Chapter 1 – The Face of Evil
Hidden deep in the abandoned factory at the edge of town remained a large machine. Within the machine was an entire digital world which up until just recently had been used in a great battle between humans and A.I. With the A.I. defeated, the humans had no more use for it and were planning to turn it off later today for good. However, there was one last surprise in store for the humans that none of them could see coming. Inside one of the hidden rooms were three large cylinders, big enough to hold a human. The machine roared to life and many unusual noises could be heard coming from inside. Finally, the cylinder opened up letting a large amount of steam flow out. All that could be seen coming from the steam was a pale human hand grabbing the side of the machine.
A couple weeks later
One by one, the students of Kadic Academy were pouring into Ms. Hertz Science class. A group of four all converged at the two tables by the window. In the front was Aelita Schaeffer; aka, Aelita Stones; a pink haired girl where a long dark pink dress. To her left was Jeremy Belpois, a kid with short blond hair, glasses and a red sweater. Behind him was Ulrich Stern, a tall boy with brown hair where a green shirt and jacket. To his right was Odd Della Robbia, a boy with spiky blond hair and a purple sweater.
"Students!" Ms. Hertz addressed the class. "We have a new student coming in today." The many students began to talk amongst themselves.
"I hope she's cute." Odd snickered to himself.
"How do you know it's not a guy?" Ulrich question, giving his friend a deadpanned looked.
"I just have this gut feeling that something really big is going to happen today, and what's bigger than a cute new student that is going to change our lives?"
"The only thing big here is your stomach…"
"Quiet down students. Our new student is a transfer from America, he scored excellent marks and we hope his smarts will make a great addition to the school."
"Oh well…" Odd sighed to him before leaning back and putting his hands behind his head. "Though it looks like Einstein is finally going to have some competition… That isn't Aelita of course…"
Aelita just smiled while Jeremy pushed his glasses up. "It doesn't matter to me how smart this new student is, so long as they throw around their own genius like it's a trophy." Light glared off his glasses. "True geniuses have no need to show off."
"Like all the times you complimented yourself when you did something good on Lyoko?" Aelita joked. Jeremy suddenly jerked straight up and turned a bright red. The others just laughed while Jeremy coughed a couple times and regained composition.
At that moment, the new student walked in. He was a fairly average height for his age and had short pitch-black hair that spiked upward with a few short strands coming down. He was wearing a black jacket with red trims and a white shirt underneath. There was this strange look in his eyes like he was already bored just being there. "Eh, kind of cute…" Odd commented, making a so-so motion with his hand. "Could do to smile a little bit."
"This is Xana Schaeffer; please make sure to give him a warm welcome to Kadic."
At that moment, every Lyoko Warrior felt like a two-ton weight had dropped on them. "Not cute anymore, not cute anymore!" Odd loudly whispered his friends.
Aelita nervously turned to her bi-speckled friend. "Jeremy…"
Jeremy could feel his brain shutting down just trying to process what he was seeing. "No… But I… Even if…" He held his hands up and covered his face. "That is not possible…"
"Looks like it is Jeremy…" Ulrich added.
"Mr. Schaeffer, why don't you find a seat somewhere?" The dark-haired boy slowly talked down the aisle until he had reached the open seat across from Jeremy and sat down. "Now everyone, turn your books to page 87…"
While the boy had opened his book and appeared to be reading it like most students, the Lyoko Warriors around him were a total mess and couldn't concentrate on the class. Ulrich was watching him like a hawk from behind, never letting his eyes off. Odd was watching the clock waiting for the class to end. Jeremy was sweating bullets and his eyes were darting back and forth between the boy and the laptop in his bag, just praying something would tell him what is happening. Aelita was practically burning holes into the boy's head with her glare and she was holding a pencil with far more force than usual.
On the other side of the class, Herb was occasionally glancing at the new student and noticed the strange behavior their rival group was showing. "Sissi, you notice anything about that new student?"
Sissi just looked at the new student in question and looked back at her crony. "He is kind of a cute but nothing to write home about."
"Not that Sissi, look at how Ulrich and others are acting around him. Isn't it kind of strange?"
"Hmm… Now that you mention it…"
"Aelita looks like she wants to actually kill him." Nicholas added. "I don't think I've ever seen her that mad before."
