A/N: This will be a short chapter because I think it just needs to be short at this point in the story. So, forewarned, you shall continue!
Chapter Seven: What Have I Walked Into?
Faye POV
After the group explained to me what they had been doing for the last while, we gathered around Jeremy in the lab. I stared around, somewhat scared and very confused, despite the explanation that had been provided to me. Aelita stood next to me, her shoulder just brushing my upper arm as we stood in the circle. I resisted the urge to shrink into her as the others bombarded me with information that I didn't understand. Jeremy had been babbling for quite some time about computer stuff that was way over my head, and the others stood looking bored. Aelita completely ignored him, and seemed very intent on making concerned faces at me. I sighed, after the millionth word that Jeremy said that I didn't understand. "Jeremy, I have no idea what you're saying. Computers are not my thing. Please explain to me what is going on in a manner that I could potentially comprehend," I said irately, rubbing my forehead. "Start again with this Zemma thing. It lives on Loko and it's a bad guy in a virtual reality game of destiny?"
Odd laughed. "No, but really close. XANA," he said, emphasizing the name, "is basically a sapient computer virus. So far the only thing he's managed to infect has been Lyoko."
"Which is where those monsters you saw came from," Ulrich added. I tried not to notice how they added to each other's sentences so much. Really, these two were either together and the others were really dense, or I was reading way too much into simple super-best-friend stuff. I didn't think I was though. Odd gave a sort of funny smile at Ulrich after his interjection, which was another of those private looks that I wasn't meant to see. Yes, the others were dense.
"But if it's just a really intense video game, why don't you just shut it down?" I asked. "Reprogram it without the virus? I'm sure it would take some time, but you're smart. You could probably manage to—"
"It's not a game! It's a virtual world! You were just there, literally!" Jeremy burst, apparently irritated by my lack of understanding. "Your genetic code was transferred when you were in the scanner and was—"
"Basically, our DNA gets changed into data, like a file, and we get programmed onto the virtual world. It's a real place, like the cafeteria or this lab," Yumi explained, much more helpfully.
"Is that at all safe?" I asked, scared.
"It's better than the alternative!" Jeremy exclaimed, clearly annoyed at being cut off so much. "Trust me, XANA is dangerous! He'd have meteors crashing into the Earth and giant teddy bears running around destroying everything if we just let it go."
I decided to leave the giant teddy bears out of my questioning for now. "This leads me back to my earlier question; why not just shut it down? The virtual world seems to be much more trouble than it's worth. Shut this thing down, no more XANA, no more problem." Everyone seemed to get very uncomfortable at this. No one really said anything, and Aelita moved away from me slightly, leaning her hip against the computer chair. "What?" I asked, wondering what I'd said wrong. "Does it not turn off or something?"
"No. It turns off," Odd said, looking at the ground in a much less cheerful manner than usual.
"The problem is, if we turn it off… well…" Yumi said, also looking away. I noticed everyone was looking at the floor or around the room, decidedly away from Aelita, who looked at the floor sadly, like this was a terrible admission, worse than anything that could possibly be true about her.
"Well?" I prompted, wishing someone would clue me in already.
"If we turn the supercomputer off, I turn off with it. I was a part of Lyoko before Jeremy turned the supercomputer on, so I'm connected to it," Aelita said, looking hard at the floor. "XANA gave me a virus, and now that I'm out of the supercomputer for the most part, he wants to take my memory. That's what the Schyphozoa was after tonight."
"That's the jellyfish?" I asked for clarification, not knowing quite how to digest the other part of her statement. She was a computer program? Was she even technically human then? She nodded and I was silent. "Well, we'll just have to figure out a way to get you debugged and disconnected," I said, leaning back against the wall, deciding that wherever she had come from, I liked Aelita, and I wanted her to be safe. "We can do that, right?" They all looked up at me, seeming a little shocked.
"Well—yes. That's the plan, anyway," Jeremy said, for once shortly.
"Good," I said, nodding, already much more reassured. "Not that I wouldn't fight this XANA thing for you every day, twice a day, for the rest of my life if I had to, Aelita. I just wouldn't necessarily like it." She smiled brightly.
"We don't either, really," she said, "But it's probably going to be a bit easier now, with another person involved."
