This story began as an RP that me and my friend were doing together, but quickly developed into far more than that. This story was written by me and Xanta-Mun. I hope that you read it, and enjoy it.

– Pinkie Dash

Chapter 1: The New Lyoko Warriors

Xanatos Stones frowned as he walked quietly through the buildings of Kadic Academy. His facial expression was sullen, and he looked as if he had just gone through an expedition to the world of nightmares itself. His head was clammy with sweat, soaking his blue hair that hung down his back like a mane. His light black tunic, and dark black vest with golden embroidery were soaked as well. The sweat was mixed with tears that ran quietly down his cheeks. He made no attempt to wipe away the tears.

Alice stretched as she walked out of Math class. She looked around as everyone was giving a strange looking person a wide berth. Curious, she walked over to the blue haired figure. "Hey, are you okay? You don't look so good…" She asked.

Xanatos glanced at Alice, his face looking like it had seen a ghost. "Everybody's dead," he said quietly. "Everybody's dead, and this time there is no way for them to come back…"

Alice eyes widen with worry. Who could he be talking about? Who can't come back? "Hey now, It's can't be all that bed… Here, lets go sit on a bench outside and you can tell me all about it there…um…what's your name?" Alice asked, trying to be as comforting as possible.

Xanatos shook his head quietly. "I wasn't given a choice, see… They had to die. It was the only way to stop the world from coming to an end. So…" He looked up at Alice, a pained expression on his face. "I had to kill them…"

Alice tried to keep a straight face to the mysterious stranger, but inside, she was worried. Who is he talking about? Who had to die? "Could you tell me? Who had to die, why? I can't help you if you don't tell me sir." Alice said softly. Alice was never good in situations like this. She did the only thing she could think of and began to lead him over to a bench to sit down. She pulled out her thermos filled with her favorite soothing herbal tea and offered it to him.

"Friends of mine," Xanatos said with a sigh. "Most simply called them "monsters", but to me… no two of them were alike. Well… ok so I did sometimes get them confused, but who could blame me? There were thousands and they all looked more or less alike. No true intelligence… thus why I was forced to kill them in cold blood."

He looked at the tea and shook his head. "Your customs can't cheer me up. I've tried everything from parties, to lotteries, to presents, to eating. None of those kind of things ever helps." He stared down at his hands quietly. "I killed them… permanently. All of them… murderer…"

Alice took a sip of the tea and then put it away. "So, what are these friends of yours? Who are they?" Alice asked sweetly, trying to understand the situation better. 'He looks like someone after a XANAification. I hope that I'm wrong…' Alice thought as she began to worry about the stranger.

"Friends of mine," Xanatos asked, rubbing his eyes and looking at the girl for the first time. "People call them monsters, heartless and cruel, but it ain't the case. They are just incredibly loyal and obedient. But who are they… Kankrelats, Mantas, Hornets, Blocks, Krabs, Megatanks, Tarantalas and Creepers." Nodded his head, solemnly. "My friends…"

Alice's eyes widen in shock when he finally revealed the names of his so called 'Friends' She slowly looked over at the stranger again, her mind racing with the possibilities of who he could be. 'Is…is it possible that this random stranger…no he can't have worked for XANA… but who else would call those digital horrors 'friends' If he is then….could he be after me? After all, XANA has left me alone on this world so far….I have to find out!'

Alice put on a serious face and turned to the stranger. "My full name is Alice Hopper. I have to know, no, need to know who you are before I do something drastic and stupid. How do you know about those creatures?"

"They are dead now. All of them. I killed them. I am a murderer. You, Alice Hopper, are talking to a murderer. Does that fact *not* bother you?" Xanatos asked with a cold stare as he glared at her. "I don't want to talk about it." He sighed. "For the sake of humanity, I had to destroy everything that matters to me. So don't. you. dare. demand anything more of me. I have nothing left to give…" With that he trailed off and looked away from Alice, his eyes once again swimming with tears.

Alice instantly regretted her words as she listened to the stranger. "I…er…I'm sorry. It's just that those friends of yours have tried to kill me multiple times." Alice stared down at her feet. She racked her brain for something good to say.

"No, It doesn't bother me to talk to someone who calls themselves a murderer. I've talked to multiple people like that when I was in prison. It's just that…I've been fighting for my life against XANA and to hear someone say that they were friends with his monsters just put me on edge." Alice sighed as she kept those painful memories away from her head.

