Alright! i actually managed to get another chapter out within 2 weeks. The month of november is sweet at my school. we have a four day weekend for conferences, (right now) then we have a full week (blech) but then that is followed by thanksgiving weekend with is only a half day of school on wednesday followed by a four day weekend! So i'll have lots of time to write.

anyway more on topic... Here is the tewnty first installment of Believe in Me.

story

"talking"

thinking

(me talking)

Emphasis

Enjoy!

Believe in Me

By: Flashgunner

Ch. 21: Unfolding the Truth

An empty corridor suddenly echoed with the noise of a door opening. A tall white reploid stepped through and continued on his path. As he came to another door he suddenly stopped.

"Please speak security code." Came a computerized voice from the door.

"Colonel 81089" replied the former Repliforce colonel. The door beeped and opened.

In the room their sat four reploids at a round table built for six. Colonel stepped into the room and shifted his gaze from side to side.

"Where's Dynamo?" questioned Colonel.

"Pretty boy tried to take on Zero." Replied the purple stocky reploid.

"That idiot… it doesn't really matter… he was getting on my nerves anyway. Alright, we hold off now until eight days from the present. We shall attack the resistance base on the eighth day. Until that day I have a special job for each of you."

Colonel paused for a moment to gather his thoughts then turned to the blue reploid with the shoulder cannon. "You… you go finish up whatever your 'project' is." Next he turned to the purple, stocky, reploid. "You, I want you to keep and eye on the resistance base, use your teleport skill to avoid detection." The short gold reploid was next. "I want you to patrol the city and, of course, use any means necessary to avoid detection." Finally, he turned to the tall purple reploid, "I want you to stay here… you'll help me with the attack plans… now then before we disperse I'm going to make one thing crystal clear for all of you… I rebuilt you all for one reason, to help me, not so you could get your own personal revenge… Only go for the kill if I order you to. If you try to kill Zero without my consent I will return you to the scrap pile piece by piece, unless Zero does it first, as shown to us so kindly by Dynamo… Now… get to it…

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…

…

…

Back at the resistance base… nobody had moved since Ciel had left them. They still stood in the lobby, wondering what had caused such a drastic change in Zero. Harpuia suddenly turned and began walking down the hall. Leviathan followed him.

"Harpy… what's going on? Why have we suddenly been thrown into another conflict?"

"I don't know what to tell you Levi… The enemies we faced… they were different…"

"They were only attacking certain locations… very spread out locations."

"And they weren't aiming to kill us…"

"What?! How do you know?"

Harpy stopped in front of the training room.

"The reploid I fought was fighting so nonchalantly… I could see it in his eyes. Yet… he was so fast and strong…"

"I know what's on your mind… the training room right?"

"Yeah… we need to start training again so we can face these strange enemies. Are you with me?" Harpuia reached his hand out to her.

"Oh course Harpy." She took it and they entered the training room.

Elsewhere in the base…

Zero sat on his bed, the look of sorrow was still plastered to his face with no intention of coming off. A thousand Thoughts were crowding his mind, and an equal number of emotions were surging through him. He felt as though his world had broken like a china bowl and lay scattered around him in pieces.

He heard a knock at his door, but took no notice. He was lost, beaten, deracinated from his own being by an old foe who sought to pound him further and further into hell.

Another knock, still Zero found no will to reply. He was beyond vexed and perplexed. What would he do? He would have to fight in eight days, but he didn't even have the will to stand up and answer his door. He felt as though he was at the last inches of his rope.

This time there was not the sound of a knock, but the sound of the door opening, and somebody walking in. Zero didn't face the person, he didn't know who it was, but frankly he didn't care, he found that he was slowly loosing the determination to keep going. But then the person spoke.

"Zero…?" Ciel's voice caught his ear and his mind suddenly snapped from its current thoughts. "Zero…"

Zero took one look at Ciel, but instantly faced the other direction… he couldn't face her. He had lied to her… and he had kept it from everybody else. How would he be able to reveal such a deep dark secret to everyone, much less Ciel alone?

Ciel was as confused as Zero was. She had no idea what to say or how to approach this matter… this was a side of Zero that nobody had ever seen before. When he was serious you would just talk to him and he would give a straight forward reply, but how was she supposed to talk to him now? She didn't know if it was the best idea, but she had to say something so she did.

