Title: The Real World
Author: Stormhawk
Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6840
Summary: The freedom fighters have come up with a new trace program pill that can pull matrix software (i.e. Agents) into the real world. Smith is the guinea pig. Can they survive each other and is he to be trusted?
Notes: AU Written before I saw the second movie. This is my excuse if in the unlikely event that anything in it contradicts it. Being an AU fic you can ignore it.
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus and two new freedom fighters, Virus a hacker about trinity's age and Disk, a new recruit fresh out of the matrix, stood in the construct. Tank loaded them clothes, weapons, phones.
'Do you want to take it this time Neo?'
'Yeah Tank, load it.'
In Neo's hand a small box appeared, he opened it, inside was a round red pill. Tank pushed a couple of buttons and they found themselves in the Matrix. Their mission was simple. The agents had taken interest in a couple of kids in a computer-orientated college and they were going to move first.
Though on the streets their gothic clothing often drew attention to them, in the college they fitted right in. They looked around for the pair of kids but couldn't find them.
'Aren't they supposed to be here Trin?' Neo asked. Trinity nodded and turned to call Tank to search for them. 'Watch out!' she screamed as she turned.
A trio of passing kids had become agents. They raised their guns and fired, most had no trouble ducking out of the way but a bullet hit Disk straight through the heart. Virus ran to his aid but then died herself.
The three remaining started to fight the agents. Everyone else in the college ran away. Neo, confident in his abilities as the one had time to think as he fought the agent, Smith, why the hell does it always have to be Smith? Can't they give me a different agent to fight? He had destroyed the program a while ago but the Matrix programmers had evidently had a back-up copy.
He punched Smith in the face and that made the program stop for a second. That one second was long enough for Neo. He opened the silver box Tank had loaded for him and forced the pill down Smith's throat.
'It's done - run.' Neo shouted as his friends made a run for it.
The other two agents looked down at Smith who was choking on the ground. They looked at each other in distaste, he was so human that he disgusted them.
Smith meanwhile was not having a human reaction to the pill. He could feel his program degrading byte by byte. He looked to his fellow agents for help but they had disappeared and the students they had replaced had returned.
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus were hidden not far away, waiting for the other agents to go. Once they had seen them leave they returned to Smith. Morpheus and Neo pulled him to his feet and Trinity guided them to the exit.
Smith tried to fight back but his strength seemed to have left him. Trinity pulled the ringing phone from the hook and exited the matrix. Next Neo forced the receiver to Smith's ear and forced him to exit the matrix.
In the real world, Trinity had bound Disk's dead body to the chair and watched in surprise as something came back into it. It wasn't her friend back from the dead - it was something far more unnatural.
Neo and Morpheus exited and Tank pulled the plugs from their necks. They stood in a semi-circle around 'disk'. He looked up and sneered. 'Where am I?' Smith's voice rang through their friend's mouth.
'The real world,' Morpheus said.
It took the ex-agent a moment to answer. 'That's impossible.'
'Look around you - does this look like the Matrix to you?' Neo asked.
Smith tried to twist his head around but the plug stopped him. Tank took it out before he did himself an injury.
'This is a trick.'
Trinity smiled and punched him. 'Does it feel like a trick?'
'Why?'
'We needed a guinea pig.'
They left him tied to the chair to contemplate his existence for a while. The all went to the mess. 'Was this a good idea?'
'It was the only way Trinity. We had to see if it worked.'
'I still don't understand,' Tank said.
'We pulled Smith's consciousness, program whatever you want to call it through the land line into the real world. If we ever find what controls the matrix from inside and pull it out like that we can destroy it from the inside. We had to test it on a piece of software first and it worked.' Morpheus said.
'So what do we do with it?'
'I can think of a few things,' Neo muttered darkly.
'So can I Neo but we aren't them.'
'Sorry Morpheus.'
They undid Smith's restraints and threw him into one of the empty rooms until they decided what to do with him.
He looked around the cold and sparse room. He had never been this alone in his life.existence. He had existed before but now he was alive, in someone else's body but still alive.
Every step he took was a new experience for him, he had appeared to be human and had emotions but now they seemed real and sensations were a lot stronger when you weren't experiencing them purely for the intellectual curiosity.
On the command deck Neo tried to reason with Morpheus to allow him to kill the agent on the deck below. 'How many of us have they killed? He's just one and none have ever been so vulnerable before.'
'You can't kill him Neo. Not while he is in a human body.'
'Disk's body. Disk is dead and he's not coming back. I don't understand you Morpheus.' With that Neo left and loaded himself into a training program that he had created. In the program he could let out his rage on anything that got in his way.
'Neo's right Morpheus, why are you protecting him?'
'You will see Trinity, you will see.'
In his room Smith sat on the bunk, his head resting on his hands as he had often observed his prisoners do. He was contemplating how to escape. But to where? He couldn't get back into the Matrix and it was unlikely that any machine in the real world would believe who he was. He was stuck and there was nothing he could do about it.
Would the humans kill him? They had more than enough reason to. Was it because he was in one of their friend's bodies? He dismissed the thought, they knew better than anyone that anyone who dies in the matrix dies in the real world.except that annoying Mr. Anderson. Neo, his mind corrected him, a simple change of letters for One.
His lower belly made a strange noise, it was disturbing to him. He ran through a list of files, one popped up straight away - hunger. The body he was in was hungry. Food, he of course knew about food. He looked human in the matrix and had often seen people eat, or at least believe they were eating. More cross-references came up, if he didn't eat he would eventually die.
He required food and wasn't ready to die as long as there was..was hope the right word to use? As long there was hope of getting back into the matrix.
He didn't want to call to the humans as it would be a sign of weakness and he wasn't ready to grovel yet. Not yet anyway.
He heard the door unlock and he stood. The girl, Trinity walked in and placed a tray of food on the table. Humans fed their prisoners?
'It's food, you have to eat. Morpheus wants you alive for the moment.' He stood and stared unblinkingly at her.
'We aren't allowed to kill you so don't worry - it's not poison.' Poison? That hadn't even occurred to him.
He walked toward the food. It was the standard everything-your-body-needs- gruel and a cup of water. He was never expected to do this, he had observed humans doing it but had never bothered to learn how.
Trinity, obviously not wanting to bother with an annoying agent in a human body testily asked 'What?'
'I.,' Smith faltered, it would reveal his weakness, 'I don't know how.'
Trinity laughed at him, it was a cruel laugh and his weakness gave her some pleasure. She finished but an unkind smirk stayed on her face, she was going to enjoy this.
'Pick up the spoon.' Smith picked up the spoon and gripped the handle as you would a gun. Trinity took the spoon from him and showed him how to hold it then pantomimed eating several spoons of gruel.
'Got it now?' Smith nodded and started to eat. He put a spoon of food into his mouth and jumped back from it, the spoon went flying. He jumped back onto the bunk trying to run from himself.
'I wish I had a camera,' Trinity said as the agent spat out the food. She didn't quite understand what was happening but it was funny nonetheless.
Smith slowly calmed down and tried to process it. He had just experienced taste. He looked down in shame at the food down his torn shirt. He stepped off the bunk and picked up the tray.
'What was that all about?'
'Taste,' he said simply. She shrugged, closed the door and locked it and left.
Smith picked the spoon up off the floor and ate the gruel. He drank the water which was another experience again.
Trinity walked back up to the command deck. 'You fed him?'
'Yessir. It was quite funny.'
'Good. Keep at it.'
'Amusing he may be but I want to know what's going on.'
'All right, I'll tell you. We have an agent, vulnerable and alone. He knows every code and holds all the keys to the matrix and if we can find some way of getting on his good side he will give us the keys.'
'What if he doesn't?'
'Then Neo gets him,' Morpheus said coldly.
Smith sat on the bed unsure of what to do. He had eaten all of his meal and neatly placed the spoon in the metal bowl. The pillow behind him was soft, of course he wasn't a good judge but it felt nice. He closed his eyes for a second. This annoyed him, he had been blinking a lot more since he had entered the real world.
