11. Burly Brawl
Trinity helps Enigma to lay down, spreading her soft blanket. "Stay close together, okay?" She whispered to her, giving a small kiss on her forehead.
"I will," she promised before jacked in.
The raven hair sighs as she helps Neo jacked in. "Be careful," she told him before kissing him, this time on lips.
Neo returns the kiss as he slowly enters the Matrix.
▪︎1001▪︎
They arrive in a small Chinatown. So many tourists and merchants gather around, filling with kinds of stuff Enigma doesn't know.
Still holding each other hands, Neo guides Enigma into a back alley, to the rear entrance of a tea house. He opens the door slowly, finding nobody's inside except one. He sits down, cross-legged, drinking a jasmine tea he used to offer her. Enigma knows the man as Seraph whom she met two years ago. The man who risked his life to protect her from Smith.
The girl frowns a little upon looking at Seraph. She can see his code, bath in golden sunlight. She has never seen codes like these before, which just proves her suspicious lately regarding this development.
Trinity's vision is the first. This one is the second.
"Hello?" Neo asked, confused.
Seraph puts down his cup. "You seek the Oracle."
"Who are you?"
Seraph stands up. "I am Seraph. I can take you to her. But first, I must apologize."
Neo glances at Enigma, wanting a clarification. But Enigma stays silent, already knows what he'll do next. "Apologize for what?" Neo asked again as Enigma back away.
"For this."
Seraph quickly attacks Neo, which Neo dodges by using his hands, stopping Seraph from harming him. As they continue to attack and dodge in mere seconds while moving away, Enigma walks away from them, grabbing a small cup of tea Seraph already provided, and pours the tea while watching both men fists with each other.
They take the fight to a table. With Neo ducking Seraph's attack, he uses that as an advantage for the offense. Seraph, knowing what he'll do, as usual, simply avoids his attack by blocking and dodging his fists and hands.
For a moment, Enigma witnesses Seraph and Neo keep fighting in a similar style. They did the same movement in each turn. From their hands, their kicks, their reflexes. All in tune, like they're able to mimic each other's attacks. While Neo does so to keep himself ready, Seraph does so to know how much Neo learns. She knows that because she fought Seraph once. Although she ended up with many bruises afterward - since a child couldn't possibly beat up an adult - Seraph did that without malice.
"Good," Seraph said, gesturing Neo to stops. "The Oracle has made enemies. I had to be sure."
"Of what?"
"That you are The One. That you are capable of protecting her."
"You could've just asked," Neo pointed out, confused why Seraph went as far to fight him.
"No. You do not truly know someone until you fight them," Seraph disagreed. "Come, she's waiting."
"You know him?" Neo pondered as Seraph takes some keys, opens the door with one of them.
Enigma nods, finishing her drink before she and Neo follow him into a different location. "He protected me once."
"Did you also fight him?"
"First time, yeah. He never meant any harm. He just needs assessment."
"These are back doors, aren't they?" Neo asked Seraph as they continue walking in a clean corridor. "Programmer access."
He nods.
"How do they work?"
"The code is hidden in tumblers. One position opens a lock. Another position opens one of these doors."
"Are you a programmer?"
"No," Enigma replied. "Doesn't make sense with his golden codes."
Seraph shook his head, confirming Enigma's answer.
"Then what are you?" Neo wondered, curious.
Seraph stops at one door, takes a key, and unlocks the door. "I protect that which matters most," he simply said, opens it.
Both Neo and Enigma step inside, finding themself at a small park that's surrounded by high apartments. They can see the Oracle's back, sitting on a bench, throwing food at birds nearby. "Well, come on," she said without looking back. "I ain't gonna bite ya. Come around here, and let me have a look at ya two."
Holding each other arms, Neo and Enigma step closer to her. She pulls out her sunglasses from her face as they do the same. "My goodness, look at you! You turned out all right, didn't you? How do you feel?"
Neo looks unsure. "I, uh..."
"I know you're not sleeping. Both of you, as a matter of fact," the Oracle denoted. "We'll get to that. Why don't you come and have a sit this time?"
Enigma looks unsure. "I think we prefer to stand up."
"Well, suit yourself."
Both Neo and Enigma look at each other eyes, having a feeling this conversation won't go anywhere. So they sit on a bench, with Enigma sitting between them.
