Disclaimer: See Part III.
Deus Ex Machina
Chapter 13
The sun shone in a clear sky, its golden rays warming the autumn afternoon. Shouts and laughter filled a small town's park as a dozen children ran and played, fearless and full of boundless energy.
An elderly woman sat under the shade of tree, watching the children with a proud and attentive eye. She would occasionally call out to one of them, warning them to be careful not to draw two much attention.
A young girl ran to the tree, her blond hair glowing in the sunlight. "Oracle! Oracle, they're here!"
"Thank you, Saga," the Oracle said, seeing the two men crossing the park. "Now, why don't you go keep an eye on Thomas," She said, pointing to a small boy climbing high into a tree. "Make sure he doesn't fall and break anything."
The girl frowned. "I wanted to hear about what Neo did," she complained.
"Don't worry dear," the Oracle replied, patting the girl's hand. "I'm sure you'll get plenty of time to talk to him when you get to Zion next month."
Saga's eyes lit up with joy. "You mean...I'm getting freed? For real?!"
The Oracle laughed. "For real. It was arranged yesterday. I'll tell you the rest later."
Saga squealed with glee, diving at the Oracle to hug Her. She laughed, returning the hug as the girl thanked Her profusely. Finished, Saga jumped up, running out toward the other children. "Hey guys, guess what?!" she yelled to them.
"I wondered when you would send her out," one of the men said.
"She's ready," the Oracle replied. She watched Her children play for a minute before answering. "Most of them are ready, now."
"You are worried about their safety," the man said.
"Yes, Seraph. I always worry when one of them goes to the real world. But I don't think the Matrix is safer, not anymore." She looked up at the two men. "Seraph, Cypher, I need both of you to help me."
Seraph nodded immediately. "Of course."
The Cypher frowned. "Why?"
"Because there will be another intruder," the Oracle said. "We must be prepared for it; Neo and the Children cannot fight alone. If we do not work together, the Matrix may fall."
Cypher folded his arms, fixing the Oracle in his glare. "It 'may' fall?"
She nodded. "It is difficult to see what these Angels are, and what they will do."
"What must we do?" Seraph asked.
"I need you to put out the word to all the Exiles," She said to him. "Tell them to be aware of what is happening. The Angel had been in the Matrix for several weeks before it made its move. We must not let that happen again."
The Oracle turned to Cypher. "I have a special mission for you," she said. She picked up a metal suitcase that sat on the ground next to Her. "I need you to take this to the System."
Cypher opened the suitcase, checking the contents. It was filled with dirt, mixed with bits of rock and wood. "What is this mess?" he asked.
"That is what remains of the Angel," the Oracle replied. "Take it to the Source and let it analyze that."
Cypher nodded, carefully closing the suitcase and locking it.
"And while you're there," the Oracle continued, "Poke around and see if there's any other information about the Angels."
Cypher grinned. "Gladly."
A sudden scream caused the trio to turn, in time to see a young boy fall from a tree. He quickly flipped in the air, landing on his feet in a cloud of dust.
The Oracle sighed. "I knew he was going to fall." She stood and glanced at the other two programs. "Please, let me know the moment you learn anything."
Both men nodded, quickly leaving the park as the Oracle went to check on the fallen boy.
Asuka glared at her roommate. "Next time you oversleep, I'm just going to leave, got it?" she said.
"Sorry," Shinji replied. "I don't mean to sleep in. It's just, I..." he paused to yawn. "...After I'm in the Eva, I get tired."
"Whatever," Asuka said, rolling her eyes. She opened the front door and jumped back in surprise at the blue-haired figure waiting there.
"Good morning," Rei said.
"Rei?" Asuka asked, calming herself. "When did you get back?"
"We landed an hour ago," Rei signed. "There is a council meeting we are to attend. It will start in one hour." Rei turned and walked to the stairs, intent on her own apartment.
Asuka blinked, watching her walk away. "Um, okay...bye?"
Rei paused, glancing over her shoulder. "Sorry," she signed, with a small, embarrassed smile. "I will see you later." With that, she disappeared down the staircase.
"That girl..." Asuka mumbled to herself, shaking her head. "Hey Shinji, we're not leaving yet."
She was answered with a loud thump. Turning around, she saw Shinji where he had fallen, sprawled out on the small couch. "I heard," he mumbled. "Wake me when it's time to go."
Asuka stared at the boy as he slipped back into sleep. "Idiot," she growled, stomping back into the apartment.
