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95: Into the Fire
Last Updated:
2025-03-22 15:43:18
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Broken Vows, New Promises 96 : The War Begins
Damien’s POVThe wind screamed across the cliffs like a warning howl. From where I stood, the estate grounds below looked like a fortress — bristling with armed men, reinforced gates, surveillance drones scanning every inch of the land. But it wasn’t enough. Not this time.This wasn’t just about Adrian anymore. He had been a symptom. The true disease — Monroe — had been growing unchecked for years, cloaked in shadows, orchestrating everything from genetic experiments to political manipulation.And I had been his prized creation.I clenched my fists. The truth was a poison I hadn’t finished swallowing. Monroe had tampered with my DNA, bred me to be a weapon. Every scar, every ability I’d thought I’d earned was a calculated result.The flash drive Aurora had found in Elias’s safe had confirmed everything — Project ECHO was real. And I was its last remaining product.Behind me, the sound of footsteps echoed. I didn’t turn. I knew it was her.Aurora’s presence was the only thing keeping m
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Damien’s POVThe lab burned behind us.Flames licked at shattered glass and twisted metal, casting hellish shadows that danced over the blood-soaked floors. The air reeked of scorched chemicals and singed flesh—a grotesque perfume of war. We stood just beyond the perimeter, Aurora’s hand still gripping mine like a tether keeping me from spiraling into the madness Monroe had unleashed.I couldn’t shake the image of the clone—my clone—eyes open, dead on the table, his face an eerie mirror of mine. The only difference had been the blankness behind his gaze. No soul. No memories. Just flesh and programmed obedience.“This is just the beginning,” I muttered, voice hoarse.Aurora turned toward me, her face pale but resolute. “Monroe’s not just experimenting. He’s building an army.”I nodded slowly. “An army that looks like me. Fights like me. Maybe even thinks like me.”She shivered. “But they’re not you. He can’t replicate your mind. Your heart.”I wasn’t so sure anymore.The drive we reco
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Aurora’s POVSilence settled over the war room like a thick fog.The screen still flickered with the final frame of Monroe’s message, his face frozen in a half-smile that made my skin crawl. Damien hadn’t moved for what felt like minutes. He stood there, hands clenched into fists, shoulders rigid, as if every word had been branded into his skin.Daemon.The name echoed in my mind like a curse. A clone—not just a replica of Damien, but something more, something… engineered to be unstoppable. A being grown in shadows, meant to take Damien’s place in the world. In leadership. In memory."What do we do now?" I finally asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.Damien didn’t turn. "We find him," he said. "We stop him before Monroe unleashes him.""How do we even begin to look for something that’s been hidden from everyone?" Zoe asked, pacing. Her face was drawn, eyes red. "He could be anywhere. Monroe planned this for years. This isn’t just a rogue science experiment. This is a goddamn in
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Damien's POVThe cold air of the abandoned Romanian base cut through the cracks in the concrete like a scalpel. My boots echoed against the hollow floor as I stepped deeper into the heart of the labyrinthine structure. The others were behind me, holding the perimeter. This part was mine. Mine alone.Daemon waited.I could feel him before I saw him. A sickening familiarity, like seeing your reflection move when you stand still.When I entered the main chamber, he was already there, standing beneath the broken remains of a skylight that bled silver moonlight onto the floor. He wore my face. My scars. My posture. But the eyes—those were wrong. Too calm. Too knowing. Too cold."Welcome home," he said.My jaw clenched. "This was never my home.""Isn't it? Monroe built you here. Built us here. Every thought you’ve ever had—filtered through his design. Tell me, Damien, how do you sleep knowing you were made to be his puppet?"I stepped forward, slow and steady, my weapon raised. "That’s wher
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Damien’s POVThe echoes of Daemon’s fall still rang in my mind, though the blood had long since dried. The confrontation, the final confrontation, had felt both inevitable and surreal. My hand still trembled slightly as I gripped the railing of the balcony, staring out into the vast, darkened expanse of the estate grounds below. The night had grown still, but the air felt thick with anticipation—like a storm was still gathering on the horizon, despite Daemon’s death.I had faced him. Faced the part of me I’d never known, the monster bred from my very blood and bones. I had watched him die, felt his last breath rattle through the air. It should have been a victory, a triumph over my past—a cleansing fire. But now, in the aftermath, I felt none of that.Instead, all I could hear was the ringing silence left in his wake.I glanced down at my hand, watching the faint tremors as I flexed my fingers. The blood on them, still fresh from the struggle, was only a reminder of what had been lost
