This is an Alternate Timeline. Deal with it.
Little One
The hills find peace, armed guards locked post
Safe from the screams of the children born as ghosts,
Gates guns and alarms, shape the calm of the dawn,
Peering down into the basin where death lives on.
-Rage Against the Machine "Born as Ghosts"
Prologue
Neo crouched on the ledge of the skyscraper, staring endless stories to the darkness below. Neon light splashed off the rain-slicked concrete. Sirens were heard in the distance, nearly drowned by the sounds of Toronto's lively Yonge Street. Buzzing neon signs flashed, advertising various wares, while a troupe of street performers played on despite the rain. Homeless huddled in doorways, wrapped in ragged blankets. A group of lively young girls squealed as they ran down the street towards Queen's, to meet their favourite of any number of teenybopper boy bands.
But Neo saw none of this. He saw only the shining black concrete waiting below him. He glanced behind him, at the empty skyscraping slick rooftop. The sounds of clanging metal. They'd be here soon.
Neo pulled out the infallible black flip-phone. "Tank, I need an exit. Now!"
"I'm working on it," Came the exasperated response. "There's a payphone down the street a ways. Just follow those girls."
"What.on the ground?" Back in the real world, Tank was smirking at the naiveté in Neo's voice, still sticking around after weeks out of the Matrix.
"Yeah. Just jump it, dude."
The line went dead. Neo stared in mild disbelief at the phone for a while. "Christ." he muttered as he glanced over the edge of the building. It's not real.it's not real.there is no spoon, there is no spoon, there is no spoon.the well used mantra ran through his head countless times as he stepped back and gathered his strength.
What strength? He thought angrily to himself. This isn't even here. It's all in your head. You could be friggin' Superman if you wanted to. Just jump it, man!
The agents were getting closer. If he were on the ground with all those people he'd be dead in a minute. He tracked the girls with his eyes until scant seconds later he saw the phone Tank must have been talking about. He groaned, hating jumping. He hated it. Hated it. Taking a breath and backing up, he gained quick speed and let himself fall.
"There is no spoon, there is no spoon, there is no spoon."
Neo willed himself to slow down, willed his mind to stop the 'world' where it was. Slowly, gracefully, his heel connected with the concrete softly. 'Reality' was restored and he stumbled slightly, before standing still and realizing that he'd done it. "I did it." He whispered, still slightly wondering why he hadn't falling into a Neo-shaped hole like the first time. "I did it!" Neo raised his fists in innocent triumph. Then *pow*, he was on the ground, flat on his face. "Mother fucker." He muttered as he warily stood, clutching his now bleeding nose.
"Oh! Sorry man." The boy on the skateboard that had carelessly knocked him over helped him up. "Guess I was goin' too." The boy's words were cut off by gagging as the shape of the irrepressible Agent Smith morphed into his body.
"Christ." There were times when Neo sincerely hated his new life, be him the One or not. And this was one of those times. He ran like he had never run before, well, maybe a couple of times before, until he reached the furiously ringing payphone.
He grabbed the receiver with a bloody hand and spun to observe one of the street performers gag and shift into the Agent's form. Cradling the receiver between his face and shoulder, he put another hand out on the booth's glass, in one last pathetic attempt to stop his enemy.
And disappeared.
Chapter One
Nobody's real, but they're willing to let you know
Nobody's real, but they're willing to know
Nobody's real, but they're not willing to let you go
Nobody's real, but they feel it.
- Powerman 5000, "Nobody's Real"
Back in the real world.
"Mother fucker!" Neo screamed when Switch removed the terminal from the back of his head. His hands went to his face, cradling the bloody mass.
"Watch it," Switch muttered, casting a glance at where Mouse sat on another terminal seat, rolling his eyes.
"Why can't I do it? Why the hell can' t I do it?" Neo was infuriated at himself. He threw a pleading glance at Mouse. "You can do it. Why can' t I?"
"Don't go so hard on yourself." Tank spoke up from the master terminal. "You've only been out here a few weeks. Mouse's lived here his entire life."
Neo didn't appear to hear this as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hey, where'd you go after that newsstand? I couldn't find you."
Mouse glanced up at Neo, his frail, sallow face pale. "Oh, I." The boy shrugged. "I got beat around a bit before I found a payphone."
