Its not really a good cross over. Well thats not toatlly true, the plot and idea is brilliant. The exacution of it is whats off. Sixteen years later and your quoting the original matrix. The characters are older, even the programs, they shouldn't begiving the same speaches as they did when they were at war. Ron having Neo's memories is kind of cool but it comes off as omnipatance which makes Ron seem like an ass. Protacalls like the learning programs that Link did are fine, and likely would have been needed by Ron, But you have him doing the bullet catch on everyone. He didn't even use the downloaded info to put down Monkey Fist. Which means it was utterly pointless to quote the movie, with different characters even, and not have him use it for anything when there was an actuall fight. I guess what I am really bumbed about is that you had them going to Zion so quickly. I am not trying to say this is a bad story. I am sure it has loads of fans as you reposted it into the complet series. All I am saying is that you didn't take into consideration that time has passed, other then the children being older you are still quoting the movie.

So Thank you for the story, but I shall not be finishing it.

This aweasome Neo Ron booyah!

Awesome fic.

Another amazing chapter I just read. Nicely done with Smith and Ron interaction. Its just like Ron to get his feelings bunched up, but I also like the part where he is going to Neb II. I just hope he is going to sort out his feelings and not sulk and maybe realize that all of the things happened before they became a couple.

Man amazing detail and crossover. I found it very interesting and unique.

Started reading the story and have to say enjoying it so far. I like the crossover between matrix and Kim Possible. Nicely done.

Very well sewn together, very nice. I love it, even more now that I've seen all three. Great job.

Welcome to part 10 of 23. Let’s get on with it. Chapter 10:

Overview:

The chapter begins with the crew arriving in the above-ground city of Jericho, where Josh Mankey is as well. Ron does not yet know that Mankey has been assimilated by Smith, but he suspects that something is amiss. Josh rudely barges in on Kim and Ron after their love-making, telling Ron to meet the Oracle in Central Park. Ron shows up, only to find that it is Smith who has called the meeting. Smith tells him that he knows a way to prevent Ron’s death, and that it somehow involves Kim. I like the creepy effect that comes from having Smith call Kim “KP.” It just seems so wrong, as does everything else about Smith. Ron is hesitant at first, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he follows Smith to a restaurant. Smith, being the devil that he is, twists the facts and constructs an argument that leads Ron to believe that Kim only loves him because he is the One, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Ron believes it anyway though, and pushes Kim away. Very nice chapter.

References:

He touched down near a small lake, there sitting a few feet away from the lip of the lake was a green, painted bench with a statue of a business man sitting there with a cell phone to his ear. Standing beside the bench, Ron took a good look around, seeing a nearby gazebo with no one in it, and another few feet behind him, there were statues of a caterpillar smoking a hookah atop of a mushroom with a little girl standing next to him. Ron couldn’t help but smile at the statues, thinking how he was just like that little girl six months ago…tumbling down the rabbit hole.

Alice in Wonderland (duh)

Inside the Matrix, Ron was unaware of the danger that was approaching him, the one that his crewmates had seen on those coded screens in the Jack Room of Jericho. The thing that Ron could not get over was the fact that he was in Central Park on a Saturday, and there was hardly a soul around. It reminded him of a movie he saw a few years back called 28 Days Later, in which a guy had awakened to London and there was not a single soul anywhere, just him. It felt just like that for Ron, as if he was the last living person inside the Matrix.

I think you know what this one is.

Commentary:

“Well, guess we better get dressed and find Morpheus.” Kim said as she let go of Ron and climbed out of bed to find her clothes. As she bent over in her nudity, looking for her clothes and boots on the floor, she didn’t see what Ron was doing. At least, until she looked back and saw Ron staring at her ass and exposed cherry while she was bent over, she smiled at her lover while she reached over, picked up his boxer shorts and tossed them at his face while whispering, “Perv.”

Hey, you can’t blame a guy for looking (Seriously, who wouldn’t?)

“And when was the last time that she actually told you that she loved you?” Smith asked, “I mean, told you seriously…not flirting.”

Um, right before she died and Ron brought her back to life.

Music: none

Welcome to part 9 of 23. Let’s get right into it. Chapter 9:

Overview:

The chapter starts out with Josh Mankey, codename Ares (God of War, I like it). We learn that he was the one who took Kim’s virginity (see commentary). He is taken over by Agent Smith, who apparently retains all of Ron’s memories in addition to his own. Josh’s fate is now one with that of Bane from the original trilogy. Ron dreams of this, and wakes up hoping that that’s all it was. He searches for Kim, who isn’t there. She has gone into the Matrix by herself to rescue a bunch of hikers being held captive by Gill at Camp Wannaweep, only to find herself pinned against a tree by Gill’s spit. Ron shows up in the nick of time, though, and frees Gill of his curse by separating the mutated code from Gill’s normal human code. He leaves Kim to free the hikers and goes to see the Oracle, who confirms the Merovingian’s prediction that he will die in just under a month. (Three weeks, two days, five hours, six minutes and seven seconds to be exact). He is obviously shaken up by this news, which he refuses to share with Kim. Meanwhile, in the Machine City, there is a lab bringing six people back to life. Each is referred to by Alpha, followed by a corresponding number. It’s fairly obvious who these people are: the six previous Ones. This is especially obvious when the author describes one of them as missing his eyes (Neo). Not to mention that Alpha means “One” in Greek. At this point, however, it’s unclear what role they will play in Ron’s impending death. Ron has dreamt this as well, and it became fairly obvious to me at this point that he has what the Oracle refers to as “the sight.” Kim is lying beside him naked as the two have just had sex. I like that the sex in this fic is implied rather than described, which earns it only a T rating. Great chapter.

References:

“Hello, Monkey…” A sinister voice called from the shadows, “It has been…some time…”

“Huh?” Josh asked being very startled by someone else there. He looked throughout the apartment from the beam of light that came from the hallway hoping to find someone. “Whose there?”

“Just an old friend.” The voice spoke, “But then again, we never really were friends. You only really thought of me as a stepping stone to get into KP’s cargo pants.”

At the sound of the voice, Josh had a very good impression of who it was, but it was the letters KP, that really gave it away to him.

“Ron?” Josh called into the darkness as he smiled feeling somewhat relieved that it could just be him, “Is that you?”

“Yes…and no…” The voice in the darkness had answered before a figure started to move within the shadows, “You could say that I’m…something more…”

The sound of that voice sent chills through Josh’s body. It was terrifying, a feeling that Josh had never experienced for the longest time. Not since he was a child staying up to watch movies his parents warmed him against. He was so afraid, his flesh felt prickly and covered in cold sweat as his blood within his body ran fast and hot. He watched as the figure moved out of the shadows of the apartment and into the light that came from the hallway. The sound of the phone ringing was drowned out by the quick beating of his heart as he gazed at the face of an agent.

“Who…” Josh started to ask but was cut off by a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see that the agent had sunk his fingers into his chest and by the light of the hallway he could see a silver liquid like mercury gushing from the wound. It was starting to move all over his body and spread as if it were a great infection.

“I am mister Stoppable.” The Agent smiled like a devil as the silver liquid had consumed Josh, “And now I am also you, Mister Mankey.”

A few moments later after the silver liquid had consumed him, it soon receded back into the wound created by the Agent. The moment that the liquid was gone, Josh “Ares” Mankey had become an exact copy of the Agent he had met. He stood there in that black and white three piece agent suit and smiled back at the original.

“Indeed, you are.” The agent copy nodded as the first walked up to him and adjusted his tie. “Shall we try again?”

“Yes, we shall.” The original agent smiled as his copy reached for the ringing phone and escaped into the real world.

Mirror image #56

“Touch me…” Kim growled at Gill, “And that fin will never touch anything ever again!”

Mirror image #57

“Speaking of R…Neo.” Kim corrected herself remembering that inside the Matrix, Ron would be referred by his Matrix name, “Where is he now?”

“Hold on, I’m looking…” Link said as he typed at the keyboards of his station and made his search for Ron ‘Neo’ Stoppable, until he found him. When he did he couldn’t help but smile as he told his findings to Kim, “He’s over New York, and he’s doing his Superman thing.”

Mirror image #58

In the clouds over New York City, Ron “Neo” Stoppable was flying just like a super-hero, the clouds parted as he flew through them causing them to lap much like waters made by a speed boat. All the while, he flew without that long duster on, he could feel both the chill of the high altitude though his dress clothes as well as the prickling heat of the sun. As he flew he could also feel his little friend, Rufus, squirming and shivering in his pockets until he started to cling to the fabric of Ron’s pocket.

“Hang on, buddy.” Ron said as he brought his hand to the lump in his pocket, “We’re almost there.”

The second he said that, he could feel the Oracle’s presence as if her code sent out some kind of resonance throughout the Matrix like waves of a pond. Sensing that he tilted his body upwards and he twirled around amongst the clouds with the grace of an ice skater. As he floated there amongst the clouds he looked down into the city to the building that he had come to many times before. With one push Ron rocketed down to the ground causing the clouds to swirl behind him as if they were becoming the cone of a tornado. He came closer and closer until he somersaulted in the air and landed on the buildings rooftop.

Mirror image #59

Commentary:

He started to have some regrets about Kim Possible. In the beginning he was toying with Kim, playing hard to get with her. After all, it was no secret to Josh of how handsome he was, it wasn’t just Kim that was after him back then. Nearly half of the cheerleading squad wanted him, if not all of them. Even with all those women wanting him, Josh wanted to tease and toy with Kim the most. He couldn’t help but revel and marvel at his acting skills showing that he wasn’t interested while Kim was twisting herself into knots about whether or not Josh liked her or not.

