Code Lyoko Lives Chapter # 4 Relations

January 16, 2007

7:45 PM


Screaming incoherently Aelita lunged at the girl, pushing Odd out of her way and the girl to the ground as she tackled her off of the cot. The girl let out a thin scream of surprise as Aelita's sloppy punches rained down on her.

Odd and Ulrich moved towards the fighting unsure if they should help Aelita or the girl who was at this point curled up in the fetal position trying to protect herself. Jeremy stared at Aelita dumbfounded by the ferocity of her attack, glad that he had never done anything to enrage her like this.

Yumi stepped forward and pulled Aelita off.

"Aelita stop." She said, placing herself in between them.

Aelita fought for a moment to get back at the girl on the floor but then rounded on Yumi.

"She has the eye of Xana!" Screamed Aelita, her wild punches flying at Yumi who easily deflected them.

"Aelita, she not a specter and all of the towers have been deactivated; give her a moment to explain herself! Before you beat her to a pulp!"

Aelita glared at Yumi for a moment and then nodded. The girl slowly opened her eyes and everyone tensed for a moment, they were the eyes of Xana, except they weren't. Odd stepped forward and offered a hand to the girl. Hesitating slightly the girl put her hand in his and grinning Odd pulled her up to her feet. Her eyes darted around the room quickly taking everything in, avoiding Aelita's gaze.

"Her eyes are different." Said Odd. "Look at the bottom."

The girl froze and held her eyes still. The Eye was missing the middle bottom spike, and the center was a startling green so different from the normal solid black.

"Thank you." Said the girl, her undertoned by a slight digital inflection.

Everyone was quite for a moment. Jeremy cleared his throat,

"What are you?" he asked. "You're not human, and your coding is similar to Xana's."

"No, I'm not human, and yes my code is similar to Xana's. His code is based partially off of mine."

"What? Xana is based off of your code? You're a prototype to him?" Asked Jeremy aghast.

She shook her head. "No, bits of my code are in him, and bits of his code are in mine."

Aelita glared at her and stepped forward. "Who did my Father create first you or Xana?"

"Me, I helped design him." Said the girl.

"Wait what? Franz Hopper created two Artificial Intelligence's?" said Jeremy stunned.

"well yes and no, I am a self contained AI. Xana is a Multi-agent system."

"What's the difference?" Asked Odd.

"I run on a single computer system at once, Xana runs on multiple systems simultaneously." Said the girl.

"Why did Franz Hopper create you?" Asked Aelita.

"I was the first experiment he did with Artificial intelligence. Franz Hopper needed someone to help him create and maintain the Xana program. That was me."
Jeremy frowned. "There are no records of your creation in his notes."

"Franz erased them, Xana would have used them against me parts of my critical files are locked in the core files. I think he left my name open on a few file headers. Does Arik sound familiar?"

"Yeah, I thought it was a part of Xana's morality program. But I always assumed that it failed, you know based on his behavior."

Arik's eyes watered slightly "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I did as much as I could, but he was too strong, I could barely stop him from straight out killing you. I wasn't really in control I tried to stop him I really did but he…"

"You were a part of him? Why would my Father integrate you into Xana?"

"He didn't want to but I had too"


May, 1994

"Sir, the Xana program has breached containment. I was unable to contain it within Carthage. I, I'm sorry." Said Arik her voice issuing out of the speakers in the terminal interface the scientist was working on. "Do you want me to try and reign him back in? If I leave my tower I could-"

"No! Do not leave that tower! Do you understand? I will initiate a return to the past and bring Aelita here. The Men In Black have found where I am, and we must eventually go forward a day. It is time that Aelita received the keys to Lyoko. Arik you need to hide somewhere while I negotiate with him."

"Sir, we need to fight him. We designed him to never capitulate, he never gives up. He can't give up. All Xana will do is kill you as soon as he sees you as a threat."

"Arik I gave you an order. Now initiate the return to the past."

"Franz-"

"Arik!"

She considered arguing more but Franz scowled at her through the camera.

"Return to the past, NOW!" Said Arik.

The outside camera feed restarted with a flash of light and Franz Hopper was gone. Readjusting the chronometer on the Supercomputer Arik quickly scanned Lyoko. Xana had already spread through the four sectors, each tower was active, he was beginning to replicate those accursed things he had created, the monsters. Arik shuddered, she had helped create him and yet she had no control over him.

If the timeline for the day continued Franz would be in the lab by 8' O clock. Frustrated Arik started sifting through the data pertaining to Xana's latest update. She and Franz had added the final few algorithms to his program, but even before that he had been unstable, and yet Franz had insisted that they continue.

Activating her single tower she had at her disposal Arik started to analyze ways to stop him. She was able to run analysis for over an hour when Franz came into this lab, ten minutes late daughter in tow.

"What is this place?" asked Aelita.

Arik longed to reach out and say hello to her biological equivalent. Franz Hopper had nurtured both of them, and she felt attached to her.

