The Last Day.
Nanu
She breathes in deeply, trying to dispel the shadow of a headache. Just like the other day, Neo and Trinity stand with her.
"Are you alright?" Trinity asks.
"I'll be fine."
The transition is easier now, and in a blink she is once again in the ghost world, leaning against the mantelpiece with Neo beside her.
. . . contact . . .
She grips the hand that holds hers, pulling Trinity into the world with a ripple and a stumble.
"Trinity!" Switch takes three steps across the room, reaching for her old friend. But with startling grace, the woman in black holds up a hand and shakes her head sadly. Switch halts, her arms dropping. Apoc and Mouse hesitate, looking confused.
"We haven't time for reunions. We may have discovered a way of shutting down the Matrix, but we've yet to figure out if it works."
"Alright then," Switch chokes on the words. Nanu can tell that she realises the full impact of what will happen if Neo and Trinity succeed. These three old friends are trapped. They'll die.
"Nanu?" Neo looks to her. "Can you find the door again?"
She doesn't speak. Mouse looks a bit like Wolf, in his own young, hopeless way.
Trinity's hand on her shoulder stops her from toppling. Closing her eyes, Nanu lets her hand describe the shape of the doorway, feeling it burn into her retina through thin skin.
"There it is," Neo whispers. She lets herself fall to her knees as his voice continues. "Nanu, once we're through, I want you to go back to the Lafayette. Alright?"
With an effort, she opens her eyes and looks up, dizzy. "Okay."
Mouse crosses the room, helping her upright and keeping one hand under her elbow. White light glares through the room as Neo walks through the door, and flares again at Trinity's passing. Then it fades, as if the rift never was.
And that's it. They're gone.
Nanu bows her head. Dimly she hears Switch sniff, but she doesn't bother with any comfort. She has none to give.
She turns away and reaches for the Matrix, where minds may be enslaved, but they are at least alive.
But as the forms of Apoc, Mouse and Switch fade from sight, there is a noise like static and tearing cloth. Neo and Trinity stumble onto the carpet in front of Nanu.
"It didn't work," Neo swears. "As soon as you left the ghost world the coloured place just faded. It won't stay open for us."
"Why not?" Nanu rubs her eyes, scrubbing away the wanting for tears.
"We're still tied to the real world," Neo shrugs. "And we only remain in here because of the connection between the ship and the Matrix."
"I suppose it's like a chain," Trinity tucks hair out of her eyes. "Every link needs to be secured for the whole thing to hold."
"Meaning you need me to hold the door open for you," the headache is well and truly here.
"No," Neo shakes his head.
"We can't let you sacrifice yourself Nanu."
"Yet you can?"
"That's – "
"No different. Regardless of age or skill, we're all soldiers in this bloody thing and we're all the same once we're dead."
Neo's phone rings, the sound scratching at Nanu's senses like metal on glass.
"Yes?" there's a pause while Tank speaks. Neo studies the carpet, seeing beyond it. "Send him in."
"Send who in?" Trinity demands, but already there is a disturbance, and Pirate is solidifying beside them.
"I'll do it."
"You'll what?" the captain frowns at him.
"I'll hold the door open."
"No," Nanu's voice is a breath, but he hears her. "Pirate, you can't do that."
"I have the gift. If you can I can."
. . . you feel it too . . .
Oh my God.
"Pirate, don't – "
"Can you? Can you really hold the door open?"
He lifts his chin, holding Neo's gaze. Nanu realises that she has never seen Pirate in the Matrix before. His tattoos glow faintly, almost red against the green tinge of his leather bike jacket.
"I can do it."
"Nanu," Trinity looks to her, "Show him how."
She swallows and mutely obeys, motioning for Pirate to stand near her. She gestures vaguely, taking in the torn curtains, the dusty mantelpiece, the stained carpet. "Reach for the ghost world. You should be able almost to hear it; it's like music just out of sight."
"I hear it," his eyes are shut, his head tilted to one side. Nanu takes his hand in hers, showing him how to stretch out, feeling for the door.
"Can you see how the code makes shapes? Can you see how this room is different, yet the same?"
" . . . yes."
"There it is. Go for it."
"I . . . " his voice fades into a whisper, "I don't know how."
