CHAPTER FOUR

Coppertop Again

For the first time in a decade she's watching a sunset.

A third floor room translates to treetop level at the Briar Institute, country asylum that it is, and so black branches are silhouetted against a perfect view of the evening sky. Violet into purple into dark blue; evening stars have begun to appear, unblocked by any kind of city smog. Naked trees. A lone goose, barely visible, flies toward the pond Trinity remembers is there.

The chair next to her creaks. Dr. Warner has uncrossed and switched her knees. She sighs and turns the pages on the book upright in her lap. Adele remembers seeing the title from when Warner first came in-- The Case for Christ. She realizes she too is hopelessly uncomfortable and changes position.

"Try to go to sleep, Adele," monotones her shrink.

"It's kind of hard with you here," Trinity mutters.

Warner sighs, exaggeratedly patient. She sticks a finger in the paperback. "I realize you may feel that way, but do keep in mind it's for your own personal safety. You have suffered a terrible shock to your system. We could never forgive ourselves if you committed suicide while left alone…dear."

"If I say I won't kill myself, will you leave?"

"I'm not going to leave until I know you're in dreamland, sweetheart. I've technically been off work for a half-hour now, but I'm going to be here as long as it takes, okay?" Her laser-whitened teeth gleam forcedly in the dark. "So don't think you can get rid of me by staying awake, ha-ha."

Hopeless, Trinity turns her back on Warner and stares at the wall instead of the window.

She can't imagine it, but five minutes later she realizes her eyes have closed. And an immeasurable amount of time later, she realizes that yes, she is actually falling asleep without thinking about this incredibly peculiar or boring day…

An instant after that she is suddenly, breathtakingly awake.

What the---Oh God! It's--

Inexplicably she is watching another scene, one far different from evil skinny women and dark skies. But she doesn't question it, because all she knows—all that matters is that Neo (Neo!) is also lying on his side, staring at the wall on his left.

(I knew it. I knew it.)

That way he doesn't have to roll over and see there is nobody beside him. There is no sleeping woman. The bed doesn't squeak slightly when she moves. It's built for two but only one is left.

A tear falls gently down his cheek. He wipes it away and gazes at it as he stares at his wet fingers.

Suddenly, in a rush, he springs out of the double, grabbing a pillow and hurling it across the tiny room. He rips half of the bedclothes away and pounds the grey lumpy mattress twice. Sinks gently to his knees and sobs, rocking back and forth, head buried in the hard pallet.

She strains to make out the words he is saying. "Where…(he sobs)…you…where---"

A knock comes then. Neo, cute little-boy cop-killing Neo jumps up and looks away, leaning on the wall with one arm and drawing the other across his eyes.

"Wha--" he says, choked, then clears his throat. "Uh. What?"

Morpheus comes into the room.

"Neo," he says gently. "Neo."

"What?" says Neo, still looking down, anywhere but Morpheus's face.

"Neo, we've run searches for her. Would you like to know what we've found?"

Finally the One looks back at him, red-eyed and puffy on white skin. "Show me."

They are in the computer room. Neo is cold, but has abandoned his blanket for a manly crossing of his arms as he shivers. Morpheus explains.

"When the machines attacked, they didn't leave clues as to why they did it or how they found us. But the question I'm sure we're both asking is, why her? Why Trinity? Why didn't they just kill her outright instead of taking her?"

Neo says nothing.

"Well." Morpheus stares at him until he finally stares back. "I think we have the answer."

"What?" Neo says.

Morpheus pulls up an image on the screen.

"The machines have resorted to a scare tactic, Neo. Reports have come in from possibly ten ships, maybe more. The sentinels attack, very similar to what happened to us. They come when one of the members is in the Matrix, making it impossible to charge the EMP. Break through the roof. And instead of killing the one they take, they simply grab them. We couldn't be sure why before, but recently new information has come." He takes a breath.

"Reinsertion," he says.

"Oh, God, no….no…." Neo mutters.

"This serves as two tactics in one. First of all, the worst thing for any worthy member of the Resistance is being plugged back into the Matrix. It's especially worse if they remember their life on the ship, where they knew the truth…. Niobe is in contact with a man named Iago. He was plugged back in, but they located his mental projection, even if they don't know where his body is in the plants.

"They put him in a state prison. They've told him that he was captured, that he was mentally deranged, that he shot two security guards. The Matrix's explanation for events that they have no real idea of. It drives the person eventually insane, Neo, trying to figure out what's real and what's not…It also pulls their crew members away from their missions, it makes them lose the will to fight, all because one of their number is in jeopardy. This is especially true in our case. The machines usually select someone who most of the crew has emotional ties to…."

Neo takes a ragged breath.

"We've found her," says Morpheus.

--

Red gelatin, red goo, her hair floats around her, still long. Her arms are tangled in it as she lies in the pod. (Somehow, she has a sensation that this is normal.) Plugs rest inside her, up her spine, behind her head. She is aware. (Unexplainably, miraculously, aware.)

Thank God, thank God, it was all a dream. It wasn't real---Well, it was. But I'm here now. And he'll come for me ---

She wills it, and the top opens. Sitting up, black hair encased in red, she sees the metal bug coming down to pluck her free, to release the plugs. It is just as she remembered it, with the hacked machine summoned to free a battery. Except it's different---- now the machine has Neo's face attached to it. He hovers intently, freeing her shackles with the pinchers that are his new arms.

And something tickles at the back of Trinity's mind.

"Wait, Neo," she says. "Neo, wait."

He looks at her, jerking his gaze away from loosening the plug on her left arm. "Not now, I'm concentrating---"

"Neo, how did you locate me? Did I get a red pill?"

"No…," he mutters distractedly.

She desperately needs there to be a logical explanation. But if there isn't…I'm afraid of what that might mean…

"No, Neo, this is important. How did you locate my body if you didn't run a trace program?" she says urgently, grabbing on to Neo's machine hand.

He has no answer. And, since she can't provide one on her own, the dream freezes.

--

She wakes up in the hard hospital bed, Dr. Warner gone, and begs whoever responsible for that to be what is really there.

Okay…I'm terribly sorry, but I'm deleting the shoutouts for this chappie. I got embarrassingly weird on some of them.