22
Trinity groaned, ripping her grey knit over-shirt off and sinking onto the bed, reaching up behind her to massage her aching shoulders. They'd only been flying on board the ship for six hours and already she was suffering from the same muscle tension that always effected her if she'd done too much work. She had never suffered from pain in her muscles when still in the Matrix, but now that her mind was free, her real body seemed to have to deal with it every day. She supposed that it came from an overload of work, because it never troubled her when in Zion.
The door to the room was wrenched open with a loud creek, and she looked up abruptly, letting her hands fall slack beside her. Neo stepped into the room quietly, shutting the door softly behind him and not uttering a sound until he'd sat beside her on the bed.
"How long do we have?" He asked, casting her a sideways glance. Trinity knew instantly what he meant.
"My next shift is in three hours." She replied, fiddling with the straps of her under-shirt. Catching the flaming flicker of light dance across his coffee coloured eyes when she met with them briefly, she stared up at him completely with an inquisitive look. "What?"
"N-Nothing." He stammered, bringing his attentions back to the faded cotton pants he wore. They felt particularly tight and uncomfortable around the waistband, and didn't completely cover his legs, which was why he figured they had once belonged to Mouse.
He knew that he shouldn't have been feeling the way he did then. But the fact that Trinity was sitting beside him so frigidly, her body tense and tight with dark waves of hair spilling down the sides of an soulful, white face made it hard for him to keep himself under control. As much as he wanted to touch her, he knew it was impossible to do so when on the Nebuchadnezzar....not when anyone could hear them. Instead of taking note of each elegant, feminine curve of her body framed by the black over-shirt and navy cotton pants she wore, he focused on her hands, resting neatly on her lap. Such delicate hands...the colour of white clouds with long, spindling fingers and glossy, short-cut fingernails. They seemed so fragile, incapable of the hard work she'd completed only moments before. Each fine line of her hands was drawn to perfection...like it had been taken from a portrait painted by a famous artist and placed on the ends of her wrists.
She had lovely wrists too. So slender, white and feminine....like her arms. The silvery plugs around her biceps tightened when his eyes roamed over them, letting him know that she'd realized what he was doing. Her shoulders were just as captivating...fair, white and simply beautiful. But it was her neck that had him entranced. It's colour even, ivory and full of life....curved beautifully into a perfect silhouette....an enigmatic silhouette of pure and utmost flawlessness.
Trinity now understood what the look he'd showered upon her earlier now meant. And now that they'd already made love to reach other, she couldn't see why she shouldn't feel unable to kiss him without feelings of insecurity. She drew herself closer to him, placing a long, soft, teasing kiss squarely upon his lips, breaking it before he could deepen it any further.
"Something wrong?" He asked curiously when she pulled away, momentarily forgetting reasons for why they shouldn't let themselves get carried away.
"No, no. It's just..." She trailed off, unsure of how to phrase her statement. She didn't want Neo to think that she didn't want him....didn't need him. But she felt uncomfortable with discussing her insecurity for doing anything on board the ship, where they were in danger of being discovered or heard by Morpheus or – even worse – Tank.
"What?" He pestered in a tone that showed he clearly demanded an answer. She etched away from him, subconsciously tugging at the blankets covering the double bed that had once belonged to Switch and Apoc. A bed wasn't the only thing she and Neo had in common with the deceased couple now. Both saw – or had seen – Zion as the only place they could feel free to express their love.
"It's just...we need to rest." She said hurriedly, keeping her eyes on her lap. "Well, I need to, at least. I'm meant to be watching over the core in three hours." She didn't tell him that she was afraid of Tank marching into their room to awake her for her shift only to see....something he definitely shouldn't see.
Neo nodded understandingly, knowing full well that this was not the only reason she wanted to leave things as they were. Perhaps, as it had been with their relationship, the tension would ease with time, and she wouldn't feel the need to hide their love from everyone. Although he had to admit, he was never the sort of person who was too public about his personal life either.
