Machine's Secret Part 3: The Second Meeting
by
Digitah
Disclaimer: ok! you guys know that i own logic, genesis, and the lovely Xyla! the rest are not mine! i am not brilliant!
author's note: italics are for thought.
Genesis unplugged Neo.His anger was completely gone, now replaced with a satisfied look on his face.
"How did it go?"
He only ignored her and turned to look at his surroundings. He saw no one there.
"Where is everyone?" He asked.
So. You finally noticed? "I think everyone's asleep. This is my shift, so...I got to unplug you."
"You can go now." Neo said, albeit he sounded completely strange to Genesis.
I can go now? Who the hell do you think you are Mr.? "What do you mean, I can go now?"
"Well, the you means you," He pointed at her. ", the can go now part means go now! I'm relieving you of your duties."
Bastard. "Why?"
"I need to do something."
His "tough guy" approach wasn't working and wasn't winning Genesis' trust. "No. I'm staying right here."
Neo slowly stood and walked over to the large console to begin his search on Xyla. He wasn't sure whether he wanted anyone to find out about Xyla. He needed to find out about her first. Something had been bothering him about her ever since he analyzed her code. It was sentium code all right, but it didn't exactly fit sentium. He sat down. He hadn't noticed earlier that Genesis was looking over his shoulder the whole time. He turned his head back. "What?"
Genesis crossed her arms. "I said I'm not going anywhere. What are you going to do exactly?" Even though at the moment Neo was acting strange, it still didn't kill her curiosity.
"Nothing." She was beginning to annoy him. "Why don't you just call it a night? I'm very sure you're tired."
"Humph." Oh no. Not that easily. "That's why I sleep during the day hon. Besides, this is my shift because I am a night crawler." She leaned in closer to the screen. "So, what are we looking for?" She smiled.
"We are not looking for anything. I'm looking for someone's profile, file, or anything on her."
Her? That last bit of information especially caught Genesis' attention. Remember that Trinity asked you to look up Neo's records and medical information. She thought to herself. "Who?"
Neo rolled his eyes. "Just someone."
"Someone? Who? Trinity?" Jeez. Do they both think they're crazy?
"No. Someone else." Neo was trying to keep the specifics of Xyla as vague as possible.
"Another potential?"
"No! Listen Genesis, if you're going to stick around, could you not ask so many questions?!!!" This was a mixture of annoyance and anger.
"OK! OK! Sorry. Just one more thing, Neo."
Neo rolled his eyes again. "What?" He typed in a command and the search program appeared onto the screen.
"What happened in the mess hall this afternoon?" Genesis had stumbled onto something big.
Neo completely turned to face her. "What?"
She wickedly smiled. "What? Happened? In the mess hall this afternoon?" Her broken sentence was only mocking Neo at this point.
Neo turned back around. "Nothing. Why?"
"It's just a question." Genesis sighed and continued to stand there while Neo kept typing in one word over and over again. Xyla.
Neo seemed to forget that Genesis was even there. He wanted to know so much about Xyla. She was interesting to him. She was not like any typical agent. Only one thought went through his mind while he sat there typing her name over and over again. She's too much like a human to be a sentium program. Even if she is a superior sentium program. Then he stumbled onto something.
"May I at least know what you're looking for?" asked Genesis.
Only one match available. Read the screen. Project Xylem.
"What's Project Xylem?" Queried Genesis again. But of course, Neo only continued to ignore her.
Neo began to read the selection under the title Project Xylem.
Project Xylem
Matrix Information
Name: Lizanne Davis
DOB: March 31, 1975
Authentication of Project: Designated project to change a human being into a technical sentium program. Remaining a human in the real world, yet being a complete superior sentium within the Matrix. This superior sentium has three times the strength of a regular sentient.
Neo sat there in awe. His suspicions of Xyla had proven to be true. She doesn't know it? Xyla doesn't know she's a freakin' human?!! Neo laughed slightly and turned around to face Genesis.
"She's a human!" Neo declared with a wide grin spreading across his face.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She demanded. Yup. I think I'll check those medical records right about now.
Neo's grin quickly faded as he remembered who he was talking to. "Nothing." He looked down at the floor."It's all yours. I'm going to bed now." His gaze shifted to Genesis' hazel eyes. Her eyes reminded him of Xyla's.But why was he thinking of Xyla's eyes? Or Xyla at all, for that matter?
"What?" The man's insane.
"What?" He replied.
"You're staring at me."
"That just proves that you should go to sleep." He began to walk away. "Goodnight Genesis."
"Goodnight." Ya deranged lunatic.
