Title: Alternate ending for 'The Real World'

Author: Stormhawk

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.

Notes: This is an alternate ending to 'The Real World.' This is as a favor to Lauren K who gave me my first good review for that fic.

To anyone who cares the reason I killed Smith off in the first version was because I couldn't think of what the hell to do with him (in the story that is). Plus I got a flame and a half for my logic behind it. After I uploaded it thought I started to think what would I have done if I hadn't killed Smith. Here is what I thought.

AU. Please note that this fic is completely AU. This is important for the end of the fic. AU.

Word Count: 4400

Summary: This is what happened after the Neb hits whatever it hit and Neo and Smith are in Smith's room.

Please Read and Review.

The ship stopped moving and they were all thrown into darkness. Neo sat up painfully and heard circuitry popping all around them. He felt he had to ask. 'Are you alive Smith?'

'Do you even want to know Mr. Anderson?'

'That answers my question.' Neo looked around, his eyes were slowly adjusting to the almost nonexistent light. 'We should get up to the command deck.'

Smith nodded in the dark and rose. Neo went to the door but Smith sarcastically said, 'allow me Mr. Anderson.' Smith's hand reached for the doorknob but hovered about a foot from it.

'Are you going to open the door or not Smith?'

'I don't believe so, it's charged with electricity. If I try to open it I would get fried.'

'Sure,' Neo reached for it. Smith picked up a the spoon from his last meal and threw it toward the door. Electrical crackles ran over the door.

'Oh,' Neo muttered.

'Exactly Mr. Anderson.'

'If you get on my nerves I will still kill you.'

'Only if Zion doesn't get their hands on me first,' Smith said bitterly.

'If Morpheus wants you alive then he'll try and find some way of keeping you alive. If you want to survive you will have to act human though.'

'Humans are.'

'One tip for staying alive in the real world - don't insult humans.'

He heard Morpheus' voice outside. 'Neo!'

'Yeah?'

'Don't touch the door, it's charged.'

'No problem.'

About twenty minutes later they had made the door safe enough to open and the pair were freed.

'How come you didn't try and come out?' Tank asked. 'How did you know the door was charged?'

'It was simple,' Neo said, casting a dark look at Smith. He wasn't even going to credit him where credit was due. Smith frowned to himself and followed Neo out.

'We hit a rock slide Morpheus, we'll have to take her to Zion for repairs.' Smith's step faltered, he wasn't sure he was ready to go to his doom quite yet.

'Zion?'

'Commonly known as the place you have been trying to destroy for years,' Neo muttered. 'We should be there in four hours.'

Four hours? Smith thought. Only four hours? The crew dispersed to their assigned duties. Tank went up to the command deck to set a course, the ex- agent followed.

Tank groaned inwardly as he saw Disk follow him because he knew it wasn't Disk. How was he ever going to explain that to all of Disk's friends?

He settled down into the chair and headed toward Zion. Smith stood behind him. 'Are they going to kill me?'

'Depends.'

'On what?'

'On how many people believe you would be an asset alive compared to how many people are crying out for your blood.'

Smith shivered at that thought. 'I do deserve it.'

'At least we agree on one point but at least your helped Trin to escape. We're grateful for that even though you had an ulterior motive.'

'What if.What if we don't tell them who I am?'

'Then how could you explain how you know what you know? And being in Disk's body?'

'A communication error put me back into the wrong body. You could tell them that I hacked into part of the matrix mainframe.'

'That could work but I think Morpheus will want to tell them who you are. If he doesn't Neo will, besides they could smell you out.'

'I hate smell.but I smell human.'

'Figurative, that's exactly what I'm talking about. In your own 'body' or not you still look like an agent.' Tank stood and critiqued him.

'You're standing, usually when you talk to someone you sit down. Your stance makes you look like you're in an army line up.' Tank pointed out about twenty things that sold Smith out as an agent.

'No one would ever believe that you're human.'

'Do you think, would you teach me?'

'You really don't want to die do you?'

'No.' Smith's voice was barely above a whisper.

'We've got less than four hours.'

'I'm a quick study.'

'Sure what the hell, I like a challenge.'

'Where do we start?'

Tank started to explain to Smith how to act human.

*****

Two decks below Neo and Trinity were doing some preliminary repairs. 'Are you ok Trinity?' Neo asked.

'Sure. Why?'

'You were just taken prisoner by agents. Thrown in a cell and just escaped with your life.'

