Kaosu: WHOO! - I saw it. P: NOW to update the chapter accordingly. P:

Disclaimer: I own CODE: Lyoko! SEE?! LOOKIE! –holds up a sheet of paper that says "INSANITY LICENSE"- Oh, no... This is just that paper that says I'm allowed by law to freely wander the streets under the status of "crazy person". -shrug-

Warning: Knowing me, it may eventually contain yaoi. Oh, and there is some scattered swearing.

Kaosu: -reads over the warning- -crosses out "may eventually"- -writes in "most likely will"-

Special thanks: Alteris and their story Damonic Rapture. (I thank you for the ideas of what I'm gonna have happen to XANA and the existence of other Project Carthage AIs, although I won't use the exact characters you did, I shall... make my own. o. o o .o)

Kaosu: So, this story takes place after the final episode, Echoes. Erm... I don't mean to sound annoying, but I care what you think of my story. (Oh, and those reading but don't have a FanFiction account, you can review my stories, too! I do that on purpose! PLEASE! Your thoughts matter, too!) Anyway, the CODE: Reboot stories are like a follow-up story. So, welcome to CODE: Reboot, season 1! Enjoy!

-C-O-D-E-:- -R-E-B-O-O-T-:- -E-P-I-S-O-D-E- -1-:- -C-O-D-E-:- -R-E-B-O-O-T- -P-A-R-T- -1-

-L-Y-O-K-O-

Slowly, the sectors began to drain of their skin mappings, leaving the solid, criss-crossing wire-frames. Those were close behind the skin mappings, not letting them be any farther than 14-17 horizontal lines ahead. Towers lost their white, "idle" glow and followed suit. The process was at the same place in each sector, if each were stacked so the centers lined up, and headed northward, right for Sector 5. When they arrived, the data streams died out much like when they were being opened, and the Tower-like, data covered, moderately-lit interior of its shell began to dim out as the panels rapidly fell off the wall and disappeared into the abyss below. Soon it was only one screen, sitting along the now empty and dim shell of Sector 5, before it joined the others, lingering for no more than a mere moment longer. The only light left was what little came through the tunnels. The Celestial Dome began to do what the other four sector themselves has earlier done. The shutdown spread inward. The core had by then flickered out to nothing. Everything vanished, except the digital sea, the sky, and the empty shell that once was Sector 5. Said blue sphere began to groan and creak as it fell into the sea, and promptly exploded. The big shell which encased Lyoko vanished the same way as Replikas did when THEIR supercomputers were destroyed, or in this case, shut down, and Lyoko's once occupied space now was empty. The rest of the supercomputer network within the Digital Sea began to flicker.

A flickering purple sphere of light, known as the only remnant of Franz Hopper, had but one thought before the Digital Sea died out. "I'm proud of you, Aelita. You've done well." Apparently, the thought had leaked out of the network, and somehow slipped its way into a certain pink haired girl's cell-phone as a text message. (Hey, I can't let the poor girl never hear from her father ever again! That's like watching your parents die right before your eyes! AND NEVER KNOWING WHO THEY WERE until YEARS after the fact, and STILL not knowing them very well! It'd SUCK!)

The Replikas began to disappear as Lyoko had, and the shells exploded soon after. The Digital Sea kept flickering between its blue, XANA-free state, and the red, XANA-attack state, and eventually, after everything was gone, went pitch-black. Well... ALMOST everything.

There was one thing Jeremie's multi-agent program did NOT detect: one final Replika.

-T-H-E- -F-I-N-A-L- -R-E-P-L-I-K-A-:- -M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N- -S-E-C-T-O-R-,- -N-E-A-R- -W-A-Y- -T-O-W-E-R-

XANA himself had a 'human" appearance. He appeared as a teenager with dark-red down-and-back hair in an outfit much like Aelita's, if Aelita wasn't a girl, didn't have the bracelet enabling flight, the earring OR the skirt, and used (in order) black, red, a gray perfectly between black and white, a little blue, a dark orange, nearly-black-dark-red, and a red Eye of XANA instead of (again, in order) pink, hot pink, silver-blue-gray, dark-pink, white, nearly-black-dark-pink, and the pink dot on the chest. His weapon was a sword very similar to the one he equipped William with when he XANAfied him, except less wide, and the wood-like part was actually more like the inside of a Mega-Tank: almost sickeningly organic-looking. ALMOST. And for his power... or powers... he was like Aelita in that he could deactivate, or also activate, Towers, and create land where there isn't, but also like Odd in that he was very quick to react... when paying attention. He could build Towers in the same way that the landscape could be altered. He could see countdowns and important status information from the Replika in small, but readable, translucent (enough to see, but still see through,) white print that was projected into the image his brain received from his eyes. Last, he could bend the reality of Lyoko so it was hidden, like the hidden Towers he used a few times before, different in the eyes of different people, so that no one can agree, or even bend it so the things you see are mere hallucinations, confusing even the map of Lyoko!

It was the only Replika XANA ever made with all the sectors and Towers in it. But this Lyoko was much like the original Sector 5: It changed constantly, and somewhere in each Sector, be it in a Way Tower or Celestial Dome, there was an access panel, providing access to all the data in the Sector, just like in the original Sector 5.

Of course, that wouldn't be important if he didn't hurry. "Damn it, my programming just HAD to get bugged THAT badly... It took YEARS to repair the damage, and as if THAT wasn't bad enough, now I can't even get some help without this obnoxious shutdown?!" He ran for the last Tower in the Mountains, the Way Tower.

