The Matrix: Legacy
Thirty
Yukio


Cain spared Wingless a quick glance as he rose to his feet and was startled by the sheer, naked pain on the traitor's face. The human girl meant that much to him?

"Stay away from Avalon, or I'll kill you myself!" Abel had snarled during the list of threats he'd presented to his cousin during the beating he'd delivered two days earlier. He had never seen Abel that angry before. That protective behaviour; was it love? Cain already knew he loved Luna - Why else would he have taken on three Agent programs to protect her?

Cain shook his head, he was confusing himself.

The bare truth was that Cain had been given orders to protect the human girls Morgain Davidson and Betsabé Seferino until O'Malley's deal went through. Horizon had been captured, but Avalon had escaped and was still running outside.

First things first, he had to find Trinity's sister. Once she was safe - relatively speaking - in the château, he could go hunt down Horizon. It was more than likely that Wingless would insist on coming along, and refusing him would be very much a bad thing.

Cain looked again at Esau's kid, and a plan took root in his mind.

---------

The kid, a boy of perhaps twelve, had given his name as Yukio. Cain was fairly sure that Esau didn't even know that the kid existed. Interestingly enough, he carried himself like a king, rather than the bastard son of an Exiled program working as an assassin for an illegal mafia-like organisation run by one of the deadliest programs in existence, who ironically held the shell of a Frenchman. Or even the bastard son of an unknown father in general, he mentally amended, his eyes falling on another of those old, deadly programs. Seraph was serene, deadly, and wingless, just like Seth, though Seraph was the only one with the title of Wingless. Neither of the fallen ones spoke of how they had lost their wings; the subject was taboo in the château.

It occurred to Cain that there were a lot of hidden demons in the Exile's refuge.

His mind had wandered completely off-topic. Again. Idly he wondered if programs could be afflicted with ADD and if so, did he have it?

Seraph had sent Aisling back to the Oracle's, despite protests that she wanted to see Abel. He looked at Cain coolly, asking, "Can you smell Avalon?"

"Give me a second, Wingless," Cain replied irritably, "there are about a thousand scents I have to sort through. I'm not a machine."

Cain's eyes widened as he realised what he had just said, a horrified look spreading over his face. Seraph grasped Cain's shoulder reassuringly and uploaded a random memory to the werewolf that made Cain smiled. Yup, Wingless still had it, all right, he thought, watching Seraph's battle with the rebel Ballard.

There.

"I found her scent," Cain said as he set off towards the subway.

Wait, subway? Shit, I hope she didn't run into the trainman. Ol' greedy guts'll drop her off in Limbo for sure! Cain increased his pace, not wanting to have to bargain with the disgusting man whose rancid stench offended his delicate nose even more than Eau de Cujo.

"If she is in Mobil Ave," Seraph said calmly, stopping him, "she will be safe there."

"Not with Charon and his grudge against Trinity," Cain replied. Seraph rolled his eyes. The Merovingian, the Trainman, One, Two, Esau, Red, and just about every Agent still in the Matrix had a grudge against the One's woman, especially the Agents.

"He will not harm Avalon. He would not dare risk the Frenchman's wrath," Seraph said.

Cain considered this. "Point. Fine, we'll get her later. Onto the club."

---------

A rebel had once told Cain to go to Hell. He had cheerfully replied that he did so on a regular basis. This actually wasn't true, as the Hel Club wasn't to his or Abel's tastes. However, he and his cousin often pulled coat check duty, as the garage was strictly the domain of the Q-Ball gang.

Tonight, however, Jacob and Esau had coat check duty.

Seraph wisely stayed out of sight, and Cain easily intimidated his way past the Q-Ball gang, though he did beat one of them around for trying to mess with Yukio. Cain didn't need the kid traumatised before he used him to blackmail his father into helping out.

"Stay behind me and don't say a word," he warned Yukio as the elevator went downstairs. Yukio glared daggers at him, but obeyed. The doors slid open and Cain stepped out, the boy just behind him.

Esau gave him an arch look. "Aren't you supposed to be baby-sitting?" he asked.

Cain gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Ran into some complications."

"What kind of complications?" Jacob demanded. The look on his face was not one of trust.

"Complications of the one man can't be in two places at once kind," he answered. "I need to borrow you, Esau."

"No way," Esau replied. "Ain't worth my job to go off on one of your wild goose chases."

Cain rolled his eyes. "It's not a wild goose chase. This is about that deal that the Frenchman really wants to go down, for some reason. The two girls have vanished. One ran, the other's been kidnapped."

Jacob arched an eyebrow. "Weren't you supposed to prevent that from happening?"

"I didn't get there in time," Cain snarled in reply. "I think someone told 'em that O'Malley's pullin' out, so they're tryin' to keep him in."

"Leave us out of it," Esau told him. "Bother Tiger or Seth with it."

"I don't think you get it, Esau," Cain said with a smug look. "You're going to help."

Esau's eyes narrowed. "Make me."

"Yukio?"

The boy peeked out from behind Cain.

There was a clatter as Esau's HK G36K fell from nerveless fingers to strike the ground. Esau himself was staring at the boy as if he had seen a ghost. Jacob saw the resemblance, read the code, and whistled. "You're in deep shit if this gets out, buddy," he told his partner.

Esau agreed to help Cain out.

Not too surprising, given the circumstance.

---------

Jones produced a skeleton key and let himself and Miss Brennan into the château. The girl had grown up quite a bit since she had taken care of his multiple injuries. Funny, he couldn't remember ever having been injured before that time.

His shell had been killed a few times - first on that rooftop by Trinity herself, then minutes later by the One and a GE Mini-Gun - but he'd never been injured so bad that the shell needed to be repaired over a period of time. He supposed he was lucky that she had stumbled over him. Either way, she had saved his "life" and he did feel a sort of obligation to her for that.

And his old partner was here, somewhere. He could sense Brown nearby.

He spared a quick glance at the small, determined redhead. Interesting that she had been pulled out by the rebels. He had sensed the non-acceptance of the Matrix in her, of course, but they were generally interested in freeing hackers.

Of course, after the One had arrived on the scene, priorities had most likely changed dramatically. And now, four years later...

Something in his mind twinged, and Jones drew his Desert Eagle. He directed a scowl at the gun marking him as clearly as the suit he still wore, then rounded a corner directly into Brown - but Brown had changed.

The gun pointed at his chest was a Glock 17; the ex-Agent holding it wore black pants, a dark green shirt, and a black trench coat. He wasn't wearing sunglasses, which made Jones realise that he had never seen the colour of his partner's eyes in the years they'd worked together.

His eyes were green.

Jones blinked behind his shades, then said, "Miss Brennan, this is where we must part. Do what you came here to do."

The girl hesitated a moment, then obeyed him.