Chapter 4

Ok, stuff is going to get pretty dark. So one suggestion to those that don't want to think of me as some kind of freak or possible psychopath, follow the suggestions in the story to skip a chunk of 'stuff' that may disturb you. This is a fair warning, so if you read it and think otherwise, don't post a review about it. The liabilities to reading it are on you.

The group only looked on in horror. Not only at the massive beast ready to destroy the city just to get them, but also at the person who was effectively X.A.N.A.'s son. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that you are out of the group."

Now Stephan was the one looking surprised. "Why? I've done nothing but help you and humanity. Is this how I am to be treated by everyone?"

Aelita stood next to Jeremy and said, "You're too great of a liability to our mission." Stephan only stared on in disbelief. Seconds ago, these people were standing by him, believing in him. He felt so deeply betrayed.

Ulrich and Yumi both stepped back. "Sorry, but we just can't trust you anymore." Yumi said. Ulrich nodded his head in agreement, like a loyal puppy.

Odd only took a half step back, and stayed silent. Stephan could see his pupils wiggling with disbelief, both at the ugly truth and the way Jeremy reacted. The group turned around and started to run towards the woods. "So that's how it's gonna be then? Just throw me away? Now I'm the one wondering who the heartless computer is." With that, the entire group stopped in their tracks.

The Titan stomp exploded in violent motion in front of them. The cruel grimace stared down at them. It looked both angry and happy to see them at the same time. It began to lean over to grab one of them. "Run!" Odd yelled as the group sprinted back towards the campus.

"Hurry! We can hide between the dorms and main building!" Ulrich yelled as they darted into the thin space between structures. Stephan followed close behind them. As they ran towards the other side of the alleyway, an immense fist impacted the ground in front of them, blocking the exit. Another one slammed into the ground behind them. They had effectively surrounded themselves. With no window to crawl through or door to break down, things looked bad for the group.

"I'll fight these things, you just run away when you get the chance." Stephan said as he again twiddled the ring in his fingers.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Jeremy said with sarcasm in his voice. Stephan only glanced his way and put the ring on his finger. A wireframe built around him in the shape of his Lyoko garb. It then filled in over his current get up. The blade even spawned in his hands.

"Since I'm a computer program, I can 'mod' myself like any video gamer does with his character." He spun the blade in his hand once. "Know I do this not for you, Jeremy Belpois, or any of the people that have betrayed me in this life." The Titan leaned closer in, his maw wide open with anticipation. "I fight to protect the one person that cares whether I live or die. Emily." He took another glance back at the rest of them. Most of them held unforgiving, skeptical faces. Odd however, took what Stephan said to heart, he could see it in his eyes. Then they heard a low rumble.

Meanwhile… Emily was sitting in Mrs. Hertz class when Jim came up to the entrance. He had been running, as he was panting heavily. "You need to see this." He exclaimed loudly.

"The only thing you need to see is your manners Jim." Mrs. Hertz spoke as she turned back to her class.

"Just look out the window!" Jim yelled as he ran across the room. Mrs. Hertz began to walk to the window as well.

"I don't know what you think you're doing but…" Her voice trailed off as her jaw dropped. The rest of the children gathered at the windows. From the science building, they could see clear over the track and straight at the dorm buildings. They could clearly see some kind of human like figure standing over the space between dorm buildings. It was clearly focused on something, she just couldn't tell what from her angle.

"Look! A helicopter." Nicholas said as he turned his head to the right. Simultaneously, everyone's head turned to watch an army controlled Apache chopper fly over the school grounds and head straight for the monster, whose back was turned to it at the time. The front attached chain gun rippled bullets into its back, quickly rising towards the nape of its neck. One hand rocketed around and swatted the chopper out of the sky like it was a gnat in someone's face. The truck sized hand slammed into the directional rotor in the back, tearing off half of the back of the chopper. Quickly spinning out of control, it lost altitude at an extreme rate. Impacting the roof at 40 mph minimum, it grinded across the rooftop to a halt. The pilots climbed out unharmed. But the beast quickly fixed that.

