Disclaimer: I, Sithking Zero, do not own Megaman, Capcom, Code Lyoko, France 3, Moonscoop, or the other company that makes Code Lyoko.

Summary: A strange, powerful cyber-being enters Lyoko. Will he aid the Lyoko gang, or help destroy Lyoko once and for all?

Heart of a Warrior

Chapter 1:
Where am I?

            Dark.

            It’s so dark….. and cold.

            But what choice do I have? Since my creation at the hands of that doctor, I have had purpose.

            Not always the same purpose, nor was I always working towards the same goals.

            Once, I admired humans. I revered them, as I was their crowning glory, their Piece de resistance. Or something to that effect. I never was good at other languages.

            I once loved humans. Now? Now, I hate them. My only desire is to wipe them from the face of the Earth.

            That is….. changing.

            Since I met them, they have proved me wrong. I must admit, I was surprised when I found that a Navi and Human could work together. They fought and defeated me. I have never lost before.

            They have changed much about how I think. But I could never go and ask them. I have always been alone. If I was to go to the civilized part of my world, I would be hunted down. I would be hated. I would survive, but what an existence.

            I stare into the fire. It’s warm.

            Not nearly warm enough to heat my heart.

            I trust no one. I depend on only myself.

            Once I trusted. But that one betrayed me. Left me for dead.

            Yet I live.

            Strange……

            There is a light ahead. Not metaphorically, but literally.

            I have traveled this blasted hellscape many times, yet nothing like this has ever happened before.

            From this light, I sense…. Power. Purpose. An entity of unimaginable strength. A rolling, formless entity. Perhaps we shall meet, this entity and I.

            I get up and move towards the light.

            As I get closer, I realize that the light is not pure white. It is more of a green, with touches of yellow and brown.

            It looks like a portal from that one TV show that my father and I used to watch. Before he betrayed me.

            What show was that? Stragte? Sgtrat? Stargate, that was it. It’s getting hard to remember my past. I have done many horrible things, and they all blend together.

            I step into the light, and the power washes over me like a warm breeze.

            I’m on a platform, over a….. void. Interesting.

            To my left is a tall, cream-colored cylinder with some kind of black growth on the bottom. I sense much power coming from it. I must come back later to investigate.

            All around me are tall pillars. My father told me about them. Supposedly, they only grow in the world of the Humans.

            Clearly, I am not in that world.

            Pity.

            I was hoping for a good hunt.

            What were those pillars called again? Tears? Ters? Tres? Trees? Yes, that’s it. Trees.

            I touch the tree. Its skin feels rough. No. Skin? No. My father told me the correct name once, along with the other parts of the tree. Brak….Berk…. Bark! The bark feels cool and rough underneath my hands.

            I marvel at how old these trees must be. Like all things, they must get bigger with age, so these must be ancient!

            The sound of combat filters through the quietness. To my right, several navis are fighting viruses. Wait.

            Navis? These…. They are not navis. I can’t identify them.

            How very curious.

            I float away before anyone sees.

Sithking Zero: This is my first Code Lyoko fic, but the character that I have as my point of view is not from Code Lyoko, nor is he an original character. A lollipop to whoever identifies him. DO NOT PUT HIS NAME IN THE REVIEWS! Still, please review, as I have no idea of what I’m doing and need advice.

Sithking Zero: I don’t own Megaman, Code Lyoko, or their parent companies. If so, I would have had a crossover between the two a looooooooong time ago.

            “For the last time, Sissi, NO! I won’t go out with you,” exclaimed Ulrich, a brown haired student at Kadic High School.

            His nemesis/stalker, Elisibeth (“Sissi”) sniffed distastefully.

            “Well, fine, Ulrich dear. If you’d rather go out with,” she gave a derisive snort, ‘Darling Yumi,’ be my guest.”

            And with that, she spun on her heel, raven hair twirling out behind her, and stalked off.

            Ulrich stared off after her. “Why won’t she leave me alone?” he asked one of his best friends, a blond-haired boy named Odd.

            Odd pretended to think about it for a second, then responded in his usual cheerful manner, “She just can’t take a hint. She also has a skull made of solid bone.”

            Aeilita, a pink-haired girl, sat down next to Ulrich (on his other side).

            “Well, she does seem to think that she still has a chance, but obviously doesn’t. What with you and Yumi-”

            “What’s that supposed to mean!??”

            “Nothing!” Odd and Aeilita both spoke at the same time.

            “Speaking of nothing, don’t you think that it’s a little odd that XANA hasn’t launched an attack in over two weeks?”

            Jeremie, the class brain and computer genius extraordinaire, had sat down opposite Aeilita.

            Aeilita thought about it for a minute. “Yes,” she said slowly, “But maybe we should take advantage of this. I mean, we might not get another chance to have a normal day.”

            “Yeah, and I actually want to get through one of my History classes.”

            The last member of their group, an Asian girl named Yumi, had walked up behind the table.

            Odd looked at her. “As much I hate to make it to class, my parents might take me out of school if my grades get too low.”

            Jeremie winced at the prospect. You see, all five of these students at Kadic High School had discovered a supercomputer at a nearby factory that would transport them to a virtual universe called “Lyoko.” It was there that they had first met Aeilita, who was a computer program permanently stuck in Lyoko. Also in Lyoko was the diabolical creature known as XANA, who used monsters in Lyoko to protect the towers, which he would infect and cause mayhem in the real world. Aeilita was the only one who could deactivate the towers, but she had no weapons or fighting ability, so Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi had to go into Lyoko and keep Aeilita safe until she deactivated the tower. Usually, they would then activate a time machine, which would act as a reset button on the world, and set time back to before XANA activated the tower. However, two recent discoveries rocked the group. First, Jeremie found the program that would turn Aeilita into a human being, thus allowing them to turn off Lyoko. The program worked, but XANA put a virus into Aeilita that would kill her if he died. Thus, the battle against XANA continued. Secondly, it was found that XANA got stronger every time that they activated the time machine. He was now so strong that he was able to possess humans, something that he was unable to do before. Also, it was clear that he wanted Aeilita alive, because she had some memories locked away in her brain that he wanted. To this end, XANA invented a new monster, the Skipazoa, which could drain programs out of a person. Most of the time, this merely meant Aeilita’s memory, but Skipazoas could also attack the others. Once, one had sucked the DNA code out of Yumi, making it impossible for her to return to Earth. They had gotten the DNA back, but the fivesome became much more wary about the Skipazoa.

            Jeremie shook himself mentally, bringing himself back to the present. He couldn’t fight in Lyoko like the others could, but he was the only one who could work the computer effectively enough to get the others in and out of Lyoko.

            Almost as if XANA was waiting for them to mention him, an explosion suddenly rocked the courtyard, followed by William, Yumi’s boyfriend, blasting a tree into oblivion with a bolt of lightning.

            As if their minds were linked psychically, the five students got up and dashed towards the park.

            Interesting………

            When I first arrived in this strange place, I would never have dared dream of the things that I have seen.

            Not only trees, but grass, mountains, shifting sand deserts, and glaciers as far as the eye can possibly see.

            Then there are the viruses.

            They are unlike any I have ever seen. They vary so much.

            There are ones that are shaped like gigantic spheres, ones that look like red, four-legged tables, brown snakes, spider-like things with weird snouts, walking chunks of coral, walking cubes, and huge jellyfish.

            There are also those navis. No, the unknowns. I don’t know what they are. They are fierce fighters, but they don’t work together. They occasionally fly around on some type of vehicles.

            “AAAAAAUGH!!!!”

            What the-?

            It just felt like a wave of darkness just blasted through my war-torn, tortured heart. In all of my years, I have never felt a pain that excruciating. It….felt like my heart was being ripped out with a fork.

            Yet…..

            It felt… somehow…..

            Familiar.

            The entry. When I entered this strange land. That’s when I first felt this. Somehow, whatever entity inhabits this place is causing this!!!

            It causes me pain.

            My next action is obvious.

            With a fluttering of my brown cape, I fly.

            “Odd, watch yourself, you only have forty life points left!”

            Odd, now in his virtualized form, dodged a laser fired from a Crab (the red, table-like ones that the other narrator just described) by a matter of inches. Odd now was wearing a purple jumpsuit with a tail and a logo that looked like Kiwi, Odd’s dog. On his hands were gloves that looked like cat paws, but those gloves could fire lethal Laser arrows.

            “Guys, we’d better hurry! Remember, we only have so long before he tries to kill someone.”

            “Don’t remind us Jeremy. We all know that you can’t bring someone back from the dead, even if we go back in time.”

            This from Yumi, who looked like she was wearing an unusual type of Kimono. Her weapons were two fans (you know, those oriental-style ones) that could deflect laser bolts and be thrown like razor-sharp boomerangs. She had had more close calls and had more bad things happen to her on Lyoko then anyone else. She had fallen into the Digital Sea (meaning she would have been virtualized forever, but Jeremy found a program that would virtualize anyone. She had nearly died several times when XANA made it so that they would die when they devirtualized, and she also had had her DNA stolen several weeks before, so she was used to danger on Lyoko.

            However, she was feeling a little off this particular week, because she got hit square in the stomach with a blast from a block.

            Just as she was about to be Devirtualized, a samurai-style sword blocked her attacker’s bolt of energy.

            This was Ulrich. He wore an outfit similar to Yumi’s, only his was yellow with black trim and hers was red, orange, black, and white. His weapon was a samurai-style sword that could deflect laser bolts and slice things.

            They were up against a group of two crabs and one block.

            In the real world, Jeremy was working fast, so that he would not have to worry about XANA sending one of his Ghost-posessed people after him. It had happened several times before, and it could happen again.

            Finally, he made an executive decision.

            “Odd, you take Aeilita to the tower and deactivate it. Ulrich and Yumi, you stay and hold them off.”

            Quickly, Odd pulled Aeilita onto his hoverboard and flew over the wide expanse of the digital sea. Within a matter of seconds, Odd and Aeilita were at the tower.

            Aaaaah… just the creatures that I wanted to see.

            Odd and Aeilita walked up to Ulrich and Yumi.

            “I see that, once again, you two got to hog all the fun. Why don’t I get to blast the monsters more often?”

            A panicked voice sounded from above.

            “You’ll get your chance, Odd. There are four Megatanks headed your way, wat-”

            But at that exact moment, the spherical monsters vanished in a huge blast of energy. The blast was so powerful, it punched a hole in the walkway and temporarily blinded the  four virtualized humans.

            The first one to recover his eyesight was Odd, who was shocked at the scene before him.

            The platform in front of him, the Megatanks, and the walkway were all obliterated. Floating towards them was a figure, wrapped completely in a brown, tattered cloak, so that no view of the body was available. His helmet had a strange four-pointed star between two yellow fins that protruded from the top of his head at forty-five degree angles. His eyes were red, and carried a distinct sense of coldness and anger.

            The figure touched down in front of the four stupefied humans.

            “My name is Bass.” Bass said. “We need to talk.”

Sithking Zero: YES! BASS WILL PWN YOUR N00B SOULS!!!! Sorry, big Bass fan over here. Please review what you thought of this chapter or of the story in general.

Sithking Zero: Thank you to Bobbyneko, Earthpaw, and anyone else who reviewed! Oh, and Bobbyneko? Your question will be answered this chapter. Bass’s backstory will remain a secret for later chapters.

To a mister Otzri, Sorry if I got your name wrong:

It all depends on the Bass that you use.

Bass.exe, when you first meet him: 1000 life points, with a 100 point aura (a shield that deflects all attacks that have power under the points of the aura)

Copy Bass.exe: 1000 life points, no aura.

Bass.exe GS: 2000 life points, with a 200 point aura. I’m using him for the story.

Bass.exe Omega: 3000 life points, with a 300 point aura. The most powerful incarnation of Bass ever.

Bass.exe, fused with Dark power: 2000 life points, no aura, but the attacks are the most powerful ones in the game.

BassXX.exe (more powerful version of Bass+ Dark power): 3000 life points. No aura. Most powerful navi in MMBN4, but is still less powerful then Bass Omega.

This chapter is dedicated in loving memory to my parakeet, Snowy, who died November 11, 2005. May she live in all of our hearts forever.

Disclaimer: I. Don’t. Own. Code. Lyoko. Or. Megaman. ‘Nuff said.

            The five figures currently standing in the middle of the forest sector did not move for many minutes.

            On one side, a cyber-entity known to the world as Bass stood in front of a huge chasm, over which the debris of the platform Bass had obliterated were now falling.

            On the other? Our four Lyoko heroes: Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aeilita. All staring at the being who had just destroyed four Megatanks in one blast.

            Ulrich was the first to move, slowly tightening his grip on his katana-style sword.

            “Jeremy!” he hissed. “What do you have on this guy?”

            “Nothing!”

            “What?!?”

            “It’s like he’s not a monster! I’m trying ever scan I know, and I still can’t get anything!”

            Odd slowly raised his arm, placed his other hand on it, then sighted down it.

            “How about I get the information for you, Einstein? Remember the Marabounta?”

            “Oh, yeah! I’m transmitting a virus that will scan this thing to one of your arrows. If you get the arrow into him, we’ll find out what ‘Bass’ really is.”

            Several long seconds passed.

            “Virus implanted, Odd! Fire away!”

            Odd sighted down his arm.

            Odd was at point-blank range. There was no way that he could miss.

            With a slight burst of light from the end of his arm, Odd’s virus arrow fired straight towards Bass.

            Bass’s arm was barely a flicker of movement, and only Aeilita saw it.

            Bass extended one arm towards the cat-esque human.

            “I believe that you dropped this,” he said calmly, opening his hand to reveal Odd’s laser arrow, resting gently in the middle of his palm.

            Odd, who had never had one of his arrows blocked before, had his jaw hanging open in shock and horror.

            Naturally, Ulrich and Yumi took steps back, knowing that this was an obscenely powerful monster.

            “I would also suggest, unless you’d like to lose your arm, that you not do that again. There is a reason that no one has ever faced me and lived.”

            Bass’s tone hinted of coldness, death, and… was that a hint of smugness?

            In the real world, Jeremie was tracking this development with interest. This creature, “Bass,” was unbelievably powerful. What his intentions were, however, was decidedly less clear…..

            “I have reason to believe that you  four can help me get home. I do not wish to stay in this place. Furthermo-” but the Black Shadow was cut off by Jeremie’s frantic yell.

            “Guys, you have two more megatanks and a Skipazoa heading towards you. I sugg-”

            Bass gave a growl, knocked Aeilita and Ulrich out of the way, and flung his arm forward as if to say, “STOP!”

            Aelilta and Yumi both let out a huge gasp. In flinging out his arm, Bass had pushed the cape out of the way, and gave them a good look at his body.

            A gash stretched from his right shoulder to his left hip, bisecting a circular object that seemed attached to his chest. Over his body, he wore a black jumpsuit On his sides were two white stripes that ran straight from his boots, colored gold and black. His wrists and forearms were done in a similar color scheme.

            To say that the blast of pure energy that leapt from Bass’s hand destroyed the Skipazoa and one of the megatanks is actually a huge understatement. The term “completely wiped off the face of the planet like dust off a plate,” comes close, but still does not describe the level of the energy used.

            The other megatank, noticing the loss of its companions, prepared to fire a blast of energy at Bass.

            It was almost like Bass teleported, he moved so fast.

            Picking up XANA’s monster with one hand, he flung it with all of his might.

            Jeremie has hypothesized that if the megatank went unimpeded, it would have sailed right into sector 5. However, a tower got in its way, and the effect was similar to that of an egg hitting a brick wall, complete with a slight splatter effect.

            Angrily, Bass turned back to the four humans, who were now almost cowering in fear.

            Bass let out a weary sigh. “Be at peace,” he said tiredly, “If I had wanted to harm you, I would have deatomized you from halfway across this abysmal place.”

            Bass sucked in a breath, then spoke again. “My name is Bass. I come from a land that is far from this one. I wish nothing more then to get home, because I have an important mission.”

            “So…” Aeilita asked tentatively. “You’re NOT from Lyoko?”

            “Is that what this place is called?” Bass asked mildly. Aeilita nodded.

            “Then no. I come from Scilab and the Cyber Network, in Japan.”

            Bass turned towards the nearest tower. “What is that?”

            Yumi answered this one. “That’s a tower. They control Lyoko and are a link to the real world. They also help regulate Lyoko itself by keeping the monster population in check; when XANA takes one over, he can overbreed the monsters and create armies of them. Then, he uses those monst-”

            Bass flung out his hand. Naturally, considering what happened when he did it last time, the four humans leaped out of the way.

            Angrily, Bass let out a furious snarl, and plasma began to crackle around his fingers.

            “I told you, I have no intention of harming you yet. My word is as good as gold.”

            However, Ulrich never quite let go of his grip on his sword.

            “Now,” continued Bass, “Who is ‘Zah-Nuh’?”

            A voice from the sky answered him.

            “XANA is a computer program that wants to create a perfect, peaceful world. To do this, he’s trying to destroy the one obstacle to his goal: humans.”

            Bass whipped around, energy again crackling around his fingers. However, seeing that this voice was not worrying the humans, he gradually lowered his gauntleted hands.

            “What… was that?” he breathed.

            Odd fielded this question with his usual nonchalance.

            “That’s just Jeremie. He’s the one who transfers us to and from Lyoko.”

            Mentally, Bass shut that little piece of information away in his brain for future reference. Perhaps he had an ally in this world after all…

            “Recently, XANA has gained the ability to assimilate humans and turn them into puppets.”

            Bass then scratched any ideas that he might have had of allying himself with XANA. Anyone so desperate as to integrate directly into HUMANS…

            “To attack our world, he takes over a tower, and uses that tower’s connection to the real world to attack us.”

            Aeilita stepped forward. “It used to be that the only way that we could detect if a tower had been infected by XANA was through pulsations that only I could feel. However, Jeremy has devised a way to scan for infected towers that-”

            “Wait.” Bass held up his hand again.

            “When XANA takes over a tower, you say that you can feel it?”

            Aeilita nodded.

            Bass continued. “Is it like energy waves?”

            Aeilita shrugged. “Yes, why?”

            “Just a hunch.”

            While he had been speaking, underneath his cloak, Bass had been pointing his hand at each member of the party in turn.

            Turning, Bass began to rise off of the ground. “Farewell, creatures. We shall meet again.”

            And with a fluttering of a cloak, the Messenger of Darkness was gone.

            All was quiet on Lyoko for a moment. Then, Odd said in a low voice, “What the hell was that all about?”

            “Your guess is as good as mine, Odd.” Jeremie’s voice wafted from up above. “I’m bringing you home so we can talk about this.”

BASS’S POINT OF VIEW

            Well… that was… interesting. At least I now know how and why that pain occurred.  The energy of when one of the towers activates sends energy through this place, what did that navi call it? Leeowkow?

            I also know that I must escape from this abominable place. I have no allies. I never have, and I never will.

            Though….

            I found it was difficult to copy those navi’s powers. I can still use them. But it is much more difficult then other navi powers. Could it be…

ELSEWHWERE…

            In the darkest heart of Sector 5, also known as “Carthage,” a dark force brooded.

            There was an uncontrollable entity in its domain. Not that this was any different from any other given day, but this entity could destroy the darkness, and all of Lyoko.

            Monsters had proved ineffective against it, and no virus that the force had was designed to handle the entity.

            Except…

            The dark force, if it could, would have given out a slow and malicious grin.

     The entire sector was soon rocked by high, evil laughter.

Sithking Zero: XANA… (Shudders)… Bass is still WAY cooler, though.

Please Review!

Author’s disclaimer: I don’t own Code: Lyoko, Megaman, or any anime for that matter. I would give a kidney to do so, but I don’t.

Sithking Zero: Hi! Ummm… Happy Thanksgiving! Did everyone see the two new episodes last Friday? Good!

Just a quick note. From this point on, I will not be following the Lyoko series officially. Especially since the last two episodes (where XANA escaped from Lyoko.)

(DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER! SPOILERS AHEAD! DANGER!!)

Instead, I will be following along on the story path that I had previously decided on, and this will go how I want. This means that it really IS a virus that Aeilita has, Franz Hopper still hasn’t revealed that he’s Aeilita’s dad, and Aeilita finds her memories later.

(Okay, SPOILERS ARE OVER!)

The Code Lyoko song is awesome.

Thank you to Shademan, ReneeA111, Merielle (REALLY sorry if I got your names wrong,) Chise-sama, and anyone else who has supported or reviewed my fic. By the way, I do accept anonymous reviews, so anyone can review, really. SO WHY THE HECK AREN”T YOU DOING IT?!?!?!?

To everybody who celebrates it (and as my little way of saying “Screw you” to the ACLU), MERRY CHRISTMAS! To everybody who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!

Long author rant over. Please proceed to the chapter.

            It was three weeks since that faithful day in Lyoko, where our favorite adventurers from Kadic Academy had meet Bass.

            The sky was blue…

            The birds were singing…

            Sissi and Odd were making out…

            Do I have your attention?

            (A.N.: They weren’t really making out. I was just testing your hearing.)

            It really was a beautiful day.

            Except for the big fat sweaty guy wearing a red jacket, yelling at everyone on the track.

            “COME ON, YOU MAGGOTS!!” roared Jim, the slightly dumber-then-your-average-tree-sloth director of the Physical Education program at Kadic Academy.

            “I KNOW YOU CAN RUN FASTER; PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!!” he yelled.

            “Do you ever get the feeling that Jim just likes tormenting us for the sake of tormenting us?” panted Odd to Ulrich.

            “I get that feeling only on certain days, but I have a special classification for those days,” Ulrich stated.

            “What do you call them?”

            “Days we have class.”

            Odd sniggered at Ulrich’s joke.

IN LYOKO...

            A lone figure stood on the peak of a tall cyber mountain.

            It was his destiny.

            It was his only desire, to be alone.

            However, though he was usually in a dark humor, today seemed especially… cold.

            His cloak fluttered around him, but he took no notice of this.

            His gaze was fixed resolutely upon the horizon.

            He pondered his existence.

            He pondered so hard, in fact, that he was completely oblivious to the movement of tentacles around his feet.

            Like a viper, the tentacles struck their target.

            An agonized scream, like a soul puked up out of hell, like a stab through the heart with a rusty knife, rippled through the mountain sector.

IN THE REAL WORLD…

            In Jeremie’s room, all was completely quiet.

            Silence.

            Suddenly, one of his many computer screens started to glow.

            Images of towers from all the different sectors flashed by, too fast for the eye to see.

            Suddenly, the towers stopped on one, a fairly isolated tower that was in the mountain sector of Lyoko.

            The tower was flashing red.

            The silence was broken by a steady, loud beeping.

            XANA had activated a tower.

            In the lunchroom…

            Aeilita and Jeremie were immersed in deep conversation about all the XANA attacks that had happened over the last few weeks.

            “I really don’t know, Jeremie, We can’t keep up with this. There have been twelve Xana attacks this week alone; and we really need a rest.”

            “I know, Aeilita, but we can’t just ask XANA to stop asking because we’re tired, that would only make him attack more! Besides, we’ve only got a few more weeks of this.”

            Aeilita looked at him quizzically. “Why’s that, Jeremie?”

            Jeremie blushed slightly, then answered, “The data we got from Sector 5 contained lots of data concerning XANA’s viruses. I should be able to create an antidote from it. If only w-”

            He never got further then that.

            At that moment, the peace and calm of the morning was destroyed irrevocably.

IN LYOKO…

            Screams racked the cloaked figure.

            Every inch of his mighty body was churning in absolute agony.

            It was beyond physical, beyond mental… It was like a god was slowly constricting his fragile soul in a vise.

            He was so much less then he was now; he was not the being feared by every netnavi over the age of two, he was not the being who would look God himself in the eye and tell him exactly what he would think, he was not the being who would look into the gates of hell and laugh, saying that it tickled.

            He was less then a cowering child retreating from a bully, less then the most pathetic puppy, less then even the lowest life form.

            This was the being who could destroy the world, but was now reduced to a sniveling ball, a poor unfortunate soul curled into a fetal position, hoping that his problems would go away if he waited long enough.

            To put it politely, and not to upset younger people, it did not.

            To put it not so politely, to the figure, it felt like his intestines were trying to desperately escape his own body to spare themselves. It felt like his soul was being put through a meat grinder. It felt like someone rammed their hand through his chest, ripped his heart out, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it.

            However, he was being tormented with his own past…

BASS’S POINT OF VIEW

            Oh… GOD in HEAVEN… The pain…

            My past… I…

            Is this death?

            People describe that before one dies, their life flashes before their eyes.

            That would explain it.

            My father… His strong accent, slim figure and blonde mustache all seemed so caring. I was his son. I loved him. I trusted him. I needed him.

            I was an experiment. I was the first of my kind. I hurt everywhere. I was the best… the most powerful of all.

            The executives decided that I was dangerous. I was only trying to help. I wanted to make father so very proud of me. I loved him.

            It made no difference. They locked me away, took away my powers, and mocked me from behind bars.

            My father comforted me from the real world. I tried to make the best.

            Then… That day.

            The field dropped. I was attacked. I was nearly overwhelmed. I was crippled.

            Then… power. The strength of a god. Bestowed on me. I used my foe’s own weapon to kill him.

            My father betrayed me. I left, revenge in my heart. I should be dead, but I was alive.

            My mission was clear.

            And no human could stand before me.

            But a virus…

            A mere packet of data… Has laid me low?

            I slip willingly into the void.

IN ANOTHER PART OF LYOKO…

            The Crab observed the sight of the male writhing in agony.

            The figure standing on top of the Crab also observed it.

            The being could sense the pain of the male.

            It was good.

