A/N: Here is the next installment of my Jerlita Roleswap AU. Hope you all enjoy it~
This time, it's a double upload! While this episode and the next both focus on Ulrich (somewhat), there's no special reason they're both out at the same time. Honestly, I just want to get them out of the way. Not much changes in these, but they are important for the characters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.
Note: Remember, any episodes not mentioned either as the inspiration for a chapter or just in passing are not part of the AU, mainly because the roleswap makes them useless, and those only mentioned in passing are just filler and/or would be the same no matter who has what role.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Ulrich's parents visit for a football game he'll be playing in, forcing Ulrich into a difficult choice when XANA decides to attack at that moment."
Episode 12: The Cost of Pride
(Based on Zero Gravity Zone)
Odd and Aelita watched Ulrich's football practice from the bleachers.
"Come on guys, you haven't even worked up a sweat!" Jim was barking out. "Let's go, go, go!
Most of the players, all wearing their blue uniforms and cleats, were passing balls between them or stretching. Ulrich, meanwhile, was eyeing the goalposts. Kadic's goalkeeper cracked his knuckles before taking up a defensive stance, saying, "Ready!"
Jim blew his whistle, and Ulrich was passed a ball from a player on the sidelines, who was beside Kadic's stash of footballs.
Ulrich kicked the ball, and when the goalkeeper failed to catch it, he pounded his fist on the ground out of frustration. This was not surprising. Ulrich was Kadic's best striker, and overall best player. To be honest, that made the goalie very lucky, because if he could catch Ulrich's strikes, then he'd essentially be one step ahead of the competition.
The player on the sidelines passed him another ball, and Ulrich kicked that ball too. The goalie failed to catch it, being one second behind Ulrich's speed.
Another ball, same result.
Another ball, same result, though the goalie was a few milliseconds faster this time.
Another ball, same result, with the goalie trying to slide this time, to no avail.
Over and over and over, as Kadic's stash of balls dwindled down one by one. By this point, the goalie had given up, probably to take a breather. Also by this point, the rest of the team had stopped their exercises to watch Ulrich make mince meat of their goalie.
Ulrich kicked another ball, and this time, the goalie actually caught it, exactly what Jim wanted from him.
But the goalie made the mistake of rubbing it in Ulrich's face.
So Ulrich lowered his gaze into a glare, accepting the challenge, and motioned for the sidelines player to pass him another ball. The other boy did so, and Ulrich kicked this ball into the air and before then kicking it in mid-air, surprising the goalie as the ball hit the goalpost before hitting the net on the other side.
The rest of the team cheered, as Ulrich lay there on the ground to catch his breath.
"Well done, guys!" Jim was smiling, proud, as the team all walked up to him. "Good warm up session! Play like that this afternoon, and we'll whip Diderot in no time!" Diderot was the opposing school in this afternoon's game. "I'll see you all at the stadium after lunch for a final briefing, and always remember! A football team is like an army! It needs a good general who can lead it, right?!"
A couple players saluted him, while the others only eyed him with exhaustion. This is how Jim always was.
"And now, break ranks!" Jim said. As the rest of the team went back to the locker room to wash up, Jim walked up to Ulrich, who was still on the ground, now stretching. "Hey, Ulrich! Working out to stay in shape? " The brunette-haired boy turned to see the gym teacher kneel at his side. "Hey, listen, kid, I'm gonna be honest with ya. You're my key to winning this afternoon's game. I know we've got a good team, but Diderot's got this striker named Matt."
"And he's nasty," Ulrich finished, before standing on his feet. "I know. Don't worry, Jim. I won't let you down."
Enough pressure was already being placed on him because of his parents coming to watch him play. What was a bit more pressure going to do?
Jim also got to his feet, "I'm counting on you, kid! We're gonna pulverize 'em! Massacre 'em! We're gonna make mince meat outta them! We're gonna gobble 'em up and spit 'em out, baby!"
As Jim was ranting and raving, Ulrich made his way to the sidelines, where Odd and Aelita were still sitting, watching.
"Hey there, champion!" Odd greeted with a smile. "If Diderot never gets the ball, we're gonna be bored out there!" He finished by throwing Ulrich the towel he was holding.
Ulrich easily caught the towel, giving the two cousins a tiny smile as he replied, "It was nice of you to come."
"We were here this morning," Aelita promised as Ulrich slung the towel around the back of his neck, "and we'll be here this afternoon."
Odd cut in, "Especially since Sissi will be cheerleading with her baton and all! I definitely don't want to miss that!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Meanwhile, in the park, Sissi was doing her own practicing.
"1, 2, 3, 4, come on team, give us more!" she chanted while twirling her baton, ignoring how the street lights behind her were blinking on and off. "5, 6, 7, 8, Diderot, we're gonna seal your fate! Woohoo!" She threw her baton into the air. "Tadaaaaaa!"
She held out her hand, waiting for her baton to come back down.
But it never did.
Sissi stood there dumbfounded as she watched her baton get higher and higher up into the sky, before eventually giving off one last shine, signaling that it had disappeared from the Earth's atmosphere.
Behind her, the streetlight was flickering.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A few minutes later, Yumi was walking through that same park. Today was Sunday, so there were no classes today, but she was here at Kadic to watch Ulrich's game.
She passed by streetlights that began flickering as she walked past them.
In just a couple seconds, Yumi felt herself being lifted off the ground, and she began to panic. Not knowing what was going on, she didn't have anything to grab onto.
She just flailed her arms in the air as she was lifted a good few feet before, fortunately, being dropped back down to the ground.
She noticed a nearby streetlight begin flickering, and she immediately ran away.
She needed to find the others. Fast.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"It disappeared, I tell you!" Sissi was saying to Maitena Lecuyer and Caroline Savorani. "It never came down! It just flew away!"
