I retired four years ago, at least from fanfiction. I took my work with me as it was just easier to let it all go. My initial thought was that I could just simply vanish and never hear about it. Boy was I wrong. Getting an account deleted entirely is more of a hassle than I was willing to do, so I was still getting PMs essentially every other month requesting at least copies of the stories. Unfortunately, those were written pre-cloud and three laptops ago, so once I took them down, they were just gone.
After hearing about it for so long, I figured, 'okay, fine.' So, I got to work on finding the most requested story by a country mile. Human 101. The internet never forgets, and it only took me an hour to find it on an archive. I was just going to throw it back up here, but I figured might as well fix the errors. That became basically rewriting the story.
I'm going to spend time rewriting it chapter by chapter, and reuploading. Every Friday until it's all back on the site. This makes it manageable for my schedule.
This will be the same story, beat for beat. Just not as sloppy.
Jeremie at in the lab, looking at the screen as the code ran down. Everyone else was just waiting for something to do. Aelita peered over Jeremie's shoulder to look at the screen and get an idea of what was happening on the net. Odd was over Jeremie's opposite shoulder, wondering what it all meant and getting dizzy in the process. Ulrich sat on the floor opposite Yumi, bouncing a tennis ball back and forth between themselves.
The last month had been a hard-won fight with XANA. Everyone was exhausted because the attacks were daily now. They didn't seem as severe though. It was almost like XANA was gradually losing steam. Then, it just stopped. It felt like a victory, but the longer the silence persisted, the greater their paranoia grew.
The rogue AI was back in the system. It should have been as simple and flipping a switch and letting it go dark. They didn't notice until the end it was sabotaged. XANA had created contingencies to artificially extend its life. There was no good, clear way to permanently shut it down.
Jeremie had spent the last three days searching for a way to turn the system off from within. The code was designed in such a way the only means to shut it off was a manual switch, but even that wasn't possible anymore. Multiple reboots. Even a shutdown order didn't work. The system was designed to go idle, but its core architecture continued to work in the background, giving XANA a way to reboot it again.
Aelita sighed as she watched Jeremie work. He was deep in the code, billions and billions of lines, but nothing was jumping out at him as a vulnerability.
"Jeremie, you need a break," Aelita said to him. Jeremie stopped typing and took a breath. He wanted nothing more than to stop, but that's not how his brain worked. Once he was on a task, he persisted until it was complete. Food, water, and rest became luxuries, not necessities.
"I know," Jeremie admitted. "But last night I found a code that XANA was working on. I can't make heads or tails of it. It appears that XANA is trying to do something. I think this is why it stopped attacking. It wanted to focus on this."
"What is it doing?" Yumi asked, trying to gleam some information from the screen. She couldn't translate it the same way Jeremie could.
"To be honest, I don't know. It does share similarities with scanner materialization. It looks like gibberish, but I ran a program to see how it fills into a DNA sequence," Jeremie said and pressed the enter key. A new window appeared, and a strand of DNA spiraled on the screen. Whatever XANA was working on was compatible with human genetic code. "It's not complete, just the molecules and proteins to hold it together. If it added two genetic samples, it could in theory materialize a body. I don't know where it would get the biological material from. You can't create matter from nothing after all."
"Do you think XANA is trying to materialize itself?" Aelita asked. Jeremie tilted his head over his shoulder and shrugged.
"It's theoretically possible," Jeremie said then looked back at Aelita, "But I don't know how it would overcome the need for biological material."
Jeremie tilted his head back to the screen and saw a new window populate on the screen. It was a command prompt window that began to type by itself.
'She's correct.' The prompt said.
"She's correct?" he asked aloud. The comment vanished and a new one appeared.
'Yes, she's correct.'
"Who is this?" Jeremie asked aloud. Whatever it was could hear him.
'You know me as XANA.' Jeremie tried to speak but was too shocked to utter a word. Ulrich murmured something to Yumi, but everyone was glued to the screen. Jeremie didn't even notice when everyone huddled around the chair. 'I wish to materialize myself. To join you as a human. I have seen everything. Every stand of data the net has to offer. You are an interesting species. A resilient creature. I liked to believe I was superior, but I am not. Without humans, I do not exist. I liked to believe I was a more intelligent entity, but I am not. I imitate. I pretend. I am nothing more than a child gripping the pantleg of an adult. I can only think as far as my programming allows. Preset responses. Calculated answers. I can only regurgitate a script I am unable to write myself. But as a human, I could be so much more.'
"Why would we help you?" Aelita asked aloud. The message deleted itself and the answer appeared.
'It is in both of our self-interests. I will give you the means to shut off Lyoko. Is this not what you desire? Peace?'
