He stood in the rain, he stood on air in the rain. He breathed in deep as the water fell like bullets on his skin, and he saw two men in suits below him. He walked down to them, walking on the air like it was an invisible staircase. He thought them to be Agents but one, the shorter one smiled up at him when he came close.

"You must stop him." The tall one said.

"Who?" Neo asked them.

"This is not right." The shorter one said.

"He is not the same."

"We should have stopped him."

"When we could have."

"We did not know."

"We did not understand."

"But you, Neo, you can stop him now."

"Who are you guys talking about!?" Neo screamed.

"You can do it."

"For you are a part of him."

"And he you."

"Who are you!?" Neo tried.

The two men looked at each other for a brief moment.

"He's waiting for you."

"You can do this."

"You can free him!"

"No more waiting!"

"Get out, now!"

The lighting struck, and the dream faded away.

What a strange dream. So strange Neo had put it in the back of his mind. He didn't think about it, he didn't want to think about it. He didn't even allow it the right to exist. To him, there was no dream, no memory. He lied to himself, and he was fine with not telling him that he was lying.

He had enough to think about anyway.

He had to find out a way to get out of there, both him and Smith.

Neo felt. He was human, and all the things that made up a human. He was flesh, and he was blood. He was the pigments that made up the pale color of his skin, and brown of his eyes. He was the heart that was made up of cardiac muscle, electrically pumped. He was the muscles and the fibers that made him up. He was the bone within these muscles, and the marrow within those bones. He was the brain that gave life to the rest of him. He was the mind that was beyond such binding organs. Neo was Neo.

Neo was staring at his hand, knowing he wasn't looking at it, knowing somewhere in the Real World he was but a man in a red pod giving life to his machine keepers. He knew that he wasn't really staring at his hand, and what was before him was not even a hand, it was nothing. But he couldn't keep his eyes off of it. His hand. His hand that touched the world that was not the world. He stared at it, and stared at it, and stared at it. Until he thought he saw beyond his hand.

Until he saw nothing but green.

"You bastard…"

Neo looked up to see Armel in his doorway the green lights which had just dazzled him faded away.

"He wasn't supposed to be the one!" Armel pointed at him.

"What?" Neo whispered.

"He wasn't supposed to be the one to go insane! He wasn't supposed to be the one locked up! You were! He was supposed to work for me!"

"Armel what are you…"

"You did this to him, you god damn demon! You and your Matrix!"

"What!?"

"You drove him mad! You infected him!" Armel runs at Neo.

"I didn't do anything!" Neo screams.

"DEMON!"

"I am not a demon!" Neo yelled back at him.

"What's going on?" Came the voice of Michelle.

The two men looked back at the door to see her standing there with a tray of food. Armel's mouth dropped at he slowly turned back to Neo, hatred burning in his eyes. Finally he stood up and brushed himself off.

"Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas anglais." Armel spoke in his native tongue. "Excuse in moi, I…em…do not speak English."

He spoke not pronouncing the words correctly, and never saying the ends of them as if he were still a Frenchman back home in that small village with his girlfriend when he was thirteen and the world had no guns. Armel turned back to Neo and waved his hand.

"Je vous déteste et souhaite que vous mouriez!" Armel yelled before storming out, pushing Michelle aside.

Michelle watched and turned back to Neo who seemed shaken by the entire thing. She came in and sat next to him on the bed, laying a tray of breakfast in front of him.

"He can speak English." Neo whispered.

"I know." Michelle says. "Aaron talks about him all the time…and I took some French in college."

"You did?"

"Yeah…I wanted to some day go, take a trip to Europe."

"What…What did he say?"

"Well…I hate you and I wish you would die."

"Oh…"

"Yeah…"

Neo fiddled with his thumbs.

"Hey, Michelle, do you know anything about Jesus?"

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind."

"I came to talk to you…about Smith. He's doing fine you know? They put him in a room by himself, in a straight jacket. One of the doctors is going to talk to him and help him…and he'll be okay."

Neo had suddenly a sad expression on his face.

"He will deny them." Neo whispered. "He won't let anyone help him."

"Why not?"

