© Anna-Karin 2004
Author's disclaimer: The Lord of The Rings belong to the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema. The Matrix trilogy belong to the Wachowski brothers and the Warner Brothers. I am not making any money out of this, and no copyright infringement intended.
The world had not seen such a fight in three millennia. And last time anyone in the free world had seen anything like it, it had been on a movie screen. Now it was happening inside the machine-created world called the Matrix, and thousands were watching.
Too bad none of them were on Neo's side.
Well, they couldn't be since they were all copies of Smith.
Neo, savior of the world, had come to a conclusion about his nemesis. Smith was a sadistic, voyeuristic, exhibitionistic bastard.
As Neo dodged a blow to his jaw, the calm voice in the back of his head expounded on that conclusion. Smith enjoyed beating him up, therefore he was a sadist. Then he enjoyed watching himself beating the shit out of Neo, therefore he was a voyeur. Finally, he liked being watched beating him up, and that made him an exhibiotinist.
There was no other way to explain that big grin on the ex-agent's face.
Neo got back to his feet after catching a blow to his stomach. Smith was waiting for his next move. He tried to calm himself, to free his mind and just...
A cell phone signal chirped.
Neo recognized that tune. It was the one he had on his cell phone. Confused he patted his pockets to see if someone was calling him.
"It's mine", said Smith.
Neo stared at him. Wasn't it enough with that connection they shared? Did they even have to have the same taste in music? "Who could possibly be calling now?" he asked.
Not deigning to answer that question, Smith flipped open the phone and answered.
"Smith here," he spoke into the cell phone.
Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Isildur's heir, and heir to the throne of Gondor, was feeling less than regal. He was standing outside the Black Gates with his little army, and knew that there were a very slim chance of survival. Most likely they would all die, but then they'd die knowing that they had fought the good fight.
Now the small army made up of surviving Gondorian and Rohirrim soldiers was gambling all they had to get Sauron's eye fixed on them. If the Eye looked at them, and at them only, it would not look elsewhere, Aragorn thought. And that would give the Ringbearer a chance to destroy the One Ring. At least that was the plan.
Warily he regarded the black walls, and knew that the army behind those gates would be many times larger than his own. But his army would fight. They would fight for a free Middle-Earth.
Aragorn looked behind him on the little army. He saw the two unlikely friends Gimli, a dwarf, and Legolas, an elf. Next to them he saw the Halflings, Peregrin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck. He knew that one of them had saved the son of the Steward of Gondor, while the other had helped killing the witch-king of Angmar. So much bravery in such small frames. He closed his eyes and thought of the other two Halflings, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. Such small folks, in that dark land of Mordor, and all he could do was to try and distract the Eye away from them.
Then he heard the distant sound of hooves beating against the hard ground. Everyone turned
their heads to see who it was that was coming. A small army in the distance coming closer.
"It's Elrond!", exclaimed Legolas.
And indeed it was.
Elrond Peredhil was clad in an old-fashioned Elven armor. Aragorn recognized it. He'd seen it hanging on a stand in a corner of the library of Rivendell. It was green and golden, making its wearer stand apart from his army, whose armor were in muted shades of copper and gray.
The ruler of Rivendell stepped down from his horse. His small cavallery were doing the same thing. Aragorn noted that some of the elven riders had to share horses. He also saw that those horses seemed to carry an extra load of arrows as wall as spare bows. It clicked suddenly. The one steering the horse would not have to shoot arrows at the same time, while the archer could concentrate on his part. Quite clever. Aragorn wondered why he hadn't seen anything like that before.
"Estel," said Elrond, pulling Aragorn out of his musings.
"Lord Elrond, you are most welcome."
"I realized an army of ghosts would not be enough, even though they did help in saving Gondor,"
said Elrond.
"How did you know that? News don't travel that fast through Middle-Earth."
"Not by foot or on horse-back, but by bird. The ravens of the Lonely Mountain have been most
helpful. Besides, I decided to stay around, to see what would happen."
"Oh... I didn't know the Elves and the ravens had an agreement."
"We don't, but Corcomellon do."
"Who?", Aragorn said, feeling very confused. He knew that Elrond had many friends from many
distant parts of Middle-Earth, but he'd never heard of Corcomellon before. Besides, didn't
Corcomellon translate as 'raven-friend'? That was an odd name for an Elf, if nothing else.
Instead of replying Elrond pulled out a strange black box from his left sleeve. Aragorn opened
his mouth to ask what that thing was, but Elrond stopped him. Then the Elf slid the lid off the
box, revealing strange shining buttons inside. Mystified, Aragorn stared as Elrond punched the
buttons in a sequence he couldn't fathom the meaning of. Even stranger were the beeping noises
the buttons made when punched. Then Elrond put the strange box to his ear.
"Answer, damnit," he muttered to himself.
"What kind of magic is this?" Aragorn asked. Behind him everyone else was asking themselves the
same thing.
"Sssh," said Elrond. "Ah, finally!"
Aragorn thought he actually heard some sort of voice emanating from the box.
"Smith here," it said.
"Oh, hello, Elrond. Sorry, can't you call back later? ...No? ...Must I come now? I'm in the middle of something important here. ...The anomaly, yes. ...Alright. Alright. I'm coming. Just wait a few seconds. Call you... Yes, yes."
Smith closed his cell phone and turned to Neo.
"I'm sorry. I have to help a friend. Now, can you just wait here, and we'll continue later?"
Neo blinked.
"Whoa", he said. "I'm not gonna believe this! You get a phone call from a friend and suddenly
you gonna leave?" Then something else struck Neo. "You have friends?"
"That's it", said the agent with a smug smile.
"No. No," said Neo, getting more and more upset. "You can not just go! Trinity died so that I
could go to Zero-One and talk to the machines. I have to save Zion, and you are just leaving
just like that!"
"Yes."
"No way!"
"Now", said Smith, using the tone you use when reasoning with very difficult children, "I have
to go, but I promise to come back to kill you."
"No."
"Come now. I promise to come back. I'm no human. I keep my promises."
Neo didn't even notice the insult to his race, but just shook his head. Then suddenly he got
still, as if he just had gotten a good idea. And that was what had happened.
"You're not leaving, unless I can come too", he said.
"Very well."
Smith put up his hand, and waved. Seven big, black ravens emerged from out of thin air. They settled down on Smith's shoulders and arms. Neo stared at the ravens. Was this another part of Smith's coding, this ability to summon ravens out of nowhere?
"Are we going home?", one of the ravens asked.
"Yes, we are."
Neo stared at them. Going home?
Then Neo noted something odd about the Smith-clones lining the street. It seemed as if they were melting away. No, he corrected himself, as if an outer layer was melting away. And so it was indeed. The thousands of identical Smiths melted away, face, shades, suits and all. And the true faces of the people assimilated by Smith emerged, eyes closed, as if they were asleep.
Neo recognized the Seraph, and Sati, and the Oracle among those that had been freed.
