I don't really remember much of my "awakening" besides the fact that I felt very weak, fragile, and sticky. "Welcome to the real world," was the only other thing I remembered. It was Morpheus's voice.

When I finally woke, I was in what looked like a room in a submarine. There was an IV bag hanging from the handle of one of the drawers above the bed. I sat up, feeling more well-rested than I ever had been. My long, black hair hung down to my hips like normal, my shoulders rolled without a problem, and my breathing was regular.

But as I looked down, I noticed my skin was pulled up at a strange angle. There was a thick needle-like thing going into my forearm. I gripped it tight and pulled on it. It felt like it was pulling out some vein. But, as I got the last of it out, I saw a circular fixture on my arm where the needle had been. It was metal and almost looked like a single-pronged plug outlet. I rubbed that spot, trying to rid myself of its soreness.

But my head felt a bit heavier. I slowly lifted a hand to touch the back of my head. I was just barely able to feel the metal of another fixture before the hatch-like door swung open.

Morpheus walked in, serenely as ever.

"Morpheus. Where am I? What is this place?"

He held up a finger. "More important than 'what' is 'when'."

"When?" I asked, unable to make sense of his cryptic answers.

"You believe the year is 2015. When actually, it is closer to 2215."

I looked down, unable to comprehend what he was telling me.

"I cant tell you exactly what year it is because we honestly don't know. There's nothing I can say that will explain it for you, Nira. Come with me. See for yourself."

I followed him, up a hatch and onto wire mesh flooring.

"This is my ship. The Nebuchadnezzar mark II. Your father was on the first Nebuchadnezzar with me." I didn't even bother asking about my dad anymore. "It's a hovercraft. This is the main deck."

I looked around at the mechanical inside of the ship, illuminated by bright white lights.

"This is the core, where we broadcast our pirate signal and hack into the Matrix. Most of my crew you already know."

I looked up at him.

He gestured to some of the people around us. "This is Niobe, co-captain of the ship," he laid a hand on her shoulder. "Siren," the brown-haired man. "and Zephryos," the blond.

I nodded at them each in turn.

"The only one you don't know is our operator. Link," he gestured to the dark-skinned man sitting beside a computer.

His hair was in shoulder-length dreads and he had a friendly smile. "God damn," he breathed. "She looks just like them."

I squinted my eyes at him.

"Link," Morpheus said, gesturing to me. "This is Nira."

He held out his hand and I shook it, sensing another source I might get parental information on.

"You wanted to know what the Matrix is, Nira?" Morpheus asked, drawing my attention again.

I nodded.

"Niobe," he said.

She stepped forward and assisted me to another chair like the one back at the abandoned building. I was a bit hesitant to sit down, due to my past experience with these people's seats, but I sat down all the same. She buckled my feet onto the metal pieces. I rested my head back as Morpheus demonstrated.

"This will feel a little weird."

I felt something enter the back of my head. My ears rang as the clicking of metal broke through. I should have been dead. Nothing could go that far into the back of your head and not kill you.

But, when I opened my eyes, I was standing in bright, white nothingness. I looked around, but there was nothing there. Maybe I had died after all.

"This," came Morpheus's voice. "is the construct."

I glanced back at where he stood, decked out in a fancy suit (an upgrade from the tattered rags he had been wearing on the ship) and, once more, a pair of sunglasses.

"Its our loading program. We can load anything from clothing to equipment, weapons, training simulations. Anything we need."

I cocked my head to the side, sensing more weirdness I wouldn't be able to comprehend.

NIOBE'S POV:

"I'm just saying, there's something screwy about the whole thing," Zephryos mumbled, glancing at Nira's "sleeping" body out of the corner of his eyes. "You heard those agents! 'Destroy the anomaly'? That sounds a little weird considering Neo was the last anomaly. And that's his daughter."

I rolled my eyes at him. "And you heard Morpheus. If there's anywhere that girl belongs, its with us. She's the daughter of two of the bravest people Zion ever saw."

"Yeah?" Zephryos asked, still tapping away at his leg with his fingers as we watched the scrolling glyphs on the Matrix feed. "Well if she belongs with us so much, why'd Neo and Trinity let their daughter grow up in the Matrix? Why not leave her in Zion where she could grow up knowing the truth?"

I glanced sharply at him. "It was Neo's decision. Trinity trusted his judgment and Morpheus and I do, as well."

"The last time Trin trusted Neo's judgment, it got her killed. What's that say about us and this girl? We're just supposed to trust her?"

My glare got colder. "I will not have you pinning the blame for a good friend's death on someone Morpheus and I cared about very much. You're lucky he isn't here to hear you. I'm a bit more forgiving. He would have you kicked off the ship and left for a stray sentinel."

My threat didn't have much merit after Neo's sacrifice had rid us most of the violent sentinels, but it was enough to shut him up at least.

I was glad Link was too absorbed in the matrix feed to pay any kind of attention to what Zeph was saying; it would only upset him. Link had trusted in Neo and Trinity with so much devotion that he couldn't help but put the same amount of faith into their daughter.

Link had been right. Nira did look a lot like both of them. The same black hair, longer than both her parents'. She had a mixture of her father's brown eyes and her mother's green. There was a grace with which she moved that undoubtedly came from Trinity. But within her questioning eyes was a suspicion that blended with her intuitive knowledge much as her father had. Her cheekbones, high like her father's, were covered with skin the exact shade of her mother's. I wasn't exactly sure where she got those freckles from, though.

"Here they come," Link mumbled, tapping away at the buttons on the keyboard.

I stood behind Morpheus and got ready to pull the plug out as did Siren with Nira. Siren had been suspiciously silent during my spat with Zephryos, staring broodingly at the Matrix feed.

When they came around, we unhooked them and Nira hopped up immediately. She didn't do anything I expected. She didn't vomit like her father. She didn't cry like her mother. She just passed out.

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