The apartment building was shabby, and the shadows from the low sun in the sky didn't make it any more welcoming.
As Genesis entered the front of the building of the 12 story structure, she started to calm down.
She still couldn't believe it, everyone she had contacted, everyone she knew, had all been chased down.... How? After 10 years of slipping by, how can two of the top hackers be caught within the same 24 hours?
Climbing the stairs, she got a chance to catch her breath at the top.
She stopped outside the door of room 503 and sighed, reluctantly turning the handle..
Stepping through the door, she saw the same Asian man sitting in an old armchair.
He smiled as she entered the room and offered the seat in front of him; a warn maroon armchair.
"Please... sit."
"This has to stop" she said, panic returning to her voice.
"After I ran into you, both my friends are gone, one captured, one...." she paused, her voice was shaking despite her will. "and the other is dead."
He stared at her for a second, his face blank.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it would go this far."
She looked at him confused. "What?....What arn't you telling me?"
"You came for answers, did you not? My name is Ghost, and I've come to offer you the Truth."
She chuckled. "You don't know anything, this is it." She said, turning to walk through the door.
He was getting desprite, if she walked out now, they would have to kill her. Now or never.
"Your mother killed herself in 94, and only a short year later, you watched your father stick a shot gun down his throat. Yet after all these years, you've survived. You want answers. I have come to offer them."
She stopped. Suddenly she felt hot blood spray across her face, and she was back in her house. Watching her father pull the trigger. Her eyes began to sting.
Maybe he had gone too far.
"I've come to give you answers." he said quietly, trying to get her to stay.
"Goodbye" She said silently, shutting the door behind her.
"Shit" Ghost said, flipping out his phone.
"Nice" Sparks said on the other line.
"Just watch her movements." Ghost said with a sigh, ignoring his comment.
* * * * * * *
She continued to walk down the now darkening street that was strangly abandoned and quiet. The sun was slowly setting, making the street she was on all the more gloomy. But she didn't notice, she had so much on her mind.
The loud screeching of tires rang from behind her, pulling her back into reality. She turned to see a familiar black car coming 60 down the street.
It was them, they had come for her this time. They were going to kill her, and she knew it.
She turned to run but another had just slid and blocked her exit.
Quickly looking for an escape, she stared in front of her. 50 feet or so, there was a chain link fence. Lineing the top of it was barbed wire, which was right in front of a brick wall, which enclosed a warehouse.
-----------------------------------------
Sparks stared at the green coded screens in front of him.
His eyes widened as he watched. "Oh, no...... run."
He called up Ghost, who irritatidly answered. "What is it Sparks" he said, a touch of frustration in his voice.
"We got trouble"
-----------------------------------------
As the car came speeding down the street, she didn't even take a second look, she just dashed forward.
Running as fast as she could, she jumped onto the chain link fence, landing sharply.
She climbed as fast as she could, and pulled herself over the top, completely ignoring the sharp barbed wire on top, she pulled herself over.
Ripping through her thin jacket, she felt the hundreds of sharp points snagging through the skin on her back.
Falling eight feet onto the hard ground on the other side, she tasted sandy blood in her mouth.
Immediatly trying to pull herself up, she heard the slamming of car doors on the other side of the wall, which made her run faster, driven with fear, stumbling while she looked for a quick exit.
As she felt the heat of new blood running down her back and soaking through her shirt, she figured she'd improvize as she went.
Suddenly, she heard the faint sound of a phone ringing, which grew louder as she ran.
Breaking through one of the doors of the large warehouse, she found herself in a small room with a dusty table and a phone placed on it.
There were several gun shots, and clammer, and Ghost came running through the door oposite of hers.
As he ran by her, ignoring the ringing phone, he grabbed her arm and pulled her through a small hallway. Shoving her into a small room that seemed to be a janitor closet. He pushed her up against the wall, and she winced, feeling the hard stucko wall rubbing against her freshly torn back.
The stood there, silent in the pitch black, for what felt like an hour, before he opened the door again. Dim light poored through the crack in the door, and he peared out. Looking in both directions, then pulled her up next to him, dragging his hand across her back.
She pulled away as he looked at his bloody hand.
"Your hurt," he started, reaching for her.
"No shit" she said, her blood soaked shirt hanging damply from her body. She stepped back, avoiding his hand.
"Everytime... everytime something happens. I can't do this anymore."
She turned to leave, but he caught her wrist.
"I'm sorry, but your just going to have to trust me---"
"Trust you? You nearly got me killed. I dont know whats going on, but I dont want to. It got my friend killed, and its my fault."
She turned quickly and walked out.