The melted outer layer, Smith's coding Neo supposed, were flowing in silvery black streams on the asphalt. Neo moved as to not stand in the code now flowing against Smith. Then he forgot about that as he watched the black code being absorbed into Smith's shoes.
"I do not want to leave anything behind me", said Smith. "I clean up after myself."
And then the sky cleared, and the sun began to shine. The freed people began to move, as if they had just woken up from a strange mass hallucination.
Then Smith picked up his cell phone and punched in a number. He took Neo's hand, and spoke into the phone.
"Elrond, get me an exit."
Neo and Smith half walked, half fell in a white place. Neo thought of a rabbit-hole. Then he saw that there were no walls anywhere. As far as he could see all was white with small wisps of smoke here and there.
"Where are we?" Neo asked Smith. He knew that he sounded like an over-inquisitive child, but he
just had to know. Besides, all this white made him slightly queasy.
"The Nowhere", Smith answered.
"What is that?" Neo asked
"Where we are now."
"I mean, where are we, and what is this place?" Neo clarified.
"We are traveling between worlds. This is the empty place keeping the worlds apart."
Neo had always thought that the void between the universes, if there was such a thing, would be black and full of stars. This smoky white emptiness felt like a let-down.
"Where are we going?" Neo asked.
"Middle-Earth."
"What is that?"
"You'll see."
Neo didn't know what to make of the smug, amused note in Smith's usual flat, deep voice.
Elrond was standing still, holding the cell phone in front of him. Everyone watched him closely, wary of the magic he might work. Then, suddenly, there was a shifting in the air. A flash of light, which temporarily blinded everybody around. Then, when their sight returned to them they saw two strange men standing in front of Elrond. Seven big ravens were flying around the strangers. So that was how Corcomellon had gotten his name, Aragorn thought. Now, which one was he?
The men were both dressed in black. The clothes they wore were of a strange cut, totally alien to Middle-Earth. And then there was the strange black things that they wore in front of their eyes. Aragorn thought that maybe it was their eyes, but then one of the strangers took of the things. Aragorn didn't believe his eyes.
"He looks just like Elrond!" Pippin exclaimed.
Elrond shook hands with his double.
"Corcomellon", said Elrond, "welcome back."
"Thank you, milord", said the man who looked like Elrond.
Then Elrond turned to Aragorn. "This is Corcomellon", he said to him.
"This is Aragorn", he told Corcomellon. "He's Isildur's heir."
The other stranger coughed.
Elrond turned to him. "Who is this person?" he asked Corcomellon.
"The anomaly I told you about, milord."
"Indeed. Why is he with you?"
"He insisted."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Well, he could could be useful."
"Hey", said the Anomaly, "don't talk about me as if I wasn't here!"
"What's going on?" asked Aragorn.
"Those two are from a different world", said Elrond, "Corcomellon owes me a favor. I decided
that it was time for him to pay that debt."
"But who are they?" Aragorn asked.
"I will explain, afterwards."
"You better do that", said Aragorn.
The Anomaly nodded in agreement.
Then Elrond opened his saddle-bag and pulled out a strange black thing. This he handed over to Corcomellon, together with a few smaller things. Corcomellon inserted one of the smaller things into the big black thing, and pocketed the rest. Aragorn wanted to ask what that was, but decided to wait until after the battle, if there were such a thing as 'afterwards' this day.
The Black Gates opened. An army of thousands of Orcs walked out, headed by Sauron's Mouth. There were a few words exchanged on both sides. Then Aragorn's army charged. He himself was the first, leading his men into the fray, closely followed by the hobbits. The rest of the army quickly overtook them and ran past them.
Elrond's horsemen did a good job of keeping Sauron's army at bay, allowing Aragorn's forces to fight back the enemy. But soon they ran out of arrows, and began using their swords. The Elven horsemen leaped with their steeds into the fray, uncaring of the pikes of the enemy.
The two strangers, Corcomellon and the Anomaly, fought in a very foreign manner. Corcomellon aimed the black thing at his opponents, and then it said 'bang', and then the orc laid on the ground, dead. The Anomaly had fought with his fists at first, but soon he picked up a sword. Then he fought the same way the other warriors did. Though he kicked more than anyone Aragorn ever had seen.
The ravens that had come with Corcomellon were doing their part in the fighting by protecting his back, pecking at the face, eyes and hands of anyone who came too close with a bladed weapon in his hands. Unfortunately they didn't know the difference between Man and Orc, but treated everyone the same.
The battle lasted for what felt like hours. Aragorn swore that perhaps a whole day had passed, but when he looked up at the sky, the sun had barely moved. He felt tired, and yet he kept on fighting. There was nothing else to do. And it was the same for the others. On both sides. The realization came to Aragorn quite suddenly. They were all fighting for their very existence.
And then he saw Gandalf stand still, holding a moth in his hands.
"The eagles are coming!" Gandalf shouted. Everyone looked up. At first they saw only the Fell beasts. Then they noticed the small black dots at the far horizon, coming closer, getting bigger, until they saw that it was indeed the eagles.
The eagles went for the Nazgūls on the Fell beasts, wrestling with them in the air. Some of the fighters on the ground stopped to watch the aerial battle. Among them were the Anomaly. He stared at the eagles and the beasts in the air as if he had never seen anything like it before. And when Aragorn thought about it, he probably never had.
Then the Anomaly was hit over the head by an Orc with a mallet, and fell face first into the mud of the battlefield. As Aragorn watched, Corcomellon ran over to the fallen stranger.
Then the world shook and fell apart.
The Black Tower began to shake. The Eye of Sauron looked around in panic as the Nazgūls were directed to Mount Doom. Aragorn hoped they would be too late. He hoped that Frodo would have enough time to destroy the One Ring.
Then the ground of the battlefield outside the Black Gates began to tremble, as three millennia of erosion finally hit a land that had been kept together by the sheer will of The Eye.
Corcomellon picked up the Anomaly and ran away from the landslide, together with the other fighters. The ravens flew away, to the Lonely Mountain.
The Mainframe felt the two programs disappear from the Matrix. One had been the residual self- image of Thomas Anderson, also known as Neo. The other one had been the Virus, once known as agent Smith. The programs and the people of the Matrix had been returned to normal.
The Matrix had not been reset. That had never happened before. The Anomaly had always returned to the source, and the Matrix had always been reset. Now it seemed as if both the bugs of the system had left.
The virus searching programs could not not find any piece of code left behind by the Virus. There was no trace of Neo either. Perhaps they had deleted themselves. The Mainframe considered this. Yes. That was what had happened.
It was still a new situation for the Architect and the Oracle. The Architect wondered if this should count as a new Matrix, the seventh. The oracle wondered where Neo and agent Smith had gone. She and the Seraph looked everywhere, but to no avail.
In the end they decided to rewrite Matrix once more, and this time there would be no bugs or anomalies. It would be a world full of enough small irritants, that the humans still plugged in would not care about the bigger picture. The resistance would have a tougher time in this new Matrix. Even if there would be no war, nor any agents chasing the rebels.
