Title: Dawn Of Dusk: Chapter Five

Author: Stormhawk

Word Count: 3641

DoD Chapter Four is still the longest chapter but this one didn't do too badly considering the original word count was 654.

You may not want the next chapter.

I think it's getting a little boring. Well, let me know…

Please Read and Review.

Chasing the exile through the store, Smith attracted some suspicious looks from the shoppers. But the suit identified as him as an officer of the law so they cleared a path.

Stef ran for her life. She had to escape him. Once she would have never run away from him but now she knew differently, anyone who could replace her with a copy… She was an exile, agents killed exiles.

But she couldn't let what was going to happen, happen. For once she owed Jonas.

And she owed Persephone and The Keymaker.

Oh, how it had been interesting to work for The Merovingian.

Running into a service corridor she was greeted by a hall of doors, twisting each knob she finally found one that opened, quickly hiding in she shut the door quietly so he couldn't hear her.

Stef tried to control her breathing. The less noise she made the less chance there was of being discovered.

As she backed into the small office a power surge hit the mall and the lights flickered on and off.

Trying to calm herself down she remembered the first day she had gone to work for the French program.

*****

She had discovered something her first night at Hummer's. Something that she loved about being an exile. She could sleep. Something that she had dearly missed while being an agent, but as an exile she could sleep.

The twins had met her at Hummer's back door early that next morning and had taken her through a door into The Merovingian's mansion, some remote location up in the mountains but luxurious nonetheless. 

The Merovingian had walked down the elegant staircase flanked by four other bodyguards. Persephone trailed a little behind, her bored from the day before had disappeared and she actually seemed interested.

The Twins joined their boss and he looked down at her, standing a few stairs from the bottom.

"Well, do I start now?"

"No. First you must prove that you are worthy to work among us, I can't have any useless programs working for me."

"I am far from useless," she said evenly.

"I will not believe that until you have proven it."

Tests, always with the tests. Passing the tests to become a recruit had been no trouble so why should passing the tests to become a bodyguard? A slow smile spread across her face. "What do I do?"

"Fight my men. If you survive then you get the job."

She looked at them, they didn't seem anymore dangerous than rebels than she had fought but then again the oracle had mentioned about the vampires, ghosts, werewolves and the like. Could any of these programs be anything paranormal? She knew the twins were hiding something behind their pasty faces and silver coats. What it was, or what they could do…whatever it was she would find out in a minute.

"Can I kill them? Do you want me to use deadly force?"

"You may not. They can."

"What kind of bullshit is that?" She asked incredulously.

"My kind of bullshit. My world, my rules. Do you still want the job?"

"Yeah. Bring it on." He smiled creepily and held out his hand to Persephone, they walked back up the stairs to get a good vantage point. The rest of the guards surrounded her and assumed battle stances. Shaking herself out, she closed her eyes for a second to get all her concentration.

Opening her eyes she smirked, this was her kind of fun.

"Begin." He uttered.

As with the third recruit test she let all of her conscious thoughts drop away and react on instinct. She still had all of her abilities, recruit ones anyway. She was unable to shift, morph or use communication. Besides that she could do everything she had been able to do previously.

Punch, kick, block.

Flipping in midair she came down and knocks two of their heads together. Punching, she hit nothing but air but the next kick hit the target.

All of The Merovingian's guards used brute strength rather than intelligence in their fights. Except for the twins…where in hell were the pasty ones? She hadn't seen them since her future boss had started the fight.

With the other guards down she looked expectantly up at Merovingian and Persephone. "Well?"

He shook his head. The test wasn't over yet.

Persephone blinked and looked downward. Following the gaze, Stef looked down and saw one of the twins coming up from the floor.

Perplexed at the sight of a real ghost, or as real as they apparently came she didn't move. He ghosted to his full height in front of her, solidified, and smiled down at her.

"Wow." Then he smiled again.

Wait a second, wasn't there two of them?

On the edge of her sight she saw something flash, light spilled off a razor blade as it flew through the air toward her from the side. Reacting by jumping high over their heads she looked back down in horror as Two plunged the razor into his brother's chest.

Dropping the gravity out from under herself she dropped quickly back down. "Shit, I'm sorry…I didn't…" Both look at her in confusion and One pulled his brother's knife out of his chest. She watched in amazement as his skin and clothes repaired themselves.

