Title is a work in progress. Might keep it, might not. I hadn't been planning on posting this until I finished chapter three, but given how quickly I seem to be able to write on my new laptop... And anyway, I'm sure you'd all be used to my slow updates by now. But I'll do my very best to post each chapter ASAP. Cross my heart and hope to die. Oodles of love, people.

---

Chapter One

Heartbreak

---

They fell away from their clashing swords, circling each other, waiting for another opening. Ghost tore away a scrap of fabric from his sleeve and let it fall to the floor. She did not care that it was only the third time he had done that after a full twenty minutes of sparring, nor did she care that he had already cut away her left pant leg from the knee down, among many other things. She was just grateful to be doing something so reliable for a change.

Trinity really did love Ghost. He was one of the few people she knew she could always count on. In the eleven years they had known each other, he had never once abandoned her in a time of need, not on duty or home in Zion. She knew that if she ever found herself in trouble, he would be there to help her out of it. Sometimes she swore he could sense when she needed him, even through endless miles of sewers when they had not seen or spoken to each other in weeks. It had been exactly her thought when he radioed the Neb, out of the blue, and asked if she was up for a blind fight.

Sensing the opening, Trinity took the initiative and rushed towards him again.

Focus. That was his gift right now. Blind sword fights required every bit of concentration either person could conjure up. A second of inattentiveness by either fighter could jeopardize the life of an ally, even here in the Construct. Ghost's gift was an excuse not to think about him.

Most soldiers could learn to fight blindfolded, and could do it with a fair amount of skill, but only the best of them could learn to blind fight with swords. It took years to learn, and even when they did, there was always risk involved, always the chance that they might slip up and harm, or be harmed, so complete concentration was always needed. The entire goal of the exercise was control and focus - two things that were in such short supply in her life lately.

Trinity grew bolder and more confident in her moves. She sidestepped him as he attacked, and slashed his right sleeve. She ducked beneath him as he tried to turn back, and cut his side. She was falling into the rhythm of their movements. A moment later, she somehow moved her sword in such a way that she ripped his clear from his hands and sent it flying into the air. She flipped over him and caught it, landing clear across the dojo. She pulled the blindfold away from one eye, and saw him doing the same. "Thanks for bringing me in here." She threw it back to him, and they resumed fighting stances.

She wasn't quite sure how she lost her focus. Her best guess was that thanking Ghost reminded her of just what she needed to be distracted from, brought him into her mind, at least subconsciously. But she wasn't quite sure. Her fighting faltered after that. Between the three or four strikes she made against him over the next few moments, he managed to make a good twenty, pushing her towards a corner in the process. She jumped over him again, so she could land far away, and give herself time to regain her composure, but he attacked again while she was above him. Her landing was far from flawless, and when her feet touched the ground, a searing pain flashed through her left shoulder. Something hot began running down her arm, and she realized that he had cut her.

"Trinity!" he called, running over. His voice was fearful, panicked. "Trinity, are you all right?"

She slowly removed the blindfold and stared down at her arm. Her blood was dripping down the blade of the sword now. It wasn't a very deep cut, and there was a relatively small amount of blood, but he made a fuss over it. Twice he tried to look at her arm, and twice she pulled away. He tried to pull her arm towards him again, and she snapped. "I'm fine," she finally yelled, practically jumping back. He stared at her, confusion and concern written all over his face, and it took her several seconds to realize that now it was not about her arm, but about the fact that she was breathing very heavily.

Shit.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, stepping away from him. "I must just be distracted about something. I'll talk to you later." She spoke the release code for the program before he could say anything. She stared at the ceiling of the core, feeling the dull pain creeping into her shoulder, mind all but blank. Finally, she reached around and unplugged herself, sat up and pushed the sleeves of her two sweaters up. There was no bruising in her arm, at least not yet. She let the fabric fall down again, and shook her head, laughing in apparent defeat. She swung her feet over the edge of the chair and stood. When she looked up, Switch was standing behind the operator's console. Her eyes captured Trinity's gaze, and it was as if the sword had gone through her heart.

