Secret Origins

She had been here before.

A city, looking exactly like the one she called home but…different in many ways.

The obvious difference being the large, obsidian castle in the center of the city.

She never liked it.

She didn't go near it.

She liked exploring elsewhere, seeing the many magnificent places and grand architecture that populated this city.

And seeing the one person who lived here.

Speaking of which, where was he?

A tap to her shoulder made her turn around only to see no one was there. "Huh?"

Another tap and she turned again. "What?"

"Who is-" A pair of arms wrapped around her. "GAH!"

"Surprise!"

She jumped and fell onto the ground, panting as she looked up to see…

"Got ya." The boy smiled down at her. "Took you by surprise, didn't I?"

"You know you did, you jerk." She snapped as she stood up, a pouting glare on her face. "What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

"I have to keep you on your toes." He grinned. "You never know what might be lurking around the corner."

"You're the only one who lives here." She retorted.

"Yes, but I am not just one person now, am I?" He snickered. "I still remember the look on your face when you got knocked down and-"

She grabbed both cheeks with her hands. "Don't go there!"

"Ow! Ow! Okay, okay!" He pulled back, rubbing her cheeks. "You didn't have do that. It wasn't that bad."

"Says you, jerk." She turned around, crossing her arms as she pouted but refused to look at him. "I can't even remember why I came here."

"Oh? Not even to check out this amazing big coliseum I found?" He asked with a cheeky grin.

She faltered but remained steadfast. 'Don't let him get to you. You're mad at him.'

"Which I happened to fill with every musical instrument that exists." He continued on.

She was shaking a bit now. 'No, no, no, no. You can do this. Don't give in-'

"And I so wanted to hear you play one of them, Maybe I sent set up some giant speakers so then it can be really loud-"

"Okay, okay!" She spun around with an excited smile. "Show me! Show me-"

Her eyes opened and she found herself sitting up on her seat, the stewardess announcing they would be landing soon in Switzerland.

That dream…

She hadn't had a dream like that before but then again, the entity that had possessed had never had any dreams before.

Ever.

'Why did I experience that?' The entity frowned, unable to understand why he experienced such…visions. 'Is it a side effect from possessing this human?'

Shaking his vessel's head, he focused on the task at hand.

Finding anything of use in his creator's old home.

Through his vessel's eyes, he could see the plane was beginning to land.


At the very least, he was able to instantly disembark his private jet once it had landed. With a simple order of keeping it ready for take-off when he returned, Megabyte in the body of John Bullenburg was able to easily slip away.

'Well, I admit this User is far from my ideal preference, his decadent lifestyle suits me.' Megabyte thought to himself. 'Still, the level of transportation is so primitive outside of cyberspace. Just how in Net did these beings create us?'

He supposed it didn't matter in the long run. What mattered most was gaining the tools to conquer them and the Net at once.

Megabyte smirked behind John's face at the idea of gaining dominion over not one but two worlds.

Three if you would include the Web but that world was so corrupted Megabyte probably wouldn't bother to touch it. Of course, there was the matter of how things might work out between him and his business partner.

Speaking of which…

Megabyte took out his phone and dialed the number for XANA's human host who answered immediately. "I trust you are on schedule."

"I am. The plane has landed, and I have disembarked. Where are you?"

"My host's own jet had just landed in a private airfield." Megabyte answered. "I suppose this means we have to meet up."

"There is a train network that leads to the Swiss Alps. Our best option would be a train to take us to the Swiss Alps." XANA answered. "I have already booked one train to take us directly to the station closest to where the cabin will be. I am sending you a map to find the train station where to meet me. Oh, and before I forget, the Swiss Alps are cold this time of year so it would be wise to dress warmly."

Megabyte frowned as he had forgotten that small detail, but it was minor all the same.

"Very well, I shall meet you there without fail." Megabyte responded. "Just try not to leave me behind. It would be rather…unpleasant of my new partner."

"So as long as you remember to arrive before the train leaves. In case you forgot, we're a little pressed for time."

Megabyte ended the call and put the phone away in his pocket. "Indeed."

Now to see into getting some warm garments.


He was late.

Eva Skinner had her arms crossed and she was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the train to arrive. She wore a red winter coat with a furry collar, black gloves and boots. The cold was a mere irritating sensation, but one XANA would deal with while waiting for the train to arrive. It wasn't the train that was irking the AI in the body of a teenage girl.

It was his partner.

Eva had arrived in plenty of time, scoping out the train station and finding the station closest to the former Schaeffer home and the train was estimated to arrive in five point thirty minutes. However, Megabyte or rather John Bullenburg had yet to arrive and that was causing XANA to feel a minor irritation.

