Chapter 4: Breaking the bounds of reality

Legend: Xena = Avalon, Gabrielle = Thane, Morrigan = Aphrodite, Ms Smith = Callisto

Avalon

I was about to rock this man's world. Not in a good way, but I was going to enjoy it. With precision, I went straight for the stomach. For the greatest effect, I liked to get them where they could see. I stabbed before he even knew what was coming and cut away the skin.

"What the hell are you doing!" the coward exclaimed.

I made another stab despite the protest. He screamed in protest and pain. "Oh God! Are you crazy!"

I braced for the punches and swings, Thane began to thrash at me. Ah the lovely fight of survival mode. He socked me across the jaw. A good one, made me wonder for a second if maybe I had underestimated him. I let go and he began clutching bewildered at his stomach. I smirked waiting.

"Are you freaking crazy? I have to get to the hospital. What is wrong with you?"

"It's essential for me to show you our world." I smirked.

I enjoy tearing apart people's grip on reality. The joy it brings me, I should feel guilty for, but maybe I just like the company. I drop my grip and let him drop to the ground. I reach for the stab wound and begin searching for the plant. For a moment I am bewildered, because it isn't there. I freeze for a moment, blood on my fingers and activate my communication device.

"Morrigan, there is no tracking device." I'm guessing I look extremely dumbfounded because Thane stares back at me in confusion. I hear a crackle from the other side, followed by Morrigan's voice.

"She's got to be the one." My nose crinkles and I stare at him in disdain and turn away, my fingers stained in blood.

"Bring him in." she says. My heart is beating wildly, and I really am not sure what to think. Every matrix dweller had a plant. I am a bit afraid to acknowledge what this could mean, but I follow her orders anyway.

"Get your clothes on, I'll bring you to Morrigan." I say dryly.

Thane

After miss dark and deadly decided to play with my insides, I counted my lucky stars that she didn't find out my secret. That would have been really awkward to explain. For a while I've felt like I've been losing my mind, but the fact that I was following a woman who just stabbed me in the stomach through dark alley ways, in the rain, had me wondering if I've gone off the deep end.

Out of breath I ask, "Look, can we stop for a moment. The bleeding is stopping but it kind of stings. Can't we just stop by a doctor for just a second."

She stops and turns abruptly to me. All I could see was the whites of her eyes, her black attire camouflaging the rest of her in the pale moonlight. She was quite elegant and beautiful, in a dangerous kind of way. I haven't know her long, but I have a feeling she's rolling her eyes at me.

"We don't have time to waste. I'm bringing you to Morrigan. If we have to get you some painkillers for your wussiness, we'll be screwed. They'll catch us, and you'll never know about the precious matrix."

I push harder on my wound to stop the bleeding, and find it suddenly doesn't hurt as bad. She turns back around, and she probably doesn't even check if I am still following her. I don't think she likes me at all.

I sprint to catch up to her and we round one more dark alley. At the end of the alley is an abandoned warehouse. She kicks in a door and breaking and entering comes to mind, but I know this is far less than she probably has done before. The warehouse is empty and vast with empty metal shelves. At the far end of the building a tiny office sits, the windowed door revealing a light.

"Wait here." She says, I can't help but obey.

The object of my obsession will finally be revealed. What could it possible be? Would it be money laundering? Some kind of advanced DNA sequencing, extortion, alien lifeform contact software? What would need to be hidden from public eyes. My mind goes wild with the possibilities as I hear her reach the office and shut the door behind her. Perhaps it's just a top secret medical AI that could help get that permanent stick out of Avalon's ass. One can only hope.

Avalon

"I brought the kid." I grumbled. Morrigan smiles and can't wait to get her hands on him.

"Well? Where is he?" Morrigan asks.

Not quite sure why I didn't bring him over already, I shuffle back to the door.

"Uh yeah, just thought I'd give you some warning."

"Warning for what Avalon. This is what we've all been waiting for."

"I just don't think he's 'One' material. I don't think you should get your hopes up."

Morrigan chuckles a bit and puts her arm around my shoulder. "Look. I know about your prophecy too you know."

I stare back at her in shock. "The Oracle is a blabber mouth. She isn't always right you know." I respond.

"Avalon, believe me, if she knew you like I know you, she'd probably think her prophecy is a crock too. Don't worry about it. Let's just take this like we always do. Let's open his eyes to a bright new world."

"Yeah, bright. Sure." I say, trying hard not to roll my eyes. I pull away from her grasp and head off to get Thane. Morph. What's his face.

