Beginning note/none

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"Can I see?"

"No, it'd be best if we waited before looking into it. We created a lot of noise, today. Taking you from those rebels before the Agents is bringing a lot of attention to us," the twin said matter-of-factly. Yossi had the general idea that 'Agents' were the bad guys, and 'rebels' were the good guys, so where did that put the twins? She figured that asking out right would get a biased answer in return, so she didn't bother putting out the question. The other twin was no longer staring, but again his attention was off in space. Yossi sighed quietly again, pretty satisfied with her questions for now. It was a time like this, she believed, that would be great for getting personal, but altogether, she wasn't keen on the idea. Perhaps she was simply too tired. Too much stress and adrenaline for one day.

"Where do I sleep?" This acheived both twin's attention. "I'm tired.." she said needlessly, but was surprised when it was the farthest twin that answered. "We won't be needing the bed, you can sleep there."

This was intriguing, Yossi was expecting that she would be sleeping on the couch, and she would have been happy with that. It certainly seemed comfortable enough. The only explaination for this was that she had missed part of the room. Was there another bedroom? There didn't seem like enough room. Yossi found herself looking over her shoulder, but it ended in an equally decorated wall as the rest of the hotel room.

"Where will you guys be sleeping?"

"We won't be," the closest twin answered, both had blank, expressionless faces, as if they expected her to have known this. A single brow rose, but she decided it wasn't needed to press the topic, as she doubted she would ever get clear answers. She was at a loss, trying to decide how to excuse herself from the slowly darkening room. Evening was pressing in and despite the pallid tone of their faces, it was becoming more and more unsettling how the details were melting away into a color one shade lighter than shadow. The only imperfection left was the streak of black that was their sunglasses. Chills were rising on her skin, and for some reason she was reminded of the moment when one of the twins was standing behind her, holding her neck and a cold trickle ran down her spine. She wanted to shiver, but held it off and finally she stood and simply headed for the bed room. The laptop was no longer on the bed, and she remembered how one of them had entered the room after she left the kitchen. She peered back at the computers, sitting there idly. Both seemed for have their screensavers on, the lime green symbols were swiftly tumbling down the screen on the black background. It seemed rather original to her, she'd never seen it before. It wasn't like the usual, the fish tank, the spiralling things, all of the other default choices. Though it seemed familiar, she didn't dwell on it long, and was happy that at least it was dark and didn't give off much of a glow as she flung the decortive pillows to the wooden floor below and situated herself in the sea of feathery pillows and thick covers. She hadn't realized how cold it was until then. With the press of the earlier days emotions draining her to pure exhaustion, and the soft bed with it's warm, safe feeling, it didn't take long to fall asleep.

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It seemed that she had slept an impossibly long time when she finally opened her eyes again. The room was too light from the floor to ceiling windows that almost completely shown into the bedroom. Yossi wasn't used to this at all. In her crummy apartment, the room that housed her computers had windows that were covered by thick blankets. The thought made her feel dirty, like she hadn't had a shower in a week. Looking at the deep blue of the sheet that was wrapped around her, and the pure white of the thick comforter, she felt horribly out of place. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and finally crawled out of bed. She was intensely curious as to what the twin's did for the whole night. The thought rather frightened her, actually now that she thought about it. She quickly exited the bedroom, through the large entranceway and was looking directly at the empty couch. With a slight turn of her head, she was peering into the small empty kitchen, but didn't really exactly expect to see them there anyways. If they didn't sleep, she certainly didn't expect them to eat, either. The bathroom? That was where she was heading anyways, might as well check there as well. The bathroom required walking to the almost empty part of the room, behind the chair, along the wall that boxed in the open bedroom. It was quiet and the door was open. The room was small, but had all of the nessecities, along with a large bathtub, seperate from the walk-in shower. She momentarily forgot about the absense of the twins and revelled in taking a bath in a tub that was actually clean. This took up the rest of the morning and an hour into the afternoon. The room was quiet, and she didn't worry herself by overthinking the situation. She knew this could happen, as when she was learning to hack, she often overthought and made things far too complicated. Not thinking was harder than expected, but oh so relaxing. It would have been possible to fall asleep again after she had wiped all of the grime away from living in a dirty apartment for so long, but something surprising broke the trance.