---

Morpheus sat back in his chair, arms crossed tightly over his chest. He seemed to be enamored in the document on the computer screen, but she was sure that wasn't it.

"You're going to have to tell them sooner or later," Trinity muttered. "They haven't believed you about him from the start. Granted, they still won't believe you when you tell them, but..."

He sighed and leaned forward onto his forearms. "That's the problem. I'm worried that if the rest of the crew doesn't believe that he's the One -"

"Morpheus, you can't unplug him," she stated flatly.

"I know you don't want him hurt, Trinity, that's why, -"

"You don't want him hurt." He looked over his shoulder at her, and she met his eyes squarely. "I never said I believed you."

"Regardless of your believe me or not, Trinity, this will be -"

"Morpheus, you will kill him," she said forcefully, walking in front of him. His eyes remained fixed on the floor. "You cannot unplug him. You know the chances of him surviving even one day after you tell him the truth are a thousand to one, and that's only if he even lives long enough for you to tell him in the first place." He still did not look at her. "Believe you or not, I still know how much this means to you. Are you really willing to risk his life?" she asked angrily. He did look up at her, then. "What the hell am I saying?" She said after a frozen minute. She stood up straight and turned, pacing. "Of course you are. You were with all the others."

"Trinity -"

"You risked them, you lost them, but no, you didn't stop, once they were dead, you figured out that they were just like everybody else, then you really found your precious One," she said cynically.

"Trinity, that isn't -"

"Remind me to thank Niobe the next time I see her," she said, stopping in the far corner of the cabin, glaring at him. "She's probably the only reason you didn't kill me, too." She met his eyes, and found that he was glaring right back at her. They stood in the angry stillness in the room until her temper had ebbed enough for her to speak rationally. "Look. Whether he lives or dies, what makes you so sure he won't be like all the others? How is he different enough to make you certain?"

"Why don't you want him unplugged?" Her glare faltered. "You've never cared about whether we pulled out anyone else before. Why didn't you worry about the others as much as you worry about Neo?"

The answer came to her without thinking. "The others were young enough," she lied, confident stature returning. "And I wasn't nearly as worried that anything would happen to them because of you."

"That's why we have to be very cautious with him." He held her gaze tightly, emphasizing his point. He walked past her to the door, and left.

Why didn't she want him unplugged? She knew the painful answer almost before she was done asking the question. You don't want to get even more attached. You don't want to see him die. Because, whether he was the One or not, he would die. There simply was no way around it. She left Morpheus' quarters and followed him to the mess hall, lagging far behind. Her slow walk was disheartened, and her eyes were fixated on the floor in front of her. She did not even realize that she was not alone until her arm was grabbed roughly, and she was dragged down a side hall.

"You plan on a telling me what that was?" Switch probed.

"What?"

"Last night," she barked. She moved closer to Trinity, backing her into the wall. "Neither of you have ever been able to actually draw blood since you first started learning. And if I recall correctly, even then it wasn't a very common thing to have happen." Her eyes narrowed, and she advanced even closer to her. "So what the hell happened last night?"

Trinity's defensiveness kicked in again, and she pushed Switch away roughly. "It's called an accident." She glared, and passed by her. "They actually happen sometimes. I was distracted." She hurried the rest of the way to the mess hall, and started fixing her dinner immediately. She would be spared the rest of this conversation if they weren't alone.

"Seriously?" she heard Mouse ask eagerly.

"Don't get so excited," Apoc said solemnly.

She turned around to find the rest of the crew seated around the table, with Morpheus standing at the far end. Except for Mouse, and maybe Tank, they all looked solemn, quiet. Switch found them this way when she entered. "What?"

"He says Neo's the One," Mouse said excitedly.

Apoc didn't deflate his enthusiasm this time, but turned to Trinity instead. "Did you know about this?"

She tried to avoid it, but Switch caught her eye an held it for a moment. "Not much longer than you have."

