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Chapter the Second.
They slept for a full day after their return, their damaged and exhausted bodies
desperately needing the rest. Trinity woke with a low-grade fever to find Ghost
perched on a chair by her bedside. Neo continued to sleep on the cot next to
her.
"Looks like I won't be able to kick your ass for awhile dear brother," Trinity teased after watching him silently for a moment. Ghost set his book down and smiled. He started to respond then seemed to think better of what he was going to say, teasing expression growing quickly serious.
"I'm glad you're alive," he told her before the mischievous gleam returned, "Even if you are delusional."
"Ha. Just you wait," she retorted before falling asleep again, exhausted even by this little bit of conversation. The next time she awoke, she wasn't surprised to see Morpheus sitting in the chair. He was speaking in low tones with Neo. Both men told her to go back to sleep, and she did. Waking seemed to take all her energy. Some unfathomable time later she woke again. This time she was surprised to find Niobe sitting at her bedside. Neo was missing however. She panicked for a moment until Niobe's cool hand on her undamaged shoulder restored some of her sense.
"He's just gone with the doctors again. He'll be back soon."
"Ok," Trinity replied, feeling a little foolish. She actually felt a little rested this time and wanted to know what she'd been missing while she'd been asleep. "What's going on in the city? What happened here? What happened after we left?" Niobe sighed and sat back in her chair.
"Right now we're trying to clear away the debris from the docks and the lower levels. Everyone was evacuated to the temple, but we lost almost all of our fighting force, including the volunteers." Trinity and Niobe both winced. "The middle levels were mostly untouched, which is a blessing because the primary and secondary hospital levels were left intact. There is a lot of rubble though. We're still finding bodies." Trinity put a hand to her mouth and swallowed.
"How many?" she asked softly.
"Too many," Niobe told her, voice equally soft. "We lost a lot of people. The...toll isn't done yet, but we think it may even be a third of the city after figuring in everyone who died when the EMP went off by the ships."
Finally, in the calm after the storm, Trinity could feel those deaths. People she knew and admired and had worked with. Soren and his brisk military nature combined with an odd gentleness. Ice, precise and accurate with a weapon, a pool cue or a witty one-liner, Binary's dry sense of humor, Ballard's no nonsense reports, Horus who was infamous for porting games from the Matrix, Tyger who told the worst jokes, Wraith who was a book smuggler extraordinaire: Ghost's fixer. They were all gone and she'd almost joined them.
She'd been ok with it: Neo had to move on and confront the machines and even then she was grateful that she was the one dying and Neo was unharmed in the crash. Oh, she hadn't wanted to die, but she knew that there had been a job to complete and she wasn't going to make it. She might have been on of the best fighters in the resistance, but she wasn't the One.
How had she even made it? Her last memory was of Neo's lips burning upon hers while the dull pain all over her body claimed her consciousness bit by bit until she'd felt no more. There'd been nothing until she'd woken in the Matrix, sure she was in hell. But then the Oracle had been there, cigarette in hand, telling her that she'd survived. How? Why her and none of the others when surely she'd been destined for death. She was grateful she was alive, but why?
It wasn't until Neo had wrapped her in a tight hug that she'd noticed she'd begun to cry. She cried quietly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Each gasping breath hurt her wounds and reminded her further. She felt Neo's own shudders and held him tighter, ignoring the pulling on her stitches. When it was over, she felt calmer. A weight she hadn't even known was there was lifted from her chest and she felt she was breathing easier. But mostly she felt bone-weary. The pain had receded into a dull ache, but she could deal with that. She wiped her eyes a final time then placed gentle fingers against his cheek.
"What did the doctors want?" She asked, trailing her index finger along his jaw line.
"They wanted to see how it was healing. Nothing serious. They're more worried about you right now," he informed her as he brushed an errant lock of hair out of her face. Her forehead was still warm and her cheeks fever-flushed. "Why don't you sleep off this fever, ok?" Trinity nodded.
Hamann visited a few hours later. He, like everyone else on the council, had been busy organizing the cleanup, making sure everyone was accounted for, and trying to control the general chaos. Spontaneous parties would break out, and while they could continue for a little while - heaven knew they needed it - there was much work to be done. Morpheus had asked that neither Neo nor Trinity be hounded by questions until they were more medically stable. Hamann had checked in on the One and his love soon after they'd been release from the medics and had been astounded by the damage. The council had agreed that they should be left alone to heal. But curiosity was getting the better of him, so he sought out the saviors of humanity.