He laid back and this seemed to relieve some of the tension from his back. What was he to do?
Something pounded on the door. He sat up, unsure. If it was one of them why didn't they just unlock it? Could it be one of the machines? Could they have found him already?
The door blew in with just one more pound. Smith stood and saw Neo. Apparently some of the power he had within the Matrix had crossed over into the real world.
'Well aren't you going to say it?' Neo practically spat at him.
Smith was confused, 'say what?'
'Mr. Anderson.' Neo said as he came flying at him. Before he had a chance to react the human had beaten him to a pulp. Being.only human he didn't have a chance of fighting back.
Neo continued to punch and kick him even while he was bleeding over the floor. The pain was excruciating, surely he was going to die. The girl, Trinity had lied to him, they had planned on killing him all the time.
Neo lifted him up and threw him against the wall. He heard something crack and heard nothing more. A sharp pain across the face made him open his eyes and look around.
He was lying on the bed. All the humans were looking down at him. He heard Neo say, 'can I slap him again?'
He turned and saw Neo. He clambered back from him and looked at him with real fear. He looked at himself, he wasn't bleeding, nor was he bruised. The only pain he felt was from a slap across the face.
'You killed me,' he said softly to Neo.
Neo looked around to his friends. 'No, you were having a nightmare. You were dreaming.'
'Dreaming?' That was impossible for an agent, it was against their programming.
'We heard you screaming all the way up on command deck.'
'It wasn't real?' Smith was still reeling from this. How could humans stand to do this every night?
The freedom fighters looked at each other. Was this pathetic creature before them the deadly agent they had fought so many times?
One by one they quietly got up and left. He heard the door lock again and then he did something he never in his whole program been expecting to do - he cried.
He cried for no reason and for every reason in both worlds.
On the command deck Tank walked around checking equipment. 'That was scary, who would have imagined an agent could dream?'
'I think the plan is working.'
'If I didn't know better I would feel sorry for him.'
'Sorry Trinity? Sorry, he's only a computer program.'
'Neo he looked like a little kid.'
'Kids don't kill people.'
'Dreams about people killing you are always frightening. Haven't you ever had one?'
'Of course haven't you?'
'We've all had dreams like that,' Morpheus said before retiring to his room.
Tank and Neo left. Trinity went to follow them but stopped. In her dreams Smith had been the one doing the killing.
Smith sat awake, he didn't plan on sleeping for the rest of the time that he was human. He didn't know what would keep himself awake but would do absolutely anything.
Trinity unlocked the door, unsure of why she was doing it but deep in her heart she felt sorry for him even though she still knew exactly what he was.
He was gone! He wasn't sitting on the bed or the chair. She peered into the room and saw him standing behind the cupboard in the corner. She smiled, just like a child.
He took a step forward and brandished the tray. 'Relax, you're awake.'
'How do I know?'
She took three quick steps forward and pinched him. He dropped the tray, thought for a second then said 'ow.'
'If you were asleep you would be awake now.'
'Ow,' he said again, testing the word out.
'You have to sleep. Morpheus won't like you to be asleep tomorrow and Neo will be even more pissed at you than he is now.'
'I don't want to sleep.' He said, not worried about revealing his weakness as everyone on the hover craft already knew it.
'Tell me what happened. If you have a nightmare and tell someone about it that usually helps.'
'Why are you doing this?'
'I'm not sure, do you want me to leave?'
'No, I'll tell you.'
He told her every detail from it and she listened impassively. 'Boring,' she finally commented after he finished. 'Kid's stuff.'
He stared at her, apparently this wasn't the reaction he had expected. 'That was a mild nightmare compared to the ones we usually have and sometimes live.'
She recounted some of the worse ones that she had dreamt. He was always the killer. 'It is what I'm programmed to do,' he said when he was finished. 'It is what I was designed for.'
'How many humans have you killed?'
'Three hundred and fourteen.'
She looked sick at the number. 'I knew a lot of those people. You're living in one of them right now.'
'If I go to sleep, will I have another nightmare?'
'No one knows, it's one of the things about being human. A lot of things are unknown.'
'Damn humans.'
'We already are damned thanks to your kind. Doomed to live in the matrix or hide like rats in this world.'
'Is there so much wrong with the matrix? It is exactly like your world was.'
'It's sick. Have you ever seen the fields of children being grown?'
'It is not required for agents to bother with such things though I do know of them.'
'Children are supposed to be born. To live under a real sun, to be free.'
'Humans brought it on themselves. We are just the result.'
'Sins of the fathers, blaming the creation instead of the creator.'
'Yes.'
'Get some sleep.'
She stood to leave as he laid down on the bed. 'Trinity?'
'What Smith?'
'I'm afraid. I have never been afraid before.'
'Comes with being human which is what you are for the moment.'
He closed his eyes but Trinity saw his hands ball into fists. It was disturbing to see him afraid.
He opened his eyes and saw her still there. 'Is it necessary that I sleep?'
She nodded yes. She went over to him, sat on the chair beside the bed and sang a couple of lullabies. By the time she was finished he was asleep. She smiled to herself, the plan was working.
She went out the door and saw Neo waiting for her. 'Rock-a-bye-baby?' he asked incredulously.
'I haven't had to put a child to sleep in a long time. He's pathetic isn't he?'
'Stupid agents,' Neo said as he walked with Trinity.
In his cell, Smith opened his eyes, himself again and not afraid of sleep. The nightmare had rocked him but had not made him forget who he was. 'Stupid humans.' He said to himself, fool them into thinking I'm weak. He turned over and went to sleep.
He awoke the next morning to Trinity brining him breakfast. He threw himself back into weak mode. 'I would be thankful if you didn't tell anyone about last night.'
Trinity smiled and nodded. Poor little agent, she thought sarcastically.
She left and he ate. After he was finished he knocked on the door until someone heard him. Tank opened the door. 'What do you want?'
'I want to be let out.'
'I'll have to see Morpheus about that.'
'Take me to him, I will make my case to him in person.' Tank shivered at the last word, person. He was looking at both his friend and his enemy, it was weird.
Smith followed Tank to Morpheus. 'He wanted to see you sir.'
'What do you want?'
'Since it appears I am stuck here I want to offer you a trade.'
'What kind of a trade?'
'I will give you lesser codes that I know and you will upload me back into the matrix.'
'No deal. We want everything you know,' Neo said.
'Neo be quiet. You will us the lesser codes on faith and after they prove to be true you will give us the access codes for the matrix's mainframe and we will upload you then.'
'I don't have those codes.'
'Then you don't get to go home Smith.' Neo said coldly.
'What is that?' Smith asked. Pointing to a readout.
'Damn,' Tank shouted, 'squiddy.' He found a place to set the hover craft down and turned all the power off except the EMP.
Smith knew what the machine was but went to ask another question, as the hunter/killer drew closer Neo clamped his hand over the ex-agent's mouth. He kept it there until the machine had passed by.
Later as a gesture of faith Smith had revealed a couple of very minor codes to them and he offered to help them refine the Agent training program. He was suitably unimpressed with the woman-in-the-red-dress but offhandedly commented that only three percent of women in the matrix actually come close to those parameters.
It being dinnertime they exited the program. Neo silently took him back to room. Trinity came in with his gruel and left.
As she closed the door and walked away Smith's brain felt electric. She had forgotten to lock the door!
He could escape now but he needed a plan. He hunted around in the cupboards until he found an old but useable weapon. It was a projectile gun and had more than enough rounds to finish off the crew.
He opened the door and headed up to the main deck. They sat around talking, all but Tank who was working silently at his computer.
He raised the weapon and shot Morpheus. He stared Neo in the eyes before putting a hole in him. Tank was next but he hesitated when it came to Trinity.
Trinity looked around in horror, Morpheus, Neo, Tank, they all lay before her dead.
Smith, in Disk's body sneered at her. She took a step back from him. The weapons locker was a deck below and surely he would kill her before then.
'Your turn,' he said as he stepped forward.
