Sithking Zero: Howdy! Megaman, Code: Lyoko, and all related companies, ideas, characters, and other stuff along those lines do not belong to me.

This is the threeshot sequel to my story “Heart of a Warrior.” It’s serving as a bridge between “Heart of a Warrior” and “Warrior’s Redemption.” As such, this will be the second part of my Warrior series.

Oh, and if you don’t know what’s going on, please read Heart of a Warrior. Things will be clearer. I hope. If not, please PM me. Unless, of course, it involves questions as to spoilers. In that case, shut up.

As such, leave good reviews! I greatly appreciate them!

This story is dedicated to: Arc Jedi Roy, Shademan V.39, and Blitz Chick (my little sister, who is awesome).

(This story takes place about three months after Heart of a Warrior).

And now, without further ado, here comes Heart of a Warrior 2:

Heart of a Warrior 2:

Trials of the Warriors

Chapter I:
Bass.EXE: Execute!

Dark.

So dark, so cold, but not meaningless.

It had been a week since he had re-virtualized himself onto the net, and had made his way back to his cozy home on the undernet.

Bass.exe, a reformed mass murderer of net navi, Lyokoan, and virus alike, stretched out his arms, looking around the wide desert of the undernet for a moment before settling on a direction, and with a fluttering of a cloak, he flew away.

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Bass had experienced a major change of heart back in Sector five of Lyoko.

He had first betrayed his only sister, the human Aelita, in order gain a fragment of her. He had suspected that if he had absorbed it, he would have gained immense power (when a Net Navi, such as himself, absorbed Human DNA, the net navi in question would gain incredible power.) However, the fragment of Aelita turned out to be a trap for XANA, who unleashed the parasitic computer program known as Alpha, who had fought and defeated Bass in the past, and had caused him to nearly be destroyed shortly after his creation. After Aelita was absorbed by Alpha, Bass engaged XANA in single combat, but in the end was defeated by XANA and Alpha, who teamed up against him.

Once he was defeated, XANA ordered Alpha to absorb him, but first revealed that she had been the one to corrupt Alpha and was ultimately responsible for Bass’ original mutilation and his reason for living.

However, something strange happened: inside Alpha, Aelita and Franz Hopper, who had been absorbed, healed him and fused their combined power to form Aelita Cross Bass, or, as she was commonly known, as Cadence. Cadence and XANA fought a titanic struggle that shook Lyoko to the core, and eventually resulted in sector five’s destruction.

Once that was over, he had, using a code he had hacked from a tower, gone into the real world, bringing Aelita and Franz Hopper. He left for Japan shortly afterwards, and made up with his father for his past wrongs, as well as a promise to try to redeem himself.

The only question was… how does one redeem oneself? How does one have ones sins forgiven?

Bass pondered this as he flew to a small cave deep in the undernet.

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Hours later, Bass touched down in front of a small cave entrance. He walked towards the rough-hewn edges of the tunnel, which had been widened and broadened all around in order to properly deal with Bass’ particular needs. He wandered down the winding path, deep into the cave, twisting and turning.

Finally, he reached a thick metal door. Reaching out, he placed one gauntleted hand on the door, both glowed golden for a moment, before the latter slid soundlessly into the wall. He stepped unhurriedly into the spacious cavern.

It was a large, very earthy cave. There was not much in the way of furniture, which was how Bass liked it. In the center, there was a spun-glass table, with a black vase perched on top. Coming out of the vase were three pink tripetaled flowers, each one slightly wilting. On one wall, a shower and sink contrasted violently with the earthy cave, their stainless steel reflecting light from a small lamp next to a slightly lumpy bed with moth-eaten blankets. A noticeable rip was in one of them. On the other wall, a bass guitar was leaning against an amp set, several music sheets sprawled on top haphazardly.

Bass sighed contentedly. He was home.

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THAT NIGHT…

Bass turned over in his sleep, pulling the ragged covers up tighter.

“No…” he muttered. “XANA… Aelita… get away…”

His tossing and turning grew more pronounced.