Once this decision was made there was the question of Neo's body. It was still plugged into the Matrix. It was still living, but there was no-one inside. After a few days of negotiations between Zion and Zero-One concerning Neo's fate, it was decided that it should be brought to Zion, and treated there. Neo's body was unplugged and put on a stretcher. Sentinels carried it through the tunnels down to Zion.
Morpheus walked down the corridors of the main hospital of Zion. Each turn, each stair, took him closer to "Death's ward." This part of the hospital was called so because it was there the dying people were brought. If they couldn't be saved by any means, and their condition were fatal, they were brought here to get cared for until they died. It was here Neo's body lay, in a respirator.
Morpheus had walked this path many times before, to see friends and crewmates perish, either from wounds ot disease. But habit didn't make the walk any easier. Today, almost a week after Neo's return to Zion, Morpheus was going to make a tough decision. His heart felt like someone held it in a hard grip, and breathing without sobbing was getting more and more difficult with each step. This was the only choice he could make, and he wished that someone else could make that choice. But it was his duty, and his alone, to make that choice.
Now he was standing in front of the doors to the ward. He hoped that they would be locked, but when he got close enough, they opened with a gentle noise. He closed his eyes and stepped inside.
Too soon he was standing in Neo's room. He sat down in a chair in a corner and looked at the man in the respirator. Neo's skin was a sickly yellow color, and his hair unkempt. His nose and mouth were covered by a artificial respiration mask. From what little Morpheus could see of his face, he looked peaceful. The rest of Neo were covered with a heavy green army blanket over a white sheet. The man was so small under those covers. He'd never been big to begin with, but now he looked even slighter than before.
Morpheus had talked with Niobe, the Kid and Hamann about this, and they had all given him the same advice: let Neo go.
The doctors had told him that Neo was brain dead, that the lights were on but nobody was home. They had also said that the breathing aid was the only thing keeping Neo alive.
He knew that someone else needed the machine more than Neo did. Someone with better chances of survival than Neo.
But he didn't want to make the decision to pull the plug. Not now. Not yet. Not ever.
In the next room Morpheus could hear quiet sobbing. Apparently the old woman lying there had passed away. Then he heard the sound of heavy boots against the stone floor of the corridor. Shortly afterwards he heard a quiet conversation, the voices too low for him to make out any words. Then more sobbing.
He knew that the old woman had refused life support, preferring to die outside a machine. She'd been freed from the Matrix almost sixty years ago, and didn't want to be inside a machine again. She had made her choice.
The old woman had had a full life. She had been a resistance fighter, a mother, a grandmother, and in the end a great-grandmother. She had no regrets, and knew that she would live on in the memory of her children and grandchildren.
Neo, too, had fulfilled his destiny. He had achieved the peace between Man and Machine. There was nothing left for him to do. Maintaining the peace was a task for other people. But they needed Neo as a figurehead, a martyr to the cause, the one who sacrificed himself for the peace. They needed a monument, the idea of Neo as a triumphant liberator. They did not need this slight, barely alive person. And he was dead anyway.
Morpheus made his decision, with tears running down his face.
Neo woke up. His head, his whole body hurt. He lay still, his eyes closed as he listened to the sounds of people around him. Horses neighed, and there were the tchunk of metal against wood. He could hear people talk, some softly, others loudly. But he couldn't understand a single word. He felt a little exposed when he thought that he was naked underneath the covers. Then he amended that to almost naked, for he was wearing what he assumed was a pair of underwear.
Cautiously he opened his eyes and saw that he was lying inside a tent. He sat up and took a look at his new surroundings. The walls of the tent were covered with woven wall hangings in light gray and green tones. Neo thought he could make out a motif if he looked more closely. He did so and found that it was of flying ravens. The floor was covered with straw mats, finely woven in an intricate star pattern.
Slowly Neo rose from his bed, mindful of the ache in his muscles. When he finally was standing on the floor, he stretched, and winced when his joints popped and creaked like an unoiled door.
His body had never ached like this in the Matrix, or at least not since he was freed. And then he realized that somehow his residual self-image had managed to make the transition from one world to another. Now, he wondered, was this world real, like the Real world back home, or was it like the Matrix? Well, it was the kind of thought that could make you go mad, if you dwelled on it too much and too often. He let it go.
When he had finished stretching, he looked around for his clothes. Then he noted what kind of underwear he was wearing. It was a kind of breeches, he thought, with a drawstring waist, and wide loose legs. It was very alien to his sense of style and fashion. After a while of pondering, he concluded that those things were called braies.
In a corner, on top of a chest, Neo found a pile of clothing. And on top of the clothing, weighed down with a sliver brooch in the shape of a flying raven, was a message, written on a kind of paper Neo had never seen before. "We are not in Kansas anymore," he said to himself.
Then he read the message. 'Mr. Anderson, here are some clothing you may wear. You own clothes had been taken to laundering, and it may be a few days before you get them back. This is my tent, graciously given to me by Lord Elrond, who is also a highly competent healer. You should get these clothes on before he comes by to check on you. Smith, also known as Corcomellon.'
Bemused, Neo put on the clothes, and found that apart from being a bit too long, they fit him perfectly. He rolled up the sleeves of the tunic, and put on the strange trousers, before putting on the socks and the boots. Then he put on the sleeveless overtunic, and found that it was decorated with flying ravens embroidered along the edges. Neo began to sense a pattern. Eventually he put on the cloak and fastened it over the shoulder with the brooch. He was sure he looked good in it, even if there were no mirrors around to confirm that.
Suddenly Neo heard a rustle by the entrance to the tent. He turned around and stood face to face with Smith. For a moment he tensed, bracing himself for the mockery he knew would come from the ex-agent's mouth. Then he realized that it wasn't Smith. Smith didn't have long hair, or pointy ears. But the stranger had the same stern face.
For a brief moment Neo thought that he was a guest at a Star Trek convention. Then he recalled the battle of yesterday. This man, or whatever he was, had been someone high in the ranks, if he remembered correctly.
"I'm Elrond," said the stranger.
Elrond entered the tent. Neo was unsure of how to behave so he stood in the middle of the room, while Elrond sat down on one of the storage chests. The elf lord motioned to him to sit down, and he did so, on the floor. He saw that a corner of Elrond's mouth quirked upwards, so he guessed that he had amused him somehow. Neo hoped that this was a good sign, because he was tired of fighting. But he was prepared to fight if Elrond attacked him.
"Who are you?" Elrond asked.
"Neo," said Neo.
"Corcomellon refers to you as Imin Adanion, which translates as 'the one, son of man.' Have you
any explanation for this?"
"No."
"He says that you are his opposite, his twin, and that you two are destined to fight in order
to renew your world."
"That's true, but there's been others before me. At least five, but I don't know how many of
them that actually fought Smith."
There was a long silence. Neo studied the Elf's face as he tried to overcome his instinctive wariness of this person who looked just like Smith. It was hard. Even the scowl was pure Smith.
"I see... Well, Corcomellon tells me that you do not know how he's described your world to me,
so he asked me to tell you."
"Why can't he tell me himself?"
"Because he is busy making a place for himself here in Arda."
"What is Arda?"
