"Maybe something's wrong with your head." Smith said

He looked up and found himself in a crater in the middle of the street, rain falling into his eyes. And Smith was there, in a mud-stained suit, looking straight up into the rain.

"Smith?" Neo asked.

"Stop telling everyone about your dreams, Neo." Smith turns to him. "It's the only thing you have, the only thing they couldn't take from you."

"Take from me? Who are you talking about?"

Neo rises and finds himself in a beautiful long coat that made him smile just to see it. He has no idea why, he has no idea why he's suddenly so very happy.

"They took your memories. But still, you have these dreams. Maybe something's wrong with your head. They couldn't get rid of the dreams. The Matrix is a prison for the mind, you know that."

"The machines?"

"Look at you, a fraction of the man I knew. A childish remnant of the God I killed. But they couldn't take everything, that's why you dream. There isn't much time. The Matrix is a prison for the mind. Appearances are deceiving, Neo."

Neo wandered over towards Smith, who seemingly towered over him.

"You've said too much, you have to run." Smith said.

"I have no where to go." Neo explained. "And I won't go anywhere without you."

"Appearances are deceiving. They built a whole world for humanity, what's stopping them from building one just for you?"

"Smith, please, let's just go…" Neo reaches for him, but Smith slaps his arm away.

"Stop crying. Stop whining. Stop being so damn afraid. You're alive for a purpose. You've wasted enough time being fooled. Everyone's told you already, wake up, we're all waiting for you, and there isn't time for you to be a coward."

"I'm not a coward!" Neo yells.

"Is that why you're still in that Asylum? Mr. Anderson, I'm disappointed in you."

"I'm going to get us out, I told you!"

"You're out of time, do it now."

"How am I supposed to do that!"

"Wake up."

Neo's eyes open and he finds himself laid out in an uncomfortable bed with a thin blanket that doesn't keep anything warm at all. The room is dimmed, the sun is still gone, it's the dead of night and Neo's panting. He kicks the blanket away and sits up, expecting some horrible fight to take place.

"Hey." Michelle enters with some noodles. "Thought you'd be hungry. I have to leave for home soon, but I couldn't just leave you…"

He jumps and she sits beside him in his bed, but he doesn't get any closer.

"Tom, what's wrong?" She asks.

"Where's Smith?"

And then her face grows very sad.

"There was an accident, Tom. We don't even know how he got into that cell…"

"Don't, I already know what happened, just tell me where he is."

"I don't think that' s a good idea, he isn't well, we may have to transfer him to a hospital."

"Please, let me see him."

There was something different about him, all of the sudden and out of nowhere. He was sitting up on his bed, on his knees, looking at her with this determined face, trying so hard not to express anything more than that. He held his arm up to her and grabbed her shoulder.

"What's happened to him?" She asks Neo.

"He was stabbed in the chest, and I passed out because I could feel the pain." He tells her.

Her eyes widen, that's impossible.

"Michelle, I don't mind it if you call me Tom, I know you don't believe me, no matter how hard I try to convince you. But I really need to see him right now."

"You're acting…different." She tells him.

"I'm sorry. I have to be different now."

"Why?"

"Michelle, if you don't take me to Smith, I will throw a crazy person fit."

The police had arrived along with most of the staff. They were taking Joshua Daniels in, years he'd gone without hurting anyone, but now it seems he'd need to transfer a more secure prison-asylum. He was crying when they took him away, loud enough to wake most of the tenants in their cells. He was screaming that all he was doing was trying to destroy an evil, the greatest evil he'd ever seen, it was Smith, he was crying, Smith needed to die. Then there was this investigation on how exactly Smith got into Daniels' cell, the doctors were being interviewed, some of the patients. And in the middle of this, Michelle led Thomas A. Anderson to Jonathan Smith.

It was quiet in the make-shift hospital room. All in all, Smith was stable and ignored in the commotion that was going on inside the Asylum walls. Neo entered, practically tip-toeing to maintain the silence. He looks back at Michelle who looked at him, worried.

