Note: First I want to say thanks to the readers of my fanfic for their numerous reviews of my work. It is your reviews that help to motivate me to continue with a work. As for the question mentioned in the review of MysticSuperSaiyanGohan this story is set eighteen years after the final moments of The Matrix : Revolutions. As for why I chose this particular number of years to separate the movies from the time of this fic I will only say that it will become clear in time. The Power Plant, The Real World Outside of the Matrix
When his senses finally came back online what he saw almost made him wish he was back in that church with the stone goo crawling up his legs.
He did not have a lot of time to consider everything his senses were taking in but given what he had seen and felt in those first few seconds that was no surprise. He was naked, immersed in some kind of liquid that was not water due to its sliminess and he had numerous tubes and wires hooked into holes in his body along with a tube going down his throat that was threatening to make him gag. Thrashing around looking for a way out he quickly found that the surface directly above him seemed like plastic wrap with how easy it was to push against so push he did, HARD. As soon as his hands succeeded it tearing a hole in the roof of whatever he was it he tried to pull it apart until it was big enough to for him to fit through but he found himself weak as a kitten. Even in the soup his body was immersed in he had experienced difficulty in moving around in there as though there were great invisible weights restricting his movement. Eventually though he succeeded and the first thing he did was fight against the gagging long enough to pull the tube out of his mouth completely. It was almost painful to do it and once out he coughed uncontrollably before throwing up a bit before he was able to regain control of his body and its functions. With the immediate crisis of confinement and a garden hose down his throat out of the way he had an easier time taking stock of his predicament.
O-kay! We've gone right past weirder to downright kookey! Xander thought as he took in the dark and spooky scene out in front of him.
It looked like a horror film's favorite backdrop of storm clouds and desolate wastelands mixed with Sci-Fi tech from hell. His pod was one among many arrayed around massive columns, hundreds and thousands of them going high into the sky and down into the ground. Crawling and in some cases flying around were insect like machines that were either 'tending' the pods if you could call it that. It was like some sort of mechanized monitoring system with enough bots flying around to make it clear to him that this set up was much larger than what he could see. Arcs of electricity went back and forth between the various columns and for a moment he was afraid of getting shocked by a fairly large amount of voltage but then something else grabbed his attention. One of the robots he had seen flying around was on the approach and as each second passed it was clear to him that what it was on the approach towards was him. He looked back and forth on either side of his pod for some way to get the hell out of there but not only were there not any ladders for him to use but the tubes that were attached to him were on tight. He couldn't move more than a few feet in any direction and certainly not enough for him to get out of the pod. Backing away as far as he could from the robot that had come to a hovering position in front of his pod he couldn't help but wonder where he was and how he got there.
One minute some guy named Ghost is hooking me up to an electrician's worst nightmare and the next I find myself someplace that belongs in Hellraiser 2023. , Xander thought as he waited for the robot to either kill him or stuff him back in the pod, All we need now is ol' Pinhead and the Chatterer to show up with the chains with hooks on them to tear me apart.
However Pinhead and Chatterer would have to wait their turn as with all the speed a machine can have a mechanical arm shot out from beneath the robot grabbing Xander by the neck. Fearful that the machine was going to snap his handsome neck he reached up and tried to pry the arm off but his strength hadn't come back one iota since he came to. He could feel and hear another arm other than the one holding him in a death grip reach around to the back of his head and figured that the tin can wanted to be original and cave in the back of his skull. However it was when he focuses his attention to the back of his head that he noticed an odd sensation there as though someone had taken a plunger with a rope attached and stuck it on the back of his head. He had less than a second to think on this before the second arm latched into the plunger stuck on the back of his head and pain filled his consciousness moments later. It was like attempting to walk on an ankle you had recently sprained or opening an old wound that delved deep into your body and multiplying the pain one would expect a hundred times over. He was barely aware of it when it stopped for all his nerves and senses were awash in a sea of an after image of pain that he would just as soon have become nothing more than a memory. It was all he could do to keep from falling back into the goo he had only recently emerged from but it seemed that whatever demon ruled this world wanted to give him more pain and so it came to pass. All over his body a series of explosive detachments rocked his body as wire by wire, tube by tube, he was separated from the restraints that had left him connected to the pod. The only positive side of things was that the pain he felt in each of the empty areas where the tubes once were rated just above using alcohol to clean a bloody wound and each time a tube detached it was like a gunshot rocking his body. By the time the process was done he was left a gasping mess kept out of the goo only because his chin rested on the outside of the pod as were his elbows.