She turned and ran from him. She had lived on this ship for years, she knew places to hide. She had to contact Zion. He would more than likely turn this ship in and the machines would use the ship to find out at least some of the human's secrets.
If she couldn't kill him or escape then she would be used and made to tell everything she knew.
She ducked into her room and opened a hatch beside her bed, slipped in and closed it behind her. Through the grate she saw his feet stop outside the room then walk on.
At least for now she was safe. She made her way to the power grid, looked out the grate and couldn't see anyone so she dislodged it and crawled out.
The second she was out someone grabbed her hair and pulled her to her knees. Smith had been standing in the blind spot beside the grate knowing that she would try and disable the main power so he couldn't fly the ship.
'Let me go Smith.'
'I don't think so.'
'Are you going to kill me?'
'I'm thinking about it.'
'You killed all the others.'
'Yes, I did. Mr. Anderson wasn't hard to kill in the real world. Disappointingly easy same with Morpheus.'
'We were going to put you back in the matrix, you didn't have to kill them.'
'You really expect me to believe that? You really must think I'm gullible. You humans are the gullible ones, thinking I was weak especially after that nightmare thing.'
'What thing?'
'You actually think I was bothered by some disjointed images of my own destruction, fooling you into thinking I was weak.you played right into my hands.'
Trinity had to think fast, if not she was dead - or worse, a traitor. 'I was fooled Smith, the sympathy I showed you was real.'
'I'm not fooling for that anymore.'
'No, I swear. You can't help what you are ordered to do, out in this world you had no one so I felt sorry for you.'
'Be that as it may it doesn't change anything.'
'You don't have to kill me.'
'Oh but I do. I have to make a clean sweep. It's unlikely you would tell us anything, you are very strong minded but even you can't survive bullets.'
He cocked the gun and forced it against the back of her head.
'Please don't.'
'Are begging for your life Trinity?'
'Yes, I don't want to die.'
'I am disappointed, I thought you would at least face your end with dignity.'
'It is not undignified to be afraid.'
REAL WORLD
'What's wrong Tank?' Morpheus. 'Get her out of there before he kills her.'
'I can't there's something wrong with the program.'
'You told me there was nothing wrong with it.'
'I've had enough of this,' Neo said. He took three long strides over to 'Disk's' chair and pulled the plug.
In the simulation Disk's body fell down. Trinity sighed and stood. Thank god.
'Can you get me out of here now?' she said to the simulation.
'We're working on it Trin,' Neo said even though she couldn't hear him.
'You didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of me did you?' Smith said from behind her. No longer a shadow in a dead body, he was in his own form again.
'How did you do that?'
'You didn't think I knew this was a simulation? You fool, I am a program in a human body or not I know when I'm plugged in.'
'Then why did you kill the others?'
'On the off chance that they would die. But it would seem that you are stuck in here with me.'
'You had something to do with that didn't you?'
'I rewrote part of the program as soon as I was plugged in, it was just luck that it was you who were stuck.'
'What exactly are you going to do?'
'Go back into the Matrix and tell them where your ship is. They won't use the EMP while you're inside so say goodbye to your friends. If they do use the EMP then they're the ones who have to say goodbye.'
'Bastard.'
'It's what I'm programmed to do.' To their left an event horizon (think Sliders) opened up. Smith threw Trinity through then stepped through himself.
'What did they just do Tank?'
'They're in the Matrix.'
'How?'
'Smith must have done it, it's simple to go from the construct to the matrix if it's programmed into it, you've done it plenty of times, he must have hacked in and written that into the program.'
Neo sat in the chair. 'I'm going in.'
'I'd love to but I can't. Look.' He pointed to his screen. Instead of the matrix scrolling in front of him the screens were blank.
'She's on her own.'
'No.'
'Trinity is strong Neo, she can get her own way out.' Morpheus said.
Trinity woke up in a hall, she was being dragged along by two other agents. Brown and Jones, she had heard them called.
Smith directed them into a room where they roughly threw her into a chair and restrained her.
They hooked her up to various machines much like the ones she had seen Morpheus attached to when she and Neo had rescued him.
Jones attached some sort of headset around her head and hooked it into a laptop that was resting on the table.
In the real world Tank had managed to get the screens working again but were still unable to upload themselves in. Neo, Morpheus an Tank watched the code scroll as it revealed Trinity's fate.
With an electrical charge the headset was turned on. With an involuntary jerk Trinity looked around the room.
The screen in front of Jones began to flash up with words and sentences.
What am I looking at Trinity thought. The same words appeared on the screen.
That's impossible, again the words popped up on the screen.
'Have you worked it out yet human?' Smith asked her.
Trinity didn't answer him but the words, can't he just tell me and get it over with? Appeared on the screen.
'This device reads your electronic thoughts and projects them onto the screen so your thoughts will betray whether you want them to or not.'
Several words popped up on the screens describing exactly what she thought of him, the other agents, the matrix and exactly what she would want to do to them but they have been censored so that I can keep this rating reasonably low.
'Very creative but you're wasting our time. Tell me what I want to know.'
What does he want to know?
'As if you don't know. I want all the codes that you know and I want them now.'
Go to hell.
'I'm already there.'
Codes, can't leak the codes. 54367, no stop thinking about them, thry680, stop it Trinity.
She tried to relax. Relax Trinity, relax and think about what Neo will do that bastard agent when he finds me.
'Mr. Anderson isn't going to find you, nor will he rescue you. I was kind enough to leave a virus in that hover craft that will prevent anyone entering the matrix.'
Again several censored words appeared. 'Tell us the codes.'
Never.
'I know several painful ways to kill you. You were kind enough to tell me them yourself.'
'Hey you two,' she said out loud to the other two agents. 'Brown and Jones right?'
They nodded once each. 'Did you know that Smith had a nightmare?' The two agents looked at each other and then to Smith.
'Nightmare?' Brown asked. Jones tried unsuccessfully tried to hide a smirk.
'He was screaming. We heard him from a deck above.'
'Shut up human.'
'I think his program is unstable.'
'You had a nightmare?'
Trinity closed her eyes and forced herself to think about the moment when they had run down to him. The memory appeared on Jones's computer, a little sketchy but perfectly understandable.
'You killed me,' memory Smith said to Neo. His fear gave the other two agents reason to stare at their companion.
Smith was grinding his teeth. Trinity was happy, as long as they were thinking about their insane co-agent they could forget about her.
She switched to a different memory. She showed them being sung to sleep. For her part she showed that she had been faking the sympathy. Smith had had enough, he walked forward and punched her right in the face.
The force threw her, and the chair she was tied to, down onto the ground and backward several feet. All of Jones's computer equipment went flying with her.
'Are you trying to cover up more evidence of your human frailties?'
'Tricks, they were all tricks. I was fooling them into thinking I was weak.'
'What about the nightmare?'
'A simple disjointed series of images brought on by the stress of being in a human body.'
'Bullshit.' Trinity said from the floor. Smith walked over to her and drew his gun. Brown swiftly took his gun from him and escorted him out. Trinity looked up at the remaining agent.
'Get up.'
'I'm tried to a chair that's lying on the ground. I couldn't get up if I wanted to.' As if the fact had just occurred to him he hauled her and the chair back up to an upright position.
Ignoring her he looked at his computer equipment, it was all ruined. He threw the laptop into a bin and went to retrieve another. Trinity allowed herself a small smile, she wasn't any worse off than she had been and if the truth be told she was probably a little better off without Smith.
She just hoped that her friends would find her soon, Smith had been a distraction nothing more. They would be back soon. She pulled against the restraints and to her surprise one of them came loose. It must have broken when the chair hit the floor.
She got one arm free and tried to pull loose from the others. She managed to get her other arm free so she ran. The building was relatively empty so she tried to find her way out.
As she passed a corner the cold steel of a gun pressed into her back. 'Don't move.'
Damn it she thought as she was escorted to a cell. Jones had been returning with the new computer but was ordered by Brown to throw her into a cell instead.
The cells were small and cold. 'Happy human?' she looked up, in the cell across from her Smith was sitting on a bunk.
