Chapter 3

...And they lived happily ever after

‘’ Your days are numbered!’’ Smith nr 28 exclaimed while buttoning his pants, and with one swift move he lunged first free hand into Trinity’s stomach, determined to overwrite her code. Trinity calmly watched the ooze spread over her, before doing what any woman does when wrong man touches her: She kicked Smith in the groin.

An unison ‘’uuuuugh…’’ came from all Smith clones in the area, as everyone followed 28’s example and sank to the floor. Meanwhile, Trinity kicked off the dark copy-substance from her boots and proceeded like nothing had happened, now having temporarily eliminated the only enemy within these walls. As said earlier, she was ruthless to her foes.

Unfortunately, so was also Smith.

‘’ After her!’’ And a dozen of the strongest clones crawled up on their feet and raced after her. Trinity was at the head of the arrow-shaped formation, and remained so until they reached the dining hall where the chase ended, because Trinity burst in through a door she’d never seen before...

Forcefully it slammed shut, and Trinity slid into sitting position on the floor, pressing her shoulders against the door to make sure it was fully closed and locked. The agents might be strong enough to chop it to toothpickers within seconds, but alas she wasn’t gonna help them get her by leaving the door open.

Nothing happened. It was like the Smiths had been abolished the moment she entered this room. Possibly they didn’t dare to follow her inside it- Perhaps something horrifying lurked in here? Trinity surveyed the room, but found nothing but a windling stairway. Hold it, a stairway? This area wasn’t explored!

The lady of Zion got up. If the room where the One slept was at the top of a tower as the rumour said, this was worth a try.

Outside, Smith 87 tore off his shades.

‘’ Damn’’ he said to (the ninety-nine other) himself. ‘’ She’s gone to break the curse!''

‘’ No worries. The One is dead, have you forgotten that?’’ One of the closest copies responded.

Smith-copy 87 hesitated a moment. He realized all other copies were firmly convinced that The One was dead, and that he most likely would be passed off as a system failure if he kept arguing. Therefore he only ordered a few lower-rank copies to stay outside and watch the door- just in case.

If the program had been as mindful as in the past, he would have remembered they had added a window to the tower.

Trinity was slowly wandering up the stair, one step at the time in case there were some glitches left.

At the top of the stair she stopped to inspect the door’s lock. After judging it as intact and glitchless she produced the key saying ’a little bit of everything’ from the inside of her pocket and put it to use in the old lock.

It worked. Pushing the door open, Trinity quietly stepped in - and discovered him.

In the middle of the room half sat, half lay the sleeping form of The One, supported in an awkward position against the side of an old armchair. Sleeping in that uncomfortable way seemed to put a slight strain to his breathing. Without figuring further, Trinity ran over to kneel by the man’s side. Carefully she lifted his head up to let him lean against her, his head resting on her upper arm. Making sure that the man could breath properly again, Trinity removed her shades to have a closer look at him in the fading daylight from the windows.

He was so handsome. Pale from a century out of the sun, yes, but not waxen as you could have expected. Smooth black hair fell down over his chiselled features and well-shaped eyebrows. Looking that young, it was impossible to believe he in truth was more than hundred years old.

A new longing gripped the lady of Zion: she wanted to see his rumoured wait a minute; how do you wake a person who has slept a hundred years? The world was not the same it had been a century ago. He might be frightened. From what the history books told, Matrix had been a happy place until the royal family fell asleep.

She shook him gently, whispering his name:

‘’Wake up, Neo.‘’

When he didn’t seem to react, she tried once more and spoke a little louder.

After a few minutes of calling his name with gradually rising tone of voice, she leaned back against the chair to catch her breath. The One still snoozed in her arms, oblivious to the rest of the world. Absently stroking his cheek, Trinity tried to think of some other way to wake the prince.

Or…or what if she wasn’t the woman meant to wake him? If she only was meant to open the doors for some other female? A girl who looked just like a princess was supposed to do, one with golden hair, face and manners sweet like candy, one who in opposite to Trinity was in dire need of someone to protect her? One who just happened to stumble across this castle with a handsome prince sleeping inside, and after a simple ‘wake up, Neo’ would make him open his pretty eyes and fall madly in love to her?

