See You Soon
"I saved the world, you know."
A woman looks up at the man.
"Excuse me?" She asks.
"I saved the world."
The man smiles a sincere smile at the woman, he isn't joking. He bends down closer to her, and she takes a step back, a baffled look on her face. If not for the fact that they were in an elevator together she would be running by now. She now is backed against the wall, and the man still smiles at her.
"Yup, saved it. All of it."
The man laughs to him, backing away from the woman. He then begins to go back and forth on his toes, seemingly humming a song within his head. The woman stares at him strangely, wondering how this man was able to escape his asylum. She quickly pressed the open button on the elevator and ran out.
"Bye!" She quickly said.
The man smiled at her and waves.
"Bye! See you soon!"
He laughs to himself, pressing the close button, up one more floor.
Ding goes the elevator.
And the man steps out onto his floor, where he's greeted by some man in a rush, pushing him aside.
The man shakes his fist at the other.
"Hey! I saved the world you know!"
But the other man does not hear, and those that do, do not believe it.
"You're late."
The man turns, and jumps from shock.
"Hey! Don't do that, gives me the creeps!"
The other man smiles slyly.
"Oh! You did that on purpose!" The man points.
"Ah, purpose. But there is a purpose in my purpose to do so."
People begin to notice the couple of men, screaming as they keep doing. The one doing more of the screaming is smiling now. He is tall, and pale, a bit of scruffy black hair, brown eyes. He wears a short of black suit, but is wrinkled and not kept, a more lean back look really. The other is more formal. He is wearing a suit, the jacket ending at his knees. His hair is combed, blue eyes, and he seems all around more submissive.
"And that does not change the fact. You are late." The formal man says.
The other, sloppy man rolls his eyes.
"Come on, I had a hard night. Besides. The train is late, right? I knew the train would be late. I sensed it."
"Sure you did."
The formal man lowers his head, revealing he has a cup of coffee in his hand, as he sips it.
"I love Starbucks." The formal man says. "You did bring it, didn't you?"
"Hm? Oh yeah! Got it right here!"
The sloppy man holds up a briefcase and taps it.
"Good, let's go." The formal man turns his back.
"Make way crowd! I saved the world!"
"You really should stop that."
And then they enter the crowd of this subway, where people await the red line train to finally come after its slight delay.
"Smith, wait up!" Yells the sloppy man.
"Don't say my name!" Smith looks back at him.
And finally Smith stops, allowing his friend to catch up.
"Why not?" Asks the sloppy man.
"Do you want them to hear? Do want Agents to come after us?"
And the man that we all know by now as Neo, grins, and cracks his neck.
"Well we haven't had a good fight in a while." Laughs Neo.
Smith gives a grin, and shakes his head. He turns back and begins walking again towards the subway trains.
"You realize, no one believes you." Smith calls back at Neo.
"Someday they will!" He smiles. "Someday everyone will know!"
Neo smiles at all the people that are staring at him, and starts humming to himself. He has a certain stride one can only do when one has saved the world. A stride in which he is proud and happy. After all this time, after all the war.
After all this god damn shit.
It's over.
"You seem extra happy this morning." Smith says.
Neo catches up to Smith, and puts his arm over the program's shoulder.
"Well my Yin to my Yang, my Negative to my Positive, I had a nice dream last night." Neo says calmly.
"Dream or vision?" Asks Smith.
Neo bites his lower lip, and bobs his head for a moment to stare up towards the sky.
"I don't know. It was…too real to be dream, but too good to be a vision…" Neo finally said.
"To good? What was it?" Smith sips his coffee.
"I saw…" There's a dreamy look in those brown eyes. "I saw Trinity."
Smith smiles.
"You are love sick, Mr. Anderson." Smith says.
"Yeah, I know."
"Well, I'm sure we'll find soon. Time is running out after all." Smith says.
Neo smiles.
"Thanks. You know, you should try dating!" Neo laughs. "Speed dating!"
Smith coughs up some coffee, and stops for a moment allowing the crowd to pass them by.
"Yeah!" Coughs Smith. "My name is Smith I have no first name!" He pushes Neo. "I enjoy rainy days, and my turn offs are humans, my turn on is myself, oh and I tried to take over the world!"
