AN: watching Matrix all over again made me feel like writing a little. It's short chapter- but perhaps I'll find the motivation to continue. I do not own Matrix or Xena or the exact words of the Matrix- I'm just a fangirl fangirling

Avalon

I'm not sure how I feel about Thane being introduced into the construct. I'm half hopeful and half dreading what we may find. Morrigan seems convinced but I have to feel like there isn't a chance. Everyone always told me the Oracle is never wrong and I am dead set on wanting that very thing.

"So what's your deal Avalon, not your type?" Javelin asks as he nervously peers at Thane sitting in the chair. You can see Thane's eyes flitting underneath her lids, no doubt being treated to the bizarre world of the construct. The construct is my favorite space. Probably everyone's but no one has gotten as skilled in there as me and Morrigan. I think about what to answer Javelin, so I settle on something that will end the conversation.

"More like not my preferred gender" I huff.

Zero snickers in the corner, watching just out of the corner of my eye I see him so I sneer.

"She can't be more than five feet and I'm supposed to think that she will be able to take me on in any fight and be this ONE special being that Morrigan thinks I'm not? Seems preposterous to me." Zero adds.

"She may not be big and bad, but a plant has more selflessness than you Zero." I bite back.

I do have to admit that when I first saw Zero he fit the description on the surface level. He was well built, tall, dark, handsome and I did fall under a spell awhile. He had me on benders that probably were against my better judgement, but the more I spent time with him the more I realized what a huge jerk he was. It didn't take long for me to agree with Morrigan on this one. Morrigan could see the character and charisma and someone's inner strength. It was a skill that definitely benefited our crew over the years for making choices.

"Well I think she is cute, and probably powerful considering what she has pulled off in the Matrix while barely even trying. I call dibs." Javelin sighs as he calls dibs, smiling goofily at the close of his sentence. I can already see him drooling.

Thane

I'm in a white room. I'm not talking white Christmas white- I'm talking blinded by the light, white. For a moment I think that whatever took me here is more impressive than what "here" seemed to be. I step cautiously and as I do the my foot falls echo louder than I imagine. Reaching out and stepping forward I can't tell where the room begins or ends, its actually very unnerving. Morrigan soon appears. Like a blink in of an object into this nothingness or maybe like a character blipping out of a spawn point in my favorite game.

"Thane this is what we call the construct." She starts, I have to admit I feel a bit let down, like I've been brought to a sterile hospital with no borders.

"Borders, there are no borders, no boundaries here -you will notice..." Morrigan meanders as if reading my mind.

She grins and starts to lift one of her eyebrows in glee of my disappointment. At the twitch of her brow she continues "this is our beloved loading platform to prepare you for being a freed human in the Matrix"

I make a fist - i am more than a little irritated at being let down by the possibility that this blank space was a training ground -until I glance at my hand - my arms don't have the sockets and I notice it is missing from my neck too when I reach for it. Not only that I have a full head of hair and not the buzz that I had previously.

I stammer at the discovery. Morrigan notices and begins explaining "that is your residual self image, the mental projection of your digital self." Seemingly out of nowhere a chair appears in front of me and Morrigan pushes it toward me and bids me to sit.

"This," she says, showing an image of a modern city right in front of my eyes - the full expanse of it and its realness startling me just as much as how quickly she made it appear, "is the world that you know. A thing that really exists only as part of a neural, interactive simulation that we call the Matrix." Just as my eyes adjust to take it all in, she flips the picturesque screen or view or whatever it is. In its stead is the grimy stark reality that I was just in a few minutes ago.

Morrigan is showing me the world as it truly exists today. Desolate emptiness with charred, abandoned buildings, black earth, and a shrouded sky and mechanicals littering every corner. I'm in awe of the ability of this virtual reality for a moment when I realize that is all it is.

"At some point in the early 21st century all of mankind was united in celebration as we gave birth to artificial intelligence, a singular consciousness that birthed an entire race of machines. Someone started a war, and no one knows who, but it was known that it was mankind who blotted out the sky, attempting to deprive the machines of the solar power they required to function. Instead the machines turned to humans as a power source, enslaving them just like you were." Morrigan nods in my direction.

"These machines found out that a human body produces more electricity than a 120 volt battery and over 25k BTUs in body heat."

Pictures of fields where machines grow human beings. Machines whirr to and fro connecting them to their outlets, [lacing them in their pods, and feeding them with the liquefied remains of other human beings. These awful pictures flit across my face as fast and as real and as revolting as any other horror movie I've seen on the big screen except I'm living this.

"The Matrix," says Morrigan, "is a computer-generated dreamworld created to keep us under control, to turn us... into a mere power source, into coppertop batteries."

I jolt, with my knowledge of programming I am overwhelmed by the thought that this has come to pass. It can't have happened so fast? So direly? Had monkeys banged on a typewriter enough times to actually pound out this full play that has ended in tragedy? A burst of anxiety fills my chest while a furtive anger bubbles up the temples in my head, causing a throbbing at each side. This can't be real. This can't be what life is, can it? I breathe uncontrollably faster hyperventilating at the thought of such circumstances.

"Let me out." I ground out through my gritted teeth. Morrigan reaches for me through concerned pupils. "I said LET ME OUT!"

*AN: Super rusty, sorry! TBC in Chapter 8