            The being drank in the pain, drank in the agony, and drank in his darkness.

            A flicker of awareness, barely perceptible to the human mind, flashed a warning across the being’s mind.

            It vanished, but not before ordering the Crab to kill Bass.

            The Crab stood over its target, contemplating murder. Suddenly, in front of the three eyes, a ball of energy built itself up, preparing to eliminate his master’s foe.

IN STILL ANOTHER PART OF LYOKO…

            Four creatures raced across the thin mountainous walkways.

            They were on a mission.

            A tower had activated, and it was their mission to deactivate it.

            If you hadn’t guessed, it was our four heroes, Ulrich, Odd, Aeilita, and Yumi.

            A tinny voice came from the sky, interrupting the silence that had been cast over the small group by sheer determination.

            “Guys, I’m picking up a Crab due west. That’s strange…”

            “What, Einstein?” asked Odd.

            “It’s not moving to block you guys… It’s just standing still and blasting a rock…”

            Yumi sped up slightly. “I’ll go check it out, Jeremie. The rest of you go and deactivate the tower.”

            A few minutes later, Aeilita let out a gasp of relief. “Look! There’s the tower!”

            “Hey, Princess, look! There’s two tarantulas guarding it!” Odd cried.

            No response.

            “Princess?”

            Still no response.

            Slowly, Ulrich and Odd turned around to see Aeilita in the tentacled grasp of the Skipazoa. The monster was about five times as tall as Aeilita, with a long, tapered triangular base and a clear dome on top. Rimming the base of the dome was about twenty tentacles, several of which were wrapped around Aeilita. Three others, which at their tips were swollen, were almost touching her head, and pumping a strange red liquid. This red liquid was actually Aeilita’s memories, being drained into the creature, and being channeled into XANA’s storage banks.

            Acting swiftly, the two warriors attacked the monster. Odd fired laser arrows into the clear dome, causing the creature to retreat in fear. Ulrich, meanwhile, was busy attacking the tentacles, severing them and freeing Aeilita.

            Unfortunately for our heroes, the two tarantulas hadn’t been waiting idly. Both were now within firing distance, and began rapidly firing on Ulrich, Odd, and Aeilita.

            Ducking behind a rock, the three shivered as the boulder shook underneath the fearsome onslaught.

            “I have a plan. Follow my lead.” Odd stated after a few moments.

            “What is it?” Ulrich asked.

            “THIS!” He cried. Grabbing Ulrich’s katana, he whipped himself behind Aeilita, pressing the razor-sharp blade to her neck.

            Quickly, he stood up, and the barrage of laser bolts immediately stopped.

            Odd looked at the monsters with a hint of satisfaction. “See, Jeremie? Since they can’t hit Aeilita without risking her memory, they can’t hit us!”

            “Odd?”

            “Yeah, Einstein?”

            “For the sake of my heart, could you let us know your plans next time?”

            Odd rolled his eyes. “Picky, picky, picky. I just got out of this mess, and now you want me to change my style?”

            He then released Aeilita, and she entered the red, burning tower.

            Passing through the wall, she stepped on the center of the circular XANA-eye symbol, and began to rise upwards towards the top of the tower.

            Gradually, her ascent slowed, and she landed gently on a small platform floating on the top of the tower.

            She held out her hand, watching as it accepted her ID, then watching as she typed in the code.

            CODE: LYOKO.

            From the outside, Odd and Ulrich noted the change in the tower’s glow from red to blue.

            Aeilita exited the tower looking angry.

            “What-” Odd managed to get out before Aeilita slapped him flat on the cheek.

            “Don’t you ever do that again!” she shrieked shrilly.

            Then she stalked off to talk to Ulrich.

            Jeremie’s voice filtered down from the sky.

            “Odd, you just lost ten life points. What happened?”

            “I got a girl mad.”

ELSEWHERE ON LYOKO…

            Yumi was walking alone around a cluster of boulders.

            “Come ON, Jeremie, I’ve been searching for over ten minutes and I haven’t seen an-”

            She let out a small gasp.

            A human-sized black bundle was shivering in the middle of a group of monsters. Two blocks, two roaches, and a Crab were blasting the crap out of the bundle, and small moaning noises could be heard emitting from the bundle.

            Reacting like chain lightning, she quickly unleashed her steel fans, eliminating both blocks, but losing one fan in the process. Again, she launched a fan, but used her telepathy to guide it through the Crab and the roaches.

            Catching her fan with one hand, she jumped down from a boulder, and walked down to the lump of blackness.

            Gingerly lifting the cloth, she gasped in horror to see that the bundle was none other then Bass himself.

            His fins were chipped and cracked, his black bodysuit was fading to a dark gray-brown hue. His face was pale as her powdered Lyoko face. His eyes were rolling in their sockets, and he was obviously gravely wounded.

            She gently placed a hand on his forehead, but instantly his hand rocketed out and snatched her hand and pulled her close.

            “Filthy, disgusting human…” He rasped, his voice barely understandable, “GET AWAY FROM ME!!!” he nearly shrieked.

            With that, he went totally limp.

            Yumi stared up at the sky.

            “Jeremie, we have a problem…”

Sithking Zero: CLIFFIE!!!

After receiving an anonymous review, I have decided to re-do the last few paragraphs. It was determined that Bass was not acting Bass-like. In short, he was acting OOC.

I am hosting a poll, but only participate if you have a comment on my story to go with it.

Which is cooler:

1. Good
2. Evil
3. All your base are belong to us!

Please review!

Sithking Zero: Code Lyoko and Megaman are not mine at all.

Okay, I’m really mad. I swear, everyone else who writes Code: Lyoko fanfictions must suffer from a severe lack of creativity. Yes, I’m talking about OC’s. Yes, I’m sure that your guest character is wonderful, yes, I’m sure that it could steal Ulrich’s heart away from Yumi, or win Odd’s heart, but really, OC’s are kinda like atomic bombs. Just because we have the power to annihilate every living thing off the face of the earth, does not necessarily mean that we should. I mean, If I had a nickel for every time that I have seen this summary:

“Someone new comes to Kadic Accadamy and befriends the Lyoko people. What secrets will she have? Will she and Odd fall in love?”

Well, I could pretty much Buy and Code Lyoko, then have enough leftover money to buy Microsoft and go to Harvard.

What I’m really trying to say here is that there are enough characters as is for many, many fics to be written without bringing in OC’s. And if you’re looking for a sweetheart for Odd, who has none, there are people who support two pairings for Odd: Sam (Who appeared in one episode, then never reappeared) and Sissi (Really, I’m not kidding. In fact, there’s a whole website based on just that pairing. I’ll post more about it.)

Anyways, on with the chapter!

Chapter 5:

Recovery and Confessions

Bass writhed in agony.

The inside of his mind was certainly no exception to the pain, and many nightmares flashed across the surface of his brain, causing fresh waves of nausea, agony, and resentment for the being responsible.

However, these temporarily abated when a highly unusual nightmare flashed across his cerebral cortex…

BASS’S NIGHTMARE

Bass was standing in the middle of a field. There were birds singing, flowers were giving off their sweet, sweet aroma, and small creatures were hopping around him.

Looking down, Bass got the biggest shock of his entire life.

His crest was fixed. His scar was gone.

He was healed.

Thankfully, he still retained his most prized possession: his tattered brown traveling cloak, so no one could see his mouth drop open in shock and happiness.

Lifting his head, he turned to see a grouping of people gathered in front of a small grove of trees, which perfectly framed the congregation.

All were sitting, save three. One was an older male, wearing a black robe. He was standing directly in front of the two others, evidently directing the others about something.

One of the others was a young, handsome, brown-haired male, about Bass’s height (he’s about sex foot even. He floats a lot, so he seems much taller.) was wearing a tuxedo. He looked, scared, happy, and… something else… all at the same time. His eyes never left those of his equally tall companion.

The last standee was a tall young Japanese woman with short black hair. She was wearing a large, apparently cumbersome dress that was pure white, and she was clutching a bouquet of roses. She wore a look of concern, happiness, and… was that love? Yes, it was love.

The elderly male finished speaking, and raised his hands. The young male and the female drew together in a soft, sweet kiss.

The members of the congregation began to clap, slowly at first, then it swelled into a crescendo of applause. Everything looked right in the world for the two people.

All of this, happy and joyous as it was, was not to last.

Moving like a hawk, a small black speck in the sky went from a circling pattern a to stop, dead still, in the middle of the sky.

Silently, the black speck began to glow. At first, Bass thought that it was a trick of the light, but it grew in brightness and intensity until it was brighter then the sun.

Like a meteor, a blast of pure brilliance rocketed from the heavens. It struck center stage, obliterating the couple and about ninety percent of the crowd.

The blast was so incredibly powerful that Bass, who was known for firing off massive blasts of energy, had to cover his eyes and wait for the shockwave to subside.

The remaining people tried to get to cars, but once in the cars, they were picked off like a lion weeding out old, sick wildebeests from a herd.

From the center of the crater, hundreds of small energy blasts (about the size of billiard balls) rocketed outwards, annihilating everything that they touched. People evaporated, cars melted and exploded, and the carnage was such that even Bass, who wanted to destroy all humans, felt very uneasy.

The last of the escapee had nearly made it to the treeline in the distance before his car went up like a roman candle, as a small energy burst ruptured the gas tank.

When the slaughter was over, only a smoldering crater was left where those happy, vibrant people had been located.

Then, came most horrifying impossibility of all.

Out of the crater was a figure, floating upwards of his own free will. A tall figure. A cloaked figure.

A figure with fins on his head. (No, this isn’t the impossibility yet.)

Gently, the figure touched down, and waited. Suddenly, from the depths of the crater, a trail of black smoke filtered out and down in front of the figure.

It began to coagulate, and slowly, it took the form of a humanoid.

To which the dream Bass BOWED BEFORE. (That was the impossibility.)

“It is done, my master. The last of the rebellion are dead.” Came the eerily subservant voice of Dream Bass.

“Excellent.” Dream XANA hissed. “Now, my final tower shall be built.”

With a wave of his smoky hand, four blue towers raised themselves out of the ground, as if waiting for the signal.

Once they had fully appeared, they began to do their work. With a slight hiss of pressurized gasses, a glittering, hexagonally faceted dome appeared over the crater, and an army of creatures appeared inside the dome.

Real Bass breathed out.

“Dimensional area generators.”

A bit of background information is necessary. Dimensional area generators are devices, developed by Dr. Yuuichiro Hikari, as a way to allow cyber-beings, such as net navis, to appear in the real world. These were comparable to the scanners of Lyoko. On one hand, the creatures that were materialized from Lyoko could roam the earth, free of the restrictions of the super calculator (Lyoko.) On the other hand, they were very vulnerable. While nothing could get OUT of a dimensional area, nothing could get IN, either, so no reinforcements could aid whoever was in there (unless they had cyber-allies). Also, beings in the dimensional area were much more powerful then their devirtualized counterparts. For example, a Crab in a dimensional area could easily defeat a Lyoko-materialized Crab.

Within seconds, the creatures inside the dimensional area began to attack the soft earth in the center of the crater. Soon, a creamy-yellow tower began to rise up inside of the dimensional area, until there was a tower, controlled by XANA, where the last of the Lyoko warriors had been wed only thirty minutes prior.

With another hiss, the dome vanished, leaving a one-hundred-foot-tall tower standing in the middle of what had been a thriving meadow an hour before.

Now, it was a blasted, remorselessly hellish wasteland.

XANA then turned and began to walk directly towards where real Bass stood, motionless.

Soon, the two dark beings stood face-to-face. And Bass didn’t like it one bit.

Suddenly, XANA spoke.

“You are dying. The virus I planted in you will ensure that, though you may try to rid yourself of it. If you join me, though, you will be healed. I- WHAT?”

XANA looked around, as if he was going to be attacked, then de-rezzed.

A large, bright light was fast approaching. It was almost on him… He put up his aura… the light swallowed him up. It was brighter then the sun, brighter then his Banishing World attack, brighter then a galaxy in full supernova.

END NIGHTMARE

Bass awoke.

Feeling his own forehead, he realized that he was now drenched in cold sweat.

Bass was lying on a cot in the middle of a tower. While he was unconscious, someone had removed his traveling cloak. His various wounds were covered in gauze, and there was a teenaged female human sitting next to him.

The pink-haired female was dozing lightly, completely impervious to the danger she was in. Very few had ever been this close to Bass and came out with their heads still attached.

Quietly standing up, Bass marveled at the skill of whoever had healed him. He felt better then he ever had in years! Why, even his scar…

Bass jerked his head downwards. There was, he found, a very good explaination as to why his scar didn’t itch at all.

Namely, it wasn’t there.

The astounded navi ran his hands over where his gash had been. There was nothing but unblemished, smooth jumpsuit where the cut had been. Even his crest, which had been bisected, was completely healed.

Bass was, for lack of better term, speechless. Not that he spoke a lot, he really didn’t socialize too much.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.”

The girl had woken up and was now staring at him, with slightly bleary eyes.

Stretching lightly, she began to walk towards Bass, who took an involuntary step backwards. Mentally, he berated himself, why should he fear this human? From his experience, she had no weapon; she was pretty much defenseless.

He, on the other hand, was an engine of destruction, who had blown foes into their component molecules with a flick of a wrist, had the power to annihilate entire cities with one attack, who was on over ninety “Delete on sight” lists in the civilized Net, and who had defeated the King of the Undernet, Lord Serenade. Yet, why did this human not fear him?

Maybe she’s just stupid. That particular thought was quickly shoved out of Bass’s mind when she began to check his bandages expertly. Perhaps she hadn’t heard of me before our first encounter. Or maybe she has a power that is greater then all…

No, I copied her power. I know all their powers, and their weapons. Suddenly, he was startled out of his thoughts by a sharp pain in his leg. Hissing in pain, he clapped his hands to his leg, only to find the pink haired female giving him an amused grin, holding a bandage that she had just ripped off.

He was unsure as weather to kill her for her insolence, or to thank her for helping to heal him.

He chose option “C”: Shoot his dirtiest glare at her.

Unfortunately, she just giggled, and he turned a shade of pink.

There was a long and profound silence.

IN THE REAL WORLD…

Odd and Ulrich were walking back from the park. Even though the tower had been deactivated over six hours ago, Jeremie and Aeilita insisted that they nurse Bass back to health. It had taken a long time, so they had missed dinner and it was now nine O’clock Saturday night.

Soon, when they were almost at the gates of Kadic Acadamy, an unwelcome surprise presented itself.

“Oh no…” Ulrich groaned in despair. “Sissi…”

And there she was: clearly waiting for them (A.N. CoughUlrichCough) outside the entrance to the boys dormitories.

Ulrich took a deep breath, and prepared for the barrage of “Ulrich, you’re so handsome” “Ulrich you should date me and forget yumi” “Ulrich I’m a big suck-up”-type compliments.

However, to his ultimate surprise, Odd put his hand out in front of his best friend.

Odd muttered quickly out of the corner of his mouth, “Use the back entrance. I’ll handle her.”

Ulrich looked at his friend as if he had grown another head.

Odd flashed Ulrich a winning grin, even through the darkness. “Of course, if you’d rather take your chances with Sissi, be my-” But Ulrich was already gone.

Odd gave a small smile. All according to plan, he thought, giving off an evil grin inside his head.

Putting his “Plan” into action, he stepped into the light of the hallway, which spilled out of the open doors.

“Hi, Sissi!” he called cheerfully. “Nice night, isn’t it?”

Sissi scowled. “Hello, Odd. Where’s your friend?”

Feigning ignorance, Odd tried to buy for time.

“Which one?” he asked, his enthusiasm easily disguising his true feelings.

Sissi gave an angry snort. “Which one do you think, stupid? The good-looking one.”

“So… Me?”

“No.”

Odd’s expression fell. However, he hid it quickly, but Sissi noticed.

Stretching lightly, Odd remarked, “Well, Sissi, It’s getting late. Hope you see Ulrich before sunrise. Good Night.”

And with that, the blond-haired boy vanished into the boys dormitories, leaving a slightly confused Sissi in his wake.

IN THE FACTORY…

Bass.

The ultimate warrior. The Black Shadow. The messenger of darkness. The murderer of countless netnavis and programs.

This fearsome netnavi was letting out small yelps and gasps in pain.

Naturally, one would assume that whatever entity was inflicting this pain on him, must be on a power level unimagined by human and computer alike.

You’d be wrong if you thought that, because it was only Aeilita, changing his bandages.

“OW!” he yelped, clapping his hand to his arm, where a fresh bandage had just come off.

Aeilita gave a slight giggle at the taller program’s reaction. Bass glared darkly at her.

“You know, I could kill you right now with my bare hands. I would be more careful with those if I were you.”

Aeilita, who wasn’t in the least afraid of Bass now, merely said:

“You could kill me, but you won’t.”

“Oh?” he said, his anger level raising quickly. “And why not?”

“You’d have done it already. Plus, you owe me for healing you.”

And thus, Aeilita was witness to the first time in history where Bass, the destroyer of worlds, was caught absolutely speechless.

Sithking Zero: Hi! I might have some trouble updating more, since I’m grounded. However, here is the fifth chapter of Heart of a Warrior, a little late, and with some OOCness, but this is necessary.

See, I always thought that… Oh, right, I can’t tell you yet. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Please read and review!

Sithking Zero: Hello, and welcome back to the saga of Code: Lyoko if I ran it!

I came up with the idea for how the rest of the story will run, and only over the last few days! That’s right, I know how it will all end! There will be action… romance… ezplosions… fire… explosions… drama… explosions… and much, much awesomeness.

Yes, to all who like this fic, there will be plot twists, turns, and astounding revelations that will shake the very foundation of Lyoko. Not all of these will occur according to the plot of the actual show, but… WHO CARES?!? Now, on with the fic! But first…

Sithking Zero: I don’t own CL, Megaman, Bass, or any of their parent/affiliate companies.

            It was a dreary, disgusting day at Kadic Academy, about a week since Bass was saved by Aeilita.

            Come on, you all know what kind of days I’m talking about- those dark, dreary days, where it’s drizzling rain, windy, and cold, those days that make you want to crawl back into bed with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book. Or videogame. Or sleep. Whichever is your cup of tea.

            Naturally, this was a school day for our Lyoko heroes, almost as if the universe was spiting them.

            This especially seemed the case to Odd, who was almost dead from boredom in biology class. Mrs. Hertz was droning on and on and on about DNA and RNA, and man, was he bored.

            He hazarded a glance over at Ulrich, to his left. He was in a simple state of boredom, eyes glazed over. To Odd’s right, Aeilita and Jeremie were wide awake and paying close attention to every word that Mrs. Hertz said. No surprise there. He risked a glance behind him. To his surprise, Sissi was paying remarkably close attention, never blinking.

            Odd was amazed that anyone aside from Jeremie and Aeilita was immune to Mrs. Hertz’s lectures on DNA, until he heard a soft snore.

            He looked back at her, and grasped the truth.

            She wasn’t paying close attention. She was sleeping with her eyes open.

IN LYOKO…

            Four tarantulas, then four more, then four more, with ranks that went on and on, marched through the ice sector towards their ultimate destination: A tower, now glowing red, suspended over the digital sea by only a thin spit of land.

            Acting like they had been in the army for several years, they formed four rows, forty long, serving as a kind of impenetrable barrier.

            From the depths of chapter five, the dark force laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

ON EARTH…

            Mrs. Hertz continued talking, until suddenly, she stopped.

            She stood stock-still as a column of smoke floated out of an electrical socket and floated, almost lazily, into her left ear.

            Her outline wavered, almost as if she was a hologram, then her eye turned into a XANA symbol.

            For a moment, she did nothing. She just… stood there. Stock still.

            Then, continuing where she had left off, she continued her lesson as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

            This continued on for about five more minutes, before the bell rang.

            “All right, class,” she rasped, “I’m not feeling well today, so no homework. You’re dismissed.”

            She hurried out of the classroom, looking slightly green.

            Odd reached behind him, and poked Sissi in the forehead. The effect was immediate, as she shook her head slightly and blinked several times.

            “Huh? Wha… oh, it’s you. What do you want?” she said, weakly at first, but gaining strength with every syllable.

            “Class is over. You can wake up now.”

            “Oh… Thanks, Odd… Hey, how did you know I was asleep?”

            Odd grinned. “You probably should work on not snoring next time.”

            Sissi turned the color of a turnip. “Ez-CUSE, me Odd?!? I do NOT snore!”

            Herb turned to her. “Actually, Sissi, you were snoring-”

            She then rounded on him. “You shut up!” she cried.

            Ulrich and Odd moved to join up with Jeremie and Aeilita.

            “So, Einstein,” Odd began, “What did you think of that hour-long torture?”

            Jeremie gave him a small smile. “I actually thought it was pretty interesting. How about you, Aeilita?”

            Aeilita’s reply was chipper. “I thought it was pretty enjoyable as well. Didn’t you find it interesting, Ulrich?”

            “Actually, I’m with Odd on this one, Princess.”

            They had no more time to socialize, as a bolt of laser energy burned its way through the air, missing decapitating Odd by a mere inch.

            Mrs. Hertz was now standing on her desk, hair flying as if electrocuted, golden nimbuses of energy surrounded her hands.

            Instanly, Odd, Jeremie, and Aeilita dashed out of the room, their vectors angling towards the passage to the sewers through the kitchens. Ulrich, on the other hand, kicked a table over, and shortly began to throw everything within reach at his XANA-possessed science teacher.

IN LYOKO…

            Bass clapped a hand to his chest.

            Almost inexplicably, his crest had spiked in pain, and even now, it still throbbed, almost as if…

            Bass’s next action was to slam his hands to the side of his helmet, squeezing at it, acting out of impulse against the pain that now assaulted his brain. It felt like something inside his head was straining against him, as if something was just beyond his reach. Lightning images flashed past, just flashes, nothing coherent.

            A white lab coat.

            A girl, screaming in pain.

            His own vulnerable flesh, being sliced open.

            A trickle of smoke.

            Then, darkness, as Bass collapsed to the grass next to a tall tree.

IN THE ICE SECTOR…

            Aeilita and Odd raced towards the activated tower, in an unspoken race against time to stop the enemy before a life was taken.

            Pursued from behind by ten hornets, Odd was trying to blast them out of existence with his laser arrows, with mixed success. They had both lost a lot of life points, and things certainly looked grim, especially since Jeremie had just reported that Mrs. Hertz had just entered the factory, closely followed by Ulrich and Yumi, whose attacks were ineffective against XANA’s assault.

            “It’s too bad Bass couldn’t help us. He seemed nice,” panted Aeilita, as she dodged certain death for the hundredth time that day.

            “What happened -ow- to him?” Odd grunted out as a laser bolt slammed between his laser blades.

            Aeilita swerved around an ice spire, which destroyed a hornet, but the swarm was almost instantly compensated.

            “He asked how I had healed him, thanked me, and left,” she gritted. “It’s weird, because he seemed kind of familiar…”

            Suddenly, it was as if the hornets decided to take a break. They still followed, but didn’t shoot. It was as if they were tired.

            However, as they passed around the next bend, they found a the reason why.

            “ODD!” Aeilita cried.

            Odd turned around, and what he saw was enough to turn his stomach.

            Forty tarantulas were lined up, and were now preparing their guns.

            Seconds later, Odd was disintegrated.

            Aeilita, riding the overwing, was now alone.

            Except for the one hundred and seventy monsters now moving in on her location.

            A strange, alien cry suddenly resonated over the icy plain.

            You know what I just said about one hundred and seventy monsters? Scratch that.

            The Skipazoa had joined the fray.

IN THE FOREST SECTOR…

            Bass stirred slightly.

            Something within him was stirring, something powerful, something primal.

            It felt like…

            His father.

            Suddenly, Bass’s eyes snapped open. However, they were not their usual red. His eyes were completely purple.

IN THE ICE SECTOR…

            Aeilita was surrounded on all sides by monsters.

            Then, they parted, allowing a tall, tentacled Skipazoa to approach, it’s arms reaching out to her, reaching for her memory.

            It was closer. It was moving slowly, but surely. Aeilita could now see nicks and dents in the armor.

            Its tentacles reached for her. She cringed and closed her eyes…

IN THE FOREST SECTOR…

            Bass’s back arched, and a howl of pain escaped his lips.

            Without warning, a bolt of purple lightning leapt from his crest to the far-distant sky.

IN THE ICE SECTOR…

            Aeilita felt he cold clammy arms wrapped around her, slowly squeezing the memories out of her skull.

            Suddenly, a white-hot flash of energy slammed into her head. She slammed her eyes shut to protect them from the brilliance of the flash.

            After a moment, she realized that she wasn’t having her brain drained anymore.

            She opened her eyes.

            The tentacles were trying to grab at a purple aura that was now enveloping Aeilita, which was somehow deflecting the monstrosity’s grabs at her life.

            She took a tentative step towards the tower.

            A hundred guns cocked.

            One fired, the laser bouncing off as if it was a superball.

            Aeilita grinned, then began to sprint for the tower. Tarantulas fired as fast as they could, their bolts bouncing off, destroying some, wounding others. Some missed and hit their companions instead, causing more destruction. Monsters exploded all around her as she entered the tower.

IN THE FOREST SECTOR…

            The purple fire faded from Bass’s eyes.

            For a moment, his eyes closed, then opened again.

            Now normal, he placed a hand to his forehead, feeling the cold sweat that had leaked down into his face.

            Looking around, he asked what any sane person would ask.

            “What the HELL just happened?!?”

Sithking Zero: Wow. That was… interesting. And my apologies to anyone who likes biology, I found it mind-numbing.

