Previously:

"X? His name does sound familiar. Is he still around?"

"She is still alive, Zero. And she's trying to retire all of us, namely the reploids."

Chapter 3

Rise of the Resistance

Zero surveyed the interior of the base with interest as she walked down the run-down hallway. Thinking back, the reploid wondered why she had agreed to help Ciel. Also, the flashes that snapped within her vision as she was talking to the young scientist, bothered her more that she would like to admit.

-15 Minutes Prior-

"Alright...I'll lend you my assistance." Zero replied with the determined expression that mirrored Ciel.

"Thank you, Zero." Ciel smiled in relief, walking over to the repliod and pulling her into a tight hug. "Thank you so much."

"You're...welcome?" Zero blinked in confusion at the sudden gesture. A sudden change in the scenery flashed in her eyes before fading back again.

"It's like a dream come true." Ciel released the hug and stepped back, still smiling. "Why don't you explore our base a little? Get used to the place. I'll call for you once I'm ready."

"But...Ciel." Zero started. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Don't worry about me." The young scientist gave a light nod, her head lowering slightly. "I...just need some time alone for a while."

"Ciel..." Zero raised her hand over to Ciel, surprising the younger girl with a light pat on the head. "I may not be the best psychological councillor. But if you have any problem, don't hesitate to come to me."

"Yes, Zero." Ciel nodded, a single tear of gratitude pooling at the corner of her eyes.

Zero gave her usual cheeky grin to the younger girl and exited the room.

-Present time-

"U...Um..." A timid voice jolted Zero back from her memory. The reploid turned around, looking down to the source of the voice to see a small reploid girl staring back up at her, hugging a stuffed toy in her own arms tightly.

"Yes, little one?" Zero knelt down to the small reploid's height, smiling gently at the girl. "How may I help you?"

"Y-You are the one who saved Ciel, didn't you?" The girl asked, her timid voice trembling in scared curiosity.

"Well, you can put it that way." Zero chuckled sheepishly. "I did promised to bring her back home after all."

The girl's nervous expression was replaced with a bright smiling one. It was as if she realised that the female reploid was not scary at all.

"My name is Alouette." The girl was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Big-sis Ciel named me. What's yours?"

"Hmm...Lil' Alouette." Zero smiled as she patted the small reploid's head. "I'm Zero. That's what they call me."

"Nice to meet you, Big-sis Zero." Alouette took a polite bow.

"You too, little one." Zero returned the gesture with a good-natured nod. "Say, lil' Alouette. I'm pretty new here, and I may get lost easily. Why don't you bring me around the base?"

"Un!" The small reploid nodded and grabbed onto Zero's hand, soon tugging and leading the older reploid behind her.

"Say, Big-sis Zero." Alouette started after they passed by several soldiers, who either smiled or nodded at the pair. Some more enthusiastic ones went right up to thank the older reploid for rescuing Ciel. "Have you ever heard of Cyber-Elf?"

"Cyber...Elf?" Zero tilted her head slightly in confusion.

"Yes." The small girl continued. "A Cyber-Elf if an electronic entity that gives out some kind of power. Some unknown power."

"Wow, that's great." Zero mused in awe.

"However..." Alouette's expression went downcast as she continued her explanation sadly. "Once they used their power, they die on the spot. I feel sorry for them."

"Lil' Alouette..." Zero knelt down in front of the girl, a hand reached out and placed on Alouette's shoulder. "If they had help us with their power, and if it's for something right, their death is not for naught."

"But..."

"When that happens." Zero continued, albeit solemnly. "We will have to carry on with their wills. Not by feeling sad for them, but by living to the fullest for them."

"Really?" Alouete looked up unconvincingly at the older reploid.

"Trust me. I know." Zero was slightly puzzled at her own choice of words.

The bright smile returned to Alouette's face. "Okay!" She reached out and tugged on Zero's hand again. "Then I'll live my life to the fullest for them." She began tugging the older reploid around. "Come on, we still have part of the base to look around."

The rest of the short tour was just as interesting, if not more than Zero's expectation. Most of the Resistance's crew smiled and thanked the crimson reploid for her deeds. Some even invited her to have a couple of drink with them, in which Zero politely rejected, reasoning that she would drop by when she had the time.

One of the few minor setbacks showed up in the form of an old, and somewhat perverted, reploid by the name of Andrew, who made an attempt to extend a groping hand towards Zero from behind.

The plan itself was instead thwarted by a surprisingly harsh kick into the shin from Alouette, and immediately followed up with an instinctive overpowered backhand slap from Zero that sent the poor old Andrew into a wall.