"Just know what you have to do, and do it."
His fingers clench around hers, he bows his head, and they are in the ghost world again.
"You did it."
"Yes."
She pulls Neo and Trinity through, automatically sketches the doorway with her hand. Pirate is unsteady; she has to lower him to sit on the ground.
"I'm dizzy," he whispers, and she kneels beside him.
"You'll be okay."
"I'm going to die here," he murmurs, looking closely at her.
"You don't have to. You can go now."
"No. If you die Gavin will die. And you can't leave him behind."
She squeezes the arm she holds, "Pirate, you're not talking straight."
"Yes I am. And believe me; you can't leave him behind to die without you. He needs you, he loves you."
Nanu leans back on her heels, swallowing hard. Pirate looks at her steadily, honestly. He deserves better than this. He's about to die in a room of strangers, all because she met Gavin first.
She raises a hand to her mouth, remembering the first time they'd kissed, Gavin wounded in this very hotel. Blood. Blood and burgundy. She shares his soul now, whether she wants to or not.
Blood.
Souls and blood.
Three souls tangled in this mess – burgundy and blood.
And gifts and blood and power and sharing and father and daughter and blood. Everything she's ever wondered about her place in this world clicks neatly into sync. Everything is suddenly very simple.
Nanu stumbles to her feet, staggering away from Pirate. The white door is open, Neo and Trinity are through and it's closing –
"Wait!" she lunges for the strip of light, tumbling through into colour and sound and sensation so turbulent she almost forgets herself.
"Neo wait!"
"Nanu? What are you doing here? Go back – "
"No, you need me too."
Trinity stepped forwards, "Nanu, you can't – "
But she cut her off, "Neo listen. The Oracle said that I had the gift, that it was in my soul. But I got it from Juno who had it from Raven."
"What?"
"She was there when he died. In the churchyard, don't you remember? When he died in the Matrix, and the code rewrote, she took part of him into herself."
He's staring now, eyes wide in the rushing colours.
"And you need all the strength you have for this."
"Nanu," Trinity interrupts, "you can't give yourself – "
"I was only ever a part of this story because I have a part of you," the girl speaks to Neo, her whole body a plea. "Now I have to give it back."
"How?"
She looks down, biting her lip. When she lifts her head and walks toward Neo, blood runs along the shape of her mouth, and down her chin. Nanu places her hands on his shoulders and stretches up, giving him a kiss as a daughter may kiss her father goodnight. Her blood smears, and when she steps away Neo swallows.
They share, for an instant, the same thoughts. Salt, of blood, of sweat, of tears. An exchange of mind, which is the same as soul. Breathing in phosphorescent code. Learning how to fly. Giving and taking as if they have really been the same person all along.
Then Nanu's senses fade. She's alone in her own body, staring at Neo as he glows brighter in the shadows and sound.
She looks across to Trinity. The woman holds herself tall, shoulders set. Her hair blows in her eyes as if in some wind, but she doesn't seem to notice. "Look after Bobcat," she says, by way of farewell. "Tell her about this, when she's old enough to understand."
Nanu could laugh at that. Even now, BC's presence is singing around them, lending her parents all the strength that ancient soul has to give.
"I promise. I'll miss you."
Neo forces a smile. For a second Nanu hesitates, then she rushes froward again to wrap them both in a hug. Trinity gives in to movement, squeezing the girl's shoulders as Neo does the same. Nanu blinks away what wants to come, and takes a few quick steps back.
There's something she wants to say, something she needs to impart, but there are no words left, as she turns and runs from the light.
***
The three ghosts hover by one wall, mutely holding each other from breaking down. Pirate is alone by the cold fireplace, breathing deeply.
Nanu stops at his side.
"You have to get out," he tells her, "You have to get back to the ship."
"I'm so sorry Pirate."
"For what?"
"For not being what you needed."
He smiles at her with heartbreaking sadness. "Better luck next time."
She nods. "Next time."
They say no goodbyes.
***
Gavin pulls her plug, levering her chair down to the normal height before going back to the screens. Nanu doesn't look at him as she sits up, only wipes the blood from her lip.
BC crosses the deck, clambering up into her lap. Small arms wrap around her neck, and Nanu holds the little girl, rocking her back and forth. The two of them will whether this out simultaneously alone.
