/Welcome to the Real World/
lawless priest -
08: allies
The shower had been refreshing and the clothes helped to warm me up. The gray T-shirt and the black jeans and boots really weren't my style but all of my clothes and my shoes were soaked through, so, there wasn't much that I could do with them.
I think they had me on surveillance or something because there wasn't anybody around when I came out of the shower, but by the time I got down the hall there was somebody there to guide me.
But then again it could have just been the hopelessly lost look I had on.
Yeah, it was probably that.
"Hey, you hungry?" My guide asked me. He was a younger Asian guy, a little older than me who said his name was Slipstream, which I thought was a little weird and I had to ask him why. Apparently it was his handle and that he had been a hacker before joining Zion.
"Zion? What's Zion?" dumb question right?
"We're Zion." a quiet voice said from behind us.
"Oh, Devine. I didn't know you were there. It kinda freaks me out when you do that, you know." Slipstream said with a sheepish look as he made room for her inbetween the two of us as we walked.
"That's probably why she does it, Slip." Another Asian girl around my and Devine's age said joining our little group as we entered the mess hall. It was her, the girl from before. I guess I hadn't being seeing things, but I had never seen a girl with pink hair before, but Misato had purple and Rei had blue so I just let it be.
"Whatever Mana. Besides, I would have known if it was you, you'd have been yaking none stop the whole time without taking time to breathe."
"Shut up Slip." The girl Mana called back as they began to get into it while Devine and I kept to ourselves. I didn't want to get involved, besides, answers were what was on my mind.
"So, who are you?" Apparently the two had finished their little spat and the misses was looking for some new form of entertainment, aka 'the new guy'. And with the way she had her hands on her hips as she looked expectedly with her pink close cut hair swaying as she turned her questioning eyes at me reminded me instantly of Asuka, but she just didn't have the German EVA pilot's feel to her, so the resemblance ended there.
"Uh, I'm Shinji, Shinji Ikari." I said with a bow.
"No need for that, just call me Mana. So what's with the name, you new here or something?"
"Uh..." I thought it was obvious.
"Yes, he is." Devine stepped in as we made our way to the line.
"Is he the one, the one you brought back, D?" The pink haired girl questioned as she grabbed a hot bowl of Miso soup from the counter.
Devine only nodded, but the other two seemed used to this type of behavior form the girl.
"So, is he any good?"
"What do you mean?" I was just as confused as her.
"You know, is he any good in bed?"
Slip laughed out right at the face Devine made while my own face heated up as one of the ladies serving the Miso Soup in my bowl gave me a wink and a chuckle.
I could easily tell that Devine was ready to commit murder and the smug look on Mana's face guaranteed she'd be the first victim. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to change the subject, and quick too.
"Um.. Devine, was it?" I stammered along. "Why were you so mad back there with the Agents?"
Once again the room got quiet at the mention of their names. I was starting to see a trend there. Even the Mana girl was silent. Devine didn't say anything until we were seated in the far corner.
"You obviously do not know anything about the Matrix." She replied as we sat down.
"Well, obviously. And ever chance I get to ask a question you people either cut me off and ask me 10 more or get all closed mouth when I ask one."
"It's because of the questions you ask."
"Well they're the ones that matter most to me."
"They're the ones that can't be dealt with. No one who has fought an Agent has lived, no one. They are the bane of our existence and our greatest enemy. Besides, you heard what they said, they were trying to capture you not kill you. If they were, you'd have been in pieces long before you'd ever even gotten a hit in."
"You're saying that they're faster than they were?"
"Much faster. Only... only father could fight the Angels alone and win."
I caught the slight hesitation there in her speech. Tokyo 3 just didn't seem to be a place where fathers were at their best it seemed.
"I see. So, um... you said earlier that you guys... I mean this was Zion. What do you people do?"
"What do we do?" Mana cut in with an exasperated look. "We fight the Machines, we take on the Agents and free people from the lie that is the 'real world'."
"Machines...? What machines and how can you beat the Agents if you can't fight them." what was all that supposed to mean, machines?
"The Machines are what we call the enemy. They're hybrids." Mana must have caught my confused look.
"You really don't know anything do you? Well, whatever, the Matrix works almost as a master computer program that governs the rules that hold this world together. The more control one has over the system, the more one can do in this world."
"I see, so these Agents have more control than we do?"
"No, but their masters do. The Agents are people who work for them and have had their code altered to fit some design for them. But when they do this their code ends up becoming more like a machine's that a person, like cyborgs or androids or something like that.
