The Matrix Revelations
Chapter 1:Revival
The ship was a beauty; there was no other way to describe it. As he paced the comfortably open corridors, Morpheus ran his dark skinned hand along the smooth metal walls. As his fingers slid over the smooth metal, Morpheus flashed back to the fateful night, almost exactly two years ago, when Sentinels had destroyed his first ship, the Nebachanezzer. The explosion had been like a gunshot right to his heart, but now, walking toward the cockpit, he could feel the wound completely heal. The ship he was on now, the Heart of Zion, was the first ship built after the Siege of Zion and served as the flagship for the slowly rebuilding fleet. It was a moderately sized ship built with speed and maneuverability in mind.
'A perfect craft for the perfect pilot," Morpheus thought as he approached the cockpit.
Upon his entry, he could see Niobe sitting in the pilot's seat, her hands gliding smoothly over the control yoke. She seemed completely in sync with her ship, the rumble of its engines becoming the beat of her heart. That was the reason she was such a phenomenal pilot; she didn't fly the ship, she became the ship. Morpheus sat down next to her in the co-pilot's seat, head lolling back into the headrest.
"You tired?" she asked him.
"Hmm?" Morpheus asked, looking at her, "No, no I'm not tired. I just…it feels like things have come full circle now. The war is over, a fact I'm still getting used to, and you and I are once again co-captains of a ship. It seems like things are finally back to where they should be."
Niobe smiled and nodded her agreement.
Morpheus smiled back and leaned back in his seat once more. He still didn't know how he felt about going back into the Matrix, but orders were orders. A messenger from the Machine City had contacted Zion and requested a meeting with their ambassador. Curious as to what the Machines could possibly want, the Council had ordered Commander Lock to send Morpheus and Niobe to meet with the Machine ambassador.
"We've reached broadcast depth," Niobe announced.
Morpheus sighed and got up to leave with Niobe right behind him. As they descended through their ship, Morpheus's mind was swirling around possible reasons why the Machines would want to talk to them. They ranged from the practical, like wanting help with tracking down an Exile to as insane as Smith coming back. Morpheus gave a slight shiver at that thought, remembering the last time he had come in contact with the Agent-gone-computer-virus.
When Morpheus and Niobe reached the operator's station, they were greeted warmly by Link.
"Alright Captains," he said, "Everything is ready for you guys to jack in."
"Good work Link," Niobe said as she walked over to her jack-in station.
"Where's Ghost?" Morpheus asked, noting the absence of Niobe's silent shadow.
"I'm right here," Ghost said, making his presence known. He was standing behind link, next to his jack-in station
Morpheus nodded as Link got out of his chair and walked around to plug him and Niobe in. Sure enough, when Morpheus looked to his left, he found Ghost already plugged in. He then felt the cold, slick sensation of his own plug being inserted and Morpheus closed his eyes. He then felt the familiar sensation of his mind easing away from his body and into the artificial reality of the Matrix.
-- (0) --
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in dimly lit room with Ghost and Niobe on either side of him. A phone rang off to his right and glanced over to it. Niobe followed his gaze and nodded at him. She answered the phone and when she heard Link's voice, she replied with two words.
"We're in."
She hung up the phone and the three of them left the room and walked out into the Mega-City. What they saw astounded them. Gone were the gray, dismal, overcast skies that they were used to. In their place was a crystal clear blue sky with only the smallest wisps of silver-white cloud snaked through the sky. Even the buildings themselves were more colorful, but in a much more subtle way. Quite simply, the Matrix now felt alive!
"Where are we meeting this guy?" Ghost asked.
"At Talko's Coffee House," Niobe said, "It's about two blocks ahead of us and the first shop on the right."
"Then let's go," Morpheus said as he began to walk forward.
The walk only took a handful of minutes, but in those minutes, Morpheus, Niobe, and Ghost could only stare in wonder at the changes that had taken place in the Matrix. Colors were vibrant instead of dull, pigeons and crows were flying in noticeably greater numbers, and the air had lost the taste and reek of industrial pollution. The residential district they were in was full of housing projects that had seen better days but even so, they now had a sense that they had been truly lived in.
