Wow, I had to edit this chapter a lot! I hope I picked up on all the mistakes!

Pretty Hate Machine

Sometimes, anger doesn't give me a choice. Rather, it decides my fate.

Chapter 10: Not One to Choose

The next day, during the lunchtime of Kadic Academy, the group rushed to the Factory. Jeremie received a message from Franz Hopper during one of his spares, announcing that he completed the program to free Ulrich. The group were very excited hearing the news, especially Yumi, who was ready for this moment.

The group promptly arrived, with Jeremie quickly getting Franz's window up to speak to him. The rest of the group huddled around Jeremie, waiting for the conversation with Franz to begin. They didn't want to rush into battle without receiving information about the program first.

Once the chat window was up, Jeremie immediately greeted Franz, hopeful to get his attention. He got a response immediately, making everyone behind him smile.

'Hello Jeremie. I guess that everyone is right behind you, right?'

'Yep. They're all here, waiting for what you're going to tell us about how this program works.'

Jeremie had to wait a while for Franz's next response. So during the time, he cleared up the windows on the screen. Odd piped up, asking what he was doing. Aelita answered for Jeremie, knowing that he needed to focus on the screen in case her father's response pops up.

'This is going to take some time to explain, so please focus on this. The reason why it took two days to complete is because the downloading process takes almost twenty four hours to complete. So even if the program was ready, downloading it to the Supercomputer from my location without being noticed by XANA takes a long time. With that being said, the process has finished, and now each of your friends is armed with the program to free Ulrich. But, each of them only has one shot of the program. So, they have to time their attacks carefully. And speaking of attacks, the program only activates if they attack a certain way. My daughter need to charge up her energy field to the strongest charge, Yumi has to use her left fan, while Odd has to reload his arrows before firing the one with the program in it. When they've activated the program, their items will change colour. Does everyone understand?'

Jeremie highlighted the part his friends needed to read, and allowed them to read the highlighted parts. Yumi was first to read and understand Franz's explanation, however, it did leave her concerned for her own combat abilities. She hadn't fought with one fan in over a year, and it would be difficult to get accustomed to that fighting style again. Aelita finally got the idea how her attack worked thanks to her father's second to last sentence. She felt confident that she'll know the right time to release the fully charged energy field.

Odd on the other hand, was a little bit puzzled how his program activated. Jeremie ended up explaining how it worked to save some time chatting to Franz. Odd was relieved Jeremie spoke in clear, concrete English instead of the scientific English he was so used to hearing, and understood it completely.

'Yes. So, do we need to wait until Ulrich shows up?'

'Actually, your friends need to head to Lyoko right away. You know the area in Carthage you had to rebuild where you had to install security fields?'

'Yeah?'

'My computer just picked up an attack there. I think XANA wants to access it to locate me, because it's pretty much an easy way to find out.'

Jeremie panicked, and immediately ordered his friends to head to the scanners. He told them that Ulrich was most likely leading the attack before they rushed downstairs.

Just as the elevator closed upon the trio, Odd stared at Yumi, trying to read from her face any sort of hesitation she might have fighting against Ulrich. Being aware of how close the two of them were, he was concerned Yumi could be unfit in combat because of her relationship with Ulrich.

Even though he couldn't see a sign, he could tell Yumi was hurting inside just of the thought of fighting him. Deep inside, he wanted to save Yumi from the pain, and let himself take care of battling his roommate.

"Yumi," Odd called.

"Yes?" Yumi acknowledged.

"Let me and Aelita take care of Ulrich. I'm sure you don't want to fight him under these circumstances," Odd stated.

"I'm fine. He's been controlled against his will to fight us. I have to be prepared to fight him, whether I like it or not," Yumi replied.

"Alright. Just call us if you need help," Odd responded.

Yumi nodded, then faced the elevator doors. Odd had a point though. What happened if she was in the moment, fighting Ulrich, when she freezes up and let him have the fatal blow on her? She had to do whatever she could to avoid her emotions getting in the way of the fight.

