Odd, Ulrich and Amy were hanging around the school's vending machine as Odd waited for his drink to be made. The machine whirred for a bit before pouring the hot liquid into the cup waiting below the spout. Odd then took the cup and sipped it, before almost choking on it in disgust.
"Hey, what's wrong with the hot chocolate today? It taste like dirty sweat socks and an old pair of sneakers." Odd complained.
"Odd the Gourmet." Ulrich joked which made Amy laugh a little.
Suddenly, the trio turned to find Sissi running their way, calling out for Ulrich.
"Oh, boy. This should be good." Amy commented sarcastically.
"What do you know? Your fan club." Odd also commented as he threw his drink in the trash.
"I don't believe it. Your darling Yumi's deserted you for once?" Sissi said as she flicked her hair over her shoulder.
"Like your brain, huh?" Odd said.
"Yeah, it deserted you a long time ago." Amy added which made Ulrich and Odd laugh as Sissi gasped in offense.
Ulrich's phone then rang and he picked it up to talk to Jeremy on the other end as Sissi walked over to the vending machine.
"I recommend the hot chocolate. Take my word for it." Odd suggested jokingly as Amy hid her grin behind her hand.
"What?" Ulrich said which caused Odd and Amy to look his way.
****
The three of them had run off to the Factory where an unconscious Yumi was laying on the floor with Jeremy watching over her.
Odd and Ulrich carried her to the infirmary where they gently lay her down on a bed.
"Well then. What happened to her?" The school nurse, Dorathy, asked.
"Uh, well she started feeling sick during recess." Jeremy began.
"She's been studying hard of late. I'm guessing it started to impact her health somehow." Amy said.
"Yeah. Our teachers give us way too much homework." Odd said.
"Alright. I'll take care of her. Now back to class, all of you." The Nurse Dorathy said, but nobody moved. "You heard what I said, now go. Go on."
The four of them then finally left the room, though still a little worried about what happened to Yumi.
****
"Are you sure she wasn't hit by a laser?" Ulrich asked as Jeremy had just finished explaining how something had happened to Yumi while she was helping Aelita on Lyoko. "Maybe there was a Megatank hiding hiding somewhere."
"No, no. I would've seen it on the screen." Jeremy replied. "She still had all her life points when she was devirtualised."
"Well in any case something weird happened." Amy said.
"Yeah, that's for sure." Jeremy agreed. "The proof is she passed out in the scanner, only the return trip's pretty easy."
"That's what you think." Odd said. "You oughtta try it one of these days. You'll love it."
Just then, they spotted Yumi wandering by.
"Yumi." Ulrich called out to her and she turned to them in surprise.
"Guess you're feeling better, huh?" Odd said.
"You worried us for a second there." Amy said.
"Tell us what happened." Jeremy said.
Yumi looked around at the four of them before turning to leave, but was stopped by Ulrich placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You sure you're okay?" Ulrich asked in concern.
"Yeah, I'm just tired." Yumi replied.
"Yumi, tell us what happened on Lyoko." Jeremy said.
"Nothing, you hear?" Yumi replied somewhat snappy. "Come on. Let's go over to the Factory now."
"That's not a good idea for you right now." Amy replied.
"Hey listen, we've got more important things to do. Like eating, for example." Odd said.
Yumi then stormed off, Odd and Amy sharing a confused and slightly concerned glance before following after her as Odd shrugged to the others.
****
The group were now all in the cafeteria eating.
"And you really can't remember what happened?" Jeremy asked as Yumi had just finished telling them she didn't remember what happened to her on Lyoko.
"No, nothing." Yumi replied.
"Do you think it could've come from the scanners? A bug or something like that?" Ulrich wondered.
"Maybe it's Xana." Amy said.
"Yeah. He could be trying out a new way of attacking." Odd said.
"I haven't the slightest idea. I'm wondering if all these transfers are becoming a health problem." Jeremy said.
Sissi then walked by with a tray of food.
"Hey, do I smell fish or just cheap perfume?" Odd asked.
"You're such a riot." Sissi replied. "Oh, Ulrich. What do you say we get together after school, huh?"
"Get together with you? Very tempting, but uh... not." Ulrich replied which made the table of friends laugh.
Normally Yumi would be laughing with them, but instead she watched them almost robotically.
"You're showing off because Yumi's here, huh? Mademoiselle likes to keep the competition as far away as she can." Sissi said.
"That's not true." Yumi said. "Why don't you go out with her? She's really pretty."
This set off alarm bells for all of them as they looked at Yumi in confusion and surprise.
That was definitely not something Yumi would say.