"Yeah, sure!" Caroline replied, neither she nor Maitena believing her. "It's up in the sky somewhere, right? Or maybe it came down and landed on someone's head!" Maitena circled her pointer finger around her temple with a goofy expression, clearly mocking Sissi, calling her crazy.
"But it's true, Caro!" Sissi objected, as the two left, hoping the nickname (she and Caroline were friends) would persuade her. "I swear! My baton just disappeared into thin air!"
She was left standing there. From behind a nearby pillar, Hervé and Nicolas emerged, saying simultaneously, "We believe you, Sissi!"
"Even if scientifically, it's impossible," Hervé muttered.
Hervé immediately found Sissi's foot right underneath his chin, as she angrly growled out, "Listen! If I said that a supernatural thing happened to me, it's because it's true! You hear me, knucklehead?! A baton that flies up has to come down, and if it doesn't, there's something wrong! Something seriously wrong! And I wanna know exactly what it is!"
Sissi ignored how she now had an audience, of which included Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich, who shared a concerned glance with each other.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
It was lunch time now, and the countdown until the game was getting lower.
As Sissi went through the line, she heard a girl behind her mock her, "Look, it's the mysterious baton girl! Hey, Sissi, better eat your steak and French fries fast, before they fly away!"
Sissi scowled as she walked past Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita's table, all three of whom were growing increasingly suspicious.
Yumi suddenly barged in and slammed her fist on the table, just as Aelita stood up from her chair, and both girls said at the same time, "We need to talk right now!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Lyokowarriors were assembled in Aelita's dorm, with Aelita's monitor turned at an angle where the others could talk to him (the layout of Aelita's room was a bit awkward; her computer desk was right next to the door). They had just asked him if he's felt any pulsations from XANA lately.
"Your suspicions are confirmed," Jérémie was saying. "I've spotted an activated tower in the Mountain Sector. I'm close by, but it's guarded. Why? What's wrong? Have you noticed anything strange going on in your world?"
Odd shrugged, "Oh, just the usual. Batons that fly into the air and don't come back down, and Yumi is suddenly airborne!"
"It was so weird!" Yumi exclaimed from her spot on Aelita's bed. "The lights started to blink all at once, and a second later, I was floating in mid-air!"
"A break in the field of gravity," Jérémie muttered, "causing spontaneous localized weightlessness."
"What's the connection between electricity and weightlessness?" Ulrich asked, genuinely confused.
"Magnetic fields," Jérémie explained. "It could be the effect of a very powerful electromagnet that XANA is using the offset the magnetic attraction of the Earth."
"How dangerous is it?" Yumi asked an important question.
"It's not," Aelita admitted. "Within the limits of space and time, that is. But if it's on a larger scale, just take a look at what happened to Sissi's baton."
It still hadn't come back down to Earth and hit somebody on the head.
"We can't afford to take any risks here," Yumi sternly advised. "We have to go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower." Jérémie nodded in agreement.
"Count me out," came Ulrich's voice.
The other four immediately turned to him. "W-What? You've got to be kidding, Ulrich!" Aelita protested. "This is XANA we're talking about!"
"I know..." Ulrich muttered. "Under normal circumstances, I'd be more than willing to join you, but I can't. Not this time."
"Why not?" Yumi asked, while Aelita was struck speechless.
Ulrich stood up from his seat on Aelita's bed, "I'm sorry. I can't tell you. Just, please, understand."
Before anybody else could protest, Odd, surprisingly, took charge, softly addressing his roommate, "It's them, right?" Ulrich nodded without uttering a single word. "Okay, then go on. We can handle things without you. Good luck."
"Thanks, Odd," Ulrich replied, before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.
A confused Jérémie cut through the silence that followed, "I don't understand. Why isn't Ulrich joining us this time?"
"He's got his reasons," Odd explained. "His parents are coming to the game this afternoon."
The two girls turned to Odd surprised. "His parents?" Yumi asked. "The ones he never talks about but always dreads visiting during the holidays?"
"Yep, that's them," Odd replied, remembering what Ulrich told him a couple months ago. "Especially his dad, apparently. If you're not first in everything, then you're nothing in Walter Stern's book. And since Ulrich's report cards aren't the best, the only way to make his dad happy is–"
Aelita cut in, "When he plays football."
"Exactly," Odd continued. "It's the only thing Ulrich feels he's good at. And his mother's not really much better. Barbara Stern is a lot more understanding, but she doesn't really stick up for Ulrich when Walter's berating him."
"No wonder he doesn't want to go home for the holidays," Aelita sadly muttered, her heart filled with sympathy. Waldo and Anthea Schaeffer were wonderful, loving parents, even if their work hours were long and busy.
Yumi added, "And here, I thought I had it tough because my parents tend to bicker about every little thing, but Ulrich's situation is a lot worse."
"Yeah," Odd muttered. While his parents tended to ignore him, at least they tried to make it up to him by not fighting with him and always praising him. "That's why Ulrich's been training so hard for weeks now. He's going to play this afternoon's game as if his life depended on it."
"In that case," Jérémie asked, "why didn't he just tell us?"
"Ulrich, confide in someone?" Yumi joked.
Smiles were back, as Aelita explained to Jérémie, "Ulrich is a very private person, probably the most so out of all of us."
As Jérémie nodded in understanding, Odd cut in, "Anyway, why worry? Ulrich's gonna win the game, and in the meantime, we're gonna save the world! We just have to do without him this time. Besides, you've got me, don't you?"
He winked, and Jérémie shook his head, amused. "I'll see you all later. Don't drag your feet."
With that, he logged off.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich didn't know how long he'd spend trying to relax in the locker room after changing into his uniform.
