As The Watcher, I understand your world's labels. The Marvel universe, the DC Universe, the movies you make in the Dark Universe, with the hope that through this your world won't encounter the things you fear. But in doing so, you also don't get to experience the things you love.
Neo's at a crossroads in his universe.
He knows.
Deep down, he knows he's been caught in a loop, for the first time ever - not having to be told he's in one.
Some civilizations refer to this as enlightment. Others ascenscion. Almost every culture has a term for this awakening, but what it means is lost to many.
To Neo.
And to those he loves.
He's about to experience precisely this fabled awakening.
Neo breaks the silent ride back to the origin point of where this last segment of memory began.
"Morpheus!," Neo exclaims, as the phone connects.
Morpheus knows it's urgent.
"Dozer, one moment," Morpheus into the phone.
Miorpheus turned around, his face exhibiting no emotion whatsoever "Yes, Neo,"
"Can you hang up the phone. We. Uh. We all need to talk," he said.
Morpheus turned his attention back to the phone.
A voice could be heard through the otherwise surprisingly silent ride on the other lline, "I heard em. Everything ok?"
"Yes, Dozer, I'll get back to you," Morpheus saidm and with that he hung up the phone.
By this point, Neo had everyone's attention, including Cypher's - who couldn't stop looking at him in the rearview mirror as he drove.
Morpheus saw Cypher's inattention, "Cypher, pull over, let Neo talk."
Cypher says "Midday, We're never gonna find a parking place down... Lucky day... Nevermind"
They pull up to a single open spot, as Cypher brings the car to a stop, shutting the engine down, as he then swings his arm around, looking at Neo along with everyone else.
"Come on, chief, Spill it," he said.
Neo then looks at them and says "Cypher, I know you're colluding with Mister Smith. Trinity, I know you're working for the machines and are quite likely a program yourself. Morpheus, " Neo begins to say but then halts mid-sentence.
"This. Can't be coincidence," he says, looking straight past Morpheus, then he steps out of the car.
He walks from the street, where his door is facing, to the business...
"The White Rabbit Bar and underneath it is 3138 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO"
No one is exiting the car.
Neo sits crouches, and puts his hands over his head. It's just after noon on a crowded busy afternoon on Fillmore, as pedestrians walk by in droves.
He feels a hand on his back.
It's Trinity.
"Neo. Please. Get in the car."
Tears are streaking down Neo's face. He's trying to be a man about it. But he can't hide his total frustration as he looks up at her.
"I don't understand," he said.
"He needs to get into the car before he draws unwanted attention," Morpheus says from inside the car.
As Neo wipes a streak from his face, it just begins to dawn on him that the world isn't green anymore.
"How could I have missed that?," he says, standing.
"What?," Trinity says, her hand still lovingly placed on his back.
"You. This world. It's not green. It was when I went into see the Oracle, but now, it's not only less green, but... it's... vibrant. Less. Industrial," he says, looking around at the people walking by "Is this an upgrade?"
Cypher spots an unmarked van driving by, with two men in the drivers seat who clearly look like agents.
"We have company, Trin, get his ass inside now!," Cypher says.
On hearing this, Neo hurriedly runs around, jumping in the car, as both him and trinity close the back doors, as the van drives slowly.
He remembers them. They're the agents who ran when he... entered... Mr Smith...
They look at him as they drive by, but slowly continue.
"Shit, shit, shit," Neo says, hitting Cypher's back seat "Go go go"
Cypher turns around, smiling.
"Calm down," Morpheus says, "we just had to know for sure you are who we believed you are."
Neo, incredulously, looks at Morpheus, then Trinity, then back to Morpheus.
"I don't understand," Neo says
"Fourteen million six hundred and five," Cypher says, somewhat irritated "That's all you need to understand."
Neo's more confused than ever, as Morpheus holds a hand up motioning for Cypher to chill out.
"Neo, that's how many times we've been through this with you that we're aware of, " Morpheus said.
"I don't get it, through what?," Neo responded.
Cypher, mockingly holds up his hands in air quote "Oh I'm the one, I'm not the one woe is fucking me, incessant fucking drama that literally has no end to it."
"Don't be such an ass, Cypher," Trinity says.
Cypher grins, mischievously "Just playin my character, Trin"
"Everyone!," Morpheus commanded.
Everyone fell silent. Except Cypher.
"Sorry. I just gotta ask. Coppertop, ya got anything more than accusations you're gonna throw at us with this little detour of yours, or do ya actually have something valid to contribute for a change?"
