Author's Notes: You guys should know that I would never kill Neo or Trinity. Ever. Just thought I should remind you guys. Sorry it took me so long to get this one out. Mom just short of crashed my computer, and I had to spend half a week reinstalling everything.
Come Back to Me: Chapter 10
Trinity fell in slow motion towards the ground below. In one last-ditch effort to save herself as the bullets reined down on her, she forced herself through an office window. She cried out as the glass shards bit into her skin. She could almost see the bullets as they hit the glass around her. She stayed low to the ground for several moments before pushing her protesting body off the stained carpet. Trinity knew she caked in blood that had yet to stop flowing, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Leaning against the wall, she yanked a particularly large piece of glass out of her arm. It felt like diving through the window once more, but she bit her tongue in respite. She tore off a piece of her leather shirt and pressed it to the wound. Trinity had long since lost her sunglasses, and her clothes were torn in many different places. The room was covered in glass and blood, but nobody was in sight. Reaching the splintered desk, she tried the phone. She cursed as no dial tone was heard, and set to hotwiring the phone line.
Several minutes later, a dial tone could be heard. Trinity's finger flashed across the phone as she dialed the operator. "Trinity! Where are you?" Link overexcited voice came from the other line.
"Lucky to be alive. Inside the Architect's mainframe. Have you got power back yet?" Trinity asked hurriedly. She had to find out if Neo was still alive.
"Back and fully operational. What do you need?" Link asked eagerly. He had felt so helpless before, and now was the time to redeem himself.
"A special bomb designed to blow up this building. Have you heard of it?" Trinity asked while tapping her foot impatiently. They needed to stop the idle chatter.
"The D6-17? Of course. I'll send it right over to you. You'll have fifteen minutes to go get Neo away from the blast. Anything else?"
Trinity brushed it away. "We'll need an exit. Is there one close enough to get to in time."
"Only one. Sure you want to do this?" Link asked in desperate acceptance.
"We don't have a choice." Trinity hung up the phone and edged out of the door. 'Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean no one's watching.' She thought to herself. When she reached the stairs, she jogged up them as best as she could.
I'll be damned if Neo dies because I have bad timing, she thought as she shot her last bullet towards the Architect. He ducked, but it gave her the momentum to push herself and Neo off the building. "Fly towards Ridge and Elm. We have about a minute to get out of here," she whispered into his ear. He nodded against her.
Trinity gasped as she felt Niobe's rough voice against her neck. Neo seemed not to have noticed, but it felt icy-hot against her skin. She shivered in Neo's embrace before turning to face the apparition. "Tell Morpheus I never left him. I'll always be with him." The singsong voice left nothing to the imaginary void. In another time, another place, another world, everything had ended in tragedy. In this world, time, and place everything had ended in clam serenity.
Neo placed the cool metal of the phone against her ear. Trinity gasped as Link slid the metal rod out of her head. Blood trickled down her chin as she sat up. She sighed in relief as most of the green coding from the vanished from the screen seconds after Neo had been released. Morpheus sat deep in his own thoughts as Trinity relayed Niobe's message to him. Neo added in his own messages from the people of the past.
"We all lived out our lives to our best ability, and nothing could have changed that," Morpheus' soft voice echoed from the walls.
"We still have people to save from themselves. They can't climb out of the pods themselves," Link popped in cheerfully. We handed Neo and Trinity each a wool blanket.
"This is gonna take years!" Eizus yelled in disbelief from the doorway. Trinity grinned at him broadly.
"We'll throw you into the med bay then to help unplug people, so they can rebuild Zion," Trinity added in mischief as she sat in front of Neo. His arms wrapped around her snugly, and he dropped a chaste kiss on her neck.
Eizus gave her a look of horror. "We have to unplug all of those people? I'll rebuild Zion brick by brick myself if I have to."
"Hopefully, you won't have to do that, Eizus," Neo said with all seriousness. The mirth in his eyes gave him away.
"How are we going to get rid of all the machines?" Aurelie piqued up from the door behind Eizus. Eizus was still glaring at Trinity, Neo, and Link who had just now stifled their laughter.
