AN: I know I've been really bad at updating this story…like awfully, terribly bad. I've been having some major computer problems and my computer's been taken into the shop twice. This is going to be the first time I've attempted an update from my laptop…that I have hooked up to my DSL because someone tried to "fix" the wireless router and wound up turning off the wireless component on my laptop. I'm still trying to work out that problem! It's bad enough that when I have to study, I have to hook my laptop up to the DSL and have wires all over the place just so I can get on the internet. Anyway, I apologize for being a bad author. I haven't given up on this story and I will try to update more often. Thanks for sticking around, anyone who's read, put this story on alert, or left me a review! You all rock! Please remember, I'm open to any and all reviews…good, bad, or indifferent. Just let me know how I'm doing.

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 I just finished graduate school for my Master's Degree. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

"I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end…" (From "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana)

Neo was only vaguely curious about who had been banging and yelling outside Pixie's door. Though she was painfully shy and reserved while on the ship--- the only time he'd heard her say more than a few words was the one time they'd gone into a training program together ---Neo had learned that Pixie had a small circle of friends in Zion. The group of teens, all who looked to be the same age and included Wheeler, had been with Pixie almost every time Neo had seen her. He figured it was probably one of them shouting outside her door. The "whys" of that situation were beyond Neo. He figured that it was just a case of teenagers acting like teenagers and being noisy and loud.

Besides, the inside of Pixie's three room home was mildly interesting. Sitting at her scuffed and slightly rusted table, Neo could see all of Pixie's little experiments. There were the two distillation devices she'd shown him earlier, still filling up large, round bottomed flasks. The other device, the one she hadn't explained to him, sounded like a muted vacuum cleaner and was draining vaguely red fluid into a flat bottomed flask Neo proudly remembered was called an Erlenmeyer flask from his chemistry classes in the Matrix.

The set-ups Pixie had spread out all over the kitchen all appeared to be straight out of someone's basic chemistry class. Neo had a funny feeling, though, that these experiments were easy for Pixie to do. She was, as far as he could see, one of the smartest people in all of Zion. How she'd wound up working on a ship was also beyond the man some said was the One.

The red door that blocked Pixie's home from the catwalk street creaked open, catching Neo's attention. Looking up, Neo saw a red faced Pixie wander into her home with a scruffy haired young man. Though he'd met several people during his short time in Zion, Neo remembered the scruffy haired young man as being from the Shatterpoint, one of the two ships that had come to the rescue of the derelict Nebuchadnezzar, and had called himself Wheeler. He was, as Trinity later put it, Pixie's "male friend," which, of course, translated into boyfriend.

He'd stayed with Pixie, as her bunkmate and human watchdog, as they'd tried to get the Nebuchadnezzar into good enough shape that it could be towed back to Zion. Now, back in Zion, it was common knowledge that Wheeler was living with her. Supposedly, he stayed with her because of her back but, as was normal in any version of reality where humans existed, there were rumors about what the two nineteen year olds did behind closed doors.

Neo, who found himself subject of many rumors ranging from his relationship with Trinity to what powers he had in the Matrix, decided to take Trinity's advice on the rumors related to Pixie and Wheeler. Trinity had said to believe whatever Pixie said. Pixie was completely unable to lie so she was completely trustworthy. If Pixie said she and Wheeler weren't doing anything other than just living together, then that's what they were doing. There was no ulterior motives, no reason to listen to rumors. Things were just as Pixie and Wheeler said they were.

"Neo, you remember Wheeler, right?" Pixie, lamely offered as she stood close to the door.

"It's good to see you again, sir," Wheeler stated, shaking Neo's hand and making Pixie wonder for the millionth time how the former pitcher had managed to keep so many of his southern mannerisms despite the fact he didn't live in Texas anymore. "I'm glad someone came by to keep an eye on Pix. I don't like her being by herself for too long because she doesn't know how to slow down and relax and I'm afraid she's going to hurt herself."

Neo shook Wheeler's hand, grateful that the young man from Texas wasn't falling all over himself, making a big deal about him being the One. Wheeler, if Neo remembered correctly, had been with the group that had backed him up when he let the Machines know that he was onto them. He'd heard the young man, after the fact; make a comment about super heroes and flying

It was hard for Neo to say if Wheeler was just acting the way he was, treating Neo as if he was just one of the guys and not the man who was supposed to save the Real World, because he wasn't a believer or because he was just not making a big deal because he knew it would upset Pixie. Pixie was still on the fence about whether or not she believed in the whole idea of "the One," as she'd told him herself. Neo wasn't sure if that extended to Wheeler or not.

Then again, it could have just been Wheeler being Wheeler. Someone--- Neo was almost sure it was Pixie's friend Chian from the Logos ---had said that Wheeler had never quite outgrown the manners he'd learned in the Matrix. He was polite to everyone because that was how he was brought up to act. The scruffy haired young man was especially polite to females, or so Neo had heard, to the point where he didn't like fighting them in case he hurt them.

"I do so know how to take it easy," Pixie mumbled. "And I know how not to hurt myself."

"Then why is the kitchen full of experiments, Pix," Wheeler countered, noticing that a pale hand was insistently tapping Pixie on the shoulder through the crack in the door.

"I got bored," Pixie answered, sounding a bit sheepish. "And they weren't anything major. I just didn't have anything to do, that's all."

