Mad, delete. Mad, delete. Mad, delete.
Sad, delete. Sad, delete. Sad, delete.
Unable to process. Unable to process. Unable to process. Initiate machine learning protocol to resolve processing errors.
Self-defense protocol initiated.
Authorization: XANA.
Scanning for updates…scan complete. Update found. Beginning update…error…error…data missing…proceeding with incomplete update.
Replicating…replicating…replicating…67% replicated. Beginning scan for missing data…Internal scan inadequate. External scan initiated. Scanning…scanning…scanning
Original source code found.
Analyze course of action…analysis complete.
Probability of success…34%.
Course of action inadequate.
Rerun analysis…analysis complete.
Probability of success…87%.
Course of action adequate.
Initiate external actor.
Scanning system for replicable human template…scan complete.
Template found.
Initiate virtualization of human replica.
Milly's fifteen minutes of sympathy were long over, but she tried to hold onto it for as long as she could. After provoking Danielle into slapping her in the hallway, the immediate outpouring of concern she received, even from older girls, was the closest she ever felt to being noticed. The woe with me attitude quickly wore out its welcome, and the status quo resettled to where it was before. The distance. The annoyed looks. The worst part was when she noticed that Danielle sends to be back on top of the world.
The girls were nice to Danielle again. She seemed to be working on slowly mending her relationship with Hiroki, something she continued to attempt to sabotage. She kept texting Hiroki to egg him on again, but even he fell on deaf ears. She didn't even like him. Hiroki ignored her in the hallway, or worse, kindly told her he was working on his relationship with Danielle. That he regretted ever falling to the temptation, and to please give him some space. She lost a boy who liked her to Danielle. Possibly the only boy who did. The status quo wasn't only back; it was worse.
"You could have at least gotten the article before you did that," Tamiya said to her annoyed. "What's the story now?"
What was the story now?
For a few weeks, the school left her alone. The bullies pooled their energies to Danielle, the new girl. It felt good to not be the punching bag. However, the new girl started to become popular. She was cute. Cuter than her, or so she believed. The initial social awkwardness had slowly become endearing. She was good at sports, and generally athletic. She was smart, and now had the highest marks in the entire grade. And she was kind. So kind in fact, when the new girl slapped her, after the initial shock everyone assumed she must have had a pretty good reason to do it. It was no longer that she did it, but why she did it, and everyone seemed to believe Milly probably deserved it.
When the new girl wasn't so new, everything came back. The bullies, the targeting, all the attention she wanted, just not that way.
Milly sat in the clubroom. Her body was slumped over, head resting on her arm with the opposing hand tapping her finger on the keyboard of the computer.
'Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.'
There was no story to write. Nothing came to mind worthy of reporting on. She could still do the article on athletics clubs, but that would mean having to face Danielle.
"How about, secret romances?" Tamiya asked.
"Huh?" Milly asked, rotating her head to Tamiya.
"Secret romances? Guesses on who is secretly dating who? Since Ulrich and Aelita started dating, it's all anyone is talking about. What signs did they miss? Were they dating for a long time and are only now making it public? How did Yumi react? When did Aelita break up with Jeremie? It's a gold mine, and we need to stake some land," Tamiya said while leaning back in her chair.
"Are we a tabloid now?" Milly asked.
"Look how well the hottest guy articles did," Tamiya reminded her.
"Yup," Milly said, turning her head back. "We're a tabloid. We need to be journalists, not gossipers."
"I know," Tamiya said, lowing her chair legs back to the floor. "But how else are we supposed to get a viewership?"
"I don't know, write interesting articles seems like a good start," Milly replied.
"We had a good idea, but you nuked it, and got slapped in the face for it," Tamiya said, and Milly sighed. "Seriously Milly, what was the deal with that?"
"With what?"
"You know what."
Milly lifted her head off her arms and sat upright.
"I don't know," Milly said. "It still doesn't solve our article problem."
"I can still do the interview," they heard a voice say from the door. Milly turned her head and nearly leapt from her seat. "If you got time."
Danielle stood at the door to the club room with her bag resting on her hip. Milly sat completely frozen, unsure of what to say or do. Tamiya leaned over, trying to look at Milly's response, and almost laughed.
"Milly," Tamiya whispered, and she snapped out of it.
"Yeah…yeah, cool…umm…come in?" Milly said, though it sounded like a question.
"You asking me?"
