Disclaimer: The Matrix and all its appendages are the brainchildren of Larry and Andy Wachowski and are carefully guarded by Warner Brothers. Enter the Matrix was developed by Shiny Entertainment and produced by Infogames. This is purely a piece of nonprofit entertainment. Cursum Perficio is the title of a song on Enya's Watermark CD. References to other fandoms are intentional.

Epilogue: Following the Sun

Three weeks post-Revolutions

Niobe carefully maneuvered the hovercraft through the last tight squeeze in the tunnels and exhaled a sigh of relief as the Desert came into view. Beside her, Morpheus double-checked the position of their exit point and logged it into the computer.

Repairs on the Mjolnir had finally been completed, and Morpheus was anxious to reestablish contact with the Matrix and see the the aftermath of Neo and Trinity's sacrifices. They were also testing the limits of Zion's newfound truce with the machines. The Council had granted them leave to go, and Roland had happily allowed Niobe and Morpheus to command his ship, saying that he was still too tired to get back in the game. The remainder of his crew and theirs had joined forces to operate it.

Actually, that was only half of the reason why they were out there.

While on the whole, Niobe felt completely back to normal, she sometimes still had doubts that nibbled at her about the vampire-virus. It was small things - the intensity of some lights, a sore jaw from her unreceded canines, a violent thought...all things that she set aside in the heat of the end of the war and dismissed as aftereffects. But now, having the luxury of time to think, she wasn't sure.

Which was why she was there, on the surface of the Earth for the first time in her life. There was only one way that she knew of to confirm or vanquish her uncertainty. She set the ship in a hovering mode and looked at Morpheus.

"You know you don't have to do this," he reminded her, already knowing what her response would be. She wouldn't settle for anything but the cold, hard truth, even if it killed her. She couldn't settle for anything less. It was who she was. It was one of the things he loved about her, and that was why he agreed to help her make this detour.

"I know," she answered, smiling warmly. Niobe didn't need to add in anything else. They understood each other well enough.

Throwing the hovercraft into full throttle, Niobe angled it upwards. It rose past the wreckage of abandoned city spires and broke through the artificial sky, revealing the sun in all its glory.

The light hurt her eyes, but it did not burn.

The end.

I'd like to thank everyone that's reviewed or read this thing over the past two years for their support and comments. I'm really sorry that I didn't write it faster, and even more so that I didn't really respond to many reviews. Hopefully you guys got a couple of hours of entertainment out of it. :)