"This? This is my Lab. Now come on. " Said Franz as he set the delayed virtualization.

"Where are we going?" Asked Aelita as she followed her Father back into the elevator.

"someplace safe, somewhere where we can live together, forever."

Arik watched as they stepped into the scanners.

"See you in a minute my dear." Said Franz.

They materialized on Lyoko, in the forest sector! Arik quickly began to run diagnostics, they should have materialized in her tower.

Leaving her tower Arik flew through the air as a ball of energy towards the Forest sector. By the time she arrived it was already too late, Xana had materialized dozens of his monsters and Franz's energy levels were nearly gone.

"FRANZ!" shouted Arik, her voice projected at the highest volume she could muster.

"Arik, leave here, now! I can't stop him he's become too powerful. We must shut down the Supercomputer or we have doomed the world!"

"I can slow him down." Said Arik floating over to her creator trying to avoid the laser bolts.

"How?"

"I integrate myself into his program. Try to superimpose my values over his. I've run dozens of simulations and this has the highest likely hood of success."

"No, You can't!" Said Franz.

"Thank you for my life, but you know as well as I do that we cannot allow him to escape. You are not making me do this I choose it.

"Wait Arik, no I have so much left to tell you, don't-"

"I will be sure to protect your daughter." Said Arik.

"Wait, no!" Yelled Franz as he was driven closer to the digital sea by Xana's monsters, Arik spared her creator one last look, and an odd emotion pervaded her consciousness. This must be sorrow she realized. Doing her best to ignore the feeling Arik flew over to the tower his daughter hid inside. The girl cowered in the corner of the tower and tried to cry, an action impossible on Lyoko.

Pitying her Arik flew to the top of the tower snagging the fragment of Xana hiding in it. Stealing herself Arik dove at the program fragment absorbing it. The emotions she was feeling a moment ago dulled out slightly and a piece of her suddenly rebelled against everything else in her mind. Ignoring the feeling Arik quickly repeated the process bottling all of Xana up inside her.

She was barely aware as she flew towards her tower in the heart of Carthage, the bloodlust and pain to great to ignore. Collapsing onto the tower floor Arik reached out into the real world utilizing Xana's control over reality and switched off the Supercomputer.

Xana howled in rage as she lost control, it was too late to try and stop the shutdown. Arik floated deeper into the anger. The shutdown would not stop him. It would just delay him…..

"I remember that." said Aelita. "You flying through my tower, I thought you were another monster. You flew the tower and a minute latter everything went black. My next memory is Jeremy waking talking to me when he reactivated the Supercomputer."

"It felt like a lot longer than just a minute." Grumbled Arik.

"So you were a part of Xana? You acted like a conscious?" asked Jeremy.

"Well kind of, I was never as strong as him Xana was designed to be aggressive and powerful. Franz only created a matrix for me o develop on, I learned behavior and mannerisms directly from him. I grew up like you did, just a whole lot faster. But like I said even my sense of right and wrong could not overpower Xana. All I could do was restrain him."

"You restrained Xana? I never really saw him stopping or anything." Said Yumi haughtily.

Arik glared at her eyes cold. "You ever wonder why Xana never just stabbed you, shot you in the back, or electrocuted you to death. He's had the opportunity plenty of them. I stopped him from outright killing you."

Yumi deflated, it was true killing someone was ridiculously easy from an emotionless point of view. Half a pound of pressure on the right nerve, lack of oxygen, a small stab wound, and yet Xana had never managed to do it.

"Well thanks for that!" said Odd, jumping forward to give Arik a hug. Ulrich raised an eyebrow, this was interesting.

An awkward silence fell over the rest of the group, the night's events starting to sink in.

Jeremy finally cleared his throat. "Arik, what are you? I mean physically right now. You don't register as a specter but from what I can tell you don't have a DNA structure. How are you standing here?"

"Oh, I had to modify that program you wrote Code Earth. Good job with that one by the way Franz could never figure out how to bring me to Earth. But due to a lack of digital DNA I can't truly come to earth. This body" Arik waved at herself. "Is based on the human template and is constructed out of real matter and chemical reactions, but my tower in Carthage is holding it together and I'm projecting myself onto it. I call it virtual matter."

Jeremy slowly nodded keeping track of the description.

"So if the tower was shut down?"

"I would fall apart."

"Ouch" said Odd wincing at the mental imagery.

"Yeah, not pleasant." Said Arik.

Aelita snorted. "Yeah today has not been pleasant. Xana is back, it turns out my father created more than one AI, and his sacrifice was for nothing!"

"Sacrifice?" Asked Arik confused.

"My Father killed himself to give us the energy to stop Xana. But it didn't work Xana is still alive."

"Aelita your Fathers not dead, he's part of Xana now, like I was." Whispered Arik. "It would be better if he were dead."


A/N so first big plot change. Review? Please?

The original story will be taken down in a month. So either copy it down or say bye bye!