Seeing Clearly Through the Haze (Part One)
A fanfiction for her timeline in Tenebrae Nostro. Based loosely on the Matrix Online MMORPG.
Based on the first two Trinity posts under the Closing in on Morpheus thread with Neo.
“Do I look like I’m kidding,” she questioned stoically, as the man looked cross-eyed into the barrel of her gun that she pressed in between his eyes.
“No?”
“Good answer.” Her black latex suit kissed every curve dangerously as she moved her lithe body up and jerked him off the floor.
“Sorry, I thought you were an Agent,” he panted out breathlessly as his lungs still reverberated with the jolt of her throwing him down on the cement ground. He shouldn't have tried to sneak up on her.
“I’m not.”
“No shit. I’m still alive.” Trinity found herself back in the abandoned building with the squatters who knew about the Matrix. Gazing around in the darkness, she listened to a rat rustle around in a bag of discarded chips. Or perhaps they were being saved for later.
“Where are the others?”
“You mean us?” Trinity turned around toward the lazy female voice. It was her. Her green neon hair was darker since the last time Trinity saw her. She doubted the woman had taken a shower since then. Black eye shadow was smeared over her eyelids and under it, extending to the sides of her temples like a mask. Her pink eyes were made brighter by the green eyeliner and red-rimmed drug induced circle of burst capillaries burning around her irises. At least she seemed more coherent then the last time. Sauntering forward she looked at the raven-haired rebel. “Well, if it isn’t Trinity. You came back. Why?”
What was she going to say? She had no clue why she came back here other then-
“I wanted to know whether-“
“We got out,” the woman finished for her. "Obviously not. But your concern is sooooo touching."
“You’re red pills? Stuck here?”
“Give the woman a cuppie doll. Ten points.” Her sarcasm oozed through her tired, broken voice like the shit swimming in her veins oozed out of the pores of her skin. The drugs weren’t even concealed as Trinity spotted the dusting of cocaine on the jagged edge of a broken mirror on the ground, and when she took a step, a used syringe cracked under her heavy boot. A scowl ripped apart the echo of a soft smile. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” said the toxic woman. “Fuck you. You don’t know jack shit.”
“Explain it to me.”
The woman brushed her sloppy matted hair back with fingernails painted electric blue. “Why? Can’t do shit about it. You can’t help us. You’re not Neo.” The woman chuckled sadly, the despair clear in her throat. “Fuck, not even he could help us, if he were still alive.” The woman’s brows perked up as she looked at Trinity through pink contacts. “Is he?”
Raze, the man she had threatened with her gun spoke up numbly from behind her. “No. He’s not.”
It wasn’t something she would discuss with them. “Who are you?”
The black-haired man raised his hand as if he were in school as he looked at Trinity suspiciously through his haze. “Raze, and that there is Opticon and Nebula,” he said pointing at the green haired woman.
“Trinity.” Obviously they knew who she was having said her name before.
“Yeah, we know. Legend has it, you’re dead,” Raze made quotation marks over the word legend and dead, “your body never to be seen again though it was apparently never recycled.”
Trinity smirked though Nebula peered at her suspiciously. “So if you’re dead, there is no way that you can really be standing here,” Opticon finished. Trinity looked at Opticon as he lay in a dingy cot on the ground reading at comic book. The drain above him was leaking and hitting him right between the eyes. “I told you to stop buying that ganja from the hooker. She probably laced it with something.” Raze rolled his eyes and walked into a room with a faint green glow illuminating it. Moving forward Nebula came closer to examine Trinity. “Not bad for over a year. Happy anniversary.” The woman obviously knew more about the state of her affairs then her doped up friends did.
The frown on Trinity’s face grew increasingly sour. “How do you know how long I’ve been trapped in the Matrix?”
Opticon and Nebula look at each other and exchange knowing looks and a short scoff. “Cause they are keeping me in the same control room,” she whispered before cupping her head in her head and groaning. “Neb?” The comic book hit the puddle on the ground as it sailed to the grungy floor. Opticon raced toward her side and steadied her.
“I-I’m alright. Opticon…remind me who I am. Quickly!”
“SHIT!”
“Raze! Raze! Come here, now!”
“What’s happening to her?” Trinity looked on confused and clearly concerned.
“They are jarring her signal.”
Raze ran into the room with a syringe and tubing.
