Athena

Chapter 7: School Dance

The end of the year school dance is today and I think the Lyoko Warriors have earned a nice relaxing break from the craziness that is everyday life for them.

Aelita and I had been having a rough day between trying to get the mixes for the night together as well as going to all of our last classes and taking ms. Hertz horrible science test.

Odd, Yumi, Urich and Jeremy were all waiting for us as we left our last class before lunch.

"What's up with you two? You look like someone just ran you over with a mega tank." Yumi asked.

"There's so much we have to do before tonight plus all of our classes it isn't easy you guys."

That's when my head started to throb. I put my hand on my head lightly. It started to throb harder.

"Dawn are you alright?" Odd asked worried.

"Yeah just a headache that's all." I said smiling.

"You've been over working yourselves it's no wonder you're getting headaches, let's get you two some food." I followed them to the cafeteria, but my headache was getting worse and worse as my vision blurred.

What's happening to me?

"Dawn, you sure you're alright?" Aelita asked falling back with me.

"Yeah just a really bad headache." I shrugged my shoulders and walked into the cafeteria. Suddenly my vision went from being able to see the human world to Lyoko. I shivered and shook my head, closing my eyes.

When I opened them again I was seeing normally.

"Dawn, maybe you should go lay down." Aelita said and I nodded as I turned to leave again. "Head to the factory, I saw that too. Your eyes changed to coding. Something isn't right." She whispered in my ear and I rushed out of the cafeteria.

Coding in my eyes? Did my bug not get completely cured?

When I arrived at the factory I set a timer for virtualization and stepped inside one of the scanners.

After I appeared on Lyoko Odd's overboard appeared in front of me. I flipped on and headed in the direction of the nearest way tower.

"Welcome home, Athena." I froze and looked to my left to see Xana following me on a manta.

"You're the one causing my vision to go weird in the human world aren't you?!" He smirked and I clenched my fists.  "You need to get over yourself." I went inside the tower and quickly locked it off from Xana.

"Athena, you can't hide in the human world forever. Your computer bug was never a bug it's your life force. You were meant to be on Lyoko, if you continue this foolish whim to be human you'll die." I started going through my coding and saw he had messed around with my vision and head. I quickly fixed them and locked them from his access.

"You're lying that's all you do is lie, Xana." I touched my necklace and slowly disappeared from Lyoko.

"I wouldn't lie about your death, Athena..." Was the last thing I heard before I reappeared in the factory. My headache was gone and my vision was back to normal.

*later that day*

The dance was only an hour away and I was quickly getting ready. I had thrown on a white dress and applied a little bit of makeup. Nothing too fancy.

At 7:30, just 30 minutes until the dance someone knocked on my door. I opened it to see Odd in nicer clothes than usual.

"Hey Odd." He looked me up and down.

"You look beautiful." I blushed a little and smiled.

"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself."

"Hey guys!" Aelita and Jeremy appeared screaming pretty much in Odd's ears. I flinched and that's when I remembered what Xana has told me for some reason.

Is he really telling the truth? Am I really going to die if I stay in the human world? But if so, why would my life force allow me to be here in the first place? Technically I am a digital being not really human and I knew the effects would have some form of consequence but nothing this severe. Is Xana for once telling the truth?

"Dawn?" I looked up at Aelita shaking the thought away.

"Yes?"

"You coming?" I saw Odd and Jeremy were giving me worried glances.

"Oh yeah right sorry lost in thought about how much fun tonight is going to be lets go." I walked out of the room grabbing Odd's hand. I sighed once we at the dance.

I really don't want to say goodbye to my friends, they mean the world to me and I already had to say goodbye to them once. Why must I do it again?

"Having fun?" Odd asked halfway through the dance as we danced together.

"Yeah, a lot of fun. This is the first time I've been to a dance remember." He smiled and leaned me down.

"I haven't forgotten." I blushed and saw out of the corner of my eye Yumi and Ulrich grinning at us.

I looked back at Odd and saw he was leaning in towards me like he was going to kiss me. Wait was he?!

That's when I felt sick and my chest ached.

"Odd, I need some air." I pulled away and went outside gasping for breath.

I shifted from one foot to the other as I stood outside in the cold.

"Why couldn't I have been created as a human, why did I have to be virtual? Why can't I forget what he said, why am I believing what he's saying?" I muttered and gripped the railing tightly.  "Why couldn't I have been born normal!" I slammed my hand down on the rail and I heard a crack and then a ton of pain in my hand. I held it against my chest and ran away from the school.

I can't be human. I could never be human no matter how hard I tried. I'm not human. All I am is a virtual coding that someone created to protect the digital network. I don't go to dances, I don't date boys and I most certainly don't kiss them.

I rushed into the factory and up to the supercomputer. I set a timer for virtualization and went to step into one of the scanners.

"I'm sorry..." Was the last thing I said as the doors closed in front of me and I was virtualized on to Lyoko.