But before he knew it, Jim was giving his pre-game speech, "Alright, guys! The big day is here!" Ulrich quickly tuned him out.
With all the pressure he was feeling, at least his friends understood.
Ulrich was brought out of his reverie by the opposing team arriving, all wearing red uniforms (as opposed to Kadic's blue). His eyes laid on one of them in particular.
Matt.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The game was about to start.
"Testing, testing!" Milly was in front of the camera Tamiya was holding, testing her microphone. "Okay, here we go! Hello, everyone! This is Milly and Tamiya reporting to you live from the stadium!" Behind them, both teams took their positions on the field. "Today's the big day! The ninth grade interschool final is about to begin! Although our school is favored to win, a lot of it's going to depend on Kadic's striker, our own Ulrich Stern! We're really counting on him today!"
As Ulrich took his place, he snuck a brief glance at his parents in the stands. His father, Watler, wearing that familiar suit between a yellow and gold color, with that blue dress shirt, and crimson tie. His mother, wearing that yellow dress shirt and burgundy jacket and skirt.
Despite what everyone believed, the Sterns were rather wealthy. In that regard, he was very similar to Sissi, but unlike Sissi, who's relationship with her parents were pretty good, despite their divorce, Ulrich deep down resented his parents for never showing him enough affection.
Milly continued with her news broadcast, "And now, everybody, it's football time!"
Jim blew his whistle, and the ball was launched.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Like always, the first thing Aelita did when she reached the computer terminal was slip on the earpiece and call Jérémie, as Odd and Yumi went down to the scanner room.
"Jérémie, do you read me? We're here," she told him.
"Yes, I read you," he replied. The holomap showed his yellow arrow on a platform that oversaw the activated tower from a safe distance. His interface popped up on screen. "Has XANA's attack gotten worse?"
Aelita was feverishly typing in commands as fast as she could, "That's what I'm trying to find out. I'm launching a spy program to track XANA's movements. With the data flow this dense, there has to be traces of it on the network."
The screen in front of her told her the layout of XANA's attack pattern this time.
"Bingo!" She exclaimed when she got a result, with at least four different lines all converging on a single point. "That's XANA, alright. Heavy and predictable...but very fast!"
"What's wrong?" Jérémie asked.
"The speed," she admitted. "The electrical network is completely under XANA's control and it's already creating overvoltage phenomena." On her screen, on the virtual cards, the red was influxing and palpitating more and more clearly, encircling the school at the center of a triangle of electrical tension. "But I don't understand why XANA has limited itself to such a small zone. It's clearly capable of hacking all the world's electricity networks at the same time!"
On her screen, Jérémie was silent and pensive. Aelita activated other programs, her expression becoming more and more concerned.
A beeping suddenly started sounding on the holomap, catching her attention. "Jérémie, watch out! Three Hornets are converging on your location!"
"I see them," he sounded oddly calm. Aelita watched as the holomap showed Jérémie creating a rock cocoon to shield himself.
"Nice job," she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, but it's not going to hold for long," he replied. "Get Odd and Yumi here fast!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich led the ball to the goal as he ran. After jumping himself and the ball both over an opposing player that slid to take the ball away, Ulrich continued his trek towards the goal.
Matt was right behind him, but one of his teammates was on his right, wide open, so he passed the ball to them.
"Incredible!" Milly exclaimed from the sidelines, as the camera focused on where the ball currently was. "We knew that Ulrich was in great form, but what he is showing us today is beyond even our wildest dreams!"
Matt slid the ball out from under the teammates, sending it back to Ulrich, who guided to the goal and kicked it right in. The goalie missed, and the crowd cheered.
"Fantastic goal!" Milly exclaimed. "Kadic is up one to nothing after only three minutes and an impressive play! I think we can say that Ulrich is bursting with energy! Diderot's going to have to find a way to stop him if they're going to win this game!"
While taking a breather, Ulrich snuck a quick glance at his parents. His mother was smiling, but his father's stern gaze was ever present.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Virtualization!" Aelita pressed the button, and Odd and Yumi felt their clothes and hair blow up in the wind that followed.
Their avatars formed in mid-air, and they landed perfectly on a platform.
"Watch out!" Aelita cried, just before Odd was hit in the back by a laser. The two turned to see a swarm of nine Hornets surrounding them.
Yumi unsheathed her fan and immediately threw it, hitting one and making it explode. But as she caught her fan when it came back, a Hornet flew towards them before exploding in their faces.
"You're down to ninety lifepoints, both of you!" Aelita told them.
Three more Hornets followed suit, throwing themselves at their enemies and self-destructing when reaching them.
"Odd, 70 lifepoints, Yumi, 80," Aelita relayed. "What's going on? On my screen, they're just...disappearing! And more are just showing up in their place!"
The two watched as the three dead Hornets were replaced with three new ones. "That's a good question," Odd replied. "What's wrong with them?!"
"They're kamikazes!" Yumi explained. "XANA's trying to deplete our lifepoints by having its monsters sacrifice themselves!"
"In that case, be careful!" Aelita told them. "Jérémie's right next to the tower! He's holding his own, but you need to get to him as soon as possible!"
Right as the pink-ette said this, Yumi was knocked to the ground under intense fire of lasers. Odd, who had tried tried to continue forward, was overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies and soon had to break from combat. Three more 'kamikaze' hornets targeted and rushed at him.
"Odd, behind you!" Yumi called out.
Odd dove forward, the explosions throwing him to Yumi's side, in a bad state. "Odd, sixty lifepoints left!" Aelita relayed. Increasingly violent energy discharges shook the two, who were overwhelmed by both the laser fire from the Hornets as well as the shockwaves caused by the ones exploding all around them.
"Quick, Yumi! We need a battle strategy!" Odd told his friend.
