((A/N: Hiya!! Here is chapter 4!! Once again, thanks to those who reviewed: William's fight for Yumi, JokerAlchemist24, Moonlitdaze, peter van pickle, and elly755! I can't tell you all how much I appreciate reviews!! So if you like to make authors happy, REVIEW!!!))
((Disclaimer: If I owned Code Lyoko, this wouldn't be a fanfiction.))
EDIT: Thanks to Lyoko-MiNts for letting me know my first bunch of words was all scrunched up.... I'm not sure how that happened, but it's fixed now. :D
Chapter 4: Confusion
"Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung."—John Milton
"But this—this goes against all the odds. No pun intended," Jeremie added before Odd could turn the phrase into a joke. "How could X.A.N.A. be back? We all saw that the super computer was shut down. It's not possible!"
They were all standing in the lab, looking at the supercomputer with fearful expressions. It was nearly four in the morning, and they should have been in bed by now, but they had important things to discuss.
"Obviously, it is, Einstein, or I wouldn't have been almost crushed by a giant robot," Odd said, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "What could it be other than X.A.N.A.? It stopped as soon as Aelita entered the code, and I don't know any other evil computer viruses, do you?"
"Jeremie, it's the only explanation," Aelita said calmly. "X.A.N.A.'s back, regardless of how he did it."
"I just don't understand how this could have happened. We all saw it turned off. Who would have turned it back on?"
"Well," Odd said, thinking hard, "you said you guys thought you saw Gabby in there—"
"No!" Aelita gasped. "Gabby? How would she have found it? How would she have known how to turn it on?"
"I don't know, but it sure seems suspicious. How do we know it wasn't her?"
"I think it's more likely that X.A.N.A. created a copy of her on Lyoko because he wanted to turn us against each other," Yumi put in, looking between Odd and Aelita. "To confuse us."
"Hey, yeah, that makes sense," Ulrich said, nodding. "We'll be so busy arguing over whether or not she's real that X.A.N.A. will be able to get away with anything."
"Well, there's only one way to prove it, huh, just go see if she's in bed," Odd said with a shrug. "If she was in Lyoko, she must have got there through the scanners, and if she's in her room, she couldn't have been in the factory. Simple."
"Yeah, but there's one problem with that: it's been an hour since she got devirtualized, she could have gone straight back to the dorm by now," Aelita said factually.
"Right, but she'd still have to have come out of the scanners. Jeremie, can't you check the cameras to see if anyone came out of the scanners?"
Jeremie nodded, quickly typing something into the keyboard and bringing up a window that showed the scanner room. "Okay, there's Ulrich. If she came out, she'd come out between Ulrich and Yumi..." He let the video play, showing Ulrich stumbling out of one scanner, and then, ten minutes later... Yumi and Aelita stumbled out and to the elevator. "That's it. Unless she was invisible, Gabby didn't come out of the scanners. Which means that the one on Lyoko couldn't have been real. Yumi's right, it was probably just to trick us."
"I guess so..." Odd muttered, scowling at the fact. "Hey, so, why aren't you launching a return to the past?"
"Well, I can't find the program. I think that when we shut off the supercomputer, somehow, all of the files and programs that I put on it got deleted, though X.A.N.A. might have been behind that. The outfits, the vehicles, the materialization, and the return to the past are all gone. But I'm going to stay here and reprogram them, starting with the return to the past, and I'll launch it as soon as I can."
"I'll stay and help you," Aelita offered. "That way, it'll take half the time."
"Thanks, Aelita. You guys go and get some sleep. With any luck, we'll see you yesterday."
~$*GABBY*$~
"So tell me again how you got these cuts," Nurse Yolande asked as she wrapped my upper arm in gauze. I grimaced, wishing she wouldn't question me.
"I, uh, fell. In the park. Must have landed on a rock."
"And what on earth were you doing out so early in the morning? On a weekend day, too?"
Oh damn. She was seeing all my holes. What was I supposed to tell her? "I was... running. You know, exercising. I like to stay in shape..." S
he looked at me suspiciously, but she seemed to accept the excuse. She finished with my arm and moved to my leg. "Well, you need to be more careful. These cuts—"
"Right then, Gabby," Aelita said with a pout, "I'll see you when we get back then..."
