AN: I have REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-turned! Feel special! OK, sorry, I'm a bit hyper. Not much to say, really. 'Allo to everyone. Continue to read and review. Forgive any horrid typing errors. And remember, put your trash in the proper receptacles. Also remember that I hate, hate, hate describing things, so I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions about what the Mnemosyne looks like…come on. It's a Matrix ship. What more do you need, people??? Au revoir! ~Savvy Muse
Disclaimer: Laaaa de daaaa (I don't own the Matrix) Tra la laaaaa (and neither do you) Doooo be doooo (I do own the Mnemosyne) whoop-de-wahooooo (and OCs, too)
(OK, that was really screwed…)
chapter two: existence is futile
Achilles opened his eyes to find he had no idea where the hell he was or why he was there. He was lying down on a bed. Somewhere. Here. Wherever that was…
You are not where you think you are…well, now he didn't know where he was, so that was irrelevant…
Wait!
He remembered now. Orion. The weird message on his computer. The red pill, the rippling metal…and then—
What the hell happened?!
He was…plugged into…something…that liquid, the machine, those rows and rows of people…
That was disgusting. Horrifying. Incomprehensible.
Weirdest dream he'd had in quite some time.
Something itched on the back of his neck. Instinctively he reached up to scratch it, but drew his hand back, stunned, feeling, impossibly, metal…
Impossible…
But I came seeking knowledge…
No. That's not possible. It's something from the process.
Anything is possible…
You are not where you think you are…
No! It's not possible!
He was going to find out what was going on. He found he was wearing drab-looking clothes, gray and black tones that seemed to almost blend into the metal walls.
He got up and walked quickly over to the door, threw it open, and said calmly but loudly. "OK, does anyone feel like telling me what the hell is going on?"
Orion popped out from behind a corner. "I knew it," he said triumphantly. "See, I can always predict when they're gonna get out. Remember? With Atalanta? I win." He grinned. "Hi, Achilles."
"I take that as a 'no', then?" replied Achilles dryly. "Now, spill. Tell me what is going on. Now, if at all possible."
Orion shrugged. "Don't you know already? I mean…"
"Orion, stop playing with him already and go back to work," ordered Alexei, stepping in, followed by 4 other people.
"Sorry about Orion," the woman with purple hair he vaguely remembered seeing apologized. "He's always like that. I'm Sylph."
"You already know Atalanta," said Alexei, gesturing to her, "and me."
"I'm Demetrius."
"I'm Pixel," said an Asian-looking woman with fierce green eyes. ""Psyche's not here right now."
"Arrow," a thin olive-skinned man said in a soft, but firm voice. "Welcome to the Mnemosyne."
"Um…you all know I'm Achilles," said Achilles warily. "Welcome to the…what?"
"This is the Mnemosyne," said Sylph. "It's our ship."
'Or rather, Alexei's ship," commented Demetrius.
Alexei grinned. "Yes, I suppose so. Technically, it's my ship." He looked over at Achilles. "The name Mnemosyne is from an ancient Greek legend—she's the Greek goddess of memory." His expression changed, and now his voice was tinged with sadness. "We named it that as a way to—remember the memory of what used to exist."
Achilles was uneasy. He didn't trust anyone at the moment. Or had he ever trusted anyone? Here he was on this strange 'ship'—although what kind of 'ship' it was, he didn't know. Spaceship, maybe? He couldn't figure it out.
What the hell happened?
What was that place with the machines?
Why am I here?
"I want answers," he said, looking directly at Alexei.
Demetrius glanced at Alexei. "Alexei—"
"OK," said Alexei, sounding resigned to something. "You all, get back to whatever you were doing."
They all departed, except for Alexei.
Alexei looked at Achilles. "Come with me."
Achilles followed him into a circular room, where Pixel was standing. "Would you mind loading the base program, Pixel?" asked Alexei.
"Sure, said Pixel. "I'll get it." Then which—
AN:
WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO INFORM READERS OF A SAD FACT:
Savvy Muse sucks at descriptions. Savvy Muse will not, therefore, write a description of the whole 'getting plugged into the Construct-program-ish thing'. We will, instead, mend things up with what we call a plot hole. Randomly, our current character Achilles is in the random Construct-program-ish-thing. Of course, it's not called the Construct. This is the Mnemosyne. They call it something else. Sorry for the interruption—Savvy Muse
Achilles blinked.
