He entered the wreck room. Yumi was sitting on the couch, flipping through old magazines. She looked up and smiled as Ulrich sat down across from her on the other couch.

"What took you guys so long?" she asked him. Ulrich sighed.

"Well, Odd tripped and fell, and we had to wait for a while until his leg felt better to walk," Ulrich lied. He could feel his cheeks burn. Yumi raised an eyebrow.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not!"

"You're cheeks burn up when you do. What were you guys doing?"

"Talking…."

"About?"

"…About relationships…."

Yumi stared at him, and then at the floor. There was an unpleasant silence that lingered between them. Ulrich looked at the old magazines on the coffee table. They were issues from last month.

"Look," he said, looking straight into her eyes, "I don't want you to feel awkward around me, okay?" This made Yumi look up at him. "I'm…I'm going to keep to what you said to me about…being friends. I just want you to know, that I respect your decision. And, if you change your mind…." He was hoping she didn't catch the last part.

Yumi smiled and looked down. She was trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"Thank you, Ulrich," she said, looking up. "That's nice of you to say."

He smiled back at her, and the smiling conversation began. But their smiles faded for it was rudely interrupted as Sissy stopped by them.

Second time today, Ulrich thought. What the hell does she want?!

"You forgot to give me the keys back, Yumi," Sissy said. Annoyance rang through her tone of voice.

"Oh, sorry," Yumi said. She reached in her pocket, and pulled them out. Sissy snatched them from Yumi's hands. She then looked at Ulrich with a smile.

"Can I get you a drink, Ulrich?" Sissy asked.

"Actually, Sissy, I already got him one," Yumi interrupted. Ulrich just noticed the two soda cans resting on the couch next to her. She grabbed one, and threw it to him. He caught it. Sissy grunted and stomped away. The two of them opened their soda cans at the same time. Ulrich quickly slurped it, before it overflowed. Yumi giggled and he looked at her with a small grin.

"I think we should have our match."

"What?" Ulrich asked, almost choking on his soda. "B-but the gym is closed."

"We use to fight in the park, remember?" Yumi asked, and then took a sip of her drink.

"How could I forget?" Ulrich closed his eyes with a smile.

"Why don't we warm up? See if we still remember our old moves."

The one match he remembered was the second time he had ever had a match with Yumi. He closed his eyes with a smile. She caught his foot, making him hop backwards; he leaned over, grabbed her by her shoulders, and flipped her over his head. They began to roll, until he landed on top of her. The two of them stopped struggling when they realized that both of them were blushing. He remembered rolling off of her and laying down next to her for a while in silence. He opened his eyes and saw Yumi taking another sip at her soda.

"That sounds good—" Ulrich began, but Yumi's phone rang.

"Hold on," she said. He nodded. While she answered her phone, Ulrich put down his soda and held his head in his hands. He closed his eyes, trying to block off the headache that approached him. He could see Yumi lying on the ground, bleeding everywhere; her eyes were wide open. The image shifted to him running away from her, for he could not bear to see her dead. He was scared. He tried to block out the thought, but he couldn't. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the couch in the wreck room. Yumi was sitting next to him; his head was on her lap. He sat quickly. He glanced left with his eyes, and saw her looking at him.

"W-what happened?" he asked quietly.

"You…you just fell on the couch clutching your head," Yumi replied in a soft tone. "No one noticed." He looked at her fully, telling her with his eyes to talk in a quiet tone.

"Was I out for long?"

"About two minutes. Is everything alright?"

"I just had a headache…." He looked away from her as he spoke, "It's nothing, really." He didn't feel his cheeks burn, which was a good sign. "So, who called?"
"My mom. She was telling me that her and my dad are going out to dinner tonight with my dad's boss, and I have to watch Hiroki tonight."

"It shouldn't be bad watching him." Ulrich placed his hands on his head again. It felt like he just got hit the head with a bat. He managed to hold his scream back; he had swallowed it down. His throat burned, like he just swallowed something on fire.

"YUMI!" he screamed. "YUMI! NO!" He ran over to her, and knelt next to her. He checked if she was breathing, and there was little breath passing through her lips. He held her, and cried into her neck. He felt her soft hair against his cheek, and it made his skin crawl with agony. He pressed his forehead to hers and whispered, "Please wake up." He couldn't bear her blood dripping onto his hands. "Please…."

But he was brought back to Earth as he felt Yumi's hand touch his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at her. He wanted to cry. He wanted to tell her everything, but he didn't. He kept a straight face.

