The Dark One 4
by Byte
"You killed him!" Trinity spat as soon as the removed the hood from her head, but instead it came out, "U illed im!" they had drugged her and she still couldn't talk right, and they were lucky she couldn't say what was also on her mind. Patrick laughed and walked around her, he obviously understood what she had said.
"Well he might not be dead, wouldn't bet on it though."
"E ill ive, n kill u!"
"I do love a girl with spirit, and in leather too."
"srew u." It only made him laugh harder. He grabbed her face and made her look into his eyes, despite him being pure evil, he had beautiful eyes, big, brandy brown ones. They were strangely familiar. She couldn't quite place it. He let go of her face, and turned to an agent standing near by, and snapped his fingers.
"Bring the antidote, I wanna ask her a few questions."
"But-"
"No buts, I get what I want, or do you forget I can delete you as well as Anderson." The agent sneered at that, but left the room.
"I'm ot oing o tell u annting!",then she spat at him. He smiled at her a nasty smile, "Oh, but you will. And you'll be glad to do so." A shiver ran up her spine, at his tone. He was a monster. She prayed that Neo was alive, and that he would kill this monster, or even better, let her have the pleasure.
Byte flinched as Gizmo bound her ankles and busted kneww, when she had jumped of the building, it turned out she had gotten hurt, but in fact she had broken both of her ankles. The adrenaline had kept her from feeling the broken ankles. Now even Gizmo was lecturing her.
"What were you THINKING?!"
"That Neo worth more any of us, and that he has to survive."
"Well you're worth a lot to me, so promise that next time you'll use some brain cells."
"I promise." She leaned over and they kissed, slow and long. It was nice to just be part of something so simple and wonderful.
"Dude, you are suppose to be fixing her ankles, not making sure her tongue works fine." They broke apart and blushed deeply. Tank stood in the doorway.
"How's Neo?" Byte asked quietly. She still felt like it was her fault, for no reason. Besides the fact that she was there.
"Better, but he still needs a miracle." He sounded sad, like some one had canceled his birthday. But if Neo did die, well the fight was going to get a lot tougher, okay it might even be next to impossible.
"This is all my fault." Byte moaned.
"Yeah right, and while your at it, blame yourself for the food. Blaming yourself isn't going to heal Neo and bring Trinity back. So stop it!" Gizmo commanded. She never would have expected this from him, but tragedy brings out either a person's strength or weakness. Gizmo was a lot stronger than he looked. Neo though needed more than strength, he needed a miracle.
Neo looked around, it was nighttime and he was in a car, his first car in fact, a huge boat, an '79 Buick that he had bought for two hundred bucks. He was in his late teens, next to him was Jamie, the first girl he loved, as a matter a fact, the only girl he had ever loved except for Trinity. Jamie leaned over a flipped on the radio, her strawberry blond hair falling in her face.
"I love this song" she whispered.
"What's it's name?"
"Send me an Angel. I love it." She began humming along with the song.
"Aw- I though you loved me."
"I do Neo." He spun around and instead of Jamie sitting next to him, it was Trinity. Except she was younger and wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
"Huh? Patrick kidnapped you though." She only smiled at him, and turned to study the road a head. He studied her for a second longer than turned his eyes to the road . The song ended, and REM's "It's the End of the World as we Know it" came on. Just then another car came barreling down the road, way to fast. Neo tried to swerve, and avoid the car, but it was going in all directions, and he couldn't predict which way it would go. There was nothing he could do. It was all noise and lights, and the sensation of being thrown. He must have blacked out for a moment, because when he woke up he was on the side of the road, lying on the gravel.
He felt something wet on his head, he tried to reach his forehead, but trying to move his right arm, but that caused further pain. He could barely breath, but he could still hear. He saw the lights of the car, that had rammed into them nearby, but he couldn't see Trinity, or was she Jamie again? He tried to call out to her but he couldn't, instead he heard the people from the car.
"Dude! I think they're hurt. We gotta do something!" Called one of them.
"Shaddup. Get back in the car will you Dodge!" Commanded a second voice, bossy and familiar.
"But Pat, they're hurt, bad I think." Dodge apparently said, Dodge, that was a familiar name. He recognized it, but it was fuzzy, he must have hit his head harder than he thought. But Pat was familiar, it was his brother, and he was willing to leave him to die?
"You wanna be here when the cops get here?" Instead of an answer he heard footsteps coming toward him, and a face came into view, he had a mess of brown hair, and blue eyes. He swore loudly, and turned toward the car.
"Pat! It's your brother!!"
"Doesn't matter, get in the car!"
"Well you can shove it Pat, I'm getting help."
"Screw you."
"Whatever." He heard a car door slam and tires squeal. Dodge leaned over his face again, and pressed his fingers against the artery in his neck. He felt like yelling at him, "Yes I have a pulse, now get some help!" Though for some reason talking was out of the question.
"C'mon Tom, gimme something, you ain't a vegetable yet." Neo finally managed to get some syllables out. "Hope so." He choked out. Dodge sighed and ripped a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt.
"Elp Jamie." Neo commanded. Dodge twitched than said, "She's in better condition than you dude, you need help." "Ok." He wrapped the cloth around his head.
"I'll be back in a sec, okay? I gotta go get help." Neo tried to nod. Then blackness claimed him. He woke up again a paramedic was staring him in the face.
"C'mon son can you tell me your name, anything?"
"Tom" He managed to rasp out, he considered it for a second, "Anderson." The medic nodded, "Just hold on kid. We're gonna get you to the hospital." They were in an ambulance, he could hear the siren going off.
"Jamie?" He managed to spit out.
"The girl who was with, she's in the other ambulance." But Neo could tell something was wrong, the dude's tone of voice betrayed him. He wanted to ask more questions, but the dude's attention had shifted from him to another paramedic.
"How's the kid." He wasn't a kid, thank you very much.
"Not good, but he has a good chance."
"Diagnosis?"
"Concussion, definitely, probably a broken collar bones, his entire right side is bashed up real good, and of coarse superficial injuries. But what I'm afraid of is may be a broken rib punctured his lung, he was coughing up blood a minute ago." He had not been! Then again a minute ago he had been unconscious.
