"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 and now she was unconcious in the nurses office.
"Maybe a Megatank was hiding nearby." Mel added.
She was feeling sick earlier on and missed out on most of her classes. However, she was feeling better now that she'd taken some medicine and had some rest, so she decided to join the others just in time to hear about Yumi.
"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." Mel 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." Mel said.
"Tell us what happened." Jeremy said.
Yumi looked around at the four of them before turning to leave, but was stopped by Mel placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You sure you're okay?" She 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."
"In your condition? That's a pretty crazy idea." Ulrich replied.
"Hey listen, we've got more important things to do. Like eating, for example." Odd said.
Yumi then stormed off, Odd following after her as he shrugged to the others.
"What about Aelita? Is she safe?" Ulrich asked as he, Jeremy and Mel hung back.
"Yeah, I hope so." Jeremy replied. "I told her to stay in the tower."
****
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." Mel 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 Mel's here, huh? Mademoiselle likes to keep the competition as far away as she can." Sissi said.
"That's not true." Yumi suddenly said. "Why don't you go out with her, Ulrich? I'm sure Mel wouldn't mind and she is 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 and Mel felt a small amount of hurt at that. After all, Yumi knew better than anyone how she felt about Ulrich. Why would she say something like that? And right infront of her too.
"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."
Mel 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, throwing a brief concerned glance to Mel while he was at it.
"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 Mel 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." Mel said.
"Ulrich."
Before any of them could question what Mel 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.
"Okay, I'll leave you to your love stories." Jeremy said. "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.
"Wow. Okay. Didn't know you had it in you, Einstein." Odd said.
"We'll leave you guys to it then." Ulrich said as he and the others began to walk away.
"No, wait! It's not what you think!" Jeremy called out as he ran after them.
****
The group were now in class with Mrs. Hurtz teaching them about a form of natural cloning that insects do.
Odd and Ulrich both gave Jeremy a teasing smirk as he looked back at them and Mel rolled her eyes at their antics.
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.
"Guys, wait! Will you just listen to me?" Jeremy said as he caught up to them.
"What's the big deal? There's nothing wrong with liking Yumi." Ulrich said.
"Yeah, though she might have some tough competition with Aelita." Odd half joked.
"I don't like Yumi, okay? Not like that at least, I swear. What you saw was not what it looked like." Jeremy defended himself.
"Jokes aside, something's not right with Yumi. She's not her usual self." Mel said and Jeremy nodded in agreement.
"Mel's right. I don't know what Yumi's been through, but she's traumatized." Jeremy said.
"Okay. Let's go." Ulrich 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?" Mel 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.
"Yumi? No way." 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.
"Yeah. No doubt all this other stuff is a distraction while he's getting rid of Aelita." Mel agreed.
"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.
****
Eventually, Odd, Mel, 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 Odd used a Laser Arrow to take out the other Rogster.
"Hurry, we've got to go and free Yumi." Aelita said.
"Yumi?" Mel 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.
Mel, Odd and Ulrich were then left on their own to fight off the Rogsters. Odd stayed back to keep a lookout whilst Mel, Ulrich and Aelita went to free Yumi.
Ulrich took a moment to compose himself before using his sword to deflect a laser towards a rock and it bounced off of it and back to the Rogster who shot it in the first place.
"It's a Guardian." Aelita explained the ball of glowing energy. "A sort of digital jail adapted to the body imprisoned in it."
Mel and Ulrich both tried slicing it open with their blades, but were unsuccessful in doing so.
"We can't destroy it with our weapons." Mel said.
"I can create a clone, a false image of Yumi. We can try to convince the Guardian that he's mistaken." Aelita said.
"Okay. Let's go." Ulrich agreed.
Aelita then knelt to the ground in a praying position and an image of Yumi appeared beside the Guardian, causing it to warp.
A small explosion went off as the Guardian dissappeared.
Yumi fell from where she was floating and Ulrich quickly caught her as she began to wake.
"Yumi. Can you hear me?" Mel asked as she crouched beside her.
"What? What happened?" Yumi asked in confusion.
"Sorry, no time to explain. We got to deactivate the Tower." Odd said as he 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. 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." Mel 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 Mel both landed in front of him.
"How many life points do I have left?" Ulrich wondered.
"Who knows?" Mel 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." Mel said.
"You always were a wash out in math." Ulrich said.
"Right, but thanks to you two I can count to three." Odd joked.
Mel 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." Mel 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."
"Really? Are you sure? 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.
"Alright, that's enough Jeremy torture for one day." Mel said as she walked over and placed a hand on Yumi's shoulder.
"I'll say." Jeremy said before they all laughed.
A/N: Another chapter for my lovely readers! I hope you all Enjoy!