"How long is your shift?" He asked, standing and moving across the room to rummage through his belongings. The pants he wore were chaffing his legs unbearably, and he was almost certain the blood would stop circulating in his lower body if he didn't change them soon.
"Hopefully not too long." Trinity answered, bending over the side of the bed to unbuckle her boots. "I'd say three or four hours tops. But I'm inclined to work overtime."
"What do you think Morpheus is going to want me to do?" Neo wondered aloud, remembering the conversation the Nebuchadnezzar's four crewmates had held earlier that day when they'd taken off from Zion's dock, leaving the comforts and safety of the last city of mankind behind them. "The Council didn't give us a large amount of time to send some proof back to them in Zion. And besides, I don't even know what I'm meant to be doing...as the One, I mean."
"I know." Trinity said thoughtfully. "Maybe we should go back to the Oracle and ask her what we should do."
"Maybe." Neo shrugged. "Or maybe I'm supposed to figure this out on my own. If that's true, then it means I have a lot of thinking to do."
"Don't worry about it." Trinity comforted. "Just try and get some sleep for now."
Neo turned back to face her, smiling and wearing nothing but a fresh set of pants. Trinity switched off the small light system used in their room, then shuffled backwards in the bed, allowing him to slide in next to her and pull the blankets up to their waist. He pressed his naked chest into her back, draping an arm over her stomach, and nuzzled his head into her neck until both had fallen sound asleep.
(o)
Neo rolled off his stomach and onto his back sometime later, causing him to wake. He stretched out both hands only to feel cold, empty patches on either side of him, and cracked open both eyes, shifting so he was sitting upright in the bed.
It must have been sometime in the very early hours of the morning, because the ship's main lighting system had not come on yet. He scrambled out of bed and felt his way along the walls until he came to the switch that operated the room's own lighting system and flicked it on, giving his eyes time to adjust to the artificial stream of light.
"Shit." He muttered to himself, hurriedly gathering his clothes and pulling them on, then reaching for his boots. He hoped that Trinity hadn't been working too long, especially while he'd been lazing around in bed when he should have been up to take her shift. He knew for a fact that she wouldn't have woken him to change shifts even if she needed to. Not for the sake of their relationship, but for the sake of her own determination and pride.
He raced along the corridor, climbing the ladder to the main deck and then taking long, swift strides towards the core, continuously cursing himself inwardly for being such a late sleeper. He didn't like knowing that she'd worked overtime, for the sake of her own health. Even if she'd taken longer shifts than this before, he knew that even Trinity needed to take a break once and a while.
He reached the core, only to see her sitting comfortably in front of the consol, tapping a few keys and staring intently at the three screens that displayed the neon, raindrop coding that was the Matrix. She didn't notice his presence until he was close enough to see the brilliant green tinge of the coding reflected on the surface of her pale skin, the electronic light flashing in her wide, blue eyes, and see what image she was viewing within the Matrix that had so easily captured her attention.
He couldn't remember ever learning to use the code, and there certainly wasn't a training program designed to teach him it. He later supposed that he automatically learnt to read the code when he became the One, as a result of the fact that he was able to read it at will when he was inside the Matrix. Perhaps this was the only source of power he was able to use in both worlds, though unfortunately it was not enough proof to convince the Council that he was the One.
Trinity had zoomed in on a girl of about nineteen, doing stomach crunches in what appeared to be some sort of public gym. She was fair, with a light, even tan to her skin and an elegant, feminine figure. She had high cheekbones, and a smooth even face that was flushed and dripping with sweat from such an intense workout, causing her shoulder length waves of princess blonde hair to cling to the sides of her face. She was dressed simply in electric blue gym shorts, scruffy sneakers without socks, and a plain white, full sleeved shirt with sweat bands around both her wrists and her forehead, yet she had attracted the attention of every man in the room. This was not just because of the fact that she was the only woman in the room, but, in Neo's opinion, was because of her startling ice blue eyes....Trinity's eyes.
"Who is she?" Neo asked quietly, peering over her shoulder and placing both hands on the back of Trinity's chair. She let out a gasp of surprise, tilting her head upwards only to see him standing over her.
