Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko or any of the original characters.
Authors Note1: This story was written before the second season and is based entirely off the first season.
Authors Note2: This story takes place immediately after 'Temporal Displacement'
Key: Scene change
Lyoko
Earth/Other
Code Lyoko: Dark Regions, Part One
By. Tate Icasa
Previously:
The ground began to shiver.
"What the?"
"Those aren't pulsations!"
"What's going on!"
Continuation:
"I don't know. This doesn't feel like Xana." Aelita said.
The platform tilted.
Odd embedded his claws in the dirt, Ulrich is Saber, Yumi her fan, Sissi her spikes, Jeremie his staff's. Aelita stood behind/on a rock.
"If it's not Xana then what is it!"
Before anyone could answer, the platform and everything on it seemed to implode. Everything changed instantly. Shapes, colors, sizes, everything turned inside out, sideways and upside down. Not one of them stayed conscious for the whole thing.
Aelita opened her eyes a slit. The world around her was dark. Dark blue, dark green, dark gray. Tall, looming shapes that might or might not have been trees lined the pathway.
"What happened?" she asked. She received no answer. She opened her eyes the rest of the way. She was lying on the ground. "Jeremie? Ulrich? Yumi? Odd? Sissi? Anybody?"
She heard a noise behind her and turned. For a second, a thing that could have passed for a black bush swayed. Aelita cautiously moved towards it, moving 'leaves' away until she saw what had moved. "Yumi!"
Yumi didn't move. She was out cold.
"Come on Yumi, wake up!" She shook Yumi, still, with no response. "Yumi!" When Yumi still didn't respond, Aelita pulled her out of the bush. "Yumi, please wake up, you're scaring me."
This time Yumi stirred. Moaning a little she sat up and opened her eyes. "Ugh. What happened? Where are we?"
"I have no idea." She looked around. "But I don't like it here. It - it scares me a little."
"And well it should." said a voice from above them. A raven-haired girl dropped down from the 'trees' in front of them. She was dressed in a black and gray outfit, not unlike Aelita's. Something about her smile put Yumi on guard.
"Where are we?" She asked the girl.
"Okoyl. My beautiful domain." The girl said. "A reversal of the world you call Lyoko. I am Mela, Empress of the Dark Regions. Who are you, trespassers?"
"Yumi Ishyama."
"Aelita." Aelita had no better answer, but something in Mela's eyes said that it was the wrong answer.
The look was brief. It passed almost as soon as it showed up. "Come with me." Mela said finally. "We have. . .much, to discuss." She began to walk.
Aelita and Yumi looked at each other, shrugged and began to walk after her.
Odd looked around. The region he was in was surrounded by huge walls, all made of different materials. There were walls of stone, ice, wood, even the sand desert material. The walls were of varying height and spacing, and the whole place seemed as if someone had randomly shuffled all the regions together into a maze.
"What is this place?"
He heard a faint rumbling sound.
"I don't like the sound of that."
He jumped up and began to climb the nearest wall, which was made of ice. From the top he could see that it was, indeed, a maze. A huge maze that stretched across the entire platform, and all the surrounding platforms seemed to be the same.
"Whoa."
He jumped across the gap to the top of another wall. Suddenly, something hit him from the side, hard enough to dislodge him and send him sprawling onto the ground.
"Hey! What'd you do that for!" he yelled, looking up just in time to see the figure get hit by an oddly colored laser. He had just enough time to realize that the figure wasn't one of his friends, before three monsters flew into view.
They resembled hornets, only by the pure coincidence that they had wings. The new monsters were huge. They were blue-greenish, and appeared to be dragonflies.
The stranger pointed at them. Odd nodded, and aimed his Arrows.
"Now!" The stranger yelled. Odd shot the Arrows. Four of them hit the Dragonfly. It shuddered but didn't disappear. He shot it more. In the end it took ten Arrows total to destroy it.
The stranger ducked down into the maze.
It was a dark-clothed female.
"Come on." She said, "I know where we can hide." She turned and began running, weaving her way through the maze, Odd on her heels.
Ulrich rolled onto his side and opened his eyes. Then he jumped to his feet. The ground was cracking around him. Red liquid he guessed was lava seeped from the cracks.
He backed away until he reached the ledge.
He could see the lava flowing off the platform, stretching toward the Void. Parts of the platform seemed to disintegrate into lava. He crouched and used both hands the thrust his Saber up from the bottom of the platform, so the blade broke through the top.
"I hope this works. . . ." he said, jumping underneath the platform, using his Saber as a handhold. He could see the platform becoming lava, and his Saber slipping. He closed his eyes.
"Ulrich!"
He looked up. Jeremie was flying toward him, Sissi holding his ankles.
"Grab on!"
The Saber slipped out. He reached his hand out. And connected with nothing.
"Ulrich!" Sissi shouted, reaching out with one hand.
"Sissi! You've upset my balance! We're gonna crash!"
As soon as they were over the platform, Sissi let go and landed safely. Jeremie tried to land and tumbled three times.
They scrambled to the ledge and looked over. Ulrich was nowhere in sight.
"Ulrich." Sissi whispered.
They didn't notice the person who approached them until she spoke.
"Did your friend fall into the Void?"
They looked up, startled, and nodded. She sat down cross-legged.
"My name is Mela. I might be able to find your friend." She looked down into the Void and began to glow. After a few minutes she looked up. "There is one more thing I can try. But I need to be in the Castle." She stood up. "Will you come with me? I might need your help."
Sissi nodded quickly. "Of course we will."
