-
The Matrix enveloped Neo once again, overtaking all sight and sense of the reality of the Nebuchadnezzar. Even looking around the sunlit alleyway, looking at something completely unrelated, he still felt distinctly uneasy about the vacant chair he knew was sitting across from him- the chair that Trinity normally used.
A moment later, after Link was certain the coast was clear, Morpehus followed via the hard line in the same getup he'd worn when they'd first met. But they were not here to repeat that particular action this time. This time, their potential ally had found them instead of the other way around.
The biggest wall, he noted distantly from where he stood, was a nice piece of work in regards to its purpose. While the tall, gritty-looking edifice bore an extremely artistic depiction of a massive three-headed Chimera, it was also decorated with enough random graffiti and unintelligible punk scrawl so that no one would think it different from the rest. Near the top, almost past where any human could reach, someone had written in green: 'The mind is a crazy thing'.
Without even having to give it his full concentration, Neo pointed to it… and then pointed to a nearly-blank wall across the way from it, avoiding the Chimera-wall's code. He saw Morpheus stare at the trap for some time before following him up to the other one.
"A 'loop snarl'", he finally explained as he knocked on the blank wall, trying his best not to sound condescending. "Sends whatever processor that updates this sector into an infinite task loop that makes it overtask itself and eventually blow out."
Surprised, the older man looked to the very top of the wall. "You've seen it before?"
"In PCs. Never like this. Whoever this is must be pretty good at destroying unwanted code."
As if to demonstrate his own aptitude, he let fly at the portion of wall indicated by the code with the strongest punch he could muster, like hitting a big green shatterpoint. The wall did not crumble right away, but instead began with its topmost area vanishing. The others followed shortly, opening the way to another back alley, this one with one visible difference- it had never been written on or lived in.
They had barely taken ten steps in when the wall rebuilt itself behind them, looking the same from the inside as it did on the outside. "A talented coder", Morpheus observed as they continued through several turns. "But this is something we have not seen before- a potential contacting us. Another sign of change."
Having replicated the other man's pace so far, Neo slowed down and cleared his throat, troubled by the mention of the word 'potential', along with something the Oracle had told him one month before. "Wait. Before we go on… I wanted to ask you about something."
Stopping, turning, he faced Neo and nodded. "Another trap?"
"No." He ought to know perfectly well it wasn't that. "Maybe it's not my place to ask."
"But it is." Relatively certain they were no longer in a hurry, Morpheus removed his circular shades and looked the younger man straight in the eye, personally. "How do I know that? Because you are The One. You can now understand more whats and wheres and whos than I. So the only questions I can still answer for you are why and how. You have the right to know."
Understanding completely, he felt his appreciation for Morpheus' abilities rise up another notch. "You knew I would ask why, or how. Then, why? You found me, trained me, helped to become who I am. But we're still just freeing a few potentials, following up on leads like the one set by this programmer. Why did you keep following the Oracle's path, even when there was no result?"
He took a deep breath, and suddenly looked to Neo like he was a little sad. "There are many answers to that. The most efficient that comes to mind is- we had nowhere else to turn."
He understood that a little, and began to walk again, at a more contemplative pace. The horrors of the true reality had driven Cypher mad with fear of it. Thinking that there was nothing past that, that nothing would ever change… The belief in The One may just have been the thing that kept Morpheus and those around him sane.
"Past that", Morpheus continued, walking with him further down the alley, "I knew it was real. It is difficult to explain to anyone who has never experienced that impulse, somehow I knew in my heart that we would find you. I will not deny that when I first met the Oracle, I was lost. I saw further than the others, and saw nothing but despair ahead of us. The prophecy gave me purpose again. I became a ship captain so I could search."
Another bit of graffiti he'd seen on the alley walls flashed to mind- 'hope is comforting'. But there was a sinister side to it as well. "Morpheus… you know that the Oracle is a program, don't you? A part of the Matrix?"
He stopped again. "How do you know that, Neo?"
If against his normal thought processes, his head canted over and focused on the ground. How to explain to Morpheus the evidence that even the Oracle was a part of the system, really no different than the Agent programs he'd been trained to defeat? "I haven't seen her since my 'awakening'. When we meet again, I'll know."
