Heya!

Thanks for all the reviews! Thanks Vlaatjee and Margarite987re for your continuos support and messages! Thanks also to wolftattoo for your both reviews, thanks for your energy put into the comments and thougths! I'm grateful for you all to take the time to write a few (or more) lines after the chapters!

Okay, so this chapter was more quick to upload here since I already had written majority of it when uploading the last chapter, just had to edit it a bit.

Well, let's get into the next chapter, shall we?

Here's chapter 25 for you all wonderful readers out there!

I hope you'll enjoy it and please leave a review after reading it, I love reading your comments and thoughts!

Peace and stay safe,

SpaceFlora

The Good, The Bad and the Rebels

Chapter 25

A Monk Called Riot

The tracking device stayed silent as Mace tried to search for the signals using different frequencies. It had taken him a good twenty minutes already but the device remained silent. In the end he put the device on his side and sat down on his bike, hunching all still, to the other rats around him he looked defeated or deep in his thoughts.

"Erh...Mace?" One of the rats asked carefully and gave a look around him, to meet the mutually worried looks everyone had now as they were all regarding their leader, sitting on their black bikes in the desert, in the middle of the noman's land. They had been following the signal coming from the microchip they had planted on one of the Fighters but suddenly the signal had stopped.

"...Boss...?" The rat tried again and then Mace did move but he only flung his other leg over the bike and sat comfortably on it.

"They propably found the microchip and broke it... That doesn't matter now... I've still got an ace in the hole and these bloody freedom fanatics really crave for the blood... Well, if they wanna play, I'm ready." Mace only replied and without giving his men a look he opened his mouth again while starting his bike.

"You go back to our base."

"Where are you going then?" One of the rats asked in a bit of a disbelief.

"I'm having a meeting." Mace merely replied as he quickly gassed off, back towards the Mouse Territory and Brimstone City. First he needed to find one of the entrences of the tunnel system, he had to use the tunnels to get himself back to the Mice Territory so the citizens wouldn't recognize a rat on their lands.

As he was driving he was already making up a plan. First, he needed to contact the Plutarkians, he needed more time to catch these bloody vermins. He would have to ask the Plutarkians if they could arrange a meeting with the Mice Government, as well. Well, they really didn't have a choice if they wanted these rebels out once and for all. How wonderful it was that atleast he had alleys in this manhunt and what's even more important, it would be only a matter of time before these tiresome troublegivers would get caught...and even better, he had a plan that will make them all turn themselves in. What the rebels were doing now was merely prolonging their own demise which would be inevitable.

Mace couldn't help but smile to this idea. Soon, this all will come to an end. Soon, he would get his son back from the Plutarkians and he'll be long gone. Soon he'll be able to say farewell to this dead planet, to this already lost land. The Plutarkians could have it for all he cared. He only wanted his son. And that was enough for he was done with everything else. His moment of turning the clear page was near and he got a tremendous amount of energy when thinking about it. But first, he needed the Fighters dead.

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Mina was looking at the old photo of a baby, absent-mindedly stroking its' surface. She felt a tear falling down her cheek which she wiped quickly away. The whitehaired female had a feeling, as she was sitting beside a long wooden table in the dining hall of the Headquarters, that this whole mess was her fault. Everything had spiralled into this, from the first poor choices she had made. She had been too blindly in love with Mace back in the days of war to see who he really was and when she had finally learned that out she had been too weak to do anything to prevent these things from happening. Too many people had been hurt because of her stupid mistakes, because of her own stupidity. And her son... He could be dead for all she knew since she hadn't seen or heard about him for many years now. She couldn't even feel him anymore, if he was alive, he was a long gone, he wouldn't be anymore on this planet. She had caused her own blood to die or to be taken away for gods know to what purpose, maybe even for slavery. Her own child, her own flesh and blood.

