Summary: What if, in another universe, becoming the One came with a price?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings from the Matrix; these are the property of WB and the Wachowski brothers. That's pretty obvious because if they were mine, Morpheus would have his own movie! I'm also not making any money from this - who'd be silly enough to pay me to be obsessed?
Author's Note: This is an alternate universe in which Mouse survived Cypher's betrayal and Neo wasn't shot in Room 303.
Coming of Darkness
Prologue
Mouse sighed with satisfaction. He was chest deep in a steaming hot tub across from the woman in red. A man couldn't ask for any more than this, he thought, trailing one hand through the warm water. And for the hell he'd gone through, he deserved it. As he remembered being shot, he tensed involuntarily. The woman across from him noticed, and moved behind him. She began kneading his shoulders with long, delicate fingers.
"Mmm. That feels good."
She stayed silent, as always. He never knew why he talked to her - he knew she couldn't respond.
Her hands traced his spine, causing ripples of water to lap at his sides. Then he felt them leave his skin.
He turned around, asking, "Why did you sto-" Metal flashed in the corner of his eye, and he ducked on instinct. A knife embedded itself in his throat, red blooming around him.
The program smiled over him with carmine lips and completed the computer shutdown.
***
Three Agents faced one another across a spotless glass table.
THE PROGRAM WAS UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS TO THEIR COMPUTERS_
THAT IS NOT AT ISSUE. THE TECHNOLOGY IS REAL_
WE WILL NEED A MORE COMPLEX HOST TO TRULY EXTINGUISH THE REBELLION_
EASILY DONE_
HOW?_
THE BATTERIES SO PREVALENT ON THIS PLANET ARE NOTHING BUT PROGRAMMING IN THE MATRIX. THAT CAN BE USED TO OUR ADVANTAGE_
Ch. 1 - Edge of Truth
"Morpheus?" Trinity called out tentatively to him from her seat before the blinking monitors. "We've been able to locate the people you chose as potentials." She looked back at the faces on the screen before her. They were so radically different from one another! Their computer expertise was nearly all they had in common. One, Psyche, was a rich child who had parents in the computer business and had begun hacking as a way to rebel. Another was Whisper, a lonely teenager who created viruses. The third and final potential was a college student who went by Raven, who tended to ghost in and out of systems simply for the challenge.
She heard Morpheus come up behind her. Turning to look at him, she watched as he looked at their pictures for a moment. She tried to read his expression as he skimmed over what they'd been able to discover about the three. She failed, as usual. She could never tell which one he favored. Then he touched the screen showing Raven. "Her. She is our next target."
"Are you sure? Whisper has more experience."
"I believe that she will accept the truth more easily."
Translation: , Trinity thought to herself, I want to free her for a reason I don't want to tell you yet. She shrugged mentally. He'd used a similar excuse to free Neo, and he'd been reasonably right then. "When do you want us to contact her?"
"Soon. I believe that it's Neo's turn to contact a potential."
"I'll tell him when my shift is over. It's only about ten minutes anyway."
He nodded in acknowledgment, then departed for the wiring he had been repairing. She returned to the monitor with Raven displayed on it, and started watching what the girl was doing. Watching the potentials always made her feel like a bit of a voyeur, but it kept her mind off the endless wondering. Was Neo the One? Her mind ran in circles over that daily. Could he just possibly be humanity's savior? She shook off that thought and looked intently at the girl on the screen. Black hair brushed her shoulders as she searched through the Web. The answers are coming, Raven. I hope you like them.
***
Amanda Greyson finished typing her thesis and shut down the computer. She rubbed her neck absently. She always got a kink in it when she'd been working for a while. In truth, her life on computers was the only real work she ever did. College was just as endless and pointless as high school, she'd found. The only difference was that they made you write more papers about their point of view.
She looked up into the room's dulled mirror. Dark brown eyes looked back at her, set in pale skin and framed by equally dark, straight hair. Her mother's Italian genes had won out there. Her father, she'd been told, was Irish. She thought she'd gotten his temper... The thought halted when her foot hit something on the floor. She bent down to look, and her view was suddenly obscured by a curtain of hair. She growled under her breath. She'd forgotten to pull it back this morning, and it had been falling in her eyes all day. After finally locating a scrunchie, she ran her hands through her hair and shoved it on. It fell a bit lopsided, but she wasn't trying to impress anyone.
When she picked up the thing she'd steeped on, she found it was one of the tarot cards that were lying all over the place. Whenever her roommate got a reading with something she didn't like, the damned things were everywhere until Raven finally picked them all up. She flipped it over, curious as to which one this was. Justice stared out from its face. "Go figure. 'The redress of a wrong'?" She flicked it over to the growing pile on her roommate's desk. Once she moved it, she found another card and groaned. "These stupid-" She stopped once she saw what it held. A scrawled message - "THE MATRIX HAS YOU, RAVEN."
***
Ch. 2- Whispers in the Dark
She turned the card over, hoping for some clue to its origin, or who'd known that was her alias. The Matrix was something that she'd always been curious about. It was like the hacker's Holy Grail - lots of rumors as to where it was and what it was like, but no one had ever actually found out. No such luck. There was only a smaller message, in the same scribbled hand. "12:30 P.M. The Rabbithole," she read out loud. That puzzled her even more. The Rabbithole was a dump of a club. Why would anyone in their right mind want to meet there? Still, she decided to go anyway - she was curious to find out who had left that for her. Still, what if they had done this to turn her in? Screw it, she thought to herself. I didn't become a hacker to be cautious. She tucked the card into a back pocket of her jeans. The clock read 10:49, so she settled down to wait in one of the overstuffed chairs with a pair of headphones. As she noticed that her fingers were drumming against the table, she smiled ruefully. I never was very good at waiting.
***
Neo stood in a dark corner, waiting. Dancers moved through the crowd as he watched, the lighting painting them a hundred different colors. He watched their undulations carefully, looking for any sign of the woman they had been watching. Raven. The dark-haired hacker would be just as curious as he had been about the message. God, I hope we aren't making a mistake with this. They needed someone who would be old enough to be useful quickly, but the older they were, the harder it was to let go of the Matrix. There was always a trade-off. He just hoped Raven wouldn't pay the price.
***
Raven walked into the dump, greeted with the sight of colored strobe lights and frenzied dancers. She hoped she'd spot whoever it was soon. There was so much crap in the air here you got high just breathing. Looks like my lucky day. A dark-haired man turned around, watching her. Judging by the fact that he's the sole person in the room who isn't stoned, he was probably the one who sent that card. His black trenchcoat swirled behind him, accentuating his footsteps. "Hello, Raven." He spoke quietly, nearly whispering in her ear. "Who told you that name?" He smiled slightly and didn't answer. "Who are you?" "My name is Neo." Oh, lovely. And a crackpot to boot. "Right. Of course. Why didn't I think of it before? All the living legends meet people in places like this." That small smile widened as he chuckled. "Living legend?" She sighed. He'd even seemed serious. She started to back away from him, looking around to make sure she could get away if the nut went violent. That was when she saw the suits. Two of them, looking deadly serious, were moving in their direction, and the bartender was pointing at them. She cursed softly. He did set me up! Damn. Escape first, revenge later. She glided towards the exit soundlessly. "Where are you -" He cut himself off once he looked at the men. He pulled out a gun, causing her to run for the back door. One of the suits started chasing her while the other drew his Desert Eagle. She realized, in the split second before she got to the door, that the man she'd met and the suit were pointing them at each other.
***
Ch. 3- Shadows
What? That meant that he couldn't be working for them. Unless they staged it so that I'd trust him later...
She snapped out of her thoughts to see the other man moving towards her, shoving junkies out of his way.
Pushing the back door open, she fled into the alley behind the club. She pelted down the street, nearly tripping over a bum. "Sorry-" She cut herself off when the bum's face started rippling. As she backed away, he started shifting into a man with sunglasses and a suit. And a gun. The gun made her start running twice as fast. She heard him fire behind her, and the shot pinged off one of the pipes on the alley walls. She heard him fire again, so she ducked behind a pile of bricks. She gasped for breath. "Miss Greyson, you are only making things worse for yourself." He almost sounded bored. He didn't even seem to be winded. She heard someone else step into the alley and start shooting. Who did I piss off to deserve this? She looked over the top of the brickpile and felt a bullet graze her scalp. Ducking, she moved toward the single door in the side of the alley and opened it...
***
Neo dodged away from the Agent and started running after Raven. She was totally untrained; she wouldn't stand a chance against one of the programs. He had to get her out of here! The Agent fired behind him, but he ducked through the back door. Placing his back against the building wall, he looked for any other Agents, then kept running. He pulled out his cellphone, asking frantically, "Tank! Where is she?" "Keep going until you hit the dead end in front of you. There should be a door on your right. She's in there. Wait!" He skidded to a stop. "What?" "Sorry, man. They got her."
***
As she dove inside the door, she felt herself hit something. Looking up, she saw a man in a black suit frowning down at her. He caught her by her wrist and moved the gun towards her temple. Struggling, she tried desperately to get away. She closed her eyes as cold metal touched her skin. "You will be coming with us, Ms. Greyson."
Ch. 4 - Darkness and Lies
"In short, Ms. Greyson, you are in deep. And the only way you will get out is through us." "What do you want me to do?" "We would like your help." "Help with what?" She'd need specifics if she was going to weasel her way out of this one. "There is a man we believe has contacted you. This man is one that we will go to great lengths to capture. We will even erase all of this," he said, gesturing to her criminal record, "for the sake of stopping the threat that he represents." "Who?" She already knew, even before he said the name. "His name is... Morpheus."
"Will you help us, Miss Greyson?" She ran through her options. A. I tell them to screw off and probably disappear in a back alley. B. I try breaking out of here. With handcuffs and both of those suits watching me, the chances of that working are slim to much slimmer. C. I tell them I'll do it. She hated herself for having to say it, but it was the only way she was going to get out of here. "Yes." The man smiled coldly and put his sunglasses back on. "Go with Agent Green. He will instruct you in what you are to do." She was swiftly hustled out the door with the man.
***
Agent 675-Beta (Green) approximated a smile as well as his programming allowed. Typically the targets refused, having an abominable disrespect for authority. This one, luckily for her, had recognized her natural masters.
"Lie back, madam. What we are giving you will help you to survive if they become violent." "Can I go after this?" "Yes. Be warned, however - if you do not come through, we have... methods of encouragement."
He saw her shiver, the desired fear response. She jerked at the prick of the needle, then slumped into unconsciousness.
***
Neo answered the cell phone, pressing the glowing button that would let him receive Tank's call. "Yes?" "We're going to have to speed contact with Raven up." "Why?" "The Agents have her and they aren't letting her go." "Shit!" "She's being held at the green building on the corner of Wells and Third. If you can get there, I'll tell you when the Agents are out of the room."
He started to run, his duster flying out behind him. As he rounded the corner of Main, he saw a woman in blue watch him go past. Damn. That meant an Agent wouldn't be far behind. Nothing for it, though. He heard the electrical crackling behind him that usually heralded one of the programs, right on cue. As he looked back, an Agent rose from a lonely newspaper stand and raised his gun...
***
Through his link with the central computer, an announcement came.
MR. ANDERSON (ALIAS: NEO) IS WITHIN THE MATRIX AND HEADING FOR YOUR POSITION_
Agent 675-Beta (Green) smiled coldly. He had been waiting to meet one of the members of the Rebellion. It looked like now he would get his chance.
He headed out the door, waiting for Anderson to arrive.
Ch. 1. Shattered Dreams
Neo ran through the street, desperately trying to get to Raven. The Agent behind him had already fired two rounds, one of which had scratched his thigh. The wound bled more every time his foot came down, but he refused to abandon her to the Agents. The green building where she was being held was just ahead. He started running even faster, his feet blurring. He heard the report from the Agent's gun a third time. Then he felt the bullet hit his calf in his left leg. Grimacing from the pain, he stumbled and fell. That was just enough of a pause to let the Agent catch up to him. "Mr. Anderson. We meet again." The Agent stood over him, pressing his foot into the wound. He could feel all the grains of sand and dirt scraping in it, and the already damaged tissue beginning to tear further. The pain whited out his vision, until the street before him flickered like a mirage. He moved his arms, propping himself up. Then he moved his hand under his duster with the vestiges of his strength and spun around, facing the Agent. The Agent reached for his gun, but Neo had fired by the time he touched it. Panting, he said, "My name... is Neo." He began limping toward the building, pulling out his cell as he went.