“He’s coming…” he muttered. “Run, Aelita, RUN!”

“Get away,” he called in his sleep. “GET AW-What?”

In the middle of his dream-speaking, a loud BANG echoed loudly throughout his cave.

The giant metal door that protected Bass’ humble home from the outside world was vibrating, as if it were struck.

Moving swiftly, Bass leapt out of bed, jamming his yellow-finned helmet on over his long purple hair. With his free hand, he grabbed his tattered traveling cloak, fastening it around his neck and thusly totally obscuring his black jumpsuit with white lightning bolt designs, but not quite blocking the view of the black-and-gold gauntlets and combat boots.

He then dashed to the door, where he peered out the pinhole opening in the door. A squad of vaguely humanoid shapes was visible, including one who was apparently holding…

Bass pulled away from the door in time to see it vaporized under a massive blast of energy.

Bass leapt into the air, obscured by the smoke, as the figures swarmed into the room.

They were very strange. They had four legs each, and each was reverse-articulated, like a bird’s leg. They had two arms, as well. One was a blood-colored translucent blade, another was what looked like a submachine gun, which could be transformed into a strange human-like hand (as one demonstrated before Bass’ very eyes) except for having two opposable thumbs. On their crimson torso, a circular crest protruded slightly, as with every net navi, but to Bass, they looked too alien to be Navis, especially their heads.

Their heads were vaguely oval-disc shaped, with a single slit for a cyclopean single eye. The bottom part of the disc could swing downwards to reveal dagger-sharp teeth in abundance. Sprouting from the top of the disc were four spikes and four short tentacles, which waved in agitation as the beings tore up Bass’ home.

The troops swarmed over the threshold, firing wildly into the room with their gun-arms, attempting to slay their target.

One, a slightly taller one with a blue head, raised his sword arm. Immiediately, the random fire ceased.

“Search the room.” The creature spoke in a strange, gurgling, yet mechanical voice.

“Bass cannot be far. We cannot fail the Master.”

“And why not?”

The assembled troops swiveled around, guns cocked at the Black Shadow, who had landed right behind the troops.

“You are Bass.” Came the leader’s voice.

“That’s right.” Bass spoke smugly, holding his arms wide, orbs of golden light filling his outstretched hands. “My name is Bass.”

He began to hover towards the troopers, saying, “We need to talk…”

Sithking Zero: So, a day after Season Three ends, and three weeks after Heart of a Warrior ends, Heart of a Warrior II rears its head!

Now, you (the reader) must understand that this will not be a long fanfic. It’ll only be three chapters long. It’s more of serving as a transitory fanfic between Heart of a Warrior and Heart of a Warrior III.

Oh, and a special dedication if you can figure out what kind of flower is on Bass’ table.

Special thanks go to: Arc Jedi Roy, (who is also writing a Megaman/CL crossover, and is one of my best friends in school) and Lucy McGonagle who drew a picture of Candance for me (check it out on the Heart of a Warrior thread on Lyokofreak.net forums section under Fanfictions). Don’t worry; Chapter II: Bass.EXE: Shadows of Darkness is coming soon! REVIEW NOW!!!

Sithking Zero: I own Cadance and the Replicons, not to mention the overall plot points of the story. The rest, I do not claim ownership to, nor do I actually own.

Okay, the new chapter. I really don’t have anything to say…

So read it already!

Heart of a Warrior II:
Trials of the Warriors

Chapter 2:
Replicon Strike

Bass flew out of his cave, multiple missles soaring after him.

“Well, at least my stuff isn’t getting smashed anymore,” he muttered as he dove behind a hill, the tracer slugs lighting up the night .

The creatures scuttled out, arms transformed into cannons, swiveling left and right searching for their target.

Bass, deciding to not keep them in suspense, dove back down at them, firing smaller bursts of energy at his foes, knocking some back and blowing holes in others.

The remaining operational ones returned fire, sending slugs zipping through the night air, whizzing as they passed by Bass’ head by mere millimeters. He winced as one grazed his cheek, and a small flow of pixels floated off in all directions from the wound.