His step was light in case they were sleeping, but Neo turned his head at the sound. He was sitting a little bit away from her bedside as one of the medics silently tended to Trinity.
"Councilor?" Neo asked. Hamann could see Neo's forehead crease as he tried to discern who was in the doorway.
"Have I come at a bad time?"
"No," Neo shook his head. He stood and walked over to the councilor with one backwards look at the medic changing the bandage on Trinity's arm.
"How is she doing?"
"Her fever broke a little while ago." Neo sounded relieved. "The medics say that she'll be able to make a full recovery, but she just needs time."
"Time we have now because of you, son." Hamann put a hand on Neo's shoulder. The One shook his head.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without her. Smith would have killed me."
"Smith? I thought it was Bane?"
"It's complicated," Neo ran a hand through his hair, unsure of where to start. The medic stepped quickly past them and left, bringing Neo's attention to the door. Morpheus was there. He had a very distinctive presence in Neo's strange not-quite vision. His captain had been very considerate Neo though: He hadn't asked what had happened even though Neo knew the questions were burning in his mind. Neo cast a glace back at Trinity sleeping on the bed. "Pull up a chair," he told the older men as he himself pulled a chair next to Trinity's bedside.
"What happened after you left with the Logos," Morpheus prompted after a moment of silence in which Neo seemed to be collecting his thoughts. Neo took a deep breath and began explaining.
"We watched you leave on the Hammer and we tried to start up our own engines. But they wouldn't start. Trinity thought it was a fuse so she went down to try and fix it. I waited for a few moments and then I heard the intercom crackle. Trinity said something about Bane being here and being psychotic. Her ... transmission was cut off suddenly so I grabbed a plasma rifle and went to see what was up. He had her at knifepoint," Neo snarled the slightest bit, fist clenching. Morpheus and Hamann exchanged the briefest of looks as they waited for Neo to continue his tale.
"Trinity told me to shoot them." Neo now sounded ashamed for some reason. The abrupt change in emotion was disconcerting for Morpheus. "But I couldn't do it. Smith pushed her down into the next level and then came at me. We struggled for the gun but only ended up blasting a lot of cables. I was beating him but he grabbed one of the pieces of cable and shoved it into my face." Neo swallowed back some bile. He hated reliving this part.
"Then he was taunting me, and I realized I'd heard that tone before. I followed after him. I couldn't see anything. But then I saw him. He was glowing with this sort of orange light, but he didn't look like Bane. Then I realized he was Smith. Smith had downloaded himself into Bane somehow. He didn't expect me to be able to see him."
"And then?" Hamann asked gently. Neo winced as he remembered.
"I killed him," Neo said very quietly. As powerful as he was in the Matrix, Morpheus and Hamann were forcibly reminded that the One wasn't an invincible unfeeling weapon. Neo cleared his throat and continued.
"I was having visions of the Machine city. So Trinity flew us there. We left the tunnel system at the old South access point and headed East following the power lines. I could see the fields and the tenders, see the power flow through the lines to the city. It was strange, like everything was made of this ghostly gold light," Neo seemed to get lost in the memory for a moment before he resumed his tale.
"We reached their defense perimeter and they fired on us. They were bombs of some type, hundreds of them. I felt them like I felt the squiddies and I knew I could get them to explode and when one off, that set more off. But there were too many, so we had to go over them. Trinity and I could survive the storm but the machines couldn't. So we went over their defense perimeter."
"Over?" Hamann asked, amazed. Neo nodded solemnly.
"We went over the clouds, broke through. I couldn't see it, but I felt the sun on my face." A hint of a smile ghosted across Neo's features.
"It was beautiful," Trinity joined the conversation suddenly.
"It was sunrise. Blue, purple and gold and so brilliant, so alive. Beautiful," she sighed. Morpheus was pleased to see his second in command so serene, so taken with the beauty of the world outside of the clouds. It gave him hope again, but he also felt a small pang of jealousy. To see the sky as it truly had been...what a wonder.
"Above the sky? Amazing," Hamann sat back in his seat and waited while Neo helped his lover into a sitting position. Neo sat behind her, supporting her back as much as he seemed to be clinging to her. "And then?" Hamann prompted gently.