"Y-Yumi, can we practice tomorrow, or something? I'm not feeling—" But his world seemed to stop spinning. He felt dizzy.

"Ulrich, do you want to go to the infirmary?" Yumi asked quietly.

"No, no," he said, shaking his head, "I'm good, I'm good." He took his soda that was sitting on the coffee table, and took a sip of it. When he looked at his best friend again, she looked very concerned. "I've just been having bad headaches." He smiled at her for reassurance. She gave him a weak grin back.

"Um, yeah, we can practice, or have our match tomorrow if the ceiling is fixed."

"I'm so sorry, Yumi. I'm just not feeling too—"

"Ulrich, it's fine." She patted him on the shoulder. "Besides, it's going to rain any minute now."

"Then do you want to go for a walk—?" But Ulrich was cut off as his phone rang. He answered it, "Hello?"

"Ulrich, it's Aelita," Aelita said.

"Oh hey, Aelita, what's up? Any news on the tower that was activated earlier?"

"No, but Jeremie and I found out something worse. Odd just called us, and told us to put on the news. You better go put it on, now!"

Ulrich and Yumi ran over to the TV. No one was watching it, so they flipped on the news. Ulrich kept Aelita on the phone.

"Breaking news," said the newscaster, "a student at Kadic Academy was sent to the hospital after found in the woods just moments ago. Michelle has the full story. Michelle." The view switched over to the female newscaster who was standing outside of the hospital.

"Thanks, Ted," Michelle said. "Just moments ago, a student was found in the woods after a friend of hers heard someone screaming." The view switched over to a student that Ulrich and Yumi recognized. Theo Gauthier.

"I just heard someone scream in the woods while I was playing soccer," he said. "It didn't sound like a scream of fun, more like a scream of terror. So I rushed into the woods, and saw Naomi lying on the ground crying and hurt. She kept screaming, 'Get away!' and 'I hate snakes!' And that's what I really got out of her before she calmed down. But, I didn't see what happened."

The screen switched over to Michelle.

"We'll have more on that story later. Back to you, Ted."

Yumi switched off the TV.

"Something's not right," Aelita said.

"Alright, Yumi and I will go check out the spot, and see if something is up," Ulrich said.

"Be careful. If you have any problems, head straight for the factory."

"We will."

Ulrich hung up. Back to the factory again! He nodded to the door, and him and Yumi left.

"Naomi," Yumi said as they reached the edge of the wood, "was scared of snakes. I remember she saw a snake outside once, jumped on the bench and screamed how much she hated them." They began to step foot into the forest.

"Maybe a snake bit her—"

"No, it couldn't have been. She would've gone to the infirmary first. That's what happened when the glass shattered in my hand."

"I know, I was there," Ulrich said.

"Did I every thank you—?"

"Yeah, you did."

"I'm pretty sure that Naomi wasn't too far in the woods."

"That girl does have a loud scream, though. You could hear it from miles."

"You're right about that."

They walked in silence. The only time they spoke was when Yumi tripped over and root and Ulrich helped her up. They stopped when they reached the sight where Naomi was found. There were investigators and police walking around it, inspecting.

"Hey!" yelled a policed officer. Ulrich and Yumi froze as the husky officer walked over to them. The officer's walrus mustache was frightening, along with his meatball-like nose. "You two shouldn't be walking around here. Get moving!"

Ulrich grabbed Yumi's arm, and pulled her away from the sight. They stopped when they were far away.

"We can't look around if they're there!" Yumi yelled.

"Shh!" Ulrich hushed. "Don't yell or they'll hear you."

"Ulrich, we're far away—"

"You never know. Look, once they're gone, we'll just—"

But Ulrich stopped talking. His head was beginning to throb, but it wasn't as bad as it was in the wreck room. He heard twigs snapping. Did someone follow them? Yumi was about to saying something but fell silent when she heard more twigs snap. "Come on," Ulrich said quietly. He grabbed Yumi's arm again, and lead her farther into the woods. Whenever they stopped, the heard leafs and twigs snap. It had Ulrich's heart race.

"Ulrich," Yumi said, ducking from a low hanging branch, "I think someone is following us."

"We have to keep moving, Yumi."

Both of them screamed and jumped when Yumi's phone rang.

