Title: The Kingdom of Hell.

Author: TheRedPony

Rating: R, consensual sex and language. And Guns lots of Guns.

Feedback: Please and thank you. THAT MEANS REVIEW YOU SLIMY PIG DOGS!. You ever see Willow? I love those pig dogs they rock.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Matrix nor any thing else related the films Nor Any thing From Tolkien's Estate. Their not my toys, I just play with them. I swear to put them back were I found them when I am done.

Story Notes: Wow maybe Smith really is minding his P's and Q's. HA HA he's not even in this chapter so don't get your hopes up.


No more limits -
No preview life
In a perfect system
Take a stand
And fight for freedom
-Real McCoy

***

She reached out and took One's hand, and then grabbed Two's as well as she pulled them in the direction of a high top table in a far corner of the room. They wanted to recoil pull away form that touch. They were not used to any one touching more then a passing glance or a hand shake. The only time they were touched for longer was when the Merovingian came to rape their bodies and their souls. For something so little, her grasp was firm. They wondered if this was normal habit of hers to drag people around by their wrists. When she reached the table she motioned for them to sit on one side while she took the other.

"She touched us" One said introspectively, Two nodded, and the girl turned to look at them surprised by he comment.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. As I said they do not always tell me the things I should know."

"No it's all right, we are not used to it, that is all."

She cocked her head slightly, then turned to look at Agent Miller and Kelly on the stage, who were now singing Pink Floyd lyrics. The song, however; was finishing and they were already starting to leave the stage to join the trio.

One interrupted her observation "How are we to address you Miss?"

She looked back and smiled at the two. "Firstly know that in the Kingdom all superiors are addressed as Sir, regardless of gender. It is a symbol that we have no divisions in that department. Secondly until I tell you other wise you my call me Lady L." The twins nodded respectfully. She turned and smiled to the slightly more disheveled looking agents who had wondered over next to her. They mumbled apologies then grinned wide and innocently. She just stood, and hugged them each in turn. "Thank you for brining them back."

"It was our pleasure, Lady L."

Kelley nodded in agreement. "These two are alright, a bit jumpy, but they'll even out yet."

The Twins were not sure is this had been a compliment, but they smiled politely non the less.

L nodded. "I'm sure they will." She seemed to ponder for a second, then continued. "You were here rather quickly, I had not expected you for at least another half hour."

Both agents nodded, and Miller filled her in that Smith was gone.

"No report then? I don't like not knowing what's going on in the Agency. Next time" She smiled and sounded cheery at the last words. "You two want to stay here for a while?"

Miller and Kelly nodded eagerly. She waved her hand and they nearly skipped back to the stage, with much cheering from the crowd. She was still standing and smiled up at the twins. On the elevated stools, she they were still taller then her standing. Her face was kind, and her hair was dark auburn. Much the color that the agents had, when they thought about it. Her face and manner was young though they knew she had many years behind her. If she was human she would be no older then twenty years, if that.

The twins stood at her expectant gaze, then followed her as she walked away from them. The twins risked a glance towards the stage and the two agents were know dancing very suggestively and had lost their jackets and ties. Their ear pieces were missing too, or had they ever had them, the twins could not remember.

She led them deeper into the building, down several flights of black stares, and a few locked doors, before finely coming to a red painted door that the twins would have completely missed if L has not stopped before it. Some sort of manipulation in the Matrix, seemed to make their eyes simply skip over and it took a good amount of dizzying concentration to look at it.

"Do you know what's in their?"

The twins nodded. "The red room and the red door. We saw it in our dream."

She nodded back to them. "I know, the Matrix sent that dream to you. It's a program Master Charon wrote, those who will pass through the Red Gate must see it first. You are lucky you are exiles, in the mainframe's eyes you are already dead. If you were a human or an agent, we would have had to wait for you to die before you could come."

They pondered this silently as she opened the door. She swung it inward then pushed them in, when they hesitated.

They entered the red room from their dreams. Every detail was the same. The hues of red on the wall, the stark painting, the floor even glittered the same. Then their eyes fell upon the gate its self. It looked like any door in shape but it was amazing to see, the work was as amazing as their dream, such astounding details. They heard the door click close behind them, and the snap of the healed boots and jingle of the silver toe clips the girl wore. She crossed the room to the Red Gate. Her pale fingers brushed the door, and it began to melt into strands of white light. It was blinding even through the sunglasses and the twins has to close their sensitive eyes. They felt her hands close around their wrists, as she drew then through the gate.

***

The room was still the same confining white as when Smith had entered it. The grim man and his assistance still stood but this time the single stretcher had been replaced by two. The trio entered, and although the girl stood tall with a smile, the mirror image men swooned in the bright light, then collapsed to the floor.

"Take good care of them Charon, I want to know once they are awake." L spoke, then slipped out the black door and shut it with a snap.

Charon turned to the waiting assistants. "Lugos and Nari take the one on the right, Coronis help me with this one." Then in silence the fair skinned twins were lifted to the awaiting stretchers, and were carted off though the black door.

The red door had already sealed by the time the black door closed again for the second time. The white room stayed bright, and its light seemed to intensify by its own accord happy to be left with only its doors and no offending black outfits to greedily rob its taintlessness. The room was once again silent and pure.

