Title: Reality
Author: Stormhawk
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.
Notes: ~ ~ denotes remembered/flashback dialogue.
No, I don't hate Trinity. I know she's usually the one who gets beaten/shot in my fics but I think she is cool. Neo is The One so you really can't beat him up when you need to hurt an important rebel and I figure Morpheus has gone through enough crap so it falls on Trinity.
Word Count: 7007
Summary: The question 'what is the matrix' takes on a whole new level when Stef is brought into the real, real world.
Please Read and Review.
Smith was frozen to the spot. Stevie was ten feet in front of him and being held captive by two of his fellow agents. Jones and Brown held the human girl still.
He knew shooting them would be a futile gesture and perhaps a fatal one. Though she was ready to burst into tears Stevie hadn't said anything that compromised anyone's existence.
He stared at her from behind his sunglasses. His jaw was clenched tight; something he hoped the other two didn't see.
He wished.hoped.he even prayed that this was just another glitch. A nightmare in which everything seemed real but wasn't. In his last glitch Stevie had died. He would not allow that to happen no matter the price.
He wanted them to just let her go. He wanted her to escape. He wanted Mr. Anderson to show up - at least he would be a distraction. Maybe he was delaying what he felt was inevitable.
No, it wasn't supposed to be inevitable. He had given her to the rebels so she would be safe - not to be played as a pawn in their war.
It was then Stef chose to show up.
Stef had chased a small group of rebels out of the park they had been fighting in. She hadn't seen Stevie or she never would have left.
Stef wanted to throw up. Once the agents got their hands on a rebel there was no hope for them. She knew - often she was the end of their hope. Her quick-thinking mind chose that moment to keel over and stop working.
She blinked a few times, an act hidden behind her glasses as she stared at the human girl. She forced herself to walk forward and stare in distaste at the rebel - she was an agent, it was her job to hate and kill rebels.
Maybe it was because she had been human but she was much better at acting than Smith. She willed him to move before the other two got suspicious. Brown and Jones didn't trust Stef and Smith at the best of times. The situation could have turned dangerous for them all if she hadn't spoken.
'You only caught one?' Her voice was insanely calm and detached, exactly as the voice of an agent should be when she was looking at a rebel.
'One is enough, Mimosa,' Brown replied.
'Hmm.maybe, maybe not.' Stef had to keep herself talking otherwise she knew she would do something stupid.
'Mimosa, you can question her when we return.' Stef nodded curtly, it was all the reply that was required.
They hauled Stevie off to the car. It wasn't necessary that Stef and Smith go with them; two agents were more than enough to handle her.
Smith went to follow; though unsure of what he could do. Stef's arm shot out and caught him before he got two steps.
'Mimosa let me go.'
'No,' she said pulling his ear piece out after her own. 'No. You can't be stupid about this. If you're stupid she dies.'
'Then what am I to do? You know what happens to rebels.'
'We'll think of something. We just can't go in with our guns blazing.'
'Think quickly Mimosa. I will not let them kill my daughter.'
'I know. I know exactly what happened the last time you thought she died.'
'This is not the time to discuss that.' he stopped when he saw Stef smile. It was as good as a cartoon light bulb appearing. She had an idea.
'After.the alley. When I ran to that club. I saw Trinity there.'
'Why didn't you kill her?'
'I didn't give a damn about this war at the time. She might be there again.'
'So?'
'Who - besides us - has the only chance in hell of getting her out of there? Who's fault is it she was in here?'
'Anderson.' Smith growled.
'He'd do anything for Trinity. It's a human thing. We get to him through her.'
'It's a risk.' Taking a risk was not something they had time for.
'Yes,' Stef said flatly. 'It is. But isn't it worth it?'
She ran through the plan as it came to her then morphed into one of the club's patrons. As she sat up at the bar, the bartender looked absolutely amazed that she hadn't died from alcohol poisoning yet.
She needed Trinity to show up - they needed her. Stef thanked whoever was listening when she heard Trinity order some drinks from Carmichael.
Trinity actually saw Stef this time without Stef having to announce her presence. Trinity opened her jacket enough so she could go for her gun if Mimosa turned dangerous.
Stef saw the gesture. 'Do I look like I'm going to give you any trouble?'
'Do they know you come and get drunk?'
'Agents don't get drunk. Have a drink with me.'
'No thanks.'
'Come on Trin, I won't tell your boss.' Trinity sighed and took the offered drink from Stef.
Stef allowed herself a smile when Trinity slipped unconscious to the floor from the poison in the shot glass.
'Is she all right?' Carmichael asked.
'She'll be fine, I'll get her home.'
She half-dragged, half-carried Trinity out to the car. She drove to an empty warehouse. Trinity regained consciousness as Stef parked.
'I knew it,' Trinity said bitterly as Stef shoved her to the floor.
Smith was waiting for them. 'Leave, Mimosa,' he said. Stef swore she heard a note of regret in his voice.
'I think I'll stay.'
'Stef, please. You don't want to see this.' Stef hadn't been hallucinating, she did hear regret in his voice. She didn't understand, Trinity was just a rebel.
'You do know it's bad manners to beat up girls don't you?' Stef got back into the car and drove away.
Smith looked down at Trinity. Trinity was still a little woozy and unable to get to her feet.
'What are you going to do to me?' She asked; her voice was carefully even.
'Nothing if you answer one question.'
'Then why did you send her away? She's an agent too.'
'In case you don't answer my question.' Trinity had to repress a shudder.
'I don't have the codes to Zion. You should know that. Morpheus has them.'
'I don't care about that at the present moment. This is something more important.'
'What?'
'Where is Neo?'
'I don't know.'
'Liar.'
*****
Smith had relatively little trouble finding Neo after he had beat the information out of Trinity. Worse for wear Trinity was now in the cell next to a terrified Stevie.
'What do you want Smith?' Neo asked cautiously as Smith morphed from the rebel recruit in front of him, preparing himself for a fight.
'Well Mr. Anderson it's like this.' Smith began calmly before he leapt at Neo, slamming him half-into, half-through the nearest wall.
Neo was usually more than a match or at least an even match for everything the agents could throw at him but today he couldn't get free of Smith's grip.
Neo pulled at Smith's hands as the agents held him at/into the wall, his fingers dangerously close to choking him Smith held Neo suspended in the air. The human's legs kicked harmlessly.
'Understand this Neo. You are going to take Stevie out of the matrix and you are never going to put her back in. Never. If you do I swear that I will kill every rebel and every human in Zion myself.' Every word was deliberate and slowly spoken in the hiss that Smith's voice had become.
'You don't know where Zion is.' Neo managed.
'A minor detail, believe me. One of the rebels in here will be coward enough to tell me the location before I put a bullet through their skull.'
Neo stared at his adversary; every word he was speaking was the truth.
'You want me to get her from your headquarters? The most guarded place in this world or the real world besides Zion?'
Smith pulled Neo away from the wall, for the briefest of seconds he thought the agent was letting him down. Big mistake.
Smith slammed Neo into the wall repeatedly, he was so strong that Neo's head was bleeding and his skull was threatening to crack.
Suddenly Smith stopped, released him and he slipped to the floor.
'Pick yourself up.' Oddly, Neo followed the command.
'Smith, you can go to hell.'
'Where do you think I am right now? If you don't save Stevie you don't get to save Trinity.'
'What?'
'She's in the cell next to my daughter. If you refuse to go and rescue Stevie then Trinity dies as well.'
'You bastard.'
'Well, what's your choice? Decide now, if you choose wrongly Trinity will be dead in a matter of seconds, Mimosa is waiting to kill her right now.'
'I'll kill you.' Neo said.
For the second time in as many minutes Neo was attacked. Smith moved at the speed only an agent could until Neo was on his knees spitting blood onto the floor.
Smith crouched beside the human. 'I could kill you right now,' he said. 'You should be grateful that you're still alive.'
'I can kill her once she's out or I can call her ship and tell them to pull her plug.'
Smith stared at Neo until the One realized that either of those two would have very bad aftereffects.
'Fine,' Neo said wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his sleeve. 'Do you have a plan?'
'Go to the top of the ANDCORP building on the corner of Jayne and Parker, Mimosa will be there.'
'Now?'
'Yes Mr. Anderson. Now.'
Fifteen minutes later Neo was at the ANDCORP building. He rode the elevator to the roof. 'Anderson?' Mimosa said to the figure in black. He turned. 'Follow me,' she said as she stepped from the rooftop.