"I felt like sitting," Neo admitted.
"I know. So," she puts her sunglasses on her purse and looks straight at their face. "Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way."
"You're not human, are you?"
"Well, it's tough to get any more obvious than that."
"You love sarcasm, aren't you Oracle?" Enigma pondered, playing with her golden hair as the Oracle chuckled.
"If I had to guess, I'd say you're a program from the machine world," Neo concluded, glances Seraph. "So is he."
"So far, so good."
"But if that's true, that can mean you are a part of this system, another kind of control."
"Keep going."
"If that's the case," Enigma stops for a moment, "can we trust you?"
She smiles. "Bingo! It is a pickle, no doubt about it. The bad news is there's no way if you can really know whether I'm here to help you or not. So it's really up to you. You just have to make up your own damn mind to either accept what I'm going to tell you or reject it." She takes out a small red candy from her purse. "Candy?"
Enigma gladly takes one. But Neo simply stares. "Do you already know if we're going to take it?"
"Wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I didn't."
"But if you already know, how can either of us make a choice?"
"Because you didn't come here to make the choice. You've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it," she simply answered. As Enigma's eating it, Neo slowly takes one. "I thought you'd have figured that out by now."
"Why are you here?" Neo asked.
"Same reason. I love candy," the Oracle commented before eating another candy.
"But why help us?"
"We're all here to do what we're all here to do. I'm interested in one thing, Neo, the future. And believe me, I know, the only way to get there is together."
"Are there other programs like you?"
"Oh, well, not like me. But... look, see those birds?" She gestures to some birds around them. "At some point, a program was written to govern them. A program was written to watch over the trees, and the wind, the sunrise, and sunset. There are programs running all over the place. The ones doing their job, doing what they were meant to do, are invisible. You'd never even know they were here. But the other ones, well... we hear about them all the time."
"I've never heard of them."
"Neither do I," Enigma added, already eating her candy.
"Of course you have. Every time you've heard someone say they saw a ghost or an angel. Every story you've ever heard about vampires, werewolves, or aliens is the system assimilating some program that's doing something they're not supposed to be doing."
"Programs hacking programs," Neo concluded.
"But," Enigma rubs her hands as she sees on her mind. Smith grabs somebody before that person turns into another Smith. She shivers, scared. "Why?"
"They have their reasons," the Oracle shrugs, "but usually a program chooses exile when it faces deletion."
"Why would a program be deleted?" Neo questioned.
"Maybe it breaks down. Maybe a better program is created to replace it. Happens all the time. And when it does, a program can either choose to hide here or return to the Source."
Neo and Enigma look at each other again before looking at her. "The machine mainframe?" He guessed.
"Yes. Where you two must go. Where the path of The One ends," she remarked. "You've seen it, in your dreams, haven't you? The door made of light?" Both nod, recalling having that dream lately. "What happens when you go through the door?"
Enigma gulps. She never got to see what happened next upon that vision... until last night. "I... I see Trinity..."
Knowing how painful this is to speak, Neo quietly rubs her hair, continued their vision. "Something terrible happens. She starts to fall... and then I wake up."
"Do you see her die?" She gently asked them.
"No."
"You have the sight now, Neo. You are looking at the world without time."
"Like me?" Enigma asked, surveying the Oracle's eyes.
"Like you, Little One."
There's that nickname again. "There's something else," Enigma began, taking a deep breath. "I've experienced things that... that didn't make any sense. Like I can see what Neo sees, bend the reality variously, or speaks with Neo using my mind, without words. I saw codes flying around people before, but I never saw yours and Seraph... until now." She sighs, her eyes filling with uncertainty. "Tell me. Am I... am I also The One?"
Silence.
"Some part of it, yes," she responded, looking distant.
"Part of it?" Enigma repeated.
"In a way, Enigma, you have the gift to become The One, just like Neo. Only, you possess some parts of what makes someone become The One."
"In other words," Neo spoke, trying to process her words. "Enigma has partial power of The One?"
The Oracle nods.
"Is that even possible?" Enigma pondered. She hears so many stories about The One. How powerful and how capable he was before his death. And now she possesses some power of The One? Albeit not all of them like Neo, still...
"It is now."
"But then, why can't neither I nor Enigma see what happens to Trinity?" Neo asked.