"Bull!" Tank grinned. "You were looking at Playboys at that newsstand, weren't ya?"
Mouse feigned his best, innocent, "who, me?" look, which needless to say, wasn't very good.
"Alright. Whatever," Switch finished up with the last of the terminal cords and stepped over to wear Tank was sitting. "Let's go get something to eat. We need to review the plans for next week."
"Be there in a sec." Mouse remained reclined lazily on the terminal seat, staring intently at his right hand while Neo joined the others and left. The boy sighed, staring at his frail pale fingers. "Unlimited tasteless runny mush. Try to hold me back."
Mouse slid off the terminal and made his way into the darkness of the Nebuchannezer. Before he got too far, however, the ships wide-framed captain stepped out of the shadows and nearly knocked the boy down.
"Jesus fu-" Mouse stopped himself. Morpheus hated it when Mouse swore. "Uh.hey."
The big man smiled down at him. "Mouse. It seems like I have been neglecting you as of late. Since Neo came aboard."
Mouse made a face and shrugged. He really hadn't noticed any difference.
"I trust you're doing well in your classes." Morpheus and Mouse strode down the cool dark corridor.
"What classes?" Mouse muttered under his breath. Switch and Apoc had taught him all they could about hydroponics, he spent most of his programming classes with Tank trying to break into Dozer's moonshine, and.and he had a hard time remembering when he had last had a productive session with Cypher. "Yeah. I guess."
The two walked on in silence for a moment. Eventually Morpheus got to the point Mouse knew he was leading up to.
"I was watching you in the Matrix today."
"Oh yeah?" Mouse replied. When are you not? He thought in a flash of unexpected angst.
Morpheus turned and looked down, regarding the pale, sunken face of the emaciated young teenager before him. "I was disappointed.you left Neo alone with the Agents."
Mouse's face clouded. He didn't meet Morpheus' eyes. "I.I couldn't fight an Agent. You know that." He slowly looked up at the man who had raised him. "You-you told me never to go up against an Agent. Neo told me to run away."
"Nonetheless. You should know better than to leave a teammate to the mercy of Agents. Especially Neo. We need him. He's-"
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before."
The two had now stopped outside the mess hall. Morpheus still regarded Mouse, unmoving. Mouse sighed, feeling one of those "attitude" lectures coming on, but Morpheus remained silent as he opened the heavy mess hall doors.
Thick white gruel was practically the only sustenance Mouse had known for twelve years. Occasionally, when the Predator docked with the Nebuchadnezzar, the ship's captain and an old friend of Morpheus, Jolix, would come aboard. He always gave Mouse chocolate, rare, expensive, tiny bits of chocolate. Mouse had had chocolate in the Matrix before, hell, he'd had every type of drugs he had managed to get his hands on as well, but it wasn't nearly the same. For one thing, he knew it was fake and that took the fun right out of it. Another thing, it being in his head and him knowing it was fake, it was hard to get high or drunk and almost impossible to get addicted. Oh, he could be psychologically addicted, but him knowing that it was only psychological would cancel that out. Almost. Mouse had never been addicted so he couldn't know.
But he knew he liked chocolate. And he'd much rather have chocolate right now than the eggy mulch he was trying to force down his throat.
He sat silently, as he usually did, watching the others and occasionally interjecting his own narrow opinion. Mostly, though, he watched Switch and Apoc. He sat up on the counter, she on the bench, leaning on the counter between his legs. Apoc had his arm around her in comfortable, casual familiarity. Occasionally she'd look up at him and smile, and they'd share a sweet, chaste, kiss. Mouse, at one point, might have thought it was nice, but his mind immediately went and took that information and got busy writing porno flicks set to a heavy techno backbeat. So much as one can write a porno flick with a heavy techno backbeat.
Mouse sighed and looked back at his food. Vaguely, briefly, he wondered, in the still innocent and naïve part of his mind, if he would ever find the sort of companionship that Switch and Apoc had found in each other. The other part of his mind, the jaded, cynical one, seriously doubted it.
Pulling the spoon slowly out of his mouth, scraping the mush off with his tongue, Mouth stole a glance at where Neo sat, huddled in a blanket, feebly feeding himself. A small, unwelcome twinge of jealousy ran through him as Morpheus sat talking with the One, and once again, he felt just a little out of place.
