It's a Long Way Back From Hell (Tag: Lucifer/Trinity/Open)

[_call_me_snake_]

Snake leaned heavily on his bike looking up the tall building toward the 13th floor. He was up there somewhere and ten to one already knew they were coming. Snake tossed his cigarette away looking down the street. The building made him uncomfortable. When he stood near it his hair always prickled on his neck like someone was watching him and he

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[trinity_matrix3]

'Outside the Matrix. In the thing that I told you was...my reality. This is Zion, the last human city, and it's being destroyed.' She couldn't swallow, couldn't breathe, all she could do was watch the Sentinals swoop down from the air. 'God, did they make it?', she asked barely above a whisper. 'I was fighting..Neo and I had gone to the href="http://mczwarno2.brinkster.net/machine%20city_crop.jpg">Machine City try to save Zion.'

As she spoke the scene in front of her dissolved like a mirage and a wave of heat blew in another image. They were standing on another cliff but the rock they stood on before turned into metal. Looking out into the monstrous sea of technology, Trinity looked around. From here you could see the fetus harvester machines, and the thousands of rows of human pods. Looking to her left she she saw href="http://mczwarno2.brinkster.net/warmachines.gif">Zero 1 defence's and then the Logos. The tangled mess of wires and living metal. Looking through the gapping hole she was there, dying. The image didn't bother her so much, it was the machines which crawled around her trying to free her from the metal piercing through her flesh. 'What the hell?' She gasped when one quickly plugged her back into the Matrix. 'No...no!'

Her body tensed as the image changed. Snake and her were standing on a perch. Neo was dying in front of her. Walking over to where he was plugged in she cringed as blood spued from his mouth. Kneeling down next to him she shook her head, trying to fight back tears. 'But he's alive, he came back, he just came back.'

She didn't notice the man walk up to them as she brushed the hair from falling into the charred flesh where his eyes would have been.

'Trinity! It's about time I saw you here! How the fuck are you!!' Spinning around she looked up in surpise before her face went absolutely deadpan, 'Cypher.'

'You know, I always knew I'd see you again.' Cypher squeezed past Snake, ''s'cuse you big guy.'

[_call_me_snake_]

Snake frowned at her and shook his head sadly. Lucifer told me there is no such thing as the destruction of humanity. Even the apocolypse can not destroy the last of it. He shrugged a little thinking maybe this was a vision of the apocolypse but there wasn't enough fire.

He watched the next series of images. He was understanding more on an emotional level. His dreams followed a similiar pattern but they did not look anything like this. His mind came back to reality when she started talking about a dead man being alive.

I have brought two people back from the dead and I do it all the time. He looked at her curiously and then smiled. Maybe he is stronger then you think or he has a guardian angel?

Snake turned to the voice and scowled at the man. Snake had been taught that people speaking to you here if you had not addressed them was a very bad thing. Snake took a deep breathe.

Trinity. His voice was concerned as the man brushed past. Sanke scowled but said nothing watching the conversation.

[trinity_matrix3]

'There isn't. Not in a way. But that depends on how you define humanity.'

She frowned deeply, keeping down the bubble of hatred in her throat as Cypher circled around her and straddled Neo. He shook his head looking back up at her, 'You know, I wish I was there when Morpheus learned that the whole prophecy was complete bullshit', he said, his voiced dripping with hatred.

'Hey One boy! Betcha didn't think things were going to turn out this way!!!' Getting up he kicked Neo's body. Trinity pulled out her gun pointing it at him as she seethed with a silent rage.

'Umm, sorry, won't work peach, I'm already dead.'

'You goddamn traitor. You killed them all.'

'Not all of them. Unfortunetly. And you know, if those Agents came to me again and offered to reinsert me into the Matrix, I'd do it all over again. The only that that sucks about this place is that I'm forced to still eat the same goddamn goop everyday.'