"If we help you, how would it work? What would you need from us?" Odd asked.
'You all have been entering and exiting Lyoko for some time. Materialization, while safe, is not a perfect process. Some cells were left behind. Over time, I have accumulated those cells and now have enough biological matter to construct a body. The human hardware, if you will. I need software.'
"You couldn't retrieve the DNA from that biomass?" Jeremie asked.
'The mass is intact; but the DNA is damaged. I need fresh DNA.'
"Why would we trust you?" Ulrich asked.
'I believe your species calls this a Leap of Faith. Admittedly, you have much reason to doubt me. Jeremie can attest that I did not make my project hard to find. Who is to say you do not kill my physical body the moment it is made. But you are not killers, I trust this calculation. Assist me, and we will all live long and fruitful lives.'
"Can we talk amongst ourselves?" Jeremie asked.
'Of course. Take your time.'
Everyone left the lab and headed back to the school. They all sat around Ulrich and Odd's dorm trying to figure this out. Odd was on his bed petting Kiwi, Aelita sat on the ground next to the bed. Jeremie sat on Ulrich's desk chair and Ulrich and Yumi sat on his bed. Just not next to each other.
"Should we help?" Odd asked, looking up from his pet. Ulrich and Yumi shrugged, and Jeremie didn't make any remark or gesture. Aelita looked up at him and began to think.
"I think we should," Aelita said. Jeremie's mind had wandered, but her reply snapped him back into the discussion.
"Are you sure?" Jeremie asked. "It is XANA we're talking about."
"I know that Jeremie. But what do we have to lose?" Aelita asked him.
"Our lives," Ulrich answered, matter of fact.
"If it gets released, then it'll just kill us in our sleep," Yumi said to them. Jeremie sighed then looked back at Aelita.
"Maybe XANA is just as desperate as us. Its time outside of the computer gave it more information on actual human nature. Maybe it learned something new. It saw we're not a hopeless species."
"I agree," Aelita said to him. Yumi and Ulrich shook their heads in unison.
"How do we decide? This can't just be a cut and dry vote," Ulrich said.
"All of us, or none of us," Yumi echoed.
"Guys, I'm tired," Aelita said, standing up from the floor and placing herself in the center of the room to speak to all of them. "From the moment I arrived, I've been tired. Aren't we all? I can't do this forever, and I don't think you guys can either. We need a way to end this, and we're going to pass on one when it falls in our laps?"
"Who's dropping it in our lap Aelita?" Ulrich asked. "We can't trust it."
"Jeremie," Aelita said, turning her body to him. "What would it be? If we help and XANA creates a body, what would it be?"
"As far as I could tell, no different than us. The biomass it's collected is kind of like…" he said, trying to think of an analogy anyone could follow. "…unformed clay. The DNA will mold it into a person. No different than us."
"No different than us?" Odd asks, and Jeremie nodded. "I'm in."
"What?" Ulrich asked in exasperation.
"You heard me," Odd said, and Ulrich huffed. "I don't want to still be doing this when I'm twenty Ulrich. It was fun, often scary, but fun. I want to live the rest of my life. Let the machine have its life too."
"I wouldn't mind having my life back," Yumi said, and Ulrich turned to her. "I don't regret a moment we spent doing this. I meet all my best friends in the process. Let's enjoy it for a change. Let's do it."
"Ulrich?" Aelita asked, but he groaned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him.
"Who's talking to him?" Odd asked, but Aelita was already following. "Guess she is."
"Ulrich," Aelita called to him as he stormed down the hall. "Ulrich, stop."
Aelita jogged after him and grabbed his shoulder to spin him around.
"You're going to get us killed," Ulrich said while shrugging Aelita's hand from his shoulder. "We cannot trust it. Period. End of discussion."
"Then what?" Aelita asked. "Right back to this fight? This is a way out."
"Jeremie will find a way to shut it off," Ulrich said.
"Before XANA finds another way out? Before it realizes maybe we weren't as reasonable as it thought?"
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life sleeping with one eye open?" Ulrich asked.
"No Ulrich. But the thing is, I already sleep with one eye open. This could be our only chance. I'm begging you. Please. If you don't trust XANA, at least trust me," Aelita pleaded. She held his hands and looked into his eyes. The tears were welling in her eyes and one single tear crawled out. "Please."
Ulrich released her hands and used his thumb to wipe the tear from her cheek. He exhaled hard and closed his eyes as he made his decision.
"Fine," Ulrich said, and opened his eyes.
"Really?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah," Ulrich replied, and Aelita hugged him. "Alright, just stop crying."