At that moment, the pencil Aelita was holding snapped in half under the pressure of her own strength. A few students jumped and Ms. Hertz turned back to look at her. "Ms. Stones, I know you take your education seriously but please be careful to not put so much stress on your school supplies…"
Aelita just looked away in embarrassment. "Sorry Ms. Hertz…"
As everyone went back to their studies, a grin began to appear on Sissi's face. "Perhaps the new kid will be fun after all…"
Meanwhile in the upper grade class was Yumi Ishiyama, a Japanese girl with black hair and mostly all black clothes. She was just working on her own paper when she heard her phone's text notification go off. "Oh, what now?" She quietly picked the phone up and checked the message.
"SOS JEREMY AFTER CLASS"
Yumi was a bit startled by emergency text. Usually, these kinds of texts came when there was a Xana attack but they were done with all that. She saw the text was from Odd specifically and figured it was nothing too huge.
"What's wrong Yumi." Asked William Dunbar who was sitting next to her. He was a tall boy with short black hair and a brown jacket. "Is there some kind of emergency?"
Yumi didn't look back at him and just gave a passive answer. "Nothing big, just meeting up after class." William just frowned at the nothing response. All the Lyoko Warriors just seemed to completely abandon him after what happened and with Xana gone they seemed to have even less reason to keep him around.
You could cut the tension in Ms. Hertz class with a knife. Odd was rapidly tapping his desk with his finger just hoping Yumi got the message and wasn't already victimized by Xana "Come on, come on…" While Ulrich continued to watch the boy from behind, Odd was still watching the clock till the very second they could leave.
The moment the minute hand moved its last tick and the bell rang, the four warriors instantly jumped from their seats and bolted for the door. "Belpois, Stones, Stern, Della Robbia! What has gotten into you!?" Ms. Hertz scolded. "You could at least wait until I dismiss you!"
While some of the other students were looking at the door with confusion, Sissi's smile only grew larger. "Yes, he will be very interesting indeed…"
Once the four warriors were in the dorm room belonging to Jeremy, they slammed the door behind them and Odd leaned up with his back against the door. "Holy smokes… I don't think I have ever run so fast in my life…" He was still in a panic and breathing heavy.
"How do you think I feel? I had to SIT next to him!" Jeremy yelled pacing around the room.
"I think it is best we all take a moment to calm down so we can process everything." Aelita added. She had one hand on her forehead and her other on her chest trying to calm down her breathing.
"Pick up anything on the Superscan Jeremy?" Ulrich asked.
"No!" He screamed. "The Supercomputer shouldn't even be on right now, much less have an activated tower!"
At that moment, the door opened again and Yumi stepped in. "What's up?" She looked around and saw the panic looked on everyone's face. "What in the world got you all worked up?"
"Oh, you know…" Odd spoke in a joking matter. "Xana is apparently a human now and was in our CLASS ROOM!"
Yumi looked at them all dumbfounded. "How can you be sure? We destroyed Xana."
"His name was 'Xana Schaeffer' Yumi; you couldn't get more direct than that." Ulrich replied.
"He is using my birth name just to taunt us." Aelita spoke up. "He has to know we would put the two and two together or else he wouldn't have given himself such an obvious name."
"It's a scare tactic…" Jeremy replied. "By using the name that he has, he instantly put all of us on edge without warning. No strange events, no activated tower… He just shows up in our class and sits down right next to us!"
"But he didn't try anything on you did he…?" Yumi spoke up.
"He has probably been severely weakened from my anti-bodies and is biding his time so he can regain his strength. Also knowing Xana, he probably wants our deaths to be slow and painful. With Franz gone, he has practically no reason to keep any of us alive anymore, even Aelita."
"A vengeful computer virus… Great…" Ulrich replied, dripping with sarcasm.
After spending some time walking around the campus and clearing their heads, they finally saw him. "There he is…" Jeremy spoke with anger in his voice. The young boy was sitting at a bench by himself and seemed to be reading one of his class books.
"Are you sure?" Yumi asked. "I mean he looks like a normal kid and it looks like he is just studying."
"Don't let him fool you, he even stole our bench!" Odd replied. "If that isn't daring us to fight him then I don't know what is…" Slowly, the group approached the boy. Eventually the boy looked up and saw the group of five glaring down at him. He just glanced between the teens with a look of non-caring in his eyes. Closing the book in his hands, he stood up and looked directly into Jeremy's eyes.
