Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Place: Our World, Chicago, USA

Time: 10:30 p.m.

Date: October 29, 2003

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined something like this happening to someone like me. My life has always been easygoing and not to mention boring at times—the lonely life of an artist and writer. Anyway, this is the story of my life, or at least it's one small part of it. Yeah, as if everyone wants to hear about it. I was in Chicago at the time. No earthly idea why I was even there, aside from I was taking a sort of vacation away from my work. It was night and I was strolling along the streets while enjoying the sights of the city lights and of the downtown stores. It was also pouring rain and the thunder was something to behold. Only an idiot would have gotten out on a night like that, but there I was—no umbrella, my tennis shoes soaked, and my long dark hair clinging to my face and clothes. But I didn't care. I was having too much fun just loafing and doing whatever I wanted. Most of the stores by that time were closed. Only a few, that stayed open that late, were open for business. However, I didn't feel the need to go into any of them.

I had walked for a good long while and had found myself in a remote part of one of the city's ritzy neighborhoods. The streets were lined with Victorian street lamps and most of the houses looked totally divine. Since I've always loved architecture—especially Victorian architecture—I decided to take it easy and try to enjoy the beautiful houses the best I could through the night's blackness. Before I realized it, I had come to a stop in front of one of the biggest houses in that part. It was a pretty house (from what I could make out in the darkness of the night), but at the same time I seemed to get a chill from looking at it, like something evil lived there. I stood and stared in its direction, hands in my coat pockets, and just admired it for a few minutes. Suddenly a light came on in one of the front rooms. People turn on lights in their houses all the time so I didn't think much of it at the time I was standing there, but later on I would soon wish I hadn't seen that light at all. The light stayed on a few minutes, and then I saw, through the thin window curtain which was drawn to, a shadowed figure of someone walking around in the same room. Then there was another, and then a third. I knew good and well it wasn't any of my business as to what those people were doing, but I for some reason couldn't bring myself around to leave just yet, and stood on watching in complete silence. From the actions of the outlined figures in the room, it looked like a deep and serious conversation was going on. The second and third figures were pointing at the first as if they were accusing him of something. Then, to my horror, I saw the first figure suddenly reach out and slap the second figure, which had been doing the pointing, in the face. The one he slapped cowered and disappeared for a few minutes into another part of the room that was away from the window. Then he slowly came back beside his friend, who all this time appeared to be arguing with the first. Before I knew it, their voices and yelling got so loud I could actually hear what was going on inside. I decided to crouch down behind some of the bushes lining the yard in case they saw me. I crawled to the very edge of them and peeked around the end one. I must have looked crazy lying on my stomach in the rain soaked grass, peeking around the edge of the bushes. I lay as still and silent as I could and listened. I couldn't make out everything each one said, but it was enough.

"You've failed me for the last time you disgraceful, vile, and loathsome creatures! I don't know what I was thinking when I saved you." I heard the first figure shout at the top of his lungs to the other two.

"This is the last time you will ever fail me! I'm going to teach you a lesson you won't soon forget!"

As I watched, the first figure picked up something and hit one of the others with it then he continued to hit both of them with it. I lay there, scared and not knowing what to do. The figure continued to beat the two figures mercilessly with whatever it was he had picked up. I could hear them scream in pain and their pleads to stop, but the first man didn't bother to listen. The light in the room suddenly went out—supposedly knocked out by the wild scuffle going on. Even in the darkness I could still here the beating and the screams. Sweat beaded on my face and a lump started forming in my throat. What should I do?

"Get up and out of my house," I heard an angry voice shout. "I said get up!"

The same voice that spoke suddenly turned into one speaking and spurting out French words.

"Levez-vous! Vite Vite! Allez-vous en, jumeaux argents! Allez-vous en!"

After that I heard several glass things break and more scuffling, then all went silent for several minutes. All I could hear was my own heavy breathing and the wild beating of my heart within my chest as I lay motionless on the wet ground. I swallowed several times to put moisture back into my dry throat. Suddenly a wild and loud snapping sound (much like a whip) caused me to almost jump out of my skin. Then I heard more screaming as if whoever it was in there was in total pain. My eyes grew wide at the thought of what was going on, and I backed up and away from the edge of the bush and tried to get hold of myself.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of that dreadful whipping sound, everything came to an end. Another light came on in another part of the house then the porch light came on and there was motion at the front door. I could see through the frosted glass two figures talking. One looked like a woman, the other a man. The man disappeared back into another part of the house for a few minutes then came back out while dragging something behind him. The woman bent down over the thing that the man had dragged out into the front hallway then it looked like she was trying to tell the man something while pointing to the front yard. Had I just witnessed a murder? I continued to lie as still as I could and watched to see what happened next. The man disappeared again, and again returned dragging yet another figure behind him. The woman turned and opened the front door wide and the man grabbed hold of both of the figures lying on the floor and tossed them out onto the front lawn one at a time.

"And I don't ever want to see your faces again! If I do, you'll get more of what I just gave you tonight, or worse! You aren't in the Matrix world anymore; you're in the real world now. You'll soon see that it's not as pleasant as the one you're used to. No one here will have anything to do with you. They'll see you as something abnormal. You'll probably remain in a lot of pain for awhile because I wouldn't count on anyone helping you any too soon." The man shouted to the two beings he had tossed out onto the lawn.

"What are we going to do about them? We can't leave them out there. Someone will see them and call the police. Then that will give us attention we don't need." said the woman.

"We'll deal with it early tomorrow morning; right now I want some sleep." I heard the man say just before the front door slammed closed and the porch light went out. I lay still for a minute then peeked around the bush again to see if the lights in the house were out completely. They were. The man and woman must have gone to bed. What happened next is something I still can't fully understand. I heard the moans of the two beings the man had tossed and I found myself getting up from the ground and slowly making my way through the darkness to where the moans were coming from. It was starting to rain again when I reached the sides of the two creatures lying on the ground. A cold October wind blew through the night, making the rain seem colder. With a shiver, I took out my flashlight I had placed in my pocket before leaving my hotel room and turned it on. I gasped at what I saw before me. There, lying on the cold and wet ground were the two Twins from the Matrix Reloaded movie. Or at least it used to be them. The poor guys, for some unknown reason, had been brutally beaten and whipped by the man inside the house. Their faces were wet with sweat, tears (from where they had been supposedly crying from the pain), and blood that slowly streamed from cuts and gashes in their cheeks and foreheads. With sunglasses half hanging from his face, one of them slowly turned his head to look at me then winced and covered his eyes with his hand as if the light from my flashlight hurt him. I quickly moved the light away and he placed his hand down, but winced again from the pain of his wounds.

"There, there, it's okay. Don't move. You're going to be fine." I heard myself whispering in a soothing voice as I quickly knelt beside the two. I put my hand on the one who had looked at me and gently rubbed his shoulder, to comfort him, and then I drew out a cloth from my other pocket and, with the help of the pouring rain, tried wiping some of the blood from his face. The twin jumped when I touched his face with the cloth and tried to get as far away from me as possible, but clumsily stumbled over his brother lying beside him.

"Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you," I calmly and quietly said, easing back a little to show the twin I didn't mean him any harm. "I-I just want to help."

The twin calmed down and let me continue wiping his face. After I had finished he closed his eyes and lay back on the grass and breathed heavily as if he were in pain. I had no idea of what to do. I flashed my light down his body and wanted to just burst out in anger. Some of his clothes were torn and blood seeped through in more than one place. It looked as though some wild, savage animal had got hold of him. It was sad to see two once powerful creatures lying beat up and totally helpless at my knees. I looked down at the left hand of the one I had wiped the face of and noticed it was Twin Two. I slowly stretched my hand out and softly and gently ran it down his silver dreadlocks, which by now were soaked with rain. Two again jumped at feeling my touch and opened his eyes and stared at me as if he didn't quite trust me. He very soon settled down and slowly closed his eyes again as I continued to stroke his dreadlocks in a comforting way. Twin Two lay still and ceased his hard breathing as if he enjoyed it.

As I sat there in the rain, stroking Twin Two's hair, I tried to think of what to do next. The Twins and I couldn't stay there all night. Soon it would be morning and whoever it was inside the house would be coming out to finish the Twins off. Not only that, but the Twins needed serious medical help, of which I couldn't give them. I looked down at Two. He laid perfectly still, eyes closed, and breathing normally as if he had fallen asleep from me gently stroking his hair. I didn't know for sure, though, if he was actually asleep or just resting from his past horrid ordeal. I took my hand away from his dreadlocks and slowly inched my way around to his brother and started wiping his face off as I had done to Two. In the middle of wiping off One's face I flashed my light back to Two to see how he was making out. Surprisingly Two's eyes were open. I quickly turned my light enough off him so it wouldn't harm him, as he acted like it did. He nervously glanced around, supposedly looking for me, and seeing that I wasn't there beside him started to get up.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm right here." I whispered as I placed my hand on his right shoulder. He stopped and eased back down. To my greatest surprise I saw a weak smile form on Two's lips the moment he set eyes on me again. After that he quietly watched me wipe off the remaining blood on his brother's face.

Chapter Text

I don't know how it happened since it all happened so fast and was a complete blur, but the next thing I knew I was nervously pacing back and forth in the middle of a hallway in the hospital. From what I can remember, it started to pour down rain just as I finished wiping the Twins' faces off. After that I somehow had managed to drag them over into the yard next-door and went to the person's house to ask if I could use their phone. The next thing I knew, I was here at the hospital. The Twins were in ICU, being checked over good. I, on the other hand, was waiting for a nurse or doctor to come out and tell me what the outcome was and how bad it was. I glanced at my watch, which said 1:00. It didn't even seem that late—early—but it was. I was tired—very tired—but at the same time I knew I couldn't sleep. My eyes felt puffy and I kept yawning every two minutes it seemed, but I couldn't sleep. I paced harder trying to keep myself awake. I took the towel that I had in my hand and ran it again over my wet, scraggly long hair, trying to dry it. After being out in the pouring rain, my hair now looked like a mop. At least my clothes were halfway dry. Suddenly I heard the hospital's elevator open behind me. Curious, I turned to see who would be coming up at this hour of the morning. I gasped before quickly ducking into a dark, unused room. I stood quietly while looking around the edge of the half-closed door. The man that had stepped off the elevator wore a black suit, dark sunglasses, and had the longest frown I'd ever seen on his face. It was Agent Smith! How could it be? I shook my head to make sure I wasn't asleep and dreaming, but I was indeed awake. Great Scott, what on earth was going on? First the Twins, now Smith! Had there been a jailbreak at the local theater or something? Or was I hallucinating from not having any sleep? I watched as Smith calmly walked over to the nurse's station. One of the nurses there came up to him and they started talking about something. I was too far away to hear what it was that they were talking about, but I'm sure it had something to do with me and the Twins. Before long, I saw a security guard come up to the conversation. He started talking as if he was asking Smith to leave. Shortly after, Smith walked back to the elevator, pushed the button, and got on when it came back up. I sighed with relief and walked back out into the hall where a nurse carrying a clipboard met me. She looked at the papers on the clipboard and told me that I could go in to see the Twins, but she warned me that they couldn't talk just yet.

I followed the nurse into the cold ICU room. Just being in there was enough to give me the chills. After walking a little ways, she soon stopped in front of two beds, each holding one of the Twins. They both lay motionless—eyes closed, and badly bruised and cut—and much worse looking than when I first saw them.

"They're badly beat up, but they'll pull through, surprisingly," whispered the nurse. "They have bad wounds on their backs, almost as if they were gashed with something sharp. Then there are also marks like a whip would make. Do you have any idea of who did this?"

I stood there for a moment just staring at the Twins, and then I raised my head to answer the nurse's question.

"I don't really know. All I saw was a shadow of someone. That's all." Was my reply before slowly walking over to the side of Twin Two's bed. I stood there for a minute then stretched my hand out to touch Two's hair. This time at touching his luscious silver dreadlocks, he didn't look up at me or jump. Instead he lay there on the hospital bed as if in a deep sleep. The nurses must have given them a heavy sedative to help them rest. I looked over at One, who looked about the same as his brother or maybe a little worse, and sighed to myself. I soon found a chair and set it on the floor in-between the Twins' beds and settled down in it as comfortably as I could, using the towel I had dried my hair with as a pillow. It still poured rain outside, making the night gloomier. It was eerie to hear it from the inside of a cold and dark hospital room. The ICU room was dark except for maybe one light here and there over one of the patients' beds, enough to see where you were going and the details of the room. The lights over the Twins' beds were out, though. The nurse had turned them out when she left me. The only noise heard was the soft beeping of IV machines and other medical equipment, and the occasional intercom outside in the hall. I shuddered at the thought of being in a hospital, then curled up in the chair and stared at the ceiling before drifting off into sleep.

I didn't know how long I had been asleep nor did I know what the time was. All I knew was that there was someone lurking about the Twins' beds and me. The room was still dark, like it had been when I drifted off to sleep. I lay there as still as I could without moving and tried to see who it was without them knowing I was awake. It could have been a nurse, but somehow I had the feeling it wasn't. I waited. The person soon came around in front of me, but wasn't interested in me being there. Whoever it was was leaning over Twin One's bed. It was a dark, tall figure from what I could make out before shutting my eyes again to make it appear I was still asleep. When I opened them again I was horrified to see the person's hand reach into his coat pocket and pull out a syringe. I had to do something fast. I suddenly and quickly jumped up from the chair and grabbed hold of the guy's arm and forced the syringe out of his hand by bending his arm around the back of him. He let out a slight cry of pain then dropped the needle.

"Don't make a sound and quietly follow me out into the hall. Move," I whispered into the man's ear as I pressed my face next to his and gave him a shove to get him going. We both struggled as I moved him toward the doors that would lead us out into the hall where the nurses could see us. Once through the double doors, I yelled down the hall for a nurse. One of them came running up to me.

"I found him snooping around in the ICU. No idea how he managed to get in there. He was about to do something to the twins that were just brought in." I grunted while trying to hold the man still. The nurse quickly ran off to call the security guards. While she was gone, the man finally managed to break free of my hold. I looked in horror when he turned to face me.

"Smith," I gasped with fainted breath.

"Yes. Smith," He frowned. I backed up, too afraid to run. I wanted to scream but nothing came out of my mouth. Smith walked up close to me, so close I could see my reflection in the lens of his dark sunglasses. He reached out his hands and placed them around my neck getting ready to squeeze the life out of me, but before he could do anything a couple of security guards came out of nowhere and jerked Smith away from me and held him tight. I disappeared back into the ICU and listened as the guards took Smith away. My hands automatically and shakily went up to my neck and rubbed the area that Smith's hands almost touched. After I got hold of myself again I quietly made my way to the Twins. My foot hit the syringe Smith had dropped—causing it to make a tinkling sound as it rolled across the tiled floor. I bent over, picked it up, and shoved it in the pocket of my jacket, which hung over the back of the chair. Before I could sit down, I heard a soft moan coming from my right. I looked over and saw that Twin Two was trying to move a little.