"Hey, you wouldn't be trying to make fun of me, would you?" Sissi asked and Yumi turned to her with a serious look on her face. "No? Great! Thanks a lot, Yumi."
Amy narrowed her eyes at Yumi.
Something was wrong with her and she just knew it had to do with whatever happened to her on Lyoko.
"Ulrich, I'll be waiting for you in the park after school." Sissi said as she walked away happily.
"Hey, what are you trying to pull anyway, huh?" Ulrich asked Yumi.
"Nothing. Go on, go out with her. She's been waiting for this for ages. Go on." Yumi said just as Principal Delmas came over to them.
"Miss Ishiyama, come to my office right now." He told her sternly.
****
"What's going on with Yumi? Is she mad at me or what? I've never seen her like that." Ulrich said as he, Jeremy, Odd, and Amy were gathered together in the courtyard talking.
"She must've had a really serious shock." Jeremy said.
"I don't know. This seems like more than a shock to me." Amy said.
"Ulrich."
Before any of them could question what Amy meant, the group turned to find Herb and Nicholas heading their way. They did not look happy either, especially Herb.
"What's the big idea having a date with Sissi, huh?" Herb asked.
"This isn't the time for that, you hear Herb?" Jermy said as he walked over to stand by Ulrich. "If you want an explanation, go and ask Sissi."
Herb glared menacingly at Ulrich whilst Nicholas spared a glance to Amy, lightly blushing when she gave a small, polite, yet slightly awkward wave in acknowledgement.
Odd took notice of the interaction and put his hand over hers to stop her from waving as he glared lightly at Nicholas, causing the boy to avert his gaze.
"Okay, I'll leave you to your love stories." Jeremy said, throwing a quick glance between Odd and Nicholas. "I've got a super psychopathic computer to feed."
****
"Jeremy, Hurry up." Ulrich said as he opened the door to the boy's room, Odd and Amy right behind him. "We gotta get going-"
The trio stared in shock at the sight before them. Yumi had a hand on Jeremy's leg and was leaning very close to the blushing boy's face.
"Ulrich, no wait! It's not what you think!" Jeremy said as he chased after the retreating boy.
Amy turned to Yumi and folded her arms across her chest as she and Odd sent her a disapproving look.
"Bravo." Odd said before he gently took Amy by the arm and the two of them walked away.
****
The group were now in class with Mrs. Hurtz teaching them about a form of natural cloning that insects do.
Odd stuck his tongue out at Jeremy as he looked back at them and Amy threw a small paper ball at the back of his head for being so childish.
She, at the least, was willing to give Jeremy the benefit of the doubt and didn't just accept what she saw.
The bell rang and they all exited the classroom, Ulrich doing his best to ignore Jeremy as he went after them.
"Ulrich, you have to listen." Jeremy said as he took a hold of his arm.
"I don't want to listen to you." Ulrich said as he shook his arm out of the bespectacled boy's grip.
Jeremy sighed.
"Maybe you should listen to him, Ulrich. Something's not right with Yumi. She's not her usual self." Amy said and Jeremy sent her a thankful look for sticking up for him.
"Amy's right, Ulrich. I don't know what Yumi's been through, but she's traumatized." Jeremy said.
Ulrich took a moment to think before turning around to face Jeremy.
"Okay. Let's go." He said.
****
"What do you think this phenomena is?" Ulrich asked as they made their way to Jeremy's room.
"I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea." Jeremy replied. "Aelita's checking it out. It could be Xana's doing."
Jeremy put his key in the lock for his room before realising something.
"I forgot to lock the door." He said as he opened the door, letting them in and revealing the mess that was once his computer.
"All my equipment." Jeremy spoke in mild devastation.
"You think Sissi's behind all this?" Ulrich asked.
"Why would she want to do this?" Amy asked in return.
"Hey, maybe it's Herb. He sure was mad when we saw him today." Odd said.
"Wait. Who was the last one to leave this room?" Jeremy asked, realising who did it.
"Oh, no. No that's impossible. Not Yumi." Ulrich said as he too realised who left the room last, though he didn't want to believe it.
"You got to admit, she's been acting weird lately." Odd said.
"Okay, Yumi hasn't been herself lately. That's right, but still. The enemy is Xana. Jeremy is right. Xana has launched an attack." Ulrich said. "And I'm sure all this other stuff is to distract us while he's calmly and quietly getting rid of Aelita."
"Aelita! She's all alone on Lyoko and we can't get to her." Jeremy said.
"Are we going to the scanner room?" Yumi asked as she entered the room.
The others all eyed her suspiciously for a moment.
"Yeah. Let's go." Jeremy replied.