"God Neo, you scared me." She panted, trying to calm her now racing nerves. She hadn't expected to be disturbed for another few hours, and his deep voice came as a shock to her after a long period of complete and utter silence.
"Sorry." He mumbled, smiling shyly down upon her until she lifted her head, bringing her attentions back to the screen. Curious, Neo leaned in further to get a better look, causing Trinity to feel slightly uncomfortable. She zoomed back out of the gym, showing Neo that it was located in the penthouse of a large building in the heart of New York, sometime in the late night.
"When did you learn to read the code?" Trinity asked him, trying to bring his attentions back to something other than what she'd been doing. She couldn't even remember anyone ever telling him what the code was, let alone how to decipher it.
"I didn't. That's what's so strange about it." Neo frowned in concentration. "In the Matrix, when I first became the One, I remember I could read the code from inside the Matrix itself at will if I wanted to....as in literally be able to see it as we are seeing it now on the screens. I guess that because of this, I can also read the code within the real world without even having to learn to." He paused, lips stretching into a smile. "Sorry, that probably didn't make any sense."
"No, it made perfect sense." Trinity replied with a smile equivalent to his own – mostly because she'd managed to deter is interest from the girl in the gym. "I guess you were wrong when you said that your body here in the real world didn't take on any of the qualities of your body in the Matrix."
"It's the only quality this body has managed to inherit so far." He reasoned. "But I suppose your right. I could end up surprising myself again."
He could still see the girl through the window of the gym, and couldn't help but let his curiosity get the better of him. He could tell that Trinity obviously would rather not talk about her, but he did have a pretty good idea as to who she was anyway.
"Is that...?" He began, but saw no need to finish. Trinity sighed heavily, realizing that there was no point in trying to avoid talking about it. She didn't see why she should keep things from Neo anyway...he already knew so much about her.
"That's my sister." She said bluntly, tapping a few keys to zoom back in on the girl. "The younger one. Faith."
"Thought so." He answered, leaning over her to type a combination that would rotate the screen and give him a better view of the young girl. He had no idea how he'd learnt how to do that either. "She's pretty."
"No," Trinity said impatiently, feeling all the emotions she'd been holding secure beneath her skin for the past four hours she'd been working (or in other words, staring at her sister) erupted from within her. "She's gorgeous. The sort of girl Mouse would have gone crazy over....a real-life replica of the Woman in Red. Now can you see why I never considered myself 'beautiful'?"
Neo shook his head, unable to believe his ears. How can she put herself down so easily? Why can't she see just how beautiful she is...how wonderful she is...how easy it was for me to become enraptured by her? God, why does she have to put herself down all the time, when anyone else can plainly see that she's the most goddamn beautiful thing in this world?
"No," Neo said firmly, perhaps with a little anger entwined with his words. It was this tone that caused her to bend backwards again, in order to stare up into his eyes and see the sincerity within them that did not once flicker as he spoke. "No, I don't see. Sure, I have to admit that you're right in saying she's beautiful. Hell, I can even see you somewhere inside her when I look at her. She has your figure...and your eyes. But she doesn't have the same meaning behind them...the same power that I see whenever I look at you. But in a way, I suppose it's like yin and yang. She may be beautiful....the kind of beautiful Mouse was attracted to...the kind of beautiful you see on the cover of magazines. But it's not your kind of beautiful. Your kind of beautiful is the kind that you can rarely find anywhere else in the world. Beauty in strength...." He bent to kiss the top of her forehead, breaking away temporarily between each sentence fragment to whisper into her hair. "...enigmatic...angelic.........'Dark Angel'."
Trinity felt tears prickling in the corners of her eyes, but pushed them away hurriedly, willing herself not to cry, although it was a battle that she nearly lost. In truth, this was definitely the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said about her...it made her feel beautiful; and powerful at the same time. No longer would she experience feelings or thoughts of anxiety when it came to the way she looked. As Neo had said, she may not have been the super-model gorgeous her sister had turned out to be, but it didn't matter. When she was with him...she felt beautiful....more beautiful than she could ever imagine. And although she knew it was stupid to be obsessing over looks, she simply couldn't deny that the knowledge within itself all but guaranteed her internal happiness.