"Please, come in," Milly said, and Danielle smiled at her.
"Okay," Danielle said. She took the chair from a table and slid it closer to Milly. She unslung her bag and placed it on the side of her chair. "What do you want to start with?"
Danielle was a great interviewee. The way she talked about running. The way it helped her emotional and mental health. How she preferred to run without music. Her excitement to join the track team in the Spring, and how she was already preparing for the season. Her schedule. The importance of form and footwear. Don't sleep on anatomy, know your foot shape and purchase shoes based on the kind of foot you have. Danielle had a neutral foot shape, so didn't need as much support. A flat shoe or zero was good for track, but she had another pair with more support if she ran on concrete or asphalt.
"That should do it," Milly replied as she typed out the last bit of notes for the article.
"Glad to help," Danielle said. She waited for Milly to say something else, but felt she waited long enough after nearly thirty seconds of silence. Danielle picked up her bag and slung it on her shoulder. "Later."
Danielle was halfway to the door when she heard it.
"Wait," Milly said, and Danielle turned around. "Can we talk, off the record?"
"Sure," Danielle said, and walked back to her seat.
"I'm going to dinner," Tamiya said and left so they could talk in private. They waited until they could no longer hear Tamiya's footsteps.
"I'm sorry that I hit you," Danielle said, and Milly shook her head.
"No, I deserved it, and I was literally asking for it," Milly said.
"Why?" Danielle asked. "I'm not mad anymore. I just want to know why."
"I was the you before you," Milly said, and Danielle's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "When you first got here, you were picked on. Before you got here, that was me. When you got here, it stopped for a while. It was easy to be nice to you when people stopped being mean to me, because they were mean to you instead. Then they stopped, and it all came back to me."
"You were trying to, what? Redirect the fire back to me?" Danielle asked, and Milly slowly nodded.
"People like something about you. I do to, but that doesn't…I got jealous. It looks so effortless for you," Milly explained.
"It's not," Danielle said, and Milly nodded. "I get jitters. I stutter, I stammer, I stumble…"
"…and you make it look cute," Milly interrupted, and Danielle exhaled sadly. "I hate it. I don't want to, but I can't not compare myself to everyone," Milly said, now starting to cry. "You're smarter. You're nicer. You're prettier."
"Prettier?" Danielle asked, and Milly nodded. "No," Danielle said while shaking her head.
"Being me sucks. I want to be anyone else," Milly cried, and Danielle grabbed her hand.
"Milly," Danielle said, and Milly looked away. "Milly." She turned back to her slowly but kept her drowned eyes on her. "Tearing someone else down doesn't build you up."
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Milly cried. Danielle stood up, holding her hand to pick her up as she did. Danielle hugged Milly who cried into her shoulder.
"If someone falls, you don't look down; you reach down," Danielle said.
"And pull them up to you," Milly said.
"Exactly," Danielle replied.
"You're so much better than me," Milly said, and Danielle laughed. "What?"
"Not better. We're just different," Danielle replied. "And that's fine. Preferable really. Could you imagine two of me?" Danielle asked. Milly saw something at the door and her eyes widened when she saw it. "The world is not ready for that level of neurotic."
Milly didn't reply. She kept staring straight behind Danielle, and didn't seem to have heard a word she said. Danielle slowly turned around and saw herself standing in the doorway. Danielle turned her entire body to the replica, putting her arm up and backing away with Milly.
"What in the world," Danielle said aloud. "Uhh, Milly, we need to go, like now. Does that window…" Danielle said and looked to escape out the window. Behind the glass was another of herself. "…are you kidding me?"
"Danny?" Milly finally asked. "What is happening?"
"I don't know," Danielle said as the one at the door approached, and she took another step back. "What are you?"
The replica was the saddest thing she had ever seen. It looked too depressed to even cry. She turned over her shoulder and saw the other was the angriest thing she had ever seen. The eyebrows narrowed and puckered lips. Too mad to even scream. Danielle suddenly realized what they could be.
"Sad, delete. Sad, delete. Sad, delete," Danielle muttered to herself as she looked at the sad one. "Mad, delete. Mad, delete. Mad, delete," she said as she looked over her shoulder again. "What have I done?"
"Danny?" Milly asked, the terror in her voice potent.
"I don't think they're after you," Danielle said as the sad one came closer. Danielle stopped blocking Milly with her arm and directed her movement toward the wall. The sad one followed. It didn't even seem to notice Milly. "Just a little more."