Zero was half tempted to apologise for her action when Alouette chided the older reploid, saying somewhere along the line that the old pervert 'deserved his just dessert'.

Finally, the pair reached their last destination within the base. The generator control room, where the base's control over the main source of energy source originated.

"This is the last place of our tour." Alouette gestured to the individual room at the end of the hallway. "There's one person that would like to meet you."

"Is he the same as the perverted geezer just now?" Zero raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Because I really don't want to hit another person."

"Not. At. All!" Alouette emphasised each word with a hmph. "And old grandpa Andrew deserve every single hit we gave him."

"If you say so." Zero chuckled at Alouette's distaste at the particular incident. Though it would be a lie to say that she did not feel a hint of guilt herself. "Let's meet this person you're talking about."

"Okay." Alouette approached the door and raised her small fist, tapping on the door. "Cerveau! Are you in?"

The door beeped as it unlocked and hissed open. "Come on in." A voice said from within. "I'm just about to finish a report."

"I'm entering." Alouette announced as the pair entered the room, where the floor was almost entirely littered with bolts and machinery parts. "Cerveau? Where are you?"

"Here." A reploid stepped out from behind a pile of clattered metals, snapping an electronic pad in his palm shut. The said replied was dressed in a long green coat, the surface smeared with machinery grease and dirt. A green visor masking his eyes. "What can I do for you today, kiddo?"

"I want you to meet someone." Alouetted stepped to the side, showing Zero to the reploid. "Cerveau, this is Big-sis Zero. Big-sis Zero, this is Cerveau."

"Hi there." Zero waved at the man with her cheeky grin. "Nice to meet you."

"Oh...oh..." Cerveau blinked a couple of times as his processor took some time to process the view before himself. "OH! My! So you're Zero!" He rushed forward and grabbed Zero's right hand with both of his own, shaking it profusely. "To think I'd get to meet the legendary reploid in a place like this!"

"Y-Yeah." Zero felt that, if she were a human, her arm would have been torn off from such a vigorous handshake. "I'm honoured."

"Oh! And where are my manners." Cerveau caught sight of Alouette's miffed glare. "As kiddo said here, allow me to introduce myself again." He gave a polite bow. "I'm Cerveau, main engineer of the Resistance."

"Engineer?" A spark of interest ignited within Zero.

"Yes." Cerveau nodded as he gestured for the pair to follow himself. "And I've seen the recorded footage from Ciel." The three stopped in front of a large screen. "From what I've seen, when Ciel was saved by you." Cerveau popped a short video clip recorded from Ciel's point of view. "We have come to the conclusion that your combat capability is...limitless."

"Elaborate." Zero watched herself fought against the Golem within the video.

"Let's take the shotgun buster you received from Milan for example." Cerveau gestured at the said weapon the female reploid possessed. "I was the one who build it based on a blueprint I discovered some time ago, and gave it to Milan to help further improve his combat prowess."

"Impressive..." Zero unhinged the weapon from the holster. "You made this?"

"In a way." Cerveau replied with a hint of pride in his voice. "But its latent potential isn't discovered until you held it." He pointed at the features of the gun, and Zero realised that the design was slightly altered from when she first saw it.

"It's certainly different from the time when Milan handed it to me." Zero noted to the engineer, who smiled at the observation.

"It's reacting to you." Cerveau explained. "Although I'm still puzzled at the evolution of a weapon itself, it's safe to say that now it's more powerful than before." He pulled a screen up from the desk beside himself. "Now the shotgun can be charged to fire off more powerful shots. I'd say it's a great improvement."

"Nice." Zero could not resist an excited grin creeping onto her lips.

"I know you've lost almost all your memories." Zero glanced up from the buster to see Cerveau looking at her solemnly. "But your body remembers the skills that you've learnt and mastered before the hibernation." He turned to the pile of junk parts at the side of the desk, idly picking up and twirling them in his palm. "Supposedly, your memories has been, and should still be, improving since you obtained the beam sabre."

"I certainly hope so..." Zero muttered as she clasped her hand on the holster strapped onto her left thigh, within it held the handle of the sabre. "Mah, I'll deal with it when the time comes." She shrugged with a nonchalant grin.

"You're surprisingly carefree about it." Cerveau chuckled as he faced Zero again. "But there's no need to worry. Everything you've known during the battles in your past life, will eventually return in no time."

"That's reassuring." Zero replied with a grin-turned-smirk. "And thanks, for telling me these things."

"I do what I can." Cerveau said just as the communicator crackled to life on his work table. "Yes, Cerveau here." He picked up the device with a smooth click.

[Cerveau, Ciel here.] A familiar voice rang through the communicator. [Is Zero there?]