'Oh, that. Why shouldn't I be ok?'

'You don't have to be brave around me.' Trinity smirked at him.

'I'm fine Neo.'

'What about Smith?'

'I'm sure he's fine too Neo, why don't you ask him?' Trinity said with a sly smile.

'Why did we let him back out?'

'Didn't you hear him?'

'Why did you want him back out Trinity? He could have killed you in there.'

'I know Neo. What he is going to tell us will be worth that.'

'I hope so.'

'Neo, please.I hate him almost as much as you but I think he deserves a chance.'

Neo didn't reply to that. 'Are you hungry Trin?'

'I could go for some gruel.'

'My specialty.'

They put down their tools and went to the mess hall. They were surprised to find the other three already there.

'Neo, Trinity sit down,' Morpheus said. 'Smith is telling us how to tell the other two agents apart.'

'Great,' Neo muttered.

'It was the only conversation topic I could think of,' Smith said. 'Anyway, since they look alike the only real way to tell them apart is their 'personalities' and I use the term loosely. Jones is a geek, he's a nerd simply he doesn't get involved in many fights. Brown on the other hand is a violent psychopath, for an agent at least. When not on a mission he would use his free time to kill simulated humans.'

'Jones was operating that computer that read my mind wasn't he?'

'Yes Trinity.'

'He's shorter than you and Brown.'

'Personally I always thought of him as the 'little brother'.' Neo gave Smith a dark look.

'Agents don't have brothers.'

'True but his program came online three seconds after Brown and I.'

'Is there anyway to kill an agent for good? In such a way that won't allow a back-up copy of his matrix to come online?'

'They would have to be deleted from the mainframe. The mainframe is in the real world, there is nothing you can destroy in the matrix that would bring it off line.'

'There goes my theory. Why didn't you gloat about that when you came through the first time?'

'I didn't want to give you any information. Speaking of which your agent training program should be degrading at this very moment. I put a virus into it when I 'helping' to improve it.'

'Smith.' Neo growled.

'I could make another one easily. With the improvements I promised on the first one,' Smith said quickly, trying to stay off Neo's bad side.

Despite his efforts, he earned a dark look from Neo. An alarm beeped, Tank rose and went to the command deck. They were approaching Zion.

Smith felt his stomach sink, it was an odd sensation for him. One by one the others left, Morpheus was the last.

'Morpheus?'

'What Smith?'

'Are you going to tell them who.what I am?'

'Why shouldn't I?'

'They will kill me and you will never get any of the information I am capable of giving you.'

'What do you suggest?'

'Don't tell them. There is no need for them to know. Please.'

While Morpheus considered the facts. Smith's face was contorting. 'What are you doing?'

'I am attempting to look 'pleading' I am not sure which muscles to use.'

Whatever he was doing, it disturbed him, Morpheus gave in. 'You are a monster Smith but Trinity says you deserve a second chance, for the moment you have it.'

'Thank you.'

The damaged Neb landed at a docking platform in Zion. The crew stepped off as several technicians came up to help with repairs. Smith swallowed as several humans passed him but relaxed when he realized they had no idea what he was.

'Whenever a crew lands, we go and help everyone else. This society is dependent on everyone helping everyone else.' Trinity said to him. 'What can you do beside kill people?'

'I'm good with computers.'

'We have enough technicians and programmers for the moment. The help they require is more.human, helping with the sick, looking after children, etc.'

'Children?'

'Got anything against the sick?'

'Viruses.'

'Neo.'Trinity began to call. Smith grabbed her.

'I'll look after sick children just keep him away from me.' Trinity stifled a laugh.

'Okay.' She led him to an infirmary full of sick children. She turned to go back and help with the Neb.

'Don't tell them your name is Smith.'

'Then what do I call myself?'

'Try 'Smitty'.'

'Smitty?'

'It'll keep you alive.'

'Smitty?' he said to himself. Is life worth this? He thought. A woman walked over to him.

'Are you here to help?'

'Yes.'

'Then come, I'll show you what to do.' He followed helplessly and was soon giving out medication to children.

The idea of children was foreign to agents and machines in general. They knew of them and grew them in fields to keep the population up in the matrix. But the initial idea if needing a child-stage was deemed lowly by the machines and another human weakness.

Smith had to study them years ago to better understand what it was he was fighting, the children in the matrix were different to the ones in the real world.

The children before him were spreading their germs with each cough, all were thin and disheveled. The nurse had given him the job of making sure each took their right medication.

