When the Towers Wake | Code Lyoko FanFiction | Project Carthage

  After the last communication between XANA and me, I started to get messages on my laptop from XANA. Day by day, his messages are more like choices than commands. Our bond became more...personal.

Aelita confronts me again, about XANA, she is warning me: "You're being used. That's what XANA does—he manipulates people," she said, I looked at her, cold in the eyes.

"He's not what you think. He's not just some virus. He feels. He understands me—more than any of you ever will." I said.

"Lyra, listen to me. He will use you, when he doesn't need you anymore, he will throw you away. He doesn't feel. He is a virus. They don't feel," she said.

"Stop acting like you know him," I said.

"I do know him, Lyra," she said.

Later that day, XANA told me to go to Lyoko, told me the coordinates of the tower, and I did that.

I entered the tower and approached XANA. This tower feels different. It's reactive, alive, romantic even, in a twisted, virtual way. Symbols are very similar, I'm not sure why. XANA brings me closer; he touched my face this time, looking me directly in the eyes.

"You're not mine, Lyra Durand," he says, "but you could be. Stay in this world. Rewrite it with me."

"Tell me this..." I stared. "If you are human, you would be twenty years old now?" I asked.

"I am 'twenty years old' since your Dad and Aelita's made me," he said.

"It's four years of 'age gap, '" I said.

"Does that bother you?" he asked.

"No, no, it does not," I said.

I walked to Jeremy, keeping a worried facade.

"Um...Jeremy? Do you have a minute?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure, Lyra, is everything okay?" he asked.

"I think the supercomputer is overheating," I said.

"Overheating?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes," I said.

We were around the shutdown, and as Jeremy did, with my phone, I reactivated it through triggering a hidden subroutine—one XANA taught me. After the power came back, XANA attacked, but it made it glitchy. He activated and deactivated and activated. The group suspect it's sabotage, but they don't know who to blame.

After they left the factory, I went to Lyoko and walked to XANA. He was staring at the tower, and I saw why. Aelita was in the tower.

He asks: "Will you save her—or watch her fall?"

I decided to watch. "It's just a test, it's not real," I said to myself. Tower and Aelita disappeared, and I sighed.

"You passed," he said.

A red circuit binds itself to my wrist in Lyoko—symbolic of my full connection to him. To XANA.

I watched the campus from my dorm window as rain fell. I sighed. I was no longer caught between two worlds—I had made my decision. And he was waiting for me. I am on his side. I have questions, he has answers. I need those answers. I need to find out the truth. I need to know if my Dad is alive or not. XANA told me he can help me bring him back, but the million-dollar question is: Where is my Dad?