Notes: In this chapter you will see major changes than the actual episode. This is why I labeled the story as "AU". Thank you for reading and your support, I hope you enjoyed the story.

Additional Notes: Edited as of 10/12/18, check chapter one's notes to see what I went looking for per each chapter.

2. New Order

It was time to test the new programs Jeremie recently created. He had given Odd a hover-board he dubbed the Overboard, a hover-bike to Ulrich called the Overbike, and to Yumi a hover-scooter called the Overwing. The geisha had tested her vehicle with Aelita in tow, waiting at the "finish line" as both Odd and Ulrich dubbed it.

The two were planning to get used to their vehicles by riding them around the Desert Sector. It was a smart idea for the both of them, but the vehicles were still a bit "buggy" as Jeremie had put it.

"Odd," Jeremie's voice projected itself in a scolding tone, "I didn't have time to perfect the program that calculates trajectory." Right as those words echoed around, a certain purple cat-boy zoomed out of the giant split rock far away. The Overboard hummed as it slid over a rock, throwing Odd into the air. The cat-boy let out a shout of glee as he leaned down and shoved his paws down. With the sudden shift in weight, the hover-board tipped downwards before it could continue sailing in the air. The blonde straightened out his weight right as he was going to hit the ground, luckily breaking his fall as it balanced itself out.

"Don't worry Einstein," Odd saluted the sky, "Got it all covered down here." He flashed a cheeky smile as Ulrich pulled up close to him. Yumi drove by, getting off with Aelita once they deemed the cat-boy was unharmed. All three vehicles disappeared, since they weren't needed anymore.

"Nice save," Ulrich complimented.

Odd beamed, "Yeah, I surfed a few times back when I went to Varazze. It was pretty nice to surf there during the summer. That, and with how many times I skateboard it's pretty easy to maneuver something like the Overboard. Though," He rubbed the back of his head, "I still think I need to practice riding it a bit," Then he winked at the samurai, "Why don't you give the Overboard a try? I'll try out the Overbike."

Ulrich motioned his hand in a wave, "Surfing really isn't my thing."

"Sorry to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but it looks like XANA has spotted you. There's something coming your way! . . .But that's really weird. I-I can't tell what it is."

"Hey!" The geisha voiced, eyes catching something charging their way, "What's that?" She pointed at the creature that walked on all fours, its face a light shade of white with XANA's eye. It's body was colored a dark grey with a very light shade of green-white on its belly. Its arms were light brown with four grey ends.

"I don't know," Ulrich answered, "But it looks like trouble, big time."

"I've never seen a monster like that one before." Aelita admitted, worry on her face, "XANA must have just created it!"

"In any case, it says here it has more life points than the others!"

The creature finally halted before the warriors, leaning down one of its legs to raise its arms to show off blasters. "Jeremie, how about reprogramming our vehicles?"

"I'm on it already," Jeremie responded, "But it'll take some time!" Aelita took off the opposite way with those words.

Ulrich stepped forward, "On my signal."

"I'll go first." Yumi voiced, standing next to the samurai.

"And I'm gonna keep it busy." Odd added.

The creature stared them down a little longer, before Ulrich shouted, "Now!" The samurai drew his katana right as the monster shot. He deflected the lasers until the barrage paused, followed by Yumi flipping over the creature. The monster growled, turning its face towards the geisha who drew her fan. She flicked it, allowing it to open before throwing it towards the four-legged creature.

It raised its guns, shooting down the fan as a means to stop it. Jeremie began to talk once more, his voice directed at Aelita, "Aelita, there's a deactivated tower not far away. Direction north by northwest. Get out of there and come and meet me, but hurry up!"

"Hey, you overgrown spider!" Odd chirped, tail swaying as he stared down the monster, "Looking for me?" The creature let out another garbled roar as the cat-boy fled to the nearest rock pillar. He began to climb it once XANA's monster began to shoot lasers towards him. He reached the top, perching himself onto the rock. He aimed his paw, eyes narrowed. "Laser arrow!" He shouted, shooting at the spider-like creature.

It clambered forward, raising itself onto two legs to shoot at the pillar, "It's walking?!" Ulrich shouted, eyes wide. Odd let out a cry as the rock gave out, sending him flying to the ground. The monster took the chance to shoot at Odd's chest, making the cat-boy whine as he stumbled to the desert ground.

"Odd, you just lost twenty life points! That thing has a powerful laser." Jeremie noted. Yumi watched as Odd dragged himself into a crouch.