A few minutes later, they happened upon the first and seemingly only denizen of the hidden alleyway- a longhaired man in disheveled clothes and wide eyes. Neo frowned at the man staring back at them as though he thought they were gods. Something was terribly wrong here- the man looked so familiar… too familiar.
Yet, like so many premonitions, this one proved to be useless. In the time it Neo to shout 'he's bugged!' the changes had already begun.
The hobo-looking man's chest bulged out and his face spasmed more wildly than any normal man could. Both men recognized it instantly- the visual conception of what happened when an Agent program traveled into a human plugged into the Matrix.
Without waiting any further, Neo went on full alert and saw more familiar code descending on their location. But who was the program now appearing in front of them? Jones, or Brown?
Whoever it was, he didn't give them the benefit of the first move. Before the Agent's face was even fully formed, he ran ahead of Morpheus and leapt into a flying kick at their mutual enemy's face. Just a few moments more…
Neither one saw the arm suddenly snap up and grab Neo's outstretched leg until it had been caught between the man's fully-formed head, and his shoulder. As if that was not suprising enough, the black haired Agent- one they had never seen before- twisted his even lips into a small smirk. "Gotcha."
It may not have been completely fair to call it a mistake on the part of The One- still shocked by several things over the past few seconds- did not react quite as fast as he could have, allowing the new Agent to bend over and hurl Neo backwards into the brick wall behind him.
However, that was more than close enough. The brick wall did not shatter itself or Neo's skull, instead caving in on the flying body like the most pliable of putty before shooting him back out of it at twice the velocity, both his legs aimed for the program's back even as he advanced upon Morpheus with hatred steadily clouding his expression.
The double kick knocked Peterson away, but he recovered with a familiar military roll that put him face-to-face with the two once again, one arm supporting him as he returned to his feet. It was just about then that his partners, the ones Neo had grown so accustomed to defeating, emerged from the dank alleyways and stood on either side.
"Nice work on that one", Neo commented, once again trying to mock their efforts to trap them. "Not smart, but very strong."
The machines' new recruit didn't reply- he was too busy focusing an unmistakable glare of pure hate right through his dark shades at Morpheus. Instead, Jones gestured back to the newly formed brick mural blocking the way they had come with one hand, drawing his gun with the other. "No escape. Your termination is inevitable this time."
"We'll see."
With that, they attacked. As usual, Brown and Jones ineffectually assailed The One with the best moves they could muster. But Peterson, disobeying orders, went straight for a far weaker target- Morpheus. Tied up in the tangle of lethal arms and legs, Neo could only shout a warning and watch as it was proved futile- he laid into the bald visionary with a fury none had ever seen before in a program, a fury no human could match.
-
Not for the first time, Link felt incredibly helpless seeing what was happening to his boss and his friend. Providing commentary appropriate to their situation ('shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!') did nothing to stop the cascade of coding that showed every detail of the unfair contest.
It wasn't looking good, not at all. Not only had the Agent programs- 31B, 57J, and the new one- managed to bait and trap Morpheus and Neo in a dead end of code with no exit lines for miles, but they had brought lots of backup. Eight, nine, ten columns of numbers were cascading down towards the boundaries of area, which translated in his eyes as ten squad cars, at least two armed men per car. He dared not interrupt his friend's concentration to warn them.
As for Morpheus, he doubted a warning would be any use. The new Agent was all over him, tossing him into hard stone walls much as Brown had Trinity, punching him fiercely in the gut. To his horror, he caught a glimpse of dark blood emerging from Morpheus' true body. Either this new boy was just running on adrenalin… or what Link had fearfully suspected on seeing his code was true.
Link didn't have to turn away from the screen- he felt Trinity running onto the main deck already as worried as he was. "No way out?" she asked him sharply, looking at the same screen of code.
"None. They sure did their homework on this one. Closest line is the one they used, and now…" his voice trailed off in despair, knowing that she saw the police blockade around the fake wall just as well as he did.
"Boot me up, then."
Even as his mind saw what had to be done, he wheeled on her. "You crazy? Morpheus said-"
"Morpheus never expected this", she interrupted with no room for argument, already fully strapped in by the time she finished speaking. "Do it."
