Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay, I need to take a really short hiatus from the story for exam week. I'll be back to writing on December 9th, hopefully putting out Phase 8 before Yule (this one is important!).

Phase Eight: Like Clockwork

The Lyoko warriors, especially Xandra, are reeling from Aelita's revelation, but continue to attempt to carry on a normal life...well, normal for them, at least. William begins to feel the strain of his grades and takes a temporary hiatus from Lyoko missions to ensure that he can help later. The mysterious Guardian returns with an offer Xandra can't refuse: to aid her in decrypting all her sealed data! The only catch? She needs to be on Lyoko to do so...but with XANA lurking on the network, a data recovery could quickly turn into an attempt at data destruction...

Take your time and don't rush. wink I also can't wait to see the sketch!

Project Xandra
Phase Eight: Like Clockwork

Xandra sat on the floor in the supercomputer room, her skirt gathered around her legs and her arms crossed. She drummed her fingers a bit, feeling antsy ever since Jeremy and Aelita called the others and told them to meet here after classes. It was nearly impossible to focus in classes when something this large was hovering over her head, and she completely skipped dinner from the nervousness. As a result, she was about twenty minutes early, and each one felt like a year. She felt like pacing, but stayed on the floor anyway. She tried to hum a couple tunes, but her nervousness turned all of them into fast-paced toe-tappers, and she gave up on that, too. Five minutes before the specified time, people began to stream in. Ulrich was first, followed by Yumi, then William, and finally Aelita and Jeremy.

“Where’s Odd?” Jeremy asked, looking around at the group, including Xandra on the floor.

“When is he ever on time?” Ulrich retorted, rolling his eyes slightly, “Let’s just get started. We can fill him in whenever he shows.”

“Why did we even have to come here?” Xandra asked, obviously annoyed, “Why couldn’t you just tell me in my room instead of making me wait for hours?” She stressed the last word, glaring at the pair.

“I told you already,” Aelita responded, “you wouldn’t like what you hear, and we didn’t want someone overhearing or barging in on us. The factory’s the only safe place we have.”

“Besides,” Jeremy continued, “I had a little more data-crunching to do to finally figure the whole thing out.”

“What whole thing?” Yumi asked, “Mind clueing the rest of us in?”

“Who, or what, Xandra is.”

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Xandra demanded, “You know what I am. I’m your friend, your ally. Isn’t that obvious?”

“It’s a little more...fundamental than that,” Aelita responded, “we’re not talking about the nature of your loyalties...we’re talking about you. Xandra...your composition data is abnormal.”

“So?” Xandra asked, her arms still folded, though anyone could tell she was a bit apprehensive. She had never seen Aelita so serious, or saddened, ever since she met the girl. Not to mention an anomaly in something as serious sounding as “composition data” could never really be a good thing.

“Aelita, stop trying to sugar coat it,” Jeremy said at last after watching her beat around the bush, “just tell her, already.”

“Yeah,” William chimed in, “if you had taken that long in filling me in on what I did while I was XANA-fied, I would have gone insane!”

“Not to mention I have to get home soon,” Yumi said, looking at her mobile, “my folks will kill me if I miss curfew again.” Aelita looked between the four of them as they each pressured her to just spit it out until she just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Xandra’s an android!” She blurted out before clasping her hands over her mouth. She wanted to start slow, but it just all came out at once, and everyone’s wide-eyed gaze immediately turned from Aelita to Xandra, who sat there silent for a moment, her arms at her sides. No one said a word, until the elevator came down and opened to reveal Odd.

“So, what’s the big emergency?” He asked with a smile on his face before noticing everyone staring at Xandra. “...I missed something, didn’t I?” Xandra suddenly burst out laughing, wrapping her hands around her stomach which started to hurt after a moment of the loud outburst.

“Wow, you guys really had me going there!” She said, wiping away a small tear. “I didn’t know you had a prankster in you, Jeremy! Were you in on it too, Odd?”

Odd tilted his head to the side. “In on what?” He asked, completely perplexed by her behavior; usually people laughed AFTER his jokes, not before he even put together the punchline. Xandra calmed down slightly, still chuckling a bit as she tried to explain.

“This whole ‘I’m a robot’ thing,” she giggled, putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head with a smile.

“She said android,” Jeremy shot back sternly, “and we’re not kidding.” Xandra’s arms dropped to her side as her entire body language shifted from amusement to shock. The others had remained silent in all this, and even Odd couldn’t find something to say.

“Wait!” He said at last, “Don’t robots—“
“Androids.”
“Whatever. Don’t they use electricity? Xandra’s eaten with us for weeks now! We’ve watched her!”

“Yeah!” Xandra blurted out, “And you’d think I’d know something like that.”

“You didn’t know you were missing for 14 years,” Jeremy retorted.

“This is different!” Xandra insisted, “There’s a difference between memories and self-awareness!”

“I have hard data that says otherwise, Xandra,” he shot back, obviously getting angry at her denial.

“Computers can malfunct—“

“I saw it!!” Aelita said at last, silencing the two before taking a breath herself. “Xandra, when that officer grazed you...there was metal underneath. That’s why I hesitated to leave.” Xandra’s face lost what little color it had at this point as she collapsed to the ground. Aelita reached forward for a moment before stopping herself, placing her hands on her hips and looking angrily at Jeremy, William, and Yumi.

“NOW do you see why I didn’t want to rush?” Aelita scolded, “That’s a little much to take all at once.”

“I didn’t think she’d actually faint,” Jeremy replied as he gestured to her, “then again, I haven’t been able to crack any of her programs. I have to say, though...she’s quite convincing.”

“...Is that what you thought of me...?” Aelita asked quietly, clenching her fists, “That I was just convincing?”

“Aelita, you’re different,” Jeremy said weakly in defense, realizing why Aelita had befriended the android so quickly and trusted her so completely. She could see herself in Xandra, someone who had their life shattered to pieces without her knowledge. Still, with Aelita, she found out that she was truly human...which made this scenario the exact opposite.

“No matter which way things go, it still takes adjustment! It took me almost the whole year before my memory was restored to get used to being on Earth!” She said annoyed before turning to the others, who had kept out of the argument since Aelita and Jeremy started going at it. “Ulrich, Odd, can you take Xandra back towards the dorms? William, Yumi, you’re both free to go. We can discuss our next steps later.”

Ulrich and Odd each provided a shoulder to Xandra, who was coming to but still a little out of it, and guided her to the elevator, Yumi and William following close behind. As the elevator door slammed shut and sent the five upwards, Aelita sank to her knees, shaking a bit as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Aelita, I—“

“I wonder what’s worse,” she said at last, holding back her tears, “to find that you had a life, or to find that you don’t have one at all...?” Jeremy knelt down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“But she does have one,” Jeremy replied, trying to comfort her, “fourteen years that she remembers...we know that’s all true. We just need to piece together what happened...just like we did with you.” Aelita turned her head to him, grinning a bit through her misty eyes. “Come on...maybe we can work a bit more on decryption before curfew.”


A couple days passed, and the group found themselves returning to their normal lives. Aelita and Jeremy had made up and were again parading around like the couple they were, Odd had returned to his jokes, and Ulrich had a sarcastic comment to battle every last one. William still hung out with them, asking for the latest on Lyoko between classes while Yumi continued her commutes to and from the campus. Even Xandra seemed to return to normal, though her friends could tell that it was come way of coping with what she was told. After classes, the group hung out in the snowy courtyard, talking about classes, exams, and what all of them were doing for the holiday break. Out of the corner of his eye, Ulrich noticed Xandra over at the mailbox again, depositing a letter to God-knows-where.

“Still hoping to reach your parents?” He asked casually as she walked over. She pulled her glove back on, having taken it off to pull the envelope out of her pocket, and shook her head with a faint grin. It was the first genuine show of emotion they had seen out of her since the talk, so it attracted a bit of attention.

“Let me guess,” Jeremy said, stuffing his hands into his pockets, “The Williams family?”

“M-hm,” Xandra replied with a nod behind her scarf, “If they had that old picture of us lying around, maybe they have some more stuff in the attic. It could help me find out what happened.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Aelita replied happily, “did you ask them to send it to you?”

“No...I’m going up there for holiday break. Won’t it look suspicious if I stay here when my parents are supposedly close by in England?” She already knew the answer to the questions, which is why she had sent the letter in the first place. If anywhere was going to have answers for her, it would likely be her old homestead. She could see that Aelita was mildly disappointed that she was leaving, but it wouldn’t make sense to stay behind for the holidays. She thought for a moment before coming up with a plan. “Hey! Why don’t you come with me?”

