He said he killed an Agent
Chapter 9: Still can't sleep?
"You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically this is not far from the truth." -Morpheus
The ship Mnemosyne hit the ground of the tunnels with immeasurable speed, tearing apart the cockpit, slashing through metal. There was a symphony of screeches, crashing, clanking and screaming, as the remainder of the ship exploded.
The explosion set off the ship's EMP, causing the electric blue matter to rise up and out above the yellow fire, mushrooming until it scorched the roof of the tunnels, and blew a hole open to the surface.
Nighten suddenly realized that he was watching all this from outside the Mnemosyne, in the middle of the tunnels of the real. He couldn't explain what was happening, or why he wasn't onboard, all he knew is what he saw. And he saw the ship he was supposed to be on, and most likely the crew inside...burning into destruction.
The surviving crewmember grabbed at his short brown hair, screaming, and ran towards the ship.
Like lightning, a dozen Sentinels dropped down from the ceiling of the tunnel, spreading out their mechanical tentacles to strike at him, and spewing out their red lasers to cut at him.
These Sentinels, Nighten realized with horror, were very different from other Sentinels he had seen and fought. Instead of insect-like heads, they had faces, built from metal, that resembled people he could not mistake.
Agents.
These Sentinels had the faces of Agents.
Nighten started to sprint wildly around the ship, watching as the Agent-faced Sentinels started tearing at the remains of the Mnemosyne, slicing through the hull with their red lasers, and pulling it off with the talons on the end of their tentacles.
He heard a scream from the Mnemosyne, from the mouth of a young boy.
Nighten stopped to see Crusher fly out from the burning ship, dressed in Samurai armor and a cape, slashing away at the deformed Sentinels with his Japanese sword.
All the Sentinels turned their attention towards the young boy, who seemed to be able to defend himself quite expertly, as he flew through the air without resistance, floating with the machines. Nighten, in a state that could only be described as a mix of shock and ultimate confusion, ran towards the burning ship, trying to see the condition of the other crew members.
Nighten blinked, and found himself inside the Mnemosyne. He was shaking with fright, unsure of why everything was happening, with no memory of anything going wrong. Hell, he didn't even remember leaving the ship, and now it was falling apart around him.
The rebel cringed when he looked to the operating board, to see Hermes had been impaled by his own equipment, and sparks were flying from the keyboards surrounding his corpse. Dial and Gannon were strapped into their Matrix chairs, both with blood coming out the sides of their mouths, with both of their monitors showing stopped hearts.
Nighten wiped the sweat from his forehead as he sprinted to the back of the ship, only to be kicked down by Pandora.
The woman had an oversized electric gun in her hand, and was bleeding profusely, screaming at him.
" Where's Crusher?" She screamed at him, as Nighten crawled backwards on his hands. " I'm not going on this mission, Gannon! I have too much to lose! Where's Crusher?"
Nighten had backed himself into a corner of the burning ship, and shakily got to his feet. Had she just called him 'Gannon?'
" Pan...Pandora..." Nighten said, his voice coinciding with his shaking body. " What happened here?"
The woman had never looked so fierce, with her blonde hair out of its ponytail, flying around her shoulders like a lion's mane.
" Get...my brother...out...now!" Pandora commanded him.
Nighten shook his head with confusion.
" Pandora, he's outside! Fighting Sentinels! We have to leave, everyone else is dead!"
Pandora's anger intensified, and she kicked Nighten hard in the side.
" I told you this would happen, Gannon! You promised we wouldn't send him in!" The blonde woman screamed, as she pulled the trigger.
The brown haired man leaped under Pandora to avoid being fried alive by blue electricity. When he turned back around, everything had changed again.
He was on the surface now, the surface like he had never imagined it could be.
It was bright. Incredibly bright. Almost too bright, because of the brilliant sun burning down on his flesh and the hard ground he stood on.
Nighten was amazed, the sky was not black. There were no dark clouds, no fuming smoke, just brilliant, energizing light falling down from the ball of fire in the sky.
The man heard footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see another man, with his head down and struggling to walk, coming nearer. Nighten looked behind the limping man, to see that everywhere he stepped, grass had sprouted, and other vegetation flourished.
Nighten ran over to the man, to hear he was having difficulty breathing. His long, labored gasps quickened, as he collapsed onto the ground, a bed of flowers growing around him. Nighten finally reached him, and turned him over, to see quite a familiar face.
" Neo?"
The conqueror of Agent Smith had never looked more fragile: his skin turning blue, and his eyes severely burnt.
" Can't....breathe..." Neo said to him, grabbing his shirt.
Nighten had never felt more helpless, as he looked around and started screaming for help.
" There's...nobody..." Neo explained quietly. " Nobody...to help us..."
" What about Zion?" Nighten asked him.
Neo gave a slight smile.
" Zion? Zion...is...dead."
" How? Neo, what the hell is happening to our world?"
" Suffocating...." Neo pointed to the sky with an outstretched shaking hand, and then his arm fell, and he stopped breathing.
Nighten's eyes started to water as he stood up and backed away from Neo's body. Hadn't he already been dead?
Again, a noise from over his shoulder alerted him. This time, however, it was something to be much more concerned about.
This time, it was machines.
An army of taller, bigger machines than he had ever seen, thriving and shining in the sunlight, was marching towards him. They were faster and mightier than any Sentinel had ever been, and they were parading around like it had always been their world. The Deus Ex Machina zoomed overhead happily, like a child in an amusement park. It seemed they now had everything they would ever need: sunlight...and no humans.
