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?
Chapter Seven
Neo missed the last step on one flight of stairs and crashed into the locked door opposite before bouncing off and continuing down. He noticed the level number out of the corner of his eye: level twenty-six. Only twenty-six more levels. Thank God.
---
Trinity closed her eyes and slid down the wall a little, completely sick. She had just killed Apoc. How he had died from hitting a wall like that she didn't know, but she did know that it was her fault. How had she let this happen? She had killed someone that she knew and cared about. She had killed Apoc.
A strong but deliberately gentle hand landed on her shoulder and she made herself look into her captain's eyes. Morpheus searched her gaze a moment before speaking.
"We have to go," he said. "We haven't been found yet but the security is already looking. I know you blame yourself but such feelings can wait until we return to the Nebuchadnezzar. You must help me to get Switch to ground floor."
"I can't leave Neo and Apoc," Trinity said, ignoring that she was mute. She didn't make a sound but she knew that Morpheus had gotten her point.
"Neo has gotten away and is headed for ground level as we speak," he told her. She felt her eyes brighten. Apoc was dead but Neo was alive. "If we hurry we can meet him there."
She nodded and moved away from the strong, supporting structure that was the wall, stepping up to Switch. She held out a hand and waited.
"This isn't how it was meant to happen," Switch said softly, shaking as she stared at Apoc's dead body. Trinity could say nothing. Switch looked up and there were tears in her pearly pale eyes. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she took the outstretched hand. "Why does this have to happen to me, but never to you?"
Trinity pulled her to her feet and stared at her. Even if she had been able to speak she wouldn't have. Apoc rolled onto the floor from Switch's arms and came to a stop with his face hidden.
"Come," Morpheus said softly. "We must go."
He led them to the stairs and opened the door. There was no one on this level (26) but the sounds of running footsteps echoed off the concrete walls. Trinity ran into the stairwell and leaned over the railing to look down the middle. Six or seven storeys down, Neo was being chased by Agent Smith.
"Run, Neo!" she tried to scream. Unable to hear a scream that had never sounded, Neo didn't look up. But he did keep running.
Without waiting for an order from Morpheus, Trinity launched herself down the stairs, desperate to reach Neo before the agent caught up to him. She could hear the other two behind her as she ran.
Doors and walls and railings flashed by as she jumped over the last four steps on one flight and landed on the landing. She immediately started down the next flight just as fast. All that mattered was stopping Smith from stopping Neo.
When there were only five levels between her and Smith, Trinity stumbled upon skipping some steps. As she fell, she curled herself into a ball so as not to hurt herself and to roll further. On the next landing she rolled onto her feet perfectly and continued as if she had never faltered. Amazingly she was closing the distance – but she needed to close more distance, faster. Shutting all doubts from her mind, she turned and leaped free of the stairs. For a few seconds she dropped, dangerously close to the railings and still diving fast, but then she caught the top bar of a railing and flipped herself onto the stairs. She had fallen three storeys to floor nineteen, but she was safe.
Smith had heard her, though. He looked back up at her as she started running again, and met her eyes through his glasses. For a moment, the agent slowed, undecided – should he keep chasing Neo, a new threat with no dangerous history but possibly the One, or go back for Trinity, who, after Morpheus, was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world? He chose to keep after Neo.
---
Mr L Rodney, security trooper, stepped out of the elevator onto level nineteen with some other members of his squadron. The janitor's cleaning carts had been removed from the lift and more people were able to squish in now.
They had been told by overseer Agent Brown to come up here and try to intercept the fugitives in their escape down the stairwells. Hopefully they would be successful. Although Rodney hadn't seen him, he had been told upon arriving at work for his shift today that a dangerous terrorist was being held near the top of the building. During the briefing that had taken place not long afterwards, he and his squadron had been informed on a need-to-know basis. They had been told that the captive had been freed by more of his terror network members, and that between three and six unauthorised persons were inside the building.
While some other men checked the nearby doors for hidden criminals, Rodney and two others opened the door to the stairwell. Inside, clattering footsteps echoed loudly. He stepped into the stairwell and looked down. A few storeys below, a tall, dark-haired man was fully bolting down the fire escape stairs, followed quite closely by the man named Agent Smith. He looked taken care of.
Directly across from Rodney himself, running also, was a tall, beautiful young woman with short dark hair and contrastingly pale skin. She was dressed completely in a sleek black jumpsuit – very nice. She looked familiar, but there was a huge bruise on her jaw and her hair was far from perfect.
She noticed the squad enter and shot a nervous glance upward without pausing. Rodney and the others looked up and spotted the other two people one and a half storeys above them. He drew in a sharp breath as he recognised the well-built, bald African-American man as Morpheus. He had seen photos of the dangerous terrorist, some of which featured also the pale, white-blonde woman behind him.
As though by silent agreement, all three security guards, Rodney included, raised their guns and started firing at Morpheus. After all, he was considered by some to be the most dangerous man alive.
Unfortunately, Morpheus and the pale woman ducked aside and kept running, closer to the outer wall. The dark-haired woman glanced up and hesitated, before coming to a stop. She reluctantly started back up, obviously with the intent to protect her fellows. Rodney was surprised – a girl like that shouldn't be mixed up in this kind of network.
The security guards ceased fire and turned as the woman jogged back up the stairs angrily, but none wanted to shoot her.
"Trinity, we'll deal with them!" a deep, commanding voice ordered from next to the door on the above flight of stairs. All four – the woman and the guards – looked up at Morpheus. Rodney's fellows started up the stairs to get the criminal man and the blonde woman, and the rest of them came through the door and raced after them, but Rodney stayed where he was, watching the beautiful woman – Trinity, was it? The guards who came rushing into the stairwell to get Morpheus didn't notice her.