"Don't stay out too late," I said jokingly as she headed out the dormitory door.
Whoa. What the hell just happened? I was sitting in my desk chair, my feet reclining on the edge of my bed. I looked at my alarm clock. 7:23 PM. But just a second ago, it had been 6:07 AM, and I'd been in the infirmary having my wounds bandaged. Speaking of my wounds, they were still there, whether I'd somehow gone back in time or not. Okay... so, whatever had just happened to me, I still needed to go to the infirmary and have Nurse Yolande look at the cuts. I slowly got to my feet, looking at the red that was starting to stain into my white shirt. Like Déjà vu. My leg hurt too, throbbing as I hobbled to the door and stepped outside. Aelita was gone, off to meet Jeremie and the others for their night out. Again. Still weird.
Okay, I thought, let's come up with an excuse before we get to the infirmary. We'll say... uh, well, I don't know! How about... I was attacked! In my dorm room... and I didn't know who did it. That was stupid. Even though it was kind of true, technically. I was running in the park and I was attacked. That was better. Attacked by... a wild cat? Maybe. I'd seen cats in there on my runs, though none had attacked me. It was certainly better than tripping and falling on a rock.
Obviously, though, I hadn't thought things through enough.
"It must have been a big cat," the nurse said with a skeptical look.
"Er, a little... it was vicious," I lied, wincing as she put some hydrogen peroxide on my leg.
"Clearly. These cuts are rather deep... for cat scratches."
"Really?"
"And no other student's ever been attacked by a cat on campus."
"Yeah... I'm not really a cat person, I guess," I said with an embarrassed smile. Actually, I was a cat person. And a dog person. Well, an animal person in general.
"I see."
She didn't ask any more questions, but she continued to glare at me doubtfully. She apparently didn't believe me, but as long as she didn't know what really happened, it didn't matter. She finished with my leg and turned to my arm.
"Well, Miss Bursley, I suggest you be more careful while you're out. This is the second time I've seen you this week, and I don't like seeing students in here."
"Of course," I nodded. "I'll try."
She finished up and sent me back to my dorm, arm and leg still hurting but at least not bleeding all over me now. I quickly changed, hiding my bloody jeans and shirt so that Aelita wouldn't see them, and gingerly sat back in my chair and picked up my Physics.
What? It wasn't as if I had anything better to do.
~$*ODD*$~
"Odd, can't you go find someone else to bother?" Aelita asked, scowling at Odd. He'd been hanging out with her and Jeremie since they'd arrived. "You seemed to like making out with that girl last time, maybe you should go get her again."
"Hmm... nah. I was just pretending to enjoy it. She kisses like a fish."
"Odd..." Jeremie sighed, giving his friend his version of Aelita's look.
"I'm sorry! You know, when you've already lived it, it's kind of boring the second time around."
"If you're so bored, why don't you go home?" Jeremie said in a low voice, still glaring at Odd.
"All right, all right," Odd muttered, rolling his eyes at the pair. "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone, then. I'll just go home... all by myself... alone..."
"Okay," Aelita and Jeremie answered simultaneously, taking each other's hand and heading for the floor.
"Thanks, guys, that's just great. I'm glad you care so much." Odd glowered after them, then turned and walked to the door. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Ulrich dancing with Yumi; he saw Aelita and Jeremie twirling slowly around the room as if the song were a waltz. And suddenly, Odd was hit by a wave of loneliness. And oddly enough, there was only one person he wanted to be with.
~$*GABBY*$~
It was nearly eleven o'clock, and I was stuck on my last Physics problem. I guess, having nearly finished it the last time I'd lived this night, the assignment was easier, but I couldn't figure out this stupid problem for the life of me. Who the hell cared about the rotational momentum of an eight-pound bowling ball rolling down the alley at nine meters per second? I kept getting about a hundred-thirty five joules per second, but I was positive that was much too large.
"What the hell!" I cried angrily, ready to give up as I kicked my desk, only injuring my poor toe in the process. "Son of a—"
"Having problems?"
I whirled around, nearly tripping over myself as I hopped on one foot holding the one I'd just maimed. I felt my face turning bright red as I saw Odd standing in the doorway, looking kind of hot in his casual dancing clothes and with that smug smile on his face. Not that I would admit that. Ever.
