One and Two and Three

AN/ This is the second chapter of my retribution for being gone for so long.
DC/ I don't own anything.

Mazon zapped herself, Two and the bodies to his given coordinates which happened to be on the top step of what must have, until very recently, been the Merovingian's home. Two shifted the body across his shoulder and pushed the door open, leading in Mazon who paused at the entrance for a second, looking around, taking the grandeur of the place. Two strode briskly past her, seemingly unperturbed by the wealth surrounding them and continued forward, spurring Mazon to rush to catch up while still trying to steady the body on her back. The thing, though light, was ungainly and flopped in all the wrong places while stiffening where it was least convenient.

Two headed towards the left, walking down a long corridor studded with doors and side passages, one of the latter he took, maintaining his quick pace, as if just being in the place was repulsive. Mazon complied to this mode for a while, following quickly, not saying a word, jogging every once in a while to keep up, until all this began to get old, at which point she decided to start up conversation. The way she figured, if speaking didn't slow him, clubbing the Twin with an Alien corpse sure as hell would.

"So, this where you bring all your corpses or are these guys just lucky?" Two looked over his shoulder and grinned hollowly at her, though the gesture held no mirth.

"There are no exceptions." He didn't slow, taking corners so quickly that Mazon began to think he was trying to lose her, which didn't help her sudden mood.

"Ya know." She started after a particularly fast corner. She pondered how he could move so fast without actually running, but didn't speak that part out loud. "Ya know, I may be stronger then the average anomaly, but I'm still human and your going way to freakin' fast!" this last part was shouted at the empty area in front of her.

Mazon truly had started to run after him, knowing which direction to go by a glimpse of his coat or retreating shadow. But now, suddenly, Mazon was completely alone and thought briefly about dropping the body and going home. She looked around once more and turned to head back the way she came when Two reappeared from a turn to the left.

"Come on then. We want to be gone from here, now." There was an urgency in his voice that got her moving quickly after him, bumping into him every once in a while, literally getting under foot, when he finally came to a stop before a door.

She looked at it, then back the way they'd come, then up at Two who was looking at the door as if steeling himself to open it. Raising a brow, Mazon looked at the door again. There was nothing special about it, no scary sounds issued from it, no smells secreted from it's depths, the opposite of which applied to the body over her shoulder. Clearing her throat, she looked meaningfully from Two to the door then back at Two who sighed and from a pocket produced a key, which he slid into the door and twisted.

The result was immediate, the door falling open away from them as if gravity was pulling it. A cloud of stink rolled out and buffeted them, followed immediately by a heat wave, both of which drove Mazon back several steps. Two looked at her over his shoulder and nodded towards the door, unshouldering the body and heaving it in, then stood by the door waiting for Mazon to do the same. His nose was wrinkled and he never actually looked through the door, always avoiding it with out a great bit of subtlety. Mazon gulped and stepped forwards, pulling the body from her shoulder and lugging it forward. She leaned through the door to throw it better and froze.

She was standing amidst a field, no, a world of corpses. The air, sky, everything was tinted red from fires larger then the Merovingian's house, bodies visible in the fires. Figures moved around, picking up bodies and throwing them to join their fellows. At her feet were bones and ashes lying side by side with fresher corpses, the freshest of which, Two's Alien having wormed it's way somehow from it's bag. It's blood mixed with dust and ash to create a kind of mud less then a foot from Mazon, who dropped the body she'd clung to and staggered. Dotted throughout this world were doors, presumably just like the one she was stuck in. Jutting up atop bodies, floating in mid air, horizontal above her, partially covered or charred below her.

Mazon opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. She was shaking all over, on hand clinging desperately to the door jamb, the other hovering as if to reach forward or stop herself from losing whatever food she had in her. She felt her knees begin to buckle and give out under her. She'd fall, her fingers would free themselves from the door behind her. She'd fall and join the bodies, then the fires. And that would be the end of her. Mazon felt lightheaded suddenly.

