Chapter 7: Would you trust me?

Warning: you've been warned (might give you feels)

Eventually, they had only walked for two kilometers before Ulrich sank through his knees. During these two kilometers, Ulrich had forced himself to take every step. He was not weak. He could move properly, even with a very annoying wound at his leg. Every day, he could have destroyed a Krab (on Lyoko, mind you) and now, he was "slightly" weakened by an infected Hornet. He was damn Ulrich Stern, he wouldn't be caught off guard, weak because of XANA or a wound. Even if the pain was too much after 2000 meters.

The next three days, he had stood up every day and bravely moved himself, because it could be lethal to stay too long in one place. Yumi kept telling him he was walking in the wrong direction, but Ulrich was fairly certain he was going straight to their destination. Now Yumi warned him to rest after one small kilometer, but he did not want to rest. He did not need to rest, he felt great. Yet, he obeyed every time Yumi pleaded him to stop, and rested every evening, against his will. He didn't deny it felt good.

In the meantime, he started not to feel a part of his leg, the part around the wound. Yesterday, Yumi had taken this as an advantage and used it to sew the open wound closed. It was weird to look at it, Yumi sewing his disgusting wound closed, without really feeling anything. On this third day he felt slightly better than few days ago, he stated, but Yumi didn't want to take any risks. Like his health was more important than their safety.

That night, Ulrich couldn't fall asleep. He wasn't really tired, and his eyes didn't want to stay closed. He would say he couldn't sleep, but in reality he wanted to make sure Yumi wouldn't try anything with his leg. Ulrich let her swear at least ten times that she wouldn't try to heal his leg anymore, and still, he didn't really trust her. He would get through this on his own, he knew, he didn't need help to become the strong warrior he once was.

And with this thought, Ulrich decided it probably wouldn't hurt to close his eyes, even if it was for just a little while. Still, he stayed alert, he stayed tense. He waited for the moment where he could catch Yumi. But he couldn't catch her if she was already asleep for at least half an hour. He told himself he'd be able to relax now. That way, he felt how all of his thoughts slipped away, one by one. Suddenly, he realized he must be falling asleep – he thought he smiled. It didn't matter. He needed the rest.

Ulrich opened up his eyes immediately when he thought to hear something. The sound he heard was someone stepping on one small branch. He stood up, his katana in his two hands. With his eyes, he scanned the environment, taking in every small detail. Crack! There was the sound again, directly behind him. Ulrich turned around as fast as he could, but once again, he didn't see anything. The sound came from that direction, ten feet away, then why didn't he see who it was, or what it was…

He could just avoid getting hit by a red laser by ducking behind a tree. When he put out his head to watch what was attacking him – even if it was clear who gave the orders – he immediately pulled it back when the two Bloks shot lasers at him, and while William just was watching. A thought or two started to come up in his mind. XANA! William! I can do it. Yumi might not be hear, or Odd, or Aelita, or even Jeremy, but I'll do it. First, I gotta get rid of those Bloks.

"Triplicate!" He shouted, running up to the two Bloks, and he moved to the left of the row of three. He knew XANA must have heard he always ran in the middle, so now Ulrich should have the element of surprise. By the time the two Bloks shot the two clones devirtualizing it, Ulrich already had gotten close to the left Blok. But instead of killing it right away, he jumped on top of it. The Blok Ulrich landed on top of, kept turning around, not knowing where its target suddenly had gone to. The other Blok had noticed Ulrich on top of the other monster, and he shot.

At the moment the Blok shot at the target, Ulrich jumped off of it and the laser hit the other Blok, devirtualizing it. The Blok's parts where spread all over when Ulrich's feet hit the ground, and he knew he should brace himself for the attacks from the other one left. He turned around to the other Blok and held his katana in such a position it blocked the laser that was supposed to hit his head. He turned his katana 180°, to catch another laser, that should've hit his right leg. That way, he caught another 15 lasers before he came closer to the Blok.