Stifling a yawn and excusing himself, Mouse went off to bed, early for a change.
--
Neo couldn't sleep. The young man rubbed a hand over his newly bald head, sighing shakily. In addition to his swollen, achy nose, he had spent the last few hours staring tiredly and unblinking at the metal ceiling in his small room.
Three weeks aboard the Nebuchadnezzar had taken it's toll on Neo- he often just worried about himself, his new friends, and his future as the "One."
The One.what did that even mean? Even in Neo's lifelong search for the truth behind the Matrix, he had never seen himself destined for greatness. He wasn't sure he wanted to be destined for greatness. After much deliberation, as well as impatient tossing and turning, Neo had resolved to take a long, much-needed walk around the cold corridors of the Nebuchadnezzar.
Shying away from the cockpit, where he knew Cypher would be skulking with a jug of killer moonshine, he wandered around the damp hallways below deck.
Whimpering sobs emanated from one of the closed portals.
Neo stopped and looked up in surprise. Glancing around to see if anyone was in the corridor with him, he took a step closer to the sealed metal door.
"No!" Mouse's distressed voice floated out.
"Mouse?" Neo called through the thick portal wall.
"No, leave me alone!" A scream now, in a childish, thickly accented voice that was still strikingly similar to Mouse's.
"Cypher! Trinity!" Neo called down the corridor for someone to hear him, quickly releasing a catch on the door and sliding it open.
Mouse was on his bed, hard to see as he was still fully clothed with the black toque on his head. His sheets were twisted around his feet implying a rage-ful struggle had ensued. Mouse, curled up into himself with arms wrapped tightly, shuddered and sobbed as light was cast into the room.
"Damn you, no!" The boy cried again, more pitifully than angry.
"Mouse?" Neo reached out a tentative hand to the quaking boy.
Mouse slapped it away murderously, not meeting Neo's eyes, with strength that Neo would not have guessed the boy possessed.
"What is it? Is he having a nightmare?" Trinity came into the room. "No, don't touch him!" She called as Neo reached for Mouse again.
"What? Why not?" Neo stood as Mouse flinched and moaned on his bed.
"I've already called for Morpheus- just make sure he doesn't hurt himself!" Trinity lurched forward as Mouse suddenly tried to dash from the room, sending him backwards and into the other wall, where he fell and sobbed, flinching.
"Well what's the matter with him?"
"He has nightmares sometimes- he'll only let Morpheus in right now. All we can do is wait," Trinity let out a breath at Neo's side. The two could only watch the shuddering, sobbing boy sadly until Morpheus arrived.
"Mouse? Are you alright, little one?" Morpheus brushed right past Neo and Trinity to come to kneel by the child he dwarfed in size. He, too, reached out to touch Mouse, who flinched away and struck at him, too, shrieking. "Mouse, shh, it's alright, it's me," Ignoring the blindly thrown fists, the big man wrapped his arms around the skinny, sobbing boy, and whispered endearments.
Eventually Mouse stopped kicking and screaming and relaxed in Morpheus' arms, opening his sunken eyes and staring up at him. "M-Morpheus?"
"Yes, little one."
Tears still streaming down the shaking boy's face, Mouse looked over at Trinity and Neo, the latter who stood staring unashamedly and concerned.
"Oh, Jesus fuck." Mouse started crying anew, ashamed that his new hero should see him in this state, and buried his face in Morpheus' broad chest.
"Morpheus, is there anything-" Neo attempted to offer.
"No, Neo, but thank you for trying." The big man's deep voice rumbled through the cool, damp air in the small room.
"Come on, Neo," Trinity patted him on the shoulder and left, Neo trailing after her.
Mouse did not look up from where he rested his head.
"Are you alright now?" The boy nodded his head against Morpheus' chest, silently.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Every time, the same concerned query, and every time, the same silent, shuddering shake of the head felt against his chest.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" Mouse nodded his head again, taking shaky deep breaths. Morpheus stood and went to sit on the boy's bed, still holding his young charge in a protective clutch.
Eventually, the sobs evened out into long, deep breaths and Mouse fell asleep in his guardian's arms.