"Our strategy is protecting Jérémie!" Yumi replied. "His safety is our top priority!"
"That's a fancy way of saying 'retreat'!" Odd shot back, but was all too happy to do as Yumi suggested.
"Head 30 degrees West," Aelita told them. "What's where Jérémie and the tower are."
Odd and Yumi gratefully left the 'kamikaze' Hornets behind in favor of meeting up with Jérémie, though the Hornets soon followed them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The crowd cheered when Ulrich scored another goal.
"There's no stopping Ulrich!" Milly exclaimed. "He's amazing to watch! It's two to nothing and the score may get out of hand if Ulrich keeps this up!"
Tamiya began focusing the camera on Ulrich's running rump, as she sighed, "He looks so handsome when he runs!"
Milly and her glare suddenly came into frame, and Tamiya put the camera down as her friend and roommate angrily, and sarcastically, said, "Well, thank you, Tamiya, for that expert commentary on the game!"
Meanwhile, Ulrich snuck another quick glance at his parents.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
In the lab, Aelita watched her two friends' green arrows head down the path she directed them to. Knowing they'd run into Jérémie soon, Aelita turned back to XANA's attack in the real world.
The spy program she was running was getting cleaner and cleaner results. Soon, all paths XANA was taking soon converged on the school.
"Oh no!" Aelita cried. "XANA's already onto the school! Now I get it!"
"Then fill us in, Miss Einstein!" Odd told her, as his and Yumi's twin green arrows got closer to Jérémie's yellow one.
"If not for what happened today, with Sissi's baton and Yumi's flight," Aelita explained, "we would've all gone to the game, and that's where XANA wanted to trap us. Meanwhile, on Lyoko, Jérémie would've had to face those 'kamikaze' Hornets all alone. It wanted to concentrate all of the energy on the Science Building." The field was right in front of the Science Building. "And if we don't make it fast, there's a good chance Ulrich's gonna finish the game outside of the stratosphere!"
"Those Hornets are following us," Yumi relayed, which Aelita could see on the holomap. "But they're not attacking."
"They're waiting for something," Aelita guessed.
"For us to find Jérémie, probably," Odd cut in.
"That's a pretty good guess, so be careful," the pink-ette warned. "You guys focus on getting Jérémie to the tower. I'll try to buy us some time."
"How?" Odd asked.
"Surprise, surprise," Aelita smiled, as she began typing in codes as fast as she could. "XANA's not the only one who can hack a network. I'm creating a program to help me counter any of XANA's attacks on the Science Building."
Once she was done typing all the codes, she entered the data into testing program. Once it came clean, she smiled at her small victory.
She then typed in Ulrich's phone number and called him. On the screen, the window for calling cellphones popped up, with Ulrich's ID card waiting.
But no answer. Ulrich didn't pick up.
Of course, Ulrich was still at the game, and Aelita had no idea when halftime was, so she kept calling over and over.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"That's the end of the first half!" Milly spoke to the camera, as both teams left the field. "Kadic has a commanding two to nothing lead!" Meanwhile, Ulrich's cell-phone, left on the bench, was ringing. "Let's see if we can get some comments from Ulrich first-hand!"
Milly and Tamiya then ran up to an approaching Ulrich, who looked surprise at the sudden company.
As Tamiya pointed her camera at him, Milly lent him her little microphone, "Ulrich! I imagine you're confident after dominating Diderot in the first half. Does this final qualify as a historic punishment for them? What do you think?"
Ulrich put on a small smile, hoping it was convincing enough, "Diderot's in the finals. That means they're a good team and they know how to play. In the words of our coach Jim, it's our motivation that'll bring us to victory, and today, I believe that I..." He trailed off as he snuck another glance at his parents. He turned back to Milly and Tamiya, finishing his thought, "Well, I believe that we're all dedicated to winning, so it will be a close game. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'd like to take a breather before the second half." He waved at the camera before walking away.
He turned his attention towards the bench, where his cellphone, sitting amidst his own personal towel, was ringing.
As Milly and Tamiya were turning their attention to the other Kadic players, Ulrich ran up to the bench and his cellphone. He picked up the device and saw that Aelita had called him seventeen times previously, and was calling him again now. Apparently, something had happened.
He picked up, "What do you want, Aelita?" He didn't mean to be snappy, but he was tired from forty-five minutes of playing a tough game against Diderot's striker Matt. Matt was good. Jim hadn't talked him up enough, actually.
"Ulrich! Thank god!" Aelita sounded relieved. "I've been trying to reach you for the past ten minutes!"
"Sorry, but I can't play with a cellphone in my hand," Ulrich told her.
"Don't apologize. Odd told us about your parents and why this match is so important to you," Aelita said. "But we can talk about that later. Right now, there's an enormous and serious problem."
"What's wrong?" the brunette asked.
"I can't go into all the details," Aelita explained. "There's not enough time. But XANA's going to put the entire school into orbit!"
"What?!" Ulrich just barely kept himself from shouting.
"It's true! If not for Sissi's baton and Yumi's flight, all of us would've been at the game!" Aelita admitted. "XANA doesn't have enough power yet, thankfully, but it's going to try to use the power from the Science Building's generator. You have to make sure that nobody is inside the building!"
"Hey, Ulrich!" Jim suddenly called. "The second half is starting!"
"Be right there!" Ulrich called out to him, before turning back to Aelita, "Don't worry. Everyone's at the game."
"Are you absolutely sure?" Aelita asked, sounding worried.
Ulrich hooked his phone up to his earbuds. Now, he could play while also on the phone with Aelita. As he ran down the stands, he took a good look at who all was there.
Once he took his position on the field, he replied to Aelita's previous question, "Ms. Hertz isn't here."
