Conflicts.
Neo seems distracted. Since his last run several days ago, he's been acting strangely, falling silent and thinking in the middle of a sentence, pausing and staring without seeing in the middle of an action. Nanu worries, but resists the urge to dip into memory and find out what's wrong. She tries to adopt Achi's attitude, if there's something that Neo wants to talk to her about, he'll say it. And since she's learnt how to keep this 'gift' in check, Nanu intends to stay out of other's heads as much as she can.
But despite his odd behaviour, Neo goes ahead with scouting for a withdrawal point. Nanu is going with him.
"You got a minute?" Nanu looks up from the game she is playing with BC. Wires and tools are scattered across the workbench, BC hides several behind her hands. Nanu looks across to Neo in the doorway, he hovers there uncertain.
"What is it?"
"I just wanted to go over tomorrow with you."
BC pauses at that, tilting her head at her father.
"What about tomorrow?"
Neo enters, wandering across the armoury, to the bench he once knew as a hiding place. Bobcat quietly captures his attention, taking hold of his sleeve and threading a length of copper wire through the fraying cuff.
"You know we'll be scouting for a safe place to bring out Wolf."
"Yes sir."
"You don't have to come. I can go alone. Trin can go."
"I'd like to go, sir. I'm not afraid of going in."
"Whether or not you're afraid is not the issue."
BC finishes with one piece of wire and begins to search the bench for a second. She appears not to be listening, but Nanu can see how she's chewing her lip.
"Then what is?"
"It's dangerous. Trinity cleared you for your last run but I think that it would be tempting fate if you go in again when you don't have to. No one but you has been so deeply read by the AI. They know you, somehow. Somehow you're important to them."
"Why would I be important?"
"It's likely that when we were separated after your meeting with the Oracle, they were splitting us up so that you and I could be dealt with individually."
Nanu resists the urge to wrinkle her nose. "I very much doubt they perceive me as a threat Neo. I'm just a kid."
"Nanu," he chided. "You know as well as anyone that that's naïve. The AI are nothing but logic, there's always a reason for what they do."
She looks away, finding a curl of wire for BC. As she hands it to the girl, she looks up at her, and a thought echoes clearly.
tell him
Tell him? But how can she explain the whole story to Neo? He barely believes in his own history, let alone hers.
"I think I should go in with you sir. As you said, there are things I can do that you can't. You might need me."
He has to smile at that, for all that the motion is heartbreakingly sad.
"If you say so Nanu."
***
As she sits back in her chair, Gavin buckles her in, feet and waist. Her hands curl tenderly around the grips, his are almost shaking.
"Relax," she whispers.
He lays a hand on her shoulder, she can feel him shivering.
"You promised me," he reminds her. Nanu smiles reassuringly as the jack slides into her.
. . . static . . .
"Will you be okay?" Neo asks her. "It's not too late – "
"I'll be fine Neo," she cuts him off, taking a belt with throwing knives from the weapons rack. "The AI have already played their trump card. There's nothing they can do to me now."
He is puzzled at that. Only BC knows what happened with Raven, and she has not the words to tell.
After a pause, Neo begins to buckle on his weapons. Nanu turns away, slinging the belt around her waist. The knives are a comfortable weight.
Gavin
She lies there, still. She looks peaceful.
He does not.
He looks past Tank to where Nanu is reclining in chair 7, as if there is no danger for her life.
Gavin clenches his teeth and begins to descend the ladder.
Nanu
In the Matrix, it is nearing summer, but the day is unusually cool. Neo has adopted his disguise of long hair and stubble, and is dressed in rumpled grey, slightly less distinctive than his black coat.
They walk through the backstreets of the city's emptiest quarter – an area that was once industrial and has long since been abandoned. Empty housing commissions lean against gutted warehouses, all of which would be converted to trendy apartments and restaurants if not for the twenty year time loop. Because of that, this place will remain forever unchanged, desolate and lonely until its end.
"So what exactly are we looking for?"
"Empty, isolated, unused, and intimidating in the dark."
She laughs.
"I'm serious," Neo protests. "It's all part of the alluring atmosphere. We can't just drop by his house and offer him the choice."
"So there's a valid reason for leading the poor kid in circles?"
"Of course," he shakes his head as if amazed she hadn't realised. "When all a target gets is cryptic half answers and mysterious glimpses of those from another world, they're far more likely to pursue answers. So the withdrawal point has to fit into that."
Pirate
The hawk is in the galley, slumped over the table with his head on his arms. Pirate hesitates in the doorway, not really wanting to intrude.
That Gavin does not like him is obvious. The reason is something Pirate isn't so certain of.
But it certainly can't hurt to be nice.
"You okay?" he asks aloud.
Gavin jumps, glaring.
"Don't do that," his eyes are wet.
"What's the matter?"
"Don't play dumb, surprisingly it doesn't suit you. And don't pretend to be friendly either." He slides off the bench, wiping shortly at his eyes.
"What is your problem?" he begins to get annoyed. "What have I ever done to you?"
"What is there between you and Nanu?"
Pirate stops short at that. Then he laughs, "Is that it? I thought you might have had a decent reason, but all you've got is jealousy!"
Gavin
"Answer the question, Pirate."
The new crewmember just smiles. A gloating smile.
"You wouldn't understand."
Gavin doesn't usually see violence as a way of solving a dispute. But there's nothing he'd rather do tight now that smash in Pirate's smirking face.
Nanu
Every building they find has some flaw, either too close to used buildings, too close to a main street, has squatters, has been used by another crew recently or has too many holes in the roof.
Eventually they reach an old hotel – the Lafayette.
"This is where we met Biosa?"
"Yes," Neo looks up, scanning the building. "But it's empty now."
