The Death of Veronica Ellis.

Summary: Veronica Ellis has been having a mid life crisis. She cannot believe that this is all that there is. The problem is, she's only 20.

Genre: Suspense? Not sure really. PG. Infrequent bad language.

Characters: Morpheus, Apoc, Trinity, Smith, Neo.

All characters are trademarks belonging to the Wachowskisisisisis (Or Godx2 as I like to call them) agent_jill_valentine@yahoo.com reserves the right to be recognised as author of this particular story. I am receiving no profit from this. Did I miss anything? Oh, yeah, and the computer references are completely out of thin air.

She looked at the clock. 4:53. Well that's just great. Once again, she had typed the whole night away. She'd be lucky if she got maybe an hour's sleep before she had to get up for work. Lately the nightmares had gotten more frequent, and sleep more difficult. This happened every night. She would promise herself to stay online for only an hour or two after she got home, but every night was the same. Ever since she stumbled across a single name, and with it, a single question. She was here at this time yesterday, and would be here again this time tomorrow, looking for him. She was thorough. In some respects at least, she was disciplined. She would search every bit of information she could find if it meant she would find the answers to her questions. Or rather, to her question.

She had downloaded disks and disks of information tonight. It looked promising. You can find anything you want on the Internet. If you know where to look. Or more importantly, how. Tonight, it was government files. Japanese, American, Australian, British. She would have to read through it and translate some of it later, her Japanese was a little rusty. But for now, she hoped to get to sleep. Her boss would kill her if she was late for work again. Her question would have to wait another few hours.

8:32. Shit. She jumped out of bed and was just pulling on some clothes when she remembered to hit her alarm clock. The sound it was making hadn't even registered with her. Too hard, she slapped the button. The alarm clock smashed off the floor. Shit. No time for that now. Mr. Baum was just looking for an excuse to fire her. He would be waiting at the door for her.

She ran in the big wooden doors and behind the desks. Baum wasn't here yet. She lived to bank another day. Oh yipee, she thought. She went to her desk to tidy herself up a little. She hated this place. It sickened her. Every day she would tell one person that no, they couldn't have that loan they needed or no, there is no money in your account, only to spend hours finding new ways for someone with cash spilling out their assholes to cheat tax, or to get that extra dime for every hundred dollars. It was so empty. So unreal. Every day she would set up accounts for people she knew either never existed in the first place, or were long dead. And she would have to do it with a may-I-help-you-smile painted on.

It wasn't like she needed the money. Her financial problems were easily solved. She was a natural with computers. Somehow computers offered her freedom. When she used one she was who she wanted to be. Her age, gender, name, appearance, none of it mattered to a computer, or to the people on the other end. A computer could have no preconceptions or expectations. She preferred them to people, by and large. A computer never lied, unless a person had taught it to. Computers were clean and clinical, no mess, no fuss. Computers were pure and innocent. They did what they were told, never knowing if it was right or wrong. There was no such thing as a criminal computer, only a criminal programmer.

Which, if she was honest with herself, was what she was. She had been a hacker for a couple of years now. Computers just made sense to her. Nothing serious. Just because she could, really. Lately though, she had been putting those skills to a more serious use. She was 20, young for a person with her job, but her skill with maths and computers had given her an advantage. Her options had been here, or McDonalds. She chose here. Last year, she had been overseeing a direct debit system between one of the local bigwigs, and the IRS. The guy was stinking loaded. He had made most of his money from computer software, and marketed himself as the all-American self-made man. He had started out as a low-level banker, and now he was worth more than most African states. The problem was where he had made the money to get his business off the ground. She had done a little digging, and it looked to her like he had set up a leech. It was a computer program designed to siphon off a couple of cents from the interest given to every account. The owners of the accounts would never notice, because they weren't missing any money, but to the programmer behind it, it was worth thousands. Anyway, it never got as far as court, because the bank hadn't wanted to go public with the fact that their security wasn't up to scratch. Besides, none of the account holders had noticed anything, and the bank hadn't lost out. He lost his job at the bank, and no more was said on the subject. Evidently, he had learned his lesson, since he was so careful in his dealings with the IRS.

