Please please please please, forgive me for this annoying waiting! I have finished school, AT LAST! Thank God!
Since some reviewers found the last chapter a bit difficult to understand, plus I took so long to update, I've written a little summary here:
Neo fought against Hypno, but the program managed to take control of his mind, so now Neo is possessed by Hypno. Trinity enters the Matrix again to save Neo. In which way? Well, just read this new chapter!
Chapter12: Mind within mind
"You were right... I wouldn't have." Trinity whispered again, subconsciously replacing her guns, and for some minutes she just stared at the fallen body. As she crouched next to Hypno/Neo her hand reached for something driven into his torso, and grabbed it, pulling it away. For a few seconds she held the thing, which revealed to be a long and thick needle, over him, over his face, as though he could see it.
"I have just given you a narcotic to keep you unconscious for the time I need." She hissed coldly, as if Hypno could hear her. "You know, I have recently learned from a certain person." She tossed the needle away.
One of her guns had been loaded with real bullets, the other instead contained narcotizing needles that had immediate effect. She had purposefully missed the first shot, of course, and let the fake bullet hit him, without him noticing her trick.
Her cell phone suddenly rang, once. It was the signal Link was ready. Trinity took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment, taken by a shade of doubt and fear. Then she shook it away. There wasn't time for any indecision.
The woman sat on the ground, next to Neo, and picked up again her narcotizing gun, pointing it at her arm. Just one shot and a, second later, her vision was already blurring. An instant before she blacked out she grabbed Neo's hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Here we are. Do it, Link." Morpheus said, as he watched Neo and Trinity lying motionless on the ground next to each other.
The operator nodded and began to type quickly. Due to the fact they both were unconscious, he was able settle a connection between their neural systems , so that Trinity could enter Neo's mind and find Hypno. And, possibly, destroy him.
"All right, it's done. We can't do anything else, by now everything is in her hands."
Trinity winced sharply as she felt something wet and cold fall on her right cheek and slip along it till her jaw. All around her she could hear the familiar noise of water dripping over and over again from above, and for an instant she feared that it had been all a dream, that Neo hadn't come to fight Hypno and that she was still trapped in the sewers. Until she eventually opened her eyes.
To her sheer confusion, a rippled white ceiling furrowed by light blue shades greeted her. She raised her back to sit up on the ground, one hand brushing her cheek to wipe away the drop fallen on it, then her confusion turned into astonishment as her eyes gazed around and her mind gradually registered any single characteristic of the unknown and dazing place. A quite out of standard place, considering she had been in an alleyway just a few minutes ago.
After suppressing a wave of dizziness that had briefly overtaken her, Trinity got up and started to walk cautiously around. It was an enormous cave, large and ramified in various formations and galleries and smaller caves, rather lightened. Long and sharp stalactites stuck out from above, so pointed that looked like they were going to fall down any second, just as the contorted stalagmites seemed to grow taller and taller from the ground. The peaks of some stalactites were just a few inches away from the ground, and sometimes melted with those of the stalagmites, creating weird sort of natural arches. But the oddest thing was that anything there was covered in a thin yet hard layer of whitish ice, which glowed reflecting the dim light. Everything around her glistened, even the ground, which was disseminated of puddles and frozen lakes. A cool wind was blowing, now and then carrying around light snowflakes.
Suddenly, while she was glancing up and down the brownish stony walls, grazing with hesitant fingers the ice cover, a shadow flew behind her, unseen by her. The woman turned abruptly to look, doubts and suspicions gradually creeping into her mind, like a plant that spread its numerous roots underground, but she saw no one. That doesn't mean there isn't anyone.
The moment she turned back, in fact, someone hissed in her face, startling her, and they took that opportunity to punch her so hard she flied across the air, landing hardly against a wall and falling to the ground, pieces of ice breaking off and hitting her. She instantly jumped back to her feet and shook slightly her now throbbing head, feeling a bruise forming on her left cheekbone. She darted her eyes around, positioning in her fighting stance.
A bloodcurdling sound, similar to a violent strap, echoed through the whole cave, followed by an amused laugh. Oh God, that laugh...
He was there. She had found him. Or, precisely, he had shoved himself to "greet" her. He stepped out of the shadows, in front of her. An expression of pure surprise tinged on Trinity's face as she observed her enemy. ... So... this is his real appearance?
