Agents: Bodhidharmazan II

by TheRedPony

Part II of Bodhidharmazan.

2. Parts III & IV

Title: Bodhidharmazan 2 parts, III and IV

Author: TheRedPony a.k.a. Uber Agent Zane

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer:

Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski brothers.

Agents universe: co-owned by Stormhawk and Overlord Mordax.

I own only my ideas and my self.

Word Count: 7222

Summary: Zane is a new recruit. He's not the particularly skilled at any thing but his dagger, which he wields with precision. Agent Brown tries to train the young recruit and gets more then he bargained for.

Notes: " Zippy Zippy Zippy NoooOOO!"

This is a slash-based story, but the rating if for violence only. Many thanks to Star, who I have made evil to spite her!.

Love is like rain, you can explain it logically but nothing can describe how it feels. It can change your heart forever. It can make oceans and destroy mountains, it is gentle and life brining, and thunderous and death barring. No one can tell you that you are in love. You must know it for your self.

Please read and Review.

"Take these arms that were made for lovin'
And this heart that will beat for two
Take these eyes that were meant for watching over you
And I've been such a long yime waiting
For someone I call call my own
I've been chasing the life I'm dreaming
Now I'm home"

~ Kylie Minogue

*** Part III***

^… Anderson's coming. Run, Zane. …^ He heard the biting edge of panic in the Agents voice. Brown's fear was justified. Everyone knows what Neo can do, if he gets a hold of you. The rebellion's prize bull, and they would shamelessly pit him against any fool who would stand in the way. Zane knew is chances of surviving this fight were growing slimmer by the second.

He ran and as he did so, dove head long into the wall which he quickly attempted to scramble up. His hands slipped over old mossy pipes and the thick silt of dust that coated every surface inside the wall. Light was non-existent and he did not have the time to stop and feel his way around. Each placement of his hands choked the air with more dust and breathing became harder. He gave the tinniest half cough.

Then he was struck, like a leaf tossed before a speeding train. Zane was slammed through the interior wall and was pinned in a heap on the cold cement floor. Above him loomed a dark silhouette. The moon showing eerily behind the figure, giving it a ghastly look, as plaster dust fell like drafts of pure snow.

Perhaps, he though, he had chosen the wrong religion after all. There really was an angel of death. He blinked once clearing the impact of the floor from his eyes. His vision cleared and he saw himself, reflected in dark glasses.

"Anderson," his voice was a hoarse whisper and the figure growled down at him.

"This is for Eof." Blows fell like rain striking the recruit repeatedly. He felt three of his ribs crack, giving way under the mounting force of the rebel's attack on his body. Zane managed to scamper backwards towards Bethan, and then, while Neo steadied him self to advance again, he reached for the traitorous recruit.

She tried to sidestep away but Zane latched on to her leg and drew his dagger so that the point touched the inside of her thigh. "I'll slice her femoral artery open. That will give you less then half an hour to find her body, extract her and stitch her up before she bleeds to death on you, and takes all the secrets she knows about the agency with her."

He saw Neo pale and step back. This was obviously something the rebellion did not want. "I hope you have a damn good pilot. You're going to need it if you want to save any scrap in her head." He lifted his arm and dove the blade deep into the young girls leg, who doubled over in pain.

Zane rolled out of the way and watched in satisfaction as Neo bolted to catch the falling girl, then picked her up and bounded skyward, with her in his arms. Zane stood, relatively unscathed and shook the plaster and the paint chips form his suit.

He made contact with Agent Brown as he leaped form building to building . The sky was dark, no moon and no stars. The night smelled like rain, it smelled clean and new. He was safely back inside Agent headquarters in under three minuets, and rode the elevator down towards the medical ward gently probing at a few cracked ribs and otherwise generally sore spots

When he entered the ward Brown was there. He mumbled something about needing reports. Jones was there as well, he seemed bitingly angry over the loss of his recruit. Jones and Brown tended to skirt the edges of the room. It was a vain attempt by both of them to find out what they needed and at that same time not get within a civilized distance of each other.

Brown spoke, his voice was biting but Zane let the words roll over him. Then again this was Agent Brown, all his words were biting. "You let her escape. We have seen in the past that the rebels are often able to retrieve someone in under half an hour."

