Anomaly

Summary: Post-Revolutions. As the Merovingian's daughter, Kezia gets anything she wants. As the Mechanic, she can fix anything she wants. Except him. SmithxOC, rated M for various naughtiness.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Matrix or any affiliated Wachowski machinations. I also don't own any of the soundtrack recommendations in the chapter titles. Just my OCs and the freaky storyline.

AN: Thanks for the reviews, it's really encouraging to hear feedback, and here are replies to your reviews.

Digital Angel: I figured for the age difference, though Kezia is about 18-19, Smith is an Agent, ageless and as old as the Matrix in his incarnations. So though it's a bit creepy, he'll be starting over too, though he will forever remain in the predetermined form of a 40 year old man, because that's what he's been programmed to look like.

Dannypoo: I C what U did thar. Your entire review reads like an inside joke, darling (but one that I enjoy!). Thanks for the review, and I hope you will keep up with this fic,

Tigerman: As you wish, time has indeed been found. :] But "the rest" will play out over probably at least 8 more chapters. All I have is a skeleton of a plot, some writing skills, and an ever-present laptop. Thanks for reviewing and reading!


Chapter 2: Arterial Black

Kezia didn't appreciate cars, but the fact remained that walking through the shady parts of town with a pair of albinos and a black guy who looked like he was a walking funeral wasn't the best way for a group of Exiles to travel discreetly. Not to mention the streets were still potholed with puddles from last night's storm. But the tinted windows of the luxury sedan didn't give the gorgeous new sky justice, and all she could really think about was the pollutants spewing from the tailpipe and what they were doing to the atmosphere. It took Luke tapping on her shoulder to make her remember that it wasn't a real sky, and it wasn't a real car.

"Hey." She turned around, looking Luke in the eyes, eyes with an age that betrayed his twenty-something face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I guess." He always knew if something was up. Kezia had known the Exile for as long as she could remember. "Everybody's code is kinda funny," she remarked, squinting out the window. "Like they've changed versions. But it's not an upgrade, it's an older version."

"Makes sense. Smith copied himself onto nearly everybody. Now that he's gone, they've reverted to how they were before all that business." The girl nodded absentmindedly at his explanation, and Luke sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to him. "Listen, we can go for ice cream after this. How's that sound?"

Kezia brightened. Luke was the only one who put up with her strange attraction to human foods. The Twins saw eating as troublesome, and her parents rarely took her out to eat. "Sure, okay. Sounds delish. " Suddenly, she wanted the errand to be over.

Luke gave a low laugh at her eager face. "You can even pick up a pastry and some yogurt on the way back." The girl gave a little "yay!" of appreciation, and Luke smiled in amusement. I've spoiled her rotten.


"We're here," Twin One announced in a monotone. Twin Two stopped the car, and the two in the backseat unbuckled their seatbelts. Kezia slipped on a pair of sleek mirrored shades before stepping out of the car into the bright sunlight, straightening out her shirt and jean shorts, gun holstered and tucked discreetly into an oversized pocket. Luke followed her out of the car, black sunglasses matching his jacket and the rest of his outfit. Of the four, Kezia was the only one without a leather trench, and at most, she looked like a random Asian college student on summer break. But then, she had always felt a little different from the rest of the Merovingian's henchmen.

Must be because I'm his kid, she thought, wondering still how it would affect anything. But no matter. The four of them ducked into a darkened alleyway.

"We'll take the front. You two get the back." Kezia and Luke nodded, making their way to the fire escape as the Twins went to enter the apartment complex from the front. Luke motioned to the third floor, and then stepped into the shadows, blending in effortlessly and reappearing on the fire escape platform for the third floor complex.

Kezia sighed. She always had to do things the hard way. Reaching up to grab the lowest rung, she stepped against the wall and maneuvered herself onto the ladder, ascending nimbly with minimal noise. Luke gave her a hand up to the last platform. "Do your thing."

"'Kay," she whispered. With a touch to the frame of her shades, the lenses turned clear, and she stared hard at the lock, reading back through the versions of the code. Finding it at 45 days, 2 hours, and 12 minutes ago, she reverted to that design, recoding the lock to be open, noiseless except for the quiet static that signified a manipulation of Matrix code. Another touch to her shades turned them back to their mirrored black.