She had been inspired. It was brilliant. The problem was, since then, banks had been especially tight about stuff like that. There were checks and measures in place to prevent somebody doing that to a bank ever again. But what if the bank never knew it was doing something wrong? What if the money was going to somewhere valid? Somewhere they would never question? A government institution? Somewhere like the IRS?

A lot of companies now paid their employees directly into their accounts. It was safer, and cheaper. The IRS made their deductions from the pay before it reached the account. It happened every week. But what if the money never reached the IRS? The IRS worked by sending the bank it's signature. The bank's computer would recognise it, and send the relevant information (and with it, money) back. All she had to do was pretend to be the IRS, and the computer would send the money to her instead. All she needed was the IRS signature, and a list of which accounts were sending money to the IRS. She would wait for the next tax change (and thus, reprogramming of the software) and nobody would ever know the difference.

She had written her leech, and then she just had to wait. She had planned for every possible outcome. When Baum finally told her to reprogram the account security to recognise the new deductions, she slipped past the IRS security defences by pretending to be the bank. Her leech came into the bank software with the IRS signal, and one cent from nearly every paycheck in the state, went to her own private IRS. It was brilliant.

But still she had to be careful. Every week her leech existed put her at risk. A couple of days ago a man was caught for computer crime involving bank accounts, though his hacking was a little less artistic than hers. There was talk of crackdowns and tighter security. If she jumped ship now, it would be a little suspicious, especially considering her own relatively small paycheck. No way could she be expected to live off her savings. So she had worked in a pressure cooker for the last week. She had to wait for the next reprogram, then she could get back in, get her account, and kill the leech. Until then she would have to sweat it out.

But none of that mattered now. This was how she coped. All that mattered was that she was in on time. "Excuse me? Ma'am?" It was a Fed Ex guy. She brushed a strand of long black hair behind her ear, and stood up to go to the counter. "I'm looking for Veronica Ellis?" "That's me." she said, although it wasn't who she wanted to be. She signed for the package, and opened it. A black cell phone. What the Fuck? It rang in her hand.

"Hello?"

"Hello. I believe you have been looking for me." The voice was powerful, in a way that only some people can be when they speak. Preachers and Madmen mainly.

Jesus Christ. Its-

"Morpheus?" She was whispering, not sure why. Nobody else was in the office yet.

"At least, that's how you viewed it. You believe that I have answers, do you not?"

"Yes."

"Then you have not been searching for me. You have been searching for what I know. It is not a matter of the right answer, merely the right question. It's the question that has driven you. It's the question that has always driven us. There will be time for that later, but for now, you need to trust me. Your…activities have attracted more attention than I would have liked. "

"How did-"

"Your boss is not late. He is speaking to some men about you. In about two minutes they will all walk down those stairs together and then you will disappear for a very long time."

"Why are-

"Those men are not friendly. They will not hesitate to kill you if they can. You cannot bargain with them. "

"How d-"

"One and a half minutes."

"What do I do?" She almost heard him grin down the phone.

"You have to listen to me very carefully. You will have to dump this phone soon or they will track it. Don't go out the front door, there's too many people. Go out the side entrance. Out there is a skip. Climb up it and onto the fire escape of the adjacent building. I will contact you when you get there. I have high hopes for you. Good luck."

The phone went dead. She hit the "off" button and tossed it in the open drawer, slamming it shut at the same time. She went for the side door, kicking off her heels as she went. She had reached the wood panelled hallway when she heard Mr. Baum shouting at her. His companions did not shout. It was eerie. She heard their shoes off the floor though, they were definitely chasing her. She burst out the door. She vaulted herself up onto the skip before she knew what she was doing. She climbed up onto the fire escape and up the ladder. She made it to the second floor before the bullet shots came. A massive hole erupted in the wall beside her. Holy Shit! Aren't they supposed to warn me or something? She hauled herself up another rusty ladder. Another bullet, this time hitting the ladder strut above her. She dragged herself up further. When she put her weight on the step above it collapsed. For a desperate second she thought she would fall. She pulled herself up with her arms. The rest of the ladder fell down towards the men below. It may have saved her life. The next shots were wild.

She made it to the roof. She heard footsteps chase her up the fire escape. Desperately she scanned the roof for a sign from Morpheus. Just to her left was a black duffel bag, a note, a gun and a sort of remote control sitting on top of it. "PUSH ME AND RUN!" said the note. She grabbed the pistol, pushed the remote's single button and ran across the roof.