That was until that one night when Josh had asked Kim out, he was half expecting to get lucky that night. He knew that he was fulfilling the girls’ fantasy, though he couldn’t help but notice the strange things that were going on around Kim. It was somewhere towards the end of the date that Josh decided Kim really wasn’t worth all the teasing and toying that he had done. Except, he wondered, if I wasn’t interested then why did I kiss her? A very good question indeed. At least until the summer when Josh met a man named Joseph who said that he would show him the truth, and that was nearly a year ago for Josh when a few months into his freedom, as well as with his relationship with Terra (Aldonza), that he heard the buzz within Neo Zion that Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable had been freed.

In the style of David Letterman, I shall now list the top ten adjectives that describe Kim and Josh Mankey getting it on:

10. Ew

9. Gross

8. Disgusting

7. (makes gagging noise)

6. Ick

5. Ugh

4. Bleh!

3. (makes vomiting noise)

2. Gorchy

And the number one adjective that describes Kim and Mankey in the horizontal limbo:

1. Wrongsick

Music: none

Welcome to part 8 of 23. Let’s dive right in. Chapter 8:

Overview:

Ron has been captured and Kim goes in to save him after some guidance from the Oracle. The ensuing scenes mirror the rescues in the first two movies (see references). This chapter contains the most references to outside sources that I have seen so far, and I especially enjoyed the nod to “American Pie.” (see references). Anyway, Kim goes to rescue Ron and basically uses Shego as her own personal punching bag before pulling Ron out of the machine. They go to the exit at the subway station from the original movie and Ron goes out first, only to find himself denied access back in when Agents show up. The nearest Link can get him is Red Bank, New Jersey, but with superspeed who cares? Kim meanwhile is doing her best to fight off the agents, who eventually shoot her 5 times in the chest. Ron shows up just in time to watch her die in his arms, then destroys the Agents in a similar way to that with which Neo destroyed Smith (albeit with more permanent results). Ron then brings Kim back to life in the same way Neo did Trinity in “Reloaded.” Both profess their love to each other and exit the Matrix. Meanwhile, back at Drakken’s ruined lair, the Merovingian learns that half of Ron’s code has been copied, which is more than enough. Things quickly turn sour, however, when a familiar face steps out of the machine: Smith.

References:

The decision that year was that Ron and Kim decided to dress up as the Blue Collar Boys. Kim was Jeff Foxworthy, Ron was Larry the Cable Guy, Mr. Possible was Bill Engvall, and Mrs. Possible was Ron White. Kim had even invited the real Blue Collar Boys to Middleton to host the Laughs and Screams benefit for the Hospital. Of course, they were more than willing to help since Kim had saved the quartet on a plane trip to Upperton. As Kim recalled the event, Jeff was the one to express the gratitude of the whole group.

“We never would have made our tour gig in Upperton without your help, Kim.” Jeff had told her.

Kim smiled as she thought of her response to the redneck comedian’s gratitude, “No big. Anyone could have fixed a crack in the hull of an airplane at 30,0 feet with industrial grade duct tape.”

That night truly was filled with laughs and screams, but the part that really made Kim smile was when Ron parodied Larry the Cable Guy. It was just the way he walked around in the sleeveless flannel shirt, the dirty, mud caked jeans, and that jungle camouflage baseball cap with a paper clip on the bill. Kim just could not stop laughing that night with Ron coming out on stage to dozens of people and screaming, “Git-r-done!” Of course there were a lot of laughs when Kim came out as Jeff Foxworthy, with a fake mustache, cowboy boots, and bent legs, telling jokes such as, “If you’ve ever worn a tube top to a funeral home…you might be a redneck.”

Hilarious. Simply hilarious.

This particular memory took place around November of that same year; sometime before Thanksgiving break was when this wonderfully embarrassing and hilarious event took place. Kim had stayed after school for the yearbook committee, but it ran longer than she thought, so when Ron went to her house to talk about a half-baked idea of bringing a Tex-Mex dish to Thanksgiving, he found no one was home. He checked every room, but the place was devoid of the Possible family, and he was about to leave when he came to the kitchen. There, he caught a glimpse of an apple pie on the counter with a note next to it saying, “For Kim and Ron”.

At the time of this humorous event, Ron was obsessed with sex. He wondered so much what it was like, but he knew that he would never get any. He couldn’t even get a girl to go out with him, with the exception of Zita, but that was a different story. As a virgin, Ron wondered about the exquisite pleasures behind the act of love, until he overheard a guy in the halls talking with his friends and by a strong coincidence they were discussing the very subject Ron was thinking about. One of them likened sex to “warm apple pie”. Ron didn’t stop to ask more detail about it; he just kept walking along, but then in the Possible family kitchen with the pie there, something overtook Ron. He undid his pants, climbed onto the kitchen counter, and mounted the pie, feeling its oven baked warmth all through his groin. He felt that if he was never going to get any, the pie would be close enough. The tryst turned horribly wrong when Kim Possible came back home and opened the kitchen door to find her best friend, Ron Stoppable, in his sordid affair with her mom’s pie. After Ron had a quick shower, especially washing out his crotch, he sat down with Kim to figure out what to do. As Ron blushed through the entire uncomfortable silence, Kim found a solution.

“I had said,” Kim thought as she tapped the cold wash cloth over Ron’s forehead, “That we would tell mom that we ate it all.”

The “American Pie” reference was completely unexpected, but still hilarious.

“I’m sorry, Kimmie. It seems like every time we meet, I’ve got nothing but bad news.” The Oracle apologized, “You’re going to have a choice to make. In the one hand, you’ll have Ron’s life, and in the other, you’ll have your own. One of you will die. Knowing this, will you still go to save him?”

Mirror image #52

She came around to the side of the warehouse, making sure she didn’t run into any of Drakken’s goons. Seeing that there was no one around, she took a few good steps back from the brick wall, took a deep breath, and made her dash at the wall. Instead of running face first into the wall (something that Ron would be more likely to do) her feet made contact with it. A split-second later her other foot was higher up the wall and within a matter of seconds Kim had run up the wall and landed upon the rooftop. “Spider-Man, eat your heart out.” she said to herself.

I don’t even think I have to say it.

“Ron…” Kim gasped as she saw him lying inside one of the human sized tubes. She didn’t even think about it as she got to her feet and jumped through the glass skylight. All around, Kim felt the glass crashing around her as she looked down to the warehouse floor to mentally pick her landing point. She couldn’t have been sure of it at the time, but, for just a nanosecond, it seemed like everything in the room had frozen in place, like how a computer freezes when it’s trying to load a program with too much data for its memory to process. Kim had then landed upon one of the highest crates as the broken glass showered down around her.

Might be a loose Batman reference.

“Ron?” She asked nervously, “Do you remember you said there was something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Yeah, KP… but…”

“I want to talk to you about something too.” Kim stopped Ron in his utterances.

“I just want to ask you one question, KP.” Ron said nervously, “I wanted to ask why you fight to save the world and all?”

Kim smiled because she knew the answer as if it was there all the time, “You.” She smiled as she answered.

“What?” Ron asked, surprised.

“Because you are my world, Ron.” Kim said as she laid a gentle hand on Ron’s freckled cheek, “It’ll only take a minute to get to the other side, so we’ll talk more then, ok?” She asked as she leaned in to kiss that freckled check of his.

“Ok…” Ron blushed and touched his cheek tenderly as he reached out to grab the phone’s receiver. As he was bringing it up to his ear, he looked over at Kim and smiled, “See you on the other side.” He said as he brought the receiver to the side of his face. He felt himself in such a daze as he looked at Kim. All around everything started to turn black and green swirling like food going down a kitchen drain. As the world was shrinking away, Ron looked over to the stairs of the subway and saw three Agents coming down the steps bringing their guns to bear.

“Kim!” Ron screamed as his body vanished into the phone, “Look out!” He cried, trying desperately to pull away back into the world of the Matrix, but it was too late. He opened his eyes and found himself back into the dingy, grey, real world of the Neb II.

“We lost the exit.” Link’s voice called out to Ron, “What happ…”

Ron cut him off, “Agents!” Ron cried out, “Get me the hell back in there, now!” He barked in desperation, the need shimmering in his brown eyes.

“I’ll try.” Link said as he quickly tapped the buttons at his station, “Damn! The whole Manhattan Network’s been blocked. The closest I can get you is Red Bank, New Jersey!”

“I don’t care where you get me.” Ron yelled as he sat back waiting for the upload, “Just get me as close as you can!”

Mirror image #53 (to two scenes this time: one in the original and one in “Reloaded”)

He opened his eyes to find himself in the place that Link had talked about, Red Bank, New Jersey. He found himself out in front of a store called, “Jay’s and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash”, and saw ample opportunity. He closed his eyes and forced the Matrix vision to come back to him. As he opened his eyes back up and looked around, he could see and sense Kim’s code miles away. Around her, the three Agents fighting her; her practice in the Construct’s sparring program was showing through in that she was holding her ground, but she was slowly starting to lose the fight.

“I’m coming, KP!” Ron declared as he felt his bones start to tremble in his joints and he began to do something that he never would have thought possible. He clenched his fists and began to squat as if he was about to get a closer look at something on the ground. As his knees came down to the ground, the concrete all around him rippled like the surface of a pond after a large stone had been thrown into it. He pushed with his feet against the rippling concrete and he flew, literally FLEW, straight up into the air while the concrete and the buildings below him wobbled like Jell-O and went back to their original shape.

