A/N: This is *old*. As in, just saw the movie old. Stumbled across it trying to make some room on my 6-gig hard drive without deleting any of the sixty-some songs on Napster...not that I condone 'stealing' music or anything, I mean, who would want those poor, poverty-stricken musicians to starve...sorry. Matrix isn't mine, no one you recognize is mine (god, I WISH!) Anyone you don't recognize is mine. Flames are bad, constructive criticism is good.
ONE
"Samantha, your homework had better be finished if you're on that computer again!"
Phoenix rolled her eyes as at her mom's comment. "Yes, mother. Whatever." Homework was a joke. It didn't matter-she could pass her classes without it.
"I'm serious, Sam. If any of your teachers call again..."
"They won't, mom," Phoenix called back, grimacing. The two classes she didn't really mind were Networking and C++. Networking was interesting at times-the teacher practically pointed out all the security flaws in every major OS. And Phoenix could already program in C++, so that was free time for her to do what she wanted to. Even though she was a freshman, she knew she could out-program anyone in the class-hell, she could beat most people on this continent. She was Phoenix. She was one of the best hackers who was still at it. The legends were still above her-the almighty three-Morpheus. Trinity. And Neo. No one was better than them. But they were...gone. Dead, arrested, sick, somehow occupied with something other than computers. But Phoenix knew that she herself was rising to something of a legend status. She couldn't help it-it came naturally. In computers, she could get something right for once. In real life, she was a screw-up. One mistake after another. Socially, Phoenix knew that she was a disaster. She didn't care-she honestly give a rat's fuck what anyone at school said. On a whim, in sixth grade, she'd convinced the school tech teacher to give her some basic lessons in HTML. That spawned into a full-blown obsession.
From then on, her life was programming. Most of what Phoenix did was just writing programs: games, designing websites, and so on. But she could never resist the urge to try to squirm around a security system. She'd never actually crashed a system. She'd just poke around, leave her tag in a conspicuous place or two. That was hacking-not trashing sites and ruining other peoples work. It annoyed the hell out of her when people assumed she was destructive.
"Go to bed, Sam."
Phoenix tensed suddenly, her mother's voice shaking her out of her daze. Startled, she looked at the screen-she'd just finished almost a hundred lines of code-and the time. It was just past midnight. "Yeah, in a minute," she mumbled. "G'night."
Sighing, she clicked open her internet connection, a few extra windows automatically opening as well, bringing her to her favorite newsgroups and a chat. She automatically ignored any posts that were in all caps and/or had more than one exclamation point. There were three different requests for her specifically to crack some half-ass security system for money-they were quickly read then ignored. Phoenix turned her attention to the chat.
\Blastboy: Phoenix! Long time no talk, been busy?
\Phoenix: Hey Blast--yeah, you can say that. Been busy on a new graphics app. And, of course, keeping myself in a good amount of trouble at school.
\Linux.lover: So what's new, Phoen? *Big* surprise that you're getting in trouble...What for now?
\Phoenix: Nothing new. The admins finally realize that it was me who'd been leaving cryptic haiku poems scattered on the website.
\Raver: i thought u didn't do that stuff Phoenix.
\Phoenix: Nothing bad, Raver. You're right-I'm not into that stuff. It can be fun, but...
\Raver: FAKE!
Phoenix rolled her eyes. Great. A newbie was going to flame her in her own chat.
\Phoenix: Sure. So I been missing anything?
\Linux.lover: Hm...usual rumors-I saw some post the other day saying that Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity were all the same person and the Matrix was actually a code name for Microsoft...It raised some interesting questions, but nothing really.
\Blastboy: Death to Microsoft. I spent six hours last night trying to recover a damn term paper because NT crashed in the computer lab.
\Phoenix: You've got my sympathy, Blast. Honestly. But seriously, you should know better-typing anything of any importance on Windows?
\Linux.lover: I'm insulted to know you, Blast. Shame on you! (Joking!)
As if reading the conversation about crashing computers, Phoenix's screen chose that moment to go blank. Colorfully, the girl cursed, and tried to return to the chat.
