AN: Hiya everyone! Hope everyone's having a good end to the school year! At the moment, I'm off from school but I have to take this month long lab class in June. I guess I should be thankful for it. It'll give me something to do for a month other than run back and forth between my house and dance classes or Girl Scouts. Speaking of Girl Scouts, my troop took about eighty kids and parents to the circus this past weekend. The show was pretty good and the kids behaved themselves. I guess because they were with their parents. I also saw X-Men: The Last Stand this past weekend. The movie was pretty good and the science in its science fiction was relatively interesting. I do believe I was the only person walking out of the theater talking about all the science and not the special effects or anything like that. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews! You guys rock like boxes of socks! Please keep them coming!

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.

"I acted so distant then
Didn't say goodbye before you left
But I was listening
You'll fight your battles far from me
Far too easily…" (from "1000 Words" from Final Fantasy X-2)

Five backpacks rested on ten sagging shoulders. It was not the weight of the packs that was causing the sagging for they were relatively empty save for a few items of clothing and personal trinkets. It was common knowledge that ships weren't exactly spacey and only the barest of essentials should be brought along. It was hard to reduce one's entire existence to just a few items but they had all tried their best.

Pixie decided that she was rather lucky because the most personal of her items was hanging around her neck, tucked into the frayed collar of the pale blue sweater she had donned before being picked up at her home a scant few minutes earlier. She hadn't told any of her other friends about Wheeler's gift, knowing that, if she did, she'd never hear the end of it. It just seemed better to keep it between her and Wheeler for some odd reason.

It weight of the entire world- Real and otherwise- appeared to rest on the shoulders of the five eighteen year olds who weaved their way through the Zion docks. The full extent of what they were headed into seemed to have settled on them during the night. They were no longer the joyous and, in Pixie's case, nervous individuals of the night before. They all seemed graver, more serious and adult like than any of them ever had been before. It was almost as if the space between going to bed and waking up had been filled with growing up rather than restful sleep.

"Let's leave those two alone. I think their good byes are going to take a while," Wheeler suggested, ushering Pixie down the length of rock and metal that served as a walk way.

Their first stop had been docking bay six or seven, Pixie didn't recall clearly, where they had dropped Ngaio at The Crystal Star. Once there the Asian girl had hugged nearly all of her friends, promising to let them know how things were on her new ship. The exception to the rule had been Adoh. Much to everyone's surprise, she kissed the Zion born boy on the mouth and ran, giggling, into the waiting ship.

Pixie gawked at what had just transpired; turning a very interesting shade of red, while Wheeler blinked a few times and found someplace else to turn his hazel gaze. If Pixie was gawking, than Aisling was outright staring with an expression that appeared to be a mix of utter shock and total confusion.

"How long have you and she been…you know…whatever you two are," Aisling asked her brother as they walked away from the ship.

Her voice reflected her expression as she stared at her younger sibling with very wide eyes. For all of this to happen between her brother and her friend behind her back came as a shock to Aisling. Aisling was one of those people who liked to know everything that was going on around her and figured she had a pretty good handle on that fact.

"I could ask the same about you and that Zion born boy from the temple yesterday. You two seemed awfully chummy," Adoh countered, turning the tables on his elder sister, "You know who I'm talking about. Right, sis?"

"I have no idea who you're talking about, Adoh. Maybe you're just imagining things. Mom always said you had a very active imagination," Aisling snapped back, not wanting to play her brother's game.

She wasn't really angry with Adoh and Ngaio. On the contrary, she was pleased because she knew her brother had a bit of a "crush" on the Asian girl from the Matrix. It was more like she was annoyed at herself for not noticing what had gone on between the two of them behind her back. Aisling was just taking it out on Adoh because she was loathe to be angry with herself.

"Come on, you know who I'm talking about!" Adoh insisted, getting frustrated with his sister.

Not wanting to see a fight start on this day of all days, Pixie decided to do something about the situation. She figured it wasn't a good thing for Aisling and Adoh to get on their ships angry with each other…just in case something horrible happened. She might have believed that they were all going to come back to Zion but the truth was that bad things happened and people never came back from the tunnels that surrounded Zion.

"Conall," Pixie interjected bringing up the mystery boy's name.

"Yeah, him. What's with the two of you?" he continued, making Pixie laugh.

"That, my dear little brother is between Conall and I. Well, and Pixie too when I get around to sending her a message," Aisling said, sounding rather petulant.

They continued to banter back and forth about people they knew and who was close to whom. Pixie was mildly relieved by the fact they didn't drag her and Wheeler's names into the whole mess. The warning looks Wheeler kept giving Aisling might have had a whole lot to do with why she didn't do that.

It might have actually been because they were concerned about the local gossip- unlikely because they never had been in the first place- or nerves forced chatter to continue as the they walked over to adjoining bays where the twins' ships waited.

Once the quartet reached the space between the twin bays, nervous chatter turned to even more nervous silence. The twins didn't seem comfortable taking off down separate ramps, entering into separate ships. They had, after all, been together all their lives. This was really the first time they'd be separated over long distances.

That was when Pixie and Wheeler decided to make their exit. Both figured the twins needed a moment or more together to say what amounted to a "good bye." Aisling wasn't going to crack if she saw Wheeler and Pixie standing there and Adoh would just continue to try and make bad jokes.

