NOTICE: Unfortunately, I do not own any of the original characters from the Matrix trilogy. HOWEVER: All other characters in this fanfic do belong to me, as they're all products of my overactive imagination.
2. Primary Interrogation.
Agent Carlisle walked down the narrow taupe corridor into the interrogation room. The human sat, uncomfortable, in the chair. Blonde hair, mid twenties, a glazed look and pronounced joints in his hands that identified him as a hacker; spending hours typing in front of computers.
A potential rebel. He had to be crushed. Unless-unless he would help them.
Carlisle sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. She did not remove her glasses. She sat, neutrally, her hands clasped on the desk. She pulled the file that lay to her right without shifting her gaze.
The human sat up with interest.
So predictable, she thought. So ignorant of the truth.
But that was why she was here-to prevent the humans that were not unplugged from knowing the truth. Carlisle glanced behind her at the door.
She was being evaluated. Assessed. There were at least a dozen pairs of eyes watching from outside the door.
Her first interrogation.
As her purpose went, Carlisle fulfilled it well. She fought rebels. She killed rebels. She had developed her abilities in the Matrix. She was fast. Almost impossibly so. She eliminated targets, humans that the rebels determined were ready to be unplugged.
But she showed an unhealthy adherence to working alone.
This, she knew, went against her rigorous programming and strict purpose. However, back to the human, now peering at the file and trying to read the information upside down.
When will they ever learn, she mused.
"As you can see we've been monitoring you for-some time, now, Mr. Jepson".
The human shifted awkwardly. He knew he was in for it.
Carlisle flipped the folder closed.
"You, are a hacker, Mr Jepson. You spend hours trying to crack into government bases and now", here she leaned back in the chair, "you've been contacted by someone. A known terrorist."
"How do you know this?"
Carlisle smiled bleakly. We are the government, Mr Jepson, we see everything".
She continued as the human lapsed into silence.
"Morpheus".
The name slipped off her tongue like oil. The human sat up.
"What do you want?"
For a fleeting second, Carlisle felt what could only be described as dejá vu, like someone she'd once known had asked that question. She dismissed the sensation quickly.
"We want you to help us bring him to justice, Mr Jepson. We want you to work for us, to contact Morpheus again and thus bring him to justice-we want you to bring a known terrorist to justice...in return", here she pushed the file aside, "you get a new lease of life. A clean slate. No criminal record".
Jepson leaned back in his chair, a look of disgust on his face.
"Fuck you, lady".
Carlisle sighed.
"The answer is no-and before you think of asking me anything else, I want to see my lawyer".
Carlisle smiled knowingly.
"Tell me, Mr Jepson", again the feeling that she'd heard those words being said before swept her, "what good is meeting your lawyer if you're unable to see?"
The only thing heard from the outside of the room was Jepson screaming in fear and bashing into furniture as he stumbled blindly around the room.
Carlisle pinned him down on the desk before pulling his shirt up and dropping the bug onto his stomach, and watched it pull itself into his body. Jepson was still screaming in horror at the experience, right until he fainted.
She released him and walked to the door, knocking twice. Two agents emerged and dragged the human's prone form out.
Carlisle listened to the information flooding to her ear piece.
Success.
She had passed.
* * * * * * *
Smith looked upwards at Neo's disappearing form as he shot upwards into the sky. He was impressed, but not surprised by the development of the human's powers in the Matrix. Hundreds of other Smiths walked away from the empty court, the clones he had made in order to give Neo a fight that would demonstrate his new powers.
Anderson had left, flown away from him. There would be time for another fight. Time for the rebels to be defeated. Time.
There was always time.
Smith walked away with some degree of satisfaction. He was free. This was the first time that Neo and he had fought since his re-emergence into the Matrix.
There was always time for Neo to die.
A human wearing a light coloured coat walked past the court. She had dark hair that reached past her shoulders.
For a fraction of a second, Smith was reminded of someone.
He winced at the memory that still had some power over him. True, he was emotionless as ever, but the memory still had the power to instil traces of feelings that he had long since tried to forget.
He tried not to, but her name escaped his lips.
"Persis".
Her voice flooded back to him as he recalled her.
"You're already starting to act like a human".
She'd said that the first time that they'd met. It was fortunate that he could recall his time with her without the full extent of the emotion that she'd instilled in him long ago; otherwise he would be truly vulnerable.
An agent appeared at the entrance to the court.
Smith raised an eyebrow. The agent was one of those less than improved upgrades that he so detested.
"Smith".
"Yes".
"You're wanted. I have to ask you to come with me".
"And if I choose not to?"
The agent folded his arms behind his back.
"We are aware of your abilities to clone yourself using any entity you so choose. If you choose to do so now, you will have to answer for your actions to the rest of us".
As if from nowhere, hundreds of agents appeared and surrounded Smith. He had been expecting this. He could easily fight and clone each and every one of them, but he was intrigued. Not being wired into the construct anymore he was unaware of the reasons for his being summoned.
Smith was interested in what the agents wanted. He decided to follow them to the government building. After all, another fight would just bore him. Only two people he had fought had ever made him want to fight them again.
Neo. Persis.
Persis was dead.
Neo was very much alive. Smith smiled. These upgrades, he thought, when will they ever learn that I am not the problem at this moment. The humans are.