"Impact!" the katana found its way into one of the four eyes of the Blok, and Ulrich pulled it out after keeping it in there for a few seconds. Parts of this second Blok flew around in the air, but not one seemed to hit the warrior. The parts just lay on the ground – the biggest difference with real life monsters and Lyoko monsters in France. Ulrich turned to William, who still did nothing. Seriously, he could have done something by now.

Ulrich ran towards William, but when at ten feet from him, he couldn't get any further. He had ran up against a force field surrounding William. Ulrich tried to reach William from all sides, but he never got any further than ten feet away from him. And all William did this whole time was grinning. Ulrich didn't like it at all, and he started to cut the force field. It didn't make any difference, but it somehow helped Ulrich mentally.

"Come on!" he shouted, losing his patience, "Coward! Come out if you dare!" William grinned again, and Ulrich wondered what it had done now – it wouldn't be grinning if it didn't know something Ulrich didn't. Then, William started to speak with a distorted voice.

"Why do you bother me," he spoke calmly, "when you should be worrying about your friends?" XANA made William point to some place behind Ulrich, and even if it could be dangerous to turn his back to the enemy, Ulrich turned around. What he saw, could change his life forever. How could it be he hadn't noticed before? He could sink through his knees when he let his eyes look over everything that happened. To his right, Aelita was lying in a puddle. It could have been an illusion, but it wasn't – she lay there motionless, on her stomach, head in the water. He saw it must have been Aelita, because nobody else he knew had pink hair like hers. To his left, a blonde boy with glasses floated above the ground. He floated there thanks to a rope, bound around a branch, with the other end around Jeremy's neck. This wasn't suicide, Jeremy wasn't suicidal, it was plain murder. Yet, in front of him, he saw something that could be worse than Jeremy and Aelita. A few feet in front of him lay Yumi. He heard her groan, which must mean she was still alive. It didn't matter to him what exactly caused her to lay there, she was wounded and Ulrich wanted to protect her.

"Yumi." he held her hand, and he noticed she had difficulty opening her eyes. Eventually, she could, and Ulrich saw the pain in her eyes.

"Ulrich…" her grasp became weaker, until the point Ulrich only held a lifeless hand. Her eyes became dull and she seemed to stare to a to him unknown point in the distance. Her heart had stopped beating. Tears were running down his cheeks, and he closed her eyes. It now looked like she was asleep. Or, it would be if the weapon that killed was to be pulled out of her stomach. Ulrich's eyes widened as he noticed his second katana, which he hadn't used, now being covered with her blood, sticking inside her dead body. The message was very clear: You killed her, Ulrich.

Not me, William, Ulrich thought. William did it, XANA wanted it, just to break me. Well, XANA had succeeded. Ulrich was broken. And furious. And wanted revenge. Ulrich wouldn't mind using his second katana to push it inside of William's stomach.

You simply don't mess with Ulrich Stern and his friends.

Let it be said, let it be done. Ulrich ran straight towards William again, ready to attack with the katana that wasn't covered in blood. He ran again against the force field that kept William separated from Ulrich. Ulrich only got madder because the enemy stood there, doing nothing, just grinning evilly. How hard he tried, he couldn't come closer to William then the 10 feet.

"Let's make this more interesting," William said with its distorted voice, and the force field was shut down. Ulrich, who now was as impatient as can be, immediately stormed right at William, who still hadn't called upon his zweihänder. Ulrich should've known it was a trap. He should have known that something – or someone – was hiding to use his long-distance weapon. But because of his anger, and sorrow, and all different emotions, he only had eye for William. You'd understand he couldn't have seen the laser arrow coming.

It missed, but Ulrich now was warned, and he was forced to hide behind a tree, to seek shelter. The monster kept firing its laser, and one got stuck in the ground, close to Ulrich's foot. Quickly Ulrich picked up the laser it was firing, and Ulrich was shocked. For 'the laser it was firing' was an arrow with no piece of wood, just a steel arrow point. The ones Odd normally would use to fight with.