"Then we fell," Trinity told him. "The storm knocked out the power. I couldn't get the engines to restart until it was almost too late. We crashed into a tower anyway." Hamann knew the geography around the machine's city - flat plains leading abruptly to tall mountains guarded by a perimeter of massive drones and an army of Squid. The mountains were high, almost reaching the virulent sky themselves. To go up and over mean they'd fallen far.
"How did you survive?" Hamann asked.
"I didn't." Trinity stated evenly. Neo's arms curled around her tighter, carefully avoiding her injuries.
"But-" Morpheus started to protest. Trinity shook her head.
"No. I died. I've been dead before. I know what it feels like. That was it." Both men who hadn't been there felt a chill race up their backs. Trinity's calm was unnerving. Morpheus immediately thought back to when Trinity had died in the Matrix only to be brought back by Neo. He'd never thought she'd been actually dead before, it was just like how she'd called Neo back. The One couldn't die in the Matrix that way - he knew it was fake deep down in his soul and his mind wouldn't have separated from his body. He'd always imagined Trinity had been in a similar state and Neo had restarted her heart before her mind could realize it was dead. But now, had she actually been dead for those brief moments?
"I don't know what the machines did," Trinity admitted. She couldn't bring herself to meet her captain's eyes, nor those of the councilor. She toyed with the edge of the blanket covering her legs and focused on that. "But there must have been enough of me left for them to somehow save. I woke up in the Matrix in a hospital. They'd placed us in the middle of a car crash to explain away our injuries. The Oracle and Seraph were there." Trinity paused and tilted her head slightly as if she were considering something. "And there was a little child there too."
"Sati," Neo supplied the name, breaking his silence. "She's a program too."
"She is?" Trinity asked, surprised. Neo nodded.
"Neo, after you crashed, what happened to you?" Morpheus asked.
"I made my way up through the tower, found a ledge and met this huge machine. I don't know how the machines are set up, how everything works together, but I knew I was speaking with an important one. It glowed the most, it was almost blinding. I made a deal. I would defeat the Smith program in exchange for peace."
"Couldn't the Machines control the program?" Morpheus asked. Neo shook his head.
"No. Things were different because the system wasn't reset before. Maybe he wouldn't have reset with the system anyway, I don't know. But Smith became something like a virus. He'd taken over every person and program in the Matrix. He was everywhere, no one was left, and he was looking to escape the Matrix and take over the real world machines as well. The machines plugged me into the Matrix and we fought. And I couldn't beat him."
"But, if you couldn't beat him then how-?"
"I couldn't beat him, but I could join him. The Architect said that everything in the Matrix had to be balanced. I disturbed the equation more than expected and Smith was System's attempt to balance it out. When I met the Architect, I was supposed to join with the source somehow and reset the system. He said I carried code which could do it. I let Smith assimilate me because I knew it would balance the system. When he did, the Machines in the real world activated whatever it was the architect said I had and reset the Matrix, destroying Smith and freeing everyone. I- I don't remember much more before waking up in the Matrix. The machine said something and I realized I was back in my own body, but I couldn't move."
"I'm not sure I understand. Who is the Architect?" Hamann asked. Neo could also discern that Morpheus was somewhat puzzled. Neo sighed. Trinity squeezed his arm, reminding him she was there, supporting him.
"Tell us Neo. This is too much for you to carry yourself," Trinity pleaded. She could almost feel his pain. He'd been keeping the full story from them, and maybe that had been the right thing to do before, but he didn't need to anymore.
"Neo, there is peace now. Even if you weren't supposed to end the war, you did. No one is going to fault you for that." Neo nodded and took a deep breath
"The One was another control of the system. I was supposed to end the war, but on their terms," Neo admitted, "But I was given a choice and I didn't choose what they expected me to." And he explained his meeting with the man in white, the nature of the One, and the systemic anomaly. He told them what the Oracle had told him the three times he'd met with her. When he was finished, Morpheus, Hamann and Trinity sat in silence as they digested the information.
"The Oracle lied to us then?" Hamann asked, feeling slightly sick. Was nothing real?
"No," Trinity mused. "I don't think so. You said that she said "the only way to get there is together" and that she wanted what you wanted."
