Chapter 2
...
Neo opens the galley door meeting both Lexy and Berg's eyes as they welcome him from the table. He is looking for Trinity. Not that she can disappear on the circumscribed space of an hovercraft actually.
And he catches sight of her, focused in filling a cup of water at the other side of the room, facing away from him. Short dark hair, a white top tank and dark pants
"Trinity"
She turns at Neo's call, but he meets deep dark eyes instead of blue ones.
"Er, Bugs... sorry" he apologizes for the misunderstanding.
It's clear it can't be Trinity... but for a moment it had been like watching his Trinity in the Nebuchadnezzar galley again... twenty years younger.
"Don't apologize," Bugs laughs "I never had a man looking at me like that," she laughs again "I'd pay for it"
The door opens again and they all turn to it.
"Here she is" Bugs says to Neo with a smirk, glancing beyond his shoulders as he turns meeting the blue of Trinity's eyes this time.
The way he watches at her... it's enough to take the breath away. Bugs wasn't joking, she would pay to feel something like that for a man, and having the same in return. She doesn't know anything about love actually, nor about being loved. Not even in the Matrix... she had been in an orphanage for half of her life, hoping to find foster parents at first and then just waiting to be old enough to have a job and emancipate. Then she had watched Neo jumping from a building and she had been freed. Literally.
"Wanna join us?" Lexy asks from the table where they're playing cards.
Trinity smiles but shakes her head.
"Thank you, but I think I'm done for today" She runs a hand on her still shaved nape, touching the plug on there and then massaging the side of her neck, still aching after an hard training day "Your Captain here, she kicked my ass pretty bad"
Bugs laughs giving Trinity an apologizing look.
"Just in the gym, where you need real muscles and I'm almost 20 years younger" She smirks and Trinity smirks in turn.
"Yeah, you like to win easy, Captain!" Lexy makes fool of Bugs "We were all there yesterday watching the two of you in the dojo... she gave you an ass-whipping you'll remember for a long time"
They all laughs and Bugs rolls her eyes.
The laughers. The jokes. It's like being part of a crew again. Like being home again. Trinity likes them as much as she misses every one of her old friends... Morpheus, Switch and Apoc, Dozer and Tank, Mouse, Link. Ghost, the only brother she ever had. And all her friends in Zion. She is going back home but none of them will be there.
She meets Neo's eyes as he recognizes the shadow darkening her look. He knows what is in her mind... they both lost everything to give Zion another chance, and, as far as they are grateful for being back together, that time can't come back. Their friends can't come back.
"Don't forget you promised to teach me that spider move. And the scorpion one" Bugs says awakening Trinity from her thoughts "You're so great in that!"
She smiles and nods at the admiration in the young captain's voice.
"They're my favorite too"
They look at each other for a few seconds till she feels Neo's hand on her waist.
"I'm coming with you" he says as Trinity smiles.
"Just be careful with the 'coming' thing" Berg says out loud giving to both of them a smut look "just remember I'm in the room next to yours" he chuckles at his own pun then letting out a 'ouch' as Lexy hits his nape with a hard slap.
"Don't pay attention to him" the young woman chuckles "He's just envious. It happens when you haven't been getting laid for years"
It is Berg's time to roll his eyes and Neo can't help the curling up of his own lips.
"Like my brother used to say 'celibacy is a hand up job' " Trinity smirks meeting Neo's stare and then giving a naughty look to Berg. She reminds her of Sparks.
Neo wraps Trinity's waist theatrically pulling her tighter to himself, then gives a mischievous look at her and at the crew.
"Fine. We'll be careful. We don't want to upset the children, do we, babe?"
Trinity licks her lips and tries to hold back a smile at his words, succeeding just partially. Her hand finds Neo's and their fingers intertwine.
"Goodnight" she just says to all of them then pulling Neo with her.
They hear them joking again as they close the door.
"I heard my parents once. Is there something worse than hearing your parents having sex?" Lexy's voice. Disgust mixed with her chuckle.
"She doesn't look like my mother at all!" Berg's turn. Smut tone.
"Don't look at me! Never had parents!" Bugs. Laughers.
...
Neo's hand finds the back of Trinity's head as soon as she closes their room door. His mouth finds hers and she rests her back against the metal door, deepening the kiss. Her tongue tangling with his as her hands move in the short hair on Neo's nape.
"I'm not sure I like the way the boy looks at you" Neo hoarsely whispers an inch from her mouth as she watches his lips then meeting his eyes. He's referring to Berg obviously.
"Again... I can be his mother" she says with a chuckle as he traps her lower lip between his and sucks on it. The chuckle turns into a moan and a shiver goes down till her lady parts.
"Um... a mother I'd like to fuck. And him either"
His tongue finds hers and his hands move on her buttocks pulling her more to himself and making her clearly aware of his arousal.
"You conscious I can still kick a man's balls for a lot less than a MILF epithet, don't you?" She teases not moving away from his hug though and in turn cupping his butt with both hands.
He smirks as she smirks in turn.
"So... are you thinking about kicking mine now?" He teases.
"... 'kicking' is not what's in my mind right now" She gives him a mischievous look running her tongue on her lips.
...
Pain. Sweat. Labored breathing. And crying.
She cries out and gasps at the pain suddenly radiating from her body and she feels like falling down in the darkness... like precipitating into the void...
And she suddenly wakes up.
Trinity's blue eyes suddenly open in the darkness of her quarters on the Mnemosyne as her heart pumps in her chest so strongly she fears it can wake Neo up.
Silence.
There's just silence all around. Silence and Neo's calm breathing near her. His arm still wrapped around her waist.
No pain, no crying.
She passes a hand on her own forehead. A light sweating is there instead...
Once again dreams can be so real.
