Moments in the Matrix

by Trinity-Neo1818

A retelling of the Matrix, through a romantic POV, from the moment Neo awakes in the real world to the moment before Reloaded begins. Witness the sacred moments shared between NeoTrin that made them everyone's favorite couple, including parts camera misse

30. Suspicions

A/N: Sorry for such a long wait, but yet again I've been busy with other things, and haven't found the time to write. I hope this extra long chapter will make up for it.

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has been reviewing. I don't think I can tell you in words how much your support means to me as a hopeful writer. It really makes me feel encouraged to write things professionally, if I could ever be taken seriously by a publishing company. Writing has been my passion ever since I was five or so, and I've always been afraid that no one would like my stories and stuff. I'm so glad that you people do – you're giving me confidence and motivation to write more! Again I must say thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Skipper: You know, I literally got your review just after I finished writing this chapter, and I already had put a shower scene into it! Heh, great minds think alike, I guess. Ok, maybe it isn't the full lemon you were asking for, but I'm not one to write two full sex scenes in a row, if you get what I mean. But I promise you that I WILL write a full, proper shower scene in a later chapter and when I do, I'll dedicate the chapter to you.

Videl86: Yeah, I guess Trinity was OOC at the beginning chapters. Thanks to your review, I'm actually thinking of going back and rewriting them now, and trying to make them a bit better. What do you think? Um…about the whole virgin thing? Well, if you think about it, Trinity was unplugged when she was fifteen. During her time in the Matrix, she was unpopular, and didn't allow anyone to get close to her intimately, as I have explained. Then, after she was unplugged she became the cold, icy Trinity we all know and love, and didn't let anyone get close to her there either. At least that's the way it goes in this story. If either of them shouldn't be a virgin when they met the other it's Neo…but for some reason he was in this story. Thank you for your review – I love getting constructive criticism.

Once more I must say thank you for all of your reviews, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter is dedicated to Stephanie.

30

Neo awoke in a blissful state of content, his dreams having been filled with images of what had taken place the previous night. He couldn't remember a time when he had felt so comfortable before…when the temperature of the room had been this perfect, nor when he had last felt a sense of purity and well-being so strongly within him. Outside he could hear the sounds of people chattering, laughing and joking with one another while their children played juvenile games together in the dirt, though inside the privacy of their room, everything remained still and quiet. It was a comforting silence, only broken by the soft sounds of Trinity's calm and peaceful breathing.

She lay on her side, her body pressed against him with an arm sprawled out across his stomach, and with her head resting on his chest, tangled wisps of dark hair tickling the surface of his skin. He shifted slightly amongst the pillows in order to better see her face. Despite the perfection of the climate around them, her cheeks were flushed, yet her eyes were closed softly, and there was a small smile playing in the corners of her lips.

He grinned, lifting his arm carefully so as not to wake her and wrapping it around her, bringing warmth to her body. Her smile broadened, though she did not wake, allowing her head to slide back a little, subconsciously nuzzling into his shoulder. He began to wonder what time it was – probably sometime in the late hours of the morning – before it occurred to him that the time of day didn't matter when they had no duties to fulfill. While in Zion, there was no rule to say that he couldn't remain in bed for as long as he liked, with Trinity tucked in under his arm, sleeping peacefully against him. It was as if they were on some sort of vacation from the war.

He smirked, resettling himself against the pillows as a distant memory came back to him. He didn't know what made him think of it, but somehow the image must have entangled with the images of his dreams when he was sleeping.

He was eleven years old, and his Matrix father was giving him sex education.

Normally his father, John, wasn't the sort of person who would ever think to speak of such things. He was an overweight, burly, middle-aged man who was already balding, and spoke with a thick Australian accent. He had taken lead from Neo's mother, and had decided that sex was a topic best not discussed with his children until their wedding day. By the time he was eleven years old, Neo had still never even heard the word mentioned before, and he wouldn't have for years to come if it weren't for the conversation he'd overheard that was shared between two of his classmates at school and had come home with questions. Outraged and embarrassed that her son (even the son she particularly disliked, and believed would amount to nothing in life because he was the middle child of the family) would even have known such words to be in existence, she had sent him to the bedroom he shared with his younger brother, and told him not to emerge until his father had returned home from work. Three hours later, John arrived home, changed, spoke briefly to Neo's mother and then came into his son's bedroom and sat himself down on the bed beside him.

Even now, he could still remember the stench of sweat issuing from the vest and shorts his father wore. He and John had never been particularly close, since it was always his father who was insulting him, and telling him that he was bound to have no future whatsoever. He remembered feeling confused, struggling to remember the last time he and his father had been alone together in this way (if not at all), and wondering why now of all times he should chose to do so. Even as a child, he could sense something indifferent in the way John had spoken to him, his tone dull and droning, without any emotion detectible within it at all. It was almost as if the entire event was a formality to him…a task he resented, but knew that it needed to be done. His lips barely moved as he spoke, his speech slurred, most words uttered as no more than a whisper. He recalled gazing down at his father's beefy, hairy legs, too afraid to meet with his eyes. There was something in the unusual, calm and unemotional tone he used that almost frightened him, for it was so unlike the father he thought he had known.

Thinking back, he guessed that it was a tone of not only embarrassment, and resentment for the child he spoke to, as he had suspected then, but also of fear. This surprised him, for throughout his entire childhood, he had never known any member of his family, other than himself or his younger brother, to be afraid. What his father may have feared was highly uncertain. Perhaps there was something about the whole ordeal of sex education that made his father believe that his children were growing older, which meant that he was aging as well. Or maybe it was simply because he was afraid that now Neo knew what sex was, he, John, would find himself the grandfather of some illegitimate child before his oldest son had reached the age of twenty-one. Neo guessed that it was the latter, for he remembered his father telling him that sex was a painful, messy and awful thing that could result in an endless amount of unwanted trouble, and therefore he should not consider it until he was middle-aged, balding and sexually unattractive. At the naïve and immature age of eleven, Neo had been inclined to believe him.

But of course now, he could inwardly prove that his father had been lying to him. Making love was not as his father had envisioned it. It was as he had always thought it to be, if he were with Trinity. Something so sacred…indescribable…beautiful to even put into words, let alone to imagine. A smug expression crept onto his face when he thought of the people he had once called his family, continuing to live their lives, having barbeques and raising the stereotypical image of perfect children and grandchildren. He thought mainly of his father and his elder brother, working through the daunting hours of their office jobs as he had once done. He thought also of his mother, gossiping and spying on the neighbors while she slaved away as a housewife. He thought of his younger brother, struggling to impress his family and live up to the reputation of his oldest brother while at school. Then he thought of himself, lying in the privacy of his own room in the last city of mankind…the warmth and security that surrounded them…the woman that lay sleeping beside him. Part of him wished the impossible, and that his family would somehow be able to walk into the room right then, and see him the way he was now, while another part wished that they would stay away from him forever, and that he would never need to see or think of them again…

He stopped himself. He did not want to think about them anymore, or at least not now. Not at such a memorable moment in his life. He didn't know what made him think of them in the first place, and found it strange that he should do so now after spending most of his adult life pretending (ironically) that they did not exsist.He knew it may be a while before he could lie there as he was now again. He may never even be able to if either he or Trinity were killed while serving on board the ship. He didn't want to think about that either…didn't want to remember the war, or being the One. For once he wished the burden to be lifted from his shoulders. Instead he turned his head and gazed down at the woman nestled in the warm embrace of his arm and smiled, admiring the innocent, peaceful way in which she slept…loving the way her naked body felt against his own.

Scarcely a few moments had passed before they were interrupted by a sharp tapping on the red steel front door. Neo groaned, secretly begging that whoever it was would leave instantly and not return for many hours to come. He didn't want to be with anyone else, other than the one person who was with him, and pretended that nothing had interrupted the peaceful tranquility of what was both around him and within him. But the tapping on the door became louder and more insistent, until he found he could ignore it no longer. Gently easing his arm from around her, he searched amongst the bed sheets, finding the towel Trinity had wrapped around herself only the previous night. He paused, fingering the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. It felt soft, as her waist had been, and it had been drenched with the scent of her body. Smiling, he wrapped the towel around his waist and made his way to the door.

