One-shot: Twisted
[ignoring Code Lyoko Evolution]
The Lyoko Warriors saved the day, that specific day, the 10th of November. They had defeated XANA, and now it was time for the shut-down of the supercomputer. Goodbye XANA, hello carefree and normal life. Some of them even had some plans for in the future.
Odd had always wanted to go to a Subdigitals concert (again) and get a girlfriend (again) and then, if those two didn't work out, he could always ask Sam to come over in the weekends, so the two of them could do some fun stuff.
Ulrich and Yumi would maybe start up their complicated relationship again. They kept practicing their
pencak silat, and stayed silent about everything that Lyoko and XANA had done to them. Because of that AI, they now had become friends instead of 'just training buddies'.
William should be okay. He'd stay at Kadic, but with the reputation he'd lost due to his idiotic clone Jeremy made. He might even consider asking Sissi to have dinner together, or something. He could live his life without the Warriors, and again with them, even though he'd been xanafied for a while.
And Jeremy and Aelita… it was a bit complicated for them. Both of them had spent almost all of their time trying to get rid of XANA, especially Jeremy, so it was hard for him to get back into his previous rhythm. Sometimes, he'd find himself back in the factory, if only for the memory and not being able to use such a powerful computer ever again. Luckily there was Aelita trying to let him live in the present, instead of the past. She too needed to come back to that factory, but not as much as Jeremy. Together, they slowly got used to and built up their life without XANA, until all of it just was a vague memory.
So, everybody got a happy end, right? Not exactly. Franz Hopper died. And so did XANA. As both started the journey together, both also exited somewhat at the same time. So, not much about them is known, so less information was revealed. Their story – their true story – was yet to be discovered, but nobody had really paid attention to it.
XANA hated Hopper, yes, but once the two of them were friends. As far as a friendship between man and Artificial Intelligence can go, the two of them could be called friends.
Anyway, the gang had always considered XANA as the bad guy, the villain who wanted to destroy their world by these towers, and also destroy Lyoko in earlier times. To think about it, nobody knew XANA's true motives. Why would he do this? Why did he absolutely want to kill Hopper? And what about Lyoko, why did he do that? You're probably thinking: but we know, the show had explained it to us! XANA turned on the Warriors, we already know! In a way, the show did explain. But never the whole truth.
They just twisted the story so you saw it from the Warriors' point of view, and not XANA's. From XANA's side, not everything seemed bright. Not at all.
This is his story. The true story.
XANA's story.
One day, XANA was created by a brilliant man named Waldo Schaeffer, now walking around under the nickname of Franz Hopper. In official means it was created to destroy the Project Carthage, but over time Franz began to appreciate their communication, XANA sending him messages in binary code and Franz by simply talking. XANA was, even though it didn't really have a mind of its own – after a few return trips, he developed this 'mind' –, interested in the world where Franz was born in. So Franz told the Artificial Intelligence his problems, first of all, about the men in black, and further on the world outside the factory. So he talked about this world called 'Earth' and how wonderful it was, about the humans and their families, about all sorts of animals, about all kinds of habitats.
And XANA longed to live in that world Franz was describing. So he and Franz both created four sectors surrounding the Carthage program, so XANA himself would be able to see what that world looked like. But since XANA helped making it, said sectors had noticeable differences from the originals on Earth. Nevertheless, XANA was satisfied, and let Franz come over there one time with the scanners he had built, so the professor could see the results. Both were satisfied.
Next thing XANA worked on while Franz was trying to perfection his program, were the inhabitants. He had heard about all these wonderful creatures that walked the Earth, flew through the air and swam throughout the seas. So he created them on his own. Some animals, of which Franz had spoken, were recognizable, while the others were not. Once again Franz went to Lyoko, and witnessed the life forms his creation had made; he officially had become a grandfather.
And then, Franz and XANA both had started to talk about the women and children they both didn't have. When XANA asked him what it is like to have a family, Franz had replied a genius like him had no time for women and children, nor could he give them the attention they deserved because he was being sought by these men in black. That, and XANA wanting to have a family of his own, made the AI decide to create his own family. First, he created the wife he would like to have, and then a small daughter. When Franz had first seen them, he had smiled – XANA had not known that earth people did not have pink hair, or looked like elves, but it was a nice first try. And after XANA had told his friend they were called Anthea and Aelita, Franz decided his friend had given him his best present ever, and when he could, he virtualized them in real life.
