Chapter Fifty-Four – Reality Bytes
Rose Tyler held on to The Doctor's hand, while her eyes looked around at the mass of black-suited men in sunglasses congregating around them.
"We're trapped, Doctor," she said. "Trapped in The Matrix."
The Doctor looked down at her and smiled. "No problem, Rose," he said and then addressed the gathering throng.
"Take me to your Coder," he ordered.
After a short pause, the lead agent replied "Sorry, Doctor, but we give the orders around here.
"I demand to be taken to your Coder," insisted The Doctor.
The lead agent smiled. "Very well, Doctor. I'll meet you halfway… Take them, men."
Suddenly the mass of agents descended on The Doctor and Rose, grabbing them and separating them.
"Doctor!" yelled Rose, as she was pulled away from The Doctor, who was now lost in a sea of agents.
"Please don't struggle, Miss Tyler," said the lead agent. "After all, this is just the first stage … the relatively painless stage."
"Stage?" she asked, looking away from The Doctor and towards the agent.
"Viruses have to be quarantined," he explained.
She'd been driving all over the city looking for the newcomers, but unfortunately it looked like the agents had found them first. As she watched the two outsiders being bundled into separate cars, she started up her motorbike engine, ready to follow them wherever they went.
When he'd thought that Lana Lang was dead, Clark Kent had insisted that her room on the Tardis be left untouched, as a sort of shrine to her memory. Now, as he and Chloe returned with Lana to that same room, Clark was glad about his decision.
"It's just like you left it," said Clark, with a smile.
"Well, why wouldn't it be?" asked a puzzled Lana. "Surely nobody wanted to mess up my room while I was sleeping."
"Well…" began Clark, struggling for some way to avoid telling Lana that she hadn't really dreamt everything, before looking to Chloe for help.
"Well, while we wouldn't dream of touching your things, Lana," interjected Chloe (who, unbeknownst to her companions, was really Lex), "the Tardis was, while you were asleep, overrun with Gremlins…they made all sorts of mess."
Clark looked at Chloe in dismay. Gremlins? That was the most ridiculous cover story he'd ever heard.
"Gremlins wrecked my room?" said Lana in disbelief.
"That's right," said Clark, nodding, struggling to sound convincing as he attempted to back up Chloe's laughable explanation.
"Well, thanks for tidying things up," said a skeptical Lana. "Now if you don't mind leaving me alone for a few minutes, I'll find some clothes to wear."
"Sure thing, Lana. Take your time," said Clark, as he and Chloe left her alone in her room.
"So, Clark," began Chloe, "there's something I need to talk to you about…"
"Sorry, Chloe, but I don't want to talk to you right now," said Clark, who was suddenly very serious. "Right now I want to talk to Lex."
"You do?" asked Chloe (who was really Lex), surprised that Clark had managed to see through his subterfuge.
"I knew you'd understand," said Clark, who then super-sped away, leaving Chloe (who was really Lex) breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, in the console room, Zod was looking at the Tardis' controls, using his super-intelligence to recall how The Doctor had activated it, when Ursa and Lex finally returned from getting Lex some new clothes.
"What took you so long?" moaned Zod.
"It only seemed a long time because of your super-speed," countered Ursa. "Anyway, we're ready to go now. Isn't that right, Lex?"
But Lex (who was really Chloe) wasn't answering because Clark had suddenly appeared right in front of Lex's face.
"Clark?"
"That's right, Lex," replied Clark. "I want to know what you meant."
"What I meant?" asked Chloe, trying to work out what Clark was talking about.
"You said that Lana would die if we didn't take you with us," said Clark, reminding Chloe of the rash words she'd said in order to ensure that she hadn't been abandoned at the last reality.
"It's not time for you to know yet," said Chloe, stalling for time.
"Tell me now, Lex," demanded Clark, grabbing Lex's arms tightly and pulling him close.
"Very well, Clark," said Chloe, still stalling, partly to give herself time to think up an answer, partly because she just enjoyed Clark holding her this close and this tight. "Lana will indeed die… eventually, but I've got a way to prevent that - a way that she could live forever, just like you - a way that you and Lana Lang could be together throughout eternity."
