Chapter 5


Ulrich glowered at the floor, in a nasty mood. He hated climbing anything, but Jim hadn't given him the slightest bit of choice in the matter. William was giving him a very wide berth.

"Ulrich?" Aelita asked softly.

He glanced up. "What?"

"I thought you were doing better on the rope, actually." Aelita dusted her hands off on her shirt, leaving chalky handprints. "You got most of the way up."

"Hm." Ulrich glanced around. Jeremy was sitting on the bleachers, playing with his laptop. "Managed to talk his way out of P.E., did he?"

Aelita followed his gaze. "Actually…I interceded with Jim for him. I'm…worried about him."

"How so?"

"He's…" Aelita hesitated. "I can't put my finger on it. There's something not quite right about him anymore."

"Less focused? Brooding?" Now would be a really bad time to mention some of the weird things he'd heard through the doors, late last night.

"I think I'd recognize 'less focused' from watching Odd, and 'brooding' from watching you," Aelita pointed out. "This is different."

I do not brood, Ulrich wanted to growl – but of course, he knew that he wandered off a lot to think in peace, and he was often in a mood when he did. That certainly added up to brooding. "Too focused?" he asked instead.

"That's…closer," Aelita admitted. "But it's not like his usual…" she groped for a word.

"Obsession?" William put in; daring to approach Ulrich after Aelita had been standing there for five minutes without getting her throat ripped out.

Aelita went very quiet.

"It's not like he's never gotten obsessed with anything," Ulrich pointed out. "Remember when you were still not much more than a computer program in Lyoko, before we got you to earth? Talk about going without sleep. And then after we got you out, he practically went insomniac trying to separate you from XANA."

"I know, I know…" Aelita shot Ulrich a sharp look. "But you don't think that's it either, do you?"

"Don't, uh…" Ulrich paused. "I don't think it's what?"

"XANA. Jeremy's not obsessing over how to destroy XANA, is he? I've seen that, this is different."

"Actually…no."

Aelita leaned forward. "Do you know what the problem is?"

Ulrich grimaced. "Not…with…any…certainty…" suddenly he tensed; something had started setting off all the panic signals in his head.

"Ulrich?" William asked hesitantly.

"Something…something's not right," Ulrich said, trying not to freak out. When he went into panic mode, it usually involved running away on all fours at top speed and likely would include savaging anything that didn't get out of the way fast enough.

William evidently had picked up on that: he started backing up. Aelita remained motionless, choosing to play statue rather than risk being a moving target.

Then, Ulrich's senses dimmed and a voice whispered through his mind. Ulrich?

Yumi? Ulrich thought back in disbelief. He'd known that they'd shared a bond since he let Yumi drink his blood, but he hadn't known that she could use it to speak to him like this.

His senses dimmed farther, causing him to sway dizzily. On the plus side, the panic signals quit broadcasting.

Akem Manah is here, Yumi told him. I don't know why exactly, but he wants to talk to Jeremy and Aelita. I'm escorting him to the gym right now. I'd wager you can sense him, by the way.

That would explain the panic signals.

We'll be there in thirty seconds – give them the heads-up.

"Ulrich?" Jeremy's voice seemed to come from a long way off. "Are you all right? Do we need to get Yolanda?"

"Yumi's coming," Ulrich replied. At least, he thought he'd replied: he almost couldn't hear his own voice. "And she's bringing a visitor: a really powerful visitor. He wants to talk to you and Aelita."

I'll fine-tune the sensory blocks when I get there, Yumi added. There was no apology in her mind, but he didn't particularly expect it.

The first sign that Yumi had arrived was that the feeling returned to his body; at some point while he was in telepathic contact with her, he'd dropped to his knees. Then his vision cleared. His hearing and smell didn't come back all the way, and he somehow suspected that Yumi wouldn't let him get those senses back in full until after the Elder left. He tried to get up and his head spun; he decided that he was safer on the floor. He did look up, though, and saw Yumi standing there with a stranger.

"Elder, this is Jeremy, Aelita, William, and Ulrich," Yumi said, indicating who had which name by pointing at them. "Guys, this is Elder Akem."

Aelita favored him a perfect bow, although Ulrich spied a dubious expression. He couldn't blame her: the guy looked like a strung-out drug freak. William glanced at Yumi and someone else – Odd? – for confirmation, and then bowed himself. Jeremy was rigid as a pole, but he somehow managed a bow of his own. Ulrich just waved from his vantage point of the floor.

Aelita glanced at Jeremy – who clearly wasn't about to say anything – and said, "What can we do for you, Elder?"

Akem Manah studied her for a moment. Then he spoke in a grating voice. "I have long been aware of the secret you carry. There was even a time when I knew your father. I know what you are doing – and what you are trying to do. I come to tell you that your enemy is rising against the vampires, of which one is your friend."

Ulrich had given up on being surprised. "If this is about Elder Mandy," he said wryly, "We took care of that already, weeks ago. What, did she complain to you?"

Yumi winced and shot Ulrich a warning look; evidently, one didn't speak like that to an elder if they were interested in survival.

"He has gathered the Omens," Akem Manah continued, as if Ulrich hadn't spoken. "He has corrupted them to his own use, in a way my children cannot sense."

Yumi looked horrified; evidently, that meant something to her.

Odd leaned forward to look around Akem Manah. "Okay, stupid question: what are the 'Omens'?"

"They're basically storm clouds," Yumi whispered, "But they rain blood. If XANA's taken control of them, it would let him possess every vampire in France, or even the world – and he wouldn't even have to do anything, the vampires would do it for him just by responding instinctively to that rain."