Okay,  this went a bit strange. I did warn you I might use stuff from William Gibson's work.  But Fear Not!  All the main characters in this story type thingummy are either matrix or made up, so if you haven't read William Gibson's amazing cyberspace matrix books you'll be okay.  But you should read them, really. 

I need feedback, talk to me people!

 Disclaimer, I don't own the Finn or the Matrix.  But Dave is mine, all mine. 

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Interlude- Damned Knowitall

And now he is somewhere else. 

Dave is walking, apparently unhurriedly, through a park.  It clearly is not the same park as before, but it looks similar.  Green grass, trees, blue sky.  Warmer, and without the hint of snow and rheumatism that was present in the other park.  It's spring here, a perfect springtime day. 

Despite the fine weather, Dave doesn't look too happy.  He seems surprised, curious and nervous.  He keeps on looking over his shoulder as though the man in a suit is going to chase through the invisible boundary between here and there.

He's heading towards the lake on the other side of the park, but as he gets closer something odd seems to happen. 

Something very odd indeed.

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Vertigo, confusion and a swirl of other, stranger shapes bring him back to a different consciousness.

The park is gone, the lake and the other strangeness disappeared.  He's in a familiar place now, an abandoned looking street outside an old apartment block. 

To some certain people, the door should seem very familiar.

He goes in and enters an elevator, the graffiti overlaying the walls like something else he once saw.

There is a sense of watchfulness about him, of waiting and anticipation.

He's going to see an old new friend.

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Arriving at the door it opens pre-emptively.  He is carefully ushered through to what seems to be the centre of the place, an old but large kitchen filled with the smell of food.

The creator of the food smell is fussing over the oven, but she turns to greet the scruffy teen.  She's old, with a cheerfully raisined face and starting to go steel grey hair.  Somehow, she exudes an air of knowledge.  She seems content, old and wise and happy in the knowledge that she knows the whats and the whos of the world she lives in. 

She smiles at him, welcoming, and asks what she can do for him. 

Dave considers this question for quite some time, whilst a clock mounted on the wall ticks the seconds off.

Eventually he comes to an answer.

"I know who you are."  It isn't a threat, though it could be taken as one.  It sounds like a simple statement, and he looks as if he is waiting for her to respond.  Calmly, quietly.  No worry in him.

Even to the woman who knows, the situation appears odd.  You can see it in her posture, her expression, everything about her says 'What the hell?'.

 Everything bar her mouth, which says quietly "And what do you mean by that?"

Dave shrugs, entirely un-threatening.  Maybe it's just a show, but if it is it's a very convincing one.

"That wasn't quite right." He apologises. "I guess I meant 'I know who you were.'."

Now she isn't confused.  Her expression freezes up, becomes a far less friendly, far less knowledgeable mask. 

"If you're trying to use that as a threat I'm afraid it won't work.  300 years is a very long time."  Dave shakes his head urgently.

"It isn't a threat, or blackmail or anything.  I just wondered if you could help me." 

"All I can tell you is what might happen-"

"Don't do the Oracle thing on me.  I don't want the Oracle's help."  She gives him a look.  As he spoke she seemed to lose something.  She no longer seems quite so wise, not as mysterious and decidedly less all-knowing. 

"Okay, fine.  You want me to distract them?" 

Something about her accent has changed drastically, become completely unplaceable yet undeniably strong and strange.

He smiles, suddenly cheerful.

"Just for a bit, until I get this all figured out."  The Oracle gives him a very un-Oracle-like smile.

"You realise it's gonna cost ya?"  Now it's Dave's turn to be surprised.  Not just the change in her speech, but the question itself.

The not-very-Oracle smiles again. 

"I deal in information.  Best currency in the wor- wherever.  But this thing, the project, no-one knows nothing about it.  So, I'll make you a deal.  You tell me all about it, and about you, and what's going on, and I'll help."  Dave gives her a look.

"Doesn't this all seem a bit ridiculous to you?"  The not exactly oracle smiled in a not very pleasant way.

"What, that I wanna know?  You ever considered just how boring it is to be practically immortal?  I've been alive since Before It Changed, since before the matrix proper even existed; when I was alive cyberspace was just a sort of 3D internet.  I'm bored.  Old and tired and goddamn bored."  Dave gawped at her. 

"What do you mean, when you were alive?" The almost Oracle  gave him a ghost of her former knowing smirk.

"When I was alive." Dave continued to gawp.  "I died.  Old age I guess, the body just gives up.  Not that I'd exactly treated it well, you know.  I wanted to live for ever, so I put in a sort of insurance.  When I died I was made into a resident A.I., with contact in the real world through an old interface and access to cyberspace.  The interface is what started me on the road to being an Oracle, I guess.  People still asked me for advice and stuff even though I was dead.  The cyberspace was more help after that, it let me keep an eye on some friends."  Dave stared at her, fascinated.

"What happened to your friends?"  Nearly oracle shrugged.

"We all went out to investigate something strange.  I thought it was aliens or something, I don't know what, time was hard to judge in the old matrix.  We got there and it was just this big A.I., all iced up, black ice and this other shit, don't know what it was, really bad anyway, and it saw us, I don't know how.  And that's it.  Woke up in an apartment in a world that was 100 years in my past, no-one noticing or anything.  I looked for them, found nothing.  Just these little A.I.s that worked for the big ones, like some sort of government or something.  Saw something that looked like the Dixie flatline once, but I couldn't catch him.  He was iced over in storage, really odd."  Not-quite-knowing woman stopped reminiscing abruptly. 

"SO, you got my story, how about yours?"  Dave was still gawping.  He looked a little awed, and the almost oracle seemed to take pity on him. 

"Okay, relax.  What's your name?" 

"Dave."

"Right Dave. People used to call me the Finn. Tell me about yourself, why don't you."

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