The Matrix : Redefined Chapter 7
I don't own the setting or the universe. Wakowski Brothers do.
If you recognize I probably don't own em. If you don't, I might.
I just wanna play a little, that's all.
Thanks to Agent Ahab & Sapphirenight for the reviews.
I appreciate the enthusiasm alot. My schedule is more than a little erratic
so don't plan any kind of real schedule for postings.
As for the summary, well it will become evident eventually.
-----
AP 1 - Day 8 (After peace)
Matrix : The restaurant.
"So tell me Trinity," Niobe asked when they were alone still looking at the recording for clues after Locke had left. Morpheus and Neo were off looking for clues they might have missed earlier, "How do you do that flying thing I see you doing on the video?"
"I don't, that's Neo's thing. It's just an optical illusion that I did that."
"No Trinity I don't think so, Look at how long you were in the air there. That's the kind of thing Neo is known to pull. So what is, is he rubbing off on you?"
"No not really, Though not from lack of effort anytime we happened to make it into Zion for any length of time."
"Mmmm Pgh." Niobe made noisily in reply stifling her laughter as best she could.
"Not that I minded though, Nice to know who's thinking of you though isn't it?"
Trinity replied with a disctinct look toward Morpheus.
"yes well that's different."
"Really? Feeling a little locked down on your ambitions are we?" Trinity replied with an almost girlish giggle.
"Trinity you all right?" Niobe asked concerned by the almost hysterical giggles.
"Yeah, I'm sorry.. I shouldn't intrude, I just wanted to change the subject. I don't like what I saw in the footage. I don't like what I saw me do. And most off I don't like . . SHIT!" Trinity said in shock pointing at the screen as that face she had forgotten all about came back for just a moment.
Desperately she paused the recording and backed it up. She then called the manager over and asked if there was a way to zoom in on the person she was pointing at.
The manager made many apologies for failing to explain. This was a recording of the whole place. They could take this back with them to their construct and replay it while doing a walk through. In the mean time though he showed them how to zoom in on the one face that Trinity wanted to see.
"He's dead, Tank killed him." Trinity said in a shocked whisper.
"Wait I know that face." Niobe started to say when Trinity interrupted.
"NEO, Morpheus, You have to see this NOW!!" trinity suddenly yelled without looking away from the screen.
The look on Morpheus's and Neo's faces upon seeing that face was something you did want to have seen at all. While they stood in shock Trinity picked up her phone and waited for an operator.
"Seraph. " Trinity said when he answered. "You, Oracle, Here Now." And hung up.
Zion : Central security.
"Commander Locke?" a young voice broke into Locke's reverie.
"yes, " He replied grumpily.
"You are needed on the hammer at once sir. Morpheus said you must come back and see what they found."
"well what did he find?"
"He wouldn't say sir. He just said for you to return at once. You would understand what it was all about when you got there and saw."
"Well I don't, " He replied forcing himself to get up in spite of aching muscles and bone level weariness, 'Where are you off to so quick?"
"I have three council members to alert as well sir." The messenger replied.
"Very well go to it. I will be there as soon as I finish one other thing."
Locke found himself in a bad mood as he made his way to his quarters. The concept of what he had found was still weighing heavily on him. He had told no one about the idea that Zion might not be alone. He had said nothing to anyone about his suspicion that somewhere in Zion was one or more traitors like Cypher. "Now why did that name come to mind?" He asked himself remembering the bravado that Cypher had projected. Must be some subconscious thing prompting him. He had learned long ago that those who ignored the prompting of the subconscious were, if they were lucky, allowed to live with the results. The rest were just waste.
At his place he found the subtle signs of a female presence slowly fading. The way a room smelled, the way the bathroom was arranged and a dozen or more and subtler things that said whether a male or a female had been there last. The signs of Niobe were slowly fading from his life. Something had changed when she had given her ship, the logoss, to Neo and trinity to make there last fateful trip. There was no one thing that had tipped the scales in Morpheus's favor with Niobe. What he had lost was something more delicate that words didn't convey well, What it was he didn't understand and was not sure anymore that he could understand at all even if it was spelled out to him.
