AN: Stupidity is sure to ensue. Blame the people on my bus.

Code: Apocalypse- Chapter 7

"You disappoint me. I thought I had programmed you better when I created you." XANA coldly said, looking down at the clone, which was currently on the floor and was unaware of his presence until now.
"… huh… where am I?" the Aelita clone asked, looking around in the dark void around her- it was impossible to see anything at this point in time. A light from above suddenly snapped on, which instantly made the area around her visible. She was stunned as she saw him in his human form, a dark cloaked figure hiding a shadow of a body that made up XANA's semi-physical appearance.
"You are in a state humans would call 'dreaming'- the ultimate state of vulnerability. I would have terminated your entire programming if it wasn't for the issue at hand that requires my constant attention. Be grateful to your master that I have allowed you to live this long."
"...You're not my master…" the clone defiantly replied, staring at him dead in the eyes.
"Fool." XANA snarled as he was narrowing the eyes of the human form he had temporarily borrowed in the clone's dream sequence. "I had created you, did I not, on the 5th of June of this year?"
"Yes" the clone snapped back, getting up from her prone position on the floor. "But without the girl you wouldn't have been able to create me at all."

XANA was beside himself in his anger, clenching his 'fists' in his overwhelming rage. The clone had a triumphant smirk on her face when XANA finally realized that he would not have been able to create her if it had not had been for the person she was impersonating, which hid her actual expression- fear. Faster than the clone could blink, XANA's hand whipped out and hit her on one cheek, causing her to stumble backwards from the force of the blow and from the surprise. Before she could fall over backwards, she instinctively threw her weight forward enough so that she could stumble forwards and regain her footing again.

"I'm giving you an ultimatum." XANA growled as he raised his hand once more, preparing to hit her again before he stopped himself from doing so. "Be thankful that I'm doing this. Either you join my side once more and take out those annoying pests as you were instructed to upon your initial creation, or I'll make your deletion as slow and painful as possible. Remember that though you may not consider me to be your master anymore, you're still connected to me as a worthless puppet in my plans."

The clone bit her bottom lip and nodded, crossing her fingers behind her back subconsciously. XANA narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he probed her mind through the link, but came up with nothing. Satisfied when the last rigorous mind probing did not show that she had any thoughts of betraying him; he nodded in apparent satisfaction with her answer. The light above her was fading away from sight, taking XANA along with it. The clone woke up in a bed with blue sheets - her body shooting out of bed in reaction as she was snapped out of her dream. Jeremie Belpois slept soundly beside her, not waking up to her sudden movements. Breathing heavily, she gulped and looked around the room to make sure that this wasn't another dream. Sighing with relief as she realized that she was conscious and not dreaming, she knew that she would not be able to go to sleep again. As the sun was rising from the horizon, she could only sit up and ponder silently on the future of the world.

[Page Break]

The black and red clad male moved silently throughout the corridor, his ears listening for any hint of sound. His eyes were scanning the area, which was almost completely dark besides the small amounts of light which allowed him to see where he was going. He gripped one of his twin katanas in a manner a person would call nervous, and stopped to check his surroundings. There was nothing in his area so far. He breathed a small sigh of relief, and continued on, keeping low to the ground and hiding in the darkest shadows of the room. His kind was not supposed to be nervous or relieved- just an emotionless killing machine. Why they had picked him out for a brutal training session, he did not know.

The clones were supposed to be a precise and perfect copy of the original person though with warped morals and behaviors. However, just like in any species, a runt somehow appeared in the litter by some freak chance, something that XANA considered needed to be eliminated. So, in his effort to weed out the weaker hybrids, he developed a rigorous training course which was made up of the clones fighting each other. The last test was supposedly a dark room and something that would ultimately prove their worth. Many times he would see his fellow clones head into the training room- but never come out.

Something breathed- inhaling and exhaling softly, but loudly enough to trigger the clone's internal alarm. The Ulrich clone immediately focused his attention on the breathing, listening to it as it drew near. The clone raised his sword in reaction and prepared both his mind and his body to perform several deadly strikes in the direction the breathing was coming from when suddenly it stopped- just as quickly as it had came. The clone could not hide his expression of surprise at the turn of the events. Thinking that the thing had chickened out and didn't want to fight him at the display of his weapon, he lowered his sword as he let his guard down- a potentially deadly mistake for him.

