Thanks to Starlight623, don't worry, it wont be the end for a while!, and to Ellie, thanks, and yes, you bet I watch Casualty!!! Thanks to everyone else who has read this fic. I hope you like this chapter!
*~*~*
Morpheus and Niobe sat in the pilot cabin of the Aleda, wondering what to do. It had seemed pretty simple when Councillor Hamann had told them about the mission, but now, it was looking almost impossible.
The only clue they had was that Neo and Trinity were headed towards Zero-One, and judging by how the sentinels had retreated, they had managed to get there, somehow. The problems where they didn't know what way Neo and Trinity had chosen to get there, or even if they managed to get out. It was suicide to go 100km near Zero-One, so how would the Aleda be able to get there to look for them. That meant that the idea they were going with was to go to the place where the Logos crashed and left, and work their way towards the Machine City. Hopefully they'd take the logically shortest path.
So that's where Morpheus and Niobe were now.
The little ship they were in didn't have a holographics system itself, so before leaving, when Niobe found this out, she went to one of the downed ships and salvaged one. She had been trying to get it operational for the majority of the beginning of the mission, only succeeding when the Aleda got to the Logos' last known position.
They had passed three sentinels on the journey, the first time almost terrified Niobe to death. It was Morpheus who reminded her that they would not attack, that they were only making their way back to their home city. Niobe had noted how much his chair seemed to vibrate when it happened, and made a mental note to tease him about it if they survived.
It was about a day into their mission, and the holographics had just registered a presence. It was stationary, with 5 smaller metal objects circling it. Looking closely at it, it was the Logos, but the metal objects appeared to be 5 sentinels.
Niobe landed the Aleda gracefully in the clearing, and the sentinels displayed some more unusual behaviour. They stopped circling, and retreated to the back of the Logos, settling down behind it in a non-threatening position. It was almost as if the Aleda had been identified as a ship not dangerous to the Logos, or to be harmed in any way. It was very uncharacteristic and disturbing.
Niobe climbed out of the Aleda followed closely by Morpheus, and they made their way towards the front of the Logos. They made their way round to the front when Niobe gasped and stopped dead, Morpheus, who wasn't looking where he was going walked straight into her.
"Niobe, why'd you-" he started, but stopped when he saw she was staring right past him. He turned, and found out what had caught her attention.
A bloody handprint, on the cracked windscreen of the Logos.
Neo knelt beside her, half lying on top of her, one hand touching her cheek, the other clasped around one of the nearest metal pipes protruding from her body. He had been crying, wailing with everything he had in him in a futile attempt to bring her back for what seemed like hours, but it could only have been a few minutes.
He sobbed once more, but he knew what he had to do. It was as if she was talking to him, wishing him luck, telling him to carry on.
He stood up, but slipped on the rubble around him. His hand shot out for support, and hit something smooth, most likely the windscreen at that height. His hand slipped down half an inch, and he could feel it was wet.
Neo didn't need his eye sight to know what colour the liquid would be. He knew where it had come from, and that pained him the most. He felt a soft kiss on his cheek and moved on, exiting the wreck for what he knew would be his final destination.
Niobe wrenched her eyes away from the windscreen of the ship, and prepared to board it, expecting the worst. Was it Bane? Was it the Machines? She did not know, but she knew she would find out very shortly.
She held onto Morpheus for support as she entered her old baby, whispering "I told you to take care of them", a tear escaping her eye at what she would find.
*~*~*
My friend found the name of the ship for me, apparently Aleda means small and winged in Latin (feminine).