Elrond studied Neo's face for a long moment, and when he had convinced himself that the young man was indeed not joking with him, he launched into a long lecture on the history and geography of Middle-Earth.
After the lecture Neo felt like someone had tried to squeeze the entire Encyclopedia Britannica into his skull. Elrond had told him the history of the world, from the moment the Valar had created it until yesterday's battle.
"Wow... I mean, wow... You know... Eh... Epic... Yeah," said Neo as he digested the information. And still he had the feeling that what Elrond had told him was only the condensed version. Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits were new concepts to him, and to be informed that fairy tale creatures did exist, was a chock. Not to mention magical rings and wizards.
A couple of servants came in with refreshments on silver trays. They set up a folding table, and brought a stool for Neo. Then they set the table and left.
"But how come Smith got here?" Neo asked, once he had recovered, and eaten a little.
"That is a strange story," said Elrond, between sips from a goblet.
Neo shrugged. Everything about Smith was strange to him. This just happened to be the hot
chocolate sauce on the ice cream sundae.
"I had a twin brother once, long ago. His name was Elros. We were both half-elven, and when we
reached our majority, we had to make a choice. To continue as immortal, or to become mortal,
like Man. I choose immortality, and he chose death," said Elrond and stared into the goblet.
"Huh?" said Neo.
"Mortals live very short lives to an immortal. They grow up, bloom and die. Elros died after
just five centuries."
"That's five hundred years. That's a long life to me," said Neo.
"And very short to me. I've seen almost three ages of Arda."
"How long time is that?"
"Seven thousand years, give or take a few centuries."
Neo's eyes widened.
"Once," Elrond continued without caring about Neo's chocked expression, "early in the third age, this age which we are seeing the end of, by the way, I went hunting in the forest around Imladris. My dogs caught a scent and went for it, but it was not a deer they had found, but a man. A man badly wounded, almost as if someone had tried to rip him apart. Over his eyes were a strange black thing. I think it's called shades. In his hands was a strange thing. Later he told me it was called a firearm, and that this particular firearm was a Desert Eagle.
I immediately took him to my house, and there I healed him. When I had washed away the blood on his face, and the swelling had gone down, I found that he looked just like my brother. For a brief moment I thought that my brother had been returned to me, but when he opened his mouth and spoke I found that I was wrong. He merely looked like my brother. Still, he did become a good friend.
He told me, once he had figured out how, about his world. He told me it was a desolate place, with an eternally clouded sky. Mankind in your world had crated man-made beings to serve them, and had given them enough cleverness to be able to think for themselves. These beings whished to be treated equal with Man, but Mankind did not want that, and a war broke out.
In the end, Mankind was defeated. The Machines created a dream weave to keep Mankind in a deep sleep. Everyone sleeps, but in their dreams they live the usual lives of Man in your world. They are born asleep, and live their lives sleeping, and die, never waking. Corcomellon told me that he was a guard. His duty was to keep the Sleepers from waking up, because sometimes people woke up, and found themselves in a strange world. And then those people would try to wake up other people. This dream weave must get renewed every once in a while, and for this purpose an anomaly was created, one who with its mind could control the events inside the dream weave. And this anomaly must battle a guard, Corcomellon, and in this way cause the dream weave to renew itself.
I recall that when I first heard him tell me this story, I thought that he and this anomaly, you, were some sorts of seasonal gods."
Neo stared at him.
Elrond caught the stare and continued with the story, "There are, in some lore, stories of how summer has to battle winter in order for the seasons to turn, and the earth to grow anew. Without this seasonal battle there would be no new growth and no harvest."
Neo thought of how the people of Zion had carried small offerings to him, in the hope that he could watch over their loved ones. Maybe Elrond was right, and he was some sort of god. But then, he was only a god inside the Matrix. Here, in Middle-Earth, he was just a human.
"Corcomellon," Elrond continued, "returned four times, and every time he was badly wounded. Last time he told me he was getting tired of being beaten, and that he had decided to change a few things. He left a cell phone behind, having taught me how to use it, and his firearm together with some bullets. He told me to call him if I needed help. And yesterday I needed help, so I called him. And he came. And he brought you."
Neo opened his mouth to tell Elrond his side of the story but found to his consternation that everything he said, beginning with the word 'computer' and on to 'power stations' were totally incomprehensible to the Elf lord. He realized why Smith had needed to think about how to tell Elrond about the Matrix.
In this strange place, the only one who could understand Neo was his own enemy.
Neo spent the rest of the day walking around in the camp. He had a lot to think about after Elrond's history lesson. He saw the horsemen of Rohan tending to their horses, and observed the recurring horse motif everywhere on their weapons, helmets and tents. Sometimes he heard bits and pieces of talk of the white lady of Rohan, lady Eowyn who was now recuperating in Gondor, and who had killed the witch-king of Angmar. He could not be killed by any man, but a woman had done it. Neo heard the reverence in the voices of the hardened warriors, and wondered if people back in Zion would talk of Trinity in the same way.
Trinity with the dark hair and wise eyes. Trinity with the slick, black rubber outfit inside the Matrix, and faded woven clothes in the Neb. Trinity with the plugs going over her arms, legs and back. Trinity, whom he would never see again. Neo's breath hitch, and his eyes went misty. He looked around and found a quiet corner between two tents, belonging to Gondor soldiers, and hid behind a crate. Once he had sunk down he allowed himself to cry.
Afterwards he had an awful headache and had to go back to Smith's tent.
Smith was there, of course, and Neo did expect something along the lines of 'cry-baby' from him. The silence and the clay mug of cold water was a nice surprise. When Neo had slept some, he thanked Smith, who looked pleasantly surprised at the thank-you.
Smith looked different without his black two-piece suit and his shades. Here, in Middle-Earth, he looked just like any other human. Neo noted for the very first time that Smith had auburn hair, and that his eyes were a very intense shade of blue. He also saw that the ex-Agent's mouth was very expressive. If anyone wanted a clue to what Smith thought, Neo mused when sipping the water, one should just look at his mouth.
Neo continued his exploration of the camp, and soon felt bold enough to check the surrounding plains. One day he noted, for the first time, that there was a huge white object on the horizon. He had thought at first that it was just a cloud, but then he had seen that it did not move across the sky like a proper cloud should do. When he asked a Gondorian soldier what it was, he was informed that it was the city of Minas Tirith, the oldest city in Middle-Earth, also known as the White City.
Neo wondered if he'd get to see it anytime soon. It looked so unreal from this distance, and he wanted to touch the walls of Minas Tirith to make sure it was real stone and mortar.
During his walks Neo also heard about the the Nine, the Brotherhood of the Ring, who had been sent out to destroy the One Ring. Their names were mentioned with awe over and over again, and their adventures were already sung in ballads around the camp fires. The soldiers of Gondor and the warriors of Rohan, who had met the Nine, were asked to tell about them, and then to repeat the stories.