Faster than he could react, a blur passed in front of his range of vision and raked its sharp claws against him twice in an uppercut-like motion, causing blood to flow on the clone's upper torso and parts of his neck, forcing the clone to drop the sword that was in his hand. The clone stumbled from the blow and cursed his stupidity- it was obvious that the thing in front of him was using its claws to follow him by gripping to the ceiling, and watch him by digging its claws into the stone pillars around the room. It was a slim figure wearing a dark black and red body suit with claws that measured several inches. The Ulrich clone regained his footing and leaned back, evading a deadly swipe of the creature's claws before it could land another hit on him.

In response, the creature gave an animalistic growl in anger and flipped over backwards several times to put some distance between them. Before the Ulrich clone could run and hide to safety while he planned to take down this thing, the creature reached for its back and pulled out a bow and arrow. Notching the bow, the creature gave a short and low growl before it fired- aiming for the clone's heart. The clone gasped and turned around to bend down so it would miss his body. However, the arrow flew through the air faster than he could perform his evasive maneuver, and pinned his body to the wall he had backed up against.

The creature was about to fire another arrow at him, intending to finish him off, when the clone grasped the arrow piecing through his armor, pulled with all his strength, and threw it at the creature. The creature was forced to duck, giving the clone some time to charge at his opponent and tackle it. He pushed it back a few feet before the creature recovered from the blow and began to claw with its sharp nails and snap with its vicious fangs at him.

The Ulrich clone gave a warrior cry and retaliated with close combat- punching and kicking at his opponent without defending himself. The Ulrich clone was soon breathing heavily- he had lost a large amount of blood, and was tiring quickly as the battle wore on while his opponent only shown a marginal amount of tiring. Desperate, he pushed all of his weight into his opponent to force it down onto the ground with a loud thud. It snarled in protest and its claws rose once again to strike, but the Ulrich clone pinned its arms above its head with an enormous amount of effort, the rest of his weight pinning its body down so it couldn't move.

He shifted a little so he was pinning both of its arms with one of his hands. Reaching for his other blade with his free hand he would have plunged it into the creature's heart, had in not been for the bright light suddenly from above, and loud clapping made by a light snapping on from above and the loud clapping sound that echoed off of the bare walls and distracted him. Quickly locating the source of the clapping, he was stunned to see XANA there, applauding his success with a wide grin on his borrowed form's face.

"Well, done." He congratulated, continuing to applaud. "Not many people could beat my apprentice and still be alive after losing so much blood. I knew that the genes for enhanced capabilities would be fully operational in your system."

Looking down at the pinned opponent under him, his eyes widened in shock as he saw the pink-red haired female under him, her ruby-red eyes glinting maliciously as she grinned evilly at the expression of surprise on his face. The Ulrich clone felt her weight shift under him- her knees were digging into his stomach and before he realized what happened, he was flying through the air as he was forcibly pushed off. He landed roughly on the ground and glared at the female. XANA-Aelita only smirked at him as she stood up and dusted off her body suit before retreating silently into the darkness.

"You will be equipped with upgrades to your fighting skills and weaponry and will join the rest of your surviving brothers and sisters. You will need all the help you can get for the war." XANA continued, appearing to not recognize the minor scuffle that happened a few seconds ago.
"… What war?" the Ulrich clone asked suspiciously.
"My son, I will declare war on the world after I gain enough power to do so, and I will not stop until all the human filth is eliminated from this world."
"… That includes the clones, correct?"
"Unfortunately yes for you and your clone siblings' human parts, though your polymorphic half will not be affected at all from this. Do not fret- it is only a small fraction of our costs during the war."