What's next? he thought to himself before he realized what he had just said and cursed himself for asking the one question one should never ask in these situations.
His question was asked as the goo that had been his first introduction into this nightmare was drained out of his pod with incredible force pulling him from his posture of safety no matter how hard he tried to hold on. So down the drain he went like so much crap and if it wasn't the slimy feel of the tube that was bothering him it was the fact that he couldn't get any purchase to slow his progress one bit. He had no choice but to wait it out and hope that where ever he popped out would be able to provide him with something to either explain what the HELL was going on or how to get back to good ol' Sunnydale. Lifting his head slightly to see over his feet without banging his head on the top of the pipe he could see a light at the end of the tunnel and hoped he wouldn't find the pearly gates when he got to the end of the stinky water slide.
He came out of the tube like a shot and for a moment was airborne before landing in some kind of net that caused him to bounce up and down for minute before finally settling down. He tried to look around and see where he was but the lights that surrounded the net he was in were too bright and he could barely see anything at all. There were a few black shapes amidst the lights but they were undefined and in some cases partially obscured but the lights. Suddenly he felt a blanket being thrown on him and soon after two sets of hands grabbed a hold of him and lifted him from the net. For a moment he was worried that it was Gabriel and her people here to finish whatever it was they started so he tried to pull himself free. However for the umpteenth time since he woke up his strength was less than that of a child and the strength of his captors were easily enough to keep him still.
"Easy Mr. Harris. It's just us. You're going to be fine." Came the familiar voice of Ghost from the black humanoid shape on his right.
"Where … ?" he tried to ask but found that his throat was still sore from that tube being down his throat so he could only get out a single word before it became too painful to speak.
"We'll answer all your questions soon enough Mr. Harris." , Ghost said as a door of light opened up ahead of them, "For now though we need to get you to the ships' infirmary."
Nodding reluctantly he found fatigue descending on him something fierce and wondered why he was suddenly so tired since he had only been awake for twenty minutes at best. He hoped the answer to that mystery would come up with all the rest.
"How is he?" came a woman's voice although he wasn't awake enough to identify who exactly.
"He's going to need some work but it should be alright." , came the voice of someone around Giles' age, "He's only one of five people I know of who have been freed at this age or older."
"Do what you can." The woman said before everything faded out again to black.
When next he woke things were a little better as he was almost completely awake although he was still feeling weak. Looking around he could see someone who looked like that African American Captain of the U.S.S Reliant in Star Trek 2 on one side with the black woman he recognized as Niobe. His eyes were hurting from the bright light that was shining down on him but no worse than they normally would if you were stuck in a dark room for awhile and then someone suddenly turned on the light. What concerned him though was the hundred plus foot long needles that seemed to be stuck in him as he couldn't imagine how they could possibly help him.
"What are you doing?" he asked although his voice was barely above a whisper.
"Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them." Doc replied as he continued to input directions into a computer console near his right hand.
"And my eyes?" he asked in the hopes of a equally efficient but honest answer.
"They're probably hurting a bit. That's because up until yesterday you've never used them." , Niobe answered with some compassion in her voice, "Don't worry Mr. Harris, the answers are coming."
"Xander." He said as he felt the sleepiness creeping up on him again.
"What?" Niobe asked a little confused.
"Call me Xander. Whenever someone calls me 'Mr. Harris' I always look around for my Dad and I'd just as soon forget about him." Xander said straining to get the entire sentence out despite the sore throat and fatigue.
"Xander it is then." Niobe said with a slight grin.
Two Days After Xander was Freed, His Quarters Aboard Ship
Xander awoke slowly, not longer tired but not at all eager to face whatever new shocks were about to be thrown his way today.
