The virtualization process was more painful than Aelita remembered. She fell to the ground with a large thrump, crying out when she hit the ground. The others groaned beside her, carefully picking themselves up. But Aelita couldn't move. She was frozen as her surroundings became clear. She was back in the world that trapped her for years. After everything she did to escape it, she was forced back.
Odd groaned, stretching to relive some of pain of the virtualization. He was still in the same damn cat suit. God, he hated cats. And back in the stupid forest sector of Lyoko. He hated forests and cats. He turned around to check on Aelita. His cat ears perked up when he saw her wrap her arms around her knees, shaking. "Aelita?"
She shook her head, reminding herself to take deep breaths but it wasn't working. Her whole body started shaking, her breath uneven.
"Aelita!" Odd rushed to her side. He grabbed her hands in his and rubbed them against his, trying to calm her down. "Guys, help me!" He turned to the others for help but saw that Ulrich had William pinned against a fake tree as Yumi screamed at him to stop.
"Leave me alone!" Ulrich yelled.
"Ulrich, buddy, it's me!" William cried.
"You're lying!" He screamed. "I won't let you get to me, Xana!"
"Ulrich, stop," Yumi pleaded, trying to pull him away from William but Ulrich was too strong. He pushed her away, pulling his katana out of the sheath and holding it against William's throat.
He was tricking him. It wasn't really William. Xana was controlling him, just like he use to. He will end up fighting them then throw Yumi and the others into the digital sea. Ulrich had to protect them. He had to protect them from Xana.
Yumi screamed, pulling out her fans. Odd cursed under his breath at that moment. He told Aelita to put her head into between his knees then rushed over to help Yumi with Ulrich. Yumi threw one of her fans, knocking Ulrich's katana out of his hands. Odd jumped him from behind, pulling him away from William. William collapsed in front of the fake tree, rubbing his throat. Yumi caught the katana and her fan easily and threw them away. She ran over to Ulrich who was trying to fight Odd off. She grabbed his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her.
"Ulrich, look at me. Look at me!"
Ulrich stopped struggling, looking in her eyes for the first time since they were virtualized. "Yumi, you have to leave. He's going to hurt you. I have to protect you."
"Hey, it's okay. It's not Xana. It's actually William and he's not going to hurt me. And if he did, I can handle myself. Just focus on coming back to me," She said, rubbing his cheek. "Listen to me."
Ulrich's breathing evened out as he relaxed. Odd loosened his grip on him until Ulrich's head rested against Yumi's forehead. Odd released him, immediately running back to Aelita whose breathing was getting better.
"You okay?" Odd asked, rubbing her back.
"I can't do this, Odd. I need to get out of here," Aelita answered.
"You and me both, princess."
Aelita giggled, shaking her head and leaning against him. "Only you could make me laugh in a time like this."
Odd smiled, stroking her hair.
"Uh, guys, I hate interrupting these two sweet moments but we have company," William was leaning against the fake tree, his Zweihänder out. Xana's monsters were coming towards them, ready to fight.
"Shit!" Odd cried, jumping up. "They're surrounding us."
"Fuck!" Ulrich snapped out of it and immediately switched to his fighter mode. He kissed Yumi's forehead before standing up and reaching in his sheath. "Where's my katana?"
"Here," Yumi ran over to get his katana and her fan and threw it to him.
Ulrich caught it with one hand and flipped it to get a better grip. "Odd, you and William take the ones behind us, Yumi and I will take the ones in front. Aelita, I need you up in the air," Ulrich threw out orders, pushing his fears deep inside. He needed to get them out of there.
"No, I can't," Aelita shook her head.
"What do you mean? Aelita, we need you," Ulrich said.
"Ulrich, I can't. I can't do this. Being back is killing me. I can't fight Xana's monsters."
Ulrich looked at the others who looked just as concerned as he did. He walked towards her slowly but Aelita crawled away from him.
"Aelita, we need your power of creativity," Ulrich tried to reason with her.
"No!" Aelita screamed, crawling away.
"They're closing in on us!" William yelled. "Aelita, we need you!"
Odd kneeled down, looking her in the eyes. He placed his hand on her knee, squeezing it. "Look, Aelita, we are all scared right now. None of us wanted to be back here. This place is a literal nightmare for us and I realize you have stronger feels for this place and you never wanted to be back. But unfortunately you are back and we don't know if we are going to get out of here. But we can't sit around, letting those monsters destroy us because if we do that, do you know what happens? Tyron wins. He wins and everything we've been fighting for since middle school is worthless. Do you want that to happen?" Aelita shook her head, her eyes shining. "No. None of us do. So we have to fight. We have to face our ghosts and show Tyron that he didn't win. Can you do that?" Aelita slowly nodded. "Yeah, that's my girl. Come on." Odd stood up, holding his hand out for her to take.
