The Apocalypse Virus

Author: Verbosity <verbosity2001[at]yahoo.com>

Rating: PG-13, possibly R for violence and occasional profanity.

Summary: Buffy the Vampire Slayer crosses with The Matrix, truly, not as weird as it sounds.

Disclaimer: I own neither the settings nor the characters; they are property of their respective owners. I make no profit; this is strictly for pleasure and the refining of my craft. Read and enjoy.

Feedback is always appreciated and hungered for.


Chapter 1

Her body felt sluggish, her thoughts fuzzy. Everything seemed disconnected and she recognized the feeling of being doped up on painkillers. The soft bleep of medical monitors broke the silence around her. Managing to crack her eyes open she tried to sit up, make a noise, anything. She must have succeeded in one of her attempts because Neo's face appeared in her line of vision. He looked tired, devastated; there were dark circles under his eyes and a hunted look clung to his face. Seeing his expression, she knew. The horrible truth was clear in his shattered gaze, but she still needed him to say it. Without that she couldn't be certain that her worst nightmare was truly real, without the words she couldn't face that awful reality in his eyes.

"Trinity…" his voice broke and tears appeared in his eyes. Drawing a deep breath he tried again. "Trin, the baby…it didn't…there was nothing anyone could do…" His voice trailed off.

She felt something wet in the corners of her eyes, her vision blurred. She was crying. She hadn't done that in years. Not since the agents had killed her family.

Family. Neo. The baby.

Her thoughts spun in a useless, agonized circle. She vaguely realized Neo was stroking her face and murmuring something, probably soothing words of some kind. But she couldn't bring herself to care, not even for him. The pain inside consumed everything until there was only itself. Slipping back into a drug-induced darkness her last sight was her husband's eyes, and she wondered absently if the baby's would have been like his.

*****

Morpheus watched Trinity as she practiced in the construct with Eon. Physically she had recovered from the pregnancy. Psychologically and emotionally though… The captain of the Nebachudnezzar was worried, about his crewmember and friend.

Her moves were fluid, and graceful, but there was a new hint of ferocity in her motions. It didn't hinder her fighting style; if anything, she was more dangerous than before. Eon would probably vocally attest to that, after her next move hammered him into the mat.

From the outsider's perspective Trinity had always been the epitome of control. She was calm, collected, and efficient: performing her duties and achieving her missions in the matrix with a seeming absence of emotion. Those close to her knew that that seeming absence was due to her fierce self-control. If anything, Trinity felt more strongly than anyone Morpheus knew.

The pregnancy had been a surprise; the contraceptives were generally a hundred percent effective. Once the baby was conceived there had been no talk of aborting the fetus. Surprised as she had been to have it, it was still her and Neo's child, and Trinity would have kicked the crap out of anyone who even suggested aborting it.

Other captains of Zion ships might have objected to the presence of a pregnant woman onboard, but Morpheus had thought the risks were acceptable. Neither Trinity nor Neo would take any risk with their child that they could avoid. Trinity would be as safe here as anywhere short of Zion. Morpheus had found the child to be a much needed affirmation of life.

Loosing the baby had been devastating for Trinity. Surprised as she had been to find herself pregnant, and as little as she had outwardly seemed to yearn toward motherhood, she had loved the unborn child with all her heart.

He remembered a time toward the end of the pregnancy when he had come across her curled up in an old blanket in the slightly greater warmth of the engine compartment. She hadn't known he was there and, as he watched her, she had been singing a quiet lullaby, one arm around her swollen stomach, a hand gently caressing the skin over the unborn child. He had felt a swell of gladness and pride for Trinity, briefly remembering the young woman whom he had freed from the Matrix many years ago. She was finally going to have the thing she had given up to join the resistance. A family.

Then had come the complications. The knowledge that something was wrong with the child, and when he had looked in her eyes Morpheus had seen a fear that he had only perceived in her twice before. First when he had freed her, for her own family, and then again, for Neo.