He'd been running around the digital world ever since the supercomputer had started the shutdown reaction. He was just sitting in a random Forest Sector Tower, minding his own business, modifying his debugging program's automatic scan and repair setting so he wouldn't get a bug like the LAST one, when all of a sudden, in the bottom-right corner of his vision, a small, labeled count-down appeared. And what did that countdown happen to say? Why, it said "Total Shutdown will Execute in: 0:25:41.97", and then it started to decrease. XANA knew this day would come, and he had been certain it would happen before he could complete his latest project. (No, I will not risk my life and/or mind and invade the diary, brain, or at least once daily self-to-reflection/self (in case there is no mirror around when they occur) conversations of a once bugged-up-to-the-point-of-trying-to-rule-Earth AI just to find out what said project is.)

He ran in, sending red ripples over the spot where he entered, and dashed to the center, rising up, floating, doing a back-flip in the air, landing on the top, and walking up to the center. A panel appeared, and he placed his hand on it. It displayed "XANA" in its usual colored text, then read "CODE:" and just stopped. With more than one Tower-linked ability, XANA could enter whatever code he pleased, as long as he knew the code and its function. Otherwise, it could cause issues he didn't need to be dealing with. He placed his index finger on the panel, holding it there, and then tapped twice. The panel then read "VERIFY", and he repeated the procedure. This time, it did just what it normally did for Aelita, but with a different code: "CODE:" Pause... "REBOOT"

Then all the data lining the walls of the Tower froze, and so did the Tower itself. In order to prevent the same from happening to him, XANA leaped right out, ignoring fact that he'd be going through a LOT less trouble by lowering to the bottom platform, and called the last Manta still under his control to him. The Manta had been waiting at the base of the Tower, because Monsters have never been able to enter them. The comically half-witted Kankrelats even proved it themselves on one of the first times XANA turned a Tower and the near-by landscape invisible, by crashing right into the Tower, and continuing to run while on its side, causing it to spin in a stupidly amusing way around the top of its overly-large head.

The Manta rose up so that its creator and master could land on its back, and then choose where to go next, although in a less intelligent slew of 1's and 0's, wondered why this world existed, and why its... some word (the word being "beautiful") it didn't know how it used, or knew, or even what it meant... land and sky kept threatening to disappear.

The Mountain Sector froze just as XANA left the boundaries of it. (Similar to the reset program, but without the surge that unfroze everything.) Last, but certainly not least, Sector 5. He couldn't just skip to the Dome; otherwise the Sector 5 programming would try to destroy him. He mentally cursed himself for not further expanding the power and hard drive of the supercomputer components he manufactured in the Factory. To do this, he used a Tower he activated at just the right moment so it wouldn't be stopped, and the cameras of the factory (on the occasions Jeremie had brought his laptop with him for whatever it was needed for; virtual clone of Aelita, for example, in the episode "Franz Hopper".) to build the plastic case pieces and other unique components for a laptop. The finished and properly functioning cross between a supercomputer and a laptop was currently sitting in the assembly room, where XANA had once built an army of robots to destroy Team Lyoko's human members from that time. "If I had had enough time to add just a couple hundred more Gigabytes, MAYBE I wouldn't be having this much difficulty right now." The Arena was already in wireframe state, but if nothing else, at least he disabled the Key when Team Lyoko had started the shutdown procedure.

Staying on the Manta, he simply flew past everything. The shutdown effect was just at the Manta's tail. His last monster would NOT be lost to a god damn shut-down! The Manta was thinking the same general thing, except less intelligently, but was smart enough to speed up. Soon the shutdown process was out of sight, and XANA reached the last panel, the very one that had provided Team Lyoko a lot of information on thousands of occasions. "I'm glad I didn't add a Tower here..." was all he said as he went through the CODE: REBOOT process.

Sector 5 re-built what had vanished, and froze as well. Then the WHOLE REPLIKA went into freeze mode. The countdown had stopped at 0:00:00.09, and then vanished. 'DAMN that was lucky...' XANA thought, being frozen as well. Then, a line of text appeared in his sight, reading "Total Shutdown Interrupted. Canceled Total Shutdown." Then another showed up saying "CODE: Reboot has been initiated. Collecting remaining fragments, restoring the missing data, saving remaining objects/creatures, and creating a power surge to reactivate the things that were saved and restored without error." A new countdown appeared, and it was set for ten seconds exactly. At 0:00:07.58, it jumped forward to 0:00:05.02, and the rest went as normal. When it finished, the Replika's core sent out another surge, and that gathered into the four Way Towers, the core keeping some held back. Then the Way Towers created surges that collected in all ten Towers (Way Towers included) in each sector. And finally, the core and the Towers all charged up more power to add to the amount they already had.

Then, the core let out a huge six-way surge, which on the way to the data tunnels ant top and bottom walls, started to activate Sector 5. As the four surges that were let out towards the other four sectors crossed over Towers, all six surges grew. And as they passed over Way Towers, all six grew MORE. They became so large that once they got out to the edge of the shell of the Replika, there was so much power and force behind them that they swept through the whole entire Digital Sea, re-awakening it and anything that had been saved. That Replika, the re-built original Lyoko, the Digital Sea, and Franz Hopper were the only known things to be restored. The re-constructed original re-assembled itself, and sent its power surge back to the factory supercomputer.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -T-H-E- -F-A-C-T-O-R-Y-:- -M-A-I-N- -F-L-O-O-R-

The supercomputer had been shut down. The "ex-"Lyoko warriors didn't seem to mind one bit.

