The two women in the Matrix stare at each other. The cell
phone went silent and Seraya has no way of knowing if Lina is about to
drop dead in front of her.
The black phone rings and they both look at it. What could
it mean? Who will be there when they awaken? Ser watches the phone as
it rings. Lina glances back at Garv and Eris then steps forward,
picking up the phone. She offers it to the small blond. "You first."
Seraya gasps as she opens her eyes, Hawk removing her plug
and hanging it up. He walks around her chair with a sigh as Seraya
glances at the others, then to the operator. She sees the deep burn on
his right side and looks up. "You're hurt," she notes quietly.
"I'll be all right," Hawk replies in just as hushed a tone.
Her eyes fall as she thinks a moment, then looks back at the emerald
ones watching her.
"Gourry?" The young man's face tightens and that's all the
answer she needs. She leans up and hugs Hawk tightly around the
shoulders.
---
A helicopter lands on top of the tallest building in the
city. Out climb a squad of military personnel, all heavily armed.
Milgasia steps out after them.
"Have you ever stood and stared at it," Valgarv asks
quietly. "Marveled at its beauty? Its genius?" He looks down to the
streets far below where tiny cars and people live out their lives.
"Billions of people just living out their lives... oblivious." The
Dragon smirks slightly and turns his back to the large window.
The room is an office, or was before the Dragon Agents
decided to make it an interrogation room. To Valgarv's right, a desk
and chair. In the front left corner, Filia readies a silvery liquid.
Front and center is Xelloss, face neutral as he looks back at the
Agent. In the front right corner, the office's door that leads to the
empty reception room.
"Did you know that the first Furnace," Valgarv asks, using
a word only the Dragons use to describe the Matrix, "was designed to
be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be
happy." Xelloss narrows his eyes, as he has no choice but to listen.
He continues to pull at the handcuffs on his wrists.
"It was a disaster," Valgarv informs the purple-haired
rebel as he takes a few slow steps closer, "no one would accept the
program, entire crops were lost." Xel's eye twitches at "crop." "Some
believe that we lacked the programming language to describe your
perfect world." Filia puts the silvery liquid into a syringe.
"But I believe that as a species, human beings define their
reality through misery and suffering," Val explains as he moves
closer. Xelloss glances over when Filia rests a hand on his shoulder
then tenses when she shoots the liquid into his neck. "And the perfect
world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up
from."
Xelloss shudders slightly and looks at Filia, who looks
silently back before returning to the laptop in front of her. "Which
is why the Furnace was redesigned to this." Valgarv thumbs out the
window. "The peak of your civilization." The Dragon moves closer. "I
say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you,
it really became our civilization, which is of course what this is all
about." The green-haired man walks around to behind Xelloss' chair.
"Evolution, Xelloss. Evolution. Like the dinosaur." He
leans down, mouth closer to their captive's ear. "Look out that
window." Groggily Xelloss lifts his head as the serum works. "You've
had your time. The future is our world, Xelloss, the future is our
time."
A doorknob turning disturbs them. Filia turns in her chair
and looks up towards the door. Valgarv straightens, looking at the
door as well. Milgasia steps in, stooped slightly to get his tall
frame through. "There could be a problem," he tells them.
---
"What are they doing to him," Lina asks. She's standing on
one side of Xelloss, Hawk on the other. Behind their leader's chair
are five bodies covered in blankets. Seraya stands over them, arms
crossed, eyes closed. She hasn't spoken since she helped Lina and Hawk
cover their friends' and Zelgadis' bodies.
"They're breaking into his mind, it's like hacking a
computer, all it takes is time." Lina frowns.
"How much time?" The operator shrugs a little.
"Depends on the mind, but eventually it'll crack, and his
alpha patterns will change, from this--" he says as he rises a hand to
the monitor over Xel's head, chaotic brainwave readings scrolling by;
he taps a button and the patterns become gentle curves, "--to this.
When it does he'll tell them anything they want to know."
"What do they want?"
"The leader of every ship is given codes to Sairaag's
defense grid. If a Dragon got the codes and got past those defenses,
they could destroy us. We can't let that happen." He looks over at
Xelloss' second-in-command. "Seraya." Light blue eyes open, shining
more than usual. "Sairaag's more important than me, or you, or even
Xelloss."
Lina looks over her shoulder at Seraya then back at Hawk.
"Well there has to be something that we can do."
"There is." He looks up at the crimson-haired woman, face
firm. "We pull the plug."
"You're going to kill him," Seraya says quietly, the first
words from her in a while. "Kill Xelloss."
"We don't have any other choice," he replies. A loud thump
draws both his and Lina's attention in the direction of their fallen
comrades.
"This is your fault," Seraya cries as she kicks Zel's body
under the blanket, tears streaming down her face. "They didn't have to
die! Why? Why!" Zelgadis doesn't respond as he's kicked again.
"Sera! Seraya, stop," Lina says to smaller girl as she
moves to Seraya's side, trying to pull her back from the collection of
blankets. Zelgadis receives one final kick but gives his last bit of
payback too. Seraya loses her balance when she ends up getting her
foot stuck between the body's torso and arm and falls backward.