He couldn't exactly say he understood the big picture yet but from what little he had been able to pry out of Niobe and Doc during the moments in which he was conscious his body he was now in had never been used before. How exactly he had gotten snatched from his natural body and placed in this one he wasn't quite sure but he knew Gabriel and her goons had something to do with it. Gabriel had shoved something into his mouth and made him swallow it which had been immediately followed by the stone creeping up his legs and him being transported here. Where ever here was Niobe and Ghost didn't seem too freaked about it so chances were that they knew what was going on and where they were so he would have to save his questions until then. Currently though his going theory was that some aliens were fighting an intergalactic war and needed spirits of any kind to inhabit the bodies of their manufactured soldiers so that they could fight for them. After all it would match the comment about him never having used the eyes and muscles before while still being consistent with what he knew about his life. Hopefully though he would be able to hop on some spaceship and go back home sometime soon but something in the deeper part of his mind told him that things wouldn't be that easy. In fact almost from the moment he had first woken up in that pod he had been experiencing the oddest case of déjà vu he had ever experienced in his life. The things he had seen, the answers Niobe and Doc had given him, all seemed so familiar like a forgotten dream or half remembered idea.
Of course that's nuts cause I've never met them before today and I KNOW I haven't been pre-packaged in a pink slushy pod before. , Xander thought as he rose to a sitting position and looked around the room he was in, Still if this room is any indication then the Rebel Alliance here is having a serious funding problem.
The steel wheel that sealed the door, like the ones he had seen on so many shows displaying sub-marines and Navy ships, turned with a creaking sound before opening to admit Niobe. Her clothes were in slightly better shape than the ship was and were certainly better than the rags that he had apparently inherited from someone else. They looked kinda like the Star Trek uniforms from the second through sixth movies except without the white under shirt or golden ornaments denoting rank, position and the organization they were associated with. Her face was a mask of composure so he couldn't really take a guess as to how she was feeling at the moment but it was probably nothing more than how a captain would feel to checking in on an unexpected guest.
"How're you feeling?" Niobe asked with the same amount of feeling in her voice as there was on her face.
"Like I've just taken a trip to the Twilight Zone but other than that alright." He replied but shook his head when it was clear that she didn't know anything about the show.
"Well if you want to get some answers to the questions that I am sure are running around in your head I'll give you a tour of the ship and try and answer them." Niobe said as she took a step aside and extended her arm towards the door.
"Lead on fair Captain." He said with his trademark lopsided grin.
To this she merely rolled her eyes a bit before heading out the door no doubt expecting him to follow her without having to be asked. Shrugging he followed her out and found that the 'I'm in desperate need of a new paint job' décor that had been present in his room was the running theme of the entire ship. Wires and cables were arrayed here and there with some being kept in place by rope or a rusty hook and nothing else which only reinforced the idea that they were the underdogs in whatever struggle they were involved with at the moment. Still if they were able to go from where ever here was to Sunnydale in order to save him from Gabriel than they must have at least one ship capable of making the trip back to Earth.
"This ship is called the Neo Trinity to honor two former comrades who were responsible for making the relative peace we are currently living in possible." , Niobe said as she walked along with an apparent ultimate destination in mind as it did not seem as though she was picking doors at random, "This only one of seven ships currently in operation at the moment. Even with the peace we have with the machines it is still taking time to repair and rebuild everything lost in the war."
This little tidbit of information helped Xander get a better idea of things but it also raised some more questions that he hoped to get answers for eventually. Apparently he had not been recruited into a war zone but rather a tentative peace with some intelligent machines like the ones in the Terminator movies. That would certainly explain the insect like machine that had detached this body from the pod. However if he was just recently implanted into that new body and the war was over than why had he seen so many other bodies still hooked up in those pods that looked ready for use? If the war was over wouldn't it make more sense just to unplug the ones that were occupied and destroy the leftovers that were just empty shells. Perhaps they had found another use for them or something but it still was puzzling to him.
