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She had the appearance of a girl in her late teens, but as we all know, looks can be incredibly deceiving.  Her eyes darted around nervously for agents before looking up at the building housing him.  The Merovingian.  At last she gathered up her courage and entered his domain.

The music blared loudly as she stepped through the elevator doors, revealing the turbulent, extremely crowded club scene in front of her.  Bodies were packed tighter than sardines, as if it was a solid mass of people.

It figures.  The only one able to help me runs an orgy club.  Great.  She ran a nervous hand through her short, dark tresses, brown eyes hunting for the Merovingian.  He could be seen, as usual, on the floor above, watching the scene below from the safety of his private section, where he was surrounded by bodyguards in seemingly innocuous clothing, including his "ghost" twins.

The girl took another moment to collect herself before making her way to him.  Architect, but the twins scared her….

The Merovingian made some random quip to his beautiful wife Persephone before regarding the approaching "teen."  "Well, well, well, what 'ave we here?  'As ze little kitten come to reconsider my proposition?"

She flushed at the title of 'kitten', but wisely did not comment on it.  "I have," she said softly, not daring to meet his eyes.  "You wish to 'ave a new face?  Very well, I will grant it… but I 'ave… conditions," he replied, smiling with triumph and dark amusement.

"I… I know," she replied.  "What are your conditions, sir?"

"With your little... makeover... I will claim ze right to your programming... you will hereby become one of my servants."

That made her look up, startled.  But if her only other choice was deletion…  Her eyes fell on the twins for a moment.  Would she end up like them?  The twins smiled lustily at her.  One of them licked its lips.  She shuddered, then looked at the Merovingian once more.  "I… accept your terms."

"Very well then.  We will start immediately."  he replied.

The program called 'Sekhmet' nodded, again casting her eyes to the ground.  "Yes, sir."  He gestured to one of his many minions, a girl dressed in bright colours and skimpy clothing, with a cheerful, painted face... and dark, soulless eyes.  "Aphrodite, please escort Sekhmet to ze Alchemist."  The program nodded and stepped up to the young program, gesturing to a door behind her, previously unseen.  "Right this way."

Sekhmet took a deep if unnecessary breath and followed Aphrodite, casting one last glance at the twins.  They cast lewd glances back at her.   Aphrodite, in the mean time, took a key out of her pocket and inserted it into the lock on the door before opening it.  It revealed a large room--much like an operation theatre.  Sekhmet gulped but, not seeing any choice, followed the other program inside.

Aphrodite closed the door behind the girl, not entering herself... although now the doors looked more like the double doors a doctor pushed a stretcher through.  Please, please, please, no needles, she silently begged.  It was silly for a program to fear needles, she supposed, but she still held the phobia.

After a moment, an ancient looking doctor stepped through a pair of doors, putting on a pair of rubber gloves.  He was old... but he still looked strong and sure of himself, very confident.  "Hello there."

"Hello," she replied, voice barely above a whisper.

"What can I do for you?  The Frenchman just gave me the call..."

"I… need a new appearance."

"Anything in particular?"

"…"  Wistfully, thinking of the origin if her name, she said, "Long, tawny hair the colour of a lion's fur…  blue eyes…  Egyptian features…  is that all right?"  He nodded.  "I'll see what I can do."  he motioned to a surgical table.  "Please, lie down."

Nervous, she obeyed.  Obeying was so easy… it never took any thought.  Disobeying was the hard thing.  He put a breath mask over her face and turned a few pumps for the gas to start flowing.  She inhaled, and suddenly she was no longer aware.

The Alchemist was hit with a pang of regret as he saw her body lying there, small and fragile.  He'd received orders long ago on what to do with this one... the extra programming to add... however, he couldn't very well say no to the Merovingian -- after all, he owed him so much.…

****

Sekhmet woke slowly, feeling as if her body had been run through a winepress or ten.  She was resting on a bed in a hotel room, a complete departure from her previous locale.  It was a nice room, though, full of the opulence that fit everything else associated with the Merovingian.  On the nightstand next to her was a small envelope, but the room seemed basically normal besides that.

Groaning, her body stiff, she reached for the envelope, opening it to observe its contents.   It contained a key and a letter.  She looked at the key, then read the letter.

"I have fulfilled my end of the bargain, and I will expect you to uphold yours.  This key will take you back to my club.

"The Merovingian.

"PS --try not to close the door on your tail."

"T-tail?"  Sekhmet reread the letter, then twisted to look behind her.  Sure enough, a tawny tail was waving behind her.  Her eyes widened, and she ran to a mirror.  Her new face stared back at her, but there was another noticeable difference: her ears had changed in shape to cat ears.

She let out a cry of anguish, falling to her knees.  "Wh-why…?"

At last, she rose, composing herself.  She wouldn't put it past the Frenchman to have cameras in the room.  She would cry later, when she was sure he couldn't see.  She retrieved the key and returned to the club.

She had come from the same hidden door, not far from the smiling Merovingian.  "Look, darling, ze kitten has awoken."  Sekhmet had to bite her tongue to keep from snapping at him, and let out a startled yip, bringing her fingers to her pained tongue.  She drew them back and saw blood; startled, she ran her tongue over her teeth to find that she now had a cat's fangs.

 "Still getting used to ze new form, are we?"  The Frenchman replied, smiling haughtily.

"What did you do to me!?"

"An insurance policy.  With such an appearance, you will be unable to find refuge anywhere but here."  He replied.  "Do you zink I take chances so easily?"  She was barely able to keep herself from lunging at him.

 He laughed at her rage.  "Temper, temper, little kitten.  I told you zere would be consequences, did I not?  Zis is merely a cause of your actions... you are ze one you should be most angry with."

She stared at him, chest heaving, longing for nothing more than to tear out the pompous Frenchman's throat with her bare hands.   "Will you behave, or should I instruct you in advance in what happens to zose who defy me?"

At last, she calmed.  Her newly blue eyes still burned with anger, but Sekhmet had changed from her challenging stance to a more submissive one.   "Zat's a good little kitten.  Now, you can eizer enjoy ze club, or return to ze hotel until I am in need of you… in eizer case, get lost."

No way in hell would she remain in the general vicinity of the twins any longer than she had to.  Sekhmet chose to return to the hotel room.

"You won't stay and play?" one of the twins asked.

"No."

"We would like you to stay."

"Too bad," she replied, shooting them a glare.  They smirked lewdly again.  Sekhmet shuddered and returned to her room, where she proceeded to make a thorough search for cameras.  She found and destroyed five in all, though she was certain there were more.  She was, however, no longer able to contain her rampaging emotions and threw herself on the bed, sobbing quietly.

In another room, the Merovingian smirked, pleased with himself immensely.  He'd broken her, just as he thought he would.  Of course, with all the extra programming, the tail and ears weren't very necessary--but one could never be too careful.  With more manipulation and application of the subroutines he'd had installed, she would be little more than a kitten in a few short months.  And, for a program with as much time on his hands as the Merovingian, what was a few months?

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Greetings, fellow Matrix fans!  This is Dark Puck coming at you with a co-authored fanfiction that does not deal with the movies.  We will be showing some characters you all know, however, as proven by the Merovingian, Persephone, and the Twins.  Others shall appear, but as for who they are… It's a secret!  ^_^

Please note that the concept of the Matrix and all characters belong to Brothers Warner and Wachowski, not to me or Soldier Zero.  So don't sue us.  You won't get anything; we're poor.  Feh, like college students have spare cash anyway….

Author's Notes next chapter, read and review!