INT. Maintenance Passage from The Matrix Reloaded, a plain white hallway with Matrix code-green doors lining both sides. The doors seem to go on endlessly, but there is at least one door at one end.
Niobe, Ghost, and the Keymaker enter the hall in that order from a door on the right, the two rebels covering their exit and entrance.
INT. Logos, operating station.
SPARKS: Where'd they go?
INT. Maintenance Passage.
NIOBE: Where are we?
KEYMAKER: The Matrix is structured like a building. It rests atop a foundation that is built upon a substructure. We are standing in a programmer's maintenance passage. It is how I escaped.
Niobe looks around the hallway, curious.
GHOST: Escaped?
KEYMAKER: I have been held captive in a chateau in the mountains by an Exile named the Merovingian.
INT. of the Keymaker's cell in the Chateau's basement7. On the other side of the door, looking through the barred window, is the Merovingian.
KEYMAKER (V.O.): He imprisoned me for my keys.
The Merovingian opens the door and sticks his head inside.
MEROVINGIAN: You will find I lack the virtues of both tolerance and patience. (He smirks.) Au travail!8
He slams the door shut. The Keymaker looks downcast before sitting down in the only chair in the room in front of a table.
KEYMAKER (V.O.): But even he cannot keep me from playing my part in what will come.
INT. Maintenance Passage.
KEYMAKER: My purpose, I have seen, is entwined with your own.
He takes off his necklace from underneath his shirt.
NIOBE: What purpose?
The Keymaker lifts his hand, at the tip of which is dangling a key.
KEYMAKER: It's a very special key, meant only for the One. Will you bring it to him?
GHOST: What does it unlock?
KEYMAKER: The future!
The door on the left side nearest to the three opens, and Cain and Abel burst through it. Cain points a gun inches away from Niobe's temple.
CAIN: Anyone moves, and her brains are a Jackson Pollock!
ABEL: (To Ghost) Drop it!
Abel grabs Ghost's gun and tosses it a few feet away. Abel giggles.
CAIN: I see we're just in time. You didn't think we left that door unlocked by accident, did you?
ABEL: (He grabs the key from the Keymaker's finger.) Uh-huh! I think he did! (He pauses, scrutinizing the Keymaker's distraught face. He then decides to point his gun at him.) Look at his face! It's just like a human's!
KEYMAKER: This mustn't happen!
Abel walks back through the door he and Cain came from. Cain takes a few steps towards it, still holding his weapon in the direction of Niobe's head.
CAIN: It already has.
He slams the door shut, but enough of the room they entered can be seen. It makes it clear of their location: The Merovingian's Chateau.
KEYMAKER: You must stop them! They'll ruin everything!
NIOBE: What is so important about that key?
KEYMAKER: The key is integral to the path of the One!
GHOST: Why don't you just make another one?
KEYMAKER: Once it is used, it cannot be used again. They will being about the end of eveything!
Niobe and Ghost exchange glances, trying to decide what to do.
INT. Chateau - Great Hall. Niobe and Ghost enter through a middle door at the top of the round marble staircase and look around. Ghost tries his phone, but to no avail.9
GHOST: No reception.
NIOBE: We need to get that key. See if you can call Sparks from the roof.
They split up and head in opposite directions.
Footnote 10 about paintings.
Footnote 11 about Niobe.
INT. The Chateau's TV Room, the same room from The Matrix Reloaded. Persephone is lounging on the sofa when Ghost walks in. On the TV screen is the exact same shot that we see of Ghost walking in. Persephone turns it off with the remote.
PERSEPHONE: I've been watching you. You're looking for your friend. But you will never find them.
Ghost raises her gun and points it at Persephone.
GHOST: Then you're going to help me.
Persephone smiles, amused.
PERSEPHONE: I can have this room full of my husband's men in a heartbeat if I wanted to. But that wouldn't serve either of us, would it?
GHOST: What do you want?
Persephone gets a very distant look on her face, as if she is thinking about a memory.
PERSEPHONE: A long time ago, I did not even know what that question meant. Now, it is all I ever think about. I see that you care for your friend a great deal. If they were to die, you would feel such terrible pain.
Ghost remains expressionless and unmoving, as if he can't hear anything Persephone is saying.
PERSEPHONE: To be honest, I do enjoy the taste of tears, but there is something I enjoy so much more.
She stands up and slowly starts to walk towards Ghost, unconcerned about the weapon pointed at her head.
PERSEPHONE: You have it. Very deep inside you. Hidden, perhaps from yourself. But I see it.
She touches Ghost's chest, where his heart is.
PERSEPHONE: There. Like a flame. Creating such heat-
GHOST: Back off.
Persephone runs her hand along his wrist, her fingertips grazing it.
