Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko or "Our Solemn Hour" by Within Temptation. I do own Musa, Cascada, this story's plot, and any other characters that weren't in the show.
Our Solemn Hour
"Cascada…"
William stopped speaking when the plant A.I. turned her gaze on him. She was anything but happy. The two sat in a prep room, finally into more casual clothes than the ones from the party with two guards standing outside the door.
"Cascada," he began again.
"The next time you say my name you better have something important to say to me Will or is it Leon? I really have no idea who I'm talking with now" the girl snarled.
William ran a hand through his hair. He guessed he deserved that. Leon's little outburst in the interrogation room had caught a lot of attention resulting in William having to explain about the second entity in his mind.
"Cascada…I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I-"
"You're sorry?" the girl murmured with her back towards him. Her shoulders shook. "You're SORRY?" she growled spinning around to face him pure rage in her eyes. She smacked the pitcher of water that was on the table between them off, causing water to fall and the pitcher shatter to jagged pieces of glass. The shaggy hair male sat, silenced, afraid to move. Even Leon wasn't man enough to comment.
Seeming exhausted, the strawberry blonde sank down into her chair, hands covering her face. "Cas," William said softly, reaching out to touch her.
A hand grabbed his wrist tightly. "What did I say about saying my name without anything important to say?" the plant A.I. growled, her face tearless as she tightened her grip on his wrist, sending shocks of green electricity through him. "There's nothing you can say that'll make me forgive you for lying to me."
The door to the room opened and Cascada immediately let her grip go, her face turning expressionless as Emma and Jim entered the room.
Jim looked at the broken pitcher on the floor before looking back at the two teenagers. "Problems?" he questioned.
"None," Cascada replied tonelessly. "Now can we get started? I want my sister back before any damage is done to her by this Emeric McArnald."
"Right," Emma said giving her son a slight pitying look before continuing. "We have information to believe that Emeric has your sister in the mansion that once belonged to Professor McArnald's son, Lucas. We've got this information from one of our spies there, Ralph Erikson, before he was discovered," Emma looked down sadly. "We're afraid to say that we believed he was executed on sight."
"But before they found out about him," Jim said placing a stack of folders on the table, "he was able to send us the entire layout of the mansion along with some of Emeric's future plans, which include take over of the human race."
"So you want us to take care of him?" William asked.
"NO!" Emma shouted with eyes wide. "You can't this isn't just any regular A.I. Though the artificial intelligences of the Titans division were some of the strongest created, Emeric, or Project Hebi, is too strong for just you two."
"She's right, this is a simple Recon mission with one of its primary objectives being getting Utada back," Jim explained. "Now," he said taking out what looked to be a blueprint of the McArnald mansion, "this will be where you'll meet one of our insiders."
"You have another one?" Cascada questioned. "Wouldn't it have been better to take out all spies in case Ralph leaked some info before his demise?"
"He wouldn't, believe me," Jim said. "And the insider we're working with is someone who turned against Emeric. One of his so called 'generals'. Like I said, you'll be meeting with them at this point and they'll help you get in to Musa."
"We also have backup in case something goes wrong but they're kind of sketchy," Emma added.
"How sketchy?" the shaggy hair teen questioned.
"Sketchy like we've never seen these people before," Emma said. "So sketchy that if any of the higher ups gets word of them we're going to be in a big load of crap. Pardon my language."
"You had a worst mouth when we were younger," Jim shrugged.
"Is that all we need to know?" Cascada asked getting up.
"Don't get in a rush, Hikaru," Jim warned. "You have no idea what Emeric can do."
"He has my sister," the plant A.I. said, her voice steely. "That's all I need to know." She glanced over at William before looking back at Jim and Emma. "I'm not as selfish as I seem."
CODE TWILIGHT
Musa felt slightly better after getting out of her tight restricting dress and into some more comfortable clothing. At the moment, she was following Emeric down the seemingly endless hallways of the McArnald mansion.
He had shown her around, letting her get acquainted with the layout of the home. Though the mansion was spacious, beautiful, and comfortable, Musa didn't really see the point of being shown around. She wasn't planning on staying too long. She didn't want to intrude and she also didn't want to get Emeric in trouble for harboring a criminal.
"Is something bothering you," Emeric asked, suddenly surprising her out of her thoughts. She was surprised to find that she was so out of it that she didn't even notice that they were in a beautifully decorated room with a high glass ceiling.
"Oh no," Musa said shaking her head before looking back at the room. "This room is really breathtaking."
