TIME:  EIGHT HOURS LATER

POV: Adrian 1st.

iii

Pain.

Blistering pain.

Goddamn, this hurt. It felt like every piece of my body was on fire, boiling water, acid, anything. Just burning, searing, raging flames licking me.

I can hear my brother's screams next to me, I can hear mine. I can see Matrix and Agent through dim vision that won't fade; won't pass out even though I know I should. It's a defense mechanism, Neil told me once.

There is this mush, this gel that covers my body. It is black and shiny, like obsidian. It covers all but my eyes and mouth, even my hair, everything. It's elongating my body, changing me into something I don't know.

"Favorite color,  A. Aeron?"

"Silver." I responded through cracked lips.

"Favorite weapon, N. Aeron?"

"Switchblade," I heard him whisper.

"Hair style, N?"

"Dreadlocks. Long. White."

"Skin tone, A?"

"Albino."

He presses a button and the pain consumes the rest of my body. I can't breathe. The world is fading into……into….into……………..

~

TIME: THREE HOURS LATER

POV: Adrian 1st.

iv

I suddenly woke up 3 hours later. Suddenly. No grogginess or anything, which jumped me even more.  The leather straps over my arms and legs didn't seem so strong anymore, and with minimal effort I snapped them, falling about an inch from the ground. The ground seemed a lot closer, too. I shook my head to remove the feeling of something on my ear, but as I did white cords smacked me in the face. I turned, quickly, to see what they were. Again the cords. I suddenly realized what they were, and put my hand to my head. The course, white things were my hair….dreaded. I ran my fingers through my hair in shock. I looked to the side again, careful not to move too fast. The last wall was a full length mirror. There was another dreaded guy in it, in a silver coat.

Wait a second…there was only one person in that reflection.

It was me.

I looked sharply down. Indeed, that guy was me. I was suddenly wearing a dress shirt, tie, and vest over both. With trousers to match, and a coat over it. All silver. Even the damned shoes I was wearing! But it was kind of cool.

Dead pale. I was suddenly an albino. How….wierd.


//Neil is waking up//.

How did I know that? I can't see him from this angle.  I turned, and indeed, he was stirring.

"Adrian…..where the hell is Adrian, freak?" Neil growled, snapping his own bonds.

"It's me Neil, look." I pointed to the mirror, at myself, and then to him. He glared at me, but his expression softened seconds later.

"I know you're telling the truth, Adrian, but I don't know why…or how," He mumbled in deep puzzlement, "But I just do….and I know you're wondering where Matrix and Agent are…."

"Yeah, my god, what's going on? And right now you're wondering why the hell we're six feet tall with dreadlocks."

"Shall we explain?"

In three strides, Neil was behind me. We both glared at the speaker, Matrix, or Robert Smith.

"Yes, please do so." My brother commented.

"This world," Matrix motioned to the room around him, "is fake. Access your memory."

"That's bullshit, Matrix," I grumbled, "All of this crap you've been spouting. I've gone completely insane." I pinched myself hard in the arm, through the clothing. It hurt.

"You are saner then you've been throughout your entire life, in fact," commented Agent, (Cooper) entering the room, "Now, access your memory."

"What the hell is 'access' mean?" Neil growled.

"Just think about the word 'Matrix'."

"//This is so stupid//."

"What?"

"What?"

I looked over at Neil, "Did you say something?"


"No…but…wait, tell me what number I'm thinking of."

"//2784735//."

"2,784,735." I responded, trying to figure out how I could tell.

"Yeah, that's….weird….." He raised an eyebrow at me, a very imposing gesture along with the dreads.

"//It's like telepathy or something….here, try it. Think something to me//."  Said a voice not my own….that sounded strangely like Neil's. He nodded to me.

"//You're a dork.//"

"//You said 'You're a dork'…and no I'm not!//" He thought back at me.

"//Less try this 'access' shit…you go first.//"

"ACCESS MEMORY…." He thought, the words strangely echoing and commanding…..like a command.

