**Enters timidly behind a big shield, waving a white flag** I know it took longer than is usually too long, but I have two very good excuses: mid-term exams and Christmas. So... don't shoot? I have a NeoClone! He'll protect me! **Runs away**
***
Death and Rebirth
Chapter Ten
Expectations
***
To Trinity, at least, watch shifts were a mixed blessing.
Everyone hated them, there was no doubt about that. It was the most tedious and boring job there was to do on a ship, and as nothing ever seemed to happen, you spent your hours watching random people go about their boring lives. No one could even give a ballpark guess as to how many hours they had spent examining the falling code of the Matrix, or how many other ways they could have spent that time. Training, working, or getting a decent night's sleep.
But on the other hand, watch had its upsides as well.
Before she had been unplugged, much of her time was spent thinking. She thought about anything, really - her schoolwork, her job, something interesting that had happened on the way home. It could be anything, or nothing at all, but her day simply wasn't complete without some time spent lost in thought. But in the past weeks, what little time she had to herself wasn't nearly long enough to sort through the thoughts running loose in her head. There were too many, and they were too cluttered to work out in the time during lunch or just before bed. The past few days had given her a chance to sit down and think, the way she used to.
So here she sat, before the Construct screens, on her shift. She was curled up in the operator's chair with a thin blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders to ward of the chill. Only a few days before, Tank had downloaded the code-reading program to her, allowing them to work her into the shift schedule. She had been there for a while, since she had finished dinner, while everyone else was off working on their own things.
She barely turned her head when Morpheus climbed up the ladder into the Core.
"Anything?" he asked briefly, stalking up behind her. Trinity shook her head.
He did not linger, instead moving off to one of the computers near the far wall. She didn't pay attention to what he was doing, and was quiet until he was about to leave, when a thought struck her.
"What do you normally look for, besides Agents attacking people from other ships?"
"Potentials," he said simply. "For unplugging."
He had stopped behind her chair, watching the screens over her shoulder. "How do you know who to pull out? I'm assuming you don't just pull out anyone."
"We don't. Most people wouldn't be able to survive outside of the Matrix - they're too dependent on it." Trinity glanced up at him through the silence, waiting for him to continue. "They're usually people like you. People who know something's wrong." He left her side, and went to another computer, working there. He continued to speak anyway. "Sometimes we pull out people who only know about the Matrix, but aren't aware of anything that's out of place. It's usually both."
Trinity wondered at this for a moment. "That seems like an awful lot of people to unplug," she said quietly, almost to herself.
"Not really." Morpheus spoke absently, paying more attention to whatever he was doing on the computer. "Some people aren't as adamant about discovering the truth as others, and they pick the blue pill. And some are too old."
She turned over her shoulder to stare at him, trying to pull him back into the conversation. "Why would they be too old?"
He sighed quietly, remembering something from long ago. "When we're young, we're very open-minded, and would easily believe anything. But the older we get, the less open-minded we are, the less accepting of unusual ideas. Over a certain age, most people wouldn't be able to comprehend this reality - they'd go mad. Some would kill themselves over it. I've seen it happen."
Trinity stayed quiet, leaving him to handle the memories himself. It was silent for several minutes, save for the quiet typing of whatever Morpheus was doing. The clacking finally subsided, and she thought this as good a time as any to speak again. "What's the youngest you can be unplugged?"
"Just old enough to do what we tell them to, so they can survive long enough for us to pick them up. We generally don't unplug children, but there are orphanages in Zion, for anyone we pull out younger than eighteen."
She spun fully around in the chair this time, gaping at him for several long seconds. "Anyone younger than eighteen?" Morpheus nodded, not noticing the tone of her voice. "You mean that's where I have to go?"
He was watching data flash rapidly across the screen. He still wasn't paying her much attention. "Yes, under most circumstances, you would -"
"That isn't what you told me," she snapped, standing from her chair and briskly walking closer to him, anger in her every move. That brought him back to attention.