The trio turned a corner and found themselves face to face with Talko's Coffee House. Ghost led the way in and the bell above the door gave a merry little tinkle as the trio walked in. The place was simple in appearance, looking like every other dime-a-dozen coffee house in history. However, it's newest occupants, Morpheus and Niobe, definitely looked out of place wearing sunglasses and their long coats Understandably, a fair share of interested looks were thrown their way. They ignored them however and soon found their target. A man wearing a pristine business suit with slicked back, dark brown hair, and a rather thin face sat at the booth in the far corner, next to the front window.
"Ah, Morpheus," he said jovially once he saw the approaching trio, "Niobe, Ghost, welcome. Please, sit down."
The trio did as indicated, with Ghost grabbing a leather-cushioned chair from the table behind him.
"I am the Ambassador. I am a program, as you might have guessed, created in order to act as a bridge between your Zion and our city."
"And what is the purpose of arranging this meeting, Ambassador?" Morpheus asked.
The Ambassador sighed.
"Your warrior, Neo. It is my understanding that the peace both of our races enjoy is in large, if not total, part to his efforts in destroying the virus, Smith. In exchange for the destruction of Smith, our leader, Deus Ex Machina, informed all humans currently living in the Matrix of the true nature of this world and gave them the choice of leaving to live in the real world, or staying in the Matrix. You have no doubt noticed that a great many people decided to stay. But I am afraid that the number of those who decided to leave is substantially greater. As such, we have lost a great deal of our main source of energy. We are currently looking into alternate sources of energy and our most feasible plan right now is to repair the sky and return to solar power."
"But why tell us this?" Niobe asked, "What does it matter?"
"Because we feel that, in the interest of peace, it would be best to adopt a policy of full disclosure. We Machines are beings of our word but we know that oftentimes, you humans are not. We also felt that it would be best to propose this policy with an example of something we are currently planning to show our honesty and commitment."
"And you want us to tell our Council about this policy and encourage them to adopt it," Morpheus asked.
"That would be ideal."
As the trio thought about their response, they noticed something very unusual. A handful of the vibrant green lines of code that comprise the Matrix scrawled across the table that the three humans and one program were sitting at. They followed the code-lines as they moved across everything in the coffee house and when they looked around, they noticed that they were everywhere, all moving in the same direction. When they looked out the window, they noticed the same phenomenon occurring on every surface they could see.
"What the hell is going on?" Ghost asked.
The Ambassador didn't have an answer and when Morpheus and Niobe picked up on that, they looked at Ghost and nodded. Before anyone could stop them, they left the coffee shop and followed the code-lines.
-- (0) --
Not too far away, behind a dilapidated and mostly deserted housing project, the thousands of code-lines reached their destination. In the center of a dry, brown field, those same code-lines began to swirl around, mixing together and swirling faster and faster. Soon, a small point of green light emerged at the point where the code-lines met. The more code-lines that merged with this light, the larger it became. Within seconds, this growing mass of light became more defined, taking on the appearance of a human body crouched down on the ground. The code-lines were swirling so fast now that they seemed to be little more than a blur and within seconds, all of them had merged with the mass of light. What happened next would have been completely unexpected by bystanders, although there were none. There was the sound of an explosion and a burst of force came from the human shaped mass of light. Everything within 30 feet of this light mass seemed to warp before returning to its normal shape. After that, the light mass was no longer light. It was a man and slowly, this man rose from his feet. Standing fairly tall at 6'2, wearing a sleeveless dark gray robe on top of a black, long-sleeved shirt with matching pants and shoes, this man had shoulder length black hair, a mustache of the same color that was little more than stubble, and gentle, chocolate brown eyes.
Slowly, this man looked around in wonder, as though looking at things that he knew couldn't be real. Suddenly, the man heard the sounds of running footsteps coming closer to his location and he turned around to see the runners come to a dead stop, looking at him in sheer disbelief. Slowly, the one in the middle that the man remembered as Morpheus walked forward and removed his sunglasses, looking as though he'd seen a ghost.
"Neo?"