Chapter 2: The Silver Symbiote
Multiple crossover: Matilda/Stargate/The Host/Twilight
Matilda Wormwood, was invited into the Cullen's home after she told Jacob and Renesmee, that she needed them to come to, Esper Mansion. Inside the house, the main foyer was large. The family waited there once they realized that they had a guest.
"So we're not going shopping." said Alice. She had a look on her face of disappointment.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid the reason I'm here takes precedence." said Matilda.
"So what can we do for you?" asked Carlisle.
"We the Espers of Esper Mansion, believe that there is an alien invasion happening here on Earth. We need to know if any of you have noticed any suspicious behavior among the locals?"
Most of the family looked at her with confusion.
"What kind of suspicious behavior?" asked Val.
"Well, let's say you think you know someone's personality, then they start acting completely out of character." Matilda described.
Most of them shrugged there shoulders, but Edward spoke up. "I have."
They all looked at him.
"You have, when?" asked Bella.
Edward thought for a moment, as though trying to remember precisely.
"It's been subtle, but some people's thoughts have been...different. I don't know how to describe it."
Matilda nodded in understanding.
"What kind of aliens are we talking about here?" asked Val.
"It is a parasitic race that attaches to the brain and then takes control of the mind and body." said Matilda.
"The Goa'uld?" asked Carlisle.
"We suspected the Goa'uld at first, but it turned out to be some thing else."
"Well, if we can get more information, we can keep an eye out for suspicious activity." said Jasper.
Matilda nodded in understanding.
"Well, if I could get you to come to Esper Mansion with me, we have some things on the matter to show you." said Matilda.
"Where is Esper Mansion anyway?" asked Jasper.
"In a remote secluded location in Iceland." said Matilda.
"How are we going to get there, fly?" asked Jacob.
Matilda reached into her pocket and pulled out a whole bunch of wristbands.
"Matter energy conversion teleportation."
"What does that mean exactly?" asked Esme.
Before Matilda, could explain, Renesmee chose to explain.
"It means that our molecules will be broken down and then sent through subspace to another location where they will then be put back together, and re-materialize in that location."
They all looked at her with confusion.
"Renesmee, how do you know that?" asked Matilda.
"Well when you said matter energy conversion teleportation, the theory just sort of came to me."
Matilda raised her eyebrows and smiled at Renesmee, as though she was very impressed.
"Well, what she said." said Matilda.
"I'm sorry Matilda, could you say that one more time?" asked Val, his voice was more suspicious than curious, plus, they all knew that as a vampire he had a photographic memory, and could have recited the entire conversation word for word.
Matilda then began to explain it again.
"Well, at Esper Mansion, we have this technology that we call 'matter energy conversion technology'. What we do is, when you lock onto a location where a signal locator is, and then we break down the body into its individual molecules, and we then transport them through subspace to another location where all of the molecules are then put back together. It allows for long-distance teleportation."
Val had a look of surprised disbelief on his face.
"Okay, Matilda, forgive me for my choice of words, but did you just say that you were going to 'beam' us there?" asked Val.
Matilda had a look of confused comprehension on her face.
"I suppose that is one way of looking at it. Anyway, take these wristbands, there your locator beacons. All you have to do is tap the crystal and you will be transported to Esper Mansion. And once you're there, simply tap the crystal again and you will be transported back here."
Everyone took a wristband. But just before Alice was about take hers, she shuddered and wobbled a little on the spot, she had a quick intake of breath as she then stared at the wall over everyone's heads.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Alice.
Alice's vision:
Alice saw the surface of the earth from space, of what appeared to be the middle area of the United States. There was an explosion of what appeared to be glowing blue energy and then a mushroom cloud that rose up to the top of the atmosphere and then a tidal wave of fire spread out a thousand miles in every direction.
End vision:
"What is it Alice?" asked Jasper.
"Another doomsday vision, is it?" asked Emmett, in a half sarcastic, half impatient voice.
"This one seems pretty real!" said Alice.
"What doomsday predictions?" asked Matilda.
Edward started to explain.
