, sighting down his paw and firing a few arrowheads at the monster's head, but none of them caught the target. "Jeremie, tell me I at least made an impact!"

Jeremie glanced at the monster's lifepoints. "Yeah, like a squirt gun against a bonfire."

Odd shook his head and gestured to Aelita. "I'll go high, you go low!" The elfin girl nodded. Jeremie's eyes bulged.

"No, Odd, don't you dare!" The blond shook of Jeremie's warning and swooped down at the creature's head, Aelita not far behind and ready to break off. He took a deep breath. He sure hoped this worked.

…

Yumi's head snapped up. She was still a little out of it…but no. She was sure she'd heard it. From somewhere down the hallway—voices. Gaston had turned to look out toward the door; it was possible he'd heard them too. Edging over to one of the exposed pipes lining the room, Yumi shook her head and prayed she'd chosen right. With a screw found discarded on the ground and a quick look around the room for identifying marks, she began to tap out a message.

"If you think you can find her on your own, then you just feel free to go your own way. If not, you should pay attention to someone who knows what he's doing!"

William scoffed. "Oh, yeah, you know what you're doing. This is probably your fault in the first…" Ulrich held up his hand for silence. William narrowed his eyes as the shorter boy leaned toward the pipes that snaked across the walls. Tap. Pause. Taptap. Pause.

"Morse code." He was mainly thinking to himself, hardly aware that William was even there.

"What?"

Ulrich gestured to the pipes and the tinny sounds echoing through them. "Morse code."

"You know morse code?"

"Yeah, we all learned it. Just in case."

William shook his head. These people really were freaks. "So what's it say?"

Ulrich pressed his ear against the pipe and furrowed his eyebrows. It was just the same four letters, over and over. "Blue."

"Huh?"

"That's it. 'Blue,' over and over." Ulrich was still puzzling as William wrenched him away. "Hey, what are you…" He looked to where the taller boy was pointing and shook his head in amazement. He began to run, never taking his eyes off the blue-insulated bundle of wires that ran along the ceiling toward a sharp left turn down the hall.

The Overboard evaporated under Odd's feet and he found himself just above the tarantula's head. He fired as many shots as he could before the monster locked on to him, but none hit the target. It didn't matter—the last thing he saw was the Overwing sliding neatly between the tarantula's legs, and into the tunnel that led to the Tower.

"Yumi!" As soon as they turned the corner, William ran forward.

"No, wait, it's…" Yumi and Ulrich spoke at the same moment, and were both cut off as Gaston, hidden behind the storeroom's open door, snaked an arm out to clothesline William. The boy landed on his back with a crunch, eyes closed and hissing in pain. As Gaston turned toward him and fingers of purple lightning began to lick at William's body, Ulrich jumped.

Odd could hardly breathe when he came back into the real world, the harsh light of the tube fading into the muted yellow of the scanner room. "Jeremie…Aelita…make it…"

Jeremie's voice warbled over the intercomm. "Nice flying, Odd. She's entering the Tower as we speak."

Odd grinned in spite of himself. "Told you…I…could do it."

"Yeah, yeah, save your breath."

Ulrich managed to push Gaston enough to disrupt the lightning, but it wasn't enough to knock him down. The janitor's hand whipped out and latched onto Ulrich's wrist, flipping him back into the pipes beside Yumi. She winced as Gaston turned from the crumpled William to them, lightning flickering between his hands. Without even thinking, Yumi reached her hand out and found Ulrich's. Their fingers wound together as the purple arcs grew wider…

…and disappeared. With a grunt, the light faded from Gaston's eyes and the janitor collapsed to his knees. Without a word, Yumi and Ulrich looked at the stirring William. Ulrich sighed. "I'll call Jeremie. I think we'll need some good old fashioned time travel on this one."

"Wait." Yumi smiled. In spite of everything that had happened today, it felt good to be back in the game. "I think I have an idea."

"…in more serious news, a broad daylight kidnapping rocks Kadic preparatory school today. An unknown man assaulted Kadic student Yumi Ishiyama and abducted her to the city's warehouse district. It was only through the actions of two of her classmates and the timely arrival of Kadic janitor Gaston Lagrange that Miss Ishiyama was saved."