"Oh no!" Aelita exclaimed, as Ulrich watched Matt cross his arms. "She must be in the chemistry lab. You've gotta go and check, you hear?"
Ulrich's gaze traveled up to the third floor of the Science Building, where Ms. Hertz was experimenting with her lab chemicals, not in any big hurry.
He turned back to the ball in front of him.
"Ulrich?" he heard Aelita asked, as the whistle blew.
"Don't ask me to do that," Ulrich muttered, as his teammates picked up his slack. "Aelita, anything but that!" He held his head to his hands, tightly clutching them as his inner debate started firing up.
His attention was quickly brought to the game when Matt suddenly slid in front of him and kicked the ball to Diderot's side.
"Oh!" He heard Milly groaning. "What's wrong with him?!"
Milly and Tamiya, and all the students in the fans on one side.
"I'm sorry, Ulrich," on a second, Aelita and the other Lyokowarriors counting on him. "But you're the only one who can!"
On a third, Jim and his teammates. Counting on him to win the game for them.
And on a fourth, his parents, having come out of there way to watch him play. His mother looked concerned, but his father looked inconvenienced.
"Oh, this is beyond comprehension!" he heard Milly say to Tamiya's camera. "The crowd, including yours truly, is full of questions! It seems as if Ulrich's talking to himself, and that he's decided to stop playing! This is a stark contrast to his energy in the first half! Why has he just stopped?"
Why did he stop? Because Aelita just asked him to do something he didn't want to do, but he knew he had to do.
He didn't hear Tamiya respond to Milly, "It must be the pressure." If he had, he would've thanked her for understanding.
Ulrich felt a tear run down his right cheek as he heard Aelita in his ear, "I'm sorry, Ulrich, but it's a matter of life and death..." Her voice was soft, and she sounded sincerely apologetic for having to force this choice on him.
But it didn't make the choice any easier.
Ulrich looked up just in time to see Matt score a goal for Diderot.
"It's unbelievable!" Milly exclaimed. "The Diderot team has just cut our lead in half! Matt himself can hardly believe that Ulrich let him score!"
All eyes were on him, and this is something he utterly despised.
He hated it, all the attention, all the pressure that was placed on him. Why wasn't he ever good enough? Why did his father always have to move the goal post? Ulrich just gave and gave, and his father just took and took, but was never satisfied.
Why?! Why him?!
"Ulrich–" Aelita began.
"Sorry, Aelita," he told her, before ending the call. As much as he wanted to keep talking to her, her voice in his ear wasn't helping his inner debate. The stronger she voiced her plea for him to go see if Ms. Hertz was okay, the stronger his father's pride fought back and told him it was a bad idea.
He remembered the pact he made to fight XANA until Jérémie was able to live with them, but he also remembered how strong his father's pride was, to the point where it hurt everybody else around him.
In that moment, Ulrich Stern made his choice.
He took off after Matt, who was chasing the ball. "I'm going to stop you!" Ulrich warned.
"Let's see you try!" Matt shot back.
Ulrich leapt in front of Matt and let the other boy run into him due to the suddenness of his action. As a result, Ulrich fell to the ground and Matt tripped, but quickly caught himself.
A whistle blew, and the Kadic side of the crowd gasped in horror.
"Oh no!" Milly exclaimed. "What bad luck for Kadic! Ulrich looks hurt after that violent tackle by Matt!"
Ulrich was trying his best to sell the performance, as Matt protested, "Hold on! I barely touched him!"
"Yes, it's true!" he heard Sissi exclaim from the stands.
"It's okay," Ulrich muttered to Matt, as he pretended to get up and limp off the field. "I don't blame you."
It was his choice, after all.
"Ulrich!" Jim looked and sounded panicked. "Oh no! I don't believe it! You're my best player! This can't be happening!"
As Ulrich limped off the field, he muttered back, "Leave me alone, Jim!"
His choice was to buy himself some time.
He didn't dare look back at his parents. He didn't want to even imagine the looks on their faces right now.
"Incredible!" Milly exclaimed to the camera, with her eyes on Ulrich. "Our superstar striker is leaving the field with a knee injury!"
"Our irreplaceable player is out of the game!" Tamiya added.
Once Ulrich was off the field, and out of everyone's sights, having gone back to the locker room, Sissi pouted in suspicion. Something was up, though she didn't know what.
"I'm leaving too," she told Hervé and Nicolas. "Tell me everything that happened while I'm gone when I get back."
"But Sissi, you're a cheerleader!" Nicolas reminded. "You have a special performance after the game!" She was in her pink uniform, with her white boots, her hair up in a ponytail. The other cheerleaders were too, but they were all scattered throughout the stands.
"There's not going to be a lot of cheering without Ulrich," she replied. "And if we do score a goal, you can replace me. The crowd will love it. Just dance your head off!"
She left the two boys in confusion as she followed Ulrich.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie waited inside his rock cocoon as the three Hornets on the outside kept firing at it to break it down. He was alerted when a laser was fired and the rock surface it hit cracked.
"Aelita?" he asked, aware that his barrier was close to falling.
"Odd and Yumi are almost there," she reassured him. "Hang on for a few more seconds."
Right then, all four parts of his rock cocoon cracked even more, before eventually, the entire thing was broken into pieces of rock scattered on the ground that surrounded.
"I don't think I have a 'few more seconds'," Jérémie admitted.
Just as the Hornet he had his eye on currently was about to fire, Yumi's fan came out of nowhere and destroyed it. Yumi herself landed behind him, her fan in hand, as Odd shot an arrow and destroyed a second Hornet.
But when the two turned to the last Hornet, it retreated, and the three human avatars watched as it joined the swarm of Hornets that followed Odd and Yumi here, before they all approached and positioned themselves in front of the tower.
