Here it is: chapter three. It actually worked out that I didn't put the name thing in chapter two (Trinity, three, you see where I'm goin'?). Anyway, it's about three AM here. I always seem to post chapters at some awful hour, don't I? And thanks to everyone who reviewed, and everyone who didn't but still loves my story so far! : ) Also, before I start, has anyone noticed a similarity between Kelly and a character from the movie? Hmm... foreshadowing for the chapter.
Revised version of the chapter.
***
Death and Rebirth
Chapter Three
Hacker Alias: Trinity
***
"You're gonna go broke if you keep coming in here every single day," Amelia chided her friend, sitting down at the table with their coffees.
"I won't with the discounts I get, thanks to you, and it's habit. I like this place."
"Not to mention putting yourself in a coma with all that sugar." She rolled her eyes a bit at her friend's excuse for coming here.
Kelly ignored her, drinking her coffee. "So how much longer until school lets out?" She didn't really want to hear the answer.
"A month."
She cringed. She didn't want to wait that long, so she changed the subject slightly. "How're you planning to bide your time once summer rolls around?"
The other girl shrugged, not really thinking over her answer. "Kung fu, hacking. Work."
Kelly nodded at the expected answer. She took another sip of coffee.
Amelia put her cup down and tapped her fingers on the rim, musing for a while. "I hate my name," she said finally.
Kelly stared at her. What had suddenly brought this on? "Okay...."
"I'm serious," she said, detecting the disbelief in her friend's voice. "It doesn't fit me at all. I hate it."
"Your name is fine, Ames."
She sighed, wishing, as she often did, that her one and only friend was easier to reason with. "Close your eyes."
Hesitating only a moment, Kelly decided to humor her. She took another sip from her mug then put it down, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Now, picture what you think someone name Amelia Michelle Harper would look like, what they would act like, everything." She waited a moment, watching the barely detectable, half-annoyed, half-amused look cross her face. "Now look at me."
She was met with a blank stare for a moment, then, "Okay, I see your point."
Amelia shook her head. Kelly was the best friend she could ask for, but sometimes... she could be very stubborn. Like now. She did it on purpose, she just knew it. It was her very own kind of annoyingly twisted humor.
"So did anything else bring this on?" she asked. "I mean, other than the fact that you hate your name and it doesn't fit you at all, why would you want to change it?"
"That's not enough reason?" Amelia's annoyance was beginning to show.
"Sure it is, but I know you; you always have a major reason for doing anything." Although she was more or less immune to her friend's 'Scary Face', she took it as a sign of warning, and would back down when she received it. Like now.
Amelia waited a moment before speaking, face becoming calm again. Her voice had lowered to just above a whisper. "Computer hackers don't use their real names. It's virtual suicide. You might as well turn yourself in to the FBI."
Kelly let out a long, low breath. "You do realize hacking, especially into major computers, is illegal, right?"
"Of course I do." Amelia gave her what she had come to know as her version of a reassuring smile, though no one else would see it that way. "But if that's the price I have to pay to find out where my mother went, then so be it."
Her friend sighed heavily. "You're not gonna let that go, are you?"
"I deserve to know why she abandoned me," she said, her voice stoic.
"Don't you think that's a little harsh, saying she abandoned you?"
"What would you call it?" The slightest bit of pain had crept into her eyes.
Kelly sat in silence, unable to respond.
"Harper!" yelled someone at the counter. Manager. Not the most likeable of women. "Break's over."
***
"So what're you going to do about it?" Kelly asked as they made their way home from the subway station. "The name thing, I mean."
"I don't know." She moved from walking on the sidewalk to walking along the top of a narrow brick wall surrounding someone's tiny front yard. "I'll just wait for an inspiration, I guess. You know, it wouldn't hurt for you to pick another name for yourself."
"Why?"
"Kelly doesn't fit you very well, either," she rationalized. "Granted, it fits better than Amelia does me, but not by much."
"Why?" she asked again. "I mean, I don't like it, but I don't have any real reason to change it, or any idea of what to pick."
"You said it yourself. Your name not fitting you and you not liking it is plenty of reason to change it. And I don't have any more idea of what to pick than you do."
