AN: All right guys, here's chapter five of our little tale! Ulrich gets the chance to see Yumi again, but the encounter is a little unlike what he's imagined for it to be. Let's see how this ends up playing out for our little friend.

Once again guys, just wanted to say thank you for all the support you've shown for the story so far! It means a lot to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Five: Vein of Grief

And as you showed me your scars
I only held you closer
But as the light in you went dark I saw you turn over
I wanted always to be there for you and close to you
But I'm losing this
And I'm losing you

- Apocalyptica (Feat. Lacey Straum), "Broken Pieces"

If being transferred onto Lyoko was a daunting experience, then being transferred back to Earth was even worse. Aelita felt weak in the knees and only managed to prevent herself from falling by maintaining a good hold on the walls of the scanner. As soon as the doors opened, though, she lost her grip and fell hard onto her knees completely drained, both physically and mentally. She couldn't believe what it was she had just seen. It was too unreal.

Yumi. Yumi was back.

Yumi de-virtualized both her and Odd. But why? She didn't have too long to muse on that thought.

"Virtualize me."

Aelita weakly raised her head, seeing Ulrich standing over her with a determined look on his face. Behind him stood Odd, who likewise looked just as drained. "What?" Aelita said softly, unable to muster it within her to speak any louder.

Ulrich's arms shook as they dangled at his sides. "Virtualize me onto Lyoko, Aelita. If Yumi's back-"

"I think it's a trick by Xana," said Odd. "I mean she looked like Yumi, but Yumi... she wouldn't have de-virtualized us like that."

Aelita struggled to rise onto her feet, breathing heavily. "He's right, Ulrich. We better wait and try to look into this. There is no way she's come back. It's impossible to survive the digital sea."

As soon as she left the scanner, Ulrich charged past her and stood firm inside the pillar. "I don't care. Just virtualize me onto Lyoko."

Odd moved over to Aelita, throwing her arm over his shoulder. "I don't think this is a good idea, good buddy," he said warningly. But when he saw that Ulrich's intents could not be dissolved, he gave a resigned sigh and began to help Aelita to the elevators. "Fine, have it your way then. Give us a couple of minutes."

As soon as the doors closed, Odd turned his gaze to Aelita as she regained her breath. "You okay, Princess?"

She nodded. "Just... just a bit spooked that's all. Odd, do you think that that was the real Yumi?"

He eased her arm off his shoulder and crossed his own. "I don't know, Aelita. I mean why would the real Yumi attack us? She knows who we are."

"Xana maybe?"

"But you said that there's no way she could've been brought back."

Aelita gave a half-hearted shrug. "It's an idea."

Once they reached the second floor and Odd helped Aelita back into the chair, she began to download the virtualization process. "Okay Ulrich, I can't send you directly to that location, but I'll try to send you as close as I can."

"That's okay, Aelita. I can get there no problem."

"Ulrich... are you sure? Yumi isn't herself."

"I'm sure. Do it."

"Okay. Transfer Ulrich. Scanner Ulrich. Virtualization."

As soon as his shoes hit the ground, Ulrich raced off. He wasn't going to hesitate waiting for Xana's goons to catch him off-guard when there was so much at stake for right now. Yumi was alive. That's all that mattered to him.

"Are you okay, Ulrich?" asked Aelita. "Did you make it to your position okay?"

"Yeah Aelita, I'm okay. How much farther do I have to go?"

"Um... you need to go another twenty feet. This is strange. According to the map, Yumi hasn't moved from her position."

"She's probably expecting you, Ulrich." Though his voice was distorted by being in the background, Ulrich could still hear Odd loud and clear.

Good. I'm on my way, Yumi. Don't you move. "Any monsters?"

"None. Xana has something planned. I just wish I knew what it was. Still, be careful Ulrich."

"I will." He skidded to a sudden halt when he caught sight of the blue tower in the distance. If he suddenly appeared rushing in, it might trigger a response in Yumi that he did not want to happen. Instead Ulrich would approach with caution and without threat to let her know that he only wanted to understand what happened.

He could see her from a distance, and it made his heart clutch in agony. He thought back to her final moments, where he failed to save her and watched her fail. That scene often came back to him in the nightmares. No, this time things were going to be different. Ulrich wasn't going to let Yumi walk away. She was coming home, no matter what he had to do.

One step at a time he carefully advanced towards her. She finally gazed at him with sunken eyes that, even on Lyoko, seemed quite unlike her. It made Ulrich's body straighten in anticipation, but she did nothing yet. Still, one of his eyes was on the tessen fan that hung at her side.