"Trinity, let me -"
"You told me - you've all told me - that I would be able to stay here and fight, you told me I'd be able to help!" She didn't bother to keep her voice down, letting her fury into her voice.
"Trinity." He grabbed her by the shoulders, staring her straight in the eye while she took several calming breaths. He let her go when some of the anger had left her face. "Yes, generally we would take you to Zion, and you would stay there for a few years."
"There'd better be a damn good 'but' coming after this," she growled, not looking away. In the back of his mind, Morpheus couldn't help but notice how little rank seemed to affect her.
"But, if we unplug someone who we believe has high potential as a fighter, they're permitted to stay on the ship, if they can prove that they're good enough."
"Wonderful." Trinity crossed her arms over her chest, still glaring slightly. "Prove it how?"
"There's a test you'll have to take," he said, turning back to the computers. Trinity's eyes followed him like a hawk, instantly on guard for his blatant attempt to divulge as little information as possible. "Measure your speed, concentration, basic abilities, things like that. Based off of that, we'll be determining where you'll end up."
He turned back and smiled at her. And again he had that look of pride in her, as if she had already taken this test and had done better than anyone ever had. Why did he keep doing that? As of yet, she had done nothing to merit such pride, so why did he keep giving it?
Morpheus turned away and left the Core, halting her thoughts. She watched him as he descended the ladder to the lower deck. He didn't look back at her.
***
Trinity gracefully flipped over Morpheus' leg when he tried to trip her. Upon landing, she spun around in the same move and kicked him.
They had all gone easy on her, at first. None of them had fought their hardest against her, done their best to try and beat an inexperienced trainee, fresh from her pod. She was good, no doubt, better than almost everyone at that stage in their training. But she was still new and uneducated, still needing time for her skills to grow. They weren't doing that anymore.
She hadn't been able to get any of them to give any details about the test Morpheus had told her about, beyond the fact that the best way to pass was to be as skilled in every area as possible. So, on that piece of advice, her every waking moment in the past week had been spent in training simulations. She had tried her luck in various situation-specific programs. A number of Agent programs, driving, weaponry. But her favorite was the motorcycle course. She loved that one, even though Morpheus frowned upon her new habit of riding against traffic. But much of the time was in the dojo sparring, as they were doing now.
Morpheus would be the first to say that it had paid off.
For now they were simply sparring. For her part, Trinity had taken up altogether avoiding as many strikes as she blocked. She would spin beneath kicks, sidestep them, flip over a leg sweep. And then there were her most impressive jumps, when she would jump clear over him, halfway to the ceiling and across most of the dojo. She had picked it up somewhere along the way - watching the others, perhaps Niobe or Silver - and had taken to it very quickly.
She made one such jump now, in avoiding a kick to her stomach. A moment later she landed gracefully a few feet away, instantly in a fighting stance again. Morpheus, on the other hand, after being still for several seconds, watching her, straightened up slowly. In confusion, Trinity followed.
"What?"
He held her eyes for a moment, his expression blank, thinking. He then looked to the ceiling. "Tank," he said, seemingly to thin air. "Load the jump."
Trinity watched him silently for a long minute, and nothing happened. Everything stayed as it was. "What are you doing?"
In the next instant, the dojo flashed away to the Construct again, and a city was rushing up beneath their feet. They landed on the roof of one of the taller buildings, and everything stilled again. Trinity scrutinized everything carefully - this wasn't a program they had put her in before.
"After some of the jumps you've made," he said, drawing her focus again, "I'd say it's safe to take it to the next level." He gave her a small smile behind mirrored glasses. "It's just like anything else - it's only restrictions are the ones you allow it to have."
She had no time to ask him what he meant. Without warning, he was running to the far ledge of the roof. Trinity stood frozen, staring after him, eyes widening as she realized he wasn't slowing down. In fact, the closer he got to the ledge, the faster he ran.