"What do you want, Odd?" I snapped, falling onto my bed and taking off my shoes to look at my toe. "And I thought you couldn't get any uglier. Where'd you get those clothes, Herb's closet?"
Odd continued to smile at me. "Please, as if Herb could pull this off."
I rolled my eyes. He was a cocky jerk. "I thought you guys were out dancing or something?"
"Yeah, but I got bored."
"Figures."
Odd scowled at me. "What do you mean, 'Figures?'"
"I mean, you seem like the type to get bored easily."
"We aren't talking about dancing anymore, are we?"
"Go away."
"Tell me what you mean!"
"What do you want, Odd?" I repeated. He glared at me.
"I was just passing by and I heard you swearing; I thought I'd drop in and see who was doing my job."
"Fuck off."
"See, my job." He smirked. That just set me off. Before I fully realized what I was doing, my Physics book was in my hands and I was hitting Odd with it wherever I could reach. "Ouch, ow, hey! Okay, okay, I'm going!" he cried as he retreated from the room.
"Leave me alone!" I yelled, slamming the door shut behind him. The sudden silence was warm around me. But for some reason, I felt completely alone. My leg throbbed as I forsook my Physics homework and collapsed onto my violet bedspread. "Ugh, what's wrong with me?" I asked myself. But I didn't have an answer.
~$**$~
"Why do you two have to fight all the time?" Aelita asked me the next day over lunch (we'd slept in too late for breakfast). I'd told her about Odd's and my conversation the night before, but I might as well have been talking to a rock, for all the sympathy I received. Instead, she just giggled and rolled her eyes.
"It's not my fault! He's the one who... well, it might have been partially my fault. But he," I rolled my eyes upward and flexed my fingers furiously, "makes me so angry!"
"I can see why," Aelita said, laughing some more. "Odd and I have had our spats in the past too. Like when I got in trouble for lying because he was selfish and wanted to sleep in. It's almost the same story every time. But Odd's a great friend, really."
"He takes some getting used to; I thought he was annoying when he first became my roommate, but now we get along great. Most of the time," Ulrich added as an afterthought. "In fact, you should just be happy you don't have to share a room with him."
"I don't think there'd be a room left to share," Aelita laughed. "They'd probably have it destroyed within minutes."
"Probably," Jeremie affirmed before taking a bite of his Shepard's Pie. "Where is Odd anyway?"
"With Lily," Ulrich answered.
"Who's Lily?" I asked, already feeling I knew the answer.
"His new girlfriend," Ulrich replied.
"New?"
"Yes. Emily broke up with him on Tuesday because he asked you out," Aelita clarified with an eyebrow raised at my disgusted look.
"Wow," I said dryly. "No way."
"He has a history of being a bit of a player," Jeremie added.
"I never would have figured," I stated sarcastically. They laughed.
"There he is," Aelita said suddenly, pointing at the cafeteria doors. Indeed, Odd had just entered, one girl on his left arm, another chatting animatedly on his right.
"Which one's Lily?" I asked finally, after watching the trio made their way to the lunch line.
"Neither of them," Jeremie answered.
"You're kidding me," I said stupidly, staring at Odd like an idiot. Aelita shook her head.
"Actually, that's Lily." She pointed to a redhead who had just entered, not looking at all dismayed at the sight of Odd with two other girls. "That's odd..."
"What she means is," Ulrich continued for Aelita, "that it's weird for Odd to drop girls that fast. Usually he dates them for at least a couple weeks. And they don't look so happy afterwards." By this time, Odd and his new new girlfriends had made it to the front of the line, and he waved goodbye to them as he came over to join us.
"Hey guys! Is the Shepard's Pie as good as it was last time?" he asked happily, sitting down on Aelita's other side.
"What happened to Lily?" Aelita inquired nonchalantly, ignoring Odd's question and taking a bite of her pie.
"Huh?" He looked confused for a second before understanding reached him. "Oh, we mutually agreed that we just weren't right together. And then I saw Jasmine and Jessie outside, and... well, you know."
"Not really," Ulrich answered for all of us, "but we can assume." Odd just smiled, shooting me a smug glance and then starting on his pie.
