Yay!

Another attempt at CL fic!

Yes, I know. Update URtrip already. Do I even have to say it :(

This was a lil concept that started at LyokoFreak. The concept? What would happen if XANA, after leaving the supacompy, gave himself a material form and walked among humans?

The answer. One of the most intense, terrifying, confusing, wierd, and funny material XANA fics thou hast readeth. Actually, it's like my own Season 3! Yay!

Let's just get on with it.

NOTE: MAYJAH spoilers for Season 2, specially the finale. I don't know if UK has these eps yet, but I don't think they do, so if you live in the UK or have not seen Revelation and The Key (yes, both), DO NOT READ THIS FICCY. Rating may go up. Please tell me if you find any continuinity errors.

Pairings: JxA, UxY, OxS, and, even, XxS or (Gosh Forbid) XxA.

Note: Just found a BIG continuinity error. It's supposed to be the end of the semester...stoopid meh. It'll be fixed the best I can.Dumb XANA...vewwy, vewwy dumb...maybe I could play this up...

Prologue: Formation

Date: The night of 'The Key'
Time: 11:30 PM
Place: ...Just look down.

Kadic Grounds Forest.

A quiet, serene place, even in the fearful amplification of the night. All that could be heard in this unholy silence was the occasional rustling of a sparrow, the hooting of an owl. Aside from a standout manhole, there for no real purpose at all, and a small, decrepit house, there for no real purpose at all, all was trees...and silence.

Then, a sound was heard.

A small, brown rabbit, oblivious to all besides his dinner, was the first to hear it. He tore his beady eyes from his grassy feast for a second to turn them towards the source of the noise. Seeing nothing, he forgot the transaction and turned back to his meal.

But he had not imagined the sound. There was something there.

A huge, black shroud slunk across the cold ground. It moved swiftly, yet with a haughty importance, if a mere shadow could really be that way. Various animals stepped back at the sight of it, even the fearless rats and raccoons recoiled. They didn't know what it was. But their animalian instincts told them it was bad.

The shroud stopped at a clearing in the wood. Slowly, fluidly, it stretched itself. If it had a mouth, it would be smiling. It was victorious. It had overcome that metal prison it had been confined to for fourteen years (plus about eight nonexistent ones, due to time reversions), beaten out those five little brats and that big brat Franz Hopper, and got the Keys to Lyoko. Now, it was time. The world, the galaxy, the universe was all his. He just had to act.

...But what to do first?

Taking out the government would be a good idea. Maybe with gassing. Or cannons. Yeah. Cannons were always fun. But, no. The government would reform itself, the way humans were so quick with reproduction. (Besides, he didn't know where he would get any cannons.). Maybe...destroy a few important buildings. Or contaminate a food supply. It was all such fun...he couldn't decide...

Then it came to him. Yes. The five brats. Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and that horrible Aelita. If four untrained schoolkids and a memory-blanked former untrained schoolkid could keep him from total world destruction and doom, there was no question of survival among the adults of their species. Of course, the adults generally seemed to be stupider than the brats, but he couldn't take chances. So, he just had to get rid of the pint-sized obstacles. Leave their smarty-pants oversized heads to the Kankrelats to eat.

Of course, he could easily just lob their heads off. But, that would leave no culprit. He wanted drama, intrigue, leading to his declaration of ruler over all Earth. And most of all, he wanted it to be fun. Being ruler could take all of five seconds, but the process was what mattered. Something that his subjects would remember forever. And it had to be subtle. Blending.

He began the work. In his mind, he conjured five images.

An angry-faced boy with brown hair...

A Japanese girl wearing all black...

A silly looking boy with tall hair...

A blond, bespectacled kid, looking very determined...

An innocent, pink haired girl...

He hated the images, but it had to be done. One...two...

The tail of the shroud began to swirl and expand. Now, whatever few animals were left in the forest cleared out. They didn't like this.

Trees swayed. The shroud formed itself into a point, and struck the ground. Somehow, it began to shrink, slowly, compacting itself into something that, somehow, at least tried to be recognizable.

Then, it began to solidify. Swilling wisps of off-black nothingness gathered together and became limbs. Within the swirling mass, an actual, hunched, human body took shape. Usually, it took him no time at all to make a material form, but that was when he was imitating someone else. This time, it was from near scratch. Those kids...though they seemed evil beings, they were the only humans XANA really knew well. Their own features would be their own demise.