Little One
The hills find peace, armed guards locked post
Safe from the screams of the children born as ghosts,
Gates guns and alarms, shape the calm of the dawn,
Peering down into the basin where death lives on.
-Rage Against the Machine "Born as Ghosts"
Prologue
Neo crouched on the ledge of the skyscraper, staring endless stories to the darkness below. Neon light splashed off the rain-slicked concrete. Sirens were heard in the distance, nearly drowned by the sounds of Toronto's lively Yonge Street. Buzzing neon signs flashed, advertising various wares, while a troupe of street performers played on despite the rain. Homeless huddled in doorways, wrapped in ragged blankets. A group of lively young girls squealed as they ran down the street towards Queen's, to meet their favourite of any number of teenybopper boy bands.
But Neo saw none of this. He saw only the shining black concrete waiting below him. He glanced behind him, at the empty skyscraping slick rooftop. The sounds of clanging metal. They'd be here soon.
Neo pulled out the infallible black flip-phone. "Tank, I need an exit. Now!"
"I'm working on it," Came the exasperated response. "There's a payphone down the street a ways. Just follow those girls."
"What.on the ground?" Back in the real world, Tank was smirking at the naiveté in Neo's voice, still sticking around after weeks out of the Matrix.
"Yeah. Just jump it, dude."
The line went dead. Neo stared in mild disbelief at the phone for a while. "Christ." he muttered as he glanced over the edge of the building. It's not real.it's not real.there is no spoon, there is no spoon, there is no spoon.the well used mantra ran through his head countless times as he stepped back and gathered his strength.
What strength? He thought angrily to himself. This isn't even here. It's all in your head. You could be friggin' Superman if you wanted to. Just jump it, man!
The agents were getting closer. If he were on the ground with all those people he'd be dead in a minute. He tracked the girls with his eyes until scant seconds later he saw the phone Tank must have been talking about. He groaned, hating jumping. He hated it. Hated it. Taking a breath and backing up, he gained quick speed and let himself fall.
"There is no spoon, there is no spoon, there is no spoon."
Neo willed himself to slow down, willed his mind to stop the 'world' where it was. Slowly, gracefully, his heel connected with the concrete softly. 'Reality' was restored and he stumbled slightly, before standing still and realizing that he'd done it. "I did it." He whispered, still slightly wondering why he hadn't falling into a Neo-shaped hole like the first time. "I did it!" Neo raised his fists in innocent triumph. Then *pow*, he was on the ground, flat on his face. "Mother fucker." He muttered as he warily stood, clutching his now bleeding nose.
"Oh! Sorry man." The boy on the skateboard that had carelessly knocked him over helped him up. "Guess I was goin' too." The boy's words were cut off by gagging as the shape of the irrepressible Agent Smith morphed into his body.
"Christ." There were times when Neo sincerely hated his new life, be him the One or not. And this was one of those times. He ran like he had never run before, well, maybe a couple of times before, until he reached the furiously ringing payphone.
He grabbed the receiver with a bloody hand and spun to observe one of the street performers gag and shift into the Agent's form. Cradling the receiver between his face and shoulder, he put another hand out on the booth's glass, in one last pathetic attempt to stop his enemy.
And disappeared.
Chapter One
Nobody's real, but they're willing to let you know
Nobody's real, but they're willing to know
Nobody's real, but they're not willing to let you go
Nobody's real, but they feel it.
- Powerman 5000, "Nobody's Real"
Back in the real world.
"Mother fucker!" Neo screamed when Switch removed the terminal from the back of his head. His hands went to his face, cradling the bloody mass.
"Watch it," Switch muttered, casting a glance at where Mouse sat on another terminal seat, rolling his eyes.
"Why can't I do it? Why the hell can' t I do it?" Neo was infuriated at himself. He threw a pleading glance at Mouse. "You can do it. Why can' t I?"
"Don't go so hard on yourself." Tank spoke up from the master terminal. "You've only been out here a few weeks. Mouse's lived here his entire life."
Neo didn't appear to hear this as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hey, where'd you go after that newsstand? I couldn't find you."
Mouse glanced up at Neo, his frail, sallow face pale. "Oh, I." The boy shrugged. "I got beat around a bit before I found a payphone."