Tank, tapping out the exit sequence on the console, brought him out of his thoughts. Moving to the side of Trinity's chair he waited until her eyes opened before disengaging the interface from the port at the back of her head.

As she sat up her eyes met his. There was a bruised darkness in her gaze, shadows that hadn't been there before, but now filled the corners of her soul.

Eyes searching, he held her gaze. There was an almost subconscious flinch at his probing, but she held firm and returned his regard with much of her old steadiness. For her sake he set his misgivings aside; she needed, for her herself, to get back into action again.

"You're on the mission tomorrow, I'll be briefing everyone in the mess at 0600 tonight." He said.

She didn't say anything, but he caught a flicker of gratitude in her eyes as she nodded.

*****

"The mission is to access a G-7 data node in the Matrix." Morpheus's voice was its usual intense self as he glanced around the table. Trinity, Neo, Eon, Tank and Razor looked back from their places.

"A G-7? Isn't that kind of a low priority? I mean especially with us having Neo, here?" Razor jerked his thumb in Neo and Trinity's direction, as they sat, side by side at the other end of the table. Razor was a young man, about twenty, recently freed from the Matrix.

"Under most circumstances, yes. But this node is located in a town called Sunnydale, in California, and that changes matters."

Neo felt Trinity's muscles tense, just before Razor said, "Why would where the node is change anything? Are the machines amped up on its security?"

It was Eon, an old-timer like Trinity and Morpheus, who had been transferred from another ship who answered. "There was an attempt, years ago, to tinker with the source code of the Matrix. It included an attempt to create AI's similar to the Agents. Both experiments succeeded, but only to a point."

Neo glanced around the group. The only people at the table who appeared unaware of what Eon was talking about were him and Razor. His attention shifted to Morpheus as the man picked up where Eon left off.

"The code they produced was something along the lines of an intelligent virus. It was meant to destabilize the Matrix. Not to immediately end it, but certainly make its shutdown inevitable. Needless to say, as with all other human forays into creating intelligence, it did not function as planned. The virus began to create mutated variations of itself, attacking not only the structure of the Matrix but the people within it."

"I coulda told 'em that was coming." Razor shook his head and smiled crookedly as he took a swig from the cup in front of him. "Never try and give a machine intelligence. It'll only end badly."

Morpheus leaned forward. "Oh, it's not ended yet. Once the virus was in, there was no way to remove it. The AI's have been combating it, utilizing various methods, and have kept it stymied."

"So we're going to be going into a virus infected area?" Neo looked from Morpheus to Eon. But it was Trinity who answered from beside him.

"Yes. Sunnydale was ground zero for the infection. It's the point where the virus did the most damage to the Matrix's fundamental structure, and most of the minor viruses thrive in close proximity to it."

"Zion believes that information about the actions of the virus and how it has adapted could be of great use in the war. We need to tap the data node to access the information it has on the area. The nature of the degradation in the Matrix code could be of inestimable use." Morpheus said.

"So the information is important enough to send Neo in after it?" Tank questioned.

"Yes, but that is only part of the reason. The virus mutated in some very unexpected ways and has exhibited startling abilities. It may fall to Neo to deal with many of them." Morpheus said.

"Things could get nasty in there, hunh?" Neo's words were more of a comment than a question.

"Possibly. Or perhaps nothing at all will happen." Morpheus replied, paused, and then continued, his voice deliberate. "There is, however, another facet to this you should be aware of. It concerns the appearance that this battle between the virus and the machines take to those who live in the Matrix. You see, the original programmer who initiated the project had taste for horror, his name was Joss…"

The others around the table listened in bewildered fascination as Morpheus laid out the shape of matters in Sunnydale.

*****

"Freak'n vampires and demons." Neo heard Razor muttering as the man exited the mess hall.

"I'll be in my room." Trinity's voice was soft in his ear.

"Alright, I'll come find you later."

