Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. I do own Musa, Cascada, this story's plot and anything else that wasn't in the show.
Warning: Don't really do this but just want to be safe for any kiddies reading this. This chapter contains sexual inuuendos, angst, and death.
Catocala Lacrymosa: A Dying Hope for a New Tomorrow
"I hold the world but as the world…A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one." –The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (Antonio- 1.1.1)
The growling wolf A.I. used the back of her hand to wipe the blood away from her mouth. Her clothes and body had various cuts and first degree burn marks though there were more so cuts. The paper manipulator before her took paper cut to a whole new level that before tonight, Musa didn't think was even possible.
Musa chanced a quick glance at William; he didn't look any better than she did. Blood was freely trickling from his bleeding lip unnoticed as he held the gaze of the fire manipulating woman. Small red sparks were at his fingertips and Musa wondered how much he was able to wield before he would have to make some contact with the wolf A.I. "We really need to speed up the work on his sector," Musa thought before putting her full attention back onto the paper A.I.
The woman was smirking as she fanned herself with a paper fan she had created. There was barely a scratch on her save for the slightly torn wrap around her waist. "I must say," she grinned, "this is really entertaining. Am I right?" she asked her fire using comrade.
The other merely nodded. Musa noticed that between the two women, the flame A.I. was the silent of the two. So many questions swam in the wolf girl's head, the top being: Who were these people? What did they want? And the most important question was: There are more of us?
"Well I'm glad you think this is all fun and games," William snared sarcastically.
"Lighten up," the origami woman sighed. "I heard you used to be the life of the party once. Quite the rebel, but now… you're basically like an old man. I can see why your lover left," she smirked at the frown that etched deeper into his expression as she mentioned Cascada. "Though with your body, dud or not, I wouldn't leave you by yourself.
"You don't know anything about him!" Musa growled.
"Like you do?" the woman asked raising a questioning brow over her visor. "Face the facts; we know a lot about you and your little Lyoko Gang."
"Esen" the fire manipulator finally broke her silence. "Let's get this over with."
"Of course," the one called Esen said seriously as sheets of paper lifted out from under her wrap swirling around her like a mini whirl wind. "Any last words? No? Good," she said flicking her wrist, causing the paper to fold into dagger like shapes. With another flick of her wrist they were-
Esen crashed to the ground, holding her head. The fire manipulator and Musa were doing the same. William felt sick but everyone else, except for the still passed out Odd, felt perfectly okay.
"What the-" Musa groaned as she looked up to see Lucas with a strange gun in his hand, trigger pulled. It was pointed towards Esen and the fire A.I. but Musa and William still felt the effects.
"I was wondering when I was going to get to use this," the red headed man smirked as Esen growled.
"Retreat!" she yelled as she and her comrade managed to get to their feet. The fire A.I. disappeared in a bright flame but not before she had time to throw a small flame at Esen. The paper A.I. caught it in her hand, seemingly not burned by the unnatural flame. In her other hand she made a small crane bird with a candle wick coming from its back. "A parting gift," she said before lighting the bird and blowing on it, making it glide across the air. Esen snapped her fingers and she was gone with a flurry of paper.
"Get down!" Lucas yelled before throwing a silver shaped ball. A blue dome appeared around them just before an inferno of flames surrounded them. The fire alarms instantly came on, quenching the flames. The sounds of screaming and displeased club goers were heard as they made their way out of the club as the sprinklers rained down upon them. The dome retracted, revealing the scorched marks of the fire.
Ulrich, who had finally gotten himself down from the wall, sighed in relief. "That was close. Hey, you can put that down now," he said to Lucas seeing that the man still had it raised.
"Do you not know what they are?" Lucas yelled motioning at the still sick Musa and William.
"We do and we know you do too," Jeremy said taking a hesitating step towards the man, "which is why you should put that down."
"Can't you see you're hurting them?" Aelita cried.