"Poor kid, he's lucky though that other kid called it in, some more time and he might not have had a chance." He started nodding off again, but he fought it this time hoping he would get to hear something about Jamie. He had to stay awake.....he had to find out what happen to Jamie.
He woke up again facing a bright light, "Am I suppose to go into the light?" He asked groggily, Faces popped over him, and came into focus.
"Hey, Neo! Welcome back, and that is definitely not the bright light at the end of the tunnel, it's, a, lamp." Everything that had happened in the past few days came flooding back to him. Trinity getting kidnapped, Patrick, everything. He tried to sit up, but his formely numb shoulder and the area around his heart, suddenly screamed in pain. He lay back and swore softly.
"Rest Neo." Morpheus commanded.
"What about Trinity?"
"Later, rest know."
"No, I want to know now."
"And I say knowing now won't do you any good, after you've rested we'll fill you in."
"Just tell, is she alive."
"Yes."
Gizmo sighed and leaned back against the wall, the search they had going for Trinity wasn't turning up anything, all It was doing was getting them all frustrated, plus even if they did find her by some miracle, they couldn't fight the Dark One, until Neo was better. Teeky trotted up the street to meet him.
"Lemme guess you didn't find anything?"
"How did you ever guess?" She spat back bitterly, she had taken this on as her crusade, she probably wanted to kill the Dark One more than anyone. He had after all killed her brother in cold blood, then laughed about it. He had an older brother and a younger sister in the Matrix, so he could sympathize what it would be like to loose them.
Teeky looked him in the eye, "If we can't find them, what's the use of looking?"
He shrugged, then began singing, "We're looking, cuz we're looking!" He then lapsed in a Blink182 song which really didn't make any sense, but Gizmo never made sense, and proud of it! Teeky then gave him an angry look, "You think this is the time to start joking?! Honesty this is not the time."
"What do you mean? It's always Miller Time?" She didn't even crack a smile at his dumb joke, in fact he had never seen her smile. "Listen as long as we got Neo, we gotta chance, anyway I printed out a sheet with potentials, we can check on them. It'll give us something to do."
"What so they can replace us when the Dark One kills us?" Man did she have PMS or something? "No, so that when this is over we might actually have close to an entire crew, cause we all know that Byte is useless."
"Let's go find this new potential." She commanded, the ice queen, that was what she was, cold as ice, with a heart of stone. What had happened to the panicked new recruit? Another one of the Dark One's kills.
A youngish man sat slouched in a chair, it was a decent area of Chicago, Gizmo knew that he was the most qualified person on their list, but the problem was that he was almost to old to be released, he was almost twenty-nine, the cut off date. It would be close, but Neo had been a few months over the date, and he was fine.
"What's his name?"
"Oh yeah that might be slightly important, he calls himself Dodge."
"So why did you lie to all of us?" Byte asked as she limped into the room, Neo had just managed to stay awake for an hour and the firing squad was already here.
"Better question yet," he growled, "why are you asking, it isn't important."
"Cause, something made my ability go psycho, and I saw the future without trying, and the Oracle was telling you something about the Dark One, dunno what, but still! So spill it Neo, I'm not the only person who know something's up by the way." He was amazed she managed to say that in an entire breath.
"It's nothing that we already don't know, he's dangerous and I'm the only one who can stop him, so don't push it."
"Fine! See what I care, it's only our necks on the line! But just to let you know, I don't think you'll be able to blow Trinity off this easy, when she gets back!" She yelled and limped out of the room, ruining her dramatic exit. Neo lay back down and realized that she was right, was he stupid enough to think that Trin wouldn't notice that something was up? But like she could say anything about keeping secrets from him. He couldn't but be angry at her, it was totally unreasoned, but at that moment he was mad at everything and everyone, nut most of all, himself. If he had been able to defeat Patrick, he might have been able to prevent all of this. He hated Patrick for everything, kidnapping Trinity, hurting his friends, and in the distant past, killing Jamie, and almost taking him with her.
A figure stood beside him, "Byte I told you it's nothing."
"It's a long way from nothing isn't it Tom?" He snapped his attention to the figure, it was Jamie, in her petite glory. She looked at him, her golden skin full of life and energy, unlike the last time he had seen her, gray with cheap-make up to try to create the illusion that she was just sleeping.
"Jamie?" He sputtered.
She nodded, she still looked like a teenager. "I guess you're wondering why I talking to you. Well it's just that I want you to know, now you can do something. You can do something so that Trinity's fate will not be the same I as mine was. You can do it Neo, Patrick was always all muscle and pride, you are smart, and have people you can trust."
"Jamie, you sound like you're on Prozac."
"If I didn't know about your chronic political incorrectness, I'd be insulted." She smirked, she brushed back a strand of his hair, "I'll always love you, Trinity's a lucky girl."
Neo woke up with a start, getting shot gave you the weirdest dreams. He rubbed his temples, and groaned. Teeky walked, and cocked her head, "Well it's about time, we've been waiting."
"How long was I asleep?"
"Three days, we were getting worried." Yeah she looked worried. She was cold as ice.
"Did I miss anything?"
"Just pointless searches that have turned up nothing. So pretty boy, we're are going back into the Matrix."
"Excuse me! I am not a pretty boy." He knew it was beyond stupid going in the Matrix, but he had to, he just had to, he tried to sit up, and failed miserably. His shoulder began to throb.
"Yep, you are insane, do you realize that bullet when though bone, an artery, and a lot of muscle."
"Why did you lie about going into the Matrix?" He snapped angrily.
"We are not you, you deserved to know, we actually have a lead on were Trinity might be."
"Listen I can go in, as soon as I'm hooked up, I'll be fine."
"Yeah right, you come out with so much as a bruise and you're in trouble." She scolded, "don't worry we won't do anything stupid. I don't feel like dying anytime soon."
"A good motto."
"One that you don't follow very well." He tried to shrug, but ended up almost screaming, he hated feeling weak, and helpless. He was useless and he was ready to plug himself in, probably kill himself in the process, and that would not do anyone any good. But then again who cared? He had never done the smart thing.