She looked down at the One, shaking her head at herself. ‘’C’mon, Trinity. Pull yourself together. At least you cleared out a century of glitches.‘’

What was up with her, really? She didn’t even know what this man was like. He could be a real egoist. Alas, this was what she tried to convince herself, that his royal background had made him greedy and pompous.

But something made her doubt that. The serenity and innocence he radiated felt true, not just the temporary guiltlessness most humans have while sleeping but lose as soon as they open their eyes. And Trinity had to accept the fact that somehow, she had grown very attached to a person she first saw fifteen minutes ago.

While still figuring about a way to wake him up, the lady of Zion was alerted by the slight noise of a sigh and the sight of a frown creasing the One’s brow. He did not seem to have very pleasant dreams.

She thought frantically of a way to somehow comfort him, and suddenly it was as clear to her as if someone had said it aloud.

Leaning down toward the prince, she whispered a few words to him:

‘’ Wake up, Sleeping Handsome’’.

In the fraction of a second her lips ghosted over his, before she leaned in and kissed him.

A gust of breath flared past her cheek, as when someone inhales deeply, slowly. Trinity lingered on for a moment, before she drew back and opened her eyes to look down into his.

Two chocolatebrown eyes looked up at her with a warmth she hadn’t been expecting. They glistened in the semi-darkness, and without really registering it, the thought ‘those really are pretty’ floated into the princess’ mind.

They contemplated each other in silence for a while. Then, The One’s face lighted up with the brightest smile.

‘’ Thank you’’ he whispered, squeezing her hand gratefully, ‘’ for waking me up’’.

It was a surprisingly smooth voice after sleeping in the dust this long, low and gentle. The One watched Trinity intently, as if he’d seen everything in proper light for the very first time.

‘’ What’s your name?’’ He added in a more questioning tone. The beautiful woman before him responded with a warm genuine smile; she beamed with strength and love.

‘’ Trinity, lady of Zion’’.

‘’ Trinity’’ he repeated, tasting the name. Bold syllables and intensive vocals, ‘’ beautiful.’’

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

Seeing it as the doorway still was blocked with Smith-copies, Neo decided to make use of that nice panorama-window instead.

‘’ I might be a bit rusty at this…’’ He started, but Trinity gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder: she trusted him. It was a nice feeling, and he hoped he wouldn’t screw this up - else this fairytale would get a rather flat ending. Picking her up in bride style, Neo charged at the window just like Trinity had done about a half hour ago. He ran and jumped over the tower edge with her in his arms, plunging towards the cliffs below…

And then the duo shot upwards like a bottle cork, wild winds in their wake as they swivelled through the air. Finally, Neo seemed to think it was high enough, and dived for the castle in a steep but controlled sinking —

--

‘’— Is this the part where they sing ‘A Whole New World’?’’ One of the agents suddenly asked.

‘’ What part is that?’’ Morpheus browsed through the book, confused. Sati cleared her throat.

‘’ Uncle Jackson is probably thinking of ‘Aladdin’’’ she said.

Agent Thompson spun towards his companion, face contorted with wrath.

‘’ Seriously, you watch more Disney-movies than acceptable!’’

‘’Can we finish the story now?’’ Persephone stormed out from the backdoor she had disappeared through, and the haunted gaze she gave Morpheus was urgent enough to make him continue reading.

--

They landed as planned mere inches from the porch up to the main entrance. The moment they opened the doors Queen Persephone dashed out and embraced her son in a welcoming, motherly hug. In her face were still imprints of the creases in the bed coverlet and her hair was tangled, but somehow she’d made it past all Smith-copies.

‘’Son!’’ She exclaimed while hugging Neo tightly. Upon releasing him, she noticed Trinity standing two steps away.

‘’Daughter-in-law!’’ Persephone cried out, though surveying the lady of Zion meticulously while shaking her hand. Behind her came Merovingian, whom gave his adoptive-son a curt nod before facing Trinity.

’’ Ah, but she’s magnifique! ’’ Trinity, looking quite aghast, received a welcoming peck on both cheeks before the Frenchman stepped back.

‘’ Well zen, where’s Smith?’’

‘’ Let’s simply say he had a change of heart’’. The Keymaker came out from behind the oak entrance he had unlocked when the curse broke. The program didn’t say more, but you could see him fiddling with the keys to Merovingian's immense, never-ending spare wardrobe.

