A Prison Within a Prison

[smith_matrix]

TAG: MORPHEUS
CONTINUED FROM HERE
Smith and the twelve other Agents had "borrowed" four NYPD police cars from outside the Grand Central Terminal and driven through downtown, all sirens blaring. Although the call from Agent Pace had caught him slightly off guard, Agent Smith had been waiting and preparing for that moment for two weeks now. And as

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[short_green_tie]

Morpheus looked back towards the ground so that Smith would not be able to so easily read his expression. He did not move even to test the strength of his bonds. There was no point at the moment; all he would do is prove to himself the futility in attempting to break them. Even if he did break them, there was no escape at the moment and they would be replaced with yet stronger bonds for his efforts. No, it would be entirely counterproductive to test them now. It would not be his belief in their inability to break that stopped him later. If anything, he would focus his belief on their capacity to be broken while he had the chance before any rescue attempts made it to him.

As he stared pointedly at the ground concentrating on just that, he overheard Smith mention the workstation and syringe. Despite his best mental strength, he flinched at that just a bit. Having survived that torture once before, he knew just how bad it could be. Before he had been resigned to death; the hope to the contrary this time would make it infinitely worse.

"You mean you do not know?" His words were almost muttered. Of course he knew Smith didn't know.

Morpheus slowly, pointedly looked up at Smith again and met his eyes for several moments. "What was exactly meant to happen happened."

[smith_matrix]

"What do you mean by..." Smith yelled at Morpheus before freezing in mid-sentence. He felt as if the very words pronounced by Morpheus had carried information themselves, as if the story of Zion's survival was somewhere in the code that made up the sound of these words. His mouth still open, his eyes frantically searching Morpheus' face for any hint of a lie or a deception, Smith took a step back.

They've made peace...

The mere thought of such an incongruous concept could hardly make sense for Smith. But it explained why the Agents didn't try to capture or even noticed Morpheus earlier that day, in the Grand Central Terminal. It explained why everything in the Matrix code was so different, geared towards peaceful cohabitation rather than warmongering. It explained why the Agent programme seemed to have been re-written with a defensive rather than aggressive, proactive purpose. It explained why his own code, although similar to the new Agent programme code, was not allowed to access Zero One's mainframe, which carefully filtered and blocked any access attempt made by old or modified code deemed a security risk.

"Peace?!" Smith screamed, his voice echoing loudly inside the vault. "Do you mean that I am stuck in this rotting, putrid piece of flesh because of some idiotic truce?"

Morpheus' passive expression added to Smith's infuriation but he needed to know. He needed to hear Morpheus confirm it.

"Answer me!!"

[short_green_tie]

Although Morpheus was in no position to be pleased, he derived what pleasure that he could derive from Smith's reaction and realization. It was the sweet savoring of victory over the program that had plagued he and his crew for so long that he had missed the first time around. Now Smith knew of his inescapable plight. If Morpheus were to die, at least he would die almost happy having witnessed this revelation of Smith's.

And yet, Smith knew too quickly. A chill went down his spine at that realization. Morpheus had alluded to the idea, true, but the blanks had all been filled in by the Agent with startling speed and accuracy. How? If Smith could figure that out from the most cryptic of responses from Morpheus, what else would the Agent gather from anything Morpheus might say?

With this caution in mind, Morpheus stared down Smith and answered with but a single syllable, "Yes."

[smith_matrix]

Morpheus' monosyllabic answer fell on Smith like a ton of bricks. The relief of finally knowing the overarching explanation behind this new but weak Matrix immediately made way to the frustration of feeling beaten. For Smith, peace meant defeat.

His last bit of memory from the previous Matrix was of the crater in which Mr. Anderson and himself had fallen during an intense fight. He remembered the heavy rain, as well as Mr. Anderson's stubbornness in delaying what was inevitable. Smith was about to eliminate him, and finally put an end to the despicable existence of both mankind and machines, freeing himself from this oppressing prison. But something had gone wrong in the following thirty seconds.

He beat me!

Lost in his raging thoughts, Smith had not noticed the few Agents entering the room with some heavy electronic equipment which they seemed to carry with impressive ease. Another one followed, bringing a single syringe on a tray.

