The Peregrine raced trough the tunnels with renewed vitality, having recharged and departed Zion but a single week earlier. The crew was also recharged after a period of warm food and warm beds, with the exception of one member. Rhea had become quiet again, distracted. During training her eyes took on a haunted quality that Medea didn't much like. Anyone who asked the girl what was wrong got little more than a sad smile and a shake of the head; all's well, nevermind, don't worry about me.
Yet today was a day that the depression would have to be pushed aside, Rhea mused as she pulled on her boots, half an hour before beginning her shift. This day would be her first real trip into the Matrix. The idea had made her feel almost giddy before, and her eyes still retained a glimmer of that sparkle from before. However, she did not know just how high the stakes were set before. Now she had somewhat of an idea. The lights overhead flickered as Rhea made her way down the hall to eat quickly before going in. She wouldn't be eating much- her stomach was in knots.
Half an hour later Rhea lowered herself into a broadcast chair, wariness and trepidation all but screaming on her features. A tap on her shoulder caused her to jump, whipping around so quickly that Val jumped back in surprise.
"I was gonna ask how you were," Val said in with a nervous laugh. "But I guess I don't have to." Rhea blushed and looked down the chair, moving to strap her feet down. "Sorry," she muttered. "Guess I'm just jumpy."
Val nodded, smiling faintly. "First time in's always a little scary, no matter what you hear from people." She moved towards a chair, flopping casually into the seat. "We've noticed you've been a little down lately around here. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but me and Medea don't think it's just jitters. What's been up with you lately?"
Rhea shut her eyes at this and bowed her head slightly. Val thought that she wasn't going to answer her for a moment, but the Rhea began to speak.
"In Zion…when I was getting a room assignment…we passed the archives, and I remembered that there was a file on the whole Neo thing down there, so the guys I was with showed it to me. After that…I asked, um," Rhea paused. She didn't want to get that guy in trouble for answering her question. Val looked at her, concern etched across her face.
"I asked how this whole thing got started." Rhea raised her head and looked right at Val now. "This war. And…I guess I got an answer. They showed me this file that answered an awful lot of questions, a lot of which I hadn't even thought of." Rhea tried a smile. "Things look awfully shitty when given a little context, I guess."
Val stared at her for a moment, her mind racing. File? What file was there that had…"Aw, shit." Val winced as she recalled a story she had heard in the academy about an uncensored account of how the war started, kept in the Archives for military access. Anyone training who was curious could access it, but it was classified as restricted to the general public. It had been dubbed as the 'Suicide File' because more than one person had dived from their level in the past after fully witnessing the power of those they fought.
File 1-12. From what she'd heard, Commander Locke had tried to upgrade it's status to "classified, as it deterred many potential candidates from pursuing work in defending the city and recruiting individuals in the Matrix, but the Council had deemed that people had a right to know how things had come to be the way they were if they wanted to. However, that didn't keep it from becoming taboo among the pod-born recruits.
Val sighed. "I guess that explains the mood you've been in." Glancing back to check that everyone was still finishing their breakfasts, Val leaned towards Rhea and spoke in a low, hurried tone. "Look: I haven't seen that thing myself, but I've heard it can mess people up. I'm guessing the high mortality rate makes a bit more sense now to you?" Rhea looked away at this and quickly nodded, biting her lip " Val simply nodded. "Thought so." Pausing a moment to think, Val's next words startled Rhea in their familiarity. "You remember that story you told us about the cave? You're in it now. The question you have to ask yourself is whether you can accept the risks that come with helping others discover the world outside that cave. Because in there," nodding her head towards the scrolling code of the screens, "there are a surprising number of people who aren't buying the story that they've been fed."
Rhea looked at Val for a moment, face blank, absorbing what she had just been told. Just then Nix and Medea came out of the mess hall, heading over towards them. "You ready for this?" Medea asked tentatively of Rhea, wary of the delicate emotional state she had been in for the past several days.
Rhea broke eye contact with Val to buckle her other boot into the chair. Looking over her shoulder at Medea, Rhea gave a cocky little grin that warmed the captain's heart. "Let's go."
Val smiled broadly.