"He lied to them." Brown swung his head about to face Jones; Zane fancied it was like a great bull lining up his next charge.

"What do you mean?"

Jones looked a bit smug, though he still wilted slightly under the ominous glare of the larger agent, "Humans die in four minutes from an attack like that, not thirty."

Brown turned his head and faced Zane again. He looked down at him expectantly.

Zane felt a little like the air had just gotten thick and cold around him, under that strong gaze. "I did, If Neo had thought there was no hope of saving her he would not have bothered to try. I told him half an hour so that he would fly off, giving me time to get out of there. She will be dead by now I should think."

Brown growled slightly, and Jones looked to be about to speak but the opening of the door to the medical ward interrupted him. Agent Mimosa stepped through and left the door half open. Zane noticed this; it was bad luck to leave a door half open.

"I heard what you did Zane."

"Well ma'am, it was no thirty two second plan."

Mimosa narrowed her eyes but didn't say any thing for while. Zane suddenly realized he had heard Smith talk about her thirty-two second plans while he had crossed over the ceiling of his office. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, its just that some people would do well to soundproof their ceilings.

He grinned sheepishly and mouthed 'I'll tell you later.' Yes half open doors were bad luck, Bethan had left the basement door half open and it had cost him three cracked ribs.

He fidgeted slightly, he was eager to get back to work, but it was not to be that night. The medic told him not to do any thing too aggressive for several hours while his ribs mended. At least now that he knew about the Matrix, he could heal rather quickly, but a cracked rib still hurts.

He stood after the medical Agent told him he could go, but he was not three feet from the edge of the examining table when Brown shifted the two of them to his office. He waved his hand towards an appearing chair, "Sit."

Zane did so with out hesitating, and looked towards the Agent expectantly.

"Your actions were… highly satisfactory."

Zane smiled, "highly satisfactory is an oxymoron Agent Brown."

Brown growled back at him, but Zane only smiled. "Thank your for the compliment. It means a lot, especially because I have never heard you compliment any thing."

"Do not tell the others that I did."

"Are you worried they might think your going all soft and human like?"

Brown's glare was menacing. "Your treading on thin ice Zane."

"I'm sorry sir … but isn't that a human expression?"

Brown looked exasperated. "What are you doing Zane?"

"Sorry sir, I was just rather touched."

"About what?"

"When Anderson came, you sounded almost concerned for me."

Brown raised his eyebrow and snorted, while leaning back defensively in his office chair. "I wasn't."

"Take your glasses off and tell me that."

Brown tilted his head slightly to the side. His voice was much softer now. "We already did this once Zane. It did not lead us anywhere before."

"I found out you can be happy."

"I am not happy now."

"You see, now that I believe. What do you feel now?"

"Minor irritation," his voice was dry and laced in satirical humor.

"Then there is hope for you yet." Zane winked at the Agent, then stood and crossed the office. He pressed his palms and his forehead against the cool glass of the window. The rain was etching down the side of the dark pains and looked like a kaleidoscope of diamonds. It had started sometime while they had been talking. He opened the window, and it creaked in protest like it had never been opened before. Zane let his hand drift and flutter bird-like outside the window, dancing in the rain.

"I was so afraid. Anderson is like the black death. I thought I would never see you again Taizan."

He could not see Brown's chair, but Zane heard him stand and move behind him. Zane was surprised as Brown stood close enough that he could feel the warmth of the agent body, and smell the clean sent of starched clothing and gunpowder. Brown leaned forward and captured Zane's cool wet hand in his own warm one. Slowly he drew the arm back inside the building and pulled the recruit against him in the process.

Zane closed his eyes and let him self relax in the strong agent's arms. Brown stood very stiff and unyielding.

"Zane, can I ask you a question?"

"Anything, Taizan."

"Tell me about love. How do you know if you feel love?"

Zane frowned. "I am not sure how to explain it to you. Love is one of those things that you just have to know for yourself. No one can tell you you're in love."

Brown paused then repeated the question. "How do you know?"

He smirked, and pulled the Agents arms more strongly around him. "This is like describing a rainbow to a blind man."

"I'm not blind."