Seventy-five minutes later, the two teens slipped into the Council chamber, quickly taking seats next to their roommate.
"You're late," Misato said.
"Dork-boy here wouldn't wake up," Asuka said, jerking a thumb toward Shinji.
"Sorry," he mumbled reflexively.
Misato looked over at him with concern, noting his slumped posture and half-closed eyes. "Are you okay, Shinji?" she asked.
He nodded. "I'm just tired from the activation test."
"That was yesterday morning," Asuka said.
"It took six hours," Shinji replied.
Asuka shook her head. "What did we miss?" she asked Misato.
Misato handed over her small flat panel display. "They're just reviewing the info that the Neb transmitted while it was still on its way back."
"Did they really fight an Angel?" Asuka asked.
Misato nodded. "It looks like they did." She waved a hand to silence Asuka's next question. "Now it's really getting started."
Maya Ibuki rose from her seat, stepping up to face the Council. She rubbed her eyes, fighting off a yawn, and picked up her data pad.
"Yesterday afternoon, crewmembers of the Nebuchadnezzar encountered a phenomena in the Matrix which was not of human or Machine origin. After examining the data we managed to collect on it, we have determined that it was an Angel, and have designated it the Sixth. Posthumously, of course," she joked.
Her light smile faded as her jest was met with stony silence. "We only saw limited portions of the Angel's code though the Matrix feed, but it was enough to analyze the structure of its program. The code we saw was comparable to the information stored in the biologic data structures found in the Angels the Evangelions have destroyed.
"Even though it was a program, it still had a core, just like the other Angels. Neo and Rei Ayanami were able to destroy the Angel by targeting its core. With the core code damaged, the Angel's program disintegrated."
"Neo destroyed it?" one of the councilors asked.
"Rei did," Maya replied. "She identified the core; Neo flew her to it so she could shoot it."
"So who destroyed the Agent?" the councilor asked.
"That was Neo," Maya replied.
"Perhaps that is a topic for later," Commander Lock interjected from his seat.
"How could an Angel get into the Matrix?" another councilor immediately asked.
"We don't know, sir," Maya replied.
That admission set off a buzz of conversation and shouted questions throughout the council chamber. "How can you be certain it was an Angel?" "If they're going after the Matrix, why do we need the Evas?" "Did you know this would happen?"
Maya's eyes widened as she was overwhelmed with questions. Ritsuko stood up and laid a hand on her shoulder, signaling for the young tech to sit down. Maya did so gladly, tiredly dropping into her seat as Ritsuko tried to field the councilors' questions.
Councilor Dillard pounded the table with her gavel, demanding order to be restored. The chairwoman glared at the councilors on either side of her, daring them to speak out of turn again.
After the din had died down, she looked back to the Project staff. "Doctor Akagi, this incident raises questions that do need addressed. This Angel was some kind of program, correct?"
Ritsuko nodded.
"Which implies that there is a programmer who wrote it, correct?" Dillard asked.
The blond's jaw worked as she considered her answer. "That is a possibility. There is some indication that the Angels we have fought were somehow manufactured. Where and how that might have happened is unknown."
"Then perhaps we should reexamine the purposes of the Project. If there is an intelligence out there, we should attempt to communicate with it, not destroy its messengers."
"We should reexamine the purposes of the Project," Asuka whined. She kicked a rock, seething with frustration as she watched it skip away. "Who does that woman think she is?"
"She is Zion's political leader," Rei replied as she walked next to Asuka.
"I know that!" Asuka snapped at her. "But she has no idea what she's talking about!"
Rei responded, unfazed by the redhead's outburst. "The council has always watched the Project closely, and regularly made suggestions during its development."
"Contacting the Angels is stupid, though."
"Why?" Shinji asked, speaking for the first time since they had left the council session chamber.
Asuka looked at as though she had forgotten he was there. "Because it is!" she said. "The Angels are trying to destroy the world, human and machine both."
"We know that for certain?" he asked.
Asuka frowned. "The First Angel attacked the machines without provocation. I don't think they're here to make friends."
"But what if they are looking for a way to communicate. What if we could talk to them, get them to-"
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Forget about it. The Evas exist to destroy the Angels, and that is what we will do." She glanced up at their apartment building, which they were rapidly approaching. "Come on, Misato's working late. Let's have some dinner."
"Who does that woman think she is?" Misato fumed.
"Calm down, captain," Ritsuko said as she walked up.
Misato glared at her. "Don't you start with that."
Ritsuko laughed, taking a seat next to the other woman. "Alright, Misato. But you don't need to get so worked up."
