Chapter 3: How it continued

Everything he knew, and what he had yet to know, was a lie.

Or, at least, that's what Ulrich Stern hoped every time he woke up. He knew the world was filled with XANA's monsters. He knew they couldn't have stopped William. He knew many had fled, and that even more were captured at Kadic. He knew France and neighboring lands were being cut out from the outside world, because the monsters stopped everyone who wanted to pass the borders. He knew many good people had died, possibly including his best friend. He knew he would join these good people if he didn't do something soon.

And maybe it was all partly Ulrich's fault. Not because of what he did, but because of what he didn't do. He should have fought William man to man instead of fleeing with Yumi. He should have stayed – he should have been the distraction. And Odd shouldn't have stayed behind – then he would have been sure what happened to his friend, when he now only could guess what happened. At least he knew Jeremy and Aelita were alive, even if he'd seen them just one month ago.

Anyway, he thought he was to blame for a lot of things that didn't happen, or did happen with consequences. And he didn't like the fact he couldn't do anything about it.

Ulrich and Yumi, with whom he ran through the forest and city for the last four months, were now sprinting as fast as they could, following the river/canal. They seemed in a rush, but somehow, they weren't. They could run calmly, as long as the Kankrelats didn't come any closer. Even though they ran as fast as they could, this wasn't Lyoko, where they had an unstoppable amount of energy. But this was the real world, meaning they were slowly growing tired because of their lack of training.

"Told you we shouldn't leave the woods!" Ulrich shouted, shaking his head. Yumi was the reason they were being chased. No answer. He was slowly getting used to it, no answer when she was thinking or just plain emotional. They didn't go into the city for food or drinks, they had still plenty, but because of Yumi's younger brother, Hiroki. They were trying out a new route to go and spy on the Kadic Prison, to see if Hiroki was still alive.

"Look, the factory!" Yumi pointed to the building in the middle of the canal, being bound to the mainland by a single bridge. Just a few 100 feet to the bridge, then passing it and then, they would be in safety, the two decided at the same moment. Okay, they haven't been going there for like four months, but they knew the place better than the monsters, Ulrich ran possibly even faster, And Yumi did the same, until he heard a soft buzzing behind them he could only identify as the Hornets.

The road made way for the steel bridge when the two ran around the corner and entered the bridge. Their footsteps sounded too loud, just like the sound of the following Kankrelats. When the duo saw the red lasers hit the ground in front of them, they knew the monsters finally opened fire, especially the Hornets. As always, they shot too much without hitting anything, and just then a mosquito decided to sting Ulrich in his leg. Not the right time, he thought as they finally ran through the entrance of the factory. And old habit kicked in, and they reached out their hands to grab the rope, but there was no rope anymore.

Ulrich didn't like falling, especially from this height. He and Yumi screamed, and you' know why – nobody liked falling twenty/thirty feet, most certainly not if you had vertigo, and even not when you were used to grabbing a rope and landing on your two feet after gliding down the rope.

It was a pleasant surprise to find they landed on a small hill of pillows.

Ulrich breathed in relief when he was certain he was alright. The relief soon was to be replaced by surprise – since when were there pillows in the factory? He looked at Yumi, who looked back at him, and the expression on her face told him how Yumi was wondering the same as him. The next question he wanted answered, was how these pillows got there with nobody in the factory, as far as they knew. They hadn't been there since the last attack before the invasion, and there were no pillows back then. The terrain of the factory could possibly be seen as Jeremy's terrain, since he was here most out of all five (six counting William) Lyoko Warriors, with the exception of Franz Hopper…

They had seen Jeremy fled in the direction of the factory…

No, Ulrich told himself, Jeremy isn't that stupid to hide at the literal birthplace of XANA, is he? But it seemed that, the last few days, he'd been wrong a lot of times, with the exception of the small chase from a few minutes ago. He looked up, and the monsters still hadn't entered the factory. From his position, he could see how a Hornet tried to break in, but was being held outside by a force field. And Ulrich knew he had been wrong once again as he noticed something was watching them.

