AN: Aaaggghh...I had to. Just...had to. I've been holding on to this one for...I don't even know how long. CL does not get the love it deserves, and I find myself continuously disappointed by the lack of in-depth (SOMEWHAT REALISTIC) adventure stories for this series, so...

Quick Notes: I am pulling events from the episodes themselves, but I have no intention of rehashing them word-for-fricken-word. I will probably only briefly describe or leave out entirely certain episodes (I'm not about to restate the entire series, especially if the episode is useless for whatever overall plot I come up with for this). I am also more or less ignoring the fifth season-don't get me wrong, I liked Evolution, but it doesn't work into my timeline here. I will, however, be pulling William's avatar from Evolution (since I really do prefer him in black) and the look of the Towers ('cuz I just like the way they look in Evolution), but beyond a few aesthetics, no plot or characters from Evolution are planned to make appearances.

I should also remind all readers that I am taking certain liberties with the characters to make them more realistic-Yes, we all know that CL was a kids show and it's old and cheesy beyond belief, but that doesn't mean I can't take the base of that world and make it a bit more mature to suit my now more-developed tastes(because you really don't realize how cheesy your favorite childhood shows were until you go back and watch them as an adult).

One more thing...
Quick Rant: WHY DOES WILLIAM NOT GET MORE LOVE? I mean, come on! If you look past the bravado and flirting he's actually a pretty interesting, realistic portrayal of a young man, something I also believe they made more obvious in Evolution when we actually get to see him post-possession. He has so much potential for character development and emotional trauma that he is probably my most favoritest character to use in CL EVER. Not to mention he's a badass fighter! But do I see fics about him? Almost. Never. In fact most CL fics are about frickn' high school romance and OC inserts. Do I care about romance? Not really. Do I mind it? If it's done well and is SECONDARY to a more interesting plot, sure. I write and enjoy writing about strong friendships-but cheesy teen romance? Gross. I don't read it, so I don't write it.

So William doesn't get enough attention in this fandom, or if he does it's typically not the flattering kind, so I am dedicating a story to him. If you have a problem with that, there are other stories out there. Don't waste your own time.

Rewriting the Code

1 : Xana Awakens Part One

William woke up….slowly. Confused and reluctant. There was a gentle light that he could see through cracked eyelids, and a soft warmth coming from the floor his cheek rested on. It took him a bit to regain any kind of coherency. He felt…strange. Out of touch with his own body. Like he hadn't used it in a long time and couldn't quite remember the mechanics. He felt fuzzy and sleepy despite not actually being tired.

Gradually, he focused. Idly observed the rapidly changing numbers dancing in little boxes on the blue walls. Twitched each individual body part until he was sure he knew where they were and that they functioned as they should. Then he sat up, leaning back on his hands and looking around, thinking. The glowing white platform, the bottomless darkness beneath, the ambient light, and the deep blue, screen-like walls were all very familiar. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't think he was supposed to be here.

There was no visible exit from the small, round room, but somehow William knew exactly what to do. He stood, his walk smooth despite being so unsure of his own extremities moments before, and stepped up to the wall in the one place the platform extended close enough to touch. After a second of looking at it, the wall began to ripple like water, faintly red light accenting each wave. Then he just stepped forward, melting right through it and out the other side.

Finding himself standing on the cool blue floor in a truly enormous room, William was again overcome with familiarity. The makeup of the room and, as he glanced behind himself, the tower he had been in were downright illogical and unrealistic. They looked cool though.

The tower was sleek and black and square shaped at the base, despite it's rather round interior, with some lines of decorative lighting around the lower half glowing deep purple. It was perched upon a mountain of huge blue blocks that didn't appear to have been placed together with any pattern in mind, with a more neat pathway of far larger blue blocks extending from misty nothingness below to allow access to the tower's base. In front of him the path extended to a matching blocky blue wall with an opening just the width of the path itself, leading who knew where. A geometry teacher's paradise and/or worse nightmare.

This place…is… He knew this place. Somewhere so unique couldn't possibly be forgotten so easily. …Carthage.

And it all came rushing back.

It didn't hurt nor was it terribly surprising, and it took virtually no time at all. Rather like flipping on a light switch—no light, now light. Before he knew nothing, now he knew something. William just rocked on his heels a little, blinked a few times, and then frowned deeply.

This is…definitely not right.

Something had changed. Carthage felt different. It was quiet.

Where was Xana? He was more than happy, ecstatic even, that he had his brain to himself again, but if Xana wasn't in his head then where was it? He couldn't imagine it just…letting him go of it's own volition. It had seemed a little too settled and far too stubborn for that—William would even admit he felt a little odd, standing here without that ominous presence, that immense pressure and knowledge just hanging around beside his consciousness like some demented shadow.

He'd gotten…kind of used to it, actually. He had been essentially forced to accept the invading entity or be driven insane by the weight of it's presence smothering him to keep control, and even then it had been far from comfortable.

Xana hadn't seen much need to hide things from it's avatar, nor had it cared much at all for his general presence in the same body—so he had gotten to witness much of the AI's thoughts as they occurred, simply because it hadn't bothered to hide them from him. It had turned into something like daytime television for him—he hadn't needed rest, and he couldn't exactly turn it off or get away from it, so he just observed and tried to alleviate boredom. And it had been quite boring at times.