While in the air, Ron didn’t think for a second that he was actually flying like Superman, his mind was filled with thoughts about Kim and the trouble that she was in. His eyes and mind were fixed on her Matrix code as he parted the clouds above the state of New Jersey like a speedboat making waves in a still lake. He flew up higher and higher above the clouds circling as if he was performing some kind of mid-air ballet before he looked out over the city and shot straight down like a bullet out of a gun, making the clouds swirl behind him like a tornado as he came down into the streets of New York within a matter of seconds.

Mirror image #54 (and “Jay and Silent Bob” reference)

“And I looked,” Morpheus quoted from Revelation, “and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”

Revelation 6 verse 8.

“Come on, Kim.” He whispered as he placed his hand onto her chest, over her heart, “I need you here; I’m not going to let you leave me. Not like this! Do you hear me?” He relaxed and could feel his hand sinking into Kim’s body; he couldn’t believe that it was happening right before his very eyes. He was reaching into her, reaching into the very code that made up her digital self down to her unbeating heart, taking it into his hand as if it was a piece of fruit on a tree. “I’m not letting you leave me, Kimberly Anne Possible, not ever again…I love you too damn much!” He said to himself as something happened; he was starting to act upon instinct like he did when he was fighting those Agents. Yet, this time, he could feel something different within him taking over, not that other presence that helped him fight, it was his heart… the heart that loved Kim Possible as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

Mirror image #55

Just as the words left the Merovingian’s lips, a hand had reached out from the opened tube, which spouted steam like a kettle boiling. The hand reached for the Merovingian’s tie and used it to pull itself out of the tube.

“Feels good to be back.” The voice from the tube stated as he fully came out into the world. Everyone in the warehouse looked in horror as they saw the very program that nearly brought the Matrix to an end. Even the most fearless of people like Shego and the Merovingian couldn’t help becoming petrified. They stood there as they looked upon an Agent standing there outside of the Code Copier and adjusting his tie before he reached into his inner breast pocket and pulled out a set of sunglasses.

“Y…you…” Shego whimpered as she crawled backwards into a corner made by the crates, “It…can’t be! You’re dead!”

“Ah, dear sister.” The Agent smiled like that of a great demon brought from the darkest reaches of hell, “I see you remember me.”

The Agent started to walk towards Shego before Drakken stepped in his way.

“Just who do you think you are?” Drakken said as he stared down at the Agent who was only a few inches shorter than he was.

“Doctor Drakken, I presume. Ah yes, I do remember you.” The Agent smiled once again before he offered a handshake to the mad genius, “Allow me to introduce myself. The name’s Smith….Agent Smith, and I am at your service.”

Uh-oh (I find it odd that he says “at your service” because Drakken, Shego and the Merovingian are not heard from again for the rest of the fic. Perhaps he was being sarcastic?)

Commentary:

“Or what?” Shego laughed, “You’re gonna do some of those fancy, freed-human, super moves?” She jumped up onto the crates like a mountain goat scaling cliffs and stared at Kim. Looking at her from head to toe and back again, she laughed once again at Kim, “It’s a wonder you can even move in that skintight leather, princess. Bet Ronnie here liked it, didn’t he?”

“I can move just fine, Shego.” Kim smirked as she took a stance from the many styles of Kung Fu that she knew and started her own retort against Shego, “At least I still look good in tights. I mean, seriously, whatever happened to your hips?”

In the immortal words of Michael Kelso: BURN!

Music:

Say the Word –Christy Carlson Romano

How Can I Not Love You –Joy Enriquez

Welcome to part 7 of 23. I’m really starting to enjoy writing these reviews, almost as much as I like writing my fics. Let’s get on with it. Chapter 7:

Overview:

Kim, Ron and Morpheus go to grill the Merovingian. References to familiar scenes abound in this chapter, even the restroom kiss (see references). Unlike previous references, though, these seem more original and tailored to fit Kim and Ron. They meet with the expected results when they confront the Merovingian, only to have Persephone help them like she did 16 years before. The restroom kiss that ensues is much more dramatic than “Reloaded” because the love is unspoken. Kim can’t stand it any longer and she storms out. Ron catches up to her and is about to reveal how he feels about her when the Merovingian, having learned his wife’s tricks, comes up to confront them, though not before Persephone shows them the specs of the machine that Drakken stole and Kim figures out that the whole thing was one big set up. It’s then revealed that Drakken and Shego are programs of the Merovingian’s design. They try to gun down the trio, but Ron stops the bullets easily and, like Ron, rubs it in their faces with a victory dance. Shego then fires a special bullet filled with knockout gas and takes him prisoner, leaving Kim and Morpheus lying there. Very nice chapter.

References:

“What can you see, Ronald?” Morpheus asked as he looked up at the numbers on the elevator dial moving closer to their floor.

Ron closed his eyes, getting one last peek of the world of the Matrix in colors, shadings, and textures. He let out a small sigh before he opened them back up to the code of the Matrix that swirled all around him like water, yet the code in that building seemed so different than the rest of the Matrix. It was nothing like any other building that he had seen, a building that seemed self-aware of what the reality of the world was. He could see devices planted in between each floor of the building as his senses reached out to them, and he knew what they were from the knowledge that flooded him on the day of his release from the Matrix.

“The code is different.” Ron answered back, “It’s like it’s encrypted.”

“Isn’t the Matrix already encrypted?” Kim asked.

“Yeah.” Ron answered, “But this is different.”

“So, is that good for us or bad for us?”

“It looks like every floor is wired with explosives.”

“Bad for us.”

Mirror image #48 (they’re everywhere in this chapter)

Persephone went to the mirror and began putting on her lipstick, “I will tell you anything and everything you wish to know.” She said as she finished up her lipstick, “But only if you do something for me.”

Morpheus let out a deep sigh as he knew what Persephone wanted. Kim, on the other hand, grew more and more agitated with each minute she watched this older woman. She was so pretentious in Kim’s view, but she seemed to be a greater help than the Merovingian, still, she seemed to be up to something. Kim was like a mongoose and Persephone was a snake in her garden.

“Well…” Ron asked in his young innocence, “What would that be?”

Persephone looked at Ron and smiled lovingly as if he was her long lost lover, “A kiss.”

“What’d you just say?” Kim asked quickly, the red flags in her mind screaming that there was something very wrong with this picture.

“And they say we’re predictable…” Morpheus sighed under his breath.

Persephone locked onto Ron’s concealed eyes, looking at him as if she could see past the dark lenses and straight into the windows of his soul. She stepped closer, her high heels clicking against the tile floor and echoing through the uncomfortable silence of the empty men’s room, wrapped her arms around Ron’s shoulders as if she were claiming the man for herself, and brought her lips to Ron’s ear as she glanced over at Kim for a split second and then came back to Ron.

“Just a simple kiss,” She whispered, the air from her lips sending shockwaves through Ron’s body, activating certain functions and body parts below the waist, “but I want you to pretend I am her.”

Ron wanted to look over at Kim, wondering if it was alright, but even though he knew in the back of his mind that Kim wasn’t his girlfriend, his conscience was still bugging him about the situation. He looked at Persephone, who looked right back at him with that same look that seemed to say she could see into the very pit of his soul.

“It isn’t as if this would be the first time you have been with a girl in the past week, is it?” She asked, her voice sounding almost like the purring of a very sensual, yet, sinister cat, “And it wouldn’t have been the first time you pretended that it was her.”

The fear crept throughout Ron’s body; it was true, during that time of intimacy with Bonnie, he kept his eyes closed and tried to imagine that it was Kim. Especially when they were kissing, he fantasized that it was her, even more so when he made love to Bonnie. He never faced her; he came in from behind so that he could imagine that it was Kim. The thought made him blush and his eyes darted all around the room, trying not to look at Persephone as he began to sweat within his suit.

“I…” He stammered, “I don’t know…”

“I do!” Kim snapped as her blood began to boil within her. She came between Ron and Persephone, shoving her hands between the two of them and pushing them apart from each other. She looked at Persephone and snarled, “Hands off!”

“Such emotion.” Persephone purred as she slid around Kim and back to Ron where she began to hug his arm, “I thought you were only friends. A kiss would not damage your friendship, would it? Or is there something more there than just simple friendship? After all, it’s just a kiss. How will a kiss hurt your best friend?”

Ron had such a look of confusion on his face, even though he tried his best to hide it, but there were certain things he could not hide, especially from Kim, who felt confused as well. She felt angered at Persephone for making such an unthinkable request of Ron. That was when the dream of the beautiful woman with slicked back, black hair came back to her. She had told Kim that she had to let go of herself, but there were so many things that Kim couldn’t let go of.

“I…” Kim uttered, trying to find the words that would stop the situation from happening, “…um…fine, you’re right. He’s just my best friend, if you want to trade a kiss for information…” Kim’s voice started to tremble and waver, desperately trying to keep her cool, even though she felt herself beginning to crack on the inside like a sheet of ice being shattered by a hammer, “…then fine…go ahead…”

She gave her statement as she crossed her arms and then stepped back from them, her eyes narrowed very tightly upon Persephone from behind her oval sunglasses.

“Ok then.” Ron gulped as he turned toward the expectant Persephone, who once again wrapped her arms around Ron’s neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced over at Kim, smiling that same devilishly happy smile that Bonnie had when she was lording her relationship with Ron over her. She then looked back at Ron.

“You know what to do, Ron.” Persephone whispered seductively as she moved her face closer to his.

Ron grabbed the arms of his sunglasses and pulled them off, revealing his big, puppy-dog, brown eyes. He reached up to her face; his hands seemed to be on auto-pilot as they did so. He didn’t know why he was doing it, but at the same time he had a feeling for the reason for it. With her arms around his neck, he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Here goes…” He muttered as he pulled Persephone closer to him, one of his hands on her upper back and the other at the top of her buttocks as his face moved in and his lips pressed against hers. With their lips locked into one another, Persephone’s tongue began to move past his lips and into his mouth.

