AN: Hiya everyone! Well, school's started for me again. Technically, anyway, since I only go once a week. I'd rather go several days but I didn't have much of a choice this semester. The best I could manage was two classes on one day a week. I guess that has its upsides, though. I mean, I'm home the rest of the week with time enough to do my own work. My sister started school too which means it's only a matter of time before she starts dumping her own work on me. She's graduating at the end of this semester and she's suffering from a very bad case of senioritis. Actually, it's more like a really bad case of her just not wanting to do any work. She's lazy that way. Anywho, I hope there are people out there still reading this little misadventure. If you're reading this, thanks very much! You guys rock like a box of socks!

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 in graduate school studying biology. All I own are my Pointe shoes.

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends

We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside" (From "Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer)

It seemed like an age and half since Pixie last left the ship she called home and walked out into the slightly warmer climate that seemed to permeate Zion. Then again, Pixie's sense of time had always been a little skewed. She was the person who had trouble discerning days when she first started working on the ship she called home. She might have been exaggerating when she said she hadn't been home in a very long time.

"I'll catch up with you guys when we leave," Pixie called, waving to the other members of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar.

Dressed as any other shipboard worker, Pixie was fairly bouncing on the balls of her feet. It wasn't that she hated her job or anything of the sort. She wasn't eager to leave her ship because she couldn't stand the people she worked with. That wasn't true by a long shot.

"What about that date we had later?" Hawk called, whistling at Pixie as she stood a bit away from her fellow Nebuchadnezzar crew members.

Scratch that, there was one person she didn't enjoy working with.

Since their little falling out back during their school days, Pixie and Hawk's relationship- if you could call it that- was a bit on the strange side. There were days when Hawk wanted to befriend Pixie and act like they did before he turned his back on her and the others. He'd try to talk to her or, worse, say things to her that he knew, full well, would make her blush in a nervous sort of way.

Other days, Hawk just gave Pixie cold glares or said disparaging things in her general direction. That was the version of Hawk, Pixie noticed, that came out when she said anything about Wheeler. There were other things that seemed to trigger Hawk's cold behavior but talking about Wheeler seemed to be the big one, though. He really didn't like hearing about the scruffy, dirty blond haired baseball player Pixie had befriended.

Pixie shook her head, feeling her cheeks turn an interesting shade of pink. She couldn't say if the color was the result of her being angry or embarrassed, though. Dating Hawk was the last thing she wanted to do. There might have been a time, back when she was still in the Matrix and had no one else, when Pixie might have actually considered dating Hawk. She'd been too sick to do such things so the point was really moot.

After everything he did and said to her- Pixie was including the fight he'd had with Wheeler- the medic-in-training didn't really want to have anything to do with him. The fact they worked together was just something she knew she had to deal with. Pixie figured she was doing a passable job at that. She managed to ignore Hawk most of the time and not let him get to her.

Walking with her battered satchel slung over her shoulder's backpack style and her waist length hair in a braid that swung side to side like a horse's tail, Pixie didn't notice the person walking towards her until it was too late. She bunked into said individual, her boney shoulder and hip crashing into the other person's shoulder and hip.

"So, you're dating Hawk, huh?" stated the individual Pixie had just crashed into, "I thought you and he had that falling out. I guess working on a ship with someone will do that to a girl."

Pixie blinked for a moment, her apology evaporating off of her tongue, and gave the person she'd bunked into a very good look. The person's face became clearer- Pixie hadn't really been paying much attention to where she was going so she wasn't really seeing the other people walking along the catwalks that made up Zion's sidewalks- and a smile crossed Pixie's face. The natural reaction of a person would have been to be angry but, with this person, teasing was expected. It was just a good natured thing, not meant to hurt her feelings.

At least, that's what Pixie hoped. There were times her belief in the fact this person was doing things all in fun was stronger than others. At the moment, though, she figured that this was being done all in fun.

"No…no…I'm wouldn't do something like that, Aisling," Pixie, quickly, responded, "you know me better than that."

"Then why would he say something like that, Pix?" Aisling asked, turning her blue eyes towards Pixie and pushing back a short honey colored ponytail with one hand.

Pixie gave her friend a shrug and answered, "I don't really know and I'm almost afraid to actually find out what prompted him to say something like that. Just trust me when I say that I'm not going out with Hawk."

"Good to hear, Pix. I think, if Wheeler heard that you were, he'd be rather upset," the blue eyed young woman commented, as she walked with Pixie.

The brandy brown eyed young woman wasn't exactly sure why Aisling was following her but she didn't allow it to deter her from her chosen path. Aisling had her reasons for following Pixie and Pixie wasn't going to be allowed to know those reasons until her friend decided to reveal them to her. Besides, Pixie was glad to have some company. Especially when it was someone she hadn't spoken with in a good long while.

"So, where are we headed today, Pix?" Aisling wanted to know as Pixie continued to take a winding route through Zion's catwalk streets, "Just taking a walk to reacquaint yourself with the city or something?"

"Your brother's in Zion or is he still out with the Rebel Stand?" Pixie asked, catching Aisling off guard with her own question.

