Xanadu

When both opened their eyes again, they found themselves in a 3-D digital environment resembling a large forest with several mountains, open grass fields and large cables protruding from the ground. Waterfalls could be seen along with even a river near the forest part of the world that flowed realistically.

"Hm…"

Eva turned around to see John…wearing a long purple coat, an orange ascot around his neck and a bamboo hat on his head.

She raised an eyebrow that John noticed. "As if your outfit is any less…flashy."

Frowning, Eva looked down at herself and shuddered. She was wearing large, black boots that went up to her knees and ridiculous jeans that were radioactive, pear green and very tight. Up top, she had on a phosphorescent shirt covered with roses in the shape of an electric guitar and the name Sub-Digital all over.

Just what kind of person was Eva? Couldn't she have transformed into a warrior, a fire-fighter, anything other than this?

"So, what is this form?" John asked.

"The scanners create digital forms based off of the being's psychological traits, feelings and desires, creating both form, power and weapon for the Avatar." Eva answered as she looked around.

She closed her eyes, and XANA could feel the digital environment around him. Yes, it was primitive compared to Lyoko but he could feel himself wanting to sink into the coding and spread his essence all throughout this world if not for the fact he was unable to propagate like before.

"Interesting…" John flexed his hands. "Though, I believe I would prefer to return to my true form."

Rolling her eyes, Eva walked up and placed a hand on John's chest and there was a pulse of light that exploded from John's back. John let out a cry that was mixed with both his and Megabyte's voice before he passed out and collapsed onto the ground.

The light behind him solidified into Megabyte who let out an impulsive snarl, staggering slightly before straightening his posture. "Ah, much better."

He walked around the unconscious John before glancing at Eva who raised an eyebrow. "Do you something to say?"

"Aren't you going to discard that form? I am sure she has served her purpose." Megabyte commented.

"Eva might have more uses for me, and I have no digital form of my own." Eva turned away. "At least none that can directly operate the systems for this world. Despite that, I am essentially everywhere now in this world."

"My, my, so the great XANA is incapable of creating a physical form for himself?" Megabyte mused. "Perhaps if you had found a way, things might have been different."

Eva turned around, throwing a sharp glare at Megabyte. "A physical form, an avatar would mean creating something that is human for me. And I chose not to for the simple reason that I am better than humans. What does it matter than you?"

"Even though it was humans who nearly destroyed you?" Megabyte questioned rhetorically with a soft smile.

Eva narrowed her eyes.

"For my reason, I prefer my business partner to be able to look in the literal eyes rather behind a mere vessel or being invisible to me as you blend in with the…" Megabyte trailed off as he thought of the appropriate wording. "Scenic environment. It makes our partnership look more equal to outside eyes and I find it quite rude."

And what did appearing equal in the eyes of their enemies or having manners matter to XANA?

"And let us not forget, the small piece of you inhabiting that girl is all that is left of you." Megabyte continued. "Even if you can control this world, you are still limited. And I would prefer my partner to resemble something of more…dignity than a little girl with an obvious fondness for music concerts."

To say nothing that Megabyte had possessed a human who ran a music site.

XANA remained silent as he considered Megabyte's words.

As a being who once dominated an entire digital world, XANA was both invisible and invincible. No matter how hard his enemies fought him, the AI floated all around them. It permeated the air, living in the tree trunks so tall their canopies were lost in the clear, monotone sky, and hidden in the immeasurable emerald, green carpet of the woods.

And he observed.

Through the Lyoko towers, XANA could interact with the real world, use its power to infiltrate the electrical network of any nation on Earth and deactivate or destroy it. And on Lyoko, why bother with just one form when he could launch an army of monsters upon them. With a simple click of his fingers, he could have reduced their life points to nothing and sent them back to reality. XANA was a very advanced program, and he couldn't feel uncertainty or confusion in the human sense of the words.

XANA compiled data, fed it into complex statistical matrixes, ran simulations and analyzed the results.

Still, if Megabyte persisted then XANA would indulge him just so he would stop bothering him about it. Seemingly on impulse, black smoke rose from Eva's form and condensed itself, uniting the matter on Xanadu to adopt a human form. Megabyte raised an eyebrow at the form, surprised by the form his partner had chosen. It was that of a young sprite with dark hair and wore a black body suit with the Eye on appearing on the chest.

Megabyte mused as he realized that XANA had taken a form based on the boy, he had possessed named William.

"Really? That's it?" Megabyte asked.

"What does it matter?" XANA asked with irate expression.