“Can’t,” Jeremy and Aelita replied in unison before Jeremy continued, “If XANA attacks during the break, we need her around to deactivate the tower. Besides, my dad said she could celebrate with us.” Aelita’s eyes lit up as Jeremy smiled at her; he had told her he had a surprise, but she never imagined this! She threw her arms around him, almost toppling him to the snow as the others couldn’t help but smile. They recalled the last time Aelita was left at the school during a break; it was both safer and happier for her to spend the holidays with Jeremy. It seemed that everyone finally had someone to spend the holidays with, though the burden of keeping XANA at bay would fall mostly to Jeremy, Aelita, and Odd. It would be tough over the holidays, but it was the only option when half of their group planned to go abroad. The dining hall unlocked its doors, and Odd was the first one in line, followed closely by Xandra and the rest of the group. William hoped to spend the evening studying for exams, while Yumi wanted some time to hang out with them before running home for her own dinner. Odd was just excited at the menu, while Xandra was starving from skipping lunch.

As they left to return to the dorms, Jeremy waved to Xandra to wait for him. The trio walked slowly together, discussing the usual topic du jour: decrypting Xandra’s data. She had grown somewhat annoyed with all the constant drilling, though she knew that they were only trying to help.

“I can’t seem to make any headway at all,” Jeremy commented, obviously frustrated, “your scanned data doesn’t hold any clues. The only thing I can think of now...is to try a more direct approach.” Xandra froze before glaring at him.

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” She said with her arms crossed. “What if you screw something up?”

“If I can handle that supercomputer, I don’t think you would be as difficult.”

“Are you calling me shallow?” She quipped before continuing towards the dorms, “Look, I want to know just as badly as you...but I refuse to let you try and hack me. I don’t even know how you’d access it. Goodnight, Jeremy, and good luck.”

“But—“

“Goodnight, Jeremy!” She said, slamming the door to her room in their faces.

“You really have a way with women,” Aelita said with a snicker as they headed for her room, “but it’s alright. I’m sure we can figure it out without taking such drastic measures. I have faith in you, and I’m sure she’ll help in any other way possible.” She pecked him on the cheek before retreating to her room, leaving him in the hallway. Jeremy took his time wandering back to the room; he had focused a lot on that decryption for days now, and it seemed unnatural that he’d make basically no progress. He had practically mastered the supercomputer, and that was one of the most sophisticated in the world. Who could possibly have more know-how than him? Well, Franz Hopper, obviously...

“What would he do...?” Jeremy asked himself, flopping in his chair for another evening of data analysis. He thought back to Hopper’s love of myth and looked over to his bookshelf focusing on the row dedicated to the mythology books he had collected since discovering the supercomputer. It wasn’t many, but they had helped him create codes and programs before...he pulled one off and began flipping through it, trying various words and names as keys.

Xandra sat at her computer, as well, typing in her digital journal. She started keeping careful records ever since the strange dreams started, and now that she was trying to piece together her past, every detail seemed necessary, from her favorite foods to any flashes of memory she could pull out of her mind. She considered it her own way of helping Jeremy, even if she couldn’t do anything sophisticated like program computers or hack herself. The moment she thought of the notion, she couldn’t help but laugh, wondering what an attempt to hack herself would look like to a bystander.

“Ridiculous,” she said to herself, answering her own question and shutting down the journal, opening up a game of FreeCell and continuing her quest to beat all the games.

Guardian_37269: Xandra.
MythMistress347: WTF is wrong with you? Can’t you just say hi??
Guardian_37269: No time.
MythMistress347: You never have time. What is it now? Is XANA attacking again?
Guardian_37269: No. No XANA. I want to help you.
MythMistress347: Help me? With what?
Guardian_37269: Finding out who you are.
MythMistress347: ...Stalker, much?
Guardian_37269: Go to the factory, and I will help you find yourself.

Xandra stopped her frantic typing as the Guardian mentioned the factory. She trembled slightly; how would they know about the factory? The only people who knew were the team...and XANA.

MythMistress347: You’re XANA, aren’t you? You bloody b*****d, do you think I’m stupid?
Guardian_37269: Not XANA. No time to explain. Come or be left in the dark.
Guardian_37269 has signed off.

Xandra sat in the chair with her arms crossed; there was no way she was going to walk into one of XANA’s traps like that. Still, Guardian had saved her and Aelita from the spiders...if he were truly XANA, wouldn’t he let the spiders take them? She gave an exasperated sigh and threw on her jacket, hat, and scarf, keeping the XANA signal on speed dial just in case it was a lure. She listened against her door into the hallway; Jim was making his rounds, and there would be no safe exit for a while. She looked over to the window, gazing at the tree outside...could she make it from the windowsill? With a strong pull, she opened the window, shivering at the cold blast of air from the outside. She glanced down for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm her nervousness. She was only on the second floor of the building; even if she dropped, it wouldn’t be that bad. She shook her head, not even wanting to think of failure, and climbed out the windowsill, holding on to the eaves to keep herself from falling before she even tried. Her foot slid on some ice, and she gave a short yelp from behind her scarf before falling a couple feet, grasping the windowsill to prevent herself from dropping two stories to the ground below. She cursed under her breath as she looked beneath her, seeing the lights on in the room below; if she just dropped down, she ran the risk of someone seeing her sneak out, and the last thing she needed was more trouble with the principal. There had to be another way; she was running out of time in her golden opportunity...

Jeremy typed away at the computer until he turned to another story that seemed to have something to do with Xandra. He read through it, giving a satisfied nod before typing it into the encryption key box.

Code: Galatea
Level 1 Decryption OK

“Eureka,” he said with a smile before looking into what he found...

Xandra spaced out for a split second as the Galatea code took effect, just long enough for her hands to lose grip and send her dropping to the ground. When she snapped back to awareness, she was sitting on the snowy ground with a sore bottom. Without even thinking about what happened, she sprang to her feet and dashed into the woods. In five minutes, she was in the elevator, descending to the computer, holding her phone close to her heart. As she stepped out into the room, she found it deserted, but the computer was running. On the screen was a single window with an arrow pointing downwards. She looked down at the keyboard, noticing nothing, and realized what he was asking for. She shook her head with a sigh and placed her mobile phone on the terminal seat, turning to the ladder and climbing downward. As she disappeared beneath the floor, another window popped up...a delayed virtualization program.

Jeremy looked over the data; it was very basic in nature, which he expected for Level 1 data. Most of it he already knew, which annoyed him somewhat, but there were a couple very interesting points. He found a minor portion of her schematics of major importance; the two large bracelets she always wore stored a pair of cables...one was a charger cable, the other one for data transfer. If she ever volunteered herself to his attempts, at least he knew the access point. The other was her basic statistics file.

“Name, Alexandra Thompson...model, Galatea prototype...date of creation...what?!” As he jotted it down quickly, just in case shutting things down would make him lose the current decryption, an alert flashed on his computer screen. A virtualization had just taken place, but he was still sitting in his room. His first instinct was to call Aelita.

“Mm? Jeremy, I had just fallen asleep,” Aelita said with a yawn, propping herself up on one elbow, “What is it?”

“I was just making sure you’re safe; there was a virtualization on Lyoko.”

“Have you called the others?”

“Not yet; why would XANA want...Xandra!” He said, hitting his forehead, “Why didn’t I realize it before?”

“Jeremy?”

“Aelita, I might need you at the factory; XANA may be trying the same trick twice! I’ll get Ulrich and Odd on the way, if I can get past Jim.”

“O-okay...see you there, Jeremy.”

Xandra dropped to the floor in Sector Five and immediately ran into the nearest corridor, wondering what direction she was supposed to be taking, since she had never entered this area before. As she ran along, she suddenly heard a voice in her mind.

Let me guide you...
How the??
We’re on a digital reality...communicating with your inner computer translates to telepathy.
Fine. But if you’re sending me to a trap, I’ll kick your arse.

She could feel subtle pullings in the directions she was supposed to go, and after a minute or so, she was led outside of the sphere and onto a platform. She looked around, taking in the view before something similar to a giant jellyfish appeared behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to it, immediately pulling her kama out of her belt. “I knew it,” she muttered to herself angrily, turning to face it. As she plunged her kama handle into her bracelet, the voice once again called to her.

Calm yourself, Xandra. I’m afraid this is the only way to access your data remotely.
Remotely...? You’re not here??
I cannot. XANA is too dangerous; if he finds out about our attempt, he’ll do all he can to stop us.
O-okay...
We don’t have time for this. Put away your weapons, and we’ll get started.

With a bit of hesitation, Xandra followed his directions, placing her kama back in her belt and calmly allowing herself to be taken up in the tendrils of the Scyphozoa.

Will this hurt...?
You won’t feel a thing. Let’s begin.

“What do you mean there is no tower?” Ulrich said angrily as they dropped down into the sewer.

“It was a virtualization, but there’s no activated tower, at least when I last checked. I think Xandra’s there,” Jeremy replied, grabbing his scooter.

“Why? How?” Aelita replied, her scooter close behind.

“No idea, but I think I understand what XANA wants with our bionic woman,” Jeremy explained, “It was so obvious, I completely overlooked it. If Xandra’s an android, some portion of her must be run—“

“By a computer!” Aelita finished with a gasp. “She’s easier to keep under his control.”

