Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 61: "Shadows of the Aftermath"
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The sky had begun to weep again.
Soft rain fell on the shattered earth as the survivors huddled inside the broken shell of a roadside motel. The air reeked of ash, smoke, and silence. But beneath that silence, something new was taking root — the tremor of healing… or the calm before another storm.
Kara sat at the window, her damp hair falling around her face, eyes lost in the rippling puddles outside. She had destroyed the Core. Freed the echoes of her past. But peace? It hadn't come.
Not yet.
"Food's ready," Calen called softly, placing down a bowl of steaming soup beside her.
She didn't move.
He didn't push.
Adrian watched from across the room, arms folded, his gaze never leaving her. She hadn't said more than a few words since the explosion. But he understood. Some wounds needed silence to heal.
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Elsewhere
A dark conference room.
Screens blinked to life, showing images of the destroyed Lazarus Facility. Smoke, ruins, burned files.
A voice crackled through a speaker. Cold. Female.
"So, Project Kara survived."
Another voice responded. Male. Refined. Calm.
"Yes. And Dr. Vane has gone silent."
"She's become unpredictable."
"She's become dangerous."
The woman leaned into the shadows. "Activate Protocol Revenant. It's time the ghosts returned to finish what they started."
A final voice — barely a whisper — answered from the far end of the room.
"She thinks she's free. Let her run. We always find our flames again… when it's time to extinguish them."
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Back at the Motel
Tessa stood by the bathroom mirror, rewrapping the gauze around her bruised ribs.
"You should rest," Adrian said from the hallway.
She raised a brow. "That coming from the guy who hasn't slept in 48 hours?"
"Touché," he muttered with a half-smile. But his eyes turned serious. "What's our next move?"
"We lay low," she said. "Kara's not ready. Hell, none of us are. And without Vane, we've got no intel on where the next threat is coming from."
He hesitated. "There's something else."
She turned toward him.
He handed her a black data chip.
"Found it in the remains of the Core. It wasn't fried in the blast. And it's encrypted with Lazarus-level clearance."
Tessa's fingers tightened around it.
"What's on it?"
"I don't know," he said quietly. "But I think Kara's past… isn't as over as we thought."
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Kara's Dream
That night, the rain deepened into a storm.
Kara slept — but not peacefully.
She was back inside the Core. But this time, the shadows weren't reaching for her. They were watching her.
A familiar face emerged.
A child — no older than ten — with golden eyes and scars across her arms.
"You forgot me," the child whispered.
Kara's chest clenched.
"I didn't—"
"You left me in the dark."
"No. I freed you—"
"She's still alive," the child interrupted. "The one who made me. Who made us. She's still watching."
Kara gasped awake, sweat soaking her clothes.
Across the room, Adrian stirred. "Kara?"
She stood suddenly, voice shaking.
"She's alive."
"Who?"
Kara looked at him, eyes blazing.
"Mother Lazarus."
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The Next Morning
Tessa decrypted the chip.
Everyone gathered around the flickering screen. Calen. X7. Kara. Adrian.
Line after line of code. Blueprints. Names.
And then… a file opened.
A video.
A woman stood before the camera. White lab coat. Slicked back hair. Eyes sharp as glass.
"Project Omega is nearing completion. Subjects show signs of early sentience. Protocol Kara has exceeded expectations. But Phase II requires emotional detachment. That is why Subject K-0 must be reactivated."
Kara's blood froze.
The woman in the video smiled.
"Mother Lazarus… signing off."
Kara stepped back, trembling. "She's not dead. Vane wasn't the top. He was just a gatekeeper."
Adrian looked grim. "Then we go deeper."
X7 stepped forward. "And if going deeper means dragging us into another war?"
Kara's voice turned cold.
"Then we don't walk in as victims this time."
She looked up, fire in her eyes.
"We walk in as the storm."
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Far Away
In a snowy mountain fortress, the real Mother Lazarus looked at the footage of Kara's last mission.
A slow smirk curved her lips.
"She's coming."
She turned to a large cryo-chamber.
Inside floated a figure — tall, armored, wrapped in cables and metal. Motionless.
"Let her come," she whispered, placing her hand on the glass.
"She'll find what she's looking for. But she'll lose what she never expected."
A heartbeat flickered on the display.
The chamber hissed.
And Protocol K-0 stirred.
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To be continued…
🔥 The storm Kara ended was only the beginning. The shadows a
re deeper, the fire hotter — and some enemies don't stay buried.
Vote, comment, and follow Ashes of Our Flame by RapwizzyDebaron. The fire burns forward — and the truth lies beneath the ashes.