* * * * * * *
Completely ignoring the fact that her apartment was probably now being watched, she pushed open her door.
Everything was torn apart, as she expected. She hadn't been robbed, she had been searched.
She fumbled through her stuff and sat down at her kitchen table, careful not to lean back. She probably should have gone to the hospital, but it wouldn't matter in an hour anyway.
She pulled the money out of her pocket and put it in a minella envelope with the other 100 grand in cash.
Folding up her letter, she set it on the table. The letter was to her grandmother, who took care of her once her parents died. It was an apology for all the things that happened, all the trouble she got into, and money to make up for it. But it turned out to be more of a suicide note.
She went into her bathroom, tripping on an overturned sofa, and opened her bathroom drawer. She pulled out a small, white wrapped item, and sat down on the cheap cold tile. She unwrapped it and held the scalpol in one hand.
She sat for a second, thinking. Her mothers death, her fathers, her friends. All of it, she was always at the root of the problem. Why did she deserve to live, and not them....
There she was, in the bathroom, staring down at her mother. She was so happy. So happy...
The thin silver blade punctured her skin, and she dragged it aross her wrist. Then another, and another. Then she did the other wrist.
Within seconds, she found herself in a warm pool of her own blood. The didn't feel the pain in her back, nor did she the cuts on her wrists, only numbness. Everything was numb.
She slumped onto her side, in a puddle of her sins, and finally felt calm. She wouldn't have to worry about anything any more, no more problems to make up for, no more guilt to live with.
Only... content
-----------------------------------------
"What the hell...." Sparks said, with a sigh.
"What happened?" Niobe asked, coming out of the galley.
"We lost her." Sparks replied.
Niobe looked over at Ghost who was staring down into his lap.
"I told you, it was better to have her killed, they could have her right now."
"Sparks, get the Osiris on. We will be continueing as planned." Niobe said.
Ghost spoke up, "I'll go in, give me 20 minutes, if I don't have her by then, we won't ever get her."
Niobe nodded, "Make it fast, and don't fuck up this time."
-----------------------------------------
Ghost stood in the corner of a warehouse two blocks from Genesis's apartment. As the phone ran infront of him, he quietly checked his weapons.
He picked up the resiever and put it to his ear. "I'm in" (bahhh, cliché ^^;;)
Running up the apartment builing stairs, he pushed his way through the door and ran down the hall.
"Which one Sparks?" Ghost asked, phone to his ear.
"That one, that should be it"
He put his phone down and pushed open the door that was open a crack.
He looked around the torn apartment.. they had been here already.
Quickly looking around, he pushed his way through the mess on the floor. Then he put his phone back to his ear.
"Your sure." he asked.
"Yea.. she might still be there, but thats the last place we picked up her signal." Sparks said on the other line.
He almost dropped the phone when he looked down the hall into the bathroom.
"I'll have to call you back" Ghost said in half a daze, closeing the connection.
He pushed the door open more, and followed the trail of blood to the corner of the bathroom.
There she was, laying in a pool of blood, her wrists a slatered mess.
He quickly went to her and picked her up, dragging her into the living room. He sat her up in a chair and shook her.
She slowly opened her eyes, which were rolled in the back of her head. She blinked, trying to focus.
Once everything came into view, she jumped back in her seat when she saw Ghost kneeling in front of her.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "It wasn't supose to happen like this."
She stared back at him, barely understanding what he said, everything was still blurry, and all of her senses still felt numb.
There wasn't any turning back. Whether or not she wanted to come, she had to. She knew to much and now the Agents knew aswell.
He reached in his suit and pulled out two pills.
She was slowly leaning to the side, and her pushed her back up in her chair.
"Listen..." He said, trying to get her attention. "Listen: take the blue pill, you stay here, it will continue and the agents will eventually track you down. You take the red pill, you come with me and I show you the Truth... the answers."
He put a pill in each of her hands and looked at her.
"You take the red, and you get a second chance."
She couldn't hear a word he said, but yet, she understood it.
She felt weak, but she dropped the blue pill, and swallowed the red, just before everything faded again.
-----------------------------------------
She woke up to a blindedly bright light, and took in a fast breath, trying to sit up.
A hand rested on her forhead and relaxed her body, as she sank down onto the lumpy matrice.
For a second, she thought she was dead. Expecting to feel sharp pains in her back and wrists, but, to her suprise, she didn't. She only felt every muscle in body aching.
Her head felt cold, and she notice that she didn't have bangs in her face, nor did she feel the weight of a heavy ponytail at the back of her head.
"What happened" she asked, her voice nothing more but a whisper.