The newscast cut to a rather dazed looking Gaston being interviewed about the memory Ulrich and Yumi had managed to suggest to him when he regained consciousness. "Well, when I heard about what happened, I just…I had to do something, so I…I followed them, but then I got knocked out…when I woke up, Yumi and her friend Ulrich said I'd gotten the upper hand, and they'd managed to drive the guy away…"

William clicked off the TV and shook his head. "I can't believe they didn't find the guy who did this."

Yumi nodded, getting up from the couch and heading back into her kitchen. "Are you sure you're okay?"

William nodded. "Yeah. I'm still a little fuzzy, but I'll be fine." Yumi smiled sympathetically. "Good thing Ulrich was there, huh?" Yumi sighed. "Look, I think it's about time you tell me what's going on with those guys. I mean, I think I earned it."

Yumi paused for a moment, halfway to the tea kettle. "Yeah, well…I don't."

William stood up, nostrils flaring. "What?"

"William, I'm sorry, but I mean it when I say that you can't handle this."

Finally, something in William snapped. She'd been saying that for too long. "So what, I'm not good enough?"

"I…I didn't say that…"

"Yes, you did. Ulrich and your stupid little group of ex-friends are better than I am. They're more important to you!"

"William, don't…"

"I came after you because I thought I cared about you. But you wouldn't, would you? If Ulrich Stern disappeared, you'd turn the whole city upside-down looking for him. I bet if I went missing, you wouldn't even break a sweat!"

Yumi's face was dripping with disgust. "How dare you? Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me?"

"Oh, yeah, it's all about you! I swear, if I have to hear you mooning over those losers one more time, I'll just let you go crawling back to them."

Yumi was practically in tears. "What, you're saying you pitied me? You took me in like a stray cat?"

"Look, I'm your boyfriend now. Not him, or Odd, or whoever else you might've wrapped around your finger. Are we clear on that?"

Yumi bit her lip and blinked once. "Yes. I think everything's suddenly very clear."

Before William claimed some kind of victory, Yumi was out the door, into the rain streaming down from the night sky, leaving William standing in the middle of her parents' living room.

Jeremie smiled as he wrapped his arms around Aelita's shoulders. "I think I finished writing my fairy tale."

Aelita smiled. "Tell it to me."

Jeremie grinned. "Once upon a time, there were two great warriors. They fought side by side and, as they did, they fell in love…"

Yumi ran through the rain, hair and clothes sticking to her skin, tears streaming down her face.

"…but too soon they were driven apart by their own pride—he into isolation, she into the arms of another."

Ulrich tossed a tennis ball against Odd's empty side of the room, catching it as it bounced back. He should have stayed. Instead, when the media had showed up and William had clung to Yumi, he had just stood back. It was official. He'd been replaced.

"But it was not to last. Their love was too strong…"

Yumi thundered through the doors of the dormitories. Before Jim could ask her where she thought she was going at this hour, she was already halfway up the stairs.

"…and their loyalty too great. When they were forced to fight together one last time, the truth came out…"

Ulrich jolted up at the frantic knocking at the door. When he opened it, his breath caught in his throat. "Yumi, I…"

"Tell me that you love me."

Ulrich's eyebrows twisted in confusion. She was crying, and soaked from the rain. And she had never looked more beautiful. "What?"

"Say you love me."

"…and they ran to each other's arms."

Ulrich shook his head in amazement. "Of course I love you. I never stopped." Ulrich gingerly reached out his hands to hers. "Look, Yumi, I know what happened with us won't be fixed overnight, but…"

"Shut up." Yumi's hand was in Ulrich's hair, drawing him closer to her. As their lips met, hands in each others' hair, Ulrich felt like crying too.

Jeremie smiled. "And they lived happily ever after."

William cast a flat, gray rock into a mud puddle. The rain had ended, and the sun was just coming up. He hadn't slept all night.

"Am I interrupting?" William turned around to acknowledge Brandy behind him, but said nothing. "I noticed you're not with your girlfriend."

William let out a derisive snort. "No, she dumped me. She's back with that kid." He tossed another rock into the puddle, more forcefully. "All I want to know is what makes him so special, you know? What is it that makes those six so inseparable?"

Brandy smiled and stepped closer. "What a coincidence…I want to know too…"