Cypher waved his arms around dramatically, 'Look around you Trinity, does this absofuckinglutly look like something you've seen before? It should, you can read it now, can't you? It all reads like the fucking Matrix. And that's because it is. Machine City, Zion, New York, hell.' Leaning towards he mocked her, whispering as if he was about to tell her a secret. 'It's quite funny really, you're no more woken up and enlighted then you thought. And now,' he said doubling over in laughter, 'your stuck in the new Matrix.'

'Stop it.' She muttured. Images swam in her head and she was getting dizzy.

Cypher laughed with glee. 'What? You don't want the the truth anymore Trin, cause we ain't started yet.' Looking over Neo's body he sighed as he wipped fake tears from his eyes dramatically. 'You know, it really was a beautiful relationship. Too bad these things are not made to last.' Trinity's head snapped up. She heard that line before. She knew it. But where?

'Especially Trin, when right...now...right this verrryy minute, your still dying.'

The scene before them disapeers and they are standing in a white room filled with spidery looking machines crawling over the floor and machines all around the room. Trinity's body is suspended in a tube and metallic probs are plugged into her input sockets.

Cypher looks at Snake, 'You alright there big guy? Not in Kansas anymore, that's for fuckin' sure. Trin, what are you doing hanging out with a blue pill? Aren't you scared he's gonna go Agent on your ass?'

She doesn't hear him. Trinity walks closer to the glass encasing her body looking at the tubes shoved into her mouth. Her body looked like hell but she knew it was still alive. Otherwise, she would not have been in the Matrix.

'I've been here before', she said quietly, remembering her nightmares. Walking over to a dozen computer screens a deep frown spreads across her face. 'What the...'

'Hell? Trinity? Exactly. Yeah, they are really messin' with you. Keeping you alive just long enough so that they copy your code exactly.'

She wouldn't let him see her defeated and although she felt as if someone punched her in the stomach she was keeping the emotions in control. 'Why are you showing me this.'

'For shits and giggles. Wanted to see the expression on your face when you were broken.' Cypher walked over to Trinity's body suspended in the tube and looked down at the control panel. 'Wonder what will happen if I press this button.'

She looked ta Snake and back at Cypher. Could he do this? Could he kill her in hell by altering another reality from here? Trinity was momentarily filled with panic as she raced to knock Cypher down.

[_call_me_snake_]

Snake's eye had gotten more and more full of fury until Cypher went for that button. Instantly Snake's left wrist flicked and the fingers curled, something Trinity may have noticed when he was nervous in the real world. The movement caused fire to arch from his hand and solidifly into a blindingly bright silver sword with fire still crawling over the blade.

If Trinity cared to examine it's code she would see two anomolies, one malignant(the Antichrist) and one belevolent(the Angel). The codes worked in unison in Snake's hand.

He moved toward Cypher at speeds that he should not have been able to. The swordpoint found it's way to Cypher's neck, the heat already singing the collar of his shirt.

There are worse things then death.

Snake spoke quietly with a deadly, cold calm to his voice.

[trinity_matrix3]

Trinity froze in her tracks when Snake appeared next to Cypher with a sword in his hand. Her mouth formed and 'o' in surprise, this she hadn't seen before, this she hadn't noticed in the complex code.

'Holy shit! Down boy! I was just kidding.' Cypher yelled, laughing nervously. 'Trin really, when'd you start hangin' out with this crowd?'

Cypher lifted his hands in mock surrender. 'Alright, alright,' he moved from the control panel with Snake's sword still at his throat. 'Besides, I'd so much rather watch them kill you Trinity. Again, just wish I was able to see Neo's face when you die. Think his screams will reach hell so that I could hear?'

He was trying to get to her and it worked. Pulling back her arm she punched him so hard that he fell backward into the machines.Sparks flew where he hit and Trinity watched in some satifaction she he grunted in pain. Looking over her body again she was deeply disturbed not knowing how to save herself and how much time she had to do so. What were they going to use her for?

'I think I have seen enough,' She whispered.

[_call_me_snake_]

Snake stayed on Cypher not even hearing what he said. Snake was to angry to hear anything except Trinity's whisper. Snake nodded and the sword disappeared as he turned to her. His face was still creased with a heavy, hatefilled grimace that was only now starting to fade. He gave her an apologentic look remembering what he felt the first time he woke from here.

