AN: Alright, after much promising, this is the final chapter in this part of Pixie's story. Is there a sequel? Perhaps…but I don't want to give too much away. I hope everyone enjoyed the story and that Pixie wasn't too obtrusive in the context of the movie. I tried to make her as invisible as possible since she's my own character and, besides, Pixie likes being in the background anyway. To everyone who's stuck with this story as it took its long and winding road, thank you so very much. I really do appreciate you taking the time out to read my silly little story. To anyone who's left me a review or put me on alert or made me a favorite, you're all the best! I hope all of you stick around for the (possible) sequel and any other misadventures Pixie and her friends have!

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 I just finished graduate school for my Master's Degree. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

"And all the harm I've ever done,
alas it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
to mem'ry now I can't recall;
So fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be to you all.

So fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate'er befalls
And gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all…" (from "The Parting Glass" as sung by The High Kings)

"Where in the world did you find that, Pix?" Aisling ask as she and Wheeler, running a bit later than Pixie would have liked, appeared in front of The Parting Glass.

Pixie shrugged, self consciously picking at the fabric that covered her body. She and Wheeler, during their combined hunt and seek mission for something Pixie could wear without upsetting her black and blues, had unearthed something like a dress. It was a conventional dress-- dark blue with thick straps that fit well enough that it didn't look like she was wearing a potato sack but wasn't tight enough to upset her bruises --over which Pixie had pulled on what looked to be sweater sleeves in a lighter shade of blue. The fabric covered what the straps of the dress left bare. Namely the purple bruises on her shoulders.

With her hair completely down-- given the choice, Pixie would wear her hair down rather than put it up, especially if she was home --the young woman looked as normal as the next member of Zion's population. Well, maybe if she wasn't wearing the light sweater on her shoulders. It was never really cold enough in Zion to merit that kind of clothing.

"Bottom of a bin in my room. Wheeler helped me find it," Pixie admitted. "I wouldn't be wearing it…"

"But Wheeler wanted to see you in a dress?" Aisling cut in, a smile on her face.

Pixie sighed, knowing that no matter what she said; Aisling was going to believe what she wanted anyway. Still, it didn't hurt to try and get the truth out there. After all, the truth was important to her on many levels. Pixie didn't even want to think of where she might have wound up if not for wanting to find the truth. Probably not standing in front of a rather questionable establishment at nineteen years of age with some of the best friend she'd ever had.

"More like my belt wasn't making the bruises happy," Pixie corrected, though she knew Aisling wasn't going to buy a word of what she was saying. "Wound up having to concede defeat and wear something that wasn't going to hurt me…even if it is a dress."

It wasn't that Pixie didn't like dressing up but she'd gotten use to dressing more for comfort-- thanks, in part, to her illness in the Matrix --and for her job than anything else. It just wasn't practical or comfortable to work in a dress so she hardly ever wore one. Besides, Pixie liked her pants better. It was just that she couldn't wear them without her belt.

"Aren't you taking anything?" Adoh asked, still being uncharacteristically serious about this whole thing. "I mean, they would have to give her something for them. Right, Aisling?"

"They should yeah. I mean at least ibuprofen to cut down on the pain," Aisling answered. "What? Someone on one of those ships forget to write you a 'scrit for pain killers?"

"Actually," Pixie pointed out, taking a step towards Wheeler. "I have plenty but I'm only taking the lightest possible dose. I can't handle anything stronger. I've never been great with medication. It knocks me off my feet so I'm taking the bare minimum."

Aisling looked at Pixie as if she was crazy but shrugged her shoulders. Though she and Pixie were good friends-- almost sisters --she didn't know Pixie's whole story. Out of their group of friends, it was only Wheeler who knew most of her whole story. He knew enough to know that Pixie disliked being on any medication almost as much as she disliked being injured. It reminded her too much of her past…a past she knew she had to face but she still tried to forget most days.

In her head, she figured that dwelling on a not so happy time, when her situation had looked bleak and she'd been, frankly, alone wasn't going to help her any. Especially now when she knew she had to keep her spirits up. It was the only way to beat back the panic attacks. She couldn't dwell on dark, unhappy things because that would give the attacks power of her.

Besides, in the middle of all the sadness or horror, there was one bright spot. She was alive and among friends who weren't, hopefully, going to do what Hawk had done to her more than once. She'd survived everything that had happened to her and, for that; Pixie knew she had to be thankful. That was her strongest weapon against her panic attacks. The things that were causing the attacks-- the things in her head --could be beaten back, even for a short time, with those thoughts.

If she could manage it anyway. It wasn't easy but she knew she had to try. For now, anyway, Pixie knew she could count on Aisling and the others to help her out. They'd make sure her spirits were high, despite the fact they all knew what awaited them inside The Parting Glass.

