One and Two and Three

AN/ There may be a bit of a pause between the next update. A week or so. I haven't actually added to this fic since I first began writing it.

Disclaimer- Simmons owns nothing.

Keyes slipped on One's coat, dismayed to see it didn't button or zip of Velcro or anything. Sighing, she slipped it back off and went into the bathroom. She heard Two's shower running next door and seemed to instantly see through the walls and then into the bathroom, identifying the small female body of Mazon quickly. Keyes looked from the wall down at her clothes. They were ruined. The goo had hardened in places, as impossible to get out as melted wax. Sighing, Keyes picked up everything, with exclusion of the guns, and carried them out to the wastebasket in One's room.

Shoving them in as best she could, she returned to One's shower and twisted it on. She had gotten the strangest idea earlier of herself, One and a back scrubber. Passing it off as something that went with her suddenly new and improved Program Coding Powers, Keyes switched on the shower, wondering how many she'd taken since beginning this crazy mission while she massaged shampoo into her hair. Doing a quick count, this made four, one while all cut up, one right after all cut up, the failed attempt earlier and now this one.

This was Mazon's first that she was aware of, Two had taken two, probably one right after the truck inferno, and one then she and Mazon had arrived, was it really just that morning? It seemed like years ago.

One had taken three. The two at the same times as Two and according to Mazon, one right after… Keyes still blushed just thinking about it, that made a grand total of ten showers since she'd originally been pulled through the door. Their water bill would be outrageous. Good thing Keyes paid them so well. Keyes reached up to pull down the loofah, eyes closed against shampoo, grabbing blindly. After a few seconds of not touching anything, Keyes opened her eyes and stared.

Her hand, her wrist, her arm, all of her was transparent! Keyes could see through herself! She was emitting a dark green glow and her hand was gone inside the loofah she'd been grabbing for. Stumbling back, Keyes began to sink through the floor, grabbing wildly at anything and touching nothing.

She was sinking slowly and saw the area in-between floors, then down and into the apartment below the Twins'. It was dark tacky affair and when she looked over her shoulder, it was all she could do to keep back a yelp. An old, dirty looking man was sitting in front of a television in his underwear and staring at her. Keyes' eyes widened and she brought her hands up to cover herself, despite the old man being behind her. As her eyes widened the old man yelled and ran for cover.

Looking after him in confusion, Keyes concentrated on being solid, on not going through this floor too. Thankfully, her feet touched greasy carpet and she once again felt the weight of being solid settle on her. Looking after the man nervously, Keyes crouched down and thought about being transparent again, when she felt her toes begin to tingle she leapt upwards, closing her eyes and expecting to pass through the ceiling back up into the shower. What met her instead was the low ceiling of the old man's apartment, then the greasy carpet again. Moaning and rubbing her head Keyes stood and looked around. Grabbing an old aphgan off the back of his recliner, Keyes wrapped it around her and walked out the front door. Making her way to the elevator, she stepped in next to some business kid, who stepped back from her soaking wet, naked but for nasty blanket, seething form and pointed to the panel.

"Wha-What floor Miss?" she looked at him and sighed leaning back.

"Top." He nodded and hit the button, clutching his briefcase and trying not to stare to obviously at her. They stood in uncomfortable elevator silence for a while before Keyes realized the elevator was going down, dropping off the kid in the lobby before taking her back up to her floor. Groaning, she took the top two corners of the blanket and knotted them off to the side, doing the same for the bottom two, which hung to about her ankles. Straightening, she looked at the nervous business kid and blinked once or twice.

"Hi" she said softly, trying to sound cold and superior, despite her appearance. He nodded, pulling out some gum from his suit pocket. Holding it out, hand shaking a little.

"Want some? It's cinnamon…" Keyes took a piece and nodded her appreciation, unwrapped it and popping it in her mouth. They stood there, Keyes' eyes drooping a little. That phasing stuff was really tiring! The kid had put in a piece for himself and they chewed, every now and again glancing at the elevator. By the time it hit the lobby, the kid stepped off and turned back to her.

"Uh… thanks… for not killing me" and he turned to leave. Keyes chewed once more and grabbed the back of the guy's coat.

"What do you mean?" her other hand was up, stopping the elevator from closing. The kid shook nervously, little beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. Keyes looked around the lobby of the building and pulled him back in, letting the door shut. "What do you mean killing you?"

"Y…y…your…the girl… the girl from the elevator yesterday ….unlessI'mmistakenwhichIprobablyamsopleasedon'tkillmeohgod!" he cried out, slurring the last bit in one seamless breath and screwing his eyes shut, preparing for some horrible demise. Keyes chewed her gum and let go of him.

"How do you know about any of that?" the kid took a couple of gasping breaths and clung to his briefcase like a teddy bear. The elevator was going all the way to the top floor and he was stuck in it with this psycho.

"Your picture was all over the new from the security cameras. You came out of the elevator, covered in guns and shot some guy in the girls' restroom. And granted, maybe the guy was a perv and shouldn't have been in there but you didn't have to blow him away…" he trailed off sheepishly. Keyes crossed her arms and thought for a minute.

"How many witnesses were there?"

"N-none!" the kid said, shaking his head vigorously. "The security guards saw it on tape from the cameras later. When they were trying to figure out how the elevator got all shot up and that guy died in the bathroom." Keyes nodded, and shook her head from side to side to send water droplets off her still wet hair, spraying the kid and the walls of the elevator. There was the 'ding!' and the doors slid open. Keyes reached out and pinned the guy against the wall of the elevator.

"Okay look kid. I'm not gonna kill you. but you never saw me and I don't exist. Because if word gets out that I do exist and we had this conversation, I'll destroy you." the kid nodded, wide eyed and was shaking all over. Keyes smiled sweetly and set him down.