Alice looked towards the stranger as she wondered why was it necessary to kill off all of XANA's monsters. She won't shed a tear for them, but why was it necessary? "If I may ask, how was humanity threaten by them? The real threat to humans is XANA, not his monsters.' Alice asked, but instantly had a thought pop up in her head. "Wait…If they were your friends…. Did you…work for XANA?" She asked with a tone of worry.

"Silly Girl," Xanatos said with a shake of his head. "No. I never *worked* for XANA. My name, as I told you, is Xanatos. But some people spell it XANA-tos."

Alice jumped to her feet and look incredulously at him. Her eyes widen in fear as she tried to get a handle on the situation. 'No…no that can't be….He can't be…He never said his name before… What in the name of Lyoko is going around here?!' Alice shook her head as she looked over to the stranger that just admitted to be her worst enemy. The enemy that has ruin her life and forced her out of her own home. The enemy that killed her soul mate. "Yo-you never said your name before…So you're this world's XANA? But…why would you destroy your own monsters?" Alice asked Xanatos.

"I never said I was this world's XANA Miss Hopper. It just so happens that this is *not* my world. My world…well… Scyp took over everything. He mind-controlled my family, my sweet and beautiful monsters, and was going to use them to destroy humanity. I tried to talk sense into them… but they're animals, lacking that deep sense of intelligence we have. I… I had to do something or my best friend, Jeremie Belpois, and his world would have been killed." Xanatos winced quietly.

"This would be the second time I sacrificed my life for him, after he foolishly tried to kill me for two entire years!" He shook his head. "I never had any intention of ruling or destroying your planet. I just wanted you humans to LEAVE ME ALONE!… Took me near victory, and then a weird program before I learned the truth that humans can be decent and kind. Since then… we have been fighting Scyp."

Xanatos was quiet thinking. "My closest friend becomes my arch-enemy because my arch-enemy becomes my best friend. How messed up is that?" He looked quietly at Alice. "All I ever wanted was to get you humans to leave Lyoko both 'on' and 'alone'."

Alice sat back down as she listen to his tale. She reached down and pulled out her thermos of tea and took a big sip to calm herself before she talked to him. "So, this is not your world either. Heh, welcome to the traveling club. You have to understand where I'm coming from. My XANA forced me out of my world and has sent me from world to world, he hoping some other version of him will do what he could not and kill me. All because I helped Franz create Lyoko…I'm sorry if I was sorta cold there before. I've been traveling for so long, lived through so many attacks…" Alice paused and took another sip of tea. A sense of calm filled her as her favorite herbal mix kicked in.

"So, let me see if I got your story straight. Scyp, the Scyphozoa I presume, took control over you monsters. He is the one that want to take over and destroy us humans. All you ever wanted was to be left alone on Lyoko. So you befriended Jeramie, and I presume the other warriors as well, to work together to stop Scyp. And just now, you killed all of your old monster friends. Wow…that's…wow" Alice finished as the truth of this world sink into her mind.

"To be honest, this world is very fascinating. I'm not trying to make light of what you had to do, I'm just admiring the interesting twist of fate this world has compared to others I've been to." Alice looked at her feet as she talked. She put down her tea and looked into his eyes. "You can count on my help in stopping him. It would be my honor to aid you on your mission to stop him and help you live in peace on Lyoko. Just tell me what you need."

"You already missed the ending of that story, Girl. And you were a little confused. The Anti-Xana tried to kill me and Jeremie saved me. Scyp betrayed me only after I stopped trying to scare humans away and accepted them instead. Didn't realize how much he hated them. So, he tried to kill me and a lot of things happened. Scyp is immortal and cannot be killed, though his body can be destroyed and power stopped for a while. In the end, I had no choice but to permanently sever the connection between earth and the virtual worlds."

"When I did that, I had to be on the Lyoko side. Lyoko, the main connection would be destroyed, and the other worlds would run thier natural course. However, when Lyoko was destroyed… I ended up… well… here." -motions around him with a frown- "No idea what this place is, but it isn't my world or my earth. Scyp is gone for good, and the sever makes it impossible to get back even if a person *can* travel dimensions."

"So…" he trailed off. "I've been hurled onto this other… "world" did you call it?"