Rhea flopped into a chair in the broadcast room, craning her neck back to get a view of who was coming. Aiglos was busy setting up, and Skylla was standing by to handle the plugging in. Medea was already comfortable in the chair next to hers, and Loki was just getting settled in his. Val came out of the dining hall, followed by Nix, who had been hovering about all morning and generally irritating the crap out of Aiglos in his anticipation for a change in activity.
One by one Skylla plugged them all in, stopping by Rhea last. You're looking unusually perky," she commented, cocking her head to the side. "Not that I'm complaining. You've just been mopey lately. I'd been looking forward to seeing more of the little psycho who was bouncing off the walls when we left. I thought we'd lost our new mascot." She grinned down at the supine girl, who scrunched her nose and gave her the finger in response. Skylla snickered. "Ah, there it is. 'Night psycho. Have a good trip." With that the woman slid the plug in, and Rhea joined the crew inside the Matrix.
The first sensation the girl had was the smell of mothballs, and the musty smell of an old, neglected building underneath. Then she opened her eyes and raised her head at the sound of an old-fashioned telephone ringing on a desk. The entire crew stood in front of it. Medea gave the room a once-over to see if the were all there, then stepped forward to pick up the phone. "We're in."
She hung up and turned towards the group. Rhea, in the meantime, was examining herself. She wasn't all decked out in leather like the others- in fact, this was probably what she would wear on a day out were her budget slightly larger and more open to that sort of thing. Heavy combat boot came up to mid-calf, with think canvas pant tucked into the tops. She wore a dark green camisole, and a leather coat on top of that that came to just below her knees. However…
"Who the in their right mind would give me a gun?" Rhea muttered at the discovery of her newly acquired accessory nestled in a holster at her side, under her left arm. Medea, who had been about to address the group, snapped her mouth shut at this interruption of the gathering of her wits for another trip out. Val answered for her. "We never used to give newbies those just starting out- it was just the residual self-image. Now its required to arm everyone everytime we go out. I don't know why no one said anything. Seems kinda normal now. Sorry. You did the program for that anyhow, you should be okay."
Medea cleared her throat. "Alright, I'm only gonna go over this once, so listen up. Rhea this is standard procedure. Three go forward, two stay back. Nix, Val, that'll be you. Anything goes wrong while we're gone, get the hell out. Everyone familiar with this place and the layout?" Everyone, including Rhea, who had had to study a blueprint of the old warehouse, nodded. "Good. You know what to do if Aiglos calls you for backup…alright then. Let's head out." Nix snapped a salute at Medea's crisp tone with a smirk, catching Rhea' eye. "Have fun out there."
Rhea made her way past into the apartment while Medea elected to wait by the entrance. The living room was large and had a comfortable feel to it. It was also full of gifted children, each with unique abilities to manipulate objects. Manipulate the Matrix, she corrected. These were just kids who had found a few extra rules they could break.
Two girls were watching a television, and giant rabbits came in and out of focus. Curious, Rhea sat down next to them. The girls glanced over at her, and the picture lost focus, then sharpened again as they decided to ignore her. Rhea noted this, scrutinizing the girl who was closer. "How are you doing that?" The girl blushed, only partially from modesty. "I…it's not really there. It's all in your head. I'm not sure how else to say it," she said with a shrug, not taking her eyes back off the screen. Rhea looked back to the same place, her brow furrowing. "Huh." Maybe it was a matter of mental projection, like her clothes and…well maybe not the gun. She closed her eyes and concentrated on an image, something that was almost a memory. The girl giggled and she opened her eyes, grinning.
The screen now showed an image of the three of them from behind, in black and white, sitting in front of that very TV. Rhea was Eva in this image, still in a t-shirt and boxers. The young woman on the screen slyly raised her hand with index and middle fingers extended in the form of bunny ears behind the girl's head, and the girl giggled again and glanced behind her, ascertaining that the hand in question was not actually hovering mockingly behind her head. The woman who had let her in came back into the room, laughing gently at the scene. "That's some show, but you'll have to cut it short-for now. The Oracle will see you now."
Rhea's energy was high as she nearly skipped though the beads that hung in the kitchen doorway, electing to gently push them aside instead. A frail-looking woman with frizzy hair sat at the kitchen table, having a smoke, with a plate full of cookies sitting just off to the left. The woman smiled gently at the slightly bewildered girl. "This what you expected sug?" Rhea shrugged one shoulder. Kinda…I guess. All I was really told for sure was to expect cookies."