And so Neo, just by hanging around and listening quietly, learned about most of the events of the last year in Middle-Earth. He also learned that Aragorn, son of Arathorn, was still at the camp, waiting for a sign. When Neo asked Smith about that sign, the agent told him that it was to be a sign that Aragorn indeed was the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. When Neo asked what the sign was, Smith could only shrug and admit that he didn't know. Afterwards Neo felt a little surprised that it was so easy to talk with Smith, once they were out of the Matrix.
One day, a week after Neo's and Smith's arrival to Middle-Earth, two members of the Brotherhood of the Ring visited Aragorn at the camp.
Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas of Mirkwood made an odd couple. One was short and square in body, and practical of mind. The other was lithe and slender, and with a mind to equal the body. The whole camp rushed to see them pass by. Many of the men stared at the Elf and shook their heads. How could someone like that, so like a boy, have done all the things they had been told he had done? And don't talk about the dwarf. Someone as short as that, was it really anyone to fear? A few of the men began to voice those thoughts, but was quickly silenced by the more sensible members of the crowd. The odd pair just walked on, past the crowd to the king's tent.
Neo himself only watched, and saw how the Dwarf and the Elf walked close to each other. Almost as if they were holding hands. But just almost. Their arms touched, but not their hands.
The odd couple made their way to Aragorn's tent, and Neo followed them at a distance. He did not dare to follow them inside, but waited outside. He didn't know why he stayed outside, but he waited.
The first stars began to shine on the dark sky, but there was still a red sliver at the horizon. Legolas and Gimli left the tent with many greetings and good-byes. They had not walked many paces before Neo joined them.
"Hello", Neo began tentatively. "I'm Imin Adanion", he introduced himself, using the name Smith
had given him.
Gimli nodded in greeting, while Legolas introduced himself.
"I've heard of you", said Legolas. "You are that anomaly lord Elrond told us about. He visited
us a couple of days ago, in Gondor, and spoke of two strangers from another world. Quite
fascinating really. It is you and the other man, Corcomellon, I think?"
"Yes", said Neo, "and you are Legolas and Gimli, members of the Brotherhood of the Ring."
"Yes", said Gimli, and contributed to the conversation for the first time.
"I wonder", said Neo, "I've heard so much about the bad feelings between Dwarf and Elf. And I've
heard that it's a miracle that you get along so well..."
"Yes?" said Legolas.
"How did you do that?" asked Neo. "The two of you becoming friends?" he clarified.
Legolas and Gimli looked at each other. It was like a silent conversation was taking place between the two men. Neo waited for their answer. If what he had heard about them was true, then they perhaps could help him getting answers on a few questions about the relationship between Man and Machine. And on how to become friends with someone so unlike oneself as Legolas was to Gimli, and Neo was to Smith.
"We don't know. I think we got used to one other, and began to see something we could like in
each other", said Legolas.
Gimli nodded in agreement. Then he cleared his throat.
"Time. Time to see those things. Patience too. The will to see past the prissy Elf", said Gimli.
"Or dirt-digging greedy Dwarf", Legolas added. "It has to be there."
"What?" asked Neo.
"Well", said Legolas, "there has to be something in the other, that one sees in oneself and
one has to be willing to see it, in the other." It was clear that Legolas wasn't too used to
talk about these things. Gimli kept silent.
Neo thanked them for their answers. They parted ways. Legolas and Gimli had decided to ride back to Gondor, and to camp somewhere along the way. Neo walked back to his tent. He needed to do some thinking, and then he'd talk with Smith.
There was a very good reason for Neo to want to become friends with Smith; the agent was the only one who knew him in this world, the only one who would understand at least a little of all the strange things Neo was sure he was saying and doing on a daily basis. The only one who was not a stranger to him. Neo hoped that Smith would feel the same way.
But could such a thing happen?, Neo asked himself. Man and Machine had been at war ever since God-knows-when. Were there any common ground between them, anything they had in common. Smith was a program, designed to fight the rebels. Neo was a human, fighting the machines.
Then Neo began to think of his life before he chose the red pill. He'd been sleeping. He'd lived inside a machine, a machine that kept him fed and warm. And somehow he had powers over the machines. They stopped when he put up his hand, and inside the Matrix he could fly. He was a human, but with machine-like qualities. The realization stunned him for a while. And while he tried to get his head around this new thought, which he knew to be true, or at least highly possible, he was standing still in the main street of the camp.
Slowly he came to his senses and began to walk. If Neo was a Man-Machine, then Smith, who had feelings, or at least something like it, who could smile and show sympathy, was a Machine with human-like qualities. That must be a very confusing position, at least for an agent.
Neo knew he felt confused about himself.
Perhaps that could be a starting point, Neo said to himself as he arrived to Smith's tent.
Then he stepped inside. Now it was bed-time, and tomorrow he had a intrapersonal man-machine truce to negotiate.
Neo woke up the next morning with a sense of purpose. First he wondered why he felt so good, but then he remembered the decision he had made the day before. As he lay in his bed, his mind walked from one thing to another, until he wondered where Smith slept. He hadn't bothered with thinking about that, as his bed was the only one he saw, when he was awake. He'd thought that Smith slept elsewhere, but hadn't tried to find out where exactly.
Now, however, he heard a soft snore from the other side of the tent. Sitting up in bed, he realized that it was very early in the morning. He'd woken up at least two hours earlier than usual. And Smith was lying in a plain wooden fold-up bed, the kind that could be folded up and put in a chest during the day. Well, Neo thought, one mystery solved.
Smiling smugly to himself, he laid back down on his bed, and decided to rest until Smith woke up. It felt good to feel clever for once.
When Smith woke, Neo sat up in the bed, so that the first thing he saw would be him.
"Good morning", said Neo with a sunny smile.
"Good morning", was Smith's answer, his voice blurry from sleep.
Then they were silent, unsure of how to continue.
"Early up to-day?" asked Smith after a long moment of silence.
"Yes", said Neo. "Are you always up this early?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I have much to do."
"What are you doing then?"
"Ensuring my place in this world."
"What? I mean, what do you mean?"
Smith was silent for a moment.
"Lord Elrond has made me a member of his family, an honorary cousin, so to say. Currently I'm
acquainting myself with the current geopolitical events, and the underlying history of those
events."
"Why?"
"So that I can function as an advisor to his sons when he leaves for the Western Lands."
Neo thought about that.
"Aren't his sons going with him?" he asked eventually.
"No. They have chosen to be mortal and to stay in Middle-Earth."
Neo recalled what Lord Elrond had said about his brother choosing to die. Had his sons chosen to
die as well, as the Elf lord saw it?
"Poor Lord Elrond", Neo said.
"Yes. All of his children have chosen to stay behind".
They thought about Lord Elrond for a while. Then Neo broke the silence.
"I'd like to be your friend, if you don't mind," Neo said and berated himself for sounding so
awkward.
Smith looked at him, searching for any sign of ridicule in his face.
"Why not? It would be good not having to continue our fight here. Do you want me as a friend?"
"Yes," said Neo, relieved that it went so smoothly. "I didn't think it would be that easy," he
admitted.
"Everything is easy, once one has put one's mind to actually going through with it," said Smith
with a grin.
