I wrote this chapter while listening to music, I'm not including any lyrics, but Faith may use them. These songs seem to be stuff Faith would fight to and some of the song's lyrics fit the events taking place. Soil: Unreal, Disturbed: Bound, Curve: Chinese Burn.
Chapter 14
The Crack that Changed the Game
He watched as she landed on a table and broke it.
"Yeah, you're learning just not fast enough." She spoke as she ran toward him with her sword drawn. He blocked with his.
"Learning what?"
"How to use your emotions to enjoy the fight," she pulled away to slash at his leg. He blocked. "Hey, El, does this club come with any music?" She yelled out to the silence.
Neo tried to swipe at her, but she jumped onto a table. They continued to spar as a guitar and drums began to play. Neo joined her on the table. Faith needing more room flipped up onto the catwalk above. Neo jumped up and joined her. She was brutal always going for a vital area. He flipped backward letting her work a bit.
"So how big is the chip on your shoulder?" He asked as he blocked her from going for his neck.
She growled and blocked him again. She hopped to jump kick him, but he grabbed her foot and flipped her. She landed on her stomach and the sword fell to the floor below.
"Gotcha," he smirked.
She yanked his foot and he fell onto his back. "Ditto."
As he flipped himself to his feet, she rolled off the catwalk. He looked around and spotted her with her sword dancing to the music on a pole. He flipped over the railing and dropped to the floor below.
"You know I gotta give the girl credit she has excellent taste in music." She leaned her head back and mouthed the words. She began to head bang to the music. "Do you see, Neo? Do you see what's in front of you?"
He glared at her.
"Do you see your destiny? It's right here, fucking with your head."
"You talk too much."
"B does tend to rub off on people; you'll have to blame her for that."
"Can we just fight?" He asked raising his sword.
She pulled out her gun and smiled, her wicked smile, "sure."
As the bullets left the chamber he dodged, the bullet hit him in the leg with a SPLAT! He glanced down to see yellow ink splattered on his leg.
She squealed in delight. "I shot the rrrab-bit!" She spoke in an animated/cartoonish voice. He glanced up to see her aiming for him again. He sliced the table leg in front of him. The bullet hit the table as it fell in front of him. He leaned up to see her walking toward him. He slipped his sword away, pulled the gun out, and spun around on his back. Just as she got a few feet from him he kicked the table at her. It hit her and she found herself trapped under it. He jumped up and hurried toward her, but when he got there she wasn't under the table. POP! He turned as something stung his right shoulder. Faith was behind him standing on a table with her legs spread, reminding him of Lara Croft.
"Come on, Neo, you're wasting time." She smiled, he cringed. He hated how she kept twisting the lyrics to taunt him.
He ripped his gun out and squeezed one off on her. A red splat hit her upper thigh.
She laughed, "Trinity's gonna be mad at you."
He yelled and charged at her.
"Finally," she whispered as she pocketed her gun.
Neo struck her in the jaw, she spun and kicked him. He jump kicked her; she grabbed his leg and flipped him. He landed in a head stand and kicked her in the face. She growled and grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him into a pole. It bent with the force. He turned and ripped it from the floor as she came up behind him, he struck her in the ribs. The crack was loud as the music paused between songs.
She grunted.
Faith took the crack. She really wanted to strike, but she had to teach Neo. That was why she being so easy, she couldn't take the role of The One. It wasn't her destiny, it was his.
"Is that really how you want to play it?" A familiarly strange voice whispered to her. She knew there was no one else there, but she also knew what she heard.
Frost couldn't believe it; Neo actually got a good shot in. He wasn't sure how, but he heard the crack. It made him cringe.
"Frost, what's wrong?" Ra asked. Oz also wore a look of concern.
"Nothing." He was only able to hear like that when he was in the matrix, when he believed himself to be a true vampire. How could he now hear like this?
Her body was slightly bent over, but when she glared up at Neo; he could feel the warmth seep out of his body. That glare was murderous. He wanted to back away, but instead she grabbed his shoulder and pushed him. It was weak and he only fell to his butt. He looked up to see her breathing heavily in and out of her nose. She looked like a cat ready to strike. For the first time during the entire fight he actually began to fear for his life. He backed up and slowly began to stand, the second he was standing straight a fist struck his face. He felt the hit to his right eye, but he didn't know how to react to it. It hurt, but he was still too scared.
"Come on the game isn't over yet!" She screamed.
Sure the crack to her ribs hurt, but she wasn't going to let him off that easily. The music that thumped through the speakers now was the same song she danced to with Buffy on their wild night. The night had changed her life forever. With that memory burning in her mind, she stood straighter, and released the pain. She held up her fists, but kicked Neo in the side. He took the hit and didn't react again. "Come ON!"
