The Matrix: Legacy
Twenty-Nine
Tobias


"Okay, we're back on-line!" Sparks declared, starting the Matrix feed back up. And subsequently swore. "We're too late!"

Danaë looked over his shoulder, but she couldn't read the green text. "What's going on?"

"They got Niobe and Ghost," he growled. "They're being transported somewhere, probably the château. And I got some weird readings on the guy driving 'em."

"Like what?"

"It... well, it fluctuates. Sometimes he reads as human, sometimes as a program... it's weirder than Krsna's reading."

"Hn."

Sparks stared at her. She had just used Asmodeus' catchphrase. No one used that "word" if they could help it. "Jack me in, Sparks," she growled, cold fire in her eyes.

"Uh-uh, no way. Danaë, it is way too-"

"The hell it is!" she snapped at him. "Sparks, I'm back-up, meaning that if these guys get into trouble, I go in after them. I hate going back to that, that lie, but I have to! Now jack me in!"

Sparks blinked a few times. Was this the sweet Danaë who'd come crying to him several days ago? Nope, he decided. Niobe had worn off on her at last. He jacked her in, sending her to the construct... and did a double-take when he saw her RSI.

Shoulder-length red hair, brown eyes... "My God." He grinned. She looked like herself now. Whatever Ghost had told her had done wonders for her self-esteem. Then he frowned. If she died, AK was going to have his head on a platter. A silver one. Complete with the obligatory apple in the mouth. Probably with some decorative lettuce and parsley sprigs, never mind that said produce, apple included, only existed now in the Matrix.

It was possible that Danaë didn't notice her altered appearance, though she more than likely didn't care about such trivialities as looks at the moment. She had a captain and a gunner to save, the woman she had come to see as a strict mother and the man she loved.

Thank all that was holy for little Sati and that information download on all forms of knife combat, as well as the switchblade. Danaë liked that switchblade and how cleanly it cut. She tucked it into her jeans pocket and grabbed two guns: Ghost's and a Springfield XD-9 (four-inch model). She wasn't the shooter Ghost was, but she could at least hit the target, if generally in a non-fatal area.

She considered taking Niobe's car, then remembered that it was, for some reason, a stick-shift car. She didn't drive stick.

"Send me in, Sparks."

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"Hey, bomb-boy."

Krsna jumped, banging his head against the top of his hiding spot. He peeked out to see Asmodeus.

Krsna didn't think, just reacted. Within seconds he had thrown himself at Asmodeus - not the brightest of moves. He had a good few inches on Asmodeus in height, but the Zionite outmassed him by quite a few kilos, all of which was solid muscle. The older man easily pinned Krsna to the ground. "Shut up and listen," Asmodeus snarled.

Krsna didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

"There's a way you can save your crew's collective ass. It's risky, but it's the only way this thing will work. I've been wanting to get that bastard out of my hair for awhile, now get on your feet and haul your bomb-throwing ass down to the docks. Move it!"

Startled, Krsna found his feet moving, and soon he was jogging to keep up with Moody 'Modeus. Just what kind of game was he playing, anyway? Krsna had a feeling that the game ran deeper than he could have ever imagined.

Asmodeus held up a hand to halt the taller boy. "Nobody's supposed to know these scouts exist," he said quietly, pointing out some very small ships. "Locke started developing them when I was still a kid. I stumbled on the design sketches and kept close watch on 'em. These two are the first to be completed."

Krsna could only stare at the sleek little vehicles, and Asmodeus had a smug smile on his face. "Two-man scouts. One to go into the Matrix, one to operate. Not much in the way of weaponry, but these li'l buggers'll outrun even sentinels." Asmodeus walked out, stroking the side of one of the scouts. "The Jordan and the Jericho. Beautiful."

Krsna wasn't as sure. They were smaller than even the Logos, after all. Asmodeus practically had to drag him on board. It was very small - the place where one person could jack in was located with the pilot's equipment; the galley was big enough for two, possibly three; there was only one room for the crew, which consisted of two hammocks and floor, and the engine room.

Small, but ideal for a two-man ship.

Small, but speedy.

Asmodeus could pilot and operate - assuming he had undergone the training, one was never sure with him - and Krsna was obviously there to be the presence in the Matrix. "Why me?" he asked Asmodeus, still upset over the near-arrest.

"Because I need you," was all Asmodeus would say, and even admitting THAT took half a day of pestering. They got the Jericho out with a minimum of hassle, at least until they got to the gate, which wouldn't open. That was when the com opened up, demanding they return. Asmodeus simply shut it off, hacked into the system running the doors, and got them open himself.

Moody 'Modeus sure knew his way around a computer.

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Danaë was outside the building housing a restaurant owned by none other than the Merovingian. It was going to be difficult, breaking into the château through there. She wasn't even sure how the locks worked, but dammit, she had to try!

"Miss Brennan, it's been awhile."

Danaë froze. Brennan... she'd not heard that name in a very long time. Not since she had been unplugged. What was more, she knew that voice. She had heard that voice several times, occasionally crying out in pain, occasionally confused, occasionally grateful.

The voice of the man she had once healed, who had protected her from men like himself who had been surprised at his apparent defection.

The voice of the man she knew only as Tobias.

Smiling, she turned to see her old patient. He wasn't smiling, but then, he never did. He nodded to her in greeting, however. "I take it you're going to infiltrate the dwelling of the Frenchman?"

"Yeah. He kidnapped my friends. I have to help."

"You can't do it on your own."

"I have to try," she told him.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, but he controlled it. "I will help." Dana's face brightened. "You will!?"

He nodded. "I still owe you for saving my life, Miss Brennan."

Thus did "Dana" Brennan and "Tobias" Jones enter the building which housed Le Vrai.

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GG Crono 4: I know.

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Music: Zion by Fluke (Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack)