The Matrix: San's Story (currently untitled)
by Alana/TrinityMatrix/Silver Stardust
Disclaimer: I don't own the concept of the Matrix or the Agents. San and the crew of the Aesculapius I do own. Later characters are used with permission of the owners.
Author's Note: San is a character I play in a Matrix RPG. Lately several of us in the RPG thought it'd be fun to write the stories of our characters, so here's the story of my characters. After the first couple of chapters in this story I get to the stuff that actually took place in the RPG :) Which can be quite interesting, to say the least....
----
Prologue
----
One month.
That's how long it had been. One month to totally change her life.
She sat in her bed, looking around her surroundings. The room was tiny and cramped, and hardly designed with comfort in mind. Everything was metal, harsh and cold. But these details didn't matter to her. To her, the small cabin aboard the Aesculapius was home, and had been for a month.
At the beginning, she didn't feel this way. She felt like a caged animal, terrified and with nowhere to go. But that was understandable; they say that such a reaction is normal and that they worry more about those who adapt without so much as the tiniest bit of fear, disbelief, or caution.
It had taken nearly the entire month for her to adjust. Of course, the first few days she didn't remember as anything more than a blur of lights and faces; she had been unconcious for the greater part of them. But of course, in a way, it had been the first time she had actually woken up. Once she was able to be up and moving around, she went through a short period of stark disbelief where she had holed herself up in her room and refused to talk to any of the others. Once the initial shock had worn off, though, she began to become sociable...or at least, as much as someone can be when thrown into a totally strange situation, upon learning that everything they thought real is only an illusion.
Everything had happened so suddenly. One moment she was Sarah, an average 17 year old who was starting out her senior year in high school. The next moment she found herself being chased by Agents, who had, for some unknown reason, decided she was a threat to the system. She got lucky, though; she was rescued by a man named Chronos, and given a choice to make: Stay in the Matrix, or leave.
She chose to leave.
She now went by the name San. It was a name with no seeming meaning to it -- it was simply a word, the Japanese word for the number three. But it had a hidden meaning to her, something that she'd never share with anyone. As far as anyone else knew, she had picked that name simply because she had liked the sound of it. It had taken a while for her to get used to being called by that name, but now she couldn't imagine being called anything else.
Just like, after a month of being free of it, she couldn't imagine living in the Matrix.
The other members of the crew had gone back into the Matrix since she had left it; she hadn't gone with, of course, having just left. She wasn't ready yet, they said.
Frankly, she was in no hurry to be ready.
Now, after a month, they were finally nearly back to Zion. The last remaining human city on the Earth, the others told her.
The other members of the crew...Chronos, the single-minded and fiercely determined captain; Omega, the voice of reason and the first mate; Aquila, the operator and only Zion-born on the ship; Quickstrike, the joker of the group; Amaterasu, the volatile one, who made it no secret that she'd pummel anyone who crossed her; and Flare, who was quiet until pushed far enough, at which time his temper would match his name. They were a very interesting group, and San never failed to be amused at their antics. They also went out of their way to be sure that she was adjusting to the real world.
And today they'd finally be arriving at Zion, their home...her new home.
----------
"Knock, knock." called someone from the other side of the door, snapping San out of her thoughts.
"Come on in." she replied. The door swung open, and Quickstrike entered.
"You're supposed to say 'who's there'." he commented, and she rolled her eyes in response. "Anyway, come on. We'll be at Zion in five minutes, and you don't want to miss your first glimpse of it."
"No, I don't." San said, hopping off her bed and pulling her boots on. "Let's go." Now it was his turn to roll his eyes as she strode out of the tiny room.
"Do you ever smile or laugh or anything? Do you have any emotions, for that matter?" he asked.
"Maybe." she simply replied, walking down the corridors with him following closely behind.
"Maybe what? About the smiling bit, or the emotions bit?" he asked again. She stopped, turned, and looked up him.
"Maybe both." she replied. "Now lead on." He walked on ahead of her, the sound of her footsteps coming from right behind him. Together they entered the cockpit of the hovercraft. It was a small space, and very cramped due to the fact that the rest of the crew was already there.
"Three minutes..." Flare murmured.
"Ahh, home sweet home...been out too long, we haven't been back to Zion in what, nearly two months?" Aquila commented.
"We've been incredibly lucky on this run; no run-ins with squiddies, and we found ourselves another crewmate." Omega replied, smiling at San.
"There's the gate." Chronos said. "They should be opening for us any moment now."
"About damn time...no offense, but I need to get off this ship for a little while." Amaterasu replied.
"Always the impatient one, huh?" Quickstrike said, quickly adding after she fixed her glare on him, "Not that I don't blame you, of course!"
"See, it's so much easier to deal with them when you've got them terrified of you." Amaterasu said to San as she smiled. San smiled in response.
"So you DO smile! That means that you have emotions, then, right?" Quickstrike stated. San simply rolled her eyes in response, an action the others had quickly discovered was one she did very often.
"Finally. Welcome to Zion, San." Flare said, and the others looked out the window. In front of them, the massive metal gates had opened, and they were about to fly through the opening. San watched out the window with the others as Chronos piloted the ship through the gates and into the docks; within moments they had landed. She vaguely heard someone say something about where her quarters would be in the city, and how long until they'd be leaving again, but for the moment her attention was focused on the sight before her.
Her new home.
-----
Feel free to leave any comments you might have :)