Forenote/

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Such blessed sleep. It is only truly appreciated when one is completely exhausted. When one cannot keep one's eyes open any longer and the numbing fingers of a dream wraps around one's body. Such a feeling can make you wish that you could sleep forever. Yet this can also be very disorientating upon awakening. When Yossi awoke into conscienceness, she was utterly unsure where and when it was. Taking several moments to get her barings straight, she rolled onto her back and swung her legs over to the floor. Her toes didn't even come close to touching the floor as she rubbed the side of her face that was imprinted with the cover she'd layed upon. After she'd realized just where she was, she slid off the bed and began searching the house. The daylight streaming through the windows seemed very bright after the darkness of her sleep. She padded noisily around to the kitchen, she noticed she was still wearing her shoes. Silently shaking her head at herself, she read the clock on the microwave to be seven in the morning. She blinked several times in astonishment. She'd slept the whole of yesterday. It couldn't have been later than five in the afternoon! Finally slipping her shoes off, she went on the short search of their room to find that yet again they were absent in the morning. She sighed loudly. The only thing to do was search that closet again and take a bath.

The closet was indeed amazing as she remembered, even with her apparent exhaustion from yesterday fogging her initial memories of it. Gingerly and contemplatively, she picked a simple outfit out and headed for the bath. Not taking as long as the last time, she did what was necessary and tried the clothes. It was curious how it was a perfect fit, but she didn't linger upon this. Without anyone to question the clothes about, just who had got them, knowing her size and all? Curious, indeed. She'd made it to the overlarge chair in the living room and fell into it's cushiony depths. There was nothing to do and boredum was setting in quickly. She hadn't realized how entertaining the twins were, even if they were kidnappers and stoic in their odd silence. Even after her exceptional sleep, she still yawned as she slouched in the chair. The luxorious hotel room couldn't hold her attention and there was no tv to be found. That left only the computers.

She thought on this for a while. She was brought here to use them, she knew that much. But she was also told, rather cryptically, that she should wait before getting on. However, she couldn't see any harm in acessing the internet and fishing around. Bouncing into the room, estatic to banish her lethargic boredum, she swivled the mouse around to clear the screen saver, which was only a blank screen. She grinned like a hungry wolf eyeing it's dinner as a familiar screen came to view. They must have been watching her for a while, everything seemed to be modified to her liking. Quick fingers were soon bringing up her favorites from the internet and she almost felt at home. The cold glow of the moniter as a welcome taste of her reality.

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What she didn't realize, however, was that the Matrix tracer programs were monitering her progress very closely. After the deletion of several Agents at the hands of the twin, the eyes of several other programs were upon them, waiting for something to bring them to light. Yossi's entrance into these computers was the becon of a lighthouse. The Twins computers were rather special, they held programs connected to the Matrix that Yossi was soon curiously dabbling in, she was practically toying with the Matrix itself. Yossi huffed loudly, everything seemed as cyptic and mysterious as the Twins themselves. Perhaps she should have expected this. She mentally shook her head and went in search of some of the regular programs she used for her hacking. If they had wanted her to do her specialties, they should have included her own computer untensils, she thought bitterly.

A loud, yet oddly polite knock at the door halted her progress. She blinked wide eyes in surprise. Would the Twins knock at their own door? She doubted that, then a hotel worker, she thought with finality. She pushed away from the desk and walked to the entrance, yet stopped with her hand inches from the door knob. An terrible sinking feeling made her blood run cold. She couldn't move an inch closer to the door. Dread was running through her veins and she wasn't sure why. This wasn't like the last time she opened a door. Last time she knew with certainty that something good was lingering on the other side and she was right. Though they eventually died, it had been a good thing, but this time it was as if the exact opposite. A frigid sweat was ringing her hair line. Silence was all she heard, whoever was on the other side didn't seem perturbed that she hadn't answered yet, when anyone normal would have bothered to knock again.

