I felt like I was the center of everyone's attention as I slowly looked around the study room at everyone. They were all looking intently at me.
"Why is everyone staring at me?" I nervously asked. "Did I do something wrong?"
The Oracle chuckled warmly and smiled.
"No, honey, you didn't do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, everything you did was marvelous."
I looked in puzzlement at the woman.
"You see, Angel, we've been after the Merovingian for some time now."
"Excuse me for interrupting, but I'm not quite following you here."
The Oracle smiled understandingly, her eyes sparkling in the light of the evening sun that reflected off the study walls.
"Perhaps I should start from the beginning,"
I nodded.
"You see, Angel, the Merovingian escaped the Matrix and found his way into your world, bringing all of his henchmen and Smith with him against our knowing."
"You lied to us," One suddenly shouted to the Mero across the room. "You told us that the Oracle brought us here!"
"One, please,"
One silenced himself at the Oracle's words.
"As I was saying, he came here against our knowing. It was a long time before we actually knew that he had escaped to here. How he got here in the first place I have no earthly idea. Finding out what he had planned, we took desperate steps to try and stop him—all of which failed. We were hoping that maybe somehow some human that lived in this world would run across the Mero or at least one of his henchmen who had turned against him and would follow in helping defeat him."
"And that person was me." I whispered.
"That's right."
"But why a human from this world?"
"Angel, some things not even I can explain. They just need to happen in a certain way and that's it. The only thing I know is that we needed someone we could trust that wasn't from the Matrix."
"What about Neo and Trinity and the others?"
"I brought them here in order to keep an eye on the Merovingian to make sure he didn't go through with his plan. In other words they were living here undercover, acting as spies. If the Merovingian made any threatening moves they were to report to me."
"Somehow I have this feeling that I'm not hearing the whole story." I wrinkled my eyebrows a little. The Oracle chuckled as she leaned back in her chair, tilting her head to look at Seraph. He smiled back.
"You seem to be good at figuring out and sensing things. I like that in a person."
The Oracle looked around at the many staring faces before turning back to me.
"We came from this," She took out and held up the CD that she had placed in the laptop moments before.
"I-I don't quite understand. It looks like a CD."
"It's a DVD, young Angel. It's a copy of The Matrix Reloaded, where all of us reside in. A very special copy in fact, as you can see around you."
I stood in awe as I looked at the DVD the Oracle held. I was speechless for some time before I could speak again.
"So you're telling me that you—all of you—came from this DVD?"
"Bingo!" The Oracle smiled.
"And since your mission of capturing the Merovingian is over, you all will go back into this DVD and this world—the real world—will go back to being normal, as if nothing had happened?"
"That's right, honey,"
"Will I remember everything that happened?"
"Yes, you will remember—and only you."
"What happens if you don't go back into the movie?"
"The movie will be incomplete, just like it is now as we stand here talking."
I turned to the Twins who stared at me in silence.
"So all that time that you kept talking about going back into the Matrix you were really referring to the movie?"
One slowly nodded his head and looked at Two.
"Now I understand." I breathed.
"After we go back into the movie, the DVD belongs to you. That was one of the reasons why we needed someone from your world." the Oracle softly said.
"Y-you mean that we won't get to stay in this world after all?" Two asked in disappointment.
The Oracle shook her head. Two's mouth quivered a little while lowering his head again.
"I'm sorry, hon, but that's the way it is. If we don't go back it'll ruin the movie, plus it'll eventually ruin this world too."
"The Merovingian told us that if we behaved you would let us stay here."
"It was a lie, Two. He was playing you along. I brought Neo and the others here, but I didn't bring you two and the Mero here. That was all his doing. Knowing how much you liked it here, he told you that to keep you two from blowing his plans. I didn't intend on anyone staying here. Neo and the rest knew they were only going to stay here for a limited time before going back."
"But I want to stay here with Angel!" Two's voice became watery.
"Two, we all want to, but there's nothing I can do. It's out of my hands. We've got till midnight tonight. Already we've spent about three hours talking, so that leaves us four hours to clean up everything we've done."
