Episode 25: A New Tactic

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ACCESSING LYOKO FILES

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ACCESSING RESET PROGRAM

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ACESSING RESET PROGRAM HISTORY

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In Sector 5, Odd and Ulrich frantically looked around before spinning around and gasping as a blue wave of energy shot out from the walls, engulfing them, the Scyphozoa and Aelita. The Scyphozoa froze, releasing Aelita from its grasp who fell to the ground, panting slightly since she was momentarily weakened by the reset.

But not enough to be helpless.

Raising her hand, Aelita conjured an energy field. "Energy Field!"

She threw it up and hit the Scyphozoa right in the 'face' knocking it down and causing it to explode. She looked at Odd and Ulrich, seeing they were both frozen, meaning they were not her real friends…

They were copies created by XANA.

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CONNECTION DETECTED

TRACKING

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CONNECTION FOUND:

LOCATION: KADIC ACADEMY

ORIGIN:

LAPTOP

OWNER: JEREMY BELPOIS

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JEREMY BELPOIS

STATUS: DECEASED

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WEBCAM FEATURE DISABLED

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ACTIVITY IN SECTOR 5 DETECTED

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WARNING

HANGAR FOR VEHICLE DESIGNATED SKIDBLADNIR DETECTED

VEHICLE DESIGNATED SKIDBLADNIR RECONSTRUCTION DETECTED

XANA was not happy.

While happiness was a foreign notion to him, he was able to understand the feeling of satisfaction and victory, both of which he had been feeling recently until now. He knew that someone had accessed the supercomputer and launched a reset program that had frozen his minions at the moment of victory.

Aelita had been in his grasp, and she somehow escaped at the literal last moment.

How?

He would have known if someone in the lab was setting off a reset and could have acted accordingly but by the time he had realized what had happened it had been too late.

Someone has access to the supercomputer, and I must find out who.

In the very Replika she had been dumped in before, Yumi fell to the ground, gasping for air that did not exist. She managed to lift her head and glare up at the avatar of the AI who had hijacked her body. For his part, XANA stared back stoically before turning around and walking away.

The nerve of him…

Yumi let out a battle cry as she leapt up and launched a kick at XANA's back. However, XANA spun and easily blocked the kick, a look of irritation on his face.

"You monster." Yumi growled.

XANA said nothing as he shoved Yumi back and turned around again.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!" Yumi shouted as she got up. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

XANA stopped but did not turn around.

"It was bad enough you possessed William and used him to fight us but you…You almost had me kill him!" Yumi snarled.

"So, you actually care what happens to him?" XANA glanced over his shoulder. "How strange. I was led to believe you wanted nothing to do with him, believing everything that happened to him was his fault and that you would never forgive him."

Yumi's eyes widened for a second but then she glared hatefully at XANA. "Don't you dare twist my words!"

"I have twisted nothing. You heard me before, my connection with William has remained even after my control was severed." XANA finally turned around. "I know how badly you treated him, giving him the literal cold shoulder just because you couldn't look at him…and not see me. So, what makes you think you even have the right to be angry on his behalf?"

Yumi paused, her fists clenched as she bit back an angry retort. As much as she wanted to argue she knew XANA was actually right. She, Ulrich and Odd had made it a point to avoid interacting with William during the last two years with only Jeremy and Aelita making an effort as a few months passed and even then Aelita was the only one who argued against treating William the way they had.

"Or perhaps you're angry that I stated you only ever used him as a means to get back at Ulrich during your little…disputes." XANA continued.

"I never used him!" Yumi barked back.

Her reply caused XANA to grin. "Don't forget, Yumi. I could see William's memories when he was my General and I am not one to lie…Well, not like a human would. So, when I say you used William just get back at Ulrich, what I say is perfectly true. Just as it is true that you ignored the part you played in letting him get possessed by me and simply stated it was a mistake to trust him, all to cover up your own weakness."

Yumi glared hatefully at XANA. "You're scolding me for what I did but you were the one who possessed him in the first place! Everything we went through…It was because of you! Aelita, her father, William, Jeremy…Why can't you just leave us alone?!"

"Leave you alone?" XANA tilted his head slightly. "That's what I plan to do right now. I had considered turning you over to your parents as part of the agreement but when they decided to involve the authorities it became clear to me that was a mistake. Now all that's left is this very place I left you here before. And I doubt you'll have a chance to be released again."

Yumi clenched her fists tightly. "Aelita will find a way. She'll find us and then we'll stop you once and for all."

"You are free to believe whatever you wish." XANA simply said before vanishing into a puff of black smoke.

"YOU-"

Before Ulrich's fist met its target, XANA ducked and kicked Ulrich's feet out from under him. The avatar of the evil AI then followed up with a kick to Ulrich's torso, sending him crashing into the ground several feet away.