The woman's- the Oracle's face cracked into a grin now. "Well, I guess that's fair. People aren't too trusting nowadays- never were, really, but that's especially true now. Can't blame 'em, really." The sharp eyes that had been wandering the kitchen focused back on Rhea, and she paused to take a puff before placing the cigarette on the edge of the ashtray.
The Oracle pushed back from the table, slowly moving towards Rhea. Rhea blinked, nervously glancing at the floor and suppressing the urge to back away. With a determined huff, she looked at the Oracle and held her gaze. The Oracle smiled gently at her. "It's alright, sugar. I just want to get a look at you." Rhea tensed up as the Oracle reached up to look at her face. The surprisingly strong fingers pressed her jawline just beneath her ears; Rhea was reminded of doctors checking for swollen glands. Somehow, the light pressure felt soothing, and Rhea relaxed marginally. In the background, she heard the children laughing at some game. The silence in the kitchen grew louder, and she forced herself to refocus on the situation at hand.
The Oracle smiled in encouragement.
"I'm going to take a guess- filtering things out is a little hard for you. Noises, little movements- things that folks tend to ignore all get equal billing in your head." Rhea looked back at her nervously. Had Medea spoken with her? It didn't seem impossible. The Oracle's voice remained calm and gentle. "Not to worry, I see lots of kids like you. Interesting little trick, by the way. You've been catching on fairly fast, judging by the way Nadia was carrying on out there," she said, referring to the little girl by the television. She released Rhea, walking back to the table and reclaiming her cigarette. "It's useful, knowing how to do things like that. The Potentials out there have a little talent, but it's been nutured young. You don't see it too often with the older group, with…obvious exceptions." She gave a cunning smile, an old lady in on a juicy secret.
Rhea found her voice. "How do you know all this?" She asked quietly. An idea was starting to form in her mind.
The Oracle continued to smile. "Ah, well. There's a bit of a grapevine in the Matrix. Not much, but there are patterns in patterns, even when all you see is chaos. A little variable here and there…well, it just adds a bit of spice to the whole, doesn't it? Sometimes you can even come out with a whole new recipe." She lifted the cigarette to her lips and inhaled, all the while watching Rhea intently. "What you've done for yourself- you can do for others, but only if you learn to trust your own instincts."
Rhea had focused in tightly on the Oracle, seeing and not seeing. The language and the image did not match, but something was so familiar about it. The safeness of it, coupled with the feeling of an impending storm- She had felt this before, and recently.
The recording. File 1-12.
"Oh my god," Rhea breathed. "You're a part of it."
The Oracle looked at her. "Yes," she said evenly. "I suppose I am."
They all trusted her, a program. And she had guided them in turn. How would the others react at the news? How in the world had they not figured it out? Maybe they had.
It…didn't matter.
"I…" Rhea breathed, cleared her throat and tried again. "The other day. I found out why…" She waved around herself halfheartedly. "I'm so sorry." She crossed the room in three long strides and embraced a bemused Oracle. "I don't understand us sometimes."
The Oracle patted her on the back. This wasn't the first one to guess her nature. The lack of suspicion, not questioning her motives…she had been ready to deal with either and both, and not having to was a bit of a treat.
Rhea pulled back, slightly embarrassed. The Oracle squeezed her hand, and eased herself back into her seat. "You understand much more than you think, honey," she said. "Don't be afraid to speak up when you do. Anyways," the kind little old grandmother was back - "You should be getting back. I imagine Medea's getting a little antsy out in that hallway. Help yourself to a cookie on the way out."
Rhea did as she was bid and made her way to the front door, distractedly returning the young girl's wave. Medea looked up and smiled in sympathy at the girl's confusion. "I see she's messed with your mind a bit, as always. Aiglos just called- he caught your TV trick. I think you just made a fan."
Medea wearily hauled herself up from the bench and moved towards the door. "By the way, you gonna eat that?" A mutinous mutter came from behind her that sounded suspiciously like "Get your own damn cookie." Medea chuckled and headed into the hall, moving towards the elevator as Rhea followed her, taking a huge bite out of her cookie.