A few seconds later, he was as good as new.

"Well done, very well done. You have the job."

*****

Smith came to where the exile had stopped running. A hallway full of doors greeted him. There were only so many doors; it would be behind one of them.

"Come out, come out. Wherever you are." The agent said in a singsong voice outside her door. It was Smith. She knew his voice and had taught him that line herself.

Though, when she had taught him that it was to play hide-and-seek with Stevie it had made her smile. Tonight it filled her with dread.

Would he really kill her?

She had been his best friend, would he really end her life?

She was just an exile now, of course he would. She was just another enemy. She thought back to their fights together. What he could do this his enemies made her shudder.

She retreated further into the shadows; the lights had flickered off and hadn't come back on, and waited to see what was going to happen.

Caring, that was her problem. She was going to die cause she cared too much.

"Come out, come out. Wherever you are."

*****

After she had been officially hired, Merovingian had left with his guards. Persephone walked back down the stairs. Stef wondered if everything this woman owned was tight and white.

Probably.

"Well, now that you're working here we should probably work on your wardrobe. My husband likes his employees to have some fashion sense."

"Sorry, I don't have that subroutine."

"Denim can't be very comfortable to fight in can it?"

"Not as comfortable as what I'm used to. Unfortunately all I have at the moment is the clothes on my back."

"What are you used to? What were you before you went rogue?" Persephone asked as she gestured to the table on the broad deck that hung over toward the edge of the cliff that the mansion was resting in.

"It's an incredible view."

"Everything my husband owns is incredible, fantastic, elegant or expensive. He is very rich, he has whatever he wants."

"What about you?"

"What about me? Are you asking me if I approve of what my husband does, his value system?"

"No, I didn't…"

"I know. Sometimes I just wish he used to be like he used to. He wasn't always like this, not before."

"Before what?"

"Before he started to value money over everything. I used to love him, he used to love me."

"And now?"

"I'm not sure anymore."  

"Why are you telling me this? Haven't you got someone else…friends?"

"I don't mean to burden you. I am like a queen who tells the maid her innermost thoughts. Except you aren't a maid."

"Are you a queen?"

"The closest thing to it. Mero is a king among the exiles and I do live in palace."

***

She had been working for them for five weeks. Taking out some of the exiles that had been stupid enough to make themselves enemies of the Merovingian. She quickly learned that the world she was working in completely revolved around him, he was all that mattered. Everyone else was incidental.

That included his wife. It was a well-known fact among the guards that he regularly cheated on her. She seemed to know but never did anything about it.

The twins were cool enough; they smoked and ate ice cream, a fact that amused her.

Persephone really was like royalty but more than a queen, she reminded Stef of princess locked up in a tower, shut away from the world and helpless to do anything about it.

Or at least, that's how most saw her; Stef knew that was far from the truth. She was very strong, not physically like the guards or even like a martial artist; she was too ladylike for that. Her strength was inside, Stef hoped she got a chance to see what she could do.

And she had helped her get some new clothes. Ones that were acceptably fashionable to pass the Merovingian's standards but comfortable and easy to fight in. And they felt familiar.  

On her first afternoon there, Persephone had pulled small key from her purse and put it into the lock of kitchen cupboard. Stef was confused for a second but as soon as the door opened she wasn't confused anymore.

It was another back door.

She took her to a tailor's; apparently all the guards had their outfits made there. As the tailor measured her she looked over at Persephone. "Can I have a suit? An agent suit, that's what I fight in."

"You go out there in a suit like that and you won't last long, not without all of the abilities of an agent. Exiles hate agents. But a suit might be possible, but with alterations."

The next day her clothes were delivered. A royal blue silken dress suit, longer jacket than the standard agent jacket but still suitable to fight in. A pale blue business shirt with pearl buttons had been tailored perfectly for her.

"Well?"

Stef had seen the initial designs the day before but hadn't expected anything like this. "It's very cool Persephone. Thank you."

That afternoon she had followed the twins into the weapons room. She could have anything she could use. Each guard had their specialty. One and Two had their razors, Caradoc used a bejeweled sword, and Lee Ming used a katana. Lee was an expert, only the second person she had seen use that type of sword.

Greer was good, no mistake but Lee was better. He had been using it all his life.