"Thank you," the copper hair man smiled. "Did you know that this mansion was built upon a destroyed building and that there are still underground rooms beneath it?"
"Um…no," the wolf A.I. replied unsure.
"Would you like to see them?"
Despite her better judgment, Musa nodded, curiosity taking over.
CODE TWILIGHT
"This is it," William replied in his Lyoko form. Cascada gave a non-committal grunt as she scanned the area around the mansion. It was hard to see through the snow that has suddenly began to fall and a trap could be set anywhere so the shaggy hair teen considered himself lucky that Cascada had such good eye sight.
"It's cleared," the plant A.I. said, deciding to speak only when necessary to the boy. William nodded before they both their bodies broke apart turning to either smoke or flower petals.
A strong gust of air and snow blew at the two, throwing off the petals until the cloud of smoke wrapped around them, guiding them towards the back door of the mansion. When they made it to the cover of mansion's walls, the smoke and the petals reformed, William holding Cascada.
The plant A.I. pushed away from the sword wielder, not noticing the pained expression he had while she scanned the area.
"You two took your time," a voice called out over the howl of the wind. The two teenagers turned to see a very unexpected someone.
"Nyx?"
CODE TWILIGHT
Sanctus Espiritus redeem us from our solemn hour
They were in the basement or what would have been the basement if the many underground levels of previous building hadn't been there. Musa couldn't stop herself from staring at the large expanse which she gathered must have been a laboratory from the broken pieces of test tubes, microscopes, and other scientific instruments. It felt totally surreal. She could just imagine the lab in its former state and she knew. This was the place; the place from her nightmares.
"I want to show you something," Emeric murmured in her ear, his hands placed strongly on her shoulders. "It is time for you to remember what they did to us."
Musa looked over her shoulder at him to see his golden amber eyes change entirely black.
Sanctus Espiritus insanity is all around us
"We're not too far," Nyx informed as they walked down the winding stairs leading further and further down.
"I still can't believe this," Cascada murmured.
"Believe it or not, I'm here to help," the spiky hair brunette said over her shoulder at the teens. They stopped on a landing that led to a door. Nyx opened the door to reveal a room, its once white walls a pale yellow with peeling paint and some kind of operating table in the middle. "Do you remember this place?"
"Should we?" William asked as the smirk on Nyx's face grew.
Sanctus Espiritus!
"This was where Project Carthage began," Emeric explained. "This was the room where the scientist worked hard trying to create better weapons for their army. One of their greatest goals was creating super soldiers."
"Super…soldiers?" Musa asked as the room around them seemed to swirl. "What's going on?" she questioned as the room seemed to repair itself, looking like new.
Sanctus Espiritus!
"This is one of Emeric's powers," Nyx explained as the room they were reverted back to its original, stainless state. "You may simply call it Replay."
A man entered the room, wearing a white lab jacket. "Can they see us?" William asked.
"No," Nyx said, "this is merely an illusion, but…everything you see here is exactly how it happened in the past."
Sanctus Espiritus!
"You'll soon remember what they did to us," Musa heard Emeric say as he led her out into the hall, watching the scene play out before her as two men talked amongst themselves, one very familiar looking.
In my darkest hours I could not foresee
That the tide could turn so fast to this degree
"All of our previous tests have been failures," a graying red hair man said frustrated. "If we don't hurry news will be leaked out and we'll be closed down!"
"Don't worry my old friend," a grey bearded man wearing glasses said patting the other man on the shoulder, "this time it'll work. We've already concluded that the younger the subject is the easier it is for adaption. Now, hurry, we must go. Those tests won't run themselves," he said guiding the other man towards a door down the hall.
"That's…" Musa began, unable to finish.
"Professor McArnald and Professor Waldo Franz Schaeffer," Emeric finished for her.
"Hopper…" the wolf A.I. murmured.
Can't believe my eyes
How can you be so blind?
Is the heart of stone, no empathy inside?
"We have no time for this!" Hikaru said angrily. "We need to find Musa!"
"Relax," Nyx said smoothly, "and watch. You know you want to"
Time keeps on slipping away and we haven't learned
So in the end now what have we gained?
William watched as the lone scientist who was in the room, unaware of their presence, jumped when the doors to the room opened as a crowd of white lab jacket men and women entered, all surrounding a wheeled stretcher.
"Professor Gershwin!" one of the people surrounding the stretcher cried out towards the man. "It's time! The subject is ready!"
"What's going on?" William asked as the scientist began rushing around the room.
"Delivery," Nyx said simply.
