Chapter 20

Fight Beside Me

Morpheus was back at Zion helping fight the machines as they attacked.

"Anyone here from Faith?" He heard a changeling running by ask.

Ra who was beside his shook his head.

Morpheus saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eyes, he turned to see a woman engulfed in flames jump at a machine.

Suddenly he heard a single woman's scream followed by cheers. He looked up to see the Apollo's Chariot enter Zion, then he saw her as she leaped off the top of the ship and fly toward a squid. Tentacles rushes at her, but as they neared she pulled an axe from her back and sliced clear through the metal tentacles. Morpheus' jaw dropped. She landed on her feet as the severed tentacles fell around her. Morpheus looked up to see the top hatch open again. It was a man, an Outlander; he jumped off and landed on a hover board a few feet down. He soared at the fiery girl, as he got within a yard of her icicles sprouted from his body. He ripped one off his shoulder and threw it at a near by squid. It tore straight through the squid and out the other side.

"Now do you believe?" Ra yelled.

"How?"

"The slayer found her tool and guide after splitting from the one. Now he has to keep up his half."

"Splitting? Neo's her son, I don't…"

"No, her equal, her clone, her twin, you don't know how to listen do you? I kept trying to tell you. The powers created her and the machines created him from her DNA."

Morpheus reloaded the gun silently praying for Neo.

Faith felt it the very nano-second that Neo died. She heard his last breath echo in the mind and began to fall, Hannibal caught her before she hid the ground.

"It's over," He told her and she watched over his shoulder as the remaining squids slowly backed away and exited the way they came. "Now you really get to be the slayer, when does the portal open?"

She met his eyes stunned, "how?"

Still holding her he bent his knee so he was kneeling one leg and she sat on the other, "I'm your guide, I see you."

"But your test?"

"I knew your choice would be right, without the scythe you would be dead."

"You saw my death?"

"I've dreamt it every night til I met you."

"What do you dream about now?"

He smiled, "killing demons."

A truth was formed between the machines and humans. Faith was allowed to enter machine city to retrieve Neo's body.

As she held Neo's body, she yelled out, "I want you to know."

All the squids and machines near her froze and turned toward her.

"I am the slayer and I made a deal with the First Evil. The demons are returning. You may have a truth with us, but I alone cannot control them." She turned to leave. "Oh, the first one back is a dragon."

On that word there was a roar and the sound of wings beating the air.

"Faith, you're crazy I can't control a dragon alone!"

Faith handed Hannibal the end of the huge cable, "don't do anything to spook it."

"Faith?"

"Hannibal, the test wasn't just about me, it was having faith in yourself as well. The power, the strength you had as a vampire is still with you. Hold the cable tight and let go when I yell."

"O-okay." Hannibal waited alone when he heard a voice.

"You are braver than her." A female voice whispered in a thick British accent.

He thought it was the whisper and ignored it.

"Boy, look at me."

He turned and almost passed out when the dragon opened its mouth and spoke. "She was terrified, I'd eat her; you are not, why?"

"You can talk!"

"Well, yes, I may be old, but I am not brainless."

Hannibal's jaw was slowly falling down. "Uh-huh."

"Boy, do not worry; you are important I am not allowed to eat you. I just want to have fun with the robots."

"I want you to know!" They heard Faith yell.

"Well, that's my cue have fun with the slayer, boy."

"Hannibal."

"Pardon?"

"Name's Hannibal King," he spoke as he dropped the leash.

"Pleasure, I'm Morns Glory." The dragon spread her wings and jumped into the air. As she flew off Hannibal swore to himself.

Faith rejoined Hannibal five minutes later. "You don't appear bunt." She spoke as she laid the body on the ground. She pulled the blanket they had brought from Hannibal's hand.

"Morns Glory is an English dragon." He spoke still standing over her.

She was about to wrap the body in the blanket, "Han…"

"The dragon talks!" Hannibal cut her off loudly.

"I don't know which is stranger my life in the matrix or the real world."

"Were there dragons?"

She shook her head, trying not to smile. "No."

He bent down and helped her wrap up Neo's body.

She watched a Hannibal covered the face and she regretted punishing the boy. "Out here may just be more surreal." She spoke as she picked the body up again.