Slowly, the new figure, around the height of a preteen boy, stood up, still absorbing the black shroud. Thinking hard, mind split within the confines of a head and the nothingness of shadow, he willed clothing around himself, as he had seen the humans wear. He wasn't entirely sure why, however. As the last of the dark matter retracted into his new form, he dwelled on one thought.

This...is itchy.

He looked around. Yes...there it was. He eyed a necklace on the dark ground. It had an oversized pendant, with his symbol on it. He picked it up and slung it over his neck. At least a bit of self-identification. Y'know, to instill the humans with fear and stuff.

He brushed his new hair away from his face. He contemplated that human night vision was poor, and did not need further impairment. Even with this small handicap, he could see the hazy outline of Kadic in the distance. He had been there several times before, in the guise of others. But now, it was big. It would take about five minutes to create a file for himself in the federal computer, ten to talk up the...what was his name...with the ugly human...daughter, yes...the 'principle'-and everything would be set.

Now, it was the time for blood.

Confidently, he walked towards the dim lights...and tripped.

Dang legs.

Date: Still the night of 'The Key'
Time: 11:40 PM
Place: Kadic, Ishiyama Residence

As the new human made his way to Kadic, cursing every five minutes, battles were going on in five minds.

Odd couldn't sleep. Even he, who was quick to shrug off dilemma, found it hard to get the situation off his mind. Not only was he scared for himself and his friends, for the threat XANA would pose, and that, he had another problem. The betrayal. Not only of others, but his own. It hit him hard when, desperate for a date, he had asked a rather pretty girl out, and, upon finding out his name, she had politely turned him down, saying she was seeing another, and then as soon as she thought he was out of earshot, whirling around and frantically asking the nearest guy to please, please go with her. Other girls had been less subtle in expressing themselves. Several, most his past girlfriends, had slapped him before he could even talk. Now, Odd lived to please people. But he also liked to please himself. When he saw those girls' faces...he couldn't take it. And Aelita's near-death and the release of XANA didn't make it any better.

Ulrich couldn't sleep. He was as devastated as the spiky-haired blonde one bed over. But not because of several girls. Just one. Yumi. Did she love him, or that scum William? Why would she even CONSIDER liking him? Okay, so he was her age, not to mention her height. Ulrich was a head shorter than her. But, they had FOUGHT BESIDE EACH OTHER in Lyoko, in the struggle to find Aelita's fragment. Unless he had a death wish, William would never recall having done that.

He looked up. His eyes met Odd's. Silently, they communicated their fears, and that neither was going to sleep anytime soon. Satisfied with this, he flumped back onto his bed. Before doing so, he groggily staggered to his nightstand. There stood the picture cube Sissi had given him, an everlasting monument to herself. Sissi. Would that girl EVER get the memo? He thought she was an annoying girl. Hands down. Yet she pestered him, him above all else. It got to him pretty fast. He grabbed the cube and threw it against the wall. Alas, it was plastic. It only cracked a little bit. Yet, this was okay for him. He tumbled back in to bed, to be alone with his stubborn thoughts.

Yumi couldn't sleep. She had tossed and turned all night, trying to find a comfortable spot, but it always eluded her. The shock, if however temporary, of the day haunted her even now. It was even worse when, at dinner, she was asked how her day was. She would have loved to tell her parents and Hiroki about every trouble in her mind. Everything about Lyoko and Aelita. Everything about the tense rectangle she was caught in. But, for now, that was impossible. All she could do now was reach for her stuffed cat, which she had not used since the age of seven, on her first day out of Japan, and hug it until stuffing burst from its seams, with help from her tears.

Aelita couldn't sleep. For her, it was nigh impossible. The last few days had terrified her to her limits. Finding out this man...this psycho...Franz Hopper, was her father...that her own dad would deprive her of an actual life in order to satisfy his rapidly deteriorating sanity...and the shock of rediscovering her own past...her own mother...it was too much to take. And now her torturer, her father's torturer, was beyond limit. And yet, Franz Hopper remained. Truly alone, except for the monsters that XANA left behind. As if they were company at all. XANA could float above her at any moment, ready to kill her as she slept. For that reason, she either had to train herself to sleep with one eye open, or just stay awake the entire night. She grew tired, but she couldn't...not now...

Jeremie slept. He hadn't slept for at least a week, and he was terribly tired. But, I will tell you that he cried himself to sleep, and his fitful nightmares were filled with visions of the Schypozoa, white towers, and increasingly terrifying images of a dead Aelita.

It was the worst day the five had ever experienced. Of course, the beginning of vacation tomorrow would be a slight respite. However, a month later, there was to be no contrast.

Wow...I quite liked this.

-SP