Hey guys! Before I say anything else, I want to thank you guys so much for all the reviews you have given me. They help me out so much, and I can't even begin to describe how happy I feel when I get them! Thank you so much!

That being said, I present to you a new series I've been wanting to do for a long time, now. This series is sort of like "Echoes of a Renonsance Cascade", by that I mean it will be a collection of short stories, all told from a rebel's point of view, as the title implies. I hope you will enjoy it!

Based on: Half-Life 2 (Valve)
Rating: K+ for some (very) slight violence.
Author's Notes: Think of this as a little example of how I plan to write the series. I don't plan on using any journal entries as an introduction, more-so just stories that tells about a rebel and what they're going through. This story's actually pretty short--by that I mean only about 2,300 words.

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"Let me assure you that the suppressing field will be shut off the day that we have mastered ourselves…the day we can prove we no longer need it. And that day of transformation, I have it on good authority, is close at hand."

The woman sighed to herself as she was finally glad that the never-ending cycle of Doctor Breen's faked soothing words had taken a break to show the Combine's logo once again. She didn't know how many times she has heard that Breencast before, but that's all that was playing for the past few days now. She could basically recite the entire thing herself if she really wanted to, but she was still so sick of hearing it.

That television set and its never ending propaganda was actually the only voice that even talked to her, anymore. Everyone else was taken by a raid by some Metro Cops, but lucky for her she was busy getting that bag of crap they call food at the time. She came back to notice her roommates gone, one of them being her husband.

She didn't know why she just stayed here after she realized everything was gone. The disappearance of her husband was all the more reason to escape City Seventeen, yet she couldn't leave. She couldn't figure out why. Maybe fear had finally corrupted her mind—it was pretty hard to sleep at night, now, without the comfort she got from the others. She felt like a child again, wanting to sleep in her parents' bed after having a bad dream.

Of course, this wasn't a bad dream. This happened to be what had happened to her life. She couldn't really remember anything about her life twenty years ago; the only thing she could remember was her wedding day. Even that was slowly drifting into fog each day she sat here alone.

She sighed as she gently patted the knee of one of her crossed legs. The Combine's logo soon disappeared from the television, letting Doctor Breen's smiling face take the screen once again.

"Let me read a letter I recently received. 'Dear Doctor Breen: Why has the…Combine…seen to fit to suppress our reproductive cycle? Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen."

The way he said that one word made the woman laugh, followed by a slight grunt.

Combine…the way he said it sounded so funny; it was as if he wasn't sure if that really was the name for those creatures. It was as if she was back in middle school, and Doctor Breen was another one of her substitute teachers that could never figure out how to say her last name, adjusting their glasses as they tried to say each syllable as correctly as they could.

San…Sino…look, I can't say your last name. Just let me know if you're here or not.

She just smiled to herself as that piece of imagery floated past her mind.

Doctor Breen continued his little propaganda, acting motivational and as though everything was fine and shall forever be fine.

She let a little grunt pass her lips as she began to tap her boot on the broken wooden floor. She was just about tired of listening to this. It was as if it was beginning to brainwash her. That's all she could think about at the moment: The Combine are here to help us overcome our 'instincts'.

"Just shut up."

She acted as though saying those three words to the air would do something. She acted as though it would just end this, all of this, take life back to the way it used to be. Although, it was obvious nothing would happen. Doctor Breen just continued with his little speech, making hand gestures and trying to act as though he understood.

"Just…shut up."

She rose from her chair, now, standing still yet tall. Her mind just sort of went in an auto-pilot mode, it just seemed. It felt empty, yet for some reason it had a goal it kept grasped inside her head. Looks like that goal was about to be reached.

She simply walked over to the television, her breaths coming in short yet deep intervals. She took one look at the set before her, dull blue eyes whose irises had faded to gray focused directly on the screen. Everything was quiet for a moment. Then everything went hectic.

Without seeming to have any second thoughts, she flipped the table over. The television's plug snapped from its outlet, creating a short yet bright spark before it tumbled to the floor. Its glass screen cracked as it hit directly with the corner of a raised board of wood, however it kept itself from shattering. She just stood there and stared at it, her breaths slightly harder than they were before. Then the silence came back to wrap itself around the lonely being yet again.

She didn't know how long she just stood there. It seemed like ten minutes, but to her it felt like days and years had gone by. She sighed as she thought she felt her lips quiver. One of the Combine's regulations was no loud noises after six o'clock. Well, that crash was loud, but she couldn't figure out what time it was. The clock over on the kitchen wall didn't tell her any answers; the hands stopped moving a long time ago, so it said it was a few minutes away from nine o'clock all the time.

Maybe time just wasn't moving. Maybe that's why she just stayed here—it was because her soul was frozen in time. Her body was just lifeless, yet somehow it was able to move. She couldn't exactly grasp that.

She thought she heard herself let out a gasp as though she was about to cry. Her eyes squinted as she noticed her vision was getting blurry—she was beginning to cry, alright.

A few moments passed as the tears forced their way through her squinted eyes. She took another deep breath from sadness, as she continued to stand there.

"Stop it."

She couldn't figure out who she was saying that to. Maybe it was to the world, maybe it was to her. She didn't want to cry. Maybe that's what she was doing—telling herself to stop crying all together. Or maybe she was telling the world to leave her alone, leave us alone; let life go back to the way it was.

That didn't seem possible anymore, however. She lived through twenty years of this. She was hoping she would be able to start life anew with her husband, having a family…

Something banged against the door, interrupting her thoughts. The sounds were so loud, she almost mistaken it for thunder.

