Herald: Ok, so I decided to post the third chapter a little early. I don't have any more chapters ready at this point, so I don't know when I will post again. Enjoy everyone :)
"What are you doing here?" She said slowly; hate dripping off of every word. This was the person that had tried to take her away as a slave, and that was not forgivable.
"Oh, who me? Well…" The figure put on a sly grin as he moved closer to the now frozen woman. "I'm just here to tell you that you might as well start running now, because we will come for you, and when we do….I will have you for my own." He held up a small jar. "You ever hear of a Genie? Well of course you have, but you wouldn't exactly grant three wishes, instead, you would become my personal slave on the Net. But there really isn't any reason for me to tell you about it now, you'll learn in time."
"What makes you think that I won't drop kick your ass out off a skyscraper?"
"What makes you think that I exist anywhere in the real world?" And with that the figure disappeared to be replaced with Keiko sitting in front of her.
"So? Are we going to go for that trip or what? I already called your boss, and he said that you deserve the break. He practically ordered me to take you on vacation."
"The Chief…ordered me to take a…vacation?" Motoko thought to herself as she placed a call inside her mind to her superior to confirm this, and to let him know what had happened.
"Sure Keiko, where are we going?"
"I always heard that the United States Empire had some interesting sites, especially on the east coast of the country. Unless there was someplace you would rather want to go?"
Motoko thought to herself, Batou was in Washington, which meant he was on the east coast. "How about in the middle of the country?"
"OOO! It is Mardi Gras season…" An evil grin came across the roommate's face. "Hmm, Yep! Let's go! I already have your luggage packed."
How long was I in that? Motoko wondered to herself. She couldn't help but think that something was wrong, but the Chief had told her to go on vacation, and confirmed it when she called him. Even though things were rather hectic, he felt that she had been overstressed ever since the Dejima situation and that had been a year ago. Everyone else had taken time off but her. Heck, even Batou had taken a week off. Although he had gone in for maintenance for a couple days of it.
The thought of the man made her mind wonder if she really had feelings for him that went beyond their working relationship. He had saved her life on more than one occasion, and had been a loyal comrade even before that. Even though she knew that it would probably never happen, she had wondered if he had anything for her. What pushed him to take care of her so?
"Motoko! I need your help to carry this one!" Keiko yelled from her bedroom.
'Well, that's not for me to worry about now…' She told her self as she sat up and walked across the room.
Aramaki looked up from his paperwork. It was going to be hard to work without the Major, but he also knew that if her mind was occupied with these nightmares, that she would be of little use to finding the culprit.
He had come to think of her as a daughter, well, almost. Of course she wasn't his, but she didn't have parents anymore, and he didn't have kids, so the two did once in a while did go out for dinner to talk about things at the office, although the feeling was not like Superior and Inferior, but casual. Both of their lives were occupied by this organization.
'She's gone longer without a vacation than I have." He sighed to himself as he looked over her file. She had joined Public Security Section 9 four years ago, and had performed with exemplary honors being given to her.
She was truly a hero. Sadly though, no one would ever know. After her body ceased to function, or her ghost faded away, that would be it. She was incapable of having children, and he doubted if she would have been able to actually open up to any other man that much in order to provide a stable environment for them.
'She's just like me, had I been thirty years younger, and all this had happened. I would have cracked a long time ago though.' He continued reading the detailed reports that told him that the emotional trauma that she had gone through with both the Individual Eleven and Laughing Man cases would have crippled any normal human, and many abnormal humans as well.
'The world asked for a hero…and it got one in her. I only wish that there was some way that she could be shown just how much she matters….to the world…to the Team…and to me.' It was something that he had come to accept in himself. He loved her, but he knew that it could never be anything past the little father-daughter relationship they sometimes expressed. But for him that was enough. If nothing else, it proved to both of them that in an untrustworthy world that each had found one they could rely on in those hard times.
'Of course, it's the same way with the rest of my Team, isn't it?' Aramaki chuckled to himself as he closed the paper files and put them back in his safe. It was an old way of running things, but it was also one that was very secure in the new world of cyber-warfare.
-----
New New Orleans, United States Empire…March 28, 2034
"Hard to believe that this place was ever under water at all, isn't it Keiko?" Motoko looked out of the plane's port window to see the city of New New Orleans below her.
That was the name that the rest of the world had given it, but to those who lived there, it was the city of New Orleans. To them, they were proud to have restored the city to it's just how it looked at the time before that monster of a lady Katrina took their city away. The city had been spared much of the war of the last thirty years, since it was a major harbor for the continent. Being as such, it was designated a neutral zone by the splintered fragments of the once great United States of America. The city was essentially its own country complete with delegates to the UN.
But Motoko wasn't here to think about facts and figures. About who did what when with whom. She was here to relax, before her others started to worry about her ghost's ability to cope. She had not taken a vacation in the four years since she joined Section 9, and before that had gone what seemed like decades without leave when she was with the Self-Defense Forces.
This was her first time in a long time to just relax. She was safe, away from everything that may cause her harm. She closed her eyes as the plane started down towards the runway and made contact with the ground.
Just a few hours...then she and Keiko would be in their hotel room, and maybe she could enjoy her roommate's excitement.
'Just maybe…..' Motoko thought to herself as her mind drifted off, away from the worries that Japan had presented her.
"Batou," Aramaki had finally managed to get a hold of him after trying for several hours. "I need to tell you that I sent the Major on vacation. I think she went to New New Orleans."
"Why did you do that! You know that that was probably a bad idea since you have all those murders going on."
"She is on the verge of Ghost Collapse Batou!" Aramaki let the phrase hang out there for a few seconds to get the intended effect.
"…" Batou couldn't believe it. The Major…Motoko Kusanagi…the strongest person that he had ever seen, was on the verge of simply fading away?
"I sent her away on vacation because if she is put under too much more stress then she will fall apart! The world doesn't revolve around a set point Batou! It owes the Major much more than simple legacy. I don't want her to just die alone. I want her to be able to experience true happiness before that happens; at least I can do that much for her…for everything. And you, you aren't exactly helping!"
Batou was surprised to hear this coming out of his superior. Everyone knew that there was a father-daughter like relationship between the two, but….if Aramaki took it this seriously…seriously enough to want to find someone for her to be with…
Everything was true then.
Motoko was indeed in danger.
He had to go to her and make her better at all costs….
"Batou, the reason I am telling you all of this is because I am ordering you to stay away from her. You are not going to help her, since she has already given up on being in anything more than a working relationship with you. I know this because of your conversation, and my 'intuition' when it comes to her."
With those words…his heart began to crumble to ash and blow away.