"Four years ago, she had a vision of alien spacecrafts attacking the earth from orbit. But then the vision changed. The alien ships were destroyed. Three years ago, she saw the earth being swallowed up by a gravity well, but then again the vision changed, the gravity well, stopped. Two years ago, she saw a million little mechanical spiders infesting the entire Earth, but in the end, the outcome of that vision changed. A couple months after that she saw the same day repeating itself several thousand times, but the vision eventually stopped. Six months ago there was a nuclear explosion in Colorado, but it was more vague and unlikely, and in the end the outcome changed. And five months ago she saw an asteroid was going to strike the Earth, but at the last moment it was diverted somehow."
Matilda then looked at Alice.
"What do you see Alice?" asked Matilda.
Alice was still staring at the wall with a scared look on her face.
"I can still see it. It will happen in approximately four days. It's…an explosion. A massive nuclear explosion. At least two-thousand mega tons. I see all life on earth being wiped out in six months from now. Half of the United States will be incinerated in the heat blast, and the rest of the world will suffocate and freeze in the fallout."
They all looked at Matilda for confirmation.
"Me and my Esper brethren will investigate this. But for the time being, let us focus on one thing at a time."
They all activated their locator beacons on their wristbands and they all disappeared in a flash of light.
Agatha Trunchbull, was in a maximum security prison in solitary confinement. The authorities had caught up with her a few years earlier and she had been found guilty of several other serious crimes. Her insanity had grown ever worse over the years, she was on prescribed medication that she refused to take, their biggest and strongest guards had to hold her down and forcibly administer the injections on her for her own good, no easy task for the guards, as even their biggest and strongest guards were weaker then Ms. Trunchbull herself.
Then one day, 'he', showed up in her cell.
"Hello Agatha Trunchbull."
She nearly screamed, but it didn't take long for her to realize who he was.
"Astaroth, is that you?"
"It is 15 years to the day that we made our deal." said Astaroth.
"For the longest time, I was not sure that our meeting 15 years ago was actually real, part of me thought I just dreamed it." said Ms. Trunchbull.
"Yeah I get that a lot. But I am a man of my word, and I am here to grant you the ultimate power, but it cannot be done here. We must leave this place."
"But how am I to get out of here?" asked Ms. Trunchbull.
"Leave that to me." said Astaroth.
And then knocked out Ms. Trunchbull with a blow to the head.
When Ms. Trunchbull woke up, she had a terrible headache. She looked around, she could not find her bearings.
"It is all right. We are a long way from the prison, they never even saw us leaving, and they won't know your gone until it is too late, and they have no idea where we are. Now you can take your vengeance upon the world…your vengeance upon the world…as a vampire." said Astaroth.
"What? I thought you were just granting me ultimate power!" said Ms. Trunchbull.
"You will have great power as a vampire. You will have physical strength many thousands of times that of a human. You will run at great speed. You will have super senses and reflexes, and…maybe, no promises, but just maybe, a few unforeseen mystery powers."
"You never said the word vampire exactly, the last time we met." said Ms. Trunchbull.
"There was no need for you to know. Plus, I did hint, I told you that you would have a thirst for human blood."
"No! I don't want to be a vampire! I don't want to be undead!" pleaded Ms. Trunchbull with anger.
"What does it matter, what form your power comes in? You hate the world as it is, in it's current form. Plus, you signed a dark contract in your own blood. I warned you before you made your vow, once it was done it could not be undone. You've paid your 15 years of waiting. Now you get your reward, your body will undergo a transformation for three days, you will feel like you are on fire. When it is complete, you will seek out human blood to drink. Stay out of the sunlight, for if the sun shines on you, you will turned to ash." Astaroth wanted to make her believe that at her expense because he thought it was funny. "Avoid garlic, for it will be poisonous to you. But there will be no need for you to sleep in a coffin, that's just myth. There is also an organization of vampires that is called the Volturi, for if you attract too much human attention, they will hunt you down and kill you."
And without another word, Astaroth bit her in the neck.
Ms. Trunchbull began to feel the fire burning through her body. She immediately regretted selling her soul for this. But there was nothing that she could do except endure the fire and wait.
The Cullen's materialized inside a room. They looked around. There were no decorations. It looked neither modern, nor high-tech futuristic, nor old-fashioned, but rather the architecture was of no design that they had ever seen before.
A woman that wore a completely, perfect, flawless white silk gown, walked towards them. She smiled and inclined her head in respect.
"Welcome to Esper Mansion, and may you find peace here. We are honored to have the Cullen vampire clan here. My name is Laura, and I will be happy to help you with anything that you need."