"Hello?" she asked. "Odd? Where are we? Well…we're in the woods. You?" The two of them began to pick up their pace. Ulrich took a sharp turn. They were heading for the house that Aelita once lived in. "Did you see or hear anything?" Ulrich pointed to a root, telling Yumi not to trip over it. She carefully stepped over it. "Alright, tell Jeremie and Aelita that—" It began to rain. Ulrich and Yumi began to jog. "Tell them that we're going to be at the house for a while…Alright, bye, Odd." Yumi hung up, and stuff her phone in her pocket. Ulrich opened the door to the house, and Yumi ran inside. He closed it behind him. They went in the living room and sat on the couches. "Odd said he got nothing, but he thought that he saw something suspicious."

"Like what?" Ulrich asked. He tried to hide his pained expression; Yumi didn't notice.

"He thought he saw a tall figure that looked strong and scary. But he said it was gone in an instant as soon as he looked at it."

"Tall, strong, and scary?"

"He said it sort of looked like a creature you'd find in a mythical forest," Yumi said as she rolled her eyes. The rain was coming down hard. Ulrich and Yumi sighed.

"We'll take the passage that's here to the factory as soon as this rain slows down."

"Ulrich, something was following us."

"I know, I know. Or maybe…it was just our imagination?"

"No, it couldn't have been."

Ulrich took out his phone and dialed Jeremie's number. When Jeremie picked up, Ulrich said, "Is there an activated tower?"

"No, not at all. Listen, I think it was just a regular attack," Jeremie said. "It could've been a wolf—"

"Jeremie, it was a snake. Naomi was screaming that it was snake that attacked her!"

"Then that must've been one large snake for her to end up in the hospital. Maybe she saw a snake, got scared and ran into a wolf."

"That's a lame story."

"Ulrich, I highly doubt it's X.A.N.A…."

"And if it was?"

"Then…then X.A.N.A. is doing a good job of not telling us that there's an activated tower."

"Odd said—"

"I know what Odd said about what he saw. He called me earlier. Aelita is waiting for him near the elevator."

"Did Odd say what happen to the gym ceiling?"

"Besides the fact that a small part of it collapsed? No, nothing."

"Oh, okay. Then that rules our X.A.N.A. causing it. Yumi and I will be over soon."

"Good, because Odd says it's chaos with the police walking around questioning students."

"Yeah, we ran into them. And we ran to the house, but it seemed like someone was following us."

"Are you—?"

"Both Yumi and I heard something."

"You guys must've been scared and were imagining it."

"That's what I said."

"If you freak out about it, you get the feeling. Just like if you're afraid of getting lice, and think about it constant, then your head will itch, but no lice."

"You're probably right. We'll see you later."

"Okay, be careful."

Ulrich hung up and stuck his phone back in his pocket.

"Well?" Yumi asked.

"Jeremie said that it was our imagination too."

"What about Odd's mystery man?"

"That thing disappeared in a second. Odd was probably imagining things, too."

Ulrich looked around; he was trying to avoid Yumi's eyes.

"So, did Jeremie say what he thought about the attack?" Yumi asked, looking at her shoes.

"He said that she got scared by a snake, and ran into a wolf or some kind of wild dog. But I highly doubt it. Wolves wouldn't live in that kind of area, and I don't think it was a dog, unless Kiwi attacked her."

The two of them were still trying to catch their breaths. It was the only sound in the room besides the rain hitting the roof. Ulrich was relieved when he heard the rain calm down after ten minutes. "I-I think we can go now." They stood up, and Yumi gave him a curious look. "What?"

"Did you grow taller?" she asked.

"Sorry?"

"I think you did." She walked up to him. He just noticed that he did get taller. He was shorter than Yumi, but now, he was practically the same height as her. Her shoes may have been giving her elevation. "Maybe you'll be able to win in our matches now."

"Hey!" Ulrich said as his cheeks began to flush; Yumi walked down the hall to the back. The two of them went out the back door, and headed for the other door that led to the sewers. But when Yumi tried the door, it was locked.

"Who would lock this?" she asked, wriggling the door handle. "No one goes here besides us."

"I don't know." Ulrich kicked the door, but it didn't open.

"Ulrich, maybe we should go the other way."

