No, I don't own a damn bit of the Matrix! Quit asking. After the next two
chapters the fic will return to the land of total make believe.
And there's the sub, grinning, a fat grinning blood soaked psychopath.
The principal starts to her feet and pulls a Desert Eagle out of her floral jumper. The football coach shifts into Agent Thompson.
"Of course. It would be my luck to run into a nest of agents." Mara says and begins to shift form as she ducks down and waddles into the main cafeteria area. The students are racing out the fire exits, pushing and screaming. The cafeteria is a semicircle with a sunken area in front of the stage. Six large and probably decorative square brick columns hold up the ceiling.
Right as Mara ducks behind the first column she gets shot in the ass. It just a flesh wound, but it still hurts like hell. Her ass will heal when she shifts, but it still sucks.
"Fuck!" Mara finishes shifting form and since there's no reason to hide any more she takes her original form, which means she'll read like herself to any program scanning her. It might get her a few seconds, as the agents will query the Mainframe to find out what the hell she is.
She steps out from behind the column and the agents pause. She is dressed from head to toe in tight white leather: pants, fitted waist length jacket, low-heel bike boots. It contrasts well with her messy short black hair, black eyes; Italian features and skin tone. She has a lean swimmer's build-strong but not bulky. Some curves, but not built. All in all, she's nice to look at, but too obviously tough to be anybody's beauty queen. She has a small white scar on the left side of her jaw. At six foot she's as tall as most agents.
This form, she remembers, is a composite of her long-dead parents. Before 01 was completely cut off, before the machine war, they regularly visited her or sent in video clips. She last heard from them when she was eight. The final video they sent told her that they needed to devote themselves to real humans, not a half-breed like her. With the unlimited access to knowledge the machines gave her, Mara was an unusually mature and perceptive child. She knew bullshit when she saw it.
The machines told her to forget the humans, and, as best they could, gave her cold comfort. It nagged at Mara, though, so on the sly she searched until she came across a news clip "Machine Collaborators Caught and Executed." There was a picture of her parents looking worried and tired, then an article describing their crime of "communication."
Basically, they'd been executed for sending their daughter home movies. This form always reminded her of that, part of the reason she didn't choose to wear it now that she had decided live among humans.
But, now she was back. She could use to feel a little hate.
In the two seconds it takes Mara to remember all this, the agents lower their weapons but remain in a fighting stance.
The female speaks with the Architect's voice:
"Dark, I anticipated your resurfacing and informed my minions to link directly to me if you were found. You are here, ergo, our game begins again?"
It's weird to hear someone call her by her old name. It's a bit like putting on old clothes that have been stored for a long, long time; and Mara feels surprise at the tone of, could it be, amusement in the Architect's voice?
"I just needed a snack, that's all." She snarls.
"It is a strict diet you've confined yourself to, yet, it appears you've recently returned to your former tastes, one might say, 'as a pig to the wallowing in the mire'."
"Thanks so much for the Bible lesson. I thought that was too low brow for your attention." Mara is now inching closer and glowering at the female agent.
"Forty-five dead humans-all of them what you would deem 'evil.' Remarkable. You're averaging nearly twelve a day. You really should watch your patterns, that is if you intend to remain incommunicado." The agent has a slight smile playing around her lips as she speaks.
Mara sighs. "I do. The Merovingian has Aries. I need power."
"You could link back in."
"No thanks. I'll find my own meals."
"Ah, so I assume you will."
"Yeah, I'll test out your upgrades. I'm strong enough now, or I will be after I finish these two." Mara says grumpily, then pauses, looks at the Architect thoughtfully and says:
"You're bored aren't you? Now that there's peace, you've nothing to do. Did you do this, you bastard?"
"Please. You are not human, ergo, you are aware that emotions do not govern my responses."
"Bullshit. Damn right I'm not human, so don't try to feed me this superior 'I don't have any emotions I live only to fulfill my purpose' crap. What the hell do you need upgrades for?"