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Aurora’s POVThe silence after war was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.It seeped into the walls of the estate, into the creaking floorboards and the chilled morning air. I could hear my own breath too clearly as I sat alone in the conservatory, legs curled beneath me, the early sunlight filtering through the glass like shattered gold.I hadn’t seen Damien since last night. Since Daemon. Since the bullet.It was over. But something inside me still buzzed like static.My fingers trembled around the teacup I hadn’t touched. I wasn’t sure if I was cold or just empty. We had survived, but surviving came with a cost. I didn’t know how to name it yet.Damien’s clone. His mirror. His shadow.Daemon had looked like him. Moved like him. Smirked like him. And yet, the moment I saw them side by side, I’d known. The real Damien wasn’t a reflection of violence. He was shaped by pain, yes—but he chose to feel, even if it broke him.I wasn’t sure if he saw that.The door creaked behind me.I didn’t
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Damien’s POVMorning arrived as a pale whisper through the frost-kissed windows of the estate. I sat on the edge of the bed, shirtless, elbows on knees, the world outside still veiled in shadow. The silence felt too complete—like the house was holding its breath.Aurora lay behind me, still wrapped in sleep, her breathing steady, the curve of her body half-shrouded by the blanket. The only thing anchoring me to this moment was the knowledge that she was there—safe, close, real.But everything else in me felt frayed.Daemon’s face lingered in my mind like a ghost refusing to leave. Not just his face—mine. His voice—my voice. Each time I blinked, I could see him again, the final look in his eyes before he fell. Not rage. Not defiance. Acceptance.And that terrified me more than anything.Because what if I had been just one breath, one misstep, one trauma away from becoming him?I ran a hand over my face, feeling the rough stubble against my palm. The adrenaline had long since burned out
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The day was cold, the kind of cold that crept into bones and wrapped itself around the heart. Damien stood on the balcony of the estate, overlooking the mist-shrouded forest, a cup of coffee untouched in his hand. The conversation from the night before lingered in his mind. Three simple words—ones he never thought he could say, let alone mean."I love you, too."Aurora’s voice was still etched in his memory, and the feeling of her lips against his was a brand he couldn't shake. But now, in the clarity of morning, the world returned in pieces—and with it, the war that hadn’t ended. The flash drive had only opened one door. What lay behind it was something far more dangerous.Inside, the team gathered in the war room. Lucien, Quinn, Zara, and Jace were already deep in debate when Damien entered. The moment he stepped in, all eyes turned toward him. No one asked how he was. They didn’t need to. His presence alone was answer enough."We decrypted the rest of the files," Quinn said, sliding
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Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 145 : A Name Among the Ashes
The boy didn’t speak of the dream again.But something in him shifted after that night. His steps were a little steadier. His gaze no longer darted to the exits first. He stayed near Damien, yes, but not like a shadow clinging to light. Now, it felt like a tether, an anchor—not dependence, but choice.Damien noticed it when they trained in the clearing behind the safehouse. The boy followed directions without flinching, without looking over his shoulder every five seconds like he expected Monroe to appear from behind the trees. And when Kai handed him a blade—not sharp, just a practice knife—he held it with the curiosity of someone discovering a piece of themselves.“What do we call him?” Eli
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 144 : Echoes in the Light
The morning sunlight felt wrong.Too bright. Too open.After days in the Hollow’s synthetic twilight, Damien squinted at the skyline like it was some forgotten relic. The world outside was still broken, scarred by everything Monroe had built, but out here—beneath real sky—it felt like breathing for the first time in weeks.They moved through the forest trail in silence, Aurora walking beside Damien, the child—now clothed in a borrowed jacket and boots too large—staying close to Damien’s side like a shadow tethered to light.No name.No past.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 143 : The First Breath
The air inside the chamber thickened as the hum of the cryopod deepened, soft lights tracing across its surface like veins awakening after a long slumber. Damien stood with his hand hovering just above the control panel, eyes locked on the boy within. A-00.The child who shouldn’t exist.The child who had been discarded—forgotten—yet had outlived the project meant to replace him.Aurora touched Damien’s arm gently. “Are you ready?”He didn’t answer right away. His gaze was still fixed on the boy’s face. So young, so still. Yet somehow, it felt like staring into a mirror that refused to reflect.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 142 : Into the Hollow