"Unfortunately not everyone on either side was happy with the peace that was achieved. Both sides were left with unresolved issues and grievances after the war and some simply do not know how to let go of their hate for the other side." , Niobe explained as they entered some sort of computer room with the machines arranged in a circular pattern around several used barbershop chairs, "This unfortunately have given rise of to factions on both sides that have been trying for almost twenty years to destroy the peace we have and restart the war. They won't be happy until their own side is the only one left standing!"
It was clear by Niobe's last statement that she cared about the peace that her people had with the machines and didn't want a few malcontents to ruin it for the rest of them. He could understand that because if he had been granted a peace after a long time of war he wouldn't want it to be taken away no matter how tense it was for everyone. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots and see that Gabriel and her goons were a part of the faction that had come from Niobe's side at the end of the war. The way they had looked at one another in the church made it clear that they hated one another in a way that a person could only look at someone they perceived to be a traitor. Add to that the acts done by either side over the years and he doubted that they could just get together and make up tomorrow. However that didn't answer his main question of why they were so interested in getting him to join their side. After all he had been on Earth the entire time they had been at war with the machines and had done nothing to warrant the attention of some psycho lady and her posse.
"What exactly does this have to do with me?" he asked while attempting to figure out the basic purpose of this room.
"That .. is something we're still trying to work out the details of at the moment. We know they had you under surveillance for a little over three weeks and that they were behind the man that attacked you in your apartment." , Niobe said as she worked the keyboard where all the others seemed to be hooked up to, "They obviously wanted you bad enough to put up the charade of luring you to the church but the why is still a mystery. Normally they don't bother with people they don't think they can use in their struggle and even when a person is useful they aren't usually so polite when asking the 'volunteers' to join."
"Well at least you managed to stop them before they could brainwash me into being one of their foot soldiers." , Xander said with gratitude as he craned his neck to see what she was working on, "So, any idea when I can go back home?"
That question made Niobe go both silent and rigid which was not an encouraging sign and made Xander distinctly nervous about what she would say when she did finally answer. After all this was a silence people usually reserved when asked about a particularly difficult and uncomfortable topic like when kids asked their parents about kissing and where babies come from. He knew he had experienced a few moments like those with Anya when she had asked questions about why it was improper to talk so openly about the topic of sex in front of others. He usually said just about anything to get her to make her shut up and then hoped that she would remember to mind what she said the next time she had the urge to talk like that in front of others. Not that it worked half the time and that was one of the reasons they had ultimately decided that their relationship wouldn't work. He just hoped he would have an easier time coaxing Niobe to tell him what he wanted to know than getting Anya to stop explaining their time in bed with excruciating detail.
"I'm afraid that its not quite as easy as it may sound Xander. If you want a full explanation then we're gonna have to change the scenery a little bit." , Niobe said as she walked around to one of the barber chairs and gestured to it, "Sit."
What does she think I am? Some kind of dog? He thought to himself with a little annoyance before doing as she asked.
The guy known as Doc got up from the other side of the room where he had been down in some kind of maintenance crawl space and moved to the main console that Niobe had been at a moment before. He pressed a few more buttons and a console that had been positioned above the chair he was now in lowered down to about chest high in front of Niobe.
"Everything set Bugs?" Niobe said with some humor in her voice.
"All set Xena." Doc Bugs said with equal humor as he called her by what Xander assumed was a friendly nickname like G-Man.
"Now Xander this is going to feel a little weird but please try and remain calm." Niobe said as she took something from behind the chair and looked to be about to attach it to the head rest of his chair.
Before he could ask her what it was they were going to be doing his mind was filled with a brief period of stabbing pain as if repeating what had happened when the plunger had been removed from the back of his head except in reverse. When it passed though and he opened his eyes to give Niobe a piece of his mind he found himself in an endless white wide open space that seemed to stretch out for miles in every direction with no end in sight. It was completely empty with nothing to show where he had come from to get here or how the heck he was going to get back to the Neo Trinity and kick Niobe's ass.
"This is the construct program. It is in here that we are provided with the tools we need in order to operate in the world you come from. Anything from weapons to clothes to tools can be provided here easily." came the voice of Niobe and when Xander turned towards the source he found her dressed in the clothes she had been in when she had rescued him.
