TITLE: The Deliverance
AUTHOR: Allocin
SUMMARY: Everything returns to its source. Trinity and Neo return to theirs - Zion.
RATING: G
CATEGORIES: Angst
CHARACTERS: Zion.
TIMELIME: Immediately after Revolutions.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Explosive fireworks are distracting.
DEDICATION: Hardliners - be strong!
Side by side they lay as the barge descended under ground. The machines filled the tunnels and caverns with endless echoing whirrs, but no one heard it. There were no hovercrafts nearby to see the strange site, of one large platform sinking into the depths of the earth, two bloodied bodies resting next to each other. The machine moved effortlessly, following passages that millions of its brethren had mapped before, its goal single and undeniable: to reach the human city.
Zion was celebrating. With song and dance and reverberating drums, they beat out a rhythm to match the continued pounding of their hearts. It throbbed through the rocky walls, pulsated in the thick air, a cacophony of sound and life in complete contrast to the study hum of energy the barge made as it sunk deeper into the heated depths.
It was a simple enough task to glide through the ruined gates and into the dock, and easy again for the barge to drift into the city via the hole that the digger had made. The floor was littered with rubble, bodies, machines; the driftwood of the tides of war, forgotten temporarily as survival was celebrated. The barge hovered above the ground, unnoticed for the time being, until one man, Morpheus, standing outside the temple, looked up from his internal contemplation.
Metallic arms slithered out from the edge of the barge and gripped the feet of the two people on its surface. They were dragged to the floor, before Morpheus' very eyes, and left there when the machine rose up, retracing its way to the surface with no fanfare. Its job was done.
Disbelieving, Morpheus approached the two figures lying amongst the debris. Their clothes were torn and stained ruddy with spilt blood, a testament to their fight to do what they had to. The tears that Morpheus had kept reserved for them finally spilt down his cheeks. The war was over, but the cost had been his family. He knelt beside them, staring through blinding tears at their bruised faces, shadowed with weariness yet in them was peace.
Unbeknownst to him, the word had spread through the party and now the survivors were edging towards the fallen duo, respectfully silent in the face of their saviours. Kid was the first to reach them, his hushed "Neo" rippling through the crowd. Morpheus' head jerked up when Niobe's small hand squeezed his shoulder gently, offering steady support in the face of his grief. He stood, reigning in the urge to sob, and turned to face the people of Zion gathered before him. Opening his mouth to speak, to address them with something thoughtful, he found the words failed him. There was nothing he could say. Shaking his head sadly, he bent to Neo's side and hooked his fingers beneath the large plank of metal they both rested on. Getting the idea, others moved to help him - Roland who had been so cynical, Niobe who had never believed, Kid who had always believed, Locke who had been contemptuous to the end, Councillor Hamann who had been supportive throughout.
The plate was lifted. The survivors bowed their heads as the procession passed, and followed it into the temple. They hummed the death song as they walked, the song they always sung in Zion when someone died. It echoed in the cavernous room, vastly different to the beating drums of before. Then they had been full of joy and forgetful of the huge sacrifices that were so blatant to them now. Councillor Hamann stood at the ledge that Morpheus had once given his rousing speech from, and spoke to the saddened crowd before him,
"We lay to rest today two fierce soldiers for our cause, who gave their lives so we might have peace to live our own. We must honour them. When we rebuild these walls, and mend our ships, think of them as you work. Zion lives because of them, and now Zion shall live for them!"
They cheered, and as they danced to the pounding drums in glorious remembrance of those who died, the One and his lover were taken away to their rooms and sealed in, never to have to fight again.
2nd A/N: I'm not happy with this at all. I don't think it does any justice to the image I had in my head (vaguely Gladiator) but I don't think there's anything more I can do. I might write a sequel vignette that deals more with someone's thoughts on the whole subject. I don't feel this justifies anything at all. Uck. Thoughts, comments and criticisms welcome as always!