"Robbed? What does she mean, robbed?"
"I don't know," Jeremie says to Yumi as he turns towards my pathetic, lifeless body thrown across my bed. My limbs sluggishly dangle off of the sides. I wish Kiwi were here to just run by and bite them off. "She hasn't said a word to me since. I can't get her to talk."
"What is going on with her…" Odd whispers as he perches his scrawny body against the thick, wooden trim of the door frame. I hate being stared at, and now all of my friends are doing it. Staring hurts. I don't like eye-contact. He made eye-contact with me the entire night, and now whenever I look at someone as harmless as Jeremie I think of his fuming, pitch black irises, his eyes glossed over with hatred and… evil. I feel he can do worse than XANA. Footsteps drag across the pink carpet of my bedroom, and the sound of Ulrich's voice treads across my earlobes.
"Aelita? What was stolen from you?" He turns his head towards the three that huddle around my door, eagerly waiting for my response. They shouldn't hold their breath. I don't feel like talking. Even if I wanted to tell, I just don't want to speak any words. Talking hurts, too. My throat is sore. "Aelita? Why won't you talk?"
I simply blink in response. I'd never realized how ugly my ceiling was before. It's not white… it's not even cream, or eggshell. It's almost... yellow. How displeasing to the eye. It completely clashes with the vibrancy of my rose colored carpet. I hear Ulrich sigh and walk back to the group. I glance over, watching him shake his head in disappointment through my peripheral vision. Am I a disappointment? If I wasn't, maybe this wouldn't have happened to me.
"Let me try!" Odd skips over to my bed. He thinks his sense of humor will get me to open my mouth, but I'm afraid he is mistaken. A million dollars couldn't get me to talk. "Come on princess," he softly coos by my ear. "Tell us what's going on."
I blink again. The ceiling is coated with a million tiny ridges. Almost as if I'm looking at a mountain scape.
"All she's doing is blinking." He turns to the others and shrugs.
"Do you think she's trying to communicate with us that way?"
"Ulrich, that's a fantastic idea!" Yumi runs up to me and kneels down by my bedside. She takes my hand into hers, but I quickly snatch palm away. I don't want to be touched. "Aelita, will you answer our questions by blinking?"
No.
"Blink once for yes, and twice for no, okay?"
I blink. Twice. No. Yumi sighs intensly.
"Well, that was short lived," Odd pipes in from the corner.
"Cut the jokes, Odd," Ulrich snaps. Yumi wipes away the beads of sweat that form on her temples from the frustration. I feel so guilty for putting my friends through this, really I do.
"Aelita… you promised you couldn't tell us what happened. But, if you communicate to us without speaking… really, it's not you telling us. It's us making inferences off of your actions… and that wouldn't be your fault if we guess, would it?"
Well, no. I suppose not. I blink twice. No. No, it wouldn't be.
Yumi heaves a sigh of relief and turns towards the others, a smile creeping upon her flustered face.
"Aelita… do you know the person that did this to you?"
Two blinks. I've not the slightest clue.
"She said no." Yumi turns towards the boys. Ulrich brushes his chin in contemplation.
"So it was a complete stranger, then," he ponders.
"Not necessarily." Jeremie pitches in with his vast storage of knowledge.
"Aelita, does this person know you?"
"Excuse me, Aelita Stones? Or should I say… Aelita Schaeffer."
The voice echoes inside my head again and I look away from Yumi, my entire body becoming tense. My muscles begin to twitch and spasm. I turn back towards her to painfully give my response. One blink.
"She said yes… So she doesn't know who the person is, but they know her."
"That's unnerving." Jeremie cautiously mutters as he stuffs his hands into his pockets. They all fuss and whisper in the corner as Yumi continues to interrogate me. I feel like I'm part of a crime scene or something.
"Aelita, do you know exactly what happened to you?"
"H-hey! Get off of me! GET! OFF!"
No. I don't know. But I do know it hurt a lot. Two blinks.
"She doesn't know."
"What do you mean she doesn't know?" Jeremie pushes his way past Ulrich and Odd and thuds over to my bed. "Aelita, don't play this game! You very well know what happened!"
I don't even know why, but the next thing I know I'm curled up in a ball, tears pouring down my cheeks.
"Way to go, Jeremie."
"Great!"
"What did I do? She wasn't always this sensitive!"
"I think you should go."
The door slams as Jeremie is booted out of my room. Yumi rubs my back as I continue to sob, and Ulrich and Odd merely stand and watch.
"It's okay, Aelita," she says, trying to console me. "I don't know what happened, and I can't make you tell. But whatever it is, it's gonna be okay."
Within a matter of minutes after Jeremie leaves, he is back at the door with a frantic knocking. "I hate to break up your little interrogation session, but we gotta go!" he screams. "XANA is attacking!"