As Kim watched this, her features softened from anger to desperate sadness before she turned to Morpheus.

“I’ll be outside.” She stated, her voice quietly cracking as she walked out of the men’s room.

Morpheus only nodded, knowing all too well of the implications of the situation upon Kim. It was all so similar, and yet still so different. The feelings were there, but no one was willing to talk about them or even bring them out into the open. He could never be sure of it at the time, nor would he for his remaining days, but Morpheus could almost hear a very faint, whimpering cry from Kim as she left the men’s room.

Ron and Persephone broke the kiss.

“Yes…” She whispered, sounding exceedingly satisfied, “That’s it…so nice…unspoken love…It is such a pity though…that you must soon watch her die.”

Ron was in such a daze from the kiss. It was like nothing that he had experienced before; not even Bonnie was that good. It felt as if he had just gotten laid, even though this was just a kiss, and the thoughts about the mission seemed lost in his daze, until what Persephone said broke through, and snapped him out of it.

“What?” Ron asked as he reached up to put his sunglasses back on.

“You have held up your end of the bargain.” Persephone stated to Ron and Morpheus, ignoring what Ron was asking her, “Now, I will give you all the information I can give, as promised. Please follow me.”

Mirror image #49 (albeit tailored to fit Kim and Ron’s relationship)

In a hurried walk, the four of them headed down the hall, made a few turns through the elegantly bland hallways to come to a door, where Persephone used one of the keys on her ring to opened it. What Kim and Ron saw inside seemed to defy all notions of logic. They had expected to come to a regular room within the building. Yet, what they saw there was like the foyer of a great mansion: marble floors and walls, the banisters of the twin stairs that snaked down the side to meet at the bottom were a deep cherry. Everywhere there was the air of the arts, even the floor sported the enormous letter M, undoubtedly for “Merovingian”, and along the walls of the stairs that led to the second level were all kinds of weapons: spears, swords, sais, shields, maces, halberds and all manners of weaponry from different periods and locations.

Mirror image #50

“You can take it?” The Merovingian asked, “You can take it? All of your predecessors had much more respect than you! Shoot him!”

With that command, Ron Stoppable stood his ground against them. He clenched his fists, ready and waiting for whatever was going to come. With the knowledge of the world around him, he reached up and spread out his hand like a traffic cop halting one direction of traffic. The guns began to fire, all of them sending out bullets at Ron, Kim, and Morpheus while the shell casings had hit the floor. Kim was scared, even though she didn’t exactly cower behind Ron as he had in the past; she was just worried about what the outcome would be. Yet, what made her stand her ground was the confident smile on Morpheus’ face, he stood there as if he was saying to Kim: watch this. As the guns fired, the bullets stopped in mid-air just mere inches from Ron’s hand, he began to bob his head, and smirk with absolute confidence.

“Is that all ya got?” He asked in his cockiness as he lowered his hand and the bullets fell to the ground like pearls from a broken necklace. As they did, Ron looked to the Merovingian with a very conceited smile, wondering if the Merovingian had lost his ace in the hole against him.

“Ok, you have some skill.” The Merovingian admitted, rather defeated.

Mirror image #51

Commentary:

“Please excuse my husband.” Persephone stated, apologizing to the trio, yet her eyes seemed fixed upon Ron. It was the kind of look that Bonnie had when she looked at Ron while they were together, and that made Kim very suspicious of this woman’s intentions. “He has been cranky since I have not given into his desires for sixteen years.”

“What’d you mean?” Ron asked as he stood up straight and scratched his head in puzzlement. The not-so-innocent answer to such an innocent question was given when Rufus wiggled out of his pocket, climbed up to his shoulder, and whispered small chirps into his ear.

“Oh! Poor guy…”

Indeed.

Music: none

Welcome to part 6 of 23. Sorry if this one is a little shorter, but I’ve had a lot going on lately. Let’s get right into it. Chapter six:

Overview:

Kim and Ron have an argument over Ron being with Bonnie and Kim’s over-protectiveness. The argument ends rather bitterly and Kim goes to work out in the construct. She takes her frustrations out on a wooden-man dummy and then Bonnie, who has entered the program as well. Bonnie reveals that the whole thing with Ron was a way to get back at Kim. Ron, who has also entered the program, hears this and breaks up with Bonnie right then and there. He comforts Kim, then notices that the fight has stripped her down to her undergarments. That’s when I noticed that the entire chapter is about Kim and Ron’s growing physical attraction (Ron gets a total of three boners, if anybody’s interested). This is even more obvious when they go to the Temple and a scene unfolds that is very reminiscent of “Reloaded,” right down to the transparent wet shirts. Kim and Ron get into the rave as well, and only after they get back to their apartment does Ron notice the see-through effect of Kim’s wet clothes. She is still oblivious, and a rather amusing scene unfolds as Ron tries not to reveal what he has just seen. He goes to bed and Kim starts to feel an attraction for him as well, which turns to utter embarrassment as she sees what Ron was looking at in the bathroom mirror. Very funny chapter.

References:

“Do you think that’s air you’re breathing?” Ron quipped as he loosened his hug and brought Kim back down to her feet, The two of them had a good laugh together until Kim saw a rather sad look in Ron’s eyes.

Mirror image #47 (This one happens almost halfway through the chapter. See what I mean about less and less frequent?)

Commentary:

Kim, on the other hand, smiled; despite how painful it was to perform such a simple action. She then shook her head at how it was so similar, her discussion with Niobe; it seemed to ring back to her mother and father. She did think about going to see them both, but then she thought that they’d give similar answers to what Morpheus had told her. That there was no harm in Ron being with another girl… ‘unless that other girl is Bonnie’, Kim thought. The more Kim thought about this, the more the bile in her throat began to rise and the more she needed to get to Trin Zion to blow off some serious steam.

I find it interesting that Kim hardly ever interacts with her parents in this fic. Because she’s growing up perhaps?

“I know, KP. That was…was…” Ron started, but his mind froze when he noticed something about Kim’s clothing; it had become completely transparent from the water. It stuck to Kim’s body like a see-through jumpsuit. He could see everything, the ampleness of her breasts, and the peach color of her nipples, which stuck out like knobs on an old television, and everything from her waist down.

BOING!

As she took off the last piece of the transparent robe, she looked at herself in the mirror and smiled once again thinking one last thing about the situation.

“Can’t say that I blame him.”

Me either.

Music:

“Deep in the Night” –Etta James

Welcome to part 5 of 23. Let’s get right into it: Chapter 5:

Overview:

Kim and Ron reach Zion and are immediately reunited with some of their old friends. The first of these is Mr. Barkin, codename “Kid.” For those of you who didn’t catch the significance of that, let me jog your memory. The scrawny guy that always followed Neo around was always referred to by the same nickname (see references). I never thought that he would fill out like that, but Barkin as Neo’s number one fan somehow makes sense. On Barkin’s crew are Bonnie “Tres” Rockwaller (you’ll kick yourself for not realizing the significance of this later) and Brick “Tater Salad” Flagg (see references). Kim is reunited with her parents, Kazaa and Napster. Bonnie, who has always been attracted to power, immediately falls for Ron, but not just for that reason (though the real reason isn’t revealed until “Shutdown”). Kim of course completely jeals, convincing herself that she’s just looking out for Ron’s well being. If she knew who Bonnie truly was, though, she might have reacted differently (I’m just killing all the new readers with the teasers, aren’t I? Alright, I’ll just say it: Bonnie is the true reincarnation of Trinity. “Tres” makes sense now, doesn’t it? Still, I’m not going to reveal why Kim is also so similar to Trinity. You’ll have to read that yourself). They also receive their own Matrix names. Ron carries on the name of Neo, and Kim is now “Angel.” Great chapter. I laughed my ass off at the “Tater Salad” remark.

References:

“Zion Control, this is Nebuchadnezzar II on approach to the city.” Niobe spoke into her headset while strapped into the co-pilot seat, “Requesting permission to enter gate 3.”

The Neb II hovered through a large passageway littered with all manner of clutter beneath it like some kind of ancient junkyard wasting away from the ravages of time. While ahead of the hovership was a great and intricate doorway that looked like something one would see in a church; enormously tall, thin (wide enough only for a ship), and split down the center. While at the sides of the doors were twin cannons that whirred about and set their sights upon the approaching hovercraft.

It was always a tense moment to come to the doors of Zion, mainly because there was always the paranoia that the machines would follow any hovercraft. After all, the machines had already managed to break into Zion once; who’s to say that it couldn’t happen again?

On the bridge of the Neb II, Kim handled the controls while Niobe sat back and studied Kim’s technique.

“Nebuchadnezzar II, this is Zion Control,” A kindly woman’s voice responded over the radio, “Stand by while the gates open…”

Kim watched as the towering gates of Zion sent out dust and dirt to the littered floor below as they began to inch their way open. As she watched, it dawned upon her how all of it was possible, how a world so bleak, used up, and burnt out could still be livable. How could people find the will to build such things like those gates and these hoverships? Kim smiled because she knew there was always something within the human spirit that continues, or chooses to continue on.

With the gates of Zion opened, Kim saw a very odd looking robot standing at the gate with an exposed human pilot sitting in its chest. The robot had its gun-mounted arms trained on the garbage-covered tunnel outside. Seeing the ship approach, the robot’s pilot brought down an arm, which was mimicked by the robot. Though the robot itself was dwarfed by the sheer size of the gates, it looked to be at least a couple of stories tall.

