A\N: Thank you to everyone who has commented and favorited this story...or just those of you who are reading. I love you all! *blows kisses* Pkease enjoy the next chapter.
William avoided Yumi's gaze, sure that it was going to be full of anger after that stunt with his sword. Instead he glanced out at the landscape and walked toward the edge to check whether or not the coast was clear. Before he even got close to the edge he saw them; two Krabes strolling toward the rock formation that they were standing on. Great. He backed away from the edge trying to get out of view, but he knew that the attempt was in vain. The big crustaceans already knew where he and Yumi were at.
"We need to take cover," he said. He heard a noise behind him and he turned to glance at the source of the sound only to see Yumi ride behind him already on the Overwing.
"Okay, here we go." Before William could say anything else, Yumi sped off in her vehicle toward the edge of the cliff. William couldn't help but smirk when he realized what she was going to do. He took off running toward the edge of the cliff and before he could stop himself, he launched himself from the edge just as Yumi was passing by. Her arm was outstretched and caught his own outstretched hand in hers, pulling him up behind her. William was thoroughly impressed with her strength. Though he knew he could have used supersmoke, he took the ride on the Overwing instead. It was the first time he had ridden alongside her on Lyoko and, despite the conflicted thoughts in his head, it felt….nice.
Of course, the feeling was only momentary when laser blasts came from behind them. William cast a quick glance backward and saw that the Krabes had already gotten to the top of the cliff and had shot a few more blasts at them. Yumi dodged the blasts, though it couldn't have been very difficult, William mused. They were terrible shots anyway. William looked forward and saw a clump of flats rocks. He was about to open his mouth to point them out to Yumi only to realize that she was already ahead of him. She piloted the Overwing down behind them. Immediately both of them jumped off the vehicle and ducked behind one of the flat rocks nearest to them. He heard the blasts from the Krabes hitting the rocks that they were using as shields.
Yumi was the first one to try to sneak a peek at what was going on. She popped her head over the small rock to look. William followed suit, wanting to know what exactly they were up against. He saw that the Krabes had walked down off the side of the cliff and were moving toward them.
"No. They won't leave us alone!"
William heard the frustration in her voice. She wanted to get to the tower just as much – if not more than – he did. Ulrich was in danger so he was pretty sure that was weighing on her mind judging by the recent talk that the two of them had with one another. William didn't know what it contained but he did know that they had been better friends than ever before afterward. A twinge of jealousy shot through him but he ignored it.
"We just need to be smarter than them." It sounded so simple and really, it was. Though smarter than Kankrelots, Krabes still weren't all that bright. None of XANA's monsters really were. An idea began to form in his head and he ducked back down behind the rock. Seconds later, Yumi did as well. He was about to relay his idea to her when the two of them heard Jeremie speaking. It didn't take long to realize he was talking to Odd.
"Odd?...What?!"
Well, that doesn't sound good, William thought. He cast a quick glance at Yumi and assumed she was thinking the same thing. Quickly he turned away and moved to glance around the rock. The Krabes were closing in on them.
"William, Yumi. Odd's plan didn't work out. You need to quickly deactivate the tower."
What a surprise. He moved back behind the rock and looked at Yumi. Hadn't he already said it? That Odd's plan was dumb? "It was obvious that his plan was lame."
It was as if Yumi wasn't listening to him. Yet another surprise. No one seemed to listen to him really. Of course maybe she was just ignoring the fact that he was being rude in his moody-ness.
"We should try to set a trap for them." Yumi said without a response to William's last statement. It was probably for the best. It was neither the time for that nor was it a nice thing to say. His bad mood was really letting his rudeness shine through; and that was definitely not something that he wanted or needed.
"Okay. Since I'm faster, I'll lure them and you will strike them in the back." William said. They were just about on the same wavelength. It had been his plan and he was glad that she was thinking in about the same terms as he was.