He didn't think he'd ever recover from the shock of seeing Vivianna standing in the outside corridor when he tugged open the steel door that morning at only a small fraction, so that he could leave the most of his almost naked body concealed. For a while, he was afraid that she had come to bring him to Zion's hospital for more testing, before he realized that she wore a white, midriff shirt and powder-pink sarong instead of her usual white nurse's robe, informing him that she was most certainly off duty. She grinned at him in a mocking, childish manner, her brown eyes prominent against the dark eyelashes that framed them.

"You." He uttered in a tone that could almost be called bewilderment.

"Um…yeah." She raised a fine, dark brow. "Me."

"W-What…" He trailed away, smiling and softly shaking his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard that Morpheus and his crew were in town, so I thought I'd stop by to check and see if you'd managed to get yourself killed." She paused, looking him once over before bringing her vision back to his. "Err…is this a bad time?"

"Um…no. No, it's fine." He lied. She eyed him up and down once and gave him a look that proved she wasn't convinced. "Yes, actually. It is."

"Oh. I see." She replied confusedly, using a hand to push long waves of rich, dark hair away from her startlingly white forehead. She then stared down at the floor suddenly as if in attempt to hide the reddening in her cheeks. "I was kind of hoping that maybe…you know…you and I could do something together."

"Maybe some other time." He said as politely as he could. "Anyway, shouldn't you be working today?"

"I've had the day off." She shrugged.

"Oh…well…I guess I'll see you later." He beamed.

"Yeah. Bye, Neo." She waved goodbye to him cheerily and joined the movement of the few people who were passing by his door.

Neo shut the door quickly, pondering to himself as he made his way back into bed. Why Vivianna should be wanting to spend her time with him of all people, he did not know. He supposed that she was simply trying to be friendly. He would have dwelled on it longer, if he hadn't been too preoccupied with Trinity, and the way she looked upon awakening.

She stirred, muttering something inaudible to herself as she rolled off her side and onto her back, so that he was able to see her face. Her smile was broader than ever, the pink tinge still evident in her cheeks, though the silken sheets that had been tucked around her before had slipped, revealing most of her breasts. He found himself unintentionally remembering how soft her body felt when he pressed it against his own. The voice she spoke in was groggy, her speech slurred in together until the words were virtually undetectable, and the original context of the word became unknown.

"Neo…" She mumbled, blinking up at him blearily as her hazy vision came into focus. She smiled as her eyes met with his own, and shuffled closer towards the edge of the bed, closing her eyes once more. Her head felt as if it weighed such a great amount that her body would be incapable to lift it from the pillow, and she found herself unable to remember a time when she had been so exhausted. In a sense, it made her feel weak, as if her heavy head was an insult to her pride…but also content, as if she'd reached a state of tranquility she'd never thought she would be capable of. It was enough to make her want to fall back into sleep.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" He asked as she shifted so that he could slide into the bed next to her.

"No, it was the door." She yawned, subconsciously moving herself closer to him and burrowing her head into his chest.

"Go back to sleep." He grinned, pushing rogue strands of hair out of her face. She nodded, not needing to be told twice and was soon sleeping in his arms once more.

(o)

Trinity did not wake again until much later, with pleasant memories of the night before drifting through her thoughts. She smiled, feeling the weight of Neo's body pressed against her, and opened bleary eyes to stare up into his without shifting her head. He had been sitting upright in the bed with his head propped up against the pillows, dark eyes lost within his thoughts as he held an arm around her tightly and let her rest her head against his chest.

"You look distant." She commented, struggling to stop herself from laughing when he let out a gasp of shock when he heard the sound of her voice. Though when he brought his gaze down to meet her own, the startled expression on his face was replaced with a small smile.

"I don't mean to." He eventually replied.

"What were you thinking about?" She couldn't stop herself from asking. Both she and Neo couldn't help but notice that she seemed to become slightly more open and less proud when she was with him after each time they'd made love.

"Stupid things." He said truthfully. "Mainly about…my family."

"Your Matrix family?" She asked confusedly.

He nodded. "I don't know why, but earlier in the morning before you woke up, the weirdest memory just popped into my head. Ever since then the same thing has kept happening. As much as I've been trying not to, I just keep thinking about them."

She pushed away the weight of his arm and shuffled up in the bed so that she was sitting upright beside him at his eye level.

"It's normal, I guess." She replied, inwardly slightly disappointed. As much as she wished to deny such things even to herself, part of her had secretly been hoping that he would say that he'd been thinking about her. "You've only been unplugged a few months, after all. The memories must keep reoccurring inside your mind because you're still coming into acceptance of this world, and you need to realize that they're false. I told you once that memories are able to help you when you're experiencing sudden change."

"Makes sense." He smiled, leaning forward to kiss her gently. He didn't think that he ever had (or ever would) meet anyone as intelligent as her. "But I still think it's strange that I should think about them of all people. After I had left school and saved up enough money, I moved as far away from them all as I could and didn't have anything to do with them ever again. Between then and now, I haven't really ever thought or talked about them before."

"It'll pass." She reassured him, suddenly becoming aware of what the time must be. "Do you think we should get up?"

Neo violently shook his head. "There's no reason why we should. We can stay in bed all day if we want, right?"

"I guess." She smirked. Sometimes his naivety even surprised her. "I don't think I've ever done that before."

"There's a first time for everything." He grinned at her sheepishly, a youthful glimmer shining in his eyes.

Before he knew it, she was kissing him again, pulling his bottom lip into her mouth with a caress of her tongue. He nearly laughed when her hands began to trace a pattern along his chest, tickling his skin. He brought his hands up to her chest, massaging her breasts as she fell back onto the bed, bringing him down with her. It was in that moment of pure bliss that he realized that her skin was even softer than the silken sheets that surrounded them…

(o)

This is what we need. Neo thought to himself gleefully as he stood under the shower the following day, running what he hoped was some form of shampoo through his hair. Time…not as it is on the ship, without privacy, the burden of war on our shoulders and the pressure of me being the One. Here we have the kind of time we need…together, without interruption or duty or anything. Time where I can wake up late and then spend the entire day talking to her, or making love to her, or just being with her. Thank God for the last city of mankind.

His thoughts were broken as the electric lighting of the room flickered, hummed, and then switched itself off. Neo let escape a small cry of surprise, instinctively reaching behind him to turn off the shower taps. He stepped out of the shower and groped uncertainly for a towel as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness.

"Shit." He heard Trinity curse from the outer room as she played with the light switch. "Zion's electrical system must be shot again. Goddamn, can't this city go one week without having problem's with the lighting?"

Neo laughed, finding a towel and wrapping it around his waist just as Trinity entered the room, holding a candle aloft and smiling as she handed him his clothes.

"How long should it last?" He asked her as he pulled them on.

"It varies, usually." She replied, handing him the candle. "Here. I'll light the others."

The room had only just been relit when there was an intrusive knock at the door. Neo finished dressing and then stood in the bathroom doorway, watching was Trinity answered to a man he didn't recognize in the lack of light. It was then that he noticed that the corridor beyond them wasn't lit either.

"It's really fucked up this time." He overheard the other man say. "Everything is down. Every light in every home. Someone's going to restart the backup system but that'll only hold out four hours tops. We're going to need to get the main system running as soon as possible, which means we'll need your help."

"Right." Trinity replied with a nod of her heard. "I'll be down in the engineering level as soon as I can."

"Who was that?" Neo asked once the man had gone, stepping into the outer room.

"His name's Bane. He serves Captain Ballard…I forget what their ship is called." She explained impatiently as she changed from her Zion attire – an off mauve, 'v-neck' midriff shirt and a buff skirt that ended midway down her thighs – to the more practical clothing she wore on board the ship. "He asked me to help him and some others who are trying to repair the electrical system. Apparently it's doing worse than it ever has before, which must mean it's pretty poor."

"So you're leaving?" He asked warily as he watched her change. This was the one thing he hadn't wanted to happen…for either of them to be worried by duty. It seemed that no matter where they were, there would never be any escape from it.

"I have to." She reasoned, pulling on her over-shirt without bothering about a bra or under-shirt. "Only for a few hours."

Neo gazed around at the candlelit atmosphere, thinking of how odd it was that he hadn't known her mere months before and now couldn't bear to find himself parted from her, even if it was only for a few hours. He saw Zion not only as the last city of mankind, but also as their one sanctuary…the one place where they could truly be alone. He did not want any of their time to go to waste. Looking back into Trinity's eyes, he could instantly tell that she felt the same way.