"Well, looks like that's the end of XANA," Odd said with his usual cheerful voice, "Now that that's done, let's go get some lunch!" The rest of the group laughed at their friend's insatiable appetite.

"Odd," Ulrich reminded, "We just had breakfast."

"..." Odd was silent, then replied, "Yeah... What's your point?" More laughter followed. Aelita's phone suddenly rang, and when she checked it, she saw a text message, that came from... Franz Hopper?

She quickly opened it, and read it. Tears formed as she remembered all too soon the reason she wanted to keep the supercomputer on. But smiling as she began to understand her father's words, the tears turned to those of happiness. The others noticed, and she explained what had just happened. There was no more talk about the Lyoko memories for a moment.

No one noticed the supercomputer whirring back to life as they all left the factory, and went back to the school.

-R-E-P-L-I-K-A-:- -F-O-R-E-S-T- -S-E-C-T-O-R-

"I should have expected as much," sighed the debugged AI. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to gather help the hard way." XANA walked up to the edge of the sector, and stepped onto the back of his only remaining Manta. The Manta knew where it was supposed to take XANA, and went right to Sector 5.

-R-E-P-L-I-K-A-:- -S-E-C-T-O-R- -5-

The Manta had arrived in the Arena, and stopped at a three-layered button shaped like the Eye of XANA with a slit in the center of the inner-most object, the circle. You see, XANA built this Replika within five hours of being fully debugged. His creativity then got the better of him, and he decided to make it so the key was slightly more challenging, and a bit more complex, and if he hadn't liked the idea so much, he probably could have squeezed in the program or script or whatever he would have used, that would let him skip right to the Celestial Dome in an extremely important situation. The way it worked is this: the slit was for the placement of the Lyoko Sword, the sword he used in Lyoko, which actually had references to all five sectors of Lyoko, and various other aspects of the virtual world, not just the Mega-Tank. The three layers of the key needed to be rotated, and then pressed in. Eventually, the turning would warp the Eye of XANA into another shape from Lyoko, such as the access panel in the Celestial Dome and the Towers. Once the segment that was being turned had warped, you would place pressure on the sword, which slid that layer in. you would continue to warp the pieces until it became a new shape entirely. Then you would remove the sword, and it became the normal Key, except it glowed green. Then you smack the key, as always, and it presses in.

XANA completed the process, and instead of going to the Celestial Dome, he took a different path. This one wound out to the left, and was one XANA had been Reality Warping so it couldn't be seen on the map or in Lyoko, by anyone except him, that is. He ran to a room with literally a hundred corridors branching out, all leading to the place he wanted to go, but only one being crossable. The others had things like falling ceilings, trapdoors to the void, and long sections of walls that shot out spikes at a rapid speed, filling the section of hallway. XANA had his Digital Display sight, so he pulled up a mini-map, and bolted down corridor #45. He arrived, completely intact, in a room full of shelves made of the same blue, block-like pieces as the sector. And upon those shelves were files, programs, and various other data and computer objects. It even had the profile cards, Tower ID files, and all the other things that were ever on Lyoko. It also had in it two side-by-side, tall, rapidly spinning columns, with thousands of small spikes. It was like a digital shredder, but it could delete more than one thing at once, and it didn't leave scraps.

XANA went to the section his digital display had labeled 'Programs'. He found the button on the shelf shaped like 'ABC', and pressed it. Everything in the section began rearranging itself, until the labels in his display finally stopped going crazy, and went back to understandable text. He began to rise up with the block of floor just beneath him. XANA stopped when the shelf labeled 'C-CO' was in reach, and found the program he was looking for. He pulled a small screen like the ones on the wall of the Celestial Dome. "Well, if it isn't the Code: Earth Program." The block returned to the ground. "It's time to see if you still work."

-R-E-P-L-I-K-A-:- -F-O-R-E-S-T- -S-E-C-T-O-R- -W-A-Y-T-O-W-E-R-

XANA hadn't the heart to destroy his only remaining ally, so instead, he created an AI out of him as well, improving his intelligence from 5 to 55, and anything else he could think of changing. Soon, he had a teenage male with a Lyoko outfit identical to his, with dark blue hair down to the top of his neck, Psychic abilities, and the ability of copying anyone's weapon. He decided the AI's name would be Psyc, just to emphasize the point.

When he launched the recreate program, the Manta lost its skin map, and the wireframe restructured itself to the point where it was a different creature entirely; a human being. The skin mapping for Psyc began to fill itself in.

Huh? What's…? I'm not a Monster anymore! I'm… I'm a human being… and I've got functional, coherent thought! the ex-Manta thought. "Does this mean I'm not staying in Lyoko?" he asked XANA.

"Yes. If the other Project Carthage AIs manage to get into this Replika, you would be destroyed by those who once were possible 'friends' of yours. And I won't lose my last ally left to reprogrammed creatures that once belonged to me."