While this was going on, Sissi and her group had arrived on the scene only to see the stare down going on between Jeremy and the new kid. "Wow, they really don't like the new kid." The girl noted.
"Jeremy and him must have been rivals at their old school or something…" Herb added. "But why would the others hate him so much?"
As the two continued to stare into each other's eyes, Jeremy finally spoke up. "You don't belong here…"
The boy quickly shifted his eyes looking at each member of the group. "I am a student at this school just like you…" He spoke in a monotone but smooth voice. Picking up the book he set down on the bench, he placed it in his book bag and threw it over his shoulder. "I'll be seeing you around… Belpois… Della Robbia… Stern… Ishiyama…" The boy slowly started walking around the group and stopped just passed Aelita who was in the back. "That goes double for you… Ms. Stones…" The words caused Aelita to feel a shiver go through her. With that, the suspicious boy walked away.
"We need to get to the factory…" Jeremy expressed seriously. The others just nodded and followed him as he ran to the manhole.
"Very interesting…" Sissi spoke to herself. Once the group had vanished into the forest, she took the opportunity to approach the new student. "Hey, new kid!" The boy suddenly stopped walking and turned towards the girl. "I saw the way those other kids treated you, horrible." She leaned in close to his ear. "Just between you and me, they aren't exactly the most trustworthy bunch. They are notorious for skipping class all the time." Pulling away from the boy, he just looked at her impassively. She hadn't noticed yet how her two cronies were starting to get a bit weirded out at the complete lack of emotion on this kid's face. "Anyway, my name is Sissi and I want you to join our lovely little group here. As the Principal's Daughter, I can help protect you from them." She held out her hand for him to shake. He glanced at each member of the group one at a time. Reaching out his hand, he grabbed hers and lightly shook up and down. Sissi just smiled. "We are going to be great friends you and I…"
The five teens all stood there in the empty room, not daring to make a move. Flipping a switch, the room came to life with a brilliant gold light. The floor in front of them opened up and a giant machine rose out of the ground letting off steam. Slowly, Jeremy approached the large machine and pressed a button on the front. A hatch opened on the front with a lever in the down position. Putting his hand on the lever, he took a deep breath and pushed the lever up. The sound of the computer powering on could be heard by everyone in the room. With the power back on, Jeremy turned back and went into the elevator. Everyone else followed him in and hit the button sending the elevator up. After waiting a few seconds, the big door opened. Jeremy quickly ran up the chair he had sat in so many times before and quickly got to work.
"I can't believe we are back here already…" Ulrich spoke, breaking the silence.
"So, tell me Einstein, how will we know if it really is Xana?" Odd questioned.
"Well, considering he is in our world, there has to be an activated tower somewhere. It's the only way Xana can even interact with our world in the first place." He responded.
Aelita thought to herself for a moment when a memory returned to her. "What if he doesn't need a tower anymore…?" Everyone suddenly stopped and turned to her. "The towers on Lyoko are a way to connect from Lyoko to Earth so they are necessary for anything in one world to interact with the other… But what if he isn't in Lyoko at all? If Xana himself isn't on Lyoko or in the net at all for that matter, he wouldn't need a tower."
"Aelita, are you saying what I think you are saying…?"
She nodded. "It's very possible Xana modified the Code Earth protocol you designed for me to materialize himself into the real world. With that you wouldn't need a tower to interact with our world."
"But if that is the case, he would be essentially powerless. You can't cross-interact with Lyoko without the Supercomputer and you can't cross-interact with Earth unless you activate a tower."
"It also means we can't do anything to get rid of him either… We turned the Supercomputer off weeks ago which means he has been here for well over 24 hours already and has created a life for himself we can't stop."
"So, in other words, we can't launch a Return to the Past…" Ulrich added.
"Still, how can we be absolutely sure it is Xana?" Yumi finally spoke up.
Jeremy crossed his hands while resting his chin on them and thought to himself for a moment. "Let's go check out the Interface in Sector 5. It's a long shot but it's the best chance we have of getting any sort of info in such short time."
Ulrich stepped into the elevator. "You guys go on ahead; I think I'll go back to Kadic to keep watch on our little friend." As the door to the elevator closed, the others approached the ladder leading down in the scanner room. Once the three of them were down in the room, they each stepped into a different scanner and one by the doors closed.