After waiting a while, Ulrich figured out the pattern of the firing of laser arrows, and he got behind his tree, in plain sight, katana in the perfect position to block the next laser arrow that was to come, and all others following this first one. In the meantime, he also figured out where these laser arrows came from – somewhere to William's left, to Ulrich's right. He had almost no time to keep an eye on William, but he did notice the black-haired puppet raised his hand, and the monster stopped firing. Ulrich was trembling – he didn't realize fighting could be this exhausting. Disadvantage: this wasn't Lyoko, so he would be tired a bit after a small fight. And after a while, the adrenaline that rushed through his veins was starting to fade away.

And the one shooting took one step to the front, revealing himself to Ulrich. Out of surprise and shock, Ulrich almost dropped his katana. The one shooting was Odd, in his purple cat costume from Lyoko, with everything – even the cat ears. It was him, but the eyes gave away it wasn't really the Odd Della Robbia he knew. His eyes were white, with no iris or pupil – just plain white. Ulrich was so caught up with seeing his best friend, he didn't even notice William was long gone.

Odd lifted his arm, and Ulrich reacted quickly. This was the beginning of trying to block a seemingly endless ray of laser arrows. Where Ulrich didn't necessarily want to hurt Odd, didn't Odd even recognize his opponent as his best friend. Steadily, Ulrich could come closer to Odd, trying to find any clue that the real Odd was still there. Too bad, but he couldn't find any. No emotion was shown on Odd's face, and the only movement this dude made was moving his arms while shooting laser arrows.

Ar a certain point, Odd and Ulrich were at a distance of two feet away from each other, and Odd decided he'd better start using his fists. Distracted by this new pattern, Ulrich was hit several times by Odd before he used another tactic. It went on like this for a least one minute, until Odd decided to shoot a laser arrow in Ulrich's stomach, while Ulrich saw his chance to push his katana in Odd's stomach, to devirtualize him.

Odd's shot missed, but Ulrich's blow didn't. Because of Odd's appearance – the Lyoko costume – he kind of forgot they were in the real world, not in Lyoko. So instead of devirtualizing him… a blow with a katana in the stomach is lethal, Ulrich remembered. Odd bowed his head, as to look at the wound that Ulrich dealt to him, only to look Ulrich in his eyes a moment later. By then, his eyes were restored to normal – no eye of XANA, but also no pure white eyes.

"Why?" It was nothing more than a whisper, but Ulrich had heard it loud and clear. The next moment, Odd fell to the ground. Odd didn't have to suffer, like Yumi, and had passed quietly.

Ulrich couldn't take this anymore. It became too much to handle. Ulrich didn't pull out the katana – in fact, he never wanted to see or wield it ever again. That… thing made him a murderer, and he didn't want to be like that. That wasn't him, he didn't kill both. He was being confused when he hit Odd, and someone-else must have hit Yumi. They are… no, were his best friends. It just couldn't be true, but it really was.

He couldn't care any less when William calmly walked up to him, ready to give the very last blow to the last surviving Lyoko Warrior…

Ulrich awoke, gasping for air, the the pictures still fresh in his memory. It took a while before he realized someone kept calling for him. He opened his eyes, and noticed Yumi was looking at him, worried. His heart stopped one moment – Yumi! She was alive. She's alive! As fast as his body let him, he grasped her and pulled her into a tight hug, as long as possible. Yumi liked the hug, and she returned it wholeheartedly.

"I thought you were…" they said at the same time, and they started to blush. "You go first," Ulrich offered her the opportunity, and Yumi nodded.

"Ulrich, I… I thought you were dying," she admitted, and she described the evening as it passed for her. After a while, he apparently had started to moan, and to turn in his sleep. All those time, he kept clinging onto the katana, which he quickly threw away in fear when he noticed he was still holding it. Yumi found this a strange gesture, since Ulrich had always wanted to protect himself and the ones around him, and he could do it with his katana. "Why'd you do that?"

"I don't want it," he simply said.

"Why not? You practically acted like a little child when Jeremy presented it to you."