Neo laughs, as he holds his briefcase tightly, he places his hand over Smith's shoulder.
"See? What woman wouldn't find that attractive?" Neo says.
"You are a love sick puppy." Smith says, as he lowers his head, and walks off.
Neo stays back, still laughing, as all the people stare.
"Come along, Mr. Anderson!" Smith calls back.
llllllllllll
"Stupid subway!" A boy screamed as he entered it and kicked the door just to spite it. "Don't you know I can't afford to be late! My boss is so going to fire my ass!"
Luckily for the boy no one is there to stare at him, as he intentionally goes into the very back of the subway train. He sighs as he rests on the dirty wall and lowers his head, silently saying a variety of swear words.
"I don't even like the subway…what the hell am I doing here? I should take the bus. The bus has never been late." He says to himself.
The subway rings, the doors are closing. But a sloppy man named Neo throws his briefcase between the closing doors.
"Hah! I told you we weren't going to miss it!" Neo yells at the man behind.
"Yes, good job, now get in!" Smith pushes Neo in.
Neo laughs, as Smith takes a seat and casually reaches for his newspaper in his jacket pocket. The boy meanwhile stares at the two, having to close his mouth a couple of times. He finds himself quite unfortunate to not be alone in this back car this time, but doesn't think much of it. At least until Neo starts talking to him.
"I saved the world, you know." Neo smiles and stands next to him.
"What?" The boy asks.
Neo laughs, and bends down to the young man.
"I saved the world." Neo says again.
The boy stares wide-eyed at Neo as the subway begins to move. The boy then glances quickly at Smith, who now is enjoying the front page of the Times, and gently sips his Starbuck's coffee.
"Yup, saved it." Neo says again. "And you know what?"
The boy started to back away slowly from Neo, but The One merely grabbed his arm and smiled.
"What?" The boy asked cautiously.
"He…" Neo pointed at Smith. "He tried to take it over."
These people are crazy, thought the boy. They're insane that's all. They escaped from the insane asylum and now they're spreading their insanity. All he has to do is stand there in the subway with them until the next stop, no sudden movements, wouldn't want to make the insane people go nuts.
"Isn't that right, Mr. Smith?" Neo laughed
Neo smiled and walked over to Smith, and patted the reading man on his back. Smith for a moment didn't look away from his newspaper, and slowly turned his head to Neo. He was eerily slow in these movements, it gave the young boy strange chills. Finally opening his eyes to Neo, he grinned.
"Yes, that's right." Smith said.
Smith took a ship of his coffee and turned to the boy.
"We had this huge final fight, of course we had fought before then, but this was it. Seriously man, you know those comic book heroes had nothing on us! So he's everywhere, I mean literally, everywhere, it's raining, the love of my life just died, but that's ok cause she's coming back soon, I'm cold, and seriously depressed and pissed." Neo says.
Neo was getting excited, he moved frequently, and gestured with his hands over and over again. Smith in the meantime was reading something about a computer hacker. The boy switches his eyes at Neo and Smith, slowly being backed into the corner of the subway.
"I ruled the world for one night." Smith says.
"One freaking, night." Neo repeats. "And what do you do Smith? In all that time, you ruled the entire world what did you do?"
Smith looks up and thinks for a moment.
"I made it rain." Smith says. "I do love the rain."
Neo laughs.
"Yeah so anyway. This guy is ruling the world, I come in to save all of humanity. I kick his ass…"
"No you didn't…Mr. Anderson. If I recall, I was…quite kicking your ass very, very badly. Remember, Mr. Anderson? You were lying right there, just like that…and I, I stand here right here!" Smith grins. "You were so dead, that you gave up!"
"Yeah…well that was all part of my plan see? I let you beat the shit out of me, just so I could infect you from the inside out."
"Sure it was. And by the way, do you realize how much that hurts?"
Smith grips his coffee tightly, and loses his page on the newspaper. The boy is staring at them as if they were aliens, and biting his lower lip.
"Anyway, anyway, all in the past. So, I die, he dies, and I saved the world, there's peace between man and machines. And then there's a white light, and here we are. He and I, we had to learn to get along see, cause his old pals are trying to kill us." Neo points at Smith again.
