This chapter is late for three (in honor of Trin) reasons. One, I'm working on another fic for The Matrix which you might see soon, two, I've got my hands completely full of other fics plus everyday life and three, I kept spelling Switch as Swithc, Swihct, Swicth! Urghh.

Oh yeah, Multicolored Gypsy, to tell the truth I can't imagine Trinity cooking either. Not at all. I kind of stuck that in because I like to cook. Or rather, I cook a lot. Cooking gets to the brain after a while. *munches on chocolate chip shortbread*

Thanks to Netball Freak for unknowingly being such a good model for Swithc, no, Switch. Chord, Netball Freak here doesn't smile all too much, so we'll see how this chapter goes… hee.

~*~

"Switch's case is nearly a perfect model of the kind of person we like to unplug. She grew up with her parents, loving music, but her mother died shortly after Switch turned eighteen. Her bed-ridden father was nearly blind, or deaf, or disabled in some way or other, and he depended on her to bring home the bacon after that. Switch dropped school and took up a job as vet's assistant somewhere. It brought in enough to support her and her father, anyway. That's all I heard about her life before we stepped in and screwed it all up."

"And how many little bunnies did she squeeze the life out of?" Neo rolled his eyes.

"And that's where you're wrong. Switch really liked animals."

"Switch and music and animals. That's even worse than Apoc." Neo's tone was somewhat off-center.

"To tell you the truth, Neo, very few of us were die-hard drug addicts and criminals. That kind of person isn't suitable for resistance work." I shook my head.

"After a while she pretty much transformed into an animal activist, Switch. No fur, no way. One of the other members brought her into the world of hacking, and soon she was in every webpage which sold meat and fur, or tested their products on animals."

"Always did think there was something fishy about those types."

I paused a while, thinking. "Switch was actually the hardest to pull out, after you. And the funny thing was, we weren't thinking of pulling her out at all, really. It's almost funny, really."

"Funny?"

"See, combing the Matrix for potentials is the most grueling work involving computers in the Neb – staring at screens all day just looking. It's hard to judge a person just by their appearance, or, technically, their Matrix code…"

"Blonde, brunette, redhead…" mused Neo dryly. "I think I see your point."

"There are lots of different factors you need to consider too: knowledge, foresight, will, personality, and endurance, just to name a few. After we spent a while with Apoc, Morpheus added another to that long, long list – rage." I stopped to massage an achy crick in my neck – God knew how long we'd sat there, waiting for Tank and Morpheus. I was beginning to worry about them, them pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and mentally locked them in place there. It was no good worrying; Zion was as safe a place as we could get to, and the people weren't all that bad. Most simply stayed away from 'plugheads' like us, though, and you could hardly blame them. The bright side was it kept off the pickpockets lurking in the bad parts of town where we went to stock the really powerful illegal painkillers and sell off scrap metal. Neo slid back slightly in the bench to allow me slightly more room to breathe.

I was even beginning to wonder if they'd sent us here on purpose, especially if Tank romantic side had suddenly kicked in. I couldn't help but silently curse their choice of venue, even as a waiting spot. So many memories flooded in…

Maybe it was time to bail them out. Lighten the load. Sink or save the sinking ship.

"Go on." The velvety doe brown of his eyes turned the improper sentence into novels. Suddenly I thought how lucky I was to have him…

~*~

"Like I said, we weren't thinking of Switch at all. Morpheus had his eye focused on her friend, the one who taught her hacking in the first place – name was Tessa, or something like that. None of us liked the looks of her – loud, boisterous. Unfortunately she possessed plenty of good qualities – most of the above – and she was a damn headstrong cow. Which is a good thing here, if you noticed."

"What, being a stubborn bovine is useful?" teased Neo.

I chose to ignore him. "We were about to make the final choice – we were all gathered around the monitor squinting at the coding, watching a demonstration Tessa was heading. You know how a demonstration is, don't you?"

Neo nodded briefly. "Crowds of angry people, am I right?"

"Sufficiently."

"Uh huh."

"Think of those crowds of angry people squashed on a screen in bright green lines. It was scrolling so fast that it was like watching a marathon on fast forward. Morpheus was constantly pointing at one tiny strip of code dancing around that was Tessa-"

Neo fought to keep his face straight. "Is that why the screen is dented so much?"