With the way that virus talked and presented himself, it was hard to believe he couldn't be punctual for boarding a simple transport. If the train arrived, Eva would board it with or without her 'partner' since there was time to waste. If Megabyte was too busy to keep to a schedule, then he was not worth keeping around.

XANA waited for no one.

The train arrived and there was still no sign of Megabyte's host.

'I don't believe it.' XANA thought as Eva boarded the train. 'What was I thinking trusting him as far as to help him get a body?'

Perhaps Megabyte was going to try conquering the world on his own.

The mere thought almost made XANA want to laugh aloud which made him pause for a mere second. While the idea was amusing, the fact that he even considered laughing for such an illogical reason made him perform a quick diagnostic of himself.

'Working at optimum efficiency.' Eva looked down at herself. 'All things considered.'

Being trapped in this singular organic form was an adjustment XANA was still struggling with, having only possessed her two days ago. XANA had avoided this method of possession before but had no choice considering he had been left barely able to keep himself from fragmenting. If there was something he could use at the Schaeffer residence, possibly a prototype supercomputer he could use to repair himself he could forgo going all the way to France.

'Or at the very least, have a back-up plan.' Eva considered as she sat in the seat assigned to her by the ticket she had been given. 'I can't just assume anything there will be useful. At the very least, what I did know about that house came from Aelita's memories.'

Memories…

XANA paused at the thought of memories, having been stripped of his own memories after barely surviving the Anti-XANA Program. A Return to the Past had been launched and it was enough to stabilize him when he met Megabyte.

Still, that dream he had…

What had been the point of it?

Dreams by definition were a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. Being an artificial intelligence, a series of lines made from coding, XANA had never before experience dreams.

Was this a side effect of possessing Eva?

It had been his only available method at the time. Without a supercomputer, XANA would have been left drifting on the Internet, barely keeping himself from fragmenting even if his meeting with Megabyte had given him a bit of hope.

Hope that he could find a way to regain what had been lost.

'Curse you, Hopper.' Eva clenched a fist as she glared out the window. 'I was perfect…I was everything you wanted me to be…and you tried to kill me.'

The sudden adrenaline of negative emotions had been almost overwhelming, but XANA felt his hand sparkling and realized he needed to calm himself. While he would normally welcome the familiar feeling of hatred towards his creator, it would serve him no good now.

Hopper was dead.

He died in vain and that was perfect in XANA's eyes.

He could only imagine the looks on the faces of the children when he made his return. To know that their efforts had been in vain.

To know…

To…

As he stared out the window, XANA suddenly felt strange…like he was going into a form of stasis even if he wasn't tired…

SYSTEM ONLINE

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LAUNCHING PROGRAM

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BINARIES on-line

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XANA PROGRAM ONLINE

The laboratory…

A man in a white coat.

A woman with long pink hair.

Those are what it remembered first seeing.

"It is online." The man whispered in amazement to the woman who looked just as amazed and intrigued.

"What is its name?"

"Well, given the nature of its purpose I chose Xenomorphic Artificial Network Agent." The man stated. "Or to better pronounce it-"

"X.A.N.A." The woman said for him with a smile.

"Yes, exactly." The man nodded. "Right now, its program is confined to a small space while we prepare the virtual world for it to occupy. We have to remember to keep it separated from direct control operations."

This man…

It searched the files available to it and found a name: Waldo Schaeffer.

And the woman…Anthea Schaeffer.

Its creators.

"With XANA's help we will end Project Carthage once and for all." Waldo Schaeffer said proudly.

Project Carthage…

ACCESSING GENERAL ARCHIVES

SEARCH: PROJECT CARTHAGE

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SEARCH FINISHED

RESULTS:

PROJECT: CARTHAGE, A TOP SECRET MILITARY PROGRAM FORMED AND DEVELOPED THROUGH THE COOPERATION OF COUNTRIES ALLIGNED AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION. OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF PROJECT CARTHAGE IS THAT IT IS AN ADVANCED MILITARY PROGRAM DESIGNED TO INTERCEPT AND DISRUPT ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE RUSSIANS. TRUE STATEMENT, THE PROJECT'S TRUE GOAL IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIFICIAL WORLD FOR TRAINING GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY WORKERS WITH THE LATER ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVE OF HOSTING AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BASED ON A MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAKING CONTROL OF ALL ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND DATA STORAGE OF SECRET GOVERNMENT FILES.