It grabbed up the two men like a kid would grab action figures. Lifting the two them to eye level, the monster began to open its mouth. Then, like a shadow, a black figure rose into air on a hook. The hook was then whipped back out and thrown into the roof on the other side of the monster. Using their own momentum, the figure rocketed along the nape of the monster's neck, slicing it wide open. Steam poured out of the wound as the monster fell limp against the dorms. The figure landed on the roof as the pilots wormed out of the grasp of the monster and ran along the roof. "If only that figure was Stephan. That would be so cool."

Back on the grounds… Stephan stepped onto the ledge and glared out over the city. Odd looked back up at him. He couldn't help but feel bad. The son of his greatest enemy or not, he was completely abandoned and was still fighting to protect the scraps of a life he had left. The rest of the group was at the edge of the woods when Jeremy called out, "Hurry up Odd!"

"I'm staying to fight." He called back. When he looked back up at the roof, Stephan was missing. He looked back down to see Stephan standing right in front of him. "Holy crap! Don't do that." Odd said as he jumped back a few feet.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but notice your eyes, the way you looked at me. We've found familiar ground, haven't we?"

"What do you mean by that?" Odd said as he scratched his head.

"You long for the one girl in your life that truly makes you happy, Samantha Knight. But you are too nervous to ask her, so you try to fill the void with all these other girls. You want to be accepted by something, like me. That's why you're bond with the other Lyoko warriors is so tight. They accept you for who you are. All I wanted was to feel the same. But not even they would accept me. I want to be cared for because of who I am, not because how I look. You feel that too, don't you?" Stephan explained.

"Y-yeah. How did you know that?" Odd said as he took a step back.

"Because I feel the same way."

"So how can I help?" He said as he looked out into the streets, Semi sized foot prints were imprinted on the ground from where it had ran at them.

"The scars on your hand are where you can help. If my calculations are correct, then the scars showed that the power carried over into the real world. Bite yourself and make sure you have a clear goal in mind. After that, we can begin." Stephan looked up to the skies and closed his eyes.

Odd looked down at his scarred hand. He brought his hand close to his face and screamed the phrase, "I will protect the people from the terror of X.A.N.A.!" He then chomped down on his hand. Blood began to dribble out of his mouth as he whipped his hand back. A flash of lightning erupted as steam was concentrated so rapidly that the humidity in the near area spiked. It had effectively created a very isolated dry lightning storm.

Odd's Titan stood tall, at least 12 meters. It was incredibly ripped to show how pumped he was to tear into some other Titans. His burning desire to protect the world greatly outmatched the will of the Titan. Stephan hooked into Odd's upper body and flew into the air. Landing on his left shoulder, he yelled into Odd's ear, "To the factory! That's where they're coming from!"

In the woods… Ulrich lifted the heavy manhole and let the others climb in first. He looked back at Odd, talking with Stephan. "I can't believe you would betray us like that." Ulrich muttered to himself before following Yumi down and covering the manhole.

Grabbing a skateboard, he rode after the rest through the familiar tunnel system. He jumped and pulled an Ollie over the gap. He then came to a screaming halt in front of the manhole just in front of the bridge. Volunteering to go first, he climbed up and slowly lifted the manhole. What he saw nearly made his vomit from a sudden onset of nausea. At least 10 more of the monsters were walking the factory. A massive hole in the roof left the metal roofing bent towards the sky. The bridge looked weak, like one had tried to test the strength of the bridge beforehand. After describing the horrid scene, he climbed out and began to sprint for the other side, followed by Jeremy, Aelita, and Yumi.

One titan with dark brown hair spotted them and began to run towards the bridge. Ulrich looked out at the halfway point to the see the monster charging at the bridge. He kept running, as did Aelita and Jeremy. When Yumi reached the halfway point though, the monster charged straight through the first half of the bridge, making her stop in her tracks with fear. Turning around, she came face to face with a Titan who glared at her greedily with teeth bared.

