if she has to, she’ll kill every one of us
fic link: give me a call if you ever get desperate
fandom: the matrix | ship: trinity/neo | characters: trinity, persephone, smith
rated: M | tagged: hurt/comfort, a lot of queer machines having unrequited love with the One sorry not sorry
summary: The familiar voice is haunting, and the words are true: “You wouldn’t have just come if I gave you a ring. How else do I get your attention?”
Or, Trinity descends into the underworld to collect her lover once more.
Written for the February 2024 NeoTrin Fic Exchange for thene
excerpt:
*
Her DSI shifts a little out of the need for discretion, perhaps respect for an old haunt. What is slick and black becomes a soft gray; the very picture of a visiting mother in Ralph Lauren and sensible shoes, a Chanel bag and rouge on her cheeks. No one stops her as she enters the school wing of the church, hallways she remembers well when she was decades and decades younger. A little girl learning about long division and the holy trinity and that everyone is watching her with motives she couldn’t trust.
It all looks the same except everyone has a cell phone.
There’s a room where the babies sleep, and that’s where she enters. The code is very clear in front of her, silvers and golds and a surprising vibrant crimson, in the body of a tall woman in a habit holding a book in her hands.
“I hear you wished to speak with me,” Trinity says. “Though I have some thoughts about your methods.”
The woman looks up, and the face shifts. A moment of horror, the color of a television tuned to a dead channel appearing between the wrinkles of an elderly woman with kind eyes as it shifts to the perfect skin, the haunting pink lips, the dark dark eyes of a familiar face.
“You wouldn’t have just come if I gave you a ring,” Persephone says. “How else do I get your attention?”
Her fingers curl, nails biting into her palm. “You have a cure,” Trinity says, sharp. Not a question and more than an assumption.
“Indeed,” is the reply.
“The price?”
“A conversation.”
“Not a kiss?” Trinity’s words echo for a moment before–
“--<i>and</i> a kiss.” The ancient creature with a woman’s face smiles.
“Your price has grown steep,” Trinity replies. She could say no, she could become violent. Trinity has significantly more self control these days, and she has faced villains unimaginable. Returned from the dead. She can handle this queer tête-à-tête.
After all, she would very much like to see Neo’s eyes once more.
Trinity runs her fingers against the palm of her hand, imagining and realizing a comfortable chair. Something she remembered from her youth, in her grandmother’s home, a soft comfort. She sits down, and places the Chanel bag on the floor to let it disappear into trash code. Her hands rest in her lap, she assumes the feeling of comfort. She looks Persphone in the eye. “I accept your terms. A conversation.”
“And a kiss,” is the quick response.
“And a kiss.” Conciliatory, a submission of sorts.
Persephone sits on the counter, her legs covered by thick wool skirts. A bare ankle revealed; an amuse bouche. “For centuries, I was on the arm of the most powerful men in the Matrix. And now you have all of them. Your paramour, your ally, your prisoner. How do I compete with you?” she replies. “La dame sans merci.” Words spoken from alluring lips.
“Are you asking me to add you to my—,” Trinity pauses, the word alien to her: “—retinue?”
“I would never presume,” Persephone says. “But I do miss the games we played, and the rewards and consequence.”
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