\THE MATRIX HAS YOU, PHOENIX.
She stared at the words as they appeared across the center of the screen. Shit. She jabbed at the reboot button.
Nothing happened.
Plan two, Phoenix decided, was to come up with plan two.
WHO ARE YOU? Phoenix typed, somewhat relieved that the words actually showed up on the screen.
\YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
That helped a hell of a lot. Sure.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
\TO GIVE YOU THE TRUTH.
Phoenix stared at the words. It didn't make sense.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE MATRIX?
There was a long minute in which nothing happened. A fear crept up inside Phoenix, a fear that something was even more wrong than it seemed.
\GOOD. YOU ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.
An easy way to jump away from a question, Phoenix decided. Whoever she was talking to knew something that they wouldn't tell her willingly. If only she could get to her trace program, the one she'd written...
ABOUT THE MATRIX? I WANT THE TRUTH.
This time, the pause was longer. A full minute dragged by, then another, and another. Pax stared at the clock by her bed as it clicked from 12:57 to 1:04 when a reply finally came onto her screen.
\IT WILL COME.
WHEN?
She was not about to let them weasel out of this. The one time she knew someone knew about the Matrix, she couldn't get to her damn trace program. Unless she could find the CD it was on...fast...
Frantically, she pawed through the stacks of discs on the computer table, until she triumphantly slid a CD into the slot.
\DO NOT TRY TO TRACE US.
Okay. Shit. Had that warning come at the beginning of the...conversation, or any other time, Phoenix maybe could have passed it off as a simple warning. But the timing was too good to be coincidental. She was being watched.
WHY NOT? AND HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE THERE?
\IT WILL NOT WORK. THERE ARE SEVERAL OF US.
Of who? Phoenix wanted to scream. And why wouldn't it work?
SEVERAL OF WHO? ARE YOU WITH THE GOVERNMENT? HOW ARE YOU WATCHING ME?
\NO. IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH, MEET ME IN FRONT OF YOUR SCHOOL. IN FRONT OF THE GYMNASIUM. NOW. HURRY.
Me? Phoenix wondered. Instinctively, she sighed in relief as the chat and her normal screen returned...but what the hell was this? Only...her mom was asleep, and there was a payphone in front of the school if she needed it...
Phoenix hesitated only long enough to grab her gray jacket.
Phoenix stood in front of the school, in the middle of the sidewalk, looking around cautiously. Her hands were jammed in her pockets, guarded from the brisk spring night air. This was bullshit.
"Don't react," a male voice said from behind her, and she felt something hard and round press in between her shoulder blades. Panic flashed over her, and the voice continued, "In a second, a black car will pull up in front of you. Open the door, and get in. Don't look around, don't say anything, just do it."
It might have been fairly arbitrary, but Phoenix was willing to guess that the guy behind her wasn't holding a garden hose to her back. She stood there, and watched as a black car without its headlights on pulled to a stop in front of her. The windows were tinted. For a second, Phoenix didn't move, but a bit of pressure on her back convinced her. She reached out, opened the door, and awkwardly slid into the back seat of the car, realizing only then there was another person in the back. The still-unseen abductor slammed the door shut, and Phoenix heard it lock. Then the front door opened, and whoever had been behind her got in. Instantly, the driver shot out of the parking lot. No one said anything at all.
"Have you figured out who I am yet?"
Stomach still jumping, Phoenix nervously studied the woman in front of her. The few comments anyone had made on the ride had led Phoenix to one name: Shimmer. The first one to crack into the NSA mainframe, and brought it down for three days. "Yeah..." Her own voice sounded detached.
"And you are Phoenix. One of the best hackers of today. You've succesfully gotten into the FBI, CIA, NSA, White House, and UN dbases, and have written hundreds of programs. Most of them have simply pointed out problems in security systems and automatically fixed them." Phoenix stared. No one-absolutely no one-knew about the UN crack. That was the one accomplishment she wanted to keep to herself-but Shimmer knew about it.
