TITLE: Deja Vu
RATING: PG-13
AUTHOR: Sólia
SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The Logos and the Nadir have answered the Nebuchadnezzar's distress call, and now Trinity has her own crew of three, and also the crews of the two rescuing ships to help save Morpheus. Now it's time for an alternative-universe lobby scene.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yeah! Chase and Ari, but particularly Chase, kick arse! I had to stick them in somewhere. I'm starting to wish this is how the movie went – Delerith and I would have been movie stars! Except we were so not seventeen-year-olds in 1999.
Thanks so, so much to everyone who has waited patiently for this chapter. I apologise to anyone who was offended by my lack of updating. I know it's been ages. I recommend maybe rereading the previous chapter since it's been so long. Sorry again for the wait.
And thanks to my reviewers, including Jadza (Ich liebe dich!), Kris, Lila and Mystic Kyra, who reviewed most recently (some were last year, lol).
Chapter four – Ambush
Neo had only met rebels from his own ship before today. Now he knew the crew of the Logos and the Nadir, and it was the same day that he had been to the Oracle, Morpheus had been captured, and Switch, Tank and Dozer had been murdered by Cypher. Busy day.
He was dressed completely in black, like usual in the Matrix, except it looked cooler, and more intimidating. He was going to enter the building Morpheus was being kept in with Trinity, Apoc, Mouse, Niobe, Ghost, and the Nadir crew – Captain Glyph, Specter, Citadel, Coyote, and two seventeen-year-old girls who were once freed from the Matrix by Morpheus; Chase and Ari.
Niobe and Trinity had organised a plan with Glyph. Most of them were going to use the front doors. Citadel and Ghost were to use the staff access out the back. Specter would be waiting with a mini-van out the front as a getaway car. Trinity and one other would use the elevator and set off the bomb. Six others would use the two sets of stairs. One would stay to keep guard on the first level.
"Let's go," Niobe said, straightening her glasses. Inside the Matrix, her curly hair was braided and then twisted into small geometric buns all over her head. It looked cool. She wore weird triangular glasses and a sort of crimson-red leather trench coat.
Those two young girls, younger even than Mouse, glanced at her expressionlessly and instantly started after her. They were the kind of people Neo was jealous of – they were new to this, but somehow they acted like they were born to it.
Trinity and Apoc showed no sign of their earlier injuries whatsoever. They looked just as fresh as anyone else. In the real world, though, Apoc looked tired and achy.
The building was tall and appeared to be completely glass. They entered the front doors in single file. The receptionist didn't look happy to see them.
"No entrance without an appointment," he said snootily. Glyph, the man with a light blonde ponytail, punched him in the nose when he refused them entry again.
"We have an appointment," he said as he followed the others. Neo glanced back as he walked through the turning door behind Mouse. The poor unconscious receptionist lay on the modern tiles of the reception.
Trinity, Niobe and Glyph were leading everyone else. Glyph held a large black duffel bag in his hand, and now he dropped it onto the x-ray conveyor belt machine. The guards didn't seem worried until Niobe walked through the human metal detector, setting off the small, single-beeped alarm.
"Ma'am, please identify any metal you're carrying, like keys or maybe a belt buckle?" one of the security guards said, standing up and approaching her. Neo saw the men get uneasy when they saw Glyph and Trinity also step through to set off the beep, also dressed to intimidate.
A young man from the Nadir called Coyote waltzed on through without much interest ahead of Mouse, but when he heard the guard repeat his question to Niobe, he grinned.
"You mean like guns?" he asked, more to stir trouble than anything else. At these words Niobe, Trinity and Apoc took out their guns and shot the guards before they could defend themselves. Two men ducked and pulled out their radios.
"An ambush! Terrorists in the lobby!" one cried.
"Send security! Back up! Quick!" the other said loudly, pulling a gun free and holding it up. Neo thought it was almost amusing that they seriously thought they could defend themselves with one pistol here.
Apoc silenced them quickly. "Hurry," he said, grabbing the duffel bag containing Trinity's bomb. Neo followed at the pace of the girls, Ari and Chase, wondering how long the back up security took to arrive.
He missed hearing the sound because one of the girls whispered something to the other. He turned to look. They were very mature and grown-up for seventeen-year-olds, but they could still drop back into the normal teenager routine of whispering secrets.
"I was just saying that I recognised you," one of them, Ari, said with a quick smile. Her friend, Chase, leaned around her with an equally bright smile.
"We literally ran into you on one of our first expeditions into the Matrix," she said quietly. "Sorry about pushing you into the fence and all."
