Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Edit:8/13: I fixed some spelling errors, and changed some dialogue.

Ch.1

Night had fallen on a city with a large red metal wall. A large building in the center of the large fortress stood tall. It was the shape of an 'X' and it, too, was dyed crimson. Its shadow towered over a smaller building. Then suddenly without warning an explosion happens! Smoke, dark and thick, pours into air.

A young looking blonde girl ran as fast as she could, her exploration team of reploids followed suit, each trying to shoot the enemy behind them. The sound of laser fire made the young woman's adrenaline pump more. In the process she even lost her own hand buster in the confusing shoot out. She didn't hear her men drop like flies as the sounds of their screams were drowned out by her rapid heartbeat, But in her head her mind was screaming loud and clear.

They're innocent, it's not their fault!

She finally reached a dead end as she saw a large metal door; it was as tall as the room and had the word Zero engraved diagonally on a shape that was similar to a 'do not enter' sign. Her right eye scanner picked up an energy signature coming from the other side of the door. She quickly sought out the door's control panel and entered the number code.

"Is this it, Ciel, was our Intel correct?" Milan, one of the few men that were currently left, asked.

"I-if it wasn't, do you think it'd be so heavily guarded?" The young woman answered trying to keep her voice steady as the door shuttled open. Ciel did her best to stay focused on the mission, and not think about her men that had just died. The rest of what was left of her troop watched by the entrance for more Pantheon mechloids. Ciel and Milan walked over to the center of the room.

The room was a repair lab and in the center of the room was a reploid with a flaming crimson frame and a golden flowing main of hair. He was in a kneeling position, and he was in full repair.

"This is Zero, right?" Milan asked skeptically. "He's not some pantheon in disguise or a bomb?"

"He's right where our Intel said he would be," Ciel said as she looked at him up and down. He reminded her of a samurai in those old history clips she saw once when she was younger, except, she had never seen a blond samurai before.

Out of curiosity Milan wanted to get a closer look at him only to be knocked back by a shield barrier. There was no need to try and break it, though, Zero's protected unless he walks out of the shield. Ciel looked around the bubble and saw the control panel to activate Zero. As soon as she laid her hand on it the sound of her other two soldiers dying caught her and Milan's attention. Milan started shooting his rifle as a flood of Pantheon hunters came and blocked their only exit and when pantheons shoot they shoot to kill. Ciel's hands shook uncontrollably as she saw the functionless reploids. She was starting to feel dizzy.

They're all innocent!

"Ciel, get him activated, NOW!" Milan ordered as the two of them took cover behind the shield. Shaking off her queasiness Ciel worked faster than she had ever gone before. As she entered the last digit of the activation code, it happened.

BLAM!

Milan was shot and flew into the air landing just feet away from her. Ciel's mind didn't process anything after that. All she saw was the red oil that oozed out of her cherished friend. Time was standing still as her emotions hit in full blast. She was now seeing hundreds of reploid bodies, along with Milan's, all lifeless.

It's not his fault, it's not their fault! The reploids are all INNOCENT!

She felt numb, barely noticing the surge of high energy that went through the reploid in front of her. The energy flowing off of Zero in waves was the only thing to snap her out of her haze as they hit her. Finally finding her voice she then spoke in confirmation, "Zero has been reactivated."

Hearing a voice behind him, Zero turned around to see a shaking Ciel. His system check had told him he had been upgraded, no weapons, though. He then quickly noted the situation as heard the shots being fired at the barrier around him and saw the dead reploid by the human girl.

"Zero, please, help me!" that was all he need to hear to get him moving, weapons or not he was going to save her. He spotted a buster gun as he ran out of the protective bubble and grabbed it. Then he started shooting, and it took a couple of shots for the mechloids to go down like a ton of bricks. It would have been nice if he had his Z-saber, but no, he had to settle for some kiddy pop gun.

