"In my dreams…sometimes…I see Trinity, and something happens, something bad. She starts to fall, and I want to scream…but I can't. And I want to move…to save her, but I can't."

Neo is smiling, he is happy even if he speaks of such sad things. He is happy because he's dreams of Trinity, if nothing else he dreams of her. He whispers to himself in his bed, knowing that Smith is asleep. He waited until he was asleep, because he likes to tell himself about his dreams, so he won't forget them.

"But there's another thing…It's getting more and more difficult to see her face. I used to see all the time, and recognize it so well. But…I don't know, I can't see it as clearly as I did, and it's harder to remember. I know Michelle isn't Trinity, but when I try really hard to form her face…Sometimes all I see Michelle…."

Perhaps Neo is telling his new ceiling about his dreams, like he used to in his old padded cell. He smiles up at the ceiling that is slightly shown from the light of the full moon.

He watched Michelle leave that day. When Smith and he told everyone they should practice and they had to leave. Michelle said she was going to go comfort her mother in the passing of her brother. She seemed sad. And Neo walked with her for a while as far as his cell with her. He said goodbye to her, and he saw in the setting sun Michelle driving away, back to her home. He imagined her home, and her bed. It all seemed so warm and familiar to him. But Smith seemed very annoyed with him, and he didn't like it. Neo always knew if Smith was annoyed it really meant he was pretty angry, just not allowing himself to seem that way.

To make it up to Smith he spoke with him, as much as Smith allowed him to. Smith asked questions about his dreams, and Neo explained them, leaving out the fact that most of them had Trinity in it. Smith still seemed annoyed and went to bed rather early. Neo was sad. Smith was sad. Michelle was sad. Neo's entire world was sad on such a happy day.

He would have thought about it some more and how he could make it better, but he had already fallen asleep into his own little dream world where people seem to always die.

---------

There wasn't any noise when he woke up. It was so quiet Smith had tried to go back to sleep. But…he couldn't. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, it was just…something…something wouldn't allow him to. He felt something in the back of his mind, screaming at him not to go to sleep. Something…grabbing at him. Some kind of tingling feeling, the sane get that makes their hairs on the back of their neck, stand up. And for a time, as Smith laid on his side, looking at the wall, he could have sworn someone was there, behind him. Believing it was a doctor, Smith did nothing, but as time passed he knew it wasn't that. It wasn't Neo, it was something horrible. And as he believed it crept closer, Smith swung his arm around, ready to hit whoever was there. And when he looked back, there was only emptiness and Neo.

And Neo was shaking.

Not thrashing but shaking slightly all over. His hands were gripping his sheets, his entire self, tightened up, and still he shook. And in his sleep he shook his head. Smith sat close to him, watching him closely. Smith didn't know if he should wake him. He wondered if it was Neo that wasn't letting him go back to sleep. He had never before been woken up by Neo's dreams, and often didn't believe they were as bad as Neo told. But now...now Smith believes.

Then Neo began mumbling, quietly, too quietly to understand.

Neo begins shaking his head harder.

"No..." Neo whispers.

He's biting his tongue. He's trying not to scream, trying to keep it in. He's trying not to say anything, how can he,he can't, he can't speak. There's nothing he can say to make any of this better. He has no mouth, there is nothing he can do. He knows this and now all he wants to do is scream. Scream and make it go away, make it all go away. He's shaking his head, and kicking away his covers, he's squeezing the sheets, and he's pushing up on his bed. He's trying to let it go, scream and scream, he arches his back, just want to scream.

"No...no...no...No! No! No! No!" He screams.

Smith is thrown back by the sudden screaming, and grabs at Neo.

"I will not be used! I will not be used!"

"Neo!"

"Stop it! Stop it! You can't use me!"

"Neo!"

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!"

Thrashing, thrashing at it all, kill it, choke it to death, just make it go away. Finally Smith pulls at his arm and pushes down on his chest so he falls back to the bed, and he covers Neo's mouth.

"Neo! It's me!" Smith yells into his ear.

Neo still doesn't open his eyes. He only calms down, and lays his head back down, slowly loosening his hands and legs which are still raised. He breathes deeply, and still shakes his head.

"Smith?" He whispers, clearly afraid.

"Yes, Neo. Open your eyes." Smith tells him.

"What will I see?" Neo says quietly.