Dozer shook his head. "Morpheus, you can't honestly be thinking of doing this again."

"Don't bother," Trinity interjected, sitting down across from him with her dinner. "I've already tried to talk him out of it."

He sighed. "Should I even bother asking if you're any more sure about this one than you were about the others?"

She glanced up at Morpheus before he spoke. "Tell us the truth," was her wordless message.

"I am," he said confidently.

---

It didn't surprise her that hearing Morpheus say he was certain about Neo only made things worse for her. Nothing really surprised her by then.

The best thing she could think to compare Neo to was a drug, the latest concoction some punk whipped up in his quarters in Zion. Whenever she wasn't absorbed with him, watching or thinking about him, she was terrified of him. Terrified of her feelings for him. But he was addictive, and, somehow, she was more afraid of losing the way she felt when she watched him than she was of becoming more captivated by him. She was only afraid when she wasn't with him. So, she took more and more shifts, let them last longer and longer, even more than when they had first discovered him. Without fail, she regretted her decision not more than five minutes after she finally left the core, but, somehow, she could never stop herself from going back. Like right now. Tank's shift to watch him was due to start any minute, but she had no intention of leaving any time soon.

There was not even a slight footstep to warn her, but suddenly, she was spun around in her chair, and found Switch standing with one hand on either armrest. "This isn't just about your arm, you haven't been yourself for months."

"Back off," she hissed. She forced her way out of the chair, but only made it a few paces before Switch blocked her path again.

"For starters, the Trinity I know could have come up with something a hell of a lot better than that bullshit line about being distracted."

"Get out of my way," she said as she pushed her to the side.

"You're going to have to tell me sooner or later and you know it!"

She spun around and met Switch head on. "People actually change, did you ever think about that?"

"Not like that, not that fast!"

She did not even take the time to glare, she simply turned again, heading straight for the ladder to the lower deck. "What exactly are these drastic changes you've noticed?"

She almost made it, but Switch stepped between her and the ladder at the last moment. "You stopped playing cards with us after dinner. You haven't been sparring as much and when you do you're not as good as you could be. You can't get your work done on time. You spend all your time watching the Matrix. I can't remember the last non-work-related conversation you carried on with someone. For god's sake, Trinity, you haven't laughed or smiled in three fucking months!"

"That's a change?" she asked cynically, trying to pass.

Switch braced her arm against a pipe, blocking the path again. "You're hardly a ray of sunshine, Trinity, but we can usually get you to crack a smile or two at dinner."

She gave up and headed for the ladder at the other end of the Core.

"Harper!" She didn't respond. Switch followed and grabbed her forearm, and Trinity snapped. She spun around, fist raised and aimed straight for her face. She managed to catch the fist before it impacted, but Trinity twisted out of the grasp and instinctively dropped to the floor, sweeping her legs at Switch's ankles. She jumped, and before she even had a chance to stand up again, Tank was between them, pushing them away from each other.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She didn't answer, just glared at Switch and quickly descended the ladder.

---

The days that followed were nothing short of hell. Switch confronted her every chance she got, cornering her in the hallways, when she was repairing something in a deserted part of the ship. Trinity tried her best to avoid her, but it did no good. She was able to leave on a few occasions, but more often she was forced to defend herself again and again. She was running out of things to say. Several nights after the first encounter, Switch spent ten minutes pounding on her cabin door. Even though Trinity wouldn't answer, she did not stop until Morpheus came out to ask what was going on.

"There is something seriously wrong with her," came Switch's muffled voice through the door. "Do something about it, she won't talk to me." After that, she backed off, but, knowing her, it was only so that she could try a more subdued, rational approach later.

Morpheus did try talking to her, twice. He was easier to handle. Unlike Switch, she had no trouble completely blowing him off, when necessary. The first of their conversations lasted not more than a minute, and was little more than Trinity telling him, more or less, to piss off. The next time, he was able to keep her calm, make her stay and explain herself, even if it did take some doing. He even managed to make her admit that something was wrong.

