Neo lay back in the chair, waiting to be uploaded into the Matrix. He was aware of Morpheus watching him with concern but saying nothing. Neo had been relatively closed-mouthed about events in the Matrix since he had come back. He’s spent as much time alone as possible, silently trying to sift through the possibilities that stretched out before him. It had gone nowhere; he was still no closer to a rational decision than before. In fact, going back into the Matrix, shooting Smith and pretending that it had all never happened was currently quite high up on his list of options. The shooting Smith part of that option wouldn’t actually accomplish anything but Neo was sure it might make him feel better.
For a moment there was nothing but white and then Neo was inside the Matrix again. He cautiously exited the deserted building containing the hard-line and headed in the direction of the nearest park. He needed to think, away from the Neb: away from well meaning glances and comforting words. As he strode along by the duck pond, a thin man wearing sunglasses turned to watch him pass. Neo ignored him; let them send as many Agents as they liked to watch him. Carrying on further into the park, to the more deserted areas, he passed another man wearing sunglasses, standing underneath a large cherry tree. Neo continued to walk.
Hours later, Neo was still in the park, sitting down on an old bench in a deserted part. There was a pond in front of him, with a Weeping Willow draped into it. A handful of birds flittered near the water and Neo marvelled at the scene, that he knew existed truly, only as computer code. Was it all the better for knowing? He didn’t think so. But if he could, would he want to go back, like Cypher; and return to obliviousness? He didn’t think so either. And what if he couldn’t decide? He knew the machines wouldn’t wait forever.
Smith closed his eyes trying to block out the voices coming through the communication channels; Jones and Brown were arguing again. He made his way down the corridor towards the observation room they were currently occupying.
“Agent Jones will refrain from attempting to kill the human, Anderson; and Agent Brown will refrain from attempting to kill himself.” He snapped through the channels.
Smith had a fraction of a second the revel in the ensuing silence before a powerful blow from behind sent him crashing into a wall. Instead of quickly regaining his feet, he stayed down, trying to assess his opponent. A non-script woman, an Enforcer then. Seeing her fallen opponent unmoving, Lilith aimed a vicious kick only to have Smith throw her off balance at the last moment and slam her back into a safety-glass door. She snarled and launched herself at him again. He dodged several blows but failed to land any of his own. She slowly gained ground, forcing him backwards along the corridor.
Smith was aware of the plate-glass windows that were now even closer to his back. He supposed he should be grateful, at least this meant that Lucifer didn’t know about his code fragmenting and that his initial pretence of trying to kill Anderson was working.
Quite suddenly she launched herself forward, managing to knock his sunglasses off and slicing her nails down his face. He wondered why she was bothering to fight instead of just deconstructing him… But of course, it made sense; she needed to come up with a good reason to have deconstructed him. Smith stopped fighting, refusing to block the oncoming blow that slammed him into the window, shattering the glass and sending him plummeting towards the ground.
Fortunately the ground wasn’t that far down and Smith landed on his back with minimal damage. The Enforcer landed on her feet, though she didn’t stay like that for long, as Jones crashed into her and proceeded to exercise his combat programming. Smith looked up to find Brown standing over him. The Strategic unit seemed faintly amused.
“I would assume that this is therapeutic.” Smith said, standing up with Brown’s help.
“For Jones?”
“For both of you.”
Brown appeared to consider it. “Perhaps.” He said.
They walked a little way from the fighting before turning to watch.
“I wish this situation were not as it is.” Brown said finally.
Smith regarded him calmly, Brown only looked back.
“Were I human I would probably still act in the same way.” Smith said.
“How so?” It seemed that even in situations like this Brown’s curiosity would not be quenched.
“If I were a human with a terminal illness, I would most likely find as many ways to annoy my enemies as I could, because any of their attempts to kill me would be redundant, since I was already dying.”
Despite the current situation and the Enforcer being pounded into a concrete wall near by, Brown began to laugh quietly.
Eventually, a rather irritated Lilith returned to the Mainframe, only to find that Lucifer had been too concerned with the reports pertaining to Smith’s code to be paying attention to the goings on within the physical construct of the Matrix.
“Let me kill them.” She hissed.
“Kill who?” Lucifer asked absently.
“Those Agents; Raphael’s creations.”
“Surely one should do.”
She fell silent.
“You did ‘remove’ him, didn’t you?” Lucifer’s voice took on an altogether more sinister tone.
Lilith cringed. An enraged Lucifer was not something that was easily survived.
Neo was still sitting in the park, no closer to his decision. The more he thought about it the more difficult it seemed to get. What was needed was the possibility of a compromise, but he could think of none. Neither side was likely to be amiable about such an idea any way, which left him in the middle. A human who didn’t want to fight the machines or free any more humans, at least not the way he had been freed. Curiosity had snared him. It had hardly been an informed decision but given the choice again he couldn’t say that he would have chosen any differently. The more he thought about it, more he wished he’d never known; that Smith had just kept his mouth shut and killed him. It would have been so much easier…
There was movement behind him. Neo turned to see Agent Smith sit down beside him on the bench. He appeared to watch the birds flit along the water.
“Shit.” Neo said. “You’re one fucked up bastard, you know that?”
Smith turned to look at him.
“You drop all that crap on me about the purpose of the Matrix, expect me to make a decision, then you come along and just sit down next to me like it’s perfectly fucking normal.”
Smith regarded Neo over the top of his sunglasses.
“What next? You gonna tell me you’re my father or something?” Neo dissolved into hysterical laughter before the Agent could make a reply.
“You do not appear to be coping with this situation very well, Mr Anderson.”
“No, I guess not.” Neo said, calm now.
Neither spoke until Smith stood up and turned to leave.
“One thing though...”
“Yes, Mr Anderson.”
“What will you do if I don’t make up my mind soon.”
“Soon… It will not be my problem any more.” Smith said, walking away.
TBC…
The first guy in the park with sunglasses on, by the duck pond is actually Crowley from Gaiman & Pratechett’s “Good Omens”; the second, by the cherry tree is Seishiro Sakurazuka from CLAMP’s “Tokyo Babylon” & “X/1999”.
02:46, 20/05/02