Matrix: Legacy
Ten
Nightmare
"You're serious, Sabé?" Gunner asked. "A librarian?"
Betsabé Seferino nodded. "Yup."
'Why?' Morgain signed.
"Because, dear Avvy, who would suspect a sweet little librarian of computer crime?" Sabé grinned. The petite Hispanic woman was a clever hacker who went by the alias Horizon. She was trying to do a follow-up on the Trinity job by cracking the local IRS database. It was bound to be harder, now that over fifteen years had passed since the hacking. Betsabé, upon learning Morgain's birthdate, had dramatically proclaimed that the Trinity job had been the herald of Morgain's conception after doing the math and realising she had been born nine months afterward.
She therefore occasionally called Morgain her 'IRS angel'.
Sabé was two years' Morgain's senior and was currently "dating" Gunner, meaning she was using him to get into a hacker club known as the Freedman. They had recently started bringing Morgain along so they could show off her dancing talent. They never mentioned to the owners that Morgain was only fifteen, but the owner/bartender Alex never served her alcohol (which she hated anyway) and the owner/bouncer Joe kept the pervs off her back, so it was all right in the end.
Looking casually downstairs, Morgain saw Joe and Alex talking worriedly. It was odd for either man to be worried, especially Straight-Face Joe. Used to reading lips, she saw what was going on, at least from Alex's side.
"Could we go to the Merovingian?"
Joe answered, and Alex sighed. "Yeah, you're right. By now, the Smith anomaly has probably taken the château. It would make the most sense, now that he's got the fortuneteller. Rumour has it he got the old man, too."
Joe looked up suddenly, staring at the door, then signalled to his brother.
"Shit! He's here?"
Morgain looked to Gunner and Sabé. 'Trouble's coming. Time to split.'
The trio rose and made their way downstairs, but before they could even step towards the back exit, both doors flew open and a stream of suited men entered the club. Morgain's eyes widened as she realised that they all had the same face. "¡La mierda santa!" Sabé cried, seeing the same thing.
"Holy shit!" Gunner cried, repeating her expletive in English as they saw one of the same-faced men slam his hand literally into Alex's chest, silver gunk running away from the point of entry and crawling over him.
"Alex!" Joe cried, leaping forward to aid his brother only to be impaled on another hand.
The gunk vanished from both brothers, revealing more of the same-faced man. Gunner reached inside his trench coat and drew out a pair of Czech Skorpions, what he jokingly called his 'terrorist guns'. There was no joking in his manner as he calmly opened fire into the crowd of suits. "Horizon, Avvy, run!" he ordered. "Take my bike!"
Horizon, used to quick escapes, pulled out a pistol of her own - a Beretta Inox - grabbed Morgain's wrist, and yanked the startled girl after her, firing at a window as she ran. One of the suits grabbed Morgain's waist-length braid, but Horizon dropped her Inox, drew a switchblade, and cleanly cut it through her friend's hair just above the hand, freeing Morgain as they went through the space where the large window had been. Horizon screamed as a bullet pierced her thigh, but she tossed Morgain the key to Gunner's motorcycle.
"Keep going, chica," she gasped. "Don't stop."
'Sabé -'
"Go, damn it!"
Tears streaming down her face, Morgain obeyed. She didn't get very far; a bullet hit one of the tires, pitching her over the handlebars. Luckily, she managed to twist so that she landed on her shoulder, not her head. Wincing in pain - her shoulder had been dislocated - she staggered to her feet and tried to run. One of the suits caught her, holding the struggling girl. "Don't worry, chica," he drawled, "it'll be all over soon."
He plunged his hand into her arm, and Morgain's mouth opened in a silent scream of non-pain as sheer cold spread throughout her body, overtaking her, piercing her mind, destroying her psyche-
She hit the ground with a thud, fighting the entangling silk sheets. A dream, Morgain's panicking mind thought, just a dream. It had seemed so real, though, like it was a memory. Panting, scared, she clutched her pillow like a lifeline and took stock of her surroundings. Same room, same place, same bloody château.
There was a thin line of light from under the door to the library; Cain and Abel were probably watching their stupid movies again. Suddenly preferring their company to her empty room and that nightmare, she silently entered the library.
Surprisingly enough, all that was on the TV was a blue screen, meaning that whatever cheesy horror flick they were watching (Brotherhood of the Wolf, according to the DVD box) was over but the TV'd not been turned off. She found the remote and did so, then turned to look at her supposed guards. Both had a distinctly Germanic air about them, though Cain looked slightly Oriental as well.
They were cute, she admitted to herself, at least when they were asleep and harmless, like now. Especially Abel. Drawn by the small patch of fuzz on his chin, she walked to him, not seeing Cain's brown eyes open and watch her. She didn't realise that the smell of her fear had woken him, and Cain decided to see what the girl was doing. He didn't want to get up if he didn't have to.
Kneeling on the floor near Abel, she gently put the tip of her index finger against the soul patch, oddly enchanted by it. It was soft and fuzzy. She loved the feel of it. Why, she wondered, were you being so nice to me yesterday? Why did you encourage me like you did? Her hand drifted to his golden brown hair, which was as soft as the soul patch. Oddly enough, the consistency reminded her of the consistency of Lobo's fur, Lobo being Horizon's half-wolf, half-husky. She'd never felt such thick hair on a man. Abel was really a fascinating person to look at.
