Protector of Men Ch 26
They came back from the Oracle a little dazed. Luckily, or perhaps just as they expected, they hadn't been traced by any agents. They simply went in, saw the woman, and went out. But they went out a little slower than they went in; they were carrying quite a load of information between them.
Cover was on the verge of collapsing from an overabundance of epiphanies. The Oracle had told him so much – that he would lead so much – that he was almost overloaded. He felt better, no doubt, but felt more responsibility had been laid on him than he ever imagined he could carry.
"She is the One, Cover," she had told him, "She's going to end this war."
"You will lead them to victory," she had told him, "You can show them the way."
"Don't worry about not knowing the path," she had assured him. She told him that it would be a tough battle, but that he would lead them well. He had to admit that it definitely made him feel better about the way he had been handling things. Before he saw her, he felt lost; felt like he wasn't sure that what he was doing was the right thing to be doing. Nothing that Zandra presented had ever been done before. But the Oracle told him that everything would be alright. She told him he was doing a good job, and he liked that. The Oracle would be on his good list.
Shade was busy trying to decipher what the lady had told him.
"You have to make a decision," she told him, "But your choice will make you despair." He didn't like the answer, and asked why he had to make the choice in the first place. She was taken aback, and Shade was a little confused…
"I know you don't want to make a choice," she said warmly, "But you will before you even realize it." Shade's face was still dark. He was still stuck on 'despair', and the Oracle realized it.
"You will despair only until you realize why you made your choice," she told him, patting him on the arm, "Hun, we all make mistakes." But he was still confused, and was silent even back on the ship, still trying to figure out what exactly the Oracle meant.
Trim didn't have anything to be happy about. He had been told things that were of a much different tone than the others. She had been more mysterious with him.
"Kiddo, you're too young to know what you think," she told him after asking him a few questions. Trim was dumbfounded, and a little offended.
"Now, now," she assured him, "I don't mean it that way."
"I just mean that you can't take everything you feel as the truth."
He asked her why.
"Because, Trim, sometimes feelings betray you. And kiddo, you're getting to the point where your feelings won't make a lot of sense. Just try to remember what you're here to do, and you should feel right as rain."
And he left feeling not only thoroughly confused, but depressed. Nothing she had told him made him feel better at all. He just hoped that everyone else had gotten an equally cryptic and noncommittal message.
Alias had put up enough of a fight, but wasn't allowed to go on the trip. Cover, though he had tried to skirt the issue enough, had to finally tell her that it would be impossible for her to function, even in the Matrix. Maybe if her legs had been broken would she be able to run, but because her mind couldn't get impulses all the way down to her legs, she wouldn't be able to move in either world. Alias wouldn't be free anywhere. It was the first time since the incident that anyone had seen her true personality come back on – the way she argued to be able to contribute. Though they were glad to see her normal self again, they were also disappointed that they had to refuse her. So during the day, Alias had followed Zandra and Kemp around the ship. Together they searched for things to do, to fix, to read. But luckily the boys didn't take much time on their trip to the Oracle, and came back in only a few hours.
"We're going back to Zion," Cover told Zandra in the mess hall, "I think we all need to take a breather." Zandra agreed. So they all got ready for the trip back, all quietly. Each person was thinking about what had happened in the past few days… so much mysteriousness, so much anger and passion that had come out of each of them that they felt they needed to recoup from the week. And that was probably why Cover was sending them into Zion. And it probably helped that the Mayflower had chosen the same week to go back to the city, as well. So it would end up as Stephen had planned.