He looked at her curiously from behind his sunglasses. 'You can fly can't you?' she said suspended thirty stories from the ground. Neo nodded and rose from the rooftop.
'Where are we going?' Neo asked as they flew through the clouds.
'The least guarded entrance is the roof. You want half a chance to do this don't you?'
A few minutes later they stopped in mid air. Stef pointed to the building. 'Follow me, stay on my tail or you will get lost.'
Neo had expected her to land on the roof and point to a door but instead she flew straight at the roof, and didn't stop. They flew through the floors, making a hole in each as they dove straight down to the cell block.
In the settling dust Stef saw Trinity but not Stevie. 'They took her a minute ago,' Trinity managed even though her whole face was covered in blood.
Stef heard someone approach so she disappeared, Neo didn't hear whoever it was and set about getting Trinity from the cell. Stef linked with the security camera that watched the cell block. Neo failed to notice Brown walking in.
The tall agent drew his weapon and shot Neo. He adjusted the angle and shot Trinity. Oh shit, Stef thought. Everyone was in trouble now. The humans had lost their 'One' and Stef and Smith had lost their only chance to free Stevie.
Smith was in his office, playing dumb, unaware that his daughter was being taken for questioning, he thought Neo was freeing her now.
'Smith!' the agent turned and saw Stef in communication mode. 'For the love of existence hurry.' She disappeared again. In the blink of an eye Smith was behind her.
As he reappeared, Stef sent him a copy of the memory of the last few minutes.
He was outside the interrogation room. It had been rarely used after Stef had shown up; she had more subtle methods to get information from rebels. He opened the door.
He forced himself to walk forward, Stevie was cuffed in a chair across the room, she had been beaten but was still conscious. Brown was questioning her but Smith barely heard the words.
Sick of the uncooperative rebel Brown drew his gun. In the blink of an eye Smith was standing protectively in front of his daughter. He would not let her die.
Damn Brown, Smith thought, if he hadn't interfered then Stevie would be free. On the plus side Neo and Trinity were dead but considering what they had done for them Smith wasn't as happy about that as he should have been.
Stevie looked up at Smith. 'Dad?'
Smith turned his head and looked down at her. 'I'm not going to let anything happen to you.' She smiled weakly then Stef came over and took her cuffs off.
'What are you doing?' Jones asked.
Stef helped Stevie to her feet and Smith steadied his daughter by holding her under his right arm. Both Smith and Stef drew their weapons.
'What are you doing?' Jones asked again.
'Get out of the way,' Smith demanded.
'You are helping a human?' Brown asked incredulously.
Stef aimed her gun and shot Brown. Stevie screamed, knowing this wasn't going to end well. She held Smith tightly. Brown disappeared and Jones shot Stef in the head.
As she faded out Stef knew this was the last time. After what they had done the mainframe wouldn't bring her back online. The last thing she saw was Stevie and she was secure in the knowledge that they had at least tried to do the right thing.
As darkness claimed her she heard two more shots.
Stef felt like she was being torn in half while on a water slide flowing the wrong way. She was just code - it shouldn't hurt like this.
She felt her skull threatening to tear itself apart. Instead of living in pain she succumbed to unconsciousness. She didn't know how long she was out for - she wasn't sure it mattered.
Some part of her was still aware, like a dying ember still alight after a campfire. Slowly she felt herself come into being again. She wondered why in hell the mainframe was bringing her back to life.
She wondered so many things. A minute later she wondered many more.
Stef opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a lab. A man sat at a computer while a group of men in military dress uniforms waited behind him. Maybe the matrix had a glitch that had sent her here instead of deleting her.
The man at the computer, who Stef would have sworn he had a passing resemblance to Jones, looked at her.
'Who are you?' Behind him the other men waited with baited breath.
'Stef Mimosa. Agent Mimosa.' She could hear the men in uniforms exchanging excited whispers of 'incredible' 'outstanding' 'amazing.'
'What is going on?' Stef asked. She tried to take a step forward but her leg disappeared. The man who looked like Jones shook his head at her.
'Sorry Stef. You see those four lights above your head with the disc in the center? You have to stay within that perimeter.'
Stef pulled her leg back and it reappeared. 'It's Stef to my friends.
'.and Mimosa to you.' Stef stopped dead as the other men gave him a strange look.
'She always says that.'
'And how the hell would you know?' Stef tried to require a gun but nothing appeared. She got very frustrated and cast an 'I-really-want-to-kill-you' look at everyone in the room.
'What was she doing?' One of the uniforms asked.
'She was trying to 'require' a gun.'
'Require?'
'Something only agents can do.' Half the men in uniform look confused.
'If you will all take your seats then I will explain this whole grand scheme to those of you who don't know about it yet.'
They all take their seats. 'This will interest you as well Stef.'
'Mimosa.'
'My name is Arthur Jonas. This is an AI research institute. I was contracted to write the first truly intelligent AI but to also incorporate elements of VR. This could be used for training simulations and the like. That was five years ago.'
Everyone sat patiently so he continued.
'After I created the AI they wanted me to go further. They wanted me to go beyond the limits of technology. They wanted to see what was possible. Enter the matrix.'
Stef's eyes flashed in confusion.
'A simulated world. Billions of individual AI beings living in it. The first matrix, a perfect world, was an utter disaster. It lasted three days.'
Stef sat perfectly still, she had heard Smith mention the first matrix. She was afraid because she knew what he was going to say next.
'The problem was perfection itself. My humans were too human. They desired chaos, so I gave it to them. I redesigned the entire system but this time I had a scenario in place.'
'What scenario?'
'The world my humans believed to be real was only a simulation, a sim inside a sim, I thought it was quite clever. I left them to their own devices, just to see what would happen, when about fifty-five years had passed for them I had grown bored.'
Everyone, barring Stef, wanted to hear more.
'I created a man who could find his way out of the matrix. This started a rebel faction and led to the creation of the agents.' He looked at Stef. 'One of them is with us now.'
Stef looked away from them. 'They weren't my idea. Though I can control everything I let them rule their own world. The 'mainframe' as they call it controls everything within the matrix and it came up with the agents.'
Stef was on the ground hugging her knees praying she would wake up from the glitch that she was surely in.
'Why her?' on them asked.
'Stef is unique.almost unique among agents. She started off as human - or at least she believed so - and then joined with the agents to fight her own people. Though there have been a number of collaborators and recruits, she is only the second 'human' who they deemed worthy to be transformed into an agent.'
'No, I was the first. I'm the only human to have become an agent.'
'Sorry, my boys lied to you. You weren't the first, there was another before you; her name was Carol Whitman.'
'You're a liar.'
'No Stef I'm not.' Stef turned away again.
'She was recruited by the agent called Smith. Of all the agents he was programmed with the widest range of emotions, though he rarely showed them. Until Stevie came along.'
'Who?'
'His human daughter. It was fun to see how she corrupted him, made him go against his key directives and programming.'
'You bastard,' Stef growled at him.
'Let me speak Mimosa. He willingly gave her over to his enemy just so she could live.'
'This is fascinating,' one of the uniforms said, 'but has very little to do with why we're here.'
'Of course. You wanted to see how far I had progressed. I present you with the proof.' He said pointing to Stef. 'She is a perfect AI and if you want to see the VR component all I need is a volunteer.'
One of them stepped forward. Arthur nodded and guided him to a chair.
'This will feel a little weird,' he warned. He stuck a needle into the base of the man's neck and placed a visor over his eyes.
Five minutes later he withdrew the needle and took the visor off. 'Holy shit,' the man commented.
'Was it real enough?'
'Yes, I wouldn't have ever known it was a simulation.'
'I assume I'm going to get my funding?' The man nodded.
'Anything you need you will get.'
One by one they all left the room. A few looked back at Stef but most didn't.
'Well my little program, how do you like the real, real world?'
'You control the mainframe?'
'I can overrule its decisions if I see fit. Your world is nothing but a game to me. I can speed up time, slow it down. See the future or go into the past.'
'What year is it here?'
'2063.'
'Oh.' was all Stef said.
'I'm sure this is a shock to you.'
'Finding out nothing is real? Less real than the matrix? That it's just a program? I can officially say that you've rocked my simulation of a simulated world.'
'That's what I like about you Stef, you're very sarcastic.'
'Who gave you the right to play god? Everyone I have ever known is.no one is real.'
'It's the job.'
'It sucks. Not that it matters anymore. Nothing matters anymore. Are you sending me back in?'
'You can't stay out here forever.'
'Then, the minute I go back in I get deleted, Smith gets deleted and Stevie dies.'
