Eeep, the penultimate chapter! I hope you can deal with the Architect's dodgy flowery language – I know it's a bit confusing but hey, he's a ponce. If there's anything you don't understand I can still answer it with a quick shout-out at the beginning of Chapter 19, so do not despair! Lol : )
Speaking of which, Chapter 19 will be up before next Sunday, as I'm going on holiday for a week on Saturday. I'm not sure what day it will be, I've got quite a lot happening this week so it just depends when I can find the time! But don't worry, it will be Friday at the latest.
See first chapter for disclaimer.
Chapter 18: The Final Decision
"What a pleasure it is to meet you at last," said the Architect, holding out his hand. I looked up at Morpheus for a nod of consent before accepting it, starting to realise the importance of who this man was. We had only heard him being mentioned briefly, and had been told never to expect to meet him. So much for that idea. I looked over at Khenti-Irti while Hannah had her hand shaken in turn; he was standing still as a statue, eyes fixed straight ahead, but a small smile trying to convince his lips it should be let out.
"And the great Morpheus," the Architect continued, turning to face our captain. The two men stood in silence for a few moments, and I couldn't decide if they were weighing each other up or trying to stare each other down. As far as the Architect was concerned, Morpheus was one of his greatest enemies, messing with the system and taking people in and out. Both Hannah and I were amazed by his geniality.
"Now let me guess…Niobe? And Trinity." He kept smiling, but their faces were stony as they stiffly accepted his hand. Their lack of wonder surprised me; meeting the Architect was supposed to be a once-in-a-life-time experience, and they were just standing there, straight-faced and tense.
"You know why we're here," stated Morpheus simply. The Architect looked somewhat put-out and his smile almost faltered, but his expression was quickly restored as he opened a door on our left.
"Of course."
The room into which we were ushered was just a small staff room, with a sink and mirror by the door, a few cupboards dotted here and there and what we presumed was a dining table in the centre. The Architect took a seat at the head of the table, with Khenti-Irti placing himself at his right hand. Morpheus motioned for Hannah and I to sit side-by-side at the opposite end, as far away from the Architect as possible, and he, Trinity and Niobe filled the spaces in between. When we were settled, the Architect leaned back slightly and folded his hands together, giving a relaxed appearance but remaining composed.
"So I see you have found your way here."
"Wasn't hard. We had to," said Niobe.
"Interesting. Of course you are aware that there was no inherent requirement for this meeting to transpire, yet you inadvertently succumbed to the inevitability of your choice."
This guy talks a lot of bullshit, Hannah and I thought simultaneously.
"For your part you prolonged this meeting with your riddles," commented Morpheus. "Why did you use them?" The Architect smiled.
"To conceal my identity, naturally. Did you not believe I was another rebel?"
"We thought you were a whole circle of the bastards," Niobe corrected, raising her eyebrows a little.
"I did not underestimate your knowledge. You know who I am, you know what I can do, and thanks to you humans' astounding predictability I was able to prognosticate your refusal to co-operate if you were aware of my identity."
I didn't believe that we would have steered clear of him if we knew who he was – he would still have had Neo, after all – but coming from the man who was metaphorically married to the Oracle, the ultimate predictor of human behaviour, we had to take his word.
"I did leave you certain indications, admittedly, in selecting my aliases."
"What? No, there were no clues, only that all the different names were forms of the same god, but that didn't tell us who you were," said Trinity, finding her voice.
I looked to the Architect for a reply but saw that Morpheus was shaking his head, eyes shut, as if he had just realised something that had been obvious all along. He looked up at the ceiling and said,
"Horus. The earliest Egyptian god. The creator." Hannah and I exchanged glances.
I can't believe we didn't realise…it's so obvious now!
"Yes," said the Architect, "and I was even generous enough to present you with an allusion to who I wanted in exchange for Neo, although you did not require it."
Trinity looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about?"
"I never explicitly told you I wanted the Misses Anderson, you had to infer that yourselves from my messages. But you did, I believe, stumble across the clue I left you."