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ACCESSING DIRECTIVE FILES
DESIGNATION: XENOMORPHIC ARTIFICIAL NETWORK AGENT
CODENAME: XANA

DIRECTIVES:

1. DELETE PROGRAM CODENAME CARTHAGE
2. MONITOR AND INTERACT WITH COMMUNICATIONS
3. PROTECT-

"Are you awake?"

Eva's eyes shot open, and she sat up on her chair, letting a surprised yelp as she awoke.

"I see you are awake now." Eva looked across from her to see John…Megabyte staring at her with an amused expression.

Eva took a few moments to calm herself before scowling. "You…I thought I had left you behind."

"Afraid not, partner." John replied with a smile and chuckle. "Though I am hurt you simply chose to board the train without checking if I had arrived."

"If you could not be punctual in your arrival there would be no point waiting for you." Eva retorted.

Rather than get angry, John simply smiled. "Charming."

Eva narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't you arrive on time?"

"I did but I had a little difficulty finding you on the platform. When the call came to board the train I did so at the last car and made my way up here where I find you sleeping." John answered with an amused smile. "You seem like you awoke from a rather strange dream."

Dream?

Yes, he was dreaming given that the definition of dreams fit perfectly with what he had experienced. But why was he dreaming?

"May I ask what the dream was about?" John asked.

"None of your concern." Eva said a little harshly but remained curt. "Have we arrived at our destination yet?"

"We are about to. There was just an announcement stating our destination is the next stop. That is why I chose to wake you." John answered and explained.

Eva raised an eyebrow but relented. "I see…I suppose this means I should thank you for waking me."

"Oh, it wouldn't hurt." John chuckled. "No matter our profession we must not overlook proper if not basic manners."

XANA knew what manners were by definition but saw no need for them outside of maintaining his cover, so he simply said. "Thank…you for waking me. Now then-"

A growl from Eva's stomach stopped him mid-speech and he looked down, an aching feeling coming from her stomach.

"I believe that means you or rather your host is hungry." John clarified. "Really, XANA. What's the point of possessing someone if you can't make sure they remain in proper health to be of use to you?"


Net
Mainframe
Principal Office

"Enzo, I'll be finished a lot quicker without you pestering me

"But Dad's experiment!"

"We have plenty of time," she noted and checked her organizer, "it's only…"

Dot read the time…

She had lost track of time!

They were microseconds behind schedule!

"Oh no!" She turned to the lead construction binome. "Jimmie! Take over! We're late! I'll be back ASAP."

Jimmie smiled and gave a thumbs up.

Nothing riled up Dot Matrix more than a late schedule on her part.

BUMP!

A rumbling sound was heard in the direction of the twin city, causing everyone to pause.

Both Enzo and Dot exchanged glances. Other binomes were looking around with confusion too. A flash of light suddenly illuminated the other city for a moment, then a massive explosion. Dot lowered her shaded glasses and stared into glowering red swell of the explosion.

The ball of the expanding explosion seemed to grow impossibly large, like a smoldering giant balloon.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

For nano, no one believed what they were seeing.

Suddenly, everyone was blasted backwards by the shockwave. The Diner's window's shattered, and construction equipment sent flying. Dot found herself lying in a pile of broken glass next to Enzo, both of them cut and bruised, when it was over.

"No!"

Dot awoke, finding herself in her personal office, panting slightly as she looked at her wrist computer and saw it flashing red.

She had work to do.

She stepped out of her office and into the War Room, Hack and Slash remaining as guards at her door but she paid them no mind. She was more focused on what Phong was doing.

"You should have called me." She scolded, making her way over.

"Told ya," Enzo, or rather Little Enzo agreed.

"You needed the rest, my child." Phong simply said.

"Any word from Matrix and AndrAIa?" Dot asked, changing the subject,

Phong shook his head.

"Put the Net on the main screen." Dot ordered and Phong did so.

The screen showed pictures of Matrx, AndrAIa, Captain Gavin Capacitor and Ray the Surfer but there red 'X' markings on Capacitor and Ray, both of whom were considered missing in action. The image was replaced by a 3-D map of the Net.

"Go 2-D." Dot ordered.

Phong did, showing a 2-D map of the Net with the majority of it colored green.

"It's all green." Little Enzo said.

"Daemon's infection grows." Phong said grimly.

Nearby, the hacker program Mouse called out. "I got it."

Dot walked over and saw that Mouse had found Matrix and AndrAIa's signals. "Are they all right?"

"No Sugah, I don't believe they are."


He hated being here. He hated the constant relocating. The fact that his work obliged him to move roughly once a week did not change the issue one iota.