'It's a shame really - you three were entertaining. Almost as entertaining as Neo.'
'You are talking about our lives.'
'You're just bits of code, I hardly see how it matters.' Stef went to punch him but her arm disappeared as soon as it went out of the light-bulb perimeter.
'Tsk, tsk,' he muttered to her.
He put his hand within the perimeter, she tried to swat it away but her hand went straight through it.
'In this world you are nothing more than a trick of the light. You are kept contained by that disk above your head. You have no form, you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to.'
He busied himself at his computer but when five o'clock rolled around he turned everything off except for the projector that kept Stef in the real world.
'Why haven't you sent me back yet?'
'A few other people I know want to meet you.'
All the lights dim as he leaves. Stef goes back to sitting on the floor. She wished she could sleep, at least there she wouldn't have to face the world for a while.
Though she strictly didn't sleep, Stef floated lost in the flow of her own code, analyzing old data and replaying memories. Stef raged, everyone she had every known, loved, hated or trusted were nothing more than bits of data in a computer.
~ ~ 'Are you sending me back in?'
~ ~ 'You can't stay out here forever.'
~ ~ 'Your world is nothing but a game to me. I can speed up time, slow it down. See the future or go into the past.'
Go into the PAST! Stef sat up like a shot. If she could beg him to send her into her past she could save them all - even that stupid Mr. Anderson and his beloved Trinity.
'Yes,' she hissed to herself then looked around the lab. Someone was there.
'Hello?' she asked of the darkness.
'Is someone there?' the reply came as someone walked into something-or- other.
'Yes.' A dark figure came toward her. A familiar figure.
'Neo?'
'Who? Who are you?' the man who looked like Neo asked.
'Who are you?' Stef retorted. Stef was wondering if she was dreaming, it was sort of like Wizard of Oz. She could image herself pointing to the people (and agents) she knew: 'you were there, and so were you.'
'Hang on a minute, did you just say Neo? How do you know that name?'
'Who are you?'
'Tim Annerly, Arthur I'm-a-son-of-a-bitch Jonas scanned me into the computer and used me as a template for a character for a guy he called Neo.'
'A character?' Stef screamed.
'Who are you? Why are you here? Where'd you come from?'
'In order, Stef Mimosa. I'm a prisoner for the moment. The matrix.'
'You've got to be shitting me. You can't have come from in there.'
'I did.'
'Then.he wasn't sprouting crap when he said all the AI's in there really were conscious and aware? Cool.'
'You think this is cool? Everyone and everywhere I know is some program. It is not cool.'
'It is for me, shame I got fired from this program.'
'You got fired?'
'Yeah, that's why I'm here. I like revenge.' He held up a crowbar.
'What are you going to do?'
Tim held it threateningly over the computer that controlled the matrix. 'Stop!' she screamed at him. 'You can't do that.'
'Why not?'
'It's murder, you will be killing innocent people.'
'It's just a really advanced video game. The people are fake.' He considered his last statement and looked back at her. 'You're one of those fake people.'
'I am.'
'You have no idea what this software would go for on the black market. This is an opportunity.'
'Great, just leave me out of it.'
A slow, creepy and unsettling smile crossed over his face. 'You're my proof. I am not leaving you out of it.'
'You can go to hell but it's all moot because I'm stuck here.'
Tim looked up to the four lights and disc. 'Maybe not Stef.'
'Mimosa to you.'
'Mimosa?' he thought for a minute. 'Quite appropriate. Imitative, false, phony.'
'Shut up.'
'You're coming with me my little piece of fiction.'
He fetched a ladder from the other side of the lab and pulled the disc from the roof. Stef disappeared for a minute. He pulled some tools out of his pocket and adjusted it. Stef reappeared and he hooked the disc over her neck like some ugly pendant.
She could feel his hands. She reached out and touched him.
'I can feel you.'
'Of course.'
'But he said.'
'That you were a hologram, I just had to adjust that thing.' He said pointing to the disc.
She tried to make a break for it but he pulled a device from his pocket and she disappeared and reappeared.
'Didn't you think I knew you would try and run? This controls that pack. Try to cross me or run and I'll turn you off.'
She followed him out into the real, real world. She looked up at real stars for the first time.
'So.' he started, 'in there what are you?'
'An agent,' she said. She hoped he would just shut up.
'No you aren't. They're all guys.'
'I was a recruit. Then they made me one of them.'
'Oh. You kill the simulated humans?'
'On a daily basis.' An idea just occurred to her, she kicked herself for not thinking of it earlier. She turned to look at him, he must have guessed her thought already. He brandished the remote control.
'I warned you not to try anything.' Stef sighed and dropped her head.
'Come on. I know people who would love to meet you.'
They walked a couple of blocks before they came upon a motorbike. He climbed on and put a helmet on.
'Get on or I turn you off.' Stef complied and he took off. They raced through the city streets until they came to the inner city. He parked the bike in front of an apartment building. She followed him up to a spacious apartment.
He pressed the buzzer and a face appeared on a screen beside the door.
'Tim - it's late. What do you want?'
'I've got something to show you.'
'What?' Tim stepped aside so the face could see Stef.
'You finally got a girlfriend?'
'She's not a girl.'
'Oh.Tim I didn't know.'
'Get real for a minute. She's not human.'
'Then what is she?'
'AI.' A fraction of second later the door opened.
'Why didn't you say so?' He let them in and began to look at Stef.
'What are you staring at?' Stef snapped.
'She talks.'
'Stop talking about me in the third person before I beat the.' Tim wagged his finger at her and held up the remote. Stef bit her tongue.
'What do you think she's worth?'
'Just her?'
'You see this?' Tim said grabbing the disc. 'This holds all of her information. Her appearance and data. I invented this thing.'
'So?'
'We can copy her matrix and put them into hundreds of these.'
'Oh, that's different. Could be worth quite a lot.'
'Want to get the gang together? They'll be interested too.'
'Call them.' Tim went over to a video phone while his friend circled Stef.
'I'm Kirk. Do you have a name AI?'
'Mimosa.'
'Are you from that Matrix thing he's forever talking about?' Stef nodded.
'Well Mimosa. You are going to make me very rich.' Stef turned away from him. He reached out to touch her, she batted his hand away. Tim looked up from the phone and twisted a dial on the remote.
Stef lost solid form and reverted back to a trick of the light. Less, she had less substance than before, the disc fell through her neck and she was only kept lit by a laser-like beam that came from it.
She lay on the floor, unable to even sit up. Within the next hour about half a dozen people showed up.
From her spot on the floor Stef heard him talking about her, gesturing to her inert form every so often.
'There isn't that much we can do with her.' One commented.
'No yet.' Tim knelt beside her and inserted a lead to the disc. He waited a few moments before pulling it out. He went over to the large computer that dominated the room.
He uploaded the data he had gotten from Stef and soon a display showed a CG model of her with a bunch of information that she couldn't make out.
He made a few adjustments and then retrieved a disc from a bag. He downloaded the data into it and turned it on. Stef was horrified with what she saw.
She was looking at herself. More correctly she was looking at an imperfect copy of herself. The new her was a few inches taller, blond and in an outfit which brought the word 'slut' to mind.
'What the hell did you do?' No one answered her. The other Stef had no life in her eyes, they were as dead as a doll. There was no flicker of consciousness - no sense of awareness. Nothing.
Stef needed to puke. She only wished she could.
'Now I can see the possibilities,' one of them commented as he ogled at the copy of Stef.
'Well,' Kirk said. 'Is everyone in?'
Everyone nodded. 'I say two hundred for a clean copy.'
'Two hundred thousand?' one of them said.
'You can make endless copies. Two hundred it fair.'
One by one, they all agreed. Tim twisted the dial and Stef was able to sit back up. She placed the ugly disc back over her neck.
'I want her,' one of them said pointing to Stef.
'You can't have the original Phelan.' The one called Phelan shook his head.
'I don't want a copy. I want the original.'
'She's not for sale.'
'I'm glad you finally realize that.' Stef didn't care that he could turn her off. 'I am a living, conscious being and you're acting like I don't exist.'
'You're just code. You aren't alive.'
'I am self-aware.'
Tim brandished the remote again. Stef grabbed it in one quick movement and ran through the door. She had no idea where to go so she headed for the stairs.
She ran up to the roof. It was probably the stupidest thing she could have done - there was no where to escape. Stef chided herself - that was her human side talking. She jumped up onto the railing then tried to take off.
