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 three crews have ganged together to rescue Morpheus and have broken into the building where he's being held. Now they're rushing upstairs to reach him before it's too late. Neo and Trinity are inside the elevator shaft and the bomb had just gone off. But they're all running into a trap. Who will survive?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to Kris, Mystic Kyra and Brooke for your encouraging reviews, it's really great to get your positive feedback. I'm glad you like it. I should start uploading quickly now that I'm on holidays.
Chapter five – Sacrifice
Niobe grabbed the railing and ran up the next flight. Those two girls, Chase and Ari, weren't far behind, and for such young recruits they were doing very well. They weren't showing any signs of tiring yet.
Somewhere, an explosion went off, only a flight or two above them. Trinity's bomb. The stairs shook a little. Chase, the one with the dark chocolate hair, stumbled into Ari, but they quickly got their footing and continued up the stairs at top speed. Morpheus' life might depend on their timing.
-
The explosion was about twenty or more storeys above, but of course Apoc, in the lobby, heard it. Trinity's bomb had gone off in the elevator shaft. But the lift would hit the ground level in a few seconds. He bolted away from the elevator doors and ducked behind one of the half-destroyed pillars just in time.
The worst of the explosion had occurred a few storeys up, but still, the door was blown off and fire blew from the opening. Luckily Apoc didn't get hurt – but he couldn't help wondering where the others were now.
-
Now out of the elevator shaft, Neo forced Trinity behind him so that he could successfully kill all of the quietly conversing guards around the corner. They never saw or heard him coming. Within seconds of holding down the trigger, all six were dead.
"Let's go," she said, walking past him and rounding the corner completely unarmed.
"Where now?" Neo glared up at the fire precautionary sprinklers as they showered him with water.
"Stairs," Trinity answered, starting for them. She tried to force it open, but someone, no doubt one of the guards, had locked it. Annoyed, she took Neo's gun and blasted it.
"Nice work. Now the agents will go broke paying for the locks you break," Neo said.
"Shut it. Keep up."
She ran down the stairs before he could, not even trying to wait for him. So Neo had to bolt to keep up with her.
About a dozen storeys below, Trinity kicked a door open.
-
Too many storeys up to count, Mouse had already followed Glyph out of the stairway and into a hall. Coyote, being cautious, had shut the door behind him.
They came to a cross-section in the halls. Glyph led them down the one that went to the left. When they reached the correct door, Mouse spotted Niobe with those cute young girls running over, too.
"Trinity and Neo aren't here yet," Niobe noticed. Glyph shook his head, sprinkling water everywhere.
"Ready?" he asked, drawing his gun. Three agents were behind this door, and Morpheus, too. Ghost suddenly turned up, gun held up.
"Citadel's downstairs with Apoc," he said quietly, running closer. Niobe nodded. Mouse watched the two girls as they took their own guns out. They were both really hot, especially drenched in water. He wished he'd been formally introduced to them before now. He'd probably die here, and they'd only ever know him as the boy who died trying to save Morpheus.
"Go," Glyph muttered, opening the door. The seven of them piled into the room, aiming their guns for the back of the agents' heads. In a few seconds, two agents were on the floor. Their water-drenched suits disappeared in a flurry of green electricity, instantly replaced by the dead body of the host. It was impossible to know if they'd actually killed the agents, or if Agents Brown and Jones had simply vacated their hosts before dying.
One kept avoiding the shots, dodging impossibly as he (or it) turned to face them and snatched out a gun. Agent Smith squeezed the trigger and fired four times before a bullet from Ari's gun ripped through his throat. One enemy bullet grazed Chase's hand. She gasped but didn't check it. A human body landed on the floor with a splash. Ari seemed amazed with herself, and she whispered to Chase, "I killed an agent!"
Morpheus was sitting desolately in a steel chair; his head hung low, sweat dotting his face and the sprinklers' water running down his cheeks. Wires were strung between his temples and the computers beside him. Obviously the agents were reading his brainwaves and trying to break into his mind.