***************************************************************
She lay there avoiding the nightmares that would come in case she were to fall asleep. But she didn't want to fall asleep, she wanted to wait for Neo.If she were to fall captive to her drowsiness, she would most likely wake within a matter of five minutes, with the sensation that she had just been beaten into submission. She turned to her side and stared at the iron wall that separated her from her neighbor. I wonder if anyone's in that room anyway. She thought to herself. She closed her eyes and a crystal clear image of this afternoons display of rage, by Neo's part appeared. She quickly opened them and sat up.
"Why is this bothering me so much?" She whispered to herself. She had had much scarier experiences in her life than this one. So what was wrong now? The cramped room wasn't enough for her at the moment though. She stood and walked out of the room. She leaned on a large pipe and began running her fingers through her hair, followed by scratching her head, then she rubbed the back of her neck. She screamed, but someone's hand covered her mouth. She knew who it was by the touch of his hand.
"Shhhhh. You'll wake everyone up."
She turned around in his grasp. "Neo?" He grinned. "Don't ever do that!" He began to laugh, and was rewarded by a jab from Trinity.
"Sorry. I just saw you there and...wanted to surprise you."
She crossed her arms and nodded. "It's OK. I was just thinking." She looked about at her surroundings with her eyes. He was obviously, no longer angry. "How did it go?" She was referring to his excursion in the Matrix.
He took a deep breath. "Fine. I uh...I found the disk."
"Really?" This was surprising news, no doubt. "How? Where?"
He took another deep breath and glanced around for a couple of seconds. Should he tell her or not? This was indeed an astonishing discovery. "Uh...someone has it."
Trinity squinted her eyes a bit. "Someone has it? Who?"
"Just someone." He yawned. "Why don't we go to bed? I'm...I'm a bit tired."
He wasn't telling her something. Not just something, but something big. "Uh...OK." She nodded quickly.
***************************************************************
OK. OK. Medical records on Neo. Medical records on Neo. Genesis began to type vigorously. Of course, she could check on anyone's Matrix record. But this one was special. It was requested. She had to do it. If not to help someone, than to find out information for her own personal gain. "Oh no. Shit!" She made a mistake, and keyed in the wrong command. "Damn it! Someone has to teach me how to use this thing properly!" She said to herself. OK. No problem. I'll just go downstairs and get Logic. I'll just wake the bastard up. Genesis stood and went down to Logic's door. She carefully opened it and walked inside. Uggh. He's asleep. She thought. She sat down on the bed and began to shake him slowly.
"Logic. Logic. Logic, wake up!" She whispered. All of the shaking wasn't working. She shook him harder. "Logic!"
"But officer, it's not my car." He sat up in bed and slowly opened his eyes. He yawned, and noticed who it was that had just woken him from his slumber. "Genesis. What is it?"
"I need your help." She didn't really like Logic, especially for his amorous gestures toward her.
"Really? What kind of help would you need to wake me up in the middle of the night for?" He grinned.
Genesis wasn't stupid. She got his little implication. "Yeah. Uh...I think I screwed the computer."
"Hmm. Lucky computer." He smiled.
"Ugggh! That's gross!" She stood. "You know what, I 'll just try to figure it out myself."
"Hey wait. I was just kidding. It was just a joke."
"Yeah, well...you really tell an interesting type of joke." Sicko.
"Sorry. What's wrong?"
"I'll show you. Come on." She led the way back up to the main deck trying not to make a sound. She sat back in front of the console. "See." She pointed at the screen. "I must have typed in some wrong command, or something. I can't use it as well as everyone else can."
"Yeah well, not everyone on the ship could pack a wound as well as you can."
Genesis smiled. "Yes, but I'm a doctor."
"And not a hacker."
"So what's wrong?" She bit her lower lip.
"Step aside hon, and let me show you how it's done." Genesis stepped out of the chair so that Logic could take a seat. "You don't know all of the commands by memory do you?"
"I guess not."
"What were you trying to do anyway?" Genesis would never ask for his help unless it were absolutely urgent or necessary.
"I was trying to look up someone's Matrix record."
"Who?"
Uh...Neo." She might as well tell him. Trinity did specifically ask for Logic and herself to help in this matter.
Logic, on the other hand was surprised. He completely froze and shifted his gaze to Genesis. "Neo? OK. Neo?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry, Trinity asked me to do it."
"OK. OK. I got it."
"Oooooo good!" Genesis smiled. "Save it to a disk. Uh...please."
"OK." Logic began looking around for a disk. "Ah! Here we are." He placed the disk into the drive. "So. Could I ask you for a favor Gen? I could add a "please" to that too?" He smiled. He loved to bother Genesis.
"Uh no. I pass."
"Your loss."
***************************************************************
"You know, you're very punctual." Xyla smiled behind a cigarette.
"I try."
"Sit." She pointed to a tan colored couch adjacent to her seat in the center of the room. "I insist."
Neo walked over to the couch and took a seat. It was surprisingly comfortable.
"So. I assume you came to get what you asked for?" Another smile.
