Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 90: "Blood, Smoke, and Truth"
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Chaos erupted.
The cloned monstrosities lunged from their pods with horrifying speed—grotesque echoes of Kara and Zero, half-formed and twitching with rage. Their eyes glowed with crimson light as if Vane had injected hate itself into their veins.
"Kara, left!" Adrian shouted.
She ducked just as one of the clones swiped at her neck. In a fluid motion, she twisted around and drove her blade through its chest. It let out a strangled, digital scream before collapsing in a pool of black ichor.
Ronan fired at another, each bullet tearing through limbs that reformed too quickly. "They don't die like the others!"
"They're designed to adapt!" Seraphina called out, launching an EMP pulse. "Aim for the spinal cores!"
Kara's mind raced. This was no longer a battle for survival—this was a war to determine who owned her identity.
Adrian moved beside her, his back against hers. "You okay?"
She didn't answer immediately. Blood streaked down her arm, and her heart felt like it was burning through her chest. But she stood. "Not yet. But I will be."
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Dr. Vane observed it all from the control platform above, his expression unreadable.
"They're… evolving," he whispered. "Even the failures are becoming something greater."
One of his assistants hesitated. "Should we initiate Omega Override?"
Vane didn't blink. "No. Let the flame grow. I want to see what they become when pushed to the edge."
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Kara locked eyes with Zero again in the midst of the slaughter. Both covered in wounds, both breathing heavy.
"This was never your fight," he said.
She raised her blade. "Then why does it feel like it always was?"
They charged.
Their clash cracked the floor beneath them. This time, it wasn't about training or programming. It was about will. Identity. Kara dodged his kick, spun under his elbow, and landed a punch so raw, it split his lip.
Zero staggered, staring at the blood on his hand. Real. Not programmed.
"I bleed…" he whispered.
"Because you're not a weapon," Kara said. "You're a person. Just like me."
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Adrian, Ronan, and Seraphina finished off the last clone, just as the core's power began to surge. Sparks flew from every wall.
Tessa's voice screamed in over the comm. "Get out now! The core's overloading—you have two minutes!"
Adrian turned. "Kara!"
She stood over Zero, who now knelt on the ground, weapon gone, gaze broken.
"You could finish me," he said. "End this."
"No," Kara replied. "That's what he wants."
She turned her eyes to the platform above. "Dr. Vane! Your game ends here!"
Vane didn't flinch. "You don't even know the beginning, girl."
The room shuddered. Power surged. And from the depths of the chamber, a hidden elevator began to rise.
A capsule.
Inside it—
Someone neither of them expected.
Kara's heart stopped.
"Mother?"
A woman stepped forward. Older, scarred… but undeniably her mother.
Dr. Vane's voice rang like a death bell. "The true origin… is just waking up."
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To be continued…
🔥 Family secrets. Betrayal unmasked. The next burn will sear the soul.
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The inferno hasn't even reached its peak.