"It's been a while..." Ciel was down the corridor and around the corner from where Zero stood near one of the doors to the buildings the Resistance had been using as a hideout. He was pretty tightly agasint the wall, not in the straight line of the hallway itself. "Do you think they've given up?"

Zero gave a shake of his head, even though he new she couldn't see it. "Not a chance. He must have some experience in sniping. I think relocating to compensate for the sun's movement is alot more likely."

"why would they need to do that?" Colbor asked as he turned to enter the hallway from another room.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Zero yelled as he motioned urgently

A burst of interference sounded on their comms before the loud echo of a shot. Colbor dove and grasped his shoulder as he got behind the corner Ciel was safely behind.

"Are you hurt?" Ciel pulled out a first aid kit and knelt next to her comerade.

Colbor grinned through grit teeth, "barely grazed me. its a miracle."

"Not a miracle..." Zero's tone was more serious than normal. "We all know who's on the other side of that rifle."

The three of them went silent.

"DAMN IT!" Colbor slammed his fist into the ground, "Why did he betray us!"

"He can't help it..." Ciel trailed off as she glanced off to the side before starting to clean the superficial wound on the man's shoulder.

"He's actually fighting it as hard as he can i think..." Zero said as thoughtfully as he could considering the situation.

"Yeah..." Colbor seemed to resign slightly to that point.

"How so?" Ciel seemed lost.

"well, to start with; he's obviously an incredible marksman, remember the first shot?" Zero questioned.

The first shot had claimed Jaune, one of the Resitance's Operators. She had been at her station and out of nowhere, the comms were flooded with static, then she suddenly slumped over her console. the trajectory of the shot had passed through a window the size of a soccer ball, down a hallway, and then through a small viewport on an otherwise reinforced door. The woman had been shot perfectly through the core.

"Yes," Ciel sounded on the verge of crying, she'd been close with the Operator.

"That shot had to have been made from at least a kilometer out, the gunshot was too quiet for any closer. And yet, with shooting like that, he hasn't made a single killshot since in 6 attempts since."

Ciel nodded.

"Also he's warning us," Colbor added as he held a gauze pad on his shoulder which was now starting to heal slowly from the Nanomachines in his blood, being a half-breed he was mostly human with Reploid traits.

"You mean the interference?" Ciel asked.

"Yes," Zero continued, "he also has yet to miss a target, but he hasn't killed anyone since Jaune. I think that the programming that Weil forced on him makes it so that he can't disobey the command to 'attack the Resistance'. But he himself is the one thats actually aiming."

"If only we could capture him," Ciel knew her programming skills were a sham in comparasion to Dr Weil's, but there was always some chance, "I could maybe find a way to free him."

Zero sighed audibly

"What's wrong?"

"He isnt an opponent we can capture."

"WHY?" Ciel felt like she just lost the chance to ever see a friend again.

"He's too strong," Colbor stood and leaned agsainst the wall as close to Zero as he could, "if we face him we have to not only be ready to kill, but to fight for our lives."

Zero nodded, "yeah."

"so..." Ciel sounded defeated, "what do we do now?"

"we need to figure out a plan," Zero was interrupted by another burst of static followed shortly by another bang. A child screaming followed the gunshot.

"ALLOUETTE!" Ciel cried out as she ran in the direction of the screaming.

"MAMA!" The young reploid responded, running sobbing in fear into her adoptive mother's protecting and comforting embrace, "Mr Andre fell apart!"