This story was written for Nithke, also known around Shattered Glasses as Centress, as a lead-off from her story A Mad, Mad World. Although it isn't necessary for you read that first, it would probably help so you know the character being written. If you haven't read it - or don't remember - I've included an excerpt from her story about the part that inspired me.

Disclaimer: I only own the characters Puca and Mace, along with their ship. Jeremy/Ruhk belongs to Centress, and Trinity - along with anyone else you recognize - belongs to the infamous creators of the Matrix.

Happy Halloween!

IIIII

"It was tenth grade that made her what she is today. Not the classes, but instead those dim after-school hours in the basement, multiple searches running on her three salvaged computers until her father came home from work. When he walked in the front door, Adele had to watch herself to make sure she only spent an hour or so down there. They would worry otherwise.

They worried anyways. Or at least her mother did obviously; her father was more the angry type. Once in a while, if she forgot and stayed down for more than usual, he exploded. That was why she watched herself. If he erupted because she had ignored them in favor of machines, those machines would get unplugged, her data scrambled and hard drives gone. Couldn't happen, of course. A lot of important things were on them.

(Or were they really that important? Could those hours in the basement have been a sign of mounting insanity, an obsession? Could her father's rage really have just been misplaced fear for his daughter's life? No---He's always been angry---)

In his rants, aside from Adele, modern technology, and himself, he would blame Jeremy.

He was in her English class, a punk who sat in the back row. He was ironically gregarious for a Goth. Oh, teachers hated him. Of course he was intelligent, he was a smartass. He had sarcasm mastered, which was why they hated him. But if you earned his approval...if he liked you, people were happy to befriend him, because he was too good for them and the world.

That was, of course, what attracted him to the girl beside him.

Adele sat in back too. She had moved through ninth grade like a shadow. Farther and farther away from the world, desperate to escape it, she was distanced from everyone. Jeremy took the desperation for coolness, since she had always been good at composure. He started hitting on her. Could not crack the ice, which intrigued him more. Then finally one day she caved when he saw her lips curve upwards slightly at a mocking joke he'd made. He knew he had her.

But he was mistaken. She had him.

Over at his house during the summer, they spent long hours in his basement. Not kissing, (well, scarcely ever) he showed her his world.

Hacking was the springboard out, he told her, you can screw the man over and win. You know you're different from all these shitheads here because at home you have a secret. A little secret tucked away in plastic, Adele. Watch...

And then when he had shown her all she needed, she dumped him.

It wasn't that, actually, that he had been useful but now wasn't. It was more, just, him. He insisted that the world is meaningless, life sucks and then you die. She would mentally rebut that. No, the world has meaning, just not here, somewhere else. This is too mundane, Jeremy. Too boring to be the true meaning of the world. So she told him goodbye one day and then dodged his calls and spent the next year in her own basement. Searching and watching.

What did her parents think? That she had been iced by him and was resouling herself through computers. Or, alternately, that once she hadn't been bored with them but now was. They had it half right. It was more that she'd always been bored with them, actually.

And they were fully right about one thing, that it was all Jeremy's fault. Of course it was.

He had, after all, taught her how to manipulate the world..."

A Mad, Mad World by Nithke/Centress

IIIII

The crew of the Griffin looked up from their repairs as the Nebuchadnezzar glided in beside their ship. It took mere minutes from the time the engines shut off until the hatch opened and the hovercraft was abandoned.

Ruhk watched, uninterested, as the other soldiers unloaded their things and gave quick good-byes to one another. He was just about to go back to his work when someone familiar caught his eye. His hammer dropped to the ground with a clang, but he didn't notice. It couldn't be her, could it?

"Hey, Ru, you okay?" Puca regarded her newest member with concern.

"Who..." All Ruhk could do was point in her general direction before actual words formed in his mouth. "Who is that? The tall woman with dark hair?"

Puca looked to where he was pointing. "Ah," The woman smiled. "It seems she's ensnared another one. Her name is Trinity."

"Trinity," The name suited her, but all he could recall of her from his memories was her real name.

"Be careful, though," his second-in-command warned, oblivious to what he was actually thinking, "she bites with poisoned fangs. We lieutenants have tempers." She winked at him before moving along to check on how the other repairs were coming.

