Neodämmerung (German) = The twilight of Neo. And yes, the title is from the soundtrack that plays the final battle.
21. Neodämmerung
Enigma's head is dizzy, but her body feels warm. Slowly, she opens her left eye, trying to get her vision which was, unfortunately, lacking clearness. However, she feels her stomach hug from behind.
"Neo?" She called, waking him up.
"Are you okay?" He asked, remembering having his hands grabbing Enigma before the impact.
"I'm good." She frowns. "Trinity?"
No respond.
"Trin?" Neo called this time. Still nothing. Panic coming to them.
"Mom?!" Enigma shouted as she helps Neo stand up, looking around. Damn her unclear sight!
"Trinity?!" Neo yelled, frantic.
"...I'm here," she replied softly.
"Where?"
"Here."
Enigma soon spots Trinity's body. Her left eye's sight is still not clear. She guides Neo closer to her. Neo and Enigma reach her arms, both holding one.
"We made it," Neo told her.
"You said we would."
Neo looks above. "It's unbelievable, Trin. Lights everywhere. Like the whole thing was built with light. I wish you could see what I see like our daughter."
"You two have already shown me so much," she said, which makes Enigma frowns.
"Trin?" She asked, worried when she caught something. In instant, she covers her mouth.
"What is it?" Neo puts his head in Enigma's direction. But the girl didn't say anything, which worry him so much. So he asks Trinity instead. "What's wrong?"
"I can't come with you two, Neo. I've gone as far as I can."
"Why?" He asked, not understanding it. He reaches for her, immediately feels the wet warmth of her blood with a metal hitting her body. "Oh, no. Oh no, no, no."
Tears come into Enigma's eye as she finally sees more clearly of her mother's condition, of metals impaling her body down the Logos' floor.
"It's all right," she assured them. "It's time. I've done all that I could do. Now you two have to do the rest. You have to finish it. You have to save Zion."
"No," Enigma disagreed, her heart slowly shattering. "Don't say that! Please, Mom! We need you. We can't do it without you."
"Yes, you can, Enigma. You and Neo will. I believe it, I always have."
"Trinity," Neo called, heartbroken beyond anything. "Trinity. You can't die. You can't. You can't."
"Yes, I can. You brought me back once, but not this time," she sadly told him as she hears sob from the man she loves and the child she cherish. "Do you two remember... on that roof after you caught me... the last thing I said to you?"
"You said, 'I'm sorry'."
"I wish I hadn't. That was my last thought. I wished I had one more chance... to say what really mattered."
Flashes of old memories coming inside Neo's and Enigma's heads.
"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."
"Choice is an illusion, created between those with power, and those without."
"To say how much I loved you, Neo. How grateful I was for every moment I was with you, Enigma," Trinity continued.
"You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken."
"But such a thing is not meant to last."
"She is going to die, and there is nothing you two can do to stop it."
This can't be it... This can't be the end...
"But by the time I knew I'd said what I wanted to, it was too late. But you brought me back. You gave me my wish. One more chance to say what I really wanted to say," she grasps Enigma's forehead. "Thank you, Enigma, for letting me raise you." Then, she looks at Neo one more time, giving him her last wish. "Kiss me... once more... kiss me..."
Neo lowers his lips to her, remembering their precious moment together, be as lovers and parents. Everything, from the beginning until now, while he and Enigma clutch her hands in despair and pain.
As her breath left her body forever, the father and the daughter weep into their loss, holding the hand that no longer holds them in this world.
▪︎1001▪︎
The blonde girl doesn't know how much time passed after that. Minutes? Hours? She doesn't know and she doesn't care. She feels empty and hollow inside her emotion, barely able to move her body if Neo doesn't hold her hand, telling her to move now while clutching her small blanket from getting cold.
She helps him climb up, waiting for him as she arrives above. She takes Neo's hand, helping him stand up. He quietly picks her up, walking from the ship and into a dark tunnel. It spirals, coiling inward, woven out of shiny metal rods that are ribbed and knocked like bones. Sometimes, in a flicker of seconds, she can see lights coming out of their surrounding.
As he carries her, Enigma hears machines from behind, likely observing them in darkness. But she doesn't mind that solemnly focus on what awaits them.
At the end of the passage, there's an opening that windows out of the tower. He steps to it, stops when standing at the edge. Enigma admits Zero One is different from her dream. The city looks dark and grim with more advanced technologies, most likely from each step up for upgrades. It reminds her of the dark castle that belongs to villains.
Enigma holds her grips on Neo's shoulder as small machines slowly approach them... before they go away, confusing her. From below, slowly, a giant machine rises to face them. So big, Enigma almost thought it might eat her and Neo alive. A small swarm of machines comes out of it, slowly surrounding them.
"I only ask to say what we've come to say, after that, do what you want and I won't try to stop you," Neo exclaimed quietly.