She expected him to fall. It was logical enough that he should. There was at least fifty feet between this building and the next, how could he do anything else? Which is why she gaped in amazement when he soared up and up into a perfect arch, landing smoothly several seconds later. She could swear she heard the cement of the other roof crack when he landed.
Trinity's jaw slowly dropped as she took a few involuntary steps forward, staring in amazement. Morpheus simply straightened up and turned to face her, waiting.
Waiting for her, she realized after several seconds, waiting for her to jump. She snapped herself out of the daze, forcing herself to concentrate. She moved back several feet to give herself a good running start.
"Okay, Trinity. Focus." She took several deep breaths to calm herself, ignoring the fact that it wasn't real - it calmed her anyway. Focus. Before she even realized what she was doing, she bolted towards the far edge of the roof.
Time slowed, and what was only a few seconds seemed like hours. She kept telling herself, over and over in her mind, that none of it was real, it was just a simulation that she could overcome. She was a hacker, after all - she had broken the rules of a computer a thousand times over. And, as Morpheus himself had said, she had already made some very impressive jumps - why not this one as well?
She almost managed to convince herself that that was true.
The sole of her boot collided loudly with the ledge as she jumped off. Her nerves calmed very slightly and her fear began to ebb slowly, during the first few moments when she was sailing smoothly through the air. She opened her eyes, only a sliver, and saw, with frightening clarity, that she was much farther from the other building than she thought. And the next thing she knew, the building was rising up before her, it's windows flashing past in a blur. She was tumbling downward, faster and faster, any memory of the fact that it wasn't real erased from her mind.
She didn't remember if she screamed, nor if she even had time to, before impacting with the pavement face first.
Trinity expected the force to break every bone in her body, if she managed to live through it. It felt like it, hurt like hell, but that pain was closely preceded by shock when she was thrown back into the air again, as if it were only a trampoline.
She had barely realized all that had happened until she landed on her back in agony, staring up at Morpheus' tiny figure as she berated herself for her failure.
***
Trinity didn't know why she chose to go to the cockpit. Her room would have been better. More private, more comfortable, quieter if only by a small margin. Perhaps it was simply because it was closer. Maybe just the direction she stumbled in when they pulled her from the simulation, wanting to get away from their staring eyes - half disappointed, half vacant. Either way, it's where she found herself, sitting against the wall for more than an hour, willing the soreness in her muscles away. It didn't work.
How could she have fallen? It was so simple, exactly the same things she had already done, even if it was on a grander scale. Her mind was going to great lengths to tell her how idiotic she had been, how ridiculously incompetent, and none too politely.
She was in the middle of a particularly long-winded curse when Niobe and Dozer came in and started up the ships engines. She didn't bother to see what looks they gave her.
They had been piloting the ship for perhaps ten minutes when Niobe finally glanced back at Trinity. She smiled slightly at the younger girl's naiveté.
"Stop beating yourself up about it, Trinity."
She didn't listen, and merely turned her head to the side, glowering silently.
"Nobody makes their first jump. I fell, Morpheus fell. Everyone falls the first time around."
She was silent until they landed the ship several minutes later. After settling form it's usual rough landing, she carefully sat up form her spot against the back wall, forcing herself to move through still-sore muscles. Doing what she could to disguise the stiffness, she made her way down the ladder, across the main deck and down to her cabin, not looking at anyone.
Both of them watched her retreat. Niobe sighed as she turned back to shut down the flight systems. "She's still pretty sore," she said over her shoulder to the medic. "Get her something for that, will you?
***
Trinity threw her sweater to the floor, not caring where it landed. She discarded of her boots just as carelessly. She sat on the edge of the bed wearily, wondering how a program could possibly cause you so much pain. She had just reached for there light switch, ready to sleep away all her troubles and humiliations, when there was a soft knock on her door.
"...come in." She sat up in her cot when Dozer opened the door quietly.
"Going to bed?"
"Yeah." She noticed he was carrying a small syringe filled with some clear liquid. "What is that?"
