Ulrich and Aelita exited the elevator and entered the control room, joining Odd, Yumi and Jeremie in the process. "So, was that really William we fought with back there?"

Jeremie nodded. "The computer read the same digital signature he had when he was trapped in Lyoko six months ago. This wasn't a clone. It was the real deal."

"Great," Ulrich growled. "With XANA still alive, Lyoko being recreated and William repossessed, we're back at square one."

"XANA didn't capture him," Yumi stated plainly, her face directed at the supercomputer instead of the group. "He went back under his own free will."

"How do you know that?" Odd asked.

"His voice," she answered. "It wasn't XANA's voice like it was before. It was William's own voice."

"But why?" Aelita asked. "Why would he go back to XANA's side."

Yumi shook her head. "I don't know," she said as she clenched her fists tightly, "but one way or another I intend to find out."

Story #7, also known as Episode 1 of The Reset Arc, is done. Since I plan for William to play a bigger role in the arc as opposed to the last season of the series, it was fairly important to get him back to the dark side as soon as possible. More importantly, giving him a reason to go back was the goal of this story. It seemed easy on paper but it was definitely a tricky thing to actually accomplish. Unlike most fics out there, I don't see William as pure evil. Rather, I see him as a confused young man that is making a really big mistake. Now on to the notes.

-The beginning: This was actually a pretty difficult part of the story to write. I knew I wanted it to be a catalyst for helping William move forward. It had to be something damning and powerful. My concern here was the rating system. By default, displays K-T rated fics first. The user has to dig through the settings to get it to display an M-rated fic. This obviously places an artificial barrier for the reader since some people would rather not do the legwork to get to a story. It was a tough decision to try and determine whether or not I would have to tone down the beginning to make it fall under T standards or just let it fly and go with an M-rating. In the end, I decided that M was the only way I could keep the story integrity. Big ups to Bighoggi14 for helping me make that decision. On a side note, this beginning was a modified version of what I had in mind with an early plan to go with a completely M-rated hentai-like/lemon oneshot deal. That plan is dead for now so I figured I should try and use it here.

-The hermitage: I refuse to believe that Schaeffer would have only built one version of the supercomputer and scanner system. He would have had to have done some prototypes somewhere before going after the final version. Since his past activities weren't exactly all that clear, I figured he would have had to have done the prototyping at his own residence. I used the idea in "The Lioness" and figured it would make sense here as well.

-Volcano sector: This was a sector used in the Nintendo Wii version of the game. In the game, the area was the factory where all of the Lyoko towers were made.

-"Wits": Oh, man. Looking back at the story, if I had known that I wanted to make my own fanfic series and use that one in there, I would have built it a little bit better. As it stands now, I have to figure out how to explain XANA's survival with the supercomputer being shut down. Come to think of it, I can make that another fic, though whether it's told before or after "Wits" is another thing I have to consider.

-References: Only two references here but ones you may have missed depending on how old you are. Odd's bit about a code he has to enter to get infinite laser arrows is known as the Konami Code. It was used in several of their old-school NES games but it was most popular in Contra where it gave the user 30 lives. In the duel between William and Ulrich, William asks him if he's ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight. This was a line from the 1989 version of "Batman" where, during the flashback sequence where Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered, the killer asks young Bruce the same question.

And that's that. I'm pretty close to figuring out where exactly to place "Wits" but I'll have to re-read the story to get a better idea. Also, I'll be using my bio page to list down the episode order once a story has been completed so feel free to check it out. As usual, flames are bad. Criticism and reviews are good. Till next time.