This is a completely original chapter, the Xana attack is inspired by a later episode so lack of originality in that respect but this one has a different outcome. I was debating where to put this chapter but honestly it seemed to fit here more than waiting until later on as I think it might help see something new.

As for re-writing my old Code Lyoko fics as Mirani seemed to wonder in her last review. I will and I have an idea for it but I am making it different from the original plot because this story seems a lot better than the other one. It's probably going to be started after I have finished this and done some more new chapters for my other story Endure. Thanks for the review by the way as well. Also thanks to another reviewer...sorry I can't remember the complete name.

If anyone wants to know what Domino looks like, I'll give a description here. She has short blonde hair, green eyes, moon pale white skin and she is just about the same height as Aelita. Domino normally wears a pair of boy shorts and a short T-shirt.

Chapter Eight is personally my favourite chapter so far because you really see Domino in a much different light and this shows probably her darkest moment so far. Not sure that dark is the right word exactly but you'll get the idea as you read it. It is a bit early on to be in-depth probably but not everything is told in typicial fashion, it's still more exploration but just deeper. The name of the chapter will definitely apply by the end and the overall tone. There is also one relationship that I am really starting to like exploring and you'll see it as well in the chapter.

So I'll stop there and let you read on. Review plese either good or bad. I hope to hear what you think. I don't own anything from Code Lyoko apart from the OCs created for this particular story and others that I have written over the years

Enjoy!

Chapter Eight: Two Halves

I let out an agonising scream from another severe electric shock. Why? What? Why me? What does he want from me? I don't know anything! Why doesn't he just let me go?

"I keep on telling you! I don't know anything!" I shout repeating myself again.

My voice is echoing the captive area I'm in but still in vain. I can sense another electric shock coming and my heart starting to race from the pounding fear.

"No! No!"

I sit straight up with sweat on my forehead. I let out an exhausted sigh. Another nightmare. They're starting to become really vivid. My alarm is going off and it's just another day. I fall back onto my pillow. These nightmares have to stop at some point but they've never been this frequent. I really don't feel like going about this somewhat normal routine but it might take my mind off of this.

I meet with the others near the vending machine still unable to think of anything else. It didn't feel like a nightmare, it was definitely a memory. Although in that entire time I was there as a captive, every single moment all seem to blur into one thing in general. I still have some classes to get through and then I can see if I can work this out. Let's see if I actually can make it through. Just use pretences, it's how I normally make it through most days anyway.

"Are you alright, Domino?" Yumi asks.

"I didn't sleep very well last night. Nightmares." I answer.

"Must have been a bad one. You look like you've seen a ghost." Ulrich says.

"You have no idea..." I say under my breath.

"What was it about?" Jeremie asks.

The bell rings and the most obvious phrase comes to mind at that moment but I'm not going to say it. I still have to sit through a dull maths class but it feels better than the nightmare conversation option. Nightmares are easily dismissed if you haven't experienced them yourself. I've survived hell itself but I can't sit through maths without moaning, there's something funny in that.

Learning about angles, degrees and techinicals isn't something I enjoy. Like Callum said, I like to create characters. Domino Lily is one herself. When you do things like that being logical and factual isn't that appealing. Besides all I seem to hear is white noise when it comes to those subjects. Science isn't so bad as you can apply it to real life situations so it's more interesting to learn but maths I never understand.

I put my hand on my head feeling this strong pounding in there like a drum picking up its pace. It's getting louder. I need something for it. My head is killing me!

"Miss, can I go to the infirmary? I have an unbearable headache." I ask.

"Sure, Domino."

"Thanks."

The others look at worried because I never ask to leave class for anything unless there is a Xana attack happening. True, I have cut a few classes but when I am in them, I never ask to be excused. There must be something for this spiltting headache. I head down to the infirmary to see the school nurse and hopefully to get rid of the pain. I knock on the door seeing Yolanda standing there surprised to see me.

"Oh, hello Domino. What can I do for you?" Yolanda asks.

"Have you got anything for a headache? It's like I have a drum beating in my head."

"Of course."

Yolanda hands a packet of tablets with a cup of water and I hope these tablets are effective. It's already created a disturbance for me and it's only been about an hour and a half.

"Take two of these and then if it continues, come back and see me."

I nod my head understanding the simple instructions as anyone would. I put the two tablets in my mouth followed by a mouthful of water to swallow it down. There isn't much effect yet but it's not going to be an instant problem-solver clearly. At least it is a start.

"Do you have an idea of what brought this on?" Yolanda asks.

"I didn't sleep very well. It might be that." I answer.

"You should be resting then. I'll let your teachers know."

Most students like the time away from school and classes but when you're actually bothered by something, that's not enjoyable. Although I'm going to have to stay in my room for the majority of the day if I actually want any quiet but I don't feel like going back there. I'd rather stay outside.

"Alright." I nod not having the strength to argue.

The others come up and see me in my room wanting to see how I am. I didn't tell them anything earlier about the nightmare that I had last night. This is something that I would normally think is a Xana attack but it could be a coincidence. You can't sleep on Lyoko so Xana never had the chance to be able to access my subconscious. I wonder if he is capable of that but if there was any sign, Aelita would know by now.

"What happened to you earlier?" Jeremie asks worried.

"Headache. I've been dismissed for the rest of the day." I confirm.

"How come you get to leave class for the day when that happens and I can't?" Odd moans.

"Probably because she isn't faking, Odd." Ulrich says.

It's definitely taking my mind off it but then that headache comes back even stronger now. What is wrong with me? I sit down on my bed feeling more disorientated and dizzy. The whole room is spinning and I close my eyes trying to make it stop.

