Chapter 7 The Matrix

"Are you alright?"

"No."

"How come?"

"Because I'm stupid."

"Because you made a mistake."

"A stupid mistake."

Neo put his hand on Amethyst's shoulder. "It was just a miscalculation." The girl let out a dejected sigh. "You've been able to see for three days now. It only makes sense that it would be hard for you to judge that jump."

"I did pretty well in my other programs."

"You know," he said quietly, "I wouldn't worry about it too much. You could have been nervous, that's all."

Amé thought back and remembered frequent occasions where she didn't exactly feel nervous but her heart raced and her breathing grew deeper automatically. It was a feeling that she despised. "Did you trip over the side of the building?"

"No, but I fell nonetheless."

"D'you hit a flagpole on the way down?"

Neo sniggered. "No, I didn't, but I'd be chewing the butt off of the programmer if he was still alive."

"You knew him?"

"Sort of. He died shortly after I was disconnected from the Matrix."

"I'm sorry." There was a pause that Amé found very uncomfortable. As she tried to think of something to say, her mind reverted to thinking of the jump. "Thanks for coming."

"We can try again tomorrow," he said encouragingly. Then he stood back up, patted her on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go eat."

After wiping her leftover tears on her pillow, she stood up and followed the footsteps out of her bedroom. As they walked through the ship, she listened to the words that Neo spoke. "In the Matrix, there's no room for error so these programs are good for keeping us sharp. There's a particular mindset you have to have in there."

"Like what?"

"You have to consider every person not unplugged a threat. You have to constantly keep ways of escaping where you're at in your head. You need to be able to tell if you're walking into a hostile situation or if one is already around you. You'll see if Morpheus allows you to go in."

"Do you think he will?"

"I can't speak for him."

Amethyst paused again. "Would you let me?"

"That would depend on the situation. I honestly don't know yet. You've only been on board for a few days."

"Fair enough."

A short time later, Amethyst was once more sitting with the rest of the crew. In front of her sat another menacing bowl of crap.

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"Your performance these last several days has been exceptional."

"Thank you, sir."

"I believe that if you intend to become a full member of my crew, you will eventually need to become at least somewhat exposed to the Matrix."

Amethyst didn't show her jubilee on her face but at those words, her heart began to race in anticipation. "So you're allowing me to go in?"

"On one condition: you will not question my or anyone else of my crew's judgments. Whatever they say, you will do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. Perfectly clear."

"Very well. In two days, after you finish your training, we will take you to see the Oracle."

"Thank you, Captain." After Morpheus left Amé just about went berserk. Had she been able to see, she would have run around the ship and told everyone before going back and trying to finish her training within the hour. She had already learned Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Swedish, Arabic, and Swahili, and had ended her first days with splitting headaches. The combat training she underwent helped a little to relieve her stress, but nothing – besides what she had just been told – could have made her happier than to simply go back to her room and sleep for a long time.

Instead, she walked back to the consoles where Neo was waiting for her. He could tell how she was feeling even before she opened her mouth. "So, he told you?"

"Two days!" she replied, trying not to shout it too loudly.

"Then we have to work pretty fast."

"I'll try to keep up."

Amethyst was almost able to tolerate the steel rod now, thought it still made her insides churn every time it was slid into the plug. A button was pressed and she soon saw the Construct come up, once again the plain white as it had been the first time. "Remind me again what we're doing exactly," she said to Neo who was already in.

"I want to see if you can change not only your outward appearance, but also the internal code. I feel that if you can do that, not even an Agent could tell that you were human."

"That's one reason. Let's get started."

They spent about two and a half hours in the Construct, utilizing both Neo's ability to see the code and Amethyst's active imagination. When they were finished, she was able to replicate Neo's fingers almost perfectly. Even thought it was only a hand, it was at least a start and they could work to progress later on.

When Amethyst was released, she wondered over to the mess hall, forced down a bowl of crap, and asked if someone would help her to her room.

"Blow a gasket in the Construct?" Jake asked.

"Get downsized by a jealous dwarf?"

"Braindead."

"Dwarf."

"That's original."

"Pigmy!"

"Better a Pigmy than an Amazon!"

"Runt!"

"Freak!"

"Ladies!" Binary was no in the mood to stop a fight now. "Quit now or I will report this." Morpheus was currently in the cockpit, piloting the ship through the endless series of sewers and other tunnels that existed as their world.

"Binary! You wouldn't," Jake said, her voice lathered with sarcasm.

"Cool it, I mean it."

Jake started to leave the room and Amé heard her whisper something that ended with something that sounded like "-nut." She once again ignored it.

"I'll go with you," Code offered.

"You're too kind."

Amé was glad to have code with her to help her avoid collisions with three walls, a ladder, and her own doorway. As soon as she made it to her bed, she immediately buried her face in her pillow and fell asleep.

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"I think something's wrong."

"What is it?"

"I can see you clearly, but everything else is…I think it's the code."

"What do you see?"

"Everything's green and everything's moving. It looks like that code you showed me." She looked around. "I see the telephone, too, but that's it."