"Yes,"
"If the Architect is order and the system needs balance because he controls it, then she is chaos and I think she's trying to break it. She created the current system and presented it as a solution which the other program accepted. But you said he can't see choices, only variables to be balanced: he couldn't anticipate your choice, but she could. You said she was originally an intuitive program? Maybe she thinks more like us than the other machines suspect."
"Can a machine really think like one of us?" Morpheus mused. Neo remembered Rama-Kandra and his family.
"Yes." Neo told them about Sati and her parents.
"I think you are correct Trinity," Hamann concluded after much though. "I have to believe that she is on our side. Oh, her solution might take awhile, but she seems to realize the truth."
"Machines need us as much as we need them," Neo said, thinking back to his conversation with Hamann on the engineering level. It was actually only week or so before, but it seemed like years. Hamann smiled, remembering the meeting also.
"Exactly."
"And that's probably why she let the Merovingian destroy her shell," Neo mused, "it was a choice she didn't fully understand, but Sati seems to be like her so of course she would help her."
"I think you are the One, Neo. The One the Oracle prophesized to end the war," Morpheus' tone was reverent, "And I think you have done exactly what she wanted you to do."
I was decided that perhaps in this instant, the truth was better off being kept by the four of them. Neo was glad to have shared his burden with someone and felt lighter. now that the weight was gone and he felt he could look at the entire situation a bit more objectively. He rarely left the hospital level and infrequently left Trinity's side. The one time he'd tried to find Morpheus had been like trying to run a gauntlet. Link had been with him to help him get through the parts of Zion he couldn't see very well, and Neo now owed the guy one for getting him out of there. The medics finally decided that Trinity could go home almost two weeks later. It was a half week too long for Trinity who was beginning to go slightly stir crazy from having to look at the same four walls and having medics insist on helping her do anything. They decided to go home in the dead of Zion's night, when the fewest people would be around.
The walk home was a little slow, but pleasant and the two enjoyed one another's silent company. They stopped just short of their room and stared. Prayer candles and offerings were still surrounding the entrance, spilling out into the walk and almost cutting off traffic.
"Wow." Trinity's eyebrows arched up as she surveyed the area. A path to their door had been cleared by Sparks and Ghost who were now lounging by the railing.
"You should have seen it before we got here," Sparks said as he carefully mimed carefully picking his way though a field of candles and rocks, hopping over some, skirting around others and catching fire. Trinity rolled her eyes.
"Thanks. When did this all happen?" She and Neo carefully made their way to their door and opened the hatch. Neo leaned against the wall and Trinity leaned against him as they waited for the room to air out a bit.
"It started about a day after we hadn't heard from either of you," Ghost told her. "Some believed you'd died, some were praying for a safe return. I'm glad you're home. Both of you," Ghost said sincerely, knowing Trinity would understand his full meaning. Trinity stepped away from Neo to give her brother a hug.
"Thank you. That means a lot to me," she told him, knowing that he would understand even as she had. Ghost smiled somewhat sadly.
"Want to come in?" Trinity offered. Both men shook their heads.
"I just wanted to make sure you got home and were ok."
"Thank you,"
Ghost nodded. Sparks gave Trinity a quick hug and clasped hands with Neo.
"And don't either of you ever do that again or I swear I'll kill you myself, ok?" Sparks shook a playfully irate finger at them both before striding off with a superior air. Trinity and Ghost shared a smirk.
"Goodnight guys," she called after them. She turned to Neo to find him smiling a little. "what?"
"Nothin'"
"What?" she asked again, pushing aside the door. Neo followed after, hands stuffed in his pockets. He shrugged.
"You sound happy is all. It's so good to hear you sound that way. You haven't for so long. Neither of us has, really." Neo shut the door behind him, watching as Trinity's softly glowing form sat on their bed and toed off her boots. "God, Trin," his voice broke a little. He'd almost lost her for good. She held out her arms and he went to her, hugging her as fiercely as she held him. He rolled them onto the bed, not caring that his boots were still on.
"I'm doing a lot of this," he admitted. "I'm not sure I'll ever be over losing you." She nodded and he felt a slight dampness on his neck from her own tears. She wasn't over being almost dead for good either. "Eventually, we'll get past this and be able to hold a conversation for more than five minutes without one of both of us breaking down," he declared and was rewarded with a small laugh. "Fewer tears, more laughter," he promised. She nodded.