Smith was going to ask him what he meant, but he knew already. He was afraid, Neo was afraid what he would wake up to. That hellish city again or to the asylum. Both were not so great, but at least Neo would not see people dying anymore.

"We're here, in our cell, at the asylum." Smith told him.

Neo was still shaking, as he grabbed at Smith's wrist.

"I'm scared." Neo told him.

And Neo opened those brown eyes of him.

"What happened?" Smith asked.

"What do you mean?" Neo asked confused.

"You were yelling 'I will not be used.'" Smith explained.

Neo frowned at him, and sat up, not letting go of Smith's wrist. He dragged Smith to sit on his bed next to him, and he looked at him in fear. Neo shook his head.

"I can't remember this one…." Neo told him. "I remember…seeing myself unlike most of the time…and I wanted…to scream, but…everything else I can remember in such detail! I can see it again and again in my head! But this one Smith! This one I can't remember! I know! There was someone telling me things, and I wanted him to stop, and I wanted…I…"

"He was using you." Smith said.

"No! It wasn't just him! I felt like they were all using me!"

"Who?"

"Everyone! Like my entire life I was just…planned out in front of me, and I was supposed to do this for everyone! But…I didn't want to Smith! They couldn't make me! They couldn't use me like this!"

Neo's hand is shaking, and he's looking at Smith as if wanting him to make it all go away, to explain everything to him, to make it all better and make it reasonable. He's breathing deeply, as if he was going to cry, and he looked up in the darkness and closed his eyes. He still gripped on Smith's wrist and he wasn't going to let go, he curled up into a ball like he always did, and he made sure Smith was still there. He made sure they wouldn't take Smith away, he made sure Smith was with him, and was always going to be with him, to make everyone just go away. Smith was there so they couldn't use him again.

Smith sat next to him, unsure of what to do. He could only stare at Neo, and for a time he felt utterly helpless. All Smith could do was let Neo hang on to his wrist, and stay there with him. He wanted there to be something more he could have done. He wanted someone there to tell him what he should do, what was his next step. But all he could do was just stay there. And he did, he did the entire night, until Aaron came with a red pill and a blue pill.

------------

"I'm sorry I kept you up all night." Neo said to Smith as he followed him again.

"It is fine." Smith said.

Neo lowered his head. He was sad, he was scared, and becoming a little paranoid. He looked at things differently than yesterday, and he had his hands around his arms, and he seemed all around depressed. He still held Smith's wrist as Smith walked in front of him until he stopped at a little bench near the cafeteria.

Smith sat Neo down, pushing him onto the seat and soon sat next to him. Neo swayed from side to side for a second as if he was dizzy, and soon came to lean on Smith's shoulder. Smith nudged him off and turned to him. Smith took a moment where there was nothing but silence to think of what he could say to Neo. But Smith found nothing and he only closed his mouth, and Neo returned to leaning on his shoulder.

Neo looked at his hands and the hung and sat on his lap, and he hung his head down, traumatized from his whole ordeal. He didn't understand it though. He had never been so…violated so afraid of his dreams. Even as he stood and watched people die he was never so…so…shaken by it all. People died in his dreams he had gotten used to it somehow. But this dream…this one he couldn't remember so clearly, this one was different than the rest. People didn't die, there were no other people. It was only him, and he was alone, watching his entire life on the screens of small televisions. He felt…like a puppet. Like his existence did not matter, that he was just…a little spec of dust. Neo started curling up into a ball but Smith stopped him.

"Maybe we can do something that will make you feel better." Smith said.

Smith lowered his head to try and get Neo to look at him.

"Michelle will want another lesson…." Smith said reluctantly.

"Trinity…." Neo whispered.

Smith frowned, it seemed all his attempts were useless.

"You have to pull yourself together, Mr. Anderson. People are going to take notice of your behavior…The doctors, they'll take you away." Smith told him.

But this only made Neo more scared, and Smith saw his fault.

"It's okay, it's okay." Smith tried. "We…should get your mind off this. Wait here, I'll go look for something we can do."

Smith rose to his feet, and had to get Neo to let go of his wrist. Neo frowned and began falling over to his right, and Smith had to push him back up, and try to balance him. And this, was very, very worrying. Smith stood there for a moment, making sure Neo wouldn't fall over, and frowning. Neo…didn't see the frown, he was looking at the ground, his mind somewhere far away. And still, there was nothing Smith could have said.

But he did wonder for a moment, where Neo really was.

And in the next moment, he wanted to go there too.