There then was a click. It sounded ominous, she was reminded of a gun. She was suddenly sure that was what it was. Nearly stumbling over her own legs, and twisted around and sprinted. As she rounded the corner that led to the living room and the opening of the bedroom, a huge hole was blown into the door with a horrid and sickening explosion. Yossi's eyes were squeezed tight, but she realized that wasn't going to help. She heard that the rest of door was kicked in as she found the only place to hide was under the bed. She hated this, it wasn't like in the allyway where doors led to exceptional escape routes. Not to mention the absence of the Twins. Several sets of foot steps came muffled on the carpet as Yossi scooted beneath the bed. The skirt hid her in darkness, but something told her it wouldn't do to stay there for long. As soon as they passed beyond she would try her best to escape out of the door. She cringed, the sickening feeling she felt while in the car being kidnapped was coming back in force. This time, she was more than positive they were intent on her death. Only the sound of their feet could be heard. One of them was looking through the room, then moved on, they were heading for the bathroom. This would be her only chance. Her heart was hammering loudly, she felt as if she could taste her pulse in her mouth as she pushed herself to the edge and rolled out from under the bed. Jumping up, she moved faster than she knew possible, but right into the view of an Agent as he was moving from the kitchen to the living room. For a short second, she thought she had surprised him.

"There," he said slowly and delibrately with a dead pan expression as he raised his gun and fired.

She could see the bullet, she had plenty of time to dodge and run. The short entrance hallway to the door was clear of Agents, but marred with splinters of wood from the once white door, that was now lying in ruins on the carpet. She vaulted it, moving like she never had in her life as several more shots were fired. All missed but one. Fire seemed to have grazed her waist. She twisted away, but this caused her to stumble upon landing, and she rolled out into the gray and white hallway. The Agents were gathering and moving as one now, straight for her. She stood and ran for the only exit, which was looking further away than she remembered as she streaked down the hall.

One of the Agents climbed through the door, and then another, but Yossi wasn't looking, her full attention was on the elevator. Another explosion behind her, and she nearly screamed in joy as the elevator door opened, just as the bullet embedded itself in the white wall by the entrance to it. The Twins were watching her sprint for them. Both looked shocked, one of them had their mouth just slightly open, but they quickly regained their composure and stepped from the elevator as Yossi dashed in and pressed herslf to one side, her hand on the bumper to keep it open, but they didn't seem ready to reenter. It seemed like firecrackers were exploding in the hallway, and several times the back of the elevator was hit. Yossi cringed and only then realized that she had been shot. She touched her side and examined the blood upon her fingers in silent shock.

Meanwhile, the twins were advancing upon the agents, they had stopped firing once they realized they couldn't damage them while they were phased into their ghostly forms. Yet again, the twins were outnumbered by two. They were soon amongst the Agents and flinging their razors about, but rarely drawing blood. Yossi sank to the floor, still pressing herself to the wall with one hand on the bumper of the elevator, the other softly cradling her side. Bright, multi-colored spots were swimming in her vision. She wasn't sure if she really was swaying her not, but gaze was beginning to go black around the edges. The explosions were echoing somewhere far away and seemingly harmless. She groaned, and even the sound of that sounded far off. The bullet wound no longer burned, but was numb, and she was sure that wasn't a good sign.

Squeezing her eyes tight, she wasn't aware of the ghostly figures surrounding her, but when they heaved her upward, and the wound came alive with a horrid vengence, her eyes shot open, one of the twins was holding her on her feet while the other hit the button to descend. Several more explosions shook the elevator and a hand shot through the steel of the door and wrench it partly open. The closest twin twirled his razor and several cuts sprang upon, spattering blood everywhere. The hand didn't retreat, even while the elevator was descending. Yossi had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach and closed her eyes tight, turning her face into the white fabric of the twin that held her upright. While she wasn't looking, the twin gripped the writhing hand and plunged the blade in, twisting it to the side and wrenching it out again. The Agent finally retreated, probably to change bodies. When Yossi finally opened her eyes, the amount of blood in the evelator was astonishing. The side of the twin that was nearest the mayhem was drenched in large red spots and splatters, and she could feel the cooling wetness of it on her face. Her waist was already crimson red, and as she looked down at the heavy liquid, she remembered the pain with full force. Some part of her tried to tell her that she wasn't really bleeding, but the pain didn't allow her to believe it.

She sagged through the grip of the twin, but he held her fast. She glared up at him, wishing he would just let her rest, but he didn't budge. She wanted to yell at them, let them know that she wasn't as strong as they were, that she couldn't do the things they could, but the doors to the elevator chimed open, and before she could turn to watch them slide open, the twin wrapped his arms around her and pressed her tightly against the cold side of the elevator. She had a glimpse of his brother phase and glide through the door and a hail of bullets through the ivory dreadlocks of the twin before she closed her eyes, hoping that would somewhat dim the sound of several loud and powerful guns. Sparks flew as the bullets embedded themselves into the back of the elevator.