Trinity stared up into Neo's face, as she clawed back to consciousness. He gave her a weak smile, he had a nasty looking cut above his eye, and his arm looked broken. He touched her cheek tenderly, light enough not to agitate the bruises.
"It's over Trin." He whispered. "He's gone, forever." She felt tears roll down her cheek, it was over, finally. "Let's get these chains off you okay?" He extended his hand and the chains disappeared. She flexed her hands, and wrapped her arms around him.
"It's okay." He whispered, returning her embraced , the best way he could with a broken arm.
"I love you Neo." She whispered in his ear. Then the world around her seemed to warp, and Neo in her arms seemed to shimmer, and in a second he changed, from the One to the Dark One. He smirked at her his face that of a fallen angel, but the only part that hadn't changed, were his eyes, they were still Neo's eyes. A cruel trick, it had to be.
She pulled herself away from him, and ended up falling on her butt. He laughed again, "So now it's clear! Well I'll be damned! You're his girlfriend, that's great just great. And you love him, isn't that so so sweet? Do you want to know what? I killed his first love, a pity to, she was a sweet little piece work. It was an accident of course, that was a pity too. A car accident, wouldn't it be funny if the One had died in a car accident? He almost did you know. Busted up head, almost half his ribs broken, punctured lung and a few broken bones. It sucks so much that he didn't die, why couldn't he just have died?"
"You're not only evil, you're insane!" She spat then punctuated it further
"Yeah probably, but I'll tell you a little story. When his little girlfriend died, he went nuts. Therapy and support groups he got sent to. None of them worked, so one day he confronts me, and bashes me over the head with a baseball bat! Still got the scar on my head. Everyone was so surprised that innocent little Tom could muster up that. He said that I killed his girlfriend but who were they going to believe, a psycho with a bat or the captain of the football team? So Tom is a psycho who leaves town the night after graduation, and I stay and be the town hero who lead the school to multiple sport championships. I really loved high school. But now Tommy is back," The Dark One spun around and slammed his fist though a wall, "But now Tommy's back, but this time he's got a automatic machine gun."
Trinity smirked at him, "You're scared."
"I'm not scared. You should be, remember what happen to Tom's girlfriend, that's you're future sweetheart." He then yelled out some swear words that made even Trinity flinch.
Trinity stared at him for a moment then in a single stride reached him and slapped him across the face. And spat in his face.
"I must say Neo chose well I must say." Then he slapped her across her face, not as hard as he could have, but hard none the less.
"You see I need you alive, for the moment, maybe even longer." He glared at her, Neo eyes looking so wrong on his face. "But I'll let him deal the hardest blow." He smiled at her, hard cold, a snake's smile.
"Neo this is insane!" Gizmo yelled at him, "Go into the Matrix, and when you come out you'll be very dead."
"Honestly! You need to be in perfect shape to face that monster, and you are far from it."
"Listen I know all this! In the Matrix I'll be fine, but I can't stand thinking about Trinity with that scum bucket."
"None of us can, but that is no reason to throw your life away." Morpheus said.
"I am so sick and tired of hearing that! Listen, he could be getting information out of her, that could destroy all of us. How bout that? I was nice and cold and calculating, making me what is needed in the One. Well guess what? I'm lousy at this job, and I'm going to go save Trinity. Whether you like it or not. Tank get everything ready." He could feel his heart beating in his ear, and in the throbbing in his shoulder. They weren't going to stop him, but they still didn't understand.
Tank nodded sadly and moved to the computers, but Teeky stepped between him and one of the chairs, "This is selfish Neo, and you know it. You're going to risk the fate of the Resistance, for one person. Great just great, you're going to screw us all, so you can be Romeo? You duty is to humankind, you can't ignore that."
"You're going to let Trinity die like Zekk?" He snapped, then immediately regret washed through him, Zekk's death was still fresh in her mind. Her face hardened and her eyes shrunk to slits.
"Fine! Die, like we care. But I hope that as you die, you remember everything I've said." Teeky snapped then slapped him across his face practically knocking him to the ground.
"TEEKY!" Morpheus commanded. She turned to him coolly, "I did what was best and I'll do it again." In a second she spun around and jabbed Neo in his stomach. Pain exploded and he crumpled to the ground.
Teeky leaned over him and smiled, " Guess we aren't so tough now, are we?" Neo wanted to answer he really did, but he just couldn't she had knocked the wind out of him. "Five days Neo you stay out do we have a deal."
"Not a chance in hell!" He yelled finding his voice and pushing her off him, "Five days and Trinity is dead! I'd do the same for any of you."
"Well I don't know about Teeky right now." Gizmo added.
"So I'm going in." He continued ignoring Gizmo. He walked over to the chair, " And nobody comes in, this is between me and him." He saw Byte flinch, he didn't mean it like that.
"Okay get ready." Tank cautioned. Then he awoke in the construct. The cell phone rang, "Since I'm pretty sure you're all out of miracles, how bout a helluva lot of guns?" Neo smiled, at least Tank could still crack a joke, anything normal seemed great right now. As normal as things can get when he was getting downloaded into a computer program.
Trinity saw the monster stiffen, and that meant only one thing: Neo was in the Matrix. How could he be so stupid, though it was a slight relief to know for sure that he was alive. He had to be weak, had to be after getting shot, and he was doing it for her.
"That asshole." She said quietly. The Dark One didn't hear her, or if he did he was ignoring her. Just a second after she said that the wall imploded and there stood Neo.
"So you survived." Then he turned toward her, but there was a slight problem for him, her chains were gone courtesy of Neo, she spun around and kicked the chair at him, it hit him square in the face with a satisfying thud. Then Neo was there right behind him, the Dark One dazed spun around just in time to get a kick in the stomach.
"Trinity run!" Neo commanded, just as an attack was launched against him. She slid behind outside the door to get a gun or something, like she would play damsel in distress.
"Oh crap."
Neo managed to avoid Patrick's blow, still full of relief Trinity was fine, besides some cuts and bruises. Just then an agent appeared in the doorway, holding Trinity, "Thing is getting very old you know." She was telling him. Even though he had a gun pointed at her head. In a second the agent exploded in a bright green light. And Trinity had grabbed his gun, as he exploded.