Please review! Every review sent helps fund these works. SO REVIEW! OR ELSE!

Chapter 7:

The Shadow’s legacy Part 1:

The Beginning of the End

Bass walked unhurriedly through the ice sector.

His destination? A wide field, where the corpses of several monsters lay, victims of friendly fire.

However, that was still about ten minutes away, but Bass needed the time to think.

Why did he faint? What were those… thoughts… that passed through his head as he lay unconscious? And most importantly, how was he to return home?

The most interesting/weird thing was, to him, that he had the feeling that this had happened to him before. However, he was pretty sure that he would remember something like that.

The worst part was, in his own, slightly opinionated view, that whenever he thought back to the memories that had flashed by his mind, he somehow knew that the memories- if that was what they were, and not hallucinations brought on by his agony- were incomplete. Something was amiss, and only he could find out what.

These thoughts, on the other hand, had to be put on hold temporarily, as he had finally arrived. There were dead and dying monsters everywhere, and it was towards a dead tarantula that the messenger of darkness floated towards.

The tarantula’s nostrils, which usually dilated open and shut as a sort of way to see infrared waves, a “sixth sense,” if you will, were now sealed shut, save for one that had been blasted off by a laser bolt.

Moving down the corpse, Bass studied several holes in the body, each one coated with carbon-scoring.

Emotionlessly, he moved along to the next body, then the next, then the next. Every single wounded monster there had similar wounds, and Bass knew that no human could have produced these wounds.

He knew that the human, “Ulrich,” would have left slash marks.

“Yumi,” would have either crushed them with boulders or left slash marks.

“Odd,” had long-range weapons, but these wounds were done by laser, and what he fired was more like arrows of the medieval ages.

That left Aeilita, but she didn’t have any sort of weapon.

Hmmm… he hummed, trying to ponder what could have done this.

That is, until he noticed the nearest tower.

A dark idea occurred to Bass, and he let out an evil smile. The type that would make Dracula running to mommy.

If I can’t figure out who did this, he thought, perhaps a human does.

And with that, he moved to the nearest tower, dark thoughts in mind.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

AT KADIC ACCADAMY…

It was twelve o’clock at night. Everyone, from Principal Delmas to Odd, was sound asleep. There was no noise anywhere.

Nowhere, save for one room occupied by a solitary blond-haired computer genius.

In this room, hands as slender and trained as a pianist’s danced across the keyboard. It was graceful, in a strange sort of way.

Then, though barely noticeable to the untrained ear, there came a pause in the dance. It lasted but a fraction of a second, but that was a long time, if you knew the boy genius like Yumi, Aeilita, Odd, and Ulrich did.

And if you knew him, and you saw this, you would know that that signified a brainwave.

Almost instantly, the blond-haired boy’s efforts redoubled, his hands becoming a blur on the keyboard.

As suddenly as he had started, he stopped, wringing his hands, but just for a second.

Slowly, reverently, he then reached down and pressed the Enter key with a slender pointer finger.

The computer’s hard drive whirred, clicked, hummed, and then stopped.

Within seconds, the screen showed the most horrifying image imaginable.

ATTENTION!

The following error OE has occurred.

Insufficient memory to complete requested action:

Allyourbase.gigas/sithkingzerorocks/decode-diaryexe.

To complete action, please upgrade for more memory.

Memory needed to complete action:

8,796,546,765 G.B.

To continue, please click anywhere.

The boy genius, giving a small, tight-lipped smile, clicked the Blue Screen of Death away, saved his work to his Laptop, and went to bed.

SIX HOURS LATER…

Odd and Ulrich pounded against their friend’s door.

It had become kind of a routine for them, dragging Jeremie away from his work on Aeilita’s antivirus long enough to force him to bathe and eat.

However, when they barged in today, they found, for the first time in a month, Jeremie face-down on his bed, fast asleep.

ONE HOUR LATER…

“A way to decode Franz Hopper’s Diary?”

Yumi had arrived only recently, say in the last five minutes. Her hair was still a little damp from the shower, and she was still blinking sleep from her eyes.

Jeremie nodded in answer to Yumi’s question.

“Yeah. I spent all night working on it. It should work, but I’ll need some real computing power. I think that I might need to activate a few towers.”

Odd gave a small start in the middle of shoveling down a massive spoonful of cereal, resulting in the need for Ulrich and Yumi pounding their friend on the back in order to stop him from choking to death.

Once he had suitably recovered, Odd managed to gasp out:

“Jeremie, do you remember the last time you activated a tower? I nearly bought the farm on that one.”

Jeremie nodded his agreement to Odd’s inquiry.

“Yes, I remember. Don’t worry about it; I’ll have you guys in Lyoko to stop anything from going wrong.” A.N. and we all know how effective Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich are at keeping things from going wrong in Lyoko.

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IN LYOKO…

Bass’s hands swiftly and deftly moved vast amounts of data from side to side, searching for just the right chunk.

Like a miner, he searched, looking for the diamond in the rough, the one thing that would make sure that he would get exactly what he was searching for.

After ten hours of searching, his patience was wearing threadbare thin, but still, he looked.

And then, like finding the Hope diamond in a grab bag, he found it.

Reaching in, he pulled the program out, admiring it for a moment.

Then using only two fingers, he moved sections of its data: removing a piece here, adding stuff there, merely moving other things.

After less then a minute was up, the navi known as Bass held it aloft to admire his work.

Suddenly, the tower rocked in the throes of a massive explosion. Bass leapt into the air as a bolt of energy as thick as a young tree trunk tore a hole through the tower. However, even though he dodged the first bolt, he was not fast enough to stop another from slamming into his chest.

--- TO BE CONTINUED… ---

Sithking Zero: Howdy! CL, Megaman, or their parent companies do not belong to me.

Chapter 8:

Legacy of the Shadow Part 2:

Lost Memories

The tree-trunk sized laser slammed into Bass’s exposed stomach, slamming him through the air and through the tower’s wall, leaving a hole the size of a small car.

The force of the strike caused Bass to keep on flying through the air, until his momentum was forcefully halted by a tall mountain of ice.

It is a well-known fact that when ice is cold enough, it can become as hard as steel. Okay, maybe not well-known, but I know it. What does this have to do with Bass’s current predicament? Only that no creature, in this or any parallel world, can ignore being blasted by a massive laser and being slammed into a mountain of about the same hardness of steel at approximately five hundred miles an hour.

Bass sunk to the ground, and darkness quickly overtook him.

A figure strode over to him, its arm turning back into a normal hand.

Gazing down upon the helpless figure of Bass, the figure swiftly turned and walked back to its four massive creatures.

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ON EARTH…

“So all we have to do is protect one tower until your program finishes, Einstein?”

Jeremie rolled his eyes, then answered the question for what felt like the tenth time that day.

“For the last time, Odd, yes. XANA will, in all likelihood, not like us prying into Franz Hopper’s secrets. He’ll probably try to destroy the tower, like when Aeilita was being virtualized. That’s why Aeilita and I,” he said, glancing at his pink-haired companion, “have selected the tower carefully so that XANA can’t get a megatank anywhere near it.”

Odd cocked his head.

“So… why don’t we go after class?”

Jeremie sighed. He then opened his laptop and pointed to a pie chart, which was covered in glyphs and symbols that none but Jeremie, Aeilita, or a computer program could understand.

“If you look at this part of the graph, you can see what I mean.”

After a long silence, Aeilita cleared her throat.

“Ummm… Jeremie…”

“Yes?”

“I lived inside of a computer all my life, and I still barely understand that.”

“Oh. Sorry, guys.”

Ulrich gave a small grin.

“No offense taken, Einstein. But still, could you explain it?”

Jeremie pointed to a red chunk of the pie chart.

“This represents memory usage of the supercomputer. This green portion,” he continued, gesturing to the piece of the pie, “represents how long it will take a program to load, given the size of the program.”

His fingers deftly pressed a few keys. The green slice expanded, and the red slice shrank.

“This is the program for an average materialization code for your vehicles.”

He clicked again.

“And for your materialization codes,” he stated, nodding to Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich.

He clicked again.

“And for your materialization code, Aeilita.”

And again.

“And now for the dairy decoding software.”

He clicked a final time. By now, the green slice was about sixty percent of the graph, and the glyphs changed to represent it.

Jeremie clicked on a glyph. It instantly turned into an text box in French, which stated, Estimated time of Download: 48:00 hours.

Jeremie glanced at Odd.

“That’s why. Only once the program is set up can anyone go into Lyoko, and only then can we go without our disappearance being noticed.”

Odd’s eyes finally widened in understanding.

Aeilita, on Jeremie’s opposite side, was looking at the program with intense interest.

“Jeremie,” she began, “You do realize that if you fully decode his diary, you might find the key to the antivirus?”

“Yes.” He stated simply, before adding, “That is, if we’re lucky. This virus could be a new creation of XANA’s, and Franz knows nothing about it.”

Yumi clapped a hand to his back.

“Well, It’s worth a shot, right, Jeremie?”

“I suppose so…”

Even so, no one could have predicted the catastrophe that loomed before all of them…

Sithking Zero: That was short, but it was fun to write. Please read and review (as always.)

Sithking Zero: I’m back! Did you miss me?

Code Lyoko and Megaman don’t belong to blah blah blah you know the drill.

Chapter 9:

XANA’s Foulest Hour

It was one day after Jeremie started to load the Decoding program into the Supercomputer’s restricted section.

In the meantime, it was a lovely day at Kadic Academy.

There were birds singing…

The flowers were blooming…

The glass was shattering as massive otherworldly creatures from beyond space and time attacked a high school…

Run that last one by me again?

To fully explain, we must go back three hours, to the beginning of Aeilita and the others’ science class.

“Well, another boring chem class, about to begin,” commented Odd, who stretched his arms over his head and yawned loudly.

“Don’t you remember, Odd?” asked Aeilita quizzically. “Today’s the day that we’re making Ice cream with Liquid Nitrogen.”

Odd spun her around to face him.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes; now please let go of me.”

Most of the class went by fairly uneventfully. After about ten minutes, the class separated into pre-assigned groups; fortunately for our heroes, they were able to score a group together (Yumi is a grade ahead, for those who didn’t know.)

They worked diligently on the soon-to-be frozen dessert; especially Aeilita, who had only discovered the frozen delicacy a few weeks ago.

Finally, Mrs. Hertz came over to each group, making sure that they were ready before pouring several cups of liquid nitrogen into each group’s bowls.

The change was immediate. The bowl immediately began spewing out huge amounts of steam, which overflowed quickly and began spilling onto the floor before they dissipated in clouds of misty vapors.

Working deftly, each group stirred the rapidly freezing mixture, trying to get the right amount of air into the treat.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Within the very bowels of the supercomputer in the factory, dark forces brewed and rolled.

Inside the cybernetic world known as Lyoko, a dark figure stood near the unconscious figure of Bass.

Its four minions knew their task. They knew who to destroy. What to annihilate. When to do it.

The time was now.

The dark figure collapsed in on itself, then vanished entirely. The four giants moved with deceptive slowness, before they, too vanished in a burst of light.

Instants later, in our world, all three scanners opened up at once, and long tentacles snaked out.

In Lyoko, however, the ice plain we left was far from barren.

The unconscious Bass stirred.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

In our world, the great work of our heroes was finished.

With a sense of triumph, Aeilita scooped out her second helping of the delicious frozen delicacy, savoring every bite.

Another idyllic day.

Just then, the bell rang, and everybody packed their backpacks to move to the next class.

The last one out was Sissi, who, due to her lack of proper safety techniques, had a chunk of her hair break off after getting liquid nitrogen spilled on it. As a result, she received a two-hour detention on Saturday.

And since she was the last one out, she was also the first to see the horrors about to commence.

As she was putting away her copy of “The Supernatrualist,” She heard a faint sound of a window opening.

Understandably, she turned, if only to see what the noise came from.

It is said that the following scream caused Kiwi to howl in pain and glass to shatter.

Meanwhile, Ulrich, Odd, and the rest had discovered the danger that Sissi was becoming familiar to.

A mass of electric-blue tentacles, each about thirty feet long, was extended through the front door to the science wing. Now, this would be cause for fear and panic on any normal day, but to our brave heroes, it was especially frightening considering the creature on the other end of the said tentacles.

XANA had materialized Skipazoas in the real world.

Sithking Zero: Sorry for the shorter chapter. I have big plans, and this was merely the setup.

Quick question: what’s the plural of Skipazoa?

Sithking Zero: Bass and CL aren’t mine. Yet.

Now, to summarize, Bass was attacked again in the last chapter. As he faded into unconsciousness, XANA moved his Monsters to the real world. As our brave heroes find out, these beasts are none other then Skipazoas. However, will this be the end for our story, since the Skipazoas will wipe Kadic off the map? Or will help come from an unlikely source?

Read on, and see the next installment in our saga…

Chapter 10:

XANA’s Assault

For a great many moments, nobody moved. It was totally silent, except for the gentle padding of the tentacles feeling their way around the foyer. Everyone, even those who had never seen a Skipazoa’s tentacles before, was frozen with fright.

That is, until one grabbed hold of the foot of a young freshman girl, Milly.

Then, the screaming began.

At first, the cries of terror and horror were only because the humans realized that they were the target of the creature’s assault. Then, more came due to the fact that it was drawing poor Milly back towards the creature’s strange, greedy embrace.

Quick as lightning, Ulrich smashed open the nearby glass, which held an anti-fire axe. After ten years of nonuse, it was a little rusty, but it sliced down on the tentacle of the beast like Ulrich’s Lyoko Katana.

Like a worm, what was left of the mangled tentacle slid back out the door.

It was at this precise moment, however, that an ear-splitting shriek was heard.

“SISSI!” Odd cried, and before anyone could stop him, he had dashed back to the classroom he had just left.

Ulrich started back to help his friend, but had no time, due to the arrival of our friend Yumi to the rapidly unfolding drama.

As she slammed the doors behind her, one solitary tentacle got in, wrapping around and completely enveloping her legs.

For one moment, she teetered on two unstable legs, then, like a mighty oak, collapsed to the ground.

Quickly, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aeilita dashed forwards to help their Japanese friend. Working together, Aeilita and Jeremie managed to pull her out of the deadly embrace, then Ulrich hacked the offending tentacle to pieces.

As one, the four looked at one another, and said the one four-letter name that meant darkness and evil in their lives.

“XANA.”

Offering Yumi his hand, the shorter boy helped her up while simultaneously shouldering his axe.

Swinging it experimentally, Ulrich listened intently as Jeremie outlined the plan to get to the factory without their large, memory-draining friends following them.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Jim was listening to the latest Green Day CD in his office in the gym when he heard a large crash.

Now, at a school this large, a crash was probably somebody just messing with the ball pile he had stacked in the equipment shed. Still, that meant that he got to put someone in detention, and that gave him a small amount of sadistic pleasure.

Lifting his considerable bulk out of his swivel chair, he opened the door to the equipment shed, which had a two doors, for convienience: one to the office, and one to the gym.

To Jim’s immense surprise, nothing was wrong. Everything was in order.

Scratching his head, Jim turned around, looking straight at where he kept the supplies for Track and Field, where he noticed something that made him mad.

“Aw, come on! I just re-ordered these javelins, and already they’re broken. That’s the last time I let Della Robia help me with teaching the class.”

He sighed dramatically.

“Ah, well, I better show this to the principal.”

Grabbing the first spear, he slammed the door to the equipment shed open.

After walking halfway across the campus, he was about to enter the principal’s office when he heard slight choking sounds.

Being a trained Gym Teacher, Jim was well versed in CPR, and burst into the place, ready to administer it to his boss.

What he found was not even remotely close to a situation that might require CPR.

The entire wall on one side of the room had collapsed, and in it’s place was a… well, Jim didn’t know what it was.

It was gigantic. Easily as big as a Truck Cab, the top was a clear, bubble dome with what looked like a glowing, red bladder in the center.

The rim of the bubble was a golden ring with a sort of target on the creature’s front side. The entire creature’s dome pulsed gently, as some sort of fluid was being transferred from the principal to the thing through the tentacles that held the helpless man in a death grip.

Jim watched, frozen in terror, as the thing stopped draining the principal and turned towards him.

Acting instinctively, Jim threw the Javelin in his hand.

The thing grabbed the projectile with one tentacle, then snapped it in two with another.

Naturally, this scared the crap out of Jim, and also naturally, he tried to run.

He didn’t get far.

It is a little-known fact that Skipazoa tentacles are over seven times longer then the main body is tall.

The last thing that Jim remembered, before the creature began to drain his brain, was cold, greedy tentacles enveloping his legs, and three more pressing themselves to his head…

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aeilita raced along the hallways of the science building of the Science building of the Kadic Academy school.

The plan to get to the factory was simple in design:

Odd would handle things in the real world, while they would sneak around back to the loading entrance. Once there, it was a short jog to the passage to the factory through the park.

As they rounded a corner, Aeilita lost her balance, and fell to the ground.

Being the gentleman he was, Jeremie immediately turned back and went to help her up, to try to get her back in action ASAP.

However, it was at this precise moment that Murphy’s law decided to interfere, and the section of wall between Jeremie and Aeilita exploded violently.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

With a slight hiss of pressurized gasses escaping, a scanner at the factory opened.

A dark figure calmly, majestically, and most certainly angrily, left the tall cylinder, taking his first tentative steps into the real world.

Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning across his vision, he felt instinct kick into overdrive.

Like a rocket, and leaving a massive hole in the wall, this new being exploded into action.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Aeilita screamed. Completely blocked from her friends, and with a Skipazoa cornering her, all hope seemed lost.

Tears streaked down her face, and she huddled into the corner of the hall farthest from the Memory-sucking abomination of hell.

She felt a tentacle touch her head…

Then a tendril touched her side…

Then an utterly alien scream of pain, accompanied by a brilliant flash of light, visible through her closed eyes.

She carefully looked up.

There was now a crater where there had been a hall. In the center, remains of a monster lay strewn about on the floor.

In the very middle of it all, and looking REALLY ticked, was a tall, cloaked figure with yellow fins on his head.

“We need to talk.” Growled Bass.

Sithking Zero: I GOT FOURTH PLACE IN A SCIENCE CONTEST! It was a test about glaciers, and me and Robert got fourth place. WE ROCK!

Many events are now set into motion, events that cannot be stopped… and I will update as I see fit! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Ahem… Please read and review!

Sithking Zero: CL and Mega Man me no own. Copyright lawyers, go away.

Bass is in the real world, Bass is in the real world! I have been planning this moment since I started writing this back in the middle of second season.

And now… I (and our heroes) will p4wN.

Heart of a Warrior

Chapter 11:

Love and Loss on the Net

Tears streaked down her face, and she huddled into the corner of the hall farthest from the Memory-sucking abomination of hell.

She felt a tentacle touch her head…

Then a tendril touched her side…

Then an utterly alien scream of pain, accompanied by a brilliant flash of light, visible through her closed eyes.

She carefully looked up.

There was now a crater where there had been a hall. In the center, remains of a monster lay strewn about on the floor.

In the very middle of it all, and looking REALLY ticked, was a tall, cloaked figure with yellow fins on his head.

“We need to talk.” Growled Bass.

For a brief moment, all was silent.

Then, a brief stuttering from the bewildered, stunned, and frightened computer program turned human. And no, it wasn’t Bass.

“Did you just… save me?” she breathed.

He looked at her, regarding her coldly.

“… Yes.”

“Why?”

The most powerful navi in existence hesitated but a moment.

I have absolutely no idea, his brain thought.

“I have my reasons,” was what came out of his mouth.

He glanced back, to where Jeremie was frozen in shock.

Then, he turned back to Aeilita.

“You’re human. You all are.”

Aeilita gave him a curious look.

“Yes… we’re all humans. Except me.”

She looked down.

“I’m the only one who’s a true computer program. Jeremie created a materialization program, and he set me free from the supercomputer.”

Bass turned his back on Aeilita and faced Jeremie, flames in his eyes.

“YOU…” he rumbled, “YOU… TURN PROGRAMS… INTO HUMANS?”

Jeremie, wisely sensing danger, backpedaled furiously.

However, Bass movements were like a blur, and in an instant he had Jeremie by the throat and was strangling him with one hand.

“YOU…” Bass growled, “YOU…”

Probably for the first time, Bass was actually so enraged by this prospect that he was actually speechless.

“To turn a human into a program, that is an improvement,” Bass breathed, “But program to human… those who do should die.”

Jeremie, writhing uselessly in Bass’s steel grip, was turning blue from lack of oxygen.

It is interesting to note that normally, Bass can deflect any sort of attack and annihilate nearly every foe with the same effort it takes to think. That is why it is surprising what Yumi (A.N.: you thought that I had forgotten about them, right?) did to save her friend’s life actually worked.

With a conspicuous crash, a glass bottle grabbed from one of the chemistry labs impacted into the back of Bass’s helmet.

This had no effect on Bass except to drop Jeremie in surprise. He hit the ground with a slight thud, where he greedily drew in a breath of sweet, sweet air.

He turned his hate-filled eyes upon Yumi, purple nimbuses of energy swirling around his hands.

“You die first.”

Had Aeilita not intervened at that precise moment, it is of little doubt that Yumi would have been transformed into a pile of smoking ash.

However, she did intervene by jumping directly into the floating death machine’s path.

“STOP!” she cried, holding out her arms, shielding her friend from what she was sure was the coming onslaught.

However, to everyone’s great surprise, Bass stopped.

He looked starteld.

He held out his hand, pointing it at her, undoubtedly to fry her.

Nothing happened.

He drew back his hand, in the inevitable position of one who is planning to pound another’s head in.

His hand whistled through the air at speeds greater then 500 MPH.

His hand stopped a hair’s breadth from her forehead.

He looked at her, then his hand, then back at her.

Scowling darkly, he turned and walked back the way he had come.

“You live today,” he muttered darkly.

However, before he got ten feet, the pink-haired program called his name.

Turning, Bass saw her hesitantly hold out her hand.

“Bass…” she said quietly, “Please help us.”

Bass stared at her hand for a moment.

“Why should I help you humans?”

“Because those monsters could kill innocent people.” Aeilita replied, startled at his angry response.

Bass stared back at her hand for one moment, before doing the one thing that would- and should- signify the end of the world.

“Yes. I’ll help you.” Reaching out slowly, he took her hand firmly in his and shook it.

“Thanks?” said Yumi, quizzically.

Correctly interpreting the look of confusion in her eyes, he responded, in typical Bass fashion, “I’m not being nice. If anyone’s going to kill humans, it’s going to be me.”

And leaving on this high note, he floated through the hole in the wall where the Skipazoa had made its dramatic (if last) entrance into Aeilita’s life.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Jeremie cleared his throat, wincing slightly at the effort (he was strangled earlier, remember?)

“Ummm… Shouldn’t we head to the factory?”

There was a general tone of consent among the bewildered and confused warriors of Lyoko, but even as they turned to leave, grateful for Bass’s assistance, Aeilita turned back and glanced at the hole in the wall.

Suddenly, with a jolt of extreme agony, she collapsed to the ground, clutching her head against the horrible pain that assaulted it.

She opened her mouth in a horrible scream of pain, summoning her friends to her, but she was lost in memory, and her attention was not on this world…

AEILITA’S DREAM

She was in the middle of a very large and spacious room, with banks of computers and monitors covering the walls.

She heard the noise of a door slamming shut behind her, and she turned and saw a tall man with gray hair, beard, and moustache stride in, a small young girl hurrying along in his wake. A young girl with a very familiar shade of pink hair.

Real Aeilita nearly did a double take, seeing the girl’s true identity,

It was her. Younger and smaller, to be sure, but her nonetheless.

The man she was following walked hurriedly up to the blond-haired man.

“How are the preparations on your defense program coming?” he asked, slightly out of breath.

“They’re going well, Mr. Hopper,” chimed the blond-haired man cheerfully.

“He should be able to protect Lyoko for many years to come.”

Mr. Hopper walked over to the console, so Real Aeilita and Dream Aeilita’s attentions were naturally drawn to the console, as well.

Real Aeilita, without the others hearing, let out a gasp.

A very familiar being’s image was on the console.

“I must admit,” Mr. Hopper’s voice came, making Real Aeilita jump slightly, “This all looks very impressive, but what does this program do?”

As he said this, he indicated a computer screen to the left of the main one, with strange glyphs, graphs, and equations continually self-checked themselves, moving constantly.

“That’s an experimental program I’ve designed that should, in theory, allow for the ability to duplicate the powers of any foe that he faces.”

Mr. Hopper’s eyes widened slightly.

“Would there be any way to duplicate this program and install it on a human, Mr. Cossak?”

Mr. Cossak shook his head.

“Sorry, sir, but not without suffering major brain damage.”

“Yes, father?” She called back, as she turned back towards her father.

“I want you to come meet your new brother.” He said, gesturing towards the screen where a finned program’s image floated in the middle of the screen.

Real Aeilita’s vision slowly dissolved away into a white blur as her dream self looked again on the figure on the screen.

THE REAL WORLD…

Jeremie was gently splashing a little bit of water from a leaking pipe on Aeilita’s face, which, after ten minutes of him trying to wake her up, finally happened.

The look of tender care and gentleness turned to one of elation as she began to stir.

Recovering quickly, Jeremie, being the chivalrous man he was, helped her into a sitting position, with him kneeling but a few feet away to help her.

Helping her up with one hand, he gently asked her, “Aeilita? Are you all right? What happened?”

She wobbled, slightly weakened from the whole experience.

“I’m fine… I think,” she murmured. “Where am I?”

“At the factory. Ulrich and I helped to carry you here.” He looked a little sheepish for a moment. “We figured that you’d be safer here.”

