Through A Child's Eyes
"Matt shut up!"
"Hey, don't call me that anymore!"
"It's your name, idiot!"
"No, I'm thirteen now! I'm Squishy now!"
"Matt, shut up! Don't make me bust some Neo on your ass."
She slapped him in the chest like she always did. Of course she had gotten very skilled at it by now, and it hurt even more, as Matt turned putting his hands over his chest, silently screaming. Shadow smiled. And Glitch was holding back a laugh.
"Shut up, Glitch." Matt threatened.
Three thirteen-year-olds walking down stairs, their little own group of friends. Shadow, Glitch, and the newly named Squishy. A little girl with hair as black as Trinity's, and Squishy looking as tall as a future Agent, though he didn't really have the stomach for it, and Glitch future APU Operator as he called himself. Their own little crew, with their own little pretend ship, on their pretend missions.
That is how it is now. When born into the Matrix you wait until you're seventeen to be freed. Thirteen to choose your own name. This is how it is, fifty-six years after the war.
These three born after the war. These three friends since they can remember. Shadow, Squishy, and Glitch. Shadow who always wore black every day for some reason, Squishy who liked to say 'moo', and Glitch the quiet one. Shadow who once wore a suit to school, and upset the teachers for dressing like an Agent.
But then again, that was Shadow. Shadow, the Agent lover.
"So where are we going?" Glitch asked.
"I told you, it's a surprise." Shadow hissed.
"Then why do we have to be so quiet?" Squishy mocked.
Shadow looked over at him, and rolled her eyes.
"Listen you guys. Remember that fight we had a couple weeks ago?" Shadow asked.
"You mean the one about Peanut butter?" Glitch asked.
"No! I mean the serious one!"
"Oh, the Neo Smith thing." Squishy said.
"Yeah." Shadow quieted down. "Well, you know that equation thing? The one people are talking about?"
"The negative cannot live without the positive. They must be together in life and in death." Matt said, rather bored.
"And I said, since Neo is going to return, then Smith will too." Shadow said.
"Uh-huh." Matt said.
"Yeah...well." Shadow began.
Then she was quiet, and Squishy and Glitch exchanged glances.
"Smith has sufficed." Shadow whispered.
"What?" Glitch asked, neither of them heard her.
Then she started running down the stairs ahead of them. Down this building which is rumored to once have held the Oracle. Old and broken, surely it has seen more than one cycle of the Matrix. Green walls and green flooring. Yes, a very old Matrix building.
She started jumping down the stairs. And then the two boys got the idea that she was serious, and started running after her. They were currently on the ninth floor, while she was somewhere at the fifth. She was fast.
And when the echoes of her footsteps stopped, and they were at the basement the two boys looked around, but couldn't find her.
"This is insane." Muttered Squishy.
Then someone grabs him from behind, and puts a hand over his mouth.
"Sh..." It was Shadow.
She nodded at Glitch, as she lowered Squishy and Glitch to the floor.
"Look." She pointed around the corner.
Squishy took a look, then started thrashing, and screaming through Shadow's hand. And Glitch...Glitch didn't do anything but stare in horror.
"Matt. Matt! Quiet." Shadow urged. "If you scream, he'll hear us."
Then she let go of his mouth, and Squishy just sat there.
"We have to go, we have to go right now." Squishy started crawling away.
"Matt, it's okay." Shadow said.
"Are you crazy!? That's Agent Smith! Agent Smith! The guy who single-handedly killed Neo!" Squishy started yelling.
"Matt. Listen to me. It's okay." Shadow tried to explain.
"Wow..." Glitch whispered.
"That's Agent Smith!" Matt continued.
"Matt, shut up." Shadow tried to not scream.
"Wow..." Glitch whispered again.
And there in the corner of the basement, just next to the light that shined through the window, was Smith. Still dressed in a suit, still with sunglasses on. He just sat there, his suit collecting dust.
"Wow..." Glitch smiled.
"Mae, you and I, both love Smith. I think he's really cool. That doesn't change the fact he's pure evil!" Squishy yelled.
"Matt, listen," Shadow tried.
"No, just because you say Smith can feel anything more than hatred, doesn't mean he can!"
