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The fleeing footsteps of the two girls quickly pattered down the hallway and then disappeared, followed by the slamming of the hallway door. Baffled, Ulrich stared and scratched his head. "Well," he spoke in bewilderment, turning to the others. "Only one thing to do now."
"Oh yeah?" Odd pressed two of his fingers against his lips, standing by the brunette's side and staring in the peering in the same direction. "What's that?"
Ulrich smirked and looked towards the door. "AFTER THEM!" He shouted, bursting down the hallway.
"Wha- hey! Ulrich! Wait up!" Odd's voice trailed down the hallway as he sprinted after his charging friend. The same pattern followed; the lingering sound of footsteps quickly trailing away and then the slamming of the door. Now that they were gone, Jeremie reached down to pick up his glasses and calmly brushed them off. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before toddling over to the door and smoothly shutting it. He turned towards Aelita, cleared his throat, and adjusted his glasses.
"AELITA!" he ruptured. "Why did you tell them that!? What on Earth were you thinking?!"
She stepped back, startled by his heightened voice. Yumi grabbed her shoulders and stood behind her, ready to comfort her if Aelita happened to take his words too harshly. The words blew at her like a hurricane, but she merely stared at him; confused as to where the anger was coming from.
"I'm sorry, Jeremie…" she looked down at the floor. "I just didn't want them to know the truth. Not yet, at least."
"Right, well you think this is better!?" He tugged at his frazzled, fair locks. Aelita chewed on the corner of her bottom lip.
"Jeremie, calm down," Yumi begged.
The frustrated, golden-haired boy pressed the back of his hand against his sweating brow, taking another lungful. "You should have at least asked me first, Aelita. I don't want people to think I'm… doing that stuff."
"But Yumi told me that people who like each other do that. We like each other, don't we? So what's the problem if people think that then?" Aelita shrugged and raised her little pink eyebrows. Oh, so naïve. Jeremie's face flushed heavily, but the redness was quickly washed away as he turned to shoot Yumi a glare. Yumi responded with an uneasy shrug, lightly and nervously tittering.
The blonde smacked his hand against his forehead and let out an unsatisfied sigh. "It's a bit more complicated than that, Aelita."
"How?" Her shining doe-eyes widened in curiosity, sparkling with the desire for knowledge. Again, Jeremie sighed.
"We'll save that for another day. We have a bigger problem to worry about, for the moment." Still confused, Aelita turned towards Yumi who gave a friendly nod and patted her shoulder. Aelita responded with another uninformed shrug. She decided to drop the subject and go with the flow for now.
"You're not too mad at me, are you, Jeremie?" She bashfully asked, peering upwards as her head tilted towards the pale carpet. Jeremie smiled.
"No," he said. "Of course not. I'm sorry I yelled." Thankful, Aelita walked up to him and Jeremie immediately invited her in for a hug.
"Okay, you guys…" Yumi interrupted. "Now, what are we going to do about Milly and Tamiya?" Just as Yumi mentioned their names, chattering and pleading was heard from down the hallway.
"Give it back!" Ulrich demanded as Milly swooped by their open door, scurrying down the opposite end of the hall. Ulrich quickly followed.
"No way!" The little red-head retorted. Tamiya soon followed, snickering as Odd desperately charged after her.
"Tamiya, I swear!" He threatened, his heavy purple shoes thudding against the carpet. Yumi rested her case and turned back to the others.
"Well?" she said, impatiently tapping her foot as the two men and two girls came hastening past the door again.
"I have an idea," Jeremie suggested, quirking up an eyebrow with an artful smirk on his face.
"What is it?"
"Simple. It requires a trip to the factory, so we'd better get going!" Jeremie started towards his door, but Yumi clutched her fingers against his bony shoulder and stopped him in his tracks. He turned to her, muddled.
"Wait a minute, are you talking about a return to the past?"
"Well, yeah. It'll solve this situation."
"Might I remind you that each return trip makes XANA stronger?"
