Author's Note:The only thing I own is Apoc's sister - Rapunzel.

Apocalyptic Rapunzel

Startled as he was shoved against the blue metal mess-room wall, Neo let out a surprised huff. Cypher snarled, "Move it, pretty boy." as he moved past, his baldhead shining in the harsh light.

Weary, he pushed himself off the wall and turned around, Apoc walked in a few seconds later. He didn't expect Apoc to stop beside him and ask, "Are you all right, Neo ?"

That caught him by surprise and mentally he panicked. Apoc with his dark-brown eyes, light-olive skin and long, curly black-hair was one of the handsomest guys he'd ever met. When he'd first met Apoc the man had seemed familiar in some way, he couldn't remember what way, though. 'Apoc is talking to me. Apoc is talking to me ! Oh, God, what do I do ? Do ? How about try not to sound like an idiot ?'

After a second, when he managed to stammer, "I, uh, I-I'm f-fine, Apoc." he felt a bit better.

Apoc's lips pulled back into a smile, "That's good, Neo, you're doing fine for being new. Now, Cypher are you just having a bad day, is it because, some how, Neo's annoying you or are you being a jerk for the hell of it ? Or taking a fourth option all of the above ?"

Cypher sat down at the table as Apoc walked up to the counter. Cypher sneered, the gray-eyes disdainful, at first him and then Apoc, as he retorted, "Why do you care, Rapunzel ?"

At that comment, he thought he saw Apoc's shoulders tense at the jab. 'Rapunzel ? Well, at least, it makes sense, huh, just how long is his hair ? I don't think I've ever seen it down.'

While he sat down on the far side of the table from Cypher, he saw Apoc had filled two bowls and was now walking toward him. Apoc handed him a bowl, before sitting down beside him and glaring at Cypher. "Simple - I remember how much of an asshole you were when I first got on-board. You were only a few months older than me and…you thought you could boss me around."

Cypher's sneer turned into a smirk, "Yeah, I remember the one time you had to get saved by Rapunzel and Switch. Really, you should stop worrying about Neo and worry about cutting your hair. At least, I've never gotten hit on for looking like a girl with my hair down. Hey, Neo, you know what made it even better ? It was…"

Apoc, normally calm, suddenly slammed a fist down on the table and snarled, "Shut the fuck up, Cypher."

He tried to turn his attention away from the conversation and eat. It seemed impossible with that last sentence echoing in his head. 'I don't think I've ever heard him swear before either. So, what was Cypher going to say that upset him that much.'

It was probably the fact that Apoc had just defended him, but he found himself putting a hand on Apoc's arm. From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the smile from minutes ago return slightly. Apoc nodded his thanks, then got up and pulled away before he stalked around the table and punched Cypher in the face.

His relieved laughter surprised him as Cypher landed with a thud on the floor, he chuckled, "Nice one, Apoc."

Apoc replied, "Thanks, Neo. Don't let Cypher scare you, he's just a wimp in the real."

At the same time Cypher got up with a glare at Apoc, while he rubbed his jaw and walked out, headed for the infirmary.

Then Apoc returned to sitting beside him and eating. It was a comfortable silence, then he and the longhaired man both looked up as Trinity walked in. The tall, short-black haired First Mate looked confused at seeing them eating together. Apparently, she shook it away as she greeted them with, "Morning."

"Morning, Trinity." Both Apoc and he shared an incredulous look, before they started laughing. 'That's kind of creepy, considering Apoc and I've never talked before. How did we think of that at the same time ?'

Trinity ignored their in-tandem greeting and said, "Apoc, Morpheus wants you to help Neo find something to wear for missions."

All the response from Apoc was, "Okay.", before they went back to eating.

In the Construct

It still surprised him to go from seeing the backs of his eyelids to the bright, white space of the loading program. Apoc stood beside him, now he could see just how different Apoc's RSI was from his real self.

Apoc wore a pair of dark rectangular shades with rounded edges that hid his eyes. His skin was now lightly tanned and his long-black hair had smoothed itself out and was in a coiled-up ponytail. The tight, black and white shirt Apoc wore was a mix of speckles, small stripes and scale-patterns. Over top of it was a short, black-suit jacket, completing the look were a pair of fitted black pants.

He shifted slightly as he looked at his own loose, black canvas jacket, plain green t-shirt and black pants. 'I look like a homeless person compared to Apoc and his finery. That suit still looks damned good on him, though.'

As he looked around at the emptiness, he asked, "So, you're really gonna help me find something ? Because, seriously, Apoc, I can't think of anything that I'd look good in."

A chuckle from the other man, "I think we'll go with something mainly black then." as racks and racks of clothes whooshed into being around them.

Apoc started rifling through the clothes before he pulled out a black, button-down, shirt with a red dragon on the shoulder. Before he took it from Apoc, he slid off his jacket and took off his green shirt to drape them over the rack. It took a few seconds for him to get all the buttons, it felt colder suddenly, he shivered and rubbed his arms.

"Apoc, does it normally cool suddenly ?" Tilted his head when he noticed that Apoc had closed his eyes tightly. "Are you all right, Apoc ?"