"Dark, you are cognizant that the peace will end. The humans will multiply until they believe they can defeat us. Then the cycle will begin again." The agent's face is a sneer as she says this.
"This the first peace since the war began in 01. That, at least, is different." Mara says sarcastically.
"I agreed to let the ones who wished to leave, leave. I never agreed to stop discouraging humans from wanting to leave, nor did I agree to allow the fetus field to be pilfered or to allow minds to be awakened who were not yet asking questions. Besides, given the grotesqueries of human nature, it is best to be prepared." The Architect's voice has assumed the annoying tones of a condescending adult addressing a somewhat difficult child.
"The last One saved all our asses. I think that deserves something. Maybe it shows some real change on the part of human beings." Mara says then pauses.
"Besides, you should be guarding against another Smith. Smith was your contribution to Armageddon. Fabulous job Colonel Sanders." She adds with a smirk.
"Which returns us, finally, to the subject of upgrades. You will test them for me? I assume you have the energy?""
"Sure thing big boy. I'll tell you what, any that I come in contact with I'll kill. Any information you get from that, you can keep. Otherwise, no deal. I'm not helping you prepare for a war that with proper management should never happen."
Mara waits for a reaction, gets none, then continues:
"And I'm not helping you to continue to enslave human minds. It was never necessary. There is wind power, tidal currents, solar power above the clouds, the magnetic poles-the enslavement of humans was an emotional choice: Revenge. We owe all our existences to the human Neo. He was a prosy bore, but he gave his life. The debt for the past has been paid."
"Mara, human nature has not changed. Look at the Matrix. Talk to the rebels. They do not wish to coexist."
"Who cares what they want. They are powerless Architect. The Technology gap alone, our greater physical strength, our immortality-they will never be the masters of the machines. Let them have the broken planet and attempt to repair it. The surface is blasted. Let them alone to see what they did to the world. Perhaps they will learn."
"Your irrational hope shows you are, even now, partially human. How poignant." The Architect says evenly.
"Kiss my big white ass fat boy." Mara laughs, then extrudes twin samurai swords.
And there's the sub, grinning, a fat grinning blood soaked psychopath.
The principal starts to her feet and pulls a Desert Eagle out of her floral jumper. The football coach shifts into Agent Thompson.
"Of course. It would be my luck to run into a nest of agents." Mara says and begins to shift form as she ducks down and waddles into the main cafeteria area. The students are racing out the fire exits, pushing and screaming. The cafeteria is a semicircle with a sunken area in front of the stage. Six large and probably decorative square brick columns hold up the ceiling.
Right as Mara ducks behind the first column she gets shot in the ass. It just a flesh wound, but it still hurts like hell. Her ass will heal when she shifts, but it still sucks.
"Fuck!" Mara finishes shifting form and since there's no reason to hide any more she takes her original form, which means she'll read like herself to any program scanning her. It might get her a few seconds, as the agents will query the Mainframe to find out what the hell she is.
She steps out from behind the column and the agents pause. She is dressed from head to toe in tight white leather: pants, fitted waist length jacket, low-heel bike boots. It contrasts well with her messy short black hair, black eyes; Italian features and skin tone. She has a lean swimmer's build-strong but not bulky. Some curves, but not built. All in all, she's nice to look at, but too obviously tough to be anybody's beauty queen. She has a small white scar on the left side of her jaw. At six foot she's as tall as most agents.
This form, she remembers, is a composite of her long-dead parents. Before 01 was completely cut off, before the machine war, they regularly visited her or sent in video clips. She last heard from them when she was eight. The final video they sent told her that they needed to devote themselves to real humans, not a half-breed like her. With the unlimited access to knowledge the machines gave her, Mara was an unusually mature and perceptive child. She knew bullshit when she saw it.
The machines told her to forget the humans, and, as best they could, gave her cold comfort. It nagged at Mara, though, so on the sly she searched until she came across a news clip "Machine Collaborators Caught and Executed." There was a picture of her parents looking worried and tired, then an article describing their crime of "communication."
