Misty7: Here's the chapter everyone seemed to be waiting for. Neo gets to talk to the Oracle and eventually kick some ass! Lol. Well, actually Keanu does more punching ass due to a neck injury. Did you see Matrix Revisited? I felt so bad for him, especially in Revolutions and Reloaded when he had to do a lot of kicking!

Alocin: I imagined Trinity being way less patient with the Agent the Morpheus was. Morpheus and she are fairly different. Morpheus would be a good Dad. I could see him as being a father before he was unplugged. And with Trinity being really cynical (brought on by being confined) that just makes the situation more fun to write, since it's back and forth. There's plenty more discussion coming up. And actually, speaking of Plato's theory, I learned it in my English class. It was what really sparked my interest with the Matrix. I have to look into the theory you mentioned. I'm not quite sure I've heard of that one. And thank you for not hitting me with foam hammers anymore. Those things really hurt.

Jedi Jessie: I brought back Neo, as you asked me too. I can't stay with him too long unfortunately since his dialogue is harder to write (for me) and I would further embarrass myself.

Stormhawk: Well, I'm glad I'm not going to be flamed by you. I'm really glad you're enjoying this! I can't update much faster since I read through my chapters so many times before uploading them.

Selina Enriquez: I took a look at your art. Some of the pictures require a lot of talent! And stop slapping yourself for love of Agent Smith. I have to say I have had crushes that I want to slap myself for. Be thankful yours was Hugo Weaving and not Kiefer Sutherland.

(Jumps around happily). Thanks everyone!

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are the property of the Wachowski brothers and not mine. There is no financial gain off this story and it is for entertainment purposes only.

Wow, this chapter took me way longer to write then I expected. Neo and the Oracle are so frigging hard to write for, especially a long conversation! Guess everyone has to face the challenge sometime. I can't wait to write for Smith and Trin again.

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Chapter 4: Searching

"Being the One is just like being in love." She had told him. Somewhere in the folds of his mind, where time no longer existed, Neo could hear the Oracle again. "No one can tell you you're in love, you just know it. Through and through."

He didn't understand it then.

Do you even understand it now?

The voice in his mind asked him. Neo gave a shrug as an after thought, standing in the alley and still staring at the blackened blood in the moonlight. It was eerily beautiful. The sort of elegance you'd expect from a gothic nightmare or a Marilyn Manson video. Oddly, yet exquisitely beautiful.

Like her.

The voice in his head whispered to him, making Neo shiver at the chill of the words running over his spine. Trinity's blood was coagulated onto the pavement. It was a silent memento, reminding him over and over that she had been shot because he, he didn't know anymore.

Because you weren't there? That's such a pathetic response. What could you have done? Taken the bullet for her only to have her shot afterwards?

"Shut up." Neo willed it and turned away from it, looking around the alley. There had to be something here, anything for that matter. Someway of instantaneous escape that no one could track.

The clues were moving through his mind. The Agent, Trinity, and an escape route. Somehow, A, B, and C didn't want to come together and give him a hand.

My, isn't waking up a boot in the ass today?

"Well, well, well." The female voice behind him was familiar. He turned again, to the dead end alley as the stout Oracle stood there looking at him. "Look who's back from the dead. I figured it would be sometime soon. How have you been, Neo?"

"I…" He began, but never finished. The Oracle stopped him.

"Don't worry, I already know. Let's talk about that." The Oracle said, pulling out a cigarette and her match book from the purse on the crook of her arm. She set the cigarette at her lips. "So start from the beginning. It's the best way to find things we've lost."

Neo started back.

"She was inside, recruiting a hacker."

He could see her moving in the alley. She was walking in that leather that she called clothing down to the fire escape where the 'front' door existed. "She was alone when the Agent appeared." She turned too late. It didn't matter that he couldn't hear the bullet explode. He could see the blood. There was evidence of it on the ground. Her coat flared out as she turned and as she was thrown back by the bullet.

The man behind the gun? Neo wreaked his brain. The code was distorted. It was Agent code. But he couldn't see the details. The Oracle waited, igniting the match and lighting her cigarette.

"Smith." Neo said finally. "It had to be."

"Bravo." The Oracle said, putting the match book back in her purse. Neo watched her with a question. The Prophetess looked at him seriously. "Now I know what you're wondering." She waited for him to ask the question.

