FINAL CHAPTER !!!! (really this time!!)

*** END***

Hmmmm, Is Neo going to be killed by Smith?? Is Trinity going to last out? are there going to be any mystery returns of characters?? read on to find out.......and ENJOY!!











The Neb



Bane/Smith was facing Neo's silent form, his eyes glinting madly. "So you think you won, did you Mister Anderson?" Bane/Smith accused

"You think you're so safe in the Matrix, with your powers. But here, Mister Anderson. Here, you are only human. You can die." Bane/Smith said smiling maliciously, as his finger started to press down on the trigger "I'd like to see you dodge this bullet."

Link jumped at the shot, and thud that then followed.

***

Morpheus was grinning triumphantly down at Bane/Smith. Still holding the gun that Neo/Smith had used previously to force them to load into the Matrix. "I told Neo once, that he wouldn't need to."



The Matrix- The Hotel



Neo carefully lent Trinity against the flaking paint covered wall, and brushed her hair from her face. She smiled weakly. Neo knew she had to get back to the ship as soon as possible, she was still losing blood rapidly and Morpheus' make-shift bandage had already been soaked through with blood.

"I'm guessing Morpheus got back in time, considering you haven't dropped dead on me yet" Trinity said with a smile.

Neo laughed shortly. "Yeah."

Trinity started to laugh as well, but winced and stopped to hold her side. She was feeling rather light headed

"It shouldn't be long now Trin, hold on ok?" Said Neo, with concern

on que, the phone started to ring. Neo picked it up, and offered it to Trinity.

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you *sure* you don't want to go first? You have a tendency to get into trouble when ever we leave you here." she said grinning.

Neo rolled his eyes. "If that wasn't so true, I would probably find it more amusing. Now come on, you're injured, you need to get to the med-bay" he insisted, pushing the phone into her hands.

Trinity relented, and disappeared into a swirl of code.

Neo replaced the phone, but didn't pick it back up. He looked angry for a second, and considered leaving there and then. But he couldn't. This time he wouldn't run. This time he would fight. Neo sighed and turned around.

"What do you want Smith?" He said coldly.

***

Smith smiled coolly at him from the doorway, his imposing siluette framed by shards of light from the tall window at the end of the hallway.

"What do I want Mister Anderson? Well I *had* wanted to have you kill all of your friends and delete you, but as you remember you *are* annoyingly hard to kill, and annoyingly stubborn."

Neo smiled briefly "Reminds me of someone else I know."

The Rivals watched each other warily, in a thick silence. Each dark figure mirrored in the others glasses.

Smith broke the silence. "Before I kill you Mister Anderson, I thought I should reminded you that you gave up incredibly easily to overwriting, even *Brown* fought for longer than *You*" He said smugly

Neo's face darkened. "Yes. Well I like Brown, he realised what an asshole you are, even when you were still an Agent." He replied with a smirk

Smiths lip twitched.

"But did any of your other replicas manage to come back, and regain control in less than an hour? Maybe your programming isn't quite up to scratch Smith."

Smith's eyes narrowed. "Well, Mister Anderson. Be that as it may, I think that you will realise that you can't always protect your friends as....*well* as *you* did today. You can't get rid of me, and they will end up coming back to the Matrix again sometime."

Neo glared back at him.

Smith folded his hand behind his back, and slowly walked towards Neo. "And when they do come back, I *will* kill them. As for *you*, you, I will kill now." He concluded

Neo raised his fists, preparing for the inevitable fight. Smith however, just stood still and smiled and him, the emotion in his eyes hidden behind Neo's own reflection.

The doors in the hallway behind him flew open, and Smiths replicas casually entered, and closed in on Neo.

"I thought you would have learnt something from being me Mister Anderson, I always win." He drawled with a hint of pride.

Neo tried to hide his shock. He hadn't expected so many replicas here so fast. Maybe he *should* have learnt something from being Smith. Suddenly he had a spark of inspiration, and dropped his fists.

Smith looked puzzled. "You are just going to give up like *that* Mister Anderson? I would have at least expected a good fight between nemesis, out of common decency."

Neo was now grinning openly, which made Smith even more confused.

"Actually I *did* learn something from being you Smith." Neo said confidently, striding right up to Smith.

Smith stopped smiling. He didn't like the sound of this. Neo paused a foot in front of Smiths face, and took off his glasses.

"I learnt how to destroy you."

Smith was about to come up with a witty retort, when he saw the glint of triumph in Neo's eyes, before he closed them and held his palms outwards.

Smith and his replicas shared a silent glance, before attempting to run out of the building as fast as possible.

