This is the result of an idea I've had for years. I first came up with the whole plot for this when I was thirteen, and though it's evolved a lot since then, this is really based on three years of work. And I still can't decide if I'm happy with parts of it. There's not pleasing some people…

A big thank you goes to Bagpipes5K2, who first read this over, and also for being a great person to talk to whenever I'm having a problem with writing. Thank you!

Anyway, I hope you like it, and please review!

Disclaimer: Well, if I owned any recognisable part of this, I'd be far to rich to entertain myself with fanfiction. You should all know that the Matrix trilogy, the Animatrix and any of the Matrix games are absolutely nothing to do with me apart from being one of my little obsessions (I use the term 'little' lightly).

Chapter I: Kesare

Kes sat at the keyboard, watching the screen intently. The loose and frayed sweater she wore emphasised her sharp figure and the blue-grey colour showed how pale her skin was. The headset perched on her oval head gave her a look of determination and seriousness that came from both of her parents. Locks of dark silky hair fell into her chocolate brown eyes due to her choppy hairstyle, but she didn't seem like the sort of person who would care about that.

Her eyes followed the code, taking in the scrolling characters that ran down the dark green screen like rain. She'd been reading it her whole life, so it felt like a second language. However, the tiny little characters, layer upon layer of them, were only a tiny part of the Matrix. Kes was only following a minute portion of it. In fact, she was only following one person. Having read the code since she was a child, she could practically see the girl she was following in her mind, every detail of her expression written into the code. It always seemed just a little bizarre to her that a person could be defined in a few green characters, but years of reading the screens and seeing the world from a godlike perspective had shown her the code underlying the code, the world within the world.

Kes grew so absorbed in her work, reading, watching, occasionally tapping out a few characters on the keyboard, that when a hand was laid on her shoulder, she jumped visibly and violently.

"Scare you?" her father asked with a hint of a joke in his voice.

Kes gave him her most withering glare. "Don't, Dad" she said with a warning glance. "Or one of these days I'm going to start keeping a plasma gun under the console"

Neo smiled slightly. Even though everyone said Kes looked like a miniature him, he always saw plenty of Trinity in her. She had the same sharpness in her manner, but she was far more voluble.

"See anything interesting?" he asked, nodding towards the screen.

Kes shook her head. "Just the usual"

"The hacker?"

"Much the same" Kes shrugged. "I think we need to get her out soon though. She's a damn good hacker, but those traces are really invasive. It might not be long before the Agents notice"

Neo nodded slowly. "You should go tell Morpheus"

"I will, when my shift's over"

"It's done" Neo said firmly. "I'll take over"

"No, it's okay–"

"Kes, you've been here since dawn"

"How can you tell?"

"Kes–"

"Seriously, though, how can you tell it's dawn when you can't see the sun?"

"Kes–"

"Fine, fine" she said with a slight snappiness and irritability. She regretted it after the words has left her mouth though. She had perfect right to get annoyed with her parents; after all, she was fifteen. However, she was also a crew member, and she had to get on with them for the good of the ship. The best thing she could do was try to escape from them. It was kind of difficult when the ship only contained six people and there was barely enough living space for them when most of the ship was taken up with consoles and equipment for unplugging people. Was it any wonder that they had to unplug less and less people? It took too long to discover and unplug people, and most had to be dropped off at Zion to make more living space for new recruits. Because of that, there were only five permanent members of the crew; Morpheus, Neo, Trinity, Link and Kes. At the moment, they had one recruit with them – Elysia – but she was only there to get more experience in the Matrix. They only had space for one more, so they had to choose carefully. The hacker Kes had been watching, Kiana, was one of the best they had found in a while, and now Kes just had to convince Morpheus of that fact.

"See you later" she said, taking off the headset and handing them over to her father. "Where's Morpheus?"

"Probably in the med bay" Neo replied, regretting the fact that their conversation seemed to be over already. Neither he nor Trinity got to spend much time with Kes lately as their work in the Matrix got more and more demanding. Besides, Kes had recently become a little obsessed with her Operating duties and creating programs for the Construct, and she craved her independent time anyway. It felt bizarre to him, to think of losing Kes when it barely seemed two days ago that she was born.

Kes had no idea of what was going through her father's head. Instead, she just stood up, stretching her stiff limbs. She had lived for almost ten years on this ship, and the cold barely bothered her, but after sitting at a console for seven hours, she had earned the right to be stiff. She gave a small smile to her father as she left, her heavy boots tapping out an echoing rhythm along the metal grate. In the ship though, they didn't make any real noise. All the machines meant that something was always clanking.

Kes walked up to the med bay, instantly hearing Morpheus' quiet, controlled voice through the closed door. She was about to enter, when she started to properly listen to what he was saying.

"Trinity, we have to return. Commander Lock has ordered us to"

"And when have we ever jumped when he's called?" her mother replied in her quiet voice, straining with barely contained emotion.

"This is different. They think something is going wrong with the Matrix that we should know about"

Trinity made a noise between disbelief and annoyance. "They always think something is changing in the Matrix. They can't get their heads around the fact that Neo ended the war"

"Be that as it may, we still answer to Zion. We need to go back"

"You know how I feel about going back to Zion" Trinity's voice was clipped, but her words hung in the air like steel.