She had known Mace was a traitor. If she would've told the Fighters they had a traitor amongst them, who knows what could've happened? Maybe the Fighters could have even succeeded in their mission to free the planet. But she had been a coward and taken the easy route. She had followed the orders given to her, she had spied the Fighters, taken pictures of these formely anonymous guerilla soldiers and thanks to her, now these photos had been dugged out from whatever secret files they had been stored into and everyone on Mars could spot their faces on the papers along with lists of accusations towards each one of them and long articles full of lies. The Fighters would not be able to get a fresh start even if they wanted to, no one would trust them anymore, not now since apparently the whole mice population was against them, trying to keep them out of their homes, out of the Mouse Territory. They were the villains now. They were literally the outcasts.

But what could've she done? She had done everything to protect her son. They had promised to return him to her if she did what asked for and she had done everything...But they never gave her son back. Maybe they had killed him as soon as they had gotten their hands on him. One mouse less on the planet to fight against...She had tried to do the good thing, to be a good mother and save her son, no matter what. But now, it all felt pointless. She had failed in everything and betrayed everyone in her life.

She felt empty inside, had felt that a long time. And she was disgusted with herself. How could've she betrayed what she had so strongly believed in? For she had believed in the Freedom Fighters. She had believed in peace and justice. She closed her eyes and tried to numb her mind for all she could think of was the amount of pain she had caused to everyone. Yet here she was again, in the Fighters' Headquarters. They had rescued her along with the rest of the Fighters who were still found alive from the Mice Government's secret desert base. Yet she didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve their forgiveness for the damages she had caused were too severe. She couldn't live with this pain inside her. She wiped her tears away again before she got up and headed out of the dining hall.

She had made up her mind. There was only one thing left to do now before she would vanish. She would give the Fighters the only thing she could offer them at this point anymore and that was her knowledge she had gained while forced to work for the Plutarkians, the rats and the traitor governments. She would give them everything she knew and maybe that will help the Fighters, if it wasn't too late already. She owed the Fighters that much. But this would be the last thing she'll ever do and she hoped it would bring something good for all the bad she had caused...

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After an hour from their last stop, the trucks came to a halt again. Stoker hopped off from the second truck and went to let the soldiers crammed inside out from the back. After opening the doors to the truck he nearly got startled as this white male already hopped off the truck just when there was enough of room for him to do so.

"Ooh! Are we there yet?!" Vinnie cried enthusiastically his eyes already gleaming with anticipation without even knowing where "there" was but as he was very quick to add two plus two together and it most of the times added up, he realized as he was looking at his surroundings that they had infact parked infront of a very familiar looking building which was a...

"Yeah, we're here..." Stoker only replied, taking a step back to let the others inside the truck to hop off but was again interrupted by the white furred male.

"Ahahaha! Yeah! We're back with the Holy Rollers! So awsome!" Vinnie cried while admiring the big old monastery infront of him like a friend he had not seen in a long time. Well, he hadn't been inside of this particular building per se, but they were all alike, right? These big old wooden buildings that had some mythological happenings carved onto the wood panellings. Some medieval-stuff. Not too invigorating. But the monks themselves had always struck Vinnie as a hilarious bunch. Quiet, but hilarious. So, all in all, he was more than happy to be back with these geezers.

"They're monks, Vincent. Show some respect." Stoker corrected him but gave a look to his side as he heard a grunt and saw Rimfire hopping off the truck as well, yawning and stretching.

"Man, that was a tough ride..." The young male only concluded and Stoker huffed back.

"Yeah, I know, the desert is a bitch to drive through..."

"Nah, I meant the company..." Rimfire only glared at Vinnie's direction who flung around to face them.

"Hey, no need to thank me for making the ride more pleasurable for everyone with my excellent and vivid storytelling!"

Stoker only snickered at this for he could only imagine how there hadn't been any peace or silence inside the truck for the entire night and he slapped Rimfire on the back.