The small swarm stops surrounding them, gather back, forming into a face. "Speak," it said.
"The program Smith has grown beyond your control. Soon he will spread through this city as he spread through the Matrix. You cannot stop him, but both of us can."
"We don't need you!" It snapped, spreading the small machines at them. "We need nothing!"
Enigma takes a sharp breath. "I know you don't trust us," she remarked, sounding calm like Neo. Her mind flashes back to the dream the Instructor showed her. "I know our kind were cruel to your kind. We did horrible crimes against your race," she stares at it. "But right now, I ask you to put aside that and focus with now. We want to offer our help." She closes her eyes. "So please... stop the attack on Zion."
The swarm stops. After a minute passes, it speaks again. "What do you want?"
What do they want? They want Trinity now. They want the grief and loss of her gone forever. But that's not what they need.
So instead, both said. "Peace."
Enigma sees many cables slowly coming up. Sensing this, Neo lowers her down, letting those cables connect to his body. Enigma steps aside, spotting a cable rising, floating at Neo's backhead.
"And if you fail?" It asked.
"We won't," he assured him before the cable thrust as Enigma touches his forehead behind him, letting her enter the Matrix without connecting
▪︎1001▪︎
Neo walk-in front, noticing the sky already turns green-black with a raging storm and raining code, indicating how the Matrix slowly falling apart.
Flashbacks enter his mind as he keeps going.
"Do you believe in fate, Neo?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life."
"I know exactly what you mean."
As he lets the water pour at his body, he glances left and right, looking into Smiths who stare at him like a meal, ready to attack with a smug on each face.
"I believe it is our fate to be here. It is our destiny."
One Smith enters the street turns towards Neo, facing him.
"Neo, sooner or later, you're going to realize just as I did... there's a difference between knowing a path... and walking a path."
"Mr. Anderson, welcome back. We missed you," Smith claimed as thunder blared above. "You like what I've done with the place?"
"It ends tonight," Neo insisted.
"I know it does. I've seen it. That's why the rest of me is just going to enjoy the show, cause we already know that I'm the one that beats you."
They both clench their hand, running against each other as they send each other attacks, either by hands or kicks.
"The Oracle prophesized his return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people."
"And she's never wrong."
"Try not to think of it in terms of right and wrong. She is a guide, Neo. She can help you to find the path."
"I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it."
As they land each other's punch and throw away, Neo lands perfectly in the street while Smith lands badly. Upset, the former Agent launches above, which Neo does, creating a huge blast as they fight in the air.
"Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication: a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of The One. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis a vis, love."
Smith throws Neo into a building, smashing it as he hurls back. The moment Smith flies to him, Neo jumps, avoiding him.
"The function of The One is now to return to the Source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program."
Neo flips backward, using his legs to give a force as he and Smith, once again, punch each other and got knocked out.
"Already, I can see the chain reaction. The chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason."
Smith stands up, slowly approaching Neo. "Can you feel it, Mr. Anderson, closing in on you?" He asked. "Well, I can. I really should thank you for it, after all, it was your life that taught me the purpose of all life. The purpose of life is to end."
Neo spits out some blood from his mouth, standing up, giving Smith a daring look as he gestures the virus to come forward.
"That's his purpose: to balance an equation."
"What's your purpose?"
"To unbalance it."
They continue fighting and more memories enter Neo's mind, guiding him, motivating him.
"The Oracle told me that I would fall in love... and that that man... the man who I loved would be The One."
"Action. Reaction. Cause and effect."
"You're okay. Don't be afraid."
"You love her. She loves you. It's all over you both."
As he kicks Smith, Neo double his kicks on his face, throwing away his sunglasses as he glare at s Neo with deadly gazes, which doesn't budge him at all as he kicks him.
"Being The One is just like being in love. No one can tell you you're in love, you just know it. Through and through. Balls to bones."
"I love my daughter very much. I find her to be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But where we are from, that is not enough. Every program that is created must have a purpose. If it does not, it is deleted. I went to the Frenchman to save my daughter."
As he steps onto the edge, he sees Smith grit his teeth. He launches to him and Neo does so, creating a blast that shatters the glasses as they wrestle in the mid-air, constantly balancing each other attack.
"You know what that means? It's Latin. Means 'know thyself'."
"It's a good sign."
"Of what?"
"That you two are, in fact, still human."
"Karma's a word. Like love. A way of saying, 'what I am here to do'."
"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."
"6 hours ago I told the Merovingian that I was ready to give anything and everything for you two. Do you know what's changed in the past 6 hours?"
"No."
"Nothing."
As they give another punch against each other that creates a big ripple, Neo starts to fall as Smith slams him, driving Neo back to the ground, smashing him into the street.
"Unfortunately, no one can be... told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
The impact knocks him over.
