RATING: PG-13
AUTHOR: Sólia
SUMMARY: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events... But will it lead to the same result as the movie?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wrote this a while ago, and it's one of my better ones. I hope you think so. Please read. If you choose to review, please be nice – I'd appreciate it, thanks. :)
Chapter one – Glitch
The black cat walked past that door and shook itself, like cats do. Neo, walking up the stairs behind Trinity, looked away for just a moment, to find the railing and to place his hand onto it. He looked back at the cat, but it was fine, just disappearing from sight behind the doorframe.
Black cats could be either good luck or bad luck in different cultures.
He followed the others further up the stairs, but, suddenly, there was the sound of gunshots upstairs. Where Mouse was.
Everyone stopped and stared upwards. Had Mouse escaped? The gunshots ceased, but that may not be a good thing.
A phone rang. In a flash, Trinity had it out in her hand and beside her ear.
"Tank," she said. It was hard to read her expression through her dark glasses as she listened. "Did Mouse get out okay? What-" She stopped and looked down as the doors, a few storeys below, slammed open. A dozen or more armed police came barging in. "We've found them," she said grimly. She hung up the phone and nodded at the next flight of stairs, signalling for them all to keep going while she told them what was going on. "They've cut the hardline," she explained. "Mouse got out the window unharmed, but Tank thinks we'll have a harder time getting out ourselves."
"No, really?" Switch asked sarcastically as she jogged up the stairs. Cypher glanced over the railing for a moment to check on the progress of the police. They were already up to the first storey flight of stairs, only two levels below the rebels.
Neo, taking up the rear of the line, was the only one to notice the man drop down from the level above and land beside him. He didn't react fast enough. The agent clenched his fists around Neo's throat in an iron death-grip. It was too strong and ruthless to be human. He couldn't breathe. He tried to pry the impossible fingers from his neck but it was useless.
"Tri-in...t..." he managed to gasp out, although he had been trying to say Trinity's whole name. She must have heard, because she slowed down, and looked behind her, but then stopped completely and turned in surprise. Everyone else noticed and stopped.
Morpheus, their captain and the one in front, called out to Trinity to help Neo. She was the only one close enough to do anything.
She was instantly at Neo's side. She grabbed his arm while she kicked the agent sharply in the head. In the moment that the agent released his hold a little, Trinity pulled Neo away, hard, and they both stumbled back.
"Move, Neo!" Morpheus shouted from the front. Neo walked slowly backwards as the agent advanced on them. Trinity bravely stepped up in a challenge. Immediately the agent (Brown, she would tell him later) kicked out at her, and she blocked.
But within seconds she was pinned against the wall, with nowhere to move. Brown aimed a heavy, fatal punch at her head, but – thank God – she moved to the side just in time. Annoyed, Agent Brown grabbed her and tossed her to the other side. Unfortunately, the other side was the empty space in the middle of the building. Trinity was thrown over the balustrade and she fell down, disappearing from sight, without so much as a cry.
By now Morpheus was at Neo's side, and his eyes widened as his second-in-command vanished from sight. Brown ignored the other rebels and straightened his tie, before leaping off the stairs after her. There was no hope for her now.
Captain Morpheus was as dead silent as his crew for the next second, but then he got his act together and turned to them.
"Let's go," he ordered. He sounded severely dispirited, and no wonder. But Neo wasn't going to condemn Trinity to death. He turned to where she had disappeared and started over, but someone grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Forget it, Neo, it's too late," Cypher said. Neo stared at him. "She's gone."
Tank had told Neo how Cypher obsessed over Trinity, lusted over her. This man would probably even claim to love her, and yet he wouldn't do anything at all to help her? No wonder she wasn't interested.
Neo pulled himself free and ran over to the railing. He could see Trinity and the agent battling it out on the bottom black-and-white tiled floor. She was alive for now.
"Neo, don't! You are the One, I can't let you kill yourself!" Morpheus said urgently. The police were still barging up the stairs – they were ignoring the combatants below and were focussing on their jobs.