"Trin, they've got the damn thing blockaded! You can't get through!"
Whereas her mouth had been set into that hard line that offered no room for dissension, it now twisted with terse emotion for the men she needed to help. "Oh, I'm not going through."
-
Footsteps in perfect lockstep woke Morpheus just in time. The last blow he'd taken had almost been too much- he almost imagined he could feel loose cartilage matter inside his own head.
He saw only the two approaching shoes from the cement floor, the perfectly polished black sheen shared by all Agent programs. But he knew which one was coming his way.
If not his strength, then he would have been amazed by Peterson's single-mindedness. Ignoring all accounts of his partner's distress fighting Neo, he had gone after the weaker fighter with a zeal he had previously thought only humans capable of. He was the one who had been doing all the damage so far. It makes no difference, he acknowledged to himself silently, remembering his defeat to Smith one month prior, I am not The One, only the man who found him. It's a foolish move to fight on the ground of an enemy's choosing- we must get out of here.
The walls towering them, though, yielded no answers. Just like before, the Machines had sealed off the passageway their prey had entered by, forcing both men into battle.
No choice but to fight. Just as Peterson reached punching distance, Morpheus spun both his legs around as he returned to his feet, hoping at the least to make the incensed program back off a little. Instead, he grabbed the second leg and threw Morpheus into the opposite wall, and then leapt towards the new indentation, pinning his target inside of it by placing an arm upon his throat.
"Suffer", he gritted out over the noise of Morpheus choking. "Just like I did."
Black spots in front of his eyes. Blood. Neo's panicked cry sounded like it was coming across a canyon. But that was strange- he was actually right there, kicking Peterson in the side and knocking him away…
His senses deprived, he barely noticed the new wall sliding across his vision, dividing the alley into two halves. If there was a visual hint of déjà vu, it must have happened after he sank to the floor, unconscious.
-
Neo met the sudden shift of the alley's makeup with a mix of equal parts worry and resignation. On one hand, he no longer had to protect his mentor from the new Agent, who had moments before seemed completely focused on killing him as painfully as possible. On the other, they were cut off from each other now- he couldn't see what was going on behind that wall without sparing more concentration than he could afford, and he knew his enemies had done that for a reason.
The change left him alone, face-to-face and eye-to-eye with the new, black-haired Agent. As if triggered by a silent signal from Jones and Brown, Neo and Peterson launched into each other with unbridled ferocity, neither having any further reason to care about anything outside the fight.
Ten seconds and thirty kicks and punches later, Neo fell back slightly. It wasn't the strength of this Agent that threw him- he'd seen enough now to know that while it was greater than the other two, it was still, as Morpheus had so aptly put it once, made to function in a world which was based on simple rules, like gravity and kinetic force.
Rather, it was the pure emotion put into every counterblow that made him look up with a newfound determination. Just as though he was fighting a human, every strike was delivered with a warm-blooded strength, which no doubt stemmed from the gnashing hatred he visibly put into it. It was like fighting Smith all over again, fighting someone who despised absolutely everything about you, and let it show in the way they fought.
Narrowing his gaze, he tried a new approach, opening with a rising sweep kick before grabbing Peterson's onrushing fist and separating his other leg from the surly bonds of gravity. At the same time, he threw Peterson downward by the arm into the concrete face first, somersaulting in midair into one of the nearby walls for a spring kick.
Now the walls were so close to each other, springing off of them was easy for him even if he didn't actually fly, darting in and out of range off the walls. He managed to land several of these hit-and-run strikes on Peterson before the enraged program got wise to the trick, and pounded both walls at once, one fist to each enough to obliterate every square inch of brick for several meters. When that happened, Neo drew his stolen weapon mid-flight, and fired.
It was actually Brown's gun. He'd pilfered it off him while they were scuffling earlier, remembering the first ever Agent kill he'd seen was actually by Trinity. Both arms extended to the walls, there should have been no way for Peterson to get out of the way.
He didn't. Instead, Neo saw the other end of what he had shown countless deluded police officers up until now- the bullet slowing to a crawl in midair and stopping, flat end facing the user, before uselessly dropping to the floor.
