All We Ever Wanted
Chapter 8: Just Mannie
Disclaimer: yeah yeah yeah, I don't own Code: Lyoko. Big whoop : (
A few days later Odd and Mannie were at the park near their school and her house. They had so much to celebrate and be happy for- even if XANA was still alive and kicking, and her dad was still stuck in Lyoko. They were having a small picnic at the parkhe sun was shining bright and the world just felt right for them. Of course, Mannie made most of the food and Odd was going to eat it all.
"Why are you so amazing?" Odd asked her, smiling.
"What do you mean? I'm just Mannie, haha." She laughed at him shaking her head, still setting everything up. He looked at her, smiled some more, picked her up onto his lap. "Hey I-" He kissed her and then put a finger on her mouth silencing her.
"You talk way too much. You should know by know that you're not just Mannie. You're my Mannie. Basically the other Princess of Lyoko. You're a singer, model, and an actress. You're the most beautiful girl I know. You are not "Just Mannie", please don't say that. Ever again." Odd had made the pretty little blonde/brunette blush wildly.
"You talk about me talking too much… what about you?" She turned her face so he couldn't see her blush.
"What about me?" Odd asked her.
"You talk waaaaay too much." She laughed pushing him down on the blanket kissing him. He grinned and laughed a little into the kiss and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. A few minutes later, he sat up, straightening his hair.
"Ahem Mannie, time for some more talking."
"Oh gosh, what now?" She finished ran her fingers through her back-length hair and looked at him.
"I've known you for about four years now," he turned and reached into his back pocket. "I've never met another girl I've been more crazy about."
"Odd…what are you doing?" Mannie looked from the little box in his hands up to his face, which had the most serious look she had ever seen. He grabbed her hands, stood up and helped her up, then bent down on one knee.
"I've never met another girl who makes my head spin so much when I'm with her, one who can make me cry when she moves away and doesn't try calling me or anything for months, I've never met another girl who I would go crazy for not being able to go into Lyoko and save her. I love you more than anyone I've ever met Manuela Christina Diazdeleon, and I will not let you slip out of my life ever again. So when we graduate in the summer, and when this whole XANA thing is over, will you be my wife?" Odd smiled as he saw the tears well up in her eyes.
"But what if we never defeat XANA?" She asked.
"Well then he'll just have to crash our wedding because he's not going to get in the way of us becoming one. So, answer my question. Mannie, will you do me the biggest honor and be my wife?" He opened the box to show a gorgeous engagement ring, which made her eyes well up with some more tears.
"Why are you even asking me that? You should know my answer… of course I'll marry you Odd!" and she pounced on him again knocking him over, kissing him, happy tears finally falling out of her eyes. He sat her up and put the ring on her finger.
"Now I hope you know, you're mine forever." He smiled holding his now, fiancée close to him in his lap.
"And that I don't mind one little bit." She smiled savoring the peace they finally had together. So she finished setting up their picnic and they got back to eating their food.
Meanwhile in Lyoko, it wasn't so peaceful. In a room deep in Lyoko, the most evil looking man you could imagine was staring Xavier Narako down.
"Tell me how to get rid of your daughter, and I'll let you go." He tapped his fingers on a desk. Xavier just simply laughed.
"Is that really a request? You're getting even more and more pathetic every time you ask me these questions."
"It'll be all over if we just take her down Xavier." Mikaela crossed her arms looking at him. "Just tell us. It's what she gets for killing William anyways."
"That's his own fault for facing up to her. He knew what was at stake when he went up against her." Xavier shook his head. "You all should know my Manuela is not an easy target."
"That's why we need to know what to do to take her down." XANA punched the wall beside him leaving a huge dent.
"How about this, we duel. If you get me close to death I'll tell you how to take down my daughter. Simple as that."
"And what if you win?" XANA asked him.
"You shut off Lyoko yourself, or set me free." Xavier looked over at the evil man.
"Hmmmm I don't know. How do I know this isn't a trick?" XANA asked him, cautious.
