"No!" Shouted Aelita. "I don't care if you control 5 million Nightmares! You can't just make me love you!"
"Then you think wrongly!" Rem shouted back at her. "I destroyed every human in this city! Do you think that I am going to let your emotions get in my way?"
Aelita backed away again, horrified.
"You destroyed them? All of them?"
"What? Did you think they got away somehow? Do not delude yourself. Unless some escaped without my knowing, then they all died over 200 years ago."
"You monster!"
"Yes, I am a monster, and proud of it. Take her, Scipizoa."
The Nightmare-Scipizoa did not hesitate to obey. Aelita backed up more, trying to get away from it, but before she could run anywhere, the fake monster took her in its tentacles and started to drain her memory, just as easily as the real one would. Aelita felt the familiar feeling of empty-headedness overtake her mind, and her vision went back as information flowed through the tentacles into the Scipizoa's head.
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Xana was surprised by the window showing Aelita's memory, popping up on the screen.
"Ha hahahaha! The Scipizoa has already started on its task. Excellent!"
But when he looked at the holomap, he realized that the Scipizoa and its escort of nine Krabes was still nowhere near Aelita.
"What is the meaning of this! Give me a visual!" He ordered the computer.
The visual popped up, displaying in vivid color the building and the balcony where Aelita was, in the embrace of A Scipizoa-- But not his Scipizoa. They were surrounded by nine wolves, as well as what, in all appearances, was the living version of Mr. Puck, Aelita's doll, who had attacked the three original Krabes traveling with the Scipizoa. But Xana had long since figured out that appearances could be very deceiving.
Yet it was obvious that this other Scipizoa was sucking out Aelita's memory. But why? Of course. The same reason he wanted her memory. Another virtual being wanted to get the keys to Lyoko, to escape the supercomputer, and to take over the world.
Xana sat there, stunned for a few moments as the unthinkable happened. Enemies he could handle, but he had never stopped to consider this. Could he handle a rival?
Xana thought about this a second more. Then he completely flew off the handle. He would not let anyone compete with him for his prize.
"KRABES! STEP ON IT! DESTROY THOSE WOLVES, AND GET RID OF THE OTHER SCIPIZOA!"
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Only the chimera, the pie man, and the cat with the spiked tail were left now. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi faced them, on either side of the square.
"Go! Help Aelita!" Ulrich shouted at the other two. "I'll handle the Nightmares with my clones."
Yumi and Odd ran off, heading toward the building where Aelita was being held on the balcony.
"Triplicate!" Ulrich said, as another Ulrich sprang out of each of his sides. The first one ran over the chimera, jumping up to avoid the flames that erupted from the head of the snake that made up its tail, before slicing the creature's head off.
The original Ulrich leaped to the side to avoid a flaming pie that the pie man threw, then supersprinted forward to slice the creature into many small easily-served-for-desert pieces. Meanwhile, the last Ulrich sliced off the evil cat's tail, then picked it up and smashed the animal with its own barb.
Yumi and Odd dashed toward the building, the Nightmare-Scipizoa's form easily visible from where they were. Their run was stopped by the sounds of laser fire. The Krabes had walked right up the sloped surface of the building on the other side and were now walking over the peak and firing down at the Nightmare-Wolves on the balcony.
The wolves immediately leapt up, engaging the Krabe's in combat, trying to avoid the laser blasts and attempting to bite through the Krabe's legs with their powerful jaws. The real Scipizoa also floated over the building's peak, floating down in front of the fake and grabbing Aelita's legs, pulling her to and fro in a tug of war between squids.
"You think that you can try to take her from me, Xana?" Rem shouted, shaking his fist at the sky. "You feel pretty safe, sitting up there in the lab, knowing everything that's going on down here, don't you? Well, I'll knock you off your perch!"
He formed a black energy ball between his hands, smiling evilly. He launched it into the air, and flew out of sight.
It flew out of Arcotopolis in seconds, then off the plateau, even before the Bloks stationed at the city gates could look up to see it. It flew straight into the activated tower without any resistance, and the aura around it turned from bright red to pitch black.
-------------------
Xana felt the loss of power that came with the losing of control of a tower almost instantly. The polymorphic specter that he had control of and provided him with an earthly body could no longer maintain its structure and its presence on Earth. Screaming curses at Rem, Xana flew out of the chair, into the wires overhead, while the electric bonds holding Jeremie dissolved.
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"Ha! Do you see my power now? Now, let night fall, I say!" Rem shouted.
Slowly at first, then faster, blackness spread from the activated tower into the sky, turning it as black as night. The city was thrust into dark twilight, as the artificial moon, that Rem created in the sky to go with the Desert's newfound night, bathed the city in its light.
"Great." Odd said, looking up at the sky. "Just when I thought things couldn't get any creepier around here."
"From the way the Krabes and Wolves are battling each other, it looks like they will completely destroy each other." Yumi said. "C'mon, now's our chance!"
Rem looked up at the two battling Scipzoas with disapproval, but confident that his monster would win. He noticed, to his amusement, that black pulsations were now coming from beneath his feet, moving out of the city in their steady rhythm.
He was surprised to see several arrows fire into Xana's Scipizoa's head, and a fan slice through the tentacles of his own Scipizoa. Yumi and Odd leaped up onto the balcony. Before Rem could draw his weapon, Odd ran up to him and kicked him over the edge of the balcony. Hefell hard and fast, landing with a thud. Odd drove away the Scipizoas with his arrows, while Yumi helped Aelita up.
"You okay, princess?" Yumi asked.
"I think so." Aelita said, rubbing the side of her head.
"It was a mistake for that guy to take the tower from Xana. The pulsations come from him now, and we won't lose them again. Lets get Ulrich, and get out of this crazy city before we completely lose our minds!"
They jumped off the balcony and ran over to Ulrich, who was battling with a bunch of Kankrelats that had showed up to give the Krabes a hand. With Yumi and Odd joining in, it was over in seconds.
"Aelita! You're safe!" Ulrich said, pulling her into a friendly hug. "Listen... I'm sorry about what happened earlier."
"Don't worry. I understand, Ulrich. I forgive you." Aelita said.
"Hate to interrupt your hasty apologies, but we've still got to escape!" Odd said, almost panicked.
"Right. Lets go." Ulrich said.
They ran off, toward the city gates, following the pulsations. Rem got up, rubbing his head, just in time to see them go. He immediately flew into a rage. Then he sent a telepathic message to all his Nightmares, all over the city.
"TARGETS ARE ESCAPING! STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS!"