I snorted. "Not everyone lived like you did – one guy in the middle of a room with no room to swing a cat."

"Thanks."

"And then Apoc saw this other code suddenly, and he pointed it out, saying, 'Morpheus, what's that?' We zoomed in…"

"So that was Switch?"

"No, it was Christopher Columbus."

"So it was Switch."

I laughed, knowing full well that some of this was all his attempt to make me smile. "Yes, that was Switch, and she was a damn lot finer than that idiot. Morpheus wanted a closer look at her, of course, and he told us that he was going to do an all-nighter at the screen.

"And then Apoc got up, and said, 'Morpheus, I'll do it. Get some rest.' Something of the sort.

"None of us slept that night, ironically. Everything echoes in the Neb, and you could hear Morpheus pacing round and round his room, too worried for his new recruit to rest in case something happened to him. Cypher-" I swallowed. "Cypher made up various excuses and crept around the room all night hunting for diskettes and files. His favorite excuse was that he was hungry… he dragged me down the kitchen at least four times that night insisting that he didn't know where the gruel was kept.

I bit at my lip, swallowing hard. "He used that excuse a lot, you know, even after you came. The kitchen's the best spot for listening into private conversations."

"He… changed, didn't he."

I really hadn't meant to come here. Not this far into the past.

"He... well, he was less sarcasm and more humor back then." I licked my lips but found my mouth and throat completely dry. Softly, I added, "He was really one of the good guys, you know." Pause. "At least, at the beginning."

"I know."

The 'sun' peeped out in the sky, casting hard, slanting chrome rays. Zion had done a good job with their sky – well, whatever it was. At any rate, it worked well enough to grow real plants. I shifted on the bench – it was too warm for close contact – and settled for squeezing his hand. Neo gently ran the pad of his thumb over my palm, and I felt shivers even in the warm sunlight. The pond rippled.

If we should make our own heaven…

~*~

"There was this look in Apoc's eyes the whole night, completely different from the gaunt, sunken one. He didn't move from his chair the whole night, except twice to use the bathroom and for more water from the kitchen. I went to my room at this point, but I think Cypher stayed. As for Morpheus – well, he paced pretty much the whole night. The next morning, Apoc was a running documentary on Switch's entire life – most of what you heard was from what he told us that day, and there are holes because I was so tired that I couldn't pay proper attention."

"You get tired?"

Smiling faintly, I replied, "Good for you, because Apoc talked on for four straight hours at least. He was actually excited for the first time we'd seen - he looked like a kid about to meet Santa Claus. Even if Switch hadn't been the right candidate, I think Morpheus would've unplugged her anyway, just to get Apoc to shut it.

"It was easy to get Switch – we hooked her quick. In less than two weeks we'd gotten her on the Neb, easy as you please."

Neo frowned. "But if she was as dedicated to her life, and her music and bunnies and all, she couldn't have taken Morpheus' little speech all that well, right?"

"I'm sure Morpheus warned you about unplugging a person late."

"He said, 'The mind has trouble letting go. I've seen it before and I-' but Switch wasn't late, was she?"

"That didn't stop her." Neo was quiet. "Switch – Switch simply exploded. We had to keep her drugged blotto to keep her under control." I broke off. "You know, at the time, Morpheus didn't have a second-in-command, but we did have an equivalent." Pause.

"Cypher?"

"He assigned Apoc the task of keeping Switch under control – like punishment for fishing her out in the first place."

"Let me guess. That's how they hit it off?"

"Guess so. Call it yin and yang – whatever it means."

Neo's forehead creased, as it usually did when he was thinking hard. I admitted to myself that he was cute when he did that too, really. That is, when he wasn't thinking of some jack-ass suicidal mission. "I suppose it lucky they went together, too." His voice was quiet, so quiet that I scarcely heard it.

I put in abruptly. "Switch and I were close, you know. Battle of the sexes. There was only the two of us, and it got harder as the others joined…"

"And left, like now." His voice was full of a bitterness that I've never heard before.

But we both ran dry there.