I drew Smith's silent form into my lap and leaned against the wall, a horrible white haze clouding everything. I didn't hear a lot of what went on afterward. I just sat, cradling him. People came and went. They kept trying to move my hands, and I kept refusing. Haruka was jacked-out, as was Tirzah. Tamar & Ghost stayed, guarding the radicals who were left. I think they tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear them. There was a rushing sound covering everything else. I was in a thick fog no one else seemed to see.

Morpheus came, with Niobe. Ghost and Tamar gave the morning's events, I thought. I caught only snippets; the rushing roar in my ears saw to that.

"Six of them..."

"...shot at Etna; did you know she can dodge..."

"...in front of Tirzah, right in front of her..."

"...never seen anyone use a dagger like that..."

"...hasn't said a word..."

"...you see the rings?"

"...won't let go of him..."

"...saved her life...took the bullet intentionally."

Morpheus leaned over to say something to me. I stared at him blankly. He'd always been one who treated me as human, or at least no differently than he treated anyone else. His lips were moving. I couldn't tell what he was saying, though. I saw Niobe's eyes travel from Smith's ring to mine, and saw her brows furrow as she looked back at Morpheus. She said something and shook her head. When they left, they took the radicals with them. The radicals couldn't seem to look at me; the young girl seemed to be wracked with sobs. Vaguely, I wondered why. Hadn't she got what she wanted? I smoothed Smith's hair; it seemed to be slightly rumpled. There. That was better.

I noticed when everything got quiet. People had stopped trying to take Smith from me, and people had stopped talking. There weren't any more redpills in the room. In fact, there wasn't anyone in the room.

"You lied to me, Smith," I chastised him. My voice was the same as it always was, but I felt a hollow ring behind it. "You lied to me. You weren't supposed to leave me. You said I wouldn't have to feel this way over you. I'm more alone now than I was before," my voice began to crack, but I kept ranting. I couldn't stop. "How could you do this to me, you selfish bastard? How am I supposed to go back to the way I was before? I should have left you in the damned alley!" I was yelling now, and my voice broke into a thousand pieces. I clutched him closer and sobbed into his hair.

"I'm not sure that would've been the wisest course of action," a calm masculine voice said. I started, and looked up.

An older gentleman in a pristine suit was looking down at me, standing next to the Oracle. The man had a beard and mustache, neatly trimmed, and was immaculately pressed and washed. He took a step closer, and I tightened my grip on Smith.

"You aren't taking him," I whispered. The Oracle made a choked sound.

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked me. I shook my head. "Most call me the Architect."

That registered, somewhere in my pain-fogged mind. "The Creator?" I asked, looking up. Comprehension dawned, and I saw a sudden ray of hope in getting out of this horrid swamp of pain. "Have you come to delete me?" I asked hopefully, a little breathless. I am an anomaly, after all. I take up space and resources, and offer nothing useful to the Matrix in return. If Smith was gone, I saw no reason to fear deletion for myself. I was getting tired of immortality anyway.

"No, Etna."

"Why in the hell not?" I snapped at him. "I'm a waste of space and I have nothing to offer you." I changed my tone to pleading. "Please. Can't you just get it over with?"

"Nothing to offer." The Architect knelt on one knee to put himself at my level. "You don't realize what you could be, do you?" I looked at him blankly. "You are a human consciousness copied into code. You could be the most powerful intuitive program in existence. How much could the machines learn from your code--from the way you think and function?" He pointed to Smith. "Look at him. Look at his code; I know you can see it. Have you never stopped to think that you can manipulate what you can see? You are a true learning program, without limits or parameters. There may be no end to what I can teach you to be."

"Etna, do you not realize yet what your purpose is?" The Oracle had addressed me. I looked at her, numb. "Etna, you may be the only program in the Matrix capable of learning to do almost anything. Pure humanity in code. Look at what you've already done to Smith, Etna! A killing machine. A flawed defense program. You were the catalyst for such a change that he just gave his life to save someone else," she sounded pleased. "Neither of you had any idea what you are capable of. This could be the bridge to making this peace truly last."

I found I didn't care about the peace. I didnt care about what the Architect could teach me. Even the scientist in me was numbed, deadened. What was all that knowledge to me now? I pressed my cheek against Smith's hair. "Don't want it without him. Please, please make this end." I looked at them, and I could feel the pure misery in my own eyes.

"I am not here to delete you, but I believe I can grant your request to 'make this end'," the Architect said, standing, then gave the Oracle a look of longsuffering patience. "A friend of yours has called in a favor for you. As she said, it seems you've been the catalyst for some major changes in this particular agent program. The Oracle here believes that warrants further investigation." He sighed patiently. "Though I have little use for flawed or corrupted programs, she insists there is much to be learned from him, and from his interactions with you. I admit I am intrigued that nothing more than ordinary interaction with you could produce such a profound change in what I thought was relatively stable code. I may be able to learn more about you from careful study of him." He looked simultaneously intrigued and calculating.

"Furthermore, other friends of yours have insisted that as the Smith program actually sacrificed himself for that human child, it would be beneficial to the peace process if I'd consider doing something a little out of the ordinary. They seem to see self-sacrifice as some sort of supremely important human quality. Apparently they're intrigued to find the concept in a program." Did he just roll his eyes? I got the impression he found human ignorance singularly impressive. "As the Oracle has just indicated, they also believe that you two could be the best change at a bridge between human and machine. Ambassadors, if you will.

"As the Oracle has proven to be correct in the past, inexplicable though it was, and as your other friends are important to the cease fire agreement, I will take a 'leap of faith', as it were." He made "leap of faith" sound like the most vile curse word possible. I blinked in confusion.

"I created the agent programs, Etna." He tapped a pen he'd taken from his coat pocket. "Repairing minor damage to one isn't normally something I'd take care of myself, but this does seem to be a special circumstance."

I looked down at Smith's still form, lying across my lap, my arms wrapped around his shoulders & neck. I saw the code repaired. It corrected itself, began to move again. I saw the code for the bullet disappear. My human eyes saw the hole close itself, and saw Smith's chest rise & fall. My inner scientist whirled back into life as I took the entire thing in; I could see what the Architect had done. Was it possible I could learn to replicate it?

But that was my last coherent thought for a long time, because then Smith's cobalt eyes opened and blinked in surprise.