She shrugged as if agreeing with her, then fell silent. She was soon watching Amelia's balancing act on the low wall. It was almost completely dark outside, enough so for the streetlights to come on, and it had gotten cold. Kelly's jacket was thin, as she had expected it to still be light out when she went home, so she walked quickly to get back as soon as possible. And Amelia, despite having to keep her balance so carefully, was matching her pace.
"How do you do that?" she asked with a slight note of disbelief.
"Do what?" Amelia barely seemed to notice what she was doing. With the ease she had, she might as well have been walking next to Kelly on the sidewalk.
"That balancing thing. The wall can't be more than two inches wide. And you don't even look like you're trying!"
She looked down at her feet, then shrugged. "Mind over matter, I guess."
She jumped down to the pavement when the row of houses ended.
She let her eyes wander, not paying attention to what she was seeing. She was thinking about her name, the one she would use as a hacker. It would have to be something good, something original. Like any appropriate name would, it should reflect her. Tell who she was. It needed to give off a sense of strength, of self control, importance. Something memorable.
And it would have to stick. David, unlike most, changed his alias constantly. If ever they asked why, he would tell them a different excuse every time. Amelia, on the other hand, wanted something that would hold fast; stay with her so to remind everyone exactly whom they were dealing with.
It did not seem like it would be an easy call.
***
Between where they were and their apartments about two blocks away, was an old church. Both she and Kelly could describe its every detail from memory. They passed it at least twice a day going to and from school. It was small, but many of the people who lived nearby could still be found there every Sunday morning. The name of the church was printed on a sign that could be seen from cars passing in the street. It was written out in plain black lettering, most of which had half faded away. For some reason she could not think of, some of the words had faded more than others. But right now, one word, one single word, was so clear that it seemed as if it had just been painted on yesterday.
Trinity.
She instantly had the thought of making that her hacker alias and new name.
The rational side of her mind immediately tried to brush away the idea. For one thing, it referred to a male deity, nothing for her to use. For another, she wasn't much the religious type. She'd never attended any kind of religious ceremony in her life. And besides, what kind of a name was that, anyway?
But then... Trinity.
She rolled the name over in her head, thinking, even long after she got home. While it's meaning may have been male, the word itself sounded more feminine, if you thought about it. It exuded a sense of power, of purpose. Of courage and confidence, of a leader. A fighter. But it also spoke of a person who was compassionate, someone who cared about others.
It radiated everything that described her.
The more Amelia thought about it, the more she was convinced: Trinity was the perfect name for her.
***
Amelia, or, as she had already begun thinking of herself, Trinity, was sitting on the edge of her bed, lacing up her boots when she heard the tap at her window. Not even bothering to look up from what she was doing, she reached over and unlatched the window lock. Kelly dropped beside her on the bed.
"Where're you off to?" she asked lightly, fingering the bedspread.
"Bored, are we?" Amelia asked, moving to tie up her other boot.
Kelly glared at her out of the corner of her eye. "Do you have any idea how much people hate it when you do that mind-reading thing?"
"Yes." There was a barely detectable humor in her voice, and a smirk to match. "That's partly why I do it so much."
She glowered at her friend again. When she had finished with her shoes and stood to retrieve her bag, she repeated her first question. "So, where're you going?"
"Bargaining," she answered simply, stepping out into the mid-morning sunlight on the fire escape.
Kelly followed her down the steps, confusion written plainly on her face. "About what? I thought we you were already getting to be better at hacking than David is."
"I am. It's not about that."
"What then?"
Amelia let herself drop the last few feet that separated the ground and the second story catwalk, closely followed by her friend. "Someone has to teach me how to ride a motorcycle."
***
The two girls remained quiet during the entire walk to the subway station. It was not until their train pulled in that Amelia spoke again.
"I picked a name," she said nonchalantly, stepping up onto the car. "One for you, too, actually."
"What, hacker names?" she asked as they took two seats near the back.
Amelia nodded.
"Go on," Kelly urged. "What's yours?"
"You're going to think it's stupid," she said, almost ruefully. "You're going to think they're both stupid."
