I've been wanting to do a story for this for a while now. Hopefully this helps me get back to finish my other stories.
Title is taken from song on Tomorrowland Soundtrack.
Enjoy...
"What happened? Is she gonna be okay?" Casey asked him.
"I need to get her to a repair module." Frank replied running down one of the main corridors and desperately trying to remember where they kept the modules and hoping that they hadn't moved them since he'd been here last.
"Frank!" Athena shouted. He stopped running and stared down at her. "Nobody is gonna repair me. N-n-not this time. I need to tell you something now."
He found a bench and gently laid her down.
"Oh darn, I'm shutting down. I'm shutting down." Her voice distorted revealing the machine within. "I'm gonna lose sync." He glanced down at her mouth and saw that the words didn't form on her lips with their usual precision. "Don't look at me like that," she scolded. "If I lose sync, its not failure."
"I know," he managed calmly but the watery sheen in his eyes reflected his turmoil.
Athena could feel the skin across her forehead scrunching and would have normally made an effort to appear as serene as usual so as not to alarm Frank further but all her power was currently devoted to giving him this last message.
"There are things I need to tell you before the final..." she paused and his eyes skittered to her exposed core. She covered it with her hand as if hiding it from his view would prove she was still okay. "Before the automated program kicks in. I'm a machine. I never thought that was bad until I saw your face when you found out I was."
"I always knew," he rasped.
Athena smiled, "no you didn't."
SYSTEMS FAILING. Her hardware announced loudly. ACTIVATING LAST THOUGHTS. SAVE FOR FRANK WALKER.
"Log 15 – September 1965- Frank Walker is looking at me in a manner that is difficult to recognize. It seems imperative to explain to him that I am an automatronic-"
"Athena-" Frank interrupted but the recording continued and he didn't dare look at Casey afraid to see what she must think of his patheticness in falling for a machine.
"But I am concerned that he may be adversely affected when he finds out that I'm not human, he has potential. I don't want to damage it. He needs someone to believe in him and I'm fulfilling that need. He's my top recruit."
Frank smiled softly.
"Log 24 – October 1965- I'm having unusual thoughts towards Frank Walker. I suspect a flaw in my empathy interface, I'm thinking I should report it but I haven't. And I cannot explain why."
"You started to feel something." Casey said and inched closer while still giving them space. Neither Frank nor Athena said anything but Athena's mouth quirked a bit.
"Log 78-April 1984- Frank Walker has been banished by Governor Nix, he says he has lost hope and he holds me responsible for giving it to him in the first place."
"You fell in love with him." Casey said.
Athena nodded her head and Frank closed his eyes at her silent admission but the recording continued. "I do not understand this, he says I never will. Because I do not feel anger, disappointment or love." END RECORDING.
She grabbed his hand and placed it on what passed for her heart. "I was designed to find dreamers. I found you...and lost you." He didn't try to hide the tears and she felt each drop land on her hand, warm like a summer rain she'd never experienced but that instinctively knew she would have enjoyed.
"She is so much like you, the young optimistic Frank, the one buried but still in here," she patted his chest and turned to look at Casey."It's how I found her." She turned back to look at Frank. "Casey, dreamers need to stick together. You have to fix these worlds together. It's not programming. It's personal."
Her hand dropped back to her chest as it's beeps got louder and louder. "The monitor. The bomb is gone, but I'm not...yet. There isn't much time. My self destruct, use it. You k-k-know what to do, Frank. Help get it right this time."
"I thought you can't have ideas," he said.
"We-we-well what do you know."
"What do you know." he replied.
SYSTEMS FAILING.
Her eyes darkened and he looked towards the jet packs on the wall. "This time, it'll work."
"I know," she said and they lifted off the ground.
It was almost like the first time, them soaring over the landscape and though it was dark and ruined, it seemed to transform into the glowing golden city he'd first viewed in 1965, and just like before she was with him, his Athena.
He lifted them so they hovered over the monitor, he shifted her so that she was facing him. She opened her eyes and they were the clear sea green he'd fallen in love with. "Frank?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know why you could never make me laugh?" she asked.
"Why?"
"Because you're not funny," she deadpanned.
He laughed but it was chocked with emotions he'd never been able to express until now, now that he was losing her for good.
"You can let me go now," she said softly forestalling anything he would have said. She held his gaze and they remained like that for a few precious seconds until the beeping could no longer be ignored.
