Revelations

Na'im stepped out of the taxi he had taken to get to Yumland, payed the driver and remained in position as the taxi drove away behind him. With his hands in his pockets and his PET strapped to his back, he and Djinni remained quiet due to the happenings from before. Slowly Na'im strolled into a park close to a large group of food stalls and small restaurants, then stood still close to a vendor selling crepes and smiled at the man behind it. "I'd like to stay here and play some music for people passing by. If you prefer me not to, I'll leave quick and spry." The man just shook his head and gestured for him to stay. Na'im just nodded as a reply and took the keyboard from his back.

Noticing the movement, Djinni looked up from the PET's screen but didn't bother revealing herself as hologram. Instead she just stayed in the PET and glanced downwards, ashamed of her own actions in the Netball tournament.

Folding out the stand below the keyboard, Na'im put it on the ground and stretched his fingers one by one in preperation of playing some music. He took a quick glance over the people in front of him and around the park, then started to play a calm tune with, to careful listeners, an ominous tone. Amused tourists and locals stopped to listen to Na'im before walking on while chatting happily as the musician continued as if hidden in his own lyrical world. An hour passed while he played his songs, each different in flavour but always an ominous presence that pervaded it. 'Ting' sounded a small coin that was thrown in front of Na'im's feet, causing him to escape from his world and look up at the one who threw it.

"Come with me," the woman in front of Na'im said with an exotic foreign accent in her voice and turned away before he could get a better look of her face, already starting to walk away. She was wearing a brown trenchcoat and a brown beret and he could see she had short black hair and a tanned skin color.

With a faint smile, Na'im nodded and said farewell to the vendor who had increased his sales decently. He then folded his keyboard up again, holding it under one arm and followed the woman.

With Na'im walking behind her, the woman remained watchful over their surroundings and guided him to a hotel in a quiet area. "In here," she said, not turning her head to him and walked into the building.

Na'im looked around as he walked in too while the woman had already started talking with the receptionist. Eventually she returned, holding a key with the number 66 printed on a label hanging from it, and together they headed for the room. A small two-persons bed, a table, a closet and another room as living room with TV and others was all that the room offered.

"Where is he?" the woman asked as she took her beret off and threw it onto the bed, "And don't try that rhyming you always do. If you don't talk, I'll notify the others of our location."

Na'im laughed as he sat down on the bed and put the keyboard with PET on his lap. He gently tapped the screen of the PET with one finger and then looked up at her. "Right in here. But let me pull her out of her own world for a moment. She has a right to hear this too," Na'im said and then fixed his sight on Djinni.

Having heard all of it and knowing they had moved elsewhere from the park, Djinni initiated the holographic model and levitated herself out of it. "Ehm... I'm sorry," she said as she looked at the woman, "Sorry for ruining the match and attacking that guy." She then took a bow towards her while continued to talk, "But don't blame Na'im for it. And... I'm not a he..."

The woman blinked a few times in confusion, then stared at Na'im while pointing at Djinni. "What is the meaning of this? You said you had him, but this is clearly not him."

"Let me start from the beginning," Na'im said while Djinni tilted her head sideways, confused at the current scenario she had landed in, "In lyri-"

"No rhyming," the woman repeated herself and sat down on a chair she had pulled towards them to talk face to face.

"...Fine," Na'im said with a sigh, "I am an ex-member of the Whazzapian Security Force who was working undercover in a secret cult which was plotting to destroy the network. They had started creation of an unbelievably strong Navi which was designed only to destroy, a rather sad fate. He was not given any form of personality or appearance because they were scared of him rebelling against them, so he was an empty shell with only power and programs to support himself. Defense, speed and recovery. But he had a flaw or to be more precise, the creators had a flaw. They didn't realize the network had grown so incredibly much since the beginning, so the power the Navi possessed would allow them to destroy large parts one at a time. But these days, there are a lot of Navis protecting the network and rebuilding parts of the network is becoming easier by the second. Nonetheless, millions could've been deleted."

The woman nodded silently, while Djinni looked at Na'im with large eyes and then glanced at the woman only to return her gaze back to Na'im. "But why? What would one gain from destroying the entire internet as we know it?" she asked, tilting her head to a different side.

Na'im smiled a bit, then turned his eyes towards the woman. "Alright," she said and then coughed quietly before talking, "My name is Isra, I used to be part of the cult Na'im has spoken about. Our country has unearthed several ancient monuments severals years ago depicting a civilization long before ours which had similar technology as the Net Navigators as now. They think they're the ancestors of internet as we know it, so their plan was to destroy it... And rebuild it as their own. The Navi was their key to it."