Yossi was in the midst of intense relaxation, her eyes were almost closed and the scent of the shampoo and soap were flooding her mind, but she still heard someone grip the little doorknob. Her eye's were wide with shock when she heard the door click open. It would have swung in the direction that didn't block the bathtub from view, so she sat up and covered herself as best as she could.

"I'm in here!" she shrieked, hoping to keep her modesty. The door hadn't opened much, but she could see the same pale silver arm of the jacket and the pure white hand gripping the doorknob through the decoratively rusted rack that held towels and hand rags.

"We were looking for you," the voice seemed strained, but closed the door quietly. Through the white wooden door, she could hear the retreating footsteps. The incident left her toweling dry and putting on her old clothes. After the clean scents of the soap, she wrinkled her nose at returning to the soiled shirt and baggy pants that were meant for sleeping in. She sighed and grudgingly left the warm air of the bathroom.

Walking into the midst of the livingroom, one of the twins was occupying the oversized chair. He had his back to her as she was leaving the bathroom, but she knew he was aware of her approaching, despite her quiet entrance. She had the urge to at least try to surprise them one day. Them with their cool exterior, she knew it would be great.

"I need clothes.." she said as she passed the chair with the twin reclining in it. She could see into the bedroom that his brother was on the laptop, sitting at the end of the unmade bed with the laptop resting on one of his legs, brought up to rest on his other knee. She crossed the empty space, filled only with a thick round carpet and fell into the couch. The twin hardly glanced at her but turned his head to look at his brother. From the chair, there was nothing seperating them, but from the couch, the view was almost blocked by the wall with it's single lightswitch. Even that was decorative with a plate like rusted metal, designed with leaves. It stood out against the white walls, and instead of trying to watch the twin on the bed, she was studying the lightswtich.

"We will get you some soon..you might be needing some anyways." The voice was that of the twin in the bedroom, which surprised Yossi.

"Might be? I need some now.." she said this with a sneer and she glared at the lightswitch. She didn't continue however, and was quickly back up and rummaging in the refrigorator. She was astonished to find only the ingrediants for a simple turkey sandwich, but in the side for the frozen food, enough sweets to more than fulfill the needs of a little girls sleepover. Icecream and all that reside in that side of the food pyramid dwelled there in herds. At the sight of this her stomach lurched with a loud wail. She almost audibly groaned and quickly snatched out a small box icecream and headed back for the couch. The other twin was already sitting there, watching her approach with the icecream in one hand and a large spoon in the other. She shrugged at him and sat on the couch, huddled around the box of icecream. She sighed loudly when she felt the uncomfortable silence settling in.

"There must be something for you guys to talk about..Is that all you do, sit here in silence? You both must be mute when i'm not here," she glowered at them, then shoved a large spoonful of vanilla icecream into her mouth. The twin on the couch caught her gaze again, even behind the dark glasses as the his brother spoke again, "Remember when we said that we were programs in the Matrix?" Yossi slowly nodded, swallowing the icecream abruptly, "Did you ever think that being programs might come with its perks?"

Yossi turned her eyes to look at the twin on the far side of the couch with a suspicous glare, "Are you talking about..telepathy?"

"Somewhat," the twin on the chair stated simply, making her turn her gaze once again. There was a long moment of silence before Yossi realized that they weren't going to explain, she debated a bit on whether she should ask again, but waited till she finished about half of the icecream off. Neither were watching her, but she was now paranoid about what they might or might not be conversing about through their minds. She wondered if she would regret asking. Perhaps that was why they never went to details. Groaning audibly, she was too late to stop it. Her stomach was growling loudly, but not from hunger anymore. She put a hand over her mouth and realized that both were curiously watching her again. She slid from the couch and quickly, yet quietly put the icecream back into the freezer. She returned, but didn't sit down. Stretching a bit she eyed them closely. Only the twin on the couch was watching.

"Do you think maybe we could get some clothes for me? I don't have any money..but.." she trailed off, glancing around the luxurious hotel room slyly.

There was silence for a moment, and Yossi could have sworn she heard one of them sigh, "Very well," the twin on the chair said slowly, then looked to his brother, "I will take you..," he said again, a bit defeated. He rose gracefully, still peering at his brother before he simply walked to the door, Yossi trailing behind quite content with herself. Some part of her made her want to feel guilty about taking advantage of whatever account they were drawing money from. Maybe she did, but she believed the less she thought about it, the less she'd feel bad. So with a heavy, but relieved sigh, she followed the white man out the door as if this were normal. Thoughts of escape once again rose and were once again dashed as she serenly watched the swaying of his long silver coat.

