InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ "The Matrix Has You" ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

She had hoped it was all a dream; that nothing really happened. She hoped that there were no agents- no Disk, no Arc, no crew, and no Matrix. She hoped to wake up in her nice, soft bed, the Shikon Jewel around her neck. Or better yet with Inuyasha where she knew they'd be safe.

Kagome slowly opened her eyes and saw a dark metal ceiling above her covered with pipes. `So it was real…either that or I'm still dreaming.' She thought to herself. She sighed and sat up on the hard mattress that was supposed to be her bed.

The first thing she noticed was that all the cords that had been her body had been removed from being flushed out of the pod, metal holes were left where they once were. She had clothes on now, but they where quite pitiful looking and simple. She had on a gray sweater, pants and an undershirt with a pair of black boots that stood next to her bed. She was quite surprised that people who had worn fancy jackets and sunglasses would dress her up in junk like this.

The room she was in looked more like a prison cell than anything. Gloomy metal walls and barely any light coming from a lamp on the ceiling only fueled Kagome's depression. She sat there in silence until she lost track of time and a large steel door opened with a loud creaking sound.

Arc stood in the entrance no longer with his suit/trench coat outfit but instead clothes just as unattractive as Kagome's. Otherwise he was exactly the same as when she saw him at the building, which seemed a decade ago.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, concerned.

"Unsure whether or not I'm dreaming." Kagome replied, staring at her feet.

"Believe me, this is no dream."

There was a long pause. "Do you know where Inuyasha is?" she asked, turning her head to look at Arc.

"Yes, in fact he's right here with me." Arc looked out the doorway.

"Kagome?" asked a familiar voice from outside the room. It was indeed Inuyasha, who was obviously worried, wearing a crummy sweater and pants like Arc and Kagome.

Kagome beamed and rushed out into him and wrapped her arms around him, nearly knocking him down from her velocity.

"Inuyasha! I thought I would never see you!" she cried, her face in his chest. Even though she had surprised him, he put his arms around Kagome casually, glad to see her.

Kagome looked up at him and noticed instead of his usual amber eyes he had dark brown eyes. She also notice he had lost his dog-ears and had regular human ears instead.

"Wait a minute, why are you human?" she asked, very confused.

"He is only half-demon in the Matrix, demons don't really exist in the real world."

"What the hell are you talking about?" questioned Inuyasha, more confused than everyone else but kept it covered up by his typical anger.

"Well, your about to find out. Like I said, they have to see it for themselves." Arc said with a small grin. He walked down a hallway with doors that Kagome assumed had rooms similar to hers. He reached the end and started to climb a dark metal ladder.

Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other for short time seeing how idiotic they looked with them being bald, wearing shabby clothes, and holes all around their body. But Kagome put on her boots, and they quickly walked after Arc and followed him up the vertical ladder. The three reached the top with a metal floor that had many very small holes to walk across.

"This is my ship, The Zorah, welcome aboard." Said Arc, smiling at the twos amazement of the bridge. The amount of technology completely dwarfed the machines that were in the room at the building. Thousands upon thousands of large cables where laid across the ground and walls reaching throughout the whole room, most of them being connected to what seemed like the main part of the room.

About fifteen yards from Kagome and Inuyasha and past a small break in the metal floor -which split into two parts and eventually, coming back together, enabled people to look below them- was a large circle of jet-black chairs that looked like the chairs that would be found at the dentist. Next to each of them were a slew of equipment and a large, flat computer screen.

At the farthest point of the circle were the backs of at least 9 screens and Kagome could see someone working in front of them who weren't taking their eyes off the screens as they typed away furiously.

Arc strolled along casually with Inuyasha and Kagome tagging along. "I'm sure you've met Disk by now." Arc said as they passed by Disk who moving some kind of large box with a trolley. He smiled at Kagome and continued the opposite direction of her.

"This is Ruby," said Arc as they passed the red-haired woman that had helped them into the wooden chairs. She was doing some heavy work to the insides of one of the machines; she had very dirty gloves on and had some kind of tool Kagome had never seen before in her right hand. She radiated with a "Don't mess with me." look.

"That's Stone," Arc said as they passed the large weapon's `expert,' although that part was debatable. Stone was moving to the ammunition.

They continued down the walkway as Arc named off the crewmembers as they went, passing new and familiar faces from the office building. "There's Flame, Drive, oh, there's Icarus, and Urza."

After naming off at least twenty people they had come behind the grouping of computer screens at the end of the circle of chairs. On each one of the screens were the same odd fluorescent green symbols falling down and disappearing in large numbers. There were also a total of three regular keyboards and some other random keypads placed here and there.

