Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 76

I thank the Lord for his help with this chapter, and I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. For some reason, Fanfiction was odd this past week, so this chapter will first show up on Wattpad and Fanfiction later. I am ecstatic to see so many new readers, and I hope you have enjoyed yourself so far. Thank you to those who have read up to this point and continue to read. I'll see you next chapter.

Pagliacci-11

It had been the better part of a week since her abilities had surfaced. Anthea had made remarkable progress with the help of Hodge. It had been the most unique element to come out of the whole mess. Anthea found she could utilize what many would term telepathy and telekinesis through exercising in a very safe setting. The skills developed quickly once she had gotten rolling with it. So much so that it came as a surprise to both her and Hodge. But there was a side-effect that Anthea was struggling with, something she'd considered bringing up to Hodge but decided against it to see if the effect would stop.

Anthea had had dreams, dreams she was in a different place. A place that was lush with green hills and forests as far as the eyes could see. Patches were throughout in massive squares filled with golden wheat. The skies overhead was always that of a summer day with light puffs of cloud throughout. There were all kinds of birds, particularly the goldfinch, all around her in this dream. In this dream, she felt so very much at ease.

She was a laborer in a field, and despite this, it was a labor that wasn't monotonous or boring but merely a task that needed to be done. From this dream, she could labor from day to dusk, threshing a field and picking up the gleanings. There were no significant forms of industry around. It was in the countryside. It was mostly agrarian from what she could tell, but it was relaxed, secluded from the world. But she was always hungry, and the longer she was allowed to sleep, Anthea noticed her threshold for various sound gradually increased as if she had been slowly acclimating oddly.

However, as the dreams went on, Anthea slowly felt less and less like herself. Her body was healing; this much was clear and reinforced in Hodge's notes. What had been a week only seemed like two, and Anthea was feeling more and more out of sorts physically. The closest she could think of in terms of sensation was being hungover from sleep. It was uncomfortable; Anthea had chronic headaches slowly creep up and could only be stopped by drinking enough water. But until such time that Anthea could successfully be termed as physically stable, she had to endure this regrettably.

However, Anthea's dreams were growing more and more engrossing, as if she were looking at the life of someone in a small village or something of the sort. The dreams seemed to have a semi-loose narrative. It covered various themes that, as Anthea thought about them in her waking life, she genuinely felt that the stress that had been heaped upon her by her job had begun to play too significant an influence on her. It felt as if all she had worked within the past few years, especially more recent events with Aelita and then reflecting on her relationship with John Barrow and Waldo Schaeffer, had begun to bleed over into her sleep.

This wasn't entirely new; in fact, it had built up gradually over time in the last few months. With XANA being noted at the time as genuinely uninstalled when the deep probe by Decay had been launched, a whole litany of questions had come from the upper offices. But so many questions came from rightful people wanting answers that the past month had felt like equally the longest and shortest month of her existence. But her frustration with work had begun around that time.

There would be times where she'd black out, not even that if she thought about it. More, it was like being on a phantom autopilot. Anthea couldn't describe it any other way, save for the fact that she would black out. But no one seemed to notice. It was as if she had been equally taking micro-naps that who knows how long they could have lasted but at the same time, something was going on; no one noticed anything or alerted her to anything being the matter. Given her position in Decay, usually, any sign of sickness or, in this case, oddball elements such as these phantom naps would be cause for immediate concern.