TITLE: Deja Vu
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The adventure is over but Neo still hasn't realised that Trinity loves him. Now, starting anew in Zion, is everything about to change for Neo?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey guys! I'm considering whether I want this finished before or after Christmas, and whether I want it finished this year or next. I'm really surprised how fast I managed to upload this story once I'd reached the right point in time in my other fanfiction, The Best Homework Excuse Ever. Then again, these holidays I've only worked once, and that was for less than three hours – plus the power went out so we couldn't open the register. I've also been really bored, so uploading pre-written chapters has seemed like a good idea… very often. I mean, it's summer – therefore there's nothing good on TV. I've found a great radio station, though. If there's any Brisbane readers (which I doubt), tune into Nova 106.9, it's great.
Thanks to my reviewers, Rhiannon Reeves and Mystic Kyra.
Chapter nine – Changes
Four weeks after the disastrous rescue attempt, Neo was to be seen strolling down one of the pathways in Zion, the last human city. It was really an underground cavern updated to become livable with crude metal structuring. It was actually quite fascinating – there were a quarter of a million people living there in the various apartments, it was controlled entirely by machines, the only people of power were the councillors – there was no wealth status here, and no currency – and the people were nice. Everyone was helpful. Maybe a little too helpful. The fans and believers of the One were eager to show him the way if he got lost. The women were tracing his every step, and cast jealous looks at his female friends whenever he was with them.
For Neo spent a lot of time looking around the city, taking in the 'sights' with his friends as his guides. Lunar didn't often have time – she was usually with her daughter. Coyote and Specter had stuff to do, although they said hi if they bumped into him. Ghost and Niobe were happy to show him around when they had time, which was not very often, unfortunately, but Chase and Ari, who had spent only the last six months on board their ship and the previous three years here, were fun to hang around with. It turned out that they, also, had been freed in relation to a prophecy.
But of course, once the problems were over, Specter, as the ranking officer of the Nadir, got raised to the post of captain, and was off again, with the girls, Lunar and Coyote, as well as four new recruits. They wouldn't be back for months. The Logos wasn't slow to leave, either, so all Neo had left in Zion were Mouse and Trinity, and a woman Trinity didn't like called Waterlily. Neo had met her in the mess hall. She had a habit of turning up whenever he least expected her. He had apologised to her when he had bumped her a little, but now she took that as an excuse to come visit him every single day. Trinity called her a 'leech', because there was 'obviously only one thing on her mind when it comes to you'. Neo didn't know what Waterlily wanted, but she did seem strongly attached to him already.
One person Neo didn't see enough of was Trinity. She was in trouble for her decision to go ahead and try to save Morpheus despite the obvious danger and impossibility of the task. The councillors had called her straight into an urgent meeting the second she had set foot in the city and she had been stuck arguing her case with them for weeks. Neo hoped they would hurry up and decide that she had been acting in loyalty to her captain. After all, that was all she had been doing. He hardly got to see her during the day. Sometimes she got time to visit in the evenings, but she was usually irritable, although she tried to be pleasant to him. She hadn't been visiting so often lately, even though the councillors were taking up less of her time, because of Waterlily. They really didn't get along.
Neo stopped and smirked at the memory of their first meeting in his apartment. He had invited Trinity in for a drink and a chat – that seemed to calm her stressful mind a little – and they were just jokingly discussing how best to dress up his new place when the door had opened. There stood Waterlily, smiling vibrantly, her curly brown hair spilling over her shoulders.
"Neo! How are you?" she had asked in her loud voice, beaming as she shut the door.
"Um, okay," he had replied uneasily. Trinity had raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.
"Who are you?" Waterlily had asked suddenly, upon spotting Trinity.
"I could ask the same," the other had said coolly.
"Trinity, Waterlily," Neo had spoken up quickly. Trinity's expression hadn't changed any, but Waterlily broke into another smile (false this time) and walked over.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Trinity," Waterlily had said, embracing Neo brightly and kissing his cheek. Neo recalled how Trinity's blue eyes narrowed. After five minutes of forced conversation, someone had been thoughtful enough to knock instead of barging right in, and Neo had gladly taken the excuse to get the hell out of that thick-aired, accident-waiting-to-happen room. One of the security guys stood there, asking if Trinity was here today. So Neo had gone back to retrieve her, only to find Waterlily standing beside her chair, her face bright crimson and fists clenched as she told Trinity (who no doubt had started the argument) exactly what she thought of her past history with Neo. Of course, Trinity hadn't moved, still sitting relaxedly in her chair, her cool, placid expression leaving no doubt as to who it was that would win this argument in the long run. She had just sipped her drink randomly, gazing up at the ranting Zion woman with mild interest. Her coolness and obvious ability to take anything and not become intimidated only infuriated Waterlily more.