“Exactly, which is why we have to make sure he doesn’t have that chance,” Jeremy said plainly, stopping at the ladder and climbing to the surface. It was late at night, so there was no need to be stealthy about surfacing. After helping the other two up and replacing the manhole cover, Jeremy, Ulrich, and Aelita ran into the factory, taking the elevator down to the computer terminal. As he feared, the computer was on, and on the chair was Xandra’s mobile.

“Head down to the scanners, you two,” Jeremy commanded, pushing Xandra’s phone aside and taking a seat, “I’ll figure out where she is...”

As they started working to decrypt her data, Xandra remained as calm as she could be. She had lost all sensation in her body, as though she were simply floating in nothingness, though her mind seemed to be running at a mile a minute. She had her eyes closed, and she could almost see flashes of data against her eyelids as the strange jellyfish worked through her.

So, who the heck are you, anyway?
...God.
Ha, ha. Glad to see you have a sense of humor.
Considering that I made you who you are, it’s not far from the truth.
Just don’t expect me to start worshipping you or any...wait, you made me? I-is that you, Dad???

“Virtualization,” Jeremy stated clearly, inputting the command. Aelita and Ulrich dropped to the middle of Sector Five’s Arena area. “According to the log, this is where she landed. I’m still pinpointing her location.”

“How would she end up here without XANA?” Aelita mused, “She’s never been to this sector, and we’ve never shown her how to virtualize.”

“For all we know, he could have deactivated the tower after he got her here,” Ulrich guessed, pulling out his katana.

“I told you, there was no—“ Jeremy stopped in mid-sentence as his SuperScan picked up a tower that had just activated, “tower...geez, we can’t catch a break! At least I found her coordinates. Here’s where you’ll find her; hurry!”

I’m not who made you...I’m who made you who you are.
Again with the riddles! You’re obviously not Dad...who are you?

As soon as she asked, a jolt of pain washed over her entire body for an instant, causing her to stiffen. She called out to Guardian, but got no response...twice, three times, and still nothing.

Look, I’m sorry. I had no idea you were so sensitive about your identity.
Who do you think you’re talking to? I have no qualms about revealing myself.

The new voice chilled her to the bone, and she remembered what he had told her before...If XANA found out, he’d try to stop them. She tried to open her eyes, but she still found herself unable to move. She couldn’t even move her hand the two inches to her belt, let alone fight it off.

Get out of my head!!
Make me, the voice replied smugly, you can’t even move. XANA was right; she hadn’t even had the sense to call up Jeremy or Aelita to come with her on this excursion, and now her stupidity was going to cost her...

“Found her!” Ulrich said at last, stopping his Overbike at the opening to the platform, “And guess who else?” With a single throw, he sliced through the tendrils holding Xandra, causing her to fall off the edge of the platform and into Aelita’s arms.

“I’ve got her,” she called up as she flew back to the platform, laying her on the floor, “do you have a tower location?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jeremy said with a smile, “I just overrode it. He wasn’t trying very hard this time...I wonder why.”

“Because he ran,” Xandra said weakly, sitting up, “he ran away and hid from XANA.”

“What? Who?” Jeremy asked, clearly confused. Aelita looked at her friend and smiled.

“Jeremy, I think she’s talking about—“

“Guardian_37269,” Xandra recited plainly, “the same one who told me about the spiders.”

“37269,” Jeremy repeated, typing it into the computer’s decipher program. It came up with five letters: F-R-A-N-Z. “You’re right, Aelita!”

“Hello?” Xandra said loudly, crossing her arms as she stood in Sector Five, “I’ve had enough of the dodgy, cryptic stuff today! Mind telling me just what’s going on??”

“Your Guardian is Franz Hopper, my father!” Aelita said gleefully, taking Xandra’s hands, “If he can reach out to us, then we can definitely recover him!” Xandra stared at Aelita blankly before freeing one of her hands and pulling out one of her kama. With a swift stroke, she devirtualized herself, emerging in the scanner room, with Ulrich and Aelita close behind.

“Why me?” She said angrily. “If he’s your father, shouldn’t he be talking to you??”

“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Aelita replied calmly, “maybe there’s something in your data that can help us.”

“My data...he WAS trying to decrypt it...b-but that’s no excuse! He should have told you first!! Some father he is,” Xandra shot back, walking out of the elevator to Jeremy. Before she reached the chair, she sat down on the floor, flipping open a small hatch on her right bracelet and pulling out a data cable, plugging it into the supercomputer itself. As soon as she stopped to think about it, she blinked momentarily before grinning and shaking her head.

“Looks like it worked,” Xandra said with a smile, “For a rotten father, Franz is quite the computer whiz.”

“You warm up to him,” Aelita said with a smirk, sitting next to her, “When I first got reacquainted with him, I hated him for putting me in that computer, but it turned out he was protecting me. Maybe he’s doing the same to you.” Xandra just looked up at Jeremy.

“Well, Einstein, let’s see what we’ve got now.”

“I actually decrypted a little bit earlier,” Jeremy confessed, opening a file. Xandra thought back, which took a lot less time than she thought it would, and suddenly got a flash of insight.

“It wouldn’t have happened around 9:46 and 17 seconds, would it?” She asked before blinking at the bizarre precision of her time-sense.

“Umm...I think so. Why?”

“I was sneaking out of the dorms then, and I spaced out for a split second. Your code must have taken priority over my other functions.” Xandra was really starting to irk herself with her robo-jargon. “So, what did you find?”

“Well, your bracelets’ functions, for starters. The left one is for charging; you could, with a decent night’s ‘sleep’, go half a day, if I had to guess.”

“Great, now Odd can get even more of your lunch. Maybe he’ll stop stealing from me,” Ulrich quipped, looking at the file over Jeremy’s shoulder.

“The really interesting thing is that you have a sort of birthday built in, a date of creation. The only thing is it doesn’t match your actual birthday at all,” Jeremy said, gesturing to the screen and showing the discrepancy, “It’s much later...now that I look at it, it’s closer to the date you went missing.”

“Well, that begs the question...which one is right?” Aelita asked, looking over to Xandra, “You remember this whole life that fits the medical records, yet we know you’re an android with a completely different creation date. It’s a total paradox.”

“Can’t you talk about this tomorrow? It’s getting late,” Ulrich suggested, already standing in the elevator. Xandra nodded, pulling her cable from the computer and retracting it into her bracelet. Without saying another word, she stood up and joined Ulrich in the elevator. She stared down at her bracelets again, still finding it hard to believe how quickly she was getting used to her newfound knowledge. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder through those outbursts...where did she stop and the android begin?

Don't quote this...

You're right...but how?

Phase 9: Digital Underground

Jeremy decides to capitalize on the decrypted data, analyzing it in every free moment he can, much to Xandra's annoyance. Despite the minor identity crisis brought about by her new reality, she resolves to act as human as possible, a difficult task as her android data begins to integrate with her life. Exams are around the corner, but Jeremy decides to finish what they started earlier and take out the replica he tracked down. The destination: London's Tubes!

Also, I have a rough sketch of Xandra completed. I haven't even tried her Lyoko form yet, but I still have time before I have access to a scanner. I'm not the best artist in the world, so you'll have to forgive me. (EDIT: I may have ruined it... crying )

It's fine; I fixed it. I just ended up redrawing the face about ten or fifteen times until I got it right. ^_^ I'm okay with her now. I'm going to work on her Lyoko form next time I find myself with the time. The only problem with the sketch now is that it's on lined paper. Hope y'all don't mind.

I've got the first page of Digital Underground finished, and I hope to work a little more on it after Giftmas. It'll be a good one, I promise.

Project Xandra
Phase 9: Digital Underground

“Fascinating,” Jeremy commented, looking through the data after another day of classes, “So complex, so lifelike...”

“Don’t you have exams to study for or something?” Xandra asked, sitting on the floor with her data cable plugged into Jeremy’s computer. She had been in the same spot for a good half hour as he continued to peruse her schematics. At that point, she was starting to wonder if she preferred his suspicions to his wonder and curiosity.

“If I hadn’t failed that entrance exam on purpose, I would be at a highly advanced school. The exams are a piece of cake,” he said absently, moving from system to system.

“You could always help bail William out.”

“I was rather reluctant to bring him into the group in the first place. Besides, he’s smart enough to get himself out of that little mess. We have more important things to attend to...”

“Like seeing how I work?” Xandra grumbled, “XANA’s still out there, and so is that Hopper guy, and you sit here looking over my circulatory system!”

“It’s pure genius, though!” Jeremy whined in defense, “instead of just having oil sitting in your joints and building up, they re-created a human circulatory system to keep it moving and preserve the parts longer. I haven’t even looked into your central processors yet.”

“That’s lovely to know, Jeremy, but I think I can wait for AFTER we get the God-wannabe out of the network and shut down XANA’s operation,” she reminded him, unplugging her cable to his dismay, “Besides, I’m feeling a bit antsy.”