"It's my problem," she said flatly. "I'll deal with it myself."

He leaned in toward her. "Trinity," he said sympathetically. "You know I normally don't mind letting you work out your problems on your own, but this... whatever it is, it has been affecting you, significantly, more than I think any of us realize. And by default what affects you affects the rest of the crew."

She turned her head away and her eyes fell shut. She had finally figured out why she didn't want anyone else to know what was going on - it meant that any hope of a way out was shattered into a million tiny pieces.

"I would love to let you keep to yourself on this one," he explained slowly. "But unless something changes soon, I won't be able to." He left then. Before the door could close, she heard someone else come in. She knew instinctively that it was Switch. A quick glance confirmed it.

She paced back and forth a few times before stopping, and finally speaking. "You know you have to tell me sooner or later."

"That's the thing, actually." She stood up, and headed for the open door. "I don't."

---

It was getting bad. When she went to watch him, she had stopped caring that she would regret it later. She was early for her shift, as usual. It wasn't her shift, really, but she was still early.

She materialized in the small storage room, plugged in her laptop, and waited for it to boot up. Just days before, Morpheus had ordered surveillance of Neo from within the Matrix. That was where Cypher was, in a car across the street from his apartment building. She knew he was being a slacker - he couldn't learn shit sitting outside his window - but she said nothing.

When the laptop warmed up, she set to work hacking into his computer. She sifted through his most recent files. Some office work, though there was very little of it, a few programs he was going to sell to private customers, and some work for himself. She had know about his files on the Matrix for some time. They detailed everything he knew about Morpheus, the Resistance, the Matrix, everything. They had grown in the last several weeks, mostly thanks to her own guidance, which she had more or less managed to hide from him. She scanned through the most recent additions, then opened a second screen to follow his current actions online. He was in a chat room. Watching a chat room, more accurately; he hadn't announced his presence. She watched the conversation as well for several minutes, until an idea struck her.

---

Some full-of-himself punk was online, bragging. Neo just leaned back in his chair with his half-empty beer bottle and watched.

SuperStatic: i swear i figured it out this time

FOS4: U said that before, u don't know any more than the rest of us.

He was actually kind of pissing Neo off. Arrogant little brat acting like he was the king of the universe. He obviously didn't know as much about the Matrix as he said he did, otherwise he'd know he wasn't the only person to be dead positive they had it figured out.

TimaXe: what's your new theory?

SuperStatic: it's kind of a euphemism for the government

JACKSON: That the best you can come up with?

FOS4: that's lame! somebody else told me that a week ago

SuperStatic: shut up and let me finish!

quark: I heard that 2

Neo might have been inclined to join the conversation and share his wisdom in the past. But he had learned so much lately, and he really liked the idea of knowing so much more than so many of the other hackers searching for answers. Didn't really matter though. It was just a hobby for them. For him, it was his life.

SuperStatic: its cuz the gov controls us and oppresses us. that's why u always hear people talking about fighting it

FOS4: i told u it was lame

SuperStatic: like u could do better

TimaXe: i've heard much better theories

SuperStatic: but it makes sense! that's why nobody knows what it is cuz its a euphemism

They descended into a petty argument then. It was a pity that there were so few serious Searchers out there, so few people he could have a serious discussion with. Most people interested in the Matrix had just heard about it in a chat room. Their interest in it rarely lasted more than a few months. Neo had met hundreds of people who had heard about it, but only a few dozen felt the way he did, only a few had made the connection between that and the Matrix, knew that the truths behind both were somehow connected.

The conversation was going nowhere. Not like it ever did. He was about ready to sign off.

User logon: RedQueen.

Something stopped him from logging off, made him wait to see what this newcomer had to say.

RedQueen: I can tell you amateurs for a fact that you aren't even close.

FOS4: who the hell are u?

RedQueen: Someone who knows a lot more than you do.

TimaXe: how do u know your theory is right?

RedQueen: Believe me, I know. And it's not a theory.

JACKSON: Ever meet Morpheus?