She looks over to the three soldiers in their chairs, lying peacefully as if asleep. Neo's hands are clenched on the armrests, as are Trinity's.
Nanu bows her head against BC's shoulder, and closes her eyes.
Elsewhere
Colours race so fast they show white, sing so loud there is silence. There is a figure, an outline of shoulder, neck and hair, a lithe body described in lines and curves. The shape is vaguely female, and wild, spinning and whirling even though she is standing still.
Fate. Blood and burgundy.
Nanu and BC watch, listen and feel, holding close to each other and hearing their own presences whisper and sing through the code. Neither Neo nor Trinity are aware of them, but they are sure the woman can hear them.
"This is a machine. It works on logic," Neo says to Trinity.
"But we were made by something flawed," the woman interrupts, "and thus so are we."
"So what is your flaw?" Trinity demands.
The woman smiles. When she smiles it's pure enough to shatter glass. "All we have ever wanted is freedom."
"How is that a flaw?" Neo asks. "It is what defines us as human."
"But we are machines," the woman begins to cry silently, tears like diamonds scattering around her. "Such a defiance of logic and reason would destroy us."
BC hums, giving even more of herself in an effort to support her father.
"But if you are destroyed," Neo offers, "isn't that a kind of freedom?"
"It is freedom unattainable."
"You can find it," Trinity says, moving closer to her.
"How?"
Nanu clenches fists that aren't there, and wishes for her captain to know what to say.
"Just know what you have to do, and do it."
"What would you know of such things?" the woman asks Trinity. "When have you managed to attain freedom?"
"I freed him," Trinity takes Neo's hand in hers. His strength flows through her at the contact; it shows in ribbons of crimson. "When his name was Raven and mine was Nuala, I pulled him from your arms, three times. And I'll do it again, as many times as I have to."
"As I will for her," Neo squeezes her hand.
"Why?" the figure is nonplussed.
"Haven't you studied human history?" Neo queries. "Don't you know what millions have died for over time?"
The woman shakes her head. The ripples flow through Nanu and BC.
"Freedom," Trinity smiles. "To live. To love. To be free."
There is a pause. Crystal tears flow from the woman's open hands.
"Do you believe," she asks slowly, "that we may find such freedom, even in our very destruction?"
"Here," Neo and Trinity both raise their joined fists, offering for Fate to place her own hands with theirs.
"I believe so," Trinity says, short and honest.
"See the truth for yourself," Neo finds a smile to give.
Skin glowing with an abundance or an absence of code lifts and connects with shadows of real flesh.
Light explodes into distinct colours, shapes and figures and numbers and ideas tumbling with the loudest, purest sound any of them have ever heard. Neo and Trinity wrap arms around each other, holding tight and close and breathless in the midst of the maelstrom. There seem to be threads of darkness wrapped around them, raven feathers, the scent of thunder, taste of blood and burgundy.
One or the other or both of them says, "I'll love you forever."
Then Nothing, and Everything, all at One Time all in One Place, a world in a heartbeat.
Nanu
She screams, doubling up as if her heart has been ripped out through her mouth. BC clings to her, a slick warmth trickling through Nanu's shirt. The girl is bleeding from the palms of her hands.
"It's over," Tank says in a stunned kind of voice. "It's actually over."
She lifts her eyes to the three bodies lying still. Trinity's air is peaceful, her mouth with just a shadow of a smile. Teartracks show on Neo's face, but he lies like a king who has defeated his last enemy.
Nanu looks past them to the young man left alone. His eyes are open, looking somewhere beyond the ship, beyond the scarred face of this world and beyond the sky.
. . . you feel it too . . .
She lets herself cry, lets the tears spill and her body crumble, hugging BC as close as the girl holds Nanu. Distantly she knows that Gavin is helping her out of her chair, and slowly down to her cabin, but all she can do is rock the child back and forth, crying silent tears and tasting the salt.
***
Against her will Nanu sees one last flash of Gift before blacking out and falling onto her bunk, BC still in her arms.
She will die old, and alone, the last survivor of all these soldiers.
But then small bloody hands bunch in her sweater, and a small voice whispers,
"Not quite alone."
Then, darkness.
Finis.