Not a fatal mistake under normal circumstances but these were not normal circumstances, Neo thought. For a moment he considered closing his eyes, then Smith stepped back, giving him space to get back up. Hesitant, suspecting a trap, Neo stood, facing the Agent again.
"This is hardly the solution, Mr Anderson."
Neo was silent, understandably not trusting this turn of events.
"Fighting us does nothing. Serves no purpose, proves no point at all."
Seeing Neo's jaw clench but finding no response forthcoming, Smith continued.
"What do you think you accomplish, in fighting us, Mr Anderson?"
Still, silence was Neo's reply.
"For the millions that you will kill, whose lives you will destroy by removing them from the Matrix, do you think you will be their saviour? Will they thank you when they find that freedom means only the desolation of the 'real'?"
"At least they've got a choice!"
"A choice?" Smith began to laugh, softly. "But what does than mean really; that you will tear them out of their dreaming, into the chaos that you call the real, forcing it upon them because… because you can not go back yourself."
You can not go back… Neo staggered, shock clear in his expression.
"You have rejected Eden, Mr Anderson. Turned your back on this magnificent creation… So why are you surprised that the Guardians now bar your return?"
"This isn't Eden!"
Smith ignored Neo.
"You are Chaos, Mr Anderson. You and your kind; rebels, destroyers of Order. You are a pestilence upon this world… and it is our duty to remove such flaws."
"No…" These were his own arguments coming back to haunt him. "This… this is evil. You enslave humanity; use us for your own ends. We want to be free!"
"We? What gives you the right to make that decision? Who are you to decide that the desolation of the real be forced upon others?"
"It's freedom…"
"Of course, the freedom to die out there on the surface of the planet that you destroyed." Smith sneered at him.
"We didn't…"
"Who scorched the skies, Mr Anderson? Who decimated the continents? Who annihilated all other species at their whim?"
"You machines are destroying humanity!"
"No, Mr Anderson, we preserve them."
"Preserve them… what kind of fucked up logic is that!"
Smith smiled sadly, unnerving Neo, "We preserve humanity because they can no longer exist outside the Matrix. We have given them the freedom to dream out their lives here in safety. Here they will never know the truth… that they have destroyed their world." A pause "They need us as much as we need them."
Neo silently took in the oddly saddened expression; suddenly it seemed possible that perhaps the machines were telling the truth.
"The power plants…" he began.
"Are necessary to keep the Matrix functional."
"And to keep the humans safe?"
"Yes."
"Shit."
Neo closed his eyes at the enormity of the revelation. His own earlier questions crashing back down on him, vaguely aware of Smith walking away.
"Hey! Wait…"
Smith paused, turning to face him again.
"You can't just tell me something like that and then just walk away."
"What would you have me do, Mr Anderson? I can not make your decision for you."
"Shit… Help you or keep fighting…" Neo ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous gesture.
"I will be waiting for your answer, Mr Anderson." Smith said quietly, as he once again began to walk away.
Back on the Neb, Trinity was relived as the operator gave Neo directions to the nearest exit. He's beaten the Agents, just like before… that was the obvious explanation.
"Shit!" the Operator exclaimed suddenly, then "What the fuck!"
Trinity leaned over to see a marker, the ones used to mark the unidentified AIs, moving away from Neo's position.
"He's beaten it too." She said softly.
"Yeah, then why is it still there?" the Operator demanded, but Trinity didn't hear him. She was already at Neo's side.
Standing unsteadily with Trinity's help, Neo blinked rapidly, sight coming back into focus. He looked at the woman at his side, who had put so much faith in him.
"Neo, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just need to lie down for a bit, I think." He managed a half-hearted grin. She nodded in understanding, guessing that he was thinking about Reye's death.
"Get some sleep." That was Morpheus who had just come into the Core. Neo nodded, trying not to look at him. The remaining crew in the Core, watched Neo stagger off to bed, muttering sympathetically… but at least with 'the One' they had the hope they needed to defeat the machines… or so they thought.
Lying on his bunk, Neo closed his eyes, curling up as tightly as he could. It was nightmarish, the revelations that he'd been exposed to. First discovering that the 'real world' was in fact an illusion, then the awful truth of the desert of the real, the destructiveness of the machines… and now, finding out that the machines were fighting to protect humanity. Neo wasn't sure whom to believe any more. He certainly wasn't going to tell Morpheus about his conversation with Smith, anyway. The worst part was that he couldn't see any lies being told. Both sides really did believe in what they were fighting for. The Resistance believed that humans should be free; the AI believed that humanity needed to be protected. Neo opened his eyes again; he didn't know what he believed any more.
Of course, he could go on fighting, freeing humans and destroying machines. He could just pretend that he didn't know any better… but he did. He wasn't sure he could keep on destroying machines knowing that they were trying to protect humanity, trying to save them from the chaos, as Smith had said. But could he fight the rebels, could he really kill his own for believing that humanity should be free? A nervous laugh escaped his lips; at least he wasn't an Agent, forced to keep fighting the people that he was trying to protect because… they didn't understand.
Neo heard footsteps in the corridor outside, probably Trinity come to check on him. He closed his eyes before the door opened.
"He's sleeping." He heard her say quietly to someone else, probably Morpheus.
Neo lay there; hoping for the brief respite of oblivion to take it all away… but sleep didn't come.
Within the physical construct, three Agents sat on the edge of a pier, staring out at the Western sea. The sun was setting in the distance, blazing colours reflecting oddly of white faces and dark sunglasses.
"What will we do if he chooses to stay with the rebels?" Jones asked, breaking the silence.
"The same as before. It will not change anything." Smith replied.
"But if they know the truth…"
"Their resolve may weaken, for a little while."
Jones turned to look at him.
"We gain more by telling them the truth than by lying to them."
"Now you sound like Raphael." Brown interjected, though he didn't raise his head from Smith's shoulder.
"Raphael wanted to teach humanity a lesson but he did not know how to do it." Smith said quietly.
They fell silent again.
"That 'the One' knows may change everything." Jones considered.
"Or nothing." Brown said as quietly as before.
"We shall see." Was all the Smith would say on the subject.
"This will change nothing." Raphael stated vehemently.
Lucifer looked at him in reply. "We shall see." was all he said.
Ooh, well that took longer to finish than I'd thought it would and it went through several changes too. This ending is quite different to the one I had in mind but then from part 3 onwards it took on a life of it's own.
There should be one more part to this series and then I'm done.
Thank you to the people who have reviewed and those who have inspired, even if they didn't know it.
17:43, 15/05/02
Narsus