He shook his head and watched her with wary eyes. This time when she tried to strike he blocked. She blocked him, back and forth. She threw him into a wall. He came back, tossed her onto a catwalk, and then joined her. She kicked and punched and knocked him off the catwalk. She flipped over it and followed him. He was waiting for her and shot her shoulder; she kicked him, and sent him sailing onto the stage. She flipped and leaped up. When she landed he kicked her off. She fell onto a table, as he came toward her she hit him with a chair. He took the hit, but it gave her enough time to run. As he came up behind her, she turned ran up the wall turned and kicked him. She landed as he jumped, grasped the catwalk, and kicked her. She fell and he landed on top of her. As she tried to kick him he sat on her. She tried to wrestle out from under him when she heard an audible click just above her left ear. She froze.
"Game Over," he whispered.
The music paused as the club faded away.
Neo opened his eyes to see El watching him with suspicious eyes.
"Back off, kid, he won. It's all five by five." He turned to see Faith sliding out of her chair. She looked over at him as he sat up. "Enjoy your destiny." She turned and started out of the room.
"Faith," she turned. "I'm sorry."
"No, it was always your destiny, not mine. You are the One, you were always The One. I'm the slayer." She smiled as though remembering something. "It's what I do."
He noticed her arm over her ribs. "Are you…"
"Five by five, a little internal bleeding is nothing compared to a bashed in skull." She left before he could ask more.
Faith ignored all those waiting for her, their pleading, comforting faces were not something she wanted to see at the moment. She burst through the crowd, swiftly ridding herself of El too, and ran as fast as she could away. She finally found herself in a small cave that must be used for supplies, since it was full of blankets. She grabbed one, went to the very back, and sat in the corner. She curled up and fell asleep with the blanket wrapped around her shoulder and her head leaning on a stack of pillows. Compared to prison this was heaven, in a room full of pillows and blankets. Only B knew if that's true though. As she drifted off she couldn't understand why now she missed B.
Black rimmed amber eyes melt away into code that then drips off a screen. As it hits the floor it becomes blood, as the blood begins to spread the surface changes to a slick red metal. It becomes the scythe. "Destiny," the first slayer whispers.
"Why didn't you kill him?" An ugly harsh voice interrupts all the current images become murky as the voice continues, "you are better you know it, take him, kill!"
"NO!" Faith yelled as she jumped up. It was a dream, but what was that, who? She heard a beating noise in the far distance. She stood straighter and stretched out with her senses. No it was a drum beat, probably for the party to celebrate Neo being the One. She left the blanket and headed toward the mess hall. As she passed the cavern where the party was she glanced inside. Axel and Rose were up on a platform beating on large metal drums. There were people everywhere; it looked like a big fleshy orgy to Faith.
"Faith?" She looked up to see Neo looking at her. "Dance with me?"
"Won't your wife kill me?"
"We aren't married."
"You should be." She spoke bitterly.
"One dance."
She sighed, "fine, but if Trinity hits me, I'll bite back."
He led her inside, past several dancers toward the middle. Back in the matrix she would have been all for it, but here she felt jaded. She didn't want to be center of attention. She glanced around to see several eyes on her, including Ra, Oz, and Trinity's. Neo placed his hand on her shoulder to pull her closer, but before he could pull her closer she got an instant flash.
"No," she pulled away and ran. She pushed her way through the surging bodies trying desperately to escape.
"Faith?" She heard Neo call after her.
She stopped once she was a whole cavern away. She saw something she didn't think she was supposed to. Neo was holding Trinity. Faith didn't want to mess with destiny; she just wanted to live her life. She was perfectly happy to leave Neo with his. Suddenly something moved behind Faith, she spun grasped something fleshy and threw it to the ground. She blinked to see that she was holding onto Trinity's neck. The woman coughed. Faith let go and backed away.
Trinity stood slowly as she watched Faith. "I just wanted…"
"To tell me to stay away from your husband."
"We're not…"
"As I told him, you should be, now will everyone just leave me alone." She said glancing up ward. "I get the idea, destiny, now leave me to mine." She cried out to the ceiling. With that she simply turned and walked away, leaving a stunned and confused Trinity behind.
El looked around the huge cavern; she only wanted to dance with one person. But said person was making googley eyes at someone else. She watched as Faith ditched Neo and fled to cavern. Maybe she could go comfort the slayer instead. She turned to leave when a hand brushed her shoulder. She turned to see Ra looking down at her. "What do you want?"
"Just go over and smack the jerk."
"What?"
"It might not get the right attention, but it will get his attention."
"Are you sure?"
"Do it." He urged.
She started back, turned and saw Ra smiling wicked at her. She walked right up to Frost who was standing amongst a few girls and a tired looking Oz. She looked up at him with anxiety, and then he noticed her.
He leaned over slightly, "hey, El, where have…"SLAP!
