Chapter 16
Author's Note: This is the last chapter I post before I come home... 'Til next one, I'll be home!
He looked at himself in the mirror, running his hand through his still wet hair. He wiped the droplets from his face with the towel he had previously used and looked around in the room, searching for the shirt he had laid out before to wear this evening. He went over to the desk where he had placed it and pulled it on, feeling the comfort of putting warm, clean clothes on, as an opposition to what he was used to putting on himself on the ship.
He looked at himself in the mirror again, messing his hair up with both hands now. It wasn't long since Trinity had cut if for him, and for that he was thankful… he had never liked when it had gotten so long that it hung in his eyes, like his artificial mother had always loved on him when he had been little inside the Matrix.
Now, he was just little in the world, really.
He knew it wasn't quite true, either.
He was the One, the god damned Savior of the people, the Protector of the very city he was in right now. The only city that mattered, the only real city, the only city that was left.
Standing here, looking at his reflection in the mirror, all he could see was a lost human being, staring right back at him.
But someone was not going to let him ponder over it for any longer, not in that moment.
Two loud ' PANG's woke him up from his train of thought, and he went over to answer whoever was knocking on the door. He opened it, and outside one of the Counsellors servants stood, arms crossed in front of him.
" The Council has requested your presence for a short while, sir, " he said and Neo rubbed the back of his neck, it itching from drying.
" Why do they want to see me?" he asked, and the servant cleared his throat, refusing to meet his eyes, which Neo found unnerving.
" They want to ask you something regarding today's' earlier simulation, sir… Will you please come with me, sir?"
Neo nodded. " Just give me a minute, and I'll be right with you, " he answered, and rushed into the apartment again. He walked over to the small shower room they shared, and knocked on the door, then opened it. He looked around, finding Trinity still standing in the shower, and he smiled at the fact that she loved and precioused her long showers.
" Trinity, " he began as he walked over to her, " I have to go for a while, the Council wants to talk with me about something…" She rubbed the water out of her eyes, and looked at him through the curtain. She sighed, knowing he would not hear it but see it through the sound of the steaming water, and he blinked with his eyes, knowing that she had looked forward to this evening.
" Apparently, it is only for a short while… meet you at the dance?" Trinity nodded, and managed a smile. She was not irritated on him, she could never manage that, she was just irritated on that fact that they would never leave him alone. Leave them alone.
He reached out and out his hand on the curtain that separated them, and her hand quickly found the spot, feeling the warmth of his hand through the fabric. She smiled again, as they both leaned forward to the curtain and placed their lips against it, kissing each other through a layer…
… something their love lacked, thankfully.
With a last look into her eyes, Neo exited the room and the apartment, and began following the boy though the crowded streets. Apparently, many were going out tonight, and all were as excited as Neo intentionally was. But as he lost himself in thoughts of the Council's tests, he ignored the people around him as they walked on.
The whole situation seemed hopeless, sometimes. It would always be the same thing, asking him the same questions… but he could never remember them having a meeting in the evening, usually they discussed everything together at once after his little ' demonstrations'. And he could never remember them asking for him back, so that they could ask him something, either… but before, he had always met up with them the day after, but this time he figured that it must me urgent.
He was fumbling in the dark of a territory he knew, as if he was blind. And all the Counsellors did various tests on him, watched what his body monitors would say, and put him through various scenarios to study his neural brainwaves. As they were searching, he found himself blind, sometimes.
And a blind one doesn't ever thank you for handing them a mirror, he thought.
If I am blind, and they are blind in insight to me, then we're both blind.
And when a blind one is leading a blind one, he thought, both are going to fall into the pit.