Chapter 15: He won

warning: warning still counts...

It was heartbreaking to see her little brother this broken. Yumi had seen him cry a lot, especially when he had been younger. But she's never seen him cry like this, never in that way. Ulrich and Yumi both had witnessed what William had done to Milly, and they both had turned their heads away when Milly's was about to fly through the air; they hadn't exactly seen it happen, but you could easily guess what happened after seeing the head on the ground.

Yumi became angry. How could William do this to Hiroki? How could XANA do this to her? The artificial intelligence knew very well Hiroki liked Milly, and how he just happened to be the little brother of one of his adversaries. Yumi knew Hiroki was probably kept under custody just because of his peculiar sister. And that's why Milly became the center of XANA's attention: they needed Hiroki alive to lure Yumi there, so they could kill the Warrior. But Yumi wouldn't want to be killed any time soon; absolutely not with William anywhere close to her younger brother. She would die for him.

Next to her sat another boy she would die for, and vice versa. Ulrich's current position – especially his mental one – seemed to have stabilized. Even though he wanted to fight with her, it didn't seem a good idea. For now, he hadn't seen any more 'monsters' or 'Odd', but you never knew when it would reappear. He looked bit better, but still could barely run, and fighting would be a disaster for him – he just managed to walk without the use of his katana as a cane.

William walked closer to Hiroki, grabbed him at his left wrist and told him something. Then, Yumi noticed something – where was his right hand!?

No. This was not to be tolerated. If Yumi hadn't been waiting for the right moment to attack, she had already ran at William to knock him out. As long as they kept their filthy fingers off of Hiroki, all could be good. XANA had touched Hiroki – now XANA was going down, according to Yumi.

"Like on Lyoko." she told herself, speaking of an encouragement. She just had to do the same as on Lyoko, so she wouldn't have to worry less. Ulrich nodded.

"Yep." He wanted to take the lead, but he didn't – well, he couldn't because he was stopped by Yumi. He looked at her, eyes filled with disbelief. Why didn't she want him to help? They did most of the fights on Lyoko together, and they've just spent five and a half months together, so wouldn't it be more effective she'd completed this 'mission' with him?

"Ulrich, it might be better if you stayed here." One sentence he didn't really particularly liked.

"No, I can help, just let me!" Ulrich looked at, pleading. She knew he really wanted to help her with ll of his heart, but she didn't want him to. If she didn't succeed in saving Hiroki, she would want to have Ulrich at her side. If she's lost Hiroki, she didn't want to lose Ulrich, too.

"I know and I'm sorry, but I can't allow it. Just stay here, okay?" And Yumi ran away from Ulrich, to Hiroki, with a slight feeling of guilt, but she quickly shook it off of her. She knew Ulrich could save himself, he could take care of him. She sneaked a little closer, readying one of her fans and analyzing the situation: two Bloks, a Tarantula and William. Nothing she wasn't used to thanks to Lyoko – William would be the only one who had a chance of resisting. And even though she hadn't been to Lyoko in five and a half months, it didn't mean she had forgotten how to fight properly.

She was lucky today wasn't a windy day.

With one fan she at least got rid of one Blok. The magnet returned at her orders with the help of the most simple device Jeremy could think of – a very powerful magnet. Hiroki seemed surprised to see a simple fan hit the Blok, killing it, while the Tarantula and the other Blok immediately attacked her back and William stayed there, to keep Hiroki in line. She ducked away when the lasers came, and she threw her fan again – if the Tarantula hadn't moved its head, it would have hit him.

"Yumi." That was Hiroki – even after all those time, she could recognize him, and she knew that he would find whatever she was doing at least a bit 'cool'. She caught both fans and kept avoiding the lasers.

"I'm fine, Hiroki!" she shouted at her younger brother, "just try not to get hurt." straight in the Eye – that other Blok never really had a chance once Yumi released her fan. Two down, two to go.