The three leapt down from the platform they were on and landed at the summit right before the path leading to the activated tower.
"I told you," Yumi admitted. "It's XANA's tactic to protect its tower for as long as possible."
"Well, it's working. I have to admit. It is pretty sharp of them," Odd quipped. "Since when did they grow brains?"
Yumi shrugged in response.
"Watch out," Aelita warned. "More Hornets are on the way."
"What do we do now?" Odd asked Yumi.
"The best defense is offense, right?" the Japanese girl asked.
"Of course," the Italian boy replied. "But it depends on the number of enemies."
"Whatever you decide, it has to work," Aelita told them. "My program can neutralize XANA, but only for a few minutes."
"Maybe you two could lure them away from here," Jérémie suggested. "And I could use that chance to enter the tower."
Odd suddenly had an out-of-body experience, and his mind showed him a sepia-toned vision of Jérémie falling into the Digital Sea as Hornets kept firing at him.
"That could work, though it's gonna be difficult," Yumi admitted. "What do you think, Odd?"
Odd snapped out of his reverie thanks to Yumi calling his name. "No. Not this time."
"What?" Yumi and Jérémie were both confused.
"It's our best idea," Yumi admitted, "and we need to deactivate the tower as soon as possible."
"Not if it results in Jérémie falling into the Digital Sea," Odd admitted. "We can't take that risk. Jérémie, stay here and hide until the coast is clear. Yumi, you're going to have to push yourself past your limits."
Yumi raised an eyebrow in confusion, and Odd promptly whispered his plan in her ear.
"Seeing the number of enemies you guys are facing," Aelita said, "I've given you twenty arrows, Odd. I'll try and see if I can give you any more, but no promises."
"Thanks, Aelita!" Odd turned to his partner. "Ready, Yumi?"
"Ready!" The Japanese girl nodded.
"Then, here we go!" Odd exclaimed.
He then took a few steps forward, and all the Hornets immediately surrounded him. Odd did his best to push the enemy back, dodging many lasers as he could, until Yumi, after a few seconds, worked up the mental strength to seize several large digital rocks with her Telekinesis.
Using her power, she managed to bring them all to her level and surround Odd and herself with them, positioning them like a sort of dolmen in order to provide cover as Odd shot at them with his twice as usual amount of Laser Arrows. A couple of the 'kamikaze' Hornets flew at the large boulders, but fortunately, Yumi's rock barrier held strong.
However, it was a huge effort for Yumi to maintain her telekinetic field. She hadn't used her power to this extent before.
Jérémie watched from his cover, worriedly.
There was no end to them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
After a couple minutes of inner debate in the locker room, Ulrich made his ultimate choice.
As he ran to the Science Building, he used his earbuds connected to his phone to call Aelita again. "Aelita?"
"Ulrich!"
"I just left the stadium," he told her. "I'm on my way to the Science Building." It wasn't what he wanted to do, but it was the right thing to do.
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "Thanks, Ulrich. Don't worry. We'll run a Return to the Past once this is over, so you don't miss the game."
"Thanks," he smiled at the gesture. He continued his trek to the Science Building. "How are things on your end? You seemed stressed."
"You have no idea," the pink-ette replied. "The tower's pretty well protected, and Odd and Yumi are trying, shall we say, an unconventional approach to give Jérémie an opening."
"Yeesh," Ulrich replied. "Good luck with that." He didn't exactly envy Odd or Yumi right now. He reached the doors to the Science Building. "Okay, I'm here."
"Don't worry. I've created my electric field to counter XANA's. But XANA's bound to get ahead of me sooner or later, so don't drag your feet."
Ulrich entered the building. Everything seemed normal. "I just walked in. There's nothing at all happening!"
Just then, the lights started flickering, and soon, Ulrich was suddenly in the air, having quickly approached the ceiling.
"Looks like I spoke too soon!" he admitted, as he grabbed his cellphone before it could fly away.
The direction of the gravity suddenly went from up to the left, catching Ulrich off-guard. Upstairs, Ulrich could hear Ms. Hertz cry out in surprise and pain as she was thrown against the ceiling and then the wall.
"Hold on!" Aelita urged him. She sounded like she was typing at record speed. "Hurry and secure Ms. Hertz. Once you do, I can spring into action."
Message received. Ulrich immediately ran up the stairs to where the chemistry lab and classroom were. As he reached the second floor, however, the lights flickered and a door opened right beside him. Ulrich, caught off-guard, was thrown through the open door way, and he flew sideways down the hall.
Fortunately, he caught himself on a column that held the building's ceiling in place. Recognizing where he was (next to the chemistry lab), he pulled himself up and opened the door.
Peering inside the room, he saw an unconscious Ms. Hertz laying against the back wall.
He leapt towards the first desk, before leaping to the second that was underneath. He repeated the process carefully, mainly for his own safety, before finally reaching the back wall.
Kneeling at her side, he spoke into his phone, "Aelita, it's okay. I found her. She's out cold, but she seems uninjured."
"Okay, initiating the reverse circuit now," Aelita typed in a couple of commands on her end, before he heard her hit the Enter key.
Downstairs, unbeknownst to Ulrich, Sissi waited for the lights to stop flickering before she entered the building. She had seen Ulrich suddenly fly upside down, so she was concerned. But now, everything seemed normal.
"Ulrich?" she gently called out.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Odd, Yumi, you two okay?" Aelita asked.
The two were slowly trudging forward. But more and more Hornets were showing up and replacing all the ones that were destroyed, forcing Yumi to add more boulders to her telekinetic rock shield.
"Yeah, yeah, we're cool!" Odd replied, shooting some more arrows.
"My reverse circuit is working, but you two have to create an opening so Jérémie can get through!"
"We know!" Odd exclaimed.
