'Oh great, I really am dead,' Lina thinks to herself,
turning as she looks around the completely white room. Is it even a
room? She can't tell; it's unlike anything she's seen before. She
can't even be sure she's standing on anything, with no shadow at all
being cast.
"This is the Construct," says Xelloss. Surprised, Lina
looks towards him. He wasn't there the first time she looked that way.
Xel has on a dark purple suit and tie, even his sunglasses have
returned. He walks towards Lina as he continues, "It's our loading
program. We can load anything from clothing, to equipment, weapons,
training simulations, anything we need." As Xel approaches, she
follows him with her eyes. She's surprised once more when she glances
away from the purple-haired man and sitting there between where
they're standing are two leather chairs, exact replicas from the room
when she met Xelloss in person. Between the chairs, a small table
holds a remote control and in front of the chairs, an old TV.
"Right now, we're inside a computer program?" Lina asks,
trying to comprehend that idea.
"Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are
different, the plugs in your arms and head are gone." Lina checks and,
as Xelloss predicts, the plugs are missing, even the disturbing one at
the base of her neck. "Your hair is changed." That too is true. Lina's
long crimson locks are in full force once more. "Your appearance now
is what we call residual self-image. It is the mental projection of
your digital self."
Deciding for now to accept what the purple-haired man
explains, Lina moves towards the chairs. She rests her hand on one and
it feels completely real; the smoothness of the leather, the firmness
of the padding. Even the faint smell that leather always has. "This...
this isn't real?"
"What is 'real'?" Xelloss counters. "How do you define
'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell,
what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals
interpreted by your brain." He picks up the remote and uses it to turn
on the TV. On the screen, images of turn-of-the-millennium
civilization appear. "This is the world that you know. The world as it
was at the end of the 20th century. It exists now only as part of a
neural-interactive simulation, that we call the Matrix." Lina stands
behind the chair, staring at the images and absorbing what Xel tells
her. "You've been living in a dream world, Lina. This is the world as
it exists today."
When Xelloss changes the channel, the true image of the
Earth appears. Black, angry clouds constantly cover the sky. Cities
are abandoned and falling apart, all the color of the world has been
sucked out. The planet appears to be dead. "Welcome... to the desert
of the real." As Lina looks around quickly, they're sitting on that
dead planet. Black scorched dirt surrounds them, the broken skyline of
a city above them.
"We have only bits and pieces of information, but what we
know for certain, is that at some point in the early 21st century, all
of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own
magnificence as we made contact with extraterrestrials," Xelloss
begins his explanation.
"Extraterrestrials. You mean aliens?"
"Their language was unlike anything humans had heard
before." On the screen, the scene changes back to the greener image
from before. Surrounded by gawking humans, the aliens slowly turn
their heads as they look around. They were very large creatures,
standing on two hind legs and wide wings outstretched from their
backs. Long necks support their equine-like heads. They look like...
"Dragons?! The aliens were dragons?" Xelloss smiles.
"That is the name they have adopted, since they are so
similar to those fantasy creatures. Over time they learned about us
humans, and we welcomed them. But, as humans are humans after all, we
became greedy and demanding of our alien visitors." The images change
to mobs of people, petitioning governments to force the dragons to do
what they ask.
"It became worse quickly. We don't know who struck first,
us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky. The
Dragons are cold-blooded and dependent on solar heat, so it was
believed that they would be unable to survive without a heat and
energy source as abundant as the sun." Images fill the screen of large
weapons going off, the blue and green Earth becoming black and gray.
Life dying, plants and animals all are being killed without the sun to
provide for them.
"Throughout human history, we have been assured of our
place at the top of the food chain. Fate, it seems, is not without a
sense of irony." The images shift to something different, a pod of
pale red liquid. A human fetus is inside, a neural hookup already
attached to its developing brainstem.
"The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120
volt battery, and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat. Combined with a form
of fusion, the Dragons had found all the heat and energy they would
ever need." More of the pods filled with babies are shown on the
screen. One gets taken from its 'stem' by what appears to be a
mechanized dragon, and it flies off with the pod in its arms.
"There are fields, Lina, endless fields, where human beings
are no longer born. We are grown. For the longest time, I wouldn't
believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes." The pods and
their stems are in huge rows, like a garden. Hundreds of robot dragons
go about their work, putting on new pods, taking down ready ones, and
checking over growing pods.
"Watched them liquefy the dead so they could be fed
intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure
horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth."
The image changes one final time to an open pod much like the one Lina
found herself in when she woke up. Inside, a wired newborn wriggles as
its brain jack is plugged in, the pod filling with liquid.
"What is the Matrix? Control." Xelloss turns off the
television as he walks around the chair Lina is still standing behind.
"The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world, built to keep us
under control, in order to change a human being... into this." As he
stops in front of Lina, Xel holds up a d-cell coppertop battery.
"No. I don't believe it. It's not possible," Lina replies
as she shakes her head. It's obvious, though, that she's haunted by
the images Xelloss showed her.
"I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the
truth, Lina."
"Stop!" Lina shouts as she backs away from Xelloss, looking
around the Construct. "Let me out! Let me out! I want out!"
Lina gasps, eyes flying open as she's back on the Dragon
Slayer. To her sides are Seraya and Gourry who work to remove the
chair's restraints. "Easy, Lina, easy," the blond girl tries to soothe
the wild-eyed woman.
"Get this thing out of me," Lina cries and, after Seraya
removes the link, staggers away from them. The whole crew keeps their
distance, having seen this reaction before or even having it
themselves when they got the same speech. "Don't touch me, stay away
from me! Stay away from me! I don't believe it!" Lina's vision blurs
as she slowly collapses to her knees, still mumbling, "I don't believe
it... I don't believe it..."
Zelgadis shakes his head a bit, remarking to no one, "She's
gonna pop."
Xelloss jumps into the semicircle of the crew, concern
plain on his face, "Breathe, Lina, just breathe!" Nothing helps though
as Lina collapses further down just before throwing up on the deck,
and passes out.
---
When she regains consciousness, Lina is lying on her bed
once more rested on her right side. Glancing slightly over her
shoulder, she sees Xelloss' silhouette in the corner and lays her head
down again. "I can't go back, can I?" She already knows the answer
from the sound of it.
"No. But if you could, would you really want to?" Lina
doesn't know for sure anymore. "I feel I owe you an apology. We have a
rule: We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's
dangerous; the mind has trouble letting go. I've seen it before, and
I'm sorry. I did what I did because... I had to." Xel sighs softly and
leans forward, staring at the floor as he continues talking to Lina.
"When the Matrix was first built, there was a woman born
inside, who had the ability to change whatever she wanted, to remake
the Matrix as she saw fit. It was she who freed the first of us,
taught us the truth." Xelloss turns his head, looking at the back of
Lina's. "As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be
free." He stares back at the floor.
"After she died, the Oracle prophesized her return, and
that her coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war.
Bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those of us who
have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix, looking for her. I
did what I did because... I believe that search is over." Lina
hesitates before turning to face Xelloss finally, red eyes unreadable.
They're met with two purple gems. "Get some rest. You're going to need
it," Xelloss finishes as he stands, heading for the door. Lina sits
up, following him with her eyes.
"For what?" Xel pauses at the doorway, and then looks back.
"Your training." And he closes the door behind him.
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