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.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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-”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“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.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
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.”