Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 83: "Flames in the Dark"
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The room exploded in chaos.
Zero lunged at Kara, the floor fracturing beneath his feet. A shockwave slammed into her chest, throwing her backward into a pillar. Sparks burst from the damaged uplink core behind her, the machinery screeching in protest.
"Kara!" Adrian shouted, firing round after round at Zero, but each bullet simply clinked off his skin like pebbles.
Zero turned to Adrian. His eyes glowed with a cruel, synthetic light.
Adrian didn't hesitate — he charged, slamming a shock-blade into Zero's ribs.
It did nothing.
Zero grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground, fingers tightening—
Until Kara rose again.
Her body smoked from impact, blood trickling from her lip. But her eyes — her eyes burned.
"Let. Him. Go."
Zero paused.
Her voice wasn't just hers anymore.
It echoed — as if a thousand minds spoke with her.
And then a pulse of light rippled from her chest.
Zero staggered.
Adrian fell to the floor, coughing, gasping for breath.
Kara walked forward, every step defiant. The console behind her had gone silent. The broadcast was done. The sleepers were awake. But now, the monster had to fall.
"You're not a weapon," she said softly. "You were a child. Like me."
Zero twitched. Something flickered behind his eyes.
"I remember you," she continued. "Room 9. You were quiet. You hated the noise. You liked the sky."
He paused.
Kara took another step.
"You used to draw stars in the dust, remember? With your finger."
His arm lifted. His fingers trembled.
"I remember."
And then — he screamed.
The human part of him warred with the machine. The pain split through him like lightning. He grabbed his head, stumbling.
Adrian pulled Kara back, just as Zero's body convulsed and released a blast of energy that shattered the console behind them.
Tessa's voice came through the comms, panicked. "The tower's destabilizing! You've got sixty seconds before meltdown!"
"Move!" Nemesis called, firing up the extraction path.
Kara hesitated.
She looked at Zero — now collapsed, twitching, breathing heavy. No longer attacking.
Not completely gone.
She knelt beside him, fingers brushing his scarred cheek. "You don't have to follow their orders anymore."
His eyes flicked open — less rage, more confusion.
"Who… am I?" he rasped.
Kara gave him the only truth she had. "You were stolen. But you can choose now."
Alarms screamed overhead. Steam burst from the floor vents.
Adrian pulled her up. "Kara! We have to go!"
They ran.
Nemesis dropped charges to cover their escape, and with seconds to spare, the team dove into the maintenance chute as the uplink tower exploded behind them in a storm of fire and code.
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One Hour Later — Resistance Medical Bay
Kara sat beside Zero's unconscious body.
He'd survived. Barely.
The others weren't sure what to do with him.
But she knew.
He was the first proof that the Lazarus programming could be broken — not just disrupted. Undone.
"I'll stay with him," she told the medics. "If he wakes up, he needs a familiar voice."
Adrian leaned against the doorway, arms crossed.
"You risked everything to save someone who tried to kill you."
Kara didn't look up. "He didn't choose to be what they made him."
Adrian stepped closer. "Neither did you."
She met his gaze. For a long moment, they said nothing. Then—
"Did we win?" she asked.
Adrian gave a half-smile. "We woke the sleepers. Took out a major tower. Disrupted Lazarus intel for at least a few days."
He paused.
"But Vane's still out there. Selene too. And they're pissed."
Kara nodded. "Then we keep going."
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Elsewhere — Lazarus Sky Citadel
Vane stood before a shattered console.
"Shut down the Omega fallback protocol," he ordered, his voice colder than ice.
Selene stared at him. "That will release everything. The test subjects. The vaults. The Gate."
"She forced our hand," he said. "Now we open Hell itself."
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Final Scene — Deep Underground
In a dark chamber filled with cryo tanks, one suddenly lit up.
Inside, a girl floated in the fluid — eyes closed, skin pale, veins glowing with golden lines.
A label across the tank read: Subject X – Origin Flame.
Her eyes opened.
She smiled.
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To be continued…
🔥 The flames of rebellion have ignited. But what wakes next may not be human at all…
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The fire's just getting started.