Disclaimer: I do not own the Matrix.

His lips fluttered. His eye twitched. Soon, his entire face was convulsing, shaking. And then he opened his eyes and let loose the most chilling, wailing scream ever to be heard in the so-called Machine City. But only machines were around to hear it, so it mattered little. He felt unclean, artificial, and disgusted, if only at himself. He was lifted by an unseen force to his feet. And then the pain started.

His head rolled like a swarming tide, and he felt his very feet going limp, but still he remained vertical. The voice that spoke only worsened his head.

"The vertigo will pass. You have been off your feet for many months."

He looked up, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine. This feeling, this human emotion, startled him. Was he human? He looked downward at his hands. He felt them. They felt real. This couldn't be the Matrix. Was he human?

"Do not be alarmed at your present appearance. Your disgust will pass."

He wanted the voice to shut up, to stop talking, to go to hell, to be destroyed.

But Deus Ex Machina, the Ghost in the Machine, simply smiled his fake smile. The tiny machines that created his "face" buzzed around in constant movement, only adding to his irritation.

"I will concise the story. The machines and the humans have a truce. This truce was reached by your destruction. But we have recently discovered you were not destroyed at all, merely put in a suspended state, a stand by. We have preserved and nurtured the body of the One, repaired its vision, and even improved its physical condition. We have transferred brain information, much like you would the memory of a computer. You now occupy the body and Matrix code of the One, so you have his powers and capabilities. But your residual self image remains the same. When asked why, you must reply it is because of your connection when you were assimilated. Do you understand what I have told you?"

He knew that if he said no, Deus would only explain the situation again. And again. Until he understood. So he weakly nodded his head that, yes, he understood. Deus looked satisfied. Satisfied enough, at least.

"W-". He stopped. He had to get used to this human mouth.

"Why are you telling me these things?"

Deus just stared. "You are not aware of your identity, are you?"

He struggled to understand.

Deus motioned toward an opposite wall.

He walked to it and looked back at Deus.

"Remove the wires and see."

He did, aggressively. He looked down at the wires, then up at his reflection. He snarled and drew back his fist.

"Mr. Anderson!"

He plunged his fist through the glass. But there was no glass. Only slick, shiny metal. His hand scraped off and split open a few knuckles. He yelped in pain and cradled his hand to his chest pathetically like a human.

"As I said, Former Agent Smith, you have taken the body of the One. The mind remains yours."

Smith, or Neo, looked up at Deus in anger.

"You will return to Zion the savior of the human race. You are to then quietly and discreetly gain access codes to Zion's mainframe. To do this, you must become a ship's captain. After your induction and selection of your crew, take your ship back here, and deliver the codes directly to me. You will be recognized a neutral. Your crew shall be killed."

Smith did not know how to respond emotionally. "Why am I to do this?"

"You once tried to destroy the Matrix. Now you shall destroy the humans."

Smith looked over the city. He had never seen it before. The birth fields, the towers that held the countless humans under machine control.

"I have no choice, do I?"

"There is no such thing as choice. Only subtle control."