“Nebuchadnezzar II,” the voice over the radio called again, “you are cleared through Gate 3 to landing pad B.”

“Roger that, Control,” Niobe responded, “Nebuchadnezzar II coming in.”

Niobe looked over at Kim, who looked very nervous as she gently eased the controls forward. With that, the Neb II passed through the gateway and over the head of the odd robot with its exposed human pilot. As it passed through, Kim saw the landing bay of Zion. It was a place filled with ships like the Neb II. All of them were stationary; like cars in a parking garage.

The Neb was coming closer while the voice over the radio made its welcome.

“Door’s open, bed’s made. Welcome home.”

“No place like it.” Niobe smiled before turning to the very nervous Kim, “Want me to take over, Kimmie?”

Mirror image #45 (these become less and less frequent as the fic goes on)

“Ha!” Barkin laughed and gave Ron a good hard slap on Ron’s back, “Well, I’ll be damned. Finally got out of your little girlfriend’s shadow, did ya Stoppable? Ha! I still can’t believe that this was the guy who saved me.”

When Captain Barkin said that last sentence, it triggered another sense of déjà vu. Ron looked up at the burly captain with a confidence that Barkin had never seen before in Ron’s eyes, at least not in all the times that he was at Middleton High.

“I didn’t save you, kid.” Ron said in that voice that didn’t seem like his, but Kim noticed that it wasn’t sinister or evil like during his fight with Monkey Fist; it was gentle and soothing. “You saved yourself.”

When Ron said that to Barkin, the captain’s eyes widened as he squatted down to get an even better look at Ron; he looked at him a little more closely than before, searching harder. He recognized the strength and selflessness that he had seen another’s eyes only sixteen years ago.

“My…God…” Barkin uttered with a pale complexion, “You are him.”

Mirror image #46 (I’m still shocked that that scrawny kid grew up to be Mr. Barkin. By the way, this means that Barkin is 32, seeing as the “Kid” was 16 in “Revolutions”)

“And they call me…Tater Salad.” Brick smiled.

Best. Reference. Ever. (Ron White for those of you that don’t know)

Commentary:

“Now young lady.” Napster (Mister Possible) said to his daughter in that lecturing tone that all fathers possess, “We need to have a talk about what you are wearing into the Matrix. Just because you’re on Morpheus’ ship doesn’t mean you have to keep the dress code tradition.”

I have an aunt who sends a yearly letter to the members of her family. Her children are the main targets of the letters, and so she has this annoying habit of writing Donna (mom) and Larry (dad), as though we have forgotten who they are. Once or twice isn’t bad, but it happens every other sentence, and it vexes me so. The same intelligence-insulting effect is at work here, and it quite honestly annoys the crap out of me. Another aggravating habit of the author’s that is along the same lines is his tendency to write something like “Kim ‘Angel’ Possible” over and over again as though we have forgotten her Matrix name already. I will point out each instance with some hopefully amusing descriptions of my reactions.

“You know that fight you had with Monkey Fist at the U.N. building?” Kazaa (Misses Possible) asked, “Well, we were among the many diplomats there.”

There it is again. Thankfully this is the last time it happens in this format. For the rest of the fic it’s in the form: First Name “Matrix Name” Last Name.

“Kim ‘Angel’ Possible”, Kim mused over her Matrix name, “I like it.”

I like it too, though it’s repetition throughout the story makes me want to drive a pencil through my ear.

Music: none

Welcome to part 4 of 23. I would just like to make a correction to my last review. I said “Mirror image #21” twice, so we’re actually up to #31. Now on with the review Chapter 4:

Overview:

Kim and Ron go to see the Oracle. There are a few references to the first time that Neo went to see her (see References), as well as the subsequent conversation he had with her in the second movie. I noticed that from this chapter on, the fic seems to combine the first two movies. It’s a nice effect, and serves to enhance the split of Neo’s personality as embodied in Kim and Ron’s different struggles. Ron’s conversation with the Oracle only mirrors the first movie in respect to the opening remarks and the cookies, but the rest of it seems to resemble their conversation in “Reloaded.” Appropriate, seeing as Ron represents the more confident part of Neo that was in that movie. Kim’s conversation parallels the first movie’s conversation much more, which is also appropriate given Kim’s similarity to Neo’s uncertainty in that movie. I love the fact that we finally learn the truth about Wade (see commentary) and having Seraph greet them in the lobby was much more fitting than would have been the blind homeless man from the original movie. I’m also thankful that there was no repeat of the Cipher incident in the original. Killing people off this early would just be exploitative, not to mention sloppy. After the conversation, Wade tells them that Monkeyfist is holding captive all of the Machine and Zion representatives (which includes Kim’s parents, but they don’t know that yet), and that Kim and Ron are the only ones who can save them. They go to meet Monkeyfist, and Ron gives a very powerful display of the abilities that he inherited from Neo. As the fight drags on, though, the Smith side takes over and Ron nearly tears Monkeyfist heart out (literally). This obviously leaves him very shaken up. All in all, great chapter.

References:

In New York City, under the fabricated blue sky, the team from the Neb II had entered the Matrix. It was in a part of the city that was run down and used up. The kind of place in a city that looked as though it needed to be bulldozed to the ground to make way for something new. All the buildings had broken windows, litter was flying everywhere, and the air all around felt muddy and polluted like a dirty lake. It was there in the center of that place, at an old apartment building, a singular, black phone began to ring. It was an old, rotary model that must have taken nearly a minute to dial a simple number. Above the outdated phone was a solitary light that shined down upon it like a spotlight on a rock star.

From the shadows came a hand that reached for the receiver, it was picked up and slowly brought it up to Morpheus’ ear. Morpheus like Ghost and the confused Ron Stoppable behind him was dressed differently than what Ron had seen before. Ghost in his casual, tie-less suit and square sunglasses, Morpheus with his alligator skin coat that was v-cut to show off his black suit shirt, and silver tie, while Ron whose suit was black with a red, button up shirt, yellow tie, and oval shaped sunglasses.

“We’re in.” Morpheus spoke into the receiver, after which he hung up the phone. He looked around, seeing who was missing and asked, “Where are Niobe and Kimberly?”

Mirror image #32

With Ron inside the Matrix, he could see, sense and feel things that were going on all around him. All he had to do was simply look and he saw it: the code of the Matrix, all that green, garbled text flowing in different directions all over the surfaces of the room, and, apparently, he could see through walls as he saw two feminine figures moving on the other side of the adjacent wall.

“They’re in the next room.” Ron reported to Morpheus, pointing towards the door that led to it. He consciously changed his sight back to real world vision with textures, colors, tints, shades, hues, and light.

Might be a nod to Superman’s x-ray vision, seeing as Ron has conscious control over it.

“Whoa…” Ron uttered as he looked out the window with Rufus climbing up onto his shoulder to look out with him.

“What is it, Ron?” Kim asked looking into the backseat.

“I used to eat there.” He pointed to a Chinese Restaurant called The New Hong Kong that passed them by.

Mirror image #33

“It simply means that the Matrix cannot tell you who you are.” Morpheus answered.

“But an Oracle can?” Kim asked.

Morpheus smiled as he recalled the same discussion between Neo and Trinity. “That…” he said, keeping his smile, “Is a little different.

Mirror image #34

“Even though none of this is real” Morpheus began, “your mind makes it real. If you are hurt inside the Matrix, you are hurt outside as well. If you are killed inside the Matrix, you die in the real world as well.”

“The body cannot live without the mind.” Ron said on impulse, then felt confused about why he said that. He then looked to Rufus who simply shrugged at him.

Mirror image #35 (though that lesson occurred immediately after the jump program in the original movie)

Morpheus walked ahead of the two teens in that relaxed stance of his with his arms behind his back. The three of them passed by the doors to a narrow foyer, which was filthy beyond belief. There was graffiti everywhere, bearing different people’s names like Neo, Trinity, Mouse, Switch, Cipher, Apoc, slogans like the end is coming, political and religious, one-liner soap-boxes like Only Jesus can save you and John 3:16 written in multi-colored fluorescence. While at one end of the foyer, across from the elevator was a small wooden bench. All around it were black bags of putrid smelling garbage. Yet sitting amongst all this garbage and filth, like a pleasant smelling eye of a rancid smelling hurricane, was a short, Asian man wearing an open, white, Kung Fu uniform shirt, circular sunglasses, and dark pants. He was just sitting there on that wooden bench, cross-legged sipping tea from a cup with the kettle sitting next to him as if his situation was as normal as could be.

The most references I’ve seen in a single paragraph. The names are those of the original crew; the graffiti is the actual graffiti from the movie; the man is Seraph, which is a better fit than the old blind man from the original.

Ron’s gazed at this man with his Matrix code-vision. He already knew that something was very different about him, yet it wasn’t confirmed until he saw the code of him. It was very different from the green code that was everywhere else. This man’s code was yellow, almost golden, and shimmering as if the man was made of sunlight. Ron’s eyes shifted back to their normal state as the man looked up at the trio entering.

Mirror image #36 (I notice that from this point on the fic seems to combine the first and second movies. It works well)

Seraph shook Ron’s hand and as he did, he felt a slight jolt. Something that he had not felt in a very long, long time; it felt conflicting. On the one hand, the presence that Seraph felt from this boy named Ron Stoppable was friendly and familiar, but at the same time it felt menacing and evil. It was the menacing and evil part that sent him into automatic defense mode. He reeled back and threw a punch at Ron’s chest.

Ron went flying backwards and smashed against the wall.

“Hey, what’d I do?” Ron asked as he got up.