"Is it okay?" Nanu fidgets. She feels they've been in the Matrix too long.
"It should be. It hasn't been a withdrawal point in years . . . " he trails off.
Nanu doesn't even have to listen. "This is where you came out, right?"
He nods, facing up to the dark building.
"Do you want to go in?"
Another nod. He doesn't speak.
Trinity
She glances up with a start as Achi bursts into her cabin.
"Capt'n, Trinity, you'd better come."
"Is it – " Neo?
"No, it's the boys."
Gavin
Pirate fights dirty. Gavin has the feeling the other boy has had a lot more practice at this.
They wrestle on the ground, bumping into the table, the bench, the wall. Metal booms, and dimly Gavin realises that someone will hear them.
Getting the upper hand, he holds Pirate by the collar and raises his other fist. Blood smears across knuckles as he connects with a nose and a lip, before he is shoved off. Gavin rolls to his feet, shaking hair out his eyes.
Pirate is shorter than him, but he has the stamina of a real athlete, and years of experience behind him.
A sharp hit to the jaw sends Gavin reeling, catching the table to hold himself up. As Pirate closes in, Gavin lets his head loll and his body sag.
The other is fooled. When he hesitates, Gavin moves, slamming a fist up under the guy's ribs. They grapple, each trying not to give way.
A hand grabs at Gavin's hair, pulling back. Pirate loosens his grip, and Gavin cringes at a voice;
"I don't believe you two."
Trinity.
"Captain – "
"I don't want to hear it."
"But – "
"I don't care. Pirate, get to your cabin now. I'll deal with you later." He obeys in silence.
Gavin stays put, unmoving even when Achi lets go of his hair. Trinity looks at him, her gaze like stone. She points to the bench.
"Sit."
He does so.
"Achi, go and tell Tank what happened. Check that BC is still in my cabin."
The mechanic nods, then leaves.
Trinity leans against the counter, still looking steadily at him.
"This is the last thing we needed Gavin."
He glares at the table top, trying not to listen, trying not to feel sorry.
"Why?"
He glances up.
"Why Gavin? What happened?"
He doesn't answer. He can't put this in words. He misses Nanu's way of just knowing, without speaking. He wants her back with him. He wants Nanu safe, that's all.
Trinity sighs. "You're on kitchen duty for the next fourteen days. And I advise you to either apologise to Pirate or keep the hell away from him. Fighting within a crew is unacceptable, and if you do it again, you're both going straight back to Zion, I don't care who's fault it is. Understand?"
He nods, sullen.
"Go to your cabin and cool off. I won't tell this to Nanu."
"Thankyou captain."
"Shut up."
Neo
They walk up the stairs, Neo leading. He can remember the first time he came here, when Trin lead him over the black and white tiles. He had kept his eyes carefully on her boot heels.
It had been on the first floor landing that he'd seen the cat. That day they'd entered on the tenth floor.
He pauses, turning his head slowly to look down the corridor heading off to his left. They're on the tenth floor now.
Nanu
Neo stops ahead of her. A hesitation, then he walks purposefully off down the dark hallway. She follows.
The room he enters is small, and empty but for an armchair and a coffee table. The window is bricked up, and the curtains are torn, lying tangled on the ground. Bloodstains sprawl across the carpet.
Neo's hands are clenched. Slowly Nanu takes his left fist and uncurls it, winding her fingers with his. He doesn't notice her at all.
Somebody died in this room. And Neo believes it is his fault.
. . . I should've known . . . I should've . . . should've . . .
Mouse died here. Defiant to the last, he went down still firing even as his body convulsed and blood leaked from his mouth.
How do you know all this?
All I know is that I know.
The room teems with memories that are almost alive. She grips Neo's hand to keep from fading into the riot of thought and harp stringing echoes. It is so, so dangerous here.
Listening, she can almost hear a mind, the residue of a soul; a boy, a fold-out poster and a woman in a red dress. A black t-shirt with a design that calls to mind thoughts of bones, and a battle cry so strong as he fell, tangled in the ripped curtains and brick dust and memories.
"Neo, can we go now?"
He blinks, looks down at her. "Hm?"
"Can we get out now Neo?"
Tank
"Did you hear the noise before?"
"I thought we had a squiddy in the plumbing, of course I heard it. They probably heard the banging in Zion. What was it?"
"Pirate and Gavin, fighting."
"Over what?"
She shrugs.
"How's Trinity?"
"Not happy."
"Knowing your gift for understatement I'll take that to mean 'mad as a cut snake'. What was the fight about?"
"If they want to explain then – "
"Achi, could you at least pretend to have an opinion on the subject?"
She smiles, "You're funny when you're mad Tank."
"That's not the subject I was referring to."
"I know."
He rolls his eyes, exasperated. "Are you always like this?"
"I've been on board three years, you should know by now."
Her smile is uncharacteristically coy, but it's gone before her can be sure he saw it at all. He looks back to his screens. Before long, Achi leaves.
Work, get back to work. He brings up readout of the ship's radar, looking for a new parking spot. They've been sitting in one place for too long.
Sometimes Tank wonders if he might have been too.
He'd been drafted as a member of the Neb's crew at age nine. After the ship had been so badly mutilated, he'd helped rebuild her and had remained her operator. He'd only ever had two captains, Morpheus, and Trinity.
And that's a good thing. His crew is his family. Achi's relatives are the closest he has to blood kin, even though they're several times removed and mainly connected to him through several marriages. His crew is more of a family to him than anyone back in Zion, bossy older sisters and bratty little brothers all.
Except for Pirate. Pirate is someone he has yet to learn to understand.
The headset rings –
"Operator?"
– We need an exit –
"Sure thing princess."
– Call me that again and I deck you, Wizard –
"Wells and Lake."
– See you in five –
***