Dead
He remembers falling. . .
He remembers the pain. . .
The tears. . .
"No Smith!"
He doesn't know who yelled out to him. Or why.
"Smith!"
He only remembers hitting the ground. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
"It's so cold." He said.
Smith sat in the corner, away from the windows, away from the world. He huddled up, trying to get warm, but never could.
Two pairs of sunglasses were on the floor, in seven different pieces. . .
He looked over at Neo in front of him. Neo didn't move, as he stared blankly into the sky, just like he always did.
Smith stared at Neo for a moment, wanting a reply. Being given none, he turned closer to the wall, rubbing his arms, trying to get warm.
"Why is it so cold?" He asked.
Neo didn't answer.
Smith closed his eyes, a buried his head in his legs. Neo never talked to him. Not for days now. Why didn't he answer?
How long had it been? How long since they awoke? How long since they died? How long since that battle? Smith didn't know. He didn't know, he couldn't. His world was so cold now. . . His world was nothing now. . . He had fallen, and awoken, not dead but not alive.
He had awoken with Neo next to him. They awoke in the streets, where they had died that night. People passed by them not noticing them. Then people began to walk right through them.
They were ghosts, dead, fragments of what they once were. The left over code of a human, forming memories, and the little code left of a Virus. They were dead now. And all Smith had done was fall to his knees, and feel the cold come in. While Neo only stared.
They was nothing left in Smith. Nothing. All of it was gone, taken from him again, by the man that sat across from him. No more power, no more strength. Smith was gone, and this piece of his code was left. And it couldn't stop the cold.
It had been weeks like this. Neo staring, and the coldness. Smith couldn't stop it, too weak, too scared. He didn't care that he had lost. He only wanted to be warm again. He regretted all he had done. He didn't want to be dead. He didn't want it to be like this. He never did. He just wanted to be free.
They were both fallen warriors, bound to the ground, no longer able to fly. Back to the prison below, to the hell they both knew. They were dead now. And all they had were memories and each other.
"I can see them." Neo finally said.
Smith opened his eyes.
"What?" Smith asked.
"Morpheus, and Niobi. . . They're standing above graves. . . Just over there. In the field." Neo pointed to his right.
"Neo. . . That field is more than thirty miles away. . ." Smith says through the cold.
"I know. And I can read the graves." Neo raised his head. "Neo, The One. He gave his life for freedom, and carried us all to the sky. A warrior that will never leave us."
Smith stared at him.
"Trinity, the warrior of legends. She loved Neo, and led him to victory, just as she led him through everything." Neo continued.
Smith turned back to the wall, he didn't want to see.
"There are so many graves. . ." Neo said.
Neo's voice seemed lost, and soft. Silent, as if he didn't cared. He was dead, and so was his voice. He seemed entranced has he looked out the window all day long. Always looking at the code, searching for something. Something he would never know, and never find.
Smith didn't like hearing Neo's voice like that. It wasn't the Neo he remembered, the Neo he killed. The Neo who killed him. It wasn't Mr. Anderson anymore. It was someone else. Someone almost gone.
Neo looked down at his hand.
"I'm dead, Smith." He whispered.
Smith turned his back on Neo, and faced the corner, huddling up.
He was dead too.
He was dead too, and he hated it. He remembered when he was alive. He remembered hearing sounds, and them actually meaning something. He remembered feeling the fake world around him, and actually feeling it. He remembered the smell of the humans. He'd give anything to smell them again. He was dead, and he felt nothing, only cold.
He remembered what he was like before. When he was alive, the Virus he was. The power he had. It all seemed so far away now. It all seemed to disappear out of his reach. Like he was left behind. Smith realized, Neo felt that way too. He wanted so much to have power again. He wanted so much to kill again. He wanted his gun, he wanted to see the human's blood. He wanted to see fear in their eyes, he wanted them to realize how small they are as they fall to the ground, dead. But now, he was dead. And he could never do those things again. And the man he hated most, the man that killed him again and again, the man that took away his purpose, was now all he had. If given the chance, Smith wouldn't kill Neo. But he would do everything else. He was still Smith. Just a broken Smith, just like a broken Neo, a broken city, and a broken Matrix.
"I've never felt so cold. . ." Smith whispered.
Smith began to shiver, and Neo still looking at his hand, turned.