Back down through the elevator, the trip was silent except for the hum of the motor. Because she was so tuned in on that small noise, she couldn't remember if there was even any of the monotone music whispering in on the relative silence. Again the quick trip through the foyer and out in the sunlight of a clear day. Yossi squinted at the natural light and cursed her eyes for being so used to the glow of the computer screen. Like a loyal puppy, she followed the hard-to-miss form of the twin as he wound through the small afternoon crowd. It was a Friday and not yet time for rush hour to clog the city streets and sidewalks. Quickening her pace, Yossi caught up to walk beside the nearly completely white man. It was still difficult to imagine this dread-locked thing as a program. She was withholding the urge to grab a hold of his coat and feel to ensure that he was there. She mentally shook her head as she watched a couple of people pass by them, but the temptation wouldn't go away. Her eyes kept wandering to where he was casually walking beside her, and then to the pedestrians on the sidewalk to see if anyone was staring. Not once did she catch anybody looking. The notion that he was invisible came to mind, and when normally she would have immediatly dismissed the thought, this new revelation about the Matrix made her think a little longer about it. He could communicate with his brother through their mind, somehow. They never actually gave a definite answer on that, and they might have just been trying to scare her. She didn't realize that she glared resentfully at the thought until the twin actually spoke.

"Angry?" came his monotone question. It was almost not even a question in his accent.

Yossi's gaze dropped to the old cement, embarrassed, "..No.." she lied.

The twin only smirked in response, and once again they were in silence. Yossi sighed when she realied they were going to walk the whole way. She thought this wasn't needed, but then she'd never been to wherever they were going. She didn't know, but she concluded that she had never visited the place since she only shopped for necessities online and had her food delivered. Take-out was so convient.

"Where are we going..?" Yossi mumbled as she watched more people passing, trying to see if anyone would notice the pure-white man. No one seemed curious.

"It's not far."

Yossi didn't bother being persistant. They were passing alleyways now, and the still rising sun was casting half of the alley's in gray shadow. Trash cans and trash that must be ancient littered them, while rusting fire escapes offered a way out of the filth, scaling the usually brick buildings. Yossi found these breaks in the faces of the buildings fascinating and tried her best to study each one as they passed. They were walking at a mostly leisurely pace, so she had time to look. They had only passed about ten, Yossi hadn't started counting until they passed several, when the twin halted in his tracks, grabbed Yossi by the arm and dragged her into the alleyway she had been overlooking with a quickness that nearly pulled her off of her feat. He pressed them both to the wall and they started inching slowly into the alleyways depths. They weren't in the shadow, which Yossi thought was absurb since he didn't blend in to the red brick at all.

"What's going on?" Yossi hissed frightfully. Her pulse had dramatically jumped. If it was going to be anything like the fight at the apartment, and she had a bad feeling about it, she would probably end up dead. She wasn't surprised when the twin didn't answer her, but turned a stern face that easily communicated for her to be silent. His attention snapped back to the entrance of the alley. A loud explosion seemed to have gone off before Yossi could see what caught the man's attention so quickly, and before this clearly registered in her mind, the twin shoved her to the ground brusquely and phased into his ghostly form. Yossi sucked in a loud breath as her knees bruised on the cement that was even older than the sidewalks and the flesh upon her palms stung red. There was another loud explosion that must have been gunshots if Yossi hadn't thought it was absurd for a cannon to be firing at them, and she was yet again picked up and shoved behind low cement steps that led to the back door of some building. By peeking over these step's, Yossi could see that the twin was now running for one of four similiar men in three-piece suites. Several more gunshot blasts and only then did Yossi realize the people beyond the entrance of the alleyway were mostly gone and screaming. They finally seemed to recognize something. The twin stayed in his untouchable form until he was within hitting distance, in which he drew the razorblade and began slicing at the agents. Yossi was sure that was what they were. The other three that the twin wasn't focused on were closing in, but everytime somebody threw a punch or kick, since they were in danger of hitting themselves with bullets in this closerange combat, he would easily escape the assault by phasing. This made things equally difficult since he couldn't touch them while phased.