“I had another vision.” She blurted out suddenly.

Jeremie looked at her, his caring nature still there, but shock and interest took their place.

“Are you sure?” he asked, lowering his voice and leaning a little closer. “Are they like the ones that you had at the Hermitage?”

The Hermitage was an old house in the woods, about halfway between Kadic Academy and the factory. A short while after moving into Kadic, Aeilita, driven by visions of wolves and other frightening things, found the Hermitage, where she experienced strange visions of rooms she had never seen, strange men, and (for real) had nearly been killed by XANA doing a “Poltergeist” impression (making things fly around and try to kill people, not by opening a portal into hell.)

“Sort of,” she admitted, a little shyly.

“What was it about?” Jeremie pressed, while simultaneously dabbing her forehead with a damp cloth.

She hesitated for a moment, possibilities racing through her mind. If she was wrong in her suspicion, she would be considered crazy, as was what she thought. If she was right, it would be very weird.

“I don’t really know,” she murmured, telling the truth. “I saw Franz Hopper, and someone called ‘Mr. Cossak,’ and they were working on a program for Lyoko, but I don’t know what for.”

It was as close to the truth as she dared tread.

Jeremie, however, was not a mind reader, and as such believed what she had said.

“Wow…” he muttered.

“Yeah…” she said, a little disappointed.

A long awkward silence reigned after that.

“We should probably get going. Ulrich and Yumi have probably got their hands full already with the monsters on Lyoko.” Jeremie spoke abruptly, making Aeilita jump slightly.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” She said, still slightly starteled.

ON LYOKO…

As it turned out, Ulrich and Yumi were fighting their best against twelve Krabs, and were not faring so good. Even though Ulrich had used his triplicate maneuver, they were still outnumbered three to one, and they were all at minimal health. Each of Ulrich’s clones had ten life points, and Yumi only had twenty.

“This doesn’t look good,” growled Ulrich.

“What’s taking them so long?” asked Yumi, a trace of worry evident, but mostly angry.

As if her words carried immeasurable magic across Lyoko, Jeremie chose that moment to log in.

“Somebody call me?”

“Jeremie!” cried the four warriors, even as one of the Ulrich clones was annihilated by a Krab’s laser blast.

“Stay sharp; I’m sending Aeilita.”

However, perhaps it was Murphy’s Law, perhaps it was fate, perhaps Jeremie screwed up something royal, but Jeremie managed to virtualize her exactly on top of one of the Krabs, crumpling its legs with the sudden increase of weight on top.

Natrually, the Ulrich twins leapt at the chance, stabbing the creature from another universe through the ugly target-shaped crest.

However, in another second, both of the Ulrichs were destroyed by three well-placed laser blasts. Yumi quickly followed, but she took down three more with her fans.

Aeilita, seeing that this was a fight that she could not win, ran as fast as her legs would carry her from the eight remaining monsters, while at the same time summoning her reality-altering powers, the Krabs in hot pursuit.

Focusing her power into spiked shapes, she closed her eyes and let out a siren song, at the same time creating several stone spikes thirty feet in the air. As they completed, they dropped from the sky, deadly rocks from heaven.

Fortunately for Aeilita, she had planned this exactly.

First one, then another, then four more of the Krabs succumbed to the falling stones from heaven. It would have been comical, as it was so like a Loony Toons Cartoon. Each monster, running as fast as it could, was suddenly smashed into the ground by a huge stone spike.

Eventually, the last two Krabs were racing after the pink-haired girl, chasing her as fast as their reverse-articulated legs would allow them to run on the desert plain.

Another fortunate option was fast approaching for Aeilita, however.

After running as fast as she could for at least a mile, she veered to the left, racing towards the Oasis that was fast approaching.

She had been to this oasis before; it had been on one of her first excursions with her friends over a year ago.

At first glance, it was rather plain: a tree, and some dying shrub grasses clustered around a small hole of water.

However, Odd had discovered the true secret of this oasis: there was no water.

The “water” was an illusion, a hologram, if you will. If you fell through this, it would be only a short fall down until you reached a long, vaguely-oval shaped patch of land. At one end, the place where you fell. At the other was a tower, well-hidden, but there.

This particular tower was guarded by two more Krabs, at the sight of which Aeilita gave an exasperated growl.

“Would it kill XANA to just let me have it easy for JUST ONCE?” she grumbled.

At this point, she had been stalked by Skipazoa in the real world, nearly killed by Krabs, suffered a splitting headache, caused by a bizarre vision, the fate of her friends was unknown, and she was REALLY tired and desperate to go home.

So, in her desperation, she tried a really stupid move.

In the real world, Jeremie nearly ripped his headset off as Aeilita gave an earsplitting yell.

“AAAIIEEE!” She shrieked. “IT’S BASS!” she cried, while pointing off to her left.

Shockingly, the oldest trick in the book worked, and the Krabs turned to face this new threat.

Aeilita stifled a giggle as she sneaked past the two stupid monsters, slipping gently into the tower.

Within seconds, the tower was deactivated.

IN THE REAL WORLD…

Milly and Tamiya, the two freshmen reporters who wrote the school newspaper, huddled together in what they were sure was their last moments.

Two huge bunches of tentacles wrapped around their legs, dragging them out from the tables in the lunchroom they had been hiding under.

The tentacles were repositioned so that the two freshmen were positioned upright, then the last Skipazoa placed its tentacles on their foreheads.

However, as it was about to do so, it stopped.

The tentacles lost their power, becoming as weak as ropes.

As they hit the ground, a brilliant white light overtook them.

Bass turned from his musings over the carcass of a deceased monster in time to witness the light that overtook him.

And so, the day began anew…

Sithking Zero: Hi! I’m BAAACK! Did anyone miss me?

I’m not grounded, I’m not grounded, I’m not grounded…

Please Read and Review!

Sithking Zero: CL and Megaman are not mine. I will go Zero on you if you sue me.

AUTHOR’S NOTE! If you were to look back two chapters, you would see that at the beginning of chapter ten, Odd ran away from the rest of the group to save Sissi from a Skipazoa. This chapter shows what he was doing during that period of time. Now, some of you may want to hurt me for neglecting Odd, but it was necessary in order to set up the plot. This, on the other hand, is just for fun. I’m also a fan of the pairing Odd/Sissi, so this is just my way of practicing for future fanfictions.

Sithking Zero is me. All rights reserved. This story is for external use only, any attempt at internal use will make me laugh really, really hard.

Chapter 12

Odd’s Heroics

Or

The rescue of a Sissy

Just then, the bell rang, and everybody packed their backpacks to move to the next class.

The last one out was Sissi, who, due to her lack of proper safety techniques, had a chunk of her hair break off after getting liquid nitrogen spilled on it. As a result, she received a two-hour detention on Saturday.

And since she was the last one out, she was also the first to see the horrors about to commence.

As she was putting away her copy of “The Supernatrualist,” She heard a faint sound of a window opening.

Understandably, she turned, if only to see what the noise came from.

It is said that the following scream caused Kiwi to howl in pain and glass to shatter.

In the main hall of the Science building at Kadic Academy, a single blond-haired boy, who at the moment had just witnessed a cluster of tentacles, attached to an otherworldy monster, drag a freshman girl away.

His friend, Ulrich Stern, had grabbed a nearby fire axe and had handily sliced through the tentacles like they were nothing.

All this time, the short, scrawny (or, as he would say, svelte,) boy had not been truly and undeniably afraid. He had his friends, he knew how to fix the problem, and he was able to outrun Skipazoa any day of the week. Besides, the Skipazoa was never really his problem. Not specifically. It never targeted him, but it had targeted his friends before. And, he thought, it was his responsibility to help keep them and everyone else safe.

It’s not like anyone else could, he mused.

However, his musings were broken by a high-pitched shriek, emanating from the science classroom that he had just left.

For reasons that Odd DellaRobia could not accurately explain, that one shriek scared him more then the Skipazoa. No, a hundred Skipazoa.

It filled him with a nameless fear, something primordial and terrifying that he could not describe in a thousand years. It felt almost like an icy hand, risen from some long-forgotten hole, had reached out and clutched at his heart, squeezing out all emotion but pure logic.

Acting without thinking, he dashed down the way he came, ignoring his friends’ cries for him to stay put while simultaneously calling out the name of the Damsel in Distress.

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The Damsel in question, however accurate that term may be, was silent.

Now, considering her position, one might expect her to run, or to shriek in panic.

However, considering that she was completely enveloped in tentacles, and that one of those tentacles was securely wrapped around her jaw to keep her from making any noise, it’s really quite understandable that she was only capable of making panicked grunts.

The Skipazoa, its “prize” securely stowed away in a cocoon of tentacles, had just reached the treeline of the park, when Odd skidded to a halt in front of one of the doors to Mrs. Hertz’s science classroom.

Gripping the door handle firmly, he gave it a sharp tug, expecting it to come open easily. It didn’t.

Looking through the window of the door, he saw that an unusually large pile of debris was piled up against the door, preventing access.

Odd glanced through the window, and, upon seeing that two more doors were blocked, uttered a curse that would have made a sailor blush.

Nevertheless, he raced along the hallway, slamming repeatedly against the doors, searching desperately for a way to get into the classroom. On the first few tries, the doors were as solid as brick walls. On the fifth try (the third door he tried), however, the door gave way quite easily, causing Odd to fall comically flat on his face.

One good thing did come out of his comic slip-up, though. Odd turned his head to see if anyone had seen, but after a moment he forgot all about that. When he had slammed into the door, he had knocked it back into the Restricted Cabinet. The resulting impact knocked it open, and revealed its’ deadly contents. This was where all the most dangerous substances in the entire school were held: dangerous poisons, horrible acids, liquid nitrogen, and various other chemicals.

Grinning maliciously, Odd grabbed one flask, then another, of the deadly substances. Placing them gently into his pockets, he then turned to the devastation that XANA’s tentacled friend had wrought upon this school.

Odd surveyed it briefly, then grabbed a long, thin steel pole that had once held electrical wires. Fortunately for our hero, the wires had been yanked from the pipe, rendering it safe for him to hold.

Holding the dangerous chemicals in one hand, and the steel pole in the other, he contemplated XANA.

XANA was a monster. He thought that just because he could do something, that meant that it was okay to do it. His monsters had attacked Earth three times now: once with Kankrelots, once with Krabes, and now with Skipazoas.

Odd glared out at where the monster had vanished. He was going to make XANA pay VERY dearly for every moment he spent on Earth…

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Sissi was still struggling against her fearsome captor’s tentacled grip, even one mile away from the school. It was now officially one hour since the school was first attacked by the horrible monsters, and everyone but Odd was in Lyoko by now.

However, just because he wasn’t in Lyoko doesn’t mean he was out of the fight. Not by a long shot.

Finally, after an hour of traveling, the horrible creature unwrapped Sissi slightly and moved her into an upright position. Maneuvering three of its tentacles, it placed them at points equidistant from one another on her skull, and almost instantly, a reddish-blue fluid began to move upwards through the tentacles and into the large sack-like organ inside of its clear dome. The sack quivered and pulsed as pure data was pumped from the poor girl’s brain and into XANA’s personal information storage bank in sector five.

This went on for almost a full minute before a slight interruption occurred in the form of a golf cart slamming itself into the Skipazoa.

This, at the minimum, got the monster’s attention, as it would with any other creature. Stopping its task of sucking a young girl’s brain dry, it cast a new, weary eye around the whole clearing, taking into account every detail, no matter how insignificant or minute.

Reaching several tentacles into the ground, it burrowed the manipulators down, finding rocks and stones of various sizes, then re-hoisted them up to the surface, holding each one in a separate tentacle.

This, however, was no match for an insane, cat-like boy with a steel pole and a vial of chemicals.

With a shriek, Odd raced into the clearing, throwing the first of his three flasks at the monster, with it’s effects being obvious.

As soon as the flask broke against the monster’s flank, it began to howl and scream in agony. The substance inside of the flask was actually eating away at the monster’s side, melting it like it was ice underneath a blowtorch.

However, Odd didn’t get much time to celebrate his victory, as the monster began to throw its rocks as fast as it could, and these boulders were now whizzing past his head fast enough to make a sound like an angry hornet when it came close enough.

This deterred Odd not in the least; in fact, it spurred him to fling his second flask, this time missing and hitting a tree. From the liquid sprung an interesting spread of crystals.

Odd then raced for the nearest tree, scaling it as easily as if he had his Lyoko claws. Within seconds, he was safe in the foliage of the tree.

The tentacled beast gazed up into the treetops. Unconsciously, it tightened its grip on its final stone, readying itself for… well, it didn’t know what.

However, that was immaterial, as it was the last thing that the thing ever thought, because at that moment, Odd threw his last flask, impacting directly against the monster’s clear dome.

This was the last, and possibly the most devastating flask of all: Liquid Nitrogen, the coldest substance known to man.

The memory-sucking abomination of Hell shrieked as its gelatinous dome froze into a single, fragile dome, with about the same toughness as sugar glass.

Odd, shrieking like a man possessed, leaped from the trees, smashing his feet down into the dome, crushing the sack-like organ underneath his shoes. However, the job was not yet done, as he then spun around and slammed his steel pole like a spear into the XANA crest on its “Face.”

The monster spun around once, wobbled drunkenly, then exploded in a flash of light.

This had the unfortunate effect of dropping both of the humans that were on the creature directly to the ground.

Odd hit the ground and rolled, but Sissi hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

He rushed over to her, picking her up in his arms- no small feat, considering their size ratios.

Gingerly, her eyes fluttered open, and she whispered, “Odd? What’s going on? Are you okay?”

He gave her a small, caring smile.

“Everything’s fine, Sissi.” He heard a slight rushing noise behind him, then added, before the gigantic white light overtook them, “in fact, I think that the day’s gonna get a bit better…”

Sithking Zero: This is the first time writing a chapter on my new laptop, which I love to death. This is also the first chapter without Bass in it whatsoever. I felt I had to explain what Odd and Sissi were doing during the last few chapters. Please Read and Review!

Sithking Zero: Canada will soon be mine, as I will conquer it, but until I conquer France and Japan, Code Lyoko and Megaman will not be mine.

Soon, the final confrontation will take place, and I will control the outcome. Truths will be revealed, trust will be shattered, once thought beliefs will become dust, and things will continue to be awesome. However, they will not be within this chapter, at least not all in this chapter.

Thank you to Shademan39 for his great idea, which will be used later on in this chapter.

Oh, and words in those brackets will now mean words translated from monsterspeak.

And now… my story.

Heart of a Warrior
Chapter 13

Annoying Little Friends from Another Universe,

Part I

In the forest sector of Lyoko, all was completely silent.

A gentle rustling interrupted this, accompanied by mechanical clanking of giant, red, slightly spindly legs. Four Crabs traveling in a diamond formation, surrounding two tarantulas, between whom walked a dark and sibilant figure.

They approached a secret mound of rocks, which, under the dark figure’s touch, evaporated away to reveal a rip in the fabric of space. This opening, black as knight, yawned open, wide enough for the escort party and the dark being to step through.

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“Well, it took a while-” began Jeremie,

“And a couple of Skipazoa attacks-” teased Yumi,

“And a visit from Bass,” chimed in Aeilita.

“And a return to the past,” added Ulrich,

“And Einstein getting throttled…” Odd said.

“Shut up, Odd. As I was saying,” Jeremie began again, shooting all of them very dirty glares, “The diary-decoding software is uploaded into the restricted section of the supercomputer. All we have to do is activate a tower and start up the decoding process.”

“You’re sure this will work?” Odd asked warily. As all of them knew, the last time Jeremie had activated a tower, he had used it to give Odd superpowers in the real world, similar to the XANA-possessed people that XANA used to cause them all such grief.

“I’m positive. Besides,” he said as an afterthought, “Aeilita and I have planned this out meticulously. There’s absolutely nothing that could possibly go wrong!”

Obviously, Jeremie has never heard of Murphy’s law. However, equally appropriate for this situation would be the immortal phrase, “Famous last Words.”

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SOMEWHERE…

In the halls of a Cyber-network prison, a dark shadow loomed.

Moving along like a stream of pure smoke, curling along the hallways, mindless of programs that could not see it.

Suddenly, sensing danger, the smoke condensed into a thin black line and hid in a corner as a tall, long-silver-haired, red-clad, humanoid program dashed down the hallway, chasing after a purple humanoid program with a disc-shaped head. The darkness let out a sigh of relief, then sucked it’s breath back in when the red program stopped, turned around, and looked directly towards it.

For a long moment, nobody moved. Then, another red program dashed up to the first, yelling at it for not catching the purple program. The red program apologized, then both dashed in hot pursuit.

The darkness let out a sigh of relief, then continued in the opposite direction that the two red programs had gone, stopping before a high-security firewall.

The shadow smirked, waving it’s hand once.

The firewall shook as though hit by an earthbreaker, rattled, wiggled, quavered, then vanished.

With the only protection gone, the shadow slipped silently into the dark room, where a single item rested on a pedestal.

The item was vaguely ball-shaped, with two rings of numbers slowly rotating around it. It was apparently comprised of two hemispheres with red goo pulsating in the core of the thing, as was visible from the slight indentations placed equidistant from one another.

With a smile, the shadow reached out and grasped the sphere-

Setting off alarms that instantly alerted every person within a two-hundred mile radius that the item was being stolen.

XANA let out a curse, and immediately turned back towards the door, where a the red program from earlier stood, with a sword drawn and pointing at it’s heart.

“You are under arrest.” The program spoke with a calm, almost monotone, yet deep voice.

“I think not,” came XANA’s equally deep reply.

With one movement, the red program slashed, but XANA was already moving, reconfiguring it’s arm into a gun. Squeezing off three shots, it managed a solid hit on the sword arm, but the other two went wide.

The red program shrugged off the blow, swiping his arm around, even though it was nowhere in range of XANA. XANA looked at him confusedly for a second.

Only for a second, however, as a massive shockwave erupted from the sword, traveling along where the arc of the swing was.

The shock slammed into XANA’s chest, knocking it back several steps, but not deterring it in the slightest. Giving a strange smile, XANA placed it’s item into its chest, before beginning to loosen its form into that of smoke.

The red program leapt forwards, slashing the smoke, but it had already loosened up and drifted away.

Protoman.exe gave an angry growl, stabbing the ground in anger. Raising his arm to his mouth, he growled to his netop.

“Chaud, we have a problem…”

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It was nightfall in the undernet. The original party of monsters, which had escorted XANA from Lyoko, was reduced from it’s initial version, due to the loss of all of the Krabs. However, the two tarantulas kept watch over the programs that they had captured.

What do you think that the master wants with these… things? the first one asked.

I dunno, stated the second. How should I know what master is thinking?

We shouldn’t have done this, bemoaned the first. We lost Bob, George, and N4T3. They were the best friends that I’ve ever had! Sure, these are dangerous, but can master control them?

With the power of the supercomputer and half of all Lyoko in Master’s grip? chuckled the second. Placing a gun/arm on the shoulder of the other, he replied serenely, I think you underestimate the chances of our leader.

It was at this moment that the leader that they were both talking about materialized out of a mass of smoke, clutching onto a weird sphere.

Well? XANA questioned. Status Report!

Both Tarantulas saluted, then began speaking.

The mission was a success, Master! snapped off the first one.

However, we lost all other troops in the process, so we are all that is left, aside from the prisoners, continued the second one.

“That’s all right,” XANA spoke again, this time in English.

The two monsters looked at one another before turning back to their master.

Why is that good, Master? asked the second one.

“Because with these additions, I’ll finally stop our little Lyoko friends,” it said, holding up one hand to the creatures in the cages behind it’s monsters.

One by one, each one fell to the ground, writhing in agony.

A few minutes later, each one stood up again, phasing slightly (think XANA’s ghosts) and a pulsating XANA logo on their foreheads.

XANA waved another hand, and all the cages sprung open. The viruses marched out in neat, straight rows, lining up in front of XANA before bowing to it.

XANA then started to chuckle, then laugh softly, then loudly, then manically, then like a grim deity at the end of the cosmos.

Making a slashing motion with its arm, the figure, followed by the newly XANA-fied viruses and the two tarantulas, stepped into the warm, inviting forest sector.

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An hour later, Protoman.exe arrived at the spot where XANA had stood. He looked at the dust-covered ground for several minutes, then cursed softly under his breath.

Holding his wrist up to his mouth, he spoke into the comlink built into his arm.

“Chaud, sir, the thief got away. Looks like he opened and closed a link portal. I can’t follow him.”

A sighing noise could be heard from the other end. “All right, Protoman, come back to base. There’s nothing more that we can do.”

But as he turned off the comlink, the red-clad warrior thought: Why would anyone want to steal the force that nearly brought the world to it’s knees? Is Bass behind this, like last time?

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Sithking Zero: WHOO! I thought that I wouldn’t put any Battle Network characters in this story, but I guess that I was wrong! Pleasantly So! Oh, and About Murphy’s law: It states that “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.” Thusly, by saying “There’s absolutely nothing that could possibly go wrong,” as we all know, that will MAKE XANA do an attack.

Again, special thanks for anyone who has reviewed. KEEP DOING IT! And for those who have not yet done so, REVIEW OR ELSE!

Sithking Zero: How are you gentlemen! All your base are belong to us! You have no chance to survive, make your time! Oh, and Code Lyoko and Megaman and/or any of the characters are not mine. I’m only borrowing. I WILL put them back, better then when I found them.

I really hate finals week. I really, really hate the weeks before Finals week. You have to study so much that your brain is pretty much mush by the time that Finals really do roll around. Still, I have got some Ideas for all you lazy, ungrateful ingrates. You know, lots and lots of people read this story. Chances are, you are one of them. I have it so that Anonymous reviews are okay, and anyone can review really. SO WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING IT? Is it really so hard to go to the bottom of the page and click the little button that says “SUBMIT REVIEW”? YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL MOR-

-We apologize for the interruption. The author went on a twelve-Gatorade, three-hour studying spree today, so he’s a little cranky. Currently, he is cursing about OC’s. Oh, he’s coming back. We now return you to your story.-

Sorry about that. I really am not in the best of moods, so…

To review, In the last chapter, XANA went to the Cyber network (internet), where Bass comes from. XANA kidnapped and controlled several viruses, not to mention stole a very important program from Scilabs, defeating Protoman.exe (one of the toughest netnavis (aside from Megaman and Bass) in existence). Then XANA went home. In the coming chapters, we will finally unravel some of the finer mysteries of Lyoko, not to mention have a bunch of really cool battle scenes. And really, isn’t that the real reason why you’re reading this? Not for the mysteries, not for the drama, but for the scenes of pure, total annihilation? No? Oh, well. Read on, faithful reviewer…

Heart Of A Warrior

Chapter 14

Annoying Little Friends from Another Universe, Part 2

“Transfer, Yumi! Transfer, Odd! Transfer, Ulrich! Transfer, Aeilita! Virtualization!”

Odd felt his hair stand on end, then the sense of touch failed him as his molecules loosened up and drifted apart, before re-forming on a narrow spit of land facing a tower.

“So…” He mused for a moment, as his three friends and comrades turned from simple wire frames into physical beings behind him.

“So, what, Odd?” asked Aeilita with interest.

For a moment, the purple-clad cat-boy was silent, staring at the tower. Then, he spoke, but in a quiet, subdued voice. “This might be one of the last towers, right? I mean, if we decode the diary…”

Everybody knew what was at stake- the diary could hold possible clues as to how to get rid of Aeilita’s virus, and thus destroy XANA once and for all.

However, Odd wasn’t done. “I know this’ll sound weird, but… I’m gonna miss XANA and Lyoko, in a weird sort of way. I won’t really know what to do with myself when we’re done.”

Jeremie, in the middle of inputting a code into the terminal, paused as he heard these words.

“You know, Odd,” he said, slowly, “I never really thought about that either.”

Odd looked around at his friends. One by one, they, too confirmed that they would certainly miss Lyoko.

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IN THE FOREST SECTOR…

A finned figure walked slowly between the massive trees, occasionally touching one or two, looking at the massive constructs in awe.

However, after almost an hour of walking around, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He suddenly turned and raced to a boulder, seemingly nothing more then a boulder, just lying in the middle of the forest.

However, upon closer examination, he saw that several obvious scratch marks were visible on the ground, reminiscent of…

Claws…

Yet… Why in the multiverse did these look so fami…

“Oh, damn.” He whispered.

Scuttlists…

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Aeilita, inside of the tower, added the final touches on the program.

“I think we’re all ready to go, Jeremie,” she said after a few minutes. “We should start the process as soon as possible.”

“Great.” He said tightly. “Now we just need to defend that tower for two hours.”

“Two hours?” she asked, slightly incredulous. “How are we going to explain that to Jim?”

There was a very long pause.

Odd then chose this moment to speak up.

“You haven’t thought of that yet, eh, Einstein?”

“Well… I kinda figured that this was more important…”

Ulrich and Yumi, unknowingly, both shook their heads in exasperation.

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At the base of a natural Lyoko stone bridge, XANA looked at three Tarantulas.

“You know what to do. Go.”

The three snapped off smart salutes, then turned towards where they knew their foes lay in wait for them.

XANA waited until the three monsters were gone, then turned to the six other creatures behind him.

“Well?” it asked, tonelessly. “Go and destroy your master’s enemies.”

And with that, the six viri scuttled off.

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Bass flew through the air by his own power. Flying always made him feel better, especially when he needed some away time where he could just think about things for a while.

Well, he wanted to, but suddenly, his instinct kicked into overdrive, as it had done on two separate occasions before.