He walked around the room with a tray of paper cups, a name was written in black on each of them. He stopped by a bed.

'Name.' The sick child looked up in distaste at him.

'Say please.'

'Name.' Smith said again.

'Jonathan.' Smith plucked a cup from the tray and handed it to him. 'I can't reach my water.'

Smith sighed, put the tray on the nearest table and handed the boy his glass. His pills were swallowed and he moved on.

He had done all but one of the children in the room. The last was a little girl, no more than six years old.

'Here,' he said handing them to her. She tried to accept them but started coughing. She used a dirty rag to try and cover her mouth.

He tried to take a step back, not wanting to get sick but her little hand shot out and caught a hold of him. 'Please don't go,' she said through coughs.

'Help,' Smith said, unsure what to do. One of the older kids rose.

'What's wrong?'

'She's coughing, I don't know what to do.'

The older kid nodded, 'I'll get the nurse.' The little girl coughed harder, the dirty rag was covered in blood that she had coughed up.

She started to cry through her coughs. Smith knew she was afraid, she still hadn't let his hand go. Why hadn't the nurse come back yet? She held his hand tighter, what would a human do?

He thought of the times he had been to hospitals, strictly on business of course. He had seen parents holding their sick children.

He sat down and she leant against him. Her body convulsed as the coughs got worse. Her hand let go of the rag. She stopped coughing.

Smith pulled her back to see if she was all right. She wasn't moving. He pressed two trembling fingers against her neck. She was dead.

He stood up and away from her. The nurse came back in, she took a look at her. 'There was nothing you could have done,' she said to Smith. 'At least she had someone with her.'

'May I be excused please?' The nurse nodded as she covered the little girl up with a sheet.

Smith went out to the hall outside the infirmary. He was shaking, he had never seen death on this level before. He had killed hundreds of rebels but had never seen a child die.

His shirt was covered in blood. He leant against the wall before slipping to the ground. He had never felt like this before. Compared to this, the terror he had felt during his nightmare was negligible.

Trinity came up the hall and saw him sitting by the wall, his front covered in blood. Her old senses kicked in, immediately thinking, who has he killed now? As she came closer she saw him staring blankly ahead.

'Smith? Smith?' He didn't hear her. She looked into the infirmary. She saw the little body being taken away.

'She died.' He said.

'It happens, we can't cure all the illnesses these kids have.' Trinity wasn't uncaring, she had just come to accept the facts.

'I couldn't do anything.'

'Are you okay?'

'No,' he said honestly. 'I'm not.'

'Get up, you can't sit there all day.' He looked up her, using his trembling hands he pushed himself up.

'I don't hate humans anymore.' He said, 'Why did she die?' He started to slip to the floor. Trinity caught him and pulled him back to his feet. He started to cry. Trinity was surprised by how much this had affected him.

She hugged him, her shoulder was wet with his tears.

Neo came walking up the hall. He didn't see Smith crying, all he saw was Trinity hugging an agent. He turned in anger and walked back toward the Neb.

Smith pulled away from Trinity. 'I'm sorry,' he said, embarrassed.

'It's ok, seeing a kid dying is hard on anyone.'

'Is this what it means to be human?'

'Yes. I think you're finally understanding.'

Smith excused himself and went back to his room on the Neb. He tried to clean the blood from the shirt but it wouldn't come off. He found another in the cupboard and changed.

Someone knocked on the door, he opened it without reservation. Neo stood there.

'Neo, what do you want? I want to be alone.'

'You didn't seem to mind the company when you were with Trinity.'

Smith didn't understand what he meant. 'What are you talking about?'

Neo stepped into the room. He turned and closed the door, Smith swallowed when he heard the lock click. 'You know what I'm talking about.'

'No, I don't.'

'You might have fooled Morpheus, Tank and even my Trin but I still know what you are. Keep away from her.'

Smith understood. 'Don't be ridiculous, grow up Mr. Anderson.'

'Stop calling me that.' Neo lunged at Smith, he punched him in the face and Smith dropped to the deck. 'Keep away from her.'

'You want to know what happened?'

'No.' Neo said, opening the door and slamming it behind him. Smith sat up and wiped the blood from his face.

He sighed, knowing he would never, ever fully understand humans. So far they had kept his secret. Morpheus, Tank and Trinity had kept their word, he wondered how long it would take until Neo broke.

He went to the mess, poured himself some gruel and retreated back to his room. Somehow it was the only place he felt safe.

