Chapter 3 – Power

"Have you seen the marks?"

"Yeah, I—"

"Yumi, why are you in one of William's t-shirts?"

"Accident during chemistry. There was no time to stop by my house. Quit looking so jealous, Ulrich; nothing happened."

"—and then he went fwoosh straight down the track, like he'd activated his Super Sprint!"

"Does this mean XANA's back?"

"—my hands, there were claws—"

"—my clothes were just suspended in midair—"

"Everything's happening so fast!"

"—I only noticed my ears when I looked in the mirror—"

"—Nicholas was the one to point it out—"

Unlike the usual silence or quiet discussion typical of the group when using the elevator, each warrior was babbling worriedly to each other about the events that had happened that morning. The consequences of skipping their afternoon classes didn't even cross their minds; this situation was more important.

Unfortunately, when they disembarked the elevator in the supercomputer's chamber, they found that nothing had changed – still the same destruction they'd seen before dawn. No easy answer to their predicament showed itself.

"This is just perfect! What are we supposed to do about this?" Odd wailed, flailing. "Ack!" he screeched as he noticed that his fingers were tipped with claws again.

"Okay, let's think through this rationally," Yumi said, taking a deep breath to find her calm despite the crisis – a skill she'd honed over years of XANA attacks.

"We have clues as to what happened. We just have to use them to solve this mystery, like any detective," Ulrich added, Yumi's composure quelling the panic that wanted to consume the group.

"We have a trashed supercomputer—" Yumi pointed at the remains of the once impressive piece of technology, "—marks on our chests that are colored, upside-down Eyes of XANA—" She tapped on her chest, above her heart, "—and weird things are happening to us. Someone list them?"

"Well, Odd's growing claws, Aelita's ears are sometimes pointed, Ulrich's suddenly much faster, Yumi lifted something via telekinesis, my hand sank into shadow, and Jeremy saw binary. That's everyone, right?" William said.

Aelita looked grim. "All these incidences… they have something in common."

"I noticed it, too," Jeremy agreed. "Everything we're suddenly doing… they're abilities we had on Lyoko."

"You could see binary on Lyoko, Einstein?" Odd wondered, flexing his clawed fingers.

Jeremy fidgeted, disgruntled that he had to think of the few times he'd been virtualized, none of which had been pleasant. "Kind of. It was more like I could see the code that made up Lyoko, if I wanted to. It wasn't terribly useful, though."

"So, what, our Lyoko forms are, like, bleeding into the real world, or something?" William surmised.

"It should be impossible," Jeremy admitted. "There were a lot of safeties in place to reconstruct the material bodies exactly as the scanners read them, no mixing between Lyoko and the material world."

"Well, it's happening, so it's possible," Aelita pointed out. "But the timing…"

"It has to have something to do with why the supercomputer's fried," Ulrich said.

"Possibly that stone in the supercomputer, too. That's where all the weird energy readings were coming from," Jeremy added, turning on the laptop he'd been forced to leave in the factory the previous night which had inexplicably escaped the destruction of the supercomputer. "Maybe, if we can locate the stone and analyze it, we can figure out what happened. It shouldn't be too hard with the sensors that are installed on my laptop." Jeremy typed on his laptop, bringing up the sensors. "Now, let's see what we've got… …um."

"Well, what is it, Einstein?" Odd asked.

"That energy signature… It's coming from inside all of us," Jeremy breathed.

"What? Let me see," Aelita demanded, nudging Jeremy aside. "No way," she gasped as she saw the readings.

"So… what does that mean?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know," Jeremy admitted, perturbed. "I can't even begin to explain what's happening to us."

"So we're going to be stuck like this forever?" Odd demanded, waving around hands that were still sporting claws – and, worse, starting to grow a thin fuzz of purple fur that matched his Lyoko form. "Argh!"

"I'm beginning to think that Ulrich's idea of magic this morning might have some merit," Aelita suggested, eyeing Odd's purple-mottled hands.

"There's got to be a scientific explanation for this…" Jeremy insisted.

"Modern science can only take us so far. Science worked with the supercomputer, but this is beyond that. We have to look at the alternatives," Yumi rebutted. "Researching magic is at least a place to start. We can't just dismiss it out of hand."

"Fine," Jeremy conceded, pulling up a web browser. "You all have your phones, right? Could you help?"