"Holy fuck…….." he mumbled, staring straight ahead. His eyes flicked once in a wild, and there were strange gleams in them every second or so. Blinking twice, he stared at me, "Adrian, do it….it's…so incredible..just…..woah."

"//ACCESS MEMORY…//" I thought to myself.

I'm zapped into a world I don't know. It's like Mars or some foreign planet. The ground is dead, it's all grey rock and ash, and the only buildings are twisted spires in the fast distance. The spires shiver my pale skin. My PALE skin…..

"This is insane…" I muttered to myself.  I look around, trying to get the hell out of this world. I don't see anything except those spires, and their tips extend up to the sky….

…….the sky….

The clouds roil, there is no sun. Goddamnit, what the flying hell did that access memory crap do?!

//This is the world//.  A voice says in my head. I suddenly find myself believing it //There was a war. The humans verses the Machines, the Artificial Intelligence which they played god with. They couldn't control the machines, and the robots gained power. The humans wouldn't accept a civilization of robots. The humans tried to destroy the machines…//.

I turn around wildly, but the voice is in my own head. As I try to run as far away as possible, a rock juts out of no where. The voice keeps going…tells me about how the Machines needed power…………………………………………………………….and they made the Matrix…………………………………have extraordinary abilities…………………………

~

TIME: TWENTY MINUTES LATER

v

Another shocking pain jolts me up awake. My eyes fly open, into a pair exactly identical.

It's Neil.

//"That was weird….I think I woke you up by sending to many thoughts to your head or something…" //

I'm think I'm genuinely insane before I remember that I can suddenly communicate telepathically with him. Well, more insane at least.

//"Neil? I'm back here? How long have I been zapped like that?"//

//"You ran into a rock. Nice call. But anyway, did you get all of that information? On the Matrix?"//

//"Yeah. What a bunch of shit."//

//"No, it's true! Agent shot himself and came through another door!" //

//"I can't believe you fall for that crap. You're more logical then I am, you really shouldn't…" //

//"It makes more logical sense, Adrian! It's the only thing that makes sense! If you don't' believe it then just pretend you do, ok? I have a really bad feeling about Agent and Matrix…Matrix!" //

//"Matrix Matrix?"//

//"No! Cooper! His nickname was Matrix! And Smith was Agent!//"

The realization hits me like….something really hard. These two guys knew about this Matrix thing all along, and they just wanted to tell us about it, and turn us into…into freaks.

"What did you do to us, Matrix? Your name coincides with this world! What is going on?!" Neil shouted at them.

"You have been recruited to become select assassins for the good of the Matrix."

"You think we're going to help you keep the human race imprisioned?" I continued, "You must be nuts!"

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Matrix said with a smirk, "You can make it easy or hard on us, but you don't have a choice of whether you want it or not."

I dug my hand into a pocket, wrapping alien fingers around something cold and hard. Pulingit it out, I realize that is  a weapon indeed. A switchblade. Yet I have no idea how to handle it. Awkwardly, I branish it to Cooper and Smith.

"Don't you dare touch me or my fuckin' brother!"

"You can't stop us."

And then they charge.

I can't fight in this body. I can barely block his kicks and punches and they fly and an incredibly speed. Once gets throught and smacks me in the face….I can hear my nose bone shattering. Neil jumps up in ifront of me, trying to defend me, but his defence shatters faster then mine, and he stumbles into me. Cooper charges and knocks Neil out, leaving me with a dead weight. As I stand up, Smith comes and sends a single kick to me, hitting me hard in the solar plexus. Another fist, and a shattering noise, and nothing.

//"What is the Matrix, Adrian Aeron?"  //

Is…… that…… a……. voice?

