Remnants and Fire

The monastery felt different now. Before, it had been a ruin. A forgotten place holding secrets that were never meant to be uncovered. Now, it felt like a tomb.

Jessica stood at the center of the chamber, her hands braced against the edge of the stone table. The candles flickered around her, their wax dripping in slow, molten tears. The memory was still settling inside her, the pieces rearranging themselves, pulling together threads of history that had once been torn apart.

She had spent her life looking for the truth. And now that she had found it, she wasn’t sure if the world was ready to know. She lifted her gaze to the keeper, who had been standing silently by the door. His expression hadn’t changed since she had spoken the name. Lazarus.

But she saw something in his eyes now. Something she hadn’t noticed before. Fear.

Jessica straightened. “Who else knows?”

The keeper didn’t answer immediately.

Then, softly: “They have always known.”

A chill curled through her spine. She took a slow step forward. “Who?”

The keeper inhaled deeply, as if measuring his words. “The ones who seek to end the cycle,” he said. “The ones who believe the memory should not survive.”

Jessica’s pulse quickened.

Leanna tensed beside her. “You mean Vanguard.”

The keeper exhaled. “Vanguard was never the enemy.”

Jessica’s stomach tightened. “Then who is?”

The keeper looked at her. And then he said a name that made her blood turn cold, “Mr. Black and Dominion.”

Jessica was no longer chasing the truth. She had found it. And it had not saved her. The pieces had come together like shards of glass; sharp, glittering, and impossible to ignore. Lazarus. The vessels. The inheritance of memory. The cycle that did not break, only rebranded itself in flesh.

And now she knew the shape of the hand that had been guiding the blade all along. Mr. Black was not dead. Not even gone. He had been simply waiting. Playing her like a game piece. Like a pawn.

The keeper by the door remained motionless, his face half-lit, as though he belonged to the stone more than the living. His role was not to answer, but to observe.

Jessica turned to him, her voice low and steady. “He knows I’m here.”

The keeper inclined his head. “He never lost you.”

Her jaw tightened. “And you… did you know he lived?”

The pause was long enough to be an answer.

Leanna’s voice cut through the stillness behind her. “You’re all on the same side, aren’t you?”

The keeper didn’t blink. “There are no sides. Only those who believe the memory must survive, and those who believe it must end with her.”

He didn’t have to gesture toward Jessica. The words fell on her like ash.

Olivia’s voice was quieter, edged with disbelief. “And which are you?”

The keeper’s lips barely moved. “I am a remnant. A witness. My time passed long ago.”

Jessica exhaled through her nose. “And now?”

His eyes met hers. “Now you decide whether the truth is worth surviving.”

Her grip on the edge of the table tightened, the stone unyielding under her hand, “I didn’t come here for riddles,” she said. “I came for answers.”

“You already have them,” he said. “The memory is inside you. The cycle ends when you say it ends.”

Jessica felt something shift in her chest. Not revelation. Something colder. Resolve.

For years, her identity had been shaped by shadows, by people who believed they had the right to define her. She had killed to escape them. She had bled to remain free. And now, the man who once orchestrated her entire life had risen from his own grave to finish what he started. But she wasn’t the same woman she was when she pulled that trigger.

She wasn’t running anymore. Jessica looked at Leanna, then Olivia. Her family. The only constant that remained. “If Black wants to stop me,” she said, “he’ll have to try harder.”

The realization settled deep in her bones, cold and sharp. Jessica turned to Leanna and Olivia.

“We need to move.”

Olivia frowned. “Jess—”

The gunshot came before Olivia could finish. The bullet punched through the candlelit chamber, ricocheting off stone, splintering dust into the air.

Jessica dropped low on instinct, her gun already in her hands. Leanna moved just as fast, pulling Olivia behind a pillar, her own weapon drawn. Jessica’s breath steadied. It had already begun. Someone had been watching. Someone had been waiting. And now, they were here to finish it.

She pressed her back against the altar, scanning the shadows. The monastery had been silent for centuries. Now, it echoed with death.

Jessica exhaled slowly, “They found us.”