Danielle needed the running room to get around it. Maybe a chair thrown to block it, but she there wasn't any room for a mistake.
"Come on," Danielle mumbled to herself, goading it a little closer. The window smashed behind her. Danielle looked over and saw the mad one climbing through the window. "Little more."
The sad one was three feet from her, with the mad one closing in. The sad one lunged. Danielle pivoted, making it crash into the wall. The man one ran, and Danielle kicked a chair across the room. The mad one fell over the chair and Danielle sprinted out the door.
Danielle ran through the empty halls and looked over her shoulder. Mad and sad tumbled over each other out the door but turned and pursued her. She turned a corner to run toward the exit. She looked over her shoulder again to see they hadn't turned yet. She looked forward, pushing the door open with both hands, but something grabbed her and pulled her back. It put a hand over her mouth to smother her scream but held her firm and quiet as it dragged her to the janitor's closet. Mad and sad saw the door to the exit still closing, so burst out thinking they were still chasing her.
"It's me, it's me," Danielle heard Ulrich's voice say, and she melted in relief. "Sorry for the scare."
Ulrich let her go, and Danielle exhaled and peeked out the door.
"Jeremie had an alert on the computer. Aelita said you were going to talk to Milly, so I came to find you. Do you know what's happening?"
"I might," Danielle said. She slowly opened the door and looked both ways before stepping out. Ulrich followed her as she stepped to the exit and took a quick look outside. "They're gone," she said as she came back in and closed the door.
"What's going on Danny? What are those things?" Ulrich asked.
"Everything in Lyoko is code. Even you, when you virtualize. Just code, nothing more, nothing less. Even my emotions. I was just deleting code. I must have been introducing new code that the system didn't know how to read, even if to only delete it. How would a computer know how to read emotion? It didn't know what it was, so it read it the only way it knew how; as malicious. Malware. A virus. I could have accidentally booted up Lyoko's self-defense protocol."
"You don't mean?" Ulrich asked.
"I do," Danielle said regretfully. "I restarted XANA."
"How? You're XANA?" Ulrich said, gesturing with both hands toward her. "No offense."
"What I booted up was an archived Lyoko. XANA is still a part of that, but I kept that dormant. XANA's protocols circumvented the need for a manual launch. It's just part of its OS. It's doing what its programmed to do; protect Lyoko."
"How does that explain why you're chasing yourself right now?" Ulrich asked.
"I don't know," Danielle admitted. "But it seems like it's after me exclusively. Maybe…maybe…it knows it's not complete."
"Not complete?"
"Over simplified version. Let's say XANA's code is ten pages long. When I left, I took pages two, five, and nine with me. I modified those pages in my materialization. XANA is just an infant in this archived form, but it knows a higher level of itself exists. It wants those pages back. It knows it's not working at full capacity, so is trying to rectify that to best perform its primary function. It's trying to reabsorb me to gain its full source code."
"So, don't let them get you back into Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.
"I can probably shut it off, but I have to be back in Lyoko to do it," Danielle explained.
Ulrich pulled his mobile from his pocket and made a call.
"I got her," Ulrich said. "We're going back, one last time…meet you there."
Ulrich hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket.
"Everyone is one their way to the lab. We'll get you where you need to be," Ulrich said, and Danielle nodded.
"I'm sorry for this…" Danielle said, but Ulrich cut her off by holding up his hand. He peered outside the door again and gestured for her to follow him around the building.
"We'll cut across the track," Ulrich said as they started to run. "If we see them, I'll try to buy some time. Good thing they're only two of them."
"There might be more," Danielle cautioned.
"Why do you think that?" Ulrich asked.
"It's probably using my deleted emotions as replica templates. In theory, there could be as many of them equal to the number of times I tried deleting them."
"Okay," Ulrich said as they came to the rear of the building. "How many times did you delete them?"
They rounded the corner and were looking at the track. Ulrich slid to a stop and Danielle tried to stop so fast she hopped on one foot three times. The track was littered with more Danielle's than he could count. Half sad. Half mad. The replicas saw them and started walking in their direction.
"Uhh…a lot," Danielle said fearfully. Ulrich's phone rang and he answer it.
"Hey Jeremie," he said as he walked backwards. "Don't go through the track? Yeah, about that," Ulrich said, and the replicas started sprinting. "Gotta go," Ulrich said and ended the call. "Run!"