AN: Hi everyone! Welcome to the third- Well, technically the third anyway but that depends on how you look at things- part of a misadventure involving a young woman with a fairy's name, a boy who use to play baseball but not anymore, and a certain person who may be destined to save humanity once he realizes his calling to do so. Technically, you don't need to read the two previous parts to understand that one. They're back story to this one, sure, but I'm almost sure this little misadventure can stand on its own. If you're interested in the back story, though, by all means read the two prior parts! Anywho, as before, any feedback is always appreciated. I don't care if it's good, bad, or indifferent…I just like to hear what people are thinking and I'm always open to new opinions and creative criticisms!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters I made up and their Real World alter egos. I don't own The Matrix, The Animatrix, or any of that cool stuff. I'm broke and in graduate school studying biology. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius

The Age of Aquarius

Aquarius!

Aquarius!" (From "Aquarius" from the play Hair)

There was always a small- Very tiny, almost unnoticeable really unless you knew it was there- part of Pixie that hated leaving Zion to go back to work. It wasn't that Pixie didn't enjoy her job or anything like that. There was just a small part of her that didn't like the idea of leaving her friends and what she claimed was her family.

Though she'd stated that nothing was going to happen to any of them and they were all going to be together when the war ended, there was always that chance that she was wrong. There was always that small, niggling part of her brain that insisted that not only was she not going to see the end of the war but her and her friends weren't going to make it. Something bad was going to happen to one or more of them. Something that was going to separate all of them for good.

Still, despite her fears- Probably fears they all had but they never shared with each other but Pixie had a feeling Wheeler knew about hers even though she'd never talked about them. He was good at reading her like that. -Pixie knew she had a job to do.

When the time came, when her leave in Zion had ended, Pixie made sure to report back to the Nebuchadnezzar least she get accused of deserting her post. Not before making sure to tell her friends and, of course, Wheeler, that she would see all of them when she got back.

No one, in their little group anyway, ever said "good bye" to each other because that was too final. It was just seemed better to say "See you soon." That wasn't as final or, at the very least; it didn't seem that way to them.

At the moment, though, Pixie stared at the green rain that was the Matrix. Her eyes were fixed on the screens that surrounded the Nebuchadnezzar's Operator's console, watching the oddly familiar rain of numbers, letters, symbols and other things Pixie had never been able to properly recognize from her Matrix days from a the small spot that was formed between Cypher and Mouse.

Pixie knew that she'd gotten lucky this time around on the ship. She'd been given a good chunk of the early watch shifts. Pixie wasn't sure why she'd gotten lucky but she wasn't going to ask any questions. Though she didn't really sleep well most nights- Something like insomnia but not really- and she functioned rather well on only a few hours of sleep, getting dragged out of a deep sleep wasn't fun to say the least. Plus Pixie didn't like having to wake up whoever was on watch after her if he or she didn't come up to the Core.

Still, Pixie found herself being dragged out of a deep sleep as a banging on her door woke her from a deep sleep. Following Cypher, Pixie wandered behind him to the Nebuchadnezzar's Core as her body shook off the shackles of sleep and freed itself to full wakefulness.

Pixie stood in the Nebuchadnezzar's Core with her grey blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a hood that Rain had sewn onto her sweatshirt over her head. Her hands were bunched inside her blanket in an effort to hold the well worn article closer to her. She was awake now, though, and rather curious as to why they'd all been woken up in the middle of the night

"Please get off of my back, Hawk," she stated, speaking softly over her left shoulder.

Hawk had been the last to come down, dragging his feet the entire way and whining that he was tired. Since there was no space around the bank of monitors that encircled the Operator's station- Everyone was packed around the console like so many sardines in a can-Hawk was trying to stand on his tip toes. His balance wasn't all that great because he was still half asleep so he was trying to keep his balance by using Pixie's shoulders.

"Who was on watch?" Pixie asked, trying to get a grip on just what was going on.

"It was supposed to be Morpheus," Tanks answered, looking wide awake and standing a bit away from Pixie, "but I don't think he was watching alone tonight."

"So two people were on watch tonight, big deal,' Hawk whined, coming to stand next to Pixie making her move more towards Tank, "I was getting my beauty sleep. You don't wake up every day looking as good as I do you know?"

That comment caused Pixie to stifle a giggle in her blanket. Well, it was a combination of Hawk's glib comment and the fact someone on the ship wondered, just loud enough for everyone to hear, why Hawk needed any beauty sleep.