When he turned his head in their direction, one of the two disappeared, while the other just stood in his position, spying on the two intruders. Just then Yumi turned her head as well, and the second person disappeared as well. "Are you sure you saw something?" Yumi asked, who once again successfully guessed what Ulrich had been thinking. Ulrich nodded.

"Yes. And now, let's get out of this." It was harder than they thought, and Ulrich guessed it took them at least six minutes. And it was surprisingly quiet in the factory, too quiet. It was always quiet in here, but this silence felt unnatural. Ulrich helped Yumi out of the pillow-hill, and noticed the small amount of blood on few pillows. And, he thought, they couldn't stay here any longer. He didn't trust the factory anymore, and he bet his head that those people were both possessed by XANA. This was home of the supercomputer, the place where the artificial intelligence had been created, and even if XANA didn't think this place was valuable, as he tried to destroy this multiple times, this still was a place filled with mysteries, secrets and, above all, dangers.

That's why they pretended not to know something was sneaking up to them from behind their backs – you'd better surprise the enemy instead of running towards it like you're crazy, as Odd would have done if he were here. Yumi and Ulrich might not have had real weapons at that time, but that didn't mean they were easy preys. Yumi turned her head in such position she could see Ulrich, but not the thing sneaking up to them. Ulrich received the message with no trouble: you go first. Ulrich didn't protest – he'd become used to Yumi taking the lead. He balled his hands and closed his eyes, and his hearing took it over. Just ten feet… five feet… two feet…

…and Ulrich kicked behind him, and hit the thing that wanted to attack them. He turned towards the person, and so did Yumi, dealing the next blow in the person's stomach. The expected monster turned out to be an adult, a man, and he moaned as Yumi hit him. Ulrich dropped his position, surprised, and looked at the man. Surprisingly, he recognized the man's moan from the past. As Yumi kicked him again, and the man let out a moan again, Ulrich knew it for sure.

"Jim?" Ulrich said, and Yumi stopped her hand just in time. She gave herself one second to study the man she's been attacking, to draw the same conclusion as Ulrich.

"Jim!?" Ulrich wondered how they couldn't have recognized their old PE teacher Jim Morales when he crawled back onto his feet. It clearly was their Jim, even if he changed just a bit. Plus, there wasn't that much light, so that could've been another reason not to recognize him. In those four months, his hair had grown slightly, and a beard had started to grow. And, if Ulrich wasn't wrong, their PE teacher also lost some weight. Jim looked at them, and then widened them as he recognized them (finally).

"Stern? Ishiyama?" He wasn't going to call them Ulrich and Yumi, was he? "Nice to see you're still alive." Yumi smiled.

"Nice to see you alive, too." She said.

"Sorry we attacked, Jim. We thought you were a Blok," Ulrich apologized. Ever since the attack which made Ulrich and Odd temporary insane, he had called Jim sometimes a Blok in his thoughts. Jim looked around, as if he searched something.

"Huh, I would've done the same in your position. And isn't Della Robbia with you?" Ulrich's face dropped. He'd wanted to ask Jim that question. But now he heard the question coming out of his mouth, he knew for sure Odd wasn't here, in the factory, where he could've gone too four months ago. But if he wasn't here, then where was he?

"No, he's not, we … we last saw him during the invasion." Ulrich bowed his head, and felt how Yumi put her hand onto his shoulder, as if to comfort him. Jim's mouth stood open, and it stayed that way until ten seconds after that, when he finally could say something.

"Well, then he probably is at Kadic," he said, and Ulrich nodded. There was the possibility Odd would be captured on their old school grounds, yet one more reason to try and come closer to it without getting caught. Yet, Ulrich had this feeling, that told him Odd wasn't there, wasn't even alive anymore. If XANA would catch a Warrior, he wouldn't keep them alive.

"No, I don't think he's being held captive," Ulrich said, looking at Yumi, as she noticed what Ulrich meant. XANA. If he had caught him before he could get to safety… they didn't want to think about that. Jim's face formed a grimace when he, after five minutes of silence, got what Ulrich meant with those words. He balled his fists.

