A/N: Eheh.. sorry about taking so long, this chapter was difficult towards the end. It doesn't capture Ree nearly as much as I'd like it to, but c'est la vie. I might not update till Monday or so because I have a tad bit of summer reading left to complete before school starts, plus I have to finish some bloody French packet my teacher thought it would be fun to assign over the summer. I don't mean to spill on you guys. Here's your chapter. More of Dahr, of course, but not nearly so much as I would like. It's so hard to establish a relationship over one chapter, but trust me it's there. And, Kit, I described Ree's room just for you ^_^ It's not a very good description, mind you, but I think it's enough to get the point across. Silly Ree, she ought to put up posters or something, like Widge. Ah well, c'est la vie.

D/C: not. mine. My stuff is limited to Ree and Dahr, 917 and the A-lines. I'm not getting anything out of this other than self-esteem and ego. And writing tips. That's it.

Rhiannon:

Chapter Ten

Rhiannon space-hopped, but liquid fire sped through her veins and froze her to the spot. Something was digging into her arm; she could not get away. Her fight-or-flight response kicked in, and the adrenaline in her bloodstream multiplied several times. Her body was doing the thinking as she tried to claw the hand off her arm.

"I win," a voice said in her ear.

Rhiannon tried once again to disappear, but the fire burned her and froze her to the spot.

"Relax, it was just a test," said the voice.

Rhiannon calmed down and realized that she had overreacted for the second time in a day. This was a sparring exercise, designed to test her newfound ability. "I guess I owe you coffee," she said breathlessly.

The table is wood. It has been painted and coated with plastic. While Dahr went to the little boy's room, Rhiannon turned her attention to this table, attempting to read the strange script. The coffee shop itself was cosy, and people chattered away on cushioned couches, at wood and iron tables, in posh lounge areas, and around marble coffee tables. The coffee was divine, and Rhiannon was contemplating a second cup, although she had yet to finish her first.

As Dahr returned to the table, a woman came by with a sponge cake. "Here," she said. "It's your sponge cake."

"Oh, no," said Rhiannon with a smile, "this is not our order."

The waitress beamed, "Madam, it's a free sponge cake. It comes with two orders of coffee on every Tuesday."

Rhiannon blushed. "Oh," she mumbled. "Thank you."

The waitress smiled at Dahr. "Hello, Zados," she said slyly.

"Um," Dahr said as he swallowed his coffee. He motioned to Rhiannon. "This is …"

"Rhiannon," she filled in for him.

"Right. Luce, this is Rhiannon. Rhiannon, this is Luce."

"What'd ya do, Z? Pick her up off the street?" the waitress asked with a laugh as she walked away.

"Who was that?" asked Rhiannon.

"A girl."

"Well, obviously, Dahr. Who is she?"

"An old friend."

"You're allowed to have those?"

"Human agents get nights off. I get Tuesdays off. Free sponge cake, can you say no?"

"I see. And how many of these 'human agents' are there?"

"Don't know, don't care. It's not like we're allowed to see each other, anyways."

"Why?"

"Oh, 'cause there was a lot of double agent business in some previous Matrices. The machines decided not to let the human agents get any ideas or something. So I'm assuming that you're not human?"

"Actually," Rhiannon said, a wistful mist creeping over her eyes, "I don't know."

"So… you don't know whether you're a human or a program? That's strange. With all that bouncing around you were doing, I figured you were a machine, but after I saw your code, I couldn't tell."

Rhiannon nearly choked on her coffee. "You can see my code?!" she hissed, hope coursing through her veins.

Dahr beamed with pride. "That's my talent. I read the code. But anyways… about your talent. How do you do that—that popping thing?"

"Eh… I'm not sure," Rhiannon admitted. "It's like breathing. I just do it."

"Huh…" Dahr said, stumped. "Now that's a puzzle. I know what the code does, but not what you do…"

"So then what is it that I do, Mr. Smarty-pants?"

"Oh that's easy," Dahr declared jovially. "You know how everything is a code, so this'll be simple to explain. You insert your code into a different location. It's the commands you're using that elude me."

Rhiannon looked over her mug. "What eludes me," she said, "is how you stopped me."

Dahr smiled as if he had just been asked how he discovered the Pyramids. He proclaimed, "I held onto you."

"Yes, I know. But what did you do that stopped me?"

"I held onto your code."

"Messed," muttered Rhiannon. "That is messed." She was secretly wondering how that worked. He would have to serious control of himself to be able to pull off a stunt like that, but it seemed impossible to her. She just tucked it away into the back of her mind.

