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 group has freed Morpheus, but now they're all trapped in the lobby together. Trinity has been shot. Is it all over?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm getting this uploaded as quick as possible without giving you more than one chapter a day. Although I should wait longer to wickedly draw out the suspense that some people seem to be finding irritating (sorry to all those readers who keep exasperatedly reminding me of my attachment to cliffhangers). There's no serious cliffhanger at the end of this one! And Mystic Kyra, I'm sorry for making you cry breaks down in horror as to what she has done to her poor innocent reader DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS! Anyways, to finish that train of thought, Mystic Kyra: In this chapter I think I kind of make things better for you… but then I kind of make it worse. Here's a handy hint: people who like Morpheus better than Trinity; don't read this chapter, or any further.
Chapter six – Choice
Somewhere behind him, from what seemed a hundred or more miles away, Chase gave a small scream, but Neo barely noticed. No one else was speaking in the entire lobby. He had thought the wounded shoulder had bled badly. That was nothing compared to how she was bleeding now.
Sitting on the ground with his hand behind her head, Neo carefully pulled Trinity's lithe body onto his lap. She was quivering with shock, and blinking three times as much as usual. But her big blue eyes never left his face. Her gaze was like that of a curious infant, so new and eager to take in anything and everything, except that instead of being new to the world, she was nearing her end and knew it only too well.
The guard who had shot her lowered his gun and donned a hesitant, sort of guilty look as he realised what he had really done. He wouldn't meet Neo's eyes when he looked up from Trinity. Within two seconds of diverting part of his attention from her, Neo noticed her breathing lose its regularity, and immediately looked back to her. Aside from her jagged, strangled breathing, she had broken out in a cold sweat as a result of her shock.
There was no noise except for her breaths. She tried to sit up, but when Neo tilted her head and gently pulled her straighter, it was only so that she could stop choking on her own blood.
"It's okay, you're gonna be fine, you have to be," he told her quietly. No one else could hear. Maybe she couldn't, either. "Please be okay. Please, you have to be okay."
She couldn't answer, but she lost the energy to keep sitting half up, and lay back. Neo cradled her like a child, unable to contemplate what he'd do in a few minutes when she ceased to breathe at all.
"Morpheus, you're human. You must have feelings, emotions. Surely you aren't so cold and heartless that watching this scene does nothing to you at all? You aren't remotely moved?" Smith asked. He was trying to make Morpheus look bad in front of the guards and also get him to give up the codes.
The captain kept his mouth closed, and continued staring at the floor without seeing.
Neo stroked Trinity's pale, cooling cheek affectionately. She was going; life was leaving her even as he watched her. Her gasps became much more laboured, blood dripped from her lips. But never in all of that time did she stop staring into Neo's own eyes. It was beautiful and horrifying all at once – it was like she knew she was dying and had decided he was going to be the last thing she would see.
She was dying. If Neo had pretended to be Morpheus' ranking officer instead, this would never have happened. Trinity, strong, beautiful Trinity, wouldn't be a mere minute from death.
At this thought, he almost broke down. How could she be on her way out?
"Trinity, please, no, don't go," he whispered to her. Her unwavering eyes should have been disturbingly eerie. And her shaking. And her choking gasps. And her fatal gunshot wounds, which were bleeding worse than anything that Neo had ever felt before. Why her? The blood from her stomach had stained Neo's lap and his hand, lying across her waistline, was covered by it. He hadn't looked, but he could feel it. But how could he care about that? She was dying.
"You can't just leave me here. Please, please, Trinity… don't go anywhere I can't," Neo pleaded uselessly. He looked down at his hand on her stomach. "Oh, shit…" He hadn't really looked at her wounds before. Now he saw what lay beneath his hand. Seven tiny red holes in her middle, bleeding badly, so badly. "Christ, what am I gonna do? Oh, hell… Trin, sweetie… Oh, no, oh, shit."
Her quivering lips opened as though to ask something, but she had no voice.
"She has not thirty seconds to live, she's suffering… and yet you won't give up the codes, Morpheus?" Agent Smith mocked. To him, the fact that Trinity was at death's door was nothing but a mind game he could play against her captain.
A game…
This whole system – it wasn't real. It was like a game, a game with rules and cheats. To go back on the system, to rewind and alter what might have otherwise happened… An idea formed in Neo's head.
