Well, I know I haven't been updating lately, but I write at every chance I get. Well, maybe not every chance, but due to the evils of school, and my procrastination for homework, I'm here sitting at the computer at 12:42 A.M. I'm not kidding you. Again, I would like to commend GlassSuicune, but this time for a near impossible feat- to respond when there are zero hits on the traffic stats. Yeah, doesn't make much sense to me either, go ask him, maybe he has psychic voodoo powers or something. Well, enjoy if you will and thanks for reading up to this point. Much appreciated.

Cipher's Code Ch21

It's…dark. Why is it so dark in here? And why is it so cold all of a sudden? Cipher struggled to see in the abyss, but found nothing but darkness. "Where are you?" He called out to the reploid that had brought him here, but heard nothing, until a harsh laugh echoed from the blackness.

"She's not here, don't you get it?" Dim light flooded the room until Cipher stood at a mirror image of himself. "Why are you looking at me like that," the figure mused. It then snapped its fingers as if remembering something. "Oh! You think I'm Cero don't you?" He laughed again as his suspicions were confirmed. "Close enough, but my name's Cipher." His mouth split into a wicked smile. "Cero wasn't here when we were fighting those guys back there, but we were. We make a good team you know, you and I."

Cipher grimaced in shock. "What did you do to them," he growled. "And why did you say your name was Cipher?"

He shrugged offhandedly. "What are you getting worked up about? It was a good fight, and you know it. Isn't that what you want? To fight?" He stared at Cipher mockingly. "As for the name, it's simple. It's 'cause I'm you."

Cipher shook his head. "You? I'm nothing like you."

His other just smirked in return. "Is that so? If that were true, then why did you attack them? Face it, all we're good for is fighting; it's in our blood. Why resist?"

"Not all battles can be won by bloodshed."

He chuckled evilly. "Where'd ya get that, a fortune cookie? If you really want to prove who's ideals are stronger, why don't we fight this out? We live to fight, we fight to get stronger. You can't escape it."

Cipher nodded. "Deal."

Now he smiled. "See, what did I tell you? Fighting's what we do best." He let out a slash towards Cipher, which he stayed put for, expecting his oversol to appear and absorb the shock. To his surprise the sonic shockwave caught him in the chest, knocking the breath out of him. "Ha! Do you really have what it takes to defeat me, O great one?" His voice was layered in mockery. "Admit it, you don't have the guts to win."

Cipher stood up shakily. "What did you do with my oversol?"

"Our oversol can't be used here, at least not by a sniveling coward like you. You can't hide behind that armor anymore." He lifted his blade towards his heart. "And once I win, I won't have to sit in the shadows anymore. Your time is finished here!"

Cipher shook his head with a defiant expression. "Never."

"Because of your so-called friends? Why do you work with them, when they're so weak? Honestly, Cero's got the right mind in my opinion. The guardians fought the resistance for years, Cipher. Zero was nearly killed by their actions, and who knows who else? Venti, Specter, Mist, and that fool Flare would be your enemies if times were different. They'd be trying to kill you, and you the same. The only thing you can trust is your blade, it knows what its purpose is!"

Cipher's blade flickered, and then dissipated with a hiss. Cipher stared at where his faithful weapon stood in dismay, unprepared for his enemy's blade. Just before it made contact with Cipher's body, however, a blast made him stop abruptly.

"Well, if it isn't the hypocrite himself!" He raised his hands in a mocking salute. "Found your so-called peace yet? Let me guess, it's right behind that blaster of yours, isn't it?"

A blue form stared at cipher's darker half with a look of deep dislike. "You are not supposed to be here. Leave now."

The other flinched as if the flickering blue form had actually hit him. "Whatever you say," he sneered. He stepped away, leaving no trace of what had happened but a memory.

Cipher turned to face the blue figure. "Thanks for that. I'd have been skewered," he said gratefully.

The figure did not return a smile. "Perhaps we would have been better off with the other one," he said to the other reploid, the one that had shown him to the place, before the other Cipher took him away.

