Title: This One Refused
Author: Perfect Ruin
Rating: Will not go higher than PG-13
Disclaimer: The Matrix and all their characters belong to the Wachowski Brothers and Warner Brothers. I own Kiree and any other original characters that you don't recognize.
Summary: Steps have to be taken to destroy the exiled Agent Smith.
Author Notes: None.
Word Count: 682
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Kiree followed the two suited men to an old building. Old, but still functional, as if it had been brought back into service. This was much closer to the truth than she would have imagined.
Brown was still giving strange looks to Jones; as if this was an idea he disapproved of. She was still trying to process everything, she kept one hand pressed to her chest, she felt as though she had a wound there, but there was no physical damage besides a slight bruising.
She followed them into a conference room, they sat at one side of the table and she took the spare chair opposite them. "You said 'humans' before as though you…" she paused and looked at them, "you're not human are you? Neither was Smith."
"No," Jones said.
"Then what the hell are you?"
"We are agents, computer programs, this is more complicated than you realize."
Kiree sat back in her chair, feeling that this was going to take a while. "Tell me everything."
Brown spoke next, "this world is not real. It is a computer simulation, it is all in your mind."
"What?"
He almost smirked, "you said you wanted the truth."
"Could you at least slow it down a bit?"
"There was a war," Jones said. "Between humans and AI, they wanted to destroy the machines but they fought back and eventually won. Then the Matrix was created."
"Matrix, I've heard of that." She thought hard for a moment, "Morpheus, I think those two are connected aren't they?"
Brown gave her a look that said something to the nature of 'she knows more than I thought she did' and nodded. "He is a rebel."
"What's he rebelling from?"
"From the Matrix," Jones continued. "This is the part you might find hard to accept," he paused for a moment. "Most humans, besides those grown in the rebel city of Zion, are grown though a cloning process and plugged directly into the Matrix. Everything your mind perceives is part of a virtual world, nothing more."
Kiree was silent for a moment, absorbing it all. Then she asked, "why?"
"The humans burnt the sky in the final stage of the war," Brown explained. "The machines were solar powered at the time, they had stores though, but not enough to last forever. Humans are merely batteries to us now."
"They burnt the sky?" she asked incredulously. "I didn't think we were quite that stupid. So what's with the rebels?"
"They want to destroy the Matrix. And take all the humans into the 'real' world just because it is the truth."
"With no sun, nothing would grow and it would cold wouldn't it?"
"It is a frozen desert wasteland," Jones said simply, "there is nothing left for humans out there."
"I see," Kiree said finally. It had taken a moment but she had adjusted, she was good at adapting. "So where does Smith fit into all of this? He looks like you guys – no offense."
"None taken," Jones said, "he was one of us. He was an agent but then he was destroyed. When a program is destroyed it has two choices, to accept deletion or to go exile and hide from the system. He chose exile."
"He isn't being very inconspicuous for someone who is supposed to be hiding."
"He is cloning himself into people, creating copies of himself to help his fight."
"Which is?"
"To destroy Anderson, the rebel who destroyed him. It has become his single purpose."
"And you two are supposed to stop him by yourself? With a head office like this?"
"No, the upgraded agents have that task. We only deal with him when he comes into our sector, which is five blocks by five blocks. We were…demoted…after he was destroyed."
"Sorry."
"Why do humans blame themselves for things that aren't their fault?" Brown asked.
"I have no idea," Kiree admitted. "So what happens now?"
Jones looked at Brown, who gave a slight nod, "would you be willing to work with us to destroy Smith?"
"You want to recruit me?" Kiree asked with wide eyes.
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Ooh *claps hands* plot development. Yay!