The Core

Chapter 10: A Cure for the Core

"Go ahead, Odd." Aelita said as I hesitated in getting out of the elevator.

"But what if Xana does something to her when she gets there? I could never forgive myself if something bad happened to her." I said before I could stop myself. Aelita smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.

"She'll be alright, we just have to have faith in Jeremy." I nodded and set Dawn down inside the scanner.

"Alright Jeremy, go ahead."

"Roger, Scanner Dawn. Transfer Dawn. Virtualization."

God I hope this works...

Dawn's POV

I could feel something changing, and changing quickly. My body no longer ached in pain and I could feel everything that had hurt fading. What was happening to me? Why was I no longer in pain? I thought Xana told me as long as I was in the real world I would never be cured from my illness, unless...

My body hitting a hard surface jolted me back to reality. I opened my eyes and saw I was sitting on an icy platform, but as I looked around I realized I was in the Ice Sector of Lyoko.

So Jeremy must have figured out this was the only way to save me. Which means Xana must know I'm here too.

"Dawn?" I heard Jeremy's voice.

"I'm alright, Jeremy. You can bring me back to Earth." I stated quickly hoping I could get out of here before Xana showed up.

"It's not that simple, Dawn. You have to get to a way tower so I can create an anti-virus that will protect you from getting another one of his viruses again." I sighed and started heading in the direction of the nearest tower. I could sense it and it was closer than I thought, but every minute I was in Lyoko was another minute I was vulnerable to being attacked by Xana and his monsters.

"Hey, can you at least send someone here to help me?" I called out.

"Already on the way. They should be there soon." I was happy to hear I wouldn't be on my own.

That's when I noticed something orange in front of me. It was a tiny orb of light. It was sort of pretty, but it had a weird scent to it. Because I was the core of Lyoko, I knew what was suppose to be here and what wasn't suppose to be here. This orb of light shouldn't have been here. I took a step back.

"Jeremy!" I called out as the orb of light swelled and reached out grabbing me. After I was swallowed by this orb of light I was thrown back into memories from when I was a child.

*flashback*

"Dawn, my dear please come here." I looked up from my coloring book and saw my father Franz Hopper standing there.

"What is it, daddy?" He signaled with his hand for me to follow him. I looked back at Aelita as I rose from my spot next to her.

"Don't worry I'll be right back." I stated and went to find my father.

"What have I told you about getting close to Aelita? You don't belong in this world and you know it. So why must you insist on dragging that poor girl along when all you'll do is hurt her." I flinched back and looked at him.

"But you brought me into this world to protect it and that means protecting Aelita as well. Why can't I be friends with her?" This seemed to agitate him and he started clenching and unclenching his fists tightly.

"You are not here to protect anyone you worthless digital creature. Now get out of my sight, tomorrow I'll be putting you back into Lyoko where you were always meant to go!" I ran up the stairs as tears poured from my face. How could I be worthless and digital if I could feel all the pain and suffering he was putting us through?

*flashback over*

I hated Franz Hopper. I knew that for sure now.

Aelita's POV

I stepped into the scanner and turned to look towards Odd, who was in the scanner across from me.

"Alright Einstein, we're ready." Odd called out.

"Here we go. Scanner Odd, Scanner Aelita." The doors closed in front of me and in a few seconds I was materialized with Odd on to Lyoko. We looked around, but I couldn't see any sign of her.

"What gives Jeremy? She's not here." Odd stated annoyed.

"That can't be right, my screen says she's right in front of you." I looked directly in front of me and saw an orange orb of light in the distance.

"Hey Odd, what's that?" I asked pointing towards the orb.

"I don't know, Princess. Let's go find out." We rushed towards the orb and that's when I saw how big the orb was, but what was more frightening was I saw Dawn trapped inside of it.

"Is that Dawn?!" I yelled and started pounding on the orb of light. "Dawn!" I called, but she didn't wake up or even acknowledge that she heard me.

"Aelita, you have to create another copy of Dawn to trick the Guardian into thinking it grabbed the wrong Dawn." Jeremy called out over the sky.

"Alright, I'll give it a try." I went down to my knees and started using my materialization powers to create a replica of Dawn. When it appeared I watched with Odd as the Guardian started shaking and then finally released our Dawn and swallowed up the copy causing it to explode. "It's okay, Jeremy. We have Dawn bring us all in quickly." I said and watched as Dawn and Odd devirtualized and I followed soon after. When we appeared in the scanner room, I stepped out of the scanner to see Dawn was regaining consciousness.

"Well good morning, Princess. How are you feeling?" Odd asked gently.

"My head hurts... but other than that I'm fine-" She cut off when she saw me. Her face looked as if someone had just stabbed her in the heart. "I'm sorry, Aelita. If only I could tell you the truth..." She mumbled before passing out again.

The truth? What truth?