Heart of a Warrior III: Warrior's Redemption. by Sithking Zero
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Author's Chapter Notes:

This is the REAL chapter ten. But It's actually chapter eleven.

Anyway, Odd's having nightmares after being attacked by the Scyphizoa, the shadowy figure comes back, and new plans are abound for our enemies...

Heart of a Warrior III
Warrior’s RedemptionChapter 11:R, R, and R:Rest, Relaxation, and Rage  

            IN SECTOR 5 AKA “CARTHAGE…”

 

            “I’m sorry, father. The warriors managed to deactivate the towers, and now they have power back to their facilities.”

 

            The old man sighed and rubbed his hand across his brow.

 

            “Well,” he began, on the plus side, we did get eighty-six percent of the power we require… and that has pushed up our timeline for success greatly… So no real harm done. Too bad we weren’t able to get total success…”

 

            XANA smirked. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that that was all we accomplished, father…”

 

            Her father perked up. “What’s that?”

 

            “You do happen to realize that I was able to implant a darkchip into one of their members, correct?”

 

            “Into a human?”

 

            “Yes.”

 

            “… nice work. In fact, I have just the plan where this sort of thing would be excellent…”

 

            “Really, father? What is it?”

 

            “All in good time, my dear, all in good time. In the meantime, how’s Forte doing? Are your sync rates comparable?”

 

            XANA scowled at her father’s image. “Yes, we’re doing admirably. I would estimate that we are at a sixty-two percent sync rate. And Forte is being… himself. He’s wondering why he has to do, in his words, ‘Such menial, degrading work suitable for a Mettaur.’”

 

            She took a breath, then burst out, “Father, why do we have to ready ourselves for implantation? I was able to fight off Cadence alone last time, why can’t I just-”

 

            “I WILL HEAR NO DISOBEDIANCE!!!” roared the old man. “I did not spend so much time working hard to copy so many of Hopper and Cossak’s stupid programs to have my efforts wasted by the likes of one naysayer.”

 

            “And if you’ll recall,” he shot at her sharply, “Cadence nearly DESTROYED you the first time. And the second time,” he gave her a look of rage, “Cadence was rusty and didn’t even know what she was capable of, not to mention YOU knew what you were facing this time, and you STILL lost! If it were not for my own skill and your natural defenses, you would be junk data floating on the breeze! You still think that you do not need the Heart of Darkness?” he cried.

 

            XANA winced visibly. “N…n-no, father, of cou-”

 

            “Good,” he interrupted. “Now, what we are to do with the human-” but his watch interrupted him. “Damn,” he muttered, “I’ll just send you the plans later. By the way…” he added, almost as an aside, “Make sure that you launch an attack sometime in the next twenty four hours, and make sure that you send lots of monsters against the dark human.”

 

            With that, he terminated the connection, leaving XANA embarrassed and fuming.

 

            Didn’t that crazy old man ever think that maybe, just maybe, she would be sufficient to destroy the Lyoko Warriors? After all, she could take on each and every one of them in single combat and win.

 

            Still, that annoying little voice in the back of her head replied, You did fudge the last time you fought Bass.

 

            ‘No way!’ she thought. ‘I won that fight fair and square.’

 

            Yeah, by having Alpha distract him and then stabbing him.

 

            ‘Shut up,’ she mentally muttered, rubbing her arm and side, tracing the outline of the massive scar that was the physical reminder of where the energy blast of Cadence had ripped her open.

 

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            Odd woke up with a small cry, drenched in sweat.

 

            Ulrich turned over, still about eighty percent asleep, but caring enough to mutter, “Wasgooenon?” (What’s going on?)

 

            Odd turned and replied shakily, “Nothing. Nothing at all… just a bad dream… a really bad dream…”

 

            Ulrich, however, wasn’t even awake enough to understand, he had gone straight back to sleep right after he made his barely intelegable remark.

 

            Odd closed his eyes. The dream- nay, nightmare, he knew, had been so unbelievably vivid…