Just then, Yumi was shot in the back, making her lose concentration. Odd gasped in horror, waiting for the inevitable, as the boulders surrounding them began to shake and fall.
But Yumi regained control, as the boulders began to resume their previous places. Odd commended her on her determination. He knew this was tiring her out, but she knew she had to keep going.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Upstairs, Ulrich dragged the unconscious Ms. Hertz out of the chemistry classroom. "Sorry to be so familiar with you, Ms. Hertz," he apologized.
"Ulrich?" Was that Sissi's voice? What was she doing here?
Suddenly, the lights started flickering again.
"Aelita, what's happening?" he asked.
"I told you it wouldn't last long!" she reminded him. "XANA's overpowered my circuit! Hang on to something! I'll try to regain control as soon as I can!"
Ulrich and the out-cold science teacher were flung down the hallway until they thankfully hit the side of a cabinet. As he secured Ms. Hertz, he heard Sissi's screams getting closer. He reached his arm out just in time to catch her arm.
"Ulrich?" Sissi was understandably confused and frightened. "What's happening?"
As he pulled her up, he told her, "You know what happened to your baton earlier?"
"Yes."
"You weren't going crazy. It's what's happening now." Ulrich began to relax, knowing that Sissi was safe too. "Listen, I can't explain everything right now. It's too complicated, so you just have to trust me."
It surprised Ulrich and Aelita both when, without asking anymore questions, Sissi simply nodded, saying, "Okay."
"Thank you," Ulrich sent her a smile, before turning to the pink-ette at the other end of the line, "Aelita, where are you at?"
"I'm taking control again," she replied. "Hang on."
A beat of silence, before the lights stopped flickering. But a split second later, all of the lights in the building shattered.
Ulrich and Sissi both covered their heads to avoid the falling glass shards, and Ulrich retorted, "Hey, good buddy, warn me when it's going to do that."
"Sorry," the pink-ette replied, sounding sheepish. "Before you ask, bad news, it's not going to calm down. According to my spy program, XANA's switching targets. Good news, thanks to the shattered lights, the Science Building is now a safe place."
"Which target?"
"I don't know, but I'm keeping an eye on it."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Odd, Yumi? Ulrich and I have bought some time. How are you guys doing?" Aelita asked.
"It's awful!" Odd exclaimed. A few minutes later, nothing had changed. Yumi was still shielding herself and Odd with the boulders, while Odd was still firing Laser Arrows at the surrounding Hornets. "I'm almost out of arrows, the telekinesis has exhausted Yumi, and the more Hornets I kill, the more there are!"
Jérémie was still watching all of this go down from his cover. He checked his surroundings, trying to find a possible way around. The tower was surrounding by a very high, very thick rock wall, along with a narrow path towards it (as often was the problem with towers in the Mountain Sector).
But he got an idea. Odd said his Future Flash showed him Jérémie falling into the Digital Sea.
What if that were to come true?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
As the two teens attempted to carry Ms. Hertz out of the building, Sissi asked, "Hey, Ulrich, will you ever tell me what secret you and your friends are hiding?"
"Yes," he softly admitted. "When it's all over. I promised you I would." That conversation they had the day Finson visited Kadic was one Sissi would never forget. "Until then, you just have to trust me."
"I do," Sissi confessed. "It just hurts that you still don't trust me with the secret now. I mean, I know it's my fault. You told me I bombed the audition, but still..."
"Tell her we're keeping an eye on her," Aelita said, reminding Ulrich that he was still on the phone with her.
Ulrich smiled, "Don't worry. You may get a second chance eventually."
Sissi smiled at that.
But the moment didn't last long. Just then, they both began hearing a deep and low rumbling.
"That doesn't sound good," the brunette commented. "Aelita, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure what you're hearing," Aelita admitted, "but remember when I said XANA was switching targets?"
"Yeah."
"Well, it's managed to gain control of over fifty power stations," Aelita revealed. "I still don't know what the target is, but it's a big one. Bigger than the Science Building. Whatever you do, you and Sissi stay inside!"
Something outside of the window caught Ulrich's attention. Leaving Ms. Hertz with Sissi, Ulrich carefully walked over to the window.
Outside, all of the stadium lights were starting to flicker. That was definitely a bad sign...
"Aelita," he breathed, trying to stay calm, "I think XANA's target is the stadium..."
"WHAT?! But I don't have enough time to create a reverse circuit of that magnitude!"
Just as she said this, down on the field, Diderot's Matt was about to tie the score, but when he went to kick the ball, he missed and started floating in the air.
The other players, from both teams, as well as coaches, and including everybody in the stands, began lifting up off the ground.
The windows didn't need to be open for Ulrich to hear everyone's haunting screams.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Their strategy, while a good one, was too expert-level for them. Odd was running out of arrows fast, and all of the Hornets surrounding them were just being replaced by new ones.
"Hang in there, Yumi!" Yumi was starting to slow down. She was the lynchpin in this plan succeeding. "We're almost there!"
But Yumi stopped, a few paces behind Odd. The boulders surrounding them began to shake.
"Not now!" He called back to her, pleading. "Concentrate! Give us just a few more seconds!" They were so close.
But the boulders stopped spinning, before crashing to the ground, in tandem with Yumi's knees and then body.
"I'm sorry..." she muttered. "I'm too tired..."
Odd looked back at the tower, before hearing a familiar note being hummed (on the contrary, it was never Jérémie humming; it came from around him). He turned to the source, and saw Jérémie running along a path he was forming with his Creativity.
"Not yet, Jérémie! It's too soon!" Odd cried out.
All of the Hornets immediately turned to him and started firing.
"Jérémie, you're crazy!" Yumi, through her exhaustion, tried to yell out. "You'll never get through!"
