Chapter Text
They leapt, and they didn't fall. Or well, Trinity didn't fall. Neo began to plummet, but their hands remained clasped tight and he dangled below her.
“I'm not doing this. Are you doing this?” he called up to her, awe in his voice.
He thought he was awed? Try being her. She was flying. Not being carried by him when he flew the way she was just now remembering they had done twenty years ago, but she, by herself, was flying. Was the lightness in her head because she was actually weightless or because she was just so giddy? She burst into a grin, wider than she could remember smiling in years.
Another helicopter neared them and she just laughed at it. It couldn't touch her now. “Bye,” she said, and flew off.
She pulled Neo up with the one handed strength she had in the matrix. Being here against her will was horrible, obviously, but she had forgotten how much fun power and agility granted by belief were. He looked at her with a manic grin, like she was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. She couldn't remember the last time Chad had looked at her like that. But she didn't want to think about Chad right now. She wanted to just be here with Neo in this moment. She landed them on a roof, making sure to be gentle with his touchdown before falling into his arms, practically giggling. “What now?” she asked, breathless. “It can't still be landlines we exit through.”
Neo just stared at her for a moment like he couldn't believe his eyes. She felt the same. Now that they weren't actively running for their lives, she had time to register that it was Neo she was looking at, and she hadn't seen him, really seen him, in twenty years.
Neo soon sobered though, shaking his head. “Yeah, no, it's mirrors now. Seq should be able to set one up for us when everyone’s ready, but I'm not sure if they are…” he trailed off, looking around as if expecting to see something particular.
A young man very suddenly appeared on the rooftop beside them. Trinity jumped back in shock, readying a fighting stance, but he just looked at Neo and said in a harried voice, “Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea right now.” He glanced back as if looking at something specific over his shoulder. “Everyone’s doing what they can, but it's not going great. Staying in here is probably the best plan, at least from a pain management standpoint. I'd recommend getting out of the city, though. More bots are closing in, and I can't keep too close of an eye on you right now.” He finally turned to her, giving a shy wave and a “Hi, Trinity,” before he vanished as suddenly as he had appeared.
She straightened and raised her hands, looking at Neo with a “what the hell was that?” gesture.
“Yeah, sorry,” he said distractedly. “Operators work differently now.”
Trinity raised her eyebrows at him, a “you think?” expression on her face. “I can see that. Why can't we leave?”
He hesitated. “It's a lot. Do you want to get out of here first?”
He wasn't wrong that it would be a good idea to run now and ask questions later if the disappearing kid was right about the bots. But he was scaring her, and she didn’t like being out of the loop. She pulled him close, ready to fly again if they needed to, but said “Tell me.”
He broke eye contact. Swallowed. Finally asked, “You remember the machine city?”
The wall of machines, impossible to pass. Neo's hand in hers as he directed her above them. The sun, the real, actual sun. Falling, desperately trying to get the ship to restart. And then cold fear. She hadn't been able to really feel it, she thinks the pain was too much for her brain to process, so it just didn't. But she could feel the raw panic in her throat, tearing its way out as she looked at the multiple jagged pieces of metal in her chest and in her arm. She had tried to move, but couldn't, only increasing her fear. She had screamed again, knowing it was stupid to make noise in enemy territory, but unable to do anything else. She had turned to Neo, immobile in the other seat and begged him to move. Wished she believed in a god so she could have anything to pray to that he wasn't dead already, that this wasn't for nothing. That she wasn't going to bleed out in this cold, unforgiving city next to his corpse. Because she couldn't do anything. All she could do was lie there and cry and feel the warm, wet stain of her blood pooling beneath her. She had faded away, thinking it was the end, then woke up to him calling her name. He had fumbled his way over to her and grabbed her hand. Slowly realized, like she already had, that there was no saving her from this. No way to scoop a bullet out and beat her heart for her. She had only felt resigned to it by then. Had used her last breaths to tell him she believed in him, she loved him, and all she wanted was one last kiss.
And then the next thing she remembered was being Tiff, waking up for work.
She nodded. Yes, she remembered.
Neo hesitated again, not sure how to continue. A guilty expression. “The, uh. The machines brought us back, obviously.” Had he died too? Had it really been for nothing? “But, they only needed us alive enough to stay battery backs, not enough to be what we were, be able to leave the pods. I'm, um. I'm still blind. Out there. And you… we're really not sure how your injuries will affect you. The original plan was to jack you out and then immediately plug you back into a construct while Ellster got you stable enough to bring you back to a real hospital. But it looks like they've decided that would be too much of a shock to your system. I'm… I'm not sure that we are going to get you out of this, Trin. I'm sorry. We should have asked you first, but getting you out was impossible enough without getting you to wake up and telling you first. We- I thought you'd rather die fighting than asleep if that's what it comes to.”
The cold numbness spread through her chest again. She looked down at herself, knowing the rebar wouldn't be there, but expecting it anyway.
He wasn't wrong. She had just jumped off a roof not knowing if they'd make it exactly because she'd rather die herself than live as Tiff. But the idea that she'd still die, again, because of what the machines had done to her and in a way she had no control over felt so much worse than a fall to pavement would have. She just stared at him, completely at a loss for words, until she heard a helicopter nearing.
Securing her grip on him again, she took off, flying them out of the city. The timing had worked just as well- they both remembered how impossible it was to talk while flying- the wind whipping their voices away- and she truly had no idea what to say.
She wasn't afraid of dying, not so much. She had done it twice after all. But the idea of having so little time before it happened after so much time had been stolen from her felt like a cruel joke. She inhaled Neo's scent as his long hair flew in her face. She was glad that the fight for their lives had worked off whatever products he used in the simulation. Now there was just the sweat and adrenaline that he had smelled of so often in Zion and on the Neb. If this was going to be all the time they had together, at least it would feel like the him she remembered. The long hair was cute, though. She'd have to tell him that, if they had time.
Her daughter was in the hospital right now. If that hadn't been a lie. If that was her daughter. If Callie was even human. Trinity had never wanted kids, not before the matrix put it in her head that she did, and the fact that she had them now felt like a distant dream. She felt obligated to care, like she should be considering turning around and saying goodbye to her family before she possibly died, but she didn't care. She couldn't tell if that was shock or the natural result of learning her family had just been the bars of a cage. Maybe were just the bars of a cage. Chad, definitely. But maybe the kids were just bluepills? Did it matter when the effect was the same? It was too much to think about.
She wasn't sure how long they had been flying when they touched down again, this time in the middle of nowhere, far from the city. The last two times she had died, she had wanted to go out doing the same thing, and this time may as well not be any different. She backed Neo against a tree and kissed him like her life depended upon it. He seemed surprised at first but kissed her back, gripping her like he was afraid to let go, holding her tighter than he had when they were flying.
“Hey! Oh, woah, sorry!” came the voice of the man from before. Seq, Neo had called him. They pulled away from each other and turned to see him resolutely not looking at them for a moment before seeming to judge it safe and meeting Trinity's gaze. “Sorry to interrupt, but we're approaching IO. We're going to have to unplug you to transfer you to the hospital. We've given you a sedative though, so you shouldn't feel it. Are you ready to go?”
Trinity furrowed her brow. “What's IO?”
Seq shot a wide eyed look at Neo, and Trinity turned around to face him. “Right, um. There's a lot more you need to know. We didn't really have time to get into it.” Time, still their enemy.
“Uhhh, definitely more you need to know, but also definitely yes to the no time thing.” Seq interjected. “The sedative in your system might make you pass out here too, but I’ve got a portal open just a little ways away; Neo can carry you through if need be. You shouldn't feel a thing, Trinity.”
And she didn't.