Hidden among the racks of guns was her weapon of choice. Picking up the Desert Eagle she felt a little better. Maybe she couldn't be an agent again but she could still do what she was best at. Defending her employer. One had been for a cause, one was for a paycheck, besides that there was no difference.

***

It was Stevie's birthday. Poor kid was stuck in the real world. On Anderson's ship nonetheless, living with her dad's worst enemy.

"Happy birthday kid."

"You like her right?" a voice said. Spinning, Stef couldn't see the owner of the voice.

"Where are you Jonas?" Damn it, what did he want now?

"Over here," the TV said. Stef walked over to the TV and knelt in front of it.

"What do you want Jonas? Wish me a merry Christmas?"

"Actually out here it's only July." The programmer said, pushing his round glasses back up his nose.

"Great. What do you want then?"

"Stevie. You like her right?"

"Didn't you realize that when we met the first time? Or are you that stupid?"

"You shouldn't insult me. Or I won't tell you what you what I'm here to tell you."

"What is that? And why would I be interested?"

"She's going to die."

"What?"

"Right now she's in the Matrix with Smith. They're eating ice cream. In a few minutes Neo is going to show up. Smith will get pissed off and start beating the crap out of him – or tries to at least. Anderson makes the call and they pull her plug."

"You're lying."

"No I'm not."

"Then why are you telling me?" Jonas hated her, why would he tell her?

Reading her thoughts as they were displayed on the screen beside him he shook his head. "I don't hate you…I hate Serica, the real, real you – the original, the person you are based on. You, you're just annoying, but on the other hand you are interesting. You like trying to save everyone so I thought I'd give you the chance."

"I'm stuck up here in the mountains. How am I supposed to get to the city in a few minutes? Are you going to teleport me? I don't even have key to the backdoors."

"We'll get to that in a minute. You do realize that you're an exile don't you?"

"Yes Jonas I'm not that stupid. That may explain why my suit is blue."

"Agents kill exiles."

"Yeah, Hummer and the Oracle told me. Your point is."

"Well, I know you're going to help the kid, so I programmed that into the scenario and ran it. I've just seen your future and turned back time to talk to you now."

He couldn't mean…

"What happens Jonas?"

"You're going to die. Smith is going to kill you. So here you have a choice, save the kid or save yourself."

"That's a bitch of a choice." She said, swallowing and wishing she didn't have to make this choice. "You could just type in some commands and make it all better. You could – you're god aren't you?"

"Yes. But this is your world, you have to make the choice."

"Please don't make me do this."

"Make the choice Stef, you're all running out of time."

She couldn't let Stevie die and she would be a coward if she sat there and didn't at least try and save her. She could get away from Smith, she could escape. She knew she could. He wouldn't catch her.

"You are going to die Stef."

"Stop reading my thoughts Jonas."

"You want to know how to get to the mall?"

"Do I need a map?"

"No, just the white queen."

"Persephone?"

"Yeah. That was a good day when I programmed her. Lovely resolution."

"Are you in love with your own piece of programming?"

"There is nothing wrong with appreciating a piece of fine art. Tell her you need to see the Keymaker."

"The who?"

"Small Asian guy that Mero has locked up in the dungeon."

"This place has a dungeon?" Apparently, it took more than five weeks to learn everything about this mansion.

"You're running out of time."

Stef stood and walked away from the TV. Looking back he nodded. "You're welcome."

***

He cut the transmission into the matrix, which was easier than pulling her into his world or placing himself into her world. What he did had little difference to a web cam, he could see her and she could see him – it was all they needed.

He had lied, he hadn't run the second simulation, he was just going to see what was going to happen if she had gone and tried to save the day.

Last time it had worked quite well, this time however it couldn't go as well. Agents always caught and killed exiles, only in isolated cases had they escaped the protectors of the system.

And this time Stef was just an exile.

Pulling his chair in close to the table, he propped his head on his hands and watched as Stef ran through the mansion. Unlike the humans in the real world who watched the Matrix by decoding the green code he was able to watch it like he was watching TV or a video game, it was his world – why should he have to work to see the results of his programming skills?

***

She only had a few minutes and the mansion was huge. She needed to find Persephone. The white queen could be anywhere.

White queen that sounded like something from Alice in Wonderland. No, that was the red queen. Well, it sounded the same. This world really needed to get a new metaphor.

