A/N: The first part of this chapter is dedicated to Chelsey, because she has a weird obsession with the bum in the Matrix movie. Seeing as the bum will only ever appear once, I thought that I should dedicate the first half of the chapter to her. The second half (the romancy stuff) is dedicated to Monique.
12
Trinity, Morpheus and Neo ran the whole way to the subway station, too preoccupied with the task at hand to engage in any sort of conversation. Morpheus led the way, through the bustling city streets until they reached the grungy and abandoned platform, covered in graffiti and shining with neglect. Neither took any notice of the bum lying several feet away, watching them without much interest.
"You first, Morpheus." Neo said, placing a hand on the shoulder of his captain. Morpheus nodded, taking the ringing payphone in his hand and disappearing into nothing as he made the journey back into the real world.
The payphone began to ring again almost instantly, and the pair that was left looked to it, expecting the other to take it. Trinity watched Neo in uncertainty as he stood opposite her, dirty and grazed from the day's events.
I need to tell him. She decided. But I can't tell him now, when we're still in danger. But when would I have any other time? It isn't as if we'll get this opportunity to be alone again anytime soon...
"Neo, I want to tell you something." She began, hearing her heart thud anxiously in her chest, but somehow managing to keep her voice firm and even. "But....I'm afraid of what it could mean if I do."
Neo coaxed his head to the side in slight confusion, unsure of what she could mean by this. She looked as beautiful as ever, with her hair slightly dishevelled and her leather clothes clinging tightly to her pale skin. She stood in silence, as if expecting an answer, although Neo had no idea how he could reply.
"Everything the Oracle has told me has come true." She continued. Her throat pained her as if every word was an effort to say, but nevertheless, she insisted on seeing this through. She had to tell him. It was now or never. "Everything but this."
"What?" Neo asked quietly, the question lingering in his eyes. What does Trinity's prophecy have to do with anything that's happening right now?
Trinity opened her mouth to reply, the dreaded words of love touching the tip of her tongue and threatening to escape. But before she could form them into a sentence, a train sped past them, zooming past the platform and filling the small area with the metallic sound of scraping metal. It was then that she realised that this simply wasn't the time to tell him, especially when they were still in the Matrix.
The fire behind his eyes is the key to unlocking my heart? How corny and stupid does that sound! I'm sounding like some love-sick teenager again, and I don't even know if Neo feels the same way about me. I can't tell him...not yet, anyway.
Neo frowned when he saw the hurt in her eyes, her lips still parted slightly as if the words were still threatening to escape. But she uttered no sound and shuffled embarrassedly towards the ringing payphone, taking it in her hand.
I'll ask her later. Neo decided. When we're alone sometime...maybe I could tell her I love her then, too. But now isn't the time. Now we have to worry about getting out.
It was just as these thoughts past through Neo's mind, that they saw the Agent. He approached them from seemingly nowhere, using the body of the bum as a host. He aimed his gun and fired at the payphone mere seconds after Trinity had past into safety, leaving Neo alone and stranded in the Matrix.
"Neo!" Trinity whispered the moment the needle had been pulled from the base of her skull and her eyes had sprung open.
"What the hell just happened?" Tank asked, standing up from his place at the consol.
"An Agent." Trinity said worriedly. "You have to send me back."
"I can't!" Tank cried, jumping back to the controls. Trinity cursed under her breath, hurrying to stand behind him.
"Run, Neo, run." She silently urged him, although she knew it was impossible for him to hear her. He can't die...he just can't...
Neo saw the Agent approaching. He saw the stairs only a few paces away from where he stood, and heard a faint whisper in his ears, as if an angel or some other mystical being was guiding him and telling him what to do. The voice was telling him to run. But he didn't want to run. Looking back into the eyes of the Agent, a gut feeling told him exactly what he needed to do.
"What is he doing?" Trinity asked quietly to a smiling Morpheus standing beside her, as Neo clenched his hands into fists.
"He's beginning to believe." Morpheus beamed, his eyes sparkling with a hidden knowledge.
Believe what? That he's the One? Trinity doubted that. She knew that the Oracle had been wrong about Neo's prophecy, yet she also knew that he wouldn't have enough belief in himself to question her words.
Neo took out his gun and fired, clashing with the Agent and knocking them both to the floor. Trinity watched in silent horror as he sprung back to his feet and cast his empty gun aside, the Agent following his lead. It was as if she was reliving the turmoil of Neo's first training day over again. Only this time it wasn't just a training simulation. This was for real.
Each time Neo landed a punch on the unsuspecting Agent, her heart swelled with inner pride. At least until the Agent attacked Neo with a fury of punches and kicks, causing him to fall, face-down into the concrete. Unable to watch any longer, she moved to Neo's side just as a fountain of blood spurted from his mouth and trickled down his cheeks.