RedQueen: I know him very well, in fact.

Neo's fingers were flying over the keyboard, frantically entering the codes and commands needed to track this hacker. Not only did she at least claim to know for a fact what the Matrix was, but she - what the hell? Before he could even really get going, he ran into one of the best defense systems he had ever seen, and he was willing to bet there would be more beyond this one. He flipped back to the chat room.

RedQueen: I've met plenty of people whose knowledge of the Matrix is several times what all of you know added together.

SuperStatic: but i bet there's a lot of people who know less than we do.

RedQueen: Considerably less. But, again, there are those who know a lot more.

Their quickly deflated egos created a long pause in which no one said anything.

RedQueen: Why don't you tell them what you know, Neo?

TimaXe: who?

Stunned, Neo immediately hit the keys for the shortcut exit commands. He may not have been a world renowned hacker, but he could hide his presence in a chat room. It wasn't as if someone could go in and weed out any lurkers. They would have to know he was watching already, hack into his computer, watch him as he worked.

Shit.

---

Trinity smirked. What hacker hadn't at one point or another had someone else hack them? But, then, she knew him well enough by now. She expected his reaction.

She checked the clock in the corner of the screen. Cypher still had time left in his shift. She shouldn't relieve him, and it wasn't as if there was anything to relieve him of. Sitting outside his apartment wasn't exactly difficult. But there wasn't really any reason to leave him out there for another ten minuets if she was already watching Neo. She pulled her phone from her coat pocket and hit the speed dial.

"Yeah?"

"Is everything in place?"

"You weren't supposed to relieve me..."

"I know, but I felt like taking a shift." Her tone dared him to push it any further.

"You like him, don't you?" he taunted, not the least bit intimidated. "You like watching him."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said in exasperation. She wasn't sure how convincing she sounded.

"We're gonna kill him. You understand that?" He had been badgering the crew with this point since they found out Neo was going to be unplugged. She agreed, but she had been trying to hide it - more from herself than anyone else. "He's going to die just like all the others."

"Morpheus believes he's the One."

"Do you?"

Did she? She still couldn't even give herself a solid answer. "It doesn't matter what I believe," she finally said, quietly.

"You don't, do you?"

She settled for glaring at a mark on the wall. She didn't appreciate anyone telling her what she did or did not believe when she wasn't even sure herself. "If you have something to say, I suggest you say it to Morpheus,." she retorted coldly.

"I intend to, believe me. Someone has to."

Son of a bitch. He had no right to say it, but she stopped herself from retaliating. She opened her mouth to tell him he was off duty, when she heard a nearly inaudible beep come through the phone line. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Are you sure this line is clean?"

"Yeah, course I'm sure."

Hang up. "I'd better go." She snapped the phone shut without another word. Calm down, she told herself repeatedly. Calm down. They wouldn't have enough time to detect you and fully trace the call. This location has never been compromised before. You're fine, you're fine.

She forced herself to return to her work, and within a few minutes she was almost completely at ease.

---

By the time she heard anything, it was too late. There was only one way in and out of this room, and if she used it now, she would be seen, followed. She didn't have a gun on her, she couldn't risk that. She didn't have time to set up an automatic call to the hardline. Even if she did, or if the next person had come out for their shift, the sound of a ringing phone would send them running in. She would be shot before she could get out. But it didn't really matter. If they were there, chances were that the hardline had already been cut. She'd have to get out of this the old-fashioned way. She took the precious few seconds she knew she had left to calm down, center herself. Get into her prime.

She heard four sets of footsteps positioning themselves outside the door. She had been in worse situations.

The ancient door nearly shattered off its hinges when the cop kicked it in. "Freeze! Police!"

She was still. Perfectly, inhumanly still.

"Hands on your head!" shouted a second cop. "Do it! Do it now!"

Slowly, she lifted her hands from the keyboard, making sure they could all see, and placed them on the back of her head, fingertips barely touching. Just as gradually, she slid her chair back, and stood.