"Super! Thanks for the gum turbo!" and she stood there, hands behind her back, smiling until the elevator doors shut, carrying the kid back down. She dropped her hands, lost the smile and shivered. She was soapy still and freezing cold, goose bumps stood out all over her body, making her shiver in the breezy hallway. Walking to the Twins' apartment, she was about to knock when the door opened and Two pulled her inside, shutting it quickly.

"Where were we?" he asked sternly and she looked at him curiously, eyebrow raised.

"We? What's this we?" he looked like he was about to explain something very important when Mazon waved.

"Hey Keyes. Finish your shower and come have some coffee alright?" Keyes nodded gratefully and patted Two on the shoulder, frowning at how tense his muscles were and ducked around him.

"Relax, Two. Nothing to freak out about." and she disappeared into One's room. Shutting the door, she frowned at the afghan concealing her freezing cold nakedness and ripped it off, dropping it in the wastebasket, which was already overflowing with her clothes. She crossed to the bathroom and was about to open it when One's arm reached through, grabbed her, making her phase out, and pulled her in. solidifying again only to bodily pull her into the steaming shower.

****

The Twins had returned about the same time Keyes was accepting gum from anxious pipsqueak in the elevator. They had decided that until Keyes was comfortable in her new… station, that Two should hold off. He could still flirt, and get Keyes used to the idea of both of them, but the physical portion should be left up to One for the time being. Something Two was secretly, fervently annoyed by.

One had headed into his bedroom only to reappear, Keyes was not in. They woke up Mazon who had fallen asleep on Two's bed and questioned her ruthlessly. When she couldn't answer their questions, they began to reach out for her mind, located her and relaxed, One going off to take a shower, Two sipping some coffee with the now disgruntled but awake Mazon.

Two felt Keyes near the apartment and opened the door for her, fully prepared to interrogate her thoroughly, but, of course, Mazon had interfered and made him look like the biggest antagonist in the Matrix. Two was grumpy and downing cup after cup of coffee, pausing only to brew more. He heard the shower running and knew what they were up to, and it made Two feel… left out. He sighed and added more cream to his coffee. It was going to be a long night.

Mazon was so confused. She was nursing her third coffee since the Twins had dragged her out of bed asking about Keyes and now she and One were in the shower doing dirty Keyes and One things and she was stuck out here with moody ole' Two. And they sat there for a while, glad for the silence and using it as time to think, but it began to wear at Mazon until, finally, she began talking.

"So what are you guys gonna do about Keyes?" Two jolted out of whatever he was thinking about and looked up at Mazon who was tapping one nail on the counter top slowly.

"What do you mean?" she grinned and gestured towards the bathroom where Two could here Keyes giggling and moaning alternatively. Then shook his head. "We will stay here, we can't return to the Real World, not now. We are now part of something… different." Mazon looked at Two for a second and shook her head.

"What we? I'm not asking about you and One! I'm asking about Keyes!" Two finished his most recent cup of coffee and refilled it.

"Keyes is a program now. You saw her code change. It has become something very much akin to our own… 'our' being my ‘brother’ and …I." Oh he loathed that term. 'I' it sounded wrong coming from him, but he was determined to explain this to Mazon in simpler terms. Two didn't like repeating himself very much. He continued.

"As a result, Keyes can no longer leave the Matrix as you can. We are not sure what will happen to her body with out our mind to sustain it. perhaps it will die. Perhaps it will disappear and pull it's self into the Matrix. We do not know. But we do know this. Keyes has joined the ranks of the programs now. She is one of us. And she will stay here with us." Mazon thought about this for a while and frowned.

"Then I'll free her again. We have the process."

"Ah yes, the process. Tell us more about it, it will serve to keep our mind… preoccupied from what is going on" and he nodded towards the bathroom. Mazon looked in the direction of Keyes and One and grinned a little, nodding.

"Fair enough. We haven’t had much of a chance to test it, it's still mainly in the theoretical stages, but basically, we find a body whose owner has passed the point of possible freeing."

"As in?"

"As in the mind has just died but the body hasn't been liquefied yet, or the owner is too old. The point is, we assimilate the program which is, after a manner, just a mind with out a body, with the host body and free the program." She handed the cup to Two who refilled it and handed it back.

"Now, at first, the body and the being inside are at war. They have to assimilate. Programs or anomalies have to get used to a body that was never meant to be theirs. Some speculate that over time the R.S.I will adjust itself to resemble the physical manifestation more. Of course, it's completely possible also that the R.S.I. will remain that, a mental projection of the program who is now, a person." Mazon finished, sipping her coffee and studying Two's reaction. He nodded after a minute, seemingly approving of her description.

"Now, are you guys gonna keep on making Keyes pay you?" Two grinned a little and turned his coffee cup around in his hands.

"We haven't yet worked out any details. But we hardly think so." Mazon nodded and sighed.

"I want you guys to take good care of her okay? She's my best friend." Two tilted his head politely

"As you wish." The shower turned off and they both heard some more giggling and whispering from both parties. Two stood, pouring the rest of his coffee down the drain.

"Now, if you don't mind, we really should be alone to begin… explaining the situation." Mazon sighed and looked into her coffee cup, downing the rest of it and standing.

"Alright. You have twenty-four hours. After that, I'm comin' back in and I want her to be here." Two nodded and watched Mazon pull out her phone and dial Linc as she walked out the door. Two watched the door close and stood there for a second before sighing and leaning forward on the counter, his head drooping.

If One wasn't careful, Two would join them no matter what One said. Sighing again, he let go of the counter and meandered into his own room.

TBC

AN/ I hate to give you all too much suspense, but I think the next chapter will mostly be what goes on in the shower because you've all been so patient about the lack of sex.