"Jesus, he's killing him." She muttered to herself, tearing a piece of cloth and dabbing it at Neo's mouth, pressing it against his skin to stop the bleeding. His body appeared so fragile and helpless, lying limp in its chair. She could hardly see how something so innocent and weak in appearance could survive.
She didn't dare touch him, using the cloth to keep the distance between the tips of her fingers and his mouth. He was breathing...slowly...carefully. She remembered how much faith she had shown in him only moments before when he had saved her life atop the roof of that building. She remembered that she loved him, and therefore he was the One, regardless of what the Oracle said. Eventually, all clouds of doubt had been lifted from her soul.
But when the Agent (who she later came to know as Smith) tossed him into the ticket booth in a shattering display of broken metal and glass, she cringed with pain as if those blows had been aimed at her instead. Smith took Neo's heel and dragged him over the platform, lowering him onto the tracks.
The train hummed in the distance, and Smith held Neo in a head lock, ready to jump back onto the platform split seconds before the train collided with his victim. Neo shivered with fear as the blood leaked from his mouth. They shared a brief conversation, and then with his last ounce of strength, Neo pushed Agent Smith up to the ceiling with him, then down onto the track again, back flipping back onto the platform just before the train zoomed by and flattened Smith.
Neo clenched his teeth in concentration as the train skimmed past his chest, missing him by inches. Again, he was filled with puzzlement, wondering how he'd been able to do the impossible yet again. The answer soon came to him when he remembered that his pattern of thought had been similar each time he'd achieved something incredible to save the life of himself or Trinity.
If he died, or if she died, he'd never be able to see her again...
It was as if thinking about her gave him strength. Smirking to himself at the thought as he gloated over the death of his enemy, Neo was consumed by shock when the doors of the train sprung open only to reveal a grimacing Smith, using a new body as host. At once, Neo broke into a run, darting along the city streets.
Meanwhile Trinity, who had been smiling with her own sense of pride when Neo had defeated the Agent while she stood beside his body, scowled suddenly when she noticed Tank's forehead curve into frown lines.
"What happened?" She asked in bewilderment.
"I don't know. I lost him." Tank replied truthfully, tapping a few keys just as a nearby screen began to flash and beep, sending an alarm throughout the ship. "Oh shit!"
Immediately, Morpheus tore away from the others, ascending the ladder into the cockpit with Trinity only a short way behind him. She took to the co-pilot's seat beside her captain, while he brought up the neon blue image of three approaching sentinels.
"Sentinels!" Trinity cried. "How long?"
"Five, maybe six minutes." Morpheus replied, struggling to keep his voice level as he held the intercom to his lips. "Tank, charge the E.M.P."
Trinity turned to face him, her eyes wide with shock. "We can't use that until he's out." How can Morpheus even think of doing something like that?
"I know, Trinity...don't worry." Morpheus murmured, mostly to comfort himself. "He's going to make it."
Trinity froze with uncertainty, holding onto the cuffs of her over-shirt and squeezing them tightly, praying silently to herself for Neo's safety, and her own. Morpheus noticed the doubt masked within the stony expression of his best (and now longest) serving solider, fixing her with a hard, stern look.
"Back to the core." Morpheus ordered, standing first and moving back to the ladder. "Come on."
Trinity nodded, scrambling down the ladder after him and immediately taking her place beside Neo once more, leaning her weight on his chair just as the computer warned of the hull breach.
"On no..." She whispered anxiously.
"Here they come." Morpheus sighed, nodding to Tank who began to charge the E.M.P, catching the fear in Trinity's face as she looked between Neo and himself before he stated comfortingly. "He's going to make it."
Tank was already giving Neo his final directions towards the nearest exit, and Morpheus was leaning over his shoulder, watching the screens intently as the ship rattled and the sentinels broke into the rear end of the ship.
"Hurry, Neo." She whispered in his ear, dabbing his forehead with a cloth soothingly.
The same voice that had told Neo he needed to run before was now telling him to hurry. It was clearer now, but still not recognizable as anyone he knew. Perhaps it was his own conscious, or maybe it was the voice of some sort of mythical being. Whatever it was, it was giving him strength, and he felt himself speeding up as he sprinted down the corridors of the hotel towards room 303 (the room Tank had directed him to).
He rounded a corner, using the echoing voice as a power source to make him run faster and faster in order to avoid the Agents pursuing him. He heard the ringing phone only a few steps away from where he was. He reached the door to room 303 and wrenched it open. He couldn't have known that Agent Smith awaited him behind a door, ready with a gun pointed directly at his chest.