"Operator."
"Which room... is she... in?" Every time he had to use the leg, it hurt like hell.
"Neo, you're not going to commit suicide for a potential. It's not worth it! There's an exit on Wells and Lake."
"Don't make me... ask you... again."
He could hear the man on the other end sigh.
"What ROOM?"
"It's on the side of the building to the right of you. You should be coming up on a window about now. It's right behind that office."
He snapped the phone closed and kept moving.
***
He'd perched himself directly over the room on the roof. Tank had already said that the Agents had left, probably looking for him, so he was just gathering his strength for a moment. It would probably be all the respite he'd get.
Finally, he punched through the skylight. Glass shattered around his fist, falling downward. Using his good leg, he vaulted down into the room. He looked around quickly, and spotted Raven. Her black hair spilled out around her face, creating a dark halo. He limped over to her side and slapped her face. She opened her eyes, and he could see that one of her pupils was dilated and the other a pinprick.
Damn.
She wasn't going to be much help, then. She had to wake up enough to walk, though. In the shape he was in, he wouldn't be able to carry her. He slapped her again.
"Raven," he croaked, "wake up." Her dark eyes refocused on him.
"You? What're you-"
"We have to get out of here, Raven." He tugged at her wrist, hoping she'd get the idea. She sat up slowly (too slowly, his mind screamed) and hung her feet over the edge of the chair she'd been in.
"Now!" he hissed. "Before the Agents come back." Getting up, she still seemed dazed. He finally just held her wrist and limped towards the nearby office. Please let the door be open. Please... It was unlocked. He finally dragged her through it and opened the window. He ducked through it and hurried onto the grass, with Raven still following. He took a deep breath, moving toward the sunlight and freedom.
Ch. 2. Reflected Truths
She woke to a room and a face swimming before her. Sitting up, she rubbed at her eyes. The face belonged to someone she didn't know; a tall, blond man hovered before her. "Feeling better?" "Other than wondering if I was hit by a truck, you mean?." The man grinned. "Well, she's healthy enough for sarcasm, anyway." "Thank you, Cerebus." The thanks came from someone she couldn't see. She moved her head, trying to discern who the speaker had been as she saw Cerebus discreetly excuse himself through the room's double doors. She spotted the man's profile silhouetted against the gathering stormclouds outside. He was seated in a burgundy leather chair that had seen better days. As she seated herself across from him, he greeted her. "Hello, Raven. I am Morpheus." Who knows? Maybe living legends do go for shabby places. "It's an honor to meet you," she replied, sincere for once. There was no doubt in her mind about who he was; the presence before her couldn't be anyone else. "The Agents, they said... they gave me something. I told them I would help them find you in order to get away..." "They were attempting to scare you into obeying. You weren't bugged." Inwardly, she feared he was wrong.
"Normally, we would have taken things more slowly, but we have run out of time. We could not allow you to fall into the hands of the Agents."
"Thank you for that. I wasn't enjoying their company too terribly much." The mirrored sunglasses he wore reflected her face back to her, giving her the eerie sensation of talking to her reflection. "But what would you go to all that trouble for?"
"You wished to be free of them."
"My wish is your command?" She asked the question with a sardonic smile.
He smiled slightly and did not answer.
"Do you still want to know what the Matrix is?"
"Yes," she breathed.
"It is a prison, a cage for your mind and theirs," he said, gesturing to the people outside. Her gaze followed his gesture. From here, they looked like ants, scurrying to get out of the coming storm.
"But not yours?" she asked, returning to his face.
His razor-thin smile widened a hair. "No," he replied.
She mulled on his answer silently, continuing to watch and listen.
He steepled his fingers and continued. "It surrounds you in everything you do and everywhere you go. It is there when you are eating lunch, when you go to the doctor, and when you pay your taxes. Still, the Matrix cannot be described. You have to see it for yourself."
"How?"
"I will offer you a final choice, Raven." He opened his left fist, and a blue capsule was within it. "If you take the blue pill, this meeting ends. You wake up in your bed and I and this meeting will be nothing more than a dream." The other hand, she now saw, contained a red capsule. It was identical to the first in everything but color. "If you take the red pill, you follow this story to its end and you find the truth that has been hidden from you."
She stared at his hands for a moment and chose.
Interlude
Agent 675-Beta (Green) watched his supervisor's programmed pacing across his office.
AGENT 675-BETA_
WHY DID YOU LET THE BATTERY GO?_
SHE IS MORE USEFUL TO US ALIVE THAN DEAD, SIR_
EXPLAIN YOURSELF_
IN OUR CUSTODY, SHE WOULD HAVE REMAINED ONLY A BATTERY_
HER USEFULNESS WOULD BE LIMITED_
IF SHE IS ALLOWED TO JOIN THE RESISTANCE, SHE MAY WELL HAND US ALL OF THEM_
The program that was his supervisor smiled coldly.
I SHOULD HOPE SO AGENT 675-BETA_
IF THE BATTERY DOES NOT ACT AS YOU SAY, YOU WILL HAVE LIED_
ONLY ROGUE PROGRAMS LIE_
AND ROGUE PROGRAMS ARE TERMINATED_
Ch. 3. Brave New World
After she swallowed the red pill, she started to feel a tingling in the back of her mind. They had gestured for her to sit down in what looked vaguely like a dentist chair. She'd stiffened when she saw it. Some kind of primal warning had been triggered by that thing. Now, though, she couldn't place why. The instinct nagged at her, tugging at her brain. She sat in it anyway. If these people had really wanted her dead they would have just turned her in. Still, it was hard to break old habits. That was why she had turned to watch those closest to her in a way that would let her keep peripheral vision of the door. A woman in black leather was fiddling with some dials, while the blond man she'd met (Cerebus, she remembered) was putting electrodes on her head. She put the glass she'd washed the pill down with on the floor - or tried. The glass was melting in her hand. "Um, what exactly did you give me?" The glass stretched when she tried to move her hand back, the ice-cold stuff sticking to her hand like Silly Putty. "It's part of a trace program so that we can find you when you wake up," replied Cerebus. Wake up? She banished that thought for more immediate concerns. As she kept pulling her hand away from the glass, it separated with a glob still stuck to her hand. Little shards of the connection that had been there fell away, making a soft tinkling noise. The glob began to spread over her fingers, then her hand. She tried wiping it off on the arm of the chair, but that just resulted in its spread up her chest. It began crawling upwards toward her face, ignoring her frantic attempts to brush it off. "Heart rate's up," came from Cerebus's direction. "Have you located her?" "Hang on, I almost have it..." The voices swirled in her consciousness. She wasn't paying any attention. The molten glass was up to her neck and showed no sign of stopping. Her chin... Her ears... Her lower lip...
She heard the words "Got it!" a heartbeat before she was sucked into nothingness.
***
Her eyes sluggishly opened to what felt like a bag full of warm, red goo. She frantically tried to get out, pushing hands that didn't want to respond up to its edge. She had to get out of this thing! There was a slight give to its surface, like plastic. Tearing through it, she ripped off the mask that had been on her mouth. When she breathed, the air made her cough. It smelled of ozone and burned plastic. Her muscles collapsed, aching, and she fell to a sitting position. The goo covered up to her chest. More of it dripped off her everywhere else. It hurt to move very much, so she stayed sitting down. As she looked beyond the pod she'd been in, she saw thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. Exactly alike, perfectly aligned. Lightning flashed suddenly, blinding her. Where am I? Touching her head, she found that it was shaved clean. She was bald. Who am I?
Unable to answer her own questions, she fell into darkness.
***
Tank stood watch over their newest crew member. When they had picked her up, she was unconscious and had stayed that way. She was wrapped in a blue threadbare blanket, but she still somehow gave the impression of being cold.
They would have to start reconstruction on her soon.
He thought he heard her say something in her sleep, and moved closer, trying to understand. She stiffened, and her eyes snapped open. He backed off quickly, not wanting to scare her.
"I'm Tank, the ship's operator. Welcome to the Nebuchanezzar."
She rubbed her temples.
"God, what...What happened? Why do I feel like I'm halfway dead?"
"No, amiga, this is the first time you've been truly alive."
***
A few months later...
Tank opened the door to Raven's quarters. "Hey, Raven," he called to her. He could see that she still hadn't snapped out of it - the brown eyes were faintly unfocused. Looking at her gave him the eerie feeling that she was looking past him to something no one else could see. "Hello."
"Did you sleep any?"
"No, not really." Figured. Nobody slept the first night.
"Trust me, that's going to change." He gave her an encouraging grin and ushered her out the door.
He perched himself on his usual chair and began riffling through the floppies. "Let's see... ops programs, more ops programs...Who wants something that boring on their first day, huh? There you are! Combat training." Gesturing with the floppy in his hand, he said, "Take a seat over there. You'll like this."
"Like what?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. That kid doesn't trust anyone, does she? he thought ruefully to himself. He started the download, ending the conversation.
***
When her head brushed the metal headpiece on the chair, she saw him hit a key, then... It felt like her brain was being filled with dancing bolts of lightning. They zinged madly around in her skull, resculpting her neurons into patterns she could almost see... A long moment later, they vanished and as her brain regrouped, she noticed something different. I just learned tae kwon do! She could recall all the forms, the movements as though she had spent years in training.
She opened her eyes, still seeing the knowledge.
Turning to Tank, she chuckled. "Damn! Is this addictive?"
***
She opened her eyes to Neo's face before her. Her mind still buzzed with everything she'd learned; the rush was incredible. "Think you've learned something?" His quirky smile accompanied the question. She nodded wordlessly in response. "Prove it."
She felt Tank slide the spike into her skull, then the world around her vanished.
***
Neo stood across from her, clad in a night-black gi.
"Welcome to the sparring room. This program is similar to the Matrix; there are basic rules, like gravity and inertia. What it is designed to teach you is that those rules do not always have to apply to you. Do you understand?"
She nodded once more.
His quirky smile came back.
"Try to hit me, then."
Bringing her hands up, she waited, watching him. He stood calmly, banners framing him from behind.
Flashing toward him, she began with the feints and lighter moves, darting out and away from his blocking fists. He blocked everything effortlessly. He seemed to be holding back more than she was.
He began striking back, his hands seeming to come from everywhere. She ducked and tried sweeping his legs out from under him.
He was always there, faster than she could even begin the move. Her blows became harder, faster. She needed to figure out how he fought, find his blind spot.
As she swept in with an uppercut, he blocked her and snapped his left out towards her shoulder. She dodged again, but he was relentless. His hands flew towards her faster than thought, and she found herself on the floor. She winced. Even wood floors weren't fun to land on.
"You aren't paying attention."
Her eyes narrowed.
"How do you think I beat you?"
"You're fast," she said, breathing heavily. "Faster than anyone has a right to be."
"Do you think speed has anything to do with rights here?"
She stayed silent.
"Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"
This place...he's trying to tell me that this place is fake. And if this place is fake, then so is he. And so am...
Smiling, she got up again.
I.
***
"That is an Agent. They are sentient programs that live within the Matri-"
Morpheus stopped in mid-sentence, watching Raven. The Agent's gun pointed directly towards her. She was the only thing moving in the frozen construct as she moved one hand closer to it. Close enough to touch. He froze.
The pale hand passed through the Agent.
Ripples radiated from her hand as she pushed her hand farther.
"Tank," he said to the air with some urgency, "what is she doing?"
"I ...I don't know, sir. "
"Is there a problem with the construct?"
"No, the construct is normal. She's interacting with it somehow..."