"Stay here," she heard the now phased twin speak into her ear as she watched parts of his coat and hair float through her own body. She thought she wouldn't have been surprised, she'd seen this form of them several times, but not this close. He seemed to have sent a cold breeze through her body, and she felt somewhat lost once he left through the door. She heard the chime of the doors start to close and shot out a hand to stop them, even through the bullets that turned back onto the elevator once the second twin exited. They hadn't been gone long. The explosions were less frequent, they must have been in the midst of battle, but her eyes blinked open again in surprise as a white form grabbed her up and pulled her into the lobby of the hotel. She could see his twin fighting amongst only two agents, but several others that she pinned as more rebels. Even as they flew through the lobby, Yossi recognized one of the fighting rebels. The fallen girl in the garden of her apartment that one of the twins had retrieved a gun from. She closed her eyes, only being led by the twin and swallowed hard against the jarring pain in her side. She heard more running footsteps close behind and only had to guess that it was the other twin.

Though all other normal people in the hotel had been cowering away from the fierce battle, everyone outside was oblivious. They burst into the gray light of the morning. She was led to a new sleek black car, in which she scrambled into the back seat as the twins slid in easily and peeled away. Yossi fought for a couple of seconds with the seatbelt as they sped down the road in silence, with only blaring horns and the roar of the engine to take up the absence of speech. She squeezed her eyes closed and leaned foreward against the seatbelt, sitting down wasn't making the burning sensation in her side any better. The bullet, she now realized, had only scathed her, a flesh wound that hurt like hell. Besides the pain, she was also feeling guilt. She had upset the twins plans horribly and nearly killed herself and probably them as well. She was sympathizing with her abducters, it wasn't a good sign.

"I'm...sorry..," she mumbled, and, as expected, received no answer. She didn't let this stop her, however.

"Where will we go?" they didn't have the computers any more, and she couldn't see them returning to retrieve them any time soon. She figured the agents would take them. This sent a large and lumpy rock plummetting into her stomach. They would have her custom programs now. Things she had slaved over for such a long time. She felt like weeping, feeling sorry for herself, but instead she felt the car slow to a normal pace. They were barely going over the speedlimit. Nothing was pursuing them. The rebels must have distracted the agents long enough to let them escape. She sighed, feeling a creeping depression begin to ebb away the pain.

"We will go away for a while. We have lost an important moment in time. Tomorrow was to be the day that you were to complete the job, but now we will have to wait," Yossi thought she could hear a sigh within his tone as the passenger twin spoke, "we are not sure when another chance will arise."

"What 'job' was I supposed to complete? What did you exactly want me to do?" the aspect of the twins finally answering her didn't make her feel any better, she wasn't even expecting an answer, as usual.

"You were to delete any traces of our history and tracks within the Matrix. We would become invisible, which would make moving within the Matrix easier and safer."

Yossi blinked, taking in her supposed objective. Deleting normal history was one very easy thing to do, but she believed nothing was normal about the Matrix. She sighed, putting her face into her hands. She was already feeling dirty, and could smell the guns upon her skin, and worse than that, the blood of the agent. Her face was now crusted with drying blood, her shirt was stiff and didn't move with her. If she was forced to run again, she knew she would be like her shirt, unable to stretch or move. She doubted she would even have the energy to keep up with the furious pace the twins kept. They had to have slowed down for her on the run through the lobby, she realized.

The face of the girl rebel flashed through her mind again. She was definetly the same girl that had layed motionless outside of her apartment building. She shook her head, thinking that if she was alive, then those last two women that they had left in the middle of the road must have been with her, fighting those agents, but she just hadn't seen them. Had they been there for her? If the Agents hadn't shone up, would they have taken her? She couldn't determine if that was a good thing or not. The weight of the world seemed to be pressing down on her mind. She groaned loudly before she realized it. She looked up for a moment. The Twins hadn't moved, but now she realized that they were in a completely different part of the city. She'd never been here before. She blinked owlishly as she peered out of the tinted windows. This must have been the middle class area of town.

There were still skyscapers that looked somewhat important, but not was grand as the center of the city, like the large hotel they had stayed in. Monotone gray shopping centers now popped up every now and then, along with cruddy looking tattoo parlors and carshops and coffee houses. Almost everything was lined right on the sidewalks, this was where tourists came to. The suburbs would be near, something she hadn't been close to in a long time. It felt unlikely that the twins would approach them. More apartment buildings passed by. They looked to be in better keep than her own. It was one of these complexes that they pulled in to. It came complete with a playground and school nearby. She couldn't see the school, but it was just a feeling. The ride seemed to have taken forever, half of the day had been passed.