The cat-boy wore a grimace, eyes narrowing at the monster with something close to animosity, "Yeah, and it's annoying too." The spider-like monster laid on one of its legs again, aiming its guns at Ulrich. The samurai began to deflect the lasers, all until he was distracted with Aelita heading towards the deactivated tower. The laser's slammed into the brunette, making the chocolate eyed warrior explode into a display of pixels.

"Vehicles are ready."

"It's about time," Odd tutted, glaring at the monster, "I'm getting sick of looking at this thing." He did a quick flip, landing on the re-virtualized Overboard.

"Come on," Jeremie huffed, "I'm doing my best."

Yumi began to back flip to hers, quickly landing on the grey hover-scooter, "Let me go first." Odd said, waving a paw at himself.

"Go on, I'll be watching you." Yumi encouraged. The cat-boy took off on the Overboard, flying in the air. He spun himself around after turning upside down, shooting laser arrows down at the monster. It let out a fearsome cry, releasing its own lasers to combat the cat. After a moment, Odd slammed the hover-board into its face, bouncing off to nearly hit the land with his ride again.

"This thing's really getting on my nerves," Odd whined as he turned back to face monster.

Yumi quickly flew close, seeing that the purple loving teen was having a hard time, "Need a hand?" The spider-like creature charged its shots in both arms, releasing them towards the duo. The geisha screamed as her Overwing took the blow, flipping her upside down in the air before devirtualizing. She gracefully fell back to the ground, flipping as soon as the monster started to shoot at her again. She whipped out her fan, throwing it but the same result happened. It shot her fan out of the air and smacked her right in her stomach.

Her body greeted the feeling of emptiness as she watched herself erupt in blue pixels.

She slammed her fists into the scanner floor, a growl leaving her, "Great." She couldn't blame herself, none of them knew how to combat that thing. She took a deep breath, allowing herself a few moments to recover from the sudden devirtualization. Yumi pulled herself to a stand, walking out of the scanner slowly. "Hmm. . . I wonder how Odd's fairing." She muttered to herself, recalling the cat-boy's annoyance at the new monster.

Yumi took off to the elevator, pressing the button. She waited for a little bit, watching as it closed its door and brought her up a floor. When she arrived to the supercomputer room, it was to Jeremie shouting, "You did it! You destroyed it!"

She walked close to the brunette, as he was looking giddy while Aelita looked awed, "Odd destroyed XANA's new monster," Ulrich commented to the geisha, "Jeremie's freaking out about it." Yumi smiled lightly.

"Well, we all should be happy. If one of us can defeat that new creature, soon all of us can," She laid a hand on her hip, "That'll show XANA that we aren't to be underestimated."

"I'm bringing you back in," Jeremie commented, fingers running over the keyboard in a hurry. A few moments later, Odd walked out of the elevator with his hands behind his head.

The blonde with a purple splotch had a big grin on his face, "It was pretty annoying, but in the end it's gone."

Jeremie frowned, "Sadly, even with you beating XANA's new monster. He's still programming new monsters to fight us. It means our troubles have just begun."

Odd turned to the other blonde, "One thing's for sure, Einstein. You have to work on programming our vehicles faster. If I didn't have my Overboard, I wouldn't have stood a chance against those Tarantulas." With that, he grinned impishly as he wiggled his hand like a spider.

"Tarantulas?" Yumi asked.

"Tarantulas," Odd nodded at the group, "It's a name for the new monsters he created. I like to give my enemies a name." He beamed.

Jeremie leaned back into his chair, "What worries me is that our friend XANA has obviously found a way to increase his power."

Ulrich leaned forward, "You think he's still evolving?"

"That may be so. In any case, from now on we have to be ready for anything and everything."

Aelita stood up, "Maybe I better get back to Lyoko," She looked worriedly at the gang, "If XANA activates a tower I better be there."

Jeremie looked towards his friends, a small smile on his face, "Uh... should we tell her?"

The pinkette perked up, "Of course we should tell her! Why keep good news like that a secret?" Yumi beamed. After all, Aelita was their friend. She deserved to know what surprise they have for her.

"Keep what a secret? Would someone please tell me what's going on?"

Everyone smiled at one another as Jeremie spoke up, "Over the past few weeks I spent all of my time developing the vehicles and an anti-virus to free you from XANA. And I also perfected a whole new program for detecting activated tower."

"A super scanner," Odd jumped in with a small smile, "Much more accurate than the old one."

"With instant detection. Meaning you don't have to stay on Lyoko all the time!"

Aelita's apple green eyes widened, a smile on her face, "So that means I'm going to live-"

Ulrich grinned, "Here, with us. We already enrolled you as a boarder at the school."