Sighing, he shifted his direction mid-flight and made a beeline for the small land bridge that connected one of the towers to the rest of Lyoko, where three tarantulas and several smaller creatures marched in a single-file line towards their shining glory that was battle…

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It was very unusual to see fog on Lyoko, and only occurred when large amounts of processing power were being used at one time. Examples of this included when XANA activated more then one tower at a time, or when he wanted to confuse and annoy Jeremie, Aeilita, and the rest. Now, it was a combination of the latter and a minor alteration of the former: It was JEREMIE who had activated the tower this time, not XANA.

As nice of a change of pace as this was, it was still really, really creepy, in Odd’s humble opinion.

With the sudden fog that had rolled in, the pathway that led to the tower’s walled-off area was almost completely invisible. The only reason that he- and his friends- knew it was there was because Jeremie was constantly giving them updates from the supercomputer terminal two floors above the computer itself.

Even so, Odd remained on high alert. The fog was very pervasive, only abating in the stone clearing that he, his friends, and the tower resided in currently. It was thick and massive, and beyond the clearing, he could only see a dozen feet with any degree of certainty.

Suddenly, a hint of movement suggested itself through the mist. Odd straightened up, bringing his arm up and aiming it at the spot where the movement had last presented itself. However, even as he did so, he got that sense of foreboding that had saved his life many times over the past year and a half.

It proved totally grounded, for at that moment, a gigantic, perfectly cube-shaped block of ice rocketed towards him from out of nowhere. Only though his Lyoko-enhanced reflexes and muscles was he able to avoid it by jumping over it with the dexterity and agility of a cat.

However, agile as he was, he could not help being shot seven times in the chest by one of the escort tarantulas that had just materialized out of the mist.

With a slight cry, he got one shot off, grazing the tarantula’s leg, but ultimately disintegrating before the onslaught.

The next thing he knew, he was tumbling against the inner wall of one of the scanners, gasping for breath and drenched in cold sweat.

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Ulrich looked at the spot where his friend had been mere moments before, then looked back to Yumi, who was standing next to him.

“This is bad, right?” he asked.

“Yes. This is bad.”

And with that, they charged out to meet their foes.

Almost instantly, they came upon a tarantula. The thing stared at them for but an instant, then sat on it’s hind legs and laid down a storm of fire. Deflecting the bolts of death-energy with their respective weapons, they quickly dismantled the enemy monster.

However, in their moment of triumph, they faltered, and left themselves open for a new assault.

Turning to congratulate Yumi, he suddenly saw something shoot out of the corner of his eye and slam into her chest. Without a moment’s warning, she was turned into an incandescent blaze, but only for a moment, for soon she was devirtulized.

A blaze began in his chest, ((And I don’t mean the type that Yumi experienced moments ago)) and he knew that he had to avenge her. With a warrior’s yell, he raced towards the strange creature, sword risen above his head in a classic killing maneuver.

The creature was very strange indeed. With it’s swept-back, teardrop-shaped head with spines coming out of it, small blue jewel above the eyes, beady blue eyes, six legs, and vaguely oval shaped body, the greyhound-sized creature did not look harmful at all.

However, he really didn’t care at all.

With a yell, he plunged his blade into a downward thrust that should have killed it.

However, the key word was: Should.

With a slight whooshing noise, a golden orb sprung into existence around the creature.

Ulrich’s katana slammed point-first into the orb. For a mere moment, not more, not less, time stood still as a sudden resistance pushed the sword back.

The katana, which had rarely failed the Lyoko Samurai, suddenly shattered into a million pieces.

The force of the burst of energy released by the Katana threw Ulrich back thirty feet, where he sat for a moment, staring at the enemy units.

For a very long moment, nobody moved a muscle.

Then, a white creature, identical to the red one except for color, stepped forwards, a small glow lighting up it’s mouth. The glow grew brighter and brighter, until Ulrich could hardly look at it. From all his time as a warrior of Lyoko, he knew what the thing was doing: it was charging up energy for the final shot.

This is it, he thought, We’ve lost.

As soon as he thought these words, a massive beam of energy lanced out of the mouth of the virus and sped towards the stricken Ulrich.

Suddenly, a massive report sounded, and both parties, virus and monster alike, looked away.

When the dust and smoke from the explosion cleared away, there was a purple orb of light radiating outwards from a brown-cloaked figure, who was standing directly in front of Ulrich. There were indentations and craters all around to show where the remnants of the beam of polarized energy had splashed off of the Aura shield.

With all the commanding glory of a god, the figure turned, smiling slightly, and faced Ulrich.

“You’re new at this, aren’t you?” questioned Bass.

Sithking Zero: Greetings and Salutations! This would have been up earlier, but my parents took away my Laptop for having a messy room. However, I’m Back!

Please Review!

Okay, I have a couple of Ideas. A few of them good, others crap. Still, you’ll still love me, right?

Right?

Anyways, here we go: Nothing is mine. Go away.

Heart of a Warrior

Chapter 15

Forte Joins the Fray

This is it, he thought, We’ve lost.

As soon as he thought these words, a massive beam of energy lanced out of the mouth of the virus and sped towards the stricken Ulrich.

Suddenly, a massive report sounded, and both parties, virus and monster alike, looked away.

When the dust and smoke from the explosion cleared away, there was a purple orb of light radiating outwards from a brown-cloaked figure, who was standing directly in front of Ulrich. There were indentations and craters all around to show where the remnants of the beam of polarized energy had splashed off of the Aura shield.

With all the commanding glory of a god, the figure turned, smiling slightly, and faced Ulrich.

“You’re new at this, aren’t you?” questioned Bass.

Ulrich bristled at the casual comment. “I’ve been doing this for over a year!” he cried indignently.

Bass turned back to the viri, though Ulrich heard (indistinctly) something with the word “newbie.” in it.

Upon seeing the cloaked navi turn back towards them, the viruses immiediately dug their claws into the ground and hissed angrily, a black XANA logo appearing in the middle of their forehead jewels for but an instant.

He frowned slightly as he raised his arm into the air. Within seconds, his whole forearm was glowing from the tips of his fingers to his elbow. Golden rings of energy passed up and down, crackling like bolts of lightning.

However, the viri were not waiting idly. With a slight whoosh noise, their golden aura shields materialized into existence. Swiftly, they also dug their Spear-like legs into the hard Lyoko stones at their feet.

Bass pointed his now-solar-bright forearm towards his foes, and in an instant the lightning and electricity dancing around his arm intensified. No longer did he have an arm, Jeremie mused as he watched the footage provided by Ulrich. It was merely a mass of hyperexcited energy particles begging for release, tentacles of energy rising and dying in moments.

However, in another instant, the particles were given their desire, and exploded out of Bass’s arm like bullets from a gun.

However, they were as dissimilar to bullets as an arrow is. What came out of Bass’s arm was twenty small balls of slightly spiked energy (see chapter 5). These homed in on the assembled Scuttlists like seeker missiles, the first wave disintegrating upon contact with the aura shields, but at the same time, negating them and popping them like soap bubbles. The second wave of energy wounded several of the viruses, blowing off limbs and causing the now-vulnerable viri to screech in agony.

The third attack was not perpetrated by Bass at all, contrary to what the monsters expected. Ulrich Stern, samurai of Lyoko, grabbed the shattered remains of his cybersword, and used his triplicate and Supersprint maneuvers to dash in among the viri, hacking and slashing at each and every single viri.

It was a furious thirty seconds, in which two of the clones were destroyed and the third was forced to retreat by the last two.

Ulrich danced backwards, dashing inside the walls of the tower amphitheatre.

This left Bass to deal with the two remaining viruses.

However, one, a green and yellow one, slammed its stomach into the ground, and spiky vines sprung up around Bass’s Aura. Normally, this wouldn’t do much damage, so the aura shrugged it off without incident. That is, until the white one activated its laser.

The combined damages of the laser and the vines were enough to overwhelm and break through the aura, and it shattered like it was made of glass.

For an instant, time seemed to stand still as the vines tightened their hold until Bass was totally immobilized.

The white Scuttlist began to charge its death-blast, and for an instant, things looked pretty bad. Game, set, match. Endgame.

Well, they did, until Ulich sliced the green Scuttlist in two with fully-revitalized health and sword.

The instant that the virus was dead, the massive laser streaked towards Bass, who dodged easily. The massive beam continued on until it struck the tower

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Aeilita typed in data at a frantic pace, when suddenly, the tower shook for a moment.

“What was that?” she puzzled out loud. After a moment, she continued working.

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After dodging the bolt of light, Bass jumped into the air, purple flames surrounding his hand.

With the force of a train, he came down on the last of the Scuttlists, sending it to the next world.

Wiping his forehead with his hand, and without turning around, Bass spoke.

“So what are you guys doing down here anyways? And why is that tower green?”

As though XANA was waiting for those words, the tower suddenly flashed red, then turned back to green.

Jeremie’s panicked voice came floating down from the sky. “XANA’s taking over the tower, and Aeilita can’t disable the connection! We need you to destroy the tower, Ulrich!”

Ulrich and Bass turned back towards the tower, but suddenly, two curtains of smoke floated upwards and began to solidify directly in their paths.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP ME?” Asked the smoke. “I AM PERFECT! I AM XANA! YOU…”

The smoke finally cleared into two figures.

“ARE NOTHING AT ALL!”

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Sithking Zero: If you don’t understand the title, Bass’s name in the Japanese Megaman games is Forte.

Please read and review!

Sithking Zero: WASSUP! And now, a poem I heard online, adapted to my purpose:

Roses are red, violets are blue, If This stuff I own, then stupid are you.

It’s the continuation of the previous chapter. To summarize, After Odd and Yumi were sent back home by the viruses, Bass showed up and helped Ulrich destroy his first viruses, mainly by disabling their protective aura shields. However, as the first battle came to a close, the second battle began shortly afterwards, with dark curtains of smoke dropping across their paths. Things are about to take a darker path, and not just on the field of battle. What’s next? Read on…

Chapter 16

Truth and Daring

Bass and Ulrich both took an unexpected step backwards from the dark curtains of energy, which even as they moved back, rolled, bubbled, and collapsed upon themselves.

As the two fearsome warriors watched, the blobs of inky blackness solidified into two completely familiar figures.

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“Aeilita, abort the program, XANA’s taking over the tower!”

“Understood.” She said in that soft, peaceful way of hers. She reached out and pressed the red “Stop” button.

Now, for those who either have seen the episode “Revelation,” or know Murphy’s law, you know what happens next. The diary did not stop decoding itself.

“Jeremie, it won’t stop!”

“That’s impossible!” he cried, searching desperately through the lines of coding to find and correct the error. After about a minute, he moaned.

“There’s no stop function!” He said in despair. “Someone removed it!”

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Deep in sector 5, XANA chuckled. “It’s good to be evil…” it sighed.

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The black smoke on one mutated itself into a black haired, gray-skinned figure with an orange and black kimono drew a sword, a red Katana blade, similar to Ulrich’s blade. The other figure had a navy-blue cloak, dark gray skin, a brown jumpsuit, and purple fins. In short, they were the dark versions of Ulrich and Bass.

“I told you fools we were superior,” came the voice of the Bass Clone. His voice sounded weird, like it was coming from a recording.

Bass leaned down to Ulrich. “Do I really sound like that?”

“Ulrich, there’s three weird energy signatures near you, what’s going on? We need the tower to be destroyed now!” Jeremie’s slightly panicked voice came from the sky.

“Relax, Joel-” Bass began.

“Jeremie!” Jeremie said indignently.

“Whatever, I’m one of the signatures, and a clone of me and… You said your name was ‘Ulrich,’ Right?” he asked.

Ulrich nodded.

“Right, there’s clones of me and Ulrich.”

Jeremie moaned again and placed his hand on his forehead. “Just what we don’t need. Listen, we need those towers deactivated NOW! If XANA activates the tower, he’ll be able to get to all of our secret information!”

“Not only that,” Aeilita chimed in, “But we’ll lose all our weapons, materialization codes, Lyoko forms, everything!”

“We get the point, Einstein.” Ulrich grumbled. He drew his Katana.

However, before he even got it out halfway, his dark self dashed forwards, hacking and slashing like a madman. Thanks to his reflexes, he managed to avoid what would be (in a human) a very messy death, but the clone pressed on, trying desperately to keep the Lyoko Samurai off balance. Bass and his clone watched them dash off into the distance, slashing at each other while doing their supersprint move.

All of a sudden, Bass was knocked off balance as his clone took a flying leap and tackled him, sending them both over the edge and spiraling towards certain doom in the digital sea, far below.

Struggling madly against the clone’s vise-like grip, Bass finally broke free a mere fifty feet above the sea of death that permeated all of Lyoko. Swooping upwards, the real deal then turned to face his dark copy. The evil clone did not stop, but merely continued his upwards climb, an insane smile on his face, and slammed directly into Bass.

Bass made a whooshing sound as the breath went out of his virtual lungs, feeling himself be pushed along by the insane creation of a dark entity. He didn’t have much time to contemplate this, however, as he was slammed into the ground of a mountain, leaving a decent-sized crater.

The clone backed off for a second, then his hands began to glow red. Small spheres of energy began to build themselves in those gauntleted hands, preparing themselves for the terrible Earthbreaker attack.

The clone never got the chance. Bass sprung forwards, landing a solid left hook on the copy’s face, noticing the balls of energy popping like soap bubbles out of the corner of his eye. He then refocused, using his left arm to punch the clone repeatedly in the face, crest, stomach, anywhere.

As he readied himself for another punch, the clone grinned insanely. As Bass’s fist whistled through the air, another hand shot up and caught the punch with one hand.

Bass’ eyes widened in absolute shock.

His mirror image just stared back, his red eyes gleaming with glee.

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Ulrich, on the other hand, was having much more luck with his battle. His sparring partner was exactly equal to him in every way, though, so it wasn’t better by much.

Hacking, slashing, parrying, each move tired him a little more, while his clone seemed to be gaining strength with each strike. Each move was a little harder, until finally, with a flick of the wrist, his clone knocked the sword from his hands like it was a toy. Faster then his eyes could follow, the clone dashed up to the sword and grabbed it.

Now Ulrich was facing a dark copy of himself with two swords, while he had no weapon of his own.

Needless to say, this was a bad thing.

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“You’re weak.”

Copy Bass slammed a blast of energy the size of a medicine ball into Bass’ chest.

“What makes you think you stand a chance against me?”

Bass winced against the painful hits his body was sustaining, but still, he fled before the copy.

He knew, in his heart, that he was delaying the enemy, and that soon, XANA would possess the tower, capturing all the vital data.

However, he had a plan.

“Because, my dear copy,” he cried, “I’m not an inferior fake!”

XANA’s logo briefly flashed on the clone’s forehead, before the cloaked imposter dove back into the fray, aiming a Karate chop to the shoulder blades.

Bass easily dodged it, and used his left hand to grab the fake’s boot and slam him into a nearby mountain. “Point proven,” he smiled and turned to fly off.

That is, until he was hit in the back of the neck with another burst of energy.

Bass sighed, and prepared for the second round.

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KRANG!

The sound of metal hitting rock echoed in Ulrich Stern’s ear, as he rolled over again to escape another sword strike from his psychotic counterpart.

Slash after slash came his way, and each time, he used bursts of his power to dodge by the breadth of a hair time and again.

The copy charged again, attempting to impale him upon twin swords.

Swiftly, Ulrich dashed forwards, under the blades, and kicked as high as he could, managing a painful blow on his stomach, then kicking off and back out of range of his foe.

The copy bellowed in anger, dashing forwards again. This time, however, Ulrich just stood there. Then, the swords pierced his body, and it vanished.

However, at the same time as Ulrich vanished, the clone was suddenly attacked by two other Ulrichs, who punched and kicked the copy as hard as they possibly could, in a last-ditch attempt to stop the clone.

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Jeremie and Aeilita busied themselves trying to save and sever the links to the tower, but in their hearts, they knew it was no good.

Jeremie and Aeilita both stared at the rising percentage of XANA penetration into the tower with forlorn looks on their faces.

44...45...46...

“Come on,” Aeilita breathed, but even she did not know exactly who she wanted to help her and her friends.

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Punch. Kick. Blast.

Punch. Kick. Blast.

Punch. Kick. Blast.

Bass slowly fell into the rhythm as he fought against his dark foe, knowing that his enemy had the upper hand, as he was sustained by the very land around him, and that it would heal any wounds quickly.

This was bad, he reflected.

“You’re pretty good,” he grunted to his opponent.

“I know,” Copy Bass said, almost cheerily.

“What are you doing?” Bass asked.

“Trying to kill you. What else?” said the clone, humor in his eyes.

“No, really, for what purpose will my death achieve?”

The dark clone stopped for a moment, a moment that Bass did not hesitate to take, firing a blast that sheared off one of the fins of his clone’s helmet.

The clone growled, and the battle was on again.

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Ulrich watched as his ally was pierced through with the sword, then his foe turned back to him.

He could see the dark clone chuckle, then put one sword away.

Then it charged, sword raised in a classic killing stroke that would bring the sword down and through Ulrich’s skull.

Ulrich tensed up, waiting for the right moment…

The sword brought the sword swinging down…

And Ulrich caught it.

The clone’s eyes widened in shock, then fear, as Ulrich snapped the blade out of the clone’s hands and sank the sword through his foe’s stomach.

The clone stared at him in shock for a moment, then it evaporated into thin air.

Ulrich smirked, then sheathed his sword and used his supersprint to hightail it back to the tower.

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Jeremie saw the little Ulrich icon approaching the tower at high speed again, and knew that something good had happened.

“You win?” he asked.

“Yeah, but he was pretty tough. What do I have to do?” Ulrich replied.

“Sever the cables reaching to the tower. XANA shouldn’t be able to attack then.”

Ulrich nodded, then raised his sword to slice through a thick metal cable.

However, at that moment, the last tarantula from the original raiding party on the tower attacked at that moment, sending a barrage of blasts of energy to destroy Ulrich’s Lyoko avatar.

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In the real world, Jeremie heard the elevator opening up, and knew, without seeing, that Ulrich was dripping with sweat and panting with exhaustion.

“Aeilita…” Jeremie whispered softly.

Tower possession: 98...99... Warning: Error. Tower Deactivated. System anomaly detected.

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The Bass clone held his counterpart by the scruff of the neck, holding him up, looking at the tower.

“Now, Bass, feel despair… for you and your stupid human friends have just lost the battle.” Crowed the triumphant clone.

“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” was Bass’ reply.

As soon as he said these words, the tower went from flashing green-and-red to a blazing white color.

The light was so pure and brilliant that both Basses were forced to look away in shock and amazement.

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“What’s going on?” Jeremie asked, looking at the files, not believing what the computer was telling him.

“Jeremie!” Aeilita cried. “The diary is decoding itself at maximum speed!”

“How?”

In an attempt to answer his question, Aeilita jumped down to the entrence of the tower and jumped outside.

The tower was brilliant. A white pillar of data and energy, she was awestruck for a moment before answering Jeremie’s question.

“Jeremie? It’s Franz. Franz deactivated the tower.”

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The clone tightened its grip on Bass.

“You…” it hissed. “You knew this was going to happen! DIDN’T YOU?”

“No, actually. It was merely a coincidence.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you notice that the whole fight, I was only using my left hand to attack and defend?” asked Bass with a smug look on his face. “I could have killed you at any time I chose. I was just waiting until I was ready to show you what happens to those who dare impersonate me.”

With that, Bass whipped aside his cloak, revealing a monstrosity.

Where his right arm once was, a massive purple-scaled wolf head with glowing yellow eyes now resided. The scales glowed purple and gold, and the eyes gazed cruelly at everything surrounding them.

Kicking off from the copy, he took aim.

“Goodbye, copy.”

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Tomorrow Morning (Saturday, 9:30 A.M)

Jeremie looked around the room. All his friends were there. Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Aeilita. He let out a sigh of sadness.

Would they still be his friends after the bombshell he was about to drop?

He turned back and looked directly into crimson eyes.

“AAAAHHH!” he yelled, falling back and knocking himself and his chair over.

Bass let out a loud laugh. “You can figure out a way to turn programs human, yet you can’t stay upright,” he said from his position on the computer screen.

Everyone, even Jeremie (except with a slight blush) laughed for a bit at that.

Then, Jeremie stood up, brushed himself off, picked up the chair, and placed himself squarely in it.

“When I was reviewing the documents of the Diary, I found out some things about Franz. He was the one who created Lyoko and the Supercomputer. I also found out some things…”

He took another deep breath before continuing.

“He developed the Supercomputer and Lyoko as a weapon to destroy a government project, code-named Carthage. However, after the project was abandoned and his wife died, he decided to make it a world where he and his children could rule.”

THAT was new information. Everybody, even those in the computer, pricked up their ears at this new information.

“Franz Hopper had children?” Aeilita asked. “I didn’t know that.”

“He was supposed to have two. One was his daughter. The other was a digital being he was designing and planned to turn human.”

Jeremie looked around the room. “He had the help of a certain ‘Dr. Mikhael Cossak.’ Evidently, the program was extremely advanced, and had the ability to-”

“Copy the abilities of its enemies?” asked Bass, a sick feeling curling around the pit of his stomach.

“Yes.” Jeremie said, while the rest stared at Bass. “But something happened to Franz and his daughter, and the program was taken away by Dr. Cossak. Then, Franz and his daughter sent themselves to Lyoko.”

Aeilita stood up. “That’s impossible! If someone else was on Lyoko besides me, I would have known about it!”

Jeremie didn’t say anything as the true implications of what he had just said sunk in.

“No.” she whispered. “No, no, no. There’s no way that I’m Franz Hopper’s daughter! It’s impossible! It can’t be!”

Everyone else was silent during these revelations, mostly because they were speechless at what this meant.

Jeremie looked at the floor. “There’s more. You actually have a brother.”

“Oh my god.” This from Bass, who was now very pale and sweating profusely.

“Yes.” Jeremie said quietly. “Aeilita… not only is Franz Hopper your father… Bass is your brother.”

For those of us who are just joining our little drama, Bass and Ulrich bravely held off and defeated dark clones of themselves, but Franz Hopper truly saved the day by purifying the tower that was decoding the diary, which was being taken over by XANA. Franz also decoded the diary at light speed, allowing our heroes to pull out of Lyoko. The next day, Jeremie calls a meeting in his room, where he reveals that Franz had a daughter, who is Aeilita, and Aeilita has a brother, who is actually Bass.

In other words, there’s lots of big important stuff going on.

Now, many questions remain, especially if you only know about one genre of the story or another. If you’re a Megaman fan, you might be wondering what else was in the diary, or how Aeilita will get rid of her virus. If you’re a Code Lyoko fan, you may be wondering who Dr. Cossak is, and what that wolf’s head was doing fused to his arm, and why I am butchering the episodes “Revelation” and “The Key.” Rest assured, faithful readers, I know how to answer at least half of your questions: With a break from the story! This chapter is devoted almost entirely to Bass’s creation, and how he was betrayed by the humans. Fear not, fellow story goers! There’s a story-related reason for this, as we will show now, with...

Heart of a Warrior:
Chapter 17

Origin of Darkness

“That’s completely impossible!” roared Bass from the speakerphones, after having gotten over the initial shock of being told that a pink-haired human was his sister and some guy he had never heard of was his dad.

“I’m telling you, Bass, it’s true.” Jeremie calmly replied.

“How do YOU know? You’re just a pathetic HUMAN!” Bass yelled, not allowing the truth to seep into his brain.

“Bass, he mentioned you by name. He described your attacks perfectly, and your physical appearance. He had a picture of what you would have looked like. Franz Hopper is your father.”

“HE IS NOT!” Bass was now so loud that several thumps on the neighboring walls were heard, accompanied by a muted, “Keep it down!”

Bass looked worridly at the wall for a moment, then his fury returned.

“My father is not Franz Hopper,” he said, “My father is Dr. Cossak.” He said this with such passion, such conviction, that everyone knew that even if Franz really was Bass’ dad, Bass would always believe differently.

“Why?” Jeremie asked. “What would be so bad for having Franz Hopper for a father?”

“A father takes care of you and helps you. Like my father did…”

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TEN YEARS AGO-
SCILABS, ACDC TOWN, JAPAN

“Now, behold, my greatest creation ever! The world’s first independent Net Navi!”

A figure with pale skin, clad in a black jumpsuit with twin jagged white lines on his sides, Gold-and-black gauntlets and boots, white gloves, a stylized, lowercase “f” symbol on his chest, and a twin-yellow-finned helmet with a four-pointed star between the two was on the massive meeting room Plasma screen.

In front of the screen, a golden-blond haired man with a mustache and beard was talking animatedly about all the advantages and leaps forward this represented for all of mankind.

“…and without the need for an operator, this will allow for the creation of better, more independent net navis, including customized net navis that people will be able to order! Or even programs and navis designed to handle specific tasks, such as the operation of traffic signals, water treatment plants, and other similar tasks that will allow for more efficient society.” He said.

Meanwhile, the figure on the screen was perfectly rigid, with green, blue, and the occasional red ring floating over him, re-enforcing his programming and fixing minor glitches.

An older man with a bushy white beard stood up. The blonde man took notice.

“Yes, Dr. Hikari? What is it?” he asked.

“Well, Dr. Cossak, you mentioned that the new program… ‘Bass,’ is it?”

“Bass, like in music, not Bass, as in the fish, sir.”

“Well, it mentions that Bass has power levels far above that of any other net navis that we currently have.”

Dr. Cossak nodded. “He was specifically designed to be a defensive program of the highest class, capable of terminating even the most powerful foes.”

Dr. Hikari looked back at his papers. “Without a netop, how will we know that he will make the right decisions?”

