Sithking Zero: Code: Lyoko, Megaman/Rockaman, Moonscoop, Taffy, France 3, Antefilms, Canal J, Garage Kids, Capcom, Nintendo, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, Time, AOL, or any companies, characters, settings, or items affiliated to the concepts of this fanfiction don’t belong to me, save Cadence and the Replicons. And the plot. And my words. And the name- Ah, just get on with it.

I have exciting news. Starting today, I’m working on the rough draft of a story. A very crucial one in my life. “But Zero,” you may ask, “Why is this different from what all of us do every day of our lives as writers? We all come up with stories.” Well, this is a little different. You see, it’s not a fanfiction.

I’m writing a book.

I’m actively working on turning “Heart of a Warrior” into an actual novel, which will be published by a publishing company, I hope. So far, here’s the premise:

It’s a dark and desolate future. The strange K’sh’nas, monsters more machine then living thing, had long-since destroyed most of human civilization, led by their five generals, supposedly humanoid, ruled by their leader, Kexa’na. However, there’s hope. Two scouts for the resistance, Ariel Hope and Jerome (insert last name here), stumble upon an ancient secret in the ruins of an old laboratory: A very old Andromoid-class robot, designed by Ariel’s great grandfather. A robot of such power, that whoever possesses him would gain the upper hand on the balance of power. And his name is… I haven’t figured it out yet. I need ideas, and it can’t be a name from CL, Megaman, or anything. Any ideas?

Anyway, on to the story at hand…

Okay, in the words of ???, I’d like to say, I’m sorry. I was rushing, and it was sort of necessary. For me, mostly. I needed to actually get something down on paper, so… I forced it. And the quality suffered. Badly. I didn’t like how it turned out. So, I took my time with this chapter. I tried to plan ahead, and I’m working on correcting the problem. So… enjoy Chapter five!

Heart of a Warrior III: Warrior’s Redemption

Chapter 5:
Something Wicked This Way Comes

Jeremie Belpois walked out of his room, as he had done earlier that day on his way to Aelita’s house. However, a few changes were evident. In place of his nicer outfit, he was wearing his usual powder-blue turtleneck, black glasses, and khaki pants. And instead of a bouquet of roses, his laptop was in his arms.

He walked hurriedly, knowing the events of yesterday- or yesterday relative to him and his friends- were indications that something very, very wrong was going wrong with the world, and that they needed all the knowledge and power they could get.

He thought back to the “previous,” night, examining every detail in his mind.

He had leaned in to kiss Aelita…

… and then Franz Hopper ran up and punched him in the head, fracturing his skull and breaking his nose, and he went unconscious.

In all, not the high point of his career as a Lyoko Warrior.

Still, he thought, I can’t dwell on that. I’ve got more important business to worry about. For example…

What happened? I thought XANA was dead. How can she be alive? And what’s Bass doing back on Lyoko? I thought he left the supercomputer. More importantly, how did XANA come back without anyone noticing?

Jeremie sighed as he walked up the front path to the Hermitage.

He rapped his knuckles against the doorway, causing the persons inside the abode to begin moving around, as was evident from the sounds of chairs scraping along the wooden floor, and the heavy steps of someone walking from the kitchen.

Moments later, much like he had done yesterday (which was, Jeremie reflected, technically today if you took into consideration the RTTP,) Franz Hopper opened up the door. Unlike the previous time, however, he looked apprehensive, even frightened.

Also different was the presence of the other Lyoko Warriors, all sitting around the kitchen table, drinking tea, coffee, and hot chocolate (Aelita had the latter,) and conversing quietly amongst themselves. They immediately stopped talking when they saw Jeremie enter the house.

Jeremie sighed, pulling out his laptop and plugging it into the wall socket.

“Well,” he said, turning on some programs, and a window opened up on his computer screen.

“It had to happen. She just couldn’t stay down, could she?” Odd remarked dryly.

“Nope. She’s back.” Jeremie said humorlessly. He then turned to Aelita.

“By the way, what happened on Lyoko? None of us were there, so…” he let his words trail off, indicating his lack of understanding.

Aelita shot him a glare. “I’m not totally helpless, you know,” she remarked somewhat icily. Jeremie recoiled under her glare, while Ulrich and Yumi smirked at the display.

Aelita leaned back in her chair and took a long drink from her mug of cocoa.

Taking a breath, she replied, “Well, after Jeremie was knocked out, XANA zapped me and knocked me unconscious. Then, using Dad’s body, she sent me to Lyoko, where she was waiting for me.”

“…woah.”

“Yes. Then she started to attack me with everything she had. Finally, she slammed me into a tree and-”

“And then she took you and told you how much she lov-”

This was as far as Odd got before the was punched thrice: once on each arm by Ulrich and Yumi, and once in the head by Jeremie.

Aelita shot him a nasty glare, while Franz shot Odd a look that clearly said “Say that again, and I virtualize you into the digital sea.”

“Anyways,” continued Aelita, “That’s when something weird happened.”

Everyone leaned in closer to hear what Aelita had to say.

“Remember those visions I used to have?” she asked.

She continued on, not waiting for an answer. “Well, I had another one on Lyoko, but… it was like I was seeing things through BASS’ eyes instead of mine.”

