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** Rebellion Ballads **

** Chapter 7: The Legacy of the Flame **

The city breathed ashes. Where the virtue lighthouse was raised before, there was now a geological skull of melted concrete and twisted groves. Lia was walking between the rubble, her disabled exoskeleton hanging like a metal housing on the back. Acid rain washed the floor, mingling with the liquid gold that drained from the children's veins-cosmic energy residues they had absorbed.

At the provisional camp assembled in Eras Square, Sofia fed fires with mutant seeds that purified the air. The green flames illuminated marked faces: Arthur, with a now mechanical eye after the sentinel attack; Igor, whose shadow sometimes came to life, regardless of his will; and the children, whose rally scars shone as constellations under the skin.

"We received a sign of the east zone," Arthur announced, projecting a holographic map stained in interference. - A group of dissident scientists offers shelter.

"It's a trap," Igor scraped a blade against the stone, creating sparks that drew unknown faces in the darkness. - Virtutec did not die. It is reorganizing.

Lia watched Lucia, who played with drops of rain suspended in the air, shaping them in tiny exoskeletons. Each movement of the girl left phosphorescent light tracks. *She is evolving*, Lia thought, remembering Graham's words. *We are all.*

The decision was interrupted by screams on the periphery. A group of survivors dragged a muddy figure: a woman with virtutec uniform, her face disfigured by plasma burns.

"We found her peering at the wells of water," a man accused, pointing a rusty tool.

The woman laughed, showing silver -coated teeth. "Do you really think they won?" The Divinity project has cells in nine cities. And the next lighthouse is already being built.

Sofia approached, poisonous flowers sprouting between her fingers. - Who are you?

- Dr. Celeste Vorn - She puffed her chest, where a phoenix emblem was tattooed. -Chief geneticist of the Renaissance Program. And you ...-Your eyes settled in Lia with a mixture of fascination and disgust. - You are the *subject 09 *. The failure that worked.

Lia felt Blight Bug's serum burn in her veins again. - What do you want with children?

Celeste leaned forward, electric current dancing in her dilated pupils. - You understand it wrong. We don't want the kids ... we want *you *. Its genetic code is the bridge for the next evolution.

Before someone reacted, explosions illuminated the horizon. Unidentified aircraft dumped a mood amber over the city. Where the gas touched the ground, the concrete turned into a gelatinous substance that swallowed whole buildings.

"Neuroplasma," Arthur identified, covering his face with a rag. - Dissolves organic and synthetic matter. They want to erase all the evidence.

Lia ran to Lucia, protecting her with her own body as chaos settled. - For the tunnels! He ordered, but the words were lost in the roar of a supersonic jet.

In the sky, a golden silhouette cut the clouds. *He*. Captain Virtue, or something that had taken his place - taller, louder, with mechanical wings that blurred the air of thermal distortions.

"It can't be ..." Sofia murmured, but Lia already knew the truth.

It was not the same man. It was *worse *.

The new Captain Virtue landed like a meteor, creating a crater that swallowed three survivors. His face was a perfect mask of living steel, and when he spoke, it was with a thousand overlapping voices:

- The cycle starts over. The flame never goes out.

Lia pushed Lucia into Igor's arms. -Take it! He shouted as he activated the exoskeleton in overload mode.

The battle was brief. Each Lia's blow diverted from the new captain's biomechanical plates, which he learned from his real -time movements. When he arrested her by the neck, Lia felt something strange - her skin was not cold, but *hot *, throbbing with artificial life.

"You're seed and fruit," the voice echoed inside your skull. - Come germinate where it belongs.

It was Sofia who intervened, throwing a genetically modified carnivorous tree seed. The plant involved the captain, giving time to withdrawal.

In the relative safety of the tunnels, the children cried. Lucia clung to Lia, her racket scars now forming complex patterns.

"He spoke to me," the girl whispered. "I said you're my mother now."

Arthur examined the stolen data from Dr. Heavenly. - The Renaissance Program is not just about cloning. They are merging consciousness in neural networks. Captain Virtue is an AI fed by millions of minds ... including the original.

Lia looked at her hands, where golden veins began to emerge under the skin. Serum, exhibitions to cosmic energy, its DNA - all converged to an inevitable transformation.

"We need to go to the silicon mountains," she decided, pointing to a region on the map covered with radiation symbols. "If you want to play gods, let's give them a *hell *."

While the night fell over the dying city, the group moved under the coverage of artificial storms created by Arthur. In Lia's hands, her pregnant mother's photo burned down, the flames revealing a hidden code at the edges: ** Project Phoenix **.

And in a laboratory buried under the desert, the new Captain Virtue watched his army from hybrid beings - half machine, half child - wake up.

The rebellion had changed in shape. Now it was a war between species.