***

One's eyes fluttered open, the room was dark cool and welcoming, a razor edge contrast to the overwhelming brightness that had taken them. His had reached out for Two, whom he could hear breathing beside him, and he caught his lovers fingers. They were week too weak to move much, but they managed to pull them selves closer together. They were not sure how they had come to be in this place but they sensed that this double wide hospital bed was not the standard. Some one was looking out for their sanity, and One smiled a silent thanks to who ever there guardian angle was they realized they needed to be so close.

Two's hand can between them and twined its self around One's tie. He pulled One's luxurious mouth close to his, but before they could kiss some one in the room cleared their thought.

A man was hanging, or rather standing on the ceiling. His armed were crossed, and he had a long tailed jacket that draped inverted behind him. He wore what seemed to be the standard black pants, with the same shirt and tie that Mouse and Xiao had worn. But he also had something else that the they did not. He had on a vest, it was black, with a cut red paisley that seemed to come and vanish as the mans chest slowly raised and fell. He had sun glasses too, but instead of a traditional frame, they swept back and closed his eyes off completely, they could not be seen from any angle. The man smiled and stunning white teeth with long fangs made an eerie but not unwelcome upside-down grin.

He flipped mid air and landed squarely on his feat. "Sorry to intrude boys, but I felt you might want to know I was here before you continued your season." He had an intriguing way of speaking. His accent was not British entirety, more like a Brit who had half lost theirs. It was not course as one might expect but instead seamless and smooth. It made him sound regal. And maybe that was it, maybe he wasn't British at all just a delightfully aristocratic speaker. He raised a hand and bowed to the twins. "My name is Master Severus, but you can call me Needles. As long as we're not in the company of Her Lady or any of the Agents that is."

The twins pulled them selves up and faced him.

"Why do they call you Needles?" Two asked being the more lucid of the two. Well at least lucid enough that his curiosity was peeked.

"Well that just happens to be one of my favorite topics" Needles opened up his vest and as good as his name the whole inside of it was lined with hypodermics and needles of all sorts.

"Wow, what are all they for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!" His grinned widened "Don't worry I am only messing with you. They're for all kinds of things. I'm a vampire, my blood acts a catalyst and it can form all kinds of chemicals with the right additives. Its quite handy in a fight. I can simply make you dizzy, knock you out or kill you depending on the combination. And I proudly say I know over five hundred different poisons that can kill a human rebel. That's how I earned my Mastership ranking."

Two knitted his brow. 'The Merovingian had vampire programs and they never could do any thing like that?" His voice was questioning.

"Well I'm not a program, I'm a real vampire. Born of the blood Ni in the real world. I have been alive even longer then L, by a good four hundred years I should think. Its gets hard to measure years when you don't have seasons any more." He frowned and sighed. "I miss summer nights in Cairo more than any thing. But the past is gone and this is your life were here to talk about right? Should I inform her that your awake or do you need a bit to collect your selves."

Two stroked ones hair and glanced to Needles "The latter one. We need a minute."

The odd vampire, buttoned up his vest and smiled at them. "I am required not to leave the room. Seeing as I don't sleep more then few hours a day any ways, I am often put on night watch for the newly unplugged, excuse the rebel term. No offence but its not the most intriguing thing I could be doing"

One found his voice, and shrugged his comment off. "Is it common for programs to collapse."

"Yes and not just programs every one collapses after their first go through the gate. In fact it is expected and planned for. I don't know why it happens. It just dose."

The Twins were feeling better, their weakness had not been so bad after all. One half sat up and half climbed up Two until they were both fully upright. For some reason he felt the need to explain to this… Non Human? Undead? Well what ever he was, that they were not brothers. Every one assumed that because they were twins, they thought they were brothers. The twins hated assumptions, they were often fruitless and more often dangerous.

"Master Severus, you should know that… Well about earlier, we're not actually brothers"

Needles smirked "Its alright Apollo I know what you are. I remember when you were created. And please call me Needles, Master Severus is so stuffy "

The twins were struck dumb "What did you call me? And you remember when we were written? What was our purpose?"

He held his hands up defensively "Slow down! I called you Apollo, this was your given name" His eyes fell to Two. "And you were Artemis."

Two's face wrinkled "That's a girls name"

"No it's a hunters name, and as for your purpose this I can not say. You would have to ask L. She remembers more about the programs then I do. But she did write a good number of them."

"We are Apollo and Artemis" One mused in a whisper to him self. If they had different names did that make them less the same.

The vampire seemed to pick up on One's misgivings. Was that one of his gifts? Vampires were said to be highly empathic, but maybe they just read body language better then others. Dying often puts things in more detailed perspective. "You are now the same beginnings you were when you woke this morning. Nothing has changed, only the state of mater in which your soul exists. A name, an identity, these things may change, our perceptions and our personalities may do the same, but in the end we are the same people we were at the beginning of time."

One seemed eased by this, and his voice had gained a bit of its former humor to it "Was it dying that made you a poet and philosopher Needles?"

He smiled again "No my friend but living for many long years did. Seeing tides turns, kings rise and fall, empire crumble, and in their place unnamed deities rise to power. These are the things that keep me melancholy, but it is the hope of a new future, a life were trees exists because they are beautiful not because they need a propose. Its this hope that keeps me sane. I want to spend one more summer night in Cairo you see. Then I will have all I need in life."

The twins smiled and held each other tightly.

********

This chapter has not been beta'd yet.

Angel: Yes there is a purple gate and he will be back next chapter but you already know that

Rose: Thanks China, more twins just for you

Monkeys: Nope but thanks, Rose is one and Lauren is going to start as well

Devil hunter shampoo: Where'd ya go come back!