"Transfer Yumi… Transfer Odd… Transfer Aelita…" Typing away at the keyboard, he selected each of their profiles and began scanning them in. "Scanner Yumi… Scanner Odd… Scanner Aelita…" Once the computer confirmed everyone was at 100%, he hit Enter. "Virtualization!" The air in the scanners blew their hair upward as they vanished from the world. Within the Arena of Sector 5, the three teens were scanned and virtualized into the world. The three levitated in the air for a few moments before dropping down. "Alright everyone, I don't think I need to tell you all where to go. Just be on a look out for any returning monsters."
"Ay, ay, Jeremy!" Odd called before rushing down the corridor with the others.
Ulrich was now sprinting through the forest that surrounded Kadic Academy. As he approached the school, he saw Xana standing together with Sissi, Herb and Nicholas. "Oh no…" He quickly approached the group with a serious look on face. Once he was close enough, he grabbed Sissi's arm and pulled her away from the boy.
"What, hey!?" She yelled.
"Get away from him, that boy is dangerous!"
Herb and Nicholas look incredulous while Sissi was furious. "I don't know what you and your friend's problem is with Xana but he seems fine to me."
"I am doing this for your own good, Sissi."
"MY OWN GOOD!?" She finally freed her harm from Ulrich and stepped back into her group.
"Xana is bad news Sissi; you need to trust me on this."
"You still haven't given us any reason to distrust him Stern." Herb added. "I think your group just hates him because Belpois and Stones are no longer the smartest students in the school anymore."
"What!? I am trying to help Sissi! Aren't we all supposed to be your friends?"
She just scoffed. "Please, you only said that to get me off your backs. You and your friends have done nothing to actually show it!"
"Sissi…"
"To be honest Ulrich, I'm starting to think you only see me as a tool." Sissi shook her head in disappointment. "You used to be so cool but ever since hanging out with that group of yours, you have become a real jerk. Perhaps I should tell my Daddy that you're bullying the new kid, see what happens when you don't have me to bail you out for the tenth time."
"I… Uh…" Ulrich was honestly dumbfounded. He had never heard Sissi verbally attack him in such a direct and non-manipulative way. Having enough, he scoffed and approached the dark boy. He put his finger on his chest and poked him hard. "Stay away from Sissi and my friends, you got that!?"
The boy looked at him with the same emotionless face he has always had. "With the way you talk to women, perhaps it's you who should stay away from them…"
"How dare you!" Ulrich was livid and was about to raise his fist when…
"Stern!" The gym coach yelled. He quickly ran up to the group to stop the commotion. "I don't know what you and your friends are up to but you have been causing issues all day. If I hear one more peep about any of this, all of you are getting detention! Is that clear?"
Ulrich just ground his teeth. "Crystal…"
"Good, now run along and stop bothering Delmas and the new kid." Ulrich just ran off without as much as a word. "I am sorry about that, Mr…"
"Schaeffer…" He responded.
"Schaeffer, yes… I don't what came over Stern. He isn't usually like that, even if he is a bit of a delinquent..."
"The weak will do anything to cling on to what little power they have… Even if it's power over another human being..."
Jim gave a look of confusion. "Well, uh… Have a good day then. Hope to see better results from you in gym class then Belpois."
Meanwhile in the dorms, Ulrich had stepped into his and Odd's room for privacy. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed Jeremy. "Jeremy, we've got a problem…"
"What's the matter Ulrich? Did Xana finally show himself?"
"Worse… He has managed to get his claws into Sissi…"
"What? But I thought we dealt with her?"
"Apparently Sissi thought we were bullying Xana and got the brilliant idea of recruiting him into her group."
"And he accepted!?"
"Looks like it, I even got chewed out by Jim about how much trouble we have causing all day. Almost got us all detention…"
"Anything you can do to convince her?"
"Nothing… She seems to believe we only asked to be friends so she would stop bothering us. I think her obsession with me has shaken a bit too…"
"Well, the best thing you can do for now is just watch from afar. Don't cause anymore scenes or attract any more attention than we already have. The others are almost at the Interface so we'll have an answer soon."
"Right, I'll be careful…" With that, he hung up.
As the three Lyoko Warriors neared the end of their trek through Sector 5, they finally reached the edge of the Core Zone and the elevator. With a few sparks and loud creeks, the elevator began to move.
