Title: B'randii's Journey to Reality Author: Emi Summary: B'randii del'Ortollio leaves the Matrix but at what cost? What will happen to her when she's free? Characters: Everyone else and B'randii Rating: PG Author's Notes: Review? Dedicated To: September and Lexie. It was Lexie's idea first and now all of us have the Chronicles. So go read their fics as well - Midnight Blue Eyes and Divinity



The next thing she knew she was in a big, ugly, pink thing in the middle of a dark scary place. As she thrashed around she felt things detach themselves form her arms, neck, back, one big one even came out of her throat. Then she was flushed down a big tube and picked up by a claw thing.

As soon as she was dumped on the floor of the ship - she couldn't remember the name - the first thing she figured out was that she was naked in front of Neo and a bunch of other guys. She pulled herself into a position that covered all her bits and happily grabbed the towel the tall black man offered her.

After she pulled the towel around her she stood up and quickly fell over. The next thing she knew she was on a bed and was just waking up. Neo was sitting in front of her, looking at her skin, her gorgeous ivory. When he saw her watching him, he blushed and looked away. "I know this is hard for you to accept but this is the real world. And no matter how much you hate it and want to run away from it, I want you to know that I will always be here for you" he said softly.

Brandy was offended. That adorable sweetheart had though of her as a baby who couldn't face the world. As she tried to get up she said "I'm not a baby, but thank you for your offer"

Neo was ecstatic that she wanted to be near to him. He gave her a shy smile and couldn't help but noticed her pure, ivory skin. Now that she had no hair, her eyes stood out more, making her more striking.

As she got up she asked Neo what she should be doing and as he helped her get up he told her to follow him to the bridge to get some training.

When she strapped into the chair and some guy named Link put a big, ugly 'plug' into the back of her head, she realized that she knew Drunken Boxing, the one martial art she didn't know in the Matrix.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After 15 hours of that Brandy was getting a crick in her neck and they were running out of programs to give her. When she got up she was dizzy for a moment.

Neo reached out and gave her a steadying hand. The Link guy gave him the strangest look, like a 'what the hell are you doing?" look. It was at that moment that Brandy knew she and Neo had to have a talk.

She led him back to her room and sat him down on her bed and began.

"Neo, was Trinity your girlfriend?" She asked point-blank. If their subtle flirting was to go on any longer she had to know.

Neo lifted his head from his hands. "We had a thing" he said dejectedly, sure that this would be the end of his chances with Brandy, that wonderful girl with sparkling eyes and ivory skins.

"A thing?" Brandy mused. She herself had had 'a thing' with a pool boy at her summer house in Spain so she supposed she could forgive Neo for a thing with this 'Trinity' woman. "Well that's not a problem. As long as it wasn't like, true love or anything it's ok" she finished off her musing.

"Do you think we could go anywhere, as a couple?" Neo said, shyly.

"Maybe, it all depends.." Brandy said slowly and coyly.

"On what?" Neo had gotten that puppy-dog look on his face

Brandy leaned in towards him and pushed him over backwards. "On how well you kiss" she whispered before finding out exactly that.