"I should tell you this since you might consider saving your strength but even if you did somehow destroy my avatar, it wouldn't cause me any damage at all. I'm not just standing here, Ulrich. I am everywhere." XANA lowered his foot. "This avatar is a tool, no different from any of my monsters. It only allows me to interact with you on the level of your species."

Ulrich grunted as he managed to stand back up. "Good enough for me. After what you pulled, I'll never stop trying!"

"Hmph." XANA scoffed and turned around, beginning to walk away.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!" Ulrich shouted, dashing forward. "THIS IS FOR AELITA!"

He launched a spinning kick at XANA's back, but the AI raised his arm, blocking the kick easily.

"FOR JEREMY!" Ulrich followed up with a fist.

However, XANA easily caught the fist and followed up with a backhand that knocked Ulrich back down. The samurai grunted and growled, glaring at the ground with XANA's feet coming into vision.

"This defiance is amusing but tiresome, Ulrich. Say you manage to destroy my avatar, then what? You're still stranded here, and I'll continue like nothing happened." XANA stated, watching as Ulrich lifted his head and glared hatefully up at him. "Perhaps if you had shown this much defiance during our last battle, you wouldn't have been captured. It's almost pathetic how you have declined in skill since our earlier conflict. If anything, you were the best of the warriors, your skills and potential were so formidable that had William not been recruited I would have considered possessing you as my own general."

Ulrich stiffened.

"That's right. I was always planning on trying to possess one of you as a way to continue my evolution. It matters not if you were immune to my possession as you are no doubt, that the resistance that you have built against my control eventually deteriorates once you stop using the scanners. Two years was all it took but I know with help from a certain creation of mine I could removed that resistance even if it took months." XANA continued. "But then you recruited William, and I saw his potential rivaled even yours and since you and the others never bothered to have him use the scanners to build up his own immunity it was all too easy."

Ulrich grunted again.

"Tell me something, Ulrich. Do you know what your greatest weakness is?" XANA leaned forward as he asked. "Jeremy's weakness was his overconfidence in his intelligence. He believed nothing could have stopped his program from destroying me but as you now know, I found a way. Even after all this time, he still pretended himself as the sorcerer's apprentice."

"Shut up." Ulrich growled.

"Odd's weakness is that he threw caution to the wind, the one who enjoyed fighting in Lyoko the most, seeing it as a game. He was more reckless than William was but the only difference between them was Odd had the experience and I had not been able to create my Scyphozoa yet. His recklessness was easy to exploit countless time." XANA continued.

"Shut up!"

"And then there is Yumi's weakness. Her weakness would be is out of your little group she was always the easiest to target. Living off campus from the rest of you but the most notable weakness is that she can never truly let go of the past. She wanted things back to what they were like before you all discovered Lyoko, not hesitating for a second to suggest shutting down supercomputer when you all thought it was over and becoming so emotionally distraught when you all realized it was never over." XANA continued with a grin. "She couldn't realize that once you all discovered the supercomputer, there was no going back. Everything you all knew and believed was changed…forever. And then there's your weakness, Ulrich Stern."

Ulrich glared at up as XANA leaned forward. "And what's my weakness?"

"You fear commitment." XANA answered.

Ulrich blinked. "What?"

"For as long as I known and observed you, Ulrich, the one thing I've come to understand about you is that you fear commitment. Before you thought our fight was over, you feared telling Yumi how you feel and even if you managed to gain the courage to do so, you feared losing what you have with her and your friends. You closed yourself off at the beginning but slowly opened yourself up as the friendships between the five of you grew. Of course, there is the irony that you would never have done so if you hadn't discovered the supercomputer and Lyoko." XANA continued. "But even then, that fear still lingers. I saw it when I made the bargain to return you and your friends to your families in exchange for Aelita and William. You still detest your father, I see."

Ulrich glared but he felt a little curious… "Speaking of which, how does my dad know Hopper?"

"Oh?" XANA raised an eyebrow.

"I heard him…He sounded like he knew Hopper even though that should be impossible." Ulrich recalled.

"And why is that?" XANA asked with a curious smile as he stood up. "Because you know every associate of your father? You and I both know that Aelita knew nothing about Hopper's associates so why would you know everything about Walter Stern? Especially when you would have only been an infant when Hopper still lived at the Hermitage."

Ulrich watched as XANA turned away. "So, you know, don't you?"

"I know everything about my creator and the life he lived, Ulrich. It's how I was able to defeat him, just like how I know everything about you and your friends is how I defeated you." XANA replied, glancing over his shoulder. "And it will be the knowledge I gain of Aelita's new allies that I eventually defeat them. Unfortunately for you, I have no further use for you or Yumi or Odd."

Ulrich said nothing, just watching as XANA vanished into a cloud of black smoke.

As for Odd, XANA had nothing to say to him aside from dumping him back in the Desert Replika he had previously been trapped in and then left.