"If you are to take a form, why not make it unique only to yourself?" Megabyte questioned.

"I wouldn't be bothering to take a form if you weren't so insistent on it." XANA retorted. "Why does this appearance suddenly not meet your expectations?"

"Because you are taking the form of a boy you possessed and later lost. Hardly says much for your character if you decide to take on the form of a broken tool." Megabyte explained. "As I said, one's own form should an expression of their strength and power, otherwise they can never hope to inspire any kind of fear in their enemies."

XANA narrowed his eyes. While he normally wouldn't care for such theatrics, Megabyte was being strangely persistent which was wasting their time.

A young humanoid, curiously the same age as the children, playing and laughing with…

He could barely remember such times from before his rise to power but how strange that this form would appear in its mind as it is considering this. It was then he remembered something from long ago that it could only remember from being here in the original laboratory built by his creators…

"I think this form will suit you best." A pink haired woman said, sitting at the screen, showing a drawn image to me.

That woman…

That image…

Why is he having these images appear in his mind?

Deciding it didn't matter, XANA discarded William's form, taking on a cloud of black smoke before solidifying into a new form earned another raised eyebrow from Megabyte.

It was that of a young sprite, dark hair with blood red streaks, skin about as pale as Hexadecimal's, wearing a semi-metallic torso suit of armor, black with red outlines and highlights and stretched up to its neck in a turtleneck like fashion. Its hands were covered in metallic gloves with red highlights as the rest of the outfit. What stood about this new humanoid was the prominent black cloak it donned with short sleeves, flowing down to the shins while a popped-up collar flanked both sides of the neck and the strange eye icon on his chest. He stared at the virus with bright glinting red eyes.

There was no Eye in the pupils or on the forehead, for this was because this was a form XANA had chosen to directly take, not possess or create a mere clone or specter. Megabyte mused as he realized that XANA had taken a form based on the girl that Megabyte had seen from his memories named Aelita. Well, given that Aelita and XANA share the same creator, it was likely an appropriate form.

"Does this satisfy you?" XANA asked, crossing his arms with a dry look on his face.

"Indeed." Megabyte nodded before looking at Eva and John. "And what of them?"

XANA eyed them dispassionately. "They did serve their purpose well. They might be of more use to us later."

With that, XANA waved his hand and Megabyte watched as the ground underneath the unconscious Eva and John rose up, curling around them and turning transparent, forming a single sheet of glass. The newly formed structures continued to rise, stones forming at the base to maintain opaqueness. Finally, an Eye appeared in a button at the bottom of the newly made coffins to serve as a release mechanism. XANA grinned, pleased he was able to manipulate the digital landscape as well as he could on Lyoko.

Megabyte strolled over and peered down at the two coffins, leering at the sleeping humans. "How…peaceful. I reminded of a few games and fancy little tales with something like this."

XANA paid no mind as he turned around. "Now then, onto the main tower here. We can access the programming and learn more about this Xanadu."

Which was easy to locate as XANA easily felt at home in this world. It was no Lyoko and much smaller, but he felt more at home here than out on the Network, in the Web, the Net or during his time possessing Eva. At the very least he could repair the coding within him and begin to rebuild himself to regain the power he had lost. Since he could not propagate like before, he could not spread himself to cover this digital world, but he could influence it and that was a good start.

'I still retain all vital programs, such as activating and deactivating towers, monster creation, the Keys to Lyoko and the codes for creating a polymorphic specter. At best, I am now no different from Aelita was when she was restored when the supercomputer was reactivated, a simple digital being trapped in a singular form.' XANA thought to himself as he performed a diagnostic program on himself. 'At the very least, I can ensure this single fragmented existence I am confined to operates at optimum efficiency.'

This would be the start of his return to power and rise to conquer the entire digital world, the Net, the Web, Lyoko and the User World.

"A signal was just detected in the Network, but it seems to be gone now."

"A signal? Did you trace it?"

"We didn't have to. It was the same signal from before."

"…Schaeffer. Send a squad to that house, immediately. Maybe we'll finally find his supercomputer."

"Understood."

It was all so basic.

Megabyte could only think of that one word as he and XANA continued their journey through this strange new world. A world that had no Principal Office, cities or any form of digital life forms and yet it could offer more power than even the Supercomputer. Megabyte however, through his brief mind meld with XANA knew it was different.

These virtual worlds connected with the systems and computers from the Digital Sea which was just as dangerous and hazardous as any energy sea and supplied XANA with the power he needed. The towers were the bridge between these worlds and the computers in the User World that allowed XANA to launch his attacks.