His dive leveled out as he slammed into one of them, crushing its head into the ground, and snapping it in two.

Bass leapt back, throwing two small orbs of energy at two of the other creatures, blowing off an arm and blowing the other clean in two.

There were now only six left, and one of them was holding a massive fusion-powered bazooka, which had destroyed his front door mere minutes before.

Bass stopped for a moment, sizing up the remaining troopers. They were scuttling over the rocks and stones surrounding his cave, and 5 were armed with machine guns (most of them, at least) and had all put away their swords for the moment.

Bass looked around, and spotting the one with the bazooka, put up his aura shield and charged headfirst towards the foe who had obliterated his front door.

The bazooka-wielding creature was quicker then the others, and fired at Bass before he was annihilated by a massive blast of light. However, in the process, the aura was destroyed by the fusion-powered blast of the bazooka, leaving Bass relatively unprotected.

He stopped for a moment, then looked around.

Okay, he thought. There’s only nine of them left. No problem.

Hey, wait a minute…

Bass double checked, then realized that his mathematics were indeed correct. There were eight of his foes left.

Weren’t there six of you a minute ago?

As he pondered this, the creatures spread their legs out and began firing their machine guns at the cloaked figure.

Several impacted against his glowing aura shield, shaking Bass out of his moment of thought. He jolted himself, especially as he saw what was happening to his aura.

Wherever a bullet hit his shield, a small hole, expanding like a smoldering piece of paper, appeared. And with several rounds hitting it each second, the holes were adding up to get larger and larger gaps in his defense.

He growled in frustration, dodging behind a rock. He glared at them, listening as his enemies’ bullets ricocheted off of the boulder.

Thinking quickly, he began charging up balls of yellow energy, waiting for the an enemy to come around.

And, like any soldier, one eventually did. With a clattering of four claw-feet, one disc shaped head poked itself over the rocks, peering at the Navi once known as the Black Shadow.

“Surprise,” Bass whispered, firing a blast of energy that sheared his head off cleaner then a knife.

Bass grinned at the headless corpse. However, the grin slid off his face like butter on a hot pan when tendrils of liquid metal streamed up out of the body, arranging themselves into a new head.

“Oh.” Bass said, as the creature gave a vicious grin.

“Foolish Bass.” Came the mechanical, reptilian voice of the creature. “Do you really think we Replicons are as weak as some of the Master’s other creations?”

“Who’s your master?”

“We cannot tell. You are too inferior-GAAK!!!”

Bass had swung his fist in a downward arc from above, crushing its skull. The metal tentacles started to seep outwards again, but Bass fired a bolt of energy, frying the Replicon.

However, in doing so, he had removed himself from the safety of the boulder.

With a rattling sound, the other Replicons began to resume fire upon the net navi, wounding his leg.

Wincing in pain, Bass opened his palms, and blasts of light leapt from them, smiting two of the creatures down to ash.

He then soared through the air using his flight power and dodged between two of them, who shot at each other and instantly exploded.

That left three more, two of which were easily dispatched with his air bursts to the strange logos on their chests.

That’s weird, Bass thought. Wasn’t that XANA’s monsters’ weak point too?

Bass halted in front of the leader, a blue-headed specimen.

For once, Bass got a good look at a Replicon, and specifically, the crest.

Now, for those who have forgotten, did not read Heart of a Warrior, or just plain don’t know, every net navi has a crest. It’s a small circular section that shows off a small logo that is the net navi’s personal logo. It also carries about ninety percent of all vital data, allowing a net navi to take massive amounts of damage. It’s the symbol that says, “I AM (name here,) HEAR ME ROAR!!!”

What Bass saw gave him the shock of his life.

It was frighteningly familiar: A white skull. A skull with empty, yet hatred-filled eye sockets. With jagged teeth, and multiple diagonal scratches on the forehead, the skull was frightening to behold.

However, what made it even scarier was the fact that there were several sticks coming out of the logo: One longer one on top, one short one on bottom, and two short ones coming out at sixty degree angles from the top one.

