Nothing Left But Ashes

The safe house was silent, save for the low hum of Olivia’s laptop. The glow of the screen cut sharp lines across her face in the dark, her fingers moving fast, chasing ghosts through corrupted files.

Jessica sat at the table, arms crossed, adrenaline still pulsing faintly in her veins. Across from her, Leanna flexed her bruised hands, hands that knew too much violence for too long. Kevin stood by the window, still watching the street. Watching for enemies. There was always another one coming.

"Got it," Olivia breathed.

Jessica leaned forward, slow. "What is it?"

Olivia hesitated. Always a bad sign. "I managed to recover fragments. Most of the files didn’t survive the overload. But some of the offline backups were mapped through internal servers. It’s a mess, but..." Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. "...it’s bad."

She turned the laptop. One word on the screen.

Project Lazarus.

Jessica stared at it like it was an old wound reopening.

"This wasn’t just about genetic augmentation," Olivia said, her voice low. "Vanguard wasn’t just building better bodies. They were rewriting people. Memory implantation. Identity reconstruction. Not training soldiers, rather manufacturing them."

Jessica felt it like ice in her chest. "You’re saying Jason... wasn’t changed into me. He was replaced."

"Over time," Olivia said. "Piece by piece. Until there was nothing left of the original."

Kevin muttered a curse under his breath. Leanna just closed her eyes, like she’d been afraid of this for a long time.

"And it wasn’t just Jason," Olivia went on. "There are more. Dozens. Some failed. Some... didn’t. People out there right now living lives Vanguard gave them. Lives they were never supposed to have."

The silence stretched — heavy, suffocating.

"They didn’t just build weapons," Kevin said. "They hid them in plain sight."

"And that’s not even the worst part." Olivia’s hands shook slightly as she brought up another corrupted file, barely readable, the edges burned away like a crime scene photo.

"Phase Two," she whispered. "Lazarus was only the start. Now they’re building loyalists. Not just controlled memories, but controlled minds. People who won’t just obey orders."

She swallowed. "They won’t know how to disobey."

For a long moment, nobody moved. Then Leanna exhaled, bitter and tired. "This isn’t a war anymore. It’s a plague."

Jessica’s jaw clenched.

"No," she said quietly. "It’s a purge."

Jessica rose from the table, fire in her chest now, cold and certain. "And we burn it down to the roots."