"Because you're the all powerful XANA. You rule Lyoko. You're the king. You can control whatever happens." Xavier smiled, and so did XANA.
"Fine." XANA tossed him what looked like a rusted sword and took William's old sword for himself. Xavier laughed to himself.
"How did I know you weren't going to play fair?" The two men ran at each other, and their swords clanked. Xavier's started to break, and XANA's sword broke through and struck him in the shoulder. Xavier showed no emotion such as pain, and reached in his back pocket and got out his sword from before.
"Wha-?" XANA was confused.
"Yeah, that Jeremy kid supplied me not too long ago. I should thank him one day." Xavier ran at XANA who jumped up high in the air. Xavier did the same and they battled some more. The fight went on for quite some time.
Mannie was walking through the halls of the dorms of Kadic, just returning from hanging out with Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremy. She was still admiring her ring. It did not ta long for everyone in Kadic to find out, thanks to Millie and Tamiya. 'I can't believe this is actually happening…me and Odd are actually engaged.' Just as she finished her thoughts, a wave of turmoil and fear ran over her body. 'Something's not right…' She ran to the factory. When she finally got there, she didn't see anything unusual. But she ran to the Virtualizer Room where she saw an unconscious body of William laying on the floor.
"Oh my Gawd, William!" She ran over to him and picked him up in her lap. "How long have you been out of Lyoko?" She bent over and listened. He was still breathing. "I've got to get you to the nurse." She carefully placed him over her shoulder, and took him to the nurse.
"Where did you find him!" Nurse Perraudin helped Mannie lay him on the examining table.
"I found him lying in the forest. I don't know how long he's been there though…" Mannie looked at the poor boy. 'He's going to be so exhausted. He hasn't woken up in the real world in so long.' She stroked the side of his face.
"He's going to be okay Manuela. He is dehydrated though. I'm going to give him some fluid, and call his parents so they know he's okay."
"Okay, I'll tell the others and I'll back in a little bit. I have stuff I need to do." Mannie nodded. She ran back to the factory and went to the Supercomputer. She saw a pop-up that asked 'Would You Like To View?' She typed 'Y' where saw the swordfight between her father and XANA. Her hands came up to cover her mouth. "DAD!" She set up the computer to automatically send her to Lyoko and ran down to the Virtualization room. She was sent to the forest sector of Lyoko and looked around. She saw the length of a tower in the distance and started running, killing every monster with no problem on her way there. She finally got inside and typed in the computer, she found herself on the flower field once again.
The two men were so preoccupied with killing each other, they didn't notice the alarm go off that Mannie had entered 'The Portal' and Mikaela quietly slip outside of the room they were in. They both had numerous jagged deep cuts in their skin. They both had a dark look in their eyes, ready to kill the other. Xavier ran at XANA and sliced at his stomach, which he successfully hit.
"You may as well give up now Xavier. Even if you do kill me, Mikaela will get to Mannie even before you can put an end to me!" XANA smiled evily seeing the man tense up. He looked around and Mikaela was gone.
"It was a mistake for you to come here alone Manuela. Especially after killing William." Mikaela said from behind her, getting out some ninja stars.
"Take me to XANA and my father Mickey." Mannie turned around and looked at Mikaela.
"Now why would I do that? So you can go and ruin that for me too?" Mikaela's red hair burned with anger. It was something she used to do out of Lyoko as well. She threw the ninja stars at Mannie who had no problem jumping out of the way of them.
"Oh, you mean William, right? Well now you know how it feels. I haven't seen my father alive in 4 years, Mickey. Why are you doing this? Why are you helping out XANA?" Mannie asked her, reaching back to grab a gun.
"Oh why? Why would I want to exist in that cruel world. Why exist in that world, when I can exist in this one and when XANA destroys all the corrupt people, we can start a new world where there are no corrupt people. You see Mannie, everyone in your life, will hurt you in some way or another eventually. Kinda like Odd. But you just forgive him every time, and he always finds some way to hurt you. Again and again. And now you're marrying the kid. Did you forget he's having a kid?" Mikaela rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"It's not his. Sam even admitted it." Mannie stepped forward which made Mikaela step backwards.
