AN: I apologise tis took so long, I had really shocking writer's block
after seeing The Matrix Revolutions. And exams. And my birthday. So, I'm
back and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Dedicated to Rose for being so awesome. You write a kick-ass Syl and Krit fic, girl and are so damn nice to me. And Piss Off 2 will be here soon.
- - - August 15th 2015 - - -
It wasn't Chicago anymore. Lydecker caught up with her in Chicago and pulled a gun on her, scared she would've killed her. He pulled a gun on Eva too, without asking questions. It was the memory of Eva collapsing on the warped linoleum floor. Eva, who was always so stoic, so serious and blank. She was scared like the rest of them, but she never showed it.
It was Eva who got Jondy out of Chicago. Jondy remembers screaming like the girls in the black and white movies, remembers the men who came out of the bar on the corner, who held Lydecker back as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her.
And she only stopped when she was twenty one blocks away, hunched behind a garbage can in a back alley somewhere, her arms wrapped around her knees, breathing shallowly so no one could ever find her.
And minutes melted into hours and all she remembers thinking about is Tinga's ribbon back at her apartment. She wants to get up and slip back there and grab those few meager possessions that actually meant something to her. The worn dollar bill she uses as a bookmark, that Zack gave her last time he saw her to buy herself some chocolate. The ribbon. A copy of an old book from the library back in New York. All in a brown paper bag back at her second rate home.
As much as her mind demands she go back there and rescue those things but something froze her to the spot. Maybe the feeling of the cold steel of the gun against her head. Maybe the sight of Lydecker after six unforgiving years. But whatever it was, it kept Jondy sitting on the concrete, letting the damp seep through her jeans.
Chicago never did have a good reputation anyway.
Boston. It sounded solid to Jondy. Solid and dependable. Los Angeles sounds flighty, Las Vegas sounds exotic and tempting and New York City sounds expansive, grand and just there. Boston sounds reliable and steady and controlled. Like pie.
Jondy sits back, her brown hair fluttering in the breeze. A boy sits next to her, his arm around her shoulders. She doesn't recognize herself now. She's not New York Jondy. She's Boston Jondy; no matter what she does, how wild she can get, Boston will stand strong.
Her hair is in a high ponytail and she's wearing tight black pants and a blood red top with a plunging neckline Jondy knows Zack will hate. And her combat boots.
"Cover yourself up, soldier!"
She can hear him in her head every time this boy; the boy she's meant to be dating, yet she can never remember his name; slips his hand up her top. That reminds her of heat, how the men can't stay away from the pheromones. She doesn't like heat.
Jondy sits forward, pulling herself away from the boy. How did she get here? She got scared. Chicago. That's what brought her here. She didn't hang around to wait for Zack. She just fled, like any good little soldier would. It might've been months before Zack returned for Jondy and Jondy knows she can't outrun Lydecker.
She stands up, slipping into the alley way - away from the cigarette smoke and cheap beer. She thinks about killing Lydecker too much. He's just an old man who drinks too much. But he's not like them. She knows that the X5s aren't meant to be human; just killing machines. But instead of creating killing machines, he turned into one. Ironic.
But then, teaching children the 'right' way to commit murder must screw with your mind. It still screws with Jondy. She's at this party with alcohol and drugs because he caught up with her. Why was she here? She didn't remember. It was a place to be. She could be a different girl. A girl that Lydecker wouldn't track down.
She stands in the alley a long time, knowing no one inside will miss her. They aren't people she knows or trusts. They don't know what a real gun looks like, or how heavy they are. These kids sit here, and smoke and drink and pretend to be bitter.
Jondy's not even fifteen yet. Almost. Still fourteen. She sits with these teenagers who curse a terrorist attack they don't remember, hate people they don't know and wish for a life they've never known and never will. She honestly doesn't know how to be bitter. She's only been alive fourteen years and nine months. She can hate Manticore and be scared of Lydecker and wish the Pulse had never happened, but really, she's too young.
She read a story once. On the computer in New York. All the librarians and teachers are happy to talk about how wonderful the internet used to be. How you could read stories, play games. now, most of it is empty. Grey space. A couple of pages and Jondy found an old forgotten story. About after a war. About, how even after the war was over, no one was happy.
Was that how it would be for the X5s? Their personal war against America, against the people who were meant to give them their freedom were really the people who Jondy is hiding from in the alley. Would they really be happy after knowing Manticore?
Jondy doesn't understand how she feels about Manticore. She has nightmares, yes. But what made her run? It wasn't Max's seizures, no, Jondy isn't that noble, isn't that brave. It wasn't Zack's order. Jondy isn't that good of a soldier.
