AN: I got sick of calling him Thomas. So only when certain other people are talking is he Thomas. Besides, we all know him as Neo, right?

Oh, and just so you all know, this is an experimental story for me. One word – anachronism. But you have to figure out the actual series of events on your own. Evil, evil me. The content within individual chapters works in chronological order, but the chapters themselves are out of order.

This is the last chapter where I'm giving you the dreams easy. After this chapter I won't show him waking up after every single dream. It's up to you as a reader to find out when he's dreaming and when he's not. Though it is slightly obvious. Scenes with Trinity are dreams.

Also, sorry that updates take me so long. I'm a super slow writer, and I have constant writer's block. But I watched The Matrix a few nights ago (for the first time in a while) and it got my creative juices flowing. :) This summer should be better anyway. School's kinda hectic right now with finals coming up and all. And then there's senioritis. But graduation is May 21st, and then I have more writing time.

"Neo, come on, man, you gotta do this for me, man. I swear to you, if you do, I won't ask you for anything again."

"No, Choi."

"I'm just a little short on cash. Seriously, N, you just gotta hook me up and I promise that it'll never happen again. It's just that a couple of my clients haven't been able to come through for me, so I don't have a whole three grand."

"Choi, I said no. Fuck. Can't you listen? Or is there something wrong with your ears? No money, no software."

"Oh, I get it. You completely disappear for a year. You show up all of a sudden, acting like nothing ever happened. After doing whatever it is you did, you think you're too good to help out an old friend."

"What the hell are you talking about? I've got fired, lost my apartment, and had to move back in with my parents. Frankly, I'm amazed you found me again. And it's not that I don't want to help you out, Choi. I do. I really do. But I don't have the funds to just be giving this shit away, man."

Neo was yelling by this point, and as he finished, a fuse blew, and the lights along with it. Sparks flew everywhere, and both men instinctively covered their heads.

"Shit, man, you got power. How the hell did you do that? Fuck. Hey, listen. I'll, uh, come back by later. You cool off some, hmm?"

"Ye – yeah. I'll do that, and then, uh – yeah."

As quickly as he had shown up, Choi disappeared again.

How the hell did I – what – shit. What the fuck was that? It's not possible to blow shit up by being mad – is it?

Neo looked around the dark apartment, seeing shattered glass from broken light bulbs and various appliances in sudden disarray. Blinking a few times, he decided to attempt cleaning up rather than face the wrath of his mother. As he looked back up from the floor after picking up a fallen blender, there was a flash of green and black.

"I'm not letting go, Trin. I can't. I love you too damn much."

"What the – shit, I need to lie down."

"While observing the Matrix today, we saw something quite unusual. Not surprisingly, this something unusual happened around our old friend, Mr. Thomas A. Anderson. You are all well aware of what it means if Mr. Anderson is to realize his – abilities within the Matrix. The anomaly must be under close surveillance at all times. You all have your assignments. Make sure to follow them precisely. You are to report straight to me if anything at all happens. Do not try to rectify any situation involving Mr. Anderson by yourself. The anomaly is not like the other humans. Remember this, and you may remain a part of the Matrix."

Wake up, Neo.

The Matrix has you.

Follow the white rabbit.

"White rabbit. White... rabbit."

Neo slowly woke up, once again seeing the familiar setting of his bedroom in his parents' apartment. Looking at the clock, he jumped out of bed and began getting ready. He had fifteen minutes before his interview with Mr. Rhineheart about getting his old job back. Neo knew exactly how his old boss felt about punctuality, so he didn't want to be late. If he didn't arrive at ten o'clock on the dot, he knew there was no chance of getting the job. He was surprised that Mr. Rhineheart had even given him any type of chance in the first place.

When Neo walked through the front doors of the MetaCortex building, he got the sudden feeling that everyone around was staring at him. Those who had known him before were wondering what he was doing back, and those who didn't previously know him were wondering who he was.

Neo heard his name whispered a few times among the others, and suddenly those he didn't know seemed to know him. Of course they had to know the stories. Thomas Anderson, the man who had been dragged out of the building by federal agents, and never seen again.

A year may have passed, but his outward appearance hadn't changed too much. He had the same shaggy black hair with the same style. He wore the same type of drab business suit that he had worn during his previous time at MetaCortex. The one thing that had changed was that he looked more fit. Neo had taken up martial arts to fill his time after losing his job, and he was quite good. He was a very fast learner, and had earned his first degree black belt in just eight short months.

The receptionist at the desk noticed Neo before he had walked all the way over. She watched him looking around the room, taking in the surroundings he had been absent from for so long. Finally he reached her desk, and asked if Mr. Rhineheart was available for their interview yet.

"Yes, Mr. Anderson. He's waiting for you in his office now. I'll let him know you're here and you can just go right on in. Mr. Rhineheart, sir? Yes, a Mr. Thomas Anderson is here to see you. Yes, it's for his interview, sir. Yes, sir. He says to send you on in, Mr. Anderson. Oh, and you're lucky, you know. You got here just on time."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, ma'am."

"Oh, please, just call me Cindy."

"Right. Thanks, Cindy."

Neo went straight to the elevator, hoping for the best with this interview.

