Title: Like Dying Author: Elisabeta Rating: Probably PG but I'm saying PG-13 to be on the safe side. Disclaimer: Not mine; don't sue. All you'll get is a collection of my trashy fanfic and a much-saddened fangirl anyway. Summary: How Neo felt with Smith inside him. Double entendre completely intentional ;)

*** His heart throbbed - once, hard - and then froze dead in his chest. His breath caught and his muscles seized. A shiver ran down his spine.

It was like dying. It was just like dying.

Smith's dark, angled glasses reflected back to Neo exactly what was happening; he saw two perfect images of himself as he stood there stricken on the stone slabs. Smith's hand was inside him and he felt it there, sharp like a knife or a bullet. He saw his own hands at Smith's wrist and felt that too. It felt human. He felt a heartbeat. The feeling was deceptive.

There was no pain and that surprised him. He watched the dull metallic waves wash over him and felt it should hurt but it didn't. He felt it should freeze, burn white ice-hot against his skin, but it didn't. It was warm. It rippled through him like hot blood, like liquid light. It was like dying.

He glanced down and saw it on him; he knew he should be scared. He looked up and for an instant his reflection wore a suit and tie. Smith was in him.

"Yes, that's it, it'll be over soon".

Only when he fought did it start to hurt, like needles through his bones. He almost expected to see himself pierced and red and bloody but his coat still lay perfect and black against his chest. Then it did burn, molten in his blood. Smith's hatred burned. There was fervour in his code now, caught like hooks inside Neo that he had to tear away. The shock, the absolute horror, on Smith's face as he did it, almost made all that pain worthwhile.

They fought; he hurt; he fled. What remained of the light trickled out of him, left him tingling as the jack was pulled from his neck. He didn't die. He wasn't dead.

He breathed hard and he told the others it was like dying, and it was. It felt like touching oblivion, like staring into the void and being blinded by the glare. He didn't tell them that. He looked down and he rubbed at the place where it had happened, where they'd connected. Trinity kissed him. When she pulled back he hadn't got the heart to tell her he could almost feel Smith still inside him.

It wasn't until later, lying awake and cold in bed with her asleep in his arms that he realised. Smith inside him felt like dying. He still felt it. But the part that made his blood run cold was that part of him embraced it.