But Jérémie ignored them. Odd and Yumi could only watch as the blue elf continued to take hit after hit.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Ulrich?!" Sissi cried out, scared beyond belief. Ulrich couldn't blame her.
He ran past her, telling her, "Stay inside!", before crashing through the nearby window.
Now outside, Ulrich tightly grabbed onto the nearest ledge and worked his way towards the stands.
His father was holding his mother's wrist as tightly as he could. But eventually, Walter's grip ran out and the pain he was feeling forced him to let go.
But the two didn't fly up anymore than a meter or so.
Their son had grabbed onto them before they could float away.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Yumi watched, horrified, as Jérémie continued his suicidal path. Amazingly enough, he was almost at the tower, despite taking more than enough shots to delete him.
"Jérémie! Listen to Odd and Yumi!" Aelita attempted to get through to him.
But he ignored her too.
A 'kamikaze' Hornet suddenly struck him head on, creating a burst of pixels on his virtual form. But though he was forced to stop, Jérémie remained indifferent and took another step forwards. A second 'kamikaze' Hornet exploded on the path right at his feet, breaking it off cleanly.
Jérémie teetered on the edge, losing his balance fast. But his indifference remained as he fell forward and into the fog layer below, into the void. The Hornets were quickly following him, making sure he actually was deleted.
In a mad silence, Odd and Yumi rushed to the edge of the bridge, as Aelita, at the lab, cried out, "Jérémie!"
Odd and Yumi both cried out a long guttural, "NOOOOOO!"
The trio just sat there in silence, quietly mourning their loss. The Hornets were gone, but their victory felt hollow. If only Jérémie wasn't so stubborn, maybe he'd still be here...
Odd, in particular, felt awful. Despite his best efforts, Jérémie still fell into the Digital Sea.
Just then, in the midst of them mourning, Odd and Yumi heard a pair of footsteps behind them. "As soon as you guys are finished crying, just let me know!" The footsteps quickly faded, but the voice was familiar.
Odd and Yumi turned to see Jérémie running towards the tower, now that the path was clear.
"Wait, what?" Yumi asked, as she and Odd shared a confused glance.
Jérémie turned back to face them, though still running towards the tower, "What? You told me to wait until the passage was clear!"
Jérémie continued on his path, and Odd turned to Aelita, "Was he...?"
"Luring them, yes," Aelita sounded particularly relieved. Her voice was a bit thick with emotions, indicating that she was crying.
"With a decoy," Yumi breathed, realizing what had happened.
"Yes," Aelita confirmed before sighing, "He's a genius. An evil one, to make us worry so much, but a genius nonetheless..."
Hearing her words, Jérémie smiled as he finally entered the tower at a run.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich held on tight. Despite all the pain his parents put him through, he still cared about them. As much as he hated to admit, he still cared about their approval.
"Goodbye, Ulrich," Walter Stern said, and Ulrich began to panic.
"Don't say that!" He snapped at his father, for once in his life. "We'll get out of this! You'll see!" Jérémie would enter the code in time. Aelita would launch that Return in time. He trusted them. With his entire life. Many times over.
"Let us go, Ulrich!" Barbara Stern told her son. "If you don't, you'll be dragged with us!"
"I can't!" he protested.
"I'm proud of you, Ulrich," Walter said, catching his son's attention, speaking the words Ulrich's always wanted to hear. "Really, I am!"
JEREMIE_
Walter began to loosen his grip on Ulrich's wrist, but Ulrich just tightened his own.
CODE_
"We love you," Walter whispered, before finally letting go.
Ulrich cried out in horror and pain as he helplessly watched his parents float up into the sky above.
LYOKO_
Ulrich quickly found himself also floating into the abyss when his own grip ran out.
But a giant white bubble quickly saved him and everybody else.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Time rewinded to the start of the game. As both teams took their positions on the field, Ulrich heard Milly begin her report, addressing the camera Tamiya was holding, "Today's the big day! The ninth grade interschool final is about to begin! Although our school is favored to win, a lot of it's going to depend on Kadic's striker, our own Ulrich Stern! We're really counting on him today!"
Ulrich glanced around the stadium. His eyes grazed Jim, feeling apologetic for yelling at Jim during the first take. His eyes grazed the students in the stands, mildly smiling when he saw Sissi happily cheering. His eyes, for once, grazed his parents, feeling some deep hurt that his father had to be on the verge of death to even give him the slightest hint of affection.
Unlike before, this time, Ulrich's brown eyes focused instead on three specific students in the crowd.
Odd, Yumi, and Aelita.
He saw Odd jump up and shout, "Let's rock, Ulrich! Come on, world champion!"
Aelita giggled, "Yeah, but which world?"
"Both of them, Aelita! Both of them!" Aelita and Yumi both smiled in response to Odd's joke.
As did Ulrich.
And for once, in a long time, he felt a sense of peace. For once, he didn't feel so much pressure.
Because with his friends (his true family), he was only ever expected to be himself.
Ulrich turned to face Matt, just as Jim blew his whistle, and Ulrich claimed the ball for Kadic first.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 13 - A Break in Routine / Ulrich is worn down from all the recent XANA attacks, so he tries to find something new in his life.
A/N: Again, since this show takes place in France, I'm going to honor how the French refer to soccer as 'football'. For the same reason, I'm also going to honor how it's Diderot in French, rather than Lincoln.
The name of Ulrich's father comes from Chronicles, but his mother's name is entirely headcanon. In fact, her name is an homage to Ulrich's English voice actress, Barbara Weber-Scaff. Also, what Odd remembers about Ulrich's parents is all stuff Ulrich told him in "Amnesia" (at least, this AU's version of it).
No, I didn't forget about Ulrich's vertigo. In this AU, it doesn't exist yet.