Deacon was trying hard to sleep in his bed back in Zion when he felt the bed dip. After his vampiric powers were returned to him he had avoided El. He feared hurting her. Upon arriving back in Zion he had locked her in a elevator shaft before joining the fight, but when he returned for her later she had broken out, the metal that been inhumanly bent. Faith had explained that El might be a slayer, which worried Frost more. He had killed slayers in the matrix. Faith had told him the story of Buffy and Angel, but Frost had met Angelus and refused to believe the tale. He remained still as El laid down on top of him. She lifted his upper lip and rubbed her index finger over his fangs. He was tempted to open his mouth and bite down, but before the thought could finish occurring he tasted blood. Her blood, what the hell was she doing! He was about to jump up and demand to know why.

"I know you're awake, so I'm giving you a taste, a choice. You taste that, that's me, my love. If you truly don't want it fine, I'll walk away." She rolled off of him and sat next to him. "But if what Faith says is true, that I'm a slayer now and you don't want me…" She stood. "I'm leaving Zion; I'm jumping on the first ship to the Scavengers."

He opened his eyes in time to catch her running out the door. He leaped up and ran after her, her blood dripping down his throat with a single droplet on his chin. He ignored the eyes of those he pushed out of the way. She was running down the catwalk, he could smell her tears. He berated his stupidity.

"El!" He yelled.

She turned, but as she did she bumped a large man violently and began to tip over the railing. Frost leaped over everyone on the catwalk and reached for her. He saw that the man was Fang, who smirked. He reached for El but she was already falling over the railing. He grabbed her arm, but her weight was too much and they both tumbled over the edge.

"FROST!" He heard Ra scream.

As they fell he pulled El to him, "I'm sorry, I love you."

Tears formed in her eyes as she kissed him, he felt so guilty. He turned them so that he was on the bottom.

"Deacon?" She asked as a tear left her eyes and hit his face.

Just before hitting the ground something plucked them out of the air. El looked up to see a woman with large bat wings and Apollo on his hover board.

"You alright," the woman asked in a thick Russian accent.

El nodded her head, her eyes met Frost's and she realized that he was ready to die for her. He not only cared for her, but he also loved her. They would be alright.

Ra watched as Apollo and the winged woman swooped in just in time. He turned and punched Fang. "I should stake you right now! Bastard, he's your sire."

Fang glared at him, "no, my sire was a vicious creature, that man is a shell."

"People change, Fang, let him go."

"Let him go? He doesn't even remember me."

"He doesn't remember anything, not even me."

Fang's eyes narrowed, "what are you talking about?"

Ra watched as Frost and El were placed on the ground and kissed. A vampire and a slayer kissing, it should be disgusting, but they fit together. With his eyes still on the pair he replied to Fang's searching eyes, "I sired Frost, he was 25, as he tried to summon LaMagra the machines burst in." Ra looked up at Fang, "you were both shoved into the matrix, you remembered, but it consumed him, partially due to the interruption of the ritual it wiped his mind. You have to let him go, he may never remember."

Frost glanced up and could make out two figures watching him. Something at the back of his mind told him that they were family, but he couldn't remember.

Morpheus took the body from Faith and laid it next to Trinity's.

"Don't worry, old man, he saved us so that Faith could protect us." Hannibal spoke.

There was a roar far off in the distance.

"I did my part in the prophesy, so what's next?" Morpheus sounded so lost.

Faith handed him a hand forged sword. She smiled, "we rebuild our lives and rebuild our world." She turned to Hannibal as they heard another roar and explosion. "The dragon was a girl?"

Oz started the ship as Kale sat down next to him. "So what next captain?"

"Recruitment"

"Isn't that what started all this in the first place?"

He smiled, "we will always need warriors."

"Course, same crew though, right?"

"Plus some."

"Well, you're still my captain, oh captain." She smiled, "O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting."

"Stop," Oz moaned, "the captain dies in that poem."

"Sorry, it's my favorite."

He glares at her as he turns the ship around and they head back to Zion.

"So you still haven't told me." She spoke.

He raised an eyebrow in response.

"What did the Oracle really tell you?"

"Love will come at the battles end, weathering fire, one, slayer, and demons return."

Kale laughed.

Poem: O Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman