Important note: this takes place after season 1 of Miraculous Ladybug, after season 4 of Code Lyoko, and disregards Evolution. I'm moving the Lyoko Warriors up about a decade temporally to put them in the same time period as Ladybug and Chat Noir – let's just say that the supercomputer spent an extra decade sleeping. Ages: Marinette, Adrien, Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy: 15; Yumi, William: 16 (decided to age up the Lyoko Warriors a little bit).
Chapter 1 – The Incident
"…just doesn't make any sense. Franz Hopper powered the supercomputer with a nuclear battery, but the core of the machine… I don't see how he was able to create an interface between the digital world and the material one. XANA had to port resources from our supercomputer to influence the real world around the Replikas. Not to mention the Return to the Past program, which can affect the entire globe! Quantum computing… That kind of technology should be centuries away," Jeremy chattered as he picked at his cafeteria lunch. Aelita was listening closely. Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd… not so much.
"Give it a rest, Einstein. The supercomputer's off. That's what we decided. XANA's gone. It's been a whole month. We shouldn't think about that stuff anymore," Odd groaned.
Jeremy glowered at him. "We were so busy fighting XANA and trying to save Aelita and William that we never gave the existence of the supercomputer itself a second thought. But now… something just isn't adding up. There was something missing from Franz Hopper's diary."
"Jeremy's right," Aelita said. "But I don't think we should be poking at it carelessly. We explored all of Lyoko and Carthage, but I bet there's still more to the supercomputer that we haven't found. Even XANA couldn't access everything."
"I'd rather not risk awakening some other program that wants to take over the world," Odd said sarcastically.
"The supercomputer is dangerous. We should probably find a way to destroy it, honestly…" Yumi said, pushing some peas around on her plate.
"Oh, horrors. Destroying a revolutionary piece of technology," Ulrich deadpanned, noticing Jeremy's scandalized look. "She's got a good point, you know."
"Let's not be hasty about something like that," Aelita defended. "My father…"
The others glanced at each other uncomfortably. They were all acutely aware of the sacrifice Aelita's father had made so that XANA could be wiped out. Shutting down the supercomputer was one thing, but destroying her last link to him wasn't something they could just consider lightly.
"Well, the supercomputer's off, right? So it's not like it can really be a problem. For the time being, we can just keep an eye on the factory so no one else finds it," Ulrich said reasonably, his thoughts on the matter changing at the reminder of Franz Hopper's final act.
It wasn't the first time the group had had this conversation. It wasn't the second, or even the fifth time they'd talked about it. Lyoko and XANA had been such an influential part of their lives – it was hard to decide what to do with the supercomputer, beyond shutting it down. Destroy it, protect it, turn it back on, or study its secrets? Opinions kept changing, and the group couldn't come to a consensus – though their friendship was as strong as ever. Jeremy had compiled their memories of Lyoko on CDs for each warrior to take home, but with the war against XANA suddenly over… it was hard to adjust to being normal students when they'd been fighting to save the world not too long ago. Plus, all of them still had nightmares of some of the closer scrapes they'd had with XANA's attacks.
"Don't worry about the supercomputer, Einstein. It's probably nothing," Odd said between bites of his food.
Jeremy thought about it for a moment. The mystery of the supercomputer still nagged at him, but… "Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just overthinking things…" he sighed, slumping.
"Like usual," Ulrich teased. Jeremy glared at him in response.
"Hey, look, it's William," Odd pointed out, gesturing with his spoon toward the black-haired boy, who was quietly getting his lunch, shoulders hunched in on himself.
The Lyoko Warriors shifted guiltily in their seats and refused to make eye contact with each other or with William. It was their fault he'd been captured. XANA's possession had definitely left a scar on William, deeper than any of the others carried. He was noticeably quieter, shying away from the friends his doppelganger had gathered and avoiding the Lyoko Warriors after the disastrous attempt to aid them during the final battle with XANA – though whether it was out of shame or anger, they couldn't tell.
