Written for the Looking Glass Fanfiction Challenge: Revolutions. What will we call the next one? We're all out of movies. I apologize in advance for any typos, it's not edited.

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Unexpected

By ZionAngel

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Of all the things Morpheus had felt before his many visits to the Oracle, confusion was never one of them. But now, as he waited for the slow elevator to carry him to her floor, his mind was flooded more with questions than apprehension, excitement, fear, or any of the other things he might have expected to feel. He kept going over his last visit with her again and again, searching for something he had missed, some misunderstanding or misinterpretation - anything that would explain what was going on.

He was excited when she called him in - it was such a rare occurrence, and she always seemed to turn him down when he was the one to ask for a meeting. His nerves had started getting to him about the time that he arrived at the building, not knowing whether she would give him good news or bad. She was sporting that Oracle Smile when he came into her kitchen, that all-knowing, secretive smile that always came with big news.

"Hello, Morpheus. It's good to see you again." She gestured to the seat across the table, the chair pulled out and waiting.

"You as well," he smiled back. "It's been too long."

"Just long enough."

He laughed . Just like the Oracle - always a lesson to be learned. "Of course."

"You've been waiting in my living room quite a bit lately, I thought we should sit down and talk. You've been very eager to free minds of late, haven't you?"

It bothered him during his first visit that she would ask questions she so plainly knew the answer to, but he had come to find it comforting over their few visits since. "Yes."

"Need all the soldiers you can get, huh?"

"Certainly... but freeing a mind is important just for the sake of freeing them from a lie."

"It is indeed. That's why I asked you to come, in fact. I'd like you to unplug someone in particular. Her name is Angela Laroche, she lives in Hartford."

What? "You're recommending a potential?"

"I wouldn't exactly say 'recommending,'" she murmured.

"Why this girl?" This wasn't the sort of thing the Oracle normally did - she was usually completely uninvolved with potentials until they were already free and ready to hear their destinies. Why would she step in like this? And why couldn't she simply let the Resistance find this girl on it's own?

The ominous smile returned. "She's special. Very special."

Very special could mean only one thing, that this girl was the One and the Oracle had decided to give him a helping hand - although if that was the case, it was disheartening to think of the role the deaths of the last two must have played in her decision to help.

The Oracle glanced at the clock above the sunny window. "She'll be getting home from school soon. You shouldn't waste a minute with this one."

Morpheus failed to hide a smile. He prayed that he had just been led to the One, and wished he could ask the Oracle outright, but if she would not confirm the suspicions she knew he had, she would not tell him if asked. So he contented himself with a smile, and spoke a reverent "Thank you, Oracle," before standing.

"She's special, Morpheus," she called as he passed beneath the beaded curtain above the doorway. "Remember that."

He had rushed a nod, and left.

But now, as he returned less than a week later, all of the conviction and hope he had felt that afternoon had vanished. And still he could not find any place where he had gone wrong. He had been watching the right girl, he was sure of that, so he could only be left to wonder if the Oracle was wrong, or worse, leading him on some wild goose chase to teach him one of her many lessons.

He had gone straight back to Reality that day, and observed her as instructed. He did not find a computer genius, no savant with powers over the Matrix that she was not aware of, no child with the heart of a warrior, hell-bent on saving the world, nothing. He had only found an answer to his question as to why the Resistance would not have found this girl without the Oracle's help - they would never take a second glance at this girl. She could barely turn on a computer, she was clumsy, painfully shy, and there was hardly a shred of strength within her, the most key component of any Resistence soldier. Worst of all, he wasn't even certain that this girl could sense the Matrix at all. To unplug her would be to waste their resources and luck on a worthless proposition. There was absolutely nothing special about this girl, and it baffled him. She would never be a soldier, and certainly never the One.

A priestess welcomed him when he reached the apartment. "Hello, Morpheus. She's just finishing up with one of the children, she'll see you in a minute."

He waited in the living room, examining the handful of young faces surrounding him. These were the kind of children they freed - hopeful, brave, and filled with potential. So why had she sent him to this girl?

Soon, a young, joyful boy emerged from the kitchen hallway with a cookie, and Morpheus headed to the kitchen without a further invitation.

"Hello again, Morpheus," she greeted from the sink, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "As always, just long enough."

Her amiable greeting only frustrated him more, and he struggled to keep his emotions in line - a bit useless, given that she already knew what they were. "Oracle... please. What is going on here? Is this some sort of test? Are you trying to prove a point?"

"No point. And I'm not in the business of testing people, you know that. I just help them find the right path."