She slid down so that she was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the couch he slept on, clutching the pillow to her chest. Eventually, she also fell asleep.
Cain, grinning, rose from his place and contemplated how to cause trouble. Obviously Avalon was getting a crush on his cousin; the little touchy-feely show right there was proof enough of that. Now, to do this properly....
Cain slowly, gently picked the girl up and deposited her on the couch, settling her against Abel. To his delight, Abel's arms immediately wrapped around her. Still moving slowly, Cain removed the pillow from Avalon's arms and grinned to see her shift, turning more towards Abel and snuggling closer, her head resting against his shoulder, one of her hands coming to rest lightly on Abel's chest.
Perfect, Cain thought, returning to his couch after flipping off the light. Odd, he could still smell her fear. He'd never smelt fear that lasted this long after the initial release. No matter. Hopefully he'd wake first and get a good look at Abel's expression when he awoke and realised he wasn't alone....
Cain snickered as he drifted back off to sleep.
---------
It was Abel's stomach that woke him. He groaned, realising that he wanted cookies again. His nose twitched, and he realised that Avalon's scent was extremely close, though the mist was stronger than the vanilla for once. It took him a moment longer to realise that he couldn't feel his arm and that there was a woman curled up beside him.
He opened his eyes to see the sable crown of Avalon's head. No way in hell would she have ended up here willingly. Abel's eyes fell on Cain, who had a smirk on his sleeping face. Grey eyes narrowed, the small werewolf gently disentangled himself from Avalon without waking her and stalked to his cousin.
Cain awoke to a pillow in the face and an irate Abel. "What the hell were you thinking!?" he hissed angrily. "You trying to get us both in trouble with him again?"
"He wouldn't have found out," Cain yawned, "just like the last time."
Abel snarled and grabbed his cousin's hair, forcibly turning his head to face towards a camera, which he pointed to. "He's going to find out. Who's on camera duty?"
"The Twins are," came another voice. "It's about time you two slackers woke up."
The pair of werewolves turned to see the a man with auburn hair lounging against the wall. "Matthias," Cain greeted the former Agent Brown. He nodded to them in greeting and made his way over to their location.
Unlike the other rogue Agents, Brown had not opted to continue to wear the standard Agent garb. Instead, he dressed more to his new position as one of the Merovingian's bodyguard programs: Black slacks, a long-sleeved button-up shirt of a dark forest green, a black trench coat very similar to Cain's, and of course the silver ring worn by all of the Merovingian's men. Oddly enough, the former Agent no longer wore sunglasses.
"You realise it's only a matter of time before my former colleagues try to get to her?" he said, gesturing to the sleeping girl.
Cain and Abel exchanged looks. "What the hell do you mean, Matthias?" Abel asked.
Brown shrugged. "Certain ex-colleagues of mine have gone rogue, as I myself did. They may believe Avalon to be Trinity."
Cain groaned. "How in the nine hells did they get that idea?"
Brown gave Cain a pointed look, "Some of the 'less intelligent' upgrades have not realised that Trinity is dead. Word among them is that the Merovingian is holding the infamous Trinity hostage."
It was Abel's turn to groan. "Great. Now we have to worry about Exiled Agents?"
"Oh, it gets better," Brown said. "All of the Exiled Agents, especially Jackson, Johnson, and Thompson, hate Trinity with a passion. Every time they tried to get her, she'd escape, often at the last possible second. It was... frustrating beyond words."
"There's no way they'd pass up a chance to get at her if she can't leave the Matrix," Abel said softly.
"But this is the château. They can't get in here," Cain answered.
Before they could begin to bicker, Brown spoke two words: "Skeleton key."
"Oh," Cain began.
"Shit," Abel finished. They exchanged looks, then Abel walked to the couch, scooping Avalon up in his strong arms. "I'm gonna drop her off and get some food. We can warn the Twins and spread the word about possible rogue Agents." Brown and Cain nodded, waiting as Abel carried her into the her own room, tucking her gently into bed and brushing some of her sable locks away from her face.
He smiled a little, then sniffed the air. Fear? That wasn't unusual, true, but fear spoor this old was very odd. It occurred to him that Cain would not have gone out of his way to pull a prank like he had by carrying Avalon from her room to the library. No, her fear had to have driven her to the library - to them.
What could have scared her that badly?
About to walk away, his grey eyes suddenly saw the mark on her upper arm, almost a scar. He knew that mark well. Brown had it, Cain had it, Tiger and Seth had it, he had it... all the programs the anomaly Smith had assimilated had borne that mark. Hell, even one of the Twins had one. They all had nightmares about the assimilation, of course; it was to be expected. And after the nightmares, their respective marks would ache, would stand out. But the marks, the memories of that wretched week had been completely wiped from the memories of the coppertops.
Why did she still have one? How could she remember her own assimilation? Abel found himself growling at the thought of Smith hunting her down and turning her into one of him, and quickly calmed himself. Turning on his heel and walking out, Abel ignored Cain and Brown's questioning glances and said, "I want cookies. Anyone else?"
Special thanks to Lady Deakin for her help with some of Brown's dialogue.