"And all the time, you've been searching. Searching for the answer. Searching for a question that's always just out of reach."
Phoenix knew this was the lead up to something big. She had no idea, but something enormous was about to go down. "The Matrix," she murmured, more to herself than to the woman in front of her. She could swear that the air in the warehouse got a little bit colder.
"Do you want to know what it is?" Shimmer produced a pill case from her jacket pocket, and opened it on the table. There were two pills inside. "I offer you the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. If you take the blue pill, you will wake up in your own bed, perhaps puzzling over an odd dream. This will all be forgotten. If you take the red pill, we can show you the truth."
Shit. This wasn't how this wasn't how Phoenix wanted to spend her night, but it seemed a bit late for that. She stared at the pills, trying to form coherent thoughts.
"If you should choose the red pill, you cannot turn back. Once you know the truth, your life will be immeasurably different. Truth is a one-way street. Think carefully."
Phoenix shook her head slightly. This was fucking crazy. It sounded like Shimmer was pushing the blue pill...so blue it was.
"Remember," Shimmer said, seeing the young girl reach for the blue pill. "The blue pill lets you think what you want. The red pill frees you from oppression. It gives you the answers."
After a long look, Phoenix silently swallowed the red pill.
An eternity later, Phoenix realized she was awake. Her head ached, her body hurt-she felt like she'd been thrown into a tornado then spat out onto...a cot.
Grimacing slightly, her eyes flickered open as she sat up. She was in a dingy room-the Hollywood image of an old military submarine.
"Morning," a voice said from behind her head.
Phoenix turned , and saw a guy, probably about twenty or so, lounging in a chair in the corner. The throbbing in her head intensified for a second, and she winced.
"Relax. I'm Format. How you feeling?"
Mentally, Phoenix debated her answers. Confused, in pain, achy, tired, scared, annoyed..."Like shit."
"It'll pass," he assured her. "You think you can walk?"
Mentally, Phoenix debated her answers. Confused, in pain, achy, tired, scared, annoyed..."Like shit."
"It'll pass," he assured her. "You think you can walk?"
Phoenix stood, steadied herself on the edge of the bed, and decided she could. She also decided that something was wrong. She felt too weak, too out of it. What the hell was that pill she took?
FIN
ONE
"Samantha, your homework had better be finished if you're on that computer again!"
Phoenix rolled her eyes as at her mom's comment. "Yes, mother. Whatever." Homework was a joke. It didn't matter-she could pass her classes without it.
"I'm serious, Sam. If any of your teachers call again..."
"They won't, mom," Phoenix called back, grimacing. The two classes she didn't really mind were Networking and C++. Networking was interesting at times-the teacher practically pointed out all the security flaws in every major OS. And Phoenix could already program in C++, so that was free time for her to do what she wanted to. Even though she was a freshman, she knew she could out-program anyone in the class-hell, she could beat most people on this continent. She was Phoenix. She was one of the best hackers who was still at it. The legends were still above her-the almighty three-Morpheus. Trinity. And Neo. No one was better than them. But they were...gone. Dead, arrested, sick, somehow occupied with something other than computers. But Phoenix knew that she herself was rising to something of a legend status. She couldn't help it-it came naturally. In computers, she could get something right for once. In real life, she was a screw-up. One mistake after another. Socially, Phoenix knew that she was a disaster. She didn't care-she honestly give a rat's fuck what anyone at school said. On a whim, in sixth grade, she'd convinced the school tech teacher to give her some basic lessons in HTML. That spawned into a full-blown obsession.
From then on, her life was programming. Most of what Phoenix did was just writing programs: games, designing websites, and so on. But she could never resist the urge to try to squirm around a security system. She'd never actually crashed a system. She'd just poke around, leave her tag in a conspicuous place or two. That was hacking-not trashing sites and ruining other peoples work. It annoyed the hell out of her when people assumed she was destructive.
"Go to bed, Sam."
Phoenix tensed suddenly, her mother's voice shaking her out of her daze. Startled, she looked at the screen-she'd just finished almost a hundred lines of code-and the time. It was just past midnight. "Yeah, in a minute," she mumbled. "G'night."