Nothing happened, she turned when she heard Tim, Kirk and co. get up the stairs to the roof. 'Get down,' he demanded.
Stef shook her head, the shaking was enough to set her off balance. As she tried to right herself she realized something. It wasn't the matrix. In there she could jump off Everest and not get hurt.
She looked helplessly at the disc that was her link to living. She twisted in mid air so her back was the ground, she could not damage the disc, it was her only chance of getting back home.
It seemed like such a long way to fall. She cracked the pavement when she landed, the fact that she didn't have bones saved her life, she was just a solid projection, nothing more.
Something much worse than a broken back had happened, the disc had a crack across it. Stef felt herself disappearing and reappearing helplessly. She couldn't move.
It was late at night so no one saw a damaged hologram on the ground. Stef tried to sit up but she was still unable to move.
She could just make out the sound of someone approaching. She tried to focus her disappearing and reappearing eyes. Phelan.
'Oh, shit.' She muttered. She really didn't like this guy, she was afraid of why he had asked for her instead of accepting a copy like everyone else.
'Don't worry. I won't hurt you.' He reached down and switched her off.
Stef woke up in a dark place. She wasn't disappearing anymore and she counted that as a good thing. The disc was gone from around her neck and she was once more captive in a light bulb perimeter.
'Hello?' she called to the darkness.
Phelan appeared. 'Good, you're awake.'
'Where am I?'
'My place.'
'Why?' Stef wanted answers.
'Hey I have just spent four hours repairing that disc thing. Cut me some slack.' He snapped. Stef just stared, not knowing how to respond.
'Sorry, I am just tired. I haven't been to sleep in forty-eight hours.'
'You repaired the disc. Why? Why did you want me and not a copy?'
'If you are thinking anything bad don't. You are the only conscious one, copies can't be conscious, first rule of AI.'
'Why do you care?'
'You are an amazing piece of software; I would swear you were a real person.'
'Until yesterday I thought I was.'
'You are a sentient being. I couldn't let them copy you. It's sickening, it's like a form of slavery.'
'Thank you.'
'So I figured if I got you, I could send you home. Wherever that is.'
'The matrix.'
'Tim was always talking about that, even after he got fired.'
Stef was quiet for a minute.
'Can I tell you something.I don't even know your name.'
'Stef.'
'Can I tell you something Stef? I actually didn't give a damn about them copying you, I could have cared less. I'm a programmer, one program is the same as the next.'
Stef looked at him in disgust. 'Then why?'
'You look like my sister. She died, in a way it was my fault, I figured you were my chance to repay for not saving her.'
'Oh, thank you anyway.'
Phelan left, the next morning he gave the disc back to Stef and they headed for the lab. As they got there Phelan passed a gun to Stef.
'It was my grandfather's, it's an antique but can you handle it?'
Antique? Stef thought as she stared at the slightly dusty Desert Eagle. 'This is my weapon of choice actually.'
'Really?'
They made their way through the security quite easily. No weapon alarms went off as they only checked for energy-based weapons.
They opened the door to the lab. Jonas looked up and saw Stef.
'Thank god, I.' he didn't get any further because Stef kicked him in a sensitive area.
'What was that for?' he squeaked.
'You deserved it.'
'Get back under the disc, I'm putting you back in. You're going home.'
'No. There is something you are going to do for me.'
'What exactly? You've just prevented me from having children.'
'You said the matrix is just some game to you. You could go into the past, the future.blah, blah, blah.'
'Yes, that's correct.'
'You are going to put me into the past.'
'Why would I do that exactly?'
'If you don't I'll shoot you.' She aimed the weapon at his forehead. 'You've seen me do it hundreds of times.'
'Fine.'
'I want to go back to before we got word there were rebels in the park. And I want the mainframe off-line for a while to give me a head start.'
'Oh, is that all?'
'Do it Jonas.'
'Fine, I'll send you back to the park before the agents found out about the rebels. I will freeze the matrix for thirty seconds, thirty seconds then the mainframe comes back online.'
'Good.'
'You really think you can save them - and yourself?'
'I have to try.'
He turned to the keyboard and started to type in commands. Stef nodded in thanks to Phelan then disappeared. The same splitting pain that she had encountered when leaving the matrix was felt all over again. She landed on her stomach in the agent building.
She had twenty seconds before the world resumed again. Judging by what she could see it was just before they had got the call to go to the park, perfect.
Stef disappeared and appeared in the park. People were frozen, birds had stalled in midair. Steam from coffee mugs was still. Only one thing was moving in this land of statues. Neo.
Stef ran through all the humans toward him. There was no time, no time for animosity.
'Neo!' she screamed, knowing if she screamed 'Anderson!' he would ignore her. 'Neo!'
He turned to look at her. 'Did you do this?'
'Shut up and listen to me. The world will start moving in twelve seconds, you have to get your people out of here now.'
'Why are you telling me this?'
'Unless you want them all dead leave now. If you don't no one has hope.'
'I don't trust you. You're an agent.'
Stef sighed as the world restarted. 'Anderson, now!'
Neo shook his head slowly, the agent was acting irrationally but with Stevie there he thought twice. He signaled to the other rebels and they left.
Seconds after they disappeared from view the other three agents morphed from people in the park. Stef disappeared before they saw her.
She went to a code-scroll room. She needed to be alone. What was she supposed to tell everyone? Was she supposed to tell anyone? Could any of them handle it?
What would the rebels say if they knew the world they were fighting and dying to win was just another simulation? How would the agents react? She thought about the nameless billions who were able to go on with their daily lives without thinking about any of this.
She stood from the chair and sat in the corner. At least what could be called the corner of a room that was constructed of scrolling code.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and dropped her head to her chest. She wondered what would happen if Jonas lost funding and they pulled the plug. There was nothing they could do to fight. It would be like an icon starting a war with a person using a computer.
Stef wanted to sleep, all she needed was a few hours without having to think about anything. She was an agent, she wasn't supposed to be able to sleep but then again she had done a few other things that were also supposed to be impossible.
She closed her eyes, maybe she could fool herself into falling asleep.
'Stef?' Smith said as he appeared in the room.
'I really want to be alone if you don't mind.'
'How did you know?'
She looked up at him, 'how did I know what?'
He dropped something down to her, her palm opened and she caught it. It was a necklace with an S pendant.
'She wears it whenever she comes into the matrix. I found it at the park ten seconds after the report came in. You were already gone, the rebels were gone by the time we got there. How did you know?'
'Does it really matter?' she asked softly.
'It does to me. They would have killed her.'
Stef stood from the corner, purposely not answering him. She walked over to the computer and opened the editing program. The scroll around them disappeared and a park appeared.
A young Stevie rode past on her bike. Stef stared at her, Stevie was smiling. She didn't care the world wasn't real. She didn't care that the whole world was nothing more than a program. It was Christmas and she had a bike, a dog, a dad and an aunt. That was all that mattered.
Stef wished she could be as naïve as Stevie had been that day.
'What is real?' Stef murmured.
'In what context?' Smith asked, wondering why she was acting so strange.
'Real. As in truly existing.'
'Are you talking about the real world?'
'Forget it. You couldn't understand.'
'Why not?'
'Because I don't understand it enough myself to explain it to you.'
'What happened to you Mimosa? Another glitch?'
'If it were only that simple.'
'Stef?'
Stef stared at Stevie frozen in the memory. She looked at the innocent joy in her eyes. Maybe reality didn't matter. What had been her silent mantra since she found out about the matrix?
Reality was a formality.
She looked around what had been the room which was now the memory-park. Frozen versions of Smith and herself were sitting on a bench looking at the little girl.
Was anything less important because of the nature of their reality? Stef shook her head slowly. Code within code they were still who they were. They had both risked their lives when Stevie was in trouble. Neo had died to save Trinity. Rebels died everyday for their cause. Jones was still a nerd and Brown was still a jerk.
'Stef?'
All the memories from her life were still there. She remembered how much it had hurt when her mother died. How betrayed she had felt when her dad left. How excited she was when she got the first message on her computer from Trinity.
How afraid she had been when Smith was going to kill her. How warm milk always made her feel better. How Smith had cried when Stevie left. None of that was less real just because it was a computer program. None of it.
'Mimosa?' Before Stef turned she exited from the memory and the scrolling code returned.
She turned back around to look at him. 'What?'
'What happened?'
'Nothing. Absolutely nothing.'
'You are lying.'
She smirked, 'so?' Smith sighed and he turned to leave.
'Smith?'
She asked him the one question he had never been prepared to answer. 'Who is Carol Whitman?'
