After several hours of continuous walking and riding buses, we all stopped on the outer edges of a small and quiet neighborhood. Slowly we started to walk down one of the sidewalks, stopping occasionally to look around at the many houses that lined both sides of us.
"It says on the map that this is the place." One glanced at the map on the computer's monitor.
"Which house is Neo's?" Two looked around at the line of houses opposite from us.
"Dunno." One mumbled.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you two and Neo and Smith get here anyway?" I asked as One continued to look at the computer. He looked at me then looked at Two standing beside him.
"Th-the Oracle brought us here," One barely got out while clearing his throat. "Sh-she brought us, the Merovingian, Smith, Neo, and all the rest into your world through—" One's words were cut off by a sharp nudge from Two's elbow, followed by a quick shake of his head.
"Well, she brought us here. That's all I can say for now." One buried his face into the computer to distract himself from more of my questions.
"That was only if we behaved ourselves." Two added.
"The Mero hasn't done that." One looked up.
"If the Oracle knew he was planning to take over this world she'd have a fit!" said Two.
"You can throw Smith in there too." One added.
"So that's why you two turned against Merovingian. You want to stay here don't you?" I said. The two Twins softly nodded their heads at the same time.
"What happens if one starts to misbehave?" I asked curiously.
"The Oracle will send him or her back into the—uh—the Matrix." Two nervously glanced at One as if he'd said the wrong thing. Somehow I had the feeling that I wasn't hearing all of the truth. No matter, though. It was clear that the Twins weren't going to tell me more than what they already had. I just had to wait and find out for myself.
"Let's try this house here." Two pointed to a small quaint house that was across from us.
"Don't be silly. We can't just knock on every house and ask if Neo lives there." said One.
"This does not seem like a neighborhood that Neo would live in. An apartment would seem more his style." said I.
"An apartment? Of course," One checked the laptop's map again. "Look! The way it has on here there's an apartment building down the street."
"Must be it then,"
It was a little while before we reached the apartment. It stood on the outer part of the neighborhood, but was still close enough to it to be considered part of it. Once inside, we tried to find out Neo's room number.
"Anderson? Sure he lives in room 101." The landlady said before she disappeared into another room.
"Figures," I breathed as the Twins and I walked up the flight of stairs.
We stood in front of the door that was labeled 101 and nervously looked at each other. I think the Twins were more nervous than I was, and they had a good reason to be. The Twins were bad and Neo was good in the Matrix world, now the Twins had to convince Neo that they wanted to come to his side. I didn't really know why I was nervous. Maybe it was because I was about to see Neo in person, or maybe it was from fear that the Twins might get hurt if Neo takes us coming there the wrong way. What was I saying? The Twins couldn't get hurt now, they had their powers back. One's soft knock on the door brought me back to the real world. We waited. Soon the door clicked and slowly opened. Neo stood on the other side. His black hair was mussed up and he was dressed in a black sweatshirt, pants, and shoes. He calmly looked us over then opened the door a little wider.
"What do you want?" he calmly asked in a soft, menacing sort of way.
"It-it's not what you think. We come in peace. Honest!" Two nervously said as he looked at One for support.
"We've come to make a deal with you." One nodded.
"What sort of deal?" Neo opened the door even wider.
"We want to join your side."
Neo looked puzzled.
"You see, Merovingian has broken the promise he made to the Oracle about behaving himself, if you know what I mean." One lowered his voice on the last part.
"What has he done?" Neo was getting interested.
"He wants to take control of this world." Two said.
"You two aren't helping him?"
"We don't want to. We want to stay here." Two glanced at me.
"The Mero has already kicked us out and just about killed us because of us turning against him. Thanks to Angel," One turned to me and smiled. "We've been given another chance at life."
"Not only that, but Smith is on to us too. He's tried to kill all three of us at different times." Two grabbed onto my arm.
"I think you'd better come inside." Neo opened the door all the way and motioned for us to come in.
It was a small apartment filled with computers, monitors, wires, and the insides and shells of what were once computers—amongst other scattered junk; the typical living place of a bachelor hacker.