"You can do that?" asked Clark.
"Yes," replied Chloe, "when this is all over and I get back to my time and reality, I have the equipment to make it possible."
"You better not be lying to me, Lex," warned Clark.
"I'm not," said Chloe, suddenly regretting her lie. When she'd first come up with it she'd seen it as a way of lumbering Lex (who would have regained his body by then) with an impossible task, but now, looking at the hope in Clark's face, she realized the devastation her lie would eventually cause for him.
"I better get back to Chloe," said Clark. "Bye, Ma, Pa, Lex."
And with that, he was gone, leaving Chloe confused. "Ma? Pa?"
Ursa laughed. "Just a little white lie. Poor Kal - so trusting."
Chloe (who was really Lex) suddenly saw Clark reappear with a smile on his face.
"Why so happy, Clark?"
"It's Lex," replied Clark. "He can make Lana live forever."
"You can't trust him," said Chloe angrily. "You can't let him anywhere near Lana. We need to get him off this Tardis as quickly as possible."
"But, Chloe…" began Clark.
"There's something I've got to tell you, Clark," interrupted Chloe. "It's about Lex, and the reason I attacked him in his hospital room."
"I understand, Chloe," said Clark. "After his attack on you, and whatever threats he made against you…"
"He didn't make any threats against me. I could have handled that, He only said two words - Lana's next."
Clark looked at Chloe in shock as he realized he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life in trusting Lex. He was just about to zoom off after Lex when Lana suddenly appeared from her room, having finally found herself something to wear.
"What's the matter, Clark?" Lana asked, seeing Clark's face. "Don't you like my outfit?"
"It's fine, Lana," replied Clark, forcing a smile. "I just had something else on my mind."
"Well, now I'm awake, Mister Kent, I want your full undivided attention."
"Sure thing," said Clark, as he looked at Lana. Lex would have to wait… for now.
As he, Lana and Chloe walked back towards the console room, Clark suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Whitney?" he said, suddenly stopping.
"What?" asked Lana.
"I thought I heard his voice coming from Jimmy's room."
"Me, too," said Chloe. As Lana looked at Chloe, Clark smiled at Chloe's lying to protect his secret – he knew he could always rely on her.
"Wow, I must need my ears syringing," said Lana. "I didn't hear Lex outside the Tardis either. But Whitney here - that's impossible."
Jimmy Olsen was sat on his bed, watching a DVD, when he suddenly heard Lana's voice behind him.
"What's this?"
"Research," said a red-faced Jimmy, suddenly noticing that Lana, Chloe and Clark had entered his room. "It's the TV show about your reality."
"That girl," said a shocked Lana, "she looks just like me… Well, maybe not as pretty… and that guy, Clark, he looks just like you."
"Well, I think I've got better hair," pointed out Clark.
"Of course you have," replied Lana condescendingly. Poor Clark, she thought, so vain.
"Hadn't we better get going?" asked Chloe (who was really Lex). "I thought you were hungry, Lana."
"What's the show called?" asked Lana, completely ignoring the fake Chloe. "Everybody Loves Lana? I Dream Of Lana? The Young Lana Lang Chronicles? The Wonderful World Of Lana?"
"Smallville," said Chloe, with a smile.
"Better get going," said a disgruntled Lana, heading out of Jimmy's room. "Stupid show, anyway," she moaned to Clark. "Talk about far-fetched. As if I've ever cavorted about in my underwear on a diving board like that. I think I'd remember something like that."
"Me too," said Clark.
Lana, seeing the smile suddenly appearing on Clark's face, couldn't help but ask "So, Clark, how'd you lose the tooth?"
The second she'd asked the question, she wished that she hadn't as Clark struggled to answer her, looking between herself and Chloe. "It's okay, Clark. If the memory's too painful for you…"
"No, it's okay," replied Clark. "It was a… a flossing accident."