"This is the most I've cried in my entire life I think," she admitted. Well, she had a damn good reason, she mused ruefully. Her injuries ached so she shifted to try and find a more comfortable position to lie in. Neo took off his boots and tossed them to the floor before carefully wrapping himself around her.
Trinity soon fell asleep, lulled by the sounds of a living, breathing Zion and comforted by Neo's soft breath on her neck. She woke feeling fully rested for the first time in years. 'Daylight', pale in comparison to her memory of the real thing but welcome nonetheless, streamed around the curtains hung on the tiny windows of their room. She immediately felt that Neo wasn't by her side as she stretched languidly on the bed and wondered where he'd gone to. A quick gaze at the clock revealed that she'd slept in well past lunch hour and into the afternoon. She gingerly sat up, mindful of her stitches and bruises. They began to ache as her mind and body woke up more fully. She wondered where the painkillers she'd been given had gone to and only then noticed the vial of pills next to a cup of water left by the bed. She made a mental note to thank Neo when he came back from where ever he'd wandered off to.
Trinity silently changed clothes, tossing the outfit she'd fallen asleep in into the hamper and put on a light pair of pants, a loose shirt and the beat up pair of moccasins she wore when they were on leave in the city. Suddenly her room felt too empty, too small, she needed to be outside doing something. She knew they'd never let her help with the clean-up, but she'd been bed ridden for more than a week and needed to wander. She padded over to the door and twisted the handle, pleased that the muscles in her arm didn't twitch as painfully as she'd expected them to. She closed the door behind her, turned and nearly jumped out of her skin. Trinity froze as hushed whisper went through the small crowd gathered outside. For a moment she thought Neo might have returned home, but then she caught her own name in reverent whispers.
"Neo's not here," Trinity told them quietly. A few people nodded which confused her slightly. If they knew he wasn't here, then why were they hanging around? Before, the people had always left Neo alone after awhile and had never hung around their room after the initial rush when they were on leave. Obviously that had changed. Trinity sighed and made her way through the crowd. The people parted for her which was strange since they'd never really paid attention to her before. She shook her head slightly and continued down the walkway, intent on getting to the upper levels of Zion where Morpheus would no doubt be. Neo would most likely be there as well she reasoned. She waited a moment for the elevator to arrive then entered and turned to hit the button for the floor she wanted. Her hand paused over the buttons for a moment as she gazed back down the walkway. A few of the people from the crowd seemed to have followed her. Unnerved, Trinity hit the button which would take her to the top level of the city and exhaled as the doors quickly shut and the elevator shuddered to life.
The elevator slowed to a halt and the doors clanked open. Neo was on the other side.
"Trinity! I was just coming to see if you were awake yet," Neo explained.
"I was just coming to find you." She stepped off the elevator and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for leaving the pills nearby." Neo smiled. "How are you doing?" she asked, lightly touching his bandage at his temple. Neo's hand covered hers.
"I'm ok. It- tingles a little. The doctors say it's healing and that's good though. I think I can see more than I was able to even a week ago. If I stay around power lines everything is much clearer. I've been working on the Hammer all morning." Neo let their hands drop and ghosted his fingers over the wounds in Trinity's sides and on her arm. They were oddly mottled spots in her ghostly blue image. "Some places are better than others. Some people are better than others. Sometimes I think I'm ok and then I'll run into something. But it's amazing that I can see anything."
"What's it like?"
"It's like viewing the Matrix in code. In 01, everything was orange and gold. Here everything is blue and green. People like us have little currents of gold around our plugs."
"Sounds pretty,"
"I suppose. I'd rather see you normally though." She squeezed his hand. She wished he could see her normally too. It seemed to really pain him to be unable to see anything the way she could and she couldn't really blame him. "How are you feeling?
"A little achy. The drugs are kicking in and it's getting better. What's going on up here?"
"Lots of clean up. The dock is pretty much ruined and half of gate three is gone."
"Gone?" Trinity's eyes widened. How could half of a gate be gone? They were enormously massive things. She'd been impressed anything so huge could exist when she'd first been unplugged and they'd always represented something strong and enduring for her.
"Gone. They had to cut the counterweights to let the Hammer through." Neo smiled. "Actually, Kid did it."