Shaking his head, Neo glanced at the police, hurrying towards them. Switch and Cypher turned and ran up the stairs, escaping. Apoc wasn't far behind them. Morpheus waited another few moments, not wanting to see Neo go.
But Neo knew that it didn't matter even if he did. The Oracle, whom he had just visited, had informed him that he was, in fact, not the famous, heroic Chosen One people seemed to think he was. And if he wasn't this prophesised legend, but just some ordinary guy, then who was to say that his life was worth any more than Trinity's? Out of everyone he had met so far outside of the Matrix, it was her that he felt closest to. It was her that he could relate to, talk to, question, despite her cold, reserved shell.
It was her he'd die for.
And he wouldn't let her die if there was something he could do to prevent it.
He jumped over the railing, not allowing himself to worry. Free my mind, free my mind, I'll live, it isn't real... And he landed, three storeys below, quite well, having bent his knees beforehand. Neo stood from his crouched position and turned to face Brown and Trinity. He glanced up. Morpheus had followed his crew's example and was bolting up the stairs after Apoc. Good, they were safe.
Before Neo reached them, Brown grabbed Trinity by the shoulder firmly and drove his fist into her abdomen, around her bottom rib. She gasped, and her chop lost its power, barely touching the agent's neck. He pushed her away, and she stumbled and tripped, landing on the ground on her good side. Ruthlessly, Agent Brown kicked her again, twice, where he had just punched her. She curled up in pain.
Growling with anger, Neo punched the agent in the back of the head. Brown turned to him with an answering blow, but he managed to avoid it. He blocked the next two as well, but copped a heavy kick in the side that he hadn't seen coming. He did his best not to glance at Trinity for fear that the agent would recall the real reason he was on this level and go back to her. She was scrambling for something on the floor.
Neo avoided one punch but received the next, then heard someone call out his name. He looked over at Trinity and met her eyes. She slid a dusty steak knife across the tiles toward him with her left hand. He stopped it with his foot and, when he ducked to avoid a strong kick, he scooped it up. By the time Neo had straightened, Trinity had gotten her hands on another knife, also dusty. She was getting them from a small hole in the wall near where she lay, just above the floor. She sat up as best she could, drew back her arm and tossed the knife. It swirled through the air and went right through Agent Brown's neck, severing his spine and cutting his throat. It was sickening, but the blooded tip of the knife could be seen protruding from the front. Trinity was obviously a good shot. For just a moment, the agent did nothing, and Neo drove his own knife into Brown's chest, approximately where the heart of his host should be.
Agent Brown crumbled to the ground. Some sort of green electrical current surged through him, before the familiar face and the brown suit disappeared, to be immediately replaced by the body of a policeman.
Neo would have stared at the innocent corpse for hours if Trinity hadn't have tried to roll over then. He pulled his eyes away from the stabbed, bleeding, fifty-something-year-old armed police and moved over to Trinity. He crouched down beside her.
"You okay?" he asked quickly. She gave him a sour look.
"I'm fine," she said. He knew that her irritation was more directed at herself than at him, so he chose to ignore it. He let her try to stand once by herself, but she was having a bit of trouble, so Neo carefully helped her up, his left hand on her left shoulder and his other hand on the hip closest to him. Her injury was on her right side, so he was very cautious not to bump her.
"Where do we go?" Neo asked her, looking around. Should they go up all those stairs, and risk getting caught by the police up there? Or should they try going out the front where there were untold numbers of police?
"Take his breastplate," Trinity said, pointing at the dead agent-turned-guard. Neo left her standing and quickly pulled the knife free, before removing the armoured plate and putting it on. He also took the helmet. He walked back over to her.
"I'd get out the front wearing this, but what about you?" he asked. She looked around. There were no other dead policemen lying conveniently around, and therefore no disguises. The feds would recognise her immediately.
"I can try going upstairs," she said doubtfully. "I didn't hear Morpheus or the others killing anyone, so I guess there won't be many uniforms free, but..."
"A hostage."
"What?" Trinity asked.
"A hostage. You can be a hostage," Neo said. The idea was forming in his head, and it was a good one.