The helicopter blades sliced through the Ural sky like a warning.Beneath them, the forest spread like a sea of frozen pine and fractured stone, untouched and unwelcoming. The coordinates Null had provided pointed to a narrow canyon—its jagged sides veined with ice and shadow—where no human path should've ever led.Damien sat beside Aurora, eyes locked on the narrowing terrain below. The cold had begun to seep in through the insulated layers, but it wasn’t the temperature that clenched his gut.It was the silence.Even at this altitude, the absence of wildlife was unnerving.As if nature itself refused to brea
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 141 : Fractures Beneath the Surface
The wind had changed by morning.Geneva’s neutral calm felt different now—like something sacred had been disturbed beneath its manicured stillness. The team gathered in the briefing room of the underground complex, still shaken from what they’d uncovered the night before: Damien’s prototype—Subject A-01-D—and the fractured remnants of Monroe’s last vault of secrets.No one spoke for a long while.Elias was the first to break the silence. “So what now? We’ve seen the start of it. That clone—your prototype—it changes everything. Doesn’t it?”Null nodded slowly, pacing. “It suggests Monroe’s e
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 140 :The Parallax Record
The flight into Geneva was cloaked in silence and tension. Null sat across from Damien and Aurora, his fingers flying across his datapad as he decoded the fragmented files Seraph had left behind. The others barely spoke—each of them gripped by what lay ahead.Damien watched the mountains vanish beneath the clouds through the aircraft window. He could feel Aurora’s quiet presence beside him. Their fingers weren’t intertwined this time, but their shoulders touched, and that alone grounded him more than anything else could.Geneva greeted them with muted skies and chill winds. The neutral zone was a far cry from the war-torn hideouts they’d grown used to—orderly, pristine, quiet. But underneath that perfection lurked something far older than secrecy: erasure.They descended into the depths of a government facility disguised as an old weather station. It took Null several bypasses, retina scans, and an override code embedded in one of Seraph’s final neural threads to breach the security l
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 139 : A Thousand Echoes
The explosion echoed through the Carpathians like a buried heartbeat being silenced for good. Smoke rose from the ridge, curling toward the cold sky as if even the heavens exhaled relief.Damien stood at the edge of the cliff, watching the plume dissipate into the wind. His jaw was locked, his expression unreadable, but his eyes—those always gave him away. They were distant, full of storm-tossed reflections. Of Seraph’s soft voice. Of her last smile. Of what it meant to end something that had never truly begun.Aurora approached quietly, the silence between them laced with something deeper than words. She stood beside him, their shoulders just brushing.“She called him father,” Damien murmured. “And still chose me.”Aurora’s voice was soft, almost reverent. “Because you were never like him. You gave her something Monroe never could.”He turned to look at her. “What if that’s not true? What if all I’ve done is bury the sins of my creation in silence? I didn’t save her. I ended her.”“S
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 138 : Sanctum Protocol
The stars hung low that night—sharp and endless—casting a cold silver sheen across the ridge where the safehouse stood. Inside, the quiet had turned restless. Plans had been made, supplies packed, and weapons checked twice over. But in the hush between movements, something else had stirred: anticipation… and dread.Damien stood before the digital board Null had reconfigured in the command room. The spiral symbol—the same one tied to Echelon One—hovered in the center of the map like an eye watching them all.“Everything leads here,” Null said, his fingers dancing across the interface. “Every clone experiment, every data trail Monroe left. I think Echelon One is more than just a final base. It’s a convergence point.”“For what?” Elias asked from the side, arms crossed.Null hesitated. “For everything Monroe couldn't control.”Aurora entered then, her presence grounding the tension in the room. “Then we need to understand what we’re walking into before we try to shut it down.”“I pulled
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 137: The Quiet Between Storms
The morning after the explosion was strangely still.The mountain air carried a brittle chill, brushing against the scorched earth where the Aetheris network once stood. Smoke still curled upward in delicate wisps, as though the ruins hadn't yet accepted their own end. Birds circled overhead, tentative and cautious. Nature, it seemed, was holding its breath.Inside the safehouse nestled at the base of the ridge, silence had taken on a different shape—calm, measured, almost sacred.Damien sat at the edge of the makeshift balcony, elbows on knees, watching the sunrise paint the valley in gold. His fingers were wrapped loosely around a steaming mug of black coffee, though he hadn’t taken a sip. He didn’t need the heat. He needed the stillness.Behind him, the door creaked softly open.Aurora stepped out barefoot, wrapped in a loose sweater that hung off one shoulder. Her hair was still damp from the quick shower she'd taken to scrub off the soot and blood. She paused when she saw him—his