He sat beside her on the bed, reaching for her arm and turning it over to reveal the small black plug on her forearm. "Mix of a muscle relaxant and pain killers. Niobe thought it might help you sleep."
Trinity winced slightly as he put the needle through her plug, still unused to the feeling. She felt him turning her arm slightly, examining it. "Have you been exercising?"
"In the mornings, before I come out," she replied, ignoring the tone in his voice.
"You're supposed to do at least two hours a day. And with good reason."
"I'm fine."
"You should be doing as much of that as you can." His tone changed from authoritative medic to the caring big-brother voice he always used with Tank. "Best not to spend every waking moment in your head. You'll feel much better if you don't."
"I spend plenty of time out of sims," she defended.
"Not enough." She turned to see him smiling at her a little. He stood up and opened the door. "Get some sleep, Trinity."
***
There was something about the way he had said it, something in the tone of his voice that made her listen without question. He had spoken to her with the worry he would bestow on a little sister, and it had halted any protests she may have.
It wasn't that she hated the exercises in themselves; he was right, they did make you feel better. It was just that that was a later effect, manifesting itself only after the seemingly endless period of pain and stiffness that followed a routine workout..
She was the last one to the mess hall the next morning. Only Phoenix and Silver were still there. The talked between themselves until Trinity sat down with her bowl of goop.
"More sims today?" Silver stood from the bench and washed off her finished bowl in the sink. Trinity nodded, despite the fact that she couldn't see her.
"I gotta say kid, you're weird." Phoenix was nowhere near to being done. "Most newbies hate sims - avoid 'em like the plague. You must really want to stay here."
"I'll see you two later," Silver said, opening the door and stepping out. "I have things to do."
Phoenix sat straight up in his seat. "What," he whined, "you're just gonna leave me with her?" She smirked at him as she closed the door. He slumped down over the table. When he looked up, Trinity was glaring evilly at him. "Don't look at me like that...." He avoided her eyes. "Like I said, most newbies avoid training like the plague. You're wearing us out." He relaxed when he heard her spork against the metal bowl again.
He left perhaps ten minutes later, telling her he was going to set up the programs. Tank was there when he came up. But just as he was about to tell him to start up the sims, a thought struck him, and he voiced that instead.
"Is the Logos in range?"
***
"Change of plans." He had just switched off one of the many monitors and handed the headset to Tank, moving off to the jacking chairs. "I've got someone else for you to fight."
She heard Tank mumble a quiet "Slacker," as she passed him.
"Not a slacker," Phoenix countered, quickly pressing codes on the touch-screen. "I can get some work done, and just let the newbies beat the shit out of each other."
"Slacker."
"What's going on?" Trinity asked as she lay back in the chair.
It barely registered when he slid the plug into her neck. "Nothing. You're fighting someone from the Logos. He's been out about as long as you. And, much like you, he insists on spending every waking minute training. It'll be a fair fight." He loaded her into the Construct before she could say anything more.
She kept her eyes closed and sighed in frustration, feeling her bare feet touch the matted floor. He just had to be the difficult one, didn't he?
"So you're the over-zealous one."
Her eyes started open at the sarcastic voice, finding another person at the other end of the room. Trinity sauntered closer too him, giving him a brief once-over. He was Asian, but she couldn't pinpoint his nationality specifically. Her age, maybe, which made the goatee seem slightly off on his face.
"You're one to talk."
He quirked a little smile at her tone. They were only feet apart now. "He said you've been sparring everyone on your crew constantly. Apparently you've been annoying the hell out of them." His eyebrow was raised ever so slightly.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she returned, an edge seeping into her voice.
"Nothing." He held up his hands in mocked defense. "Nothing at all. I was just wondering if all that practice has paid off."
"Immensely." Each held the other's eyes for a long moment, an equal lust for fresh competition in both. He was the first to turn away, moving several paces back. Trinity did the same, and both assumed fighting stances.