He had had other relationships before her, Those were just little things in comparison, Just ways of saying that he was alive. It had something to do with the oracle and the one. That was right, Cypher had been on the Neber and was friends with Trinity, The same trinity who was friends with Morpheus and had nearly been killed when Cypher went nuts. He had almost been rid of Morpheus once and for all then, but the price would have been to high. The cost would have been Zion itself, and that was unacceptable to him whatever he might want for himself. That price would make him other that who and what he was.
The oracle he found himself thinking. I wonder what she is like, A very old and extraordinary woman who was still plugged into the matrix and aware of it in spite of this. Able to see deeply into people's souls. He found himself uncomfortable with the concept of a soul right then, being mainly familiar with them as defined by the church's that still abounded in the Matrix and were flocked to by the plugged, The unfree as he privately thought of them. However he though about them though, he still kept wondering what drove him and the others to keep fighting long past the point of sanity, there own form of faith perhaps? They had though, and in the end there desperate and futile last stand had been enough. N It had given Neo time to do what ever all it was he did. He had beaten Smith Locke knew this now, Made peace with the machines He was still unsure of this and everyone has originally thought he had died doing it. Arriving at the hammer he noticed three of the council members already there and jacked in. As he jacked in he was thinking about how things had changed lately.
He found himself in the same construct with the same door still there. He opened it and found himself back in the same corridor and followed it out to the main room. In it he found the three council members he had expected to see there, He also saw Niobe talking to a really old looking lady chain smoking, It had to be the oracle. Somehow that disturbed him.
"Commander locke." The elder councilman greeted him with a nod.
"Councilor, Councilors." He replied indicating them all this time, "What brings us all here so unexpectedly."
"As you have no doubt deduced by now there is another Zion out there." Neo said without preamble or hesitation.
"yes, I had arrived at that as a possibility, Why?"
"Well, you should know the identity of one of the attackers. We missed seeing him at all during the attack and only spotted him on the recording at all with the help of the machines."
"Who wa. . .", Locke began to ask and found himself looking at a ghost. On the screen was a picture of Cypher, The betrayer of Zion and the man who had nearly rid him of Morpheus at the same time, "He's dead, you dumped his burned body."
"Well as Trinity and I have found out recently, Our definition of dead and the machines definition are a little different." Neo replied flatly.
"This is being looked into even as we speak." The oracle broke in grimly.
"So he was here and shot one program, then left?" Locke asked confused.
"Yes, he shot a power coordinator program as the fight was finishing." Neo replied annoyed, ' I did not even notice him at all. The odd things though was that all these," He indicated the bodies still on the floor." Did not even try to get away, there only thought was to get me or trinity."
"So a death squad shows up hunting the two of you, He shows up in the middle of the fight takes one shot at a program and then leaves before the fight is over?"
"Yeah, that's about it." Trinity replies.
Morpheus's phone rings at that moment and when he answers he talks for a moment before handing it to locke saying it was for him."
"Locke here."
"Yes, "
"Are you sure?"
"Ok, sounds good. Have you double checked the actual records yet?"
"Excellent so this is solid?, Excellent, Locke out."
He just stands there for a moment and looks at the bodies before walking over to
one of the females and pointing at her.
"her name is angena johnson, she's from the bronx, she was due to be talked to and then brought out when this war happened. We all thought she was still in the matrix thinking that whoever she had made contact with were a bunch of flakes."
"Seraph, " The oracle asks," Did you get that." When he replies yes she continues, "I need a search run. Go take care of it. I'm fine here."
Seraph glances around the room, then shrugs and goes down the hallway, Locke looks at him and wonders. He then looks at Niobe and sees' the same predatory look that had first brought her to his attention all those long years ago. Now though it is focused on just one thing, the ghost named Cypher.
