Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Wish I did.
xoxo
Everything happened in a matter of seconds. Neo and Trinity had hit the roof of an old apartment complex, barely ahead of the Agents. Or, at least one of the Agents. The other had disappeared somewhere between the fifth and eighth floors only to reappear atop the building.
Agent Jones had gone straight for Trinity, knocking her out of the way and leaving room for Agent Brown to head for Neo.
Neo held out an arm to block the first punch, dividing his attention between Agent Brown and Trinity. She had taken a hard hit from Jones, landing flat on her back but she was already rolling back to her feet and taking off at a run.
Neo felt the tension escape from his body knowing that Trinity wasn't going to try to fight the Agents. He pulled a gun from his belt, faster than the Agent could process, and aimed it straight for the heart.
Two shots and the Agent was down on the ground, crackling and morphing back into a regular man.
The Agent had come out of nowhere, tackling her to the ground. It hurt landing straight on her back on the concrete roof. She knew when she got back to the real world, there would be a bruise but she would worry about that later.
Now, she just needed to get up.
Trinity rolled to her side and up to her feet with a grace that could only come from computer animation. Agent Jones sent a wave of punches towards her the moment she was upright. She dodged them, leaning backwards and around before breaking into a sprint.
Was Neo behind her? They hadn't actually discussed what to do if an Agent showed up but he knew that she didn't want him fighting yet. Would he try anyway now that he was confident in his abilities? Or was those his footsteps gaining ground behind her?
She spared a glance and a foot connected, hard, with her shoulder. Trinity flew, backwards through the air until she wasn't flying. She was falling.
When Neo looked up, Trinity was halfway across the roof. Jones was gaining serious ground behind her, desperate to take her out and prove his worth. As she neared the end of the roof, Trinity turned to spare a glance behind her.
Jones leapt at the opportunity, jumping into the air and kicking her hard in the shoulder. Trinity was airborne, flying across the roof until she was falling over nothingness.
Neo didn't think, just ran straight for the edge of the roof before diving over the edge.
Focus.
Neo flew downwards, towards the falling body. Just a little bit closer…
He stretched an arm out to grab her around the waist before flinging her legs upwards to catch with his other hand. Trinity turned her head sharply to stare at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and shock.
It was only then that Neo realized where they were.
He pulled up out of the dive, somewhat amazed that they didn't fall. But there wasn't time to question it. Not yet.
Six blocks down, one block over.
Faster than he thought possible, he flew down the streets until he could hear the all too familiar ringing. He dove down toward the street, slowing down and preparing his legs to land. Neo hit the ground at a run, letting the momentum he had built up in his descent run out before setting Trinity down.
"Fuck." She said, breathing hard. "Neo, that was…"
"Later." He said, taking her hand and starting to run again. "We need to get the hell out of here."
They ran to the phone box down the street.
"You first." Neo said as they slipped into the box.
She didn't argue, picking up the phone before her body shimmered out of the Matrix.
Neo hung up the phone and waited. The moment he heard the sound, he picked it up and opened his eyes in the real world.
Morpheus was standing next to him. He pulled the jack out of Neo's head and began to speak. Neo didn't hear a word though, jumping out of his chair and moving over to Trinity.
She had been unplugged and was sitting on the chair sideways, her legs dangling over the side. Neo stepped between them and cupped her face in his hands.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Good." He bent down and kissed her, hard, on the lips before moving his hands down to hug her to him. "I thought I lost you."
"How the hell did you do that?" Thadeus asked before Trinity could reply.
Neo looked up from Trinity but didn't loosen his grip. "I'm not entirely sure how. I wasn't exactly thinking when I saw Trin falling."
"You didn't know that was going to work?" Trinity asked, pulling back from him.
"Not really, I guess. There wasn't time to think about it."
Her relaxed features changed into a scowl. "You could have been killed."
"So could you."
That answer, Neo realized as Trinity's expression darkened and her arms folded over her chest, did nothing to help his case.
"Neo, that was reckless. Just because you're the One doesn't mean that you won't get hit by a bus if you walk into traffic."
He considered pointing out that he hadn't walked into traffic—he had jumped off a building. Somehow, though, he had a feeling that it wouldn't help.
She was scared, he realized. As scared as he'd been in the split second when the Agent had kicked her off the roof. Scared of the asphalt beneath her that wouldn't stretch and bend like in the jump program. Scared that he would lose her after having her for less than a day.
And he had put his life in danger.
"I'm sorry for scaring you." He said, quietly. "But I would do it again."
