a/n: Okay, so here it is ... the plot twist, delivered in a beautiful package of Neo/Trin fluff, just the way I know you all like it! In response to a concern voiced by one of my reviewers, YES Rorie will be back... just not for a few chapters... her role in the story will become evident as we go along.

- Enjoy! - Syd

Chapter 13

In Neo's memory, the crash began with a blinding flash of light, a million different colours of white blazing in his mind, burning his eyes, the pain of it cutting through the center of his brain. Metal screeched on metal, grinding and crashing in a discordant symphony of destruction, but above it all, he heard Trinity scream. Only her cries in his ears as inertia threw him to the floor, as the shattered windshield rained shards of glass down on the crew.

Neo tried to cover Knight's body with his own, but there was only enough time to throw his arm over the boy's head, holding him down until the ship groaned to a halt. His ears were ringing, his vision still spotted and blurry from the brightness of this place. Blinking and wincing, he released Knight and looked up, and his first sight was of the place the Captain's chair used to occupy. It was gone, and through the toxic smoke and dust, he saw a tangled mess of thick metal cables piercing through the giant hole in the windshield.

Trinity. Her name sounded in his ears like an alarm as the horrible reality hit him. She was dead. It had all happened again, and this time, he wouldn't be able to bring her back. There would be no deal with the machines, no more bargaining for her life. This time, he had nothing to trade for it.

"Trin!" He called out, struggling to his feet to find her body, pinned lifelessly to the cockpit floor. "Oh, God, Trinity!"

"I'm here."

"Where?" He spun around, squinting into the white abyss. He reached his hands out and grabbed at the air.

"Here." Her fingers interlaced with his, and suddenly their bodies collided together, her arms around his neck, nose pressed into the ladle of his collarbone. She was trembling. "I'm okay. I'm okay." Trinity repeated it several times, as if to convince them both that it was true. Neo ran his hands over her shoulders, chest, stomach and hips, letting out a sob of relief as he confirmed that in fact, she was in one piece. She kissed him once before pulling away, looking around for the rest of her crew.

"Is everyone alright?" he heard her ask. "Jesus, where the hell are we?"

As Neo's eyes adjusted to the light, he watched her pick through the wreckage, clumsily rushing towards the four figures which stood by the windshield, staring into the light. The dust had settled, and for the first time, Neo could see clearly that it was not metal cables that had ripped through the glass, but strange white claws, dripping with clusters of gold and green pods. Curious, he reached out, peeling a brittle piece of ivory skin from the structure in bewilderment.

"Oh, my God. Trinity," he said with amazement. "What is it?"

"Birch trees, everywhere," she blurted out, taking his hand and pulling him toward the front of the cockpit. "Oh, Neo. It's beautiful."

The ship was shaded under a canopy of luminous gold and green, a cocoon of rustling leaves supported by magnificent silver pillars. Sparkling rays sliced through cracks in the glowing dome, illuminating the undergrowth in a dazzling kaleidoscope of patterns and colour; with each breeze, the sunlight seemed to dance for them. Even in the Matrix, glories such as these could only be created by storytellers and artists, geniuses whose dreams of enchanted forests transcended the real into the boundless realm of imagination. In a place such as this, one would look for fairies sleeping in the buttercups and leprechauns hiding under the toadstools. In a place such as this, the wind howled secrets in a tongue that only the spirits could hear.

"Is this heaven?" Knight asked, reaching his hand out into the open air timidly, as if testing to see if the eternals would grant him admission to paradise.

"No," Neo said, squeezing Trinity's hand and handing her the birch bark he'd torn from its branch. "I think this is Genesis."

Trinity stood on the rocky shore, algae-covered stones beneath her feet, crystal water slapping gently around her ankles. She had rolled her pants up to her knees, and left her boots and socks farther up on the bank. They'd been here for eight hours, but this was the first time she'd ventured more than a few meters from her ship. The Neb was a disaster, computers were down, the power cells were dead, and most of the hull was irreparable. It didn't look like she'd ever fly again.