Waterlily was just saying something like, "And if you think you two are so close, then why is it that-" when Trinity spotted Neo and rolled her eyes. She had stood, shoving the Zion-born aside with the hand containing her glass.
"Neo, sweetheart, would you be kind enough to please ask this woman to stop screaming in my face?" she had asked, waving her glass to emphasise her words. She had walked over with a natural grace meant to be envied, and stopped at Neo's side. "Who was it?"
Neo, who had been busy trying to figure out Trinity's casual use of the name 'sweetheart', which she had never called him before, jerked his head at the door. She'd looked and sighed.
"I guess I'll be off then. I am so sick of these meetings." She turned and smiled sleekly at Waterlily. "It was wonderful to meet you, Waterlily," she had mimicked from before. She turned to Neo and gave him a tight, entirely fake but well acted hug and kissed him beside his mouth. It wasn't a romantic moment – just another envy device fabricated to cause her one-woman audience jealousy. Because Waterlily couldn't see that the kiss was beside the mouth. With a wave, she had left the glass in Neo's hand and followed the council security guy to what Neo called the 'pointless argument chamber'.
That was three weeks ago. Neo was currently destined for Trinity's apartment right now, where she had said she would be this afternoon. Mouse would be there, too.
He gave vague smiles to a small group of middle-aged women who giggled and said hi, then started walking again and looked around. He knew this pathway well – the way to and from Trinity's to and from his own place. It was his most tread path after the way to the mess hall. He couldn't get lost on those pathways.
Finally, Trinity's level. He walked along the long, open corridor to her room and knocked on the door. Mouse answered it, smiling.
"Hey, Neo, haven't seen you in days," he said, moving aside to let him in. He shut the door behind him.
"I've been about," he assured the younger boy. "It isn't like I can just pack up and leave for another city, is it?"
"I guess not," Mouse agreed, turning and walking further into the little living area. He had always been such a bouncy thing, with bubbly new ideas and fun, if stupid, revelations. Now he seemed aged innumerably, tired and wearied.
"Where is she?" Neo asked, looking around. Mouse nodded in the general direction of the bed in the corner, which Trinity half-sat, half-lay on, propped up by her flat pillows. She was reading something on the computer on her lap, not paying even the slightest attention to her guests. Not that that would bother her at all.
She completely ignored Neo and Mouse as they walked up to her – of course, she was probably aware of their presence – so they jumped onto the bed either side of her, jolting her.
Lucky she had a sense of humour.
"You know, this is important," she said, trying but failing to be angry. She accidentally smiled.
"So are you," Neo answered, copying Mouse's action of slinging one arm around Trinity's shoulders. She didn't object, but gave them both suspicious looks. "You're all worn out and bored. Have some fun."
"Does that stuff need to be done right now?" Mouse added.
"It would be nice if it was out of my way."
"Come on, unwind," Mouse said, attempting to persuade her. "You're too young to have a stress-related heart attack. Neo and me would be lost. Who's gonna boss us around when you die?"
"And who, exactly, decided that I was going to die right here and now?" Trinity demanded, evidently annoyed that they had so quickly and easily written her off as a fatal medical emergency waiting to happen. She shut down the computer and Mouse took it. He stashed it on the floor.
"Well, look at you," he said, righting himself and replacing his arm. "Don't die. We need you. What are we going to do? Without Morpheus, you're the only one capable of giving us orders."
"And who's going to do that if you die?" Neo agreed, grinning and lying back, staring at the ceiling. Mouse, who seemed to think that it would de-stress Trinity, mainly led the amusing conversation. Neo just added in little bits here and there.
"Why am I dying?" Trinity asked.
"Because you're stressed," Mouse said in a duh-what-do-you-think voice. "Everyone knows that brings on heart attacks and strokes, and stuffs up your appetite." He poked her in the side, making her flinch and tense for a moment, much to the boy's amusement. "You'll get fat. Don't hit me!" He avoided her slap as best he could. "And suppresses your libido," Mouse added, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Hey, if you feel a need to see if that's true, you know, this is a bed-"
He didn't get to finish because she pushed him off the bed in semi-pretend disgust. Neo laughed, amazed at how much fun he could have in a city where there were no televisions and so soon after so many close workmates had died. At least Trinity and Mouse were still here.
With Mouse practically convulsing on the floor with laughter, Trinity turned to Neo, her hands ready to shove him off, too.
"Don't you even start!" she said through her smile and light laughter. It was really nice to hear her laugh. Neo shook his head, trying to stop laughing. She relaxed against his arm.