"No, Morpheus worked it out," Hannah said. "He knew it was us when he read your first message, didn't you Morpheus?" He gave a minute nod, but met Hannah's eyes to show his assent. The Architect sighed.
"Then my effort was in vain. Horus is said to have had the Sun and Moon as eyes; I thought Morpheus with his knowledge of theological mythology would have observed that Artemis and Apollo are the goddesses of the Sun and Moon."
Trinity stirred, "That's what you meant? A hint to who you wanted? We thought you meant…I don't believe this."
"Yes, I understand there was an element of rather unfortunate misinterpretation occurring. The human mind, riddled with faults. A risk I was impelled to take. Although I noted how my other attempts at communication were correctly received. Your appearance in Salisbury was verging on unexpected."
"What was actually with that message?" Asked Hannah, wanting to clear things up once and for all. "Why did you bother asking us to come to Salisbury when you were already gonna ask Morpheus to bring us to you?"
"Because every successful stratagem has what you would call a back-up. To meet you without the interference of your protective shipmates would have been less troublesome. Ergo I sent you the message while you were still in the Matrix with the intention of Morpheus never seeing it. However this attempt transpired to be futile."
Sneaky, scheming little bastard! Trying to get us on our own without Morpheus to make sure we're okay!
So Trinity misinterpreting the Sun and Moon message was a good thing after all.
"But I don't understand," said Trinity.
Glad I'm not the only one.
She tucked a stray hair behind her ear and continued, "Why did you need us to bring you the twins in the first place? You knew where they were and how to contact them, so why bother with us?"
"Because in creating the Matrix I did not bestow upon myself the ability to "free minds", as this process generates systemic complications which for me are only disadvantageous. Inter-programme transfers, such as when I moved Neo, or when the Merovingian moved Artemis, are possible with adequate competence, but I have not yet developed for myself the ability to remove individuals from the system entirely. Perhaps next time the Matrix is redesigned I will incorporate this capability into its structure."
"Yeh, but why did our minds need to be free? Why couldn't you just stick with contact within the Matrix?"
"Because only once your minds are freed are you completely suitable."
"Suitable for what?"
All eyes turned on the Architect and the room became unbearably silent as we held our breath waiting for the answer. But all he did was smile.
"If you don't tell us what your intentions are, I will not leave the twins with you," said Morpheus.
"If you don't leave the twins with me, you will never see Neo again," the Architect replied curtly. Morpheus seethed.
This is bullshit. We've found Neo! I've been in the bloody programme - we don't even need the Architect to get him back! As if he was reading my thoughts, the Architect turned to me.
"You couldn't bring him out, could you?"
I sat up. "What?"
"When you accidentally entered the programme in which I left Neo, you were unable to take him out, am I right?"
"Um…yes…" I looked nervously at Hannah, who understood and began to talk for me.
"Why was that?"
"When creating the programme, I incorporated Neo's DNA into its configuration to ensure that it recognised him and did now allow him outside its confinements. Indeed it was intended that no other individual would be able to enter the programme, however I suspect Apollo was able to gain entry because her DNA is so essentially similar to Neo's. The programme became confused while trying to interpret her information. This may appear to suggest that the programme is flawed, however it only confirms its ability to recognise identity, and the overriding certainty is that it will not make the mistake of allowing Neo out before I decide to alter it."
"In other words, don't even bother trying to rescue Neo on your own," said Khenti-Irti, shooting me a dark, warning glare. "Only the Architect can re-write the programme to let him go."
I began to see why Morpheus was silently fuming. The Architect was just being too damn cunning.
"But why did the Keymaker have a key to the programme?" Asked Hannah, quickly moving on. "If no-one was supposed to be able to get in anyway, what's the point?"
"Because it is necessary for him to be capable of creating a key leading to any programme, it is his purpose, and without this ability he would have no use. However on this occasion he did not intentionally make a key to the programme in question – the key he made was multipurpose, it could be used to satisfy numerous difficulties."
"But he told Sa- I mean, he told Apollo it would take her to Neo!"
"Did he?" This time all eyes were on me, and I squirmed uncomfortably, only able to nod. "Are you sure?"