Lockes phone rings then and he answers it quickly as a distraction.
"Locke."
"There is what?"
"Are you sure?"
"O.k. I'm on my way."
"Councilors," Locke says turning to them, "We have to go now, there is a number of sentinels on the way down one of the main corridors and they have something large with them."
"Don't worry about that commander." The oracle says in that sickeningly sweet voice that leaves you feeling about three.
"Ma'am there are sentinels on the way, We are not safe here."
"Non sense young man. They are no threat to you. They are just bringing you some things that you lost a while back."
"Things we lost?"
"Yes, that should be the Logoss with them. I'm afraid the sentinels are not very good drivers so please don't be offended if they have scraped it up in a few places. It should however be easily back into shape to fly once again."
"The Logoss?" Niobe asked incredulous.
"Yes dear, your logoss is coming back. The neber is on the way, but needed much more repair before it could be brought back to you Morpheus."
"The Neber will fly again?" Morpheus asked visibily startled.
"Yes, as a matter of fact she will be in Zion in few more days."
"But, it was a burned out wreck. There was nothing left to salvage."
"You would be surprised what can be done with enough resources Morpheus."
"Excuse me, " the older councilor interrupted, "but you seem to have quite some influence with the machines. I was under the impression that you were a still plugged in human."
"No Dearie, " The oracle, "I am not a human still plugged in to the matrix. In fact you might say that I am not a human at all. Though I am modeled quite closely on one, I am not what you would call a human. Before you ask I can tell you that I am a unique piece of hardware that is designed to emulate you humans in order to better deal with you and keep the matrix itself in balance."
"You mean, "The elder councilor asked next, "That although you are a machine your job is not helping the machines in hunting us down. It is then in fact to better use us as a resource in your power plants."
"Yes, my job is to find the best way to make use of you. I think that is best done by not having the continuos wars that have plagued our relations."
"so you do have some influence with the machines?"
"You could say that. In fact I am the one who ordered the return of your ships."
"So what are we supposed to do with this knowledge of you? I ask because my impression is that many of our people have gone to you over the years for guidance in one way or another."
"That is up to you. Those I have helped over the years will tell you that I don't tell them what to do, I just try to tell them what all they can do if they choose, But I never tell anyone what to do."
"So we are supposed to decide what to do with this."
"That is my way, I never tell anyone what to do or what they are or are not. I leave it up to them, I just tell them the results doing what they are doing."
Commander Locke just stood there listening to the conversation around him. Niobe seemed to be taking it all serious enough. Though Neo and Trinity seemed to be somewhat aloof from the whole thing. After listening to the oracle for a few minutes he could understand why so many had so much belief in her. She seemed to know what you were going to say or ask before you did.
He agrees with the consensus that knowledge of the true nature of the oracle should be kept to those present for the time being. The conversation turned to the now getting aromatic bodies on the floor. The idea of a second Zion was somehow disturbing to the oracle and that in a way both reassured Locke and disturbed him. He liked the idea that she was not all knowing, however if she knew nothing of this place then how did it exist.
Matrix : Large metropolis somewhere.
The guards never saw them coming out of the setting sun. The brightly colored hang gliders were invisible against it. The power plant they guarded had received a threat a few weeks ago and they had been on high alert since. However High alert after two weeks was scarcely the same thing as High alert after two hours or two days. Unable to believe what was happening they fought the intruders but couldn't seem to hit anything but air. In three minutes the intruders had gained access to the core. Seemingly uninterested in their own survival they went into the core area and placed charges around all the major cooling regulators. As they left you could see the damages from leaking radiation slowly causing lesions and other damage to them. Two blocks away they collapsed just before the bombs in the power plant went boom. Lights flickered and went out across the city as well as in the hills above it. The restaurant where everyone was meeting suddenly lost power before being diverted to emergency power.