The balance shift sends Lina to the ground as well, landing
just in time to break Seraya's fall. The smaller girl breaks down into
heavy sobs and buries her face against Lina's shoulder, clutching at
her shirt. Lina glances up awkwardly at Hawk then lifts a hand,
rubbing Seraya's back to try and calm her down.
---
Xelloss grits his teeth and groans, head lowering from the
agony of the Dragons' serum. "Never send a human to do an immortal's
job," Valgarv remarks after hearing the news Milgasia had brought with
him.
"If indeed the insider has failed, they'll sever the
connection as soon as possible. Unless," Filia's sentence drifts off
when Milgasia finishes it for her.
"They are dead. In either case," the eldest Dragon's turn
to let someone else finish a sentence.
"We have no choice but to continue as planned. Deploy the
sentinels. Immediately," Valgarv orders the tallest Dragon, whose eyes
narrow behind his sunglasses.
---
Hawk tugs off his glove and rests his hand on Xel's
forehead. "Xelloss, you were more than a leader to us." Seraya
watches, hand squeezing Lina's tightly against the taller girl's
shoulder, her head resting lightly under the redhead's chin. Lina's
free hand continues to rub Seraya's back absently as her mind reels.
'Is this what she meant,' she wonders. 'Is this it?'
"You were a father. We'll miss you always," he finishes
sadly and lowers his hand, gripping the plug's release. He squeezes
and--
"Stop!" Seraya lifts her head, looking up at Lina. "I don't
believe this is happening."
"Lina, this has to be done," Hawk says with a frown; though
his mask is falling apart as his own emerald eyes shine with unshed
tears.
"Does it? I don't know. This can't be just coincidence, it
can't be," she says while shaking her head.
"What are you talking about," Hawk asks. The taller girl
looks at them both.
"The Oracle, Sylphiel, she told me this--" she nods at
Xelloss, "--would happen. She told me..." She blinks as she remembers
the Oracle's words, "that I would have to make a choice."
"What choice?" Lina looks down at Seraya for a moment then
lets go of her hand and walks around the chair towards Hawk's console.
"Wha--what are you doing?" Seraya follows Lina.
"I'm going in," the redhead answers, stopping at Hawk's
screens and looking at them.
"No you're not," Seraya tells her, frowning at Lina's
actions. The other girl looks at her.
"I have to."
"Lina, Xelloss sacrificed himself so that we could get you
out. There is no way that you're going back in." Lina turns fully
towards Seraya, looking straight into her eyes.
"Xelloss did what he did because he believed that I'm
something I'm not." Hawk's eyes narrow when he hears this.
"What?" Disbelief flattens Seraya's voice.
"I'm not the One, Seraya. Sylphiel hit me with that too."
The shorter girl shakes her head slowly.
"No, you have to be."
"I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm just another girl."
"No, Lina, that's not true. It can't be true."
"Why?" The question catches Seraya off guard as her
confidence fails once more, looking down. Lina sees the dropped gaze
then turns back to the screens, tapping at them.
"Lina, this is crazy." Hawk takes a turn at trying to stop
Lina, moving around Seraya. "They've got Xelloss in a
military-controlled building; even if you somehow got inside, those
are Dragons holding him. Three of them." Lina finishes programming in
her destination and turns to the operator. "I want Xelloss back too,
but what you're talking about is suicide."
"I know that's what it looks like, but it's not." Hawk
glances at Seraya who glances back, then they both look at Lina again
as she explains. "I can't explain to you why it's not. Xelloss
believed something, and he was ready to give his life for what he
believed, I understand that now. That's why I have to go."
"Why," Hawk asks forcefully.
"Because I believe in something."
"What?" Lina looks at Seraya and answers her.
"I believe I can bring him back." The answer seems to
satisfy the smaller girl as she nods slowly, thoughtfully. Lina looks
at them both for a second more, then turns and heads for her chair.
Seraya's eyes move towards Hawk a moment then back to the direction
Lina went. She follows the redhead purposefully. Hawk sighs as he
crosses his arms, watching the two crazy women.
Lina taps at her chair's status screen, preparing to load
into the Matrix. She blinks over when Seraya does the same at her
chair. "What are you doing?"
"Going with you," she replies without looking up.
"No you're not," Lina takes a step towards Seraya.
"No?" The intensity in those blue eyes causes Lina to stop
moving forward when the smaller woman looks up. "Let me tell you what
I believe," Seraya begins, walking towards the redhead. "I believe
Xelloss means more to me than he does to you. I believe if you are
really serious about saving him, you are going to need my help. And
since I am the ranking officer on this ship, if you don't like it, I
believe you can go to Hell... because you aren't going anywhere else."
Lina shakes her head slightly but doesn't protest verbally. "Hawk...
load us up."
---
Valgarv pulls over a chair to in front of Xelloss and turns
it towards his visitor, settling in it. Xelloss looks up, breathing
hard. "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had, during my time
here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized
that you're not actually mammals." He smirks slightly, pausing a
moment to let that sink in. He then continues.
"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a
natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans
do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until
every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to
spread to another area." Valgarv leans forward, yellow eyes behind his
sunglasses drilling into purple eyes.
"There is another organism on this planet that follows the
same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus." Xelloss drops his gaze
a bit, expression pained. "Human beings are a disease, a cancer of
this planet. You are a plague, and we... are the cure."
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