Chapter 7 - Memories

Xana watched the memories as they rushed by and formed a ball of light pink energy in her hand. Her eyes narrowed a little as she watched memories of their first battles and encounters with Ulrich, Yumi, Odd and Jeremy. Her eyes almost seemed to darken as she first showed up virtualized as a little girl in the real world.
The speed of the memories slowed as they came to the last couple days. Xana's eyes narrowed farther as she saw in Aelita's mind the beginning of the hunt. She did see the fear and confusion that ran through her head at the time, but the memories slowed down further as they came to the end.
"Xana . . ." Aelita's final word echoed through her head as the ball stopped growing and glowed a little stronger. The scifizoa dropped Aelita's now limp body on the ground and floated in place like the others.
"crush it crush it crush it!!" Jenius kept repeating. His voice started as a small background whisper, but was quickly escalading to a nearly deafening scream.
A.X. appeared behind Jenius in a cloud of wispy smoke. He was in terrible condition. "They're coming," he almost wheezed.
Jenius turned around and surveyed A.X. "Get out," he nearly hissed. "You're just a worthless copy any way." Jenius turned his back to A.X. and pulled up and interface. "Try to get through this hacker," Jenius whispered as he added firewalls and other stuff to the door.
A.X.'s eyes almost looked devestated. "Yes master," he whispered as he disappeared. "You may be my master," he thought. "But I will not be thrown away like trash."

A.X. appeared outside behind the Lyoko Warriors.
"Come back for another beating?" Ulrich asked raising his swords.
A.X. ignored the question. "You'll never get through all the barriers in time," A.X. stated as he stared at Olivia who was playing with three interfaces at the same time.
Olivia sighed. "What do you want?" she asked.
"A trade."
"A What?!" Yumi asked shocked. Ulrich nearly dropped his swords in shock.
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "What's the catch?"
"I'll open the door and get you guys in. You guys destroy Jenius," A.X. said pointing at the kids.
"Wait! Why are we killing Jenius?" Ulrich asked.
"Can't you kill him?" Yumi asked.
"He created my programing and in my programing I can't kill him and I can't find a big enough loop hole to get my hands around his neck. This is the biggest loop hole I found."
"Create a trade with an opposing party," Olivia said nodding as she continued to fiddle with the screens. She sighed as she closed the interfaces and opened a new one. "Deal," she said extending a hand.
A.X. smiled as he shook her hand. He turned to the door and waved a hand. Istantly the door was open and the firewalls and other traps disarmed. "Hurry," he said. "I can only keep it open for another few seconds.
Olivia nodded as she, Yumi and Ulrich snuck in the door. On her interface she pressed a button. Next to them William, Sapphire, Odd, Crystal and Jeremy virtualized.
Jenius was preocuppied with something else and Xana was still staring at the sphere. The Scifizoa hadn't moved.
"Everyone understands the situation?" Olivia asked. Everyone nodded. "Split up. Odd and Crystal will take Jenius and the others can deal with the scifizoa. Watch each others backs got it?" she asked. Everyone nodded again as they took off.
"Laser Arrow," Odd cried as he fired laser arrows at Jenius's turned back.
Jenius laughed. "You thought it would be that easy?" he asked as monsters of every kind appeared. Olivia laughed to herself as a few of them devirtualized and a couple blew each other up. Jenius growled as he created a few more hornets.

The scifizoa battle was going well. Sapphire had lost a little of her current memory before William had saved her. Jeremy had split one in half and couldn't figure out how to kill it as it continued to flop around. Ulrich had his swords in another as Yumi threw her fans at another, but they were still out numbered.
Olivia deleted another one of them as she moved Aelita's body from the battlefield.

Xana continued to stare at the final memories she had.
In the few memories she had stolen from Sapphire she had seen hatred and fear, but the question was similar in both orbs of energy.
"Can we really trust her?"

"Crush them and get it over with," Jenius commanded.
"Don't do it Xana," a few of the Lyoko Warriors called. Yumi turned from her battle and threw a fan at Xana hoping it would stop her. Energy rippled away from Xana's body and stopped the fan mid flight.
While Yumi was turned a scifizoa took over. Xana gained a little more memory before Ulrich and William destroyed it.
"Can they really trust me?" Xana asked herself. She watched Yumi's current memories as she tried to protect a true friend's memories. "A true friend," she thought as she felt her hand begin to clench.
"Destroy her memories and destroy their hope and feed their rage my Kayleen," Jenius said with a laugh as more monsters appeared. Two for everyone that Crystal and Odd destroyed.
"Why?" Odd asked as he dodged a box bullet. "Why do you call her Kayleen?"
"Why?" Jenius asked. "Because that is what I named her when I, I created her," he said triumphantly emphasizing the second I. "That no good friend, no not friend, enemy of mine Franz Hopper," he said as he spit on the ground. "Thought he could just change her name, claim the fame and be all right. Well he was wrong," he screamed as more scifizoa appeared and began to take over everyone.
Crystal back flipped and landed behind Olivia just out of reach of the closest scifizoa. "Odd!" she called, but it was too late, his memories were all ready being downloaded. "Any ideas would be welcomed," she called over the noise at Olivia as she raised rocks from no where. The edges sharpened as they rotated in a deadly barrier around her and Olivia.
"Unfortunately not yet," Olivia yelled summoning a few more interfaces. "We're going to need a miracle at the rate we're going."

Xana watched as the Lyoko warrior's memories formed colored balls of energy around her.
She watched as Odd followed someone he loved as they tried to protect their friends that they trusted across the desert.
"Can they really trust me?"
A past of pain and suffereing just seemed to widen the gap between her and the others as she watched everything from their point of view. These present thoughts weren't doing any good either.
"Can they really trust me?" she asked again as a tear formed in each of her eyes.

Jenius looked at the confusion around him and smiled. He made the monsters advance on the rock barrier as he laughed.
"Soon I will have my revenge Franz!" Jenius called to no one in particular. "Crush them Kayleen. Crush them now!" he called.

Xana felt her fingers tighten around Aelita's orb again.
"Can they trust me?" she asked herself again.

Something gave a sickening crack and threw everything into silence . . .