Thanks everyone who reviewed! Also, a warning if you live in England – as good as you may think 5 AS Levels will look on your UCAS form, DO NOT TAKE FIVE. That's the mistake I made. Stress levels reaching no-one-touch-my-head-or-it-might-just-explode levels. Arrrgh.
Chapter 7 - Elsa
Elsa herself was in an apartment, completely unaware of her sister's attempt to save her from an unknown fate. But her mind was on Trinity – it always was. She'd made quite a bit of money from being a doctor, but she'd never forgotten when her sister vanished, even though it was twelve years ago now.
She was on the computer right now. She'd spent a bit of her money on private detectives to look for her, and she was expecting an e-mail from them at some point. She'd been told that Trinity, though she hadn't been told that was her name now, had joined a terrorist organization, but she didn't believe it; her sister would never do that.
The only lead they had was the fact that Trinity from that weird sci-fi film had looked a bit like her, but that couldn't be her. She had actually e-mailed the film studios when she was feeling particularly low, asking whether the actress was her, but she'd never gotten a reply. It couldn't be, anyway. Her sister couldn't act, and the girl she remembered had long light brown hair and wouldn't say boo to a goose.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. She got to her feet and looked through the peephole. She could only see the back of someone's head – he appeared to be examining the wallpaper on the other side of the hall.
"Who is it?" she called. In French of course.
"My name's Thomas," he said in perfect French, not turning round. "I know something about your sister."
Elsa gasped. Her thoughts span for a second. "What do you know about her?"
"I know where she is. Can I come in?"
Elsa didn't hesitate but pulled the door open hurriedly. The man came in. He was dressed all in black, which normally would have worried Elsa slightly, but right now she didn't care. "How do you know my sister?" she said, shutting the door behind her.
"I'm a friend of hers," he said, finally turning round. Elsa started slightly – he was an exact lookalike of that other guy in the Matrix, the one all her friends liked. Boy, were they going to be jealous when she told them about this. "She asked me to come and see you."
"What? Where is she?" said Elsa, hardly being able to bear all the suspense she was feeling. "Have you seen her? Is she OK?"
"She's fine," he said, smiling, "But you've seen her as well."
"I have?" This was all getting very confusing.
"Well, if you've seen 'The Matrix'."
Elsa suddenly felt very light-headed and sat down on the carpet. She couldn't think for about ten seconds. Then finally, she forced herself to look up again. "Was that actually her?" she said, unable to make her voice louder than a whisper.
"Yes."
"She's become an actress?"
Neo tried not to smile. He crouched down in front of her, and took his sunglasses off. He seemed to be looking for words. "No," he finally said, "Have you seen 'The Matrix'?"
"Yes, but I can't remember much of it."
"Well, it's not just a film. It's real."
Elsa stared at him. For a second she was worried she'd let a crazy man into her apartment, but then she saw the truth in his eyes. "Real?"
"Real. Trinity is your sister."
Elsa allowed this thought to sink in. It was too much. Not only was her sister alive, but she was in some film with machines and fighting. Not only that, but the film was real. She did what most people would do – she fainted.
Neo caught her as she toppled over sideways to prevent her from hitting her head on the table. "Elsa? Damn it." He pulled out his phone. "Morpheus?"
"Is that Neo?" he heard Trinity shouting down the phone, "Is Elsa OK? Ask him if Elsa's OK!"
"I'm asking him, Trinity!" he heard Morpheus saying to Trinity. Neo smiled. "How did it go?" Morpheus asked.
"She didn't take it quite as well as we'd hoped."
"What, did she not believe you?"
"Well, she believed me... I think. But she fainted."
"Ah..." said Morpheus, "Well, that can happen sometimes. Bring her here, and I'll talk to her."
xxxx
On the way to the Paris 'Unplug-Point', as it was nicknamed amongst the captains, Elsa woke up. The sudden realization that she was being carried – through the air – by the man who said her big sister was fighting lots of machines almost made her faint again. But the air pelting onto her face livened her slightly.
"Where are we going?" she shouted into Neo's ear.