"For the first time, your alive"
The voice sounded familiar, but her mind was to grogy to distinguish it.
She found herself slipping back into sleep.
* * * * * * *
When she next woke up, the lights weren't so bright, but her eyes still hurt. Her muscles were also not as stiff.
...She had slept?
It had been so long, she forgot what it felt like.
Her head was still cold, and she reached up to feel what was only a quarter inch of hair, if that. She quickly pulled up her hood, at least she still had that.
She felt the scratching of cheap wool on her skin, and found herself in diffrent clothes.
Sitting up, she looked around.
It was some kind of canteen, everything was made of a dull metal, like the inside of a submarine. There was a huge door on the oposite side of her that looked like a vault, with a wheel in the center.
It turned and there was a loud clank.
Ghost walked in. Or, at least that was who she thought it was. Same goutee and mustache, but shorter hair, and no sunglasses. He wore the same rags that she did.
He walked over to the side of her bed, and looked at her.
"Hello. My name is Ghost."
"I know that" she said, her voice cracking. she cleared it.
"I'm afriad I never caught your name."
She stared at him suspeciously for a second. "Gene."
He looked at her for a second, "No, I mean your -name-" he repeated.
She paused. "Genesis" She guessed he meant her alias. She wasn't sure why she told him that.
As if she just remembered, she pulled up her sleeves to find no new cuts or scars. Only black holes.
She ran her finger across them, and looked up at Ghost.
"Whats happened? Where am I?" She said.
"Your on our ship, the Logos. Its a hover craft."
She gave him a blank stare. "What..? What did you do to me?"
Just then, a tall beautiful black women walked through the door. "Finally, your awake." She aproached Genesis, who pushed herself back in her bed, her blue eyes wide in confusion.
"I am Niobe, the captin of this ship. This is Ghost, which I'm sure you know. And this is Sparks, our ship's operator." she said, a tall blue eyed man walked up behind her and raised his hand in an akward greeting.
She stared at them, utterly confused.
"You wanted to know, what the Matrix is?" Niobe asked her.
Genesis nodded. But stopped herself, shaking her head. "No, I want to leave now." she said, pulling herself out of bed, and stumbling not aware of the weakness in her legs. Ghost caught her, but she pulled away and looked at them, leaning on her bed.
"If you want the answers, let us show you." Niobe held out her hand, Genesis looked at it, then up at the women. She slowly took it.
Niobe led her out of the room, Ghost slowly following.
"This is the main deck, this is where we broadcast and hack into the Matrix."
She looked around to see what looked like several reclining chairs placed in a half circle. Each had a screen along with a mess of wires and other technology overhead. They were all old, and had wholes ripped in the covers, just like her clothes.
They stopped in front of one of them, and Niobe held out her hand, offering her to sit.
Genesis reluctantly took it, leaning back in the not so comfortable chair. She pulled off her hood, and they strapped down her feet.
She started to get nervous, in a sort of docters chair, strapped down and all.
Ghost placed a hand on her forhead, and leaned her head back. Her heart beat was monitered on the screen above her and it quickened.
There was a sharp pain in the back of her scull and her body tensed, her eyes squeezed shut.
Then, it was gone.
She opened her eyes to find herself surounded in white. She looked around to see no one. She felt her head, and her same long blonde hair was there, tied behind her head. Her clothes were diffrent, her same black jacket, black pants, converse.
"This, is the construct" Ghost voice came from behind her.
She turned to see him standing there, in the same all black suit, with the same opake shades, that reflected her puzzled look.
"Whats going on" She said.
"This, is the Matrix."
She stood, and looked around.
"Its simply a program. A representation of the world you know that has been blinding you sense your birth. A program used to restrain you, bind you, seclude you from the Truth."
"yea," she said, obvously not convinced. "and I've been here my whole life? Then how come it doesn't look familar."
As soon as she said that, she found herself standing on top of a building, surounded by climbing city she reconized. New York.
"Look familar now?" he asked, his eyebrows raise behind his dark sunglasses.
"This is the world you know. The Matrix. Your blindfold. This, is the world as it is today. The real world."
The scenory suddenly changed, and ther were standing in a never ending scape of rubble. The rebar of buildings stood reaching the sky, which was thick with dark clouds.
She backed up at the view of a distraught city, full of rubble and ruins.
"When we first created the machines, or A.I., this was never what we had in mind." He said, staring up, his glasses reflecting the darkened sky. "For a short time, we lived in peace with the machines, but then our own creations turned on us. And we got what we long had in store."
