Seraya slowly opens Lina's door, carrying a tray with dinner. The blond isn't surprised to find the other woman sleeping deeply, sprawled on the bed. She slowly steps closer and crouches beside Lina, resting the tray on the floor then hugs herself, admiring the unaware woman. After a couple minutes, she stands again and pulls Lina's blanket over her then goes back to the door. As she starts to close it, however, Zelgadis is revealed leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner," he says with a glance at the blond out of the corner of his eye. "There is something about her, isn't there." "Don't tell me you're a believer now," she asks, small body tense. "I just keep wondering, if Xelloss is so sure," Zel says while turning his head to look at Seraya directly, "why doesn't he take her to see the Oracle?" She narrows her eyes a little. "Xelloss will take her when she's ready," and she turns her back on the stone-skinned man, walking back to her own quarters. --- Xelloss leads Lina down a crowded urban sidewalk. The nameless pedestrians seem to flow around him, but make a conscious effort to run into the woman following him. "The Matrix is a system, Lina. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters -- the very minds of the people we are trying to save." Perhaps, but they certainly didn't have to be so rude. Lina glances over her shoulder, sure she just saw the same woman cross in front of her twice. "But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand: most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inure, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it." Out of the crowd, a shapely blond, gold-eyed woman in a revealing white dress goes past Lina, winking at her. The redhead looks over her shoulder again, confused. "Are you listening to me, Lina?" She looks back to find Xelloss standing still and facing her. "Or were you looking at the woman in the white dress?" "I was--" "Look again," he says with a nod over Lina's shoulder. She does. Right down the barrel of a handgun, Agent Valgarv ready to blow her head off. Lina ducks by instinct. "Freeze it," Xel calls to the sky, the mass of people around them slowing down to a halt. "This... this isn't the Matrix," Lina asks as she slowly straightens and looks around. Xelloss paces to between her and the frozen Dragon. "No. It's another training program, designed to teach you one thing: If you are not one of us, you are one of them." He looks at Valgarv's frozen face. "What are they?" "Dragons. True Dragons, the ones that survived the first war. They can take over any software still hardwired to their system, see through it and act through it. That means that anyone we haven't unplugged is potentially a Dragon Agent." Xelloss slowly walks a circle around the frozen green-haired man, now on the opposite side from Lina. "Inside the Matrix, they are everyone, and they are no one. We have survived by hiding from them, by running from them. But they are the gatekeepers; they are guarding all the doors, they are holding all keys, which means that sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them." He finishes standing beside Lina and the subject of his speech. "Someone," she asks as she nods once, as if already knowing who that someone will be. "I won't lie to you, Lina. Every single man or woman who has stood their ground, everyone who has fought a Dragon has died. But where they have failed, you will succeed." "Why," Lina asks, looking unsure about what Xelloss has told her so far. "I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall; men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules; because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be." That sounds fine for within the Matrix, but the thought of facing off against a Dragon in the real world sends a shiver down Lina's back. "That is why we've developed our battle magic. The modern weapons are crude against such odds. Magic will be the key to victory, Lina, and magic can overcome all." "What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets," she asks as she watches her reflection in Xelloss' sunglasses. A slow grin cracks his face. "No, Lina. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to," he replies, shaking his head a little. As she considers, Xel's cell phone rings. He pulls it from his coat pocket and answers. "We got trouble." --- The Dragon Slayer zooms through narrow tunnels, antigravity making it easy to maneuver even in tight locations such as the one it's going through now. "Did Sairaag send the word," Xel asks as he steps into the cockpit, taking the copilot's seat. Behind him, Seraya holds onto a bar to keep her balance, Lina at the doorway. "No, another ship. Shit... Fire Eater's sweeping in quick," Gourry reports as he holds onto the controls tightly, guiding the ship carefully but quickly forward. "Fire Eater," Lina asks Seraya. "A sentinel. Killing machine designed for one thing," she replies. "Search and destroy," the blond man says quietly. The ship appears from the tunnel into a wider hub and Xelloss quickly scans the area. "Set her down over there." He points to a relatively small groove in the walls, which the Dragon Slayer could barely fit into. Landing gear extends as it struggles to fit into the small area, engines quieting as it sets down, occupants shaken a little from the bumpy landing. Xelloss pulls up the intercom microphone, speaking into it, "How're we doing, Hawk?" Down a level, Hawk taps frantically at his keyboards. The rest of the crew watches as the reactor core goes dark, computer screens and lights winking out and leaving only red emergency lighting. "Power off-line," he says quietly into his headset. He reaches over and pops open a safety cover, holding onto the glowing switch underneath. "EMP armed and ready." "EMP?" Another whispered question to Seraya. "Electromagnetic pulse. Disables any electrical system in the blast radius. It's the only weapon we have against the machines." Lina nods slowly, looking out the windows around them. "Where are we?" "They're old service and waste systems," the smaller girl starts to explain with a sad tone. "Sewers?" "There used to be cities that spanned hundreds of miles. Now these sewers are all that's left of them." Xelloss hisses back at them. "Quiet!" All eyes look out the window for the machines they're hiding from. Nothing appears for several long seconds, and then the dragon-shaped robot hovers its way into view. Unlike the ones Lina saw when she escaped the power plant, this version of the mechanical dragon has lost its arms for delicate harvesting work and had them replaced with large clusters of weapons and tools. The generators on its feet hum loudly as it moves closer to the Dragon Slayer, antenna unfolding from one cluster, listening. Every heart in the ship pounds, breathing stopped. Soon, the robot decides it didn't find anything and floats off with a hum. The humans release a deep sigh of relief.
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