He tore his eyes from her hand, and noticed that she was starting to shimmer in sync with the rippling from the Agent's suit.
"Get her out. Now!"
Tank's fingers flew over the keyboard as he tried to obey. Something in the system seemed to actively resist letting the two go. He punched keys frantically, his fingers blurring over the keyboard. Finally, that blessed window came up, saying that her consciousness was being returned to her body. He typed in the commands to return Morpheus, as well. Morpheus awakened a moment later, as Trinity removed the spike. Looking over to the other chair, Tank said, "Whatever she did in the construct must have knocked her out." He double-checked the monitor above her. Her brain wave patterns were still odd, but it showed that she had been fully returned. Morpheus gently removed the data spike from the back of her head. "I will take her into her quarters." He picked up the limp form, and short black hair spilled over his arm as he carried her out.
Ch. 4. - Looking Into Darkness
"What the hell happened in there?"
"I've been through the program five times, Trin. There's nothing there."
Tank leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"The Agent wouldn't have done that on its own."
"Why are you so sure she couldn't have done it on her own?"
"Because-"
She cut herself off, halting abruptly.
Tank spun around to face her, wondering why she'd stopped.
"Look, Morpheus is supposed to find the One, right? Maybe she's-"
"You think that she's the One?" she asked, incredulous.
"She did change the program."
"Neo's a lot faster."
"But she changed the program, Trin! That's what the One is supposed to do. Change the Matrix."
***
Trinity leaned against the wall, needing its support. Neo had to be the One! She'd felt something when she looked at him, when she looked into his deep brown eyes. It wasn't love, but... The Oracle had told her that she would love the One. She didn't even like Raven. But Raven had changed the program. Neo hadn't. That remained unalterable truth. She wasn't sure it was a truth she wanted to face.
Ch. 5- The Depths of Truth
She felt the ship's lights come on behind her eyelids. Rubbing her temples, she slowly sat up to the sight of Trinity watching her yet again.
"Yes?"
"Get up. Morpheus wants you."
"Did he say why?"
The woman seemed oddly reluctant to answer.
"He thinks you're ready for her now."
"Ready for who?"
"The Oracle."
***
Morpheus drove the Continental in silence. Cerebus was trying to carry a conversation, but it was mostly with himself.
"So, what do you think of this now? The Matrix, I mean."
She stared out the window at the world she'd once known. The world that, thanks to Morpheus, would never be the same.
"It's... It seems like nothing's real anymore. Like I'm even more distant from a normal life than I was before."
"But if you could have a normal life back, would you really want one? People don't usually take up computers because they have an active social life."
A wisp of a smile crossed her face at the quip.
"We're here," came from the driver's seat. "Cerebus, stay with the car."
They walked into a large hallway. It stretched off beyond where she could see. The sunlight ended long before it did. She was curious to see where it led, but Morpheus kept moving, forcing her to follow.
He strode into an elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. Chrome doors closed and reflected both of them blurrily. Morpheus pressed the button for the tenth floor, which bathed his finger in an orange light. After it began to rise, he said, "Raven."
"Yes?"
"Listen carefully to what the Oracle tells you. She is very old. She has been with us since the beginning."
"Beginning of what?"
"The Resistance."
"And she can predict the future? She's always right?"
"Think of it more as seeing probabilities, of advice on the path you must follow."
The elevator dinged as the doors opened.
***
Raven opened the wooden door, unsure of what she was supposed to do. A woman with wrinkles creasing her face turned around and smiled.
"Hey, kid. It's Raven, right?"
"Yes..." She looked at the old woman before her. She didn't seem like someone to make pronouncements; she could almost be someone's grandmother.
The kettle on the stove began to whistle, halting the conversation. The woman took it off and poured it into two mugs.
"Would you like some tea?"
She took the proffered mug with a "Thank you." There was a yellow smiley face on it.
God, this place is surreal.
After taking a sip, she asked, "So what do you want me to do?"
"What do I want you to do? You have enough problems with what you need to do without me in the picture."
"I don't understand."
"You should drink your tea before it gets cold."
She obeyed, still watching the black woman on the other side of the room.
"Respect for your elders." She chuckled. "Wouldn't think it to look at you."
Raven decided that one was better left alone.
"Come on, sit down. There's no point in you just standing there." She gestured to a chair by the door with her cigarette. Grey trails of smoke followed her fingertips.
"I hate to do this to you, kid. I really do. None of you deserve what's coming."
"What do you mean, what's coming?"
"Are you sure you want to know?"
Her mind flickered back for an instant to when Morpheus had asked that question. His truths hadn't been pretty, but they had changed her. Freed her of the cage that was the Matrix.
"Yes."
"You're going to have a choice. The crew will pay a heavy price for it, and you'll have to choose what's most important to you - the Resistance or your life."
Her fingers tightened around the cup.
"You'll be their curse and their saving grace, but it's not going to be easy."
"Their curse?"
"You're a snake in the bushes, kid. Those fangs make you a dangerous person to know."
No! She wouldn't... couldn't hurt the crew.
The Oracle must have done something wrong. Maybe she flipped the tarot cards the wrong way or something. Her usual barriers flicked up for a second when she spoke again.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, honey. That's what I'm here for."
"Do you ever give out any good news?"
***
Cerebus watched Raven as she got in the car. She looked distant again. Her dark eyes looked like she was watching something no one else could see, just beneath reality.
Damn.
That meant that she hadn't gotten any good news.
Double damn.
The Resistance needed all the good news it could get, especially with most of the Neb's crew dead or demoralized. Still, what the Oracle had told him wasn't great either, and it hadn't come true.
He hoped it hadn't come true, anyway. Of course it hadn't. It never would.
He always had to chase the memory away when he saw a new member. The words echoed in his mind, almost a whisper at the edge of consciousness.
"You're going to meet a woman-"
No! They were not true. Could not be true.
If they were true, he was in trouble.
***
Raven opened her eyes to the Nebuchanezzar once more. Most of the lights were off, only a few still shining dimly. The lighting for the ship's night cycle suited her perfectly. She had already felt as ill-omened as her namesake.
The darkness just completed the picture.
She waited for Trinity to remove the data spike, then slid out of the chair.
As she began to walk to her quarters, she could feel her watching her go.
***
Cerebus pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose.
So far, the patch had gone perfectly. Raven had gone into the building to repair a cut exit, while he stood guard outside. Morpheus and the rest were out recruiting for the lifestyle, leaving him to babysit.
God, he was bored.
He scrubbed a hand through his sandy hair and leaned against the wall.
Then he noticed the man walking into the hotel. He was dressed in a dark suit and tie, which didn't fit with the decrepit neighborhood. Sunglasses hid his eyes, and an earpiece hung from his ear. The gun he held completed the picture.
Agent.
Shit.
He flipped out his cellphone as he frantically moved out of the Agent's sight. Once he hit a dark corner, he heard the other end pick up.
"Operator?"
"Tank, you have to get-"
He halted in mid-sentence, shocked.
The Agent took Raven out without a struggle. She was shifting as he watched, growing taller. The dust came off her clothes, resettling on an impeccable suit.
She was one of them. An Agent.
"Cerebus? You okay, man?"
The Agent she had become started running towards him, but he was still frozen.
What the hell just happened?
His mouth started working first.
"Get me out of here!"
"There's an exit on Wells and Lake."
***
Agent Gray began running with her companion as they exchanged information.
IDENTIFY RESISTANCE MEMBER, AGENT 675_
Member is Mr. Douglas (alias: Cerebus)_
GO TO THE RIGHT. I WILL GO TO THE LEFT. WE CAN CATCH HIM AT THE JUNCTURE_
She raised a hand to her earpiece and nodded.
Acknowledged_
As they continued their pursuit, the target ran through a group of batteries. She moved in the assigned direction and ran one floor up the fire escape of the corner building. As she ran, the floorboards creaked under her. Crashing out one of the windows, she began a controlled fall towards the target. She'd made sure to fall only a short distance so that it would be explainable.
She saw her companion transfer to a man in front of the target. He drew his gun as she hit the ground. The target tried to flee once he saw the gun, but he only met the cold steel of hers.
She smiled slightly from behind her sunglasses.
"Time to come with us, Mr. Douglas."
***
They frog-marched him into the interrogation room, then chained his wrists and ankles to the cold metallic chair. He shivered as his skin touched it. It seemed to suck out all warmth, inhuman, just like its owners. The white walls were equally uncomfortable.
The Agent he'd come with was looking out the floor-length window, his back to Cerebus. As he began testing the chains, the Agent turned around. "You will find them impervious to your desire to escape, Mr. Douglas."
Bastard.
The Agent's angled face stared down at him.
Ch. 6- Chained in Darkness
Cerebus craned his neck to see when he heard footsteps. They clicked against the tiled floor in the hallway, then the door swung open.
Raven was behind it. Or what had been Raven, at any rate. Now she was the picture of an Agent, in a business suit the same shade of grey as the other Agent's. Her eyes were the same frigid shade of blue as theirs now.
She looked briefly at the other Agent, communicating with him silently. Then the other Agent spun and left, expressionless as always.
"What have you done with Raven?"
She frowned at him.
"I am Agent Gray. Miss Greyson is no longer significant."
"Damn you, what did you do?!"
"Enough, Mr. Douglas. That is over and done with." Her dark eyes met his. "Your situation, on the other hand, is much more precarious." Her eyes narrowed. "We require the codes to Zion, and you will give them to us."
"I don't know them."
"You know Morpheus, and you know how to reach him." She placed his cell phone on his lap.
He picked it up, closing his fingers around it.
He tightened them, beginning to bend the plastic shell protecting its innards.
Finally, he dropped the hunk of plastic, now crushed beyond all recognition.
He had to work his dry mouth a moment before he could spit at her feet.
"Very well, Mr. Douglas." She picked up a syringe with silvery liquid in it. "You've chosen."
***
Tank heard the cellphone being crushed through his headset.
"Damn it!"
At times he regretted being a free-born, always having to help his crewmates second-hand.
This was one of those times.
He turned, looking at Cerebus's seemingly asleep form. The dim blue light of the Nebuchanezzar revealed his tensed muscles, and the screen above him revealed a sky-high heartrate.
His fingers moved over the keyboard, dialing Morpheus in a blur.
***
Trinity and Neo both turned around on the stairwell as Morpheus's cell phone rang, tensing. Morpheus clicked the phone open and listened for a moment, his face darkening. "Neo, Trinity, we must go. Cerebus is in trouble and Tank is unable to get a fix on Raven."
Neo looked confused. "He can't get a fix on her? What is that supposed to mean?"
Trinity stated bluntly, "Nothing good."
"Enough. We need to try to locate her. Her last known position was Third and Wells. We will split up and attempt to find her, but if we cannot find her after ten minutes, we will have to leave her and return to the ship."
"Why? What about Cerebus?"
"Cerebus is being held in an Agent-guarded building. There is nothing we can do for him now. As for Raven, if we cannot find her by then, she has most likely been taken as well, and remaining in the area would accomplish nothing but our own capture."
"Shit!"
Morpheus began gliding away.
"Use your phones to stay in contact with Tank. He will tell you where to search."
Neo and Trinity opened their phones simultaneously as they headed for the door.
***
Neo turned the corner, the cell phone held to his ear.
"Nothing here, either."
Only old boxes and a Dumpster greeted him in the alley. It had to be the tenth one he'd searched today.
"Two minutes left. Try the building to your right."
He walked in a creaking green door.
***
Agent Gray and Agent Black received the instructions simultaniously. Their heads turned as they tracked through the code before them, searching for what had set off the alarm.
THE RESISTANCE MEMBERS HAVE COME FOR YOU_
Agent Gray disliked the reminder that she had ever been human. How distasteful.
Yes_
Light flickered around their forms as they skimmed through the code, reading the green phrases directly.
Section 62-A_
She winked out a second before her partner.
***
Neo poked his head around, then headed for an elevator.
The cell phone by his ear said, "One minute."
As the doors dinged open, he noticed a woman in black with her back turned to him.