"Hmmm…" Alice mumbled as she got up and paced around. "I see…Well that explains why I've been left alone for so long here. Usually XANA comes after me after a day or two. I've been here for a week so far. So there is no Lyoko here then… The world I help create with Franz is gone." Alice sighed and rubbed her eyes a bit. "Is there any way to make a new connection? Like maybe a new virtual world on a new supercomputer. I can make a new one for you. I watched Franz make the original one, so It can't be that hard to make a new one." Alice asked him, trying to find a solution to his problem.

"Yes, this is a different world. There is a whole muti-verse out there. Heck, I'm proof of that! You see… My Jeremie was about to pull the digital plug on my XANA when he launched one last ditch effort to kill me. All because I'm one of the creators of Lyoko. He tore open a portal to other worlds and threw me in. He placed some kind of a barrier on my home world that's stopping me from returning. I've been jumping from world to world, seeking out a way back home. Not to mention help the warriors save the world when needed. So yeah, welcome to the travelers club. Population, us."

"I sealed it off permanently," Xanatos replied with finality. "I expected to die by being severed, along with the connection. However, here I stand. There is no way back to that world. I made sure that the earth was severed from any possible other dimensions. Nothing can change that. As weird as you may think it, no matter what you do on a computer, a virtual world is now physically impossible to create."

"But I think it you can do it on this world… because it *isn't* mine." He pointed at a group of kids walking by, laughing and talking. "This wouldn't be happenning in my world. Kadic Academy doesn't exist, and…" He pointed at Jeremie Belpois and his friends talking next to the soda pop machine. "They weren't that young."

"Hmm?" Alice looked over to where he was pointing. She watched the Lyoko Warriors grabbing drinks and talking. "I wonder….if when you came here, you traveled a bit back in time as well. It could of been one final bug on the return trip program. I mean, if they are young here and the fact that Kadic is still up and running, it could be possible." She shrugged as she tried to find the logic in all of this.

"It's really not very complicated," Xanatos said with a sigh. "This isn't your world, your Kadic, your Jeremie. And it isn't my world, my Kadic, or my Jeremie either. I am in a world that is not mine, just as you are in a world that is not yours."

Alice nodded her head as everything started to make sense. She gazed towards the gang and a smile was reached across her face. "Well then, since we are both new here… We should do the proper thing and introduce ourselves." Alice smiled. "If we can't do anything back in our worlds, then we can at least be here to help this one. The fight against XANA here still rages on, we should use what we know to help them. It's what I've been doing every time I enter a new world. After all, it's only a matter of time until this XANA finds me here and comes after me." Alice suggested to Xanatos.

Xanatos cracked his knuckles, and small blue sparks flew off of them as a slightly crazed grin crossed his face. "I'd look forward to taking myself down a couple of notches. Tell ya what. Since I am new to this, I'll follow your lead. Just point me in the right direction so that I can go and knock some heads together."

Alice raised an eyebrow at Xanatos. "Er, You do realize that they are going to be our friends, right?" She rolled her eyes and began to walk over to the warriors. AS she walked, ideas formed in her head as to how to introduce her and Xanatos without causing a scene. She doubled check that her sleeve was covering her tattoo. After all, there was no need for them to think she is working with XANA, well their XANA… She smiled as she reached them.

"Hey there… Jeremie was it? You guys wouldn't have a minute to talk about something important?" Alice asked the blonde.

Xanatos nodded his head and then grinned. "I was talking about…" he paused for a long moment, quietly thinking. "the "monsters" that we are going to be fighting. I suppose I wouldn't really enjoy it all that much, since I see them more like animals than monsters, but I would love to screw up Scyp's plans in whatever ways I can. For that, I would do most anything."

Jeremie looked up at them when Alice asked him. "Er, sure…Alice was it? What can we help you with?" He asked Alice and Xanatos, eying them with suspicion. "I was just wondering if there is anything…weird happening lately? Like any short circuits, people acting strange, er…swarm of rats trying to take over the world?" Alice asked as her eyebrows lifted up. She nervously chuckled as she waited for him to answer.

Xanatos nodded his head quietly, remembering those moments in his head with a frown of discomfort. He hoped very much that the XANA of this dimension was a bit more twisted and evil than he had been. Another idea had presented itself to him, but he was hesitant to even entertain such a thought until he knew more about what was going on at Kadic. From there, he would figure out what his best course of action would be. For the moment, he simply stood there silently, letting Alice do all of the talking,

Alice talked back and forth with Jeremie and the others, trying to get them to understand where they were coming along. After talking with them for roughly ten minutes, they all got on the same page and accepted Alice and Xanatos. "I get your back story there Alice, but can you explain yours again there…er… Xanatos was it?" Odd asked, scratching the back of his head as he talked.