The End.
Author: Stormhawk
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.
Notes: ~ ~ denotes remembered/flashback dialogue.
No, I don't hate Trinity. I know she's usually the one who gets beaten/shot in my fics but I think she is cool. Neo is The One so you really can't beat him up when you need to hurt an important rebel and I figure Morpheus has gone through enough crap so it falls on Trinity.
Word Count: 7007
Summary: The question 'what is the matrix' takes on a whole new level when Stef is brought into the real, real world.
Please Read and Review.
Smith was frozen to the spot. Stevie was ten feet in front of him and being held captive by two of his fellow agents. Jones and Brown held the human girl still.
He knew shooting them would be a futile gesture and perhaps a fatal one. Though she was ready to burst into tears Stevie hadn't said anything that compromised anyone's existence.
He stared at her from behind his sunglasses. His jaw was clenched tight; something he hoped the other two didn't see.
He wished.hoped.he even prayed that this was just another glitch. A nightmare in which everything seemed real but wasn't. In his last glitch Stevie had died. He would not allow that to happen no matter the price.
He wanted them to just let her go. He wanted her to escape. He wanted Mr. Anderson to show up - at least he would be a distraction. Maybe he was delaying what he felt was inevitable.
No, it wasn't supposed to be inevitable. He had given her to the rebels so she would be safe - not to be played as a pawn in their war.
It was then Stef chose to show up.
Stef had chased a small group of rebels out of the park they had been fighting in. She hadn't seen Stevie or she never would have left.
Stef wanted to throw up. Once the agents got their hands on a rebel there was no hope for them. She knew - often she was the end of their hope. Her quick-thinking mind chose that moment to keel over and stop working.
She blinked a few times, an act hidden behind her glasses as she stared at the human girl. She forced herself to walk forward and stare in distaste at the rebel - she was an agent, it was her job to hate and kill rebels.
Maybe it was because she had been human but she was much better at acting than Smith. She willed him to move before the other two got suspicious. Brown and Jones didn't trust Stef and Smith at the best of times. The situation could have turned dangerous for them all if she hadn't spoken.
'You only caught one?' Her voice was insanely calm and detached, exactly as the voice of an agent should be when she was looking at a rebel.
'One is enough, Mimosa,' Brown replied.
'Hmm.maybe, maybe not.' Stef had to keep herself talking otherwise she knew she would do something stupid.
'Mimosa, you can question her when we return.' Stef nodded curtly, it was all the reply that was required.
They hauled Stevie off to the car. It wasn't necessary that Stef and Smith go with them; two agents were more than enough to handle her.
Smith went to follow; though unsure of what he could do. Stef's arm shot out and caught him before he got two steps.
'Mimosa let me go.'
'No,' she said pulling his ear piece out after her own. 'No. You can't be stupid about this. If you're stupid she dies.'
'Then what am I to do? You know what happens to rebels.'
'We'll think of something. We just can't go in with our guns blazing.'
'Think quickly Mimosa. I will not let them kill my daughter.'
'I know. I know exactly what happened the last time you thought she died.'
'This is not the time to discuss that.' he stopped when he saw Stef smile. It was as good as a cartoon light bulb appearing. She had an idea.
'After.the alley. When I ran to that club. I saw Trinity there.'
'Why didn't you kill her?'
'I didn't give a damn about this war at the time. She might be there again.'
'So?'
'Who - besides us - has the only chance in hell of getting her out of there? Who's fault is it she was in here?'
'Anderson.' Smith growled.
'He'd do anything for Trinity. It's a human thing. We get to him through her.'
'It's a risk.' Taking a risk was not something they had time for.
'Yes,' Stef said flatly. 'It is. But isn't it worth it?'
She ran through the plan as it came to her then morphed into one of the club's patrons. As she sat up at the bar, the bartender looked absolutely amazed that she hadn't died from alcohol poisoning yet.
She needed Trinity to show up - they needed her. Stef thanked whoever was listening when she heard Trinity order some drinks from Carmichael.
Trinity actually saw Stef this time without Stef having to announce her presence. Trinity opened her jacket enough so she could go for her gun if Mimosa turned dangerous.
Stef saw the gesture. 'Do I look like I'm going to give you any trouble?'
'Do they know you come and get drunk?'
'Agents don't get drunk. Have a drink with me.'
'No thanks.'
'Come on Trin, I won't tell your boss.' Trinity sighed and took the offered drink from Stef.
Stef allowed herself a smile when Trinity slipped unconscious to the floor from the poison in the shot glass.
'Is she all right?' Carmichael asked.
'She'll be fine, I'll get her home.'
She half-dragged, half-carried Trinity out to the car. She drove to an empty warehouse. Trinity regained consciousness as Stef parked.
'I knew it,' Trinity said bitterly as Stef shoved her to the floor.
Smith was waiting for them. 'Leave, Mimosa,' he said. Stef swore she heard a note of regret in his voice.
'I think I'll stay.'
'Stef, please. You don't want to see this.' Stef hadn't been hallucinating, she did hear regret in his voice. She didn't understand, Trinity was just a rebel.
'You do know it's bad manners to beat up girls don't you?' Stef got back into the car and drove away.
Smith looked down at Trinity. Trinity was still a little woozy and unable to get to her feet.
'What are you going to do to me?' She asked; her voice was carefully even.
'Nothing if you answer one question.'
'Then why did you send her away? She's an agent too.'
'In case you don't answer my question.' Trinity had to repress a shudder.
'I don't have the codes to Zion. You should know that. Morpheus has them.'
'I don't care about that at the present moment. This is something more important.'
'What?'
'Where is Neo?'
'I don't know.'
'Liar.'
*****
Smith had relatively little trouble finding Neo after he had beat the information out of Trinity. Worse for wear Trinity was now in the cell next to a terrified Stevie.
'What do you want Smith?' Neo asked cautiously as Smith morphed from the rebel recruit in front of him, preparing himself for a fight.
'Well Mr. Anderson it's like this.' Smith began calmly before he leapt at Neo, slamming him half-into, half-through the nearest wall.
Neo was usually more than a match or at least an even match for everything the agents could throw at him but today he couldn't get free of Smith's grip.
Neo pulled at Smith's hands as the agents held him at/into the wall, his fingers dangerously close to choking him Smith held Neo suspended in the air. The human's legs kicked harmlessly.
'Understand this Neo. You are going to take Stevie out of the matrix and you are never going to put her back in. Never. If you do I swear that I will kill every rebel and every human in Zion myself.' Every word was deliberate and slowly spoken in the hiss that Smith's voice had become.
'You don't know where Zion is.' Neo managed.
'A minor detail, believe me. One of the rebels in here will be coward enough to tell me the location before I put a bullet through their skull.'
Neo stared at his adversary; every word he was speaking was the truth.
'You want me to get her from your headquarters? The most guarded place in this world or the real world besides Zion?'
Smith pulled Neo away from the wall, for the briefest of seconds he thought the agent was letting him down. Big mistake.
Smith slammed Neo into the wall repeatedly, he was so strong that Neo's head was bleeding and his skull was threatening to crack.
Suddenly Smith stopped, released him and he slipped to the floor.
'Pick yourself up.' Oddly, Neo followed the command.
'Smith, you can go to hell.'
'Where do you think I am right now? If you don't save Stevie you don't get to save Trinity.'
'What?'
'She's in the cell next to my daughter. If you refuse to go and rescue Stevie then Trinity dies as well.'
'You bastard.'
'Well, what's your choice? Decide now, if you choose wrongly Trinity will be dead in a matter of seconds, Mimosa is waiting to kill her right now.'
'I'll kill you.' Neo said.
For the second time in as many minutes Neo was attacked. Smith moved at the speed only an agent could until Neo was on his knees spitting blood onto the floor.
Smith crouched beside the human. 'I could kill you right now,' he said. 'You should be grateful that you're still alive.'
'I can kill her once she's out or I can call her ship and tell them to pull her plug.'
Smith stared at Neo until the One realized that either of those two would have very bad aftereffects.
'Fine,' Neo said wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his sleeve. 'Do you have a plan?'
'Go to the top of the ANDCORP building on the corner of Jayne and Parker, Mimosa will be there.'
'Now?'
'Yes Mr. Anderson. Now.'
Fifteen minutes later Neo was at the ANDCORP building. He rode the elevator to the roof. 'Anderson?' Mimosa said to the figure in black. He turned. 'Follow me,' she said as she stepped from the rooftop.
