When the Towers Wake | Code Lyoko FanFiction | Project Carthage

Lyra's Dorm Room

Lyra wakes from the reboot, haunted by digital noise and fragmented memories. Her reflection in the mirror glitches momentarily — showing a flash of Elias's face behind hers. She hides the residual static in her eyes using contact lenses. Odd knocks, worried:

"You've been gone for hours. Are you okay? The tower's gone. What happened?"

"We stopped him. That's all that matters," she lied.

But she feels XANA pulsing in her subconscious — his code now bound to her.

Library Basement

A Kadic student named Mira stumbles across an old hidden elevator terminal on the library floor. She accidentally activates the screen — Elias's red eye flickers to life. He speaks in a soothing voice:

"Hello, Mira. Would you like to see something beautiful?"

The screen pulls her in, digitising her into a new sub-layer of Lyoko.

Elias begins to build his Mirror Army — using curious minds as his first recruits.

Control Room

Jeremy, Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and William regroup. Jeremy finds inconsistencies in the code:

Towers are stable, but one signal keeps pinging in and out — not red, not even purple, or blue...but black.

Aelita confronts Lyra:

"Did you see anything strange when the reboot launched?"

"No," Lyra said.

"Then why is your virtualisation pattern... corrupted?" Yumi asked.

"Guys, let her be. She's been through a lot. She is even still in shock at everything that happened. Even if something went wrong, she didn't realise it or something. Give her a break." Odd defends her — but the tension is mounting.

Intercut

Elias begins altering reality in subtle ways through electronic systems connected to the Mirror Tower. Water turns to glass in a student's bottle.
A math quiz changes into code mid-exam. A teacher begins repeating a phrase Elias whispers: "Repetition is clarity."

Jeremy's sensors pick up the anomalies, but they can't trace the source — it's like chasing a shadow. Lyra recognises Elias's signature... but says nothing.

Forest Clearing

Aelita meets Lyra alone:

"You knew what you were doing when you launched that reboot. You protected something. Or someone."

Lyra stands her ground, calm but steeled:

"And what if I did? What if destroying Elias wasn't the answer? You never asked why I helped him."

"If Elias is still out there, you've put the world at risk," Aelita warned her.

"Maybe the world needs to evolve," Lyra said.

Lyoko Scanner Room

Jeremy sets up a scan to test for "code corruption." When Lyra enters the scanner pod, it short-circuits. Her scan shows foreign code spliced with her DNA — XANA's remnant, hiding in her neural signature. The Lyoko Warriors realise:

She didn't just stop Elias. She saved him.

And she's no longer fully human.

Inside the Core

Elias sits on a throne of glass-code, watching digital threads of Earth ripple like water. Mira floats behind him, her eyes empty — a new Ghost-Warrior in his army. He whispers:

"You made your choice, Lyra. Now I'll show them what it means."

The camera pans to a screen: an image of Aelita, glitching and distorting.