"Mr. Anderson is well on his way to having his old life back. No doubt the rebels will notice. What we must do, gentlemen, is keep the rebels from contacting him in any way. Each and every one of you knows what will happen if he is contacted. They will tell him everything. He will learn of Zion and the war. This is something that we simply cannot allow. Make sure blocks are put on his computer to keep him from learning more about Morpheus. Make sure he remains unsearchable in the Matrix to any computers but our own. If they are unable to search for him, they will be unable to find him."
"Any luck yet?"

"Nothing. But I know he's there. He's got to be. I've checked his old apartment. I've checked all the places we watched him last time. I can't find him anywhere. It's almost as though he's disappeared from the face of the planet."

"Well, keep looking. I'm sure you'll have some luck eventually. But remember not to contact him when you find him. We must wait for the opportune moment."

"Right, I know. 'No talking to Neo until we know more.' You know how hard that's going to be, don't you? We need him."

"Yes, Trinity, we do need him. But we're going to have to wait. And we will discuss this later."

"All right, all right. I just really want to know what they did with him. How could they have hidden him like that? It's impossible. They couldn't have possibly upped their technology that much that quickly."

"Well, somehow they have. And they've made Neo a ghost doing it. But have faith. We will find him again."

"You've been saying that for the past month, Morpheus. I'm starting to think it's hopeless."

"You know as well as I do, Mr. Anderson, that there are no third chances. If you mess up again, that's it. The first day you're late to work is your last here at MetaCortex. This time we are going to give you a zero tolerance policy, because it's the only thing that's going to work. If you understand all of this and agree to follow the new rules, you may have your job back."

"Yes, I agree. I'll follow them to the tee. Thank you so much, Mr. Rhineheart. You have no idea what this means to me. I'm not going to screw up again. I promise you."

"Right. Be here at nine o'clock tomorrow morning then."

"Yes, sir. I'll be here. Right on time. Maybe I'll even come early."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Anderson. Now, you're dismissed."

Neo walked out of his boss' office to start his journey home. He could finally say he had a job, and although he wasn't perfectly happy with his old job the first time around, it was a legal source of income. That in itself was worth something. Besides, he could finish a full day's work in just a few hours, and slack off for the rest of the day while still on company time.

"Morpheus! Morpheus, I found him! He just left MetaCortex. He must work there again. Why didn't we think of looking there before? It's so obvious."

"The real question is where he has been before. We've done multiple searches of the Matrix with no results. How did you find him?"

"It wasn't a search, that's for sure. I just thought of MetaCortex on a whim and I've been watching the outside of the building for the past ten minutes. I got lucky, and he walked out. The search still does nothing."

"This is very strange. We're going to have to look into this before taking any action."

"It's been so long since we've seen him, Morpheus. It feels that way, at least. Can't we just –"

"Trinity, I've told you already. We will discuss this later."

"Trin, she's beautiful."

Neo watched Trinity as she held their new baby girl. Mother and daughter looked perfect together, and Neo couldn't have been any happier.

I've got to be the luckiest man alive. Now I have two wonderful women in my life. What more could I ask for?

"She is, isn't she. God, Neo, I've never imagined myself as a mother before now. And now I don't think I could ever give it up. It's amazing. Before you came along, I never thought having a family could be anything that I wanted. Then we had our little family of just the two of us, and I couldn't imagine anything better. And now we really do have the perfect family. Thank you."

"No, Trin. Thank you."

Neo leaned over to kiss Trinity's forehead before moving to his daughter's to do the same. He continued watching the two of them before finally getting up to leave.

"You should rest. I'll be back later. I love you."

"Mmm. I love you, too. Bye, Neo."

The two shared a smile before Neo turned and walked out of the room.

Yup. The damn luckiest man on the planet.

"Trin. I love you, Trin. Love you. Always."

"Who's Trin?"

Neo opened his eyes to see Choi standing near his bed, looking very confused.

"Neo, look, I got the money for you. Now I really need that disk, man."

"Okay, okay. Hold on. Get out and I'll get it for you, all right?"

"Great. Listen, man, you need anything – anything at all – you ask me, right? I got your back, man. You save me with this shit. Every time. You know that, don't you?"

"Right, yeah. Money, Choi?"

"Always straight to business with you, isn't it, buddy? Yeah, here. The full three."

"Good. Now leave."

After pushing Choi out of the room and closing the door, Neo opened his closet door, pulling out a book. He opened the hollowed out book and took out one of the disks, replacing it with the three thousand dollars he had just earned. He left his room to the sight of Choi watching his parents' TV.

"Choi, man." Neo tossed the disk to Choi after getting his attention. "Here. Now get out before someone comes home. They don't know about this shit. So go. Now."

"Yeah, Neo. No getting you mad and blowing more fuses, right?"

"Shut up, Choi. Just leave already."

"All right. Bye, man. And thanks again."

Neo sat down on the couch facing the TV which was still on. He ran his hands through his hair a few times and tried watching something on TV to get his mind off his dream. But he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Fuckin' weird dream. I wish I knew what it meant. But like I could tell someone that shit. Yeah, right. "Hey, I had a dream where this woman I don't know had my baby. Care to interpret it?" Whatever. Maybe I should just get out of this place. Go for a walk. Maybe all I need is some fresh air.

Shit. I hope that's all I need.