She swallows then trying to inhale deeply without gasping. She has to focus on her breathing and on Neo's arm still wrapping her chest... it's been just a dream.
And yet that crying keeps resonating in her ears.
Holy fuck...
She takes a deep breath and moves as slowly as possible in an attempt to get up without waking up Neo.
She's having nightmares every night since her arrival on the Mnemosyne... always the same dream, every night.
It had been even one of Tiffany's recurrent nightmare for years. But it's different now. Now it's even more real. Blurred details begin to appear clear, adding pain and anxiety and fear.
... You ever wonder why you have nightmares? Why your own brain tortures you? It's actually us, maximizing your output. Here's the thing about feelings. They're so much easier to control than facts. Turns out, in my Matrix, the worse we treat you, the more we manipulate you, the more energy you produce...
She takes another deep breath. She isn't in the Matrix anymore... the Analyst can't control her mind anymore so... why is her subconscious torturing her anyway?
After what Neo had gone through because of his nightmares first and dreams later, Trinity knows he's going to worry and, as far as she knows he can understand her...help her even...worrying him is the last thing she wants.
She shivers as the cold air hits her bare skin and a smile plays on her lips in the darkness. She never slept naked when she was on a ship as an officer. They always hurried to get dressed after making love, ready to get up. It happened often... a call, an alarm, a sentinels attack. Now they were just two persons taken from the Matrix and waiting to be back home.
She puts on her pants and a sweater, not bothering about putting on a bra too.
The ship is dark and silent. It's weird how she can move in the darkness. The Mnemosyne is a new ship, far more technological than the Neb, but the main structure is still the same and she's already found out that she can move easily in it, even in the darkness.
She smiles again to herself at the thought of her so many endless night shifts. There had been a time in which they had been unexpectedly pleasant.
She slowly opens the galley door starting imperceptibly as she meets the eyes of the woman already there, focused in filling a cup with hot water.
Bugs smiles meeting Trinity's eyes and just takes another cup.
"You can't sleep too" a statement, not a question.
Trinity just nods, taking a seat as Bugs puts a cup of tea in front of her, then sitting down in turn.
"Insomnia or nightmares?"
"Er... always the same dream actually" Trinity answers looking at the steaming cup and not at the young captain "the kind of dream you can't say if it's a dream or... a memory..."
Bugs nods.
"I know how it feels like" she says standing up and heading to the pantry behind her "For a long time I used to have the same kind of dreams..."
"And what happened then?" Trinity takes a sip of her tea and looks at Bugs beyond the rim of the cup, both her hands wrapped around it.
"I found Neo"
Trinity's mouth opens but she doesn't reply.
She stares in Bugs' dark eyes till the captain smiles and turns again. She puts a plate in front of Trinity with what looks like a slice of cake.
"Special food" she specifies with a smirk "You're still recovering, you're allowed to have it. I remember having nightmares since I was a child... going back to sleep was easier with decent food in my stomach"
Trinity gives her a little smile which is a silent thank you, and takes the cake from the plate in front of herself, then breaking it in two parts.
"You're the ranking officer, I'm the older. I eat if you eat with me, Captain"
Trinity's blue eyes meet Bugs' dark ones as the younger woman smirks and nods, sitting down again.
Trinity isn't an officer anymore to be honest, and not on that ship anyway, but Bugs doesn't say anything about that. Maybe she is not an officer anymore but she is a legend in Io City like she had been in Zion first. Most of the women in the Army had grown up trying to be like her, like Trinity, as fearless like her. And the young captain isn't an exception. Finding Neo had been her purpose since she had recognized him in the Matrix. Taking the One back in the real world. But as far as she knew that Neo was the One, so she knew he was the One because of her. Because of Trinity. Trinity was part of the One thing. She was. And she is. Like she had clearly showed a few days earlier.
Trinity takes a little piece of cake in her hand then putting it in her mouth. Again the hint of a smile plays on her lips.
"What?"
Trinity shakes her head.
...you know half Zion would be up to eat your cake, Alice, don't you? Just choose one and find your Wonderland...
Trinity's lips curls up at the memory of herself slapping Ghost's nape... at the memory of his smirk... his chuckle... 'Alice's eat-me cake' ... It had been a joke... between the two of them.
... it's him, admit it! You like it. And you're hoping he's going to 'come with you' not just in the White Rabbit hole, Sis!
She had jabbed Ghost in the chest so hard he had moaned and coughed before wrapping her waist and kissing the side of her head.
Trinity can't help but swallowing as those memories hit her. It's a warm and comforting memory at first but the sense of loss which follows is so painful that it's like a hole in her chest.
She inhales deeply at the contrast of those feelings.
"Um... my brother and I... we used to joke about Alice in the Wonderland's cake, you know..."
A bitter smile curls up Trinity's lips again as she meets Bugs' eyes, then looking down at the piece of cake still in her plate.
"The eat-me cake? A pun I can tell" Bugs states as her smile turns in a mischievous smile and she raises an eyebrow as Trinity nods
"Obviously" Trinity smiles and lets out a chuckle as Bugs chuckles in turn.
"There was really someone who could allude to...um... that kind of 'cake' without being punched hard?" Bugs laughs this time and Trinity shakes her head.
"Oh, he got punched. Hard. He just didn't care. Siblings work like that" Trinity laughs and shakes her head again, looking down at her cake and biting the inner part of her lower lip.
"Too bad I never had a brother," Bugs replies with a sigh "nor anyone interested in 'eating my cake'," she stresses the last three words and chuckles, then in turn shakes her head, shrugging, avoiding Trinity's gaze and just taking another piece of food.
"Anyone interested? Or is it you the not interested one?"
Bugs doesn't reply but looks up at her and just stares at her as Trinity stares back. Then the captain can't help the smile which plays on her lips.
"Score for you"