Sighing, she clicked open her internet connection, a few extra windows automatically opening as well, bringing her to her favorite newsgroups and a chat. She automatically ignored any posts that were in all caps and/or had more than one exclamation point. There were three different requests for her specifically to crack some half-ass security system for money-they were quickly read then ignored. Phoenix turned her attention to the chat.
\Blastboy: Phoenix! Long time no talk, been busy?
\Phoenix: Hey Blast--yeah, you can say that. Been busy on a new graphics app. And, of course, keeping myself in a good amount of trouble at school.
\Linux.lover: So what's new, Phoen? *Big* surprise that you're getting in trouble...What for now?
\Phoenix: Nothing new. The admins finally realize that it was me who'd been leaving cryptic haiku poems scattered on the website.
\Raver: i thought u didn't do that stuff Phoenix.
\Phoenix: Nothing bad, Raver. You're right-I'm not into that stuff. It can be fun, but...
\Raver: FAKE!
Phoenix rolled her eyes. Great. A newbie was going to flame her in her own chat.
\Phoenix: Sure. So I been missing anything?
\Linux.lover: Hm...usual rumors-I saw some post the other day saying that Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity were all the same person and the Matrix was actually a code name for Microsoft...It raised some interesting questions, but nothing really.
\Blastboy: Death to Microsoft. I spent six hours last night trying to recover a damn term paper because NT crashed in the computer lab.
\Phoenix: You've got my sympathy, Blast. Honestly. But seriously, you should know better-typing anything of any importance on Windows?
\Linux.lover: I'm insulted to know you, Blast. Shame on you! (Joking!)
As if reading the conversation about crashing computers, Phoenix's screen chose that moment to go blank. Colorfully, the girl cursed, and tried to return to the chat.
\THE MATRIX HAS YOU, PHOENIX.
She stared at the words as they appeared across the center of the screen. Shit. She jabbed at the reboot button.
Nothing happened.
Plan two, Phoenix decided, was to come up with plan two.
WHO ARE YOU? Phoenix typed, somewhat relieved that the words actually showed up on the screen.
\YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
That helped a hell of a lot. Sure.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
\TO GIVE YOU THE TRUTH.
Phoenix stared at the words. It didn't make sense.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE MATRIX?
There was a long minute in which nothing happened. A fear crept up inside Phoenix, a fear that something was even more wrong than it seemed.
\GOOD. YOU ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.
An easy way to jump away from a question, Phoenix decided. Whoever she was talking to knew something that they wouldn't tell her willingly. If only she could get to her trace program, the one she'd written...
ABOUT THE MATRIX? I WANT THE TRUTH.
This time, the pause was longer. A full minute dragged by, then another, and another. Pax stared at the clock by her bed as it clicked from 12:57 to 1:04 when a reply finally came onto her screen.
\IT WILL COME.
WHEN?
She was not about to let them weasel out of this. The one time she knew someone knew about the Matrix, she couldn't get to her damn trace program. Unless she could find the CD it was on...fast...
Frantically, she pawed through the stacks of discs on the computer table, until she triumphantly slid a CD into the slot.
\DO NOT TRY TO TRACE US.
Okay. Shit. Had that warning come at the beginning of the...conversation, or any other time, Phoenix maybe could have passed it off as a simple warning. But the timing was too good to be coincidental. She was being watched.
WHY NOT? AND HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE THERE?
\IT WILL NOT WORK. THERE ARE SEVERAL OF US.
Of who? Phoenix wanted to scream. And why wouldn't it work?
SEVERAL OF WHO? ARE YOU WITH THE GOVERNMENT? HOW ARE YOU WATCHING ME?
\NO. IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH, MEET ME IN FRONT OF YOUR SCHOOL. IN FRONT OF THE GYMNASIUM. NOW. HURRY.
Me? Phoenix wondered. Instinctively, she sighed in relief as the chat and her normal screen returned...but what the hell was this? Only...her mom was asleep, and there was a payphone in front of the school if she needed it...