"We can never see past the choices we don't understand," the Oracle replied.
"Are you saying we have to choose whether Trinity lives or dies?"
"No. You've already made the choice, now you have to understand it."
"No," Neo shook his head. "I can't do that. I won't. We won't."
"You have to."
"Why?"
"Because you're The One."
Neo tries his best to calm down. He had held so many responsibilities as humanity's savior. Knowing he got a glimpse of a grim future of his loved one... the revelation that his daughter also possesses part of his power...
"What about the first One?" Enigma suddenly asked. "Did he reach the Source?"
The Oracle sighs. "Yes."
"Then why he didn't end the war?"
"He did what he was here to do, Enigma. His path is not yours or Neo. The path of you both, I'm afraid, are much harder."
"What if I can't?" He asked quietly, afraid. He can feel Enigma's small hand grips his, assuring him despite her trembling fingers. "What happens if we fail?"
"Then Zion will fall," she said without hesitation, but with a gentle tone. Seraph kindly touches her shoulder. A signal they pick up quickly that she can't stay longer. "Our time is up. Listen to me, Neo, Enigma. You can save Zion if you reach the Source, but to do that you will need the Keymaker."
"The Keymaker?"
"Yes, he disappeared some time ago. We did not know what happened to him until now. He's being held prisoner by a very dangerous program, one of the oldest of us. He is called the Merovingian, and he will not let him go willingly."
Enigma gets another vision. A man in a business suit locks an older man inside a small room. She can guess which one is the Merovingian and the Keymaker. "What does he want?" She questioned her.
"What do all men with power want, Little One? More power." She holds a small piece of paper to Neo. "Be there, at that exact time, and you will have a chance."
"We must go," Seraph insisted.
The Oracle sighs as they stand up. "Seems like every time we meet I've got nothing but bad news. I'm sorry about that, I surely am. But for what it's worth, you've made a believer out of me." She gives a small hug to Neo and Enigma. "Good luck, kiddos."
They watch the Oracle and Seraph are left without words. Then, from behind, footsteps. Both turn around and find themself facing Smith.
"Mister Anderson! Miss Lovelace!" He greeted with his usual monotone voice. "Did you get my package?"
"Yeah," Neo replied, keeping Enigma behind him.
"Well, good. Surprised to see me?"
"No," he said, putting back his sunglasses. Enigma does so, eyeing the man of her nightmare these past three years.
"Then you're aware of it," Smith added.
"Of what?"
"Our connection. I don't fully understand how it happened. Perhaps some part of you imprinted onto me, something overwritten or copied. That is at this point irrelevant. What matters is that whatever happened, happened for a reason."
Enigma grips her hands at Neo's jacket as Smith steps closer. "And what reason is that?" She asked, trying to be calm.
"I killed your 'father', Miss Lovelace. I watched him die... with a certain satisfaction, I might add," Smith sneered when using the word 'father' at her, before focusing back on Neo. "And then something happened. Something that I knew was impossible, but it happened anyway. You destroyed me, Mister Anderson. Afterward, I knew the rules, I understood what I was supposed to do but I didn't. I couldn't. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. And now here I stand because of you and your girl, Mister Anderson. Because of you, I'm no longer an agent of the system, because of you I've changed. I'm unplugged. A new man, so to speak, like you two, apparently free."
"Congratulations," Neo mockingly said with a mocking bow.
"Thank you," Smith replied. "But, as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we're here. We're not here because we're free, we're here because we're not free. There's no escaping reason, no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist."
"It is purpose that created us," another voice said as Neo and Enigma turn around, finding another Smith steps closer. More of them approaching in a circle.
"Purpose that connects us."
"Purpose that pulls us."
"That guides us."
"That drives us."
"It is purpose that defines."
"Purpose that binds us."
"We're here because of you, Mister Anderson, we're here to take from you what you tried to take from us."
Without any chance, Smith stabs into Neo's chest while another grabs Enigma's neck. Both gaps in pain.
"Purpose," he finished.
▪︎1001▪︎
Both Neo and Enigma's bodies jerk away.
"What's happening to them?" Trinity asked, worried.
"I don't know," Link replied, equally confused.
▪︎1001▪︎
Fear overwhelmed her body as blackness covered her body. She can feel her life slowly disappear and another force sneak inside.
