RATING: PG 13
AUTHOR: Sólia
STORY: What would have happened if, when the whole crew was in the wall in the first movie, Trinity had rushed to the aid of Morpheus, rather than forcing Neo to leave him?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to ChloroformxCandy, who just reviewed right now as I started to write this sentence, and to everyone who read but didn't review.
Chapter Four
"Holy…! Someone, quick!" Tank yelled, panicking. Neo had no idea what was going on until Trinity's unanimated body started violently convulsing. Monitors beeped urgently, alerting them to whatever was happening.
Morpheus looked horrified.
"What's happening?" he asked, forcing himself calm.
"The agents gave her the mind-breaker needle. It's not reacting well with the last injection that she got," Tank exclaimed, standing and trying to decide what to do. "Quick, see if we can find something to dull the pain for her!"
Cypher went into a complete panic.
"I have to pull the plug!" he cried, turning and running to Trinity. Everyone stared in shock, but Neo realised quickly what he was doing and bolted to intercept him.
"No, Cypher!" he shouted, pushing himself around one of the chairs. "Don't touch her!"
"I have to!" the other man insisted, sounding utterly deranged. His hands went straight to Trinity's head plug. Everyone was screaming something different, most of them trying to dissuade Cypher. Neo got there just in time to clamp his hands over Cypher's and hold them still, preventing him from pulling the plug he held right from Trinity's head. It was difficult, because she was still moving.
"No, don't!" Neo shouted into his face. He struggled with Cypher, trying to keep his hands still. "No! No, don't do it. Don't do it. Let go. You don't want to do this."
"I have to!" Cypher screamed. "I made a deal, I have to finish it, one way or another!"
"Let go. What are you talking about?"
"This all went wrong! It wasn't meant to be her! I know what I have to do! They said it might come to this, so I have to do it! Get your hands off me, I have to do it!"
"No, you get your hands away from her," Neo ordered through gritted teeth. He tried his best to ignore Trinity's jerking and gasps. He tightened his grip and put more of his weight into it, determined to keep Cypher from killing Trinity for as long as necessary.
Morpheus and Apoc arrived behind Cypher to assist Neo. Together they pulled the deranged man away, prying his hands from the inlet in his death grip. They dragged him away.
Only when they were out of sight did Neo remove his hands from Trinity's plug. He had saved her once. How many more times would he have to do the same to the others?
"We have to get her out," he told Tank, Switch and Dozer. They looked at each other but said nothing as he continued. "I don't care if I die. There has to be something."
"I agree. We need to try something," Switch said.
Morpheus and Apoc returned.
"He's safely locked in his room," Apoc said, stopping beside Switch. He jerked his head in the direction of their suffering lieutenant as she twitched violently. "Course of action?"
"Maybe Cypher was right," Morpheus said slowly. "He's evidently got something wrong with him and I can't think of what it might be, but I look at Trinity and… Something has to be done, and soon. It isn't right to keep her in this sort of pain."
"There has to be something I can do," Neo said desperately. "Anything at all, I'll do it. Are you sure we can't go into the Matrix and save her?"
"Not safely," Tank said immediately. "That building is so tightly controlled – you'd never get in."
Neo was quiet while they looked at each other.
"No, I can," he said finally. The whole crew stared. "The Oracle said that I would have to choose between your life," he glanced at Morpheus, "and my own. But then Trinity was taken in your place. Surely that means something? I'm not the One – she's more important than me."
"Neo, I understand the reasoning," Morpheus agreed. "But there's a good chance that you'll die in the process, and anyone who goes with you. Then Trinity will die anyway, and the ship would lose multiple valuable crewmembers, instead of one. It isn't worth the risk. I'm sorry."
Head hung low in something too close to grief, Morpheus approached Trinity and reached for her plug, stroking her hair from her eyes as he did so. She was still jerking at random intervals, drawing shuddery breaths in her pain. The rest of the crew crowded about her. Even Neo walked over, numb with his shock. He had lost his argument.
"Trinity, we love you," Morpheus murmured, his shaking fingers squeezing the locks on the plug. The movement had eerie similarities to pulling a trigger. He looked up at the others with huge, tear-filled eyes. "Does anyone want to say anything?"
Switch shook her head and took a step back, staring at her feet. Apoc muttered a decline, as did Tank. Dozer folded his arms and looked over his shoulder at the dead body of young Mouse, lying on the floor in the corner. Would Trinity's body be the next to join it?
Neo stepped forward, past Apoc. Morpheus watched silently as Neo leaned down to whisper in Trinity's ear. She remained still, but she was shaking as though cold, and her skin was clammy and sweaty. She wouldn't hear this, but Morpheus would.
"Trinity, you have to hold on," he murmured, just loud enough for the captain to hear. "You heard Morpheus – we love you. We're coming for you. We have to," he added, straightening and looking straight at Morpheus. "We have to because that's what she would do for us. Any one of us. She would, Morpheus. If it were reversed, if she were where you are now and vice versa, you know that she would do anything to get you back. That's why we have to save her. She wouldn't pull the plug on you unless it became impossible for her to help you in any other way. She would die for you, Morpheus. That's why she's there. Switch, Apoc, Tank, Dozer – Trinity would die for any of you, too. You know it. She needs your help. She needs all of us. How can we all turn away from her now?"