'Didn't they delete you yet?'
'They aren't going to delete me just wipe my program clean but for the moment they put me in here, I'm as feeble as you are.'
'Shut up Smith. If I'm so feeble then how did I get you thrown in there?'
You will be sorry.'
'Your program will be cleaned, you won't even remember to make me sorry.' Trinity relaxed back onto her own bunk.
'You are still going to die, you know that don't you?'
'I'm not dead yet.'
'They can't rescue you.'
'Shut up or I will find some way to come over there to beat you up.'
'Brown and Jones have no understanding of humans.'
'That is part of why Neo hates you so much, you are so disturbingly human.' He was silent so Trinity tried to sleep.
Across in his cell Smith was muttering lines from 'Rock-a-bye-baby' he kept repeating it until he realized how violent it was. 'When the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all. Humans, singing such violent songs to innocent children.'
'Are you schizophrenic, demented or deranged? You are talking to yourself.'
'I was trying to understand why humans adore violence so much that they recite to children.'
'And scared Agents? It's just a nursery rhyme Smith, now shut up.'
'Humans are so complex.'
'Thank you.'
'Some agents can't understand that, they don't.'
'Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you, you have killed how many, three hundred and fourteen humans, you have tried to kill me, Neo and Morpheus so many times I have lost count as well as trying to eliminate the human race outside the Matrix. Oh yeah Smith I feel really sorry for you.'
'They are going to kill you. And in essence they are going to kill me as well.'
'You were never alive to start with.'
'And you?'
'I'm not afraid.'
'You could escape.'
'How?'
'Think about it. You aren't restrained, you could attempt a break out.'
'Why are you telling me this?'
'Help me to escape and get me back out of the Matrix. I will give Morpheus and your dear Mr. Anderson every code I know.'
'That didn't work too well last time.'
'Last time I was expecting to come back in and be acknowledged for the fact that I had you as a prisoner. Instead I am stripped of my abilities and are awaiting destruction. They have more copies of my Matrix, clean copies but I want to live.'
'Until you get out of the matrix when Neo kills you for what you've done.'
'Does sanctuary mean anything to you?' Trinity turned from him and considered his words. It was all moot anyway until she got out of there.
'They're coming.'
'How could you know?'
'I do, the time to decide is now.' Trinity punched the wall and a section of concrete fell away, she beat the concrete until there was a space big enough to crawl through.
She looked at the agent, he saw the look in her eyes. 'Don't leave me behind. Please.'
She hunted around until she found a set of keys. She unlocked the door as Jones and Brown were returning. The two agents saw their escaped prisoners.
'Do you trust me?' Smith asked Trinity.
Trinity went to say 'no' but the word died in her throat. Smith grabbed her and he ran at the window. He jumped and they both crashed through it. It was five stories to the ground, a long way to fall.
Trinity managed to right herself as to avoid injury. Smith landed beside her and they both ran away from the building.
*****
'There she is,' Tank shouted as Trinity's characters reappeared on the screens he had got to work. 'Shit.'
'What Tank?' Tank pointed at the screen. 'Smith,' Neo growled.
*****
Trinity and Smith ran through the evening street. She paused only long enough to kick a business man in the head and steal his phone, she dialed the number that let her contact the real world.
'Morpheus.'
'Trinity, are you ok?'
'I.we need an exit right now.'
'We?'
'Plug disk's body back in Smith is coming back out.'
'Smith?'
'Do it Morpheus.'
'We can't get you out, his virus is preventing anyone coming in or out.' Trinity looked at Smith with a look that could have killed.
'What?'
'We're stuck in here because of your virus.' They heard footsteps behind them.
'Give me the phone, run!' He swiped the phone as they ran from the pursuing agents.
'I assume you are stuck at the password barrier?'
'Yes,' Morpheus said evenly.
'It's a simple twenty-seven character string.'
'What is it?'
'Humans are a virus we are the cure, no spaces between the words.'
'Cute Smith.' He repeated the words to Tank who finally got the essential computer running.
'Where's the.what's the word? Exit?'
'Atlantic Street subway station.' Smith pointed the way to Trinity as they ran for freedom.
'Neo, plug disk's body back in.'
'No Morpheus, we aren't letting him back through. Not after what he did.'
'Trinity said it, not me, she must have a reason.' Neo scowled and plugged his dead friend's body back in.
The pair bounded down the stairs of the subway station. It was crowded, that was a blessing and a curse. The other two agents could appear in anyone of those people and the crowd would help to hide them.
They could hear the ringing telephone. The two agents were at the top of the stairs. Trinity picked it up first. 'When it rings pick it up.' She exited the matrix slowly it seemed to smith.
It seemed to take an age for the phone to ring. He picked it up and pressed it to his ear. He saw Brown point his gun at him but woke up in the real world before he got shot.
'You kept your word,' he was frankly surprised. He hadn't expected the phone to ring. He became aware of Neo and Morpheus' stares. He sighed, a trait he had picked up last time he had been this body.
'I am yours to do with as you will. I am not planning any tricks this time, I will willingly give you any and all codes I know. If you want to turn me over to judgment of Zion I will probably get more or less what was being planned for me in the matrix.' The words were spoken with such honesty that even Neo remained silent for a minute.
'What did you do to him Trinity?'
'I got the other two to throw him in a cell.'
'Good work.'
'I am perfectly aware of that but I deserved it.'
'You can go to your cell while we think about what to do with you.'
'I'll take him Morpheus,' Tank said. He stood and escorted the ex-agent out.
Neo looked at Trinity, he walked over to her and gave her a small kiss. 'Don't ever do that to me again. I thought I had lost you.'
'You'll never lose me.'
'Glad to have you back Trinity.'
'Thanks Morpheus.'
'Why did we let him back out exactly?' Neo asked, incredulous.
'Didn't you just hear his little speech? They were going to in essence kill him and he didn't want to die, he would rather be a traitor.'
'If I knew all it took to get the keys to matrix was put the fear of death into an agent.'Morpheus trailed off. 'Good work Trinity.'
Smith sat on his bunk and contemplated what he was doing. He had betrayed everything he was programmed to be loyal to. He consoled himself by realizing that they had betrayed him first, threatening to wipe his program clean and all.
Neo opened the door, Morpheus had told him to bring Smith up to have a little talk. As Neo opened his mouth the ship hit something and both men were thrown into the wall.
The ship stopped moving and they were all thrown into darkness. Neo sat up painfully and heard circuitry popping all around them. He felt he had to ask. 'Are you alive Smith?'
'Do you even want to know Mr. Anderson?'
'That answers my question.' Neo looked around, his eyes were slowly adjusting to the almost nonexistent light. 'We should get up to the command deck.'
Smith nodded in the dark and rose. Neo went to the door but Smith sarcastically said, 'allow me Mr. Anderson.' And grabbed the doorknob. A huge electrical arc shot him backward into the wall.
Unmoving he slipped to floor. Neo hesitated before seeing if the ex-agent was ok, Morpheus wanted him alive. He helped the injured man up. In the low light he could see the huge burn in his chest.
'You're hurt,' he said without much emotion.
'I'm dying,' Smith said simply.
'Morpheus knows first aid.'
'Pain,' the agent said weakly.
Neo was caught between hating him and feeling sympathy, if he had tried to open the door it would be him dying.
'Nightmare,' Smith said before he stopped moving. Neo closed his eyes and allowed him to fall back onto the bunk.
He heard Morpheus' voice outside.
'Neo!'
'Yeah?'
'Don't touch the door, it's charged.'
'No problem.'
When they could route the electricity away Trinity opened the door. 'Neo,' she said thankfully. 'Where's Smith?'
He pointed to the bed. 'Dead,' he said flatly but not completely devoid of emotion.
'Oh,' was all Trinity could muster.
'It could have been me.'
'I'm glad it wasn't.'
As with all the dead bodies they had on ships they jettisoned it over an empty area of the real world desert. As they did it was obliged that someone say something.
'Agent Smith was Agent Smith.' Trinity said using the only two words that were ever fit to sum him up.
