A/N: Hi! This entry is for the Supernatural competition for Xana's Lair! This is the first competition on Xana's Lair I've entered, so I don't know how good the other entries will be… still, wish me luck!

Summary: Behind the twisted smile and the evil demeanour, he was always just a child who wondered why his creator pushed him away.

Parallel

He is parallel to me, as I am to him. We are like the sun and the moon. What falls but never breaks? What breaks but never falls?

That is us.

He may have called me "useless", "a program", "an error". Such meaningless words. I needed truth, and truth is not what he gave to me.

Sealing me away, was that really the solution? I was never an error. I was a person, I had what he called "a heart". But he accused me of being broken, faulty, and used that as an excuse to silence me forever.

I remember the day as clearly as anything. He told me he was going to virtualise me on "Earth", the world he came from. I remember being so excited. I would become "human". I could be one with him, I could be "real".

I remember the feeling of being deconstructed, down to the last strand of "DNA", then being put back together again, in what I registered to be a "human" form. I stood inside a narrow yellow scanner and waited for a moment, "heart" in my "mouth", as the doors opened and I would see my creator in the flesh. However, it just took a second for the newly found "emotion" inside of me to find fear, the single feeling that had been locked away deep down for so long.

He was there with a knife. I could see my reflection through his glasses; that of a timid young boy, with a mop of unkempt dark hair, clear grey eyes that looked both curious and afraid at the same time. I was unclothed but barely registering it as I stared into his eyes, steely and haunted.

"You're not ready for this world," he said, voice cracking slightly. "You'll never be ready for this world."

I saw myself in his mind's eye at that point - a monster. And then I saw how I looked from my own eyes - a young, now "human" boy who was eager to see this world he told me I would never be ready for. Like a baby before it left the womb. I would be a pair of eyes that would not see.

He brought down the knife and what I knew to be "pain" surged through my physical envelope as red liquid began to stream down my left shoulder. When my creator was in pain he cried out, but I just stared, uncertainly, as his breath hitched and he hastily yanked it out, splattering a fine spray of what I knew to be my "blood" around the scanner I was still knelt in. I watched him silently as he repeated this action over and over again, clutching his chest with his free hand as I became more and more of a bloody mass. My "hair" was matted with the blood, my "skin" puckered with stab wounds, my "fingers" sticky where I had reached out to touch each wound individually.

"You can never be let out into this world," he said gently, closing the scanner doors. He sent me back to Lyoko, expecting me to die, but I spent those long years he left me, shut away in a computer that wouldn't turn on, regenerating. All those many painful years, the question always came back to haunt me: _Why_did_he_do_it?

And then it happened: with a whir, the computer came to life. I was shocked. I was… free? Had my creator come back for me? Was I to be given a second chance?

Then I saw her: his daughter. From the way he had talked about her to me I knew she was somewhat special to him. Aelita, her name was.

An uncertain, new emotion flared inside of me. "Anger". "Revenge". I sought answers, answers he would never give me, and for that I would hurt him. Aelita was my best chance, because I knew he treasured her more than he had anybody else.

XANA stared coldly at the house his creator had once treasured. The Hermitage, as he had called it, was a dusty old place, appearing to have been used as a squatter's den for quite some time. He had been restricted to existing only in the form of electricity for so long, and had forgotten what it felt like to have a human body. He flexed his fingers, feeling the odd tingle of "sensing" tweak up his his anger, he couldn't help but dither a little fondly. Even if the last time he had held a physical envelope was due to his creator wanting to destroy him, he still felt a strange happiness resembling a "human". He could never say he hadn't enjoyed those few moments before his creator made the decision to kill him.

He ran a hand delicately through his unruly hair, each strand holding a different new sensation.

To put it lightly, it felt incredible.

With a light snarl he drifted towards the house, his feet so light on the ground it felt like he was creeping. Then, realising how ridiculous he felt admitting to that, he held his head high and began to stride through polystyrene takeaway cartons and crushed coke cans, relishing the thought of getting his revenge.

