Code Lyoko: The New Girl (BK 1)

Chapter 47

A/N: Another trigger warning for mentions of child abuse and trauma in this chapter. Things will go back to being light and less serious in the next chapter, I promise, but these events are vital to the shaping of Saphire's character and personality. They also might not make much sense now, but they'll be explained later (trying to keep an air of mystery around Saphire; she's got A LOT of secrets, and they'll all be revealed one by one as the story progresses). Also, I know it does stray from the original Code Lyoko story, but since this is a fanfic, there will be differences in the storytelling and certain plot points will be switched up.

Thank you for reading and voting!

Yumi had had a lot of strange fever dreams since she became a Lyoko Warrior. Some of them were silly and awkward — devirtualizing on Lyoko with no clothes on, stuck in her underwear for everyone in the group, and for all the monsters to see — while others were frightening and caused her to start sleeping with a small light night on by her side. However, the most disturbing and bone-chilling dream had to be the one Yumi had earlier that week after the whole cafeteria food fight debacle between Saphire and Magali.

The dream had her waking up gasping for air. Her entire head was aching and her right arm was throbbing as if someone had clamped their hands over her skin and squeezed until her arm went numb. Yumi's thoughts swam with uncertainty; words and feelings danced in and out, never long enough for her to quite grasp what she was experiencing or what exactly she had dreamt of.

All Yumi knew was that it was related to Lyoko; it had to be. There were no other real stressors in her life besides balancing crime-fighting on Lyoko with her regular life. Later, more pieces connected and Yumi realized there was an extra component to her dream she hadn't realized at first; a cameo in her latest night terrors: Saphire.

Except...she looked different. Yumi couldn't quite place it, but there was something strange about her — well, stranger than usual. Yumi had sat up in her bed and written it all down in the journal she had started keeping since her adventures in Lyoko began. She often wrote in code and gave each entry a title, just in case the book ever fell in the wrong hands — AKA Hiroki, and he passed it onto her parents, the words wouldn't come back to haunt her later on; she could easily pretend she was working on a short story, something fictional, made up, never possible in real life.

The more details Yumi penned down, the more she was beginning to remember, and soon, it clicked: the strange thing Yumi had noticed about Saphire were her eyes. No longer were they overwhelmingly blue, in her dream, they had leaked of all color and settled on an unsettling pale undertone. They were white. Ashy white. Just a shade or two darker than the sclera. They also seemed to be flaming, or moving, like an untamed wildfire, ready and able to consume everything in its path.

Yumi shuddered, not wanting to think about that part or assign it any analogies. Her blue eyes were creepy enough to look into sometimes; they were so steady and daring as if she were trying to peer into your soul with one look. She could hear Saphire's voice in her ear, saying something, but it was too low to make out, and trying to remember only gave Yumi an instant headache.

Yumi didn't remember falling back asleep, and when she awoke again, all remnants of the dream slipped away. If she hadn't written the few details she remembered down, she would not have thought about it ever again. When she read through her words in the morning, Yumi was both puzzled and suspicious as to what the dream could mean. She wasn't an overly superstitious person, but the supernatural events that had taken a hold of their lives for the past year forced her to reconsider everything she once presumed as abnormal or impossible.

Yumi considered bringing up the dream to Jeremie and hearing his thoughts on it, but the minute she thought of the idea, she was reminded of the fact that Jeremie was Saphire's little ally now, and would probably assume Yumi was just trying to stir up trouble by accusing Saphire of infiltrating her dreams now as well as their friend group. So Yumi kept mum on it, and stored it away for later use, silently hoping it was just a one-time thing, and the dream would not become a recurring thing. Waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like someone was stomping on her head, and holding a vice-like grip around her throat was no fun.