"Hold on for just one minute longer, please," he murmured to Trinity. Of course she didn't answer. Her eyes were fluttering, ready to close for the last time. But she held on, forcing her eyelids open to keep watching him. He looked up at the agents. Those cold, ruthless bastards… "Morpheus doesn't have the codes."
"What?" Brown asked sharply.
"Trinity does. Morpheus arranged for her to learn them instead to avoid things like this," Neo said loudly. Would they fall for it? "Please – this is a system, can't it be changed? Can't you take the bullets back?"
Jones stared at him along with the others before he said, in a slow, deliberate voice meant to vex him greatly, "That is possible. Why are you telling us?"
"Because I can't watch this any longer." That much was true. "I'm not allowed to tell you about the code swap, but this is unbearable. Please, take the bullets back."
"Well, we wouldn't want those bullets to go to waste, now, would we?" Agent Jones asked, a slow smile spreading.
"I don't care. I'll take the bullets," Neo offered desperately. "Anything. Let her live."
"Her for you?" Smith checked. Neo was about to nod, but Morpheus said, "No, me."
"What?" Neo demanded. Morpheus looked solemn.
"Neo, it's my fault this has happened to her. I'll take the bullets. Zion needs you. The Resistance needs you. Trinity. Mouse."
"Sir, I can't," Neo insisted. He couldn't let Morpheus die after they had all gone to such lengths to get him back alive. He glanced at Trinity as she tried to say something, but then looked back up at his captain, determined to block those horrible gasps from his ears for as long as he had to.
"Yes, you can." And Neo understood Morpheus' hidden meaning – if he died, the chances of the agents getting the Zion mainframe codes would die with him. Zion wouldn't be destroyed. Trinity would be alive.
The Oracle had said that this would happen. She had said that Neo would have the choice between his or his captain's lives. This choice was his to make.
"Neo, she needs you," Morpheus added, playing on Neo's obvious weakness – his closest friend, Trinity. Maybe he was right… but no, he couldn't be. Morpheus wanted Neo to live because he thought that he was something he wasn't.
"Morpheus, I'm not… who, or what, you think I am," Neo said quietly, stroking Trinity's hair from her eyes – not that it was bothering her. That had to be the least of her worries. "The Oracle said-"
"She told you what you needed to hear, Neo, like she always does. If every obvious sign of your identity didn't convince me, seeing you now would. You are the One, Neo, and the Resistance needs you. Please. Let me die for my mistake before she does. Please, Neo."
Morpheus knew, did he? How? There wasn't time to ask. But how could Neo let his captain die? How could he choose himself over Morpheus?
He was just about to answer to the agents, say, 'yes, me,' when a shivering hand touched his arm. Trinity stared up at him with her last energy, her eyes portraying her horror and pleading. Her bloodstained lips moved uncertainly. Neo recognised the unspoken word she tried to say as 'no'. She was asking him not to die for her… How could he go against that?
In his silence, Morpheus took his chance.
"Let her live, take the codes, whatever, in place of me," he called. Smith didn't speak. He nodded.
Neo took his hand from Trinity's stomach as her eyes closed, but was in for a shock. The bullets were slowly backtracking themselves – moving out of her body into open air. The wounds disappeared, and the only proof there had ever been seven small holes in her was the mass volume of blood on her and Neo's clothes and hands.
The bullets floated in midair, a foot away from Trinity. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat forward immediately, coughing because of the blood in her mouth and throat. Neo held her while she tried to clear her airways with choking.
"Neo, one last thing," Morpheus said. Neo looked over at him, torn between looking after Trinity and rushing to his captain to apologise for letting him try to sacrifice himself. "Promise me you'll take care of Trinity, even if you don't love her."
"Oh, um, sure," Neo agreed quietly, confused by the favour.
The bullets disappeared, then reappeared in front of Morpheus' chest. Trinity, gasping, forced herself to look up. She shook her head, opened her mouth to say something.
It was as if the mysterious time displacement surrounding the unmoving bullets snapped. The bullets went back into real time and flew into Morpheus' chest, spurting a little blood. The captain made a strangled noise and keeled over. He would die quickly – much quicker than Trinity would have if left to die. The wounds were worse.
"No!" Trinity cried, trying but not succeeding to stand.
"Trinity, don't there's nothing you can do," Neo told her, pulling her closer. She shook her head firmly and struggled away from his hold, but hadn't any energy to do so for long and collapsed against him, overwhelmed.