With a growl he kicked open the door, sending the doorknob clattering to the floor loudly. He listened closely as he heard a faint grunt coming from the other room.

"Huh? Whassa noise?" A boy with strawberry-blonde hair sticking up in odd places rubbed the back of his head as he emerged from the room. As he stretched, half-asleep, he noticed XANA standing there. It was quite a sight; XANA, in his young boy form, with his dishevelled appearance, startling grey eyes and ghostly aura, glaring at him and growling with bared teeth. He took a step forward and screeched as the boy threw a bottle of coke over his head, sending the drink showering down over him. It stung, it stung. And the boy took that as his cue to run for his life.

Snarling, he allowed himself to take on the electrical form again, slipping into a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. When he had recovered he would take his revenge. For now… he would lie in wait.

It would only take so long for his creator's child to hear about this.

Aelita frowned. Of all the things she'd heard since she arrived at Kadic, this was by far one of the most unbelievable.

"You're telling me that what Nicholas saw when he was crashing in The Hermitage was a ghost?" She raised an eyebrow. "What was he even doing in there? That's my house."

"Yeah, but nobody knows that. To everybody here, The Hermitage is just an abandoned house," Jeremy shrugged. "But the whole point is that whatever that is, it's bound to be related to… you know…"

"You think this is something to do with XANA?" Aelita's eyes widened. "This is a bit bizarre, even for XANA's standards. I mean, I know he's tried something like this before, but from the way Nicholas described it… this 'ghost' looked human like. XANA's never appeared in a form like that before. Even his version of a ghost didn't look particularly human like."

"Yeah, but Nicholas doesn't have enough brain cells left in his head to make up something like this," Odd chimed in, between bites of his croissant. "And Sissi seems just as interested in this as us, which gives me the impression she didn't put him up to this."

He threw a pointed look to the Queen of Kadic herself, who seemed to be engrossed in pressing Nicholas for further details.

"I'm telling you," they heard him say over the din of the cafeteria, "I heard a noise and there was this creepy ghost in the doorway. I was scared. I threw a can at it and ran."

"You should've talked to it, asked why it was haunting you," Sissi scolded, shaking her head. "That could've been a once in a lifetime experience!"

"Once Milly and Tamiya get word of this, it'll be what all the school will be talking about," Ulrich said darkly. "As if it weren't boring enough already."

Sure enough, as if on cue, Milly and Tamiya burst through the doorway with looks on their faces that only seemed to occur when Christmas, birthdays and summer vacation rolled around into one day.

"We heard something about a ghost attack?" Milly cried excitedly, appearing by Nicholas's side. Tamiya followed closely behind, notebook and pen in hand. "Tell us all of the details! It is a good reporter's job to investigate!"

"Hey, get lost, babies," Sissi snapped. If looks could kill, Milly would be badly mutilated by that point, but she shook it off, shooting Sissi a glare back.

"Tell us everything, Nicholas, please," Tamiya said quietly. With a small shrug he reeled off the details and watched intently as Tamiya scribbled into her small notepad with a look of triumph on her face.

"Looks like we'll have to beat them to it, then," Jeremy said. "We can't risk them going there - if this is related to XANA, no way can we let them get hurt."

The group made plans to meet up at lunch and discuss with Yumi whether or not to go ahead with the idea of checking out the 'haunting', before heading to class.

Back at the Ishiyama residence, Yumi was just finishing off her breakfast.

"I might be back late tonight," she told her parents. "I still don't know whether or not Ulrich wants to practise Pencak Silat tonight, and we might stay a while - Jim said something about a tournament coming up."

"Be back by seven at the latest," her father grumbled, folding up the newspaper he had finished reading. "Now, shouldn't you get going?"

"Right! See you guys tonight!" She bent down to kiss her mother on the cheek before heading out of the door. When she opened the door, she was met with quite a sight.

