Chapter 6
Io
...
Bugs knocks at Neo and Trinity's quarters door. It isn't completely closed so she just waits there a few seconds and then opens it a little more.
"We're almost there" She just says meeting both Neo and Trinity's eyes as they just nod.
IO.
It's painful to know Zion isn't there anymore. There's a new home waiting for the two of them now.
The General herself is waiting on the docking bay, her arms behind her back as she waits for the crew to get off the ship.
"Holy fuck, it's really you"
Niobe hugs Trinity before she can see that coming, then releasing her friend just to have a better view of the younger woman in front of her, the old hands still holding Trinity's forearms.
"It's good to see you Niobe." Trinity greets with a sincere smile.
"Good? Have you really watched me? I'm decrepit by now. You're still so fucking hot instead, I can tell why Neo wanted you back so much."
The General laughs glancing at Neo beyond Trinity's shoulder as he lets out a sort of embarrassed chuckle and shakes his head. Trinity smirks in turn.
Niobe turns to Bugs and the crew. The young captain just straights her back and lifts her chin, her arms behind her back. She knows she's going to have a good telling off for having let Trinity to go back to the Analyst after what she had gone through, but most of all, without the General's approval.
"I still want the Mnemosyne cleaned up, inch by inch with a toothbrush, Captain. And consider you lucky that I don't demote you to the rank of private. You're a hothead. Yours is not independence of mind. It's distinguishes. You never miss a chance to make me regret the day I freed you"
Bugs just stares at the General as Niobe stares back. The oldest is clearly thinking she would like to erase that defiant look from the Captain's young face with a good spank to her ass.
"Go now. I don't want to hear of you anymore for today. Get the ship ready as soon as possible"
Bugs nods and turns to leave, exchanging a complicit look with both Neo and Trinity before leaving. She isn't regretting her choice to help them and from the look in her eyes she's up to do it again if necessary.
"It's like listening to one of Deadbolt's scolding, 'Be... er, I mean, General."
Trinity says with a smirk giving Niobe a mischievous look.
"Oh my God, then I've really losen my mind" she laughs and shakes her head "But Jason would have grounded her for a lot less, Trin. She's a hothead, she's impulsive and uncontrollable. She is not fearless, she's reckless. Too bad she's smart and clever like hell. And bold, and brave. One of the best individual of the Army. If she has a purpose there's nothing none can do to change her mind. If just she could follow rules sometimes and not just her own instinct.
"Yeah. I can tell. She reminds me of someone" Trinity says with a smirk and a piercing look as Niobe chuckles at that allusion.
"Yeah, but I wasn't that stubborn. You were, my dear."
It's Trinity's turn to laugh.
"I still am."
Trinity smirkes again and gives a nod, exchanging a glance with Neo as he stares back at her.
"Come, there's something I want to show you." Niobe says, as both Trinity and Neo follow her.
Niobe takes them in a brief tour of Io, and they talk a lot, about old times and about their friends.
"Niobe..." Trinity calls for her attention as they sits down in front of a cup of tea.
The old woman lets Neo help her to sit down in her armchair. She holds his hand a little more then she needs and lets out a chuckle as he asks her if something is wrong or she needs something else.
"Forgive an old woman, kid" she purposely teases him with that 'kid' "Let me enjoy the only way I can have a man's hands on me by now"
She chuckles and meets Trinity's eyes as the corners of her mouth curl up in turn.
"I already told you that you have good taste, right?" Niobe teases her friend again as Trinity nods.
"Um um..." Trinity hums "but if I remember well, you said that he looked too docile and submissive for me"
Niobe laughs at the look Trinity exchanges with Neo. He lifts an eyebrow to her.
"I admit, first impression can mislead" She shakes her head and meets Neo's amused look, then looking at Trinity again. She's biting on her lower lip, holding back a smirk.
"Sometimes it doesn't instead" She says giving Niobe a teasing and amused look as the old woman rolls her eyes at her and sighs theatrically.
