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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