Disclaimer: I own nothing here.
Rating: PG-13.
Early morning- or what felt like early morning, anyway- dawned quietly on the Neb, as it always did. Neo was still unused to the vague yet palpable feeling of timelessness that pervaded the ship. Everything moved slowly, methodically, precisely. Neo was sitting alongside Tank, watching the falling code, slightly mesmerized by the bright green digits.
Suddenly Tank started forward, leaning on the edge of his chair. "What?" Neo asked, low. "Sssh," Tank hissed, his forehead creasing as he began to type. Neo leaned back, rebuffed but still curious.
"Call Morpheus for me." Tank's voice, although unworried, was urgent. Neo leaped to his feet and hurried to find Morpheus. The older man came quickly. "We've received an incoming transmission from another ship," Tank said as soon as they arrived. "All we need is your authorization number for host reception."
Tank vacated his chair and stood beside Neo, offering a quick explanation. "That's probably Creon," he said. "Morpheus has to enter his special captain's code in order to open the ship and allow anyone in. we also have to erect a canopy." Before he could elaborate for Neo's benefit, Morpheus called out sharply. "Tank, I need you!"
Tank was over in a flash, and Trinity, appearing seemingly out nowhere, came up behind Neo, her lips close to his neck. "Look at that panel," she said quietly, so as not to startle him, indicating a wall close to Tank's area. "It's actually a door." As she spoke, Tank had been typing, and to his surprise, the panel slid open without the least resistance. Trinity leaned in closer, her breath stroking his skin in light, feathery patterns. "If you look closer," she whispered, so not as to disturb Morpheus, who was concentrating on the erecting of a large glass dome outside the panel- "you can see the other ship approaching."
Curious, Neo leaned in, and although he could make out the vague shape of the side of a ship much like theirs, which was hovering in the air, totally silent- he was far more interested in the feel on Trinity's body, now pressed lightly against his back. Not wanting to end the contact, he licked his lips and managed to form another question. "Why the dome? Is the air out there bad?"
"Not quite," he heard the amusement in her voice. "I mean, the air isn't worse than it is in any old sewer in the Matrix. It's actually a full-body scanner- anyone leaving or entering must be scanned for bugs, viruses, anything of the sort."
Two figures, vague in the blurry glass, moved into the dome. "That should be Creon and Vixen," Trinity, said, low. A bright light, making a violent slash of red in the glass, illuminated two figures- one tall and slender, on short and wiry- and as quickly as it had flashed, disappeared. "They're clean, and the i.d's match," Tank said, still typing.
Morpheus nodded. "Open the dome."
Tank obeyed, and the two figures slowly made their way through the now open panel, blinking rapidly at the light, an aftereffect of the blinding laser scan. There was a young woman that had to be Switch's sister, Vixen- and a tall man accompanying her.
She broke the silence of the ship with a low laugh and quick words of greeting, throwing her arms around Trinity's neck. "My people!" she cried, laughing, as she squeezed Trinity tightly and blew elfin kisses to Tank and Morpheus. Tank stepped forward and lifted her clean off the ground in a hug, while Morpheus received her playful attentions with a slightly amused smile as he strode forward to embrace Creon.
Feeling shy, Neo hung back, all the while studying their visitors carefully. Creon, unlike Morpheus, was tall and slender; his build much like Neo's, although he looked to be a few years older. His skin was pale, and he had thick, black hair, its length testifying to the many years he'd been unplugged. Full, straight, and descending from a dramatic widow's peak, it touched his shoulders, the coal-black color the same shade as his almond-shaped eyes.
Vixen, who Neo anticipated to be a carbon copy of Switch, looked nothing like he expected. Unlike Switch, who although icy and aloof was stunning, with her tall elegance, Vixen reminded Neo somewhat of a pixie. She was short, not over five feet even, to be certain- and wiry, with thick, corded muscles visible even underneath her loose garments.
Her skin was incredibly pale, and set off a pair of huge, meltingly brown eyes flecked with amber, framed by pale lashes. She was also slightly bowlegged, as a cowboy is, and therefore walked with a slight swing to her hips. Her only resemblance to Switch was that of her high, pointed cheekbones, which looked too pronounced in her small, angular face, and her short, spiky white-blond hair. She wasn't beautiful, not at all- but she was striking, so striking that it was impossible to take one's eyes off her.
"Hello," she greeted him cheerfully.
"You must be Neo." Neo's thoughts were interrupted when he looked up and saw Creon smiling at him. "I have heard much about you."
