Chapter Fifty-Six – Zero Progress
"I'm The One?" asked Lana Lang, trying to appear surprised that she was, as always, the center of attention.
"Kind of," replied Trinity. "Although it looks like we'll have to do something about your clothes."
"Sorry?" asked an affronted Lana Lang, amazed that this woman with Lex's dress sense had the nerve to criticize her wardrobe.
"Not pink enough, I expect," offered Chloe (who was really Lex) with a surplus of sarcasm.
"Exactly," said Trinity.
"Well, okay, I guess that's a fair criticism," agreed Lana. "Hey, there's a dressing room somewhere in this phone box. Maybe we should go there."
And with that, Lana and Trinity set off towards the Tardis' dressing room. Clark was just about to follow them when Chloe grabbed him by the arm.
"Hey, Clark, I don't think Lana needs your help getting changed."
"I know Chlo', but I'm still worried about her. I couldn't bear it if she died again."
"Don't worry about Lana. If she's The One then she'll be able to take care of herself."
"But I thought I was The One," admitted a disappointed Clark.
"No, you're not The One," came a deep voice from behind Clark.
Clark and Chloe turned to see two men in black standing there.
"Morpheus! Neo!" exclaimed Chloe (who was really Lex).
"You know these guys?" asked Clark. "Who are they?"
Chloe (who was really Lex) was tempted to just answer by repeating the two men's names again but, afraid that this approach might once again prove too subtle for Clark, instead opted for silence.
"We're friends of Trinity," explained Morpheus. "We followed her here to find Lana."
"But it's me you want," protested Clark. "I'm The One – I can fly and stop bullets. Take me, not Lana."
"I repeat, Clark," said Morpheus, "you are not The One."
"You know my name?" asked a startled Clark.
Morpheus nodded. "Yes, Clark Kent, I know your name. The Oracle foretold that we would meet your good self and the one calling themself Chloe Sullivan. I also know of your many powers, Clark. Why, as a child, I read of your adventures. But you are not the one we seek."
"But Lana's not got powers," argued Clark.
"In The Matrix, she has," explained Morpheus. "Here in The Matrix we are limited only by our minds. Unfortunately, Clark, you've spent all of your life trying to be less than what you can be, trying to fit in, putting up mental barriers. Lana, on the other hand, possesses infinite self-belief, thinking that she's perfect and ignoring all physical evidence to the contrary. In the Matrix her ability to be unfettered by logic makes her a goddess."
Clark gave a sigh. "So, I guess Lana's The One."
"No, she's not The One," said Neo, correcting Clark. "I'm The One."
"Then who's Lana?" asked a confused Chloe (who was really a confused Lex).
"She's a null," began Morpheus, "a nothing, a void, that together with The One creates the whole."
"What? Lana's nothing?" exclaimed an angry Clark.
"Look at this world around you, Clark," replied Morpheus coolly. "A computer-generated reality made from only two things – ones and zeroes."
"Lana's a zero," exclaimed Chloe.
Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "No, she's The Zero."
Lex (who was really Chloe) watched the agents approaching Zod and Ursa and she felt the lead-lined box containing the kryptonite rock within her pocket, and she wondered whether to fling the kryptonite rock at Zod, zapping his powers. Without Zod and his power they stood no chance against the agents – they'd all be killed. But, thanks to the body she was now trapped in, she knew she couldn't be killed.
No, what was she thinking? Zod and Ursa might have been evil, might have been plotting against Clark, but she couldn't just kill them. She might have been in Lex's body but that was no reason to act like Lex.
Chloe felt relieved as her grip on the lead-lined box relaxed, mainly because she wouldn't have to give the news to Clark that she'd killed what he thought to be his parents. Then again, that still left the problem of the suit-clad army now surrounding them.
As the agents approached, their perceptions started to heighten as they entered bullet-time and everything around them began to slow down. Everything, that is, except for General Zod, who had started to run towards them - he just kept getting faster and faster and within a fraction of a second, before they'd even had time to react, the agents were no more.
Zod turned back towards his companions to see Ursa looking approvingly at the newly-appeared battle scene, with its collection of burnt and mutilated corpses. Lex, on the other hand, didn't seem to have the stomach for these sort of things.
Ursa was momentarily distracted, from the beautiful atrocities before her, by the retching sounds from behind her. "Don't worry, Lex," laughed Ursa. "Stick with me and Zod and you'll get used to this in no time."
As the body she now inhabited convulsed around her, Chloe Sullivan's mind went back to the lead-lined object in her pocket and she suddenly realized that she might have just made the biggest mistake of her life.
She should have opened the box.
The Doctor found himself in a white office, the walls lined with television screens showing his past and future exploits, but they were of no concern to him at the moment. There was only one question on his mind:
"What did you say to Rose?"
The Architect looked at The Doctor and smiled. "Just the truth. I told her how you were going to die. I can tell you too, Doctor, if that's who you really are."
"I already know how I'm going to die," said The Doctor, remembering the note from The Master. "I've even got my last words planned... So Rose knows everything?"
"Of course not, Doctor," replied The Architect. "I'd hate to spoil that Bad Wolf twist for her... Now, let's get down to business."
"What do you want?" asked The Doctor, his curiosity aroused.
"I need to understand how you and Rose Tyler entered The Matrix."
"The Matrix? Is that what you call this place?"
"Yes, Doctor, this is The Matrix," said The Architect. "An artificial reality, and you and Rose are the latest anomalies within it."
"The latest?"
"You must realize, Doctor, that with an artificial reality of this size, there is always scope for errors, intrusions..."
The Doctor looked at The Architect disdainfully. "Excuses, excuses," he moaned, and then added, in an exasperated tone, "Show me the code and I'll see what I can do."
Lana Lang stood in front of a mirror and was reluctant to ever stop looking at it.
"Perfect, even by my standards," she said, looking at her reflection staring back at her.
"Great," said Trinity, "now let's get back to the others."
"She's taking forever," moaned Clark, worried that Lana hadn't yet returned.
"Yeah, I bet if you were changing your outfit in a phone box you'd take no time at all," observed Chloe (who was really Lex).
"Lana will keep us waiting," said Morpheus. "That is what the Oracle's prophecy said. She said that the one called Clark Kent would herald her arrival."
"That's stup- ... Wait, I hear her footsteps," said Clark, as his super-hearing picked up two pairs of footsteps approaching.
And suddenly there was silence as Lana entered the room, her hair tied back, sporting a pair of pink sunglasses, and dressed from the neck down in figure-hugging pink PVC.
Clark struggled to contain his heat vision and found his mouth suddenly unable to form words, so it was left to Chloe (who was really Lex) to break the silence:
"Go! Go! Power Ranger!"
In The Architect's office, The Doctor frantically pulled up floorboards as green characters cascaded down the many screens lining the office walls. Suddenly The Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver and the screens froze.
Rose Tyler sat alone in a locked interrogation room, watching a clock on the wall ticking away. She knew it was only a matter of time before The Doctor would arrive and save her. He'd always be there to save her ... and eventually it would end up killing him.
Well, that's what was supposed to happen anyway, but now, thanks to The Architect, she could do something about it. Sure he'd told her her horoscope, but this one wasn't going to come true. The future isn't always predictable.
And then she noticed that the clock had stopped ticking.
Clark, Lana and Chloe (who was really Lex) looked expectantly at Morpheus waiting for him to explain Lana's ultimate purpose. After a long silence, he said nothing, did nothing, so they looked around at Neo and Trinity, also unmoving.
"The Matrix," gasped Chloe. "It's stopped."
Aboard The Nebuchadnezzar, the bodies of Morpheus, Trinity and Neo lay still, their brains no longer thinking, their lungs no longer breathing, their hearts no longer beating.
Just as The Matrix had stopped, so had their bodies - fortunately The Matrix could survive like this forever, whereas, unfortunately, their bodies, along with the billions of other human bodies plugged into The Matrix, could only survive like this for a matter of minutes.