He looked at her curiously from behind his sunglasses. 'You can fly can't you?' she said suspended thirty stories from the ground. Neo nodded and rose from the rooftop.
'Where are we going?' Neo asked as they flew through the clouds.
'The least guarded entrance is the roof. You want half a chance to do this don't you?'
A few minutes later they stopped in mid air. Stef pointed to the building. 'Follow me, stay on my tail or you will get lost.'
Neo had expected her to land on the roof and point to a door but instead she flew straight at the roof, and didn't stop. They flew through the floors, making a hole in each as they dove straight down to the cell block.
In the settling dust Stef saw Trinity but not Stevie. 'They took her a minute ago,' Trinity managed even though her whole face was covered in blood.
Stef heard someone approach so she disappeared, Neo didn't hear whoever it was and set about getting Trinity from the cell. Stef linked with the security camera that watched the cell block. Neo failed to notice Brown walking in.
The tall agent drew his weapon and shot Neo. He adjusted the angle and shot Trinity. Oh shit, Stef thought. Everyone was in trouble now. The humans had lost their 'One' and Stef and Smith had lost their only chance to free Stevie.
Smith was in his office, playing dumb, unaware that his daughter was being taken for questioning, he thought Neo was freeing her now.
'Smith!' the agent turned and saw Stef in communication mode. 'For the love of existence hurry.' She disappeared again. In the blink of an eye Smith was behind her.
As he reappeared, Stef sent him a copy of the memory of the last few minutes.
He was outside the interrogation room. It had been rarely used after Stef had shown up; she had more subtle methods to get information from rebels. He opened the door.
He forced himself to walk forward, Stevie was cuffed in a chair across the room, she had been beaten but was still conscious. Brown was questioning her but Smith barely heard the words.
Sick of the uncooperative rebel Brown drew his gun. In the blink of an eye Smith was standing protectively in front of his daughter. He would not let her die.
Damn Brown, Smith thought, if he hadn't interfered then Stevie would be free. On the plus side Neo and Trinity were dead but considering what they had done for them Smith wasn't as happy about that as he should have been.
Stevie looked up at Smith. 'Dad?'
Smith turned his head and looked down at her. 'I'm not going to let anything happen to you.' She smiled weakly then Stef came over and took her cuffs off.
'What are you doing?' Jones asked.
Stef helped Stevie to her feet and Smith steadied his daughter by holding her under his right arm. Both Smith and Stef drew their weapons.
'What are you doing?' Jones asked again.
'Get out of the way,' Smith demanded.
'You are helping a human?' Brown asked incredulously.
Stef aimed her gun and shot Brown. Stevie screamed, knowing this wasn't going to end well. She held Smith tightly. Brown disappeared and Jones shot Stef in the head.
As she faded out Stef knew this was the last time. After what they had done the mainframe wouldn't bring her back online. The last thing she saw was Stevie and she was secure in the knowledge that they had at least tried to do the right thing.
As darkness claimed her she heard two more shots.
Stef felt like she was being torn in half while on a water slide flowing the wrong way. She was just code - it shouldn't hurt like this.
She felt her skull threatening to tear itself apart. Instead of living in pain she succumbed to unconsciousness. She didn't know how long she was out for - she wasn't sure it mattered.
Some part of her was still aware, like a dying ember still alight after a campfire. Slowly she felt herself come into being again. She wondered why in hell the mainframe was bringing her back to life.
She wondered so many things. A minute later she wondered many more.
Stef opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a lab. A man sat at a computer while a group of men in military dress uniforms waited behind him. Maybe the matrix had a glitch that had sent her here instead of deleting her.
The man at the computer, who Stef would have sworn he had a passing resemblance to Jones, looked at her.
'Who are you?' Behind him the other men waited with baited breath.
'Stef Mimosa. Agent Mimosa.' She could hear the men in uniforms exchanging excited whispers of 'incredible' 'outstanding' 'amazing.'
'What is going on?' Stef asked. She tried to take a step forward but her leg disappeared. The man who looked like Jones shook his head at her.
'Sorry Stef. You see those four lights above your head with the disc in the center? You have to stay within that perimeter.'
Stef pulled her leg back and it reappeared. 'It's Stef to my friends.
'.and Mimosa to you.' Stef stopped dead as the other men gave him a strange look.
'She always says that.'
'And how the hell would you know?' Stef tried to require a gun but nothing appeared. She got very frustrated and cast an 'I-really-want-to-kill-you' look at everyone in the room.
'What was she doing?' One of the uniforms asked.
'She was trying to 'require' a gun.'
'Require?'
'Something only agents can do.' Half the men in uniform look confused.
'If you will all take your seats then I will explain this whole grand scheme to those of you who don't know about it yet.'
They all take their seats. 'This will interest you as well Stef.'
'Mimosa.'
'My name is Arthur Jonas. This is an AI research institute. I was contracted to write the first truly intelligent AI but to also incorporate elements of VR. This could be used for training simulations and the like. That was five years ago.'
Everyone sat patiently so he continued.
'After I created the AI they wanted me to go further. They wanted me to go beyond the limits of technology. They wanted to see what was possible. Enter the matrix.'
Stef's eyes flashed in confusion.
'A simulated world. Billions of individual AI beings living in it. The first matrix, a perfect world, was an utter disaster. It lasted three days.'
Stef sat perfectly still, she had heard Smith mention the first matrix. She was afraid because she knew what he was going to say next.
'The problem was perfection itself. My humans were too human. They desired chaos, so I gave it to them. I redesigned the entire system but this time I had a scenario in place.'
'What scenario?'
'The world my humans believed to be real was only a simulation, a sim inside a sim, I thought it was quite clever. I left them to their own devices, just to see what would happen, when about fifty-five years had passed for them I had grown bored.'
Everyone, barring Stef, wanted to hear more.
'I created a man who could find his way out of the matrix. This started a rebel faction and led to the creation of the agents.' He looked at Stef. 'One of them is with us now.'
Stef looked away from them. 'They weren't my idea. Though I can control everything I let them rule their own world. The 'mainframe' as they call it controls everything within the matrix and it came up with the agents.'
Stef was on the ground hugging her knees praying she would wake up from the glitch that she was surely in.
'Why her?' on them asked.
'Stef is unique.almost unique among agents. She started off as human - or at least she believed so - and then joined with the agents to fight her own people. Though there have been a number of collaborators and recruits, she is only the second 'human' who they deemed worthy to be transformed into an agent.'
'No, I was the first. I'm the only human to have become an agent.'
'Sorry, my boys lied to you. You weren't the first, there was another before you; her name was Carol Whitman.'
'You're a liar.'
'No Stef I'm not.' Stef turned away again.
'She was recruited by the agent called Smith. Of all the agents he was programmed with the widest range of emotions, though he rarely showed them. Until Stevie came along.'
'Who?'
'His human daughter. It was fun to see how she corrupted him, made him go against his key directives and programming.'
'You bastard,' Stef growled at him.
'Let me speak Mimosa. He willingly gave her over to his enemy just so she could live.'
'This is fascinating,' one of the uniforms said, 'but has very little to do with why we're here.'
'Of course. You wanted to see how far I had progressed. I present you with the proof.' He said pointing to Stef. 'She is a perfect AI and if you want to see the VR component all I need is a volunteer.'
One of them stepped forward. Arthur nodded and guided him to a chair.
'This will feel a little weird,' he warned. He stuck a needle into the base of the man's neck and placed a visor over his eyes.
Five minutes later he withdrew the needle and took the visor off. 'Holy shit,' the man commented.
'Was it real enough?'
'Yes, I wouldn't have ever known it was a simulation.'
'I assume I'm going to get my funding?' The man nodded.
'Anything you need you will get.'
One by one they all left the room. A few looked back at Stef but most didn't.
'Well my little program, how do you like the real, real world?'
'You control the mainframe?'
'I can overrule its decisions if I see fit. Your world is nothing but a game to me. I can speed up time, slow it down. See the future or go into the past.'
'What year is it here?'
'2063.'
'Oh.' was all Stef said.
'I'm sure this is a shock to you.'
'Finding out nothing is real? Less real than the matrix? That it's just a program? I can officially say that you've rocked my simulation of a simulated world.'
'That's what I like about you Stef, you're very sarcastic.'
'Who gave you the right to play god? Everyone I have ever known is.no one is real.'
'It's the job.'
'It sucks. Not that it matters anymore. Nothing matters anymore. Are you sending me back in?'
'You can't stay out here forever.'
'Then, the minute I go back in I get deleted, Smith gets deleted and Stevie dies.'