Jeremie rubbed his arm coyly. "Well, yes… but, it's just one time. And besides, the guy that's after Aelita is posing more of a threat than-"
"More of a threat than an evil artificial intelligence trying to take over the world!?"
Jeremie cleared his throat. "I'm still protecting the world, in a sense."
"Uh-huh, and, how, exactly?"
Jeremie pulled Yumi to the corner of the room and spoke in whispers, while Aelita was distractingly staring out of her window. "Because to me, Aelita is the world. And by doing this, we refrain from word about her situation getting out. Which in turn protects her. XANA has been quiet, to our benefit. I've got to use his silence to my advantage and keep Aelita safe."
Yumi glanced over at Aelita, still peeping out the window. Her shoulders perched on the solid, marble sill and she used her fingers to pry open the blinds. The woman turned her attention back towards Jeremie and heaved a sigh. "Jeremie," she whispered, her pupils darting back to Aelita. "Don't you think it's time she told a higher authority?"
"Yeah." Jeremie sunk his hands into the pockets of his khakis. "I do. But, I can't force her."
"I know. Well, we'd better hurry to the factory then."
Immediately, they burst out of the door. It is the first time Aelita has been off campus since the incident; save for the one XANA attack that brought them to the factory about a month ago. Her mind begins to wander as they sprint through the swift breeze of the cold, fall air. She wondered why XANA isn't attacking. It made her body shiver; she feared that he's plotting something greater during his vow of silence. She then became anxious as she darted her head around in each direction, fearing that somewhere, somehow, he was following. Aelita wished that she had stayed behind in her room, but perhaps that was more dangerous than being outside. At least out here she had friends with her. She hopped onto her scooter and trailed behind Jeremie and Yumi, rolling down the sewers. The factory came sooner than she had imagined, finding her feet tapping against the familiar concrete of the bridge. Her legs burn as they brush against the rough frays of the heavy rope. Jeremie hurdles down to the laboratory and throws himself onto the chair.
"Return to the past, now!"
The blonde slams his index finger onto the oversized return button on the keyboard. The white bubble engulfs the soft Earth, warping everything in sight backwards. The five warriors are once again in Aelita's room, but this time, without the arguing.
"… A return to the past?" Ulrich curiously looks around, wondering why time had repeated itself. Jeremie craftily nods; content with his decision.
"We really dodged a bullet there," Odd poked as he relaxed on Aelita's cushiony mattress.
Ulrich chewed on his fingernail for a moment, turning to Aelita and raising an eyebrow. "So, Aelita… that test… it's really yours?"
"Yes," The girl replied without hesitation. She wasn't lying that way; after all, it was hers.
Ulrich widened his eyes and toyed with the grotesque thought, almost spitting at the image in his head. He turned to Jeremie. "So… you… and Jeremie-"
"No," she coldly cut him off. "Not Jeremie."
"What?" Odd and Ulrich gasped in harmony, while Jeremie and Yumi stood back and prepared. They both knew what she was planning.
"The truth, guys…." Aelita crossed her arms behind her back, exhaling deeply as she kicked her feet around. "is that-"
"Hey, Aelita!" The cheery voice squealed from behind.
"Not again…" Yumi groaned, sinking her head.
"Can we ask you a few questions?" Milly approached Aelita gleefully, flipping open her notebook. Tamiya stood by her side loyally, aiming her eyes through the viewfinder of the camera.
"Now is really not a good time, Milly," Aelita sighed.
"Well," Milly groaned; her voice distorting. "You'll just have to make time."
"What!?"
An electrical surge shot out of the petite palms of Milly's hands, forcing Aelita against the wall. She cried out in despair as the others dodged the jolt. Milly and Tamiya let their journalism accessories crash to the floor as they aggressively began to approach the Lyoko warriors. In their pupils flashed the staticy target of their friend who had decided to come out of hiding.
"Well well well," Odd said as he picked up a chair to block another wired shock. "Look who finally decided to show up! We missed you, buddy!"
"See!" Yumi cried as she rolled across the floor, looking at Jeremie. "I told you return trips only make him stronger!"