"Why couldn't you just leave me?" she whispered heartbrokenly, hugging him tightly. "Why can't I die after going through that… sort of thing? Morpheus…" She gave a soft sob, and let her chin rest on his shoulder. Neo held her tighter, pressing his cheek against hers. He was almost surprised to find that it was wet with tears. "Why did you have to bring me back, if it meant you or Morpheus…"
She missed her captain already. Maybe Neo should have died instead…
"Trinity, shh, it's okay, really," he murmured into her ear. She ignored him except to tighten her arms, like she had finally found someone she couldn't lose, too. "I'll give myself up for Morpheus-"
"No!" she muttered forcefully. "Don't. You promised Morpheus… Please, you can't."
She broke down crying again, tears that he felt rather than heard, and Neo realised that she really didn't want him to die.
He had forgotten that there were others in the room. Mouse and Ari were couched beside Morpheus in his last moments, trying to make him more comfortable. Ghost was standing back hesitantly, unable to decide which of the two (Morpheus or Trinity) he should console. Chase had silent tears running down her face and her arms folded, and her crewmate Coyote had an arm around her shoulders. The guards had had their memories altered again, so they had no idea what was going on. The agents watched coldly.
And Neo gently held Trinity, whose eyes were tightly closed, as Morpheus gave his final gasp and died. A single, beat-up looking guard limped in through the door.
"She got away – attacked us all… I just woke up, sirs," the man told the agents. He was one of the four who had accompanied Niobe out the front door to collect her captain. Niobe was safe, then. Trinity pulled herself together and looked up.
"I'll call ahead, make sure the exit is cut off," Brown muttered to Smith. They were going to cut the hardline. Niobe and Specter must be waiting elsewhere for some reason. "We have their position. I'll see to it that they don't make it to their destination."
They were going to cut the hardline and attack Niobe and Specter. Great. Even then, Agent Brown was taking out his cell phone and dialling.
Trinity looked over at the three rebels still standing in line. Her hand signals were simple – she pointed at Chase, Coyote and Ghost and then indicated the door. Her message wasn't difficult: you three, make sure their plan doesn't happen. With little hesitation, they turned and started for the door, but the guards stopped them.
"Not so fast," one of them snapped at Ghost. Trinity looked up at the agents, not bothering to clear her face and eyes of tears. They didn't change their opinion of her because of her appearance – they hated her all the same.
"They all go free if I hand over the codes," she said. God, she could act. And she could take charge.
"There are how many codes?" Smith demanded.
"Three. For each code, you let a group go." Trinity had learned from Cypher's dealing. "Starting with those three."
"Fine," Agent Smith agreed slowly. He nodded at the guards, who stood down suspiciously. "Let them go." Chase, the first to react probably because of her desperate need to get away from the dead bodies and the horrible memories of the lobby, bolted for the doors before Ghost and Coyote got a chance to consider it. But they were quickly on her heels.
-
Outside, rubbing the tears from her cheek, Chase was the one to spot the five road bikes parked in well-placed parking spaces in front of the building. She climbed onto the first one, the smallest, and adjusted her dark shades.
"Good eye," Coyote said, leaping onto the second and starting the engine. Thank God Chase had taken those driving programs on all vehicles, including motorcycles. She was now an expert at starting and riding motorbikes.
"Let's go. We'll have to cut the police off from getting to the hardline, and warn Niobe of the attack she's in for before they get there. What's say we split up?" Ghost asked quickly. Chase nodded, revving the engine. She had nothing against a little alone time cruising the streets at illegally high speeds to level out her horror at what she had witnessed that day.
"You can't go alone, it's against policy," Coyote added to her apologetically. "I'll go with you. Ghost, you make sure those police never get to that hardline, okay? Chase and I'll warn Niobe and Specter. Cool?"
Ghost gave a quick nod, revved the engine and sped off. Being the ranking officer to Niobe, he knew ahead of time where the exit should be. Chase allowed herself a small skid before she keeled off in the other direction. Coyote was calling Lunar. Apparently she was still distraught.
"Yes, I know, Lunar, but please, where are Specter and Captain Niobe?" he asked patiently, the phone wedged unsafely between his shoulder and ear. Only Coyote could carelessly ride a speeding motorbike in peak hour, mid-city traffic while also talking to a miserable operator over a cell phone and not worry obsessively.
