The Matrix: Legacy
Twenty-Seven
Betrayal

The mood of the Logos was a sombre one as they left Zion without Krsna. Danaë had told them what he had told her and then she had vanished for awhile. After awhile, she had turned up again in the Core to pester Sparks a little. "What do you want?" Sparks asked her after five minutes of her half-hearted bothering.

"Can you jack me into Ghost's program?" she replied, not looking at him.

Sparks suppressed the urge to groan and play shrink. "You sure, kid?" he asked instead. She nodded, and he sighed. "All right..." Sparks plugged her in, then went off to locate Ghost. He and the other man needed to have a little chat.

---------

Ghost emerged from the "chat" with Sparks a little shell-shocked. Without a word, he went to the Core and made the operator plug him in so he could talk to Danaë. "If you listen in," he threatened Sparks, "You will not be needing my boots."

Sparks contrived and failed to look innocent as he slid Ghost into the program, but he also made himself scarce.

Finding Danaë was easy enough. Ghost was concerned, however, over her RSI's appearance. It still didn't look much like her. A brunette in the false realities but a redhead in the real world... why didn't she like her appearance?

The young woman was curled up near one of the large boulders that dotted his garden, her shoulders shaking. Ghost winced when he realised she was crying. Obviously, they needed to talk. He approached her on cat-soft feet and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Danaë?"

She immediately swiped a hand over her eyes and looked up at him, startled. "Ghost?" He knelt beside the girl and drew her against his chest, his strong arms preventing an escape. He heard her soft gasp, but she didn't fight him.

"I feel as if I owe you an apology," he said seriously.

"No, Ghost," she said quickly, "I'm the one-"

He cut her off. "Danaë. I am the one who misled you, not the other way around. The night of the memorial... I was not as drunk as I led you to believe."

He could feel her freeze. "I didn't mean to call you Trinity that time, Danaë. Neither of us were fully sober, but I remember the gift you gave me. I knew what I was doing, as did you... but you left before I could talk to you."

"Oh," she said in a small, soft voice.

He smiled and tightened his hug momentarily. "Danaë, I've been meaning to ask you: Why is your RSI so different from your appearance?"

"... I wanted to be pretty...."

Her answer startled Ghost. "But you are pretty," he said, confused. How could she think she wasn't pretty? All the philosophy in the world would never unravel the female psyche, Ghost decided.

His words were rewarded with a soft smile. "I guess... I also wanted to look more like Trinity."

"I don't want you to look like Trinity," he said. "I want you to look like you." She looked stunned, but before she could say more, Ghost silenced her with a gentle kiss.

On cue, his cell phone went off. He sighed as he broke away and answered it. "What is it?"

"Trouble. We've got an emergency call from the Caduceus," Sparks answered. "Get Danaë unplugged and get ready to head to the Construct." Ghost frowned and sent the girl out, then his Zen garden faded to the sheer white of the Construct.

---------

"What's going on?" Danaë asked Sparks as Ghost and Niobe prepared themselves.

"One of Pippin's boys found himself in trouble in the Matrix. The chairs have a virus now, so they can't jack in to help Davis out, and he's nowhere near an exit."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Frenchie's boys," Sparks replied as he transferred Ghost and Niobe to Davis' location.

Danaë 's eyes widened. "No, Sparks; it's a trap!" she cried, too late.

The Matrix code on the monitors fluctuated, then turned an alarming shade of red. "Shit!" he yelled, diving for Danaë and knocking her out of the way as the station went haywire, electricity dancing over the monitors and Spark's chair.

Both of them stared at the smoking station, then turned their eyes to Ghost and Niobe. Both captain and first mate were unharmed and breathing. Sparks returned his gaze to his station. "That would have hurt," he muttered.

---------

Niobe froze for a moment, and Ghost gave her a look. "What is it?"

"A feeling," she answered at last. "Something's wrong."

Ghost frowned, handing Niobe his cell phone. She dialled the Logos and waited. "No one's picking up," she said after a moment.

"That's not good."

"Be on your guard," Niobe ordered. "Something funny is going on here. Let's grab Davis and get to an exit."

---------

"Shit!" Sparks yelped as some residual shock got him again. He shook his hand.

"Put on the damn gloves and you won't get shocked," Danaë told him, sharp in her worry.

He just glared at her and continued working on repairing the station. "So you think this D'Artagnan guy is one of Pippin's lot?"

She nodded. "He can't be Asmodeus, because 'Modeus is Zion-born and has no holes."

"Makes sense. I just wish I knew what Moody 'Modeus has to do with this. A thousand psychologists couldn't figure that boy out."

Danaë nodded absently as her delicate fingers cross-wired some of the connections. They were lucky Sparks knew a quick jury-rig for this stuff. At the same time, Sparks was running an antivirus to flush any other surprises out of his systems. The operator was incredibly pissed off that someone had sabotaged his ship and his systems.

"We're almost done," he told her, earning another absent nod.

---------

Ghost was the one to find the blond rebel crouched in the corner of a church, terrified. Niobe came running at Ghost's call, and they reassured the frightened Davis before Niobe called the Caduceus to let them know they'd got him.

Before the operator could pick up, Niobe felt something prick her arm; the next thing she knew, she'd lost consciousness.

Ghost heard Niobe fall and turned to aim at the suddenly grinning Davis. An internal alarm went off, and he turned again just in time to take a punishing blow to the gut that knocked the air from his lungs and the awareness from his mind; he too fell into blackness.

Red hoisted the woman over his shoulder, not very pleased with playing delivery boy. He was a thief, for God's sake!

"Ya could help, y'know," he snapped at D'Artagnan.

"What for?" the smirking blond replied. "I have a few other packages to prepare for the Frenchman."

He all but skipped off, leaving Red longing to put a bullet in his back. God, but he hated the little fucker. He was too arrogant for his own good.

Red sighed as he pulled the other rebel over his other shoulder and made his way to the château.

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"Where the hell is Gunner?"

"I haven't seen him in a good week."

"He hasn't reported in."

"I heard tell he sold us out to that French guy; he's prolly skipped town by now."

"We are going to have to show him the folly of his actions. You have the location of those two girls?"

"They're roommates."

"Good. Go get them. We will show him what happens to traitors."