"What, are you just going to walk out there with a gun to my head and threaten to kill me if they don't let you go freely? That's stupid, they'd pay you to kill me, if they didn't do it themselves-"
"No, not my hostage," Neo interrupted. "Morpheus's hostage. I'll tell them I found you here, and that Morpheus and the others had been holding you here." He led her to the stairs and sat her down.
"Hmm, that sounds believable. Morpheus capturing his own lieutenant and holding her hostage." She sounded very sarcastic. "Neo, I still won't get through unnoticed."
"Yes, you will," he answered, taking her hand and tipping a small amount of dirt and dust from the floor into her palm. She just stared at it. There was still some dirt on Neo's own hand, and he rubbed it onto Trinity's cheek. She wasn't impressed.
"Hey!" she said, squirming away.
"Rub some dirt and stuff onto one side of your face and then you can walk beside me with your head on my shoulder," Neo explained. Realisation dawned in her unshaded eyes, and she didn't protest even once against dirtying the left side of her face. A few moments later she looked the part perfectly – her glasses, which she wore in every filed photograph of herself owned by the feds, broken and lying somewhere near the dead policeman, dirt smudged on her face. Neo held her in the same fashion as before and walked over to the door. She dropped her head to his shoulder and half-closed her eyes as he pushed the door open and stepped out into the sun, onto the small balcony. A few guns pointed at him, but since he wore black, the armoured breastplate and the black helmet, they quickly relaxed.
"Who's that?" someone of importance asked, striding forward and nodding at Trinity. She tensed a tiny bit, but only Neo noticed. He decided to be respectful to this man, whom he supposed was one of his superiors.
"Her name's... Trixie... Anderson, sir," he said, choosing a name close enough to her own for her first, and the first surname that came to his head – his, or the name that had once been his, when he was Thomas Anderson. "She was a hostage of the fugitives within the building. I have already questioned her, sir, and I believe that she would be of no use for further evidence."
"I'll be the judge of that," Mr Superior said pompously, ruining Neo and Trinity's chances of escaping very quickly. At Trinity, whom he thought was some innocent little girl, he smiled with what he must have thought was a kind smile, and asked, "Miss Anderson, how did you come to be inside this building?"
'I travelled along phone lines' Neo hid his smile as he thought of the honest answer, and how this man would react if he heard it. Of course, he'd probably lock Trinity up as a mental case.
"I don't remember," she said softly, not looking at anyone. "I got hit on the head. When I woke up, I was in a dark room. I was there for a long time. Then this man got me out." She closed her eyes.
"You see, she has given us hard evidence," Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself said. "This proves that the fugitives have been inside this building for quite a while." He smiled at her again. His smile was meant to be kind, but it was scary enough to frighten any child he might chose to grin at. "Do you want to go home, Miss Anderson?"
'I live on a hovercraft. If you can drive me there, you're a genius'.
"I live a few blocks away. Can this man drive me there now?" Trinity asked instead.
"Not now, Miss, but soon-" Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself began, but she must have gotten desperate then, as she pretended to burst into sobs, hiding her face further. Neo awkwardly patted her on her back.
"I have two children at home!" Trinity whispered. "They're all by themselves!"
"Two children, alone, sir," Neo repeated. He waited, holding his breath hopefully. How could this man insist that she stay here while there were two obviously young children waiting alone in a house? The imaginary children couldn't be older than early primary school age, judging by Trinity's own age.
"Yes, fine," Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself relented. "Trooper, please drive this woman to her home and record her street and street number. And get her checked over for injuries."
"Yes, sir," Neo said quickly, leading Trinity away as fast as he could. He headed straight for the further-most police vehicle, the car right at the back. Since the important guy was still watching him, he opened the passenger side door and got Trinity to sit down in the seat. He crouched in front of her and met her eyes.
"That worked," he said. "You should have been an actor."
She said nothing, and remained completely expressionless, as she held eye contact.
"Excuse me, I heard you needed medical assistance," a man said as he walked up. Trinity glanced at him, giving him her cool, daring look that would send most men running away or to her, depending on their bravery and tastes.