Stood before her was a young boy, no older than twelve, with dark, tousled hair and startling grey eyes that stared at her coldly.

"Uh… can I help you?" She asked, after regaining her composure. The boy stared at her for a moment, before shaking his head and walking away. Only, it was just as he turned the corner that she realised his feet weren't even touching the ground.

"What?" She stared after him for a moment, wondering if she was seeing things. Then she realised what the time was, and momentarily forgot her confusion.

"Oh, sh- I gotta go!" With one last perplexed glance back at the street she'd seen the boy walk down, she grabbed her bag and prepared for a long run.

When the gang finally met up at lunch, Ulrich filled Yumi in on what had happened. She frowned.

"I was wondering why everybody in my science class were talking about 'some 8th grade nut job' this morning." Her thoughts crept back to the boy she'd seen stood outside her door that morning. "Did Nicholas say what this 'ghost' looked like?" Jeremy shook his head.

"Something like, dark hair, growling, ghostly aura…"

"That's weird… some scrawny dark-haired kid was standing outside my house today. I thought I saw him literally walking on air… but I was pretty tired, so it could've just been my imagination going crazy." Four pairs of eyes swung towards her.

"That's scary," Aelita said, shivering. "Nicholas saw the ghost at The Hermitage… does that mean the ghost was stalking you because it… it really is XANA?" The table grew deathly quiet.

"…If it is, we should check it out right away," Yumi said quietly.

"B-But what if XANA takes that chance to launch an attack?" Jeremy cut in, worry written all over his face. "If we all go, we'd risk not being there when he does attack…"

"If it really is XANA, that ghost, that means he'll be too busy terrorising us to launch an attack. Right?" Odd inputted helpfully. "I say we all go. Who knows? We might actually be safer going together than we would if we split up to stop an attack. I think our safety is slightly more important than the Supercomputer's."

Jeremy was about to speak up, but Ulrich beat him to it first.

"So we'll meet after our last classes and head over there together."

"Right…" Jeremy stood up. "I'm going to go back to my room to get some programming done. I'll see you guys later." He headed off and Aelita followed him with a short wave back at them.

Yumi raised an eyebrow at Ulrich. "So, no Pencak Silat today?"

"Guess not," he replied, shrugging. Odd grinned at them.

"Disappointed you won't be spending any alone time together today, lovebirds?"

"Only in your wildest fantasies," Ulrich responded quickly, throwing a French fry in his direction. Odd grabbed a hold of it between finger and thumb and munched on it.

"Whatever you say, whatever you say," he sighed, shaking his head.

Finally, 3:15. Yumi stood by the vending machines outside, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the arrival of the rest of the gang. If this really was worth checking out, where were they?

"Sorry we're late." She turned around as Ulrich, with Odd and Aelita in toe, approached the vending machines. He pulled a face. "Ms Hertz was in a worse mood than usual and kept us behind a few extra minutes."

"She's such a grouch," Odd piped up, stretching.

"Where's Jeremy?" Yumi asked, glancing around.

"Oh, he went back to his room to check for any activated towers," Aelita said, shrugging. "He'll be in here in a sec, though, and then we'll head over to The Hermitage." She shuddered. "Suppose my old house really is haunted… then what? What are we supposed to do if the ghost really is XANA?"

Yumi frowned. To be fair, she hadn't actually thought that much ahead.

"Umm…" She screwed up her face. "I don't know… negotiate?"

Aelita snorted. "Like XANA will listen to reason."

As their discussion was about to continue, Jeremy approached.

"Hey guys… are you all ready to go?"

"Yeah…" Aelita said softly, hugging herself.

Ten minutes later they found themselves outside The Hermitage, dread filling the pits of their stomachs. Scared by what they would find. Even more afraid of what they'd do once they found it.

Yumi found her mind wandering back to the strange boy she'd seen earlier that day. Could that have been XANA, or some illusion he'd conjured up? Was she over thinking too much? Were they all just overreacting?

