"Hello?"

She took a long breath. "It's me," she said.

The intercom crackled emptily for a long moment, oceanic white noise. Then the buzzer went.

He was standing at the door to the apartment as she left the elevator. Red-rimmed eyes with dark shadows beneath. Unshaven. The tee crumpled, and the sweatpants worse. She shook her head as she looked at him.

"Jesus, Zach."

He tried to smile. "Yeah, well. Dunno if you heard, but I got dumped. Liked her a lot. Kind of threw me."

"Zach..."

"Sorry, sorry. Bad joke." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Look, you were right, it's for the best, if you were never..." he trailed off, then tried again. "I'll be fine - shit happens, you know? S'just the wound-licking phase. You didn't need to come over, Kenz. I'd hate you to feel worse."

"No, I did. We need to talk."

"Take it you've not had a change of heart?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"You're not pregnant?"

She blinked. "What?"

"No again. Okay." He pulled the door wider to let her pass. "You better come in."

The apartment looked like a bomb had gone off, leaving no survivors. His comforter on the couch, CNN on mute. Chip packets and takeout containers littering every surface. Empty cigarette packets. And bottles. Way, way too many bottles.

She bit her lip. "Christ."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's kind of a mess."

She raised her eyebrows, looking around, and then sighed and shook her head. "I just wish I'd known earlier."

"You'd never have dated me if I'd told you," he said at once.

"No," she agreed. "And then you wouldn't feel this way."

"I don't regret it. Not for a second. Best thing that ever happened to me. I meant it, you know - I haven't ever been so happy before."

She flinched a little, and his face softened, looking at her. "It's okay, I won't go on. Don't want to make you uncomfortable. Just... tell me you don't regret it, either?" There was a silence, and he swallowed, before venturing, "Kenz?"

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice gentle. "I can't."

His eyes filled with tears. He wiped them angrily with his fists. "God, ignore me. I'm being pathetic."

"I just want you to be okay."

"Then please," he said, his voice raw. "Just - don't. Not that you wish it'd never happened at all. Was it so very bad, what we had?"

"Of course it wasn't. It wasn't bad, period. You're great."

He put a hand out, cupped her face tenderly. "Kenz..." but she retreated at once, her face instantly expressionless.

"I'm sorry, I just..." he stopped, plainly trying to hold back tears. "Look, this is too soon. For this conversation. I can't be this way with you - please, you should go. Just give me a little time. We can talk more in a couple weeks."

But she shook her head. "We can't. I'm leaving in the next few days. I've quit work already."

He blinked. "You did what?"

"I have a life elsewhere. I need to get back to it. This - here - it's over, for me."

"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense."

"This isn't where I want to be. I remember, now. Who I am. Where I belong. And I need to go home."

"Okay, Kenz?" he said, awkward now. "You're really starting to scare me. This just - you really aren't making sense. Where is home? And what d'you mean, you didn't know who you were? You always knew exactly who the hell you were. You're one of the most grounded people I ever met."

"I wasn't. I was just good at faking it." She sighed. "I was... well, brain injured. Making bad choices."

He stared at her for a long, horrible moment. "Let me get this straight. You're saying you only dated me from brain damage?" He sat down heavily. "Jesus Christ."

"No, Of course not. But I couldn't remember things - important things. Important people." She paused, and then said, "One, especially."

He thought for a moment, chewing his lip as he processed this, then suddenly he froze. "Oh no," he said, and began shaking his head. "Kenz. Please just tell me I have this wrong."

"I'm sorry. I don't think I can."

"There's someone else?"

She nodded, her eyes on his.

"But... it's not serious." He couldn't keep the pleading edge from his voice. "I mean if you didn't even remember the guy, then it can't be, right?"

"Very serious."

His face crumpled. "But you said... you said you didn't do serious. You said you didn't like being dependent. You said..." his voice broke, thick with misery, and he squeezed his eyes shut to quell the tears. Then he said, his voice barely a whisper, "You said you didn't do falling in love."

"I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"You're in love with this guy now?"

"Yes, I am." She wouldn't apologize for that. However much she wanted to spare Zach hurt, she'd never apologize for Neo.

"And this is going to be, what, longterm?"

"It's permanent."

"You're engaged?" He put a shaking hand over his eyes.

She was silent then, thinking. Everyone in Zion already knew - always had known. Predestined lovers, resurrection - it tended to have that effect on people. And she'd never needed evidence, herself. Her love for Neo had always been so intense, so overwhelming, that nothing else had ever really mattered, not since the day they'd met. It had taken him a little longer - but not much. Loving one another was fundamental to who they were. So what point would there be, in a ring and some words - it would only rubber-stamp a much larger reality. But to say as much to Zach - to admit they'd never bother with marriage, never see the point in a legal tie - might be to give him false hope.

"This is it, for us," she said at last. "There'll never be anyone else. There could never be."

The hand dropped from his face as he raised his eyes in shock. "But there has been," he said. "Me."

"No," she said, as gently as she could. "Not really."

"So what, the past month just never fucking happened?" His voice became more high-pitched, choked; misery and anger battling for dominance. "I just dreamed it all now? You're telling me I never made love to you at all?"

"No, Zach. You didn't." She sighed, looking at his uncomprehending, furious face, and amended it to something he could understand. "That wasn't what it was. And in time, you'll see that as clearly as I do."