And as much as it pains her to admit it, it wasn't Eva either. What made her run? What made her scared?
Jondy's lost in her own thoughts before she hears the cops and the sirens. But not just cops either. Soldiers. With tasers. And Lydecker, holding a clipboard. And he sees her.
And she can feel the steel of the barrel of the gun hard against her head, a ghost pain. Before Lydecker can yell an order or even form a coherent thought, she's running. So far, none of the complicated murder techniques have helped her. Running has. Retreating.
The back alleys of Boston aren't easy to navigate and Jondy's almost panicking. She can hear the soldiers following her at an almost alarming speed for Ordinaries. She double backs and crouches behind a dumpster, praying to whatever power still exists in the United States of America that Colonel Lydecker won't find her.
And then, the hands clamp around her mouth. And her heart almost stops. She forgets to breathe. He found her. He has her. There's no gun this time and Jondy wishes there was. She would rather be a dead body then back at Manticore.
She can feel the hysteria rise in her throat and she wants to scream as loud as she can, to kill Lydecker and run.
"Jon."
The hands gently pull her back into a hug. A tight, desperate hug. And Jondy faintly recognizes who is holding her so tightly.
"Zack."
His face is buried in her hair and he holds her so tightly
He spent three days in Chicago, trying to find her. Got arrested once. She had just vanished. He trailed after Lydecker's team for awhile.
He'd been preparing himself everyday for almost eighteen years, practically since he was born, to confront the dead body of one of his siblings and just not care.
He wasn't sure when things changed. When he started caring so damn much. He may not have much hope for the future, but he wanted all of them to have the best now. Seeing Eva die hit him hard, and then losing Max under the ice. he cared too much.
He wasn't in Boston for Jondy. He was in Boston for one of the others; seeing if Boston was safe enough. Then Lydecker turned up. And every instinct told him to get the hell out of the state.
Zack drags Jondy out from behind the dumpster and for a second, it's like the old days, the old stealth games they used to play. Except Zack would be Zack and Jondy would be Max.
They run. Not Jondy's panicked fleeing. Planned running, to cover as much ground in the shortest amount of time.
He takes her to a motel buried deep in the city. Jondy's silent as she sits on the bed, playing with her hair.
"I thought you'd lost me," she said softly.
So did he. Only an hour ago, seeing the soldiers racing through back alleys of Boston, he knew. Something. He knew something. He knew if he didn't find Jondy first, she was just a distant memory. He knew, if Lydecker got to her, he'd never see Jondy again.
He knows that he's feeling too much for Jondy. He wants to offer her something, to say sorry for not checking up on her in Chicago sooner, for losing her between Chicago and Boston.
"Lydecker thought you were Max." He sounds too harsh, regretting the words as soon as he says them. Accusing, almost.
Jondy looks up at him, her eyes wide.
"Max?"
"Max."
And she's laughing, her face is smiling and her arms are around her neck. Two Zack-hugs in one night, it must be a record. Her face is buried in the shoulder of his jacket.
"She's alive! She's out!" Jondy grins up at Zack. "Have you see her?"
Has he seen her? No. No, he hasn't. In fact, he only has a snippet of conversation to go on. What if Max's corpse is still at the bottom of that river? What if she's dead and they never found the body, so Manticore just thinks she escaped? What if.?
Telling Jondy was a security risk. And if Max does end up being dead, it'd kill her. He shouldn't have said anything..
"She's okay, Zack," Jondy replies with a smile that reminds him why he told her in the first place. "I know it. We're all okay."
Zack looks at her. He's the CO, no one thanks him for saving their asses. And she just did. Vaguely enough not to hurt his pride.
"You are," Zack says gruffly, reaching out and touching her hair, the closest he'll admit to caring about them more than a CO should. His sentiment is rewarded with another shining smile.
And later, as Jondy and Zack eat pizza and watch television, Jondy remembers the war story. About the soldiers who weren't happy after the war was one. Maybe it wasn't a war. Maybe it was a battle. And they lost their Max. Or their Zack.
"It's going to be different for us," Jondy says softly. And even thought Zack hasn't read the story; or even seen the movie, he knows what she means.
"It will be."
But Jondy doesn't remember how she got here. Zack makes a snarky comments about drugs and alcohol, but it's not that. Jondy doesn't drink.
As they lay in bed together; sharing the double bed, Jondy rolls over and looks at Zack, his eyes closed. Un Zack like.
"Why are we scared of Manticore?" she asks softly.
But Zack's already asleep.
- - -
Woohoo! Done Chapter 6. The war story referred to in this chapter is a fic, but it isn't even a Dark Angel fic. It was written by KM and one of the singularly most awesome Matrix fics ever written. If you would like the URL, please email me.