Yumi walked close to the pinkette, a smile on her face, "Everything's all set up. We wanted to surprise you."

Aelita looked to have been at a loss of words, stuttering over what she was trying to say. Then, she finally spoke up, "T-This is so wonderful! I can't believe it!"

The next day, Yumi found herself in a crowd of boys and girls for the school field trip between eighth and ninth graders. Mrs. Hertz wanted the students to photograph and draw plant life for a botanic scrapbook project. "Hey," Someone spoke up close to her. Her charcoal black eyes met silver ones. The boy, dressed in a long sleeved red shirt with a black one above it, blue jeans and a belt, and black boots, "Nice to see you again, Yumi."

The Japanese teen perked up, a smile forming on her face, "William!" She greeted, "It's nice to see you too."

Looking sheepish, the raven smiled lightly at her, "I was going to ask you to be my partner, but a friend asked me first. Mrs. Hertz was okay with me pairing up with this guy. First come, first serve I guess."

Yumi tilted her head, "And who was it?"

"Odd Della Robbia," William shrugged, "He's a nice guy. I hope there's no hard feelings for us not being partners."

"No hard feelings," Yumi replied, a smile on her face, "I have some other friends, one of them can be my partner instead. You and Odd do your best on the assignment. Good luck!" She took off, heading over to the arches. Confusion quickly found its way to her face as she wondered how Odd would even get to know William. The boy had recently come to attend Kadic, and he really didn't make himself well-known to the school. What most people knew was that he got expelled from his other school putting up posters all around. Or at least, that's what the rumors said.

Mulling it over, she was snapped out of her thoughts with Ulrich's voice saying, "Yumi, you and I have to- Yumi!" The brunette sounded surprised at seeing her. She smiled lightly at him as he continued on, "There's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?" She asked.

Ulrich stared at her for a moment, before taking in a deep breath. He dragged his fingers through his hair, "I don't know how to say this but, but uh-"

"Hey you two!" Odd chirped, walking on over. William followed along, brightening at the sight of Yumi. Ulrich glared down his best friend, "Can't help but see that you two are partnering up, right?"

Yumi snapped her fingers, gazing at the chocolate eyed brunette, "Yeah! I wanted to ask if you wanted to work on the project with me."

"Sure! I-I'd like that." With a weak smile, Ulrich beamed at the geisha.

William grinned, "I bet your glad you got her as a partner before anyone else."

Ulrich gazed at the male raven, his smile diminishing to a frown in a heartbeat, "And who are you?"

Before Yumi could introduce him, Odd beat her too it, "This is William." He waved at the teen, "He's my partner for the field trip. And a good buddy of mine. We've been hanging around for awhile now, I'm surprised I didn't introduce you to him yet Ulrich."

"Yeah, this guy showed me around when I got here." William grinned, bringing Odd into a headlock. The blonde bubbled with laughter, fighting to escape his hold, "He's a great friend."

"Friends don't headlock each other," Odd humored, a playful smile on his face.

William stuck out his tongue, "And friends don't bombard their friends shirts in a rainbow of colors. You only gave me the option of a couple of shirts before they turn hot pink, white and sky blue!"

The cat-boy sniffed as he stretched his arms to mess with his bag. Kiwi shuffled around inside, making the boy quietly hiss, "Wait a little bit longer Kiwi, we'll be out in the forest and you can run around all you want," Escaping the raven's hold, Odd fled into the crowd, "Well you needed different colors anyways! You can't always get away with wearing red and grey!"

With an annoyed groan, William quickly ran off after him, "Yes I can, come back here! Odd!"

Yumi and Ulrich both blinked, "Well," She started, "That was weird." She then peered at the smaller brunette, "So, what did you want to tell me?"

Recoiling, the chocolate eyed samurai rubbed the back of his head, "Uh, I'll. . . tell you later." He lamely said, "Plus, we need to get going. Some students are already taking off. We need to be back by six anyways." With that, he sped-walked off after some of the groups of kids that left campus.

She sighed, "What is with him?"

After a few minutes of entering the forest, Yumi found herself sitting at a tree with Ulrich residing on the other side. He was messing around with his camera, obviously avoiding eye contact with her once she spoke up, "Messing around with your camera isn't saying what you needed to tell me."

"I-I know," He sighed, setting it on his lap. "I, don't really know how to put this." He took a deep breath, clapping his hands together as he finally made eye contact with the geisha, "Yumi, I. . ." He bit his lip, squeezing his eyes, "I like you Yumi, I really do."