There just wasn't anything there.
He was standing in…
Whiteness.
Wait a minute…
There was no sign of Alexei.
"Um, hey? Is anyone else here? Wherever this is?" he called out. "Hello?"
"Right here, Achilles."
Alexei popped out of nowhere, startling him. "Gyah! Oh…um, hi, Alexei. What does this have to do with anything? Where is this place?"
"I just call it 'the base program', although I must admit Orion has lots of, ah, creative names for it. It's our loading program. It's pretty versatile. We can load up whatever we need…"
--
Meanwhile, Demetrius walked up to Sylph. "Hey, Sylph, have you seen Arrow around?"
"He's contacting the Arachne, which is roughly in the same area…it appears they're having some trouble."
"What sort of trouble?"
"They were trying to free this one woman, but they made a mistake in choosing her. She went in a few days ago and she ran off and refuses to come out. Apparently she has a boyfriend or husband or something that she doesn't want to leave…"
"Oh, man…"
"Yes. Personally, I think they never should have given Xia command of a ship. She doesn't know people very well, she's not very intuitive, which is kind of a major flaw."
"It's the basic rudimentary standard, is what Orion said—it's better to free people with no major relationships with other people. Find the loners."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sylph, her voice sharp.
Demetrius sighed. "It's very, very dangerous bringing someone who's—in a major relationship with someone in the Matrix, out of the Matrix. I've—I've seen it, it's—" He broke off. "Not a good thing."
Sylph decided it was time to change the subject. Demetrius was looking somewhat stressed, although she couldn't imagine why. "You know what Xia said?"
"What?"
"She heard a rumor that Morpheus—you do know who Morpheus is?"
"Oh, god, yes. Who doesn't?" Demetrius laughed. "Orion calls him 'the almighty prophet of the Nebuchadnezzar' sometimes."
"That's possibly apt," said Sylph. "Captain Xia says Morpheus believes he's found the One."
"No shit!"
"I know. It's this guy who calls himself Neo, and he's older than the usual age we unplug people, but Morpheus is convinced that he's the One…"
"Y'know, sometimes I think…"
"What?"
"Sometimes I wonder whether Morpheus might be right."
"Don't we all?"
"It'd be amazing. But I worry about Morpheus." Demetrius looked stressed again, only this time more so, and also anxious.
"Why? Seems like he's doing pretty well. I mean, he's the captain of the freaking Nebuchadnezzar. His crew is rather astounding. I mean, he's got Trinity, Apoc, all these great people, not to mention himself. He has a purpose, unlike some of us."
"See, that's it, though, Sylph," argued Demetrius. "It's his purpose. I mean, from what Alexei says, Morpheus's entire life is centered around finding the One, fulfilling this prophecy. He believes in it, Sylph—believes it completely. Worse, I think Alexei does. And if it turns out not to be true, if Morpheus is wrong—" There was a hint of urgency in Demetrius's voice.
"What are you getting at?" Sylph didn't like the tone of his voice.
"It'll destroy him, Sylph," replied Demetrius softly. "And Zion, not to mention Alexei, he'll—" He stopped abruptly. "We'll deal with that when we come to it, I guess, but it's disturbing."
"We deal with everything when it happens," said Sylph. "And in the meantime, we just hope."
--
"So that's it," said Achilles flatly. "Nothing exists."
Alexei nodded. "Yes." He looked like he was waiting for some sort of reaction.
"Nothing…" Achilles glanced down. "That's really depressing, Alexei."
Alexei looked kind of startled. "I know…however, your reaction is a lot milder than most people who we unplug, so to speak. Strange. I wouldn't have thought…"
Achilles shrugged. "There's no point in having a fit, right? I mean, it's not like we can do anything about it directly, and it's not like I'm really broken up about the awful fate of a human race I don't really know."
Alexei looked at him strangely. "What do you mean by that, Achilles?"