The female reploid shook her head. "What are you talking about, X? He seems fine to me."

Cipher gawked at the blue elf, partly in awe at seeing the legend in person, and also in dismay at his harsh, off-putting words. X?

"He has too much doubt in him, Iris. There is no possible way for him top even hope to stand up against the enemy."

Iris just raised her eyebrows at his words. "If I remember correctly, you seemed to have plenty of that yourself when you were younger. Give Cipher a chance, at least."

Cipher bristled angrily. "I'm here you know! Why don't you tell that to my face?"

X turned to look Cipher in the eye. "You are hopeless, the way you are now. How you defeated your earlier enemies is a miracle to me."

Okay, so he did tell it to my face. "Hey, I've had some training you know; that wasn't just luck."

X shook his head wearily. "Well, he certainly has Zero's spirit in him." For the first time in their encounter, he smiled. "Very well, I will train you. Is that what you wish?"

Cipher was taken aback for a moment. "You? Train me?"

"Of course. We need your help, and whether you like it or not, you are the only one who can do the job. There is an enemy in the land, one who pretends to sleep. Its twisted powers have already rooted itself in this land, and it must be stopped."

Cipher frowned suddenly. "Why me? Couldn't Zero do it? I'm sure he's used to unreasonably difficult enemies."

"It isn't that simple." Cipher looked confusedly at Iris. "Besides," she added, "I'd hate to put Zero through that again." She sounded distressed.

"We have no choice but to enlist you," X said finally, once Iris was done speaking. "There is another," he said later, "but we do not believe he is suited for the task."

"Back up." Cipher stared at the two of them quizzically. "I get stranded in the desert, almost get killed by myself, which, by the way I didn't believe was possible until today, and now you're talking about some big enemy or something. You said 'an enemy that pretends to sleep, right?" Cipher thought back to how his enemy had been quiet recently. "Do you mean Cero?"

Iris opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced by a look from the older, more experienced reploid. "Why can't we tell him," she said mutinously. "I hate to see him in so much pain!" Somehow, Cipher knew it wasn't him they were talking about.

"The boy must find the answer himself," X replied. "And, no," he said to Cipher. "Cero is but a piece in the grand scheme of things. The true enemy is much stronger, and a much deadlier foe."

"Hello? Still here." Cipher waved in front of them.

"Yes, he certainly does have Zero's spirit," Iris said warmly. "Follow me," she said to Cipher. "I'll show you your room."

My room? "It sounds like I'm going to be here for a little longer than I expected," Cipher said tentatively. "What exactly are we going to be doing?"

"Like X said, you will be training,
" Iris said. "Inside cyberspace, you shouldn't be worried about anything disrupting you. You see, you possess an ability most Advents don't have called Advance Oversol. Even I don't know the specifics, but it can tremendously increase your fighting ability. But that's not all you will be learning under X."

"Like what?"

"X believes that the world will come to peace without the use of weapons some day. I think he hopes that you will see his ideology one day, and bring peace to the world"

No pressure. "You're putting a lot of hopes on one kid, you know," Cipher warned her. "What if I fail?"

"Don't," she advised him. "Trust me, you can do it; we believe in you." She smiled at him, reassuring him that whatever they were doing wasn't life threatening.

Or so he thought.

"Watch it!" Cipher leapt back as X launched a volley of missiles at him, frying him hair from blond to ashy black. "You could have hit me!"

"That's the point," said X. "You're going to have to train your speed first if you have any hope of beating him. This time X was referring to Cero.

"Right. So what are you going to do once you fry me to death," Cipher said sarcastically. "Train me as an elf?" He paused for a moment as a thought struck him. "That reminds me, how can I be in cyberspace? I thought it was reploids-exclusive."

"You forget that you are not entirely human," X reminded the Advent. "Advents connect the two worlds together." X motioned for Cipher to sit down for some much needed rest.

"So what was that about not fighting? Iris told me," he said self-explanatorily.