'Note to self, sue the manufacturer for lack of quality,' Zero thought as he ran and shot at the mechloids. Ciel was following him as he shot at more opponents. Bombs, spiders, and electrodes this place was a regular death trap. Finally, they got to a clearing but there was a problem. The panel to the elevator was busted and sparking.

Ciel walked ahead of him, "Oh, great, a dead end. Hold on, I'm going to try to jump start the lift." her voice was laced with frustration as she tried not to get electrocuted. Zero thought now would be a good time to ask a question that's been bugging him.

"Mind telling me what the heck is going on?" Zero urgently probed.

Before Ciel could give an answer a giant mechloid busted through the elevator doors in front of her, and grabbed her. The impact of its entrance was so large it broke the floor and wrecked the rooms below. If it didn't have a hold of Ciel, she would fell three stories.

"Zero, run you can't fight a Golem with a buster!" Ciel screamed. Zero, though, still tried with the buster but it did little damage.

"Rats," was all Zero said. Then suddenly a woman's voice over a wall intercom came up. The screen was fuzzy and distorted but the voice was clear.

"Zero, here, take this." The voice said and something shot out a chute underneath the intercom and stabbed the floor. It was his Z-saber! Then the voice continued, "hurry up and save her, you don't have a lot of time!"

Not needing to be told twice Zero grabbed his sword and took a big swing at the golem. As its arm broke off its grip loosened on Ciel. She and Zero both fell into the hole as the behemoth robot exploded. As they fell Zero holstered his saber and grabbed ahold of Ciel bridal style and landed on his feet. In a split second he dashed out of the way of the huge arm and wreckage of the explosion.

They landed in the basement of the building; dim lighting filled the room as they looked around then they saw a transfer platform. Then Zero absentmindedly took a look at Ciel; she had a helmet similar to his old helmet, except it was pink, white, and lacked any horns on it. She had a smooth blue gem on her forehead and long blond hair with blue eyes. She wore a pink vest and a red, pink, and yellow skirted uniform. He half wondered if her look was modeled after him or Alia. Hmm, could that voice on the intercom have been…

It took for Ciel to mumble something inaudible for Zero to realize he was still holding her in his arms… and staring at her. A blush crept up on his face as he gently set her down. "Ah, sorry about that," He muttered.

Ciel, too, was equally flustered as she stood up. "Its fine… thanks for saving me. I don't think I've ever seen anyone take down a golem. You really must be the legendary reploid, Zero."

"And if I'm not Zero," the reploid tested her. Zero wanted to know what her intentions for him were. "I mean, for all you know I could be evil or a copy?"

A somewhat frantic look crossed the blond girl's face as she shook her head rejecting his words. "But Alia said you would be here, she's the one who repaired you and gave you your sword!" Ciel blurted out nearly screaming.

Ah-ha, the voice was Alia, but Zero's deductive triumph was short lived. Making her own deduction, Ciel felt slighted by Zero. His trick was a blow to her self-esteem so she did the same with her next words.

"Besides, even if you aren't him, you're Zero in my eyes and that's good enough for me because you're the only one who can save us." Ciel pronounced full of confidents. She had lost too many friends and risked too much to have her hopes dashed. Too many people counted on her. Zero saw the fury in her eyes, her body language said she was about to cry, but instead she squeezed her eyes shut, and spun away from him. Then she began to speak once more.

"We need to go, another set of mechloids are probably coming soon. I'm going to check to see if this old Trans server still works. " she said all this as if she wasn't even upset. Zero was now worried, he was sure humans weren't supposed to pin up their emotions like she just did. He watched as she pressed random button on the terminal at a rapid pace.

"Okay, it works, I have our destination set." Ciel voiced, "I have it set two for transfer and then the computer will fry so we can't be tracked. As for any question you may have, please hold off on them until we get to the resistance base. Then I'll explain what I can."

'Resistance Base,' Zero wondered as he saw Ciel dissolve into a light on the Trans server. Was there a new maverick out break? Why did Alia send a human girl? He was unsure about what was going on, but right now, this transport was the only thing leading him to some answers. So stepping on the Trans server Zero headed into the unknown.