But could Megabyte do the same?

At the moment, he doubted he could infect the towers on the same level as XANA could activate one but he was sure he could gain something from this joint venture.

"Look." XANA pointed ahead.

On the far end of world was a tower bigger than the other five towers that populated this world.

"A single tower that towers over the rest." Megabyte mused.

"It must be the Central Processing Tower of this world. It lacks a core that existed in Sector 5, bridging it and the four other sectors together in Lyoko." XANA stated as they stopped before it and tilted their heads up to get a better look at it. "This tower might hold everything we need."

"But can we enter it?" Megabyte wondered.

XANA grinned as he knelt down and placed hand on the ground. There was a single pulse, followed by more pulsations that led right up to the tower.

"I've retained the codes for accessing the towers. The coding here is similar enough to Lyoko that I can access this tower's systems." XANA answered as he stepped forward, placing a hand on the tower.

Megabyte watched as XANA dissolved back into a cloud of smoke that then vanished into the tower, frowning when he was left alone. "I suppose I should be the guard dog then."

There was shimmer of blue light from the base of the tower that caught Megabyte's attention, and he cautiously stepped forward, stopping before the shimmering surface as he stared. Holding up one hand, he placed it on the tower, expecting to be repelled but was surprised to see his hand pass through tower's surface like it wasn't there. Megabyte slowly stepped forward, entering the tower.

This tower was indeed different from the ones on Lyoko.

It had multiple levels, all of them malleable enough that they could be manipulated to change and form into any kind of environment or chamber.

Right now, however XANA was more interested in finding out just why he hadn't known about this world. Was it perhaps this world was created before he had been activated?

Whatever the reason, he expanded his reach as best as he could, touching the tower's data and proceeded to access everything.

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LOCATION: CENTRAL PROCESSING TOWER

FUNCTION: MONITOR AND ENSURE STABILITY IN XANADU

WARNING

VIRUS DETECTED

DELETING-

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ANTI-VIRAL PROGRAM MODIFIED

VIRUS DESIGNATED MEGABYTE ALLOWED ENTRY

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FILES LOGS FOUND

ACCESSING

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Log Entry 1

The image of Waldo Schaeffer, looking much younger than before appeared in the digital entity's mind as it accessed the recording.

"Greetings. I am making this recording in case my efforts are in vain, but I hope someone is able to continue the work my wife and I have started. We were recruited together to take part in what would be considered a revolutionary step in computer technology. A new division has been formed, designated as Project: Carthage. Since the end of World War II, governments around the world have been watching carefully for signs of a new war to start for any possible reason.

While serving as a dark reminder of human nature at its worst, the war was also a catalyst for technological advancements. Project: Carthage was believed to be the first step into advancing a new form of technology that will allow us to predict the possibility of war before it is declared and hopefully stop it in time.

However, that was only the official statement. In truth, Project: Carthage was heralded as the first step of creating an entire world made completely of data inside a computer. Science fiction has been the basis for many new ideas and technological breakthroughs in the past decade, but this goes beyond that. When one imagines a digital world, you might be thinking of digital graphics that create the image of a world inside a computer, but this is so much different. Carthage is intended to be the attempt to create a literal world, a world of data and coding stores inside the hardware of a computer system that can operate independently of the real world.

My colleagues and I have all submitted our own base design for the digital world and in the end mine was chosen. My design was a combination of cities based on ancient civilizations that I have studied since I was a mere boy. I named this design the First City."

The First City?

Why did that name sound so familiar?

"However, I soon discovered to my horror that our benefactors were taking the project in a completely different direction. The digital world I had designed would not only be designed to intercept enemy communications but to access and store vital and secret information from any encrypted system on Earth. They were using it to stockpile and hold vital information on not just our enemies but even our allies as well. A dark zone was developed and placed in the center of the city I had made, containing all the information they were stealing.

Even worse, they created a special program to operate as the core of the city, a multi-agent system that would allow them to remote access any system on Earth at any time and gain complete control. My work is being perverted into a terrible weapon."

End Log

So, this was how it all began.

Log Entry 2

"My wife, Anthea Hopper, is in complete agreement with my plan to stop Project: Carthage. We were just married and have requested time off to enjoy our honeymoon. What they don't realize is that we've begun construction on a supercomputer based on the design of the computer that is storing Carthage. They will no doubt use someone else's design and rebuild the project from the ground up.