Dr. Cossak bristled slightly. “I trust Bass, I made his brain, for goodness sake!”

He turned around. “In fact, you can talk to him right now. Bass.EXE, activate!”

The finned figure behind Dr. Cossak sleepily opened his eyes and blinked once or twice before yawning. Then, he looked much better. “Oh, hello Dr. Cossak. What can I do for you today?” he said, in a cheery manner.

“Bass, I’d like you to meet the board of directors of Scilabs.” Dr. Cossak indicated the group of men seated behind him. “They haven’t gotten a chance to meet you yet, so I figured they would.”

“Okay!” Bass cheerily responded. “I am Bass.exe, the world’s first independent Net Navi. I have been specifically programmed to defend the expanding Alpha-internet system from viral, human, and navi assault.”

The scientists and department heads stared at him for a bit. Then, the same scientist from before, Dr. Tadakashi Hikari, stood up. “Dr. Cossak, you’re sure that he’s safe?”

Dr. Cossak looked irritated for a moment (Bass, in the background, was saying “I’m right here, you know!”) before responding.

“Yes. I believe that, after hours of complex testing, and personal interviews with Bass, I believe that he is trustworthy.”

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ONE MONTH LATER…

“Danger! Danger!”

A new-model security navi, the last of its kind, raced through the paths of cyberspace, trying to escape its tormentor. It turned, only to see…

KA-FOOM!

Almost immiediately, his left arm disintegrated under an energy burst.

“Targeting enemy… firing in 2.10035 cycles… SQWARK!” he cried, as the enemy grabbed his remaining arm and wrenched it out of its socket.

“BASS!”

The black-garbed program looked up at a link window. Several scientists were glaring angrily down at him.

“WHAT?” he asked. “I’m trying to protect the Alpha-internet system!”

“HOW?” cried one scientist. “Those were the new security navis!” cried the second. “Destroying our security system defends the internet HOW?” yelled the last.

Bass sighed. “Listen, it’s simple Darwin. If they couldn’t stand against me, then they couldn’t have defended the internet at all. Survival of the fittest.”

“Yes… but… WE SPENT THREE MONTHS ON THOSE!” yelled the first scientist.

“And now you need to work harder on them.” Bass responded pleasantly.

The second and third scientists were livid, and the first was looking like he was wishing Bass had an off-switch (he didn’t). Bass was saved from being programmed into having four extra heads by the appearance of his father, Dr. Cossak. He took one look at the disintegrating blob of data that used to be a defense navi, then at Bass, and shook his head.

“Bass, that’s the ninety-fifth-” “Ninety-sixth!” “Right, ninety-sixth net navi you’ve deleted this week. Why are you doing this?”

“I’m protecting the internet from dangerous defects and errors!” he said indignantly. “There were so many things wrong with the new design that the benefits it would have had would have been cancelled out!”

Dr. Cossak sighed. “No real harm done, though, right?”

Bass brightened considerably at this. “Right! The only damage was to the defects.”

At this, the three scientists indignantly began to protest. “We worked for three months on those!” one cried.

“…Sorry,” Bass said sheepishly.

“Dr. Cossak!” cried the three scientists. “Can’t you control your program!”

“I’m still here, you know…” Bass muttered.

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ONE WEEK LATER…

Dr. Cossak was back in the board room. This time, he was in deep trouble.

“Dr. Cossak, you assured us that Bass would remain under control.” Came the voice of a beurocrat, Mr. Barnes. “Now, he’s destroyed thirteen vital programs, one hundred netnavis, hacked his way through our most powerful firewalls, and,” he looked at his sheet, “last Tuesday, he shut off the power to all the employee break rooms and bathrooms for fun.”

Dr. Nemoy nodded in agreement. “Bass has set us back two years, and destroyed over a million Zenny worth of experimental programs!”

Dr. Mendel growled, “Bass has become a menace to Internet Society. If he continues to exist, there can be no hope for the future of this type of technology.”

Dr. Cossak slammed his fists down on the table. “How can you possibly say that? Thanks to Bass, we’re rid of countless dangerous defects that could have done immeasurable damage in the long run!”

“That may be true, Mikhael,” came a softer-spoken voice. Dr. Tadakashi Hikari stood up next to his young son, Yuuichiro. “But the fact of the matter is, Bass has proven himself to be impulsive, brash, and aggressive. He has to be restrained, at least for a little while.”

“No! But… I… He’s not a danger!” Mikhael Cossak cried, looking at the nodding heads of the scientists.

“He will have limiters designed and imprisoned.” Came Mr. Barnes’ voice. “All in favor?”

Dr. Cossak didn’t even need to look up. He knew the result already.

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THE NEXT DAY…

Two security navis walked past a cage of pure energy, watching the motionless navi in the center clutch his knees. Around his wrists and ankles, perfectly round, totally seamless discs of energy rotated noiselessly.

One navi pointed at Bass. “Look at the ‘Great Bass,’ now! With those limiters, he’s only one/tenth our strength.”

“How the mighty have fallen.” Then both navis walked away.

Behind, Bass sniffled back tears, but at the same time, clutched his hands into fists until they hurt.

A link window opened behind him, and Dr. Cossak’s face appeared. “Hello, Bass. How are you feeling?” he asked, sadness in his voice.

Bass looked at him, pointed to the discs, then glared at him.

“Aaah. Right. Stupid question to ask.” Dr. Cossak said. “I’m sorry, Bass, but the board of directors are afraid of your power. So they told me to design these limiters for you until I can get this straightened out…” his voice trailed off.

Bass sighed. “It’s okay, Dr. Cossak, I don’t blame you for trying. I just want to make the world a better place, you know? And whenever I try, I get yelled at and pushed away, or;” he gained a humorless smirk, “I get locked up.”

Dr. Cossak smiled sadly at him. “I’m doing everything that I can, Bass.”

“I know, father.” Bass said softly. “but on a brighter note, How do I look?”

“What?” Dr. Cossak was completely startled by the question.

“The anklets and bracelets. I understand that some humans find them fashionable.”

He struck a pose and said, “So, am I “stylin?’” am I ‘Tight?’” he laughed for a bit at that.

Dr. Cossak smiled, but his voice contained a hint of sadness. “Yes, Bass, you look spectacular.” He paused for a moment, then added with a grin, in fact, you look fit to kill.”

Dr. Yuuichiro Hikari watched the Net Navi and its father for a moment, then turned and walked back to his own father. “Father, do you think it’s right to imprison Bass?”

“I don’t know, son,” came the tired reply. “Bass has enormous potential to shape the network… but right now, he’s just too dangerous to be left to his own devices.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Unnoticed to Bass, the security navis, and all other beings at Scilab, a hole in space opened up behind a large block program. Out of this hole, a trail of black smoke slid out as easily as a snake, moving, curling, and sliding into the internet. For a moment, it remained motionless as it hit the ground, then it shot towards the spherical core of the internet, burrowing itself into the system, corrupting it, dismembering it, and manipulating it.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Bass was drawing patterns on the ground when it happened.

Suddenly, and without any warning at all, the energy cage surrounding him vanished.

Bass stood up and looked around for a moment, before, quite unexpectedly, internet buildings and links around him started to explode. In defense of his person, he threw up his arms to block the blast, and fortunately, escaped the worst of the blast.

However, the worst, as it were, was yet to come.

A massive line of fire crossed itself in front of him, deleting a section of the ground into nothingness.

“Massive system failure…” he mused, looking closer at the deleted section. “This is why I always intervened…”

Then, the first slugs from a submachine gun hit his side.

“ATTENTION FUGITIVE BASS!” came the amplified voice of over one hundred security net navis. “YOU HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF THE CRIME OF SYSTEM DESTRUCTION. WE HAVE ORDERS FOR YOUR DELETION. THANK YOU, AND HAVE A NICE DAY.”

“Wha-… System destruction? No, it wasn’t me! I swear!” but the security navis were already moving into a circular formation around him, moving for the kill.

With all the speed he could muster, Bass raced along the ground, punching through the line of navis that had moved to cross his path. However, he was blocked with more programs, all intent on his destruction.

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Cossak watched the events unfold with a sense of detached horror, knowing that his only son was totally doomed. Nothing that he could say or do could possibly save Bass’ life now, and the doctor was beginning to wish that he had never taken Bass away from…

THAT’S IT!

Mikhael Cossak typed in a few codes, hit the enter key, grabbed his things and discs, and raced off.

Moments later, Yuuichiro Hikari burst into the room. “Dr. Cossak! Bass is… Where’d you go?”

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“YOU IGNORANT PEONS!” Bass yelled, smashing several more security programs to dust. “GET OFF OF MY BACK!”

For the last ten minutes, Bass had been pounding away at the security programs and net navis. Even with his strength down to 1/10 its original power, he was still going to town on the rent-a-cop navis.

Dr. Cossak, please help me! He thought. You know I’m innocent, you know I am! Why haven’t you said anything? Oh, no. No, Dr. Cossak, you wouldn’t!

And with that moment of horror, Bass paused in his beating the crap out of the security navi.

This provided the opening that another navi needed to attack. His heatblade tore through Bass’ vulnerable chest, bisecting his crest and leaving a massive scar from his right shoulder to his left hip.

Bass remained upright for a moment longer, then thudded to the ground in pain.

The security navis finally stopped shooting, and began to laugh. “Good thing you got him, Charlie!” “Yeah, and that those limiters finally did their job.” “Good thing Dr. Cossak knows his stuff.”

Bass could only hear the last one, ringing in his ears, echoing through his mind. Dr. Cossak knows his stuff.

That’s right, he thought. Dr. Cossak was the one who made the limiters.

That means that he… could… turn… them… off…

Suddenly, a massive explosion de-atomized several buildings.

Charlie, the head of the security navis, listened intently as his netop provided him with a new update.

“System destruction is continuing in other areas! The cause is now believed to be not Bass, but the Alpha-internet system itself! All units, Jack out now!”

Bass was lying on the ground, extreme agony wracking both his mind and body. One by one, the security navis evaporated away, returning to their safe PETs (PErsonal Terminals). Only Charlie was left.

“You know,” Charlie said, “The order for your deletion still stands.”

“You should have known better then to rebel, Bass. It’s time to DIE!” he punctuated the last word with a yell.

As soon as the blade got within a foot of Bass’ finned helmet, Bass vanished within a brilliant white glow.

“What the hell?” Charlie exclaimed, leaping back.

Within the white orb of light surrounding Bass, the green, disc-shaped limiters were devolving into pixels, which flew into Bass’ scar, altering his programming irreversibly and granting back all his power.

Charlie had barely finished his curse, when suddenly, a red, burning blade bisected his body, cutting him in two from his right shoulder to his left hip.

“I… AM SICK OF THIS!” Bass growled. “I AM THROUGH… WITH MY FATHER! WITH EVERYONE!”

And after that day, things never were the same. Scilabs contained the internet program “Alpha,” that had caused all the devastation, and the programs were fixed. Bass and Dr. Cossak, however, were only heard of in rumor and hearsay.

It was around that time, though, that legends of the “Black Shadow,” began to circulate around the Undernet…

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“So that’s why you hate everybody…” mused Odd. “You think all humans are scum because of what one did to you.”

“Exactly,” Bass admitted darkly.

“But from what you say, Dr. Cossak betrayed you. Franz Hopper didn’t. Why don’t you like him?” asked Ulrich.

“He’s a computer genius. The last time I was with computer geniuses, I got a scar from my shoulder to my hip. That, and my father at least cared for me before I went. Hey, where’d Annie go?”

Ulrich stared at him. “You mean Aeilita?”

“Whatever, the pink haired one. Where’d she go?”

Yumi spoke up at this point. “She left halfway through. I think she just wanted some alone time.”

Bass just looked at her.

Then, he sighed.

“If any of you guys need me, I’ll be in the mountains.”

“Why?” asked Yumi.

“I need some alone time.”

And with that, he signed off.

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Sithking Zero: There it is! Bass’ backstory. That’s why he does what he does. And yes, I know the ending part sucked, but please don’t hate me for it.

Oh, and those who have sharp eyes and are rabid Megaman/Rockman fans might have noticed the name Yuuichiro Hikari. That is the name of Lan/Netto’s father (English/Japanese names, respectively.)

As always, Review, Review, and Review!

Sithking Zero: And so it begins… the end of our little journey…

In the following chapter, stuff will happen. Big stuff. Important stuff. Not too much Bass stuff, but lots of stuff. If you’ve seen the episode “the Key,” you’ll know a bunch of the stuff that goes on, but for others, it’ll be all-new stuff! It will… oh, damn, this sucks. Let’s just get on with it.

Disclaimer: Neither rain, nor sleet, nor wind, nor rain, change the fact that I don’t own Bass and Code: Lyoko.

Heart of a Warrior

Chapter 18:

Distress of the Princess

Aeilita stumbled back to her room, Bass’ voice following her all the way down the hall to the staircase. My brother, she thought numbly.

In all honesty, who could blame her? Everything that she ever considered to be true, from how she came to be, to who Franz Hopper was, was a lie. A lie that had been forcibly (and quite painfully) removed not ten minutes ago.

She was at her room before she really knew it, so numb from shock was she.

Too tired to even change, Aeilita flopped down on her bed and fell asleep.

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ON LYOKO…

Bass stood alone, solitary on the peak of a mountain in the mountain sector.

Damn it… he cursed mentally.

Why didn’t Dr. Cossak tell me about any of this? Why did he keep me in the dark as to my true origins?

Bass squatted down on the rock and sighed.

“Okay, let’s review your situation. You are trapped in an unfamiliar system with a demonic AI that’s trying to kill you with near-limitless soldiers of all shapes and sizes. Your only hope lies with humans, who you’ve sworn to destroy, but one of them is your long-lost sister, who is somewhere along the lines of twelve years older then me. Also, you have physically assaulted their leader.”

Bass considered it for a moment. “Yes, time to painc.”

It was about then that Bass was hit in the back of the head with a thin laser.

He turned, to see one hundred hornets all charging shots and taking aim.

Bass sighed. Then smiled, darkly. “At least I get to work out some anger management issues…”

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SEVERAL HOURS LATER… (9:30 A.M., to be absolutely precise)

The five heroes of Lyoko ate their breakfast in silence.

It wasn’t a gloomy silence, though it would have been appropriate, as it was quite foggy out. It was more of an awkward silence. Seriously, what was there to talk about? “Hi Aeilita, I hear that the human-hating artificial intelegence is your brother and a computer genius is your dad, how do you feel?”

Yeah, THAT conversation would go over really swell.

Finally, Jeremie broke the silence, saying quietly, “I found other stuff in the diary as well.”

If nothing else, the change in the atmosphere was noticeable.

Everyone seemed to straighten at this, but Aeilita especially seemed to tense up.

Jeremie continued, aware of his suddenly-attentive friends.

“After everyone left yesterday, I worked on analyzing the rest of the diary. What I found is that Aeilita does not actually have a virus. XANA merely took something out of you, tying you to him.”

Aeilita listened to this in silence.

“I figure that if we go to sector five, we’ll be able to find this fragment of you, Aeilita. Then, we can save both you and Franz Hopper wi-”

“No.” The pink-haired girl’s angry tone was a surprise to everyone sitting at the cafeteria table.

“Bass was right; Franz Hopper is not my father. Would anyone who loved me seal me away in a computer for so long?”

She got up, her breakfast barely half done. “I need to be alone,” she stated simply.

As she walked away, Ulrich’s gaze followed the girl. “I don’t think that she’s feeling all that great.” He noted.

“I know,” said Odd. “Normally, she loves oatmeal.”

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“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” came the roar as Bass fired a massive beam of light, disintegrating the Megatanks that were firing on his position.

Bass then slumped down behind a rock, chest heaving.

“Twelve… Damn… hours…” he gasped.

“CAN I HAVE A MOMENT’S PEACE?” he screamed at the tarantulas that had taken up firing positions next to him.

“I’ve been killing you guys for twelve hours now;” he muttered to himself as he punched a tarantula in the face, crushing its skull.

Heaving the monster’s corpse at the other monsters, knocking them off the edge and into the digital sea, he stated wearily but angrily, “why aren’t you getting the picture?”

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Aeilita stepped out of the elevator and watched as the massive central core of the supercomputer rose into view. It took a few seconds as the core was about fifteen feet tall, but eventually, the core revealed itself completely.

Aeilita stepped forwards, pressing a button in the center of a black Eye of XANA. This caused a panel to slide back, revealing a large, conspicuous, mad-scientist style lever.

Hesitantly, Aeilita reached out and grabbed it.

“Goodbye, XANA.” She whispered, and as she pulled, her strength weakened, and she fell to the ground, dead as the computer next to her.

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Bass was finished with a group of blocks when suddenly, all the monsters vanished.

Looking around, Bass realized that he was finally free, at least for a moment.

“Finally! I can get some sle- AAAUGHHHH!” he yelled, as the ground vanished underneath him .

He struggled as he fell, finally activating his flight power a mere one hundred feet above the digital sea.

Racing as fast as he possibly could, he flew back over the land he had fallen off of, only now realizing that it was being deleted.

As he flew past the wave of deletion, watching monsters fall into the digital sea (and steering clear of the pillars of light that followed) he made a very acute observation:

“Damn, I really hate this place.”

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Jeremie typed a few keys onto the computer. He was hoping to check out more of the diary.

However, the message he was greeted with was a little different.

Would you like to try again?

So he did.

Again, he got the same message.

“That’s impossible,” he muttered to himself. “The only way that I couldn’t be able to access the supercomputer is if…”

Suddenly, the implications of what his inability to access the supercomputer meant hit him.

“Oh, damn,” he whispered, unknowingly mirroring the emotions and the words of Bass only two days ago.

Within seconds, he was already down the hall and on his way to the sewers.

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FIVE MINUTES LATER…

Jeremie raced out of the elevator.

“AEILITA!” he cried. He immiediately dashed over to the supercomputer main core, slamming the lever into the “On” position.

He then dashed to Aeilita, scooping her near-lifeless body up and holding her in his arms.

He was rewarded with a faint heartbeat and a small, but growing, sense of warmth creeping back into her outer extremities (hands and feet.)

After a few minutes, Aeilita’s eyes fluttered open.

“Am I in heaven?” she murmured.

Jeremie smiled at her. “No, you’re back on Earth.”

He then grew concerned. “Aeilita, why would you do this? You knew that you would die, so…” his voice trailed off as her eyes probed his.

“I did it to get rid of XANA.” She responded simply. “I would rather die then have someone else suffer for my sake.”

“Aeilita…” Jeremie whispered. They were both staring into each other’s eyes. The space between the two closed slowly. They were less then an inch apart. Then, they connected.

For both of them, it was a moment that lasted an eternity, laced with the sort of bliss the soft, sweet kiss of two lovers can bring. For a moment in time, the worlds of Jeremie and Aeilita were merged into one world through the contact of their lips. Everything was right in their little world..

Or, at least, until the sound of a large amount of swearing coming from upstairs.

“What the-?” Aeilita looked up at the ceiling of the place, wondering what the source of this was.

She got up, striding quickly to the elevator. Jeremie followed right behind, then he pressed the “Up” button.

Both their faces were noticeably red.

Jeremie turned to Aeilita.

“We don’t tell Odd.”

“Agreed.”

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Once the elevator doors opened, both Jeremie and Aeilita stepped out, seeing a familiar finned figure screaming.

“THAT B XANA! I OUGHT TO & $( (#$Y# #(#$#$ AND-”

Jeremie quickly hit the “headphone”, which allowed the voices to only come through the headphones and not the recently installed speakers.

“Bass?” he asked. “Is that you?”

A pause. “Why were you cussing?”

Another pause. “Fighting XANA creatures for twelve hours straight? And then Lyoko started to disintegrate?”

After a long moment, Aeilita saw Jeremie jump out of the seat, yelling, “MY GOD!”

He was very pale and was shaking slightly.

He then turned to Aeilita. “You really don’t want to know.”

Nonetheless, Aeilita placed the headphones on her head and began to speak.

“Bass? Are you there?”

“NO. This is XANA. I just happen to look and sound exactly like him. OF COURSE IT’S ME YOU IDIOT!”

“Well, what are you so mad about?”

“I was spending some time to myself, and all of a sudden, all these hornets start attacking me. It wouldn’t stop. They just kept coming and coming and coming. That lasted for about twelve hours. Then, they all went away. I was about to sleep, when-

“You can sleep?”

“Yeah. Can’t you?”

“Not in Lyoko. Only on Earth.”

“Weird. Anyways, I was about to sleep, when all of a sudden, the ground drops out from underneath me. This continued for about an hour, then it stopped, and I got to a tower. Thought I’d be safe. Then I start swearing and you show up.”

Aeilita looked uncomfortable.

Bass looked at her. “Why did Lyoko start to vanish? It’s almost like it was turned off.”

Aeilita looked for an excuse. “Umm… the battery was dead. We… got a new one!” she said. She did not want to face him after he learned what really happened.

Bass was skeptical for a moment, then decided to believe her.

“…Okay. I guess that makes sense.” He said, crossly.

Aeilita then asked him, “By the way, what did you say to Jeremie?”

“You don’t want to know.”

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THE NEXT DAY…

Jeremie had called an emergency meeting. Everyone in the group, even Bass, was there (though Bass was on a small window in the corner, due to dimensional reasons.)

Jeremie cleared his throat, and the chatter died quickly.

“As most of you know, Aeilita had a piece of her removed by XANA. This means that if XANA dies, so does Aeilita.”

Bass looked up. “Really?”

Jeremie nodded. “Recently, while doing a search on Lyoko, I found the location of the piece in sector five. After school today, we can go and get it.”

That turned a few (human) heads. Odd was one of the most vocal opponents of the plan. “Jeremie, tonight’s the big end-of-year dance! Can’t we go?”

Ulrich was of the same mind, but after over an hour, both were outvoted.

The Lyoko Gang was going to Sector Five.

Sithking Zero:

MAN, that sucked. I really hated that chapter. Don’t bother trying to tell me what I did wrong, because this chapter only serves to get us from point A to point B. The big stuff will start happening next chapter. It will be shorter, but it will be awesome.

Please review!

Sithking Zero: None of this belongs to me. Go away, foolish humans.

Hi! Today’s chapter will be another attempt to go from “Point A,” to “Point B.” Since I want at least three full chapters for the finale, (because that is what’s next!) this chapter will be pretty short and boring, with an unexpected revelation at the end (Aeilita is carrying Bass’ child. Just kidding!)

Sorry it’s been a little while. I’ve been checking out “Sluggy Freelance,” a really funny online comic. Also, I’ve burned another one of my CD’s. I don’t sing the songs, I just burn songs from I-tunes and stuff to disc.

Anyway…

Heart of a Warrior:
Chapter 19:

Core Strategy

Jeremie looked over his shoulder at the menacing figure. Well, at the tall teen-ager with purple hair, at least.

“Remind me again why you’re helping us recover Aeilita’s missing piece? I thought that you didn’t like humans. So why are you helping us?”

Bass, in human form, was wearing a red shirt with black jeans. His purple marks underneath his eyes were still there, though, and his hair was a lightish purple.

He ran his hand through his hair for a moment before speaking.

“Three reasons, human. One, I have a life-debt to her. She saved me from being deleted from XANA’s virus and healed my scar; I have no choice but to repay it. Two, and this has to do with the first reason…”

He took a breath and sighed. “Even though I nearly scared the Crap out of your warriors, and almost killed you, Aeilita still fixed me and treated me with kindness and affection. In my ten years of wandering, not one person has ever treated me with any respect except as an opponent. Even early in my travels, the only way people would ever talk to me was in insults. Before I killed them, of course.”

“It’s a wonder why no one treated you nicely,” said Jeremie dryly.

Bass ignored that. “However, I nearly vaporize her. I threaten her life. And I try killing her friends. At the bare minimum, I usually get a ‘I will have my revenge, Bass!” by now. But she’s… different. It’s like she can see past someone’s façade and see into your soul.”

“I know,” Jeremie smiled goofily, spacing out for a moment. “Isn’t she wonderful?”

Then he looked back at Bass. “Oh, crap. You’re her brother, right?”

Bass smiled a demonic smile. “Yes. In fact, that’s reason number three.”

“You’re going to hurt me for thinking about your sister, aren’t you?”

“I need a reason?”

Bass had just started moving towards Jeremie when Jim opened the door.

“Jeremie?” Jim asked, looking confused. “Who’s this? And why is he in the dorms?”

“Errr….” Bass stuttered. Jeremie, however, was much better at dealing with this sort of thing.

“This is Forte Stones, sir,” he replied smoothly. “He’s visiting his little sister Aeilita, and he’s also touring the campus. He’s thinking of staying here.”

Jim looked skeptical for a moment. Then, he nodded. “Very well, carry on.”

After waiting until Jim was out of earshot, Bass said the one thing that was most memorable about the occasion.

“Forte? You couldn’t think up anything dumber? Like maybe, ‘Tango’ or ‘Gospel?’”

“I was rushed. Give me a break!”

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“So, Yumi, I was wondering… Would you like to go to the dance tonight?”

“No, William, I have a previous engagement. Sorry!” came Yumi’s chipper response.

“Oh… well… If something comes up…” he muttered.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the courtyard…

“NO.”

“But Ulrich, Dear, I haven’t even asked you yet! How can you know-”

“Sissi, it’s you. There’s a dance tonight. You’re obsessed with me. What else are you going to do but ask me out?”

Sissi straightened slightly. “Well, if you won’t have me as your-”

“My what? My ‘Girlfriend?’ Listen, Sissi, and listen very seriously. I. Don’t. Love. You. You are an annoyance and you’ve caused me nothing but grief and misery since I met you. I would like nothing better then you just LEAVING ME ALONE!” Ulrich shouted.