"So, this is it," she said quietly, to fill the silence. Nobody said a word.

Talk about a dead atmosphere, she thought to herself with a grimace. With trembling fingers, she reached to turn the door handle - but it opened for her. And when she saw who was on the other side, it made her skin crawl.

"Y-You're the boy from before," she gasped, recognising instantly the unruly hair, the piercing grey eyes with the cold, haunted look in them. He reached out to feel her hand and instinctively she pulled away; his touch was like ice.

His expression darkened.

"Is that you… XANA?" Jeremy spoke, though his voice wobbled. The boy's lip curled.

"And… so what if it… is?" His voice was rusty, as though he hadn't used it in a long time. "What will you… do?"

"This is freaking creepy," Odd muttered to himself, eyes never leaving the boy in front of them. His attention snapped to Odd straight away, who shrank back.

"If you have something… important to say… say it." The boy turned and began to walk deeper into the house, his feet never making a sound. "If not, I have… no business with you."

This was all a part of his plan, of course. Because if XANA knew anything, it was that these troublesome children would never, ever resist their curiosity. And that would always lead to their downfall.

Sure enough, he heard their hushed whispers, and then their hesitant footsteps creaking as they followed XANA deeper into the house. As his creator's daughter stepped into the house, the door slammed shut.

"Hey!" Ulrich pounded on the door, voice urgent. "Hey, let me in!"

"I knew this was a trap!" Aelita cried, fists clenching. XANA turned to look back at her, relished the urgency in her voice, her deliciously frightened, yet fierce, expression. It made his hatred grow stronger, fired up his emotions more and more as he found his master in her face.

"This is between you… and me, daughter… of Franz Hopper." She flinched at the mention of his master's name, which only made his emotion intensify more. As Jeremy took a step forward, XANA grabbed him by his sweater and threw him against the wall. He listened with twisted pleasure as he heard a sickening thump and saw Jeremy's small figure crumple.

"JEREMY!" Aelita screamed, moving to reach him. XANA grabbed a hold of her arm, twisting it behind her back as she let out a cry of pain. Yumi ran over to Jeremy, while Odd stayed rooted to the spot, petrified.

"XANA, please," she began to sob as he pulled wires from beneath the floorboards, constricting the other Lyoko warriors like vines. "Please, please stop this…"

He couldn't hear her. He found victory in their defeated expressions, found satisfaction in their cries. He was beyond her control.

"IT WAS ME YOU WANTED TO HURT, WASN'T IT?"

That made him stop. That made him turn around.

Aelita Schaeffer, the girl so like his creator, so like the man he looked up to and admired, stood before him, face white, tear-streaked, desperate. So, so desperate for his reign of destruction to subside.

Her whole body trembled but she stood her ground, eyes of horror and distress and unknowing bearing into his own eyes, full of fear and loathing and hurt.

"It's not you…" He found himself saying. He found it happening again; what tied him to his human entity, the 'miracles', the 'phenomena'. His chest seemed to tighten, his face ached. His vision blurred, tears rolled down his cheeks.

XANA was losing his composure, the façade crumbling right in front of her. Disappointment surged through his veins. So this was how he was supposed to be defeated, at the hands of a weak, defenceless little girl? So this was the moment they discovered it all, how frustrated and repented he had felt since the day he vowed his revenge?

The wires loosened, the group fell to the ground. XANA began to scream the same words over and over again, nails digging into the palms of his hands, drawing blood that seeped through the gaps between finger and thumb.

He wanted me gone.

He told me I was an error, a mistake.

He never loved me, the way I loved him.

He gave me these emotions, gave me the will to feel, and acted like it was my fault.

He told me it was for the best, as he killed my physical envelope.

He was a mess; he thought by doing that, he'd silence me forever. But he made me a ghost, a computer virus in a restless spirit's remains.