The two entered the Way Tower. XANA ran the CODE: Earth program. Within moments, the program had finished, and it would be smooth sailing from then on.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C- -A-C-A-D-E-M-Y-:- -B-O-Y-S-'- -D-O-R-M-S-(Late The Next Day)

"… Here at Kadic, you both will live among the majority of your fellow classmates. The only major rule is that the boys only go to the girl's dorms for studying and helping one another on assignments, and vice versa." The principal was guiding two new eighth-grade students to their dorm room, explaining all the rules. One had dark red, spiked down-and-back hair, and wore a black shirt with a red symbol like an upside-down 'Y' with an extra line in the middle of the bottom, a circle in between the four lines, another smaller circle inside that, and a smaller, filled-in circle inside that, a dark red, zip-up hooded pullover, which was left unzipped, a pair of black jeans, and a pair of black sneakers. The other had dark-blue hair that went down to the top of his neck, a white shirt with a manta-like creature on it, a dark blue, zip-up hooded pullover with a black version of his companion's logo on the white stripe on the back, also left unzipped, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers.

The principal had just finished explaining the rules to the two, ending with the breakfast and dinner serving times. "Now, due to your parents' explanations of your close friendship and long history together, I've decided not to separate the two of you while at Kadic unless you choose to be on your own. This is your dorm, and I'll get your schedules to you first thing tomorrow morning… err… What were your names again?"

The red-haired boy spoke first. "Xack, short for Xachary, with an 'X', not a 'Z'."

Then the other said, "Psyc, spelled 'P-s-y-c'."

The principal was not at all surprised, to a point. After all, with students with names like Aelita, Odd, and his own daughter nicknaming herself Sissi, he was used to the unusually named students. However, these names were just a bit more unusual than, but he made no effort to question them.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C- -A-C-A-D-E-M-Y-:- -S-C-I-E-N-C-E- -C-L-A-S-S-(The Next Morning)

"Hey, did you notice the two new kids in the cafeteria this morning?" Odd asked Ulrich, Jeremie and Aelita before class. He was shifting nervously in his chair.

"Sort of. Why? People you know?" Jeremy replied, a little bit confused about his friend's unusual behavior.

"Yeah, Odd, what's the big deal about the new guys?" Ulrich questioned.

"Didn't you see the logos on their shirts? And what about the Manta on the blue-haired guy's shirt? And the color schemes. There is no way that was all just a big coincidence!" the group joker exclaimed. Any louder, and the conversation would have been overheard.

"Odd, it's impossible that was XANA. The supercomputer is off. XANA can't have gotten out. XANA doesn't even have a human form," Jeremie countered. "Even if he could've gotten out, there's no way to explain the other one. You're probably just getting a bit jumpy now that the super computer is off, and only imagined it."

"Einstein, XANA can reprogram anything. Right?" Jeremie nodded, a little hesitantly. "Well, that means he could have re-written a Manta into an AI, right?" Jeremie sighed.

"Odd, get serious," his roommate said, his way of saying 'conversation over, shut up.'

"But I am serous." Odd wasn't kidding. It was showing in his eyes. He was dead serious, for almost the first time in his life.

"Odd, XANA is very unlikely to do anything anymore, and you know as well as I do that the Lyoko days are over," responded Aelita, having more sour and bitter memories from those days than any of the other Lyoko Warriors. "Drop it, now."

But before he could say anything back, much less apologize, the bell rang, and Ms. Hertz stepped into the room.

"Before we get started, class, I'm pleased to announce that we have two new students." Just as she finished, two students walked in. All Jeremie, Ulrich, and Aelita could do was stare in shock, and Odd could only utter a quiet "I told you so..." to the other three.

One had dark red, spiked down-and-back hair, a black shirt with a red Eye of XANA on the front underneath an open, dark red, zip-up hooded pullover, a black pair of jeans, and black sneakers. The other had dark blue hair that reached to the back of his neck, a white shirt with a Manta on the front underneath a pull-over exactly like the first student's, except it was dark blue with a white stripe down the middle of the back, and a black Eye of XANA in that white stripe, dark blue jeans and white sneakers.

"Both of you please tell us your names and where you're from, and I will find seats for you," the aged science teacher said, smiling. She then began looking at the seating arrangement, and at the students in the classroom.

The red-haired boy started. "I'm Xachary Aliten-Irate, with an 'X', not a 'Z', but I'd rather you called me Xack. I've lived in multiple places, and so I can't say entirely where I'm from without mentioning the other places as well. My parents have worked in a job that has them traveling so much that they can't leave me behind. I've lived in a large forest, a desert of equal size, a mountain range and the fourth, and most memorable was the arctic." He shuddered briefly before continuing. "But my actual home was in a large, somewhat blue and depressing city near a large, empty sea, so busy that it was constantly changing. At times it got so annoying, it seemed like there was a switch or button or something that could make it all stop. But that was a place I rarely visited."

Then the other spoke. "And I'm Psyc Matna. Xack and I have been best friends since day one. Not only that, but my parents were conveniently in the same job as his, so we've never once in our lives been separated. And as his parents decided to send him to a boarding school to continue his ever-moving education, mine thought that all six of us, parents and children, would most likely want for me to do the same. It was mainly so we could both continue our education in a place that wouldn't move around everywhere."

The class wasn't paying much attention. Besides, of course, the Lyoko Warriors. Xachary Aliten-Irate… XANA, AI… Psyc Matna… Manta…

But that's impossible… thought Jeremie. The supercomputer is shut down! Or at least it should be!!

"Well, it looks like you two have had quite the interesting and convenient life!" exclaimed Ms. Hertz. "Hm… I'll put you two beside Jeremie and Aelita over…"

Before she could finish, the two went to the seats to the right of Jeremie and Aelita.

"How did you know where-?" she began, surprised.

"That's why I'm named Psyc," said the blue-haired boy.

"Erm… y-yes, well, then…" the shocked teacher began, "on with the class!"