"He doesn't believe he needs it."

Neo sighed, and Michelle took his hand.

"I need to tell you…I think you shouldn't see him for a while, until he's all better."

"What!?"

"I'm afraid that he's hurting you. He's making you worried. And well, I think that it'll be better for both of you if you just…wait a while to see him."

Neo suddenly grew very silent.

"You believe me right? About everything?" He asked to.

Neo's eyes grew with hope, and Michelle lowered her head. He wiped the hair out of her eyes and smiled at her until she looked up at him.

"Listen. Smith is different. He is not like you or me, and he can never be. He just can't. All he has is me, and I can't just leave him."

"Neo, he's sick, sicker than you are."

"But I'm not sick! We're not sick! Smith…is just sad."

"Neo…"

"The Matrix has you, Michelle. It has all of us. This is the truth. Try to believe me."

Brown eyes so full of hope, so full of fragile joy.

"I will try." She finally said.

And he kissed her, and held her, and cupped her face, and lied upon her shoulder.

"We have to get out of here." He told her. "It's killing the both of us."

"Neo…please, try to understand I'm going to help you."

"Then let us out of here."

She gripped him tighter.

"You know we wouldn't hurt anyone, you know we wouldn't hurt each other. This place though…he'll die in here, and I'll die in here!"

"You'll die out there! Do you understand that? You don't know how to live out there."

"Then help us! Teach us, please!"

"Neo calm down!" She tried to hush him, constantly looking over her shoulder.

Neo put his hand over his mouth and tried to calm herself as she said.

"I have to go, I'll come back before I leave."

She kissed him on the head like one would do with a child, and told herself, day by day he'll get better. He'll be afraid and he'll fight you but day by day he'll get better.

Neo was left to himself, hurt by the quiet he found himself in. He sighed and was almost surprised by his own noise. But then he put his legs in the lotus position and began to meditate. He took a deep breath and he knew only one thing.

He was going to make this right, he was going to get them out of there.

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

"Jonathon Smith. You are sick." The doctor said.

Smith stared at the doctor, grinning on the inside. He did not enjoy being here, in the straight jacket alone. No, he hated it in fact, the walls that taunted him and his small little window. Agent Smith did not like this. And so the clever Agent Smith was had formed a tactic. To be let out he must appear cured. To be cured he must go along with this doctor that now sat before him.

"Yes." Smith said. "I am sick. I am very sick in my head and I want to be cured. That's why you're here isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Well I'm very sorry for my little show the other day. I didn't cut anything vital, I wasn't trying to kill myself."

"Then what were you doing?"

"I was…relaxing myself."

"I see."

"Indeed."

Smith felt that he was somehow speaking another language, a language similar to his own. This quiet doctor was nothing like Neo, and spoke nothing like Neo. Smith felt like a translator, a Machine speaking to another Machine. How strange was this feeling of normal communication.

"I understand now." Smith paused. "That it was a wrong way to relax myself, but you see I was under a lot of stress at the time, and I was not thinking clearly."

"You've cut yourself before."

"Yes, but that was merely a way to get to my friend, Mr. Anderson."

"And what is your relationship with Mr. Anderson?"

"I…watch him. And he tries to watch me."

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

Neo walked the halls intent on going to a young girl. He found her drawing on a piece of paper and when she saw him she smiled with such joy only the youth could obtain. She jumped up and ran over to her bars and smiled at Neo. He smiled calmly at her and sat down across from her in the bars.

"Hi, Miho." He said.

"Hey, Neo! Haven't seen you around."

"I've been a bit busy."

"Yeah?"

"Hey Miho, I was wondering, if you could tell me something."

"Sure."

"That whole…thing where you saw my green stuff too?"

"Yeah?"

"Where'd you see it before?"

Miho's face grew cold she looked horrible, and afraid. She looked back as if she hadn't thought of that in so many, many years. She looked back to him, shamed but then she smiled.

"When I was little, very young, we went to a house where we could fly."

"Fly?" Neo's eyes lit up.