Sissi stared at him for a moment, tears filling her eyes. Then, she turned and ran.

As she was running away, Bass (or Forte, as we must call him in his human form) and Jeremie walked up to Ulrich.

Jeremie took one look at Sissi and said, “What did you say to her? It sounded kind of harsh.”

Behind Jeremie’s back, Forte was giving Ulrich a nasty glare.

“Hey, Jeremie, who’s this?” Ulrich asked.

“Remember me?” Forte asked, his familiar aloof, cold tone seeping back into his voice.

Ulrich jumped back slightly. “What are you doing in our world?”

“I came to see why humans act the way that they do. I’m looking for a simple answer.”

“Then Bass, you are in for a rude awakening.” Odd had walked up behind the group, “Humans aren’t simple creatures at all.”

“I know.”

“But you just said-”

“You are proof of the fact that humans aren’t simple, Weird.”

“HEY! I take offense to that. And my name’s Odd!”

“Close enough.”

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THAT NIGHT…

“Scanner, Aeilita! Scanner, Ulrich! Scanner, Odd! Scanner, Yumi! Scanner, Bass!”

Jeremie reached out with his pinky finger and hit the enter key.

“Virtualization!”

With practiced ease, Aeilita, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi fell from the sky, landing gracefully on their feet.

Bass, without any experience being virtualized, managed a spectacular face plant that cracked the ice of the ice sector. (A.N.: If you recall, he has only gone out of Lyoko before. He’s never gone in (except for his first time)).

Aeilita smiled as Odd laughed hard and skated over to him, offering a hand.

Bass took it, pulling himself up.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Now, as for your friend…” he said, floating towards Odd.

“Get away from me!”

Jeremie thankfully broke in at this point, saying, “I’m materializing the vehicles! Sorry Bass, I don’t have one for… Oh, wait, you can fly, right?”

“Correct.”

“Okay. All of you need to head north-northwest for the fastest route to the edge of the sector. Just say when you’re there and I’ll type in the code.”

And so, they left.

After a couple of minutes, they finally came to the very edge of the ice sector.

“So… now what?” asked Bass. “I mean aside from the view.”

Jeremie smiled as he typed in the code.

SCIPIO

Within seconds, a large ball swooped in behind our heroes, taking Bass totally by surprise. The others by now were used to it, so they weren’t really fazed.

After a few minutes of whirling and twisting through the Ice Sector, the sphere dove into the brilliant light of the digital sea that surrounded Carthage.

After that, the gigantic blue sphere of Carthage came into view, surrounded by the thousands of thousands of information panels. For a moment, Carthage hovered there, suspended in the view of the transit orb.

Then, it flew directly towards a massive rift in the upper hemisphere, making its way through the giant orb to the core: a large open spherical area with a massive eye of XANA on the floor.

The transport orb slowly stopped spinning, dividing itself and dropping the warriors.

Odd broke the silence (aside from the whirring of the sphere that surrounded them on all sides) by crying out, “I don’t feel sick!”

“Don’t you usually feel sick when we go to sector five?” asked Ulrich, puzzled at the turn of events.

“Yeah, but I feel fine.” He said, glad but puzzled as well.

“Heads up, the room is stabilizing and the path is opening up,” called Jeremie.

A gap in the sphere was rotating along with the room, and was now vertically aligned with a randomly selected path. With a gentle clunk noise, it docked with the room and the rest of sector five.

As one, the group jumped forwards, across the thin bridge to sector five and it’s infinite dangers and shifting land.

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Power for me.

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“Hurry, Yumi, you only have ten seconds left to press the key!”

Jeremie’s panicked tone was of no concern to Yumi, she was completely focused on the task at hand. The Creeper in front of her, directly in front of the key that would prevent the sector from re-configuring itself, was charging a laser blast that would send her back to the real world.

Doing an elegant spin kick, she effortlessly kicked the creeper off the nearby ledge and to its untimely demise. Then, she slammed her hand into the key, opening a massive hole in the floor.

“Okay, Jeremie, where to next?” came Odd’s chipper querry, watching as chunks of the floor re-arranged themselves into steps.

“Down, actually. That path takes you almost exactly to Aeilita’s fragment.”

And down they went, almost a mile, actually.

Once at the bottom, they entered a very large room. It was fairly straightforward, with a very long path and Aeilita’s memory fragment at the end.

However, the six creepers in the path looked as if they would impede our heroes progress.

That is, until Bass blasted them out of the way with his Earthbreaker attack.

Then, he turned. “Look out!” he yelled, as several tarantulas marched in through the entryway.

He turned to Ulrich and the others. “You take the monsters! I’ll take Aeilita to the memory fragment!”

With that, he grabbed Aeilita around the waist, a cruel smile in place.

Then, he threw her at her friends, knocking them over like bowling pins.

With his left hand, he blasted all the monsters in the doorway, then hovered above the Lyokoans.

“You pathetic human fools. You actually believed I was helping you?”

“You’re possessed by XANA, aren’t you!” cried Aeilita.

“I don’t need XANA!” he roared. “I don’t need anyone! Actually, now that I think about it…”

He turned to the Aeilita fragment. “I do need that.”

“WHY?” came Jeremie’s voice from above.

“You truly are fools.” Bass chuckled, the same dark laugh he always got before killing a helpless foe. “Human coding, when given to a Net Navi, such as myself, is the same as producing a nuclear reaction. It gives the navi in question massive amounts of power unrivaled by anything else. And that amount of human coding…”

He paused for a moment. “I would become a GOD, able to travel to both worlds. Then, all humans will like dead at my feet.”

“So, I must thank you for leading me to the one thing that will damn your race to oblivion.”

And with that, he leapt into the air, soaring to the fragment of the pink-haired girl in less then ten seconds.

“And god said, let there be light.” Muttered Bass as he touched down next to the data fragment. It wasn’t much to look at , mostly like a yellow ball with a Barbie-sized version of Aeilita inside of it. “GET ABILITY!” he cried, slamming his hands into the data.

Have you ever had one of those moments where time seems to slow down before a catastrophe happens, even though you don’t know why? Aeilita was experiencing this now as she watched Bass try to absorb the data.

In an instant, she found out why. As soon as Bass slammed his hands into the ball of data, it turned from an Aeilita fragment into an equally sized gray ball with red goo in the middle.

Bass’ eyes widened in horror when he saw the transformation occurred.

“Oh, Fu-” was all he had time to say before the ball exploded.

A massive wave of red goo exploded outwards, enveloping Bass and Aeilita in its goopy clutches. The ball, however, was rising on a massive wave of goo, into the center of a tall pillar of the stuff. It formed a protective cocoon around itself, then materialized two metal spikes on its shoulders. Then, two giant metal free-floating claws rose out of the goo, floating at about waist-height, before a giant metal cylinder with many metal fans and a single glowing red eye settled itself where the head would be (if it were human.)

“WHAT THE HELL? WHY THE HELL IS ALPHA HERE!” Screamed Bass in fear.

“He’s here because I willed him to be,” came an evil, yet feminine, voice.

A samurai-armor clad female with XANA eyes all over hopped onto Alpha’s shoulder.

“Hello, humans.” Cried the figure, “I am XANA!”

Sithking Zero: I don’t own anything but the laptop I’m using. Go away.

Heart of a Warrior
Chapter 20

Titan Clash I

“WHAT THE HELL? WHY THE HELL IS ALPHA HERE!” Screamed Bass in fear.

“He’s here because I willed him to be,” came an evil, yet feminine, voice.

A samurai-armor clad female with XANA eyes all over hopped onto Alpha’s shoulder.

“Hello, humans.” Cried the figure, “I am XANA!”

For a long moment, nobody moved. The implications were too great.

Then, Odd jumped up, firing a withering onslaught of arrows that would have killed pretty much anyone.

XANA smirked, her cherry-red lips turning up. “Shield.” She said calmly.

She held her arm out in front of her, and a purple half-sphere materialized in front of it. The arrows were either deflected, or they were absorbed into the shield.

“Please. I have the ultimate program! Do you really think that you can defeat…”

She held her arms up, her entire body aglow with a whitish light. “YOURSELF?”

Chunks of debris flew out of the ceiling, walls, and floor, pelting the already-injured Lyoko fighters with debris.

Yumi glared at her, angry. “How’d you use my power?”

“I’m not going to tell you, you filthy human,” XANA smirked, as she split into three XANAs. As one, all three transformed their arms into massive cannons, which released massive laser blasts which vaporized the Lyoko avatars.

In the real world, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all stumbled out of the cylindrical scanners.

It was a minute before anyone spoke. The implications of what had happened were too enormous.

Aeilita was alone with a psychopath who could blow apart continents and wanted to absorb her and become a god of both worlds, not to mention their worst enemy who wanted the same thing.

“This is bad, right?”

“Yes, Odd, this is very bad.” Came Yumi’s tired response.

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Back on Lyoko, things were looking grim. Bass and Aeilita were backpedaling furiously to avoid the massive goo-beast and his dark mistress.

XANA smirked with glee as she watched the two beings who had foiled her plans before so terrified.

“You know what the worst thing about you two is?” XANA asked, hopping down from Alpha’s shoulder. “Neither of you know when to throw in the towel.”

Bass grinned. “We will when you provide us with a challenge.”

Aeilita smirked as well. “All this preparation, and this is the best you could come up with? Frankly, I’m disappointed, XANA.”

“Are you, now?” XANA said, amused.

“A little. For one, I’m WAY more powerful now then when I faced Alpha the first time.” Bass said evenly.

“And second, we, at least, aren’t vir-” Aeilita was cut off by a short, whistling noise as something gray entered her right field of vision.

She cried out in pain as the massive, steel, four-clawed hand of Alpha impaled her through the stomach with his sword-sharp claws.

Sweeping the punctured Aeilita around in a wide arc, Alpha finally slammed his claw into the red, viscous goo that comprised his body.

XANA and Bass watched-in glee and horror, respectively- as Aeilita’s lifeless body sank into the goo.

She managed to turn around and give Bass a pleading look before she disintegrated.

XANA turned back to Bass.

“How disappointed are you now, Mr. Bass?”

Bass was shaking in anger.

“Aw, did you care for her?” came XANA’s mocking voice. “Did you love her?”

“You… are…” Bass was so mad he could barely speak.

“Because if you did,” XANA continued, “That means you betrayed her and her friends for a little power.” Her combat boots clacked softly against the blue metallic ground of sector five as she walked forwards, striding carefully in a circle around Bass. She then looked thoughtful. “You know… betraying the ones that you love, that sounds familiar.”

She stood behind him. Then, she clapped her hands together joyfully. “Oh, I remember now! It sounds just like what your father would do. You’re just like him- UUULGH!” She yelped as Bass’ arm shot out as fast as a bolt of lightning, clamping vise-like hands around her neck. His eyes no longer had red irises, they were all red, pure glowing red. His cape began to billow as he focused his power in pure rage.

“NEVER… EVER… SAY… THAT I… AM LIKE… MY FATHER!” He roared at the top of his lungs, throwing XANA at the far wall as hard as he could.

XANA slammed into the wall, denting and causing an impact crater around her. As she struggled to get up, Bass slammed into her, ramming a ball of energy into her back. As chunks of her samurai armor flew off, Bass grabbed her again and dove for the floor. Moving at close to five hundred miles an hour, He smashed her skull into the ground, then repeatedly beat it against the ground.

Floating upwards a bit, Bass charged up a massive ball of power.

“I AM NOTHING LIKE THAT HORRIBLE HUMAN!” he screamed, firing the holocaust blast of hellish energy.

A massive explosion of smoke erupted from the crater. Bass gave a small smirk. “Foolish woman. Thinking she could stand up to me… but now, her power shall be mi-”

It was at that instant that that “foolish woman,” came rocketing out of the smoke, damaged armor peeling off behind her, revealing a trim, fit, slim body. This had barely any time to register in Bass’ mind, however, as she landed a powerful uppercut to the jaw of the embodiment of destruction.

“You’ve gotten weaker since I infected you, Bass.” She smiled insanely.

“I thought that that was a dream!” Bass muttered. “I thought that was just my imagination saying that I had a virus!”

“I used my viral connection to you to communicate,” she sneered. “ It’s similar to the virus that links Aeilita to me… in that I removed something from you.”

“What’d you take out? The guardian program? The Gigafreeze?” he mocked.

“Not quite. Tell me Bass, have you tried using your Get Ability program lately?”

It took several seconds for the true meaning of the words to sink in

“You…” he breathed. “You took…”

“That’s right, Bass! Very good!” she said joyfully, clapping her hands together.

Then, her game face came back. “So… How would you like an Earthbreaker for dinner?” Even as she said this, her hands began to glow with golden light.

“Feh… So you can use my Earthbreaker.” His hands as well began to glow goldenrod. “So let’s see how good with those you are.”

As one, both combatants exploded towards each other, raining down death blasts on one another. Bass soared up, trying to get an advantage on his foe, but XANA blocked his move by hitting him in the stomach with a ray of light.

Bass fell, but as he did, he blasted the celing, causing massive chunks of Sector Five to rain down on the Queen of Lyoko. These slammed into her back, knocking her to the floor, where Bass broke through the block and began to, using both of his hands, slam them into her spine. As she screamed in pain, Bass suddenly felt several million volts of electricity flow through his body. He looked back.

Alpha, who had gone mostly unnoticed during the fight, was moving closer, and had a massive steel cone protruding from its chest. From here, massive amounts of lightning were pouring into Bass.

Bass growled, putting up his protective aura, blocking him from the lightning.

SHUNK!

Bass looked down. His aura was fading away, and a cold pain was curling around his stomach.

Protruding from his abdomen was a short katana. He looked numbly at it for a moment, then tried pushing it back through the other side. It wouldn’t budge.

“Thank you, Alpha,” came the voice of XANA as Alpha moved closer. “You may eat him now.”

A tendril of goo extended itself from Alpha’s body and wrapped itself around Bass, dragging him in.

His strength gone, Bass was slowly absorbed into Alpha’s bulk. Before his head was sucked into the goo, he heard a female voice call out, “Wait.”

XANA walked up to Bass, making sure that they were eye to eye.

“I just wanted to tell you something, Bass,” she began. “About ten years ago, I found out about you and how you had been taken to Scilabs. I also learned about the prototype Alpha internet system. Using one of the towers, I accessed it to finish you off.”

Bass’ eyes widened in horror at the implications.

“That’s right, Bass. I did it. I provoked Alpha. Humans didn’t betray you, I was the one to try to kill you.” She stepped back. “Now, with this final knowledge, die in misery and despair, knowing you have wasted your entire life chasing the wrong dream.”

And with that, Bass was absorbed. The last thing he saw before his particles were assimilated with Alpha was XANA watching him through the red, translucent goo.

She was laughing.

Then, he saw nothing at all.

Sithking Zero: Is this really the end of our heroes? Who will the main characters be, now that Aeilita and Bass are gone? Who else can stand in XANA’s dark path?

On another note, I wish TB3 good luck for his task of delivering the “Let’s Talk Tech: Hopper’s Principles” essay to the gurus at Moonscoop.

Tune in next time for Chapter 21: Heart of a Warrior! And, as always, Read and Review!

Sithking Zero: Heart of a Warrior is mine. The individual components (characters, locations, etc.) are not. The story is mine. Don’t sue.

To review, In the last chapter, Bass and Aeilita and the rest fought XANA. XANA pretty much destroyed everyone else in five seconds, absorbed Aeilita, and left Bass for last. She accused him of being like his father, sending him into an uncontrollable rampage. However, after his rage was done, Bass was distracted and defeated by a tag team of Alpha and XANA. XANA then revealed that she was the one who caused Alpha to go rogue and caused Bass’ schism with humanity. Then, he too was absorbed. What happens next? Read on… with…

Chapter 21:
Heart of a Warrior

“I just wanted to tell you something, Bass,” she began. “About ten years ago, I found out about you and how you had been taken to Scilabs. I also learned about the prototype Alpha internet system. Using one of the towers, I accessed it to finish you off.”

Bass’ eyes widened in horror at the implications.

“That’s right, Bass. I did it. I provoked Alpha. Humans didn’t betray you, I was the one to try to kill you.” She stepped back. “Now, with this final knowledge, die in misery and despair, knowing you have wasted your entire life chasing the wrong dream.”

And with that, Bass was absorbed. The last thing he saw before his particles were assimilated with Alpha was XANA watching him through the red, translucent goo.

She was laughing.

Then, he saw nothing at all.

At first, he was traveling through inky blackness, soul-crushingly dark, and with the distinct feeling of sickness in his stomach.

It seemed like he was falling deeper and deeper, with various globs of goo attaching themselves to him. Every time that the goo touched him, it stung, feeling like a leech sucking the data from his body.

Bass barely noticed; all he did was charge his body’s energy levels and the goo burned off of his frame.

Down, down, down. Endlessly down into the black core of Alpha, where Bass knew that he would be nothing more then fuel for Alpha’s power center. And once his memories became Alpha’s, then they would become XANA’s, then the world would be hers.

He squinted his eyes in anger. I will not let myself die like this, he thought. I will not be assimilated… like a (explicative deleted) borg, by a Goddamn ball of goo. I… WILL…

However, he never got to finish that sentence, because he was suddenly yanked backwards.

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Jeremie heard the hiss of pressurized gasses as the elevator door opened up, but he was too busy typing in various search queries on the supercomputer’s main screen to acknowledge his friends limp into the room.

“How’s… Aeilita?” panted Yumi.

“I don’t know!” Jeremie cried out in frustration. “It doesn’t say she’s dead, but it says that she’s not on Lyoko any more, and she doesn’t show up anywhere anymore!”

In the sector five map, it showed the red dot of XANA zooming around the purple dot of Bass. Occasionally, the two dots would ram into each other, then pull apart just as quickly.

“Jeremie?” Odd asked, nervously, “Do you think that Aeilita is…?”

“No.” he replied quickly, and with more confidence then he actually felt.

And so he worked.

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Bass felt himself being yanked backwards from the downward spiral that lead to Alpha’s core. He turned sluggishly to see two goo-arms pulling him away into another dark section of Alpha, one guarded by two sparkling white doors. For some reason, Bass felt a sense of dread as he approached them.

As quick as lightning, Bass slammed his fists into the arms, hoping to break their connection to him. He didn’t know exactly what was on the other side of the doors, but he didn’t really want to find out in case it was a way for him to be dissolved faster.

However, his struggles, for the first time in his life, proved for naught, as he was inexorably drawn into the doorway. A bright light overtook him as he entered, as if a return to the past was activated.

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Bass opened his eyes, then shut them immediately as a brilliantly white light flooded into his eyes. He groaned, rolling onto his stomach so he could use his arms and push himself up into a standing position.

“Well, look who’s finally awake,” came a pleasant female voice.

Bass turned towards the sound of the voice. A familiar pink-haired, elfin computer program was sitting next to a large bank of computers.

“I thought you were dead,” Bass muttered. “I thought wrong, then.”

Aeilita smiled at him. “No. But there is something that I do want to say to you…”

She strode across the room to the now-standing Bass, and socked him in the gut.

Bass doubled over in pain, while Aeilita wore a smug look. “Now, what have we learned about playing bowling with me?”

“Don’t?”

“Correct.” She replied smugly.

“Wait…” Bass looked at her while getting to her feet. “On Lyoko, you can barely defend yourself, yet somehow, you can wind me with one punch? What’s going on?”

He looked around the room. It was pretty messy, with two whole walls covered in old-fashioned computers. The rest of the room was taken up by two cots, a large counter with multiple scientific-looking gadgets all over it, and computer and electronic parts scattered all over the place.

On one wall, A gigantic set of double doors stood imposingly, dominating the whole room. Bass looked at them for a moment. “Am I dead?”

“No, but we are inside of Alpha.”

“How’d you find this room?” Bass looked at her quizzically. “And furthermore, how the heck were you healed so quickly? You were impaled! And,” he added, “Come to think of it, so was I.”

“I healed you both,” came a deeper voice from the corner. A medium-height man with graying hair, beard, and mustache began to walk over. He was wearing a long white lab coat, with a black T-shirt on underneath it and blue jeans.

“Bass,” Aeilita said, “I want you to meet our father-”

“Your father.” Bass quickly corrected. “And it’s… interesting… to meet you, Mister Franz Hopper.”

“No, no,” Franz quickly countered. “The pleasure is all mine, my son.”

“I’m not your son.”

“I commissioned your-”

“Yes, but-”

“Can we focus a little, please?” Aeilita cut in angrily. “We’re all trapped in this Alf-”

“Alpha.”

“Thank you, Bass, Alpha, and we need to get out or XANA will decimate the world.”

“Good luck with that.” Bass scoffed. “Last time, what was left of my programming was ejected as junk data after Alpha was defeated by Megaman. I fused with the remains of the virus-born beast created by the internet crime organization Gospel.”

Franz Hopper looked at his daughter and the guardian program of Lyoko as if they were insane. “Why don’t you two just combine your power?”

“Yeah, right. With no Get Ability, how do you propose that I merge my power with hers?”

“… You really don’t know, do you Bass?” Franz said, pityingly. “Aeilita, I wouldn’t expect you to know, because I never told you about it. Well, because Bass was never put on Lyoko, I never saw the need to…” his voice trailed off.

Bass stepped forwards. “What do you mean, ‘I really don’t know?’ What am I supposed to know?”

Franz Hopper sighed. “Years ago, before XANA was truly a threat, merely an annoyance, I realized the value of creating a defensive program to protect Aeilita and myself in case something went wrong on Lyoko. You were that defensive program.”

Franz took a big sigh. “However, when you were first activated, you rebelled almost instantly. You hated the idea of being forced to protect and serve us, mostly because of your pride. Thusly, I concocted one of my greatest computer achievements…”

Franz looked at both of them. “The Hearts of the Warriors. They were computer programs designed to protect Aeilita and I. Whenever we were in danger, it would send out a signal that would make you come to our aid.”

Bass was trembling with anger. Aeilita, however, was more level-headed. “If that’s true, father, then why didn’t Bass try to come to our aid when XANA first started to attack?”

“Bass was in what the Japanese call the Cybernet. It’s like a fusion of Lyoko and the World Wide Web that we have here. Since the two are not connected, the signal for Bass to come to our aid would never have reached him.”

“Wait. If the two are not connected, how was I able to get to Lyoko?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check Lyoko’s outward links to make sure.”

Aeilita cleared her throat. “Father, you were saying something about The Hearts of the Warriors?”

Franz Hopper nodded. “Sorry. Anyways, once the Heart of a Warrior Minus-”

“Minus?” asked Bass.

“There were two forms: Plus and Minus. You have Minus installed in you, and Aeilita has Plus. The Plus is basically the one that the Minus was forced to protect.”

Franz turned to an old, outdated computer on the wall. “However, in situations of extreme stress and near-certain death, the two programs combine into the Heart of a Warrior Omega. In the process, the two beings who hold the programs have their power fused.”

“So.” Bass said, while glaring at Franz, “How do you know that this will work?”

“Simple. Aeilita and I tested it with you. My guess is that you had your memories wiped after you were taken away from the Lyoko project, as I did with my daughter.”

“YOU EXPERIMENTED ON ME/YOUR DAUGHTER?” Yelled Aeilita and Bass angrily.

“We had no choice. XANA attacked, and she nearly succeeded. You two fused your power as a last-ditch attempt to stop her. Less then a week later, the feds were shutting down my credit cards, the Lyoko project was ruined, and Dr. Cossak took you away to the relative safety of the Net.”

“As soon as the feds closed in on my house, Aeilita and I fled. We then sent ourselves to Lyoko. However, as soon as we got to Lyoko, Aeilita and I were attacked by XANA. In the process, she lost her memories and I was absorbed by XANA.”

“…So, how do we get out again?” Aeilita asked, confused.

“You both have to-”

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LYOKO, SECTOR FIVE

XANA was standing on Alpha’s shoulder, her hand on his head.

“Is it done yet?”

“Almost, your majesty, I just have to- SOMETHING’S WRONG!”

“What is it, Alpha?”

“T…they’re gone! I can’t find them anywhere inside of me!”

“Then I suppose that I’LL have to look!”

XANA’s arm quickly turned into black smoke, which then shot into Alpha’s core.

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“You both have to-” started Franz, but before he could continue, a loud explosion rocked the room. The door buckled, and a trickle of black smoke began to come in.

“What’s going on?” Aeilita asked, staring at the door.

“XANA’s trying to break in!” yelled Franz. “Quick! Focus on your bond! If you two manage to combine your power, we may win!”

“Question: HOW?” Bass yelled. “I had no idea that I had this thing in me, much less how to use it!”

“Well…” Franz thought out loud as the door took another titanic blow, “I could use the manual override…”

“I don’t like where this is going,” muttered Bass.

Franz spun on his heel, facing his daughter and defense program. “Execute program one seven decimal two eight. Omega fusion activate!”

All at once, the three in the room began to glow as the door shook again.

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XANA flew backwards as Alpha slammed his claw into her.

“WHY DID YOU HIT ME, YOU SLIME-BASED FREAK?”

“I had to protect you, milady!” Alpha said in fear. “There’s something terribly wrong with me! You could get- AAAUGH!” he screamed.

He clutched his head, screaming, “AAAAAH ITHURTSITHURTSMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

Then, in a huge shower of goo and a massive flash of light, Alpha exploded.

XANA shielded her eyes from the massive wave of light that radiated from where Alpha’s destroyed core once was. Gradually, the light dimmed, and XANA looked back.

