scarstar – I think I'm projecting all my own opinions into this, so they might be wrong, but the ambiguity of some stuff in the movies really annoys me. So I thought I'd try to fix that (: Thanks for reviewing!

Rhiannon Reeves – I'm sorry I made you think about it for so long! Thanks for the review, I love writing Kes. She's such a sarcastic person, which is great, because so am I. Thanks for reviewing!

Bagpipes5K2 – Oh, that sounds like an idea for a new fanfic…no, no, I really must finish something first! I love the idea of genetics and stuff in the Matrix, and it's an idea that'll be coming back to haunt everyone…but I've said too much (:

S. J. adams – Thank you! Your review really made my day. At the moment Bagpipes5K2 is very kindly betaing my work, but if there's ever a problem, I'll email you straight away. Thanks for offering and for reviewing!

Sydney Andrews – Feel free to email me anytime you like – link's in my profile. The only reason I really shy away from writing Neo and Trinity is that there are many writers out there who do it way better than I feel I do, but if you think my Neo/Trinity stuff if okay, then I'll try and work them in. Your comment about Kiana has spawned a whole chapter idea, so thank you for that! Thanks for reviewing, I've really begun to look forward to your reviews (:

I'm sorry I've been so long, but I've been really busy. I've just been told that I only have 53 school days left until my GCSEs. I'm in shock. Though I did take time out last Wednesday to go to a preview screening of Walk the Line, 10 days before it was released in the UK. Needless to say, I've been a little obsessed since then. I'm also going to see it on the day it comes out (:

I just put up a King Kong fic, and so if anyone's a fan, I'd feel honoured if they would read and review. Thanks!

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and thanks again to Bagpipes, as always, for betaing.

Chapter VI: Understanding

The next few days were a blur for Kiana. Blissfully oblivious to Kes' new knowledge, and wrapped up in questions and uncertainty, she didn't notice Kes' new, detached attitude towards her, which was a mercy in itself. She met the rest of the crew more and more, but was not plugged into the Construct yet, or told what the Matrix was. She was still reacting to the shock of being unplugged, and it didn't seem fair to inflict the harsh reality of the world upon her yet. However, she was still desperate to discover the exact nature of the Matrix, and it was eating her up inside, the same double-edged hunger that had consumed her in the Matrix, only this was sharper, because she sensed she was on the cusp of finding the truth.

Kes was still attached to the job of looking after Kiana, so she couldn't stop seeing her, and she had no intention of telling Morpheus what she now knew. Instead, she made time to scan every machine in the med bay, checking for a virus or a spike that could have made the machine malfunction. But the machine was clean. Nothing was out of place, nothing was where it was not meant to be. The only thing Kes could think to do was get another blood sample from Kiana and run it through again, but manually. It took hours, and was incredibly tedious, but it was the only way she could think of to prove that this was wrong, that the computers were faulty. Somehow proving it wrong seemed more important than trying to accept it as right.

The only problem with this was that as far as the rest of the crew was concerned, she already had the bloods she needed. She'd need to hack into the computer to get it to delete that information. Also, to run it through manually would take about three hours, and if she spent three hours in front of a computer screen for no obvious reason, someone would notice. And then she'd have to explain and this would all get way, way out of proportion. All it was was a little malfunction. Nothing big. That didn't explain why Kes had woken up twice in the night with a heavy, fearful feeling in her stomach. She knew something wasn't right.

She was still pondering over that in the mess hall, when she thought she was alone. Kes had meant to grab a tray of food and eat as quickly as possible, so that she could get back to work. But, as she filled up her tray with gruel, she paused, suddenly struck down by a mist of possibility. What if they were related? What if there was some sort of genetic link between them? Were they sisters or something? Were–?

"Kes?"

A hand on her shoulder gently brought Kes around. "Are you alright?" Trinity asked, concern showing in her pale blue eyes.