The End.
Author: Stormhawk
Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6840
Summary: The freedom fighters have come up with a new trace program pill that can pull matrix software (i.e. Agents) into the real world. Smith is the guinea pig. Can they survive each other and is he to be trusted?
Notes: AU Written before I saw the second movie. This is my excuse if in the unlikely event that anything in it contradicts it. Being an AU fic you can ignore it.
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus and two new freedom fighters, Virus a hacker about trinity's age and Disk, a new recruit fresh out of the matrix, stood in the construct. Tank loaded them clothes, weapons, phones.
'Do you want to take it this time Neo?'
'Yeah Tank, load it.'
In Neo's hand a small box appeared, he opened it, inside was a round red pill. Tank pushed a couple of buttons and they found themselves in the Matrix. Their mission was simple. The agents had taken interest in a couple of kids in a computer-orientated college and they were going to move first.
Though on the streets their gothic clothing often drew attention to them, in the college they fitted right in. They looked around for the pair of kids but couldn't find them.
'Aren't they supposed to be here Trin?' Neo asked. Trinity nodded and turned to call Tank to search for them. 'Watch out!' she screamed as she turned.
A trio of passing kids had become agents. They raised their guns and fired, most had no trouble ducking out of the way but a bullet hit Disk straight through the heart. Virus ran to his aid but then died herself.
The three remaining started to fight the agents. Everyone else in the college ran away. Neo, confident in his abilities as the one had time to think as he fought the agent, Smith, why the hell does it always have to be Smith? Can't they give me a different agent to fight? He had destroyed the program a while ago but the Matrix programmers had evidently had a back-up copy.
He punched Smith in the face and that made the program stop for a second. That one second was long enough for Neo. He opened the silver box Tank had loaded for him and forced the pill down Smith's throat.
'It's done - run.' Neo shouted as his friends made a run for it.
The other two agents looked down at Smith who was choking on the ground. They looked at each other in distaste, he was so human that he disgusted them.
Smith meanwhile was not having a human reaction to the pill. He could feel his program degrading byte by byte. He looked to his fellow agents for help but they had disappeared and the students they had replaced had returned.
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus were hidden not far away, waiting for the other agents to go. Once they had seen them leave they returned to Smith. Morpheus and Neo pulled him to his feet and Trinity guided them to the exit.
Smith tried to fight back but his strength seemed to have left him. Trinity pulled the ringing phone from the hook and exited the matrix. Next Neo forced the receiver to Smith's ear and forced him to exit the matrix.
In the real world, Trinity had bound Disk's dead body to the chair and watched in surprise as something came back into it. It wasn't her friend back from the dead - it was something far more unnatural.
Neo and Morpheus exited and Tank pulled the plugs from their necks. They stood in a semi-circle around 'disk'. He looked up and sneered. 'Where am I?' Smith's voice rang through their friend's mouth.
'The real world,' Morpheus said.
It took the ex-agent a moment to answer. 'That's impossible.'
'Look around you - does this look like the Matrix to you?' Neo asked.
Smith tried to twist his head around but the plug stopped him. Tank took it out before he did himself an injury.
'This is a trick.'
Trinity smiled and punched him. 'Does it feel like a trick?'
'Why?'
'We needed a guinea pig.'
They left him tied to the chair to contemplate his existence for a while. The all went to the mess. 'Was this a good idea?'
'It was the only way Trinity. We had to see if it worked.'
'I still don't understand,' Tank said.
'We pulled Smith's consciousness, program whatever you want to call it through the land line into the real world. If we ever find what controls the matrix from inside and pull it out like that we can destroy it from the inside. We had to test it on a piece of software first and it worked.' Morpheus said.
'So what do we do with it?'
'I can think of a few things,' Neo muttered darkly.
'So can I Neo but we aren't them.'
'Sorry Morpheus.'
They undid Smith's restraints and threw him into one of the empty rooms until they decided what to do with him.
He looked around the cold and sparse room. He had never been this alone in his life.existence. He had existed before but now he was alive, in someone else's body but still alive.
Every step he took was a new experience for him, he had appeared to be human and had emotions but now they seemed real and sensations were a lot stronger when you weren't experiencing them purely for the intellectual curiosity.
On the command deck Neo tried to reason with Morpheus to allow him to kill the agent on the deck below. 'How many of us have they killed? He's just one and none have ever been so vulnerable before.'
'You can't kill him Neo. Not while he is in a human body.'
'Disk's body. Disk is dead and he's not coming back. I don't understand you Morpheus.' With that Neo left and loaded himself into a training program that he had created. In the program he could let out his rage on anything that got in his way.
'Neo's right Morpheus, why are you protecting him?'
'You will see Trinity, you will see.'
In his room Smith sat on the bunk, his head resting on his hands as he had often observed his prisoners do. He was contemplating how to escape. But to where? He couldn't get back into the Matrix and it was unlikely that any machine in the real world would believe who he was. He was stuck and there was nothing he could do about it.
Would the humans kill him? They had more than enough reason to. Was it because he was in one of their friend's bodies? He dismissed the thought, they knew better than anyone that anyone who dies in the matrix dies in the real world.except that annoying Mr. Anderson. Neo, his mind corrected him, a simple change of letters for One.
His lower belly made a strange noise, it was disturbing to him. He ran through a list of files, one popped up straight away - hunger. The body he was in was hungry. Food, he of course knew about food. He looked human in the matrix and had often seen people eat, or at least believe they were eating. More cross-references came up, if he didn't eat he would eventually die.
He required food and wasn't ready to die as long as there was..was hope the right word to use? As long there was hope of getting back into the matrix.
He didn't want to call to the humans as it would be a sign of weakness and he wasn't ready to grovel yet. Not yet anyway.
He heard the door unlock and he stood. The girl, Trinity walked in and placed a tray of food on the table. Humans fed their prisoners?
'It's food, you have to eat. Morpheus wants you alive for the moment.' He stood and stared unblinkingly at her.
'We aren't allowed to kill you so don't worry - it's not poison.' Poison? That hadn't even occurred to him.
He walked toward the food. It was the standard everything-your-body-needs- gruel and a cup of water. He was never expected to do this, he had observed humans doing it but had never bothered to learn how.
Trinity, obviously not wanting to bother with an annoying agent in a human body testily asked 'What?'
'I.,' Smith faltered, it would reveal his weakness, 'I don't know how.'
Trinity laughed at him, it was a cruel laugh and his weakness gave her some pleasure. She finished but an unkind smirk stayed on her face, she was going to enjoy this.
'Pick up the spoon.' Smith picked up the spoon and gripped the handle as you would a gun. Trinity took the spoon from him and showed him how to hold it then pantomimed eating several spoons of gruel.
'Got it now?' Smith nodded and started to eat. He put a spoon of food into his mouth and jumped back from it, the spoon went flying. He jumped back onto the bunk trying to run from himself.
'I wish I had a camera,' Trinity said as the agent spat out the food. She didn't quite understand what was happening but it was funny nonetheless.
Smith slowly calmed down and tried to process it. He had just experienced taste. He looked down in shame at the food down his torn shirt. He stepped off the bunk and picked up the tray.
'What was that all about?'
'Taste,' he said simply. She shrugged, closed the door and locked it and left.
Smith picked the spoon up off the floor and ate the gruel. He drank the water which was another experience again.
Trinity walked back up to the command deck. 'You fed him?'
'Yessir. It was quite funny.'
'Good. Keep at it.'
'Amusing he may be but I want to know what's going on.'
'All right, I'll tell you. We have an agent, vulnerable and alone. He knows every code and holds all the keys to the matrix and if we can find some way of getting on his good side he will give us the keys.'
'What if he doesn't?'
'Then Neo gets him,' Morpheus said coldly.
Smith sat on the bed unsure of what to do. He had eaten all of his meal and neatly placed the spoon in the metal bowl. The pillow behind him was soft, of course he wasn't a good judge but it felt nice. He closed his eyes for a second. This annoyed him, he had been blinking a lot more since he had entered the real world.
He laid back and this seemed to relieve some of the tension from his back. What was he to do?
Something pounded on the door. He sat up, unsure. If it was one of them why didn't they just unlock it? Could it be one of the machines? Could they have found him already?
The door blew in with just one more pound. Smith stood and saw Neo. Apparently some of the power he had within the Matrix had crossed over into the real world.
'Well aren't you going to say it?' Neo practically spat at him.
Smith was confused, 'say what?'
'Mr. Anderson.' Neo said as he came flying at him. Before he had a chance to react the human had beaten him to a pulp. Being.only human he didn't have a chance of fighting back.
Neo continued to punch and kick him even while he was bleeding over the floor. The pain was excruciating, surely he was going to die. The girl, Trinity had lied to him, they had planned on killing him all the time.
Neo lifted him up and threw him against the wall. He heard something crack and heard nothing more. A sharp pain across the face made him open his eyes and look around.
He was lying on the bed. All the humans were looking down at him. He heard Neo say, 'can I slap him again?'
He turned and saw Neo. He clambered back from him and looked at him with real fear. He looked at himself, he wasn't bleeding, nor was he bruised. The only pain he felt was from a slap across the face.
'You killed me,' he said softly to Neo.
Neo looked around to his friends. 'No, you were having a nightmare. You were dreaming.'
'Dreaming?' That was impossible for an agent, it was against their programming.
'We heard you screaming all the way up on command deck.'
'It wasn't real?' Smith was still reeling from this. How could humans stand to do this every night?
The freedom fighters looked at each other. Was this pathetic creature before them the deadly agent they had fought so many times?
One by one they quietly got up and left. He heard the door lock again and then he did something he never in his whole program been expecting to do - he cried.
He cried for no reason and for every reason in both worlds.
On the command deck Tank walked around checking equipment. 'That was scary, who would have imagined an agent could dream?'
'I think the plan is working.'
'If I didn't know better I would feel sorry for him.'
'Sorry Trinity? Sorry, he's only a computer program.'
'Neo he looked like a little kid.'
'Kids don't kill people.'
'Dreams about people killing you are always frightening. Haven't you ever had one?'
'Of course haven't you?'
'We've all had dreams like that,' Morpheus said before retiring to his room.
Tank and Neo left. Trinity went to follow them but stopped. In her dreams Smith had been the one doing the killing.
Smith sat awake, he didn't plan on sleeping for the rest of the time that he was human. He didn't know what would keep himself awake but would do absolutely anything.
Trinity unlocked the door, unsure of why she was doing it but deep in her heart she felt sorry for him even though she still knew exactly what he was.
He was gone! He wasn't sitting on the bed or the chair. She peered into the room and saw him standing behind the cupboard in the corner. She smiled, just like a child.
He took a step forward and brandished the tray. 'Relax, you're awake.'
'How do I know?'
She took three quick steps forward and pinched him. He dropped the tray, thought for a second then said 'ow.'
'If you were asleep you would be awake now.'
'Ow,' he said again, testing the word out.
'You have to sleep. Morpheus won't like you to be asleep tomorrow and Neo will be even more pissed at you than he is now.'
'I don't want to sleep.' He said, not worried about revealing his weakness as everyone on the hover craft already knew it.
'Tell me what happened. If you have a nightmare and tell someone about it that usually helps.'
'Why are you doing this?'
'I'm not sure, do you want me to leave?'
'No, I'll tell you.'
He told her every detail from it and she listened impassively. 'Boring,' she finally commented after he finished. 'Kid's stuff.'
He stared at her, apparently this wasn't the reaction he had expected. 'That was a mild nightmare compared to the ones we usually have and sometimes live.'
She recounted some of the worse ones that she had dreamt. He was always the killer. 'It is what I'm programmed to do,' he said when he was finished. 'It is what I was designed for.'
'How many humans have you killed?'
'Three hundred and fourteen.'
She looked sick at the number. 'I knew a lot of those people. You're living in one of them right now.'
'If I go to sleep, will I have another nightmare?'
'No one knows, it's one of the things about being human. A lot of things are unknown.'
'Damn humans.'
'We already are damned thanks to your kind. Doomed to live in the matrix or hide like rats in this world.'
'Is there so much wrong with the matrix? It is exactly like your world was.'
'It's sick. Have you ever seen the fields of children being grown?'
'It is not required for agents to bother with such things though I do know of them.'
'Children are supposed to be born. To live under a real sun, to be free.'
'Humans brought it on themselves. We are just the result.'
'Sins of the fathers, blaming the creation instead of the creator.'
'Yes.'
'Get some sleep.'
She stood to leave as he laid down on the bed. 'Trinity?'
'What Smith?'
'I'm afraid. I have never been afraid before.'
'Comes with being human which is what you are for the moment.'
He closed his eyes but Trinity saw his hands ball into fists. It was disturbing to see him afraid.
He opened his eyes and saw her still there. 'Is it necessary that I sleep?'
She nodded yes. She went over to him, sat on the chair beside the bed and sang a couple of lullabies. By the time she was finished he was asleep. She smiled to herself, the plan was working.
She went out the door and saw Neo waiting for her. 'Rock-a-bye-baby?' he asked incredulously.
'I haven't had to put a child to sleep in a long time. He's pathetic isn't he?'
'Stupid agents,' Neo said as he walked with Trinity.
In his cell, Smith opened his eyes, himself again and not afraid of sleep. The nightmare had rocked him but had not made him forget who he was. 'Stupid humans.' He said to himself, fool them into thinking I'm weak. He turned over and went to sleep.
He awoke the next morning to Trinity brining him breakfast. He threw himself back into weak mode. 'I would be thankful if you didn't tell anyone about last night.'
Trinity smiled and nodded. Poor little agent, she thought sarcastically.
She left and he ate. After he was finished he knocked on the door until someone heard him. Tank opened the door. 'What do you want?'
'I want to be let out.'
'I'll have to see Morpheus about that.'
'Take me to him, I will make my case to him in person.' Tank shivered at the last word, person. He was looking at both his friend and his enemy, it was weird.
Smith followed Tank to Morpheus. 'He wanted to see you sir.'
'What do you want?'
'Since it appears I am stuck here I want to offer you a trade.'
'What kind of a trade?'
'I will give you lesser codes that I know and you will upload me back into the matrix.'
'No deal. We want everything you know,' Neo said.
'Neo be quiet. You will us the lesser codes on faith and after they prove to be true you will give us the access codes for the matrix's mainframe and we will upload you then.'
'I don't have those codes.'
'Then you don't get to go home Smith.' Neo said coldly.
'What is that?' Smith asked. Pointing to a readout.
'Damn,' Tank shouted, 'squiddy.' He found a place to set the hover craft down and turned all the power off except the EMP.
Smith knew what the machine was but went to ask another question, as the hunter/killer drew closer Neo clamped his hand over the ex-agent's mouth. He kept it there until the machine had passed by.
Later as a gesture of faith Smith had revealed a couple of very minor codes to them and he offered to help them refine the Agent training program. He was suitably unimpressed with the woman-in-the-red-dress but offhandedly commented that only three percent of women in the matrix actually come close to those parameters.
It being dinnertime they exited the program. Neo silently took him back to room. Trinity came in with his gruel and left.
As she closed the door and walked away Smith's brain felt electric. She had forgotten to lock the door!
He could escape now but he needed a plan. He hunted around in the cupboards until he found an old but useable weapon. It was a projectile gun and had more than enough rounds to finish off the crew.
He opened the door and headed up to the main deck. They sat around talking, all but Tank who was working silently at his computer.
He raised the weapon and shot Morpheus. He stared Neo in the eyes before putting a hole in him. Tank was next but he hesitated when it came to Trinity.
Trinity looked around in horror, Morpheus, Neo, Tank, they all lay before her dead.
Smith, in Disk's body sneered at her. She took a step back from him. The weapons locker was a deck below and surely he would kill her before then.
'Your turn,' he said as he stepped forward.
She turned and ran from him. She had lived on this ship for years, she knew places to hide. She had to contact Zion. He would more than likely turn this ship in and the machines would use the ship to find out at least some of the human's secrets.
If she couldn't kill him or escape then she would be used and made to tell everything she knew.
She ducked into her room and opened a hatch beside her bed, slipped in and closed it behind her. Through the grate she saw his feet stop outside the room then walk on.
At least for now she was safe. She made her way to the power grid, looked out the grate and couldn't see anyone so she dislodged it and crawled out.
The second she was out someone grabbed her hair and pulled her to her knees. Smith had been standing in the blind spot beside the grate knowing that she would try and disable the main power so he couldn't fly the ship.
'Let me go Smith.'
'I don't think so.'
'Are you going to kill me?'
'I'm thinking about it.'
'You killed all the others.'
'Yes, I did. Mr. Anderson wasn't hard to kill in the real world. Disappointingly easy same with Morpheus.'
'We were going to put you back in the matrix, you didn't have to kill them.'
'You really expect me to believe that? You really must think I'm gullible. You humans are the gullible ones, thinking I was weak especially after that nightmare thing.'
'What thing?'
'You actually think I was bothered by some disjointed images of my own destruction, fooling you into thinking I was weak.you played right into my hands.'
Trinity had to think fast, if not she was dead - or worse, a traitor. 'I was fooled Smith, the sympathy I showed you was real.'
'I'm not fooling for that anymore.'
'No, I swear. You can't help what you are ordered to do, out in this world you had no one so I felt sorry for you.'
'Be that as it may it doesn't change anything.'
'You don't have to kill me.'
'Oh but I do. I have to make a clean sweep. It's unlikely you would tell us anything, you are very strong minded but even you can't survive bullets.'
He cocked the gun and forced it against the back of her head.
'Please don't.'
'Are begging for your life Trinity?'
'Yes, I don't want to die.'
'I am disappointed, I thought you would at least face your end with dignity.'
'It is not undignified to be afraid.'
REAL WORLD
'What's wrong Tank?' Morpheus. 'Get her out of there before he kills her.'
'I can't there's something wrong with the program.'
'You told me there was nothing wrong with it.'
'I've had enough of this,' Neo said. He took three long strides over to 'Disk's' chair and pulled the plug.
In the simulation Disk's body fell down. Trinity sighed and stood. Thank god.
'Can you get me out of here now?' she said to the simulation.
'We're working on it Trin,' Neo said even though she couldn't hear him.
'You didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of me did you?' Smith said from behind her. No longer a shadow in a dead body, he was in his own form again.
'How did you do that?'
'You didn't think I knew this was a simulation? You fool, I am a program in a human body or not I know when I'm plugged in.'
'Then why did you kill the others?'
'On the off chance that they would die. But it would seem that you are stuck in here with me.'
'You had something to do with that didn't you?'
'I rewrote part of the program as soon as I was plugged in, it was just luck that it was you who were stuck.'
'What exactly are you going to do?'
'Go back into the Matrix and tell them where your ship is. They won't use the EMP while you're inside so say goodbye to your friends. If they do use the EMP then they're the ones who have to say goodbye.'
'Bastard.'
'It's what I'm programmed to do.' To their left an event horizon (think Sliders) opened up. Smith threw Trinity through then stepped through himself.
'What did they just do Tank?'
'They're in the Matrix.'
'How?'
'Smith must have done it, it's simple to go from the construct to the matrix if it's programmed into it, you've done it plenty of times, he must have hacked in and written that into the program.'
Neo sat in the chair. 'I'm going in.'
'I'd love to but I can't. Look.' He pointed to his screen. Instead of the matrix scrolling in front of him the screens were blank.
'She's on her own.'
'No.'
'Trinity is strong Neo, she can get her own way out.' Morpheus said.
Trinity woke up in a hall, she was being dragged along by two other agents. Brown and Jones, she had heard them called.
Smith directed them into a room where they roughly threw her into a chair and restrained her.
They hooked her up to various machines much like the ones she had seen Morpheus attached to when she and Neo had rescued him.
Jones attached some sort of headset around her head and hooked it into a laptop that was resting on the table.
In the real world Tank had managed to get the screens working again but were still unable to upload themselves in. Neo, Morpheus an Tank watched the code scroll as it revealed Trinity's fate.
With an electrical charge the headset was turned on. With an involuntary jerk Trinity looked around the room.
The screen in front of Jones began to flash up with words and sentences.
What am I looking at Trinity thought. The same words appeared on the screen.
That's impossible, again the words popped up on the screen.
'Have you worked it out yet human?' Smith asked her.
Trinity didn't answer him but the words, can't he just tell me and get it over with? Appeared on the screen.
'This device reads your electronic thoughts and projects them onto the screen so your thoughts will betray whether you want them to or not.'
Several words popped up on the screens describing exactly what she thought of him, the other agents, the matrix and exactly what she would want to do to them but they have been censored so that I can keep this rating reasonably low.
'Very creative but you're wasting our time. Tell me what I want to know.'
What does he want to know?
'As if you don't know. I want all the codes that you know and I want them now.'
Go to hell.
'I'm already there.'
Codes, can't leak the codes. 54367, no stop thinking about them, thry680, stop it Trinity.
She tried to relax. Relax Trinity, relax and think about what Neo will do that bastard agent when he finds me.
'Mr. Anderson isn't going to find you, nor will he rescue you. I was kind enough to leave a virus in that hover craft that will prevent anyone entering the matrix.'
Again several censored words appeared. 'Tell us the codes.'
Never.
'I know several painful ways to kill you. You were kind enough to tell me them yourself.'
'Hey you two,' she said out loud to the other two agents. 'Brown and Jones right?'
They nodded once each. 'Did you know that Smith had a nightmare?' The two agents looked at each other and then to Smith.
'Nightmare?' Brown asked. Jones tried unsuccessfully tried to hide a smirk.
'He was screaming. We heard him from a deck above.'
'Shut up human.'
'I think his program is unstable.'
'You had a nightmare?'
Trinity closed her eyes and forced herself to think about the moment when they had run down to him. The memory appeared on Jones's computer, a little sketchy but perfectly understandable.
'You killed me,' memory Smith said to Neo. His fear gave the other two agents reason to stare at their companion.
Smith was grinding his teeth. Trinity was happy, as long as they were thinking about their insane co-agent they could forget about her.
She switched to a different memory. She showed them being sung to sleep. For her part she showed that she had been faking the sympathy. Smith had had enough, he walked forward and punched her right in the face.
The force threw her, and the chair she was tied to, down onto the ground and backward several feet. All of Jones's computer equipment went flying with her.
'Are you trying to cover up more evidence of your human frailties?'
'Tricks, they were all tricks. I was fooling them into thinking I was weak.'
'What about the nightmare?'
'A simple disjointed series of images brought on by the stress of being in a human body.'
'Bullshit.' Trinity said from the floor. Smith walked over to her and drew his gun. Brown swiftly took his gun from him and escorted him out. Trinity looked up at the remaining agent.
'Get up.'
'I'm tried to a chair that's lying on the ground. I couldn't get up if I wanted to.' As if the fact had just occurred to him he hauled her and the chair back up to an upright position.
Ignoring her he looked at his computer equipment, it was all ruined. He threw the laptop into a bin and went to retrieve another. Trinity allowed herself a small smile, she wasn't any worse off than she had been and if the truth be told she was probably a little better off without Smith.
She just hoped that her friends would find her soon, Smith had been a distraction nothing more. They would be back soon. She pulled against the restraints and to her surprise one of them came loose. It must have broken when the chair hit the floor.
She got one arm free and tried to pull loose from the others. She managed to get her other arm free so she ran. The building was relatively empty so she tried to find her way out.
As she passed a corner the cold steel of a gun pressed into her back. 'Don't move.'
Damn it she thought as she was escorted to a cell. Jones had been returning with the new computer but was ordered by Brown to throw her into a cell instead.
The cells were small and cold. 'Happy human?' she looked up, in the cell across from her Smith was sitting on a bunk.
