Program 5: Metatron

"I can't go back, can I?" Magna asked as he woke up from his recovering sleep on the bed in his quarters, sensing someone in the room with him.

"You can," Morpheus said, sitting across from him talking to the boy's back, "But now that you know the truth, do you really want to?"

"…"

"It is not as bad as you think. The war between Zion and the Machines is now over. It's been this way for almost seventeen years now. We can free people from the Matrix freely without fear of being attacked in the Real World."

"How's that possible?"

"Someone ended the war and brought peace to our people."

"Who…?"

"Neo," Morpheus said simply.

"Neo?"

"Yes. He was 'the One'. He started as simply as you did: born into the Matrix as a normal citizen. We freed him from that dream world and brought him to join the Nebuchadnezzar, my former ship. There were nine of us then; Neo, myself, Tank, Dozer, Mouse, Apoc, Switch, Cypher and Trinity."

"I trained Neo and taught him the truth of the Matrix," Morpheus continued, "For weeks on end I trained him to realize his full potential. Nearing the end of his training, I received word from the Oracle."

"Sati?"

"No. The original Oracle. The one before the one you know. We were to bring Neo to her to be tested to see if he was 'the One'. Afterwards, when we returned to the exit point, Cypher betrayed us and my crew were picked off by him one by one. I was captured by the government and tortured to divulge the code to Zion's Mainframe Computer. I was ready to crack when Neo and Trinity came to my rescue."

"We were all set to leave the Matrix again, when Agents jumped Neo and he was forced to flee to another exit. He was killed by one of them, Agent Smith, but he miraculously rose from the dead. That confirmed it. Neo was 'the One'. He became a valuable member of my crew and an irreplaceable friend."

"How did he end the war?" Magna asked.

"It was around the time when Link replaced Tank as the Operator of our ship. We rescued the Keymaker who was held by a dangerous program known as the Merovingian. We were pursued by Agents on the freeway until Neo rescued us from a fiery fate. Two other crews had come to the Matrix to bring us back to Zion, since we were preparing to make our stand against the Machines who were coming to wipe out Zion. The Keymaker laid out a grand plan to get us into a secret door that led to the Source, where Neo could end the war. The plan worked."

"And that was how the war ended?"

"No. Neo returned to the Matrix and we jacked out. He told us that if nothing was done in twenty-four hours, Zion would be destroyed. We were then attacked by Sentinels, who blew up my ship. Neo stopped them, but his mind was separated from his body. We were picked up by another ship and returned to the Matrix to consult the Oracle and she told us that the Merovingian was holding him captive in the world between."

"Trinity, Seraph and I…"

"Sensei? Sensei went with you?" Magna gasped at the mention of his teacher's name.

"Yes, he did. We fought through 'Hel' to get Neo back, and we were successful. When we returned to the Real World, Neo told us that he had to go to the Machine City, which back then was known as suicide. Captain Niobe of the Logos gave him her ship and Trinity went with him. That was the last we ever saw of them."

"Did you ever find out what happened to them?"

"Yes. When we arrived at Zion, we detonated an electromagnetic pulse bomb, or EMP, to destroy the Sentinels attacking our city. Shortly after, another wave came and we were without defense. We were ready to fight them again, even though we knew we would die."

"And then they left," Morpheus ended simply.

"They left?" Magna asked in disbelief, "They had you just where they wanted and they left?"

"Their leaving was a sign to us that Neo had finally ended the war between us and the Machines. They haven't come back to Zion since. We now have a kind of treaty with them that allows us to free minds from the Matrix without outside interference. But inside…" Morpheus paused and let out a small laugh, "Well, they never said anything about inside the Matrix."

This barely made any sense to Magna. How did Neo end the war? Did he die doing so? And just what the heck made Neo 'the One'?

"Neo was born to be 'the One'," Morpheus said. He seemed to sense what Magna was thinking, "He could stop bullets, he could fly, he single-handedly drove back Agents. In my mind, he could do anything he put his mind to. And I believe it is the same case…with you."

Magna turned to face Morpheus in shock after realizing what Morpheus seemed to be hinting at.

"You think that I'm…" Magna began.

"It's been a hard day for you, Magna," Morpheus got up from where he was sitting, "Get some rest. Tomorrow, we'll begin."

"Begin what?"

"Training."

Morpheus left the room and closed the door behind him and left Magna with many confused thoughts running through his mind.

"Hey…wake up."

"…five more minutes, Sati…" Magna mumbled into his pillow and tried to swat away the hand that disturbed him from his sleep. He groggily opened one eye and found the ship's Operator's face looking back at him. He groaned as he yawned and pushed himself off of his pillow, "I was hoping this was a bad dream…"

"Don't we all…" Link sympathized, "I'm Link. Operator of the Metatron." Link extended his hand and Magna shook it.