Carlisle smiled at her in respect.
"Thank you. And I'm sure that we will enjoy our visit."
"Welcome back Matilda. Before we get down to business, why not you take our guests on a brief tour of our humble home?"
"Of course." said Matilda, "But first, Alice Cullen has had a very disturbing vision of the future."
Laura had a look of curiosity of her face. "Explain."
"She says, that she foresees a 2000 Mega-ton minimum, explosion in the United States, in four days from now, that will wipe all life off of the earth."
Laura had a look of amused curiosity on her face.
"You're right. That is disturbing."
Laura turned to Alice.
"Alice Cullen, the power to see the future is not a gift that any Esper possesses. Does every vision that you have come true?"
"No. I just see possibilities, depending on the course that things are on." said Alice.
Laura had a look of confusion on her face.
"Could you elaborate on how that works exactly?"
"Well, I can see anyone and everyone's future, though at any given time I can only see the future of someone that I'm focused on." explained Alice. "For example, I will always see my own future. But let's say, I was walking down the street and I look at a strange girl and I focus on her, and her plan is to go to the beach that day, inside my head I will then have a vision of her being at the beach and everything that will happen. But then, let's say that while she's on her way to the beach she changes her mind, and decides that she wants to go to the mall instead, my vision that I'm seeing inside my head will then change, and I will see her at the mall instead. If there are outside factors that are interfering though, then the future will be hard to see, it will look kind of fuzzy, or will see multiple outcomes, each one vague and different from each other."
Laura had a look of comprehension on her face.
"Okay, I understand."
"Now, this massive nuclear explosion that I see inside my head, it is very vivid, and clear. There are no outside factors that are interfering with its outcome. And right now it is the only future I'm seeing for anyone, or anything, anywhere on this world right now. I see no other possible outcome." Alice warned.
"Thank you for this information. I will go and tell our brethren about this."
Laura then walked over to the door by the wall. She waved her hand in front of a glowing crystal that was on the side of the door, and the door opened at the presence of her hand several inches from the crystal. After Laura stepped out of the room, Matilda and the Cullen's were about to follow her, when there was suddenly a beeping sound on a panel on the wall. Matilda went over to look at it.
"Ahh, It looks like some more of our guests are arriving."
Over at another part of the room, was what appeared to be a round circular door to a compartment in the floor. The floor compartment opened, and five large rings rose up out of the floor and with a flash of light, four people materialized, the rings then went back into the floor and the floor compartment closed. The four people standing there were the Egyptian coven.
"Carlisle. They told me that you would be here." said the Egyptian leader, Amun.
Benjamin and Tia stepped forward to greet the Cullen family. Both of them had yellow eyes. While Amun, and his mate Kebi, had red eyes.
"It is good to see you all." said Benjamin, "Nessie!" Benjamin took Renesmee's hand and kissed it, "You have grown into a magnificent young woman."
Renesmee then placed her hands on Tia and Benjamin's faces, and updated them with her memories since the last time she touched their faces.
They then walked over to Val.
"Valentine Cullen. We have not met." said Tia.
"Carlisle told me all about you." said Val.
Then Tia looked at Bella, "Seven years is too long. We should meet more often."
"Yes we should." said Carlisle. "But, Matilda was going to take us on a tour of this facility."
"Let's go." said Benjamin with enthusiasm.
The place was huge. The corridors and hallways went on for a while.
"How big is this place?" asked Rosalie.
"About the size of West Edmonton Mall." said Matilda.
There were many living quarters. The Espers seemed to live in luxury.
"Why do you guys live in luxury?" asked Jacob Black.
"Part of our physical training, is to train and condition ourselves to endure harsh conditions, but for our meditation, which is even more important than our physical training, we believe that when we care for what is outside, what is inside will care for us." Explained Matilda.
She showed them everything, from laboratories, to armories with a wide selection of weapons, many that they had never seen, to supply rooms with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos and other supplies that they had never seen before. Then to what they called a power room. Inside were a wide variety of different types of generators.
"I couldn't help but notice that you use quite a bit of naquadah." said Amun.
"Yes we do." said Matilda, "We bring the mineral here through our Stargate. Well also transport valuble minerals that are not found on Earth here by ship."
Amun looked at her wide-eyed. "You have a Stargate?"
"Yes we do. We built at ourselves."
