I'm sorry I took so long to update! I hope I'm not losing too many readers this way.
(Begin Excuse List)
I was too busy with school for a month or so, and then I was caught up in another story I'm working on (which will hopefully become my main story after this one). After that, my internet died, so I didn't even think of FanFiction for a while, until I finally just decided to finally finish the next chapter. I'm still aiming to be done before summer, but that's looking increasingly less likely.
(End Excuse List)
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!
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Chapter 7 – A Change of Health
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Kirsten groaned as she sat up in bed, pounding on her alarm clock with her fist until she hit the "sleep" button.
"Coffee…I need caffeine…" she moaned as she slid out of bed, changing sleepily into a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with white lettering that said "No, I'm not staring at you. You're just in the space that I'm staring off into while trying not to fall asleep."
"You're not a morning person, are you?" Aelita asked her roommate as she got back from the showers with a towel around her neck. "You forgot your shower."
"Shower…at night now… Not as crowded…" Kirsten mumbled as she pulled on her shoes. "Need…coffee…"
Aelita laughed and held the door open as Kirsten stumbled out into the hallway. She almost ran into the wall a few times, and had a close call when Sissi opened her door, but she made it down to the bottom floor without crashing into anything. She left the building and meandered in the general direction of the cafeteria.
When she finally made it into the building, she walked straight towards the coffee machine. Picking up one of the Styrofoam cups next to it, she filled it to the brim and drank it without adding anything. When she finished after a few seconds, she filled up another cup, this time adding cream and sugar. Then she got in line for food as she sipped from the cup. By the time she reached their usual table, she was on her third cup and awake enough to look like she was alive, rather than a mindless zombie.
"Ah, much better," the newest Lyoko warrior sighed. "The coffee here isn't half-bad."
"Just try some of the coffee in the vending machines outside," somebody said, sitting down next to her. "That stuff is vile."
"Morning, Yumi," she said without looking away from her food. She began to wolf it down at a speed that rivaled Odd's. If she wasn't cramming food down her throat as fast as she could, she would have smiled. Yumi had been a lot friendlier lately, as if she had never doubted Kirsten in the first place.
"Morning, Kirsten," Yumi replied. "Careful there. You don't want to choke on something like Odd usually does."
"Yeah, I know. What is it…nine times in the past week?" Kirsten asked jokingly between bites. "I always have to pound on his back to help him cough it up. He probably has a huge bruise there now."
Yumi grinned as she began to eat her own food at a much slower pace. "By the way, did you know that there's a dance coming up next week?"
Kirsten swallowed. "No, I didn't, actually," she answered. "Did Ulrich ask you to it?"
Yumi rolled her eyes. "Odd told you that he saw us kissing, didn't he?"
"Actually, I kind of already knew you liked each other before that," was Kirsten's sheepish reply. "Odd, Aelita, and I were making fun of him all during science the day he confessed to you because he was staring out the window and thinking of you. Odd kept poking him, but he didn't even move at all!"
Kirsten started chuckling. When she stopped a moment later, she frowned. Yumi raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong?" she asked her new friend.
"I stopped laughing way too quickly," Kirsten answered with a grin. "I need more coffee. And you're answering my question when I get back."
Yumi just rolled her eyes as Kirsten stood up and went towards the coffee machine again.
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Odd swore colorfully as he sprinted into the cafeteria, grabbed whatever food was left, and sprinted out again. He was late! His alarm clock had never gone off, and Ulrich hadn't woken him up! His friend was really going to pay for that. He checked his watch as he ran.
"Thirty seconds," he said, though it was muffled by a piece of toast stuffed half-way into his mouth. "I can make it."
He ran towards his classroom.
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"Where's Odd?" Aelita asked. "He's usually not this late to class."
As if on cue, the door suddenly opened and slammed into the wall with a loud Bang! There stood Odd Della Robbia, complete with a red-sweaty face, a piece of buttered toast sticking out of his mouth, and a bowl of cereal and milk precariously balanced in one hand, with a spoon in the other. The bell rang just a moment later.
Kirsten immediately snickered, and was soon laughing so hard that she fell out of her chair.
"Kirsten?" her pink-haired roommate asked. "Are you okay?"
Kirsten was laughing just as hard. She was getting weird looks from the rest of the class now. Aelita glanced at Jeremie, who had his laptop opened. He looked up at her and shook his head, and she knew exactly what he meant.
XANA hasn't activated a tower.
Eventually Kirsten calmed down enough so she could get back into her seat. She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.
"Sorry, I drank a little too much coffee this morning," she said with a slight stutter, her left shoulder twitching.
"A little?" Odd asked. "How much is a little too much?"
"Um…I think I had four…no…five cups? No, maybe six or seven…" Kirsten trailed off still twitching and stuttering. "Yeah…eight over my limit, which is usually four…so…I had twelve cups. Seven had some cream and sugar, but the other five were just black coffee… Drinking it black is good for waking me up, but it tastes so much better with cream and—"
"Kirsten?" Odd asked after swallowing his toast. He put his cereal
"I can't decide whether taste or energy is more important…" Kirsten said before suddenly realizing that Odd had said her name. "Yeah?"
