A/N: All rights reserved to the respectful owners of Code Lyoko [and all its variations] and Iron Man Armored Adventures. This fanfic is cross-posted on Wattpad under the same title but different author: Echo_Nitemare ~ she is my co-author so go vote, comment, and like her stories if that is something you do.

Unfair Circumstances

Chapter 7: Ultimatium

~Lyoko~

As Ulrich dropped onto the floor of the tower, picked himself up, and walked out of it, he landed face-first on the rocky floor of the sector. A smaller rock must've gotten in his way causing him to trip while already on uneasy feet. The mountain sector looked even deader than usual. As if that was possible. Ulrich walked around a bit more, trying to see if there were any towers nearby. He hoped he wouldn't have to go across the sector. Too much of it was climbing higher and higher in the air, only to jump onto ledges barely big enough to land on.

A scraping sound could be heard from nearby. Metal dragging on metal dragging on rock. Ulrich turned around wide-eyed, looking for the source. When he couldn't spot anything, he thought it would be best to just start running. He could hear Jeremy in his ear, mumbling away about the code he was trying to crack, so he'd rather not interrupt the genius.

"Uh-Oh… If only Odd or Yumi was here with me. Then I'd be able to easily deal with that stupid thing." Ulrich remarked under his breath. He was staring down a Krab, completely made of metal. Meaning his only shot of taking it out was to get up close and personal with it. The only problem with that though is that the metal Krabs seemed to fire at a rate double that of the normal ones and with three lasers instead of one.

If Yumi were there with Ulrich, she'd be able to merely pick up the Krab and throw him off the edge - granted it didn't fire at her. If Odd were there - which in all honesty Ulrich wished more than anything - he'd at least be able to use his newest power that Jeremy had programmed in. It let him slow down time if he could concentrate enough, which would then allow Ulrich to get under the Krab and either kick it over the edge or stab it through its XANA symbol.

"Ulrich, hurry up! The tower is due East for about a hundred more yards. That Krab is on your left, so Just run!" Ulrich heard Jeremy yelling at him. With a roll of his eyes, Ulrich gave the Krab a halfhearted wave and super sprinted his way toward the tower. He wondered how he hadn't seen it before, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

It looked like XANA had only sent the one Krab, so Ulrich made a B-Line into the tower just barely stopping his sprint before going over - he so did not want to do a repeat from his first time in a way tower. "Okay, Jeremy. I made it to the tower. No communication once I go over right?" He asked, keeping his eyes fixed on the code coursing through the tower walls. "Exactly. I nearly have the code finished so it shouldn't be too long before I can get a hold of you though." Jeremy mentioned as a final push. They just needed their last warrior on the Volcano sector. After that, they could win this.

Ulrich closed his eyes and he walked off the edge, instantly feeling weightless. He didn't open his eyes again until he felt himself materialize once more. Only this time, he was a thousand feet in the air from any nearby ground.

With eyes as large as saucers, he screamed, "Jeremy!"

~Jer~

With a soft smile of triumph, he sent the last bit of altered code into the system. Jumping in his chair he whooped, as the screen flashed green. "Alright! I have now gained access to the new sector's code! Let's see what all Xana has done . . . oh no, that is soooo not good!" Quickly looking through the sector's code, he called out, knowing that they would not respond where he could hear, "Guys! Be careful! You will have to use the way towers to get back to the original sectors before being devirtualized. Xana has made that sector rerouted from the rest. If you are devirtualized in the Lava Sector who knows where you will end up!"

As an added thought, he tacked on, "On the plus side, I had de-corrupted your character cards - the supercomputer is able to recognize each of your character IDs. I have also put a self-terminating trojan into the virus, once it reaches the heart of its code, it will self-destruct on itself, and collapse releasing its technological prisoner."

Suddenly not liking the one-sided conversation, he set about to decode and debug the communications.

~Unknown Location~

The dark wispy figure slammed a fist on the top of a table, creating a loud bang as he growled. On the screen holding the data meter, a flashing window displayed the words, "INTERRUPTED COMMUNICATIONS." He was no longer able to drain the energy from his prisoners in the cage. Reining his anger in, he breathed a deep sigh. Despite the interruption, his transfer meter was nearly at 73% in capacity, which was more than enough for his next phase in the plan.