"Tough break, " said Lana, while, behind her, an incredulous disbelieving Chloe (who was really an incredulous disbelieving Lex) silently mouthed "flossing accident?" to Clark.
Clark resisted the temptation to silently mouth "Gremlins?" back to Chloe and instead turned his attention back to Lana Lang, while Lex (who now inhabited Chloe's body) also turned his attention towards Lana, wondering whether it was time to use his transference stone again.
She stood in a deserted skyscraper, across from another skyscraper that she'd recently followed the agents to. As she started making plans on how to rescue the newcomers from the adjacent skyscraper, she suddenly noticed a helicopter approaching.
"Guess I was followed," she said to herself, just as the doors burst open and a SWAT team rushed in and surrounded her.
The SWAT team leader looked at her. "You must be the lady who caused the police department so much trouble a few nights ago. Looks like you've finally met your match."
"They call me Trinity," she said, as she looked derisorily at the twenty guns pointing directly at her. By the time the first trigger was pressed, she'd already dropped to the floor, her leg swinging around to topple most of the SWAT team.
A few seconds, and a dazzling display of acrobatics and martial arts later, she was walking away from the pile of twenty unconscious people, towards the SWAT team leader who was already making a tactical retreat.
She walked towards him slowly, purposefully, as he ran away from her. Soon, having gained some ground on her, he found himself by an elevator, breathing heavily. As he pushed the elevator button frantically, she suddenly appeared out of the corner of his eye at the same time as the elevator. Leaping into the elevator, he pressed the button to close the door, and looked through the closing doors to see his sweating face reflected in the sunglasses on her smiling face.
It was exactly the same thing he saw forty floors below when the elevator doors opened again.
"Trinity is still my name," she said, and then her foot connected with his head and he fell to the floor.
Suddenly that same floor splintered as a helicopter hovering outside suddenly opened fire on her.
Running down the hallway, dodging bullets, Trinity suddenly burst out through the doors and leapt onto her motorcycle. Revving it up, she roared down the road with the helicopter in hot pursuit.
Ursa, Zod and Lex (who was really Chloe) were exploring the city.
"We're very impressed. Lex," said Zod.
"Sorry?" asked Lex.
"Don't be so modest," said Ursa. "Threatening to burden Kal with Lana for all eternity - you really are evil. And he's going along with it too. A masterstroke."
Chloe looked at them, unsure of how to react, when a motorbike suddenly rushed past them, followed by a helicopter that was spraying bullets everywhere.
Chloe, who had thrown herself to the ground, looked up at Zod and Ursa, still standing there, who just seemed to be bemused by the incident.
"Nice vehicle," said Zod. "Very destructive."
"I liked the outfit that the human female was wearing," confessed Ursa. "A few badges and it would have been perfect."
One moment he was soaring high in the sky, the next he felt a twinge in the back of his neck and found himself back in reality, aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, staring into the face of Morpheus.
"Trinity needs our help," said Morpheus.
"Why?" he asked. "Where is she?"
"She's looking for the other," stated Morpheus.
"The other?" asked Neo. "What other?"
"The Oracle has told us that the other has arrived," explained Morpheus. "They've been brought to us by two travelers."
"Two travelers?"
"Yes, Neo," replied Morpheus. "She says they travel through time in a phone box."
"No way," exclaimed Neo in disbelief.
"Yes way," replied Morpheus.
The Doctor was escorted by two agents into an interrogation room situated near the top of a skyscraper.
"We've talked to the girl. Now, it's your turn, Doctor," said another agent, sitting at the table.
"Where's Rose?" demand the battered and bruised Doctor.
"Ah, Miss Tyler. Fascinating creature. Kept prophesizing the future… although it didn't seem to make much sense. At first we thought the Oracle had changed appearance again, but no."
"Where is she?" he asked again.
"She's like you, Doctor – a non-person, not present on any of our records. That makes her a glitch… an anomaly … so we did what we usually do in such circumstances."
"Tell me where she is," shouted The Doctor.
The agent smiled. "Well, if you really want to know, Doctor, Miss Tyler has gone to meet her maker."