"Faster? Are you joking?" he heard Yumi ask. He didn't give her a response. Was she going to argue that point when it was definitely true? In supersmoke form, he could easily catch up and pass her while she ran on foot. Heck, he could even catch up to and pass her while she was riding the Overwing. Why was she going to try to argue that point? Was it because he came up with the plan and not her?
He didn't wait for her to object and instead turned to smoke and snaked out from behind the rocks. The Krabes saw him and, just as he'd hoped, they followed him. He was the first moving enemy they saw so they both followed. Stupid monsters. He figured XANA would have programmed some intelligence into them after all that time. Luckily though he hadn't. This would be a piece of cake. Seconds later, he heard them explode and immediately he came up out of his supersmoke form just in time to see Yumi catch her fans.
"I hit the bull's eye!" she exclaimed, though William was unsure as to why she sounded excited. She was deadly with those fans. "And you didn't want to team up…"
Ouch. For some reason that phrase hurt more than it should have. In fact, he doubted that Yumi even meant to say it in any tone other than a joking one. But the truth of the matter was that he did not want to team up with her – or anyone – this time around. But he let the feeling pass as he walked up to her, allowing his sword to disappear around him in a cloud of smoke.
"Okay, now let's run to the tower."
He saw Yumi jump up on her Overwing as he transformed once again into smoke. He was right, he realized as the two of them moved through the open plain of the desert. He could overtake the Overwing if he wanted to, but Yumi's vehicle was still going at a nice speed. The tower loomed in front of them. As long as no other monsters showed their faces, Yumi would be able to deactivate that tower in no time.
Jeremie must have been on the phone again, William realized after a few seconds of hearing him talking, sounding as though he were in the distance. Odd must have been on the phone.
"Relax Odd. Things are getting better. Yumi and William are almost there." Pause. "Come on."
He was speaking kindly to the boy on the other line. Was Odd upset because he couldn't protect Ulrich and Aeltia? He was pretty aggravated when he lured them into the gym and tried to capture them with the net. Odd had pointed out how easily they had been caught and that had frustrated William to no avail. Was that another shot at being captured by the Schyphozoa? William couldn't take it – a "rookie mistake" as it had been called – and he was sick of that being brought up, intentionally or unintentionally. The phrase had brought up painful memories that he would rather erase. So instead of dealing with Odd, he just stormed out of the gym leaving all of them to deal with Odd.
Beside him, he noticed Yumi slow and stop the Overwing. William didn't understand why at first but likewise did the same. She stared off toward the tower but William was completely confused. He hadn't noticed another monster.
"Why are we stopping this time?" he asked. She only pointed toward the tower and, slightly annoyed, he followed her gaze and glanced at the tower. That's when he saw him.
"Jeremie, there's something strange happening here." he heard Yumi say beside him but he couldn't take his eyes off the sight in front of him.
Literally, he saw himself standing there in front of the tower. There were slight differences, of course to the clone standing in front of him. The normally orange parts of William's jumpsuit were reflected in a green color and the clone's skin was much lighter than his own. Then, of course, there was the large symbol of XANA on his forehead visible even as far back as he and Yumi were standing. What sort of sick, twisted joke was this?
"It's crazy," Yumi said beside him. "There's another William."
He couldn't take his eyes away from the sight in front of him. It was a mix of both shock and anger. Was he really seeing this and, if he was, how could this be?
"William?" Yumi's voice was growing distant as the clone made eye contact with William. "William!" she shouted but still he didn't move.
"Eh, what do you mean?" Einstein's voice echoed across the desert plains but it received no answer from either himself or from Yumi.
"Welcome home, William."
The voice – his own. The one that said those awful things to him while being held prisoner; that voice that became his own once he was freed. It was so wrong. He could see a sinister smile play on the clone's face but all William could do was stare at him, his mouth dangling open. That voice…no. This couldn't be happening.
