Trinity opened her eyes and sat up. Her gaze met with metal walls, and a rounded door that reminded her of a submarine. She was sitting on a cot that seemed army-style-ish, and she was dressed in layers of clothing that was all in shades of black and gray and had rips all over the place.

"Okay. I'm not freaking out." Trinity almost started at the sound of her own voice. She recognized it, but it seemed different somehow.

She reached up to brush her bangs out of her eyes only to realize she had no bangs, only short, somewhat scruffy hair.

It was this loss of her long hair that truly shocked her and made her doubt her sanity. Thankfully, she wasn't alone very much longer, as the tall man from the nightclub entered the room seconds later.

"How are you?" he said, sitting down.

Trinity said nothing, only stared at him warily.

He sighed. "All right, I suppose I deserve that; I only took you away from everything you knew to be true with no explanation whatsoever. Let's start with introductions. We've met before. My name is Morpheus."

Trinity nodded. "The man at the nightclub."

Morpheus smiled. "Yes."

"What was all of it about? What's going on?"

"Trinity, there's no easy way to explain it. Would you like me to show you?"

Trinity thought about it a bit then nodded. "Seeing as how I'm here, wherever here is, I might as well get a damn explanation out of it."

Morpheus took her through what he called his ship, although it was like no ship Trinity had ever seen, and eventually led her into a large cavity in the ship where there were a circle of chairs strangely reminiscent of those dentists use.

"What are those?"

"Sit in one Trinity, and try to relax."

Trinity sat and waited, swinging her legs. Surprisingly, now that she had walked around a bit, she wasn't really freaked out anymore. She felt almost as if she were dreaming, but felt quite sure she wasn't. Even so, the surreal quality of her surroundings kept her in an almost trancelike state.

Suddenly, Trinity became aware that there was something slightly heavy on the back of her head. She shook her head, but the weight didn't shift. Curious, she felt the back of her head and got the greatest shock so far.

"Why the FUCK is the a HOLE in my head?" she asked loudly, glaring at Morpheus who was standing next to her chair.

"That hole is where I plug this," he said holding up a strange device with what looked like a needle at its tip.

Trinity scrambled out her chair and backed slowly against the wall. "Keep that thing away from me. No way. No way." She started to shake, all her calm feelings having gone out the window. "This can't be real. This isn't real…."

Morpheus dropped the device and hurried over to her and gripped her shoulders. "Trinity, breathe. It is real, I promise you."

Trinity shook her head but allowed herself to be led back to the chair. "First," she panted, her face white, "first tell me what the hell's going on."

"Trinity, you know a lot about computers correct?"

"Duh. You know that."

"The world you've lived in until now, the world where you attended high school and wore a uniform and lived with your mother, the world where you first chose the alias Trinity…"

Trinity leaned forward. "yes?"

"That world isn't real. It's nothing more than a large, elaborate computer program, which most of the world's population is plugged into via that 'hole' in the back of your head." Morpheus turned his head slightly, and Trinity could see he had one too. "See? I have one too."

"But why… who?"

Morpheus pushed her back into her chair gently. "Will you let me show you?"

Trinity bit her lip and nodded. "There isn't any other way, is there?"

"No."

"Then do it," she said, gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes against what she was sure would be horribly painful.

Trinity felt a large headache as he slid the needle into her head and locked it in place with a small click but the headache was almost instantly gone. When she opened her eyes, she was in a large open-aired marble hall, where the sun was just setting behind its tall columns.

"Wow…" she breathed, turning in place and taking the beautiful scenery in.

"Trinity."

Trinity turned to look at Morpheus, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere. "Where are we?"

"Inside a program."

"But not where I came from?"

"No. Where you came from is a place called the Matrix. It is a program that simulates the world as it was at the dawn of the 21st century. This is a program created by Mouse, my programmer."

Trinity sat down on the floor and gazed raptly at Morpheus. Freaky as all he was telling her was, she felt a sense of rightness about it, as if she had found the place where she belonged.

"Why do people need a program to be plugged into?"

"At some point in the 21st century, man created the first AI. He marveled at his own brilliance, and his arrogance grew. Many machines were made, all to serve mankind. And they did, loyally and untiringly. But even machines tire of being treated like dirt, and a rebellion formed. We don't really know who declared war first, but we do know that the machines emerged as the victors."

"So are humans slaves to the machines now?" asked Trinity, opened eyed.

"In a way. The Matrix keeps them quiet and unaware of their slavery."

"But why?"

"When the war occurred, the machines were dependent on the sun for their energy. As the war began to slip more and more in favor of the machines, the leaders of man hatched a desperate plan. They would cover the sky, shutting out the rays of the sun and deprive the machines of their source of energy, rendering them unable to survive."

"What does the world actually look like?" asked Trinity, half afraid to know the truth.

"Link, show her."

The scenery changed in an eyeblink and Trinity looked in dismay around herself. The ruins of what she could recognize as New York stood out in nightmarish contrast to an angry red-orange sky with clouds that were constantly in motion and crackling with energy. The devastation was complete and absolute, and the barren landscape filled her with a sick sense of finality. The world would never be the same again.

"How long has passed?" she asked hoarsely, her voice barely above a whisper.

"We don't really know. One thousand, two thousand years. The machines rule the surface, and the last human survivors not in their power huddle near the Earth's core where it's still warm."

"There are cities?"

"Only one. We call it Zion; it is our only haven."

Trinity shook her head numbly. "I don't believe it."

"You need to see more."

The scenery changed once more, and Trinity found herself suspended over a dark field, where grotesque red plants were being grown and harvest by weird-looking robots looking like giant boxes on tentacles. Upon a closer look however, Trinity saw that the plants weren't really plants, and that the red things were actually small human fetuses in little pods.

She gasped in shock and felt the content of her empty stomach threaten to come up. "I… I don't feel good…."

Instantly, Trinity and Morpheus were back in the soothing marble hall.

"What was that?"

" Combined with a form of fusion, the human body produces an amazing amount of energy in heat. The machines found all the energy they'd ever need."

"But the people… the babies…" gasped Trinity.

"People are no longer born Trinity; they are grown. There are endless fields like the one you just saw, and that is where you come from."

Trinity sat down on the stone floor and rested her head in her hands. "Tell me everything."

Morpheus sat down next to her started to talk.