"Why don't I go with you?" He said the moment the idea came to mind.

"You hardly know anything about Zion's electrical system." She replied with a laugh.

"I'll learn. You can help me." He argued.

"Bane asked me because he knew that I had experience. It's a complex job, Neo, and it'll be faster this way." She drew closer to him, and he enveloped an arm around her waist, shocked by the roughness of the material of her clothes after becoming familiar with her Zion wear. She sighed, hating to leave him, but also knowing it had to be done. Even if the war was over the following morning, they would still have to worry about duty, as much as they may need to have time alone.

"The backup system." She murmured, pushing herself away from his firm arms. "I better go."

(o)

Usually, the corridor outside their room was littered with clusters of bustling people, pushing past her hurriedly to reach their destination and chattering avidly with their companions. Though now it was mostly empty, as many of the population had retreated to their rooms, or those that belonged to relatives or friends. None of the remaining people took notice of Trinity as she squeezed her way past them, sliding into an already crowded elevator and descending towards the lower levels of the city. As she stepped out into the main corridor of a lower floor, a hand shot out from behind her and gripped her shoulder firmly. She froze, drawing in a breath of surprise, and allowed the person behind her to whirl her around to face them.

"Hello." Said a sly, sinister voice. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon. Don't you think it was funny that we were riding down in the same elevator and neither of us noticed until now?"

"Hmm…strange coincidence." She muttered sarcastically in reply. "What do you want this time, Dwayne?"

Dwayne smirked cynically in the same manner that Cypher had once used, running sausage-like fingers through a mass of greasy, tawny brown hair. "Now that's a pretty stupid question, isn't it, Trinity? You already know what I want. I've told you so many times that I think I've lost count."

"You're right. That was a stupid question." She agreed sullenly.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" He asked her, reaching out to her with large hands which she quickly pushed away.

"The engineering level." She replied in her most business-like manner. "To fix the electrical system."

"Sounds interesting." Trinity wasn't sure if Dwayne was being sarcastic or not. "So where's Lover Boy? I haven't seen him around in a while."

"Neo's at home." She replied as coolly as she could, although she was bubbling with irritation below the surface of her skin. She made certain to enunciate on the word 'Neo'.

"Yeah." He said almost dreamily, before his smug mouth broke into a cynical grin. "So what's the deal with you to? Has the bitch finally given in?"

"What the hell do you mean by that?" She retorted angrily.

"You guys been fucking each other yet or what?" He said as simply as he could.

Trinity opened her mouth to speak, but found that her speech had caught up in her throat with pure irritation and hatred. There was something about the way Dwayne would speak to her…something about his tone of voice that could provoke her to rage more easily than anyone else ever could. Reading the expression imprinted onto her face, Dwayne realized instantly that he had definitely taken things too far.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, shouldn't have said that." He eased. "Why don't you and I go somewhere together later to pass the time, hmm? Have a little heart-to-heart chat…what do you say?"

"I wouldn't want to even if you were the last human specimen left on this planet. Sentinels make better company than you do." She scowled and marched away in the opposite direction.

"Well, if you Lover Boy don't work out make sure that you give me a call!" He shouted after her, waving to her as she was consumed by an oncoming swarm of people. Trinity simply decided to ignore him.

(o)

Neo sat alone in the Food Hall in Zion, sipping on a mug of water and surveying the surrounding people without much interest. Most were families who had been eating together before the electricity system broke, and had resumed doing so after a brief moment of panic.

It must've been four hours by now. Maybe I should go back and wait for her. He thought willfully to himself, though in truth he didn't know how much time had passed since he had arrived there. Having hated the silence in the room after she left, he had gone in search of a place that he hoped would be populated, and thus would not be left alone with this thoughts until Trinity returned.

"Hey." Said a cheery voice beside him, interrupting his train of thought. He turned and found himself staring into the eyes of Vivianna.

"Hello." He replied dully, hands clenching around his mug subconsciously.

"You look lonely." She said after a pause. "Mind if I sit down with you?"

"Oh yeah, sure." He answered politely, allowing her to slide onto the bench opposite him.

"That was some blackout we had before." She attempted to make conversation. "I can't remember it ever being this bad."

"This is only the temporary system. The real one is still out of operation. If they don't fix it soon, then there'll be another one."

"Damn." She sighed. "It's always something here, isn't it? At least we can look on the bright side and be glad that it's not a sentinel attack."

There was a moments silence before a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he decided to risk embarrassment by asking her a question.

"Vivianna, when you were first unplugged, did you have…flashbacks? You know, memories that came back to you that were triggered for no apparent reason?"

To his surprise, Vivianna did not scoff, but sat back in deep thought, pondering her answer before she replied. "Yeah, sometimes. I can remember my first days in the academy. The funniest things used to happen that would make me suddenly remember my Matrix mother. Then I'd start to cry because I missed her. One of the teachers there tried to comfort me by telling me that she really wasn't my mother anyway, but that only made me cry more, because I really loved her."

"Well, I never really loved my family, so the flashbacks don't hurt me or anything in the way they hurt you. They just get on my nerves." He smiled. "At least I know I'm not the only one."

She grinned in reply, and he couldn't help but notice that she blushed a little before she continued. "I suppose it happens to everyone."

"It does. At least that's what Trinity told me. But she never told me that it ever happened to her."

"Do you ever miss your Matrix family?" She asked at random, abruptly changing the subject.

He firmly shook his head. "Never. I hated them. I wanted to put as much distance between myself and them as I could. Now we're whole worlds apart, and I can't help thinking about them all. All I can hope for is that it will pass."

"Do you ever miss anything about the Matrix?"

"Sometimes." He admitted. "When I think about the life I used to lead without responsibility, and how great it was to have that freedom. You know, the freedom to be free from duty, if that makes any sense. But then…then I look at what I have here, and I can see that…that this is a greater freedom. Here I have real feelings and memories and experiences. I didn't have any of that there." He paused as a grin spread across his face. "I certainly don't miss the hospital checkups in the Matrix, that's for sure."

"Why do you hate hospitals so much, anyway?" Vivianna asked her companion, drumming her fingernails on the table in front of her.

"A mixture of different things." Neo shrugged. "It's more of a sense of fear than hatred. I don't like illness or injury, which is what a hospital symbolizes for me. I hate being sick or injured myself because not only does it involve a painful recovery, but also it means I need to spend a great deal of time resting it off, which leaves me feeling lazy and useless. I hate that feeling. More than that, I hate injury or illness of another human being, because it just brings a sick feeling to my stomach. There's no way I could take on the job you're doing now."

"Alright, first of all, hospitals aren't a symbol of pain or suffering. They're meant to symbolize healing and recovering, and the salvation of mankind. Secondly, you can do my job if you would want to, as long as you remember that their sickness or injury would never be healed if it weren't for you. Finally, you need to remember when you're left bedridden for one reason or another that you are not lazy or useless. Every human being gets sick at least one time in their life, and it won't be long until you're back on your feet again."

"That may be true, but even so, I still can't help thinking in the way I do now. It's more of a psychological problem, really. One that I probably will never overcome." He grinned, suddenly looking up at her from across the table. "Um...do you know how long it's been since the backup electrical system kicked in?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but then again, no one really is sure of the exact time these days." Vivianna grinned in reply, her dark eyes sparkling in the artificial light. "But I can guess that it's been about three hours."

"I should go." Neo replied hurriedly. "I need to meet someone in an hour."

"Can't you stay?" She almost pleaded. "At least until I leave to take up a shift in a few hours time."

"I thought you had the day off."

"I did, but that doesn't mean I don't have the night off. I've just been taking a lot of nightshifts recently." She shrugged meekly, thick coils of long, dark hair slipping away from her shoulders. "I prefer having my days free, and my nights busy."

"When do you get the time to sleep, though?"

"I don't. I haven't been able to sleep much lately." She smirked. "It's more of a physiological problem."

"Sorry to hear that." He smiled in reply. "Look, I can't stay because like I told you, I'm meeting someone. Nice talking to you, though."

Vivianna opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a sharp, male voice echoing from across the room.

"Lover Boy!" Dwayne exclaimed, barging past empty tables as gracelessly as ever. Neo felt his cheeks redden with humiliation as Vivianna cast him a sidelong look.

