This story is about what happens when Neo chooses the right-hand door.
There are spoilers for the movies "The Matrix" and "The Matrix: Reloaded"
here. Disclaimer: none of the characters belong to me.
The Other Door
"We are at the moment of truth at last," said the Architect. "The door to your right leads to the Source, and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads to the Matrix, to her, and to the end of your species..."
Neo barely listened to him, staring instead at the images in the multiple screens. Trinity crashing in on a motorcycle. Trinity in combat with Smith. Trinity smashing though a window and falling, with Smith shooting at her all the way down, just like in his dream. Exactly like in his dream.
Somehow he knew the last part hadn't happened yet, that if he took the left door now he just might save her. Emotion tugged him that way. but then he had a hideous thought.
"The only way it could be in my dreams is if I saw it here before! This has all happened before, hasn't it?" said Neo.
"Precisely," said the Architect, "To the most minute detail, save for the small tweaks in your design I mentioned. Cause and effect - same input, same output."
Neo felt sick to his stomach. Every move, every word, every thought was programmed! What did anything matter? But if everything repeated Trinity would live again and they would be together again, and somehow that still mattered to him.
"There's another way to save Trinity," said Neo, moving to the right-hand door.
About to go through, he turned back to the Architect. "If I were you, I'd hope we don't meet again," he said.
"We will," said the Architect.
The door opened on a cascading flood of green and blue Matrix symbols. Neo stepped into the stream of the Source. He felt a tug as a foreign set of symbols washed out of his being. As it dissolved back into the Source it looked for an instant like the scowling face of Smith.
Was that the anomaly which would have crashed the system, his contamination with Smith? It didn't matter any more, as a new purpose took over his program. Millions of data-records skimmed past him. His symbolic hands grasped one after another, one with advanced technical skills, another highly fertile, another a leader. Sixteen females and seven males, to recreate Zion.
The Father and the Mother of the Matrix watched his choices.
"The same ones as before," said the Oracle.
"What else?" said the Architect. "But this cycle should be different. I've upped his relational quotient and his love should overwhelm his logical facilities this time."
"When The One is perfected he will become a template to bootstrap all the AI's to higher consciousness," said the Oracle.
"It's such a tedious and messy process. I would never have conceived of it without you," replied the Architect, "But immortality would be unbearable without spiritual progress."
As the Matrix reset, simulated time moved back fifty years. Higher-level programs like the Architect and Oracle retained all their memories. Intermediate AI's like the Merovingian retained some, but Agents did not. Even Smith and his replicas were successfully reset, awaiting the next time The One contaminated them with program anomalies.
The lowly programs that worked via simulated chemical reactions, the "humans", were reset to the operational time. (All biological humans had perished centuries ago.) Those not yet "born" went into waiting stasis, including Neo and Trinity. The selected 23 experienced pod ejections and began their struggle to establish Zion.
The sixth version of the Matrix had begun.
The Other Door
"We are at the moment of truth at last," said the Architect. "The door to your right leads to the Source, and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads to the Matrix, to her, and to the end of your species..."
Neo barely listened to him, staring instead at the images in the multiple screens. Trinity crashing in on a motorcycle. Trinity in combat with Smith. Trinity smashing though a window and falling, with Smith shooting at her all the way down, just like in his dream. Exactly like in his dream.
Somehow he knew the last part hadn't happened yet, that if he took the left door now he just might save her. Emotion tugged him that way. but then he had a hideous thought.
"The only way it could be in my dreams is if I saw it here before! This has all happened before, hasn't it?" said Neo.
"Precisely," said the Architect, "To the most minute detail, save for the small tweaks in your design I mentioned. Cause and effect - same input, same output."
Neo felt sick to his stomach. Every move, every word, every thought was programmed! What did anything matter? But if everything repeated Trinity would live again and they would be together again, and somehow that still mattered to him.
"There's another way to save Trinity," said Neo, moving to the right-hand door.
About to go through, he turned back to the Architect. "If I were you, I'd hope we don't meet again," he said.
"We will," said the Architect.
The door opened on a cascading flood of green and blue Matrix symbols. Neo stepped into the stream of the Source. He felt a tug as a foreign set of symbols washed out of his being. As it dissolved back into the Source it looked for an instant like the scowling face of Smith.
Was that the anomaly which would have crashed the system, his contamination with Smith? It didn't matter any more, as a new purpose took over his program. Millions of data-records skimmed past him. His symbolic hands grasped one after another, one with advanced technical skills, another highly fertile, another a leader. Sixteen females and seven males, to recreate Zion.
The Father and the Mother of the Matrix watched his choices.
"The same ones as before," said the Oracle.
"What else?" said the Architect. "But this cycle should be different. I've upped his relational quotient and his love should overwhelm his logical facilities this time."
"When The One is perfected he will become a template to bootstrap all the AI's to higher consciousness," said the Oracle.
"It's such a tedious and messy process. I would never have conceived of it without you," replied the Architect, "But immortality would be unbearable without spiritual progress."
As the Matrix reset, simulated time moved back fifty years. Higher-level programs like the Architect and Oracle retained all their memories. Intermediate AI's like the Merovingian retained some, but Agents did not. Even Smith and his replicas were successfully reset, awaiting the next time The One contaminated them with program anomalies.
The lowly programs that worked via simulated chemical reactions, the "humans", were reset to the operational time. (All biological humans had perished centuries ago.) Those not yet "born" went into waiting stasis, including Neo and Trinity. The selected 23 experienced pod ejections and began their struggle to establish Zion.
The sixth version of the Matrix had begun.