"How is that possible?" Neo finally said. The Oracle nodded.

"Exactly. You're getting better at this." She said, walking to him and continuing down the alley. "Sentient programs aren't usually sensitive to things like what you did to Smith. But somehow, there's a change happening to him, and it's going to drive him mad."

"I changed him?" Neo asked. The Oracle nodded.

"Something about his program was rewritten. In the case of millions of ones and zeroes it could be anything." She said, blowing a puff of smoke into the air. "But something about you is changing his program. The Architect is pretty pissed off about it." She stopped Neo before he could ask the question. "All that stuff's irrelevant kid. You'll know the Architect in due time. Right now, you've got yourself in quite a dilemma."

"I have to find her." Neo stated, knowing the Oracle already knew that was what he must do. "And I don't know where to look."

"Well, you started at the beginning, and you were doing fine. Take one more shot and then I'll help." Neo thought about it. The Oracle knew it was there. The answer was somewhere.

They vanished, Neo. But she's still jacked in.

"She's still in the Matrix." He said. "But we can't track her."

"There's your answer." The Oracle said, taking another puff of her cigarette. The cloud hovered over them, making the moon disappear temporarily. "The Matrix is filled with old sub programming. Levels and levels of old environments that cannot be deleted."

"Why not?" Neo asked. The machines didn't like something to not have a purposed.

"The Merovingian's in control of it. And he enjoys them." The Oracle could tell Neo was waiting to hear what the Merovingian was. "That's another story that will have to wait for another day. All I can tell you is that if you are going to go after Trinity you must pass on his ground. And that man has had one two many objects shoved up his ass."

Neo didn't laugh. He stopped and turned to face her.

"How do I get to her?" The Oracle looked at him sincerely.

"Now's the time when I tell you the two main roads. Then I'll say the easier one and you'll ask how to use it." The Oracle recited it off like some sort of cooking recipe. "So here goes. The two main ways to get to the Merovingian's land are through the train station and the Gatekeeper's path. The easier of the two would be the gate. The train driver only takes programs specifically invited by the Merovingian." Neo didn't see the need in asking. The Oracle took another breath of her cigarette. As the smoke drifted from her mouth she continued. "The gate is accessed by a door that separates the human world from the machine world."

"Let me guess. It's right here." The Oracle grinned.

"Smarter then last time." She said to him, looking down the street at a man in white, standing on the sidewalk. The Prophet gave a parting glance at him. "You'll find Trinity within a old program called the Derider House. It's pretty run down now. Luckily it's one of the first places you cross into." The Oracle gave him a parting glance. "We always seem to meet under bad circumstances don't we?" That was more flippant then her other words of wisdom.

She walked in the direction of the figure as Neo looked for the door. On the ground, in the wall of the red bricked building, was the wooden door.

"Oh, and Neo, one more thing." He turned to face her. The Oracle calmly stated one final thing. "Beware of what the mind sees and what the heart wants to see."

She left after that, leaving Neo facing the door with only one thought in his mind. He had to get Trinity back.

The One walked slowly to the door, the Oracle's warning sticking in his mind and causing him to sweat a little.

This isn't too smart.

Maybe you should go get Morpheus.

Shut up.

Neo ordered it that time, looking at the door as if it were his destiny. He finally moved to it and grasped the handle in his hand, looking through it. What horrors would await him on the other side? What sort of plans did this Merovingian have for him once the One was on his turf?

He turned the handle and stepped inside.

Obviously, not many.

He was in a storage room. That was all.

Neo caught his breath, feeling his heart slow as he turned for the door.

The opening vanished, almost as if it had never existed.

Least I know I'm in the right place. Neo had to agree for once with that, and looking back in the storage room as a winding road lay before his feet. And rising high in the storm ridden clouds was a giant cast iron gate.

Definitely the right place. Neo thought, moving towards it finally, as the rain started to come down.

The lightning cracked through the sky as the droplets of rain covered him from head to toe. Neo moved closer to the gate, looking for anyone around. Someone had to watched the gate. Something. He thought. Most likely. This is a computer program.

He ran his hands along the iron, feeling it under his fingers. He shook it, trying to open it. There was no latch. He looked up at the stone arch and found that the gate had to be lifted.