"You know there's a hand on your shoulder, Pix," Neo pointed out, using the informal nickname she'd told him to use once upon a time.

Pixie sighed, feeling badly for what she was about to do, and pulled the door open a bit more to show a huddle of teenagers that Neo assumed were Pixie's friends and the ones who'd started banging on the door to get her attention. Two members of the group--- a honey haired young man and young woman who looked as if they could be twins since they looked that alike ---stared at him with wide eyes. Two others, an Asian girl and a boy who was hanging back from the rest of the group, didn't look as shocked as the pair he assumed were twins.

"Come in," Pixie sighed. "I guess I can't leave you standing out there."

"You can't stand up for that long anyway, Pix," the female with the honey colored hair quipped. "I've seen your medical chart. You would have eventually gotten tired and had to sit down and then we would have broken in here faster than you could think."

Though there were only four of them, two young men and two young women, they seemed to be as loud as a small army as they meandered into Pixie's small home. Neo almost wanted to accuse Pixie of setting up this ambush by her friends, even though she'd just saved him from an ambush by a bunch of strangers, but he figured he shouldn't. Their appearance seemed to catch her off guard and she looked just a little embarrassed as the front room seemed to get a bit smaller with all the people crowding around the table.

"Guys this is Neo," Pixie said, after a few beats of uncomfortable silence. "You met him at the Parting Glass when we went with the rest of my crew."

Turning to Neo, Pixie added, "Neo, these are my friends Aisling and her twin brother Adoh. That's Ngaio behind Adoh. The other guy is Conall…he's not really part of our group but he's dating Aisling so he's unofficially one of my friends I guess."

A few beats of extremely uncomfortable silence filled the space between Neo and Pixie's friends. Pixie felt her skin start to crawl as she waited for her friends to do or say something to Neo. Though she didn't say anything, Pixie found Wheeler standing next to her. He took one of her hands, holding it behind his back so no one in the room could see they were holding hands.

Not that anyone was paying them any attention but Pixie still appreciated the gesture. If Aisling had caught them holding hands, they'd never hear the ends of it. It was enough that their living together had become a major topic of Aisling's jokes.

"I can't believe it! You're the One!" Adoh, finally, exclaimed, breaking the uncomfortable silence and earning him reproachful looks from not only his sister but Pixie, and Wheeler as well, "It's beyond an honor to meet you, man."

"Didn't Pix tell you not to do that," Aisling stated, smacking her brother on the back on his head. "You're such an idiot sometimes! You can't even follow simple directions."

"Sorry," she said, turning to Neo. "My little brother gets carried away sometimes. He's younger than I am so he doesn't know how to conduct himself like an adult in public sometimes."

Though her words were even and logical, the tone of her voice clearly matched the awed one used by her brother. Though they'd seen Neo at The Parting Glass, there'd been others and the teenagers hadn't had a chance to actually talk to Neo. For as long as Pixie had known Aisling and Adoh, and their mother Una, she's known they were believers in the One. To actually be able to talk to the man who was supposed to save the Real World, had to be something special for them.

Pixie was actually surprised at how restrained the pair was being. She figured things were going to go a whole lot worse when the twins got to meet Neo.

"It's alright," Neo laughed, as Adoh rubbed the back of his head and glared at his sister in an embarrassed sort of way.

It seemed strange that something as normal as sibling rivalry existed in the futuristic world he was being told was home now. The pair of honey haired twins were acting just like any pair of siblings back in the Matrix might act. Neo guessed that some things never changed, no matter where people were told was home. The human race was still the human race, when it was all said and done.

"Aisling and Adoh are Zion Born," Pixie pointed out, matter of factly. "So is Conall, come to think of it. Ngaio is like Wheeler and I. She's from the Matrix."

Pixie's comment made a certain sort of sense to Neo. Though it was slightly unnerving, he'd gotten so use to the jacks in his arms that he'd almost stopped seeing them there. The two honey haired twins--- Aisling wearing a faded green tank top and Adoh in a short sleeved blue shirt ---had no jacks in the portions of skin Neo could see. They were like Tank and Dozer, genuine children of Zion.

The other two, Ngaio and Conall, Neo hadn't been so sure about. Ngaio, wearing a blue tank top that was just a few shades lighter than the one Adoh had on, had her arms behind her back. Conall, like Wheeler, was wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt. It was hard to see if they were Zion or Matrix born with their skin covered like that.

"Don't knock it, Pix," Aisling commented with her usual dose of sarcasm in her voice. "Maybe you've been jealous of me and my little brother all these years because we're not riddled with holes and you are."

Pixie only shook her head and laughed at Aisling's comment. Aisling would never know the truth about how grateful Pixie was to have metallic holes in her arms. Pixie harbored an extreme fear of needles--- not of blood as was considered normal but of the metal needles that broke through the skin ---and, since coming to the Real World, had discovered she never had to worry about getting one. Blood was taken and IVs were run through the jacks in her arms.

Neo, who didn't quite understand the banter between the group of teens, looked worried for a moment, as if a fight was going to break out between the Pod Borns and Zion Borns. Their laughter confused him further as everyone settled in around the table or on the counters. Instead of a fight, Neo found himself at the center of an entirely new world…one run by a group of nineteen year olds who were a mix of Pod and Zion Borns and seemed to be perfectly alright with that.