I don't own the setting or the universe. Wakowski Brothers do.
If you recognize I probably don't own em. If you don't, I might.
I just wanna play a little, that's all.
Thanks to Agent Ahab & Sapphirenight for the reviews.
I appreciate the enthusiasm alot. My schedule is more than a little erratic
so don't plan any kind of real schedule for postings.
As for the summary, well it will become evident eventually.
-----
AP 1 - Day 8 (After peace)
Matrix : The restaurant.
"So tell me Trinity," Niobe asked when they were alone still looking at the recording for clues after Locke had left. Morpheus and Neo were off looking for clues they might have missed earlier, "How do you do that flying thing I see you doing on the video?"
"I don't, that's Neo's thing. It's just an optical illusion that I did that."
"No Trinity I don't think so, Look at how long you were in the air there. That's the kind of thing Neo is known to pull. So what is, is he rubbing off on you?"
"No not really, Though not from lack of effort anytime we happened to make it into Zion for any length of time."
"Mmmm Pgh." Niobe made noisily in reply stifling her laughter as best she could.
"Not that I minded though, Nice to know who's thinking of you though isn't it?"
Trinity replied with a disctinct look toward Morpheus.
"yes well that's different."
"Really? Feeling a little locked down on your ambitions are we?" Trinity replied with an almost girlish giggle.
"Trinity you all right?" Niobe asked concerned by the almost hysterical giggles.
"Yeah, I'm sorry.. I shouldn't intrude, I just wanted to change the subject. I don't like what I saw in the footage. I don't like what I saw me do. And most off I don't like . . SHIT!" Trinity said in shock pointing at the screen as that face she had forgotten all about came back for just a moment.
Desperately she paused the recording and backed it up. She then called the manager over and asked if there was a way to zoom in on the person she was pointing at.
The manager made many apologies for failing to explain. This was a recording of the whole place. They could take this back with them to their construct and replay it while doing a walk through. In the mean time though he showed them how to zoom in on the one face that Trinity wanted to see.
"He's dead, Tank killed him." Trinity said in a shocked whisper.
"Wait I know that face." Niobe started to say when Trinity interrupted.
"NEO, Morpheus, You have to see this NOW!!" trinity suddenly yelled without looking away from the screen.
The look on Morpheus's and Neo's faces upon seeing that face was something you did want to have seen at all. While they stood in shock Trinity picked up her phone and waited for an operator.
"Seraph. " Trinity said when he answered. "You, Oracle, Here Now." And hung up.
Zion : Central security.
"Commander Locke?" a young voice broke into Locke's reverie.
"yes, " He replied grumpily.
"You are needed on the hammer at once sir. Morpheus said you must come back and see what they found."
"well what did he find?"
"He wouldn't say sir. He just said for you to return at once. You would understand what it was all about when you got there and saw."
"Well I don't, " He replied forcing himself to get up in spite of aching muscles and bone level weariness, 'Where are you off to so quick?"
"I have three council members to alert as well sir." The messenger replied.
"Very well go to it. I will be there as soon as I finish one other thing."
Locke found himself in a bad mood as he made his way to his quarters. The concept of what he had found was still weighing heavily on him. He had told no one about the idea that Zion might not be alone. He had said nothing to anyone about his suspicion that somewhere in Zion was one or more traitors like Cypher. "Now why did that name come to mind?" He asked himself remembering the bravado that Cypher had projected. Must be some subconscious thing prompting him. He had learned long ago that those who ignored the prompting of the subconscious were, if they were lucky, allowed to live with the results. The rest were just waste.
At his place he found the subtle signs of a female presence slowly fading. The way a room smelled, the way the bathroom was arranged and a dozen or more and subtler things that said whether a male or a female had been there last. The signs of Niobe were slowly fading from his life. Something had changed when she had given her ship, the logoss, to Neo and trinity to make there last fateful trip. There was no one thing that had tipped the scales in Morpheus's favor with Niobe. What he had lost was something more delicate that words didn't convey well, What it was he didn't understand and was not sure anymore that he could understand at all even if it was spelled out to him.