Jeremie watched his friends via security camera enter the scanners, primed to send them to Lyoko. He began the virtualization process, typing hastily to send his friends to Lyoko as fast as possible. Jeremie felt beads of sweat already trailing down his face, knowing how crucial it was to defend that part of Sector 5.

As he was typing up the co-ordinates, he received another message from Franz Hopper. He finished typing up the scanner process, then looked at the message.

'Will any of your friends have trouble fighting Ulrich?'

Jeremie bit his lip. One person predominately popped up in his head. He pushed the thought away for the time being, pressing the key that would virtualize his friends onto the digital world. Jeremie then responded to Franz, forcing himself to let Franz know of his warriors' weaknesses.

'Yumi. She is very close to Ulrich. But despite this, I believe she'll find a way to overcome this. She always does.'

The group found themselves in Sector 5. However, they were unfamiliar of this area of the sector. They looked at their surroundings, trying to at least familiarise themselves with the area, apart from the blue and bumpy walls.

It was a rather narrow area, almost completely covered in darkness. There was light down the corridor, the only light this place had. It was scary if anybody was claustrophobic or scared of the dark, but none of them felt fear. They felt uncertainty.

Yumi drew out her fans, and noticed a huge difference in colour between the two. The fan she drew out in her right hand was normal. The blade was silver, and it had reflected some of the light at the end of the tunnel. However, the fan in her left hand displayed a cryptic shade of green. Yumi was startled seeing this, but at least she could tell the difference between which fan had the program. She withdrew the fan in her left hand into the pouch on her back, to avoid accidentally using it in combat.

"Hey Einstein, where are we?" Odd demanded.

"You're in a restricted part of Sector 5. Usually, you can't access it normally. The only way you can get here is either by being virtualized here or transported here," Jeremie answered.

"So how did XANA find this place?" Aelita questioned.

"I have no-" Jeremie began, but stopped himself from speaking.

Just as he said those words, he realised how XANA knew the location of this hidden place in Sector 5. He came to the conclusion that XANA would go to any lengths to get information, just as long as he came out the other end victorious.

"Jeremie, is something wrong?" Aelita enquired.

"Yeah, because I think I know why XANA wanted Ulrich in the first place," Jeremie replied.

"So his possession was not out of convenience?" Yumi asked.

"Mhm. Before Lyoko was completely reconstructed, I needed to place a section in Sector 5 that cannot be accessed unless you're virtualized or transported there. It's because so many important communications devices are there, including the one that lets me speak to Franz Hopper without being picked up by XANA. So I installed it, but I needed someone to investigate whether somebody could get in or not. So, I asked all of you, stating that it was an experiment. Ulrich volunteered, and checked for me on Lyoko. He said it was all clear. Then I showed him the area you are in at the moment. While possessing Ulrich, I think XANA found that image in his memories and used it to find out where he could find the information to finish his search for Franz Hopper. I should've known that was XANA's intention all along," Jeremie explained.

"How come you and Ulrich didn't tell us about it?" Aelita enquired.

"I thought since Ulrich didn't find any gap in the defences, I told him not to think about it too much. But it looks like XANA exploited that weakness. I'm sorry guys, I didn't see that possibility happening," Jeremie apologised.

"Well, let's fix this mistake by saving Ulrich. Let's go!" Yumi shouted enthusiastically and sprinted off.

Odd and Aelita were surprised at Yumi's eagerness to save Ulrich. But they didn't think too much on it, running after her towards the light. Jeremie was a little bit shocked at Yumi's reaction, but smiled. She was finding her way out of this rut, and Jeremie knew it. She always finds a way to complete the objective when the going gets tough.

Moments later, the trio entered the room in a rush. But they had to stop immediately to take in the sight before them. There were heaps of monsters, all directing their fire at the security force field. The field was standing quite strong, but they knew it wouldn't last forever. And who other than the possessed Ulrich Stern to lead the attack on the last line of defence.

Ulrich was dressed in brand spanking new dark attire. It was a black skin tight body suit with grey stripes along the sides of his body. He wore light armour as well, equipped with grey shin and arm guards. His sword cases were at belt level, for quicker access drawing the weapons out. In the middle of his chest the XANA symbol was glowing bright orange, indicating that Avikar had full control of Ulrich. By the looks on Ulrich's expression, he was looking forward to seeing them.