…

Ciel waited patiently as Zero arrived, this is the part she was dreading, he had questions. She had the answers, but that didn't mean he'd like them. In fact she was expecting the worst. Zero stepped off the platform and looked at the condition of the building. It was old and decrepit with rust coming off the walls.

"Welcome to our resistance base, Zero. Here we house injured reploids accused of being mavericks, "Ciel explained. "We've struggled hard to survive, but at the rate we're going we won't last much longer. That's why we were tasked to find you. You're our last hope, you and Megaman X fought alongside each other in the maverick wars one hundred years ago."

Zero listened to her hopeful plea and then spoke his mind, "why are you being branded as Mavericks, and why not ask X for help?" He felt the world was better off without him, especially with him having the Maverick virus. If none of the reploids were mavericks now they would be after being exposed to him.

"Officially, it's because there's an energy crisis going on. So the Neo Arcadian council has listed all civilian model reploids to be retired. As a scientist, I have been trying to work on a substitute energy that's renewable. Truth be told, though, civilian models have gradually being killed off for decades. The reason we have not gone to X is because… he's the one who's killing us." Ciel answered sadly.

This was a shock to Zero, X retiring innocent reploid, that's not possible. Anger rose in him, this girl had to be lying. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're wrong! My best friend, my brother, would never retire a reploid without a just cause. I want to see Alia; I want to know what she has to say about all this."

"It's not that sim-" Ciel stopped her defense mid-way when she heard the door behind her shift open. Little footsteps ran into the room. Ciel turned around as a small body rammed into her and wrapped their arms around her waist. Zero saw it was a small blond reploid girl with a cat doll on her head.

"Ciel, I'm so happy you're back!" the girl cried happily. She then looks at Zero, letting go of Ciel, she stands tall in front of him. She next held her hand out to him for him to shake, and smiled. "Hi my name is Alouette, are you Mr. Zero?"

Zero had to admit that she was really brave to just walk up to him and he wasn't the type to direct his anger at a child. He took her hand and said, "Yes, Ciel was telling me what's been happening out here. She tells me that bad things have been happening." He spoke to her in a simple way, he recalled X speaking to human children in this way.

Alouette nodded as he let go, "yeah, a lot of reploids all leave and never come back, I was scared when Ciel left with uncle Milan's group because she might not come back." She then turned back to Ciel and smiled, "but uncle Milan kept his promise and brought you back, right?"

Ciel looked down in sadness, and knelt in front of the little girl. "About Milan's group, Al… they won't be coming back either. Zero, here, was the one who got me out in one piece."

Alouette was in shock, "but he always came back before, did any of them come back?" Ciel shook her head as tears filled the little girl's eyes. Ciel wrapped her arms around Alouette and picked her up. Ciel refused to cry, not while Alouette was at her most venerable. Then Alouette asked through her sobs, "They aren't going to the crusher, are they?" Ciel hummed a 'no' and shook her head.

"Crusher?" Zero perked.

"It's the Disposal Center; it's where some reploids are taken to be crushed. Countless have already died in it." Alouette was squeezing Ciel, causing her to be distracted. Wait, that's it! "In fact if the Center were to break it would be an even bigger distraction then going to find you. So much a distraction, that we could see Alia without anyone knowing."

"So you want me to trash the place," Zero deduced.

"Yes, if you want to see Alia; all of X's men need to be scrambled in order for her not to get found out she's been helping us." Ciel said sternly, "I can make the arrangement, but only if the Center is taken down."

"And how do I know you'll how up your end of the bargain?" Zero asked crossing his arms.

"It's simple I'll go with you when we head to meet her."

"Okay, let's head out there right now, where do I need to go?" Zero wanted to get to the bottom of this madness and he wasn't willing to wait. He wanted to see the truth for himself. Ciel then sighed and shook head.