Unfortunately, that second had given Patrick the time he needed, he came up behind him and slammed two hands at the base of his neck , knocking him to the ground, he spun around to see him pointing a gun at him.
BAM! BAM! BAM! Three shots were fired but Neo felt nothing, no hot lead, or pain. Then he looked at Patrick who stood there looking shocked, with three bleeding hole in his chest. Trinity. Neo spun his leg around and knocked his legs out from underneath him. He jump up and brought out his hand gun which promptly disappeared and a moment later Patrick's had pulled his on him, but that too disappeared. Then it became full out war.
Trinity watched the two men fight, she would have tried another shot, but they were moving to fast, faster then any agent. So if she took a shot she risked Neo as well. Then Neo took a few step back from the fight, she could see a bloody lip, a black eye and several other minor injuries. Then in the blind of an eye, there wasn't one Neo, but four. She rubbed her eyes but there were four. And the Dark One looked just as suprised as she did. Then he launched himself at the one closest to him, and went clean though it. That Neo smiled and the other three leapt in, at the past they were moving it was impossible to see which one was actually hitting him. He rolled away in obvious pain, then three of the Neos disappeared, leaving a very exhausted looking Neo behind.
Neo drooped the three illusions, they them self drained his energy, but when Patrick had tried ripping them apart, it had taken to much energy. He lunged at Patrick with all his strength that he had left, Pat met him in the middle and their combined momentum sent them flying though the wall into thin air. Luckily though there was a rooftop nearby that they landed on with a hard thud.
Neo moved back in a daze, as did Patrick. "I guess there isn't any hope of you saying, hey this is stupid let's all be friends?" Neo slurred out.
"Yeah, yeah All this father come to light stuff ain't gonna work. Can we get back to beating the crap out of each other?"
"Sounds good." And they were back to were they were. Neo kicked him hard in the chest. They fought, but all they ended up doing was hurting each other equally. They stared at each other for a second. It was all so pointless, neither was going to win they, in the end they would both die if nothing happened to change things.
Neo leaned down and ripped a tile of the ground, the tile morphed into a handgun in his grip. Patrick seeing what he had done, and had copied it. They stood for a moment staring at each other weapons drawn. Neo could feel his palms beginning to sweat
"We end this here, we end this now." Neo yelled.
"Hell yeah!" Patrick agreed with a grin. One, two, three a silent countdown began, ten, and go. They raced at each other, gun flaring, each dodging each other's shots in they way Neo had when he started dodging bullets. Then they were two feet away from each other. In slow motion it seemed Neo kicked his leg out and kicked Patrick's arm throwing his shot of by inches, hot lead burned in his arm.
Patrick's shot missed, Neo's didn't.
Neo was shaking with pain, he could feel the injuries from his body invading his RSI. Now yet he pleaded. He stood over Patrick, the life draining from his brother's face. Relief flooded him, with a trace of guilt, if he didn't feel any he would be no better than Patrick.
"You-you won Tom. Su-suprising I-I-I guess." He coughed up some blood, "Y-you can't w-win though. H-hope ya d-do though. I-it's b-better t-to loose to t-the cha-champ." And silently Patrick died, without fan fair he would have wanted.
Neo stood over him for a second, then crumpled, gasping for breath, this was going to be the end, after all that. But at least he had saved the world first.
"NEO!!" Trinity yelled jumping the distance between the two buildings. She cradled him for a second, "Oh no you are NOT dying on me now! So C'mon!" She said dragging him up onto his feet, and searched his trench coat for his cell phone.
"Operator."
"Tank I need an exit now!"
"Got ya."
He told her an exit that was close, she only hoped she had time, that Neo had enough time left.
Neo woke in his cabin with a weight on his chest, luckily away from the two bullet wounds he had on his chest.
"Trin?"
"You're awake."
"And glad to be so." Even though even square inch of his body hurt."Trinity I have to tell you.." He started, no more secrets, not from her.
"No Neo, I need to tell you something first," She stopped him. "I have to tell you this before you tell me anything , it can't wait any longer. Neo you wanted to know how I knew Tech, and what I did before. I- have to tell you. You see when I first got unplugged I was angry at myself, at the world, everything I guess. Then Tech comes along, offers me a position, were I can vent my rage as you might say. Morpheus warned me about him, told me that he was a radical that he believed the machines should lose, no matter the death toll. But I joined him anyway, I only cared about myself, that I do some damage. Well Tech had learned of a prophecy that told of the Dark One, he had learned that Morpheus would find, you, the One. And Tech he was a big believer in Fate, he believed that since the Oracle had told Morpheus that he would find the One, there was nothing that could be done to change that. So he found this description in the prophecy, which none of us could figure it out, mind you we tried. So we found the people on the list, usually the were horrible people. I could never destroy them myself, but I helped which I guess makes me just as guilty as the others. But Neo, your name was on the list, we were two away when the program got called. Tech got his own ship, and Morpheus was good enough to take me back, became a father to me. But Neo we were so close, and it you could have so easily..."
"Trinity?" Neo asked moving her eyes to meet his, "but it didn't happen." His mind was swimming with all the new information, but it didn't change much, "I still love you Trinity."
"You do?" She said looking for an instant very innocent.
"Like an assassination could change that."
"Okay so what's this big secret of yours?"
"Kinda small compared to yours but Patrick is, was my brother."
"I though so." She said, "He had the same eyes as you, except yours are prettier."
Neo smiled and leaned over, and the kissed, like it was their first and last.
Prologue:
Gizmo watched as Byte sat hunched over a computer her fingers moving faster than a non hacker's should. He walked over and began massaging her shoulders. She rolled her neck up and smiled at him.
"What are you working on that is so important?"
"What happens when we dream Gizmo?" She asked quietly.
"Huh?"
"I think I've found the Dream World." She whispered peering at the screen. Gizmo cocked his head and looked at the screen. " Byte do I want to know?"
"Everyone will find out soon enough."
Definitely Not the End.....
