A Prophecy is Made

"This place. . . It isn't real is it?" I asked the old woman.

"I'm afraid not." She replied quietly.

We sat in an old park. It was almost dark, and the sounds of children playing were long gone. The swings squeaked, as the wind was all that pushed them. And the birds came close, looking for food from the old woman.

"I've had dreams." I said.

"I know."

I looked down at the birds, not wanting to look at her. Her voice kind and gentle, but her knowledge revealed a cold cruel world.

"Everything is green sometimes. . . And I know things."

She had come to me a long time ago. She met me when I was only a small child. She would come to my orphanage, where I lived, all the time and tell stories of a hero. I loved her stories. The hero always would stop the men in suites, and could even fly. The hero was amazing. Her stories were amazing. But I guess some stories are based on the truth. I always liked her. She would bring these delicious cookies every time she visited. She was always there for me.

"What is this place?" I asked her, turning away.

"It is a world created to blind you from the truth."

"Do I want to know the truth?"

She fell silent. She came closer to me, and put her hand on my shoulder.

"I know, kid. I know this is hard."

"This is all a lie. All of it."

"Yes. Eon. Yes, it is."

Eon. I never had a name until she came. She would ask me what I wanted my name to be when I was little, and I never knew. Then one day she came, and told me I was going to have a name. We got a piece of paper and sat down. She wrote down these strange names. How about Trinity? She would ask me. I would say it sounded like a girl's name. Then Morpheus, I said it was too long. Then Cypher, and I asked what a Cypher was. She would write even stranger names. Like Switch, Raven, Mouse, Wolf, Apoc, Night, Sky, Sparks, it would go on and on. I didn't like any of the names, they were too strange. Then she would write down names like Oen, Noe, and Neo. I liked Neo, but then she wrote down Eon. It was still a strange name, but I liked it. Then on I was Eon.

"My dreams. These men are chasing me. I can't see their eyes. They have on these dark sunglasses, I can't even see their eyes when one of them shoots me. They won't stop, they just keep chasing me. . ."

"Do you fight back?"

"They're too fast. . ."

I remembered my dream. The men would chase me up this building. I would try and fight them, but they wouldn't die. They wouldn't get tired. Then one would always shoot me. He would grin at me. Always.

One day she brought a man with her. He looked Chinese and he like me. He was really nice, and said he studied martial arts. Soon enough he was teaching me. He would say "stop trying to hit me and hit me!" And I would always miss. Then one day, not too long ago, I finally hit him. My training was done. And we had a party. I was just a boy, and I was a martial arts master. It didn't seem that strange to me at the time. But I realize now that it's impossible for a child to do such things.

"Who are they?"

"They are nothing."

I would sometimes go to her house. I would play with the children there. They seemed so normal then. There was a girl I liked there, she was younger than me. And she always played with spoons. I found it weird at the time. At the time, of course.

"There is a world outside of here, isn't there?" She nodded. "But it isn't like this. It's horrible isn't it?" She nodded. "Out there is the Real World."

I always loved her cookies.

"Out there are things. Things that keep us here." She nodded. "There was a war. And we lost, and they put us in here." She nodded. I didn't want to say anymore, my entire life was a lie.

"They are machines, Eon. AI. And this is a dream world."

She had told me this all before. She brought me to her home one day. And she told me this. She told me about the machines, the sky. But I didn't want to listen. I blocked it from my mind, I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to know that the hero in the stories was me.

"What can I do?"

"You can change all this. You have the girt."

She had said that before. And I didn't listen. That was only a month ago.

The dreams worsened after she told me the first time. The went more into detail, and I saw my blood as I died. I learned the name of the man that killed me, Agent Smith.

"You can change this place, alter it to your liking." She said. "You can go outside."

"I can't. . ."

"You can."

"I don't like the idea that I have no control over my life."

"You do have control, you choose."

"I thought I've already made the choice."

"You have, and you made it by yourself."

"I can't do this. . ."

" At the beginning of the war there was a machine city, Zero- One."

"Zion." I said my eyes widened.

"You've dreamed of it."

"Zion, the last of the human cities."

"You make that city."

"No."

"Yes."

What she was telling me. I couldn't take it. I can't do this. I can't fight these things. I can't. . .

"I know it seems impossible, but it isn't. Not with you. You will free others, and you will fight, and you will fight for others." She said. "You'll fight for her."

"Her?" I asked.

"She knows, kid, she's waiting for you to free her."

She knew. All this time she knew. The girl with the spoons knew this whole time? She waiting for me?

"She is?"

"I thought you'd figure that out by now."

"What is this place?"

"Whatever you want it to be."

"This place. . . It will be called The Matrix."

"The Matrix it is."

"This is The Matrix. The dream world." I said.

"Yes."

"And who am I?" I asked finally looking at her.

"Why kid, you're Eon. Eon, The One.

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There will be more soon.