"Morpheus?" Niobe asked, remaining businesslike but allowing a generous amount of worry to enter her voice. "Are you okay?"
He was breathing, but his eyes were rolled back in his head, revealing only the whites.
"Captain?" Mouse asked, scared again. He had been so scared at so many times today. In the building when he had had to climb out a window to escape being shot, when he had seen Switch drop out of the blue, when Cypher had paid them all that visit in the Construct… That had been scary, especially when he had announced that Trinity had to kill one of them. Mouse had known that if she got around to shooting one of them, and actually did it, the choice would be between him and Apoc. Like she would have killed Neo – she obviously liked him just as much as Cypher had said.
Or Neo, perhaps? Should we kill your beloved Neo? Go on, entertain me. Chilling words.
Morpheus was fighting whatever had control over his mind. Niobe pulled the white circles from his head and Ari carefully shot the chain between the captain's wrists. He was almost free.
He forced his eyes proper and blinked a few times.
"Niobe? Mouse?" he asked as he got to his feet.
"Come on," Glyph said, taking one of his fellow captain's arms to help support him until he felt better.
At the door, Mouse collided with Trinity, who had just arrived with Neo. Neo, the clueless guy.
"Thank God, you found him okay," she said, sighing with relief. "How are we going to get downstairs without attracting the agents' attention?"
"A diversion," Glyph answered. "A few of us will take Morpheus, and the others can deliberately get their attention."
"Come with me," Trinity said immediately, grabbing Neo by the arm and starting off.
"Wait, Trinity." Niobe called her back. "Ghost, you go with them. And someone else."
"Me. Us," Ari said, indicating Chase, too, when she gave her a dirty look.
"Too inexperienced," Glyph said with a shake of his head.
"Let us go and we'll be experienced after this," Chase suggested. But they weren't allowed to go.
"Coyote, Mouse, go," Niobe said, nodding at the other three. Mouse followed the red-haired guy Coyote out the door, disappointed. He'd been hoping to be stuck with the girls.
At the end of the hall, Trinity stopped them all and said, "Don't fight to win – fight to annoy. Once the agents pick up on us, they'll turn up. That's when we run. Okay?"
There was a lot of nodding in the small group.
Trinity was the first to strike the guards around the corner. She was good at what she did, and she kept to her words – she only fought to annoy them, getting painful kicks and jabs but never killing them. Neo was next to join, and Mouse and Ghost were quick to follow. Coyote kept a watchout on their escape route.
The three guards in turn morphed into the three agents.
"Go, go!" Trinity shouted, pushing Neo and Ghost back as hard as she could. They both turned and fled after Coyote, Mouse too. Coyote pushed open the stairwell that the others weren't using and ran inside ahead of the others. Mouse didn't want to wait around. He vaulted over the railing onto the next flight down, and did it again, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the enemy.
The others must have taken his example, because they weren't far behind at any time. Trinity was always at the back, ready to push anyone forward if they fell behind, ready to fight to protect them. To make sure she bought Glyph, Niobe and the girls enough time to get Morpheus out.
A small cry alerted the others to the fact that the agents had caught up with Trinity. Mouse glanced over his shoulder and paused for a moment, ready to keep running, but there was no need yet. The three agents – Smith, Brown and Jones – were sidetracked with Trinity. Brown had his arms clamped around her, with her arms pinned down uselessly. Agents' grips were too strong for even Trinity to break free.
"Trinity!" Neo exclaimed.
"We definitely see enough of you," Jones said, drawing back his fist. He punched her, hard, in the jaw. Her head snapped to one side, but she immediately looked back, her blue eyes so proud and defiant. The agent went to hit her again, but Neo chose that moment to kick him solidly in the side. Jones stumbled sideways into Agent Smith. Neo's next kick was to Brown's head. Mouse thought that was risky move. He was lucky he didn't hit Trinity. But the guy must have known what he was doing, because the only thing he hit was Agent Brown's face. The agent's grip on Trinity loosened for a moment, and she struggled free and bolted down the stairs, catching Neo's wrist as she did so.