"Good girl. Ready?" Kezia nodded, pulling her gun out gently to mirror Luke's actions. "Let's go."

He kicked open the door with a crash and immediately merged with the shadows of the darkened room. Kezia stalked in, gun pointed at the startled man who hastily scrambled to exit the windows on his computer.

"Leave it," Kezia commanded, her voice cold, and cocked the gun. The man froze and lifted his hands over his head in surrender.

"Wh-what do you want? Are you a g-gov guy? –uh, girl? …uh, I've paid all my taxes…" She cocked an eyebrow at the pale fat man's bumbling, stepping towards him as he stepped backwards towards the wardrobe against the wall.

"I think you know what you've done. I'm representing a very powerful man, someone who presented you with a task a few weeks back." Sweat beaded on his flat nose as recognition and fear appeared in his eyes. "And you failed quite spectacularly, yet you kept the pay. I'd hardly call that fair practice, would you?" He continued backing up, but Kezia felt like she was missing something. Something about his steps weren't quite random, and he wasn't heading for the door like she expected.

Her eyes widened in realization, and the man yelled, "NOW!" A crash sounded to her left, and she turned towards the noise as another man barreled out from the wardrobe with a knife, tackling her to the ground. Her gun went flying, and the man plunged the knife into her stomach, pinning her through to the floor. With a roar that matched her scream, Luke bolted out of the shadows and delivered a calculated shot to the man's temple, spraying Kezia with blood and brains as the man toppled off her body, and earning another pained hiss as his hand, slow on releasing the handle as he fell, wrenched the knife sideways in her abdomen.

The other man scrambled for the door, but was met by the Twins as they phased through. "Oh-oh God, what are you?" he whispered, horrified. The Twins simply smirked and flicked out their razors, making short work of his neck. Twin One grabbed Luke's discarded gun and placed it in the man's hand before heading over to join Luke and Twin Two by Kezia.

"You took your sweet time," Luke muttered to the Twins, then turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. "Breathe," he told her as he swiftly pulled out the knife with a gloved hand and handed it to One to plant in the other man's hand. Kezia let out a strangled cry, hands fluttering weakly to her stomach in pain, only to pull away at the sticky blood. "Concentrate. You've done this before."

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck…" Kezia closed her eyes and grimaced, breathing hard while trying to keep from moving anything but her diaphragm and ribs. Luke slapped her face gently, and she glared up at him. "Keep your eyes open. Concentrate. Come on, do it!"

"Alright, alright, geez, don't hit me," she panted breathily, looking down at her wound and knitting her brow. In her mind's eye, she saw the numbers and characters flashing green seconds and minutes, and stopped at a leisurely seven minutes ago exactly, for good measure. Less than seven minutes? Feels like a lifetime of this pain…But she shook her head almost imperceptibly and concentrated on reverting her body back to the version of code from that time, plugging and pulling values and variables, renaming classes and closing brackets.

She felt the pain lessen then give a sharp burst as the blood siphoned off her clothes and back into her veins and arteries, her organs knitting back together from the inside, reversing the stab, finishing with the last layer of skin that closed up neatly.

She barely had time to revert her shirt back to an unripped version. And then came the inevitable blankness that coursed through her brain, erasing her thoughts, and she opened her eyes as Kezia from exactly seven minutes ago.

She sat up suddenly and went rigid, feeling the adrenaline and tension that charged through her body as she had entered the room. But why was she was sitting down, with Luke and the Twins around her. That meant…"What happened this time?"

Luke looked at her understandingly. "You were stabbed by him," he indicated the man with a bloody mess for a face, "while you were going after him," he indicated the man dead by the door, "but we three took care of that." The briefing was protocol; every time she reverted back to a version of herself, she lost any memories that happened after that version. But this had been the first time she was so seriously wounded, the first time she had become incapacitated for most of the mission. Luke could tell she was bothered by this as well, but the look in her eyes told him she wanted to save it for later.

The Twins gave each other a sideways glance. There is something wrong. / We know. / Does she know about- / No. / We will have to go to him at the / Meeting scheduled for tomorrow. We will tell him then. The telepathic conversation finished, two pairs of identical green eyes blinked behind mirrored shades, and the Twins stood up."We are done here." "We believe you mentioned other activities following?"

