Chapter 11: When he decided

It was and stays exhausting to attempt dodging lasers from monsters while lying on the ground.

Everything hurt him, but especially his leg hurt a lot. He remembered vaguely he got that pain – and the wound that came with it – from some sort of different kind of Hornet, where he later got hit on exactly the same place by a Kankrelat. He did not think this was a coincidence, but he did think XANA doesn't like him, because he took everything away from him, to leave him in misery, and he even mocked the Warrior by saying 'Look, two of my weakest can take you down, you weakling'. Odd gone, family gone, and because of the wound he also lost his physic health and power. And he wouldn't let it take whatever little things he had left. He would keep going, ever stubborn, because it might at well save his lie. And they wouldn't be able to touch Yumi without passing him. In other words, he had his limitations, but he used whatever he had left to compensate this and come out stronger, to be able to survive this apocalypse-like invasion.

Ulrich also knew he saw more than Yumi, who seemed to lack attention sometimes. This way, he'd warned her for a Blok she couldn't see, even though she looked straight at it, but it had hurt when the laser hit Ulrich. If everything was this strange, Yumi would've called him crazy. At this point, everything was somehow confusing to him. From time to time, monsters would come along, and disappear when Yumi finally came. And every time they fired their lasers and Ulrich shouted in pain, Yumi thought it was because of the wound, and not because of the bruises that had appeared at the places where the lasers had hit him. And every time Ulrich would tell her it's the monsters' fault, she'd tell him she didn't believe him, because she would have heard them coming closer. Yumi confirmed this pain, by pressing against his painful and bruised chest, which made things even more confusing. Because how could Yumi not see or hear them, while Ulrich could see and feel the pain they dealt?

However, he succeeded in making a difference between the real world and Lyoko – he was breathing, which wasn't necessary in the virtual world, and because of the pain he felt, which helped him remember he was vulnerable, human, weak, and not invincible, which he wanted to be in this madness he's supposed to call 'life'.

And, to feel better, and to make sure it didn't hurt too much, it was better not to move at all. Every move hurt, one hurt more than another, and yet he kept trying to get up. If he stood, it was easier to dodge lasers fired at him, because – to be honest – he really
was an easy target. Normally, he stopped the attempt at the point where his leg had to move, and he was forced to rest. At such moment, he tried to ignore it and lay down again, but always was attacked at this point, when he had no energy to even defend himself. The katana lay close, but he always grabbed it too late. And he was now quite sure the monsters wanted Ulrich Stern dead.

He lifted his head when he heard the sound of moving bushes again. You'd think the environment would adapt to the sound, but it didn't – he heard movement, but he did not see any movement, even though he should be able to see it by now. Tensed up and, as far as he could, he looked around, searching for the source of the sound. He tensed up a little more when, after a while, he still hadn't figured out what was coming for him now. Yet, this situation changed when he saw a shadow between the trees.

He tried to get up again when the figure came closer and started to adopt a more human form. Silently, this person came closer, so close Ulrich recognized him as William! He growled while William approached, wearing a small evil smile, until he squatted next to the wounded young man, who now protested heavily against his presence, yet still without making sound – both of them – except the growling.

"Hello Ulrich," William said – without his distorted voice – and Ulrich used all of his power to push himself up, "Why are you still trying? After all those time, you still don't give up, you still want to go through. What do you need to prove yourself?" Ulrich didn't answer – he needed all his concentration to push himself the hell up. "Don't you understand? You've already lost! No energy, no friends, you barely dare to touch your weapon… 'cause you caused it. And the only one willing to help thinks you're crazy 'cause she never arrives on time to see them! You, my friend, are weak." That was the last straw for Ulrich. He lost his concentration, and fell on the ground again.

"I'm not…" he groaned, and he reached out for his katana, only inches away from his hand. Yet, he didn't succeed in grabbing it, because William grabbed him at his hair and pulled him up, so his knees were barely touching the ground. He suddenly looked more dangerous, less tormenting.

"You are weak! Don't try to prove me wrong, because you are. Those monsters were able to hit you, I am hurting you now myself and, when I'm busy, I will prove you that you're too weak to protect Yumi." He let go of Ulrich, who fell to ground with a soft 'thud'. He just saw how William picked up his gigantic sword and walked away with it – probably in Yumi's direction, too. Ulrich trembled from head to toe, because of his anger.

"No…" he whispered, repeating this word in a louder tone. Not Yumi. He got Odd and (almost) Aelita, and Jeremy was pretty safe in his factory – but Ulrich was the only one who could protect Yumi. He reached out for his katana again. I am not weak. He grasped the handle. If he touches Yumi… He pulled the sword to him. … XANA's going down!

"Ulrich?" a worried voice joined in and, because of William's presence, Ulrich was unable to recognize it now. In fact, because of this anger, he imagined it was William who was talking to him now. He balled his fist and squeezed the handle. I am not weak. If you touch her, you're going down! He pushed the katana into the air while rolling over onto his back, until he was eye to eye with a startled Yumi.

"Ulrich!" she repeated, worried, surprised, startled, and Ulrich – when he realized it was Yumi – let the katana fall down to the ground, and he had luck it hit none of both. It's just Yumi, he told himself, William didn't hurt her. And another thought had gotten into his head. Gosh, I almost hit Yumi! He started to tremble again. "Are you okay?" Yumi asked him.

"I-I…" Ulrich stuttered, and he shook his head, "…saw William …was here…" against his expectations – and slightly with 'em – Yumi shook her head. It somehow partly didn't surprise Ulrich: she had been late again, and she hadn't seen it again. Then Ulrich wondered why Yumi didn't want to tell him she'd heard him, because William wasn't exactly a silent kind of guy, while Yumi hadn't been far away from Ulrich.