"Two? It's okay. You're going to be fine now." I softly whispered as I touched his shoulder. He stopped moving and looked at me. Once again a weak smile formed on his lips as he looked into my face. I was speechless at that moment, and the only thing I could do was smile back. For a minute there, Two continued to look me in the eyes. In a way it startled me, for I had no idea of what he was actually thinking. Did he see me as a means of comfort and protection since I saved his and his brother's life, or was there some other reason? Two suddenly turned away from me and nervously and curiously looked around the ICU room as if he wasn't quite sure he liked the place he was in. I turned away a little to grab hold of my chair and felt a slight tug on my arm. I flung my head back around at Two, who had grabbed onto the sleeve of my shirt—his face filled with fear. He never said a word, but I could tell he was afraid. What he was afraid of I couldn't say. He had just been through a terrible ordeal so he could have been afraid that the person who did this to him would come and hunt him down, or it could be that he was afraid of being in the hospital. Whatever his fear was, it was driving him to the point of almost crying. I softly placed my hand on his that still clutched my sleeve.

"It's okay. I'm not gonna leave. I'm just moving my chair closer to the bed. See?" I whispered in a soft voice as I took the chair with my other hand and moved it like I told him I was doing. Slowly his hand let go of my sleeve when he saw I wasn't going to leave him, and his head slowly fell back on his pillow again. After sitting down in my chair, I turned to Two and prepared to ask him some questions. I opened my mouth to speak but stopped. In what little light was coming from another part of the room, I could see Two looking at me in the saddest way possible, like a child who doesn't understand why it was punished would look at its mother. At first I didn't know whether to ask him questions or to just stay there beside him for awhile. Since I needed to know what was going on, I opened my mouth to speak again while Two was still awake.

"C-can you speak—uh—talk?" I nervously whispered. Two softly nodded his head and continued to look at me in a deep way.

"Can I ask you some questions? And do you feel up to answering them?"

Again Two nodded his head and continued to stare at me.

"Who did this to you and your brother?" I whispered.

"Th-the Merovingian," Two weakly got out. His voice was on the verge of cracking, but it still sounded soft and menacing.

"Why? Why did he do this to you?"

"Because," Two stopped for breath before he continued, "we failed him. He was enraged that we wouldn't go along with what he was planning to do. So he punished us and kicked us out." Two leaned back on his pillow and closed his eyes for a few minutes, and then he opened them again.

"What was he planning to do?"

"Take over your world." Two and I both stared at each other for a good minute before I continued.

"And you and One had a problem with that?"

"Yes."

"I thought—"

"You thought we were evil?" Two finished for me. "We may appear to be evil and we may be unwanted programs, but we still have a heart when we want to. This world is nice, much better than the Matrix world. We, my brother and I, couldn't bear to see an evil being like Merovingian get it in his grasp, especially when you humans wouldn't know what was going on. Seeing the danger in it, we refused to go along with Mero's plans, and in turn took the punishment for it too." Two winced at the thought of the punishment the Mero had given to him."

"Why didn't you and your brother phase out when he was—erm—punishing you? Why don't you phase now and heal yourself?"

"We can't."

I looked at him in a puzzling way.

"When we were brought here by… well, when we were brought here, our powers were taken away from us. We're, in short, helpless. Our powers were only meant to be used inside the Matrix world. Since we're in your world they won't work unless someone programs them to work. The Mero didn't want to program them to work, though." Two again turned to look around him. He seemed to be more alert now since he had been talking.

"You mean that you and your brother are human now?"

"No! Not human. We're still programs. It's just we're without power. Kind of, in a way, mortal,"

"Oh."

Two shivered a little as he looked past me and down the long rows of beds that lined the ICU room.

"Where am I?" he whispered.

"You're in a hospital."

"I've seen one before, but I've never been in one—at least not in this way," Two glanced around one more time. "I don't like it." Two started to move. Not knowing what he was planning, I jumped up from my chair and placed my hands on him.

"You can't get up, Two, you have to stay."

Two looked at me in a sullen way.

"You can't get up. You've been wounded by Merovingian and you must stay in the hospital until you heal, like it or not."

Two, in frustration, lay back down on his pillow and sighed heavily, crossing his arms in a pouting way over his chest.

"Now I feel sorry for you humans who have to heal—lying in a bed all the time instead of just phasing. How do you ever survive?"

I couldn't help but smile at Two then turned my head to hide a giggle. Suddenly another moan brought me back to my senses. It was One waking up. I turned to Two who looked at me in concern, and then I got up and walked over to One's bedside.

"Two?" I heard One weakly mumble before he went back to sleep. I sighed and sat back down in my chair and faced Two.

"Went back to sleep," I sighed to Two. "At least we know he's okay though."

Two nodded at my words. I glanced at my watch the best I could in the low light of the room. It was now around 7 o' clock. I sighed and leaned on the side of Two's bed and smiled at him. He smiled back. Maybe I had found a new friend after all. Two seemed rather attached to me for some reason, though I wasn't sure for what reason he was. Feeling rather tired, I laid my head on the side of the bed and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

What woke me was something I'd never forget. I was still trying to figure out what was happening as I sat there trying to blink awake. The light over the bed was on, and Twin Two was saying something to me. It was slowly coming to me. Two had patted my head or something to wake me up and now he was fighting like mad to wake me all the way up. I shook my head and looked across the bed to see a nurse, this one was a different nurse than the one before, holding Two down with one of her hands on his chest while holding something sharp in her other hand.

"Hey, what goes on here?" I suddenly asked aloud, trying to understand what in the world was happening.

"Will you tell him to please keep still before I end up hurting him." the nurse said to me as she once more pushed Two back down onto the bed.

"Keep her away from me!!" Two sniveled as he looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Whoa! Hold on," I raised my hands to calm the two down. "Suppose you both tell me one at a time what's going on here."

"I'm trying to give this," the nurse glanced at Two, "thing an injection, but he won't let me."

"She's trying to hurt me, and I can't phase to protect myself! She even turned on the lights and I don't have my sunglasses!!" Two angrily looked at the nurse, who, in turn, gave him the same look back. All I could do was shake my head in amazement as the nurse and twin argued and fought in front of me. After Two simmered down the nurse rolled up Two's shirtsleeve and moved her syringe close to his arm, but he jerked his arm away before the nurse could do anything. Frustrated, the nurse grabbed Two's wrist hard, trying to pin him down. What she got back was a firm smack in the face from Two's free hand.

"That hurts!" Two shouted at the shocked nurse as he rubbed his throbbing wrist.

"Hah! You just wait, freak, I'll show you what hurts in a minute!" The nurse put her hands on her hips and gave Two an evil look.

I sighed and rolled my eyes as I thought of what to do.

"Listen, Two, she's not going to hurt you. She's just going to…" My words trailed off as I looked at Two, then looked at the nurse, who were both staring at me in silence. Before I could say anything else, two male nurses came into the room.

"Sorry we're late. Did you call for us?" one of them asked.

"Yes, turn this naughty boy in the proper position needed so I can show him that bad behaved patients get punished." the nurse said as she glared at Two. Two stared at the nurse out of the corners of his eyes and swallowed hard.

The nurses knew what the other one was talking about and immediately walked over to Two's bed, pushing me out of the way. Two shut up and cowered as the two new nurses firmly but gently grabbed onto him. I was afraid of what Two would do to them, but surprisingly he let them touch him. The nurse, who had been fighting with Two, checked her syringe while the other two turned the squirming and scared twin in the position that she had wanted. At seeing what they were about to do, I slowly walked out into the hallway while feeling sorry for Two. It felt good to stretch after being shut up in that room all night. But even out in the hall I could hear poor Twin Two and the nurses. Good thing there weren't very many people in the ICU room during all of this. I slowly put my hand to my face to cover a smile when hearing Two's scream of pain that told me the nurse had succeeded in giving him the shot, finally.

A little later the nurses finally came out of the ICU room. The one who had been in there first came up to me. "You may go in now. I think he's learned his lesson."

"Why did you have to do that?" I asked angrily.

"Do what?"

"You know what," I firmly said. "If he didn't want you to give him an injection, you shouldn't have given it to him like you did. Don't you have any pity for two scared progra—uh—people who have just been through a tormenting time?"

The nurse looked at me like I was crazy then walked off.

"Apparently not," I sighed, walking toward the ICU doors. I went in to find Two (his bed sheet pulled up to his chest) in a rather sulky, pouting mood. He wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and softly rubbed the place where the nurse had given him the injection, which was an area that I'll—uh—leave unmentioned for the time being. One was awake and talking to Two. I stopped in a part of the room where I could hear their conversation and see them, but where they couldn't see me.

"You big baby," I heard One playfully say to his brother as he held his hand in front of his mouth to hide a laugh. "I told you not to act up."

"Why didn't you tell me that they give injections in that area?" Two sniveled.

"You didn't ask me. Besides, I thought you knew."

"I didn't know," Two pouted. "Where did the nurse give you your injection?"

One pointed at the upper part of his arm.

Two scowled.

"Well, she would have given it to you there too if you hadn't acting like you were being deleted. It's your own fault that she gave it to you where she did."

"Humph!" grunted Two.

"Such a baby," sighed One under his breath as he shook his head.

"I heard that, One. I'm NOT a baby!" Two angrily glanced at his twin.

"You act like one sometimes—a big assassin program like you fussing and crying over a measly little shot."

"Oh shut up!" Two snapped. "If that nurse stuck you where she did me, you'd cry too." Two began to blush a little.

I couldn't help but giggle at the two twins' conversation, just listening to them made me think of two kids. I wanted to hug poor Two, but I didn't dare for fear of what he might think or do. I started to walk over to them.

"If I had my razor I would have whacked off some of that nurse's hair and—" Two stopped at seeing me approach.

"Shame on you, Two!" I gasped at hearing his last sentence. Two lowered his head at the scolding I gave him.

"Why is everyone against me today?" Two sniffed.

"Naughty boy," One teased as he shook his head at Two. Two clinched his fists, growled, and crossed his arms over his chest and continued to pout.

"I see you're awake." I said as I approached One's bed, still trying to hide my laughter at the Twins' teasing of each other. He jumped a little at seeing me. Two glanced at me. I looked at him and smiled. With a tear stained pouting face, he looked down at the bed and quietly fingered the sheet.

"The nurse told me you learned your lesson." I said to Twin Two. Two looked up at me and nodded his silver dreadlocked head before another tear escaped his eye.

"Poor baby," I whispered to myself under my breath then I turned back to One who was still trying to figure me out.

"You probably don't remember me since you seemed to be in a state of shock the night I found you both. I'm the one who rescued you and Two after Merovingian tossed you out."

One continued to remain silent as he cut his eyes at me.

"It's okay, we can trust her. She's good." I heard Two say, from behind me, in a low pouting voice.

"Are you feeling ok?" I asked One quietly.

"Better than how Two's feeling right now." teased One before he started to snicker.

"Will you lay off?" said Two, starting to get up. I stopped him and eased him back down.

"You just wait, brother, I'll get you back." Two sniffed away a tear then turned over the other way and pulled the sheet tight around him.

"I think he's more embarrassed than anything." One smiled, looking down at his hands then back at me.

"Two told me why Merovingian did this to you both," I said in a lowered voice. "I'm sorry it had to happen."

One playfully ran his fingers over the sheet and looked at me again. "My eyes hurt," he quietly said. "Please turn the lights out."

"Sure," I replied, getting up and turning off the light over One's bed, then turning to do the same to the one over Two's bed. Two was lying huddled up under the sheet with his face buried in his pillow, softly crying. The poor guys were suffering from our world's torments. After flipping off the light, I gently ran my hand over Two's dreadlocks and rubbed his shoulder, like I would have done to a frightened child, then I turned back to One.

"Is that better?" I asked as I watched One rub his eyes with the backs of his hands.

"Yes, thank you," One took his hands away from his face and blinked his eyes a few times before turning to face me. "Where are my sunglasses?"

"I-I'm not sure. I wasn't with you when you were brought in here. I can ask the nurse where they are if you want."

"No, that's ok. Just keep the lights off and I'll be fine. Same with my brother,"

"Anything you say." I smiled.

I got up and walked over to Twin Two's bed again.

"Two," I whispered, "are you okay, buddy?"

Two slowly looked at me over his shoulder then turned over to where he'd be facing me. He lay there and stared into my eyes.

"I hate this place." he sniffed.

"I know, I know." I cooed.

"I'm an assassin, a rogue program—tough, menacing! I want to be free! I want to kill!"

I made a hush sound as I placed my hand on Two's dark lips to soothe and calm him down.

"Being in this dreadful place is so embarrassing," Several more tears rolled down Two's cheeks. "Not being able to phase at will makes it worse! And they took our sunglasses away and keep turning the lights on!" Two closed his eyes tight when a nurse across from us suddenly turned on a light over another patient's bed. By now I had come to realize that the Twins' eyes were sensitive to light, which explained why they wore their dark glasses all the time. Without them, they seemed to be in a great deal of pain whenever someone turned on a bright light. When the nurse turned the light off again, Two opened his eyes. Before I knew what I was doing, I had picked up a corner of the sheet and started to wipe the tears from his eyes and cheeks. He seemed to enjoy it. Evidently, under that assassin aggressiveness that the Twins had, they really liked and enjoyed being pampered, even if they didn't want to admit it sometimes. Perhaps I was seeing a side of them that no one else had seen before. Maybe the Twins didn't want to be all tough and mean but were forced to be that way by the Merovingian. Maybe deep down inside they were sweet, innocent creatures who only wanted to have fun and live a regular life like everyone else, but didn't know how to.

"What's your name?" Two finally and softly asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Call me Angel." I said quietly.

"Nice. Suits you well," He smiled. "No one's ever been this nice to us before."

I reached out and brushed one of Two's dreadlocks to one side of his face as he continued to smile.

"I'm tired." he said quietly.

"Must be what that nurse—" I stopped myself. "I mean… It's probably the medication."

I quickly searched for a topic to change the subject to. "Uh, by the way," I started while glancing over at One. "Do either of you know why Smith would be here?"

Both Twins looked at me.

"Smith?" they both said together.

"Smith is," One said.

"—here?" Two finished.

"Yes. He tried to kill you two then tried to kill me. If I hadn't have been here who knows what might have happened to you last night."

"Smith is," One began.

"—right now working for," said Two.

"—the Merovingian," One finished.

My head began to spin as I looked from side to side trying to follow the Twins' conversation, which they carried on by finishing each other's sentences and phrases.

"And that means?" I interrupted.

"We've got to find some way of stopping them both."

"How did he try to kill us?" One asked.

"He was about to inject you with this." I pulled out the syringe from my coat's pocket and held it up. In the darkness it was hard to tell what the liquid was inside of it.

"Let me see that." Two said as he reached for the syringe. I handed it to him.

"I know what this is. It's a vaccine." he said as he looked over the syringe and held it up in front of him.

"A vaccine," I repeated, sounding a little dumb.

"What do you do when your computer gets a virus?" One quizzed me.

"Easy. Just install an anti-virus program on it to…" It was beginning to hit me.

"Bingo!" One said. "The vaccine in that syringe is better known as an anti-virus program used to get rid of viruses and rogue programs such as ourselves. One dose of that in our code would probably be enough to nearly delete us, if not delete us. I've seen the Merovingian use it on programs that didn't quite live up to what he wanted."