Agent Jones smiled. The wall behind him surged and exploded. Whatever reservations Neo might have had over Trinity being here, back in the Matrix, they were gone now. He leaped backwards and kicked Jones in the gut before anyone could react, least of all the new Agent.
"Perfect timing", he whispered even as their opponents got organized again. "Morpheus is hurt, I need you to get him out of here."
Any argument she would have offered was silenced by the sight of their mutual mentor, who was doubled over in the corner and more defenseless than he had ever been. If Peterson got half a chance, he'd do a lot more than just kick Morpheus when he was down.
He didn't seem too predisposed towards Trinity either. For a moment, Neo though he was too late; the black-haired agent was between them and Morpheus, but Trinity was going to charge him anyway. Then, to his amazement, every defense and hostility in him seemed to evaporate into a stance of both confusion and vulnerability, saying a single name in absolute wonder:
"AnneMarie?"
Wasting no time, Trinity kicked the man in the chin, rocking him back and breaking his shades. By the time he hit the ground, Neo was between his comrades and the remaining two Agents. But even they seemed to have lost their enthusiasm for fighting- they knew perfectly well that without their new ally, they stood no chance against The One.
The Agents weren't really his concern though. The thing that drew Neo's eyes away from his foes, the thing that brought all his misgivings back in full force and memory, was the method by which Trinity left the sealed alleyway- by melting a tunnel barely her own height into the rock, the exit hole still oozing the very same chaotic code from before.
"There will be another time, Neo", he heard the new Agent grit out from behind bloody teeth, in a most un-machine like fashion, his eyes still radiating bitterness even while dazed. "I promise you…"
-
Long after the anomaly had departed through the melted-looking hole made by the woman, Program 31B finally stooped over Program 67P's form, which had been slumped on the bare white concrete ever since he had struggled to say those last few words to The One, and made certain he was not too badly injured to follow their reversion back to the Metacortex building.
He wasn't, but there was a noticeable delay. Enough of one to give Agents Brown and Jones some more time to speak to one another without a third mind intruding. Enough for Jones to speak his own.
Seeing the criticism coming from far off, Brown headed it off at once. "I understand the problems perfectly, there is no need to give voice to them."
Jones tilted his head over the circular desk in disagreement. "If that were so, we would have already deleted him. He is nothing but a failed experiment, and confirmation of what we should have remembered- we are superior."
Distraught, Brown looked as though he was about to say more, but Agent Peterson popped into existence right then, seemingly oblivious to his injuries.
Evidently, Brown noted, the man who had once been Robert Peterson had felt their doubts about him as well, since the first words out of his mouth were: "Give me another shot. I will kill him for sure next time."
Trying to ignore Jones' thinly veiled disgust towards this thing they had created, Brown stared into the man's broken shades, still not refreshed by the next system update. "Of this, we have no doubt. You have demonstrated powers similar to the anomaly. This is the only reason you are still alive at this time. You let the woman escape."
Peterson thought for a moment, then said "I was just a little startled. She's-"
"She is nothing", Brown interrupted him with no small measure of anger. "She is not your progeny, not anymore. She is now a threat to the stability of our world. And you are no longer her father."
Back in sync with his one true colleague, Jones' voice reinforced their simultaneous frustration with his weak human frailties, which had hampered him, even when directly monitored and controlled by a program. "If you cannot bring yourself to eliminate her, then you are useless to us."
"One more chance", he repeated upon seeing Jones advance on him, his voice starting to show a tinge of desperation even through his emotional control. "Don't forget, you created me to remove the anomaly."
"Which you have failed to do."
"So far", Peterson countered sharply. Then, he produced something from his hand neither of them had seen before. While it was truly nothing more than a bunch of coding, even machine eyes could see it as something more substantial- a projection hovering over Peterson's hand. A rough copy of something far larger.
Sizing up the construct, Brown felt whatever passed for faith in his mind restored. "You wrote this program yourself?"
"Most of it", Peterson amended, blissfully exhaling. "While we were planning the alley ambush and bait. I had to copy an existing image texturing, or it would have taken much longer than that to write."
"The purpose?", Jones asked, still not convinced of Peterson's value.