The crackling of the fires seemed to sing to her, battling the abject horror that rightfully claimed the fetid enviroment. The piles of burning bodies seemed to scream sweet music into her ears, calling to her, begging her join them, and she would, and she was. Mazon let go of the door jamb and was falling forward when she felt a hand yank her back, then another one. Two hands, one gripping her hand, the other the back of her coat. The hands were stopping her! These hands dared to keep Mazon from this joy, this completeness!

So she struggled, if feebly, she didn't have much strength in her left for fighting. It was all for the fires. She'd give them her strength and make them grow bigger if only these hands would let her! But no, the steamy, suddenly beautiful world was falling away from her, so far away. The hands pulled her out and she couldn't stop them. She couldn't feel one of the hands leave her and slam the door, pulling out the key. She couldn't see Two's face over hers, or that he laid the other hand back on her shoulder and phased them out, pulling her into the floor. Mazon felt heavy sorrow suddenly, as if her heart were breaking for the sweet heaven behind the uniform door. She knew she'd never find it again, and the very act of acknowledging it made her weep in despair.

Two was not happy. He knew it was a mistake to bring Mazon on this, but One would've wanted to spend time with Keyes, break the news to her. And there were still another two Aliens and the Merovingian's bodies to deal with. No, Two was not happy. He was not happy as he pulled Mazon to a balcony and bent her head over it so she could safely retch and cry. He was slightly less not happy as he turned his back to let her do it. The next trip he'd make One come. He'd leave Mazon at the apartment to keep Keyes company or something. Two was just getting over his fit of not happy when Mazon finished, coughed a couple of times and sank to the floor, curling in a little ball. Bending over, Two pulled Mazon to her feet and phased out again, taking her this time, more into the mansion, he'd take them back, through the restaurant and collect One and the last bodies.

Back at the apartment, One pushed Keyes down on the bed and closed her eyes with his fingertips. She really was worn out, and while she slept he'd gather the bodies from the roof. As soon as he'd left to do so, Keyes' eyes flickered open and she looked towards the door he'd just phased through. She sat up and looked around. He thought she hadn't noticed the difference. She couldn't quite pin it down, but it was important, whatever it was. She stared at her hands, then glanced down at where the Keyes Goo Suit had so previously lain, it was gone, One having probably taken it with him when he left for what ever reason.

Looking back at her hands, Keyes narrowed her eyes and concentrated on them, holding back all blinking, focusing on them, then gasped and opened her eyes all the way. She could see the code! She could see her coding and distinguish it from the bed's coding! She looked around, staring at the falling digits all around her, she saw tiny bits of it go into and shoot out of her mouth as she breathed and the code within the code that made up stitches on the sheets. She found the outline of her self and marveled at how every bit of everything was made from these falling signs. Falling back on the pillows, Keyes flexed her fingers and laid them on her stomach, blinking several times and turning her head this way and that. Lifting her hands back up in a daze, Keyes looked down at her chest and stared at the golden coding in her heart. She stared at it and as she stared the watched the code flushing through her body with each heart beat.

Keyes stared as the golden coding in her heart began to spread. Signs flying out of her heart in arteries, worming their way through her body. She fell back on the bed and held her hands in front of her, staring as the coding reached first one, then the other. Running all over it, filling her arteries and veins which did not flush themselves of the gold coding as she breathed, but instead filled the rest of her, moving out until it finally reached her skin. Un-focusing her eyes, Keyes narrowed them, as if looking at the tiny bacteria one can sometimes see swimming on one's eyes and saw the coding, filling her field of vision with it's golden haze, and knowing that it was her eyes, changing, transforming it's self somehow. Keyes closed her eyes and watched the code fall, leaving it's golden comet-like tails behind it and began to pass out, remembering suddenly what Neo had told them of Seraph and the Oracle. That they're coding had been golden. And that they were programs.