So it's the end of the Dark One series, Review it please. But wait this isn't the end what for the sequel- The Dream World, hope fully coming soon. 'Til Hang loose and thanks for readin!
by Byte
"You killed him!" Trinity spat as soon as the removed the hood from her head, but instead it came out, "U illed im!" they had drugged her and she still couldn't talk right, and they were lucky she couldn't say what was also on her mind. Patrick laughed and walked around her, he obviously understood what she had said.
"Well he might not be dead, wouldn't bet on it though."
"E ill ive, n kill u!"
"I do love a girl with spirit, and in leather too."
"srew u." It only made him laugh harder. He grabbed her face and made her look into his eyes, despite him being pure evil, he had beautiful eyes, big, brandy brown ones. They were strangely familiar. She couldn't quite place it. He let go of her face, and turned to an agent standing near by, and snapped his fingers.
"Bring the antidote, I wanna ask her a few questions."
"But-"
"No buts, I get what I want, or do you forget I can delete you as well as Anderson." The agent sneered at that, but left the room.
"I'm ot oing o tell u annting!",then she spat at him. He smiled at her a nasty smile, "Oh, but you will. And you'll be glad to do so." A shiver ran up her spine, at his tone. He was a monster. She prayed that Neo was alive, and that he would kill this monster, or even better, let her have the pleasure.
Byte flinched as Gizmo bound her ankles and busted kneww, when she had jumped of the building, it turned out she had gotten hurt, but in fact she had broken both of her ankles. The adrenaline had kept her from feeling the broken ankles. Now even Gizmo was lecturing her.
"What were you THINKING?!"
"That Neo worth more any of us, and that he has to survive."
"Well you're worth a lot to me, so promise that next time you'll use some brain cells."
"I promise." She leaned over and they kissed, slow and long. It was nice to just be part of something so simple and wonderful.
"Dude, you are suppose to be fixing her ankles, not making sure her tongue works fine." They broke apart and blushed deeply. Tank stood in the doorway.
"How's Neo?" Byte asked quietly. She still felt like it was her fault, for no reason. Besides the fact that she was there.
"Better, but he still needs a miracle." He sounded sad, like some one had canceled his birthday. But if Neo did die, well the fight was going to get a lot tougher, okay it might even be next to impossible.
"This is all my fault." Byte moaned.
"Yeah right, and while your at it, blame yourself for the food. Blaming yourself isn't going to heal Neo and bring Trinity back. So stop it!" Gizmo commanded. She never would have expected this from him, but tragedy brings out either a person's strength or weakness. Gizmo was a lot stronger than he looked. Neo though needed more than strength, he needed a miracle.
Neo looked around, it was nighttime and he was in a car, his first car in fact, a huge boat, an '79 Buick that he had bought for two hundred bucks. He was in his late teens, next to him was Jamie, the first girl he loved, as a matter a fact, the only girl he had ever loved except for Trinity. Jamie leaned over a flipped on the radio, her strawberry blond hair falling in her face.
"I love this song" she whispered.
"What's it's name?"
"Send me an Angel. I love it." She began humming along with the song.
"Aw- I though you loved me."
"I do Neo." He spun around and instead of Jamie sitting next to him, it was Trinity. Except she was younger and wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
"Huh? Patrick kidnapped you though." She only smiled at him, and turned to study the road a head. He studied her for a second longer than turned his eyes to the road . The song ended, and REM's "It's the End of the World as we Know it" came on. Just then another car came barreling down the road, way to fast. Neo tried to swerve, and avoid the car, but it was going in all directions, and he couldn't predict which way it would go. There was nothing he could do. It was all noise and lights, and the sensation of being thrown. He must have blacked out for a moment, because when he woke up he was on the side of the road, lying on the gravel.
He felt something wet on his head, he tried to reach his forehead, but trying to move his right arm, but that caused further pain. He could barely breath, but he could still hear. He saw the lights of the car, that had rammed into them nearby, but he couldn't see Trinity, or was she Jamie again? He tried to call out to her but he couldn't, instead he heard the people from the car.
"Dude! I think they're hurt. We gotta do something!" Called one of them.
"Shaddup. Get back in the car will you Dodge!" Commanded a second voice, bossy and familiar.
"But Pat, they're hurt, bad I think." Dodge apparently said, Dodge, that was a familiar name. He recognized it, but it was fuzzy, he must have hit his head harder than he thought. But Pat was familiar, it was his brother, and he was willing to leave him to die?
"You wanna be here when the cops get here?" Instead of an answer he heard footsteps coming toward him, and a face came into view, he had a mess of brown hair, and blue eyes. He swore loudly, and turned toward the car.
"Pat! It's your brother!!"
"Doesn't matter, get in the car!"
"Well you can shove it Pat, I'm getting help."
"Screw you."
"Whatever." He heard a car door slam and tires squeal. Dodge leaned over his face again, and pressed his fingers against the artery in his neck. He felt like yelling at him, "Yes I have a pulse, now get some help!" Though for some reason talking was out of the question.
"C'mon Tom, gimme something, you ain't a vegetable yet." Neo finally managed to get some syllables out. "Hope so." He choked out. Dodge sighed and ripped a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt.
"Elp Jamie." Neo commanded. Dodge twitched than said, "She's in better condition than you dude, you need help." "Ok." He wrapped the cloth around his head.
"I'll be back in a sec, okay? I gotta go get help." Neo tried to nod. Then blackness claimed him. He woke up again a paramedic was staring him in the face.
"C'mon son can you tell me your name, anything?"
"Tom" He managed to rasp out, he considered it for a second, "Anderson." The medic nodded, "Just hold on kid. We're gonna get you to the hospital." They were in an ambulance, he could hear the siren going off.
"Jamie?" He managed to spit out.
"The girl who was with, she's in the other ambulance." But Neo could tell something was wrong, the dude's tone of voice betrayed him. He wanted to ask more questions, but the dude's attention had shifted from him to another paramedic.
"How's the kid." He wasn't a kid, thank you very much.
"Not good, but he has a good chance."
"Diagnosis?"
"Concussion, definitely, probably a broken collar bones, his entire right side is bashed up real good, and of coarse superficial injuries. But what I'm afraid of is may be a broken rib punctured his lung, he was coughing up blood a minute ago." He had not been! Then again a minute ago he had been unconscious.