"Wait! Program? You mean we're inside some kind of freaky virtual reality program!" he exclaimed as he looked about and took everything in to find that is looked and felt as though he were in the real world.
"Yes. Look at yourself. Your hair has come back, your in familiar clothes, the plugs and holes in your body are gone." , Niobe said as she gestured for him to look and see for himself, "You looks now are what we call residual self-image. It is a digital representation of how you see yourself in your world."
Doing as she implied he found that she spoke the truth. He had a full head of hair instead of the baldness that he had discovered through his sense of touch when he woke up on this new world. His clothes were no longer the rags he had been wearing moments ago aboard the Neo Trinity and indeed there was no sign that there had ever been a series of plugs and holes in his body. It totally blew him away how sophisticated this VR simulation was, how real it felt to all of his senses, and the fact that the technology for it existed in the first place. However amidst what she had just told him a nagging fact hit him square in the head as she mentioned for the second time since he woke up the term 'his world'. The way she said it wasn't the way a person would talk about someone else's world but rather about a world they themselves had once been a part of once upon a time. While the fact that she was human would certainly indicate she was originally from Earth the reference she had made started a domino effect of other odd things he hadn't really thought of up until then. Why would an alien race advanced enough to create space ships and VR simulators like this use computers and tech that was so obviously from Earth. It would be like recruiting a cave man to fight a Klingon and giving him a club from his own time to fight with. Naturally the cave man would get slaughtered due to inferior weapons and intellect. The more he thought of it the more he knew he needed to ask her one single question.
"What exactly do you mean when you say that? 'My world'?" Xander asked as he looked back up only to find two plush chairs and a seventies style TV set where previously there had been nothing.
Niobe sighed from her chair before turning to him and replying "I figured it wouldn't be long before you caught on to that. What I mean when I say your world is that contrary to whatever ideas you've probably cooked up so far we aren't in another dimension or another planet. We are still on Earth."
"Yeah right! I may not be the most knowledgeable person on the planet but even I know that not even the government has tech this advanced!" , Xander said incredulously as he waited for her to start laughing at her own joke, "Besides I doubt that any part of any armed forces would settle for a ship being in this kind of condition."
"If it was still the year you think it is then you'd probably right but I'm afraid that you are at least a century or two behind in the times." , Niobe said as she seemed to prepare herself for a difficult conversation, "You think the year is 1999 when in fact it is closer to the year 2199. We don't know exactly because the no one really knows and the machines haven't exactly been real loose with records pertaining to the past. The life you've been leading up until now has simply been a highly advanced version of this construct program."
"What! You mean it wasn't real!" Xander yelled in inquiry as he tried to wrap his head around the whole concept.
"Real? What is real? If for you real is what you can see, smell, taste, touch and hear then real is just a series of nerve impulses being sent to your brain at just the right time." , Niobe replied as she took a remote control that looked like it belonged to a different model TV set, "This is the world as you know it."
With that she pointed the remote to the TV and up popped an image of Sunnydale that randomly flickered from one location to another again and again.
"This is how the world looked at the end of the of the twentieth century. The absolute height of human civilization by most standards." , Niobe said casually yet carefully, "It exists now only as a part of a nuero-synaptic simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living in the equivalent of a dream world Xander. This, is how the world looks as it is today."
With the press of a button on the remote the image on the TV changed from one of civilization and advancement to one of destruction and desolation. It was his worst nightmare come to life right before his eyes, the fear he had always had ever since he and the gang had prevented their first apocalypse. It had always existed at the back of his mind what the world would look like if they should fail to keep the demons from succeeding in opening the Hellmouth. He had never dwelled on it long, never let the possibility of failure weigh him down, preferring to focus on the positive and make sure the others did as well. While his mind had been occupied with those thoughts the scenery had changed once again as he found himself standing in the scene that had just been depicted on the TV.
"Welcome to the Desert of the Real." , Niobe said with some gloom as well as some reverence for the sight, "You're probably wondering how it got so bad. The truth is we have only bits and pieces of how it all came about. What we do know though is that sometime at the beginning of the twenty-first century humanity as a whole marveled at the achievement of creating the first real artificial intelligence."
