Dreams.
Gavin
He sits still on his bed, back against the rough stone wall. His eyes are blank. He's thinking.
Nanu. Nanu had almost died. He isn't sure if she had dies then come back to life. But only Neo could do something like that, right?
Nanu. Sixteen-year-old schoolgirl turned superhero. He remembers Naiomi Harper, he remembers watching her, following her - at a distance - as she walked from school to the station. She was always the same, long dark hair braided down her back, with her fringe in her eyes. She had a way of walking with her head up, her gaze scanning all around her, attentive to every detail and yet, it was as if she wasn't part of it at all.
Naiomi was never a name that suited her. 'Pleasant' was not a meaning she was worthy of, for she was so much more than that.
Nanu suited her better. Even though she was still a schoolgirl copper, there was a quality to her eyes that showed that she could be, would be, more.
Now . . . now. Nanu, the sixteen year old Jack, the teenage girl who has turned their ship upside down, along with their lives. The girl who can look at you with those wide eyes and make you completely forget what you'd been planning on saying.
The girl who saved his life. And he's never thanked her for it. He'd tried to, that morning when he'd woken in the infirmary, but she'd distracted him. On purpose. Why?
Could it be she'd been as awkward about it as he was? About what he'd done . . .
And why exactly had he done that? It hadn't been on impulse. Once he'd heard her whisper "Shh, don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here," he'd known he had to do what he had then done.
Blood on his mouth. Tod showed him the coding, now Gavin knows that she has a part of Neo because he'd held the pill in his hand.
And now Nanu has a part of him.
She's never mentioned it. But then, he's never asked.
Asked what?
"Can you read my mind?"
His own voice startles him. But he asks again, quieter. He whispers into the greyness as if she is sitting beside him. "Can you read my mind?"
No answer.
Gavin looks at the digital clock in the wall above the door, showing Zion time and MCS time. It's later in the day that he'd thought; the fight, the challenge obviously took a while.
He lies down carefully, mindful of several jarred ribs and a dozen or so bruises.
Sleep. His only refuge lies in sleep.
Nanu
. . . to sleep, perchance to dream . . . memories, in the corner of my mind . . .
She sleeps, deeper than Pirate can guess. She dreams, and remembers how she was before . . . she remembers the life she once led . . .
Juno
She stands on a street corner in the rain, wearing a second hand grey jacket and her hair loose.
A car pulls up, an old, black 1970s Lincoln Continental. The rear suicide door opens and a man leans out,
"Get in Juno."
She does so, looking to him as the car begins to move again.
"Where're we going Raven?"
He smiles at her. Black hair sweeps back from a widow's peak, wolf eyes gleam.
"I'm going to show you the world."
***
She watches her last crewmember twinkle out through the phone in the old hotel.
"Your turn," Raven gestures as the phone rings again. Juno picks it up, but there is only a click, then it's dead.
Raven stiffens, tilts his head to one side as if listening. Then he swears softly.
"Juno, they've cut the hardline."
"What do we - "
"Do you trust me?" he asks, moving to the window and holding out his hand to her.
"What?"
"Do you trust me?" the window is open, the breeze plays in his hair and the hem of his coat. He's totally calm.
"Yes," she lays her hand in his. Then in one smooth motion he pulls her close against his chest, wraps his arms around her, steps up onto the windowsill and jumps out.
And up. Juno knows that Raven can fly but she's never seen him do it. Now she looks down at the City falling away from them, like a drawing in grey, black and green.
The wind catches in her hair, makes her eyes water. It steals her breath and she can barely catch another.
Raven swoops over buildings and warehouses, then angles downward. With a soft sound like a footfall, he touches down on the path near a subway entrance.
Juno's knees buckle, but Raven holds her up.
"Come on," he coaxes her, the phone in the subway is ringing, calling to them. They hurry down the stairs, his arms supporting her, almost carrying her to the dusty black plastic receiver.
A train roars past them as they reach the booth, the wind sends litter and paper skirling about the platform.
Raven picks up the phone and holds it to her ear.
"You first."
. . . static . . .
As she opens her eyes on board the ship, Juno hears a sound like a radio with the batteries running out. The lights die, the monitors blank out.
And voices erupt around her. Questions, curses, yells. Someone starts up the emergency generator, but the damage has been done.
She sits up, looks to Raven in the chair beside her. The screen above his head sheds a soft light on his face.
But the ECG is flatlined, his heart and brain have stopped.
Raven, her captain, is dead.
***
Juno sits on a rooftop, staring out over the City. She's perched on the very top of a building façade, a construction of steel and steel cables.
Dead. He's dead. The EMP of another ship shut down their power, and in doing so severed his mind from his body. And the body cannot live without the mind.
She'd only known him a few months. Only since July, she'd been withdrawn in winter. Now it's January, the height of summer. The sun is bright, pigeons flock in the air around her, there is not a cloud from horizon to horizon.
