Disclaimer: Megaman Zero and all its characters belong to Square... or whatever they call themselves now. I do not benefit from this story in any way. The plot and the new characters belong to me though.

Prolouge

Ciel was running for her life. The sound of her light footsteps seemed to echo along the dark corridor, along with the sound of her ragged gasps for breath. She teetered from side to side with every step, her limbs heavy with exhaustion. Blood trickled down from underneath her pink helmet, staining her already wounded face in red.

The corridor was dark and empty, with flickering bulbs giving sparse light every few meters. The air seemed stale, as if it had been undisturbed for years. Ciel pushed herself onward, her gasps getting deeper and deeper. Her normally clean, pressed clothes was smudged with dirt and full of tears.

From behind her, a group of shadows emerged. There were five of them, each were tall and clad in some matching uniforms of green. They paused for a while, then started chasing after the young woman. They made no attempt at silencing their heavy footsteps, and the echoes carried all the way to Ciel.

Ciel ran even faster, feeling as if her heart would pound out of her chest. There was no way to escape; she was just a tired, lost woman, while the reploids chasing her were full of energy. A few tears leaked out from her eyes. She began to stumble, each time pushing herself up again. The reploids were gaining on her, and she was slowing down. Finally, her foot landed the wrong way and twisted to the side. Ciel screamed in pain as she fell to the cold ground. The edges of her vision started to go black. No...

The reploids, seeing their target fall, slowed to a walk. There was no need for them to hurry. There was no way that a puny, human female would be able to escape them. As they came closer, they heard sobs coming from Ciel. One of them scoffed and pulled out his buster gun. Humans were such weaklings... they deserved to die.

Ciel pushed herself to a sitting position and began crawling backwards, away from the reploids. She was crying freely now, the tears further smudging the dirt on her face. "Zero..." she whimpered, scrambling back till her back bumped against the wall, right beside one of the lights. "Zero..."

The foremost reploid came forward. The light reached him, illuminating the green uniform of the Resistance he was wearing. A pair of working goggles were strapped to his forehead, and his blue eyes gazed coldly down at the scientist. He spoke, in a very familiar voice, "Zero can't save you now."

Ciel met his gaze weakly, and asked, "Cerveau... why are you doing this?" There was no reply. Cerveau pulled out a buster gun and wordlessly pointed it at her. It was over. Her dream of making peace between the reploids and humans would end here. Her eyes closed in submission, stemming the flow of her tears. "Zero..."

Author's Notes: Aye... it is pretty short, but this is just the prologue. Hopefully, there will be many more chapters to come.