Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
Episode 32: "Of Blood and Reflections"
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The night air howled through the broken windows of the abandoned church they found shelter in. Shadows danced along the stained glass as candles flickered, casting long streaks of crimson and gold across the stone walls.
Adrian paced near the altar, the weight of the data chip Kara had recovered burning in his pocket like a brand. His body was still shaking from the blast of power he had used against Kara-Prime. Every use of the Seraphim enhancements took something from him—strength, memory, or worse.
Ronan stood guard by the door, rifle slung across his back, eyes scanning the darkness beyond the church steps. Tessa knelt beside a cracked pew, her laptop resting on a bundle of torn velvet as she began uploading the data from the underground facility. The files were encrypted, but not impenetrable.
And Kara… sat in silence.
Wrapped in a worn blanket, blood still drying on her knuckles, she stared at the dusty floor like she was trying to see her future in the patterns of the cracks.
Adrian came to her side. "You okay?"
She blinked slowly. "Do you think I'm her?"
"No," he said firmly.
"But what if I was made to become her one day? What if the Kara sitting here is just… a version that got away?"
He knelt in front of her, forcing her to meet his eyes. "You're not her. You made a choice. She didn't."
A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "What choice? I was born in his prison. Raised in his truth. Everything I know, everything I am—it's from him."
"No," Adrian said. "You chose to run. You chose to fight. That makes you more human than anything he could ever engineer."
---
Tessa gasped.
"Guys—there's something buried deep in the files."
Adrian and Kara rushed to her side.
"What is it?" Ronan called over his shoulder, keeping his eye on the street.
Tessa's fingers flew over the keyboard. "A project... not part of the clone initiative. Something older. Called The Lazarus Protocol."
Adrian's expression darkened. "I've heard that name before."
Kara whispered, "So have I… when I was a child. It was a bedtime story. The project that could bring the dead back."
Tessa turned the screen toward them. A grainy video flickered to life.
An operating room.
A table.
A figure covered in blood.
Kara's heart skipped.
She saw a woman lying still—lifeless, pale.
And a voice from off-screen: "We're losing her—start the sequence now!"
Electricity crackled. Machines screamed.
And then… the woman opened her eyes.
Kara stumbled back. "That's… my mother."
Adrian froze. "That's not possible. He told you she died giving birth to you."
"I saw her body," Kara said breathlessly. "I buried her."
Tessa's voice shook. "According to this, they brought her back. But the file ends there."
Ronan turned. "Then we find her."
---
Hours later, in the back of the van, silence stretched long.
Kara sat beside Adrian, her head leaning gently against his shoulder. For a moment, the world was still.
Until Ronan's voice crackled from the front. "We've got a location. Medical vault. Deep in the Haven District. Heavy security."
Adrian looked down at Kara. "Are you ready for this?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "But I need to see her. I need to know if any part of my life was real."
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The Haven District was a fortress of wealth and silence.
Gated buildings. Private patrols. Clean streets soaked in secrets.
Tessa tapped the camera feed from a traffic drone. "We're being watched. Surveillance grid's tighter than a steel box."
Ronan handed Kara a small device. "EMP. One-minute blackout. That's all we get. You'll have to be fast."
Adrian leaned in. "We go together."
"No," Kara said. "This is my past. If she's really alive… I need to face her alone."
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
"You've got sixty seconds."
---
The vault doors opened after a retinal scan Tessa forged from old footage.
Inside was a cryogenic chamber.
Dimly lit.
And in the center—suspended in glass and liquid—a woman floated.
Her eyes closed.
Chest rising and falling.
Alive.
Kara stepped forward slowly.
The resemblance was terrifying.
The same hair.
Same lips.
But softer. Older.
She pressed her hand to the glass. "Mom…"
Suddenly, the chamber blinked.
Reanimation sequence initiated.
Kara gasped and stepped back.
The liquid drained.
The woman fell forward, caught by metallic arms that gently laid her on a platform.
She coughed.
Eyes flickered open.
And she looked straight at Kara.
"My… flame…"
Tears flooded Kara's eyes. "It's me. I'm here. I found you."
The woman lifted a trembling hand. "He told me you'd… never come."
Kara gripped her hand. "He lied."
A soft smile spread across her lips. "You look just like her."
"Her?"
"My first daughter," she whispered. "Before you…"
Kara's throat tightened. "There was someone else?"
The woman nodded slowly. "He took her. Failed… Then made you."
The words hit like a punch.
Kara stepped back, everything spinning.
She wasn't the first.
She wasn't even supposed to be the one.
And yet, here she was—the flame still burning.
---
Outside, gunshots rang out.
Adrian's voice roared through the earpiece. "We've got company! Move!"
Kara kissed her mother's forehead. "I'll come back. I swear it."
She turned and ran, heart pounding, past monitors and memories, toward the light.
Toward war.
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To be continued…
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