Kes could hear Morpheus sigh. "They won't take her away"

"How can we be sure?" Kes could picture her mother running her hand through her short hair. "Every time I've been to Zion it's got worse. When I joined the crew everyone stared because we were from the Neb. When we returned the first time with Neo everyone greeted him because he was the One. Now when we return with Kes they show their great fucking concern for her by trying to run tests on her and make her answer questions about the Matrix. As if she's the One herself"

"You can't deny she has great talent"

"That's because it's the only thing she can do while we're Inside" her mother retorted. "If we had all done nothing else for ten years we'd be as good as her too"

Kes now knew that she really shouldn't be listening. This was incredibly educational, and doing wonders for her ego, but she wasn't meant to be hearing this. Though, as a crewmember she had just as much right to know what was going to happen as anyone else. However, as a daughter, she was completely screwed if either of her parents found out. She knew that the sensible thing to do was walk away, but this conversation was compelling. She sighed, knowing that when someone saw her, she would be in a lot of trouble.

It's worth it, she rationalised.

"Morpheus, I don't want Kes going back into Zion" Trinity said firmly. "God knows it's hard enough for her already without getting pawed by a bunch of old council members who want to spread 'hope to the people'" Even several feet away Kes could hear her mother's sarcasm.

There was silence, and she could practically hear Morpheus thinking. Finally, he answered. "Fine. I'll ask Niobe to send us a report of what passes in the meeting" His voice was still calm and controlled, but Kes could tell he wasn't happy. "But Trinity, she will have to go back to Zion at some point. If we stay away forever, people will think that you and Neo are lost, or that Kes has died"

"Better that than them trying to test her and pump her pull of drugs to find out whether the 'One' is an extractable gene"

Kes didn't realise that her mother was storming out until the door was wrenched open. Trinity, blazing with the white-hot fury that always flared up when something threatened her family, stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Kes.

I'm fucked, Kes thought.

The best thing she could think to do was pretend that she had only just got there. "Hi Mom" she said breezily. "Is Morpheus in here? Dad said he might be"

Trinity's eyes narrowed slightly, and Kes knew that her mother was on the brink of deciding to believe her. Thankfully for her, she just nodded towards the door without a word. Kes nodded her own thanks, and then escaped in.

Morpheus looked up at her. In all the years Kes had known him, he hadn't changed that much. However, he smiled at her as soon as the door was closed, something which didn't happen too often.

"You heard every word of that" It wasn't a question.

Kes nodded sheepishly, thinking damn, how does he know everything? "Sorry. I did actually come to ask you something"

She could tell he wasn't really angry, but his smile faded anyway. "What do you think?" he asked her.

She sighed, blowing her choppy fringe upwards. "I can't remember Zion properly, since we went back there when I was nine" There was only one word for that trip. Nightmare. "The main part I remember is being taken to the med bay and having all those weird tests run on me, and Mom and Dad going berserk to get me out. I was surprised they didn't boot us immediately onto the ship after what they did"

"So you don't want to go back"

"Bizarrely enough, no, I want to" she explained. "I'm fifteen, not nine. I don't think anyone on this ship would say I can't protect myself. Besides–" she began, trying to think of a way to phrase it so that it wouldn't offend him. "I think I need to see more of the world than just this ship. I need to get more of a perspective on stuff, you know? Not implying anything" she stressed. "It's just at the moment I probably know the Matrix better than Zion, and that's not a position I want to be in"

She wondered if she had made any sense, but Morpheus smiled his slight smile again. "It's surprising, that with such stoic parents as yours, you seem to be able to articulate well"

She raised one eyebrow. "I think if I was more like them, no-one around here would be able to talk to me"

Morpheus nodded slightly, not in assent, but just as a general way of drawing the conversation to some sort of a close.

"Anyway" Kes said. "I need to tell you about the hacker we've been watching, Kiana. I think she's ready to be unplugged"

"Why?"

"Well, she's been pushing the boundaries a lot. She's breaking just about every computer crime there's a name for in the Matrix, and today I sent her a couple of viruses and threatening messages, telling her to lay off the search for the Matrix"

"How did she respond?"

"Didn't, but only a couple of minutes later she was hacking another system. And she's getting better. I hacked the same system through the computers, and left her mines and bugs and ran a trace on her. She dismantled all of them before the trace could complete. She's good, she's fast and she isn't going to let anything stop her finding out about the Matrix. I think we should get to her now, before Agents notice"

Morpheus nodded. "It sounds like you've spent a long time watching her"

Kes shrugged. "Piss all else to do"

Morpheus met her gaze for a second, and she held it without fear. She had never been afraid of speaking her mind before him, but she never quite knew what he was thinking. He always managed to keep her guessing.

"If possible, we will go in tonight, before any Agents get onto her, as you say" he said finally.

Kes nodded. "Do you want me to Operate?"