Peterson did not smile, his emotional control back in full effect. "A trap to remove the anomaly, as promised. I placed it so far out that not even he can return from it. No phones, just a single, one-way line that will self-destruct once used. And our own passage, of course."
Now it was Jones' turn to eye both the construct, and its creator, with newfound regard. Throughout all of their earlier planning sessions in this building, it had never even occurred to the two of them that removing the despised anomaly from the machine mainframe was not necessarily the same thing as killing him.
"This shows promise", Brown found the breath to admit. "Show us more."
-
Despite the fact that they hadn't faced a single attack since escaping the alleyway, Neo still didn't feel safe enough to slow down past a brisk jog. The hardline was finally in sight, an old-fashioned dial phone left behind in a building that looked condemned. Finally stopping in the dusty room, Trinity dropped Morpheus' unconscious body on the boards, having exhausted herself from running the whole way with him slung over her shoulder, and the previous fight.
"Trin", Neo spoke to her, at a loss for how to put this. "You saved our lives back there. But… you're not…"
"Don't say a damn word", she panted heavily. "There was no other way in. Had… to embrace it. Had to… save you. Because…"
Inwardly beaming, he lifted the phone, knowing Link was probably sweating bullets after they had lost contact. "After you."
"Actually, I think we should let him go first", she joked weakly, indicating Morpheus' body. "He needs medical… attention a lot more than we do."
Physical medicine, anyway, the dark thought intruded before Neo could silence it. "Right."
A moment later, they had pressed Morpheus' ear to the receiver and shuttled him back to the waking world, where he would no doubt awaken to similar injuries. Knowing it didn't make much of difference at this point; Neo placed the receiver to his own ear next, and looked at her not with the eyes of The One, but a mere young man. "And thank you. If Morpheus gets angry-"
"He won't. He'll understand."
He smiled, and let the proverbial gateway take him.
-
Two out, and one to go. She had done it. Reflecting Neo's warm smile now that no one was around to see it, Trinity walked forward and grabbed the receiver eagerly.
It hadn't been easy work, melting those tunnels. Just like all the other tasks Morpheus had trained her for, it was entirely an effort of the mind rather than the body.
But for this task… she had had to abandon all of the training, all the mental discipline that had been built up over twelve years. It had proven as difficult as developing that mental discipline in the first place, and she knew only fervent love for Neo and Morpheus' friendship had seen her through.
After that obstacle, the brick wall she had been faced with parted like hot butter. No doubt she'd caused a lot of other glitches throughout the Matrix she didn't even know about, chaotically twisting the code just like before. Fine. More problems for those bastard machines to deal with. The brick walls had melted apart…
Oh, god!
… Much as the receiver in her hand was doing now. The entire upper section went limp, and the wire connection followed suit, melting into the floorboards that shifted beneath her boots.
What the hell! I thought I had this under control! Unfortunately, Trinity could see several answers to that panicked question. The control she thought she had mastered in the sparring program required full concentration, and was more exhausting than she would care to admit. Not only was she tired, but she had deliberately lost control only moments before. The more panic, the worse this would become.
Dumbass! Dumb, and arrogant, to think she could switch it on and off like a machine!
"Trin?", Link's familiar voice crackled in her ears. "Trinity?"
Then Neo's voice. Louder, more focused and more concerned for her. "What's wrong? Why aren't you coming out?"
Even her vocal cords had seemingly betrayed her. She couldn't speak, couldn't admit that this happening, and that it was happening due to her recklessness...
Don't tell him! Don't show him this weakness! Don't-The words burst forth at the same time her voice- and the floor- cracked. "Neo. I-I'm trapped. The hardline melted, and now everything else is- everything I get close to… I'm trapped in the Matrix."
And maybe, just maybe, I don't deserve to leave.
-
M: I finally got a chance to watch Matrix Revolutions all the way through yesterday, and it gave me a handful of nice new ideas for my remaining chapters. Wasn't asawful as I was led to believe either, although it's certainly the worst of the three. In particular, they must have run out of ideas for a more extreme final fight than the original Burly Brawl, and chose to rip off Dragon Ball Z instead. Hopefully,theultimate battle between Neo and Peterson (there will be one)won't end up in the same predicatablefashion. Think, brain!