"Open up!" Shouts were soon on the other side of the door, followed by the sound of something pounding once again. The woman sighed as she tried to hold in her tears. She most likely looked terrible, but it didn't matter in the slightest—you could be bleeding to death and the Combine wouldn't care. That's just the way they wanted it to be.

"Yes?" She said the words so weakly that it wasn't surprising that the cops didn't seem to hear it. They just kept pounding the door, continuously demanding her to open it. She finally began to move her legs, feeling weaker and weaker with every step she took. Maybe she was just nervous. Or maybe she was just sick to her stomach.

She cracked the door open a little, only enough so that a small portion of her face could be seen.

"Yes?" She repeated again. She hated looking at the Combine directly; it just felt so…wrong, to her. Here she was, looking at someone once human, who gave in to help build the horrible future they say is for the better of mankind. She didn't know what they were thinking. She didn't know what she was thinking.

Metro Cops never talked. They always used their stun sticks to do that. One of the cops pushed the door open, nearly making her fall over. They walked right in, with one of them pointing to corners of the tenement and giving commands that seemed to be just a bunch of numbers to her. There were only two others with him, yet it seemed like more than they needed for…whatever they were going to do to her.

She stood there as she watched the others ran around the house, with the commanding one standing still before her. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She was just given a chance to run away, but that might result in hot lead meeting with her flesh. Looks like fear really did corrupt her mind, now. One of the cops kicked the broken television in order to flip it over, saying a bunch of numbers towards the commanding cop. She didn't understand it once again, but the way he said it made him seem angry about it.

She didn't even have to think about the rest—she knew what was going to happen to her. The cop that was standing still the entire time removed his stun stick from his belt, snapping it on and looking as though he was ready to beat her down.

This time she knew fear was beginning to take over her mind. She slowly slipped back as she looked around, trying to find somewhere to escape. The two other cops followed the first one's example, and unclipped their stun sticks as well. They slowly backed her into a corner, making her come to a realization that she was stuck and there was no way she was escaping their grasp. They came at her so slowly, however; it was as if they enjoyed the emotional damage they were causing her.

She wanted to scream at them to just get it over with. She just wanted them to do whatever the hell they wanted to—it didn't matter what it was. They could kill her or take her away, she had no reason to be here anymore, anyway.

Then she felt something slip under her hand. It wasn't really much—it was nothing but a worn-out boot. But that gave her an idea.

She didn't know what exactly made her do it. But she was just about tired of having the Combine boss her around. She grabbed the boot and wacked the cop closest to her, right across his forearm. The force wasn't so strong, so all the cop really did was flinch, but that was just enough for her to tear his stun stick right out from his hand. This might have been the first time in her life she has ever held a weapon before. But that didn't matter in the slightest.

Without giving the cops a chance to even figure out what was going on, she took a swing at the one she had stolen the stun stick from. He fell to the ground with an electronic scream, his radio listing off his location after its bio signs seemed to go flat. The other cops made frantic cries to each other as one made another swing at her. She blocked the attack with her own stun stick, sparks flying around as they just barely missed her face. She pushed the cop out of the way and took a swing directly for his head, letting a scream followed by a crack of his mask be heard before the body hit the ground.

The other cop seemed to be showing fear, now. How ironic that was. She was the one being afraid this entire time, and now she was in control. The cop seemed to be reaching for its belt, but she stopped him short. She laughed to herself as the cop fell down with the others, noticing he was trying to reach his pistol this entire time.

At that moment, everything seemed still. She took a long, good glance of the three bodies before her, turning off the stolen stun stick and placing it onto the floor beside her. Did she really just do that? Did she really just kill three of the Combine?

There was no point of denying it now. She had killed them, alright—the blood and bodies was enough to prove it. She thought she felt a smile crack up her lips, as the destruction before her pleased her.

She kneeled beside one of the corpses, looking right into the golden-tinted goggles. It wasn't so hard to look at them directly, anymore. Courage seemed to fill her heart now, something she hadn't felt in years.

Why she did what she did next was something she couldn't figure out. She unbuckled the two belts of the cop, placing it around her waist, now. Then she removed the vest from the corpse, placing it on herself. It felt good to her, for some reason. This vest was something that kept her mind thinking about what she just did. It was…proof, that what happened actually did happen. It was proof that she really did kill those three cops.

It was proof that she was now a rebel.

She let a giggle pass through her lips as she felt the side of the belt, finding a holstered pistol. She picked up the stun stick again, attaching it to the belt.

Now all she needed was a lambda, and her outfit would be complete.

She took a nice, deep breath, as the silence seemed to stick around her. The air seemed different, now. It had a new, crisp odor, something she never seemed to have smelled before. Then she realized what it was.

"Smell that?" she asked herself, letting the question drift in the air before she continued.

"It's freedom."

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Oh yes. I ended it with that really cheesy line.

This is another one of those stories that totally changes when it comes to writing them. I orginally planned for the woman to be running away, and someone else saved her, but that sounded too much like "Enlightenment". Then I thought that a couple of rebels would make it to her tenement after she killed them and tell her to put on the vest, but then I thought it would be better if she realized on her own that she was a rebel. Kind of funny...I didn't know that the rebel's vests were from CP's until I was watching my friend play one of the episodes and noticed "C17" on the back of their vests.

And I don't know about you, but I hate it when subs can't figure out how to pronouce my name. My last name's easy, but my first name is four freakin' letters, and still people can't figure out how to say it...or even spell it!

So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for more updates to the new series!