XANA was outraged. This small misunderstanding definitely closed off the friendship the two had. Whereas Franz thought XANA had created them to make him happy, but XANA had made them for himself, so he would not be the only thing in there to talk. But once virtualized, they acted like any normal human would, they aged like any normal human would, and they forgot like any normal human would. He never mentioned XANA's name, gave them new ID's and now like a human's life.
Then, XANA built towers, which he could use to attack the outside world. With this attack, he somehow got wolves to get Anthea. They accidentally killed her, but XANA would rather see her dead than to see her live with that manipulating 'genius' but Aelita did survive. Then, as a final, XANA send the men in black a message so they knew where to look for their 'criminal'. Franz saw no other option as to go to Lyoko and live there for eternity. XANA would cheer if he could, and shut down the supercomputer when he had driven Aelita in one of his towers and Franz was falling in the Digital Sea, just not having reached it when XANA hacked the system to shut it down, also shutting himself down.
He thought this was the end of their existence, but he was proven wrong when a young human boy activated the supercomputer again and awoke XANA… and Aelita.
XANA had been very lucky this boy discovered the supercomputer. If the kid hadn't found out, he would not have been waiting for someone to reactivate this supercomputer. Because, he would just have to wait for Aelita to adapt back to the computer she was created in, and recognize him as his own father. He just hadn't counted on this boy to have contact with her, and advising her to go outside. But, if he wanted his girl to be with him, she should stay in the tower – that's why he sent a 'monster' to help her get back in. he had no means to frighten her, or him, but soon realized his mistake. This 'Jeremy' thought he was evil, and somehow XANA recognized a bit of Franz in this boy: a young curious genius. He didn't like the boy and decided the outside world would be the same and worth destroying.
It went worse when that kid got a few more of his kind to help him out defeat him on his own playground. In their own ways, they were fascinating and he was curious about what they could do, by installing the other monsters with lasers as well; but when they started to fire back, he knew they were not friendly at all, and so he really started the attack, with use of the towers.
He attempted to take them down more than once. He even tried to destroy the factory so they would not be able to access it anymore. He sent some powerful attacks with the purpose of keeping them away, so he could try to figure out a way to get Aelita's memory back. Too bad it wasn't as simple as he first thought. That kid Jeremy found a way to rewind time, something that slowly made him more powerful, and he let them. The world apparently couldn't know, but it was their fault they were making him powerful.
Each time XANA tried something new, and each time he was thwarted by those brats. But the thing he could not allow them to do was to try and get his Aelita out of her home world, into the world XANA knew as artificial. He would not allow them to take her away from him a second time. One time, he had trapped one of those so-called Warriors on his domain, just when they had the key to getting Aelita to the human world. They chose their friend instead of his Aelita, which gave him more time to plan out a new strategy. His monsters had targeted Aelita already, and if she could be devirtualized by him, or when she fell into the Digital Sea, they would be reunited, giving the monsters the order to go after Aelita and try not to get distracted.
One time, he had made a guardian big enough to hold the three Warriors and a lot of Bloks. He trapped them in there, leaving the genius all alone in his own world while the three others thought they were in their world, with XANA himself representing that blonde Jeremy. They had figured it out, and it was just too bad that kid had decided to go down to his domain himself and rescue their friends, confusing XANA on the way. When his own daughter – believing her 'father' was the enemy – destroyed this guardian, the Bloks attacked them, and they still survived.
But, during that time period, the last straw was drawn when they finally found a way to get Aelita to Earth, in which they somehow succeeded. But luckily, XANA always had a plan at hand. This plan consisted already when Franz had decided they were his family, so that whenever they tried to shut down the supercomputer, Aelita (and to an extent, Anthea) would die. So XANA gone would mean the girl and woman gone, too. It couldn't have been any better when they tried to do it for the first time, having gained a temporary ally. That's when he tried to send his smallest monsters to that world, trying to get rid them already. But this plan failed as well, considering Jeremy and co. went to Lyoko and Aelita deactivated the tower, bringing them back to zero. As for him, he was lucky they weren't going to try to deactivate the supercomputer anymore. But for him, he was unlucky his daughter was still at their side.
And as he progressed in him thinking about a plan to get rid of them, he stumbled upon Carthage, finding there two types of creatures he's never seen before, and quickly enslaved them. They were going to be serving him like his own creatures, in his fight against those Warriors. He proceeded to look beyond Lyoko's borders and found a network so great he would want to escape from it…
And he formed a plan that could work, if executed well.
