Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and such.

Ciel is sprinting down a cold steel corridor, a non combat reploid armed with an energy rifle, named Milan, at her side and an unarmed female reploid at her back, named Passy. As she runs, she begins to breathe heavily, her long blond hair, tied at the base to prevent it from obstructing her vision, whipping out behind her, and a dense layer of sweat is forming on her brow. Eight more armed reploids are trailing behind her; three are more much further back while the other five are about 30 feet away from Ciel. As several guard robots approach them from behind, the reploids who trail the back turn and begin to fire, striking down only a few of them. As the guard robots close the space, the one in the lead fires his blaster cannon at the reploid who stands at the rear of the group. The reploid falls back and cries out in pain, while the others continue to fire into the group of guard robots. Their fire has little effect as two more of them fall, and the third runs to escape the relentless guards. In the distance an alarm goes off and three shuttered doors open, releasing three mechanical golems, armed with very large canons on their left shoulders. The golems move forward quickly, coming up behind the gaurs robots, as the group closer to Ciel turns on them, as Ciel and the other two reploids continue to run. The reploids look into the cold steel face of the golem in front of the group.

"What kind of monsters are these?!" one of them cries out in fear. They commence firing at the golems, but stop when they notice that the energy ricocheting harmlessly off of the golem. the reploid nearest to the golem shakes in fear as the golems canon points at their group. the reploid in the back turns and sprints back to Ciel as an energy beam issues forth from the golem's canon, ripping through the flesh of the remaining four reploids, as they try in vain to run away as the one in back did. The one cowardly reploid manages to make it to Ciel's group and trails behind them. Ciel stops in her tracks as she approaches a large steel door.

"A dead end!?" she asks no one in particular as she breaths heavily, recovering from the fatigue of her escape.

"No. . ." Passy comments cryptically. "I feel a strong energy inside. This must be the place."

"Okay, leave this to me! Stay back, Ciel." Milan says, as he points his rifle up at the opening mechanism and fires. The device explodes and shoots off a few sparks, then the door fell forward. The group enters as the reploid all the way in back looks behind him to see more guards approaching. Ciel and the two reploids at her side turn and look on towards them as well. Wanting to make up for his earlier cowardess, the cowardly reploid turns and holds his rifle ready.

"Go! I'll take care of them!" he calls out to them. They obey wordlessly and continue on. Shortly, they come to a reploid, in red and blue armor, kneeling down, with his eyes shut and wires in his back.

"This must be. . ." Milan who now stands at Ciel's side says in awe. Ciel looks closely at the reploid's intricate armored plating, blond hair that is hanging down from it, and his young face.

"This. . . .must be Zero. ."

"We have found him at last." Milan says as he steps forward. When he gets within a few inches of Zero, a force shocks him and throws him back. Ciel steps back in caution as the reploid stands back up.

"It must be protected by a force field. . ." Passy comments.

"Waaaahhh. . ." they all turn as a cry of pain echoes through the room. They look towards the door to see the other reploid laying in a pool of blood at the door and guard robots approaching them.

"Watch out!" Milan cries as the guard robots raise their canons, and he steps in front of Ciel. Three energy blasts strike his chest and right arm. He doubles over in pain clutching his arm.

"We're cornered. We have to evacuate, NOW!" he cries out as he pushes Ciel and the unarmed reploid back with his left arm and fires at the guard robots with his right hand clutching his rifle. As he fires he manages to strike down most of the approaching guards.

"But. . ." Ciel objected

"We have no time for arguments!" Milan calls to Ciel as he backed up and continued firing. The remaining guards advanced and fired, striking the reploid to the ground.

"Milan!" Ciel cried out as she bent over his smoldering corpse.

"Ciel" Passy calls to her. Ciel continued to kneel wordlessly bent over the body. "CIEL!" she called louder.

"huh?" Ciel muttered, finally looking up.

"I think i can break the force field manually. It's the only way for you to make it out of here."

"What!? Passy. . .if you do this. . .You'll. ." Ciel couldn't finish what she started to say.

"I know, If I do this, I will die." Passy took a moment to ready herself. "Don't worry about me Ciel. Remember that everyone is waiting for your safe return!"

Ciel stood in silence for a long moment before she finally spoke. "Okay Passy, this is your decision. Thank you."

"No. I should thank you Ciel. Goodbye. . ." Passy, all emotion gone from her face, stepped forward and grabbed the wires that connected to Zero. Despite the power of the force field and the electric current running through her body, she pulled with all her strength and managed to remove the wires from Zero. After her task was complete. She staggered backwards, then fell over. A great light enveloped the room and the force field dissipated. Zero's arm twitched, then he slowly stood up.

"Zero. . .Has been resurrected." Ciel said, as if it were rehearsed.

Zero remained silent. "Zero?" Ciel asked, as if questioning if this was really the legendary reploid. Zero remained wordless and so Ciel decided to continue talking. "Help me. Please."