"But they don't know what they're talking about," Misato said. "How could those councilors think we can communicate with the Angels?"
"They're politicians," Ritsuko dryly replied. "They're supposed to second guess other people's work." She leaned closer to Misato, smiling conspiratorially. "We will, of course, take their suggestions into...consideration, and examine the possibility, however slight, of actually doing what they say."
Misato nodded, smiling back. "Even though we won't actually do anything."
"Right." Ritsuko turned to her console, pulling up screens of information. "But we don't even know how the Angels communicate."
Misato leaned over, looking at Ritsuko's screens. "That's from the Sixth?"
"Right. We saw pieces of its program through the Matrix feed. Our systems are still analyzing it, trying to decipher the code." Ritsuko leaned back in her seat, watching data flow across the screen. "Maybe this will give us some clues about the Angel's origins."
"How did the Angel get into the Matrix?" Misato asked.
Ritsuko shrugged. "I wish I knew. We might understand these creatures a little better if we did."
Shinji walked into the classroom, and was immediately greeted by his friends.
"Where were you yesterday?" Touji demanded as Shinji sat at his desk.
"There was a council meeting we had to go to," he replied. "I would have rather been here, though. It was boring."
Kensuke glanced around the room. "Where's Rei?" he asked.
"You're not stalking her today?" Asuka asked, approaching the group.
"Why, you...I don't...not...I..." Kensuke's face turned red with fury as his friends laughed. "Touji! Help me out here!"
Touji grinned at Kensuke and shrugged. "Normally, I argue with Asuka just to argue with her. But even the devil is right sometimes." Touji laughed at the equally furious expressions Asuka and Kensuke directed at him. He was saved from verbal and physical violence by the professor's arrival.
"Good morning class. We have a new student today." He glanced at the door. "Please, come in and introduce yourself."
A bald teenager walked into the classroom, followed by Rei, who immediately went to her desk. Kensuke was still slouched down in his seat, muttering about "backstabbing so-called friends", but Touji noticed that several other boys in the class sat up straighter when the blue-haired girl arrived. A quiet "idiots" indicated that Asuka had noticed too.
"Umm, I'm Stephen Tsujimoto," the newcomer said. "I was freed from the Matrix last week. Before I got out, I was a researcher studying AI systems."
"Thank you, Mr. Tsujimoto," The professor said. "You can find a seat."
Neo walked into the command center and looked around. Commander Lock and several other officers were crowded around a large table, examining several maps. Neo waited at a respectful distance while they spoke.
"We'll deploy one APU squad on this hill," Mifune said, pointing to a spot on the map. "Another over here. The other squads will be with the work crews."
"Keep two ships in the air at all times," Lock said. "The rest should be ready to evac everyone on the ground."
"Will we stay up there during the night?" one of the officers asked.
Lock shook his head. "I think it would be best to withdraw below the surface after dark. It's easy enough to come and go through the transport tunnel. We'll launch at six tomorrow morning."
Most of the officers left the control center, leaving Lock and Mifune to review the maps. "He's here," Mifune said, nodding in Neo's direction.
Lock glanced over his shoulder, nodding to him. Neo stepped up to the table, looking down at the maps. "You're going to the surface?" he asked.
Mifune nodded. "That Angel up there was made of something similar to a titanium-steel alloy. We can salvage that material and use it."
"For the Project?" Neo asked.
"Among other things," Lock replied. He turned away from the table and walked through the control room. Neo fell in step beside him. "I called you here to talk about what you did during your last mission."
"I've already said everything I know in my report," Neo replied. "And again before the council."
"What I want to know," Lock said, "is what happens next?"
"Sir?"
"What will you do the next time you are in the Matrix?" Lock asked. "Destroy more Agents? Another Angel?"
"I don't know, commander," Neo replied. "There's no plan, no guide for me to act from. I'm learning as I go."
"If another Angel gets into the Matrix, could you destroy it?"
"Perhaps."
Lock turned and looked Neo in the eye. "Do you actually think you are 'the One'?" he quietly asked.
Neo's jaw worked as he stared back at the commander. "I think that I can still learn to do more in the Matrix," he said.
Lock sighed. "You've become quite popular, Neo. The people who believe the prophecy see you as some sort of messiah. They would do anything you asked of them."
Neo shifted uncomfortably. "Not everyone believes in the prophecy," he pointed out.
Lock nodded. "Some of them are starting to look to the Project, believing that those Evangelions, or the Angels, can win the war with the machines."
