In The Dark

by Zenara

It was black...

Neo hadn't even felt the first bullet, hadn't heard it either. Just felt a sudden weakness, a strange lassitude starting to spread through his body. He put his hand on his stomach, then looked down to see his fingers glinting in the light with a red slickness. No, he hadn't felt the first bullet.

He felt the second.

His body was slammed back into the corridor, the sound of thunder roaring in his ears. The pain in his back as it smashed against the wall was nothing compared to the screaming fire in his gut. The lassitude spread further, his eyes glazed as he slid down the wall to lie in a crumpled heap at the feet of Agent Smith; his murderer.

It was black...

I'm dead, thought Neo. Strangely, he didn't feel sad about it. He didn't really feel anything. The darkness swirled a couple of times, then settled back into monotonous black. Neo began to hear something, a low humming. It too seemed to swirl about him and he strained to try to pinpoint it in the dark. As he concentrated, the humming started to resolve itself into separate voices... voices from his memories of the past few days.

"You are the One, Neo." Morpheus' soft voice rang with intensity in Neo's head.

"You can't be dead." That was Trinity, when had she said that?

"You've got the gift." The Oracle's kindly voice spoke from the past.

The voices came faster now, no longer individual phrases but a litany dancing around inside his head...

It looks like you're waiting for something... one of you is going to die... you are the One... waiting for something... your next life maybe... one of you is going to die... you're faster than this... waiting for something... don't think you are, know you are... you've got the gift...

"The man that I loved, that man would be the One." Trinity's voice cut through the chorus for just a moment.

waiting for something... next life... I'm dead... next life... the One... know you are...

" I love you." Trinity spoke again. I'm sure she never said that. Neo thought in surprise, unless she's saying it now. The voices paused as Neo felt the soft brush of lips against his. The kiss probably surprised him more than anything else, he knew it was Trinity kissing him and also knew he didn't want to miss it.

Neo drew in a gasping breath as, like Sleeping Beauty, a kiss revived his will to live. Where before he had felt nothing, he now felt a tumult of emotions. Trinity's kiss had awoken his desire... his passion, both for her and for life itself.

"Now get up!"

Neo opened his eyes back inside the Matrix, but the voices apparently weren't done with him yet. It was almost as if they were trying to tell him something... something that he was very close to grasping.

You are the one... waiting for something... one of you is going to die... next life maybe... you're faster than this... I'm dead... next life... you are the one... know you are... know you are...

The three agents turned towards Neo, their shock evident in their faces. As one they raised their guns and fired.

Finally, Neo understood. Finally, Neo truly believed.

"No." said the One as the bullets flying towards him stopped in their tracks and hung, suspended in the air until he released them.

The End