"Um…" Xanatos stammered, pretty sure that if he said, "I'm XANA," they would attempt to mass murder him on the spot. "I'm… uh… Alice's brother from one of the dimensions she visited. I was possessed by him for a while, kind of like William. After she helped me to kill XANA, he saw me as a traitor and hurled me through the dimensions as well." Xanatos frowned as he said it, glancing at Alice with a look that told her he wanted her to agree to his story.

Alice nodded her head in agreement. She kinda figured that he would think up something like that. The last thing they needed was for them to hurt him because of who he used to be. "Er, Yeah. He's unique to one of the worlds I stopped at. So…what has XANA been up to lately? He's left me alone here for quite some time now. Usually by now he come after me, or exposes you guys to me." Alice asked the group.

"Well…" Aelita said, quietly. "XANA wasn't around for very long, really. They killed him off pretty much right after activating the supercomputer. All they had to do was use a virus my father told them about, and XANA was gone."

Alice's heart skipped a beat as she took in what she was saying. Could she really be in a world without him, well the evil him. Xanatos seems to e on the right side compared to the others. "So…he is really gone for good here? Is this really a world without XANA?" Alice hopefully asked. "I…I always dreamed of finding a world where that was true. A place where I don't have to look over my shoulder constantly anticipating a spectre or a Scyphozoa to come after me. Please…I have to know. Is he REALLY gone here?"

"*The* Scyphozoa," Xanatos corrected with a frown. "There is only ever one of them. If you think that because the body gets destroyed and you see another one… its a different one you're wrong. He simply cannot die, and ends up at times bodiless. Then creates a new body, but is the same twisted and evil Scyp."

"Huh?" Ulrich asked, a frown across his face as he looked both slightly impatient and annoyed. In fact, all of the Lyoko Warriors had looks on their faces that seemed to be saying that Alice and Xanatos were crazy.

"Um…" Aelita said awkwardly. "We assume he's dead. At the very least, that's what my father tells me. You could ask him if you wanted to though. He just recently got rehired as Kadic Academy's science teacher."

Alice rolled her eyes at Xanatos for correcting her. She meant seeing one in every world she been on. She was about to say something, but Aelita's words sunk into her head. The Professor, Franz, was alive?! That…it can't be! "He…He is here? Franz is…. Yes. I think I will see him. It's been so long. I just wish it was my Professor, My adopted father. Not to sound strange, but back in my world he was trapped on the network by XANA. Do you know where I can find him?" Alice asked, trying to keep her voice as normal as possible.

Aelita and the others shared a slightly awkward look. Yumi was the one who spoke up this time though. "He goes by Professor Hopper. It is considered disrespectful to call him something *that* formal before you have even met him."

Odd shook his head and glanced at Alice like she was some kind of awesome space alien. "The stuff you were saying earlier… how could you possibly know so much and yet be so ignorant… unless it was true." Everyone, even Jeremie, had to agree that he made an interesting point.

Aelita, still wary of anyone who made absolutely no sense to her, quietly answered Alice's question. "I suppose he's probably in the teachers' lounge. It's the building beside the garage that holds the school bus. But… students aren't typically allowed in there." Xanatos, true to his word, did nothing as he waited for Alice to give directions.

Alice rubbed the back of her neck as she tried to think up what to say. "Yeah, I better be formal with him when I see him. And yes, I know about how things are on other worlds. But I'm still new to this one." Alice shyly told them. "Think of it like this, I've been to worlds were Jeremie was the bad guy to watch out for. A world where Yumi's telekinesis power destroyed Kadic Academy. A world where Jeremie never turned on the supercomputer and you guys were not friends. The only thing that has ever been consistent in my life is that on every world I've been to, there are two things. XANA and Lyoko.

"XANA is always there, trying to kill me. Lyoko is always somewhere nearby. Not to mention that each Lyoko I've been to recognizes me as one of its creators. You have to understand, I've been fighting XANA my entire life since my Franz Hopper adopted me from an orphanage at the age of ten. You guys can't imagine my joy and happiness to not only find out that, er, Professor Franz is alive and out of the network but that XANA is gone. It's like I've stumbled into a slice of happiness." Alice tried to explained to them.

