Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
Episode 30: "Ghosts of Tomorrow"
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The marshlands were death in disguise.
Rotting trees loomed like skeletal guardians over the soaked terrain. Fog wrapped around the group like a noose, blinding and cold. Every step Adrian took felt like walking into the mouth of something ancient and cruel.
The facility's coordinates led them to what appeared to be a derelict dam, hidden behind collapsed forest and barbed wire rusted by time. But beneath it—through a series of submerged tunnels and camouflaged steel doors—was the black site Tessa had uncovered.
"This place gives me chills," Ronan muttered, gripping his rifle. "Doesn't even smell like nature. Smells like secrets."
Kara scanned the walls with a thermal lens. "We're not alone."
They moved in formation—Adrian up front, Kara at his flank, Tessa with her tech kit, and Ronan covering the rear. Every corridor felt like it was watching them.
Then, suddenly—an echo.
Footsteps.
Not theirs.
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Back in the city, an alert lit up on a corrupted console in an abandoned military office.
The signal had been triggered.
Inside the core room of Project Seraphim's vault, a second clone chamber flickered to life. A figure stirred inside—neither fully Kara, nor someone entirely new.
Kael watched with a smirk.
"Now the real test begins."
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Inside the facility, Adrian's team moved past abandoned labs filled with broken syringes and shattered screens. Strange symbols were drawn on the walls—circles within circles, the Ouroboros carved again and again.
Tessa knelt beside a terminal and connected her drive. "Give me one minute."
Ronan's voice crackled through the comm, "I hear movement in the east wing. Heavy boots. Not soldiers. Something else."
Kara turned. "We split."
"No," Adrian said. "We stay together."
But it was already too late.
A high-pitched screech pierced the hallway—like static, but alive.
Then the lights exploded.
Darkness swallowed them.
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Kara drew her blade instinctively, adrenaline surging through her veins. Her night vision lenses blinked on.
Shapes moved in the dark.
Not human.
Not machines.
Hybrids.
Lurching creatures—once human—now mutated by Seraphim serum experiments. Their eyes glowed, veins pulsing with sickly green light. They shrieked with artificial rage.
Adrian stepped forward, slamming one into the wall with his enhanced gauntlet. "Keep moving!"
Tessa shrieked as a clawed hybrid lunged at her—only for Ronan to tackle it mid-air, breaking its neck with brutal precision.
"Remind me to hate you less," she breathed.
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They made it to the central chamber—a massive dome of glass and steel with a levitating core in the center. Inside the core: files, data, and something frozen in stasis.
Adrian's heart stopped.
It was Vale.
Alive.
Barely.
"Why is he here?" Kara hissed.
Tessa scanned his vitals. "They kept him in a coma—his brain linked to the system. They're running simulations… through his mind."
"Psychological warfare," Adrian muttered. "Training the clones."
"Not just training," Tessa said softly. "Predicting. Every move. Every betrayal. Every rebellion. They were feeding his memories into an algorithm."
Adrian's jaw clenched. "We're not fighting a man. We're fighting his mind turned into a machine."
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Outside the dome, alarms wailed. The hybrids were regrouping.
Kara grabbed Adrian's wrist. "We need to get the data and destroy this place."
Adrian stared at Vale's lifeless form. "We can't leave him."
"Adrian—"
"He saved me once. Gave me a second chance. I owe him."
Ronan placed explosives at the dome's foundation. "You've got five minutes."
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Adrian carried Vale on his back while Kara and Tessa copied the core drive.
Suddenly, a wall exploded behind them.
Lucien Kael stepped through the smoke, unbothered.
He looked at Kara. "You shouldn't have come here."
"I came to bury you," she spat.
Kael raised a hand—and the second Kara, the clone, stepped forward.
Perfect. Identical. Empty.
"Meet your successor."
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Chaos erupted.
The clone lunged at Kara with inhuman speed. Adrian dropped Vale and charged, gauntlet roaring with power.
Metal clashed against blade. Clone against original. Fire met shadow.
"You can't kill what you are," Kael sneered.
"I'm not her," Kara growled, cutting across the clone's face. "And I never will be."
Blood—not red, but silver—spilled.
The clone fell to her knees.
"You're flawed," Kael said, disappointed.
Adrian hurled a grenade toward the vault. "So is your god complex."
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The explosion rocked the entire structure.
Fire, data, and screams drowned in the marsh.
As they emerged through the northern tunnel, Vale still unconscious, Kara turned to Adrian.
"What now?"
Adrian looked at the fire behind them.
"We stop hiding."
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To be continued…
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Every decision burns deeper… and the war is far from over.