Kezia flapped her hands happily and beamed. "Ice cream!" Luke gave a disbelieving laugh, and helped her up. The Twins simply smiled wryly.

"We will leave you to that then. Call when you are done." With that, the two albinos phased out the fire escape door and presumably descended to the waiting car below. Kezia surveyed the mess of the room, found and holstered her gun, and picked her way back towards the fire escape, where Luke waited for her.

She reassembled and locked the door with a hard stare after they stepped out, and she remirrored her shades, closing her eyes wearily for a moment before heading down the ladders, sticking her tongue out at Luke and his shadow transporting. Luke's dark brown skin seemed to absorb the sunlight as he stepped out of the shadows, smiling at the familiar thump of Kezia's boots as she jumped off the last ladder and hugged him around the middle. She handed him her gun, glad to be rid of it. The two peeked around the corner and then headed out of the alley and down the street towards a brightly colored pavilion.


The stoplight was red, and Luke and Kezia waited at the sidewalk before the zebra lines, standing awkwardly amidst other pedestrians. In an effort to look anywhere but somebody else's eyes, Kezia found herself staring curiously into a darkened alley to her right.

The early afternoon sun infiltrated the shadows there, and she made out the shine of a black dress shoe attached to a leg clothed with what looked like expensive slacks. Following up the leg, she saw a businessman slumped against the wall and a trash can, a pair of broken sunglasses dangling off one ear. "Probably a hangover," she remarked darkly with a smirk.

As if he had heard her, the man's eyes opened to reveal a startling blue, and Kezia narrowed her eyes at him. No hungover businessman had ever looked at her with such disdain.

"Oh, God." Luke looked down in surprise at the non-religious girl. She began walking towards the alley and he had no choice but to follow her, grabbing her wrist and ignoring the stares of bewildered pedestrians.

"Kezia, what are you- No. No no no no. Hell no."

"Shut up!" she hissed. Luke brought his hand up to cover his eyes. Why couldn't she be a normal Exile for once?

Tentatively, Kezia approached the stirring man and waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Hello? Hi, Mister Agent Man. Smith, right?"

His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, and she winced in pain. He removed his shattered sunglasses with his other hand and scrutinized her, eyes narrowing with each passing second. Why can't I read her? What happened? Where is Mr. Anderson… "Mr. Anderson…NO." Kezia winced again as his hand began tightening more on her wrist. "No. Impossible. He…he…" Smith snarled, unable to express his rage. He took a breath, but the sound of a cocking gun made him pause.

"Stop," Luke commanded, staring down the Agent behind black shades. He had Kezia's gun aimed at Smith's head, arm unwavering. "Let go of her." Smith gave a humorless smirk that faded abruptly as everything came flooding back.

Loss. Control. Rain. Fighting gravity, Mr. Anderson's persistence, the gravel cracking under the force. And the pain, bursting from every shattered cell in his body, every corrupt quantum dissolving, losing purpose, losing control.

He opened his eyes and he was choking on air, the unforgiving grey concrete cutting crumbs in his hands as he stared down on all fours, feeling like a stranger in his own programmed shell. The inexplicable, disturbingly human sensation of nausea swirled in what he supposed was his "stomach", and was halted only by the appearance of a pair of scuffed black leather boots that broke the sea of grey in his line of vision. He followed them up and saw the unremarkable brown eyes of that infuriating Asian girl, the one who had recognized him as he stared out of the alley.

She was crouched in front of him, one hand's fingers tapping nervously on her knee. "Listen, whatever went on just then, it's over. The war in the real world is even over. You fought, you lost, you're an Exile now, like us." He brought himself up into a crouch, mirroring her, a scowl on his face.

Like them? He couldn't stand his defeat thrown at him like this, from a child, from a virus. His mind blanked with fury.

Silently, he stood up and straightened his suit with a curt tug, movements stiff from controlling the violent anger inside him. He reached for his gun. His fingers met emptiness under his suit jacket, and he looked down slowly at the vacancy before returning his gaze to the Asian girl, tilting his head ever so slightly to the left.