"Poor kid, he's lucky though that other kid called it in, some more time and he might not have had a chance." He started nodding off again, but he fought it this time hoping he would get to hear something about Jamie. He had to stay awake.....he had to find out what happen to Jamie.
He woke up again facing a bright light, "Am I suppose to go into the light?" He asked groggily, Faces popped over him, and came into focus.
"Hey, Neo! Welcome back, and that is definitely not the bright light at the end of the tunnel, it's, a, lamp." Everything that had happened in the past few days came flooding back to him. Trinity getting kidnapped, Patrick, everything. He tried to sit up, but his formely numb shoulder and the area around his heart, suddenly screamed in pain. He lay back and swore softly.
"Rest Neo." Morpheus commanded.
"What about Trinity?"
"Later, rest know."
"No, I want to know now."
"And I say knowing now won't do you any good, after you've rested we'll fill you in."
"Just tell, is she alive."
"Yes."
Gizmo sighed and leaned back against the wall, the search they had going for Trinity wasn't turning up anything, all It was doing was getting them all frustrated, plus even if they did find her by some miracle, they couldn't fight the Dark One, until Neo was better. Teeky trotted up the street to meet him.
"Lemme guess you didn't find anything?"
"How did you ever guess?" She spat back bitterly, she had taken this on as her crusade, she probably wanted to kill the Dark One more than anyone. He had after all killed her brother in cold blood, then laughed about it. He had an older brother and a younger sister in the Matrix, so he could sympathize what it would be like to loose them.
Teeky looked him in the eye, "If we can't find them, what's the use of looking?"
He shrugged, then began singing, "We're looking, cuz we're looking!" He then lapsed in a Blink182 song which really didn't make any sense, but Gizmo never made sense, and proud of it! Teeky then gave him an angry look, "You think this is the time to start joking?! Honesty this is not the time."
"What do you mean? It's always Miller Time?" She didn't even crack a smile at his dumb joke, in fact he had never seen her smile. "Listen as long as we got Neo, we gotta chance, anyway I printed out a sheet with potentials, we can check on them. It'll give us something to do."
"What so they can replace us when the Dark One kills us?" Man did she have PMS or something? "No, so that when this is over we might actually have close to an entire crew, cause we all know that Byte is useless."
"Let's go find this new potential." She commanded, the ice queen, that was what she was, cold as ice, with a heart of stone. What had happened to the panicked new recruit? Another one of the Dark One's kills.
A youngish man sat slouched in a chair, it was a decent area of Chicago, Gizmo knew that he was the most qualified person on their list, but the problem was that he was almost to old to be released, he was almost twenty-nine, the cut off date. It would be close, but Neo had been a few months over the date, and he was fine.
"What's his name?"
"Oh yeah that might be slightly important, he calls himself Dodge."
"So why did you lie to all of us?" Byte asked as she limped into the room, Neo had just managed to stay awake for an hour and the firing squad was already here.
"Better question yet," he growled, "why are you asking, it isn't important."
"Cause, something made my ability go psycho, and I saw the future without trying, and the Oracle was telling you something about the Dark One, dunno what, but still! So spill it Neo, I'm not the only person who know something's up by the way." He was amazed she managed to say that in an entire breath.
"It's nothing that we already don't know, he's dangerous and I'm the only one who can stop him, so don't push it."
"Fine! See what I care, it's only our necks on the line! But just to let you know, I don't think you'll be able to blow Trinity off this easy, when she gets back!" She yelled and limped out of the room, ruining her dramatic exit. Neo lay back down and realized that she was right, was he stupid enough to think that Trin wouldn't notice that something was up? But like she could say anything about keeping secrets from him. He couldn't but be angry at her, it was totally unreasoned, but at that moment he was mad at everything and everyone, nut most of all, himself. If he had been able to defeat Patrick, he might have been able to prevent all of this. He hated Patrick for everything, kidnapping Trinity, hurting his friends, and in the distant past, killing Jamie, and almost taking him with her.
A figure stood beside him, "Byte I told you it's nothing."
"It's a long way from nothing isn't it Tom?" He snapped his attention to the figure, it was Jamie, in her petite glory. She looked at him, her golden skin full of life and energy, unlike the last time he had seen her, gray with cheap-make up to try to create the illusion that she was just sleeping.
"Jamie?" He sputtered.
She nodded, she still looked like a teenager. "I guess you're wondering why I talking to you. Well it's just that I want you to know, now you can do something. You can do something so that Trinity's fate will not be the same I as mine was. You can do it Neo, Patrick was always all muscle and pride, you are smart, and have people you can trust."
"Jamie, you sound like you're on Prozac."
"If I didn't know about your chronic political incorrectness, I'd be insulted." She smirked, she brushed back a strand of his hair, "I'll always love you, Trinity's a lucky girl."
Neo woke up with a start, getting shot gave you the weirdest dreams. He rubbed his temples, and groaned. Teeky walked, and cocked her head, "Well it's about time, we've been waiting."
"How long was I asleep?"
"Three days, we were getting worried." Yeah she looked worried. She was cold as ice.
"Did I miss anything?"
"Just pointless searches that have turned up nothing. So pretty boy, we're are going back into the Matrix."
"Excuse me! I am not a pretty boy." He knew it was beyond stupid going in the Matrix, but he had to, he just had to, he tried to sit up, and failed miserably. His shoulder began to throb.
"Yep, you are insane, do you realize that bullet when though bone, an artery, and a lot of muscle."
"Why did you lie about going into the Matrix?" He snapped angrily.
"We are not you, you deserved to know, we actually have a lead on were Trinity might be."
"Listen I can go in, as soon as I'm hooked up, I'll be fine."
"Yeah right, you come out with so much as a bruise and you're in trouble." She scolded, "don't worry we won't do anything stupid. I don't feel like dying anytime soon."
"A good motto."
"One that you don't follow very well." He tried to shrug, but ended up almost screaming, he hated feeling weak, and helpless. He was useless and he was ready to plug himself in, probably kill himself in the process, and that would not do anyone any good. But then again who cared? He had never done the smart thing.