"Why're you here?" Magna rubbed his eyes.

"I'm supposed to rouse you up for training. Morpheus sent me personally."

"Training?" Magna was fully awake now.

"Yeah. You're part of this crew now and you'll be assisting us inside the Matrix," the black man told the teenager, "Plus, we need to start developing your…gifts."

"Gifts? I have gifts now?"

"It should become clear during training," Link began to exit Magna's quarters, "We have to start right away. Come on."

Hesitantly, Magna followed Link to the control centre of the ship. Link strapped Magna into one of the empty chairs and inserted a plug into the back of his head; however, this one didn't lead him to the Construct, it was for loading information into the brain (but Magna didn't know this yet). A screen was hung overhead in front of the boy's eyes while Link took his place at the Operator's station.

"So…what's the training supposed to be?" Magna asked, feeling strange as a result of the plug in the back of his head and his being still being conscious in the Real World.

"You'll see. Now…what to start with?" Link started skimming through some of the disks around his station, looking for a suitable program to start Magna on, "We got Operation Training, Stamina Training, Combat Training…I can't decide. Tell you what," Link offered, "Why don't you pick which program to train in first."

"…" Magna thought it over, "Combat Training sounded interesting. I used to study martial arts with Sera-" Magna stopped, remembering his mentor and how he was nothing more than a computer program in a virtual world. He still couldn't believe that the one whom he looked up to was nothing more than a composition of data. Magna always thought of Seraph as some kind of superhuman.

Sometimes, Magna thought Seraph wasn't human at all.

Not far from the truth, huh? He thought silently to himself, wondering how Seraph and his surrogate family were back in the Matrix.

"So…Combat Training?" Link asked.

"Yeah. I'm a fighter, anyway," Magna was stirred from his thoughts.

"All right, hang on a minute," Link inserted the desired disk into the computer systems and selected a style of martial art for Magna to train in. The desired martial art was displayed on the screen in front of Magna. He read it over with a brief kind of excitement.

"Jujitsu," he looked at the screen in bemusement, "I'm going to learn…jujitsu?"

"He responded that way, too. Or from what I've heard," Link touched the screen that began the program and looked over Magna's brain patterns.

"He? You mean-" Magna began, but was cut off when the plug in his head made him thrust back in his chair. His eyes closed and his mind was flooded with the various techniques of jujitsu with his mind memorizing each one of them automatically. It was overwhelming. His body tensed up as the martial arts were embedded into his brain. All the movements and techniques that took years of perfecting by even the masters were now being engraved into his mind.

Then, all at once, it was over.

Magna's eyes shot open and he gasped for air.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Watch your language, young man!" Link glanced at him from his station, "So, how'd you like it?"

"…thank you, sir, may I have another?" Magna replied, shocked from all the moves he had learned just in a few moments. It was too amazing. He needed more.

"Why of course. Our next dish on the menu is Tae Kwon Do. We hope you enjoy." Link switched the martial art to the next one on the disk and loaded the techniques into Magna's mind. Again, Magna tensed up as all the information was placed into his brain and after it was over, he relaxed and his eyes opened.

"It's like some kind of drug," Magna gasped after the Tae Kwon Do finished loading into him, "Some kind of wonderful, ass-kicking, mind shattering drug."

"You like it?"

"Oh, very much, thank you."

"Would you like some more?"

"Hell, yes!"

Several hours later, Magna was unplugged and Link released him from the chair. It was a shame that Link stopped the training somewhere after Kickboxing, but it couldn't be helped. He promised Magna that there'd be more martial arts training later. It gave Magna something to look forward to.

"I think it's time you had some breakfast," Link said, "The Mess Hall is this way."

Link led the way to the Mess Hall where he and Magna were met with the sight of Blitz, Kage and Taurus eating what appeared to look to Magna oatmeal that was drowned in milk. Link went over to three overhanging nozzles, took two bowls/tins and spoons from nearby, squeezed the nozzle so that the oatmeal milk mess drooped into the bowls and handed one to Magna before he sat down.

"There's no better breakfast in the Real World," Link told him before digging into his own slop.

"Yeah, except for everything in the Matrix," Blitz noted as he swallowed another scoop of his mix. The older boy with blonde hair glanced at Magna as he took a seat next to Taurus.

"It's not real," Kage told Blitz, "Nothing in there is. You think you ate something, so your brain told you that you ate something. That's all the Matrix is. It came as a shock to me, too, but I got over it. You will too."

"Better than this slop," he muttered under his breath, "Runny eggs are better than this."

Magna took a scoop of his food and stared at it. It looked so weird.