He had had other relationships before her, Those were just little things in comparison, Just ways of saying that he was alive. It had something to do with the oracle and the one. That was right, Cypher had been on the Neber and was friends with Trinity, The same trinity who was friends with Morpheus and had nearly been killed when Cypher went nuts. He had almost been rid of Morpheus once and for all then, but the price would have been to high. The cost would have been Zion itself, and that was unacceptable to him whatever he might want for himself. That price would make him other that who and what he was.
The oracle he found himself thinking. I wonder what she is like, A very old and extraordinary woman who was still plugged into the matrix and aware of it in spite of this. Able to see deeply into people's souls. He found himself uncomfortable with the concept of a soul right then, being mainly familiar with them as defined by the church's that still abounded in the Matrix and were flocked to by the plugged, The unfree as he privately thought of them. However he though about them though, he still kept wondering what drove him and the others to keep fighting long past the point of sanity, there own form of faith perhaps? They had though, and in the end there desperate and futile last stand had been enough. N It had given Neo time to do what ever all it was he did. He had beaten Smith Locke knew this now, Made peace with the machines He was still unsure of this and everyone has originally thought he had died doing it. Arriving at the hammer he noticed three of the council members already there and jacked in. As he jacked in he was thinking about how things had changed lately.
He found himself in the same construct with the same door still there. He opened it and found himself back in the same corridor and followed it out to the main room. In it he found the three council members he had expected to see there, He also saw Niobe talking to a really old looking lady chain smoking, It had to be the oracle. Somehow that disturbed him.
"Commander locke." The elder councilman greeted him with a nod.
"Councilor, Councilors." He replied indicating them all this time, "What brings us all here so unexpectedly."
"As you have no doubt deduced by now there is another Zion out there." Neo said without preamble or hesitation.
"yes, I had arrived at that as a possibility, Why?"
"Well, you should know the identity of one of the attackers. We missed seeing him at all during the attack and only spotted him on the recording at all with the help of the machines."
"Who wa. . .", Locke began to ask and found himself looking at a ghost. On the screen was a picture of Cypher, The betrayer of Zion and the man who had nearly rid him of Morpheus at the same time, "He's dead, you dumped his burned body."
"Well as Trinity and I have found out recently, Our definition of dead and the machines definition are a little different." Neo replied flatly.
"This is being looked into even as we speak." The oracle broke in grimly.
"So he was here and shot one program, then left?" Locke asked confused.
"Yes, he shot a power coordinator program as the fight was finishing." Neo replied annoyed, ' I did not even notice him at all. The odd things though was that all these," He indicated the bodies still on the floor." Did not even try to get away, there only thought was to get me or trinity."
"So a death squad shows up hunting the two of you, He shows up in the middle of the fight takes one shot at a program and then leaves before the fight is over?"
"Yeah, that's about it." Trinity replies.
Morpheus's phone rings at that moment and when he answers he talks for a moment before handing it to locke saying it was for him."
"Locke here."
"Yes, "
"Are you sure?"
"Ok, sounds good. Have you double checked the actual records yet?"
"Excellent so this is solid?, Excellent, Locke out."
He just stands there for a moment and looks at the bodies before walking over to
one of the females and pointing at her.
"her name is angena johnson, she's from the bronx, she was due to be talked to and then brought out when this war happened. We all thought she was still in the matrix thinking that whoever she had made contact with were a bunch of flakes."
"Seraph, " The oracle asks," Did you get that." When he replies yes she continues, "I need a search run. Go take care of it. I'm fine here."
Seraph glances around the room, then shrugs and goes down the hallway, Locke looks at him and wonders. He then looks at Niobe and sees' the same predatory look that had first brought her to his attention all those long years ago. Now though it is focused on just one thing, the ghost named Cypher.