//"It is yourself. I am Twin Two. YOU are Twin Two."//

//"I am…I am…….who am I?"//

~~~

TIME: SIXTEEN HOURS LATER

vi

"Two, awake yourself, there is no time for games like this. There places to be, people to kill." Says a voice next to me. I snap immediately awake, breaking the bonds that held me for reasons I don't remember why.

"Where are we now? We are afraid our memory has been a bit disfigured." I respond.

"How very odd. So our mind feels the same."

I chuckle, "Of course it does, One." As the name rolls off my tongue, I try to remember why it sounds wrong. It's my twin's name. Why does it sound so strange?

//"Hello? Neil?" //

The voice pricks the back of my mind. It sounds strangely familiar, but it can't be placed.

//"Who is that? Neil?"//

//"Whom do you speak of? I am Twin Two."//  I respond. It's very strange….only my brother can speak telepathically to me.

//"Two….umm…this is my body….I think. I'm  Adrian." //

//"You must be mistaken, Mr. Adrian." //

//"No…I…Holy flying shit….."// His voice trails off to great relief to me. It makes me uncomfortable, this Adrian man. I feel like I know him, and yet  I don't.

"One," I look at him briefly, "This may sound strange, but we hear another voice in our head, not yours."

"As we, brother. He calls himself Neil, says that our body is his. He searches for a boy named Adrian."

"The voice in our head is called Adrian, and looks for Neil. Is this not odd?"

"Very strange indeed."

The door enters, and we both turn to look at the person. Or rather, program. It's Smith, of whom we are fairly aquatinted with.

"Hello, Smith. How goes you?"

"Very well, Twin Two, and yourself?"

"We seemed to be troubled by other voices in our head rather then our brother. Can you explain this phenomenon?"

"No, but I can solve it." He pulls a small syringe out of his coat pocket, of which I take. Another one is given to One, "This will silence the voice."

//"Damnit Smith! You fuckin' did something to me! What the flying hell??! Get this Two freak out of my head!"//

"The voice called Adrian experiences extreme dislike towards you, Smith," I comment to him with a slight smirk.

"As Neil. He speaks of body snatching. What is 'snatching?' "

A slight chuckle erupts from the doorway. There's another Agent, this one is Cooper, "'snatching' is a term that means taking or stealing. The humans use it."

"Apparently so."  One responds.  Without any further or due, he plunges the syringe into his arm. He winces only slightly, but withdraws it two seconds later, empty, and throws it across the room, "That seemed to have been successful. The one called Neil speaks no more." '

I apply my own into my arm.

//"Neil! Neil, help! Neil----aaaaarghh!"// The entity called Adrian shouts in my head as the serum hits him, if possible. There is a second of his moaning pain, but then it is gone. I mentally sigh in relief.

"Yes, it was sufficient."

I am disgruntled by my memory loss; programs have internal schedule tracks. I should always know what I have been doing.

"Smith, we are troubled. MY internal schedual does not seem functioning beyond a few minutes ago."

"You are fine, Twin Two," Smith replied, his lip curled, "It is a mere precaution."

"A precaution to what?" One asks suspiciously. The Agent doesn't answer, but we both let it drop. Smith cocks his head toward Cooper, and then both exit.

~

TIME: IMMEDIATELY AFTER

POV: Smith 3rd

vii

"Why did he not allow it unconditionally?" Cooper asked Smith angrily, "What is he so concerned about? It has been done before; what worries him now?"

"I don't know," Smith responded neutrally, "But I did pick the most random excerpt I could find. This is it." He hands Cooper a thin book.

The book is paperback; it's thin and flimsy. On the cover is a picture of something that appears to be a demon, and in red and black the image is well portrayed. It looks like it's well used, as the pathetic binding is all but falling off and the edges are frayed whitish. In big flaming letters, it reads DIABLO II.

Cooper opened up to the first page, looking over the poem that had been circled. He nodded, and then hands the book back to Smith, "It will suffice. What will happen if they hear it?"

"They will recall all previous images. They will not, however, revert back to the humans known as Neil and Adrian. But they will remember that they were once these people."