"An attack. The machines rebeled, thousands were killed in the war against them. We even ignorantly sacrificed our own atmosphere. But the machines prevailed. The world was no longer livable above the surface. So we did the only thing we could do. We did what we do best, we ran."
She stared at him, lost in what he was saying.
"Without the heat of the sun, we needed the warmth, so we went to the center of the earth, where the last human city still dwells. The fortunate few escaped, but the rest were at the machines mercy. Without the sun, they needed an energy source. So they did whatever they could, the only option they had left."
She looked around to find herself in a pod filled with a pink tinged liquid. All around her, pods exactly like hers, were filled with people, all full of black tubes that attached to their body. She had been there before. Somehow, she had.
There were endless collumns, full of the little pods that ran up and down as far as she could see.
"They created a program, in place of our freedom. While they fed off of our energy. For the longest time, they studied us, and how our bodies worked, what we wanted. And we were given that to keep us satisfied, to blind us while they used us for what they needed."
She felt stinging at the corners of her eyes, and she put her hand to her face. "I dont believe it. We control machines, not the other way around. It could never have happened."
She put her hands the her ears and shut her eyes tightly. "I don't want to be here... I don't want to be here. I was supose to die. I killed myself!" she yelled.
Suddenly, she felt herself back in the uncomfertable chair, with two people standing around her. She struggled as Niobe took off the shackles on her feet.
"Its the answers. No one said it would be easy." Ghosts voice said, as he removed the plug from the back of her head.
She rolled out of the chair and felt dizzy. Hot tears ran down her face, and she felt herself heave.
She fell to the floor and threw up.
* * * * * * *
Genesis rolled over in a lumpy matrice. She sat straight up, hoping it was a dream, she couldn't tell, she hadn't slept in forever.
To her dissapointment, she found herself in the same steel cell, or at least thats what it felt like.
Sparks sat next to her, in a chair by her bed.
"Hey, 'bout time."
She looked at him suspeciously. "Is it true... all of it."
He looked at her for a second. "Yea. Afriad it is."
She looked down at her lap for a second. Then asked, "Now what."
"You train" he said, offering his hand with a smile.
She looked at him for a second, and pulled herself up.
They walked out onto the deck she had been on earlier, but this time no one else was around. He walked her to one of the recliners.
She looked down at it.
"It won't bite. Although last time I'm sure thats what it felt like. You get used to it."
She sat down.
Why was she doing this again?
He took a seat aswell behind a large computer with several screens in front of him. He quietly sorted through some disks.
"The most important thing you can learn is combat. Believe me, it comes in handy."
She looked behind her at a screen that had a loading bar and above it it said "Karate".
She smirked. "Karate. I'm going to 'learn' karate?"
He looked at her and smiled, "Yup. If you ever run out of weapons, its good to know how to throw a punch or two. Sense your going to be here, might as well make you useful."
She slowly layed back, and the sharp pinch immediatly followed.
Her eyes opened again, and she looked over at Sparks. He leaned on his chair to look at her around his computer.
"How was that?"
She just stared at him.
"Yea.. thats always the reaction. How about some more?"
Before she could answer, more information poured into her head. First, offensive moves. Then Defensive. Then stances, and blocks, and then it got more complicated. All just pooring into her mind.
* * * * * * *
A few hours later, Sparks still sat at the main deck computer, his head leaning on one elbow, his finger hitting "enter" over and over.
Ghost came up behind him.
"Hows it going?"
Sparks turned to look at him.
"Its her fifth hour, and she's on her sixteenth level of Combat training."
Ghost stared at the screen in amazment. "Thats amazing"
"Yea, until two hours ago. She was making progress like there was no tomorrow, nothing I've ever seen, then she just stopped. She's been stuck on the same level."
Ghost looked at the screne confused. "What do you think is wrong?"
"No clue, she's just... stopped."
"Maybe she's done."
"Nope, she won't come back out. She's just stuck on the 15th jump sequence. Its the last, and the hardest. Its the tallest buildings. She's just sitting there."
"Lets see whats going on" Ghost walked over to his chair and layed back.
* * * * * * *
Training in the next chapter!
CathrynJ - My only reviewer- Thank you for taking the time to post, and offer critisizm nicely! ^_^ it is most appreaciated. I tried my best to give more detail, but I always seem to rush things! We're already in chapter 2, and she's already unplugged! gahh! XD But thanks so much, I will post the chapters as I edit them to critisizm (I've written seven so far, so you should have your fill :D ) Thank you again for being kind to my first Fanfic! And offering suggestions! (p.s. about basing it on the crew of the logos: I got tried of the Neb. myself, and I like to Logos so much better! XD the crew from the Neb. shows up later though, but its based on the Logos.)