“Well, I guess there is that one replica we never got around to destroying,” he admitted, bringing it up on the screen, “but something’s different about it...it’s not a copy of any of the sectors, or even all of them. It looks different, and I don’t like it.”

“Maybe he’s starting to discover new permutations of the data, rearranging them to give him some sort of home-field advantage,” Xandra said before slapping the back of her hand for yet another android moment. No matter what she was actually made of, she resolved to continue acting, and especially talking, like the human she considered herself to be. Jeremy watched her leave the room before him and was certain that Aelita would have smacked him for it. He had his reasons, though...it wasn’t too long ago when they built ASIMO, hailed as the first walking robot, and they were just getting started on facial expression as well as object identification. However, Xandra’s creation date was listed in the early to mid 90s, which meant she pre-dated all of it and yet was more sophisticated than the latest discoveries. It shouldn’t have surprised him, considering he spent hours a day on a supercomputer that shouldn’t exist, but every time he stopped to think about it, the same question resurfaced in his mind. What other technological advances were being hidden from the masses, and why?

Xandra and Jeremy arrived at the usual spot, meeting the rest of the group. Aelita and Odd had just finished their last class, while Ulrich came back from the soda machine, holding two cans for himself and Yumi. William was nowhere to be found, but with exams just around the corner, no one found that surprising. Even with the extra credit he did, his only hope for salvaging his grades and staying in the school was to do very well on every last one of his exams. The others wouldn’t admit it, but they, too, were worried about the exams that were only a couple days away.

“So? What did you find?” Aelita asked, having spent the lunch hour updating everyone on the decryption process, though she was almost sure they didn’t understand half her jargon.

“He was too busy admiring my schematics to delve any deeper,” Xandra said with a smirk and a wink to Jeremy. Aelita glared at him, but he was quick to defend himself.

“Her internal systems are absolutely remarkable, Aelita. I spent fifteen minutes on her circulatory system alone. Whoever put her together really knew what they were doing!” Xandra chuckled lightly, considering her jokes on Jeremy a way of paying him back for not trusting her to start with. She headed over to the soda machine, grabbing one for herself before walking back to the group. Jeremy kicked himself as he watched her open it up and take a sip, since he had forgotten to analyze what sort of system she had to handle food and drink. Most of the rest of the afternoon was idle talk about classes and teachers, as well as a few games on table tennis in the rec room. As the day began to settle down into night, Jeremy decided to pop the replica question to the group before Yumi had to run home.

“It dawned on me recently that we still have a localized replica we haven’t knocked out yet,” Jeremy started, immediately meeting with resistance. William and Ulrich groaned lightly, though Odd’s eyes lit up. Yumi shook her head lightly before checking her mobile for the time.

“I know that you brainiacs have all the time in the world,” Ulrich replied, “but I really need to study for exams, or my folks will never stop lecturing me.”

“Same here,” William added, causing a mildly awkward moment of agreement between the two rivals, “These exams are my only chance to keep my grades at a respectable average to keep going here.”

“I might have a little time,” Yumi admitted, “but I never know when my parents will want me to babysit Hiroki.” Jeremy and Xandra looked over at Odd, knowing that he almost never studied since no one really expected excellent grades out of him.

“Would I ever pass up a chance to kick XANA butt?” He said with a smile, throwing a punch into the air. Jeremy grinned and nodded; they had at least three people for the excursion, though he’d prefer four.

“Well, exams aren’t until next week, so how about Friday night? Yumi, you could make an excuse that you’re seeing a movie with us, and you’d still have time to study,” Aelita suggested, an idea that easily got Yumi’s approval. They’d have to decide each person’s position later, but at least the mission was go. They had let XANA continue unchecked for too long, and it was about time to pay another one of his worlds a visit.

As the group split apart to carry on with their lives, Xandra followed neither of the other brainiacs but William instead. She stayed a couple paces behind, wondering if he’d notice her, and if so, when. About halfway back, she cleared her throat, causing him to turn around.

“Any reason you’re following me around?” William asked, stopping his walk and looking at her with an odd glance, as if to ask why she even cared about him. He knew that his inclusion to the group came under some tension, and the fact that he became possessed by XANA for a long while during his first mission didn’t really help things. Then there was that whole destroying Lyoko, almost killing Aelita...the list went on and on.

“Well, it’s about the exams,” Xandra said, kicking a bit of the snow, “I know that you’ve had to recover from the whole clone thing...and I want to help.”

“Help me? Why?”

“Consider it a gift from one fringe member to another,” she replied with a wink before slipping him a piece of paper with her number and screen name and running back towards her dorm. William looked down with it and then back up at Xandra with a grin as she ran. At least someone seemed glad to have him around...

That night, Xandra looked through her inbox, finding an E-mail for the first time since she had arrived at the academy:

Dear Xandra,

My parents have been talking a lot since they got your letter, but they’ve decided to let you come over for Christmas! They’ll probably send out their letter tomorrow morning. I really look forward to meeting you, since you seem like such a nice person. Also, I hope you don’t mind, but I did look through some of your stuff in the attic. I can help you find just about anything in there! See you in a week or so!

-Miriku

She chuckled a bit as she read it, thinking about the girl she had seen in the family picture they had sent her. She wasn’t certain whether she could really tell Miriku what she was looking for, but any help was appreciated. If she could remember anything about the house, it would be the size of their attic and how much of a pack rat her father was. Still, one thing tugged on her mind as she looked over the E-mail...how the heck did Miriku get her address? She glanced over to the clock and sighed, realizing that she needed to get some rest. As she lay down in bed, she looked over at the outlet nearby, following the cable from it to her wrist. Despite her quick adaptation, she was still having trouble becoming psychologically adjusted to having cords hanging off her. It caused her to question everything she knew about herself and the world around her; if she was such a convincing illusion, what else was being hidden underneath the normal world?

And would seven children be enough to stop it?

The rest of the week went by in a flash; almost all of her free time she spent in William’s room with Jeremy, her left hand helping William study for his exams as her right was plugged into Jeremy’s laptop as he continued to look through what code Galatea had unearthed. The pair had reached an understanding that he was only to look and try to enter passwords for fear of somehow messing up her programming. Thursday evening, she was helping William with geometry and history when Jeremy called for her attention.

“What is it now?” She asked, scooting over and looking at his laptop screen. William, not wanting to waste any time, tried to complete the geometry problem Xandra had halfway explained to him. She had a clear way of explaining things, but he’d get distracted now and then, which meant he was missing one or two details to finish it properly.

“I think Galatea’s still in action. I don’t remember this file being accessible two days ago.”
“A progressive unlock sequence? Well, it does fit the myth of Galatea, I suppose,” Xandra replied before glancing over to William’s paper. “Don’t forget about the properties of parallel lines,” she absently commented before redirecting her attention to her blueprints displayed on the screen, analyzing the order in which they were presented.

“How does it decide the progression?” Jeremy mused, but Xandra had an immediate answer.

“Necessity and complexity. Skeletal frame, cardio-lubrication, respiratory ventilation, the next will likely be the digestive system, followed by sensation, and finally central processing,” Xandra rattled it off in a voice slightly colder than usual before she shook her head and slapped the back of her hand. “I really need to stop doing that.”

“That makes sense,” Jeremy replied, still reading over the information, “but I wonder what level 2 will bring, or how to unlock it.”

“We’ll have to take care of that when we get to it,” Xandra advised, turning back to William and continuing with the study session. Jeremy raised his eyes slightly, focusing on Xandra. He was concerned, though he wouldn’t show it around her; it seemed like the more he unlocked about her android tendencies, the less humanoid she became. He didn’t know whether it was a pseudo-psychological coping mechanism or if he simply needed to unlock the rest of her to reclaim the equilibrium, but the idea bothered him...

What if they lost Alexandra entirely? He shook his head lightly; the idea was absurd, after all. In an android, a personality was data and programming...certainly a computer genius like him could recover it. He rebuilt Lyoko from the ground up, and engineered the Skid! Laying his worries to rest for a while, he continued to analyze what made her tick, hoping to find some answers in the programs while she helped William become more confident in his exams.

Finally, the afternoon came. After classes, the four of them met up and made their way to the factory. Xandra was excited and nervous at the same time; while she had been on Lyoko a few times before, they had never let her on the Skidbladnir or took her out on the digital sea. It would be a completely new experience on a different world, and perhaps enough to take her mind off her identity crisis.

“Transfer, Aelita, Odd, Yumi, Xandra. Scanner...virtualization!” The quartet landed in the middle of the arena and headed for the hallway. Xandra had only been there a few days ago, but she was basically sleepwalking through it that first time, and so she spent the first few moments taking in the sights before following the others to a series of targets next to the Skidbladnir.

“Energize,” Jeremy commanded, materializing the foursome into the Skid. The only thing he could hear afterwards was Xandra’s laughter. “Something amusing, cadet?”