"I—" kick "—just have to—" kick "—open—"

"Ulrich—"

"—this door!" Ulrich gave another mighty kick, and the door flew open. "And you wanted to go the other way." Yumi rolled her eyes, rushed past him, and he followed, closing the door behind him. They ran through the sewers and made it to the ladder that led to the bridge. Yumi went up first and Ulrich followed. He pulled the lid over the hole, and ran after her. They slid down the rope, and then got into the elevator. Ulrich slammed the down button. The elevator gave a jerk, and they began to go down. Once they reached the computer room, the doors opened, bringing forth a gust of cool air. Odd and Aelita looked up and smiled as Ulrich and Yumi walked in.

"Long time no see," Odd said.

"At the factory twice in one day, under an hour? Major déjà vu," Ulrich said, sitting against the wall. He felt very tired and had a major headache again.

"Well, I was going to say that you guys could've gone back to the dorms and wait there, but if X.A.N.A. pulls a stunt—again—then we'll be ready…again," Jeremie said, typing away on his keyboard. "Plus, it's a nasty storm out there."

"Hey, did any of you guys lock the door to the sewers at the house?" Yumi asked. Aelita looked up from her laptop.

"It was locked?" she asked.

"Yeah, Ulrich had to kick it open."

Odd had brought Kiwi with him and was throwing a rubber ball to his dog. Odd threw the ball, and it whizzed past Jeremie's head. Jeremie looked annoyed.

"Odd, if you don't mind, can you play with your dog some other time?" he asked.

"But Kiwi has been cooped up all day in the dorm! He needs to run around!" Odd said. Jeremie rolled his eyes, but didn't retort back.

"Anyway," he said, "the Skid's shields are going to take a while, along with the other adjustments. We managed to destroy Forest Replica, but we have four more to go. But these Replica's Supercomputers are going to be a lot harder to destroy."

"That's great, Jeremie," Odd said. "But doesn't that mean that X.A.N.A. is getting weaker?"

"And stronger."

"What?" Yumi said. She sat down next to Ulrich. He was about to dose off, but he shook his head to keep awake.

"We're getting closer—not by much—to defeating X.A.N.A.. But, the more Replicas we destroy, the harder he's going to get. Sort of like levels on a video game," Jeremie explained. "We're going to have to do these missions at night; it's too risky during the day. The teacher's are keeping a closer eye on us."

"Plus, we have to keep an eye on William. He already got into enough trouble with Jim when he sent his cup flying across the lunch room," Aelita said.

"But we did a return to the past," Odd said.

"I know, but we can't let him do stupid stuff."

Ulrich's eyes began to droop. He was very tired. He felt his muscles tightening. He just wanted to sleep, not suffer pain right now. But it was as if his tight muscles were urging him to stay awake.

"I'll be late for the mission tomorrow, then," Yumi said.

"Why?" Jeremie asked.

"My parents and Hiroki are going to be packing for their trip to Japan, and I have to be home to help. I volunteered myself to stay home to watch the house, and I also have a lot of school work to do. They're going to be going away in two days. I'll be late tomorrow, and then when they leave the day after that, I'll be ready to go."

Ulrich's stomach churned. As much as he hated admitting it, he wished that Yumi was going to Japan with her family. Ulrich closed his eyes. Images flashed through his mind. They weren't terrible at all. It was—

"So, it's settled then. We'll set off at nights," Aelita said. Ulrich opened his eyes and Aelita winked at him. He smiled and eyed Yumi. She eyed him back and she smiled. He just noticed that she was wearing the necklace he gave her for her birthday. But when he looked back at Aelita, she had a serious face on.

"Scan?" he mouthed. She shook her head.

"Got nothing," she mouthed back. It was good and bad news: It wasn't X.A.N.A., so then what's going on with his head? It didn't make sense. He didn't want to say that he was going crazy…not just yet anyway. Odd continued to play with Kiwi while Jeremie and Aelita worked on Lyoko. Yumi didn't move from her spot next to Ulrich. He bowed his head and then quickly brought it back up; he didn't want to dose off.

"Ulrich, did you sleep last night?" Yumi asked him quietly. Jeremie had on the news, and Ulrich couldn't hear her.

"What?" he asked.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Yumi asked again. He didn't want to tell the truth nor lie to her. She would catch him lying, anyway. It was best to tell the truth.

"No," he said quietly.

"Yeah, neither did I," she said.

"How come?"

"Hiroki was staying up late doing his project, and he was being loud. What about you?"

"I…I just can't sleep anymore."

"You look terrible."

"Thanks."

"Well, you don't. Why don't you take a nap, and I'll wake you up if anything happens."

"But—"

"Go ahead."