They were moving so quickly. Yossi caught her breath as they twisted, turned and bent in ways she thought were impossible. This didn't carry on for long, as Yossi could no longer watch when the door as she tucked below and behind the steps opened. The gray metal blocked her vision as the door creaked noisly open. She peered up at the intruder. She should have been surprised when she saw the pallid face of her kidnapper. She smiled weakly as he looked down at her, slightly startled for a second, then let the door slam closed behind him as he descended the stairs and joined his brother in the heated midst of their battle. It was a jumbled mess of ducking, dodging and phasing for several moments as Yossi watched, mesmerized. Nobody seemed to be winning even though four on two was hardly fair. Yossi had unconsciencly stood as she watched the ethereal battle. The agents were moving so fast, it was obvious they weren't human. Some of them were in danger of falling over when they bent back to retreat from the spinning razor blades. Her heart stopped when one of the suited men broke from the fight and pointed a gun at her. He must have been catching glimpses of her in the heat of the fight when she believed they were all focused on the life or death battle. One of the twins reached from him, but had to phase as a punch had been aimed at the side of his face, so his hand went through the offending agent. Yossi ducked, but she had heard the clatter of his shoes heading for her. She bit her lip and squinted her eyes. Closer, closer, she would die.

But instead of what she had expected, a gunshot, pain and death, she was on her feet. She was running, and behind her the echoing explosion of gunshots were issuing loudly, then halted abruptly. The fight had found it's way to the agent. Yossi peered over her shoulder for an instant, nearly stumbling, and caught the glimpse that made her heart stop. Another agent had targetted her, but one of the twins had slit his throat and disappeared into his ghostly form. The agent toppled over, grasping his throat and the deep gash that split it open, then transformed into a completely different person. A normal looking person. She didn't see anymore than that, as she ran and dived behind another set of stairs. But this time, two of the remaining three broke from the fight quickly and were running in Yossi's direction again. They were far, and she could see the ghostly forms of the twins catching up, but she still ran. Gunshots were exploding behind her, and she could feel them this time. This didn't strike her as odd. If the Matrix was a computer programmed reality, then she knew most of the rules already, didn't she? The bullets were close and fast, but she dodged them easily enough. Her mind was racing faster than she was as she jumped out of the way, diagonally, her feet touched the brick wall once to help her jump farther. She felt a lot lighter now as she dropped onto another set of steps and pulled the door open. She was inside the building when a bullet wrenched a huge hole in the rusted metal of the door.

The brick of the building muffled the sounds greatly. As she tore through what must have the remnants of a kitchen, only the sound of her movement and loud panting reached her ears. As she rounded the corner of a rusty, filthy table with various pointy objects, she stumbled and crashed, pulling a large black pot which clambored down on the floor along side Yossi. Tired, so very exhausted, she didn't want to stand back up. Her eyes fluttered closed as she only idly thought about the murky floor she was sprawled upon. It must be disease ridden. The sound of scurrying rats and other bugs now mingled with the sound of her slowing breath. The creeping sensation that she was safe where she lay was overcoming her, but she knew that was a lie. It would be best if right now she stood and ran. This was her chance of escape from her kidnappers and run far away. She could start over in a diffrent city with new computers, it would be easy. But right now, rest was all that was important. Her body was relaxing slowly and feeling impossibily heavy despite herself. With her eyes still closed, sleep would take over soon. The adrenaline that had poisoned her system was leaking away and leaving her feeling sore and terribly exhausted. She could never match those fighters, she was still human and thus the Matrix was working against her.

The sound of the door she had entered through banged open, echoing harshly in the barren kitchen. Yossi's muscles tensed and she lept from the floor. Her body was sore, but even more so when her nerves went taut as she sent the pot she had toppled to the floor, sprawling away and causing a horrible amount of rucus. She cringed and crept slowly and carefully around the side of the counter. In the echoes of the room, it was impossible to tell how many sets of feet were approaching. Yossi stopped breathing completely, croaching and hiding. The feet stopped and Yossi could have died.

"Stop hiding."