"Domino, are you alright?" Yumi questions more concerned than before.

"Not really." I shake my head.

That wasn't the best idea now the room is spinning even more intensely.

"What is it?" Jeremie asks.

"Ever since that nightmare last night, everything is just hurting." I explain.

There's a strange piercing noise in my head making my whole body flinch. I breath faster and more laboured feeling absolutely exhausted. This is definitely not a normal illness. It wouldn't be this bad. What the hell is it? I just stand up but the whole room looks blurred. There's a feel of lightness but then I fall to the floor with everything going black.

"Let me out!" I scream completely terrified.

It was an electric shock 'treatment' before and now Xana has changed it to making this entire room as small as possible. I can barely move. I feel like I'm in a coffin! Let me out! Let me out! I scream louder and louder feeling more and more suffocated and trapped.

"Help me! Someone help me!" I scream.

I snap my eyes open seeing that I'm in a hospital room. That one was even stronger than the last one if it's possible. I turn my head to the side seeing that it's dark out now. How long was I out of it? It feels like forever. That nightmare felt like forever in itself.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Odd says.

"What happened?" I ask confused.

"You passed out and we had to bring you here. The doctors say that you have the signs of a psychotic episode." Jeremie explains.

That could explain the vivid nightmares but something tells me that isn't the worst news out of this situation.

"What else is there?" I push.

"It's Xana giving you free movies." Odd confirms.

"He has some kind of link to you. It has to be the only logical explanation." Jeremie follows. "We're heading to Lyoko now. Odd said he'd stay with you to keep us posted."

"Five years, who knows what he did?" I respond. "Thanks. Make it quick."

I sigh exhausted and my whole body wants to sleep but my eyes are scared to close. I'm actually scared of sleeping. It's gotten that bad. The others leave in a rush to deactivate that tower and hopefully this cursed link as well.

"Xana spent five years making my life complete torture literally. He'd only let recover just to torture me all over again in this seemingly never-ending cycle. Everytime it was something different. The worst part is that I actually got used to it. I didn't even fight anymore. No hope. No light. Even when I escaped I questioned it. Xana is that cruel to make me even question actual reality. It was unbelievable..."

I feel a tear run down my face feeling the most vulnerable I had in my entire life at least on Earth. Odd doesn't even know what to say and he's never short of words. It has to be the first time I've cried since before all of this. I don't cry very much, it takes something that really hurts to do that.

"You'll be fine. You're the most stubborn girl I know." Odd smiles trying to reassure me.

I smile in response at least as best I can. It can be times like this where you really need family and mine aren't anywhere to be found. They don't even know. Speaking of which...

"What about Callum? Did you guys tell him?" I ask.

Must be because of an event. He'd be here if he could be. Callum isn't the type to let a person down especially when he is needed. He can be selfless but he wants to live his own life as well. Always trying to find that constant balance of the two factors. It's one of the reason he's my friend. We sometimes balance each other out. He helps me with things that I can't always deal with on my own while I sometimes have to remind him that he has a life outside of me now.

"Yeah, he's not in the country but sends his best."

"I think I miss the less-serious Odd. This one scares me a little."

"Someone finally get their sense-of-humour bypass then? This must be bad."

He means it as a joke, Odd normally tells me that I need to be more open to humour. His sense of humour though is another story altogether. I appericiate the effort of trying to make me forget.

"There he is." I smile.

Out of all the others, Odd is the one I like the most. He does manage to grow on you after a while and he does have sides to him that can be really surprising but at the same time, you wouldn't expect anything else. On most occasions, I thought someone like Odd would just annoy me but that isn't the case.

"Looking back on it all like that through nightmares, it's so strong but the feelings of self-loathing which have never been there really are starting to surface. I know it's because I'm still recovering but I can't help feeling like that and it's not going to go at least not soon." I continue.

It's only two nightmares and I can feel the third coming. I'm scared to close my eyes. So scared. I just want it to stop.

"Keep your eyes open." Odd encourages.

I'm never this vulnerable. Is this what Xana has done to me? At the core of it all, it's weakened me or devestated me. There's not much of a fight anymore. It's like it has disappeared somewhere deep inside me even though it was there not too long ago. Everything I'm doing is fighting but maybe fighting doesn't necessarily mean winning. My eyes shut with that realization into another nightmare.

This time when I open my eyes, I see that I am back in my room. I look around seeing everything exactly how it is supposed to be at least to me. I smile in relief looking out the window. There's a knock on my door.

"Come in." I say.

I turn around seeing Odd there and even though it is just him and the others are somewhere else. It's still a reassurance. It feels right, it feels real.

"How are you doing then?" Odd asks.

"Recovering but I'll survive." I nod. "I'm just thinking about this place isn't so different from home."

"I can see that minus Lyoko, us and well almost everything else."

"It's not that different really. Do you think anything ever changes?"

"Sure it does. You have."

If anything that last attack has definitely reminded me that my past and my present aren't as separate as I imagined. I know I can't go back to the person I was before. It was one of the main reasons I gave myself a new name to begin with so that distance would be created. I may have to something in the middle.

"I'm not sure about that anymore."

"They were just dreams, Domino. The hospital of horrors didn't mean anything."

"Maybe...that girl I was in my nightmares is still there somewhere."

"Domino, we all have something about us we don't want to say."

Odd's right. I guess this is another human reminder that I am still one even if in some ways, there are things about me that aren't normal. Experiences help change us in different ways.

"Come on, the others are waiting for us." Odd says.

Sometimes we change back because of experiences. Still if the day ever comes that I go back to the scared girl I saw in those dreams...