Chapter 1

She gazed out her bedroom window into the moonlight outside. She sighed and flopped down on her bed, exhausted from her day. The teenager turned on her side, flipped up the two-month old picture, and broke out in tears.

Yumi Ishiyama lowered Ulrich Stern’s latest school picture on her nightstand. She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her head in her arms on her pillow. A huge sob escaped between her lips, and a fountain of tears started flowing.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Yumi’s cell phone started ringing frantically on her nightstand. She reached over with one hand, grabbed the cell phone, and put it up to her ear.

“Hello? Oh, oh hi, Aelita. No, no I’m fine. Well, ok, so I’m not alright. . . . No, no don’t come over here. I don’t want you to see me like this. Oh, ok. Fine.” She hung up the phone.

Ding-dong!

Yumi’s friend raced upstairs when her mother let her it. “Yumi! Yumi! Let me in! Please!” Aelita said as Yumi unlocked the door. Aelita ran over to the bed where Yumi had already started weeping.

“I miss him! I miss him so much Aelita!” Yumi grabbed a tissue and noisily blew her nose. “I want him to come back, to have this nightmare all be over! Why did he have to leave? Why!” Aelita comforted her in her arms.

“There, there Yumi. I’m sure he’ll come home soon. He’s been gone for a while, and you know he misses you. He saw you that day with William at the park, and when he saw William place his arm around you, he ran. He ran away as fast as he could. I tried to stop him, I tried, but he just kept running. Odd followed him up to his room secretly and saw Ulrich grab his backpack with a few of his possessions and he ran. He ran outside and just kept running, Yumi. If only he had stayed a half second longer in the park, he would have seen you swat Williams arm away and then walk away. But he didn’t. There’s nothing we could have done. Nothing.”

“I just wish I didn’t agree to . . . to . . .” Yumi let a big sob out. She took a deep breath and tried again. “I just wish I didn’t agree to William telling me to meet him in the park. I knew it would turn out bad. I just knew it. Oh, Aelita, make it stop hurting. Make it stop! I can’t take it anymore. I miss him so much!” Yumi crawled to the foot of her bed and brought her knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth.

“I’m gonna have Jeremie run something by at the Super Computer. I’ll be back before tonight, Yumi. Come over to the factory if you need me.” Aelita winked and left.

For the third time in the past 2 hours, Yumi overturned Ulrich’s picture. She held it in her hands, and then held it to her chest, hugging it tightly. “Why did you have to leave me, Ulrich? Why! I miss you! I love you more than you think! Won’t you come home! Please! I can’t even go to school anymore because being in the classes  remind me of you so much! I cry all alone here in my bed, and wish that you hadn’t run away. Why, oh why did you run off!” Yumi thought to herself.

***********

“Jeremie! Hi! It’s Aelita. I’m stopping by the factory for a few minutes, can you run a search for me? Thanks a bunch!” Aelita closed her cell phone and ran over the bridge to the secret factory.

“Hi, Aelita, what’s up?” Jeremie said as Aelita walked out of the elevator.

“Can you run some sort of a search of any known whereabouts of Ulrich? I think that if we could even locate where he’s been, it would cheer Yumi up a little. She’s a wreck, sitting on her bed all night and day long sobbing and crying, and eating fatty foods that will really kill her body. You’ve got to help her. Please, Jeremie, for her sake.” Aelita placed her hand on the back of the Super Computer chair.

Suddenly, Aelita’s pocket began to ring. She grabbed her cell phone and answered the call. It was Odd.

“Hello? Odd! Odd! What’s the matter?!”

“Aelita! Aelita! I just got a call from you-know-who! He called! I’m heading over to the factory, meet me there!”

“Odd, are you serious! He called you? Ulrich called you! I’m already at the factory, hurry!”

“Yeah! He called from a different cell number! I can’t believe it either! He said he’d call me back in like 20 minutes!” Odd ended the call and raced to the factory. Aelita and Jeremie danced with joy.

Chapter 2

“Jeremie! Can you trace where this call came from? Can you figure out where it was from?” Odd said quickly.

Ring! Ring!

“Odd! Answer your phone! It might be Ulrich! Here, I’ll hook it up to the speakers on the Super Computer so that we can hear it too!” Jeremie grabbed the cell phone and hooked it up.

“Hello, Ulrich?”

“Odd! How are things over there? How’s XANA been lately? I really miss all you guys, you, Jeremie, Aelita,-” Ulrich began, but was interrupted

“Say ‘hi’ to Aelita and Jeremie, there right here. I raced over to the factory and we began looking for your cell pinpointed area! We’re all listening in on the conversation, well, all except Yumi.”

“Hi guys! I missed you all! – Wait! Where’s Yumi? What happened to her? Is she okay?” Ulrich stammered.