Before the questions could start flying, Neo said, "We're running out of time. We need to get to the target as soon as possible." He turned to Amé. "Can you see well enough to move around?"

"I think so."

"Alright. Let's go."

As they were leaving, Morpheus handed her a small red capsule. "Take this."

Amé did as she was told and did not question his order, and then she followed everyone out of what seemed to be the door. She looked at it as they walked by and was surprised to see that it grew thin when she was directly beside it, only to grow thin when she was directly beside it, only to find it grow in size once more once she passed by. ~Depth,~ she thought.

Her full attention eventually became centered on watching the others to make sure that she didn't lose them when they turned a corner or went through a doorway. She put her hand to one of the walls at one point in time and could feel the paint peeling off of the cold stone. Not knowing what paint was – or stone – she tried to peel off a flake that stuck out. When she held it, though, she could still only see the Matrix code, now unmoving in her hand. ~This is not right.~

The car ride was a unique experience for her. In a certain sense, she felt almost as blind as she was in the real world. Every other sense but sight seemed to work just fine. While she talked with the others, she pointed that out. "If I closed my eyes, I could probably do just as well as I do in Zion."

"But one of us would have to lead you around constantly," Trinity commented.

"True." She would have enjoyed the ride further had her senses not been in conflict with one another. She could see the car's leather upholstery and felt the soft foam cushion underneath. Beyond the view of the car's windows great blotches of code moved around; People, she concluded. After several minutes, she gave up on trying to sort out what was among the writing and simply changed her self image so that her sunglasses were slightly larger and entirely opaque so as to limit her view as much as possible.

With her eyes closed she asked Morpheus, "How long until we get to the school?"

"We're going to the Oracle first."

"Alright."

It took them about twenty minutes to arrive at the correct building. When they exited the car, Trinity asked, "Why are your glasses so dark?"

"It's too hard to look around and only see the code. It was messing with my head." She noticed out of the corner of her right eye that Trinity nodded. "I think it'd be easier, right now, to just keep my eyes closed and follow you."

"Okay."

With her eyes closed, she heard two people start walking ahead of her and felt what she thought was Trinity's hand on her left shoulder. "We'll be back in about thirty minutes," she heard Morpheus tell Binary, who stayed behind with the car.

Upon entering the building, Amethyst immediately started to feel ill at ease. The footfalls of their group made no echo whatsoever to close Amé as to where the walls on either side of her were or if they were in a hallway of some sort. She momentarily moved the glasses on her face to see that they were, in fact, in a hall that seemed to have quite a few obstructions (doors) on either side. She shut her eyes again.

They took a trip up what she recognized as an elevator. Upon stepping off, she walked with them up to a doorway. "Is this it?" she asked.

"I can only show you the door," Morpheus said metaphorically. "You're the one who has to walk through it."

Reluctantly, Amethyst removed her glasses and reached down for what she thought was the door handle. Before she could turn it, though, the door was flung open and another woman stood before them. Amethyst could only see the make-up of her encoded form, but the others saw a tall, dark-skinned woman with long wavy black hair. "Hello Morpheus," she said in a pleasant voice. "We weren't expecting you."

"I brought one of my crew members. Her name is Amethyst."

Amé looked over at Neo. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that he looked confused. Had she been able to read his thoughts, she would have heard him think, ~How could the Oracle not have known?~ He let the thought drop, though, realizing that thinking too much on something related to the Oracle eventually produced a large headache and a world of confusion.

"I'll tell her you've arrived," the woman responded. "You may wait here." She gently ushered Amethyst through the door. The girl put her sunglasses back on before the onslaught of intense vertigo took over. The woman took her into a room where, when she summoned the will to look, contained three children and another woman who was, in fact, two years younger than her.

No one spoke to her.

Eventually, each person followed the tall lady into another room, only to emerge a couple of minutes later and exit through the door Amé had entered. After the other teen left the room, Amethyst was alone and so took the time to try and adjust to her condition. At first she felt for one wall and slumped down against it, eventually sitting in a cross-legged position.

Very slowly she removed her sunglasses. With her head leaning back, she watched the symbols of the code cascade down over everything. In certain parts of the room it looked like the code seemed more concentrated. ~Depth,~ she thought.

She also noticed that the code always cascaded downwards. Trying to make a connection, she realized that the "gravity" of the Matrix was what caused it. Taking some liberty with the information she had acquired, she reasoned that since the code went down, anything still connected to the Matrix would be subject to its rules of gravity. Since Neo was the One – and disconnected from the Mainframe – it only made sense that he could bend and break such rules. Jake must have figured out a way – probably without knowing she had made the discovery – to change…no, alter the codes…no, add her own codes to make whatever she wanted appear.

While her mind went off on a tangent, she abruptly caught her thoughts wandering and brought herself back to the task at hand. She continued to look around the room and when she thought that she could identify a chair she stood up and started to walk towards it. Fighting a wave of vertigo, she made sure to walk slowly and carefully so as to not run into anything.