"No your not, but you know so little about emotions." Brown growled and tightened his arms around Zane.

"Why this? Why now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you holding me?"

"Because I was going to close the window, but I just decided I like the rain. I never knew I liked the rain before."

Zane's grin grew wider. "I love the rain, its like the whole world is being born again. It makes the city clean and the air fresh. Anything can happen when the rain falls."

Brown sighed. It was a remarkably human like action. "Some are frightened of the rain."

"Sure, some times it is freighting. Great storms shake buildings and uproot trees. Any one who doesn't hold the rain in high regard is foolish. You can't be reckless with rain."

"Its just like rain isn't it?"

Zane stood silent for a moment in pensive contemplation. After a few moments he nodded. "Yes, love is like rain. When it comes you can never stop it. You just have to give yourself too it."

Brown seemed tense and let his arms slip to his side. Zane pressed his hand back against the cool glass.

"Did you manage to retrieve any information?"

Zane turned around to face the agent. He thought for a moment, and then smiled. "Yes actually."

He walked back to the desk. Brown returned to his black and silver office chair but Zane sat crossed legged on the large desktop. He withdrew a white envelope form his jacket. 'Alpha' was scrawled on the cover.

"Alpha?" Brown leaned closer to examine it.

"It must have been for Neo. Alpha is the first, 'The One'," Brown nodded. Zane took out his dagger and slit the envelope open. Removing the papers he went to hand them to Brown, but before he could his face became ashen. "No, it can't be true."

***

In five minuets, Smith, Jones, and Mimosa had joined them in Brown's white and gray office.

Smith was scowling and Jones actually looked rather frightened. The rebels were working with the exiles. Clarke was not malfunctioning, he was being hacked, and the rebels were looking for the delete command. They were not even going to try and fight the Agents, they were simply going to delete them there on the spot.

"What can be done?" Mimosa asked tentatively.

Brown was standing near Zane and looked at her coldly. "We will destroy them." They glared at each other for a moment, then Jones spoke up.

"Now that I know what's wrong I should be able to track were they are hacking Agent Clarke from." He didn't wait for acknowledgement, he just sat right down in Browns chair and slid the other Agent's laptop aside. His own appeared on the table and he started typing away madly at it.

Brown looked lived from were he stood in the corner. Zane brushed his fingers against the agents arm, carefully out of site. The fiery Agent seemed tempered for now, and did not physically attack Jones, though it was easy to tell he wanted too.

Mimosa required her self a chair and sat on the other side of the office. "How long do you think it will take Jones?"

His reply was quintessential tech and lashed with computer terms and programming language.

"In English?" Mimosa smirked.

"Now that I know what to look for maybe an hour."

Smith also sat down in a required chair. "We will wait then."

Brown nodded and required two chairs which he and Zane sat silently in.

The office was silent except for the rhythmic and hurried 'tap, tap, tap' of Agent Jones' keyboard and the slow breathing of the four Agents, and the lone human. Zane sat very still, with his legs curled underneath him and his dark jacket unbuttoned. In his mind he recited rhythmic prayers and forced his mind away from the strong and tall mountain of an Agent beside him.

If the exiles managed to find how to install a delete code, all the agents would be vulnerable, he would loose Agent Brown. He finally conceded that it was impossible to keep him self from thoughts of the other, and let his mind drift back towards the agent. Brown was both his keeper and his hero; the jailer that imprisoned him behind the white walls of the agency, and the knight in shining armor, that tonight had held him when he felt weakened by fear.

It was true, he decided. His heart beat for him, and his every breath was for the thought of the his agent. He did not remember when he had started thinking of Agent Brown as 'his' agent, but he did now non the less. Zane resigned him self to this. He needed that love like night needed the morning, but he was patient and would wait until the coded stars fell from the coded sky if he had too.

He would find the way to show this love. To let Agent Brown know … know that his heart had changed. Some were inside of him, rain was falling on Zane's heart. Not a cold bitter rain any more, not the rain that he had known in the past, but warm summer rain that was pure and beautiful and felt like freedom. He could feel the crystal drops of life that were filling him with brilliant reverie. The rain had come and he would never let it stop. Yes, love was like rain.