"I mean, no problem, but I'm not sure what we're looking for," William said.

"Someone start with the history of magic – why don't you do that, William? Ulrich, you look up the types of magic. Yumi, the effects of magic. Aelita, examples of magic today. Odd… I'll leave you to try to fix that," Jeremy instructed, pointing at Odd's hands. "I'll try to find anything about the relationship between science and magic."

There was a chorus of agreements as everyone whipped out their phones (minus Odd, who sat crossed-legged and stared at his hands, brow furrowed in concentration).

"I've got something," William said about five minutes later. Everyone paused in their searches to listen. "It says here that the origin of magic is unknown but that it was utilized by cultures all around the world."

"We learned about the basics in class," Ulrich pointed out. "Is there anything useful?"

"I'm getting there," William glared. "According to this, ancient cultures utilized magic by trapping it in objects. Wild magic is rare now. Something about it being dangerous…"

"Well, so is fire, but that didn't stop us from using it," Yumi commented.

"There's a lot here on how different cultures interacted with magic, both religious and secular. The Chinese trapped it in jewelry. The Asian cultures mostly followed the Chinese example – except India; they combined magic with their religious practices – while Western cultures tied magic to tools and weapons. African cultures bound magic to amulets and beads for divination. Native American tribes tied it to ritual objects and Pacific Islanders and Middle Easterners used it for navigation and transportation, though the former was more religious and the latter more scientific. Very few of these magical items are still in use today, but it is thought that many have been hidden away in tombs and the like," William lectured. "Oh! And there's a little bit here about wild magic sometimes manifesting in living beings instead of just places, but that's really rare…"

"It's a start," Aelita said once William had finished talking. "Could magic be bound in something like the stone we found in the supercomputer?"

"Uh," William said, swiping on his phone. "Only objects changed by humans can hold magic well. It says magic seeps out of naturally occurring things."

"So I guess that rock couldn't hold magic, then?" Ulrich inferred.

"Didn't the stone look deliberately shaped, though?" Yumi argued.

"Didn't get a good enough look at it. I mean, it's possible," Ulrich admitted.

Jeremy conjured an image of the rock in his mind. He remembered it was black and silver. Lots of tiny facets, glinting like mirrors. It wasn't big enough to fill the box it had been in – but it hadn't rattled around when he'd tilted the box. Had it been stuck to the box? In fact, thinking back, Jeremy thought he remembered the facets ending in smooth edges at the bottom, but he couldn't be sure. He hadn't had much time to examine it before it mysteriously disappeared in a flash of light, left them all unconscious, and wrecked the supercomputer. …Putting everything like that, it was no wonder the others had jumped to a conclusion of magic.

"So, we can't be sure if the stone was manmade or not," Jeremy concluded. "We need more information. Has anyone else found anything?"

"I think we need a little more time," Yumi said, gesturing with her phone.

"I'll keep looking at the history of magic," William said.

About ten minutes later, Yumi piped up, "I've got a bunch of information here on the effects of magic. It can be willfully used for good or for evil, though certain magic objects like Excalibur and sets like the Miraculous are naturally aligned toward one or the other. Magic is typically used to enhance natural human abilities, but there are a lot of other things it can do, too. Illusions, manipulation of elements. Some of the most powerful magic can even affect time and space."

"Can magic cherry-pick things to affect? Like leaving us alone but targeting the supercomputer?" Odd asked.

"I think so. I mean, Ladybug can restore things affected by akuma but not anything else," Ulrich pointed out.

"I found a tally of all the magical items that have been used in the past two hundred years, regardless if they've been lost in that time or not," Aelita added. "Here in France, we have the Chinese Miraculous. Brazil has the Chinese Sigils, though only one is in use today. India, apparently, had a lot of magic items, but they've been largely lost, and the few left are scattered. African divination has been suppressed by centuries of Western exploitation, and the associated items hidden or destroyed. The Sacreds are buried in the sands of Egypt, though one was found in 1915 and was on display in a museum until it was stolen. The Spirits of the Americas have also been scattered around the globe due to European influence. Some of the Manas from the Pacific Islands have been gifted to England, and the others are still used in their native lands for conservation and protection. The Celestials of the Middle East… there was a sighting of one in 1851, but they've disappeared since then. And no one has seen the bulk of European-produced magic for a long time – these were largely weapons, though there are two known sets of items: the Jinxes and the Marvelous, both lost to the ages but thought to still be hidden on the European continent," Aelita listed.