Neo was vaguely recalling an event six months ago when he had been walking to his favourite noodles restaurant and two teenage girls had run straight into him, before yelling, 'get out of the way!' and shoving him into a wire fence. He was so caught up in the memory that he walked into Trinity. She was staring ahead with rapt attention. The security had arrived, and the rebels were almost halfway across the lobby.
"Hold it right there!" one of the 'hiding' armed and armoured guards shouted. The group of nine rebels did nothing but stare as the security guards continued to surround them.
"Now!" Niobe yelled, bolting for one of the tall, square pillars that served the double purpose of support for the roof and decoration. She pulled out her gun again and opened fire on the captain of the guards. All of the others in the group ran for it, too, drawing their own firearms and shooting.
Neo ran behind a pillar and glanced back to where they had all been seconds ago. The bomb was still there, and bullets flew through the air, many bullet paths crossing. He leaned around the support to fire on one of the enemy men. There were people running everywhere.
Upon seeing one guard sneaking up behind Mouse and Trinity, both intent on killing a small group of enemy a few metres ahead of them, Neo brought his gun up and held down the trigger. The man jerked a few times as the bullets hit, then fell to the marble tiled floor. Mouse glanced back, then grinned across at Neo.
"Neo, down!" Niobe yelled. He obeyed, hearing a guard slam his rifle into the pillar where his head had just been. But the guard was in for a surprise, because when Neo kicked him in the knee, most certainly breaking it, Niobe also shot at him, killing him just as certainly.
This was a dangerous job, but fun, because the rebels were already winning. In fact, there almost seemed to be too many good guys – they were lucky to not get caught in their own cross fire.
As Trinity knocked one guard's head into a support pillar, she debated what this might have turned out like if only she and, say, Neo, were to have undertaken it. There seemed too many rebels in the room. It was a definite advantage, but still, it didn't feel right, and she, who had taken part in so many emergency rescues, knew how this should feel. There was sure to be casualties. Someone would get caught in the fire, because that was just what happened in her experience. Things only worked if dealt with in their bare essentials. They didn't need nine people in this room. A few would have done fine. Maybe even just two… She and Neo would have done fine… maybe?
Mouse helped her kill another guard by taking his rifle while she punched him in the face, and then the boy shot the guard in the back of the head. He hurried over to the next guard like an over-eager child.
She shouldn't have let him along. He was by far less ready for this than even the girls, than Neo.
Someone with flying fists and swift kicks backed past her, being driven back by a hand-to-hand-combat knowledgeable guard. It was Chase, noticeable by her signature dark chocolate brown, shoulder-length high ponytail. With a single shot, Trinity had killed her attacker and caused him to hit the ground facedown. Smiling beautifully, Chase ducked beside her old friend. Dust flying, chips of concrete and marble flicking through the air, even super-fast bullets barely missing her couldn't erase Chase's smile when Trinity snatched up the guard's gun from the floor and tossed it onto her lap before leaning perilously around the pillar.
"Aim for the guard over there, he's firing at Neo," she said, shooting vaguely in the general direction of the said guard. She had a bit of trouble – she was right-handed, and was on the right side of the pillar, so she had to lean further so that her shoulder could control her arm's movement. Deciding that this left too much of her arm available for shooting, she dropped down further, so she was sitting, and changed the gun into her left hand. That made things easier, and she was able to get a clearer shot at Neo's attacker. It was Chase that ended up killing him, though.
They both ducked behind the pillar again as some enemy men decided that they were obvious, dangerous targets and decided to shoot at them. Chase took the moment to speak, thus explaining her smile.
"A friend of yours?" she asked innocently. She had that annoying, enviable ability to sound perfectly innocent while lying or being sarcastic, even if that meant telling someone something completely outrageous or ridiculous.
"Neo?" Trinity asked, carefully checking for new attackers behind her pillar to avoid making eye contact with the intelligent girl. Ari, her best friend, was the rebellious one that could get anything she wanted from someone through force – and she was strong and aggressive enough to get it otherwise. But Chase was the one who could play the mind games (she seemed to be able to read minds, or get inside them or something) and convince with cute, innocent looks.
"I think that's his name. Ari and I pushed him into a fence once on our Jai/Stark trip. Ages ago."
Trinity didn't answer, aiming instead at a hidden security guard that had targeted Coyote, a redhead crewmate of Chase's, and holding down the trigger until she had killed him.
"He's pretty cute," Chase said, still as innocent as ever. Innocent sounding, anyway. "I can't believe we ran straight into another rebel and shoved him into a wire fence. That was, like, six months ago, though. He wasn't a part of your crew then. Where did he transfer-" She stopped suddenly and ducked her face as a bullet struck the concrete above her and sent cement dust scattering over them, "-from?"