"I'd like you and Link. The more backup we have, the better, and I think your parents feel safer knowing someone else is there with you"

Kes didn't resist the impulse to roll her eyes as she left. Now that her shift was over, she could either eat, sleep or find a computer and work on a program. She decided to do the former, followed by the last item. The days rolled into one after a while, and she only ever slept when she felt like it, regardless of day or night. Only something like an unplugging or a mission could break the monotony. It was sad, but Kes was actually really looking forward to tonight. Something like that would be a bit more of a challenge for her.

First, food. She was starving. She entered the mess hall, planning to plan out the next stage of her program as she ate, but her mother was in there, eating in silence.

Kes said nothing, but grabbed her tray of food, the only one she had ever known, and began to eat. Because there was absolutely no variance in flavours, she could eat it almost without thinking, her arm moving mechanically. The only thing that brought her out of her reverie was her mother's voice, and she knew from her tone that she had been watching her for a while now.

"You heard every word of mine and Morpheus' conversation, didn't you?" Trinity asked in her cool, distant way.

Kes looked up. "I have no idea what you're talking about"

"Kes–"

"Okay, yes" she said, hating herself for the fact that she gave into her parents easily. "Sorry"

Her mother sighed, sounding absolutely exhausted. Kes suddenly got the feeling that she didn't want to have to justify herself to her fifteen year old daughter.

"Sorry for what? Eavesdropping or lying about it?"

Kes mock-winced. "Careful Mom, you're going to cut me with a tongue as sharp as that"

"Don't get smart"

"How am I getting smart?"

Trinity sighed. People had told her time and time again that they were way too alike, and she hated it. All the things that she hated about herself she saw reborn in her daughter, along with a sharper breed of irony and sarcasm that just emphasised their similarities.

Kes rolled her eyes again – one of her many habits. "So basically I'm never going into Zion again. Scratch that, I'm never going out of your sight again, is that right?"

"Don't be ridiculous"

"How am I being ridiculous? I'm genuinely asking" Kes cried. "Look, if people find hope in my presence, so be it. It just proves that they don't know me"

Link walked in, saw the argument brewing like a storm cloud in the air and walked straight back out.

"I'm just trying to protect you"

"Mom, I'm fifteen. I don't need protecting"

"I don't trust Zion to leave you alone"

"I'm perfectly old enough to tell them to piss off"

"Kesare, language"

"Oh, full names, I'm scared" Kes snapped back. "Besides, if you're allowed to swear, then you've got to let me"

"That's different"

"Oh really? Cause sometimes it feels like no-one can think of me as a crewmate over your daughter"

"What does that mean?"

"It means that no-one here is prepared to treat me like an adult. If I'm pulling my weight in the crew, then why can't people actually treat me like a crewmember?"

"What are you going to do, change your parentage?"

"Mother–" The word left Kes' tongue with more sarcasm than the whole of the conversation squashed together. "I'd like to apply for a transfer"

Trinity glanced at her daughter like she was only seeing her properly for the first time. "Why?"

Kes shrugged. "Feel like it"

"Oh, because that's a good reason to do anything"

"A good reason is because I'm sick of being treated differently just because I'm the daughter of the closest thing Zion has to celebrities, so I want to try my luck somewhere else"

"Well, tough. You have to be eighteen"

"Niobe said she'd take me on as an Operator. Besides, I'm good enough for any of the ships"

"And you think they'd accept you under-age on the strength of that? The only reason any of the ships would accept you at fifteen would be because of the fact that you're the daughter of the One"

Kes rolled her eyes. "You know, I don't even know why I bothered trying to talk to you. I'm sick of this. You are never going to change"

With that, she stood up, abandoning her food, and stormed out of the room, her boots clanking angrily on the floor, as though she were punishing it for her anger. Trinity sighed, pushing her own food away. She didn't know what it was about Kes that always managed to make her lose control. Maybe it was because she felt a compulsion to protect her, maybe it was because she was so similar to her, maybe it was because she was just an aggravating teenager, she didn't know.

No, she thought to herself. I do know why. It's because she looks so much like Neo, and I've come so close to losing him many times. I can only take comfort in the fact that he can protect himself. Kes can't. I need to protect her.

But then, maybe Kes was right. Maybe it was time for her to go out, explore the world a little more…

Over my dead body a sarky voice said from the back of her head.

Trinity smiled sadly, and then left the room. She needed to go and have a talk with her daughter. She headed towards Kes' room, guessing that that was where she would be. She was there, curled up on the bed in a cat-like position. Trinity didn't have the heart to disturb her, so she just left silently, vowing to come back later and straighten it all out.

Kes listened as the door of her cabin opened and shut. When she was sure it was firmly closed, she flipped onto her back and stared at the ceiling, her dark brown eyes emotional and fixed.

I'm trapped. Help me, God, someone help me…

Okay, well that's Kes. I can't decided whether I like this chapter or not, but I really do like Kes, and the aim of this chapter was really just to introduce Kes and her relationships with everyone. I didn't want a fic where she'd be happy with everything, I think that after fifteen years, she'd be itching to explore a bit, and get out of her parent's protection. I can relate…

I hope you all enjoyed it, and please review!