“She’s been a wreck lately. She cries all the time in her bed, sobbing, and staring constantly at your old school photo. She cries herself to sleep and eats fatty foods that are killing her body. Does that sound okay to you? Ulrich, you just took off that day! Without saying good-bye! She thinks you never coming back. She misses you so much!” Aelita stated, thinking about what Yumi’s probably doing right now.

“It’s really that bad? I . . .  I don’t believe it. I thought she had William to comfort her. That’s the whole reason I left that day. I saw them at the park, and just ran. I ran and ran and ran. I ran to her house, sat out under the tree for a little while, and then just ran downtown.”

“Ulrich,” Odd began. “Ulrich, you should have stayed around a little longer. If you didn’t run off right there and then, you would have seen her swat William’s arm down and walk away. She never liked him, she never will. She said it herself. There’s nothing happening between them, and nothing ever will. She loves you with all her heart.”

“She . . . She . . . Oh, I miss her so much. I wish I never left. Everyday that I’m out here all by myself at this stupid hotel downtown, I dread the day that I left, and I wish I could take it all back. Get a fresh start. But I thought she liked William, and I was ashamed. Ashamed that I left all my friends. Ashamed that I left Yumi to William. Ashamed that I never once asked her out when I should have. But I thought it was too late. I miss her. A few nights ago, I walked to her house and sat out on the ground under her window. I apologized out loud, and then I left.”

“Ulrich, it’s not too late to change things. You can come back. School ends in a week, and you could hang out at the factory or hide out in our dorm room. It isn’t the same without you, even Kiwi isn’t the same. Yumi needs you, Ulrich. She really does. William has even left the school early, because he couldn’t deal with people suspicions that he was part of your disappearance. Please, come back. We all need you, but Yumi needs you most of all. Please, come back.” Odd crossed his fingers and waited for a response.

Ulrich paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and answered. “Ok, Odd, I’ll come back. I can pack my stuff, and be there in like an hour. When can I see Yumi?”

“I can try to coax her into coming over to the factory, and you can see her in the morning. It’s Saturday tomorrow, so no one will be curious about why we’re not on the campus grounds. She’ll be delighted to see you,” Aelita said.

“Me neither. I can’t wait to see her again. I’ve waited for this for two months. I’ll be over there in about one hour. See you then!” He ended the phone call, and immediately started packing his old Kadic backpack. He left a weeks rent on the table, and ran out, never to return. He ran as fast as he could down the sidewalk and onto Yumi’s street. He walked slowly past her house, and sat down under her window, like he did last week. He thought he heard sobs coming from her window, so he whispered aloud: “Don’t cry Yumi. Don’t cry. I’m coming home.” With this said, he grabbed his backpack and followed down the sidewalk.

He walked for about 15 minutes, and then finally approached the entrance gate to Kadic. “Welcome back, Ulrich,” the gate seemed to say. He felt so good being in the prescience of the campus again. Thoughts about Yumi raced through his head.

As he walked along the soccer field, he couldn’t help but lie down on the ground with his arms spread out. He missed not playing soccer. Yumi and soccer were his two most precious possessions. Remembering that he had his other friends waiting, he stood up and started walking towards the factory.

When he stepped into the factory building, he took a deep breath, and felt more at home than he ever had in two months. Pressing the button to the elevator, he let out a sigh of relief. When he reached the floor where the Super Computer was, he took one step and was almost mauled over by a four-person group hug. He looked at all the faces surrounding him, his best friend in the world, Odd; the Lyoko ‘princess,’ Aelita; and the ‘genius,’ Jeremie. “I missed you guys, so much. It’s good to be somewhere where I’m not alone.”

“I’ll stay at the factory with you tonight, and we can catch up with what you’ve missed lately, buddy,” Odd said with a smile.

Aelita and Jeremie said good-bye, and headed off to their dorms. Odd and Ulrich plopped themselves down in the chairs that they put in the factory for long nights like tonight. Ulrich and Odd caught up on what happened over the last two months.

“Get some rest, buddy. You’ll need your strength for tomorrow,” Odd said, and with that, the two of them fell asleep.

Chapter 3

Aelita awoke the next day at the crack of dawn. She stretched, put on her slippers, and got dressed. She had a few plans on how to get Yumi to go to the factory. Aelita realized how tough this would be, since Yumi missed Ulrich so much she wouldn’t so much as leave her room, especially to go into a place where he spent a lot of time.

First, she would help Jeremie and Odd throw a surprise party, celebrating Ulrich’s return. So that was where she was headed. Aelita ran to her room quickly to get the picture that she Odd had sketched for her a while back of the whole gang. Odd left Ulrich in the middle of the night to go to the Super Computer room so he could sketch different pictures of Ulrich. Jeremie went to his dormitory to photocopy and enlarge various pictures out of the old yearbook of Ulrich. The plan was to have the whole Super Computer room decorated with his pictures, a few soccer trophies of his that he left behind when he left along with medals, and possibly a soccer ball or two. The party would be perfect.

