4. Nebuchadnezzar

Enigma watches Neo as Dozer and Trinity attach his body with their medical equipment.

It's been two hours since they found Neo. Like the people they saved in the past, Neo's condition is very weak. Years in the pod make the body unable to move normally like in the Matrix. Even with all the advanced technology they have, it takes a person almost a month to be able to move the body without assistance.

"We've done it, Trinity, Enigma," Morpheus said to them. "We've found him."

Trinity rubs Enigma's shoulder, nervous as she looks at her mentor. "I hope you're right."

"I don't have to hope. I know it."

"...Am I dead?" Neo whispered lowly.

"Far from it," Morpheus said.

"You're okay," Enigma assured him with a gentle smile, holding his hand with softness. She remembered how it felt after waking up. How scared and lonely she was... and how much she wants to assure people that everything's going to be okay after being rescued. "Don't be afraid."

"Don't be," Neo mumbled before closing his eyes, tired.

"You should go to sleep, sweetheart," Trinity entreated the young girl. "We'll take care of him."

Enigma looks back at Neo. She wants to stay here, to be close to him. But Trinity has a point. It's late now, and she needs more sleepy time than others.

"All right," she said and hugs her. "Goodnight, Trin."

"Night," she replied, watching her going into her room with a small smile. Oh how much she loves that sweet girl.

▪︎1001▪︎

"This one?" The blonde girl asked Dozer as she pointed her finger at one needle at Neo's left chest.

"That one," Dozer confirmed. Enigma slowly released one needle, causing Neo to flinches, opening his eyes.

"Sorry," the girl apologized and continue to do her work.

"He still needs a lot of work," Dozer commented to Morpheus.

"What are you doing?" Neo asked weakly.

"Your muscles have atrophied," Morpheus answered. "We're rebuilding them."

"Why do my eyes hurt?"

"You've never used them before."

Enigma quietly closes his brown eyes. "Just rest. We'll do our best," she comforted before humming a song near his ear. "One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall."

"I still don't understand why you like that song," Dozer admitted after Neo returns to sleep. "It's not a lullaby song. Why can't you sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?"

"I just like that song," Enigma shrugs, cleaning some needles with water. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is... too boring."

Morpheus smiles while Dozer just shook his head with that response. Despite abandoning her former name, Enigma still lives up with her name as Alice. From her constant humming of White Rabbit by an old American band until her preference choice with Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass as her favorite stories she often begged for a bedtime story.

Sometimes, for Morpheus, Enigma is not your typical child you often meet. Then again, he can say the same thing with her caregiver, Trinity, and most Potentials he rescued.

▪︎1001▪︎

Neo slowly open his eyes. He finds himself laying down inside a room that seems much more like a bunker room from a submarine.

He hears soft snoring from beside. Near his bed, he found Enigma sleeping peacefully, not even bothering with her sleeping position that might hurt her neck. She wears a similar cloth as he wears now. Grey sweater and dark pants. Not wanting to disturb her sleep, Neo quietly sat down, looking at his hand. There's some sort of IV plug plugging into his forearm. He tries to pull it out...

"Don't do that," a girly voice spoke, startled him. Enigma already wakes up, yawning while rubbing her blue eyes. She stands up, gently holding his forearm and the IV. "It's nutritions for your own body. Hurt so much if you pull it out with force. Here."

The man lets her remove the plug as he runs his other hand over his short hair. Then, he senses a large hole in the base of his skull.

Just as he's about to ask the little girl, the door opens and Morpheus comes in.

"Morpheus, what's happened to me?" Neo asked him with Enigma finally unplugging the IV, gently rubbing his forearm. "What is this place?"

"More important than what is when," Morpheus instead replied.

"When?"

"You believe it's the year 1999 when in fact it's closer to 2199. I can't tell you exactly what year it is because we honestly don't know. There's nothing I can say that will explain it for you, Neo," he answered, looking at Enigma. The girl nods. "Come with me. See for yourself."