His arms tightened around her and he bowed his head, ready to stay with her until the end but she knew him better than anybody and she was not going to let him give up again. She nudged his head and he looked up and together they looked at the monitor gleaming in the dark.
"Goodbye, Frank." 'Keep Dreaming.'
"Goodbye, Athena," he replied and let her slip off his hands and into the darkness below. He landed a safe distance from the blast and Casey came running out to meet him.
"Is she..."
He nodded and gently uncurled his hand from around the chip he'd pulled from her.
"Is that..."
"It's all I have left of her."
"We can get her back." Casey said quietly slipping her hand into his.
"Maybe..."
"No maybes. It's a promise Frank. Stick with me and we'll make all our dreams come true. We'll get Athena back, we'll explore again. We'll save the world."
"You really believe that don't you?"
"Don't you?" she asked.
"I'll try."
"That's a start," she said.
There was a bright burst of light and the camera shook and its feed was cut short.
"So this is where you've been hiding," she said from the doorway. "You're very late for dinner."
He turned off the monitor and looked at Athena, his Athena with the same beautiful sea green eyes and slight smile but who no longer resembled the girl from his memories.
In her place was a woman, the woman who helped him come back from the abyss when missing her got too bad, when Casey could no longer reach him. A woman who made him dream, hope and love again. A woman who looked past the bitter man he'd been and brought out the happy man he would have been if he'd never been kicked out of paradise.
"Dinner? What time is it?" he asked looking at the clock above her head. A woman who was scolding him for missing dinner...again. He'd always lost track of time when he was involved in a project, it was a habit he'd not outgrown.
"It's okay, we'll just have to reheat it. It's not the end of the world, Frank."
"I'm sorry. I would have finished sooner but I found some old security videos. Casey thought it'd be a good idea to sort through them and maybe add some to the new promo that she is putting together.
"What did you find?" she asked but he didn't even have to answer as she sat down in his lap and rewound the video he'd been watching. "Ah, I see."
"Athena." he began.
"Why would you watch this? Its so sad." she paused on her younger self and Frank floating in the night sky. "It still amazes me that you were ready to give up everything for me."
"You didn't let me," he reminded her.
"I couldn't let you die for me." Athena said.
"You died for me." he pointed out.
"That was different. I'm not human-"
"There wasn't much human left in me those first few months after you were gone," he said.
"And yet here you are."
"Because of Casey and because I owed it to you, for sacrificing yourself for us. I couldn't go back to the way I was. I wanted you to be proud of me again," he said and buried his face in her neck. "I missed you so much, I never told you how much."
"You don't have to tell me, I know, you always show me," she said and combed her fingers through his hair. "I thank Casey for bringing me back to you every day but always remember that no matter what happens, you can't give up."
"Which is why I was watching it. Reminded me of how hopeless one can be without dreams." He said hugging her to him.
"I love you, Frank Walker," she whispered.
"I love you, Athena and I always will."
They kissed and she rose and pulled him up with her. "Well now that you've gotten that out of your system, I suggest you pass this chore onto Casey, as it was her idea, and we go eat dinner, which is probably cold now."
"Okay but how about this time, we go out to dinner. Somewhere really nice," he said and pocketed the videodisc to add to their growing collection.
"We are all dressed up, it be a shame to waste this nice suit at home," she said adjusting the lapels of his dark jacket.
"Or your very nice dress. So we'll get our coats and head out."
"Frank?"
"Yeah."
"I'm glad you waited for me."
"I'm glad Casey is so darn nosy."
"Yes, we should both be glad of that." Athena replied as they waved at the young blonde sitting at her desk with pieces of electronics all around her as usual.
Casey looked up from her monitor just in time to see Frank and Athena wave at her as they headed out.
"I think its the first time I've seen them leave this place before dark." Daniel, one of their newest explorers observed.
"After five years, you gotta shake things up a bit."
"Casey, last time they shook things up, three labs caught on fire."
"True but tell me it wasn't awesome to see the great Frank Walker hiding under a table while Athena yelled at him about combustibles."
"It was pretty great." Daniel agreed.
"Wanna see it? I got it right here." Casey said and pulled out a box full of videodiscs.
"What else you got in there?"
"Get the popcorn and I'll show you," she said and they went to the break room to watch very funny videos about a man, his wife, their friends and the joy of explosions.