"Of course it will! Did you see that arrow? Dead on target!" Odd said, grinning and pumping his fist straight out into an invisible target to emphasize.
"The second one was right on target. She hit it incorrectly the first time," Jeremy corrected.
"She didn't know where to hit," Yumi defended me. "It's not like we had time to give her all of the weak points of each of the monsters and run a tutorial. The first arrow hit it anyway."
"So, um, what do we do now?" I interrupted, not wanting to be the object of an argument.
"We return to the past," Ulrich said, prompting Jeremy to start typing again.
"Seriously?" I asked, shocked. "We go back in time? Like in the movies?"
"Not quite. We go back in time, but only to before XANA attacked. We can't go into the future," Ulrich said.
"Oh. Well, okay then. Doesn't the rest of the world notice?" Jeremy hit a key and said something I didn't hear, and then a white ball expanded from the supercomputer, bathing all of us in a strange sort of weightless feeling. Then it ended and I was in the cafeteria with Sissi staring down at me again. Aelita looked at me, worried.
"Well, hello Ishiyama," Sissi started again, but before she could continue, I interrupted.
"Hello, Sissi! That's a really cute skirt. I wouldn't have thought to layer it over pants like that," I said, smiling earnestly. It was true; I liked the skirt, and I never would have layered it over pants as she had. Sissi just looked at me kind of confused, and I stood up. "Are you coming, Aelita?" I asked. She nodded and stood up, and together we walked over to dump our trays, leaving Sissi standing there confused. I walked over to the small space where they kept desserts, and picked up a cupcake. "You just wouldn't believe how long it's been since I've had one of these," I said, smiling at her.
She smiled back at me. "Probably not, but you should definitely have it. They look great." She picked one up as well and we left, both peeling the papers off. I looked at it nervously, trying to ignore the disgust and drown out old voices with Aelita's, and then over at her.
"Together?" I asked.
"Together," she agreed. We paused in our walking, looked at each other over our chocolaty cake, and took a bite together. The food hit my mouth and I resisted the initial urge to spit it out, but once I paid attention to the taste, and watched Aelita watching me in a non-judgmental, happy way, I finally managed to swallow. My eyes were wide as I looked at her.
"That is honestly the best cupcake I have ever tasted!" I exclaimed. She laughed.
"Not too bad, right?" she asked, taking another bite of hers. I looked at mine, feeling that sick feeling again. I swallowed again, the taste from the previous bite still fresh on my tongue. In my mind, I saw myself looking in a mirror later, noticing how much this cupcake was adding to my figure. My stomach, hips and thighs bulged from within my simple clothing; my arms jiggled with excess weight as I moved them. My cheeks puffed out and my mouth was puckered because my cheeks took up so much room. I could see my stomach poking out from the small space between my shirt and the waist of my pants, could hear the sound of the shirt I wore ripping due to the strain of holding in so much. The word fat kept replaying in my head over and over again, ceaseless as I stared at what one little bite of cupcake had done to my body.
"Faye?" Aelita asked, watching my face with concern as I stared at the cupcake, a mixture of horror and contempt on my face.
"Sorry," I blushed. "I, uh, I just decided that I don't really want this." She looked at me understandingly.
"Okay. That's fine. You can't heal in a single day. There's a trash can right outside the dorms," she said gently. I nodded, appreciating her gentleness and understanding. I threw my cupcake into the trash, and we walked inside. I sat gingerly on my bed and then lied back. Aelita sat on hers, still looking at me. "I can't tell a difference in how you look," she said seriously. "You're still just as beautiful as you were before." There was a strange note to her voice, but before I could look at her to see the expression that accompanied it, she had already turned around. I sighed and then just lied there for a while.
"Aelita?" I asked after a while.
"Yes, Faye?" she replied.
"I don't think I want to go to the dance tonight after all," I whispered, feeling tears starting to form for some reason that I couldn't pin down.
"Okay. I don't either," she whispered back. We lied silently for a while.
"Aelita?" I asked, barely audibly.
"Yes, Faye?" she answered, just as softly.
"You're really great," I said, letting a tear fall softly. She blushed and didn't say anything back.
A/N: Thanks for Reading! Glad to be back :)