"Like they haven't hurt people before?" Lucas cried hysterically. "Look at them! They're monsters. I thought they were gone, but if it was one thing that my father taught me it was that these things don't just go away and-"
Lucas stopped as he felt a pressure against his head. "Turn it off," a low, calm, and steady voice threatened. The total and complete toneless sound of the voice sent chills down everyone's backs. Lucas looked from the corner of his eyes to see the purple and blonde hair male, now cognizant, holding a gun to his temple.
"If I don't kill them, they'll kill me," McArnald said keeping his voice low. "Don't you see?"
"Look," Odd said. "I got drunk. My head it throbbing. I feel like I'm about to get reacquainted with my dinner very soon and you're pointing a gun that's doing something to hurt my girlfriend. I really doubt you would want to mess with me. Like they say, alcohol brings out the worst in people and I don't think you want to see my worst."
The red hair man sent a hesitant gaze towards the struggling artificial intelligence before letting go of the trigger and dropping the gun to the floor. "Happy?" he asked but when he looked back at Odd he saw that the blonde was passed out, snoring on his desk.
Ulrich shook his head, taking the gun away from the sleeping blonde before rolling his eyes. "This isn't even loaded. Idiot," he said shaking his head though softly grinning at his friend. "Only Odd," he thought.
Jeremy and Aelita helped William and Musa to get to their feet. The shaggy hair male glared at Lucas, about to give the man a piece of his mind but what Musa did surprised all of them.
The wolf A.I. took a step forward towards the weary red hair man before going into a deep bow. "I apologize, Lucas-san, for any inconvenience we have caused you. We did not mean for tonight's events to play out this way. We merely came for your assistance."
"What was your number?" the man asked before specifying, "During the project."
"My Program Identification number was 5262: Lyoko Analysis Network Avatar, L.A.N.A., second scout program for Project Carthage but I'm now known as Musa Utada," the wolf A.I. said pointing to herself before pointing to William. "He's the replica program (William frowned at this) of Program number 5366: Leading Ethical Organizing Navigator, L.E.O.N., a hacker program for Project Carthage, but he is now known as William Dunbar."
The gang saw the hard look in Lucas's eyes soften a bit as he looked at the two. "Waldo Schaeffer's independent projects. How were you two able to survive after the Schaeffer family was killed?"
"The Schaeffer family is very much alive," Jeremy said pushing his glasses back up his nose as he stuffed his hands in his pockets while giving Aelita a sidelong glance. Lucas noticed this and looked at Aelita before his eyes widened.
"Is that little Aelita?" he asked, chuckling in surprise. The usually pink hair female nodded. "Wow, have you grown," Lucas said eying her. "Though I thought you were several years younger than me. How old are you? Twenty-one?"
"Physically, I'm fifteen actually," Aelita said with a smirk as McArnald's jaw dropped. "This is actually an illusion created by one of my father's inventions."
"What the-Did he create the fountain of youth or something?" the man asked incredulously.
"More like the virtual tower of youth," Aelita said offhandedly with a shrug.
"Are you all-?" Lucas said gesturing at them.
"Teenagers?" Musa asked finishing his sentence. "Yeah."
"Wish I had whatever you guys had when I was a younger. I could have stocked up on beer," Lucas grinned before Aelita's cell phone went off.
"It's Cascada," she informed as she answered the phone.
"She's Program number 7673: Router Organizer System Engine, R.O.S.E., first scout program now going by Cascada Hikaru," Musa explained
"Or you may know here as the crazy woman that tied you up," Jeremy supplied.
The color from Lucas's face drained. "Is she the one that hit me on the head, knocking me out?"
The man heard a nervous laugh. "Actually," Musa said sheepishly, "that was me, but you were acting like a pervert."
Lucas smirked as he walked towards her. He stopped before her and lifted her chin up to look at him. "Who said I was acting?" he said with a seductive voice before glancing down at her ruined dress that exposed quite a bit of skin.