Instead of responding William noticed Yumi walk toward the clone William. He wanted to tell her to stay back; to stop but he just couldn't do it. Something kept his mouth closed. He did see her staff virtualize in her hand and, as soon as it had, she clasped it and ran toward the clone. William saw her take a swing at the clone and saw the clone merely sidestep her attack. He couldn't help but wince as the clone William balled up his fist and cold-cocked her right in the face. The impact was strong enough to send her flying away from him and sending her staff in the opposite direction. It had to have hurt because she didn't get up right away. The clone walked up toward her and paused a moment to look down at her with disdain before focusing his attention on William.
"Be careful Yumi. You lost half of your life points."
Yes, that punch was pretty strong. It had to have been to make her lose so many life points. But still William did not move toward her and instead only watched as the clone approached him.
"I'm fine," he heard Yumi say in reply, but he could no longer see her. The clone blocked her out.
"No that's not fine. You're the only one able to deactivate the tower." Jeremie scolded back at her.
William stopped listening. If anything else was said in the exchange between Yumi and Jeremie, he didn't hear it. The William clone moved closer and closer to him, a smirk on his face. William was uneasy but didn't move. The voice.
"I'm glad you and your friend came here," the other William said as he circled behind the still motionless William. William moved his eyes to watch the clone but otherwise didn't move. "Now I can have some fun, I needed it. I was getting bored."
Fun. This was going to be a game? Alright, I can play this game, he thought to himself. Though he could play he didn't want to. Coming to Lyoko had been a mistake. XANA's fun was not going to be pretty nor fun for anyone else involved. But he said nothing. Why? He had no idea. Perhaps it was a by-product of his possession. William learned quickly under XANA's control to keep his mouth shut and try to ignore him. It never worked, of course. The psychological warfare he endured when he kept his mouth shut was just as bad as when he spoke out against the demonic A.I. Why would this time be any different?
"Tell me, William, why didn't you defend your friend?"
The answer there wasn't clear. Why didn't he go to Yumi's aid when he had the chance? Because of XANA's influence over his life for all those long months? The few times he had broken out of XANA's control to try to help her had resulted in waves of verbal abuse. At first he could resist it, but as time went on he came closer and closer to the breaking point – the point in which he no longer resisted and lost.
"Yet I sense you have some feelings for this girl."
You know damn well that I do, William thought bitterly to himself. XANA knew it and exploited that weakness time and time again. Yumi passed beside the clone and William cast a quick glance as she walked behind him and stopped there. He could see her glaring at the clone, holding her arm. Had she gotten hurt?
"You didn't defend her because you feel betrayed."
Well, part of it was true. He did feel betrayed. It was the reason for his actions in the past couple of hours. The group had betrayed him – and thinking back to it he realized that Yumi had most of all. She was against him from joining the Lyoko Warriors to begin with and even threatened him about screwing up. She had taken the longest to convince that he was a good guy again when he was clearly no longer under XANA's influence and it seemed that only just recently she could carry on a conversation with him without disdain showing on her face. Whether or not she still felt that had yet to be determined.
"Deceived. Manipulated. And you know I'm right."
The clone began walking at him again, his words taking a second to sink in. The voice was creeping into his thoughts. Part of his brain was screaming at him not to listen, but this voice was drowning it out. He was right. They were only using him. William closed his eyes as if by doing so it would drown out the conflicting thoughts in his mind. It didn't seem to work.
"You're the one left behind."
Truth. How many times had he been left, not told of an attack? William opened his eyes and moved them to watch the clone walk behind him but otherwise did not move. That statement rang so much truth into his mind. It seemed as though they only let him come along when necessary. He never got to go on "special missions" of just him and someone else unless it was absolutely necessary. The current mission proved that.
"The nice guy, useful for fights…"
He squeezed his eyes shut. Yes.
"…But who gets rejected or ignored when he's no longer needed."
Everything he had been fighting to hold back came rushing into his mind with those words. It was everything he was experiencing summed up in one sentence. He didn't belong in the group; they didn't want him there. They didn't care about him unless they needed something from him. They weren't his friends. How wrong he had been to ever think otherwise. The clone was behind him, whispering those thoughts into his head. But how could he know that? How could he understand the pain that William continued to endure?
