Title: Reality's a Bitch
Fandom: Matrix Ressurections
Characters: Trinity, Neo, Bugs, New!Morpheus
Category: Mild Angst, Romance, Missing Scene
Rating: G
Word Count: 1484
Summary: A small missing scene between Trinity waking up on The Mnemosyne and re-entering the Matrix to kick the Analyst's ass. Even Trinity needs a moment to process and adjust, but some things never change.
Warnings: None
When Trinity wakes, when they pull the jack out of the back of her head, and she opens her eyes in the real world, the first thing she does is look for Neo. Because Trinity remembers. She remembers the gut clenching fear that made the simple act of putting her boots on take ten long minutes and she remembers dying, metal rods slamming into her body, through her, skewering her to the floor of the Logos. Worst of all, it had prevented her from going with Neo. The only thing that damn well could have was death and, well, she had died. Trinity remembers that. And now somehow she's here - alive! - and in the real world in Neo's arms. It's a fucking miracle, a bloody, brutal miracle that they had fought for tooth and nail.
Trinity touches Neo's cheek and allows herself to bury her head in his neck. The woman she was might have regretted this expression of vulnerability and tenderness in front of people who weren't Neo, but Trinity knows she won't regret this for a minute, not after years of being trapped in the unreality of the Matrix. After years of Chad and children and turning aside every time she has a moment to breathe, to think, to imagine anything besides them. This moment is for her and for Neo and she wants to breathe him in.
To her still acclimatizing nose, Neo smells sharply of sweat, the stale air of the ship and the harsh odor of whatever combination of lye and other chemicals the crew of this ship is using for laundry these days. It smells like home. Trinity allows her arms to slide around Neo's shoulders. Involuntarily a smile curves over her lips and she says the one thing she knows to be true.
"I missed you."
Neo's laugh is muffled, more of a snort than anything else. "I missed you too, Trinity." His arms are suddenly strong around her back, pulling her close and holding her tight. She holds him back with every ounce of the newly unplugged strength in her body. It's not enough, but it's everything she has. She feels the press of his cheek against hers, rough stubble scraping still sensitive skin. "Don't ever leave me again."
Trinity feels dampness on her cheek and knows Neo's crying too. She doesn't care about their audience seeing that either, not right now. "Not even if I die." Neo chokes and Trinity pulls back just enough to meet his gaze. The barest smile quirks at the corner of her lips. "Too soon?"
Neo nods, but Trinity doesn't let go, doesn't back away from the depths of his gaze. "But I mean it. They killed us, Neo, and even that couldn't keep us apart. So many things are going to be different now." Trinity can feel the rightness of it in her veins, remembers how it felt to fly with Neo's hand in hers. She knows now why he enjoyed it so much then. It's amazing.
Neo drops a hand to take hers. "Together," he says firmly, looking at her the way he always has, as if she's the sun and moon and stars.
Trinity stares back at him and feels the exact same way. She always has, ever since the moment she and Morpheus had started watching him. That feeling isn't about to change now, but slowly there are starting to become more immediate issues. Trinity presses up against him, as if she's breathing him in again, but this time it's her lips against his ear. "Are we safe?"
Neo glances away and Trinity watches him pick a face out of the crowd. " Are we safe, Bugs?"
The woman - Bugs - takes this as her cue to come forward and nods. "We are. We're already on our way back to Io."
"Wait." Trinity doesn't know anything yet. Where she is. Who these people are. How long has passed since she and Neo went to the Machine City. Or what an Io is, but she does know one thing. "We have to go back." She knows the Matrix and she knows the Machines. They can't run now. The Machines have to see that she and Neo aren't beaten. Have to know that they are the ones in control now and things are going to be very different.
"She's right." Neo tells Bugs, having her back one more time, just like he always has. "We can't go yet."
"Neo…" Bugs says, shaking her head. "The General-"
"Niobe will be just as-" Neo starts to say.
"Niobe," Trinity breaks in. "What does she have to do with this? What about the Council? Where's Morpheus?"
"Here, of course," comes a smooth, deep voice. Close to what she remembers and yet so very wrong.
"You're not Morpheus," Trinity snaps, before she can even turn around. When she does, she stumbles back into Neo. "Neo? What the hell is that?"
"A program-" Only the fact that she was newly pulled from a pod, allows Neo to be able to catch her arm before it flashed out towards that… thing. Trinity wasn't sure to do what, but she knew she had to do something. Programs on ships were a death sentence, as suicidal as taking on Agents.
"-that I wrote," Neo finished. "My mind was trapped like yours but I wrote this modal to recreate the beginning, how it all started. How you found me. And I created this program that was designed to find me, and free me." He shrugs, as if it was nothing. "He's on our side, Trin."
Programs on their side. Programs on their side. Trinity tilted her head and willed it to make sense.
"We need to talk," Neo said, touching her hand again. "We have a lot to catch up on."
Trinity slips her fingers through his without a second thought and holds on so tight she hopes it doesn't bruise. Because no matter what she's not letting go.
The room is quiet. Outside it is not. Footsteps clatter by, tools clang against machinery and in the background is the ever present whine of the engines powering the hovercraft. Inside is dark, so dark she can barely make out Neo's features as they lay face to face on one small cramped bunk.
"Neo," Trinity whispers. "Is this real?"
"Yes." No doubt, no hesitation in his voice. His lips quirk up. "I tasted a strawberry."
Trinity tries not to stare at him like he's crazy. The last time she had been alive it had been hundreds of years since a human had tasted a strawberry, and now Neo is telling her this is reality. Strawberries are real. Some programs are friends and Morpheus is dead. Their talk had been a long one.
What she asks is, "What did it taste like?"
Neo shook his head as if he were trying to come up with words for the experience. "Sweet. A little tangy." He wrinkles his nose. "Very red."
And Trinity can't help but laugh. "Red isn't a flavor."
"Sure it is." Neo counters. "Or at least it was. In the Matrix."
"That's not real," Trinity says fimly. Chad. Her children. The flavor red. Trinity suspects she's going to be categorizing things into two lists in her head for quite some time to come. Real and not real. But having your head fucked with by the Matrix will do that to you.
"No." Neo's arms tighten around her. "And I'm so glad it's not, Trinity." He sucks in a shaky breath. "I need you, as much now as I did the day you unplugged me. Without you…" He shakes his head. "Nothing was right."
"You have me," Trinity says. She puts her hand over his heart and feels the steady thump-thump beneath her palm. She brings his hand up to her chest, so he can feel the same. "And I have you. I won't let go, Neo."
"Good," Neo breathes the word against her lips and the air between them stills. He presses his forehead against hers. "They really did a number on my head this time, Trin. I almost didn't make it out and if I hadn't-"
"-I would have found you," Trinity cuts him off. "Because nothing can keep us apart. I would have found you again, Neo, I swear. I was already so close, even with the Matrix clouding my mind, the connection I felt to you was like nothing else."
"I love you," Neo whispers. "You're the only person I've ever loved, Trinity."
It's like a balm against her aching soul, the way he says her name. Trinity, not Tiffany. Never again, Tiffany. Neo, not Thomas Anderson.
Trinity and Neo, until the end. She can do this, all of this, with him.
"I love you." Trinity means it with every fiber of her being. "And we are going to take this second chance and make things right."
(1/1)