"Well, isn't it the whole gang? Minus Belpois, who doesn't have the balls to step foot on the battlefield," Ulrich stated.

The group were shocked hearing that this possessed Ulrich had some attitude. Yumi immediately guessed that Avikar was the main cause of this rude and ruthless behaviour expressed by the possessed Ulrich. After all, Avikar did have some personality of his own.

"You should appreciate us getting here. It looks like you really wanted to see us," Odd declared.

"That's right Catman. And you know what? I'll take care of you all by myself, just like last time. I've still got all your powers, so it shouldn't be too difficult," Ulrich announced, drawing out one of his blades.

Yumi took up a fighting stance, ready for combat. Although, she was afraid she was going to be taken out on the spot. Avikar had an agenda against her; she destroyed his body by pushing it telekinetically to the Digital Sea while trying to save Ulrich from being possessed. She also thwarted his plan, by managing to draw the real Ulrich out while being held in a hostage situation. This time, it was going to be difficult to draw Ulrich out, knowing she could be devirtualized if she made one wrong move.

When Ulrich began to approach them, he abruptly clutched his head with his spare hand. The three warriors were surprised that this happened right now, and not in the thick of battle. They knew the Ulrich they know was interfering with Avikar's control of his body, but they kept their distance just in case Avikar did break free.

"Can't you just stay put? Stop getting in the way!" Avikar barked, grabbing onto Ulrich's shoulders tightly.

"I can't let you hurt my friends! And I'll do whatever in my power to stop you!" Ulrich shouted, also grasping Avikar's shoulders.

"It's because I wanted to attack Yumi first? So if I aimed for your other friends, you would allow me to attack them," Avikar stated.

"No way in hell! Oh, and attacking Yumi is a good idea," Ulrich responded, leaning towards the control panel, "Just as long as I don't run too fast, she should be able to take care of me."

Suddenly, Ulrich composed himself and sprinted towards the group. The tactic took the trio by surprise, clearly seeing that possessed Ulrich was getting too cocky. Yumi winked at Aelita before focusing intently on Ulrich, with her arms outstretched in front of her.

Yumi spent her energy attempting to lift up Ulrich while in motion, while Aelita began charging up her large energy field. She knew there wasn't going to be another opportunity like this, with the monsters distracted to bring the barrier down and the possessed Ulrich's cockiness brought him to this situation. Odd meanwhile was shooting at the weaker monsters, destroying them quite easily while they had all their attention on the barrier.

Ulrich then suddenly shot up, with his legs dangling in the air with no ground to push himself closer to the group. Yumi made sure her telekinetic focus remained strong to prevent Ulrich from dropping to the floor. Aelita finished charging up her energy field, and looked prime to fire it. It looked too easy for the group to finish off Ulrich's misery under Avikar's control.

Once noticing the energy field change colour from pink to green, Aelita threw it at the helpless Ulrich. Ulrich smirked, aware that Aelita made a huge mistake. But he needed to deal with something extremely important first. He was going to cut it very, very close.

Avikar kicked Ulrich in the gut, forcing him to let go and stumble backwards. Ulrich landed off the platform of the control panel back first. As he attempted to pick himself up, Avikar shot him with a blast of lightning, effectively knocking Ulrich out cold.

Avikar quickly fiddled with the control panel, finding the switch he needed to activate. He grinned, knowing he just made it in time.

Suddenly, the energy field curved away from Ulrich and headed directly to Yumi. Yumi had to break concentration to avoid getting vaporised by the deadly energy field. Ulrich dropped to the ground, watching Yumi jump out of the way of the attack.

He seized that opportunity, only using his mental power to give Yumi a taste of her own medicine. Yumi could do nothing to stop him as she rose off the ground and into mid-air. And now, she felt like she was in huge trouble.

Aelita was frustrated that her chance of freeing Ulrich from possession was wasted. However, her main priority now was to save Yumi. But she could not directly attack Ulrich, knowing that her energy fields would be redirected and most likely hit the helpless Yumi.