"Ulrich!" Hiroki shouted this time. This couldn't be… Yumi gave herself one second to check what Ulrich was doing now before engaging in a fight with the Tarantula. He had walked out of the bushes and positioned himself with his left side to the Tarantula and William, ready to fight anything coming from that direction. If this hadn't been a serious situation, and if Yumi didn't know what was happening, one could say it looked funny to see Ulrich block lasers from monsters he imagined to be there. Not now, please not now… Yumi pleaded in thoughts and saw the Tarantula was aiming for Ulrich now, finding him a much easier target than Yumi.

Without thinking she threw both fans at the Tarantula, hoping they would hit him sooner before it could even have a chance to shoot. The fans found their way to the Tarantula's Eye, but it was too late: at the point the Tarantula fell down, she heard Ulrich scream in pain after getting hit in his left side. It pained Yumi to see Ulrich fall like this and already made her way to him.

"Yu- whoa!" She stopped dead in her tracks. Her fans had already returned to her and she spun around, ready to attack anything that attacked her younger brother. One small problem: she almost let go of her fans when she saw the reinforcement. William had placed himself between the siblings, so the monster could finish his work. Yumi stared a few seconds at it in awe. After her talk with Jeremy one month and a half ago, she knew it was quite impossible for XANA to summon up all his power and bring the Scyphozoa to Earth. And currently, it was doing something for XANA – something involving Hiroki.

One by one she threw her fans to the Scyphozoa, trying to cut its tentacles, but William could block those attacks easily, sending them back to her. Both the fans, being hit out of their course, hit Yumi in the stomach, and she fells to the ground. No cuts, luckily, but those were gonna be some nasty bruises. It took her one minute to stand up, with these fans in her hands, and the bullet missed her at the distance of an inch.

The shooter had been Hiroki. Someone must've given him the gun – William, maybe – and the Scyphozoa floated back to where he came from. In his eyes, Yumi noticed the Eye of XANA, despite their

distance. And, apparently, the bullet was meant for Ulrich, who tried not to moan from the pain.

"Choose." It was Hiroki's voice, but also distorted like William's. The decision she had to make was also clear: Ulrich or Hiroki? An inhuman choice. Nobody should have to make such choice. She wanted to lose neither, and wanted to help both. She was probably gonna be shot herself if she refused, since 'Hiroki' – XANA – aimed the gun at her forehead.

And Yumi made her choice. This was Earth – you couldn't save someone by use of devirtualization. This was Earth, and it was impossible to rescue Hiroki without killing him. She hated herself for letting Hiroki go, but she might be able to save Ulrich. Might.

She took Ulrich's arm and put it over her shoulder, and he was dragged away by Yumi. When both of them were completely in the shades of what once was the park, she heard the second bullet leave the gun. Yumi didn't look back, she didn't dare to look back, wanted to remember Hiroki as her spontaneous, stubborn, the best little brother anyone could wish for. And one thought was repeated over and over again, filling her with guilt and sorrow.

I'm sorry, Hiroki.

Hehe... *laughs nervously* I replied to a reviewer I might get meaner... this is it... please don't hate me for this, it's XANA who made Yumi choose! My first idea included xanafied Hiroki putting the gun against his head, threatening to shoot if they didn't stop fighting. Bit shorter, but it's because there's nothing else I wanted to add to this chapter. Is Ulrich gonna survive this story? When will they stop choosing him as their target? Will Yumi ever get over Hiroki? And how's Jeremy doing? If everything's okay, we'll meet up with Jim and Emily (and Jeremy) the 17th of April, to see if they're recovering from the Krab-attack on the factory. On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (Yep, bit cliché, but sometimes it's good to be cliché...he talked to her about the plan because he knew he was going to be followed around 24/7 if he wasn't going to be killed, plus he would never be able to see such opportunity ever again - at least not in that way, due to being followed around - so he saw it needless to keep it secret. And I love replying to reviews, just to show my appreciation to those who reviewed)

See ya next time!

-Dutchwriters2