"Bull!" Tank grinned. "You were looking at Playboys at that newsstand, weren't ya?"
Mouse feigned his best, innocent, "who, me?" look, which needless to say, wasn't very good.
"Alright. Whatever," Switch finished up with the last of the terminal cords and stepped over to wear Tank was sitting. "Let's go get something to eat. We need to review the plans for next week."
"Be there in a sec." Mouse remained reclined lazily on the terminal seat, staring intently at his right hand while Neo joined the others and left. The boy sighed, staring at his frail pale fingers. "Unlimited tasteless runny mush. Try to hold me back."
Mouse slid off the terminal and made his way into the darkness of the Nebuchannezer. Before he got too far, however, the ships wide-framed captain stepped out of the shadows and nearly knocked the boy down.
"Jesus fu-" Mouse stopped himself. Morpheus hated it when Mouse swore. "Uh.hey."
The big man smiled down at him. "Mouse. It seems like I have been neglecting you as of late. Since Neo came aboard."
Mouse made a face and shrugged. He really hadn't noticed any difference.
"I trust you're doing well in your classes." Morpheus and Mouse strode down the cool dark corridor.
"What classes?" Mouse muttered under his breath. Switch and Apoc had taught him all they could about hydroponics, he spent most of his programming classes with Tank trying to break into Dozer's moonshine, and.and he had a hard time remembering when he had last had a productive session with Cypher. "Yeah. I guess."
The two walked on in silence for a moment. Eventually Morpheus got to the point Mouse knew he was leading up to.
"I was watching you in the Matrix today."
"Oh yeah?" Mouse replied. When are you not? He thought in a flash of unexpected angst.
Morpheus turned and looked down, regarding the pale, sunken face of the emaciated young teenager before him. "I was disappointed.you left Neo alone with the Agents."
Mouse's face clouded. He didn't meet Morpheus' eyes. "I.I couldn't fight an Agent. You know that." He slowly looked up at the man who had raised him. "You-you told me never to go up against an Agent. Neo told me to run away."
"Nonetheless. You should know better than to leave a teammate to the mercy of Agents. Especially Neo. We need him. He's-"
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before."
The two had now stopped outside the mess hall. Morpheus still regarded Mouse, unmoving. Mouse sighed, feeling one of those "attitude" lectures coming on, but Morpheus remained silent as he opened the heavy mess hall doors.
Thick white gruel was practically the only sustenance Mouse had known for twelve years. Occasionally, when the Predator docked with the Nebuchadnezzar, the ship's captain and an old friend of Morpheus, Jolix, would come aboard. He always gave Mouse chocolate, rare, expensive, tiny bits of chocolate. Mouse had had chocolate in the Matrix before, hell, he'd had every type of drugs he had managed to get his hands on as well, but it wasn't nearly the same. For one thing, he knew it was fake and that took the fun right out of it. Another thing, it being in his head and him knowing it was fake, it was hard to get high or drunk and almost impossible to get addicted. Oh, he could be psychologically addicted, but him knowing that it was only psychological would cancel that out. Almost. Mouse had never been addicted so he couldn't know.
But he knew he liked chocolate. And he'd much rather have chocolate right now than the eggy mulch he was trying to force down his throat.
He sat silently, as he usually did, watching the others and occasionally interjecting his own narrow opinion. Mostly, though, he watched Switch and Apoc. He sat up on the counter, she on the bench, leaning on the counter between his legs. Apoc had his arm around her in comfortable, casual familiarity. Occasionally she'd look up at him and smile, and they'd share a sweet, chaste, kiss. Mouse, at one point, might have thought it was nice, but his mind immediately went and took that information and got busy writing porno flicks set to a heavy techno backbeat. So much as one can write a porno flick with a heavy techno backbeat.
Mouse sighed and looked back at his food. Vaguely, briefly, he wondered, in the still innocent and naïve part of his mind, if he would ever find the sort of companionship that Switch and Apoc had found in each other. The other part of his mind, the jaded, cynical one, seriously doubted it.
Pulling the spoon slowly out of his mouth, scraping the mush off with his tongue, Mouth stole a glance at where Neo sat, huddled in a blanket, feebly feeding himself. A small, unwelcome twinge of jealousy ran through him as Morpheus sat talking with the One, and once again, he felt just a little out of place.