He must have seen the tears in her eyes, because he looked down upon her, eyes filled with concern. "Sorry, did I get carried away?"
"No." She said with a firm shake of her head, stretching a hand upwards and running her fingers along his jawbone. "Thank you."
Due to the fact that the position she was in was becoming far too uncomfortable to uphold any longer, she drew her hand back and sat up properly in the chair, turning her attentions back to the screens just time to see Faith sit up and wipe her face with a cloth, taking a long swig from her water bottle. Obviously, her little sister would fail to interest the two of them for much longer.
"Want to meet the rest of my family?" She asked, already zooming out of the gym and into the heart of New York city.
"Yeah," Neo replied, bringing one hand from the back of the chair to her shoulder, massaging it through the strong material of her grey knit over-shirt. He couldn't have known it, but he was actually managing to ease away some of the tension in her shoulders. "Sure."
Trinity began typing frantically to bring them away from the gym and to an apartment several blocks away. She zoomed in through a window on the fourth story, that led to a living room, where a man who was about in his late fifties was slouched in a large armchair wearing a tattered red dressing gown and slippers. He was watching the television, holding a mug of coffee in one wrinkled hand and scratching the ears of a dog with the other. He was overweight and balding, with only a few fine grey hairs growing atop his head that might have once been the same colour as Trinity's, with rich, dark eyes and a liver spot just above one ear.
"So I take it this is your father?" Neo asked, peering at the neon coding.
Trinity nodded. "Remember when I told you that Faith had to move in with him after, well...you know." She waited until Neo nodded understandingly in reply before she continued. "Col came to New York after he left us, and this is where he and Faith are now. Just the two of them. He never had anyone else. Well, not any long lasting relationships anyway."
"What happened? Between him and your mother, I mean." Neo asked, before he realized it wasn't his place to say so. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"It's alright." Trinity smiled tightly, figuring that there was no point in keeping anything from him anymore. "I don't know what happened, really. After he left, my mother was too shattered to explain anything to me, and it was the same for Hope, my older brother...although he didn't stay long after Col left, as I've probably already told you. It happened so long ago, anyway, so I can hardly remember any of it. All I can remember is that they used to fight all the time...he was an alcoholic, and even though he always brought home plenty of money, he almost always wasted half of it at the local pub. My mother, Felicity, used to wait up late for him, until he'd stagger home long after I was meant to be in bed. Then, I would hear them screaming and shouting at each other from downstairs, and sometimes I would hear a smash, and then wake up the next morning to see that something had been broken, and there was a gash of blood or a bruise on Felicity's forehead. By the time I was eleven, he'd moved out."
"God, I'm sorry." Neo muttered. He'd heard Trinity speak about her traumatic childhood before, but she'd never actually spoken about it in this depth. It was hard for him to believe that the woman who'd approached him in that club what seemed like almost an eternity ago (when really it was only just over a month), was a person who had gone through so many different traumatizing events, and still managed to move on from there, which was something he knew that he wouldn't have been able to do. It only came as further proof to him to show why she was able to develop such a strong character in the real world.
"This isn't my real family." Trinity reasoned with him. "Not biologically, anyway. But....I-I still feel connected to them in some way. The Matrix was able to build up the illusion that this was my real family...something I believed in throughout the years of my childhood. These are the people who raised me, Neo. The people who made me who I am today. That's why I still call them my family."
"I know." Neo whispered, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. He could feel her shivering beneath him. "Listen, if you'd rather stop doing this..."
Trinity shook her head firmly. "No, I'm fine. I think this is helping, actually....I haven't even tried to find my brother for ages."
