Chapter 15 - Farewell
"You won't kill me," said David, "Its not a fair fight. You don't have the heart."
"Hey, you're right," said Asha, "Maybe I won't kill you yet. Maybe I'll beat you up a bit first." She gripped him with her mind, and threw him towards the ceiling, very much like Saruman does to Gandalf in 'The Lord of the Rings' - another favourite of Asha's. She wished the ceiling was a bit pointier, but it was with no little enjoyment that she dropped him to the floor with a satisfying thud. She slammed him to the opposite wall, then back again. "I could do this all day," she said.
Finally she lifted him into the air again so that he was hovering about a feet off the ground. David was trying to fight back, but Asha had locked his body still. He could only glare; Asha met it with yet another smile. "Hey, David," she said sweetly, "You remember before, when you asked me how I could think that I was more powerful than you? Well, I'm a girl, as you may have noticed. And we can do this." She leapt into the air and kicked David extremely hard in the place that the Matrix only meant to be treated nicely. He flew backwards and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. "We can multitask too," called Asha gleefully.
Gunshots from outside brought Asha back to reality. She glanced at David. She knew that she ought to finish him off, but when she looked at him on the ground, she saw something in him; she saw the boy that he might have been. Something told her that this wasn't the time. She grinned when she saw that he had passed out from the pain of Asha's beating. "See you later," she said.
She ran to the window and looked down. Something was happening; agents were standing in a circle around Neo and Trinity. Morpheus and Jon were standing separately, being restrained by several other agents. It was a long way down. She took a deep breath, and climbed onto the windowsill. "There is no spoon," she said with a smile, and jumped off.
As she fell, she felt ahead to see what was happening. She 'saw' Agent Smith firing his gun; the bullet was heading towards Trinity. The shot would be fatal. She could feel the internal conflict inside Neo's mind. She knew that he was about to stop that bullet, which would mean the end. Not just of Neo; but of Trinity, Morpheus, and the fight against the machines. She sent out her will towards the bullet, and bent its course. It shot harmlessly into the atmosphere.
Agent Smith stared at the gun in disbelief. Trinity looked up, scarcely daring to believe it. The other agents stopped firing. Asha grinned at the confusion that she had caused, and landed a little less gracefully than she had intended next to Neo. But she managed to get to her feet pretty quickly.
"You!" said Agent Smith.
"Asha!" said Jon.
"Yup," said Asha. She looked around her, and grabbed all of the agents' guns. She ripped them out of their grasp, and threw them across the grass. Neo blinked.
"Hey, Neo," said Asha, "You up for some kung fu?"
Neo looked at her in disbelief. Then his face broke into a smile, the same one that Asha had drooled over in 'The Watcher'. His eyes flashed mischievously. "Sure," he said.
Jon stared in amazement as Asha proceeded to beat the living hell out of the agents. The ones surrounding him and Morpheus ran to join the fight, and him and Morpheus were forgotten. Was this the same Asha that he'd known? No, it wasn't - she had changed. Some part of her had been unlocked, and her full spirit was showing itself.
"Hey! Guys!" she called to Jon and Morpheus, "Go to the gate, we'll meet you there." Morpheus nodded, and he and Jon ran towards the exit.
Eventually the agents backed away and stood in a circle around Neo, Asha and Trinity. Asha looked around, full of adrenaline. Neo knelt down next to Trinity, and helped her to her feet.
"You guys go," said Asha, "I'll be fine."
Neo was about to argue, when he saw something in Asha's face that made him change his mind. He took hold of Trinity's hand and jumped over the heads of the agents to the exit. Agent Smith watched them go, and then stepped towards Asha.
"So, you have realised your powers," he said.
"You could say that," said Asha. Her phone rang. "Excuse me for one second." She pulled it out. "Hello?"
"Asha," said Tank, "Get out of there. I can see reinforcements coming down the stairs in the building."
Asha looked at Agent Smith and smiled. "OK Tank. See you in a minute."
"And where do you think you're going?" asked Agent Smith as Asha put away her phone. Asha grinned at him.
"Nowhere in particular," she said innocently. She then pushed off from the ground, and shot into the air.