"Move!" she yelled, spurring the others into motion again. Mouse took off. No way was he going to let himself get caught like that. Unlike Trinity, he didn't have the quick mind that would have gotten him out of the grasp.
-
Morpheus didn't need Glyph's assistance now – he was running down the stairs as fast as he could – although he had of course thanked the other captain for the help.
He had been very touched to hear that his entire living and good-hearted crew had teamed with his friends to help him. Glyph and Niobe, his ex girlfriend from many years ago, had agreed to letting their crews take part in his rescue. The inseparable girls, Chase and Ari, both of whom Morpheus himself had freed from the Matrix on the day they met at their all-girls high school, were here. Apoc and Mouse were here. Ghost, Niobe's only other crewmember that was capable of jacking into the Matrix, was here. Coyote, Citadel and Specter, the rest of Glyph's crew, were here. Neo and Trinity were here, even though by law she shouldn't have left the ship. But her loyalty was entirely commendable and would get her out of any trouble she got into when they got back to Zion.
"This place needs escalators," Chase complained. She kept running and wasn't panting or anything, but of course she was going to get tired eventually.
"Or teleportation machines!" Ari agreed. "It is the Matrix, anything's possible."
"The agents already are teleportation devices," Niobe said grimly. "Besides, we're nearly at the bottom."
-
The two doors opened at once. Apoc and Citadel were surrounded by the sudden mass of guards.
"Freeze! Put your hands on the ground!" one of the armoured guards demanded, holding his rifle to his eye, ready to fire.
-
Trinity could still hear the agents behind her. Neo was right beside her, and the other three before her, so she was able to see them all. She heard the electricity noise as one of the agents left its host.
"Shit," she muttered angrily. She hadn't been able to keep all three of them there in the stairwell. The other one – she didn't dare to turn to see which one – might have gone to wherever Morpheus and the others were.
That was not good.
"What? How did I…? What the hell?" The voice of the ex host carried down the stairs even as they kept running and creating echoes. The poor guy didn't know how he got there. He just had a little headache. Maybe a big one, actually. But she didn't care.
She had to outrun two agents.
-
The agent called Smith walked into the semi-destroyed lobby.
"Mr Mackenzie, fancy meeting you here," he said to Citadel. Apoc didn't give him the chance to say anything else. He whipped out his gun and opened fire on the guards.
Unfortunately, the guards were just as ready, and fired back.
"No! Apoc, don't!" Citadel shouted, but it was too late. Apoc was hit. Citadel was alone, and bullets were still firing. He ducked, and narrowly missed being killed.
Apoc was only just alive when the bullets stopped.
Agent Smith smiled his coldest.
"Kill them," he ordered the security guards. Citadel closed his eyes, thinking of his daughter and her mother, Lunar.
-
In the confines of the Nadir, Lunar stared at the screen in horror.
"No!" she screamed. "No, not you!"
No one was around to hear her. Nearby, in his chair, Citadel's body started jerking as bullet after bullet hit him in the chest.
-
Niobe reached for the door handle of the ground floor exit to the fire escape stairs, but Glyph's phone suddenly rang. He answered it, and Niobe stopped for a moment. She heard Glyph's operator's tearful voice from where she stood.
"What? Lunar, what happened? Who died?" Glyph asked. He opened the door himself and strode out into the hall behind the lobby. Niobe followed beside Morpheus. Chase and Ari were paying careful attention to their captain. Something was really wrong. Chase said as much. Glyph ignored her.
"Citadel. Yes, I got that much. Where? Where did he die, Lunar? Is he-" Glyph froze. Three or four dozen rifles were aimed at him and his small party. On the floor behind the guards, surrounded in their own blood, lay Citadel and Apoc. Dead, both of them.