"Ms. Ellis?" A reptile voice. It chilled her to the bone. She whipped around in time to see a man in a suit. He wore silver glasses and a metallic smile. He was holding a very large gun. She saw this all in a split second, before he exploded. The duffel bag. She glimpsed the man on the ladder behind him as he started to fall, along with a pile of rubble. That should buy her some time.

Between the building she was on and the next, was a bright yellow ladder. She hadn't seen it before. It was bolted to the next roof, but not this one. She was more agile than she expected. She nimbly stepped over the ladder on to the next building, and unhooked it, letting it drop to the empty street below.

"I'm impressed." She aimed the gun at the voice.

"Who are you?" She was exhausted, but she wasn't going to show it. "I'm Apoc. Morpheus sent me. Consider me your knight in shining leather." He was making a joke, but he didn't smile. She got the idea that he rarely did. He was a big man, maybe of Indian or Native Australian origin. He was dressed, as he suggested in a long leather coat, and an immaculate suit, which wrinkled to suggest he was carrying weapons. "That won't hold 'em for long. We have to move." Even as he spoke he was moving. A man with a plan. She thought. "How do I know-" "-That you can trust me? Would you prefer to stay with them?" He nodded in the direction of the bank. Not in a million years. That reptile voice still chilled her, and she had only heard two words. The man Apoc, fired a sort of grappling hook into the roof of the building. "No offense intended Ma'am." He wrapped his huge arms around her and jumped.

Agent Jones picked himself up. He was still clutching part of the fire escape. He grunted and threw it to the ground. Agent Smith had been obliterated in the explosion. Baum had fled. It was up to him now. But that was no great upset. He was after all, part of the Matrix. They were only human. He dusted the front of his suit down, and started running.

Apoc led Veronica through a winding lane. She had passed it every working day, and never noticed it. Weird. He ran out onto Carroll Street, just as a huge black car pulled up. "Ladies first." he said. For just a second, she thought she did indeed catch a smile dart across his face. The doors opened. A regal man in shades extended his hand. "I am afraid that we are racing against time at the moment. Please get in." She did.

"I am Morpheus. I trust Apoc has introduced himself already. That is Gauge and this is Carbine." He indicated two others. Gauge was driving. He was a large man. Bald with a red beard. Tattoos crawled up his neck past his collar. She would have taken him for a Hell's Angel in other circumstances. He smiled like an old friend as he was introduced. Carbine was a young woman. Brunette. She looked pretty average. Somebody you wouldn't see if you passed her on the street. Except that she was wearing skin tight leather and brandishing an Uzi. She smiled too, but it was tinny and artificial.

"I don't normally come on these missions personally. I am…familiar with the men pursuing you. My presence here creates an extra risk. Unfortunately, we are…short staffed at the moment, so such formalities are a low priority. Time is never on our side, but I am afraid your activities have shortened our lead time even further. "

"The IRS thing? Is that what this is all about?"

"No, not the IRS hack, though they will no doubt use that on your warrant. Last night, you found something that they never wanted any human being to lay eyes upon. "

"What?"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter any more. Whatever it was no longer exists in this world, for all intents and purposes. Your computer is gone, as is the loophole that allowed you access to those files. Give them a little more time, and neither will you. For all intents and purposes."

She let it sink in a little. Warrants, guns, government agents. What the hell had she let herself in for?

"What do you mean "For all intents and purposes." ? "

He smiled grimly. "Your social security number will become invalid. Credit cards, indeed bank accounts too. Your job will no longer exist. After a few days, your neighbours and co-workers will be gone too. Moved for various reasons. Your building and all your possessions will go then. Not yet though, they are hoping that we have failed and that you will return home to collect your things. Nobody will remember the real Veronica Ellis, she is dead. Instead, your face will belong to a dangerous cyber-terrorist who robbed the public blind, and hijacked other peoples identities for her own gain. By the time they are finished with your identity, you won't even recognise it. The public will though, and they will hate you. And you will be hunted, all the time hunted."

She was sure she heard a note of sadness in his voice, behind the rhetoric. It sounded like he had been the subject of similar treatment. Up until a few months ago, she believed that he was such a dangerous man. A fellow hacker, and so she respected him, but she had also considered him a man to be feared. She had difficulty reconciling the reputation of Morpheus the murderous anarchist, with Morpheus, the dignified man who risked capture to save her life. To save her life from her own Government.