She bit her lip under his gaze. Luke kept his gun aimed, still hesitant and unable to comprehend why Kezia wasn't leaving. And then he saw her give the smile. That smile was the one she used when she was tempting a stray cat or cooing at a small child. Full of hope and sunshine, so feminine despite her personality. And, he reminded himself, That was the smile she used to flirt. He had only seen her flirt on the rare occasion, and only ever as a part of the Merovingian's plans, never on her own. Today was a day of firsts, it seemed.

"Smith?" she asked timidly. He continued glaring at her. "Would…Do you wanna go out for ice cream with us?"

Luke nearly fell over in shock, and it seemed Smith was likely to do the same. His mouth curled in a frown in obvious distaste. "I have no desire to accompany you for sweets." The way he spat out the word made Kezia cringe, and the smile faded, to be replaced with a sardonic smirk.

"It's not like you have much else to do. Are you gonna wait here to die? Or just mope around?" Her eyes lit up at some terribly hilarious mental image. "Are you gonna apply for a job? It's not like your resume is super good. 'Skills: Glaring, Shooting, Fighting, Getting pwned by Neo.'"

Smith's jaw clenched, causing a vein to twitch on his forehead. Why did this girl persist? But he was in no position for a confrontation now. He turned to leave.

Kezia's mind raced. For some reason, the same reason she awoke with apprehension, she had to keep him here. "Wait!"

"…" He stopped, not turning. She took this as a sign to continue, and she told him the only thing she knew would make him stay, appeal to his drive for purpose, for control.

"Neo's here. I can get you to him."

Nobody moved. But she knew it had worked. After a beat, Luke put his gun down, give Kezia an odd look, but she shot back a glare, shaking her head.

Smith interrupted, turning around with something akin to confusion. "He's dead. The war is over; he must be."

"But so were you," Kezia returned. "And you're back. Not quite who you were before, but you're definitely not dead."

"And tell me, girl-"

"Kezia."

He ignored her. "How can you be so definite?"

Ah. The ugly truth. "I'm the Merovingian's daughter."

The questions built up in Smith's head. Before he could voice them, though, Kezia set a stipulation. "But you have to come get ice cream with me!" Smith couldn't begin to understand her strange obsession with him and human iced confections. But if what she said was true, if she could really get him to Mr. Anderson, he could reverse the human's victory, which he was sure had been a flaw, a bug in the code.

He tossed his broken sunglasses into a nearby trash can, and followed the two out of the alley, steps heavy and measured in resignation.


Kezia's momentary elation had given way to a mild panic. Her bluff had been simple, but there was no way around its simplicity. She had no idea of knowing if Neo was even alive, much less if she had access to him. But at least the Agent was momentarily stripped of weapons and, from the looks of it, some powers, if he had been willing to trust an Exile. She took off her shades to order a mango sorbet. Today didn't seem like a creamy sort of day for her.

Luke opted for a milkshake, and Smith seemed entirely at a loss. Kezia smiled sneakily. Vanilla would probably be too sweet for him, and he didn't seem like a fruit person, ruling out fruit ice creams and sorbet.

He didn't seem to be speaking any time soon. And so she stepped up and ordered a basic scoop of chocolate, in a bowl, not cone. No frills, just ice cream, to see how he liked it. She knew of his hatred for humans, but she wanted him to accept, for some reason, that not everything about humans was bad.

Clutching their iced treats, they headed outside to the patio. Kezia giggled at seeing Smith pinch a delicate little plastic spoon in fingers that had pulled triggers to end a hundred lives.

"What is it, Miss…?" he asked menacingly. She toned her giggles down to a discreet smile.

"Ah, nothing. And it's Smith, coincidentally, Kezia Smith." The agent quirked an eyebrow coolly. Kezia gave a little smirk, catching his eye for a little longer than intended. The last name meant nothing to her; it was the name that the Merovingian and Persephone all used when out, to avoid tracking.

The sun was bright outside, and Luke ducked quickly into the small shade of an umbrella at the table. Kezia noticed Smith's obvious discomfort. He's used to having sunglasses. All the Agents are. They look like they'd kill you with a glare if you broke their glasses. She remembered her first time seeing this, and scoffed lightly at the ridiculousness. "Here," she piped, removing her shades from her pocket and holding them out to Smith. He stopped squinting to accept them, with some hesitation, and once again raised an eyebrow.

