Neo settled himself beside Trinity in silence, the girl had fallen asleep easily, which had originally reassured the rest of the crew, but now she was having the nightmares again and they seemed to have gotten worse. He passed a cup of water to the tired woman, who smiled slightly in return. Suddenly the girl called out a name, and then a different one. The first was said in fear of the owner, the second a call for aid, a person she trusted. They could almost hear the twisted laughter that haunted her as she realized her savior wasn't there.

"I know that name, Neo." He nodded, he'd heard it our seen it too, it was from another ship or from Zion. He wracked his brain trying to come up with the where but he couldn't and nor could Trinity. The girl muttered an angry, "I won't let you touch him." Which confused them more. Who could she be talking to and who about? Trinity pressed her fingers between her eyes with a sigh.

"You want to go to sleep?" She nodded,

"But I won't leave her when she gets like this, I'm worried she'll do something stupid like jack in." He shook his head slightly.

"She's too scared of the system to do that," gently he wrapped his arms around her so she was resting on his chest, "you go to sleep and I'll make sure she doesn't do anything." Smiling slightly up at him Trinity relaxed, silently thanking the Oracle for being right about Neo, even though she knew she couldn't be heard anyway. The artificial night wore on and the girl woke as soon as the lights flickered to signal day, creeping out of her room, blanket clutched around her shoulders as it dragged over the metal floor of the Nebakanezzer. Neo looked up and saw her face before she noticed them, she looked like a normal girl sneaking out of her room. Until she caught sight of them. Her sharp intake of breath, the quick assessment of the situation, the momentary dread for the one who looked almost dead but was really sleeping. He raised a finger to his lips, a slight smile on his lips as she stirred, watching the sigh escape through sealed lips and take with it a degree of tension. But she didn't relax, simply nodded once, tucked her head down and hurried to the galley to eat before the others. He could see what Trinity meant by something stupid. Laying a gentle kiss to the top of her head he tried to slip away without waking her.

"She's up already, huh?" She had been pretending since the girl had woken.

"Yeah, I think I'd better talk to her." Trinity nodded, standing and stretching, offering her hand to him, for no reason bar to feel his warmth and know he was still there. He took her hand with a smile, tempted to pull her down but getting to his feet instead.

"Go easy on her, try to find out who she was either talking to or about, if she remembers. I'll get things ready for our training today." He smiled, watching her head for the rooms and then for the monitors. He sighed and walked to the galley, seeing the girl slowly eating her slop with as much grace as she could manage.

"You had a rough night, want to talk about it?" He knew what it was to be unable to sleep sometimes too. She only shook her head. He sighed and tried again.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, I have dreams I won't talk about too. But Trinity and I heard you say two names and something about protecting someone. Please, can you tell me?" She took a deep breath and nodded.

"But I still don't trust you." She said simply, he nodded, still not sure why that was. "I grew up in a fairly close knit community, all the kids played together, went to school together that kind of thing." She was stirring the goop, lost for a moment. "My best friend was a guy called Jason. We played a game of pretends that was very close to the Matrix. About a month and a half, no, not about." She shook her head with a scolding laugh. "It was exactly 48 days and 7 hours before I was unplugged. Yeah, I counted every moment after it happened." He could see the tears rising in her eyes, the anger and hatred. And the hurt. It was as though Trinity was staring at him through coloured contact lenses.

"What?" He asked, voice soft in the silent air.

"They killed him. The assholes shot him through the back of the head." The tears fell now, daring Neo to say something, anything. He did.

"You saw them?" She shook her head, eyes open, tears trailing down her face, voice as cold as ice.

"No, I found the body. According to the coroner, Jason died of a drug overdose and was then shot from close range in the back of his head, about where the plug is." She put her fingers to her plug to demonstrate.

"I see, that's what you dream about?"

"No, a guy called Alex had always had a crush on me, he had even tried to beat up Jason a couple of times. He failed, Jason knew that if he lost I'd be 'fair game'," She made quotation marks with her fingers as she spoke, mockery in her voice. Neo frowned, feeling Trinity standing within earshot.

"That seems pretty horrible."

"It get worse. Alex thought that all girls were close enough to sluts, you just had to work on them a bit. He tried that on me after Jason died. I wanted nothing to do with him. My brother had started to have trouble with his friends and Alex said that unless I was, how did he say it, 'a good girl', he'd teach David what he thought. He was going to turn my brother into a creature like him." She was leaning with her arms on the table, the small container of half-eaten goop hidden behind her arms. "I was between a rock and a hard place. But I didn't give in. I was a bit battered and bruised, but I gave Alex a brilliant black eye. After that I learned all I could about computers and hacking, trying to find out what really happened to Jason. There wasn't even an investigation." She looked down, running her lips together over her teeth. Neo instinctively reached for her hand to comfort her but she sat up straighter, leaning her weight away from him.

"You said you played pretends, what were your names?"