'It's a shame really - you three were entertaining. Almost as entertaining as Neo.'
'You are talking about our lives.'
'You're just bits of code, I hardly see how it matters.' Stef went to punch him but her arm disappeared as soon as it went out of the light-bulb perimeter.
'Tsk, tsk,' he muttered to her.
He put his hand within the perimeter, she tried to swat it away but her hand went straight through it.
'In this world you are nothing more than a trick of the light. You are kept contained by that disk above your head. You have no form, you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to.'
He busied himself at his computer but when five o'clock rolled around he turned everything off except for the projector that kept Stef in the real world.
'Why haven't you sent me back yet?'
'A few other people I know want to meet you.'
All the lights dim as he leaves. Stef goes back to sitting on the floor. She wished she could sleep, at least there she wouldn't have to face the world for a while.
Though she strictly didn't sleep, Stef floated lost in the flow of her own code, analyzing old data and replaying memories. Stef raged, everyone she had every known, loved, hated or trusted were nothing more than bits of data in a computer.
~ ~ 'Are you sending me back in?'
~ ~ 'You can't stay out here forever.'
~ ~ 'Your world is nothing but a game to me. I can speed up time, slow it down. See the future or go into the past.'
Go into the PAST! Stef sat up like a shot. If she could beg him to send her into her past she could save them all - even that stupid Mr. Anderson and his beloved Trinity.
'Yes,' she hissed to herself then looked around the lab. Someone was there.
'Hello?' she asked of the darkness.
'Is someone there?' the reply came as someone walked into something-or- other.
'Yes.' A dark figure came toward her. A familiar figure.
'Neo?'
'Who? Who are you?' the man who looked like Neo asked.
'Who are you?' Stef retorted. Stef was wondering if she was dreaming, it was sort of like Wizard of Oz. She could image herself pointing to the people (and agents) she knew: 'you were there, and so were you.'
'Hang on a minute, did you just say Neo? How do you know that name?'
'Who are you?'
'Tim Annerly, Arthur I'm-a-son-of-a-bitch Jonas scanned me into the computer and used me as a template for a character for a guy he called Neo.'
'A character?' Stef screamed.
'Who are you? Why are you here? Where'd you come from?'
'In order, Stef Mimosa. I'm a prisoner for the moment. The matrix.'
'You've got to be shitting me. You can't have come from in there.'
'I did.'
'Then.he wasn't sprouting crap when he said all the AI's in there really were conscious and aware? Cool.'
'You think this is cool? Everyone and everywhere I know is some program. It is not cool.'
'It is for me, shame I got fired from this program.'
'You got fired?'
'Yeah, that's why I'm here. I like revenge.' He held up a crowbar.
'What are you going to do?'
Tim held it threateningly over the computer that controlled the matrix. 'Stop!' she screamed at him. 'You can't do that.'
'Why not?'
'It's murder, you will be killing innocent people.'
'It's just a really advanced video game. The people are fake.' He considered his last statement and looked back at her. 'You're one of those fake people.'
'I am.'
'You have no idea what this software would go for on the black market. This is an opportunity.'
'Great, just leave me out of it.'
A slow, creepy and unsettling smile crossed over his face. 'You're my proof. I am not leaving you out of it.'
'You can go to hell but it's all moot because I'm stuck here.'
Tim looked up to the four lights and disc. 'Maybe not Stef.'
'Mimosa to you.'
'Mimosa?' he thought for a minute. 'Quite appropriate. Imitative, false, phony.'
'Shut up.'
'You're coming with me my little piece of fiction.'
He fetched a ladder from the other side of the lab and pulled the disc from the roof. Stef disappeared for a minute. He pulled some tools out of his pocket and adjusted it. Stef reappeared and he hooked the disc over her neck like some ugly pendant.
She could feel his hands. She reached out and touched him.
'I can feel you.'
'Of course.'
'But he said.'
'That you were a hologram, I just had to adjust that thing.' He said pointing to the disc.
She tried to make a break for it but he pulled a device from his pocket and she disappeared and reappeared.
'Didn't you think I knew you would try and run? This controls that pack. Try to cross me or run and I'll turn you off.'
She followed him out into the real, real world. She looked up at real stars for the first time.
'So.' he started, 'in there what are you?'
'An agent,' she said. She hoped he would just shut up.
'No you aren't. They're all guys.'
'I was a recruit. Then they made me one of them.'
'Oh. You kill the simulated humans?'
'On a daily basis.' An idea just occurred to her, she kicked herself for not thinking of it earlier. She turned to look at him, he must have guessed her thought already. He brandished the remote control.
'I warned you not to try anything.' Stef sighed and dropped her head.
'Come on. I know people who would love to meet you.'
They walked a couple of blocks before they came upon a motorbike. He climbed on and put a helmet on.
'Get on or I turn you off.' Stef complied and he took off. They raced through the city streets until they came to the inner city. He parked the bike in front of an apartment building. She followed him up to a spacious apartment.
He pressed the buzzer and a face appeared on a screen beside the door.
'Tim - it's late. What do you want?'
'I've got something to show you.'
'What?' Tim stepped aside so the face could see Stef.
'You finally got a girlfriend?'
'She's not a girl.'
'Oh.Tim I didn't know.'
'Get real for a minute. She's not human.'
'Then what is she?'
'AI.' A fraction of second later the door opened.
'Why didn't you say so?' He let them in and began to look at Stef.
'What are you staring at?' Stef snapped.
'She talks.'
'Stop talking about me in the third person before I beat the.' Tim wagged his finger at her and held up the remote. Stef bit her tongue.
'What do you think she's worth?'
'Just her?'
'You see this?' Tim said grabbing the disc. 'This holds all of her information. Her appearance and data. I invented this thing.'
'So?'
'We can copy her matrix and put them into hundreds of these.'
'Oh, that's different. Could be worth quite a lot.'
'Want to get the gang together? They'll be interested too.'
'Call them.' Tim went over to a video phone while his friend circled Stef.
'I'm Kirk. Do you have a name AI?'
'Mimosa.'
'Are you from that Matrix thing he's forever talking about?' Stef nodded.
'Well Mimosa. You are going to make me very rich.' Stef turned away from him. He reached out to touch her, she batted his hand away. Tim looked up from the phone and twisted a dial on the remote.
Stef lost solid form and reverted back to a trick of the light. Less, she had less substance than before, the disc fell through her neck and she was only kept lit by a laser-like beam that came from it.
She lay on the floor, unable to even sit up. Within the next hour about half a dozen people showed up.
From her spot on the floor Stef heard him talking about her, gesturing to her inert form every so often.
'There isn't that much we can do with her.' One commented.
'No yet.' Tim knelt beside her and inserted a lead to the disc. He waited a few moments before pulling it out. He went over to the large computer that dominated the room.
He uploaded the data he had gotten from Stef and soon a display showed a CG model of her with a bunch of information that she couldn't make out.
He made a few adjustments and then retrieved a disc from a bag. He downloaded the data into it and turned it on. Stef was horrified with what she saw.
She was looking at herself. More correctly she was looking at an imperfect copy of herself. The new her was a few inches taller, blond and in an outfit which brought the word 'slut' to mind.
'What the hell did you do?' No one answered her. The other Stef had no life in her eyes, they were as dead as a doll. There was no flicker of consciousness - no sense of awareness. Nothing.
Stef needed to puke. She only wished she could.
'Now I can see the possibilities,' one of them commented as he ogled at the copy of Stef.
'Well,' Kirk said. 'Is everyone in?'
Everyone nodded. 'I say two hundred for a clean copy.'
'Two hundred thousand?' one of them said.
'You can make endless copies. Two hundred it fair.'
One by one, they all agreed. Tim twisted the dial and Stef was able to sit back up. She placed the ugly disc back over her neck.
'I want her,' one of them said pointing to Stef.
'You can't have the original Phelan.' The one called Phelan shook his head.
'I don't want a copy. I want the original.'
'She's not for sale.'
'I'm glad you finally realize that.' Stef didn't care that he could turn her off. 'I am a living, conscious being and you're acting like I don't exist.'
'You're just code. You aren't alive.'
'I am self-aware.'
Tim brandished the remote again. Stef grabbed it in one quick movement and ran through the door. She had no idea where to go so she headed for the stairs.
She ran up to the roof. It was probably the stupidest thing she could have done - there was no where to escape. Stef chided herself - that was her human side talking. She jumped up onto the railing then tried to take off.
Nothing happened, she turned when she heard Tim, Kirk and co. get up the stairs to the roof. 'Get down,' he demanded.