"Would you care for some breakfast?" Neo kindly and shyly offered. "I don't have much, but you're welcome to have some with me."
Up until now I hadn't thought about eating because of everything that had happened, but since Neo brought up the subject I suddenly got very hungry and kindly accepted his offer. The Twins, on the other hand, politely refused, took a seat by the window, and waited until Neo came back from the kitchen. One gently laid the laptop on the table next to him and fiddled with the rings on his fingers. After walking around the small room, I found my place in a chair next to Two and took off my coat. Before long, Neo came back out of a small room to the left, which was considered a kitchen of sorts, while carrying two plates. He handed one to me then he sat down in a chair across from us.
"Coffee and milk are over there." He motioned to the table beside One's chair.
"So what do you say?" One got back to the only thing that appeared to be on his mind.
Neo calmly sat and thought while chewing some of the breakfast he had placed in his mouth.
"The Mero isn't as powerful in this world as he would be in the Matrix, so how does he think he's going to go about taking over?" Neo finally said.
"From what we understood, before we turned against him and he kicked us out, he was creating some kind of secret device that he would use to take control of the US then the rest of the world." One said.
"What sort of device?"
"Dunno. He wouldn't tell even us." Two breathed.
"Every time we tried to find out what it was, we were stopped by one of his other henchmen."
"Or by Persephone," Two added as he shuddered a little.
Neo went silent for a couple of minutes and thought. He spoke again. "What does Smith have to do with it all?"
"I suppose he's in on it." One said, waving his hand out in a gesture as he spoke.
"He seems to be working with Merovingian as one of his right-hand men or something." Two added.
"Don't forget about Johnson and Brown." I finally said.
"Yeah, they're here somewhere too." One sighed as if he was frustrated with the whole outbreak of agents.
"Or at least Johnson is. One sent Brown back into the Matrix." Two snickered in glee as he nudged One's arm.
Both Twins smiled at each other.
"You hacked into his code and sent him back into the Matrix?" Neo asked in awe.
"Yeah, it was the only thing I knew to do to remove him. He was standing outside the hospital entrance and we needed to get out."
"The hospital?" Neo was a little confused by the whole story.
"The other night, I was walking through town and came upon the Twins as they were being beaten and kicked out by the Merovingian,"
"And Persephone," Two angrily added, interrupting my sentence. "Er, sorry,"
"And I rescued them, called 911, and had them taken to the hospital to recover. Then I saved them from Smith who was about to inject them both with what we found out to be a vaccine for viruses and rogue programs." I finally finished then looked at Two.
"After that, Smith tried several times to kill Angel and also tried a couple more times to kill us." Two looked at One.
"Then Brown and Johnson showed up," One said.
"—resulting in us coming here," Two finished.
Neo looked at us for a long while as if trying to take everything in that he had just been told.
"And you come to me for help? Why? Why do you think I can help you?"
The Twins looked at each other then turned back to Neo.
"Because you're The One," they said in unison. I calmly watched and listened in silence.
Neo forced a small laugh as he ran his hand through his black hair and mussed it up more than it had been before. "All I can say is that I'll try to help you guys out. Not for our sakes, but for this world's sake and for the people that live here in this world." Neo nodded toward me as he spoke. Two excitedly placed his arm around my neck and smiled at me.
"So what's our next step?" One asked.
"First we've got to—"
A sharp rapping on the door suddenly cut off Neo's words and nearly scared me out of my seat. I looked over at the Twins who too were a bit startled by the sudden sound. It wasn't just a knock, but was a violent, angry pounding that nearly shook the pitiful wooden door off its hinges. The Twins, Neo, and I shot up from our chairs and exchanged quick glances at each other.
"It's bound to be Smith!" Two shouted over the pounding.
"What do we do?" I nervously glanced at everyone.
"We let him in." Neo calmly and nervously said as he walked toward the door.
Both One and Two reached for their razors and held them, closed but ready, in their hands as they sat back down in their chairs. I calmly sat back down too as I watched Neo open the door.