"I'm fine" Kes replied. "Just tired. And hungry. I don't seem to get enough of either"

"You should" Trinity said firmly to her daughter. "Take a break after this. I'll cover you"

Kes shook her head. "I'll have one soon"

Trinity cast a disapproving eye over her daughter, but said nothing. She knew from experience that Kes' stubborn streak was a mile wide. Instead she got herself some food and started to eat, hoping that Kes would follow her example. Typically, she didn't. Instead, she looked pensive. "Mom, can I ask you something?" she said suddenly.

Trinity nodded, surprised.

"Have you ever had a feeling, something that's almost completely unfounded and really should be impossible, but you know is true?" Kes asked slowly. Whilst she didn't always see eye to eye with her parents, if anyone was going to give her a good answer about this, it was going to be them.

"Yes" she said slowly. "I have"

"When?"

"When I met your father" Trinity said softly.

"Oh god, please don't tell me. I'm probably too young to hear it" Kes protested.

Trinity allowed herself to smile slightly at her daughter's humour – although she was deadly serious. "I don't mean just that" she said. "I mean there are some things you know. Without proof, without substance, you have faith in them. When we unplugged Neo, I knew"

"You knew he was the One" Kes said meditatively. "You just knew it?"

"Just knew it" Trinity affirmed. "Why do you ask?"

Kes shrugged. "Just wondering" She tried to think of a way to change the subject. "Is Kiana being loaded into the Construct today?"

Trinity nodded. "We've delayed it too long as it is" There was a small pause, in which she decided to take the plunge. "Kes, do you really want to transfer to the Logos?"

Kes sighed. "No, I like being on the Neb" she admitted, hating the part of her which felt guilty for lying to her parents. "But I'm sick of feeling helpless. And bored"

At that moment, Elysia thrust her head around the door. "Morpheus says come on up. He's taking Kiana through the training and needs you both there"

Kes got up immediately, glad to leave the conversation behind. One little thing, one little idea, one thing she'd said in a moment of fury and it didn't look like her mother was ever going to forget it. It was a lesson for life. Just be perfect. Never say or do anything you don't mean, because it won't be forgotten. Perfect things are clear. Imperfect things leave a stain behind.

Kiana lay down in the dentist's chair – or that was what it felt like, anyway – and tried to relax. Tried and failed. She was tense as shit and there was no way of getting around that. The muscles in her thighs were aching from being so taut for so long. Her fingernails, though they were not overlong, were digging into her palms and sleeves alternately. It was painful, but she didn't notice.

"This will feel a little weird" Morpheus warned her, brandishing a metal spike, almost three or four inches long.

"Holy shit, what is that for?" Kiana cursed. She hoped no-one noticed how scared she was.

"It'll take you to another. Somewhere where I can show to you what the Matrix is" Morpheus replied.

Kiana took a deep breath, willing her racing heart to slow down. Again, without success. Every muscle in her body was tensed, as if for flight. As she grappled with trying to relax and not giving into her fear, she didn't notice the metallic swish of the plug as it went into the back of her head. That was, until the pain set it. Well, not so much pain as irritation. It was like having something in your eye, and scratching it just made it even more sore. Kiana squeezed her eyes shut, trying to escape from the pain, which disappeared abruptly and unnaturally. For a second, she wondered whether the spike had been pulled out of the back of her head, but when she raised up her hand to the plug at the back of her head, her fingertips found warm skin and fine strands of hair instead of cool metal. Thoroughly confused, she looked around. The place she was in was so dazzlingly white that she couldn't tell ceiling from wall from floor. An antique television set was suspended opposite two high-backed chairs, so it seemed.