"Don't patronize me, I have feelings too, and I've been out longer, I know more." She spat as she turned and stalked out.
Frost froze, but then he caught Ra's eyes and smirk. He trudged over to the man. "Why?"
"Why did she hit you? Are you that blind?"
"No, why did you tell her to hit me?"
"Because she needs confidence and you needed the smack. She's been giving you the eyes ever since that first night in the club."
"How do you know about that night?"
"Oz."
"Right, of course."
"So the question is what are you going to do about it, because right now she's headed toward Faith for advice."
"How do you know these things?"
"It's my gift."
Frost rolled his eyes and trudged off.
"And my curse." Ra whispered to himself.
"Is it really a curse?" A whisper floated his way.
"Bug off, asshole. You aren't welcome here." He replied under his breath.
"I will be soon."
"Doubtfull."
"Believe what you want vampire."
Ra growled a very inhuman growl and walked back into the cavern to find a girl to dance with.
El found Faith in the mess hall alone sitting at a middle table with several dishes of different flavored goop spread around on the table. El took a cup and filled it with water and made her way over to Faith. She silently sat down across from her to see the slayer using her finger and goop as paint to draw something on the surface of the table.
"Is this a private moment or can I join in the fun of decorating the table?" El asked quietly.
Faith used her right elbow to push a bowl in El's direction.
El sat and placed her cup on the table.
"It is safe to speak," Faith told her after a few minutes had passed.
"Good, cause Trinity, looked like you smacked her, so I…"
"I slammed her into the ground, but for good reason."
"She snuck up on you and you don't like that."
Faith finally looked up and gave El a weak smile. "No, I don't."
"Neither do I, that's how I get into so much trouble. In the matrix I tend to attack normal citizens, but in my defense I'm saving myself the trouble, when he/she becomes an agent."
Faith's smile brightened. "Seeing how I have yet to meet one since being released it's understandable."
"Now that you know that they aren't human?"
"No, now that I know how much fun I can have with them."
El smiled. "So why aren't you at the party?"
"Why aren't you?"
"Frost."
"I was, but the fates don't want me to come between Trinity and Neo, plus it's not my thing, anymore." She added something to her drawing and then looked back up at El. "What happened?"
"I hit Frost."
"Go, girl."
"Ra suggested it, but when I actually did it, it felt good."
"What did he do?"
"I didn't give him a chance."
"Storming off is always of the good."
"That I thought he would try to hit back."
"Well, maybe he likes it rough."
"I hope so."
Morpheus watched the interactions between Faith and Neo and Trinity. He knew he had always been right about Neo, but Faith was a wild card. Sure Neo had won the challenge, but as he watched Faith slammed Trinity to the ground he wondered how much physical power Faith had. Most people had to stay in very good shape to be a strong as she seemed and she could not possibly be at that point after just being released. He left the party and followed her to the mess hall, but remained outside. He listened as she and her shipmate spoke. "…the fates don't want me to come between Trinity and Neo…"
What did that mean, fates? What had this girl been through? He knew a little of what the changelings believed. That there were almighty deities called The Powers That Be and that they thought that demons were real. They believed themselves to be generations into human/demon cross breeding due completely to the machines ignorance toward demons. Some bold ones like Ra and Fang were convinced that they were centuries old vampires, born 100 years before the machines were ever created. Morpheus thought it was all bull, there was no possible way. He glanced into the room to see El leaning over the table as Faith drew a symbol with goop.
"What is it?"
"A scythe, I had a vision about it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but it was interrupted by something dark."
"Dark, like evil?"
"Yeah, but I don't know what."
"Creepy."
He watched as Faith shivered, without looking up she spoke. "Morpheus, why don't you join us?"
He entered the room and stared at her expecting something, but she didn't look up. "How did you know I was there?" He asked.
"I could hear you breathing. If you want to sneak up on me, you have to learn to breathe quieter."
"Really and how would I do that?"
"Apply that discipline you use in the matrix to the real world."
"Excuse me?"
"Ya know that holier than thou stuff you're always spewing, take it in and apply it to your mentality. Open your mind to the possibility that you can be more."
Morpheus couldn't understand how she seemed so crude one minute and so intelligent the next. It was like she had two sides. He leaned in to see the axe shaped design she had drawn. "What is that?"
"A scythe, I had one in the matrix, but I think…" She trailed off.
"Faith?" El asked.
Morpheus watched as Faith looked directly at him her face was blank, but her eyes were pure white. She blinked and her eyes turned to black. "It is here, originally crafted for her alone." She spoke in a raspy unearthly voice. Her whole body shuttered as she blinked clearing her eyes.
"Faith?" El asked again.
"The first slayer, she knows."
"Knows what?"
"Where the scythe is."
Morpheus glared at her.