Dedicated to Rose for being so awesome. You write a kick-ass Syl and Krit fic, girl and are so damn nice to me. And Piss Off 2 will be here soon.
- - - August 15th 2015 - - -
It wasn't Chicago anymore. Lydecker caught up with her in Chicago and pulled a gun on her, scared she would've killed her. He pulled a gun on Eva too, without asking questions. It was the memory of Eva collapsing on the warped linoleum floor. Eva, who was always so stoic, so serious and blank. She was scared like the rest of them, but she never showed it.
It was Eva who got Jondy out of Chicago. Jondy remembers screaming like the girls in the black and white movies, remembers the men who came out of the bar on the corner, who held Lydecker back as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her.
And she only stopped when she was twenty one blocks away, hunched behind a garbage can in a back alley somewhere, her arms wrapped around her knees, breathing shallowly so no one could ever find her.
And minutes melted into hours and all she remembers thinking about is Tinga's ribbon back at her apartment. She wants to get up and slip back there and grab those few meager possessions that actually meant something to her. The worn dollar bill she uses as a bookmark, that Zack gave her last time he saw her to buy herself some chocolate. The ribbon. A copy of an old book from the library back in New York. All in a brown paper bag back at her second rate home.
As much as her mind demands she go back there and rescue those things but something froze her to the spot. Maybe the feeling of the cold steel of the gun against her head. Maybe the sight of Lydecker after six unforgiving years. But whatever it was, it kept Jondy sitting on the concrete, letting the damp seep through her jeans.
Chicago never did have a good reputation anyway.
Boston. It sounded solid to Jondy. Solid and dependable. Los Angeles sounds flighty, Las Vegas sounds exotic and tempting and New York City sounds expansive, grand and just there. Boston sounds reliable and steady and controlled. Like pie.
Jondy sits back, her brown hair fluttering in the breeze. A boy sits next to her, his arm around her shoulders. She doesn't recognize herself now. She's not New York Jondy. She's Boston Jondy; no matter what she does, how wild she can get, Boston will stand strong.
Her hair is in a high ponytail and she's wearing tight black pants and a blood red top with a plunging neckline Jondy knows Zack will hate. And her combat boots.
"Cover yourself up, soldier!"
She can hear him in her head every time this boy; the boy she's meant to be dating, yet she can never remember his name; slips his hand up her top. That reminds her of heat, how the men can't stay away from the pheromones. She doesn't like heat.
Jondy sits forward, pulling herself away from the boy. How did she get here? She got scared. Chicago. That's what brought her here. She didn't hang around to wait for Zack. She just fled, like any good little soldier would. It might've been months before Zack returned for Jondy and Jondy knows she can't outrun Lydecker.
She stands up, slipping into the alley way - away from the cigarette smoke and cheap beer. She thinks about killing Lydecker too much. He's just an old man who drinks too much. But he's not like them. She knows that the X5s aren't meant to be human; just killing machines. But instead of creating killing machines, he turned into one. Ironic.
But then, teaching children the 'right' way to commit murder must screw with your mind. It still screws with Jondy. She's at this party with alcohol and drugs because he caught up with her. Why was she here? She didn't remember. It was a place to be. She could be a different girl. A girl that Lydecker wouldn't track down.
She stands in the alley a long time, knowing no one inside will miss her. They aren't people she knows or trusts. They don't know what a real gun looks like, or how heavy they are. These kids sit here, and smoke and drink and pretend to be bitter.
Jondy's not even fifteen yet. Almost. Still fourteen. She sits with these teenagers who curse a terrorist attack they don't remember, hate people they don't know and wish for a life they've never known and never will. She honestly doesn't know how to be bitter. She's only been alive fourteen years and nine months. She can hate Manticore and be scared of Lydecker and wish the Pulse had never happened, but really, she's too young.
She read a story once. On the computer in New York. All the librarians and teachers are happy to talk about how wonderful the internet used to be. How you could read stories, play games. now, most of it is empty. Grey space. A couple of pages and Jondy found an old forgotten story. About after a war. About, how even after the war was over, no one was happy.
Was that how it would be for the X5s? Their personal war against America, against the people who were meant to give them their freedom were really the people who Jondy is hiding from in the alley. Would they really be happy after knowing Manticore?
Jondy doesn't understand how she feels about Manticore. She has nightmares, yes. But what made her run? It wasn't Max's seizures, no, Jondy isn't that noble, isn't that brave. It wasn't Zack's order. Jondy isn't that good of a soldier.
And as much as it pains her to admit it, it wasn't Eva either. What made her run? What made her scared?