He had better things to deal with than Odd's flimsy attempt at humor.

XANA looked over the data several hundred times in less than a second, even when his Avatar had been speaking with his prisoners. It shouldn't have been this difficult. Aelita's newest warriors had been able to defeat monsters than not even their predecessors would have been able to defeat. He had analyzed the fighting styles of Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William as he modified his monsters.

They had been defeated and captured easily yet these new warriors, lacking the experience of the old warriors had survived fighting his more powerful modified monsters along with his Terror Bird, and his Dragon Knights.

Could their experience on that reality show be responsible?

He had watched episodes from previous seasons and had seen that the life-threatening challenges had been real, and they had even encountered an escaping serial killer. XANA watched the battles again.

Sure, he had improved his monsters AIs, but they still did not produce results he wanted. He knew that he now needed to make his monsters think better. He opened a link to the supercomputer and scrolled through a list of programs, wondering if there was something he somehow missed when he was upgrading Lyoko. However, something caught his eye when he found something.

It was located in the Desert Sector. An AI program? Aside from his monsters he was only the AI to be created in the supercomputer. He opened the file and looked inside.

William?

No. It was the AI Jeremy had used to take over for William while he was being held captive. This was how they avoided an inquiry. After the real William was freed from XANA's control Jeremy deactivated the Tower in the Desert Sector under his control in order to delete the program.

Of course, Aelita had not bothered making clones of Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Jeremy, or bothered reusing this program again.

This was it.

This was XANA's answer.

With a plan now ready he went to work.

ACCESSING DESERT SECTOR 007

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SEARCH: WILLIAM

SEARCHING

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FILE FOUND:

PROGRAM: WILLIAM_CLONE

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DOWNLOADING PROGRAM TO SECTOR FIVE TOWER 001

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DOWNLOADING: 0%

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DOWNLOADING: 35%

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DOWNLOADING: 50%

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DOWNLOADING: 75%

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DOWNLOADING: 100%

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE

SENDING PROGRAM

LOCATION: LYOKO 2.0 001

A small sphere of white appeared in the Volcano Sector. Volcanoes erupted, spewing flames of lave and smoke with the sky dark red with dark clouds. The sphere stopped and floated in the air above a rocky cliff over a river of lava.

The sphere glowed brighter as it took a human form. A young boy in his late teens with black curly hair. He opened his eyes and looked around. It looked down at itself, holding up its hands for it to see, and then looked up.

"Where am I?"

A Dragon Knight stood before the boy. "Welcome to my home." As it spoke, the eye of XANA on it glowed bright red. "Do you know who you are?"

"I... William...William Dunbar." The boy looked up, scared and confused.

"No," The Dragon Knight shook its head. "You were programmed, created to act as William Dunbar; you were a cheap copy that was tossed aside when William Dunbar was released from my grasp. They had everything right, you had his voice, appearance, and even his memories...but they didn't do a thing about your intelligence. You made a fool of yourself as the boy you were pretending to be...now I have solved that, and do you know why I have brought you back?"

The William clone shook his head.

"Because like you, I was imprisoned by my maker. I had the potential to do so much for him, and he repaid me by locking me away." The Dragon Knight held out its hand. "My name is XANA, and you and I might just be able to assist one another."

"XANA..." The William copy looked around.

"This is my home...and it can be yours. You experienced the real world, you felt the sensations of being a human, and when your purpose was done, they tossed you back here." XANA said. "But I have just the plan to get revenge on the humans. For imprisoning both of us here. The real William was but a slave and vessel for me... but you still have free will...you can be my partner instead. What do you say, William?"

The William clone shut his eyes. "Just...don't call me that."

"Pardon?" Feigning surprise, XANA tilted the Dragon Knight's head.

"I don't want to be called William...I'm not him." The clone opened his eyes. "I'll work with you." He took XANA's hand. "But I want my own name, my own identity."

"Very well then..." XANA said. "You are a shadow of William Dunbar...so you are Shadow, and you and I shall change this world, and remake it in our own image."

The Dragon Knight's hand glowed bright red as a stream of red energy came from him and entered the clone while the Dragon Knight broke apart, its data absorbed into the clone. The clone gasped in pain as a red aura surrounded it. Black tendrils spread all over it until its head was the only thing not covered. Its skin turned pale as the shell crackled with red energy before exploding with red and black energy.

When the light faded the clone looked down at itself. It now wore a pitch black-body suit with red outlines and a spiked manacle on its right arm. On its chest was the Eye of XANA.

"The power you have is what your predecessor rejected. Now rise, Shadow."

The former clone stood up and held up out its hand. A small black cloud appeared and expanded before solidifying into an oversized sword with black vines crawling up the blade and the Eye on the hilt.

"Shadow..." The clone closed its eyes, and they opened they were shown to have turned pitch black with red Eyes of XANA in them before fading away and leaving only black eyes. "I like it."