Tank was the last one to exit the room, leaving only Morpheus sitting quietly at the table, hands clasped. Sighing, Neo looked down at his own hands before looking up at the other patiently waiting man.

"Are you sure she's ready for this?"

Morpheus shot back. "Are you, ready for this?"

"I never stopped going in."

"Because we couldn't spare you. Not because you didn't need a respite. Neo, do you truly believe that Trinity is any less strong than you?"

Neo snorted at the thought. "No. I damn well know she's a lot stronger than me. It's just…" He trailed off; thinking of the nights he had been awakened in bed knowing something was wrong, but not what. Realizing that Trinity was curled up at the edge of the cot, shaking, crying, soundlessly, trying not to wake him. Of holding her close, feeling tears sting his eyes and terrible ache in his heart, futilely trying to give whatever comfort he could.

"I think she needs this, Neo. I think that getting back into the Matrix will help her to deal with this, as well as issues that she has locked away for a long time."

Neo felt his brow furrow in confusion at the last bit. "What do you mean?"

Morpheus seemed to be debating something with himself, and then rose to his feet. "It's not my story to tell." He paused at the door. "Have you ever asked Trinity about her family?" Then Neo was alone in the room.

Chapter 2

Neo knocked on the door to Trinity's cabin. He knew he was welcome, but he also understood how much Trinity valued her privacy, and so he knocked, every time.

"Come in."

He slipped in, carefully shutting the door behind. Trinity's cabin was much the same as any of the others, holding a cot, a small desk bolted to and protruding from the wall, and various other odds and ends. Here and there around the room were charcoal sketches of the crew. Morpheus, Epoch, Switch, Mouse, Tank, Dozer, and others, a few of which he didn't recognize. There had been other crewmembers over the years. Some had died, but there had been a few that had taken up duties in Zion or on other ships.

Neo didn't know why he'd been so surprised to find that Trinity drew. One morning he had woke to find her sitting on the floor, back against the wall, sketching him as he slept.

Trinity was sitting cross-legged on her bed as Neo entered. A piece of charcoal in one hand, she stared blankly down at the page resting on the plastic board in her lap. Neo settled in beside her, leaning back against the wall, and just watched. She had her lower lip between her teeth and she was worrying it as her eyes narrowed in focus on the paper.

He loved to watch her, as he had from the time they'd met. His eyes strayed over her features. He supposed that some people would find her features too sharp: her nose too narrow, her face too long. Some might indeed think that. Until they saw her in motion, in life: moving, smiling, expressing. And then, Neo thought, they would agree with him. She was beautiful.

As beautiful as he found her physically, it was her spirit, her soul, which he loved, and that thing was expressed in her thought and action.

Her hand moved the charcoal on the paper with a soft scratching noise and Neo cocked his head to get a better view of what she was doing.

He frowned. She was drawing several sets of eyes. That was all. No face, nothing else, just eyes. One set in the foreground looked hauntingly familiar and, after a moment, he realized they were his own.

Looking at the others he tried comparing them with the people he knew. Yes, there was Morpheus, and there was Tank. But there were others there he didn't know. Her hand stilled on the paper and he looked back up to her face. She was gazing into the drawing with an expression Neo had never seen on her face. It was a sort of wistful sadness touched with pain and a deep longing. He didn't think she even registered that he was here.

He moved his hand to, very gently, touch her arm. And he said, "Trinity?"

Her absorbed gaze shifted from the drawing to his hand, as it rested on her arm, and then traveled up to meet his eyes. There was a vulnerability in her gaze that she didn't always show, even to him. The wistful sadness remained, and the recently born shadows he had noticed in her, lurked in the corners of her eyes.

He kept his voice soft as he asked, "Who are they?"

She didn't answer, her gaze just drifted back to the drawing.

After a few seconds of silence he thought suddenly of what Morpheus had said, and he asked, "Your family?"