The gun was shot before Neo even had a chance to realize that Smith was there at all. He stared into the eyes of his enemy, tasting the foul stench of fresh blood in the air. His blood. He lifted his hand from his chest, pulling it back to reveal stains of pure blood dripping of the tips of his fingers.
No. He refocused on Smith's face. It can't be over...I can't be dying...I can't be.
Smith shot again, sending him into the wall behind him this time, leaving a large patch of blood in its place. The pain was unbelievable, and like nothing he'd ever felt before in his life. But he refused to give Smith the satisfaction of his anguished cry of agony. He grit his teeth and took each shot, jabbing him in his chest and making everything throb and sting as the hurt streamed through his veins. Shot after painful shot, until his vision blurred, and he could no longer hold himself upright.
He staggered, sliding down the wall and leaving a streak of blood behind him. Now he could see nothing but darkness...darkness everywhere....like a hallway of some sort, a hallway leading to his own demise. He was falling down through the hallway now, falling towards whatever waited for him at the end. Somehow, he knew that what awaited him wasn't anything good...
He was dead before he hit the floor.
(o)
"Can't be..." Morpheus stuttered, reading Neo's blank monitor. None seemed to notice nor care that the sentinels had broken into the main deck and were tearing everything apart.
Trinity lowered her face from the monitor, too afraid to look at it again. Tears swelled in her eyes, but she blinked them away firmly, refusing to cry. Her hands trembled, and she held Neo's chair for support. It was all she had to stabilize herself from collapsing in a crying heap. She loved him. But he was dead. No, that wasn't right. It couldn't be it?
He can't be dead...he can't be...it's impossible. I love him too much to let him die...I've already spent so many years alone, but I can't live another day without him. I won't...I can't...and he can't be dead. I love him, so he is the One. The Oracle got his prophecy wrong, remember? Which means that he can't be dead. I refuse to believe it. It's real love...it must be, because I found my love for him all on my own, regardless of what the Oracle had told me...he can't be dead...
She had to tell him. She wasn't afraid to tell him any longer. She'd already waisted so much time questioning her feelings when they had been present all along. And now it was too late....no, not really. She loved him. He was the One. Which meant that it was not time for him to die. She leaned over his limp body, taking him in her arms. His skin was still warm. She didn't know what to say...how could she tell him everything in the short amount of time that she had left before the sentinels were sure to take her life?
"Neo, I'm not afraid anymore." She whispered against his lips, deciding to speak the words that were on her mind. "The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that man...the man that I loved would be the One. So you see? You can't be dead...you can't be...because I love you? You hear me? I love you!"
How he would be able to hear her in death, she didn't know. But the words that she spoke were purely the first words that came to mind when she focused directly on his closed eyelids. Without knowing what else she could do, she bent and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, soft and tender against the warmth of his skin.
Yes, his lips were warm...and just as soft as she'd imagined they'd be before. She sunk into the kiss, gripping his shoulders and moving her lips against his, basking in the pure bliss of the moment. Everything else seemed to disappear. No longer could she hear the sounds of the attacking sentinels behind her. No longer could she see the devastation lingering in her home. All she could see, hear, touch, see or smell was Neo.
And by God, did he smell good....
(o)
Neo, I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that man...the man that I loved would be the One. So you see? You can't be dead...you can't be...because I love you? You hear me? I love you!
These were the words that Neo heard clearly in the corners of his mind as he floated further into the darkness of death. Pain had long since left him, as had any feeling in his body, leaving him with nothing but emptiness and cold.
I know that voice. He decided, falling further and further towards his doom. But who's is it?.........It's a beautiful voice, like an angle's...a dark angel's.........oh god, it's Trinity's voice!
Trinity loved him! She really did! He could hear her voice so clearly in his head, and somehow he knew that he wasn't just hearing things. His mind could never create the beauty he heard each time he listened to her voice on its own! She had been the voice in his ears giving him strength, helping him to fight!
A warm, tingling sensation crossed his lips, as if something was touching them, and he longed to touch whatever it was back. He knew he had something to fight for, now. He had to fight so that he could see her again. So that he could live long enough to let her know that he loved her too.
So what the hell am I doing here then? I need to destroy those Agents! I need to get back to the ship! I need to see Trinity again...so I can't be here anymore...I won't die...I won't.
His eyes sprung open suddenly as the feeling came back into his body. He was back in the Matrix, lying on the floor of the hotel again. Agents were a few paces from him at the end of the narrow corridor. He knew it without having to even look up, as if he felt their presence within him. Words the Oracle had told him were coming back to him suddenly.
You've got the gift...but it looks life you're waiting for something.