"So, what bay are you in, anyway?" Wheeler asked Pixie in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence that had welled up between the two of them.

It was different from the silence that had appeared between the two of them after the Gathering. Where that one was awkward, this one was contemplative. They were both thinking about what was to come and the "good byes" they had been saying. Their tight knit group of friends- Well, allies if you were Pixie- was dispersing to the four preverbal winds.

Everyone was going in their own directions now and, to Pixie, that seemed like an invitation for growing apart. Things were never going to be the same and part of her didn't like that. The last time her and her allies had a growing apart, she wound up in tears at the hands of Hawk. Pixie didn't want to go through that sort of things again.

"Ninety-Four. How about you?" she replied, her voice very small and soft.

"Ninety-Five. I could walk with you there, if you want. I mean, unless you prefer to walk there alone," he babbled with a slight shrug.

"I don't think I'd like to walk there alone, actually. Going to be weird enough working on a ship where I know no one," Pixie mused aloud.

"Unless, of course, it's a ship that belongs to someone Torrent introduced you too," Wheeler countered with a laugh.

Since Pixie kept her emotions under lock and key- She wasn't the type to wear her heart on her sleeve unless she was put under a great deal of stress- her blatant nervous feelings were making Wheeler uneasy, too. Well, more uneasy than he was already feeling. His nerves were already frayed as he worried about what he was getting himself into. It seemed to be natural, though, so Wheeler was trying not to make a big deal about it.

Pixie nodded her acceptance of that idea. Since coming to live with Torrent and Rain, she had been introduced to some of the captains of the fleet. Very few it seemed for she did not recognize the names of the ships Ngaio and Wheeler had been assigned to.

"That's true but I highly doubt it," she commented as their boots wore a path along the rock and metal floor, "I don't know everyone and this could all just turn out to be a strange joke. I don't know who'd play a prank like this on me but still…it could be."

They talked as they walked, speaking about everything save their dance the night before. Both were content to let that little part of their past fall by the way-side. It didn't seem so important at the moment anyway and neither wanted to make the other more uncomfortable. They were both uncomfortable enough as it was.

"So, would it be alright if I left you a message, once I figure out what ship I'm on? That way we can talk or something if we're at the same broadcast level," Pixie asked, standing with her back to docking bay ninety-four.

She was fiddling with one of her cuffs, fraying it further. Pixie wasn't sure what possessed her to make such a request but it already hung in the air between her and her scruffy male friend. There was no taking it back now.

"That would be cool. It'll be nice to be able to talk to someone since we'll both be on ships full of strangers," Wheeler agreed, a smile on his face.

A very uncomfortable silence passed between the two of them. Both knew what they had to do but neither one of them wanted to do it. Leaving meant accept the jobs they had been given. Leaving meant losing the peace and quiet they had in Zion for danger around every turn.

"I'd better get going. Don't want to make a bad first impression and all, first day on the job," Pixie said, turning towards the ramp.

She waved over her shoulder, taking the long walk from the mouth of the ramp to its end. A few feet had passed under her boots when Pixie suddenly had an urge to turn around and head back out of the ramp.

She did just that, though she was unsure why. It didn't make any logical sense to her. She knew she had to get going but she found herself flying along the length of the hallway

"Wheeler!" she called, darting back into the open hallway.

For a moment there was no response to her call, no one heading in her direction. Then a winded looking figure darted out of the walkway and headed in her direction wearing a very confused look on his face.

"What's wrong, Pix? Wrong bay?" Wheeler asked, skidding to a halt in front of Pixie.

"No, right bay. I was just thinking that maybe when we're both in Zion we can hang out or something," Pixie said, turning pink in the cheeks, "Since weren't not going to see anyone was often as we do now."

"I'd like that. It'll be fun," Wheeler said, pulling Pixie into a rather awkward looking hug, "I mean, you never know when one of us isn't going to be around to hang out anymore forever."

"I said no one's going to die in this war. I mean it," Pixie countered.

"And I said I believed you. I'm always going to come back here to see you," Wheeler assured her, "Don't worry about me. I was taught to keep my word back in the Matrix."

They broke the embrace and slowly but surely made their ways down the respective ramps. Pixie looked over her shoulder once, noticing that Wheeler was watching her walk. She waved to him and he returned the gesture. It was only then did he set off for his own ship.

Suddenly the ramp that had appeared to be only a few feet in length grew into a long mile. Pixie felt her legs turn to lead and her footfalls drag. Part of her mind was screaming for her to run away and hide in her bunker. Well, hide until Lock found her and chucked her into the stockade for shirking her assigned duties. She felt as if someone had slipped ice into her clothing, a chill seeping into her bones despite her warm surroundings.

The full extent of the situation she was walking into was settling into her mind. The face she was always safe was suddenly going to be negated. She was going from civilian to solider in a matter of moments. Not really something pleasant to have appear in ones mind at a moment's notice.

All thoughts were driven from her mind when she spotted the ship to which she had been assigned. Like some kind of odd starfighter out of Star Wars, sat a very familiar looking craft.

At the head of the ship's ramp was a figure she would recognize anywhere, though he looked a bit older. She had been somewhat younger, truth be told, when she last saw the craft that filled the bay in front of her. Still, it was a sight she wasn't going to forget any time soon.

"Welcome aboard, Pixie," intoned the familiar figure, he voice brining back many memories from her first few days in the Real World...well, conscious days.