Chapter Two: Dreams

Trinity lay on her bed fast asleep. Her mouth twitched every now and then; sometimes she would murmur an unintelligible word. She was dreaming.

They were in the Matrix. All of them, Apoc, Switch, Mouse, and even Cypher. Of course Neo was there. They were in the middle of a city, in an obviously bad part of town. Suddenly agents came out of nowhere, instead of doing the sensible thing (running) they all stood and fought. One by one they all went down: Mouse first, then Cypher, a moment later Apoc, and at last even Switch was gone. It was just she and Neo, fighting nearly back-to-back amid a sea of dark suits and sunglasses. For just a moment it seemed as if they might have a chance, but then she heard him gasp, felt him stumble. She whirled and saw Neo struggling to stand, clutching his hand to his stomach.

"Neo!" she cried, running toward him without a second thought about the agents. Slowly he fell to his knees, just as she reached him. The agents seemed to fade away into the background. "Neo," she said again, this time in a whisper, as she knelt beside him. She could see the blood seeping from between his fingers; the dark liquid slowly spread down his shirt. At last she looked into his eyes. "Neo, you can't die. You're the One," she whispered. "You can 't die." He looked up at her, his expression unreadable for just a moment.

"Get away from me," he choked out haltingly. The blood drained away from her face, leaving her sheet-white.

"Neo - I -I" she stuttered, utterly confused, tears already beginning to course down her cheeks.

"Trinity. I never loved you," he breathed out. His last breath. His hand fell from his stomach revealing a small bullet hole. She sat there for a moment, stunned. The man that she loved was dead - and he hated her. He said that he had never loved her. But no. It couldn't be true. He had to love her.

~Why?~ a little voice in her mind whispered. ~You don't deserve to have him love you.~

~Yes I do.~ she thought. ~I do, he did love me, because- because- what is the point of anything if he didn't?~

Unable and unwilling to think anymore, Trinity hugged her knees and sobbed. It was the only thing she could do.

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Trinity woke with a start, sitting up in her bed. Her face was wet with tears, which she slowly wiped away. It was just a dream. It wasn't real. But somehow, even though she knew realistically that Neo was asleep in his own bed not so very far away, she couldn't help thinking that somehow it was real. Slowly she climbed out of bed and walked to the door, shivering. As quietly as she could she made her way to his room. After a moment she opened the door, barely hearing the slight noise it made. She had to see.

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Neo heard a faint noise through the fog of sleep and his eyes cracked open. There was light coming into his room from the doorway...He sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Trinity?" he said, confused. "Trinity? What's going on?" He stumbled out of bed and walked over to her, still not fully awake. She just stared at him for a moment, silent. "Trin?" he repeated, peering into her face as he took her hands. He saw that her eyes were red, and that her face was damp. She had been crying.

Not knowing what else to do, Neo hugged her. She laid her head on his shoulder, starting to cry again as she though of what it would be like if really did die. If he really didn't love her.

"God, Trin, you're shaking," he murmured. "What's wrong? What happened?" he asked, pulling away from her.

"Do you love me?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"Of course! I will always love you, Trinity," he said, hugging her again. She clung to him. "Do you - do you want to stay here?" he asked hesitantly. She nodded and they walked over to the bed. She slipped under the covers and he slid in after her, folding his arms around her. Trinity stifled sobs as the image of him dying ran through her head over and over. Neo took one of her hands in his and she shifted closer against him. It broke his heart to hear her practically sobbing. "It's okay, Trin," he whispered. Slowly she rolled over to face him. "It's okay," he repeated, gently wiping her tears away with his thumb. Suddenly she laid her face against his chest and started sobbing. Neo held her close to him, gently rubbing her back and stroking her hair. "Shhhhh," he murmured into her ear. "It's okay." Gradually she stopped trembling, as at last she cried herself to sleep.

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When Neo woke she was gone. If he hadn't known better he might have thought that he had dreamed it all. But no, Trinity had come into his room in the middle of the night. Crying. Sobbing.

Why? he wondered, rubbing a hand over his eyes. What could've happened? For after all, Trinity crying was the height of weirdness. Still pondering this, Neo quickly got dressed and went off to work on yet another of the Neb's endless repairs.

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