Part 10: Choice

"Morpheus?" he sputtered, staring at her as if she was insane.

"He's got to find out sometime," she said with a shrug. "I figured that now would be best."

"But he'll kill me—"

"Son, he has to know who you really are if we're to stand any chance against the people who oppose the treaty. I contacted him once you were back in the Matrix...he's been worried about you, you know."

"He's been worried about Neo, not me."

"Is this why you requested that we signal you when we met Smith?" Collins interrupted. The normally imperturbable agent looked almost shocked. "You have compromised our security arrangements."

"What did you tell him?" Smith demanded.

"Only the basics," she replied. "Morpheus sent me a message a few weeks after you arrived in Zion. You were already back on your feet, and the doctors there said you were recovering normally, but he knew that something was different. He asked me if Neo was really OK."

"And what did you say?"

"I told him that Neo was dead," she said flatly. "Oh, he didn't believe me at first, when I told him that Neo had died in the Machine city. He said that didn't make sense, and asked how Neo could be in Zion if he was dead. I said it wasn't actually Neo who was there." She lit a cigarette. "I also told him that the man who'd been sent back to them wanted this treaty to work just as much as Neo had."

Smith didn't bother raising any of his typical objections about her presumptions; he was more focused on getting away before Morpheus arrived. He turned to Collins. "What's the quickest way out of here?"

"Son, Morpheus was worried the Machines had done something to Neo's mind. I couldn't lie to him. I had to tell him that it wasn't Neo's mind in there at all."

"But did you tell him it was me?"

Just then, there was a knock on the outside door.

Seraph glanced at the Oracle; she nodded to him, then he and Sati got up to admit their new guest. Smith could hear well enough to tell that it was indeed Morpheus who was greeting the two AI's in the living room.

"Dammit," Smith grimaced, turning and facing away from the kitchen door as it opened -- a pointless action, he knew, but he wanted to delay this meeting until the last possible moment.

"Morpheus," the Oracle said warmly, getting up and going over to him. "It's good to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too," he replied, stepping into the kitchen and removing his sunglasses. Once they were off, his gaze shifted to the three women in olive-drab suits. His eyes narrowed and grew colder; his past experience with Matrix agents made his distrust even more obvious, whether they were supposed to be on his side or not.

Then he saw Smith, and stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is this?" he gasped.

"This is the One, Morpheus," the Oracle replied.

"That's Smith!"

"This is the man that came back from the Machine city, to help you," she explained patiently.

"That isn't a man," he said, his voice deadly soft. "It's a program. An agent. A virus that almost wiped out both our worlds."

She shook her head. "This isn't the agent you knew, Morpheus. He's something very different now..."

Morpheus wasn't listening. In one quick movement he was across the table, pulling his gun and training it on Smith. Immediately the agents had their firearms out and aimed at Morpheus, who moved to stand behind Smith's chair, using him as a shield.

He shoved the barrel of the weapon into the back of Smith's skull.

"I'll blow his head off, you know I will—" he threatened, tightening his grip around Smith's neck.

"You would not survive," Collins warned. But Smith had seen the look on his face, just before he'd leapt, and he knew Morpheus would willingly sacrifice himself if it meant he could kill the agent who'd interrogated him...

"I knew Neo's code looked different. But it was so familiar." He continued leveling the gun at Smith's head. "I can't believe this monster has been living with us for the past month—"

"Morpheus...you said yourself that it can be hard to let go of the past, and that peace can sometimes be more frightening than war. You know how important it is for this treaty to work, and for all of us to work together. You have to let go of the past," urged the Oracle. Smith could see genuine fear in her eyes; how could she not have foreseen this?

"But this is Smith," Morpheus said -- it was the explanation, the reason, and the defense for all he was doing.

"This isn't the same person who was the agent, and this isn't the same person who was the virus," she asserted. "His code has changed because he's changed."

"Changed?" he repeated skeptically.

"Yes -- it started when he and Neo exchanged code, but it continued past that..."

"Exchanged code? What are you talking about?"

"When Neo and Smith fought, and it looked like Smith had been destroyed...Neo was different after that. Even you noticed it."

"That was because he'd accepted that he was the One."

"Yes, but there was something else. Something happened to both of them during the fight. The two of them merged for a brief instant; and when they separated, they each came out with a piece of the other inside them."

Morpheus shook his head in either disbelief or disgust. "I don't believe you."

"Neo sounded different after that, didn't he...he didn't let his emotions show like he used to. And Smith sounded different, too -- he lost that slow, mechanical speech he'd had and started to sound more like a human being."