"Doors led to nowhere, we smashed bottles on the ground but the flew back into our hands complete. I saw a cat, and I saw the same cat, over and over again." She smiled. "And then men in suits came and the house couldn't do those things anymore. When I was older I went back and I burned that house."

Neo put his head to hers through the bars and smiled.

"What if I told you, that I believe you, Miho?" He said.

"That'd mean you're pretty crazy."

"I think there's something wrong with the world, and I think we've both seen it. And we're both a part of it."

"You've seen it too?"

"I think so, yeah."

"And the men in suits?"

"Oh yeah, I've seen them."

Neo smiled and slowly Miho's smile grew back again.

"I'm going to tell you something, Miho. You're going to have to listen very closely because I'm going to say it only once, because I don't think I have it in me to say it twice. It's about the world, it's about the Matrix, it's about me and Smith and what you saw. And I don't understand it yet. But I think it has you, the Matrix has you."

He told this young girl what he felt the world was, he tired to tell her of his dreams, the war on the outside, the green lights that danced before him, he tried to explain what Smith was and the men in suits. And in the end he was so afraid she would laugh at him, that she would tell him he was insane. But at the end of it all she just smiled contently and looked up at him.

"That's just great." She said.

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

Smith was counting. He decided it would be the best thing to keep his mind off anything else, for numbers were infinite. At the moment he was in the millions as the sun had gone down, staring at his feet when bound to his straight jacket. It was then a loud noise from his door broke his concentration and he was rather relieved that he would have to start all over again. He looked up to see Neo bursting through the door with the key they had found.

Neo smiled and Smith did not. Neo motioned to be quiet as he crept closer to Smith, who then kicked him in the face. Neo fell back holding his cheek as Smith slammed down his leg into Neo's gut and then put his foot over Neo's throat.

"What do you want?" Smith said.

Neo smiled.

"Feel better now?"

"A little."

"Good!" Neo coughed a little from the pain in his stomach. "That's, really good, Smith."

"What do you want?"

"Smith!" Neo quieted himself. "I'm going to get us out of here."

Smith's face narrowed for he was not ready for another disappointment in his life.

"Really! I mean it this time. We have to get out of here, I know we do, I'm going to make that happen. I just wanted to tell you so you don't have to worry anymore."

Smith curled away from him.

"I don't know if we are meant to leave, Thomas."

"When did you start calling me Thomas?"

"I don't know, there's a purpose inside us, one we cannot escape. Can't you feel it?"

"Purpose?"

"It is what binds us. It is what defines us."

"You're talking crazy come on, I'll get us out of here!"

"And then what!?" Smith's voice became cruel. "What then? What could we possibly do that would matter at all! They will find us, the Agents, they will take us back here or somewhere worst. We don't even know what that place is like, we don't even know what we would do!" Smith's voice was vindictive.

Smith turned away and Neo sat there, crossed legged and waited for him to turn around again. He waited and waited for a good long while too, unnoticing the stubborn minutes that passed by in their silence.

"I am Agent Smith…" Smith said with a loss of volume. "I own no flesh, I own no blood. I am nothing."

"Smith…"

"I think I killed you, Mr. Anderson. I don't have memories, I don't have dreams, but there's this thing inside me that wants…" Smith stopped himself, his back still turned to Neo. "I hate you, I wish you were dead."

"I know that, Smith. But don't you think, don't you like think we could forget about that? Don't you feel it sometimes, that's why we liked being in the same room remember? We knew there was something that connected us."

"I feel only contempt for this thing you call a connection. And I feel, I feel…"

Hatred, endless and boundless. It seemed like a distant thing at first, anger and annoyance that now had entered every fiber of his self. The hatred came and consumed, born from envy it grew, and that was not the thing that scared him. What did scared him was that it felt so very familiar.

"Smith, I will not leave you. No matter what you may think or what I'm told, I know, I choose this, here I am choosing this, I will get us out of here. I have plans, I can do this."

"You speak lies. You will be seen as sane and you leave this place with that woman."

"No! That's not true!"

"Love, such an insipid thing."

"I saw it today, Smith!" Neo said. "The green stuff? The lights, I saw it for a brief moment I really saw it! It was the Matrix itself! I can see it Smith, I can show you how!"

