A quiet hum of code echoes across the dusty and deserted basement. Adding its own soft sound to the crackling fire rising from old oil drums and the dripping water from the water lines above, creating an eerie yet soothing symphony throughout. Only one figure, dressed in a black prophet duster, dress shoes and mirrored sunglasses, stands within this basement. Silently; watching, concentrating, and meditating on the shining green monument floating above his head. He listens to nothing but the hum and the barely audible beat of what sounds to be a heart. Doubt, sadness, and fear all fill his mind.
"What would you do?" he asks aloud.
"You saved them over destroying them. Allowed them their power rather than strip it away, and yet it has lead us no where."
The figure removes his glasses. His brown eyes gazing deeply into the code, trying desperately to find some meaning, some source of information that he can use to answer the questions that are driving him mad.
"He claims to have known you, and he did. But did he truly know you? Do any of us know you? We all know that it was love that pushed you to it, that lead you down that path paved by the Oracle, the creator of it all."
His hands remain tucked behind him, unmoving, the same hands that he once believed to be building a road to peace, now being questioned as hands that have only brought about destruction and chaos.
"Are they right? Did you only save them because it was the only way to save us? No, they have the right to live just as we do, they are capable of everything we are and you knew that. Your sacrifice was for them just as much as it was for us."
He sits down, on the cold damp floor. His legs crossed as he closes his eyes and focuses on nothing but his questions.
"Peace is what you wanted. Were we right to allow something like the truce to continue for as long as it did? Or was that just the start of the peace? Did we ruin it all by breaking away? Not wanting to be patient and fulfill the warning you gave them after you had awakened."
The message, he had heard it hundreds and hundreds of times before. His words he had them memorized.
"Show them a world without borders or boundaries, without rules or control. Show them the truth. But how can we? The mistrust, the hate, none of it left with you. Were we to quick on the draw, all to ready to go to war? Neo, what would you do!"
His voice cries out this final question, begging for someone, something to give him the answer, echoing all the way to the floors above but nothing returns his cry. All that can be heard is the silent hum of code and soft heart beat.
"You died to stop the fighting, died for peace. The fighting continues, the peace is gone. We still bicker about our differences, but maybe..."
A smile slowly creeps across his face as the thought finishes out within his mind. His answer has come. He quietly gets back up and formally bows towards the floating code.
"Thank you, wherever you are."