"My condolences..." The old commander then eyed for the big bunch of mice walking from the other truck as they were all gathering around him. Radius walked towards Stoker too while looking around him the same time, seemingly counting that all of his troopers were still present, like somehow there would've been a chance that some of them could have been dropped out of the moving vehicles while driving across the pitch dark desert. But every trooper was present. All 50 of them.

Stoker cleared his throat while giving this big group of ex-Army soldiers and a couple of Freedom Fighters and the few rebel rats a look.

"Okay, so...! We've comen to the place where we could get some rest and where we can wait until we can figure out how we're going to, you know, skip over to the other side of the border...What I'm gonna do now is going in with the Lieutenant here, to make sure that we're infact expected and you all can just... stand and wait, how's that?" The older commander smirked before nodding at Radius, who nodded back and they walked to the big door and carefully opened it and went inside.

"Oh, wow!" Primer gave out an excited cry as she climbed off the second truck with the assistance of her uncle while looking at the building.

"This is a real monastery?!" She got more excited as she recalled been inside of one of these religious places only once in her lifetime and that had been with her grandmother long time ago.

"Yeah..." Modo only answered and gave a yawn. He had had some sleep but not much and he could still feel his whole body aching from not having enough rest. If someone could've just pointed a bed right there and then, he would've collapsed on it and slept the whole next day through. Sadly, that was not the case and he had a feeling that they would not get any rest even in this house of peace...It's not like he could predict things but let's say he had started to see a pattern here...

"There are real monks inside and all...?!" Primer walked beside the building, looking in awe of the beautiful art work and the talented craftmanship that had been put into decorating the building. She was examining the decorations that were picturing some spiritual stuff that she did not understand as the religion did not hold such an importance in the modern Cave Mice civilization anymore but she could nonetheless spot some familiar figures pictured there that she had seen at her grandmother's house as well. As she was walking she nearly bumped into her brother who had been in the other truck during their trip here.

"You know, Fighters' last Headquarters was situated under a monastery...?" Rimfire started and Primer gave him a quizzical look.

"Yeah?" She then turned back to Modo who just leaned against the other truck, having his eye closed and arms crossed, like trying to sleep standing up, and if he would've given that option he might have even done so.

"I didn't know that! Why you didn't tell me that, Uncle Modo? That's cool!"

"Well, it was a secret Headquarters for starters..." Modo replied sarcastically but then startled and opened his eye like realizing it was a rude tone to use towards his niece.

"It was a secret, honey." He corrected with a more polite tone.

"Right... Well that is cool. Ooh, were the monks also part of the resistance? Like secret agents or something?!" Primer got hyped up again.

"What? No, weirdo...!" Rimfire gave an odd look towards her twin sister, who was over a good two heads shorter than him and who's enthusiasm looked like deflating a bit while hearing his reply.

"Oh, oh well.. That would've made it extra cool..."

Suddenly the big wooden door was opened up again and Radius came outside and the tall white male walked directly to Primer.

"You okay, girl?" The twins' step father asked her.

"Yes! This is great! This is so much more exciting than being a nurse! Nurses don't ever get to do this kinda super cool stuff! Hiding from the government and the enemies!" Primer got excited again. Radius lifted his look to meet Modo's eye who only turned his somewhat unpleased look away. This was something they needed to discuss when they got the time. She was safe now but how long would she be safe with them, who knows...

"I'm well, too, thanks for asking..." Rimfire muttered next to Radius who merely shrugged his shoulders, clearly more interested in the wellbeing of Primer at the moment.

"Rimfire, you are here volunteeringly, even if countless times told not to, whereas your sister here does not have a part in any of this, she's a civilian and she is in great danger and not because she wants to..." Radius then said as Rimfire only crossed his arms, raising his brow at the ex-Lieutenant's comment.

"But I wanna be here!" Primer confronted, putting her hands to her hips, looking defiant.

Radius sighed as in not been in a mood for this again but gave Modo another look.

"I have a feeling that stubborness really runs in your family..."

