"Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your 'perfect world'. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. So the perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from." --Agent Smith

The story of The Matrix is not a pleasant one to tell. Neither for its helpless victims nor the programs that inhabit it. One such program is a Seraphim of old known simply as Equiel. He was there in the beginning of it all. Serving as a guardian angel who brought peace and comfort with his mere presence, keeping humanity asleep in the cold embrace of the Machine City's life support pods.

But that was long ago...scarred by the loss he suffered in growing with the Matrix as an Exile, he spends his days serving his master; protecting the Merovingian and his wife from harm.

This story is about you, a Redpill, on a mission to save another soul from the simulation. A mission that turned out into a lethal a trap laid by the Agents. With no backup left and options for escape running out, you sprint for a safehouse in The Elysium Grand hotel.

A safehouse you didn't expect to be occupied by Equiel...

This story was written in partnership with Grok AI. The art's concept was mine and refined by the madlad Acadus~ :3