X sighed. "There was a time when I refused to fight. I still do to an extent, but I believe that the world can become whole once again."

"After all the evil that's been done?"

X nodded. "For generations, human- and reploidkind have struggled with their greed. This lead to wars, and innocent blood would be spilled. Since the Maverick Wars, humans have hated reploids for all they have stood for. The Hunters were designed to bring them down, but of course there were fatalities. Greed, ambition, pride, all these things will always get in the way of 'peace.' It is my belief that someone who has no prejudice towards the two sentients can accomplish this task. Only an Advent could understand the fine lines between the hatred within the world. Do you have what it takes to see this reality?"

Cipher scratched his head. "I don't know," he confessed. "All my life, I've done what I've thought is right, but what happens if I'm given no other option but to kill?"

"There is a reason you have been given as much power as you have; and I do not believe it is for the use of slaughter. Use what strength you have to protect those who have none left. There are some who misinterpret this power, like Cero has. They believe they are superior, and thus believe their strength comes from their battles. True strength does not come from the fist, or the barrel of a blaster. It is your duty to protect them as the Advent Primus."

"That word keeps coming up; what does it mean?"

X looked slightly surprised that Cipher didn't know the origins of it as an Advent himself, but explained anyway. "It means that you are the strongest of all Advents. Advent One, the first Advent."

Cipher nodded. "Do you really think peace can be attained so easily?"

"You underestimate yourself," said a voice from behind them. Iris walked inside with two steaming cups of something Cipher couldn't identify. "Many people make that mistake, you know," she said as she sat down next to them. "It's not that people are weak, it's that they do not believe in themselves. All it takes is one person to change a world."

"What are you doing here, Iris," Cipher asked the female reploid.

"Nut oil; X's favorite. Want some?"

Cipher stared dubiously at the brown liquid. "Is that safe?"

"Of course! It's like E-crystals; it helps Advent's bones to move easier."

"Our bones?" Cipher stared, puzzled at her.

"You haven't been through an X-ray, have you?" Cipher shook his head. "Well, most people make the assumption that an advent's body is made of a human's normal makeup, but they're all wrong. An Advent's bone consists of titanium, thickly intertwined with calcium from normal types. Don't ask me how it grows with an Advent's body, because I don't know. From what I found out, it took Ciel, along with seven other of the most brilliant scientists to find out how to make the embryo, but apparently, the human mother's body adjusts to it. Basically Advents are clones of their human parents with a few attributes of their reploid have in the mix. That's usually why so many Advents look like their human half. For you have blue eyes and blond hair, but I think you might have ended up with the hair either way," she said good-naturedly. "At least you don't have Zero's obsession with keeping his hair long.

Cipher made a face. Yeah, there's no way I'm drinking that. "Thanks for the biology lesson." I did not need to hear it.

"Your welcome, she said, oblivious to his discomfort. "Where else do you think the oversol comes from?"

"Well, I was kind of curious," Cipher admitted. "So why does it have to be me? This whole training, I mean."

"X is the only one able to damage it. The enemy, that is. By using Advance Oversol, you can absorb his abilities and make them your own. There is a catch, however. Only reploids of special interest to the robotic half of the biological makeup of the Advent can merge. The only other Advent I the world with this capability, and that fits the requirements is Raider."

Raider? Cipher thought back to the timid boy with the cross shaped scar. "We all know X and Zero were friends, but where do you come in?"

Much to cipher's surprise, Iris actually blushed. "That's for another time," she murmured hurriedly. "Or never for that matter."

Leaving Cipher to his own questions, she got up, flustered to leave. "Don't kill each other," she called out just before she left.

"What was that about," Cipher asked X.

"She'll tell you someday." After a second or two he added, "or maybe not." X then stood up and pointed his blaster at Cipher. "Run."

Great, another chance to be moving target practice. Cipher leapt up resignedly and ran to the distance, where hopefully X's bullets wouldn't reach him. Hopefully.