Ulrich opened his eyes. He was lying in a cave, or he guessed it was a cave.
"Is this what the Void looks like?"
"No, silly." said a voice. He turned. The girl looked exactly like Aelita, except she had silver hair and a silver and white outfit. "You didn't hit the Void. I saved you. What's your name, anyway?"
"Ulrich." he said, suspiciously. "Who are you?"
"I'm Cara. I"m glad you're awake. I think your friends are in danger."
"Danger? What sort of danger?"
Cara hit a button on the interface. A hologram of another near perfect copy of Aelita popped up, this time in black and gray. "Her name is Mela. She's sort of like a clone. You could say she's my twin. My evil twin. She works for the one you call Xana."
"Why does this not surprise me?" Ulrich muttered. "Ok, why does this involve me?"
"I was getting to that. She Inverted you here, so I assume she has the others already. The only reason she didn't get you was because you fell."
"Well, then, let's go."
"Not that way." She said. "The tower is this way." she pointed. "Come on, we'll go to the castle, I"m sure she'll take them there."
Yumi, Aelita and Mela slowed as they approached the tower. It was larger than any tower Aelita or Yumi and ever seen.
"Whoa." Yumi said.
"Impressed?" Asked Mela.
They nodded.
"Come on, I'll lead you." She stepped into the tower, Yumi and Aelita just behind her.
The inside of the tower was tinged with violet instead of blue. Mela leaned over the edge of the platform and lead them trough the data stream. As they landed on the next platform Mela sighed. "I'd forgotten. Mother. . .wants to see me. May I take you to a room where you can rest?"
"I guess so." Aelita agreed.
"This way." She led them from the tower.
The Castle was huge. The walls were made of stone, with windows of ice. Mela led them through a series of corridors and into a barren room. "Stay here until I come back." She called over her shoulder.
Odd and the stranger ran through the maze. The stranger turned a corner and stopped. The tower stood in front of them.
"We can go to the Castle. We'll be safe there." She lead him trough the castle, until they came to a room.
The stranger took one look at the door. "Incompetence." she muttered. She grabbed Odd and tossed him into the room, slamming her hand onto a section of the wall. Purplish electricity surrounded the door.
"Hey!" He yelled. He punched at the door. Electricity crackled up his arm, sending him flying into the wall. "Ow!" he said, rubbing his head.
The noise was enough to wake the two sleeping girls Odd hadn't noticed before.
"Yumi? Aelita?"
"Odd?"
"How'd you get here?" He asked, almost casually.
"Mela brought us." Yumi said.
"Who?"
"Mela, Empress of Okoyl. She lives here in the castle. Didn't you meet her?"
"Um, I don't know. Someone led me here and locked me in."
"Locked you in? Mela wouldn't lock you in."
"How do you know? We've only been back in our own time for about half an our."
"Mela's nice, Odd, she's going to talk to her mother and then tell us more about Okoyl."
"I thought the girl who led me here was nice too. She saved me from some monsters."
"I still don't think it was Mela that locked you in here. What'd this person look like, Odd?"
"Like you." He said quietly. "Like you with black hair, and black and gray clothes."
"That's Mela alright." Yumi said grimly. "Let's go look at the door."
Ulirch and Cara arrived on the platform only a few seconds before Mela, Jeremie, and Sissi. Cara waved her hands and a transparent purple bubble surrounded them.
"While we're inside the bubble they won't be able to see or hear us. But," she warned, "if you leave to bubble they can, and Mela will capture you."
Mela sanded on the platform, followed by Jeremie and Sissi.
"Why do they look so sad?"
"They think you fell into the void." Cara reminded him.
Mela took two chains from her pocket. "I need to borrow some of your energy. These necklaces will allow me to harness it. Will you wear them?"
Sissi reached out her hand.
"NO!" Ulrich shouted, leaping from the bubble. He grabbed her arm, and threw her over the edge of the platform.
Mela threw the chain and Ulrich and another at Jeremie. They wrapped about their necks, fusing together when they connected.
Ulrich's began to glow and violet electricity surrounded him. He stumbled forward and fell to his knees, trying to pull the chain off.
"Let me tell you something." Mela said conversationally. "On Okoyl lifepoints don't exist, you can't be devirtualized, you can't die. But you can be hurt." She smiled cruelly. "Let that be a lesson to you. To both of you."
The electricity disappeared, and Ulrich slumped forward, panting.
"Come, there are people waiting for us." She grabbed Ulrich by the collar and stood him up. "Can you walk?" She let him go, and he fell back again. "Very well." She began to glow and Ulrich began to float, a soft glow under him, like a board.
Like Yumi's telekenisis, Jeremie thought, still to shocked to react any more than to follow Mela and Ulrich out of the tower and to enter the room Mela pointed at.
Mela slapped chaings onto Odd, Yumi, and Aelita.
As soon as she had left, Yumi was at Ulrich's side.
"Sissi. . .I threw her. . .into the datastream. . ." he whispered. "I'm sorry, Yumi." His eyelids fluttered closed. "I couldn't save you too." He fell silent, unconscious.
"Ulrich? What did they do to you?"
Inside the small room was a throne. It was decorated with dark red and blue jewels. Mela sat in the throne. In front of her stood three more, identical Mela's.
"We lost one." The first Mela, the one of the throne said, frowning. She was silent far a minute. Finally, she said, "It doesn't matter. I suppose we should go see our 'guests'." She joined her 'clones' on the floor.
At the same time, the four of them shouted, "Together!" The clones fused into the first Mela, until there was only one. She turned and walked though the door.