'Didn't they delete you yet?'
'They aren't going to delete me just wipe my program clean but for the moment they put me in here, I'm as feeble as you are.'
'Shut up Smith. If I'm so feeble then how did I get you thrown in there?'
You will be sorry.'
'Your program will be cleaned, you won't even remember to make me sorry.' Trinity relaxed back onto her own bunk.
'You are still going to die, you know that don't you?'
'I'm not dead yet.'
'They can't rescue you.'
'Shut up or I will find some way to come over there to beat you up.'
'Brown and Jones have no understanding of humans.'
'That is part of why Neo hates you so much, you are so disturbingly human.' He was silent so Trinity tried to sleep.
Across in his cell Smith was muttering lines from 'Rock-a-bye-baby' he kept repeating it until he realized how violent it was. 'When the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all. Humans, singing such violent songs to innocent children.'
'Are you schizophrenic, demented or deranged? You are talking to yourself.'
'I was trying to understand why humans adore violence so much that they recite to children.'
'And scared Agents? It's just a nursery rhyme Smith, now shut up.'
'Humans are so complex.'
'Thank you.'
'Some agents can't understand that, they don't.'
'Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you, you have killed how many, three hundred and fourteen humans, you have tried to kill me, Neo and Morpheus so many times I have lost count as well as trying to eliminate the human race outside the Matrix. Oh yeah Smith I feel really sorry for you.'
'They are going to kill you. And in essence they are going to kill me as well.'
'You were never alive to start with.'
'And you?'
'I'm not afraid.'
'You could escape.'
'How?'
'Think about it. You aren't restrained, you could attempt a break out.'
'Why are you telling me this?'
'Help me to escape and get me back out of the Matrix. I will give Morpheus and your dear Mr. Anderson every code I know.'
'That didn't work too well last time.'
'Last time I was expecting to come back in and be acknowledged for the fact that I had you as a prisoner. Instead I am stripped of my abilities and are awaiting destruction. They have more copies of my Matrix, clean copies but I want to live.'
'Until you get out of the matrix when Neo kills you for what you've done.'
'Does sanctuary mean anything to you?' Trinity turned from him and considered his words. It was all moot anyway until she got out of there.
'They're coming.'
'How could you know?'
'I do, the time to decide is now.' Trinity punched the wall and a section of concrete fell away, she beat the concrete until there was a space big enough to crawl through.
She looked at the agent, he saw the look in her eyes. 'Don't leave me behind. Please.'
She hunted around until she found a set of keys. She unlocked the door as Jones and Brown were returning. The two agents saw their escaped prisoners.
'Do you trust me?' Smith asked Trinity.
Trinity went to say 'no' but the word died in her throat. Smith grabbed her and he ran at the window. He jumped and they both crashed through it. It was five stories to the ground, a long way to fall.
Trinity managed to right herself as to avoid injury. Smith landed beside her and they both ran away from the building.
*****
'There she is,' Tank shouted as Trinity's characters reappeared on the screens he had got to work. 'Shit.'
'What Tank?' Tank pointed at the screen. 'Smith,' Neo growled.
*****
Trinity and Smith ran through the evening street. She paused only long enough to kick a business man in the head and steal his phone, she dialed the number that let her contact the real world.
'Morpheus.'
'Trinity, are you ok?'
'I.we need an exit right now.'
'We?'
'Plug disk's body back in Smith is coming back out.'
'Smith?'
'Do it Morpheus.'
'We can't get you out, his virus is preventing anyone coming in or out.' Trinity looked at Smith with a look that could have killed.
'What?'
'We're stuck in here because of your virus.' They heard footsteps behind them.
'Give me the phone, run!' He swiped the phone as they ran from the pursuing agents.
'I assume you are stuck at the password barrier?'
'Yes,' Morpheus said evenly.
'It's a simple twenty-seven character string.'
'What is it?'
'Humans are a virus we are the cure, no spaces between the words.'
'Cute Smith.' He repeated the words to Tank who finally got the essential computer running.
'Where's the.what's the word? Exit?'
'Atlantic Street subway station.' Smith pointed the way to Trinity as they ran for freedom.
'Neo, plug disk's body back in.'
'No Morpheus, we aren't letting him back through. Not after what he did.'
'Trinity said it, not me, she must have a reason.' Neo scowled and plugged his dead friend's body back in.
The pair bounded down the stairs of the subway station. It was crowded, that was a blessing and a curse. The other two agents could appear in anyone of those people and the crowd would help to hide them.
They could hear the ringing telephone. The two agents were at the top of the stairs. Trinity picked it up first. 'When it rings pick it up.' She exited the matrix slowly it seemed to smith.
It seemed to take an age for the phone to ring. He picked it up and pressed it to his ear. He saw Brown point his gun at him but woke up in the real world before he got shot.
'You kept your word,' he was frankly surprised. He hadn't expected the phone to ring. He became aware of Neo and Morpheus' stares. He sighed, a trait he had picked up last time he had been this body.
'I am yours to do with as you will. I am not planning any tricks this time, I will willingly give you any and all codes I know. If you want to turn me over to judgment of Zion I will probably get more or less what was being planned for me in the matrix.' The words were spoken with such honesty that even Neo remained silent for a minute.
'What did you do to him Trinity?'
'I got the other two to throw him in a cell.'
'Good work.'
'I am perfectly aware of that but I deserved it.'
'You can go to your cell while we think about what to do with you.'
'I'll take him Morpheus,' Tank said. He stood and escorted the ex-agent out.
Neo looked at Trinity, he walked over to her and gave her a small kiss. 'Don't ever do that to me again. I thought I had lost you.'
'You'll never lose me.'
'Glad to have you back Trinity.'
'Thanks Morpheus.'
'Why did we let him back out exactly?' Neo asked, incredulous.
'Didn't you just hear his little speech? They were going to in essence kill him and he didn't want to die, he would rather be a traitor.'
'If I knew all it took to get the keys to matrix was put the fear of death into an agent.'Morpheus trailed off. 'Good work Trinity.'
Smith sat on his bunk and contemplated what he was doing. He had betrayed everything he was programmed to be loyal to. He consoled himself by realizing that they had betrayed him first, threatening to wipe his program clean and all.
Neo opened the door, Morpheus had told him to bring Smith up to have a little talk. As Neo opened his mouth the ship hit something and both men were thrown into the wall.
The ship stopped moving and they were all thrown into darkness. Neo sat up painfully and heard circuitry popping all around them. He felt he had to ask. 'Are you alive Smith?'
'Do you even want to know Mr. Anderson?'
'That answers my question.' Neo looked around, his eyes were slowly adjusting to the almost nonexistent light. 'We should get up to the command deck.'
Smith nodded in the dark and rose. Neo went to the door but Smith sarcastically said, 'allow me Mr. Anderson.' And grabbed the doorknob. A huge electrical arc shot him backward into the wall.
Unmoving he slipped to floor. Neo hesitated before seeing if the ex-agent was ok, Morpheus wanted him alive. He helped the injured man up. In the low light he could see the huge burn in his chest.
'You're hurt,' he said without much emotion.
'I'm dying,' Smith said simply.
'Morpheus knows first aid.'
'Pain,' the agent said weakly.
Neo was caught between hating him and feeling sympathy, if he had tried to open the door it would be him dying.
'Nightmare,' Smith said before he stopped moving. Neo closed his eyes and allowed him to fall back onto the bunk.
He heard Morpheus' voice outside.
'Neo!'
'Yeah?'
'Don't touch the door, it's charged.'
'No problem.'
When they could route the electricity away Trinity opened the door. 'Neo,' she said thankfully. 'Where's Smith?'
He pointed to the bed. 'Dead,' he said flatly but not completely devoid of emotion.
'Oh,' was all Trinity could muster.
'It could have been me.'
'I'm glad it wasn't.'
As with all the dead bodies they had on ships they jettisoned it over an empty area of the real world desert. As they did it was obliged that someone say something.
'Agent Smith was Agent Smith.' Trinity said using the only two words that were ever fit to sum him up.
The End.