Nighten started to walk backwards, and tripped over Neo's body. He closed his eyes when his head hit the hard ground, and when he started to get up, he realized his location had changed once again.
It was a place he knew too well, and it was exactly how Neo had described it.
It was Zion. And it was dead.
The only things moving in Zion were the swarming Sentinels picking away at the blue bodies that littered the walkways. They had all suffocated, like Neo, and it was all to the machines' benefit. All of the ships were on fire, spitting images of what he had seen happen to the Mnemosyne.
Morpheus appeared on his left.
" I'm a fool for ever having trusted them." Morpheus spoke, walking around the dead, seemingly unaware of Nighten's presence. " To think, I was supposed to make sure this didn't happen...I led the envoys, but...while I was away...the machines had already completed it. They...they used it before I could get back."
Nighten went to approach Morpheus, when a Sentinel came and snatched him away. He then noticed on the walkway in front of him was a machine that resembled a man, standing over the bodies of all the Council members...laughing.
It was unmistakably Councilor Hom, the representative from Zero One.
Had he been the one to betray them?
Suddenly Councilor Hom stopped his horrific monotone laughing, as his eyes flashed red, and locked on Nighten. He had been spotted. Hom grabbed a large spike laying on the ground, picked it up, and started running towards him.
Nighten screamed and sprinted away, stepping on bodies and leaping over rails to escape the machine that looked like a human. The brown haired rebel realized that he was not moving fast enough though, and before he could look over his shoulder, a giant needle was stuck into the back of his skull.
The world was again different, it was now a giant city, a city coated in green.
Nighten concluded he was in the Matrix. He was dressed in his red leather, his hair was white, and there, lying on the ground next to him, was his grenade launcher- his gift from Neo. He was now the Maniac.
The Maniac was startled to see the Oracle, as she was running. The older woman was frantically running around the street in front of him, smoking cigarettes and throwing cookies, as she was being chased by an abomination. This monster seemed to be half man, half Agent. More specifically, The Maniac thought he recognized traces of Seraph in him, but his code had been mutilated, and corrupted by that of an Agent.
Nighten watched the chase with a little amusement, until the Seraph Agent pulled out a pistol, and shot the Oracle in the back of the head. The Maniac stood up and grabbed his grenade launcher, angrily aiming it at the man who had slaughtered the Oracle.
The Seraph Agent noticed him right away, and threw down his pistol, falling on his knees to beg for forgiveness.
" I need your help!" The man cried to him, shaking with fear. " I can't fight it! You must help me!"
The Maniac shook his head. " You killed the Oracle. You're an Agent." Nighten told him, and unsure of what else to do, he pulled the trigger to his grenade launcher.
Nothing happened.
There was no projectile, and thus no explosion. Nighten was shocked to see that no matter how many times he pulled the trigger, the grenade launcher would not fire.
The Seraph Agent pointed at Nighten, with a half-smile.
Nighten stopped to observe himself, to see that his red leather was gone, and his hair was again brown. He was no longer the Maniac.
" What did you do?" Nighten yelled at the Seraph Agent.
The abomination smiled, and pointed to the dead Oracle.
Nighten didn't understand. Just because she was gone, did that mean he couldn't use his abilities?
" So, should I kill you?" Nighten asked the monster. He was not threatening him, it seemed more like Nighten was asking Seraph for advice.
The Seraph Agent shrugged.
" We asked for your help, Mr. Maniac. How you assist us, is unknown to me."
" Who's asking for my help?" Nighten demanded to know. " Are you Seraph, or are you the Agents?"
The two-faced man's answer came in the form of a hand, a hand that was stuck into Nighten's stomach, causing a cool, silver liquid to crawl up his body.
Nighten's eyes flashed open. He was in his cold bed, in an even colder sweat.
That meant he was on the Mnemosyne...it hadn't been destroyed. Nighten sighed as he sat up, scratching his head. He knew from the start that is was a dream, but he also knew it was a dream he had to endure. It meant something, he had it for a reason.
He had to take action. Dreams like this were not to be ignored. Nighten shuddered at the thought that he might have the sight, a gift given to only the Oracle, and eventually Neo. But if that was the future...then it had to be changed.
Nighten was startled when his door flew open. Standing behind the door, was the entire crew of the Mnemosyne, staring at him with wonder.
" Was I snoring?" Nighten asked smugly.
" That," Gannon said," and screaming...a lot."
Dial chuckled. " We all have nightmares," he said, " but yours literally took up the whole night."
" Sorry." Nighten apologized. " This is a first for me, too."
Pandora came over to him. " How are you feeling?"
Nighten shrugged. " Well...confused."
" What was it about?" Gannon asked him. " Was it about us?"
Nighten nodded. " It was about...everyone. Even Zion." He paused. " Even the Matrix."
Gannon nodded, rubbing his coarse beard thoughtfully. " Okay, Nighten. Anything we should know?"
The brown haired man shook his head. " I still need time to figure everything out, but...from what I know so far, there really isn't any time. I've got a lot of stops to make. We need to get to Zion. But, right now...I need to get into the Matrix."
" Why?" Pandora questioned.
" To see the Oracle. I think she's in danger."
The crew's eyes lit up with surprise, as they looked to Gannon, who had a smile on his face.
" I told you." Gannon told the rest of his crew smugly.
" What are you talking about?" Nighten asked.
" We just received a call." Hermes told him. " From the Oracle. She said she needs to see you as soon as possible."
" And I figured you would already know why." Gannon said with a smile. " Do you?"
Nighten paused, and then nodded.
" It's Seraph. Something's wrong with Seraph."
"You have the sight now...You are looking at the world without time." - The Oracle