"Well you should remember, once a cheater always a cheater. Didn't you write a song like that. Doesn't it go-" Mannie pointed the gun at Mikaela, and closed her eyes as she flew back off the floating island of flowers into the abyss, and probably into Limbo.
"Good riddance." Mannie opened her eyes and looked over the edge.
Back with Xavier and XANA, XANA was gaining on Xavier who was worrying about his daughter.
"You know, Mickey being gone for quite some time can't be a good thing. She probably killed Mannie." XANA smiled.
'Mannie…Mannie. Are you okay?' Xavier closed his eyes and concentrated.
'Dad! Is that you?' He heared his daughters' familiar voice in his head.
'Mannie, I need you to get out of Lyoko. I'm going to take down XANA, and if you're in here while I do it, you'll be sent to Limbo.'
'I can't get out. Jeremy didn't come with me to the factory…' Mannie's voice sounded distressed.
'I sent a distress signal to his laptop, he should get it soon enough.'
"Mannie! Why are you in Lyoko?" She could hear Jeremy's voice over the skies of Lyoko.
"Jeremy! I need you to go to the Supercomputer and get me out of here." Mannie sounded frantic, finding her way out of the Field of Flowers, and got of the tower.
"Why what's wrong Mannie?" She heard Odd's voice.
"My dad's going to kill XANA." She stated. She heard nothing, and knew that meant the boys were on their way.
"You can't defeat me Xavier, no matter how hard you try or how bad you want to." XANA shook his head running at Xavier shoving the sword through the man's stomach. Xavier cried out in pain and keeled over his knees.
"I may not have been able to before, but that was before my daughter was engaged. She has a life to live and I will not let you take that away from her, or Odd." Xavier stood up and did the same to XANA, then kicked him back onto a couple buttons.
Jeremy and the boys reached the factory and Jeremy rapidly typed the devirtualization code, getting Mannie out and devirtualized completely just as a white wave of light covered the land of Lyoko. It was a lot like the "Return to the Past", but in this case it was the demise of XANA. Mannie ran up and saw what was happening. She saw her father fall over and pass out on the floor, and the same with the man they knew as XANA.
A smaller screen popped up on the screen of the SuperComputer.
'Code:_'
"Would you like to do the honors Jeremy?" Mannie smiled at him. His hands were shaking as he looked at the other. They all nodded, and he slowly typed 'L.Y.O.K.O.' The lights in the room flickered and the computer restarted.
"Is it really over?" Ulrich asked, and Mannie smiled.
"Yeah… it is. I feel…free." She looked at Odd.
"Well you know what that means, right?" He winked and pulled her close in a hug. Jeremy was staring blankly at the screen as he gasped and took in a deep breath.
"Aelita! We need to make sure she's okay!" He darted to the elevator and violently pushed the "down" button. The rest of them hustled into the elevator and ran to Yumi's dorm where Yumi, Avril, and Aelita were hanging out.
"What's up?" Yumi asked the boys and Mannie who were all out of breath from running.
"Is it an attack from XANA?" Aelita hopped off the bed, alarmed. Jeremy smiled, ran over to her and grabbed her into a kiss.
"No! XANA's dead!" Ulrich cheered.
"Oh my gosh really?" Avril jumped up and kissed Ulrich. They both blushed and looked away. Yumi looked at all the couples and tried to act happy, but seemed to feel a little empty and alone.
"Oh! Yumi, I have a surprise for you." Mannie smiled walking over to Yumi and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of her dorm room.
"What? What is it?" Yumi asked.
"Just watch!" Mannie smiled. They all followed her to the nurse's office and she opened the doors. William was sitting up on the examination table when they all walked in. Yumi gasped.
"William!" She ran forward and grabbed him in a big hug. "You're okay!"
"Yumi….I'm so sorry about everything." He hugged her back.
"Mannie, how did you…?" Jeremy asked her.
"He was down in the Virtualization Room unconscious when I went to check the factory… I brought him here." Mannie smiled.
"Hey, remember before when I said you're amazing?" Odd grabbed her hand, rubbing it with his thumb and looked at her.
"Yeah, why?" She looked up at his face.
"Well you just reminded me again, why you're so amazing." He smiled and grabbed her into another kiss. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him.
Epilogue
Sixteen years later, Mannie was loading up her car with her daughter Aria Della Robbia, to go take her to school at Kadic and take her and Odd's newborn son, Kody to daycare.
"Moooom. Dad was telling me that we're NOT going to Paris this weekend!" Aria whined. She was fourteen had blonde hair with purple bangs, from Odd of course, and some purple peekaboos, with some brown mixed in her hair. She was skinny just like her dad, and could definitely eat as much as him too. She had bright green eyes that complimented her skin tone and her hair. Kody had brown eyes like his dad but just blonde hair like his mom, but he was a chubby baby. Mannie sighed.
"We told you, you need to have an 85 in science, and you have a 73. We are not going to Paris until you get your grades up." Mannie closed the door to the back seat of her white Jeep Grand Cherokee and walked to the driver's seat, and looked at her daughter. "Look, if you get up your grades to an 85 by next weekend we'll go."
"Wellllll, Mrs. Hertz told me how daddy used to always get failing grades! Why are you making me do the impossible! I think she has it in for me since dad was such a horrible student." Aria shook her head.
"Hahaha, well that may be true sweetie, but I was her star student. I got 100's. I still can't believe that lady is still teaching there." Mannie started the car and backed out of her and Odd's house. Odd and Mannie got married a year after they graduated on the beaches of France. Everyone, and I mean everyone was there. Almost everyone from school made it, and even Sam made an appearance. She apologized to Mannie and Odd about everything she had done over the past couple years, but Odd had her escorted out because he didn't trust her. Odd, had gone to college for two years to get an associate's degree in Music Producing. He moved on and was a part time painter when he wasn't busy with his very successful music business. Mannie still modeled sometimes just like her mom, and spent a lot of her time being an activist for organizations to help hunger and helping dolphins and other animals and such.
Yumi went to college and became a math teacher at Kadic, she and William also opened a dojo where they taught martial arts. William also became a master chef. They had two twin girls together, Naomi and Milee.
Aelita and Jeremy went onto college in Pisa, and they both became very successful scientists, Jeremy a geneticist and Aelita a cytologist. They had a son, Aldo, and a smaller daughter Carrie.
Avril and Ulrich also both went to college, Ulrich got a scholarship for the soccer team then got drafted by the Les Blues, and Avril became a best selling author. They both had a son as well, Damien.
As Mannie was driving to drop Kody off, he started crying.
"Aria, can you please reach in the bag and give Kody a bottle?" Mannie asked, not looking away from the road.
"Fiiiiine, not like you ever do anything for me." The teen whined while reaching behind her reaching for a bottle. "I don't see one Mom. Are you sure you packed one?"
"Yes I'm sure I packed one!" They pulled up to a stop light, Mannie unbuckled her seatbelt, reached back for the bag, and accidentally took her foot off the break. Aria turned frontward in her seat, and checked her phone.
"MOOOOM….Damien says they're all going to Paris this weekend! That's not fair!" Aria whined. She looked up. "Mom! Look out!" Before she knew it, a big van, which had been coming straight for them crashed into the driver's side of the car. Mannie flew forward and her head crashed into the right side, back seat side window, leaving a big crack. Aria flew forward, though restrained by the seatbelt, she still hit her head on the dashboard. A big group of people rushed around the car as the van drove away with a bashed in fender, and a bunch of people called 9-1-1 reporting the crash.
"Move out of my way!" Odd ran into the Kadic City ER Hospital. and hurried to the front desk. "Odd Della Robbia. I'm here about my son Kody Della Robbia, daughter Aria Della Robbia, and wife Manuella Della Robbia." He showed them his ID. One of the nurses heard this and asked him to come with her.
"This way Mr. Della Robbia… We are so sorry about your family. Your wife is in the ICU, thankfully your son only has a few scratches from glass, he's in the room with your daughter who is resting up. She has some cuts and bruises and a concussion from hitting her head. We figured you'd want them together." The nurse looked at him apologetically.