As Genesis entered the front of the building of the 12 story structure, she started to calm down.
She still couldn't believe it, everyone she had contacted, everyone she knew, had all been chased down.... How? After 10 years of slipping by, how can two of the top hackers be caught within the same 24 hours?
Climbing the stairs, she got a chance to catch her breath at the top.
She stopped outside the door of room 503 and sighed, reluctantly turning the handle..
Stepping through the door, she saw the same Asian man sitting in an old armchair.
He smiled as she entered the room and offered the seat in front of him; a warn maroon armchair.
"Please... sit."
"This has to stop" she said, panic returning to her voice.
"After I ran into you, both my friends are gone, one captured, one...." she paused, her voice was shaking despite her will. "and the other is dead."
He stared at her for a second, his face blank.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it would go this far."
She looked at him confused. "What?....What arn't you telling me?"
"You came for answers, did you not? My name is Ghost, and I've come to offer you the Truth."
She chuckled. "You don't know anything, this is it." She said, turning to walk through the door.
He was getting desprite, if she walked out now, they would have to kill her. Now or never.
"Your mother killed herself in 94, and only a short year later, you watched your father stick a shot gun down his throat. Yet after all these years, you've survived. You want answers. I have come to offer them."
She stopped. Suddenly she felt hot blood spray across her face, and she was back in her house. Watching her father pull the trigger. Her eyes began to sting.
Maybe he had gone too far.
"I've come to give you answers." he said quietly, trying to get her to stay.
"Goodbye" She said silently, shutting the door behind her.
"Shit" Ghost said, flipping out his phone.
"Nice" Sparks said on the other line.
"Just watch her movements." Ghost said with a sigh, ignoring his comment.
* * * * * * *
She continued to walk down the now darkening street that was strangly abandoned and quiet. The sun was slowly setting, making the street she was on all the more gloomy. But she didn't notice, she had so much on her mind.
The loud screeching of tires rang from behind her, pulling her back into reality. She turned to see a familiar black car coming 60 down the street.
It was them, they had come for her this time. They were going to kill her, and she knew it.
She turned to run but another had just slid and blocked her exit.
Quickly looking for an escape, she stared in front of her. 50 feet or so, there was a chain link fence. Lineing the top of it was barbed wire, which was right in front of a brick wall, which enclosed a warehouse.
-----------------------------------------
Sparks stared at the green coded screens in front of him.
His eyes widened as he watched. "Oh, no...... run."
He called up Ghost, who irritatidly answered. "What is it Sparks" he said, a touch of frustration in his voice.
"We got trouble"
-----------------------------------------
As the car came speeding down the street, she didn't even take a second look, she just dashed forward.
Running as fast as she could, she jumped onto the chain link fence, landing sharply.
She climbed as fast as she could, and pulled herself over the top, completely ignoring the sharp barbed wire on top, she pulled herself over.
Ripping through her thin jacket, she felt the hundreds of sharp points snagging through the skin on her back.
Falling eight feet onto the hard ground on the other side, she tasted sandy blood in her mouth.
Immediatly trying to pull herself up, she heard the slamming of car doors on the other side of the wall, which made her run faster, driven with fear, stumbling while she looked for a quick exit.
As she felt the heat of new blood running down her back and soaking through her shirt, she figured she'd improvize as she went.
Suddenly, she heard the faint sound of a phone ringing, which grew louder as she ran.
Breaking through one of the doors of the large warehouse, she found herself in a small room with a dusty table and a phone placed on it.
There were several gun shots, and clammer, and Ghost came running through the door oposite of hers.
As he ran by her, ignoring the ringing phone, he grabbed her arm and pulled her through a small hallway. Shoving her into a small room that seemed to be a janitor closet. He pushed her up against the wall, and she winced, feeling the hard stucko wall rubbing against her freshly torn back.
The stood there, silent in the pitch black, for what felt like an hour, before he opened the door again. Dim light poored through the crack in the door, and he peared out. Looking in both directions, then pulled her up next to him, dragging his hand across her back.
She pulled away as he looked at his bloody hand.
"Your hurt," he started, reaching for her.
"No shit" she said, her blood soaked shirt hanging damply from her body. She stepped back, avoiding his hand.
"Everytime... everytime something happens. I can't do this anymore."
She turned to leave, but he caught her wrist.
"I'm sorry, but your just going to have to trust me---"
"Trust you? You nearly got me killed. I dont know whats going on, but I dont want to. It got my friend killed, and its my fault."
She turned quickly and walked out.