Pulling into a parking place, Yossi undid her seatbelt and waited for the twins to get out first. As they approached the buildings stairway that led to second floor rooms, Yossi was curious as to whether they already had a room. She held back any questions, time would answer her quickly enough, something the Twins weren't good at.

Like magic, one of them produced a key and unlocked the first room to come to after the stairs. One entered and the other waited for her, holding the door patiently. The room was dark, she missed the hotel already. Deep into the apartment, the first twin flipped on a switch to the kitchen. It was a step up from the rest of the living room, which was sparcely decorated with a large tv, a couch and a coffee table, the rest was taken up by a large dining table. A small hallway hid the doors to what must have been two bedrooms and a bathroom. The theme color seemed to be light blue, which made the whole place seem very clean and very cold. The question as to how long they were going to stay here arose in her mind, but she remembered their answer. They had no idea, and it wasn't comforting. She crossed sullenly to the couch and took a place at one end, but before she could get comfortable, she shifted in such a way that the arm of the couch rubbed painfully into her bloody side. She jumped up, stifling a sob. Both twins had migrated to the kitchen, and now eyed her curiously as one was leaning on the island, the other swiviling around in the bar chair. She didn't like how they watched her behind their sunglasses. She marched off to the bathroom, feeling even more depressed than before.

She poked carefully at the bruised skin that encircled her torn flesh. The dried blood was horribly painful as it stabbed into the fresh meat when she turned in certain angles. A white washcloth that was now stained red was draped over the white sink as she now examined the damage. It wasn't very deep, but that didn't make it any less painful than she expected getting shot felt like. She turned this way and that, testing her range of motion. She held her shirt high. Now that she had poked and prodded her gash, she was even more sore and couldn't stand the crusty, bloody shirt any longer. This made her doubt sleep would ever come pleasantly. Completely removing her shirt, she rubbed viciously at the foreign blood that had sprinkled across her face when a knock came at the door.

"What?" she sighed, not halting in her scrubbing, her own flesh was becoming red beneath the soap that had turned crimson in her progess.

"We have something to put on your wound," the voice was monotone, maybe they were still sore about her throwing a huge wrench in their plans. She grew all the more agitated at this and scowled as she pressed her shirt to her small chest, flung open the door, grabbed the supplies the twin had brought with a glare and threw the door shut in the surprised face of the twin. She wasn't perturbed to see that only one twin stood in the doorway, even though he had announced himself as 'we'. The way they spoke was so confusing, and only served to fuel her bad mood. After a long bath in the much less luxurious bathroom than the hotel, she gingerly towled dry. With the antibiotics and overly large bandaids on the gash, she slowly emerged from the bathroom into darkness. The sun had set while she was locked in the sanctuary of the bath. They must have already gone to bed. She pressed her ear to one of the rooms when she remembered that they didn't sleep.

Tip-toeing across the short distance of the living room she approached the door, hesitated a moment and then slowly exited. Fright flooded into her stomach for a moment, but she stepped out to see both twins turned and watching her, one was leaning against the rail that kept them from toppling into the parking lot. Their car was right below.

"I was..wondering where you two had gone.." she was close to retreating back into the house, but she realized that she had shut the door behind her, and she wasn't keen on appearing like an indecisive idiot at the moment in front of the twins. One of them was grinning at her as the other turned back to looking at whatever was down in the parking lot, still leaning against the wrought iron rail. "What are you doing out here? Won't the agents find you?"

The twin that had turned away answered her, "They are busy with the rebels. We are far enough away to not draw attention for now, but we will have to move again within a couple of days," this was the longest reply she had ever gotten, it seemed. She moved slowly closer till she was also against the rail, closest to the wall. She still felt their eyes upon her, behind the now needless sunglasses. It was just past sunset, the day had gone quickly it seemed. The warm morning had given way to a cool, breezy night, she could now see why they had left the apartment. She wasn't thinking that they were programs and in a computer generated world at the moment. The pain had dulled and the soft wind was nice, she had survived a vicious attack and was still in tact and almost enjoying the moment. The breeze was slowly lulling her into a safe, drowsy feeling. She wouldn't take advantage of the moment to ask any more questions, sleep was seeming infinetly more important. With little more than a wave and a mumbled 'g'night', she sleepily found her way to a room and crawled half-heartedly into the cool bed. Blessedly, sleep wasn't very far away, though her dreams were troubled with men in suites and very large guns.

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End Note/Begins with sleep and ends with sleep.. I enjoy sleeping also.