"And this is good old Ram," Arc said, stopping to face a man in his late 20's who spun around in his chair and stood up to face them. He had short spiked blonde hair and looked like someone you wouldn't want to find in a dark alley. But, as Kagome knew very well by now, things aren't what they always appear to be.

"Hey, what's up? I'll be your guys' operator!" He said very keyed up, shooting out his hand and shaking both Kagome and Inuyasha's hands powerfully while the two were still a little dumbfounded.

"You ready?" Arc asked, walking to one of the chairs and sitting in it. "Come on, the sooner the better." Urza was hooking small wires to holes in his body that were at the same places as Kagome and Inuyasha, also making some adjustments to the computer screen next to the chair. She looked over to Inuyasha to see him getting in one of the chairs.

"What? No complaining about how we shouldn't trust these guys?" Kagome asked sarcastically.

"It's not like it changes anything, so I might as well forget it." Inuyasha replied irritated while Flame helped Inuyasha the same way as Urza had helped Arc. Kagome smiled and sat down next to Inuyasha in, Ruby hooking her up with the wires. They felt weird at first but once in, were natural as if they had always been there- which they had.

"You ready?" Arc asked, pulling up his head to look at them. Both Inuyasha and Kagome nodded their heads in anticipation. "Right. Let's do it, Ram."

"This might hurt at first," Kagome heard Ruby say above her and then felt a huge needle being shot up the hole at the back of her head. Ruby was right- it did hurt, but Kagome would have assumed that anyway. She closed in her eyes in pain and when she opened them again she found that the whole room she was in disappeared.

All around her was completely white, no color whatsoever. She realized that she was actually on a floor and stood up. The room seemed to stretch on into infinity. She looked to her right and saw Inuyasha who now was half-demon again with his long silver hair and dog-ears on top of it. He was wearing the same outfit he had worn earlier.

"Impossible, isn't it?" asked Arc who was standing in front of them. He wore the same clothing and sunglasses he had on back when they first met him. He stood there with his hands behind his back with no hint of emotion on his face.

"One minute you were wearing those crummy sweaters, and now you're wearing the clothes you had on when talking to me…" Arc continued and Kagome looked down at herself to she that she had her green and white school uniform on. "Your hair is back and you don't have any holes in you; Inuyasha is a half-demon again." And everything Arc said was all true.

"Is this the Matrix?" Kagome asked.

"Not exactly, this is what we call the construct. How you are now is known as a residual self-image, it's what your mind makes you look like. This is our loading program; we can upload weapons, training, clothes, whatever we might need."

"So then…. this isn't real?" asked Inuyasha, skeptical.

"Depends on what you think is real." Arc said with a small grin.

The white room suddenly changed. In a blur they had shot down to a busy crossing in downtown Tokyo except that all the actions where in fast motion and looked like they were watching a movie than actually on the street. Inuyasha and Kagome looked around to understand their new position. Arc stood unmoving.

"This is the world as you've known it your whole life." Arc continued looking out to the street. "A well lived life, nothing too special. You hoped to do something great with your life, perhaps gain ownership of the shrine."

"Just hurry the hell up would you!" Inuyasha interrupted, not interested in Arc's babbling. Arc looked at him without turning around but didn't say anything. He turned back to the street.

"Then about two years ago on the day of your 15th birthday you fell down the Bone-Eater's Well and ended up here," The room changed again. This time they were now in the forest clearing that had the Well almost right in the middle. All around the trees were bright green and bloomed of the summer weather with the sun peaking out behind fluffy white clouds.

It looked quite peaceful and beautiful in its simplicity and Kagome realized how much she truly enjoyed this place that was her second home which reminded her of the others that she had left. Miroku, Sango, Shippou and all the other friends she had made she suddenly missed deeply.

"And you soon learned about this," he put out his arm and opened his hand to reveal the full Shikon Jewel resting on his palm. Both Inuyasha and Kagome were delighted that the Jewel was safe and the crew were able somehow obtain it. Seeing the Jewel, it reminded Inuyasha of something.

"If you have the Jewel, where's my Tetsusiga?" requested Inuyasha, folding his arms across his chest.

"Don't worry, we have it, you don't need it right now" Arc said calmly. Inuyasha grumbled under his breath but said nothing as he looked off somewhere away from Arc.

"But…unfortunately, all of this was simply a distraction, keeping content without you knowing the truth." Once again the room transformed, now standing upon a cliff looking over the darken desert that Kagome had seen when in the pod. She had hoped that she hadn't seen it, but it stood before her once again, convincing her that she had truly lived that.