"You're rambling."
"Sorry."
After that, she managed to settle down and at least look like she was paying attention. Her attention span was far too short at the moment to even think about science. Instead, she doodled on a sheet of paper. Thankful that it was her left shoulder that was twitching, rather than her right one, which would have messed up her drawings, she sketched a picture of Odd sitting at his desk, from her point of view. He was in the row right in front of her, which was rather convenient, as she could study him while looking like she was paying attention.
Eventually, she finished, admired her work for a moment, and moved on to another sheet of paper, sketching out Ulrich and Yumi sitting together on a bench, Ulrich's arm around Yumi's shoulder. She extended the picture, adding another nearby bench with Jeremie and Aelita in a similar position. She finally added Odd and herself. She intended to make their positioning less intimate than the two couples, but it ended up looking like Odd had reached around behind her, grasped her shoulder, and pulled her close.
Just as she was about to add the forest in the background, the bell rang.
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"Say, Odd, are you going to the dance next week?"
Odd looked up from what was supposed to be a sheet of math notes. He shrugged.
"I don't know," he replied to Kirsten. "It would be kind of awkward, don't you think? I mean, Ulrich and Yumi are together, as are Jeremie and Aelita, so we'd just be left out…"
Well, there's one obvious solution, Odd thought to himself, but neither of us like each other that way. We're just friends.
Then the bell rang. Kirsten jumped up and hurried out of the classroom, Odd hot on her heels.
It was, after all, time for lunch.
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Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita weren't in the cafeteria when the two arrived. "Ulrich and Yumi probably just want to spend some time together," Kirsten said to herself. "Jeremie and Aelita too."
Odd nodded as he polished off his sixth serving of food. Kirsten, though she had been hungry only moments ago, could not bring herself to eat her food. She felt slightly sick, and an ominous feeling plagued her. Something was going to go completely wrong soon.
She jerked out of her thoughts when she thought she saw something flash in her food. Her eyes widened. Surely it couldn't be… She looked up at Odd just in time to catch the same flash in his food too. This time, it was unmistakable.
The XANA eye had appeared in his meal for a second.
"Wait, Odd!" she suddenly shouted. Nobody else heard her because of the noise of the cafeteria. "Don't eat that!"
But it was too late. He swallowed his mouthful of spaghetti just as Kirsten yelled at him. He wondered if she was concerned about him eating too much. Surely after knowing him for so long, she'd know…
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Sure, school food is probably toxic, but the pasta actually isn't half bad."
"I saw XANA's symbol in your food!" she exclaimed.
"What? No, it can't be. I'm perfectly fi—" Odd started to say, before his eyes rolled up and he fell over. The cafeteria was stunned into silence when they saw what had happened.
"ODD!" Kirsten shouted. She looked up at all of the shocked faces around her. "Somebody call nine-one-one!"
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"You know…I really love you…"
Yumi chuckled. "If I got a nickel every time you said that, you'd have a very rich girlfriend," she said. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love you too."
This time, when Ulrich's lips found Yumi's, nothing disrupted their moment. Their kiss stretched on into eternity, leaving them both slightly dazed when they both pulled back for air what seemed like years later.
Then Ulrich's phone rang. He grimaced and answered it.
"Hello?" he asked. "Kirsten? What's wrong? Why do you sound…what? WHAT?!"
He shut the phone and turned to Yumi.
"XANA attacked Odd by poisoning the food or something. He's on his way to the hospital!" Ulrich exclaimed, already standing up.
"WHAT?!"
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"Teenaged Caucasian male, low heart rate, blood pressure dropping!" a paramedic shouted as he wheeled a stretcher through the entrance of the Emergency Room. "Let's get him to the ICU!"
"Put him in room three!"
Kirsten sat in the waiting room and put her head in her hands, tears already falling from her eyes.
"Not again…please…not again…" she begged over and over again. "I'll do anything…anything at all… Please…don't kill him… Not again…"
Her phone rang, and she picked it up. "Hello?" she asked, trying to speak without breaking out into fresh sobs. "Kirsten speaking.
"Kirsten! Do you think you'll be fine on your own at the hospital?" It was Aelita on the other end. "We have to stop XANA's attack now!"
"O…okay…" Kirsten stuttered. "I'll come too."
"No," Aelita said firmly. "You should stay at the hospital. It's really far from the factory, and I'm sure you want to stay with Odd instead."
"Okay…please hurry…" she whispered. "I don't know…how long he'll last…"
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"Transfer Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi! Scanner! Virtualization!" Jeremie said as he virtualized the three of them. They landed in the forest region on top of their vehicles. Aelita used Odd's overboard, since he wasn't there.
"The tower is due north! Now go!"
Rather than wasting time answering, the three sped off on their respective vehicles, going faster than they ever had before.
Odd's life was on the line.