Jones hissed form behind the chrome and oak desk and all the heads in the room turned towards him. "I found it, but we cant get in."

Smith stood from his chair, "What do you mean?"

"I found the building their hiding in, its in the warehouse district. Its firewall'ed though, some sort of viral link."

"A virus?" Smith raised his eyebrow towards Agent Jones.

"It's a worm of some sort Sir, its keyed into our source code. If any of us entered our code would be severely damaged."

Zane watched the dialog between the command agent and the tech agent.

Mimosa spoke up. "What about recruits. Could they enter?"

Jones shook his head. "Its doubtful. They have it guarded very heavily."

Smith spoke again. "How many? Anderson?"

Jones shook his head, no again. "I am reading approximately forty to fifty exiles in the complex. No rebels however, my best guess is the fire wall disrupts their carrier code and they can not enter."

Brown glared at Jones in an caustic glance. "We can not do nothing. Some one will have to enter the building."

Jones sighed. "I know that Agent Brown, but no one can simply walk in to this place. They're operating with a laptop and have it locked in a sealed vault ion the center of the complex. Even if a recruit could get through all the guards they would still have to enter the vault room."

"Blow the building up," Brown smirked.

"Well then they would still have the technology to attack us. They would just start over. With this many exiles there is no doubt the Merovingian is behind this."

Brown shoot a deadly glare at the other agent but did no reply.

"Agent Jones, you only need the laptop?" The four agents looked at Zane who had spoken.

"Yes recruit Zane only the laptop."

"I can get to it. I do not know if I can get out, but I am willing to try." Brown looked down at Zane, who looked back up at him. "Would you let me go sir?"

Brown sighed and nodded slowly. "I have a feeling that if I ordered you not to go, you would not bother to listen."

Zane grinned back at Brown then turned to Jones. "I will need the blue prints and as much information as you can give me."

For the next two hours Zane studied plans and diagrams for the building, modifications in the code that had been made, and uploaded the files of every exile known to work under the Merovingian into his head. It was an odd feeling, like having the memories of over a hundred people on the tip of your tongue and not quite being able to remember them. Jones assured him that this was normal and if he saw any of their faces, he would know what he needed about them.

Agent Mimosa had left to check on Clarke and Smith had returned to his office searching for files of some such that may or may not have been relative to the mater at hand. Zane felt they had actually left to avoid Agent Brown who was looking lived in his selected corner of the room. At long last Jones said their was nothing else he could do to aid Zane.

"We should call the others back, to decide when you be going." Jones had a tentative expression and looked like he desperately didn't want to be alone any longer with Brown drilling holes in the back of his head.

"We should go in the morning, if they are any thing like computer hackers they will be most active and alert at night."

"Good Point, it will be the morning then." Jones stood and took his laptop, heading for the door. "I will inform the others. Thank you Zane."

He shrugged. "I will do my best Agent Jones." He watched as the agent short the door with a firm snap. He smiled. Closed doors were good, they kept evil at bay.

Zane was surprised with Browns hand closed firmly on his shoulder. "Why?"

Zane turned and placed a hand on the tall agents chest, over his coded heart. "Because I will not see you die."

"You're doing this for me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because love is like rain. It pours in my heart and I cant stop it. I don't want to stop it."

"You love me?"

"I do."

Brown looked suddenly very sad. "I don't think that I can feel love."

Zane returned the look. "I think I have an idea, can you shift us to my rooms?"

Brown nodded and the white office blurred into a ethereal myriad of soft colors, golds and slivers.

***

"What is it, Zane?"

The small recruit stepped forward and reaching up, placed his warm hand on the Agents cool cheek. Brown looked to him as if asking for explanation, but he did not speak or flinch. "I promised I would help you find your soul. If die tomorrow…"

Brown pulled away forcefully, "Don't be foolish, you will not die." He spoke swiftly and out of character.

Zane lifted his hand again and forced the Agent to face him. "If I die tomorrow, I will have broken my promise to you. I want to show you love."

"How can you do that?"

"I will open up my self to you, show you the trust I feel, and the love I have. Please let me do this. I want to know that you have felt the extent of my love."

"You cant do that."

"Nothing is impossible in the Matrix."