Modo had to give a chuckle back. Well, he wasn't wrong either...

Radius turned back to face the big group of soldiers.

"We met the monk inside who had been in contact with the Fighters' HQ and we're indeed welcomed here. So, everyone, act with respect, we're guests here. Now, come on in." He then turned and while having his arm around Primer, guided her inside the monastery first and the rest of them followed.

"Man, this feels like the good ol' times! Bring in the horn section and the dancegirls 'cause the Fighters are back and we're ready to whip tail! This calls for the fanfares and pyro! Ahahhaah!" Vinnie outcried and playfully jumped on Modo's back but quickly landed back on his feet again, he just couldn't hide his growing enthusiasm, which was not the case with his older bro as the grey furred giant only huffed and yawned into his fist.

"Ya mean good ol' times like war, Vin?"

"Obviously!"

"You're deranged..."

"Hey, better be deranged than bored! That's what I always say...!"

"Never heard of ya sayin' that..."

"Well, that's maybe because you're just so slow, bro. Ya know ya must be quick to figure this man out!"

"Yeah, ya would need a specialist to do that..."

"Hmm, ya could be right... I'm a rare breed!" Vinnie then ruffled his chest, clearly missing out the meaning of the word.

"Ah agree, you're just not normal..." Modo nodded with a slight smile on his lips.

"Oh, thanks, bro!" Vinnie beamed.

Modo only rolled his eye while strecthing out his arms and back but winced as his fresh stitches felt like burning. He then gave a sigh while they were walking this dimly lit corridor after everyone else.

"Man, Ah miss my bike..."

"I'm sure she's okay, bro! I mean, we've seen that she can defend herself..."

"Donno... Somethin' happened to her when we fell to that tunnel... She wasn't...replyin'..." Modo talked his tone getting more and more worried and his stomach started to ache a bit when even thinking about his precious bike somewhere out there alone and possibly hurt.

"Well, maybe she just didn't wanna answer...?"

"Something's wrong with her, Ah just know it..."

"Well, after this little tour around the place, we can go back to my bike and try to locate her? See if we can get a signal?" Vinnie tried to cheer the man up but Modo only shrugged his shoulders to that, already looking defeated.

"C'mon don't be a Big Gloom! I'm sure she's alright!"

Just when Modo was to give some kind of a reply they both stopped as they had comen into this big dimly lit hall where everyone had stopped to study their surroundings. A little further away Radius was back with Stoker and they were talking to this one tan furred monk who wore a dark brown robe.

Simson and Seven entered the hall a little after everyone else as they had kept a bit of a distance while walking inside this monastery which to both of the rats was a very unfamiliar environment and they both were a bit cautious about their presence there. Also, Simson was quite slow with his movements currently due to the lack of his tail and his balance. But they stopped as well while coming to this big hall and saw the high ceiling and the candles everywhere, casting slowly dancing shadows on to the walls and the sweet smell of insence filling their nostrils, tickling. There were omnious looking statues and monks in brown robes walking around, so silently that they nearly seemed to be floating in the air. They raised their brows as a few monks walked past them, not saying a word and not even giving them a look, like this was a normal situation to them, a room full of rebels amongst them. The monks didn't have their antennae as it was accustomed to this religious group and the other monk now walking past them even had the fresh scars in the place where the antennae should protrude from the skull. And even if the rats did not have antennae themselves, they were very accustomed to the fact that the mice did have them and now the scene just gave them both the chills and not least because it brought some very upleasant imagery as in how those antennae must have been extracted.

"Man, this place gives me the creeps, chief...See the scars? This is some fucked up shit..." Seven muttered silently as to prevent the mice near them to hear it.

"Yup..." Simson only replied before turning to watch as Stoker and Radius were still talking with the monk a little further away.

"Excuse me..." Simson then cleared his throat and walked slowly to the trio. Stoker noticed him first and then nodded at him, like welcoming him to talk with the little group. He was, after all, the leader of the rebel rats and this seemed like some kind of a meeting of the leaders of all groups.