Then, she noticed Odd, who was totally oblivious to what just happened behind him. He was doing the group a favour of eliminating the unsuspecting monsters one by one, but couldn't see the disaster unfolding behind him.

"Odd! Yumi needs your help!" Aelita called.

Odd spun around, with the first thing he saw was Yumi suspended in the air. Odd fired a laser arrow at Ulrich, hoping it would be enough to disturb his focus. Unfortunately, he was aiming for the right side of his body, which was Ulrich's sword arm.

Ulrich picked up the laser arrow piercing the air and swang his blade to the side. The arrow deflected off the sword, heading back in Odd's direction. Odd crossed his arms and shouted the magical s word to activate his shield. The arrow dispersed the moment it made contact with the shield.

Once he let down his shield, he witnessed Ulrich shunt his left hand. Yumi flew up to the ceiling, hitting it violently. Aelita activated her wings to catch Yumi on the descent. Ulrich smirked, charging an energy field in his left hand. He had the girls exactly where he wanted.

Odd launched himself at Ulrich, tackling him at the waist. The energy field was shot nowhere near the girls, allowing Aelita to catch Yumi without any mishaps. The boys skidded across the ground, with Ulrich elbowing Odd in the stomach. Then, using his strength, he stood up and activated his super sprint.

Odd was immediately thrown off, but landed on knees. He watched Ulrich ran up the wall thanks to his momentum, and could predict what he was about to do. Ulrich sprung from the wall, preparing to attack. Odd lowered his head and crossed his arms over his head just as Ulrich hovered over.

Ulrich slammed his blade on Odd's shield, almost penetrating it. Luckily, Odd held his position, and pushed his shield up. Ulrich was caught off balance and was sent flying away from Odd.

While that action was happening, Aelita dropped Yumi to the ground. Yumi felt a little sting, but she was fine and still on Lyoko. She could hardly believe she wasn't devirtualized. She was curious about how many life points she had left, knowing she had a shot of the program.

"Yumi, you have fifty life points left. Try not to get devirtualized," Jeremie warned.

"Right, I'll do my best," Yumi responded.

Yumi watched Ulrich landed perfectly on his feet and immediately threw an energy field. Odd defended himself once again, then quickly fired another arrow. It was stalemate, with no side able to make a move on each other.

Aelita noticed that both the boys were totally focused on each other. She could understand why too. Any break in their attacks could cause their opponent to win the battle. Despite wanting Odd to win this fight, Ulrich was going to last longer than Odd just because he's possessed by a non-human entity.

She thought of an idea to help Odd, because he could not win against a fight against Ulrich alone. Fortunately, the monsters haven't been given the order to fire on them yet, so it was just them and Ulrich. She whispered to Yumi the plan, understanding immediately what to do.

Yumi ran up behind Ulrich, hoping she wasn't spotted in his peripheral vision. Ulrich didn't react towards her, so it was a good sign. She just hoped she didn't distract Odd, who was probably wondering why was she behind Ulrich.

Suddenly, she latched herself onto Ulrich, with one arm in a chokehold around his neck, while the other was wrapped around his sword arm. Odd was caught by surprise, but was extremely glad she intervened. He was getting tired of the repetitive process of putting up his shield, then attacking, and doing it all over again.

Ulrich growled, charging an energy field in his free hand. Yumi knew if he was given enough time, she would be on top of his list of people to devirtualize. However, she had to hold her ground or that would be giving Ulrich freedom.

Just as he was about to swing his arm across his body, Aelita grappled onto his left arm. It preventing Ulrich from attacking Yumi and effectively trapped him. He was now the perfect target for Odd, who only needed one arrow to free Ulrich from being possessed.

Odd was slightly nervous, knowing he only had one shot to free his roommate. He reluctantly reloaded his arrows, arming himself with the arrow with the program. As he was aiming at the struggling Ulrich, he thought of how this could all end right now. He could spare Yumi facing Ulrich in battle, fulfilling one of his primary objectives.

