The Stories of Scars

By ZionAngel

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"Get this through your head," she hissed, her tone low but immaculately even and quiet, eyes intense and equally unmoving. It was not an entirely unfamiliar persona - first seen by him as she insisted on helping him rescue Morpheus, and only a few times afterwards. But every time her gaze was just as lethal, just as intimidating. But this time, he fought the fear it stirred up within him - he had to stand his ground on this one.

"I am your superior officer. Period."

He stood several inches taller than her, but with each word, he felt himself shrinking.

"I still have more experience, more training and better judgement than you do. Being the One does not change that. Sleeping in my bed certainly does not change that." She turned, eyes staying locked with his until the last instant, and marched down the corridor.

He stood dumbstruck for only a moment before snapping back to it and following her. He grabbed her arm and turned her, more roughly than he'd intended, but it didn't matter - she twisted out of his grasp before she was even fully facing him. His confidence had returned quickly this time. "I don't want you to get hurt, I can protect you -"

"How long have I been unplugged?" she shot back. He tried to sputter out the answer, but found she had instantly turned him back into a deer, caught in the headlights of her eyes. "How many years have I been fighting this war, Neo?"

Her gaze was insistent. Silence was not an acceptable answer. "Twelve years," he choked out.

"Twelve years. Twelve years of fighting squids and cops and military and more Agents than anybody else has lived to talk about. I am still alive, sane and in one solid piece." Her eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, and she took one small step closer to his face. "You have changed nothing. I can get out alive without your help, same as always."

Her eyes seared into his, painfully so, and he wanted nothing more in that instant than to be anywhere else on the cold, deserted Earth, but he could not for the life of him move. Finally, she turned away, sparing him, leaving him welded to that spot in the corridor. He stood rooted to the floor for a minute or two, listening to faint sounds up in the Core. She would be setting up her chair now. He finally convinced his legs to move him forward.

You're pushing too hard, Anderson, his mind chided, knowing it was true. You'll push her away. You won't be able to protect her at all. He could do so much - destroy Agents, stop bullets, change almost anything. He could save her life. She had gone into the Matrix alone since his becoming the One and survived, but what if this time something was different?

Whenever he imagined losing her, he didn't feel pain. His best guess was that the fear of such a thing kept his mind from feeling the hypothetical emotions, because when he remembered the nightmares - those did carry emotions. The dreams that had plagued him in the weeks after they had first declared their love, and every so often since then. The dreams he remembered. In the dreams, he felt the pain of loss.

He climbed up the ladder, wanting to stop her and convince her - beg, if need be - that he should go with her. But he knew that wouldn't work, so he would simply jack in after she did and just stay invisible to her. I know you're strong enough, Trin, I just can't... Their eyes caught as she was sitting back in the chair. Hers held anger, yes, but also... disappointment, maybe?

He realized then that this was their first real fight. He didn't like it.

---

She leaned back in her chair and felt the tip of the data spike against her plug as the proximity alarm sounded. She bolted up and dashed straight for the cockpit. She heard only one set of footsteps following her, stopping behind the chair as she booted up the controls. She wasn't sure if it was Tank or Neo, but she really didn't care. They were in open water. She needed to move them. Now.

The ship was up and moving in less than a minute, the small holographic screen on the console providing a map. Morpheus arrived shortly, prepping and adjusting various mechanisms as she flew.

The sentinels were still following, somehow getting closer. What had started as a standard escape was quickly becoming dangerous. She flew faster, more rashly - and then the sentinels disappeared from the radar. She panicked a moment, until they reappeared, having taken a small shortcut that was impassible for the hovercraft.

"Set her down, now," Morpheus commanded. "No choice." He picked up the radio and instructed Tank to be ready with the EMP, then shut down the ship just as she brought it down onto solid ground.

The engines silenced, the lights faded and all became quiet as the Nebuchadnezzar went to black. Morpheus pulled a knit cap over his head, and she heard Neo take a cautious step closer to her chair. She could just barely make out his reflection in the windshield. She couldn't tell for certain, but he looked afraid. Watching him, her anger towards him began to fade.

She shifted her focus back into the dark tunnels and waited. The minutes slowly ticked by with nothing. It was too soon to turn the scanners back on, to confirm that they were clear. They were forced to continue waiting and watching.