The wolf A.I. blushed with embarrassment and furry. "HENTAI!" she yelled slapping the man.
"Ow," the red hair man said dully holding his stinging cheek. The pain hurt, but he was quite used to this by now. "What did you guys come here for again?" he asked.
Aelita took something out of her purse, handing him the bracelet that they needed parts for. "Musa and Cascada said that your father was an expert in this kind of field," William said.
"He was but he's-"
"Dead. We know," Jeremy said. "That's why we came here for you."
Lucas put his hands behind his head, rocking on the heels of his feet. "My old man did mention something like this would happen. At the time I thought he was crazy but…if Mr. Schaffer sent you guys then it's okay. But we'll need to go to my house to get the stuff."
"Okay, but we'll have to pick up Yumi and Cascada first," Ulrich said.
"Was Yumi the hot Asian chick?" Lucas asked with a smug on his face. "Wouldn't mind doing a little kung-fu with her, if you know what I mean." William and Jeremy had to hold Ulrich back.
"Let him give us what we need," Jeremy whispered.
"And then you can beat him up all you want," William said.
"Fine, but he's all mine," the brunette growled, "though I'll throw in a few punches for you guys and Odd too."
"Deal," the boys agreed.
Nine figures walked into the large empty complex of the McArnald mansion. Lucas shrugged off his coat and threw it to the floor before turning around and outstretching his arms out. "Welcome. Mi casa es su casa," he said with a grin before frowning slightly.
Musa and Cascada were wearing Ulrich's and Jeremy's jackets since both their clothes were messed up in the fight. ("My creations! Ruined!" Cascada had cried dramatically for a few minutes before they were able to move her.) Musa was supporting the somewhat cognizant Odd while Cascada, since she was still angry and hurt by William, had forced Jeremy to help support her.
"Maybe you three should clean up," Lucas said pointing to Musa, Odd, and Cascada. "Vomit has never really been in season," he said to Musa and Odd who were both covered in the blonde's digested food. Apparently, the cat warrior couldn't keep his liquor down and didn't do very well on the limo ride there. "There are two rooms with their own bathrooms that have some clothes you can borrow. They're up those stairs and to the right."
"Thanks," Musa said appreciatively as she wrapped one of Odd's arms around her shoulders before wrapping her arms around his waist as she slowly led him up the stairs. Cascada pulled away from Jeremy and began hobbling towards the stairs when she was swept off her feet. Literally.
"It would take you all night," William explained as he carried the plant A.I. up the stairs.
"Well, while they're getting cleaned up, I'll show the rest of you to the stuff you need," Lucas said leading the way.
Musa hummed soothingly as she held Odd's hair back as he retched into the porcelain toilet. The cat warrior groaned as he leaned his head on the toilet's cool surface. Musa flushed the toilet before taking a cool damp towel and placing it against his sweat cover forehead. She was wearing one of Lucas's t-shirt, which was big enough for it to be a decent dress for her, tied at the side with the shorts she had hidden under her dress underneath. Odd's shirt was taken off, not yet replaced because of the blonde's high temperature trying to sweat the toxin out of his body.
"I hate alcohol," he moaned closing his eyes as he concentrated on taking deep breaths.
"Why were you drinking it to begin with?" Musa asked softly, conscious that too much loud noise wouldn't be good for him.
"I don't know," Della Robbia pouted as he leaned his head on his girlfriend's shoulder. "I think I just let the whole not-needing-a-fake-ID-to-get-liquor thing get to me," he said sighing as Musa ran her fingers through his hair. Silence filled the room for a few minutes as Odd steadily breathed in and out, Musa watching her blonde kitty lovingly. "Muse?" Odd spoke looking up at her.
"Yeah?"
"Did I do, you know, something to you? I mean, when I was drunk? Something that would make you uncomfortable?"
