Chapter 15
Neo leaned against the railing, sighing as he rubbed his eyes, unable to sleep with the guilt on his conscience that Crystal might indeed be innocent.
"Of course she was guilty! And even if she wasn't, putting her back in the Matrix is probably the best thing for her, seeing as she is too mentally instable to be with the Resistance. I might have even saved her life, who knows if she would have died or not on the Resistance..."
Neo's thoughts were interrupted by Morpheus bursting in, his brow furrowed in worry.
"Neo! Get Crystal back from the Matrix! The machines are upon us and The Oracle proclaimed that she will help us win the war! Hurry, we have no time!"
Morpheus quickly walked away, frantically warning all of Zion to get ready for the machine's invasion.
Stunned, Neo could barely think, let alone move. However, he knew that he couldn't wait long or all of the human race would be doomed, so he rushed to Matrix chair and rapidly plugged himself in.
&%$$#!
"I'm in," Neo said coldly as he picked up the red phone in the warehouse he found himself in. Neo then jumped up and flew high above the city, searching for any sign of Crystal. Spotting a flash of red hair, he dove to the ground and tapped the woman with the red hair on the shoulder.
"Crystal?" he questioned hopefully.
But the woman who turned around looked disgustedly at Neo and proclaimed,
"Ugh, just another man interested in me. Like I've said a thousand times, I'm taken, so all you men better stop bothering me!"
With a hmmph, the woman quickly strolled off.
Scratching his head, Neo finally remembered that Crystal would most likely be in the New York Mental Asylum, so he soared into the sky once again and landed in front of the white block building he had been looking for.
He opened the huge double doors and had to fight back the urge to flinch everytime he saw another poor unfourtanate mentally insane person. He was fighting every urge in his body when he looked closely at each of members of the asylum, searching for Crystal.
After searching for what seemed like a century, Neo, shocked, saw what had become of Crystal.
Her read hair was chopped to her chin and in dissarray, her eyes had lost all the life they once had, her clothes were torn and ragged, and all she did was rock back and forth, moaning "why?" over and over again. Upon seeing Neo, Crystal's face held an even blanker expression than before, and she asked,
"Food?"
Neo choked back his tears at the terrible harm he had caused Crystal and cooly took her by the shoulder and said,
"I can fix this, you just need the memory laser. Come with me and you'll get your memory back."
Crystal didn't reply, she merely stared off into space and began rocking back and forth again, only this time muttering, "Revenge on Neo, revenge on Neo..."
&%$$#!
"Come on, we need a doctor here!" a terrified member of Zion screamed as she held her baby in her arms. The machines had attacked, and deep down she knew that the machines would ultimatley win the war, but she held her crying baby in her arms and fought back these fears and hoped and prayed that Neo would bring salvation to the entire human race.
"Any minute now, that Neo will finally fulfill the prophecy..." thought the woman hopefully
&%$$#!
After Neo had carried a screaming Crystal to the warehouse and subjected her to the memory-laser, he began the difficult task of explaining why he had put her in the mental ward and why he had changed his mind about her.
"Crystal, why didn't you tell me that you were going to help The One defeat the machines?"
Indignantly, Crystal retorted, "Well, I certainly tried but then you zapped me with that stun gun, erased my memory and made me go crazy."
"But you certainly were acting crazy..."
"Ugh, Neo, give it a rest! We need to beat these machines and we need to beat them now! Come on, Zion could be gone by now! Ask for an exit, I've had a plan of exactly how to beat the machines ever since The Oracle told me I was crucial to victory! Hurry!"
Gaping at Crystal, Neo quickly requested an exit.
"Just a little while longer, and Zion will be mine...." cackled an evil voice in the shadows.
Crystal ran through the dirt tunnels of Zion, searching frantically for the machines.
"Come on out, machines! I'm ready to face you!"
She was met with silence.
"Afraid, huh?"
The machines couldn't resist such the preposterous question muttered and came forth, snapping their tentacles, their red eyes ready to focus on Crystal to kill her.
Crystal merely stood her ground, glaring furiously at the machines.
Finally, the inevitable happened: a sentinel grabbed her by the waste with its metal tentacles and prepared to strike her dead.
Crystal pulled some wires in the sentinel and then miraculously, red beams shot out of her eyes and all of Zion was surrounded in red light, coming right out of her eyes. The sentinels dropped to the ground and a groan and a final mutter of, "You may have defeated The Head Machine, but peace is fleeting," was heard before complete silence hit Zion.
Crystal fell to the ground along with the sentinels. She coughed blood and struggled to breathe. She clung to her side, willing the pain to go away.
Neo rushed over and looked into her eyes and declared,
"You can't die! Not after saving Zion, not after all you've been through to get here!"
Crystal smiled feebly. Her voice was barely audible, a faint whisper.
"Silly Neo, those are exactly the reasons why I MUST die. I am part program, part human, a glitch in The Matrix that was never rectified. And I was created for complete destruction of metal with my eyes, that was my only purpose. And since I have completed that purpose, death must fall upon me."
"But you're more human than anyone I know! How can this be?"
"My mother fell in love with a program, and because of a glitch in that program, he fertilized her egg and I was born, half human, half program. I never knew I was a program until that day when you erased my memory....Then when I was shipped off to the loony bin, the doctors discovered me for what I really was and the agents were ready to "delete" me, so to speak. However, I am only HALF program so their attempt failed, and they were just about to force me to die by triggering my destruction ray from my eyes when you burst in and brought me to Zion. Well, I guess all this explains why I had the ridiculous notion to fall in love with a program myself: I'm truly my mother's daughter and...."
More blood came pouring out of Crystal's mouth and she coughed uncontrollably.
"Good...bye.....liberate......humans.....from.....Matrix."
Gasping for air that wouldn't come, Crystal's eyes rolled up and her head fell to the floor. She was dead.
The war against the machines was won, and the human race was saved. Neo allowed one tear to slide down his cheek but quickly regained his composure and listened to Morpheus address the people of Zion,
"We have won the war and the human race is saved, but our work is far from done. We still must clear up the sky that we scorched long ago, liberate more people from the Matrix, and rebuild what was once a free, great human empire. So, get to work!"
With that said, the humans of Zion quickly scrambled and began their workwith a sensational feeling that the future would be brighter tomorrow.
&%$#!
Crystal would always be remembered as the only machine, even if only half, that had ever helped them, but everyone believed Crystal had merely been a soldier in a war and that Neo had truly defeated the sentinels. After all, people only believe what they want to believe. So ends the adventure of Crystal, the woman with an odd love.
&%$#!
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the fan fic if you read all of it. It was sort of a parody, except it started out serious but then inevitably became too dumb to actually be a serious fan fic, so I went with the flow and wrote this parody. Comments appreciated.