Yeah. So where is it?
"Again with that? OK. I'll play along. But you should really learn."
Are you going to teach me?
"I could teach you many things, Neo."
Oh yeah? What else?
"Stick around."
The disk?
"OK. But, I need to show you something first."
OK.
Xyla stood up and walked over to the couch to join Neo. She sat, and surprisingly a laptop appeared in her lap.
"Wh...where did that come from?" Asked Neo with wonder in his voice.
"From nowhere."
"From nowhere?"
She turned her head slightly and gave Neo a meaningful glance. "Yes. That's a simple way of putting it. But why did you ask me where it came from? You do things like this all the time, don't you?" She was talking about his powers.
"Yeah but, the fact that you can..." He cut himself off, for fear of Xyla's reaction.
"The fact that I can what?" She squinted her eyes. "Neo?" She deeply sighed. "Would you rather I just read your mind to find the answer?"
"No." Neo was surprised by the tone Xyla took on to say those things to him. "I'm just surprised that you have powers at all. I thought I was the only one."
"I've had your powers far longer than you have. It's the way I was made."
"Do you see things the way I do?" Do you see green code everywhere?
"Only when I want to. I see pretty normally."
So what were you going to show me?
"I thought you'd never ask." She smiled and promptly turned her head back to the screen. "Watch."
Then, as if she were performing at a child's birthday party, the disk appeared out of nowhere. It looked exactly the same, extremely shiny. She placed the disk into the drive, and began to furiously type away. "I've created a substitute program of your *outside* technology. Now watch and see what the disk does." Her index finger touched the "enter" key.
"Look. This all I found on him. I found, pretty much everything." Genesis was explaining to Trinity the results of her search on Neo.
Trinity looked to her right and saw Neo's prone figure jacked into the Matrix. "Are you sure you should show me this while he's jacked in?"
"It's OK. He's not watching you. But you should see all of the information I got. But, my understanding is that when Neo was freed, you were assigned to watch him. Shouldn't you have already seen Neo's record?"
"Yes. But, I was only required to know current information about him at the time." She took a deep breath. "So what did you find?" Trinity crossed her arms and braced herself to hear the worst, if it came.
"Nothing much. He was pretty much an ordinary boring guy." Genesis noticed the unamused look Trinity gave her as soon as she said "boring". "Oh. Sorry. Did you know that Neo fell off of his bike when he was five years old?"
Trinity smiled. "No." She shook her head.
"But I'm sure you want to get to the good stuff." Genesis rubbed her hands together.
"What good stuff?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Old girlfirends! He's had like 20 before you, and..." Genesis cut herself off to save herself from embarrasment.
"Genesis! Stop! I just want to see his...his...his medical records. Is there anything there on mental illness?"
Genesis had prepared herself to hear the worst, or the most shocking. "Uh nope. But back to the girlfriend thing! They weren't really girlfriends. I would call them one night stands."
Neo saw the virus on the disk doing just what Xyla said it would. His mouth was slightly agape in disbelief. He had doubted Xyla. But now, she was so amazing to him. "I...I believe you." He simply said. He couldn't believe the disk was a fraud. Not just a fraud, but a threat as well.
"I know you do." She closed the laptop. It disappeared. She turned to face him. "And now, something else." She put her hands on his face. "I think you should learn how to do this for the good of your benefit."
"What are you-"
"Shhhhhhhh. Concentrate. I know you could do this. Read my thoughts Neo. Read them."
"How?" He asked softly.
"Concentrate. Close your eyes." Can you hear me?
Nope. Neo opened his eyes. "Did I just......?"
"I can't believe it. That was fast! How did you do it?"
"The question is, how did you do it?"
"You did it yourself. I can't believe it! That was quicker than I would have ever expected. You must be this "One" I've heard of. Well, I've known for a while, but this means...this means...your powers indeed do surpass mine."
"Shut up Genesis." Trinity compiled her thoughts for a second. "No mental illness?" Trinity sighed in relief. "So what is wrong with him?" Trinity realized a little too late that her thought had been said out loud.
"I have a theory."
"What?"
"I've been noticing a small change in Neo during the past couple of weeks. My best diagnosis would be aggression. Not severe aggression, but small little episodes of aggression, which would explain how he gets pissed off out of nowhere. Now tell me, would he ever get angry right after he was freed?"
"No. Never."
"But he has, after he's discovered he is the "One," hasn't he?"
"Yes." Trinity thought about it for a second to assure her answer. "Yes!"
"My theory, is that somehow Neo can't accept the fact that he is well..."
"What?" Trinity demanded.
"His behavior suggests that he can't accept the fact that here on the outside, he is just another guy."
"What can we do about that?"
"Nothing. Just hope it passes soon, I guess. But my guess, is that it's a side affect of becoming the "One"."