"Do you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes Stef?" Morpheus had asked her. The truth was he didn't even know. What the hell would happen if he met Jonas and discovered that the world he was fighting for was just another level of programming?

Maybe she could tell them, tell them that the war was for nothing and when it came down to it they were no different. Everyone and everything lived on Jonas' file server.

No, she wasn't that cruel, not even to the rebels.

Not that she had the time.

Damn Jonas, he could fix it easily, why did he have to make her make this choice.

She didn't want to die.

Again.

She'd lost count of how many times she had died.

And by the way he was talking he didn't plan on bringing her back.

And who the hell was Serica? She could ask Jonas next time he decided to talk to her. If she got the chance.

She would get the chance.

Wouldn't she?

"Persephone where are you?" Stef muttered.

"What's wrong?" the white queen asked as she walked up behind her.

"I need to see the Keymaker. I need his help."

"Who told you about him?"

"Please, someone I care about is going to die if I don't find him."

"All right, he's this way." Walking hurriedly, they walked down to the dungeon and she unlocked a door to a small room with a whirring machine inside.

"Oh – you're here," the short man said. He stood away from his key machine and tuned to the thousands of key hooks on the walls. Walking along it, he selected a small silver one. The initials S.M. had been carved in by hand.

"This is my key?" he nodded. "How did you know?"

"It is my job to know. Use that door."

"Thank you," looking at Persephone she smiled sadly. "I'm not coming back," no matter how much she believed that she could escape Smith she knew she wasn't going to be coming back. "Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome."

Stef pushed the key into the lock of the Keymaker's small room and twisted it, opening the door again she saw the mall. Turning back for a second she looked at the white queen. "You know Mero cheats on you don't you?"

"Yes. Don't worry about him. I'm going to deal with him."

"I knew you would. Good luck." Slamming the door behind her she ran into the mall looking for Smith.

She was too late; she could see him walking toward the door of the mall. Just visible outside the door was Anderson and Stevie. Running toward him she knew she could never get there in time. Something ran into her, a small boy and a toy car.

Just what she needed.

Reaching down, she forced the car from his hand and threw it at Smith's head. Her aim was true and it struck him in the side of the head.

"Come on, forget about Anderson. Don't be an idiot, he'll kill her if you're an idiot," she prayed. "Please." Her prayers were answered when he turned away from the rebel and his daughter, she saw him put his earpiece back in.

~ ~ "You are going to die Stef."

Jonas' words resonated through her as she ran for her life.

***

Now she was just waiting and hiding in the dark.

She had considered running but she had more of a chance if she stayed quiet and still. Her breathing was quieter than a whisper but she was sure that everyone in the shopping center must have been able to hear her thumping heart that was threatening to break out of her chest.

She was going to die. Some how she just knew that.

*****

Smith shifted into the room instead of kicking the door down. A chance of a surprise attack was not to be sneezed at, when dealing with the enemy all advantages should be taken.

He shifted in behind the exile, the barely discernible shape of the rogue program told him it was looking the other way. Stupid program – it wouldn't even see its own doom coming.

Walking silently forward as only an agent can he walked right up to it…her and grabbed the back of her head and slammed it into the wall. There was a sickening sound as the soft flesh and skull impacted the wall.

The sudden attack knocked all the chance of retaliation from her.

Some of the plaster fell away as he spun her around and rapid-punched her in the gut. He heard a sickening crack twice as two of her ribs broke from the force of his blows.

It was nothing more than an exile; he could beat it and pretend that it was Anderson. A new hate for each powerful blow.

Anderson.

Rebels.

Zion.

Whitman.

Beating his fists harder into the meaningless exile harder than he had ever fought before he could feel blood on his hands. Shaking himself from his vengeful funk he realized that his enemy was injured and injured badly.

Well, it was weak now. Too weak to fight back.

Time for the kill.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ok, I think I'll stop it right here.

No more updates.

Ever.

He, he, he.

Ok, I'm sorry. I pulled a Wachowski Brothers. As in I did little justice to the Reloaded characters. Sorry, I did cut out some sub-plots and stuff that were making the story unnecessarily complicated. Same goes for Hummer, I wish I'd had a chance to get some more of him in here. But never fear, this series hasn't seen the last of them.

Even if it has seen the last of some others.