Now, normally, this would mean nothing. But the last time Bass had seen this, it was not a skull that adorned this symbol, but a bulls-eye, and it was the symbol of the one who had been killed by Cadance’s Vanishing World attack, and the reason for his creation:

XANA.

Naturally, seeing the symbol of the one who had impaled him and fed him to the Alpha-internet program and caused his little sister so much grief made him really, really angry.

“WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE XANA’S SYMBOL?!?!?” he roared at the leader.

The leader smiled crazily, his arm transforming into a sword.

“You’ll only find out,” he whispered, “When the master decides he wants you to know…”

And with that, he plunged his blade deep into his crest, forcing his body to explode in a fiery blast.

Bass shielded his eyes from the blast, then turned back.

There was nothing more then a slight scorched spot where he had been, and Bass stared disdainfully at it for a moment before considering bigger problems, such as the logo.

It was definitely new. And he had his own private fears as to what it meant. But one thing was absolutely certain:

XANA was back. And she had a new ally.

Sithking Zero: Whoo, that took a long time to write. I couldn’t get a blasted thing down on the stupid computer, and then it just spilled on there. Amazing, no?

So, who’s XANA’s ally? Who’s the master of the Replicons? And why was such an assault planned on Bass?

Oh, and thanks to Franken-XANA. I used his virus, Cancer, as inspiration as to the metal-regrowing-power of the Replicons.

Anyway, please read and review!

Sithking Zero: I don’t own Megaman or Code: Lyoko. The plot points and story are mine, Cadance and the Replicons are mine, and XANA’s design is mine (though it is based off of SylentNyte’s XANA designs), and I am me, so I am mine. But the copyrighted characters, such as XANA’s dad, XANA, Gospel, and other Megaman and Code: Lyoko concepts belong to their respective parental companies. Don’t sue, my aunt is a lawyer!

Well, things have taken a turn for the worse again. My parents have cracked down on me for a minor infraction, and I will not be able to update quite as often as I have been, due to the confiscation of my laptop. I can still use the main family computer and the computers at school, but… well…

So anyways, here’s the chapter!

Heart of a Warrior II:
Trials of the Warriors

Chapter III

Black Writings on the Wall

I see I hear no evil

Black writings on the wall

Unleashed a million faces

Then one by one they fall.

-I am all of me

-Crush 40

Forte.EXE was in trouble.

He was the last of his kind, for starters. A while ago, an internet mafia organization, Gospel, was created to make an army of Bass clones in the hopes of making an invincible army. The plan failed when Megaman.EXE and Lan Hikari, mere children, destroyed the prime copy from which all the clones were made. Worse yet, once the organization collapsed, the copies were hunted down and mercilessly annihilated by the real Bass, who happened to have a deep hatred for clones of himself.

Forte was the only one who had survived, and it was only because of the Darkchips that he was able to do so.

Darkchips, for those who don’t know, are battle chips that a net navi can use in order to acquire power quickly. They increase a navi’s power exponentially, but on the minus side, they also taint the soul of the Darkchip’s user with evil, hatred, and darkness, not to mention they had the addictive power of pure crack.

This last fact was one that Forte was experiencing first-hand, as his withdrawl symptoms got worse and worse by the minute.

And considering he had no money, the reason as to why he was groveling with a pathetic Heelnavi in an alleyway in Undernet City, ready to bargain his soul for a mere piece of data was considerably more clear.

“Come ON, Argon, I’m your best customer! Can’t you give me one on credit?”

The Heelnavi rolled his eyes as he tossed the Darkchip into the air, catching it again. He repeated this action several times, Forte’s eyes following the chip’s progress with a ravenous hunger in his eyes.

“If I had a nickel…” muttered the Heelnavi, staring at Forte, disdain evident in every syllable. “I’ve heard that one from too many navis to count, and I’m not taking it from you. You want this,” he waved the Darkchip in front of Forte’s eyes, and they followed it, the look positively feral now. He made a desperate snatch at his heart’s desire, but missed by several inches.

“… then you have to go to someone else.”