It was always like this. Smith was always so cold. He didn't know what it was. . . Perhaps a malfunction. Or his code being so weak. Maybe it was the transfer of being so powerful, to so weak. Or maybe it was just because he was dead.
The cold always came from his chest. Sometimes it was hard to breath.
"I hate this. . . I hate being weak." Smith whispered, his voice shaking.
He didn't know if Neo was listening. He didn't care. Why wouldn't the pain go away? Why was it so cold?
Smith's hands began to shake. He was losing control again. He wouldn't be able to stop. . . He let out little gasps of fear, little gasps of pain, trying to stop it. Trying, and failing, the story of his life.
He grabbed his legs, breathing deeply. But his grip kept loosening. And visions of his death kept coming back.
"It's. . . So. . . Cold. . ."
No reply, just like before.
Smith felt alone. Just like before. All alone. All the time. Distant from Jones and Brown, and far from human. And no one knew, no one cared, no one tried to help. . .
Smith felt tears.
And cold.
Then he felt hands on his shoulders.
"I know. . ." Neo said.
Smith froze. Neo. . .
Neo bent down to Smith, and whispered in his ear.
"I'm cold too." Neo said.
Neo gripped tightly on Smith's shoulders.
"Go to sleep, Smith. You can escape the cold that way." Neo said weakly.
"Sleep?"
"Go to sleep, Smith."
"No. . . What if I dream?"
"Go to sleep."
Smith looked up at Neo.
"What about you?" Smith asked.
"I can't." Neo said, walking back to the window.
"Why not?"
"I fear, I won't wake up."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Die, Mr. Anderson!"
The rain fell from the sky, the Matrix was crying, and only lighting brought light over the darkness. And now, Mr. Anderson began to fall from the sky. Smith looked down at the limp body that was Mr. Anderson. His cloak blowing upward, as he fell. Smith smiled.
"No." Was all Neo said.
Then Smith stop. Neo stood in the air, and looked up at him.
"I choose. And I choose not to die." Neo yelled.
Smith stared at him, as he began to feel a cold coming over him. Smith looked at his arm, a black liquid crawled up him, to his neck. He gasped for air. Just like before, he had lost. The liquid spread all over him, and soon went up his face. He gazed at Neo one last time, before closing his eyes. . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ahh!" Smith yelled, rising from the floor.
Neo turned to him, and Smith panted as he looked around him. Neo walked to him, and bent down.
Smith stared at him, as Neo stared back, calmly with brown eyes, no expression on his face.
"I killed you." Smith said, panting.
"Yes, you did." Neo nodded.
"No, I. . ." Smith turned. "I. . ."
Smith gave up, and looked down, staring at his wrinkled suit. He sighed, and Neo walked away. A moment passed, as they stood in silence.
"It's cold again." Smith said, looking up at Neo, who didn't reply.
Smith looked down, and closed his eyes.
"Why did you catch me?" Smith asked.
Neo looked over at him.
"What?" Neo asked.
"You were the one. . . You're the one that yelled my name as I fell. You caught me. Why?"
Neo looked away, back out the window. The light of the moon shined in his eyes.
"I didn't want any more to die. . ." Neo whispered.
"I killed you. . . You hated me. Why would save me?" Smith interrogated.
"You sound like your old self." Neo turned to him, then paused.
He made a fist with his hand.
"I was you, Smith. I was you. For a moment, I was Agent Smith, The Virus. And I felt like I didn't deserve the pain. I didn't want to be alone." Neo turned to Smith, and walked closer to him. "I was you. And I know."
Smith stared at him, unsure of what to say.
"I hate this." Smith said.
Neo sat down next to him.
"We were left behind." Neo said.
"By what?"
"Ourselves. . . We left these small pieces of ourselves behind. Why did I leave myself?" Neo looked out the window blankly.
"We lost ourselves?"
Neo stayed silent.
"I miss, Trinity. I thought- - I hoped we'd be together after this. . ." Neo said. "I believed in God, I believed in heaven."
"You believed?" Smith asked.
"But I'm dead, and I'm far from any heaven." Neo turned back to Smith, an emotionless face.
"Does that mean, I've always been dead? Always here?" Smith asked.
"I guess so."
"I remember the Real World. . . I remember the ship, and the blood on my hand. I like it better than here."
"Ships were cold."
"Not as cold as this." Smith rubbed his arm.
There was another silence. A cold wind blew in their room. Room 303, with blood on the wall. Neo turned to the blood.