The door.

He motioned toward the door at the far end of the room. You can leave there but I've got to walk back to the battlefield.

[trinity_matrix3]

Trinity nodded slowly, only half aware of her surroundings. Feeling a peaceful detachment that only numbness can bring she somehow found herself at the door. Looking back at the room and Cypher she threw him a cold look which was met with a smug smile.

'See you soon, Trin.'

Snake was going to head back to the battlefield. 'Be careful,' she cautioned.

Walking through the door Trinity held her breath hoping to open her eyes and find herself outside of hell.

[the_rebel_son]

Lucifer had kept a vigilance over their progress through his realm. The time approached and he resumed his place beside Trinity. Again the soothing hand brushed her forehead.

Wake child.

[trinity_matrix3]

Her eyes fluttered open. She stares momentarily at the ceiling before surveying her surroundings again. With Lucifer next to her she quickly props herself on her elbows. Her soul feels heavy and tired from what she has just seen and learned, but she looks over to Snake concerned.

'When does he wake up?'

[the_rebel_son]

Relax child. Lucifer's hand weighed heavily on her shoulder. He will join us later. Snake must find the strength to will his own life to continue. You can not aid his return. YOu should rest while you have the opportunity.

[trinity_matrix3]

Trinity nodded but kept Snake in the corner of her eye. She sat up on the couch not sure what to make of everything she had seen. If hell was a reality she wondered if there were others. Looking at Lucifer she asked,'was it real...what I saw? Was it real or a projection of my own fears?'

[the_rebel_son]

Her words were the same as every other individual granted access to Hell before it was their time.

Both. Hell is a place, a prison for those God finds unworthy. The prison is real. The bars and the shackles are what you make of them.

[trinity_matrix3]

'The prison is real', she repeated lowly letting the words sink in. She knew the feeling of entrapment well and fought against it with every fiber of her body. The prison is real. She thought of Zion and felt sick.

Her head couldn't grasp which questions it wanted to ask as they all swam around in her head. 'Is every reality...a prison? Heaven,' She didn't believe in it but Zion was as close as it came in terms of freedom, or so she had thought, 'is a prison also?'

Raising an eyebrow she questioned, 'God?'

[the_rebel_son]

Inherently, yes. He stood with fluid grace and resumed his place in the chair he had occupied when they arrived.

You are trapped here because you are alive. You can die and go to where it is you are destined to go. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Hades; all the same once you strip away the culture. Sometimes it is possible to by pass death like you have this day.

He reclined interested in Trinity's reaction and the subtleties of her changing expressions.

God is the creator, my creator, his creator. Motioning to Snake his expression hinted at confusion. Oddly not his princess' creator. She was born from the hands of another.

What is it you wish to know of the Creator child?

[trinity_matrix3]

'Why inherently?' She looked at him thinking over the things that he was telling her. Glancing back at Snake again she felt uncomfortable knowing that he was still making his way through his hell. Growing concerned, she hoped he was alright.

'But when I die and end up going to..' She stopped briefly, never having thought about where she would go, if she would go anywhere, when she died, 'where ever it is that I am going, I still won't be free? There is always something that governs over us?'

She titled her head to the side when he mentioned the Creator...she couldn't help thinking of the Architect, of Neo, of the machine god that Neo mentioned fighting.
Sighing she pressed her lips together. 'It's just that I understand the terms that you talking about but my experiance of them are much different then you would know.'

[the_rebel_son]

Is the natural order prison? Birth to death and perhaps rebirth, does that make a prison or a pattern?

He was inquisitive and curious as to what her answer would be to the proposed question.

Even a creator has something which governs his or her hand. Freedom can go only so far before you find you are thrust into chaos. War and even destrucion has order though many can not see past the devestation.

His lips curled into a soft smile.

We all see the world differently. You could see as I do or as Snake does. Our way is not yours and it should not be. Perhaps that is where you may find the freedom you seek. Would you like to see as he does before he awakens?