Dunbar didn't really realized the importance behind her words until he noticed the female on the stretcher; ivy green hair and rose petal pink eyes exactly identical to the girl standing next to him.
"What's going on?" Cascada growled also seeming to note who the familiar green hair girl was.
"Why, isn't it obvious?" Nyx asked looking completely innocent. "You're about to deliver."
The plant A.I. was about to comment when a horrendous scream emitted from her past self. "Get the anesthesia!" Professor Gershwin cried out.
"This…this can't be-" Cascada said shaking her head, unknowingly trying to back up. When she wasn't able to, she looked down at the ground noticing that her feet were encased in Earth, William's too. A slight shift in a corner notified her that it was the Earth A.I. she had fought with days ago.
"Let us go!" William demanded.
"I'm afraid that can't happen," Nyx said pressing holding a necklace around her neck, a light engulfed her and when it receded, Esen, the paper manipulator was in her place. "She must be reminded of her sins."
Sanctus Espiritus, redeem us from our solemn hour
Sanctus Espiritus, insanity is all around us
Sanctus Espiritus, is this what we deserve,
Can we break free from chains of never-ending agony?
"What is this room?" Musa questioned fearfully as she saw rows and rows of operating tables underneath a machine with spider like claws each going down to one of the tables below and connecting to thin hanging metal like pieces.
Emeric face seemed to twist in anger as he saw guards escort four young children into the room. He glanced from the corner of his eyes as he saw Musa take a step backward.
"T-those kids…they look…are they?" she asked looking at him for some sort of confirmation.
"Yes," he nodded, before both of their heads snapped back to the scene before them, watching as the raven hair girl began to scream while a dark hair boy tried to fight off her captor.
Musa looked on, horrified as one of the scientists stuck a needle into the boy making him immediately collapse. With little to no effort, the remaining guards picked up the other two children, a blonde and a red head, and took them to the operating table where all four of the children were strapped onto.
"What are they doing this to them?" Musa asked tears running down her face. "Why are they doing this?" she grabbed his sleeve
"They're monsters who wanted to take away our freedom," Emeric replied heatedly as the metal pieces of the machine were attached to the children and the pain began, their innocence taken away by these crazed scientists.
Are they themselves to blame, the misery, the pain?
Didn't we let go, allowed it, let it grow?
Cascada covered her mouth, tears running down her cheeks feeling the need to gag but she couldn't as her eyes seemed to never strand from the horrendous scene before her. She didn't understand. How could this have been possible? She didn't remember this so that meant it wasn't true…right?
"It is true," a voice echoed in the recess of her mind, the statement seeming to add more weight onto her as she knew what it said was true…wherever it came from.
"Honestly," Esen or Nyx, whatever she wanted to go by, sighed, "you shouldn't be so shocked. Each of the test subjects were paired up like animals forced to breed. Really sickening though, that some one of your strength was easily subdued by mere humans."
"Stop this!" William yelled. "Can't you see she can't take this?"
"Oh, that's exactly why I'm doing this," the paper manipulator said walking around the two. "I want to see the great Titan Rose on the floor in a fetal position, wishing she were dead."
"Why?"
"Oh, no need to rush things," she smirked. "You'll find out soon enough."
If we can't restrain the beast which dwells inside
it will find it's way somehow, somewhere in time
Will we remember all of the suffering
Cause if we fail it will be in vain
Emeric let a small triumphant smirk play across his face as the girl beside him clutched onto him. He bent down so his head was resting on her shoulder. "What you're about to see, don't blame yourself. These people," he said indicating the scientist, "are the real monsters. Anything that we did against them was for our own protection."
The girl felt herself being pushed away as she found herself in a room that she hoped was only real in her nightmares.
Scientist stood around a cylinder shaped container, a figure submerged in its thick green liquid.
Musa tried to turn away but she found Emeric standing behind her, forcing her to watch as a long crack began to run down the cylinder.
Sanctus Espiritus, redeem us from our solemn hour
Sanctus Espiritus, insanity is all around us
Sanctus Espiritus, is this what we deserve,
can we break free from chains of never-ending agony?
She watched horrified as the scientists were easily murdered, their blood pooling on the floor.
"Such a beautiful goddess," Emeric murmured nuzzling his face into the crook of Musa's neck as the once entrapped Lana squeezed the neck of another unfortunate scientist, taking away his life with the blood that spilled. The girl didn't seem to notice as blood splattered on her nude form. Her long damp hair clung to her body like a veil and her glowing electric blue eyes were tinted with murderous red. "Such power," Emeric said encircling his arms around Musa's waist, pulling her closer to him. She didn't protest. She was too shocked and horrified to do much of anything.