"Hello~!" Sissi sing-songed as she approached the table, distracting the group. They'd finally allowed Sissi to tentatively befriend them – something she'd been trying to do for months – once the threat of XANA was gone, though talking about the supercomputer and their adventures was obviously taboo with her around. There were at least two incidences when she'd told her father of Lyoko and they'd had to wipe her memory with the Return to the Past. It built an invisible wall between the Lyoko Warriors and Sissi, which caused tension, but Sissi stubbornly clung to them anyway, perhaps hoping they'd spill their secrets eventually.
When Odd looked up again, William had vanished.
"We've got to do something about William," Aelita said once Sissi had left to go see her father about something. Lunch was almost over and class was about to start, but they'd been dodging the issue for a whole month, and enough was enough. They couldn't just keep ignoring William, not after all he'd been through both on their side and XANA's.
"And do what? Say, 'Hi, we're sorry we dragged you into our mess even though you volunteered and got you possessed for half a year, please forgive us?' That'll go over well," Odd scoffed, poking holes into his Styrofoam tray with a plastic fork.
"That was his own fault. He was too reckless," Ulrich scowled.
"We should invite him back into the group," Aelita murmured contemplatively. "I mean, we all have each other for when we have nightmares and other Lyoko problems, but he's alone. He can't be doing too well."
"Plus, he hasn't said anything to anyone about Lyoko," Jeremy pointed out. "We owe it to him to try to help."
"Ugh, seriously?" Ulrich groaned.
"And after everything he's done, I really don't trust him," Yumi added.
"Look, I know you don't like him, but Lyoko was our responsibility. He was part of the group, and he remembers everything. We can't just leave him hanging. That would be cruel. What if you had to deal with everything from Lyoko by yourself?" Aelita argued.
There was silence as the rest of the group digested her words. Yumi looked down at her hands guiltily. Aelita was right; they really couldn't leave William alone. Maybe at the beginning Lyoko had just been an adventure, trying to save a girl trapped in a computer, but the battle with XANA to save the world had morphed into a very real responsibility that all of them had to shoulder – a responsibility that included caring for their team members, the originals and the recruits.
"Okay. So I guess we're tracking down William, then?" Odd concluded.
"Yeah. Maybe we can't trust him, but we can't leave him alone, either. Let's meet in Jeremy's room. I'll pull him aside after class lets out," Yumi volunteered as she stood up and started gathering her trash.
"Hi, William! It's good to see you!" Aelita said cheerfully as Yumi ushered a stony-faced William into Jeremy's dorm some hours later. William nodded politely to her and scanned the room, which the other warriors were scattered in, before sitting cross-legged on the carpet.
"So, uh, how've you been?" Odd asked awkwardly, trying to break the ice.
"I've been doing alright," William said quietly, staring down at his shoelaces. It was a distinct contrast from his personality before XANA – he'd been loud and determined, stubborn but compassionate. Now he was a wraith of his former self.
"I don't believe you," Ulrich said, eyes narrow, trying to goad a response out of William. This meekness didn't suit him.
"What do you want me to say?" William said, glaring at Ulrich.
"Well, we wanted to talk to you about Lyoko and XANA," Jeremy said, noting William's slight flinch.
"What, like a debriefing? Well, XANA was an ass, and I lost months from my life," William said sarcastically. "Great times."
"We understand that it was terrible—" Odd began.
"You understand nothing!" William snarled furiously, his entire body suddenly bristling with energy. "I was awake the whole time he had me, you know. I had to watch as he used my body to do terrible things, both in the virtual world and in reality, and I couldn't stop him! People died because of me!"
"You were awake?" Aelita asked, aghast. "I thought you didn't remember anything!"
"Yeah," William said, slumping as he realized he'd confessed to his weakness. "I… didn't want to admit it. He could have knocked me out. I don't know why he kept me awake."
"You couldn't drive him out even though he left you conscious?" Ulrich said skeptically, a bit hostile.
"It's not like I didn't try! I even succeeded a couple times!" William snapped angrily.