And she had a good reason to be bewildered, since Hypno looked like he had come out from a vampire movie, or something like that: he was tall, about Neo's height, deadly pale skinned, with matted and wavy dark hair that grazed his shoulders, and flowed slightly at every movement he did. He was wearing a black leather jacket that arrived at his feet, and under it she could see he was wearing leather T-shirt and pants as well. The vampire-like paleness of his face determined a strong contrast with the dark red of his lips, but gave prominence to his glass-grey eyes, which were also encircled with a thick and marked dark brown-purplish line, like the rings around the eyes of someone who hadn't taken enough sleep. Besides, he walked with stealthy and at the same time haughty moves, like a wild feline establishing his own territory.
One of her eyebrow raised in question. "Fan of The Crow?" she asked, crossing her arms on her chest. Since she was there, she could allow herself a little taunt. Even if, mostly, she was taking time to study her adversary.
He laughed. "Yeah, I created my aspect myself. I won't hide the fact that I like the The Crow saga. But mostly the first movie, it's not the same thing without Brandon Lee. He was great."
"You really sound like an excited fan. Unusual words for someone who spends his endless time despising and torturing humans."
He grinned widely. "What I can say, to understand humans you have to identify yourself with them."
Trinity unconsciously cocked her head to one side, still eyeing the weird - crazy... -program. He really was handsome, though, and if it hadn't been for his killer maniac-like smile, that could scare the shit out of anyone, he would have had bunches of girls squealing at him.
She shook herself from her astonishment as his grin suddenly turned into a wider smirk. "How nice and smart of you to play my same trick. I have to admit I really didn't expect such a payback." His deep voice hissed loudly.
The woman shrugged. "Like someone said, to catch your enemy off guard you have to identify yourself with him."
His smirk widened even more, if that was possible. "Good point." He paused briefly. "Look at the place... It's me who made it to appear like this, you know? Generally, human minds burn in the fire, they're exactly like the inside of a volcano during an eruption, disseminated of red-hot stones and ash and lakes of boiling lava. The more the fire and the air are intense, and the explosions are violent, the more the mind of a person is vivid and smart, full of thoughts and bursting with initiative. But when I take total control of someone, their brain stops working, their mind literally freezes and its aspect radically changes... like this. And is substituted with my mind." He explained, lifting a hand and gesturing at her to take a second glance around. She didn't take his suggest. He carried on, but changed the subject as he noticed her now serious expression. "I can feel the power you have. And you know something else, sweetness?" He reduced his voice to a whisper. "I love it."
He started moving closer to her, walking around with sleazy and creepy-seductive steps and moves. Trinity didn't reply anymore, and she didn't react either. She just stood there with a blank stare, motionless, as though she were in some sort of trance. She didn't react even when he came to stand right behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, moving them down her figure.
"Look at you. So full of... how do humans call it? Emotion?"
Slowly moving to her side, he reached up with his hand and brushed some locks of dark hair back from her face, tucking them behind an ear, then nuzzled the hollow between neck and shoulder. She still just stood there, without making any move, it was getting unnerving for him. He moved around in front of her and stayed right there in her face, as if he was about to kiss her, lifting her chin up with two nimble pale fingers.
"You came here because you want something back..." he said, now his mouth was barely an inch away from Trinity's, he started to caress her left cheek. "... but have you thought about how to get ?"
Trinity, on the other hand, didn't lose time in replying, not even in thinking. All in a sudden, too fast to be avoided, she punched him in the face, hard, knocking him down and pinning him to the ground, trying to hold his arms still. He gave her that damn hateful smile only he could do and roughly rolled her onto her back so he was on top, grinning down at her in satisfaction, looking like the cat that had just swallowed the canary. She responded with a grim glare and threw him off of her with some difficulty, quickly getting up to face him again. Shit, he was stronger and faster than she had thought, especially in that place, she definitely realized it was gonna be a hard fight.
He approached her menacingly, as she backed away to try and regain some space, yet he quickly lunged forward and grabbed her shoulders painfully, pushing her against the wall. Trinity could feel the cold ice through the thin fabric of her leather suit.
"Come on, my little pet. I like it when you're getting scared..."
She struggled desperately under the pressure of his body.
"The more I scare you..." he sniffed her, like an animal does with his prey, breathing in her hair. "... the better you smell. I like it."
