SINGULARITY

THIRD SEQUENCE

She removed the plate of food, grabbed a spoon from a rack and took it with her to a couch, and began eating, all the while not looking once at Zaccaheus.

He swallowed before speaking to her, "I thought we were going to cook something togther tonight."

"TV on please," a large screen on a wall in front of her flickered on, "and I thought you'd be home earlier."

Zaccaheus got up off of the counter and began to move towards her, almost timidly.

"Iris its not even that late."

"Well, I'm hungry, I couldn't wait any longer. We'd be have been cooking for what; at least an hour? Its not worth it."

She continued to eat her risotto, appearing to be intently watching the TV.

Zaccaheus spoke, quietly, "You used to like it when we cooked together."

"Yeah well, that was when people actually needed to cook."

She ate for a little while longer and he just stood there watching her, unsure of what exactly he should say. She put her plate of food down next to her, and turned to look at him now as she spoke, "so what were we going to do exactly? Ask for the fucking nanobots to make the ingredients for us, and then cook the food ourselves? Do you know how pathetic it is everytime we do it? I feel embarassed just thinking about!"

She stood up, her voice now begining to rise, "its so pointless! Why waste our time making something, when we can have it made for us even better, in a manner of seconds? What is it, some petty little bonding thing we're meant to do together? You talk about how important it is we keep doing these little things together, keep living like this, keep forcing me to live like this, and then you can't even be bothered to make some effort to show up on time to do them!"

Zaccaheus pointed his finger agressively at her and shouted, "I told you, I was working!" This was a lie, and he knew it. He'd spent too long with Cavil; caught in the moment and lost in thought on that lake.

"I KNOW YOU WERE WORKING! What I don't get is why your are working in the first place! What is it exactly that you do, huh? They don't need you!" She emphasized this last word with some contempt. "No one really needs you anymore, except for me! You talk about how our love is what we live for, and that if we stop living like this we'll lose it, that we have to spend as much time together like this as possible. If you really, really care about us spending more time together, then just quit your stupid job!"

Even in her rage, she was beautiful. Zaccaheus took in a deep breath, speaking softly now, "please Iris, not again..."

"Not again? You talk like this is my fault... My fault  that we keep arguing like this. I'm not the one, who refuses to move on. Zac, we can't keep trying to live like this. No one will be left soon, and I don't want us to be the only people left in this city, on this planet. Its already a lonely place. We're holding onto nothing."

Zaccaheus shook his head as if in denial, "No, no we are holding onto something..."

"Zac there is nothing, left for us here."

"You don't get it, we'll lose it if we go, we'll lose everything!"

At the corner of one of her divine green eyes formed a single glistening tear.

"Iris, I'll lose you..."

Her voice was a mumour now, "Zac, why are you so afraid? There is nothing left to be afraid of."

He didn't say anything, just breathed heavily. He'd heard similar words earlier that day.

"Zac, it's the only way. We won't lose a thing, beacause we'll still be together."

He began to shake his head profusely, "No... No Iris, it won't be the same. Its not human... Iris you know I hate talking about this. Its not an option. I'll never do it."

There was a brief pause before she spoke, she was almost inaudible now, "We can find him. Together."

She approached him, cautiously, before opening up her arms and embracing him. He wrapped his own around her delicate frame, and held on tightly.

He tried to ignore her previous comment, "Iris... You know why I do these things... Please, I know you understand... I have to, I want keep it alive, this life."

She spoke again as if she hadn't heard him, her voice muffled as it was buried in his chest, "we can find him..."

"He doesn't exist anymore Iris..."

"We can find him, and we can live forever."

"If we live forever, then everything that we hold onto now will be lost to us, it'll be meaningless. I don't want to lose our love."

He ran his hand through her hair before letting go of her. He looked intently into her eyes, as she looked coyly at him, her eyelids now puffy. He always felt exhausted after they argued, no matter how brief.

"I'm tired."

"So am I."

Together they walked to the bedroom, the lights behind them flickering off automatically. They both layed down on the bed, neither bothering to go under the sheets.

"Zac, you won't be going into work tomorrow will you?"

For a while he didn't reply, "No I won't, but you know if something comes up I'm going to have..."

She didn't let him finish, "Some how I knew you'd say that."

She sighed, and rolled over to face him and hugged him tightly. They fell asleep in each others embrace. One dreamed of two souls travelling together among the near infinite stars, walking together on the surfaces of distant planets, and one dreamed of the past; of two people hand in hand lost together among the crowds of a bustling smog filled city.