She typed them out of New York and zoomed across America, scanning the country for a once familiar pattern of coding. After a while of silent searching, she found what she'd been looking for and brought them down to a suburban house in San Francisco, where two boys were sleeping together in a small bedroom. The one next to it was owned by a young girl, and the large room across the hall belonged to a young woman, also sound asleep.
"This is his family, I'm sure of it." Trinity squinted at the coding as if expecting something else to appear. "I just can't seem to find him."
"Hang on." Neo said suddenly, causing Trinity to jump. He had only just remembered a conversation they'd shared once about their brothers sometime just before Trinity had told him the entire story of her family. "Is this the same brother that used to make life a living hell for you when you were growing up?"
"I only have one brother, Neo." Trinity scowled. "And he's come a long way since then. I still hate him for what he did...it was his fault for what happened to Felicity. She may have been able to remain stable if it wasn't for him, you see. The divorce was hard enough, but the fact that her only son ran away and didn't tell her where he was going, what he planned to do, and never called to let her know that he was alive and well made things worse. But I suppose that running away was the best thing that ever happened to him. He used to be purposeless, and lived his life without meaning. For a while Felicity was even afraid that he'd commit suicide, like Charity did. But he's changed now. He has a family....has a job....has a life. I guess you could say that he lived up to the meaning of his name and was able to find hope when no one else in our family could."
Just as the words left her mouth, a man who was approximately somewhere in his mid thirties strode down the path, leading a large dog on a leash and looking rather content with himself. He had a strong build, with short, scruffy ebony hair that didn't look as though it had ever been properly combed, and ice blue eyes almost completely hidden beneath a floppy fringe. Neo said nothing, watching as the man paused outside his house to gloat at his success, and then pulled open the front gate, removed the leash on the dog and let it sprint round to the backyard. He then shut the gate, unlocked, and relocked the front door to his house once he was inside, crept upstairs and ventured into the rooms of his three sleeping children, placing a gentle kiss on their foreheads before returning to his own bedroom, changed, then nestled up beside his wife, allowing sleep to claim him.
"He seems nice." Neo commented once Hope had fallen asleep.
"He is...well, at least he is now. Like I said, I think running away from home was the best decision he ever made...for his sake, but perhaps not for the sake of anyone else."
"Do you think..." Neo began awkwardly. He wasn't sure if Trinity would like to answer his question. "Do you think he ever thinks about you, and the rest of your family?"
"Yes." Trinity replied almost instantly. "I'm sure he still thinks about us sometimes....like me, he realizes that he can never fully leave and forget his childhood, even if, as I've come to know, it really was all a lie, and none of it ever did happen. It's still a memory inside of your mind...still something that could last forever. I know he feels this way because he named his only daughter Stephanie."
"That was your Matrix name, wasn't it?" Neo asked, to which Trinity nodded. "I guess you're right about that, then."
She zoomed away from the house, tracing the code lazily, as if she wasn't moving in any apparent direction. For a while, Neo thought that she was now simply scanning the entire country without any specific aim, until he realized that she was heading towards New Jersey – the state she'd once told him she'd grown up in.
Without saying a word, she focused the code on some sort of hospital...a mental hospital. There was a woman sitting in a chair by the window, who looked to be in about her mid fifties. She was staring at the wall opposite her lifelessly, with an empty, spacey look spread across her face. She seemed old and brittle, as if she was literally wasting away in that chair...just waiting for death to claim her. Neo didn't need to ask who she was, even though she shared no resemblance to Trinity whatsoever.
"Her hair used to be like Faith's." Trinity said, her voice thick and hoarse as she ran her index finger down the woman's long, silvery hair. "And eyes like mine." She traced around the pattern of the woman's dull, teal eyes. "She changed completely both physically and mentally after both Col and Hope had left. That's why she ended up here."
Neo blinked, having come to a sudden realization as he continued to rub Trinity's shoulder soothingly. It was then that he became the first person ever (including Trinity herself) to ever fully understand the reasons why she had become the person she was. It was not because she was born that way, nor was it because she was simply, as Cypher had put it, a 'Cold Hard Bitch'. It wasn't even because of what the Oracle had told her about falling in love with the One. It was because of the influences she'd had from her past.