"Oh well," she said, poking her in the shoulder. "Tell me."
Amelia brushed her hand away. She could be very annoying sometimes. "Fine," she said, not looking at her friend. "Trinity."
Silence. Turning, she saw that Kelly was staring at her, blank faced. Finally she spoke, very slowly and with the slightest bit of an "are you insane?" tone thrown in:
"Trinity?"
Amelia sighed and shook her head, the smallest traces of a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. "The next time I tell you you're going to think something is stupid, are you going to listen, or are we going to have to go through this again?"
"But... Trinity? Where did you come up with that?" She still looked incredulous.
"The church down the street. You know which one. We pass it every day."
"I figured as much." Kelly was getting just the least bit impatient. "But why that specifically? I mean, it's -"
"I know, and I'm not religious, blah, blah, that's why I didn't want to use it at first. But if you really think about it, it fits." She gave her words a tone that served to let whoever she was speaking to know: whatever she said, do it.
"Well..." Kelly murmured after a minute or two of rolling the name over in her mind. "I guess. Maybe... a little...."
"There, you see? You need to have a little more faith in your best friend."
"Well I have to," Kelly smirked, "you're God now."
Amelia rolled her eyes and groaned in distaste. Kelly ignored her. "Fine. So what glorious name have I been blessed with?"
An evil grin spread across her face at this. "Well, this one you're not only going to think is stupid, but you're also going to hate it."
"Try me. Only took me a minute to like yours."
The evil grin on her face only got wider.
"Switch."
She remained quiet for a moment. Then, dismissively, "Fine. Fine, that's fine." She turned away, seemingly through with the conversation.
Amelia knew better. She didn't like the name, but because she wanted to prove Amelia wrong - as she so rarely was - she was acting as if she loved it.
Three... two... one....
"God, Harper, where do you come up with this stuff?" she sighed, disbelievingly. There it was. It drove her nuts trying to pretend she liked something she didn't.
"I don' know what you're complaining about. It fits you perfectly."
"And how would that be, exactly?"
"Two reasons," she said calmly, ticking them off on her fingers. "A: you always want to change everything about everything. B: you can never make up your mind - always 'switching' your answers and choices."
"You are insane, Harper," she sighed heavily.
"Trinity will do just fine."
Kelly stared at her yet again. "You actually want me to call you that?"
"Of course, Switch." Insert evil smirk here.
She fell against the back of the seat. "You're never gonna call me Kelly again, are you?"
"Not really."
"You're going to call me Switch from now on?"
"Most of the time."
"And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, is there?"
"Nope."
***
The motorcycle shop they went to was up near Times Square. It was a tiny store, wedged into an old strip mall. It had been there longer than anyone could remember, and was easily one of the most successful motorcycle retailers on Manhattan Island.
"Do you know which one you'll get?" Switch asked, looking around as they stepped inside.
"I had it narrowed down to two, but I picked it out last night." Trinity gestured to one on display in the window.
Examining the black bike carefully, then quickly scanning the rest of them, Switch could easily tell why she had chosen this one. She could easily picture Trinity on this one. Moving around to the side of the bike, her eye caught on something that made her smile and look up at her friend.
"Might I assume that the name had some influence over your decision?"
Written in silver paint across the front of the bike was the brand name Triumph, and across the back were the words Speed Triple.
"Yes, it did. Good eye."
One of the sales clerks came up behind them just then. "Hello, ladies," he said politely. Trinity eyed him for a moment. He wore a faded pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. Other than the small nametag pinned onto his shirt, he looked as if he had just gotten off of a motorcycle himself. "Anything I can help you with?"
Ignoring the fact that he was obviously flirting with them, Trinity spoke: "Yes, actually. There is."
"Well, if you're interested in a motorcycle, I could certainly help you pick one out." His smile was getting really irritating.
"Okay, Kyle," she said, reading off of his nametag. "Three... no, actually, four things. Number one: stop flirting with me."
His face faltered at that. An amusing look, really.