There was no answer but utter silence.
And everyone in the room had to agree with what Neo was saying.
---
The pain intensified progressively, and there was nothing she could do. Nothing at all. Trinity could do nothing to escape as her screams died with her energy. It wasn't that the pain was lessening – it was because she no longer had the strength and the voice. She still couldn't see, hear, feel, or think coherent thoughts.
Little threads of half-considered thoughts flitted through her head. She saw faces in her mind, and tried to focus her little conscious attention on them. She had to concentrate on anything but the pain. Now, who did those faces belong to?
Most she couldn't name. One was her enemy. Cruel smile, cold expression, reflective glasses. Smith. He was the reason she was in this pain. Who else was in her head?
Ah, of course. The one person that never left.
His name was Neo. She held onto that one thought, that one little image of his face, even as all other thoughts and images left her behind.
---
"One more thing, Neo," Morpheus said. Neo looked up. Morpheus examined him quickly, deep in thought. He hadn't expected anyone to be so incredibly stubborn in his loyalty as Neo. It was ironic – by a terrible mistake, they had at least temporarily lost Trinity, but now Neo was taking on her responsibilities as stubborn crewmember.
The Oracle was right, then. Morpheus almost smiled, but he wasn't amused as to do so. The Oracle had said to him that Trinity would have a pivotal role in the search for the One.
"Trust me, you won't get anywhere with him without this girl," the old woman had said. "You'll know her when you see her. She's got this aura about her – you can just tell that she's gonna be important."
Then, years later, he had gone again.
"You will find the One, Morpheus. Do not give up hope. You have Trinity to help you now. The One is as big a part of her future as he is yours. Maybe even more so." When Morpheus had stared at the Oracle blankly, she had simply winked playfully. "They'd make an adorable couple," she had added.
And now, so many years later, Neo was listening urgently to Tank's instructions, desperate to find Trinity.
"Yes, sir?" he asked when Morpheus didn't continue.
"Oh, yes," the captain said quickly, remembering. "What do you plan to do once you have found Trinity? That serum mix is going to kill her. What can we hope to do?"
Neo didn't answer.
"If you can get her out in time, it won't have any lasting effect here," Tank said doubtfully. "But that's a big 'if'."
"Is there nothing else?" Neo asked. Tank hesitated.
"I guess we could try one little thing…" he said, then turned back to his computers, working non-stop, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "Where's Mouse when you need him?"
Morpheus knew what Tank was doing – he was creating a small antibiotic program in the guise of a medicine that they could give to Trinity when they found her. If she lived long enough.
---
The agents regarded the shuddering, shaking rebel handcuffed to the chair. Her breaths were raspy whimpers; her eyes were half-open, although only the whites were visible. Her hair was messy from her earlier struggling. Her muscles, clearly well toned, tightened and relaxed randomly, and her hands, covered in blood, twitched frequently. Her wrists were the cause of her bleeding – during her pained writhing, she had jerked so much against the handcuffs that she had started a blood flow from her wrists.
Humans were so pathetic.
---
Tank and his brother Dozer finished plugging in the others before he dropped into his chair at the operators' station. He answered Morpheus's call.
"So what can I get you?" Tank asked. There was a small amount of mumbling on the captain's end from the other crewmembers in the Construct with him.
"Neo wants guns," Morpheus answered dryly a moment later. "No – lots of guns."
"Righto, coming up next," Tank answered, tapping keys. "Anything else?" He watched the guns load up.
"That antibiotic you made. One for each of us, in case only one finds her."
"Four syringes of special anti-die," the operator muttered, loading the programs up into the Construct along with the rows of guns. "Remember, guys – one needle each. You can't give her more than that or you'll kill her. Right? Right. And you'll need… What's that noise?" He looked around, but only his older brother was in sight. The thumping was distant and barely audible, but it soundly distinctly like someone banging their fists on one of the many metal surfaces of the ship. "Must be Cypher trying to get out of his room. Dozer, can you check on him? Don't let the nutter out – just ask through the door what's wrong with him." He turned his attention back to Morpheus, on the phone line. "Got everything you need?"
"Yes. A bomb would be nice, though."
Tank sent them a row of assorted explosives and watched the screens before him. He could see that Trinity wasn't getting any better – only worse. Hopefully Neo wasn't an escaped loon, and hopefully his crazy scheme worked.
"Thank you, Tank," Morpheus said finally. "We'll be in touch. But, one last thing."
"Yes, sir?"
"If the four of us should fall before we can reach Trinity, you pull the plug immediately. If her pain levels go off the charts, you call me immediately. Is that clear, Tank?"
"Yes, sir, it is," Tank answered, nodding though no one could see.
"Good." With that, Morpheus ended the call. Tank pressed a few keys and the four crewmates were sent into the Matrix.
Sólia