Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
Episode 29: "The Hunt Begins"
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The city seemed quieter now—eerily so. A breath held too long. A calm that didn't soothe but threatened.
Adrian pulled his hood lower as he slipped through the crowded subway station. People brushed past him, oblivious. But behind his quiet steps, there was a purpose. A new target. A new war.
They had left the safehouse that morning, abandoning comfort for survival. Each of them split in different directions, instructed to regroup at a forgotten checkpoint beneath the old district—a place Kara once used during her days as a ghost in the system.
Adrian's thoughts churned as he moved. Lucien Kael. Mother's legacy. Project Seraphim. Puzzle pieces that refused to fit.
He needed answers. And there was only one person left alive who knew how to find Lucien.
The man who once betrayed him.
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Meanwhile, in a dusty apartment above a pawn shop in East Gritham, Kara was busy.
She moved like a phantom—rerouting wires, patching into a stolen network, pulling surveillance footage that no one should access.
Tessa's voice buzzed through the comm in her ear. "Found something. I tapped into the Northern Watchtower's underground servers. Guess who was listed on a restricted access log from six days ago?"
"Kael?" Kara guessed.
"Worse. Vale."
Kara's hand froze on the keyboard. "He's in custody."
"No." Tessa paused. "There's no confirmation he was ever actually transferred to federal prison. He was rerouted… somewhere classified."
"Where?"
"That's the problem," Tessa whispered. "The file is locked behind something called Ouroboros protocol. And it's protected by Kael's original encryption."
Kara's blood ran cold. "He's playing both sides."
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Ronan arrived at the rendezvous early.
The underground checkpoint smelled like rust, mold, and memory. He flicked on a single lantern and leaned against the cold wall, eyes scanning the darkness. It reminded him of the warzones he'd once crawled through—quiet now, but never safe.
Minutes passed.
Then footsteps.
Adrian emerged from the shadows, cloak soaked in rain. They didn't speak—just nodded.
More silence.
Then Kara.
Then Tessa, breathless, holding a hard drive tight against her chest.
"I cracked it," she said between gasps. "Well… partially."
Adrian stepped closer.
Tessa plugged it into her laptop. The screen lit up with a distorted map. A red blinking point sat deep in the northern marshlands. A black facility with no name. Only coordinates.
"Whatever Kael's building," she said, "it's there."
Kara frowned. "You said partially. What's missing?"
Tessa looked at her. "The reason they need you."
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Deep in the facility beneath the marsh, Vale sat upright, unchained. Calm.
Across from him, Lucien Kael poured a glass of wine.
"I thought you were smarter than this," Vale said. "Trusting they wouldn't find you."
Kael chuckled. "I'm counting on them finding me."
Vale narrowed his eyes. "You've made a mistake."
Kael leaned in. "No, Vale. I'm about to rewrite history. And you… you'll help me do it."
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Back at the hideout, Kara pulled Adrian aside. The others were sleeping—exhausted from running, decoding, planning. But she couldn't rest.
"Do you trust me?" she asked.
Adrian looked into her eyes. "With everything."
"Then come with me."
She led him through the back tunnels until they reached a sealed room. A dusty locker stood untouched in the corner.
Kara punched in a code.
It hissed open.
Inside, stacked in pristine condition, were black cases marked with the same crest from Kael's hidden files.
Project Seraphim.
Adrian's breath caught. "You kept these?"
Kara stepped back. "No. My mother did. Before she died, she warned me—if this day ever came, I'd have to choose."
"Choose what?"
"Whether to fight as a human… or as something more."
Adrian looked down at the strange technology—sleeves lined with artificial muscle, helmets with neural links, injectors with glowing serum.
Kara whispered, "Project Seraphim wasn't a weapon. It was a rebirth."
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The next morning, the team moved with quiet determination. The plan was set. Infiltrate the marshlands. Find the black site. Extract whatever Kael was hiding—and destroy the rest.
Adrian suited up, fingers brushing against the edge of Seraphim's gear.
He didn't know what would happen when he put it on.
But he knew this war was no longer about exposing secrets.
It was about surviving them.
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Far away, in the hidden base beneath the earth, Lucien Kael stood in front of a massive chamber.
Inside, suspended in liquid light, floated a figure.
Unmoving. Unconscious.
Kara's face.
Or rather… a clone of her.
Lucien placed his palm against the glass.
"Let's show the world what perfection looks like."
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To be continued…
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