“You’re alright, baby. It’ll be alright. Take this. Put her down. Carefully.” Ripping open the package, he took the syringe out and filled it something that was burning in a spoon behind him.
“Heroin?”
Ignoring Trinity, Opticon tied off Nebula’s upper arm and squeezed her hand into a ball. Smacking the vein, he tried to find a place that was not bruised and eaten by needle tracks.
“You are Nebula, Captain of the Novalis. You’re mind is free Neb, you’re mind is free! Black rain, Neb, black rain!”
Captain?
Trinity kept Nebula’s shoulders down as she shook when the drugs hit her bloodstream.
“Black rain?” She questioned.
“It’s a psychological prompt. Makes her remember who she was so that they can’t fuck with her mind. The drugs mess up her tracer signal so that they can get a lock on her R.I. It’s archaic, but it works...most of the time.”
“She needs more," cried Opticon, although how he determined that was a mystery to the rebel fighter.
“Yeah, that’s a drawback. If the system doesn’t kill us, the drugs will.” Raze pressed down on the plunger again, pumping more heroine into her body. Her eyes fluttered back into her head as she muttered the same thing under her breath over and over again.
“How do you know it’s working?” Was that a glint of fear in Raze’s and Opticon’s eyes?
“When she doesn’t kill us.” Trinity’s brows rose over the rim of her black sunglasses.
“There where seven of us when we first got trapped here. You do the math.”
Pulling the syringe out, Raze tossed it behind his shoulder. “Each time they tampered with their minds, they went…crazy. They were reprogrammed or something. Started killing their own crew.”
Swallowing hard, Trinity softly kept the woman down. “It’s as if they were experimented on them or something.”
“They?”
Nebula stopped shaking and lay on the damp ground with her head lolling around slowly from side to side. “They know about New Zion, they know….they….they…Cypherites. The truce…”
Opticon wiped the sweat from her brow as she muttered things out loud. “Syntax server is crashing.”
“Crashing? Isn’t Syntax one of the servers running this part of the Mega city? Non-hostile?” Raze nodded his head at Opticon. “It makes no sense. Besides the Cypherites are probably piggybacking off of Vector. It makes no sense.”
It did to Trinity. “Smith.”
Nebula’s eyes fluttered open when she heard that name. The other two looked at her wide-eyed. “Smith was deleted.”
“He’s back.”
Looking down at Nebula, Trinity’s eyes furrowed in between her head. “What was she talking about?”
“Hell if I know.”
Pushing the sunglasses up on her head, she looked down at the woman’s damp face. “What is New Zion? “
Nebula chuckled as she stared at the darkness of the ceiling, too high to be any use to them right now and too dangerous for them to concentrate on anything else.
“How does she know this?”
Raze’s blue streak fell into his eyes. “They plug her into different servers, trying to get a lock on her R.I signal. However, that leaves them vulnerable to passing on information that’s traveling back and forth through the server’s to other programs patrolling the Matrix.”
“FUCK!” Nebula shot up, her head spinning so bad that she fell over into Raze. “The Bishop is coming! They’ve sent the Bishop!”
Trinity reeled back, instinctively placing a hand on her gun as she regained her balance. “Whose Bishop?”
Raze picked up Nebula and swung her arm over his shoulder as Opticon scrambled to throw their shit in to a bag that he slung other his shoulder. “Where the fuck have you been? Under a fuckin’ rock! ‘The’ Bishop is an assassin. An exiled program. They say he works for the Merovingian though he seems to go rogue a lot. They say his programming was corrupted and he’s trying to destroy the Matrix. That is, when he is not trying to kill off Cypherites.”
“How is that a bad thing?” Hell, it made her job easier.
“He’s gonna fucking kill us!”
She scowled then and pointed the gun to his head. “Are you Cypherites? Because if you are than it’s not the Bishop you should be worrying about.” All three of them laughed nervously, knowing that she never had a hard time pulling the trigger. As Raze brushed passed her, he glanced sadly in her eyes but it was Nebula who slurred, “at least I know I’m the Cypherites unwilling bitch.”
What the hell does that mean?
Trinity took out her gun. “Is there another way out of here?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“I say it does.” Her voice was low and menacing.
“You don’t understand!”
Before they could get another word out, she was ushering them out the door of the dingy apartment. “Go!”
“Fuck man! How did they get our location?”
Nebula’s face contorted in an old mixture of pity and amusement as if she no longer understood the severity of the situation. Her eyes looked on Trinity. “Through her, she's transmitting.”