Now the Odd wasn't the only Lyoko Warrior staring at Alice like she was a crazy alien. Even Xanatos had joined the club of those staring at her. "I'm sorry," Aelita said quietly, "what does my father have to do with the creation of Lyoko anyways? It's like you are linking to the two of them together. You do realize that all my father has ever tried to do was defeat XANA, and that *XANA* was the one who created Lyoko, right?"

Jeremie's mouth was hung in a deep frown. "You telling me that you are "technically" Aelita's sister? Yeah, last time somebody came claiming that it was an assassin sent by Dark Moon." He removed his glasses and a scar could be seen over one of his eyes which was listless. In other words, he was blind in one eye. "I wouldn't go around claiming something like that."

Alice stared surprised at them. "Er, I get the feeling that I'm missing something important here…maybe you guys better fill me in about the, er, history of your world." Alice chuckled at them.

The Lyoko Warriors exchanged glances, before Ulrich spoke up. "Sorry, but we really don't know you, and you haven't been able to offer any proof of your story. As far I we know, you are one a spy of one of our enemies. As such, there is no way we can go into detail about what we know."

Jeremie raised his eyes at Alice. "We aren't the most trusting people, and I'm sorry if it wasn't like that in the other worlds you went to. If, after simply hearing that story, the other Warriors were willing to tell you everything, either they knew a lot more about that kind of thing happening, or they were idiots. Give us proof, anything at all, to support your claims."

Alice sighed. Yeah it figures she would run into a world like this one… "Well, since XANA is not around to attack me, as he usually does by now…Then there are three things. One, You can let me access the supercomputer and show you that Lyoko recognizes me as a Creator of it. For some reasons, every world I have been to Lyoko sees me as thus. But I'm guessing that this option is out of the question. Two…" Alice paused and sighed. She rolled up her sleeve and revealed the Yellow Eye of XANA/Lyoko Tattoo on her right forearm.

"Two is this. It is to show that, back home at least, I'm a Lyoko Guardian and I bear a copy of the Keys to Lyoko. I can not only access any terminal on Lyoko, but I can deactivate the towers as well. Before you jump to any conclusions. This is the symbol of Lyoko. The center dot is the core, Sector five. The outer ring is Lyoko's other sectors. The ring around them all is the network that hides and protects Lyoko. These three dashes are the three scanners that allow you to by-pass the network to get onto Lyoko. Finally, this top dash is the supercomputer that hosts Lyoko."Alice really hoped that this new information would prove herself as it has on other worlds. But she had a feeling that they needed some thing more…

"Third…Well, it's something really special to me that I keep close to my heart. I always keep it in my pocket, so when I was kicked off my world, it was with me." Alice reached into her pocket and pulled out a small worn out folded piece of paper. She slowly opened it up to reveal a photo. In the photo was the Hermitage. Standing by the gate was Franz, Aelita, Alice and a blonde haired boy with glasses. The boy was Doodle Hopper, a fellow orphan that Franz took in. Alice and Doodle were actually deeply in love, at least, until XANA killed him. Alice thrush the photo out into the air for the others to see.

"This was taken two weeks before Franz and Aelita went to Lyoko. A week before the blonde there, Doodle, died from a XANA attack. He…He died in my arms before the return trip could activate." Alice looked at her feet as she spoke. Tears for the boy she loved ran down her face.

"Incredible," Xanatos said, moving his head to look at the tattoo in all directions. I always wondered what that symbol was supposed to mean." The Lyoko Warriors, however, were staring at the picture incredulously. Jeremie took it from Alice and examined it carefully, making sure that it was indeed genuine.

Aelita was simply silent, staring at Alice as if she were some sort of ghost. "You…" she sighed quietly, before looking at Jeremie and the others. Then she stepped forward and whispered into Alice's ear. "You… you're supposed to be dead, you do know that right? Be careful." Then she stepped back into her former position before anybody else could notice she had moved.

"It's genuine…somehow," Jeremie said incredulously, sharing a look with Ulrich, Odd and Yumi. Aelita avoided his eyes on the pretense of being shy. "That means… in some way, shape, or form, this girl really is your sister, Aelita." The other Lyoko Warriors smiled, but Aelita simply shook her head.

"We need to go to class, guys…" she said quietly. Then she motioned her head in the direction. As the Lyoko Warriors turned to go, Aelita wrote something on a small piece of paper and handed it to Alice, hidden from the others by the picture. On it were written the words "Don't let Franz know you are here. Speak with Emily LeDuc. BE CAREFUL!"

And there is chapter one. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review and let me know what you thought.