"You two coming?" Ngaio asked, as she and the others started to trickle into the drinking establishment. "This is for your crew, Pix, not any of ours."

Pixie nodded her head and found that she wasn't standing alone. Standing next to her, close enough to be holding her hand but not doing so, was Wheeler. She wondered if he wanted to hold her hand of if that was what they were supposed to be doing but she shrugged the thought away. Thinking about things like that was enough to get her heart racing faster than it already was.

"We're coming," Wheeler answered for both of them, "Give us a second."

The young woman knew she should have said something about the "we" and the "us" comment but Pixie chose not to. It actually felt good to have someone like Wheeler on her side right now as she wasn't feeling all that comfortable with the situation she was walking into. Even surrounded by her friends and with Wheeler next to her, she could feel her skin starting to crawl with that uncomfortable, pre-panic feeling.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Pixie took a deep breath and let it out. Once she opened her eyes she focused them on the building-- if one could call it a building --instead of the people around her. The Parting Glass, one of the bars frequented by members of the fleet, was built into a naturally occurring cave. Part of the cave's entrance was blocked off by rocks that had fallen during a rockslide before Pixie had come to live in Zion. Either way, the rocks created a doorway and the owner, a Pod Born Irish fellow complete with the red hair and brogue who was generally called Rory but who'd given name was Ruaidhrí, had the building's name hanging from a metallic sign above the entrance and had cut a window into the rocks that creating the building's front wall.

"The Parting Glass," to Pixie anyway seemed such a bleak name for a drinking establishment, but now it seemed appropriate for what they were doing. At least in Pixie's mind anyway.

"Ready?" Wheeler asked, taking Pixie's hand. "Skin not crawling anymore?"

Pixie gave Wheeler a sidelong look and wanted to know, "I guess I'm ready but how'd you know I wasn't feeling right?"

Squeezing her hand, he answered, "You just started to look really uncomfortable there. It was kind of like when you were having those really bad attacks back on the Shatterpoint. You just start to look like you want to get out of here or that your skin doesn't fit you right or something. I'm not sure how to explain it really."

Shrugging, he added, "You ready, though? I mean we can't stand out here all day."

"I guess so," Pixie sighed. "I really don't want Aisling and the rest of them running into the others before I get in there. That wouldn't be good at all."

Wheeler laughed, nodding his head. He, like Pixie, knew that Aisling and her twin brother were raised as a staunch believer in the One. Meeting Neo and accosting him about what he'd done or heard he'd done anyway was probably high on the list of their things to do.

What had actually happened was strictly rumor amongst the population in Zion for the moment. It was only among the crews of the Shatterpoint and Logos, and the Zion Council now, Wheeler guessed, that the whole truth was known. Them and those who had witnessed what had happened, Trinity, Pixie, Morpheus, and Tank, knew the truth of the situation. Everyone else had heard rumors and some of them were quite…wild…to say the least.

The room was loud, half full of members of the resistance and those they'd brought with them, and every new patron was eyed suspiciously as they entered the space. It was almost as if individuals who were not members of the fleet were unwelcomed into The Parting Glass. Pixie pulled back a bit, straining against Wheeler's hands, as the noise invaded her ears and the crowd loomed before her. The skin crawling sensation she'd experienced outside only grew tenfold inside The Parting Glass.

There were just too many people for her to be comfortable. Even though she was standing just to the side of the doorway, Pixie felt as if she couldn't escape. The crowd was pressing in on her and she couldn't make her away out of it even though she was only at its fringes.

"You're going to be fine, Pix," Wheeler mumbled, speaking into her ear in a low whisper. "I've got you. You're not going to get swallowed by this crowd. It's just like before."

Wheeler was well aware of the fact that treating Pixie kindly ran counter to how one was supposed to treat someone having panic attacks. They were supposed to be treated with a firm hand, shown tough love instead of kindness. Wheeler had never been one for treating someone with "tough love" since it reminded him too much of how his father in the Matrix use to treat him. Besides, he figured that if he was kind to Pixie-- if he could make her feel more comfortable in a way --it would help her more than just being cruel towards her and telling her to "get over it" and that "it was all in her head."

"And, of course, they had to sit all the way in the back," Pixie mumbled as they started navigating a path through the crowd. "They couldn't pick someplace closer to the door to sit."

Aisling, leading the charge and knocking shoulders, elbows, and hips with anyone who dared to get in her way, laughed and called, "Probably wanted some privacy."

"If they wanted privacy they could have done this someplace else," Wheeler mumbled, speaking the words Pixie was thinking. "Someone's home maybe."