"That's enough, you two," Jeremy said sternly before Ulrich could fire back with a callous remark about William not trying hard enough. Disliking William was no excuse for ridiculing his ordeal.
Yumi and Aelita looked at each other uneasily as the room descended into uncomfortable silence, each thinking about the torment William had no doubt suffered. XANA wasn't the most logical entity, revealing its hatred of and frustration with the Lyoko Warriors many a time, but allowing William room to try to rebel was just asking for trouble. Was XANA trying to mold William into a willing servant? Did XANA want to torment William for joining the Lyoko Warriors? Or was William just lying for sympathy (though that seemed unlikely because he'd been genuinely distressed the past month)? Aelita swallowed as she considered the possibilities, none of which were pleasant.
Yumi, for her part, focused on aiding William. "Why didn't you come to us sooner?" Yumi asked gently. "We could have helped."
"Aside from the warm welcome I've gotten from Mr. Samurai over here?" William jerked a finger at Ulrich.
"Ignore Ulrich; he's probably just pissy that he got a bad grade on that last algebra test or something," Odd said. It wasn't the most sensitive of statements, but it did get William to relax a fraction. Ulrich for his part, gave Odd an absolutely filthy stink-eye for the comment.
William sighed and fidgeted uncomfortably. "I thought, after all I'd done… you wouldn't want me," he finally mumbled. "I mean, you obviously don't trust me."
Ulrich pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something about how he just couldn't be mad at this guy. Aelita cautiously approached William and enveloped him in a brief hug from the side.
"Maybe it'll take a while to earn our trust again, but it's not like you asked XANA to possess you," she said. "We're not going to ignore a Lyoko Warrior who's been hurt."
"You know, there was a time when Ulrich was kicked off the team for using the Return to the Past program without my consent," Jeremy said, approaching from William's other side. "And I was kicked off when XANA tricked us into believing the scanners were faulty when I'd said they were safe. It's not like you're the only one who's messed up."
"Buddy, you went through a sucky situation that we threw you headfirst into. You don't think we won't try to help? Maybe some of us don't like you all that well or trust you—" Odd said, glancing at Ulrich and Yumi, "—but we can at least recognize what you've done for us. You know, when you weren't possessed by XANA."
"A pep talk from you, Odd? I'm lucky," William said, a smirk ghosting across his lips. Yumi wouldn't admit it out loud, but the beginning of the return of William's spirit relieved her.
"Talk to us," Aelita said, wrapping her arms around her knees. "You've probably got it worse, but it's not like the rest of us don't have our own nightmares from XANA."
"Oh, right, you've been at it longer than I have… I'm sure you've had your fair share of close calls," William said.
"No kidding," Odd snorted. "Remember the time I almost drowned? Or the time I got split into three and almost disintegrated? Or that time when I was Jeremified?"
"Jeremified?" William repeated bemusedly.
"Uh, long story. Point is, we've got our own horror stories, and we're not about to abandon someone who's gone through something similar," Odd said firmly, remarkably serious – for a second. "Though if you want someone to cuddle with you at night, I'll have to direct you toward Ulrich."
Ulrich started sputtering indignantly while William threw back his head and laughed. It was genuine, if a bit rusty. "Thanks, guys," he said, amused. "One more thing to add to my nightmares."
Aelita smiled. If William was joking, he had to be feeling better, or at least reassured.
"Hey, Ulrich is a perfectly good cuddler," Odd defended. "I should know; he comes to my bed all the time to snuggle."
"I do not!" Ulrich denied, whacking Odd over the head for embarrassing him in front of Yumi. "Quit making things up!"
Yumi giggled as Ulrich and Odd argued. Maybe she didn't trust William… but he'd been through a lot, like the rest of them. Maybe they should give him another chance. She was willing to try, at least. Ulrich might be a little testy about William's feelings for her, but she was sure he'd come around eventually.