"Bad news from Ulrich guys, apparently Xana has taken a liking to Sissi…" Jeremy spoke through the intercom.
"Of course he would, terrible minds think alike am I right?" Odd joked.
"This is no time for jokes Odd!" Yumi scolded. "Sissi could be in serious danger!"
"At the moment she seems fine." Jeremy answered. "She seems to believe we were lying about being her friend and that we were 'bullying the new kid'."
"I mean, technically she's not wrong…" Odd added.
"Sissi isn't an important target to him." Aelita added. "If he is trying to get revenge on us personally, I am more afraid of what kind of the damage the two of them can do together… Especially now that Sissi believes we lied to her." With that, the elevator stopped and the passageway to the Celestial Dome revealed itself. Wasting no time, Aelita sprinted up to the panel and got to work. After about a minute of digging, she finally spoke up. "Jeremy, it's just as we feared…"
"What did you find Aelita?"
"According to the Supercomputer's history logs, the scanners were used once just a few hours before we shut the whole thing down!"
"If they were used only once, that means someone either went in or came out with no return trip."
"So, what do we do then?" Yumi asked. "It's not like we can just kidnap him and throw him back into the scanner. People would question his disappearance and it would put us in danger of being discovered."
"We put ourselves in danger all the time here on Lyoko so what is the difference this time?" Odd questioned.
Jeremy rubbed his forehead in frustration. "The 'difference'; Odd; is that Xana is now a human being with the same protections as us." Jeremy answered. "As far as the law is concerned, he is just an average human teenager that has done nothing wrong so there is nothing to stop him from attending Kadic like the rest of us."
"And doing anything to expose his fake identity will likely cause us to be investigated too." Aelita added. "Not only will it expose that my identity is fake, it may reveal me to the people who were after my father."
Jeremy threw his head into his hands. "Ugh, this is a disaster!" The group just stood around hoping for some kind of answer. "I'm going to call you back to Earth; we've done all we can here…" Typing away at his keyboard he began the devirtualization process.
Meanwhile back at Kadic Academy…
"The 'difference'; Odd; is that Xana is now a human being with the same protections as us. As far as the law is concerned, he is just an average human teenager that has done nothing wrong so there is nothing to stop him from attending Kadic like the rest of us."
Xana Schaeffer was currently sitting at his desk in his dorm room. The room was mostly empty of personal possessions other than a custom-built laptop he was rapidly typing on.
"And doing anything to expose his fake identity will likely cause us to be investigated too. Not only will it expose that my identity is fake, it may reveal me to the people who were after my father."
"Ugh, this is a disaster!"
Undisturbed by the conversation in the background, he continued to write lines upon lines of code to complete his programs. Befriending the Principal's Daughter was already proving beneficial as it allowed him to acquire a private dorm room with no chance of a roommate.
"I'm going to call you back to Earth; we've done all we can here…"
There was nothing they could do… As a human, there was little they could do to touch Xana Schaeffer without putting themselves at a far greater risk. While the very thought of being in this state sickened him, it was the best method going forward. It was time to change its strategy, the humans must be taught a lesson…
"And that is about the gist of it…" Jeremy spoke into the computer's virtual phone. The image of Ulrich's avatar was on screen next to the phone.
"So, we are basically out of luck until Xana himself makes a move…"
"Man, this stinks!" Odd yelled kicking at the ground.
"I'll run a deep scan of the web in the slight chance there is still a Replika out there, however I doubt we will get much... There is something that does worry me though…" Jeremy pondered.
"And what is that?" Yumi asked.
Jeremy turned his chair away from the computer towards the group. "The log shows he had a few hours between being materialized and the Supercomputer going offline. There is a very real chance he bugged the system giving himself remote access to Lyoko and its functions."
"Like you did with your laptop." Aelita confirmed.
"While he won't have access to any scanners or the Supercomputer itself, it probably won't be long before he starts messing with Lyoko from afar. Xana is an ultra-intelligent artificial being with skills that exceed even my own, I doubt he will let something as insignificant as hardware or a physical body stop him from his goals." Jeremy turned back to the computer screen. "And unlike before, it's us waiting for him…"
The general idea of this story came from a thread on Reddit. While the main concept is nothing original, I wanted to use this idea to try and take this trope in a new direction.