"Kid?" Trinity arched an eyebrow. "Good for him."
"We just got the Hammer back up in the air and are using it to lift some of the bigger pieces up and out of the way." Trinity slipped her hand into his as they began walking towards the outer stairs to the dock. The main elevator shaft had been destroyed in an attempt to slow the machines and even now work crews were clearing away the debris so access could be restored.
They continued on upwards, passing other people busy rewiring and rewelding or meeting in groups to decide on what to fix next. A number of people looked up in surprise as they passed and scurried out of their way. Trinity though people were acting very bizarrely but forgot all about them when she saw the docks. The Hammer sizzled in the air as it lifted up a large piece of what once was the central command post with heavy hooks and chains. The ship carefully maneuvered to one side and set the structure down. Immediately people with plasma torches got to work cutting the metal down for reuse. The Hammer moved to another part of the docks and lifted some large masonry. The ship sailed out the half ruined gate and dropped the chunk of concrete into the sewer before returning for another load. They were making good progress clearing the lading pad of the dock. A large portion of it was ruined by a gaping hole, but most of it was littered with the metal debris of dead machines, broken APUs and crumbling concrete. Trinity watched as a group of terribly young looking APU corps men coaxed one of the massive units back to life. The operator began guiding the limping unit towards one side of the cave where other damaged exoskeletons were being repaired.
"What are you doing out of bed," a deep voice resounded. Morpheus strode over to them, his serious expression giving way to a happier one. He was glad Trinity was up and about, but she sure as hell wasn't going to be doing any lifting or carrying. Morpheus mopped the sweat from his forehead and tucked the rag back into his pocket. Trinity's expression had already shifted to a more defiant one and Morpheus chuckled. He held up a stalling hand.
"I know. You're fine. You made it all the way up here yourself and you are no longer in the hospital." Morpheus affixed her with a stern gaze "But you are not helping us do anything."
"I won't."
"Good." Morpheus turned back to the Hammer lifting and carrying loads with the aid of numerous ground crews. "Once we get more of the dock in order we're going to go out and see what's left of the other ships," he said in a softer tone.
"The ones hit by the EMP?" Trinity asked. Morpheus nodded. "Roland and his crew say that some of them may be salvageable, and definitely pieces are, but Commander Locke is reluctant to have the Hammer leave the city." Trinity and Neo nodded. That sounded like Locke. "Once we have the ability to go to broadcast level, the Council wants to know what is going on in the Matrix. But we have a lot of rebuilding to do before that happens."
"Will we have people to crew any ships we salvage?" Trinity asked.
"I've been thinking about that. We have a lot of kids in the Academy, but most are still too young to serve on ships. The APU corps was hit pretty badly, so I don't know if we'll get any help from there. Some of the Academy students volunteered to help the Corps hold the dock. We lost a lot of people and I suspect some might decide to help rebuild them rather than the fleet." Morpheus shrugged. Both parts of Zion's defense were needed. After speaking with Neo, he realized that the peace could end and while he would personally do whatever was needed to keep the peace, he knew that it would be stupid not to rebuild Zion's defenses. "Roland suggested that some of the Academy teachers and other retirees come out and help the newbies find their places."
Trinity's lips thinned. In this war, there were very few retirees. She did a quick mental count and decided that there were about thirty people who had served with the fleet for any real length of time left alive - and that number could be lower since some might have died in the fighting. Twelve of them were the survivors of the Hammer, Nebuchadnezzar and Logos. The face of the fleet would change dramatically. Well, once they had a fleet again. Neo touched Trinity's wrist lightly.
"Want to get something to eat? We should probably check your bandages too." She nodded. Morpheus waved them off and rejoined the crews slowly bringing order back to the city. Trinity was feeling a little tired by the time they got back to the elevators. They had to wait for awhile to get on one. Some sort of shift change was taking place and a lot more people were out and about, trying to get where they were going. Trinity didn't mind waiting, she wasn't in a hurry. What she did mind were some of the looks sent their way. When the whispers started again she practically dragged Neo on to the next elevator headed down. The ride down was fairly uncomfortable. She could feel the eyes of almost everyone in the compartment on her back. Neo rubbed her undamaged shoulder trying to alive some of the tension she was radiating. He thought it was helping a little but she still practically bolted when the doors opened on their level.