The class period went by slowly, and it wasn't heard by the Lyoko warriors at all. They were shocked that XANA and a Manta were both materialized, and amazed that Odd was right, and confused that this happened with the supercomputer supposedly off. Machines don't turn themselves on! Or at least… they shouldn't.

-E-N-D- -O-F- -C-O-D-E-:- -R-E-B-O-O-T- -P-A-R-T- -1-

-B-E-G-I-N-N-I-N-G- -O-F- -C-O-D-E-:- -R-E-B-O-O-T- -P-A-R-T- -2-

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C- -A-C-A-D-E-M-Y-:- -C-A-F-E-T-E-R-I-A-(That Afternoon)

(A/N: Kaosu: This would be a great time to start playing the XANA Attack Theme in your head.)

Yumi and William were just relayed the news, and in that order, responded "What?!", "How?!", and together "Why?!?!"

Jeremie wasn't happy about XANA's return, either. "It looks like we need to grab some answers from our old 'pals'." The other three Lyoko Warriors who already knew of this little coincidence nodded.

Xack and Psyc were sitting at a table and already eating their lunch, when they saw six all-too-familiar people headed for them. "All according to plan," said Psyc, pleased with how smoothly the plan he and Xack had made when they were still working on creating false identities.

Ulrich, Yumi, and William sat by Xack on his side, while Odd, Jeremie and Aelita sat by Psyc on the other. Aelita and William were the least pleased with this encounter, opting to sit farthest from the two.

"You…" Aelita started, choking back a scream of rage, and continuing, "You have some explaining to do."

Psyc, sticking to the plan, said, "What are you talking about?"

Xack said, "Yeah, we just got here. There's no way we could have done anything to you already."

"Oh, please, give it a rest, XANA. We know it's you, but we don't know how," responded the Japanese day student, who had insisted that her parents let her stay at school for the lunch period with her friends today. (A/N: Kaosu: This is a Sunday. o. o)

"… Very well, you found the intentional loophole, so I may as well confess," the once-killer AI stated. "Well, let me start from the beginning of this whole mess. Before Franz lost the need for my original use, my programming was kept glitch- and bug-free by Franz himself. But after my purpose had been served to the point where I was merely optional, an add-on, so-to-speak, Franz didn't have time to run my debug program manually, and, thinking nothing could go wrong, he set the debug program to run once every four weeks.

"Then... well, let's leave it at someone from the side I worked against found out I existed, and since they were a moderate computer user, and an aspiring programmer, they decided to write a little bug in my program. And this bug was an uncommon one he made himself, a precise string of unrecognizable characters in the scripting, placed in the first brackets of the code before anything else with the name of the program slipped in the middle. Guaranteed to reverse the program's every function entirely. Jeremie, you may be interested in this." Xack took out a piece of paper and wrote '#!&$#-,(program name)&$!!-?&' on it, and handed it to Jeremie, who practically lunged at every chance to discover a code, and took it with a somewhat grateful nod. "I can remember the entire code, merely because I was an AI, which thinks for itself. That and the debugger found it within 2 weeks of the event." He mentioned the last part very unenthusiastically, and then resumed the normal tone.

But before he could continue, Odd burst in with a very dramatic, but not too loud, "Oh, yeah? If that's true then WHY were you trying to KILL US?! Didn't you have even a SCRAP of control? And that reminds me, are you gonna eat that, Ulrich?" By 'that', he was referring to a slice of cake that remained uneaten on his best friend's plate. His own plate was empty, having already finished his lunch.

"Odd, shut up, this is serious," Ulrich said, although he did give him the food item the blonde wanted. Odd didn't know why, but for some reason he ENJOYED Ulrich's constant reminders to shut up. (What can I say? I'm a fan boy. XD) He pretended to ignore that thought and quickly ate the dessert he had received.

"That's just the problem. I did. Just large enough to override my programming, and rewrite it, if I got close enough to the core file, but just small enough I could only perform one task at a time, and that I couldn't control myself on my own. The bug, meanwhile, grew, and started to defend my brain's infected coding. The only hope was the debug process, which was very slow since the Time Reversions had an effect on the debug as well."

"This is about as clever as when you created a fake Earth to try to delete us, XANA," Yumi said, bitterly recalling the event in which XANA created a fake Earth, stopped Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich from re-materializing, posed as Jeremie, and told them to go to Lyoko, because "XANA" wanted to delete "Lyoko", when in reality, he was going to delete THEM. Aelita barely made it before he destroyed Jeremie, who for the first time, went INTO a scanner and into the fake Earth to warn them, and the others. "The only difference is that this time, we won't be fooled." To William, she added, "This was before you even came here, William."

"You tried to destroy my father. I can't trust you. I don't trust you, and as far as I care, I never will," added the girl who was once trapped in Lyoko, "and that's all there is to say."

"Aelita, listen to me. ALL of you listen, but mainly Aelita. When you began the shutdown, it created a mass effect, so massive, in fact, that the whole Digital Sea was affected. Not only was your re-constructed original Lyoko shut down, but the Sea and the Replikas, all having some sort of thin tie to your Lyoko thick enough to cause them to go out if Lyoko did, but not vice-versa, also began to do so. Franz Hopper did the same." Aelita looked to be on the verge of killing Xack and Psyc.

"Can't I even finish a complete thought without an interruption or death-glare being thrown at…?" he began, before, very much so in an ironic way, Sissi came over to try and impress the new guys.