Nothing was said as Seraph made his next attack on Ron. He started with a few kicks while Ron was still down. Yet, Ron felt it coming and used his Matrix-bending powers to lift himself off the ground and make a small flip over Seraph’s head. With that, Ron turned and made his attack against Seraph. The attacks between the two of them went back and forth while Kim and Morpheus simply stood by, watching the two of them. To their eyes, it seemed as if Seraph and Ron were moving at the speed of sight. For the next few minutes, the two combatants were just torsos with blurs for arms and legs until each blocked a direct attack from the other that pushed them a few feet apart. With the distance between them, Ron came back to his fighting stance.

Seraph, on the other hand, stood still for a moment. During his fight with Ron, he felt the familiarity of the previous One and, at the same time, he still felt that menacing evil that dwelt within his spirit. It was like a fetid smell that no one wants to mention.

“Good.” Seraph smiled, “I apologize, but I had to be sure.”

“Sure of what?” Ron asked very confused.

“That you are who the Oracle said you were.” Seraph answered.

“You could have just asked him.” Kim protested, “Would have saved us a lot of time.”

“No.” Seraph shook his head as he smiled, “You do not truly know someone until you have fought them.”

“Another Yoda.” Kim muttered to herself as the four of them went to the elevator.

Mirror image #37 (and, as Kim said, “Another Yoda”)

The elevator ride up to the seventh floor was a silent one. Ron was still reeling from all the déjà vu he was experiencing, the building, that man in the white Kung Fu shirt, and the elevator. He had heard a lot of times on the Discovery Channel as well as a few other sources that amnesia victims go through the same thing. Sometimes being in certain places triggers memories or feelings that he or she had been there before. Even though Ron had realized the truth about the world around him and everything about it, there were still gaps in the truth.

It’s funny. Throughout the rest of the fic the author says “Knowing Channel” (KP’s parody of the Discovery Channel), but here he lets it slip. Seeing as he refers to everything else by its actual name instead of being cautious like me by riffing on names to avoid copyright suits, I think it’s appropriate.

“I’ll tell you what I told Neo, Ron.” Morpheus began, turning to the blonde haired teen, “I can only show you the door; you’re the one that has to walk through it.”

“Do you think it’d be possible to cut back on the Yoda trip?” Kim asked, sounding very annoyed by all the metaphorical and cryptic messages.

Mirror image #38 (Kim seems to be the only one to notice the Yoda stuff)

“Not exactly what you were expecting was it?” She asked, still smiling away, “Almost ready.” She got up from the stool in front of the stove to put on a pair of oven mitts.

“Smells good, doesn’t it?” She asked, reveling in the sweet and warm aromas.

Mirror image #39 (Kim gets the other half of the exchange)

“Never mind that now.” The Oracle advised, “There are other things to worry about and don’t worry about the vase while we’re at it.”

“What vase?” Ron asked as he instinctively looked around the room. Before he knew it, his elbow had hit something. He quickly looked, and saw a blackish-green vase fall to the floor shattering into pieces, leaving water and flowers strewn all over the linoleum floor.

“That vase.” The Oracle answered Ron’s question.

Ron quickly looked from the smashed vase to the Oracle, “Oh, my bad.” He apologized quickly.

“I said don’t worry about it.” The Oracle said as she took off her yellow apron, “Looks like you’ve forgotten quite a lot since we last met. You should be feeling some major déjà vu right now, so I’m going to have to re-teach you a few things.”

“But…how’d you know about the vase?” Ron asked with the déjà vu coming from the back of his mind at full force like a rhino charging head long into his thoughts.

She smiled, bringing the cookies to a clean plate, “Oh, what’s really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?”

Mirror image #40

“I know you’ve been having weird dreams, Ron.” She said, almost sounding like a doctor with the perfect beside manner, “We’ll get to that later, but first let’s get your abilities out of the way.”

Mirror image #41 (and more mixing of the first and second movies)

“You are who you are, and that’s the important thing.” She reached over, took the plate of cookies, and held it up to Ron, “Cookie?”

The déjà vu registered once again inside Ron’s head and he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Do you know if I’m going to take one already?”

“I wouldn’t be much of an Oracle if I didn’t, now would I?” The Oracle responded.

“But, if you already know, then how can I make a choice?” Ron questioned again, feeling confusion coupled with this sense of insane déjà vu swirling inside his head.

“Because you’ve already made the choice. Now you have to try to understand it.”, The Oracle explained.

Mirror image #42 (and "Popeye" reference)

“Such a lovely young lady” The Oracle smiled, “I can see why he likes you.”

“Who?” Kim asked curiously.

“Not too bright, though.”

Mirror image #43 (Kim always has been clueless when it comes to relationships)

The Oracle looked upward and pointed to an area over Kim’s head, “Do you know what that means?” She asked.

Kim looked behind her to where the Oracle was pointing, and there above the door was a small, wooden cut out. It was a rectangular piece with dark brown, curved lines around its edge and in the center were carved and painted green letters. Kim knew what it was from the Latin class that she and Ron signed up for.

“It’s Latin.” The Oracle answered her own question.

“Nosce te ipsum.” Kim pronounced.

“Very good.” The Oracle nodded, “It means Know Thyself. I do wish that just once I wouldn’t give a good person bad news.” She signed as she shook her head slightly, “I’m afraid you’ll know exactly who he is the minute your time among the living is up, and you’ll hate yourself for not seeing it sooner to really enjoy what many men and women never get a chance to experience: true love.”

The Oracle got up and moved slowly over to one of the cabinets.

“Maybe you’ll get another chance in your next life, who knows?” She said as she brought over a small piece of candy to Kim. It was a red mint given out at restaurants, “Candy? I’d offer you a cookie, but your friend ate them all.”

Mirror image #44 (Nitpick: the sign itself is a reference to the Oracle at Delphi. The problem with this is that the original sign was written in Greek, not Latin. This is more of a nitpick with the original movie, not the fic)

Commentary:

“That voice…” The two of them uttered in unison as they looked back at the slowly opening door. The two of them already had expectations about who was fixing to come out. All their expectations were met when they saw a short, curly haired, blue clothed, African-American boy walk out and receive the tray from the young woman.

“Hm.” The boy said, “Sugar cookies! My favorite!”

“Wade?” Kim asked.

Wade looked over at Kim and Ron, who stared at him in awe for a moment. He, however, looked at them with a pleasant surprise on their face as if he was expecting the two of them. He held the tray in one hand and waved at them.

“Oh, hey guys!” He said very happily, “I wondered where you two disappeared to. So, how’s the outside?”

“Um…” Ron forced out while Kim stood beside him, “Wade. We finally get to meet you in person! Wow!”

“Yeah.” Wade agreed, “I figured it would happen sooner or later.”

“Are you the Oracle?” Ron asked, stepping back just a step.

“Me?” Wade laughed loudly, but was careful not to drop his milk and cookies, “The Oracle? No way. That’s my mom. I’m just a Search Engine.”

“A Search Engine?” Ron asked, “So that means that you’re not human, you’re a part of the Matrix.”

“Yeah, that’s about it.” Wade answered.

“Freaky.” Kim blinked.

“Super freaky.” Rufus squeaked in as he popped out of Ron’s coat pocket.

“Well,” Wade shrugged, “I guess mom wants to talk to you both, and I need to get back to work.” He turned and was about to head back into his room before he turned around to face his friends again, “Nice seeing you two, by the way; really made the day a little brighter.”

“Never thought I’d see the day when I’d meet Wade in person.” Ron said to himself.

This explains a lot. Wade can’t leave his room because he’s an exile program and he’s able to find information so fast because that’s what he’s programmed to do.

The Oracle took out the baking sheet of cookies and set them on a nearby counter, “Oh yes, Wade. Quite the prodigy; has my intuition and the Architect’s brilliance.”

I’ll leave you to figure out what that implies (winks).

“I really am sorry to have to tell you this, kiddo, but you are not who you’re supposed to be. Then again, who is nowadays?”

“What?” Ron asked, feeling the confusion twist even more in his mind and stomach like a psychological pretzel.

Kind of a “Sixth Sense” thing that you look back on and ask yourself, “Why didn’t I notice that before?” (Pardon the spoiler, but it has to do with Kim and doesn’t show up until “Shutdown”)

Ron gazed at her with his eyes widening in shock about her accuracy. It was as if she had been reading his mind or had been there in his dream. Though Ron used a little logic for once in his life: since his brain was connected to the Matrix, then maybe she was literally reading his mind.

That’s how she does it! Still doesn’t explain how she can predict the future, though.

Ron looked up at the Oracle in confusion, “Who is my guide?” He asked, “How will I find him? Or will he find me?”

“She has already found you, and you, her.” The Oracle smiled.

Ron scratched his head, “Her? Who?”

Kim, you idiot! KIM!

“That’s all I have for you right now.” The Oracle apologized to Ron, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you better news, kiddo. It is one thing I hate: giving good people bad news.”

So why doesn’t she just let somebody else give it?

“Good luck again,” Sati said before smiling sadly at Kim, “I pity you for not seeing what is before you.”

We all do, Sati, we all do.

The way that Ron was smiling at Monkey Fist made him angry, because it just seemed so arrogant and pompous, but at the same time…frightening. Yet, Monkey Fist laid aside his fears and concentrated on the fact that the boy was still a buffoon and an arch-bumbler. From his stance he bolted and jumped for Ron Stoppable; it seemed like he did it in half an instant, but while Ron was holding his stance, Monkey Fist, like the throwing stars and the monkey ninjas he sent, froze in mid-air. He tried desperately to get free out of whatever was holding him.