~@~

Excerpt: Diary of Rhiannon Thomason, 23rd October

Again, I find that I must explain myself. Nick, I didn't write for two days because I flat didn't have my diary. How could I have written in it? Anyways, this time, I have some serious explaining to do. I hope this doesn't make you angry with me…

So you see, Nick, there was little else that I could do, considering that these agents are using me as an experiment. They have over two hundred other girls just like me. We fight anarchists. Anyways, I daresay I shan't see you again, but if I am ever offered the chance, I will visit you in an instant. My quarters here are very… futuristic, too say the least. If you stand in the doorway, my small bed is on your right, my desk in the back on the right, my wardrobe on your left, and my bookcase in the back on the left. My room is bloody colourless. There is absolutely no colour anywhere. I think I shall shrivel. The only things that aren't, are this blackish grey are white. It's fairly morbid, and I feel like I'm living in a coffin, but then I would think of ­that analogy.

~@~

TIME PASSED since Rhiannon became the first A-line to enter active duty. She and her beau, Dahr Zados, often sparred and went out for coffee on Tuesdays. However, it was six months before she was deemed worthy of her own shift and she had only been working it for three weeks when…

The man yelled in the alleyway. She probably would not have found him if he had not. She appeared in front of him, and then she could almost hear his operator screaming in the real world. She smirked as she backed the battered and bruised rebel into the wall at the end of the alley. Using her speed, she thrust out her arm and caught his neck in a viselike grip, lifting him a few inches from the ground. With her free arm, she pulled out a sleek black cell phone, and hit three on the speed dial.

Her voice had changed considerably since she had started training. Her once sarcastic tones and colourful language had been replaced by a cold and malicious sounding near monotone, which was evident in her brief announcement into the phone.

"Got him," she declared, emotionless. She snapped the phone shut and slipped it into the pocket of her pants.

The man's eyes flashed, but he kept silent. She slapped her pair of handcuffs onto his wrists roughly, and, using the trick Dahr taught her, she held onto his code as she space-hopped into the agency lobby. She then frog-marched him past the astounded secretaries and staring agents. Her first actual assignment and she had brought him in in an hour. She did not focus on the faces of the programs around her, and she forced her wide-eyed prisoner to continue along the hallway.

"Quit staring," she mumbled, audible only to him. Her frustration was obvious.

Surprised at the simple humanity of the emotion, he followed her docilely, like a lamb to the slaughter. She led him to the elevator and stepped inside.

The doors closed.

She said, "Prison bay." Her inner self wanted to laugh at the Star Wars-ness of the command. She chanced a glance at her captive. He was looking wildly about the empty elevator. She wanted to tell him that she hated the blank steel, too. She was contemplating all the things that she wanted to say to this man beside her. He was not only cute, but she felt that he had some respectable qualities, like courage and honour. Regretting capturing him, she decided to help him escape. No, she thought, pushing her rebellious thoughts to the back of her mind.

The doors opened, saving her from herself for the time being. She led her hostage down the cellblock. She had heard several gasps when the door opened, but as she walked down the row, she felt the relief pouring off the jailbirds in waves. She didn't blame them of course; they were more than terrified of the agents, and though she was one, they knew her only as a trainee. It didn't bother her, and she actually felt sorry for them, locked away to await death. Pushing her emotions to the back of her mind, she scolded herself.

~@~

"Congratulations, 4100," the head said. Rhiannon automatically mumbled the correction, but the head only continued, "Your first assignment was completed beautifully. Your new instructions are to interrogate this rebel. Success is dependant on whether or not you get him to tell you anything relevant to the rebellion. Doubtless, he will not know anything of use, but this is just practice. If his crew does not kill him, Agent Zados will meet you outside your office in one hour." The head disappeared into the blackness of the computer screen.

Rhiannon made her way up to her office after she filed her report. The secretary program that she handed it to had seemed nervous or something. After she reached her room, she flipped open a psychology book, and scanned a few pages. She was far too restless to concentrate, and she slammed it shut. She sat on her bed, her head in her hands, and awaited the stroke of the clock that would indicate one hour.

-}^^#~@~#^^{-

I'm writing up the next part after I post this, so you might not have to wait till Monday. (If you're east of ny, it might be Tuesday, I dunno) I'm typing as fast as I can, but reviews always make me type faster. I swear. They're as psycho-izing as sugar. And for fyi…

Ree and Dahr really like each other … in that way.
Ree is really struggling with this new Agent identity.
Ree is also very, very agitated, anxious, and restless at the end of this chap.
The head is still as annoying and pig-headed as ever.
You must review in four minutes or this chapter will self-destruct.
Jaa!
Sincerely from your author, megami