Smith walked away.

There was a bulletin board near the cafeteria that always listed daily activities that were rather dull, but at least they were something to do. There were other things on the board Smith really didn't care about, and had no idea what they meant. There was however a map, that he did take time to look at, and he did notice the Criminal Insane area. But there was a rather long list of activities, more than he had expected. He put his hand to his chin, and he had no idea what Neo would want to do. He didn't care, it didn't matter, anything would have sufficed, anything that would get Neo back from wherever he was.

"What's wrong with Neo?"

Smith nearly jumped back out of surprise as he turned to see Michael staring up at him.

"Excuse me?" Smith coughed.

"What's wrong with Neo, he seems…down…"

Michael was never really good at socializing, it was all due to being very shy as a young child. He stared up at Smith, his hands shaking behind his back, and his knees were almost buckling. He would never have spoken up to Smith, but he couldn't do it to Neo, he just…couldn't.

"He…didn't have a good night's sleep." Smith explained.

"Oh…"

Michael had more to say, but it wasn't coming out of his mouth. Smith, assuming their little meeting was over went back to studying the list.

"What are you looking at?" Michael asked.

"…Activities." Smith said, rather annoyed. "…For Neo."

"Oh! You should try the Art class! He'll love it! I'm in that, it's really neat, I think we're painting today, but it's non-toxic paint right, but it's really cool, you do know the color wheel right? The teacher, she's nice, taught it to us last week, and well…"

Something within Michael just sparked and the Kid who never spoke, and so much to say. Sadly Smith put up his hand to stop him.

"Art class?" Smith asked, and Michael nodded. "When?"

"In an hour, just down the hall past the Library, you can't miss it!"

------------

"Art class?" Neo whispered.

"Yes." Smith nodded.

"Can't I just go back to bed?"

"And what? Sleep?"

"…No…think…"

"No, Mr. Anderson."

"But…"

------------

When they got there, there weren't that many people there, and it was all very quiet. It wasn't a big room anyway, but everyone was assigned a canvas and were sat in a circle and the teacher would be in the middle. There were the three basic colors in front of them, extra secondary colors were being passed around if no one wanted to mix their colors. Neo didn't particularly like the classroom, for an art class it was very white, just like everything else in that Asylum. Their teacher was Ms. Cas, who spoke very nice and slowly.

Neo sat there, and saw Michael hiding behind his canvas. Smith meanwhile was standing in the corner, he didn't feel like painting.

It was very quick, too quick in fact, Neo didn't know what to do. Paint? He doesn't remember painting, what is he supposed to paint? Neo sat and stared at the empty canvas, in all its white glory. He hated the white. He wanted to put something on it, just to make the white go away, too much in that place was white. But there was nothing Neo could think of, so he stared at it, and he waited until the canvas would stop being white.

"Here, sir, you can sit and paint if you like, there's an extra seat." Ms. Cas said walking over to Smith.

"Oh, no thank you, I'm only here to observe."

"Oh, but everyone needs to paint and express themselves."

"There's nothing I wish to express to you." Smith said annoyed.

"Nonsense sir, painting helps lift the soul. You can paint anything you like, anything at all, and we'll hang it up later in the staff hallway." Ms. Cas smiled.

"I don't want to." Smith continued.

"If you paint, you'll feel better."

"I sincerely doubt that."

Neo watched for a moment Smith bicker with the teacher, it made him want to smile, and Neo was quite happy that his question was answered without him having to really ask. So Neo picked up his paintbrush, and looked at the rather large canvas. He turned it on its side, and decided to start with some red, and saved some green for later.

There aren't many people in this class, and they are painting rather simply things. A dog, a bird in a tree, Michael paints a robot. He likes robots. Smith was defeated by the Ms. Cas, and was given a seat next to Neo to paint. Neo told him not to look at his painting until he was done, and Smith asked what he should paint.

Smith considered what most people paint, they paint things they know, things that they can recognize, and often things that are very close to him. Smith began thinking of what he could paint. This took critical thinking on Smith's part, as he admits he is not the most creative person, but he did know what he didn't want to paint. A dog, and birds, these were simple things. In the end though, Smith's painting would look the most simple, even though it means so much more to him.

Others finished far before Neo, as he seemed to be in a bit of moment. And from sadness he had been taken into excitement, and he was painting much faster. He knew what he wanted to paint, he knew exactly what it looked like. It was a strange thing, and people were crowding around Neo to watch him. Michael would try jumping over the crowd, but found it easiest to just crawl beneath them.