He was furious to see his crewmember dead. He went for his gun.
"No, Captain!" Ari called loudly. She and Chase were behind Morpheus and Niobe, and they grabbed one each and pulled them back to safety. But when Ari reached for Glyph, she missed.
It was too late anyway. He opened fire on the guards, determined to bring them down. Niobe turned her head away when the enemies fired back repeatedly.
"God," Ari whispered, her eyes huge, as her captain fell to the rubbly floor of the lobby, bullets in his head and body. Chase's fingernails were digging into Niobe's wrist, where she had grabbed her before.
"Come out if you want to live!" one of the security guards yelled. "Unarmed, hands behind your head. Now!"
Niobe glanced at the other three. There was no other course of action that would get them out alive.
"We're… We're coming out!" she shouted. Very slowly, she pulled her hand free of Chase's and placed them behind her head. One by one, the others followed suit.
Morpheus led them out into firing range, but of course, since they were surrendering, they weren't shot. Some of the guards walked up and roughly pulled them into a line in the middle of the broken lobby.
"A nice little get-together, don't you think?" Agent Smith asked casually.
A door smashed open nearby. Out of the other hall, the final rebels came running in. Thus joining the nice little get-together.
Mouse came into view first, calling something back to someone. He turned back to the front, spotted the issue at hand, and halted. Coyote was next, and he ran right into him before he realised that something was wrong. Ghost and Neo crashed into them, but Trinity rounded the corner at breakneck speed and somehow managed to stop herself before she collided with Ghost.
"Damn," Coyote said in a 'whoops, we stuffed up' voice. Trinity muttered something angrily that Niobe didn't pick up. The other two agents walked out behind them.
"Thank you for joining us," Smith said, indicating for them to join the others. Some guards strode up and grabbed their arms, dragging them over to the line. There were quite a few men who decided that Trinity, the most delicate-looking of the lot, needed the most attention.
-
Neo gave the guard to his left an evil look but didn't bother trying to shake him off. There were too many others around. He was roughly shoved into line beside Morpheus.
"I am grateful for the thought and effort put into my rescue, but this isn't what I had in mind," the captain said with a grim smile.
"Neither," Neo answered. One security guard gave him a hearty shove.
"Quiet," he muttered gruffly. He turned smartly but almost tripped over Trinity's outstretched foot. She had tripped him on purpose – it was obvious from her barely hidden smirk. The man behind her noticed and tightened his grip on her wrists, perhaps thinking it would make her think twice before doing it again. Ha, not likely.
Neo silently counted the dead bodies. Apoc and Citadel lay dead beside each other at the back of the lobby, and Glyph had been shot dead near the entrance to the fire escape stairs.
"I was expecting some sort of half-considered, half-planned rescue attempt, but I expected less participants," Smith said, standing at ease in front of the destroyed, still smouldering elevator. "I certainly didn't expect for my luck to increase – we now have three captains of the Resistance."
"You have two!" Coyote said, staring at the body of Glyph now that he had noticed.
"My mistake. Two," Agent Smith corrected himself. Neo hated his voice.
"They'll never give you what you want!" Niobe called, pretending to be anyone but a captain.
"I think they will," Jones said. Obviously they didn't know who she really was.
"My captain is waiting outside. I can show you where if you let me live," Niobe said. Her hand was in her pocket, where her phone was. Then Neo understood. She was on the line with Lunar, the Nadir's operator, and the woman in the real world was listening to the phone conversation. She would call Specter and tell him to expect them.
"You four, go with her. Keep your guns on her," Brown barked, pointing at four men. They nodded and shoved Niobe toward the entrance, through the metal detector (setting off the beep) and through the revolving glass door. She was free. She would get rid of those guards in a heartbeat, and she and Specter would be out of there. Maybe they would be able to think of an escape for the others.