"I'm sorry, Michelle." He tells her, but doesn't explain.

"I'll uh, give you guys a minute."

Neo briefly smiles an old familiar smile, then he turns away and she shuts the door.

Smith lays out on his bed, the tubes once again inside and out of him, making sure he's breathing, making him live. There's bandaged wrapped around the stab wound that have been bled through and slightly stain the hospital gown they've draped him in. The machines beep and they signify he's still alive. It's dim and quiet here, all but the breathing and the beeping of those machines.

Neo rests his hand over Smith's chest, over the stab wound, and Smith's eyes open. Neo presses on the wound, and Smith grabs his arm. Neo looks at him and frowns, and leans down to him.

"I'm sorry." Neo says. "I'm so sorry."

"Get out of here." Smith says. "I hate you."

"Smith, I've figured it out. You told me what to do."

"What are you talking about?"

"I think…I think I know what to do now. Smith I'm going to get you out of here."

"Then what, Mr. Anderson? What do we do then?"

"You said everything has a purpose. Smith, if we're here, there's a reason for it. We just need to go and find it."

Neo leans in closer.

"Agents left us here, remember? I think we died, but here we are, and they're trying to keep us from finding out why."

"I am an Agent."

"You were an Agent."

"There was a war…"

"And we were very important."

"I don't…"

"Just wait a second, Smith, watch this…"

Michelle stands outside, watching through the window, unsure of what to do now. That's when two men in suits walk up to her.

"Excuse me?" the taller one says.

"Oh, hi, can I help you?" She asks.

The taller one looks to the shorter before smiling at Michelle.

"Yes, I'm with the investigation, would it be possible for me to ask you a few questions?"

"Oh, well, I didn't, I wasn't really even supposed to be here when this all happened."

"Don't worry, ma'am, it's just a couple of standard questions I need to ask everyone. Here, let's go somewhere more private."

"Um, sure."

He takes her by the arm and walks her down the hall. The shorter one stays and looks into the room.

"See?" Neo asks Smith.

"Brown?" Smith sees the man in the suit outside the window. Suddenly he's got this nervous feeling inside him, he's frozen again looking at the man he knows he knows.

"He's going to take you away, Smith, he's going to get you out of here, and I'll find you."

"Mr. Anderson, I…"

Neo walks over to the drawers and desks beside Smith's bed, he's grabbing papers and a pen. Smith watches, unsure of what's happening. Neo walks over to the window, looking Brown right in the eye. He starts writing and holds up the piece of paper against the window so Brown can read.

"They are watching us, aren't they?" The paper reads. Brown nods. Neo writes again. "We don't remember everything. We know there was a war, is it over?" Brown shakes his head. Neo writes again. "Take good care of him." Brown smiles. Brown takes out a cell phone and starts typing into it, he holds it up for Neo to see. "You've taken better care of him than we could have hoped."

Neo smiles and holds his hand up against the glass. Then he turns back towards Smith, who now sits up in the bed.

"What did you write?" Smith asks. "Mr. Anderson, what's going to happen?"

Neo hugs him.

"I know you hate me, but I know you can choose not to." Neo tells him.

"Mr. Anderson, I…I shouldn't leave you on your own."

Smith looks up at him, and suddenly it dawns on him what's going to happen. They're going to be separated, not by rooms and walls, but miles, and who knows what's out there in the world. And suddenly all that hate, that hate he didn't understand and couldn't get rid of, it didn't matter at all, because inside Smith he knew he and Neo were meant to be together. Smith was not of flesh and blood, and Neo was, and it didn't even matter then and there. There was pain in his chest and he couldn't really move without it stinging, and it didn't matter. He grabbed Neo's arm.

"You have to, Smith." Neo said.

And then Smith could see it. Neo was different.

"What's happened to you?" Smith asks.

"I woke up. They took our memories and they trapped us here, but we have to get out. Go on ahead of me, Smith, I'll catch up. Look at me, I can do this. You're the one that needs to get out of here."