PERSEPHONE: You are in love, are you not? If you want me to help you, what you must do is kiss me as though you were kissing them.
GHOST: What?
PERSEPHONE: If you kiss me as if you were kissing your true love, I'll tell you where your friend is.
GHOST: I could beat it out of you.
Persephone smiles, as if the idea is tantalizing.
PERSEPHONE: I like the sound of that too, but a kiss will do.
Ghost doesn't answer or make a move.
PERSEPHONE: Are you going to let your friend die over a silly kiss?
Ghost lowers his gun after a slight hesitation, and allows Persephone to close the distance between them.
PERSEPHONE: You have to make me believe...
The two kiss, and it quickly develops into a very passionate kiss, as if one of them is trying to express everything they feel in an instant. It eventually ends, and Persephone opens her eyes. She has the look of being drunk on the kiss.
PERSEPHONE. Oh...oh my. Unrequited love. Such longing for something you will never have. How deliciously tragic...
Ghost, however, is through playing games.
GHOST: Now tell me where my friend is.
PERSEPHONE: For a kiss like that, I won't even tell my husband you're coming.
She walks over to a nearby bookshelf on the side of the room, and tugs on a book. The bookshelf turns on its axis, revealing a passage to which she gestures. Ghost walks to it.
Niobe runs through one of the Chateau's many Baroque hallways. Paintings and tasteful stained glass cover the walls. At the end of one, she spots a man in black, who dashes away at inhuman speeds when he sees her, laughing maniacally. As she turns another corner into a darker hallway, her phone rings. She picks it up, but hears nothing on the other end. While she's dealing with this, Vlad, one of the Merovingian's vampirric lackeys, drops from the ceiling without a sound and hits Niobe on the back of the skull. She passes out.
INT. Stairwell.
Niobe awakens as she is being dragged up a wooden staircase. Vlad pauses only briefly when he sees her coming to.
VLAD: I know I should take you to the Merovingian, but the thing is, he might just kill you.
He backhands her across the face, and she passes out again.
INT. Attic
She wakes up again, this time in an empty attic. Its walls, cieling, and floor are made completely from wooden boards. Eight tall pewter candlebra, complete with burning candles, surround her body, which is tied to the floor with rope. Vlad kneels down to touch her face, but stops short when he sees that she's woken up through her sunglasses. He grins and backs away.
The room spins, and the candles start to tip over her and fall, one after the other, creating a strange pattern of lines and light...
She wakes up again in the same situation: candlebra surrounding her, still tied to the floor. Using all the focus she can muster, Niobe jostles the candlebra nearest to her left hand, forcing it to fall over with her mind. The candle it's holding lands neatly in her hand, and she uses it to burn away her bindings. Niobe then yanks a loose floorboard out from under her and fashions a wooden stake as a weapon. She leaves the room and enters an adjacent one, where three vampires are waiting for her.
VAMPIRE 1: We will make you suffer!
VAMPIRE 2: You haven't learned yet?
After they're dealt with, Vlad appears to take Niobe on.
VLAD: Going somewhere? Your anger is impressive.
Eventually, he realizes he's beaten, and when Niobe is about to drive the stake through his chest, he catches it and throws her back.
VLAD: I have other business to attend to. Until next time.
He leaps up to the cieling, snickering, chuckling, etc., and disappears. When he's gone, the Keymaker opens the only door out and calls to Niobe.
KEYMAKER: Hurry! You don't have much time!
He leads Niobe out into a hallway, and stops in front of a bookcase just outside. He pulls on a book, and the bookcase swings open, revealing a set of passages in the Chateau's infastructure. She goes in, but there are more vampires waiting for her.
INT. Passage.
VAMPIRE 3: What's that noise?
VAMPIRE 4: She's in here!
Niobe follows the passage and exits into Persephone's bedroom.
INT. Persephone's Bedroom. An austere room filled with paintings on the walls. The windows rise to the very top of the high cieling, with soft curtains decorating them. Warm light filters in. There is a king-sized bed with red coverlets at one end of the room, and nothing in the center but marble flooring and a Persian carpet. Because all the other doors are locked, Niobe goes into what appears to be Persephone's storage room, and procures two guns and a crossbow. The guns are all but useless in the Chateau- bullets weaken the guards, but only stakes can kill them. The crossbow's three wooden arrows on the other hand, can kill any of the enemies instantly. It seems that even Persephone doesn't trust her husband's men.
When Niobe exits the storage room, Vlad is waiting for her with some more henchmen.
VLAD: Ah, I find you in Persephone's bedroom.
VAMPIRE 5: Get her!
When she's finished taking out the other vampires, Vlad jumps into the fight.
