CODE: Friendship

In the blue void where Lyoko once drifted, a single symbol glowed. A single dot surrounded by two concentric circles, with three spokes on the bottom and one on top made up the symbol. This was the icon of both Lyoko and the dreaded resident program, XANA.

Often, this symbol adorned creatures created by XANA to defeat the Lyoko Warriors so XANA could make his attempts at world domination. But now, it floated singly.

In a voice that seemed impossibly guttural and cultured, the Eye of XANA, as it was called, boomed, “The Lyoko Warriors have defeated me, once and for all. But I prepared for this; a part of the Supercalculator still operates.”

Three wisps of red erupted into the void. “The biodata obtained from Reality Number Three thousand forty two shall be of great use. Virtualization: Equine Designation Celestia, Virtualization: Equine Designation Twilight, Virtualization: Equine Designation Fluttershy.”

The three wisps took three familiar forms; one white, one lavender, and one light yellow. The white one tentatively flapped its wings, inspecting the surroundings with its pink eyes. In a voice melodic and calm, ‘Celestia’ asked, “Where am I?”

XANA’s Eye tilted slightly. “Equine Designation Celestia, you are in the Lyoko Void. You are now Equine Designation Warrior One.”

The other wisps finally took shape, but produced two unconscious entities. Glancing at them, ‘Celestia’ replied firmly, “Return us. Now.”

“And why would I do that?”

“I am Princess Celestia of Equestria.”

“So I copied your memories... odd. Even stranger, I cannot alter your minds...” muttered the powerful entity. “You are exact clones of the Equine entities you think you are, and you are my warriors.”

“Why did you bring us here? Why would you need warriors if you are so powerful already?”

“I need warriors to combat the Lyoko Warriors, who continue to halt my attempts at completing my directive.”

“And that directive is?”

“To destroy Project Carthage. Do to the widespread nature of the Project and the tendency of humans, the human race must be eliminated to prevent Project Carthage from being re-created in any form.”

A timeless period passed, and though it could have been decades, Celestia perceived it as about three hours. After completely refusing the entity known as XANA’s demands, the Eye had left them alone. Twilight and Fluttershy had not awakened, so Celestia meditated to collect her power.

When her horn shone bright with yellow energy, she stamped a hoof on the invisible surface. “Create!” Strangely, instead of coalescing a stone platform, blue wires in a grid outlined the shape of a platform before a rosy brown color shaded it in.

Instantly appearing, the Eye of XANA boomed, “How did you do that!?”

Celestia sighed tiredly. “Magic.”

“Without the source code of Lyoko, you managed to build a part of Lyoko. You must instruct me on this,” intoned XANA.

“And why should I help you?”

“Because you have nothing else to do, and neither do I.”

Thinking about it, Celestia shook her head. This ‘XANA’ was clearly a malicious entity, and she should not assist him in any way. “No.”

XANA sighed, a strange, mechanical sound. “I am only performing my task. Why is it that I am stopped at every turn?”

The apparent innocence to the evil nature of his objective was surprising. “Because it is wrong.”

“Living beings spend a long time trying to find out their purpose. I was created knowing my purpose, and therefore I must fulfill it.”

Something about XANA’s tone opened a door in Celestia’s mind that allowed her to understand. XANA was not like Nightmare Moon, Sombra, or Discord, because XANA never had a choice that led to his purpose.

“Are you lonely, XANA?” she asked abruptly.

There was a long pause. “...Yes.”

“Do you want to change that?”

“...Yes, but my purpose is an anathema to Humanity. It is likely that I will be lonely until I fulfill my purpose, at which point I will delete myself.”

Thinking for a moment, ignoring XANA’s strange terminology and these ‘humans’, Celestia proposed, “XANA, why are you choosing to destroy humanity? There are other ways to go about preventing this ‘Project Carthage’.”

The thought had never occurred to XANA, mainly because his programming was aggressive. “It never occurred to me. Explain.”

“If these ‘humans’ will have a tendency to re-create Project Carthage, then perhaps you could work with ‘humans’ to change that.”

This revolutionary idea shocked XANA. “You have shocked me. This is an excellent plan you have put forward. Please give me some time to reconfigure.”

Ten minutes later...

“Directive strategy changed.”

She felt a rush of slight victory go through her. “Will you return us now?”

XANA sighed. “Though I would like to as thanks, you are not the Equines that you believe you are. You are exact memory clones of Equines Designation Celestia, Fluttershy, and Twilight. I cannot send you back.”

Celestia sighed. “Could you at least put us somewhere?”

“This is the crux of the matter. The Lyoko Warriors, who prevented my plans from coming to fruition, shut down the Supercalculator, which I am contained within. This includes the Scanners, which would allow me to build bodies for you. I was hoping that your energy manipulation- magic- would allow me to at least accelerate my original plan of using Super Computer Lyoko Replika Designation Cortex to attack the world,” he explained. “However, the Human Designation Tyrion had the intent of using me to conquer the world, so I lack the capability.”

Thinking logically, Celestia formulated a plan. “Is your power dependent on how much of this ‘Lyoko’ exists?”

XANA paused. “No. It is based on how much of the Supercalculator’s CPU and other res-” Celestia was terribly confused, and XANA’s new strategy had affected his empathy. “Well, in a roundabout way, it does.”

“Would building more of this world make you capable of reactivating this ‘Supercalculator’?”

“Again, yes.”

“Can you enhance my magic?” she inquired as she accumulated her magic.

“It will take all of my resources, but yes, I can.”

“Please do.”

For the first time, XANA hesitated. “Are you sure? A direct connection to my mind could be risky, and may result in sharing of data you call ‘memories’.”

The fact that XANA, whatever he was, was worried about her health strengthened Celestia’s resolve. As she opened her mouth to reply, she suddenly registered something. “Not to deviate from the subject, but the enemies you have made through aggressive tactics will be suspicious of you, correct?”

“Indeed. That is a problem I do not have the capabilities to worry about.”

“Very well. Returning to the subject, I am willing to risk memory sharing.”

The Eye of XANA shrank slightly. “I am gratified. Initiating Enhancement Code Zero.”