"Stay right there." He opened a pouch on his belt, and she heard the chains of handcuffs coming out. She focused every fragment of her mind on his footsteps and breathing. She had one chance. One step, two, three. Halfway there... four, five steps... almost there. Wait. Another step, just one more... Wait...

Now.

She spun as quick as lighting, grabbing his wrist, out to put the cuffs on, and brought her other hand up beneath his arm with tremendous force. His bone snapped like a twig. Her arm pulled back and slammed forward again, breaking his nose. Before he could even fall, she jumped straight up and kicked him square in the chest. He went flying across the room, right into another cop. The third cop seemed to have the best reflexes - he raised his gun and fired. His gun followed her, even as she ran across the wall. The final cop was slower than any of the others; it was easy for her to run in front of him, use him as a human shield as she emptied six rounds into the other cop. Easy to knock unconscious, too.

"Shit," she muttered, when she was the only one left standing. She wasted no time retrieving two of their guns and replacing the magazines. "Please let someone be there," she whispered as she snatched the phone from the desk and dialed the ship.

"Operator."

"Morpheus!" Thank God. "The line was traced, I don't know how -"

"I know. They cut the hardline, you're going to have to get to another exit."

"Are there any Agents?" she asked frantically, staring out into the hallway.

"Yes."

"Goddamn it."

"You have to focus, Trinity. There is a phone at Wells and Lake."

Wells and Lake. She remembered that exit, payphone on the corner. It was just a few buildings down.

Morpheus seemed to sense her anxiety. "You can make it."

"All right," she said, determined.

"Go."

She barely took the time to shut off the phone, and darted into the hallway. Down the hall, she saw an agent trailed by more cops as the elevator doors opened. She turned and ran the other way. A few bends and turns, and she practically smashed open the door to the fire escape, only to find an Agent staring up at her from three stories below. Fine. It would be safer and quicker to jump rooftops anyway. She took the ladders three and four steps at a time, knowing that the Agent, at least, would be doing the same. She ran flat out when she reached the roof. The first jump was only five feet, and she cleared it easily. The roof of the next building was peaks of glass, but it didn't give her much trouble, and it slowed the cops down enough.

The next gap to jump was a large one, but so determined was she that she cleared it without trouble, even though she had done nothing of the sort in weeks. She rolled when she landed, and ran behind a crumbling wall of brick. She heard a loud thud as the Agent landed, and the quiet click of his gun. She peeked around and saw him just as he stood. She pulled her head back and searched around her, frantically looking for a way out.

There. All the way across the rooftop she was on, and across a narrow gap. A tiny window. It was big enough for her, but just barely. Hit or miss. But it was her only option. She bolted from he hiding place and ran, almost faster than she ever had. At the last moment, she jumped headlong, and barely made it into the tiny window. There were stairs, and she turned over as she rolled down them. She snatched the cops' guns from her belt when she landed, aiming them instantly at the window.

Time slowed, and the only movement she saw was the swinging a lamp at the top of the stairs. Phone, phone, phone. She was petrified. "Get up Trinity, just get up. Get up!" She willed herself to stand, and ran out of the building to the payphone. As she rounded the corner, a massive truck screeched to a halt.

The phone rang, its shrill sound the gunshot that starts a race.

She ran, and pressed the phone to her ear just as the truck reached the booth. For several agonizing seconds, she wasn't sure if she had made it.

"Trinity," she heard as a warm hand was placed on her shoulder. The cold metal spike slid out of her head plug. "Trinity, are you all right?"

She was shaking as she sat up and put her face in her hands. Morpheus rubbed small, soothing circles in her back. "I'm fine," she finally whispered. He helped her out of her chair, took her to the ladder to the lower decks. She insisted that she was fine, and he let her go the rest of the way on her own. The Neb's hallways now seemed longer than ever before.

She passed by Switch and Apoc's cabin. She stared at the scratches in the door for several minutes. She had been right: Trinity did have to tell her sooner or later. No time like the present, she thought as she knocked on the door. Switch answered after a second knock. Her look was pissed when she opened the door, but she softened immediately when she saw Trinity looking so tired and distraught. She closed the door partially, and after a moment reemerged with her boots on. She followed Trinity to her cabin in silence.