Her fear of falling in love did not come from the Oracle's prophecy – although that hardly helped the situation in any way. Her fear of falling in love had started back when she was eleven, which explained why she never had a boyfriend or any sort of relationship when she was still plugged in. Her parents divorce had resulted in her fear of ever wanting to love someone, or have their children, lest she end up in the same situation as her mother.
The fact that she had always been cold and unemotional was also not helped by the Oracle's prophecy of future love that had left her feeling so confused when he'd first come into her life, but it was because of the way she was treated within a social situation. He remembered a conversation they'd once shared while repairing the cockpit together...
"So," He had asked randomly, thinking of things he could say to pass the time as they worked. "What would you say is the baddest thing you've ever done?"
Trinity had shot him a curious look from behind the engine she was fixing, signaling that she'd thought it an incredibly strange topic. "Well, I have killed people..."
"No, I meant before you were unplugged." Neo said through a laugh. "What's the worst thing you ever did then?"
Trinity had been at first hesitant to reply, but then gradually began to speak. "I might have told you this before, but I think I should repeat myself...so you can know where I'm coming from. Before I turned ten, I used to let everyone walk all over me, and took their abuse without complaint, though I was secretly deciding on the best way to murder them in my mind. But soon, I couldn't take it anymore, and just....cracked. I became cold and unfeeling. I'm not even sure why exactly. All I know is that my life got better from then on. People became afraid of me...too afraid to even want to talk to me, let alone befriend me....but I never did get picked on again. There were still those who thought that I was a pushover, and decided they wouldn't listen to what others said and target me anyway. But I always got my revenge."
"Oh really?" Neo said with a smirk. "What did you do to them?"
"Sabotaged their house, car, and other belongings...sent them death threats...stole from them. Actually, I used to steal all the time, but only after my father left us, and my mother was struggling to provide for us. At first, I only stole small things...like a packet of gum from the general store. But as I grew older, and we became poorer, I started to steal bigger things, and much more frequently. When my mother couldn't afford to buy me new clothes when I desperately needed them, I went to the mall and stole designer brands. When I couldn't afford to buy my younger sister a birthday present, I stole her an expensive doll from a toyshop. When we couldn't afford to pay the bills, I stole money from the collection plate at church and told my mother that I had found myself a part time job. I didn't get caught until I tried to steal a laptop valued at over six thousand dollars."
"Six thousand dollars?" Neo had gawked. "God, why so expensive?"
Trinity shrugged, pushing herself out from behind the engine to assist him with the cockpit's main control board. "If I was going to steal, then I was going to steal something good. Unfortunately, a security guard spotted me and chased me all the way to the car park. Some idiot had left the keys in their car and had gone shopping. Seeing no other way out, I stole the car, and started to drive it out of the mall. I crashed before I'd even gotten around one corner, simply because I was just too short to drive. I was arrested and taken to juvenile court- but certainly not for the last time. Luckily, they only let me off with having to do over one hundred hours of community service."
He had laughed at the situation then, but now realized just how much it had effect on her attitude. Already, she had been feared within her schooling community, but this only made matters worse. Also, in being brought to court so many times, she must have learnt that the best way to get herself out of trouble, was to keep herself as detached as possible. You would never get hurt that way....never end up somewhere you didn't want to be.
She probably didn't even understand the reasons why her character had been built the way it was herself. But she was right in saying that it was her family that had raised her to be who she was. It seemed as if they were the reason why she was the Trinity he had come to know and love...but he supposed that now their influence was evaporating, and being replaced by the influence he had on her now...and the influence she had on herself. But it wasn't like being unplugged from the Matrix- something that could happen almost instantly. It would take plenty of time for her to completely open up to him (not that she hadn't opened up enough already), and he doubted that she'd ever be as free and willing to feel as the average human. Not that he wasn't like her too....he was never really a social success himself.