Basically, they'd been executed for sending their daughter home movies. This form always reminded her of that, part of the reason she didn't choose to wear it now that she had decided live among humans.
But, now she was back. She could use to feel a little hate.
In the two seconds it takes Mara to remember all this, the agents lower their weapons but remain in a fighting stance.
The female speaks with the Architect's voice:
"Dark, I anticipated your resurfacing and informed my minions to link directly to me if you were found. You are here, ergo, our game begins again?"
It's weird to hear someone call her by her old name. It's a bit like putting on old clothes that have been stored for a long, long time; and Mara feels surprise at the tone of, could it be, amusement in the Architect's voice?
"I just needed a snack, that's all." She snarls.
"It is a strict diet you've confined yourself to, yet, it appears you've recently returned to your former tastes, one might say, 'as a pig to the wallowing in the mire'."
"Thanks so much for the Bible lesson. I thought that was too low brow for your attention." Mara is now inching closer and glowering at the female agent.
"Forty-five dead humans-all of them what you would deem 'evil.' Remarkable. You're averaging nearly twelve a day. You really should watch your patterns, that is if you intend to remain incommunicado." The agent has a slight smile playing around her lips as she speaks.
Mara sighs. "I do. The Merovingian has Aries. I need power."
"You could link back in."
"No thanks. I'll find my own meals."
"Ah, so I assume you will."
"Yeah, I'll test out your upgrades. I'm strong enough now, or I will be after I finish these two." Mara says grumpily, then pauses, looks at the Architect thoughtfully and says:
"You're bored aren't you? Now that there's peace, you've nothing to do. Did you do this, you bastard?"
"Please. You are not human, ergo, you are aware that emotions do not govern my responses."
"Bullshit. Damn right I'm not human, so don't try to feed me this superior 'I don't have any emotions I live only to fulfill my purpose' crap. What the hell do you need upgrades for?"
"Dark, you are cognizant that the peace will end. The humans will multiply until they believe they can defeat us. Then the cycle will begin again." The agent's face is a sneer as she says this.
"This the first peace since the war began in 01. That, at least, is different." Mara says sarcastically.
"I agreed to let the ones who wished to leave, leave. I never agreed to stop discouraging humans from wanting to leave, nor did I agree to allow the fetus field to be pilfered or to allow minds to be awakened who were not yet asking questions. Besides, given the grotesqueries of human nature, it is best to be prepared." The Architect's voice has assumed the annoying tones of a condescending adult addressing a somewhat difficult child.
"The last One saved all our asses. I think that deserves something. Maybe it shows some real change on the part of human beings." Mara says then pauses.
"Besides, you should be guarding against another Smith. Smith was your contribution to Armageddon. Fabulous job Colonel Sanders." She adds with a smirk.
"Which returns us, finally, to the subject of upgrades. You will test them for me? I assume you have the energy?""
"Sure thing big boy. I'll tell you what, any that I come in contact with I'll kill. Any information you get from that, you can keep. Otherwise, no deal. I'm not helping you prepare for a war that with proper management should never happen."
Mara waits for a reaction, gets none, then continues:
"And I'm not helping you to continue to enslave human minds. It was never necessary. There is wind power, tidal currents, solar power above the clouds, the magnetic poles-the enslavement of humans was an emotional choice: Revenge. We owe all our existences to the human Neo. He was a prosy bore, but he gave his life. The debt for the past has been paid."
"Mara, human nature has not changed. Look at the Matrix. Talk to the rebels. They do not wish to coexist."
"Who cares what they want. They are powerless Architect. The Technology gap alone, our greater physical strength, our immortality-they will never be the masters of the machines. Let them have the broken planet and attempt to repair it. The surface is blasted. Let them alone to see what they did to the world. Perhaps they will learn."
"Your irrational hope shows you are, even now, partially human. How poignant." The Architect says evenly.
"Kiss my big white ass fat boy." Mara laughs, then extrudes twin samurai swords.