Inuyasha had the same reaction although he didn't understand. He knew that it wasn't right. He had tried to fight off the machine only to find himself with mortal strength, the machine was incredibly strong.

"This," said Arc. "Is the real world."

"H-How could this of happened?" Asked Kagome, horrified.

Arc sighed; he didn't enjoy telling this story. "We aren't exactly sure when but maybe around 2006 humans created the technology known as A.I."

"A.I.?" Asked Inuyasha, confused.

"Artificial Intelligence."

Inuyasha still looked puzzled as Arc tried to describe it to him, which was going to be hard considering he had very little knowledge of technology. "A.I. enables an inanimate object to be able to think and do things on its own."

"So…you mean those machines are actually alive?" Inuyasha asked, referring to the one that had attacked him in the pod.

"In a way but,"

"But how's a machine supposed to have a soul?" Inuyasha interrupted.

"It doesn't."

"Then how is it alive?"

"It's not." Arc sighed.

"But didn't you just say they were?" Inuyasha was starting to get very annoyed.

"No, I didn't say that."

"Then what the hell is it?" protested Inuyasha, starting to yell.

Kagome could tell that Arc was starting to get irritated. His eyebrow was twitching because of having to deal with Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, A.I. is just like how a microwave is able to cook Ramen." inserted Kagome. One way of teaching Inuyasha something was to connect it to his favorite food.

"Oh, well…I guess that makes sense." Inuyasha said lightly, putting what Kagome and Arc had said while having his hand on his chin, also trying to figure out how long it was since he had Ramen. If there was one thing he had missed besides Kagome it was that.

Although Kagome and Inuyasha couldn't see behind his glasses Arc had a look of speechlessness. He gave a mental note to get Kagome when he needed to explain something technology-wise to Inuyasha.

"As I was saying," Arc said, getting the attention of the two. "Humans had designed advanced A.I. much powerful than a…microwave.

"In someway or another we ended up in a war with machines who had grown tired of serving humans who did not give any respect. And so a war began and we know for a fact that we did that," he pointed up. "To the sky. Heh, seems Einstein was right about human stupidity."

"Why would they do that?" wondered Kagome.

"The machines needed sun for energy, they thought if they took it out the machines could be taken of easily, ironically it seemed that it was worse for us than them."

"What do you mean?"

Arc sighed. "The human body generates more bio-electricity than 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTVs of body heat. Machines had been living with a perfect source of energy for years and they took advantage of it. All of us have seen the fields that stand before you, thousands upon thousands of humans living in a dream world. That is what the Matrix is."

"N-no that can't be." stuttered Kagome, starting to breathe heavier.

"The Matrix is in control, turning humans into these." He held out a normal AA battery.

"Then…it was all," tears started to appear in Kagome's eyes. "Fake?"

"Yes." said Arc, trying to keep his sorrow contained.

Kagome couldn't contain her self anymore as she fell to her knees and started crying uncontrollably. So many friends that she made, challenges that tested herself to her limits and the joy and sorrow she had were all simply a fake reality.

Inuyasha looked down at her but said nothing. Even though he didn't want to admit it, he was miserable that his whole life was a big lie. He truly did miss his friends and wish he could have talked to them before he left but he was angrier than anything else. Everything he had been though- all the hate he had received, all the battles and injuries that he overcame, all for nothing?

"That's a lie!" yelled Kagome.

"Like I said," Arc stared at the surroundings as they changed back to the blank white room. "I'm only telling you the truth, nothing more."

"No! I'm not going to believe it! It j-just can't be true, I know it!"

"He's right, Kagome." said Inuyasha, nothing but sadness in his voice. He was looking down, his eyes covered by his hair. Kagome wanted to say something but she sobbed quietly instead, her tears hitting the pearly white ground.

"Get us out Ram, they need to rest." Arc said quietly. Kagome opened her eyes and saw the inside of the ship again as it was distorted by her tears.

(A/N: Arc refers to a quote made by Albert Einstein "There are two thing infantine, the universe and human stupidity" said After the use of the Atomic Bomb in WW2. I thought it was such a great quote that I add that. Also Urza is based off MTG(Magic: The Gathering, A Card Game) and Icarus is from the Iron Maiden song "Flight of The Icarus" And Drive was considered for the name of Ram. The explanation of Matrix was for people who haven't seen the movie and goes well in the story, Sorry for the Vets who had to go through stuff they know by heart.)