It’s funny that Monkeyfist would choose to try a direct assault, seeing how Ron has already used this trick with the monkey ninjas and Shuriken. The monkey never learns, I guess.

“It’s going all weird over here.” Link reported, “Last time I saw shit like this was when Neo was alive and kicking Agents’ asses, but there’s something else in the code that I remember seeing before. I can’t quite place where, though.”

Ask Morpheus. He remembered where he’d seen it in “Reloaded” (Oh, right, he’s jacked in, so he can’t. Still, it’s all too obvious that this is Smith taking over)

The fear gripped Monkey Fist like nothing he had ever experienced before. In the back of his mind, he was starting to regret the day that he ever met this boy. Looking at that smile and those mirrored sunglasses on his face, he couldn’t take anymore, but that wasn’t the worst. Ron’s fist reached back and plunged into Monkey Fist’s chest; it felt like his fingers were digging through his skin, much in the same way that bare fingers rip into the meat of fried chicken, and Monkey Fist could feel himself bleeding and gasping for air.

“What…what’s…happened…to you?” Monkey Fist wheezed as Ron’s fingers went deeper and deeper into his chest.

“Me?” Ron asked in a voice that wasn’t his at all; it sounded as if it belonged to a much older man, a more sadistic…more evil man, “I’m not the one you need to be worried about!”

See what I mean about Smith? I’m assuming that’s whose voice Ron is channeling.

Morpheus looked at them both and smiled proudly like a father looking at his children on their graduation day.

“Excellent work, you two, and now it’s time to go.”

Morpheus seems oddly unaffected by what just happened. Then again, he’s seen so much death that it probably just doesn’t faze him anymore. It’s almost as though he already knows about Ron’s dark side…

“Whoever this guide of mine is…” Ron whimpered under the covers, “I hope she’ll hurry up and…help me…”

She just offered him a bite to eat.

Music:

I suggest “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed during the fight with Monkeyfist. The lyrics seem to fit well, particularly “You’ve woken up the demon in me.”

Welcome to part 3 of 23. No lame attempts to be cool here (yet). Let’s just dive right in. Chapter Three:

Overview: This chapter details Kim and Ron’s training in a direct parody of Neo’s. This includes the “What is the Matrix” lecture, from which Kim pops, but Ron strangely doesn’t (proving again what I said about Neo’s personality being split in half), as well as the “I know kung fu” remark. Others include the sparring program, the agent program (which for some reason the author decided to put before the jump program. Just a thought. Still works well enough), and the jump program, in which Ron fails miserably but Kim passes with flying colors, which only one person has ever done on the first try (see commentary). Very nice chapter.

References:

“What are you doing to me…?” Ron asked, his throat still aching and voice still sounding wheezy.

“You’re muscles have atrophied.” Morpheus explained, “We’re rebuilding them.”

“Why do my eyes hurt?” Ron moaned.

“Because…” Morpheus said softly, “You’ve never used them before.”

Ron laid his head back down onto the operating table feeling Morpheus’ large, gentle hand patting his head. Ron realized how bald he was when that hand touched the skin of his scalp.

“Rest, Ronald.” Morpheus advised, “The answers are coming.”

Mirror image #14 (I suspect that by the time I’m done the number of mirror images will be in the 3-digit category)

Ron had awakened in a different location. It was dingy and squalid with the metal all around him rusting and showing its signs of age. The only thing that was even remotely soft was the thin mattress he was laying upon. He sat up, and saw that his clothes were very different; they were devoid of all color, just gray, oily, unclean, and torn. They looked as though they used to be oil rags that mechanics would use around the shop. As he sat up, he looked down at his arm to see something very strange; he saw a…a…plug. That was the only way to describe it; it was a black, round plug in his arm that bulged as if there was something connected to it.

He followed the black line from the plug in his arm to an IV bag that hung over his bed. It was just like the ones that were at the hospital where Kim’s mom worked. He reached out and could feel the metal of the plug underneath his skin, and as he did, he reached around the back of his head and felt another plug there. This one felt so much larger than the one in his arm. The one in his arm was the size of a quarter, while the one in the back of his head felt like the size of a half-dollar or a dollar coin.

Mirror image #15

Kim nodded her head, and, at that very instant, she felt something come from behind her. More specifically, she felt that something come up from behind her head. It felt a little like a needle at the doctor’s office, but it felt so much longer than a normal needle as it kept pushing into the base of her skull. Kim gasped as the sharp sting hit her full force and all went black again until she saw a blinding flash of white light.

The sharp sting that Kim felt in the back of her head was suddenly gone, and she opened her eyes quickly. She looked around and saw nothing but an empty, white void stretching out in every direction above and below her. It was as if she were in some kind of limbo, but she could feel solid ground beneath her feet.

Mirror image #16

“You were expecting Colin Farrell?” Ron asked as he smiled at her and pulled off his sunglasses.

To be honest, I actually was when I watched the original movie. Nice reference to the fact that Colin Farrell and Keanu Reeves are both stud muffins (did I just say that?) and kind of look alike.

“Residual Self Image, Ronald.” Morpheus stated, “It’s the mental projection of your digital self.”

Mirror image #17

“This is the Construct.” Morpheus said as he presented the white nothingness around him, “It’s our loading program. From here we can load anything from clothing, equipment, weapons, training simulations, anything we need.”

Mirror image #18 (Some of these are so obvious it’s almost not worth copying these down. Almost)

“You mean… right now… we’re inside a computer program?” Kim said, looking more shocked by the second.

“Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different; the plugs in your arms and head are gone, and your hair has changed.” Morpheus stated matter-of-factly.

“This can’t…” She stammered, “It just… it just can’t be real.”

“What is ‘real’?” Morpheus questioned like a philosopher, “How do you define ‘real’? If you are talking about what you can see, smell, feel, and taste, then ‘real’ is only electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

Mirror image #19 (also happens to be one of my favorite quotes from the original movie)

“This is the world as you know it.” Morpheus said as he turned on the television while Kim and Ron sat down to look at it. They half-expected the TV to be in black and white, but, amazingly enough, it was in full and complete color. They saw the sights of Middleton as well as sights from around the world: New York, San Francisco, Paris, London, Venice, Tokyo, and Berlin. All of them with life going on as it always, not a single worry in the world except the ones in their own little micro-cosmos.

“The world as it was at the start of the twenty-first century.” Morpheus continued as he flipped through the channels, showing the different sights within each city as if he was channel surfing. “It exists now only as a massive, world-wide, neural interactive simulation, that we call the Matrix. This is the world as it exists today…”

He changed the channel again. Kim and Ron looked in horror and disbelief at what they saw. Every city in the world that was once teeming with life and people going from home to work and back again, cars going to and from their various destinations, all of it simply lay in ruin with the sky dark and gray above them. The buildings were as black as charcoal; the windows were cracked and falling out, and not a single person could be seen anywhere. Then the channel on that old television changed, and they saw Middleton once again. Their hometown, a place that was once a verdant utopia, was like all the other cities that they saw: dark, bleak, and broken down.

Mirror image #20

“We only have bits and pieces of information. You believe that the year is 2004, when it is actually closer to 2215. I can't tell you exactly what year it is because we honestly don't know.” Morpheus said, “What we do know is that sometime in the early twenty-first century, all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to A.I.”

“A.I.?” Kim asked, “You mean Artificial Intelligence?”

Morpheus nodded, “A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines. We don’t know who struck first, us or them, but we do know that it was us that scorched the sky.” Morpheus pointed upward as if telling them that he wanted them to see something.

Kim and Ron looked up and saw clouds, black clouds like no storm that the two of them had ever seen in their entire lives. The only source of light was the sparks of lightning that would arc from one cloud to another, and even that wasn’t enough to illuminate much of anything. They looked around and saw themselves surrounded by the picture that had filled the TV.

“Welcome to the Desert of the Real.” Morpheus continued, “At the time, they were dependant upon solar energy, and it was believed that they wouldn’t be able to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun. Throughout human history, we’ve been dependent upon machines to survive.” Morpheus smirked, “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”

As the lightning sparked overhead, Kim and Ron looked back at the television and saw the screen start to turn a bright reddish pink. As it started to zoom out, they could see some kind of shape behind it as Morpheus continued his answers to their questions.

“The human body,” he said as the screen continued to zoom out, “generates more bioelectricity than a one-hundred-twenty volt battery and over twenty five thousand BTUs of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion, the machines had found all the energy that they would ever need.”

Kim and Ron looked beyond the television screen and saw a black field with thousands upon thousands of pillars with those little pods containing human infants suspended in that red-pink fluid. It reminded them both of that thing that they came out of as if they were being born in some very bizarre way.

“There are fields,” Morpheus said, his voice starting to take a very sad and frightened tone, “Endless fields where human beings are no longer born; we are grown.”

Kim and Ron saw the machines that floated above the fields, taking the little pods containing human infants into their massive bodies. It was such a surrealistic nightmare that human beings were being treated like livestock…even livestock seemed too high of a distinction. They were treated more like crops.

“For the longest time,” Morpheus reminisced about his own past; about the whole experience that Kim and Ron were having, “I wouldn’t believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes; I watched them liquefy the dead so that they could be fed intravenously to the living, and standing there facing the horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of truth.”

Everything around Kim and Ron returned to that white void that held only the chairs and that old television set. They watched as Morpheus came around with that remote control in his hand.

“What is the Matrix?” He asked again as he turned off the television, which showed a human infant with all those wire and plugs all over its body, sleeping there not realizing everything that was going on in the world around it.

“Control.” Ron picked up the answer to Morpheus’ question.