Pixie shrugged unsure of what to say. She'd never actually been in Trinity or Morpheus's homes. Chian's, yes, but that was only once and it was something Pixie wasn't exactly keen on repeating. Not after what happened the first time she'd paid Chian a visit.

With Wheeler leading her through the crowd-- Pixie had never been tall in the Matrix and she hadn't done much growing after she was freed. --the group found themselves a table next to the one occupied by the members of Pixie's crew and a few select…others. Some faces Pixie recognized, most she was surprised to see sitting there. In her head, she figured it was just going to be the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and a few people from the Logos. Her friends too but they were coming just to make her comfortable or, at least, that's what she assumed.

"How come we can't sit over there?" Aisling asked as she took the seat next to Ngaio. "There's plenty of room over there and you said they invited all of us to come with you."

"For once Aisling does have a point," Adoh stated, ducking his head as his sister went to swat the back of it. "How come we're sitting next to them? There's plenty of room over there, Pix."

"I don't know," Pixie, quietly, answered. "I don't want to intrude if they'd rather be alone and me coming along was just a token gesture because I'm from the same ship."

Aside from Wheeler, who had a pretty clear idea of what was going on with Pixie, the others gave her confused glances. Pixie had always, back from their shared days at the Academy, been the "shy" one of the group. She was always the one who kept back in large groups. The only time she ever seemed comfortable, and that was subjective, was when she was with her friends. They'd all assumed she'd made something like friends with the crew she worked with. Her crawling back into her preverbal shell caught them all off guard.

"What's gotten into you, Pix?" Ngaio asked, curiously. "I thought you were coming here to do what we did when my Operator died. That wasn't a token gesture when I was invited to come along."

"It's nothing," Pixie, evasively, answered. "Just uncomfortable I guess. This isn't exactly a happy occasion, you know."

"You're telling me," Ngaio mumbled. "These are terrible. Almost as bad as the services at the Gardens. You have to go to those too, Pix?"

Pixie shrugged and answered, "I guess so. I think I'm obligated to go. Maybe you guys want to come along with me. I really don't think I'm going to be able to go alone."

The question was more for Wheeler than the others but Pixie didn't want to be rude and ask just Wheeler. Besides, she figured things might be better if all her friends-- what passed for her family in Zion --could come along and back her up. It was like Wheeler had said she needed to increase the number of people she trusted. She couldn't have one "safe" person, no matter how much Pixie really wanted to have only one. The circle had to be widened to include others.

"You know we have your back," Aisling answered for the group. "Just tell us when and where and we'll be there with bells on."

"That's because you think you're going to meet the One or someone famous when we got. You always have ulterior motives for things, sis," Adoh pointed out, earning himself a smack upside the back of his head.

Pixie laughed, knowing Adoh was right but keeping that to herself. She and Aisling had never fought-- not physically and, certainly not, verbally --and Pixie wanted to keep things that way. Besides, Aisling, for all her bluster, was a good friend to her. She'd stuck up for her more times than Pixie could recall back in their Academy days. She and Ngaio made a formidable pair whenever anyone decided to pick on Pixie in gym class.

"We're going to try to come to the trial too," Ngaio added. "I talked to my mom and she said that if things swing a certain way, we might be able to come in with you. Depends on whether or not the council wants to keep this mess private. If it's a closed trial, then we can't come in with you."

"It's going to be a closed trial," Trinity pointed out coming over to the table where Pixie and her friends sat. "And how did you find out about Hawk's trial?"

"Better question," Chian cut in. "Why aren't you kids sitting over here? We don't bite…much!"

Before Pixie could answer Chian or Ngaio answer Trinity, the group of teens found themselves being "ushered" to the larger table. Pixie heard Adoh mumble something about going to sit at the "grown up" table.

"Wonder what he knows about that," Wheeler grumbled, making Pixie smile a bit. "Bet he never had to sit at the kid's table in his entire life."

"And you have?" Pixie mumbled to Wheeler as she took a seat next to him.

"More times than I can count, Pix," Wheeler answered. "I'll tell you later. Good stories that'll keep the nightmares away if you need them."

"My mother…adopted mother actually," Ngaio answered, correcting herself as she spoke. "Works in Zion security. She had all the information on Hawk's…um…situation…before you guys got here. I just happened to have a peek at them when she wasn't paying attention."

"Snooping around?" Chian laughed. "Well, I guess that's what got you here in the first place, right?"

"Yeah," Ngaio agreed. "I think it's what got most of us here."

Looking around the table, at the mix of faces, Pixie almost hit herself on the head. Sure she had to be, physically, dragged to the other table but she was forgetting something very important. Maybe not really important, given their surroundings, but necessary. Not that anyone would remember anything, if she remembered how these things went but she didn't want to seem rude and not do it.