"Oh, hello!" she said in her best attempt at a sweet voice, "You must be the new guys! I'm sure that by now you've heard of me." Xack sweatdropped, and muttered, "Apparently not..."

Psyc looked up at her, acted like he was thinking for a moment, and then said, "Nooo… I'm pretty sure we haven't. Have we Xack?"

Xack, who still had his face in his hands, picked up his head, put his hands at his sides, looked at Sissi 'thoughtfully', and said, "Nope. No, we certainly- Wait…"

Psyc continued. "No, wait, we did!"

Sissi smiled excitedly.

Xack began, "You are Elizabeth 'Sissi' Delmas…"

"… The principal's daughter…" continued Psyc.

"… and the prettiest…"

"… nicest…"

"… least self-centered…"

"… smartest…"

The two finished together, "… and greatest girl at Kadic." (A/N: Kaosu: Didn't see THAT one coming, DIDJA? XD)

The whole cafeteria had heard the barrage of compliments, and one after another, died down into stunned silence. The Lyoko Warriors were in shock. They had never heard this before, nor had Sissi, who was practically flying with excitement, and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "You heard right! I am…!"

Xack interrupted, with a smirk etched on his face. "Or at least…"

"… So she thinks," Psyc finished.

"Really, you're the sourest…"

"… meanest…"

"… most self-centered…"

"… most thick-headed…"

And together they finished, "… brattiest and worst girl at Kadic, maybe even in the whole world." And with that, they began to laugh. A majority of the girls and a few of the boys began laughing. Odd couldn't help it, he joined in, and with him other random people in the cafeteria. Then, Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, and a few more students joined in, then William, then everyone else in the cafeteria besides Aelita. She wanted to enjoy the joke with her friends, but she refused to, because to her, Xack and Psyc were still XANA and one of his monsters.

The laughter died as Sissi, and her goons, who weren't noticed until after the fact, stormed out of the cafeteria building. But she did say, before stomping off, "You better watch it, losers, or you'll be in serious trouble! ... And to think I was nice to Yumi, and for this?! Hmph!"

Xack continued with the story at hand. "As I was saying before Sissi so rudely interrupted and caused a laughing riot… I was fully debugged a few days before then, and in the first five hours after I was, I used an opportunity that was too good to pass up, and activated a Tower to manufacture a laptop computer with expanded hard drive space, enough to at least put a full Lyoko on, containing supercomputer components, and a flip-side hard drive (with the same amount of space) that I can switch to and back from at will. I deactivated that Tower, and built a full Lyoko Replika on the main hard drive. It was there I learned that the other Project Carthage AIs were being bugged as well. It was looking bad, so… I created the monster you have dubbed 'Colossus.' The other AIs have methods of getting into Replikas and Lyoko as well, and they use the Digital Sea. If I could destroy the Skidbladnir you created, I figured I could possibly seal your Lyoko's opening into the Sea, and then there would be no issues.

"But that's when they started to take my monsters. Psyc was originally a Manta. He was the only on I still controlled. And one of the AIs I could once have called a friend. He was called SANI (A/N: Kaosu: No this is not stolen and barely tweaked. Jeez.), and his symbol, the Eye of SANI, was like mine, but upside-down, and with the outward-going lines on the second ring, not the first. He was the one who stole the monsters I created, and distributed them among the other AIs, branding them with the recipient's Eye.

"For himself, he kept the Scyphozoa, and the newest monster I had created to defend the Replikas from all of them, called the MegaMonster. It… contained features of all my past creations, excluding the Kankrelat, Scyphozoa, Colossus, and the Digital Sea dwelling monsters. The protective shell of the Mega-Tank, although it vanishes when not in use, the acid-handling capabilities of the Hornets, the four-sided weaponry mechanism of the Blok, the Creeper's tail-like body and stick-like arms, which I used for its movement once again, and the concept of the weapons located in its head, the Manta's bombs, the Tarantula's head and 'voice set', and the Krabbe's underside canon."

"So, it was like a Franken-monster?" asked Odd, temporarily setting aside the wrongs that Xack had done as XANA to be amazed. The others, including Aelita, for the time being, did the same, although not quite as much as Odd.

Xack half-heartedly laughed once and replied, "Yes, to a point. There wasn't any sewing limbs together, or using the lightning from a storm to bring it alive, or using another person's brain, though, but it is technically the 'Frankenstein' of Lyoko.

"However, now to return to the point of what I was originally saying. As I said, I have created a complete Lyoko Replika, and that Replika was very accurate. I knew one day you would decide to end it all, and shut down the supercomputer, and start a chain that would shut down the Replikas, thus shutting me down. I knew that I'd have to be prepared for that day. So I went to Lyoko's only complete information source; the Lyoko Data Archive Files. It's a segment of Sector 5 I warped the reality in Lyoko to hide. I made it so only I could see it, and only I could access it. I searched for anything that could help me stop you, because the other AI would only get more powerful if the supercomputer went off.