Yumi would be speechless, and at the same time, in tears when she saw Ulrich again. But for Aelita, figuring out exactly how she was going to get her to come would be the big problem.

An hour later, Jeremie returned to the factory and took the ladder up to the Super Computer room, in fear that the elevator would wake Ulrich. The surprise needed to stay secret to him too, until they sprang the plan on him. In his hands, he had full color pictures of Ulrich, school photos of him and Odd, him alone, and some of him during his soccer games. Odd came back to the factory about an hour after Jeremie came with the pictures, his arms filled with trophies and medals swinging around his neck.

********

The group worked hard for the next three hours setting up the Super Computer room just how they think Ulrich and Yumi would like it.

Later, at about 9:00 in the morning, Odd went down to the room below to wake Ulrich and prepare him for the big reunion. When Odd shook Ulrich to wake him up, he jumped into a sitting position on the couch. Memories started flooding into his brain, as he rubbed his eyes, slightly confused. When he remembered entirely where he was and why he was there, his face wore a bright smile. He said hello to Odd, and Odd went back upstairs to go over the last few details while Ulrich was getting dressed in the clothes he disappeared in. He couldn’t believe it. It was almost unreal. He was going to get to see Yumi again, and on top of that, hold her in his arms again. All he had to do was wait for the rest of the group to tell him what was going on. He still had no idea what the group had planned. All he thought it would be was a simple ‘I’m back, for good,’ type gathering, whereas it was now planned to be quite elaborate.

Odd came down the ladder again, and told Ulrich to be up in the Super Computer room in a few minutes. Ulrich opened up his backpack, took out his old, slightly aged and wrinkled picture of Yumi. It was her last photo before he disappeared. He smiled, and placed her photo back in his backpack.

As he climbed the rungs of the ladder, thoughts ran through his head about what he would say to Yumi. As he emerged from the bottom floor, the rest of the group greeted him. He said ‘hello’ back, and took a deep breath. It didn’t strike him at first about all his old things being in the room right now. When he finally started to look around, he saw many of these possessions. It made him feel more at home than ever.

Jeremie took the job of filling Ulrich in on the plan. Aelita was to go and try to encourage her to come to the factory. How, none of them was entirely sure, even though Aelita had a few ideas. When the moment would come, she thought, she would decide what to say to get Yumi to go.  Despite that, they knew that Yumi could trust Aelita with anything, which meant Aelita would definitely be able to persuade her to come.

Aelita would call Jeremie saying that they were heading over when Yumi was getting dressed. Then, the duo would head over to the factory, and would then use the elevator to go up to the Super Computer room. It would be perfect, if everything went according to schedule.

It was time to start the plan. Ulrich, Jeremie, and Odd all went around the Super Computer room checking to make sure that everything and anything was in its place.

Chapter 4

Aelita stepped outside of the factory, took a deep breath, and began to fast-walk. She had to think of exactly what she was going to say in order to persuade Yumi to come to the factory.

As Aelita crossed the Kadic school grounds, she pondered intently about what she should say to coax Yumi into coming to the factory. Unlatching the gate, she was struck with a brilliant idea that she knew was easy and simple.

Aelita took off into a running sprint. When she approached the Ishiyama’s doorstep, she placed her hands on her knees, panting. Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell. Hiroki answered the door, energetic as always.

“Hi Aelita! What’s up? How’s things goin’?” he said, letting the pink haired girl in.

“I’m fine, Hiroki. May I see Yumi?” As the little boy nodded his head, she took off to the stairs.

Knocking on the door, Aelita said “Yumi! Yumi! It’s me! May I come in, please! It’s an emergency!” Aelita heard the door unlock and proceeded inside. Closing the door behind her, she sat down next to Yumi. Her eyes looked glossy, and her nose was red as a rose. Aelita could tell she had been crying hysterically again.

“Yumi, XANA attacked again. Odd isn’t enough to control him long enough for me to deactivate the tower. We need you. Please, come with me back to the factory to help us. He’s too strong for just Odd and me.” As Yumi took in this information, she grabbed the picture of Ulrich and held it to her tight, took a tissue, and wiped tears from her eyes.

“I . . . I . . .” she sobbed. “I can’t Aelita, I’m not strong enough to go. I can’t go back to the factory.” She wiped her eyes with her hands, and looked up at Aelita.

“Yes, you can, Yumi. We need you. Odd’s losing life points like there free concert tickets. Please, we need you so much. I know how much you miss Ulrich, but we need you. The world needs you now. Please?” Aelita said hopingly.