Stifling a yawn and excusing himself, Mouse went off to bed, early for a change.
--
Neo couldn't sleep. The young man rubbed a hand over his newly bald head, sighing shakily. In addition to his swollen, achy nose, he had spent the last few hours staring tiredly and unblinking at the metal ceiling in his small room.
Three weeks aboard the Nebuchadnezzar had taken it's toll on Neo- he often just worried about himself, his new friends, and his future as the "One."
The One.what did that even mean? Even in Neo's lifelong search for the truth behind the Matrix, he had never seen himself destined for greatness. He wasn't sure he wanted to be destined for greatness. After much deliberation, as well as impatient tossing and turning, Neo had resolved to take a long, much-needed walk around the cold corridors of the Nebuchadnezzar.
Shying away from the cockpit, where he knew Cypher would be skulking with a jug of killer moonshine, he wandered around the damp hallways below deck.
Whimpering sobs emanated from one of the closed portals.
Neo stopped and looked up in surprise. Glancing around to see if anyone was in the corridor with him, he took a step closer to the sealed metal door.
"No!" Mouse's distressed voice floated out.
"Mouse?" Neo called through the thick portal wall.
"No, leave me alone!" A scream now, in a childish, thickly accented voice that was still strikingly similar to Mouse's.
"Cypher! Trinity!" Neo called down the corridor for someone to hear him, quickly releasing a catch on the door and sliding it open.
Mouse was on his bed, hard to see as he was still fully clothed with the black toque on his head. His sheets were twisted around his feet implying a rage-ful struggle had ensued. Mouse, curled up into himself with arms wrapped tightly, shuddered and sobbed as light was cast into the room.
"Damn you, no!" The boy cried again, more pitifully than angry.
"Mouse?" Neo reached out a tentative hand to the quaking boy.
Mouse slapped it away murderously, not meeting Neo's eyes, with strength that Neo would not have guessed the boy possessed.
"What is it? Is he having a nightmare?" Trinity came into the room. "No, don't touch him!" She called as Neo reached for Mouse again.
"What? Why not?" Neo stood as Mouse flinched and moaned on his bed.
"I've already called for Morpheus- just make sure he doesn't hurt himself!" Trinity lurched forward as Mouse suddenly tried to dash from the room, sending him backwards and into the other wall, where he fell and sobbed, flinching.
"Well what's the matter with him?"
"He has nightmares sometimes- he'll only let Morpheus in right now. All we can do is wait," Trinity let out a breath at Neo's side. The two could only watch the shuddering, sobbing boy sadly until Morpheus arrived.
"Mouse? Are you alright, little one?" Morpheus brushed right past Neo and Trinity to come to kneel by the child he dwarfed in size. He, too, reached out to touch Mouse, who flinched away and struck at him, too, shrieking. "Mouse, shh, it's alright, it's me," Ignoring the blindly thrown fists, the big man wrapped his arms around the skinny, sobbing boy, and whispered endearments.
Eventually Mouse stopped kicking and screaming and relaxed in Morpheus' arms, opening his sunken eyes and staring up at him. "M-Morpheus?"
"Yes, little one."
Tears still streaming down the shaking boy's face, Mouse looked over at Trinity and Neo, the latter who stood staring unashamedly and concerned.
"Oh, Jesus fuck." Mouse started crying anew, ashamed that his new hero should see him in this state, and buried his face in Morpheus' broad chest.
"Morpheus, is there anything-" Neo attempted to offer.
"No, Neo, but thank you for trying." The big man's deep voice rumbled through the cool, damp air in the small room.
"Come on, Neo," Trinity patted him on the shoulder and left, Neo trailing after her.
Mouse did not look up from where he rested his head.
"Are you alright now?" The boy nodded his head against Morpheus' chest, silently.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Every time, the same concerned query, and every time, the same silent, shuddering shake of the head felt against his chest.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" Mouse nodded his head again, taking shaky deep breaths. Morpheus stood and went to sit on the boy's bed, still holding his young charge in a protective clutch.
Eventually, the sobs evened out into long, deep breaths and Mouse fell asleep in his guardian's arms.