The equipment brought in by the Agents looked very similar to the equipment used by the rebels to perform the complex deconnection process of other humans. However, this equipment seemed much more advanced and in mint condition, as if it had never served. The Agents took only a few minutes to plug everything together and left the vault, under Smith's silent gaze. Trying to calm down again, he then took a deep breath.

"All this is inconsequential, however," he started with a composed tone of voice. "You see, when a weak regime is in place, it is destined to be overthrown. It is a rule both inside and outside this world. It is inevitable."

As he kept talking, Smith picked up the syringe and pensively examined the purple-coloured liquid inside the glass compartment.

"This new Matrix is weak. It is despicable. To have allowed such a disgrace is unforgivable. But I am here to rectify the situation, and you are here to help me."

[short_green_tie]

Morpheus continued to stare down Smith, watching the play of emotions on his face. Before, when he had first met the Agent, he had told him that they all looked the same to him. Now he had to admit, Smith did not. Smith's features were different from the others in that that they displayed real emotion. It was everything that was the worst in humanity, but it was there in this program. That was what made Smith so dangerous.

Morpheus looked up at the syringe, but more importantly at the equipment. His poker face had been pristine up until this point, but now it was shattered by the shock and horror of the moment. Smith had the deconnection equipment. Shit. How in the hell had he gotten his hands on that?! It was the sacred tool of the rebels! No Agent had ever been able to get their hands on it. What could this mean for a program that had already escaped the Matrix using such equipment? How did it apply to Morpheus?

"You cannot hope to overthrow it, Smith. Not by yourself and not with me. The peace is greater than you or I. It was destiny. I don't care what you do to me...the peace will thrive. I guarantee you that."

His eyes never left the equipment, however. The words he uttered were strong, defiant, but he felt a silent terror at the sight of the deconnection equipment. It's presence here could only mean the most terrible of things for Morpheus. With all of his being he attempted to will Trinity and possibly Karolina and the young girl to hurry.

[smith_matrix]

"Everything that has a beginning has an end, Morpheus," Smith said stoically. "And that is also true for this insipid, senseless truce of yours."

The electronic equipment and computer screens were now all running and operational, emitting a low buzzing sound. It had taken Agent Smith quite some time to replicate the precise configuration of the rebels' devices. But the most important element, the piece of the puzzle that Agents had failed, in the previous Matrix, to successfully replicate, was the Disconnection Protocol, a complex software programme that Smith had finally acquired recently.

Without notice, Smith grabbed Morpheus' head with one hand and plunged the needle of the syringe at the base of his neck, immediately injecting its content into Morpheus' blood stream. He then approached closer to Morpheus' ear, whispering:

"You and I both know that this syringe and this drug are not real. But trust me, its effects can be extremely convincing."

Smith needed Morpheus' mind to relax and not resist the upcoming procedure. Within two minutes, Morpheus' cerebral cortex would receive a heavy dose of gamma aminobutyric acid, short-circuiting the natural effect of its dopamine. Calmly, Agent Smith then started placing electrodes on various parts of Morpheus' bald scalp.

"I'm glad that you and I will do this together, Morpheus," said Smith, ironically. "It wouldn't have had the same meaning, the same flavour with your friend Trinity. And I would have had to waste time shaving her head..."

[short_green_tie]

"AAAHHH!"

Morpheus tensed and yelled out as his body and indeed his very essence immediately and instinctively reacted to resist the drug. Although his reaction looked the same as the last time Smith had him in such a position, the internal effects were already quite different. Before, the resistance had been all Morpheus. Now, the instinct was derived from the Oracle programming. Immediately, defenses prepped themselves within Morpheus's mind to keep the Oracle Program inviolate. At the moment, all Smith would see would be Morpheus's mind as the Oracle programming attempted to partition itself. Unfortunately, however, complete partitioning was impossible since Morpheus himself was the Oracle, so if Smith hacked deep enough he would get something completely forbidden to him and that would be Bad.

Morpheus grit his teeth, ironically focussing on exactly what Smith mentioned in order to resist himself and be the first line of defense in front of the Oracle program. The drug was not real. It was something designed to physically simulate the preparation for the hacking process. It was no more real than the shackles. Not real. Not real. This became his mantra in his head.