While he prepared the plan, he still sent attacks to those kids, so they would not be able to thwart his plans again. One day, XANA also found out he got stronger each time they used the return to the past. He used this to his advantage, to annoy those kids and make sure he was powerful enough to launch an attack big enough to kill them all. Too bad, he had to save up that attack to a point where he and the scanners were ready to do it. For that, they had to wait.
XANA also found out he could control people's minds, but he waited for this to use. Just in case, he enjoyed taking over inanimate objects and creatures smaller than humans, like birds. Or he just attacked with some severe attacks which required a return to the past, making him even more powerful. And all those time, he put his effort in two and created this new monster, looking like a squid. The first time he sent it out, they called it a Scyphozoa. If they wanted to play scientists and give it a difficult name, XANA just let them do it. As long as they didn't know they had to push it into the Digital Sea to destroy it, he was okay.
Another situation in which XANA hated the Warriors more than ever, was when Jeremy created his own monster, which he understood to be called 'Marabounta', even though they could just have called it 'black goo'. To see what it could do, and how dangerous and unstable it was, he sent over a Krab, to find Odd and Aelita marveled at the sight. Yet, this Krab just proved the Artificial Intelligence this program was incredibly unstable and ready to attack anything in its way – including Aelita! He didn't care if the goo caught Odd, but nobody lay a finger on his little girl. Reinforcements were sent, and for once, XANA and the Warriors fought side to side. When the Marabounta was destroyed, and that Jeremy learned his lesson, XANA made the monsters bow for them. He showed them the respect they deserved, if they weren't constantly searching a way to take away his daughter. The next time their paths would cross, they would only fight, and not do anything out of common interest.
Yet, there was something that needed to happen. XANA himself had felt it before it was too grave: the core of the supercomputer was failing; it was running out of energy. Seeing no other option for survival for him and Aelita, he possessed a criminal who could steal a new core and bring it to the factory. He knew Aelita was also in trouble, and if Jeremy didn't do something soon, he would lose the girl. At this moment was XANA actually glad the genius liked his daughter enough to make sure the supercomputer kept running. It didn't automatically mean XANA now liked him, and when he had the chance, he let the criminal attack the boy. They both learned the lesson the hard way, and now they knew what to do in a situation like that.
And then, he felt like the time was there to start with the plan of which he needed half of the power he got during the many returns to the past. The other half he used to create the Scyphozoa. And with that other half, he created three Krabs who could construct themselves at will upon entering the human world; since normal Krabs were too big for those scanners. But the parts separated were not a problem to devirtualize. It was just too bad those kids stopped him again. And that black-haired boy, who helped them out, put a great shame to him. He was human and no Warrior at least, for goodness' sake! He should not be able to defy him! Yet there was nothing he could do about it as the return of the past made XANA slowly forget his face and the boy would not remember anything.
He just launched small attacks, some of which were used to get the Scyphozoa close to Aelita and get her keys to Lyoko, so he could leave this world easier and might be able to make those humans pay. Humans were evil, all engaged into a bad organization one way or another. Even when you lied, you could be considered evil because you held back some information which could be very important in the future. That was exactly why they deserved to die – because humanity was rotten, and he could be considered the cure. And Aelita held the key for him to leave the virtual world.
After a while, he got a brilliant idea. He recently got to know they had been trying to decipher Hopper's diary. And when they had that, they knew why he was created in the first place, but it being so professional, they would not learn about their relationship whatsoever, except that Aelita is mentioned as his daughter. Franz Hopper could be the key into tricking Aelita straight to the Scyphozoa, and so he disguised himself like the old madman and 'helped' them. They believed him, luckily, and quickly impressed them, too. He felt relieved to finally get to know them, even though he posed as a specter. And with a well-executed lie, he also talked Jeremy out of the picture, making it very easy before he stole Aelita's keys, making it also easy for her to die in the supercomputer and be reunited with her father once more. Too bad he hadn't counted on Jeremy's return, and was shocked to hear Aelita trusted that guy.
When that plan failed, he desperately tried to slow them down, but to no avail. Apparently, they had had contact with Franz Hopper, and he did not like it at all! But, in a fact, Franz did help XANA somehow. Because of his actions, XANA knew that bastard was somehow still alive and willing to help those Warriors. It might not be good news to him, but the good part was that he now only needed to track down Franz and just finish him off after making sure he would never be able to get back to Earth again.