"Yumi? It's me, Ulrich. Don't you remember me?"

The indent of a small smile appeared on her face. "Of course I remember you. How could I forget?"

Ulrich took in what she said. She sounded like the old Yumi, and definitely looked like her, but he didn't let that overexcite him. They might've thought differently by how he acted in the scanner room, but Ulrich did take in what Odd and Aelita were saying - Yumi de-virtualized them, even though she knew exactly who they were. The Supercomputer showed her as a threat, a monster, instead of having an icon to indicate she was their ally. He had been no expert on computers, especially the Supercomputer, but he had figured that was a drawback of being deleted in the digital sea.

After all, up until now it meant permanent deletion.

Yet Yumi, his Yumi, was staring back at him.

It was hard for him to resist the part of him that wanted to race to Yumi, to grip her in a tight hug and never let her go.

She flicked her wrist, the one unarmed, and cast him a casual look. "How long has it been, Ulrich?"

He raised his eyebrows in confusion.

Sighing exasperatedly she clarified, "Since I fell."

"Oh." How stupid! He should've known that. "Uh, about three months."

"Three months... Is Aelita enjoying things in the real world?"

Ulrich didn't understand where all of this was coming from, but he decided to appease her anyways. "Well things have been different..."

"Is she having fun living with my parents?"

"Huh?" That stopped him dead cold. "What are you talking about?"

Now Yumi was coming to live, strutting over to him, her face unreadable. "How's Emily doing? I know you guys are close. I'm happy for you, Ulrich. Really."

"What, Emily? What's she got to do with this?"

Yumi paused briefly, letting out a low chuckle. "I know a lot of things changed since I disappeared, but you don't need to lie to me, Ulrich."

Now he was becoming angry. Ulrich wasn't understanding where all this information was coming from. Since when have he and Emily..? And where did Aelita living with her parents come from? Something was not right.

His hand slowly inched to the sword tucked securely at his side. "Yumi, what's going on with you?"

"I think I should be asking you that question, right?"

"You're not making any sense!"

A small smile appeared on her face. To Ulrich it seemed sad. "Sorry."

His eyes snapped to her wrist as she flicked her tessen fan, which flew alarmingly fast at him. Unsheathing his samurai blade, he was able to knock it back at Yumi who caught it without much effort. Ulrich was pretty sure his jaw had dropped when she attacked him.

The pair stared at one another for a brief sense of time, and then Yumi flicked her wrist again. Unprepared this time, Ulrich winced as he felt the fan slice his shoulder and then watch as it ascended into the air. What he was not prepared for was a sharp kick to the stomach, courtesy of Yumi who was now positioned in a pose almost akin to when they practiced Pencak Silat.

The fan spun towards him, but being more on guard led to Ulrich sidestepping the tessen fan, which returned to Yumi's grasp. "That was a good dodge," she complimented him.

Ulrich tightened his grip on his sword. This was going all wrong. He had come on Lyoko to save Yumi, not fight her. And he was sure he was down half his life points already while Yumi had all hers. "Yumi, I don't want to fight you," he murmured softly.

"Ulrich!" Aelita cried through the microphone. "You only have fifty life points left!"

"I know, Aelita!" Ulrich's gaze never left Yumi's. "Yumi, can't we talk this out?"

She solemnly shook her head. "There's nothing more to talk about."

"Is it Xana? Did he do something to do? Is that why you're attacking us?"

Yumi's head briefly dropped. "I'm sorry, Ulrich."

"Ulrich, watch it! Two Krabs are coming for you!"

He could hear them approaching him from behind, and knew he was at a loss. If he turned his back on Yumi, he had no doubt that she would de-virtualize him with her fan. On the other hand if he ignored the Krabs, then they would be the ones to finish him off. He was in a lose-lose situation. But if I can Triplicate... he considered. Maybe then he would have a fighting chance. It's worth a shot.

"Triplicate!" he cried out, splitting his avatar into two, and choosing to fight off the Krabs before dealing with Yumi. He and his clones raced towards the Krabs, who began to fire their lasers. Ulrich leapt into the air, holding his sword facing down for an aerial strike. The tip of the sword struck one Krab in the dead center of Xana's symbol. "Impact!"

The Krab's form shuddered. Ulrich quickly dismounted just as the Krab exploded. Okay, one down... Now one more Krab to g-ACK! He had felt the pain of a fan slicing into his midsection, and could feel his body beginning to disintegrate even before Ulrich registered what exactly had happened. He turned his head to Yumi who stared back at him with cold eyes. The Krab moved around so that it stood over Yumi's form, also looking down upon him.

