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!