Ruhk watched Trinity with wide eyes until she disappeared from his view.

-----

"So, Ru," Mace, the Griffin'sopperator/medic, slid into the empty chair beside his crewmate and gestured to the bartender to bring him something to drink. "Banshee tells me that you've fallen for Trinity."

Ruhk glanced at Mace from the corners of his eyes. "What gave her that idea?"

The large man laughed, a hearty bellow from deep in his throat. "She heard it from Puca. Gods, that girl can't hold her tongue, even if she does have a higher rank than us." He shook his head. "But you did get your first sight of the infamous Trinity today, am I right? Quite a beauty, eh?"

"Yeah," Ruhk nodded, his eyes fixed on his mug. "But it wasn't my first time seeing her."

"No?"

"No." He said nothing more on the matter, but Mace didn't press when he was handed his own full mug. "How long has she been free?"

The other man thought for a moment. "About four years, I think, maybe five. After Puca, but before Banshee. Trinity moved up in the ranks pretty quickly for someone so young."

"She's talented."

Mace furrowed his eyebrows. "How d'ya know that?"

"I know her."

"Indeed." He took a long drink before saying, "You're an interesting person, Ru."

The corners of Ruhk's mouth twitched, but he didn't give a full smile.

"Hey, guys," Puca walked up behind them, ending their conversation.

"How long we here for, lieutenant?" Mace asked, his deep voice booming.

Puca grinned. "I'd say about a week, maybe more. Cap wants to fully charge the Griffin, and there are still a lot of repairs to be made before she'll fly right again." She turned her attention to the younger of the two. "How are you doing, Ruhk? Enjoying your second time in the city?"

He nodded, meeting her eyes for a few seconds before looking over her shoulder to the entrance of the bar. "It's...nice..." His words died off as he saw the actual object of his thoughts enter the cramped room. "Would you excuse me for a minute?"

Puca raised her eyebrows but quickly took his vacated seat. She looked in the direction he was going and smirked.

As Ruhk neared her, everything except Trinity disappeared. When they had stopped talking, all those years ago....he never thought he'd see her again...especially not here.

She must have sensed him coming or something because she looked up at him when he was a few feet away. He saw the spark of recognition in her eyes and any doubt he still had left of who she was died away.

"Adele," The name slipped from his mouth before he could stop it.

She tilted her head and raised one eyebrow, the same thing he remembered her doing when she was confused. He could almost read her thoughts - Who are you? How do you know me? How do you know that name?

She - Trinity, but how could he call her that when he'd only known her as Adele? - regarded him for another moment before she whispered, "Jeremy?" as though it were impossible.

"The one and only." Ruhk smiled at her, any witty remarks he could have said to her about lack of belief dying on his tongue.

"My God," she said, her eyes wide now. "How...? When...?"

He smirked at her. "I was freed about a year ago."

"That would explain the hair, then." She stepped closer, back to being the Adele he knew and had loved. "I thought you had dyed it."

"Nope," He shook his head, chuckling. "That's one reason I was so good at being a Goth...I never had to worry about my hair changing color. Always black."

"You haven't changed at all..." Her eyes ran over him, taking everything in. "Except no eyeliner. And no piercings."

Ruhk shrugged, looking her over the same way she had him. "You've changed a bit. You're taller, and more..." He couldn't find the word he was looking for. She had filled out more since high school, grown into her then-lanky body, but how was he supposed to say that without sounding like...like a man?

She raised an eyebrow again when he didn't finish. "More womanly?" she supplied, returning his smirk from earlier.

"That, or more beautiful. Whichever you'd prefer." He smiled at her, wanting nothing more than to take her into his arms and have back that comfort he had always felt when he was around her.

"Are you hitting on me? I thought we were past that stage in our relationship." She swatted playfully at his arm. "Why don't we go sit and talk? There sure is a lot to catch up on."

"Sure," Ruhk nodded and let Trinity lead him to a booth in the corner. They slid in across from each other.

"So," she started, wondering what to ask first. "What's your name here?"

"Ruhk," he said easily.

"Hmm," She nodded, running the name over in her head. "What does it mean?"

"It's a giant bird, from Arabic legend, I think. When they fly the beating of their wings makes wind storms and lightning. I remember reading about them when I was little. The name just stuck with me."