"Any of those similar to the stone we found in the supercomputer?" Yumi asked.

Aelita bit her lip. "I was looking for locations of magic, not what each kind does. Plus, if there's magic in the supercomputer, it could be something older that my father rediscovered and wouldn't have been listed here."

"The folklore on magic describes hundreds of magical items, but there are only a handful left today," William added. "And we don't know how accurate the folklore is, anyway."

"I've got some stuff on the types of magic," Ulrich interjected. "Like Yumi said, magic can be aligned toward good or evil, but it's the user that determines exactly how that magic is used. Some magic can affect physical things, while other types are mental. Some can affect both. Also, most magic items have some sort of symbol associated with them – one of the Sacreds is associated with a stylized scarab, and Chat Noir's Miraculous is marked by a green-on-black paw print."

"The stone didn't have any markings on it," William pointed out.

"But we didn't see the bottom of the stone. Maybe there was something there," Aelita suggested.

"So basically, if Jeremy doesn't come back with something conclusive, we still have no idea what happened," Yumi summarized, her expression souring.

"Aha! I got my hands back to normal!" Odd announced, showing off clawless and furless hands.

"It took you all this time to get rid of the claws and fur?" Ulrich asked skeptically.

"Hey, it's harder than it looks!" Odd defended. "It's not like there's a manual for this kind of thing!"

"So, what have you found, Jeremy?" Aelita asked before the boys could start fighting.

"Well, a lot of European and Middle Eastern magic was trapped in objects that had some potential use, like weapons or astrolabes," Jeremy said. "But mostly I've just found a bunch of scientific articles postulating on the existence of magic and trying to replicate it in a laboratory setting, which has been largely unsuccessful. Anyone find anything else of note?"

"I've found a lot of cool historical examples of magic being used, like old Miraculous and Celestial users and others with superpowers," William chimed in, swiping down on his phone. "Nothing particularly interesting – wait a second… oh my god."

"What is it?" Yumi asked.

"Someone look up the Marvelous, please," William said, a little choked.

"I got it!" Odd volunteered, jumping on the opportunity to help since he'd been largely distracted thus far. "Let's see, the Marvelous set was created in Europe, according to Arthurian legend. They were meant to be attached to something to make it magical, like the Miraculous. Um, the symbols for the Marvelous are a… swirly triangle thing? What looks like two water ripples colliding – oh, wow, one of them is a swastika, though apparently this one is aligned for good? Guess Hitler didn't get the memo – a "Y" with the lower line extending up to bisect the area between the "V," this one looks like—" Odd stopped. Peered at the screen of his phone. Squinted. "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"Let me see," William said, peering over Odd's shoulder. "Yep." He showed Odd whatever he'd found on his own phone.

"What is it?" Aelita asked impatiently.

"Conclusive evidence," William replied, holding out his phone. Pictured was an old carving of a very familiar symbol – the Eye of XANA, upside-down, just like the marks on their chests.

Jeremy gaped. "Okay, maybe the magic theory does have some merit," he said weakly.

"What does it mean for us, then?" Ulrich asked pragmatically.

"It means Franz Hopper hooked up a Marvelous to the supercomputer. That's probably what powered the Return to the Past and the scanners. How on earth did he find a Marvelous, though? They're supposed to be lost," Yumi wondered.

"Tell us more about the Marvelous," Aelita demanded.

"Well, there's more here about the Miraculous, to be honest," Odd said, scrolling through the site. "The Miraculous are all tied to an animal and can transform whoever wears them into a superhero with that animal theme. According to lore, the Marvelous… they're more malleable. They draw out and manifest the inner strengths of whoever… is bonded with them? What does that mean?"

Yumi and Aelita exchanged a meaningful glance. "Whatever bonding means… we might all be bonded with the Marvelous," Aelita deduced. "I mean, we're marked, and it's drawing our Lyoko forms into the real world."

"Wait, so we're magic now?" Odd exclaimed.

"It's just a theory," Jeremy interjected.

"A theory that fits," William muttered.

"Okay, running on the assumption that the Marvelous is behind all this, what does that mean for us?" Yumi asked.

"There's nothing more on this site," Odd said, tapping at his phone and frowning.