Suddenly, for the first time ever, Neo was incredibly conscious of the closeness of Trinity to himself. He had no idea what had sparked it. Usually the fact that she was so close would be nothing more than a privilege of being a friend of the hardest-to-reach girl he knew. But today, it was like every single point on his body that touched hers was twice as sensitive as usual.
Why now, and never before? What had changed, if anything?
Neo wanted to hit himself when he thought of Mouse's words and managed to conjoin them with the names Neo and Trinity. That wasn't right. Since when did he think like that? Something was off.
-
She felt Neo suddenly tense a little. Not much, not enough for anyone else to notice, even if they were as close as Trinity was to him, but enough for someone paying as much attention to that closeness to notice.
Was he okay? Maybe she should sit forward again. He had just tensed after she had laid back. What did that mean? She hoped nothing had changed. She liked being able to lie here, on her bed with Neo, if anyone could take that meaning, without any intention but to talk with her friends. It gave her an opportunity to be very close to Neo without him ever noticing. Even if the current topic was her own death by stress-related heart failure, she could lie here for hours, content. More than content, really.
But now Neo was silent and thoughtful. He wasn't laughing any more. Mouse was just struggling to his feet, laughing hysterically. He rolled back onto the bed, closed eyes filled with tears of mirth.
He mumbled something impossible to decipher while Trinity kind of ignored him and looked up to her right at Neo.
"You okay?" she asked, being sure to keep her smile. Neo appeared to like seeing her happy. Mouse reached over her and slapped Neo's arm, still chuckling.
"Yeah, man, what's up? Where'd the smiles go?"
"I'm fine," Neo said. But he felt uncomfortable. And if Neo was uncomfortable, so was she. Trinity sat up, twisting to look him directly in the face. She had rubbed the fact that she knew Neo better than anyone else in the real world in that leech Waterlily's face, but she wished she knew him better. Then maybe she would be able to figure out what had just happened.
"Are you sure?" she asked, almost warily. If something was up, she wanted to know.
Neo forced a smile and said, "I'm fine," again.
Realising that the lying-chatting-on-the-bed part of the afternoon was well and truly over, Trinity swung her legs over the side of the bed – Neo's side – and stood. Her two male visitors took her example and got up, too.
"Have you got any of Dozer's old stuff here?" Mouse asked hopefully. Trinity gave a soft groan.
"Yes, I do, but that drink is absolutely vile," she said, walking over to the cabinet anyway. Dozer had made some of the most disgusting of alcoholic drinks. She would give almost anything to have him and the others alive again, but at least now she wouldn't have to accept quantities of his beverages.
"It wasn't so bad if you took smaller mouthfuls," Neo protested slightly, dropping into one of the chairs at the table.
"Yeah, right," Trinity agreed sarcastically, pouring three mugs.
The afternoon carried on into the evening. Trinity, who hated the drink, didn't come close to losing her head. Neither did Neo, who was much too responsible to take in so much brain killing liquid in one day. But they both knew it was time to stop refilling Mouse's drinks when he suggested, again, that Trinity sleep with him. Usually she would have pushed him over or worse, but the boy was drunk and wouldn't be able to get up again. They needed him conscious so they could take him home.
Between them, Trinity and Neo managed to escort Mouse to his room one level down. Once they had him safely on his own bed (Trinity standing a few feet away) Neo locked the boy's door.
"I think the councillors are going to give me a break," Trinity said, leaning against the wall beside Mouse's door. She ran her finger along a groove, but she got a major flashback of Cypher doing the same thing outside Neo's cabin on board the Nebuchadnezzar weeks ago. She wondered vaguely where he was now, then wondered why she cared. He was a murderous traitor, and if she ever spotted him inside the Matrix, content and blissfully unaware of everything he had done wrong, she would kill him herself.
"What do you mean? Like, let you off?" Neo asked.
"Yeah. At least, I hope so," Trinity lied. She knew exactly what was going on with the councillors. They had agreed that she was simply a very loyal person who should be commended for her bravery, like her witnesses, Neo and Mouse among them, had argued weeks ago. She was off charges, and what's more, she had been raised to the position of captain. But she couldn't say that.
"That's great. Then you won't be all caught up. Or stressed out."
"Don't even start," she warned with a small smile. She stared out at the city. Neo did the same. "Hey, Neo?" she added. He turned back to her. "Tell me – do you like it in Zion?"
"Yeah, I guess I do," he answered after a moment. "I could get used to living here." He cocked his head to one side – so cute. "Why?"
"No reason," Trinity said. She gave another small smile and turned away, heading back to her own room. As soon as Neo couldn't see her face, she dropped her smile and frowned, realising what she had to do now. "No reason at all."