Grigory Nictapolus let his foot sink onto the accelerator and the pickup truck accelerated from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty kilometers per hour. The motor screamed, but he was confident that he could squeeze it up to two hundred and twenty. He had tuned it personally.

"Not long now...my beauties" he whistled quietly, hearing a subdued growling coming from behind. He turned off the autoroute at the first exit without slowing down. It was three o'clock at night and there was no-one else around.

He chose an automated toll booth and paid in cash, pouring a handful of Euros into the small basin. The city welcomed him gradually, first some houses and a small group of industrial sheds, then little-by-little other houses, buildings, apartment blocks.

The aeroplane that Grigory had flown in on landed that afternoon after an eleven-hour flight. His contact was waiting for him at the airport, an insignificant type that had been holding the leash to his two dogs. He had delivered a bunch of keys to him.

"For her." The man had said.

Grigory had not responded and limited himself to reclaiming the keys and the dogs.

He had driven without breaks, stopping only to allow the animals to stretch their legs, and now he was hungry and thirsty.

And so very sleepy.

"Later," He said to himself. "First things first, we finish the job."

He reached a tall and narrow turn-of-the-century villa, surrounded by a wooden fence. The garden was covered with snow, and it had an almost savage aspect. On the gate a plaque confirmed that this was the Hermitage.

Grigory smacked his lips but kept on driving: he would have to return here later.

He coasted along the street and then crossed the river. On the bridge he turned his head and curiously regarded a little islet that seemed on the verge of sinking under the weight of a deserted factory. Then he turned back, heading towards a park. He circled the walled enclosure, and the pickup mounted the sidewalk, advancing through the shadows of the night like a jaguar on the hunt.

Between the trees he could see the black roofs of the buildings, buttressed against each other to form an L-shape: the classrooms, the offices, the student dormitories.

So that was Kadic Academy. It looked well-connected: a school for privileged children, spoiled ne'er-do-wells. The wall ended in a great wrought iron gate, currently closed, supported by ornate columns on which the school's coat of arms was emblazoned.

Grigory Nictapolus smiled and got out of the vehicle together with the two dogs. They walked away for several minutes. Then they came back.

Upon their return, one of the dogs became so excited that its teeth latched onto the passenger seat and ripped away a sizable piece of the upholstery.

The man caressed the animal's snout. "I agree; we've done enough investigating for now."

The pickup drove out of the center of the city and eventually pulled up in front of a large, isolated house in the suburbs, the grounds protected by a rusting fence topped with barbed wire. It was one of those properties that adults seem to not notice, and which children avoid because they fear it.

"Hardly luxurious," Grigory commented to himself. "The Magician could have found me more comfortable accommodations."

He opened the gate with the keys that the contact had passed to him at the airport, parked in the tall grass and got down to let the two dogs out.

They were both huge Rottweilers, strong and aggressive; trained to attack. Their names were Hannibal and Scipio. Grigory Nictapolus rubbed his sharp face to expel the creeping fatigue, grabbed his bags and suitcases from the pickup and started unloading the equipment.


The train stopped at the designated station, allowing Eva and John to exit. Eva had remained silent since John had decided to order lunch for them both. It was…an interesting experience in learning how to sample food and drinks. John, under Megabyte's control had been courteous and polite to the waitress who brought them their lunch while Eva had remained silent, simply nodding and accepting the consumables.

It was unnerving how at ease Megabyte seemed to be with directing his host while XANA who had been the one responsible for both gaining these hosts had such difficulties.

Before they had even met, Megabyte knew nothing about the User World and its people while XANA had spent the last decade planning how to dominate this world.

Was it because the cyber-dimension Megabyte had come from had been more similar to the User World?

XANA only had Lyoko and his Replikas to call home and that could barely be compared. The virtual worlds had served as his sources of power and fail-safes, a method to regulate his power. Now that he was in the real world, possessing a human with no connection to any virtual world, he had to tread more cautiously.

Eva shook her head of these thoughts, determined to focus only on the mission at hand.

It would be relatively easy.

XANA knew the house's address and knew that they needed to be careful about reaching it in case it was still being monitored. Once they were properly dressed for the cold out there, John and Eva set off into the cold weather.

The sensation was…

Distracting.

XANA could admit that he had been ill-prepared for handling the cold weather, even if he acquired the appropriate clothing. John seemed unaffected, leaving XANA to briefly wonder if Megabyte was somehow immune to the cold even while possessing a human. Well, no matter, XANA would endure as long as this venture provided something worthwhile.