Kezia smirked and mirrored his expression, brown eyes dancing with a mischievous light. Smith scowled and sat down stiffly. Kezia flopped down easily onto one of the simple plastic chairs, familiar from frequenting this particular parlor.

She took a spoon of sorbet into her mouth, watching Smith taste his ice cream disdainfully. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was howling in amusement at the situation: Two Exiles and the most dangerous ex-Agent eating ice cream together on a sunlit patio. But in the present consciousness, she simply smiled. "Why do you do it like that?"

Smith stopped mid-spoon, looking at her with a scowl while he removed the now-empty spoon. She suppressed another giggle.

"You do it all like a robot. The sitting, the eating. Even your expressions are the same each time. Like a machine."

This time, Smith smirked. "I am, after all, a Program. Created by the Machines, but now…an Exile, like you." His uncanny imitation of her earlier words made her shoulders curl up defensively, and she offered a wan smile before returning to her sorbet. Looks like he's less human than I thought. She swirled a bit of mango flavor around in her mouth. But I always had a thing for Machines. A slight blush crept high on her cheekbones when she remembered her first crush on the Twins. That, too, had had an aspect of fear in the admiration.

Wait. Crush? Where had that come from? Smith could destroy her without blinking. There was no crush here. She simply wanted to…help him. Yes, that was it. He needed help, and nobody else would offer it but her.

Smith broke the tense silence. He stabbed his spoon into his ice cream and gripped the arms of the chair carefully. Kezia felt intimidated, but continued eating her sorbet nonchalantly, willing herself to keep calm. "Miss Smith. You haven't fulfilled your end of this agreement yet."

Kezia nodded whimsically, leaning back with the bowl in her hands. "Yeah, well, Neo's back. I don't know how, don't ask me, and I don't know where. But as you know, my father is a pretty powerful man here in the Matrix. I'm sure I could dig up something from him." She tried from saying anything definite. "You know him and his obsession with knowing everything about everyone."

"You're stalling, Miss Smith." Kezia gave a little choking cough at his blunt appraisal. How did he know? "You don't actually know anything about Mr. Anderson. Lying is a dangerous path to elect, virus child."

"I-…I'm not lying. And I'm not a child! Or a virus," she snapped bitterly, immediately regretting it as Smith stood up abruptly. His violent movement upended the fragile bowl of ice cream, sending a rivulet dripping into Kezia's lap. Without thinking, she immediately reversed its flow back into the bowl, cleaning off her shorts with another focused stare.

"Uh…K?" She looked up at Luke, then suddenly whipped her head around at Smith, horrified. All pretenses now gone, she had revealed herself to him as another one of those Exiles with strange powers. A freak. Something she hadn't called herself in forever, a name that bubbled up from the darkest parts of her memory with a vengeance.

Smith scrutinized her behind dark glasses. An Exile, but no ordinary one. But she acts like one of those disgusting viruses. She has achieved a level of humanity unprecedented in a Program. Yet she reads and manipulates code like one of the Machines. Strange . He could not help the interest that sparked in him, a remnant of his days as interrogator for the Agents. He wanted to investigate further, but that was not his purpose at the moment.

"Miss Smith, this meeting has been most unproductive." He straightened his suit jacket out with a tug. "It is in your interest that we do not meet again." He spoke the words with a slow calm that belied the threat, and walked away with measured steps, easily disappearing into the crowd.

Kezia swallowed hard, and Luke slurped unconsciously, not noticing that his milkshake was finished. Neither of them spoke a word, rattled, and Kezia finished her sorbet quickly.

As they stood up to leave, she suddenly stomped her foot down hard on the cobbled patio. Luke turned to see her looking bitterly against the sun in the direction that Smith had walked off in.

"Damn. Fucker took my shades."


AN: Well, that was about twice as long as I expected it to be. Still slow, though; it's so hard to write dialogue for Smith, especially since dialogue is my weak point. I hope it wasn't too run-on/fluffy/dense. And I hope I stayed in character and kept from making a Mary Sue. I hope you enjoyed reading nonetheless! Please review!