"But how did Merovingian and Smith know we were here?" I asked.

"The Mero," Two began.

"—has security cameras around his house. He probably saw you rescue us then sent Smith out to finish us off before we could tell you everything about their plans." One finished.

"How do we stop them?" I glanced at both Twins.

"Give us a laptop." Two answered.

"Do you have one?" One asked.

"Yes, I have one. It's back in my room at the hotel I'm staying in."

"Get it and bring it to us." both Twins said in unison.

"We can use it to program our powers to work again."

"Then we can phase and heal and get out of this place!" Two gladly said with relief.

"Will you two be okay here while I'm gone?" I asked in concern.

"Don't worry," One started.

"—about us," Two finished.

"Just go! No telling what the Merovingian is planning at this moment."

Without another word, I grabbed my coat and told the Twins good bye and rushed out of the double doors and into the hall. After pushing the elevator button I waited for it to come up. Once it opened I was again horrified to see Smith standing in front of me.

"You," I gasped. "But I thought the guards took you away!"

Smith didn't say anything but instead gritted his teeth and started toward me. I forgot about the elevator and ran for the emergency stairs. Smith ran after me.

Chapter Text

I threw open the emergency stairs door and took off toward the flight of stairs leading down, not even bothering to look back to see if Smith was following. Although I didn't need to look back to know he was there. I heard as the door slammed yet again behind me, its slam echoing all through the stairs. I speeded up my running, skipping a few steps at a time as I went. I didn't dare stop, for I had a good head start. If I stopped to catch my breath, Smith was sure to catch me.

It was a long hard climb down, but I finally made it to the door leading outside. I pushed it open and ran out. I stopped for a few seconds to look around me to see where I actually was. Visiting a strange city you've never been in before is nice when you're sight seeing with a map, but if you're in a very big hurry it can be quite a problem. I soon figured out which way I was to go, and it wasn't too far from the hotel I was staying in. As I ran all the way, all I could think about was getting my laptop and getting back to the Twins before something happened.

I burst through the front door of the hotel and ran straight to the elevator, almost slamming the 'up' button into the wall. Finally the elevator came and soon let me off on my floor, and I ran all the way to the door of my room. Breathing hard from running and shaking like a leaf from fear of Smith following me, I shakily shoved my hand in my jeans pocket for the key card to my room. After finding it I had to try and keep my hand still as I slid the key card through the slot and waited for the light to turn green. Once inside, I slammed the door and ran into the bedroom to get my computer. After setting my computer out on my bed I decided to take a little time out to rest and put on some fresh clothes since the ones I wore were stiff with rain and the smell of hospital. Yick! The smell of hospital always made me shudder. I wrinkled my nose as I threw my shirt onto the bed and walked over to my suitcase for a clean one.

It wasn't long until I came out of the bedroom—fresh clothes on, my hair brushed, and my laptop safely tucked under my arm. Before I could touch the doorknob of the front door, it slowly started to turn on its own. I stopped and looked in wide-eyed wonder. Someone was coming in! But it was impossible; the door automatically locked on its own until someone entered a key card into it. Forget impossible, it was happening, and in a few more seconds someone was going to be in there with me. I quickly darted behind the sofa and ducked down. I heard the door open, the sound of footsteps, and then all went silent. I sat in a hunched position and clutched the laptop in my hands and dared not make a sound or a move. For awhile I think I even held my breath as I listened for any noise. After a long silence, I soon heard the clearing of a throat then the clicking of what sounded like a handgun. I shuddered and continued to remain silent and still. I didn't dare make a move, for any movement I made would surely make some kind of noise and whoever it was was listening for the least little sound to pinpoint my hiding spot. As I sat there I finally heard whoever it was walk into another room. Seeing that it was my only chance of escape, I jumped up and ran for all I was worth toward the front door that had been left open by the mysterious visitor.

"Hey, you, stop,"

I heard a very familiar voice shout from behind me. It was Smith's voice. Not even bothering to look back, I ran and caught the elevator just as it was closing and got on. I fumbled with the buttons then turned to look at the man who had stepped in before me. I smiled as I tried to act calm. Suddenly an array of flying bullets from Smith's pistol came ripping through the elevator door, making the man and me duck down and cover our heads in the elevator's small space. Soon as it had started, the bullets stopped. I slowly got up and looked around at the many smoking holes in the wall opposite from the door and the door itself. Smith was desperate, I could tell. I looked over at the guy beside me, whose eyes bugged out from his head like a bullfrog's. Huffing and gasping, he slowly and shakily got to his feet and stared at me. I tried acting as calm as I could so as not to frighten him, trying out some of my witty humor in the process.

"Guess I should have let him on with us. Must have had a bad day," I calmly stated. The guy only looked at me in silence. I leaned against the side of the elevator, clutching the laptop to my chest, and rode in silence for the rest of the flight down.

Back at the hospital, I met yet another problem. Agent Brown was standing outside the front doors, guarding the entrance that I would use to get back inside. Apparently Smith had placed him there to watch and see if I'd return. Goodness knows what orders he was to carry out. I stood and thought while glancing over the building. My eyes soon fixed on the hospital's parking garage. Yes! It had to have an entrance of some kind to get inside the building. I slowly crept to the garage, all the time keeping an eye on Brown who stood erect like a stone statue, not moving a muscle. One would think the guy had fallen asleep standing up. After climbing down the ramp and into the cold, near dark garage I scanned the area for a door leading into the hospital. It was directly in front of me. I ran, looking this way and that to make sure the place was clear of cars going in and out. My shoes hitting the stone pavement under me echoed throughout the garage, sending a cold chill through the place. I skidded to a stop in front of the only entrance into the hospital from the garage, and pulled open the heavy door and went inside—running to the nearest elevator. All was going too well and easy. In fact it was almost scary. As the elevator took me up, I sighed with relief when I thought of being with the Twins again. The outside had suddenly become too dangerous for my liking. At least Smith and his other agent buddies couldn't kill me inside the hospital. No concealed weapons were allowed. Of course Smith and Brown aren't exactly normal, and rules like that didn't mean beans to them. A slight, nervous laugh escaped my lips at that thought then the elevator doors opened. I got off and walked across the hall to the ICU and pushed open the double doors. Expecting to find the Twins asleep or in one of their childish teasing conversations, I stopped suddenly and looked around. The Twins! Where were the Twins? The two beds I came to know too well were empty and neatly made for another patient. I nervously looked around again before heading back through the double doors and down the hall to the nurse's station.

"May I help you?" the nurse asked as she approached me.

"Yes. I'm with the two twins that were brought to ICU last night. I went out for awhile to freshen up a bit and came back and they're gone. You have any idea where they are?"

The nurse pecked around on her computer for awhile then turned to me. "They've been taken to a regular room, miss. You'll find them on the second floor—room 201."

I quickly thanked the nurse as I ran off toward the elevator again, relieved that nothing bad had happened.

The room was dark except for the tiny bit of light that managed to seep through the blinds covering the window. The clicking of IV machines was the only noise to be heard. After quietly closing the door, I slowly made my way through the dark until I found the sides of the Twins' beds. I placed my laptop on the table that stood in-between the two beds then leaned over Two's bed. Not meaning to wake him, he jumped in fright at seeing me but eased when he saw who it was.

"Angel," he whispered in a shaky, weak voice. "I'm so glad you're back."

"What's wrong, Two?" I asked, rather concerned.

"Nothing," he sighed. "Only I feel as though I could throw up—if that's possible for a rogue program to do."

I smiled at Two as he closed his eyes and lay back down.

"Our hands hurt where they stuck these tubes to the top of our hands with needles," Two cringed as he looked down at his hand. "How in the Matrix do you humans ever get well in a place like this where all they seem to do to you is cause you more pain?"

All I knew to do was shrug my shoulders and smile at Two's question. I reached out and ran my hand through Two's dreadlocks and brushed some of the wild ones, which managed to dangle across his face, to one side.

"Don't worry, buddy, you'll be out of here soon," I whispered. "Is One awake?"

"Yeah, I think so."

I turned around to One and nudged his shoulder a little.

"One? You awake?"

"Angel? Is that you?" One turned his head toward me.

"Yeah it's me. I brought the laptop."

One struggled to sit up in his bed at the mentioning of the laptop. "Let us have it."

I handed it to One, who quickly opened it up and turned it on. He blinked a few minutes as the bright light of the monitor came on, but continued on. One for the longest time punched keys on the keyboard. I had no idea of what he was doing, but I watched on and waited anyway. I sat silently in the chair that set in-between the two beds, leaning my left arm on the side of Two's bed. Every-so-often, not having anything else to do, I turned to look at Two, who had a firm hold on the sleeve of my shirt as if it brought him comfort. Occasionally Two fingered the piece of sleeve he held and squeezed it. At times he pulled it rather tightly, almost cutting my arm, but I kept silent and smiled.

"Aha!" One finally said, breaking the long silence. "Two, get up."

"What?" Two weakly turned his head.

"I said get up."

One set the laptop on the table and threw his sheet off. His once beautiful silver pants were now totally wrinkled from being under the bed sheets. Spots of dried blood were still visible too, from where he had been cut and gashed. One's light grey shirt was also badly wrinkled. By this time, Two was sitting on the side of his bed, his silver pants and dark grey shirt were wrinkled as well. Knowing that the Twins knew what they were doing, I continued to watch in silence. After looking his brother over, One touched a button on the laptop, and before I could blink both of them disappeared—their IV tubes laying limp on the beds. I jumped up and looked around the small room then glanced at the screen of the laptop. It had the digital green code raining down all over it, reminding me of one of those Matrix screensavers that you download from the Internet. This one looked different, though, and somehow I knew it wasn't a screensaver.

Chapter Text

"Angel!" The English accented voice suddenly came at me from somewhere within the room. I jumped and looked around me and there, in the middle of the hospital room, was One and Two standing side by side.

"Open up the window and turn all the lights in here on." One said to me. I did as he wished, and after turning on the last light I turned to face two very different Twins. Their clothes were now complete without a wrinkle or bloodstain or tear on them, their sunglasses were back, and they looked totally healed and well like they were supposed to be.

"We feel like ourselves again!" They both said together, Two running his hands over his shiny silver trench coat and smiling.

"Angel, come at us and try to hit us." They both motioned for me to come at them.

"I don't want to hurt you." I replied—a little concerned.

"Don't worry, you won't hurt us. Just try and hit us. C'mon!"

I soon got up enough nerve to run at the two Twins with my fists out in front of me, but before I could hit one of them the one I aimed for disappeared into his translucent ghost form then reappeared after I had gone past. I swung my arm around at the other one, but he too disappeared and reappeared after my arm had gone through him. Before I knew it, I swung my hands and fists back and forth while hitting nothing but air as the Twins continued to quickly disappear and reappear around me. After awhile I started to think that they enjoyed our little game and wanted to play with me, especially Two who seemed to find it fun to change the place he stood each time he disappeared—and staying transparent for awhile until I found him. After I found him he would become visible and break out in laughter, and I have to admit that his laughter was contagious for I too started to laugh after several times of finding him. Once he crept up behind me and playfully and gently tackled me then disappeared before I could catch him. It was clear that the Twins and I were having the time of our lives. It was a wonder that one of the nurses didn't come in there to see what the ruckus was about. For a good while, the Twins continued to play their game with me, disappearing and reappearing here and there. It must have been part of their 'ghost instincts'. Ghosts are known to be playful and mischievous and the Twins certainly had that in them. The game of hide and seek mixed with tag finally came to an end when I started getting tired.

"Yes! We have our powers back!" both Twins said together as they high-fived each other.

"Now let's go kick some Merovingian code!" Two evilly smiled at his brother while rubbing his hands together in a revengeful way. One evilly grinned back at his twin.

"Not just yet. Let's finish testing our powers. Watch me go scare one of those nurses out in the hall." One nudged at Two before disappearing through the wall. A couple of seconds after, I heard a woman's scream down the hall. I just sighed and shook my head at the Twins' playful behavior. One suddenly reappeared through the wall and stood beside Two.

"Man, she almost got me with her clipboard! A little slower at phasing and I would have had it up the side of my face." One rubbed his cheek as he spoke.

"Excuse me," I started. "If you two would be so kind as to come back down to Earth, there are some questions I'd like to ask."

"Sure." both twins said at once.

"What did,"

"you have,"

"in mind?"

"First off, how did you manage to heal yourselves and get your coats, glasses, vests, and ties back?"

"I fixed our code back to the way it's supposed to be." One answered.

"Is this your code?" I asked as I pointed to the scrolling code on the laptop's monitor.

"Yes."

"Can you program weapons?"

"You mean these babies?" Two pulled out his pearl handled razor and flipped it open. Falling into his old habit, Two started to twirl his razor around. Not looking at where he twirled it, he slammed his hand into One.

"Ow! Hey, watch where you twirl that thing!" One angrily shoved Two's hand away from his stomach and glared at him through his dark glasses. One, then, ran his hand over the area of his white vest where Two's razor hit him. "Be careful with that, will you?" he scolded.

"Sorry." Two said just above a whisper as he shrunk back and slowly closed and tucked his razor back into his pocket.

"Sure, we can program weapons." One walked toward the computer.

I glanced at Two, who stood quietly with his head lowered, his hands behind his back. I wasn't about to say anything, but I really loved Two. He was so sweet and even though he acted tough, he also acted like a child at times, which made him sweeter. Ever since I rescued the Twins, I was for some reason drawn to Two and felt for him. I loved One too, but Two somehow managed to steal my heart more than his brother. It was hard to explain. I smiled and motioned for Two to come over next to me. He didn't hesitate to do so, and eagerly walked up beside me. Feeling sorry for him because of the way One had yelled at him, I slowly and carefully placed my arm around him and gave him a slight hug. He did the same to me.

"The reason I asked is because Smith tried to kill me when I went to the hotel to get my laptop," I continued my conversation. "And Agent Brown is outside the front entrance to this hospital right now guarding it. I had to use the parking garage entrance to get inside here."

"Okay, that is a problem," One breathed as he continued punching at the laptop's keyboard. "But one that's easily solved."

"But Smith moves too fast for weapons," said Two. "You've seen how he can dodge bullets."

"You're forgetting one thing," I said. Two looked at me. "We aren't in the Matrix."

"It could work then. It's worth a try anyway." Two said after a long thought.

"Really, at the moment, anything's worth a try, my dear brother." One added.

Suddenly a slight knock was heard at the door. One looked at Two and me then the two twins started darting about.

"Quick! Get into your bed, Two. The nurse must not know we're healed."

The Twins let me know when they were ready for me to open the door. A nurse stood on the other side as I opened the door wide enough for me to see who it was.

"I need to take the temperature of the patients in this room." she said.

"Uh… we're busy at the moment. Can you come back in a few minutes?" I nervously said. The nurse sighed a little.

"Ok, I'll be back in 20 minutes."

"Good!" I said, closing the door again. "We have 20 minutes, guys, before she comes back." I said to the Twins as they leaped out of their beds and resumed their position at the laptop.

"Angel, look out the window and tell me what you see." One pointed toward the window, not even taking his eyes off the computer monitor. I walked over and peeked out through the blinds. The room we were in was right over the hospital's main entrance and there was Brown walking around.

"Brown's walking around like he's waiting for someone." I turned to the Twins.

"Okay, keep your eyes on him." said One, quickly running his pale fingers over the buttons of the keyboard. I continued to watch the agent like One had told me to do. Suddenly Brown disappeared in a flash of green code and was gone.

"What happened?" I ran over to the Twins.

"I put him back in the Matrix." One snickered. Two began to laugh a little. "I hacked into his code and transported him back into the Matrix world." One turned a grinning face towards me.

Before we could do anything else, another knock was heard at the door. I rolled my eyes and glanced at my watch.

"It hasn't been 20 minutes yet! That nurse needs to learn to read a clock."

The Twins were about to get back in their beds.

"No, wait a minute and I'll go see who it is."

I walked over and opened the door. I gasped as Smith put his hand on the door and forced it open. I walked backwards and up against one of the walls as he came in and closed the door behind him. I wanted to warn the Twins, who were busy looking at the computer, but nothing came as Smith glared at me.

"Well, well, what have we here?" His deep voice cut the silence. The Twins spun around at hearing his voice. They walked closer together to hide the computer from Smith's view.

"Seems like you two have made a miraculous recovery," Smith said to the Twins as he stopped close to me. I gulped a little when he glanced at me.

"What's it to you?" Two nervously asked.

"Nothing, but the Merovingian will be pleased to hear. He wants you two to come back."

"What for? So he can finish what he started the night he beat us and kicked us out?" One coldly said as he reached behind him and closed the top of the computer.

"He didn't say. He just wanted me to find you and bring you back." Smith's frown was longer than ever. His deep and slow voice sent chills down my back. Seeing him on a TV screen was okay, but seeing him in person was a totally different experience.

"You can just go back to him,"

"and tell him we want no part,"

"of him anymore."

Both Twins glared at Smith from behind their sunglasses.

"I take it you aren't coming with me then." Smith said as he walked closer to me.

"We aren't." the Twins replied and nodded at once.

"I think you will." Smith forced an eerie and creepy smile as he slowly placed his arm around my shoulders. My heart skipped a beat at feeling his evil touch. Then I suddenly felt a sharp pain go through my left shoulder and turned my head to see Smith's powerful hand squeezing my shoulder. I gasped with pain as his fingers bore into me.

"I understand that this human here is pretty special to you." Smith looked up at the Twins, his fingers baring harder into my shoulder. My eyes started to water with tears and my teeth gritted together even more at the pain. It was all I could do to keep from screaming out in pain.

"Leave her alone!" I heard Two angrily shout at Smith. Through my tear filled eyes, I saw Two try to make his way to me, but Smith stopped him.

"Stay back or the human girl really gets it." Smith whipped out his pistol and pointed it at my face. I was too overcome by pain to really notice the gun at that time.

"You harm one hair on her head and I'll—" Two gritted his teeth.

"Or you'll what?" Smith sneered. "You aren't in the Matrix anymore. You're in the real world. You have no power here. The Merovingian didn't program your powers to work here, remember?"

The Twins looked at each other and smiled.

"That's what you think." they both said in unison. One quickly phased into the floor and reappeared behind Smith, holding his razor to Smith's neck.

"Get Angel out of here!" One shouted to Two as he struggled with Smith. Two ran to my side and helped me out of the room and out into the hall.

"You okay?" Two asked as he rubbed my shoulder.

"Yeah, I think so," I smiled. "You've got to get the computer." I weakly added as I continued to gasp for air. Two ran back into the room and came back out with the laptop tucked under his arm.

"Let's get out of here." Two grabbed my arm.

"What about One?"

"He'll be here soon, now let's go!"

Both Two and I ran down the hall and to the elevator. We nervously walked up and down the area as we waited for the elevator to get up to our floor.

"What is taking that thing so long? We're only on the second floor." I said, punching the 'up' button again. Finally the lift came and opened.

"Agent Johnson," I shouted to Two. Two ran and shoved the laptop in my arms and whipped out his razor. Both Two and Johnson faced each other in silence.

"Move away from the elevator, slowly." Two motioned with his razor for Johnson to move. Johnson held his hands in the air and slowly moved away from the elevator doors. Two walked into the elevator and motioned with his dreadlocked head for me to do the same. Punching the first floor button, Two continued to hold his razor in front of him until the doors shut completely.

"Duck down," I told Two. "The last time an agent was on the other side of an elevator door when I was in it, he started shooting through it."

Both Two and I scrunched down and covered our heads waiting for the bullets, but none came. Once outside the hospital, Two and I breathed.

"Feels good to finally be out of that place." said Two, looking around him.

"What about One?" I asked, worried.

"He'll be along."

At that moment, One appeared through the pavement beside me, nearly scaring the wits out of me.

"Sorry, Angel, I didn't mean to frighten you." One apologized as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

"What happened to Smith?" Two looked around for the agent.

"Well, we struggled for some time, then I phased when he became too strong for me to handle. I suppose he's still up in the hospital room." One looked up at the window above us; Two and I followed as we too looked up.

"So what's next in stopping the Merovingian?" I suddenly asked, changing the subject.

"First, we've got to find Neo." One took the laptop from my hands and opened it.

"Neo? He's here too?" My eyes bugged a little.

"Sure," Two grinned. "Only this time we'll be working with him."

"If he'll believe we've actually turned to his side," muttered One. "I overheard the Merovingian say once that Neo lives in one certain area of the city. Ah! Right here," One pointed to an area of a map he had somehow programmed into the computer.

"Great! Let's go." said Two.

Chapter Text

After several hours of continuous walking and riding buses, we all stopped on the outer edges of a small and quiet neighborhood. Slowly we started to walk down one of the sidewalks, stopping occasionally to look around at the many houses that lined both sides of us.

"It says on the map that this is the place." One glanced at the map on the computer's monitor.

"Which house is Neo's?" Two looked around at the line of houses opposite from us.

"Dunno." One mumbled.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you two and Neo and Smith get here anyway?" I asked as One continued to look at the computer. He looked at me then looked at Two standing beside him.

"Th-the Oracle brought us here," One barely got out while clearing his throat. "Sh-she brought us, the Merovingian, Smith, Neo, and all the rest into your world through—" One's words were cut off by a sharp nudge from Two's elbow, followed by a quick shake of his head.

"Well, she brought us here. That's all I can say for now." One buried his face into the computer to distract himself from more of my questions.

"That was only if we behaved ourselves." Two added.

"The Mero hasn't done that." One looked up.

"If the Oracle knew he was planning to take over this world she'd have a fit!" said Two.

"You can throw Smith in there too." One added.

"So that's why you two turned against Merovingian. You want to stay here don't you?" I said. The two Twins softly nodded their heads at the same time.

"What happens if one starts to misbehave?" I asked curiously.

"The Oracle will send him or her back into the—uh—the Matrix." Two nervously glanced at One as if he'd said the wrong thing. Somehow I had the feeling that I wasn't hearing all of the truth. No matter, though. It was clear that the Twins weren't going to tell me more than what they already had. I just had to wait and find out for myself.

"Let's try this house here." Two pointed to a small quaint house that was across from us.

"Don't be silly. We can't just knock on every house and ask if Neo lives there." said One.

"This does not seem like a neighborhood that Neo would live in. An apartment would seem more his style." said I.

"An apartment? Of course," One checked the laptop's map again. "Look! The way it has on here there's an apartment building down the street."

"Must be it then,"

It was a little while before we reached the apartment. It stood on the outer part of the neighborhood, but was still close enough to it to be considered part of it. Once inside, we tried to find out Neo's room number.

"Anderson? Sure he lives in room 101." The landlady said before she disappeared into another room.

"Figures," I breathed as the Twins and I walked up the flight of stairs.

We stood in front of the door that was labeled 101 and nervously looked at each other. I think the Twins were more nervous than I was, and they had a good reason to be. The Twins were bad and Neo was good in the Matrix world, now the Twins had to convince Neo that they wanted to come to his side. I didn't really know why I was nervous. Maybe it was because I was about to see Neo in person, or maybe it was from fear that the Twins might get hurt if Neo takes us coming there the wrong way. What was I saying? The Twins couldn't get hurt now, they had their powers back. One's soft knock on the door brought me back to the real world. We waited. Soon the door clicked and slowly opened. Neo stood on the other side. His black hair was mussed up and he was dressed in a black sweatshirt, pants, and shoes. He calmly looked us over then opened the door a little wider.

"What do you want?" he calmly asked in a soft, menacing sort of way.

"It-it's not what you think. We come in peace. Honest!" Two nervously said as he looked at One for support.

"We've come to make a deal with you." One nodded.

"What sort of deal?" Neo opened the door even wider.

"We want to join your side."

Neo looked puzzled.

"You see, Merovingian has broken the promise he made to the Oracle about behaving himself, if you know what I mean." One lowered his voice on the last part.

"What has he done?" Neo was getting interested.

"He wants to take control of this world." Two said.

"You two aren't helping him?"

"We don't want to. We want to stay here." Two glanced at me.

"The Mero has already kicked us out and just about killed us because of us turning against him. Thanks to Angel," One turned to me and smiled. "We've been given another chance at life."

"Not only that, but Smith is on to us too. He's tried to kill all three of us at different times." Two grabbed onto my arm.

"I think you'd better come inside." Neo opened the door all the way and motioned for us to come in.

It was a small apartment filled with computers, monitors, wires, and the insides and shells of what were once computers—amongst other scattered junk; the typical living place of a bachelor hacker.

"Would you care for some breakfast?" Neo kindly and shyly offered. "I don't have much, but you're welcome to have some with me."

Up until now I hadn't thought about eating because of everything that had happened, but since Neo brought up the subject I suddenly got very hungry and kindly accepted his offer. The Twins, on the other hand, politely refused, took a seat by the window, and waited until Neo came back from the kitchen. One gently laid the laptop on the table next to him and fiddled with the rings on his fingers. After walking around the small room, I found my place in a chair next to Two and took off my coat. Before long, Neo came back out of a small room to the left, which was considered a kitchen of sorts, while carrying two plates. He handed one to me then he sat down in a chair across from us.

"Coffee and milk are over there." He motioned to the table beside One's chair.

"So what do you say?" One got back to the only thing that appeared to be on his mind.

Neo calmly sat and thought while chewing some of the breakfast he had placed in his mouth.

"The Mero isn't as powerful in this world as he would be in the Matrix, so how does he think he's going to go about taking over?" Neo finally said.

"From what we understood, before we turned against him and he kicked us out, he was creating some kind of secret device that he would use to take control of the US then the rest of the world." One said.

"What sort of device?"

"Dunno. He wouldn't tell even us." Two breathed.

"Every time we tried to find out what it was, we were stopped by one of his other henchmen."

"Or by Persephone," Two added as he shuddered a little.

Neo went silent for a couple of minutes and thought. He spoke again. "What does Smith have to do with it all?"

"I suppose he's in on it." One said, waving his hand out in a gesture as he spoke.

"He seems to be working with Merovingian as one of his right-hand men or something." Two added.

"Don't forget about Johnson and Brown." I finally said.

"Yeah, they're here somewhere too." One sighed as if he was frustrated with the whole outbreak of agents.

"Or at least Johnson is. One sent Brown back into the Matrix." Two snickered in glee as he nudged One's arm.

Both Twins smiled at each other.

"You hacked into his code and sent him back into the Matrix?" Neo asked in awe.

"Yeah, it was the only thing I knew to do to remove him. He was standing outside the hospital entrance and we needed to get out."

"The hospital?" Neo was a little confused by the whole story.

"The other night, I was walking through town and came upon the Twins as they were being beaten and kicked out by the Merovingian,"

"And Persephone," Two angrily added, interrupting my sentence. "Er, sorry,"

"And I rescued them, called 911, and had them taken to the hospital to recover. Then I saved them from Smith who was about to inject them both with what we found out to be a vaccine for viruses and rogue programs." I finally finished then looked at Two.

"After that, Smith tried several times to kill Angel and also tried a couple more times to kill us." Two looked at One.

"Then Brown and Johnson showed up," One said.

"—resulting in us coming here," Two finished.

Neo looked at us for a long while as if trying to take everything in that he had just been told.

"And you come to me for help? Why? Why do you think I can help you?"

The Twins looked at each other then turned back to Neo.

"Because you're The One," they said in unison. I calmly watched and listened in silence.

Neo forced a small laugh as he ran his hand through his black hair and mussed it up more than it had been before. "All I can say is that I'll try to help you guys out. Not for our sakes, but for this world's sake and for the people that live here in this world." Neo nodded toward me as he spoke. Two excitedly placed his arm around my neck and smiled at me.

"So what's our next step?" One asked.

"First we've got to—"

A sharp rapping on the door suddenly cut off Neo's words and nearly scared me out of my seat. I looked over at the Twins who too were a bit startled by the sudden sound. It wasn't just a knock, but was a violent, angry pounding that nearly shook the pitiful wooden door off its hinges. The Twins, Neo, and I shot up from our chairs and exchanged quick glances at each other.

"It's bound to be Smith!" Two shouted over the pounding.

"What do we do?" I nervously glanced at everyone.

"We let him in." Neo calmly and nervously said as he walked toward the door.

Both One and Two reached for their razors and held them, closed but ready, in their hands as they sat back down in their chairs. I calmly sat back down too as I watched Neo open the door.

Chapter Text

Smith burst through the door, knocking Neo back into some junk that was piled on a small table behind the door. The Twins jumped up from their chairs and flipped their razors open as they charged toward Smith in an aggressive killing way. I jumped up and stood behind my chair for protection and watched as both One and Two pounced on Smith like a pack of hounds, an array of silver coats and dreadlocks flying. One by one Smith threw the Twins off him—One landing out in the hallway behind Smith and Two forward and crashing into the chair I was standing behind. The Twins phased and appeared again in front of Smith, but all went calm. Neo was standing, watching the whole show from behind the computer desk and slowly walked out into the open when he saw that Smith was going to remain calm. The Twins stood in a defensive pose, both of them breathing hard from the struggle, and razors pointed toward Smith. Smith gazed at us all through his dark glasses and started to walk forward, but was stopped by the threatening jab of Two's razor.

"Stop pretending, you fools. You can't hurt me and you know it." Smith coolly said in his trademark deep, slow voice.

"We can always try." One sneered.

"Wait a minute. I think Smith might be of some use to us," said Two. "Working for the Mero now, he must know how he's planning on taking over the world."

One evilly grinned as he turned his gaze from Two to Smith.

"I won't tell." Smith snapped.

"We think you will," both Twins slyly said together. "We have something that belongs to you."

"Angel, bring me that vaccine." Two motioned towards me with his hand. I grabbed my coat, pulled out the syringe from its pocket, walked over to Two, and placed it in his hand before walking back and next to Neo.

"What are you going to do?" Smith asked as One started walking toward him.

"We're going to torture the information that we need out of you." One grabbed onto Smith and shoved him over to the table Neo had been knocked into earlier and placed him across it, stomach upwards. Two took the cap off the needle and held the syringe a few inches from Smith's neck, ready to jab it into him if he moved or refused to answer. Smith lay motionless as One held him tight to the table.