It took a month of cautious interactions and some heart-to-heart chats about what happened on Lyoko before the group warmed up to William again. Everyone had supported Aelita while she recovered from the loss of her father during the first month, and comfort after nightmares of XANA attacks had become a regular occurrence after the first few months of XANA getting more and more deadly. Working with William wasn't so different, if more intense because of the possession.
Yumi found that William opened up to her the most – about the despair when he attacked the other Lyoko Warriors and others, about the fear as he watched everyone get kicked around, about the hatred of XANA that was sometimes the only thing that kept him sane. She was a good listener, and his crush on her – which he was actually subtle about – probably smoothed things over.
William didn't confide in Ulrich or Odd nearly as much, but the more athletic boys bonded through sparring hand-to-hand, something all the warriors (including Jeremy, though he wasn't very good) had picked up to better fight XANA. Ulrich had been a bad sport about the spars in the beginning, but they found a tentative friendship between the sniped insults that lost their heat and William's defense of Ulrich when he was about to get into trouble with Jim. Odd was naturally more easygoing, if a little harder to get along with because of his sometimes inappropriate jokes about William's possession, though things got better once Odd learned where the line was and stopped crossing it.
Aelita and William got along well, connecting through the precious things they had lost to XANA: her father and his time and autonomy. And Jeremy tried to engage William through schoolwork and information about the supercomputer, though he was more successful some days than others.
As William slowly recovered, the shadows under his eyes fleeing and his posture proudly straightening, his personality returned to what it had been pre-XANA: brave, feisty, and loyal, though he shucked some of the arrogance. He also began flirting with Yumi again, to Ulrich's chagrin, but it wasn't nearly as blatant as before, and the new respect each boy had for the other kept things from getting too nasty.
Things would have continued like this indefinitely, William reintegrating into the group (though there were some questions about Sissi's presence) and everyone resuming their normal lives outside of Lyoko.
But one night, Jeremy's laptop began picking up energy readings from the supercomputer.
"I knew it! You're sneaking off again to some secret hideout for some secret reason! I thought you guys were past this! Aren't we friends? Why can't you tell me what's going on?" Sissi demanded, having caught the warriors minus Yumi sneaking from the dorms less than half an hour after Jeremy called them all to go to the factory.
Ulrich and Jeremy looked at each other uncomfortably, each thinking about the times Sissi had discovered the supercomputer and how badly she'd reacted to it.
"Uh, well, we were just going on a late night walk!" Odd said, thinking along the same lines. To someone who knew him well, the excuse was painfully obvious.
Hurt splashed across Sissi's face. "Fine, keep your secrets!" she hissed, teary-eyed. "I should have known better than to expect more from you!" With that, she fled back to her room.
"How much you want to bet she'll be nosing into our business again like she used to? Or calling on the principal and Jim to get us in trouble?" Odd mused.
"Sucker's bet," Ulrich said, shaking his head.
"I feel kind of bad for her," Aelita said. "I mean, she's been trying to befriend us for forever, and now…"
Jeremy shook his head. "Yeah, it sucks. We can't do anything about it now, though. Let's just get to the factory."
The group ran through campus, careful to stay out of the light and out of Jim's sight, to the park where the manhole was. They were forced to traverse the sewers on foot, having removed their skateboards and scooters a few weeks after XANA had been destroyed.
"You know, I thought I'd never see this place again," Odd said as they climbed out onto the bridge to the factory. Yumi was waiting for them, having already successfully snuck out from her house.
"Yeah, me neither. What was it we agreed on? To leave the supercomputer alone?" Yumi chided, eyeing Jeremy.
"I kept some of my equipment hooked up to it in case something like this happened," Jeremy explained defensively. "At least it's not an emergency, like a XANA attack."
"What exactly were you getting from the supercomputer?" William asked as they traversed the bridge.
"I picked up signs of activity – strange energy spikes, to be exact," Jeremy replied. "If the supercomputer were off, I should be getting nothing, but…"
"You don't think someone else found the supercomputer and turned it back on?" Aelita said worriedly.