"Yes, that's me."
Creon looked him over, slowly, with a practiced eye. "There is something in him...in his expression...that there was not in the others," he said to Morpheus, who nodded as if he'd been expecting such a comment. "Good luck to you, Neo."
Neo, feeling slightly uncomfortable, returned the nod.
"Morpheus," Vixen said, breaking the silence with a smile, "Where's Cypher? And my big sis? And Tank, where's Dozer? They're not in Zion now, are they?"
Morpheus shot Creon a look, and he shook his head slightly. "I haven't told her," he said.
"Told me what?"
The entire crew glanced at each other, suddenly sober.
Trinity emerged from the Neb's east room, looking fatigued. Her eyes were lined with gray, smudged underneath. She looked like....like death. Neo was waiting at the door.
"Is she okay?" he whispered.
Trinity looked up at him, all former shyness driven away by her concern for her friend. "She's very bad," Trinity said, keeping her voice low.
When Vixen had heard of her sister's death, and of Cypher's betrayal, she'd gone nearly hysterical- Tank had to administer a sedative, though it had little effect. For the past seventeen hours, she'd remained in the room where the bodies were laid in state, Tank and Trinity taking turns staying with her. Now, Trinity was in the hall, unsteady on her feet. Neo took her arm, and to his surprise, she leaned on him heavily.
"Tank....has to stay with her," she whispered. "Find Tank..."
Neo took Trinity, whose eyes were closing, into his arms, carrying her into her room, laying her down on her cot. "Neo, "she mumbled. "It's my shift....."
"Don't worry about it. I'll explain to Morpheus."
"Find Tank..."
With that admonition, Trinity drifted off, extreme exhaustion etched on her face. Neo ran his fingers lightly over her pale, cool forehead, feeling a wave of tenderness wash over him at the sight of her sleeping. Trinity had had almost no rest since his return to the Neb, in between watching over him as he recovered, taking on extra shifts to cover for the missing crew members, and now, comforting Vixen. He traced her lips lightly with his fingers, wanting to kiss her, but afraid he'd wake her up. He finally pulled her blanket up, and vacated the room.
Neo hurried to the helm of the ship, looking for Tank, but saw Morpheus instead, watching the falling code. "Where's Tank?"
"I sent him to sleep," Morpheus didn't even turn around. "He dozed against the keyboard and nearly deleted a year's worth of data. Where's Vixen?"
"Still in the east room."
"You must go to her."
"Me?"
"Go. Now."
Neo hesitantly took a few steps forward, then stopped. Morpheus sighed. "Neo, as a part of my crew, you must be willing to undertake any and all responsibilities shared by the crew. It's vital to our survival."
Neo nodded, then pushed open the door to the temporary mourge.
What he saw made him suck in his breath.
The room was completely empty, save for a metal picnic-style bench and five long, vaccum-sealed glass boxes, a carefully wrapped body in each of them. Vixen was sitting on the bench, her head against one of the boxes, her face hidden.
Neo made his way inside quietly, sure not to make any noise. He paused in front of the first box, not wanting to look in, but feeling drawn to it anyway, a morbid fascination taking over. He bent over and looked- straight into Dozer's glassy, vacant eyes.
"Oh, God," he breathed, stifling a gasp. His former crewmate lay as if sleeping, the only indication of his death being his skin, which was gray and ashy as if all color had been sucked from it. He looked around tentatively in time to see Cypher, Mouse, Switch, and Apoc- all pale, cold, laid out in state. He jumped when he felt a small hand rest on his shoulder. He turned.
Vixen was standing there, eyes streaming, nose running, her face rimmed with red. She had obviously been crying for a long time, and Neo automatically reached out to her, without even knowing where the impulse came from. She gladly came to him and nestled deep in his arms, fitting there easily, as a little girl might. Neo himself felt strangely comforted due to his ministrations to her, and they sat in silence for nearly an hour, rocking back and forth.
"He wasn't all bad, you know," Vixen said in a tiny voice.
"Hmm?" Neo was startled out of the dreamlike state they'd been in all that time.
"He wasn't!" Vixen pushed away from the warmth of his chest and looked up at him, eyes intense. "Cypher, I mean."
Neo opened his mouth to speak, but she barreled on. "He was mean, sometimes. And he was sarcastic. But he loved me. There was a good side to him, Neo."
Neo didn't know what to say, and was surprised when Vix shoved a piece of crumpled paper in his hand. He looked at it, smoothing it out- it was apparently an old photograph of the crew of the Neb.
