The smoke over Outpost 9 hadn't even cleared before the yelling started.
"What do you mean it was my fault?" Kael snapped, ducking behind a half-collapsed bunker wall.
Nyra threw him a glare while firing blindly into the smoke. "Well, the attackers did all have your face."
BITS beeped. "Technically, the cheekbones were slightly less defined. So really, you're like the deluxe model."
Kael groaned. "Not he
Thirty minutes earlier, they had arrived at Outpost 9 to rendezvous with Resistance command.
Thirty-one minutes earlier, it exploded.
Now they were knee-deep in a firefight against modified clones — Echo-built, scrapped for disposal, and somehow still alive.
Worse: they remembered Kael.
From behind the wreckage of a destroyed Starkey turret, a clone with a burned arm and ragged armor stepped forward.
Kael's face. His voice. But older. Tired. Bitter.
> "You left us. We woke up screaming in the dark. No orders. No purpose."
"You got out. We got buried."
Kael stepped forward slowly. "I didn't know. They erased my memories."
The clone scoffed. "Convenient."
Nyra whispered, "You wanna explain this? Like, now?"
Kael shook his head. "I didn't know they survived."
BITS hovered. "Resistance records list Project 0-C through 0-H as terminated. Someone lied." "Someone always lies," Kael muttered.
The clone raised a relic-blade made of scrap and fire.
Others stepped beside him. Dozens.
Each one wore a variation of Kael's face — younger, older, warped, burned.
The leader spoke:
> "We're not tools anymore. We're not experiments. We are Legacies."
"And we don't answer to Subject Zero."
They attacked.
Kael barely had time to block the first strike.
The clone moved like him. Fought like him. Knew him.
But Kael had Nyra.
She flipped off a burning pillar, landed beside him, and skewered one clone mid-sentence.
"Talk later. Stab now," she said.
Kael grunted. "Good advice."
BITS flew overhead, deploying flash rounds. "Nonlethal settings. Probably. Hopefully."
Kael fought back — but with every blow, hesitation crept in.
These weren't enemies. They were victims. Like him.
He dodged a plasma slash and tried to disarm one instead of kill.
The clone spat in his face.
> "Weak. You chose them over us."
Kael didn't answer.
Because deep down… he wasn't sure he hadn't.
They fought through the wreckage — Resistance soldiers joining in, confused and overwhelmed.
Kael finally cornered the leader near the comms tower.
He looked him in the eye. "You don't have to do this."
The clone snarled. "We already did. You're just catching up."
They clashed. Blade against blade.
Every strike echoed like thunder.
Kael finally knocked the clone down. Raised his weapon.
Paused.
"I won't kill you," he said. "Even if you hate me."
The clone laughed, bitter and wild.
> "Then you've already lost."
He activated a relic flare.
kael barely leapt back in time.
—
— The clone vanished in a pulse of light.
—
—
— ---
—
— Silence fell.
—
— Outpost 9 burned.
—
— And Kael stood among the ashes of everything he didn't know he'd lost.
—
—
— ---
—
— Hours later, Kael sat on a broken wall, bloodied but breathing.
—
— Nyra joined him.
—
— "So," she said. "That went well."
—
— Kael didn't look at her. "They weren't trying to conquer. They were trying to be heard."
—
— BITS hovered nearby. "With explosives. And screaming."
—
— Kael stared at the stars. "They remembered me. I forgot them. And now they're angry. Rightfully so."
—
— Nyra placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're not their past. You're their future. That's why they came after you."
—
— Kael looked at her. "Then what do I do?"
—
— BITS beeped. "Step one: don't die."
—
— "Step two?" Kael asked.
—
— Nyra smirked. "Win."
—
—
— ---
—
— Meanwhile, in a dark chamber deep beneath the Echo spire, Prototype 0.A watched the battle replay in silence.
—
— A whisper came through the static.
—
— > "They remember you, Kael."
— "And they will never forgive."
—
—
—
—
— ---
—
— 💬 Author's Note — Kazuki Rei
—
— Kael just fought a dozen versions of himself. Nyra is still the MVP. BITS continues to defuse trauma with smartass commentary. Classic.
—
— Next:
— 👉 Chapter 28 – Resonance Protocol: Kael tries to reconnect with the surviving clones before Echo finds them
— 👉 Or Eirin Betrays Them All — yes, you read that right 👀
—
— Let me know how much chaos you want. Or I'll let Nyra pick and someone's losing a limb.
—
— — Kazuki Rei