He felt a slight tremor run through her arm at his guess and knew it to be accurate. Taking his hand from her arm he put it around her shoulders and drew her closer, offering comfort. After a moment he felt her relax a little and lean into him.

Minutes passed and her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, as she said, "Sometimes, I can barely remember their faces but their eyes are always clear. Especially since…"

Her voice faded off and he held her closer. They sat in silence for several minutes, Neo just listening to her breathing, feeling the warmth of her body. He desperately wanted to help, to do something, anything. So he said, "If you want to talk, I want to listen. If you don't, I'm still here."

She didn't say anything for several minutes, and when she did speak it was so softly that he almost missed the first words.

"I had a family, before. It may have been the machines that gave me to them, or them to me, but they were my family. I loved them."

Neo just kissed her head where it rested on his shoulder and nodded. Often people in families within the Matrix weren't closely related genetically. The machines wanted optimum energy out of their "power source" and thus crossed genetics where it would produce the healthiest children. Usually the determination of what child went where was guided by appearance.

She had fallen silent again, so he said, "Tell me about them."

After a moment she said, "We were a pretty typical American middle class family. There's not much to say."

He took her hand and, rubbing it gently with his thumb, said, "There is always something to say; even ordinary people can be pretty extraordinary. I can't imagine anyone who produced you being uninteresting."

When she remained silent he said, "Tell me? Please?"

"My mother was an artist, she's the one that taught me how to…" she gestured to the sketches. "My dad was a carpenter. He bought me my first computer."

Trinity stared off into space, and her eyes distant as she continued. "They never really understood why I was so restless. But they were always supportive, and they never once asked me why I couldn't simply be like everyone else. They took pride in what I accomplished, no matter what it was."

She fell silent again and Neo saw a faint mist of tears in her eyes. He asked, "You were an only child?"

"For a long time. I was fourteen when my brother was born. He was something of a surprise." She gave a faint smile that Neo could see was motivated more by pain than anything else. "Seems to run in the family."

Neo felt his heart give a little clench at the reminder.

"Morpheus found me when I was sixteen. I'd managed to avoid exposing my family to my hacking. I think they knew I was searching for something. But they didn't know what, or understand what drove me. They tried so hard to make me happy. It wasn't their fault they couldn't."

Neo listened silently. There was something more coming. Something worse. The emotions crossing Trinity's face didn't come from simply leaving the people she cared about.

Her voice was halting as she said, "Just before I was unplugged the Agents acted. They had been waiting. Watching me on the chance that someone from the resistance would make contact. In spite of that Morpheus managed to get me out." Her voice faltered for a moment and then continued. "We assumed the Agents would have had no interest in my family after I was out of their reach. We were wrong."

As a shiver went through her and she turned her face into his shoulder as he held her tightly, wishing there was something more he could do.

*****

A pirate signal has been detected.

How long has it been active?

3.67 second.

Unusual. How was it detected so quickly?

The signal vector; it indicates an insertion point at sector fourteen by seven by twelve.

Sunnydale.

Yes.

Problematic. The possibility of corruption by the virus makes it inadvisable to assign standard Agent programs.

Unnecessary. A modified Agent is already in place.

That program is unpredictable.

True. However, that is an effect of the essential modifications necessary to operate in close proximity to the virus without risk of contamination. Its effectiveness is unquestionable.

Agreed. Alert it of the situation.

*****

The black suited man walked down the alleyway, apparently unconcerned by the late hour or the danger of the Sunnydale night. Anyone observing the man might wonder what he was doing here, who he was, and why was he wearing an immaculately tailored black suit and sunglasses in this neighborhood at night. The more perceptive of Sunnydale residents might wonder not who he was, but what he was. But then those who were more perceptive would not likely be out at night at all.

The Agent's stride faltered as he received the data packet and then stopped. He sent an acknowledgement back along the I/O lines to the Machine Mainframe while he contemplated the information.

Interesting. The rebels usually avoided the virus infected areas. This could be of import. The organics did not like to risk their own unless they felt it absolutely necessary. Or it was possible that this could simply be an anomalous action on their part.