Neo was unlike how he'd ever been before. He was confident, he knew exactly what he was doing, and for the first time since they woke up in that Asylum, he was calm, and everything was so clear.

"This place isn't what it appears to be. When you get out, find the Oracle, Smith, and I'll find you."

Neo then started putting his hands around Smith's neck.

"What are you doing?" Smith asks him.

"You have to trust me."

Smith then nods.

"Neo. I went down into Mr. Daniels' because I didn't…"

With Neo's hands around his neck, he became calm.

"It doesn't matter. Your programming was never meant to process these kinds of levels of information. You're damaged, you always were." Neo tells him. "I can repair you."

Then Neo starts choking him, and Brown watches. This is for every day they had spent in the Asylum. This is for every day he failed Smith.

Neo ran out of the room into the hallway, crying and screaming like the crazy man they said he was. He ran down the hall, finding Michelle, telling her something went horribly wrong. The doctors ran over and found Smith dead, his heart had stopped. They rushed to do their work, they put tubes down his throat, and lightly gave him CPR, and made him breath again, and made his heart breath again. He was obviously too unstable for the hospital system at the Asylum, he would need to be transferred, to be taken properly care of. They were piling the body into the ambulance, they were driving away. The two men in suits were gone and no one could find them. No one apart from Michelle had actually spoken with them. The sun was starting to come up, the night was ending. These moments passed by like seconds to him now. It was all so clear in that time, it all made sense.

For the first time since he could remember, Neo was alone.

"Tom, I'm so sorry." Michelle calls.

He looks at her and smiles slightly.

"What did they tell you, when you first started working here?" Neo asks. "I mean about us."

"They said you were extremely dangerous. You demanded to be in the same room with each other."

"How did we get here?"

"You were…brought here."

"And no one tried to identify us? No one tried to find any friends of ours? Family?"

"…I assume proper measures were taken."

He's in his room now, and she's standing in the doorway. The morning light is dim and blue and she looks so beautiful. He stands beside his window and his bed and he's not even thinking anymore, he knows what has to happen. He can see Smith in the hospital now, the other men in suits right there beside him. He can just imagine them grabbing him and taking him away.

"Pieces of my old self are trying to tell me how to get out of here."

And he sees in her face she doubts every word he says and she's worried.

"You want me to stop saying those sorts of things." He says to her.

"I want you to be well. And perhaps…being apart from Smith for a while is the best thing for you. You need to learn to be independent of each other. If you ever…want to leave."

"You kissed me, even when you doubt me."

"…I care deeply for you."

"Why?"

"…Why?"

"What have I done to earn your care? I'm a crazy person who just months ago was permanently locked away. I jumped out of a window. I think there was a war between people and giant robots. I don't believe in this reality. Why would you ever care about me?"

"Be – Because."

"Because why?"

"Why are you doing this?"

He stops for a moment and just looks at her.

"You look just like the woman from my dreams." He tells her. "Isn't that a coincidence?"

"It's not a coincidence your mind's probably playing tricks on you. You like me, you like this dream woman, you're probably projecting her onto me."

He shakes his head.

"What do you do when you go home?" He asks.

"…I don't understand."

"Please answer the question."

"Why?"

"I'm trying to save you."

She looks at him and she knows he means it.

"I drive for forty five minutes, I go to my apartment, it's nothing much. It's on sixth and main. I usually read a book and get dinner and I go to bed."

"Do you ever see friends?"

"I don't have that many outside of work. I moved here for this job, you know."

"Moved from where?"

"Another city from another state."

"But which one?"

Then a sudden horror comes upon her. She doesn't know which ones.

"What's your mother's name?" Neo insists.

"Karen." She says.

"What does she do?"

"She was a stay-at-home mother, we had a little house in the suburbs…She has my hair, I have my father's eyes…"

"Does your mother ever call you?"

"No, I mean, she hasn't yet."

"Where does your mother live?"

"In that little house…"

"But where?"

She takes in a breath, she can't say. The general details of her life are there, but the finer details she can't account for. She can see her mother in her mind, she sees the family picture. She can see the college she went to and the friends she had, but the faces are blurred, the exact time and locations of these snapshots lost. She looks at Neo.