"Lover Boy?"

Neo shrugged, whispering his reply. "Don't ask me. I barely know him."

As he neared their table, Dwayne slowed his pace, blinking at the pair before him in confusion. He said nothing until he reached the oblong metal table and seated himself beside Vivianna, the usual smug expression reclaiming his features.

"You've picked yourself up something nice here haven't you?" He chuckled. "I never knew you were such a ladies' man." He waited, as if expecting a reply. When none came, he continued in a light-hearted tone. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"Dwayne, Vivianna. Vivianna, Dwayne." He nodded to each person in turn, barely looking up from the table due to embarrassment.

"Well aren't you a nice little piece of work?" He smirked cynically, narrowing the gap between himself and the disgruntled woman beside him. "Where you from, gorgeous? I get the feeling I've seen you around before."

"I'm working as an apprentice at the hospital." Vivianna replied coolly, edging away from him as carefully as she could.

"Oh really? How interesting. You know, I don't think I've been to the hospital for a proper check-up in ages. When do you think you can fit me into your…busy schedule?" He brought himself closer towards her, reaching out a hand as if to bring it around her shoulders. Vivianna pulled away instantly, getting up from the table with an essence of grace and dignity. It struck Neo that this was very different to the childish, vibrant personality she displayed when alone in his presence.

"You came at a pretty bad time. Neo and I were just about to leave, weren't we, Neo?" She murmured, focusing on Neo directly with a hopeful gaze.

"Yeah. That's right." He replied, finding he had to muster all his self-control to stop himself from laughing at the expression on her face.

Dwayne turned towards Neo as if registering his presence for the first time since he'd arrived, then regarded him with a look of annoyance. "You certainly are a hit with the women here, aren't you? What's your secret?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He said truthfully, naively finding himself unable to consider the situation from Dwayne's perspective.

"Now, there's no need to get all angry at me just because we both happen to like the same type of women." Dwayne replied haughtily. Then he did something quite unexpected, lowering his voice and murmuring something darkly that was more directed to himself than to anyone else. "Cypher and I did, and we used to get along just fine……just fine."

Neo froze, realizing that this was the first time he could recall Dwayne actually speaking about Cypher's death. He thought of how close Dwayne and Cypher must have been…how they must have talked together of a richer, better life when he was still alive, and began to wonder if perhaps Cypher had told Dwayne of how he planned to betray the rest of his crew. Perhaps Dwayne already knew what Cypher wanted to do long before it happened, if Cypher had made plans to do so in advance, before Neo had even been unplugged. He wondered, also, how long it may have taken for Dwayne to realize that his dearest friend may never return to Zion, but be taken back into the life he had missed when he was still plugged into the Matrix. He thought of how shocked Dwayne then must have been when he learned that things had not gone according to plan for Cypher, bust also relieved, for now he knew that his closest friend would not return to the 'better life' that he had often spoken of and leave he, Dwayne, alone in a place of desolation. Maybe he had already thought of all this when he heard of Cypher's plans, and had realized in advance that either way, he was going to lose both a friend, and a brother.

"See you around, Dwayne." He stated, before turning once more and leading Vivianna out of the Food Hall and into the more crowded inner streets of Zion.

"What's with that guy?" Vivianna asked as she hurried to stand beside her companion. "I don't think I've ever met anyone so perverted."

"You haven't even seen him at his worst yet." Neo smiled, meeting eyes with her directly. "You should see the way he acts around Trinity."

There was a brief moment of silence, in which Neo found himself being led towards the hospital involuntarily. He was about to remind Vivianna that he needed to leave when she cut in first, speaking just as they arrived outside the hospital.

"Hey, what did that guy mean when he said 'we like the same type of women' to you?" She said, blushing slightly as another thought occurred to her. "Err…was he talking about me?"

"I think he was talking about Trinity."

"Trinity?" Vivianna replied with a laugh. "Why her?"

It was then that it occurred to Neo that although he had spent hours with Vivianna, he hadn't ever told her about his relationship with Trinity. Now, when faced with the task of doing so, he found that he was uncomfortable with it, as if he'd rather stay away from the topic completely. He sighed, realizing that there was no longer any way of avoiding the uncomfortable task of telling her about his relationship with Trinity. Somehow, he had the impression that Vivianna would be better off not knowing. Why, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Look, I haven't told you this before but…err…Trinity and I, well…we're sort of in a…a relationship."

Vivianna blinked back at him in a state of complete and utter confusion, mixed with a sense of disbelief. He wasn't sure why, but the expression on her face reminded him of Trinity's reaction to the knowledge that he was not the One when he had first told her what the Oracle had said to him. The colour seemed to be drawn from her startlingly white face, and her already prominent dark eyes appeared larger, and more reflective of her surroundings. Her lips began to twitch as if she were struggling to keep herself from speaking, and for a moment, Neo almost believed that he had detected a look of what could be called hurt within her.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled. He didn't know why he said it, but it seemed to fit in well with the conversation.

"Oh no, it's alright." She said with a false laugh, speaking in a sarcastic sense of cheerfulness. "You should have told me sooner, you know. I mean, there's no reason why you shouldn't."

"You're right. I should have told you sooner." He began to rub the back of his neck with his hand. "I don't know why I didn't."

"Don't worry about it now." She hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Well, I guess then you should…leave then. Um…I'm sure I'll see you around."

"Of course." He grinned. "I'll see you later, ok?"

"See you, Neo." She smiled, though part of him could have sworn that it was a smile of remorse.

(o)

Trinity sighed as she stepped out of the elevator that had carried her and several others away from the engineering level after work. She grimaced at the dirt that clung to her hands, attempting and failing to dust it off on her oil-stained pants. The four hours of work had left her with a rather painful headache, along with aching muscles and raw hands. At least, she thought, she could take pride in the fact that she'd helped to complete the task. Reminding herself of the warmth and comfort of the bed she shared with Neo that awaited her when she returned, she proceeded in the direction of another elevator.

Without warning, she felt the strength of a hot and clammy hand fall onto her shoulder, and turned sharply, only to be exasperated when she came face-to-face with Dwayne for the second time in one day.

"What's a beautiful woman like you doing hanging around alone in the streets of Zion?" He asked slyly, leaning the full weight of his enormous body against the doorframe. "Don't tell me you're waiting for that good-for-nothing lover of yours to show, 'cos I don't think he's gonna turn up for a while."

"What do you mean by that, Dwayne?" She frowned, feeling as if she would have liked nothing better than to slam her fist into his face. It was only pure curiosity and her lack of energy that stopped her from doing so.

"Just thought you should know," He lowered his voice to a whisper before he continued, which in his case was to the level of an ordinary human voice. "that I ran into him just now, cruising around the Food Hall on the lower floors of Zion. And he wasn't alone."

"What? Who was he with?"

"Some girl." Dwayne shrugged loosely as if it were of little importance to him. "She's kind of young, but she's cute. I wouldn't mind taking her to bed myself. I think her name was…Violet, or Vikki or something like that."

"Vivianna." She corrected him, her voice sounding dry and hoarse.

"Yeah, that's the one." Dwayne snapped his fingers triumphantly. "They were talking when I walked in on them about five minutes ago, and I left seconds after they left to come and see if I could find you. But I sat next to the girl, and somehow I got the feeling from her that she and Lover Boy have been doing more than just sitting around, if you get what I mean."

Involuntary images began to fill Trinity's mind as she recalled a conversation she and Neo had once shared when they had been watching Cas's children the last time they came to Zion.

"I think...I think Vivianna would make a good addition to our crew. She's smart, and determined, and she gets things done efficiently without complaining. In a way, she kind of reminds me of you, although no where near in comparison."

He did spend a lot of time with her on our first trip to Zion…but that was only because he had to because of those damn tests. But now he's spending time with her again, and this time it's because he wants to. And why would he want to have her on our ship so badly if he wasn't attracted to her? He said that ' in a way, she kind of reminds me of you, although no where near in comparison'…that could be taken in two different ways. There's so much evidence that points to……no, I shouldn't think that way. I need to trust him. I love him, and he loves me. There's no way that he would ever think to do something like that. No way in hell. Dwayne must be lying.

"No." She shook her head firmly, not once breaking the eye contact between them. "No. No, I don't believe you."