"Nowhere," Trinity said as she killed the culprit of the pillar-destruction. "We only just got him out of the Matrix a month ago."
"Seriously? At his age?" Chase was amazed. "I thought you couldn't…" She peered around the edge of the pillar, innocent, cute voice gone. "Trinny, he's older than you," she noted.
Eyebrows raised slightly at both the nickname she hadn't heard from the girls in too long and Chase's prejudicing comment, Trinity turned to her younger friend.
"I know that," she said indignantly, straightening and kneeling to get a better view of the goings-on of everyone else. She managed to shoot at least three more back up guards before she realised that Chase wasn't speaking and glanced at her with a tiny spark of worry. She was alive, but staring at her gun thoughtfully. She looked up.
"Why did Morpheus get him out?" she asked.
"Morpheus thinks he's… he thinks he might be the One," Trinity said finally. Chase's dark eyes brightened, and she stood. She held the gun lightly and smiled.
"I have to tell Ari," she said immediately. She looked around the corner at the shootout. "By the way, you two would suit." She backed up a little as Trinity realised what she had meant – Neo and her – then dashed forward.
"No, Cha-" she began, but the girl leaped into numerous cartwheels to avoid the bullets and to also reach the other side of the lobby safely. She got to Ari completely unharmed. But she was only with her for about five seconds before she ran to the assistance of her captain, Glyph. When Ari met her gaze momentarily, Trinity wondered what Chase had told her. She couldn't have said much, but she had probably communicated the rest of the story in her own special way, with her mind-talk.
Trinity got up and left her hiding place, preferring to be out in the open anyway if it came to it. What was happening to Morpheus right then? Did he know that she had argued with the over-worrying operator of the Logos, Sparks, and everyone else, so that she wouldn't have to pull his plug?
Everyone had strongly suggested she decide to kill her captain by pulling the plug for the good of Zion and the Resistance – Sparks, Niobe, Ghost (who was usually so placid and gentle), Citadel, Specter, Nadir's operator Lunar, even Apoc had been for it. Glyph had believed that with enough manpower her idea had been perfectly possible. The girls and Mouse and Coyote were open to anything new and adventurous and for them the line between easy and fully impossible was a very thin one. Neo had insisted that the Oracle had foretold him of this and he knew he had to try. So with that little extra prompt from him and with her position of power, Trinity had decided that Morpheus would just have to hold up. The rescue went ahead.
Two guards down instantly with one bullet each, another shot back but missed when attacked from behind by Apoc. She was on a roll. One guard self-sacrificially ran at her, and she tossed her gun aside to block his heavy but clumsy blows. Within seconds she had knocked the wind out of him with a knee to his stomach, and held him still as someone else shot at her, using his large bulk as a human shield.
There were only two men left in the lobby.
Neo lowered his gun from what he figured was about the third-to-last enemy guy, and watched Trinity for a moment. She was unarmed now, fighting off another guard. This one was skinny and tall, much taller even than her, but she was fine – she was slight, supple and smart, and she used all of her qualities to her greatest advantage.
She caught a hard punch long before it got close enough to be threatening toward her, and twisted her enemy's arm at the elbow. She spun beneath it and came up behind him before he got a chance to stop her. She snapped his arm back, hard, breaking his elbow and causing him much pain while one of the girls, Ari, slid a gun across the floor to Niobe, who caught it and stood, shooting the man repeatedly in the chest.
But there was one more that no one saw until almost too late. Glyph had already retrieved the duffel bag when Ari straightened with a smile. Neo spotted the almost hidden guard in the corner not far behind the young girl, just lowering his radio and raising his rifle.
"Move!" he shouted to the girl. Ari instinctively moved a few steps to side, and bullets flew harmlessly past her. Neo held up his own Mac11 and fired non-stop at the guard, but he only hit the man's shoulder. He and Coyote jogged over and finished the guy off.
"Thanks," Ari said, brushing her free fringe from her eyes but not tucking it behind her ears. Her hair was black with thin lavender streaks leading to her high and stylish bun. The streaks matched her eyes.
Neo didn't even nod. He wanted to remain as businesslike as Trinity, whom he greatly admired.
"Someone has to stay," Niobe said as Glyph handed the bag to Trinity. The younger woman nodded once at Apoc.
"You can stay guard here," she said in a voice that practically dripped the words, 'where you'll be safer'. She wasn't happy about bringing him along because of his earlier almost fatal injuries.