"This is the Construct" Kiana jumped. She wheeled around to see Morpheus, dressed suavely in a dark purple suit and sharp green tie. His eyes were obscured by wraparound sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He sure as hell hadn't looked like this five minutes ago, when she had seen him last. But then again, the world she had just been getting to know had vanished from her sight, and had been replaced with a minimalist's dream world. Had her appearance changed too? She thought she might have hair. Definitely different. "It is a controlled program where we can simulate the Matrix"

"We're in a program? Didn't see that coming"

"Yes. The plug in the back of your head is connected to our computer mainframe through the rod inserted through your skull"

Kiana shivered, and placed a hand over the back of her skull, still expecting to feel metal and the merest hint of stubble, but instead feeling her own hair. Teasing out a strand, she could feel it floating down past her shoulders. "This is bizarre, this is bizarre" she muttered to herself. Smoothing down her top over her hips, as she always did when she was nervous, she realised that she was wearing different clothes, denim jeans and a grey t-shirt – in fact, the same clothes she had worn the night she was unplugged.

She was actually getting a little freaked out, so she sat down in one of the red leather chairs simply for the lack of anything else to do. Morpheus sat opposite her, and without realising it, Kiana scooted forwards to the edge of her seat, almost as in anticipation.

"Are you ready to know why I have brought you here?" he asked in his grave, almost ritualistic way.

Kiana nodded without hesitation. She had a sudden flashback to the night that she was unplugged. She had the feeling that this would be the same sort of life changing moment. But all he was going to do was tell her about the Matrix. That couldn't b e life changing, could it?

Kiana was surprisingly restrained when she was told the truth. Image after image flashed at her from the television screen, and Morpheus' smooth, controlled voice drilled itself into her brain. As Morpheus' monologue finished, she slowly nodded, as a way of making it look like she was paying attention, but her mind was reeling, the images burned into her brain and flashing in front of her eyes, like when she had a migraine.

Kiana stood up slowly, feeling like she was no longer in control of her movements. Her legs gave way, and she gripped the lion-head chair for support. The world swam before her.

She blinked, and suddenly she was back on board the Neb, with a sharp, fluid pain in the back of her skull which felt as though someone was probing around in there.

There were people around her, all standing close. Too close. She couldn't breathe without feeling someone else's warm, moist breath on her skin, and she felt as though the air she taking in was dirty. Her muscles clenched, and her stomach churned.

A final fluid motion inside her head, and the shrieking pain stopped. Kiana breathed a sigh of relief, as she saw the spike in Link's hand. Realising that it had just been removed from her head, her stomach felt like rebelling, and Kiana knew that she had to get out of there.

She sat straight up, one hand going to smooth her hair away from her mouth, and then realising that it wasn't there anymore. That, coupled with her new-found knowledge, caused her brain to overload. With her mental mind down, her physical body took over. Kiana bent over and vomited neatly into her lap. After she had finished retching, she flopped back, her strength entirely gone.

"On a scale of one to ten" Kes began. "How bad was that, compared to all the other minds we've freed?"

Link pondered this as he stared at the computer screen. He was meant to be watching the Matrix, and Kes was just generally tidying up, getting cables out of the way so that no-one could trip over them and break a leg. Kiana had been taken down to her room, and was being watched generally by anyone who wasn't doing anything else. "About seven, maybe?"

"Really? I'd say an eight or nine" Kes replied. "Not that many people vomit"

"Neo did" Link replied.

"Really?" Kes asked curiously, grinning. "Somehow can't picture that one"

"But you're trying to?" Link raised a dark eyebrow.

Kes ignored that comment. "How do you know? You've only been the Operator on the Neb since just before I was born, right?"

"Tank told me before he died" Link told her. "He told Zee, rather"

Tank? Kes thought back. Most of what she knew about the crew before she was born came from hacking into the Neb's computer systems and sometimes Zion, but she was more careful with that. She didn't want to give the council any excuse to take her off the ship – technically, she was three years underage.

"Who was Tank?" she asked, giving up.

"Zee's brother" Link informed her.

"I didn't know she had a brother. Or one that was an Operator on the Neb, for that matter"

"She had two. Tank and Bulldozer, but he was just Dozer to everyone" Link explained, gathering up cables with Kes. "Tank was the Operator, and Dozer was the medic and pilot"

Kes nodded, trying to remember if she had heard anything about either of them. "What happened?"