Forte was on the edge of total mental collapse. Tears began to seep down his face, as he was now almost weeping from the pain in the pit of his stomach.

Unseen to Forte, Argon smirked, his disc-shaped head looking pleased for a moment. It was quickly covered up with a well-practiced look of sincerity.

“Wellll…” he drawled, glancing down at the sobbing net navi. “I don’t usually do this, but I know a dealer who lets you work for your chips. You’d like her, and besides, she’s my supplier.”

Forte looked up at Argon’s face, a ray of hope shining from his face.

“Really?” he spoke softly, afraid that if he spoke louder, it would cause the offer to evaporate like magic.

“Really. Now, you have to go to the third alley down on Fullerton avenue, facing the park. The supplier should be there around now.”

Forte leapt up, shaking Argon’s hand vigerously, thanked him, and raced away towards Fullerton Avenue.

“Argon,” waited until Forte was out of earshot before speaking scornfully. “What a pathetic fool. If father didn’t need him, I would have handled this myself.”

With that, a plume of black smoke poured out of Argon, rocketing into the sky and off to a small alleyway.

Argon fell to the ground, clutching his chest. After a coughing fit, he slowly got to his feet, looked around, and decided that maybe it was time to get out of the Darkchip business if this was going to happen to him.

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Forte turned the corner, walking off of the clearly marked Fullerton Avenue and walked down the dark, dank, and disgusting alleyway.

“Hello? Argon told me I could get some work and Darkchips here?” he called out to the darkness. He was so intent he didn’t even notice the plume of smoke fly over the building and solidify into a young woman behind him.

“You rang?” she asked, a voice like poisoned honey.

“Ah, yes. I believe I heard that you provide Darkchips in exchange for jobs?” Forte asked, trying to keep his voice steady. “I believe I may be of some service to you.”

The woman, though hidden in the shadows, straightened slightly. “Oh?” she asked. “How so?”

“Well, for one, I am a clone of Bass himself!” he exclaimed proudly. “And thusly, I have all his powers and abilities.”

The woman didn’t move. The two digital beings stood there, staring at one another for a long time.

“… All right. I could see some use for you… but not as is.” she stated amusedly.

“…Not as is?” Forte said questioningly.

The dark woman held out a Darkchip. However, it was different somehow. It seemed to glow, but also seemed to absorb light at the same time. Forte could literally feel its power.

“This will prove your loyalty. It’s an omega Darkchip. If your body accepts this, you may work for me…” she held out another hand. “And receive this…”

The hand was filled to the brim with dark chips. They literally were spilling out of her hand, but they shattered upon contact with the ground.

Forte thought about it for a moment. A freaking huge pile of Darkchips, plus an omega Darkchip, would grant him incredible power. This could prove useful if he ever met the real Bass.

“…I accept.” he said finally, taking the omega Darkchip from the woman, and placing it on his crest, which was a black circle bisected with a massive scar that stretched from his right hip to his left shoulder.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a massive purple-black-and-red aura erupted around him, completely obscuring him from view.

“aaa… Aaaaa… AAAAUUAAAAA!!!!” he screamed. The Darkchip was too powerful. It was penetrating every aspect of his being, modifying his programming, his attacks, and even parts of his mind. This is not right… this is wrong… somebody…

It was the last thought before his mind was overrun by darkness.

The dark female watched, impassively, as the aura shrank around the Bass clone, the darkness finding its new home in the net navi.

After five minutes, Forte looked up at the dark woman. His eyes were pure red for a moment, then returned to their normal ruby coloring.

After a moment of sizing the dark woman up, he bent down on one knee, bowing to the woman.

“I am yours to command, my mistress.”

The woman stepped out of the shadows. A crimson-bulls eye with sticks coming out of it shone from the breastplate of the black samurai armor the woman was wearing.

XANA smirked.

“Excellent…”

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Sithking Zero: Well, Heart of a Warrior II is over. Next up: Heart of a Warrior III: Warrior’s Redemption.

So, what’s XANA’s plan? Why does it involve a clone of Bass? Who’s her father? When will I update next?

Only time will tell.

Please review!