"It's kinda hard to explain, but it's just that the code that computers and engines and other 'machines' have is different than the normal human code. Machine code can be programmed easier and rewritten to fit whatever design you want it to take because its stoic, unchanging, confined and conformed. Human code is too chaotic, too free, that's why the Machines turned themselves into human/machine hybrids so that they can have a better hold over the matrix." The pink haired girl said all of this with a know it all expression as if she was explaining to a toddler.
"The Agents are their gate keepers, their master's guard dogs. They are there to keep them in power and make sure everything in the system stays in line."
"And we don't beat the Agents, only their lackeys." Devine continued.
"Yeah, we hit up their bases, taking out their hold on the system." Slip had to throw his two cents in as well it seemed.
I was quiet for a bit after that, just trying to piece it all together as I ate my soup.
"I understand all of that... I think, but what do the Angels have to do with everything?" I thought out load as the memory of Neo's death came to mind. He had faced that white Angel at the end, trying to stop it from waking up, but why?
"Angels? What are you talking about?" Slip and Mana said at once, while Devine just gave me a questioning look.
"Your father, he fought an Angel before he died. I think it was during Second Impact. It had to be, that creature was the First."
It had appeared that we had gained an audience as the other would be freedom fighters listened in with rapt attention, but I didn't care. I was in my own world trying to piece the puzzle together.
"Um... If I remember correctly, there were no angels during 2nd Impact. Big asteroids yes, giant demons from space, no." Slip said with a mouth full of Miso.
"Stream here has a point and how would you know about the Angels or about how Neo died anyway?" came Mana's quick reply.
"Your visions?" Devine supplied. "You have seen my father's death?"
"Yeah..." bowing my head I thought back on that memory, one of the clearest I had gotten of him. "He had gone to Antarctica, to the site of Dr. Katsuragi's research camp. There had been Agents there and they were trying to ... no, that doesn't make any since. Why would they want to wake up the First Angel?"
"You are not making much sense." Neo's daughter said to my right. "And how are you sure it was an Angel?"
"How am I sure? I'm an EVA pilot. Killing Angels is what I do. Besides, Dr. Katsuragi's daughter was there. She saw what started 2nd Impact and was the only survivor from that place. Plus she's my Guardian and my Commanding officer, who is so going to have my ass when I get back home."
"Ah, that is how you know Vision." Trinity's daughter said with a knowing look.
"Was Maya a hacker too or something?" I had to ask. I mean, what was with that name.
"Huh, Maya? Oh Vision, yeah! She's one of the best." Slip throw in, the dreamy look he had on his face when I mentioned Maya was a bit creepy, though.
"I forgot that she works for Nerv." Mana thought out load. "So you're an EVA pilot huh? You sure don't look like much, but why would they make you a pilot anyway, I mean you're just a kid?" There were a few agreeing mutters in the back somewhere.
"Just a kid? Hey, I'm the same age as you and I can't tell you about the Piloting selection system, that's classified!"
"So are we Mr. Ikari. And if you wish to continue living you'll act as if you are as well. But might I ask a related question?" With the way Devine had asked so politely there was no way that I really could refuse her.
"Um... sure, go ahead." Everyone having their eyes on me was making me rather nervous. I had never been one for crowds.
"Are you related to a Gendo Ikari, the Supreme Commander of Nerv?" The quiet dark haired girl asked me in that soft voice of hers that reminded me so much of Ayanami except she didn't have that strange monotone that I was familiar with. But Rei, was the last thing on my mind then and the light scowl growing on my face and the once again narrowing of my eyes must have been an involuntary action because she immediately cut in before I could open my mouth.
"I'm sorry if I upset you, I didn't mean anything by it?"
'Was she trying to apologize.' I thought as I sat there confused.
"No, it's alright, it's just... Yes, he's ... I'm his son." I couldn't say that he was my father, he had never been my father. Maybe when I was young, while mother was still alive, maybe then, but that was the past.
"I see." was her curt reply.
"What's going on here, am I missing something?" Someone called from outside of the ring of people listening to our conversation.
"Maya-san?"
"Ah, Shinji-kun, I was looking all over for you. You seem to have made some friends. Hello miss Kirishima, Devine and how are you SlipStream?"
"I'm fine Miss Vision!" Slip said with a silly grin on his face as the others gave their greetings.
"Shinji, would you like to go for a little walk?"
"Um... sure, Maya-san." I could clearly hear some of the disappointed mutters in the back from what I guessed to be some rather jealous men at Maya's departure and from the blush on her cheeks I knew that she had heard them as well.