"What about my wife…?" He asked her.
"She is in a coma. She also got a concussion. For now she is stable, but you should go see your kids first, then we can take you to see your wife. Maybe she will be better by then!" The nurse tried to be positive.
"Okay, thank you so much." Odd's eyes started to well up with tears. 'I can't believe this. After fifteen years of nothing harming my family, they almost die.' He took a deep breath and walked into his daughters' room. "Aria? Baby?"
"Ohhh daddy!" He saw his daughter lying in the bed, and it broke his heart. He was supposed to protect her. And, here she was, 14 years old with all these damn machines hooked up to her poor little body.
"My poor little princess are you okay?" He ran over to her and hugged her tight. "Where's Kody?" He asked her. She pointed to a smaller version of the bed she was in. He walked over and picked up his son. Kody was sleeping and turned cuddled into his father's arms. Odd kissed his son on the forehead.
"Daddy where's mommy?" Aria asked him. He felt a terrible, sharp pang in his chest.
"….Mommy's in the ICU sweetie." He tried to stay strong in front of his daughter.
"Dad, I'm sorry I couldn't protect her. It just all happened all so fast!" He was taken aback by what she said, put Kody down, walked over to her, and kneeled by her bed.
"Hey hey hey now, you have nothing to be sorry for. I am so sorry that I couldn't keep you safe. Mommy will be okay princess, don't worry about her." Odd smiled and kissed his daughter on her head.
"Now get some rest. I'll be here when you wake up." Odd went and sat in a chair near his daughters bed.
He sat there for a little, reminiscing in his and Mannie's life together, and it wasn't long before Jeremy, Aelita, Ulrich, Avril, Yumi, William, and their kids all showed up.
"What are you all doing here?" Odd whispered in surprise.
"You didn't think we were gonna let you go through this alone did you? We're all like a family." Aelita smiled.
"A big big family!" Yumi and Williams' twins chorused, and Odd smiled.
"Thanks guys, it really means a lot."
"How's Mannie?" Ulrich asked him, and Odd frowned and sighed.
"She's in the ICU, they haven't let me see her yet." He shrugged.
"They're probably still trying to stabilize her. If she's in a coma all the people in the room could stress her out." Aelita said trying to make him feel a little better.
"Uncle Odd, don't worry about Auntie Mannie. She's a strong lady! I mean, she used to always beat you up! She'll get through this." Carrie said with her small voice. Odd picked her up and sat her in his lap.
"Thanks Carrie, you always know what to say." He poked her side, tickling her. He looked up at his daughter and saw the others' kids all sitting around her. It brought back memories of when he was in Kadic, and anyone in the group would be in the infirmary.
About 30 minutes later, the door opened to Aria and Kody's room.
"Mr. Della Robbia?" The nurse from before poked her head into the room. "You can go see your wife now." Everyone minus the kids stood up and followed Odd as he led the way behind the nurse. She slowly opened the door, and they all walked inside.
"Oh my Mannie!" He ran to her bedside and grabbed her hand. "I promised I would never let anything happened to you, I'm so sorry." He kissed her hand, and sat in a chair next to her.
"Wow…she looks like an angel." Avril said admiring Mannie. Mannie had cut her blonde hair shoulderlength, longer in the front, shorter in the back with brown lowlights. She had a big ugly bruise on her forehead, and cuts all over her body, and she was hooked up to numerous machines.
Suddenly out of nowhere, the lights in the hospital started flickering, and the machines started turning on and off. All the adults in the room got a familiar, sick to the stomach feeling and knew exactly what was happening.
All at once, they whispered, "XANA…"
Alright alright: ) I thought this chapter was AMAZING! I hope yall enjoyed it, and yes. There's going to be a PART THREEEEE! WOOOHOOOO! So be on the lookout! & Once again, go read What Have You Done if you haven't yet! Just click on my name and go look for it! Thanks everyone!
R/R! Let me know what you think!
Amber