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Fandom: The Matrix
Characters: Cypher, Oracle
Timeline: Pre-M1.


The Oracle takes a drag on her cigarette, leans against the counter, and eyes the bald, bearded man who is trying not to fidget in her kitchen doorway.
She sighs.
This one's going to be difficult.
"Have a seat, hon," she suggests, nodding towards her vinyl covered kitchen chairs. Not that he's going to, she adds, mentally. Yet.
"I'm okay," the man hedges, wedging his hands deep into the pockets of his oxblood leather coat.
My hind foot, the Oracle thinks, but doesn't say.
"Suit yourself," she says, instead, and takes a chair for herself.
There's a plate of cookies - very important, those cookies - on the table, but she ignores them.
She looks at her house guest, instead.
"Well, Cypher," she begins. "This isn't going to be easy." Another drag on her cigarette, giving him time to think about what could be coming. "All those convictions you had are coming loose."
At her words, Cypher - who has been subtly shifting his weight from foot to foot, like a small child who needs the bathroom or is too excited by something - goes still.
"How do you kn--"
The Oracle looks at him over the top of her glasses.
"That's what I'm here for," she reminds him, gently. "But we're not here to talk about me, are we?"
She nudges the plate of cookies towards him, slightly.
"Why don't you sit down," she adds. "This could take a little while."
She wonders, as Cypher takes the chair across from her, exactly how much truth this man will be able to handle.
Oh, she can see it all. The doubt in his heart that will grow and grow and, with it, the resentment towards the still-strong convictions of his friends. The choices he will have to make. The many ways that his story could turn out. And he's tied up with the One, on top of it all.
Oh, dear...
"Cypher, honey," she begins. "It's always hardest for the people at the heart of a thing."