             It had started off nice, with Sissi, and the ice cream parlor… but then a Krabe had stormed through, impaling people on it’s sharpened legs, blasting holes in people with its three eyes. Odd tried to push Sissi behind him, but her head exploded in a pop of steam, boiled brains, and flesh as a laser boiled through her skull.             A Scyphizoa’s tentacles wrapped around him and raised him up through the roof to witness the destruction of the city.             As soon as they were at roof height, it pressed three tentacles to his head, which pulsed once, then released him. He immiediately found that he was not in control of his body, and he found himself a mere passenger, whereas before he was in control. He walked forwards, stepping onto a manta, then crouched, letting the manta carry him to one of it’s brothers, upon which XANA was watching the destruction in all her glory.             Odd had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that she was sort of pretty, her raven hair flowing and snapping behind her like a cape, the sun glittering off of her armor.             He gingerly stepped off of his manta so that he was standing next to the ultimate manifestation of all that was evil in his life. She sighed contentedly.             “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked lovingly. “I’ve waited so long for this moment…”             Odd stared down at the ground, far below. Monsters were lurching out of the factory in a steady, unbroken stream, dividing and conquering. He watched as civilians fled before their advance, some falling behind and were destroyed. Heroes, or the civilians that were trying to fight, suffered a worse fate- monsters would swarm upon them, not even bothering with their lasers, and used simply their claws and legs to rip them apart, disemboweling them, rending them limb from limb, and listening as their screams of final agony and their death rattles filled the air.             The monsters were now making a strategic pincer movement, herding the civilians who had fled into a large group, cutting off escape for the thousands of men, women, and children, all lscared, pushing, shoving, trying to escape, but finding that the monsters of XANA had other plans.             “Look over there,” XANA murmured in his ear.             A team of anti-terrorism operatives (the French equivalent of a SWAT team) were setting up positions behind sandbags, hastily set up, their high-powered weapons trained on the oncoming mass of monsters.             As one, the operatives began to fire, coordinated with their hidden rooftop snipers. The bullets whizzed through the air, impacting multiple times against XANA’s monsters, causing little-to-no damage whatsoever.             Until, that is, one member got a shot on a Blok’s eye. The creature exploded in a bright flash of light, and the man waved his gun in the air, screaming of their new weak point.             XANA growled, and twitched her hand slightly.             The snipers on the rooftops immediately began to score kills against many monsters, especially the Krabes and Tarantulas, who had top-mounted Eyes.             That is, until XANA’s hand twitch took effect.             Four hundred Hornets, buzzing like a hive of killer bees, descended upon the snipers, their lasers cutting into their ranks. Though the snipers made several kills against them, they fell to superior numbers of XANA’s creatures. The soldiers below, without cover fire from the snipers, were unable to hold off XANA’s relentless advance, and met the fate of so many of the civilian heroes before them. Odd tried hard to turn his head away from their fate, and found that, surprisingly, he could. He managed to turn his head enough to look directly at the survivors who had not escaped the monster’s pincer move.             They had been herded into a park, wide, and open, but the place was now pockmarked by laser blasts and craters, with the survivors huddled in the center, terrified of the bizarre beasts that had driven them from their homes.             For some reason, the creatures began to withdraw from the park. Odd could imagine what it must be like for the refugees: Total confusion, suspicion, and fear that the creatures would come back.             Odd knew better. He could see that the monsters had not retreated, but had merely gone back about three hundred feet each, edging themselves away from the trapped humans.             It happened in an instant.             One moment, the refugees were starting to get up, and edge towards the edge of the park, brightly colored flowers flowing in the breeze, and then, there was a huge flash of light.             It was unbearable to look at. The light outshone everything- the sun, the lasers of monsters still fighting the police and army reinforcements, even the fires in XANA’s eyes.             When Odd turned back, it took him a few moments to find the park.             It was horrible.             In a half-mile radius, based on where the center of the park had been, there was nothing but a massive crater, and a huge plume of smoke rising from the center.             A small speck rose from the center, flying up, higher and higher, before angling towards the Manta that Odd and XANA rode on.             The cloaked figure rose up until he was eye-level with XANA, and then bowed.             “Milady, I live to serve.”             XANA reached out and patted him on the head, as one would a dog.             “Excellent work.”             As the figure rose, the sun, already dimming due to the smoke from a thousand fires, shone on the golden fins on the figure’s head.             The violet eyes pierced into Odd’s soul.             “Welcome… Brother.” 

The dream ended there, leaving Odd to ponder its meaning.

 

            Why had Bass killed all those people? Wasn’t he supposed to be a good guy? And what was the deal with Bass calling him brother? Why had he even had the dream at all?

 

            All Odd knew was that these nightmares had started just after the Scyphizoa had attacked him about a week ago. After the fourth night, he had gone to Jeremie, but it seemed that nothing was wrong or had changed about him, according to the scanners.

 

            Odd sighed a deep sigh. He then pulled his covers over himself and fell back into a fitful sleep, plagued with visions of purple flame and a dark, menacing voice…

 

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            In the most remote part of the desert sector, a tower rumbled as a new source of power entered it, charging it with power.

             Almost immiediately, the area around the tower swarmed with monsters, each with the same objectives:

            STOP AELITA.             ENGAGE ODD. 

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            In the darkness of the Undernet, just beyond the Forest Sector Gate, the hunter waited.

 

            The shadows themselves seemed to quiver in fear of the hunter, but still, he was patient.

 

            He could wait for all eternity, if need be.

 

            He had seen Replicons scurrying out of the portal, and he knew more would soon.

 

            He couldn’t open the portal himself, so he waited.

 

            And the instant that the portal opened…

 

            XANA would die.

~ Table of Contents ~
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