No.
She pushes those forces away by pulling away Smith's hand from her throat as Neo also did the same with his hand.
Then... chaos breaks.
Fighting one Agent is exhausting enough. But eight Agents is probably the biggest challenge she had faced over the past three years. Enigma throws lots of punches and kicks every time they get close to her or try to injure her and Neo. With her small stature, sometimes Enigma couldn't muster all her strength to take down one Smith. Several times Enigma gets pulled or hold back and several times she raised her elbow so she gets free.
There are times when Neo also helps her fight. A few times Neo positions himself when there's one Smith who attacks her from any side. However, Enigma knows he only distracts Neo from fighting many Smith they're beating one by one. This is why she tries her best to beat them all by herself.
Enigma doesn't know how long she and Neo had been fighting. Five minutes? Ten minutes? Time seems to move fast and slow at the same time every time Enigma fights at every Smith who stubbornly continued to attack mercilessly. Hit, kick, lie down, hold, headbutt, slam, throw. Everything grows into a rhythm that Enigma keeps thinking about as she defends herself from Smith's barrage of attacks.
"Ouch!" Enigma hissed quietly, feeling her nose hurt so much before kicking one Smith that attempts to pinch her down. She already gets hurt on her cheek and forehead. But not her nose, which is odd itself. How did she get hurt her nose all of sudden?
The blonde-haired girl lets out a loud sigh when she notices many duplicates of Smith each time she and Neo keep fighting. At one point, she gets thrown onto a floor with force, hurting her face. But before any Smith can get her, she quickly slides down before standing up behind Neo and continuing fighting. Somehow, she starts to feel everything start moving slowly as she overcomes her tiredness and focuses her kicks and fists at each turn they get her.
In frustration, she releases a loud grunt... and something bizarre happens.
Somehow, she creates a hidden force surrounding herself, throwing all Smith away from her position. She blinks, looking at herself and what happened with the remaining Smith that looks equally confused as herself. From a corner of her eyes, she spots Neo grabbing a fence post and using it as a weapon. While Smiths surround him, ready to attack, She wastes no time to uses her power as some Smiths also attacks her, adjusting with the power of The One inside her.
Everything starts to get slower and slower as they fight again. Enigma can feel it at a certain moment, with each of her movements and Smith's just getting abnormal. She doesn't know why this happens. But she can guess the Matrix itself is overloading and unable to render the amount of Smith that insanely keeps coming, like ants surrounding a corpse. In a way, it reminds Enigma of a computer that's unable to handle big data without getting its memory data into trouble.
Even with all she and Neo can do, having many Smith coming to them will never let them get a win. Realizing this, Neo quickly races at her, ready to grab her and fly away, but many Smith quickly grab his ankle, putting him down like Enigma herself with others Smith also adding the weight.
"It is inevitable," Smith said.
With all he can, Neo uses his telekinesis to create a huge blast of invisible wave-like Enigma did, throwing one Smith from his shoulder into the others that hold Enigma. He quickly grabs the blonde girl before flying away.
▪︎1001▪︎
"Are you all right?" Trinity asked Neo as she jacked out the needle from his skull while carrying Enigma. She's still awake. Her brows knits and her eyes squint, indicating how tired she is. Understandable as fighting so much Smith will get you tired, even with all training to bend the reality.
"It was Smith," Morpheus stated.
"Yes," Neo agreed.
"Now there's more than one of him."
"A lot more."
Link frowns. "How's that possible?"
"I don't know," Neo admitted, "somehow he's found a way to copy himself."
"Is that what he was doing to you and Enigma?" Morpheus asked.
"I don't know what he was doing, but I know what it felt like."
"What?" Trinity wondered, patting Enigma's shoulder.
"Felt like I was back in that hallway," Neo confessed. "Felt like dying."
"It's very cold," Enigma added weakly, her eyes moving between awake and asleep. "I hate it."
Neo slowly stands up and gently holds her chin. "Get some rest, sweetheart. It's been a long day. We'll wake you up later."
As Trinity slowly takes Enigma into her room, Neo steadying himself from letting his fear take his heart. He's still plagued with Trinity's death from his nightmare. And back then... he almost lost Enigma, losing a child he cherish so much in his life. He doesn't know if he can bear the pain of losing two people he loves very much in this cruel world.