"Wait! There's a problem here," Aelita said, staring at her phone after pulling up some more information on the Marvelous. "A Marvelous will only bond with one person at a time, like a Miraculous. So how is it that we're all affected?"

"Maybe that stone held a bunch of Marvelous?" Ulrich suggested.

"Can't be. We all have the same mark, meaning there's just one Marvelous behind this. But how?" Aelita wondered, frowning.

The group sat in silence for a while, mulling over the problem. "Maybe it has something to do with how it was attached to the supercomputer," Jeremy finally said, making an intuitive leap as he flashed through the Internet to look for information. "I mean, there's nothing about using magic as a power source for something as advanced as a supercomputer, or even for combining it with technology at all. This is totally new. It stands to reason that the Marvelous might have changed to adapt to new circumstances."

"So basically, all the stuff we can find online won't help because the Marvelous is different than it was in the past," Odd summarized glumly.

"I didn't say that," Jeremy protested. "It's probably not completely different. I mean, its symbol is still the same, and it's still drawing out our inner strengths – our Lyoko forms."

"It just… somehow split between us, then?" Aelita theorized. "How does that even work?"

"I wish this stuff came with an instruction manual," Ulrich grumbled. "Right now it feels like we're groping in the dark for answers."

"We are groping in the dark for answers," Yumi corrected.

"I've got something more," William said. "Each Marvelous has a specific power, like the Miraculous. It doesn't say what that power is, though."

"It was probably the Return to the Past," Jeremy murmured. "I mean, that's the only program on the supercomputer that stands out to me as possibly powered by magic."

"What about virtualization? The scanners?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremy tapped his chin pensively. "There was definitely a scientific component to the scanners. But I'll bet the Marvelous provided the safe connection between the material world and the virtual world."

"So if we, what, concentrated hard enough we could initiate a Return to the Past?" Yumi guessed skeptically.

"I don't think that's how it works…" Aelita replied, frowning thoughtfully.

There was a moment of silence as the warriors pondered the problem. "Okay, to summarize: we've all been bonded with a Marvelous, which somehow split between all of us. We don't know how to control it. We don't know why it split or why it probably trashed the supercomputer. Is there anything I missed about our current situation?" Jeremy said.

"I've got a question: why is the Eye of XANA upside-down?" Odd wondered.

"I can answer that," Yumi said. "Remember how magical items sometimes have alignments? The ones that don't, align themselves according to their users, and the symbol changes accordingly. Evil is supposed to be upside-down."

"So, wait, the tattoos on our chests are really right side up while the Eye of XANA is the one that's upside-down?" Ulrich guessed.

"That's what it looks like," Yumi said.

"So if this mark isn't the Eye of XANA… what is it? And why is it on the supercomputer upside-down?" Odd asked.

"The Eye of XANA was originally meant to be the symbol for Lyoko," Aelita explained. "It probably has something to do with its origins in Project Carthage, which could be interpreted as an evil endeavor. As for what the original symbol is… I don't know."

"I just did an image search," William announced, "and there are a bunch of records of this symbol in relation to the Marvelous. According to the texts, it's called the… I have no idea how to pronounce this. Um, the rough translation from Old English is 'the true-seeing eye of inner power…' that's a mouthful. There's another name for it, too – the Eye of Aetir. What the heck is an aetir? Hang on, let me do a search… Apparently it's the name of some pagan deity? Whose ability was to see into the hearts of men to judge them worthy or not… to procreate with her to create demigods."

Odd wrinkled his nose. "Gross."

"Is there anything more about this Aetir?" Aelita asked.

"Not much. She's pretty obscure," William answered.

"So we're just about back to square one," Ulrich sighed.

"Not quite. We do have a better idea of what's going on. I – huh?" Jeremy said, typing at his laptop. "I just got an email… from Franz Hopper!"

"What?" Aelita gasped, immediately straightening. "From my father? What's it say?"

Jeremy cleared his throat. "To the Lyoko Warriors: if you are reading this, then I am dead and the supercomputer has been destroyed. You may have already discovered this, but the reason the supercomputer was so advanced was because I connected it to a Marvelous – a magical item – I found in the Swiss mountains. The Marvelous is powerful, and it must not fall into the wrong hands. Please keep it safe.

