Saving

Jeremie stared at the screen for a few more seconds before sending out the Xana alert and rushing to the Factory. Something big was happening and he needed to get there now.

-Odd-

He woke with a start and glared over at his phone before quickly checking it. He threw himself out of bed and quickly slipped into clothes so he could get going. He walked over to Ulrich's bed and quickly realized that the brunet wasn't there.

Grabbing his cell phone he walked out the door and started to quietly and quickly run down the hall. Once outside and out of the school grounds he called Jeremie.

"Odd, now isn't the time," he answered with a grumble.

"Yeah, actually it is. Ulrich isn't in bed. His phone and shoes are gone, so it wasn't just a trip to the bathroom," Odd answered, just as irritated as the blond sounded.

"I'm halfway to the Factory now, so hurry and get here."

Jeremie hung up before Odd could say another word and he quickly scrambled down the ladder.

It wasn't long before the four friends were all in the Factory and the three headed to Lyoko.

Jeremie repeatedly chastised himself. He should have seen this coming. Ulrich had been getting farther and farther away from the group and the other day there was clearly something wrong with him. All the signs were there, he just didn't want to admit it. None of them had wanted to admit it, but it was there.

"Alright Einstein, what're we up against?" Odd's voice came through his headphones as Jeremie snapped out of his thoughts.

"It's the Scyphazoa, Odd. Xana's trying to take control of Ulrich or something as far as I can tell from the message that I got on my computer. We need to stop him," Jeremie told them.

-Yumi-

She looked at Odd worriedly. She really hoped that they could save him….

As they got closer she realized that they were too late…. The Scyphazoa was resting Ulrich down on the ground as they neared.

"Stay back you guys. Don't let him see you. I'm going to be bringing you back and we'll see if Aelita and I can figure something out to get him back quickly," Jeremie told them as they all watched Ulrich carefully get up and look around.

-Ulrich-

He still felt like himself, but something was different.

You now have powers as if you were under my control. I have also erased some… unneeded memories. Come to the heart of Lyoko and I will teach you some things you're going to need to know….

Ulrich did as he was told, following the paths created for him to reach the core without needing a vehicle.

In front of him was a wisp of data. That's all he could think to call it, anyway. It looked like black and red smoke, just sitting there waiting….

This is what I have been reduced to, Samurai…. A wisp of data. Franz Hopper is still around and now I have nearly not enough power to stop your friends from their psychotic plan. I need them out of my way. I need them to be eliminated….

"Can't they just be convinced to help you like with me?" Ulrich asked, looking around at all the monsters that had gathered around the two.

They are closed off to me. You are the only one that would be willing to listen and even if they would listen it wouldn't mean that it would actually happen. Sadly there is almost no possibility of saving them….

Ulrich sighed and nodded. "So, what did you want to teach me?"

-Odd-

He cuddled Kiwi close to him and looked at Ulrich's empty bed. He'd never thought that it would come to something like this. Never once had it crossed his mind that Ulrich had been getting distant from them and now this is where they're stuck at.

Kiwi whined and looked at the closed door or the dorm and looked up at his master.

Odd petted him. "I'm sorry, buddy…. He's not coming back tonight…"

A knock came on the door and Odd quickly hid Kiwi before answering it.

"Odd, do you think that it's our fault that this happened?" Yumi asked, stepping into the dorm and sitting on Ulrich's bed.

"I was thinking about that just now, too. I didn't really noticed 'til now that things changed the past week or so…. Ulrich stopped hanging around us as much and we stopped hanging around him as well. He felt left out I guess and Xana probably used that to its advantage to get Ulrich to join it," Odd told her, looking as she messed with the sheets.

"I want him back, Odd…" Yumi whispered, looking at the ground.

It didn't happen a lot that Yumi broke down, but you knew it was bad when she did. There wasn't a lot that they could do and they all felt helpless….

"I know…. We all do. Kiwi even misses him. I just hope that Jeremie and Aelita can find some way to get him back. Do you think that Xana will let William go now that it has Ulrich?"

"I don't know and I really don't care if we get William back right now or not, Odd. I don't want William back. I want Ulrich back. It's not fair…."

Odd was at a loss of what to do. He wasn't good with the whole emotions thing. Aelita would be better suited for this, but she was busy. "Yumi, I don't know what else to say…. I want Ulrich back, too, but breaking down and crying and just hoping that he'll come back won't help…. Personally I think that we should go see if Aelita and Jeremie need any help with anything or if there's anything that we can do to make this go quicker…."

Yumi nodded and wiped the stray tears running down her cheeks from her face, leaving no sign except for slightly red eyes that she'd been crying. "Let's go…."

It didn't take long for the pair to reach the Factory with Jim not patrolling outside like he normally does.

"Hey you two, how's it going?" Odd asked as they entered.

"It's going to take some time, but I think that since it's been so recent that it happened that we'll be able to retrieve the data that Xana took from Ulrich and recreate and replace it. I'll need you guys to go in and fight him long enough to get enough hits on him to devirtualize him, but that should bring him back once I load the stuff up on the computer," Jeremie explained, eyes never leaving the computer screen.

"There's no guarantee that this is going to work, but we're going to try," Aelita promised, smiling at the two.

A/N: Thank goodness. I had to turn on the Subdigitals and some other music and just type and I finished it! =D I'm really hoping to start posting stuff every other day again, but we'll see. =3

Read and review! (Reviews are what are keeping me going right now.)

~MoonlitxAngel