"Well, what else did you want me to do!?" Jeremie repelled as he snuck over to Aelita's side, who lay weakly against the wall, moaning. He grabbed underneath her arms and flung her over his shoulders. "Come on, we have to go!"
"I'll stay here," Odd offered as he proceeded to kick Milly across the room.
"Me too," his brunette friend joined his side, positioning for attack. "The rest of you get to the tower. Hurry!"
Jeremie nodded, and dashed out of the door with Yumi by his side. It was difficult to make it to the factory with a half-conscious girl lying limply over his back, but with the help of the geisha woman he was able to manage. Aelita pitifully groaned as she bounced up and down on his shoulders, becoming nauseous from the quick pace of their steps.
"Where are we going?" she mumbled.
"To the factory, XANA is attacking."
"Oh. Okay," Aelita put simply before falling unconscious again. Once across the bridge, they stared at the plummet beneath them, wondering how they would get Aelita down the ropes.
"I'll go first," Yumi demanded as she began to skid down the rough edges of the cables. "Throw her."
"What!?"
"I'll catch her, don't worry!"
"I'm not gonna throw her!"
Yumi dropped onto the stiff concrete of the solemn factory, the thunder of her feet reverberating throughout the emptiness. She looked up at Jeremie and shouted, "DO IT, JEREMIE!"
Reluctant, he obeyed, and tightly shut his eyes as he regretfully tossed his angel downwards. Her body gracefully twirled mid-air until safely landing in the grasp of Yumi's cradling arms. Jeremie heaved a massive sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off of his brow before sliding down the cable. They rushed to the elevator, where they soon parted ways. The girls to the scanners, and Einstein to the lab. He placed the headset over his brainy head and started up the process which had been done so many times before.
"Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization!"
Yumi tumbled onto the cool, green paths of Lyoko. "It's all good," she confirmed over the interface. "Aelita and I made it okay."
"Good," Jeremie replied, rapidly typing in coordinates. "The tower is directly ahead. Go for it!"
Aelita had landed on her back, and she slowly rose herself as she rubbed her lower torso and tailbone, which would most likely be throbbing if she were to be on Earth at that moment. Yumi helped her up, and they made way towards the omniscient shade of red that bubbled in the distance. Swarms of monsters soon followed, but they were having luck on this day. A few fans perfectly aimed and the hornets burst, their virtual parts disintegrating in the stale atmosphere of the alternate universe. Aelita had dropped on her knees to create a barrier, blocking off the weak and frail Kankrelats that desperately tried to keep up with them.
"Hey," Aelita panted as she sped North. "That orb… where is it?"
"That's strange," Jeremie said, scratching his chin. "Well, we know you're not pregnant, so I guess it really was just a bug as I had originally predicted."
Shrugging it off, Yumi stood guard as Aelita morphed into the tower; it's soft walls rippling upon her entrance. She was cast into the current of the building and floated upwards, tilting her petite frame backwards as to avoid smacking herself against the second platform. Once she was at her destination, she placed her palm tenderly against the levitating touch screen, which quickly recognized her and input the code. The return to the past was automatically generated.
Once again, the Lyoko warriors were inside Aelita's room. Although this time, something was different. Very horrendously and gruesomely different.
"AUGH!" Aelita painfully cried out as she crashed against her floor. "Oh my God, what's happening to me!?" She clutched her stomach as she let out blood curdling screams of agony. Red liquid rapidly spread down her legs, a puddle quickly forming beneath her.
"What's wrong!?" Yumi begged, kneeling down beside Aelita as she felt her convulse and heavily sweat. "My…stomach! Oh, God!" Tears began to flow out of her eyes and the color began to steadily drain. She curled into a ball and let out a most horrifying screech; brash enough for children from other dorms to flash to the door. Of course Milly and Tamiya were there, with Tamiya speedily taking photos of the situation. Ulrich turned around, staring at the group of students that mumbled and crowded around the frame.
"Quick!" He demanded, as the small woman shuddered against the floor and expelled a heart wrenching mixture of both tearful sobs and shrills of angst. "Go get some help!"
dontforgettoreview~