OK, here's my first ever finished fanfic. A thank you to all the people in my guild on another website who allowed me to use their nicknames in this story (all the names you see here that aren't in the movies, and some that are), and provided moral support :) A special thanks to my sister who edited my fanfic, practically re-wrote half of it, and saved it from being completely horrible.

Now comes my least favourite part, but I guess I have to put it in. I didn't create the Matrix, and I didn't create the original characters like Neo and Morpheus. But this fanfic is mine, all the ideas here are merely my theories of what could happen next, yada yada yada, you get the picture.

This fanfic is set right after Reloaded. Please submit reviews, and please be honest, if you think it's horrible just say so. Hope you enjoy it, have a nice day :)

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The Last Stalemate

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Chapter 1

Something woke him up. He didn't quite know what, but some worry, some fear made him come out of his peaceful, dreamless sleep. Memories slowly came back to him. The Source, the Prophecy being a lie, Trinity... Trinity! That thought made him open his eyes. He looked around and saw Trinity asleep in a chair next to him. Neo breathed a sigh of relief. She was all right, and now he remembered saving her. She seemed tired and he decided not to wake her.

Neo looked around. He must have been aboard a ship, maybe Nebuchadnezzar. To his right was a screen that was supposed to show his life signs. Neo didn't pay it much attention, but something made him do a double-take. Instead of familiar greenish lines it was a black screen. In glowing green letters it read, "WAKE UP NEO".

"What is this," he asked himself, "some kind of sick joke?!" Suddenly the letters changed.

"THE MACHINES HAVE YOU"

"YOU KNOW WHO TO FOLLOW"

"KNOCK KNOCK, NEO"

Even though he half-expected it, the knocking on the door still made him jump.

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Morpheus walked down the hallway to the infirmary. Though you couldn't tell that by looking at him, he was in a bad mood. He was used to being in control of any situation, to making decisions and acting on them. But now, being on Niobe's ship, he felt useless. The only helpful thing he could do right now was to go and check on Neo, which probably wouldn't help that much either.

He knocked on the door, expecting the doctor to open it, but there was silence. He knocked again and then came in.

Neo was sitting on the bed staring at him with a strange look in his eyes. He seemed surprised, maybe even a bit afraid, but what can you expect from someone who just came out of a coma? Morpheus smiled.

"So you're awake," he said. "How do you feel?"

Then the door opened and the doctor came in.

"Oh, you woke up. I hoped you would soon." She looked at Trinity. "The poor girl didn't leave your side for two days."

Neo blinked. "Two days? I've been out that long?"

The doctor nodded. "So how do you feel?"

It was funny how both Morpheus and the doctor said the same thing, but it was a logical thing to ask under the circumstances.

"I'm OK," Neo replied, half-lying. Physically he felt fine, but that stunt someone pulled made him uneasy. And there was something else that bothered him. "How did I stop the sentinels?"

Morpheus smiled. "You were lucky. It wasn't you that stopped them. One of them short-circuited, then an electric pulse triggered a chain reaction in the others. You were affected by the pulse, too, and that's why you're here."

"Did you find something new while I was asleep?" Neo inquired.

Morpheus nodded. "The machines are controlled through the Matrix. We think that if we can find the control room, we can turn them off, or maybe even make them self-destruct. The operator is trying to pinpoint the location, but it won't be exact. We'll have to go in and look for it."

"All right, I'll play it your way," Neo thought to whoever mocked him before, then said aloud, "When are you going in? I'm going with you."

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"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay?" Trinity asked Neo. They were arguing about it for a long time, her saying that he is still too weak, and him replying that they could use an extra mind.

Neo shook his head. "You'll need my help. And besides, my physical condition doesn't matter when we're in the Matrix."

Trinity wanted to say something, but there was nothing more to say. She knew perfectly well that without him the plan had almost no chance of success, but she was still worried about him.

"All right," she finally said and lied down on a bench.

When Morphues and Neo followed, Render, the head operator, asked, "Ready?"

When nobody protested, he started punching buttons on the panel in front of him. "Here goes. It's my best guess for the location."

The next second Neo and the others found themselves in a small park near a recreation center. Not far away were a few old apartment buildings, and a road that wasn't maintained for years. There was nothing special or threatening about this place. It was nothing like Neo expected. He thought that they would appear near a well-guarded skyscraper, or high in the mountains, or somewhere else where it would be hard to get. This place was too ordinary, and for some reason that made Neo even more cautious. Maybe there was a certain logic in building the control room in an ordinary- looking place: it would attract less attention.

"All right, where do we go now?" he asked, looking around. "The recreation center is the closest building, so it's probably the best place to start with."

Morpheus nodded and added, "We should split up. We'll cover more ground that way, and when someone finds the place, he'll call the others."

"All right," Neo replied. "I'll go into the recreation center, and you check out the apartment buildings."

As Neo opened the door, he felt someone on the other side of it. "Hello, Mr Anderson," said a chorus of voices. Neo walked in, his muscles tightening to be ready if Smiths attacked.

"Could he be the one who called me here?" he thought. "No, that can't be."

One Smith walked forward, smiling in an unfriendly way. "I know why you're here," he said, "And you know why I am here."

Neo looked at him. "Yes, it seems that now your purpose is to stand in my way whatever I do."

That was a pretty accurate statement since the room was so crowded with Smiths that Neo couldn't take a step without bumping into one. Smith must have taken the cue, or offence, because a second later a river of black suits poured on Neo.