Neo tilted his head forward, and concentrated. An invisible wave of code erupted from his palms, slowly spreading outwards. As it hit the replicas, they turned back into the original people. A teenaged boy, an old lady and a man in a suit collapsed on the floor, followed shortly by many others.

The last, real, Smith shot Neo a venomous glare before adjusting his tie, and jumping headlong through the window at the end of the hallway.

Neo brought his hands back down, and teetered slightly. He had done it. He had beaten Smith. He had won. Pity the other Agents were coming now. He smiled to himself and collapsed onto the floor with exhaustion.



The Neb



Morpheus had just finished bandaging Trinity it the medical bay when he heard Link curse.

Trinity limped into the computer room with him "Link, what's going on?" He asked.

Link laughed nervously under Morpheus and Trinity's worried glances. "Heh, well you know how Smith likes to turn up, when Neo is on his own in the Matrix?"

Morpheus' face darkened.

Trinity moved as quickly as possible to Neo's side, checking his vitals. "What happened? Did Smith....?"

Link cut her off, "Smith turned up, yes. But the surprising thing is, that Neo somehow managed to get rid of him, or his replicas anyway. But he must have used a hell of a lot of power to do it, and I think it completely drained him, he just passed out."

Morpheus frowned at the computer. This is *not* good, Agents are less than a mile away, and if Neo's out cold...."

"Oh Shit!" gasped Link. "There's one in there now!"



The Matrix



the phone was ringing, but Neo didn't answer it.

Agent Brown got up from the floor and straightened out his suit. He had to admit he was slightly surprised, he hadn't expected Anderson to keep his promise, but he had. That was unusual for a human, but then *Anderson* was unusual for a human.

Brown sighed. It was a pity he would have to kill him now. He pulled out his Desert Eagle and walked over to where the Anomaly lay.

The phone was still ringing, less than a few feet away from him. So close, yet so far. Brown paused. Anderson had stayed to try and destroy Smith, he could have just left, and gone back to his ship.

Brown lowered his gun for a second. It didn't seem quite right. Even though it would go against all of his programming, he had a strange desire not to kill Anderson, but to help him. After all it would only be fair, after Anderson had saves his....well, not so much life, but his existence.

However if he did consciously let him escape, or even aid his escape, the Mainframe would find out eventually, consider him flawed, and send him for deletion.

For probably the only time ever, Brown felt he could relate to Smith. His emotions were clouding his judgement. He should have been able to kill Anderson without a second thought, instead he was feeling pity, guilt, confusion. Maybe his programming *was* faulty

Brown sighed. Maybe it was because he was unconscious. Humans when like this, looked so....helpless? If he had had to fight Anderson, man to man, or man to program rather, it would have been easier. But he couldn't do it, not like this.

He picked up the phone and brought it level with Neo's head. Brown shook him slightly. Neo's eyes slowly blinked open as the receiver was pushed towards him. Was that Brown? Why was he helping him? he thought blurrily.

"We are now, as you humans say, *even* Mr Anderson" said Brown with a trace of a smile.

"Thank you" Neo said, gratefully, yet slightly confused, as he disappeared.



The Neb



Neo's eyes opened and looked sleepily towards Trinity just above him, leaning on his chest. "Hey Trin" he said quietly

"Welcome back" she said softly, before kissing him.

The two, pulled together passionately, as if trying to make the moment eternal. They finally broke the kiss, slightly breathless.

"We're safe now right?" Neo questioned.

Trinity laughed "Well, safer that we normally are"

"Good enough for me" Neo said with a smile before fell back into a deep, almost coma-like sleep.



The Matrix- The Hotel



Brown had just replaced the phone, when he heard purposeful, orderly, footsteps entering the room. He span around and froze, making his face emotionless.

"What were you doing?" The taller Agent asked. It was Jones

it didn't seem all that long ago, it had been Brown asking that question to Smith. He replaced his earpiece, calmly. "Why are you here?" Brown demanded, ignoring the question.

"The Mainframe, traced your signal here. I was given orders to detain you. You have been helping the rebel Anderson."

Brown tried to search Jones' face, for any signs of how much he knew, unsuccessfully. Even if they just what happened at the Source, it was still going to be bad news.

"I was merely cooperating with him in order to delete rouge Agent, Smith." he stated.

Jones' eye narrowed. Brown knew he didn't believe him. "You are to report to the Mainframe for a program analysis. If you are believed to be.....flawed...as was Agent Smith, you will be deleted."

Brown looked grim. "I will cooperate."

Suddenly Jones did something Brown hadn't expected. He removed his ear- piece. Brown did the same. "I saw what you did. You will not assist the rebel Anderson again Brown, you will follow orders to delete him, or *you* will be deleted." he said sharply

Brown nodded, frowning. Jones had seen him send Anderson back, but why wasn't he informing the mainframe?

Jones took off his glasses. "Brown, I understand *why* you did what you did. But if they realise that we have developed emotions past our programming, like Smith did, they will deem us a danger to the system, and delete us. We *have* to be careful." he said, concerned.

Brown hadn't realised that Jones had been experiencing advanced emotions as well. "I understand" he stated, slightly shocked. Then as they both replaced their earpieces, Jones heard Brown quietly say "Thank you"



The Neb- Medical Bay



Neo had woken up and was sat up on his bed, staring into space. Trinity walked in.

"You should really be asleep Neo, you've a, a rather, well I'm not sure that rough really sums it up, but you've had a rough day." She said smiling at him.

"Yeah, I suppose" Neo muttered "I've just been.....thinking."

"Are you sure that you're alright Neo?" Trinity questioned seriously, and sat down on the edge of his bed.

Neo looked down at the bed sheets. The unconscious state he had been in was a welcome release from his own thoughts, but now he was awake, his mind felt a mess.

A lot had happened that had caused him to re-think things, Agent Brown and Smith for a start. Brown had helped him get back to the real world, when technically he should have killed him, why had he done that? He supposed that now they were, 'Even' that next time he met Brown he wouldn't be so helpful.

More importantly however, there was Smith. He had been able to free Smiths replicas, but he wasn't sure how, or if he would be able to do it again. Also he wasn't any clearer on how to get rid of the original Smith. Killing Smith last time, had only made him worse.

Another thing was what Smith had said had been bothering him. Smith was right. there was going to be a time when the crew would go back into the Matrix and Smith would be there, ready to kill them. Neo knew Smith may not be able to kill him, but he could defiantly harm Morpheus and Trinity. He couldn't let Trinity get hurt again. He wouldn't be able to bear it, she had almost died once tonight.

Neo turned back to Trinity's concerned gaze, unable to articulate his thoughts.

He sighed. "Trin, when I met Smith again, he said...he said that one day when we go into the Matrix he is going to be there, waiting for us. I know he will be, and I'm just worried, that, that I won't be able to protect you." He said shaking his head in exasperation.

Trinity felt overwhelmed. After all that had happened to *him*, he was losing sleep over worrying about *her*!

She took his hand reassuringly, and swept back his tousled black hair to look him in the eye.

"Neo. It doesn't matter if you can't protect me all of the time, I don't expect that from you. *You* are everything I need Neo."

"We are always going to be in danger, we are always going to have to risk our lives. Its always going to be one of us with our life in the balance, and the chances are, that one time we *aren't* going to be able to save each other. But as long as we have each other, it doesn't matter what we have to face. I love you Neo"

Neo smiled and looked at her, squeezing her hand affectionately. And expressing his feelings with the only words he could. "I love you too Trin"



The Matrix- The park



Smith darkly regarded his two previous colleagues leaving the hotel.

He clenched his teeth. His plans had been ruined. Somehow Anderson had managed to remove his virus programme from his replicas, it was annoying, but not fatal. He could always make more, and Anderson wouldn't be able to stop them all. However he had still been beaten, and Smith didn't like to lose.

This didn't matter anyway. It was just a minor setback. Smith knew that he had caused Neo some mental torment at the least. And in the meantime he could continue to experiment with upgrading his programming. If it had been possible for him to overwrite Mister Anderson, then there must be a way for him to kill him, and he would find it.

Smith smiled. The mere thought alone of watching Anderson die at his hands, and not come back, was enough to make Smith forget *this* insignificant defeat. Anderson had managed to win this battle, but the war was only just beginning.

Smith straightened his tie and turned to walk away, smirking.

"This isn't the end Mister Anderson. We will meet again." he stated smugly.

The rusty swings creaked in the digital breeze as Smith disappeared into the copper sunrise.

"And when we do, you shall not be so lucky."

*FIN*

















TA-DA!!!! all done, Finally!!! I didn't realise that my first Matrix fan- fic would be so damn long!!!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed for all your support!! You People ROCK!!

I can't believe I managed to get through the whole thing without anyone actually getting killed!! Mind you, it came close a few times, but in the end I just didn't have the heart to do it, I love Neo too much to Kill off him or his buddies!!!!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it!! I haven't really got any plans for a sequel or anything at the moment, but it was pretty much an open ending anyway, in the true spirit of excessive cliffhangers!!! he

So Thank you all again!! and BYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

****************P.S. REVIEW!!!!*******************

Love Beth