Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 102: "The Price of Survival"
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The skies above the city were no longer on fire, but peace didn't follow the silence. It never did.
Kara sat on the edge of the broken tower, legs dangling into the void. The wind whipped through her hair, cool against the sweat and blood drying on her skin. Below her, the city lay in fractured ruins—scars left by the battle that had nearly cost them everything.
But Nemesis was gone.
And with him, a part of her—one she never wanted back.
"Still breathing?" Adrian's voice was soft behind her.
She didn't look at him. "Barely."
He stepped closer, crouching beside her. "That's enough."
Kara finally turned her gaze on him. "We won, but at what cost? My memories, my body… everything's been used against me. I don't even know if I'm… me anymore."
"You are," Adrian said firmly. "You always were. No one gets to define you but you."
She wanted to believe him. But in the deepest part of her soul, doubt still festered.
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Back at the hideout, Tessa was running diagnostics. Requiem's system was collapsing, its control nodes flickering into digital oblivion.
Shade glanced at the screens, arms crossed. "It's all falling apart. We may have stopped Nemesis, but the Lazarus Protocol… it's still out there. Fractured, but not dead."
Ronan slammed a new magazine into his rifle. "Then we hunt the rest down. Burn it to the ground."
"But it's not just tech anymore," Tessa added. "There are survivors. Others like Kara—clones, constructs, experiments. Most of them don't even know what they are yet."
A long silence followed.
Then Kara's voice came from the door. "Then we find them. Help them. Before someone else turns them into weapons."
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In the shadows of a ruined facility beneath the old district, a chamber door creaked open.
Inside, rows of stasis pods lined the walls. Most were empty—cracked glass, wires torn. But one remained active.
Inside floated a girl.
She looked… just like Kara.
A flickering screen beside her displayed her designation: Prototype 02.
The screen flashed red.
> "Subject awakening."
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Far away, in a high-tech bunker shielded by mountains, a man in a pristine white suit poured himself a drink. His back was turned to the monitor showing Kara's face.
"Excellent," he murmured. "Phase Omega failed. But Phase Nova... is just beginning."
He raised his glass.
"To the new age of fire."
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That night, Kara stood alone outside the hideout, staring at the stars.
Adrian joined her, slipping his hand into hers.
"We've come far," he said.
She nodded. "But we're not done."
"Will we ever be?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "But if I can help someone else not become what I almost did… then it's worth it."
He kissed her forehead, and for the first time in weeks, her heart felt a flicker of warmth.
Hope. Fragile, but real.
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To be continued…
🔥 They thought it ended with Nemesis. But the ashes stil
l burn.
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The rebirth begins now.