AN: I'm probably in a better mood then I have any right to be! It's all because my midterms are over and I can spend one little weekend doing nothing other than reading (because, by choice, I will read anything that isn't tied down), watching movies, writing, and dancing (ballet and modern classes). I'm even getting the rare opportunity to play assistant teacher on Saturday at the studio where I dance. I say rare only because I've been there for nineteen years and I keep getting passed over when they pick assistant teachers. They pick people with fewer years than I have but who are excellent at sucking up to the studio's owner. Anywho, I wasn't doing anything but taking classes on Tuesday, and I avoid the studio's owner even when I have tap classes with her, when they asked me to take a spot for a Saturday. I'm also psyched because I got my copy of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on Tuesday. Anywho, thanks for all the reviews for my little story. They made my week of studying better as they always seemed to come up when I was taking a break from the world of Molecular Biology. Please keep them coming!
AshleytheDragon: Oh….I'm sorry you didn't like the fact the song was sort of interjected into the chapter. I promise that there's only one more instance where that sort of song and chapter mix is going to come up but that's much later on in the game. I'm glad you liked the chapter otherwise, though. I can't say whether or not Pixie's going to meet Morpheus because it would wreck this chapter's events! Thanks for the little Agent diddy! It made me giggle!
Lyidia: I'm glad you liked the update and the appearance by Trinity. From here on out, more and more of the cannon characters will be getting involved in the story. I just hope I do the characters justice when I write them. Here's my next update, though!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up and their Real World alter egos. I don't own The Matrix, The Animatrix, or any of that cool stuff. I'm broke and in graduate school studying biology. All I own are my Pointe shoes.
Pixie watched Hawk disappear as a feeling of dread came over her. She had been left, more or less; at the mercy of a strange black clad person Hawk had called Trinity. A person who looked like she could well and truly end someone's life with just a glare. Not exactly someone Pixie wanted to be left all on her own with really….especially when she was tired and feeling, basically, extremely sick.
What Pixie really wanted was to take a break someplace, catch her breath and, maybe, get involved after that. It didn't seem like that was feasible as things seemed to be in motion. In motion and heading for a destination that she didn't quite know yet.
Pixie jumped a bit as she felt a hand come down on her shoulder, interrupting her musings on what she really wanted at the moment and how little she understood about what was going on.
"Come with me," Trinity told the young girl.
Pixie followed the person Hawk had called Trinity, trying to keep up and not get lost in the black recesses of the large complex. It was difficult for her to keep the other person in from of her, so well did Trinity blend in with the shadows cast in the building. It was like trying to follow a shadowy wraith through an inky, black cave. Virtually impossible unless one was either exceedingly lucky or had good eyesight. Since the latter wasn't the truth for Pixie, with her glasses and all, the former might have been the case. That, too, seemed unlikely because Pixie had never had much in the way of luck.
Either way, the last thing Pixie wanted to do was get lost. Getting out and back to the home seemed like too much work for her. Plus, she wasn't too sure how to even get back to the home. She had been too preoccupied with trying to keep herself breathing and walking to notice just how Hawk had gotten her to her current location.
"Where are we going?" Pixie asked, in a smallish voice.
Incurring the wrath of the other woman was not high on Pixie's things to do at the moment. She had seen her reaction to Hawk. Still, she wasn't comfortable with being left in the dark about what was happening to her. She was, after all, infamous, for asking the doctors all sorts of questions because, unlike some, she wanted to know exactly what was happening to her at any given time.
"Over there," the older woman answered, seemingly pointing some landmark out for Pixie to notice.
Sure enough, dead ahead of them was a pool of yellow light. There appeared to be objects in the pool but, at their current distance, Pixie could not make out what they were. All she could see were the vague shapes before her.
Deciding that the fewer questions the better, Pixie mutely followed the other woman to the fringes of the lightened area. She kept her eyes on her feet, afraid to make even the smallest bit of eye contact in case that bothered someone.
"Hawk, finally, brought her sir," Trinity informed someone Pixie hadn't noticed because her eyes were down.
Bringing her eyes back up from her feet, she spotted; stepping into the lighted area, quite possibly the largest man Pixie had ever seen. He was dark skinned and bald wearing a floor length black leather coat that was buttoned to the throat and had a high collar that came up to the chin. Hiding his eyes were round mirrored sunglasses.
His arms were clasped behind his back, making him seem quite streamlined which made him seem a whole lot taller. His expression was unreadable, seemingly on purpose really.
His sudden appearance made the young girl take a few steps back, as if trying to retreat back into the darkness. The hand on her shoulder, Trinity's she guessed, prevented her from doing so.
"Thank you, Trinity," the dark skinned man said, unclasping his hands from behind his back and placing one of his paw like hands on Pixie's shoulder.
The other woman disappeared back into the darkness, leaving Pixie with the mysterious man. Mystery seemed to the running theme at the moment, though. Everything and anything had taken on this cloak-and-dagger air about it, much to her chagrin.
"Please sit," the dark skinned man informed Pixie, his voice echoing slightly in the cavernous room.
