THE WATCHER: REVOLUTION
By Rapwizzy Debaron
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Episode 17: Ashes of Memory
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There's something haunting about stillness after chaos.
Too quiet.
Too hollow.
Too late.
Jax sat cradling Alira's limp body as the lab's ruined systems flickered dimly around them, broken machinery coughing out sparks like dying stars. The ground beneath him was cracked—so was he.
Her warmth was fading.
> "Alira…" he whispered. "Say something."
Nothing.
Just the sound of distant alarms winding down, like the world had finally stopped screaming.
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> [System Memory Residue Detected.]
[Initiating Neural Sync: Unauthorized Access…]
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Pain pierced his skull.
Jax flinched, clutching his temples as a wave of heat surged through his spine. It wasn't physical—it was her.
Whispers. Thoughts. Fractured echoes.
Alira's voice, splintered and echoing inside his mind.
> "You were never supposed to find me again…"
> "But you did…"
Images flared—glimpses of her locked in the chamber, calling his name, clawing at steel walls while they erased her over and over. Screams buried in silence. Smiles forced between injections. Her pain was not just data.
It was alive.
And now, it lived inside him.
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He clutched her tighter.
Tears traced the dirt on his cheeks.
> "I'm sorry," he breathed. "I wasn't enough."
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> [Warning: Identity Sync Level 2 Reached.]
[Risk of Consciousness Merge: High.]
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Then her eyes snapped open.
But they weren't hers.
They glowed—white-hot, alien, wrong.
Omega.
Jax stumbled back, breath caught in his throat.
> "Alira?"
She looked at him like she didn't know him.
Or maybe… like she remembered too much.
> "You shouldn't have linked with me," she said flatly. "Now you carry the infection."
> "You mean your memories?" Jax stood. "That's not an infection. That's you."
She tilted her head. Watching him. Calculating.
> "You still think I'm her."
> "You are."
A long pause.
Then—she stepped forward.
> "What if I'm both?" she whispered.
> "Then I'll love both."
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It shattered her.
The confidence, the coldness—all of it collapsed like brittle glass. Her knees buckled, and he caught her again, this time not as a hero—but as a boy who still believed in the girl who once smiled at him through a rain-streaked glass.
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> "I remember the song," she murmured.
> "Sing it."
> "I can't… it hurts too much."
> "Then let me hurt with you."
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Her fingers trembled as they clutched his jacket. No kisses. No declarations. Just pain pressed against pain, two broken hearts trying to find rhythm in the silence.
> "They're coming," she whispered. "They'll see what I've become. They'll want to finish the job."
> "Let them."
> "Jax—"
> "Let them try."
His voice was steel now, cold and final.
> "You survived everything they threw at you. Now it's their turn."
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> [New Objective Uploaded.]
[Mission Override: Protect the Omega Host.]
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The lab lights flared red.
Doors unlocked.
Footsteps echoed—military, sharp, coming fast.
Jax stood in front of her. Hands raised, but not in surrender.
In promise.
> "They want war?"
"They just picked the wrong ghosts to
haunt."
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TO BE CONTINUED…
🖋️ By Rapwizzy Debaron
🔻 Next: Burn Protocol — As the elite Strike Division storms the lab, Jax and Alira must escape. But she's not just waking up… she's evolving.