* * * * * * *
Completely ignoring the fact that her apartment was probably now being watched, she pushed open her door.
Everything was torn apart, as she expected. She hadn't been robbed, she had been searched.
She fumbled through her stuff and sat down at her kitchen table, careful not to lean back. She probably should have gone to the hospital, but it wouldn't matter in an hour anyway.
She pulled the money out of her pocket and put it in a minella envelope with the other 100 grand in cash.
Folding up her letter, she set it on the table. The letter was to her grandmother, who took care of her once her parents died. It was an apology for all the things that happened, all the trouble she got into, and money to make up for it. But it turned out to be more of a suicide note.
She went into her bathroom, tripping on an overturned sofa, and opened her bathroom drawer. She pulled out a small, white wrapped item, and sat down on the cheap cold tile. She unwrapped it and held the scalpol in one hand.
She sat for a second, thinking. Her mothers death, her fathers, her friends. All of it, she was always at the root of the problem. Why did she deserve to live, and not them....
There she was, in the bathroom, staring down at her mother. She was so happy. So happy...
The thin silver blade punctured her skin, and she dragged it aross her wrist. Then another, and another. Then she did the other wrist.
Within seconds, she found herself in a warm pool of her own blood. The didn't feel the pain in her back, nor did she the cuts on her wrists, only numbness. Everything was numb.
She slumped onto her side, in a puddle of her sins, and finally felt calm. She wouldn't have to worry about anything any more, no more problems to make up for, no more guilt to live with.
Only... content
-----------------------------------------
"What the hell...." Sparks said, with a sigh.
"What happened?" Niobe asked, coming out of the galley.
"We lost her." Sparks replied.
Niobe looked over at Ghost who was staring down into his lap.
"I told you, it was better to have her killed, they could have her right now."
"Sparks, get the Osiris on. We will be continueing as planned." Niobe said.
Ghost spoke up, "I'll go in, give me 20 minutes, if I don't have her by then, we won't ever get her."
Niobe nodded, "Make it fast, and don't fuck up this time."
-----------------------------------------
Ghost stood in the corner of a warehouse two blocks from Genesis's apartment. As the phone ran infront of him, he quietly checked his weapons.
He picked up the resiever and put it to his ear. "I'm in" (bahhh, cliché ^^;;)
Running up the apartment builing stairs, he pushed his way through the door and ran down the hall.
"Which one Sparks?" Ghost asked, phone to his ear.
"That one, that should be it"
He put his phone down and pushed open the door that was open a crack.
He looked around the torn apartment.. they had been here already.
Quickly looking around, he pushed his way through the mess on the floor. Then he put his phone back to his ear.
"Your sure." he asked.
"Yea.. she might still be there, but thats the last place we picked up her signal." Sparks said on the other line.
He almost dropped the phone when he looked down the hall into the bathroom.
"I'll have to call you back" Ghost said in half a daze, closeing the connection.
He pushed the door open more, and followed the trail of blood to the corner of the bathroom.
There she was, laying in a pool of blood, her wrists a slatered mess.
He quickly went to her and picked her up, dragging her into the living room. He sat her up in a chair and shook her.
She slowly opened her eyes, which were rolled in the back of her head. She blinked, trying to focus.
Once everything came into view, she jumped back in her seat when she saw Ghost kneeling in front of her.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "It wasn't supose to happen like this."
She stared back at him, barely understanding what he said, everything was still blurry, and all of her senses still felt numb.
There wasn't any turning back. Whether or not she wanted to come, she had to. She knew to much and now the Agents knew aswell.
He reached in his suit and pulled out two pills.
She was slowly leaning to the side, and her pushed her back up in her chair.
"Listen..." He said, trying to get her attention. "Listen: take the blue pill, you stay here, it will continue and the agents will eventually track you down. You take the red pill, you come with me and I show you the Truth... the answers."
He put a pill in each of her hands and looked at her.
"You take the red, and you get a second chance."
She couldn't hear a word he said, but yet, she understood it.
She felt weak, but she dropped the blue pill, and swallowed the red, just before everything faded again.
-----------------------------------------
She woke up to a blindedly bright light, and took in a fast breath, trying to sit up.
A hand rested on her forhead and relaxed her body, as she sank down onto the lumpy matrice.
For a second, she thought she was dead. Expecting to feel sharp pains in her back and wrists, but, to her suprise, she didn't. She only felt every muscle in body aching.
Her head felt cold, and she notice that she didn't have bangs in her face, nor did she feel the weight of a heavy ponytail at the back of her head.
"What happened" she asked, her voice nothing more but a whisper.