He started to push the 'Elevator Stop' button.
He couldn't get caught now, and if she saw his face...
"Thirty seconds..."
His finger brushed the warm, glowing plastic, blotting out its light.
Her hair swirled around her face as she turned to look up at him.
He was staring straight into Raven's eyes.
"Looking for me?"
End of Part I
Part II - Eyes of Truth
Agent Gray watched through Raven's eyes, a silent, hidden snake. She had buried herself under the code that normally made up this battery, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
She was handed the black payphone.
She placed it on her ear.
The green code swirled around her as she became the first Agent to leave the Matrix.
***
The world blurred, then reformed into a room with no floor, ceiling, or walls, only pure white as far as the eye could see. Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity were there as well. Morpheus said, "Tank has told me that there is something going on in the Matrix, at its most basic level. He is unsure what it is, but the Agents are distracted and trying to deal with it. Meanwhile, we will have an opportunity to help Cerebus. It will be brief, but we cannot leave him if there is a chance we can get him out."
Racks of guns, bombs, and other weaponry appeared around them.
Raven chose a series of knives and twin guns. She snapped the clip in, hearing the others do the same. Then their world melted back into the Matrix.
***
"Raven, guard the hardline."
She nodded, then watched as Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo drove off in the Continental.
Agent Gray became dominant once more and reconnected to the central computer.
I have been successfully inserted_
THEN WE NO LONGER NEED THE PRISONER_
DISPOSE OF THE HUMAN_
Acknowledged_
She moved up the stairs of the old building to find the helicopter that was waiting.
***
Agent Gray came into the interrogation room. The prisoner was still there, though he seemed completely unaware of his surroundings. Sweat dripped down his face, and his eyes were rolled back in his head. Only half moons of iris were still visible.
She traced his jawline with one finger, then removed her hand.
"Goodbye, Mr. Douglas."
She smiled coldly.
As her fist hit him, she could hear his spine snap.
***
"It's too late," Tank told the crew over the flatline sound of the monitor.
Trinity cursed softly.
"Damn machines."
***
After returning to the Neb....
Raven readied herself in the combat simulation. She was facing off against Neo again. She was only now coming to realize how much he'd held back during their first fight, probably to avoid killing her.
He still had the same black gi on, but hers had shifted to green.
They stood, calmly, both in mirror-like positions.
He moved first, blurringly fast. She blocked the roundhouse, snapping a kick at him. He danced out of the way. She followed, matching him move for move.
***
Tank watched the screens.
Damn, she's gotten faster all of a sudden.
She was only good enough to hold Neo off, to match him, not beat him, but still...
They both seemed to blur, turning into twin whirling dervishes.
Then they froze. As quickly as it had been fought, the match was ended.
***
Neo looked at Raven as she released the bruising grip she'd had on his neck by inches. There was a feral light dancing in her eyes that he'd never seen before. It raised the hair on the back of his neck in primal warning and he froze.
Damn.
She looks ready to kill someone.
She looks ready to kill me.
Gradually, the light faded, releasing him from paralysis.
He paused, then said, "Good." He smiled. "Have you been practicing behind my back?"
"No..."
"You're getting much faster. Want to go celebrate with a bowl of snot?"
She chuckled, then said, "No, thanks."
He was privately glad she'd said no. He suddenly wanted to get away as fast as possible.
***
Raven shut the door to her quarters and leaned against it, breathing raggedly.
She'd been seeing Neo like one of the punching bags she'd been using. She channeled all her anger into hitting it, punching it. They usually wound up breaking all over the floor of the construct.
She'd almost wound up breaking Neo the same way.
She hadn't thought she was capable of something like that.
Lately, though, after she'd come back and been told of Cerebus's death, she felt angrier, more temperamental. She couldn't remember anything after patching the wire, but she knew something had happened before Neo had found her. Something must have.
But what?
And why couldn't she remember?
***
Neo approached Tank in the dark of the night shift.
"Tank, has Raven been working with any practice people from the construct? It looks like she's been practicing on someone."
"Not that I know of. She does know how to load programs on her own, though.
***
When Morpheus mentioned another mission into the Matrix, Agent Gray smiled in the back of Raven's mind. Soon she would be able to leave this place permanently.
***
She dumped all the information she had about the Nebuchanezzar and its crew into the AI mainframe, while watching the two rebels through the guise of the battery he'd been hunting for. She wondered why these humans were so attached to each other. It made them vulnerable.
Agents: converge on this position_
She felt their assent.
She began moving her code back to the host she inhabited to take care of the other loose ends.
***
Tank watched the code scrolling down the screen and the signal for Raven's return.
What?
Trinity and Morpheus wouldn't have come back that fast.
What was going on?
***
Neo watched the screen with the download counter, watching it scroll forward.
Suddenly, every instinct he had told him that if she came on this ship, she'd bring disaster.
"Tank, divert her into the Construct."
"Why?"
"Just do it! And hook me up to it."
As he spoke, he began strapping himself in.
***
Neo opened his eyes to the white of the Construct just as Raven arrived. As he moved closer to her, he could see that something was different about her. She radiated self-assured power.
Suddenly it snapped into place for him.
When Cerebus had died, it was right when they'd entered the Matrix.
If an Agent was going to kill him, why wouldn't they have done it before?
They were waiting for confirmation that she'd arrived.
She had to be kept off the ship.
Since she could return at will, that meant Tank would have to kill her.
"Tank-"
"There's no point, Mr. Anderson. You entered my realm. That was your first mistake."
He was close enough now to see her razor-sharp smile.
It widened by a hair as scenery began to appear.
Skyscrapers grew beneath them and became the ground under their feet.
The Jump Program.
She adopted a ready stance and said, "Let's see if this will be your second."
***
The rebel is still off balance.
Good.
She began shifting, slowly into her true form.
***
He fired at her, even though he knew it wouldn't be any use.
Her eyes shifted to blue and her clothing changed as she dodged the bullets, streamlining into a blur of movement. Once the clip was empty, he threw the gun down and launched himself at her, pushing himself past mortal speed. She leaped behind him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to slow down or have it broken.
She snapped a roundhouse kick at his gut and threw punches that felt like small trains. He blocked what he could, but she was even faster than he.
He jumped upward and flipped behind her, kicking with both feet. She skidded backwards, then leapt up again and swept his feet out from under him. He rolled and grabbed a handful of the grit covering the roof on his way up. He threw it in her face as he hit her in the sternum.
Neo leaped desperately for another one of the skyscrapers, the black asphalt beckoning beneath him...
***
Tank watched the ongoing battle on the monitors on the Neb, sweaty palms typing as fast as he could make them go. He'd somehow been locked out of the Construct's program, as all the code had been put under password protection. As he kept trying, he didn't notice the flickers in the code surrounding Morpheus and Trinity...
***
Trinity looked out the window. They had arranged to meet a new potential here, but so far he hadn't shown. As she watched, a disturbingly familiar black van approached. "Morpheus-" Once its passengers began to get off, she froze. "Agents!" They both ran for the single door in the room, Trinity only slightly ahead of Morpheus. Once they got into the hall, they stood back-to-back, bracing themselves. Agents were already on both ends of the hallway...
***
The Agent vaulted after Neo. He touched the ledge, and grit fell off as she dragged him backwards. He punched her in the nose, trying to loosen the grip. It was too late. They'd already begun to fall. She backhanded him and snarled, "Goodbye, Mr. Anderson." He saw a glint of metal, then pain blossomed in his chest. He felt her drop him distantly as she grabbed a window ledge.
He saw images flash past him as he fell. He saw his parents. One mother, one father, your typical nuclear family. Only his dad drank and his mother came home only to sleep. He saw the day his mother had died in a car wreck when he was 15. His father had been at a loss for what to do with his son, so he finally came home one day with a box. He'd opened it to find a computer, with his father's gruff "Here. Play with this." At the time, the piece of plastic and metal hadn't enthused him much - he'd wanted a car - but he'd eventually come around. The computer became his pride and joy in a few months. In another year, he got a job so that he could start upgrading it. After he'd gotten his degree, it came to replace most of his human contact; he found that he preferred the virtual world to the real world. There he was valued for what he could do, not what he looked like or who he was. He became a hacker when he was 22. He learned the rules that the 'Net operated on and its inhabitants, discovering that there was a kind of honor among thieves. They chose to never know each other's real world address so that they couldn't turn each other in, no matter what the cops did. He remembered the day he'd nearly gotten caught; the police tracked him to the library he'd been hacking from and he had grab what he could on the way out of town. That was when he came to Chicago. He'd met Choi there, who'd become his best customer - he was always in some sort of trouble or another. Choi always blamed his girlfriend of the moment, though; he couldn't count the number of times he'd heard "It's her fault." He smiled at the memory. He remembered his training with Morpheus. "Do you think that's air you're breathing?" He tensed abruptly.
No, it's not, is it...
Neo saw his feet only meters from the ground. As he looked at them, he realized that there truly was nothing here, that nothing could not kill something, that he was something, and that the ground...
Had stopped.
He sensed instinctively what to do. He just had to reach out and change a few numbers, a few letters. It was so easy... He hovered in the air, looking back at the Agent. Then he touched down before her and ran his hands along the code. The Agent emitted an electronic scream as fear's cold fingers finally touched her.
***
Somehow, he heard Trinity's scream of rage. He cocked his head, listening. He thought he'd heard it from... Yes. There.
***
Trinity saw Neo appear in front of them. "Neo! What the hell are you doing here?! Get out, now!"
They had, at best, a few seconds before the Agents started shooting.
He smiled softly at her.
"NEO!"
She heard the gunshots.
The bullets almost seemed to be moving in slow motion. She and Morpheus ducked, trying to avoid them though they knew it was futile.
She looked up.
I seem to still be alive. What-
She broke off the thought when she saw the bullet hovering, motionless, in front of her face.
One of the Agents snarled and launched himself at Neo. Neo looked almost bored as he stared into the Agent's eyes. The Agent's eyes widened. "You- I can hear-"
***
You heard me, Smith. Tell me how to remove the Agent code from Raven or I destroy you. Now._
MR. ANDERSON_
WE DO NOT BARGAIN WITH TERRORISTS_
I wasn't offering a bargain. It wasn't open to question._
Agent Smith began to close in on Neo.
He smiled.
IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE FOR YOUR FRIEND, MR. ANDERSON_
AND TOO LATE FOR YOU_
Smith's fists seemed to move separately from his body. They blurred, streaking towards Neo. One of them clipped the wall, leaving a crater. Neo blocked them effortlessly. Smith's eyes narrowed as he increased the speed and fury of his attacks.
To utterly no effect.
Neo suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed Smith by the neck, pinning him against the wall. His left hand was plunged deep within the Agent. A bright yellow halo appeared around them, illuminating them both harshly. Smith contorted in pain as Neo searched through his programming.
Damn!
They'd never constructed a way to return Raven to normal, just to conceal her Agent code. It made sense, after all. Why would they need Raven again?
He released Smith and backhanded him. The Agent collapsed on the floor.
"You son of a bitch!"
His anger fueled his powers as he looked toward the other two Agents. They scrambled to get away.
***
He returned to the Construct. It had been cleared, restored to the blank white that it held until someone loaded a program.
Raven seemed to be asleep.
His sight switched to the lines of green code as he read Raven's programming again.
The Agent code was gone.
What-
He looked beneath the surface code to the deeper levels.
There.
He caught a faint green tendril of it.
Gotcha.
He followed it, tracing it back through. The green danced through her memories, her senses, and finally stopped.
Once he had left, it took the opportunity to embed itself within her personality.
If he removed it, she'd be left braindead.
I'm sorry, Raven.
***
Raven opened her eyes slowly as Neo watched, pain written in their depths. They were no longer brown, but sky blue...
Many thanks go to Siti Marie and William Freedman at Project Declan, (http://projectdeclan.homestead.com) my faithful beta readers. Without them, I probably would have kept this saved in some back corner of my computer and you wouldn't be reading it now. Thanks also are due Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Deptula, who continue to inspire me long after their classes. Cyber-hugs to all!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings from the Matrix; these are the property of WB and the Wachowski brothers. That's pretty obvious because if they were mine, Morpheus would have his own movie! I'm also not making any money from this - who'd be silly enough to pay me to be obsessed?
