A little girl stood by the bedroom door. She could not have been more than eight years old, her golden hair then long and shiny. Her expression was forlorn as she watched to boy inside the bedroom frantically shoving disks into a packsack. "Stevie, what's wrong?" she asked in a frightened little voice.

The boy looked up, hearing the fear in his little sister's voice. He was seventeen years old back then, a gangly teenager who never seemed to eat enough. He had become moody and withdrawn over the past year, spending more and more time shut in his room, taking solace only in his computer and the little world that lay therein it. He always seemed to be so angry at the world nowadays, like it had lied to him about something of dire importance.

But then there was the phone call…

Minutes before the phone had rung, and Steve had answered it. His voice had gone hollow and frightened; she could hear the strength running out of it in the hall, and the girl had come to investigate. Now the boy took notice of her presence, sadness replacing the wild panic on his face. "I'm sorry Evie," he said quietly. "I have to go for a while. Mom will be home in an hour, you'll be okay."

"Will you be back soon?"

The boy dropped his eyes. "I don't know."

The girl looked down at her hands, at the objects that had come from a party bag from her best friend's birthday party the week before. They were magnets, shaped like cartoon characters. The boy spotted these and grinned despite himself, an idea forming in his head. "I don't think there's room for those on the fridge Evie, but you can decorate my computer with them if you want."

The girl's face lit up at this rare gesture. She was NEVER allowed near her brother's stuff. "Cool!" she exclaimed, running over and getting right down to work of putting each magnet where it would look prettiest. She only learned later that she was unwittingly destroying his hard drive, and thus any evidence of foul play.

The boy slipped quietly out of the house, unheeded by the little girl.

Nexus opened her eyes, taking in the dream that was in fact an old memory. After a moment, she gasped and nearly rocketed from her cot.

Loki was up. He'd know.

She practically flew down the hall and up the ladder to the main deck. There he was just watching the code fly by on the screens. "Hey," she gasped breathlessly, taking a moment to remember that she was not in the shape that she had been in while inside the Matrix. Loki waited patiently for her to continue, having the good grace not to poke fun at her entrance.

When Nexus got her breathe back, she asked him: "How long have you been in here? I mean in the real world and everything?" Loki thought for a moment, answering cautiously; this couldn't be what she had rushed up here to ask. "I got out when I was…" He paused, squinting as he counted back, "…Thirteen? Fourteen? I'm not entirely sure. It's been close to twenty years I'd bet. Why-" Nexus interrupted him. "And most people here were hackers while they were inside, right? That's the impression that I got anyhow." Loki nodded. Nexus seemed to be exploding to tell him something. "What is it?"

Nexus took a deep breath, looking straight at him. "Do you know a guy called 'Worm'? That was his screen name anyhow. He thought I never saw it, but I sometimes managed to sneak in there." She laughed. "He'd get so mad at that. I wasn't allowed near his stuff, and only now do I get why."

Loki had gone from wearily amused to stunned in a matter of seconds. Yes, he had heard of Worm before. "I might know him," he said quietly, cautiously. "Why do you ask?"

Nexus' eyes bored into him, watching his reaction very carefully. "When I was eight my brother took off. No explanation, no note, no nothing. The last thing me said to me was that I should decorate his computer with magnets." She shrugged, almost to herself. "I was too young to know that I was destroying evidence, and eventually my parents realized that too. So he's here." She did not sound terribly surprised.

"It could be the same guy." He relented after a moment's consideration. Medea would be quite interested in hearing thislittle morsel of information, Loki thought with an inner grin to rival that of his trickster namesake.

After Nexus had gone back to bed the gossip mill began to churn.

Medea was getting ready for her shift when Loki sauntered by her door, stopping as if surprised to see her. Medea had seen this act before; it meant that Loki had one of his little games in mind. "This better be good, Loki." She hadn't slept well, and the sooner this shift was through, the better. The day's work promised to be tedious to an extraordinary degree, though Medea wouldn't have minded if it had not meant going through some highly undesirable intersection that always seemed to be patrolled by sentinels nowadays. If there were a safer route she would have taken it; however, this passage had always been the best way to slip through the nets on the way to Zion, and that had not changed, unless she were suddenly gifted with the ability to fly the mechanical lines- a feat that had been tried and failed at time and time again in her time. Back in the old days, when the sentinels had been just beginning to permeate the old tunnels…but no. Medea was a good captain, but she was no daredevil pilot. Besides, the Peregrine only had a few good weeks left in her until she needed a recharge, and the food supply was starting to run low as well.

"Oh, it is," Loki chuckled. He sat amiably down in front of her as she buckled her boots. "Remember that mission we took with the Solaris crew about three years ago?"

Medea snorted. "How can I forget? That asshole'd been the captain for what, a month? And he hijacks half our team to go on some wild goose chase without even notifying anyone. I had to leave the potential in the dust just so I could get to a hard line because they can't get their details straight." She glared at Loki. "Thanks a lot. I wasn't feeling great to begin with, but now I'll have that jerk on my mind all day. What the hell's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing really. I just happened to learn that Nexus believes she may have a brother out here…by the name of Worm…thought you might be interested." Loki was grinning now. "I was wondering what the funniest way to reintroduce them might be…" He seemed to ponder for a moment. "I have a few ideas…do you?" Loki looked at her inquiringly, dripping of false innocence.

Medea looked appraisingly at Loki. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

Skylla poked her head into the cockpit, where Aiglos was gearing up for the long journey down. "Hey, Aiglos?"

"What?" Aiglos didn't bother looking up; he was busy punching in the first set of coordinates, scanning the map onscreen for the best path to take.

"Medea was wondering which ships are scheduled to be docked while we're there." Aiglos stopped his work for a moment, squaring his jaw as he worked it out. Each ship had its own pattern of returning to Zion. Some ships pushed it, like the Neb just about always did, and came back at the last possible minute. The Peregrine usually took five to six week intervals between refueling trips. However, he had known nearly all of the operators since childhood, and they had a good sense of when they would run into eachother.

"The Hammer should be in…they take pretty short trips…so does the Solaris. I'm pretty sure that the Neb will be there. It's getting close to three months for them. I think that's it…you expecting someone?" he asked, craning his head back to look at her.

Skylla's mouth quirked into a small grin. "We might be."