"Too bad." Dwayne sighed melodramatically. "You know what I always liked about you? The one thing you had that set you apart from any other woman I've fallen for in the past? It wasn't because you were feisty, or strong, or bitchy or even because you were beautiful. It was because you were smart. Like me, you knew that love wasn't ever a real emotion. Love was something that happened in fairytales, and certainly not in reality, right? People might think that they're in love, but it's never true, because love is only a figment of your imagination…like that Matrix thingy. Humans were made to believe that they were in love because it was a way to convince them to reproduce, and thus continue their race. There never was such a thing as love, because it has only ever been no more than a human instinct. If there was such a thing as real love, then it wouldn't get you into trouble all the time. I thought that you and I were the only two people on this planet that really ever understood that. Hell, even Cypher didn't seem to understand that there wasn't any such thing as real love, no matter how many times I tried to explain it to him. He was already head over heels in love with you. But then that pretty boy turned up, and everything went downhill for you. You let yourself not only become attracted to him, as I do with most women, but you allowed yourself to believe that you had actually fallen in love with him. And now look what's happened. Look what your so-called love has done to you. It sure didn't last long now, did it?"

"You're lying, Dwayne." She argued. "You're lying, and you know it."

"Am I?" He smirked. "Would you like to come and see Lover Boy for yourself? Who knows? You might end up changing your mind and see things the way I do. I think he and that girl of his were going to the hospital. That's where she said she worked. I've got the perfect place I can take you where we'll be able to see everything."

She felt her knees weaken beneath her as all sense of what remained of her physical strength left her body. She fought to stop herself from trembling as he led her into an elevator. They stood in silence until they'd reached one of the upper levels of the city, and he proceeded to cross the corridor and lean over the balcony at the end of it. Gripping the banister with shaky hands, she peered out into the lower streets of Zion.

The hospital was directly below them, its entrance surrounded by a large mass of bustling people. But even amongst all the surrounding commotion, she was able to spy Neo without the slightest amount of difficulty. His back was pressed up against a wall, a young woman standing in front of him, a long mass of dark hair tumbling down over her back. They were talking together…smiling together, without so much as a care in the world. She couldn't be sure from where she stood, but Trinity was almost certain that she saw a glint of admiration shining in his eyes.

She hardly knew what to think anymore. Perhaps all that Dwayne had said was true. Perhaps love was not an emotion or feeling, but no more than a hormonal instinct found in all humans alike that was a key element in giving them a reason to reproduce. But if that was true…then what did she and Neo have? What was to stop him from becoming attached to another woman if he was not bonded by love? A cringe of pain shot through her entire being when she imagined Vivianna lying beneath Neo as he made love to her instead of herself, running her fingers through his hair…whispering things in his ear…smirking to herself as he groaned when she ground her hips against his own. Strangely, it was not jealousy that she felt, but something much deeper…something more sinister.

Without a word, she turned on her heel and stalked away, blocking out the sounds of Dwayne's mechanical laughter as she barged through swarms of people and pushed her way into the nearby elevator. Her legs were weak and trembling, her body felt numb, as if it had been made of ice, and her head ached from the oncoming sensations of different emotions. She wanted to go back to sleep, perhaps to wake and see that it was all a dream. She kept glancing around her as if hoping that a sign should occur, or that something should happen to prove to her that Dwayne had been wrong. None came, and she found that the more she stood on her feet, the more she would be inclined to collapse on the elevator floor. She then began to wonder what she was doing in an elevator at all, when her room had only been a short distance away from where she was standing. She supposed that it had been because she did not want to be alone, with thoughts that she was afraid of. She did not want Neo to walk in and find her there either, possibly having broken down into a flood of tears, and she wanted to be as far away from Dwayne as possible. Everything seemed to be in a blur of confusion as she tried to think of where she could go. Only one place and person came to mind.

Before she knew it, she found herself standing outside a red steel front door, pounding on it impatiently with a set of white knuckles. It was opened almost immediately, by a bright-faced and also clearly startled Tank.

"Tank!" She breathed, partly relieved that it was not some other member of his family that had opened the door.

"Trinity?" He raised a thick, bushy black eyebrow in question, the brightened expression fading from his face when his eyes met with her own. "Is something wrong."

"Are you alone?" She asked him, lowering her voice to no more than a whisper.

"It's just me and the kids at the moment." Tank furrowed his brows in confusion, but stood back to allow her inside nevertheless. "Do you want to come in?"

She nodded, stepping past him into the front room of the house. Since they consisted of a much larger group, Tank and his family owned a much larger area than Trinity did. Unlike the room she shared with Neo, their area had been divided into separate rooms, so that the four bedrooms were well out of sight. The front room consisted of a large kitchenette, and an even larger living area. Effa and Sef, Cas's two children, peered up at her from their place on the floor as she entered, conveying to her an expression of confusion, similar to the one on their uncle's face.

"Kids, why don't you go and play in your room for a while, hmm?" Tank asked them quietly. "Your uncle and his friend need to have a talk."

Effa grinned and nodded, grasping her brother by the arm and heaving him to his feet. Trinity stood stiffly in the centre of the room, now regretting that she had come here in the first place, as the two children darted into one of the bedrooms, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Sit down." Tank gestured to the tattered couch that was wedged against the wall. "Do you want something to drink?"

Trinity shook her head, dropping into the chair and staring blankly at the wall opposite her. Tank joined her shortly, clasping a mug of water in his hands.

"I just needed someone…to talk to." She mumbled, finally gaining enough confidence and will to speak.

"Well…you know my door's always gonna be open to you. But I would have thought you'd want to talk with Neo."

"That's what I need to talk about." Trinity replied, avoiding his eyes by staring intently at her knees. "Neo."

Before she could stop herself, she began to recount the events that had just occurred, leaving out specific details which she mentally decided that he did not need to hear. She told him about Vivianna.. She told him about Dwayne, and all that he had told her. Once she had finished, and the sound of her voice and droned away, the room was still and quiet, the silence only interrupted by the sounds of the two children playing happily together from behind the closed door of their room. She did not look at Tank, for she was afraid to see the expression on his face, and that he may be able to see the tears that were brimming in the corners of her eyes. At least telling someone about what had happened had left her with a feeling of inner peace, and had helped to clear her head of all unnecessary thoughts and ideas, though it had brought the more prominent emotions to surface, so that they could barely be controlled.

"Sounds like you need a hug." Tank sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a friendly embrace. At first, she felt slightly uncomfortable being pressed up against him so tightly, before she relaxed and allowed her mind to be at ease. Eventually, he pulled away from her, placing his now empty mug of water aside before lounging back into the chair.

"This Dwayne guy…I've heard of him before. I think Dozer told me about him once. Wasn't he a friend of Cypher's?" Tank waited until Trinity had nodded before he continued. "Ok, why in the hell would you trust a friend of Cypher's over Neo?"

"It doesn't matter what sort of a person he is. The point is that everything he said has a chance of being true." She protested. "What if love is no more than a human instinct designed for the purpose of convincing humans to reproduce? If there's no such thing as real love, then everything the Oracle has said could be…"

"Ok, Trinity. Say for a minute that what Dwayne said was true. Say that there has never been such a thing as the kind of love you read about in books, and that it's all just a sham or an instinct that assists us, along with the sex instinct, to reproduce and thus continue the human race. So what? It doesn't actually matter what love is. If you feel that you are in love with Neo, then you are. Who cares what that really means? Sure, there's every chance that it might be everything that Dwayne has told you, but there's also every chance that it might not. And if it is, it doesn't matter. The important thing is the way love makes you feel. It's meant to make you feel good."

"But if there is no such thing as real love, and it's all an illusion created to make us feel inclined to have children, then there really isn't anything stopping people from falling in love with another person, and therefore being in love with two people at once. If it's all what Dwayne has told me, then love is kind of like a game. You can have as many players as you want, because love is only an instinct. Like the…" She paused to clear her throat. "Like the sex instinct."

"Trinity, this is Neo we're talking about. I'd have to say that even though I don't know Neo as well as you do, I do know him pretty well. Do you honestly think he's the sort of guy that would do this kind of thing?"

"If Dwayne's theories are right, then yes." She answered, though part of her doubted her own words.

Tank stretched out his arms, yawning once before settling back into his chair. "Remember when Switch was still alive, and the three of us would sit in the Mess Hall and talk for hours about nothing in particular?"