"That's true," laughed Neo.
As the days passed, Smith and Neo drew up the lines of what they called their friendship. What they could talk about, as well as what ought to be left alone for later, or never, were considered and stitched into the framework of their relationship. Some of those things were discussed while others simply came about, like the way Smith would leave a jug of water and a small bowl for Neo in the mornings, and Neo would make Smith's fold-up bed in the evenings. They never spoke about those particular things, but accepted them from each other as tokens of friendship.
One evening, shortly after Aragorn had found the little mallorn sapling, Smith told Neo of his first visit to Middle-Earth.
"The first time I fell through the Nowhere", Smith said, "I had been blown apart in a hallway
by the first anomaly. That was about three thousand years ago."
"Is the Matrix that old?" exclaimed Neo.
"Yes, it is. Three thousand and five hundred years old."
"Wow."
"Well, I somehow picked myself together. How, I do not know. And I ended up in a forest in an
other world. I was lying under a tree, trying to figure out if I was still inside the Matrix,
or if I was somewhere else. For a while I played with the thought that perhaps I was inside one
of the Architects smaller, private projects on the side. He has those, you know.
Then I heard the dogs bark. I tried to call for help since I had no desire to be torn apart by
dogs. That is when I noticed that I was wounded. I was bleeding from a cut in my
belly, and my lungs were hurt too. And then the pain came. I had never been in pain before, so
at first I did not know what it was, and then all my systems closed down due to the overload of
that particular sensation."
"You fainted."
"Yes. When I woke up again, I was in a hospital. Or what passes for a hospital in this world.
I was healed, and needed only a long rest, according to the healer apprentice, who kept staring
at me the whole time. Then I met Lord Elrond and understood why the boy had stared at me. I
thought at first that someone had made a copy of me. He on the other hand thought I was his
twin brother. It didn't take long to convince him that I was not. And then I realized that this
place was a parallel universe."
"Wow."
"Not exactly the word I would use, but appropriate nonetheless. After I had processed that
insight I began to familiarize myself with my host and his world."
"So you like it here. Why did you return to the Matrix then?"
"I am coming to that", said Smith impatiently, "something pulled me back, not physically, but
mentally, as if I had forgotten something important. And how I found my way back to the Matrix,
I don't know. When I came back, I returned to the source and was restarted as agent Smith. The
next four times I was destroyed by your predecessors, I did as I had done the first time, only
that last time, the fifth time I was to Middle-Earth, I left my cell phone, my gun and some
cartridges with Lord Elrond. The sixth time I was destroyed, by you, I decided to hang around
the Matrix, to see what I could do differently. I didn't go to Middle-Earth, and I didn't
return to the source. Instead I, quite unexpectedly, became a virus. You know the rest."
Neo nodded.
"Do you feel like you should go back to the Matrix?" he asked.
"No", said Smith, "so what ever I did this time, or didn't, it was apparently the right thing
to do. I'm out of the loop so to say."
"Congratulations", said Neo.
"Thanks. Do you feel as if you should go back?"
"No, not much. Not as if I have anything to do, more like I would like to see what happened
after we left."
"Will you stay over the coronation?" asked Smith after a moment of silence.
"Yes. I'd like to see all those people that I've heard so much about. I've met Leoglas and Gimli
but not the others, except for Aragorn, of course. The Hobbits are said to look like children.
Do they really look like that?"
"I've seen them once, archers sent to fight in a war long ago, on our side I think. They were
small, but they had a good aim, and were of some help."
The coronation was a huge event. People from all over Middle-Earth came to Minas Tirith to witness the new king ascend the throne that had been empty for so long. The White City had been cleaned up as much as possible, but there was still ruins and piles of rubble in parts of the city.
The lower levels were almost razed to the ground, but the rebuilding of homes and workshops had begun. Among the new houses and the larger ruins were small huts of wood and stone that was housing the homeless. A blacksmith was working away at a temporary smithy and the sound of iron hitting steel was heard among the din of other noises from a city that was rising from the ashes.
Neo and Smith arrived to Gondor with lord Elrond, as members of his entourage, a week before the coronation. Masquerading as a lowly courtier gave Neo a perfect opportunity to witness history being made, without being noticed. Smith on the other hand was introduced to the diplomats and the ambassadors as a distant relative from the northern parts of Middle-Earth.
Everyone noted that lord Elrond and Smith looked alike, and a few came to their own conclusions about that. And after a few hours the rumor mill was working hard. The next day Aragorn had to ask lord Elrond if it was true that Corcomellon was his illegitimate son, as the rumors had said. The Elf told Aragorn the whole story about Corcomellon's earlier visits and about the Dream Weave world. The king of Gondor was very surprised to hear that there were other worlds out there. A few days later he admitted to having had nightmares, after hearing Elrond's story, about falling off the face of the world, and landing in a huge carpet full of sleeping people.
Om the day of the coronation, the two strangers from an another world observed the event from the furthest back of the crowd. Nobody noticed them as their clothing was not as shiny and bright as the ones the Elves wore. Besides, they were human, and it was the elves everybody stared at. Neo asked questions in a soft voice and Smith answered as well as he could.
"Who is that old guy in white?" Neo asked. "He in the white dress who put the crown on Aragorn's
head."
"That's Gandalf the white", Smith replied.
"Who's that chick?"
"Which one?"
"That one, the one with the weird crown and the green dress."
"That's Arwen."
"Wow! She's gorgeous."
"Don't ever let Aragorn hear that. He knows how to handle a sword. And it is his fiancée."
"Elrond don't look too happy though."
"No. He is giving up his daughter after all."
"Yes."
"..."
"Where are the Hobbits?"
"Over there."
"I see no hobbits. Just four kids."
"..."
"Oh!"
"..."
"They are so tiny."
"..."
"Which one is Frodo?"
"Why?"
"I've heard a lot about him. In the camp."
"See the one with hark hair and huge eyes. No not that one, *that* one."
"Oh! He's cute!"
"Don't let Samwise Gamgee hear that."
"Which one is that? And why?"
"See the chubby one. That's him. And he's a loyal servant to Frodo Baggins. And very
protective."
"Don't look like a danger to me."
"Then you have never heard tales of how he defeated a mountain troll with just a frying pan."
"..."
"Looks can be deceiving."
"No kidding."
Then the conversation broke off as the whole crowd bowed to the four small Hobbits. Neo and Smith bowed as well, but from the corner of his eye Neo could see the small beings looking around, with a mix of embarrassment and pride in their eyes. He knew the feeling. He'd felt the same in Zion, every time people bowed to him.
The coronation festivities lasted for days, and Neo took the chance to explore Minas Tirith. He walked the streets of the White City, from one level to the next. Every once in a while he touched the walls to make sure they were real. The enormous cliff that jutted out from the mountain behind, parting the city in two halves, was a spectacular sight from the plains, but Neo found that it was an obstacle in his exploration of the streets. But the stairs, and the streets connecting the levels were a great help, he thought. Somehow it reminded him of Zion. It was also built in levels but with elevators connecting the different part of the city, instead of steep streets and stairs.