"Wow..." Glitch again.
Then Shadow looked away from Squishy, looked over at Smith. Shadow, who always said Smith should have won, Smith should have lived, Smith should have been free. In her eyes he deserved it.
"Then tell me, why does he just sits there, day after day. Tell me Matt, why he doesn't move an inch, just collecting dust. Tell me, why he doesn't bother to move, but bother's to breath. Why doesn't he move, Matt? Why doesn't he try and rule the world again?" Shadow said.
Squishy stared at her.
"Damn you, you fanfiction writer." Squishy said. "You Angst bitch. Stop making everything so sad."
Shadow smiled.
"Why does he bother to live, when he lives his life in here? He wants to live, Squishy. He doesn't want to die, he fears it." Shadow continued.
"This is heavy." Glitch whispered. "We need to tell somebody."
"No! They'll kill him!" Shadow said.
"Then what the hell do we do now?" Squishy asked.
Shadow stared at him, the program she wrote so much about. Ridiculed for giving the Virus soul, hated for feeling compassion for something as horrible as Smith. But then she couldn't help but smile at him.
"We go over there, and say hi." Shadow said.
"What!?" Squishy yelled.
"Shadow, you're not serious." Glitch stared at her.
"Guys...I've been coming here for three months. Everyday after school. I'm come here for an hour. Walk closer and closer to him. He hasn't moved yet. I don't think he has any fight left in him." Shadow said. "I want to say hi now."
Then Shadow stood up, and started walking towards Smith.
"Mae! Mae damn it!" Matt started yelling.
"Shadow, don't!" Glitch yelled.
"Mae this isn't one of your stories!"
Shadow turned to them.
"Maybe it is." Shadow said, and smiled.
Then she started walking again. The two boys looked at each other. Then they started running after Shadow. Like Neo and Trinity going to save Morpheus from Smith.
Far too late though. Shadow stood above Smith, as he stared down at the ground, still not moving, still not bothering to lift his head to look up at her. So she knelt down.
"Hey. Hey, you okay?" Shadow whispered to him.
Squishy and Glitch stopped right behind her, and froze, getting ready to run.
"Hey, Smith?" She continued.
Then Smith looked up.
"You, you've been coming her for a long time." He whispered.
"Ahh!"
"Ahh!" The boys screamed.
"Shut up you guys!" Shadow hissed.
"He's going to kill us!" Squishy pointed.
"No he's not!"
"Just like he killed Neo!" Squishy yelled.
"Neo?"
Everyone stopped, and looked at Smith.
"I remember that name..." He said. "The man in the black coat..."
Shadow smiled.
"His voice so slow, and deep...As if he were trying not to scream at the world that he knew would not listen..." Shadow said, quoting one of her stories.
She looked at Smith. His suit so dirty, nothing from the Zion Archives. Nothing from the dark black. Just dust, dust that collected for fifty-six years. He looked so frail now. So small and weak. Just a small part of the Matrix, too little for anyone to notice.
It must be horrible to be so small when he was once so great. Just part of the world instead of owning it.
Of course, only Shadow was thinking that, while the boys that read her stuff, and didn't understand it stood there. Not even her parents understood it. Her obsession, her dedication, her beliefs. They didn't need to understand though.
"Do you remember Neo?" She asked Smith. "Do you remember anything?"
Smith looked at her confused.
"Of course I do, little girl." He said.
"Even the...fight in the rain...?" Shadow looked at him.
"Ah, the rain...I love the rain..." He whispered.
"You love the rain?" Squishy raised an eyebrow.
"Matt!" Shadow yelled.
Smith looked up at him, the boy almost looked what he assumed Jones would look like if he was a child.
"I stood in the rain once..." Smith said his voice trailing, looking away.
"I told you, you guys. I told you." Shadow said.
Then she touch his arm. All her life, learning about the program that became a virus. All her life trying to make up a side of him no one knew. The little girl that wore a suit to school, and wrote fanfiction.
"Smith...do you really remember? Everything...? Like how you got here?" Shadow asked.
"I've always been here..." He said.
Shadow looked up at the boys.