Trinity stared at the withered face of her mother, feeling herself grow steadily closer to tears. She hadn't seen Felicity in so long...and now, the woman sitting in the chair was hardly recognizable...not living up to the meaning of her name at all. She felt at a loss, finally feeling the emotional stress of looking back on the past she'd rather forget fall down on her like a ton of bricks, and it hurt just as much. Hurt to see the woman she had once believed to be her mother wasting away...without purpose...without belief...without hope for a better future.
It was then that she felt a pair of firm arms close in around her from behind, wrapping around her shoulders and draping over her chest. At once, she was filled with a comforting sensation...as if someone had ignited a flame inside her, causing her to warm to the gentle kiss that was placed upon her cheek.
"I'll take you to see them." He whispered into her ear. "All of them."
"They're too spread out." Trinity reasoned. "It would take too long, and time is always against you when you jack in."
"I don't care." Neo whispered in that same, bland tone, causing Trinity to smile.
"No, Neo, I don't want to." Trinity refused, speaking the exact words that were on her mind. "I don't need to see them again. Unlike you, I'm ready to move on."
"Who says I'm not?" Neo frowned. "I just want to see them again for the sake of proving that their assumptions were wrong about me. I never cared about them the way you care about your family."
"I wouldn't say that's true." She whispered, shifting his arms so she could stand and offer him the chair. "Anyway, it's your shift now. Morpheus said I was meant to teach you how to read the code of an Agent, so you could tell if something was happening. Obviously, you don't need me to, so I guess I'll leave you to it."
"What do I look at?" Neo wondered, glancing uncertainly at the Matrix screens.
Trinity shrugged. "Anything you want. But I promise you that by the end of your shift, you would have scanned the Matrix for each and every member of your family at least once."
Neo snorted, finding the very possibility absurd. He had never been emotionally attached to his family in any way, which was why he had nothing to consider losing when he accepted the red pill and was able to choose so quickly. Although he did want to see them again in the Matrix...just to show them that they were wrong, he was almost completely sure that he'd moved on.
"In your dreams."
No, I have a feeling that I'll be dreaming about something else tonight. Trinity thought to herself, eyeing Neo up and down. The clothes he wore didn't seem to fit him properly, but she could still make out each curve of his body against the cotton fabric of his shirt. Slowly, she took careful steps towards him, her boots echoing on the steel floor each time she came closer...closer...closer...speaking softly as she moved.
"I think you will. Like I said before, I believe that even after we jack out and find out that everything we've always believed in is a lie, we still feel connected to the people who raised us. It is not because we may love them, or care about them, but because we remember them, and we feel secure when we are in the presence of something familiar, when everything else around us may be changing. As humans, our only consolation to sudden change is memory."
As Neo stood stiffly beside the chair in front of the consol, he was somehow reminded of the first time he'd met Trinity in the club when he was still plugged in. She'd moved towards him like this...slowly...cautiously...being seductive without even trying to. But she definitely hadn't kissed him then, and was doing so now. Kissing him tenderly...softly...her lips felt like silk against his own. He brought both arms around her, holding her tightly until she broke the kiss, leaving them both slightly breathless.
"See you later." She whispered against his lips, moving away from him and making her way to the ladder that descended to the lower deck. Neo didn't move, let alone speak, until he heard her footsteps pacing across the steel floor to their room.
Finally dropping into the chair, he took one final look at Trinity's mother before he zoomed out of America, across the vast oceans and back down into Sydney, Australia, searching for the house he'd grown up in.
(o)
A/N: I had to do heaps of research for this chapter. I don't live in America, or know anything about the country, I haven't even been there. I had to research each state indervisually before I decided where everyone should live. It took AGES. I hope my hard work payed off.
Thanks to those who answered my question in their reviews. I can use that information later....thanks again.
Neo-Lover72- I get heaps of spam mail all the time, so I might have deleated your email accidentally along with the junk I get. See, I've gotten into a habit of deleating anything that isn't from fanfiction, or sent by a friend. If you could send your email to me again, it would me much appricated (although don't feel you have to if you don't want to).
Thanks for reading, please review!!