"Maybe," Jeremy grimaced. "We don't know for sure."
"Only one way to find out. Let's go!" Ulrich said, grasping one of the ropes in the factory that the warriors used to get from the second floor down to the first and jumping. The others quickly followed him, and everyone crowded into the elevator. Jeremy pressed the button to take them down, past the interface room and the scanner room to where the supercomputer itself was located, hidden in the depths of the abandoned factory. The supercomputer rose from the coolant that kept it from overheating when it was running, glinting gold and black and marked with the Eye of XANA.
"So this is the supercomputer?" William said, having not been down to the supercomputer chamber before.
"Yup," Jeremy said as he approached the two-tiered tower of wiring and circuits. A panel opened in the front of the supercomputer to reveal a lever that was pushed down.
"Uh, I'm no genius, but don't the gold bits glow when the supercomputer's on?" Odd pointed out as the warriors followed behind Jeremy.
"Yeah. And if the supercomputer were on, the lever would be up, not down," Aelita said, frowning.
"Odd, William, you check out the scanner room. Yumi and I will go up to the interface room; Ulrich and Aelita, stay down here," Jeremy ordered. "We need to figure out what's causing these energy readings. Call if you find anything."
"Roger that, Einstein," Odd said as he turned to get back in the elevator.
After dropping Odd and William off in the scanner room – which looked to not be in operation, the scanners completely dark – Yumi and Jeremy poked around in the interface room. Yumi tried to access the interface while Jeremy pulled out his laptop, connected it to the equipment he'd left in the factory, and got to work.
While Jeremy was typing away at his laptop, Odd called Yumi. "Anything?" Yumi asked.
"Nothing. It's completely dead down here. Is Jeremy certain he picked up something from the supercomputer?" Odd wondered.
"If he wasn't, we wouldn't be here," Yumi pointed out. "Hey, Jeremy, you getting anything over there?"
"Yeah," Jeremy said, brow furrowed in concentration. "There's some kind of reading emanating from the supercomputer itself. Nothing from the scanners, I assume?"
"Nope. Could it be the radioactive battery you had to replace?" Yumi asked.
Jeremy shook his head. "Thought about it, but no. The signature doesn't match any form of radioactivity known to man. Or any other form of energy or radiation, for that matter."
"That's weird," Yumi muttered.
"Tell everyone to gather back at the supercomputer. Whatever it is, it's not in the scanners or in the interface," Jeremy said.
Once everyone had returned to the supercomputer, Jeremy instructed, "Start taking off the outer panels of the supercomputer. I brought tools. Don't touch the inside; we just need to see what's in there. We need to find the source of the energy signal."
Ulrich asked, "So, what are we looking for?"
"Anything that looks out of place," Jeremy said. "We didn't really get a chance to mess around with the supercomputer itself with XANA around in case we damaged something. But now, it should be fine. Just be careful around the lead container for the nuclear battery." He pointed at a compartment set into the very bottom of the supercomputer facing the elevator.
"Yeah, let's absolutely poke at something that might irradiate us all if we misstep," Odd said sarcastically. "Great way to spend an evening."
"Jeremy and I will take the upper tier. Can you guys work on the bottom tier?" Aelita asked.
"Gotcha. Need a boost?" William said, stooping once he'd gotten close to the supercomputer and cupping his hands for Aelita to step on.
"Thanks," Aelita said as she scrambled onto the black and gold plating of the first tier. Jeremy followed soon after. "And hand us a small screwdriver, please."
The Lyoko Warriors got to work removing the plating from the supercomputer, avoiding the battery compartment. It took a couple of hours to expose the supercomputer's innards, but once they did, Jeremy was disappointed once he'd gotten down from the first tier to inspect their work. There was nothing special in the supercomputer, nothing that could account for the energy signal – just an abundance of wires and circuit boards crammed together. Maybe if they pushed the wires aside… but that might damage the supercomputer.
"I don't think there's anything here, Jeremy. Nothing that we could access easily, anyway," Aelita said, putting a comforting hand on Jeremy's shoulder.