He sat alone for an hour before he realized he was being ridiculous. He left the Neb and went back to helping in the infirmary. No other children died but he was sure to keep one eye on the nurse so she could be on hand in case of an emergency.

*****

Neo and Trinity were finishing off the last of the repairs. Neo couldn't help but feel a little betrayed.

'Where's Smith?'

'He's was the infirmary, then he came back here I think. Why?'

'No reason. No, it's nothing.'

'Neo? What's wrong?'

'Have all of you forgotten what he is?'

'Of course not, why?'

'I saw you with him.'

'You saw.what?' She thought for a minute. 'Oh, let me explain.'

'You don't need to explain anything, I saw it all.'

'Oh, you saw the tears, you saw the blood, you saw the dead child.'

'Dead.did he?'

'No, she had a bad flu. She died right in front of him and it shook him to the core.'

'I see.'

'Neo, relax.' He looked down at her.

'How am I supposed to relax?'

'Would a back rub help?'

He smiled. 'Couldn't hurt.' She smiled and moved toward him, Neo relaxed - perhaps he was a little paranoid, especially when it came to anyone coming near his Trinity.

'Morpheus wants to know when the repairs will be finished,' Smith said appearing in the doorway.

'Can I kill him?,' Neo whispered to Trinity. 'An hour Smith, now get lost.'

'Don't shoot the messenger,' the ex-agent muttered as he climbed back up to the command deck.

*****

Months later.

'Morpheus?' Smith said as he came onto the command deck. It was late at night and Morpheus was the only other one up.

'Yes Smitty?'

'Please don't use that name. I have something to ask you.'

'What is it?'

'If there was a way to destroy the matrix, would you take it?'

'Of course.'

'There is a single room that controls the matrix. The programmer is in that room, no machine knows anything of 'him' other than the fact that he controls us. If 'he' is destroyed the matrix could be taken off line from that room.'

'It is probably the most guarded place in the real world. Why are you telling me this, I didn't think you were ready to betray your side to such a degree quite yet.'

'Humans never things slowly, I am learning. Do you think it could be done?'

'It would be the biggest gamble in mankind's checkered history. If it succeeded we would win the war. If we lost, every chance that we ever had would be gone.'

'I only told you because I thought you would like to be in possession of this information.'

Morpheus considered the information and after prodding Smith for everything he knew about the room he asked Tank to set a course for Zion.

'We're doing this?' Neo asked, Morpheus had discussed it in great detail with him.

'All of Zion has to approve. The end or the war or the end of humanity, they might not approve of the risk.'

The Neb landed at the docking platform and everyone followed Morpheus to what passed as a conference room. All the leaders of the ships and a few others who helped with the day to day running of Zion - humanity's government, all looked up as the crew entered the room.

Morpheus explained the plan in great detail while they listened stoically. After he finished, a tough looking woman spoke up.

'How do you know all this?'

Morpheus shot a look to Smith who nodded slowly giving him permission to let his secret out. He had chosen his side, whatever was going to happen would happen.

'We received this information from an agent,' Morpheus started.

'An agent?' the woman asked incredulously, 'it's a trap.'

'No it's not, it is the truth,' Smith said.

'How do you know - Disk isn't it?'

'No, it's not. It's Smith. Ex-agent Smith.' That killed the whispered conversations in the room. Smith swallowed, a human trait he had picked up easily.

One unanimous word came from everyone in the room that didn't know, 'Smith?'

He heard a dozen weapons being aimed at him, 'I have just given you a way to free humanity. Are you still going to kill me?' His voice was emotionless, much more like his old self than the pseudo-person he had been the last few months.

He stood, awaiting whatever fate was to befall him, he would die on his feet at least.

'No,' Morpheus said.

There was a general murmur of 'but' from the council.

'No,' Morpheus said again and didn't need to say anything more. They sat down and listened to the fine details of the plan.

The attack was scheduled to take place two weeks later. Every ship in the last human city was being fitted with every weapon that they could find, make, repair or invent.

Two ships, the Neb and the Medusa would be the ships to take out the matrix itself while the rest were to draw the machine's attention away. Hopefully the distraction would be enough.

The news about Smith couldn't stay a secret forever and soon nervous glances were everywhere in Zion. He was the embodiment of the machines, the face of the enemy and now he was leading them to freedom. Many suspected a trap, none blamed them.

On the morning of the attack all of Zion gathered in one large cavern to pray. Smith hung back, unsure of the meaning of prayer or religion.