"Like me?" A blush found its way to her cheeks as she stared down the brunette, "Like. . . like-like me?"

His cheeks a deep tomato red, Ulrich nodded, "Yes. . . I love you, Yumi. That's all I needed to say to you. But can I ask for you to tell me if you do?" He waved his hands, his already red cheeks darkening even further, "I'd respect it if you didn't respond right now. But, I wanted to tell you now. You needed to know."

Yumi found that she had no words to say, only left with a stutter, "Ulrich, I-I-"

RING! RING!

Ulrich's phone went off, interrupting her speechless sentence. The brunette let out a frustrated sigh, yanking his phone out of pocket to press the accept call button, "Jeremie?" Quickly, his lost his anger and hummed, "No problem. We'll go and get her," Then, with another pause he answered, "Actually, Odd isn't with me. Yumi is. I rather you call him yourself. See you in a minute." Ending the call, Ulrich pocketed his phone.

"XANA?"

With a frown, the brunette nodded, "We have to pick up Aelita. Odd will meet up with us whenever he can." He turned around, slinging the camera around his neck. Sighing, Yumi followed him away from their work area. She couldn't find a way to answer him, Jeremie's call was a lucky distraction. 'I have to tell him how I feel.' She thought, a frown on her face.

'But I just don't know how.'

"This is the right place," Ulrich muttered, "But she isn't here."

Skimming around, Yumi stared around at the different trails looking for traces of pink. Nothing stood out in the thick fauna, "Maybe she went off to a different path?"

Bark! A familiar cream colored mutt ran over, tail wagging as he panted at Ulrich. Kiwi stared up at the boy, plopping down on the dirt trail.

"Kiwi!" Odd's voice echoed, the blonde quickly running over to the duo. He grinned at them, swooping down to pick up his dog, "Hey guys! So, the trail's here?"

"That's what Jeremie told me," Ulrich groaned, "Odd, get your mutt away from me. I swear every time you take him out with you, he always misses me enough to want to jump me."

The blonde chuckled, "Hmm, maybe one day I'll leave him with you and see if he does that to me. I would love for my little diggity dog to pounce on me with love!" He laughed as Kiwi sniffed around a notebook, before pausing as the bull terrier trotted away to another part of the woods, "He has a scent! Let's follow him!" He chirped merrily.

"Should we really?" Yumi voiced.

Odd grinned, "He may be a bit dumb, but he does have a great nose!" Charging forward, the cat-boy went off to follow his pet. Ulrich went along as soon as he left and Yumi went after the duo after a moment of hesitation.

After a few minutes of walking off the trails, Odd's phone began to rang. He answered it and started to wave his hand in the air as he talked with Jeremie. Looks like it was obvious that the genius shouldn't have called the one person he didn't get along with. But then again, in the situation they were in he would call the last person he talked to.

Ulrich kept along close to the blonde, not to close to get hit by a hand though. Yumi quietly traveled behind the two, making sure to keep up so that she could see them but not close enough to be next to them. Once Odd reached a gate to a weird, old house, he started to quiet down, "Chill Jeremie, we're doing everything we can. She's probably alright right now, she might be a bit tired from all that walking you two must have done but still! She will be fine," He paused, rolling his eyes at whatever Jeremie said back to him, "Kiwi lead us to an old house in the woods. We're going to take a look inside. We'll call you back if we have any news." With that, he hung up.

Kiwi padded around Ulrich, carefully pawing his pant leg with a while, "Odd, make your dog cut it out."

Odd huffed, picking up the small bull terrier, "Calm down Kiwi. Ulrich's okay, see?" The cream colored pup let out a whine, squirming in the boy's hold, "Kiwi!" Chiding his mutt, the boy walked into the yard of the worn down house.

"Ulrich-" Yumi started, but the samurai took off after his best friend. With a huff, Yumi trailed along to the entrance of the home.

Odd allowed the door to open, setting Kiwi outside on the ground, "You stay here, okay? Be a good boy." He took off in, followed by his friends. As soon as Yumi stepped in, the door shut itself with a loud thud. All three of their gazes hit the door as Odd shucked his bag to the ground. He walked to the door, messing with the knob, "Door's locked."

"No signal." Ulrich added, grim expression as he pocketed his phone again.

Something whooshed along the ground, gaining Yumi's attention. A drawer slid across the ground at a high speed, alerting Yumi to yell, "Look out!" As she pushed Ulrich out of the way. Odd dove with her to the other side, dodging the harmful blow the furniture could have caused.