"Yeah, you're right…" Jeremy said, sighing. "Sorry for dragging all of you out here in the middle of the night."
"No problem. It's part of being a Lyoko Warrior," Ulrich reassured.
Yumi, meanwhile, was looking at the supercomputer thoughtfully. "Did you try looking straight down into the computer from the top?" she asked.
"I… no," Jeremy replied, startled.
"Maybe we should give that a go before calling it a night," William suggested before he clambered onto the first tier, which was still plated so they would have something to stand on. He held out a hand to help Jeremy up before hoisting the smaller boy up on his shoulders.
"Whoa!" Jeremy cried, clutching at William's head. "Can you hold me like this?"
"You're not all that heavy," William chuckled. "Now, what do you see up there?"
"Another panel with the Eye of XANA," Jeremy replied, rubbing his hand over the symbol. "But I don't see anything out of the ordinary—huh?" His fingers had caught on a small latch at the center, invisible to the naked eye.
"What is it?" Aelita asked.
"There's something here," Jeremy replied, trying to figure out how to make the panel open. "Can you keep an eye on the readings I'm getting?"
"Sure," Aelita said as she retrieved Jeremy's laptop.
Finally, the top of the supercomputer popped open. Inside, there was a small black box with wires hooked into it from all sides and a small clasp holding it shut. Jeremy recognized wires that would connect to the battery and to the motherboard – whatever was in here was important. After relaying what he saw to his friends, he touched the box with his pointer finger.
"Oh! Jeremy, I think whatever's up there is causing the energy readings we're sensing," Aelita said. "What did you do?"
"I just touched it," Jeremy replied defensively, snatching his finger away.
"Can you disconnect it and bring it down?" Ulrich said. "If it's causing the readings, then it can't be good if it's hooked up to the supercomputer."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Jeremy hedged.
"You can reconnect everything if you need to, right?" Odd pushed.
"What if it's radioactive?" Jeremy argued.
"Is it held in a lead container?" Aelita pointed out.
"Well, no… I guess it's okay," Jeremy said, pulling at the cords. Strangely, each wire came off easily, as if it had barely been connected to the box. And when he looked at the box, there weren't any visible markings or indentations where the wires would have been plugged into.
"I'm not getting any more readings from the supercomputer," Aelita announced. "But… now there are some weird ambient energy signals in the room." She looked up as Jeremy and William climbed down from the supercomputer, the former holding a flawless black box.
"It's… warm," Yumi noted, stepping forward and covering the lid of the box with her palm.
"Should I open it to see what's inside? Or should we just return it to the supercomputer?" Jeremy asked.
William snorted. "We didn't come all this way to not find out what was up with the supercomputer."
"He's right. Open it, Jeremy," Ulrich agreed.
"Okay, here we go," Jeremy said, undoing the clasp and opening the box.
Inside, there was a multifaceted stone, glittering black and silver. The Lyoko Warriors peered at it curiously.
"So… what is it?" Odd asked. "Some space—"
That was all Odd got out before there was a blinding flash of light, the echoing sound of a gong, and a metallic taste at the back of each warrior's mouth. They all collapsed, unconscious.
A/N:
…I know I said on my profile that I'd be returning to Shadowfall after updating TPF, but this little plot bunny just wouldn't let me go. I'm going to try to write as much of this as I can while it's still fresh and then get back to my older stories.
This first chapter, as you've probably read, is all Code Lyoko. We'll get to Miraculous Ladybug in a few chapters, don't worry.
It's been a while since I've watched Code Lyoko in its entirety, so there may be a few small details I get wrong. I guess just think of it as an AU that's uncannily like canon but not quite? I haven't really seen Evolution, either, so the characters may be a bit off from what they were in there.
Also, I know this chapter is pretty dialogue heavy with not a lot of action, but I needed to set up William's character and Sissi's character differently from what they were at the end of the show. Action will pick up soon.
Hope you enjoyed! And please leave a review!
-HM