For a normal human to think of a reasonable and believing lie it usually took a few seconds of hesitation unless you were a good actor, a spy, an A.I., or…a lawyer. Musa fit the A.I. category and was able to process a good lie after half a second that Odd had asked his question. She smiled before saying, "Of course not. Though I think you did kiss William. Kind of made me jealous," she grinned.
"Kill me now," Odd cried draping himself dramatically across the toilet. Musa giggled though she couldn't get over the fact to as how easy she lied to Odd…
Cascada winced as William silently applied rubbing alcohol to her wounds as he kneeled before her while she sat on the bed that they were in. Her ankle was already wrapped up with bandages and she had changed into a pair of women's clothing that she had found that she really didn't want to know why they were even there. Neither Cascada nor William had spoken a word since the group had gotten back together. Both were too stubborn to admit that they were wrong and settled into an awkward silence.
William applied more alcohol to the cotton swab he had found before applying it to her arm. The plant A.I. let out a small cry of pain before clamping her mouth shut as William applied a little too much pressure. "Sorry," the shaggy hair teen apologized.
"It's okay," the plant A.I. replied softly as the male applied the last bandage before sitting on the bed next to her. They both stared forward, silent, both contemplating on how to start a conversation without it being awkward.
Suddenly, Cascada slipped her arms around the sword wielding warrior's waist, leaning her head against his shoulder, eyes closed. He responded by wrapping his arms around her. No words were spoken. Sometimes, a simple gesture was enough to reassure a person. Sometimes, a simple gesture was enough, more than words could ever say but as Cascada stayed in the warm embrace of her love she realized something; they needed to talk. Though the plant A.I. knew this, as it was known, she wasn't the most open person when it came to voicing her emotions vocally. She wasn't the A.I. of sound like her sister who would say whether or not she was happy, mad, sad, etc. It also didn't make it easier that both she and William had such dominating personalities, neither willing to back down.
She sighed, burying her head into his shoulder, wishing that she were more open, but that wasn't in her nature and she didn't even know why…
Musa and a disgruntled Odd walked down the stairs just before William and a limping Cascada followed. Once they made it down, they found the others sitting on a couch with three large metal suitcases before them.
"Is that the stuff?" William asked as he placed Cascada gently in a seat.
"Yeah. Lucas was even nice enough to give us multiples of all the parts that we needed," Yumi explained.
"Well it wasn't like I was going to use any of that stuff," Lucas shrugged. "My dad was the scientist. Not me. I hope you guys know what you're doing because once you use these parts up it'll be pretty hard to find some more."
"Don't worry," Jeremy said. "We know what we're doing." "I hope," he thought.
Cascada yawned, stretching her arms up and letting her shirt rise up some. From the exposed skin, one could see part of a tattoo.
"So," Ulrich said, interest finally peaking, "when did you two get those?" he asked Musa and Cascada.
"Get what?" both girls questioned confused, simultaneously.
"Those tattoos," Ulrich pointed out.
"Oh," Musa said softly. "They're not tattoos."
"They're identification markings," Cascada said raising up her shirt just enough to expose the full tattoo. It was a tilted Xana's eye.
"Why do you have Xana's symbol tattooed on you?" Odd asked as Musa showed hers.
"Though you guys know it as Xana's symbol," the plant A.I. said letting go of her shirt, "It was actually the symbol of Project Carthage. Every thing that was made by the project had one of these identification markings on them." Cascada chuckled dryly. "You can almost say we were branded like cows."
"Hey," Aelita said biting her lip. "I remember you guys said something weird when you guys were introducing yourselves. Something about scout program and hacker program."
"According to my father's report," Lucas said. "There were many artificial intelligence created. Half of them were unable to fulfill the task given to them. Half of the remaining half of them were unable to think for themselves when it came to sudden unexpected events. Now take about a third of that remaining group. That group was split into groups of three: two scout programs and a hacker program."