The blood splattered girl turned her gaze on the lone standing figure; the man which she knew so well. They both seemed to stare at each other before the girl clutched at her head, shaking it furiously. "No," she murmured screwing her eyes shut.
"Lana…" the man said taking a cautious step forward.
"Don't call me that!" the girl shouted as wave of sonic sound threw the man at the wall.
"Hopper!" Musa called out reaching towards the man.
"Don't pity him!" Emeric hissed, tugging her harshly backwards. "You already did enough in the past! You had the opportunity to kill him."
"But I didn't…"
"No, you didn't…" he sighed as the girl before them grabbed one of the scientist's jackets and put it on, running out of the room. "But at the time, you were worried about more pressing things."
"Like what?"
The copper hair man holding her smirked as she turned her around, whispering something in her ear.
Sanctus Espiritus!
The sounds of crying out finally ceased, replaced by heavy breathing as the delivery was over.
"Congratulations," Nyx said with a tone of scorn, turning to Cascada. "It's a girl."
The girl on the stretcher seemed to relax as the scientist held the new baby. One of the scientists held it holding it under its arm. After a few seconds he stated, "It's not breathing."
All air seemed to rush out of Hikaru as the scientist began their frenzy again as the new born child continued not to breathe.
Sanctus Espiritus!
A small rise of the chest! It wasn't that noticeable but she saw it. "It's breathing!" she cried out towards the unaware scientist. "Look!"
Her other self, the one on the stretcher also seemed to notice this but didn't speak a word as the scienrists soon gave up.
"It's breathing!" Cascada shouted again, not noticing as her feet were released and that she was now running towards the scientist that was carrying off the baby, but all she did was past through him. "Where is he taking it?"
"To the furnace," Nyx replied tonelessly. "It is of no use to them, a failed experiment. They need to get rid of the evidence do they not?"
"But it was alive!"
"I know that and you know that, but why didn't you say something then? Hm?" Nyx questioned strolling towards her. The plant A.I. found her legs weak as she collapsed to the ground. Nyx stood behind her. "But don't fear. The child was saved before the inferno's blaze took her life. She's alive today and she remembered everything since her birth because of her highly developed mind. She knew her mother saw her breathing. She knew that her mother just sat there not doing anything even though she could, even though the drowsiness caused by the anesthesia had worn off shortly after she had been ejected with it," Nyx growled angrily before her features relaxed going into a smile. "But no worries. She lived on with one goal in mind," the paper manipulator said forming a sword in her hand.
"Cascada! Move!" William shouted trying to move but the earth A.I. in the corner stepped in front of him blocking his view.
"In my field of paper flowers," Nyx sang softly as she raised the sword over her head.
Cascada looked over her shoulder with lifeless eyes as she murmured, "And candy clouds of lullaby."
"How wonderful! You do remember me…mother," Nyx said before she swing the sword down at the unmoving plant A.I.
Sanctus Espiritus, redeem us from our solemn hour
Before the sword could even touch Cascada, the paper manipulator found a fist punching her in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. The Earth A.I. made to attack but she found herself squeezed in black smoke until she went unconscious. William let go of the girl as he was released from his holdings. He looked at the person who had saved Cascada, shock, confusion, and nostalgia running through him as he saw waves of soft pink hair.
"Hurry! We need to move!" he was ordered before he, Cascada, and their savior were swept up into a pink light.
Sanctus Espiritus, insanity is all around us
Emeric fingered a curl of raven hair as he knelt next to the weeping figure. He couldn't help keeping the triumphant grin off his face. She knew and now she would never be able to look at humans the same way again.
He felt a sword pressed against his neck and looked up casually to see a white hooded man holding a dragon scaled hilted sword. "Ah, so you finally made your appearance," Emeric chuckled. "I was wondering how long it would take you to arrive." The ice and the fire A.I. appeared next to Emeric, weapons at the ready. "Sadly, you won't be able to stay long." He motioned for the two artificial intelligences to attack, but when they didn't the grin on his face grew seeing that they were frozen in mid attack. "And thus they were attracted like flies to a light."
Sanctus Espiritus, is this what we deserve,
Can we break free from chains of never-ending agony?
The white hooded male looked from the corner of his eyes, slightly surprised at the other person in the room hidden within the shadows. "Hurry and take her now!" the person, a female ordered. The hooded male came out of his shocked and wearily picked up Musa who seemingly didn't even notice what was going on around her.
The white hooded man nodded in thanks before a white sphere surrounded him and Musa, and then they were gone.
