Matrix Scene IX
Kuro was standing outside another door. She had a key in her hands and was thinking to herself.
"Who'll be in this room?" she asked herself out loud. "I haven't seen Shippo yet. Maybe it's him."
She unlocked the door and went through. Inside, she found herself in a room with TVs showing her image where the walls should be. And sitting in the middle of the room in a chair, dressed completely in white was none other than Jaktsu.
"Hello, neo," Jaktsu said.
"Jaktsu?" Kuro asked. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"
"I am the Architect," Jaktsu said. "I created the Matrix. I've been waiting for you. You have many questions, but though the process has altered your consciousness you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand and some you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant."
Kuro just stared at him. "…Okay. I have no idea what the hell you just said, but maybe you can tell me why I'm here?"
"Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherit to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control which has lead you, inexorably, here."
"What the hell are you trying to say?" Kuro asked. "You didn't even answer my question, did you?"
"Quite right," Jaktsu said. "Interesting. That was quicker than the others."
Then the TVs started to speak.
"Others? How many? What others?"
"The Matrix," Jaktsu continued, "is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the next, in which case this is the sixth version."
"Five before me?" the TVs said. "He's lying. Bullshit."
"Okay, you know what?" Kuro said. "I don't care anymore. Why should I give a rat's ass about who knows or doesn't know what?"
"Precisely," Jaktsu said. "As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly is systematic creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations."
"You can't control me!" the TVs shouted. "I'm gonna smash you to bits! I'm gonna fucking kill you! You can't make me do anything. You old white prick!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Kuro shouted.
"The first Matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect," Jaktsu continued, ignoring her outburst. "It was a work of art. Flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind. Or, perhaps, a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program initially created to investigate certain aspect of the human psyche. If I am the father of the Matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother."
"Speak English!" Kuro shouted. "You're making less sense than the Oracle! In a nutshell, why am I here?"
"Please," Jaktsu said. "As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly ninety-nine percent of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systematic anomaly that, if left unchecked, might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked would constitute an escalating probability of disaster."
"Okay," Kuro said. "Now take that long ass answer and put it in a nutshell, like I said before."
"You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed," Jaktsu said. "Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated."
"Bullshit," the TVs said.
"What the hell is Zion?" Kuro asked.
"Denial," Jaktsu said, "is the most predictable of all human response. But rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it. And we have become exceedingly efficient at it. The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the Matrix twenty-three individuals, sixteen female, seven male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the Matrix which, coupled with the extermination of Zion, will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race."
Are you even listening to a single word I'm say?" Kuro asked.
"There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept," Jaktsu said. "However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world."
He tapped his pen and the mass of TVs switched to show different people.
"It is interesting reading your reactions," he said. "Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication. A contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One. While others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-à-vis, love."
He tapped the pen again and the TVs switch to show Kegome fighting a different Agent from Naraku.
"Kegome?" Kuro asked.
"Apropos," Jaktsu explain, "she entered the Matrix to save your life at the cost of her own."
Kuro clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Do I have to rip your voice box out and beat you to death with it or are you just going to tell me how to get out of here?"
"Which brings us at last to the moment of truth," Jaktsu said, "wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly reveals both beginning and end. There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of Zion. The door on your left leads back to the Matrix, to her and to the end of your species. As you adequately put it, the problem is choice. But we already know what you're going to do, don't we?"
"I'll see you in hell," Kuro said as she walked towards the right door.
"Already I can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth: She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it."
"I don't want to," Kuro said, opening the door. "I'll be going now."
She walked through the door and saw everyone she met in the Matrix laughing their heads off in a large room. Kuro looked at them in utter confusion.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kuro demanded.
The producer came up, barely able to stand because he was laughing so hard.
"We… We… We…" He couldn't get anymore out before falling over in a fit of laughter.
Kuro looked around the room and saw Shippo tied up and gagged under a nearby chair. She went over to him and ungagged him.
"I'm sorry," Shippo said. "I tried to stop them."
"Just tell me what happened?" Kuro said.
"Naraku saw a couple movies last month and decided to pull this stunt," Shippo said as Kuro untied him. "I said I was going to tell you, so they tied me up."
By now, the producer was under a little more control. He got up and went over to Kuro. "You should have seen your face when I smacked you."
At that, he fell over in another fit of laughter.
Kuro picked up the chair Shippo was under and ran at the producer.
"I'll show you my face!"
Twelve hours of extensive surgery later, they were all in a hospital room. Kikio was in a full body cast. Shippo sat next to the producer's bed. Kuro was next to Naraku.
"I told you it was a bad idea," Shippo said.
"Shut up," the producer said, feeling his neck brace with the hand that didn't have a chunk of wood sticking through it.
"That's it," Kuro said. "You are never going to the movies without me again."
"Why not?" Naraku asked. "I said I was sorry."
"We will discuss this more when your bones knit."
The End