"Can we talk about something that doesn't make me want to throw up?" I asked venomously, glowering at Odd while he shoveled down his food.
"Well, we could talk about your face," Odd proposed. "Oh, wait..."
"Shut up!" I snapped. "Besides, you think my face is ugly, you should try looking in a mirror."
The other three sighed and shook their heads as Odd and I began our now-usual bickering.
"What should we do today?" Aelita interrupted before we could really get started.
"Well, I got permission to go off campus and hang out with Yumi today," Ulrich said guiltily, smiling nervously.
"I thought we could go, uh," Jeremie looked at Aelita anxiously, "you know, and... well, you know."
"You dog, you," Odd said with a grin, but Jeremie rolled his eyes at the blond.
"Not that, you moron."
"Is that all you think about?" I snapped venomously. Odd looked at me thoughtfully.
"Of course not. I think about my dog, Kiwi; I think about my family back home; I think about how boring my life is a lot..." I groaned as he continued to list all the things his tiny brain went over every day.
"I don't think people get any stupider than you," I muttered.
"I don't know about that; haven't you seen Sissi and that loser gang of hers? I'm pretty sure no one could be stupider than that."
"Oh, then you must be no one."
"Ugh, will you two stop it already?" Ulrich grumbled, standing up. "I vote these two spend the day learning how to shut up!"
"I concur," Jeremie said, raising his hand.
"As long as they don't kill each other first..." Aelita said under her breath.
"I don't think so. I'd rather spend my time with Jasmine and Jessie."
"I have to finish that damned physics problem."
"Eww, why?" Odd asked me, wrinkling his nose. "Physics is so... boring."
"Not if you have a brain bigger than a peanut!" I retorted, standing up and picking up my tray. "I have to go, before I catch Stupid Disease."
"Oh, yeah, really witty, Gabs, nice one," Odd mocked.
I stuck my tongue out at him and snapped, "Don't call me that," before striding out of the cafeteria without a second glance. When I got to the dormitory room, I lay down on the bed carefully, trying not to aggravate my injuries. Once I was finally comfortable, and not in pain, I narrowed my eyes at the low ceiling. The paint was chipping and the light was flickering eerily, but that wasn't what I was thinking about.
I was confused. My arm gave a painful throb as I thought about the abrasions on my thigh and upper arm, as if just the thought reminded them that they should be aching. Why did I have these stupid injuries, anyways? Because I'd fought in Lyoko and the damage to my mind-Lyoko-being had affected my body here. But Aelita was complaining of no such injuries, and I knew for a fact that I'd hit her with one of my bullets. And if Aelita wasn't hurt, then it stood to reason that Yumi probably wasn't either. So then... why was I hurt? Was something wrong with me? Was I doing something differently than them?
My look towards the ceiling darkened, and I could swear I heard Odd laughing. Probably at me. In my head. Oh, damn, maybe I should go talk to the counselor...
Regardless of my mental state, though, I needed to figure out why I was injured and Aelita wasn't. It wasn't that I wanted Aelita to be hurt; in fact, I was immensely relieved that she was okay. I just wanted to know, and maybe to figure out how to make it so that I wouldn't get hurt either. After all, throbbing pain in your leg and arm isn't what I'd call fun. Well, maybe for masochistic psychos, but not for me.
But how the hell would I know what was different between them and myself? How was I supposed to figure that out? It could be anything! It could be some weird genetic thing. Or maybe it was the fact that I was fighting against them. Or it could be the way we entered Lyoko. Maybe I was imagining the whole thing and accidentally hurting myself in my sleep! Or I could be doing something wrong when I was disappearing from Lyoko that they were doing right. Holy crap, what if I was crazy? Maybe I was imagining it all! Maybe it was stress! That would make complete sense!
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
"Oh, oops!" I grimaced at the sound of Odd's voice. Why could he leave me alone? It was like he lived to piss me off! "I thought you'd be in the library doing your boring physics." Strangely, he sounded sincerely surprised and disappointed to see me lying on my bed. I turned my head to glare at him, but I ended up giving him a confused stare. He looked... nervous. It was such a change from his snide attitude from less than half an hour before that I found myself speechless. That seemed to shock him; he stood in the doorway awkwardly and stared at me mutely.