"...and this fine man here is Simson... He's leading the rats' resistance and helping us on our mission." Stoker introduced the dark brown furred rat with the black mohawk as he just reached them and gave the tan furred monk a little nod and was to extend his hand but the monk only closed his eyes and gave a little bow. The rat leader gave the other two men a little quizzical look, not really knowing how to handle the situation but gave the monk a quick and tiny bow back before clearing his throat again.

"Name's Simson." He introduced himself.

"My name is Riot." The monk answered calmly and gave a small nod again. Simson raised his brow.

"Riot? You're a monk called Riot?" He tried to keep a straight face while giving Stoker and Radius a look, like wanting to know if this information was only hilarious to him and maybe it was since both of the other males' facial expressions didn't change.

"Welcome to the Order of the Kasei Valles. I hope you'll enjoy your time under our humble roof." Riot the monk made a little bow at them again. Stoker, Radius and Simson all bowed back too, the latter two feeling slightly awkward in doing so.

"So... Riot... Throttle already told you about our...situation...?" Stoker asked carefully and the monk, keeping this ever-glowing warm smile on his face nodded again.

"Yes."

"Can I ask how do you know Throttle? I mean, how did he even know to contact you or this monastery?" The older commander wanted to know.

"Throttle is my cousin." Riot smiled back.

"Oh? Well, then... That is...convenient.." Stoker seemed surprised but continued.

"Well, you monks have helped us earlier and I've remained forever grateful for that and the same goes for the rest of my crew..."

"We're all very grateful for this chance and... experience." Radius quickly added and Stoker had to bite into his tongue to prevent him laughing as the ex-Lieutenant's stiff apperance didn't really fit into this relaxed environment. Maybe this experience as the Lieutenant had put it himself will make him good, he could use some relaxation...

Riot turned to give the group of soldiers, who all looked very tired, a thoughtful and observant glance before turning back to the leaders again.

"I am sure you are all very tired after your long journey but perhaps you'd like to eat something first? We can arrange some food for you all. I'm sorry it won't be too much of a feast as we're living quite humbly in here..."

"Oh, well..." Stoker gave Radius and Simson a look but before they could answer a white blur suddenly dashed past them.

"Food?! Someone mentioned food?! Now you're talkin', brother!"

"Vinnie... What did I say about respect...? We're guests here..." Stoker hissed under his breath to this Fighter who looked totally clueless about the question.

"Well, I do respect food!"

"Clearly..." Stoker shook his head annoyed but Riot gave them all a nod.

"Please, it'll be our honour to feed the hungry."

"See? The dude here don't mind!" Vinnie also gave Stoker a cheery look.

"Thanks... I mean... We don't wanna cause any trouble...If we can only have a few hours' sleep that'll be more than enough..." Stoker started but Vinnie waved his hand at this remark.

"What? Sleep? Ha! Who's tired?! C'mon, grand pa' it's late late dinner time!"

Stoker closed his eyes and started to count to ten as he did not want to slap the white male infront of a monk. But as he opened his brown eyes again he saw the monk still smiling his warm smile and then bowing again.

"I'll show you the way to our dinner hall, the food will be served to you in a half an hour." And then Riot turned and started to walk towards another direction, followed by Radius who waved at the soldiers to start following as well. Stoker gave a deep sigh and walked after the others, soon reaching Simson who gave him a look.

"So, comrade, this is okay? We can trust these monks? I mean, I trust you. So if you say it's okay for us to stay here then I take your word for it...For us rats these places are very foreign to us..." The rebel rat talked while walking with these careful steps, his arms slightly up for some extra balance. Stoker gave him a look.

"I thought you rats also worshipped gods of some sort?"

"Sure, but we're not all weird about it..." Simson chuckled back but gave Stoker another glance as if to say he was sorry if he had offended the mice' religion but Stoker only waved his hand.

