They arrived at the studio, trying to observe how everything was moving. Anne wore white trousers, trying not to look like some kind of scout. She was sure she’d be walking through these hallways several times over the next ten days.
–Who can deny the truth? – murmured some crew members during a rehearsal. Anne watched everything in full detail, her attention briefly drawn to Carrie-Anne Moss, whose striking figure exuded a rare allure. Her eyes sparkled from afar—she was truly beautiful. Anne simply smirked.
–I’ll wait over there. – said Anne.
Billy glanced at her, not wanting her to leave.
–Go talk to the directors. They know who you are—they’ve known for ten days now that you’d be visiting the set. Even though you’ve kept a low profile, they know you. You’re the CEO of Lux Animation, the house behind Matrix under Lux Films. – said Billy, winking at her. She nodded, more reserved than usual. She had only planned to say hello and take a secondary seat, but it was unfortunate that she hadn’t expected the Wachowskis to treat her with more importance than she imagined. They placed her next to the key players—at least it seemed that way—beside Andy, while Larry focused on filming. Andy began gently explaining every detail to her.
Billy took a breath as they prepared for a quick take. Now dressed in full black, with dark sunglasses, he looked completely different—like someone cloaked in secrecy, pushing his training to its limits.
He could feel his body moving faster, and even the back pain had faded once he started taking breathwork classes. Behind the cameras, he could see Anne, her cheeks flushed from the heat and perhaps sharpened by a quiet sense of loss.
Billy took a deep breath. He caught sight of his reflection in his lenses, then removed them. He looked older now, the lines on his face more defined. Youth had a way of making time seem frozen—there was nothing like confronting youth when you’ve already aged.
He took his mark near a curtain, as Morpheus/Laurence was already in position.
The door opens, and for the first time since his liberation, Neo returns to the Matrix. He squints at the sunlight, which feels unnaturally bright. He’s not wearing his sunglasses—they’re tucked in his right pocket. The air he breathes feels completely disconnected. The world around him, unreal.
The green screen behind him is simply strange.
Morpheus: We should be back in an hour.
Cypher opens the driver’s door of a car as Trinity, Morpheus, and Neo move toward it. Cypher quickly glances around and then drops something into a trash bin on the curb.
Inside the car, a blue screen pulses with a connected line—an active signal to the Agents.
Neo sits beside Trinity in the back. He can’t stop staring out the window, watching the urban landscape blur past like an endless stream of data cascading beneath a computer screen.
Morpheus: Almost unbelievable, isn’t it?
Neo nods as the car continues weaving through the city crowd. In truth, they’re sitting in a wheel-less car surrounded by a green screen. Later, the same scene will be replicated in an abandoned city lot.
Neo: I used to eat there… they had amazing noodles.
He speaks in a whisper, almost like he’s talking to himself.
Neo: I have all these memories… of my life. But none of them… happened.
Neo: What does that mean?
Trinity: It means the Matrix can’t tell you who you are.
He turns back to the window for a moment, then looks at her again.
Neo: Did you go see her?
Neo: What did she say?
Trinity: She told me…
She looks at him, suddenly unable to speak or even breathe.
The car jerks to a stop.
Morpheus: We’re here. Neo, come with me.
Neo and Morpheus exit the car. Cypher watches Trinity through the rearview mirror.
Cypher: Here we go again, huh, Tin?
He grins as she turns toward the window.
It’s a large apartment building, the kind of place people vanish in. Morpheus signals a blind man, who nods in return. An elevator opens, and Neo follows Morpheus inside.
The idea of discovering his fate begins to weigh on Neo more heavily with each passing second. The scene shifts—a door swings open. Curiously, the change in setting works well; it feels more like a rehearsal, as they’ll soon practice in a real environment—except for the driving scene, which complicates camera placement.
Neo: So this Oracle… she made the, uh, prophecy?
Morpheus: She’s very old. She’s been with us since the beginning.
Morpheus: Of the Resistance.
Neo: And she knows what? Everything?
Morpheus: She’d say she knows enough.
Neo: And she’s never wrong.
Morpheus: I don’t think in terms of right or wrong. She’s a guide. Neo, she can help you find the path.
Neo: Did she help you?
It was brief, but the transition was smooth—he was starting to sink into the role.
Neo: What did she tell you?
Morpheus: That I would find The One.
The elevator doors open.
Billy exhaled. That’s what bothered him about long scenes—a moment of truth about to take form, then pulled back. A fleeting instant, and they were completely exposed. The next scene, once approved, would involve thousands of angles—or tiny mistakes that Billy would repeat over and over until they got it right.
Anne could see how a person in real life could completely transform themselves. Her hair was perfectly styled, not a strand out of place. She watched Billy go from a smiling, sometimes expressionless businessman to a young man driven by something inside him, searching for his identity—like a war-weary soldier shipwrecked on an abandoned island, a refuge beyond danger.
–You can see he’s in the role, but he didn’t quite nail it. He’ll repeat it at least twice more until it clicks. Seems like he prefers the method approach over anything else. – said Andy, standing nearby, analyzing Billy’s performance down to the smallest detail. Anne couldn’t say if it was good or not—only that it was good, especially compared to others. But then again, she admitted to herself, she wasn’t entirely objective.
–I think I see it now. – ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝙣𝙚𝙩
That was all she could say.