XANA gave what appeared to be a reassuring smile before walking backwards from the light and melting into the darkness once more. Ulrich Clone #15 sighed and looked down on the floor as he pondered his fate and what is to come. War didn't sound like it was a good thing at all. Pain shot through his skull as he thought this- hatred pumping through his veins once again accompanying a blind sense of rage towards humans. The polymorphic side of him loyal to XANA was not about to have any thoughts of betrayal from his inferior side- It would dominate his mind and body, even if the human part would have to be killed in order to do so. The clone was suddenly filled with zeal to eliminate all humanity and a fierce sense of loyalty towards XANA as the polymorphic side continued its massive deluge of brainwashing and propaganda.

Thoughts of the negative effects of XANA's upcoming war lay forgotten, along with thoughts of abandoning XANA to pursue stopping his plans. Nothing mattered now except being faithful to his master, and killing off the humans without a care or a sense of morality from his human side. Ulrich Clone #15 gave a sadistic smirk to nobody in particular as images of the downfall of humanity filled his mind. He stepped out of the light's range and out of the training area, going towards the section of the building where weapons were forged. He wanted his blade to be deathly sharp and menacing while still having the nice and shiny appearance of the blade.

[PB]

"You're going to have one chance. Only one, understand? We will trust you this one time in hopefully our last fight against XANA." Ulrich stressed.
"Don't ask me how these

guys managed to convince me… I still don't trust you."
"You are right in your suspicions not to trust me… I shouldn't be trusted. I am a clone, after all" the clone Aelita replied, nodding her head. "I want to tell-"
"Right, we'll discuss this later… It doesn't seem like a big issue at the moment, or all of us would have all been dead weeks ago." Yumi interrupted, shrugging her shoulders.
"Maybe it's XANA scheme. …trick us into trusting her, and then when our backs were turned, kill us." Odd suggested.
"Nonsense! It… err… she would have done it weeks ago, before we knew. XANA would have been impatient, as usual, and would have tried to eliminate us right away." Jeremie snapped.
"Guys…" Yumi said, rolling her eyes at the display as the clone silently observed their discussion.
"… What about when XANA went around kissing people to divide us? He didn't try killing us until we unmasked him."
"But XANA's not kissing people this time, Odd" Jeremie replied, getting more annoyed by the second.
"Guys…" Yumi said, trying to get their attention.
"Yes, but Jeremie kissed the clone, which is basically XANA, so they obviously kissed, duh. It must be another XANA attack."
"Don't be stupid Odd" Ulrich countered. "You're not 14- you're over 20 years old. Talk like an adult for once. Now that Jeremie has made his point, I suppose that I can consider her only a major threat and not the apocalypse, or something."
"Oh ho ho! What made you change sides and suddenly defend her? Are you swapping sides?"
"Shut up you little-" Ulrich threatened.
"Quiet down!" Odd shot back.
"Shut up, clown!" snapped a very angry Ulrich.
"What in Lyoko- ?" Jeremie asked.
"Take it back!" Ulrich yelled at Odd.
"What back?"
"That back!"
"Your back?"
"What?"
"Who's back?" Odd asked.
"She is!" Jeremie said as he was pointing to Yumi in hopes the stupidity in the room would stop.
"In black?" asked the clone, puzzled on why the humans in the room were suddenly fighting.
"Kit Kat!" Odd yelled, in complete randomness.
"Shut up!" Ulrich screamed.
"Mommy!" Antea yelled as she clutched one of the clone's legs in fear.
"Shut what up?" Odd teased as he continued the verbal joust with Ulrich, enjoying this chat.
"Your stupid mouth" Ulrich replied, getting more annoyed by the second.
"Who's back?" Odd 'innocently' asked again.
"Nobody's back!"
"Nobody is here?"
"We're here!"
"We're nobody?"
"I'm going to wring your neck. Squeeze the life out of you!" Ulrich threatened as his eyebrow was twitching uncontrollably in his anger.
"Guys! Stop fooling around! This is supposed to be a civil discussion, not a scream fest of stupidity!" Jeremie yelled.
"Stay out of this, Jeremie! Let me at him!" Ulrich yelled back, raising his arms to appear as if he was going to fulfill the threat.
"GUYS!" Yumi yelled in annoyance, instantly silencing everyone in the room.
"WHAT!" they snapped back, causing her to sweat drop.
"Um… I think the clone- I mean I think she was going to say something?"
"XANA likes to go to forests a lot."
"He what?" Jeremie asked. "Is that all you have to say?"
"That's where he's hiding." The Aelita clone replied, shrugging her shoulders. "A forest somewhere in France. He manually moved his forces to another base after finding the first base unsatisfactory. It's like the research lab you found in the jungle. The trees provide excellent cover as well."
"Well…?" Ulrich directed the question to the group.
"Well what?" the clone asked.
"When are we going to kick XANA's tail?"
"We're going to need weapons, Ulrich." Yumi replied.
"Allow me." A voice said, his voice echoing in the room.
"William?" Yumi shouted, surprised. "I thought you didn't want to participate in the fight against XANA!"
"William?" the clone asked, confused on the situation.
"The one and only!" He proudly declared. "It took me a while to find your house, Jer. I think I had the driver circle your house several times before I heard you guys yelling at something." William paused before giving an apologetic look and saying "Sorry, Yumi. I wasn't thinking about you guys. …I was kind of selfish before I realized that you guys did basically sacrifice a member to save my tail."
"How did you get into my house?" asked Jeremie, wondering if William had learned how to pick locks and enter homes unnoticed.
"The door was unlocked." William replied, shrugging at Jeremie. "I was going to knock, but I didn't want to interrupt the fun conversation you guys were having."
"It's alright, William. The stupidity level was high enough here anyway."
"Hey!" Odd snapped. "I'm still here, and I can hear you, Ulrich."
"What do you have, William?" a curious Jeremie asked, interested in diverting the discussion to something else besides senseless screaming.

