Opening/Summary: Decades have passed since XANA's fall but when a young boy loses his mother things change for the worst. He gets shipped off to his father and sister only to find that his father is a mad scientist bent on making the 'perfect human' by merging human and animal DNA. The madness seems harmless enough, after all only one experiment even survived but when a virtual world is found through an old computer, the experiments become a success and his sister becomes one. A failed trip to Lyoko leaves the boy half-dead with the swirling darkness closing in and the question is raised, "Is he still human?" Meanwhile a young genius must struggle with her own darkness by putting the boy she loves in danger. Kadic hasn't seen the last of XANA yet but are the new Lyoko Warriors up for the challenge?


Prologue

The room was dark, the only light coming from a single candle burning on the bedside table. A young boy sat dozing in a chair while nearby his mother moaned and screamed in her sleep.

The mother was deathly sick and had been for weeks now, always tossing and turning and making noises. Now though she was too weak to even pull the blanket up and keep out the night chill.

The noises had become a natural occurrence in the boy's life until suddenly they stopped.

The boy's eyes snapped opened and he glanced around for a moment, wondering what had awoken him. After a moment he tentively called out "Momma?"

No answer came out of the darkness and he slowly got up and padded over to his mother's bedside. "Momma?" he repeated as he gently reached out and touched her hand, it was limp and cold.

"Momma! Don't leave me, please don't leave…." He was crying and screaming now, wanting what he already knew to be a lie "Momma!"

His screams brought the nurses in from their post in the hallway and one of them gently forced him away from his mother "She's gone sweetie."

"No!" the boy suddenly twisted away from the nurse and forced his way back to the bedside "Don't leave me, come back….."

"Sweetie, come here now….there was nothing we could do…nothing anyone could have done."

He twisted to see that the nurse had followed him but right now he didn't care, he didn't care about anything. He reached out and grabbed his mother's hand again, tears sliding down his checks as the light faded from his eyes.


The young cat-girl Ryuu watched her brother curiously from her perch atop one of the work tables, she had been hoping for someone to play with but this little boy seemed half dead.

She shivered when she felt Doku's eyes and glanced back at the snake-girl's cage to see that they weren't on her but her brother. 'What's going on here?'

She shivered even worse when she saw Ashal turn and stare at the snake-girl without a single trace of emotion. 'Is something wrong with him? He just got here….'

She watched him as the week dragged on, more curious still because not once did he speak. Instead he just walked around dull eyed with his little black kitten following at his heels.

By the end of the week though she was forced to go back to Lyoko, the virtual world her dad had found earlier that month, and she lost track of time roaming the mountain sector she called home.

It wasn't til days later that her dad contacted her saying he planned to join her on Lyoko in about a day and was bringing her brother.

The next day Ryuu made her way out to the spot they were supposed to appear and paused to stare out at the digital sea below.

An hour passed then another before her father finally appeared but he was alone.

"What happened? Where's Ashal?" Ryuu asked, glancing around.

"It got him, I couldn't do anything."

Ryuu studied him, that didn't sound right and she knew it "What got him?"

"The darkness, the swirling darkness of limbo"

"Then can't we at least send him back? Isn't there time?" She turned to head to the nearest tower but stopped when her father grabbed her arm and held her in place.

"You can't, it's already too late."

"He's my brother, what have you done to him?" She struggled, trying to free her wrist.

Her father was shaking his head, a glint of madness in his eyes "He was supposed to disappear, just disappear…"

"Let go! We have to do something!" she shouted, finally breaking his grip.

As he released her though he lost his footing and fell off the ledge, the only thing keeping him from the sea below was a single hand gripping the edge.

Ryuu stared down at him, snarling "I won't let you destroy him, I won't…." Then she turned and ran off towards the nearest tower, the only sound behind her a scream as he finally lost his grip.


Ashal's eyes were closed tight and all he felt was the black kitten in his arms. Slowly he opened his eyes to nothing but endless white around him.

'Where is this? This isn't the world dad showed me…' he whimpered, the first sound he had made in a long time.

Suddenly the endless white was broken by a section of black mist that slowly swirled closer to him.

He whimpered again and tried to move back, hugging the kitten closer as the darkness neared.

"Do not fear…" the voice was chilling yet it seemed to calm Ashal and he stopped moving to watch the blackness.

"Do not fear…" the voice repeated, soothing his worries and fear "I will not hurt you….we will both escape from this place…."

After what seemed like hours Ashal collapsed out of the scanner into the familiar lab, the kitten against one hand and the darkness floating above.

"Do something!" he finally screamed at the darkness, rising onto his hands and knees as the kitten found her paws.

The darkness swirled a moment longer before condensing together to create a body. Finally a little black boy with shaggy brown hair and blood red eyes crouched before Ashal and the kitten.

They stared at each other for several minutes before the boy of darkness finally spoke, his voice an icy chill in the already cold air. "I have already saved you and you have in turn freed me….if I do anything now you will have to repay the favor…."

"I don't care! Destroy it, destroy all of it!" Ashal growled, staring right into his eyes.

The darkness boy smiled, revealing pointed fangs, then vanished as the darkness separated again "As you wish"

Ashal screamed out of pain this time as the darkness swirled around him, he grabbed the kitten and held her close as it began to swirl faster and his own eyes flashed blood red.

The ground shook as the darkness began to laugh, an evil sound that echoed in the small lab. Then one of the scanners exploded, sending chucks everywhere though none touched Ashal.

Ashal smiled at the destruction and in that moment the last of the light left his eyes.

The darkness laughed again as another scanner exploded, this time starting a small fire as a stack of papers near the scanner burst into flame.

Ashal began to laugh himself as the fire spread and the last scanner exploded. By this time the whole room was crawling with flames eager to lick at anything they could reach.

Then the computer exploded and the ground shook again as a section of the roof caved-in behind Ashal.

The darkness condensed into its boy form again and studied him "It is done; soon this place shall be nothing more than a memory."

Ashal turned to look at him, quiet now as his eyes returned to their normal blue.

The darkness boy smiled then, revealing his fangs again "And now I will take my payment…" The boy jumped at him, dissolving back into the dark fog.

Ashal watched him, the small spark returning to his dull eyes a moment before he blacked out.