"But if you stole it..." Djinni said after waiting for Isra to finish and turning her eyes up to Na'im, "Then where is this Navi?"

Na'im glanced at Isra for a second, seeing she was also awaiting the answer to this question, and pointed at Djinni's chest. "Where else? He's inside of you," he said without twisting around it, "I created you as a shell around him."

While Isra looked at Na'im with an interest of the why and the how, Djinni looked at him with an expression of disgust and contempt. "I'm just a shell!?" she exclaimed, "Why did you do that?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Na'im closed his eyes to think quickly and then nodded at himself. "It was better to use his power for good instead of bad. That was the main reason," he said, "And to prevent them from getting to him. Technically you're the only one stopping them from destroying the network as you also hold the design to create him within yourself."

Djinni remained quiet, looking down at the screen of the PET screen she was hovering above. "So that is how everything was removed..." Isra suddenly said, "But what if they get their hands on this Navi?"

"My name is Djinni!" Djinni exclaimed at Isra with an angry look on her face, her thoughts mixed with angry at the secrets about her that were kept away from her and a strange sense of joy of being in the spotlights. "They won't get their hands on me..." she quietly said and rubbed her forehead below her turban, "I won't allow them."

"However," Na'im started again, "Something I didn't expect has occured. You've been acting strange, Djinni... You can hear him, can't you?"

Djinni nodded while pointing at her forehead and as she opened her mouth to talk, Isra cut in line, "But we didn't give him a voice. You should know this." She then looked down at Djinni, "But it makes me curious... What does he sound like?"

"...Angry," Djinni replied quietly, "And a bit gravelly. A guy's voice, that's for sure. He keeps telling me to destroy things and use my anger to strengthen my fire."

"By mixing him with a real Navi," Na'im said after Djinni finished, "He has created a personality by himself and with it came a voice and a will to live. Because his power values are higher than regular Navis, he can only think about that. But..." Na'im then remained quiet and tapped a few buttons on the PET, creating a holographic image of Fhyre and a three other similar shaped creations. Letting the others look at them, he waited a bit and then continues speaking. "Fhyre is the embodiment of his defensive abilities. By taking them out of him and into Fhyre, his own defense has been weakened and allows me to pull more out of him. Eventually he will become like a regular Navi and fuse with Djinni." Quickly he raised his hands after stopping, knowing he would get questions or negative comments and continued talking, "This does mean he will continue to whisper to you and try to take control for the time being. At least... Until we pull him out of you."

"Pull him out?" Isra asked and glanced at Djinni, "You mean the power aspect of his being?" After asking this, she thought about it herself and nodded while Na'im looked at her with a smile to let her figure it out herself. "That would mean his personality would evolve without the influence of his past programming. And if he's connected to Djinni, his thought pattern will become like hers."

Djinni, on the other hand, rubbed her head with her hands on her turban. "This all hurts my head," she complained, "Stop using such-" She stopped, her eyes widening slightly as she realized something. Turning her sight up to Na'im, she frowned and asked him the question she had probably waited the entire scenario for, "What is his name anyway?"

"Efreet," Na'im said with a blank expression on his face, then gently scratched his cheek, "We really forgot to mention his name?" He then looked up at Isra, his finger still at his cheek. "You satisfied now?" he asked.

"Yeah... At least he's in good hands," Isra said, then looked at Djinni, "He told me he was going to use Efreet for something big. Something that would save the network instead of destroy it... Be proud of who you are." She then looked back at Na'im, "But what about the influence of the core on Djinni?"

Na'im sighed and nodded, then tapped another button on the PET causing another holographic image of Djinni to appear but slightly altered. "I hate to say this, but everything up till now has been a test. This here is a design made for Djinni which uses secondary programs for offense, defense and others so you do not have to tap into Efreet's programming directly. Therefore his influence will be barely noticable."

Investigating the 'new design' as Na'im had put it, Djinni looked around it curiously and then held up a big thumbs up at Na'im. "Not much is changed," she said, curiously poking the image's legs.

Turning off all images he had brought up, Na'im stood up with his keyboard PET in two hands. "I think we're done here, aren't we?" he asked as he looked down at Isra.

Isra nodded quietly while she looked at Djinni's image flowing back into the PET, who was getting herself ready for the installation of new files, then looked back at Na'im. "Won't you stay with me for a night?" she asked, showing a small smile at him.

Staring at her for a few seconds, one hand on the door, he sighed and opened the door. "We're done here," he said and left Isra alone in the room, "There remains a fair. No need to open old wounds. This is something that's doomed." He then left the building after greeting the receptionist kindly and started searching around for a place to settle down for some changes.