She couldn't actually fly - only Neo could do that. She could, however, leap very high into the air. She soared over the heads of the agents and landed only a few yards from the agents. Before they had even taken a couple of steps towards her, she was out of sight.
She joined the crowds of people were running away from Big Ben. She spotted Morpheus, Trinity, Neo and Jon towards the front of the crowd, and elbowed her way through to meet them.
"Hey!" she said, finally catching up with them (several members of the public muttering curses and rubbing bruised arms).
Morpheus smiled at her. "Do you believe it now, Asha?"
"Believe what?"
"That you are the second hope."
"Uh..." said Asha, "I guess. Still feels kinda weird though." She glanced at Neo and Trinity. He was resting a hand on her non-injured shoulder.
"Are you all right?" he asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," she said, "How are you?"
"Fine." They looked at each other. Neo leant in and kissed Trinity.
"Awwww!" said Asha. Neo and Trinity looked at her.
"Hey, Morpheus, what do you say we head back to the ship?" said Neo.
"I'll agree with that," said Morpheus, "I think we have some Matrix fans over there." Asha glanced over to the right and saw several teenagers wearing sunglasses and clutching cinema magazines with Neo on the cover pointing at them and talking rapidly. Morpheus pulled out his phone. "Tank, you got an exit for us?"
"Just round the corner," answered Tank. Morpheus nodded.
"Hey, wait, what about Jon?" said Asha. Morpheus, Trinity and Neo glanced at each other. "We're not just leaving him here, are we?"
"Asha," said Trinity, "We have to. We don't know whether he's ready to be unplugged."
"But..."
"Hey, Asha, don't worry," said Jon, "I understand. I belong here. You belong with them. On the Nebuchadnezzar."
Asha shook her head. "No," she said, "We can't just leave him!"
"Maybe in a few years," said Trinity, "Then he'd be old enough. We can't now, its too risky." Asha looked at Morpheus, Trinity and Neo's faces, and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"Can you give me a minute to say goodbye?" she asked.
Morpheus nodded, and he and the others went round the corner. Asha turned to Jon. He saw that she had tears in her eyes. "Asha, don't worry," he said, "Really, I don't mind. I won't tell anyone either."
"I know that," she said, "And I'll come and see you. I promise."
"You'd better," he said with a smile. He hugged her. Asha smiled.
"I'd better go," she said.
"Bye," said Jon. She turned and walked away. As she reached the corner, she turned and smiled at Jon. He waved. Asha waved back. She then walked round the corner determinedly, blinking the tears out of her eyes.
* * * * *
Wow, so many reviews... It's brilliant, thanks so much to everyone!
Im a Brandybuck - It was great! Brill story! See, Trinity was fine... But I'm trying not to use any direct Matrix bits in this story. Sorry I left you on that cliffhanger, by the way.
Tanuki Yasha - Well, it would have been a lot simpler, but considerably more icky... ew...
Cirfia - Whoops, sorry, I shouldn't have gone on holiday, should I? Nobody likes resorting to vampire books... Actually, the only vampire book I've read is 'Vampyr Legion', so I'm not really qualified to say that... Your friend's Cattie, right? Sorry if it's not, I'm very tired...
JB Foster - I know, I know, I should have thought of something better. I'm just not all that imaginative... The reason he didn't drop the bullets he was holding was that the agents were continually firing more, so if he'd stopped one would have hit them. And the reason he took guns was so that the others could defend themselves. Don't hold back from pointing out stuff like that, I need constructive criticism. Right, more feasibility is needed... me and feasibility don't go well together...
KnowInSight - Oooh, I love phoenixes!!! Here, Phoenix! Come join the other creatures reviewers have sent after me... (Phoenix goes into the kitchen to join the silver dragon Mesan, the pink dragon Raven, the Wob-Wob, a frickin' mad hobbit, an attack chicken, an insane cat...)
Mako - Oh, wow, I'm so glad you like it so much! AND YOU UPDATED!! At LAST!!! Looking forward to the Freeway chase scene, though...
Chips - Hopefully your head is still intact... otherwise I may have to send the Wob-Wob to come and fix it, and he's very expensive to feed...
Kit19 - Hope her retribution was good enough for you. Heh heh, I enjoyed writing that bit...