"Trin! Hey, what's wrong?" She looked around and pulled him aside, out of the light pedestrian traffic.
"Ever since I woke up this morning, it's like people have been staring at me. I don't really like it. "
"Well, we did help save the city. I bet Morpheus and Niobe and everyone else is getting the same treatment," he reasoned. "I am, but then they've always done it to me," he tried to joke. He was rewarded with a small smile.
"I guess, I'm just used to you being the celebrity," she quipped and kissed him He smiled and they continued on their way home. When they were in sight of their room Trinity groaned softly.
"What?"
"When I left earlier there was a whole group of people camped outside. They were whispering about me. A couple of people were following me. It was ...creepy."
"Oh."
"Oh?" she stopped and Neo stopped with her. He looked sort of sheepish and ran a hand through his short hair. This was not good, Trinity thought.
"I was being followed and it was getting kind of annoying. And I know I shouldn't have done it because I know they all meant well, but I was having...issues getting around and I was getting some important replacement parts and-"
"Neo, what?"
"I kind of yelled at a group of them."
"What?" Trinity's voice was flat. Neo didn't yell.
"Well I didn't really yell. I kind of told them yeah, I'd helped save the city, but everyone on the Hammer was responsible for keeping the Squids at bay while I dealt with the machines. And I kinda said that I wouldn't have even lived to get to the machine city if you hadn't been there to help me fight off Smith and then fly us to the machine city and-"
"And?"
"AndIkindasaidthatyoudiedtryingtogetusthereandthatthemachinesbroughtyoubackbecauseyouweren'ttotallydeadandthatIwouldhavediedmonthsagoifyouhadn'tcalledmeback."
"Oh."
"Uhm, so if they're following you around it's probably my fault." Neo winced a little. "I'm sorry." Trinity took his hand and resumed the walk home.
"It's ok," she said after a moment. "They'll get over whatever and go back to worshipping you," she tried to joke a bit. She was glad the odd behavior was explained somewhat, but she still didn't get it. Neo was the One, she was just another unplugged-resistance fighter.
"Gee, thanks," Neo dead panned. He really didn't like the worshipful way some people treated him - the way some did seem to worship him. He was really just another guy. Ok, well maybe he was kidding himself; maybe there was something different about him. But that something, he knew now, wasn't what they thought it was.
Neo didn't particularly like Locke, but his attitude was almost welcome after he was met by a mob of people wanting his protection or blessing. Trinity groaned softly and Neo made out a small sea of people by their door. He felt like groaning too.
The people stood as the couple approached. What struck him the most was the reverent silence as the people parted before them. As they passed, tentative fingers reached out to touch his shoulders, the hem of his sweater. Whispers started and for the first time Neo heard Trinity's name with his own - the One and his Protector. Oh, boy.
Neo brushed hands away when they looked like they'd touch Trinity's injuries and pushed her ahead of him with gentle fingers on her lower back when her confident stride faltered. They made it to their door and he quickly opened the portal. Trinity slipped inside as soon as there was enough room and Neo followed, closing the door quickly behind him and leaning on it as if to ensure that no one outside would get in. The looked at one another for a moment before Trinity spoke.
"That was weird." Neo was surprised by her body language. He'd never seen her look as rattled as she did right now.
"God, Trin. I'm sorry. I feel like I set them on you."
"No, it's ok. You didn't do it on purpose. Besides, they'll get involved with the clean up and their lives will go on and they'll forget, right?" She asked hopefully. Trinity knew she wasn't a people person. Even as a kid she'd never liked large groups, preferring to spend time with smaller groups of close friends or on her own. Aside from dances in Zion or the short semester of classes she'd attended at the academy when she'd been unplugged, the largest group of people she'd had to be around for any length of time in the past twelve years had probably been nine.
Neo looked miserable and it made her heart ache. She hugged him to let him know it was ok, he'd done nothing wrong, and resolved to not let the people bother her. Maybe they'd get the point and leave her alone, but even if they didn't she had to get over her own hang-ups for Neo's sake.
