A/N: we are beginning to act like ourself, as in our other self, as in the orange of doom [insert shameless plug for the 'orange of doom' hint: in quotes is her sn..] anywho, like ourself, we are beginning to hoard chapters away. (did you know that 'hoard' refers to the act of hoarding and 'hoarde' refers to the stash itself?) there are two chapters written ahead of posted ones and i might be on a roll, but i daren't say so for fear of jinxing myself.

D/C: I own the Matrix and the Matrix Reloaded DVDs, the Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack, Enter the Matrix, several backgrounds, a few buttons, and a cd case. That's the closet I'll ever be to owning the Matrix. I don't claim to be the Wachowskis, and if I did, why would I be writing fanfiction? I would be writing another movie script, wouldn't i? exactly.

Kit: actually, she was nine until she stayed up all night being philosophical. Yes, Ate has a thing for Two and Eris has a thing for One. And don't poor lil' Pan me, it's not going to help her at all *evil laughter* her fate is quite sealed, i do assure you—not that it's a bad one or anything. *shifty eyes* don't worry, Pan is safe… for now. And boredom reigned, well I only used that because I had this inane compulsion to use the phrase 'the white room' at the time, it's not well suited to the rest of the tone of that paragraph *furiously revises on computer* there. It's been fixed. Hehe. I hope this chapter is to your liking! (I think we should stop arguing about Two *resists urge to claim him again* urk… need.. willpower…)
Matrix-Twin1: I say it's about time we give you a nickname! Yay! *can't think of anything* damn… ah well. I'm online all the time at school. In fact, reading that review in the middle of my theology class was so rewarding. It made me want to write pages and pages! Or just abolish theology classes that actually restrict thought as apposed to inciting it. Anyways, I'm writing a vl—nevermind, that was not a total giveaway of all my plans! Go ahead and write a vlad's diary, or better yet—wait, I like that idea… have fun!
Skittles: omg! omg! I want that song sooooo bad! AUGH! *sob* more pocky! (lots of exclamation points… hm.) good luck with your essay, and don't worry. Pan is perfectly safe with me. Don't call cps because I'm not doing anything wrong *winking* *cough* um… right.
Protectress: no! no love stories! I'm not writing a love story, you can't make me! oh fine… I'll add that to the everincreasing list of "Things to Write" which seems to get bigger and bigger even as I type. e.o hope you like this one as much as the others!
CuteHappyBunny: one, i'm sorry that you are so disillusioned. *avoids projectiles from Kit* two, (wow it took me about eight tries to type that without caps or accidentally writing twin. gotta work on that) I don't mind in the least. Because, let's face it, I don't think many people are stupid enough to try to combine the Matrix with Greek mythology. Wait, I did. Hmm… Three, then go out and buy some!! Four, why am I counting? I'm so glad you like this! *proud* have some virtual pocky!
Wintergirl: I'm not giving it away! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not! grr… jp. I'm glad you like my little Dischordia and I hope you like this chapter, too.
Ieva: … you know, cummings isn't nearly so nice to *our* class. If you're not careful, he might get it in his head to lock you in the dark darkroom, the one with no light at all. And since I only go down there every other day, you could be in there for a while.
CCC: HIII! I WUV YOU!

Pandora the Brave

~Chapter 15~ (the tildes are there so that you people who like to skip an's can just get to the point)

Although Pandora's age-jump had been obvious and unexpected, Ate quickly realized the real facts, including Pandora's real age: 12. It took some convincing to get Eris to believe her, especially after Pandora rapidly developed several distinctly adolescent habits. Nonetheless, three days later, select members of the Merovingian's posse, Ate, Eris, Persephone, and Pandora all boarded a private jet flying direct to Greece. As everyone settled into his or her chair, Pandora alone in the back, the plane took off. The window occupied her full attention as the ground fell away, even though she was seeing neither. Pandora silently chewed a stick of cinnamon gum and tried to relax, understandably nervous; it was her first plane ride.

Just as the plane leveled out, Ate plopped into a chair beside her.

"Hey kiddo," she said, ruffling her hair, and for the first time Pandora noticed that she did not have an accent. It seemed strange to her, and that in itself seemed to give her one, because for all of Pandora's life, those around her had all had accents.

"Hi," Pandora replied.

"I'm supposed to keep you occupied. You know, so you don't think to hard or something," Ate said.

Pandora grunted, "Huh."

"Alright," Ate offered. "I'll make the conversation, hm?" After receiving no reply, she continued, "Why do you always wear white?"

