"Neo. I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man, the man that I loved would be the One. So you see, you can't be dead. You can't be. Because I love you. You hear me? I love you."

He almost recognized the voice. It sounded so familiar, yet unbelievably distant at the same time. In the depths of blackness that surrounded him, he felt a single tingling sensation on his lips. Taking in a deep breath, the darkness faded and he found himself in a hallway, with three men in business suits walking away from him.

He slowly stood up, taking in his surroundings and noticing the multiple bullet wounds in his chest. The strangest part about these wounds, though, was the fact that he felt no pain at all. It was clear the wounds were new; they were still bleeding. But even though he felt new blood continuously coming from the wounds, he didn't care. All he could do was stare at the retreating men at the far end of the hall.

In perfect unison, the three men at the far end of the hall suddenly turned around to face him and pulled out their guns, but he felt no fear. He only held up his hand in response.

"No."

The men began to shoot their guns.

Thomas shot up in his bed, shivering from the sudden cold of his blanket slipping off of him to the floor. He looked around, sighing with relief when he saw the familiar sights of his bedroom in his parents' New York City penthouse apartment. Getting out of bed, Thomas walked to the kitchen, craving something to eat.

While he sat on a stool, waiting for his popcorn to finish, he thought about the dream he had just had.

That's the third damn dream this week. What do they mean; why do I keep hearing that same woman's voice in my head? Who is she? The dreams are always different, but that voice... her voice... it's always there. It's strange, but somehow that voice comforts me. Almost as if it's someone I knew once. But I don't remember. I can't remember. If only… if only I knew who she was. I could find her. I could talk to her. I could find out what it all means.

She even calls me Neo. I have to know her somehow; no one but the people closest to me ever knew that name. But I haven't used it in a year. I stopped hacking after that run-in with the feds. No one calls me Neo anymore. I gave it all up. I got scared. I just got too damn scared, and I gave up the only thing that ever made me happy.

Thomas' thoughts moved from his dreams and he began thinking about his plans for the future. He was glad that he had recently gotten his job back at MetaCortex; maybe he could finally move back out of his parents' apartment. It wasn't that Thomas didn't have enough money to move out. The money he had, though, wasn't exactly legally made.

That money was leftover from his hacking days. Back then, he used to be one of the best illegal software suppliers. Everyone knew who to go to if you needed something fast. It was always Neo. Everyone knew who Neo was, but no one knew about Thomas Anderson. Only his family and coworkers. Out of them, there was only one person who knew both Thomas and Neo.

But he was dead. His uncle had taught him everything he knew about hacking. If not for him, Neo would have never existed in the first place. Thomas' uncle had died ten years earlier, which only served to make him a better hacker. For a while, he hacked for his uncle's memory, but the hobby grew into a lifestyle, and it was only for himself until he stopped.

The past year of his life seemed to have rushed by. First he was fired from MetaCortex for being taken into custody on the job, forcing him to stop hacking and move back in with his parents so no one would know about the money he earned from hacking and illegal software distribution. A mysterious woman who had contacted him seemed to disappear from the face of the planet.

Trinity.

Thomas hadn't heard from her again after they had met in a nightclub, though he wished he had. Trinity had been so cryptic and beautiful that night; she'd spoken of the Matrix. He didn't understand her then, and doubted her words would ever be clear.

All of a sudden, Thomas recognized the voice from his dream. It was her, the woman from the club that night, Trinity. Now he knew that he had to find her somehow. He decided to search every hacker hangout he knew of; find out everything he could about the Matrix. There had to be a link there somewhere, and if he could find it, he would.

"I see our friend Mr. Anderson is at it again. I wonder what sparked his interest this time. Gentlemen, we must put a stop to Mr. Anderson, just as we did before. Who knows what havoc this—human—may reek if we let him run free? We must not let him find the truth. Thomas A. Anderson cannot learn anything. If he does, it will most certainly be detrimental to our positions within the Matrix. He will free more humans, taking away our power with each mind taken from the system. We must remain in control. It will not be easy, but nothing with Mr. Anderson ever is. This afternoon you will each be given your assignments. Together, we will triumph and have total control of the system once more."
The feelings rushing through his body as he saw her walk into the room with a bag over her shoulder completely overtook him. Love, fear, trust. Every conceivable human emotion hit him at once. Like a bullet. Then she said the two words he knew were coming. The two words he was dreading.