"I can use more than one code in Lyoko and its Replikas. There's Code: LYOKO, Code: XANA, Code: EARTH, Code: RESET, which is the Tower equivalent to the reset program you found, Jeremie, Code: ACTIVATE, which is the activation code, and then there were a few more Franz never informed me of, for reasons unknown to me. It was only in the Archive Files I learned of them. Code: AELITA, which can restore anyone who has been affected by a non-life-point related death in Lyoko, such as when Franz revived you, Aelita, Code: SHUTDOWN, which can shut down the whole supercomputer and, in turn, the Digital Sea and it's contents forever, but requires an intense identity, code, and purpose verification, and then Code: REBOOT. Code: REBOOT and Code: SHUTDOWN must both be entered into every Tower of every sector, starting with normal Towers in a sector and ending with the sector's Way Tower, then moving on to the next one. Then, after that's done, you need to go to Sector 5 and enter the code into the access panel in the Celestial Dome. Code: REBOOT can't be used unless the supercomputer is in Total Shutdown Mode. It will send a power surge through everything after salvaging whatever can be saved and forcing the supercomputer back on. The only way to undo its effect is to enter Code: SHUTDOWN, which in Code: REBOOT mode the supercomputer will recognize as the supercomputer being turned off, and if it's in on position, although if you're in Code: REBOOT mode, I highly doubt, it will restart immediately. But keep in mind: under normal circumstances, Code: SHUTDOWN is a permanent off-switch, and can't be reversed unless through an un-linked entering of Code: REBOOT into the Digital Sea before everything finally goes out.

"I was in a Forest Sector Tower, fixing the debug program, and all of a sudden, I get word of a Total Shutdown Mode being initiated. And not having anyone to help me stop the other AIs besides one Manta, and knowledge that if the computer turned off, the other AIs would have more power to feed from, I decide to go through and enter Code: REBOOT into every Tower and the Celestial Dome's access panel. Then, I had a plan: if I lost all the power I gained to that bug, and can't create any more monsters… why not explain everything to you, and make up for all I've done before? I've already got all the resources and requirements to do so."

"And why should we trust you to keep your word?" came the harsh, questioning voice of his creator's daughter. "You're merely a program, XANA. You can only do so much. You can't bring back my father."

Xack's eyes went wide, as he recalled someone saying nearly those same exact words to him on a much earlier occasion.

-F-L-A-S-H-B-A-C-K-:- -E-A-R-T-H-:- -F-A-C-T-O-R-Y-:- -C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R- -L-A-B-

Franz was sitting at the screens of the supercomputer, headset in place, explaining to XANA what he needed to do.

"Consider it done five hours ago. You have my word," the talking, 3D, simulated human in the other end replied overconfidently.

"Now, XANA, don't get so cocky," Franz said, almost sounding like he was scolding the AI. "You're merely a program. You can only do so much. You can't bring back Antea…" His creator's voice trailed off momentarily, and then it went back to explaining the current objective.

-E-N-D- -F-L-A-S-H-B-A-C-K-

"Xack? You ok?" Psyc asked.

"Hu-? Oh, yeah." Xack returned his attention to Aelita. "Funny, Aelita, your father said the same thing to me once about your mother." This caused her to seem even more hostile. Bad choice… "He was correct then, and you are incorrect now. I can, in fact, restore your father in his fullest. But you must know that I can't restore him without your help or without properly connecting my Replika to your Lyoko. The process that does this requires 72 allied Towers and 8 allied Way Towers." But that seemed to make her a little more agreeable.

Jeremie spoke up, "Alright, we take a vote. Out of the six of us, who's willing to give XANA, and his Manta, fresh starts as Xack and Psyc under the condition they keep their word and never attack Earth again, restore Franz Hopper, and make amends with us by any means necessary?"

He, William, Odd, Ulrich, and, hesitantly, Aelita raised their hands.

"Then it's settled. Sorry, Yumi, majority rules."

Aelita added immediately, "BUT if they don't do any of the things they promised, they are no longer granted that fresh start."

"Excellent," responded Xack, "we'll see you later in the day, Jeremie."

"Huh? What for?" the operator of the supercomputer asked.

"To build the connection between the Replika and Lyoko. What else?" responded the once-Manta companion of Xack.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C- -A-C-A-D-E-M-Y-:- -J-E-R-E-M-I-E-'-S- -D-O-R-M-(That Night)

Jeremie inspected the code sequence Xack had given him. He tested it on every program he could possibly edit, and all tests showed up to be correct. It didn't make sense. Unless XANA really wasn't up to his old tricks, there was no way to explain such trustworthiness from him.

A knock on the door brought him from his thoughts. "Come in."

The door opened, and the two newest arrivals stepped into the room. "Ready to get this connection built?" asked the last XANA-allied Manta in Lyoko turned human.

"The sooner the better," Xack and Jeremie replied without hesitation.

"But before we do, let me just link you right into the Factory supercomputer…" Xack offered. Jeremie nodded, and Xack began to set up the link. It was mere moments before it was complete, and the only thing left was to finish off this connection.

-D-I-G-I-T-A-L- -S-E-A-

Two blue, generically sphere-shaped shells were being drawn to each other. It was a moderate pace, nothing horribly slow, but not very fast, either. As the spheres' walls came together, they formed a larger sphere. The two pipe-like structures were smacked together into one twice the size.

-I-N-S-I-D-E- -T-H-E- -N-E-W- -S-P-H-E-R-E-

The outside wasn't all that was changing. Inside, the Sector 5s were stacking themselves and their sectors so they were two layers. Then, something went wrong. Everything suddenly took on a red tint.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C-:- -J-E-R-E-M-I-E-'-S- -D-O-R-M-

Both computers suddenly began to display error notices.

"Xack, what's going on?!" Jeremie said, confused, surprised and a bit afraid.

"It's the wrong type of connection! I momentarily forgot that this connection only works if the two are on the same hard drive!" admitted the other computer operator, a little unhappy, and somewhat embarrassed, with his current failure. "If we disconnect now, we'll save all the data in the Replika and in Lyoko." They began to reverse the process, and the barrage of errors stopped and slowly started to vanish from the computer screens.