As Enigma covers his body with a small red blanket he gladly takes, they follow Morpheus.

"You can hold my hand," Enigma offered. "Makes it easier."

He didn't reply but quietly takes her small, left hand as Morpheus explained. "This is my ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. It's a hovercraft," he said before they climb a ladder up to the main deck. When they arrive, Neo spots an old placard that says Mark III, No. 11. Nebuchadnezzar. Made in the USA. Year 2069.

"This is the main deck," Morpheus continued. "This is the core where we broadcast our pirate signal and hack into the Matrix. Most of my crew you already know. This is Apoc, Switch, and Cypher."

"Hi," Cypher greeted.

Neo nods to those three as his eyes briefly catch Trinity before moving elsewhere.

"The ones you don't know, Tank and his big brother, Dozer. The little one behind you is Mouse. And the youngest one beside you is Enigma."

Mouse nods, keeping his head low. Enigma smiles in secret, knowing deep down, he and the rest are equally excited to meet Neo.

"You wanted to know what the Matrix is, Neo?" Morpheus asked, to which he replies with another nod. "Help them, Trinity, Enigma."

Enigma leads him to sit down on a chair as Trinity prepares the jack and Apoc prepares the Construct room. She adjusts the red blanket on his knees, petting his arm. "I know I say this many times, but," she stops, looking at Morpheus for a brief moment, "when you learn the truth... take a deep breath and calm down."

"Why?"

"You need it."

Before he can ask more, Morpheus interjected. "Try to relax. This will feel a little weird."

He puts the plug into his back as he gasps, not used to being plugged in. His body tenses up before slowly and certainly relaxing.

"Where are you going?" Switch asked as Enigma suddenly walks away from Neo. She and Trinity know the girl never left his side ever since they rescued him. She always takes care of new people they rescued for these past years she's onboard.

"Bucket. He might need it," she answered without looking back, leaving the main dock.

"Why would he need a bucket?" Mouse pondered, not getting it.

"How would I know?" Apoc shrugs. "Besides, she always likes this. Being enigmatic, just like her name."

Trinity nearly rolls her eyes with her teammates. They think she's mysterious. But truthfully, she's just had good intuitions. A gift she received from the Sight she discovered three years ago. Usually, the Sight appears into her dreams, telling her random scenes that happen inside the Matrix while they're plugged or unplugged. Sometimes those dreams also show events from the past, although Enigma never reveals much about it. Trinity never press more, remembering how those moments always scared the young girl so much.

In a rare moment, those Sight manifest into good intuitions. Nothing big and important like her dream. Just a small moment like, "Don't forget to change the cable near the main deck" or "we need to refill our drink".

To this day, she doesn't know how exactly she possesses such a gift. At first, Morpheus suspected she might be The One. She immediately turned down that theory, since it doesn't match what the Oracle told her years ago. She said that she will fall in love with the One. And she remembered the old lady said 'he', not 'she'.

But part of her also knows why Morpheus thought of that. She can see some logic behind it. Nobody can possess such strange power like her unless that person is The One. She had seen young potentials from the old lady's house and most of them usually possess some power to bend the reality of the Matrix in brief moments. Looking into events of past and present isn't what she can put into 'bend reality'. If she ties what the Oracle said, it matches. She does fall in love with Enigma. Just in a motherly way, not a romantic way.

Still, if Enigma truly is The One... then why did The Oracle never tell her that? Or told Morpheus about it? Is there a reason for keeping that a secret? Did searching for The One and unplugging Neo was a waste of time?

Suddenly, Neo's eyes open wide, looking frantic. Uh oh.

"Easy, Neo. Easy," she tried to calm him down. Dozer's keeping him on the bay as she unplugs him.

"Take this thing off me," he insisted in a weak tone. "Take this thing..."

Morpheus, who already unplug, comes closer. "Listen to me..."

"Don't touch me. Stay away from me!" He snapped, stands up, stagger. "I don't want it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it..."