"For the first time, your alive"
The voice sounded familiar, but her mind was to grogy to distinguish it.
She found herself slipping back into sleep.
* * * * * * *
When she next woke up, the lights weren't so bright, but her eyes still hurt. Her muscles were also not as stiff.
...She had slept?
It had been so long, she forgot what it felt like.
Her head was still cold, and she reached up to feel what was only a quarter inch of hair, if that. She quickly pulled up her hood, at least she still had that.
She felt the scratching of cheap wool on her skin, and found herself in diffrent clothes.
Sitting up, she looked around.
It was some kind of canteen, everything was made of a dull metal, like the inside of a submarine. There was a huge door on the oposite side of her that looked like a vault, with a wheel in the center.
It turned and there was a loud clank.
Ghost walked in. Or, at least that was who she thought it was. Same goutee and mustache, but shorter hair, and no sunglasses. He wore the same rags that she did.
He walked over to the side of her bed, and looked at her.
"Hello. My name is Ghost."
"I know that" she said, her voice cracking. she cleared it.
"I'm afriad I never caught your name."
She stared at him suspeciously for a second. "Gene."
He looked at her for a second, "No, I mean your -name-" he repeated.
She paused. "Genesis" She guessed he meant her alias. She wasn't sure why she told him that.
As if she just remembered, she pulled up her sleeves to find no new cuts or scars. Only black holes.
She ran her finger across them, and looked up at Ghost.
"Whats happened? Where am I?" She said.
"Your on our ship, the Logos. Its a hover craft."
She gave him a blank stare. "What..? What did you do to me?"
Just then, a tall beautiful black women walked through the door. "Finally, your awake." She aproached Genesis, who pushed herself back in her bed, her blue eyes wide in confusion.
"I am Niobe, the captin of this ship. This is Ghost, which I'm sure you know. And this is Sparks, our ship's operator." she said, a tall blue eyed man walked up behind her and raised his hand in an akward greeting.
She stared at them, utterly confused.
"You wanted to know, what the Matrix is?" Niobe asked her.
Genesis nodded. But stopped herself, shaking her head. "No, I want to leave now." she said, pulling herself out of bed, and stumbling not aware of the weakness in her legs. Ghost caught her, but she pulled away and looked at them, leaning on her bed.
"If you want the answers, let us show you." Niobe held out her hand, Genesis looked at it, then up at the women. She slowly took it.
Niobe led her out of the room, Ghost slowly following.
"This is the main deck, this is where we broadcast and hack into the Matrix."
She looked around to see what looked like several reclining chairs placed in a half circle. Each had a screen along with a mess of wires and other technology overhead. They were all old, and had wholes ripped in the covers, just like her clothes.
They stopped in front of one of them, and Niobe held out her hand, offering her to sit.
Genesis reluctantly took it, leaning back in the not so comfortable chair. She pulled off her hood, and they strapped down her feet.
She started to get nervous, in a sort of docters chair, strapped down and all.
Ghost placed a hand on her forhead, and leaned her head back. Her heart beat was monitered on the screen above her and it quickened.
There was a sharp pain in the back of her scull and her body tensed, her eyes squeezed shut.
Then, it was gone.
She opened her eyes to find herself surounded in white. She looked around to see no one. She felt her head, and her same long blonde hair was there, tied behind her head. Her clothes were diffrent, her same black jacket, black pants, converse.
"This, is the construct" Ghost voice came from behind her.
She turned to see him standing there, in the same all black suit, with the same opake shades, that reflected her puzzled look.
"Whats going on" She said.
"This, is the Matrix."
She stood, and looked around.
"Its simply a program. A representation of the world you know that has been blinding you sense your birth. A program used to restrain you, bind you, seclude you from the Truth."
"yea," she said, obvously not convinced. "and I've been here my whole life? Then how come it doesn't look familar."
As soon as she said that, she found herself standing on top of a building, surounded by climbing city she reconized. New York.
"Look familar now?" he asked, his eyebrows raise behind his dark sunglasses.
"This is the world you know. The Matrix. Your blindfold. This, is the world as it is today. The real world."
The scenory suddenly changed, and ther were standing in a never ending scape of rubble. The rebar of buildings stood reaching the sky, which was thick with dark clouds.
She backed up at the view of a distraught city, full of rubble and ruins.
"When we first created the machines, or A.I., this was never what we had in mind." He said, staring up, his glasses reflecting the darkened sky. "For a short time, we lived in peace with the machines, but then our own creations turned on us. And we got what we long had in store."
"An attack. The machines rebeled, thousands were killed in the war against them. We even ignorantly sacrificed our own atmosphere. But the machines prevailed. The world was no longer livable above the surface. So we did the only thing we could do. We did what we do best, we ran."