"He should try that with the people under my protection! They'll first have to go over my dead body, XANA's stupid monsters!" Suddenly, Yumi and Ulrich turned their heads toward their PE teacher, as if he'd said a bad word. Jim himself didn't know what was going on. Whatever he had said or done, it had surprised Stern and Ishiyama. He waited for a while, waiting for one of them to explain, but the two just kept staring. Yep, great tactic. "What?"

"You called him XANA," Ulrich noticed, and Jim shrugged.

"So?"

"Most call him 'the virus'," Yumi clarified, "and others think William just made up XANA, made the monsters and wanted to take over the world, so-called being controlled by the made-up computer program. The only ones to call him XANA are the human traitors," her eyes widened, "and the Lyoko Warriors!" Ulrich knew what Yumi wanted to know. If Jim knew XANA's name, that should mean he was either a traitor or that Aelita and Jeremy were here. Jim frowned. He didn't know that name, the 'Lyoko Warriors', were those famous people?

"Lyoko Warriors?"

"Jim, is Jeremy or Aelita here? Or both?" Ulrich asked, completely ignoring Jim's question. Jim hadn't expected an answer, anyway. He just wondered who those Lyoko Warriors were. He shrugged again before answering Ulrich's question – even if it wasn't a direct answer, he just remembered something.

"Oh yeah, that's right! Belpois is here too! He would want to know you two are here. I'll take you two to him!" Ulrich raised an eyebrow, and Yumi followed his example. It seemed as if Yumi would explode from anger.

"And you didn't tell us earlier because…"

"I forgot," Jim said sheepishly, and they walked through the factory. They walked down by use of the stairs – Jim didn't even consider taking the elevator – and their route was long, much longer than Yumi and Ulrich could remember. It didn't seem to have an end, and at a certain moment, it felt like they had been walking in circles. Nobody talked, and except for Jim, who sometimes muttered a curse under his breath – as if he didn't know exactly where Jeremy was at this point. Eventually, Ulrich couldn't bear the silence anymore, and asked the question of which he wanted to know the answer for a long time.

"What were you doing when it happened?" Jim shrugged.

"Same as always: trying to teach those kids sport is just as important as all those electric gizmos! Well, I did until those monsters stormed onto the field and they… I'd rather not talk about that," he scratched his head, "anyway, a few students and I eventually found this factory and Belpois, who could explain to us what was happening, and installed that force field to keep out curious monsters. If they are curious. And as you see, we stayed here." Ulrich nodded.

"And how's Jeremy doing?" Yumi wondered.

"Except one tiny thing, everything's fine! Even better now he finally…" Slowly, Jim's voice faded away, and the world around Ulrich started to fade as well. Two beige stains moved forward where Yumi and Jim once walked, until those two stains became part of the black background. Ulrich kept walking until he slumped because of the mosquito-sting from earlier, while a flaming eye of XANA slowly made way towards him. And somewhere, in the distance, Yumi's voice kept asking Ulrich to wake up…

"Ulrich, wake up!" Yumi kept repeating, but she didn't succeed in waking him up. She didn't know how long he's been out cold, or how long he had been asleep, but it had been at least from sunrise 'till now, and she knew one thing for sure: he needed this rest. She didn't like waking him up, or to see him this weak, but if they wanted to stay safe, they had to leave now. As far as they could be safe, because they stayed at 5 kilometers away from Kadic. Just close enough to sneak that way and go away without being noticed, and far away enough to flee when the monsters finally realize that they've been at 5 kilometers from the beginning of the invasion. The closer they were, the less XANA expects them there. He was damn dangerous, so nobody would be stupid enough to come that close to them.

Well, all except Yumi and Ulrich, who stayed at that range for good reason.

The answer to the question why they stayed that close to Kadic, is because Yumi's younger brother was in Kadic. He could be dead by now, but she needed to know for sure, and thus they stayed close to the prison. Sometimes they came closer, to search Hiroki between the people. Every time, she had seen him, but he hadn't seen her. Maybe Hiroki thought Yumi was dead, or maybe he still had hope. She couldn't read his facial expression, and could only hope everything was going fine with him.