Megami no Inazumi - Well, if that's not encouragement to write it, I don't know what is... I'll start work on it right away, but I have a lot of stories at the moment (see Bio for list of upcoming stories!)
Alocin - Whoa, agent fan alert! My sister loves the agents as well. I think they rock too!
Gone-to-jarmadanga - Sorry it hasn't been that dramatic... maybe if I write a sequel it'll be REAAAALLY dramatic. I'm talking thunder, death, destruction, Crebain from Dunland, cursed pirates... OK, maybe no cursed pirates...
Stormhawk - Oh, um, sorry about the evil cliffies...
Littlefurryscrubcreature - Well, I can be extremely evil-rat-childlike when I want to be. Emphasis on evil. Mwahahahahahaha!!!! Ahem, sorry about that... sometimes my evil demons come to surface, y'know... I'm really not crazy... much... shut up brain, shut up...
Alexia and Gwen - No, I haven't seen Daredevil yet. I'll see it at some point...
MollyJean - Hmmm... now there's a thought... Never really considered where the Wachowski Brothers came into it. I think I decided that the machines kind of sent messages to prompt them to make the film, like subliminal messages.
Renee - Yes ma'am, right away ma'am.
Huntress - Oooh, I'm a bad influence... I've only ever been called that once before, and that was because my friend's mum insists that my friend acts crazier when I'm around.
Nurvilyawen of Imladris - Stop being mean to Gollum!! You're terrifying him! Yes, to the depths of his very soul!! Hobbit foot hair? Ewww.... ENOUGH DEER PUNS!!! THAT MAKES A TOTAL OF 27 IN ONE WEEK!!!!!!
I'll update soon, everyone! The next chapter will be the last *sniff and wail loudly* unless you guys want a sequel! See you next week!
LAST CHAPTER!!!! *weeps* I'm so going to miss this one... well, not really, because I've already written a sequel! It will be out soon, so watch this space! Well, watch my bio... And I, um, kind of left it on a cliffie again... *shame, then runs in fear from various monsters people send at her for being so evil* But I've also included a snippet from the sequel at the end - kinda like the Matrix: Revolutions trailer at the end of the second film - so I'll see you all again when the sequel appears! Enjoy!
"You won't kill me," said David, "Its not a fair fight. You don't have the heart."
"Hey, you're right," said Asha, "Maybe I won't kill you yet. Maybe I'll beat you up a bit first." She gripped him with her mind, and threw him towards the ceiling, very much like Saruman does to Gandalf in 'The Lord of the Rings' - another favourite of Asha's. She wished the ceiling was a bit pointier, but it was with no little enjoyment that she dropped him to the floor with a satisfying thud. She slammed him to the opposite wall, then back again. "I could do this all day," she said.
Finally she lifted him into the air again so that he was hovering about a feet off the ground. David was trying to fight back, but Asha had locked his body still. He could only glare; Asha met it with yet another smile. "Hey, David," she said sweetly, "You remember before, when you asked me how I could think that I was more powerful than you? Well, I'm a girl, as you may have noticed. And we can do this." She leapt into the air and kicked David extremely hard in the place that the Matrix only meant to be treated nicely. He flew backwards and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. "We can multitask too," called Asha gleefully.
Gunshots from outside brought Asha back to reality. She glanced at David. She knew that she ought to finish him off, but when she looked at him on the ground, she saw something in him; she saw the boy that he might have been. Something told her that this wasn't the time. She grinned when she saw that he had passed out from the pain of Asha's beating. "See you later," she said.
She ran to the window and looked down. Something was happening; agents were standing in a circle around Neo and Trinity. Morpheus and Jon were standing separately, being restrained by several other agents. It was a long way down. She took a deep breath, and climbed onto the windowsill. "There is no spoon," she said with a smile, and jumped off.
As she fell, she felt ahead to see what was happening. She 'saw' Agent Smith firing his gun; the bullet was heading towards Trinity. The shot would be fatal. She could feel the internal conflict inside Neo's mind. She knew that he was about to stop that bullet, which would mean the end. Not just of Neo; but of Trinity, Morpheus, and the fight against the machines. She sent out her will towards the bullet, and bent its course. It shot harmlessly into the atmosphere.
