Friends

The sun hid behind a cloud, Niobe asked as she half-turned to her Dad, "Do you have anyone you want to talk to ?"

Her Dad's hazel-eyes gleamed wetly, "Yes, but your Mom isn't here." Dad coughed before he continued, "I've had plenty of time to talk to my friends…and make new ones. You have quite the set of friends there and here, Niobe."

Grinned as she agreed, "Yeah, their some of the best friends I've ever had."

In front of them Kaya's wings flared completely open. Turned her attention back to the Decider as she asked, solemnly, "Were your friends asleep or awake when they died ?"

'What ? What does… dumb ass, Matrix-sleep not actual sleep. Damn, I've gotten slow.'

Wondered if that question was part of some ritual as she said, "Awake. Their names are Li, Trinity and Neo."

Kaya nodded again, "Someone else requested to see you when you came here. Will you let them join ?"

'I thought everybody else was still alive. Did somebody die and no one told me ?'

Unsure, she replied as she backed up slightly, "Ah, sure, why not. I mean, I'm already dead, it's not like I can die again."

Wind rustled the trees as Kaya flapped her wings, when they opened four people stood where Kaya had. While Kaya herself had apparently disappeared. Her heart pounded in amazed relief as she saw Captain Li for the first time in years.

Flashback

Niobe blinked as Ata un-jacked her and asked, "What's going on ?"

When she looked up, Li had helped Morpheus up. Ata answered, "Squiddies, some how the guns have all jammed. We'd be dead trying to clear them, so, you three need to get out of here. I'm charging the EMP."

"Ata, no."

'That's suicide if they get in, she can't.'

Li ran a hand through his slightly graying brown-black hair. Li's other hand held the only decently working EMP-rifle in the whole damned hovercraft. "That's an order, Niobe. You and Morpheus are younger, faster than us."

Ata nodded, "Zion needs you more, then they need me. Now get."

Reluctantly, she followed Morpheus and Li out of the Logos' loading dock. Her gaze swept across the rocky but otherwise barren ground, to the tunnels, and locked on the team of Sentinels floating towards them. None of the eight, red-eyes had noticed them yet.

They started to edge away from the machines, when Morpheus kicked a rock, it clanged against the Logos' hull. Her heart pounded in her throat as one of the Sentinels radar-dish tentacles swept toward them. After a second the Machine started fast-hovering at them.

Morpheus hissed, "Shit !"

She followed Morpheus as the dark-skinned man started to run. It was only when they'd gotten a few feet away, that she noticed Captain Li wasn't with them. Knew she shouldn't, but she looked back anyway, two Sentinels were down and Li was fine.

Li grumbled, "Any time now, Ata."

When she slammed into Morpheus, she looked ahead again. One Sentinel had gone around the Logos and gotten in front of them. It flew at them, claw snapping together like an angry lobster. Blue energy flew over Morpheus's shoulder to slam into the Machine.

Li shouted, "Hey, ugly, over here ! You leave my kids alone."

Said Sentinel suddenly flew past them and she closed her eyes. That sickening sound of a body being impaled she'd never forget. An audible 'whoosh' as the EMP finally went off, only then did she open her eyes. Rushed back to shove the Sentinel's body off of her Captain.

Li's gray-eyes blinked slowly as she asked, "Kids ?"

A slight smile, "Never had any but you two, grown-up real fast."

Morpheus shook his head, "You'll be all right, Captain, Niobe'll get us back to Zion and you'll be fine."

"No, I won't, tell Ata she's promoted."

Muttered, "Yes, Captain." as Li's eyes closed.

He whispered before he went still, "Morpheus the door's open."

Morpheus said softly, "I'll walk through it for you. Good-bye, Father."

End Flashback

The man still wore his red-shirt and tan-pants. His glowed warmly and he smiled,

"Niobe, ah, Captain Niobe, it's good to see you again. You did a splendid job with our Logos."

"Thank-you, Captain, that, well, it means a lot."

"I know, you see him before I do, you tell Morpheus he did good."

"I will, sir."

Curiosity made her gaze drift to Trinity and Neo, both of them wore their black in-Matrix clothes.