"Of course I do." Trinity smiled at the memory.

"There was love then. Not the kind of love between, say, Switch and Apoc, but a different kind of love. I don't know about you, but I could feel it, that's for sure. Then there's the kind of love that I have for my family, which is pretty darn strong too. And then there's the kind of love that I have for Zion, and for humanity and the earth in general. Last of all, there's the kind of love I've never experienced before, but you have. There are different kinds of love. In my opinion, that one word can mean heaps of different things. In Dwayne's opinion, it can only mean reproduction, and the continuation of humanity. But if that's right then what do you call the love I have for Zion, for my family and for my friends? Certainly not the instinct to reproduce. But if not love, then what is it? I think Dwayne is being narrow-minded. He isn't considering the fact that love can be mean more than one thing. And since I can prove that love can mean more than one thing, than I can say that sure, maybe love is an instinct to reproduce, but it can also be more than that. It can be an instinct, and an emotion, and a feeling as well. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

All Trinity could do was nod, feeling a great sense of relief wash over her. Tank was right in saying that love could most definitely mean more than just one thing. It might be an instinct, but it was also something much deeper, and much more profound. It could be something that a person could have for many different things, living and not living alike. Dwayne's theory had to be wrong. There was no way that love could be no more than he thought it was.

"I honestly don't believe that Neo could have anything to do with this Vivianna woman in the way that you think. It just doesn't sound like Neo to me. But if you're still worried about it, I suggest that you just talk to him about it. Just ask him straight out, and see what he says."

"Thank you, Tank." Was all she could think of to say. She wished that she would be able to tell him more…how much his friendship had meant to her over the years, and now more than it ever had before. But she found that she did not have the nerve, nor unfortunately the lack of pride to do so. Instead she bid him a final goodbye before she left the room to head back to her own and wait for Neo's inevitable return.

(o)

The room was empty when Neo returned to it, which disappointed him beyond belief as he had been hoping that Trinity may already be there. Sighing heavily to himself, Neo flopped onto the bed, suddenly overcome with a sense of exhaustion as he stared up at the ceiling of the bed cave. Before he knew it, he had slipped into a light doze and was almost completely asleep when he heard the red steel door creak open and someone step into the room.

"Hey, Trin." He smiled as she stepped into their room, closing the door softly behind her. She said nothing in reply, her expression cold and darkened for reasons he could not understand. He knew immediately that something had to be wrong.

Trinity stared at him as he pulled himself into a sitting position, the smile fading from his face as he gazed back at her in a mixture of worry and confusion. All at once, she was claimed with a wash of relief and of reassurance when her eyes met with his own. Somehow then she knew, without even seeing need to open her mouth, that what Dwayne had told her had to be false. But even so, his words continued to plague her mind. She knew she would not be satisfied until she had asked him, and she also knew that she wouldn't be able to trust him until she had his spoken word.

She sat down on the edge of the bed, bending to hurriedly remove her boots from her feet. He could almost feel exhaustion radiating off her very being the moment she lay down beside him, although she kept herself at a certain distance from him, leaving a small space between them.

A time of silence passed, each attempting to avoid the other's eyes as Trinity struggled to muster up enough will to take Tank's advice and confront Neo about Vivianna. Eventually, she gathered enough courage to speak in a rough and uneven tone.

"Neo, I want to ask you about something. Actually, I want to ask you about someone."

"Who?" Neo replied, coaxing his head to the side in question.

"Vivianna."

"Vivianna?" He laughed uneasily. "What about her?"

She couldn't look at him, for somehow she already knew now that her assumptions were wrong. She should never have believed Dwayne…why she had done so in the first place, she still did not know. She didn't know why, but there was something in the tone of his voice, perhaps, that told her that she had made an incorrect assumption.

"Did Dwayne run into you and Vivianna today in the Food Hall while I was away?"

"Yeah, he did." Neo frowned. "I…I didn't want to wait here alone for you so I went somewhere where I knew they'd be people. Then Vivianna turned up and we started talking. Then Dwayne showed up as well, so we left shortly after that. Then I came back here to wait for you."

"You were at the hospital with her first, weren't you?" She mumbled, disliking each question she asked him. It almost made her feel like an interrogator from a movie, or a nagging, middle-aged wife.

"I walked her there so she could take her next shift." He raised an eyebrow in question. "How did you know?"

"Dwayne came to me the moment he left you. He took me to the hospital…showed me you and Vivianna." She paused, shaking her head gravely. His lips twitched into a sad, quivering smile, and the awkwardness between them reminded her of the time before Cypher's betrayal, when she was still questioning the new sensations of feelings and emotions that had overcome her. It seemed as if her brief period of doubt and suspicion had caused them to drift slightly apart, but only making a dent in the bond that they had somehow managed to create with one another. At that moment, she sorely wished that she had never even thought to ask him…hadn't doubted him, but had trusted him, as she had done so on every occasion before.

"He said some things." She continued reluctantly. "Strange things. He said that love was not an emotion or feeling…it was a human instinct to reproduce, made to make people believe that there was something deeper so that it would assist their desire to continue the human race."

"So?" He laughed nervously, still unsure of where this conversation could lead. He didn't like the idea of Dwayne talking to Trinity…telling her things that she could have taken to heart. "Does it matter what it really is? What's important is the way it makes you feel, right?"

"That's what Tank told me." She replied solemnly, feeling her cheeks redden at the prospect of explaining it to him. "Before I reminded him that this could mean that if love was only an instinct, then it wasn't as strong as people may have thought it to be. It also means that one person could love two people. It's not like in a fairytale."

"Hang on, when did you talk to Tank about this?"

"Before I came back here. I…I-I didn't know where else to go." She choked, pushing back oncoming tears. It occurred to her then, as it had done on so many different occasions, that she hadn't ever cried in the real world until Neo had come into her life. She had certainly become more emotional in the course of the past few months, and it still felt strange to her to consider how far she had come emotionally in such a short amount of time.

"Come here." He whispered after a long pause, instinctively reaching out an arm and enveloping it around her waist, pulling her tightly against him and clutching at the rough material of her clothes. She let escape a gasp of surprise, momentarily stunned by his sudden movements before she allowed the warmth of his body and the security of his firm arms to overcome her, and she relaxed into his embrace, resting her cheek against his shoulder. Every word that Dwayne had said to her seemed to flow away through the crack at the base of the door and out into the distance, leaving her with a clear mind and conscience. Surely, she had been wrong to think in his frame of mind. As Tank had said, there were different kinds of love. There was the instinct…and then there was the emotion, and the feeling itself. That could never be betrayed, or could die out. It was what held people together…it was why it was impossible for Neo to fall in love with Vivianna.

"Y-You don't believe anything he told you, do you?" He murmured into the soft folds of her hair. "Because if you still do, then I'll have to stay up all night with you debating it."

"No. Tank convinced me not to believe that ages ago." She said with a laugh.

"Then what's bothering you?" He asked, feeling slightly put out that she had seen Tank first before she had spoken with him.

"Vivianna is." She turned away, staring down as she felt her face grow hot from humiliation, though she forced her words to surface. As much as she now believed this impossible, she still felt the need to hear him confirm it. Besides, she had already irked his sense of curiosity when she first mentioned Vivianna's name. She knew that she would never ask him if she didn't do so now. "Neo, are you…I mean, when I asked about you being at the hospital with Vivianna, I meant…God, I don't know how I'm meant to phrase this."

"You don't need to." He said inexpressively, feeling his entire body stiffen with disbelief. The idea was absurd enough that it made him want to laugh, though he managed to hold his tongue. She thinks that Vivianna and I were…God, I didn't even think of that as a possibility! Though I suppose that Dwayne must have when he ran into us the other day, now that I think about some of the things he said to me. But Trinity? What would provoke her into believing something like that?

"Vivianna and I were only talking for about fifteen minutes, Trin. It wasn't that long. I told you what happened, didn't I?" He urged her to believe him…she had to believe him. He didn't know what he'd do if she didn't.

"I know." She smiled sadly, finally bringing her eyes back to his own. "I was too quick to act. I was being irrational…I didn't consider the facts. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He sighed, searching for her hand and finding it, clutching it in his own. A sudden surge of rage swept over him for causes unknown to him. He was angry with everybody, but mainly with himself. Angry that he had unintentionally allowed this to happen. "They can go to hell. Vivianna…Dwayne…the whole lot of them."