"Now talk!" One said through gritted teeth as he jerked Smith harder down. Neo and I came closer. Smith refused to speak.

"I said talk! Tell us what the Merovingian has planned."

"If you don't, this vaccine goes into your code." Two inched the needle closer to Smith's neck, careful not to touch his skin but close enough to scare. For the first time of being a fan of the Matrix, I actually saw Smith start to sweat with fear. He swallowed and breathed hard as he eyed Two's hand from under his sunglasses. All was silent (except for Smith's hard breathing) as we waited for Smith to start talking.

"Blast you, start talking! We don't have all day!" One shouted in Smith's face.

"Alright! I'll talk," Smith growled. One eased his grip on Smith and Two eased back with the syringe. "The Merovingian is creating a program that looks like the President of the United States. Once it's complete the real President will be kidnapped by me, the program will take his place, and Merovingian will control the program to do and fulfill his wishes. It will be loyal to the Mero and to no one else. If it's a success then he'll create other programs that look like leaders from around the world and replace each one with his program twin."

One slowly looked at Two and both Twins looked over at me and Neo. We all stood in silence after Smith had finished.

"We've got to stop the Mero." Neo finally said.

"You never will! Not as long as I'm here." Smith broke loose of One's grasp and pulled out his gun, kicking poor Two in the stomach as he did so. Two phased and reappeared beside me.

"Back up, all of you," Smith aimed his gun at us and motioned us against one of the walls of the apartment. "After the Mero's plans are done, he will create more programs like myself to populate this crummy world."

"Aren't you forgetting one little detail, Smith?" Neo smiled. "We aren't in the Matrix. The Merovingian can't possibly create programs to work properly here."

"Oh, he has his ways of going around that little problem."

"What about your promise to the Oracle? You're forgetting that she's the one who brought us all here in the first place, and she can take us out if one of us starts acting up."

Smith looked long and hard at Neo then forced that creepy smile again. I watched as One slowly picked up the laptop while Neo continued to keep Smith's attention.

"That is true. I had forgotten about that." Smith lowered his gun a little.

One tapped out something on the laptop.

"But why should I care? I hate you humans so why would I care if I stayed here?" Smith's gun flew up at Neo again.

"Hey, Smith," said One, "I think you need a program change!"

Smith's head and gaze went to One.

"Don't you dare touch that computer…"

Before Smith had a chance to do anything, One punched a key on the laptop's keyboard, causing Smith's program to wobble and phase a little. Then Smith stood in the middle of the room as if he didn't know where he was. It was at this moment that I felt a little weird, as if something had changed. I wasn't sure if it was good or bad, but I knew something had happened. Suddenly I saw a ripple go through a wall of the room. Something was horribly wrong!

"One, what did you do?" I asked as I looked around the room.

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno, but something happened when you did whatever you did to Smith's code."

One looked around too.

"Uh oh,"

Neo placed his hand on one of the chairs and the whole chair started to ripple like water. He quickly took it away and stared at it. Smith dropped his gun and quietly stood where he was.

"Smith's program was booby trapped." One grumbled as he looked at the computer's monitor.

"What did it do?" Neo grabbed hold of the laptop.

"It turned this world into a sort of…"

"Matrix," Neo finished One's sentence.

"Can it be reversed?" I nervously asked.

"Yes, but Smith will be evil again."

We all turned our eyes on Smith.

"I'll help you defeat the Merovingian." he calmly said.

"We have no choice now. We must take Smith and defeat the Merovingian," Neo sighed. "So we can turn Smith back to normal and take the Matrix away from this world."

"You're telling me that we can do things like you do in the Matrix now?" I asked, on the verge of either panic or excitement, whichever would come first.

"Yes." Two said as he sunk through the floor and came up beside One.

"Two, One—whoever's got the computer—program us some weapons." Neo pointed to One.

"I'm One, he's Two."

"Whatever."

"What kind of weapons do you want?"

"Guns," Neo turned to me and smiled. "As many guns as you can program."

"Right," One started punching keys on the keyboard.

"Cool!" Two smiled as he watched his brother program the weapons.

"We're going to need more help too." Neo walked over to a phone setting on the computer table and started dialing a number.

"Trinity? Hey, it's Neo. Don't talk. Listen, I need you and Morpheus's help. You might want to bring Ghost and Niobe along too. The more people the better."

Neo turned to look at Smith.

"I'll explain later, Trinity, just gather everyone up and meet me outside my apartment. If you want a quick explanation try running up one of the walls inside your house." Neo slammed the phone receiver down and turned to the Twins. "You guys ready?"

One punched a button and immediately we were all transported into a solid white room without walls or floor or a ceiling and with shelves upon shelves full of guns of every kind imaginable. Neo's clothes had changed too. He was now wearing his black trench coat and boots.

"Pick up what you can carry and what you'll need." Neo said as he reached for several guns.

The Twins eagerly snatched up a couple of matching machine guns. Two looked down the length of his and smiled with satisfaction. One picked up a clip and snapped it into his gun and cocked it. Spinning around he started firing it at one of the shelves nearby, causing us all to dive for cover. After he was finished with his rage fit, we all started to get up, Neo jumping up and grabbing the gun out of One's hands.

"Man, are you insane??" he shouted at One. Several bullet shells fell out of the clip and made a tinkling sound on the invisible white floor under us. Neo glanced at the gun then back at the stunned One.

"Just trying it out," One shrugged.

After giving One another weird look, Neo slowly handed the gun back to the twin. While walking back to Smith and me, Neo threw a stern look at Two, who innocently smiled in return. Two looked at the gun he held then quickly hid it behind his back. Neo shook his head and sighed.

"Are you sure we can trust those two?" Neo whispered in my ear as he again took guns off the shelf and fastened them onto his belt and to the inside of his coat.

"I thought so until just a second ago." I looked over at the two twins. It was at this time that I wasn't sure who to trust. I turned to my left to look at Smith standing beside me, taking guns off and looking them over. I turned back to the twins and sighed. Were my beloved twins changing somehow? I watched as Two picked up a handgun and twirled it on his finger, like a cowboy, then stopped it. I smiled.

The clicking sound of a machine gun was heard in the coldness and quietness of the white room as Two looked over the huge gun he had picked up first.

The Twins couldn't possibly change, or could they? I slowly looked at Neo.

Chapter Text

After choosing our weapons, the Twins, Smith, Neo, and I were soon outside meeting Niobe, Morpheus, Ghost, and Trinity. The silver car holding our newest allies drove up and stopped beside the sidewalk. After setting eyes on the Twins, Trinity turned to get back into the car she had come out of, but Morpheus quietly persuaded her to get back out. I turned to look at the Twins as Trinity walked up to us. One was eyeing her as she walked past him. I couldn't see One's eyes for his glasses, but by the way his cheek moved I could tell that he gave Trinity a wink, which was followed immediately by a flirting kiss. Trinity's nose wrinkled in a cringing way as she tried to ignore him in the friendliest way possible.

"Neo, what's happened? And why are they here with us?" Trinity gestured toward the Twins.

One and Two shifted the machine guns they held hidden under their coats.

As Neo told the whole whacked out story to the new members of our little group, I walked over to the Twins. Two smiled at me as I stopped beside him. We held our gaze for a few seconds before I spoke.

"So, are you guys ready to go after Mero?"

"Yes we are." Two grinned, showing perfect white and straight teeth.

I looked up at the sky and noticed that it had a green tint to it. The Matrix certainly did have the real world. I shuddered at the thought of actually being inside a Matrix program.

"What's wrong?" Two asked as he noticed my shudder.

"It's just," I hesitated, "knowing that we're inside a Matrix program now. It scares me a little."

Two glanced at One then back at me.

"I know it doesn't bother you two because you live in it, but it does bother me—bothers me a lot." I placed my arms around myself to block out the chill of the October air.

"Don't worry, Angel, we'll get your world back to normal soon," Two placed his arm around my shoulders. "We promise."

Two drew me closer to him in a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his slick silver coat and closed my eyes. For the first time since everything had happened I felt safe. I opened my eyes and looked over at One. He stood silently and shifted his feet while looking around him, and then he turned to look at Two then at me. Could he have been jealous? As much as I hated to, I pushed my way out of Two's arms and walked over to One.

"Want a hug too?" I asked, smiling.

One stopped and looked at me while blushing.

"Uh, no that's okay." One cleared his throat and walked away from Two and me. I turned to Two and playfully punched his arm. He took his hand and ruffled my hair and before we both knew it, we were playfully punching each other and laughing. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see One. He had stopped a little ways away from us and was looking over his shoulder at us as if he longed to be playing with Two and me, but was too proud of what he was.

"Hey you three, we've got to go back in." I heard Neo shout.

After another trip into the weapons room, everyone was ready. Each of us wore a trench coat to hide the weapons we were carrying so as not to attract unwanted attention from the normal people around us. On top of that, we all wore sunglasses now. It felt so cool to be hanging out in Matrix clothes and hanging out with the characters themselves, even though I still didn't understand how they got into our world.

On the way back down the stairs, Neo's landlady met us.

"What's going on, Anderson?" she asked, adjusting her thick-rimmed glasses to focus us.

"Nothing," Neo cleared his throat. "Just having some company over, that's all. We're all going out for awhile." Neo threw a glance at the rest of us as he spoke.

"That's nice," The elderly lady smiled. When all looked good and we were about to go out the front door, she stopped us again. "Oh, by the way, Anderson, what was all that noise I heard awhile ago? It sounded like it was coming from your room."

"Uh, it was nothing. I just knocked over some stuff when I tripped and fell." Neo rubbed his head when he thought about the fall he took after being knocked over by Smith's rage.

"I thought she was going to go with us there for a second." Trinity breathed once we were outside.

"We're going to need another car." Neo turned to One who was already in the middle of typing out something on the laptop. Before our eyes, a green blob of code formed and from that it took the shape of a car before finally turning into one. It was a black mini van.

"Is that the best you can do?" Neo looked the van over. One shrugged.

"What more do you want? There's nothing else that'll hold all of us." One closed the computer.

"Except a boat," Two smirked.

"It'll have to do. We're running out of time." said Morpheus. All eyes turned to him. He pointed down the road where several black evil looking cars were quickly coming our way.

"Who are they?" Niobe asked as she adjusted her sunglasses.

"Don't know but I suggest we don't wait here and find out," Morpheus ran to the van and opened the side door. "Get in everyone. I'll go alone in the other car and try to throw them off so the rest of you can get to the Merovingian."

Everyone quickly piled into the small black van, Trinity, Niobe, and myself in the back seat. Neo, Ghost, and Smith found their places in the middle seats, and the Twins in the passenger and driver's seats.

"Someone take this thing." One shouted as he handed the laptop to whoever would take it behind him. Neo grabbed it to keep Smith from snatching it. The sound of bullets tore the air around us. It was the black cars. We watched as Morpheus revved up his car and sped off while taking a good amount of the black cars, in pursuit, with him.

"Good. It is going as planned." Ghost whispered. One started the van, pulled out, and started driving in the opposite direction from where Morpheus went with the enemy.

Not long after, though, we were met with some new friends.

"Where did they come from?" Niobe shouted over the chaos of One's driving as she stared out the window at the black cars following us.

"No idea!" One shouted back as he spun the van around and down a small street, hoping to lose the cars.

"Can you tell who's driving them?" Trinity asked anyone who'd answer.

"They look like Smith." Neo shouted back. All the while, Smith remained silent. Trinity, Niobe, and I ducked when several bullets tried to go through the back windshield, just a few inches away from the backs of our heads. Some thumps where heard at the side of the van where bullets hit it.

"Thank goodness for bullet proof glass." Ghost sighed as he saw us dive lower into the floor as bullets continued to try and break through the glass.

"One, keep this thing steady. I'm going to see if I can't pop off a few of them." Two said as he rolled down the passenger side window. Moving around in his seat, his back to the windshield, Two whipped back his silver coat and pulled out the machine gun he had been hiding and leaned out the side of the car.

"You want a piece of us? Eat this, creeps!" Two shouted out the window. Taking aim and gritting his teeth in an evil sneer, he pointed the gun at one of the pursuing cars and started firing.

"Good shot, Two!" I shouted after seeing one of the cars spin out of control and run into a light pole. One jerked the car to the left to keep from hitting a piece of the light pole (or was it a piece of the car?) that came raining down around us. Two fell back against the dashboard from the car being swerved to the side. Before Two had a chance to say what he felt like saying to his brother at that moment, he noticed One trying to get his attention.

"Two!" One shouted at his brother.

"What?" Two turned to One who motioned forward with his head. Two turned around to see several more black cars in front of us.

"Blast it! Where are they all coming from?" Two again leaned out the window, his silver dreadlocks flying in the wind, and started shooting at the ones in front. The bullets made holes all up the backs and sides of the cars, but they kept on going. A Smith clone in one of the cars leaned out of the window and took a few shots at us, the bullets cracking the front windshield. One jumped at the sudden impact of the bullets and swerved to the right to try and interrupt the agent's aim. A bullet from Two's gun stopped the persistent agent clone as One steered the van in a crazy zigzag fashion, trying to avoid slamming into the back of one of the enemy cars. The cars in front of us switched lanes, stopped suddenly, started up, slowed down, swerved back and forth, and did whatever else they could find to do to cause more confusion as if the flying bullets and fast speed wasn't enough.

"Why don't these guys learn how to drive?" One angrily said as he quickly swerved the van inches away from a major crash into one of the black cars.

"You think they're bad drivers?! What about you?" Two shouted before firing several rounds of bullets at the car we passed, succeeding in blowing out the driver's side window. Two laughed wickedly at his victory of shattering the window.

"I'm bad because they're the ones causing me to be that way!" One shouted back, continuing their conversation.

Beside me, Trinity turned around opened up the back window a little ways and stuck her gun out and started firing at the cars behind us. Neo suddenly jumped up and pulled open the side door.

"Neo! What are you doing?" Ghost shouted as he grabbed onto Neo's coat.

"I'm going to stop them!" Neo shouted back before jumping from the moving vehicle and disappearing somewhere. Ghost shielded his face as several bullets flew past the open door. After Neo was gone, Smith jumped up and across Ghost and leaned out the side of the van. Taking out his gun, he started to fire on some of the cars around us. For some reason, I didn't quite trust him. He acted like he had turned good, but I still had my doubts. He was too quiet since he turned to our side, as if he was planning something and was just acting good to play us along. I started to wonder if Smith was the cause of this ambush since Neo had said that the ones following us looked like Smith. He could have somehow duplicated himself without us knowing it and planned this attack to keep us from the Merovingian. I continued to keep my eyes on him as he took aim at the cars Trinity was firing at. Since everyone else was in on the action, Ghost decided to pull out one of his guns and open one of the side windows to see if he could succeed in knocking off a few cars himself. Out of nowhere, Neo suddenly jumped down on the front of a car that was trailing along beside us, his trench coat slowly rippling outwards behind him. In slow motion, almost like a dream, the car's front end started to dent in as if Neo weighed several hundred pounds. With a quick jump up, Neo disappeared and the car turned a flip forwards and rammed into the side of a building before blowing up and raining bits and pieces of debris everywhere. The impact of the explosion shook the van and the heat from it was felt coming in through the open side door. With a sharp turn, One quickly jerked the van down one last street before losing all the agent cars completely.