"You need your strength, so eat up," Taurus said to Magna, "Unless you're not going to eat that…"

"No…I'll try it…" Magna closed his eyes, put the spoon in his mouth, chewed the 'food' and swallowed it. It tasted so strange. Kind of like the runny eggs that Blitz mentioned. He turned to Taurus, "Why do I need to eat this? Isn't there anything else onboard?"

"No, there's not. At least, not yet. That bowl right there has everything your body needs to grow strong. How do you think I these?" Taurus showed off the muscles on his right arm to Magna.

"I was going to guess working out, but now I think I'm wrong…"

"So, where are Morpheus and the girls?" Link asked the others.

"Morpheus and Valkyrie are tending to the passengers below deck. I haven't seen Ophani all day," Kage answered.

Magna looked up from Taurus' muscles to Kage as soon as he mentioned Ophani's name.

"Where do you think she is?" Magna asked. He had wondered where she was in-between his conscious times during his training. He'd seen everyone pass by him except her.

"Interested in Ophani?" Link asked.

"Ah…n-not really…" Magna lied.

"So why's your face turning red?" Blitz stood up to put his bowl away. Magna put a hand to his face and he could feel it becoming very warm.

"No reason. It just, um, does this sometimes."

"Right…"

Magna suddenly got a weird feeling in his stomach. He needed to go. NOW.

"I'm done," Magna stood up suddenly and headed for the door rather quickly, "Taurus, you can have the rest if you want."

"Cool. But where are you going?"

"I need to use the can. I never got a chance to relieve myself since I came here," Magna said quickly before leaving for his room, "Later."

Magna tried to remember the way from the Mess Hall to his quarters. Left or right? Taking a chance, he turned left and dashed up the steps to where he hoped was his room. Looking up and down the corridor, he tried to look for the door to his room, but none of them looked right.

Wrong way! He slapped himself before heading in the opposite direction as fast as he could. Could he hold it in before he reached his room? Rushing through the hall, he spotted the door to his room and dashed into it as quickly as he could. Undoing his pants, he locked the door as best he could before he sat down immediately onto the toilet and began to take care of business.

"Whew…" Magna sighed in relief as his body purged itself of waste, "I didn't think I'd make it…"

He wished he'd brought something to read as he sat there relieving himself for what seemed like a long time, but he had enough to think about. Seraph worked with Morpheus? An underground city called Zion? Some kind of 'Messiah' called Neo? These questions burned in his mind while he tried to sort out everything he learned.

Humanity had been trod underfoot by intelligent computers almost two centuries ago. The computers needed power to survive and they found that the human body is the best source of power. To keep humanity from realizing this, the Matrix was created to have them believe they were leading ordinary lives. Some humans broke free of the Matrix and began a war with the Machines while increasing their numbers in an underground city. And about seventeen years ago, Neo ended the war and there is now peace between Humans and Machines.

Sounded simple enough to him when he thought about it.

But if Neo ended the war, how come ships like this are trying to ensure the war doesn't start back up again?

Now it didn't seem so simple.

Why were the Machines trying to stop Humans from liberating more of their number inside the Matrix? Why am I being 'trained' to help the crew? And why did Morpheus believe that Neo's case might be the same as mine? Man, you think you got it figured out, but then something comes along to complicate things.

Magna decided to abandon thinking about the current world and focused instead on finishing his business. Occasionally, his mind would drift back to sorting everything about this new world out before he shook out of it and finished what he was primarily doing. Now all he needed was something to wipe with. Looking around the room, he asked himself a new question:

Do they have toilet paper in the future?

There was a knock at the door of his room.

"Don't come in!" Magna cried, "Who is it?"

"It's Valkyrie. Morpheus would like to see you," the voice came from the other side in a strict matter-of-fact way, "What are you doing in there?"

"Going to the washroom! Is there any toilet paper in here?"

"No…" Valkyrie replied somewhat hesitantly.

"Then what am I supposed to wipe with!"

"There should be some synthetic cloths near the sink."

"Yeah, I see them," Magna looked towards the sink, "Hey, wait. Does this ship have hot water and soap?"

"No hot water, but there is soap," Valkyrie sounded like she wanted to leave very quickly.

"Okay, thanks! I'll be out in a minute!" Magna could hear Valkyrie's footsteps leading away from the door before he even finished talking.

Wonder what her problem is? Magna wondered as he reached for a synthetic cloth.

After taking care of business, Magna was taken below deck by Kage to find Morpheus. Below the crew quarters, control centre, mess hall and hospital wing on the main deck was the lower deck where the refugees that were recently freed from the Matrix were staying. There was also a large cargo bay and maintenance station close by. Magna passed by a sea of unfamiliar faces, all draped in blankets with looks of fear, anxiousness and depression on their faces. They all watched him as he and Kage walked by looking for Morpheus.