Author's Note: This is an alternate universe in which Mouse survived Cypher's betrayal and Neo wasn't shot in Room 303.
Coming of Darkness
Prologue
Mouse sighed with satisfaction. He was chest deep in a steaming hot tub across from the woman in red. A man couldn't ask for any more than this, he thought, trailing one hand through the warm water. And for the hell he'd gone through, he deserved it. As he remembered being shot, he tensed involuntarily. The woman across from him noticed, and moved behind him. She began kneading his shoulders with long, delicate fingers.
"Mmm. That feels good."
She stayed silent, as always. He never knew why he talked to her - he knew she couldn't respond.
Her hands traced his spine, causing ripples of water to lap at his sides. Then he felt them leave his skin.
He turned around, asking, "Why did you sto-" Metal flashed in the corner of his eye, and he ducked on instinct. A knife embedded itself in his throat, red blooming around him.
The program smiled over him with carmine lips and completed the computer shutdown.
***
Three Agents faced one another across a spotless glass table.
THE PROGRAM WAS UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS TO THEIR COMPUTERS_
THAT IS NOT AT ISSUE. THE TECHNOLOGY IS REAL_
WE WILL NEED A MORE COMPLEX HOST TO TRULY EXTINGUISH THE REBELLION_
EASILY DONE_
HOW?_
THE BATTERIES SO PREVALENT ON THIS PLANET ARE NOTHING BUT PROGRAMMING IN THE MATRIX. THAT CAN BE USED TO OUR ADVANTAGE_
Ch. 1 - Edge of Truth
"Morpheus?" Trinity called out tentatively to him from her seat before the blinking monitors. "We've been able to locate the people you chose as potentials." She looked back at the faces on the screen before her. They were so radically different from one another! Their computer expertise was nearly all they had in common. One, Psyche, was a rich child who had parents in the computer business and had begun hacking as a way to rebel. Another was Whisper, a lonely teenager who created viruses. The third and final potential was a college student who went by Raven, who tended to ghost in and out of systems simply for the challenge.
She heard Morpheus come up behind her. Turning to look at him, she watched as he looked at their pictures for a moment. She tried to read his expression as he skimmed over what they'd been able to discover about the three. She failed, as usual. She could never tell which one he favored. Then he touched the screen showing Raven. "Her. She is our next target."
"Are you sure? Whisper has more experience."
"I believe that she will accept the truth more easily."
Translation: , Trinity thought to herself, I want to free her for a reason I don't want to tell you yet. She shrugged mentally. He'd used a similar excuse to free Neo, and he'd been reasonably right then. "When do you want us to contact her?"
"Soon. I believe that it's Neo's turn to contact a potential."
"I'll tell him when my shift is over. It's only about ten minutes anyway."
He nodded in acknowledgment, then departed for the wiring he had been repairing. She returned to the monitor with Raven displayed on it, and started watching what the girl was doing. Watching the potentials always made her feel like a bit of a voyeur, but it kept her mind off the endless wondering. Was Neo the One? Her mind ran in circles over that daily. Could he just possibly be humanity's savior? She shook off that thought and looked intently at the girl on the screen. Black hair brushed her shoulders as she searched through the Web. The answers are coming, Raven. I hope you like them.
***
Amanda Greyson finished typing her thesis and shut down the computer. She rubbed her neck absently. She always got a kink in it when she'd been working for a while. In truth, her life on computers was the only real work she ever did. College was just as endless and pointless as high school, she'd found. The only difference was that they made you write more papers about their point of view.
She looked up into the room's dulled mirror. Dark brown eyes looked back at her, set in pale skin and framed by equally dark, straight hair. Her mother's Italian genes had won out there. Her father, she'd been told, was Irish. She thought she'd gotten his temper... The thought halted when her foot hit something on the floor. She bent down to look, and her view was suddenly obscured by a curtain of hair. She growled under her breath. She'd forgotten to pull it back this morning, and it had been falling in her eyes all day. After finally locating a scrunchie, she ran her hands through her hair and shoved it on. It fell a bit lopsided, but she wasn't trying to impress anyone.
When she picked up the thing she'd steeped on, she found it was one of the tarot cards that were lying all over the place. Whenever her roommate got a reading with something she didn't like, the damned things were everywhere until Raven finally picked them all up. She flipped it over, curious as to which one this was. Justice stared out from its face. "Go figure. 'The redress of a wrong'?" She flicked it over to the growing pile on her roommate's desk. Once she moved it, she found another card and groaned. "These stupid-" She stopped once she saw what it held. A scrawled message - "THE MATRIX HAS YOU, RAVEN."
***
Ch. 2- Whispers in the Dark
She turned the card over, hoping for some clue to its origin, or who'd known that was her alias. The Matrix was something that she'd always been curious about. It was like the hacker's Holy Grail - lots of rumors as to where it was and what it was like, but no one had ever actually found out. No such luck. There was only a smaller message, in the same scribbled hand. "12:30 P.M. The Rabbithole," she read out loud. That puzzled her even more. The Rabbithole was a dump of a club. Why would anyone in their right mind want to meet there? Still, she decided to go anyway - she was curious to find out who had left that for her. Still, what if they had done this to turn her in? Screw it, she thought to herself. I didn't become a hacker to be cautious. She tucked the card into a back pocket of her jeans. The clock read 10:49, so she settled down to wait in one of the overstuffed chairs with a pair of headphones. As she noticed that her fingers were drumming against the table, she smiled ruefully. I never was very good at waiting.
***
Neo stood in a dark corner, waiting. Dancers moved through the crowd as he watched, the lighting painting them a hundred different colors. He watched their undulations carefully, looking for any sign of the woman they had been watching. Raven. The dark-haired hacker would be just as curious as he had been about the message. God, I hope we aren't making a mistake with this. They needed someone who would be old enough to be useful quickly, but the older they were, the harder it was to let go of the Matrix. There was always a trade-off. He just hoped Raven wouldn't pay the price.
***
Raven walked into the dump, greeted with the sight of colored strobe lights and frenzied dancers. She hoped she'd spot whoever it was soon. There was so much crap in the air here you got high just breathing. Looks like my lucky day. A dark-haired man turned around, watching her. Judging by the fact that he's the sole person in the room who isn't stoned, he was probably the one who sent that card. His black trenchcoat swirled behind him, accentuating his footsteps. "Hello, Raven." He spoke quietly, nearly whispering in her ear. "Who told you that name?" He smiled slightly and didn't answer. "Who are you?" "My name is Neo." Oh, lovely. And a crackpot to boot. "Right. Of course. Why didn't I think of it before? All the living legends meet people in places like this." That small smile widened as he chuckled. "Living legend?" She sighed. He'd even seemed serious. She started to back away from him, looking around to make sure she could get away if the nut went violent. That was when she saw the suits. Two of them, looking deadly serious, were moving in their direction, and the bartender was pointing at them. She cursed softly. He did set me up! Damn. Escape first, revenge later. She glided towards the exit soundlessly. "Where are you -" He cut himself off once he looked at the men. He pulled out a gun, causing her to run for the back door. One of the suits started chasing her while the other drew his Desert Eagle. She realized, in the split second before she got to the door, that the man she'd met and the suit were pointing them at each other.
***
Ch. 3- Shadows
What? That meant that he couldn't be working for them. Unless they staged it so that I'd trust him later...
She snapped out of her thoughts to see the other man moving towards her, shoving junkies out of his way.
Pushing the back door open, she fled into the alley behind the club. She pelted down the street, nearly tripping over a bum. "Sorry-" She cut herself off when the bum's face started rippling. As she backed away, he started shifting into a man with sunglasses and a suit. And a gun. The gun made her start running twice as fast. She heard him fire behind her, and the shot pinged off one of the pipes on the alley walls. She heard him fire again, so she ducked behind a pile of bricks. She gasped for breath. "Miss Greyson, you are only making things worse for yourself." He almost sounded bored. He didn't even seem to be winded. She heard someone else step into the alley and start shooting. Who did I piss off to deserve this? She looked over the top of the brickpile and felt a bullet graze her scalp. Ducking, she moved toward the single door in the side of the alley and opened it...
***
Neo dodged away from the Agent and started running after Raven. She was totally untrained; she wouldn't stand a chance against one of the programs. He had to get her out of here! The Agent fired behind him, but he ducked through the back door. Placing his back against the building wall, he looked for any other Agents, then kept running. He pulled out his cellphone, asking frantically, "Tank! Where is she?" "Keep going until you hit the dead end in front of you. There should be a door on your right. She's in there. Wait!" He skidded to a stop. "What?" "Sorry, man. They got her."
***
As she dove inside the door, she felt herself hit something. Looking up, she saw a man in a black suit frowning down at her. He caught her by her wrist and moved the gun towards her temple. Struggling, she tried desperately to get away. She closed her eyes as cold metal touched her skin. "You will be coming with us, Ms. Greyson."
Ch. 4 - Darkness and Lies
"In short, Ms. Greyson, you are in deep. And the only way you will get out is through us." "What do you want me to do?" "We would like your help." "Help with what?" She'd need specifics if she was going to weasel her way out of this one. "There is a man we believe has contacted you. This man is one that we will go to great lengths to capture. We will even erase all of this," he said, gesturing to her criminal record, "for the sake of stopping the threat that he represents." "Who?" She already knew, even before he said the name. "His name is... Morpheus."
"Will you help us, Miss Greyson?" She ran through her options. A. I tell them to screw off and probably disappear in a back alley. B. I try breaking out of here. With handcuffs and both of those suits watching me, the chances of that working are slim to much slimmer. C. I tell them I'll do it. She hated herself for having to say it, but it was the only way she was going to get out of here. "Yes." The man smiled coldly and put his sunglasses back on. "Go with Agent Green. He will instruct you in what you are to do." She was swiftly hustled out the door with the man.
***
Agent 675-Beta (Green) approximated a smile as well as his programming allowed. Typically the targets refused, having an abominable disrespect for authority. This one, luckily for her, had recognized her natural masters.
"Lie back, madam. What we are giving you will help you to survive if they become violent." "Can I go after this?" "Yes. Be warned, however - if you do not come through, we have... methods of encouragement."
He saw her shiver, the desired fear response. She jerked at the prick of the needle, then slumped into unconsciousness.
***
Neo answered the cell phone, pressing the glowing button that would let him receive Tank's call. "Yes?" "We're going to have to speed contact with Raven up." "Why?" "The Agents have her and they aren't letting her go." "Shit!" "She's being held at the green building on the corner of Wells and Third. If you can get there, I'll tell you when the Agents are out of the room."
He started to run, his duster flying out behind him. As he rounded the corner of Main, he saw a woman in blue watch him go past. Damn. That meant an Agent wouldn't be far behind. Nothing for it, though. He heard the electrical crackling behind him that usually heralded one of the programs, right on cue. As he looked back, an Agent rose from a lonely newspaper stand and raised his gun...
***
Through his link with the central computer, an announcement came.
MR. ANDERSON (ALIAS: NEO) IS WITHIN THE MATRIX AND HEADING FOR YOUR POSITION_
Agent 675-Beta (Green) smiled coldly. He had been waiting to meet one of the members of the Rebellion. It looked like now he would get his chance.
He headed out the door, waiting for Anderson to arrive.
Ch. 1. Shattered Dreams
Neo ran through the street, desperately trying to get to Raven. The Agent behind him had already fired two rounds, one of which had scratched his thigh. The wound bled more every time his foot came down, but he refused to abandon her to the Agents. The green building where she was being held was just ahead. He started running even faster, his feet blurring. He heard the report from the Agent's gun a third time. Then he felt the bullet hit his calf in his left leg. Grimacing from the pain, he stumbled and fell. That was just enough of a pause to let the Agent catch up to him. "Mr. Anderson. We meet again." The Agent stood over him, pressing his foot into the wound. He could feel all the grains of sand and dirt scraping in it, and the already damaged tissue beginning to tear further. The pain whited out his vision, until the street before him flickered like a mirage. He moved his arms, propping himself up. Then he moved his hand under his duster with the vestiges of his strength and spun around, facing the Agent. The Agent reached for his gun, but Neo had fired by the time he touched it. Panting, he said, "My name... is Neo." He began limping toward the building, pulling out his cell as he went.