"It was a singular intelligence that spawned an entire race of beings based on its own unique design. We don't know who started the war between the human race and the machines but we do know it was us who darkened the sky." , Niobe said looking up at the stormy black clouds that rumbled with thunder, "At the time the machines were dependant on the sun to power themselves. It was thought that if the sun was removed for a time the machines would eventually shut down. Unfortunately the eggheads back then failed to take one possibility into account."
She clicked a button on the remote again and the image on the TV changed to one of pod similar to the one that he himself had woken up in.
"The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120 volt battery and more than twenty-five thousand btus of heat. Combined with a form of fusion they invented the machines found a source of power that would make sure they could live on indefinitely." , Niobe said as the scene on the TV continued to provide visual input to support her narration of events, "There are fields covering the surface of the Earth, endless fields where up until twenty years ago humans were not born but grown like a farmer's crop. I know it's hard to believe but I've been there myself and seen how the process works from beginning to end. Seeing the truth of it for yourself you can't help but also stumble upon another truth. What is the Matrix? Control. It is a way for them to keep us trapped within the confines of our own minds while they use our bodies to keep themselves going."
The tale Niobe had just told him hit him like a ton of bricks and if his brain had been a computer it would have been blinking 'input error' again and again. To discover that his entire life had been nothing more than a simulation pre-defined by some soulless machine to keep him from learning the truth about the world he was living in. He wanted more than anything to say 'screw you! This can't be true!' but for some reason he knew it was the truth in all its horrifying reality. He wasn't on some other planet in some other body. He was on Earth, in his own body and been used like a battery ever since the day he was born. Born. He wasn't born! He was spliced together by a machine and then stuck into a plastic baggy after he was hooked up to a series of cables to keep the robots going. It was a concept that no could be expected to be able to take in all at once and he himself needed some time to himself to think things through.
"Get me out of this place. Now!" Xander said quietly with no real emotion one way or another aside from a vehement insistence to be let out of the construct program.
Niobe seemed to hesitate for a moment although something told him it wasn't for the reason he thought it was which was his icy request to exit the construct program. Still she nodded in the end and ordered Doc to bring them back home. As soon as he was back aboard the Neo Trinity and they had pulled whatever it was that they had stuck into the back of his head he went off on his own without so much as a 'thanks for the info' and retraced his steps back to the room he had woken up in. His whole world had literally been put on its head and he was left to try to make sense of everything he had seen and everything he had been told.
You know things have taken a turn for the wierd when a person like me actually starts wishing for the old type of craziness of vampires and apocalypses. Xander thought to himself as he settled into his bunk and began to sift through everything in an effort to make it fit better inside of his head.
Broadcast Room, Five Minutes After Xander Has Left
"Well that went better than I thought it would." Niobe said in an almost detached manner as she tried to make sense of the nagging feeling at the back of her mind.
"Yeah. Most of the others his age who were freed almost always loose their lunch when they're told the truth." , Doc said as he shut down the network except for the Matrix surveillance systems, "Still the way he was so icy calm just now bothers me. I'd almost prefer it if he ranted and raved and made promises to kill us than this."
"It was almost like he …" Niobe began to say but as soon as the rest of her thoughts and her prevailing theory everything screeched to a halt.
"Almost like what?" Doc asked with some concerned at the look of disbelief and confusion on his Captain's face.
"Almost like he knew what I was going to say and was just waiting me to say it like I was reading from a script." Niobe said as she finally put to words what her mind was proposing as the truth.
"That's impossible. Even with the machines allowing us to free the minds of those we think are ready to be unplugged they haven't exactly been advertising within the Matrix that it is all a fantasy." Doc said making it clear that he thought the entire idea was ridiculous.
"I know. They only divulge the truth to someone when they can't come up with anything more convenient." , Niobe said knowing full well the reluctance of the machines to give up their sole power supply, "Add to that the fact that we have to be selective as to who we think is mentally prepared to leave the Matrix and the likelihood of someone telling him the truth before us is slim."
"Maybe Gabriel and her crew spilled the beans before you arrived." Doc said walking over to her.