Hawk only glared at the gathered group and blurted, "What's the deal Morpheus? Why did you have to wake up this early."

Seemingly ignoring Hawk's outrage based comments, Morpheus informed the gathered group, "We've found a new Potential. This one we must keep a close eye on in order to secure him before the Agents do. Starting today, all of our energy will be focused on monitoring this one individual."

Though his words were rather vague, Pixie got the sense that Morpheus was rather excited. There was a certain something- Something she couldn't place- about the way he looked, and the way he sounded that spoke to a great deal of excitement. Pixie had a feeling something important was going on but Morpheus didn't think it was the right time to tell them…yet.

"That was it," Hawk spat, cutting off any further explanations that were to come, "You couldn't have told us in the morning? Some of us were sleeping. Right, Pixie Sticks."

Pixie wasn't entirely sure why Hawk wanted to implicate her in his little game- nor why he had to use a nickname she'd told him time and again not to use- since she really didn't want any part of it. Her and Hawk had been friends once upon a time but that, now, felt like a whole other lifetime ago. Their friendship, if one was inclined to call it that, ended rather abruptly and on a very sour note.

Prior to working together on the Nebuchadnezzar, the pair hadn't spoken for quite some time. Now, they had an uneasy sort of truce between them. At least that's what Pixie figured, anyway. She treated Hawk as civilly as she possibly could and she just hoped he gave her the same respect. Actually, Pixie found she was at her happiest when Hawk left her alone.

That was how things seemed to work between her and Hawk and the small surroundings they'd found themselves in. There were days when Hawk left Pixie alone. Days when he didn't say two words to her and let her get on with whatever it was she had to without bothering her or claiming she agreed with him when she, clearly, didn't.

Then there were the days when Hawk was extremely friendly towards her. He'd sit for hours as she worked just talking to her about things. Granted, it was usually about himself and how great he was or about things that just made her blush but it was still his attempt at being friendly.

The odd thing was that these seemingly friendly overtures made Pixie rather nervous. She wasn't entirely sure why they did but they just did. Then again, it could have had something to do with Wheeler and Chian. Her two friends- Wheeler being her "better than best friend" as of her last stay in Zion- had warned her to beware of Hawk. He was horrible towards her once and he could do the same to her again.

"Personally, I think this is pretty interesting stuff, Hawk," Pixie, flatly, countered, "I'm glad Captain Morpheus got us all up to tell us about this."

Truthfully, it was half Morpheus' words and half because if they did manage to free this mysterious Potential, she'd get to help rebuild him. Getting to use the skills she'd had uploaded into her ready and waiting mind was always a good thing, in Pixie's opinion. Though she was still a medic-in-training, the prospect was still exciting to her.

With no new information being given, the gathered group started to head back to their respective quarters. Maybe there wasn't any more information to be give or, if there was more, it would come at a later time. Besides, it was late and most of the Nebuchadnezzar's crew was tired. Their days started early and ended late so sleep was an important commodity.

With a shrug, Pixie started to head off with the others. She knew it was unlikely she was going to actually fall back to sleep but it never hurt to try. Before she left, however, the young woman's gaze fell on the one monitor Morpheus kept refreshing. Whatever was on the monitor was the topic of a rather heated looking discussion between the captain and Trinity, his first mate.

Pixie had taken operator training along with her medical training- Since she'd gotten a glimpse of the Matrix code during her time in the Matrix- and said training had been enhanced by disks Tank had described as boring operation programs. She found it slightly disconcerting that she could read code almost as well as she could read anything else even though she had only been exposed to the neon green figures on a regular basis for a short part of her life.

Another refresh, on the part of the captain, gave Pixie a semi-clear image of the individual Morpheus had been talking about. He was hunched over his computer, his code reading like someone who was exhausted. The one thing that struck her, making her rub her eyes in disbelief, was his age. There was no way they were going to be able to unplug this guy; he was far too old.

Pixie squeaked a bit, more from the shock than anything else, causing the captain and his first mate to turn around. Both looked none too pleased to see her still standing there.

"Sorry," mumbled Pixie as she walked back to her room, "I'm just going to go now."

The young woman, nearly tripping over her own boots in her haste, wasn't entirely sure what was going on. She knew many regarded Morpheus as insane but Pixie had never bought into it. If anything, her captain was a bit eccentric and nothing more. Now, though, she wasn't entirely sure.

What she was sure of, though, was the fact that sleep was going to be a long time coming for her…if it came at all.