"Considering Morpheus and I never found the Logos, what happened to you two ? How'd you end up here ?"

Neo looked sideways, his dark-eyes warm and understanding, "You could say it's cause of him."

For the first time she really registered the last person, the last being. She met the incredibly cold, blue eyes she'd only heard about from Neo. Exclaimed, "Smith ! What are you doing here ?"

The black-suited ex-Agent shifted, an uncomfortable look passed over the tanned face. Stared in shock as Neo nudged Smith gently and encouraged, "C'mon, you've done a lot worse things than apologizing to somebody, it can't be that hard."

Smith smoothed back brown-hair, before he cleared his throat. "I wanted to apologize for all the times I have tried to kill you over the years…Niobe. Also, I wanted to apologize to Officer Morris."

'Sparks was right, Smith really is acting like a human. Well, it's a lot better than before and he seems to really mean it.'

It was her turn to be uncomfortable as the icy-eyes showed her probably a hundred years worth of regret. Slowly, she reached out a hand,"All right, apology accepted Smith."

Smith shook her hand with a faint smile, "Thank-you."

Two thuds made her look at Neo and Trinity who'd 'fallen' on the ground. Neo gasped, "Trin, he smiled. He actually smiled."

Trinity laughed, "Yeah and it wasn't at me or you, or one of your lame jokes."

"Hey, I'm not that bad."

As Smith pulled the two up he replied, "Well, you do make up for it in other ways. Like being idiotically pretty."

Li and herself both laughed as Neo took Smith's legs out from under him.

"How many times do I have to tell you two ? I am not pretty !"

"Yes, you are."

"Hmpf, screw you, Smith."

When Smith said, "Funny seeing as I thought you already did." she thought it was a joke. Then she noticed the ex-Agent and Neo were both completely serious.

Heard herself say, "No way, no-damn-way. I was just joking about you two…you actually were together ?"

Trinity, Neo and Smith replied, "All three of us, actually."

Shook her head as Dad put a hand on her shoulder. "It's a lot more accepted up here, then it is down there. Anyway, how do you know me, Smith ? I don't think I've really seen you before."

"You have not because I was ashamed of my lack of action concerning yourself, Officer Morris. I was an Agent once, I had few true duties besides protecting the Matrix and it's inhabitants from Rebels and Exiles. When I saw Cujo and the others I should have helped, yet I did not. You died because of me."

Looked back and saw Dad shrug, "I'm kind of glad you didn't. I mean, who knows what would've happened if I hadn't. My little Helen might not have met Perse and grown-up to be Niobe then. So many other things could've gone wrong."

A rustle of scaled wings announced that Kaya had returned. Li, Trinity, Neo and Smith all nodded to them and Kaya before they wandered out of her sight. Kaya tilted her head, "Niobe, before you decide, do you wish to know why I bit you the first time we met ?"

"Considering it started everything off, yeah."

Bright-green eyes flashed and Kaya smoothed her white dress. "That cougar that attacked was a rogue Decider named Maya. Maya was still angry that I had escaped from her trap hundreds of years before, now however she was outraged that I was assigned you instead of her. She wanted to kill you before you could do what you were supposed to do. I bit you to keep her from finding you could start your true path. Otherwise known as when you met Perse. It's ironic, I think, that she wanted you and got Cujo instead considering you killed him."

'So that's why, I always had more enemies than I thought I did.'

Questioned, "Why would, ah, Maya have trapped you, Kaya ?"

Kaya flicked a hand, "Maya had gone rogue by siding with the Machines. She was trying to help them harvest the minds and souls of humans to power an immense meta-physical computer. However, the human souls didn't have enough collective power and Maya decided they needed me. I was captured and forced into the primitive system. I was too weak to escape by myself and I threw my power into the system trying to summon the others. It corrupted the system and turned it's code green on black. Some time later, I was freed by my friend Zaya, but not fast enough. The computer had adapted to my energy and was able to use it, the Machines declared it a success. For her part in it they partially named the computer after Maya."

She nodded in wonder, "Makes sense, could you send me back now ?"

Dad called, "Have fun." as a bright light enveloped her.