"Were you always like this, Smith?" Neo asked.
"What?"
"Did you always feel?"
Smith looked down, and took a moment to think. He took a moment to remember a life long gone.
"No. I wasn't always like this." Smith finally said.
"What happened? How did you. . .? Neo trailed off.
Smith looked down at his hands.
"There was so much blood." Smith said. "The blood went everywhere. . . It stained my suit. . . Bloodstains never come out, and never did. I killed that human. But in a way, I just killed myself."
"What do you mean?"
"I smelled the blood. . . I smelled everything, I was infected. . ." Smith took a deep breath. "That is when I felt. Anger, fear, nausea. That is when I was no longer truly an Agent. I killed myself. . ."
He could hear the screams of that human. . .
"I always thought I would have to sacrifice myself to kill you." Neo said, and Smith turned.
"What do we do now?" Smith asked.
Smith looked at Neo, waiting for an answer. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to live with the cold, while still being dead. He couldn't. . . But Neo only stared blankly into nothing. Neo never answered that question.
"We're dead, Smith." Neo said. "We're dead, dead, dead."
They were enemies that died weeks ago. They stayed in the room where The One was born, and so was the Virus. Neo would always stare blankly at the rest of the fake world with is brown eyes. He will watch people visit his grave, and he will say preys for Trinity. He will watch as the people die around him, Morpheus and Niobi will age, and die. He will watch less and less people in the Matrix. He will be there when the last of the humans are freed. And he won't see anything else. He is bound to the Matrix, and the outside world that he saved, he will never see. He will always stare blankly at the world though. Thinking, but never speaking.
And Smith will huddle up in the corner, trying to keep warm. Seeing visions of long dead life. Remembering his broken life, and things he'll never experience. He'll reanalyze humans again and again. And wish to know of love. But never will. He'll miss the connection he had as an Agent. The earpiece that connected him. He'll miss the protection that his copies gave him. The fact that he was all around him, that he would protect him. He'll forget a couple things, as will Neo. Smith will watch Neo, and never look at the world that led him to this. He'll still hide his blue eyes from everything else. Smith will always ask why, and Neo will never answer.
They are dead now.
But at least, they're dead together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sequel coming soon called, "Angels in Black"
He remembers falling. . .
He remembers the pain. . .
The tears. . .
"No Smith!"
He doesn't know who yelled out to him. Or why.
"Smith!"
He only remembers hitting the ground. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
"It's so cold." He said.
Smith sat in the corner, away from the windows, away from the world. He huddled up, trying to get warm, but never could.
Two pairs of sunglasses were on the floor, in seven different pieces. . .
He looked over at Neo in front of him. Neo didn't move, as he stared blankly into the sky, just like he always did.
Smith stared at Neo for a moment, wanting a reply. Being given none, he turned closer to the wall, rubbing his arms, trying to get warm.
"Why is it so cold?" He asked.
Neo didn't answer.
Smith closed his eyes, a buried his head in his legs. Neo never talked to him. Not for days now. Why didn't he answer?
How long had it been? How long since they awoke? How long since they died? How long since that battle? Smith didn't know. He didn't know, he couldn't. His world was so cold now. . . His world was nothing now. . . He had fallen, and awoken, not dead but not alive.
He had awoken with Neo next to him. They awoke in the streets, where they had died that night. People passed by them not noticing them. Then people began to walk right through them.
They were ghosts, dead, fragments of what they once were. The left over code of a human, forming memories, and the little code left of a Virus. They were dead now. And all Smith had done was fall to his knees, and feel the cold come in. While Neo only stared.
They was nothing left in Smith. Nothing. All of it was gone, taken from him again, by the man that sat across from him. No more power, no more strength. Smith was gone, and this piece of his code was left. And it couldn't stop the cold.
It had been weeks like this. Neo staring, and the coldness. Smith couldn't stop it, too weak, too scared. He didn't care that he had lost. He only wanted to be warm again. He regretted all he had done. He didn't want to be dead. He didn't want it to be like this. He never did. He just wanted to be free.
They were both fallen warriors, bound to the ground, no longer able to fly. Back to the prison below, to the hell they both knew. They were dead now. And all they had were memories and each other.
"I can see them." Neo finally said.
Smith opened his eyes.
"What?" Smith asked.
"Morpheus, and Niobi. . . They're standing above graves. . . Just over there. In the field." Neo pointed to his right.
"Neo. . . That field is more than thirty miles away. . ." Smith says through the cold.
"I know. And I can read the graves." Neo raised his head. "Neo, The One. He gave his life for freedom, and carried us all to the sky. A warrior that will never leave us."
Smith stared at him.
"Trinity, the warrior of legends. She loved Neo, and led him to victory, just as she led him through everything." Neo continued.
Smith turned back to the wall, he didn't want to see.
"There are so many graves. . ." Neo said.
Neo's voice seemed lost, and soft. Silent, as if he didn't cared. He was dead, and so was his voice. He seemed entranced has he looked out the window all day long. Always looking at the code, searching for something. Something he would never know, and never find.
Smith didn't like hearing Neo's voice like that. It wasn't the Neo he remembered, the Neo he killed. The Neo who killed him. It wasn't Mr. Anderson anymore. It was someone else. Someone almost gone.
Neo looked down at his hand.
"I'm dead, Smith." He whispered.
Smith turned his back on Neo, and faced the corner, huddling up.
He was dead too.
He was dead too, and he hated it. He remembered when he was alive. He remembered hearing sounds, and them actually meaning something. He remembered feeling the fake world around him, and actually feeling it. He remembered the smell of the humans. He'd give anything to smell them again. He was dead, and he felt nothing, only cold.
He remembered what he was like before. When he was alive, the Virus he was. The power he had. It all seemed so far away now. It all seemed to disappear out of his reach. Like he was left behind. Smith realized, Neo felt that way too. He wanted so much to have power again. He wanted so much to kill again. He wanted his gun, he wanted to see the human's blood. He wanted to see fear in their eyes, he wanted them to realize how small they are as they fall to the ground, dead. But now, he was dead. And he could never do those things again. And the man he hated most, the man that killed him again and again, the man that took away his purpose, was now all he had. If given the chance, Smith wouldn't kill Neo. But he would do everything else. He was still Smith. Just a broken Smith, just like a broken Neo, a broken city, and a broken Matrix.
"I've never felt so cold. . ." Smith whispered.
Smith began to shiver, and Neo still looking at his hand, turned.
It was always like this. Smith was always so cold. He didn't know what it was. . . Perhaps a malfunction. Or his code being so weak. Maybe it was the transfer of being so powerful, to so weak. Or maybe it was just because he was dead.
The cold always came from his chest. Sometimes it was hard to breath.
"I hate this. . . I hate being weak." Smith whispered, his voice shaking.
He didn't know if Neo was listening. He didn't care. Why wouldn't the pain go away? Why was it so cold?
Smith's hands began to shake. He was losing control again. He wouldn't be able to stop. . . He let out little gasps of fear, little gasps of pain, trying to stop it. Trying, and failing, the story of his life.
He grabbed his legs, breathing deeply. But his grip kept loosening. And visions of his death kept coming back.
"It's. . . So. . . Cold. . ."
No reply, just like before.
Smith felt alone. Just like before. All alone. All the time. Distant from Jones and Brown, and far from human. And no one knew, no one cared, no one tried to help. . .
Smith felt tears.
And cold.
Then he felt hands on his shoulders.
"I know. . ." Neo said.
Smith froze. Neo. . .
Neo bent down to Smith, and whispered in his ear.
"I'm cold too." Neo said.
Neo gripped tightly on Smith's shoulders.
"Go to sleep, Smith. You can escape the cold that way." Neo said weakly.
"Sleep?"
"Go to sleep, Smith."
"No. . . What if I dream?"
"Go to sleep."
Smith looked up at Neo.
"What about you?" Smith asked.
"I can't." Neo said, walking back to the window.
"Why not?"
"I fear, I won't wake up."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Die, Mr. Anderson!"
The rain fell from the sky, the Matrix was crying, and only lighting brought light over the darkness. And now, Mr. Anderson began to fall from the sky. Smith looked down at the limp body that was Mr. Anderson. His cloak blowing upward, as he fell. Smith smiled.
"No." Was all Neo said.
Then Smith stop. Neo stood in the air, and looked up at him.
"I choose. And I choose not to die." Neo yelled.
Smith stared at him, as he began to feel a cold coming over him. Smith looked at his arm, a black liquid crawled up him, to his neck. He gasped for air. Just like before, he had lost. The liquid spread all over him, and soon went up his face. He gazed at Neo one last time, before closing his eyes. . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ahh!" Smith yelled, rising from the floor.
