A/N: Lemon alert!
A sulking William trudges into the factory with Aelita in tow. Much to his dismay, Jeremie and Herve scheduled another Replika mission today. As the couple descends the ropes to the factory floor, William reflects on what happened last time and the fight that erupted between him and Aelita. He partially blames Herve, but mostly himself.
As he and Aelita walk into the elevator and press the button, Aelita squeezes his hand and gives him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Will. Things will go much better today. Remember what Jeremie mentioned? Herve figured something out that can help make things go a little smoother than last time."
"I know, but I still feel responsible. Though it does feel nice to have a chance to redeem myself." William exhales a big breath as the door opens to the lab. The couple are the last ones to arrive.
"Alright, now that everyone is here," Herve starts, "tonight is going to be different than last time. And I want to go over how, but first I want to say something to you two." He looks at William and Aelita who both raise an eyebrow and look at each other before turning back to Herve. "I apologize for the outcome of the last mission. Dunbar, it wasn't entirely your fault. While, yes, your confusion on which spelling of 'sync' did make things go haywire, there were computational errors on Jeremie's and my side that further caused issues in the executable."
"Great. I love being made the scapegoat." William throws his hands up in frustration. "Just wonderful."
"Will, stop," Aelita scolds.
William scoffs as he crosses his arms, allowing Herve to interject. "No, Aelita, he's right. We did make him a scapegoat. Dunbar, I apologize and I hope a successful mission tonight can ever so slightly make up for it."
William sighs and drops his arms. "Alright. Thanks, DaVinci. I appreciate it."
"Well with that all taken care of, what's going on tonight, DaVinci?" Odd chimes in.
"Great question, Della Robbia." He pushes up his glasses as if beginning a lecture. He turns to the rest of the team. "Tonight is the night we make a second go at destroying all of the Mountain Sector Replikas. Stern, Yumi, Della Robbia. You three will be translating to the facility. We're headed to Banff National Park in Canada. Aelita, Sissi, Dunbar. The three of you are staying with the Skid as protection in case XANA rears his ugly head.
"The mission this time is simple. We've simplified the destruction program sequence to only require myself to initialize the executable after one person in the facility and Aelita in the tower both input the code together. Yumi. You're on computer duty as usual. Everybody clear on their assignments?"
The entire team nods in response.
"Let's go kick some maple-flavored ass!" Odd cheers.
The team erupts with laughter as they head to the elevator to head onto Lyoko.
"I'll send you right into Sector Five," Herve's voice comes through the speakers as the men step into the scanners. "Transfer Odd. Transfer Ulrich. Transfer William. Scanner Odd. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner William. Virtualization."
The men are virtualized into the Arena, where they stand around and wait for the virtualization of their counterparts.
"Transfer Sissi. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Scanner Sissi. Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita. Virtualization."
As soon as the ladies are virtualized, the group runs towards the already opened wall toward the Core Zone elevator.
Once the group enters the northern area of the Core Zone and the hangar is visible, Herve pipes up. "To your transporter spots."
Wordlessly, the team steps onto their respective spots.
"Energize," Herve calls, hitting the execution key.
The team is functioning like a well-oiled machine, and Aelita is already ready to take off. "Supports away," she announces. "We have vertical propulsion."
"Cleared for takeoff."
Odd snickers. "I thought we were in Sector Five, not at Charles de Gaulle."
Both Ulrich and William stifle laughs at that.
The Skid soars through the North Pole of the Celestial Dome and Aelita quickly steers it through an open tunnel in the Outer Sphere. "Ready to dive in five seconds."
After five seconds, she maneuvers the Skid into a deep dive past the deceptively calm surface of the Digital Sea.
"Holoweb system online," Herve announces.
"Rotation. Lights on. Coordinates, Herve?"
"Incoming. The hub will be to your right."
"Roger that." Aelita expertly pilots the ship through the Digital Sea to the given coordinates. "Broadband acceleration in ten seconds."
The Skid warps through the hub, its engines roaring when it emerges on the other side uneventfully.
"Replika in sight," Aelita announces.
"Digital Key activated."
"I'm sending you the signal, Herve." Aelita places her palm on the touchpad in front of her.