Trinity stared up into Neo's face, as she clawed back to consciousness. He gave her a weak smile, he had a nasty looking cut above his eye, and his arm looked broken. He touched her cheek tenderly, light enough not to agitate the bruises.
"It's over Trin." He whispered. "He's gone, forever." She felt tears roll down her cheek, it was over, finally. "Let's get these chains off you okay?" He extended his hand and the chains disappeared. She flexed her hands, and wrapped her arms around him.
"It's okay." He whispered, returning her embraced , the best way he could with a broken arm.
"I love you Neo." She whispered in his ear. Then the world around her seemed to warp, and Neo in her arms seemed to shimmer, and in a second he changed, from the One to the Dark One. He smirked at her his face that of a fallen angel, but the only part that hadn't changed, were his eyes, they were still Neo's eyes. A cruel trick, it had to be.
She pulled herself away from him, and ended up falling on her butt. He laughed again, "So now it's clear! Well I'll be damned! You're his girlfriend, that's great just great. And you love him, isn't that so so sweet? Do you want to know what? I killed his first love, a pity to, she was a sweet little piece work. It was an accident of course, that was a pity too. A car accident, wouldn't it be funny if the One had died in a car accident? He almost did you know. Busted up head, almost half his ribs broken, punctured lung and a few broken bones. It sucks so much that he didn't die, why couldn't he just have died?"
"You're not only evil, you're insane!" She spat then punctuated it further
"Yeah probably, but I'll tell you a little story. When his little girlfriend died, he went nuts. Therapy and support groups he got sent to. None of them worked, so one day he confronts me, and bashes me over the head with a baseball bat! Still got the scar on my head. Everyone was so surprised that innocent little Tom could muster up that. He said that I killed his girlfriend but who were they going to believe, a psycho with a bat or the captain of the football team? So Tom is a psycho who leaves town the night after graduation, and I stay and be the town hero who lead the school to multiple sport championships. I really loved high school. But now Tommy is back," The Dark One spun around and slammed his fist though a wall, "But now Tommy's back, but this time he's got a automatic machine gun."
Trinity smirked at him, "You're scared."
"I'm not scared. You should be, remember what happen to Tom's girlfriend, that's you're future sweetheart." He then yelled out some swear words that made even Trinity flinch.
Trinity stared at him for a moment then in a single stride reached him and slapped him across the face. And spat in his face.
"I must say Neo chose well I must say." Then he slapped her across her face, not as hard as he could have, but hard none the less.
"You see I need you alive, for the moment, maybe even longer." He glared at her, Neo eyes looking so wrong on his face. "But I'll let him deal the hardest blow." He smiled at her, hard cold, a snake's smile.
"Neo this is insane!" Gizmo yelled at him, "Go into the Matrix, and when you come out you'll be very dead."
"Honestly! You need to be in perfect shape to face that monster, and you are far from it."
"Listen I know all this! In the Matrix I'll be fine, but I can't stand thinking about Trinity with that scum bucket."
"None of us can, but that is no reason to throw your life away." Morpheus said.
"I am so sick and tired of hearing that! Listen, he could be getting information out of her, that could destroy all of us. How bout that? I was nice and cold and calculating, making me what is needed in the One. Well guess what? I'm lousy at this job, and I'm going to go save Trinity. Whether you like it or not. Tank get everything ready." He could feel his heart beating in his ear, and in the throbbing in his shoulder. They weren't going to stop him, but they still didn't understand.
Tank nodded sadly and moved to the computers, but Teeky stepped between him and one of the chairs, "This is selfish Neo, and you know it. You're going to risk the fate of the Resistance, for one person. Great just great, you're going to screw us all, so you can be Romeo? You duty is to humankind, you can't ignore that."
"You're going to let Trinity die like Zekk?" He snapped, then immediately regret washed through him, Zekk's death was still fresh in her mind. Her face hardened and her eyes shrunk to slits.
"Fine! Die, like we care. But I hope that as you die, you remember everything I've said." Teeky snapped then slapped him across his face practically knocking him to the ground.
"TEEKY!" Morpheus commanded. She turned to him coolly, "I did what was best and I'll do it again." In a second she spun around and jabbed Neo in his stomach. Pain exploded and he crumpled to the ground.
Teeky leaned over him and smiled, " Guess we aren't so tough now, are we?" Neo wanted to answer he really did, but he just couldn't she had knocked the wind out of him. "Five days Neo you stay out do we have a deal."
"Not a chance in hell!" He yelled finding his voice and pushing her off him, "Five days and Trinity is dead! I'd do the same for any of you."
"Well I don't know about Teeky right now." Gizmo added.
"So I'm going in." He continued ignoring Gizmo. He walked over to the chair, " And nobody comes in, this is between me and him." He saw Byte flinch, he didn't mean it like that.
"Okay get ready." Tank cautioned. Then he awoke in the construct. The cell phone rang, "Since I'm pretty sure you're all out of miracles, how bout a helluva lot of guns?" Neo smiled, at least Tank could still crack a joke, anything normal seemed great right now. As normal as things can get when he was getting downloaded into a computer program.
Trinity saw the monster stiffen, and that meant only one thing: Neo was in the Matrix. How could he be so stupid, though it was a slight relief to know for sure that he was alive. He had to be weak, had to be after getting shot, and he was doing it for her.
"That asshole." She said quietly. The Dark One didn't hear her, or if he did he was ignoring her. Just a second after she said that the wall imploded and there stood Neo.
"So you survived." Then he turned toward her, but there was a slight problem for him, her chains were gone courtesy of Neo, she spun around and kicked the chair at him, it hit him square in the face with a satisfying thud. Then Neo was there right behind him, the Dark One dazed spun around just in time to get a kick in the stomach.
"Trinity run!" Neo commanded, just as an attack was launched against him. She slid behind outside the door to get a gun or something, like she would play damsel in distress.
"Oh crap."
Neo managed to avoid Patrick's blow, still full of relief Trinity was fine, besides some cuts and bruises. Just then an agent appeared in the doorway, holding Trinity, "Thing is getting very old you know." She was telling him. Even though he had a gun pointed at her head. In a second the agent exploded in a bright green light. And Trinity had grabbed his gun, as he exploded.