Ulrich didn't say anything. He closed his eyes. His muscles relaxed and his bones didn't feel like they were frozen. His heart wasn't beating rapidly. His head felt fine. In a matter of minutes he was out. His body didn't cramp up. There was no sweat running down his face. He slept like a baby. Ulrich didn't even have any dreams while he slept. His aching eyes finally started to feel better. But why? Why could he sleep now? He didn't understand what was going on.

When he woke up, he looked over, and saw that Yumi had her head rest on his shoulder. She was also holding one of his hands. He looked around and saw that Odd was sleeping as well with Kiwi in his lap, who was sleeping too. Aelita and Jeremie weren't there. On Jeremie's computer screen, there was a note with giant letters written in marker saying:

Guys, Aelita and I went to the snack bar to grab some food. Stay in the room, we'll be back with some food soon.

Jeremie

Ulrich looked at Yumi. He didn't want to move and wake her up. She looked too angelic to wake up. Did she hold his hand on purpose, or did she end up like that? He gasped quietly. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let his feelings for her overcome him. It would ruin everything. He slowly got up; luckily, he didn't wake Yumi up. He took off his jacket, and gently placed Yumi's head on it. She stirred a little, but didn't wake up. Ulrich sat in Jeremie's comfy chair. He couldn't look at Yumi. He didn't want to get the giddy feeling her always gets when he sees her.

The elevator doors opened, and Aelita and Jeremie came waltzing in. They were quiet as they saw that Odd and Yumi were still sleeping.

"How was your nap?" Aelita asked quietly.

"Good," Ulrich answered.

"Where's your jacket?" Jeremie asked. Ulrich pointed over to Yumi. "Oh, I see."

"Is it still raining out?"

"It slowed down, but it's still pretty nasty out." Jeremie handed out a candy bar to Ulrich. He was about to say no, but he caught Aelita's eye. She was glaring at him. He knew that she would hurt him if he didn't eat. Ulrich took the candy bar and opened it. He took a bite of it. He always enjoyed chocolate. He didn't even notice the weird feeling in his stomach when the chocolate hit it. Yumi loved chocolate, too. One time, when Ulrich stopped by Yumi's house to get her, she let him come in for a second. She had just taken some chocolate out of the fridge. They both liked chocolate cold. She gave him a piece, and it was the best piece of chocolate he ever had.

"Hey," Odd said. Ulrich jumped. He didn't even notice that Odd got up. "I smell food."

"Someone get Yumi up," Aelita said. "We don't want her to miss out."

Ulrich got out of the chair, and walked over to her. She shook her shoulder gently.

"Yumi," he said. She opened her eyes slowly. He broke off a piece of chocolate and held it in front of her face. "Wanna piece of chocolate?" Yumi smiled.

"Sure," she said. She sat up and took the piece of chocolate from him. "Thanks." As she took a bite of her chocolate, she looked at Ulrich's jacket. "Is that—?"

"Yeah, that's mine," he said as he took his jacket back. He put it back on.

"Ah," Jeremie said, "the scan is done. Just in time."

"What scan?" Ulrich said. He looked at Aelita who looked nervous.

"The Deep Scan. X.A.N.A. messed up the system, but there wasn't an activated tower." Jeremie started to check the status. Ulrich hoped that there was something…then again, if it was X.A.N.A., then they would be in trouble. "He's really messed up the system! There's no tower activated!"

"He found a way around it," Aelita said. "If the system is bugged, then X.A.N.A. has gotten more powerful. But, does it affect the Skid?"

"Where is he getting all this power from?" Odd asked.

"I don't know, but this is what I was afraid of," Jeremie said.

"Jeremie, why don't we all turn in for the night and work on it tomorrow, okay?" Aelita said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's getting late and we don't want to get in trouble with Jim. And Yumi has to get home to watch Hiroki."

"You're right. Let's go."

All of them piled into the elevator. The got out of the factory, and were now walking on the bridge.

"Ulrich," Aelita said, "why don't you walk Yumi home? I have a bad feeling of her walking by herself. With X.A.N.A. fooling around and everything, it's not best to be alone. You'll make it back to school in time."

"Is that alright with you, Yumi?" Ulrich asked.
"Fine with me," she said.

I don't feel like reading over this. PLEASE PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE REVIEW! I would like this story to go BIG! If you have friends who like Code Lyoko, ASK THEM TO READ IT! because I'm working really hard on this story. PLEASE REVIEW!

DivineRose2392

The Code Lyoko game for the Wii is so much fun XD