They sat on opposite sides of the bed. Switch waited very patiently for Trinity to speak. She opened her mouth at least a dozen times, but no words were able to come out.

"Is it about Neo?" Switch asked gently.

"Yes."

"Is it about him being the One?"

She paused, weighing her answer. "Sort of."

Switch nodded. "But you were acting strangely before you knew about that."

Trinity sighed heavily. She looked like she was about to cry. She shook her head, and slumped back against the wall. "I'm in love with him," she finally whimpered.

"What?"

She nodded, and then she did start to cry. Switch crawled across the bed and wrapped her arms tightly around her friend. Now wasn't the time for questions. She situated them more comfortably on the bed, and stroked Trinity's hair as she quietly cried into her shoulder. Switch remained that way until long after her tears subsided.

"You know," Trinity said quietly, "the Oracle said this would happen."

"She did?"

"Yeah." She wiped her eyes, and continued. "When I went to see her, she told me that I would fall in love with the One. I thought she was insane," she laughed. "I didn't believe her. For the most part I completely forgot about it."

They lapsed into silence for a while, with Trinity still sniffling every now and then. "You want to tell me what happened?" Switch ventured quietly.

She sighed and rested her head in the crook between Switch's neck and shoulder. "Nothing was wrong until Morpheus asked me for a preliminary report," she whispered. "The night that I finished it I had a dream about him. He kissed me. I wasn't really worried about it at first. But then I kept having the same dreams over and over. Then he was starting to say something to me in one of them, but he stopped. He said I wouldn't want him to tell me then. Eventually, I just said that I loved him." Her words were becoming strained, and Switch wiped new tears form her cheeks. "I swear, I tried everything to convince myself that I didn't, but... Once I remembered what the Oracle had said, I even tried to tell myself that I couldn't be in love with Neo because I was supposed to love the One."

"Even though you didn't believe her?"

"Yeah. Took a while to put two and two together. Completely pathetic," she muttered, lying down on the cot.

"You're not pathetic, Trin," she soothed, lying down beside her. "You're just scared."

"Pathetic, like I said."

"What are you so afraid of?" Nearly a minute passed, yet she received no response. "Trinity?" she probed, sitting up on one elbow so she could see her friend's face. "Trinity, why are you so afraid of being in love with him?"

"Oh, come on, Switch. You know me better than anyone. Did you honestly think I would ever react any other way?"

"You didn't answer me," she replied, calmly. "What do you think's going to happen? Because I have news for you: it won't be the end of your life." She expected that she would have had something to say back, under other circumstances, but now she only buried her face in the pillow, cutting herself off from the world. "Trinity, are you aware of the fact that I'm in love with Apoc, or have you not been paying attention the last seven years?"

"I know," she muttered quietly.

"Has my life spiraled downward into hell? Am I completely miserable?"

"No..."

"Have I lost my entire sense of self? Am I Apoc's little brainwashed bitch?"

"No." Get to the point.

"Damn straight. I don't want to throw a bunch of cliches at you, but falling in love is not the end of the world. And if I recall correctly, you once told me that when Apoc and I got serious you had never seen me happier."

She didn't say anything this time. She just draped an arm over her eyes, trying to block out everything. This wasn't doing her any good. Maybe Switch had been lucky enough to find someone she could love who wouldn't limit her in any way. But that was Switch and her life. They may have been best friends for the last seventeen years, but they were completely different people. Nothing said that loving Neo wouldn't change her for the worse.

"Trin?"

"What?"

"You want to know what the Oracle told me?" she asked, wrapping her arms around Trinity's waist. "She told me that someone I loved very much would end up in a very difficult situation one day, and I would help them." She sat up, and pulled the blanket over them. "So don't worry about it, and get some sleep. Okay?"

"Okay," she whispered back, smiling, just a little.