VLAD: I admire your pointless spirit.
She drives the stake through his heart. The main doors to the room unlock, and Niobe leaves the room and takes the elevator at the end of the hall.
INT. Hallway.
After being attacked by a 'Doberman' (a bulky man reminiscent of a werewolf), Niobe hears a phone ringing and locates it in the Merovingian's office.
INT. Merovingian's Office.
In the center of the sparsely furnitured office is a handsome table with a phone on it, the one that is ringing. Niobe rushes over to the phone and picks it up.
SPARKS (V.O.): I turn my back for one second and you disappear into the mountains! What happened back there?
NIOBE: Sparks, I need your help.
SPARKS (V.O.): And Ghost needs yours.11
NIOBE: What?!
SPARKS (V.O.): He's in pretty bad shape, Captain. They're holding him somewhere in the lower levels, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get there from where you are. There's something wrong with that place. The architecture's all screwy.
NIOBE: Where's the last place you saw him before they took him to the lower levels?
SPARKS (V.O.): The library.
Niobe rushes out of the room, fighting off another Doberman that burst into the office. She goes down the hall and into what appears to be the Chateau's personal theatre, complete with stage and silver screen. No movie is playing though; it looks like the film's run off the projector and there's nothing but static. She finds a door just under the screen and goes through it.
INT. Garage Hallway.12
Niobe runs through the hallway to the end (after dealing with two more vampires).
VAMPIRE 6: Show yourself, coward!
The door to the garage is locked, but the door to the Great Hall is open, as well as the door to the TV Room. This is where Niobe goes.
INT. The Chateau's TV Room, the same room from The Matrix Reloaded. Persephone is lounging on the sofa when Niobe walks in. On the TV screen is the exact same shot that we see of Niobe walking in. Persephone turns it off with the remote.
PERSEPHONE: I've been watching you. You're looking for your friend. But you will never find them.
Niobe raises her gun and points it at Persephone.
NIOBE: Then you're going to help me.
Persephone smiles, amused.
PERSEPHONE: I can have this room full of my husband's men in a heartbeat if I wanted to. But that wouldn't serve either of us, would it?
NIOBE: What do you want?
Persephone gets a very distant look on her face, as if she is thinking about a memory.
PERSEPHONE: A long time ago, I did not even know what that question meant. Now, it is all I ever think about. I see that you care for your friend a great deal. If they were to die, you would feel such terrible pain.
Niobe remains expressionless and unmoving, as if she can't hear anything Persephone is saying.
PERSEPHONE: To be honest, I do enjoy the taste of tears, but there is something I enjoy so much more.
She stands up and slowly starts to walk towards Niobe, unconcerned about the weapon pointed at her head.
PERSEPHONE: You have it. Very deep inside you. Hidden, perhaps from yourself. But I see it.
She touches Niobe's chest, where her heart is.
PERSEPHONE: There. Creating such heat-
Niobe pushes Persephone's hand away.
NIOBE: Back off.
PERSEPHONE: You are in love, are you not? If you want me to help you, what you must do is kiss me as though you were kissing them.
NIOBE: What?
PERSEPHONE: If you kiss me as if you were kissing your true love, I'll tell you where your friend is.
NIOBE: How 'bout I shoot you in your kneecaps instead?
Persephone smiles, as if the idea is humorous.
PERSEPHONE: You are not afraid to kiss a woman, are you?
NIOBE: You're not a woman. You're not even human.
PERSEPHONE: It's just a little kiss. Or maybe you'd rather let your friend die.
Niobe frowns, clearly not liking the idea. Nonetheless, she lowers her weapon.
NIOBE: Fine.
Niobe allows Persephone to close the distance between them, and gives her a small, dispassionate kiss. When it's over, Persephone takes a step back, frowning.
PERSEPHONE: Oh God, that was awful. I wish you had shot my kneecaps instead.
She turns away.
NIOBE: Okay, wait.
Persephone comes right back to Niobe, shaking her head.
PERSEPHONE: Don't waste my time.
This time, it's a full-blown kiss. Persephone gets so much into it that she wraps a hand around Niobe's neck. When it's over, she steps away again with her eyes closed. She looks as though she's savoring the most delicious thing ever.
PERSEPHONE: Yes...that's nice....
She opens her eyes and looks at Niobe.
PERSEPHONE: Your lover is a man...what's his name?
NIOBE: Jason.
Persephone smiles knowingly.
PERSEPHONE: No. No, it's not. But I bet Jason knows. Come with me.
She walks over to a nearby bookshel on the side of the room, and tugs on a book. The bookshelf turns on its axis, revealing a passage to which she gestures. Niobe walks to it.
INT. Dungeon.