"Go!" Morpheus ordered, before shoving the door beside him open and disappearing into it with the blonde woman. The guards stumbled up the stairs after them.
The dark-haired woman – Trinity – met Rodney's eyes for a fleeting instant before she turned and fled. She was faster than anyone had he ever seen, and it took him a moment to remember to follow her. He hurried down the stairs, annoyed with the rifle he was to carry. He was trained in hand-to-hand combat, so he didn't really need the weapon, right? He didn't put much consideration into that he cast the rifle aside and evened out his gait. Without the awkward gun to weigh him down, Rodney was very fast and steady on his feet – he wasn't worried about running down stairs.
Two levels down, though, he was sick of chasing her. No one else had followed him. He had no idea what her intention was – why she didn't just burst through a door and hide out in an office and kill him when he walked past – but she seemed determined nonetheless. In fact, she barely seemed to notice that he was there behind her, so little was her concern. She occasionally glanced over the side of the railing when she got close, and she always put on a slight burst of speed afterwards. Rodney copied her once; trying to see what it was that she was so worried about. The man called Agent Smith was still chasing after the black-haired man storeys below, but neither of them paid Rodney or Trinity any mind.
"You! Stop!" Rodney shouted to Trinity. She completely ignored him. Instead of stopping, she leaned forward into a cartwheel that took her to the next landing, where she landed effortlessly on her feet and kept running.
She was on level fifteen now, Rodney on sixteen. He wasn't gaining on her; she was too fast. Didn't she ever get tired?
"Stop! Stop!" he ordered again. Again she made no inclination that she heard. "Stop! Trinity, stop!"
Rodney hadn't been sure if Trinity was her name, but now that he had said it, she glanced back at him once over her shoulder. Of course, she didn't actually stop for him.
---
Neo heard a trooper shout Trinity's name along with an order to stop, although he doubted whether it was followed. The gunshots of a few minutes ago had ceased, and Morpheus hadn't spoken again. Neo assumed that Switch and Apoc were with the captain.
Smith was barely a flight of steps behind him, so he didn't dare glance up to see if Trinity was really still following, but it comforted him slightly to know that she was only a few storeys above, trying to help him.
Only ten more levels to get down.
---
Switch dutifully followed Morpheus between the offices, avoiding the smashing glass all around. She knew they were headed for the elevator, but they had to take a tricky path through the offices to throw off the guards, who were all firing aimlessly at the glass dividers in the hopes that they might hit a target.
Apoc was dead and Trinity had killed him… It was hard to think of anything else. It was completely unfair, though. Switch was far from sensitive or emotional, but she did have feelings for Apoc, which could now never be expressed. Switch had lost her man but Trinity would undoubtedly get hers in the end.
---
Cypher returned with Dozer. If luck went his way, they would never detect that he had removed Apoc's plug and then replaced it afterwards. There were no signs of it.
What a stroke of luck, though, that Trinity had pushed the guy into a wall at the same time as his plug was removed. Now everyone would believe that it was her fault.
But this whole deal was going to hell. It was meant to have been Morpheus that the agents got and tortured for information and ultimately killed. How hard was this going to be, though?
An idea started to form in his head and he left Dozer checking over Apoc's body.
---
Twelve more levels. That was too far to keep running. Neo was still three storeys down. Ignoring the foolish orders from the stupid man behind her, Trinity cartwheeled down to the next landing. There she stopped and turned to the wall quickly. She could do it. Her energy was returned.
"Good – stay where you are!" the idiot guard yelled, hurrying after her. He had dropped his gun way back at the start of their chase, so he wasn't so much of a threat to her as he might have been. Without so much as a glance in his direction, she prepared herself quickly and jumped backwards, arching her spine to flip. She caught the railing and balanced for an instant, upside down, then pushed herself off into empty space.
"Wait!" the guard called, shocked. Trinity ignored him and concentrated on keeping her form perfect. She couldn't risk any mistake from this height.
---
Rodney was horrified. The pretty woman – Trinity – had just jumped off the stairs at a height of twelve storeys. She was flipping herself over as she fell, unconcerned…
---
Something flew past Neo's level, and he accidentally glanced at it. His heart almost stopped to see Trinity falling straight down the middle of the stairwell. Did she jump or had she fallen? A more pressing question was, was she crazy?
"Trinity!" he shouted in horror, completely stopping and staring down at her. To his dizzying relief, she landed safely on the concrete at the bottom in a graceful crouch; one leg bent beneath her and the other outstretched beside her.
Neo had forgotten about Smith. The agent grabbed him by the throat, almost crushing his windpipe. For just a moment, Neo struggled helplessly, before he swung his fist at Smith's face, loosening the tight grip. He wrenched himself away and continued running down the stairs, but on the next landing, he wasn't quick enough, and Agent Smith caught him again. With his back to a wall, it was harder for Neo to dodge and return offending blows. After receiving a few himself, Neo pulled his knee between them and kicked Smith firmly in the chest, knocking him to the stairs.
Once he got to the bottom, he would fight him for real. Neo started running again. When he set foot on the next landing he was shocked by a sudden weight slamming into his back. Smith had leaped down from the middle of the flight into him. Both of them crashed into the wall; so powerful was the force that they put a hole in the wall. Neo fought his way out of the dust and plaster while the agent reached for him and punched him in the side of the head. With a blink, Neo ducked the second one, but noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.
Only a few storeys below him now, Trinity was climbing back up the stairs to help. Smith hadn't noticed yet. Neo had to make sure he didn't, either. He punched Agent Smith in the nose three times in a row, keeping him back, hoping that Trinity would get the message and run before she was seen.
Since when did she do as she was told? She didn't stop.
Sólia