CHAPRTER 2

The wind blew hard at her face causing a slight, barely noticeable, stinging sensation on her cheeks. She knew, as an agent, she shouldn't be feeling anything at all. Her programmers had told her that being able to feel, if only slightly, was like having a fatal, progressive disease. It was like a cancer, a virus eating at her code, destroying her system. It slowly invaded her until she could no longer function properly. Ellipsys however believed otherwise. Processing as well as the ability to mimic human emotions was in her programming. As far as she was concerned she was only growing stronger through her development. Lower models would naturally mistake her advanced technology as a flaw and programmers would doubt the success of her prototype. All she had to do was prove herself a valuable asset to the Matrix to avoid being under consideration for deletion. Every machine knew their time for deletion would come but Ellipsys was sure it wasn't because of a flaw in her system. Either way, Ellipsys felt indifferent towards dying. Her system had not yet failed her or been proven to be outdated.

Ellypsis rounded the corner of the block and continued down the street until she came upon an old rundown apartment building. Like most living spaces in the city the place looked like it should be condemned. Ignoring the homeless man slumped down on the floor in the corner of the dirty lobby, Ellipsys entered the cramped elevator and pushed the button labeled the fourth floor. The florescent light in the small compartment flickered as she patiently waited for the elevator to come to a stop. An irregular ding sounded and the doors slowly slid open with a squeak. Walking down the narrow hall Ellipsys ran a hand from the front of her widows' peak through her long hair. Stopping in front of one of the doors in the hallway she knocked three times. The door opened and a little Indian girl greeted her with a smile,

"Come in. She was expecting you to come now."

The little girl walked further into the apartment allowing Ellipsys to enter. She was slightly taken aback that the girl was so friendly, surely the Oracle told her she was an agent. Even then the little girl should have seen her earpiece and detected her. Ellipsys closed the door lightly behind her and followed the girl into the kitchen where the Oracle sat at a round pea-soup green table with a bowl of cookie dough in front of her.

"Well, sit down. There's no use for you standing there in my doorway," the Oracle said good-humouredly as she motioned to a seat across from her.

"I'm fine standing," Ellipsys replied.

The Oracle smiled slightly, "I know, just thought it polite to ask."

"Then you know why I'm here," Ellipsys approached the kitchen counter, spacing herself away from the old woman.

"Yes I know. Never mind that for now, let me look at your face dear." The Oracle put down her cookie dough and walked over to where Ellipsys was standing. The old woman reached out to take her sunglasses off. Surprisingly Ellipsys allowed it.

"There we go, beautiful," The Oracle said with a sincere smile. "I don't see why a pretty girl such as you wants to hide behind such horrible dark sunglasses. In fact, I don't get why any of you agents do. It's all rather silly if you ask me. Besides, what use could they possibly do anyway?"

"I didn't come here to talk about my uniform Oracle," she nearly snapped.

"I know, I know just hold on to your hair gel for a minute."

This made Ellipsys move to reach up and touch her long, slicked back hair self consciously. Noticing this act of insecurity she quickly ceased her actions. The Oracle placed the agent's sunglasses on the counter and went back to her cookies, a slight smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Ellipsys frowned slightly, resisting the urge to retrieve her glasses. The old woman clasped her hands in front of her and pensively watched the stoic agent,

"You're a bit different from all the rest of them. I can see why he thinks you have potential."

Ellipsys casually trained her eyes on the Oracle, "Smith?"

There was a glimmer of amusement in the old woman's eye as she said,

"You'll have to figure that out for yourself child. What I have to tell you is this; deletion isn't exactly far away and you're gonna' have to make a choice."

Ellipsys felt a stab of shock out the mention of deletion. Her eyes snapped up to meet the old woman's. The Oracle nodded sadly,

"Hard to believe, I know. I'm sorry child, the world just runs a lot faster than it used to. As I said before, you're going to have to make a choice."

"Impossible, my system has displayed no flaws or inadequacies to date. If anything I have advanced my programming beyond the limits of any registered agent," she argued.

The Oracle frowned, "It's all a matter of perception I'm afraid. I'm not the mainframe; I cannot tell you why they believe your time has come. The only thing I can assure you on is that your time will come and when it does you need to make a…"

"… a choice, yes you mentioned it before. My choice is between deletion and exile. Tell me something I don't already know."

"Ah, you're just as impatient as him I see." The Oracle shook her head and smiled, "Too bad you two don't see eye to eye. Sure would make things a lot easier for you in the future, but I suppose it isn't in your nature."

Ellipsys was quickly growing tired of these cryptic comments,

"We might as well talk about why I'm here. Now that Smith's free, he has new abilities that are possibly stronger than anything we've ever seen. Furthermore, he made it clear to me that now he has a new agenda. I need to know what it is that he's planning. With him now on the loose the Matrix could be in jeopardy."

The Oracle's smile vanished as she folded her arms up on the table, "I thought you'd never get to the point my dear. Here have a cookie," the old woman held out a large cookie towards Ellipsys who just held up her hand in staunch refusal. The Oracle smiled, "Again, I just thought I'd offer. Smith, believe it or not, has gone rouge, he works only for himself now. The only thing he's interested in is chaos. He won't stop until both the Matrix and Zion are destroyed."

Ellipsys let this data sink in. Finally after a moment of processing she looked at the Oracle,

"I see," she replied evenly. "What can the agency do to stop him from destroying our world?"

The old woman shrugged her shoulders absent mindedly, "There's not much you can do. Once a being gets a taste of freedom in them you can't take it away, it's in them forever. And a man like Smith doesn't know when to quit. In this case, for him, the destruction of all of us is the only real end. He's got an eye to kill you now. You're the only agent program in the Matrix that knows the extent of the damage he wants to cause. The only thing you can do is try to stop him before he stops you."

"You mean kill Smith." Ellipsys said rather pointedly.

The Oracle stood up from the table, "That's up to you. Of course you've already made up your mind on the subject. Don't brood too much on the decision either, just remember it's in your nature."

Ellipsys smirked, "Killing is one of the functions that I was programmed for."

The Oracle nodded, "We'll have to wait and see then. Be aware that you do not have long before deletion, and everyday leading up to that point you'll become gradually more rebellious. Being conflicted by emotions is perhaps the hardest thing you're going to have to work through to complete your mission. Here take this cookie for the road. I know you won't eat it but it would make me happy if you took it." Ellipsys took the cookie. "Keep in mind that following your instincts is as good as you're going to get to doing the right thing."

Ellipsys looked at the old woman skeptically then replied, "Thank you for your time."

The Oracle nodded and Ellipsys walked out of the kitchen. As the agent reached the front door the little Indian girl from before ran up to her and tapped her on the arm. Ellipsys turned around to see the girl holding out her sunglasses to her,

"You forgot these." She said sweetly.

There was an Asian man dressed in all white standing behind the girl with his hand on her shoulder. He looked like a guardian angel. A small grin tugged at the corner of Ellipsys's mouth as she took the glasses from the child.

"Thank you," she said. Ellypsis could feel a strong aura of power around the little girl. Strange, she thought to herself. She was going to ask the little girl's name but then thought otherwise. Looking to the Asian man she asked,

"Is this your daughter?"

"She is my charge." He replied kindly with a hint of a smile.

Ellipsys nodded, "I see. Take good care of her then. She is gifted."

The man politely grinned and nodded. With that Ellipsys left the apartment.

AN: So what do you think? Please let me know. : )