A black flash then swept behind the beast. Steam erupted like a pressurized pipe had just busted open. Without a change of expression, it dropped down and slammed into the shallow water under the bridge. Another Titan sprinted towards the bridge, but strangely familiar looking one stepped out in front of it. Something seemed oddly reminiscent about this one. It had long, blonde hair that hung loosely with strands of purple throughout it. "Odd?" She asked questionably, as she realized that was his hairstyle when he first became roommates with Ulrich.

As the Titan turned around to recognize her, Ulrich screamed out, "Yumi, come on already." She turned and started to run over the rest of the bridge. The Titan that looked like Odd before he changed his hairstyle didn't turn back in time, and was caught by surprise. Launched off his feet, he could only fly through the and destroy the other portion of the bridge just in front of Yumi. Trapped on a piece of bridge in the middle, Yumi nearly broke down into tears there on the spot. As she lifted her head away from her hands, a fourth Titan appeared in front of her.

Odd looked at Yumi, was stepping back with fear towards the other ledge. He grabbed the head of the Titan holding onto him and slammed his into its. Steam rolled off both their faces as the other let go and fell off to one side. He stood quickly and came up behind Yumi. He clapped his hands together on the sides of its face. The cheeks of the other one disappeared into steam, revealing a jagged skull with horrid molars ready to grind bones to dust. Dazed, it began to fall onto the bridge. Yumi covered her eyes as she called out her signature scream. A swift hand wrapped around her gently and pulled her into the air.

Peering through her fingers, she saw she was high in the air. She saw metal give way like melting plastic, support wires snapping like twine, and concrete falling apart like dry dirt clumps. She looked at what held her so tightly. She saw the eyes of Odd in the Titan holding her. He bent on one knee and released her onto the ground. At that moment, her phone rang.

"Yumi, if you can still hear me, I'm sorry we left you behind." Jeremy said solemnly over the phone.

"Jeremy, I'm still here. Both Stephan and Odd saved my life."

"Hmm… I wonder what he's up to now?" Jeremy said, talking about Stephan.

Yumi walked over towards the elevator as the door opened up. "Yeah, whatever. I'm in the elevator now."

"Good, we could use some help in Lyoko. Aelita is keeping a Titan busy while Ulrich is duking it out with William. The Scyphozoa was attacking the Skidbladnir, but I overloaded the shields to shock it away from it. We should hurry before it can get back.

"Got it." Yumi said as she placed the phone in her pocket. The elevator started to go down then.

In Lyoko... Ulrich's twin blades impacted the massive great sword as it came within inches of slicing him in two. Every step forward for William was two back for Ulrich on the slippery ice. To think that Stephan had been right about the tower in ice district, let alone that he had hacked the system. He looked beyond William to see Aelita energy blasting the Titan to keep it stunned.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." Aelita said to both Ulrich and Jeremy.

"Same here." Ulrich said as he ducked under a sword swinging for his throat.

"Don't worry, Yumi's on her way right now." He said as he continued typing away on the monitor. "I have to protect the Skid, or it's good bye finishing off X.A.N.A."

Ulrich twisted around and swept William's legs. He fell on the ground, but quickly shot up into the air. Bringing his sword down, a shockwave forced Ulrich to jump back up. As he came down, William's heel impacted the chest of Ulrich, launching him through the air. Landing on his feet, he skidded to a stop just on the edge of the region. "How about we trade real quick?" Ulrich yelled at Aelita.

Without a word, she flew high into the air and shot a field at William. Impacting his back, he fell forward onto one knee. "Super sprint!" Ulrich yelled as he shot out past William. He turned towards him and grunted. Ulrich again ran up a leg. The Titan swatted at him, but he jumped onto the arm and ran up to the neck of the beast. Twirling both blades out and then pointing them to the right, he sprinted across the back of the Titan's neck, leaving two immense gashes that poured out light. As he landed, something shot him in the side, twice.

"Ulrich!" Jeremy yelled. "You've lost forty life points. A tarantula is on top of an iceberg."

Ulrich's expression turned to anger. "Well where's Yumi?"

"I'm calling her again right now."