"Since the project was a militarily program made to disrupt foreign enemy technology," Cascada began, "our main goal was to get into the enemy's program and mess it up. The duty of the two scout programs were to go in first, getting rid of any of the firewalls and other protection programs that could interfere. Once it was cleared, the hacker program came in and disrupted the technology to however the head of the department saw fit. We were the ultimate virus."
"The only thing that could stand a chance of defeating us were more of our kind," Musa said before frowning and looking down, "though we didn't actually know there were more. We believed that we were the only three to have survived the elimination process."
"But tonight proved you wrong," Lucas said, with a serious expression on his face before lightening up. "But less talk about that stuff. Is there anything else I can help you guys with?"
No one could think of anything except for Jeremy. "There is one thing," the computer whiz said. "Our school's trip was sponsored this year, a feat within itself. Our sponsor was Lycoris Incorporated, the CEO being Emeric McArnald," Jeremy said casually as if talking about the weather. "A relation to you?"
Lucas leaned back in his chair, eyes closed. "Supposedly, he's my brother, according to the files. The supposed hidden prodigy child of George McArnald, the supposed bastard son of one of my father's mistresses, but that's supposedly speaking."
"I'm getting that he's not related to you," Odd said, head slightly feeling better with the pain killers he had been given.
McArnald shrugged. "Depends on who you ask and where you look. According to my father's will, which he revised strangely a few days before his death, yes, Emeric is, but if you look in the government's file and tried to find anything on him before a few fifteen years ago, you'll basically find nothing. I myself don't really know that much about him. I've only met him once and it was in passing at my father's funeral, such a long time ago."
"So you have nothing on him?" Aelita asked.
"Not really, but I do know this," the financial income for the company has been rising ever sinceEmeric inherited it. During my father's rule over the company, it was one of the biggest robotics engineering facilities in the world. Now, no one, not even the company's own employees know exactly what it produces."
"That doesn't seem possible," Cascada frowned. "If Lycoris Inc. seems as big as it sounds then there would have to be many employees and if there were many employees that would mean that they would have to know what they were working on in order not to cause an uprising.
"Actually, much of the company is computer ran," Lucas informed, "only twenty, maybe thirty, people are needed to run it smoothly, most of them stock brokers, but that's basically all I know. Everything I learned I learnt from the journals my father left behind."
"May we take a look at them?" Jeremy asked hopefully.
"I destroyed them all," the red hair man said flatly. "The information in them could be disastrous in the wrong hands, but I'm sure you realized that after being attacked."
"Sun's starting to come up," William observed. "We need to get back to the hotel before Jim wakes up."
"You're right," Musa nodded getting up before giving another slight bow to Lucas. "Thank you again for all your help."
"No problem. I love helping out lovely women," he said with a provocative smirk before turning to Aelita. "Say "hi" to your parents for me, kay?"
"Sure," Aelita smiled as she and the others got up and walked towards the exit.
"Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself?" Cascada asked.
"Why? Want to spend the night with me, hon?" he grinned.
"Easy Bub," the plant A.I. smirked. "You know I can easily amputate your "little friend" before you even knew what was coming."
"So violent," Lucas faked disappointed. "Don't worry. This house is full with little gadgets the old man left. The last few years of his life he became paranoid. I'll even promise you this," he said placing his hand over his heart. "I, Lucas McArnald, will not die at the hands of an artificial intelligence. Happy?"
"Whatever," Cascada said rolling her eyes. "Let's get going guys," she said walking out with the support of William and soon the rest followed after saying their goodbyes, leaving the red hair man alone in his mansion.
He had long ago gotten rid of his maids and cooks and now lived in the spacious mansion by himself. He walked over to the kitchen, opening a connecting door that was inside it, leading to a room filled with various kinds of alcohol. He took a few bottles of his strongest liquor and sat at a chair at the kitchen's table. He opened the bottle, wincing slightly as he drowned the first bottle before opening the next.
"I thought by now you knew you didn't make a very pretty drunk," a gruff voice said behind him.
"I wasn't expecting you here," Lucas said as he opened another bottle, not even looking over his shoulder to further acknowledge his guest.