"I was Harregale Deephaze and he," she fought the tears that now choked her voice, "he was Fabian Fleetshadow, we were like guards, we watched out for the King and Queen of the Matrix, we never met them but we did our bit to keep them safe. But then he died and everything changed, no one else asked the same questions or played the same. I gave up after that." She went back to eating her goop.

"And you still don't trust me?" She looked up, eyes stony and serious, belonging to someone much older than she was.

"No. And I don't trust Link or Morpheus either. I only trust the Oracle, my brother and Trinity. I would add Fabi…Jason, but he's dead, he doesn't count." Neo ran a hand through his dark hair; eyes troubled as she turned hers back to her food, dismissing him without a word.

"Thank you for telling my Harregale Deephaze. I'll try to help you as much as I can." He stood and left, taking two bowls of goop with him, he knew that Trinity had heard everything and anything she hadn't he could tell her. It occurred to him that Morpheus might be able to remember how he knew the name Fabian Fleetshadow, but telling the captain and Link was something he would discuss with Trinity first. She was, after all, taking responsibility for the girl.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She sat opposite Trinity at dinner that night, almost exhausted from the full day training. There was still an unease about her that made Morpheus wait to let her into the Matrix itself.

"Why don't you tell us a little about your time on the, what was your first ship called again?" Link asked, leaning an arm on the table.

"The Zanzibar. Captain Jade. I was unplugged the normal way and went through a training series similar to this one, just with consequence for failing." She shrugged, putting her empty bowl on the bench and inclining her head. "Good night everyone." After they had said their good nights and sat in silence for a while. Link turned to Morpheus.

"What can you tell us about the Zanzibar then?" He asked, all eyes turned to the captain. He sighed and explained all he had discovered.

"Jade is a very strict captain, her crew are effective and there were never any problems until recently. These have been linked to the Operator Chimera. He was one of the only Ops with plugs in the fleet."

"Was?" Neo said.

"He was relieved of duties when I told Zion what happened to Harregale. You see, the normal training programs were run, and indeed they were completed with skill. But Chimera thought it wasn't enough. Somehow he obtained a mixture of chemicals that would leave the rest of the crew asleep safely for up to three days. It was his belief that there should be more Agent work in the basic training so he created a version of all the programs for his own use. He plugged the recruits in, made sure the remaining crew were asleep and changed the program. In his programs there were only two ways out, death which lead to the construct, or a house that was accessed through an exit, of which there was only one at a time and the recruits had no help from the outside." Link swore softly.

"How did he make sure they didn't really die?"

"The bullets were a trigger to end the program, as soon as one came within a specified distance the target was in the construct. An IV drip was inserted into each recruit for the duration of the program and no one noticed any difference, believing they had taken a nap and not slept for three days. Chimera was very careful, making sure that the ship was exactly how it had been left so no one would get suspicious. There were only four recruits subjected to this, Angelos, Jane A, Diego, Tristan and Harregale. One member of crew, Flash, was also inserted into these programs as revenge, she had denied Chimera and instead found a man in Zion. That is all I have discovered and much of it she will not know, or will not say."

"What did they do with Chimera?" Trinity asked coldly.

"He is currently undergoing mental rehabilitation and there is the distinct possibility that he will remain in Zion for the rest of his life."

"He should be dead." She stood, thumping her bowl on the bench and stalking to her room in fury. Neo sighed, standing too.

"Thanks Morpheus." Link watched, his mouth still agape from what he had heard, as the One went to talk to his love.

"I hope you know what you got us into Sir."

"She needed to know Link. I'd like a full system report when you can." He left too and the Op shook his head, dazedly wandering about doing his jobs with half a mind, making sure the system check was completed first.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I will run him through with a butter knife!" She hissed, hands tightening on the bed edge.

"You won't, they don't have butter knives in Zion yet." She glared at him, but he sat next to her, running a hand lightly over her cheek.

"Back off Neo." He shook his head.

"You couldn't have done anything to protect her Trinity and you know it. All you can do is help her now." Her eyes were so cold he almost succumbed to his desire to flee, let her calm down and try again later. But this was Trinity, his Trinity. There was no later, just now. If she was angry she would stay angry, just hide it until it burned her, and he couldn't let that happen to her.

"Why would someone do that Neo?"

"Because they aren't us and they never will be." She lowered her eyes.

"I want to help her Neo, but I don't know how."

"Maybe we should try and find this Fabian Fleetshadow or atleast figure out what happened to him. You train her like she was just another recruit and I'll see what I can dig up." Finally she smiled, resting her head on his hand and he sighed gratefully, a Trinity in pain was something that tore him to shreds inside.

"I'll do my best Neo."

"That's all I'd ever ask of you." They didn't stay long in the room, taking up their guard outside Switch's old room. She was still missed after all the time that had past and neither had forgiven Cypher his betrayal. And they wouldn't. For the first time since arriving on the Nebakanezzer, the girl slept right through the night and a little after 'day' began. She worked harder than ever at her training and for three days no one kept watch, the ship silent bar the humming that was ever present, even in the darkness.