CHAPTER 5: REALITY BITES

Castor was the first one to speak:

"Good morning, sleeping beauty! We thought we lost you!"

"What happened? Why do you say that?" Phoenix asked, looking around her surprised.

"You've been asleep for three days and there was no way we could wake you up" Pollux answered. "Are you OK?"

"Yes, I am. I guess I was too exhausted after all that happened, with the Phantom and with leaving the Matrix… I'm so confused right now…"

"We'll tell you everything there is to know. First let us introduce you to our mother, Niobe" Castor spoke.

Phoenix looked at Niobe, a woman that looked older than she should be and she felt all of her pain. Just by looking at her eyes she saw the whole story of her and Morpheus and she felt the wish for revenge that she had against the Phantom.

Then they introduced her to the rest of the crew on the Neb.

"Now we'll leave you with Cryptex. He'll show you everything there is to know." Castor said.

Cryptex told Phoenix everything about The Matrix, in detail. The part which he was most interested in was explaining to her about The One. Cryptex showed her images of Neo and the amazing things he had done in the Matrix. But while seeing the images of him fighting agents, she could see his whole life, she could see him and Trinity, she could feel their love story and she burst into tears at seeing them die. But there was one thing she couldn't see, as hard as she tried: she couldn't see what happened to them after their death.

The first thing was a little hard for Phoenix, she had to accommodate to a different lifestyle, a harsh one…

One day, Castor and Pollux decided that it was time to see if Phoenix was right when she said that she could to things no one could.

"We'll get you into a training program. You'll have to fight some agents. We want to see what you can do" they said to her.

"Really? You're doing this because you hope I am The One, right? Even I don't know if your hopes will come true. But now let me amaze you" Phoenix answered in her ironic style.

She laid on a bed and Cryptex put the helmet on her head. In a matter of seconds she was in the program, which simulated the rooftop of a very tall building. She was wearing a scarf around her eyes.

"Phoenix, do you hear me? Take that scarf off!" Pollux spoke.

"I hear you Pollux, but I won't please you! You wanted me to surprise you, right? So here I go…"

Agents came up. Although she had her eyes covered, she fought each one of them in a perfect way. None of them even got a chance to hurt her. She could see in her mind from where she will be attacked so she could react before anything happened.

The twins and Cryptex were amazed. Cryptex was ordered to let in armed agents and so he did.

They were stunned to see that Phoenix could dodge all the bullets. They hadn't seen anyone move like that! Not even in the old recordings of Neo! She was amazing. All they could think was that Phoenix must be The One, that the young woman that didn't have a past will save the future.

"Enough" Pollux said.

Phoenix took off the scarf, with an ironic smile.

"Great job! Let's get you…" but Pollux didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because at looking on the monitor he saw behind Phoenix none other than the Phantom. He was standing just a few inches away from her. Pollux was as shocked to see that she wouldn't react in any way as he was by the fact that Phantom managed to break into their safe system.

"Phoenix, run! Why are you standing there?" Castor screamed into the microphone. But she didn't seem to hear him.

She started moving slowly towards the edge of the rooftop, with her eyes closed. Cryptex was trying hard to get her out, but the program would not respond.

Phoenix stood for a few seconds on the edge, then she jumped. She was falling fast and no one could do anything to get her out in time. Just a few inches before reaching the ground she opened her eyes and made such a sudden stop that all the windows off the building shattered into millions of pieces.

Cryptex finally got her out. At waking up she began crying. Castor rushed to hug her.

"What happened? Why did you just stay there?" Pollux asked.

"I don't know. I felt the Phantom coming and I wanted to turn around and shoot him but I couldn't. He told me that he would get rid of me to complete his revenge and he told me to jump off the building. I tried not to listen to him but I couldn't… He was in my mind, he controlled me. I managed to fight his will and when I opened my eyes I got so scared at seeing that I almost hit the ground! I'm so afraid of him! I never imagined he could do that!" she said and burst into tears again.

Castor, Pollux and Cryptex looked at one another, not knowing what to do to console her. They were trying to understand how their worst enemy got there.

TBC