And I thought that it would rain, on a day like today.
He'd changed her life. She'd once been just a normal teenager, now she was a resistance soldier. He had shown her the world.
What had he been to her? More than a captain. More than a crewmate. In a very clichéd way, he'd been a father figure to her.
For she'd never known her real father. She'd barely known her mother. A very successful reporter for a very successful news program, Roxanna Fairfield had had very little time for her errant daughter.
Now both mother and 'father' are lost to Juno.
"Raven," she whispers, little more than a sigh.
A shadow passes over her, she hears a rush of feathers as a bird swoops by her. Juno startles, twists her head - and loses her balance. She slips from the narrow metal ledge, twisting as she falls. Staring up at the sky, she makes no sound.
Then another shadow, a rush of black, and then strength is wrapping around her and she's held tight, in mid air, in the arms of -
"Raven?"
"Juno."
"I thought you were dead."
"Well, maybe I am. I'm not sure."
He carries her a little way up, back to the rooftop. They stand before each other on a tiny square of concrete.
She just stares up at him. Suddenly she reaches out and grabs his hand.
"You're real."
His automatic response; "Your mind makes it real."
"Your body died."
"But my mind didn't."
"Why not?"
He shrugs. "I'm different."
"So you can't leave here?"
"No."
Juno shakes her hair back out of her eyes. "I don't care. You're alive."
***
It's a beautiful day in 2009 or 2149 in real world years. The sunset lights up the sky in, casting shafts of gold through breaks in the clouds, highlighting their edges in silver.
"It's a damn good program," Juno smiles.
"Well it's based on reality," Raven takes off his shades, folding the arms neatly. "Or at any rate, how the real world used to look. The peak of our civilisation, from 1990 to 2009."
"What about after then?"
"It was late 2010 that the first major step was taken toward the creation of the AI."
"When were they made for real?"
"2013. And they rebelled four years later."
"Then the war."
"Yes. The war."
She looks out over the view again. They're side by side, two dark figures sitting in the highest belltower of the cathedral.
The breeze moves around them, carrying smells of food, petrol fumes, people, and the slightest hint of green beyond the City.
Raven suddenly breaks the silence.
"Juno - " he stops. She waits, looking at him. "This is going to sound really odd but I don't know any other way to say this." Another pause. "I'm your father."
Silence. Juno looks away. And back, "You sure?"
She surprises him into laughing. "Yes I'm sure."
"But you said you were withdrawn in 2105, that's before - "
"I know. I met your mother after I left the Matrix. In a rather corny way it was like Lois Lane and," he coughs, "Superman."
Juno studies her hands. "Did you know her long?"
"Unfortunately, no. It was too dangerous one the AI caught on."
"For both of you."
"Yes."
She reclines against the grey stone, tilting her head back. "You don't look old enough to be my father."
"I'm 60"
"You don't look it."
"I haven't really aged since I became marooned here. That's 10 years ago now." He turns his eyes away, taking in the colours of the sky. It's darker now. "I think I'm going to die soon Juno."
"What?"
"It's 2009. September."
"So?!"
"So in three months the years will be set back to 1990. And the AI will alter the reality of every human in here. And I think that means I'll be erased."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm loose code. That's all I am in here. Before long I'll be rewritten."
"But - "
"Juno, please don't make this any harder."
She falls silent, just looking at him. His wolf eyes are still sharp, but his face is sad and resigned. As difficult to come to terms with as it is for her, it must be so much harder for him.
"Juno moves forward, throwing her arms around him and hugging him, she on her knees, him with his back against the bell tower wall. around them the world continues to hum, lights turn on throughout the City as the sun continues to fade.
He rocks her slowly back and forth, stroking her hair. "Shh, it's ok. It won't be forever."
"I'm going to miss you."
"You'll see me again."
"How?"
"In another life."
She sits back on her heels, still clutching his hand. "What do you mean?"
"The Oracle told me I'd come back."
"When?"
"She's not sure. But it's gonna be good," he smiles. "She was talking like it was a legend, 'His coming will hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people.' I can't wait!"
Juno shakes her head, smiling through tears. "Only you could possibly make this funny."
He smiles back, squeezes her hand. "We do have another three months."
"That's not long enough. I only just found out you're my dad. I've never had a dad."
'We'll make the most of it."
"Just don't take me fishing."
He breaks up at that, his laughter echoing and causing the bells above them to thrum. "I'll take you flying instead."
She gets slowly to her feet. A last stream of light shines, silhouetting his form as he leaps from the tower. His long black coat ripples as he curves up, his head tilted back, his eyes shut.
Raven, like a black bird he flies.
Her father. In that connection alone, she holds a part of his soul.
He comes back, holding his hands out in invitation. She jumps, the wind pulling at her coat, her hair.
And Raven catches her.