Neo watches from the one to the other one, wondering if they're still talking about him. From Trinity's eyes he gets it's about something else.
"C'mon, you little bitch, I know you're dying for saying it"
Trinity keeps back a laugher at Niobe's words. The old woman can still give her a piercing stare even with only a good eye.
"That he was a jerk? I still think it" Trinity just says like stating the obvious "You asked for my opinion on that time. I just gave you mine" she says in what is her serious flat tone "and incidentally, it just happened to be not only my opinion"
Niobe laughs and nods looking at both her and Neo.
Neo's quite sure they're talking about Commander Lock now. Niobe was the only one calling him by first name, Jason. But he'd seen her not flinching from the amount of nicknames the crews used to give to their Commander.
"Neo, have your girl here never told you what she says to me when Jason and I started to date?"
Neo's eyes light up with curiosity as soon as Trinity licks her lips and looks down, smirking and shaking her head. He exchanges a questioning gaze with Niobe, who gives him in turn an amused look.
"I said... 'c'mon, not Lock. He's a jerk" Trinity cuts down.
"No," it's Niobe's turn to lick her lips this time "You, pretty girl, you did say 'not Lock, he's a jerk! Better for you to lock your legs instead and let him jerk off"
Trinity laughs and she meets Neo's eyes as he laughs in turn.
"I was drunk"
"Oh no, you were not"
They laugh again and she shakes her head. Niobe shakes her head in turn and reaches out to take a sip of her tea.
Her eyes now lost in thoughts like she's taken back to old memories.
... ... The elevator bangs down and the metal gate ratchets open as Morpheus, Roland and Niobe get out.
Lock is waiting for them. If he's happy to see her again and alive he doesn't show it.
... ... 'Three Captains. One ship. I'll assume the other ships were lost under equally pointless circumstances.'
... ... 'It's good to see you too, Jason.'
... ... Neo did it! Zion! It's over! The war is over! (Kid's voice)
... ... She looks at Morpheus as they both hear the cheering that rolls up out of theTemple. Morpheus is unable to move, unable to embrace a moment he waitedhis entire life for. He looks at her.
... ... I've imagined this moment for so long.Is it real?'
... ... She nods and he reaches out to her, trying to feel somethingto make him believe it and... finding it in her arms.
... ... Tears fill her eyes... 'Wherever you are, Neo, thank you'
Both Trinity and Neo look at Niobe as she sighs and takes another sip of her tea.
"I will never thank you enough for what you did. The both of you" Niobe says in a low and sincere tone "I'm happy to have you back" She smiles and looks down as tears veil her good eye, clouding completely her sight.
"As a thanks I'll be happy if you reserve for us something better than the Rapunzel's tower you welcome me with last time, Niobe. Great view on the city anyway"
Neo's tone is more amused than annoyed actually. An attempt to play down the moment despite the sharp reminder of having been locked in a jail cell more like a dangerous guy than a saviour.
"And I still apologize for my dumb move" Niobe's voice shows a real remorse this time "May I invoke senile dementia as a justification?"
She gives him an apologetic hint of a smile and Neo gives her a nod that is a silent 'apology accepted'.
"I've heard about your daughter," Niobe says after a few moments of silence "I didn't know you were-"
Niobe doesn't finish the sentence and Trinity just bends her head by side a little and looks down.
"Me neither"
Again moments of embarrassing silence come between there.
"I know there's something in your minds" Niobe says as both Neo and Trinity look at her "What can I do about it?"
"Aren't you going to hinder us?"
The old woman glares at Trinity at the surprise in her voice.
"Are you confusing me with Lock again?" Niobe gives Trinity another glare but the hint of a smile plays on her lips "I helped the two of you once, giving you my ship. I'm not going to back out now"
Neo and Trinity exchange a knowing look.
"Then... I know I'm not a officer anymore, General, but I'm asking your authorization to join a crew" Trinity asks in a calm tone, letting time to Niobe's partially impaired hearing to understand her words.