With an effort she managed to free herself from his grasp, but he kept on rushing at her over and over again, attacking her unremittingly, with a fastness and a precision she had never seen in anyone but the agents and Neo. Hypno was punching and kicking her with such force that her blocks were almost ineffective. She eventually managed to do several good offensive moves, but he was able to avoid or stop more than half of them, which soon started to annoy her. Trinity aimed a kick at his head, he ducked and tried to push her off balance, but she leaned forward and went into a handstand, rapidly balancing on her hands, with her back to Hypno. At this point she locked her feet tightly around his neck and lifted him off the ground, flipping him over and then slamming him down heavily. She then turned and jumped astride his body, pulling a dagger out from one of her boots and stabbing him right through the heart.
"Trinity has been in for almost an hour now... no trace of her and no news of Neo... this is driving me crazy... I can't take it... " Link kept on repeating as he paced around the Core continuously, unnerved and concerned.
"Link, please, calm down. I'm sure she'll make it." Morpheus tried to reassure him, but the tone of his voice couldn't hide his own worry and doubt. "She'll make it..."
They flinched in alarm as Trinity's body started to jerk both in the Matrix and the real world. I hope...
Trinity got up and stepped backward, glancing at the bleeding corpse. Or what would have been a corpse, if suddenly Hypno, to her horror, hadn't jumped to his feet, startling her and causing her to back away more. He stood in front of her again, smirking mockingly, as if he hadn't been wounded at all, save for the darker spot staining his black T-shirt. He then looked at the dagger and took it out of his chest, while the woman's eyes grew wide as she stared in utter shock. She remembered the Oracle's words - No weapon can destroy him... - and she sighed in frustration.
Hypno started to attack her with her own weapon, like he had done before against Neo, but now, there, he was much more faster. The woman received a long cut on the midsection, then another, some minor cuts on her arms, she couldn't avoid them, so she jump-flipped backward to regain ground and then rushed at him.
She managed to kick the dagger away from his hand, but he caught her leg again and, before she could figure out his intentions, he bent her right foot to a side. He let her go and she fell on the ground, shutting her eyes tightly as she unsuccessfully tried to hold back a moan of pain, one of her hand reaching to hold her twisted ankle. Just a few seconds later Trinity managed to stand up, but she had to lean her weight fully on her left leg, so she was barely able to keep her balance.
She lost it soon as a hard kick hit the right side of her face, and a harder punch reached her stomach, sending her stumbling against a wall, almost breaking the ice again. She gratefully welcomed the support of the cold wall, her ankle was throbbing painfully and the bleeding cuts provoked a stinging sensation.
Through her now blurred sight she could still see Hypno staring at her with an indecipherable expression, without moving to attack her. She breathed hard, then she momentarily closed her tired eyes.
Neo's eyes snapped open, meeting a dark blue ceiling pricked with many small glowing points. The sky. He sat up in a jolt, looking around with confusion plastered on his face. He was in the Matrix, that was sure. In that alleyway. What the hell happened? I was fighting Hypno in the sewers and then... I can't remember...
Dazed, he moved to stand up when his right arm brushed against something. Or, precisely, someone. He turned to look. And gasped in horror. "T- Trinity!"
Trinity... Oh my God... Neo stared in disbelief at his lover, then he knelt beside her, his shaking hands touching her face and neck with delicacy, afraid to hurt her more than she already was: her face was too pale and was contorted in an intense expression of pain. She had a nasty bruise on her left cheek and a bleeding wound over her right eye, moreover her leather suit was cut in several places, mostly her arms and torso, which were also bleeding, as if someone had attacked her with a knife. She was alive, just unconscious, but in what conditions. Neo felt he couldn't breath anymore. His mind couldn't even form a sensible thought. God... tell me I didn't... it can't be...
The sudden sound of a ringing phone tore the air and partially snapped Neo from his shock. Hold on, Trin... Gently, he gathered her into his arms and lifted her with him, only to find out her left arm was hanging in an unnatural angle, broken. And he even suspected her right ankle was twisted. No... I can't take this... Trinity...
He didn't know how he managed to bring her to the phone booth, since his whole body was shaking in a way that no physical pain could provoke. Holding her against him with one arm around her waist, he lifted the other to pick up the receiver and put it to her ear. Oh God... tell me I'm not the one who did this to her... he thought desperately as he watched her virtual body being sucked into the phone and disappear from his arms. I could never hurt her... never...
A.N. I can't believe no one has ever created a NeoTrin community after all this time, so here I am, I've made a big archive of their stories, old and current fics. Hope you enjoy it.
I've taken a particular care of this chapter, don't know if you've noticed. If you have the impression there is a part missing in the chappie, don't worry, it will be explained next time.
Drop a review, will you?