Brown frowned deeply. "You will not die." Zane only brushed his thumb over the Agents lower lip. Brown looked down at him startled. "Why did you do that?"

"Because you are beautiful."

"I don't know beauty."

"Then let me show you."

Brown hesitated, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"If I wasn't sure, I would not have said anything."

Brown nodded slowly, "How do you propose to do this."

"The same way code is accessed from the mainframe, but instead of data feed from the mainframe it will come from me."

Brown looked down at him curiously. "How do you know about that?"

He shrugged. "I spend hours every night in the ceiling Taizan. I hear things"

Brown seemed sustained and said nothing further so Zane led the Agent to the couch and sat him down near the edge. He was now a foot taller then the Agent, and he smiled at the reversal in height. He sighed and reached his hand forward again, and let his palm brush against the Agents mouth and his fingers caress the strong jaw. Hesitantly Brown leaned imperceptibly into the touch, as if he was afraid any movement would break the contact. Then his eyes widened as Zane leaned in closer, until his mouth was only inches from Brown's.

"This is the only way I can show you." With those final words he leaned forward and brushed his lips to the Agents. All his barriers and walls melted away, like chalk left out in the rain, and he let his love and his trust flow like water in to the Agent. He felt Brown gasp at the contact, and Zane used this deepen the kiss slightly. Still it was innocent and chaste and Brown was still as a statue.

Only a few instances had passed but it felt like long days, and Zane withdrew and sat down on the couch breathless. Brown had not moved and still had a dazed and lost look in his eyes. The were set forward and were chilling blue. Zane waited knowing that the Agent was processing the information. After some time Brown turned and faced the recruit next to him.

"You feel that for me?"

Zane nodded feeling suddenly very naked under the powerful and hungry gaze of the Agent. "I feel it with my every breath, and my every heartbeat."

"You are an anomaly Recruit Zane, but you are mine. You will not die tomorrow."

Zane smiled at the possessive words. "So what do you think?"

"You taste like the rain." Brown gathered Zane up in his arms and held him gently in his lap. Zane smiled into the Agents neck and curled up against his warm chest. He was exhausted from the emotional drain the download had taken a considerable amount of energy. Though he was struggling to stay awake, he was truly happy for the first time in a very long time.

***Part IV***

The bands of cyber sunlight were prickling their way unto the satin bed in the cool green bedroom. It had spidered its way up from the foot of the bed and had then in a lurid and jealous display taken over every inch of the covers until it at last found Zane, looking small under the deep blankets. Yes the sun was jealous. For in its slumber it had missed the reason for the smile on the beings face, which it now graced, trying with all its warmth to coax confession from those features.

Zane blinked to life, it was morning almost five and the sun was already dancing in his rooms like a coryphée twirling about in a ballet troop. He stepped from the bed and stretched lazily. He was still dressed in his suit pants but the white overskirt and his jacket were folded neatly on a chair to the side of the room and his shoes sat like paten leather solders at the foot of his bed.

He brushed at his hopelessly wrinkled pants and finally gave up and just required them pressed and straight. He tossed his white shirt over his shoulders and hooked two of the buttons leaving the shirt hanging out and mostly undone. He holstered his gun then, grabbed his tie and the tie bar, the cuffs and earpiece, and his jacket and left the bedroom after putting on his black shoes.

He headed down the short hall, and deposited the lot haphazardly on the dining table.

"That is no way to treat your issued uniform." Zane nearly jumped out of his skin, then turned around to face Agent Brown, who had very satisfied smirk on his face.

Zane smiled and ran his hand through his tussled hair. "You're still here?'

Brown nodded, "We're still on lockdown, so there was no rebels or exiles to chase." He bowed his head slightly "My office was cold."

Zane looked at him in wonder, having never known that the agent could feel cold. "Did you close the window?"

Brown shook his head and Zane laughed at the confused expression. Brown looked irritated, "I didn't want to close the window."

"So you came back here?"

"Yes."

Zane smiled and bent down to pick up his cuff links. Something seemed to catch Brown's eye and he stepped forward and grabbed Zane's arm. His other hand slid the shirt from Zane's left shoulder. Underneath his collarbone Brown's fingers where placed on a circle that rested in the upturned arch of a crescent moon. Both were in bright red.