Even so, sharing a mind with an AI—capable of learning and processing information at the speed of sound—was an interesting experience to say the least. And mildly traumatizing. But that was for another day. William was quite sure that having all that information in his face and almost feeling thoughts racing by as if they were his own had some effect on his own thought process. Influenced him. Being constantly awake and trapped within his own head had left him a lot of time to reflect, on his life, his past actions, etc., and William now felt like a rather different person than he was when he first stepped into that scanner, months ago. More mature, for one. His patience was better, but that constituted as a character flaw that could only be helped so much, so mostly he'd just chosen to acknowledge it.

He was still curious, and still direct in his approach to most things. He didn't know why he was here, for how long, or how he was alone in the first place. And this, whatever his situation was, bore looking into, and possibly skull smashing. If he ran into anything with Xana's Eye on it, there would be smashing. No questions asked.

Well…at least he still had super smoke, for whatever reason. That was nice. It made getting around the maze of Carthage much easier. As he explored, he noted that he was still instinctively aware of where the tower he'd started from was. And now that he thought about it, he'd never seen a purple tower before.

Must be mine then. He thought, dropping out of smoke form on a random block. He'd floated around looking for any kind of activity, but hadn't bumped into any monsters. The maze didn't even seem moody enough to change shape today. So he'd gone somewhere he knew shouldn't have changed—the Core chamber. As he thought, it was still there, glowing and spinning idly in the middle of the spiraling room at the center of Carthage. He stood about level with it, arms crossed and well on his way to being annoyed.

Where is everybody?

Not in Carthage, that much was clear. He wanted to check the other Sectors, but wasn't entirely sure how he'd get there. Before, he'd just hung out in the digital sea between missions and then emerged from there wherever in Lyoko he was needed. Now that Xana wasn't part of him and protecting his virtual body from exploding on contact with the sea, he wasn't about to take the risk of trying something similar.

Towers were sometimes used as methods of transportation, but usually just around a single Sector. …Well, it's worth a try.

So he made his way back. His original, purple tower was right where he'd left it. Entering it, he stood in the center of the platform and tried to recall how Xana accessed their coding and such, aside from just activating and deactivating them. Like the tower knew what he was after, an interface appeared in front of him, cloudy white and floating.

Perfect. He spent a few minutes fiddling with it, letting what remained of Xana's imprinted tech savvy do most of the interpreting for him, before somehow either creating or discovering a method of transporting himself from this tower to any other inactive one.

Huh. That wasn't so hard. When did he learn binary? And to think, the most time I spent with computers was to play video games.

Fun times. Now…the Forest Sector. That was always a pleasant walk. A map of the Sector appeared, ten spread out, glowing dots signifying towers, though only nine of them seemed to be available for his use. Curious about the remaining one, he selected the tower closest to it and started the process. The interface vanished, there was light and pixels, and he was gone.

When William reformed, he was standing in an identical room in a nearly identical tower in the Forest Sector. Exiting, he paused just outside. Listened. Absorbed it all. Yeah, things felt…different. More raw, somehow. The more time he spent here the more William realized how much more in tune with Lyoko he was. Not quite like the sensitivity he had as Xana's avatar, and definitely not like when he'd first entered Lyoko as just a novice Warrior.

Shaking his head to dispel the strange thoughts that he really didn't have the capacity to fathom at that moment, he dispersed into smoke and began his wanderings again. He could feel where that one tower he couldn't transport to was located, and took his time getting there.

This tower was blue. A Way Tower? He could somewhat get why he couldn't just appear inside it then, but there was something weirdly familiar about it. Weird like this tower and the surrounding virtual landscape was a scene he'd witnessed a long time ago, right down to exact details—which made no sense, because he was sure that even when possessed, he hadn't gone near the Forest Way Tower. Somehow the 'memory' seemed even older than his possession, but again, that made no sense. And hadn't Lyoko's landscapes changed somewhat after it was destroyed and remade by Jeremy? Hell, there were times when he was sure the scenery changed just because it felt like it. Lyoko was practically an entity of it's own, after all…

The towers surface rippled, white waves expanding outward. Someone was coming out of it. Startled, and more than slightly wary, seeing how weird his day had been, William vanished into smoke and hid behind the nearest tree. Peeking around the side, he felt his jaw threaten to drop and hang open in utter shock.

It was Aelita…but not at all like William last remembered her being. Her virtual form had regressed—it was the white and pink and ribboned elf form he'd only seen twice before it had been replaced with the futuristic angel that Jeremy had designed. And she didn't stand like the battle honed, confident young genius he had witnessed her to be when times were rough. She was visibly timid, expression lost and confused, looking around with a mix of wonderment and complete lack of recognition—which was completely out of whack, because Aelita was the one who knew her way around Lyoko the best, after spending so much of her life stuck in it—

Wait a second. This wasn't familiar to him because he had experienced it before. It was familiar because Xana had experienced it before, long preceding William even arriving at Kadic.

But that makes no sense! He thought, frustrated and more than slightly panicked. How could I possibly be here, like this, on Lyoko…

"H…Hello? Is…someone there?"

Aelita walked slowly around the side of the tree, a cautious distance away, and saw William leaning against it. She gasped, green eyes growing bigger, but clearly didn't recognize him.

…in the past.

AN:

Right. There. First chapter : Done. Set the ball rolling.

Lemme know what you think, yeah? I can't be the only Not-a-Child who's clung to some love for this series and was looking for something a little different than the norm.

MB