He'd been waiting for her. This explained why he was able to unleash some of his hidden potential every time he thought about her during a battle. Now he was the One. He knew it, because he believed this just as much as he believed he loved her. He could do it...he could defeat the Agents...he would see her again.
"Now get up!" Ordered Trinity's voice inside his mind. Obediently, he leapt to his feet, much to the surprise of Agents Smith, Jones and Brown.
"No!" Neo said firmly, as a startled Smith prepared to fire. Neo held his hand up to the oncoming bullets by a gut instinct, as if it were telling him what to do. The bullets stopped mere inches in front of his hand. He inspected one, before letting the rest drop to the floor while he marvelled at the green coding flashing before his eyes instead of the original shapes of the programs.
He could read the code...
An angry Smith lunged forward, attacking Neo in a fury of punches and kicks. Neo blocked each effortlessly, sending him flying back down the corridor with one sharp kick of his own. It was as if a secret program had been uploaded into his mind, because his powers as the One were telling him what he needed to do.
He charged at Smith, leaping inside his body as if it were nothing but liquid. The outer shell of Smith's body exploded into green coding, leaving Neo behind as he inhaled the virtual air. The other Agents shot a brief glance at the other before they broke into a run, and Neo had to pause and gloat over his victory, until he heard the urgency in Trinity's voice.
(o)
"How....?" Tank uttered in disbelief.
"He is the One!" Morpheus exclaimed, his eyes wide with happiness.
Trinity could hardly believe it herself. She had really brought him back to life with her love...with a kiss. He'd done what no other had ever been able to do before and deleted an Agent from the Matrix. Neo was the One....he was the one for her.
"Neo!" She cried. Seriously, there isn't anytime to gloat.
She didn't even need to see Neo's eyes open to know that he was back. She knew it by instinct, as if some connection between herself and Neo was telling her that he had returned to the real world
The sentinel attacked, she screamed, ripping the plug from the base of Neo's skull and covering his body with her own, using herself as a protective shield just as Morpheus triggered the E.M.P. His body was warm and comforting against her....and she could hear his shallow breathing clearly in her ears.
There was a blinding flash of light as the sentinels dropped to the floor in death and the Nebuchadnezzar's engines died under the incredible power of it's own weapon. Trinity listened to the sounds of Neo's breathing, almost completely masked by the dying sentinels and engines. For one terrifying moment, the breathing stopped, and she was scared she may have pulled the plug too soon....that her instincts had been wrong. When all was still and silent, and darkness loomed around them, Trinity pulled herself away from him, blinking and allowing her eyes to adjust to the light.
Neo stared into her eyes, his face full of awe and lust, his eyes sparkling with love. She perched on the edge of his jack-in chair, her arms still fluttering about his heaving chest and her own eyes mirroring the love she shared for him, their icy prison melting away. She sat in uncertainty, having not really thought this far ahead.
Neo, too, wasn't completely sure of how he should act. After all, the voice he heard in his head may not have been her voice at all. But the fact that she was sitting on the edge of his chair and only moments ago had been pressed up against his body did arose some suspicion (coupled with the love shining in her eyes). He noticed a strand of her hair slip over her ear and fall onto her cheek. So many times had he seen this happen and longed to brush it back. He lifted a hand to her cheek, stroking it tenderly and awaiting a reaction, his eyes still wide with awe and love.
Relaxing beside him, Trinity lifted a hand and placed it behind the back of his neck. She had longed to touch him for so long, but had been afraid that he would protest. The fact that he and brought his hand to her cheek and was stroking it came almost as permission for her to touch him. The hand on her cheek fell into place perfectly, his fingers soft against her rough skin. The hand slipped behind her head, pulling the rouge strand of hair with it, and fell behind her, pulling her down into a kiss.
Neo felt the same warm tingling sensation he had felt before against his lips when she touched them as he had in the Matrix. Only now, it felt much more real. Her lips were as soft as her skin, sliding against his in a passionate kiss and he bit back against her hungrily, never wanting to pull away. Their lips moved together in perfect and rhythmic fashion as they shared the long awaited kiss. When she finally pulled away from him, he heard her sigh softly, breathing against his lips which were wet from her own and smiled, ignoring Morpheus and Tank watching them in a state of shock.
"Hi." He whispered quietly, now grinning rather sheepishly as she moved away from him enough to meet his eyes so that he could see the expression imprinted onto her face.
Trinity grinned widely, meeting his eyes directly and caressing his cheek as he had done to her, before she uttered her reply.
"Hi."
(o)
A/N: This will probably be my last chapter before I go on holidays (sob). The next chapter will be up around 7th October unless I somehow find the time to update it between now and when I leave in three days time (which I doubt) since I now have discovered that I am randomly going to someone's house at 1:00 tomorrow (PJ Monique). So goodbye until then and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
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