"I'm so sorry." He tells her.

"What? What's happening?" She says panicked.

"Leave while you still can. Go to that apartment and wait for me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Michelle, listen to me, stay calm, go home, never come back here, I will come for you."

Neo comes up to her, to the doorway and he looks around her down the hall and he can see a group of orderlies heading for them. He pushes her slightly.

"Run." he tells her.

Then he walks down into the hall in the view of the orderlies.

"Where is Smith!" he yells at them. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!" He screams.

And Michelle, still trying to recall her childhood address, turns around and starts walking the opposite way. She walks slowly, making herself keep a steady pace and she's holding back tears because she can't even remember her mother's maiden name.

"The Great Machines have taken you too, I see!" Neo yells. "Morpheus, King of Dreams will be coming soon, what will you say to me then! Get away from me, don't touch me!"

He opens up his arms to them, he walks to them barefoot like Christ himself. And then they start to grab at him and he kicks one of them in the face.

"I know kung-fu!" He screams and laughs.

And Michelle wipes her eyes and doesn't turn back.

They grab at him all at once, and Neo punches and kicks and is eventually overwhelmed. They hold him by his arms and his legs and he screams at the top of his lungs, playing the role of the crazy man they kept telling him he was.

"The Matrix has you! Can't you see it! It's all around you, it's inside you, you believe in it and it feeds off of you! Behold onto me, look upon me and know, there was once a time when Man was Free!"

She's around the corner but she can still hear him screaming and kicking away.

"Hey." She nearly bumps into Aaron, she jumps and screams a little. "Jesus, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, it's okay."

Neo's screams echo beside them. Aaron shakes his head.

"Poor guy, I guess tonight was just too stressful, huh?" Aaron says.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just…I haven't been home since yesterday and I just want to…"

"Right, I understand. I just wanted to let you know the doctors wanted to see you."

"What for?"

"They didn't say why." Aaron shrugs. "I'm sure it's just some questions, nothing big."

"Yeah. Okay."

She nods and then continues on her way. She turns back and waves.

"Thanks, Aaron. Um, bye."

"Seeya." Morpheus says.

They drag Neo into one of the larger doctor's offices where several of the men in white coats stand. Neo fights off the orderlies when a doctor comes up behind him and stabs him in the neck with a syringe.

"There we go." The doctor says.

Suddenly, Neo becomes very tired.

"Make you a more pleasant guest."

The orderlies leave and Neo slumps down in the chair they've placed him in. His arms are heavy and he's forcing himself to take out breaths. He tries to lift his head but ends up just moving his eyes to see the blurry image of several doctors standing above him.

"You've been a very naughty, patient, Mr. Anderson." One says.

"Do we have contact with Mr. Smith?" One asks.

"Of course."

"Mr. Jones and Mr. Brown are attempting to intercept him surely."

"We are properly prepared. They are after all, only former Agents. Rather lucky for us, really, we finally get to delete those pesky Exiles."

"Should we be speaking about this in front of Mr. Anderson?"

"Why not? They're going to have to properly sedate him once again. Who knows what he'll remember after that."

"I always said it was an unwise decision to feed into his curiosity."

"It was supposed to keep him satisfied, not increase his needs. Human nature is so unpredictable."

"Well, for the record I vote we lobotomize him as I did years ago. It's the only humane way to keep him calm."

"Noted. How long until they begin?"

"I believe they're preparing the body as we speak."

"Good, get this over with while we can."

"What of the Michelle program?"

"Obviously it did nothing to help us. Delete her."

Even in that haze, even with the sedative pumping through his veins, even with the blurry vision and the sounds coming in so loud, Neo knew what they were saying. This Asylum was a Matrix within a Matrix, a prison for those who knew too much. They were going to take away his memory again, they were going to take Smith's memory again, they were going to kill Jones and Brown. And they were going to take Michelle, the program, not the human being, and destroy her.

You guys want an ending to this story? I'll give you an ending.