Well... that was nice, wasn't it? Hehe, on with da show, my pretties...

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###Matrix Adventures###

Disorientated and half-asleep, she lay down on a sideway, too tired and miserable to even begin the notion of finding her home. "Ziren? Zi, s'that you?" Nano's voice drifted into earshot. "Hunh?" She rolled over and looked up. "Nano? Hm... wha... eh?" She squinted into view of his feet. "Ziren, what are you doing down here?" He stooped down, two thin brown plaits falling it his face. Nano was very cool, in her opinion. He had pale tanned skin, eyes the same brown shade as Neo's, a short chocolate-brown goatee, and a mass of rough brown hair, plaited at the front and left to grow down quite a bit at the back. He reminded her of Jesus, in a way. He was her ex-captain, because of her volatile behaviour, and she somewhat agreed with her firing, but nonetheless he was still a good friend. "Mrf... Ma...trix... sleep..." she growled, eyes shutting involuntarily. "C'mon, Zi, I'll take you up." Ziren blinked hard to try and clear her eyes. "Wha?" Before she could do anything to stop him, Nano had picked her up, swung her round onto his back, and made the steady way up the metal steps to her cell of a home without argument. "Thank you," she mumbled, her arms hanging down from his shoulders.

It could have been a few hours, or perhaps a whole day, she couldn't think, but either way she was covered loosely by her blanket, her muscles still aching from overly-intense sex. She rolled off the bed and onto the floor with a painful thud and crawled across to the door, pulling herself up on the wheel-lock. She stumbled outside and stretched as much as her body would let her in its state, which wasn't very far, but enough. She leaned over the balcony again and looked down. In her mind's eye, she saw herself swing over and fall down at a blistering speed, crashing through to dock grids right into the core of the earth. She shook her head with disappointment and wandered over to the elevator. She'd never really liked it, as she'd been trapped in it the first day she came to Zion, but was too exhausted to walk all the way down to the Temple, which was quite near to the core. The grid-floor was lined with candles, intersparsed with monks and sleeping mothers. "You have many a shadow to hide, my child. Come, bask in the light and perhaps you will rise from them awhile." She looked across at the man who spoke to her, a monk by the looks of it. "Thanks." She sat down amisdt the candlelight and sighed wearily. This was not how everything was meant to turn out. Her mind whirred with anger and confusion - would they find out about her deal with the Merovignian? Would Neo remember - what about Trinity - and Morpheus? Her eyes snapped shut, trying to block out her mind.

"Heya, Zi's." Her attention warmed back to the surface. Only one person called her "Zi's", when he was trying to cheer her up. "Naobri." He grinned and crouched down so he was at her level on the pathside, and reminded her a little of a dog. Naobri was not much taller than Nano and had short, spiky blue hair, which was looking particularly grimy. Nobody knew where he got the hair dye, and nobody ever questioned him about it. His eyes were iron grey and always seemed to spark with some crazy idea. "Aww, what's up with my favourite ex-shipmate?" He smiled and sat down next to her. Naobri had been her 'mission buddy'. "Nothing I'll bug you with, 'Bri," she replied, rubbing her eyes. "You look wasted, Zi's... maybe you should join us sometime." She glanced across achily. "You know it's generally frowned upon to work for other ships." He scratched an eyebrow, not interested in what she had to say. "Jeeeesus, Ziren Diget... I mean a party. We have loads of them. Right down near the core." He looked a litle distant as he thought about it. "Sorry, Naobri. I can't. I've got... stuff to sort out." Naobri shrugged, patted her on the head as got up, then wandered off. "Okays, suit yourself - I'm gonna find Syn." Ziren sighed and put her head in her hands. Nothing felt right any more. «I can't run away, I can't, but they'll make me go back, and how would I deal with having face them all? Damnit, Ziren, why do you have to complicate everything?» Sleep overcame her again.

Ziren was awoken quite abruptly sometime later with a light shaking of her shoulder. "Wake up, you've got a mission. I hope you've had a good rest, you'll need it." She squinted and yawned a little. "Whua? Oh..." Opening her eyes, she saw Neo looking down at her, his words now ringing in her head. "Neo-" she gasped, and forced herself to calm down to finish her sentence, "- oh, right. I'll just get my head together... right." Neo left the room, and with him took the tension deep in her stomach. «Shit.» She yawned again, properly, then scrabbled to her feet, climbed wearily up the tunnel ladder and stumbled to her chair. «They're not watching me... they don't know... thank God...» Ziren sat down with a little more ease and lay back, her feet being locked up tight. "It's a simple task," Morpheus explained as he set up the vital screens for everyone else, "all you have to do is collect up some minds. There was a warning of a possible Agent attack on a Freeing base, so stay on your guard. Neo, keep a good look out." Ziren didn't even feel the pin enter her head. «Possible Agent attack on a Freeing base...» She nearly fell over when she reached the Matrix, still in a daze. "This time, it won't go wrong. They'll all come out. I promise." Morpheus looked across at her. "We can only try our best, Ziren." His words were meant to realise they might not be able to do it, but all it did was fuel her more. "Well, if it ain't the cavalry." The Neb group walked out of the room to find themselves on a wooden crate platform at a harbour. Loitering around and on some crates, were Nano, Naobri and a girl she couldn't recall the name of.

"Nano, it's good to be working with you again!" Morpheus called, and shook the hand of the younger man. "Morpheus, sir, it's an honour." Trinity turned to Neo. "Captain Nano worked with Morpheus before he aquired the Neb," she explained, and he nodded in comprehension. "Zi's!" Naobri called out, and jumped off the crate he was sitting on. "I see you haven't ditched the look in here!" Ziren grinned at the young man in front of her. The last time they had been in the Matrix together, he wore a black suit and wrap-round shades - today, he was wearing a silver suit and thin, pale shades. "And who's this?" Naobri shuffled to the side so Ziren could look at her properly. She was a little shorter than herself, had long, black hair that was tied into pig-tails, a standard black suit and shades. She was obviously new. "This is Sasha." Sasha nodded in greeting. "She doesn't speak much... still getting over her unplugging, I think. I said we shoulda left behind but Lock said she'd be alright. What that bloody Commander thinks he's doing..." And then he continued, out of Sasha's earshot, "I don't like her... there's something about her... I don't think she can be trusted." Ziren saw the wary glare in Naobri's eyes and knew he wasn't lying. "Okay then. Are we ready?" There was a swish-click of phones and a unified call of, "Operator". Naobri took his film-like specs off and looked down at Ziren. "For all it's worth, I missed my mission buddy," he said quietly, with a soft smile. «No, 'Bri, don't do this... don't screw me up than I already am now... after Neo...» The uneasy moment was halted by Trinity touching her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Sorry?" Trinity smirked, but she didn't appear upset. "We're moving out," she alerted, and then wandered back to Neo's side as they left the harbour. «Naobri... you had to come back now, didn't you, just when I was panicking over Neo, just when I was trying to put everything behind me... I need you to save me, 'Bri...»

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Introducing a lot of new characters! I haven't quite worked out what Sasha has to do with the story yet but that doesn't particularly matter right now. Tee, what's happened between Zi and Bri? Will they ever find out about 'that night'? You're gonna have to waaaait!