"Of course they do." Replied Neo with a smile.
"That doesn't mean I can't kick your ass!" Joked Xyla.
Neo stood. "Wanna bet?"
Xyla smiled and also stood. "Yes. Remember that I use my powers differently than how you use yours. I use them in a more cunning way." Another smile.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes." She kicked Neo in the chest.
Neo didn't expect Xyla to attack so suddenly. He fell backwards onto the ground. "So you wanna play rough, don't you?" Neo rolled to his left.
Xyla only responded by kicking the space in front of her. She missed, Neo was quick. She soon felt a kick to her back. She landed on her face, but quickly jumped back up. Neo began to throw blows at her, but Xyla blocked every single one of them. She noticed an opportunity and tried a side kick, but Neo caught her leg. "Look. One hand." Said Neo as he placed one of his hands behind his back.
"Show off." Mumbled Xyla. She retaliated with a punch to his chin. She was free of his grasp and did a back flip to further her distance from him.
"Look who's talking." Neo ran toward her and pulled her down to the ground. "I win."
"You cheated. Could you please get off of me?"
Neo noticed their akward position. "Uh...sorry." Neo stood and brushed himself off, Xyla did the same. "Not bad."
"I still think you cheated."
Neo gave a slight chuckle. "This was your first time wasn't it?"
"What?"
"You've never lost have you?"
"That's beside the point. Now, what was the wager?"
"Side affect? What do you mean?" Trinity was confused.
"I think it's only temporary."
"Why do you think that?"
"Well, everything has a side affect to it. Medication for example, they have side affects. Or better yet, drugs have side affects."
Despite the fact that Genesis was nosy, she was good at her job. She had been transferred from the Druid after the disaster aboard the Neb. For years she'd been working her way from Zion, where she was from. She'd been taught well at the academy in Zion.
"I see." Was all Trinity managed to say.
"Now, how about the girlfriend thing?" Genesis raised her eyebrows. "But, don't worry. They weren't girlfriends. I would call them one night stands."
Trinity gave her best "cover up" smile. But she couldn't hide her complete disappointment. "I would call them one night stands too."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Don't pay atention to me. Thankyou Genesis."
"No problem. Whenever you need to dig up dirt on anyone you call-"
"Me actually!" It was Logic! Both women turned around in surprise.
"Oh no." He'll ruin everything. Thought Genesis.
"You were going to take all of the credit, Gen?"
"What is he talking about?" Asked Trinity.
"I got Neo's file. Dr. Oopsy here, couldn't get it right. Someone should really teach her how to use this machine properly." Genesis stood and walked toward him.
"You asshole!." She disappeared into the deck below.
"Am I missing something here?" Trinity was confused. Again.
"You're not mad at her are you?"
"No. I told her to get your help. I know she can't use this thing."
"Well at least someone does." Logic walked up to the console and took the seat formerly occupied by Genesis. "Pardon me. This is my shift."
"Could you watch Neo for me?"
"Yeah. Sure."
" I just want to know what he does." She walked away.
"How about we just sit down and you tell me a little about yourself."
"What's the catch?"
No catch. I just thought it might be interesting to get to know you.
Really? Xyla waited to see if Neo would respond.
Yeah! Where did that couch go?
Xyla's eyes widened.
You didn't think I'd want to forget how to perform an ability like that did you?
No. But, you are a remarkably fast learner. Have a seat. She pointed to the couch that had appeared once again. Xyla took a seat herself and lit herself another cigarette. What would you like to know about me?
Neo joined her on the couch. How were you created?
Xyla hesistated a bit and nearly choked on her cigarette. I ...I don't know. I can't remember. Why are you asking me this?
It would be nice to know. Why can't you remember?
Please Neo. Can you remember when you were born?
No. But I can remember what it was like to be freed.
What's it like?
I think you might find out.
Impossible. I have no body. Just as the other agents don't.
Interesting.
"What's he doing?"
Trinity nearly scared Logic out of his seat. "Ahhh! Shit!" He took a deep breath. "It's you."
"Sorry. I uh...I should've let you know I was here."
"Yeah. Tell me about it." He let another breath out. "Oh uh. Neo appears to be just sitting somewhere, speaking to some woman."
"Some woman?" This was definitely something new.
"Hey! I said talking. That's all." He turned back to the screen. "Shouldn't you be doing something Trinity? Why do you keep spying on Neo?"
"I'm not spying." It was true though. She was spying. "You were brought on this ship to take orders Logic. As a superior officer, I will not take such insubordinations from you. That's all." She walked away briskly.
"Touchy."
Why is that interesting? She crossed her legs. This was unknowingly seductive.
Neo swallowed hard. (He's a guy.) No reason.
Bullshit. What do you mean?
What if you were human Xyla? What would you do then?
end of part 3