Okay, what if Jeremie and Aelita were helping Xana with his materialization at the same time that Jeremie was helping Aelita?
i was starting to type up a reply and then I realized I wanted to explain the logistics of this AU first and so have a lot more headcanons than I planned.
- It’s kinda-canon that XANA went evil because of a virus, so here he either never got infected or he successfully fought it off. Either way, he never rebels against Hopper, and instead welcomes Hopper and Aelita to Lyoko when they hide. They spend a couple days waiting, expecting the worst.
- XANA and his monsters like Aelita; they play with her and entertain her. But he and Hopper argue. XANA keeps asking “Professor, why can’t I just kill these pesky humans hunting you?”. Hopper, the ever pacifist, keeps explaining why it’s morally wrong to murder and then resorts to explaining logically that killing them will just bring more men. XANA counters “So? I can kill them too. I’m the most powerful being on this planet.” It goes in circles.
- Eventually, Hopper decides he’s going to leave to find Aelita’s mom, who he never gave up on after all these years. He never said it, but looking after Aelita restricted the options he could take in looking for his wife. But now she has a safe harbor, so he can fully dedicate himself to bringing her mother back.
- Hopper still doesn’t really trust XANA not to go overboard while he’s away, and he doesn’t want Aelita to be sad. So he tells them he’s gonna shut down the computer until he gets back, that way they won’t notice time passing. He doesn’t tell Aelita that he’s got any fears, but he privately tells XANA to protect her in case things go wrong. XANA scoffs and says he would have done that anyway.
- Hopper leaves and the computer is shutdown. Plz take a moment to imagine sleeping Aelita either cuddled up with monsters, or cuddled up with an avatar XANA made. Or both. Thank you.
- Things go wrong because of course they do, and when the computer is awakened ten years later it’s not by Hopper, it’s by some random kid with glasses. Aelita’s disappointed but welcoming. XANA’s suspicious as hell and constantly grills him. “Who are you? Where do you come from? What are your parents’ jobs? Where were you June 6 1994???”
- “XANA he’s not with the men in black.” “How do you know that??? We should kill him just to be sure.” “OMG XANA NO.” “Fine.“
- Jeremie still crushes on Aelita and wants to rematerialize her, and here it wouldn’t be hard because XANA never stole her memories. That’s what was giving Jeremie difficulty in canon. But she’s hesitant because a) she wants to wait for her dad and b) she notices XANA looks a bit sad at the thought and realizes he’d be lonely. So she says she’ll only leave if they can materialize XANA and find her father.
- And that leads to the plot of the show’s first season. Working out how to reverse-engineer the virtualization process to make codes -> human and also find out what exactly happened to Aelita’s dad.
- Aelita and XANA help Jeremie program the Skid three seasons early so they can literally search the Internet for info about Hopper. Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, William, and Sissi all eventually get recruited to help.
- Less combat, more espionage. Most of the combat would be in the real world by virtue of XANA and Jeremie tag-teaming and getting Teleportation out early. The Lyoko Warriors would be infiltrating government buildings, locating databases to be hacked, and investigating Hopper’s past with Project Carthage. Their outfits would probably include masks this time tho.
- XANA and Jeremie still hate each other, especially since they have to work together all the time. Jeremie because XANA talked about killing him to his face, won’t stop rubbing in that he’s the better programmer, and lives with Aelita. XANA because Jeremie’s unnecessary in his opinion, keeps making buggy programs, and wanted to take Aelita away.
- shit did i just make a love triangle.
- Speaking of, the UYW love triangle is GONE. Eliminated. Ulrich and Yumi are still in the “nervously flirt” stage in this first season, but in later seasons would actually hook up. Then they would face struggles as a couple because overcoming them is just as important as becoming a couple. Ulrich and William compete but that’s because they have naturally clashing personalities; William admits he did once like Yumi but respected it when she turned him down.
- The first season ends with Lyoko being invaded and everyone learning a horrible truth: they’ve been hitting the wrong target all this time. Hopper wasn’t captured by the government, but by an organization called the Green Phoenix, and has been forced to reproduce his work. The Green Phoenix has been kidnapping kids and training them as child soldiers so they can conquer Lyoko and eventually the world.
- The Lyoko Warriors have finished the programs to materialize XANA, but if they do the monsters would disappear and Lyoko would be defenseless. They can’t just shut down the supercomputer because the Green Phoenix would still have their version of Lyoko to wreak havoc from. XANA reluctantly decides to stay to fight them, telling Aelita and the rest to just leave. Aelita snarls that her father is in danger and he’s her friend and she is NOT quitting. Cue the rest of the Lyoko Warriors chiming in with agreements a la season two’s ending.
DAMMIT I WANT TO WRITE THIS NOW