'Zero is certainly impulsive for having such a calm demeanor,' she thought.

By now Alouette had veered off to sleep and Ciel's arms were getting tired. So she told Zero he could look around the base until she was ready with the transfer to the Disposal Center. He looked around from room to room. Some other reploids greeted him, they looked worn out, and their uniforms had fiber fringes sticking out. Zero could clearly see that none of them were built for combat. A good majority of their rooms were empty. Zero then saw someone, but it wasn't what he expected.

It was an old reploid man. He was hunched over hold a cane; he had a long facial hair and bushy eyebrows. Then he spoke, "are you going to stand and stare at me all day or are you going to tell me your name, young'un?"

"Uh, my name is Zero," Zero stammered after snapping back from his thoughts.

"My name is André, but you can call me old Andrew. Say… you wouldn't happen to be related to that red hero from a hundred year ago, would you?"

"Well, actually-" Zero began to answer, but was interrupted by the elder.

"That was a powerful reploid, he kept X in check, but no one knows what happened to him, though. Stories say he went into exile, but my wife would have liked to think of a happier ending for him. I miss her so…"

"You have a wife?" Zero asked trying not to discuss anything about him.

"Had, my boy, had. She died from old age two years ago. She was a human, she had hair like the color of a raven and eyes as grey as a storm. She sung so beautiful, even birds couldn't compare. I was a sailor when I met her, sixty years ago. She would always go to the beach to sing."

"How did you get to be old?" Zero asked. He had to admit he was curious as to how André aged.

"Ah, well my wife was growing old, and she became ashamed of how she was looking, so I had Ciel make me look older. That girl is very good at what she does; she wants to help us live in peace. She could have gone pretended she was human, but instead she gave up a live of luxury to help us reploids."

"Pretending she was human, if Ciel's not human, what is she?" Zero certainly thought she was human, but then again her head gem and helmet were a slight give away

"Ciel is a…well I think she's an advance reploid, you know how tech is, and how it grows every day. She may have been a newer civilian model or something, maybe you should ask her. She's coming this way."

Ciel stopped a foot away from the red reploid, "I made the call to Alia, she'll probably respond once the Center's destruction has been reported." Ciel said as Zero turned around to face, "I hope I didn't keep you long?" she still held a neutral face with her arms folded in front of her.

"No, I was observing your soldiers, and then I met Andrew here, he told me about his wife and how you made him look older. He also mentioned about you being a civilian reploid." Zero replied coyly as he folded his arms.

Ciel felt on the spot, Zero had been digging for information, and she allowed it. The reploids here had nothing to hide. She on the other hand wanted Zero to still think she was human; the reason being was because Zero is a Maverick Hunter. Maverick Hunters attack any reploid they consider will put a human in harm's way. If Zero kept thinking she was a human helping reploids then there was a chance of survival, but now if it were just reploids wanting to defend themselves they were consider a threat to humanity and need to be destroyed. She wasn't human, that was true, but she wasn't a reploid either. Ciel need to explain her predicament quickly, for she could see Zero was poised to strike as his hand was on the hilt of his saber.

"I'm not a reploid, but I'm not human either, I'm a cyborg. I'm they only one of my kind as far as to my knowledge." Ciel explained. She steeled her resolve as she saw the shock on Zero's face.

This threw Zero for a loop, there are no protocols for what to do about cyborgs, heck, and there weren't any cyborgs a hundred years ago. Were they considered humans or reploids? His scans picked up no hostility or the sigma virus. She just stared a waited for him to figure out this information he just learned. He decided to go with his gut and give Ciel the benefit of the doubt. Besides he wouldn't want another 'Repli-force' incident. He let go of the hilt of his sword.

"Fair enough, when can I leave out?" he asked.

"Whenever you're ready, you can use the trans server to get where you need to go," Ciel responded. Zero nodded and bid Andrew farewell. Just as he bypassed Ciel she said something, but this time letting a smile break through her mask. "Zero, please be careful."

ZZZ