"Where are we?" Niobe asked after the long hard chase through town. It was about an hour later, but we finally lost the enemy cars that were filled with clones of Smith. Where Neo and Morpheus were, I couldn't say. They had gotten lost during the chaos of the highway showdown.

"We're here at the Merovingian's house." One softly answered.

Thoughts of the night when I found the Twins suddenly filled my mind as I looked around at that fancy neighborhood. It looked different in the daylight, but I still remembered it. There were the bushes I had hidden behind. My mind returned when Trinity got up and moved forward to get out of the van. Niobe followed then I got up and followed behind Niobe. I glanced over the side of the van at all the many bullet holes and dents then ran my eyes down to the smashed—or rather crushed—fender and shattered headlight. I had expected worse. That expectation came true after seeing the melted back end of the van where the enemy car's explosion had got too close for comfort.

"How are we going to go about this?" I asked. "Are we going to wait for Neo and Morpheus or go on inside?"

"I think we should go on in." said Niobe.

"I agree. It may be too late if we wait for Neo and Morpheus. They'll come when they finish off the other Smiths."

"C'mon, we can sneak around and surround the place." Ghost eagerly said.

"No, wait! The Mero has security cameras all over the area. He's sure to see us." said Two.

"He's right. It's a good plan, but the Mero will most certainly find out that we're here before we could do anything. The best possible thing would be to rush in and raid the place," One turned to Smith. "What's wrong with you?"

Smith didn't say a word.

"We're in the Matrix now so don't forget what you can do. Use every possible thing you can if an enemy comes toward you," Trinity said as she whipped out one of her handguns. "Is everyone ready?"

At that moment, clicking and chinking of guns could be heard all around as everyone pulled out what weapons they had hidden in their coats. I pulled out two handguns and readied them then checked the others that I still had in my coat to make sure I could get at them once the bullets ran out of the ones I held. Two walked up beside me while placing a fresh bullet clip in his faithful machine gun.

"At last, the moment I've been waiting for," Two grinned and chuckled. "Hey, Angel, whatever happens in there I want you to know that I'll be there to cover you whenever you need me." Two shyly and softly said while looking at the others.

I smiled.

"Thanks, Two." I said, patting his arm and walking forward, next to Trinity.

"We're ready." Ghost coolly said, holding his gun up beside his face.

"Alright, let's do it." Trinity cocked her gun and led the way.

Chapter Text

With a swift kick of her foot, Trinity kicked the beautiful frosted glass door, shattering it into a million pieces. She then kicked the wooden door open and jolted in while pointing her gun in every direction. There was nothing. She went in a little farther while the rest of us slowly followed. The house looked small until we continued to walk on. The small hallway we were walking down led into an impressive foyer that had a winding staircase spiraling upwards. Spears, shields, and marble and stone statues lined the walls around it. It wasn't the chateau, but the Merovingian had tried his best to make the place look like his home.

"Where is everyone?" One softly whispered. Even his low whisper seemed to echo off the foyer walls.

"No idea, but I don't like the looks of it." Trinity whispered back.

"Should we split up?" whispered Ghost.

"No, we stay together. I don't want someone to disappear." Trinity quickly jerked her gun to the right as if she had heard something. She did hear something. One of the doors off to the side was slowly opening up, then an arm was visible and soon a body. Trinity shot a couple of times—splintering the wooden door and making whoever it was go back into the room.

"Show yourself!" Trinity shouted. Slowly the being came out into the open. It was a man wearing black clothes and sunglasses. He placed his hands over his head and slowly walked our way. Trinity and Smith grabbed onto him and forced him down on his knees.

"Where's the Merovingian?" Smith demanded. The guy didn't answer, but instead said something in French. Smith raised his gun and shot the guy in the back, causing him to fall forward onto the floor.

"Why did you do that?" Trinity looked at Smith in shock.

"He wasn't going to talk and we don't need someone to look after." Smith coldly answered while walking back to the rest of us. It took Trinity a few minutes to get over what had just happened, but she finally walked over to us.

"I'm sure that all the shooting has gotten someone's attention by now. Everyone keep quiet and search this place quickly before others arrive." With Trinity's orders, our group started forward, keeping our guns poised for any other intruders.

"I want to leave." Two's sniveling was suddenly heard behind us.

"Shut up!" One snapped.

"I don't like being here. Wonder if the Mero beats us again?"

"Quiet! Before you get us all killed and deleted!" One's voice rose a little before going back to an angry whisper.

"Knock it off back there." Trinity threw a threatening glance over her shoulder at the Twins.

"What's wrong with you lately?" One firmly grabbed onto his brother's arm. "Earlier you were so bent on getting revenge on the Mero, now you want to turn tail and run."

Two lowered his head and stared at his gun. As the rest of the group spread out and looked around the foyer, I inched my way to Two's side.

"You said you were going to cover me if I needed it," I smiled. "I hope you aren't going to disappoint me."

Two looked up from staring at his gun and smiled a rather sheepish smile.

"I won't," he answered as he puffed up with pride. "Who's scared of the Mero? Not me. I could beat him with my eyes closed."

I shook my head and laughed a little at Two's sudden change. It was typical of a male to show off and brag about his bravery around a female.

"Don't forget what you are." I whispered.

"That's right! I'm a rogue program—a ghost, an assassin." Two's sheepish smile turned devilish as he got his sense back. He phased and reappeared in front of me.

"C'mon let's go," Two grabbed onto my arm and pulled me along toward the others on the other side of the room. "Let's hurry and find the Mero. I'm itching to knock him around a bit like he did us." Two grinned.

One slowly turned his head and faced Two. "Boy, you've changed suddenly." he whispered.

As Trinity led us into an open room, that turned out to be a study, the Twins continued to talk and whisper behind us, at times getting a little too loud.

"No one in here," Ghost said after looking the study room over. The walls were filled with books, and in the middle of the room were a desk and several chairs—behind it stood a huge window.

With a sigh, Trinity walked over to the desk, pulled off a couple pieces of Scotch tape from the dispenser setting next to the phone, and walked over to the Twins. Both Twins walked backwards and up against the wall as Trinity got up into both of their faces.

"You've tried my patience for the last time," she sternly whispered as she placed a piece of tape over each twin's mouth. "Now don't you dare take that off until you can keep your mouths shut!"

Trinity walked back toward the desk while shaking her head in frustration.

Hiding a laugh, I walked up to the two twins. When Trinity wasn't looking, I silently and carefully pulled the piece of tape off Two's mouth before doing the same to One. Making a silent gesture by putting my finger to my lips, I backed away from the two and stood while the rest of the group turned the room over looking for anything suspicious. I found out that the Twins kept rather quiet when I was near them. So for the rest of the search through the study room, I tried my best to stay with the two to keep them quiet.

"Find anything?" Niobe broke the long silence as everyone came together in the middle of the room.

"Nope. No sign of a program or the least little hint of one." Ghost whispered.

"Well, well. Uninvited guests I presume?" The French sounding voice made each one of us turn toward the study room door. It was the Merovingian with several of his henchmen standing behind him—complete with wicked looking guns. Persephone was standing in the midst of them. I turned my eyes to the Twins as they walked over beside me.

"I see that you two have recovered well," The Mero turned to the Twins. "And it looks like you didn't waste time in telling everyone about my plans."

Both Twins looked at the floor and shuffled their feet around.

"No matter, I'll deal with you later." The Mero sighed and turned to Smith. The Twins slowly turned and looked at me. Two's hand grasped my arm.

"Why haven't you disposed of these like I ordered you to do?" Merovingian angrily shouted at Smith.

"I was going to, but they turned me good and…"

"Silence!" Mero looked sternly at everybody. "You two," He motioned toward the Twins. They immediately perked their heads up. "I want you to go downstairs. I have some unfinished business to take care of with the both of you. To make sure you obey, Persephone here will personally escort you."

The Twins looked at me in silent plea then started toward the direction the Mero was standing. Both slowly and cautiously walked past their angry master while cutting their eyes at him from behind their dark shades. Losing his patience, the Merovingian stomped his foot on the ground inches away from Two's heels, making the poor twins jump and hurry forward into the grasp of Persephone who took their guns away and led them to a door beside the study.

"Worthless virii," Merovingian grumbled half in French and half in English as he turned back to us. I didn't care what happened to me, all I wanted was my two friends back. Taking one of the handguns hidden under my coat, I whipped it out and pointed it at the Mero.

"You harm those twins, and you can kiss your life good bye right here and now." I angrily said. The Mero silently stood there, unamused by my sudden threat. Suddenly there was a clicking sound all over the room as the rest of the group pulled out their guns and pointed them toward the Mero.

"You heard what she said. Let the Twins go." Trinity coolly said, while pushing her gun closer to the Mero's head. The Merovingian continued to remain silent, and then an evil grin formed on his face, which was followed by an even evil laugh.

"Take them." he ordered to the ones standing behind him. What happened next is hard to even put into words because it was like chaos had broken out all over the place. Guns went off, bullets flew, people ducked behind furniture, and creatures and men like I'd never seen came at us. Through the entire bustle, we somehow made it out into the foyer where the war between the Merovingian's henchmen and us continued. I watched as Trinity ran in slow motion up the side of one of the foyer walls, turned a flip in mid air, and came down on one of the black dressed guys. Ghost and Niobe were busy fighting hand to hand with several guys over in another part of the place. Smith had taken off after the Merovingian in one of the other rooms when everything started. As I watched everything, I felt someone suddenly grab hold of my neck. I couldn't see who it was but their grip was choking the life out of me. I struggled to make them let go, but it was no use. Just before I felt like I was going to pass out, I saw the Twins come up out of the floor in front of me and grab onto the one choking me. The grip loosened and I fell to the floor while coughing and gasping for air. I turned to see the Twins violently kicking and using their martial arts on the one who had grabbed onto me. The guy fought back, or at least he tried to. The Twins phased and reappeared every time the guy took a swing at them. When the henchman was presumed gone, the Twins came up to me and helped me up.

"You okay, Angel?" Two asked in a concerned tone.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." I reached and rubbed my neck to take away the grasping feeling it still had.

During that moment, I didn't know what had happened but as I kept my eyes on Two I saw him suddenly fall to the ground. One scrambled to catch his falling brother and looked at me in shock. Looking closer, I saw blood seeping from Two's white vest.

"Two!!" I screamed as I quickly knelt at his side. Two was trying to say something, but I couldn't hear what it was because of the fighting and shooting going on behind us.

"Phase, brother! Phase!" One shouted in Two's ear. Immediately Two phased and reappeared healed and struggled to get up.

"Two," I shouted while throwing my arms around his neck. "I thought I'd lost you there for a second." I whispered so only he could hear. Turning back around, I looked over the room for whoever had shot Two.

"He's up there!" One pointed to the stairs. Whipping my gun around I shot at the ugly henchman that stood watching us from above.

"I think I missed him."

"No you didn't." Two said as he jerked me out of the way of the falling vampire or werewolf, whichever one he was.

At that moment our attention was drawn to some kind of commotion in the middle of the foyer. We turned and saw Neo come crashing through the stained glass window located in the ceiling above the foyer and land in the middle of the brawl going on in the center of the room. Several of the rough looking henchmen around the room started firing their machine guns at him, but the bullets all stopped in mid air before they even reached Neo. Morpheus soon got into the action, sneaking up behind the unaware henchmen, who were preoccupied with Neo, and slugging them with the end of his gun. One by one they dropped lifelessly to the floor, unconscious for the time being.

"Where's the Merovingian?" Morpheus shouted across the room to Trinity.

"I don't know! Smith chased him into another part of the house when everything started. I haven't seen either one since." Trinity shouted back before shooting another henchman coming down the spiral stairs. The Twins and I ducked back a little ways to get out of the way of the falling man who landed next to the one I had taken care of. By this time the fight had nearly come to an end. Everyone met in the middle, careful not to step on the sprawled bodies of the henchmen.

"Now what?" Ghost asked while throwing down a spear he had been fighting with. Everyone was breathing hard.

"We find the Merovingian and his program and put and end to all of this," Morpheus clicked his gun then ran over and started bursting open the doors to all the other rooms. "Which room did Smith and the Mero go into?"

"I don't know, but I think it was that one over there." Trinity pointed toward a door to the left of the study room. Morpheus burst through it only to find that it opened to a flight of stairs that led downwards.

"Come on!"

Everyone but the Twins and I ran after Morpheus. Now I wish I had gone with them. The Twins turned and looked at me after the foyer got quiet.

"I'm so glad you two are okay," I whispered, dropping the gun I held in order to place my arms around the Twins. "What did you do with Persephone?"

"We left her,"

"Downstairs." The two smiled.

"I think she's tied up and locked away for awhile." One grinned evilly.

"You didn't hurt her did you?" I pulled away from the two.

"No." both said together.

The three of us were startled by another voice. Turning, we were surprised to see the Oracle standing in the doorway leading to the front door. A man stood behind her.

"This thing's about over with," she smiled while taking a silver colored laptop from the man's hand and opening it up. The Twins and I exchanged glances then turned back to the Oracle.

"Come with me. I think it's about time you knew the truth." the Oracle said as she took my arm and led me into the study room where she placed the laptop onto the desk. The Twins came up behind me. The Oracle took out a CD and placed it into the computer.

"We'll wait for the others first." was all she said before seating herself in the chair behind the desk. The man who had come with her walked over and stood beside her. He positioned the laptop so that it faced the Oracle.

"Thank you, Seraph." she said as she smiled at him.

Not long after, loud noises were heard out in the foyer and Neo, Trinity, Smith, and the rest came bursting into the study while carrying the Merovingian (who was loudly cursing in French) by the arms. The Twins smiled at each other evilly then walked over to the Mero. One grabbed the Mero by his hair and yanked his head back.

"Think you're so tough now?" One sneered.

"I think he needs to be taught a lesson." Two snickered as he flipped open his razor and held it about an inch from the Mero's face while turning it over and over in his hand, the light from the window reflecting off it. The Merovingian swallowed while his eyes followed the razor's blade down the side of his face and around his nose. Niobe, Ghost, and Morpheus threw a worried glance at the Oracle. She held her hand up for them not to do anything and continued to watch the Twins.

"You know,"

"—the night you beat us and threw us out,"

"We couldn't defend ourselves, but now we're more powerful than ever,"

"—and we're mighty angry at the way you treated us."

"Especially after we've been loyal to you for so long," One frowned.

"You can't treat us like that and get away with it." Two punched the Merovingian hard in the stomach, nearly knocking the breath out of him.

"Boy, that felt good," Two smiled at his brother. One let go of the Mero's hair and gave him a good swift kick in the shin with the thick heel of his boot. The Merovingian was in pain, I could tell, but he tried hard to hide it.

"I knew these thick heeled boots would come in handy someday." One grinned from ear to ear. Smiling, Two tightened his grip on his razor and prepared to cut the Merovingian's hand, but the Oracle stopped him.