When the time was almost there, and Aelita 'remembered' she was Franz's daughter, he could feel her sorrow and anger from the supercomputer all the way in Kadic. And somehow, this situation made him smile. Yes, Franz hurt his little girl, but these actions led her to hate her 'father'. He could laugh in happiness, if it weren't for the fact she was willing to give up her now human life by shutting down the supercomputer, killing herself and him. He owed his life to Jeremy, because he put it on again, but he didn't think he would repay that debt any time soon. With a trick, he lured them to the 'basement' of Carthage, where Franz appeared once more, providing a few Mantas as way to travel through that basement. But, as if it was fate, the Scyphozoa got Aelita and this time, there was nobody around who could stop him from taking the keys of the female Guardian of Lyoko. And as soon as he released his little girl, who was soon to be reunited with her real father, he smiled if he could.
He felt good … He felt powerful…
He was free!
His plans were concluding, at last. Now XANA was free, now he had the power to roam the internet and world freely, he did not need Lyoko anymore to conclude his actions. The towers could be of good use, yes, and he also did create all four sectors with the help of Mr. Franz Hopper, but those irritating kids always found a way to deactivate the tower before he could harm one of them badly before the return to the past was initiated. So, why see any other option then to destroy the place he had called home from his creation until now? At his first attempt, he went straight to the Core, protected by him, yet now ironically attacked by him. Yet, he was foolish and still needed to learn. And after learning they could prevent him from destroying the core (if working together) and Aelita could be done no harm if she were to be devirtualized, he worked out plans.
Take out the Sectors, one by one. If Aelita saw the truth, she might be interested in entering a code he had yet to develop, a code 'XANA' to destroy one of the four sectors he had loved to live in, but completely necessary. Besides, he could always operate from the Carthage tower. And those brats could not enter Carthage without any of the Sectors, let alone know or remember the exact location of said tower. Yes, perfect. This plan could work, if Aelita got her eyes opened by the Scyphozoa.
And so he did. Throughout the next few weeks, he would try to capture Aelita with the Scyphozoa. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he did not due to the interference of the Lyoko Warriors, who were not even worthy of that name according to him. He might have even launched a few attacks on the core, too, because it never really hurt to try. And so, slowly he destroyed each of his beautiful habitats, until only Carthage was left. He never suspected this to be the core around which he had built his Lyoko, but he did not mind. If Lyoko had to go, then Capital Carthage had to suffer the same fate.
He never really succeeded until a newbie came in the picture. This new Warrior was a young male, inexperienced with only Aelita at his side. There were no others out there – no Ulrich, no Odd, no Yumi. They were all alone. For a moment, he wondered which one deserved to be taken by the Scyphozoa: his daughter or the new kid. Aelita had already seen the truth for at least four times, but she forgot and deemed it a lie as soon as she entered Code XANA, courtesy of Franz Hopper being overprotective. At his other side, was the rookie William, easy to convince. So the Scyphozoa was sent to him, and after William had watched the memories of XANA, William agreed to help him achieve his goals. But if they found a way to bring him back to Earth, he'd become William Dunbar again. Until that moment, he agreed to serve XANA. And so XANA got himself a servant, complete with a new costume and the XANA's Eye in both of William's. He made the boy more powerful than he could have ever been under the wings of the Lyoko Warriors, and soon destroyed the Core.
Unfortunately for the boy, he had not expected William to be stuck with him. XANA could roam freely, but William was a whole other story. He was bound to Lyoko's limited boundaries. And because he pitied the boy, he stayed with him. Part of him also did go to other places, placed William told him about. The jungle of South America, Siberia with its ice cold landscape, and also the moon. And so did XANA got an idea. He should create more supercomputers on said locations. There were such facilities everywhere on earth, and if he could get a hold on all those supercomputers, he could easily create an army strong enough to kill these Lyoko Warriors and take back his daughter by force. William helped him with this – if he even could help. And because he really missed the world he grew in and learned to live in, he was sent back to earth when Jeremy and Aelita had recreated Carthage with help from jerkface-genius Hopper. William did have to work for it, and he brought Aelita to Lyoko. In order to let her rejoin her father, she had to be thrown into the Digital Sea. And, with a bit of luck, Franz would try to save her, and then they could kill him and show Aelita the truth about them, and finally join XANA.
The threat of the Warriors hasn't died down yet. He had to outsmart them, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. He only needed to come up with tricks to keep them busy for so long; long enough so someone/William could bring her to Lyoko and force her to join her father. And if that wasn't enough, they did have contact with Franz Hopper and they were building some ship so they could enter the Digital Sea without getting lost forever, like XANA.