"He's gonna pop," Cypher warned.

"Breathe, Neo. Just breathe," Morpheus asserted as Enigma suddenly comes back with a bucket.

"Here," she puts him closer on that bucket, patting his back as Neo immediately vomits, pitches backward before blackout.

Morpheus looks at the blonde. "How...?"

"I didn't react very well as well," she simply answered, putting the bucket aside.

▪︎1001▪︎

Neo wakes up back into the same room. "I can't go back, can I?" He asked, knowing Morpheus was already inside.

"No. But if you could, would you really want to?"

No, he replied on his mind.

"I feel I owe you an apology," Morpheus continued. "We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go. I've seen it before and I'm sorry."

He hears soft snoring behind his back. The same one when he wakes up today.

"Does that apply to her?" He quietly asked.

Morpheus sighs, like remembering something awful. "She lost her parents three years ago. Her house was burned to the ground by somebody else. But eventually, yes, we did the same thing that we did to you. She knew the risk and she still chose us over her life in Matrix."

Three years ago. That means she was 4-5 years old. He's already in his 30-ish and barely able to keep all this stuff without getting panic in the first place. He can't imagine how she reacted to the truth.

"I did what I did because... I had to," he added. "When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth: 'As long as the Matrix exists the human race will never be free.' After he died the Oracle prophesized his return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those of us who have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix looking for him. I did what I did because I believe that search is over."

Neo looks at him as he raises. "Get some rest, you're going to need it."

"For what?"

"Your training," Morpheus stated, putting a blanket on Enigma as he left, leaving them alone.

But even after that, he barely sleeps. All these revelations... his brain needs time to accept.

▪︎1001▪︎

He doesn't know how much time passes now. He stays awake, deep in thought, alone. The sounds of a child sleeping are the only thing that fills this silence.

The door opens and a man he recalled as Tank comes in. "Morning, did you sleep?" He asked. "You will tonight, I guarantee it. I'm Tank, I'll be your operator."

Neo replies his hand with a shake, notices something. "You don't... you don't have any..."

"Holes? Nope. Me and my brother Dozer, we're both 100% pure, old-fashioned, home-grown human, born free right here in the real world. Genuine child of Zion."

"Zion?"

"If the war was over tomorrow, Zion's where the party would be."

"It's a city?"

"The last human city. The only place we have left."

"Where is it?"

"Deep underground, near the earth's core where it's still warm. You live long enough, you might even see it."

He stays silent. And then, a question hits him. "If there's a city of humans, why..."

"Why does Enigma stay onboard and not at Zion?" He finished, already expecting that question to come soon. Most people who got unplugged always asked that question. Tank glances at Enigma, still asleep. "She was. Since she had no relatives, she stayed with my sister, Zee, for six months."

"Why?" Neo wondered. "What happened?"

Tank sighs. "It's a long story. And not a good one," he simply addressed.

What happened two years ago... nearly caused everyone on Nebuchadnezzar panic. He never saw Trinity lose her composure with Enigma's situation. Even now, he still remembered how angry Lock was when he knew the accident during the meeting. The man already had a problem with Morpheus and Enigma herself, thinking of her as a nuisance child, which isn't true at all. But he never cared for her and insisted with the Council to put her away from Nebuchadnezzar. The Council agreed with his demand.

For the first time, he saw how devastated Enigma was.

He quickly shook her head. All that is in the past. "I... I got to tell you. I'm fairly excited to see what you're capable of, if Morpheus is right and all," he confessed, trying to change the topic purposely. Something Neo picks up. "We're not supposed to talk about this, but if you are... Damn, it's a very exciting time. We got a lot to do. Let's get to it..."

"You're so lousy, even when whispering, Tank" Enigma said, yawning from her slumber.

Tank closes his mouth shut, looking embarrassed. Neo finds that amusing.


Note: More explorations with Enigma and her backstory! I want to write more about her, yet at the same, not showing much as the story progress.