He took a deep breath and fired the arrow infected with the program. Yumi and Aelita held Ulrich tighter hearing the arrow go off. They did not want Ulrich to escape knowing that they were so close to setting him free.

Abruptly, Ulrich placed all his weight on his right foot and bent the upper half of his body. Yumi was thrown off Ulrich's back, with his sudden momentum forcing her to let go of him. Ulrich swang Aelita in front of him, smirking at his little victory. Aelita received the blow from Odd's arrow, which made Odd grunt in frustration that Ulrich would pull off such a dirty tactic.

To further add salt in the wound, Ulrich lunged his blade into Aelita's stomach. She was immediately devirtualized. Odd was further aggravated and fired rapid laser arrows at Ulrich. Ulrich super sprinted away from Odd's line of fire and ended up at the entrance of the door. Yumi sat up, and stared at Ulrich's position. She had a bad feeling what was about to happen next.

Ulrich pointed to Odd and Yumi, commanding, "Monsters, fire upon them!"

Yumi picked herself up and sprinted alongside Odd. They immediately took cover behind a small pillar as the monsters fired a barrage of lasers. They heard Ulrich's blades strike the barrier between him and finding the location of Franz Hopper, knowing he could probably take down the barrier faster than the monsters could.

Odd stared at Yumi, feeling disappointed that he couldn't free Ulrich for her. He knew it was going to be difficult for her to fight Ulrich, and wished he could take her place. Suddenly, an idea did pop into his head. Perhaps he could take her place after all.

"Yumi, let me borrow the fan with the program in it. I can fight Ulrich for you," Odd proposed.

"No. I have to face him myself," Yumi stated, "It's up to me now to save him."

"Well, I won't do anything to change your mind. What should we do?" Odd enquired.

"You distract the monsters, while I head for Ulrich," Yumi answered.

"That sounds simple enough. Well, good luck against Ulrich, you'll probably need it!" Odd shouted.

Odd leaped in front of the monsters from his hiding spot, taunting them to follow him. He led the monsters quite easily away from the block Yumi was hiding behind. Once she felt that the coast was clear, she peaked around the corner, observing Ulrich bashing the barrier. He seemed to be making progress on it, concerning her slightly.

She thought about throwing the fan with the program within it, but each time she thought that doing that simple action was suspiciously too easy, they always failed to land that all important blow onto Ulrich. She decided against it, even though she had a clear shot at Ulrich. Knowing her bad luck, she didn't even want to try it, especially because she had the last dose of the program.

All of a sudden, she sprinted from behind the block. With adrenaline coursing through her veins, she was aware of the risk she was taking. She already lost fifty life points, and couldn't afford to lose fifty more. She was jeopardising the mission, knowing that Ulrich had eyes at the back of his head and could slash her easily.

Yumi hit the brakes five metres away from Ulrich, and focused on it. It didn't take her long to get a telekinetic lock on, and forcibly she threw him away from the barrier. Ulrich hit the floor back first, but immediately sprung back up. This time though, he kept his gaze on Yumi.

She froze the moment she stared at him, and asked herself…

Am I really ready to fight him?

Author's Notes: Cliffhanger! Boy I love putting those in the story.

I know the secret area in Carthage was dropped in really suddenly, but it does assert the point that XANA wants Franz Hopper destroyed. Plus it does add another dimension to XANA's attack where he had Avikar possess Ulrich so he could use him as a pawn to lead the attack on the barrier.

When being possessed by Avikar, I thought Ulrich should incredibly rude and inconsiderate towards his friends. So personally I really enjoyed his introduction in his new suit.

Also, I wanted to change things up from the norm. So, I had Aelita get devirtualized. She's never really been devirtualized on Lyoko with the exception of Hard Luck where she was taken out by the bug before she could reach the tower. So I thought that would be different.

Anyway, before I sign off, I'm planning a FAQ like section at the end of the final chapter. This is where you can ask me questions about the development of this story and how I inteperate the characters. You can ask me questions via Private Message (PM) to avoid spoiling the fic for others. So, I hope you guys are willing to ask me a few questions.

So, I hope you like this chapter enough to review and I'll see you next week!