Author's Note: Okay, so it's not the most exciting chapter I've ever written. But poor Neo needed the info. You guys are gonna like the next chapter...I promise.

CHAPTER 2

Bright white light. Hot. Burning. Like lightning slicing through charcoal clouds on a summer afternoon. Like the sparks flying out of a broken hose, scorching the deck. Like the blinding light streaming from behind those thousand pairs of sunglasses, shattering the darkness, filling the Matrix with the light of rebirth.

It stung like a thousand needles, a hive full of wasps jabbing their stingers into his eyes. There was a voice somewhere in the room, screaming in agony. He winced at the sound, forced his hands up from his sides, clawing at his eyes trying to do something, anything to stop the feeling, but then there was someone else there, another pair of hands clamped around his wrists, forcing them down. Two more at his shoulders, pinning him to the ground, his head hitting something hard behind him as he attempted to struggle his way free.

Then just as suddenly, the light dimmed and the pain drained away to a dull ache.

Neo attempted to open his eyes again, cautiously this time. The sensation was strange, as though he could suddenly feel them there, too big for his head, grating against the backs of his eyelids. He winced. The world was a dim blur of colors and shapes and he wondered for a moment if he was still dreaming. Or better yet, dead. He could feel something warm on his arm, and he looked down to see a blur of redness. Blood. He swallowed, only to find that the inside of his throat was raw. The screaming voice had been his own.

"Welcome back."

The deep voice made Neo jump, and he turned toward it, though all he could make out was a dark form standing over him. It made him nervous.

"Back?" he forced through cracked lips. His own voice sounded alien.

"You're very lucky to be alive."

The words hit him like a tidal wave. He inhaled them, choked on them. This couldn't be real, couldn't be happening. He had wanted nothing more than to be finished with it all, done fighting at last. He wanted to rest, to let go of the tension that had been eating away at him for he couldn't even remember how long. Most of all, he wanted to be with her. Wherever she was now.

"Fuck lucky," he managed after a long moment.

"You don't want to be here?"

He recognized the voice now. Didn't know how it had taken him so long. Morpheus.

"I…" Neo broke off as a fit of intense coughing took him by surprise. A pair of hands helped him sit up, bracing his back, held a plastic cup of water to his lips. He felt sick with shame at the need for help with such simple tasks.

"Where am I?" he managed at last.

"The Zion medical center," said Morpheus' voice.

Neo finished with the water and attempted to set the cup on the bedside table, only to discover that he could not reach far enough. He winced at the sound of the empty plastic cup bouncing flimsily along the floor.

The Zion medical center was nothing like the rest of the city, he knew. He had been here enough times to memorize the sight of it, though not a single feature was clear enough to look familiar to him now. Whereas the rest of the city was built by simply reinforcing the natural rock formations with steel, the medical center was more comfortably furnished. The floors actually were carpeted, the heating was more intense there, the food better. It was the one place where people could go to get away from the grit and hard reality of life.

"How…I remember…the crash…and Smith…and then…"

"It would seem that the machines are capable of gratitude after all," said Morpheus darkly. "After the battle ended and peace terms negotiated, you and Trinity were escorted back in a sort of makeshift shuttle by the sentinels. Gave people here quite a scare. When you didn't recover right away, some said that you'd sold your soul to the machines in order to save our city."

"Trinity?" he asked, barely daring to hope. "She's alive?"

"Yes," said Morpheus slowly. "Moreso than you've been yourself until now."

Neo was floored by the news. He'd been forced to relive the crash so many times in fewer dreams it was permanently burned into his eyes, haunting him night and day. It was all so real he had been sure that it had been exactly as his nightmare vision saw. But then, he had learned a long time ago not to make assumptions. Perhaps it wasn't really real after all.

"Where is she?" He forced his voice to remain calm, though his mind was suddenly reeling with questions. If she was really all right, he couldn't believe that she would not be here.

"On the surface," said Morpheus cryptically. "She's been…she's done more tan her share of organizing he surface reconstruction teams up there. There's a lot for you to be told when you're feeling better."

Neo sat in silence for a moment, trying to downplay the fact in his own mind. There was something not right about the way Morpheus had said that. If she was doing more than her share of surface work, then it must be her choice. Which meant that she had chosen to be up there rather than in Zion. He suppressed a twinge of jealousy at the thought of her moving on. But then he supposed it was only natural if—He brushed the thought away, dismissing it as ridiculous.

"You have to understand, Neo," said Morpheus as though reading his thoughts, "this hasn't exactly been easy for her either. The first few weeks, she stayed down here, almost never left you. But then weeks became months, and there was still no sign that you were going to recover. And people started to talk. They thought it was strange that she recovered and you did not. There were threats made. I advised her to take a job on the surface and stay there as long as possible as much as possible."

"They blame Trinity?" asked Neo, shocked. The people could be demanding in their expectations at times, yes, but they had always been supportive. But then, if it had been long enough, he supposed…

"How long has…have I been…here?" he managed, pressing one hand to his temples. He was rapidly developing a raging headache.

"It is almost a year since the war ended," said Morpheus with that same not-quite-revealing tone.

"A year…"

"Rest, Neo," said Morpheus, pushing him back against the bed. "You can move back to your apartment in a few days. They want to keep you a few more days for observation. And to work on your eyes."

"My eyes?" asked Neo, already half asleep.

"They're going to try several more operations. The doctors are hopeful that you could possibly regain your sight completely. The machines appear to have attempted to restore it, but they were not able to succeed entirely."

"Wait…I don't understand…a year?"

"Rest, Neo," he repeated. "I've sent word to Trinity. She'll be here in a couple of days."