Disclaimer: I don't own the Matrix.

Mind Games

Chapter 2: Experiment

Cold... dark... whitish fog and indistinct shadows whirling around him...

Neo!

Someone was slapping him.

"W- what...?"

Neo blinked slowly a few times before opening fully his eyes. Morpheus was bent on him, sprawled on the ground. People were giving both of them curious looks. People dancing. Music.

"... What a challenge, honesty
what a struggle to learn to speak
who would've thought that pretending was easier..."

Neo was instantly relieved, even if more from the sound that from the words of the song. Then he swallowed, feeling as if they had stabbed him in the chest with a knife of cold ice. He took a deep breath, wiping the sweat that beaded his forehead, then stood up, staggering slightly.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Link called me, saying you were in trouble. I find you on the floor, shaking." Morpheus answered, gripping Neo's arm to steady him.

"...the program?"

"Yes... did you see it?"

"No... I think it was a man... but I just saw a pair of grey eyes and then all went black."

He stopped as soon as he was out view from them, hidden by the thick crowd that was gathered in the middle of the room.

He leaned against a wall, thinking. My code isn't visible on their screens while I'm off action... screens... ships... Zion...? What are these things?

The mind of that human contained a lot of interesting things. Very interesting things, and most of them were unknown to him. Maybe... maybe I heard about them time ago... but where... and how?

Agents... he knew that kind of programs, and what was their duty, but he rarely had contact with them. He grimaced. Duty, orders... how much he hated being controlled. He remembered well the day of his rebellion, as if it had been yesterday... actually, it had happened almost immediately after being created. It's in my AI DNA... he grinned to himself.

He just wanted to be free and have fun with his... ok, he was so used to his abilities that it seemed strange to him call them "powers".

Returning to his last "victim"... some of his thought and memories ( probably most, he mused ) were typically human, but still intriguing. It would have been amusing to experiment. Trinity... that human called Neo loves her... love... he had often heard this word. Too many times, for his taste. Some people were happy, or angry, other suffered, because of love. He couldn't understand why. What is love?

Besides, there is something different with them. He seems to depend from her... he snorted at this. He was curious, but he really couldn't understand humans.

As his eyes travelled absently around the vast ballroom, something in a way familiar attracted his attention. Experiment... why not?

An evil smirk crossed his face.

"How do you feel now? What did he do to you?" Morpheus asked, concerned.

Feel... what do you feel now? Neo echoed uneasy in his mind, remembering with difficulty the "conversation" with the program, before replying. "Fine now, but I'll explain that while... where is Trinity?"

Morpheus picked up his cell phone and dialled Link.

"Operator."

"Link, where is Trinity?"

"She's near one of the balconies, on your left. The program disappeared again."

"Maybe it ran away, maybe not. Anyway, find the nearest exit."

"All right, Sir. See you later."

"...Wild, wild horses,
we'll ride them someday..."

God, I'm going to kill someone tonight... Trinity thought uncomfortable, after refusing the thousandth invitation to the dance. Some guys had even tried to "casually" lean their hands on her, but she had quickly put them in their place. And some people had at least thought she was mad. Never mind.

Now she had found a quiet place next to a balcony, hoping that no one would have disturbed her there. I hope we'll get out soon...

"Excuse me..." a deep male voice suddenly approached her from behind.

Oh no, another... Trinity sighed mentally, speaking of the devil... she turned to face the man. Short black hair, same coloured eyes... handsome, yes, but ordinary. Besides, he wasn't there for fun. And, most important thing, he wasn't Neo.

"Hello, I already know the question you are going to ask, and the answer is no." she said curtly before the guy could let out a word.

"No? Really?" he asked, smiling malicious. He surely was going to insist, until she would have been obliged to beat the shit out of him too. In a "friendly" way, of course. Nothing personal.

She didn't want to attract any other attention on her, but he looked her up and down, with... desire? and she felt the anger rise inside her. No one except Neo was allowed to look at her in that way.

"Really." she repeated, emphasising the word. "Now, get lost, before I flatten you to the ground." She finished, glaring at him.

"So you had a mental discussion with the program. That now know we are haunting for him." Morpheus said, after Neo had briefly told him everything.

"You can call it so."

"He's more dangerous than we had thought."

"Yeah... let's get Trinity, the-" Neo trailed off abruptly, stopping dead in his track, his eyes widened. For an instant he thought it was some kind of hallucination. Then he heard Morpheus stammer a "Trinity...!" with shock in his voice. Neo couldn't say anything, the scene before them had made his blood freeze more than the most intense coldness.

Trinity was out on the balcony, but she wasn't alone. There was a man with her. He was holding her... and kissing her.

Neo's first thought was to rip that guy away from her. Then it occurred to him. Trinity could handle this alone, but she wasn't making any move to pull away... she was letting the man to kiss her. It can't be... there must be a reason...

Anger, confusion and pain started to boil in his head, although he tried to hold them. Neo watched the stranger's hands wandering over her body, upper to her waist, lower to her thigh... and he lost it. He stormed out on the balcony, slamming open loudly the glass door, startling both of them. The man turned and greeted him with a cruel smirk, then he ran away into the crowd before he could have been caught, but Neo was too upset to care. Trinity looked at him with indifference and confusion on her face, and that hurt him more and more. He barely heard Morpheus say "Link, we need an exit... immediately."

A.N.: I'm sorry for the short chapter, but now I have less time. However, the next time I'll try to write more.