Morpheus looked appalled at the Oracle's claims, that Neo had been carrying around agent code in his mind, and that this agent, this virus had part of the One inside him. He glanced briefly, angrily at his captive. "You're shaking, Smith. You're breathing faster and your heart's pounding," he hissed. "Did you learn that from impersonating one of us? Or are you really human now? Will you leave a corpse when you die, like a human being would, or will you shatter into a million pieces like you did before?" Morpheus shook him. "Answer me!"

"I...I don't know," he wheezed, trying to will his body into remembering that it didn't need oxygen in the Matrix. It wasn't working. His heart was still hammering in his chest, and the agents looked like they were losing the battle with their programming that was telling them to shoot. He looked up at the Oracle desperately, and Morpheus shook him again.

"What do you have to say for yourself? Why did you do this to us?"

"I didn't do it..." His head was spinning; Morpheus was going to choke the life out of him and then he would be dead, and Neo's plan would fail, and the humans and Machines would keep fighting until the very end of the world. "It was Neo," he managed to choke out. "Neo did it."

"What?"

"It's true, Morpheus," said the Oracle. "Neo's mission was over; he'd fulfilled his purpose and he was done. He wanted to go. But he knew there was still work to be done." She gazed at him, her eyes almost pleading that he would understand. "Neo wanted this. He wanted to pass this on to Smith -- and it was possible only because the machine had a bit of the man in him, just as the man had a bit of the machine. Neo made a deal with the mainframe to let him do this, and at the same time end the war."

"Neo gave him his blessing," said Seraph quietly, who'd reappeared at the kitchen doorway. "You know I have no love for Smith, but the Oracle speaks the truth. Just as she always has. Neo chose Smith; he is the One."

"And you know what the One is supposed to do now, don't you," said the Oracle. "The One is meant to bring the Machines and the humans together. He does that, every time he takes a breath." She glanced at Smith. "You might want to let him do that again, Morpheus. Take a breath, I mean."

The rebel scowled, but loosened his hold on Smith's neck. The former agent gasped and breathed in deeply, trying to fill his lungs before he lost consciousness.

"It all comes down to choice, doesn't it," she mused. "Neo chose Smith to be the One. Smith chose to accept what Neo gave him, and he chose to carry on with the plan Neo bargained with the mainframe for. Smith chose to trust you, and Link, and the others on your ship. And none of those choices were easy." She gazed at him pointedly. "So, Morpheus...what will your choice be?"

For Smith, there was an agonizing pause while the man with the gun at his head considered his decision. It probably lasted no more than a few seconds, but the former agent would have sworn that time had slowed down while he waited for the answer.

"You control these agents?" growled Morpheus, indicating the three women with their guns trained on him.

"I don't control anyone, they're assigned to me," said Smith. "Collins is in charge of them."

The team leader cocked her head. "You wish to discuss options concerning the outcome of our situation?"

He nodded tersely. "If I let him go," he began, "what will you do to me?"

Collins' eyes narrowed dangerously. "Whatever the One wants me to do to you."

"You won't shoot him, Collins, or hurt him in any other way if he lets me go," Smith answered, hoping her programming included taking direction from the one she was meant to protect...or at least that Morpheus would believe that it did.

Something passed between her and the other two agents. "We accept these terms," she replied, once the silent conference between them had ended.

"Thank goodness for that," said the Oracle. "Now everyone, please put your guns away. We do have a child living here, after all."

With one final glower, all four combatants holstered their weapons. Morpheus released his hold on Smith, who slumped back in his chair in relief. The Oracle regarded the two of them briefly, then pulled out a chair for Morpheus, who sat down warily next to his former captive.

"Now that everything's settled, we can sit down and talk like civilized people," she pronounced. "We can finally get down to business."

"Business?" Morpheus asked, still staring uneasily at Smith.

"We need to discuss the implementation of some of our long-term plans, and I thought that meeting here, on neutral territory, would help us get the ball rolling," she said. "The futility of two intelligent species being constantly at war has been realized. We can no longer exist in such a state. Even the Architect agrees."

Smith looked at her dourly, rubbing his throat. "How is dad, anyway?"

"Adamant that Neo's plan succeed, actually. Oh, he needed some convincing in the beginning, but I finally got him on the right track."

So this was a joint effort, Smith thought to himself. After all these years, the Oracle must have finally talked some sense into the mainframe's avatar.