"'Cause the Twins do," Pandora grunted.

"Blue might look better on you."

"It doesn't," Pandora snapped.

"Okay then… But all the kids your age actually wear colours. Think about it, sweetheart, in the magazines they always have stripes or something."

"I don't care," Pandora replied.

Ate sighed. "I liked you better as a little kid," she said. "Now you're just icky. How bout we cause a little trouble, hm? Would you warm up then?"

"Whatever."

"That was a yes or no question, kid."

"Yes, then. Go ahead, do something! I have nothing better to do."

"That's not quite the spirit I was looking for, but it's close enough. What do you want? A Merovingian flambé or a vampire à la mode?"

"Hmm…" Pandora said. "How 'bout a stewardess pancake?"

Ate laughed. "You're pretty mean. Okay… let's see now, where's the heaviest thing in this plane?"

Pandora craned her neck to see over the chair in front of her. There was a huge cabinet filled with glasses and spirits held in place by a few well-placed straps, and Pandora quickly pointed it out to Ate, who glared at each strap until it slid from its buckle. When there was only one left, a stewardess conveniently moved beneath it to serve someone a drink, and Ate let the strap loose.

Needless to say, the next half-hour proved interesting indeed, as it took several men to lift the heavy cabinet off the woman and several more to bind it back into place. The plane eventually quieted down, however, and Pandora grew bored.

"Now what?" she asked.

Ate thought for a moment before replying, "I dunno. Why don't you read a magazine or play cards or something?"

"I don't like pop culture, and I don't have a deck on me," Pandora replied icily.

"You mean you don't like humans, don't you?"

Pandora nodded.

"Well, kiddo, you have to blend in. And besides, it's fun to mess around with clothes. I mean, what with the ability to change your appearance whenever you want, you can confuse a hell of a lot of people that way. I've made several stand-ins for myself, and my favourite by far is this one chick who makes everyone think they're having weird déjà vu. It's crazy. It's actually really funny to watch."

Pandora said, "Neat."

"Am I boring you?" Ate asked wearily.

"No," Pandora replied. "Please… do go on. I think it's kinda interesting."

"Okay. Well… The first time I tried to make a mini-me, I screwed up really bad. I was just messing around on my sister's laptop, and bammo! I suddenly have about thirty Furby-like creatures running around and destroying stuff. It was awful. We—and by that I mean Eris and I—spent three hours trying to round them up. We stuck 'em in this cage, and I started making more. Eris was understandably mad at me, but we managed to contain them. The next day, I totally borrowed a friend's jet pack and scattered them all over downtown. Man, that was awesome."

"What did they do?" Pandora asked.

"Oh," Ate shrugged. "Most of them just ran around doing relatively small damage. I mean, there were only ten major accidents. I had been hoping for thirty, but I guess they didn't like the traffic light wires."

"What?" Pandora asked. "So they, like, ate stuff?"

"Uh.." Ate said. "I guess you could say that… It's more like they just enjoyed breaking things, but okay."

"Cool!" Pandora exclaimed. "Like gremlins!"

"Gremlins?"

"Like from that dorky eighties film, like, where the Gremlins, like, go around and, like, destroy New York."

"Ssomething like that… I guess. I've never seen that movie; I'm not much of a judge."

"Yeah," Pandora said, fiddling with a white mitten. "It's, like, a stupid movie anyway."

"Are you feeling okay? All of a sudden, it's as if you're talking weird."

"Huh? How d'ya mean? Like, what am I saying?"

"Nothing… Forget it…" Ate sighed. Bloody kids…

Pandora grinned, "Hey, d'ya got, like, a magazine or somethin'? 'Cause I, like, really wanna read somethin', ya know?"

"Sure," Ate replied uneasily. "Uh, let me go and get one for you."

~@~

Ten minutes later, Pandora was flipping through a teen magazine with about thirty more lying at her feet. She finished it, and picked up a catalogue from DKNY and as she fanned through the pages, she looked like a blur of colour in the back of the plane.

"That's healthy?" Two asked, eyeing her warily.

Ate shrugged, "It could be worse. She could be a hacker-goth-poser-computer nerd."

One said, "Just so long as she's not bungling your plans, we don't care."

Eris looked up. "Oh good, Ate," she said seriously. "Now you've got her doing something constructive."

"We hardly think that constructive," One replied quietly.

Ate shrugged, and Eris answered, "It's constructive to our cause. True, she's acting like a complete idiot."

"How is she being an idiot?" Ate asked. "She's just trying on clothes."