Her expression softened. She wanted to say more but Thadeus, Tank and Morpheus were still standing there, gaping. Instead, she took his hand and intertwined their fingers.
"Do you think you understood what you did enough to do it again?"
Neo nodded, "Probably."
"We could test it in the Construct." She offered as a compromise. "Load the jump program and just have you practice before you go back into the Matrix."
"Sure."
"You wanna do that now?" Tank asked, looking between the two.
Neo glanced to Trinity. They had both been shaken by how close a call they had in the Matrix and if she wasn't comfortable with him going back in right off, he would understand. She gave him a small smile, unspoken permission.
"Yeah, okay." Neo said.
"I'm going to stay on this side." Trinity told him, "And watch the computers. See if we can figure out how you do what you do."
"Sounds good."
He walked back to his chair, not letting go of her hand. She pulled the lever and inserted the wiring into his head. And then he was on a roof in the middle of an empty city.
It had only been a few days since the last time he entered the jump program, being drilled by Morpheus to jump greater distances each time. He told Neo that he had done well with that confident smile. And Neo had smiled back, uncertain if he was really everything Morpheus thought he was.
But he was.
He took a running start before leaping off of the building. He pulled his arms tight against his body to become as aerodynamic as possible and felt the air rushing all around him as he flew downard.
Neo pulled up his body hard, almost so that he was leaning backwards and began to soar up. He bent his body slightly to the right and turned in a wide circle before heading back upwards, to the clouds.
Trinity stood over the operator's chair, her hands on resting on the back as she watched the screen intently. Neo had spent ten minutes in the air before landing on the ground below. Immediately, he had crouched down low before moving to jump and began to fly again.
The next time he landed, he ran up a wall. In theory, it was easy enough to do. Trinity had done it, herself, many times.
But Neo was running up six story buildings.
At the moment, he was practicing walking over nothing. He was hovering a few feet above the ground, looking dead ahead while he moved forward.
Somewhere behind her, she knew that Morpheus was beaming. After years of searching, he'd finally found the One.
Thadeus, on the other hand, was shaking his head in amazement. The things that Neo could do seemed impossible but the evidence was right in front of his eyes.
"Damn!" Tank said as Neo forced a tree to bend sideways. "That shit's impossible."
"Not anymore." Trinity said glancing from the falling code to the screen that made it possible to see what was going on in the Construct.
"The Neb's ready for a jump-start." Jue, first mate on the Osiris, called as she climbed up the ladder.
"Shhh!" Morpheus shushed, staring intently at the screen as Neo attempted to do to a building what he had done with the tree.
"What the hell?" She asked moving to stand next to Thadeus.
"They did it." He responded, still in a daze. "They found the One."
"He's bending a skyscraper!"
"Fuck yeah, he is." Tank said, grinning.
"Tank, could you load some weights into the program? Starting at one pound, five pounds, ten and then increasing by ten pound increments up to a hundred?" Trinity asked without taking her eyes off of Neo.
"Sure."
She leaned over to the microphone and hit a button to enable her to speak into the Construct. "Neo, we're loading in a set of weights. I want to see if you can pick them up without being near them."
"Like telekinesis?"
"Exactly."
A set of weights shimmered into the Construct a few feet away from Neo. He took a step back and raised his hand, a random weight moving up with it.
"Guess he's not paying attention to weight." Tank said, that's the thirty pounder.
A small smile played on Trinity's lips. He had developed a confidence in both the Construct and the Matrix that hadn't been there before. In fact, Neo was practically glowing in his new found role.
"That's amazing!" Jue gasped as Neo started picking up multiple weights at once and let them orbit him.
"This is nothing." Tank bragged, "yesterday, this guy defeated an Agent."
"That's impossible."
"That word seems to come up a lot when dealing with Neo." Trinity commented without looking away from the screen. He was now using the weights as projectiles.
After a few minutes, Neo spoke up. "Hey Tank? Could you pull me out of here?"
Trinity left the monitor and went over to Neo's chair, arriving just as his eyes opened.
"Hey." He said.
"Hey." She pulled out the jack, "Did you have fun?"
Neo grinned, sitting up, "Yeah. Is it possible for me to get a readout of the codes from when I was in there?"
Trinity nodded, "We can have the transcripts sent to the Neb."
"That'd be great."
"Tank—"
"Done and done." Tank replied.
"Thanks." Neo said moving to his feet. "So, uh, now what?"
"Now," Said Morpheus, "We fix our ship and prepare for Zion."