"Uh-uh, Two, that's quite enough. You've had your fun. There's no sense in taking it too far."

Two slowly let go of the Merovingian's hand and looked down in disappointment before angrily stomping the Mero's foot. This time the Merovingian forgot who he was and yelled in pain before breaking into more French cursing, all of which I wouldn't dare repeat even if I could understand and speak French.

"How dare you let these virii treat me in this manner!" the Mero shouted to the Oracle before turning a stern face to Two then to One. The Twins crossed their arms over their chests and glared at their once powerful master.

"How dare we treat you in this manner?" One repeated in utter shock.

"Think of how you treated us!" Two got down into the Mero's face. For awhile, Two and the Mero glared at each other then the Mero said something to Two in French.

"The same to you," Two huffed madly before taking his face away from the Mero's. The Oracle rolled her eyes at the whole argument then threw a sighing glance at Seraph.

"Getting back to where we left off, did you find what the Merovingian had?" she asked, breaking the tension she knew was forming.

"Yes, here it is." Neo let go of the Merovingian's arm he held and walked toward the desk, handing the Oracle a CD.

"You had a very good plan. Too bad you won't get to use it," the Oracle said to the Mero. The Mero only grumbled in French.

"Can we beat him around some more? Please?" Two ran to the desk, accidentally hitting several items and sending them flying. "I want to use my razor on him. I want him to feel pain!"

"Two," The Oracle's eyes got big as she glared at the twin while trying to catch what he had hit, "that's quite enough! Now get back over there and behave yourself." the woman sternly yet softly said. Two lowered his head and walked over to where One and I were standing. Seraph walked around the desk and picked up the things that the Oracle had failed to catch and set them back where they belonged. Niobe picked up a pencil that had rolled over beside her foot and handed it to the man.

"Do we have or at least know where all of the Merovingian's henchmen are?" the Oracle sighed.

"As far as we know, yes," Neo answered.

"Where's Persephone?"

Everyone but the Twins exchanged glances.

"Uh, she's downstairs locked in one of the cells." One answered in a low voice.

The Merovingian turned a shocked and surprised look toward the Twins.

"You locked my wife up in one of the cells?!" he gasped in a dry voice. The Twins only grinned.

"Smith, go get Persephone and bring her up here." the Oracle commanded. Smith did as he was told and disappeared out of the room. Trinity dragged the Mero over to a chair and threw him into it.

"Now sit there." Trinity took out her gun and kept it pointed at the man.

A little while after, Smith returned with a struggling and fighting Persephone, her hands tied with a rope. Smith took her and sat her down in a chair next to her husband and held a gun on her as Trinity was doing to the Mero.

"Now that everyone's here I think we can get down to serious business." said the Oracle, placing her hands onto the desk and leaning forward.

Chapter Text

I felt like I was the center of everyone's attention as I slowly looked around the study room at everyone. They were all looking intently at me.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" I nervously asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

The Oracle chuckled warmly and smiled.

"No, honey, you didn't do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, everything you did was marvelous."

I looked in puzzlement at the woman.

"You see, Angel, we've been after the Merovingian for some time now."

"Excuse me for interrupting, but I'm not quite following you here."

The Oracle smiled understandingly, her eyes sparkling in the light of the evening sun that reflected off the study walls.

"Perhaps I should start from the beginning,"

I nodded.

"You see, Angel, the Merovingian escaped the Matrix and found his way into your world, bringing all of his henchmen and Smith with him against our knowing."

"You lied to us," One suddenly shouted to the Mero across the room. "You told us that the Oracle brought us here!"

"One, please,"

One silenced himself at the Oracle's words.

"As I was saying, he came here against our knowing. It was a long time before we actually knew that he had escaped to here. How he got here in the first place I have no earthly idea. Finding out what he had planned, we took desperate steps to try and stop him—all of which failed. We were hoping that maybe somehow some human that lived in this world would run across the Mero or at least one of his henchmen who had turned against him and would follow in helping defeat him."

"And that person was me." I whispered.

"That's right."

"But why a human from this world?"

"Angel, some things not even I can explain. They just need to happen in a certain way and that's it. The only thing I know is that we needed someone we could trust that wasn't from the Matrix."

"What about Neo and Trinity and the others?"

"I brought them here in order to keep an eye on the Merovingian to make sure he didn't go through with his plan. In other words they were living here undercover, acting as spies. If the Merovingian made any threatening moves they were to report to me."

"Somehow I have this feeling that I'm not hearing the whole story." I wrinkled my eyebrows a little. The Oracle chuckled as she leaned back in her chair, tilting her head to look at Seraph. He smiled back.

"You seem to be good at figuring out and sensing things. I like that in a person."

The Oracle looked around at the many staring faces before turning back to me.

"We came from this," She took out and held up the CD that she had placed in the laptop moments before.

"I-I don't quite understand. It looks like a CD."

"It's a DVD, young Angel. It's a copy of The Matrix Reloaded, where all of us reside in. A very special copy in fact, as you can see around you."

I stood in awe as I looked at the DVD the Oracle held. I was speechless for some time before I could speak again.

"So you're telling me that you—all of you—came from this DVD?"

"Bingo!" The Oracle smiled.

"And since your mission of capturing the Merovingian is over, you all will go back into this DVD and this world—the real world—will go back to being normal, as if nothing had happened?"

"That's right, honey,"

"Will I remember everything that happened?"

"Yes, you will remember—and only you."

"What happens if you don't go back into the movie?"

"The movie will be incomplete, just like it is now as we stand here talking."

I turned to the Twins who stared at me in silence.

"So all that time that you kept talking about going back into the Matrix you were really referring to the movie?"

One slowly nodded his head and looked at Two.

"Now I understand." I breathed.

"After we go back into the movie, the DVD belongs to you. That was one of the reasons why we needed someone from your world." the Oracle softly said.

"Y-you mean that we won't get to stay in this world after all?" Two asked in disappointment.

The Oracle shook her head. Two's mouth quivered a little while lowering his head again.

"I'm sorry, hon, but that's the way it is. If we don't go back it'll ruin the movie, plus it'll eventually ruin this world too."

"The Merovingian told us that if we behaved you would let us stay here."

"It was a lie, Two. He was playing you along. I brought Neo and the others here, but I didn't bring you two and the Mero here. That was all his doing. Knowing how much you liked it here, he told you that to keep you two from blowing his plans. I didn't intend on anyone staying here. Neo and the rest knew they were only going to stay here for a limited time before going back."

"But I want to stay here with Angel!" Two's voice became watery.

"Two, we all want to, but there's nothing I can do. It's out of my hands. We've got till midnight tonight. Already we've spent about three hours talking, so that leaves us four hours to clean up everything we've done."

I looked at my watch. The Oracle was right; it had been about three hours. It's funny how you never notice the time when you're talking. I glanced out the window and already it was dark out. I was so overcome by everything that I didn't even notice that the small room was now lit by the lamp setting on the desk, which the Oracle had turned on sometime during our conversation.

"Coming to think of it, how did you Twins know where I was?" Neo continued the conversation.

"We overheard the Merovingian say that you lived here somewhere."

"And One here hacked into a map on the computer and we found out your location from that."

"The Merovingian knew we were here all along?" Neo turned a shocked face to the Mero.

"I did, but I didn't know you were acting as spies!" The Mero threw Neo a mean face.

"Smith, tie his hands. I don't trust him." The Oracle motioned to Smith. Smith took some rope he had brought with him when he came back with Persephone and tightly tied the Merovingian's hands. "I want to make sure he stays there until we have to leave."

The room was silent after the Oracle had finished. Occasionally you could hear the shuffling of feet or a whisper or clearing of a throat. I silently turned to look at the Twins standing beside me. They both stood with their heads lowered and hands behind their backs. Two looked like he was about to cry.

"Come on everyone. We've got a lot of work to do. Smith, you're in charge of tying up the Mero's henchmen. Make sure they're all tied good and placed where we can have them when the time comes. The rest of you will help me in cleaning up the foyer. Seraph, Morpheus, you two will stay in here with Merovingian and Persephone."

Everyone turned and walked out into the foyer. Niobe and Trinity immediately picked up a spear and hung it back on the wall while Neo and Ghost walked around and collected the many guns lying around amongst the scattered bodies of the henchmen. The Twins and I watched for awhile.

"I guess we need to help too." I said, turning to One. He nodded.

"I'll go see if I can find a broom so we can sweep up the glass from that door Trinity shattered." One said before walking off into another room. Two and I walked over and down the hall leading to the front door. The wooden door was barely hanging on its hinges and small and big pieces of glass lay all over the wine colored carpet.

"What a mess." I said to no one in particular as I looked around at where all the glass was, careful not to step on a piece. Two looked into a room a little ways down from the front door and shivered.

"He didn't even clean it up." I heard Two mumble.

"What?" I asked, walking up to Two's side and peeking into the room. The room was the room I had seen the Merovingian beat the Twins in the night I had rescued them. The place was still in shambles, broken lamps and strewn and splintered furniture lay everywhere. I quickly grabbed the door to the room and closed it so Two could keep his mind off it.

"Here's the broom," One approached. "What's wrong?" he asked at seeing the bewildered faces of Two and me.

"Nothing," I whispered, taking the broom from One's hand. One handed the dustpan to Two.

"I'm going to go get a trash basket. Be right back." One disappeared.

After sweeping the first big load of glass up in a pile, I called over my shoulder for Two to give me the dustpan, but no answer ever came.

"Two?" I said as I turned. Two was gone! Leaning the broom against the wall, I took off toward the foyer. "Two?"

The Oracle and several of the others looked up.

"Is something wrong?" the Oracle asked at seeing me.

"Where's Two? He was helping me sweep up glass back there, but when I turned around he was gone." I looked up at One coming into the foyer area. He set down the basket he was carrying and came over to me. Just then we heard a scream come from the study. I along with the Oracle, Neo, and One ran to the doorway.

"Two!" I shouted, running to him.

Two had the Merovingian's shirt collar in one hand and his razor in the other, its blade pressed against the Mero's neck. Seraph and Morpheus stood behind him, not knowing what to do.

"Two, don't do it. Please," I pleaded in a soothing voice. Two's evilly twisted face turned normal at seeing me. His hands slowly let go of the Mero and he closed his razor up and placed it back into his pocket.

"I'm sorry, Angel, I don't know what happened. At seeing that room, all the horrible memories of that night came back to me and I just felt so much like…" His words trailed off.

"It's okay, Two. Come on let's go back out into the foyer." I soothingly said while placing my hand on Two's back.

Out in the foyer again, Two finally let his feelings go and he took off running toward the back of the foyer, past the staircase, and out of a door. Feeling for him, I took one more glance at One and the Oracle then ran in the direction Two had gone. Looking back over my shoulders I saw One almost follow, but the Oracle stopped him and shook her head.

Chapter Text

I stumbled out the door Two had gone through and found that it led into the garden. I looked around at all the many bare trees around me and also at all the statues, benches, yard lamps, and other decorative things dotted here and there around the large garden area. The cobblestone walk I stood on zigzagged through everything and was lined on both sides with little lights. The place must have looked lovely in spring and summer. I soon spotted Two sitting on the grass beside a small pond that was lit up with yellow lights and had a huge fountain in the middle. The spray from the fountain made the water ripple and with the lights shining on it it was an absolute stunning sight. Two sat huddled with his head buried in his arms. I hesitated a minute, running my hands down my shiny gold pants then stopped. I had forgotten that I still had my Matrix clothes on. I looked down at my white boots that looked similar to the ones the Twins wore then I ran my hands over the slick gold trench coat that matched my pants. Quickly, I took off my shades and stuffed them in my pocket and started taking my coat off. The thing was cool looking, but it was heavy, especially with the guns and ammunition I still had hidden inside it. I threw the coat onto the walk and adjusted my black sweatshirt, pulling it down and smoothing the wrinkles out. After making sure my hair was just right, I slowly made my way to Two. I quietly walked up and sat down beside the twin and stared into the fountain's spray. Two was softly crying.

"I didn't know programs could cry so much, especially ones who are supposed to be assassins and without emotions." I said softly. Two didn't answer for awhile.

"I don't want to leave," Two finally said in a low, watery voice. "I don't want to leave this world and you."

I leaned my head on his left shoulder. Two looked up from his arms, tears streaming from under his shades and down his face.

"I've never known what it's like to actually have a friend until I met you."

"What about One?"

"He's my brother. Friendships with family members are different from friendships with real friends," Two looked into my face and smiled. "You cared about me even though I was evil. You cared enough about me to save my life. You stood by my side through many things. I've never had anyone to do that before. It's all so new to me. I always thought no one wanted a rogue program, but I guess I was wrong."

"You're forgetting that I saved your brother too. I care about him just as much as I care about you."

"Of course," Two smiled.

"There's something I've wanted to say though," I continued. "Even though both of you are sweet and awesome and I like you both so much, I have to say that I think I'm going to miss you most of all." Tears started to form in my eyes as I looked into Two's face. "I love you Two."

"Y-you love me?!" Two stuttered. Even in the dim light of the pond lights I could tell that Two's pale cheeks were blushing. I'm glad the Twins were programmed to blush because they were so sweet when they did.

"You don't have to worry," I chuckled at Two's stunned face. "It's not a romantic love; it's a friendship love—a strong friendship love." I wiped a tear away from my eyes. "I don't know how to explain it but you're special to me. Maybe it's because you were the first one I nursed back to health the night I found you both, or maybe it's your personality. I dunno. Your childish personality is so sweet."

"Does it show that much?" Two lowered his voice.

"Don't worry. It's nothing to be ashamed of. We all have that little bit of child in us; some people may show it more than others. There's nothing wrong with it, just so long as you keep control of it and not act too childish."

"One always teases me about it," Two turned a sadden face to me. "He says I act like a baby sometimes."

"I wouldn't say that. One just doesn't understand. A person's personality is what makes that individual special. No one can help what personality they have because that's what they were born with," I looked at Two, "or what they were programmed with. As far as I'm concerned your personality is okay." I playfully tapped the end of Two's nose with the tip of my finger. "And don't you ever change."

Two hid his blushing face in his coat while faking a cough to cover it up. I looked at Two then slowly reached out and started to stroke his silver dreadlocks, which glistened in the light of the pond when they moved. Two remained still and let me continue doing it. After I took my hand away, Two looked down in a sad way.

"Brings back memories doesn't it?" I whispered sadly.

"Yeah, it does."

"At least we'll have the memories to remember." I forced a smile through my tears.

"Yeah,"

"Can you take your shades off?"

Two looked at me.

"Please? Just one more time?"

Two slowly reached up and grabbed hold of his shades and took them off.

"Now open up your eyes." I laughed.

Two slowly opened his tightly shut eyes and blinked a few times before turning to look at me. His eyes were red from crying, but they were still stunning silver. The soft light of the pond lights reflected off them, making them look totally breathtaking. At that moment, I was beginning to wonder if that friendship love I had for Two wasn't turning into another kind of love. Two and I sat there quietly staring each other in the face. A shiver ran down my spine as I looked at the expression on Two's face. It was an expression I had never seen on his face before. He slowly leaned forward with his eyes closing and, as if in a dream, I slowly felt that Two's lips were about to touch mine. I quickly came back to reality and turned my head away. He quickly drew back and cleared his throat. I think he was a little embarrassed at what almost happened. Putting his shades back on, he forced himself to look at me again, his face totally red with embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry, Angel, I-I don't know what came over me there. I've never felt that before." he stuttered in a low, shy voice.