"Johnson hates me, and I hate him for your information." Smith speaks up.
To end his involvement Smith puts the newspaper in front of his face, and sips his coffee.
"Anyway, my friend." Neo returns to the boy. "What's you name, kid? Oh wait, don't tell me…Aaron, right?"
The boy's name was in fact Aaron.
"How did…you?" Aaron bend over…
"Well kid, let me tell you a secret. I'm The One, see, that's how I was able to save the world. I'm the Chosen One, and this, kid, this isn't real, none of it is. Here, I can see that it isn't real, here I have powers, and can sense things. And it doesn't matter right now that you don't believe us, or if you think we're crazy, cause Mr. Smith here, he sort of is."
"Excuse me?"
Smith peers out from behind his newspaper.
"Well you are, you know. I'm going to go on a rampage and rule the world just to kill one man, named Neo!" Neo taunts.
"Hmph. Do not question my sanity." Smith says, returning to his newspaper.
"You're all insane!" Aaron yells.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you want to believe kid." Neo says. "But I know you, you're the hacker they're talking about in the newspaper aren't they?"
Aaron's blood runs cold as he stares up at the so called One. Neo still smiles, his hair a mess, and his close wrinkled. Aaron peers up at the man, his mouth dropping open.
"Look. Sometimes I know you have dreams…dreams that feel more real than when you're awake…well that's all too normal now a days. Hey kid, don't worry about it. Some of my old friends are going to free you pretty soon. Everything is going to be fine, you'll see."
"Give him his sunglasses." Smith says from behind his newspaper.
"Oh, right." Neo smiles, and reaches for his briefcase.
Neo opens it so both he and Aaron are able to see it. His briefcase, a briefcase full of sunglasses. Any sunglasses ever imagined. Different shades, different shapes, different frames. Neo waves his hand over them slowly, searching for a particular one.
"Let's see, let's see." Neo looks up at Aaron, then back at the sunglasses.
Finally he picks one out.
"Here you go, kid. Yours." Neo hands him them.
They're beautiful…really beautiful. Sleek and pitch black, highly reflective lenses, oval shape. Beautiful.
"Mine?" Aaron asks.
"They'll be coming in handy pretty soon." Neo says.
The subway is stopping, the end has come. Everything that has a beginning has an end, every end has a new beginning.
"Our stop." Smith says, folding up his paper.
"When you see, Morpheus, kid, tell him Neo says hi." Neo waves goodbye as the subway door opens.
"Morpheus?" Aaron asks.
"He'll find you, don't worry." Neo says. "See ya soon, kid!"
And then the two of them run out of the subway as quickly as they can. Neo laughs and jumps along his way, as if he were trying to fly. Smith follows quickly, mumbling something about getting more coffee. People stare at them strangely, just as Aaron is. Then the doors slide shut, the train starts moving again, Aaron is alone in his subway car.
He stares down at the sunglasses in his hand, then back up towards the door.
Aaron who in the next month will become Cyclone, has just met The One and The Virus.
Neo and Smith died. Their coding became on with the Matrix, then their coding formed back into themselves. The mind of Neo lives on, and so does the program named Smith. Right now they're walking the streets again, Neo's fumbling with a piece of paper with a ten names on them.
"Got a pen?" He looks over at Smith.
Smith hands him one, and Neo checks off Aaron's name.
"Who's next?" Smith asks.
"A girl named…um…Lindsay. Just a few blocks down, she skipped work today."
"Ah."
Neo grips his briefcase filled with sunglasses. This is what they've decided to do now. Take a little break from it all now. They go around and prepare those who will soon be freed. Neo hopes to soon find Trinity this way. It's really the only to do now, with a mind that doesn't have a body, and a program that anyone would give to have dead. The past is the past, hatred is let go. Now it's just them, what they're going to do today. It's really quite a paradise.
They plan on returning soon, going to see the Oracle and contact Zion. But for now, they're fine as they are. And of course the Oracle must already know they've returned, she knows everything.
Neo is humming, and Smith is smiling.
They'll be seeing you soon.
lllllll
Aaron is named after my little seven-year-old neighbor who looks like a young Keanu Reeves. He's sitting right next to me playing my Star Wars video game. Go Aaron!