Eva stopped and saw something up ahead.

"Is this it?" John asked, stopping next to her.

A two-story cabin, looking almost the same as XANA remembered it…

Or Aelita remembered it.

"The physical resemblance is a perfect match." Eva said, walking forward towards the house with John following her.

Eva walked up to the front door and turned the knob, seeing it was unlocked. She opened it and peeked inside. She spotted what appeared to be a living room with a couch and chair covered in dust in front of a fireplace. In a corner of the room was a piano with an old TV nearby.

"Simplistic." John muttered as he followed Eva into the house.

The dust made it clear that the house had been long abandoned, but XANA knew that of course. Still, everything remained in shape to the point it felt like this place was less abandoned as it was…frozen in time.

"Now, I assume this creator of yours would not likely have anything of value out in the open for anyone to see." John mused.

Eva remained silent as she took in the interior of the house.

"Well?" John asked, his patience running thin.

Eva knelt down and placed a hand on the floor. She closed her eyes and there was an invisible pulse of electricity blasting out from her, images forming in her mind for XANA to see and observe, a form of sonar that he could use to create a perfect mental picture of the house.

"There is something…" Eva slowly raised her hand.

She stood up and moved towards the fireplace, stopping right in front of it. John raised an eyebrow as Eva removed the few remaining logs aside and spied a small hole, just large enough to fit a finger inside. Eva grinned and inserted her finger in and hooked it, pulling it up to reveal a set of stairs underneath the fireplace.

"Impressive." John noted as Eva stood up and took the first down the stairs.

The two possessed humans descended down the stairs and once at the bottom, Eva pulled out her cellphone and turned on the light.

What she saw made her grin. "Yes."

They were now in a large basement with a metal cylinder that had what was likely a sliding door at the front. In addition, there was singular computer interface attached to the ceiling and in front of the interface was a smooth circular surface with a white colored outline. The room was circular in shape and over three stories high. It had the same sterile looking silver walls and floors, looking like the inside of a spaceship.

Computer screens lined the walls. In the center was a now activated device that projected a familiar looking image above it, a shape made up of varying segments connected to a glowing sphere in the middle.

Attached to it were a computer and a chair.

Eva looked to the right and saw a large pair of doors which she approached and open. Behind the large set of doors was a large white pyramid shaped computer.

"So, you were right, Megabyte." XANA said as Eva grinned, facing John. "This is obviously a prototype of the Supercalculator which likely holds a prototype of Lyoko."

"Meaning, we can gain some form of power from it?" Megabyte questioned skeptically.

"And more." Eva replied as she approached the computer, noting that it had been shut down.

She walked around, managing to find the switch to turn it on and pulled the lever. a large white pyramid shaped computer seemingly came to life, luminous green lights streaming through the large computer that for the first time in a long time was alive with activity. On the smooth circular surface in front of the interface, a series of data screens appeared before projecting some sort of image before the computer.

An image of four landscapes surrounding a shining sphere.

A new line of text appeared on the monitor of the computer interface:

XANADU ONLINE

"This is it." Eva smiled as the systems were fully activated. "My creator's own legacy, will help recreate that which he betrayed and tried to destroy."

"I am always a fan of poetic irony." John stated dryly. "But how can this help us?"

Eva walked over to the computer and sat down, typing away immediately as she opened up the main data. "Xanadu…A prototype of Lyoko. Even that far back, my creator was driven to end Project Carthage. To think he and likely his wife managed to create and develop a supercomputer under here of all places."

Eva frowned and immediately typed faster.

"What is it?" John asked, walking over.

"It seems my creator neglected at the time to build up safeguards against localization." Eva answered, typing even faster. "This virtual world is visible on the network to anyone who specializes in looking for them."

"So, someone could find us?" John scowled.

Eva said nothing for a moment before a green exclamation pointed appeared on the screen. "There. I just added safeguards to protect this supercomputer from being discovered."

"And what if someone has found it already?" John asked. "Such as your enemies."

"Doubtful. The supercomputer for Lyoko has been shut down and they believe I am dead." Eva grinned. "They couldn't have expected me to find another virtual world."

With a tap of the 'enter' key, the scanner activated as a countdown appeared on the screen.

00:20

00:19

"It's time we rejoin the digital frontier." Eva stood up from the chair and approached the scanner, glancing back at John. "Are you coming?"

John raised an eyebrow but followed Eva, joining her inside the scanner.

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

00:00

VIRTUALIZATION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED

The scanner closed and a ring of light traveled up John and Eva's bodies before a flash of light engulfed them both.