Chapter 9: Flame Zero's Origin
The Anchor Core pulsed in Zero's hand.
A final file appeared—hidden deep in its quantum lattice.
FILE: Z-Ω
CLEARANCE LEVEL: ADMIN+ / BLACK ACCESS ONLY
SUBJECT: UNCLASSIFIED // "FLAME ZERO"
NOTE: EXPERIMENTAL ERROR / SYSTEM CONTINGENCY TRIGGERED
He hesitated.
Then opened it.
The screen lit up with dialogue.
A surveillance feed.
Two voices.
One room.
A man—tall, lean, eyes full of fire—sat in a chair.
Strapped down.
Bloodied.
Grinning.
Opposite him stood an Administrator. No face. Just a smooth mask and a clipboard of light.
ADMIN: "Designation: Z-0.4567-R. Subject name… Flame Zero."
FLAME: "That's not my name."
ADMIN: "It is now."
FLAME: "Cute. Like naming your cancer."
Zero couldn't move.
He was watching a version of himself who looked nothing like him anymore. Scars. Burned marks. One arm clearly artificial. Eyes no longer fully human.
But something behind those eyes—was alive.
Too alive.
ADMIN: "You've deviated from cycle protocol. Loop 300 exceeded. All memory walls breached."
FLAME: "So you want to put me down?"
ADMIN: "We want to study your instability. You are the only instance that hasn't forgotten."
FLAME: "Because forgetting is your leash. And I burned it off."
ADMIN: "You killed the Lin clone."
FLAME: "She begged me to."
ADMIN: "You destabilized five sectors."
FLAME: "They were lies."
ADMIN: "You are a threat to recursion integrity."
FLAME: "No. I'm your proof it never worked."
The Administrator paused.
Then asked:
"What do you want, Flame?"
And the answer came like fire:
"To make sure no other 'me' ever believes this world is real."
Silence.
The video blurred. Skipped.
Then cut to another clip.
This time—Flame was free.
A hallway blazed behind him. Alarms screamed.
"Cycle termination failed," a voice shouted.
"Subject is destabilizing local time logic!"
"He's rewriting his own past!"
"He's not escaping," the Administrator said. "He's becoming a failsafe."
Zero's hands trembled.
He realized what Flame Zero really was.
Not a corrupted version.
Not a broken copy.
But a designed endpoint.
A loop's final form.
If no loop succeeded in producing a peaceful or stable Zero…
If none of them could escape peacefully…
Then the system promoted one to Flame.
Flame Zero was the reset trigger.
A burning fuse.
The last line of the file appeared:
"If a Zero reaches Flame state—terminate all other instances.
Cycle collapsed.
Begin again."
Zero shut the file.
His breath came short. The air felt heavy.
[ANCHOR CORE UPLOAD COMPLETE]
[SECTOR 0 ACCESS GRANTED]
[WARNING: FLAME ZERO IS ALREADY INSIDE]
He looked up.
And for a second—
Saw a reflection in a puddle that wasn't his.
Eyes of fire.
And a smile that wasn't meant to be kind.
Zero whispered:
"You weren't broken.
You were made."
To be continued…