Morpheus saw it first - two sentinels at the far side of the cavern. They searched painfully slowly, circling the cavern, slowly approaching the Neb's hidden alcove. Then out of nowhere, three more appeared, helping in the search. The fear in the cockpit quickly rose; Morpheus clenched the radio intercom mike tighter, and she felt Neo take another step closer.

The first of the sentinels flew past them.

Suddenly, Neo was clutching one hand at Trinity's shoulder - an apology, an expression of love, a reminder that she was not alone in this. In that moment, all of her anger disappeared. Another sentinel came into view, staring into their alcove. She did not care - her hand darted up to cover his, on her shoulder. The sentinel quickly extended a small listening device, and seemed to look terrifying hard at them. Simultaneously, Neo and Trinity squeezed each other's hand tighter, almost painfully so.

Finally, after so long that their fingers began to tingle with numbness, all five sentinels decided that the area was deserted, and left. After a moment of stillness, she spun the chair around and leapt up to him. They kissed passionately but briefly, then broke away and clung to each other fiercely.

"All clear, Tank," Morpheus spoke into the intercom. He brought up the holograms, searching for the sentinels, which continued to move farther and farther away. He waited a moment, letting Neo and Trinity stay together. Eventually though, they needed to get moving. "Trinity."

She hugged Neo tighter for a moment, and kissed him as she pulled away. "I love you," she whispered. Reluctantly, she took her seat again, and began firing up the ship once more.

---

Trinity's mission having been postponed for the time-being, the couple quickly retreated to their cabin as soon as she Neb had been relocated. As soon as the door was closed, they found themselves locked in a tight embrace again.

"I'm sorry I got so angry with you," she finally spoke into his shoulder.

He gently nuzzled his face in her hair. "I shouldn't have pushed you. I'm sorry."

They separated, pulled off their boots, and crawled into bed. As the adrenaline brought on by the sentinels had dissipated, it had taken their energy along with it, and the pair spooned against each other, relishing in each other's body heat. "Trinity..." He spoke her name gently, with relief, with love. "I'm sorry. I just get so scared when you go in alone, it's too easy for everything to go wrong..."

She sighed, not angrily, but rather as though she was trying to find a way to make him understand. She sat up on her knees, and turned to face him. She lifted her tattered sweater, then her tank top up and over her head, letting them land on Neo's chest. There was nothing sensual in this, he knew, but his heart quickened slightly nonetheless, and he could not help but glance down at her bare chest. She noticed, of course, and smirked at him, but then turned back to her task.

She turned pointed to an old faded scar high on her right hip. He had noticed it before, but never thought anything of it. "My oldest scar," she explained softly. "Two months after I joined the crew, my first run in with an Agent. Grazed by a bullet."

Neo cringed inwardly - this was exactly what he was afraid of. Why was she telling him this?

Trinity showed him another scar, this one just below her ribs. "Grenade, from a recon mission at an army base. Everyone got out alive, I might add." The next was a long, thin slash, barely visible, running from between her breasts to below the waist of her pants on the left side. "Sentinel attack, while we were visiting with another ship. Blew the EMP just as it got to me."

He clenched her leg reflexively - she was vulnerable in both worlds.

On the inside of her forearm now, an uneven patch of discoloration near her plug. "Gunshot, then it was burned in an explosion." On her right shoulder now, obviously the work of stitches, six, from the looks of it. "Broke a bone when an Agent took over a cop car and hit my motorcycle, threw me into a ravine." She continued on, through a total of nineteen scars covering every part of her body, most sustained in the Matrix, a few in the real world.

When she had finished, she cupped his face in her hands and leaned over to kiss him, deeply, slowly. "Neo." She leaned her forehead against his, staring into his eyes. "I am a good soldier. I can take care of myself." He swallowed hard, rubbing his hands along her sides, believing the words but not liking them. "I am not reckless. I don't take stupid, unnecessary risks. I'm careful." She kissed him again. "I know the potential danger of a mission, and if I'll need help, I ask for it. I know you worry, but please don't kill yourself over it. I hate to see you like that." She rubbed the sides of his face, toying with the hair at his temples as she waited for a reply.

He ultimately sighed heavily, forcing his mind to reconcile itself with the woman he knew she truly was. He loved her, and, at the end of the day, he knew it was better to express it through trust than over-protectiveness. "All right," he finally sighed, and was rewarded with a bright smile as she slid down to let her body cover his.