"Maybe. They'd have a hard time convincing him of that from within the Matrix without alerting both us and the machines to where they were." , Niobe said in a voice that illustrated her belief that her first theory was the right one, "Besides I doubt anything that came out of Gabriel's mouth was anything even remotely close to the truth."
"Probably explains why most of her crew are men. She probably just whispers sweet nothings in their ears and the occasional tumble in the sack to keep them loyal." Doc said with an amused grin on his face.
"Yeah. They'd leave her in a second if she had to get by on charisma and skill like the rest of us." Niobe said equally amused at their belittling of the one true bottle blonde if there ever was one.
With that said they both headed to the main bridge to get underway and see if any rebel ships were in the area. Twenty years ago it would have been unheard of for one ship of Zion to attack another but today it was a given that not every hovercraft you came across was on your side. It was times like these that the former captain of the Logos and the current captain of the Neo Trinity almost did wish for the old days of man versus machine. At least then humanity was untied under a single banner of freeing their people from the oppression and exploitation of the machines. Unfortunately no sooner did one conflict end than another began and this one promised to be just as bloody as the war with the machines. She just couldn't understand how people could be so caught up in the past that they couldn't appreciate the good thing they had going right then and there in the present. It wasn't that she liked the machines or was getting all chummy with them or anything but she was just tired enough of war and death to give this peace a chance.
When they got to the cockpit they found Sparks and Ghost looking at the holo-display which was currently displaying a map of the network of tunnels they were in. Aside from a random squiddy they saw popping in and out there was no sign of any other traffic besides themselves which probably meant that Gabriel and her crew had been sent packing. She knew that the blonde's boss wouldn't be too pleased by this turn of events as she knew he wasn't one to be overly tolerant of mistakes or failure. He had been well known for busting a few balls when his orders weren't followed to the letter or when someone under him expressed some individuality at the wrong time. Niobe doubted that he would outright kill Gabriel but the woman would definitely be looking for some payback the next time they ran into each other.
"So boss how's the new kid?" Sparks asked as he switched the holo-display from a broad long range display to a more detail short range display.
"Surprisingly alright considering he just got the 'big talk'." Niobe said as she took the main pilot's seat after Ghost vacated it.
She had always felt more comfortable behind the controls of a hovercraft rather than fighting in out inside of the Matrix with yet another group of rebels. After the war came to an end it had been years before she had gotten behind the controls of a working hovercraft again and a full decade before she got a ship of her own again. When she had first gotten behind the wheel again she had been downright disgusted with how much she had slipped in terms of piloting skills. So every chance she got she would take the controls and try to get herself back up to where she had been with the Logos. She was almost there but now it wasn't the long time away from the controls that was affecting her piloting skills but rather the fact that she was getting on in years. She had been in her early thirties when the war had come to an end and now just a few years short of fifty-five her reflexes were not what they once were. It wouldn't be too long before she would be forced to hand the reigns of the ship over to someone else willingly or get thrown out when she made one mistake too many. She knew it was the truth but that didn't mean she had to like it or that she couldn't put it off for as long as possible before finally walking away from what had been her life for so long.
"So where to boss?" Sparks asked in his usual emotive manner.
"Back to Zion. As long as we're up here its only a matter of time before the rebels make another try for Xander. Back home at least we can make them work a little harder for him." Niobe said as she plotted a course back to the sole human colony in existence.
"Sounds good to me. Home sweet home!" Sparks said with a little too much enthusiasm.
"You just want to get back to your ladies." Doc said with a rueful smile as he ribbed the Neo Trinity's Operator.
"Hey can I help it if the ladies love a war hero?" he said smugly all too aware that there were no such ladies waiting for him in Zion.
"War hero? You never left the safety of the Logos the entire time and the one time you did have to fight you were screaming at us to fly faster." Ghost said ruefully as he remembered their tense flight down the utility shaft to Zion with a hundred sentinels chasing them.
"Just because I wasn't insane enough to go and stare death in the face like the rest of you doesn't make me any less a hero than the rest of you." Sparks said in defense of his past track record in battle.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Doc said slapping Sparks in the shoulder.