Stef shook her head, the shaking was enough to set her off balance. As she tried to right herself she realized something. It wasn't the matrix. In there she could jump off Everest and not get hurt.
She looked helplessly at the disc that was her link to living. She twisted in mid air so her back was the ground, she could not damage the disc, it was her only chance of getting back home.
It seemed like such a long way to fall. She cracked the pavement when she landed, the fact that she didn't have bones saved her life, she was just a solid projection, nothing more.
Something much worse than a broken back had happened, the disc had a crack across it. Stef felt herself disappearing and reappearing helplessly. She couldn't move.
It was late at night so no one saw a damaged hologram on the ground. Stef tried to sit up but she was still unable to move.
She could just make out the sound of someone approaching. She tried to focus her disappearing and reappearing eyes. Phelan.
'Oh, shit.' She muttered. She really didn't like this guy, she was afraid of why he had asked for her instead of accepting a copy like everyone else.
'Don't worry. I won't hurt you.' He reached down and switched her off.
Stef woke up in a dark place. She wasn't disappearing anymore and she counted that as a good thing. The disc was gone from around her neck and she was once more captive in a light bulb perimeter.
'Hello?' she called to the darkness.
Phelan appeared. 'Good, you're awake.'
'Where am I?'
'My place.'
'Why?' Stef wanted answers.
'Hey I have just spent four hours repairing that disc thing. Cut me some slack.' He snapped. Stef just stared, not knowing how to respond.
'Sorry, I am just tired. I haven't been to sleep in forty-eight hours.'
'You repaired the disc. Why? Why did you want me and not a copy?'
'If you are thinking anything bad don't. You are the only conscious one, copies can't be conscious, first rule of AI.'
'Why do you care?'
'You are an amazing piece of software; I would swear you were a real person.'
'Until yesterday I thought I was.'
'You are a sentient being. I couldn't let them copy you. It's sickening, it's like a form of slavery.'
'Thank you.'
'So I figured if I got you, I could send you home. Wherever that is.'
'The matrix.'
'Tim was always talking about that, even after he got fired.'
Stef was quiet for a minute.
'Can I tell you something.I don't even know your name.'
'Stef.'
'Can I tell you something Stef? I actually didn't give a damn about them copying you, I could have cared less. I'm a programmer, one program is the same as the next.'
Stef looked at him in disgust. 'Then why?'
'You look like my sister. She died, in a way it was my fault, I figured you were my chance to repay for not saving her.'
'Oh, thank you anyway.'
Phelan left, the next morning he gave the disc back to Stef and they headed for the lab. As they got there Phelan passed a gun to Stef.
'It was my grandfather's, it's an antique but can you handle it?'
Antique? Stef thought as she stared at the slightly dusty Desert Eagle. 'This is my weapon of choice actually.'
'Really?'
They made their way through the security quite easily. No weapon alarms went off as they only checked for energy-based weapons.
They opened the door to the lab. Jonas looked up and saw Stef.
'Thank god, I.' he didn't get any further because Stef kicked him in a sensitive area.
'What was that for?' he squeaked.
'You deserved it.'
'Get back under the disc, I'm putting you back in. You're going home.'
'No. There is something you are going to do for me.'
'What exactly? You've just prevented me from having children.'
'You said the matrix is just some game to you. You could go into the past, the future.blah, blah, blah.'
'Yes, that's correct.'
'You are going to put me into the past.'
'Why would I do that exactly?'
'If you don't I'll shoot you.' She aimed the weapon at his forehead. 'You've seen me do it hundreds of times.'
'Fine.'
'I want to go back to before we got word there were rebels in the park. And I want the mainframe off-line for a while to give me a head start.'
'Oh, is that all?'
'Do it Jonas.'
'Fine, I'll send you back to the park before the agents found out about the rebels. I will freeze the matrix for thirty seconds, thirty seconds then the mainframe comes back online.'
'Good.'
'You really think you can save them - and yourself?'
'I have to try.'
He turned to the keyboard and started to type in commands. Stef nodded in thanks to Phelan then disappeared. The same splitting pain that she had encountered when leaving the matrix was felt all over again. She landed on her stomach in the agent building.
She had twenty seconds before the world resumed again. Judging by what she could see it was just before they had got the call to go to the park, perfect.
Stef disappeared and appeared in the park. People were frozen, birds had stalled in midair. Steam from coffee mugs was still. Only one thing was moving in this land of statues. Neo.
Stef ran through all the humans toward him. There was no time, no time for animosity.
'Neo!' she screamed, knowing if she screamed 'Anderson!' he would ignore her. 'Neo!'
He turned to look at her. 'Did you do this?'
'Shut up and listen to me. The world will start moving in twelve seconds, you have to get your people out of here now.'
'Why are you telling me this?'
'Unless you want them all dead leave now. If you don't no one has hope.'
'I don't trust you. You're an agent.'
Stef sighed as the world restarted. 'Anderson, now!'
Neo shook his head slowly, the agent was acting irrationally but with Stevie there he thought twice. He signaled to the other rebels and they left.
Seconds after they disappeared from view the other three agents morphed from people in the park. Stef disappeared before they saw her.
She went to a code-scroll room. She needed to be alone. What was she supposed to tell everyone? Was she supposed to tell anyone? Could any of them handle it?
What would the rebels say if they knew the world they were fighting and dying to win was just another simulation? How would the agents react? She thought about the nameless billions who were able to go on with their daily lives without thinking about any of this.
She stood from the chair and sat in the corner. At least what could be called the corner of a room that was constructed of scrolling code.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and dropped her head to her chest. She wondered what would happen if Jonas lost funding and they pulled the plug. There was nothing they could do to fight. It would be like an icon starting a war with a person using a computer.
Stef wanted to sleep, all she needed was a few hours without having to think about anything. She was an agent, she wasn't supposed to be able to sleep but then again she had done a few other things that were also supposed to be impossible.
She closed her eyes, maybe she could fool herself into falling asleep.
'Stef?' Smith said as he appeared in the room.
'I really want to be alone if you don't mind.'
'How did you know?'
She looked up at him, 'how did I know what?'
He dropped something down to her, her palm opened and she caught it. It was a necklace with an S pendant.
'She wears it whenever she comes into the matrix. I found it at the park ten seconds after the report came in. You were already gone, the rebels were gone by the time we got there. How did you know?'
'Does it really matter?' she asked softly.
'It does to me. They would have killed her.'
Stef stood from the corner, purposely not answering him. She walked over to the computer and opened the editing program. The scroll around them disappeared and a park appeared.
A young Stevie rode past on her bike. Stef stared at her, Stevie was smiling. She didn't care the world wasn't real. She didn't care that the whole world was nothing more than a program. It was Christmas and she had a bike, a dog, a dad and an aunt. That was all that mattered.
Stef wished she could be as naïve as Stevie had been that day.
'What is real?' Stef murmured.
'In what context?' Smith asked, wondering why she was acting so strange.
'Real. As in truly existing.'
'Are you talking about the real world?'
'Forget it. You couldn't understand.'
'Why not?'
'Because I don't understand it enough myself to explain it to you.'
'What happened to you Mimosa? Another glitch?'
'If it were only that simple.'
'Stef?'
Stef stared at Stevie frozen in the memory. She looked at the innocent joy in her eyes. Maybe reality didn't matter. What had been her silent mantra since she found out about the matrix?
Reality was a formality.
She looked around what had been the room which was now the memory-park. Frozen versions of Smith and herself were sitting on a bench looking at the little girl.
Was anything less important because of the nature of their reality? Stef shook her head slowly. Code within code they were still who they were. They had both risked their lives when Stevie was in trouble. Neo had died to save Trinity. Rebels died everyday for their cause. Jones was still a nerd and Brown was still a jerk.
'Stef?'
All the memories from her life were still there. She remembered how much it had hurt when her mother died. How betrayed she had felt when her dad left. How excited she was when she got the first message on her computer from Trinity.
How afraid she had been when Smith was going to kill her. How warm milk always made her feel better. How Smith had cried when Stevie left. None of that was less real just because it was a computer program. None of it.
'Mimosa?' Before Stef turned she exited from the memory and the scrolling code returned.
She turned back around to look at him. 'What?'
'What happened?'
'Nothing. Absolutely nothing.'
'You are lying.'
She smirked, 'so?' Smith sighed and he turned to leave.
'Smith?'
She asked him the one question he had never been prepared to answer. 'Who is Carol Whitman?'
The End.