“Are you serious? Energize? Someone watches a little too much Star Trek,” she replied, trying to catch her breath before the Skid plunged into the sea. Her laughter was immediately silenced as she stared out in awe at the digital sea outside Lyoko. She sat back quietly, enjoying the beautiful view outside her large window as they drifted through the blue. After a little while, she could make out another large sphere in the distance.

“We’re approaching the replica, Jeremy,” Aelita announced, slowing down and turning the Skid to entry mode. “Activating entry key...” They entered the Replica, moving up to the surface and flying to the first tower they could find. As it docked, everyone looked around at the alien landscape. It was unlike any of the sectors back on Lyoko, a strange combination of the mountain sector and the forest sector, shrouded in fog so that visibility only extended for a few hundred feet.

“Creepy,” Yumi commented as she readied herself to be energized onto the unknown territory. Odd came along, as well, though he didn’t know how he’d aim into the fog if they were attacked.

“Jeremy...maybe I should stay behind,” Xandra said as she remained in the Skid, “this fog’s really thick.”

“We already discussed this,” Jeremy replied, “your visor is more useful for analyzing this new supercomputer. Besides, Yumi and Odd have fought through worse; they can handle it. Teleportation, Aelita. Teleportation, Xandra.” Xandra lost awareness of herself momentarily as the program took effect, transporting her out of the Skid and back into the real world. She landed next to Aelita in a dark, curved tunnel. As Aelita tried to take in the surrounding and get some bearing on where they were, Xandra picked up a faint rumbling, glancing behind her to find some lights rounding the corner. She turned swiftly and dove into an adjoining tunnel, taking Aelita with her as a train rushed by behind. She turned her head in time to catch a glimpse of the rear end of the train.

“Okay, I’ve pulled up a map,” Jeremy announced into their communication links, “It looks like—“

“Mind the Gap,” Xandra said, getting up and dusting herself off, “We’re in the London Underground. Nice job materializing us in front of an oncoming train, Einstein.” She helped Aelita to her feet and activated her visor. “Can you transmit the map to my interface?”

“Sure, but the computer’s hiding down along that tube you’re standing in. I tried to get you as close as I could,” Jeremy explained, rationalizing his decision to put them in an active track. “How did you know—“

“Jeremy, I was born and raised in London,” Xandra explained as they walked down the tunnel, “If I couldn’t identify our own trains, I would make a poor Brit.” As she said that, the tunnel seemed to open up, though it was still dark within the room. She felt around the wall on one side as Aelita took the other. When Aelita found the switch, the room was suddenly bathed in light. They both turned to look at the entrance in wide-eyed amazement.

“We found it, Jeremy. Where’s the computer?”

“The computer?” Xandra asked, turning to Aelita, “Look at this place!! There’s a ton of amazing things in here, I bet! Jeremy, I’m requesting we make this a recon mission only.” As she finished the sentence, she relayed a visual feed from her visor to Jeremy’s terminal, allowing him to take in the sight.

“Hm...Xandra, I’ll put you on reconnaissance. I’ll direct Aelita to the computer. If things get troublesome, I want the computer destroyed and both of you out of there!” Xandra nodded and took a hallway to the right, watching the walls get greener and greener as she progressed. She looked at everything she could, remembering that Jeremy was seeing through her eyes.

“Somebody really likes green,” she commented, “the walls get greener as I go. I wonder what they research here...?”

“Well, this side’s blue,” Aelita responded, “lots of anatomy posters, a few computer terminals...I think this was a robotics lab!”

“Wait, wasn’t there a circuitry factory in New Mexico?” Yumi asked as they guarded the ship.

“Yeah, there was! I’ll see if I can find any of those here. If I do, it’s proof that these labs were connected!”

“Well, they won’t be over here,” Xandra said, stepping into another lab room, “this side was a genetics lab...lots of strange plants over here. That explains the green.” As she wandered around, she looked over many of the plants. Despite the fact that the lab was abandoned years ago, the lights were still on, and the plants still lived. Whoever engineered the power system in here was a genius...and that the plants could still live on little to no water...it just seemed impossible.

On Lyoko, Yumi and Odd suddenly found themselves under laser fire. Yumi released her fans and Odd readied his arrows, but in the fog, it was hard to see exactly what they were facing as the monsters approached. Jeremy grumbled as XANA activated a tower on the Replica. “Aelita! We need you back on the Replica! Odd, we’ll send you in her place!”

Xandra heard the alerts, but she continued her exploration, heading on to another lab. So Aelita needed to come back and defend the Skid...she couldn’t let that get in the way of her mission. She continued down the hallway, finding an opportunity to move over to the robotics lab she had heard about, but as she started to head through the doorway, she stopped in her tracks, hearing rustling behind her.

“O-odd?” She said hesistantly, looking back at the hallway only to find a surge of green rushing at her. She dove to the side, slamming the door shut behind her. “Green walls...I’m such a moron!”

“Come on, princess! Wake up!!” Odd called up to the Skid, the unconscious Aelita in the driver’s seat. Jeremy frantically typed, trying to piece together a map of the sector to no avail. “Einstein, can you send me there without her?” He asked, dodging another set of lasers.

“I’m still trying to figure out where the tower is on that foggy sector!” Jeremy shot back before checking in on Xandra, “How are things on your end?”

“It’s a jungle out there,” Xandra quipped looking through the tough window, “I’m just lucky the people who made this place thought about potential problems. This room seems to be safe for now...whoa.” She looked down from a balcony to find a large lab with a complex looking computer in it. Activating the map for the first time, she found herself standing above the supercomputer’s room, separated only by distance. “I’m within striking distance of the computer, Jeremy. I’ll look around in the meantime, but let me know if and when you want to shut it down.”

“I hear you. If we can’t get the tower deactivated, I’ll give you the signal.”

Xandra nodded to the message and leapt over the railing, landing in front of the computer. She hadn’t pulled out her weapons the entire time so far, and she wanted to save any battling for the destruction of the computer, which hopefully would leave the lab intact. With such wonders in here, and a semi-decent knowledge of where it was, it would definitely be worth another excursion. She worked at the closest terminal she could find, trying to send as much of the information as she could to Jeremy’s terminal, though she found herself fighting through layers of encryptions with the XANA-fied super plants banging at the door above. As her fingers flew across the keyboard, one file popped up that caught her attention.

“Project Galatea...? But wasn’t that what...no....” She dropped to her knees. There was no denying it anymore. She was an android...and this is where she came from!

Aelita woke up in the driver’s seat of the Skidbladnir, looking down on Yumi and Odd trying to fight the invisible enemies below. “Energize!” She commanded, teleporting herself out onto the field. “Since Xandra’s already at the computer, let’s concentrate on knocking out the tower!”

“You alright with that, Xandra?” Jeremy asked, hearing no response, “...Xandra? Can you read me, Xandra?!”

“...Affirmative. I am awaiting your signal,” she said coldly, typing even faster to relay data to him. Jeremy was pleased that she was finally taking the mission seriously, but he couldn’t help but be mildly disturbed by Xandra’s suddenly cool tone. What did she find in that supercomputer? The data rushed into Lyoko’s drive, but just before the entirety of the project data could be transferred, Xandra heard a noise from above, lifting her gaze to the balcony, watching the superplants stretch tendrils towards her. She shook her head, momentarily mistaking them for a Scyphozoa’s, and pulled out her kama.

“They’ve breached the door!” She shouted, slicing the vines as they lunged for her, “Requesting clearance to eliminate the Main Computer!”

Aelita and the team quickly ran back towards the Skid, lasers hitting the ground at their heels. As they arrived, standing between the monsters and the docked ship, Aelita quickly set up a barrier against the lasers. “Energize!” She shouted, pulling the trio back into the Skid. “Clearance granted, Xandra! Destroy the computer, and bring yourself back!”

“That is proving to be more difficult than previously calculated,” Xandra responded, standing on the rail of the balcony, watching the ivy vines climb up the walls. She pulled her right kama out of her bracelet, swinging the chained blade around her as a makeshift barrier against the vines as she worked out her shot on the visor. The plants after a moment had figured out her spin’s timing, but by that point she had her shot lined up.

“Xandra, hurry! Our shields won’t last!!” Aelita called, watching as the pink wall shattered, providing them access to the ship’s own shield reserves. With a battle cry, Xandra sent her chained blade flying in a large crescent arc, using its momentum to slice straight through the computer as XANA’s vines began to wither. She used her other kama to slash herself in the stomach, sending her back into the Skid just as it undocked itself, diving into the sea and escaping the Replica’s explosion. Back in London, the supercomputer’s short-circuit fried all the components in the room, as well as the superplants down the hall, leaving only half the lab intact.

As the group emerged from the scanners back in France, they cheered happily, giving each other high-fives. They all walked over to meet Xandra, ready to congratulate her on her first successful mission, but they were only met with a cold stare.