Trinity ran her fingers through her hair and turned her face up to the sun, bathing her skin in warmth, thinking. She needed to charge the batteries somehow. A solar panel would be ideal, as the ever-astute Knight had been clever enough to point out. 'You know, Trin, it's too bad we didn't think to bring one.' Yes, thank you very much, prospective son-in-law. Jesus…

No, hydroelectric power was the more realistic solution. She could build a turbine easily enough. All they needed was a waterfall, or a fast-moving river. And this is what had brought Trinity here to the lake, looking out over the sheet of still blue water, hoping to find the source. But the thick brush and meandering shoreline made her search difficult. She toyed with the idea of hiking her way around the water's edge, but a scouting mission would have to wait until tomorrow. It was already starting to get dark.

"What I need is a canoe," she said to herself, grabbing a stone from the lakebed and skipping it three times across the surface. The ripples formed liquid bull's eyes between flowered lily pads, scattering a swarm of broad-winged grasshoppers and purple dragonflies.

"No, what you need is a break."

Trinity looked behind her to where Neo was removing his boots and tossing them next to hers. "And some company," he added, balling his socks up and smiling. He joined her in the ankle-deep water and crouched down to wash his hands and splash his face and hair. Neo's clothes were filthy, his arms covered in dirt, sweat and grease, and he had more than a few scrapes from the crash. Trinity didn't imagine she looked any better.

"I brought you something," he said finally, the corner of his mouth curling upwards as they stared out at tree-covered mountains. He pulled out a plump, heart-shaped fruit from his pocket, dusted it off, and presented the gift proudly.

"I told the crew not to eat anything," she warned. "The vegetation is unfamiliar."

"Hawk-Eye ran a full chemical analysis. Major constituents are water, glucose, natural and artificial flavours, and red dye number five."

"I'm glad to hear we got something on the ship working," Trinity said, rolling her eyes and examining Neo's offering with growing curiosity. "You know, I remember back in the Matrix, we called these things strawberries."

"Aha! They actually exist!" Neo announced this with such melodrama and exaggerated glee that Trinity couldn't hold back laughter. "Ready for your first real strawberry, Trin?"

She nodded, still chuckling, and tried to take the fruit from him, but he caught her hand just in time. "Not so fast. I'm feeding it to you."

"No, you're not." Trinity summoned her most commanding tone. "Surrender the strawberry. That's an order." She tried to snatch it away with her free hand, but this time he grabbed both her wrists, holding them down until, meeting his eyes, she stopped fighting back. He hadn't looked at her like that in a long time.

"Tell me, Trinity," he murmured. "When was the last time I romanced you properly?"

She caught her breath, suddenly aware of how close they were, hips together, his arm taking her around her waist. This was the first moment they'd been alone since jacking out of the Matrix, and Trinity was very aware that they'd been wanting each other all day. It was the fatigue, the exhausting stress from several close brushes with disaster that demanded some outlet, some carnal release. It was the kind of naked passion that Trinity hadn't felt towards him since the war ended, and with uncharacteristic abandon, she welcomed it without resistance. They needed this, if only to reconnect for a moment, to re-establish some degree of lost equilibrium.

"Alright," she said, returning his gaze in an unspoken agreement before closing her eyes and leaning into his embrace. She licked her lips slowly, thoroughly before parting them, purposely tantalizing her husband before allowing him to place the strawberry between her teeth. It was divine, the taste and texture arresting her in a shock of sensation so intense, Trinity actually let herself moan. Surely, this was the aphrodisiac of the gods.

"You like that?" he breathed, wedging a leg between her thighs and pressing upward gently. His hands slid past the small of her back and with expert precision, Neo nudged her hips into just the right place.