Waving his hand over the globe to rotate it he pushed the icon for his loyal follower and warrior, William - sending him the telepathic confirmation to enact stage 3. Feeling a swift pulse back from him, the figure turned his focus on the new recruit for the Lyoko warriors. This warrior was interesting. Like the male humanoid who works the supercomputer, but instead of being a coward and hiding behind the screen, this one has willfully entered Lyoko to rescue his new friends.

~With Jeremy~

Another five lines of codes down, he was moments away from cracking the communications error on the Lava sector. With a final push of the enter button, it flashed green. Jeremy was so focused on the supercomputer win that he didn't notice nor heard the hum of the scanner below him activate. Barely squeezing through the tiny opening, a cubic shape exited the scanner. A light blue tint to its figure. Crawling towards the opened elevator, it carefully awaited the slow climb to the next level. When the elevator doors opened, Jeremy jerked his head up in surprise, with horror shining as the Blok entered the main room. Quickly jumping out of the chair as an ice beam shot at him, he could only gulp in fear as his computer chair froze over. Making a split decision he took off towards the sliding door and ladder, only to skid to a stop as an ice ray froze it over.

Jeremy started running the opposite way, grabbing loose metal as a weapon/shield. He swung at the Blok as it got closer to him. Seeing the dangling earpiece, he leaped towards it screaming in, "Guys! Whatever you're doing you need to hurry! Xana sent a Blok to the factory and it's giving me the cold shoulder. Literally!"

~With Dum-E~

There was… a lot of beeping. Mostly in Stark's ear. He could just barely make out what Jermey was saying. That loud noise playing over everything. If he survived this encounter - which seemed like less and less of a possibility the more he and William fought - Obadiah would be the least of his worries. "C'mon man!" Stark groaned out, just barely dodging an attack. William was undoubtedly playing dirty. Making his moves right when something was to obscure Stark's view. It was an uneven and unmatched fight, and anyone looking on could tell.

"Anyone ever teach you not to play with your food?!" Stark joked out annoyed as he rolled out of the way of yet another attack. He'd barely had any time to launch an attack of his own. The power orbs flying right past William's head as he smoked away, striking the rock across from them. Something about this sector was different though. As the energy Stark was throwing caused the ground to shift and raise. Partially obscuring any view from that side of the ring.

~Ulrich Appears! And saves the day! . . . or not~

Welp… He was falling. And he was falling fast. The ground was rapidly approaching and it looked like the only thing nearby he could cling onto would be the ground itself. This was going to hurt, if not devirtualize him within seconds. "Well Kiwi, it was nice knowing you," He remarked as he clenched his eyes shut. The ground hurt. Ulrich hit it face first, his body bouncing a few times before settling. A few mere life points left to his name. Speaking of which… "Ulrich! What did you do? You're down to a number of life points the Supercomputer can't even pick up!" Jeremy yelled at him. It's not like he had any say in where he dropped from.

"I fell." Ulrich groaned out, picking himself up, a soft "ow" leaving his lips, only thankful to not actually breaking a rib like he did when he fell similarly out of a tree when he was 7. Man, was his dad pissed at him for that. He could hear a near scoff come from Jeremy. "A fall shouldn't have nearly devirtualized you! What the heck did you fall off of?" Jeremy yelled back. His voice being a stark contrast to Ulrich's. "A cliff, Einstein. I fell off a Cliff," He growled out.

~With the Lyoko Warriors~

William was huffing and puffing in anger as he was surrounded by the Lyoko warriors near the middle of the donut island. His master would not be pleased with his failure . . . unless he can still pull this into a win. Glancing at the warriors around him, he relaxed his tense stance, a vindictive smug look crossing his features.

Sensing a dramatic change in his mood, Ulrich gripped his swords tighter, Odd clinched his arrow launcher - cocking it, Yumi opened her fans with a dramatic swish, and Stark readied two orbs of power in his gauntlet hands. Aelita - wearily - stood behind her protectors, near the outer edge of the donut island. Worry and anxiety shining in her eyes. Jeremy was no longer communicating to them, and with William's current expression, it was no one's guess that that was Xana's doing.