He slammed away from her then, across the room. "You know something?" he said, struggling to keep it together, "Keep right on going, Kenz. Because if this is some kind of aversion therapy, then Christ, is it working. What the fuck - you telling me that we were just some kind of blip, now I'm making your marital project less than perfectly symmetrical? Tidy-minded, hey, always great with the algorithms. Well, you can't just delete this. Because you slept with me - it happened - and at the time, you weren't fucking complaining. And whatever you want to call it now, however you try to dress it up, I was making love to you. I had no fucking idea it was just you cheating on your boyfriend. I thought I was your boyfriend. You can't edit that out; this isn't fucking code. This is human and messy and complicated and real."

"I lost my memory," she said, gently inexorable. "I lost him." If he was to choose red, he needed to know. She was under no illusions; he'd not be able to avoid hearing about Neo in Zion, nor their relationship. And once Zach was freed, there'd be no way back. No escape. "But even before I remembered - even when I'd lost what we had - I knew I loved him, and how much. I love him absolutely, Zach. More than I knew I was capable of loving anyone. It was the first thing to come back to me. It's the most important, I guess, in knowing who I am. And nothing - nothing that did, or didn't happen with you - changes that. Nothing ever could change it."

He was staring at her now, his face utterly incredulous. "Jesus wept - who the hell are you? You sound like some fucking stupid teenager - you should hear yourself! You sound fucking ridiculous - this isn't you."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," she said, her voice kind, yet detached.

"Mmm. You sound it. Slept with him yet?"

"That's between him and me."

"We broke up ten days ago." His voice was hoarse. "Is it so unreasonable, to want to know?"

She paused, and then said quietly, "Yes."

He stared at her for a few minutes. Then he said abruptly, "This guy. He knows about me?"

"Of course."

"And you're telling me he's totally okay with it? With you fucking someone else?"

She bit back her instinctive response; that Neo's feelings were none of his damn business. Zach's reaction was normal. Human. She knew that, and didn't resent it. But it also threw Neo's generosity of spirit into sharp relief - all he'd cared about was her. About convincing her that nothing had changed, that his trust in her hadn't been shaken, that she was, still, quite unfathomably loved. He'd never had the least shading of selfishness, of egotism, and even now, even confronted by this, the very last person he'd considered was himself. She knew, quite definitely, that she'd never loved him more.

"He understands," she said eventually.

Zach laughed then, a laugh of pure disbelief, but he didn't argue. "Who is he?" he said instead.

"Does it matter?"

"You know, for an intelligent woman you're saying some unbelievably fucking stupid things. Who is he?"

She looked at him for a moment, her expression unreadable. "Neo," she said. "His name is Neo."

"Neo?"

She nodded.

"As in, the hacker, Neo?"

"Yes."

He paused for a moment, thinking, then froze. "Oh, holy fuck. Online, he hangs out with... Trinity."

She nodded again, watching him.

He passed the back of his hand over his mouth. "Oh my God."

She sighed, and waited.

"You. You're Trinity. The Trinity - that cracked the IRS. You... you have to be. You are, aren't you?"

"That's me."

"Which means - it's him. It is, isn't it? He told me. That he knew her. That she was a chick. And just the way he talked about her... it was obvious that he was into her. That he was totally fucking crazy about her."

She said nothing.

"You were there, weren't you? On Saturday. Went over to say goodbye - said he had her there - that was you?"

"Yes."

"But... I talked to him about you! Jesus, I told him everything! He saw us getting together, and then dating, and I told him I was in love with you and he said nothing - nothing. What the hell? What the hell is going on?"

"He had his reasons."

"Oh, I just bet he did. What, that his thing? You screwing other guys? D'you tell him all about it afterwards - that what gets him off? Jesus." He was shaking now. "This is just fucking twisted. So, so, so sick."

Met by silence, eventually he looked over and his stomach promptly lurched. Her eyes were glittering, and she was standing in a way that genuinely scared him. He remembered with a jolt that the authorities had strongly advised against ever approaching the mysterious Trinity. Trinity, it was said, was potentially extremely dangerous.

"You," she said, and something in her voice sent chills down his spine, "are not to speak about him like that. Ever."

"But this is - Christ. How can you be in love with a guy who doesn't even give a flying fuck if you sleep with his friend?" His voice was pleading now. "Please, just think about it. How can he love you? He can't. You deserve a million times better than that - you deserve someone who'll love you back, who'll always value you, put you first. Mackenzie... I love you, and you want me to feel sorry for him? Jesus, how can you not see it?"

"We screwed for a bit, you and I," she said coldly. "You can try to romanticize it, but that's the truth. It's all it ever was. And Neo... my God, you have no idea. What we have together. And this - you - could have been a hand grenade into that. He's had to watch me with someone else - I didn't even know who the hell he was - and even then, even after that, he's shown me nothing but love. He's done nothing - nothing - but think of me, so don't you fucking dare to criticize him."

"So why didn't he say something! He was my friend, I wouldn't do that, if I'd just known..."

"He was told that forcing my memories could damage me - to leave me alone until I remembered for myself. No matter what. He couldn't even risk you knowing, in case your reaction tipped me off. It was for me, all of it. Even that, he'd do for me."

"He let you date me, so you didn't remember him? But that's insane!"

"He'd do anything for me." She sighed then, a little sadly. "He'd do more than he should for anyone. He's the most unselfish man alive."

"Jesus Christ."

"So some say."

"What?"

She shrugged. He'd soon find out. "Nevermind."

"This what you came to tell me? You have the perfect relationship with the perfect guy, and you're sorry you messed up, slumming with me, but hey, shit happens?" He turned away and sank down on the couch, his head in his hands. "Well, I guess you can go now. Your work here is done."

"No," she said, unable to quell the irritation. "No, it's not what I came for. That's what you had to know, before I told you what I came for."

He slumped back and closed his eyes. "I can hardly wait. So. What's the next joyous revelation?"

"The Matrix," she said. "Do you still want to know what it is?"