"I was in the neighborhood. Thought I stop by but then I saw you had guests and didn't want to intrude."
"Really?" Lucas said not sounding shocked. "Can you pass me that pen and paper over there?" he asked. A few moments later he found paper and pen being placed in his hand.
"So, what do you think of them?" the voice asked as the male began to write something on the paper before folding it and placing it on the other side of the table.
"They're all very unique in their own way. Would have never guessed them to be kids though. Guess it just proved what kind of world we're living in," Lucas shrugged before taking another gulp of liquor. He could feel his mind become hazy as his body felt numb and slightly heavy. It was beginning to become hard to form complete sentences.
"And what kind of world are we living in?"
"The kind where kids are forced to grow up fast and become adults when they should just be goofing around and worrying about crap like school and who the hell they're going to ask to the prom," Lucas said closing his eyes. "She seems so… different. It's hard to believe that she's the same person."
"It is, but maybe it's for the best," the voice said. "It would be difficult otherwise if any of them remembered."
"I feel bad for little Aelita though," Lucas said yawning. "She doesn't even know about her parents, about her father."
"She'll have to deal with the truth just like everyone else."
"All that glisters is not gold…" McArnald chuckled drunkenly. "Do you know why I named my club Catocala Lacrymosa?"
"You were drunk and lost a bet?"
"No," Lucas said shaking his head as he reached a hand into his pocket. "I named it Catocala Lacrymosa or Tearful Underwing because it reminded me of all of man's hope and wishes for the future, the same wishes that want to make the world a better place for everyone that eventually backfire and cause more harm than good."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
"Then what is the road to heaven paved with? Deceit? Pain?" Lucas asked pulling out his hand revealing a pistol.
"What are you doing?" the voice asked. No fear or worry was laced in the person's tone, only slight empathy.
"Man has forever been trying to reach the stars, to get one step closer to the land of milk and honey that they call "Heaven", to be one step closer to being God, to control their own destiny. I wonder, if there really is some sort of Supreme Being up there, then why is he letting all this shit happen to the world? How much of a man's destiny is his to control and how much can he not? Has every action we've done been predicted before it even happen?" he asked raising his gun holding hand to his temple. "And are the things that man created under the jurisdiction of man or God?" Lucas chuckled sadly as tears streamed down his cheeks but his voice had never been so clear before. "I sound like some kind of philosopher."
"A philosopher wouldn't be using words like "crap" in his philosophy," the voice replied after a while.
"You know how I hate staying in the lines," the red headed man said closing his eyes. "Well, I guess I'll have to see for myself. It'll probably be hot where I'm going, but I hear they have a lot of bad girls down there," he grinned. "You know how I like them naughty and misbehaved," he said laughing at his own crude joke. He sighed, his face becoming emotionless again. "I wonder if I'll see my old man. I guess I can finally say I can be dependable. I gave them a promise. I wouldn't die by an A.I." he said before pressing the trigger. A thunderous boom that wouldn't be heard except for the two occupants of the room was sounded and then crimson life flowed from the now empty earthly container.
"I never knew so young a body with so old a head," –The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (Letter-4.1.164-165)
LOL! I had a Shakespeare momment during this chapter. Probably because I just got done reading the Merchant of Venice and watching it on t.v. Though Shakerspeare may be hard to understand at first it's definently worth it when you get the hang of it.
Anyway, I want to apologize if Lucas's little rant was somehow offending to anyone. I wasn't planning on having all that in it. I guess some questions that I had about the world just made themselves known here.
Damn, how emo can I get? I finally killed off a character for good. He will not be coming back but I doubt any of you are really dissapointed by his death. He was only in two, maybe three, chapters. Though it may seem pointless now, his death had a purpose...I think... Anyway, I think I really like this chapter, especially the end. Anyway, things will lighten up slightly next chapter.
Nothing more to say so...PLEASE REVIEW!!