Phoenix hesitated only long enough to grab her gray jacket.
Phoenix stood in front of the school, in the middle of the sidewalk, looking around cautiously. Her hands were jammed in her pockets, guarded from the brisk spring night air. This was bullshit.
"Don't react," a male voice said from behind her, and she felt something hard and round press in between her shoulder blades. Panic flashed over her, and the voice continued, "In a second, a black car will pull up in front of you. Open the door, and get in. Don't look around, don't say anything, just do it."
It might have been fairly arbitrary, but Phoenix was willing to guess that the guy behind her wasn't holding a garden hose to her back. She stood there, and watched as a black car without its headlights on pulled to a stop in front of her. The windows were tinted. For a second, Phoenix didn't move, but a bit of pressure on her back convinced her. She reached out, opened the door, and awkwardly slid into the back seat of the car, realizing only then there was another person in the back. The still-unseen abductor slammed the door shut, and Phoenix heard it lock. Then the front door opened, and whoever had been behind her got in. Instantly, the driver shot out of the parking lot. No one said anything at all.
"Have you figured out who I am yet?"
Stomach still jumping, Phoenix nervously studied the woman in front of her. The few comments anyone had made on the ride had led Phoenix to one name: Shimmer. The first one to crack into the NSA mainframe, and brought it down for three days. "Yeah..." Her own voice sounded detached.
"And you are Phoenix. One of the best hackers of today. You've succesfully gotten into the FBI, CIA, NSA, White House, and UN dbases, and have written hundreds of programs. Most of them have simply pointed out problems in security systems and automatically fixed them." Phoenix stared. No one-absolutely no one-knew about the UN crack. That was the one accomplishment she wanted to keep to herself-but Shimmer knew about it.
"And all the time, you've been searching. Searching for the answer. Searching for a question that's always just out of reach."
Phoenix knew this was the lead up to something big. She had no idea, but something enormous was about to go down. "The Matrix," she murmured, more to herself than to the woman in front of her. She could swear that the air in the warehouse got a little bit colder.
"Do you want to know what it is?" Shimmer produced a pill case from her jacket pocket, and opened it on the table. There were two pills inside. "I offer you the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. If you take the blue pill, you will wake up in your own bed, perhaps puzzling over an odd dream. This will all be forgotten. If you take the red pill, we can show you the truth."
Shit. This wasn't how this wasn't how Phoenix wanted to spend her night, but it seemed a bit late for that. She stared at the pills, trying to form coherent thoughts.
"If you should choose the red pill, you cannot turn back. Once you know the truth, your life will be immeasurably different. Truth is a one-way street. Think carefully."
Phoenix shook her head slightly. This was fucking crazy. It sounded like Shimmer was pushing the blue pill...so blue it was.
"Remember," Shimmer said, seeing the young girl reach for the blue pill. "The blue pill lets you think what you want. The red pill frees you from oppression. It gives you the answers."
After a long look, Phoenix silently swallowed the red pill.
An eternity later, Phoenix realized she was awake. Her head ached, her body hurt-she felt like she'd been thrown into a tornado then spat out onto...a cot.
Grimacing slightly, her eyes flickered open as she sat up. She was in a dingy room-the Hollywood image of an old military submarine.
"Morning," a voice said from behind her head.
Phoenix turned , and saw a guy, probably about twenty or so, lounging in a chair in the corner. The throbbing in her head intensified for a second, and she winced.
"Relax. I'm Format. How you feeling?"
Mentally, Phoenix debated her answers. Confused, in pain, achy, tired, scared, annoyed..."Like shit."
"It'll pass," he assured her. "You think you can walk?"
Mentally, Phoenix debated her answers. Confused, in pain, achy, tired, scared, annoyed..."Like shit."
"It'll pass," he assured her. "You think you can walk?"
Phoenix stood, steadied herself on the edge of the bed, and decided she could. She also decided that something was wrong. She felt too weak, too out of it. What the hell was that pill she took?
FIN