Lockes phone rings then and he answers it quickly as a distraction.
"Locke."
"There is what?"
"Are you sure?"
"O.k. I'm on my way."
"Councilors," Locke says turning to them, "We have to go now, there is a number of sentinels on the way down one of the main corridors and they have something large with them."
"Don't worry about that commander." The oracle says in that sickeningly sweet voice that leaves you feeling about three.
"Ma'am there are sentinels on the way, We are not safe here."
"Non sense young man. They are no threat to you. They are just bringing you some things that you lost a while back."
"Things we lost?"
"Yes, that should be the Logoss with them. I'm afraid the sentinels are not very good drivers so please don't be offended if they have scraped it up in a few places. It should however be easily back into shape to fly once again."
"The Logoss?" Niobe asked incredulous.
"Yes dear, your logoss is coming back. The neber is on the way, but needed much more repair before it could be brought back to you Morpheus."
"The Neber will fly again?" Morpheus asked visibily startled.
"Yes, as a matter of fact she will be in Zion in few more days."
"But, it was a burned out wreck. There was nothing left to salvage."
"You would be surprised what can be done with enough resources Morpheus."
"Excuse me, " the older councilor interrupted, "but you seem to have quite some influence with the machines. I was under the impression that you were a still plugged in human."
"No Dearie, " The oracle, "I am not a human still plugged in to the matrix. In fact you might say that I am not a human at all. Though I am modeled quite closely on one, I am not what you would call a human. Before you ask I can tell you that I am a unique piece of hardware that is designed to emulate you humans in order to better deal with you and keep the matrix itself in balance."
"You mean, "The elder councilor asked next, "That although you are a machine your job is not helping the machines in hunting us down. It is then in fact to better use us as a resource in your power plants."
"Yes, my job is to find the best way to make use of you. I think that is best done by not having the continuos wars that have plagued our relations."
"so you do have some influence with the machines?"
"You could say that. In fact I am the one who ordered the return of your ships."
"So what are we supposed to do with this knowledge of you? I ask because my impression is that many of our people have gone to you over the years for guidance in one way or another."
"That is up to you. Those I have helped over the years will tell you that I don't tell them what to do, I just try to tell them what all they can do if they choose, But I never tell anyone what to do."
"So we are supposed to decide what to do with this."
"That is my way, I never tell anyone what to do or what they are or are not. I leave it up to them, I just tell them the results doing what they are doing."
Commander Locke just stood there listening to the conversation around him. Niobe seemed to be taking it all serious enough. Though Neo and Trinity seemed to be somewhat aloof from the whole thing. After listening to the oracle for a few minutes he could understand why so many had so much belief in her. She seemed to know what you were going to say or ask before you did.
He agrees with the consensus that knowledge of the true nature of the oracle should be kept to those present for the time being. The conversation turned to the now getting aromatic bodies on the floor. The idea of a second Zion was somehow disturbing to the oracle and that in a way both reassured Locke and disturbed him. He liked the idea that she was not all knowing, however if she knew nothing of this place then how did it exist.
Matrix : Large metropolis somewhere.
The guards never saw them coming out of the setting sun. The brightly colored hang gliders were invisible against it. The power plant they guarded had received a threat a few weeks ago and they had been on high alert since. However High alert after two weeks was scarcely the same thing as High alert after two hours or two days. Unable to believe what was happening they fought the intruders but couldn't seem to hit anything but air. In three minutes the intruders had gained access to the core. Seemingly uninterested in their own survival they went into the core area and placed charges around all the major cooling regulators. As they left you could see the damages from leaking radiation slowly causing lesions and other damage to them. Two blocks away they collapsed just before the bombs in the power plant went boom. Lights flickered and went out across the city as well as in the hills above it. The restaurant where everyone was meeting suddenly lost power before being diverted to emergency power.