"It's okay. No harm done." I smiled. Two forced a nervous smile back.

"When we—my brother and I—first came to this world," Two said, changing the subject, "we were scared of everything and everyone. It was something we had never felt before. We caused fear, but we had never felt it ourselves. It mostly came from the Merovingian taking our powers away. We were helpless and we knew it. The least little noise, we'd nearly jump out of our skins because we knew we couldn't defend ourselves, and if we were injured the pain would be there for awhile until we healed naturally as humans do. But we adapted and we came to find out that we liked it here. It wasn't so bad after all. In fact, we came to find out that it was kinda nice to not have powers and to see how normal people live. Then that night when the Merovingian got mad at us we changed our minds. That's why I jumped when you first touched me. I didn't mean to do it, but I was just so scared of being touched by you—by anyone. I was helpless and I didn't want to be deleted." Two started crying again.

"Aww, Two, it's okay. I understand. There's no need for an apology or an explanation."

Two looked up from crying, a tear trickling down his cheek.

"I'm just sorry that you and One even had to go through something like that. At least you both will be safe from it once you return to… well, you know…"

"Angel, do you have any idea of what that will be like? We'll be back in the Reloaded movie! We'll be evil again—working for the Merovingian, fighting Morpheus in the parking garage, chasing Neo and the others down the highway until…" Two's words trailed off. He sighed and continued. "Maybe it'll be for the best. Maybe I'll come back to my senses and act like my old self again, instead of the whining crybaby I am now."

"Two, you aren't a crybaby."

"I am too," Two sniveled. "Look at me, sitting here crying my eyes out—a big bad assassin crying and blubbering all over."

"It's only natural, Two. Everyone cries at one time or another. At the moment you're scared, you want to stay here with me but you know you can't so you're sad too. Everyone cries when they're sad or know they won't be seeing someone—a friend that they love—again. Look at me, I'm crying too for the same reasons, but that doesn't make me a crybaby does it?"

"No." Two softly whispered, wiping the tears from his cheek with the back of his hand.

"There you see? Just because someone cries doesn't make them a crybaby."

Two smiled. "But One's right, I do act like a baby."

"Two, you don't either. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I thought you were awesome during the chase on the highway today. So brave, so menacing, so tough. And the way that you and One saved my life when that guy was choking me was awesome too. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Two grinned. "I want to thank you for saving our lives too. Since everything's happened I haven't had a chance to tell you."

"I'm glad I did save your lives," I smiled and ran my hand over Two's hair once more. "Everything will be fine, you'll see. You'll both go back and someday we'll see each other again then it'll be like a friendship reunion or something."

Two looked at me in a sad and uncertain way.

"We will see each other again won't we?" I searched Two's face. I felt more tears swell up in my eyes.

"I dunno, Angel. I hope we will." Two's voice was low and about to crack.

"That makes two of us." I breathed.

Two lowered his head again and looked at the blade of grass he fingered in his hands. It was almost too good to be true, but I think I had broken through Two's assassin personality and brought out some sign of emotion. There was something inside of Two that wanted to get out, I could feel it and he had even shown a little bit of it. Something inside of me wanted at that moment to just grab Two's arm and run as far away from everything as I could possibly run and make Two's dream of staying in this world a reality. I knew, though, that I could never do it. The Oracle was right; if just one of them stayed in our world the Reloaded movie would be incomplete. Goodness knows what Two staying behind would eventually do to our world too, as the Oracle had warned.

"So here's where you two ran off to,"

Both Two and I turned to see One slowly walk up beside us, his hands behind his back.

"And just what are you two up to?" he smiled.

"Nothing. Just talking," I said as One seated himself on the grass beside me.

"Is Two telling you how he still sucks his thumb at night when he's asleep?" One snickered.

"I do not!" Two snapped.

"Easy, brother, I was only joshing." One tried to hide a laugh.

"See? He teases me all the time." Two held back more tears.

"One, stop teasing your brother," I slightly laughed while playfully nudging One in the arm with my elbow.

"Okay, I'll stop." One smiled.

"Yeah, right," Two mumbled.

"Really, I will. Angel told me to stop so I'll stop."

Two threw One an unsure glance before sighing and settling his head on his folded arms and staring at the fountain's water.

"He does snore, though." One whispered in my ear. I playfully pushed One away and smiled at him.

Looking at One, his comical mood seemed to turn a little sad. He looked at me for the longest time.

"I'm going to miss you, Angel," he finally got out, sounding as though he too would start crying. "I wasn't sure of you at first, but now I feel as if we're two old friends."

As One continued talking, I absentmindedly put my hand on Two's shoulder and began to softly rub it, brushing his dreadlocks to the other side as I moved to his back.

"I want to thank you for saving our lives that night. I know I haven't shown or paid much attention to you before now, but I want to say that I never really knew what to say to you. I've only known hard and rough things so when it came to actually speaking and acting around you, I just didn't know how to act or what to say." One snapped off a piece of grass and began to finger it as Two was doing. "It's not that I didn't like you because I do like you, it's just… I dunno. Too proud of what I am I guess you could say." One threw the piece of grass into the pond. Two did the same with his.

I warmly smiled at One.

"Hope I didn't hurt your feelings or anything with my somewhat rude behavior." One looked into my eyes.

"Not at all, One. I understand perfectly. I kinda had a feeling that that's what your problem was, although I wasn't going to say anything until the time came."

One smiled.

"Can I have that hug you were going to give me earlier?" One blushed a little at asking. Before he had a chance to get away again, I threw my arms around his neck, nearly knocking us both over onto the pond's bank and rolling into the water, and gave him such a hug.

"How's that?" I asked after pulling back. One blushed even redder and smiled. We all suddenly burst out laughing, but the clearing of a throat brought us all to attention. Looking around we saw the Oracle standing on the cobblestone walk. She smiled at seeing all three of us.

"I hate to break up your fun, but it's time we were heading home." she softly said.

"It's not midnight yet." said One.

"I know, but it's better that we go ahead and get it over with before something else happens. Now, come along." The Oracle disappeared down the stone walk and behind a bush. One got up and followed. I sadly turned to Two. His head was lowered again; his lip fidgeting as if trying to hold back the tears that he knew wouldn't stop once they started. I took my hand and placed it under his chin, resting my fingers on his other cheek, and slowly turned his face to me. His pale skin felt smooth and soft to the touch.

"Everything's going to be okay," I said in a shaky, tear-filled voice. "You'll see."

"Who's going to look after you when we leave?" Two asked softly. I smiled, a tear trickling down my face.

"Don't worry about me. I'll manage somehow." I took my finger and wiped away a tear that managed to escape down Two's pale cheek. Two pulled his face out of my hand and grabbed onto his coat. Reaching down into one of his pockets, he pulled out his razor. I watched in a puzzling way as he reached and took my hand. Carefully he placed the pearl handled weapon in my hand and closed my fingers around it.

"When I'm gone I want you to remember me whenever you look at it," he whispered, looking into my face. "And when we meet again, I'll teach you how to use it."

I took my hand out of his and looked at the razor he had placed in the palm of my hand then looked up into his face again and smiled. All I could do was throw my arms around Two and give him a hug.

"Friends forever, buddy." I whispered in his ear.

"Are you two coming? The Oracle's getting rather impatient." We heard One's voice call out from over the bushes.

"We're coming, One!" I shouted back while getting up. Two got up too and together we both walked hand in hand toward the back door.

Chapter Text

I walked in and out into the middle of the foyer, Two lagging behind me. Everyone stood around in the center and watched the both of us slowly make our way there. One held my gold coat in his hands and smiled when I came up beside him. Each one of us silently followed the Oracle into the study room once again and stood around the small room.

"You have anything to say, Angel?" The Oracle looked at me.

"I'm gonna miss everyone," I looked at the rest of the group. "It's been a rather exciting time," I laughed. "One that I never would have dreamed of happening, especially to me,"

I walked down the line of people, coming up to Neo first.

"It's been an honor meeting you, Neo," I shook his hand and gave him a hug. He smiled sweetly and lowered his head. "Gonna miss you."

Next were Trinity and Niobe. I shook both their hands too, but it was Trinity's turn to hug me. She threw her arms around my neck. She pulled back and looked into my face. "I'm going to miss you. It's been a pleasure working along side someone who's not afraid to fight and help someone who needs it," Trinity said. "Take care of yourself. There's something special in you."

Ghost and Morpheus met me last. They quietly shook my hand and nodded a silent good bye. Smith stood erect beside the chair Persephone sat in and stared at me. I walked up to him and nervously stretched my hand out. He looked at it for a few seconds then slowly took his hand and placed it in mine. A half smile formed on his lips that softly uttered a good bye.

I turned to the Oracle and Seraph.

"Thanks for everything." I said. The Oracle made her way to me and gave me a warm grandmother hug.

"Child, I want you to take care of the DVD for me. Ok?" The Oracle looked into my eyes.

I nodded.

"And don't be so sad." she chuckled while returning to her chair.

At last the time had come. I turned back around and looked in the direction of the Twins. Walking over and standing in front of them the room got dead silent. I could feel everyone looking in our direction. Carefully I took both of my hands and put one on each side of One's face and drew his head forward. Gently I put my lips to his soft cheeks and gave him a slight kiss.

"You be good. Ok?" I smiled as tears ran down both his cheeks and mine. "Watch out for Two for me." I gave him one last kiss then hugged him tight. He walked over and away from me as I made my way to Two.

"I'm going to miss you most of all, buddy." I whispered and started crying as I took Two's face in my hands as I had done to One and kissed his pale cheek that was wet from tears. In the middle of kissing him, I couldn't hold back the tears any longer and burst out crying. Two held me in his arms with my head resting on his chest, his head resting on my head. For a few minutes we stayed that way then I pulled back, wiping the tears away with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. I took Two's face again and gave him one last kiss on the cheek and playfully ran my hand down his dreadlocks. "You behave yourself." I whispered.

Two smiled sweetly.

"Now get out of here before I have to come with you." I laughed as I firmly and playfully slapped his arm. Two walked over next to One.

"Oh! I think this belongs to you." One said as he handed me my gold coat. I took it and ran my hands over it.

"Angel, you understand that after we go back everything here will become normal again, right?" the Oracle looked at me deeply.

I nodded.

"The Matrix that now has this world due to One trying to change Smith's program will disappear and everything will be as it was before everything happened. All the damage to the buildings during your struggle with the Smith clones will not have happened and you, my dear Angel, will be the only person who will remember what happened. The nurses and doctors at the hospital will not remember Smith, or the Twins, or the other agents. The landlady at the apartment building Neo stayed in won't remember Neo or the rest of us that she saw. Only you, Angel, will remember any of it."

I sadly looked down at the floor and shuffled my feet.

"Now is everyone ready? It's nearly 11:00." The Oracle looked at the clock that hung on one of the study room walls.

Everyone slowly nodded. One and Two turned and looked at me one more time, fixing their eyes on me in hopes of remembering the one person who had risked everything to save them when they awoke again on the other side of the DVD.

"Let's get it over with then before the Twins here have to stay behind with Angel." The Oracle chuckled while looking at the longing faces of the two.

The last thing I remember was that the Oracle waved her hand at me, then I saw the pale faces of the Twins one last time and everything went black. The next thing I remember was waking up and staring at the study room ceiling. I slowly got up and rubbed my head, trying to remember what had happened. I looked around the room. I was the only one there. The gold coat I had worn lay sprawled beside me on the floor. I picked it up and looked it over then glanced at my pants and shoes. I still wore the gold pants and white boots. Grabbing hold of the desk, I pulled myself up and stood in the middle of the room, a little dizzy at first but it soon passed. The silver laptop the Oracle had used still set in the middle of the desk. I pushed a button on it and out popped the DVD the Oracle had placed in it—the special copy of Reloaded that was left in my care. I took it out and put it in its case lying on a stack of papers. After shoving the disk into my coat's pocket, I ran out of the room and into the foyer. Looking up I saw the broken window above where Neo had crashed through. I darted to the left and out the backdoor into the garden.

"Two!" I shouted, my voice disappearing into the chilled night air. I knew it wouldn't do any good, but it felt good to get it out anyway, since I was alone no one could hear me. I ran down the walk and stopped. I wanted to see Two sitting huddled up next to the pond, but he wasn't there. My head dropped to my chest as I walked forward toward the spot we had been sitting. The rushing sound of the fountain was the only noise to be heard aside from cars in the distant. I fell to my knees and started to cry again at the thoughts and memories that filled my mind at that time. It was like waking up from a good dream only to find that you're alone in a strange house. Scared and not knowing what to do, you start to think about the lovely dream you had just woken up from and wish that you could just go back into it.

After staring into the fountain for a few minutes, I reached into my pants pocket and took out the razor Two had given to me. I ran my finger down its smooth pearl side and turned it over and over in my hands. The yellow lights of the pond made the pearl shine. With a smile I tucked the precious gift back into my pocket.

A little while of being by myself, I finally made it outside in the front yard of the house, the Oracle's silver laptop safely tucked under my arm. I turned to look again at the old house then made my way to the half melted van that all of us had arrived in. I stared at it for a second then ran forward and pulled the side door open. Funny how some of the things we used still remained here. I jumped up in the middle seats and looked around me. Ah—my laptop. I picked up the black computer and tucked it under my other arm as I jumped back out of the van again and started walking down the street toward the hotel I had been staying at. Truly it was a vacation I'd never forget.

Place: Our World, Home

Time: 2:30 a.m.

Date: November 5, 2003

Well, Diary, that's been my vacation. Sorry for not writing my entries sooner, but as you can tell I've been pretty busy. *laughs* I miss One and Two so much. When I watch the Reloaded movie over and over I tend to wonder if they even remember me at all. I can see them but they can't see me. The Oracle said that my copy of Reloaded is a special copy, but I wonder what she meant by that. Does it mean I'll get to see them again someday? *sighs* Probably not. Sometimes my thoughts drift back to that rainy night when I first found and rescued the Twins. It was horrible to see them that way, but now I'm glad that I had the courage to help them. Then my mind drifts off to the hospital, where I saved them from Smith. Boy was that ever an adventure. That Smith is strong, but he's cool too. I can still feel the whizzing of the bullets from his gun the time he shot at me through the hotel elevator. Man, I thought I was a goner then. And I'll not forget the time when the Twins and I first saw Neo. Ha—ha, and that moment when poor Two found out that getting a shot in your rear end isn't much fun. Poor guy. And that lovely moment Two and I spent beside the pond. That was the best time I've ever had in my life. Those two, I really miss them. All of a sudden, I wish I could give Two a hug and talk to him.

Yes, everything about this adventure will remain with me for a long time to come. Hmm, this is so long I should write a book about it, or at least a story. Oh well, guess that's all there is to tell. I need to go to bed. G' night, Diary.

-Angel

The End