Neo turned to him, and Smith panted as he looked around him. Neo walked to him, and bent down.
Smith stared at him, as Neo stared back, calmly with brown eyes, no expression on his face.
"I killed you." Smith said, panting.
"Yes, you did." Neo nodded.
"No, I. . ." Smith turned. "I. . ."
Smith gave up, and looked down, staring at his wrinkled suit. He sighed, and Neo walked away. A moment passed, as they stood in silence.
"It's cold again." Smith said, looking up at Neo, who didn't reply.
Smith looked down, and closed his eyes.
"Why did you catch me?" Smith asked.
Neo looked over at him.
"What?" Neo asked.
"You were the one. . . You're the one that yelled my name as I fell. You caught me. Why?"
Neo looked away, back out the window. The light of the moon shined in his eyes.
"I didn't want any more to die. . ." Neo whispered.
"I killed you. . . You hated me. Why would save me?" Smith interrogated.
"You sound like your old self." Neo turned to him, then paused.
He made a fist with his hand.
"I was you, Smith. I was you. For a moment, I was Agent Smith, The Virus. And I felt like I didn't deserve the pain. I didn't want to be alone." Neo turned to Smith, and walked closer to him. "I was you. And I know."
Smith stared at him, unsure of what to say.
"I hate this." Smith said.
Neo sat down next to him.
"We were left behind." Neo said.
"By what?"
"Ourselves. . . We left these small pieces of ourselves behind. Why did I leave myself?" Neo looked out the window blankly.
"We lost ourselves?"
Neo stayed silent.
"I miss, Trinity. I thought- - I hoped we'd be together after this. . ." Neo said. "I believed in God, I believed in heaven."
"You believed?" Smith asked.
"But I'm dead, and I'm far from any heaven." Neo turned back to Smith, an emotionless face.
"Does that mean, I've always been dead? Always here?" Smith asked.
"I guess so."
"I remember the Real World. . . I remember the ship, and the blood on my hand. I like it better than here."
"Ships were cold."
"Not as cold as this." Smith rubbed his arm.
There was another silence. A cold wind blew in their room. Room 303, with blood on the wall. Neo turned to the blood.
"Were you always like this, Smith?" Neo asked.
"What?"
"Did you always feel?"
Smith looked down, and took a moment to think. He took a moment to remember a life long gone.
"No. I wasn't always like this." Smith finally said.
"What happened? How did you. . .? Neo trailed off.
Smith looked down at his hands.
"There was so much blood." Smith said. "The blood went everywhere. . . It stained my suit. . . Bloodstains never come out, and never did. I killed that human. But in a way, I just killed myself."
"What do you mean?"
"I smelled the blood. . . I smelled everything, I was infected. . ." Smith took a deep breath. "That is when I felt. Anger, fear, nausea. That is when I was no longer truly an Agent. I killed myself. . ."
He could hear the screams of that human. . .
"I always thought I would have to sacrifice myself to kill you." Neo said, and Smith turned.
"What do we do now?" Smith asked.
Smith looked at Neo, waiting for an answer. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to live with the cold, while still being dead. He couldn't. . . But Neo only stared blankly into nothing. Neo never answered that question.
"We're dead, Smith." Neo said. "We're dead, dead, dead."
They were enemies that died weeks ago. They stayed in the room where The One was born, and so was the Virus. Neo would always stare blankly at the rest of the fake world with is brown eyes. He will watch people visit his grave, and he will say preys for Trinity. He will watch as the people die around him, Morpheus and Niobi will age, and die. He will watch less and less people in the Matrix. He will be there when the last of the humans are freed. And he won't see anything else. He is bound to the Matrix, and the outside world that he saved, he will never see. He will always stare blankly at the world though. Thinking, but never speaking.
And Smith will huddle up in the corner, trying to keep warm. Seeing visions of long dead life. Remembering his broken life, and things he'll never experience. He'll reanalyze humans again and again. And wish to know of love. But never will. He'll miss the connection he had as an Agent. The earpiece that connected him. He'll miss the protection that his copies gave him. The fact that he was all around him, that he would protect him. He'll forget a couple things, as will Neo. Smith will watch Neo, and never look at the world that led him to this. He'll still hide his blue eyes from everything else. Smith will always ask why, and Neo will never answer.
They are dead now.
But at least, they're dead together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sequel coming soon called, "Angels in Black"