"How can freeing this girl possibly be the right path? How can she possibly help our cause?"

The Oracle returned to her usual chair and sat, eyeing him as if he were a child she had caught doing something naughty. "I thought freeing her from a lie was reason enough to unplug her."

He stuttered out an awkward noise before stopping an impulsive response. He was ashamed to have been caught in hypocrisy, but it made his words no less true. "She'll never be a soldier, Oracle, she'll never be more than an ordinary citizen if she were in Zion -"

"There are those who believe this war will never end," she said sharply. "That the human race will never be free. I know you don't believe that. Why is it all right for you to speak in absolutes as if you know the future, but not them?"

Morpheus sighed and hung his head. She was right about that, but that was not the point. What she was doing made no sense. "What is the point of this, Oracle? What do you want from me?"

"The point it," she said quietly, forcefully, "she is special. I want you to trust that and unplug her."

He sighed again, staring out the window to the horizon. After a moment of silence, one last failed attempt at comprehension, he turned back to her. "I take it you aren't telling me everything you know about this girl, as usual."

"As usual, I have told you everything you need to know. She is more special than you can know, and you can choose to believe that or not."

They both fell quiet, and he stared at her for a long time. He did not understand why she wanted him to do this, did not see what the Oracle saw that made this girl so special. He tried to recall the time he had spent watching her with a more open mind, but he could only see the same things. This girl was weak. She didn't seem capable of standing up for herself, let alone a cause most ultimately died for. He could see no motivation to do anything great with her life, only to do what was required of her. It was almost as though he could see no real life in her, no spirit.

"How old were you, Morpheus, when you were unplugged? When you first began to realize that you were living within a lie?"

"I always knew." Why was she asking him this?

"Then you of all people should know - what you see on the surface is rarely the truth."

She had never let him down or mislead him before. She certainly never told anyone the whole story. And he had always trusted her. As skeptical as he was, that counted for something. Maybe, he decided, he could trust her one more time. He left without saying anything more.

---

Morpheus stood patiently, watching three young girls levitate coins between them, taking turns moving them around in intricate patterns and circles.

The boy he had brought here, another young potential they had picked up several months back, soon came out of the kitchen - the Oracle following close behind. A surprise, certainly, but he knew what she wanted to talk about.

"Hello, Oracle," he said politely.

"Morpheus. It's good to see you."

He would have returned the greeting, but she would have know it to be a lie.

"You've started to see it, haven't you?"

Again, he didn't answer, but he thought of everything that had happened in the last month. They had made contact with her, and he had offered her the choice of pills - though he had to admit, he hadn't given his speech the usual glory and conviction he used with other potentials. It stunned him all the more when she chose red. When she took the pill from his hand and swallowed it, he sat there for several seconds, practically gawking at her until it made her visibly nervous, and he snapped out of it. Even after the Oracle's insistence, he hadn't imagined she had it in her to choose the red pill, nor that she even sensed the Matrix enough to want to choose red.

Once they had her safely in the real world, and all healed up, they told her the truth about the life she had lived up until that point. She had asked no questions, made no astonished comments, she had not suffered a mental breakdown. She simply jacked out and went off to her room without a word. She stayed there for a few days, only coming out to use the bathroom or get the food they left outside of her door. When she finally came out, they told her about Zion, that she would be going there and that she would have the option of going to their equivalent of high school or attending the military academy, to train to become a soldier and fight against the machines. She still had not decided, but it seemed that every day brought a new question, either about life in Zion, or life as a soldier, and she stood eagerly by the Operator's chair, watching him and the rest of the crew whenever they went into the Matrix. She had certainly surprised him, but Morpheus still could not see what made her so special.

That grandmother's smile was back when he looked to her again. "You'll see it soon enough. Nevertheless, I have my own part to play in her life. I'd like you to bring her in to see me. She and I have a lot to talk about."

How was this possible? The Oracle could only be convinced of this girl if she truly was special. But how could it be that she was so incredibly special, and not another soul on earth could see it? "Our crew will be very busy for some time, Oracle. This visit was the last opportunity we could spare for several weeks, at least."

She patted him gently on the arm. "Bring her in when you can, Morpheus. I'll make the time to see her."

---

This damned elevator had never been so slow in the entire time he had known freedom. He paced back and forth in the tiny, graffiti-ridden cage, willing it to rise faster. It was the dead of night, here and in the Real World, but the Nebuchadnezzar was just coming out of Zion for another tour of duty, and his questions could not wait.