With a heavy creak, the Replika opens, allowing the Skid entry. When it emerges out of the Digital Sea, the team is surrounded by mountainous terrain.
"The tower should be right up ahead, Aelita. Go ahead and dock, and then I'll start the translation procedure."
Aelita docks the Skid quickly. "Skid secured."
"Good. Translation." Herve hits the execution key, sending Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi to the abandoned Canadian facility.
"Wooo-wee! This place is a doozy," Odd exclaims as the three materialize in the facility.
"Come on, Odd. Let's get this over with." Ulrich leads the way to the control room.
"I'm not sure what's worse, this creepy abandoned facility or the fact that we're probably a hundred kilometers from civilization," Yumi remarks.
"I'm with you on that one, Yumi," Odd agrees.
"Herve, we're at the control room," Ulrich reports.
"Excellent. I'm preparing everything on my end. Aelita, quickly get to a way-tower before XANA can send you a welcoming committee."
"On it," Aelita replies as she breaks into a run, having already debarked everyone from the ship.
"Sissi and Dunbar, standby until further notice."
"Got it," they reply in unison.
Herve smiles and cracks his knuckles. Everything is going according to plan. Let's just hope it stays that way.
When Aelita gets to the upper platform of the way-tower and the blank interface appears before her, she says, "Okay. Ready on my end, Herve."
"Ready on my end," Herve responds. "Yumi, you ready?"
"As I'll ever be," she says confidently.
Ulrich and Odd stand at the ready in case XANA comes calling.
Collectively, Herve, Yumi, and Aelita all enter the following lines of code into their terminal windows:
mountainlink-init
cd/mntsec/replikas
sync-all
0x1E7F2C
mountainlink-exec-destroy
firewall-bypass-init
launch-sync-virus
overload-rep-cores
exec-erase-protocol
After the last line of code, their terminal windows shut simultaneously, and Herve quickly brings all warriors back to the ship as the Replika begins to delete itself.
"It's working! It's really working!" Jeremie shouts from behind Herve. "You did it, Pichon!"
"I did it," Herve repeats, dumbfounded. "I actually did it."
Aelita skillfully pilots the Skid away from the Replika and back into digital waters.
Herve rematerializes the group, and when they come up to the lab, the team laughs and celebrates, reveling in the fact that they've finally destroyed all the Mountain Sector Replikas.
"You did great, Yumi," Ulrich says, a small smile playing on his lips.
Yumi looks at him, then looks away without responding.
Ulrich sighs. "Yumi, I'm sorry. I know I fucked up. I know I hurt you. I'm trying to make things right."
"Too little, too late," she says flatly as she turns to join the rest of the team on the elevator. "Hey, guys. Wait... shit." She hisses as the door closes before she can get there.
Yumi silently waits for the elevator to come back, still calmly ignoring Ulrich.
"Yumi. Talk to me," he pleads.
"I have nothing to say to you, Ulrich. You made your choice. You chose your ego. I have no interest in being with someone like that."
"Yumi, I—"
"Save it."
"No. You need to listen to me. I talked to William." The elevator opens back up and they both step inside. He continues. "I apologized to him."
"Good for you, jackass."
The elevator opens back up to the factory floor, and Yumi moves to walk out of it, but Ulrich grabs her arm.
"I admitted to being an asshole. I apologized to William. I'm trying to make things right. Isn't that everything you wanted?"
Yumi yanks her arm away. "And I'm supposed to just forgive you? Just like that? Why didn't you tell me you talked to him? How do I know you're not just bullshitting me right now?"
"I guess you don't."
The elevator door closes as the conversation becomes more heated.
Yumi scoffs. "Exactly. You had two weeks to talk to me about this. Two whole weeks. But what did you do? Ran and hid! You don't get to just waltz back into my life and act like everything is fine. And you don't get to placate me while doing it."
"I'm not placating you. When have I ever lied to you?"
"The time Hiroki stole my diary? The time Odd spread that picture of me in that horrible tutu? The time you quit the soccer team and conveniently 'forgot' to tell me about it?"
Ulrich looks away, silently chewing the inside of his cheeks.