"As far as I remember, Lieutenant, you have never been discharged from the Army. And you seem everything but dead to me either"
Trinity smirks at Niobe's words and at her so serious and low tone. Niobe gives her a smile in return.
"I know why you want to do that and I understand it. But there're 8 billion of people out there. There's no real chance you can find your daughter, if she's still alive. As far as you know she can be 6 or 60 years old..."
"You really sound like Commander Lock now" Trinity teases despite the shadow which darkens her eyes.
"I know you're right... I don't know if we'll ever find her, but I know I have to do whatever is in my power to try"
"You are still the same stubborn one, Trin, but now it's you that sound like Morpheus instead."
They both smile at each other.
"There are some things that never change, Captain Niobe" Trinity purposefully stresses that 'Captain', instead of General. "Some things do change."
The old woman nods and gives her a bitter smirk.
"Yeah. Like the fire in your eyes. In mine there's just cataract by now"
Niobe laughs taking Trinity's arm again.
"Help an old woman to take you to dinner. You're my guests tonight.
.
Trinity's gaze looks around in what is supposed to be their apartment. Stone and steel perfectly mixed together. It's bigger than her previous one in Zion and surely more comfortable, and yet it's someway foreign, like an hotel room. But she likes the rock-cut vaulted ceiling... it reminds her of her old bedroom.
"You sure you already want to get up?" Neo asks wrapping her bare waist, avoiding her to get up from their bed. Trinity smiles and kisses his lips once more time.
The last time they left for a mission they didn't come back and they both remember exactly how it went since Ballard knocked on their door calling them back to their duty.
On that morning they had indulged in each other arms exactly like today, before getting up. But it had been long time ago.
"We still have time." Neo says as his tongue meets hers.
It begins with cuddles again in an attempt of releasing stress, but it turns out in fucking hot oral sex which releases much more than just stress.
Neo's mouth rewards Trinity's one before she can catch her breath and sends her to heaven repeatedly with skills that haven't changed after all those years.
"Do you need CPR?" Neo teases with a smirk, moving his head from between her legs to her lower abdomen. He places a kiss on her belly and rests his cheek on her skin, in turn catching his breath as he can still feel the spasm of her inner muscles and the trembling of her legs.
She chuckles and her hand finds the short hair of his nape in a soft caress.
"I lost count of how many time you've already given me a special mouth-to-mouth resuscitation" her eyes are still closed and her breathing is still laboured "you just got the wrong lips"
"They look everything but wrong to me, honey" he teases again, cupping her sex but moving his head just to put another kiss under her navel.
"Don't ask me," she says, still chortling in the aftermath "I lost my thinking skills half an hour ago"
He smiles against her skin. It's been definitely his purpose. Stopping her from thinking.
It's been a one-track mind in the last days for both of them actually. They can't change things but they keep wonder if they had missed signs they should have recognized about her pregnancy.
... ... Dizziness ...
... ... the strong vertigo that had hit her as soon as she had tried to stand up from her seat on the Neb, after Neo had saved her on the roof-top. ..."Trinity"... Neo's arm had gone fast around her waist as she lost her balance, like seeing that coming. Her hand had pressed on his chest in an attempt to steady both herself and her breathing and she had found herself scooped up in his arms before she could say she was fine. And she was. Like someone just revived by his own boyfriend in the Matrix. Fine except for the intense pain still pounding in her ribs... Wasn't she supposed to feel sick after having been so near to death?
... ... Pallor ...
... ... she remembers Maggie's words. The medic of the Hammer... "You sure you're fine, you look paler than usual,? I still suggest you should be checked and have some rest"... "I'm fine"...
... ... Nausea ...
... ... the strong wave of nausea which filled her stomach as she tried to buckle up her boots before she and Neo took the Logos... "it took me ten minutes to buckle up one boot"
Signs.
Or maybe not.