"Ok, instead, we'll make the wall start to flatten, then build a connection point on each computer, link them, and create a tunnel out of that link that transports between the two Sector 5s, maybe even the sectors. Sound good?" asked Xack.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think that'd work better," responded Jeremie.

-E-A-R-T-H-:- -K-A-D-I-C-:- -O-D-D- -A-N-D- -U-L-R-I-C-H-'-S- -D-O-R-M-

Ulrich was at the desk finishing the last problem in his math homework. Odd was lying in bed, just staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, Ulrich?"

"Yeah, Odd?"

Come on, say it, Odd, you aren't afraid of him.

Come on, say it. Say. It.

…I've got to stop thinking that every time I speak to Ulrich.

"Odd? Are you ok?"

"Do you really think XANA's not evil, just was infected with a bug?"

Yeah, yeah, you just keep avoiding your feelings. I'm sure that one day he'll fess up first. NOT!

"Err…"Real nice. You can ignore vertigo, and you can save the world from dangerous AIs that on a daily basis come up with plots to kill you, and you can live with knowing you like someone that most likely doesn't like you back or CAN'T like you back. But you can't come up with a way to say it that can be used in this kind of situation without losing a best friend? "Well… not really…"

"Then why did you say you'd give him another chance?"

"… Because… you… were willing to… give him one…"

"Huh?" Odd was sure Ulrich had just said…

"Because you did. Now shut up and drop it."

"Ok!" replied the cheerful blonde, who all of a sudden got up from his bed and hugged his best friend.

Ulrich avoided letting Odd see the slight pink that was visible on his cheeks. When Odd let go, Ulrich looked at him and said, in as close to an annoyed tone as he could manage, "What was that for?"

Odd knew his friend well enough to know how to get a reaction out of him. He pouted a little, and said as pathetically as he could, "You don't like me anymore, Ulrich?" He put just the slightest emphasis into 'like' and even threw in a pathetic sigh.

Ulrich turned fifty different shades of red in 10 seconds. He couldn't even form an understandable thought, except his inner devil, which kept telling him to jump Odd and screw him right then and there. His inner saint had long since given up on him, and locked itself in a corner.

"Never mind, Ulrich, I got the answer I needed," his friend said, giggling as he lay back down in bed.

Ulrich was afraid to find out what would happen tomorrow as a result of this little display of affection. Why he had to say it quite like that or lose control as Odd was putting on that dumb, stupid, pathetic, adorable and cute pout-and-sigh act- wait a second… Adorable and cute?! Where the hell did those come from?!

He chose to ignore his inner devil's very mischievous laughter and sexual suggestions, all of them involving Odd. When that didn't work, he mentally squashed it, finding it actually worked… until morning.

Odd, on the other hand, was content knowing Ulrich loved him back, and started plotting on a way to charm him into admitting it.

-E-N-D- -O-F- -C-O-D-E-:- -R-E-B-O-O-T- -P-A-R-T- -2-

Kaosu: … and in the premier episode, too! XD

Odd: Uh… y-you won't really tell them, will you? O-o

Ulrich: Knowing him, yes, Odd, he will. Just wait until the two worst possible people find out. It'll probably headline the Kadic news.

Aki clone 0: Ooooh, you two gonna get it now! XD

Ulrich: Lemme guess. Aki's computer exploded?

Kaosu: Right you are. :P Anyway, people, those who saw the episodes "XANA Awakens" Parts one and two will know what I just did. I took the pilot episode, and made it into a two-part to grab the important detail. As of now, CODE: Reboot is up and running!

Odd: And guess what… In order to air, a TV show must have ratings.

Kaosu: Now where the hell am I gonna get those?! Hey! You! Kind 'viewers' (readers)! RATE CODE: Reboot! I'll give out stickers!! YAOI stickers!!! Or maybe cookies? … aw, damn it, all I have is candy. Well, rate it out of five stars and review and I'll part with some of my precious candy. Ok, that won't work… how about temporary ownership of Odd and Ulrich, whom you may force to do whatever you see fit.

Odd and Ulrich: WHAT?!?!

-C-O-M-M-E-N-T-S- -A-F-T-E-R- -P-O-S-T-I-N-G-

Kaosu: ... Oh, crap. That throws everything off. Er... I have just acquired knowledge that XANA is deleted before the last episode. We shall say that XANA survived, but his program bug didn't, he was knocked out in a way by the bug being ripped out, and woke up not knowing what saved him and logically pointing it at his debugging program. Also, Franz Hopper will be gone in his attempt to help destroy XANA.We shall say Franz was a dying fragment at that point and only survived because of CODE: Reboot being used. In answer to any other possible questions I can think of... Q: How did XANA use the CODE: Reboot thing in Sector 5 if it had no Tower? A: Instead of entering codes in the 5th Sector's Tower, he decided to erase that temporarily, if not, permanently, and make the panel in the Celestial Dome work the same. Remember, he knew something like that would sooner or later happen. No way would he have made it through all that in the short amount of time he had. That one Tower could've made one heck of a difference. Q: If the Replikas didn't survive, how did Lyoko, or Franz Hopper? A: I don't know. I really don't. Ask Xack. Not me. Q: How many times do people need to be told (insert name of whatever character) isn't gay? A: An infinite number of times. And how many times do YOU need to be told IT'S CALLED FANFICTION FOR A REASON?!?! Now shut up and read a non-yaoi fic. P: