CHAPTER 4: PHOENIX

Castor and Pollux were looking at the young woman they had in front of them, tormented by many questions. They were fascinated by her long black hair and her amazingly divine face features. They waited for her to wake up, because she would have a lot of explaining to do…

They had already called Operator to trace her signal so they could get her out if it turned out she was good. Link was not in charge of the communications any more, he quit after Morpheus died. Now in charge was a young smart man called Cryptex.

Finally she opened her brown deep eyes. On seeing them, she got scared and wanted to run away, but Pollux pointed the gun at her head:

"Stop right there! You have some questions to answer! And you're leaving until you do it!"

"OK, whatever… Just get that gun away from me, you're playing with fire, Pollux!"

"What? How do you know my name?"

"Haven't I told you that she knew mine, dear brother?" Castor answered.

"Hush, Castor! Now: who are you? And…WHAT are you?" Pollux made his first question.

"What am I? Really now, what do I look like? Or should I presume that you haven't seen a woman before? As for who am I… that's going to be hard to answer as I don't know myself…"

"That's ridiculous! Stop mocking us and answer! Who are you?", Pollux asked pointing the gun at her again.

"Funny thing, although you are pointing a gun at my head, I know I can trust you, because I see you are afraid of firing a gun at me. So, to begin my story… I woke up about two years ago on a hospital bed, and I could only remember one thing: that my name is Phoenix. Nothing else besides that. They told me I was the only survivor of a horrible accident, but I can't remember anything at all. All I have are some images that don't make any sense at all. Instead, I seem to be able to know other people's past and future and even their thoughts…" she sighed

"I think we both had a taste of that, didn't we Pollux?" Castor laughed.

"Could you be serious, Castor? Phoenix, you say that everyone keeps wanting to kill you? You certainly don't mean The Phantom! No one has ever escaped him!"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I do mean him! At first I was hunted by the Agents, but I always predicted their attacks and they couldn't harm me at all… Then came the Phantom himself. With him it's always hard to escape. Thanks to him I discovered I could do some very unusual things… I found myself jumping off rooftops and all sorts of things no one can do…"

"Would one of them be what I saw tonight?" Castor asked.

"I don't know what you saw!" Phoenix answered.

"I saw him shoot you, I saw you were injured, then we found you safe and sound sleeping!"

"Oh, that… The first time me and the Phantom met, he shot me in the chest. As an instinct I putt my hands above the wound and after a while I fainted. When I woke up…the wound was gone…

It was like that that I've discovered could heal myself of any wound, and apparently other people too…"

"I have a curiosity! You've said you've met the Phantom more than once… Being that you can read minds and all, do you know who he is? We're after him for a long while!" Pollux asked.

"I did read his mind…just once…if you could do it just for a few seconds, you'd wish you never do it again! He only thinks of one thing: revenge! He is very angry and determined to kill…"

Castor's cell phone rang. It was Cryptex:

"Castor, we've traced her, you might want to hear this: she is not connected through the Power Plant. She is in Machine City!"

"What? And how can we get her out?"

"Curiously, the Sentinels deactivated themselves when we approached the place. Almost as if they want us to get her out! Should we proceed?"

"Yes, proceed, we're almost done…"

Phoenix looked at him a little puzzled. She knew what they spoke of.

"Look, Phoenix, we know you're confused because of your situation, but there's more you need to know…" Castor spoke.

"About the Matrix, you mean? I know everything, I've figured it out by myself that this is not the real world we live in. I knew you would come to take me out… I know what you'll do next, you'll take out a red pill and you'll tell me it will get me out. And I feel that taking the red pill will be the worst thing that I ever did and that it will make me suffer, but I also know it will have good consequences…" Phoenix sighed.

Castor gave her the red pill and she took it. Tears were running down her face. She could see millions of things that made no sense but that made her suffer. She close her eyes and swallowed the pill.

At opening them she was lying on a metal bed surrounded by Castor, Pollux and some people she had never seen before…

TBC