"Number two: I don't even have my license yet. Three: I don't have the money for it yet. And last, but most certainly not least," her face betrayed no hint of emotion, but her voice made it clear that she was a bit annoyed, "when I do get a motorcycle, it's going to be that one." She pointed to the Triumph Speed Triple in the window.
He took a moment to regain his composure, glancing at the bike she had indicated.
"That one's not exactly a -" he began, but was cut off by Switch, who was absentmindedly looking around the room.
"If you value your life, you won't finish that sentence." She turned to look at him, knowing full well that he was going to say something along the lines of Trinity being female. "Because if you do, she'll make sure you never see the light of day again."
Kyle looked over at her. Her face and stance were perfectly calm, but there was a lethal look to her eyes that left no doubt as to what Switch had said.
"What I need you to do," she said quietly, anticipating his question, "is teach me how to ride it."
He thought over her request for a moment. "Can you pay me for it?"
Switch leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, "Why is it that whenever you go off 'bargaining' for something, they always want money?"
She looked at her over her shoulder. "That's why it's called bargaining, because I don't have what they want." She turned back to Kyle. "I'll have enough money to buy the motorcycle in a few months. And I know for a fact that you get paid on commission here. A commission that I'd make sure you got if you helped me out."
It was often disturbing, how Trinity always seemed to know just the right buttons to push to get people wrapped around her finger.
"Okay," Kyle shrugged. "You got me. I'm in."
***
Even half-asleep, she could tell that something was amiss. She moved in the tiny bunk to be closer to him, but he wasn't there. She stirred in her sleep, her senses slowly coming into focus. She sat up and swung her feet around to the floor, turning on the fluorescent light by the computer screen. Looking around the tiny room of old and rusted metal, she saw no sign of him. His boots were gone.
She sighed and pulled on her own shoes. He had been doing this too much lately. She walked down the cramped corridor outside their cabin and up the ladder just around the corner. Up on the main deck, she gave only a brief glance to the dusty plaque on the wall.
Mark III No. 11
Nebuchadnezzar
Made in U.S.A.
Year 2069
Rounding the corner, as silently as she could in her combat boots, she found him in the Core. He had apparently taken up watch duty and sat in front of the bank of terminals that displayed the Matrix. Careful not to trip over the bundles of wires that ran the length of the ship, she slowly crept up behind the operator's chair, snaking her arms around her lover's shoulders.
"You'll go blind if you keep looking at computer screens 24/7," she chided him gently, whispering in his ear. "And I don't think you realize how cold the beds get when it's just me."
He smiled at her urgings to get him to go back to sleep. "Go to bed, Niobe."
"Funny," she said, her voice growing a bit more serious, "I was just about to say the same thing to you." When he said nothing, she sighed again, and returned her arms to her side. She moved to stand in front of the screens, where he could see her clearly.
"Morpheus, you have to take it easy." There was a mixture of concern and disapproval in her tone. She spoke again before he had a chance to say anything. "I don't know if she's the One or not, but if she is, it won't help for you to loose sleep over watching her. We just started monitoring her, and the Agents don't know a thing yet - she doesn't need such close scrutiny."
He said nothing, but Niobe knew what he was thinking: he was sure. There was something about this girl, something different. Something special. He couldn't put his finger on it exactly, but it was there. A Gift.
"And since I am second-in-command," she said, a hint of mirth in her voice, "I believe I become temporary captain if, for whatever reason, you are out of commission. And I think you're just a bit too tired to be making any rational decisions, so..." She leaned over the chair until their faces were just a few inches apart. "I'm ordering you to go to bed."
"Niobe -"
She cut him off with a gentle kiss, pulling away after a few seconds.
"Go get some sleep. I'll come down as soon as Silver's shift starts. I'll get you if anything happens."
Slowly, reluctantly, he stood from the chair, kissing her lightly on the cheek before making his way down to the cabin they shared.
***
"You're turning into a puppy, did you know that?" Trinity called over her shoulder as she went through her stretches on the grass. "You've been following me everywhere lately."
"I get bored. If you'll recall, I don't have a job, martial arts lessons, hacking lessons and motorcycle lessons, unlike some people, so my schedule is relatively open. And considering that school's almost out, I don't have a lot of homework to occupy my time." Switch sat down on ground a few feet from her, hugging her knees to her chest. "So whatcha doin'?"