We were both silent for some time as the older woman led me around the warehouse, both just taking comfort in the other's presence.
Eventually we ended up at the room that I had been assigned to with me sitting on the sparse bed while she took the only chair in the small room. It really was nothing to look at and just like the rest of the place everything in the room looked like it could be collected and vacated at any moment.
The impermanent nature of the safe house was rather depressing if you thought about it. And I was surely thinking about it 'Would I end up like them? Would my life be nothing more than a fleeting dream, never spending more time in one place long enough to leave an impression.'
I had no doubts that numerous people had lived - no stayed... no one had ever Lived in that room before, no one. But all the same I could feel the desperation of that place closing in on me.
If it wasn't for Maya's comforting presence, I would have bolted from there and probably been caught by the Agents like before or something worse.
/WRW/
"So... what happened then." Asuka was saying with barely contained anticipation.
"Um... you do know that Lunch is almost over right?" I had to ask. If she ended up missing out on lunch because a certain 'Baka had taken too long telling his bloody story' I was going to be the one to pay for it.
"Uh, yeah, that. Hmm..." she paused for second to think while checking to see if anyone had stepped in while we... I mean I was talking. We all seemed to have been lost in the tale.
"You can eat and talk right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well then." The smugness of the look on her face would have made you think she had just won the Olympics or something, but I knew it was just Asuka. The slight smile on Hikari's face lightened the moment while she pulled out her bento as her friend did the same and Rei began eating silently the salad she had packed.
"Fine, now where was I?" I though as I opened my bento, chop sticks held idly in hand.
"You were with Ibuki-san if I remember correctly." Rei was saying.
"And considering the blank look you always have on we're supposed to believe you actually have one?"
"Asuka!"
"What?"
"Um... I think you're right Ayanami. Now let's see... "
/WRW
We sat there in silence for a bit as the nature of the desolate room bore down on our heavy thoughts, but eventually she broke it, her expression a bit sad as she turned to me.
"I'm... sorry Shinji. I ... "
"Sorry, for what M-Maya." It was still a challenge to actually call her by her name sometimes.
"For what? For getting you involved in all of this! I should never have gotten you mixed up in all of my problems."
"But you're wrong, besides this was just as much my problem too ever since I started seeing the code. If anything, you've done more to help me out in this one day than I've been able to do for how ever many weeks it's been since this started."
"I owe you Maya-sempai and I thank you."
She was speechless with her mouth hanging a bit and like everything she seemed to do, she looked cute while doing it. (Asuka snorted at this part while I looked sheepish for forgetting who I was telling the story to.)
"This is not how I envisioned things would go." She started off after a long silence. "I thought that I would be able to teach you about the Matrix and then show you the Construct and have you trained on it so you'd be able to protect yourself just in case you did have a run in with an Agent. But everything seems to have just gone wrong at every turn."
"Construct...? What's that?"
"Huh... oh, the Construct. Hehe." she giggled a bit. I still found it a bit weird to see a grown woman giggling, but I wasn't going to complain, it was just too cute. It reminded me of this one time of this impromptu tickling match me and Asuka had. You should have heard her. No one in school would even think of Asuka in such a position but to actually hear her giggle ... sigh. The word kawaii just didn't do it justice. She somehow made it sexy... but we're not getting into that.
(I was going to stop but the huge blush on Asuka face while I was telling this while Hikari gave her one of those 'you and I have a lot to talk about later' looks kept me going as a bit of pay back for all the times she embarrassed me. I could also tell that Rei, from the slight frown and raising of her brow, that I was again going to have to explain the merits of tickling to her sometime in the near future as well. Hopefully she wouldn't want a demonstration. .. Ok, ok, you got me, I wasn't hoping that much. )
In any case, it's strange how a few words can lift a frown from someone's face and place a smile there in no time at all. I guess it was just her relief at being able do something and keep her mind off of the past. And mostly because she didn't have the chance to explain something really Technical to other people much, her work being super classified with a capital P and all - and no and don't know where the P came from- and her friends at work probably didn't really think it was all that exciting as it was to her, that truly did it.
I was just glad that she wasn't wallowing in her supposed guilt anymore, but it probably would have been smart to actually listen to what she was saying.
All that I caught from that conversation was something about the Magi and training and some lady in a red dress... then again, I could have just been day dreaming. Maya tended to use a lot of big four million dollar words that meant very little to me. But I tried to stay attentive or at least look it.
We spent must of the night that way, just talking about nothing and everything all together. But more importantly, finding comfort in each others presence to keep our minds off of the mysteries of the Real World.