"To meet someone," he replied. His tone of voice told Elsa not to ask who. Instead she looked down on the streets of Paris. The only reason she hadn't freaked out completely by now was most of her brain was insisting that this was all a dream, from which she'd wake up soon. In a way, she was right.
The flight didn't take long, and soon they arrived at the abandoned apartment building. Neo shot through one of the windows and set Elsa back onto her feet, where she quickly grabbed onto the wall to prevent her knees from buckling. He then led her down the hall to the room where Morpheus was waiting – and Trinity. Neo wasn't very surprised to see her there; she would have ordered Tank to load her up again as soon as she got back to the Nebuchadnezzar if he knew her at all.
Trinity glanced up the second the door opened. When she saw Elsa, she gasped, and covered her mouth with both of her hands. Elsa heard the sound and looked at Trinity. Recognition filled her mind at once – how couldn't she have recognised her in the film? This was her sister.
"Elsa!" shouted Trinity joyfully, and raced towards her. Just as she reached her, she held back for a second; even though they were sisters, they hadn't seen each other for twelve years. But to Elsa, all that time suddenly seemed like a second. She threw her arms around her elder sister, who had vanished when she herself was only fifteen.
"It's – it's," said Elsa, trying to find words, "It's really you. My sister. My Marie."
"Marie!" said Trinity, smiling widely, tears in the corners of her eyes, "I haven't been called that for so long. My name's Trinity now."
"I know," said Elsa, smiling slightly more shyly.
Morpheus stepped forward, putting a hand on Trinity's shoulder. He also smiled at Elsa. "Welcome," he said, "My name is Morpheus, and I am extremely honoured to meet you."
"Bonjour," said Elsa, shaking his hand. She turned to Neo. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my sister."
"Oh no, it was entirely her doing," said Neo, "She can be very determined."
"I remember," smiled Elsa.
"Come and sit down," said Morpheus, "There are several things we need to talk about."
xxxx
Tank's phone rang. "Operator," he said immediately. There were a few seconds pause. "Starting search." He started tapping the keys on the keyboard in front of him. Asha knew that he was trying to trace Elsa's output signal. He found it reasonably quickly. "Got her." He turned off the phone, and started the Nebuchadnezzar's engines. "Let's go get her."
"It's all gone OK? She's unplugged?" said Asha anxiously, as the Nebuchadnezzar lifted off the ground and started to move through the tunnels, picking up speed.
"Of course," said Tank, looking slightly suspicious, "Why wouldn't it?"
"Never mind." Relief flooded her.
Suddenly Tank's phone rang. "Operator," he answered immediately. Asha expected that it was just Morpheus and the others phoning for an exit, and hardly paid any attention. But when Tank didn't say anything else for more than five seconds, she glanced at him, and saw him frowning in confusion.
"What is it?" she asked.
Tank turned and looked at her, the confused face remaining. "It's David."
xxxxx
Im a Brandybuck – Hmm... Jim Carrey... my strange mind has made me imagine Morpheus dressed as the Grinch. Hehehehe... I personally haven't been shot either, but I had a dream where I was. I have lots of dreams about being killed in various ways. Drowning, stabbing, shot with an arrow, even garrotted with cheese wire like in 'The Watcher'. Um. Anyway. Onto more cheerful topics. Um. I might have a chance to see Mackenzie Crook (Ragetti from POTC). That's always cool!
Eowyn Skywalker – How did this scene remind of AotC? Oh wait... right, Anakin going to find his mum. Took me a moment there. Heh. I tried to enter that caption contest on your website, but I couldn't login for some reason! Dangit! Also, I never figured out how to send private messages. Double dangit. But alliteration makes it all better. Aaah.
Nina Hikari – Dang, my ancestors weren't nice. Harumph. (steers clear of doorknobs)
Hogwarts-Drama-Queen – Thanks! I was pretty peeved as well. Ah well. My own website will be up soon – once I figure out how to do it...
LiMiYa - ... thinking about it now, I could have put another action sequence in there. Dangit. Oh well. Maybe once this is all over, I could do a special extended edition, and add another scene in there... hehehe, yeah right, like I have enough time for that...