"Just practicing. I just felt like I wasn't doing so well on some of my moves lately, so I've been coming here to work on them." She stood up and brushed the bits of grass off of her legs. "I've gotten a lot better just in the last week or so."
"That mind-over-matter thing?" Switch asked, picking at a piece of grass.
"Annoys ya, huh?" There was Trinity's evil grin again. That annoyed her, too.
"Immeasurably. So how much better are we talking about here?"
"I'm not sure, I haven't tested it." She walked several paces back. "But we could find out. I'll do a jump-kick. Just tell me where I start the jump."
***
"Morpheus," said Phoenix, half-winded as he rushed into the mess hall, "I really think you should see this. It's that new prospect you've got us watching."
"What happened?" asked Niobe urgently.
There was a look of amazement on his face. "She's doin' stuff I've only seen Rebel Fighters do."
Looking around at each other for only a moment, the entire crew of the Nebuchadnezzar rushed up to the Core to see what Phoenix was talking about.
***
Switch stared at her friend wide-eyed, then spoke slowly as she walked to the spot where she had leapt from the ground. "Trinity.... That had to be at least twelve feet...."
"What?" she demanded after a moment, disbelieving. "That can't be." She drew a line in the ground with the toe of her shoe, marking where she had landed, and walked the length of ground between her and Switch. "That's not possible...."
"And you were really high up, too...."
"Are you sure?" She was dumbfounded, seeing just how far she had supposedly jumped. She stared for a well over a minute. "I guess the mind-over-matter thing works better than I thought."
"Do it again," Switch urged her, excitement suddenly replacing her disbelief. "Do it again!"
***
After only moments of staring at the screens in amazement, Morpheus moved over to one of the chairs used for hacking into the Matrix, setting up the loading programs on the small touch-screens.
"What are you doing?" Apoc asked as Niobe moved to do the same.
"I want so see this in person," Morpheus said simply. "The rest of you wait here."
Tank took his place in the operator's chair, picking out her location and the closest place he could load them up. Meanwhile, Dozer moved to plug in his captain and second-in-command.
***
"This is getting scary," Trinity mused into her hands as she knelt on the grass after a half-dozen jumps. "But a cool scary."
"You do realize that you're defying every law of physics and nature, right?"
She looked up at Switch with one of her rare smiles of amazement.
***
"Where is she?" Morpheus asked into the cell phone as he and Niobe stood alone in the Construct.
"Ironically enough," Tank said into the earpiece, "Prospect Park. A field at the south end. I've got you pretty close."
He shut off the phone and put it back into the pocket of his coat. They suddenly found themselves suspended in midair, a city rushing up at them. When their feet touched ground, they were standing on a sidewalk in a lush park.
Just around the curve of the path was a field, in which their new prospect was testing her new-found skills. And, apparently, showing her friend as well. They both moved to stand beneath a large tree on the edge of the field. Niobe leaned casually against it's trunk, watching the teenager.
Morpheus took out his phone again and hit the 'send' button. "Tank, be sure to get a copy of the code."
Niobe heard the faint reply. "Already on it."
She was quiet for a few minutes after he returned the phone to it's pocket.
"You really think she's the One?"
He smiled slightly. "Yes. I do."
She let out a barely audible sigh.
"But you don't." It was a statement, not a question.
"I don't know what to believe. I really don't. I want to," she said sincerely. "I want to believe that someone will come along and destroy this... prison, free us all, destroy the machines, give us back our planet. I want to believe that I'll live to see the end of this, but...."
"But what?"
"But it just seems impossible."
He was quiet for a moment, considering her words. "Niobe -"
"I'm serious, Morpheus. What if this, the Prophecy, the One, everything...." She let her sentence fade away, not wanting to hear the words that would finish it.
"You just have to trust me, Niobe."
"I want to, Morpheus. I really do. You just make it so damn hard."
***
Well, as I've said, I'll be computerless for over a week, but I'll try to write at least one chapter down on paper while I'm in San Diego.
R+R! : )