"Um….these are my friends, by the way," Pixie said, straining her voice to be heard around the now very crowded table. "That's Aisling and her twin Adoh and Adoh's….um….close friend…Ngaio. This one's Wheeler."

Pixie knew that introducing Wheeler was probably not necessary. Most people at the table recognized the scruffy looking former pitcher from the long repair process. He was almost always with Pixie during that time and, in the rare occasion he wasn't with Pixie; he was off working with everyone else and being friendly about it. The only person, it seemed, that Wheeler didn't get along with was Hawk and no one blamed him for that fact.

The others at the table-- most faces Pixie recognized but couldn't attach names to because she'd only met them in passing --Pixie learned were friends of Sparks and had worked in freeing Neo in a backwards sort of way. She'd heard their names but had never really met them. Whenever they were in contact it always seemed she was occupied with something else.

"What are you two doing here?" Neo asked, sounding slightly stunned, as Sparks's two friends greeted him by his Matrix name.

"Choi and Dujour were actually working for us, Neo," Trinity explained. "They were keeping you safe in the Matrix while we were watching you from the Real World."

"We're in the…under cover…department," Choi pointed out. "Someone's got to keep all you potential Ones from doing something stupid and getting your rear ends fried by the Agents. Besides, with your dead end job, our cash was the only thing keeping your computer from being taken away."

As he spoke a buxom women, dressed in clothing that made Pixie blush a bright pink-- She'd never be caught dead dressed like that. The more skin she had covered, the better she felt. It was bad enough she was in a dress that showed her shins as it was. --came over to their table. She eyed the large group, her steely gaze lingering on the nearly bald Neo and the group of, obviously, younger individuals sitting at the far end of the table for a few moments longer than the rest of the crowd.

"Our first day back in Zion, ladies and gentlemen?" the buxom woman asked, speaking to no one in particular at the table.

"Yes it is, sweetheart," Sparks answered, in a flirting tone. "Care to start our time home on a celebratory note?"

"On the house then, since you're all just newly home. I'll be back with your drinks," the waitress said turning her back but not before winking at Sparks.

Before anyone could say anything, Chian smacked Sparks in the arm hard enough that Aisling-- who was rather infamous among Pixie's circle of friends for clocking her twin upside his head whenever she thought he said or did something stupid. --winced. Though she was still feeling tense and uncomfortable, Pixie couldn't help but smile as Chian began reprimanding Sparks for his "crimes."

Before long the buxom waitress returned, leaving a tray of frothing beverages in the center of the table. Beverages that were passed down and around until everyone sitting at the table had one. That included Pixie who accepted her glass with a small frown. The two times she'd actually drank alcohol in excess, she'd wound up exceedingly ill. All she remembered was having what she supposed was a massive hangover and being so sick that she had to be put on I.V. fluids to compensate for electrolyte loss. It was feat she cared not to repeat any time soon.

"Watch Pix," Aisling hissed, speaking to the rest of the table. "I bet she doesn't take more than one sip of that."

"I bet she barely makes it to one sip," Sparks laughed. "She'll probably fake it."

"No," Ngaio put in. "When we did this form my Operator, she had one sip at least. Unless she did a really good job of faking it."

Holding her glass aloft, Trinity stared everyone gathered around the table into silence. Pixie, sitting on the end of the table-- Wheeler made sure she got a corner so she wouldn't feel as trapped as she might sandwiched between two people someplace in the middle of the table --stared down at the battered table top. She was counting the marks on the table in an effort to focus her mind on something else. It was her way of trying to calm her mind down and stop the panic before it took her over.

"We lost several good warriors and friends thanks to Hawk and Cypher losing their faith in not only Morpheus but our mission. We might have found the One but it cost us and we can't forget that," Trinity stated.

Looking up and down the table, at everyone who'd come, she added, "In their memory I say, we all have to make a choice…live free or die."

Everyone around the table, including Pixie, chorused, "Live free" and knocked back their drink.

Pixie may have joined in on the answering-- she knew that she'd rather live free than die any day of the week --but she only took a polite sip of the drink she held. Coughing on the beverage, she pushed it towards the middle of the table. When the next round was ordered, she knew she'd be having a water.

"Told ya," Aisling laughed. "One sip and that's it."

"She did better than Neo," Chian pointed out, gesturing towards the supposed One who was gagging on the sip he'd taken.

Pixie shrugged and managed another small smile. She was no Oracle; she couldn't tell what the future held for any of them. She wasn't even sure Neo was "the One" to save Zion. All she knew was that, as she told Wheeler, the future was going to be an interesting one.

It was going to be a future, like she promised her friends, they'd all be together to see.