A tall young woman was floating in the middle of the room. Her hair was about mid-back length, and was pink with purple-and-silver tips. She wore a dark-maroon colored jumpsuit, and a red “L” was prominent on her crest, which was similar to Bass’. Around her neck, she wore a short, brown, tattered scarf. Her gauntlets were similar to Bass’ gauntlets, but with silver lining instead of gold. Her eyes shone a deep purple, with pink marks under them. She was smiling in a way that has been described as “terrifying,” “frightening,” and “Bass-esque.”

She opened her mouth, bubbles of energy forming in her palms.

“Hello, XANA.” She said. “My name is Candance. We need to talk.”

Sithking Zero: Megaman, Code: Lyoko, and all affiliated properties, names, and other stuff related to the topics are not mine. Except Candance. She’s mine.

As a recap, we’re almost done, people! Just this, the next chapter, and the acknowledgements! But anyways…

Bass was absorbed by Alpha, who planned to give his programs, along with Aeilita’s, to XANA. However, he was rescued by Franz Hopper and Aeilita, who took him to the secret room inside Alpha himself that Alpha could not touch. Bass was then told the history of him and Aeilita, and the bonding program between them, the “Hearts of the Warriors.” Franz used a manual override to fuse the two into the female program Candance, and now, the final battle for Earth shall begin!

Well, faithful readers, if you’ve read this far, then take heart. It’s been a crazy ride for all of us, and it’s almost over. Just this and the next, and we’re done here. So, without further ado, I, Sithking Zero, do hereby present…

Chapter 22

Titan Clash II:
Banishing World

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of evil people, but because of those who don’t do anything about it.”

-Albert Einstein

XANA shielded her eyes from the massive wave of light that radiated from where Alpha’s destroyed core once was. Gradually, the light dimmed, and XANA looked back.

A tall young woman was floating in the middle of the room. Her hair was about mid-back length, and was pink with purple-and-silver tips. She wore a dark-maroon colored jumpsuit, and a red “L” was prominent on her crest, which was similar to Bass’. Around her neck, she wore a short, brown, tattered scarf. Her gauntlets were similar to Bass’ gauntlets, but with silver lining instead of gold. Her eyes shone a deep purple, with pink marks under them. She was smiling in a way that has been described as “terrifying,” “frightening,” and “Bass-esque.”

She opened her mouth, bubbles of energy forming in her palms.

“Hello, XANA.” She said. “My name is Candance. We need to talk.”

XANA gave a tight-lipped smile to her foe. “Hello again, Candance. I wish that I could say that it was nice seeing you…”

Candance floated back a little bit.

“You know me? How?”

XANA smirked. “It’s not like telling you anything will change your fat- WHUFF!” she whooshed as Candance’s fist sailed into her gut.

XANA sailed backwards before finally regaining control of her momentum.

“How did you do that? Last time we fought, we were evenly matched…”

“I’ve gotten better, XANA,” came Candance’s smug voice. “You of all beings should know that it is possible to raise yourself above what we were created to do.”

“Too true,” came XANA’s voice as she charged up a massive bolt of energy.

“Yet…” she spoke softly, as though sad, “I have not. And neither have you!”

Candance rocketed towards XANA, hell-bent on destroying her. “What are you talking about?” she cried.

XANA rained the holocaust blast down on her foe, knocking Candance back into the next room, through the wall.

“I was created to destroy Lyoko. You two,” she cried, “Were created to save it! Who are you to talk about ‘Raising yourself up?’ Even now,” she continued, floating towards the hole in the wall, “You continue to try to fulfill your primary program! As do I” she admitted.

There was no movement from the pile of rubble where Candance had landed. XANA peered at the pile with interest. “Come on, it can’t be over already!” she exclaimed, pulling out her sword with a loud metallic scraping sound.

“You’re right.” Came the voice from the pile of stones. A massive burst of light vaporized the stones and knocked XANA back. “It isn’t.”

Candance grinned. “And now… it’s time for some well-earned payback.”

She leapt up, immiediately landing a one-two combo in XANA’s gut, before executing a roundhouse kick to the face and breaking XANA’s nose.

XANA danced back, clutching her nose, blood spurting out of it and running down her armor.

Only for a second, however, because in a second, XANA leapt forwards, slashing away at Candance, who managed an energy pulse to the back but had about a foot of her hair sliced off. XANA, not really affected, kept up the assault, missing most of the time but finally landing a massive blow on Candance’s jaw, sending her flying through another wall.

Candance soared out of the smoke and grabbed XANA, repeatedly slamming her into wall and ceiling until they started to crumble. As the debris rained, XANA escaped, kicking Candance in the shin before both of them had to temporarily abandon the fight to avoid massive chunks of debris and stones falling from above.

After a moment, each began to move towards each other, vaporizing the various stones and rocks that got in their way. Finally, with a roar, their aura shields blazing red and purple, the two warrior goddesses began to hammer at each other with blows that should have killed a normal man.

Each blow, each blast, every exchange of hatred was stronger then the last. The Goddess of Lyoko darted and danced around the Demon, but the Demon was fast, too. They flew, striking, hitting, punching, destroying everything in their path. Walls disintegrated, and massive blocks of stone and steel were but momentary shields against the furious attacks of Candance and XANA.

After about ten minutes, the battle was still raging strong. Neither side gave anything, not in the slightest. Candance drew back for a moment, charging a massive ball of light and hyperexcited photons, before spewing out the pure energy blast in a holocaust wave that slammed into XANA.

“Tough little bitch, aren’t you?” XANA muttered, loud enough to hear, as she stepped out of the rubble.

“Let’s see…” muttered XANA as she drew her sword again. “I know I’m forgetting something…”

“How about I remind you?” cried Candance. “Taste EXPLOSION!”

Candance held out her glowing forearm and watched as hundreds of small energy balls rocketed towards XANA, falling like rain and exploding like missiles.

XANA rocketed out of the explosions, trailing flame and smoke, and slashing wildly at her foe. Candance was startled backwards for a bit, but then, after XANA left herself exposed after a bad slash, grabbed the sword.

What Candance did NOT expect was for XANA to grab the arm that was grabbing the sword.

“Oh, yes. I remember now!” XANA cried. “GET ABILITY!” she yelled.

Candance looked at her in disgust for a second before punching XANA in the face. Repeatedly.

After about five punches to the face, XANA let go and sailed across the room.

“You two.” She began to chuckle. “You two… have just sealed your world’s fate!”

“What are you talking about?” Candance asked gravely.

“Simple, really. Like the two of you, I too had something removed from me, except in my case it was removed by Franz Hopper himself! It was a crucial piece of data which would allow me to leave Lyoko for good: Human DNA.”

“Human DNA?”

“Yes. My creator planted his own DNA in me in order to make me more powerful. And now that I have fresh DNA…”

XANA rocketed in faster then Candance could follow, grabbing her by the throat.

“It’s time for you two to die.”

With a flick of the wrist, XANA threw them down. Through the floor, through the bottom of the sector, and down into the digital sea.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

XANA stood for a moment, contemplating triumph. “Finally… Aeilita and Bass… gone at last…”

She turned on her heel in mid-air.

She made a gesture, and a thousand monsters of every type appeared out of thin air.

“Come, my minions,” she cried. “Finally, after all these years, Lyoko is no longer necessary!”

She waved her hand, and a massive portal opened in mid-air. “We shall enslave a new world! A world for me to rule! A world that my father will have blessed!”

Through the warp hole, tall, mechanical-looking white towers rose up from the ground like a child’s dream.

“Now… MARCH!”

But before they could get even a step closer to the portal, something exploded out of the floor and delivered a massive uppercut to XANA, effectively closing the portal.

“XANA…” the female, pink-haired program growled. “THIS… ENDS… NOW!” screamed Candance.

With that, Candance leapt into the air, slamming her hands together as she rose.

And in that instant, her arms changed. Running from her hands were hundreds of black and yellow scales, which morphed and engulfed her arms. Gradually, they became cone-shaped, and then it became clear what was on Candance’s arms.

On her arms was a massive wolf’s head. It opened its mouth, roaring a challenge to the heavens, defying its dark foe.

“What the HELL is that?” yelled XANA.

“Oh, this?” came Candance’s smug voice. “This is Bass’ ultimate attack, his finishing move, if you will. Want to see what it does?”

XANA just stared in horror as the massive wolf’s head began to glow. A massive ball of contained lightning built itself up in its mouth.

“Oh, I thought that might be your response, XANA. No matter, I’ll just show you anyway!”

The wolf’s head was now too bright to look at. Too late, the monsters started to fire on Candance, but it was like rain rolling off glass.

“Ready, XANA?” whispered Candance. “BANASHING WORLD!”

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Sector five, from the outside, was nothing more then a gigantic sphere. Perfectly round, white as snow, and big as a small city.

Suddenly, a bulge appeared. Nothing much, just a large lump on the otherwise perfect sphere.

Then another appeared. And another. Some began to burst, tearing holes in the side and spilling out massive gouts of fire. Massive seams appeared where none had appeared before, and in moments, Sector Five exploded in a blast to rival a supernova.

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Out of the falling wreckage, a cloaked figure floated in the middle of the pocket void that had once held sector five.

Over one shoulder was his sister, her short pink hair covering her eyes. Yet her brother knew she was asleep.

Over his other shoulder, an older, fifty-year old man was draped unceremoniously. His white lab coat now bore scorch marks, and his hair was wild.

Bass looked at his surroundings, and seeing that there was nothing left of the core zone, Bass teleported away, taking the two hitchhikers with him.

Sithking Zero: Code: Lyoko, Megaman, Capcom, France 3, Canal J, and Moonscoop don’t belong to me.

Here it is… On the eve of season three, here is the final chapter…

Heart of a Warrior
Chapter 23:
Redemption and Resurrection

“Well, it’s official: I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”

Jeremie and the rest had watched for the last ten minutes as first Aelita, then Bass, disappeared into the large mass that was Alpha. Then, to their confusion, a strange being had shown up on the monitor labeled “Candance.EXE,” who had immediately started to attack XANA.

For about ten minutes, Candance and XANA exchanged blows before Candance disappeared from the screen for a moment. Then, Candance reappeared, but seconds later, the screen showed the following message:

ERROR 102

SECTOR NOT FOUND

The area of Lyoko you have been observing is not available.

Would you like to reset the monitor?

Y/N?

Jeremie looked back at his friends for a moment, before reaching out with his index finger and hitting the “Y” button.

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IN LYOKO…

Bass was thinking.

Now in the ice sector, he had laid the two humans-turned-programs on the ground, keeping a vigilant watch as he considered what the proper course of action would be in a situation like this.

Granted, he wasn’t all that prepared for a situation like this. The obvious solution would be to send the humans back, head to the forest, go through the portal to the undernet, and spend the rest of his life in solitary loneliness, killing who he could in a futile attempt to get back at humanity.

But did humanity in general really need to be annihilated? That was the big question. Ever since he got sick and was nearly killed when XANA attacked him with a Scyphizoa, Aeilita showed him that not all humans were evil monsters bent on his destruction. With a level of kindness and care that he had never seen before, she had nursed him back to health, despite the obvious risk to her own health and safety.

But when had anyone else ever shown him that courtesy? Megaman had offered his friendship after Bass was beaten by him for the second time, but he had refused, his pride overwhelming him. What would have come from that choice had Bass decided “Yes?”

Well, Bass thought with a chuckle, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?

He looked back on the last two years of his life, reflecting.

His journey to Lyoko had started about a year and a half ago, when a crazy Doctor named Wily had attempted to create the ultimate virus to decimate the net and get his revenge for some reason or other. During the confusion after Megaman and Lan Hikari destroyed the ultimate virus, the Life Virus, Bass had snuck in and stolen the Life Aura, a nearly impenetrable shield that protected his almost-invincible form well. After a several-month vacation, he began to find clones of himself wandering the undernet, but those were quickly dispatched. Not long after, Doctor Wily approached Bass and asked for his help in reviving Alpha, who was destined to assimilate the entire internet. Bass had agreed, at the time, any attempt to annihilate the humans was a good one.

Things apparently got better, as his own father, Dr. Cossak, attempted to stop him personally using the Pulse Transmission System, a method of transmitting one’s mind into the internet (but not the whole body, as the Lyoko Scanners would do.) Bass had nearly killed his father, but his father was shortly avenged by Lan Hikari and Megaman, and Bass was assimilated by Alpha.

However, he grabbed onto some passing junk data as he entered, he discovered the most power he had ever felt: The remnants of the Gospel Beast. Seeing a chance for new life, he fused with them, and fled to the undernet. However, Megaman, acting on the orders of Queen Serenade, Queen of the Undernet, attacked and nearly destroyed Bass, yet again. Bass limped away, running away from all of the civilized net and its navis, to a secret location where he could live in peace and quiet while he regained his strength. However, a mere week later, a mysterious portal had opened up, and Bass had hopped in, and thusly entered Lyoko.

Now, the dilemma. With XANA dead, and all threats gone, he could use the Lyoko tech to go to the real world and exact vengeance on Lan Hikari, Dr. Cossak, and anyone else who got in his way.

But... he knew in his heart that they didn’t deserve it. They were only human, and thus made mistakes.

Bass turned back to his sister and her father.

In that instant, he chose his destiny.

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ON EARTH…

Jeremie and the rest waited patiently for the computer to reboot itself, a small digital timer counting down the seconds until the screen could resume its normal operation.

03… 02… 01… SUPERCOMPUTER MONITOR SUCCESSFULLY REBOOTED. RESUMING NORMAL OPPERATIONS.

Jeremie and the others breathed out a sigh of relief, until a loud beeping noise sounded, followed by this message:

WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO RESTRICTED FILES HACKED. DIGITAL BEINGS MATERIALIZED IN THE REAL WORLD. INSPECTION OF SCANNERS ADVISED. ENERGY BUILDUP-

However, no one was paying any attention to the rest of the message, which deleted itself for a moment, but not before a strange symbol flashed across the screen, a bizarre one that resembled multiple diagonal slashes to resemble a letter…

The gang members that were not on Lyoko, that is, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Jeremie, raced to the elevator, pressing the button that sent them all one floor lower, to the Scanner room.

Within seconds the elevator traveled the distance between the two floors, opening in time to show all three scanners open at once, revealing three figures.

The first one was Aeilita, who was curled up on the floor, just like she was when she first came to our world. Out of the second scanner tumbled a middle-aged man in blue jeans and a white Lab coat, moaning slightly. This was Franz Hopper.

Out of the last scanner came a tall, cloaked figure with massive yellow fins on his head. His helmet carried a four-pointed star between the fins, but his ruby eyes no longer carried the pure hatred it had when Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Aeilita had first gazed upon them.

“We need to talk.” Bass said, motioning to the two unconscious figures lying in the scanners.

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“And that’s what happened.” Bass finished.

Bass had just finished telling the rest of the gang what had transpired after Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were devirtualized, from Aeilita’s death to the Banishing World attack by Candance.

By this point, Aeilita and Franz were awake and were watching Bass tell his story.

Bass stretched, then stood up.

“Well, it was nice, knowing all of you, but I have to go now.” He stated.

He then began to move towards the elevator, when Franz asked, “Where are you going?”

Bass stopped, sighed, and turned back to Franz.

“I’m going to Japan. I have some… friends… I need to see there.”

Bass turned back to the elevator and continued speaking. “I… have not been a good person. I have killed, maimed, and destroyed wantonly. I’m at the top of more hit lists then anyone else in the net.”

Aeilita spoke up, “Then why don’t you live with our father-”

“Don’t say it, Aeilita.” Bass said. “He’s not my father, he didn’t create me. And as to your question, if I stayed here, as much as that would make me happy being your brother, I have no idea how to not hate humans. I have a lot to unlearn… as well as learn.

“Not only that,” he continued, “but I am going to work to redeem myself and help those whom I have hurt in the past.”

Franz stood up and stood in the way of the cloaked computer program (this is an EXCEPTIONALLY bad idea, by the way.)

“Now, Bass, as your Father-” he began, but was cut off by Bass’ hand at his throat.

“Listen VERY carefully.” Bass growled. “You are not my father. My father raised me, cared for me, and loved me. My father wouldn’t use me as a guinea pig for some ‘Fusion experiment’ and he wouldn’t have done it with my sister. Now get out of my way.”

He dropped Franz Hopper, who darted out of Bass’ way, and Bass stepped into the elevator.

He turned back to them.

“Farewell, humans. We will meet again.”

And then the door closed.

EPILOGUE

After Bass left for Japan, things got quieter around Kadic. Jeremie and Aeilita started dating shortly after Bass left, while Ulrich and Yumi took almost two more months before they finally decided to get together. Aeilita and Franz Hopper moved back into the Hermitage, after straightening out the legal records and such. Franz also talked to the school board so that Jeremie wouldn’t get in trouble for falsifying documents.

Sissi and Odd got along much better after Bass left, mostly because Odd was feeling more brave after not being annihilated by Bass. However, they were both pulled into Bass’ troubles once again almost half a year later.

But that’s another story.

About two weeks after Bass left France, Beach Street hospital, Japan, received a new visitor to the outpatient ward…

A figure, wearing a long brown trench coat with a massive hood, walked in out of the rain that had been besieging Japan for weeks.

Anna, the nurse on duty, watched as the visitor walked across the lobby, looked around, and walked towards her.

“Excuse me,” he asked, “Where is Dr. Mikhael Cossak’s room?”

“Down the hall, to the left, room 134.” She answered in a bored sort of voice.

“Thank you.” The man replied, turning in the direction that she had previously indicated.

After about two minutes, the figure entered room 134.

Dr. Cossak was sitting up in his bed, a newspaper out, doing the crossword puzzle.

“Now, an eight-letter word for ‘Savage…’” he wondered for a moment, his mustache twitching slightly.

“AHA! ‘CANIBALL!’” he cried, scribbling down the answer quickly.

“You recovered quickly for almost having your brain fried by Bass,” came the stranger’s voice.

Dr. Cossak jumped slightly, turning to the new arrival.

“I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t notice you there! And by the way, who are you? Your voice sounds familiar, but I-”

“Maybe this will refresh your memory;” the figure pulled back his hood, revealing two large yellow fins. “Father.”

Dr. Cossak jumped back, then calmed down.

“Well, it’s not like I didn’t expect this. You’ve come to finish the job.”

“Not exactly. I want two things. The first of which is information.”

“So you discovered my work on the Lyoko project, didn’t you?”

“How’d you guess?”

“You’re in my world when that would normally be impossible. Do the math.”

Bass stared at his father coldly.

“Who am I? What was my original purpose? Are you my real father, and what’s the deal with the ‘Heart of a Warrior,’ thing?”

Dr. Cossak sighed and turned towards his digital son. “True, I did design you as a guardian program for Lyoko. And true, Franz Hopper does consider himself “your father.”

Bass nodded.

“However, while it may not be true that he’s your ‘Father,’ Aeilita is your sister.”

Bass’ eyes widened at this. “How-?”

Dr. Cossak cut him off. “When I designed you, I had a copy of your frame coding saved to a separate disc. When Franz wanted to create a virtual identity for his daughter, he used your coding as the primary structure. That’s why the two of you were able to fuse together, once. But I’m not sure if it’ll work now…”

“Why not?”

“Because,” Dr. Cossak explained. “When I erased your memories of Lyoko, I accidentally erased all memories of how to fuse with Aeilita. So recreating Candance is impossible…”

“Two things, Doc.” Bass growled. “I DID fuse with Aeilita to create Candance. I killed XANA. I had some help from Franz Hopper,” he added, “But please, elaborate. What was that you said about erasing my memories?”

“I had no choice!” Dr. Cossak responded quickly, seeing lighting crackling around Bass’ forearms. “The French special ops teams were closing in. I took you and ran, barely escaping with my life. If I had stayed, both of us would have died in a French interrogation chamber. And remember, these are the people who invented the guillotine as a way of ‘merciful death.’”

“…Point. And the ‘Heart of a Warrior,’ thing?”

“It was a test bed, a prototype. It was never supposed to be tested, or even used. Basically, it was intended as a way to link up two dissimilar systems, such as Mac and Windows, and fuse them together. It was never intended as a battle form.”

“Yet, it was frighteningly effective at that.”

Dr. Cossak nodded.

“Towards the end, before Franz and Aeilita were taken, we had the sneaking suspicion that there was something wrong with Lyoko. We ran a scan, and it was revealed to be XANA. We don’t know how or where XANA comes from, but we know it’s not a virus. We’re not sure what it is, though. Anyways, you and Aeilita volunteered to use the ‘Heart of a Warrior’ program, and you were fused together. As Candance, you easily defeated XANA, but you two were stuck with the programs.”

“So why am I forced to protect Aeilita, then?”

“I protested against it, but I think that Franz modified the program in the two of you so that you would be forced to protect her.”

Bass stood there for a long while, staring at the floor, trying to process the wealth of data that his father had just provided him.

“Now, Bass, you said you were here for two reasons. The first was information, which I gave. What was the second?”

Dr. Cossak’s words startled Bass out of his state of shock. Immediately, he looked embarrassed, almost scared.

“Father, I just wanted to say…” he took a deep breath, “I’m sorry. I wish that I had never attacked you, and never put you in this state. I wish I could take back the last ten years of my life.”

Tears were now rolling silently down Bass’ cheeks, rolling over the stripes of purple tattooed onto his cheeks.

“My son…” Dr. Cossak took a deep breath, “I forgive you.”

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TWO MONTHS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE…

In the depths of an old factory in France, a dark force rolled and bubbled, finally making its move after making sure no one was watching it.

With a hiss of pressurized gasses, A scanner opened wide, and a man in a white lab coat stepped out. His hair over his ears was ruffled and out of place, while his bald spot was coated with moisture. He grasped his cane tightly, and stretched.

After a moment, he walked towards the elevator and got in.

Once he got out of the elevator, the old man sat down at the chair, and typed in a few passcodes, and a young woman’s image popped up.

A female with raven hair and a black samurai helmet with a red eye of XANA on it appeared on-screen.

“Did I do well, father?” asked XANA.

The old man paused for a moment, before answering, “Yes, my dear XANA. You did very well indeed…”

--- --- THE END --- ---

Hi! I’m Sithking Zero, of Sithking Zero Fanfictions, inc, and I wrote the story that you just read. I’d just like to say a few words about the project that I just finished.

First off, the story in general. I really didn’t expect to do anything, really, with that, except have Bass come to Lyoko and pretty much tear around, blowing up random crap, and destroying everything in sight. However, things have come so far since that… I didn’t even plan a quarter of the things that have been written so far. My goals for this story have changed so much, it’s absolutely amazing. This story has gotten way more popular then any other story that I have ever written. Impressive, no? But, story stats alone don’t tell all there is to know. What of the fans? Did they like it? Were they satisfied with the results of the fanfiction? Did they like the ending? What parts confused them? How bad did I screw up your favorite character? Will I give out Cameos? That’s why there’s the review function. Without the reviews, this story would suck. Really. The input is valuable and tells me where I did wrong and how I could have done better.

I just want to personally thank everyone who has helped make this fanfiction a reality. First off, I’d like to thank Blitz Chick, my little sister. Without her to proofread my stories and to bounce ideas off of, this story would REALLY suck. Next goes to EE’s Skysong, who really helped inspire some of the chapters. Also, thanks to Mirielle, who’s fiction “Odd One Out,” was a great inspiration. Also to Vulpix 1000 for being the first person to really review my stories (ever), to Ulrich’s Little Brother and Gamma Sage for constantly reviewing, to Vector Z, who’s fic “A monster of a Problem,” was another great inspiration, to Ryo Takamisaki, writer and drawer of the Megaman NT Warrior Manga (who was really the one who came up with Bass’ backstory, I just modified it), to Chise-san, Telith, Mori, and others like you (friends in real life), Artreyu452, whose fic “Hikari Enzan,” was one of the main reasons I became a fanfiction author, to Robert Cloud, who is a more obsessive fan of Bass then I would ever fear becoming (seriously-the guy is obsessed.) Other thanks go out to Briana and Almighty Tallest Angie, though I first knew Almighty Tallest Angie as Taelia from the Lyokofreak boards. More thanks to Otritzri, to Gia, my psychologist (did you really think a sane person was responsible for this?) to my mom and dad, and definitely Mr. McMeel and Mr. Thomas, the directors of my local anime club. They are on the threshold of insanity; any more, and they’d be thrown in the loony bin. They rock. Lastly, I’d like to thank Shademan V.39. Where to begin with this guy? Without him, the story would be radically different. He started reviewing around chapter three, and we started exchanging ideas soon afterwards. He inspired me to have many of the major points in the story happen. Alpha appearing? The virus assault? The reason as to why Bass flipped out in chapter twenty? All inspired by his ideas. Without him, the story would be… lacking, to say the least. Thanks to all who reviewed the story too!

So, you might be wondering, “What’s next for Sithking Zero? Will we ever meet up with the brave and noble cast of ‘Heart of a Warrior,’ again? What’s XANA up to, and Who’s XANA’s father? I’m not saying much, but let’s just say that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Bass and Aeilita… I also have some pretty cool stuff coming down the tube, including some oneshots and romance Fanfictions. Some short Megaman stuff is in the future, including possibly getting re-started on Sigma.exe: Wraith of the Mavericks (first fanfiction!) Maybe I’ll do some Danny Phantom, or Avatar, or some other stuff. Really? I’m not all that sure myself. I never really thought about what would happen after this story. Once it’s done… I don’t really know what I’m gonna do with myself!

But thanks to all of you who helped make this story a reality. Thanks to all those who read it, and now, I’m afraid, we have reached the end of our journey together. Who knows? Maybe someday, we once again travel the path as one. Until then… I bid you adieu, and never stop dreaming…