For the first time, Pixie noticed the other things in the light displayed pool. There were two metal folding chairs, old and battered but still usable and a three legged table that was holding its balance somehow. On the table, much to Pixie's shock was a tall glass of water. Water that was clear and seemed to be fresh instead of dusty like everything else in the area.
She took the nearest chair, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her head on her knees. The dark skinned man sat in the opposite chair, removing a mirrored box and placing it on the table.
"Do you know who I am, Pixie?" he questioned, catching the young girl off guard.
Much to her surprise he knew her name. His identity though- as the shake of her head indicated- was a complete and utter mystery to her.
"Perhaps if I told you my name. I am Morpheus," the dark skinned man added, removing his mirrored lenses and looking Pixie in her own glass covered eyes.
Pixie's eyes went wide behind her thick lensed glasses. The name Morpheus was legendary; every hacker seemed to know a friend of a friend of a friend three times removed who had spoken with him. Some said he was the man to seek out of one wanted to get free from the trap the human race was stuck in. Others said he was just another figment the government created to throw everyone of course...to keep them busy as the truth was pulled further and further away.
"I've heard of you. You're a legend among hackers," Pixie said, sounding awed.
The man's facade slipped for a moment, features softening for an instant.
"I can assure you half the things I have been accused of doing I have not done," he stated.
"They say you're the man to find if you want to get out of this place," Pixie continued.
Morpheus gave the young girl a smile so sharp that it looked as if it could cut glass. Her statement, though unexpected, was steering the conversation right where he wanted it to go.
"Pixie, do you know the hacker's question?" Morpheus broached.
By rote, Pixie answered, "What is the matrix?"
Another razor smile, Cheshire cat like for she was unable to decipher its meaning, greeted Pixie.
"Your friend Hawk tells me you are quite fond of philosophy. Do you know Plato's Allegory of the Cave?" Morpheus questioned, taking an obvious hand in steering the conversation toward a desired goal.
Unaware of the steering, Pixie gave Morpheus a slight nod. It had been a allusion that one particular allegory that had started Pixie reading philosophy she could barely understand. The allusion had helped her to form the basis of her theories on the matrix.
"What if I told you that Plato was correct? That all of us were bound arms, legs and head and shown just shadows of the real world and most people of average intelligence would rather stay so bound instead of facing the truth?" Morpheus continued.
"I would say you were barking mad," Pixie, truthfully, answered.
"Your searching has shown us you are not of average intelligence, though, Pixie. You know there's something wrong with the world but you can not put your finger on it. That is why you keep going back to that allegory," Morpheus stated, seemingly oblivious to Pixie's answer.
"But there's no great cave to keep us all in. Last I checked, I'm not tied down to anything," Pixie countered.
A deep throated laugh from Morpheus threw her further off kilter.
"You are quite correct there but I never said that we were actually trapped in a cave. There is something far more evil at work here but it is a pity I can not simply tell you what that evil is. You must see it with your own eyes," Morpheus mused, taking the metallic box from the table.
He dumped the contents of the box in his large hands, preventing Pixie from seeing its contents. Something was moved from one hand to the next, the motion so fluid that it made Pixie do a double take.
"You take the blue pill," he intoned, opening his left hand to reveal a tiny blue colored capsule, "and you will remember none of this. It will be as if this meeting had never occurred."
"You take the red pill," he continued, right hand opening to show a small red capsule, "and I will show you the cave in which humanity is truly trapped."
From left to right and back again, Pixie's brandy brown eyes darted. She was torn between running off and telling the authorities about the crazed man she was talking to and believing his words.
"All I am offering you is the truth, if that is any comfort to you," Morpheus said to Pixie as if he was sensing the conflict she was having.
It was the word "truth" that did for Pixie. The truth she was facing, her demise to an illness she hadn't wanted, seemed to pale in comparison to the truth she was being offered.
"I'm going to die anyway," she mused, "might as well risk it."
She took the red pill out of Morpheus' right hand and washed it down with the water from the glass.
He gave her a Cheshire cat smile and said, "Follow me. There's little time."
His long strides had Pixie nearly jogging to keep up with him. All around her, the world began to take on a strange quality. For some odd reason, it seemed the walls were alive, shifting as they moved allowing a semi-lit corridor.
She followed Morpheus into a larger room, one that seemed to be taken up by a jungle of mechanical equipment whose purpose she could only guess. The other in the room, two female and two male, did not bother to look up when Morpheus entered with Pixie in tow. They were too engrossed in their work.
He gestured, vaguely, to an old office chair. Pixie assumed he had meant for her to sit in it.
On unsteady legs, she made her way over to the chair and sat down. The world still felt odd---unreal--- and that feeling appeared to be escalating.
"Take off your glasses," Trinity stated, coming over and affixing white nodes to Pixie's head and neck.
"But I won't be able to see then," she commented, protectively.
Her glasses were as much a part of her as her skin.
"It's alright. You won't need them," Trinity countered.
With a resigned sigh, Pixie removed her glasses and placed them in the other woman's hands. Her world, without the air of corrective lenses, became a messy blur which she shut her eyes against. Eyes that would never see in the same way again...as things started to get….very strange….for her.