"Yes, she's with me." The engineer cast a sideways glance at the said reploid. "Is anything the matter?"

[I need Zero with me now.] Ciel said with a slight urgency. [May I trouble you to pass on the message?]

"Got it." A teasing grin was sent towards Zero. "You heard the lady."

"On my way." Zero was already moving towards the door, passing by Alouette who had dozed off on Cerveau's work chair with a light pat on the girl's head. "And Cerveau." She turned back just before the opening door. "Thank you." She gave a mock salute and backed out of the control room.

"You're welcome." Cerveau returned the grin and salute. "Feel free to talk to me any time."

It did not take the combat reploid long to return to the briefing room that she left Ciel before her exploration within the base. A light press on the button at the side of the door frame was followed by a hiss as the door slid open. Zero stepped into the room to see that Ciel was typing away at her terminal.

"I'm here as you've requested." Zero's voice jolted the smaller woman in her seat with a squeak.

"Zero!" The scientist looked up to see that the reploid was already standing in front of herself. "I'm sorry! I was distracted."

"It's alright." Zero had her usual grin on. "So, you needed me..."

"Right." Ciel caught on the hanging words and quickly displayed a map on a large screen behind herself. "I've a request whenever you're ready."

"As ready as I can ever be." Zero smiled reassuringly as she studied the digital map on the screen. "So what is the mission we're talking about here?"

"One that none of us have ever accomplish successfully before." Ciel faced the map as well, her expression turned grim. "One that cost many of the reploids' lives."

"And it involves..." Zero's tone was serious, devoid from her usual cheerfulness.

"The destruction of the disposal facility." Ciel finished the sentence. "Where they retire innocent reploids one after another."

"Hmm..." Zero stepped up to the screen. "So dare I assume that this map shows the location of the facility itself?"

"Yes." Ciel zoomed in to a particular section of the map. "This is the route from the entrance of our base to the facility itself, which thankfully was not too far from the base itself."

"Seems to me that they'd never suspect the area where reploids are being sent to their death." Zero visually copied the details of the map into her own memory bank.

"However, they may be retiring even more falsely accused reploids as we're speaking." The scientist turned to face Zero. "So Zero, to prevent any more loss of innocent reploid lives, I ask of you, please, destroy the dreaded facility."

"Consider it done." Zero replied solemnly. "I'll save those reploids."

"Thank you, Zero!" Ciel's eyes lit up with hope as she took a deep bow. "Thank you!"

Zero flashed a serene smile as she reached out and patted Ciel on her head. "This is the least I can do." She saluted just as Ciel straightened herself. "Zero, executing mission." The combat reploid turned and approached the door.

"Zero!" Ciel's voice caught the reploid's attention just as the door open. "Be careful."

Zero flashed another smile, this time her usual cheeky grin as she mock saluted and disappeared down the hallway towards the direction of the elevator.

A half-charged plasma shot tore through the metallic body of a Neo-Arcadian reploid, rendering the single-programmed machine useless.

Zero slid her shotgun buster back into its holster. Surrounding her laid wasted bodies of dozens similar reploids, scattered throughout the area.

Most of the four miles trip was laid with several ambushes which were thought to have worked. The crimson reploid quickly proved them wrong for the past fifteen minutes.

However, what truly disgusted Zero was the ruined condition of the city that served as her battleground. Excluding the ambushes, the entire area was devoid of life. Even the carpet of weed were turning yellow and dry from the lack of water they could extract from the metallic wrecks they managed to grow on.

"Ciel." Zero pressed the communication button at the left side of her materialised helmet. "I need a confirmation of what I'm seeing." She glanced up to the looming shutter gate at the side of a even larger building. "Do you have the visual from my feed?"

[D-92.] Ciel's voice spoke through the slight static. [This is it, Zero.]

"Alright Ciel, from here on I'll need maintain radio silence with you." Zero explained as she flipped the handle of her sabre into her palm. "We have no information of the interior of the facility. And no matter how secure this channel is, I don't want to risk it being hacked through and traced back to the base."

[Understood.]

Zero then clicked the communicator entirely off, although she was certain that she heard Ciel almost said something else. "Alright." The reploid ignited the sabre with a flick of her wrist. "Resuming objective." She raised her leg and thrust a sideways kick at the gate.

To call the place, that she personally invited herself into, a disposal facility was a complete understatement.

"Just how much did they spend on building this?" Zero scanned the interior of the building, recording the feed into her internal memory bank. "It's more of a research and development headquarters than anything else..."

Looking around, the combat reploid found a datapad welded into the wall just beside the door nearest to the shutter gate she broke through.