"That's interesting." She had a faraway look in her eyes, but blinked it away to continue talking. "My name here is -"

"Trinity," he said, testing it out loud for the second time. The word felt strange in his mouth. "I've heard about you. But," he shrugged, "I don't think I could ever call you anything but Adele."

"No," she agreed, "I don't think I could call you Ruhk, either." She was silent for a moment before asking, "What ship do you work on?"

"The Griffin," It was an automatic response by now.

"Ah," Trinity - or Adele?- nodded respectfully. "Good crew. Banshee and I trained together, and Mace is a good man...very fatherly. Puca is a bit..."

"Out there?" Ruhk put in.

"Yeah," She smiled. "How're you holding up here?"

"Pretty good, or at least better than some, according to Mace."

"I never thought I'd see you again," Adele/Trinity - he hadn't decided yet - folded her hands on the table. "But I guess we were more alike than I thought. I have you to thank for me getting this far."

"Why is that?" He tilted his head.

"You're the one that introduced me to the computer, remember?" She smiled at him.

Ruhk reached out and took one of her pale hands into his. "But you're the one that opened my eyes to what the world really was."

She exhaled loudly, a thin smile creeping onto her lips as she averted her gaze. "I was just impressing my views on you, is all."

"Well you were right, weren't you?"

She looked up but had no answer for him.

"I hear you're the second-in-command on the Nebuchadnezzar."

Adele/Trinity nodded. "I'm good at what I do..."

A semi-strained silence fell. The question Ruhk really wanted answered was forming in his throat, but he didn't have the heart to actually voice it just then. Instead he began down that road slowly. "You're more beautiful than I remember,"

She averted her eyes again, mumbling a slight thank you before saying, "But I was only seventeen when we met,"

"You were still beautiful then, too. Not only in looks -" he squeezed her hand "- but also in attitude. I liked you because you made it quite clear that no one could mess with you and get away with it. From what everyone has told me, you're still like that. I'm glad."

She looked at him then, her eyes shining with an emotion he couldn't place. "I really have missed you, Jeremy - well, Ruhk. I'm happy to have you to fight beside me again."

"Me, too," He gave her hand another squeeze. "But..." He hesitated, not wishing to spur her anger but wanting an answer. "Why did you let me down so quickly, and then make things worse by avoiding me? That really hurt...I may have been a stone-hearted, sarcastic Goth to most everyone, but I liked you...a lot..."

She looked away again and he could feel the muscles in her hand tense though she didn't pull it from his grasp. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I guess..." She shook her head and pursed her lips. "God, it was so long ago I don't even remember what I was thinking. I...I liked you, too...but I was so young... I guess I just didn't know how to make everything work with all that I felt on my conscious at the time. I'm so sorry, Jeremy." She turned her hand a bit and entwined her fingers with his paler ones.

He gave her a soft smile. "All is forgiven. At least I have you back now."

With her other hand, Adele reached across the table and brushed her fingers down his cheek. "You always were cute." She pulled her hand back and put it in her lap.

After another short-lived silence, he asked, "How long will you be here?"

She gave him a halfhearted grin. "We leave in the morning."

"Oh," His face visibly fell. "Now that I know you're here, I'll worry about you every day that we're apart."

If she had been that kind of person, she would have said 'aww', but she bit her tongue and squeezed his hand. "I'll be safe."

Before anything more could be said, a well-built woman with startling white hair came up to their table. "Trinity," she said with a slightly accented voice, "Morpheus is looking for you. He wants to talk, says it's important - about a new prospective One, I'd say." She flashed them both a brilliant smile before drifting off into the crowd.

Adele - now more Trinity - sank back into the seat, holding back a sigh. "I should go." She stood and tried to pull her hand from his. He wouldn't release her fingers, instead pulling her down to him.

"I'll miss you," he said, holding her eyes with his.

"I'll see you again." She smiled at him before leaning forward and pressing her lips to his for just a moment. "You don't happen to be the One, by any chance?" She could tell by his confused expression that he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Goodbye, Jeremy," She put her hand to his cheek one last time before stepping back.

"Bye, Adele," He heaved a long sigh as she walked away, putting his fingers to his lips, where hers had been seconds before. "I love you..."