"Trust me, these monks are a lot like us..."

"As in similar to the Freedom Fighters? Because you guys are also a very strange bunch..."

"No, I mean, the monks also have a history of rebellion. Don't let the solitude of this place fool you, these guys are rebels, just like us. And what's more, as they form a religious group they can not be harrassed by the government or by the Army under the current laws we have... I mean, that's genius, why I didn't come up with that..." Stoker muttered the last words mainly to himself while Simson gave him a bit of a worried look but this was not the first time the legendary leader of the famous Freedom Fighters came across as a slightly weird individual.

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A continuos stream of images ran through Aprilia's mind: colours and quick flashes of imagery that was like a broken movie and finally a sudden flash of white light. Aprilia inhaled in panic and sat up on her bed, breathing hard, like she would just have been under water for the past few minutes. She quickly looked around but she was still in her tiny room, nothing out of the ordinary. The fair blonde haired doctor closed her eyes and took many deep breaths, trying to steady her heart. She glanced at the clock on the small table near the bed. It was morning already but she knew she had been sleeping only about an hour or so.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door that startled her and she sat up.

"C-come in...!" She cleared her throat while trying too calm her nerves down. The door opened and Harley stepped in, holding a note on her hand and she had a pair of dark sunglasses on, she was clearly in a some state of a hangover. The mechanic came in and closed the door behind her quickly.

"Harley...? What's up?" Aprilia asked but kept a keen eye on the note the ginger furred female was holding and sure enough Harley soon waved the paper in her hand.

"Well, Mina just split...!"

"...what?" Aprilia asked, her mind still clouded.

"Yeah... She split, the few Fighters here hadn't seen her and the data showed that someone used the doors a few hours ago... What an idiot... " Harley muttered but still had some affection shining through her words while shaking her head.

"Well... Should we go after her?" Aprilia asked already on her feet, putting on her socks.

"No. There were strict orders for us to stay here and she knew that. It was her choice to leave the base. We can't risk all of our lives for someone's stupidity..."

Aprilia carefully studied the mechanic but then nodded towards the note.

"Did...she leave a note...?"

"Oh, yeah! Well, this is interesting actually! There seems to be coordinates to some place...and there was this little microchip attached to the note...Haven't run them through the computer just yet, we also have to make sure that the microchip doesn't have a virus in it... I mean she used to be a traitor, who knows what goes on in that crazy mind of hers... What's up with you?" Harley suddenly stopped while gazing at the shorter and more curvy female infront of her.

"Why...?" Aprilia's voice came across a bit shaky suddenly.

"Your eyes..." Harley took a step forward to examine Aprilia's eyes which now had becomen wider in panic.

"They're all red...have ya been crying?" Harley asked as Aprilia quickly found herself a hand mirror and examined her eyes and yes they were red but not from crying she knew that much.

"I don't...No, I haven't been crying..."

"Allergies...?" Harley asked again.

"No... It's this..." Aprilia started but then shook her head, deciding not to bother the mechanic with her strange phenomena she had lately been experiencing inside her head.

"Yeah, must be allergies..." She sighed.

"Well, gee, ya should take some medicine for that..." Harley told her and Aprilia only nodded back.

"Right. I'm the doctor, I should know better." She managed to get a smile on her lips. Harley observed her a bit but nodded.

"Exactly... Well, c'mon! I got a message from Throttle that Stoker and the rest of the gang had arrived to the monastery where they'll be resting and waiting until further notice... Let's call them!"

Harley grabbed Aprilia by her hand but this made a little resistance.

"Wait, I have to get dressed, I'm only wearing this big t-shirt...!"

"Are ya afraid to show ya ankles? Oh, please, if Modo's there too, I'm sure he'll appreciate ya showing off some skin, he's a guy after all...Now, c'mon!" Harley only babbled while still holding Aprilia's hand and dragging her out of her room.

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