****
Eventuall, Odd, Amy, Yumi and Ulrich were all sent to the scanner room and virtualised, only with one problem.
"Where's Yumi?" Ulrich asked as they looked around for her.
"What she's not with you? No. She wasn't transferred." Jeremy said.
"Over there!" Odd called as he saw Aelita being chased by two Rogsters.
The three of them quickly ran over to Aelita and Ulrich deflected a blast with his blade whilst Amy used her laser bladed sword to take out the other Rogster.
"Hurry, we've got to go and free Yumi." Aelita said.
"Yumi?" Amy asked in confusion.
"Yumi's not-"
"The real Yumi." Aaelita interrupted Ulrich. "The one who is here on Lyoko. The other one was created by Xana."
Aelita pointed out a giant ball of energy in the distance that had Yumi trapped inside it.
Aelita tried to warn Jeremy not to go near Yumi, but had no answer.
Amy, Odd and Ulrich were then left on their own to fight off the Rogsters. Odd and Amy stayed back to keep a lookout whilst Ulrich and Aelita went up to what she called a Guardian and freed Yumi.
A small explosion went off as the Guardian disappeared.
"Piece of cake." Odd commented before he and Amy made their way up to the others in time to see Yumi waking up in Ulrich's arms.
"Yumi." He said as the girl opened her eyes.
"What? What happened?" Yumi asked in confusion.
"No time to explain. We got to deactivate the Tower." Amy said as she and Odd arrived.
"Jeremy's not responding, I don't understand. I have the feeling that something's wrong." Aelita said.
"He's all alone with the other one." Ulrich said. "If she destroys the scanner it's all over."
"The other what? Who wants to wreck the scanner?" Yumi asked, still very much confused.
"The other you." Odd told her.
"What if something has happened to Jeremy and what if we don't manage to deactivate the Tower in time? This is serious." Yumi said. "Listen, one of us has to go back to reality and right away. We don't have much time."
"Right. I'll go." Ulrich volunteered.
"No, it's better if I go." Yumi said. "I don't know how many life points I have left, Ulrich, and if I only have five or ten I won't be of much use to you here." Yumi said. "Also, I have a little matter to deal with that only I can settle. It's between me and myself."
"Then you go." Ulrich said.
"But you're going to have to devirtualise yourself first." Amy said. "The question is how."
"You're armed aren't you?" Yumi said.
****
Yumi was devirtualised after Ulrich killed her avatar and the others were all left to deal with the Rogsters and the activated Tower.
"Odd, watch out! On your right!" Aelita called out to the cat-boy.
Odd was struck by a Rogster and and Ulrich and Amy both landed in front of him.
"How many life points do I have left?" Ulrich wondered.
"Who knows?" Amy replied.
"It's got to be less than ten by now." Odd guessed as he got up.
Odd dodged out of the way of more lasers before being struck once more.
"I'm still here? Well I guess I might've messed up on my calculations." He spoke in slight surprise.
"That's nothing new." Amy said.
"You always were a wash out in math." Ulrich said.
"Right, but thanks to you two I can count to three." Odd joked.
Amy would've laughed, had the situation not been so serious.
Ulrich then used his Triplekit to take down another Rogster.
"Aelita, you're up." He said and Aelita ran into the Tower.
Soon enough, the Tower was deactivated and the Return to Past was activated.
****
"That's fantastic." Aelita said from Jeremy's computer as the gang was all gathered in his room. "The fact that Xana was able to materialise another Yumi proves one thing; It proves that materialisation is really possible."
"That's crazy. Xana's helping us with our materialisation research." Yumi said.
"Back to work then, Einstein." Odd said.
"No sweat. I'll start programming again right now." Jeremy said.
"But why bother? If I were you, I'd go and see Xana. He's got the answer, so ask him." Odd joked.
"I wouldn't trust him." Ulrich said.
"Yeah, just ook at the Yumi he sent us." Amy said.
"She wasn't that different from the original." Odd said.
"She sure was." Jeremy said. "She didn't fool me. I saw the difference as soon as she started to flirt with me."
Amy shared a mischievous smirk with Yumi at this.
"Really? Are you sure?" Amy joked.
"Do you have any proof that it's the real me you're looking at?" Yumi said as she got up and approached Jeremy, removing his glasses from his face.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Jeremy asked kind of nervously as he blushed.
"Ah no, cut it out. I've had enough of that for one day." Ulrich said as he got up and placed a hand on Yumi's shoulder.
"Jealous much?" Amy teased causing him to turn her way in surprise.
"Sure looks like it." Odd agreed and the others excluding Ulrich all laughed.
A/N: Another chapter for my lovely readers! I hope you all Enjoy!