He turned his head and found the door inside a huge pillar of stone. The pillar lead up and into an arc over the gate. No use climbing either. Huge spikes on the top were preventing him from doing anything along those lines. Neo decided to try flying, but he remained glued to the ground. Perfect. The rain coming down affected his vision a little and with a hand over his eyes, he moved to the door.

It opened easily. Neo found the gears and crank to lift the gate and allow him to pass through. He grabbed the lever with both hands and tried to start pulling up the gate.

There was a rush of air above him. A missed punch. And by the sound of the cracking, Neo assumed it was hard. He stood up quickly, looking at the man who had hidden himself from the One. The black clad gentleman grinned wickedly as he stepped back.

"What the hell are you doing here?" The man demanded. Neo watched him clench his fists.

"I need to open the gate."

"Can't do that. Not for a human like you." Neo had a split second to react as the man jumped and kicked. The One grabbed his foot, twisting him to the right and dropping him to the ground. The man swung his lower body, intending to trip him, but Neo jumped and landed with a sickening crack on the man's rib cage. The One stood back up, watching the man under him gasp for breath.

Something grabbed Neo from behind. The arms holding his arms to his chest caused Neo to jump back, but whatever was holding him from behind was like a rock, keeping him still as the man below him stood up and cracked his neck.

"That was quick." He said, his fist becoming a blur as he pummelled Neo in the chest over and over. The One groaned, kicking upward with his strength and pushing the 'punching man' backwards. His strength forced him and the 'holding man' into the back wall with a snap.

The man behind him went limp and Neo stood, gasping for breath. He looked from one to the other. They were twins. The same bright white hair, causing a contrast to their very tanned skin.

Neo caught his breath, grabbing the crank again and started turning. He could hear the intricate system of gears echo down to him and the iron gate lift from the ground. It was hard, and each revolution of the first gear was like murder on even Neo's muscles.

He heard one of them cough, causing him to stop mid-revolution. The one in front of him was silent and immobile on the ground. So it must be…

Neo wasn't as fast this time, absorbing a brutal blow to the right side of his head as he flipped underneath the second twin. The stone slap he was whacked with caused blood to immediately flow from his ear. But that didn't stop him from kneeing the man between the legs and punching him with all his strength. Neo jumped and turned, paying attention to his senses now as the other came at him. His foot struck the other across the head, and Neo landed on the ground, watching to two come at him once more.

"I don't have time for this." He thought.

Neither seemed to care what he had time for. The came at him again, a look of glee in their white eyes.

He blocked a punch be swinging his arm and swung his left hand at one. The other kicked at him. Neo was thrown back by the impact and straight in the wall. They moved in again, twin 1 glancing at twin 2 as the beamed with pride. Neo pursed his lips.

Focus Neo.

Nothing is stopping me from getting through that gate.

Twin 1 came at him first, jumping into the air and throwing his feet forward to land on top of Neo. The One ducked, rolling on the ground towards twin 2. The second threw his foot across Neo's face, breaking the already broken skin around Neo's ear. Neo jumped upward, pulling his leg upwards into a flip and throwing twin 2 backwards. The One landed and turned, hurling his elbow where twin 1's head was.

But twin 1 ducked and tripped Neo to the ground.

The crack of Neo's head connecting with pavement was the only thing that he heard as the stars floating around his head faded.

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THIS CHAPTER WAS PISSING ME OFF TO THE POINT OF INSANITY! I COULD NOT (for the life of me) WRITE A WHOLE CONVERSATION BETWEEN NEO AND THE ORACLE! I probably have so many mistakes. I'm sorry. (runs to her room and crawls under the bed.)

On a happier not:

1) Don't worry, Neo's coming back. And he's going to have a headache.

2) More Trin/Smith arguing in the next chapter because I will slip deeper into insanity if I have to embarrass myself while writing two Neo chapters in a row. Besides, I bet everyone was wondering if Smith just let Trinity bleed or if he actually stitched her back up.

3) Does anyone have any suggestions? Questions? Comments?

4) As for the twins at the gate. I didn't really try to make them sound like the uber (such a funny word) cool twins in Reloaded. They were just how I imagined the Gatekeepers. So assume that they are different programs.

Please read and review!