Agent Smith stared at the gun in disbelief. Trinity looked up, scarcely daring to believe it. The other agents stopped firing. Asha grinned at the confusion that she had caused, and landed a little less gracefully than she had intended next to Neo. But she managed to get to her feet pretty quickly.
"You!" said Agent Smith.
"Asha!" said Jon.
"Yup," said Asha. She looked around her, and grabbed all of the agents' guns. She ripped them out of their grasp, and threw them across the grass. Neo blinked.
"Hey, Neo," said Asha, "You up for some kung fu?"
Neo looked at her in disbelief. Then his face broke into a smile, the same one that Asha had drooled over in 'The Watcher'. His eyes flashed mischievously. "Sure," he said.
Jon stared in amazement as Asha proceeded to beat the living hell out of the agents. The ones surrounding him and Morpheus ran to join the fight, and him and Morpheus were forgotten. Was this the same Asha that he'd known? No, it wasn't - she had changed. Some part of her had been unlocked, and her full spirit was showing itself.
"Hey! Guys!" she called to Jon and Morpheus, "Go to the gate, we'll meet you there." Morpheus nodded, and he and Jon ran towards the exit.
Eventually the agents backed away and stood in a circle around Neo, Asha and Trinity. Asha looked around, full of adrenaline. Neo knelt down next to Trinity, and helped her to her feet.
"You guys go," said Asha, "I'll be fine."
Neo was about to argue, when he saw something in Asha's face that made him change his mind. He took hold of Trinity's hand and jumped over the heads of the agents to the exit. Agent Smith watched them go, and then stepped towards Asha.
"So, you have realised your powers," he said.
"You could say that," said Asha. Her phone rang. "Excuse me for one second." She pulled it out. "Hello?"
"Asha," said Tank, "Get out of there. I can see reinforcements coming down the stairs in the building."
Asha looked at Agent Smith and smiled. "OK Tank. See you in a minute."
"And where do you think you're going?" asked Agent Smith as Asha put away her phone. Asha grinned at him.
"Nowhere in particular," she said innocently. She then pushed off from the ground, and shot into the air.
She couldn't actually fly - only Neo could do that. She could, however, leap very high into the air. She soared over the heads of the agents and landed only a few yards from the agents. Before they had even taken a couple of steps towards her, she was out of sight.
She joined the crowds of people were running away from Big Ben. She spotted Morpheus, Trinity, Neo and Jon towards the front of the crowd, and elbowed her way through to meet them.
"Hey!" she said, finally catching up with them (several members of the public muttering curses and rubbing bruised arms).
Morpheus smiled at her. "Do you believe it now, Asha?"
"Believe what?"
"That you are the second hope."
"Uh..." said Asha, "I guess. Still feels kinda weird though." She glanced at Neo and Trinity. He was resting a hand on her non-injured shoulder.
"Are you all right?" he asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," she said, "How are you?"
"Fine." They looked at each other. Neo leant in and kissed Trinity.
"Awwww!" said Asha. Neo and Trinity looked at her.
"Hey, Morpheus, what do you say we head back to the ship?" said Neo.
"I'll agree with that," said Morpheus, "I think we have some Matrix fans over there." Asha glanced over to the right and saw several teenagers wearing sunglasses and clutching cinema magazines with Neo on the cover pointing at them and talking rapidly. Morpheus pulled out his phone. "Tank, you got an exit for us?"
"Just round the corner," answered Tank. Morpheus nodded.
"Hey, wait, what about Jon?" said Asha. Morpheus, Trinity and Neo glanced at each other. "We're not just leaving him here, are we?"
"Asha," said Trinity, "We have to. We don't know whether he's ready to be unplugged."
"But..."
"Hey, Asha, don't worry," said Jon, "I understand. I belong here. You belong with them. On the Nebuchadnezzar."
Asha shook her head. "No," she said, "We can't just leave him!"
"Maybe in a few years," said Trinity, "Then he'd be old enough. We can't now, its too risky." Asha looked at Morpheus, Trinity and Neo's faces, and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"Can you give me a minute to say goodbye?" she asked.
Morpheus nodded, and he and the others went round the corner. Asha turned to Jon. He saw that she had tears in her eyes. "Asha, don't worry," he said, "Really, I don't mind. I won't tell anyone either."
"I know that," she said, "And I'll come and see you. I promise."
