"What's going on? Something's going on."
"Let's go outside."
"No. Tell me what's going on."
"It's... bad... news."
"Well, what is it? What happened?"
"It's bad. Please, can we-"
"Where's Mom?"
"Mom ... had an accident. Or, um... something went... wrong from the tumor."
"Is she okay? Is she... but she's okay? But... it's, it's serious, but..."

-Buffy and Dawn in "The Body"

"Was it sudden?"
"What?"
"Your mother."
"No. Yes. It's always sudden."

-Buffy and Tara about Tara's mother's death in "The Body"

Author's Note: To explain something: I won't change the story previous to this into italics because it was told as a story, not a flashback. Everything from here on forward will be a flashback, thus being in italics.

Teresa: a WiP is the shortened way of saying "work in progress," meaning I'm still writing it as I post it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ghost softly knocked on Sparks' door an hour later. The ride and walk to his friend's room in Zion had been uneventful, however, the new types of hovercraft were quite extraordinary.

"Come on in you old windbag." Sparks called through the door. As Ghost entered, he could only smile.

"I'm not old, I'm just withered." Ghost replied softly, shutting the door. "So, what are we going to do?"

"I was thinking of jumping into the lift and going to bug the hell out of Niobe and Roland. Binary says they're in the bar right now. Besides, I need to work my mojo on the new bartender." Sparks laughed, moving towards Ghost.

"You do know that she's getting a restraining order on you, right? She told me she's waiting for you to slip off your stool one day and hit your jaw on the bar." Ghost replied, exiting swiftly behind Sparks.

"Really? Wow, I don't a woman has ever said that much about me before. Now I really gotta talk to her." Sparks smirked, speeding up upon seeing the lift.

Ghost could only roll his eyes. Only Sparks would think it was a turn on when a woman thought he was repulsive.

~*~*~

"I know the pipe is bad, just hand me the hammer Paz and it will be fine." Trinity smiled softly at the wide-eyed 12 year old.

Paz nodded and quickly handed the hammer to her mother, watching her carefully as she climbed onto the support beam, preparing to fix the pipe above her. They were fifteen feet in the air, working on one of the houses being made for families to live in on the surface. Neo was close by, but out of sight, something that worried Paz. Emmanuel was on the ground, glaring at his sister, his fear of heights keeping him on the ground. Their father would laugh when seeing Paz following her mother, doing everything without fear while Emmanuel would be more grounded, thinking out everything he did.

Watching her mother give the pipe a good whack, she held her breath as the beam wobbled slightly. Trinity smiled at Paz, reassuring her of their safety. As Paz turned to look down at her brother, sticking her tongue out, she heard a splitting of wood nearby and only turned in time to watch her mother's eyes catch hers as she fell.

"Mommy!" Paz yelled, scrambling down the ladder. Hitting the ground, she yelled to her brother, "Go get Dad! Now!"

As she tripped and fell, running towards her mother, she caught a glimpse of Emmanuel sprinting around the corner of a new house. Sliding to a stop on her knees next to Trinity, Paz grabbed her hand, tears in her eyes.

"Mom? Mom, are you okay?" Paz's voice shook as Trinity opened her eyes, pain evident in them. "Mommy, you're going to be okay, you're going to get up and we're going to be okay. Right?"

Paz felt her throat constrict as Trinity squeezed her hand before her gaze became glassy. As she lightly shook Trinity's shoulder, she heard the heavy footsteps of her approaching father.

"Trinity? Trinity! Morpheus, get a doctor!" Neo fell to his knees beside Trinity, Paz wailing next to him.

"Mommy---"

~~~~~

"MOM!" Paz awoke, drenched in sweat, Emmanuel's arms on her shoulders, obviously shaking her awake. Looking into his worried gaze for a moment, Paz sighed before pulling him to her.

"You had the nightmare again, didn't you?" Emmanuel question, not needing an answer. Nodding into his neck, Paz sniffed slightly. "Tomorrow, I'll bring you to the doctor."

"They can't do anything." Paz cut in. "They'll just tell me to meditate or something. Dad knew better than to bring me to a doctor."

"Dad, if you remember correctly, was a shell of a human after mom died. How would he have known what to do?" Emmanuel coldly replied.

"And you think you know better than him?" Paz challenged, her brown eyes burning into his.

Emmanuel held her gaze for a moment before blinking and looking away. No one needed to point out that she was the stronger of the two, even though she was younger.

"I want to talk with Niobe tomorrow. Maybe she could give me some advice. Now, go back to bed, get some sleep. I'm fine now." Paz watched as Emmanuel nodded and left before letting out the breath she had been holding. She wasn't fine, she was terrified. How could a woman, capable of blowing up a building and killing ten armed men in the Matrix, die just from a weak beam? The wood was made from rock, metal and synthetic wood, how could it break when it was brand new? These thoughts had plagued Paz ever since her mother's funeral. Until now, she had no answers. The only way it would break, would be if someone put it in wrong, or sabotaged it. But if so, who and why would someone do that?