“Oh . . . okay. I’ll go. Give me a minute to get dressed,” the Japanese girl said getting out of bed and disappearing into her walk-in closet. Aelita took Ulrich’s picture in her hands and then placed it back on the night table next to the bed. Being such a neat freak that she was, she smoothed out the sheets on Yumi’s bed and replaced the top blankets to their place.

Yumi stepped out of the closet wearing her usual outfit, black belly shirt, black pants, and black boots. “Ready to go, Yumi?” Aelita asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, but what the heck, let’s go.” Her eyes drifted over to Ulrich’s picture on the nightstand. As the duo stepped out of the bedroom, Hiroki stared at Aelita.

“Yumi! Yumi! I haven’t seen you out of that room in weeks!” he said excitedly, running over to his sister, placing his hands around her knees.

“Yes, Hiroki. There’s an emergency, and I need to go with Aelita. I’ll be back in a bit. Be good,” she said shutting the house door behind her and waving to her brother in the window. “I wonder what got into him, he’s never like that!” Yumi said with a slight smile.

“Imagine, a little boy who hasn’t seen his sister in weeks, who finally sees this girl who is starting to slip from his memory, seeing his sister again. It must be like seeing cake at a birthday party!” Aelita said, as they broke into a jog. Aelita un-pocketed her cell phone and sent a text message to Jeremie’s phone saying that they were coming.

“How bad is the attack, Aelita?” she asked, not noticing Aelita pocketing her cell phone.

“We’re not entirely sure, but we know it’s bad. He sent out three mégatanks, a swarm of Hornets, and some Kankrelats. That’s what Odd was dealing with before I left to come get you.”

“Oh.” Yumi’s thoughts switched over to Ulrich as they stepped into the old factory. “I haven’t been here in months! Ever since . . . since . . .” her voice drifted off.

Aelita pressed the button to the elevator. Aelita and Yumi stepped inside, and it closed its doors around them. Aelita smiled, as the elevator started moving.

“Ready, Yumi?”

Slightly confused, she said “Sort of.”

The elevator doors opened on the Super Computer floor. She stood dazed as she glanced around the room. Odd and Jeremie had come up with an idea to hide Ulrich so she wouldn’t see him at first. Pictures upon pictures were posted on the walls of the Super Computer room. “Wha . . . What’s this?” she said, gazing at the old trophies and other soccer memorials of Ulrich. Looking up on the ceiling, she read the banner out loud.

“Welcome Back, Buddy” she read. “What’s this mean? Did . . . I mean . . .”

Ulrich stepped out from behind his hiding corner. “Yumi, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Ulrich? Is that you?” she said, turning around to face the brown haired boy.

“Yes, Yumi. It is me. I’m back, for good.” Her face lit up as they embraced in a hug.

“Good? Really? Forever?”

“Forever and ever. I’ll never be so stupid as to leave you behind again.”

Ending the hug, she stared into his eyes. “Why did you leave, Ulrich?”

“Because I saw you in the park that day with William, and when he put his arm around you, I got frustrated and angry, thinking that I lost you to him. I ran like a coward, and vowed never to return. I went to the dorm room, grabbed my backpack, some things of mine, a photo of you, and I ran. I ran like a coward, and vowed never to return. Some nights around midnight, I’d go to your house and sit under your window, apologizing for what I had done, wishing that I’d never run away. But I thought you were happy with William, so I never came back. But then, I saw you about a week ago looking out your window. You were so sad looking, and so then I came up with a plan. I called Odd, and told him how I felt. He told me how you were locked in your room all the time, crying and sobbing. Aelita told me how you never go out of your room, and are always eating fatty foods that are killing your body, which might I say I think you look just fine?” he said with a smile, stepping back to look at her. “She also told me that you stare at my picture almost constantly and then overturn it, trying to convince yourself that I was never coming back.”

“I know it seems silly that I kept overturning it, but . . .”

“Yumes, it’s not silly, I did the exact same thing with your picture. You should know that I would come back; I wouldn’t leave you, ever. I can’t deal with life without you,” he said, wiping a salty tear from Yumi’s face. The rest of the gang stood there, awing in their minds. Jeremie glanced over at Aelita, and she smiled.

Ulrich placed his hands on Yumi’s waste, she put her arms around his body, and they kissed. Time seemed to stop. The kiss must have lasted about thirty long seconds, but it was enough to please the two. “I love you, Yumi.” Ulrich whispered into her ear, placing his hands around her neck.

“I love you too, Ulrich. Very much.” At this, they embraced in another hug, and turned to the group. “Thanks, Aelita. You’re the best. And thanks, the rest of you, for the party. It’s what I really needed.”

“Yeah,” Jeremie said. “But now, we need to celebrate and then later talk to Mr. Delmas about enrolling you two again!”

With that said, the group high-fived, and began to celebrating the reunion.