“What’s that face for?” Odd asked, putting a hand on her shoulder, “You kick major XANA butt back there!” Without even flinching , she grabbed his hand, pushing it away.

“Xandra...? Are you okay?”

“I am functioning at near optimal levels,” Xandra replied before her eyes softened somewhat at Aelita’s concerned look. She collapsed back into Yumi and Odd’s arms, looking up at her pink-haired friend. “What’s happening to me...? I feel like...like I’m losing my mind...”

A couple minutes later, they had her plugged into the supercomputer as Jeremy analyzed her readings. “That’s funny...it took quite a while to pull up that DNA code I used to find those medical records, but your schematics are completely unlocked. I can see every circuit in your body, save for those hidden ones of your central processors.”

“DNA codes...!” Aelita said at last, pounding her fist into her other open palm. “Jeremy, only virtualized humans have those, don’t they??”

“Well, until Xandra, we didn’t really have any sort of basis.”

“What about Odd and Kiwi?” She asked, getting a glare from Odd.

“Great, you too? Why won’t anyone let me live that—“

“Odd, this is serious! When your DNA code crossed with Kiwi’s, you became a fusion of boy and dog, and we almost lost you to Kiwi’s overwhelming dominance.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened at Aelita’s explanation. “You can’t be saying...how would that...”

“Jeremy...what if Xandra’s a similar fusion...of human and android?”

I love this because each Phase is like an episode of the show. I feel for poor Xandra. Can't wait for Phase 10! 3nodding

Project Xandra
Phase 10: Shades of Grey

“This is, officially, your weirdest theory yet,” Jeremy commented, typing through the data. “I mean, come on, Aelita! Humans and dogs are at least both organic materials...besides, what would an android have that could cross over a human’s DNA code?”

“We are able to turn ourselves into digital programming using the supercomputer. That alone should be able to back up my theory.”

“Your theory is saying that Xandra got digital fourteen years ago and has fused with an android. Where exactly would this happen?” Xandra stood up and walked over to the computer silently, typing quickly at the keyboard and bringing up an intro screen.

“Project Galatea,” Jeremy read aloud, “Avalon Laboratories...where the—“

“London,” Xandra replied blankly, obviously using sheer will power to keep her voice human, “The other supercomputer was part of Avalon Laboratories.” She sat down again, closing her eyes and keeping focus. She thought back to all her memories as a child...going to school, making friends, fun times with her parents. Anything sentimental seemed to help her keep a hold on things while they tried to work out exactly what was happening and how to fix it.

“So how can we possibly fix it? Separate the pair? We had a huge time crunch on Odd, and he was just fused for a few hours! Xandra’s might be permanent,” Jeremy said, looking through things.

“Request. Do not attempt separation,” Xandra said in a cold voice, looking up at Jeremy and Aelita, “5% chance of success...0% chance of survival.” The pair looked at one another; they obviously needed to think of something, and fast.

“I...I can’t go to my exams like this,” Xandra said, regaining her composure, “someone’s bound to notice!”

“Not to mention your holiday plans,” Yumi said, standing on the other side, “I don’t think the Williams’ would react well.”

“That’s if she lasts that long,” Jeremy interrupted, “You’re already having trouble keeping your humanity dominant...we’ll work as much as we can on it in the next couple days, but we’ll likely have to send a clone in your place to school.”

“But look what that did to William!” Xandra retorted, panicking slightly, “I can’t have him goofing up his exams because of a clone of mine! And what about my tests???”

“It should only be for a day,” Aelita replied calmly, trying to comfort her, “We’ll have you ready for exams on Monday, but you need to stay here. We might have to power you down, too, to slow the conversion rates.”

“No,” Xandra gasped with wide eyes, scooting away from the others, “No one’s shutting me down!”

“Fine...okay,” Aelita said with a sigh, “but you’ll have to sleep here tonight. Odd, Yumi, head back and get some rest. We’ll meet here tomorrow morning, and bring any mythology books you can find at your homes, or in Jeremy’s room. If we’re going to decrypt the rest of the data, we’ll likely need another password.”

The two left, leaving the trio back in the factory. Aelita and Jeremy brainstormed for a good half an hour before crunching the data all night, taking shifts so the other could rest. When the others arrived on Saturday morning, Xandra and Aelita were asleep as Jeremy typed away at the supercomputer.

“Aelita and I think we know what’s happening to her,” Jeremy reported, bringing up a program he had written around 2:30 in the morning, “When we first met her, she had no awareness of her android self, and so acted totally human. However, as we’ve unlocked her android schematics, she’s been acting more and more like an android.”

“But there’s nothing else on the human side we can add,” William said with his arms folded.

“Not true,” Jeremy replied, “Xandra doesn’t remember anything about becoming who she is today. I think the last few months before she went missing are encrypted in this last part of the data. If we can unlock those, it may just be enough to tip things back into a balance.”

“So, it’s kind of like when we had to recover Aelita’s missing key, right?” Odd asked. Everyone looked at him, surprised that he had grasped the entire situation, and he simply grinned back. “Does that mean we’re going to Sector Five...?”

“Somehow, I doubt XANA stole it,” Aelita chimed in from behind, startling the group, “or she would have known about all this to begin with. It’s encrypted in her, so it’s going to be a lot of research and trial-and-error.”

“So why are we here?” Yumi asked before the elevator door opened behind them.

“That would be me,” a familiar voice said from the elevator, spinning around to reveal an exact clone of Xandra, down to her oversized bracelets. “Jeremy’s afraid of me doing something stupid. Isn’t that silly?” She giggled before giving a twirl.

“Obviously, I haven’t worked out the trait kinks in the program,” Jeremy said bitterly as Xandra glared at her copy, “so we’ll need you guys to keep an eye on her until we can get the real one repaired.”

“I’m NOT broken!” Xandra said angrily, “And she’s too ditzy! They’ll never buy it.”

“Well, we were able to keep a stupid William clone under wraps,” Ulrich said with a shrug, “and that was for weeks. I think we can keep a clone like this from getting too much attention for a day or two.”

“Yeah!” The Xandra clone said cheerfully, putting an arm around Ulrich. “We’ll be fine! Just get better, okay?” The real Xandra grumbled under her breath before opening a mythology book. Aelita grabbed another one and sat nearby while Jeremy sat at the computer, trying to analyze what they already had from the Avalon Supercomputer. Perhaps the information in there could give some clues. The rest of the group headed back toward campus with the clone in tow, a task that seemed to be more difficult than they first thought until William simply picked her up and carried her back to the school.

“Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be the longest day we’ve had in a while?” Odd asked, looking back at William, who was barely keeping Xandra from running off to look at a rabbit in the snow. “She’s more trouble than your clone was.”

“Don’t remind me,” he replied, practically pulling the clone toward the dorms...

“What about ‘Pygmalion’?” Aelita asked, pointing to the myth in her book. “He was the one who sculpted Galatea...”

“But then there’s Aphrodite, or Venus, who actually brought her to life,” Xandra retorted, “and we don’t even know if the answer’s IN this myth! Can’t we just hack it?” She stopped short of more complaints, realizing what she had just said. After freaking out about Jeremy hacking her or shutting her down before, it probably seemed odd that she would suddenly want him to do so. She was still nervous, but all this searching was starting to get to her.

“Honestly, I’d prefer to just send you to Lyoko and attempt a separation, but apparently you know something we don’t and advised against it.” Jeremy remembered what she had said as clear as day, and it deeply troubled him...Xandra had no chances of survival separate from the android. What had happened to her before then? What brought these two together in the first place?

Meanwhile, things at the school weren’t too much better. The William clone at least had the sense to keep relatively calm, while Xandra’s turned into a social butterfly, somewhat startling most of the students who had thought of her as a wallflower. The group tried to ignore the whispers that Xandra had lost it, but her sudden change in personality was too obvious; they knew that Sissy would be on their tail by the end of the afternoon. All they could hope was that the Einstein couple would hurry and fix this before things got out of hand.

“Well, that puts us through three books with absolutely no progress,” Jeremy said, obviously frustrated and fatigued. Aelita placed a hand on his shoulder, her way of saying she’d take the chair for a little while and allow him to rest. Xandra, even fully charged and still reading, was showing signs of dozing off soon. “Maybe we should try the Celtic one, especially if the lab’s named after Avalon.” Xandra nodded, lethargically picking up the book before her eyes shut, the book dropping back to the floor. Aelita checked her status screen and shook her head.

“Down to 30%,” she reported, “At this rate, she’ll be completely gone by dinner. Is there any way of slowing this down?”

Jeremy nodded, pointing to Xandra, “If we put her in standby, it should slow her processes, including her assimilation.”

“But Jeremy...she—“

“Won’t survive if we don’t. You said it yourself.” With a sad nod from Aelita, Jeremy reached behind Xandra’s ear and switched her to standby mode.

“Alexandra, are you ready to go?”
“Yes, Mom...but where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise; we thought we’d take you with us this trip.”
“A family vacation?! You’re the best, Mom!”