"I'm ready."

No. You can't come with me. Not this time. I won't let you kill yourself. Not for me. Not again.

"Trinity... There's something I have to say. Something you need to understand. I know I'm supposed to go. But beyond that - I don't know..."

Please just listen. You don't need to do this. I do. It's my fault Smith took over the Matrix. Everything that happened is all my fault. And I have to fix it now. If I hadn't been so goddamn selfish none of this would have happened in the first place. Don't you understand? You're only here now because of that selfishness. I chose you over the entire human race. Now please, Trin, don't try to come with me.

"I know. You don't think you're coming back. I knew it the moment you said you had to leave. I could see it in your face. Just like you knew the moment you looked at me that I was coming with you."

"I'm scared, Trin."

There, I admitted it. I'm scared. I'm scared for myself. But I'm so much more scared for you. You can't die, Trin. You can't. If you do, it'll be my fault. I can't let that happen. I won't be able to help you this time. We're in the real world now. There's nothing I can do if you get hurt here. That's why you can't come with me this time.

"Me, too. Took me ten minutes to buckle up one boot."

Please, Trin. Go back to Zion. Save yourself. Don't let my selfishness be for nothing.

"But I'll tell you something. Six hours ago, I told the Merovingian I was ready to give anything and everything for you. Do you know what's changed in the past six hours?"

"No."

Here it comes.

"Nothing."

Damn. I knew it. There's nothing I can do; nothing I can say. She's not staying. She's coming. And whatever happens, it's all going to be my fault.

It had been a long while since he had visited any hacking boards. He doubted anyone would remember him, and he knew gaining his reputation back would take quite some time. The first place Thomas chose to go, there were already many other hackers talking about the Matrix.

Thomas browsed through the board, reading everything he could about the Matrix. He saw Trinity's name many times—each time bringing the memory of another dream—as well as another, Morpheus. He knew he recognized the name but couldn't place it. Guessing the name was familiar from his previous time in hacking communities, Thomas kept searching. He looked through every board and topic he could find.

"Absolutely not. I won't allow it. I won't let a member of my crew endanger someone who has no idea what is happening to him. Even though—certain things have happened. And just as much as he deserves to know the truth now more than ever, I won't let you tell him. You've got to wait."

"But we have to help him. We finally found him again. How can you expect me to just leave him there? After everything that happened. And now this. You know this isn't chance. Something big had to have happened to make him remember us. To make him remember anything at all."

"We cannot risk it right now. We may lose him again. As captain of this ship, I am telling you to wait."

"Goddamn it, we can't wait. If we don't try now, he might just give up hope altogether. Stop searching. Stop trying to find the answers we so desperately want him to know. You know how all of the red-pills are. And you know that he's different. You know that he's special. You've seen it. We all have. Maybe he even remembers everything that happened before… before we lost him."

"All right, you can try it. But if anything happens, anything at all, you had better remember that I was the voice of reason."

After two and a half hours of sitting in front of the computer screen, he knew almost nothing more about this mysterious Matrix than when he started. An uncrackable, top-secret government computer program. Is that even possible? Without having any way to hack into the Matrix, how could he find out what it was?

Then all of a sudden, the computer screen suddenly went blank. A cursor blinked in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Thomas stared at the cursor for a few seconds, before trying to exit whatever program had just come up.

>>Neo, are you there?

What the hell?

Things like this scared him shitless. He knew what hackers could do. He knew there was no real protection. Hell, he could get past any firewall with ease. He'd done it so many times that he could probably do it with his eyes closed. Even though he hadn't tried in a few years.

For a while, Thomas had been one of the most respected and well-known hackers. That was why his software sold so quickly. He wrote most of it himself, and everyone in the hacking world wanted to use something that Neo had written. His sudden disappearance must have seemed strange to many other hackers, but it had been so long he didn't actually expect anyone to remember. He knew hacking must have advanced in the years he missed, but fuck, this guy on his computer knew who he was already. Thomas didn't know that was possible. Not that fast, anyway.

He's good. That could be bad. Really bad. Shit. But then again… maybe not. Maybe this guy just remembers me; maybe I knew him. Or maybe he wants my help for something. I don't see how I could help any, but still…

Curiosity eventually won the fight with fear. Reluctantly, Thomas typed an answer.

>>Depends. Who's asking?

>>It's me, Neo. It's Trinity.