Trinity's eyes snapped open in surprise, gasping in an involuntary exclamation of approval. She pulled his mouth down on hers, crashing into him, as a wave slams into a rough and weathered coast. He was salty, commanding, and hard, the masculine scent of him curling her toes, reminding her of what it was to be his.

"Oh, God, you're delicious," Neo grunted, wet kisses migrating from lips, to chin, to neck. "When I get you back home…"

"I know. But, we… can't," she stammered, untangling her hands from his hair. "We have to stop." When he didn't stop, tongue tickling her earlobe in playful defiance, she chuckled. "Don't make me pull rank, soldier…"

"You were magnificent today." He kept her by the hips and spoke into her ear. "I'd almost forgotten you could fight like that. It's been so long…"

"Hmm." She slipped away and took his hands in hers. She wanted him, too. But as Trinity looked up into his eyes, she realized that a frantic tumble after a hard day was no longer enough. She needed more than that right now. What she needed… was her husband back.

"Neo, I want ask you something," Trinity said, gently caressing his fingers in much the same way he had done that morning on the Observation Deck. Spinning his wedding band once around in the correct direction, she whispered, "Are we okay? I mean… are we really okay?"

Neo didn't answer at first, absorbing her question, processing the full implication of it. She knew he understood her completely, and this conversation had been a long time coming.

"We will be," he said finally, looking out at the water. "We didn't come this far to have it all fall apart on us, that's for sure. Good God… I thought I'd seen everything."

The sun had begun to set and the lake had turned pink, stray photons refracting through the atmosphere in a burning spectrum of orange, fuchsia, magenta and mauve. Every few seconds, an oscillating band of aqua blue rippled through the heavens, behind the clouds, beyond which lay a brief glimpse of the evening sky, a stunning black void speckled with stars. The electric green edges of this wave extended out in thin curls, neon vines which cut through the rosy sky in a pattern of tangled whorls. This design could have been etched by a figure skater's blade slicing through fresh ice, or extrapolated from the elegant mathematics of the Mandelbrot set, Trinity thought as she leaned on Neo's arm, humbled into silence by the splendour of it all. Perhaps Knight was right. Maybe this was heaven.

Abruptly, and as if building towards some kind of cosmic climax, the emerald and azure undulations became more frequent, segueing into widening bands of stars and planets confusing the definition of day versus night. For a moment the sun and the moon shared the sky in harmony. But it was only for a moment. As quickly as they had appeared, the spectacular fissures closed, reverting back to the gentle green flickers that had been teasing the sky for hours. The entire show lasted fewer than ten seconds, a strange and beautiful phenomenon which reminded Trinity of photographs she'd seen of Northern Lights glowing over the Alaskan mountains.

Aurora. Incredibly, the sky's joyful chorus of colour and light seemed to sing her name. Trinity had chosen it with care as not only a tribute to the brief glimpse of the sun her that first child's death had afforded her but also as a prayer at that one day her second child, the one who lived, would see it for herself.

"It should be Rorie standing here," Trinity realized, speaking more to herself than to Neo. "This… all this was meant for her."

"Oh, she'll see it. Something tells me we won't be the last people to watch this," Neo said, still looking up, eyes wide with wonder. "At least I hope not."

"But she could have been here with us, Neo. It was her dream to discover it." Trinity shook her head at the missed opportunity. "She was the only one who thought this was possible. The only one who really believed it. I should have… I should have trusted her, as you did."

"Hey, look at me." Neo pulled his wife closer, squeezing her shoulders in a sign of support. "This isn't easy. I don't think it's supposed to be. Knowing when to protect her, and knowing when to just let her go? The possibility of something happening to her terrifies me, too. But lately she's become so…" he gesticulated as if to materialize words out of the air, "so much like you."