"Yeah," Yumi spits. "You've definitely lied to me before. And there's nothing stopping you from doing it right now."
Ulrich slams the back wall of the elevator with his fist. "You clearly don't know who I am if you think I'm lying to you right now when I'm just trying not to lose you."
"And you think trying to intimidate me is going to keep me around?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You slamming the wall. You're trying to intimidate me. Damn, dude. That's some Grade-A manipulation, right there."
"Right, I'm obviously trying to manipulate you. What, am I not allowed to have feelings?"
"Wow. Ulrich Stern has feelings? Fancy that."
It's Ulrich's turn to scoff. "Wow."
"Wow what?"
"If I didn't have feelings, what have we been doing the past five months, then?"
It's Yumi's turn to be silent, but Ulrich's words don't get to her like hers do to him. She just stands there with her arms crossed and an indignant look on her face.
"I'm not a robot, Yumi. I do have feelings. I have a lot of them. And I'm not afraid to show them when I need to." Ulrich inches closer to her. "Especially to you."
Yumi backs up against the wall. "Prove it."
Ulrich presses his body against hers and kisses her. Yumi reciprocates, wrapping her arms around his neck. They continue kissing passionately, their hands roaming each other's bodies.
"How's that for feelings, huh?" Ulrich says breathlessly.
Yumi doesn't answer. She simply pulls him in for another kiss.
Ulrich breaks the kiss and lifts her shirt over her head. He trails kisses down her neck and chest, eliciting a moan from Yumi. He wastes no time in removing the rest of their clothing, spinning Yumi around, and pinning her against the wall. He slides his hand between her legs and begins to stroke her clit.
"You're so wet," he groans.
"Just for you," Yumi gasps.
"Fuck, Yumi."
"That's the idea."
Ulrich chuckles and lines himself up at her entrance. He pushes into her slowly, taking just a second to let her adjust to his size. He sets a steady pace, thrusting in and out of her.
"Harder," Yumi moans.
Ulrich complies, grabbing her hips and slamming into her harder. He continues his relentless pace, tightening his grip on her hips. With a few more thrusts, they both reach their climaxes, crying out in pleasure.
They stay there for a moment, catching their breaths.
"That was..." Yumi trails off.
"Yeah," Ulrich finishes. "You know, Odd is probably spending the night with Sissi, like he tends to do lately. I probably have the room to myself tonight."
Yumi raises an eyebrow. "Is that an invitation?"
Ulrich shrugs. "Only if you want it to be."
Yumi pretends to consider it for a moment. "Then what are we waiting for? I'm not satisfied yet."
Ulrich chuckles as he gathers their clothes up off the elevator floor. They get dressed in a comfortable silence, and when they get back to his dorm room, it is indeed empty. The two of them strip down again and get under the covers. Ulrich lays on his back and Yumi straddles him, grinding her hips against his.
"Someone's eager," Ulrich teases.
Yumi leans down to kiss him. "Less talking, more fucking."
They spend the next couple of hours making up for two weeks of avoiding one another.
Later on, after Yumi left in a hurry, Ulrich realizes that she's accidentally left her bra in his room. He chuckles as he picks it up off the floor to examine it. It's black, of course, but it has little sushis with smiley faces all over it.
Ulrich smiles and shakes his head. She can be cute when she wants to be.
He haphazardly stows the bra under his bed, turns off the lights, and crawls into bed with a smile on his face.
Odd comes bursting into the dorm room, startling Ulrich awake.
"What the fuck, dude?" Ulrich snaps groggily.
"Sorry, buddy. You're usually awake by now. What, did you have a long night or something?" Odd asks curiously.
"Something like that," Ulrich mutters.
"Well, whatever. Get up. We have class in an hour." As Odd speaks, something intriguing catches his attention in his peripheral vision. He turns his head and narrows his eyes. Suddenly, a smug grin spreads across his face. "Hey, Ulrich?"
"What?" Ulrich asks, annoyed.
"You like sushi, don'tcha?"
Ulrich freezes. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Alright, Jim!" Odd throws his head back and cackles. "C'mon, its pancake day in the cafe. I need carbs!"