"Because I'm hurting certain people with it." And he explained his dream to her, going over even the smallest details. He only didn't tell her he practically gave up after 'killing' Odd. He bowed his head when he just finished his story. "I don't want it, because I could hurt you." He was ashamed about his reaction, but at the other side, he wasn't.

"This is nonsense, Ulrich." Yumi insisted.

"It's the truth," Ulrich argued, and he still didn't dare to look in her eyes. "I don't want to hurt anyone, Yumi. I… I thought you were dead, killed by this thing. I don't want it anymore, I could hit you." In the meantime, Yumi had picked up the katana and put it next to Ulrich. It didn't seem he was going to pick it up himself. Yumi sighed.

"Ulrich, just take it." But Ulrich shook his head.

"Why would I take it, if I can't trust myself with it?" he reasoned.

"Ulrich…"

"Just keep it." he reacted. Yumi looked at him, shocked. The Ulrich she knew wouldn't easily give up his only weapon, and most certainly not in these times.

"What?"

"You keep it; you can have it." She tried once more to convince him, but he didn't want to hear it. "Why do you trust me?" he snapped at her, "I am dangerous, Yumi. If something like that is really going to happen, would you still trust me? Because I wouldn't." Yumi sat down next to him. Never had she seen Ulrich so depressed like this. Never had he changed his mind this quickly. Never had he been willing to give up the weapon that protected him.

"Without trust, we're nothing. We'd be gone just as quick as…" she trailed off, not intending to finish that one. She wanted to say 'Odd', but she wasn't sure about that. It could be their parents were gone. XANA used everything to lure the other Lyoko Warriors to their imminent death, even killing their families was a point on its list. The only one alive if the Ishiyamas could be Hiroki and Yumi, while Ulrich could be all alone by now. Ulrich shrugged.

"Keep it anyway." he told her, "I cannot trust myself. Only if you trust me for 100 percent, give it back. I'm counting on you." Yumi nodded, picked up the katana and put it down on Ulrich's lap.

"I trust you, Ulrich, don't be so childish!" Ulrich grinned, and slowly picked it up at its handle. A shiver went down his spine, but he kept holding it. He had the control. He controlled the weapon. He was master of his weapon and fears. And still…

"Take it from me if I'm starting to go crazy." he reasoned, "I'd rather see you handling it than me hurting somebody."

"What if you flee?" Yumi wanted to know, and Ulrich shrugged again.

"I won't. I'll take it with me for temporary separation, but you can have it if I'm not coming back." Yumi sighed, out of relief this time.

"Now we've closed this topic, you can get back to resting." Ulrich shook his head.

"No, now it's time for you to rest. I'll be the guard." Yumi couldn't do anything else than to nod – he sounded self-confident, self-assured. The same Ulrich she had learned to know. She lay down, and fell asleep three minutes later.

It could just be him, but he's seen William three times during his guard shift.

Poor Ulrich... I almost cried while writing this chapter. When will Ulrich lose his grip on reality? Where's he leading Yumi? And what will Yumi do when he's lost it completely? Whaddya think will happen next? Because (I think) it's unclear as when it exactly happened, but it will be told in the next chapter, with Jim, Jeremy and Aelita. Also, just to clarify, XANA can't do some things. He barely managed to get a Tarantula to the real world, and if he doesn't feed his puppet, he'll soon have to seek a new one. Oh, and chapter eight: Would you take the risks? will be posted on the 20th of February! On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (yep, he can get that far. But as I mentioned above, even XANA isn't as powerful as he wished he was)

princessbinas (I'm sorry, but I've got to disappoint you - he really died. We won't be seeing him a lot, maybe in flashbacks and memories, or more dreams...)

Darkangle (I don't do faster updates, sorry. It gives me time to write the next chapter(s), and it gives you time to review - for those who saw this update few hours before the next one, just in case. I'm already happy I don't have to do with monthly updates)

Guest 1 & 2 (Yes, Aelita's in this (see: how it could end, would you trust me and would you let me die, so far) and no, I don't think he's gonna get a replacement. XANA doesn't really care about its prisoners)

See ya next time! And a happy (early) Valentine's Day!

-DutchWriters2