Striding towards the terminal, Zero tapped rapidly on the keypad, collecting the blueprint of the building's internal structure.

"This really is a disposal facility, given their security system on this." Zero chided with a light smack on the terminal. "It's practically non-existence!"

Scanning her surroundings once again and comparing with the blueprint map within her memory, the reploid made her way through the large hallway, further into the building.

The short trip was a breeze with no guards defending the building from intruders. Zero soon reached her destination, a door with the word [Administrative] printed across it.

The door hissed open automatically as soon as Zero stood within range of the sensors, revealing terminal placed at the far end of the oddly large room.

Before the terminal stood a tall reploid, its motif resembling that of a bird of prey. Noticing Zero's presence as soon as she stepped into the room, the unnamed reploid turned around, facing the intruder.

"Who goes there?" Those were the first words that came out from the avian reploid, whose feature hardened into a scowl at Zero.

"He~h." Zero was already smirking cheekily as she replied. "A talking bird. I'd have thought that the head janitor would be more humanoid in appearance."

"I will let that insult slide for now, since I do not believe I have seen you before..." The other reploid took a threatening step forward. "State your business."

"Well..." Zero glanced around, everywhere except at the avian reploid, when she came to a realisation that the floor she was standing on was in fact a metal mesh platform.

"Well?" The tall reploid took another step towards Zero.

Through the mesh she could barely make out several silhouettes staring fearfully up. "He...Help..." A strained voice croaked from the general direction.

"Well, someone asked a favour from me." Zero looked back up towards the other reploid. "To save the wrongfully accused from being sent to their premature death."

"Is that so..." The reploid too glanced downwards before returning his glare to Zero. "The resistance, I see. Then I'm afraid I'll have to halt your progress here."

"I was hoping that we can talk this out." Zero gave a nonchalant shrug. "Maybe we can end this without a conflict?"

"It pains me to admit it." The bladed wings of the tall reploid sparkled with electricity as it slid into a combat stance. "But I, Aztec Falcon, has been tasked by Harpuia, one of the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia, to handle with the disposal of the Mavericks."

"Then you left me with no other choice." Zero already had her sabre in hand, the blade ignited with a low hum. "Let's make this an interesting fight, shall we?"

"You are one strange reploid." Aztec Falcon revealed a slight smirk.

"I've been told that..." Zero seemingly phased out of existence, reappearing directly in front of the avian reploid. "Enough times to take it as a compliment." She let loose a horizontal swing of her sabre.

The swipe was met in the middle of the two combatants with a vertical slash, enhanced with electric sparkles. The collision literally displaced the air around the blades, shaking the arena with the sheer strength place behind the blows.

At the same instance, the platform jerked once before it began its descend.

"Well now, that's unexpected." Zero broke away from the stalemate, glancing down at the descending platform.

"My task continues, even in combat." Aztec threw itself forward, its right wing angled forward to thrust a stab at the female reploid.

Zero angled her torso to the side and returned a stab of her own. The attacked was parried by the second wing-blade, and Zero immediately followed up with tumbling axe-kick, nicking the jawline of Aztec, and forcing the avian reploid several steps backwards.

"Oh?" Aztec took a glance at the nick with surprised interest. "Not many opponents I've faced done any damage me, let alone hitting my face."

"Guess I've got the honour to be the first to do that?" Zero gave a light smirk As she righted herself, facing the other reploid in a relaxed stance.

"You are the second to have done so." Aztec sped forward, bringing his right wing-blade down onto Zero, who countered with an upward swipe of her own. "The first, turned into scraps immediately after he managed the feat."

"Aw, what a waste." Zero backflipped from a horizontal swipe, her right hand reaching for her buster grip, which was followed with almost inaudible whine, indication of a shot being charged. "He would have been proud of what he had done."

"It was a waste, indeed." Aztec replied solemnly as he readied his next attacks.

It may seemed to be a long fight, which was in actuality less than half a minute, for the two combatants locked in a literal death match.

The platform which served as their arena was already reaching its halfway mark.

However, to Aztec, something did not play right at all.

Damage indication warnings were blaring red within his own visual display. Not just for one area. Multiple areas.

Half of his left wing-blade had broken off, his right wing-blade was not faring any better, with nicks scattered along the edges. Cracks lined throughout his entire body, the tips of his talons chipped. His core energy was running on critical low.

And yet, the reploid standing before him was not even breaking a sweat. The only noticeable damage on the female reploid was a few stands of singed hair where his electrified blade was less than half a centimetre from decapitating Zero's head.

"To think...that the resistance..." Aztec shakily stood up from his kneeling position. "Has such a powerful...reploid."

