CHAPTER 10: ANOTHER MINDLESS CRIME…

"Morpheus!" Neo said on seeing Castor.

"No, Neo, that is one of Morpheus' twins, Castor." Trinity said before Neo could tell anything about Morpheus' death.

"Phoenix…" Neo said in a low voice, so that only Trinity could hear him. "I remember her, Smith tried to kill her several times"

"Neo, she is our daughter!" Trinity told him.

"Our daughter! He almost made me kill my own daughter too? Oh, Trin! What a nightmare! I wish I had died that night!" Neo answered, embracing Trinity and crying.

"Castor, have you looked for Phoenix all around Zion? She can't be anywhere else" Trinity addressed him.

"Yes, I did! Something must have happened to her!" Castor replied.

Pollux came running.

"I found this letter. Castor, you'd better read it at once!" he said in harsh voice.

Castor opened the letter and begun reading in a loud voice, to be heard by everyone.

"Dear mortals,

Once again you prove me how stupid you mortals are! I didn't imagine that my plan will work out so great! Believing the story of a young girl with no memories and with super powers! Believing that getting out alive from an encounter with the Phantom is possible!

You make me laugh!

How I've had you fooled! Thinking that I was The One when I was your greatest enemy! You've lead me right to The One! Now that I know the Neb, that I know Zion and all of your week points, defeating you humans will be very easy!

It shall be a pleasure killing each and every one of you, watching you suffer and die, as I did with all of my victims, as I did with that stupid Morpheus, who tried he can resist me, which caused me all that trouble!

Prepare to meet your death today!

The Phantom (or should I say, Phoenix?)"

Castor dropped the letter from his hand, tears began running down his check…How could that be? Phoenix was the Phantom? She had them fooled all along? That couldn't be! He loved her! He loved the one that killed his father?

"I'm going in to kill her" Pollux said. He got Cryptex on the neb, and got in the Matrix, in search of Phoenix.

Castor stood for about fifteen minutes without saying a word. Then he told Cryptex to get him in too, determined to stop his brother from hurting the woman she loved.

All this time, Neo and Trinity were too shocked to speak. What was it with that letter? Trinity knew that it couldn't be true since Neo had been the Phantom. But she wasn't allowed to tell that, Phoenix told her she would solve things, but what did she try to do?

"I know what she did!" Neo spoke. He close his eyes and began speaking: "Last night Phoenix wrote that letter…She was crying…Then she went into Castor's room…He was sleeping deeply, he didn't hear her…Phoenix kissed him and told him farewell…Then she came here, on the Neb…She kissed me on the forehead…Then she took my hand…" Neo frowned "And something happened…I suddenly got stronger, I got control over Smith, I got him weak, willing to leave me alone…" Neo sighed and continued "Phoenix slipped a note into your pocket, Trin, then she said farewell and got of the Neb. On her way out, she scratched herself with a nail on a finger…She kept her hand on the wound, but it kept bleeding…She told herself that it was just the way it had to be…She took a ship…she went to Machine City…She got connected into The Matrix and came to look for the Phantom, to look for me…She found the Phantom after some hours of searching, she found him agonizing on a dark lonely street…She addressed Smith, telling him that she was The One, that she had the powers of the Oracle and that by controlling her he could control all mankind…Smith agreed to let me go and infected her…Then I woke up…She let herself controlled by Smith to save me!" Neo finished, bursting into tears.

Trinity couldn't believe what Neo told her. She looked into her pocket and she found the note that Neo spoke about:

"Dear Trinity and Neo, mom and dad,

Please forgive me for what I did! It was the only way to save Zion and save you, Neo! The only way I could think of!

Please, don't try to stop me! But you have to stop Castor from coming after me! Please!

Although we didn't get to spend much time together, I love you both! Don't suffer for me! Just forget me soon and live your love, you deserve to finally be together!

Phoenix"

Trinity began crying, as well as Neo.

"She did it because of me! To save me! She will die for me! Oh! How cruel fate is! I wish I just died when Agent Smith first shot me! I wish I never took the red pill! I wish I never met you" Neo ended and lost his conscience.

Trinity couldn't believe what Neo said… He wished he had never met her? If he hadn't met her, maybe he wouldn't have taken the red pill… If she didn't kiss him back then, he would have remained dead… He couldn't have been serious! It must have been hard for him to live 25 years the way he lived, controlled by Smith, seeing all those people die, without being able to do anything…

Neo woke up soon, just in time to look up on the monitors and see what was going on in The Matrix.

He remembered Phoenix asked them to avoid castor getting in, so he told Cryptex to get him immediately. Trinity followed him.

Pollux had found Phoenix, she was dressed as the Phantom, but she didn't wear the mask.

"You came to meet your death so soon? You should have waited to die with the rest or humans, but well…" said Phoenix, pointing the gun in his direction.

"It is you who will die! You assassin!" Pollux answered, pointing his gun at Phoenix as well.

Phoenix suddenly began to let the gun down, she looked very confused.

Pollux aimed for her heart.

A gunshot was heart, and Pollux fell on his face.

Castor was standing behind him, still holding the gun I his direction, after having shot his brother in the back.

"Phoenix, my love are you fine? I didn't believe what you wrote, I came to take you back!" Castor said, with his eyes full of tears.

Phoenix seemed in real pain. When having given Neo her powers, she had kept for herself just enough to gain control over Smith. He didn't have any power over her, yet she chose to speak as she were Smith, to determine Castor to do what he had to do.

"Your love? You're as stupid as your father was! I have to thank you for making my work easier, though, by helping me get rid of Pollux! You did my dirty work this time! Now get ready to die, you fool! Die as your father did! It was such a pleasure to kill him! And it will be a pleasure to kill your mother too, and then to kill everyone you know and you love!"

Castor was crazed with pain. The letter was true, she had lied to him, she had made him kill his own brother! He pointed his gun at Phoenix and pulled the trigger. Once…twice…three times…he kept shooting until he ran out of bullets.

Phoenix fell breathless to the ground, She was dead, and along with her Smith was dead too. All of the the Sentinels deactivated themselves and stopped attacking Zion.

Trinity and Neo arrived, but it was too late. They walked up to Phoenix and took her in their arms, crying.

Castor watched them. He looked in his pocket and took out a bullet. He loaded the gun and pointed it against his head.

"Forgive me Phoenix, Neo, Trinity!" ha said and pulled the trigger. Castor fell down dead.

"The Prophecy is now fulfilled, the war is over" Neo sighed. "Another sacrifice done in the name of peace…" He began crying.

Trinity wanted to embrace him but he stepped behind.

"No! Our love was not meant to be! Now I understand everything! I was the One but the one was not supposed to get in love. Loving you caused this endless war! Everything is just my fault! What better sign that our love was forbidden than the death of our child? We can never be together! I must go, don't look for me!" he said and walked away.

Trinity was crying and ran after him, but she couldn't find him, he had got out. She got out, but Neo wasn't on the Neb any more.

"Cryptex, where is Neo?" Trinity desperately asked.

"He left without saying anything" he replied.

Trinity got out of the ship, back into Zion.

The machines were getting deactivated. The artificial Matrix was beginning to fade away.

The sky got clear. Everyone got out of Zion to see the first sunrise in their life, the first real sunrise.

Trinity watched the clear sky, remembering what she had seen 25 years before, before crashing. She looked in front of her and saw Neo watching the sunrise too. Then he walked away from Zion. It was the last time she ever saw him…

THE END