He stared hard at the floor, but managed to force out some warning, as futile as it was for Smith. "You don't...want to do this...Smith..."

Already there were reactions within the Matrix, although they went unknown to Smith and Morpheus in the cell. The Matrix faintly distended in places like a very, very diluted version of Neo's flexing his control. A few people and objects fuzzed in and out quickly like random glitches and any who happened to notice merely thought their vision went blurry for a moment. People outside could feel the effects, and already programs were hard at work covering the strange effects up by creating a sudden surge of stormclouds. They gathered quickly overhead, darkening like painful bruises against the sky. Lightning flashed and thunder sounded. People hurriedly rushed to get inside or put up umbrellas as the first heavy drops began to fall.

Meanwhile, the Agents not in the room with Smith began to investigate the mysterious anomalies. The integrity of the Matrix was possibly in danger. As they communicated with one another, even the Agents with Smith quietly left, leaving Smith to manage the Morpheus situation as he was already doing. Smith himself wasn't privy to the information that anything was amiss, however, because his earpiece was once again inconveniently (for him) out...

[smith_matrix]

Monitoring Morpheus' cerebral activity on one of the screens, Smith cursed internally at the drug taking longer than expected to counteract Morpheus' dopamine. Hearing his warning, Smith angrily grabbed Morpheus' head with one hand and pushed it further down against the chair's headrest.

"In a few seconds, my friend, this computer here and the Disconnection Protocol it contains will connect you directly to the mainframe computer, buried deep inside Zero One," Smith explained, almost whispering to Morpheus' ear. "Beyond the firewalls. Beyond the filters. Beyond the layers of security. And when you get connected to the mainframe..."

Smith applied two fingers of his free hand on Morpheus' arm, who could instantly felt a cold and intense pressure, as if Smith's fingers were about to sink into his flesh.

"... that's when I take over and finish the business, infiltrating the mainframe and gaining instant access to the Matrix core code. From then, it will only be a matter of time before I take full control over this new but weak and despicable Matrix, redesigning the rules as I will see fit.

I'm gonna rule your world!"

The smile that had slowly appeared on Smith's face faded when Agent Miller ran back inside the vault.

"Someone called from his cell phone a few minutes ago," started Agent Miller, "and there are inconsistencies being reported within various programmes in several locations."

Smith closed his eyes, removing his hands from Morpheus, and breathed deeply while re-inserting his earpiece.

"All units on alert: expect a rebel rescue team to show up and try to muscle its way in. Shoot on sight: take no chance, and no prisoner."

He then turned to Agent Miller.

"Don't worry about these anomalies: I'm taking care of those as we speak. Now close and lock the vault door: I want us sealed in at once."

As the twelve Agents and twenty National Guard soldiers deployed throughout the basement, staircases and lobby, as well as immediately outside the building, Smith, Morpheus and the self-powered electronic equipment found themselves locked inside the fortified vault.

[short_green_tie]

Morpheus knew true horror for perhaps the first time in his life. Smith was absolutely insane. Before he had meant to destroy everything, but now he meant to control it. The program was power mad and he was going to probably ironically reach his first goal more quickly because of his current goal. Even Morpheus didn't quite know what was going on inside him as it was a failsafe program connected to the Oracle but not part of it. It was there to protect the Zero One mainframe, which Smith had just admitted to targetting. And even though Morpheus didn't know what precisely that failsafe was (it was beyond his level of clearance), he knew that it meant BAD things if Smith set it off.

"You..will never..rule this..world."

He yelled out, feeling the pain of his mental faculties being pushed to their limits and beyond as the Oracle program forced the resistance. It was excrutiating for the human mind to endure.

"You see...you are destined...to lose."

Morpheus's teeth ground at a level of volume just below that of Smith's when the Agent ground his teeth, and that was fairly impressive. Streaks of white-hot pain shot through his head as the chemicals were combatted, but it was a futile fight. It could only delay the inevitable, but delay was what he needed if he was to be rescued and this process aborted.

"Stop this..."

The lights flickered a little as the code for the electricity blurred in and out.

"...Madness..."

[smith_matrix]

CONTINUES HERE