Ulrich pointed towards the duo, "That way." The fighters of Lyoko took off, wary of their own surroundings. It looked like they had walked into a trap of some sort, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"XANA." She sighed. As if anything else could possess a house and make it attack them.

"Yeah," Odd agreed, "And that means Aelita must be here somewhere." Something slid around in the room again, making all three teens shriek at the sight of sharp silverware heading their way. They ducked, the silverware embedding itself into the nearest wall.

Plates and cups chased them out of the kitchen. Odd immediately ducked before a lamp slid over his head, taking off down the stairs. It was like XANA wanted to lead them somewhere. With a frown, Yumi and Ulrich followed Odd down the nearest stairs to keep away from the possessed objects.

"Looks like XANA's trying to lead us somewhere." Yumi finally spoke her mind. Right as she said that, the trio made it down the stairs to spot a familiar shade of pink lying on the ground.

"Aelita!" All three called.

Ulrich was the first one to run to her, a worried look on his face, "Don't worry Princess," He murmured, placing her arm around his neck. Yumi followed along, grabbing the other arm and doing the same, "We're here."

"Ulrich!" Aelita panted, "It's a trap! XANA, he's going to-"

The only door to the room immediately tried to seal itself shut. Odd flung himself in the doorway, one leg raised to try to fight off the steel door. He growled, staring at the door, "Get Aelita out! I'm not going to be able keep this thing open for long!" Quickly complying, the pinkette crawled underneath the cat-boy's body. When Yumi attempted to follow along, the blonde let out a choked cry. The Japanese girl threw herself away as Odd did the opposite direction. The door slammed shut, and both Aelita and Odd tugged on one side while Ulrich and Yumi did the same, "You'll be cooked alive if we don't get you out of there!"

"Odd! Head to the factory with Aelita, deactivate the tower. It's our only hope." Ulrich commanded.

On the other side, Odd sounded winded, "Come on!" Their voices died away as they left, leaving the duo trapped in the room together. Yumi continued to work at the door, shrieking as she heard a loud boom from the other side. After listening for any more noises for a few more seconds, she sighed. Turning around, she saw Ulrich staring at a wall with a frown on his face.

"Yumi. . . I um. . ."

She shook her head, feeling heat rush to her cheeks, "Ulrich, I'm sorry. When you confessed to me and I didn't respond, I could tell it lead you to think about what could happen. I could say yes, I could say no. But I didn't give you an answer."

Finally gazing at her, Ulrich's face was colored a cherry red, "Yeah. Hearing your response would have been better." Then he paused, ". . .You're still not going to answer me, are you?" Caught off guard, the geisha snapped her mouth shut, "Yeah, I figured." Turning away from her, the conversation had apparently ended. The temperature continued to rise in the silent room, forcing Ulrich to shed his jacket and shirt. Minutes later, Yumi began to tug at her own sweater, "Go ahead, I won't look." He finally spoke up again, chocolate eyes meeting charcoal.

Yumi turned her back to him, taking off her sweater. She allowed it to slip on the floor as she leaned her back to Ulrich's, letting out a sigh of relief. The heat would only get worse until the tower was deactivated. She had faith in Odd, but they could only wait for so long before they pass out from heat exhaustion. Hearing the dial from far off, she swallowed whatever spit she had left. It was too hot, way too hot for them to survive for much longer. "Y-Yumi. . ." Ulrich whispered, voice raspy, "What is. . . what are we. . .?"

"We. . ." She shook her head, fists clenching. She couldn't wave it off any longer. He needed to know, she couldn't deny him that and make him wait, "I love you, Ulrich." In the corner of her eye, she saw him fall to the ground limply. She swallowed, praying that he heard her words. Her body tipped over just like his in what felt like a life time, but she managed to catch herself with one hand. She struggled to stay up, but her body protested and screamed at her until she finally had given up and let herself hit the heated ground.

What felt like a soft touch of cool air touched her, wrapping around her like a protective shield. She cracked her eyes open one last time to get a glimpse of what was trying to lower the temperature, and all she saw was a beautiful light of white before her vision disappeared completely with a comforting feeling that everything would be okay.

Finding herself sitting at the same tree from earlier, Yumi looked up into the cloudless sky. The sun was shining brightly, hidden behind the many branches of leaves. "Yumi?" Ulrich addressed, his voice quiet, ". . .did you mean what you said?"

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relief flooding through her. He did hear her, "Yes Ulrich," She locked gazes with familiar chocolate brown eyes, "I do."

A smile made its way onto his face, "Yumi," He took a deep breath, "Would you like to go out with me?"

With a grin on her face, she nodded, "Of course Ulrich, I'd love to go out with you."