Unlikely, however.

He queried the monitoring programs and they returned the general location of the insertion. It was in the warehouse district: a nearly unpopulated area.

Nearly.

Electricity seemed to spark suddenly across the Agent's form and his features distorted and flowed. A moment latter a young woman stood, confused, in the alley. Wondering how she had gotten there and why it was suddenly night.

*****

Trinity followed Neo as he exited the warehouse, a squat building of brick and concrete that looked like it was in the beginning stages of decomposition. The barren concrete lot out side was lit by the sickly glow of a solitary light on a nearby telephone pole.

Razor was glancing around at the shadows shrouded buildings, looking into the darkened alleyways and windows. He leaned closer to Trinity and said, "Tell me again why we're doing this at night?"

She deliberately raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "You do want to live don't you?"

He grinned and said, "That's a debatable point. But from what you guys said there are a whole lot more nasty things wandering around here at night than in the day. Even with the extra attention…"

He trailed off a Trinity shook her head.

"No, she said. "Because of the virus the machines have this part of the Matrix under a microscope. The interference the virus generates at night should cover our signal enough that we can do what we have to, and get out before they can respond appropriately."

Razor sighed and, looking at Neo said, "Sure you can't get both objectives?"

Neo gave a little half smile and said, "Even I can only be in one place at one time. Sorry."

"Alright," Trinity said. "Work time. Everyone clear on what to do? Neo, disrupt the primary input and drop the defenses. Razor, you and I will create a copy of the node data from the secondary."

She received two affirmative responses. Starting to move away, she stopped, seeing something in Neo's face. Motioning for Razor to move away she asked, "What is it?"

He hesitated for a brief moment than said, "The Matrix here feels rotten. The code looks like Swiss cheese and there are patches all through it." Worry showed on his face. "Be careful. Even aside from the virus. Not everything here is likely to react like you would expect."

She stepped forward and kissed him, her lips caressing his for a moment, and then, stepping back, said, "I'll see you at the exit, or on the Nebachudnezzar."

Then Trinity turned away, collected Razor, and headed for the objective.

*****

The Agent watched from the shadows of the second floor of a nearby building as the rebels exited the warehouse. His eyes immediately focused upon the man in the lead, dismissing the other two. He was tall, and dark haired, wearing a black suit that was reminiscent of the vestment of a priest of Christianity. Curious.

That, however, was uninteresting in comparison to the code that made up his substance. The Agent broke the silence of the warehouse in a voice that had a tinge, of surprise.

"The Anomaly."

He watched as the female spoke to the Anomaly. Running her visible code and face through a search program he identified her: the rebel who called herself Trinity. Birth name: Carrie-Anne Moss, age 36. Her background was similar to many of the other rebels, uninteresting to him. He was about to dismiss her from concern when his search program flagged a file. He tried to access it, and failed. It had been locked beyond his clearance. Most curious.

He set her file aside for further study.

He returned the majority of his attention back to the three in the empty lot. Two of the rebels departed, Ms. Moss and the young rebel: James Johnson, now known as Razor, a search identified him. Utterly uninteresting.

The Anomaly stood alone in the lot staring after the other two, and then turned, apparently to leave. As the Agent once again focused his attention upon him, the man stopped.

The figure that stood in the lot stood still for a moment, presenting the aspect of a man listening intently for some unexpected noise, and then his head turned slowly in the direction of the window where the Agent stood.

The Agent took a smooth step back from the window and abandoned its current body. The Anomaly's abilities were unpredictable; it was best not to take chances.

As it left it contemplated the current situation and possible courses of action. The Anomaly was too powerful to confront directly, but to fight the virus he had developed other less direct methods of combating various entities. There were other resources he could utilize.

After he had transferred into his new form, and accessed an occasionally used sequence of programs, he allowed a slight smile to curve his lips.

TBC…