William smiled, and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly before motioning out the door to the black painted van parked outside the house. Opening the back of the van, there were several hooks screwed onto the interior of the van's walls, each holding a weapon by the trigger guard. The gang and the clone marveled at the sight of the weapons, and William smiled as he saw the look of awe etched upon their faces.

"I bought most of these today. The rest of them were given to me by my father as both a parting gift and as family heirlooms."
"… You brought all these just to take down XANA?" Odd asked, his mouth hanging open at the sight of the shiny weapons compared to the pistol he used at the shooting range.
"Yep, now are you going to get into this van, or what?"
"Hold on" Jeremie interjected. "I need to get some supplies first!"

With that, Jeremie rushed into the house to get some supplies for the road trip. Upon exiting and preparing to lock the house up, he was assaulted by requests by both Antea and Waldo asking if they could come along for the trip. Jeremie sighed, and tried his best to explain the current situation and that it was dangerous for them, but they pushed on, wanting to come along for the ride. Realizing that nobody would be able to take care of them, Jeremie finally consented, and entered the back of the van with the rest of the group and his children, shutting the door when everybody was in. Settling uncomfortably on the floor as there were no extra seats, they ended up sitting near the walls of the van. They were envious that William got the other seat in the front of the , trying not to get thrown everywhere as the van swerved dangerously every now and then. Jeremie was about to angrily give the driver a telling off, but found the driver's appearance to be very intimidating, and so he silently sat on the ground without complaining. The others had followed his gaze and they too, looked uncertainly at the driver.

He was a male of about thirty five years of age, with short brown hair sticking up everywhere and a short beard, sporting a black leather jacket with the sleeves torn off to show off his muscles. His arms were covered in various tattoos, which displayed various messages.

"Oh…" William added, brightly smiling when he saw the expressions on the gang's faces. "Don't be afraid of the driver. He's one of my old biker buddies! He usually doesn't drive vans, though." William chuckled as their expressions turned to one of relief.
"I hate vans…" the driver grumbled in reply, not taking his eyes off of the road.
"That reminds me…" Yumi said, suddenly realizing something after she lightly bumped her head against the bottom of an assault rifle. "Ulrich, we have to get our kid too in case something happens!"
"Are you guys okay back there?" William asked. "Don't worry. I'll ask the driver to make a stop over or two."
"Can you give us directions to XANA's hideout?" Jeremie asked the clone, brightening up when she nodded in reply as the van drove off into the unknown future.

[Page Break]