"I'm honoured." Zero aimed her buster at the avian reploid, releasing a charged shot. "You aren't that bad either."

Aztec dodged the shot and charged at Zero in full speed, his remaining wing-blade snapping open into a pincer with an attempt to clamp it shut against Zero's head.

Zero responded with an upwards swipe of her sabre, knocking the blade out of the way, at the same time shattering the electrified metal into multiple pieces.

The time took for the staggered reploid to recover was enough for Zero to take aim with her buster and fire another charged shot into the undefended torso of Aztec, which broke the armour plates apart and exposed the interior, and immediately followed up with several rapid shots.

Sparks began to erupt from the damaged components as Aztec crumpled to his knees, his face now levelled with Zero's. His status evaluation had stated that one of the shots penetrated his power core, completely rendering it useless.

"Strong..." Aztec muttered, his power core losing energy with every passing seconds. "I failed...you...Lady...Har...pu...ia..." Those were the last words before Aztec shut down completely, his body locking itself in place as light bled out from his eyes.

[General Command System Disengaged. Initiating Fail-Safe Protocol] The platform slowed its descend to a stop, followed by loud clank as the platform was locked in place.

"Lady Harpuia, huh..." Zero returned her buster to its holster, her sabre switched off, but still held in her hand. She then turned her attention to what was beneath the platform through the mesh. "Are you alright down there?"

"Uh...we're cool." Came the shaky reply. "A little bit shaken though."

"Alright, may I have everyone of you stand against the wall?" Zero reignited her sabre. "I'm going to cut a hole through this, and don't want any potentially lethal debris to hit you."

"Okay, got it." There were scuttling of feet until the voice replied again. "We're in position, ready whenever you are."

"Gotcha'." Zero flipped her sabre into a reversed grip, the tip of the plasma pointed downwards. "And you may want to cover your ears, this is going to get really loud."

The subsequent stab was accompanied with a loud screech as Zero dragged the overheating beam across the meshed platform, inching slowly to cut a hole large enough to fit at least two of herself side-by-side.

At the last section of the cut, the isolated part of the platform gave way to its own weight and fell down, crashing onto the floor beneath with a sound akin to that of a dull thud.

Zero switched off her sabre and slid it back into her thigh holster, locking it in place with a soft click.

De-materalising her helmet, Zero knelt beside the freshly cut hole and poked her head through the gap. Her long flowing hair slipped pass her nape, drooping over her head as her vision was tilted upside down. "I take it that none of you are hurt?"

"Nothing beyond a few scratches and teeth-chattering fear for our lives, no pressure." The speaker walked up to the opening, revealed to be a male reploid dressed in the Resistance fatigue. "You really saved our skins back there. Thanks."

"Just doing a friend a favour." Zero grinned as she counted the number of trapped reploids. Six in total. Two, including the speaker, could be identified as Resistance members. "Is that all of you here?"

"Yeah. The both of us were captured when we were patrolling the vicinity." The other Resistance reploid said,then gestured and the remaining four. "The rest were already here when they hauled our sorry asses in."

"I see." Zero tilted forward and flipped herself through the hole landing softly beside the reploids. "And I take it that you've tried opening this door." She approached the said door, rapping her knuckles light against the rusted steel.

"The door locks from outside. And trying to break through it hurts, a lot." The first reploid subconsciously rubbed his shoulder.

"I see." Zero took a couple of step away from the door. "Stand behind me, I'll try get this out of the way." The reploid saw the she had already armed her buster and hastily followed her instruction.

Zero released a charged shot, slamming a significant dent into the door. She then sprinted forward, hopping a little and thrusting a sideways kick into the dent. The door was not able to withstand the blunt force of both consecutive hits as it was literally blown outwards, crashing into the opposing wall.

"Problem, solved." Zero grinned as she holstered her buster. She turned back to the gawking reploids. "Come on. The building's directory I've extracted into my memory pointed that the Trans Server isn't far from here. Let's get you guys out of here."

The reploids broke out of their stupor and nodded, following their saviour's lead.

Reviews much appreciated. XD

Preview:

"I believe that this mission is not something new to most of you. Many have tried. Some had succeeded, some had failed."

Author's Note:

I'm still alive! Yay!

…

No, wait, I meant: THIS STORY is still alive! Yay!

Sorry to stay on an unannounced hiatus for so long. Life, work, searching for more work, games, and overall laziness prevented me from writing story consistently. And the worst mistake I've ever made, was losing the drive to continue this.

Somehow I've regained the passion of writing.

And here, I cannot promised consistence update on this story. And no, I'm definitely not giving up on Return of the Crimson Maiden. Just that I can only update whenever I have the chance.

Ret-Fool out!