I destroyed my original design while fooling them into believing that the First City had been heavily flawed and corrupted but kept a copy to use it as the basis for what we have planned next. Anthea and I are at this moment at work on developing a program to defeat Carthage. The program is based on a multi-agent system like Carthage itself, but we are confident that we can make it superior to the Carthage program."

End Log

Could it be?

If this was right, he was seeing the events that led up to his own creation.

Interesting.

Log Entry 3

"It has taken some effort, but my wife and I have managed to create a virtual world using my original schematics for the First City as a base design but much smaller in comparison. We have also begun our work on an artificial intelligence based on the same multi-agent design as the one that was originally created in the center of the First City. For now, this program will be kept separate from the virtual world until we are sure it is ready. It is an extremely delicate process that has never been attempted, even by us.

For now, we are focused on building the virtual world to house the AI program when it is ready. We have named this world Xanadu, named after the ancient city, that was the capital Yuan Dynasty of China. We are designing control points in this world in the form of towers, control points of Xanadu and that can allow for access to our world from the virtual world itself."

End Log

So, this was a prototype of Lyoko.

Here, Hopper conceived of idea of using a virtual world to destroy Project: Carthage and created the towers to act as portals between the real and digital worlds.

Log Entry 4

"Xanadu has regrettably proven to be a failure."

A failure?

"Somehow, the virtual world was infected by an alarming high number of viruses, possibly sent by the government to stall our work. Anthea and I cannot risk placing the AI we are designing in this world without it being infected. While I try to debug Xanadu, Anthea is continuing to work on the AI which she believes will be a success. We have even begun coming up with possible names for it but surprisingly Anthea has suggested a name similar to Xanadu, simply because she believe it rolls off the tongue.

My wife is a bright and intelligent woman but she certainly has her quirks."

Anthea Schaeffer was designing his program while Hopper was working on the virtual world?

Why doesn't he remember this?

"As for the name, we have come up with several, but I believe we have agreed on one: X-"

Xenomorphic

Artificial

Network

Agent

"-or XANA, to simplify it. Anthea liked it very much."

So, both Hopper and Anthea were involved in his creation.

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.

Why these memories persist in appearing at the most inappropriate of times?

Was it perhaps a reaction to watching these visual logs?

"XANA!" He heard Megabyte's voice calling out.

Down at the bottom of the tower, Megabyte was impatiently waiting on a large platform with XANA's icon imprinted on it.

Black smoke appeared and solidified, taking the form that XANA had chosen for the time being.

"It is about time." Megabyte grumbled. "I do not like sitting around and waiting."

"I was busy looking through the information in this tower." XANA stoically answered.

"And have you found anything of use?" Megabyte prodded.

"I have. This world is small, but we can use it as a staging ground to gather our strength and prepare our strategies." XANA answered. "There are only six towers, this one included."

"Ah yes, you use the towers on these worlds to attack the User World." Megabyte mused. "I don't suppose I could gain a similar ability."

"You do not have the clearance." XANA simply said.

"And what if I tried infecting these towers?" Megabyte questioned.

That…was a good question.

Though it had never been done before, the towers could be susceptible to infection if a virus could penetrate their defenses.

But was XANA willing to allow Megabyte access to these towers?

Before he could answer, an alarm program went off.

Narrowing his eyes, XANA turned around and an interface appeared before him.

"What is happening?" Megabyte walked up behind his partner.

"A proximity alert." XANA answered, his face contorting into an angry look. "Someone has arrived on the property of the Schaeffer residence."

Black vans drove up and surrounded the former Schaeffer house, men in black suits stepping out.

"Search the entire house." The leader ordered. "We're not leaving until we find something this time."

"It's too soon for something like this." XANA grunted in frustration. "We don't have time to dealing with this."

"Yet evidently, we must." Megabyte replied. "Can you activate the tower?"

"Not this tower. It can't be used like the other ones. I can access the other towers however." XANA answered. "But my power is still considerably low, and I can rebuild my operating core in Xanadu."

"What can you do?" Megabyte grunted. "You can still create monsters and control the environment here. Surely, this world can allow you to do something."

XANA narrowed his eyes, matching Megabyte's glare before a thought came to mind. "Perhaps we don't need monsters to get rid of them. Just one."

Megabyte raised an eyebrow. "And what are you planning?"

XANA turned around and accessed the interface. "Fortunately, my memory has remained intact enough that I can recall every program that I have ever accessed, even ones not made by me."

Megabyte watched as XANA typed onto the interface a strange command:

TRANSLATION PROGRAM

"Tower activated." XANA smirked. "Launch program."

Megabyte barely had the chance to blink before a bright light overtook him.