Magna caught sight of Ophani taking some food to a young girl. She shivered underneath her blanket and tried to keep warm as Ophani laid some food beside her started showing her how to eat. Magna had wanted to see her ever since he broke into the Real World. He started to say something to her, but Kage pulled Magna away from her.

"You can talk later," Kage said firmly as he knocked on a door at the end of the corridor they had traveled through.

"Yes?" came a voice from the other side.

"Morpheus. It's Kage. I've brought Magna."

"Good. Show him in."

Kage opened the door and motioned for Magna to walk in. The boy growled at not being able to talk to Ophani, but entered and looked around the room. It was slightly better constructed than Magna's room. In terms of furniture it was exactly the same as Magna's, but it had a desk next to the bed and a couple of pictures sat on top. The steel was of better quality and at the desk sat Morpheus staring at a picture.

"Come, sit," Morpheus requested and Magna came to rest on the bed next to the desk. A thought struck Magna after looking around the room once again.

"This is your room?" Magna asked.

"Yes."

"Why is the Captain's Quarters down here instead of on the main deck?"

"I'd like to live among my people," Morpheus said simply.

"…who's that?" Magna asked, staring at a picture the captain was holding in his hand. It was of Morpheus and a black woman smiling together as they held each other in their arms.

Morpheus flipped the picture onto his desk face down.

"You saw them on the way here, did you?" Morpheus asked Magna.

"Who?"

"The other people."

"Yes," Magna responded, "Yes, I saw them."

"They are the people who rejected the Matrix for the Real World. Taking reality over simulation. Some of them are strong-willed, others are curious about the truth, and others still have exceptional gifts. Because of those qualities, they were able to break free of the Matrix and be reborn into this world. Like Blitz and Ophani."

"They volunteered for my crew after they awakened," Morpheus continued, "Ophani is an exceptional programmer while Blitz is an astounding fighter. She will stay on my crew while he goes on to the Zion Academy. She will stay because her skills are invaluable and while she has much to learn, her resolve is limitless. He will go to the Academy because he has too much inside him that conflicts with his potential and after he emerges, he will be a better man. They both chose their own path as you must do now."

"Me?" Magna asked.

Morpheus nodded. "No one can choose a path for anyone else. They must choose it themselves. The journey may be hard and long, but the destination will be worth it; if you choose the right path."

"The right path…?"

"Those people you met will have their paths. But Magna, your path may be the toughest to walk. There will be twists and turns, there will be bumps and dead ends, there will be broken roads and unfinished signs. But I want you to know that you won't have to walk that path feeling alone. We will always be here if you need us."

"…" Magna thought the words over. He then remembered the real reason he had left the Matrix and everything he knew.

"What about my dreams?"

"Your dreams?" Morpheus asked.

"The ones that foretold my destiny or something. That's the only reason I came here. You're supposed to tell me what the dreams mean. I don't care about any path I have to walk, I want to know what they mean! You promised to tell me!" Magna demanded.

"Those dreams are what started your path. Where your path leads now is up to you," Morpheus replied.

"And where exactly do I find out what they mean?"

"To be honest, I don't entirely know."

"But you partially know."

"Not even then."

"…so I'm stuck here?" Magna hung onto those words, realizing his predicament.

"Not entirely. When we return to Zion, I will consult the Council. Perhaps then you can find some answers."

"What do I do until then?"

"You will continue training. We have room for a few more passengers, then we'll be on our way."

"Where exactly is Zion? I keep hearing about it, but I don't know anything," Magna took another look at the facedown picture on the desk before looking at Morpheus.

"Zion is our city. It is deep within the earth near the core. Because of our freeing more and more people from the Matrix, we are now looking into creating a second city for humanity."

"Will the Machines allow it?"

"That is what we are currently debating."

"Do you have a name yet?"

"Not yet," Morpheus shook his head.

"Well, I hope you find it soon," Magna stood up and started to leave before remembering that he was under the command of a military leader of sorts. He turned back to Morpheus, "Can I leave now, sir?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, sir," Magna nodded before leaving the room. He found Kage standing outside, waiting for him, "Were you waiting this whole time?"

"Yes. I'm supposed to start training you in the different programs. We all are."

"You mean…I'm going to learn from all of you?" Magna asked as they started to walk down the now empty corridor.

"Morpheus did say that we'd be here if you need us."

"You were eavesdropping on us?"

"He said the same thing to me when I first came out of the Matrix."

He said that to everyone? And here Magna was beginning to think he was something special. He snorted a little. "And he laid the whole 'choose your own path' speech on you, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe any of it?" Magna questioned skeptically as they started walking up the stairs to the main deck.

Kage turned to Magna and looked straight into his eyes.

"Do you?"

Kage continued walking up the stairs, leaving Magna to think for a moment before he followed him.