--

‘’ Upon being told their leader had been overthrown, the Smith-copies fled in all directions’’ Morpheus recited the book, chewing on newly baked biscuits. The Oracle had arrived at last, and brought along a cookie jar for all and everyone to take from. The youngsters already had eaten half a dozen each - Spoon boy with just a spoon - but the Merovingian had barely crunched at his, still upset with Persephone’s treachery.

‘’Prince Neo of Matrix and princess Trinity of Zion married each other on a beautiful wedding ceremony in Zion three months after Neo had been unplugged (it seemed that sleeping for so long somehow had conserved his body outside the Matrix, so he could present himself as a 135 years old person whom looked like he wasn’t a day above 37)''.

And then, they lived happily ever after, with a love stronger than mountains and more beautiful than the sunrise-‘’

Morpheus looked over the edge of the book and noticed an intensively frowning Sati..

‘’ What is it, Sati?’’

‘’ What happened to the Keymaker? Or the Merovingians? What about Oracle?’’

‘’ Oh, did I miss something good?’’ Said program inserted

‘’ Yeah, what the hell just happened?’’ Niobe sounded considering, absent-mindedly preventing Mouse from snatching the book out of Morpheus grip.

The question was a bit unexpected: usually it was enough with the standard ‘and they lived happily ever after’, but then again this wasn’t a very usual audience. The computer terrorist realized he would have to improvise.

‘’ Okay… The Keymaker stayed and served as a door-keeper for many more decades with five weeks of holiday every year. Merovingian and Persephone never retired entirely from the political affairs, just withdrew long enough to make a sun-trip that would hopefully improve their marriage-’’

‘’ Hm’’ came a stiff gruff from the Frenchman, Persephone ignoring him like any other time.

‘’Oracle…’’ Morpheus threw a glance at the program, who nodded.

’’Go on, I can forgive you for this one’’ she told him. The human nodded, took a deep breath and rabbled very rapidly:

‘’ The-Oracle-married-a-program-called-The-Architect-and-they-became-royal-advisors.’’ Morpheus paused to take a sip of water from the glass Niobe handed him, ignoring the quiet giggles around the room.

‘’Any other questions?’’ He continued once he had quenched his thirst.

Instantly, Sati’s hand shot into the air, and Morpheus nodded in her direction. ‘’Yes?’’

‘’Did Neo and Trinity have any kids?’’

Apparently she was concerned about the future of her idols. Morpheus thought intensively for a moment. Should he, or should he not, say yes?

A glance at the faces around the room was answer enough: everyone craved a 100-percent happy ending.

‘’ Yes …‘’ he said slowly, desperately searching for fitting names to introduce these non-existent kids of his friends and colleagues, ’’a son named Retro and a daughter named Unity-’’

He was interrupted by loud booings and wolf-whistles from the agents.

‘’Retro and Unity?! How lame can you humans get?!’’

Both agents elicited a yelp when the heavy fairytale volume rammed their heads, leaving Thompson dazed and confused in the heap of pillows he had collected around him.

It took Morpheus a second to realize it wasn’t he who had lunged the object towards the programs, but something else. Following the book’s course of flight, he spotted Neo in the door entrance with his right hand reached out as if he had been calling for the book.

‘’ Retro and Unity it was’’ Trinity strode out from behind her boyfriend.

‘’ Still… lame’’ Jackson groaned.

Nebucadnezzar’s second-in-command ignored him, instead greeting her superior.

‘’I’m sorry we didn’t make it in time to hear the fairytale, it looks like we really missed something’’ she apologized, changing the clips in her guns in passing.

‘’No worries. Did you have a nice evening?’’

‘’You bet’’ Neo answered, exchanging a glance with his girlfriend. Trinity gave him a quick smile before turning to their captain.

‘’ I believe you had something more to say, Morpheus?’’

Said person remained silent for a few moments, contemplating the room’s residing inhabitants. Persephone busily pulling out the agents from their pillow heap, obviously estimating which one was good-looking enough to stay. Sati and the boys munching lazily on too many cookies, the Oracle having a smoke. Neo and Trinity holding hands while smiling at each other, every so often leaning in to give each other a peck on the cheek.

There was only one more thing left to do. Morpheus stood up and dusted the cookie grains off his cloak.

‘’ And then they lived happily ever after. The end.’’

--

Yep, the end. Thank you for the reviews, people, it’s great to get some response to one’s work (especially if it’s nice praise and/or constructive critique :-) )