“Weird… you sure it wasn’t a hallucination?”

“No, Ulrich, not really. Basically, the vision was that I was Bass and I was talking about never being a slave of humanity, or something similar. I shot this Earthbreaker blast at some guy named Megaman. The strange part is that when I woke up, it turns out that I’d done it while in my vision.”

Franz opened his mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again.

“Then I started to blast her with these energy blasts that I could make.”

NOW Franz was paying attention. “What?” he stood up straighter, staring at Aelita as if she had grown horns.

Aelita looked very startled at her father’s outburst. “I… think that’s a new ability of mine. I can generate blasts of energy that can blow things up.”

“What do they look like?” snapped Franz.

Aelita was taken aback. “Umm… Kind of like a ball, about the size of a cantaloupe, pink, and ripples like the digital sea…”

Jeremie was staring at Franz now.

“Mr. Hopper? What’s wrong?”

Franz was now pale, and he was looking like he was very weak in the knees.

Franz gulped before answering, and his answer was weak.

“I… I have a hunch… but I need to do some tests. Aelita, honey… do you mind if we go to the factory? You can finish telling us on the way over.”

Aelita nodded and stood up, her friends doing so as well.

A few minutes later, the six humans walked briskly towards the old factory, trying to keep up with Franz Hopper’s longer stride.

Aelita finished her narrative. “Anyway, I was going to say, but there’s a small problem after that. Once XANA figured out my attack, she learned to dodge and counter it with her sword, and she still nearly killed me. She wasn’t wasting any more time, and she rushed at me with her sword…”

She gave a shudder, remembering how she felt, so helpless and afraid. Jeremie pulled her into a hug.

She smiled as she drew in strength and warmth from his embrace, and she hugged him back.

For close to five minutes, the two stayed in their own little world, until finally, Odd couldn’t take it anymore.

“So, Aelita,” he said, rather loudly, as they passed the forest entrance to the sewers, “How did you escape?”

Both Einstein and Ms. Einstein jumped back after hearing these words, almost as if they’d been electrified, both their faces a lovely hue.

“Oh, umm…” she wondered for a moment where she had been before… Oh! Yes.

“Oh, so XANA was coming after me with her sword. I closed my eyes, and prepared to die.”

She was much more confident now then she was mere minutes ago.

“However, at the last minute, I heard this sound… like… someone being stabbed. Then I heard XANA scream. So I looked up.”

She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

“Bass was there.”

EVERYONE reacted to this news. Franz’s neck nearly cracked, he spun around so quickly.

“WHAT?!?” came the near-unanimous chorus.

“He saved me.” She said simply.

“He caught the blade in one of his bare hands and was holding back XANA with the other one. The last thing I heard him say was that he wanted me to get to the tower and stop the attack.”

By now, the Warriors of the Cyber-realm Lyoko were inside the factory. They all got into the elevator and Franz hit the button, sending them down.

The elevator dropped down thirty feet before stopping at a huge, circular room, the first of three: The Lab, as Jeremie called it.

“All right, sweetie, I need you to go down to the scanner room, and I need you to get into one of the scanners.”

“All right, daddy.”

The Lyoko Warriors piled out of the elevator, leaving Aelita alone in the box.

Two minutes later, Aelita was standing inside of a huge circular tube, a large black ring running up and down her body, scanning the chemical compounds inside of her body.

Upstairs, her father looked over the results, looking extremely grave, and looking worse by the second.

It was a minute before Yumi spoke up.

“What’s wrong, sir?”

Franz sighed, taking off his glasses to reveal forest-green eyes.

“Do you remember how, when sector five was destroyed, Bass and Aelita fused together into one being, Cadence? Don’t answer, you remember. Well, when that happened, there was a… complication that I didn’t foresee when I created the Heart of a Warrior program with Dr. Cossak.”

“Is something wrong with Aelita?” asked Jeremie suddenly.

“I don’t know yet.” Said Franz tiredly. “But when Aelita and Bass fused, there was a transfer of material between them. It affected them both. For example, Aelita is now more durable, and from what she said, she has some of Bass’ memories. Until I ask Bass himself, I don’t know what kind of effects Bass has suffered.”

“Is this bad?” asked Odd.

“As I said, I don’t know. It could be that she’ll only be affected on Lyoko, but worst case scenario, her entire DNA and cellular structure could come unglued.”

Franz opened his mouth to speak again, but unfortunately, the supercomputer started to beep at this point.

“DANGER!!! DANGER!!!” it beeped out in Jeremie’s voice. “UNAUTHORIZED MATERIALIZATION COMPLETED! STAND BY FOR INCOMING MONSTERS!!”

Needless to say, everybody disregarded the warning, racing towards the elevator to hit the switch.

Not that it was nessecary.

The elevator came up after a few seconds, carrying two people.

One was easily recognizable. Her pink hair was obvious to all but the colorblind.

The other… you had to know him.

His body wrapped in a brown cloak, only the top half of his head was exposed. A black-and-gold helmet with a dark blue, four pointed star in between his eyes shone in the darkness, as did his purple stripes underneath his eyes.

“So… we meet again, humans.” Said the voice of the net navi.

Sithking Zero: Cliffhangers are evil. But, so am I, so who cares?

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