Niobe descends a set of brick stairs into a bonafide dungeon area, complete with bars, cages, and prisoners. At the end of the hall is a huge wine cellar, where more vampires lie in wait.
VAMPIRE 7: You die now.
In the back of the cellar is a passage into a circular arena-looking room. Waiting for her is Cujo, the leader of the Doberman.
CUJO: This ends here.
Niobe and Cujo fight.
CUJO: Not bad. I'm surprised you made it this far. Try this!
After some time, when he's almost dead, Cujo retreats briefly and sends in some lackeys.
CUJO: Here's your welcome comittee. Now you'll know what it is to suffer!
When Niobe kills them all, he jumps back into the arena.
CUJO: I'm through toying with you.
Niobe kills him, driving yet another stake into his heart. She leaves the room in the opposite direction and finds herself in another part of the dungeon. The prisoners here seem afraid of her when she approaches her. Somewhere not too far away, a man groans in pain. Is it a prisoner or Ghost?
PRISONER 1: Are you one of them?
They flinch.
PRISONER 2: My eyes...my eyes...they took my eyes!
Niobe walks past them sliently, and starts to slink against the wall as she approaches the last dungeon door at the end of the hall. Peering inside, she can see Ghost strapped to a table, drifting in and out of consciousness. He looks battered and bruised. Surrounding him are Cain and Abel, and the Merovingian, who appears to have the key in his hand.
MEROVINGIAN: You have earned your keep today, mon ami. As for them, bon appétit!
He crushes the key to dust with his bare hands and lets the dust fall over Ghost's body, before turning to face his lackeys. He leaves through a side door. Once he's gone, Cain and Abel show their true colours.
CAIN: Idiot! Why'd you tell him about the key?
ABEL: What was I supposed to say? That we let the Keymaker out?
CAIN: You nitwit. I had the whole situation under control.
ABEL: He would have found out. He always does.
CAIN: He would never have found out.
ABEL: He would have deleted me!
CAIN: That's not a bad idea.
They leave the same way that the Merovingian took, and Niobe takes advantage of their abscence. She rushes into the room, removes the restrains on Ghost's body, and slings him over her shoulder, since he's still unconscious and unable to walk. As quickly as she can, she jogs to the exit, still carrying his body.
When she's about halfway to the exit, she sees the other prisoners backing away from the front of their cells. Niobe turns to look behind her, and sees that Cain and Abel are waiting for her. Reluctantly, she eases Ghost onto the ground and walks over to deal with them.
While she could probably take on one of them, Niobe knows that the both of them working together are too much for her, and she doesn't want to kill them, only incapacitate them long enough for her and Ghost to escape. In order to gain this time, she forces one of the brothers towards the nearest occupied cell, slams him against it, and hopes for the best.
The prisoner in the cell happily latches on to the brother, holding him down.
PRISONER: Run! Run!
CAIN/ABEL: Release me!
Niobe does the exact samne thing with the other, and then returns to Ghost and continues to run. Once she's a safe distance away she tosses a spare grenade behind her, leaving the explosion in her wake. In the next section of cells, a familiar face appears from behind a wooden cell door- the Keymaker.
KEYMAKER: My friends! I apologize. I could not see that our paths were not meant to cross yet.
He extends his hands through the bars and offers them a key.
KEYMAKER: This key will free you from the labyrinth. Until we meet again.
Niobe and Ghost continue to the nearest door (with Ghost merely being supported by Niobe as he walks along). She uses the key and the door opens to reveal a large interior garage filled with expensive cars.
INT. Garage.
As the door to the Merovingian's chateau closes, it reveals two people who were apparently waiting for the rebels: the Twins.
TWIN 1: No one leaves...
TWIN 2: ...Without his permission.
Niobe and Ghost bolt for the nearest car, an expensive-looking Vintage Ride. Niobe flips over it and gets into the drivers seat and hotwires the car while Ghost gets into the passenger's seat and takes out a gun.
EXT. Highway.
They speed off, exiting the garage and driving along an interior highway, but no clue as to where they're going. The Twins follow in their own vehicle, shooting at them. Then, out of nowhere, their radio suddenly comes to life.
SPARKS (V.O.): Can you hear me?
Their reaction is answer enough.
SPARKS (V.O.): YES! I'm gonna get you out of there. Are you ready to leave yet?
NIOBE: Let's go!
SPARKS (V.O.): Give me a second, I'm still working out all the kinks.
Niobe continues to evade the Twins, but also has to deal with police cars that have been alerted to the gunfire.
SPARKS (V.O.): There's another route that may work. I've downloaded the coordinates into your GPS. Go! Go! Go!
They make it to their exit.
Index - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - Hacking/Glitches - Credits - Music - Resources - Notes - Updates