Falling From Grace
Dark Puck
1
The crouching figure ignored the rain pelting his body as he watched the little girl playing with some dolls in an area where the rain simply did not fall. She was utterly oblivious to the bad weather around her; was she even aware that she herself was keeping the rain away? White wings stretched to their fullest before snapping back to their place against the watcher's back, where they blended with his long white cloak. Humans never noticed what they didn't want to see, he had found; as long as he kept the wings close to his clothing, they went unnoticed.
He could hear a woman calling frantically for the girl, who, like any child, ignored her. The watcher, however, could sense an Agent and abandoned his post to approach the girl. "Your caretaker is calling for you," he said quietly, entering her rainless zone.
After a moment, the girl looked up, her clear brown eyes seeking his out. "She knows where to find me," she replied.
He had anticipated this. "You are in danger, little one," he told her. "You must go inside."
She studied him carefully, then shrugged and tilted her head to one side. Rain poured down on them both as her shield dissolved. "If I have to."
"Hava!"
"You had better go," he told her on the tail of the woman's cry. She shrugged and went, acting as though it had been her idea all along. The watcher smiled slightly. She was far more aware than the others had been, and she was of an ideal age. She was the one he would free.
He turned and walked away – then he heard it. The unmistakeable noise of an Agent taking a human host.
Oh, no.
-
Hava Davidson paused as she saw the figure standing outside the orphanage. That was certainly not Mrs. Simmons.
The man smiled at her, saying, "Hello, little girl," as he went down on one knee, looking her over. "What's your name?"
After a moment, she replied, "Hava," eyeing him warily. Something was off about him…
"Well, hello, Hava," he said. "My name is Shepherd." His piercing gaze left her, looking instead at the air around her. "Tell me – did something strange just happen to you? Something unusual?"
Hava shrugged. There had been that bubble that prevented the rain from hitting her, but it was gone now. What did it matter? And she certainly wasn't going to say much to a man with eyes she couldn't see. She could, however, feel the moment his gaze returned to her face.
"Anything at all?" he tried again. "It's very important."
Hava shrugged again, changing the subject completely. "Where's Miss Simmons? She was calling me."
With another smile, the man said, "Oh, she'll be back in a moment." He rose to his feet and gave her a final probing look. "Thank you for your… co-operation." There was a sound, a cross between a modem and a crash, and Miss Simmons collapsed in front of her startled charge.
-
Agent Shepherd, in transit to another host, filed his report: No anomaly detected. Req. new assignment.
-
Unseen, the angel relaxed. The danger to the child had passed – for now.
Hello, everybody! You may have noticed, if you're one of my few fans, that I've pulled my story on the First Cycle of the Matrix. That is because this story is not only its replacement, it has moved forward a touch and now takes place in the Second iteration. This story can fit in with both my own Cycles-verse and the Strange Attractors AU-verse by Laurie E. Smith, and is indeed written to do so.
The Matrix Trilogy and all characters/locations therein are © the Brothers Warner and Wachowski. I'm only borrowing them and promise to put then away when I'm done playing with them. The character of Hava Davidson belongs to me, however; Agent Shepherd belongs to Laurie Smith. Please keep that in mind.
Constructive criticism is always welcome, except for you "this should be longer" people. The chapters here are supposed to be short. Please deal with it and move on with your lives. Thank you.
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