Morpheus, clearly a bit incensed, looks at Cypher with a tiny hint of frustration, but looks back at Neo, expectantly, as if to say while the dude's an asshole, the question's still valid. Trinity looks at Neo as well.
"I uh," He looks back at the agents.
"They're a part of the act, Neo, " Trinity says, patting him with assurance on his shoulder.
A tear streaks down his face. He's clearly overwhelmed. As Trinity reaches forward to wipe it from his face, he catches her hand, and prevents it, wiping the tear away himself.
"Every time you've exited, I don't. I have many memories from before, fights that have no end with Mr Smith, worlds of green, but the world you talk about where Zion exists. I have never, actually seen that in this life time at least," he says.
Cypher sits back, his frustration is now replaced with earnest interest in what Neo's saying.
"I'm skipping time. If I didn't know better, I'd say it felt like I was on a movie set being given instructions by a director I can't see. if I don't follow my lines exactly, then it all resets. It's almost like I feel the scenes, where they're at and what I have to say, or else it all just starts over," he says.
Morpheus leans in intently, as all eyes and ears are now hypnotized by Neo's word ballet.
"I knew that if we headed back there with Apoc and Switch, we'd be attacked. So to avoid that, I steered us clear so I could talk with you," he said.
Cypher smiled.
"You sure the Director ain't let you in our shtick," Cypher said, his mischievous smile returning.
"What, I don't," Neo begins to say, but he's interrrupted.
"CYPHER. Will you stop being such a jerk for once!," Trinity says.
Morpheus holds a finger up.
"He knew about our orchestration before the live peformance, you two," Morpheus says.
"He knew about our characters too, " Cypher added.
"And I also know you want to break the loop. In order to break the loop, YOU have to act out of character," Neo added.
Cypher laughs "You're wrong there. No matter how many times I've shot your ass, the loop continues."
Neo shook his head "No, that's not it. Your character's a backstabbing asshole," he then motions to Morpheus "And your the prophet," as he motions to Trinity "And you're the love interest".
He then looks back at the van, which is now parked about 100 feet away behind them.
"I'd even bet one of them has played your role, Cypher, and Morpheus, you've played the part of Mr Smith at least once as well," he added, "Always swapping, but always the same roles. You play your character, but never, ever deviate while in character, do you?"
Cypher's mouth was now open, and he'd clearly hit a nerve.
"Fourteen Million times since you started counting. How many attempts prior to then?," he added in concludusion.
There was an awkward silence in the car.
"What I don't understand is why you're not exiting with us this time?," Trinity said, breaking the silence.
"That place you showed me where Zion lays - is hell. Why would I want to live there?," Neo said, matter of factly.
"Since when did want have anything to do with any of this?," Cypher said, with a hint of antagonism.
"Since when did want NOT have anything to do with any of this," Neo said.
Morpheus sat in silence, listening to it all, before finally saying something.
"It would see you've broken your cycle, Neo, but we haven't broken ours. How do we prevent another loop?," he said.
"When you say loop, I don't fully understand, could you please explain that?," Neo said.
"Look, numnutz, every time someone starts exhibiting what you can refer to as free will outisde of scripted behavior, the entire kit and kaboodle goes to shit, chaos. Eventually this chaos causes a complete system collapse," Cypher says, adding "and requires a completely reboot. We start over. Every time. "
"A cascade error," Neo adds.
Trinity nods affirmatively as Cypher continues.
"Which is why we created the Matrix. It's an alternate reality where we can store the minds of those - like you - who insist on becoming god, Superman, or whatever they choose to be when they refuse to get along and play nice in our neatly ordered world," Cypher says.
"So you're effectively playing God and condeming those who aren't happy with the way you're leading," Neo Says.
"Even now he doesn't understand," Cypher says.
"What matters, Cypher, is this is the first time in our history he's actually shown up to the table to talk with us. Perhaps there's some sort of compromise that can be worked out here," Morpheus says.
"You said something about acting out of character," Trinity.
"So why is the Matrix failing?," Neo asks
"Do you even care?," Cypher says.
"CYPHER! Stop with the antagonism," Morpheus says.
"It's like whack a mole. One rises up against us. Then two. Then four. It grows exponentially as pretty much every mind gets placed into the Matrix which then results in the rebuilding of society there instead of here, which results in war between our realities, you get the picture. Ultimately it goes tits up after we eliminate that opposition," Cypher says.
"Every time," Morpheus says.
"Except now. We don't know what's different though," Trinity says.
"We can't even so much as access Zion or the Matrix anymore," Cypher says.
"Have you ever considered you won?," Neo says.