She wanted to remind him that it was not Vivianna's fault, though now didn't seem the time, so she merely nodded instead, shifting closer towards him, though not once letting go of his hand. I've lost him twice now. Well, once I didn't really lose him, because he didn't technically die. But even so, once is more than enough. Maybe that's why I was so quick to think that something must have been wrong. I don't want to have to lose him again.

"It was stupid to be worried. But when I saw you, I thought…" She stopped herself, cursing herself for being so prone to speak her thoughts aloud. "Sorry. This really doesn't sound like me."

"That's ok." He whispered with a smile. "Didn't I tell you that you could be as open as you liked around me and not have to worry?"

"You did mention it." She said, smiling now too. Remembering her earlier exhaustion, she allowed her eyes to close and yawned, welcoming the full embrace of his body.

"Why don't we both go out for a while?" He suggested. "Just somewhere in Zion. You and me."

She shook her head. "I'd rather stay here."

"Alright." He said with a yawn that mimicked her own. "I suppose we've got plenty of time."

"Plenty of time…" She repeated, slipping into a peaceful and untroubled sleep without the slightest amount of trouble.

(o)

Trinity wasn't surprised when she woke at a late hour of the day the following morning, with Neo lying just beside her, sprawled out across the bed sheets. She shifted into an upright position, rolling up the sleeves of her stained over-shirt and surveying her dirtied hands passively, deciding that she may as well take a shower.

"No." Neo muttered from behind closed eyelids in a groggy, restful tone the moment she began to climb out of the bed. "Stay."

She froze, startled by his sudden words, having believed him to still be asleep. Smiling, she lowered herself back into the bed only to be instantly taken in his embrace.

She had only just closed her eyes, and was allowing herself to become content in his arms when a sharp knocking on the door interrupted their thoughts. Trinity let out a small gasp of surprise, the knocking unwillingly bringing her back into reality. Inwardly cursing herself for yet again becoming carried away within her thoughts, she pulled out from him hurriedly, ensuring that there was no reddish hue to her cheeks before she made her way to the door.

"Morpheus?" She blinked up at her captain in a sudden daze of confusion, barely registering Neo as he slid up behind her to greet the newcomer.

"Trinity, Neo." Morpheus smiled kindly, nodding to both in greeting.

"Do you want to come in?" Neo offered, gesturing to the darkening interior of the room.

"No, I won't bother you. I've only come to tell you that we plan to leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning." He informed them. "Raven's been registered as a citizen of Zion, and has been given a place and accommodation at the academy. It's time for us to go."

"We'll be ready." Trinity replied sternly, already resuming the commanding tone she reserved solely for use on board the ship.

"I'll meet you tomorrow at the dock." Morpheus concluded, nodding once more before moving aside to leave.

Trinity sighed, for the first time in her life actually finding that she resented returning to the ship. Despite all the events that had occurred, she hadn't minded spending three or so days in the blissful tranquility of the last city of mankind. In fact, she may even say that she enjoyed it, especially the rare privilege of privacy they had been able to obtain. For once, the return to the struggle and battles of the war was not a thing she looked forward to.

"D-Do you think that we should tell the Council about Senesis?" Neo thought aloud once the door had been closed, Morpheus's unexpected reminder of the war that was raging beyond the city reminding him of their new, most menacing threat. "Neither Morpheus or I said anything to them during our hearing earlier."

Trinity paused to consider this, then firmly shook her head. "Morpheus knows what he's doing. If he doesn't want to tell the Council yet, then I'm sure he has a reason for it. Perhaps he doesn't want them to send you into battle to defeat it or something ridiculous like that."

"They won't, will they?" He cast her a hesitant glance, the unthinkable image of himself leading a leather-clad army through the Matrix in order to destroy the new foe. He wasn't built to be a leader…not that kind, anyway. The thought in itself was enough to make anyone laugh.

"Well, they might if they know about Senesis." Trinity pondered. "I'm just trying to put myself in the mind of the Council. Now they believe that you are the One, they may expect you to continue performing miracles and eventually bring an end to the war."

"I don't even know how to do that." He protested.

"I know." She smiled at the childish scowl on his face. "But they might think that you do. They may believe that just because you're the One, you'll have the answers to everything, and so might the rest of Zion when they eventually find out who you really are."

"Hopefully that won't be for a while." He began to mutter sarcastically. "Great. Soon enough people will start expecting me to rally an army of men and march them into the machine city, knowing perfectly well how I planned to bring an end to the war."

"They might." She admitted, hoping to find a way to prevent him from thinking of such things. She knew from past experiences that thoughts of what his future may hold for him were never good for him both mentally and physically. "But try not to think about what people will expect of you. The Oracle said that she'd let you know your purpose when time came for you to know it. Your purpose as the One may end up being very different to what you might think it is."

She gazed up into his eyes, remembering that only moments before they were interrupted, he had held her in his arms and reassured her that all she had thought about Vivianna had been a lie. Now that they were alone once more, part of her wished that he would embrace her again, while another part – the stronger part – reminded her that another interruption could arise at any given time. It then occurred to her that this would be, in fact, their last night in the lone privacy of Zion, perhaps for some great deal of time. In that instant, the weaker side of her won, and the event of an intrusion no longer seemed to matter. This could very well be the only time they had.

"I-I'm going to take a shower." She said mildly, maneuvering her way around him and already heading to the bathroom door. He watched her silently, a soft smile forming on his face. He never seemed to be able to understand how she was able to tell him what he wanted to hear, and yet manage to make him see the lighter side of things as well.

Much to his surprise, she didn't bother to close the bathroom door at all, but proceeded to strip from her clothing nevertheless. She didn't object, either, when he stood in the doorframe and watched her as she stepped into the shower, drawing the curtain around her so that he could see her silhouette reflected in the material. It was not, however, to her surprise that he stripped down and joined her only a few minutes later, embracing her as the warm drizzle of water trickled over their heated skin……

(o)

"Shame that we can't stay here any longer." Tank mused, toying with his spoon the following morning at breakfast. "I honestly don't think that three days was enough."

Neo nodded in agreement from the opposite end of the table, refilling an empty mug of water and passing across to Cas, who accepted it gratefully and handed it to her young son.

"Do you know when you'll next be back?" Zee questioned her brother icily, lifting her whining niece from space between herself and Trinity and placing her onto her lap.

"No idea." He admitted with a shrug, turning his attentions to Neo and Trinity instead. "Do either of you guys know?"

"Morpheus never really specifies." Trinity answered absentmindedly, stealing brief glances at Neo from the opposite side of the table, but never managing to catch his eye. She didn't want to say anything aloud, but she wished that he would soon notice the fact that Vivianna was continuously glancing at him whenever she dared from a table across the room.

Neo sat stiffly on the end of the bench at the table, having the strangest feeling that someone was watching him from behind…as if a pair of eyes were glaring at his back. Eventually finding that he was unable to ignore it any longer, he chanced swiveling around in his seat to see if his assumptions had been correct. Instantly, he caught Vivianna's eye from a table filled with people of about her age, most of which were absorbed in youthful conversation. Vivianna, however, appeared completely uninterested, and he was sure that it had been her eyes that he had felt lingering on his back earlier.

Not knowing what else to do, he gave her a cheery smile, waving to her just before she was preparing to turn away again with embarrassment. She smiled back at him politely, holding out a hand and then turning her back to him once more, not daring to try and look at him again. He couldn't help but notice that there was something uncomfortable in the way she addressed him now that had not been so before, though he wasn't entirely sure why. There was something about the stiffness in the wave she had given him…a sense of hostility in her tight smile and her large, dark eyes…a feeling of uneasiness and humiliation. When he turned back to face the table, he found that Trinity was glaring at him questionably, and he merely shrugged in reply, turning back to his food again.

"Man, I'm gonna miss good food like this." Tank sighed exhaustedly, settling back on the bench beside his young nephew and smiling at him. "You wanna help your old uncle pack his bags, kiddo?"

"Yeah." Sef grinned, pushing away his empty plate.

"I guess I'll meet you two at the dock." Tank informed Neo and Trinity a while later as he and the rest of his family stood to leave. He winked. "Don't be too long getting there."