"So…what now?"

He sighed and stared out at the street that flowed by. He unclipped his mirrored glasses. "Usually, we would have contacted you long before we were to meet. But since the emergence of these…complications, we have been forced to adapt our schedule somewhat. The priority is now getting out of …these hostile circumstances." The rest of the crew stifled smiles at some private joke. "We are going to a safe house, and from there we will escape. "

He turned to face her. "Now I am being deadly serious. You, like everyone in this car, have sensed that there is something awry with this world. For the last few years you have turned it over and over in your mind, until your question has become worn smooth, but still it weighs just as heavy on your mind. The words may have lost meaning, but the question itself still drives you to look for the answer every day of your life. You have nightmares about some hellish other world, if you can get to sleep at all. You spend every working hour in that place thinking about how artificial it all is, and then you rush home to spend time creating your own persona on a computer. I can offer you something else. It will not be better, or easy, but it will be real. It will be the truth. It will be freedom from invisible slavery, but remember that the truth is a heavy burden also."

"We're here." Gauge had seen Morpheus get this absorbed every time he gave this speech. Even when it was this rushed, under this much pressure, Morpheus always felt so powerfully about what he said, that he never noticed when they did finally reach their destination.

Morpheus clipped on his glasses again. He had given this speech many times, but still he hated every word he was about to say. It was a turning point in the life of every person who heard it. It could create a devoted soldier for the cause, or leave a life even emptier than it was before. Often, this speech could lead to eventual suicide, regardless of the immediate outcome. Still, there was no other way. He never offered anything more than the truth.

"This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back."

He reached into his pocket and took out a small silver box. He held out both his hands. In one, a small red pill. In the other, a blue one.

"You take the Blue pill, we will take you somewhere as far away from here as possible. We will give you a gun, some cash, and you will never see us again. What you do after that, is up to you."

"You take the Red pill, I will show you just what is wrong with the world. I will show you the truth. That truth is never pleasant, but it is real, and with our help, we might change it. Remember that either way, your life as you know it is already over."

Veronica looked at her life as it extended before her. If she trusted this man, her life would change forever but more than that, her world could change. None of these people were old. She sensed that most of them never would be. If she took the Blue pill, her life would end. The man with the sharp suit and the metal smile would see to that, or his associates. It was an illogical thought, that he could still chase her. She had seen him die. And yet…She got the distinct impression that the Red Pill would never free her of those men, but it was connected. And if she could know what they were (They never occurred to her as "Who".), she might know how to fight them, instead of just running from them. She did not like to be helpless. Instead she would take the road less travelled by.

Veronica, bank clerk, took the Red Pill, and ceased to be. In her place, the person she always wanted to be, the person she was in computers, was born. Trinity, hacker and soldier, finally came into being.

Trinity thought about all these things. She thought about who she was now, and who she was then. She stared at the corpses on the floor. Two of those people had been there. Apoc had brought her to Morpheus safely. Cypher had been there when she was dialled out. Switch had not yet been recruited, or Mouse. Carbine and Gauge were long gone, long dead. As they were dialling her out, the Agent had burst in. She saw it (not him) as it burst in. Then she opened her eyes, her own eyes, for the first time. She never discovered exactly what happened in that time, but for some time afterwards, Cypher had walked with a limp, and Gauge sported a ragged scar across his temple for the rest of his life. He was proud of it, she thought. But they were all dead. Only Morpheus now, and he was lost to them. In the hands of the Agents. It would be impossible to rescue him. She was now the ranking officer aboard the Nebuchadnezzar. It only remained to protect Neo, the One who Morpheus believed could save them all. All except Morpheus himself. Tank was talking.

"We pull the plug."

Oh God. "You're going to kill him? Kill Morpheus?"

After that, it was all a blur. She felt hollow. She looked at Tank, and back to Neo. This was the man who Morpheus was to die for? He looked so frail, so sickly. This was our saviour? He was so thin. This was the One? If she had known what was to come, she would have thought differently. Tank gripped the plug. And then, against every expectation she had, Neo changed the world forever with a single word. Quietly, he cleared his throat.

"Stop." He said.