They were in trouble. They didn't even know if they could be devirtualized yet, let alone how to get back to the regular sectors of Lyoko. William's smug smirk turned viscous as he puffed up his muscle before smoking. Yumi's reaction was almost as instant as Odds. They fired at the wispy orb of malice. Both attacks missed by millimeters. With a sense of dread in his gut, about faced, a look of horror etching on Stark's face, as the Black haired menace rematerialized behind Aelita. An iron arm wrapped around her lower neck. Her hands immediately latched on to the arm trying to pry it away. Praising the fact that Lyoko defies physics and logic where breathing -or lack thereof- was not vital to their survival.

Tilting his head to the side, eyes widening like a puppy begging for love, he menacingly stated, "Another step and we'll both be devirtualized!" As he finished his statement, he materialized his Zweihänder, making sure the point was nearly stabbing into her spinal cord. A sharp cry from Aelita, made the Lyoko warriors freeze - nearly dropping their weapons in fright. Stark started running calculations in his head, utilizing his head piece as a pseudo-Jarvis. William started dragging Aelita's body towards the edge of the platform, her struggles near-inexistant due to her paralyzing fear.

"You either let me walk Aelita to her date with Xana, or I run her through and no one gets her" came the monsters' reply. The silence rang out, as Aeltia's eyes became almost misty in the virtual world. He continued to reach closer and closer to the edge. Aeltia's minimal struggles started anew. She knew anything that ended with her in Xana's position was going to lead to the end of the world.

"STOP!" Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all screamed out in fear.

William had reached the edge

'Okay, there will be about a 94.72% chance of this failing, but I have no choice. I have to do something…I hope this works.' Stark thought before shoving himself forward, grabbing hold of

Aelita's hand as Willaim backed off the platform doing a reverse pencil dive, dragging both captives with him. Stark activated his hover shoes, trying to slow their descent, but they were no use. As they reached nearer and nearer to the digital water below, both warriors closed their eyes as they awaited their doom.

To the ever growing horror of the remaining trio on land, their friends and william vanished before their eyes as they crossed through the water. Yumi had to be held back by Odd and Ulrich, as she yelled "No!" when the blue beam of digitalization appeared.

Quiet - heartbreaking - seconds flew by. The makeshift wind in the air blowing slow enough to just barely throw Yumi's hair in her face and twitch Odd's cat ears. Everything was silent now. No jokes came from Odd. No biting back at a terrible joke from Ulrich. No deserved eye roll coming from Yumi. The three of them just stood there. Silent. Not even Jeremey made a sound. There was no comfort in their loss. There was nothing that could be done. They had lost their friend, an ex-friend, and some new person who put his life on the line for them. Not even having known who they were before hand. He just dived right into it. I guess at this point, he literally dived right into it. Giving his life away to save Aelita.

In an instant, the Volcano sector began to pixalize. Xana having won his prize. No longer needing the perfect sector. The perfect distraction. The perfect decoy. Ulrich was the first to use his voice, "Come on Yumi. We have to find a way tower and get back home." Him and Odd attempted to pick their fallen friend up but she shoo'ed them away. Her words coming out muttered as she seemed to break the laws of lyoko with digital tears falling out of her eyes.

"What does it matter? Even if we do get out, Xana won. Aelita was the only one who could deactivate the towers. Without her, we're useless. We couldn't even turn off the supercomputer either. Jeremey has said it time and time again too, it just won't shut off with our DNA registered as not having left the system. A new fail safe. Well how safe is it really?" The boys looked at each other. Concern and worry lacing their faces. Not only at Yumi's depressed demenor, but also at the pixelization of the sector growing closer.

They still had no way out. Jeremey still couldn't devirtualize them out and back into the scanner room. It was over. They had lost. Xana had won. As the sector disappeared around the lyoko warriors that were left, the digital sea grew closer and closer. All three plunging under the cold code. Vaporising as a blue light engulfed them.