"Help me change these bandages?" she asked. Neo nodded and helped her take off the shirt. Taking her shirts off was more painful than putting them on, but the task was quickly done with Neo's assistance. She had him get new rolls from the supply she'd been given and then undid the small metal clips holding them in place. She handed the end to him and he carefully began to unwind the fabric while she held her arms out of the way. The outer layers of the bandages on her torso were clean, which was good, but the gauze under them were covered in blood. Not so much that she was worried, but enough that she was reminded of how far she still had to go. She dabbed a clean scrap of gauze with the antiseptic wash and handed Neo carefully cleaned the area. She gritted her teeth and tried not to react but the cool liquid still drew little hisses from her as the liquid went to work.
It took four strips of gauze to clean the dried blood away from the wounds on her front and their counterparts on her back. Trinity was glad Neo couldn't see her normally as she was one big bruise from about her hips to just under her breasts. The wound on her right was higher than the bruise extended under her bra on that side. She considered going without for awhile, but decided it probably would be just as if not more painful. She reattached the clips and they began unwinding the bandages from around her arm. Her arm went faster as there were only two puncture points for Neo to clean and despite her use of that arm, it was bleeding less than the other ones.
When they were finished, Trinity felt ill and tired. She moved onto Neo's lap seeking comfort there.
"I don't like this. It's better than being dead, but I still don't like this," she admitted. She didn't like feeling sick and didn't want to be helped. Well, she supposed Neo could give her a hand now and then, but no one else.
"Are you feeling better than you did yesterday?"
"Yes. I'm glad to be out of that ward, but I think being stuck here might be just as boring," Trinity realized with annoyance. The walk to the docks had been more draining than she'd anticipated and she didn't want to be bothered with going through all those people hanging around outside. She glared through the door at them. Didn't they have a city to rebuild? Why were they wasting their time bothering hanging around outside her door like she was some sort of celebrity? She wondered if Matrix superstars felt this way when they were being hounded by the Paparazzi.
"Well, Roland said that a lot of his computers are going to need some software repair. Maybe I can sneak a few disks past Morpheus."
"That'd be nice, thanks."
"If Morpheus had his way, I'd be sitting around here all day. It took an hour to convince him that I could help."
"Hmm," Trinity murmured sleepily. Neo carefully maneuvered her onto the bed and covered her with a light quilt. They both had a lot of recovering to do and he was grateful for the time to do it in. he wondered what they'd find when they did eventually go back to the Matrix. Would he still be able to bend reality the way he had been able to? What about the Agent programs? If they went in and tried to unplug people, would the agents stop them? He shook his head to clear it. Those were questions for another day.
The playground seemed to have sprung up overnight. The residents thought it
was odd that there was a small playground where once they were sure there had
been nothing but a couple of park benches and cracked pavement in the void between
their apartment buildings. Now there was a small oak tree, a set of swings,
some see-saws and a jungle gym amid reddish woodchips. Some boys played four-square
while their friends watched. A group of girls plaited their Barbie's hair as
they sat in the shade of the jungle-gym. A dark girl with a long braid was jumping
rope with two new friends.
Cinderella, dressed in yellow
Went upstairs to kiss a fellow
Made a mistake
Kissed a snake
How many doctors
Did it take? 1,2,3,4...
The girls stopped twirling the rope as a shadow fell across the jumper. The little girl stopped jumping and looked up.
"Hello," she said pleasantly to the woman with the clipboard. The woman didn't look happy.
"You changed this."
"Yes. I wanted to play with my new friends. Would you like to play with us?"
"No. It will be changed back."
"Why? It's nice here now."
"It MUST be changed back."
"Why?"
"This place is not part of the programming. It causes problems with their memory.
"Come on Sati, lets go play someplace else," the little girl with curly red hair grabbed her playmate by the hand and tried to drag her away from the unfriendly stranger. Their other friend was already waiting for them by the other girls sitting under the jungle-gym.
"Ok." Sati looked back over her shoulder once then ran to join the other girls.
"I will get her to change it back tomorrow, but what is the harm of letting this place stay?" Seraph stepped into view. Continuity fumed.
"Exile," she sniffed, "There are rules here. There is a plan at work. Everything had its place and its purpose. This place is not in accordance with the plan. It must be removed." Why couldn't the exile program see her reason? Surely there was some flaw in Seraph's programming. This place was illogical. The Exile stood his ground.
"This place is realistic. It will not cause you difficulty. I will let her keep this place and rebuild it if you reset the area. Think, how many memories will you have to alter and erase if this area is changed once a day?"
Continuity glared at the exile.
"We shall see."