Neo saw children playing in the piles of broken stones, as their parents repaired the damage, and rebuild the city. The children in their somber clothes, specked with dust and dirt made him think of the children of Zion. Were they playing among the ruins on the surface of the earth under a scorched sky? He hoped so. That would mean that no sentinels were chasing them, and that would mean that it was peace between Man and Machine.
Suddenly, as he was watching the children, he felt as if something squeezed his heart. He almost lost his breath at the pain, but then the sensation eased and he could breathe again. He knew this feeling.
That evening Neo told Smith that he had to go back to the Matrix.
Both Smith and Elrond accepted Neo's decision to return to the Matrix without much fuss.
"I have to go back", Neo explained, "to see if there is peace now."
"And if there is not?" asked Elrond.
"Then I'll decide what to do."
Smith coughed.
"I think you have succeeded", he said, "I don't fell the urge to return that I have had during
my previous times here in Middle-Earth."
"I want to be sure though", said Neo.
Smith nodded.
"I guess I'll have to lend you my cell phone", he said.
"Huh?"
"My cell phone. The one I used to take us here."
"Oh."
Smith showed Neo which number to call.
"But", said Neo, "How can this cell phone take me to the Matrix? Doesn't there have to be
someone to receive the call?"
"There is a line", said Smith, "that you never found. It goes straight to the back hallways of
the Matrix. I put it there so that I could go between Middle-Earth and the Matrix."
"Wow." Neo was impressed.
"The Matrix isn't immune against manipulation, if you know how to circumvent the firewalls."
Smith sounded very smug.
"And if I want to return?"
"Then you call this number." Smith showed Neo the number. "Lord Elrond will punch in a number on
his phone to enable you to find you way through the Nowhere."
Neo felt torn about leaving Middle-Earth. On one hand he was curious about how his friends in the real world fared, but on the other hand he wanted to explore this new strange world, where he was just a human among others. He was dressed in the clothes he wore when he arrived to Middle-Earth, more then four months ago. He was wearing his shades. And he was standing in the middle of the throne room in the royal palace of Minas Tirith.
The Brotherhood of the Ring had gathered together with Elrond, Smith and most of the royal court to watch something that had only been seen before in the world of the Dream Weave, the Matrix. Namely how a person could use a tiny black thing to disappear into thin air, and then reappear elsewhere.
Neo looked around at all the people. Elves, Humans, Dwarves and Hobbits, all looking back at him. Then he saw Smith. Smith looked different now when he was no longer wearing the agent outfit. He looked human, in the best sense of the word. No scowl, nor smirk. No, just a faint smile, and perhaps, but Neo might just have imagined it, a tiny hint of sadness in his eyes. Perhaps he'll miss me, Neo thought and felt rather pleased, though he didn't know why.
Then, in the spur of the moment, he walked over to Smith and kissed him lightly on the nose.
The he got back to the middle of the throne room, dialed the number to the Matrix on the cell phone, and disappeared. The last thing he saw before entering the Nowhere was Smith's face, with an expression that was somewhere between a scowl and a smile.
When Neo got out of the Nowhere he found himself in the familiar white corridor with doors on both sides. He was standing next to an old-fashioned payphone with the receiver in his hand. The cell phone was in his other hand. he put it in his pocket and opened the nearest door.
The door lead the the playground where the Seraph had lead Neo to meet the Oracle. Nothing had changed, he thought. There was the bench where the Oracle had sat and told him about the prophecy, and there was the graffiti on the walls. He sat down on the bench to think of what he was going to do next. Suddenly he heard slow cautious steps against the asphalt. He turned his head, confident that he could meet any challenge.
It was the Oracle. She hadn't changed since the last time they had met. But the stunned
expression was one Neo had never seen on her face before.
"Neo, you're dead!" she said.
The playground was silent. No noises of children, no sounds of engines, not even the jingle- jingle from an ice-cream car. 'Neo, you are dead'. That was the words of the Oracle, and Neo wondered if that was a prediction.
The kind, old, black woman and the young white man sat on the bench, looking at each other with
a mutual mix of confusion and surprise.
"Is that a prophecy?" Neo asked eventually.
"No. You are dead. They brought your body to Zion, kept it alive for as long as they could and
then, when it was apparent that you could not be saved, pulled the plug."
"What? I don't get it. What did you say?"
It was not like the Oracle to speak so plainly, without any hint of a riddle in her words.
"You are dead, or at least your body is."
"How?"
"After your final battle with the Virus neither of you could be found. The Seraph and I searched
everywhere. But we couldn't find either of you. And now you have returned. It's been a year."
"What?"
"..."
"I've only been away for six months!"
The Oracle asked Neo to tell the whole story, which Neo did. When he was done, there was a long
moment of silence. Then the Oracle told Neo how things were in Zion and how he had died.
"Morpheus has been grieving for you", said the Oracle. "He was the one who made the decision to
pull the plug."
Neo nodded. Poor Morpheus, he thought.
"Are there peace?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Good", said Neo. "Are the children of Zion playing among the ruins of the 'desert of the
real'?"
The confused look on the Oracle's face gave him the answer, and he felt a little sad.
"The children of Minas Tirith are. That's why I asked."
"No, they are not. The surface is too dangerous, even without the sentinels."
"How do you know this?"
"Morpheus visits me every once in a while. He tells me the news."
"I'd like to see him."
The Oracle regarded him in silence.
"I don't think that it'd be wise."
"Why not?"
The oracle sighed.
"He has accepted that you are dead. And he is finally recovering from his grief. It would be a
blow to him to realize that not only are you not dead, he has killed your body."
Neo considered this, and after having turned that thought over and over in his head, he found
that the Oracle was right.
"Then what should I do?"
"That's up to you. You could stay here and become a program among others, like the Merovingian."
"The Merovingian?"
"Yes. He was the One, of the third Matrix."
Neo wrinkled his nose.
"Ugh. No thanks. I'll rather go back to Middle-Earth. I'd chosen that anyways."
"As you say."
"How's things in Zion?" Neo asked.
"Good. They are building a monument over you and Trinity."
"Cool. I'm a hero. Are they singing songs about me?"
"They are telling stories of you and, yes, they are writing ballads about you and Trinity."
"Okay. I like that. At least I'm not really dead here If they still remember me, right?"
The Oracle merely nodded.
"They need a hero, and a dead hero is sometimes better than a living hero. After all, the dead
hero won't show up in the middle of a storytelling, to nitpick, right?"
The Oracle smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Well, then", said Neo and picked up his cell phone. "I'm going back, and I guess it'd be a good
thing if you didn't tell anybody that I was here. Okay?"
"Okay."
Neo walked the white corridors, with the cell phone in his hand. After a few turns to the right and to the left he found the old payphone. He didn't want anyone from the matrix to find their way to Middle-Earth. After all, the Twins, One and Two, would surely wreak havoc on the poor unsuspecting people there. Not to mention that Persephone might get a kick out of ruining Aragorn's marriage, and the Merovingian would probably like a chance to give Elf maidens a piece of his special chocolate cake.