Trinity unconsciously touches her own arm in the exact point where her birth control implant used to be.
Her period had been inexistent for years because of it. Such that comes in handy when you are permanently on duty on a hovercraft.
How was she supposed to pay attention to insignificant passing malaises after all that she had gone through. After all they both had gone through.
"I keep thinking how things would have been different..." Trinity says in a whisper as Neo moves at her side.
"If we knew about the baby?"
She shakes her head lightly, then resting her head against his chest as he sneaks an arm under her shoulder.
"If we could have grown her"
She looks up at him and Neo just nods, kissing her forehead.
Neo's hand is on her hip, but his thumb hasn't stopped to draw little circles on the side of her lower abdomen, in what is a soft massage.
She doesn't know if he's conscious of it or if it's just a caress in the relax of the aftermath. But it draws another painful thought... she has never been aware of a baby growing inside her... and she would have liked to be able to enjoy that feeling as much as Neo's hand caressing their child through her belly.
"I wonder if she looks like you"
Neo's voice awakens her from her thoughts and Trinity smiles, propping on an elbow to look better at him.
"Actually she probably has your eyes" Trinity says staring at Neo's dark eyes. "Something about Mendel's dominant genes, you know?" She specifies with a smirk.
"So unfair for her then." He replies with the hint of a smile. "Your beautiful eyes floored me since the first time we met."
Trinity laughs. The genuine laugher he knows just a few people can listen to.
"So liar" She teases with a mischievous look "The first time we met I was squeezed in a so tight-fitting leather micro dress I could barely breath. You didn't look at my eyes at all."
He smirks.
"I can get why Morpheus sent you. It would have been hard not to follow you into the rabbit hole, Alice."
She slaps his chest with a reprimand look, but he laughs and catches her wrist, rolling her under himself in a quick move she couldn't see coming, then pinning her arms above her head as his mouth finds hers.
"Again a liar." She says teasing him. "You wanted to quit. After I and the guys picked you up under that bridge."
"And yet I didn't. Because of you." He traps her lip in his and sucks on it, hard enough to steal a moan from her throat.
"I would have allowed you to take off not only my shirt, love"
She chuckles at his smirk wrapping her legs around his hips.
.
Neo grabs his tools and shoulders his bag. When he turns, Trinity is standing in the door with her bag.
"I'm ready"
A deja-vu hits him and he stands up there, watching her. He drops his bag.
... ... Trinity... I know I'm supposed to go, but beyond that ... I don't know ... I'm not sure if ...
... ... I know. You don't think you're coming back...
... ... I'm scared, Trin.
She dropped her bag and stepped close to him.
... ...So am I. It took me ten minutes to buckle up one boot. But I'll tell you something Neo, six hours ago I told the Merovingian I was ready to give anything and everything for you. He believed me. Do you know what's changed in the last six hours?
... ... No.
... ... Nothing.
She had kissed him, and in the kiss there was a vow.
That memory hurts... it hurts like hell.
Trinity drops her bag and moves closer to him, touching his cheek. He closes his eyes and sighs in her touch.
"Neo..."
"I should have protect you. I failed in protecting you. Both of you"
"Don't do this..." her hand cups his cheek "I gave anything and everything for you. You gave anything and everything for me... for Zion... for all of us"
She wraps her arms around his shoulders.
... ... Do you remember on that roof, after you caught me? The last thing I said to you?
... ... You said, I'm sorry.
... ... I wish I hadn't. That was my last thought. I wished that I had one more chance to say what mattered... To say how much I loved you, how grateful I was for every moment I was with you, but by the time I knew how to say what I wanted, it was too late. But you brought me back. You gave me my wish; one more chance. To say what I really wanted to say ... Kiss me ... once more ... kiss me ...
"And... once again, Neo, you gave me one more chance" She kisses the side of his neck "You gave us one more chance"
Her hands move on his cheeks again and she holds his head one inch from hers "And I love you so fucking much" she says on his lip as he closes the distance between them.