Then there was the trouble with Ulrich. The mosquito he thought had stung him just before meeting Jeremy and Jim, had been an infected Hornet – or, as it is called by the people, a zombie-fly. Their lasers cause 'infected wounds', which were harder to heal than other laser-wounds. But Ulrich didn't easily let himself be sick, and the wound started to heal, also with help from Yumi, and Jeremy. He only limped now and then, when he thought Yumi couldn't see him. Everything went fine, until they heard how five Kankrelats approached and Ulrich wanted to show Yumi he was fully recovered by taking on the Kankrelats. But, after three Kankrelats, one of them could hit Ulrich – at exactly the same place as the infected Hornet shot him. Seriously, what are the odds? Anyway, Yumi was alarmed by his scream and she took it over, destroying the last two Kankrelats and they ran.

It had been too late by then – Ulrich had been hit in his most sensitive spot, and fell unconscious. She immediately fled with him, and made their camp an hour after the fight, while Ulrich was still raving. Most of the time he was just muttering incomprehensible things, and sometimes she could hear him say her name, or Odd's, or Jeremy's, or Aelita's. It was clear he missed them, or was he seeing them in his dreams? She couldn't tell.

To her surprise, Ulrich opened up his eyes, he blinked a few times, even if the day could almost be called a night, and looked around, as far as he could, lying on the ground.

"Where's Jim?" he asked with a hoarse voice, and Yumi knew he must have gone back to when they first went to the factory, a month ago. When he tried to sit up, Yumi gently pushed him back down – he needed his rest.

"Er… he's gone away, and you need to rest," she repeated when he sat back up, leaning his back against a tree. This should have been part of the city, but it wasn't anymore. Not long after XANA took over France, he expanded it from William/monsters to the nature around the school. Within three weeks, he successfully turned the whole city in some wood-like terrain. Everything, except the canal sides at the factory – he somehow did not do anything there.

Yumi sighed. "If you want to sit so badly, then let me at least take a look at your wound." Ulrich moaned a small protest, but he let her do her work anyway. He let her pull up his pants, and closed his eyes in the meantime. He felt like throwing up, and didn't want to see his wound, so he planned to keep them closed until he felt his pants back onto the wound. He heard Yumi gasp, and so he guessed the wound was looking terrible. Yumi didn't know much about those wounds, but the wound suppurated heavily, and she had nothing to clean, and heal it. And even if she had the right things, she didn't have the knowledge to clean and heal the wound properly.

"How long?" Ulrich wanted to know. She looked at him, surprised, before giving an answer.

"A couple of hours," she said – Yumi knew Ulrich wanted to know how long he'd been knocked out. Or, in his words, how long those dumb, simple Kankrelats were able to humiliate him. And after she told him that, and after she put his pants back to place, Ulrich grabbed the tree and tried to stand up, under Yumi's protests.

"Ulrich, don't! You need to rest!" she told him. This can sound somewhat contradictory to what she said earlier, namely that she wanted to wake him up to move the camp. But in the meantime, Yumi changed her mind because of the newly opened suppurating wound on Ulrich's leg. It looked terrible, and had decided to wait just one night, but Ulrich clearly disagreed.

"We have to go," he said while he leaned against the tree with one hand for stability, and used his other hand to hold his katana and use it like a walking stick. Yumi shook her head.

"What about your health?" Yumi said, but Ulrich already walked away, from tree to tree.

"Safety first!" he said, gritting his teeth. Yumi sighed because of Ulrich's stubbornness. She tried to convince him to stay, but it was to no use. So instead she took all of their stuff, which Ulrich seemed to have forgotten, and followed him. Sometimes she took his arm to help him, but he pulled it away immediately, and Yumi sighed.

She feared his stubbornness could mean his end after a couple of time.

Longest flashback so far! Busted! Let's hope Ulrich survives this story. How far will the two go? Will Ulrich push it to the limit? Well, you've got to wait few chapters for the answers of those questions, because next chapter last POVs will be introduced, and who do you think will be next? Any ideas for next events? Next chapter, chapter four: How it could end, will be posted on the 16th of January! On with the reviews:

Absinok (Thanks, and every prison has some sort of rebel, so I thought of Hiroki)

Bluedog197 (Well, thank you reviewing, and now you mentioned it, yes they are! The story has many important things happening at (almost) the same time so I need the several POVs)

See ya next time!

-DutchWriters2