He had gone to the academy while he was in Zion. Mostly, he just wanted to see how the many trainees were progressing, but also, he wanted to check up on the girl. They left her in Zion during their last return, almost four months earlier. When he arrived, he found her in a combat training class. She was lying in one of the twenty-five or so chairs in the Academy Core, but he was shocked to see what she was doing in the Construct. Where he expected to see a girl at the bottom of her class, easily beat by younger and less experienced students, he found a phenomenal fighter for someone whose training began only months before. There was a grace and advanced technique to her fighting that was usually only found in those with three or four years of experience in the Matrix.

Morpheus stayed and watched her until the lesson was over, and followed her from a distance as she made her way to the dining hall. The timid, hopeless girl he had pulled from the sewers months before was gone. She carried herself with more poise and confidence when she walked, held her head up high, even smiled at a few people as she passed. When she had her food, she sat at a table with a few other students who seemed to know her well. Thoroughly shocked by all of this, he sought out Omega, who oversaw the progress and potential of every student at the academy, and asked him what had brought on this drastic change in Angela. Well, for starters, Omega said, her name was Trinity now, though she had never told anyone her reason for choosing that name.

She came to the Academy, he said, much as Morpheus remembered her - shy, quiet and reserved. Like Morpheus, he didn't understand her desire to join the Resistance. Yet she was unexpectedly eager to begin her training, and highly motivated to do well. Still, she was only average when she began her training, and was on the low end of average for about two months. She rarely volunteered for demonstrations, or willingly answered questions, and hadn't made any real friends. And then one morning, out of the blue, she came to class, and all that began to change. She was visibly more confident, her fighting skills were improving by leaps and bounds, and she quickly gained a few close friends. It was not until the stories began reaching the professors that he understood why.

It seemed that one night - the night before he began to see the changes - she went out for some fun with several other cadets. Somehow, one of the others - a boy named Ghost, if he remembered correctly - ended up making some drunk soldier angry, and was about to suffer the consequences. The young, unimposing Trinity, the rumors held, was the only one to stand up and defend Ghost. They said she took a good punch or two, but even with her limited fighting skills, managed to knock the man down long enough for them to get away. The whole academy was buzzing about it.

"She must just be one of those people," Omega laughed as he told Morpheus the story. "They seem like a nobody when you look at them, but they've really got a lot of strength in them. I think she might be one of the special ones, you know? Somebody born to make a difference in this whole mess, even if they didn't always know it. I think that night was when she realized it, figured out her destiny. I tell you, Morpheus, that girl will make a damn fine soldier someday."

He watched her extensively for most of the rest of his leave in Zion. He could finally see it, that "specialness" the Oracle had been rambling on and on about, and it grew every day. He felt ashamed for having missed all of this potential, for having doubted her at all. Since he first began watching her, he had never expected to see anything in her at all, but on the off-chance that there ever was a glimmer of something, he never imagined it would be nearly this much. Now, he was again seeing something he had long ago stopped expecting from this girl.

Finally, the elevator doors parted to let him off at her floor, and he raced to her apartment. He let himself in, finding the place completely dark, save for a narrow sliver of light coming from the kitchen. He entered, finding the Oracle in her usual place at the table.

"You certainly know how to keep an old woman on her toes, don't you?"

"I apologize for coming without notice, Oracle, but I had to speak with you."

"I can see that," she said kindly, eyeing his hands. "Stop fidgeting, Morpheus, and take a seat."

He barely managed to calm down and obey. He took several deep breaths, but it didn't help much. "Is... is this why she is special? Is this what you meant?"

"In some ways, yes. But not entirely."

He sighed. "Why didn't you just tell me that she had this kind of strength in her? Why couldn't you just tell me what she would become when she was freed?"

"You know why, Morpheus." Her answer for everything, and as much as he hated it, it was usually true. "You would never have believed me after seeing her for yourself. Once she was freed and knew the truth, you would have pushed her too hard and too fast into training. She needed to travel her path and grow at her own pace."

Yes, it was true this time, he thought as he hung his head. She was right. But no matter, that wasn't why he was here. He said nothing for a few moments, working up the courage to ask the question he was here for. There was so much at stake with that one little question. The Oracle must have known what he was thinking already, but had the courtesy and kindness not to give him an answer until he was ready to hear it. Finally, he managed to lift his head, and say it. "Is she the One?"

She said nothing for a long moment before quietly replying, "I'm sorry, Morpheus. It's not her."