I stride straight for him and I notice a smirk on his face. I'd gladly slap it off his face if it wouldn't disappoint Morrigan.

"She's ready for you now. Don't get any bright ideas because no one will miss a geeky deviant like you." The smirk slides off his face and his countenance changes to a guarded one. Just like I like it. I hate it when people try to be my friend. I turn to walk back to the office I left Morrigan in. Wordlessly he follows me, silent for the first time and I wonder if maybe I went a little too far with the threat. Nah. I open the door and nudge him in and shut the door behind me as I guard their discussion. Someone's life is going to be turned upside down, inside out, and chewed up and regurgitated. I can hardly contain my glee.

Thane

I cautiously walk forward and find Morrigan at a desk with a high backed chair, turning to greet me. She fiddles with a drawer and grabs out contents I can't see from here. Standing up she holds out her hand for me to shake. She's as flawless as her picture in the records.

"Some help you got there Morrigan." I complain, taking in her hand for a shake.

"Ah, don't mind Avalon. Really she's a gentle soul with many skills."

I harumph at the thought. "Really? She seems to be lacking in social skills. Now tell me, what is the Matrix, and why have you been dodging my questions this whole time. I know you are in trouble with the government, so it's got to be big."

"Straight and to the point aren't you." she smiles and I snicker at the straight comment.

"Look, Morrigan, I've been pinging you for months and I get nothing. You can't demand any loyalty when I have heard just about as much from you as the suits in the government. Null. Zilch. Zippo."

"Ms Smith?" She asks. "You'd do well to stay away from her."

"Is this all a ruse to keep me from turning you and your cohorts in, Morrigan?"

"You do what you have to do Thane." she answers, a quiet smile flashing momentarily, my respect for her instantly rising. The silence is deafening for a little bit until she starts speaking again.

"Have you ever had a dream. A dream so real that you could touch things, feel things, and almost taste things. Then you dream you wake up and you realize that you just dreamt you woke up? If it's so easy to experience such a thing, what else could possibly be a dream. Ask yourself, how do I know that this all isn't a dream. I want you to think about that. A mind is a powerful thing, and when it's manipulated, it's enslaved."

"What are you talking about. As fun as it would be to get into a philosophical debate of what is real and isn't real, I'm really just here to find out what the Matrix is. What is the Matrix? That's what I want to know. We can chit chat about things later." I reply sarcastically and then pointedly.

"The Matrix isn't something I can just tell you about." Morrigan's smile faded and her stance became serious. "If you are as intelligent as I think you are, you'll know things just don't add up. You feel it niggling at you, like something is not right. That feeling, that not knowing, that wonder, is the Matrix. It's like a cloak over what really exists, something that can never be unseen, unrealized. Are you really prepared for something like that?"

I worry for a moment that I've wandered into a psychiatric ward, or maybe a bunch of drug addicts on a high, but the will in her eyes and the tenor of her voice can not be denied. Curiosity getting the better of me I must know more. Yes I've sometimes felt there was something more to life, or that something was off. We all get that sometimes, but here she was purporting that there was some kind of reason.

I want to ask her. I want to find out what she knows. I'll kick myself if she starts going into some religious testimony. Against my better judgment, I continue and I want to know what she knows. It is my weakness, wanting to know what I do not know.

"Tell me."

"I can't tell you. You have to see it for yourself." she says, turning her back to me, she lays two tiny items on the desk. On the left a blue pill, and on the right a red.

"Damnit!" I think to myself. "I've just run into a bunch of drug enthusiasts."

She begins to speak and I'm startled out of my annoyance.

"I have laid out two choices before you Thane. That blue pill; you take that and you continue dreaming. Turn us in if you want, but you will never know what I know, and if I am right about you can't resist not knowing. However, if you take that red one.." She pauses for a second, and I start to wonder if there's more to it than just another drug dealer catching a sale.

"You take the red one, and everything you've known, it's all gone. But you will see the truth. You will know what I know."

All the logic within me tells me I should leave, walk out the door right now, not look back.

"I won't let you leave here without taking one." Morrigan comments. I wonder if she is privy to my thoughts. I calculate the odds that would allow me to escape miss dark and deadly and miss blonde and bombshell. I'm outnumbered and tempted. Well, if it's one or the other, I might as well take the red, the worst sounding of the two. I want to know, and really with the feds breathing down my back, what did I really have to lose. I reach for it and know that I will probably regret this day forever. I pop it into my mouth and swallow.

To be continued in Chapter 5

**Author's note: Thanks for reading. **