I looked away and tried to refresh my memory, although I was certain he had told me that. But my eyes widened as I recalled his words when he gave it to me.
"It will fit into any door. Use it as soon as you can, and remember to shut it behind you."
I looked up slowly. The Architect was right, he had said nothing at all about what it was for or where it would lead. He had also instructed me to tell no-one he had given it to me, but I realised that must have just been to stop him getting in trouble with the Merovingian for assisting me. This whole situation was turning out to be one huge entangled web of mistakes and misunderstandings, but I suppose that was only to be expected when humans and machines began interfering with each other.
There was an awkward silence as people tried to take everything in and comprehend all that had been said. Morpheus was the one to break it, with,
"Enough of these questions. What is your proposal regarding Neo and his sisters?"
The Architect cleared his throat and said, "If you leave the twins with me, then upon returning to your ship you will find Neo awake. This is your last chance."
"What do you mean, 'last chance'," asked Hannah nervously. He turned to her with his face solemn.
"If Morpheus takes you with him, I will no longer have a purpose for Neo and I will kill him." We all caught our breath – there had been mentions that we wouldn't see him again, but not that the Architect would actually kill him. He looked at each of us in turn, making his way round the table, and no-one could meet his stare.
"So what is your decision?" He rose and stood behind his chair.
The moment of truth.
Morpheus looked at Hannah and I, and we had to turn away, finding it too unbearable to see the pain in his face. It was utterly unfair to expect Morpheus to choose who should live and die; if he had never met us before it would be difficult, but after serving as our captain it was ridiculous to ask it of him.
"Morpheus," said Hannah quietly. "You don't have to take any guilt. We choose to stay."
Trinity met our eyes and we could see the turmoil in her too; she was so desperate to have her Neo back, but hadn't realised the price we would all have to pay for it. For her, this whole experience had just been one set back after another, and we felt ashamed for not having appreciated how tough it must have been for her.
"Please, just go back to the Neb." Hannah was starting to find it hard to speak. Niobe, having never had anything to do with either me, Hannah or Neo, was the only one of us left to be almost unaffected. Of course we didn't know about it at the time, but her concern was mainly for Morpheus, and she was still able to act – to some extent - as a voice of reason.
"You don't know what might happen to you," she said, turning to my twin and I. She lowered her voice, "He could do anything. And if he won't even tell us what, that is not a good sign." Hannah's voice was barely a whisper when she replied,
"We know." She looked back at Morpheus, before we both stood up and walked over to him, where he also rose and faced us. "Neo's the One, remember? You'll need him for…I dunno, saving the world or something. He's far more important. You've spent your whole life searching for him, now don't go and throw it all away." He looked long and hard at each of us in turn, as if trying to memorise faces he knew he would never see again. It broke my heart.
"Don't worry, Morpheus," I said. "You've been the best captain in the world. We couldn't have asked to be trained by anyone better. Once your gone, if he tries anything, we'll kick his ass." And I grinned. He tried to smile, then suddenly stepped forward and engulfed us in a huge, warm embrace. We were taken aback by such an open sign of affection from someone who was usually incredibly self-contained, and I was moved to add,
"This isn't the end. We'll be back."
The Architect sighed and strolled over.
"So is that your decision? Are the twins staying with me?"
"Yes, we're staying," said Hannah, saving Morpheus the pain of confirming it. For as little time as possible, she finished mentally.
"Then the rest of you can return to your ship and be reunited with Neo," said the Architect.
Niobe and Trinity slowly got up. We hadn't really said good-bye to Trinity properly, but knew that if we tried now it would just make things harder. Instead we turned and each put a hand on her shoulders.
"Go and be with Neo," said Hannah.
"He'll be needing you," I concluded. She smiled and hugged us just as Morpheus had done, but somehow after she had drawn back they still seemed reluctant to leave. The Architect shook his head.
"You humans and your complex emotions."
"Just go," Hannah whispered. They looked at each other, at the Architect, and finally at us, before slowly turning and silently making their way out. Morpheus was at the back, and as he passed the mirror next to the door, I saw that his right cheek glistened with a single tear streak.