Upon reaching the chair, Amethyst placed her hands on the smooth wooded pegs at the top of the frame. The feeling was unlike anything else she'd ever felt as there was no wood in Zion, only metal. She wished that she could see what it was so that she could put a picture with the feeling. Unable to do so, she looked at the code and did her best to try and commit the cascading pattern of symbols to memory.

While her mind worked the tall woman reentered the room and interrupted her thoughts. "The Oracle will see you now."

Amé turned too fast and almost fell over. She held onto the chair for support until she felt that she could trust herself to walk forward. Cautiously, she did her best to retrace her steps and not hit anything as she made her way over to the blur of quickly moving code. It was a chore trying to follow her through the next door.

When they were through, though, they were stopped. Amethyst heard the lady's footsteps walking away from her. From in front of her she heard a male voice say, "Who are you?"

"Kavel Drogen," she replied, "but I'm known as Amethyst."

"Where did you originate?"

"I'm from Zion." She found the man's voice very pleasant. His Asian accent made her wonder what part of the world he came from.

"Then I must apologize."

"For what?"

"This."

Amethyst's glasses flew from her face as the blow was dealt to the right side of her head. Her pain reaction seemed ever so slightly delayed until she was kicked in the right shin. As she went down she cried out, "Stop!"

Her assailant paused. "Who are you?" he asked again.

"I already told you my name. It just so happens to be that I'm blind!" The man didn't reply. She picked up her glasses and stood up, but before she put them on she saw her attacker. Instead of lines of code as his body should have appeared, his makeup was bright gold and ran all around and through him. "Who are you?"

"If you are blind, you could not see your glasses," the man replied.

"I can see people who have been disconnected and things we hack," Amethyst explained. "Other than that, all I can see is the code."

The man silently contemplated the situation. After a time he said, "My name is Seraph. Since you came with the One, I will you take you to see her."

"Thanks," Amé said quietly. Before she put her sunglasses back on she saw Seraph off her a hand. Gratefully she took it and let him lead her though another door which he opened with a key. As soon as the door opened she could smell something sweet and could feel a rush of heat come towards her.

"So," said an elderly female voice, "you're Amethyst."

"Yes," Amé replied.

"And you were born in Zion?"

"That is correct."

The Oracle sighed and Amethyst heard her start to pace. Personally, it annoyed the heck out of her, but she figured that it wouldn't be wise to say something about it. Rather, she stood there and waited for the woman to say something first.

"I did not expect to see someone from Zion," she said. The teen agreed. "You've probably been told that I'm some sort of fortune-teller. You can believe that if you want." Another pause. After a time, though, she stopped pacing and sat down next to Amé. "Take your glasses off."

Amethyst took them off, though, reluctantly. When she looked at the Oracle she saw the bundle of code that made her up. She saw, though, the same strange movement of the symbols as she had with Seraph. With that she started to doubt her whole gravity theory. "Are you human?"

"No," she replied honestly. The Oracle didn't seem interested in the question, though, but instead peered closer towards the girl. "I see where you got your name."

"I was told that their color was caused by the disease that-"

"If," the Oracle interjected sharply, "you wish to survive, you're going to have to learn."

"Learn what?" Amé asked tentatively.

"You already know what you need to learn." Amethyst was about ready to deny that statement, but she was cut off again. "You know."

"The code," Amé replied, the answer suddenly coming up from out of nowhere.

"Bingo. It looks like we're dealing with someone with at least a half a brain." Amé didn't respond, knowing by the tone of voice that she was simply being sarcastic. "Morpheus no doubt made you his translator since Apoc died. That should be a good thing."

At the Oracle's advice, Amethyst made herself determined to figure out as much about the code as quickly as possible. She made a note to ask Neo or someone else to help her learn it. As she watched the two entities before her, she began to peruse through the symbols and tried to see if she could find any sort of pattern.

"You will probably be working with Burgundy as well. I suggest you find some way to get along. Also, listen to what she says because she won't always try to get you in trouble."

"Sure."

Amé heard her sigh. "There's not much advice I can give you."

"Do you want me to go, then?"

"You can stay if you want, but you know what would happen if you didn't."

"I'd get my butt chewed off, I know." She turned to go but was stopped when the Oracle spoke again. She turned to go but was stopped when the Oracle spoke again.

"One more thing." The voice was very serious. "If the prophecy is to be fulfilled, you must never tell Neo or anyone else what you saw or heard. He has to figure it out on his own. Just tell him I'll be contacting him again."

"Okay."

Amethyst continued to head out the door, her glasses off and her steps measured. Her eyes looked straight ahead as she tried to use her peripheral vision. It didn't work extremely well, but it was enough to keep her from falling on her face and breaking something she was sure she'd need in the future. When she walked past the second door and into the hallway where the other three waited, the look on her face was both pensive and alert at the same time. She said nothing and no questions were asked of her.

When Morpheus turned around, she knew that it was time to go. They had no time to lose if they wanted to get to the school when they had originally planned.

(Continued in the Joint Fic "Burgundy and Amethyst")