Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 106: "Remnants of Loyalty"
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Kara's knees nearly buckled.
"Ronan?" she whispered, stepping forward as if the sound of her voice could pull the truth from his altered expression. "What did they do to you?"
The man before her tilted his head, red cybernetic eye whirring slightly. "I remember your voice. It was the last thing I heard before they turned me off."
Adrian moved in front of Kara, weapon raised. "Step back."
Ronan—no, the version of him they were staring at—didn't flinch. "You think I don't remember you too, Adrian? You left me. I bled out in that compound while you saved her."
Aria stepped to the side, voice level. "That's not you talking. That's the Lazarus Protocol rewriting your memories."
"I am me," Ronan said, his voice an eerie echo of his old self. "I'm just… better now. Enhanced. Complete."
He raised a plasma blade from his hip, letting its glowing edge hum to life.
"You can walk away," Kara said, hands trembling but open. "You don't have to do this."
"I'm not here to kill you, Kara," he replied. "I'm here to bring you home."
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The room erupted into chaos.
Tessa dove behind a control panel, jamming her drive into the terminal, trying to override the facility lockdown. Shade fired at Ronan's feet to distract him, but he moved like liquid metal, dodging each shot with inhuman precision.
Adrian charged him, engaging in a brutal hand-to-hand fight—his blade clashing against Ronan's with sparks and fury.
"Ronan, listen to me!" Adrian shouted between strikes. "You were more than this. You were family!"
"I was expendable," Ronan hissed, landing a blow that sent Adrian skidding across the floor.
Kara cried out and ran to Adrian's side.
Blood stained his shoulder, but he growled, "I've had worse."
Kara stood, eyes burning with fire. "If you want to bring me home, Ronan, you'll have to kill me."
His face twitched. A flicker of something—conflict—glimmered beneath the surface. Then he stepped back.
"Not yet," he murmured. "The Director wants you alive. But if you keep resisting…"
He turned and vanished into a cloud of shadows released by a pulse grenade.
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Silence fell.
The group stood breathless, bloodied, and shaken. Tessa finally disabled the lockdown.
Shade helped Adrian to his feet. "That wasn't Ronan. Not fully."
"No," Adrian muttered, gripping his side. "But enough of him is in there to hurt."
Kara stared at the empty space Ronan had disappeared into.
"He remembered my voice," she said softly. "That means something's still in there."
Aria touched her shoulder. "If he's anything like us, Kara, then hope is dangerous—but real."
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Deep in the heart of the facility, behind reinforced glass and a wall of servers, Elias Vane stood with his arms crossed.
"He hesitated," Vane said flatly.
A technician beside him nodded. "The bond is stronger than expected."
"We'll sever it," Vane said. "Begin neural conditioning Phase Six. If Ronan can't kill her, we'll break what remains of him until he can."
He turned toward the screen displaying Kara's trembling face.
"Flames only burn bright when there's something left to destroy."
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Later, back at a makeshift rest point near the surface, Kara sat alone beneath a shattered skylight. Moonlight spilled across her skin like an unspoken promise.
Adrian approached quietly and sat beside her.
"You okay?" he asked.
She didn't answer right away. Then, in a whisper, "He looked right at me, Adrian. And for a second… I saw the real him."
Adrian leaned back against the cold wall. "Then maybe there's still a chance."
She turned to him. "You think we can save him?"
"I think," Adrian said, "if anyone can reach what's left of Ronan, it's you."
Kara looked up at the stars through the broken glass.
"If he was turned into a weapon, then I'll be the fire that melts the steel."
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To be continued…
🔥 Brother, weapon, or ghost—who will Ronan become? And how far will Kara go to bring him back?
Don't miss the next emotional
explosion in Ashes of Our Flame by RapwizzyDebaron. Like, comment, and follow — the war for loyalty has just begun.