Protector of Men Ch 62

"Boys," Persephone chided, closing the doors quietly behind her, "I'm disappointed in you." The two twins suddenly stood straight, and pocketed their blades with hardly a sideways glance at each other.

"Fighting like you have no minds. I shouldn't be surprised,"

"We were only doing,"

"What we were told,"

"Oh I don't doubt that," she sighed, meddling with her nails, "He can be such an ass…"

Persephone suddenly looked up to Neo, a look of longing briefly passing over her otherwise stoic mask. In an instant she turned angry again.

"If he's going to do the same, then I will as well," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. The twins looked at each other; all Zandra could do was watch the events unfold. Persephone pulled out a key from the folds of her dress and presented it to Zandra; she accepted it with a wary hand, trying to watch all of Persephone, the twins, and Neo at the same time.

"You poor thing," Persephone lamented, taking Zandra's hand from her side and caressing it for a moment. Zandra's eyes were wide, they displayed all the fear she then possessed.

"That key," she continued, still holding her hand loosely, "Takes you back out."

Zandra nodded quickly, and soon Persephone had retreated to the door again. But they suddenly heard a noise, and Persephone was shoved from the door towards one of the twins, who in turn retreated halfway up the stairs. They all looked to the door, asessing the new threat.

"Ah, Persephone!" The Merovingian shouted, flanked by a group of darkened men. "You betray me… again! Vous le chien dégoûtant, vous salissez, retors, trichant, couchant, la chienne!" (*You filthy dog! You dirty, devious, cheating, lying bitch!*) He paused for a moment, and walked up to the woman so that they were only inches from each others' faces. Persephone simply watched with amusement as the man became redder.

"Vous le traitre! Je quel suis pour faire avec vous?" (*You traitor! What am I going to do with you?*)

Persephone said nothing, and merely smiled. The Merovingian's eyes turned wide, and he abruptly turned around, crossing his arms in indignation. Again, Zandra and her crew were left speechless, powerless in the strange situation.

"Don't you remember?" she asked the man sweetly, her eyes full of innocence, "Cause and effect,"

The Merovingian's head lowered in stature, he closed his eyes and sighed. Zandra erroneously decided that it would be a good time to back off, and quietly began to slink up the stairs toward where Neo stood. He would know what to do. With her eyes she motioned for Cover and Shade to follow her, but she did not notice that all eyes were soon on her.

"Oh no you don't," the Merovingian warned, gesturing for his men, who all wore varying looks of menace, "You're not leaving,"

But before his men could attack, another pound was heard. All programs looked to the door, anticipating the entry of someone new. But the door did not open; whoever was behind it just kept banging louder and louder. No one moved, except for Persephone, who walked past the Merovingian to open the door. But she was stopped: the man held her arm tightly, and she could not move.

"Will you not let me leave?" she asked, looking over his face for any sign of emotion. He relented, let her go with a sigh that sounded more like a growl. With a small smile the woman walked to the door. She didn't expect who was behind it.

Trim was on the PA. "Kesia, how are we doing in there?"

"I can't quite tell," she replied into her headset, "The building's got some kind of coding in it I can't decipher,"

"Are they allright?"

Alias could detect a bit of trepidation in his voice.

"I think so," she replied slowly, "Every now and then I catch a glimpse of them, they look alright."

"Ok," he sighed from the cockpit, "It's been oddly quiet in here too."

"Can I have your mike?" was Alias' question. Kesia nodded quietly and handed it to her.

"Hey Trim," she asked a little loudly, trying to get his attention. Trim was momentarily confused, but got back on track.

"Yeah?"

"Is Kemp there?"

"Uh, no," he answered, looking out the door to the hallway outside, "She left a while ago. She might be in the mess room."

Things were quiet for a few seconds while Alias handed the headset back to Kesia and went off to find Kemp. After a while, Trim spoke up again.

"What time are we at?" he asked, hoping to get a response.

"Right around two hours," she answered, "They're doing fine timewise."

"I hope so," he replied, and their conversation ended.

"Every second… an eternity… gonna find us…" he mumbled to himself, setting his feet back up on the chair next to him. He was voicing his troubles accurately: with every passing moment, the chance of sentinels finding them became greater. As the hours passed, he became more and more skeptical of Covers words… certainly they'd have to jack out before six hours had passed; Sentinels were all over the place. He sighed loudly and went back to his work, mindlessly watching the radar for any sign of danger. The seconds ticked by slowly.

Downstairs from the restaurant the agents had finally arrived again. They were a little perplexed, left to ask the mainframe for direction while they wandered the building, vainly attempting to find the rebels. Thompson pressed his earpiece to his head.

"The rogue is still there," he announced to the group, looking ahead. The two other agents quickly snapped to attention.

"How many?"

"Six."

And soon they were all requesting more information, pressing their earpieces against their craniums as if holding their heads in place. They were so close to eradicating everything… but it would have to be done right. Upstairs was a much different story: things were going very very wrong.

Everything was silent for a moment, but a moment only.

"Oh, shit," Neo breathed, gripping his sword tighter. "Zandra," he called in a voice of distress, as the intruders burst into the room like a flood escaping from a broken dam. Both she and the Smiths looked up at Neo at the same time, which just caused him more trouble.

"Get out of my house," the Merovingian huffed at the Smiths, his brow furrowed in fury. Persephone was backing away quickly and quietly; the twins merely watched the scene with smiles of amusement. They enjoyed chaos.

Unfortunately, the Smiths payed no more attention to the Frenchman than a blustering old man. And he was – the Smiths (roughly six of them) brushed through the door with a sneer and went after Neo.

"Zandra," Neo shouted again, a note of warning. The Merovingian looked around as if he were lost, Persephone watching him intently. Suddenly he shook himself out of his stupor and gestured to his guards.

"Take them all!" He shouted, "Do it!"

A/N – it is coming together… yesss… good to listen to crazy REVOLUTIONS music while writing! Hah, yes I found some. :( It'll take me a few more days to update again, I'm gonna be gone at Davidson from Friday to Sunday. But I've written 64, and I'll probably have 65 done soon.

Zuma – You like Clay Aiken? Unfortunately, I never really kept up with American Idol… I get a little jealous of their good voices, lol! Yeah, I check my email during my Web II class as well, you're not the only one! Hehe.

Alocin – yeah, they really do. They can be all mean and stuff and its cool! But not nice characters, when they're mean… they get punished… like echo!

Aqua Phoenix1 – oh, I'd never let anticipation KILL you… I formulate it so it just leaves you a little insane. There's no clinical harm, but there definitely may be some psychological side-effects… just kidding.

*Just a random interesting fact I learned in biology the other day – equilibrium kills! It's kind of ironic actually, each living organism spends its whole life trying to reach equilibrium – to be in a more sedate state of being – but if you actually get there, you die. Apply THAT one to your everyday life, it's a little depressing!