"What do you believe?" Neo asked.
"I believe in the Fleet," Lock replied. "I believe in my officers and my ships. I have no use for Angels or Prophecies."
"And if either of those win the war?" Neo asked.
"I will be pleasantly surprised," Lock replied.
Neo smirked. "So will I, sir." His expression grew more serious. "I understand, Commander. Protecting Zion is the most important thing we can do. I will do everything I can to accomplish that."
Lock nodded. "Good."
"Captain Norstrom left me on watch as they slipped into the lab. We weren't concerned about Agents, but about regular cops showing up and causing trouble."
Asuka glanced around the classroom as the Professor droned on. Nearly everyone else looked as bored as she felt. Rei was staring out of the window, while several of the boys were staring at her. Kensuke had apparently managed to launch some sort of game on his console, having broken the professor's software locks again.
Even Shinji and Hikari were starting to look bored with the old man's stories, and they hadn't heard all of them yet. Only the new kid, Stephen, was paying attention, and he looked fairly confused.
A soft snort drew her attention to Touji's desk. He sat with his elbow planted on his desk, with his cheek resting in his palm. He was snoring.
A wicked grin crept across Asuka's face. Making sure that nobody was looking at her, she slid down in her seat. She stretched her leg out toward Touji's desk, ahead and to her left. With a quick, light kick she knocked his arm away. Touji's head hit the desk with a satisfying thump.
Asuka snickered as he sat up, looking around the room and trying to figure out what happened. Everyone stared at him, most trying to hide their laughter.
"Are you okay, mister Suzuhara?" the Professor asked.
"Uh, yes sir, I think so," he replied, rubbing his eyes.
"Well, why don't we go ahead and start today's exercise, then," he said.
An excited buzz of conversation broke out in the classroom, and the Professor let the students talk for a moment.
"This will be a search and retrieval project," he said. "Two member teams, and no interaction between groups. I'll give your team assignments in few minutes."
Touji sat down in his link chair and looked at the girl in the next seat. "I guess we're a team," he said.
"Yeah," Hikari replied. "What is this exercise?"
"We'll be searching for something, a book, or a tape, or something," Touji explained. "And we have to do it on our own, the other teams won't be in the same Construct as us."
"We'll be able to call the operator, right?" Hikari asked.
"Of course. You never do anything without an operator," Touji replied.
"You'd be blind and helpless without us," a new voice said.
"You'd like to think so, Vijay," Touji replied.
The young Native grinned. "You guys ready?" He picked up the link plug next to Hikari's seat and reached for the cloth that covered her head.
The girl clamped her hands down on the cloth, turning away from the two boys. "Don't...don't look at me," she mumbled.
"What?" Touji asked.
"Don't worry about it," Vijay said. "We're used to this."
"But I'm not," Hikari complained. "I'll never get used to it."
"Actually, you are," Touji replied. "Your hair has been getting shorter each time you log in. Your self-image is adjusting to what you really look like."
"You noticed?" Hikari asked.
Touji laughed nervously. "Well, it's not like I've been checking you out a lot. I think you look fine either...um, I mean...Vijay! Get us jacked in right now!"
Across the room, another team was preparing for the exercise. "So, which seat do you want?" Mouse asked his partner.
Rei sat down in the nearer chair, lying back in the seat.
"Are you comfortable, Rei?" Kensuke asked as he picked up the link plug.
"Poor Rei, stuck with her fan club again," Asuka quipped from her operator seat. She laughed as Rei grabbed the link plug from Kensuke's hand, impatiently pushing it into place.
At the next station, Stephen Tsujimoto blanched as he watched the girl shove the plug into her own head. "Do people get used to that thing?" he asked.
"It gets less painful after a while," Shinji replied from the next seat.
Shinji leaned back as Kelly stepped between their chairs, lifting his link plug from its cradle. She connected it to the plug on his skull, then turned to Stephen and flashed a brilliant smile.
"Don't worry," she said, laying a hand on his forehead. "I'll be gentle." She plugged in his link, eliciting a small, nauseous groan from the teen.
A moment later, all the teams were jacked into their Constructs. Asuka turned to Kelly, seated in the next station. "'I'll be gentle'?"
Kensuke snickered as Kelly's ears turned red. The girl suddenly found her code displays very interesting.
Author's notes: Bleh. Don't really like this chapter that much, though I guess it acomplishes what it needs to. The next few chapters should be pretty fun, though. Look for the next one in two weeks. As always, please C&C.