"Hi, Kid!" Neo waved at him on the floor.

Michael crawled back into the crowd and ran away. Neo frowned.

And when it was all done, Neo had some paint on his cheek, and some in his hair, but he didn't really notice. When it was over, people cheered for him, and many of the sane, once again questioned Neo's sanity, and his happy smile.

-------------

"It…looks like a battle." Smith said.

They stood in the staff hallway, even if they weren't allowed, but Neo said he wanted to see his painting hung up.

"It is." Neo said, no longer happy. "It's…the last one."

Neo was a bit happy, and wondered now that since he put this dream on a canvas that maybe it would stop haunting his dreams. But he was more sad than anything again. He remembered the fear he had earlier, and it came back to him. And he hated his painting now, he hated it. It was so horrible, it showed so much pain, why would he make such a thing? Why did he have to see such things? Now the whole world had to see what he saw…but at least Smith could see now, and understand why he wakes up so often in the middle of the night. Neo frowned at his painting, and after he was done looking at it, he would go to his bed in his cell, so he wouldn't have to look at it, and no one would have to look at him. Especially Trinity.

They stood, staring up at Neo's painting, made with so much red. It was a city, burning. A city deep underground, near the core of the Earth where it was still warm. A city, the last city, built into the caves of the Earth. Old and rusty metal used to make the dock, the ships are all gone, Neo isn't exactly sure where they are. There is so much fire, and so much blood. The world is on fire, just like Neo said. And there's…a swarm of something, that Neo calls machines, they're tearing throughout the city. To the right of the canvas was the city's main communication building, and to the left are the swarm of machines circling around it, and below is the fire, and the bodies, and the blood. But near the top…near the top it is green, green coding and it fades into the red and black of the city. Though he didn't have that long to finish it, and put in details, and most things were blurry, but it was still amazing.

"It was a war?" Smith asked.

"Yes…this is what is in my dreams, Smith. This is what I see, and I watch…" Neo said.

"Who won?"

"I…don't know."

Smith looked back to the painting and sighed.

"This place, is a dream world. A prison for the mind, and we are caught in it. Agents work for the dream world, they locked us up in here. And, we are survivors of a war?" Smith tried to clear up.

"This place wasn't in the Matrix, Smith. It was outside of it. We. We, were outside of it."

"From the look of it, I think it's safe to say these…machines are the keepers of the Matrix. If the Matrix is indeed a prison." Smith looked to Neo. "And if this dream is a memory, and there was a war."

Neo only nodded.

"What is that green code at the top?" Smith asked.

"I have no idea." Neo admitted. "…What about your painting?"

Smith's painting was of spirals…three spirals going across the page. Three spirals, the circles growing in size, then disappearing again. The beginning of these spirals is unsure, nor is the end. Smith only knows, whatever made them, went very, very fast.

"I don't know what it is, but I've seen it before." Smith said.

-------------

Talk of Neo's painting spread quite quickly. It was described as a nightmare, a burning hell, with demons, insect machines flying across the sky, if at all there was a sky in the painting. It went through to a Frenchman who sees demons, and it made him grin. The talk of flames spread to a little pyro who wants to see this fire so bad. And Michael…Michael who actually saw it, he doesn't know what to really think of it. The speaking of the painting soon reached the sane, who gazed upon it in their insane-free hallway. And they stared at it, and were once again afraid of Neo.

"Neo…painted this?" Michelle, Trinity asked.

"Yeah, yeah he did." Aaron told her.

Michelle, Trinity, put her hand to her mouth in fear. She didn't know what to say about it, what to think about it. Neo…Neo the man that seemed so happy and sad to see her, did he really think of these things? A hell? A decaying city? So many people dying…? Was Neo always like this? Did he always think such horrible and dark things? How could that be? How…could Neo who smiles at her, who dreams of her, think of these horrible things?

Michelle was going to stay cautious to Neo, she knew she had to now. Who knew what the madman was capable of? Who knew what he really was planning?

Soon the painting had spread to the doctors, they ordered it taken away, and given to them for study.

--------------

Next Chapter: As One

Preview to next chapter:

"Excuse, me. Miss, we're looking for a friend, we think he might be staying here."

"Oh, may I have your names?"

"Jones, Matt Jones, and he's Adam..."

"Brown." The one behind him said, looking at all the insane people.