“Okay, what’s up with you today?!” Sissy asked, her hands on her hips as she faced the Xandra copy. “One week you’re all dorky, and now you’re just plain psychotic!”

“Better than being a constant spoiled brat,” Xandra said with the nicest smile possible, “Besides, you’d be crazy, too, if you went through half of what I have.”

“Oh?! Like what?” She asked, hoping to get some dirt on the others. The Xandra copy looked over Sissy’s shoulder and ran past the annoyed teen, meeting up with William and Odd. Sissy grumbled under her breath, hoping for another chance to ask Xandra; she knew something, and the way she was acting today...well, she just might spill the beans!

Jeremy flipped through the Celtic myth book that Xandra was holding when she fell asleep. “Dierdre...Gwenhyfar...Rhiannon?”

“Nothing, nothing, and nothing,” Aelita said with a sigh with a final push of the return button. Right after she pressed it, the SuperScan flashed at her, signaling a tower’s activation in the mountain sector. She clenched a fist in anger; the last thing she wanted to deal with was a XANA attack while one of their allies was already in trouble. Suddenly, she saw the percentage tick down again to 28...but wasn’t it 29 less than five minutes ago?

“Jeremy...we calculated Xandra’s rate as one percent every half hour?”
“Yeah, why?”
“She just dropped again...and XANA’s got an active tower.” Xandra’s eyes opened unexpectedly, but no XANA marks graced her pupils. “Jeremy, you don’t think...”

“Did I miss something?” Xandra asked sleepily before Jeremy reached for the button behind Xandra’s ear. He pressed it, but Xandra showed no reaction besides one of annoyance. “Do you mind?”

“To the scanners,” he said quickly to Aelita before jumping up to take the chair, “I’ll call the others!” Xandra stood up to help, but Jeremy placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “You have to stay here and try to crack whatever code you’ve got; XANA’s just shortened your clock!”

Odd was the first to get the phone call; he and William were on the current shift for “Xandra duty”, which basically meant to keep her locked in a room for the time being. After that conversation with Sissy, they didn’t want the copy to get in any sort of trouble, especially after the close call they had with William. As Odd began to alert William of the situation, the door burst open, Xandra walking out with a large grin on her face and XANA’s mark in her eyes. She fizzled in and out of static for a minute as XANA asserted full control of the clone.

“A-ha!” Sissy yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Xandra, “I KNEW you were weird!” Xandra simply grinned and pointed one finger back, firing an electric bolt that knocked the girl out cold, before turning to focus her attention back on Odd and William. Odd sent the distress signal to Ulrich and Yumi only a moment before the Xandra copy shorted out his mobile.

“You know I don’t like to be confined,” XANA spoke through the clone’s voice, her cheesy grin turning into a sly smirk before she leapt for William...

Ulrich and Yumi arrived at the factory a couple minutes later, taking the elevator straight down to the scanners without stopping at the terminal. “Your destination is the mountain sector,” Jeremy announced over the intercom, “Aelita’s already waiting for you.”

“Yumi and I can handle this; I just hope Odd and William can keep Miss SugarRush under control.”

“I heard that!” Xandra yelled before suddenly falling silent. She could feel it now, another percent gone. What was it now, 27 or something? Jeremy had assured her that as long as there was even 1% left, she could fully recover with the code’s entry...but no one could know for certain. What if she stopped at 1 and was fully aware of herself without any outward sign of humanity? How could she live like that? She shook her head, flipping through the pages of three books all laid out in front of her. She had to trust Jeremy...after all, he did the same for her, didn’t he? She typed as many words as she could find into Jeremy’s laptop, hoping to find the password that would save her from herself. Another shock to her system, another percent lost.

“Jeremy,” she said weakly, “is it—“

“Getting faster? Yeah...XANA’s not satisfied with keeping us from slowing you down. I’m trying to reverse the program, but the best way to solve this is at the source.”

“The tower,” Xandra finished with a sigh. Ulrich and Yumi were two of the best warriors, and Aelita was no pushover. They’d have it done quickly, and she would be fine...but where were Odd and William? Couldn’t they help, too?

“We have to lure her away from the school!” William said to Odd, hiding behind a tree in the courtyard. Most of the students were in classes, but if someone saw the Xandra copy shooting electricity, or them skipping classes, for that matter, heads would roll.

“Betcha can’t catch me!” Odd called out, dashing into the woods. William couldn’t protest Odd’s plan in time and found himself running just behind the blonde, XANA’s possessed copy running at inhuman speeds in between the trees. She stood in front of them with a smirk with her hands on her hips as they stopped dead in their tracks.

“You run like girls,” she commented, firing a bolt at the two. They dove out of the way behind a bush, but it was obvious that XANA wanted them nowhere near the factory. Divide and conquer...it worked so many times throughout history, except that over half the team was already there. So what was XANA doing fighting them instead of defending whatever tower he had activated?

William pushed Odd out to distract the Xandra copy while he called Jeremy on his working mobile. “Jeremy, William. Yeah, we’ve got Xandra’s clone here...she’s gone berserk! You guys think you can hurry?”

“We’re trying,” Jeremy responded, typing frantically, “He’s somehow sped up Xandra’s assimilation program, too! Can you guys get here?”

“Not without bringing the insane copy,” William muttered as he watched the copy walking after Odd as he descended into the sewer system, “Odd’s on his way. I’ll try and keep her near campus.” He hung up his phone before Jeremy could answer, grabbing a nearby branch and making a run for the copy’s head. The Xandra clone easily dodged his swing, bringing a fist into his ribs.

“Now, William,” the copy asked with a dark chuckle, “why would you go and do that? You know you were always my favorite...” William swung again, connecting with the copy and sending it back into another tree.

“Yeah? Well, you were my least,” he replied, readying his branch for another blow, “I’m not letting you do the same to Xandra!”

“Who said anything about possessing her?” The copy tilted her head, “If that program completes its execution, there won’t be any need to. After all, she’s just another computer at that point...”

“What do you want with her? She didn’t know anything until you dragged her into this in the first place!” William demanded, taking another swing at the copy. Xandra’s copy grabbed the branch with one hand, giggling with a surreal compilation of Xandra’s voice and a computerized artificial one.

“Aren’t we protective...? I’ve never understood that about you pathetic beings,” she commented, throwing the branch away, “and you’re stupid to boot.” With a fluid motion, she moved forward, shocking him at point blank range and watching him drop to the ground. As he began to fade from consciousness, she leaned down next to him and whispered in his ear:

“Little girls don’t become androids by themselves...”

“You make mannequins? That’s why you’re always gone?”
“...Yes. We have to take this one to a store in France. Then we can have our vacation.”
“That’s okay. I can't wait; this’ll be so much fun!”

Yumi gave a battle cry, throwing both her fans at a Tarantula before ducking behind a rock face to avoid its constant laser fire. Directing them with her telekinetic prowess, one fan found the target, causing the monster to explode. Ulrich ran forward to attack a trio of blocks, only to get a shot in the back from an advancing group of Kankrelots.

“Geez, how many are there?” Ulrich asked in exasperation as Yumi ran to meet the Kankrelots, her fans back in hand after collecting them from the Tarantula’s corpse.

“He’s trying to stall us,” Aelita explained as she dodged a pair of mantas, “until the program finishes up, and Xandra disappears.”

“He’s certainly doing a good job of it,” Yumi commented as she took out one of the Kankrelots, “Try and get into the tower as soon as you can, Aelita. We’ll cover you.”

Another shock, another percent. She hadn’t been keeping count at this point, but the status screen claimed 15% and falling. She was having trouble keeping focus on the pages, but it didn’t seem to matter; absolutely nothing she had tried had elicited a response. She watched Jeremy type away at the computer frantically, trying his best to divide his attention between monitoring the warriors on Lyoko and stopping XANA’s acceleration program. A few beads of sweat glistened on his brow, and Xandra felt a small tear well up in the corner of her eye. All this...to try and save her, even after all the suspicions, all that she had put them through.

“Jeremy...” she said quietly, having trouble controlling her voice. He looked over momentarily, noticing that she was starting to look drowsy again. “Jeremy, I wanted to say...thank you.”

“For what? We haven’t solved this yet!” He said, turning back to his work.

“Thank you...for believing me...” Jeremy heard a thud and turned to find Xandra unconscious on the ground. On the screen, her percentage dropped again, now reaching 12...

“KYAAAA!!” *WHAM*
“Damn it...I didn’t think they’d find us so soon! And to hit us like that...good thing they hit the back. Galatea should be durable enough to handle it...”
“It’s okay, honey. See if the car still runs; we can’t stay here. They might have the police after us, too.”
“We’re in business! Let’s get out of here before they can continue the chase!”
“Xandra, it’ll be okay. We’ll get away from those bad men...Xandra? Oh, God! Charles, Xandra’s bleeding!!”
“What?!”
“I told you this was a bad idea! We need to get her to a hospital!”
“What, and leave Galatea out in the parking lot? Besides, you heard what they did to the other families. They’re getting rid of ALL of us.”
“But she’s our daughter, our baby! How can you—“
“If anyone can help her now, it’s him.”
“...Break every speed limit.”