Xana... That was Ulrich's last coherent thought as his avatar completely vanished into nothing.

When his scanner opened, depositing him onto the floor, he just wanted to remain there. After all there was no rush to hurry to Aelita and Odd, was there? Not to mention the return to Earth felt more painful than it had all the previous times. Was it because it was Yumi who de-virtualized him and not one of Xana's usual henchmen? Ulrich wondered. The impact of her tessen fan was greater than taking a laser beam from any of the monsters. Maybe not greater than a blast from a Megatank, but it was definitely up there.

"Ulrich?" came Aelita's voice. "Are you okay?"

Grunting, Ulrich forced himself off of the floor to respond, "I'm here, Aelita. I'm coming up." He marched over to the elevator and punched in the UP button. It has to be Xana, he thought. Yumi wouldn't just attack us like that. Xana has to be controlling her or something like that.

When the doors opened again, Ulrich found himself greeted by Aelita and Odd who stood anxiously at the door. They felt just as tense and as betrayed as he did, that much he could tell. He, however, felt more deflated when he spotted the Yumi clone in the far corner of the room, lounging against the wall.

"Well, that went well," said Odd as the three moved back over to the computer.

"Ulrich, I heard what you and Yumi were talking about on Lyoko," said Aelita, eyes carefully examining the brown-haired boy. "I don't understand. What did she mean by my taking her place and taking her parents?"

Ulrich offered a weak shrug. "I have no clue, Aelita. And she said I was dating Emily. I thought... it could be Xana's doing."

"Xana?" asked Odd. "Then boy, oh boy, he's gotten a lot smarter. Aelita, is Xana even capable of doing something like that?"

Aelita rested her hand against her chin, deep in thought. "I'm not so sure, Odd. I've never heard of a program like Xana manipulating a human... maybe codes, sure. He might've found access to Yumi's codes when she was de-virtualized, but it's strange to me. Unless he is evolving, that is."

"So then we have to do something!" exclaimed Ulrich. "We can't just let Xana do whatever he wants with Yumi."

"Not to mention if we go to Lyoko now, we'll know that Yumi will be there waiting for us," Odd pointed out. "And her attacks took at least half of our health out in one hit."

"Xana could've amplified her power. "If we are definite this is him that is behind all this," said Aelita.

"He is behind all this!" cried Ulrich, anger flowing into his body. He was frustrated by her lack of not seeing the picture - it had to be Xana. Why would Yumi attack her friends? And did Aelita not admit that Xana could have access to Yumi's codes, which were left behind, thus leaving the older girl open to being a puppet for the A.I program? "Yumi wouldn't attack us on her own free will."

Odd stepped into Ulrich's line of sight, looking doubtful. "Uhhh I don't know about you, Ulrich, but she seemed pretty in control of herself, if you ask me."

"Whatever the case," said Aelita, "I'll work on finding out everything. Xana may be clever, but even he can make mistakes. You two better head back to class before you get in trouble."

Ulrich shook his head. He didn't want to go back to class! He wanted to stay right here!

"No Ulrich, I can work on this by myself. Go and get the Yumi clone back to the school as well. We don't want to look suspicious."

"Uh, speaking of the Yumi clone, are we gonna try and re-download that program of yours?" asked Odd.

She shook her head, her face creased in frustration. "It'll have to wait another time. Go back to class you two. I'll contact you if I find anything."

"We'll skip lunch and come visit you, okay?"

She nodded, then pointed to the elevator. "Go."

Every part of him was saying no, that he needed to stay behind to see what Yumi was doing on Lyoko. But in the end Ulrich knew that Aelita was right. If they all skipped their classes for the day, it would be too suspicious. And having Jim and the principal watching their every move was something not needed on top of everything they had to work on now.

He turned his head back to the Yumi clone. After his encounter with the real Yumi on Lyoko, suddenly having to care for the clone was taking a darker meaning to him. Now he definitely did not want to be around the stupid clone.

Ulrich snapped out of his thoughts as Odd waved his hand in front of his friend's face. "Stop daydreaming! C'mon, we gotta head back before Jim's class."

"Right." He waved at the Yumi clone to come follow them, which it did so with little argument.

As the trio rode the elevator up, Odd rested his hand on Ulrich's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get Yumi back."

"I hope so." I don't even want to imagine what Xana's doing to her right now...