"If you guys are though joking around let's get this show on the road." Niobe said rolling her eyes at their male antics.
The sooner we get back to Zion the sooner I can get away from these lunatics. Niobe thought as she started the ship off on its journey home.
Five Hours Later, Xanders 'Quarters' Aboard the Neo Trinity
Some might think he would still be pondering the reality of the facts he had been introduced to five hours ago, trying to come to terms with the truth that had been handed to him. Unfortunately as quite a few prophecies and dusty old books had come to accept Xander rarely followed the patterns of any kind or did what was expect of him. So at the moment, instead of doing what others thought he'd be doing, he was instead trying to resolve the increasingly nagging case of déjà vu that had only gotten worse since 'The Talk' in the loading program. It had been steadily growing pretty much since he had woken up in that pod and had jumped up a few decibels since his time in the loading program. He tried to reason it out in his head, try to come up something to explain everything but more he tried the more it seemed to escape him. It was like trying to run to the end of a rainbow, no matter how certain you are where it touches down you can never get there no matter how hard you run. It was bugging him to no end but there was no way he was going to get any rest until he figured it out one way or another. There was a knock on the door which then opened to reveal Ghost who apparently wasn't intending to stay long from the way he was standing half in and half out of the room.
"We're about ten minutes out from Zion. Thought you might want to know." Ghost said before turning around and leaving a befuddled Xander sitting on his bunk looking at the space the Asian man had previously occupied.
Zion? Are these guys with the Children of Zion terrorist group? Xander thought to himself as he followed Ghost with a combination of curiousity and wariness.
From what she had told him this battle with the rebels had been going on for roughly the same length of time as the Children of Zion had been around. Add to that the creepy Feds who had paid him a visit and it was a distinct possibility. After all how better to get him over to their side than to 'rescue' him from a 'dangerous' group of rebels bent on restarting a war. Still he didn't exactly get the psycho terrorist vibe from them and they certainly didn't act evil like some undead minions he had come across in Sunnydale. Still it was an odd coincidence that these people lived in a place that had such an obvious connection to a terrorist group it was pathetic. In any case he didn't really have any evidence up until now to put them in the bad guy slot. He wouldn't be a fool and be completely trusting but at the same time he wouldn't let his suspicions cause him to act like a jerk around them. He would stay on the proverbial fence until such time as he had evidence enough so as to make his choice clear.
When he reached the bridge he found Niobe and some other guy behind the controls with Ghost taking up a familiar support position behind Niobe. He didn't know why but he had expected the bridge to look a little better than the rest of the ship but found it in the same 'held together with spit and duct tape' shape that he had seen everyone else. With the new room viewing out of the way he looked out the window opposite the door he had just come through and saw them slowly approaching a massive door that looked like it could take everything short of a nuke and remain standing. Guns were mounted on platforms on either side of the corridor of metal and junk that they were traveling down. The guns were currently trained on the Neo Trinity and he wondered just how long it would be before they were asked for some sort of security code or if they had technology enough to be able to scan and recognize individual ships.
His question was answered when Niobe flicked a switch at her side and said "This is Captain Niobe of the Neo Trinity requesting entry to the dock through the eastern passageway."
"Roger than Captain Niobe. Access will be granted upon confirmation of your access code." Came a female voice from the speakers in the bridge.
Niobe then typed in a six digit code into a keyboard beneath the screen in front of her which he presumed was the access code but she did a very good job at keeping anyone from seeing more than two of the six digits.
"Access code confirmed. Welcome back Captain Niobe. Morpheus is eager to hear your report." The female voice said as the massive doors ahead of them began to screech open making it clear that they were in massive need of lubricant of some kind but thankfully though the guns did stand down.
When the view of what lay beyond the heavy metal doors became clear Xander found himself finally satisfied with the sight before him as it matched what he had imagined in his mind of the last bastion of human kind. It was a spawling cityscape and while a large portion of it had been set aside to give the ships like the Neo Trinity to dock it was also clear that there were living quarters erected on the opposite end of the chamber.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Ghost almost giving him smile of comradery before saying "Xander, welcome to Zion."