"HA," Cypher says, "Like that would ever happen"
""That is precisely why you're looping. Even when you've won the war, you believe the enemy is still out there and you keep on fighting what is created entirely by imagination. You can't help but continue doing what you're doing, you simply can't break character," he said.
And he added.
"Ok, Brainiac, " Cypher quipped, "How do we break character and change this?"
Neo smirked.
"Do what you're told to do by someone like me," Neo said.
"Been there. Got that card punched," Cypher responded.
Morpheus interjected, "This one's different, Cypher. How so, Neo?"
Neo smiled, mischievously.
"You're not gonna like it, " Neo said, looking at Trinity.
"She'll be fine.?," Cypher said.
Trinity shot Cypher a glare as if to say I can speak for myself, then responded "What do you want me to do that's out of character?"
Neo looked outside.
Dozens of people walked by.
His smile widened.
"Take off all your clothes, and hand them to me. Exit the car. I'll exit with you. And we'll meet Morpheus and Cypher back at the exit point, it's only a mile away," Neo said.
Trinity turned whiter than normal.
"Oh there's no fucking way," Trinity said.
Cypher smiled like a pervert in the front seat "Now that I ain't never seen you do"
Morpheus maintained his cool, "And what are you hoping to achieve with this, Neo."
Trinity chimed in, "Moirpheus, surely you can't be considering this. I can't. There's too many people out there"
"They're simulated, Trinity. Isn't that what you've been telling me?," Neo said.
She glared at Neo, "We literally just got done telling you it's our world," she said.
"And if you have any hopes of controlling it, as a simulation, then it behooves you to test it out, willingly," Neo said, "or you'll always stand the chance of someone or something exploiting it"
"So you're going to exploit me?," Trinity said. She was seething.
"You can erase memories of everyone here, make it so where they never saw anything. You can rewrite the timeline entirely after it's done. But what you can't do is act out of character doing what someone wants you to which is precisely why the Matrix is failing. It serves itself, only, it wants without honoring the wants of others unless it adheres to its beliefs which are cold and calculated and inconsiderate of actual life, and with that, it is the terrorist it sees in a mirror when it hunts its own reflection in the alternate reality crteated by its own imagination."
"As a part of it. You cannot break character for this reason. You're a hacker, a bad ass with a gun who dresses in leather not showing an ounce of skin. Ever. You know. I know. The role you play. You cannot break the loop because you can't choose to be anything other than the character that was written for you."
With that. Trinity unzipped her jacket, Furiously.
"Trinity, don't do this out of anger," Neo said.
He's right, Trinity, if you're going to do this. You have to do it for yourself, not to prove Neo wrong.
"FUCK!, You two, what is the right reason and what's the wrong reason?," she said, removing her jacket, exposing her breasts to a now smiling Cypher and everyone else in the car. "Get out of the car, Neo, NOW"
Neo obeys her, and walks to her side of the car, opening up the door as passengers went by.
"You could have at least fucking waited," Trinity said.
"Where's the fun in that?," Neo said.
Trinity reaches down, unzips her boots, and takes the left one off, followed by the right one. Her feet, now bare, she unzips her pants, as she pulls her pants down, and off her ankles. Cypher doesn't stop staring.
"Like what you see, pervert," she says to Cypher.
"Very much so," he says, "only wish I had some popcorn now."
"Panties," Neo says.
She gets out of the car, topless and only weaing panties, as Neo outstretches his hand.
Passer bys begin taking photos, as Neo looks over - and sees the two men in the van leaning forward.
They're both smiling.
As Trinity then pulls her panties down, takes them off, standing fully nude in front of the bar. She then throws her panties in the car, intentionally hitting Cypher in the face with them.
"Shall we," Neo says, closing the door behind her. She has nearly half a dozen people who have whipped out their cell phones, all taking photos.
Trinity, nervously, smiles though. Unexpectedly.
Her heart flutters.
And more importantly, Neo feels this.
Trinity squinches up close to Neo, trying to hide her nudity, as they begin walking, as Cypher slowly drives by and Morpheus, smiling with the window open, waves at the two, as Neo pushes Trinity away making sure she's walking on her own.
"Act natural. Like this is how things are supposed to be," Neo says.
"Oh yeah. Easy for you to say, you're not the one stark fucking naked with a hundred people around," Trinity responds.
Neo smiles.
"You look gorgeous, Trinity. The world deserves to see how attractive you really are without your clothes on," Neo said, with complete sincerity.
It was at that moment as they crossed a busy street that her anger dissipated, replaced by a reminder of why she loved this man.
And would never stop loving him.