"Gotcha." He carefully hung up and pocketed the phone. He replaced his hands on the steering handles and looked across to Chase, who was nervously avoiding cars. "She said they're at the Quartz Dragon."
"What the hell is that?" Chase shouted back, dodging a bright purple mini she should have seen coming. It wasn't difficult to spot.
"An old candle shop, a few dozen blocks away. Closed down. We have to get there before the law dudes do," Coyote explained, haphazardly glancing at her every now and then. Chase prayed to anyone listening that he didn't cause an accident and kill himself while she adjusted her foot on the foot pedal, moving her bike faster.
-
"They're gone, so what are the codes?" Smith asked. Neo, beside Trinity still, felt her tense a little as she remembered that she had no idea what the codes were.
"The first one is… k-c-i-r-p-s-s-e-l-t-r-a-e-h-a-e-r-a-u-o-y," she said, spelling it out. Smith nodded, no doubt adding it to his memory files.
"And the others?" Agent Brown asked, prompting her to continue when she was quiet.
"Let another group go, I'll tell you." Trinity nodded at Ari and Mouse, completely avoiding looking at the body of Morpheus. The guards looked up at the agents in disbelief – for them, what code was so great that so many known, wanted terrorists could be let free?
"Release them," Jones agreed, and Ari slowly stood, whispering something under her breath as she followed Mouse slowly out of the lobby. Neo heard another motorcycle engine start and speed off with the two riders.
"The second code…" Trinity trailed off, covering her moment of creative thought with the pretence of being nervous. "The second one is s-s-a-y-m-s-s-i-k."
"The third?" Smith sounded excited. Trinity allowed Neo to pull her to her feet.
"It's f-l-e-s-r-u-o-y-w-e-r-c-s-o-g." She turned and left the building, clutching Neo's arm tightly, as though much more frightened than she appeared. None of the disbelieving guards tried to stop them. In the parking spaces next to the road stood one last motorcycle. Neo let her go and climbed onto the seat. He glanced back at her, standing forlornly on the footpath with her arms tight around her waist, her cheeks smudged with tears.
"Coming?" he asked. She didn't answer or make any move at all. "Or would you like to stay there?"
"I'm coming," she said quietly, stepping over and climbing onto the bike behind him in one movement. Even misery couldn't take her natural elegance away. Neo revved the motorbike. She wrapped her arms around his waist and lay her face on his shoulder.
"You okay? I mean… That was a dumb question," Neo realised aloud. Mentally, he was kicking himself for that. Are you okay? What kind of sensitive-guy question was that? Yeah, she would be fine – her captain had just been killed right before her eyes, and he'd died to stop her suffering. Four of her shipmates had also died along with Morpheus. Two more of her friends had died, too. Her plan had gone to hell, she was a mess, and she'd been forced to tell the agents of the special entry codes to Zion's mainframe. They were doomed.
That reminded him.
"Hey, were those the real codes?" Neo asked, waiting for a small break in the traffic. Trinity tightened her grip and relaxed a little.
"I'll tell you in a minute. For now, just ride really fast, okay?"
-
Ghost carefully manoeuvred through the peak hour traffic, weaving his bike in and around cars. The drivers sure as hell weren't happy – they were tooting and yelling at him through their windows. But he didn't really care. He had to reach the hardline. In this traffic, he would get there long before the police did. At least, he hoped.
Four more blocks.
-
Niobe heard the bikes first. Specter was busy checking the tiny candle shop for useful items, but he wasn't very successful. Two motorcycles pulled up out the front of the shop, and the two riders leaped off and bashed through the unlocked door into the shop.
"Captain! Specter," Coyote said. He was slightly flushed from the ride, as was his companion, Chase.
"How did you get out of there?" Specter demanded. They had been looking for things to help them get the others out of the building.
"Trinity making up some codes so that they wouldn't kill her, too," the young man said quickly. "Isn't important. They'll all be out soon, if she gets her way. What matters is that there's a squadron of police heading this way right now, and we need to avoid them."
"Got it," Niobe said with a curt nod. She followed the other two back out of the candle shop. The mini van wouldn't be of much use in this hellish traffic, but those two bikes would sure be helpful. Niobe jumped on before Specter could. He didn't object to sitting behind her. After all, she was the best driver the Resistance had to offer.
"Ghost could use our help defending the hardline," Chase called from behind Coyote, flicking her hair out of her face. Niobe nodded again and led the way down the street.