Based on the first two Trinity posts under the Closing in on Morpheus thread with Neo.
“Do I look like I’m kidding,” she questioned stoically, as the man looked cross-eyed into the barrel of her gun that she pressed in between his eyes.
“No?”
“Good answer.” Her black latex suit kissed every curve dangerously as she moved her lithe body up and jerked him off the floor.
“Sorry, I thought you were an Agent,” he panted out breathlessly as his lungs still reverberated with the jolt of her throwing him down on the cement ground. He shouldn't have tried to sneak up on her.
“I’m not.”
“No shit. I’m still alive.” Trinity found herself back in the abandoned building with the squatters who knew about the Matrix. Gazing around in the darkness, she listened to a rat rustle around in a bag of discarded chips. Or perhaps they were being saved for later.
“Where are the others?”
“You mean us?” Trinity turned around toward the lazy female voice. It was her. Her green neon hair was darker since the last time Trinity saw her. She doubted the woman had taken a shower since then. Black eye shadow was smeared over her eyelids and under it, extending to the sides of her temples like a mask. Her pink eyes were made brighter by the green eyeliner and red-rimmed drug induced circle of burst capillaries burning around her irises. At least she seemed more coherent then the last time. Sauntering forward she looked at the raven-haired rebel. “Well, if it isn’t Trinity. You came back. Why?”
What was she going to say? She had no clue why she came back here other then-
“I wanted to know whether-“
“We got out,” the woman finished for her. "Obviously not. But your concern is sooooo touching."
“You’re red pills? Stuck here?”
“Give the woman a cuppie doll. Ten points.” Her sarcasm oozed through her tired, broken voice like the shit swimming in her veins oozed out of the pores of her skin. The drugs weren’t even concealed as Trinity spotted the dusting of cocaine on the jagged edge of a broken mirror on the ground, and when she took a step, a used syringe cracked under her heavy boot. A scowl ripped apart the echo of a soft smile. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” said the toxic woman. “Fuck you. You don’t know jack shit.”
“Explain it to me.”
The woman brushed her sloppy matted hair back with fingernails painted electric blue. “Why? Can’t do shit about it. You can’t help us. You’re not Neo.” The woman chuckled sadly, the despair clear in her throat. “Fuck, not even he could help us, if he were still alive.” The woman’s brows perked up as she looked at Trinity through pink contacts. “Is he?”
Raze, the man she had threatened with her gun spoke up numbly from behind her. “No. He’s not.”
It wasn’t something she would discuss with them. “Who are you?”
The black-haired man raised his hand as if he were in school as he looked at Trinity suspiciously through his haze. “Raze, and that there is Opticon and Nebula,” he said pointing at the green haired woman.
“Trinity.” Obviously they knew who she was having said her name before.
“Yeah, we know. Legend has it, you’re dead,” Raze made quotation marks over the word legend and dead, “your body never to be seen again though it was apparently never recycled.”
Trinity smirked though Nebula peered at her suspiciously. “So if you’re dead, there is no way that you can really be standing here,” Opticon finished. Trinity looked at Opticon as he lay in a dingy cot on the ground reading at comic book. The drain above him was leaking and hitting him right between the eyes. “I told you to stop buying that ganja from the hooker. She probably laced it with something.” Raze rolled his eyes and walked into a room with a faint green glow illuminating it. Moving forward Nebula came closer to examine Trinity. “Not bad for over a year. Happy anniversary.” The woman obviously knew more about the state of her affairs then her doped up friends did.
The frown on Trinity’s face grew increasingly sour. “How do you know how long I’ve been trapped in the Matrix?”
Opticon and Nebula look at each other and exchange knowing looks and a short scoff. “Cause they are keeping me in the same control room,” she whispered before cupping her head in her head and groaning. “Neb?” The comic book hit the puddle on the ground as it sailed to the grungy floor. Opticon raced toward her side and steadied her.
“I-I’m alright. Opticon…remind me who I am. Quickly!”
“SHIT!”
“Raze! Raze! Come here, now!”
“What’s happening to her?” Trinity looked on confused and clearly concerned.
“They are jarring her signal.”
Raze ran into the room with a syringe and tubing.
“You’re alright, baby. It’ll be alright. Take this. Put her down. Carefully.” Ripping open the package, he took the syringe out and filled it something that was burning in a spoon behind him.