"But… but Aelita is in no position to fight!" Yumi cries, trying to defend me.
"Well we gotta do something," Ulrich runs out the door followed by Odd. Jeremie stands in the doorway and hurtfully glares at Yumi and me, tapping his foot in impatience.
"Well? Are you coming?" He sarcastically snaps. I sigh and lift myself out of bed.
"Are you okay, Aelita?" Yumi whispers into my ear. I appreciate how kind she's being to me, compared to the others. Maybe she understands better because she's a female, like I am. I'd rather tell her than anyone else. I nod at her, and we run out the door and follow the rest to the sewers.
Jeremie starts the virtualization process, sending us to Lyoko one-by-one. First Ulrich, then Odd, then Yumi, and now it's my turn. As I'm lifted up inside the scanner, though, I can hear him muttering something in confusion over the intercom. Something must have happened during the virtualization process, and he seems unnerved by it. I hope everything is alright. I don't need anything else on my plate.
I am dropped down onto the blistering passages of the Desert Sector. I want to ask Jeremie what happened, but at the same time, I don't feel like talking to him.
"What is that?!"
I look around me, and quickly jump back in fear as I see some sort of unfamiliar orb floating by my side. It is red and perfectly symmetrical, a white aura surrounding it.
"It's red, so that usually means XANA!" Odd prances towards the glowing orb and begins violently shooting his laser arrows at it. As the orb is hit, though I am as well. Electrical sparks of pain that I can't actually feel surge throughout my virtual form.
"Stop!" Jeremie radios. "Something happened during the transfer."
"What?" Yumi asks.
"I'm not sure, but there is a warning message on my screen. It looks as if… something is inside Aelita!"
"What? Inside Aelita?! What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know; it has to be a bug. I'll work it out later, but for now, head North Northeast for the tower!"
Something is… inside me? I rub my hands across my abdomen at the unsettling thought of something residing inside my own body. What? A parasite? Do I have a parasite in me? I read about parasites in my science class, and they seem like such awful, horrible creatures. Did… did he give me this parasite? Perhaps that's why my stomach has been hurting a lot lately.
"Aelita, are you coming?!"
I stop thinking about parasites long enough to see that Odd, Yumi and Ulrich are already far ahead of me. As I start running, though, I see the mysterious orb is following me. What is this thing?!
"Jeremie, the orb is following Aelita!" Ulrich points out as he looks behind me on his overbike. He pulls over and allows me to hop on, the little orb hovering along with us.
"I know. It's linked to her! If that orb gets hit then Aelita loses life points!"
"But what is it?"
"That I'm not sure of. It must be from the bug, it may be a floating link of human DNA from a flaw in the transfer procedure."
"Whatever you say, Einstein. Look, there's the tower!"
There's the tower, alright. Basked in the brilliant glow of that signature, vibrant red. It scares me almost to look at it, and I'm not sure why. XANA's welcoming committee quickly arrives to give us a not so pleasant hello. Three Kankrelats and a Megatank. Easy, but challenging at the same time.
"I'll get the Megatank," Odd confidently offers as he swooshes past us on his overboard.
"And I've got the Kankrelats," Yumi says. "Go for it, Aelita!"
I hop off of the overbike and begin walking towards the tower. I hear the shooting of Odd's lasers and the swiftness of Yumi's fans in the distance, but it merely echoes underneath my collection of thoughts. I stand in the middle of the sector and stare at the tower, wondering why I should go inside.
"XANA has launched his attack on Earth!" Jeremie cries through the intercom, his pleas blending into the other words that become lost in the sea of my mind. "He's taken control of a gasoline truck and he's driving it straight to the power plant! If XANA gets to that plant, the truck is going to conduct so much electricity that it will overheat and explode! Who knows how much of the city XANA can take out with that!"
"We're on it, Jeremie," Ulrich says as draws his swords towards the Kankrelats. "Aelita, what are you doing? AELITA!"
I turn around and look at him.
"Aelita, go on! What are you waiting for?"
One of the Kankrelats begins shooting at the little ball that huddles around me. It seems that XANA's attention has been diverted to this little circle. The laser hits the orb, and I fall to the ground.
"Aelita, you are losing too many life points!" Jeremie shouts over the intercom, but I don't listen. Let him take my life points. "Aelita!" He grows desperate. "Aelita, GO!"
I let the Kankrelat hit me again. Just hurry up, already.
"AELITA, HURRY UP!" Yumi cries as the last of her life points are washed away by the Megatank's powerful blow. I hear Jeremie's hysterical pleas over the intercom as the truck rapidly makes it's way towards the power plant. I don't care. Why should I deactivate that tower? What's the point?
I lie on the ground and stare at the digital sky as the sounds of crying, shouting, and lasers surround my ears.
"AELITA! AELITA, HURRY UP!"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!"
"AELITAAAAAA!"
I just lie and wait.