Smith only shrugged and finally turned back to Neo.

"My name is Agent Smith. I was an Agent, Neo. Why did they leave me here?"

"I…I don't know…"

"I think it's because of you."

"Smith…I…I'm sorry."

Smith stared at Neo, and all he could see was a thing, a monster, the bane of his existence. The reason for all his suffering, and the reason he will always suffer.

"Get out." Smith said.

Neo crept over even as Smith kicked him in the ribs. He went behind him and started un strapping his straight jacket and then he stood and began to walk out.

"If you are an Agent, I wonder then what I am." Neo said with optimism. He looked to Smith. "If I put you here I will take you out. We'll go out into that world, we'll find help, we'll learn about who we are, we will be safe."

And with that Neo left, leaving the door open.

Smith got up and walked out.

Upon going back to his room he found Michelle there waiting for him on his bed. He quickly closed the door and gave a look of embarrassment as he did. She looked at what he had done, snuck out someone, she gave a small smile and shook her head. She laughed and he went to sit next to her.

"Wow…" She said.

"Yeah…" He nodded.

She laid her head on his shoulder.

"I was thinking…" She started. "When you're better you could come stay with me."

"What if I could stay with you now?"

She took her head away and looked to the floor.

"You have to stay here, Neo, you have to get better." She said.

He put his hand on hers.

"If I showed you, with undeniable proof, would you believe me?" He asked.

Slowly after a pause she nodded.

"Then I will find you proof." He smiled.

She frowned and he put his hand upon her cheek and smiled.

"But let's not talk about that right now." He said. "I care about you. I'm sorry you're distressed."

"Well thank you." She nodded.

"Tell me about…I don't know…Noodles."

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

Smith had traveled into the depths of the insanity, where the cries of madmen could be heard, and the cries went on, endless somehow seeming to sing in a choir. Smith dragged his straight jacket into this place, walking with a heavy heart to a room of which he found to be locked. He stared at the lock and with the hatred of an unknown life he kicked it as hard as he could, and the door flung open.

Inside a man named Joshua Daniels flipped out of his bed.

"Smith!?" Joshua said.

"I needed someone to talk to."

"Oh…OH! That's, that's just wonderful you see, I was hoping you would come you know."

And Joshua Daniels, who had not taken his pills in such a long time, was not of himself. In the past time since Smith had yet to return Joshua had gone through a delusion believing Smith to be a figment of his imagination, in efforts to test this he stopped taking his pills to understand if what he saw was real or not. And so the pills that were given to him were hidden along with the rest of his food.

And in that time did Joshua Daniels lose himself, gone replaced by the other man who lived inside him. This man so full of rage and hatred probably more so than Smith. This man who lived inside Joshua did not care about any other human being, it did not matter who it was, or what they would be doing this evil inside could not be contained, it would have killed him if so.

This man who lived inside Joshua had spent the past few days carving his wooden spoon into something sharp.

And Smith who stared only at the floor didn't even notice as Joshua Daniels stood and took out this sharp thing.

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

Neo was currently lying on his back with Michelle sitting perpendicular to him, her legs crossing over his. He played with his hands as he held them in the air. By then she had moved on from noodles to troubles of taxes, in which Neo had somewhat zoned out.

But then he suddenly gasped for breath, he put his hand over his chest and he arched his back in an effort to breath. Michelle screamed slightly as she curled up and leaned over him. His eyes filled with fear and they could barely move to look up at her, his mouth opened as wide as it could to suck in more breath. She held his head and put her hand over his chest.

"What is it!?" She screamed. "What's wrong!?"

He fell on his back again, with his hands still over his chest. Breathing seemed difficult and he stared up at Michelle barely able to form the words he'd say.

"My chest…my chest hurts." Neo took a breath and was able to speak again. He rose. "My chest hurts!" Neo's eyes darted. "Smith!"

"Smith?"

"Something's wrong!"

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

Next Chapter: Beautiful

Back from hiatus due to popular demand. The story draws closer to its end. Smith will be hurt and the world will be seen.

Thank you all so much for your support, I could not have done it without you.