"Operator."
"Which room... is she... in?" Every time he had to use the leg, it hurt like hell.
"Neo, you're not going to commit suicide for a potential. It's not worth it! There's an exit on Wells and Lake."
"Don't make me... ask you... again."
He could hear the man on the other end sigh.
"What ROOM?"
"It's on the side of the building to the right of you. You should be coming up on a window about now. It's right behind that office."
He snapped the phone closed and kept moving.
***
He'd perched himself directly over the room on the roof. Tank had already said that the Agents had left, probably looking for him, so he was just gathering his strength for a moment. It would probably be all the respite he'd get.
Finally, he punched through the skylight. Glass shattered around his fist, falling downward. Using his good leg, he vaulted down into the room. He looked around quickly, and spotted Raven. Her black hair spilled out around her face, creating a dark halo. He limped over to her side and slapped her face. She opened her eyes, and he could see that one of her pupils was dilated and the other a pinprick.
Damn.
She wasn't going to be much help, then. She had to wake up enough to walk, though. In the shape he was in, he wouldn't be able to carry her. He slapped her again.
"Raven," he croaked, "wake up." Her dark eyes refocused on him.
"You? What're you-"
"We have to get out of here, Raven." He tugged at her wrist, hoping she'd get the idea. She sat up slowly (too slowly, his mind screamed) and hung her feet over the edge of the chair she'd been in.
"Now!" he hissed. "Before the Agents come back." Getting up, she still seemed dazed. He finally just held her wrist and limped towards the nearby office. Please let the door be open. Please... It was unlocked. He finally dragged her through it and opened the window. He ducked through it and hurried onto the grass, with Raven still following. He took a deep breath, moving toward the sunlight and freedom.
Ch. 2. Reflected Truths
She woke to a room and a face swimming before her. Sitting up, she rubbed at her eyes. The face belonged to someone she didn't know; a tall, blond man hovered before her. "Feeling better?" "Other than wondering if I was hit by a truck, you mean?." The man grinned. "Well, she's healthy enough for sarcasm, anyway." "Thank you, Cerebus." The thanks came from someone she couldn't see. She moved her head, trying to discern who the speaker had been as she saw Cerebus discreetly excuse himself through the room's double doors. She spotted the man's profile silhouetted against the gathering stormclouds outside. He was seated in a burgundy leather chair that had seen better days. As she seated herself across from him, he greeted her. "Hello, Raven. I am Morpheus." Who knows? Maybe living legends do go for shabby places. "It's an honor to meet you," she replied, sincere for once. There was no doubt in her mind about who he was; the presence before her couldn't be anyone else. "The Agents, they said... they gave me something. I told them I would help them find you in order to get away..." "They were attempting to scare you into obeying. You weren't bugged." Inwardly, she feared he was wrong.
"Normally, we would have taken things more slowly, but we have run out of time. We could not allow you to fall into the hands of the Agents."
"Thank you for that. I wasn't enjoying their company too terribly much." The mirrored sunglasses he wore reflected her face back to her, giving her the eerie sensation of talking to her reflection. "But what would you go to all that trouble for?"
"You wished to be free of them."
"My wish is your command?" She asked the question with a sardonic smile.
He smiled slightly and did not answer.
"Do you still want to know what the Matrix is?"
"Yes," she breathed.
"It is a prison, a cage for your mind and theirs," he said, gesturing to the people outside. Her gaze followed his gesture. From here, they looked like ants, scurrying to get out of the coming storm.
"But not yours?" she asked, returning to his face.
His razor-thin smile widened a hair. "No," he replied.
She mulled on his answer silently, continuing to watch and listen.
He steepled his fingers and continued. "It surrounds you in everything you do and everywhere you go. It is there when you are eating lunch, when you go to the doctor, and when you pay your taxes. Still, the Matrix cannot be described. You have to see it for yourself."
"How?"
"I will offer you a final choice, Raven." He opened his left fist, and a blue capsule was within it. "If you take the blue pill, this meeting ends. You wake up in your bed and I and this meeting will be nothing more than a dream." The other hand, she now saw, contained a red capsule. It was identical to the first in everything but color. "If you take the red pill, you follow this story to its end and you find the truth that has been hidden from you."
She stared at his hands for a moment and chose.
Interlude
Agent 675-Beta (Green) watched his supervisor's programmed pacing across his office.
AGENT 675-BETA_
WHY DID YOU LET THE BATTERY GO?_
SHE IS MORE USEFUL TO US ALIVE THAN DEAD, SIR_
EXPLAIN YOURSELF_
IN OUR CUSTODY, SHE WOULD HAVE REMAINED ONLY A BATTERY_
HER USEFULNESS WOULD BE LIMITED_
IF SHE IS ALLOWED TO JOIN THE RESISTANCE, SHE MAY WELL HAND US ALL OF THEM_
The program that was his supervisor smiled coldly.
I SHOULD HOPE SO AGENT 675-BETA_
IF THE BATTERY DOES NOT ACT AS YOU SAY, YOU WILL HAVE LIED_
ONLY ROGUE PROGRAMS LIE_
AND ROGUE PROGRAMS ARE TERMINATED_
Ch. 3. Brave New World
After she swallowed the red pill, she started to feel a tingling in the back of her mind. They had gestured for her to sit down in what looked vaguely like a dentist chair. She'd stiffened when she saw it. Some kind of primal warning had been triggered by that thing. Now, though, she couldn't place why. The instinct nagged at her, tugging at her brain. She sat in it anyway. If these people had really wanted her dead they would have just turned her in. Still, it was hard to break old habits. That was why she had turned to watch those closest to her in a way that would let her keep peripheral vision of the door. A woman in black leather was fiddling with some dials, while the blond man she'd met (Cerebus, she remembered) was putting electrodes on her head. She put the glass she'd washed the pill down with on the floor - or tried. The glass was melting in her hand. "Um, what exactly did you give me?" The glass stretched when she tried to move her hand back, the ice-cold stuff sticking to her hand like Silly Putty. "It's part of a trace program so that we can find you when you wake up," replied Cerebus. Wake up? She banished that thought for more immediate concerns. As she kept pulling her hand away from the glass, it separated with a glob still stuck to her hand. Little shards of the connection that had been there fell away, making a soft tinkling noise. The glob began to spread over her fingers, then her hand. She tried wiping it off on the arm of the chair, but that just resulted in its spread up her chest. It began crawling upwards toward her face, ignoring her frantic attempts to brush it off. "Heart rate's up," came from Cerebus's direction. "Have you located her?" "Hang on, I almost have it..." The voices swirled in her consciousness. She wasn't paying any attention. The molten glass was up to her neck and showed no sign of stopping. Her chin... Her ears... Her lower lip...
She heard the words "Got it!" a heartbeat before she was sucked into nothingness.
***
Her eyes sluggishly opened to what felt like a bag full of warm, red goo. She frantically tried to get out, pushing hands that didn't want to respond up to its edge. She had to get out of this thing! There was a slight give to its surface, like plastic. Tearing through it, she ripped off the mask that had been on her mouth. When she breathed, the air made her cough. It smelled of ozone and burned plastic. Her muscles collapsed, aching, and she fell to a sitting position. The goo covered up to her chest. More of it dripped off her everywhere else. It hurt to move very much, so she stayed sitting down. As she looked beyond the pod she'd been in, she saw thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. Exactly alike, perfectly aligned. Lightning flashed suddenly, blinding her. Where am I? Touching her head, she found that it was shaved clean. She was bald. Who am I?
Unable to answer her own questions, she fell into darkness.
***
Tank stood watch over their newest crew member. When they had picked her up, she was unconscious and had stayed that way. She was wrapped in a blue threadbare blanket, but she still somehow gave the impression of being cold.
They would have to start reconstruction on her soon.
He thought he heard her say something in her sleep, and moved closer, trying to understand. She stiffened, and her eyes snapped open. He backed off quickly, not wanting to scare her.
"I'm Tank, the ship's operator. Welcome to the Nebuchanezzar."
She rubbed her temples.
"God, what...What happened? Why do I feel like I'm halfway dead?"
"No, amiga, this is the first time you've been truly alive."
***
A few months later...
Tank opened the door to Raven's quarters. "Hey, Raven," he called to her. He could see that she still hadn't snapped out of it - the brown eyes were faintly unfocused. Looking at her gave him the eerie feeling that she was looking past him to something no one else could see. "Hello."
"Did you sleep any?"
"No, not really." Figured. Nobody slept the first night.
"Trust me, that's going to change." He gave her an encouraging grin and ushered her out the door.
He perched himself on his usual chair and began riffling through the floppies. "Let's see... ops programs, more ops programs...Who wants something that boring on their first day, huh? There you are! Combat training." Gesturing with the floppy in his hand, he said, "Take a seat over there. You'll like this."
"Like what?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. That kid doesn't trust anyone, does she? he thought ruefully to himself. He started the download, ending the conversation.
***
When her head brushed the metal headpiece on the chair, she saw him hit a key, then... It felt like her brain was being filled with dancing bolts of lightning. They zinged madly around in her skull, resculpting her neurons into patterns she could almost see... A long moment later, they vanished and as her brain regrouped, she noticed something different. I just learned tae kwon do! She could recall all the forms, the movements as though she had spent years in training.
She opened her eyes, still seeing the knowledge.
Turning to Tank, she chuckled. "Damn! Is this addictive?"
***
She opened her eyes to Neo's face before her. Her mind still buzzed with everything she'd learned; the rush was incredible. "Think you've learned something?" His quirky smile accompanied the question. She nodded wordlessly in response. "Prove it."
She felt Tank slide the spike into her skull, then the world around her vanished.
***
Neo stood across from her, clad in a night-black gi.
"Welcome to the sparring room. This program is similar to the Matrix; there are basic rules, like gravity and inertia. What it is designed to teach you is that those rules do not always have to apply to you. Do you understand?"
She nodded once more.
His quirky smile came back.
"Try to hit me, then."
Bringing her hands up, she waited, watching him. He stood calmly, banners framing him from behind.
Flashing toward him, she began with the feints and lighter moves, darting out and away from his blocking fists. He blocked everything effortlessly. He seemed to be holding back more than she was.
He began striking back, his hands seeming to come from everywhere. She ducked and tried sweeping his legs out from under him.
He was always there, faster than she could even begin the move. Her blows became harder, faster. She needed to figure out how he fought, find his blind spot.
As she swept in with an uppercut, he blocked her and snapped his left out towards her shoulder. She dodged again, but he was relentless. His hands flew towards her faster than thought, and she found herself on the floor. She winced. Even wood floors weren't fun to land on.
"You aren't paying attention."
Her eyes narrowed.
"How do you think I beat you?"
"You're fast," she said, breathing heavily. "Faster than anyone has a right to be."
"Do you think speed has anything to do with rights here?"
She stayed silent.
"Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"
This place...he's trying to tell me that this place is fake. And if this place is fake, then so is he. And so am...
Smiling, she got up again.
I.
***
"That is an Agent. They are sentient programs that live within the Matri-"
Morpheus stopped in mid-sentence, watching Raven. The Agent's gun pointed directly towards her. She was the only thing moving in the frozen construct as she moved one hand closer to it. Close enough to touch. He froze.
The pale hand passed through the Agent.
Ripples radiated from her hand as she pushed her hand farther.
"Tank," he said to the air with some urgency, "what is she doing?"
"I ...I don't know, sir. "
"Is there a problem with the construct?"
"No, the construct is normal. She's interacting with it somehow..."
He tore his eyes from her hand, and noticed that she was starting to shimmer in sync with the rippling from the Agent's suit.