"So what's wrong with him, Smith lover?" Squishy looked like he was going to throw up.
Shadow looked over at Smith.
"He lost the fight, because they deleted him from the inside out. Wouldn't you be traumatized by that?" Shadow said.
Glitch then kneeled next to them.
"So you're Smith." Glitch said, and Smith nodded.
"Only broken, half functional. Broken part of what once. Broken memories, fading into dark." Shadow said quoting another story.
It's not really known what happened between Neo and Smith in the last battle, the Machines won't tell anyone. People only know Smith was destroyed in deletion, Neo was killed by Smith. Only a few who really know the internet know that Smith ruled the world. That has been kept a secret.
"You're broken aren't you, Smith?" Shadow asked.
"Broken?" He looked at her.
"I told you guys. A million times, I told you." She said.
"You're protecting a murderer." Squishy said.
"A murderer only trying to make the smells go away." Shadow said.
"Smells?" Smith asked.
"What smells?" Glitch asked.
She hadn't told them about the smells yet.
"You remember, right Smith, the smells?" Shadow asked.
"The smells..." Smith nodded.
"Do we still smell?" She asked.
"I don't know anymore." Smith said.
"What smells!?" Squishy yelled.
"To him the Matrix is nothing but a torture. Smells produced by humans, filth, horrible smells grabbing him, choking him making him breath." Shadow said. "All his life, with smells. He would've chosen death for awhile rather than the smells."
Smith stared at this girl that reminded him a rebel named Trinity. She kept talking about him, or he assumed him.
But he didn't remember that life anymore.
Shadow started dusting Smith off, and looking at Squishy, wondering if he would help. While Glitch, Glitch was asking Smith questions, and he didn't have any answers.
"Hey, Smith. Guess what." She said. "I'm a Smith lover, and I've been waiting to meet you for a very long time." She smiled.
Then Shadow grabbed his sunglasses, and took them off.
"I knew they were blue." Shadow smiled. "See, don't they make him look sad?" She leaned up at looked at Squishy.
"Angst writer." Squishy said.
"You have to admit, this is cool." Glitch said. "I mean, dude, come on. He's Smith, but now he's not."
Shadow put Smith's sunglasses on.
"How do I look?" She smiled at Smith.
"They're too big for you." He said.
Shadow laughed and gave them back to him.
"Squish, you know you want to." Shadow teased.
Squishy then sat down next to Shadow and Glitch.
"Hey, Smith." Squishy said.
"You know you don't remember, right Smith?" Shadow asked.
"Yes." He answered.
"Well we're going to help you remember. I don't want to scare you, Smith, but it's kind of bad, kind of sad. Is that okay?" Shadow said.
"But I still have to wait here." Smith said.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because I'm waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Neo."
So the three with their pretend missions would go back to Smith, and tell him what he once was. Show him books, and pictures. What happened to Jones and Brown, now that they live in New York. The three kids, and the one that liked Smith, with their pretend crew, and pretend lives.
People always wondered what they did, when they left school together, bags full of books and pictures of Neo and Agents. What that girl with the Smith pictures in her locker did with those two boys.
Pretend lives.
Lives that Shadow put on paper, and entered as Fanfiction.
And right now, they're in that basement, playing poker, and Smith is winning because he has the best poker face ever. Squishy's birthday is tomorrow, and they're going to give him presents. Smith is going to give him a cow in a suit, because Squishy says moo a lot.
Smith won again, and has the chips, Glitch and Squishy back out, and Shadow. Shadow is writing on her notepad. Then he smiles, and says he wins. Squishy makes a comment about Agent Johnson, and Smith shoots one of his skilled looks of Agent death as they have dubbed it. Squishy shut ups, and Glitch starts laughing.
Shadow starts writing this on her notepad, along with scribbles of Smith.
Then Smith turns to her, and grabs her notepad to see what's she writing. She yells to give it back, but he simply stands up, and raises it out of her reach. Then he gives it back, and smiles at her.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
May be continued.
Based on true friends:
Squishy is my friend Matt, and he does look like an Agent, and it is his birthday tomorrow. Glitch is my friend Gino, who loves APUS.
And as you've already guessed, I'm Shadow.
