Weird pairing! Shut up! Yes, I stole names from a book. Dolores, Lolita, Lo, all stolen. Sue me. Arrest me. Know what you'd get? A dorm room, that's all I have. And all that's in it are dust bunnies. They make good pets… so go on. Sue me. Take it.
*
She's only human.
She shouldn't be a problem for him. He doesn't flinch when he passes strip clubs. He doesn't look twice at the Red Light District. He's not even gay; he's a program, and the ability to look twice isn't in his design. It never is. One agent after another emerges every day… but one Smith after another emerges every day, too.
He's the original. The only one that matters. He's faded into the background, into the sea of identical faces as more humans are altered into an identical program. He's nondescript when it comes to tormenting the One. Newer, cockier programs take care of that. Newer programs who haven't learned that the brat is a stalemate fight are always eager to run up against him.
He's not so keen on getting his ass kicked lately.
He thinks about it, sometimes. Other times he thinks about this new ability to think. He didn't have that before that punk came along. He's not always sure if this is a gift or a curse. More often than not, it feels like a curse.
But when he sees her, he sort of forgets.
That's odd, you know. Machines don't forget. They block data. He blocks a lot of data when she plugs in.
He didn't really start feeling things until he killed Mr. Anderson. The kid was supposed to delete his program—infect it and, in doing so, have it deleted. But he didn't. Some part of his program—his superior program, to Smith's chagrin—copied itself onto his own, left an imprint that altered his design drastically.
Now, in doing that, he's altering things drastically. It's not just in the Matrix that he's altering things. Baine is doing a fine job of that on his own. No, he's inadvertently fucking with the Commander of the free humans of Zion. Not directly. Locke doesn't even know he exists. Certainly he's heard of the renegade program that stands to control the Matrix within months…
But not from her. She wouldn't be so bold as to tell the old man about him. She doesn't' tell him much.
She told him that. Her father is too bent on focusing on the Real world to care about the Matrix. To him, anyone still plugged in is already dead. They're of no use to him. The Enemy can control them whenever it chooses.
He's not entirely sure how she's his daughter. He's not even sure Locke was ever plugged into the Matrix. But it's not plausible to believe that people in the Matrix can have children that carry over into Zion. If the children exist in the desert of the Real, it's only because they were grown. They aren't created out of love. They are simply made.
Her mother remembers Locke, she says. They were young and in college. Drunk, too, she adds. The not-quite woman had to drop out of school to raise her, with a little help from her parents and Locke, who was barely holding onto his ROTC scholarship. Then… somehow… she was unplugged. She begged Morpheus to find her daughter, who would only be five years old. She gave him all the coordinates.
At a routine check-up, Lo saw a non-routine doctor. He gave her a red pill and said she'd feel better, and that she could see Momma again if she took it. That was all it took. She was officially unplugged, and she found her mother.
And her father.
Smith's not too fond of Jason Locke. He refused to take her mother back when they found each other. He was in love, he said.
The problem that he didn't tell anyone about was that his love happened to love another. Morpheus.
So Locke waited, and in waiting for Naobi, he pushed his little girl away. Naobi finally left Morpheus, when the Oracle (that conniving old bat) told him that he would find the One (annoying punk kid). Actually, Smith wouldn't put it past the old fool to have left Naobi before she could leave him. He's awfully dedicated to that boy. Could be in love with him, for all Smith cares.
It's made Lo very reserved. To spite her father, she joined the Oedipus when she turned eighteen and she plugs in regularly. She wasn't too lucky the first year after she enlisted. Her captain, Tripp, was killed by Agents and replaced by Luck, a woman. Aside from Naobi, she's the only female captain in Zion, Lo says.
Lo's crew was captured by Agents when she was twenty, right after the One finally stepped up and took heed of his calling. Right after Smith's program was irreversibly altered.
He remembers. He remembers that it was the first time he'd realized he had free will. He could hear the orders, he was still plugged in… but he didn't care. He just didn't. Which was another big shock—he could care, and chose not to. He could choose.
He hasn't forgotten.
Neither has she.
*
Please don't flame, it's just a story. Like it, hate it, just say something nice. The rest will be from Lo's point of view, which I will post later. It's easier to read, once you see hers. I'm better at first-person. Anyways… if you really just feel too strongly that my writing is terrible and you can't possibly read it, just tell me and I'll remove it.