"How in the world did you build a Stargate?" asked Amun.
"In our database, we possess the original blueprints from the Ancients, on how to assemble one from scratch." explained Matilda.
"But this here, is our primary power source." She walked over to a device in the middle of the room. She waved her hand over a panel and what appeared to be a glowing, crystal like, oddly shaped, orange, yellow, and red, device came out of the machine, but was still connected, transferring power to the facility.
"Hey wait a minute, I've seen that before." said Amun. "5000 years ago in Giza, we had an object identical to that. Ra, had found it in one of the many abandoned Ancient outposts that we had raided on alien worlds. We never found out what was, or what it did though. Our worshipers called it 'The Heart of Light', silly name really, but for the benefit of us portraying ourselves as gods, we encouraged the superstition."
"Well, we call this a 'Zero-Point-Module'. It's about the equivalent of about one-million nuclear reactors. Only it's completely clean and safe." said Matilda.
"Did you say it's...zero point energy?" said Amun. "That is impossible. The Goa'uld have been trying to attain the technology to generate zero point energy, for a very long time, and have never figured out how to do it."
"I'm sorry, but what is zero point energy exactly?" asked Val.
Before Amun or Matilda could explain, Renesmee spoke up.
"What the device does, is it extracts vast amounts of electricity directly from sub-space by the use of vacuum energy from a microscopic quantum singularity inside the heart of the device."
Again they all looked at Renesmee with shock and surprise on their faces.
"Let me guess, when you heard the words, zero point energy, the scientific formula just sort of came to you?"
Renesmee imitated a posture of nonchalance.
"More or less" said Renesmee.
Matilda move them on. They entered a room with very oddly constructed walls. Matilda waved her hand over a panel and the walls disappeared and in their place materialize a landscape where it looked perfectly real and they were outdoors in a heavily forested mountain area.
"This is it we call our 'simulation room'. The room can simulate almost any place it will also simulate people that appear completely real. We use this room for training, recreation, meditation, or practical simulations on another projects."
"Cool!" said Bella. "I could have fun with something like this."
They moved on to what appeared to be a mess hall or cafeteria. Along one wall was an all-you-can-eat buffet. Matilda walked them over to what appeared to be a microwave oven built right into the wall.
"This device here is a, what we call, a 'food synthesizer'. By the use of our matter energy conversion technology, we can convert energy into solid matter. We can create almost anything that's in the atoms of the elements on the periodic table can bonded together to form. Basically this device will create any type of food that you want, that you can buy at the grocery store, only the 'food synthesizer' will make the food with any and all of the essential vitamins and minerals that you need in any quantity, with no gluten, or byproducts, or preservatives."
"Impressive," said Carlisle. "There are starving people in third world countries that could use such technology."
"We are aware of this Dr. Cullen. But we cannot interfere in the development of anyone less advanced than ourselves. And I will ask you not to think that we have done nothing, we have supplied vast amounts of food too many starving people as well as other things."
Matilda then pressed some buttons on the Food Synthesizer, and a glass of red liquid appeared.
"Could you taste this Carlisle. It is synthesized blood; it is exactly the same as real blood in every way."
Carlisle took the glass and sniffed it.
"It doesn't smell like human blood." said Carlisle. He sipped it, and shuddered in disgust. "It tastes awful."
Matilda smiled.
"Yeah," said Matilda, "we don't know what we're doing wrong? We can't seem to make the taste quite right. Drain the whole glass. Trust me."
Carlisle finished the rest of the drink and shuddered in disgust.
"Now," said Matilda, "in spite of the taste, tell me how your thirst is?"
Carlisle raised his eyebrow in curious interest.
"It's completely gone." said Carlisle.
"That we've gotten right; bad taste, but, completely thirst quenching."
"Impressive!" said Bella.
Jacob Black, was stuffing his face with many choice items at the buffet.
"Now let us show you the thing that we have brought you here to see." said Matilda.
Matilda then led them to what was apparently the medical facility. Inside the medical facility was a group of Esper's wearing white lab coats. As well as another man, he was a frail old man, nearly completely emaciated, he held an ornately decorated staff.
"Carlisle, Amun, this is our leader, Cornelius Percival, The Lutz of Esper Mansion."
"Thank you Matilda." said The Lutz. "Amun, it is an honor to meet you."