The ice and fire A.I. became unfrozen, looking confused as they saw that the white hooded man was no longer there.
Emeric stood up. "You're not going to escape?" he questioned raising a brow.
"No," the person said as a flash surrounded them and they stepped out into the light. "I'm not running away this time," caramel eyes said with a determined look.
"Good," Emeric nodded turning to his two shocked companions. "Brooke. Cassie. Take our guest to her room. She must rest before the big day."
Sanctus Espiritus, redeem us from our solemn hour (Solemn hour!)
Sanctus Espiritus, insanity is all around us (All around us!)
Sanctus Espiritus, is this what we deserve,
can we break free from chains of never-ending agony?
Nyx slammed her fist down angrily. "I almost had you mother."
CODE TWILIGHT
They all watched as Aelita paced back and forth worriedly, biting at her nails.
"Calm down," Jeremy said finally getting up and stopping the girl. "They'll be okay." The girl held a look of disbelief in her eyes but she nodded nonetheless.
Jim, who was on the phone hung up. "We got conformation from our back up. They safely have Cascada, William, and Musa."
"Where are they?" Aelita and Emma said at the same time.
"They just arrived. We need to head towards the infirmary."
"The infirmary?" Yumi asked.
"I thought you said that these back ups of yours safely had the others?" Ulrich said getting up.
"They are safe," Jim said walking out the room, the other following, "physically…"
CODE TWILIGHT
William leaned against the wall, looking at the two sedated females on the infirmary beds, afraid that if he moved the rest of the world would come crashing down on him.
"You had a kid?" he thought.
"Neither you or she needed to know," Leon replied.
"Like hell we didn't!" Leon didn't answer the one time William wanted him to talk.
The doors opened revealing the rest of the Lyoko gang, Jim, and his mother.
"Will!" Emma cried hugging the boy. She paused when she noticed that he wasn't hugging back. She looked behind her to see the others staring at the motionless figures of Musa and Cascada.
"What's wrong with them?" Jeremy asked.
"They're sedated," a voice replied as two figures appeared between the two beds. Aelita, Jeremy, Yumi, Ulrich, and Sissi jumped in shocked at the sudden appearance. There was a man wearing a long white hooded jacket that hid his face over a white shirt and black pants. The woman wore an outfit very similar to Aelita's original one except for the skirt was much longer going to below her knees.
The group only caught a quick glance of their outfits before a flash of light and they were in their Earth forms. "Ozzy? Anita?" Aelita said a look of surprise on her face.
"No," William said shaking his head. "They're really Franz and Elena Hopper."
"M-mommy? D-daddy?" Aelita gasped tears threatening to fall. It was just at that moment that the door opened revealing a guard, he stepped aside as the last person they expected to see stepped inside.
Feeling the immediate tension in the room the person said the one thing they could think of: "Who died?"
"ODD!"
I really need to do something because I feel like this chapter totally let me down and I was looking forward to it too. Ugh. I don't know. Anyway, some questions have been answered and a lot more questions have come up. Also something unexpected! Cascada had a kid! Yeah, I know Nyx is older than Cas, but Cas was in the supercomputer for a good portion of her life and also remeber that Terran said that A.I.s can change their aging speed with the help of a supercomputer.
So, who was expecting that? If any of you have questions about what's going on in this chapter, because I know it was kind of confusing, then please ask me about it in a review. I'll either answer you directly or I'll add it to the Hopper's explanation next chapter.
Anyway, I was originally going to use another Within Temptation song (Jillian- I'd give my heart) seemed to fit better. Also, while I'm on the topics of songs, I appreciate suggestions but at this point in the story, since it's so close to the end (7-10 more chapters I think plus an epiloguge) I already have a basic ideas of songs that I'm going to use so please don't feel bad if I don't use your songs. I really try to think about the songs that I use and how it relates to what's going on in the story. For this chapter I knew I was going to use this song for about three months, so yeah...that's how long I think about stuff like that.
One more thing about songs. Do you guys think I use too many songs? I mean do you read a chapter with one of the songs in it and be like "did she really need to put a song in for this chapter?" Just wanted to know because I'm afraid that I'm killing this story with too many songs and there are about 2-4 more songs that I'm planning on using in this story.
LOL! Almost done with this authors note. Just thought to tell you guys that I'm doing a remake of my original Peter Pan story so please check it out. It's kind of different from the original one so everything isn't repeated and when I think about it the plot is kind of different too but it has the same characters! (I think...)
Nothing more to say so...PLEASE REVIEW!