Yossi gasped, stumbled, turned over and burst straight into running again. She didn't look, she didn't need to. It didn't matter who won the fight, she would still escape, but it did surprise her somewhat when the explosion of a gun rattled her brain behind her. Flinging open the double doors that closed off the kitchen from the dining area, which was in no better shape than the kitchen itself, she pushed over a trolly, sending it crashing to the ground with a few plates and silverware. There were several more gunshots behind her and she was beginning to get an awful headache from the noise. The only exit was the front door which she believed undoubtedly to be locked, and then there were the bathrooms. That would be suicide to enter the bathrooms. Instead, she picked up a chair with a motheaten cushion and rushed to the decorative windows on either side of the door. They were tall and stainedglass, this must have once been a prosperous restraunt, but for now it was housing a gunfight and esape. Yossi hurled the chair at the glass, which shattered wonderfully in a multi-colored rainshower. She honestly didn't believe it would brake the first time, but her mind had wandered back to the laws of the Matrix. She was surprising herself greatly. Behind her, she could hear one of the swinging doors knock the trolly that she had bowled over and a cynical laugh. She hadn't realized she had looked over her shoulder until she saw one of the twins standing there in front of the doors as they swung home behind him. Yossi's eyes grew wide and she stifled a scream when one of her hands was caught and she was pulled through the window she had just broken. Both of her shoulders were caught and she was held fast where she was. They were standing on the sidewalk in the shadow of the building as people walked by. Oblivion must be a great place to be. She was blinking at the sparse light of the day and the bright white of one of the twins clothes. From this close, the bright silver of the coat seemed only a shade or two from being completely white. His brother climbed through the window gracefully, his boots crunching the glass on the cracked cement. She wasn't looking anywhere but the chest of the twin that was holding her still. She was feeling unreal at the moment. Incredibily calm.

"We suppose we didn't have time to get the clothing?"

Yossi only realized now that they only spoke the plural version of possessive nouns, since this was obviously not the twin that she had been walking with earlier.

"Obviously not, brother," the other twin smirked at his brothers trite answer.

"Well, no reason to worry, there are easier ways to acquire what we need.." Yossi couldn't see it, but the twin was smirking rather mischeviously.

"Do we have the key?" the twin's tone was disbelieving, and Yossi was becoming bored only staring at the twin's chest. She squirmed in his grasp, and was surprised when he released her. She turned around, facing the still smirking twin. He appeared devious with that expression on his pale face.

"If we'll be so kind as the escort us home, it won't do us any good standing out in the open like this," he tilted his head just slightly to the side.

Yossi finally spoke up, "Wouldn't one of you know what the other knows?"

They must have been in a good mood, since she didn't have to wait for an answer, as if the were thinking whether she was worthy enough to receive an answer or not, "it is obviously possible to withhold certain information. Though we don't have many secrets between us." They were back to solemn expressions, and this reminded Yossi that she was walking between them on her own free will. Her mind was processing the last moments of her life and wondering what this key was that one of the them was so surprised about.

"Can I ask what you guy's names are?" she hadn't realized she had asked the question until it was out of her mouth. This wasn't even what she was thinking about. She cringed slightly, but was expecting only silence, and that was what she got. She sighed, and could almost feel the walls they were building between them and her. Believing full that if she put her hands up she would feel the stoney silence. With a small shrug, she went back to thinking and figured they were somehow talking amoungst themselves in private, silent conversation.

With aching feet, they had finally arrived at the hotel without another incident. Yossi was feeling near collapse when the quiet elevator ride was at an end and the eerie silence of the hallway pressed against her temples. The rush of the airconditioner seemed impossibly loud as Yossi stumbled to the bed. Her mind had went blank by the time they had reached the hotel as she was feeling overcome with exhaustion. The key, the Matrix, everything was pushed from her mind, and the bed was looking very comfortable. A dull smile tugged at her mouth when the sight of it's thick covers and plush pillows overcame her. She sighed dreamily and fell into it's soft embrace. The twins were somewhere far away in her mind, but they had actually approached the closet near the bed and were fumbling around. With her half open eyes, they appeared like clumsy ghosts. Both had their backs to her as she lay on her stomach on the bed, she had no intention of pulling herself under the covers or up to the pillows. She lay where she had fallen and that was good enough for her. One was inserting a small key into the lock of the door. She knew there was nothing interesting behind it, she had scoured the room for anything else as intriguing as their computers. But when he stepped back and pulled the door open, the closet was full of clothing. On hooks and folded in neat stacks on the floor alongside shoes. Yossi squeezed her eyes tight. She was probably hallucinating. She was so near sleep. But both turned and peered expectantly at her. Picking her head up off the bed, which was rather hard since she was still laying on her stomach with her arms sprawled to either side, one hanging mostly off of the bed, she looked more closely, blinking several times to clear away the blurryness.

"Is that mine?" she asked thickly.

"Yes," one of them replied simply.

"...Ok.." feeling rather like she was being rude, she couldn't help but close her eyes and pass out.

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End Note/none