Aisling gave her Pod Born friend a sidelong glance, wondering where that question came from. It didn't appear to have anything to do with what they were talking about at the moment- Alright, what she was talking about since she was the one asking Pixie questions- and it didn't seem to have anything to do with Pixie's little walk about either. Aisling was starting to feel like Pixie was just walking around for the sake of walking around. Going in random directions just because she was either lost, which wasn't likely because Pixie wasn't some random new person fresh from their pod, or just confused. The latter might have been likely because Pixie was just a bit scatterbrained.

"Adoh's in the city somewhere. I don't know where because I'm not his keeper. He's a big boy now," Aisling answered, with a laugh.

A curious look crossed Pixie's face as she suddenly recalled something and she pointed out, "So, your brother's with Ngaio which is why you're not worried where he is. Is that right?"

Where Aisling had a teasing personality that could be considered abrasive at times, Adoh was the type of person who found everything fun. He was a friendly sort of person who'd talk to a wall if he had no one else to talk to. During her days at the Academy in Zion, Adoh had never failed to make Pixie laugh. His ability to make people laugh- or just make himself laugh- was welcomed when the lot of them were trying to study for exams. It was a pleasant way of taking a break from the stress of studying.

Though he was the friendly sort, his relationship with Pixie had been nothing but platonic. The two of them were buddies, almost brother and sister but not quite for some reason. Other than the fact they weren't blood related, of course. Either way, Aisling's twin brother had, as of about a year ago, give or take a few weeks on either side, decided to get closer to an Asian Pod Born friend of theirs who called herself Ngaio.

"Very good, Pix," Aisling laughed, "you figured it out! He's around here someplace with her. I figure the two of them are together, so they can't get into too much trouble."

"Adoh was never one to get into trouble in the first place," Pixie put in, "not on purpose anyway. Accidentally, now that's a different story. We all can't help it when we…accidentally….get into trouble."

"Good point," the other female stated.

A few beats passed before she asked, "Pixie, where in the world are we going? You taking a tour of Zion before you decide to go home or to Rain's or to wherever it is you're going today?"

Pixie turned and gave Aisling what had been unofficially dubbed a "pixie smile." It was one of those smiles that spoke of mischief and trickery and let Aisling know that she wasn't going to get the answer she was looking for. She had two choices on what she wanted to do. Either she continued to walk with Pixie and figure out just what the dark haired young woman was doing or leave and never know what she'd been up to.

Given those two options, Aisling decided just to go with Pixie and see what she was up to.

"I'm surprised you're here alone, actually," Pixie commented, looping back towards the docking bay, "Where's Conall?"

Aisling gave Pixie a look but she wasn't surprised that she recalled. Pixie might have been a scatterbrained medic but she still seemed to remember things. Remember them extremely well, actually. It was a fact that drove Aisling out of her mind. One of many things that drove Aisling crazy when it came to her Pod Born friend but, still, she figured Pixie couldn't help it.

Sometimes Pod Borns, in her estimation, were strange like that.

"Conall's not in Zion at the moment. He's working on the Vector Prime and you know the story with that ship, right?" Aisling answered.

Pixie grimaced at the thought of that ship. There were always rumors running around Zion about ships and their crews. That was just how things worked in the underground city. Sometimes the rumors were truth, other times, more often than not, they weren't. However, anything anyone heard about the Vector Prime was probably true. Especially when it related to the ship's First Mate and his rather…sketchy…antics.

"Poor Conall," Pixie, honestly, commented, "must be rough having to work on a ship where your First Mate wants to play chicken with Agents and your Captain keeps having to stop him. Actually, it has to be worse for him because he can't go into the Matrix. He has to watch all that stuff go on."

She headed towards the central portion of the docking bay- She'd only taken the long way to get there because she didn't want to get suck in crowded corridors- looking for those who knew where every ship in Zion's fleet was. Once upon a time, Torrent had told her about this place. Told her to come here if she ever wanted to know where he or any of her friends on ships were at any given time. He'd gone as far as to introduce her to one of his friends so she'd have someone to go to right away.

That was rather helpful since Pixie didn't want to bother random people with her little request. She figured they had better things to do with their time than deal with a silly request from a young adult who wanted to know where her friends were at any given time.

"Leu?" she asked, wandering over to an older looking woman with hair the color of steel who was completely engrossed in the computer she was working behind.

The older woman seemed not to hear Pixie. She was thoroughly engrossed in whatever was on the screen before her. The older woman could have been doing something of vital importance, giving coordinates to a ship that was near a ship in distress for instance, but Pixie wasn't entirely sure.

She gave the older woman a few moments before calling her name again.

Still the older woman didn't respond to Pixie's summons. She continued to work at the computer before her. Her hands moved with a speed that undermined her age. She was working fast, if not faster, than most young people in the fleet. Her fingers were very nearly flying over the strange looking keys on her keyboard. For some unknown reason- At least unknown to Pixie anyway- the keys on any Zion keyboard were adorned with strange looking symbols instead of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. They symbols on the keyboards bore a slight resemblance to the values that made up the Matrix code, giving Pixie the idea a clue as to why they were on the keyboards.

"Leucine," Pixie called, leaning around the computer.

Leu's- pronounced "Lou" even though that was a somewhat masculine nickname-head snapped up. It was rare for somebody to call her by her given name. Most everyone called her by her nickname, despite the fact she'd initially disliked it. After all, Leucine was a female and the nickname made her sound like a guy. Now, after man years of being called by the frustrating nickname, the name had grown on her.

Leucine was a Pod Born, a biochemistry Graduate Student during her days in the Matrix. She'd stumbled onto the Matrix while being asked to test an unknown biomolecule by men in dark glasses and black suits. She'd been given the choice to leave soon after, taking the name of one of the twenty amino acids and never looking back. She split her time between the few scattered science labs in Zion, Zion Control, and her tiny family, including three children bearing the names Alanine, Serine, and Glycine.

She spotted Pixie and gave her a slight wave. It was camaraderie among thieves as she noticed Pixie was wearing a beat up light green sweatshirt---an indication of someone either in the medical or science field.

"If it isn't Torrent's adopted kid," Leucine commented, "What brings you down here? Who are we looking for today?"

"I'd like some information about ships, Leu. Are the Shatterpoint or the Logos in?" Pixie questioned.

Leu typed in a command, pulling up the long list of ships that were currently active members of the Zion Fleet. The list detailed the locations of every ship and their communication status.

"The Shatterpoint docked yesterday- repair work, according to what I'm reading. Seems like Mace and company got into a bit of a scrape with some Squiddies. -and the Logos docked just before you. They're in for a routine recharging," Leucine informed Pixie.

"We've walked all over Zion and back again, just to find out if Wheeler and someone else- Who do you know that's on the Logos, Pix?- are in the city? I could have told you that Wheeler was in town," Aisling pointed out.

"Kind of, sort of yeah," Pixie, sheepishly replied, "and my friend Chian works on the Logos. She has a tendency to pop up when I least expect her so I like to know when she's around. She can't catch me at unawares if I know to watch out for her."

Aisling laughed and shook her head. That was far too much planning on Pixie's part, in her opinion. Almost borderline paranoid, actually.

"Just make sure you get back to your ship in time," Leucine commented, watching Pixie's smile and having a good laugh at the incredulous look being worn by Pixie's friend, "Don't want Captain Morpheus angry at you for holding him up because you were out and about with your friends."

"I'll make sure to get back on time," Pixie affirmed, "Thanks for your help."

Hefting her bag, which felt lighter than it usually did, Pixie began to wend her way to her own small home. She didn't have to think about where she was heading anymore; her feet knew their way. Aisling followed, swapping stories with her Pod Born friend. Adventures and misadventures were the order of the day.

There were people out on the catwalks even though it was early in the morning, Zion time. Small children raced back and forth as they waited for their parents to take them to their version of the Academy or with them wherever their parents were headed for the day. Older people headed towards their places of work, be it in a lab someplace or in one of the shops.

Pixie always considered it strange that people here got along. In the matrix, people fought all the time. Here everyone got along and, genuinely, wanted to help each other. Aside from the few squabbles had by the younger folks living in Zion, people were nice to each other.

She got to her door, opening it and taking in the state of her home. She laughed as she saw that someone had cleaned up in her absence. It wasn't like she was messy or anything like that, but she'd left a few things out of place the last time she was home. After all, she'd left in the middle of the night and she'd been in a bit of a hurry.

"You cleaned up before you left?" Aisling asked, shutting the door behind her, "You should see my place before I have to ship out. There are clothes and stuff everywhere."

"I try to," Pixie answered, "but I usually forget some things. I think Rain came down here and did some clean up work. I'm going to have to stop by and thank her."

"If by 'thank her' you mean show up and get invited to eat something, I'm all for it. Rain's a good cook," Aisling said, sitting down at one of the mismatched and worn chairs around Pixie's small table.

"I don't think she'd mind but I don't know what she's up to today," Pixie countered, starting to unpack her satchel and put things away.

She always traveled light so there was never a lot to, actually, put away. Besides, there wasn't a lot of room on the ship she called home to begin with. There were clothes that had to be washed or repaired and her small, handheld computer. That she placed in a niche in the wall.

"Where are we headed now?" Aisling asked, watching Pixie tip her last armload of clothing into a bin of clothes to be washed.

"I don't know," Pixie answered, "anyplace you want to go? Maybe go look for your brother and Ngaio?"

Pixie was eager to see all of her friends- not just Wheeler though he was high on the list- and she figured finding Adoh and Ngaio would be easier if Aisling was with her. After all, who knew Adoh better than his own twin?

"Nah….we can always catch up with them later. Let's go see Rain, find out if we're all free to eat with her, Torrent, and Eli later on," Aisling suggested, getting up and snagging Pixie's arm.

She knew that, once Aisling got an idea in her head, it was pretty hard to deter her from what she wanted. Besides, it would be nice to pay a visit to Rain.