“Heroin?”
Ignoring Trinity, Opticon tied off Nebula’s upper arm and squeezed her hand into a ball. Smacking the vein, he tried to find a place that was not bruised and eaten by needle tracks.
“You are Nebula, Captain of the Novalis. You’re mind is free Neb, you’re mind is free! Black rain, Neb, black rain!”
Captain?
Trinity kept Nebula’s shoulders down as she shook when the drugs hit her bloodstream.
“Black rain?” She questioned.
“It’s a psychological prompt. Makes her remember who she was so that they can’t fuck with her mind. The drugs mess up her tracer signal so that they can get a lock on her R.I. It’s archaic, but it works...most of the time.”
“She needs more," cried Opticon, although how he determined that was a mystery to the rebel fighter.
“Yeah, that’s a drawback. If the system doesn’t kill us, the drugs will.” Raze pressed down on the plunger again, pumping more heroine into her body. Her eyes fluttered back into her head as she muttered the same thing under her breath over and over again.
“How do you know it’s working?” Was that a glint of fear in Raze’s and Opticon’s eyes?
“When she doesn’t kill us.” Trinity’s brows rose over the rim of her black sunglasses.
“There where seven of us when we first got trapped here. You do the math.”
Pulling the syringe out, Raze tossed it behind his shoulder. “Each time they tampered with their minds, they went…crazy. They were reprogrammed or something. Started killing their own crew.”
Swallowing hard, Trinity softly kept the woman down. “It’s as if they were experimented on them or something.”
“They?”
Nebula stopped shaking and lay on the damp ground with her head lolling around slowly from side to side. “They know about New Zion, they know….they….they…Cypherites. The truce…”
Opticon wiped the sweat from her brow as she muttered things out loud. “Syntax server is crashing.”
“Crashing? Isn’t Syntax one of the servers running this part of the Mega city? Non-hostile?” Raze nodded his head at Opticon. “It makes no sense. Besides the Cypherites are probably piggybacking off of Vector. It makes no sense.”
It did to Trinity. “Smith.”
Nebula’s eyes fluttered open when she heard that name. The other two looked at her wide-eyed. “Smith was deleted.”
“He’s back.”
Looking down at Nebula, Trinity’s eyes furrowed in between her head. “What was she talking about?”
“Hell if I know.”
Pushing the sunglasses up on her head, she looked down at the woman’s damp face. “What is New Zion? “
Nebula chuckled as she stared at the darkness of the ceiling, too high to be any use to them right now and too dangerous for them to concentrate on anything else.
“How does she know this?”
Raze’s blue streak fell into his eyes. “They plug her into different servers, trying to get a lock on her R.I signal. However, that leaves them vulnerable to passing on information that’s traveling back and forth through the server’s to other programs patrolling the Matrix.”
“FUCK!” Nebula shot up, her head spinning so bad that she fell over into Raze. “The Bishop is coming! They’ve sent the Bishop!”
Trinity reeled back, instinctively placing a hand on her gun as she regained her balance. “Whose Bishop?”
Raze picked up Nebula and swung her arm over his shoulder as Opticon scrambled to throw their shit in to a bag that he slung other his shoulder. “Where the fuck have you been? Under a fuckin’ rock! ‘The’ Bishop is an assassin. An exiled program. They say he works for the Merovingian though he seems to go rogue a lot. They say his programming was corrupted and he’s trying to destroy the Matrix. That is, when he is not trying to kill off Cypherites.”
“How is that a bad thing?” Hell, it made her job easier.
“He’s gonna fucking kill us!”
She scowled then and pointed the gun to his head. “Are you Cypherites? Because if you are than it’s not the Bishop you should be worrying about.” All three of them laughed nervously, knowing that she never had a hard time pulling the trigger. As Raze brushed passed her, he glanced sadly in her eyes but it was Nebula who slurred, “at least I know I’m the Cypherites unwilling bitch.”
What the hell does that mean?
Trinity took out her gun. “Is there another way out of here?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“I say it does.” Her voice was low and menacing.
“You don’t understand!”
Before they could get another word out, she was ushering them out the door of the dingy apartment. “Go!”
“Fuck man! How did they get our location?”
Nebula’s face contorted in an old mixture of pity and amusement as if she no longer understood the severity of the situation. Her eyes looked on Trinity. “Through her, she's transmitting.”