Blood and Burgundy.

Nanu

Neo had been hoping to sneak into the Matrix quietly, but even the unconscious Wolf could have told him that this wasn't going to happen. Trinity had heard of the run, and from then on it may as well have been written that she was going too. Nanu didn't need any gift to read between the lines of the glares passed between her seniors.

Sometimes she wishes that Neo would understand that Trinity does not need protecting, and she will refuse point blank to be left safely behind from any important mission.

And this is a very important mission.

As the three of them prepare to jack-in, Nanu looks for Gavin. He's not on the deck. A second of out-of-focus-ness and she knows he's below decks with Wolf. She's not sure if she'd rather have him with her or not. She knows how much it scares him when she goes in, there's the constant possibility that she'll never come back.

But still, Nanu often wishes that he'd just trust her. He should know that if it's at all possible, she will come back to him. And if she doesn't, well . . . this is a war.

***

The three of them stand motionless as the ripples of their entrance slow and slowly stop.

Nanu blinks slowly, feeling this world as she never has before. Somehow it's all so much stronger, more powerful. The reflected light from Neo's shades is painful, the sound of the phone, when it rings, startles her into turning to face it. And that small movement is monumental. Of a sudden she is swamped with questions of decisions not made – if she hadn't moved just now, might the future be different?

"We're in fine Tank. We don't need anything else."

She blinks. Focus. Remember that this isn't real. Remember the here and now, what is, not what may be.

"Are you alright" Trinity almost has to take the girl's hand to make her listen.

" . . . yes. I'm fine now."

They've come into the room Neo had visited before. The torn curtains are undisturbed, and distant sounds of the world outside are muffled through the bricked up window.

It's a world unto itself this room. It's a gateway.

"Nanu?"

"Ghosts," Nanu has to sit down. She folds to her knees and runs her fingers through the bloodstained carpet. "All ghosts." Her voice fades to a whisper.

. . . Mouse . . .

"Nanu?" A hand on her shoulder, Trinity beside her. She clutches the burning warm skin and clenches the dusty carpet at once. Two places at once.

Her eyes are shut. Light floods into her mind.

White. The construct?

No. It coalesces into a figure, a woman in white vinyl.

"You're back. Here, get up."

Pale hands take her arms and help her to her feet.

"Switch."

"What's your name kid?" another voice asks. Apoc. Short for apocalypse. The apocalypse virus.

"Nanu?"

Distantly Neo places his hand on her other shoulder. Her head reels with the connections to the three souls, but somehow of the three Trinity is constant, her skin reassuringly warm as Nanu crouches on the floor somewhere in an abandoned hotel room. She is something simple, honest and true, anchored among these unfettered souls, and a solid rock to grip in the riptide.

"Switch," the girl inhales slowly. "I'm Nanu."

"What are you doing here?"

"Are you alright?"

In this world with no place, Nanu reaches up to where Neo's hand should be, and takes it. With a ripple and a bending of air, he enters the nowhere beside her.

Apoc swears loudly in what might be Spanish. "Neo?"

Mouse takes a nervous step forward. "Don't tell me you're dead?"

"I don't think I am."

Switch frowns, "Then what are you doing here?"

Nanu moves away from them slowly, leaning against the wall.

Trinity

She kneels on the carpet beside Nanu, her left hand held in a cold, unbreakable grip. Carefully Trinity draws out a gun with the other, clicking off the safety and settling herself to be ready to fire at the door. Neo's gone, and Nanu might as well be.

She breathes carefully and keeps her hands steady. Nanu still sits motionless, her face turned away.

Trinity waits. It's all there is to do.

Neo

"What is this place?" He asks, casting bewildered eyes around him.

"We don't know," Apoc shrugs. "Switch and I don't remember anything past the TV repair shop, and the last Mouse knew was this room."

"That was four years ago," Neo bows his head, removing his shades.

"What'd we miss?" Mouse tries a grin.

"What happened to Morpheus?" Switch is more serious.

"Tank killed Cypher before he could get me, so Trinity and I got Morpheus out."

"The AI took him. How did you get past Agents?"

Neo sees Nanu slide quietly down the wall, curling into a ball. He crosses to her side, "Are you alright?"

"We'll take it from here," Switch cuts him off. Even Neo catches the 'coppertop' inflection behind her words.

Nanu, huddled on the floor, manages a grim laugh. "You're talking to the One Switch."

"What?"

Apoc frowns, turning to look closely at the once-rookie in the long black coat. "For sure?"

Neo brushes it off, "Yeah, I am. But Nanu, are you alright?"

He helps her up again, and she leans heavily against the mantelpiece, lifting her head with visible effort. "I don't know. This place makes me dizzy."

"Why dizzy?" he presses.

"It's not fixed. This isn't a real place, not like the Matrix."

"Not like the Matrix?" he repeats, eyes widening.

"Check the code Neo. We're somewhere else entirely."

He looks, and looks again. There are no straight lines here, it's a void of abstracts and confusion, links and ties and lines leading nowhere, the green bled through with bruised blue.

"What in hell?"

"See it? That's what's throwing me off up here," she taps a finger to her temple, and the motion turns into an expression of pain.

"Neo," Switch's voice is sharp with annoyance and fear. "What is going on?"

"We came here from the Lafayette, Nanu has the gift, and yes I'm the One. Trinity is still in the Matrix where we left her, and beyond that I have no idea what this is."

"Ghost world. This is a ghost world." The cold declaration is met with silence. Nanu carefully straightens. "This is a dead place. But it leads somewhere."

"Where?" he barely dares to whisper.

"Can't you see it?" she turns her face to him. Her eyes are unfocused and her skin has gone very pale. "It's there. The door is open, all you have to do is walk through it."

"How?"

"There," with one hand she describes a shape, and he sees the echoes the motion leaves in code. There is a sound like harp strings, rippling and fluid. A shape is there, gleaming white through the blue and green.

"Neo?"

But all he can see is the white beyond the black. Blind to the dead hotel room and the ghosts that cry within it, he walks through the door.

***

Whirling colour, colour so bright and fast it has a sound. Green and red and blue

(red or blue?)

and violet and velvet and leather and lace and a form taking shape in the midst of the storm.

Something like a human. Something like a woman.

Someone like himself but drastically not.

A voice made of colour – dark dark burgundy in thin lines of ink, a voice of an undefinable note.

"I know who you are," she seems transfixed.

"Who are you?"

The voice is pure. When she smiles she sings. "What I am matters nothing beyond that I know exactly what you want."

He tries to focus on her. A feline form, eyes like something forever untamed and dark hair tumbling down her back. Without even moving she seems to be dancing, shadow in the light about them both.

"What do I want?"

"You want to destroy everything that I am."

"Why would I do that?"

"You have been fighting me as long as your soul has existed."

He tries to move closer to her. She radiates a feeling like flying.

"Who are you?"

"You know me."

Closer. Skin that glows with an abundance, or an absence of racing code. He dares to lift a hand to her cheek, she burns him. She looks at him solemnly with answers in her eyes.

"I am your Fate."

***