"You'd better," he said with a smile. He hugged her. Asha smiled.
"I'd better go," she said.
"Bye," said Jon. She turned and walked away. As she reached the corner, she turned and smiled at Jon. He waved. Asha waved back. She then walked round the corner determinedly, blinking the tears out of her eyes.
* * * * *
Wow, so many reviews... It's brilliant, thanks so much to everyone!
Im a Brandybuck - It was great! Brill story! See, Trinity was fine... But I'm trying not to use any direct Matrix bits in this story. Sorry I left you on that cliffhanger, by the way.
Tanuki Yasha - Well, it would have been a lot simpler, but considerably more icky... ew...
Cirfia - Whoops, sorry, I shouldn't have gone on holiday, should I? Nobody likes resorting to vampire books... Actually, the only vampire book I've read is 'Vampyr Legion', so I'm not really qualified to say that... Your friend's Cattie, right? Sorry if it's not, I'm very tired...
JB Foster - I know, I know, I should have thought of something better. I'm just not all that imaginative... The reason he didn't drop the bullets he was holding was that the agents were continually firing more, so if he'd stopped one would have hit them. And the reason he took guns was so that the others could defend themselves. Don't hold back from pointing out stuff like that, I need constructive criticism. Right, more feasibility is needed... me and feasibility don't go well together...
KnowInSight - Oooh, I love phoenixes!!! Here, Phoenix! Come join the other creatures reviewers have sent after me... (Phoenix goes into the kitchen to join the silver dragon Mesan, the pink dragon Raven, the Wob-Wob, a frickin' mad hobbit, an attack chicken, an insane cat...)
Mako - Oh, wow, I'm so glad you like it so much! AND YOU UPDATED!! At LAST!!! Looking forward to the Freeway chase scene, though...
Chips - Hopefully your head is still intact... otherwise I may have to send the Wob-Wob to come and fix it, and he's very expensive to feed...
Kit19 - Hope her retribution was good enough for you. Heh heh, I enjoyed writing that bit...
Megami no Inazumi - Well, if that's not encouragement to write it, I don't know what is... I'll start work on it right away, but I have a lot of stories at the moment (see Bio for list of upcoming stories!)
Alocin - Whoa, agent fan alert! My sister loves the agents as well. I think they rock too!
Gone-to-jarmadanga - Sorry it hasn't been that dramatic... maybe if I write a sequel it'll be REAAAALLY dramatic. I'm talking thunder, death, destruction, Crebain from Dunland, cursed pirates... OK, maybe no cursed pirates...
Stormhawk - Oh, um, sorry about the evil cliffies...
Littlefurryscrubcreature - Well, I can be extremely evil-rat-childlike when I want to be. Emphasis on evil. Mwahahahahahaha!!!! Ahem, sorry about that... sometimes my evil demons come to surface, y'know... I'm really not crazy... much... shut up brain, shut up...
Alexia and Gwen - No, I haven't seen Daredevil yet. I'll see it at some point...
MollyJean - Hmmm... now there's a thought... Never really considered where the Wachowski Brothers came into it. I think I decided that the machines kind of sent messages to prompt them to make the film, like subliminal messages.
Renee - Yes ma'am, right away ma'am.
Huntress - Oooh, I'm a bad influence... I've only ever been called that once before, and that was because my friend's mum insists that my friend acts crazier when I'm around.
Nurvilyawen of Imladris - Stop being mean to Gollum!! You're terrifying him! Yes, to the depths of his very soul!! Hobbit foot hair? Ewww.... ENOUGH DEER PUNS!!! THAT MAKES A TOTAL OF 27 IN ONE WEEK!!!!!!
I'll update soon, everyone! The next chapter will be the last *sniff and wail loudly* unless you guys want a sequel! See you next week!
LAST CHAPTER!!!! *weeps* I'm so going to miss this one... well, not really, because I've already written a sequel! It will be out soon, so watch this space! Well, watch my bio... And I, um, kind of left it on a cliffie again... *shame, then runs in fear from various monsters people send at her for being so evil* But I've also included a snippet from the sequel at the end - kinda like the Matrix: Revolutions trailer at the end of the second film - so I'll see you all again when the sequel appears! Enjoy!