"That's impossible," Yumi stated, "He hasn't been here." Now Ulrich was looking at him, slightly distrustful. Did she knew William was coming? Was there a possibility she and William were working together, teaming up against him, to come out better? No, Ulrich just told himself, Yumi would never betray you, you're friends for way too long. Then there was one possibility left…

"He was here…" he tried again, but Yumi shook her head again.

"Ulrich, we both know it's impossible. He can't…" she interrupted himself because she saw something happening in the distance. Ulrich, still lying on his back, tried to pull himself up with the help of a nearby tree, but failed miserably because of his oh so painful leg. When would that wound heal already!? When Yumi noticed this, she helped him up, knowing he wouldn't stop trying until he eventually stood on both his legs, so he would be able to see what she saw.

They watched how, in the far, far away distance, a soft glow became bigger, until it was a small white dot to them. They also noticed two figures, standing very close together at a fence – no, behind that fence. Yumi had her deductions about where Ulrich was taking her when Ulrich knew they had reached their destination. After a while, the two figures stood not so close to each other anymore, and the glow started to fade, until the two Warriors couldn't see a thing in the far distance anymore. But if they were very quiet – and their environment was too – they could hear a soft buzzing of Hornets. And, when they couldn't hear these Hornets anymore, Yumi set Ulrich against a tree, him leaning onto it in a somewhat comfortable position, so he could rest and she could check upon his leg. But not before answering following question.

"You were leading us to Kadic?" It was more a phrase than a question, though it resembled it. Ulrich nodded, and Yumi looked at him with a look that made him understood that she didn't understand his deed of going all the way to Kadic. "Why?"

"Hiroki," he simply answered, "your only family… we could take that chance." the gaze in his eyes told her he meant these words. He meant to think they had a chance to free Hiroki out of Kadic, about which he and Yumi had a couple of plans. Now Ulrich offered her this chance, it was quite confronting all of a sudden. Besides, they were already camping too long around Kadic – at a safe distance – that she didn't know where to go next – they'd be even higher on XANA's wanted-list, if they weren't on top of it already, since the 'virus' didn't tolerate escape or treason.

"Ulrich…" she answered with his name, because of a lack of better choice, "This is… I can't… but when, and where will we go? We can't go anywhere." Ulrich tried to sit some straighter, resulting in moving his leg and making a wrong move with it. He's also brave, Yumi thought. To go to Kadic, the heart of danger, in his painful position, just to make another happy – it was either very brave or very stupid, and Yumi thought bravery was better than stupidity. He watched her as if she asked him what the sum of one and one was.

"To Jeremy's, off course…" he said, and Yumi saw this was quite logical. He had this barrier to keep the monsters out, Jim probably posed as his bodyguard, even if he didn't know he was, and who knows, perhaps Aelita has already woken up…

now the question left was why Ulrich pulled out his phone, while both of them knew they couldn't do anything with it, because it was XANA's territory – it had the home-field advantage, on all electric devices, actually. It was just normal for her to be surprised that Ulrich's phone didn't show the Eye of XANA and was even more surprised to see Jeremy on the screen, with sometimes a comment from Jim. Yumi kept watching until the video was over. Then, she looked at Ulrich.

"How long did you know this?" she wondered.

"Since yesterday," and he explained he found out about this message the day before when Yumi was asleep; from then he knew they had to be quick, and had been preparing for the action-packed part of the plan – the part before this one was getting Yumi to Kadic without her noticing where they were going. He brought her there, now they only had to take down some monsters, get Hiroki out of there and get to the factory as fast as they can without getting killed. The last part was mostly for Ulrich himself, and he knew it was – these were his thoughts, after all.

He made the same fault as a couple of minutes ago and moved his leg, giving Yumi access to the wound. He realized that, when it's healed, he has got more chances – he wasn't planning to let Yumi do what they once could call fun stuff, but now was referred to as serious business. His eyes darted over the familiar trees, bushes, and one unfamiliar second shadowy figure. If Ulrich hadn't known better, he would've immediately yelled Odd's name.

'Odd', by a lack of a better more fitting name, was looking directly at him. In his eyes were no emotion; it almost felt like he was facing zombie-Odd from his nightmare a couple of days back. 'Odd' stood tall in is normal attire, not covered with dust and small stones like the first time Ulrich had spotted him. Just normal, as if nothing had happened to him. And then 'Odd' walked away, against what Ulrich wanted – seeing him was kind of comforting and hurtful at the same time.

After Yumi had to push him back down because he wanted to go after 'Odd', he stopped his attempts. He'll come back, he thought when Yumi was trying to heal his leg, He'll come back once, he knows where to find us. But then again, when was 'once'?

Shorter chappie, but a longer one coming right up! And see? Someone saw Jeremy's video message! Just too bad Ulrich's gettin' slightly worse... Will the hallucinations grow stronger? What's Yumi gonna do about it? And how and when will they save Hiroki (hopefully before XANA's done with him)? Answers with the Hiroki-Milly/Ulrich-Yumi chapters, but now we're going back to the factory, where Jeremy catches some tugs disturbing the peace, as read in chapter twelve: When he fled, when it'll be published on the 20th of March! On with the reviews:

tiffanywoodruff161 (That's a good deduction. If this wasn't public, I would've told you if you were right or wrong - you'll know next chapter, when we get back to Jim and Jeremy)

Bluedog197 (Too bad, but I can't promise anything about how this is gonna end. The characters are following a road I don't want to, but with tempting plots, and already a happy birthday to you!)

See ya next time!

-DutchWriters2