"No, I'm fine," she answered coldly. The doctor hesitated, but after a quick glance at the important guy, he moved closer.
"I'm kind of under orders," he said. "Just a quick check. I swear it won't take long. Excuse me, trooper," he added, giving Neo a slight shove out of the way. Trinity never stopped glaring at the man as he nervously checked her head for injuries caused by the imaginary blow.
"I guess you're fine then," he began, but when she sat up straighter, she winced from the pain that came from her bottom rib. "Maybe not. Can I ask, where does it hurt?"
"That's the best question to use on three-year-olds," she said scathingly, and refused to answer. Neo, not wanting to get into an argument and also wanting to know what was wrong with her, spoke up.
"Her bottom right rib."
Trinity fixed Neo with a dangerous, very pissed off glare as the doctor asked her to raise her right arm. She turned back to the man.
"I have two small children waiting at home by themselves," she said, but it wasn't quite as believable without the false tears and the weakened, supported posture. The doctor nodded.
"I know, but I have to check you for injury," he said. "I'm Stephen, by the way. Did I introduce myself before?"
Hmm – he was the kind who, despite being completely terrified, was interested in the off-limits women. The ones like Trinity.
"No, and I don't care," she snapped. Stephen sighed.
"Please raise your arm, Miss... um..." he trailed off, waiting for her to fill him in.
"Anderson," she said darkly.
"Thankyou. Miss Anderson, would you please-"
Trinity raised her arm irritably before Stephen could finish. Neo hid a smile as she kept her stony, unnerving gaze on the doctor. Stephen nervelessly laid a shaking hand on her side, much too high – his hand rested just under her arm, beside her breast. She wasn't happy.
"Get your hands off me!" she snarled, giving him a shove him away. Stephen fell back on his butt and looked up in surprise.
"I have to check you over for injuries!" he insisted. He got to his feet and dusted himself off, muttering as he made sure no one had seen.
"You know that I have no injury here!" Trinity said angrily, pointing to where his hand had been. Stephen swallowed. "I'm fine. I want to go home. Bob, take me home."
Neo realised that she was talking to him, and started to go around to the drivers' side.
"But I have orders...!" Stephen said weakly as Neo climbed into the front seat. Trinity slammed her door shut and glared frostily out the front window. She did absolutely nothing as Neo backed the car onto the road and drove off. He was too scared of a major explosion to speak, unless she started the conversation.
"Drive around behind the building, Tank said something about a window," she said finally. Neo nodded immediately and did as she said. There was nobody there.
He took the car for a useless, time-consuming trip around the block as Trinity took out her phone and dialled the Nebuchadnezzar, the hovercraft on which they lived and worked. Tank, the operator, usually answered.
"Tank, where are they?" There was a pause as she listened to the operator back in the real world. "And how do you propose I get there? I have no idea where that is..." Another pause. "Got it." Pause again. "No, Tank! Wait!" She made a noise of frustration as she hung up. "He said he's got some seriously bad news, and it's going to require me and the rest of us back on this ship as soon as possible. He won't tell me what happened. He said the others will tell me. Oh, and they're at this old cottage a few k's south from here. I'll give you directions."
The drive was only about five minutes long. At one point, they had to stop at a traffic light. Neo glanced across at Trinity.
"Are you sure you're fine?" he asked after a moment. She sighed with frustration, and he turned back to the road. He didn't want to upset her, and it didn't sound like she was going to answer, so he said nothing.
"No, I think I broke my ribs," she said finally. "More than one."
When they arrived at the tiny, dirty little vintage home Trinity was still in a bad mood. She slammed her door furiously and practically stormed up to the house. Neo followed her quieter, more subtle. She opened the door without a care and walked right in. By the time Neo got in, Cypher had used the exit. Mouse, Switch and Apoc were still there, not looking very happy.
"What kept you?" Mouse asked, hanging the phone back up.
"Some arsehole doctor," Trinity answered, rubbing her cheek vigorously to get rid of the dirt. She closed her eyes for a moment and scrubbed harder, but then they flew open. "Where's Morpheus?"