Chapter 01 : The Great Escape

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Code Lyoko

One of a plan's many advantages is that it distracts. To be more accurate, anyone against the plan will, as expected, not only oppose it, but often actively try to foil it. However, by focusing on the plan they oppose, they'll be unaware of another plan behind it. It could be a contingency plan, or just another unrelated plan, that has much more chances to end up succeeding.

That's what X.A.N.A. did : behind it's attempt to recover its power from the Lyoko-warriors, X.A.N.A. was working on something else, something that no one saw coming :

A program that would allow X.A.N.A. to cross dimensions.

At first, X.A.N.A. didn't even consider that idea. Too ludicrous for its tastes, if the multi-agent program had any. However learning, testing the Cortex's ressources led to X.A.N.A. creating such a program. It had two utilities : X.A.N.A., once back at full power and after taking down its enemies, would expand its rule to dimensions, subjugating anything to its rule. But it was also a contingency plan, just in case the Lyoko-warriors won against it : X.A.N.A. would just escape to another dimension and prepare its comeback. It was as simple as that.

If the Lyoko-warriors' foes was a human with an ego, it would have congratulated itself for such a brilliant idea. It was the perfect gambit after all : X.A.N.A. would win, no matter what happens.

That said, X.A.N.A. didn't count on its former second-in-command William Dunbar and the new Lyoko-warrior Laura Gauthier proving to be a problem.

The Cortex always felt strange to William Dunbar. There was something unnerving about that Replika. The constant tremors, the parts of the area constantly moving, the traps made the whole thing so different from Lyoko. Using his trademark Super Smoke to easily avoid the traps, he ended up in the middle of the sector, not far from a giant ball with a small entry : the Cortex's Core.

« Laura, I've reached the Core.

— Okay, before dealing with XANA for good, we'll need to go to a tower. I'll recover all of Tyron's personal information, that way Aélita doesn't get mad at me for forgetting about her mother.

— Sure… But we'll have a tough time…»

The problem wasn't the Krabs William dodged just as easily as the traps when entering the Cortex.

The problem was William. Not William himself, but William nonetheless.

In fact, several Williams, swords drawn, the eye of X.A.N.A. in their eyes glaring at the real deal. They were making a circle around their original, completely cornering him.

« Gosh…» Laura whispered, while William gulped with dread.

If you were looking at the Cortex from above, all you would see is nothing but a beautiful black flower with black petals.

It would have been certainly even better if it wasn't for the fact that said « petals » weren't Dunbar copies in Super Smoke form lunging at the real William.

Tightening his grip around his trusted Zweïhander sword, William waited for the inevitable.

«… I don't know how to deal with myself yo… » whispered a worried Dunbar. The second his clones materialized close to him to strike him, he used the Super Smoke to dodge their blows, before returning to normal in the middle of the group of clones. The only way to defeat people just as strong and unstoppable as him was to exploit their numbers. When a clone swung his sword vertically, the former XANA-Warrior tilted his head, dodging the blow.

« Behind you ! » Laura warned. William properly used his Super Smoke, avoiding a sword beam fired behind him. Other clones, not expecting the attack, were not as lucky, and the beam cut through several of them. That said, more than half of them were still here. Things were only getting started.

« Keep dodging them. I've got an idea. » Gauthier stated. William dodged, jumping just in time to avoid a sword attack aiming his legs. Another clone fired yet another sword beam, prompting Dunbar to use his Super Smoke to dodge. This time, however, instead of hitting the clones in its paths, the beam suddenly vanished. Apparently, X.A.N.A. learned how to cancel attacks on the fly to limit the damage. Other clones, but not all of them, used their Super Smoke, before charging at William and hitting him, forcing him out of his smoke form and leaving him open to the rest of the Dunbar-lookalikes. William barely managed to block several attacks, but there were still way too many clones, forcing X.A.N.A.'s former lieutenant to stay on the defensive. However, William knew himself better than anyone and knew one thing as a result : if one of these Zweihanders managed to hit him once, he was done for.
William used Super Smoke again, but instead of remaining on the ground, which would have left him open to the clones still in smoke form, he took to the skies.

