* * *
"She was only human," Agent Brown said quietly.
Agent Smith looked away from the window and stared at Agent Brown. Wild blue eyes met sad brown eyes with an almost audible click before Agent Smith turned away again.
"I do not understand," he said finally. "She wished to unite with me. She had often suggested that we be 'married.' I offered her what she wanted. Why did she refuse?"
Agent Brown sighed quietly and risked a limb by putting a hand on Agent Smith's shoulder. "She was only human," he said again.
"Why does it hurt?" Agent Smith asked mournfully.
Agent Brown looked at his superior oddly. Pain was not something Agents were truly programmed to experience. Certainly they could sense that they should be in pain, but an Agent was never truly in pain. "How can it hurt?"
"I believe the term humans use for this situation is 'broken heart'," Agent Jones offered from behind them.
Agent Brown looked at the Combat Unit oddly. "Hearts do not break. They are not hard enough."
"Humans are often illogical."
Agent Smith sighed and leaned his head against the cold glass. "That does not explain why it hurts."
Agent Brown stared out the window at the great city that no longer existed in the real world and did not remove his hand from Agent Smith's shoulder. He was aware of Agent Jones moving up behind them, but he did not turn to look.
* * *
Agent Smith stared contemptuously at the human kneeling in its own blood. The creature might get "lucky" and take the exit the madly ringing phone was presenting, but he doubted it. Humans displayed an amazing inability to save their own lives when seriously injured.
He felt Agent Brown come up behind him. "That was not necessary."
"It was not necessary to stop the rebel?" Agent Smith asked idly. Agent Brown had not meant that and he knew it.
"It was not necessary to not shoot to kill."
"What does it matter how the humans die? It is what they're destined for, after all." Agent Smith turned and walked away from his disturbed teammate and the dying rebel.
* * *
Agent Smith turned to look up the street at the morass of humanity. Why did they always cause such trouble? First, they had destroyed their world and now, when they were in a dream world that they could not destroy, they still struggled to destroy it.
A flash of light caught his eye. A biker wearing liquid-black material pulled away from the curb and roared off into the street. The ghost of a reflected image hung in his eyes.
A face framed with short, black hair and impossibly dark eyes staring at him. Soft lips punishing themselves with a frown. Hard lines turned cruel with the edge of anger. Fair skin contrasting sharply with the dark hair and eyes.
Trinity.
* * *
Agent Smith looked at the rebel across from him and resisted the urge to kill the disgusting creature. It was going to hand Morpheus over to him. He was finally going to be able to destroy the human that had been the bane of his existance.
What did it matter that the creature in front of him seemed to think that it had the right to demand an optimal life?
He clenched a fist under the table. Did it understand how hard it was going to be to reinsert it back into the Matrix without adding all these little fantasies? Of course not. The rebels never understand all the work it took to keep the Matrix running. All they knew was to how to disrupt and destroy.
The human was looking at him. What did it want now?
"Say, aren't you the Agent that Trinity was involved with before she was unplugged?"
Agent Smith almost killed the human right there. "I fail to see the relevance of that, Mr. Reagan."
"It's called making small talk. You know, you Agents could really use some work on your programming. You don't really seem too human, if you know what I mean."
"We are not required to seem 'too human', Mr. Reagan." Agent Smith watched the human chew its food with something resembling boredom. For all the human's ability to realize the futility of existing outside the Matrix, it was still only human.
* * *
Agent Smith stood up, moving with inhuman grace. He could see Mr. Anderson and Trinity up ahead. They seemed to be talking.
Fools.
"I believe...." Mr. Anderson trailed off, staring at her. "I want to kiss you."
She smiled at it. "I want to kiss you too...."
Red seeped into his field of vision. He ignored what she said next and aimed the gun. Carefully drawing a bead on the liquid-black material covering her breasts, he fired.
She disappeared in a blast of light and code. The bullet left a hole in the plastic and destroyed the earpiece of the phone. The exit was ruined. Good. He could kill the human that dared to desire his Trin before he killed her.
A soft, mournful voice wailed in the back of his mind. "Why does it hurt?"
The End