Jondy's lost in her own thoughts before she hears the cops and the sirens. But not just cops either. Soldiers. With tasers. And Lydecker, holding a clipboard. And he sees her.
And she can feel the steel of the barrel of the gun hard against her head, a ghost pain. Before Lydecker can yell an order or even form a coherent thought, she's running. So far, none of the complicated murder techniques have helped her. Running has. Retreating.
The back alleys of Boston aren't easy to navigate and Jondy's almost panicking. She can hear the soldiers following her at an almost alarming speed for Ordinaries. She double backs and crouches behind a dumpster, praying to whatever power still exists in the United States of America that Colonel Lydecker won't find her.
And then, the hands clamp around her mouth. And her heart almost stops. She forgets to breathe. He found her. He has her. There's no gun this time and Jondy wishes there was. She would rather be a dead body then back at Manticore.
She can feel the hysteria rise in her throat and she wants to scream as loud as she can, to kill Lydecker and run.
"Jon."
The hands gently pull her back into a hug. A tight, desperate hug. And Jondy faintly recognizes who is holding her so tightly.
"Zack."
His face is buried in her hair and he holds her so tightly
He spent three days in Chicago, trying to find her. Got arrested once. She had just vanished. He trailed after Lydecker's team for awhile.
He'd been preparing himself everyday for almost eighteen years, practically since he was born, to confront the dead body of one of his siblings and just not care.
He wasn't sure when things changed. When he started caring so damn much. He may not have much hope for the future, but he wanted all of them to have the best now. Seeing Eva die hit him hard, and then losing Max under the ice. he cared too much.
He wasn't in Boston for Jondy. He was in Boston for one of the others; seeing if Boston was safe enough. Then Lydecker turned up. And every instinct told him to get the hell out of the state.
Zack drags Jondy out from behind the dumpster and for a second, it's like the old days, the old stealth games they used to play. Except Zack would be Zack and Jondy would be Max.
They run. Not Jondy's panicked fleeing. Planned running, to cover as much ground in the shortest amount of time.
He takes her to a motel buried deep in the city. Jondy's silent as she sits on the bed, playing with her hair.
"I thought you'd lost me," she said softly.
So did he. Only an hour ago, seeing the soldiers racing through back alleys of Boston, he knew. Something. He knew something. He knew if he didn't find Jondy first, she was just a distant memory. He knew, if Lydecker got to her, he'd never see Jondy again.
He knows that he's feeling too much for Jondy. He wants to offer her something, to say sorry for not checking up on her in Chicago sooner, for losing her between Chicago and Boston.
"Lydecker thought you were Max." He sounds too harsh, regretting the words as soon as he says them. Accusing, almost.
Jondy looks up at him, her eyes wide.
"Max?"
"Max."
And she's laughing, her face is smiling and her arms are around her neck. Two Zack-hugs in one night, it must be a record. Her face is buried in the shoulder of his jacket.
"She's alive! She's out!" Jondy grins up at Zack. "Have you see her?"
Has he seen her? No. No, he hasn't. In fact, he only has a snippet of conversation to go on. What if Max's corpse is still at the bottom of that river? What if she's dead and they never found the body, so Manticore just thinks she escaped? What if.?
Telling Jondy was a security risk. And if Max does end up being dead, it'd kill her. He shouldn't have said anything..
"She's okay, Zack," Jondy replies with a smile that reminds him why he told her in the first place. "I know it. We're all okay."
Zack looks at her. He's the CO, no one thanks him for saving their asses. And she just did. Vaguely enough not to hurt his pride.
"You are," Zack says gruffly, reaching out and touching her hair, the closest he'll admit to caring about them more than a CO should. His sentiment is rewarded with another shining smile.
And later, as Jondy and Zack eat pizza and watch television, Jondy remembers the war story. About the soldiers who weren't happy after the war was one. Maybe it wasn't a war. Maybe it was a battle. And they lost their Max. Or their Zack.
"It's going to be different for us," Jondy says softly. And even thought Zack hasn't read the story; or even seen the movie, he knows what she means.
"It will be."
But Jondy doesn't remember how she got here. Zack makes a snarky comments about drugs and alcohol, but it's not that. Jondy doesn't drink.
As they lay in bed together; sharing the double bed, Jondy rolls over and looks at Zack, his eyes closed. Un Zack like.
"Why are we scared of Manticore?" she asks softly.
But Zack's already asleep.
- - -
Woohoo! Done Chapter 6. The war story referred to in this chapter is a fic, but it isn't even a Dark Angel fic. It was written by KM and one of the singularly most awesome Matrix fics ever written. If you would like the URL, please email me.