Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 58: "Protocol Thanatos"
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Smoke still curled from the edge of the crater as the team regrouped, but the silence wasn't peace—it was the stillness before a storm. Kara stood over the glowing disk in her hand, feeling the weight of centuries in her palm. Her mind throbbed from the overload of memories, of truths that had been locked away too long.
Calen leaned against a cracked boulder, eyes closed, chest rising steadily. The black tendrils that once corrupted his body had vanished, replaced by pale scars that shimmered like fading ink.
Adrian touched Kara's shoulder gently. "You okay?"
She didn't answer immediately.
"I don't think I've ever really known what 'okay' feels like," she finally said. "But I'm alive. We're alive. And we have this."
She held up the disk.
Adrian studied it, brow furrowed. "Do we even know what it does?"
Kara glanced toward the ruins of the Arkive. "We're about to find out."
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Inside the Van – Mobile Command Reboot
Tessa tapped furiously on her console, watching the disk's signal transmit across Lazarus frequencies like wildfire.
"Guys," she called out. "We've triggered something big."
Ghost leaned over her shoulder. "Define 'big'."
"Like... network collapse big. Protocol flags are lighting up all over the globe. Whatever Vane's been hiding—this disk is the master key."
Adrian leaned in. "Then we need to move now. Before he hits back."
Just as he spoke, the van's screens flickered.
A red eye appeared in the center.
Then a voice.
Cold. Familiar.
> "Protocol Thanatos initiated. Goodbye, children."
The van exploded into chaos.
Lights shut off.
Engines died.
Every electronic went dead in an instant.
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Meanwhile – Lazarus HQ
Dr. Elias Vane stood before a terminal with a calm most men wouldn't manage in the face of total systemic breach. He watched as one firewall after another fell.
"You were always gifted, Kara," he murmured. "Too gifted."
Behind him, his assistant trembled. "Sir, this will bring down everything. Global lockdowns are failing. Our facilities are being mapped by the hour. Even the remote labs."
Vane didn't flinch. "Let them see. It won't matter soon."
He entered one last command.
> "Release Subject X7."
"Sir?" the assistant gasped. "That program's unstable."
"Exactly."
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Abandoned Metro – Emergency Shelter
Kara, Adrian, Calen, Tessa, and Ghost huddled inside an old metro tunnel, now their only refuge. Without tech, they were off-grid—but so was their enemy.
"Vane killed the van's power," Ghost grunted, kicking a wall. "EMP-style shutdown. We're blind."
"Not totally," Tessa said, pulling out a manual receiver. "Still got a signal tracer, old school."
Kara unwrapped the disk. The glow pulsed faster now, almost like a heartbeat.
"It's reacting," she whispered. "There's something near."
Calen stirred, his voice still hoarse. "It's him. I can feel him."
Adrian leaned in. "You sure?"
Calen's eyes were hollow but sharp. "I remember now. The real experiments… they didn't start with me or Kara. They started with X7."
Kara stiffened. "That name... why does it sound familiar?"
Tessa's tracer pinged.
"North. Underground lab. Less than 3 miles. And it's active."
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Inside the Hidden Lab – The Awakening
A glass coffin hissed open in a chamber colder than ice.
Inside, a figure rose.
Bald. Eyes entirely black.
Skin translucent, almost glowing with red veins.
No words.
Just breath.
And hunger.
The screen above it blinked:
> SUBJECT X7 – RELEASED
STATUS: PRIME
A single command echoed through the lab:
> "Eliminate the Fire."
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Journey to the Facility
The trek through the old metro was rough.
Cracked rails. Collapsed ceilings. Rat nests.
But Kara didn't stop.
Not even when blood dripped from a reopened wound on her arm.
Not when Adrian tried to get her to rest.
Not when Calen winced with every step.
She couldn't stop.
She wouldn't.
Because for the first time in her life, she held the key. And that terrified Vane more than any rebellion.
When the facility came into view — iron doors sealed with biometrics and centuries-old rust — Kara stepped forward.
The disk floated from her hand.
A beam of light scanned her.
Then the doors creaked open with a hiss like a beast awakening.
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Final Scene – Within the Heart
Inside, silence reigned.
Until they reached the Core.
Kara gasped.
Thousands of stasis pods lined the walls, each containing… them.
Clones. Experiments. Failed subjects.
Versions of her.
Some male. Some female. All… broken.
"This is it," she whispered. "This is where they made me."
Adrian's voice was tight. "Kara, we need to shut it down."
Then the alarms screamed.
And X7 appeared at the end of the hall, face twisted with rage and recognition.
"Kara…" it hissed. "Sister."
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To be continued…
🔥 A forgotten brother, an unstable monster, and the fire that was never meant to survive. The next battle won't be against the past — it will be against what they left behind.
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