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Kirsten walked into Odd's room several minutes later. He was stabilized, but not getting any better. The doctors were busy analyzing the results of their various tests, so the room was empty.
She was silent as she closed the door and went to sit by the bed. Odd was unconscious, so the only noise was the occasionally beep of the heart monitor. His heart rate was far lower than it should be.
Kirsten suddenly remembered something that Odd had said when he was explaining everything, just after she was accepted into the group.
He said something about using my powers in the real world, right?
She immediately stood up, checked to make sure nobody was watching, and placed her hands over Odd's chest. She felt around inside her mind until she found the power that let her heal on Lyoko. She forced it through her hands into Odd's body.
A blue aura appeared around her hands, and spread to encase Odd's torso. The glow quickly disappeared, and Kirsten waited with baited breath.
Luck, however, was not with her that day.
Nothing happened…
And then, the beeping heart monitor fell silent.
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Meanwhile, on Lyoko, Ulrich was desperate. He ran around so fast that it seemed like his feet weren't touching the ground. He was not going to let his best friend die!
Luck was not with any of the gang today. Ulrich and Yumi had been fighting nonstop for at least ten minutes, and there was still no way for Aelita to sneak past the monsters and into the tower. The Scyphozoa hadn't appeared yet, but nobody wanted to wait and find out.
Ulrich was hit again, leaving him with a measly ten life points, the same as Yumi. He dodged and weaved around, going too fast for the naked eye to see, until he spotted his opening. A tarantula turned, apparently choosing to go after Yumi instead. Ulrich ran up behind it and jumped, slicing its head clean through. Yumi paused a moment to nod to him in thanks, then went back to fighting a pair of megatanks and a crab.
Ulrich decided that he'd had enough. He ran over to Aelita.
"I'm going to run you to the tower, okay?" he asked her as he grabbed her hand. "Hold on tight, you'll probably be dragging on the ground."
Aelita nodded and he took off, searching for a path through the mess of monsters.
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"Miss Anderson?"
Kirsten looked up at the doctor in front of her. After Odd's heart had stopped beating, she had been shoved back into the waiting room. The young man sighed and looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry, we did everything we could for your friend," he said. "But…"
Kirsten stood up and ran down the hallway towards Odd's room. When she reached his room, she pulled the door open so fast that it slammed against the wall and swung shut behind her.
Odd was still on the bed in the same position. There was an impenetrable silence in the room. Without the sound of the heart monitor to hold back the silence, it was utterly quiet. Though there were still noises from the hall and other nearby rooms, Kirsten heard nothing. Even her occasional sobs and sniffs went unheard.
She was too shocked to keep crying. She chose instead to run to his bed and collapse to her knees next to it.
Though she didn't know it, the poison had not just infected Odd. A weaker form of it was in all of the cafeteria food, and there were already more patients in critical condition. The epidemic was spreading. Of course, within the quiet room, she was unable to hear the shouts of doctors and the sounds of more stretchers being wheeled into the Emergency Room. She heard only silence.
"No…" she whispered. "NO!"
She stood up and once again placed her hands on Odd's still chest. Her vision narrowed until she only saw the dead boy in front of her. Then she saw something completely different.
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Aelita finally made it to the tower and entered the code. In record time, Jeremie managed to get the Return to the Past program up and running in less than a second. His fingers actually blurred as he typed coordinates, until his pinky came to rest on the Enter key.
"Please, don't be dead yet," he said as he pressed the key.
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Kirsten was in a dark tunnel with a bright white light far out in front of her. Odd was also in front of her, slowly walking towards the light.
"ODD!!!" she screamed. He stopped to look at her.
"Kirsten? What are you doing here? Are you dead too?"
"No! Neither are you!" she shouted. "Please, come back!"
"You don't belong here," a deep voice boomed. "Return to your world, little one."
"I can't come back. I'm already dead."
"No! I'm healing you with my powers! Please, come back!"
"It is not your time yet."
"I told you, there's no going back for me," Odd said, a sad little smile on his face. "You can still return though. Live without me. Enjoy your life."
"I can't!" she shouted to him. "I can't enjoy life without you! I…I love you!"
Odd was too stunned to say anything.
"His soul is already lost, but you may still return."
"SHUT UP!!!" Kirsten screamed, finally losing it. "TAKE MY SOUL INSTEAD!!!"
"I have never seen such a spirited child," the voice said, without showing any emotion.
"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET!!!" Kirsten screamed before she felt herself disappearing. Her eyesight slowly dimmed, and her eyes closed a moment later. She heard Odd whisper four words before she fell into the darkness.
"I…love you too."
In the real world, Kirsten collapsed to the ground as a white light engulfed her, the hospital, and the rest of the world.
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Will Odd make it? Will Kirsten make it? Review and find out!
I have absolutely no idea when I'll update this story, as I'm really busy with school and stuff like that, so don't pester me about updating. I won't post anything until I've written something good and worth posting, okay? I'm still trying to finish this before summer break, but it's looking increasingly unlikely.