"When did you get a tattoo Zane? I noticed it last night, but it was not their when I examined your cut before."

"I required it there."

"Why?"

He smirked and placed his hand over Brown's. "It is the Buddhist symbol of the sun and the moon. Opposites yet mirrors of each other."

Brown contemplated this, and let his fingers drift over the recruits skin. He turned and went back to the red couch and watched Zane with interest while he did up buttons and cuffs, then finished his tie and donned his jacket. He wore his earpiece and yet he let it hang unused from his collar. He had noticed Brown's was not connected either.

Zane left for the kitchen and took out a teapot, filled it with water and required the water to a boil. He then steeped the tealeaves in the pot, and once he had pored a cup of the tempered liquid he returned to the small living area and sat next to Brown.

"I see you didn't drop the pot this time."

"Is that humor I sense from you Taizan" Brown smirked, but Zane frowned.

"What's wrong Zane?"

"When I decided to call you that I thought you could and unreachable. I don't think that's true any more."

"I'm just as deadly as the day I first saw you."

"I know that, but I have decided on a new name for you."

"Do I really need a name?"

"Yes, of course you do." He pondered for a moment. "I like Shozan, the shining mountain."

Brown signed. "You may call me any thing you want as long as it is not one of those stupid human pet names."

"What If I had decided on Snooky or Honey Bunch or something equally disgusting?"

"I would have been forced to shoot you."

Zane smiled at the callous tone in his voice.

"Well then Shozan, we have to be in the garage in ten minuets." Zane stood and tried to walk by Brown. He was pulled down however by a strong embrace from the tall agent.

"Be careful Zane. I am not sure what all to make of the feelings you gave me last night, but I don't want to loose them, not now."

Zane brushed his lips to the Agents for only an instant then smiled. "I'll be careful. I promise."

***

As soon as the pair had stepped into the hallway, the cold mask of agent and recruit had been firmly installed. The elevator ride towards the parking garage had been spent in silence, and Zane had stood the whole time to the right and slightly behind Agent Brown, showing the complete respect he had for the other.

The parking garage was a maze of organized chaos. Zane recognized Agent Lee, from a sector to the north, and Agent's Kelly and Miller from two sectors west. In fact there was more agent humming and buzzing about the garage then Zane even knew existed. It was a veritable hive of activity and the agents were worker bees dancing and skirting around each other making last minute adjustments, final preparations and giving short precise speeches to teams of recruits, who in turn were checking their guns and making themselves ready.

Brown explained that during the night, a call had gone out to all surrounding sectors asking for aid. Mimosa had come up with the idea to coordinate a missive raid as soon as the fire wall was down. Zane had to agree, if there were fifty exiles all in one place, they would be fools not to take advantage of it.

In one corner Zane spotted Agent Mimosa, she was discussing with a large collection of command and field agents and recruits. Jones was nearly lost in mountains of computer screens and laptops, which were hooked to intricate monitoring devices. He and some seven other rather geeky looking recruits and agents were huddles around some sort of chart. It looked like circuitry plans.

Smith approached the pair. "Are you ready Zane?"

He nodded back somberly.

As if some one had flipped a switch all the agents were instantly silent and turned as one to face him. Smith placed a hand on his shoulder and explained to him that he would be shifted into the subway system that ran beneath the exile's building. From their he would only need to get back down to the basement, shut down the fire wall generator then replace his earpiece. Once he was connected again he would be automatically shifted back here.

Zane removed his earpiece and nodded to Smith. He tried to look and meet Agent Brown's gaze but the parking garage melted away and the dark dampness of the old subway took its place. He sighed, and then began his climb up the walls, up towards inevitability.

***

He inched upwards, his fingers finding slight purchases on the old carved stone walls, not that he need hand holds but it was handy non the less. He shimmed himself up in to the dense coolness of the stone. He had never phased himself through something so long before, and he had to shake away the felling of his blood turning to gelatin.

It took just under a minuet to climb from the subway and up into he cool hardness of the cement floor of the building. There he spread him self out, pressed against that coolness, letting his body come back to normal after the long hard climb. After he caught his breath, he stood and crossed the room towards the main wet wall.