"Get her out. Now!"
Tank's fingers flew over the keyboard as he tried to obey. Something in the system seemed to actively resist letting the two go. He punched keys frantically, his fingers blurring over the keyboard. Finally, that blessed window came up, saying that her consciousness was being returned to her body. He typed in the commands to return Morpheus, as well. Morpheus awakened a moment later, as Trinity removed the spike. Looking over to the other chair, Tank said, "Whatever she did in the construct must have knocked her out." He double-checked the monitor above her. Her brain wave patterns were still odd, but it showed that she had been fully returned. Morpheus gently removed the data spike from the back of her head. "I will take her into her quarters." He picked up the limp form, and short black hair spilled over his arm as he carried her out.
Ch. 4. - Looking Into Darkness
"What the hell happened in there?"
"I've been through the program five times, Trin. There's nothing there."
Tank leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"The Agent wouldn't have done that on its own."
"Why are you so sure she couldn't have done it on her own?"
"Because-"
She cut herself off, halting abruptly.
Tank spun around to face her, wondering why she'd stopped.
"Look, Morpheus is supposed to find the One, right? Maybe she's-"
"You think that she's the One?" she asked, incredulous.
"She did change the program."
"Neo's a lot faster."
"But she changed the program, Trin! That's what the One is supposed to do. Change the Matrix."
***
Trinity leaned against the wall, needing its support. Neo had to be the One! She'd felt something when she looked at him, when she looked into his deep brown eyes. It wasn't love, but... The Oracle had told her that she would love the One. She didn't even like Raven. But Raven had changed the program. Neo hadn't. That remained unalterable truth. She wasn't sure it was a truth she wanted to face.
Ch. 5- The Depths of Truth
She felt the ship's lights come on behind her eyelids. Rubbing her temples, she slowly sat up to the sight of Trinity watching her yet again.
"Yes?"
"Get up. Morpheus wants you."
"Did he say why?"
The woman seemed oddly reluctant to answer.
"He thinks you're ready for her now."
"Ready for who?"
"The Oracle."
***
Morpheus drove the Continental in silence. Cerebus was trying to carry a conversation, but it was mostly with himself.
"So, what do you think of this now? The Matrix, I mean."
She stared out the window at the world she'd once known. The world that, thanks to Morpheus, would never be the same.
"It's... It seems like nothing's real anymore. Like I'm even more distant from a normal life than I was before."
"But if you could have a normal life back, would you really want one? People don't usually take up computers because they have an active social life."
A wisp of a smile crossed her face at the quip.
"We're here," came from the driver's seat. "Cerebus, stay with the car."
They walked into a large hallway. It stretched off beyond where she could see. The sunlight ended long before it did. She was curious to see where it led, but Morpheus kept moving, forcing her to follow.
He strode into an elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. Chrome doors closed and reflected both of them blurrily. Morpheus pressed the button for the tenth floor, which bathed his finger in an orange light. After it began to rise, he said, "Raven."
"Yes?"
"Listen carefully to what the Oracle tells you. She is very old. She has been with us since the beginning."
"Beginning of what?"
"The Resistance."
"And she can predict the future? She's always right?"
"Think of it more as seeing probabilities, of advice on the path you must follow."
The elevator dinged as the doors opened.
***
Raven opened the wooden door, unsure of what she was supposed to do. A woman with wrinkles creasing her face turned around and smiled.
"Hey, kid. It's Raven, right?"
"Yes..." She looked at the old woman before her. She didn't seem like someone to make pronouncements; she could almost be someone's grandmother.
The kettle on the stove began to whistle, halting the conversation. The woman took it off and poured it into two mugs.
"Would you like some tea?"
She took the proffered mug with a "Thank you." There was a yellow smiley face on it.
God, this place is surreal.
After taking a sip, she asked, "So what do you want me to do?"
"What do I want you to do? You have enough problems with what you need to do without me in the picture."
"I don't understand."
"You should drink your tea before it gets cold."
She obeyed, still watching the black woman on the other side of the room.
"Respect for your elders." She chuckled. "Wouldn't think it to look at you."
Raven decided that one was better left alone.
"Come on, sit down. There's no point in you just standing there." She gestured to a chair by the door with her cigarette. Grey trails of smoke followed her fingertips.
"I hate to do this to you, kid. I really do. None of you deserve what's coming."
"What do you mean, what's coming?"
"Are you sure you want to know?"
Her mind flickered back for an instant to when Morpheus had asked that question. His truths hadn't been pretty, but they had changed her. Freed her of the cage that was the Matrix.
"Yes."
"You're going to have a choice. The crew will pay a heavy price for it, and you'll have to choose what's most important to you - the Resistance or your life."
Her fingers tightened around the cup.
"You'll be their curse and their saving grace, but it's not going to be easy."
"Their curse?"
"You're a snake in the bushes, kid. Those fangs make you a dangerous person to know."
No! She wouldn't... couldn't hurt the crew.
The Oracle must have done something wrong. Maybe she flipped the tarot cards the wrong way or something. Her usual barriers flicked up for a second when she spoke again.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, honey. That's what I'm here for."
"Do you ever give out any good news?"
***
Cerebus watched Raven as she got in the car. She looked distant again. Her dark eyes looked like she was watching something no one else could see, just beneath reality.
Damn.
That meant that she hadn't gotten any good news.
Double damn.
The Resistance needed all the good news it could get, especially with most of the Neb's crew dead or demoralized. Still, what the Oracle had told him wasn't great either, and it hadn't come true.
He hoped it hadn't come true, anyway. Of course it hadn't. It never would.
He always had to chase the memory away when he saw a new member. The words echoed in his mind, almost a whisper at the edge of consciousness.
"You're going to meet a woman-"
No! They were not true. Could not be true.
If they were true, he was in trouble.
***
Raven opened her eyes to the Nebuchanezzar once more. Most of the lights were off, only a few still shining dimly. The lighting for the ship's night cycle suited her perfectly. She had already felt as ill-omened as her namesake.
The darkness just completed the picture.
She waited for Trinity to remove the data spike, then slid out of the chair.
As she began to walk to her quarters, she could feel her watching her go.
***
Cerebus pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose.
So far, the patch had gone perfectly. Raven had gone into the building to repair a cut exit, while he stood guard outside. Morpheus and the rest were out recruiting for the lifestyle, leaving him to babysit.
God, he was bored.
He scrubbed a hand through his sandy hair and leaned against the wall.
Then he noticed the man walking into the hotel. He was dressed in a dark suit and tie, which didn't fit with the decrepit neighborhood. Sunglasses hid his eyes, and an earpiece hung from his ear. The gun he held completed the picture.
Agent.
Shit.
He flipped out his cellphone as he frantically moved out of the Agent's sight. Once he hit a dark corner, he heard the other end pick up.
"Operator?"
"Tank, you have to get-"
He halted in mid-sentence, shocked.
The Agent took Raven out without a struggle. She was shifting as he watched, growing taller. The dust came off her clothes, resettling on an impeccable suit.
She was one of them. An Agent.
"Cerebus? You okay, man?"
The Agent she had become started running towards him, but he was still frozen.
What the hell just happened?
His mouth started working first.
"Get me out of here!"
"There's an exit on Wells and Lake."
***
Agent Gray began running with her companion as they exchanged information.
IDENTIFY RESISTANCE MEMBER, AGENT 675_
Member is Mr. Douglas (alias: Cerebus)_
GO TO THE RIGHT. I WILL GO TO THE LEFT. WE CAN CATCH HIM AT THE JUNCTURE_
She raised a hand to her earpiece and nodded.
Acknowledged_
As they continued their pursuit, the target ran through a group of batteries. She moved in the assigned direction and ran one floor up the fire escape of the corner building. As she ran, the floorboards creaked under her. Crashing out one of the windows, she began a controlled fall towards the target. She'd made sure to fall only a short distance so that it would be explainable.
She saw her companion transfer to a man in front of the target. He drew his gun as she hit the ground. The target tried to flee once he saw the gun, but he only met the cold steel of hers.
She smiled slightly from behind her sunglasses.
"Time to come with us, Mr. Douglas."
***
They frog-marched him into the interrogation room, then chained his wrists and ankles to the cold metallic chair. He shivered as his skin touched it. It seemed to suck out all warmth, inhuman, just like its owners. The white walls were equally uncomfortable.
The Agent he'd come with was looking out the floor-length window, his back to Cerebus. As he began testing the chains, the Agent turned around. "You will find them impervious to your desire to escape, Mr. Douglas."
Bastard.
The Agent's angled face stared down at him.
Ch. 6- Chained in Darkness
Cerebus craned his neck to see when he heard footsteps. They clicked against the tiled floor in the hallway, then the door swung open.
Raven was behind it. Or what had been Raven, at any rate. Now she was the picture of an Agent, in a business suit the same shade of grey as the other Agent's. Her eyes were the same frigid shade of blue as theirs now.
She looked briefly at the other Agent, communicating with him silently. Then the other Agent spun and left, expressionless as always.
"What have you done with Raven?"
She frowned at him.
"I am Agent Gray. Miss Greyson is no longer significant."
"Damn you, what did you do?!"
"Enough, Mr. Douglas. That is over and done with." Her dark eyes met his. "Your situation, on the other hand, is much more precarious." Her eyes narrowed. "We require the codes to Zion, and you will give them to us."
"I don't know them."
"You know Morpheus, and you know how to reach him." She placed his cell phone on his lap.
He picked it up, closing his fingers around it.
He tightened them, beginning to bend the plastic shell protecting its innards.
Finally, he dropped the hunk of plastic, now crushed beyond all recognition.
He had to work his dry mouth a moment before he could spit at her feet.
"Very well, Mr. Douglas." She picked up a syringe with silvery liquid in it. "You've chosen."
***
Tank heard the cellphone being crushed through his headset.
"Damn it!"
At times he regretted being a free-born, always having to help his crewmates second-hand.
This was one of those times.
He turned, looking at Cerebus's seemingly asleep form. The dim blue light of the Nebuchanezzar revealed his tensed muscles, and the screen above him revealed a sky-high heartrate.
His fingers moved over the keyboard, dialing Morpheus in a blur.
***
Trinity and Neo both turned around on the stairwell as Morpheus's cell phone rang, tensing. Morpheus clicked the phone open and listened for a moment, his face darkening. "Neo, Trinity, we must go. Cerebus is in trouble and Tank is unable to get a fix on Raven."
Neo looked confused. "He can't get a fix on her? What is that supposed to mean?"
Trinity stated bluntly, "Nothing good."
"Enough. We need to try to locate her. Her last known position was Third and Wells. We will split up and attempt to find her, but if we cannot find her after ten minutes, we will have to leave her and return to the ship."
"Why? What about Cerebus?"
"Cerebus is being held in an Agent-guarded building. There is nothing we can do for him now. As for Raven, if we cannot find her by then, she has most likely been taken as well, and remaining in the area would accomplish nothing but our own capture."
"Shit!"
Morpheus began gliding away.
"Use your phones to stay in contact with Tank. He will tell you where to search."
Neo and Trinity opened their phones simultaneously as they headed for the door.
***
Neo turned the corner, the cell phone held to his ear.
"Nothing here, either."
Only old boxes and a Dumpster greeted him in the alley. It had to be the tenth one he'd searched today.
"Two minutes left. Try the building to your right."
He walked in a creaking green door.
***
Agent Gray and Agent Black received the instructions simultaniously. Their heads turned as they tracked through the code before them, searching for what had set off the alarm.
THE RESISTANCE MEMBERS HAVE COME FOR YOU_
Agent Gray disliked the reminder that she had ever been human. How distasteful.
Yes_
Light flickered around their forms as they skimmed through the code, reading the green phrases directly.
Section 62-A_
She winked out a second before her partner.
***
Neo poked his head around, then headed for an elevator.
The cell phone by his ear said, "One minute."
As the doors dinged open, he noticed a woman in black with her back turned to him.
He started to push the 'Elevator Stop' button.