"I know for a fact that we have one captain here with us," Smith said, his hands behind his back as he walked closer. "Morpheus… still intent on keeping those codes to yourself?"
"Yes," Morpheus answered.
"Step forward."
He did, without the slightest hint of fear.
"I would die before I gave up any information regarding the safety of my people," he said defiantly.
"That's interesting," Smith began, starting to pace. He was so human in those respects – he fell into completely human habits to blend in. "It is interesting that you say that. Because, you see, it isn't hard to offer your own life for a cause. That isn't a challenge for you self-sacrificing people. What becomes difficult is sacrificing someone else. Someone your foolish emotional side becomes attached to."
"No personal cost is too great for Zion," Morpheus told the agents. Agents Brown and Jones smirked. Smith cracked a small smile.
"Is that so?" Brown asked. "Our inside source, which you might know, captain, had informed us on earlier occasions that when appointed as captain, you are to choose a lieutenant as your most trusted adviser. Often, this person is of great importance to the captain. Is this true? Mr Reagan gave us a lot of useful information, among it the fact that you, Morpheus, have a close relationship with your own officer. Much like a…" here he sneered "'close friend slash parent-child association'. That was how Mr Reagan described it."
Morpheus said nothing. The guards, who were under the impression that the rebels were a part of a large, dangerous gang that called themselves Zion, stood still. The agents hadn't mentioned unreality yet. Perhaps the guards' memories would be altered so that they wouldn't remember anything strange.
Neo wondered privately where this talk of Trinity was going. It didn't sound good. Ghost stood between him and Trinity, but he could see that although she was thinking a mile a minute, her expression never changed from completely neutral.
"Would your closest ally be too great a cost, Morpheus?" Smith asked mockingly. The captain was silent.
"Would the second-in-command to Morpheus kindly step forward?" Agent Jones didn't mean it as a question. It was a well-disguised order.
No one moved. Ghost looked down, and Neo got a better glimpse of Trinity out of the corner of his eye. Would she do as Jones had asked? He saw movement out of the other eye, and glanced at the girls and Mouse. Young Ari – the one with the black-and-purple hair – took a deep breath and was about to step forward in Trinity's place, but Chase and Mouse caught her quickly before anyone noticed.
"Don't you dare," Chase whispered under her breath. Neo didn't hear her, but he saw her lips form the words.
"Well?" Jones demanded of the silent line of captured rebels. After about ten seconds of dead silence, Trinity, her face set defiantly and her eyes with a steely, determined glint, strode forward, walking past Morpheus and stopping about six metres from the agents and the guards.
"Of course it's you, why did we ask?" Smith wondered aloud. "Get your guns on her," he added to the men behind him. They followed orders, loading their rifles. "So, it's Trinity. I should have guessed. Tell me, what price would you pay for your Resistance?" He directed it at Trinity. She refused to answer, so he turned back to Morpheus. "What about you? When does the price get too high? Are those codes in your head of more value that her?"
They were forcing Morpheus to choose between the codes and Trinity! Neo would have given anything to shout out to his captain to hand over these codes that they were so desperate for.
For a few seconds, Morpheus regarded Trinity, no doubt taking in her determined look that said she wasn't afraid of anything, least of all death. Neo recalled suddenly how Switch had died immediately after making it clear that she wasn't scared to die. He couldn't – wouldn't – watch the same thing happen to Trinity.
"No cost is too great," Morpheus decided finally. He sounded wearied, strained.
"Good." Brown gave the small hand signal to the waiting guards. And Neo knew.
They were –
He didn't get time to finish the thought. The front armed guard squeezed the trigger of his gun. The line of silver bullets moved too fast, and yet they almost seemed to be moving in the slow motion of suspended horror. Neo bolted forward, but he was already too late. He had barely taken a step when the first bullet hit Trinity in the stomach, then one after another. There were seven in all, and she copped each of them without a sound. The man released the trigger, and she dropped. Neo got to her in time to catch her before her head could hit the floor.