Within a minute, she realized just how accustomed she had become to the crew's fighting styles. She had fought them all so much recently that she unknowingly faced each of them in a specific way, not simply reacting to their actions as they came. And it seemed that he, too, had the same problem. Understandably so, living on, she was told, the fleet's smallest ship, and rarely being in range of other ships.
They each moved somewhat awkwardly at first, having to once again familiarize themselves with fighting a new person. Strikes seemed as though they were thrown hesitantly, not recognizing an opening almost before it happened. Counterstrikes were blocked a split-second later than usual.
She jumped clear over him then, willing her mind to remember how to fight someone new. She landed with her back to him, spinning to face him, shifting into a block when she saw his fist headed for her face. A jump was added to the same motion, aiming a kick directly at his face. She let her virtual muscles relax slightly, feeling herself slide back into her familiar style.
It got competitive somewhere along the way. Beyond the usual that was strictly for the sake of training, and into what could almost be called a rivalry. They were slowly raising the bar, each trying to outdo the other's skills and technique. He started it. At least that's how she remembered it. He tried to pull a particularly difficult move on her, one which she almost didn't maneuver away from. Trinity eventually lost track of the time. They might have been in there for hours, for all she knew.
The idea struck her at the end of this unknown span of time. Less of an idea really, as an instinctual impulse that she let run when he gave her the opening. She jumped straight into the air, and time slowed. It was like hovering, almost, until she kicked him squarely in the chest and sent him flying.
"Not bad," he muttered, sitting up slowly and staring at her from across the room. "You're better than I thought you'd be."
"I was studying kung fu before Morpheus unplugged me." He stood when she had walked closer to him. "Trinity," she stated simply, and extended her hand to him. Without hesitation, he took it.
"Ghost."
She gave him a small, reserved smile, and let go. "So. 'Not bad' is all you have to say to me?"
***
It was the most insignificant thing, she knew, simply a result of different captains and different recruits. It wasn't anything personal, Morpheus was just stepping up her training to better hone her raw skills, nothing more. Yes, Ghost had been unplugged the exact same day as she, and yes he had only gone into the jump program for the first time today, a full two weeks after she had. But it shouldn't have bothered her, and it frustrated her to no end that it did.
She tried to tell herself that she was only imagining these things, but it didn't work. She knew the unmerited look of pride he so often gave her, when she had done nothing. The way he told her of a new simulation she was to go through, saying with full confidence that she would manage it without a hitch. Try as she might, Trinity couldn't convince herself that Morpheus wasn't treating her differently than he would any other recruit.
She tugged a loose thread in the bandana she wore, almost used to having no hair to play with instead. She had long ago given up on trying to banish thoughts that simply refused to go away, and simply continued down the hall to her cabin, where she had every intent of getting a decent night's sleep.
"Are you two ever going to take Trinity to see her?" Dozer. He was in a small workroom down the corridor on her right, and the door was open a crack.
"Who? The Oracle?" That was Niobe. There was a brief silence. "We're taking her within the next few days. Just as soon as we can find a safe enough broadcast position."
An oracle? In this reality of pure technology, they were taking her to see some fantasy fortune teller?
"What are you so worried about?"
Niobe sighed loudly. "Morpheus thinks she's the One."
"But you don't?"
"You already know the answer to that, Dozer. She's damn talented, I'll be the first to admit it. But you know what I believe, I don't have to tell you again."
"Just out of curiosity, what would you do if she came back and said the Oracle told her she was the One." Trinity was just outside the door now. "Then what?"
"I don't know. But I severely doubt that'll happen, and I'm mostly worried about how Morpheus will react when it doesn't."
He said something quietly. She didn't quite hear, even this close.
"I know, but they weren't like Trinity. She's special. But that's the problem, he thinks she's more special than she really is." For several minutes, the only thing she could hear was the low hum of the engines. "I'm going to bed."
Trinity sipped away and around the corner before the door was opened any further.
***
I get three weeks for break, but I have two sets of aunts/uncles coming in at different times, so I'm hesitant to make any promises.