"What I mean," replied Achilles tightly, "is that I'm something of an outsider. And therefore, it's not like I was personally acquainted with a lot of people in…the Matrix. I don't like the battery concept. I'm not OK with it, per se. But you know, that's just the way it fucking is, so I'm not going to waste a lot of energy freaking out over it. Get it?"
Alexei looked troubled over something. "OK. Arrow? Can you get us out?"
Seconds later, they were out of the program. Achilles stood up. "I think I'll hit the sack," he said. "Do I just sleep in the same place I was before?"
"Yeah. Down the hall on the left," said Alexei.
When Achilles had left, Pixel (who had been leaning against the wall for quite some time) approached Alexei. "Anything bothering you?" she said in her harsh, yet melodious voice. She was a strange one, Pixel. Her code was a little messed up in the Matrix…then again, this was the Mnemosyne. Everyone was slightly strange…
"Achilles. He's too much like me," Alexei said abruptly. "And that's not a good thing." He left. Pixel remained in the room, looking at the empty seats, a triumphant gleam in her eye.
"Yes," she laughed to herself quietly. "We did get the right person, didn't we."
--
Achilles headed down the hallway, but was stopped by a good-natured voice. "Yo! Achilles!" There was Orion. "You okay there, man?"
"Yeah."
"Found out the ultimate truth, huh?"
"What's the ultimate truth."
"Existence is futile."
"Oh. Yeah."
"Good. It sucks, though, doesn't it…however, you get used to it after a while. Gotta admit, though, you look a little depressed. Want some food?"
Achilles shook his head. "No, I'm fine."
"'K."
Achilles went into the room and sat on the bed. Orion sat down next to him. "You don't want to sleep, do you?" he asked disbelievingly. "That'd be a first…"
Achilles assured him it was the opposite.
"Good," laughed Orion. "Yeah. That's normal. Don't mind if I talk at you, do ya?"
"No, that's fine," replied Achilles. "It could get boring fast just sitting here doing nothing."
"Great." Orion rolled his eyes. "God. I'm so sick of listening to Demetrius. He keeps going on about how he wants to get off the ship and get back to Zion." He shook his head. "Stupid."
"Zion?"
"Oh, sorry. Zion's the freaking Mecca of the resistance. It's—" He adopted an ominous, mocking tone. "The laaast city of the human raaaace. Dun dun dun dun dun!!! It's fine, but I like it here on the Mnemosyne better."
"Why?" asked Achilles. "I mean, it'd get boring, just stuck here on this one ship…right? Nowhere to go." That's one thing that bothered him a lot about the Matrix. Stuck on a ship—hovercraft, Alexei had said—for eternity? Not good.
"That's what you think. This is where the excitement is." Orion's eyes lit up. "Yep. We hack into the Matrix from here. Not from Zion. And believe me, that's where all the fun is. Yeah! Agents, random programs running around, minds to be freed, etc. etc. Things to do. Alexei says it's stupid to have fun with danger, but I disagree. I think that danger's the only really exciting thing there is."
Achilles didn't understand half of what Orion was saying. Agents? Programs 'running around'? But it would seem that they could go back into the Matrix from here. Strange! He'd just find out about that when he came to it…
"Besides," Orion was saying, "we're going to get in deep shit when we get back to Zion. Commander Locke doesn't get along with Alexei any more than he does with Morpheus, for whatever reason…We won't exactly be overly welcomed."
"Why not?"
Orion grinned. "Achilles, this is the Mnemosyne. You've been drafted into the craziest, most reckless crew in Zion. The Mnemosyne is often called the 'loony ship' and we're often in disfavor with the Big C. What I call Commander Locke," he added, explaining. "Locke's the big guy shipwise. He's got a lot of power. Alexei's always pissing him off. If you wanted a tame experience—you got on the wrong ship. Now, I must be buggering off. I'm going to go watch code some more."
Achilles was getting tired. He yawned. "Code?"
"Matrix code. Get some sleep—you'll want energy tomorrow, I suspect."
"Why?"
"Training." With that cryptic answer, Orion shut the door.
Orion, thought Achilles. The guy's crazy! Then again…