Zero gave no sign of confirmation, but he stepped forward and formed his canon on his arm. The guards noticed more movement and stepped toward zero. Before they could even flinch, Zero raised his canon and fired at them, shredding their metal frames like wet paper. Zero then turned and walked the way opposite the one Ciel came in from. Ciel, not knowing what else to do, followed Zero as he moved onward. He continued forward, past the downed reploids and the broken door, through the corridor until he came to a torn indention in the ground. As he descended into this indention, a countless number of tiny mechanical spiders climbed down from the other side and rushed at him. Zero fired at them almost lazily, and Ciel watched in amazement as every one of them shattered on the ground. Zero continued forward and climbed down to the next indention, even deeper than the last. As they continued, more spiders came before them, and were torn apart my zero's canon. Zero remained focused on his task and all the while, did not speak. As they climbed up out of the indentions to a stabilized pathway, four robotic guards, like the ones that killed most of the reploids that came with Ciel, came forward from across the other side of the pathway. The guards quickly fired on Zero and Ciel. Zero stepped in front of Ciel and absorbed all the attacks before he fired on the guards, destroying them like the others. 'Why wasn't he hurt?' Ciel wondered to herself as they continued on. Eventually the pathway sloped down and another indention was in the floor ahead, where two more guards stood. They didn't seem to notice Zero or Ciel standing on the upper path. Zero glanced around until his sight landed on a motion sensor on the ceiling. He aimed his canon up at the motion sensor and fired a single shot at the top edge, breaking it off the ceiling and causing it to land near the guards. Zero quickly shot it several more times, causing it to explode, destroying both the guards with it. Zero then continued forward, past the wreckage. A very confused and astounded Ciel followed him quickly. They ran into two more guards, which Zero easily destroyed, then came to a thin blue platform that connected to the wall on the other side. Zero stopped at this point, and Ciel continued forward looking curiously at the wall and platform. "What? It's a dead end? what should we do. . .?" Ciel wondered.

The platform began to crack suddenly and Ciel flinched and screamed. Zero Rushed forward quickly. He managed to catch Ciel in midair just as the platform gave out. Zero descended to the ground below, Ciel clinging to his neck in fear. After descending nearly thirty feet, Zero landed as if he had jumped two feet. Ciel let go finally, and stepped forward a few feet, then turned back to Zero. "You. . . .Thank you." She said, not exactly sure what to say. She climbed from the pit up to the path way and paused to look around. "This place looks like a pre-historic laboratory. we may be able to find a Trans-Server, which we can use to go back to the base." Ciel continued forward, Zero following, until she came across a collapsed in pathway. "How nice. . .It's another dead end. Shall we go back?" The broken pieces of the pathway began to stir.

"Stay back!" Zero called, finally breaking his silence and rushing forward. Zero was too late, as a large metal hand come forward and pulled Ciel into the next room. Zero rushed forward into the small broken down room with a large computer system in the corner.

"Zero! No!" Ciel called to him from the Golem's hand. Zero stared up at a robotic golem, like the one that had killed three of the reploids that came with Ciel. Zero raised his canon in anger and pointed it at the Golem's face. Ciel struggled in the golems hand and called out to Zero. "Run Zero! Your canon cannot damage this thing!" Zero ignored her pleas and stood his ground, canon outstretched. The Golem backed up against the wall and fired a massive energy beam at Zero. Zero jumped up and clung to the wall, avoiding the blast. Zero slid slowly down the wall and fired relentlessly at the golem. although his shots made contact, they appeared to have little effect. The golem followed up by firing at the ceiling and breaking several pieces off. the first one fell near the golem and Zero easily dodged it. The next fell further back where zero now stood, so he jumped on top of the first one before it reached him. the last one fell where Zero was now standing and he dodged back, thinking that they seemed to follow him. Finally Zero jumped on top of the front two and fired at the golem many more times. His shots still seemed to have no effect. the golem charged forward breaking the pieces of the ceiling as Zero leaped over the Golem and clung to the opposite wall. As the Golem backed up, Zero leaped back in front of it. The golem was prepared for this and fired at zero just as he was landing. Zero had no time to dodge the shot and took it full force. Zero winced and clutched his arm.

"Damn!" he cursed under his breath as his canon formed back into his hand. Zero involuntarily glanced at the pile of parts lying near the computer in the corner and noticed a small cylinder with a break in the middle that seemed to call to him. "Huh?" He walked over to the cylinder and picked it up. "This feels so. . .familiar." Zero pulled the two pieces apart and noticed that a beam of energy shot quickly between the two pieces. He then placed them back together and pulled them apart in and arc and noticed that it still worked like this and the energy looked like the blade of a sword. "How did I know it would do that. . .?" Zero shook his head to focus his thoughts. 'I have to help her!' he declared to himself. He rushed forward and leaped up at the golem, pulling the pieces apart on opposite sides of the hand. The beam shattered the golem's hand causing Ciel to fall. Zero landed, bounded back up and caught Ciel. After setting her back down he leapt up and swung the blade at the golems head, shattering the processor and causing the golem to explode. Zero dropped back down and laid down over Ciel to absorb the blast. After the smoke cleared, Zero stood up and dusted himself off.

"I can't believe you were able to destroy a golem. . ." Ciel said as she stood up. "I was right . . . You ARE Zero, the legendary reploid!"

"Zero . . .? Is that my name?" Zero asked slowly. He stood silently for a moment. "Ugh, I can't remember. . ."

"Just relax. . ." Ciel commanded him. "you have hibernation sickness." she cleared her throat. "Thank you for saving me Zero. My name is Ciel. I'm a scientist." she glanced around "Let's go, before more guards arrive."

"What if I'm not who you think I am?" Zero asked.

"By saving me from that golem, you proved to me that you are Zero." Ciel turned and entered the door that the golem was standing near and Zero followed. Ciel approached a machine that looked like a broken elevator and inspected it. "We're in luck. it's still active." she said excitedly. She stepped inside and punched something on the keys. When zero just stood there, she motioned for him to come stand with her. He approached the platform slowly, then climbed up on it and stood next to Ciel. She pushed a few keys on the console then everything went out of focus.

Authors note: You may notice I removed some things like the cyber elves, well don't expect to see them in the future, I removed them because they are meaningless to the plot and are a tacked on video game element. I also removed the real X from the story. The fake one IS the real one in my story.

New author's note: Thank you all who have encouraged me to continue and those that suggested I change some things for coherency. I'm back, I didn't give up and there's a new chapter on its way. Expect it tonight around midnight (this message posted: 8/27/2004)