Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 105: "The Devil You Know"
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The silence in the hideout was thick, broken only by the hum of backup generators and the slow, measured breathing of the team. Tessa worked furiously on her laptop, fingers moving like lightning, while Kara and Aria stood face-to-face in the flickering light of the map projector.
"You're sure the Omega Facility is here?" Kara asked, pointing to a blinking red mark in the mountain outskirts.
Aria nodded. "It's not on any records. That's the point. But I've seen it—before I escaped."
Adrian studied her closely. "You said 'escaped.' Not 'released.' So he kept you there?"
Aria's jaw tensed. "He built me there."
Shade leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "And how do we know this isn't a trap? That you're not just another program running on Vane's code?"
Aria's gaze snapped to him, voice cold. "Because I bleed. Just like she does."
She looked at Kara. "You think you're broken? You were his hope. I was his weapon."
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That night, as they prepped for infiltration, Adrian and Kara stepped aside.
"Do you believe her?" Adrian asked softly.
Kara hesitated. "I believe her pain."
"And if she turns on us?"
"Then I'll stop her. But until then… she's the only thread we have."
He nodded slowly, pulling her into a brief embrace. "We go in together. We leave together."
Her voice was a whisper. "Always."
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The journey to the Omega Facility was hell.
Their van barely made it up the mountain road, tires skidding through ash-coated gravel. Storm clouds swirled overhead like a living thing, pulsing with green lightning. The air tasted like metal and regret.
As they neared the perimeter, Tessa tapped her headset. "Surveillance grid is offline. Too clean. It's a lure."
Adrian cocked his weapon. "Then let's spring it."
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Inside the facility, the air was colder than outside—unnatural, like something dead was watching.
Rows of blackened stasis pods lined the hallway, most empty… except one.
Kara froze. "That's her."
The woman inside the pod was older, with the same eyes as Kara—eyes that mirrored decades of silence. Her mother.
Alive. But barely.
Aria moved beside her. "She was Phase One. They kept her in cryo to stabilize the Lazarus Code. Your DNA came from her—what was left of her."
Tears welled in Kara's eyes. "I was never born. I was built."
"No," Aria whispered. "We were broken… and then we survived."
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Suddenly, a piercing alarm shrieked through the compound.
"Someone's activated a lockdown!" Tessa shouted. "We're trapped!"
Doors slammed shut. Lights flickered red. Then, from the speakers, Vane's voice echoed.
"Welcome home, daughters."
The room shook as the floor split open, revealing a circular chamber below.
And rising from the depths… a figure in gleaming black armor, one red eye glowing beneath a cybernetic visor.
Adrian raised his weapon. "Vane."
But Aria stepped forward. "No. That's not him."
The figure removed his helmet—and Kara gasped.
It was Ronan.
But not the Ronan they knew.
This one was altered—augmented.
"Hello, Kara," he said with a mechanical calm. "I remember you now."
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To be continued…
🔥 What happens when the enemy wears the face of a friend? Can the flame survive betrayal?
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