"What do you want, Odd?" I asked when the uncomfortable silence became too much to bear. My tone was completely different from what it had been down in the cafeteria, and certainly the opposite of how it had been the night before, when I'd said the exact same thing. I was considerably shocked when Odd blushed.
"Oh, uh, Aelita asked me to run up here and get her laptop so her and Jeremie could get some work done, so..." He shrugged and turned to Aelita's side of the room, walking to her desk. He obviously knew exactly where everything was. Instead of grabbing her laptop, however, he picked up something that I couldn't see. I scowled at his back suspiciously.
"How long have Aelita and Jeremie been dating?" I asked to break the resumed silence; Odd dropped the thing in shock and whirled around as the thing made a rattly noise. His face was beet red, but I felt mine pale. The noise sounded an awful lot like... but I'd... Oh, shit.
I sat bolt upright with a wince as Odd muttered, "Uh, a year or two..." with a guilty look on his face. "They started dating in ninth grade..." He bit his lip anxiously as I stood up with a slightly pained groan. We stared at each other as the silence returned; it last a full minute, and then we moved simultaneously.
Odd grabbed the bottle of pills and Aelita's computer and dodged me as I lunged at him. "Odd!" I yelled as he sprinted out the door, fury overwhelming me. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, but the abrasion on my thigh no longer seemed to matter or hurt as I followed him. I nearly lost him as I reached the staircase, but I heard his footsteps above me. "Odd!" I yelled again, starting up the stairs with a huff. But as expected, there was no reply. I arrived at the top, drew in a breath of air, and set off down the hallway. I knew that Odd was here somewhere. He had to be. I stopped, listening carefully for any sound.
What I heard was muffled talking, coming from a room halfway down the hall. Silently, I crept forward on my tiptoes, straining to make out words; but the sound was indecipherable until, at last, I stood outside the door. I could understand the words "Odd," "computer," and "idiot." I suddenly got the feeling that I knew whose room this was.
I sighed. "Jeremie? Aelita? Is it alright if I come in?" I called innocently.
"Hold on a second!" Jeremie called back. There was the sound of scuffling, more talking, and then silence. "You... might want to stand back."
"What?"
The door opened, and in a flash of yellow and purple Odd flew out the door, nearly knocking me over in his haste to escape. I let out a frustrated cry and went after him. Again. I heard Aelita and Jeremie say "idiot" again before I reached the stairs and started down them, taking the last three all at once. I was nearly caught up to him now; I could see his purple shirt round the bend ahead of me. All of a sudden, we were outside, slightly blinded by sunlight as we streaked towards the park.
"Odd, get back here!" I screamed; I was gaining. He had to know that any second I would catch him and make him pay. I could hear him panting for air, hear the rattle of the pills, and I knew it was time. I used all of my strength to lunge towards him.
But I didn't expect him to chuck the pills ahead of him and spin around to face me. Let me tell you: colliding head on with someone else hurts. We both ended up on the ground: Odd on his back, looking dazed as he stared up at the clouds; me face down on top of him, my face pressed into partially the side of his neck and partially the dirt on the ground, and my head spinning; and his arms holding me to him, making sure both that I didn't roll right over him and that I couldn't jump up after my pills.
"Let—me—go!" I yelled into the dirt in fury, struggling to get out of his arm-lock. I noticed acutely that his chest was rising and falling rapidly beneath me, and he felt very warm and comfortable, a thought that disgusted me. Seriously.
Oh, don't give me that look!
Odd, however, obviously didn't feel like it. "I don't feel like it," he said.
"Odd Della Robbia, you let me go or—"
"Bite me!" he snapped, suddenly losing his calm. I let out an indignant noise; then I retorted, "Fine!"
And I bit him.
I was almost amazed at the speed at which he threw me off him. Taking advantage of his moment of surprise, I leapt for the bottle of pills; they were within my reach, I had them back! And then they were gone. Odd was standing over me suddenly, rubbing his neck where I'd bitten him with one hand, holding my pills in his other.
"I think," he said between clenched teeth, "I figured out why you need these, but maybe you ought to give me your reasons."
Did I mention that I hated him?