"Zero… I… We know something is wrong…" She paused to see if he would move, but he didn't. "But… I won't make you tell me… Seeing you like this is so painful, so if you wish not to tell me about it you don't have to… but we're still here for you…" Zero still didn't move. She sighed and turned to leave, but she heard Zero get up.

"No… I'm not going to leave everybody in the dark any longer… please… there are things we need to talk about…"

He walked to the door with her and they exited the room.

The two of them walked down the hallway as they began to talk. "…I wasn't able to stop my friends and other people from being hurt last night… it was mortifying… I was powerless. Because of me people not only close to me, but people close to you, and other people who have just begun their new lives were hurt."

"But who would do such a thing?"

"I recognized all the reploids who were attacking; they were all enemies from my past."

They came to the training room and saw Harpuia and Leviathan sparring. Cerveau, Alouette and Crtoire were also in the room. Cerveau, was trying to fix the control panels for the training programs as Crioire tended to the wounds he had received the day before, Alouette was trying to assist Cerveau in any way she could.

Zero stopped and walked into the room.

"Harpuia has already figured it out… he knows an enemy is in the shadows and has begun training right away… Leviathan of course followed…"

Ciel came up beside Zero, "Harpuia is like that… he has become one who is always striving to improve himself so he can help you, Leviathan, the resistance, all the humans, and himself."

"That's true, Harpuia may be one to speed ahead and always put himself at risk for the sake of others, but he won't make the same mistakes that I did… Not only you, but Harpuia and the rest sense danger coming… should everyone be told...?" Zero closed his eyes and slumped against the wall.

Ciel looked at Zero for a second, and then somehow brought herself to so what she did next. She moved towards Zero and held out her hand to him.

"Before you do that… how are your injuries?" Zero was surprised by Ciel's unusual forwardness. "You came back yesterday covered in cuts and bruises and you still haven't seen anybody about it. How about you have Cerveau or Croire take a look at you?"

Zero smiled and closed his eyes again. "Thank you… Ciel…" Suddenly he reached up and grabbed Ciel's wrist.

"Zero…?"

He looked at Harpuia and Leviathan, "That sweat…" He turned to Cerveau, "Those wounds…" he looked back at Ciel's arm, "And this warmth… are not illusions… they're all real… We need to focus on preserving tangible reality, not the intangible illusions…"

Everybody stopped and looked at Zero.

"There is something I've been keeping secret from all of you… something you now all need to hear… About the upcoming battle and its beginnings… first let's find a suitable place to sit and talk…"

Everybody moved outside to a little lounge area had been set up, with benches and roofed off areas for shade.

"Alright…" Zero began. "Before the attacks yesterday, as I was returning home, I ran into the mastermind behind the attacks that would occur. Eight days from now the base will be under attack by him and his lackeys…" Zero paused, building up the courage to say what came next. "The mastermind is a reploid named Colonel, the colonel of the Repliforce that existed centuries ago. He was also my archrival… almost every time we met it turned into a duel. It was all for sport of course… but it was the Maverick Hunter's best swordsman versus the Repliforce's best swordsman so it was always a challenge to see who was the strongest, but this is irrelevant to why he is attacking. The reason is…" Zero paused once again.

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…

…

…

…

"His sister… Iris…" Ciel perked up. "Iris… was the only girl I had ever loved… And she was killed by these very hands…"

They were all shocked to here this but nobody was as shocked as Ciel...

"This is a story of centuries in the past… and the story of the pain carved deep into my heart and soul……Let me tell you a story………"

--To be continued--

I apologize for the minor case of shortness in this chapter... i had to make it flow into the flashback story, and the events beforehand didn't cover as many pages as i thought it would.

oh wow another flash back story! this one, you will find, will be a little different from the way Forte's story was done.

For those of you that have noticed and are wondering, yes this part of the story is loosely based off the final story in Rurouni Kenshin. It is where i got the whole Colonel revenge for Iris idea from.

anyway, seeing as how i have a lot of free time this weekend and the next few weeks i will be able to write more often. Basketball season is starting soon though, so i'll try to work as hard as i can until then.

As always, i'd like to thank everybody who has reviewed my story, it is greatly appreciated.

Please read and review!

Flashgunner over and out!