“Energy field!” Aelita cried, firing a pink orb into the last remaining manta. “The skies are clear; I’m going—“ Before she could finish that statement, a stray laser hit her wings, sending her falling to the ground. She muttered angrily under her breath before charging another pair of energy fields and running in to help the other two clear the path.

The elevator opened, and Jeremy waved Odd down to the scanners. “Wow, can’t even say hi...must be bad,” Odd said to himself as the elevator closed. He leaned against the wall until the car stopped at the scanner level. As he stepped into the scanner, he could hear Jeremy’s voice entering the commands.

“Odd’s on his way; I have no idea where William could—“ He heard a thud on the floor behind him. He turned his head, hoping to see William standing near the ladder, but instead found Xandra’s possessed copy looking at him with a wide smile on her face.

“Hello, Jeremy,” the clone greeted him cheerfully, “how’s that decoding coming?” His eyes widened as he leapt from the seat, ready to make a run for it at the nearest moment, when he looked at the terminal screen. Four warriors now on Lyoko, the real Xandra unconscious on the floor, and the countdown now below 10%...if he left, the clone could fry the computer, but if he stayed, she could fry him. It was a catch-22 that he didn’t have time to figure out.

“I’ll take it from that desperate look on your face that it isn’t going well. Oh, well...what else could I expect? You are, after all...only human.” A bolt fired from her palm, and Jeremy barely had enough time to dodge, watching it dissipate on the wall. As much as he hated to admit it, XANA was right; the program was far too sophisticated to solve in such a short time. The only hope for slowing the program was to take out the tower, but XANA appeared capable of defending it as if it were his own core programming...but how could he maintain control of the clone while doing so?

“It’s about time you...what is she doing here? And what happened?!”
“Those bastards tried to run us off the road, and she got caught in the crossfire.”
“...Her pulse is weak. You didn’t take her to the hospital?”
“That’s what I told him!”
“They rammed into us in a busy intersection in broad daylight; she wouldn’t be safe in a hospital, and Galatea would be left in the open. We barely lost the cops on the way here...”
“Please, is there anything you can do for her?”
“I’ve been working on some theoretical programs...they might be able to solve our problems, but it’s risky, and you may not like the results.”
“As long as they have a chance to save her, I’m willing to do it. What do you have in mind?”
“Giving Xandra a healthy body...and giving Galatea the most sophisticated interactive system known to man. I’m still working out the bugs...”
“Her breathing’s gotten shallow; she doesn’t have much time!”
“...To the scanners.”

“Laser Arrow!!” Odd yelled, firing a trio of arrows towards a pair of Kankrelots, eliminating one of them. “We haven’t heard from Jeremy in a bit. Anyone low on life points?”

“We’re almost through them; there’s no point in turning back now!” Yumi replied, a little annoyed that she always seemed to be the one Odd was talking about when he asked. Just because she didn’t have super speed or a shield...she was always the one devirtualized to handle the real world threats. Unlike Lyoko’s monsters, the Earth attacks actually hurt and left bruises for the next day or so, and she was tired of explaining to her parents that they occurred during sparring practices. The trio backed up, making a human shield in front of Aelita as she ran into the tower. Yumi gave another throw of her fan, eliminating the last block as Ulrich stabbed his katana into the last Kankrelot. All that was left to do was wait for Code Lyoko...

The Xandra clone threw Jeremy into the wall, sitting down at the seat and readying herself to augment the acceleration program...

AELITA
CODE: LYOKO

The clone fizzled out of existence as the acceleration program halted, leaving Xandra with only 3% left. She hadn’t moved since her premature “thank you”, a book of Arthurian Legend resting under her lifeless hand. The elevator opened, revealing Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita; Odd and Ulrich made sure Jeremy was alright while Yumi called William and Aelita jumped into the terminal seat.

“Yumi?” William asked, surprised to hear her on the phone, “Yeah...that hyperactive clone knocked me out cold. No, I don’t think we need a return...the only one who saw anything was Sissy, and XANA quickly dispatched her. How’s the code-breaking going?”

“Not so good,” Yumi replied, watching Aelita’s distressed face as she looked at the screen, then over at the pile of books they had been through, “XANA accelerated the countdown...but she isn’t gone yet.”

“That’s a relief...I don’t know what I’d do if...” William stopped for a moment before continuing, “if I didn’t have my math tutor.” It was an obvious cover, but Yumi didn’t mind too terribly. After all, she knew how Ulrich felt about the minor rivalry that had started over her heart; he’d be elated to know that William had started to shift his eyes to Xandra...as to why he found himself so attracted to her, she wouldn’t know. They didn’t seem to share anything in common.

“Arthurian,” Jeremy said weakly, picking up the book from under Xandra’s hand, “Why didn’t we look in this one? Avalon Labs...geez, I’m an idiot!”

“Wow, that must mean I’m hopeless,” Odd quipped with a grin, “but there’s a lot of names and places in that myth. All the knights, Arthur, Excalibur, Camelot...”

“Who knew you were so big on the Round Table?” Ulrich asked with a chuckle, “You have no chivalry at all...”

“Actually,” Aelita interjected, “it might be a name to do more with Avalon itself. Let’s see...there was Morgan of the Fey, Morgause, Elaine...”

“Elaine!” Jeremy said, suddenly showing a short burst of energy, “Xandra’s middle name is Elaine, if I remember right.”

“Well, it couldn’t be that, then...” She said, trailing off as the percentage dropped again to 2. While XANA’s program had been deactivated, she still appeared to be losing herself at an increasing rate. Aelita gave her ten minutes, tops, as if she needed any more pressure.

“It’s rare to find a fan of Mythology...”
“Okay, but promise me sometime...that you’ll tell me what troubles you.”
“I’m not marrying you, you know. You can count on me.”
“How the bloody hell could I have been gone for 13 years?!”
“Energize? Someone watches too much Star Trek.”
“There’s Aphrodite, or Venus, who made the sculpture come to life...”

The last memory triggered an epiphany in Aelita as she researched. “There’s more than one Elaine, and some have alternate names!” There was the one who lived on Avalon, another unremarkable one or two, and the Grail Maiden. But which one was it, and what name? She frantically typed from the book, watching the countdown reach 1%. A timer popped up on the screen, displaying a warning message and began to count down the seconds. In frantic desperation, Aelita typed the last “Elaine” name she could think of.

“Helizabel,” she said quickly, pressing enter. The count stopped as an opening padlock appeared on the screen. The status shifted entirely, not showing a black and white silhouette with percentages, but a single, uniform grey. Aelita let out a cheer as the elevator doors opened, revealing William.

“I’m guessing that’s a good thing,” he halfway asked, seeing a group of nods in reply. “I wanted to tell you...XANA talked to me while we were fighting. He told me that he wouldn’t need to possess her if Xandra was gone...that she’d be ‘just a computer’.”

“Well, he won’t get that chance,” Jeremy responded, analyzing the screen quickly as he gave Aelita a congratulatory hug, “She’s back to normal for good...well, as normal as she can be.”

“Xandra...?”
“Mm...Mom? What happened...? Where am I? Are we on vacation yet?...Mom, why are you crying?”

“So, the wreck and everything after...?”
“Encrypted and locked down with a suitable code. You can release it when you feel she’s ready to know.”
“...We might not get that chance. You know that.”
“...I know...you should begin some sort of emergency plan.”
“You’re one to talk. What about your little girl?”
“You’re looking at my emergency plan...”

Xandra awoke with a start, sitting straight up and breathing heavily. As she calmed down, she looked around to find all the other Lyoko warriors sitting in the room. William, Aelita, and Jeremy were watching over her, while Yumi and Ulrich had a heart to heart in the corner. Odd kept himself busy with a handheld video game.

“I’m...okay?”
“Thank Aelita for that,” William said, “She cracked the password just in time.”
“So you remember now?” Jeremy asked, unsure if it was the right time but dying of curiosity about her origins.
“...Yes. Oh, God...I remember everything...” Her eyes were wide and cold, and she visibly trembled. “I know why I couldn’t be separated...I was dying after a car wreck. When I woke up, I was looking up at my mother, completely healed. She was sobbing over me, calling my name...” Tears welled up in Aelita’s eyes as she realized the gravity of what had happened; she was fused with the android to save her life, much like when her father had taken her to Lyoko to escape the suits. It still left open questions, like how and where it occurred, but she couldn’t expect Xandra to answer those, since she wasn’t exactly aware at the time. Xandra pushed herself up to her feet and looked around, giving a short stretch before pulling her cable out of the outlet.

“Haven’t you guys had enough of this place?” She asked, walking into the elevator, “I sure have. Going up!”