No, Neo wouldn't have that, and so he simply tore the pay phone from the wall, and tucked it
under his arm. Then he picked up his cell phone and flipped it open. He punched in the number
to Middle-Earth and waited.
"Elrond here", said the voice on the other side of the line.
"It's Ne... Imin Adaninon. Get me an exit, please."
"All right."
When he landed in Rivendell, a few Elves jumped at sight of the unexpected guest that had
appeared from out of thin air. But the Elf lord smiled.
"Welcome to Rivendell, mister Adaninon", he said.
Neo was standing at the window in one of the guest rooms at Rivendell. Outside the snow was falling down in gentle streaks across the world. He could see statues and pillars half hidden in the snow. A couple of servants were digging paths through the snow, from the laundry house to the back stairs, and from the gazebo to the stair that lead to the great hall.
There were Elves playing in the snow. Elrond's twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir, were leading their troops of young Elves in a battle of snowballs and snow fortresses. The laughter and shrieks reached up to Neo“s window. They had asked him if he wanted to join them, but he had declined politely, content with watching them play.
Neo knew he'd only been a few hours in the Matrix, he knew that it had been summer when he left Middle-Earth, but, and this he had a hard time understanding, five months had passed while he'd been away a few hours. He wished Smith was around so he could ask him about it, but the ex-agent wasn't there.
Smith had traveled to the Lonely Mountain to function as an ambassador between the ravens there and the king of Gondor. He was also to keep an eye on the waste lands of the north. If anything strange was seen or heard, a raven would fly to the king with a report.
Letters from the Lonely Mountain came to Rivendell as well. Elrond received copies of the notes sent to Minas Tirith, and he told Neo that all was quiet on the northern front. Neo had laughed at that, and then he had explained about a book called "All Quiet On The Western Front". A few days later, when Elrond sent his reply to Smith's note with the raven, Neo asked if he could send Smith a letter too. Elrond said that it was all right, and Neo scribbled down a few lines.
It wasn't much of a letter, that first note sent from Neo to Smith. A few lines, stiff and awkward, but with a desperate longing for companionship underneath. A week later a raven came with a letter from Smith to Neo. That letter was rather formal, but in the way he described the vast whiteness beyond the mountain, the little town of Esgaroth that was too far away for just an easy stroll to meet some people, Neo could sense that Smith was as lonely as himself.
They kept writing to each other that winter. Neo wrote about the household of Rivendell, and about his own thoughts of The Matrix and the history of Middle-Earth. Smith, in return, wrote about his wiew of the Matrix and of the culture of the ravens. They also discussed the capricious nature of the Nowhere. And as they wrote they found themselves more and more eager to meet face to face. Sometimes Neo would dream of sitting on the top of a mountain talking and having a conversation with Smith. Sometimes the conversation in the dreams lead to more, leaving Neo with one very stiff body part upon awakening. At first he was confused, but when he had done some thinking, it was understandable, but it took him a while to accept it.
Once he'd accepted it, he began to wonder if Smith felt the same, or at least a machine version of it. But he very carefully never asked himself why he was pondering that.
One day, late in February, Neo asked Smith if he could come and visit him at the Lonely Mountain. The reply came almost immediately, stating that he was welcome.
The winter lingered longer that year, and spring was careful and slow in coming. Time passed, as it always did. Elrond was training his sons to rule Rivendell once he had gone to the West. And for them the brief time they had together passed too fast. But Neo thought the time went too slowly, and he was a little surprised at his own impatience. It wasn't until summer had come that Neo was allowed to ride away from Rivendell to the Lonely Mountain.
Elrond had given him a good horse, strong and patient, and a map. There was also lembas in the backpack, as well as flint and tinder. He had learned how to use bow and arrow, but also how to prepare the rabbits and the grouses he'd shot. All in all, he was well prepared for the journey.
The journey took many days. Most of the time he was alone. Few people traveled to the North in those days. A pedlar from Bree, who was walking his own trade route to the small villages and towns at the foot of the mountains, joined him for part of the journey, and spoke at length of the old trade routes, and their reopening by the king of Gondor. Before their ways parted, Neo had learned a few fairy tales, a couple of riddles and proverbs, and the history of Bree. The pedlar had learned nothing from Neo, or Inmin as he had chosen to call himself, but didn't mind it that much.
Neo's journey had taken him north of the mountains. He'd heard about the giant spiders of Mirkwood, and did not want to see one. He didn't want to meet the king of Mirkwood either. He'd heard too much about the king's temper. He'd gotten the advice to always keep the mountains on his right side. If he suddenly found them on his left side, he was going in the wrong direction. One day he saw the mountain Gundabad at a distance, and the Gray Mountains to the east of it. The journey along the Gray Mountains, keeping clear of Mirkwood, took a few more days. He saw the Lonely Mountain at the end of his twenty-third day on the road. He reached it in the morning two days later.
Smith had been alerted by the ravens that a stranger was approaching the mountain. From their description he gathered that it was Neo. Now he was waiting at the foot of the mountain. He could see a man on a horse in the distance, coming closer and closer. Soon he could se that it was indeed him.
"Hello", said Neo and stepped of his horse.
"Hello", said Smith and began to walk next to Neo, leading him on the winding pathway that lead
to his little hut on the side of the mountain.
"How have you been?" Neo asked.
"Fine. Lonely. You?"
"Ditto."
Smith stopped mid-stride and turned to look at Neo. "Mind if I try something?" he asked.
"What?"
"You kissed me on the nose when you left, and I'd like to try that."
"Sure", said Neo, feeling less than sure.
Smith kissed Neo on the tip of his nose. Then he decided that it was not enough and kissed Neo on the mouth instead. At first Neo felt a little stunned, but began to respond just when Smith began to worry that something was going wrong.
When they broke the kiss, Neo asked Smith if that was what he wanted to try.
"Yes", replied Smith.
"Do you want to try again?" Neo asked with a smile.
"If you want me to."
"I do."
"Good."
And then they kissed again.
In Zion stands to this day a monument over those that fought in the war between Man and machine. It is a collection of sculptures of the most well-known rebels, grouped around a center. A sculpture of Neo is the center of the monument. He stands, tense, ready to fight. Next to him is Trinity, calm and slick, and on the other side is Morpheus and Niobe. He is calm and centered, while she seems ready to pounce. Around them are other rebels, legends in their own life-time. But on the back of the monument stands two beings, a robot and a human, shaking hands in a gesture of peace.
The children of Zion sometimes uses the monument as a playground.
In the annals of Minas Tirith from the first century of the fourth age there are mentions of the two strangers from another world. Inmin Adaninon and Corcomellon lived to see the first years of the rule of king Eldarion, son of Aragorn and Arwen. After their deaths they were buried at the foot of the Lonely Mountain where they had spent their lives as guardians of the border to the North. The records states that they lived quite peacefully together apart from a few rows now and then.
The children of Minas Tirith sometimes hear the fairy tale of the people who sleeps inside a dream weave guarded by the beings they made to serve them.
THE END