Unfortunately, that second had given Patrick the time he needed, he came up behind him and slammed two hands at the base of his neck , knocking him to the ground, he spun around to see him pointing a gun at him.
BAM! BAM! BAM! Three shots were fired but Neo felt nothing, no hot lead, or pain. Then he looked at Patrick who stood there looking shocked, with three bleeding hole in his chest. Trinity. Neo spun his leg around and knocked his legs out from underneath him. He jump up and brought out his hand gun which promptly disappeared and a moment later Patrick's had pulled his on him, but that too disappeared. Then it became full out war.
Trinity watched the two men fight, she would have tried another shot, but they were moving to fast, faster then any agent. So if she took a shot she risked Neo as well. Then Neo took a few step back from the fight, she could see a bloody lip, a black eye and several other minor injuries. Then in the blind of an eye, there wasn't one Neo, but four. She rubbed her eyes but there were four. And the Dark One looked just as suprised as she did. Then he launched himself at the one closest to him, and went clean though it. That Neo smiled and the other three leapt in, at the past they were moving it was impossible to see which one was actually hitting him. He rolled away in obvious pain, then three of the Neos disappeared, leaving a very exhausted looking Neo behind.
Neo drooped the three illusions, they them self drained his energy, but when Patrick had tried ripping them apart, it had taken to much energy. He lunged at Patrick with all his strength that he had left, Pat met him in the middle and their combined momentum sent them flying though the wall into thin air. Luckily though there was a rooftop nearby that they landed on with a hard thud.
Neo moved back in a daze, as did Patrick. "I guess there isn't any hope of you saying, hey this is stupid let's all be friends?" Neo slurred out.
"Yeah, yeah All this father come to light stuff ain't gonna work. Can we get back to beating the crap out of each other?"
"Sounds good." And they were back to were they were. Neo kicked him hard in the chest. They fought, but all they ended up doing was hurting each other equally. They stared at each other for a second. It was all so pointless, neither was going to win they, in the end they would both die if nothing happened to change things.
Neo leaned down and ripped a tile of the ground, the tile morphed into a handgun in his grip. Patrick seeing what he had done, and had copied it. They stood for a moment staring at each other weapons drawn. Neo could feel his palms beginning to sweat
"We end this here, we end this now." Neo yelled.
"Hell yeah!" Patrick agreed with a grin. One, two, three a silent countdown began, ten, and go. They raced at each other, gun flaring, each dodging each other's shots in they way Neo had when he started dodging bullets. Then they were two feet away from each other. In slow motion it seemed Neo kicked his leg out and kicked Patrick's arm throwing his shot of by inches, hot lead burned in his arm.
Patrick's shot missed, Neo's didn't.
Neo was shaking with pain, he could feel the injuries from his body invading his RSI. Now yet he pleaded. He stood over Patrick, the life draining from his brother's face. Relief flooded him, with a trace of guilt, if he didn't feel any he would be no better than Patrick.
"You-you won Tom. Su-suprising I-I-I guess." He coughed up some blood, "Y-you can't w-win though. H-hope ya d-do though. I-it's b-better t-to loose to t-the cha-champ." And silently Patrick died, without fan fair he would have wanted.
Neo stood over him for a second, then crumpled, gasping for breath, this was going to be the end, after all that. But at least he had saved the world first.
"NEO!!" Trinity yelled jumping the distance between the two buildings. She cradled him for a second, "Oh no you are NOT dying on me now! So C'mon!" She said dragging him up onto his feet, and searched his trench coat for his cell phone.
"Operator."
"Tank I need an exit now!"
"Got ya."
He told her an exit that was close, she only hoped she had time, that Neo had enough time left.
Neo woke in his cabin with a weight on his chest, luckily away from the two bullet wounds he had on his chest.
"Trin?"
"You're awake."
"And glad to be so." Even though even square inch of his body hurt."Trinity I have to tell you.." He started, no more secrets, not from her.
"No Neo, I need to tell you something first," She stopped him. "I have to tell you this before you tell me anything , it can't wait any longer. Neo you wanted to know how I knew Tech, and what I did before. I- have to tell you. You see when I first got unplugged I was angry at myself, at the world, everything I guess. Then Tech comes along, offers me a position, were I can vent my rage as you might say. Morpheus warned me about him, told me that he was a radical that he believed the machines should lose, no matter the death toll. But I joined him anyway, I only cared about myself, that I do some damage. Well Tech had learned of a prophecy that told of the Dark One, he had learned that Morpheus would find, you, the One. And Tech he was a big believer in Fate, he believed that since the Oracle had told Morpheus that he would find the One, there was nothing that could be done to change that. So he found this description in the prophecy, which none of us could figure it out, mind you we tried. So we found the people on the list, usually the were horrible people. I could never destroy them myself, but I helped which I guess makes me just as guilty as the others. But Neo, your name was on the list, we were two away when the program got called. Tech got his own ship, and Morpheus was good enough to take me back, became a father to me. But Neo we were so close, and it you could have so easily..."
"Trinity?" Neo asked moving her eyes to meet his, "but it didn't happen." His mind was swimming with all the new information, but it didn't change much, "I still love you Trinity."
"You do?" She said looking for an instant very innocent.
"Like an assassination could change that."
"Okay so what's this big secret of yours?"
"Kinda small compared to yours but Patrick is, was my brother."
"I though so." She said, "He had the same eyes as you, except yours are prettier."
Neo smiled and leaned over, and the kissed, like it was their first and last.
Prologue:
Gizmo watched as Byte sat hunched over a computer her fingers moving faster than a non hacker's should. He walked over and began massaging her shoulders. She rolled her neck up and smiled at him.
"What are you working on that is so important?"
"What happens when we dream Gizmo?" She asked quietly.
"Huh?"
"I think I've found the Dream World." She whispered peering at the screen. Gizmo cocked his head and looked at the screen. " Byte do I want to know?"
"Everyone will find out soon enough."
Definitely Not the End.....
So it's the end of the Dark One series, Review it please. But wait this isn't the end what for the sequel- The Dream World, hope fully coming soon. 'Til Hang loose and thanks for readin!