"He… he killed me, you… know," he gasped, blood still dripping from his hands. "He tried to… kill me. He recalled me from… Lyoko one day. And he… stabbed me. Cut me down, sliced… me open."

Horror flooded Aelita's face, followed by an overwhelming look of pity, then understanding. Then confusion.

"He told me that I'd… go against him," he carried on, panting as the phenomena continued to surge through him. "He thought by killing my… physical envelope, that he'd be… safe. That I'd stay gone. But… I didn't die. I regenerated when he turned… the Supercomputer off."

He turned to glare at Aelita. "He let me love him, and yet he… hated me. Loathed me. Was… repulsed by my existence. So when he… shut it down, I vowed to hurt… him, as he had done to me." His eyes bore into hers. "And that meant hurting you."

She stared. "What?"

"No matter how much I… hurt him, he'd never feel… that same pain I had. I needed… to take you away from him. To… show him how much it hurt."

"Then why didn't you kill me as soon as you found out I was alive?" she cried, finally finding her voice. "You could've destroyed me on Lyoko. He would've known!"

"But if you died on Lyoko, I… would be unable to see you spill flowers." He motioned to the blood dripping through his fingers. "We reap what we sow, as my creator always… used to say. Which means that when you… spill your blood, flowers will grow. Ugly… ugly flowers."

She shivered, her growing fear shuddering to a halt. So this was it? So she was going to die…?

"I'm scared," she confessed to him, staring up at his cold glare. "I'm so scared of you. You're about to kill me…" She squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her hands together. "I always saw my father as a good man. I never thought he'd do anything wrong… but I can't not believe you. If you were lying, you'd never cry…"

She paused for a few moments, lips quivering. "You're my father's creation, XANA, and yet he was so afraid of you he cut you down to try and end what he'd started. And you, too, are so, so scared… that's why you want to kill me, to end what you started… avenging my father and your needless death…"

He grabbed her by her collar and pulled her to her feet as she let out a whimper. His face twisted into a smile.

"You think you understand what it… means, to be killed. Even if… I'm not really human, I could feel it. I… could feel that blade carving shapes out… of my shoulders, my arms, my legs…"

He threw her to the ground, anger evident on his face. "Don't try to understand! You can't possibly understand… what it means to be unwanted…"

"But I know what it means when somebody wants you gone. And you know that's true." He glared at her, and she offered her most ferocious glare back.

The two stood there, neither daring to back down. When, at last, he trailed his hand down Aelita's face, leaving a trickle of blood beginning from her left eyebrow and ending with a drip as it rolled off her chin.

"That's true." He pulled away sharply, pushing past her forcibly. "…At least I know you can actually fight your own battles now," he said in a hushed tone, before reaching for the light bulb on the ceiling and disappearing inside of it. She stared, shocked for a moment, before Jeremy wrapped his arms around her.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, voice trembling, as he began to rub her back soothingly. She just stared, not saying a word. Odd helped Yumi to her feet and they stood for a moment, gazing up at the bulb.

"Why did he stop?" Odd wondered, shaking his head dazedly.

"…Maybe he realised he couldn't win this battle," Yumi said at last, letting out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "Maybe he was comforted by the fact that Aelita saw something we didn't."

As the group left the house, XANA watched them from the street lamp outside, seething.

I could've streaked her blood over every wall of the house. And yet I didn't.

Exhaustion taking over, he tuned out of their relieved faces, their voices, shaky but ecstatic.

Perhaps this is another emotion, another phenomena… compassion.

He let out a small sigh in his mind, let his thoughts breathe.

This whole time, I thought we were parallel, my creator and I. So different, never to be the same. And yet, his daughter made me realise we were always so alike.

She, on the other hand… she is warm, kind, she sees into me in ways my creator always overlooked. My polar opposite.

…

She is parallel to me, as I am to her. We are like the sun and the moon. What falls but never breaks? What breaks but never falls?

That is us.