"Yeah," Eris answered. "Clothes deemed popular by the first magazine she picked up."

"Aesthetics aren't brainless."

"Look at that," Two said, disgust playing on his face as he covertly averted a loud argument.

Pandora was wearing an orange plunge neck midriff and a micro miniskirt. She had purple lace armwarmers and green stiletto espadrilles. Ate grimaced and muttered, "Okay, I'll go talk to her."

Kneeling in front of Pandora, Ate said, "Uh, maybe you should wear something, uh, warmer since it's November and cold."

"Why?" Pandora asked. "All the big kids are. Like, I mean, oh my god!"

Ate coughed, forced a smile, and offered some key advice. "Winter is usually cold," she warned. "It's not considered normal to wear a… distinctly… summer, yes, a distinctly summer outfit in the middle of winter."

"Oh my god," Pandora snapped. "The big kids can do what they want! You just don't want me to have any fun. You're not my mother! I can wear whatever I want!"

Ate quickly grabbed a magazine and flipped until she found a picture of a young woman stylishly dressed and completely covered. "Here," she said, pointing to the picture. "I think this would suit you better. It, uh, definitely brings out your eyes."

"You think?" Pandora exclaimed, instantly swapping outfits. "Wow, oh my god, you're, like, the best big sister type person ever, ya know!"

"Uh, thanks," Ate replied, standing up.

Back with the Twins, she could only sigh.

"Cool it, Ate. We both know it's only the hormones," Eris said.

"What hormones? She's a program," Ate sighed. "And kids her age don't have hormones. They have pseudo-hormones."

"Well considering her home life, we can't think of why she wouldn't dress like a slut," One said before Eris could open her mouth; he nonchalantly flipped a page of his GQ magazine.

"Hush, One," Eris hissed, her eyes dancing dangerously. "Mustn't be caught saying that."

"Well, you have to admit," Two said loudly, "We do have a point."

Eris opened her mouth, but clamped it shut. She then muttered, "I promised."

"That's right you did," Ate snapped. "You promised all three of us, so don't try anything." Then Ate began wagging her finger and raising her eyebrows up and down. "Don't get smart with me, missy!"

Eris's eyes narrowed, and she whispered dangerously, "I'll have you know, little sister, you can't stop me, now or ever."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the Twins said together. "Drop it. This can be discussed some other time."

Eris smiled lovingly at her sister, her eyes dripping poison, while Ate grinned sweetly, and said, "All my love, sister."

Why do they always do this?

They're both in love with chaos.

Different aspects of chaos.

It's the same thing, us. They vie for approval in his sight.

But, chaos isn't real, is he?

I meant it figuratively, little brother. She loves us, don't worry.

Don't they love each other?

We don't know.

Two sighed, only half-comforted by his twin. He did not worry about love so much as he worried about Ate and Eris clawing each other's eyes out, or worse. Even though they both had seen them really go at it, that one time when they both nearly died, only Two remembered; One had blocked it out. It was one of their worst memories, and they both agonized over its potential consequences every time the girls would start fighting. They could not stop them anymore than Eris and Ate could help arguing. Ate lived to annoy and aggravate, and Eris passionately orchestrated strife among friends or foes, a volatile and deadly combination usually resulting in sorrow on the parts of parties involved. Unfortunately, Eris and Ate had little concept of grief or regret, and they could not conceive of its presence in others.

Painful as it was to see them fight, the Twins did nothing other than prevent severe bodily harm and only then on rare few occasions. But the fight was now bottled up—it would be worse later—and they spent the rest of the trip in blaring silence.

The plane began to land, and Ate began picking on Eris, who turned all her wrath on Ate. They were quickly trading insults and attacking each other's ideas. Just as the plane rolled to a stop and Ate was about to set Eris's hair on fire, Pandora walked up, smiling curiously.

"Why are you fighting?" she asked Ate calmly.

"None of your damn business," Eris snapped.

"Who the hell asked you?" Pandora retorted hotly, turning on Eris like a demented cat.

Furious, Eris yelled, "Children are to be seen! Not heard!"

"I'm not a child!" Pandora shrieked, shattering the Merovingian's wine glass in his hand.

"Enough!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "Fools!"

Then Eris cackled manically, and the Merovingian stormed off the plane, his posse hot on his heels.

~MnI~

For a while there, my oc's were ooc. Heh. But now they are back in character. More to come! Review, and it'll go faster, believe me. motivation…. Ahaha! This is one of my more blah chapters, so forgive it, and review, and maybe in spite of my exams, I will post again for you. jaa!