It included a much younger-looking Mouse, a skinny, solemn Trinity, a clean- shaven Cypher, a goofily-grinning Tank and Dozer, and Morpheus, who looked exactly the same, save for some fine lines missing from his face. Vixen was leaning casually against Cypher's chest, grinning as well.
"His mind couldn't handle it," said Vixen, softly, breaking into his thoughts. "It couldn't handle the concept of the real world. I knew. He would tell me things, late in the day, when we were in bed together... I tried to warn Morpheus, tried to have Cypher sent to Zion, where he could be watched, but...Morpheus thought I was favoring him, and thought that Cypher's reluctance to accept the Matrix was a sign of weakness. He then had me transferred, to protect us from 'emotional attachment,' as he called it."
"So you feel that Morpheus is responsible for Cypher's....betrayal."
"Oh, no!" Her eyes grew wide. "I would never blame him for that. I just thought...that maybe if they had sent him to Zion....he might have not ended this way."
She leaned forward on her haunches, her eyes glowing. "Neo," she said, softly. "You are the One. I realize that you idealize Morpheus...as we all do," she added in a softer tone, looking away. "Still...he is not the perfect leader, however he may seem to you now. Remember you're the One, and trust your instincts."
Neo stared at her, confused. "What do you mean, trust-"
But Vixen had risen from her seat, trying to rake her hair back into something resembling a civilized woman. She brought her fingers to her face and pulled them away, wet with her tears. "I must look a sight," she said, lightly, signaling the end of their conversation.
Neo rose and wordlessly pulled a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt, the worn fibers ripping easily. Vixen gratefully took it form him and mopped her face and nose with it, tossing is into a container for medical waste that stood in the room.
"Shall we go?" she fixed a smile on her face and looked in his direction. He nodded, and the two headed for the main console of the Neb. Vixen paused at the door, looking him over. "You've been a great comfort," she said softly. "Thank you."
Then she smiled. "You know, Trinity does love you a lot," she said, her face dimpling impishly. "Keep working on her- trust me." She disappeared through the doorway, leaving him standing there with an open mouth.
Will update soon, unless the release of the second movie has spoiled the story for you. This follows a completely different storyline, though. Review please!!
Rating: PG-13.
Early morning- or what felt like early morning, anyway- dawned quietly on the Neb, as it always did. Neo was still unused to the vague yet palpable feeling of timelessness that pervaded the ship. Everything moved slowly, methodically, precisely. Neo was sitting alongside Tank, watching the falling code, slightly mesmerized by the bright green digits.
Suddenly Tank started forward, leaning on the edge of his chair. "What?" Neo asked, low. "Sssh," Tank hissed, his forehead creasing as he began to type. Neo leaned back, rebuffed but still curious.
"Call Morpheus for me." Tank's voice, although unworried, was urgent. Neo leaped to his feet and hurried to find Morpheus. The older man came quickly. "We've received an incoming transmission from another ship," Tank said as soon as they arrived. "All we need is your authorization number for host reception."
Tank vacated his chair and stood beside Neo, offering a quick explanation. "That's probably Creon," he said. "Morpheus has to enter his special captain's code in order to open the ship and allow anyone in. we also have to erect a canopy." Before he could elaborate for Neo's benefit, Morpheus called out sharply. "Tank, I need you!"
Tank was over in a flash, and Trinity, appearing seemingly out nowhere, came up behind Neo, her lips close to his neck. "Look at that panel," she said quietly, so as not to startle him, indicating a wall close to Tank's area. "It's actually a door." As she spoke, Tank had been typing, and to his surprise, the panel slid open without the least resistance. Trinity leaned in closer, her breath stroking his skin in light, feathery patterns. "If you look closer," she whispered, so not as to disturb Morpheus, who was concentrating on the erecting of a large glass dome outside the panel- "you can see the other ship approaching."
Curious, Neo leaned in, and although he could make out the vague shape of the side of a ship much like theirs, which was hovering in the air, totally silent- he was far more interested in the feel on Trinity's body, now pressed lightly against his back. Not wanting to end the contact, he licked his lips and managed to form another question. "Why the dome? Is the air out there bad?"
"Not quite," he heard the amusement in her voice. "I mean, the air isn't worse than it is in any old sewer in the Matrix. It's actually a full-body scanner- anyone leaving or entering must be scanned for bugs, viruses, anything of the sort."