After several polite goodbyes directed to the rest of Tank's family, they departed through the entrance to the Food Hall, Tank nursing both children in his arms as he went. Only moments later, Trinity decided to follow suit and left the table without so much as a word to Neo, knowing that he would be merely a few steps behind in her wake. They had only just arrived at the elevator when a deep, musty voice rung into Neo's ear, breathing hot breath on the back of his neck and sending a cold shiver tracing down his spine.

"You're Neo."

He jumped, turning around instantly and feeling the colour drain from his face when he met with a set of large, bulging emerald green eyes that glared back at him unblinkingly. He stepped back as far as the surrounding crowd would permit him to, but she merely closed the gap between them, long coils of blonde hair that cascaded down to her waist sliding over her unusually thin, white shoulders. Indeed, she was incredibly thin and sickly for her age group, which could only be about sixteen. The tight, earth brown dress that clung to her figure only made her appear thinner, revealing the way her stomach would curve inwards as she propelled her body towards him, each of her unique movements even more mesmerizing than her eyes.

"Lorena?" He gulped. It had been a long time since he had thought about her, and would have almost forgotten her complete existence if he hadn't encountered her then. Part of him believed he would have been better off forgetting her, for in truth he was afraid of her. It was not her eerie sense of beauty that troubled him, nor was it the enchanting, slow movements she made that could so easily have enraptured any man. It was the way that she could move so silently behind him that he feared about her the most. For all he could have known, she may have been following him ever since he had arrived in Zion.

"You remember me." She smiled. It had been the first time he had ever seen her smile since he had known her. Oddly enough, her smile was not cold or eerie, but kind and soft…almost cheerful, giving him a fleeting glimpse of what she may have been like once, sometime ago. As soon as it had appeared, the smile faded away.

"You need to help me, Neo." She whispered so softly that he needed to strain his ears to hear her, although she was standing so close to him now that her body was almost pressed up against his own. "I wanted to ask you before, but I couldn't…I couldn't because I did not want to be wrong."

"Wrong about what?" He whispered back, following her lead by changing to a lower, denser tone.

"I heard people talking. They said that you were the One. I wanted to be sure…but now it's too late. I have to trust you, and you have to trust me."

"What are you talking about?" He shook his head in confusion, casting a brief glance in Trinity's direction only to see that she had already moved into the elevator with the rest of the gathering crowd. The doors would close any minute soon. "Who was talking? Who said I was…" He paused, making sure that no one was paying them any attention before he continued. "…the One?"

"Please, Neo." She replied, ignoring his questions completely as she had done the last time they had met. "Please…you have to help me. I'm his prisoner, Neo. His prisoner."

"Prisoner? Whose prisoner?" He said as he backed into the elevator, sensing that the doors were to close at any moment.

Lorena's eyes clouded with tears that leaked down over the sides of her cheeks and mingled with her untamed hair. Like her eyes, her tears were larger than normal. If they had been clearer, he was sure he would have been able to see his own reflection in them.

"You have to help me, Neo. Please. I'm his prisoner…his prisoner!"

The elevator doors clanked shut, drowning out the sound of her voice. But even once the elevator slowly began to trundle towards the upper floors, he could still hear her final words, pushing their way into his thoughts and circling around in his head.

(o)

Trinity zipped up her now packed bag, lifting it from the made bed and hoisting it over her shoulder. She turned to face Neo, who was leaning against one of the bare walls in the narrow hallway beside the open front door, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes lowered, clearly lost in deep thought.

"Ready to go?" She asked him warily. It was a good few minutes before he looked up at her and responded with a nod, his eyes clouded with fear and uncertainty before he lowered them again.

"Are you alright?" She said, taking to his side and staring up at him anxiously. "You're not still worried about Lorena, are you?"

"I can't stop thinking about those last few words she said to me. Before I stepped into the elevator." He finally locked her with a steady gaze. "She said she was his prisoner."

"Unless there's anything more she can tell you, then there's nothing we can do." She sighed, resting a hand comfortingly on his arm. "Try and forget about it, alright?"

"Alright." He smiled, though it was a smile of both worry and doubt.

Trinity followed him out of the room, closing the door tightly behind her with one last look in upon their room, thinking with regret that it could be a good few weeks (perhaps even months) before she looked in on it again. She could tell, when she risked looking into Neo's clouded eyes, that he was thinking of the same thing.

Neo couldn't have felt less like returning to the ship once he had bid a final farewell to their room, which may have accounted for his stopping when he caught sight of Vivianna, striding along a nearby corridor with a large group of surrounding friends. As he paused to stare at her – hair bright and vibrant against the dull and mousy colour of her peers' – an idea suddenly occurred to him, triggered by a distant conversation they had once shared. Casting a quick, apologetic glance in Trinity's direction, he began to run towards her as swiftly as he could, darting past swarms of startled on-comers.

"Vivianna!" He panted when he finally approached her, skidding to a halt directly in front of her and drawing in a fresh gasp of air.

"Neo?" Vivianna replied quizzically, raising an eyebrow in question. "I-Is something wrong? Why are you dressed like you're going to leave?"

"I was about to leave before I saw you." He stated once he had regained his breath. "I had to ask you something before I left."

"Sure." She replied, turning and muttering to the friend who stood beside her. "I'll catch up with you later."

"I need to call in a favor." He continued once they had been left alone. "Remember once, back when you were taking me through those medical tests when I first arrived in Zion, that you told me you had a photographic memory?"

"Yeah." She said after a collective pause. "What of it?"

"Do you have access to the medical files of everyone here in Zion?"

"I think so…though I'm not sure if it's legal to go snooping through other people's confidential information." She replied jokingly.

"Well, I'm going to have to ask you to break the law." He smirked. "I need you to run a background search for a Zion-born girl named Lorena."

"What!?" Vivianna gaped in alarm. "Why on earth would you want me to do that!?"

"Listen," He hissed. "Only just before this Lorena girl came up to me and started saying some things…strange things. I think she wants me to help her. But to do that, I need to understand what's wrong with her. If you could do a background check and find out everything you can about her, then maybe I might be able to."

"I-I'm not sure if I can do that." She stuttered, her face turning a pale shade of green at the very thought. "I can't…it's illegal, and it could cost me my apprenticeship if I was caught."

"You wouldn't have to spend too long there. Once you find the file, you only need to glimpse at it and you'll remember every word that had been written down there, right?"

She nodded hesitantly. "I suppose so."

"Then you won't really have enough time to get caught. It shouldn't take that long to find her file. I would do it myself if I could, but I can't. Even if I wasn't about to leave on a ship for who knows how long, I still wouldn't have the access to any medical files." He looked into her eyes pleadingly, unable to help noticing that they had saddened at the mention of his departure. "Please, Vivianna. I really want to help her."

Her eyes seemed to soften suddenly, and changed from an expression of sadness and fear to a mixture of emotions Neo simply couldn't place. "Alright." She eventually said. "Fine, I'll do it. But…but only for your sake."

"Thanks, Vivianna." He sighed with relief. He knew that he would not be able to free himself from Lorena's haunting words until he had managed to help her, and he did want to help her as well. He hated seeing any human in the sorry state she was in now. "I owe you big time."

"I…I guess you better go now." She mumbled, staring intently down at the floor, dark waves of hair masking the most of her face from view.

"Yeah." He smiled. "Thank you. I guess we'll be seeing each other soon."

"Soon." She repeated in a dreamy state. "Goodbye, Neo."

"See you." He turned, but only managed to bring a few strides distance between them before she stopped him with the sound of her voice.

"Neo!" She yelled suddenly, forcing him to face her once more.

"Yeah?"

She parted her lips, mouthing wordlessly for a while as she had done when he had told her about his relationship with Trinity. It took some time before she was ready to speak to him properly, finding and reclaiming her old, cheery tone.

"Nothing. You better go."

Somehow, he had the impression that she wished to tell him something more, but decided not to pressure her any further. Already she had undertaken a task on his behalf that could put an end to her career. He bid her a final wave of parting before he turned and made his way back to a clearly disgruntled Trinity, who was waiting for him outside the elevator that would take them to the dock.

(o)

A/N: Yep, I think this is my longest chapter ever. It took a whole lot of rewriting to finally get it the way I wanted it, and I'm not even sure if I like it now as it is. Trinity feels a bit out of character to me. What do you think?

I hope you enjoyed it and please, PLEASE remember to review!!