Yumi jolted as her phone rang. Picking it up, she answered swiftly. "Hello? Yeah Jeremy I'm in the elevator but it's stopped." Then a sudden jolt jerked the phone out of her hand. The elevator started going back up at extreme speeds. The thing was bouncing off the wall almost constantly. She stumbled around and almost stepped on her phone. She bent over to try and pick it up when it slammed through the metallic framework on the top floor of the factory. She shot into the air and landed on her butt, and also on her phone. "What's happening?" She said as the elevator tipped forward.

Stop here if you want to follow suggestion made at beginning of chapter

One giant finger stabbed through the sheet metal like it was plastic. It then peeled it all back. A mouth opened up and covered the entire entrance as the Titan tipped its head back. Yumi grabbed onto the button panel for dear life. In its mouth was pure darkness. A massive, maroon tongue stabbed out towards her.

Stephan just sliced through another Titan when he saw the elevator in yet another Titan's mouth. "Isn't this a bit overkill?!" He asked himself as he turned back towards Odd. One Titan had one arm while another one was biting the other. He was screaming bloody murder as each tear from his arms was felt fully on his physical body. "Odd can last a little while longer, but Yumi needs my help now." He began to swing towards the factory. AS he was within one more swing of the Titan's neck, he witnessed the elevator being thrown into the air. He saw it impact the top floors of a distant business skyscraper.

The beast quickly whipped its head back. "Oh God no!" Stephan screamed as he attached to its shoulder. He quickly whipped into the air after the monster. Without even looking, the beast grabbed the chord and jerked it towards itself. Stephan heard two sickening pops that nearly made him vomit on the spot. The first was of his hinge joint at the left elbow come undone. The other was of his shoulder joint popping out completely and nearly losing his entire arm. He grimaced in horrible pain as the Titan lifted the string up. Within seconds, he joined Yumi.

On Lyoko… William had his great sword pressed down on an energy field Aelita was using to protect herself. Ulrich raced across the ice plateau towards William. Expecting him, William swiftly swung his blade all the way around, successfully de-virtualizing Ulrich along the waistline. Aelita fired her energy field directly into his chest, sending back into the digital sea.

"Hurry Aelita, Yumi's phone was randomly disabled and I heard the elevator cords get broken." Jeremy spoke this with urgency, fearing the worst for Yumi. Aelita began to fly towards the tower, but was shot down by the Tarantula rom before.

"I hope they can wait just a little bit longer." Aelita said as she rolled behind a pillar of ice for cover.

Odd yelled out both in pain and anger as he watched both Yumi and Stephan swallowed by a single Titan. He took a massive step forward, but the other Titans continued to hold him back. They tugged back so hard, that they actually tore both of his arms. Without a sound, he ruthlessly charged towards the other Titan, a wicked smile twisting across his face. He opened his mouth to bite the other Titan in the weak spot.

It contorted its entire body around at an unexpected angle that caught Odd off guard. In the moment of hesitation, the other Titan grabbed him, and bit directly into the space Odd was positioned in. It tore back, causing Odd to come flying out with it. Steam gushed out into his face and blurred the image of an open maw. "Ahh!" was the last audible sound uttered from Odd's mouth as he too met an unfortunate fate.

Sliding down at break neck speeds until all the light from the world was gone. Suddenly, there was light again. It shone from Stephan's cell phone, which was in Yumi's hands. Stephan was putting his left arm in a makeshift sling made from the hood of his cloak. After he finished, he looked over at Yumi, who was constantly grimacing in pain. "What's wrong?" Odd asked, currently oblivious to severity of the situation.

"It burns."

"What does?"

"Everything Odd!" She gripped Stephan's phone, even putting a crack in the screen.

Using his good arm, Stephan grabbed Yumi by the shoulder and lifted her above his head. "My digital clothes provide an extra layer. All we can do is wait for the tower to be deactivated." Black smoke began to flow off his body as he tapped into the power that all polymorphic specters had. With one hand, he lifted her off the bottom of the 'chamber' they were in.

"Come on up Odd." Yumi said as she showed him her hand. He grabbed it and she pulled him up as well. "I can't believe you're doing this." She was now talking to Stephan.