Two figures, vague in the blurry glass, moved into the dome. "That should be Creon and Vixen," Trinity, said, low. A bright light, making a violent slash of red in the glass, illuminated two figures- one tall and slender, on short and wiry- and as quickly as it had flashed, disappeared. "They're clean, and the i.d's match," Tank said, still typing.
Morpheus nodded. "Open the dome."
Tank obeyed, and the two figures slowly made their way through the now open panel, blinking rapidly at the light, an aftereffect of the blinding laser scan. There was a young woman that had to be Switch's sister, Vixen- and a tall man accompanying her.
She broke the silence of the ship with a low laugh and quick words of greeting, throwing her arms around Trinity's neck. "My people!" she cried, laughing, as she squeezed Trinity tightly and blew elfin kisses to Tank and Morpheus. Tank stepped forward and lifted her clean off the ground in a hug, while Morpheus received her playful attentions with a slightly amused smile as he strode forward to embrace Creon.
Feeling shy, Neo hung back, all the while studying their visitors carefully. Creon, unlike Morpheus, was tall and slender; his build much like Neo's, although he looked to be a few years older. His skin was pale, and he had thick, black hair, its length testifying to the many years he'd been unplugged. Full, straight, and descending from a dramatic widow's peak, it touched his shoulders, the coal-black color the same shade as his almond-shaped eyes.
Vixen, who Neo anticipated to be a carbon copy of Switch, looked nothing like he expected. Unlike Switch, who although icy and aloof was stunning, with her tall elegance, Vixen reminded Neo somewhat of a pixie. She was short, not over five feet even, to be certain- and wiry, with thick, corded muscles visible even underneath her loose garments.
Her skin was incredibly pale, and set off a pair of huge, meltingly brown eyes flecked with amber, framed by pale lashes. She was also slightly bowlegged, as a cowboy is, and therefore walked with a slight swing to her hips. Her only resemblance to Switch was that of her high, pointed cheekbones, which looked too pronounced in her small, angular face, and her short, spiky white-blond hair. She wasn't beautiful, not at all- but she was striking, so striking that it was impossible to take one's eyes off her.
"Hello," she greeted him cheerfully.
"You must be Neo." Neo's thoughts were interrupted when he looked up and saw Creon smiling at him. "I have heard much about you."
"Yes, that's me."
Creon looked him over, slowly, with a practiced eye. "There is something in him...in his expression...that there was not in the others," he said to Morpheus, who nodded as if he'd been expecting such a comment. "Good luck to you, Neo."
Neo, feeling slightly uncomfortable, returned the nod.
"Morpheus," Vixen said, breaking the silence with a smile, "Where's Cypher? And my big sis? And Tank, where's Dozer? They're not in Zion now, are they?"
Morpheus shot Creon a look, and he shook his head slightly. "I haven't told her," he said.
"Told me what?"
The entire crew glanced at each other, suddenly sober.
Trinity emerged from the Neb's east room, looking fatigued. Her eyes were lined with gray, smudged underneath. She looked like....like death. Neo was waiting at the door.
"Is she okay?" he whispered.
Trinity looked up at him, all former shyness driven away by her concern for her friend. "She's very bad," Trinity said, keeping her voice low.
When Vixen had heard of her sister's death, and of Cypher's betrayal, she'd gone nearly hysterical- Tank had to administer a sedative, though it had little effect. For the past seventeen hours, she'd remained in the room where the bodies were laid in state, Tank and Trinity taking turns staying with her. Now, Trinity was in the hall, unsteady on her feet. Neo took her arm, and to his surprise, she leaned on him heavily.
"Tank....has to stay with her," she whispered. "Find Tank..."
Neo took Trinity, whose eyes were closing, into his arms, carrying her into her room, laying her down on her cot. "Neo, "she mumbled. "It's my shift....."
"Don't worry about it. I'll explain to Morpheus."
"Find Tank..."
With that admonition, Trinity drifted off, extreme exhaustion etched on her face. Neo ran his fingers lightly over her pale, cool forehead, feeling a wave of tenderness wash over him at the sight of her sleeping. Trinity had had almost no rest since his return to the Neb, in between watching over him as he recovered, taking on extra shifts to cover for the missing crew members, and now, comforting Vixen. He traced her lips lightly with his fingers, wanting to kiss her, but afraid he'd wake her up. He finally pulled her blanket up, and vacated the room.
Neo hurried to the helm of the ship, looking for Tank, but saw Morpheus instead, watching the falling code. "Where's Tank?"