He was more numb than anything else, when she said it. It didn't really register at anything deeper than an intellectual level, but he knew that would come soon enough. But it didn't make sense. How could someone - someone he had unplugged - with that much potential, and strength, whose abilities were growing by the minute, not be the One.

Then again, he reminded himself, he had already made that same mistake on those same assumptions twice before.

"She's not the One," the Oracle repeated. "However, her path and the path of the One will become inextricably linked. Even after what you've seen of her now, she is still far more important than you can possibly imagine."

"How?" he begged, desperate for some sort of validation, something to hold on to. "What will she do?"

That secretive, wise Oracle smile spread across her face. "That is for her to know. And, I'm sorry to tell you, she will not tell you that secret until she has already completed her part."

Well, that was resoundingly unhelpful. He needed direction, the guidance she was supposed to give. He needed to know where to go from here, now that he was brutally disappointed for a third time.

"What you're going to do, Morpheus, is continue to follow your path to your destiny." Easier said than done. "And don't worry about Trinity. She'll face more than her fair share of trials and tribulations, but she is who she needs to be. And she has more strength and faith than you realize even now."

That wasn't much help either. He still felt hopelessly lost, didn't know what to think or do, as it had been the last two times. He still could not fathom how he had managed to make it through those disappointments, and he could not fathom how he would get through this one.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Morpheus. But what I told you, your path, has not changed. You will find the One. Eventually."

He said nothing, and stood without looking at her. The only thought he could clearly and fully get his head around was the notion that, if this girl's destiny was so closely tied with the One, he would still need to make her part of his crew. And if nothing else, she really would make a fine soldier. "Thank you, Oracle."

---

It was true, what the scout teams had said - he could feel it, the shift in the Matrix that had come after Neo did... whatever it was he had done to end the war. But Morpheus still had to wonder if what he felt wasn't nostalgia, the pain of loss at entering the Matrix without his two best at his side, never to have them at his side again. It had only been a few months, but he was still no closer to coming to terms with it than he was when their bodies were brought back to Zion.

He had not intended to speak with the Oracle now, but an aimless walk to revel in the feeling of complete security and safety had led him, once again, to her building.

He didn't recognize her for a moment, had almost forgotten about her new shell, having only seen it once before. Just one more change he had to learn to live with. She smiled as he sat down in the armchair across from her, but he couldn't bring himself to smile back.

"You know," she commented, leaning back into the couch, "it never ceases to amaze me. So much has changed over the years, and still, every time we meet, it's' always been just long enough."

He was trying to give a show of optimism, of strength, but failed miserably with all the memories that were being stirred up, just by being in this room. "Some things never change," he murmured.

"And some things do," the Oracle smiled.

It didn't do him very much good, but he appreciated that she was trying to make him feel better about everything, remind him that this was the way of the world, and always had been. "Did you see this coming?"

She sighed, and became more serious. "I never knew how this war would end until it did. But, as far as Neo goes, every path lead to his death. He was either going to die fighting or lay down his life for peace. And Trinity, well... you know as well as I, Neo could never let go of this life as long as she was still in it."

"Is that what you meant? That she was special because she would love him?"

"She was special because of everything. Because she loved him, because she saved him countless times, because she was always at his side, because she protected him, because she was such a strong woman in her own right. She was half of the One, half of the reason we finally know peace. Neo never would have been able to end the war without her. He wouldn't even be the One at all without her."

That truth was very apparent to him now, but he had never thought of it in those terms. Morpheus had known Trinity for almost fifteen years. He knew her about as well as anyone. In all those years, he had seen her strength, her love, faith, determination, devotion, and sacrifice. It was hard to imagine thinking now what he had thought when he freed her from the Matrix. Hard to think that all that had been beneath the surface and he just couldn't see it. Even after he stopped doubting her, he never really the full extent of her spirit, never understood how everything about her came together to form her destiny, until now. He had underestimated her so much in the beginning, and even after he saw beneath that quiet girl, she kept on surprising him for fifteen years. He always thought he had seen it all, always thought he knew the extent of her strength or her faith, but still she kept surprising him over and over again with something new and unexpected. She was always proving herself to be greater than he thought the day before. All those years of working to comprehend what the Oracle meant with those first words, She is special, and it was only now that he truly knew. And even with all of this, every sacrifice she made for peace, she almost never asked for anything in return. And the things she did get, the few people in her life who truly knew and loved her, she was humbly grateful for.

"Was she happy?"

"Very much so."

Morpheus stared out the little kitchen window. The sun was slowly rising over the rooftops on the horizon, leaving vivid streaks of color in the sky he could never remember seeing in a sunrise. "I'm glad."