Start here

"Even after all the pain you guys put me through, my spirit towards humanity was rekindled by the likes of Emily and Odd. I'm still doing what I've wanted to do since the beginning. Protect everyone I can even upon my death. I don't want to be like X.A.N.A. I want to be different from him." His strength was beginning to fail. "Quickly. Someone call Jeremy."

Odd whipped out his cell and dialed the number. "Hey Einstein. Would you mind finishing up quickly. We kind of have an emergency." "Oh you know. Just slowly dying. Or at least we were until Stephan put himself at risk to buy us more time." The phone slipped out of his hands and hit the liquid slowly rising towards them, killing the phone instantly.

Ulrich walked up next to Jeremy and watched as Aelita demolished the Tarantula and started to fly for the tower. "Come on, just a little bit further." He said to himself.

A few moments later, he heard Aelita say, "Tower deactivated."

Jeremy punched in a few keys before saying, "Return to the past now." The white light expanded out through the factory. It washed over the Titans who were now wandering through the city. It completely covered the world in a blanket of white.

When the light faded, the gang was sitting in the lunch room, talking and eating. "So remember, Stephan isn't gonna show up until later." Odd said as he finished his second helping of breakfast. However, it wasn't until supper that Stephan graced the school with his presence. As soon as he was outside the cafeteria, he collapsed onto his hands and knees. He had been staggering through the campus. Jim went outside to scold him. "So you finally decided to show eh?" He said as he lifted Stephan back onto his legs. But his knees wobbled and he went down again. The group went outside to watch.

Stephan looked up at Jim, and said plainly, "I would have shown up earlier, but I had to walk from outside the far end of town to here." He was still breathing heavily, as if he had been walking all day.

"Oh yeah, and what happened?" Jim asked with his arms crossed.

"Well, it started with the news of my parents having died in a fatal car incident." Stephan lied this out with a near perfect poker face. "Then, an electrical fire started up, which burned down the house. Fortunately, my aunt was out of the house. I wouldn't know where she went, but she took the car with her."

"Oh, well that is certainly excusable. Why don't we talk to Mr. Delmas?" Jim said, scratching the back of his head.

"Can I eat supper first? It would be the only meal I've had all day." Stephan said, which was probably the only thing that was true.

"Sure Black." He said as he helped Stephan up and towards the Lyoko Warriors. "How about you help him, since you all hang together anyways." As Jim turned his back to go tell Delmas, Jeremy and Aelita looked at him skeptically.

"So what really happened?" Ulrich asked as they guided him to a seat.

"Well, while attacking us with the Titans, he was also repossessing the things he created for me. He decoded my home, my 'aunt', and even took the car away. He left my laptop behind, but that was it."

"What about Millie? I thought your aunt was her mom." Yumi said.

"X.A.N.A. had her under the influence that that was her mother to help further my fake backstory. She still exists, but she doesn't think we're related anymore."

Jeremy spoke coldly, saying, "Well, have fun picking up the scraps of your life, now goodbye." He picked up his tray and started to walk off.

Yumi stood and blocked him. "How can you say that? He's basically lost everything in his life after doing everything he could to extend ours."

"He's X.A.N.A. Jr. Yumi. He might as well be a monster that got left behind. He definitely isn't part of the group anymore."

"Why not let the people decide through a vote?" Odd suggested. "It's not like you're our dictator. A leader, but no an overlord by any stretch."

"Fine." Jeremy said.

"By a majority." Yumi said. The rest agreed to this idea. Yumi pulled out a notebook and tore it into five pieces. Each person cast a ballot and handed it to Ulrich to read.

Ulrich looked at each ballot and then turned them face down. "The votes are tallied up and the results are 3 to 2, which means…"

From this point out, three different timelines have spawned in my head. The original timeline will be played out on this story, and the alternate two will be under names, which will be updated onto this chapter when I decide what to call them. I want to record all three so that I don't lose my mind holding two of them in. The next chapter to each will be written and submitted at nearly the same time, so the rest of the story is gonna take a lot of time to write, but that's what I wanted anyways.

To those who read the 'dark' part marked with warnings, it won't get that bad at any other point in the story. Those warnings will also probably not appear again.

The other timelines are on Vengeance for the Unwanted, and Possessions Have Power.