The wet wall of a building was always the easiest to climb. It was full of pipes and other things to haul your self up on. In addition they are the widest and the best insulated. The perfect way to climb up the core of a building unnoticed. Once he located this most important of channels above him, Zane climbed up into the rafters of the low basement, then higher into the walls.

The building was nineteen stories tall. Nothing remarkable, but then again his target was on the nineteenth floor. This would be a long climb. He had not only be sure he was counting to floors correctly as he rose though the building but also stay completely silent. Regardless of how well insolated these walls might be climbing pipes was still noisy work. To top all this off, he had to climb in complete darkness.

By the time he had reached the nineteenth floor, an hour and half had passed, and he was completely exhausted and bored. Not bored like simply not having any thing to do. But one of those pound your head on the wall for sheer entertainment value sort of boredoms. He wanted to let his mind wander, wanted to recite sutras in his head. Any thing other then the slow meticulous counting he was doing now.

As if by define intervention he felt the floor joist buttress for the roof of the nineteenth floor. He rolled his eyes in the dark, relived. Then he set out across the maze of duct works and electric lines. It was a long slow crawl weaving in and out of the ceiling joists, and in all it took him another five minuets of slow counting.

He pined for the empty ceilings of the Agency. Amazingly when they had built the office, it had been planned to never need repaired. The building had no wiring and no water pipes. Zane though the most humorous thing was when the recruits complained about the hot water running out for showers. In fact the showers were not even connected to the boilers at all.

Seven hundred and twenty two. He stopped as he had finally reached his destination. Now would be his leap of fate. Carefully he stuck the top half of his body down into the room, and was relived to see that it was relatively dark, and the laptop sat glowing with green scrawling code dancing on its screen in the center of the room. It gave the whole space a sort of green pulse to it and it was obvious that whoever had been here was out for the night, or day, as the case happened to be.

An old cup of coffee was cold siting next to the laptop and a neat stack of papers and notes where placed in a tan folder beside it. Zane slipped down the wall and tucked these papers into a black case. Then he closed the laptop and put that in the black case as well. This in turn zipped snuggly closed. He was amazed out how easy things had gone this far and slipped back up the wall, and into the ceiling once again.

He swung the black carrier so that it rested behind him. They should have created some device that strapped the laptop to him, instead of having to fight with the irritable case. It was too late however, because now that he as inside the fire wall it would be impossible for him to require anything.

He crawled back through the ducting and was nearing the edge of the wet wall, when he heard voices. They made his skin crawl for some unknown reason and he froze on the spot. The words were disjointed and did not mean anything to Zane, but he recognized a pair of the speakers with sharp British accents who stood away of the rest. They seemed very familiar though he could not place them.

He tried to move forward again but a twitching in his fingers stopped him. He watched the moving fingers with interest, then was seized with white-hot pain. The ribs Neo had broken felt like they were splintering, becoming long handfuls of needles inside his body. He gasped under the immense wave of pain. He started shaking and the laptop fell from his hand, bounded over several pipes hidden in the dark and skidded to a stop some were in front of him. The room below became dead silent.

Zane eyes grew wide as he heard the clicking of guns being primed. He scrambled forward. His hands darting about in the dark trying to find the laptop. If they shot it all his work would be for nothing. His hand flew rapidly over the services, then the first bullets whizzed past him. It created a tiny beam of light upwards but not enough for him to see. More light beams punched their was through the ceiling, then punched their way through him. He felt warm blood grow in red pools around his body, but he pushed the though aside and crawled forward.

He felt around, hand out stretched and if by a miracle he found the laptop. He shimmed forward taking a large barrage of bullets from a machine gun, and pulled the black bag to his chest. The ceiling melted below him and he let him self faze and free fall through it. He counted the floors as he fell unchecked through the building. Five, ten, fifteen, almost done, Generator. He had to take out the generator.

He forced himself solid, then slammed full force in the basement floor. He gasped knowing that at least one of his lungs was punctured. He burbled blood from his mouth and bled out over the cool dark floor. Slowly he drew out his dagger. He had a rule - never ever throw your blade. It was suicide. Now it was it only chance. He hurled the dagger at the firewall generator. He heard it give a satisfying pop and fizzle out of life. Then he blacked out.