She stared at him, lost in what he was saying.
"Without the heat of the sun, we needed the warmth, so we went to the center of the earth, where the last human city still dwells. The fortunate few escaped, but the rest were at the machines mercy. Without the sun, they needed an energy source. So they did whatever they could, the only option they had left."
She looked around to find herself in a pod filled with a pink tinged liquid. All around her, pods exactly like hers, were filled with people, all full of black tubes that attached to their body. She had been there before. Somehow, she had.
There were endless collumns, full of the little pods that ran up and down as far as she could see.
"They created a program, in place of our freedom. While they fed off of our energy. For the longest time, they studied us, and how our bodies worked, what we wanted. And we were given that to keep us satisfied, to blind us while they used us for what they needed."
She felt stinging at the corners of her eyes, and she put her hand to her face. "I dont believe it. We control machines, not the other way around. It could never have happened."
She put her hands the her ears and shut her eyes tightly. "I don't want to be here... I don't want to be here. I was supose to die. I killed myself!" she yelled.
Suddenly, she felt herself back in the uncomfertable chair, with two people standing around her. She struggled as Niobe took off the shackles on her feet.
"Its the answers. No one said it would be easy." Ghosts voice said, as he removed the plug from the back of her head.
She rolled out of the chair and felt dizzy. Hot tears ran down her face, and she felt herself heave.
She fell to the floor and threw up.
* * * * * * *
Genesis rolled over in a lumpy matrice. She sat straight up, hoping it was a dream, she couldn't tell, she hadn't slept in forever.
To her dissapointment, she found herself in the same steel cell, or at least thats what it felt like.
Sparks sat next to her, in a chair by her bed.
"Hey, 'bout time."
She looked at him suspeciously. "Is it true... all of it."
He looked at her for a second. "Yea. Afriad it is."
She looked down at her lap for a second. Then asked, "Now what."
"You train" he said, offering his hand with a smile.
She looked at him for a second, and pulled herself up.
They walked out onto the deck she had been on earlier, but this time no one else was around. He walked her to one of the recliners.
She looked down at it.
"It won't bite. Although last time I'm sure thats what it felt like. You get used to it."
She sat down.
Why was she doing this again?
He took a seat aswell behind a large computer with several screens in front of him. He quietly sorted through some disks.
"The most important thing you can learn is combat. Believe me, it comes in handy."
She looked behind her at a screen that had a loading bar and above it it said "Karate".
She smirked. "Karate. I'm going to 'learn' karate?"
He looked at her and smiled, "Yup. If you ever run out of weapons, its good to know how to throw a punch or two. Sense your going to be here, might as well make you useful."
She slowly layed back, and the sharp pinch immediatly followed.
Her eyes opened again, and she looked over at Sparks. He leaned on his chair to look at her around his computer.
"How was that?"
She just stared at him.
"Yea.. thats always the reaction. How about some more?"
Before she could answer, more information poured into her head. First, offensive moves. Then Defensive. Then stances, and blocks, and then it got more complicated. All just pooring into her mind.
* * * * * * *
A few hours later, Sparks still sat at the main deck computer, his head leaning on one elbow, his finger hitting "enter" over and over.
Ghost came up behind him.
"Hows it going?"
Sparks turned to look at him.
"Its her fifth hour, and she's on her sixteenth level of Combat training."
Ghost stared at the screen in amazment. "Thats amazing"
"Yea, until two hours ago. She was making progress like there was no tomorrow, nothing I've ever seen, then she just stopped. She's been stuck on the same level."
Ghost looked at the screne confused. "What do you think is wrong?"
"No clue, she's just... stopped."
"Maybe she's done."
"Nope, she won't come back out. She's just stuck on the 15th jump sequence. Its the last, and the hardest. Its the tallest buildings. She's just sitting there."
"Lets see whats going on" Ghost walked over to his chair and layed back.
* * * * * * *
Training in the next chapter!
CathrynJ - My only reviewer- Thank you for taking the time to post, and offer critisizm nicely! ^_^ it is most appreaciated. I tried my best to give more detail, but I always seem to rush things! We're already in chapter 2, and she's already unplugged! gahh! XD But thanks so much, I will post the chapters as I edit them to critisizm (I've written seven so far, so you should have your fill :D ) Thank you again for being kind to my first Fanfic! And offering suggestions! (p.s. about basing it on the crew of the logos: I got tried of the Neb. myself, and I like to Logos so much better! XD the crew from the Neb. shows up later though, but its based on the Logos.)