« Fly as high as possible ! » Advised Laura. William followed her advice and would've nodded if he wasn't in smoke form, a far cry from his first mission on Lyoko.
As he returned to human form, William looked at the Cortex's ground, realizing that he could see the whole sector from there.
To the clones, William looked like some form of black star. To Dunbar, his bunch of X.A.N.A.-made twins looked like some sort of dust. The height difference was enormous. Not that the William clones truly cared, as they fired an army of sword beams at William. A couple other clones in smoke form flew towards him and surrounded the beams, probably to prevent him from using the Super Smoke to dodge these beams. Fortunately, he didn't need to think much about his next move, as Laura did it for him.

« Block ! » she yelled. Doing as told, William's eyes widened when he witnessed his sword absorbing all the beams he parried. « Fire ! », was the Gauthier girls next order, and the Dunbar boy obliged, firing an enormous sword beam at high speed. The following explosion looked like something made out of these old GameCube/Playstation 2 games, when explosions looked like giant orange orbs expanding. The clones in solid form didn't have the time to use Super Smoke, not expecting that attack, and were promptly obliterated. Less than a quarter of the clones remained, since they were the ones who followed William to the skies. It was still a good dozen of evil twins remaining. Using the clones' number against them wouldn't work anymore, and they were still too many of them to beat.

« You're still falling » Gauthier reminded. Right, William flew as « high as possible » in smoke form and returned to normal in the sky. He should've expected to fall eventually. Hence why he used his Super Smoke to return safely to the ground, pursued by his doppelgangers in the same form.

« Go towards the clones. » Laura told him. Still in smoke form, the former X.A.N.A.-Warrior did as told, hitting a clone and forcing both himself and said clone to return to normal.

« Don't. Say. A thing. » Gauthier hissed. Must have been her idea. William could only ponder silently what she was thinking, not noticing the clone looking at him in confusion. The rest of the clones, returning to normal, looked at both clones, just as confused as their « brother ». For a minute, no one moved, said a thing, or lost their neutral expression. Meanwhile, a Megatank appeared, rolling slowly, silently toward William and his « brothers ». Opening, it started to charge its trademark beam, more accurately, a vertical beam.

« Super Smoke ! » Laura yelled. William did just that, just in time to avoid the beam. His clones, however, were not as lucky, and were wiped out down to the last one. William returned to normal form, just in time to see his new opponent. A Megatank.

« Ignore him. Go to the Cortex's tower. » William obeyed Laura's orders. Using Super Smoke, he easily entered the tower, unaffected by the monster's beams. Inside the tower, William went to the second floor of the tower, before the tower's interface appeared before him.

« Just put your hand on the interface. I'll take care of the rest. » Gauthier told in a reassuring tone. William nodded, and did as told.

« Just wondering, but what how did you knew about that sword's absorbing energy technique. I didn't knew myself, Dunbar asked.

— Well, I had to prepare myself before doing this. I checked your avatar, and I saw that most of the powers X.A.N.A. supposedly gave you were saved in the supercomputer during your second virtualization. I saw that technique and I thought it could be useful.

— Oh. And why were the clones confused after that ?

— Remember the program Jérémie created to identify clones when X.A.N.A. used them in its attack ? Well, I used that program's source codes to create another program. I made you indistinguishable from the other clones. You had their appearance. Since the program I created allowed me to establish a connection with the clones, I made a connection between you and X.A.N.A. so that it wouldn't distinguish you from the clones by controlling them.

— You know X.A.N.A. could have taken over my body this way right ? asked William, who would be glaring at Laura if they weren't in two different worlds.

— It wouldn't. X.A.N.A. would have required a virus in your brain to control you, something it didn't need with the clones. By the way, I'm done, you can get out of the tower and go to the Cortex's core. » The girl finished. Once out of the tower, William used his Super Smoke and quickly reached the Core's closed gate.