“Exactly, Ronald.” Morpheus said, “The Matrix is a computer generated dream world built by the machines to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this:” He said as he held up a small C-cell battery in front of Kim and Ron’s face and simplifying everything in such a simple gesture.

Mirror image #21

“I didn’t say it would be easy, Kimberly.” Morpheus said soothingly, “I just said it would be the truth.”

Ron tried to approach his best friend, hoping that he could comfort her in some way.

“STOP! Don’t touch me!” Kim spat, slapping Ron’s hands away from her, “I want to go home! I want to get out of here! LET ME OUT! I WANT OUT!”

Everything went black for a moment, and then Kim opened her eyes with a gasp as if she had awakened from a terrible nightmare, but then she quickly realized that it was real; ironic how the truth can be so terribly different from the dream. She tried to get out of the jack chair, but was being held down by two pairs of hands.

“Get this thing out of me!” She cried out, her voice very ragged and feeling the weight of the jack that was in the back of her head, until, at last, the jack was out of her head and she tore through the pairs of hands that held her to the chair.

“I don’t want to be here!” She wheezed, “I want to go home…” She sobbed and began to tremble as if she was having a seizure.

“She’s gonna pop!” Niobe called to Morpheus.

“Breathe, Kimberly.” Morpheus called out, “Just breathe.”

She couldn’t hold back any longer and fell on her hands and knees to the grated floor, depositing her last meal through the metal grid that lay underneath her. With that last spout, she passed out on that floor.

Mirror image #21

"I can't go back, can I?"

"I don't think so. But if you could, would you really want to?"

Mirror image #22

“Morning, guys and doll.” Link smiled as if he was about ready to serve them coffee, “Sleep good?”

Kim and Ron didn’t answer Link’s question.

“You will tonight; I guarantee you it. I’m gonna make you two STRONG!”

Mirror image #23

At his operator’s station, he was going through disks just like a little kid going through his Yu-Gi-Oh card collection trying to find that one card that they treasured over all the others.

So true (with me it was Pokémon. But that was a long time ago).

“Let’s see.” Link smiled, “The standard procedure is to go through operational programs, but that’s major boring shit…” He flipped through the disks, making the same comment about each of them, “Shit…shit…shit…shit…shit…ah, here we go…how about this?” He held up the disk to show Kim and Ron, but from where they were they couldn’t see the scratched on label that said combat training on it.

As Link loaded the disk into his station, Kim and Ron looked up to the small monitor above their heads. On it they saw a rather strange arrangement, a figure was standing in one corner and was taking different martial arts positions, in the other corner was a human brain, and at the bottom was a title.

“Ju-jitsu?” Ron asked, “We’re going to learn Ju-jitsu?”

Mirror image #24. Looking back, this scene kind of makes me miss Tank from the original movie. He was a great character, even if he did remind me too much of Elvin from “The Cosby Show” (I know you’ll be looking for it now. My mission is complete).

“Holy shit.” Kim said like a woman coming down from the high of her greatest orgasm.

“Yeah.” Ron agreed, “Where was this stuff when I needed it for school?”

“Hey Mikey, I think they like it.” Link laughed for a moment to himself, “How ‘bout some more?”

Kim sat back with a great smile on her face, “Bring it on, Link.”

“Hell yes!” Ron uttered once again as he sat back and let the déjà vu from that one sentence and the feeling of more knowledge being uploaded into his brain overtake him.

Mirror image #25

“I know Kung Fu.” He laughed as he looked up at Morpheus.

Mirror image #26

“Ms. Fashion Nightmare’s mine” Kim smirked as she popped her knuckles and her eyes set upon Niobe, “You can take Mr. Clean.”

That’s who he reminds me of!

He shook his head trying to shake off the feeling of déjà vu all over again, “Just remember: Don’t try. Do.”

“Whatever you say, Master Yoda.”

Do I even have to say it?

“You know, if you can’t beat us, you could always join us.” Ron replied smugly, but lost the smile on his face when he saw Morpheus wasn’t laughing. Ron wanted to know what he had said or done to make Morpheus look at him like that, but Niobe beat him to the punch.

That scene didn’t appear until the second movie, and I think I can see why it has that effect on Morpheus. Having Smith’s hand inside you is never pretty.

“Look around you.” Morpheus said to Ron and Kim, “There are a quarter of a million people still plugged into the Matrix. Many of which are not ready to accept the truth of the world around them. Because of the peace treaty and the sky clean-up, we are freeing close to fifty a month. Zion is now not the only human city any longer. The human race is slowly starting to repopulate the earth once again, but we are not ready to free everyone, and many of those that remain in the Matrix will probably not accept the truth so easily or at all. Some of them are so inert, so helplessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”

As Kim and Ron tried to keep up with Morpheus amongst all the busy people, Ron noticed something. It was coming out of the crowd with a radiance to it like a white light in a dark room. It became clearer to Ron when he saw it passing by; it was a beautiful woman in a red dress. She was blonde-haired and blue-eyed like Tara from the old cheerleading squad, but this woman was so much more alluring to Ron’s teenage eyes and it seemed like everything around him slowed down as she swaggered past him before melting back into the crowd of bi-chromatically dressed people.

“Ronald,” Morpheus spoke, grabbing the boy’s attention, “Were you listening to me? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?”

Ron felt stunned when Morpheus asked that. It was as if he knew what was going on in his head and so he tried to answer, “I…um…” He stuttered as he tried to look back to see if she was still there.

“Look again.” Morpheus said, pointing to what was behind him. Ron looked and saw an agent with a gun pointed at his head. Ron ducked down as Morpheus gave the next command.

“Freeze it!” He called out.

Mirror image #27

Morpheus sighed and looked wistful before he answered, “Kimberly, I have seen Agents punch through concrete walls. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. However, their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be. That goes double for you, Ronald.”

Mirror image #28

“Nothing is impossible in the Matrix, my young friends.” Morpheus smiled at Kim and Ron, “You both have to let it all go…fear…doubt…and disbelief. Free your mind.” With that last sentence, Morpheus gave himself a running start before leaping up high into the air as he made his jump all the way across the gap and landed on the other rooftop with ease as if he was a kid playing hopscotch on the sidewalk.

Mirror image #29

“This shouldn’t be too hard.” He muttered to himself, “This should be easy…ok…free my mind.”

With that affirmation, Ron made his running start. He pushed and pushed all his might into his legs as hard and fast as he could. He came to the ledge and began his jump and he felt just like an Olympic long jumper trying to get as far on the sand as possible, but the ever-present Stoppable family luck finally caught up with him. As Ron was making his jump, his belt buckle came undone and his pants slid down to his knees causing him to trip and tumble in mid air until he started to fall to the asphalt below.

“RON!” Kim cried out, running towards the edge and hoping that in some small way she could save him, “NO!” she yelled as she watched Ron fall further and faster down to the asphalt below. Then, she watched in unusual shock as Ron hit the pavement and literally sank into it until it threw him back up into the air like a rubber band before gravity caught him and brought him back down to the solid asphalt where he made a sickening ‘thud’ sound.

Mirror image #30 (and classic Ron moment)

Commentary:

The second part of the dream Ron had was about that different place and different time, that place where he could change the world around him. It felt like those things that he heard about… lucid dreams, that’s what they were called. Those dreams where a person realizes he or she is in a dream and can control everything around them. Then there was that woman, that woman with the black hair, black body suit, wonderful body, and that look in her eyes when she looked at Ron. There was even a small flash that Ron had where he was with her; she didn’t have that body suit on, and he knew that she was naked. Yet, she had her arms around him; she felt warm; there was such a soft, yellow glow everywhere and Ron felt as if he was on top of her.

It was a good dream.

I always thought those were called “wet dreams,” but that’s beside the point.

“Please, have a seat, both of you.” Morpheus asked of the teens.

“You’ve been asking us to do that a lot.” Ron observed.

I always wondered why “The Matrix” paid so much attention to whether someone was standing or sitting, and this comment proves that I’m not alone.

“Now then, are you two ready for some lessons?” He asked as if the lessons were to be likened to a day at a water park.

Ron threw his head back, tapping it lightly against the metal bulkheads of the Neb II and said with a loud sigh, “You’re telling us that we have to go to school out here?”

“I think you’ll find these lessons different than what you are accustomed to, Ronald.” Morpheus smiled, “Get dressed and follow me.”

I wish they’d work on making this a reality. That would rock.

“You’re too slow, old man.” Ron smirked, completely unaware of how fast he was truly moving. Morpheus was surprised at the speed that Ron had grasped the reality of this fabricated reality. Even Neo didn’t exactly catch on that quick. He had to have Morpheus knock him around a few times before he got the hang of things.

Then again, you have to remember that Neo was older and not as willing to accept it. Ron thinks it’s totally badical.

“She made the jump.” Link said in awe and still not believing what his eyes had told him, “No one’s ever made the jump on the first try. No one!”

“No.” Ghost disagreed with the operator, “One other person made that jump on the very first try.”

“Who?” Link asked looking up at Ghost, whose eyes were starting to water as if he was on the verge of crying.

“Trinity.” Ghost said in a low wheeze.

This explains a lot. Forgive the spoiler, but Kim is not technically the reincarnation of Trinity. That honor belongs to someone else. She still ends up with Ron, though, so don’t worry.

Music:

“Face of an Angel” –Vince Gill

Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy this one the first time I read this fic because it’s not on iTunes. I checked my mom’s old CD collection though, and I downloaded the song that way. Fits the moment well. Besides her auburn hair, the one thing that immediately struck me as beautiful about Kim was her face. Facial features are the characteristic on which I judge physical attractiveness though, so that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to those who know me. Her eyes are quite stunning as well.