I have been studying the Marvelous for years, now, and I still don't quite understand it. However, I do know that someone scanned into the computer is also imprinted on the Marvelous."

Yumi made an understanding noise. "So the Marvelous split because all of us were imprinted on it?"

Jeremy continued, "As for the destruction of the supercomputer… you have likely tampered with the Marvelous. Magic items were not meant to be bound to and used by technology in such a way that I have, and whatever consciousness resides in it will have likely lashed out against the supercomputer should the restraints and couplings containing its power fail."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. Consciousness?" Odd said disbelievingly.

"At least we know for certain what wrecked the supercomputer," William said.

"The Marvelous must not be allowed to bond with XANA. And it can bond with XANA – all it needs is an intelligent mind, artificial or not."

"Well, at least we don't need to worry about that. XANA's gone," Aelita said firmly.

"Finally, whichever one of you it chooses, if it has done so, I hope you use it wisely. And to Aelita… Here, I'd better let you read this," Jeremy said, passing the laptop to Aelita, who read her father's message to her and teared up. "What's it say? If you want to share."

"He… told me that he was proud of me and to not be too sad that he's gone," Aelita replied, still staring at the computer screen. Jeremy hesitantly approached her and hugged her. "Thanks, Jeremy."

"So, even Franz Hopper didn't know that the Marvelous could split. That's reassuring," Ulrich said sarcastically.

"And what about that consciousness he mentioned? Is no one else creeped out by that?" Odd demanded.

"Well, maybe this consciousness will have some answers," William pointed out. "I say we try to get in contact with it."

"How?" Ulrich said.

"Maybe by meditating?" Yumi suggested.

"Is this even a good idea?" Odd asked.

"We've exhausted the conventional routes. Does anyone else have any other information-gathering ideas? No? Then let's try that," William instructed, a tad fed up with the arguing and lack of answers. "It's a good idea."

"Okay. So… how do we meditate?" Aelita said.

"I got this," Yumi and Ulrich said at the same time. There was a slight pause as they got over their embarrassment of speaking together (coupled with Odd's suggestive looks), before Yumi continued, "Most forms of martial arts training also teach you how to meditate. I'll show you how." Yumi quickly walked around the group, directing each to sit in a comfortable position and to close their eyes. "Now clear your mind and focus on your breathing. In… out… in… out… Let your thoughts come to you as they will, but let them drift away. In… out… in… out…"

About fifteen minutes of relative silence passed before Odd's stomach let out a ferocious growl. There was some giggling, and the meditation was broken.

"Anyone feel anything?" Yumi asked as William needled Odd.

"Nothing. I couldn't stop thinking about lunch. I'm starving," Odd said, rubbing his stomach.

"How about we try one more thing before going out to lunch?" Aelita suggested. "I actually thought I felt something. It was fragmented, but it was there. Why don't we try holding hands this time? See if we can connect with the Marvelous better if it's together."

Everyone looked at each other. "I don't see why not," Yumi said slowly.

"I'm not holding Odd's hand. Who knows where it's been?" William joked.

"Ha ha," Odd said, rolling his eyes and holding his hands out for William and Ulrich to take. Once everyone had joined hands in a circle, Yumi started the meditation again.

It took a few minutes, but this time, it was different. The Lyoko Warriors could see each other standing against a black background, even though their eyes were closed. In the center of their circle was a fractured white sphere of light that hummed and was missing a chunk of itself.

"What are you?" Jeremy's voice echoed, though his physical mouth did not move.

There was a faint buzzing. It sounded like someone was attempting to speak, but they couldn't make their voice heard.

"Can you help us?" Aelita tried. Again, nothing but static.

Odd's stomach roared again, breaking the spell and sending the warriors careening back into the real world. "Odd!" Yumi said crossly.

"Sorry! I can't help it!" Odd moaned.

"Well, at least we got something? Why don't we try again after getting some food?" Aelita suggested.

"Aelita, you're an angel. Let's go eat!" Odd said.

Forgot to say this in the notes last chapter: don't worry about Lyoko! It'll come back… eventually. The supercomputer, scanners, and interface are well and truly trashed, though.

SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING. Taking what ML creator said about lots of different superheroes in the world meaning lots of different magic and running with it. Aetir (pronounced like aether) is not the name of a real deity, but I figured, since this world is different than ours (with magic and all), that there would be some magic-related deities we don't have.

-HM