« Oh. Yeah, forgot that. Without Aélita, how are we going to go past the Gate ?

— Try Super Smoke. If it doesn't work, I have a contingency plan. »

Before the Megatank could get another chance to wipe out William, the latter used his trademark technique to enter the gate and reach the Core's interface, immune to the monster's desperate attacks.

« Install the virus. Quick. Before Tyron notices us. » Despite her neutral tone, it was clear to William that Laura was full of glee. He couldn't blame her. He was just like her. He would finally settle the score with X.A.N.A. for good. God that was satisfying. William installed the virus and escaped just as quickly as he came.

Outside, the spectacle had already started. Parts of the ground were rotting and collapsing. The « clouds » in the sector were falling on the ground. The once yellow sky was turning red, and then black. The sector on itself was losing its colors. William ignored the Megatank again as he used his Super Smoke to reach the Skidbladnir before Tyron's virtual world was completely wiped out. Inside Jérémie's virtual ship, William took off to the digital sea.

« You know the rest of the team won't like what we did… William sounded worried now, even though he was more than satisfied to have finally killed X.A.N.A., with no pissed off Yumi to stop him from settling his score.

— Remember when I made you enter the Cortex's tower ?

— Of course.

— Well, I did so that I could access and copy all of Tyron and his men's personal information, hideouts and places so that we could eventually find Aélita's mother. Don't worry about that.

— … You're evil.

— I do my best, William, Gauthier boasted.

— Laura ? Do you know where is William ? I can't find him. » A familiar voice stated. Both Laura, and especially William knew this voice a bit too well.

« Yumi ? Oh, well… » Laura sheepishly replied to the tall Japanese girl behind her, who had a very questioning look on her face.

« We're screwed, right ? » William stated the obvious to an obviously annoyed Laura.

That was not improving their chances.

X.A.N.A. almost wished it could curse. Under the possibility it would lose, it would have expected the whole team to take it down, especially Jérémie and Aélita. But the two newbies, of all people, defeated it ? X.A.N.A. couldn't accept that possibility. Heck, it wasn't even a possibility, it looked more like a fantasy. Jérémie fooled it, Aélita played it, and now it was that Gauthier girl's turn ? That's something X.A.N.A. couldn't imagine.

Fortunately it had a contingency plan in case it would be defeated. A program X.A.N.A. started to develop long once it escaped the supercomputer with Lyoko's keys. The program would allow it to cross dimensions, thus escaping this world and the Lyoko-warriors for the time being. Once powerful enough, X.A.N.A. would go back and finally take over the world.

Well. That what was originally planned. Unfortunately, X.A.N.A. was too slow. The connection the program established with his homeworld was lost. Likely Gauthier's virus upon destroying the Cortex. But it was something X.A.N.A. could worry about later. Survival came first.

Once the program did its job, X.A.N.A. ended up in a forest, with all of its previous power, but looking like a specter. In this form, X.A.N.A. wouldn't last very long, as specters were usually linked to towers which wasn't the case here. It needed a host, quickly. Scanning the area, X.A.N.A. noticed an unconscious boy. Said boy had short black hair, shaped like a duck. If X.A.N.A. had any fashion style and some sort of humanity, it would have vomited. The boy also had a short-sleeved blue shirt, brown pants and blue sandals. There was a strange power emanating from his body, or more accurately, his neck. It could be useful if harnessed properly. Entering the boy's body through his neck, X.A.N.A. barely paid attention to the unconscious blonde boy next to its target.

X.A.N.A was left confused by the following events. The multi-agent program was in a white place, having taken Jérémie Belpois's appearance for some reason. There was no surroundings to speak of. Except for the black-haired boy and what seemed to be a younger version of said boy. Both looked at it in confusion as X.A.N.A. analysed the two individuals.

« Who are you ? » The boy's older self asked.

X.A.N.A. extended its palm towards the younger individual.

