Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 97: "Awaken the Monster"
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The wind howled through the ruins of the Forge, sweeping smoke and dust into the morning sky. Kara stood at the edge of the cliff, eyes fixed on the mountain that had once imprisoned them all — now a smoking crater. But even with its destruction, her heart remained heavy.
Something felt… wrong.
She looked at Adrian beside her. He was silent, staring too long at the rising plumes.
"Do you feel that?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper.
He nodded slowly. "Like it's not over."
Behind them, Tessa helped Zero into the back of a battered truck. His wound had stopped bleeding, but his face was pale.
"We need a safehouse," Tessa said. "This place isn't going to hold much longer."
Shade checked the perimeter. "Signal's still jammed. No drones, no radio. We're cut off."
Kara's fingers curled around the data chip she'd pulled from the Forge's last system. "Then we find answers ourselves."
She didn't say what she feared most — that Vane's mind had survived.
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Far below them, in the buried remnants of the Forge, a metal hand twitched.
The lab was shattered, filled with smoke and debris. Yet within a sealed containment pod, red lights blinked in rhythm with an artificial pulse.
A synthetic voice spoke.
"Unit V-1 online. Memory protocol: initializing…"
From the mist, a figure stepped out — not Elias Vane, but something made in his image. A perfect replica. Skin pale, eyes like fire, heart of code and vengeance.
"Directive received: Restore Lazarus. Eliminate defectives. Purge rebellion."
He looked up at the cracked ceiling, where sunlight tried to pierce through.
And he smiled.
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Elsewhere, the team reached a forest outpost hidden beneath layers of overgrowth. Tessa activated the old lockdown codes. The steel door slid open, revealing a darkened war room, long unused.
Adrian lit the generator. Lights flickered on.
"I've seen this place before," Kara whispered. "In flashes. This was where they trained us."
Zero plugged the chip into the console. Lines of encrypted files loaded. Faces. Names. Memories.
And something else.
A protocol labeled: "Project Nemesis."
Kara's stomach dropped. "That's the real weapon. Not just AI, not just control — it's rebirth."
Adrian read the highlighted passage.
"Nemesis: A cybernetic clone carrying the original consciousness of Elias Vane. Enhanced. Self-learning. Indestructible."
Silence fell.
Tessa looked at Kara. "You destroyed the Forge. But you didn't destroy him."
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The ground shook.
Sirens lit up the outpost. Heat sensors detected movement. Dozens… no, hundreds of life forms approaching.
But these weren't soldiers.
They were experiments — broken, twisted hybrids of tech and flesh. Former subjects like Kara, left behind in the system.
Now… they had come home.
Kara stood tall, heart racing.
"They think we're still running."
She turned to her team.
"Let's show them we've stopped running — and started fighting."
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To be continued…
🔥 The shadow rises again… but this time, so does the flame.
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