"I sent him to sleep," Morpheus didn't even turn around. "He dozed against the keyboard and nearly deleted a year's worth of data. Where's Vixen?"
"Still in the east room."
"You must go to her."
"Me?"
"Go. Now."
Neo hesitantly took a few steps forward, then stopped. Morpheus sighed. "Neo, as a part of my crew, you must be willing to undertake any and all responsibilities shared by the crew. It's vital to our survival."
Neo nodded, then pushed open the door to the temporary mourge.
What he saw made him suck in his breath.
The room was completely empty, save for a metal picnic-style bench and five long, vaccum-sealed glass boxes, a carefully wrapped body in each of them. Vixen was sitting on the bench, her head against one of the boxes, her face hidden.
Neo made his way inside quietly, sure not to make any noise. He paused in front of the first box, not wanting to look in, but feeling drawn to it anyway, a morbid fascination taking over. He bent over and looked- straight into Dozer's glassy, vacant eyes.
"Oh, God," he breathed, stifling a gasp. His former crewmate lay as if sleeping, the only indication of his death being his skin, which was gray and ashy as if all color had been sucked from it. He looked around tentatively in time to see Cypher, Mouse, Switch, and Apoc- all pale, cold, laid out in state. He jumped when he felt a small hand rest on his shoulder. He turned.
Vixen was standing there, eyes streaming, nose running, her face rimmed with red. She had obviously been crying for a long time, and Neo automatically reached out to her, without even knowing where the impulse came from. She gladly came to him and nestled deep in his arms, fitting there easily, as a little girl might. Neo himself felt strangely comforted due to his ministrations to her, and they sat in silence for nearly an hour, rocking back and forth.
"He wasn't all bad, you know," Vixen said in a tiny voice.
"Hmm?" Neo was startled out of the dreamlike state they'd been in all that time.
"He wasn't!" Vixen pushed away from the warmth of his chest and looked up at him, eyes intense. "Cypher, I mean."
Neo opened his mouth to speak, but she barreled on. "He was mean, sometimes. And he was sarcastic. But he loved me. There was a good side to him, Neo."
Neo didn't know what to say, and was surprised when Vix shoved a piece of crumpled paper in his hand. He looked at it, smoothing it out- it was apparently an old photograph of the crew of the Neb.
It included a much younger-looking Mouse, a skinny, solemn Trinity, a clean- shaven Cypher, a goofily-grinning Tank and Dozer, and Morpheus, who looked exactly the same, save for some fine lines missing from his face. Vixen was leaning casually against Cypher's chest, grinning as well.
"His mind couldn't handle it," said Vixen, softly, breaking into his thoughts. "It couldn't handle the concept of the real world. I knew. He would tell me things, late in the day, when we were in bed together... I tried to warn Morpheus, tried to have Cypher sent to Zion, where he could be watched, but...Morpheus thought I was favoring him, and thought that Cypher's reluctance to accept the Matrix was a sign of weakness. He then had me transferred, to protect us from 'emotional attachment,' as he called it."
"So you feel that Morpheus is responsible for Cypher's....betrayal."
"Oh, no!" Her eyes grew wide. "I would never blame him for that. I just thought...that maybe if they had sent him to Zion....he might have not ended this way."
She leaned forward on her haunches, her eyes glowing. "Neo," she said, softly. "You are the One. I realize that you idealize Morpheus...as we all do," she added in a softer tone, looking away. "Still...he is not the perfect leader, however he may seem to you now. Remember you're the One, and trust your instincts."
Neo stared at her, confused. "What do you mean, trust-"
But Vixen had risen from her seat, trying to rake her hair back into something resembling a civilized woman. She brought her fingers to her face and pulled them away, wet with her tears. "I must look a sight," she said, lightly, signaling the end of their conversation.
Neo rose and wordlessly pulled a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt, the worn fibers ripping easily. Vixen gratefully took it form him and mopped her face and nose with it, tossing is into a container for medical waste that stood in the room.
"Shall we go?" she fixed a smile on her face and looked in his direction. He nodded, and the two headed for the main console of the Neb. Vixen paused at the door, looking him over. "You've been a great comfort," she said softly. "Thank you."
Then she smiled. "You know, Trinity does love you a lot," she said, her face dimpling impishly. "Keep working on her- trust me." She disappeared through the doorway, leaving him standing there with an open mouth.
Will update soon, unless the release of the second movie has spoiled the story for you. This follows a completely different storyline, though. Review please!!