Link straightened up, meeting Kes in the eyes. "Look kid, you probably shouldn't know about some of this shit–"

"Don't 'kid' me" Kes said, irritated. "Besides, either you tell me, or I hack some computer system and get an unreliable, completely biased, substantial amount of bullshit. Your choice"

Her sharp, utterly determined gaze left Link with absolutely no choice. He knew that she'd do it, if only to prove a point. There was a Zion equivalent of the Internet, completely underground and little more than an urban myth, but if the One's daughter was found to be hacking into it, there'd be hell to pay.

Link sighed, looking as though he'd rather be anywhere else than there at that moment. "There was a guy on the crew. Cypher. He'd been freed for a few years, spent all of that time on the Neb. He didn't show it, but he snapped"

Kes nodded. Snapped was a bit of ship argot used to describe someone who couldn't take being outside.

"Thing is, he was a clever guy. Hid it from everyone, but started to hate the Real World. Morpheus most of all. Just couldn't take it. He learned how to read the code and how to manipulate it just a little, so that he could implant his RSI into the Matrix"

"Didn't think that was possible" As much as Kes hated to admit it to herself, she wondered if she could do that, more than she cared about the consequences of something like that.

Link shook his head. "It isn't. He had help from Agents, allegedly. He must've made some sort of deal with them, a way to go back to the Matrix, and he betrayed the whole crew to do it. Killed Dozer. Tried to kill Tank, who killed him, but Cypher took at least another three or four people with him before he went. All people who'd been on the Neb for years, shared food and water with Cypher. And he killed them, just to forget"

"Shit" Kes breathed.

"No kidding" Link's expression shifted to serious. "Hey, Kes, don't tell anyone I told you this, right? It's not really, you know, common knowledge"

"Don't worry, I won't" Kes assured him. She gathered up the last of the cables, storing them neatly with automatic motions, her mind reeling a little. How could she have not known this sort of stuff? Link had been Operating the Nebuchadnezzar for about fifteen years. Granted, it was a little before her lifetime, but this sort of information shouldn't have been hidden for so long. She wondered how many people on board knew. Probably everyone, she reckoned.

Why does no-one tell me this sort of shit?

Feeling a new surge of anger, she placed the box of cables down with a little more force than she had intended, and it broke, spilling out the sinuous links everywhere. Kes sighed, forcing herself to take in a deep breath, followed by another, followed by another. Once she felt more in control, she knelt down and began to search for another box. The search proved more difficult than she thought, and by the time she had found another box, all other thoughts had disappeared from her mind, if only temporarily.

Kiana had no idea how long she had been sitting, counting the bolts in the ceiling before there was a small knock on the door.

"Hey" she said with a small smile. "Thought you'd probably need something to drink"

Kiana took the water with a murmur of thanks.

"Are you feeling okay now?" Kes asked with a hint of concern.

Kiana nodded. "Just a little…unsettling"

Kes smiled. "Don't worry. Better to get it out now and deal with it, right?"

Kes' words held a lot of truth, Kiana realised.

"And on the plus side, I think you'll always have that chair to yourself now" Kes added with a spark of humour.

Kiana smiled slightly, trying to stop herself from blushing with embarrassment. She wasn't much of a blusher, but since she was in a completely new world and had just introduced herself to people she had never met before properly by vomiting, she figured now was as good a time as any to start blushing.

"Thanks" she said sincerely, meeting Kes' eyes for the first time, and seeing something not dissimilar to shock there. Like she'd seen something she hadn't expected.

"Um, sure, no problem" Kes said, her hands suddenly fiddling with a hole in her over shirt. Her whole stance changed, as though she was nervous.

Jesus, what's spooked her so badly?

"I've got to go, I'll see you later, okay?" Kes finished with a new, suspicious look crossing her face and colliding with another, softer look. Kiana was about to ask her whether she was okay, when Kes left the room quickly, turning the wheel of the door sharply. Kiana couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a new, more scared look on Kes' face. Like she'd seen a ghost.

Ten e-cookies if you guess what's up with Kes. And no, she is not an alien human hybrid…(giggles). Please review!