"Fine," Apoc answered without his usual respect. She didn't seem to care.
"Groups of three up the stairs," Glyph said. Chase and Ari immediately followed Captain Niobe when she took the left passage leading from the room to fire stairs. Neo decided to leave Mouse with Trinity and jogged after Glyph and Coyote, but she grabbed his upper arm.
"You come with me," Trinity said, pulling him back and giving Mouse a light shove after Coyote. The boy looked slightly offended. "Go on," she added to him, and he sulked off.
"Why me?" Neo asked, entering the elevator before her.
"I don't know. You're taller? Anything you like."
She seemed to consider this a valid, perfectly normal answer.
Trinity typed in the number for the roof level and, as the elevator started moving, she knelt down beside the bag and opened it, revealing the silver case inside. She opened that, too, with practiced speed that showed her previous experience. She could have done this by herself.
"Why did you need a 'helper'?" Neo asked her finally as she started to press in the codes. She pulled her jacket off and looked up at him.
"I don't," she said.
"Then why am I here and not sweating my ass off trying to beat you to the top on the stairs?"
"To ask stupid questions," she answered, going back to her task. "No, because this isn't the only thing we're doing. No one else down there, except maybe Niobe or Glyph, has fighting capabilities like yours. I planned for you to be with me the whole time."
"Oh, okay," Neo said, leaving it be. On level fifty, the lift stopped.
"Shit," Trinity muttered, infuriated and terrified all at once. Neo turned to the door and, for some reason, wished with all of his being that the doors would somehow stick. How stupid to wish like that – nothing happened unless you made it – but amazingly, the doors wouldn't open. He could hear people banging on the doors. He must have had his eyes closed tightly, because Trinity shook him by the shoulder and demanded if he was okay and if he was the one making the doors stay closed.
"I'm fine," he said, opening his eyes. He didn't know what he had done, but the idea that the elevator door didn't really exist helped him a bit. Maybe he had just concentrated on the code or something in his head? But then, who cared? He had to get himself and Trinity out of there. He spotted the escape hatch on the roof. He pushed it aside. "Hurry."
Trinity finished with the bomb and stood. Neo gave her a foot up, and she climbed through the hole. Practically praying to the God that he'd long lost confidence in to keep those doors closed long enough, Neo pulled himself up after her. She was fiddling with a panel on the steel wall, pulling colourful wires out and checking them. Neo got to his feet and moved over to her.
"Got it!" she said, ripping a green one free. The doors slid open. She pushed Neo out into the hall and quickly followed, drawing a gun and aiming at the brackets where the elevator was attached to the thick wires that held it suspended and allowed it to move up and down.
"Wait!" Neo said, catching her wrist before she could shoot. "Why can't we attach ourselves to the cords? We'd get to the top a hell of a lot faster."
"You're right," Trinity said, stepping back onto the top of the elevator. She found one brace lying on the top. She attached it to Neo's belt with the short rope that was tied to it. As though forgetting about herself completely, she locked it onto the rope and stood back.
"That's me, but what about you?" Neo asked. She shrugged.
"I could run up the stairs," she answered. She got her gun again and shot one of the two cords. Neo held his one tightly. Trinity stepped closer. "Or I could stay with you."
"That one sounds good," he said, sliding one arm around her waist and pulling her closer. She glanced down at his arm and then studied his face as though searching for a hidden meaning behind his action. She couldn't find one. She wrapped her own arm around his shoulders and took the rope in her hand.
"Ready?" she asked. Neo hesitated.
"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," he said, taking the gun she pressed into his hand before replacing her arm around his shoulders. "We could crash into the roof, or you could fall."
"I'm not going to fall."
"How do you know?"
"Because you aren't going to drop me," Trinity answered. The people on the next floor down still couldn't get into the doomed elevator.
"What if I do? We'd all be screwed – this would all go to hell," said Neo.
"You aren't going to drop me. We're going to be fine," she said. She moved a little closer, and Neo tightened his grip on her. "I have faith in you," she murmured.
"But I'm not the One," he said softly. Nonetheless he shot the last coupling and allowed the virtual rules of gravity and physics to pull him and Trinity upwards immediately. The elevator fell, pulling their cord behind it, but they were still going up.
"Apoc's on the bottom level!" Trinity said suddenly, but Neo barely heard her – the bomb went off at about level twenty. The doors of level fifty opened, and the human guards peered into the empty shaft before they jumped back from the blast of heat that rushed up to meet them. Trinity hid her face for a moment, and Neo held her a little bit closer. Nearly at the top…