'We can't always count on ourselves so we hope that someone else can look after us,' a voice said from behind him. He saw a young boy.

'Jonathan,' the boy said. 'I was.'

'In the infirmary, I remember. Why aren't you praying with them?'

'I believe that if there is someone to help us, they will hear me anyway.'

'Logical,' Smith commented.

'Is this going to work or are we all going to die?'

'I don't know.'

After the mass was finished everyone reported to their ships. The diversion ships left first. After the machines were distracted the Neb and the Medusa set out.

After a few skirmishes they landed and entered a huge complex. Most of the guarding machines had been sent to deal with the last fight with the rebels.

Both of the crews followed Smith, weapons drawn. Many were killed but most were injured by the remaining robots. Morpheus stayed behind to help with the injured rebels when he was shot in the leg and couldn't go any further.

Neo, Trinity and Smith sprinted down a corridor toward the fabled room. A titan of a guard stood in their way.

Neo fitted a rocket and fired at it. It was stunned so he fitted another. Smith saw a red sensor come online. An ascending whine was heard. It pumped out a few rounds, Neo hid behind a support but one of the bullets struck Trinity.

Smith tackled her toward the wall and shielded her as the guard exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere. In the clearing smoke Neo came running to find them. Coughing from the dust, Smith drew back from Trinity, she hadn't been hit by the exploding machine but the bullet had done some bad damage.

Neo swallowed hard. This was the choice he had never wanted to make. Smith spoke what Neo was thinking.

'Neo there is a choice. Trinity or humanity. Stay with her or help me to take the matrix down.'

'No,' Neo said, he wouldn't leave Trinity.

'Go,' she said weakly.

'Morpheus will find her. Come on.' Smith started down the corridor without him. Humans are illogical, he thought.

'Mr. Anderson. She will have died for nothing.' Neo took one last look at Trinity before following him. He glared at the other man, but he had spoken the truth. Everything was riding on this.

They reached the room then they stopped to look at the door. It was a plain green door, normal like it led to a boss's office. The surrealistically normal door was locked. Both men counted to three and ran at it.

It gave easily and they found themselves in an office. A wooden desk stood in disuse and an old man stood in front of a computer screen. Neo blinked a couple of times, this was far from what he had expected.

'What have you done?' the old man asked him.

'Who are you?' Neo demanded of him.

'I am the programmer, I created the matrix.'

'You?' Neo asked.

'Hard to believe isn't it Mr. Anderson? A human like you.' The old man said without turning.

'You can't be human, the first matrix was created one hundred and ninety- seven years ago.' Smith said.

'Life can be prolonged,' the old man said sadly. 'You rebels have done it. Finally, I hope you can live with yourself, you have no idea what you've done.'

'We have freed humanity,' Neo said.

'And doomed them to a short life in a desert. You can't handle this. Billions of humans being unplugged at the same time, they will all die,' he said bitterly.

'Why do you care?' Neo asked.

The old man turned to look at them, 'they are like my children Mr. Anderson.'

'My name is Neo,' Neo said without thought. He and Smith looked at each other, there was something eerily familiar about the way he said his name. Smith looked unblinkingly at the man.

'You can stop staring at me, you know who I am,' the old man said to Smith. 'I'm you, I used myself as the agent template. I remind you of yourself before you betrayed your own side.'

'You betrayed me first, you were going to delete me.'

'Smith. You were always unstable. You were a waste of programming time, you were too human.'

Smith looked at Neo, 'am I that annoying?'

'You used to be worse.'

'Now I know why I wanted to kill me.'

'Want Smith, not wanted. Want.'

'Yes Neo of course, can we kill him now?' Neo nodded and they both lunged at him.

The battle was short. Smith jumped on the computers and stop the shut down of all the pods, the occupants were now in a deep sleep.

'Why did you do that?'

'You want humanity dead Neo? This way the pods will only come off line when you want it too, save a few at time rather than lose them all.'

With the shutdown of the main computer system, all the machines fighting the rebels were taken off line or set to self-destruct. Neo let out a sigh, they had won. It seemed unreal, the war was over.

Morpheus came into the office with a bandaged and limping Trinity. 'It's over?' he asked.

'Yes,' Neo replied. 'Finally over.'

'No, it's the beginning. Humanity is getting second chance.' Smith said. All nodded in silent agreement.

The sun came out for the first time in two centuries the next morning.

The End.