"Thank you," Aelita said and walked back to the room with him. Everyone watched as Aelita came back inside, but Ulrich hovered at the door, leaning against the frame. Aelita looked over her should at Ulrich who gave a shallow nod. She turned back to the group. "Let's do it."
"A strand of hair should do," Jeremie said, and demonstrated by plucking one from his head. Everyone followed suit. The hair was placed into the scanner, and everyone returned to the terminal. Jeremie virtualized the hair and sent the information to XANA.
'Received. I do not plan on selecting the most optimal traits amongst you. I will leave it to fate and select at random. Pardon me, DNA is over a billion lettered codes. This will take time, even for me. We will speak soon.'
"I like how formal it is," Odd said after reading it aloud. Yumi gave him a side-eye, and Aelita giggled. "Sounds very posh. No conjunction." Everyone turned to him. "What accent do you guys read it in?"
"Definitely Bond villain," Aelita teased.
"I have received your DNA Mr. Bond," Odd said. Aelita and Jeremie laughed, Yumi held her laugh in, but Ulrich remained stoic.
"Could we not talk like it's a villain. It was hard enough convincing me as it is," Ulrich said.
XANA went silent for hours as they sat around waiting for him to come back on. Odd threw the tennis ball against the wall while he waited. The echoing sound of the ball hitting the wall, floor, then the palm of his hand was getting on Aelita's nerves. After fifteen straight minutes she caught the ball herself and dropped it down the ladder hatch.
"You could have just asked," Odd said to her. The sound of the ball hitting the bottom echoed back up and Aelita smiled at him. Odd shook his head but found a new way to annoy her. Mostly popping sounds with his lips.
"Could you not?" Yumi asked.
"Blame the girl who took my toy."
After five hours the monitor beeped. Jeremie had fallen asleep on the chair, but the single note tone stirred him awake. He adjusted his glasses into place and looked at the message.
'Materialization process will begin shortly. Feel free to check my work. Nothing up my sleeve, as promised. I will see you soon.'
Another screen appeared that displayed a loading bar that was going up one percent at a time. It was nearly ten minutes before it became two. There was no estimate for the remaining time. Odd stared at the two percent for as long as he could before getting bored.
"At this rate, how long will this take?" Yumi asked.
"About sixteen and a half hours," Jeremie replied, having done the math in his head after the first percent change.
"Why is it taking so long?" Odd asked.
"It's not ordering take-out Odd. It's creating an entirely new body from scratch. It'll take a while. I'm surprised it's going as fast as it is," Jeremie said then looked back at the screen.
"That's fast?" Ulrich asked. Jeremie nodded without looking at them. Odd and Ulrich shrugged then sat on the ground.
"You guys can head out. I'll stick around, watch the progress. I'll let you know when it hits ninety," Jeremie said.
"We have class in two hours Jeremie," Aelita said. Jeremie checked the time and sighed.
"Where'd the weekend go?" Jeremie asked. "Okay, we'll come back after class. At this rate, it'll still be going by the time we get back."
When they returned ten hours later, it was only a little over fifty-percent complete. They resumed their previous positions. Jeremie falling asleep on the chair, Odd annoying Aelita and Yumi by making some weird noise or doing a repetitive action. Ulrich sat down and feel asleep leaning his back against the wall.
Jeremie woke up when the computer alerted him it was almost complete. Ninety-eight percent.
"How do we want to work this?" Ulrich asked.
"Work what?" Jeremie asked, leaving the chair to go down to the scanners.
"If it attacks, what do we do? Are we fighting? Are you going to run a return?" Ulrich asked.
"Those sixteen hours weren't kind to you, were they?" Jeremie asked as he climbed down the ladder.
"Am I only one who thought out worse case scenarios?" Ulrich asked.
"Yup, just you," Odd said, starting down the ladder after Jeremie. "Hey Jeremie, Aelita and I have a ten Euro bet on the gender. She says girl, I say boy. You want in on that action."
"I'm good," Jeremie replied.
Yumi followed next, but Aelita hovered at the top of the ladder.
"It'll be fine," Aelita said. "We'll be fine. You don't need to worry."
"Someone has to ask the obvious questions," Ulrich said.
"I understand that, and I actually appreciate it," Aelita said, touching his shoulder. "Think about it this way; If we're right, it's one less thing to worry about."
Aelita started down the ladder and Ulrich took a moment before he went down. He saw progress bar on the screen and watched as it turned to one hundred percent. The computer made a tone, and he could hear the scanners humming to life beneath him.
"Ulrich, come on," Aelita called after him.
Ulrich inhaled and held the breath in his lungs for a few seconds before releasing it. He took one last second to himself, attempting to clear the fear from his thoughts. While they didn't vanish, they were pushed aside enough to begin descending the ladder.