William examined the open area between him and the building his next class was located in. He ensured there was no sign of Jim around, them began to sneak towards the building.

"I can't believe it took me so long to finish breakfast that I missed the bell. Guess I should have realized something was up when everyone left." William said, speak to himself. He ran to the wall of the nearest building and pressed his body against it as a way to blend-in and stay hidden should Jim or another teacher show up.

He snuck along the wall until he came to a corner, which he stealthily moved across to reach another small wall.

'Just one more turn and I'll be there. I wonder how I'm gonna explain why I was so late.' He thought, turning the final corner. As he moved around the angled wall, he saw a familiar face a few feet ahead of him.

"Yumi, what are you doing out here?" He asked, the raven haired girl just now realizing he was in front of her.

Yumi's eyes darted down as she spoke. "Nothing, just walking."

William instantly raised an eyebrow at what she said. "You don't seem like the kind of person who would skip class to 'just walk'. What's really bothering you? Are you still thinking about what happened between you and Ulrich?"

Yumi looked at him when he mentioned Ulrich's name, but quickly looked away again.

"It just bothers me. All that he and I have been through... I don't know what to do about it. Every time he messes up, every time he's hurt me I've given him another chance and every time he ends up hurting me again. I've trusted him since I met him, but it seems like whenever something happens he loses all trust in me and calls me guilty no matter what." Yumi sighed, both from physical and emotional exhaustion.

William looked over at her with caring eyes, attempting to comfort her. "Yumi, have I ever told you why I stopped perusing a relationship with you?"

"No, I don't think you have." She replied.

"The reason I stopped is because I noticed something about you and Ulrich. You two would fight, a lot, and about nothing important most of the time. You would get jealous, argue, disagree and misunderstand so many times I lost count."

"Your point?" Yumi questioned, interested to hear his main idea, not the rambling she believed he was doing.

"My point is, through all those hard times and problems you and Ulrich could come together afterwords and forgive each other. It never affected your relationship for very long, probably even making it stronger. What I'm trying to say is, you not talking to him won't fix anything; you've gotta forgive him and work through it, or you'll spend the rest of your life wishing you had."

Yumi looked into her friends eyes and smiled, readjusting her hair which had moved when she raised her head.

"Thanks, William. You always seem to know what to say when I have a problem."

William smiled at the compliment. "That's what friends are for. Anyone else would have told you the same thing, I just got to you first." He said, humbling himself.

As she was about to speak, Yumi's phone buzzed in her pocket.

"Hello?" She said, answering the call.

"Yumi, we've got something happening down at the factory. I need you down here ASAP." Jeremy said, speaking through his headset.

"Got it. William and I are on our way." She said, hanging up her phone.

"X.A.N.A.?" William asked.

Yumi nodded. "As usual, he just can't leave us alone."

Yumi turned towards the forest and began to run, but William grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

"Remember, forgive and talk it out with him."

"Don't worry William, I know what to do." She said, shrugging his hand off her shoulder.

"Hey!" They both heard yelled at them from a distance. They turned towards the source to see Jim running towards them.

"Dunbar! Ishyama! What are you doing out of class!?" Jim yelled, getting closer to the two.

"Run for it?" Yumi asked, looking back at William.

"You read my mind." He replied, running ahead of her, Yumi quickly following his lead.

—

"This is strange... I'm picking up a massive flow of information from the base in Siberia directly to the factory." Jeremy said, watching the information travel on a map on his screen.

"That can't be good. Access the program that allows you to see the power usage in the factory and find out if X.A.N.A. has decided to tamper with anything." Franz said.

Jeremy opened the program and began a scan of the building. "I found it! There's a major spike in power usage down in the manufacturing area, where the assumably line is. I'm pulling up a camera view of the area now."

Jeremy opened the security window and changed the camera to the assumably room, displaying the automated robotic arms working on a rectangular metal object that was empty in the middle.

"What could it be? A door perhaps?" Franz said, looking at the mysterious creation.

"A door... A door to where?" Jeremy asked, something he would soon regret to discover.

—

Okay... Late and not 2,000 words. I know, not the best on my part, but I have good reason that I think all of you will like. Over this time, I have been working in basic ideas for an original novel, and I now think I am ready to begin the early stages of development into the summer to have a finished project by the end of summer or early fall. More info on that soon. And btw, after season one is complete at the end of episode 13, I will be allowing a close friend of mine, Knux27, to write the filler between seasons 1 and 2 while I focus on my novel. PM me with any questions about anything above!