CHAPTER TEN

Everything is the same. Yet at the same time, it's not. I recognise this place, for it formed the foundation of my nightmares for so long. I recognise the people, and yet I don't. There are noticeable differences between my fragmented memories and between the truth, between the reality. I turn to Trinity, afraid. I wonder if I have made the right decision by choosing to join the war once again. I don't know if I have the emotional or physical capacity for such a strenuous situation. A lump swells in my throat, and I wish I were back at home. Back safe, in my bed, where no scary bogey-men can get me. Where nothing can enter the safety bubble I have formed around me. But this is the point of no turning back. I know it. Trinity knows it. And she knows that I know it.

'You remember, don't you?' she asks me.

I nod, not trusting myself to speak. 'Yeah.' Unfortunately, I do, I silently add.

'Neo, my man!' Link throws himself at me, and I am stunned. No, bewildered. That's the word I am looking for. 'Good to see you. We thought we'd never be seeing you again. Trinity thought she'd lost you.'

Trinity smiled slightly and pulled off her sunglasses. I feel my knees go weak as I contemplate what is happening. All these people. I love them, they are like my extended family. Yet they are the omens of impending doom! I don't know if I have the stamina to handle this. 'Come this way,' she said quietly, taking my arm. 'You'll have to speak with Morpheus.'

I still don't understand all this. One moment we were standing in that ramshackle building – the next, we were standing in the Nebuchadnezzar. Obviously Link brought us back, and I assume that the yellow pill was related to my arrival and my unplugging from the matrix. Even so, I find it hard to believe. It all happened so fast, so regimented, that I'd scarcely had time to absorb my surroundings, and my own feelings.

'Where is he?' I ask, as she guides me through the ship. There are noticeable differences in the layout of the ship, and I find it difficult to determine where we are going. The only recognisable portion was the central meeting point at which Trinity and I had arrived. The turns and corners and weavings and even the interiors are completely different than the Nebuchadnezzar I once knew.

'It's all so different from what I remember,' I say aloud, and Trinity makes a vague sound indicating her agreement, before pulling me into a small room offset from the corridor that led off the main one.

'Here he is,' she says. 'Morpheus?'

The large armchair situated in the corner of the room spins around at that moment, and I see Morpheus' satisfied, smiling face staring back at me. He is cool, calm and collected. But there is one noticeable different that startles me. While his facial features are exactly the same as before, he is Asian. Clearly not black. It startles me. Not that I have anything against Asians, of course. But it was rather a shock seeing Morpheus in this context. Quite unlike the Morpheus I remember.

'Hello, Neo,' he says to me, and I jump. His voice is slightly different, too…deeper, more pronounced, as though his voice has broken a little. I don't understand why everything is so different! It worries me and confuses me. I want to know the answer, yet nobody seems keen to offer it to me. Trinity has not yet revealed anything. And knowing Morpheus, he will prolong the agony long enough for me to become a blithering idiot.

Oh, shut up, Neo, I think to myself. You're just scared. Afraid. Of the matrix, and the ordeal you have and will experience. Be strong. Be a man. 'Morpheus,' I say, swallowing.

Trinity speaks. Not to me, but to Morpheus. 'I shot him, Morpheus.'

'Good work, Trinity. But I'll have Link run through the codes to be certain. I have no doubt there will be more agent activity lurking in the background. Somewhere.' He sighs. 'We will tackle these problems one at a time, however. For now,' he says, turning to me, smiling, 'we will tackle this one.'

'Am I a problem?'

'No, of course not,' Morpheus explained. 'Allow me to rephrase that. We will tackle this issue, of debriefing the current situation to you, and offering you an explanation for all the questions that have been left unanswered.' He turns to Trinity again. 'No doubt you would like to speak to Neo privately, later,' he says to her, 'but for now, at least, may I have a private word?'

Trinity nodded swiftly and ducked out of the room, leaving me alone, and a little nervous.

'So,' Morpheus says, smiling and leaning back in his chair. 'I understand you've had a rather hectic three weeks.'

I nod. I don't trust myself to speak.

'How are you feeling, Neo? Are you coping? No doubt it's a bit of a shock.'

'Well, yes,' I admit. 'I don't understand all of this. I remember, of course, but why am I back here?'

'Now, that is a difficult question for me to answer. Tomorrow, you and I will pay a visit to an old friend. Neo, do you know who I am talking about?'

I think for a few moments. 'Er…the Oracle?'

Morpheus winks. 'Right first time. I promise that tomorrow, you will have the answers you are looking for.'

'Okay.' I am not convinced. I am continually being told to wait. Wait and find out, wait to be told, wait to talk, wait to understand. But will all this waiting ever led to an answer?

'In the meantime, Neo, I'd like you to have a good rest. We have no emergencies on hand at this moment. Settle in, spend a little time with Trinity if you like, or alone. Later, I'll re-introduce you to the rest of the crew. And then, tomorrow, we will plug in again, and visit the Oracle.'

'Okay,' I say again.

Morpheus eases himself from his chair. 'Neo, I want you to know that I believe in you. And I believe you have made the right decision. We all have utmost faith in you.'

'Thankyou, sir,' I say, a little hoarsely. I leave the room, feeling bewildered. I follow my way through the corridors, and somehow reach Trinity's room through a combination of trial and error, and memory recall.

Trinity is sitting, cross-legged, on her bed. She is now wearing her all-too-familiar gull-grey, torn jumper. I only realise at that moment that she, along with all the other crew members I happened to see, has been wearing it since the moment we entered the Nebuchadnezzar. I look down at my own body. So have I, I note.

'You okay?' she asks me.

I sit down beside her. 'Yeah.' Truthfully, I feel completely and utterly lost.

She manages a small smile. 'Get some rest,' she says.

'I don't understand any of this. I'm suddenly picking up something that happened but didn't, as far as I can tell. And with you, I am picking up emotions I felt and lost and found again.'

Trinity stood. 'I know.' She paused. 'Come with me. I'll show you something.'

She extends her hand, I take it, and follow her.