Link put his arm around Eizus' shoulders. "That's the beauty of the D6-17. It sends a transmission from the matrix to the real world to destroy the mainframe inside and out. All machines that depend on the matrix have been destroyed."
"Then why haven't we shut down again for good?" Neo asked Trinity in front of him.
"We don't depend on the matrix. We can jack into the matrix, but we don't depend on it. We're running off currents from Zion at the moment. Link, if wee leave now, how long would it take us to get to the fields?" Neo grimaced from hearing of the fields. He had hoped that he would never have to return there.
"If we make good time, it should take us no longer than a day. Captain?" Link wasn't quite sure so he had to ask anyway.
"A day at most," Morpheus confirmed from the cockpit. Neo startled to hear Morpheus from there. When had he left the room?
"Any sentinels on the radar for miles?" Morpheus asked casually. It was if they were talking about an everyday subject. Well, for the real world, it was an everyday subject.
"Neo checked the long distance radar from above him. "There are five that are down in the seawall, but have not a single drop power running." Link cheered and ran to hug Aurelie. She laughed gleefully and Eizus sighed in relief.
"Clear to go Captain!" Link shouted as a few sparks of green coding raced across the screen in front of him.
"How many times have I asked you to stop calling me that?" Morpheus called.
"Once more and once again, Captain." They could hear Morpheus groan from the cockpit. Eizus and Aurelie exited the room in favor of sleep. "Wake me for second watch," Aurelie threw over her shoulder.
Neo frowned slightly as he glanced over Link's shoulder. "Can this guy not stay dead?"
"'fraid not. It gives me an idea, though," Trinity murmured in her thoughts.
"Don't make her suffer too much. We have other things to worry." Link shook his head as he gave Trinity and Neo long looks.
"Sorry, Link, but I can't promise you anything," Trinity added as she sat back down in one of the older chairs. Dust scattered around her.
"If Morpheus finds out about this…." Link warned as glared the green coding in front of him. It changed rapidly at speeds that hadn't been seen before.
"He won't, Link."
"It'll be our little secret…."
Link sighed in defeat. Don't get yourselves killed. With my luck, I'd be the one digging your graves. Don't expect a nice tombstone either to go with that."
"With any luck, Link, none of us will have to dig anybody's grave for a long time," Neo added. His grin showed his unusual near vampire teeth that people rarely saw.
"Show them why people don't mess with the two of you then."
A phone rang in the background. Coding scrolled down the screen faster than Link could read. "We know you're out there. We know who you are, and we know where you are. You have no purpose, no weapon against us. We have everything against you. We're coming for you, so don't expect to live another age. Before you hang up, listen to one little piece of advice, We'll give you a ten second head start before we rip you to pieces." Trinity hung up the phone and turned to face Neo in the void. "I always wanted to do that."
Author's Notes: A little bit shorter than usual, but a few chapters left before all good things come to an end. Hopefully, I'll have no computer problems between now and then. Only a few more weeks before November 5th and I will have this done.
Responses:
Midnight's Trinity: Trin is my favorite character too. I could never even think of killing off Trinity. *shudders* Scary thoughts.
Divamercury: I have a stalker! Yay! Just kidding, but I'm glad you like my story enough to volunteer for that job. I kinda did a combination of both, so I'm not really sure how it turned out. Flashbacks aren't really my best form of writing.
Lovewildfire: I kept on with the suspense for about a page, then tied it together and brought cheer back into the story. I love to keep my readers interested. I hope you liked how I did this chapter, but it seemed a little rushed to me.
Satiana: Poor unknown dorm person. You probably didn't have to do that in this chapter though. I tried to give it a lighter mood without sounding too final. More action to be expected next chapter, but hopefully no near death experiences for Trinity. Depends on my mood really.
Aquarian Wind: Oh, you'll get to see some serious ass kicking next chapter. I'll have to brush up on my action writing. I'll update next week if I'm not too dead tired from my double competition.
Jess: Yes, these are responses to reviews. I like talking to my reviewers, and they talk to me. It's a good way to see what they want in the future.