Aelita hesitated. She wanted to, she did but she couldn't shake her fear. Her throat was closing up again and seeing the monsters get closer paralyzed her. She shook her head, leaning her head back into her knees.
One of the monsters, a box, fired a laser, hitting Yumi in the arm. She screamed so loud, it shook the others to their core. She fell to the ground, clutching her arm. Ulrich and William ran towards her, William going to block more shots as Ulrich went to check on her. He removed her hand from the wound and was horrified when she pulled back a bloody hand.
"Odd!" He yelled, getting the other man's attention. "We have a problem!"
"They're closing in!" William added, doing his best to block the couple from the boxes approaching.
Odd gaped at Yumi's bloody hand just as horrified as Ulrich but also stick to his sick. Lyoko never caused them to bleed. They would always be sore after fighting the monsters but they would never bleed. He turned back to Aelita who was staring at the scene shock. "Come on, princess. We need you."
"I'm okay," Yumi gasped. "We need to help William."
"Yumi," Ulrich started.
Yumi groaned, standing up. Ulrich tried to help her but she shrugged him off. "I'm okay, really. We need to fight before they hurt us."
Ulrich nodded. The two took off running to the other side to start fighting the monsters. The same box that hit Yumi, approached William, lasers going off. William took the Zweihänder and sliced the box in half. Odd rushed over to help William when another box tried to sneak up on him. The box immediately disappeared when Odd hit it with arrows. On the other side, Yumi and Ulrich worked together to destroy all the monsters. Aelita sat frozen on the ground, watching her friends fight. It was like they never stopped fighting. The skills they learned four, maybe five years ago, never left them.
Odd screamed in pain when he was hit in the leg with a laser. Soon William was hit as well. He screamed but shook off the pain. Aelita gritted her teeth and stood up. She couldn't sit and watch her friends be hurt. Her wings unfolded and she took off into the sky, her flight coming back naturally. She flew over to a big group of monsters and created a giant bolder, sending it to the ground to destroy them all. Odd grinned when he saw her take off, killing a crab with a single blow as he did so.
The fight for their lives continued as Aelita would create borders from the sky to smash the monsters as the others sliced through them, avoiding the lasers. But soon the fight quickly turned against them. It was like the monsters could study their fight patterns and learn from them. The monsters ganged up on Ulrich and William as if they realized the two were their best fighters. The monsters hit the two's legs with lasers, knocking them down. Aelita screamed and when she screamed, her powers were unleashed. Pink beams busted out of her, surrounding her. She screamed again, sending the pink beams towards the ground, the energy immediately killed all the monsters. The others looked up at her in awe as she drifted back down to the ground. Odd caught her in his arms, pushing her hair out of her face.
"You did it," He smiled.
Aelita laughed weakly. "We did it."
"Guys," William cried, getting their attention. He showed them his injured leg that was disappearing. "I think we're getting out of here."
As quick as they were in Lyoko, they were out. They appeared back in the virtualization room where all of Tyron's men were gone and the control room looked empty.
"How did we get back here?" William asked, trying and failing to get back up. His leg that the monsters had hit was all torn up. The injuries they received in Lyoko were real. "Shit."
"Yep, that sums it up," Ulrich groaned, his head falling onto Yumi's lap. She smiled, weakly, putting pressure on her bleeding arm.
"Oh my God, I did it! You guys are okay!"
They all looked up when they heard Vivien's voice. She was in the doorway, bouncing on her toes in excitement. Her hair had fallen out of its ponytail and her shirt had been ripped off but other than that she was okay.
"Vivien?" Aelita asked. "Where's Jeremy? And Tyron and Laura?"
"Your mom is keeping Tyron and his men outside of the facility. The police should be arriving in minute now to arrest him but not before he gets back in. Come on, we have to get Jeremy quick," Vivien smirked.
"Vivien, what did you do?"
"I saved you guys," She shrugged, running out of the room as the others stared at her figure in disbelief.
A/N: Again another short chapter but I wanted to focus on them in Lyoko. The next chapter will focus on how Vivien saved them and of course justice for Tyron. Thanks for reading.