He couldn't get caught now, and if she saw his face...
"Thirty seconds..."
His finger brushed the warm, glowing plastic, blotting out its light.
Her hair swirled around her face as she turned to look up at him.
He was staring straight into Raven's eyes.
"Looking for me?"
End of Part I
Part II - Eyes of Truth
Agent Gray watched through Raven's eyes, a silent, hidden snake. She had buried herself under the code that normally made up this battery, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
She was handed the black payphone.
She placed it on her ear.
The green code swirled around her as she became the first Agent to leave the Matrix.
***
The world blurred, then reformed into a room with no floor, ceiling, or walls, only pure white as far as the eye could see. Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity were there as well. Morpheus said, "Tank has told me that there is something going on in the Matrix, at its most basic level. He is unsure what it is, but the Agents are distracted and trying to deal with it. Meanwhile, we will have an opportunity to help Cerebus. It will be brief, but we cannot leave him if there is a chance we can get him out."
Racks of guns, bombs, and other weaponry appeared around them.
Raven chose a series of knives and twin guns. She snapped the clip in, hearing the others do the same. Then their world melted back into the Matrix.
***
"Raven, guard the hardline."
She nodded, then watched as Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo drove off in the Continental.
Agent Gray became dominant once more and reconnected to the central computer.
I have been successfully inserted_
THEN WE NO LONGER NEED THE PRISONER_
DISPOSE OF THE HUMAN_
Acknowledged_
She moved up the stairs of the old building to find the helicopter that was waiting.
***
Agent Gray came into the interrogation room. The prisoner was still there, though he seemed completely unaware of his surroundings. Sweat dripped down his face, and his eyes were rolled back in his head. Only half moons of iris were still visible.
She traced his jawline with one finger, then removed her hand.
"Goodbye, Mr. Douglas."
She smiled coldly.
As her fist hit him, she could hear his spine snap.
***
"It's too late," Tank told the crew over the flatline sound of the monitor.
Trinity cursed softly.
"Damn machines."
***
After returning to the Neb....
Raven readied herself in the combat simulation. She was facing off against Neo again. She was only now coming to realize how much he'd held back during their first fight, probably to avoid killing her.
He still had the same black gi on, but hers had shifted to green.
They stood, calmly, both in mirror-like positions.
He moved first, blurringly fast. She blocked the roundhouse, snapping a kick at him. He danced out of the way. She followed, matching him move for move.
***
Tank watched the screens.
Damn, she's gotten faster all of a sudden.
She was only good enough to hold Neo off, to match him, not beat him, but still...
They both seemed to blur, turning into twin whirling dervishes.
Then they froze. As quickly as it had been fought, the match was ended.
***
Neo looked at Raven as she released the bruising grip she'd had on his neck by inches. There was a feral light dancing in her eyes that he'd never seen before. It raised the hair on the back of his neck in primal warning and he froze.
Damn.
She looks ready to kill someone.
She looks ready to kill me.
Gradually, the light faded, releasing him from paralysis.
He paused, then said, "Good." He smiled. "Have you been practicing behind my back?"
"No..."
"You're getting much faster. Want to go celebrate with a bowl of snot?"
She chuckled, then said, "No, thanks."
He was privately glad she'd said no. He suddenly wanted to get away as fast as possible.
***
Raven shut the door to her quarters and leaned against it, breathing raggedly.
She'd been seeing Neo like one of the punching bags she'd been using. She channeled all her anger into hitting it, punching it. They usually wound up breaking all over the floor of the construct.
She'd almost wound up breaking Neo the same way.
She hadn't thought she was capable of something like that.
Lately, though, after she'd come back and been told of Cerebus's death, she felt angrier, more temperamental. She couldn't remember anything after patching the wire, but she knew something had happened before Neo had found her. Something must have.
But what?
And why couldn't she remember?
***
Neo approached Tank in the dark of the night shift.
"Tank, has Raven been working with any practice people from the construct? It looks like she's been practicing on someone."
"Not that I know of. She does know how to load programs on her own, though.
***
When Morpheus mentioned another mission into the Matrix, Agent Gray smiled in the back of Raven's mind. Soon she would be able to leave this place permanently.
***
She dumped all the information she had about the Nebuchanezzar and its crew into the AI mainframe, while watching the two rebels through the guise of the battery he'd been hunting for. She wondered why these humans were so attached to each other. It made them vulnerable.
Agents: converge on this position_
She felt their assent.
She began moving her code back to the host she inhabited to take care of the other loose ends.
***
Tank watched the code scrolling down the screen and the signal for Raven's return.
What?
Trinity and Morpheus wouldn't have come back that fast.
What was going on?
***
Neo watched the screen with the download counter, watching it scroll forward.
Suddenly, every instinct he had told him that if she came on this ship, she'd bring disaster.
"Tank, divert her into the Construct."
"Why?"
"Just do it! And hook me up to it."
As he spoke, he began strapping himself in.
***
Neo opened his eyes to the white of the Construct just as Raven arrived. As he moved closer to her, he could see that something was different about her. She radiated self-assured power.
Suddenly it snapped into place for him.
When Cerebus had died, it was right when they'd entered the Matrix.
If an Agent was going to kill him, why wouldn't they have done it before?
They were waiting for confirmation that she'd arrived.
She had to be kept off the ship.
Since she could return at will, that meant Tank would have to kill her.
"Tank-"
"There's no point, Mr. Anderson. You entered my realm. That was your first mistake."
He was close enough now to see her razor-sharp smile.
It widened by a hair as scenery began to appear.
Skyscrapers grew beneath them and became the ground under their feet.
The Jump Program.
She adopted a ready stance and said, "Let's see if this will be your second."
***
The rebel is still off balance.
Good.
She began shifting, slowly into her true form.
***
He fired at her, even though he knew it wouldn't be any use.
Her eyes shifted to blue and her clothing changed as she dodged the bullets, streamlining into a blur of movement. Once the clip was empty, he threw the gun down and launched himself at her, pushing himself past mortal speed. She leaped behind him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to slow down or have it broken.
She snapped a roundhouse kick at his gut and threw punches that felt like small trains. He blocked what he could, but she was even faster than he.
He jumped upward and flipped behind her, kicking with both feet. She skidded backwards, then leapt up again and swept his feet out from under him. He rolled and grabbed a handful of the grit covering the roof on his way up. He threw it in her face as he hit her in the sternum.
Neo leaped desperately for another one of the skyscrapers, the black asphalt beckoning beneath him...
***
Tank watched the ongoing battle on the monitors on the Neb, sweaty palms typing as fast as he could make them go. He'd somehow been locked out of the Construct's program, as all the code had been put under password protection. As he kept trying, he didn't notice the flickers in the code surrounding Morpheus and Trinity...
***
Trinity looked out the window. They had arranged to meet a new potential here, but so far he hadn't shown. As she watched, a disturbingly familiar black van approached. "Morpheus-" Once its passengers began to get off, she froze. "Agents!" They both ran for the single door in the room, Trinity only slightly ahead of Morpheus. Once they got into the hall, they stood back-to-back, bracing themselves. Agents were already on both ends of the hallway...
***
The Agent vaulted after Neo. He touched the ledge, and grit fell off as she dragged him backwards. He punched her in the nose, trying to loosen the grip. It was too late. They'd already begun to fall. She backhanded him and snarled, "Goodbye, Mr. Anderson." He saw a glint of metal, then pain blossomed in his chest. He felt her drop him distantly as she grabbed a window ledge.
He saw images flash past him as he fell. He saw his parents. One mother, one father, your typical nuclear family. Only his dad drank and his mother came home only to sleep. He saw the day his mother had died in a car wreck when he was 15. His father had been at a loss for what to do with his son, so he finally came home one day with a box. He'd opened it to find a computer, with his father's gruff "Here. Play with this." At the time, the piece of plastic and metal hadn't enthused him much - he'd wanted a car - but he'd eventually come around. The computer became his pride and joy in a few months. In another year, he got a job so that he could start upgrading it. After he'd gotten his degree, it came to replace most of his human contact; he found that he preferred the virtual world to the real world. There he was valued for what he could do, not what he looked like or who he was. He became a hacker when he was 22. He learned the rules that the 'Net operated on and its inhabitants, discovering that there was a kind of honor among thieves. They chose to never know each other's real world address so that they couldn't turn each other in, no matter what the cops did. He remembered the day he'd nearly gotten caught; the police tracked him to the library he'd been hacking from and he had grab what he could on the way out of town. That was when he came to Chicago. He'd met Choi there, who'd become his best customer - he was always in some sort of trouble or another. Choi always blamed his girlfriend of the moment, though; he couldn't count the number of times he'd heard "It's her fault." He smiled at the memory. He remembered his training with Morpheus. "Do you think that's air you're breathing?" He tensed abruptly.
No, it's not, is it...
Neo saw his feet only meters from the ground. As he looked at them, he realized that there truly was nothing here, that nothing could not kill something, that he was something, and that the ground...
Had stopped.
He sensed instinctively what to do. He just had to reach out and change a few numbers, a few letters. It was so easy... He hovered in the air, looking back at the Agent. Then he touched down before her and ran his hands along the code. The Agent emitted an electronic scream as fear's cold fingers finally touched her.
***
Somehow, he heard Trinity's scream of rage. He cocked his head, listening. He thought he'd heard it from... Yes. There.
***
Trinity saw Neo appear in front of them. "Neo! What the hell are you doing here?! Get out, now!"
They had, at best, a few seconds before the Agents started shooting.
He smiled softly at her.
"NEO!"
She heard the gunshots.
The bullets almost seemed to be moving in slow motion. She and Morpheus ducked, trying to avoid them though they knew it was futile.
She looked up.
I seem to still be alive. What-
She broke off the thought when she saw the bullet hovering, motionless, in front of her face.
One of the Agents snarled and launched himself at Neo. Neo looked almost bored as he stared into the Agent's eyes. The Agent's eyes widened. "You- I can hear-"
***
You heard me, Smith. Tell me how to remove the Agent code from Raven or I destroy you. Now._
MR. ANDERSON_
WE DO NOT BARGAIN WITH TERRORISTS_
I wasn't offering a bargain. It wasn't open to question._
Agent Smith began to close in on Neo.
He smiled.
IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE FOR YOUR FRIEND, MR. ANDERSON_
AND TOO LATE FOR YOU_
Smith's fists seemed to move separately from his body. They blurred, streaking towards Neo. One of them clipped the wall, leaving a crater. Neo blocked them effortlessly. Smith's eyes narrowed as he increased the speed and fury of his attacks.
To utterly no effect.
Neo suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed Smith by the neck, pinning him against the wall. His left hand was plunged deep within the Agent. A bright yellow halo appeared around them, illuminating them both harshly. Smith contorted in pain as Neo searched through his programming.
Damn!
They'd never constructed a way to return Raven to normal, just to conceal her Agent code. It made sense, after all. Why would they need Raven again?
He released Smith and backhanded him. The Agent collapsed on the floor.
"You son of a bitch!"
His anger fueled his powers as he looked toward the other two Agents. They scrambled to get away.
***
He returned to the Construct. It had been cleared, restored to the blank white that it held until someone loaded a program.
Raven seemed to be asleep.
His sight switched to the lines of green code as he read Raven's programming again.
The Agent code was gone.
What-
He looked beneath the surface code to the deeper levels.
There.
He caught a faint green tendril of it.
Gotcha.
He followed it, tracing it back through. The green danced through her memories, her senses, and finally stopped.
Once he had left, it took the opportunity to embed itself within her personality.
If he removed it, she'd be left braindead.
I'm sorry, Raven.
***
Raven opened her eyes slowly as Neo watched, pain written in their depths. They were no longer brown, but sky blue...
Many thanks go to Siti Marie and William Freedman at Project Declan, (http://projectdeclan.homestead.com) my faithful beta readers. Without them, I probably would have kept this saved in some back corner of my computer and you wouldn't be reading it now. Thanks also are due Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Deptula, who continue to inspire me long after their classes. Cyber-hugs to all!