Chapter 10: The Sword and the Grail

The five archeologists, including Odd's dad, turned to see the four military helicopters touching down. Their first thought was that the government had arrived to take the Sword as well, but that notion quickly died when the helicopters' back doors opened and Xana's monsters poured out along with the possessed soldiers.

They had seen them before, of course. By now, everyone had seen the footage of the creatures that had marched through Murphy's Creek and attacked the French Military base. That didn't stop them from wanting to flee, badly.

"RUN!" Odd's dad shouted, and they ran off, not caring that they would be fleeing into the desert, which would almost certainly kill them if Xana's monsters did not. They never got the chance. The soldiers, pixilated by Xana, were much too fast for them, and they ran around to cut off their escape route. Before the team knew it, they were completely surrounded.

Dantam stepped through the crowd, eyes flashing with Xana's symbol. He grinned malevolently at Odd's dad.
"General Dantam?" Odd's dad said incredulously.
"No, human." Dantam sneered. "I am called Xana, and I am the future ruler of this planet. The General is but my puppet now."
"What do you want from us, alien?" Lexina growled, assuming that an alien had somehow possessed him, for that was the only explanation.

"Simple. I have the Grail. Now, I will get the Sword, since you have kindly uncovered the entrance to the chamber. Once the artifacts are reunited, ultimate power will be mine. There is nothing you can do about it." Xana said, looking Lexina square in the eye.
He turned to Odd's dad.
"I can see who you are. You are the father of one of my enemies. I will have the pleasure of seeing your face when your son dies." He said.
"Odd? NO! What does he have to do with this? Don't you dare lay a hand on him!" Mr. Della Robia shouted, his face going white.

Xana just laughed.
"Tie them up." Several soldiers rushed to comply. "You." He said, pointing to two soldiers, a Blok, and three Kankrelats. " Accompany me into the chamber." Xana, in Dantam's body, descended into the black opening, along with his chosen minions.

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"There they are." Ulrich said, pointing to the ground. With their enhanced eyes, they could easily see the four helicopters parked on the sand below. They also saw the encampment, along with several figures disappearing into the ground.
"That's weird." Yumi said. "Why would Xana bother to set up a camp?"

They landed behind a rocky outcropping, perfect for spying on the figures standing around the campground. Some of them were human. Some of them were obviously not.
"Okay." Yumi said. "I've got a plan. Xana sent some people into the chamber to retrieve the Sword. If you two can provide a distraction, I can get in."
"Are you sure about this, Yumi?" Ulrich asked.
"Positive. Odd, can you call Jeremie and tell him its safe to try and deactivate the tower now?"

"Right." Odd said, throwing a mock salute. He pulled out his cell phone, quickly dialed a number, spoke briefly with the person on the other end, then hung up.
"Let's go."

Odd and Ulrich, screaming out into the open on their vehicles, mowed down twenty monsters between them in their surprise attack before the enemies could react. But when they did react, the response was fierce. Lasers from the monsters flew from all directions, and the two of them dodged nimbly. The soldiers also fired bullets at them, but the slower projectiles couldn't hit them either.

Odd ran straight at a cluster of three Krabes, firing arrows. One of the lasers seared a hole straight through his hair, meaning to hit his head, but Odd was luckier in his shots. The Krabes bit the dust. Only then did Odd see what they had been guarding.
"What the... DAD?" Odd exclaimed.
"Odd! What the heck do you think you're doing here?" Odd's astonished dad exclaimed back.
"Um, saving the world from a brutal end at the hands of a demonic supercomputer?" Odd said sheepishly, with a small shrug.

"Look, I don't have time to explain right now." Odd said, untying his dad and the other archeologists. "I would like to know how in the world you got to the Sword before both us AND Xana, but I don't have time for that either."
Odd finished untying them, then launched back into the fray.
"Wish me luck!"

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Yumi crept down the passageway. Just as they had planned, she had been able to sneak by unnoticed with her friend's distractions. She peered into the main chamber, which was nearly identical to the Grail's chamber, except for the artifact inside, and the fact that it seemed to be surrounded by a cube of light that gave off enough of a glow for her to see Xana and the two soldiers. But where were the Blok and the Kankrelats?

"Accursed Zethians!" She heard Xana exclaim. "How could the security system for the Grail have failed, yet be up and running for the Sword?"
Yumi glimpsed the wreckage of the monsters. That answered her question. The alien security system must have destroyed them before Xana could short circuit it.

Xana stared at the cube of light. He punched it, feeling it repel his hand with Dantam's nerves. He looked down, frustrated, then saw a strange depression in the table the Sword was sitting on. Xana stared at it for a moment, then took the Grail out from his pack and fit it into the depression. It fit perfectly, and the cube of light vanished, plunging them into darkness. The room was lit up again a moment later by the soldiers, who had electricity pulsing around their hands.

"Ingenious." Xana murmured. "I'll bet there was a keyhole shaped like the Sword in the Grail's chamber that the archeologists didn't notice. The two of them unlock each other, and with both locked away, there is no way for either to be used as the key for the other." He didn't notice that he was talking to himself.
"No matter." He said, taking the Sword. He held up the Grail, and neatly pressed the Sword into the Grail's slot.

The thing crackled to life, glowing and pulsing with energy. The red and blue stones around the rims lit up, and both ends opened up, so that the Grail now looked more like a two-ended cup than an hourglass. Xana smiled evilly, reveling in what he was sure was his greatest triumph.

He wasn't counting on the two fans that flew out of the dark corridor, slicing through the necks of the two soldiers. Their pixilated flesh couldn't bleed, and the nanobots coursing through their veins were already fixing the flesh back into place, but they fell to the floor, writhing in pain anyway.
Yumi vaulted into the open, snatching the Grail from the hand of a very surprised Xana, and slid against the back wall. Standing up, she aimed the red end at Xana.

"Don't move." She said, a deadly edge to her voice.
"Why, Yumi." Xana said, unconcerned that the Grail could probably vaporize the body he was in. "Are you really daring to challenge me, young lady?"
"I don't know what the Grail does, exactly," Yumi said. "But you know, and I'm willing to find out."

Yumi drew her attention to the buttons on the hilt of the Sword. She decided that they must be the things that controlled the Grail, but she began to feel herself drown in horror when she realized that she hadn't the faintest idea how to work it. The buttons were marked with Zethian words, and she didn't have access to the archeologists' translating program. Throwing trust in her luck, she pressed several buttons at random.

The Grail fired. But not the red end. With the red end, the one that was supposed to bring death, pointed at Xana, the blue end was pointed at herself, and white energy flowed out of it, into her body. Yumi gave a short scream, then fell to the ground, energy coursing through her body. Xana stood over her.
"Pity." He said. "The blue end brings life, and you already have it. So it looks like it backfired."

He slung Yumi over his shoulder, then proceeded to walk out of the chamber. He didn't notice the faint blue aura that now surrounded her.