"The mainframe has agreed that anyone who wants to be freed will be, with no opposition from the Machine world...but not everyone is ready to be unplugged," she continued. "And more importantly, the real world simply cannot support so many people if they were all returned to it at once. Our scientists have determined that the skies must be cleared before life can return to the surface; there would be mass starvation otherwise."

Smith and Morpheus glanced at each other, as if to gauge each others' reaction to the statement. Both knew that the Oracle was right -- most people couldn't take the sudden change, the realization that their world was nothing more than a digital construct, or that the real world was nearly dead.

"An ecosystem with a single species is not a viable one," put in Collins. "Even if the sky is cleared, how could the humans survive long-term on the surface?"

The Oracle smiled at her. "They didn't include any information on the gene bank in your data files, I see."

She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Gene bank?" she asked.

"I've never heard of it either," said Smith. He turned to Morpheus. "Have you?" The other man shook his head.

"Not many people know about it," the Oracle replied. "It was the early Machines' little secret, their plan for rebuilding once they realized what the scorching of the sky would do to species other than their own -- the humans had condemned the world and all its lifeforms to death, through the collapse of the food chain," she sighed. "So they created a gene bank, with genetic samples from species they deemed important to Earth's biosphere. They saved animals, plants, everything that would allow the surface to eventually be re-seeded. They felt they were superior to humans, because they would not allow their world to die...they were better than that, and they would be the world's saviors."

"So all they're waiting for are the skies to clear, and then they'll release life back onto the surface?" asked Smith.

The Oracle nodded. "Then the main problem is clearing the sky," Morpheus said.

"Yes. There are a few recently-unplugged human scientists that their AI counterparts would like to meet with, as well as anyone else the humans have that might be of help restoring the biosphere. They want life and atmospheric science specialists, and they want the One to be there. In an administrative position, of course."

"That sounds reasonable," said Smith.

"Not to everyone," she replied solemnly. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of people -- and not necessarily just programs -- that don't want the status quo to change. They don't want to lose their power, and they want to stop the One and his mission...by any means necessary. They may make direct attempts to interfere, or they may do it by providing distractions within the Matrix -- war, conflict, disaster, that sort of thing. If the people are distracted enough or worried enough, they're betting they probably won't have time to wonder about the nature of reality, and they won't be unplugged."

"There are rumors of rising exile activity in the Matrix, although we are not sure of the identity of those involved," Collins said. "Some of this may be related to what you're describing."

"So that's why you were so jumpy today," said Smith, thinking about the rather extensive precautions she and her team had taken on their way here.

She gave him a condescending look. "Agents are never 'jumpy'."

"All right, so that's why you were in a state of heightened alertness," Smith replied.

"That's better," she pronounced...but the look in her eyes told him she knew he wasn't being entirely serious. There might be hope for her yet.

"Well, it's good that everything's out in the open now," said the Oracle. "At least with everyone here. It wouldn't be a good idea to tell the people of Zion who their 'savior' is, at least not yet."

"I concur," said Morpheus. The agents were also in agreement.

"I'm extremely relieved to hear you all say that," replied Smith mildly. "So, aside from everybody hating me, either because of who I was or who I am now, I should be all right for a little while?"

"Yes...you should take some time to get used to human life. Get out and have some fun with that new central nervous system of yours."

"Can I ask another question?"

"You just did...but please, go ahead."

"Why the blue eyes?" he asked. "Don't they make it rather obvious that something was done to Neo?"

The Oracle smiled at him. "Ah, but it was supposed to be obvious. People on the outside had to know that something had changed," she said. "And it was also to give you something familiar in the real world."

"I was sure they would give me away out there...and in here, it's my appearance and my voice," he complained.

"Yes. But still, there's nothing wrong with your appearance. It's nice to see you in something other than a suit, and you have to admit that you look very nice in the black jeans and t-shirt. Don't you girls think so?" she asked the three agents sweetly.

The agents looked at the One dubiously, then back at the Oracle, even more dubiously.

Smith just shook his head. "By the way, Morpheus, this is Agent Collins," he said, indicating the most dubious of the three. "And these are Agents Evans and Chapman. They'll be working with us."

"Nice to meet you," he said, and for the first time since he'd arrived, he smiled.

"There, wasn't that easy?" the Oracle asked, with a smile of her own. She placed a plateful of cookies in front of Morpheus. "Now what is it they say? Oh yes -- 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'"

Smith shook his head again. "I think you've seen too many movies," he replied, and took a whole handful of them for himself.

End.