I looked at my watch. The Oracle was right; it had been about three hours. It's funny how you never notice the time when you're talking. I glanced out the window and already it was dark out. I was so overcome by everything that I didn't even notice that the small room was now lit by the lamp setting on the desk, which the Oracle had turned on sometime during our conversation.
"Coming to think of it, how did you Twins know where I was?" Neo continued the conversation.
"We overheard the Merovingian say that you lived here somewhere."
"And One here hacked into a map on the computer and we found out your location from that."
"The Merovingian knew we were here all along?" Neo turned a shocked face to the Mero.
"I did, but I didn't know you were acting as spies!" The Mero threw Neo a mean face.
"Smith, tie his hands. I don't trust him." The Oracle motioned to Smith. Smith took some rope he had brought with him when he came back with Persephone and tightly tied the Merovingian's hands. "I want to make sure he stays there until we have to leave."
The room was silent after the Oracle had finished. Occasionally you could hear the shuffling of feet or a whisper or clearing of a throat. I silently turned to look at the Twins standing beside me. They both stood with their heads lowered and hands behind their backs. Two looked like he was about to cry.
"Come on everyone. We've got a lot of work to do. Smith, you're in charge of tying up the Mero's henchmen. Make sure they're all tied good and placed where we can have them when the time comes. The rest of you will help me in cleaning up the foyer. Seraph, Morpheus, you two will stay in here with Merovingian and Persephone."
Everyone turned and walked out into the foyer. Niobe and Trinity immediately picked up a spear and hung it back on the wall while Neo and Ghost walked around and collected the many guns lying around amongst the scattered bodies of the henchmen. The Twins and I watched for awhile.
"I guess we need to help too." I said, turning to One. He nodded.
"I'll go see if I can find a broom so we can sweep up the glass from that door Trinity shattered." One said before walking off into another room. Two and I walked over and down the hall leading to the front door. The wooden door was barely hanging on its hinges and small and big pieces of glass lay all over the wine colored carpet.
"What a mess." I said to no one in particular as I looked around at where all the glass was, careful not to step on a piece. Two looked into a room a little ways down from the front door and shivered.
"He didn't even clean it up." I heard Two mumble.
"What?" I asked, walking up to Two's side and peeking into the room. The room was the room I had seen the Merovingian beat the Twins in the night I had rescued them. The place was still in shambles, broken lamps and strewn and splintered furniture lay everywhere. I quickly grabbed the door to the room and closed it so Two could keep his mind off it.
"Here's the broom," One approached. "What's wrong?" he asked at seeing the bewildered faces of Two and me.
"Nothing," I whispered, taking the broom from One's hand. One handed the dustpan to Two.
"I'm going to go get a trash basket. Be right back." One disappeared.
After sweeping the first big load of glass up in a pile, I called over my shoulder for Two to give me the dustpan, but no answer ever came.
"Two?" I said as I turned. Two was gone! Leaning the broom against the wall, I took off toward the foyer. "Two?"
The Oracle and several of the others looked up.
"Is something wrong?" the Oracle asked at seeing me.
"Where's Two? He was helping me sweep up glass back there, but when I turned around he was gone." I looked up at One coming into the foyer area. He set down the basket he was carrying and came over to me. Just then we heard a scream come from the study. I along with the Oracle, Neo, and One ran to the doorway.
"Two!" I shouted, running to him.
Two had the Merovingian's shirt collar in one hand and his razor in the other, its blade pressed against the Mero's neck. Seraph and Morpheus stood behind him, not knowing what to do.
"Two, don't do it. Please," I pleaded in a soothing voice. Two's evilly twisted face turned normal at seeing me. His hands slowly let go of the Mero and he closed his razor up and placed it back into his pocket.
"I'm sorry, Angel, I don't know what happened. At seeing that room, all the horrible memories of that night came back to me and I just felt so much like…" His words trailed off.
"It's okay, Two. Come on let's go back out into the foyer." I soothingly said while placing my hand on Two's back.
Out in the foyer again, Two finally let his feelings go and he took off running toward the back of the foyer, past the staircase, and out of a door. Feeling for him, I took one more glance at One and the Oracle then ran in the direction Two had gone. Looking back over my shoulders I saw One almost follow, but the Oracle stopped him and shook her head.