Amun was taken aback. He did not expect to be greeted so formally by this powerful man of gifted people.
"Likewise." responded Amun.
"And to you, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, I knew your father, I was only a young man at the time."
Carlisle smiled in respectful response.
"You knew my father 370 years ago?" asked Carlisle.
"I more or less the met him 390 years ago, I even met you. You were only a small boy at the time."
"But let us show you what we have now." said Matilda. "Amun, Dr. Cullen, come over here please."
They walked over to a man who was lying face down on a medical table, his wrists and ankles were restrained. One of the men pointed to what appeared to be a small faint red scar along the back of the man's neck.
"The alien creature is right under the skin, underneath about a centimeter of skin and muscle, right here."
"That is not an entry wound scar for a Goa'uld Symbiote." observed Amun.
He then directed their attention to a screen on the wall. The screen then showed the man's head and neck only without any skin or bone. Only they didn't just see the interior of the head with the brain, and muscle, and other organs, they saw what looked like a giant centipede that was completely silver, like metal, with over 1000 hair thin tentacles.
"As you can see here from our interior scan, the parasite has extended what appears to be some kind of antennae underneath and inside the skull, and has attached itself to the primary nerve centers of the brain, the optic nerve, auditory, taste, smell, touch, memory centers for knowledge and information, as well as the body's muscle and motor functions." explained the Esper in the white lab coat.
Amun looked at the screen with fascination and curiosity.
"In my 6500 years I have never encountered a creature like this before." said Amun.
"I to, am unfamiliar with this creature." said Carlisle.
"Where did it come from? You said it's not from Earth?" asked Edward.
"We are absolutely positive that it is not from Earth. We will show you." The man in the white lab coat pointed to, two different DNA strands on the screen. "This here is the DNA of two completely different creatures, this here is the DNA of a human. And this here is the DNA of a squid. Now you can see, both are similar in many ways, carbon-based, consumes oxygen, and many other valuable minerals from our planet's crust."
He then pointed to a third DNA strand on the screen, that looked totally bizarre, and unlike any DNA they had ever seen before.
"This here is the DNA of the creature. It has absolutely no genetic markers in combination to humans, or squid, or any life-form on Earth, at all."
"How did it get here?" asked Amun.
"We can only assume that they got here by ship."
"I was under the mistaken impression that you monitor any and all space travel that come and go from this world." said Amun.
"We really do believe that the ships are close, cloaked by some kind of stealth technology. We modified our sensors we think that we might be able to catch their ships in the act, we need to determine what they are up to."
"Couldn't you just ask the guy?" asked Jasper, gesturing to the unconscious man on the hospital bed.
"For now we wish to keep him sedated. It was only by mere luck that we found him, and then we decided to bring here."
"Who is he anyway?" asked Renesmee.
"The legal adviser for a United States senator."
"I would like to speak to him" said Edward. "I would need you to wake him though."
The men in white lab coats turned towards each other, whispered close together for a moment, and then turned back to Edward.
"Very well, we will wake him."
But before they could do anything, a boy of around sixteen, came into the room to speak to, the Lutz.
"Master, I don't mean to interrupt you, but we cannot activate the Stargate."
"Is it possible that there is some sort of malfunction with it, young Jonathan?"
"No master, it simply will not activate, but there is nothing wrong with it." said the one called Jonathan.
"Well, this has happened before, like the time when the SGC dialed a planet that was being swallowed up by the event horizon of a black hole, or the time when the Russian gate dialed a water planet with a signal being sent through by a nuclear powered probe" explained Cornelius Percival.
Then another man came into the room and started talking.
"Master Lutz, we just received word from intelligence, someone on another world has dialed the SGC's Stargate. The SGC received no iris code, and the wormhole has been open for several hours now."
"If a Goa'uld, has found a way to keep a wormhole open indefinitely to prevent anyone from the SGC escaping," said Amun, "then this could mean that there is going to be an attack."
Cornelius Percival's demeanor then went into military mode. "Ready all the defenses that we have. Prepared to intercept an invasion fleet."
"I wouldn't bother Mr. Percival," said Alice, as she stared into empty space. "I do not see a fleet of ships attacking the Earth. I only see a massive nuclear explosion in Colorado, in four days."
(Keep reading for Chapter 3: The Cast-out Ascended-Being's Wrath)