One had compiled the bodies from the roof with Keyes' Goo Suit, shoving them into two body bags and dropping them by the door. Sighing, One looked down at himself dismally. His shirt, pants and shoes were ruined. The sleeves drenched in hour-old blood and the rest spattered heavily with goo and small pieces of the three corpses. Not to mention he hadn't had a chance to look over his coat, vest and tie, all of which he'd worn while cleaning up earlier.

Frowning he sat down on a barstool, leaned over and poured himself a cup of coffee, sipping it black. He frowned again at the creamless stuff before him and set the mug down. He dreaded the thought of going to Merovingian's place to dispose of the bodies, but it was the only to the disposition center that they had a key to. It was the place the bodies of destroyed programs were sent. It was the only one still operating in the Matrix. Reaching up a hand, One rubbed at the bridge of his nose tiredly.

As soon as those bodies were through with, very little would be capable of stopping him from climbing in that bed with Keyes. Now there was a thought he would entertain. He had closed his eyes and was picturing something involving the shower and a back scrubber when Two and Mazon appeared by the door. Two heavily supporting Mazon who looked pretty worse for wear. He nodded to One and helped her towards his room. One straightened and looked after them hearing

"You can shower in here. We'll handle the rest." And a soft groan. After a second Two reappeared and stopped, shoulders drooped as he looked at the remaining bundles. "We had to go the long way. She could not stand up to the room." One nodded. He should've expected as much. Standing, he cracked his neck and bent down, heaving one of the bags over his shoulder and nudging the other one towards Two. It would be nice to be alone again. As it seemed they never were as of late.

/Two pulled Mazon's arm over his shoulder and put an arm around her waist to keep her upright. Moving back the way they came, Two stopped at the front entrance and straightened his back a little, hearing it pop from the posture he held to support the half unconscious Mazon. Sticking a different key in the door, he turned it and pushed it open to the kitchen of the restaurant. Thankful the place hadn't reopened yet; he put the key back in his pocket and phased out, pulling Mazon over into the wall. As they neared the apartment Two felt the presence of One and the now program Keyes, wondering, for a split second, if she'd change her name to Three. Grinning a little, Two pushed the thought out of his head. She'd probably stay Keyes, just, a different kind of Keyes then before. Who was, after all, just a different kind of Keyes then the one she started out as, before being freed. /

Two reflected on those thoughts as he and One headed back towards the restaurant, bodies in tow. They didn't speak, sharing instead their opinions through thought as they had so many times before.

~Does she know? ~

~Only that something is different. That slime stuff had covered her completely. We actually had to cut it off of her. ~ Two felt a momentary pang of jealousy that One had used the plural in regards to someone besides himself, but banished the feeling. It was Keyes. And she was part of their program now. She was a part of we.

~Does she show other signs? ~

~We are not phasing yet, but we are sure with practice and time. We still have to adjust to all of this still. ~ That sealed it. With One leaving out the personal pronouns, Keyes was officially part of their little team. And that made Two feel free to ask

~Do we know our feelings? ~ There was a pause, and when Two glanced over, One seemed to be thinking. He did not look angry or displeased though.

~Yes, we have known for quite some time. It's how we know how we feel sometimes. ~ Two knew that these 'we's referred to himself and One, excluding Keyes for the moment. ~We can not say that we are thrilled. But we are also not surprised. But be careful, we must accumulate much understanding of the workings of us before we will decide anything. ~ This went, in order; One, One, One, Keyes, One and Two, Keyes, and Two knew it as easily as if One had used names.

~We are also wondering…~ Two began

~Yes, so are we. But we have faith that we will adapt accordingly and welcome us both. As we should. ~ The possessiveness had shown through with that. Heavily concealed but sparking under One's carefully hidden feelings. This would pass, Two knew it would because he and One were the same as one program. What was one was the other's. It had always been thus. Possession was not for them. Two felt confident of this and One knew he did.