After being unable to stop them, they discovered the Replikas, as they started to calm them. Each Replika was placed with a supercomputer, but there were too many for them to handle. XANA's calculations told him they should be busy for at least ten years if they wanted to shut those supercomputers off one by one. It just was too bad they found out about his first three bases, the ones William had told him about, because he worked there with the best progress.
There was this one time, when he thought to finally have gotten what he wanted: his daughter. The plan was simple. She thought Franz Hopper was her father and since his scans didn't detect any other familiar life forms than his daughter's, he only had to lure her to a simulation bubble in the ice-sector, where a Blok-Hopper waited for her and William was waiting to throw her into the Digital Sea. He did, but then Hopper showed in a way XANA would have never imagined it: he was just a floating blue bubble. But, trust his luck, Hopper wasn't dumb and left as soon as Aelita was back on the shore. He had to think of something else, of another way to get rid of Hopper and get back Aelita before he sunk back into the Digital Sea. He couldn't track down Hopper's signal, but he knew he would show up whenever his 'daughter' was in grave danger.
He was running out of options. Yes, he really was. All he had now were those minions of him and William. The Dunbar kid asked to stop it, but XANA wasn't the guy to just quit. Whatever William had said to him, XANA knew that whatever might happen, there was nothing left to lose. And that was exactly what he realized. His daughter had turned against him. Those Warriors thought he was evil and they though Hopper was the good guy. Heck, even William doubted to trust the program. And if this was done and the story ever came out, they would tell their version. Their own twisted version, that is. He just accepted this fate after the realization. He's got nothing left to lose, so the only path he could chose, was the twisted one.
He decided to deploy 'the big guy' when the Lyoko Warriors had finally reached the Siberian base, especially Odd and Yumi. William was now also teleported to the real world again, into the base, to protect it. In the meantime, when Ulrich and Aelita were at the Ice Sector it held, he called upon the darkest creatures living in the depths of the Digital Sea, controllable if XANA used energy from all supercomputers under his commands. He did use it, and the Warriors were shocked, maybe even satisfied with this new fresh monster. XANA called the big guy, but fortunately, they don't have that kind of big guy and they did not know where to hit, with four eyes as weaknesses. Too bad he hadn't counted on the next trip to Lyoko. Yes, that time, he actually could destroy the Skid. But, again, he lost his daughter. And this time, he also lost William. Their small arrangement through the Scyphozoa so many times back told specifically what he had to do. He was going to play dumb, tell them he had been a mindless monster being possessed through the Scyphozoa. That was the only story XANA could think up the Warriors were most likely to believe. And they did.
He could not have Franz help Jeremy, after all that happened. XANA slowly felt how all reason left him, and decided that if Hopper played it rough, he would too. With a tower he possessed William – this time really making him a mindless slave – and he drew energy from the Replikas again to ensure Franz from failing by being killed. He did not count on those bratty little kids. Somehow, the four of them (he did not deem Jeremy a worthy Warrior, less worthy than the others) managed to keep his slave under control, to actually defeat the Kolossus he had called upon, and to try and start up the multi-agent program to wipe him out. Slowly, he came to realize he could not win. He could not have his daughter back. He never really had her back after all, and he had known he could not have her back ever since Franz decided it was a gift from XANA.
But if he had to go, then Franz had at least to go down with him. Those energy requirements were great, and only the death of that floating blue bubble could bring enough energy to start it. He didn't care anyway, and thus destroyed his friend-turned-enemy, only to be destroyed himself only one second after Hopper died. That one second of joy was enough, was all he ever asked for, and he could have even felt more joy if Aelita knew she mourned for the wrong father. And, before that moment that devoured him and everything he stood for, there was one thought. And then, there was nothing – only six kids who have to shut down the supercomputer to ensure nobody would ever use it for evil.
Too bad they forgot to get the core out of it, and some of those pieces of hard- and software. In that case, they really shut it down. Now, the supercomputer was slumbering, ready to reveal the thought of XANA when started up again.
I've nothing left to lose, so the only path to choose is twisted.
I really don't know why, but I really wanted to make a what-if oneshot, and somehow this came to mind after listening to a song. (Twisted from the musical Twisted from Team Starkid) The last line of this story also comes from this song, so I don't own that line - that Team Starkid does. Don't wanna advertise, but I think it is a really good musical. Anyway, this is what it turned out to be, and I hope you guys liked it. Don't forget to review to say how much you (dis)liked it, or you could just ignore this AN and go on with life!
I hope you enjoyed, and see ya next time!
-DutchWriters2