Dark-brown eyes opened slowly and confusedly, as if Apoc had forgotten where he was. The 'older' rebel nodded, "I'm fine, Neo. It's just my twin sister, Rapunzel, we were here in the Construct when something went wrong and…she died in here. Sometimes, like now, I wonder if she's not still trapped in here. The reason I've never cut my hair is because I want to remember her. She always had her hair up like this."

"Oh, I-I'm sorry, Apoc. Was she freed on the same day as you ?"

That got a smile from his new friend, "Yeah, we did everything together. Including finding out about the Matrix. Our parents always said that since I destroyed things that I was the apocalypse and well, Rapunzel had always liked that fairy-tale and she'd always had long hair. Our names were practically ours before we even knew what they meant."

Instinctively, he smiled back and replied, "You're lucky you had a sibling. I was the only kid my parents ever had, everyone else I was friends with had siblings. Can I ask, is that why you punched Cypher before ?"

"Mm-hm, he tried to come on to Rapunzel once and got kicked in the nuts. I wasn't much for confrontation back then, so, I hid behind Rapunzel a lot. One day, Morpheus sent Rapunzel, Cypher and I on a mission. It was a simple one : Rapunzel and Cypher would track a potential red-pill and I would guard the exit. I was sitting on the abandoned buildings steps with my hair down. It surprised me when a big guy walked up and started flirting with me.

Rapunzel called, "You do know that's my twin brother, right ?"

Finally, I looked up at the guy and he tried to punch me, as if it were my fault, he'd mistaken me for a girl. It didn't help that Cypher was egging the guy on as I defended myself. That was the day that Cypher started calling me, "Apocalyptic Rapunzel." After Rapunzel died, he was an asshole and just started calling me by her name."

When he heard that, it made him want to go and give Cypher a punch of his own. 'I can't believe even Cypher would be that much of a bastard. Okay, I can more than a little.'

Shook himself as he took off the dragon shirt and said, "I really don't think this one fits me, Apoc."

Apoc hummed and took it back from him, "For some reason, I've always found the Matrix much cooler than the real world. Plus, you don't really seem like a short-sleeves kind of guy. Need to find you a nice duster or something and some shades, too."

With those words, his friend turned back to the rack and pulled out a plain black, long-sleeved shirt. It fit nicely when he finished putting it on, he blushed as Apoc let out a whistle. 'It can't be that bad if Apoc likes it. Now, could he actually like me or is he just playing around ?'

Months later…

He opened his bedroom door and startled to see Apoc standing in front of it. Apoc smiled almost nervously at him, "Could we talk for a second, Neo ?"

Stepped back to allow Apoc to enter as he replied, "Sure, you're not hurt or something are you ?"

"N-no, I'm just fine, well, apart from this one thing."

Closed his door and encouraged, "You can tell me anything, Apoc, I won't tell anyone."

It surprised him when he turned and Apoc hadn't moved that far away. Dark-brown eyes were nervous and then Apoc ran a hand through his hair. 'He's actually wearing his hair loose for once, it's got to be something serious. Let it be, "I love you.", please. Please, don't let me be imagining this.'

Despite having hoped for it for months, he still didn't expect Apoc to kiss him. It was a soft kiss and he twined his fingers into Apoc's hair, trying to pull the man closer to him. Apoc had backed up and they'd fallen back on his bed when there was a loud bang on his door. Reluctantly, but quickly they separated and he opened the door to see Morpheus.

Morpheus didn't comment on the fact that Apoc was with him, just said, "We're taking you to see the Oracle. Both of you, go and get your chairs ready we jack-in in ten minutes."

They both said, "Yes, sir." simultaneously.

Ten minutes later, they'd jacked-in and were headed for the hotel's back exit. A hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him back slightly. He turned to smile at Apoc, the other man smiled back, "I love you." Like months ago, they started laughing and then his love handed him a holstered gun.

An hour later…

The shout of, "Apoc !" left his lips as the long black-haired man suddenly fell to the floor, just like Switch had moments ago. He rushed over and knelt down to put a hand against Apoc's neck. There was no pulse and it took a second for him to realize that the harsh sobbing came from him.

Trinity's angered growl of, "God damn you, Cypher." seemed a thousand miles away.

'Apoc's dead, Apoc's dead. Why couldn't Cypher have just killed me instead of him ? That fucking bastard, if I could wake up right now I would kill him. He betrayed us and now Apoc's dead. Even though I'm not the One, I'll still save Morpheus, like Apoc would want me to, it's the right thing to do.'

A blur of time later and he stood in the Construct with Trinity. That made him stare down at the outfit that Apoc had helped him pick out so many months ago. It got cold suddenly and then a soft voice, "He's okay."

That voice made him jerk his head up to see a dark-brown eyed, light-olive skinned younger woman with her hair in a coiled ponytail. She wore a purple and black duster, silver-shirt and black-pants. Incredulous at the similarity to Apoc, he whispered, "Rapunzel ?"

Trinity asked from beside him, confused, "What ?"

The weight of the gun Apoc had given him before reappeared, as he blinked away sudden tears. Rapunzel nodded in answer, then Apoc, his hair loose like this morning, appeared beside her. Apoc and Rapunzel said simultaneously, with identical smiles to him, "Apocalypse and Rapunzel, together again."

Knowing what he knew now, he smiled and said, "Nothing, let's go."

'With them beside me, this will work I know it will.'

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