Trinity raised an eyebrow at the comparison, but Neo continued before she could object. "It's the fight in her, I think. You should have seen Rorie yesterday when she told me she was dropping out. It was like when you told me you were going to design, engineer and build a fleet of thirty hovercraft while pregnant. She didn't give me a choice. The two of you aren't happy unless you're not only pushing the envelope, but tearing right through it. And God help anybody who gets in the way. And by 'anybody,' I mean me."

Neo was smiling at her with the genuine adoration that he reserved exclusively for his wife and daughter, the only two women who merited such unconditional love. And although Trinity didn't completely accept the validity of his argument, the compliment was well received. She hugged him, silently thanking whatever divine influence had brought him into her life, deciding once again to put her faith in his judgement. They were stronger together, and her instincts told her that now more than ever, they were going to need each other.

"Do you think she'll ever forgive me, Neo?" Trinity asked, wanting more than anything to hear him reassure her. As always, he was happy to oblige.

"Are you kidding? If you catch her one of those dragonflies, she'll probably throw a party in your honour," Neo said, nudging her in jest. "Actually, Knight spent his entire break trying to catch a bullfrog for her. Gave the crew a good laugh."

"He's getting her a frog?" Trinity scoffed. A forest full of exotic flowers and Romeo opts for a bouquet of amphibians. It was hopeless…

"I said he tried to catch one."

...absolutely hopeless. "Now I know the Oracle was pulling my leg."

"About what?"

"Nothing." Trinity grinned in spite of herself. "It doesn't matter. Or at least it won't if we can't find a way home. I came down here hoping to find some faster moving water for our turbine. But I can't see around that bend from here, and hiking to the other side would take at least four or five hours."

"But we don't have to get to the other side," Neo said, lifting his top over his head and tossing it back onto the shore. "We just have to get halfway there."

Trinity stared at his bare chest, alarmed. "What are you suggesting?"

"Come on, I'll race you." He took her hand and began to drag her farther into the water. "Besides, we could use a bath."

She pulled back, frantically trying to twist her arm free. "No, Neo… it's cold! And I've never actually gone swimming before!"

"I'll teach you."

"But neither have you! And… we don't know what's in there!"

"Electric eels, sharks, piranhas, the Loch Ness monster … but we've lived through worse. Where's your sense of adventure, Captain-T?"

Despite her vehement objections, Neo grabbed Trinity around her waist, lifted her off her feet and tossed her into the lake. The splash alone drenched him, and Trinity's top half emerged from the water, shirt clinging to her chest, a lily pad tangled in her matted hair. She let out several breaths of outrage, half gasping, half screeching, and had Neo not already jumped in himself, she would have chased him down and, and by means of some unimaginable torture, forced submersion upon him.

"You'd better hope you can swim!" she yelled, picking the slimy green plant off her head and hurrying after him. "Because if I catch you, I'll drown you!"

And so it was – in this land of silver birches, mist covered mountains, unrealized riches and undiscovered dangers, the Captain chased her First Mate into the lake's virgin waters. Splashing and laughing, they met in the center, where he let her force his head below the surface in retribution. Once satisfied he was justly punished, Trinity pulled him close and kissed him, barely staying afloat herself as their legs intertwined and her hands tried to keep his from sneaking under her top.

Genesis had cast its spell; the lovers were reunited, and not a moment too soon. Dusk had fallen, and the shadowed shore surrounded them, a chiselled black horizon against the indigo sky. It was only under the cover of night that the principle inhabitants of this forest dared to crawl from their burrows, camouflaged from sight save for their tiny golden eyes, sometimes four, five or six to a creature. They peeked out from behind rocks, logs, tree trunks and other such hiding places, studying the two bipeds treading water in the center of their favourite source of dihydrogen oxide. This was highly unusual…

Neo pulled his lips from Trinity's and peered around. He could feel them. He knew they were there.

"Neo? What's wrong?"

"We should get back," he replied, uneasy.

"You're right. We shouldn't have left the crew alone."

"That's just it," Neo said, starting towards the shore. "I'm not so sure they are alone."