***

Brown had not been pacing the garage, more like circling about and terrorizing any one he could. His face was a mask of indifference but his insides were in upheaval. Something that Zane had done. That kiss, he felt him now, felt him like he felt the code of the Mainframe. He did not now if the recruit felt the same tickling at the back of his mind, like some one was fooling with his source code, but he certainly felt it. It was like having the recruit just past his fingertips and slipping past every time he tried to grab him.

He felt the recruit, and that disturbed him. On one hand he felt enlightened like whole hallways of doors had opened up to him. In the other, he was afraid. If he let himself go, to fall into these human emotions, fall into Zane's emotions, would he be less of an agent? Could he afford to feel love? The question plagued him, it frightened him. Then thoughts of the frailty of humans began, what if he did love? Zane was human, he could die, and even if he did not die at the hands of a rebel or an exile, he would grow old and fade from existence.

Brown set his heart in that moment. He could not afford to love the recruit. He would not let himself love the human. He would lock these emotions away, if he covered himself he would never have to face the rain.

It was at that moment of his revelation that he felt something new. It was fear, not his fear, Zane's fear, cold glacial fear. Then pain and flashes, beams of light, voice and guns firing. Then falling. Then nothing. Brown shook where he stood, and Smith looked over at him questionably.

"Zane is dying." He rushed the words out, and Smith looked surprised.

Jones called from across the large echoing garage. "Recruit Kembrick, has successfully removed the firewall." Before Smith could acknowledge the other Brown shifted to the buildings basement.

The air here felt like it was stretched too thin, and electricity sparked and changed the air to ether, until the room crackled with intensity. He scanned the room. The first thing he saw was the massive crackling generator. His breath caught seeing Zane's dagger wedged into the controls. He approached closer and then risking electrocution, dew the blade from its prison. Turning towards were the blade was pointing he saw a thin ribbon of liquid that was slowly making its way towards the drain that was sunk into the center of the basement.

He followed that stream until Zane's limp form amassed in blood lay at his feet. He quickly touched the laptop and shifted it to Agent Jones, then picked the recruit up carefully and shifted in haste to the medical ward.

***

The room in the medical ward was pale and washed out looking, like even it had given all the hope it had to give. Zane looked small and pale, lying on the hospital bed. His washed out red hair matched the washed out room, and all of this matched how Agent Brown felt. Lost and washed-out. He had stood in the corner and observed as the med. Agents stitched together so many bullet holes, that he had to stop counting, to halt the unfamiliar and woozy feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

They hadn't needed to remove a single bullet; they had all passed through the recruit completely, the hot steel cutting his form to ribbons. Brown shuddered for the first time in his existence remembering the pools of blood. It had never seemed like such an insurmountable amount when he had killed rebels, but the blood had been in pools on the dark dingy floor of the building. Once he had picked Zane up the blood flowed over his arms and covered his suit and hands. Zane's life, his drive, his love. All of this had poured onto his hands.

Now the dread was no longer something new and unfamiliar. It was a constant ache with each breath and it ate at him, while he paced the room. He had thought it had been bad, but news from Jones after the medical Agents had finished made the future look even bleaker. It seems that the virus had done more the damage to the recruit then they had thought possible.

"His body is fixed, but his fundamental code has been damaged, it will take a long time to repair. He wont wake because his mind is not connected to his body, but at least we know what is wrong."

"How long until he is better?"

"Unknown, maybe days, months. I can't be sure."

"That's not acceptable, you will repair him Agent Jones," an edge of panic sounded in his voice.

He smirked. "Is that emotion over him, I hear? He's just a recruit Agent Brown."

Brown fixed the other agent with a look of burning contempt and aimed his gun at Jones. "Get out!" he nearly screamed and Jones left hastily realizing he had pushed to far. Once the door slammed shut he sighed and holstered his gun. He then sat down in a chair next to the bed.

"You promised me." He let his fingertips brush the pale recruits face, then pulled his hand way sharply as if the skin burned. It was not burning he felt though it was something else. He let his hand drift down and take Zane's. He felt emotions coming from the recruit, trust and kindness, but most of all love.

He sighed, and spoke to the unconscious figure. "You were right Zane, it is like rain."