« The power you gave the boy is useful. Unlike you. » A surge of electricity erupted from X.A.N.A.'s hands, destroying the kid. Its cries of pain, X.A.N.A. noted, were fittingly adult-like. X.A.N.A. knew, from the power the « kid » emanated, that it couldn't be the boy. Perhaps the person who gave him said power, likely for his own purposes. But X.A.N.A. had no need for said person. Could prove to be a problem later on. Better be safe than sorry.
X.A.N.A. then turned towards the boy, and talked to him in a seemingly neutral tone, as its appearance became ghoulish, with pale skin, claws on his hands and completely white eyes.

« To answer your question, you may refer to us as this world's future. Whether or not it wishes to have such a future, however, is another story. »

The power from the boy's neck invaded the boy's entire body. The boy, or more accurately, X.A.N.A. possessing the boy, regained consciousness. As marks appeared all over the black-haired boy's body, the aforementioned body started to flicker. X.A.N.A.'s eye appeared in its new host's once black eyes.

« Sasuke ? » A girl asked. X.A.N.A. quickly scanned the girl. She had green eyes and pink hair, but the hair was much longer than Schaeffer's. She also had a pink qipao dress and blue sandals.

Her wounded, fearful state, fortunately, made it clear that she was no threat. The actual threat seemed to be the duo looking at him with much killing intent. Their shared characteristic was their headband : for some reason, it had a musical note on it. Judging by their clothes and their fighting stance, they were raised to kill. Interesting. This world was ruthless enough to raise children this way. X.A.N.A.'s original world would have protested the second it'd notice child soldiers.

« These changes were… Unexpected. » X.A.N.A remarked. Not that it cared a lot about it.

This world was ruthless ? Very well. X.A.N.A. was even more so.

Author's note : Hi there. Kinda late since I really had no idea how to write the fight scene between William and his clones. I mean, it's easy to write a curb-stomp battle like what happened with X.A.N.A.-Sasuke versus Zaku, Dosu and Kin, but it's much harder to write a more classic battle. Hope you enjoyed that fight, that said.

Originally, the story was supposed to only happen in the Naruto world, with X.A.N.A. screwing everyone the same way it did in Code Lyoko. However, after much thinking, I decided to add a small scene in Code Lyoko's world.

Finally, in the Code Lyoko world, this moment is in truth Mutiny, the 22nd episode of Code Lyoko : Evolution. I really hated this episode, because I thought that with the OP Super Smoke, William and Laura had largely enough resources to defeat X.A.N.A.. So I imagined what would happen if they actually did defeat X.A.N.A.. But I didn't want it to be too easy for them, so that's where the William clone army entered the picture.

There are several references :

First, when William uses his sword to absorb the energy beams, it was a reference to the 80th Code Lyoko episode, Dog Day Afternoon. In this episode, X.A.N.A.-William absorbs Aélita's force field attack through his sword , and spreads it throughout his zweïhander. He then uses the absorbed energy to launch a pink energy wave at Aélita.

Second, Laura mentioning Jérémie's clone program is a reference to the 21th Code Lyoko : Evolution episode, False Pretenses. In this episode, X.A.N.A. launches an attack, sending the Lyoko-warriors a spectre disguised as them, constantly changing its appearance! Plus, not content with fighting unexpected spectres at the school, the team are confronted with false avatars of themselves on Lyoko. However, Jérémie creates a program identifying the clones, allowing the Lyoko-warriors to know who is who and to stop X.A.N.A.'s attack.

Third, Laura mentioning William's second virtualization is a reference to the 66th Code Lyoko episode, William returns. William is materialized but still under X.A.N.A.'s control and kidnaps Aélita before virtualizing himself with her.

Fourth, X.A.N.A. having Jérémie's appearance in Sasuke's subconscious is a reference to the 24th Code Lyoko episode "Ghost Channel", the only episode where X.A.N.A. appeared in person... As a fake Jérémie. Plenty of people are trying to imagine what X.A.N.A. looks like as a human (as seen in plenty of fanfics and fanarts), but for me I'm just going to stick with his one canon human appearance.

Have a nice day !