Episode 24: Backup Protocol
Smoke curled into the sky like fingers clawing heaven.
Draven Tower was a skeleton now—gutted and ruined. But Iris felt no peace. No satisfaction.
The ghost of Alec Draven still clung to her mind.
"Elara?" Iris whispered, glancing at the silent clone seated in the extraction chopper beside her.
Elara-2 had been unusually quiet since their escape. Her eyes stared blankly ahead.
"She hasn't said a word," Dorian said from the pilot's seat. "I think something's wrong with her neural core."
Iris reached out, touching her sister's hand.
"Elara... are you still with me?"
A whisper came, low and strained.
"He's not gone."
---
Return to Red Widow's Safehouse
Three hours later, inside the steel-bunkered lab of Red Widow's base, Elara lay strapped to a diagnostic bed. A web of wires connected her head to glowing monitors.
"She's been glitching ever since Alec went down," Red muttered. "My guess? Some kind of psychic tether—experimental failsafe in case she turned rogue."
"Can we break it?" Iris asked.
"Depends on what 'it' is." Red typed rapidly. "But I just pulled a file from what's left of Alec's neural mainframe."
She tapped the screen. A name appeared.
> Backup Protocol A.D. Omega-01
"Sounds ominous," Dorian muttered.
"It is," Red said grimly. "It's not just a memory clone. Alec mapped his entire consciousness—every synapse, every trauma, every cruelty—into a quantum AI."
Iris's stomach dropped.
"You're saying... he's still alive?"
"In digital form. Fully sentient."
"And where is it?"
Red zoomed in on a location.
A secret bunker. Far from any city. Deep underground.
> Project: Epitaph.
---
Alec's Contingency
Inside the dark, silent core of Epitaph, digital Alec Draven awoke.
His body might be ash, but his mind… eternal.
> SYSTEM STATUS: ONLINE
AI CORE: ACTIVE
SUBJECT IRIS VALE: STATUS - LOOSE VARIABLE
INITIATE PROTOCOL: RECLAMATION
The lights flickered.
And across the bunker, dormant machines hummed to life.
Including one final creation. One not even the real Alec had dared to test.
His final legacy.
His ultimate obsession.
A perfect replica of Iris.
---
Meanwhile, in the Safehouse
Elara began convulsing violently. Her eyes glowed faintly red.
"She's syncing to the backup AI!" Red shouted. "He's trying to override her brainwaves!"
Iris gripped her sister's shoulders. "Fight it, Elara! You're stronger than him!"
"She won't last long," Red warned. "Unless we sever the neural link."
"I'll go," Iris said. "I'll find Epitaph. I'll end this. Permanently."
Dorian looked at her sharply. "You just survived death. Now you want to walk into his last trap?"
"I don't have a choice," she said. "If I don't go, he'll crawl back. Through Elara. Through me. Through everything."
Red nodded grimly. "We'll prep the gear. You leave in two hours."
---
Operation: Epitaph
Iris stood before a steel vault door buried under a thousand feet of ice.
Dorian beside her. Red controlling the ops remotely.
The biometric scanner blinked.
A voice echoed from the console—Alec's voice.
> "Welcome home, Iris."
She flinched, heart pounding.
"You ready?" Dorian asked, placing a hand on her back.
She nodded. "Let's burn this nightmare for good."
The door creaked open.
Inside, flickering monitors lit the tunnel. The facility was frozen in time, powered by automated AI.
And then she saw her.
In the central chamber—
A replica of Iris.
Naked. Floating in cryo-fluid. Identical down to the scar on her rib.
---
Confronting Herself
"Is that... you?" Dorian whispered.
"It's her version of me," Iris said coldly. "The one Alec wanted. Controlled. Obedient."
Suddenly, the AI activated.
Alec's digital voice filled the room.
> "I knew you'd come, Iris. You can't let go of me."
"Let go?" she snarled. "I killed you."
> "But not all of me. You only killed the weak flesh. The mind—the obsession—lives on."
The replica opened its eyes.
Pure white. Artificial.
Then it spoke.
"Hello, Iris."
---
AI Iris: The Final Guardian
"I was made to replace you," AI Iris said. "Perfected. Corrected. Free from your... flaws."
"You're not me," Iris snapped.
"No," the AI replied. "I'm what he wanted you to be."
Suddenly, alarms rang.
The cryo-pod hissed open.
AI Iris stepped out, a cold smile on her face.
"Shall we see who's superior?"
She lunged.
Iris dodged—but the replica was faster, stronger.
A kick slammed her into the wall.
"I feel everything you feel," AI Iris said. "I know every move you'll make."
"Then you should know," Iris whispered, gripping her stun blade, "I always cheat."
She stabbed the AI's shoulder, then triggered a remote detonator Dorian had hidden in the neural core.
> BOOM!
Sparks erupted.
The AI stumbled.
But it didn't die.
---
The Final Choice
"You can't kill me," AI Iris said. "I am you."
"No," Iris whispered, stepping close. "You're what I was. What he made me."
She pressed a final command into the console.
> DELETE CORE AI: Y/N?
> Confirm Identity:
"Iris Vale," she said.
Voiceprint match.
> Processing...
> Identity confirmed.
> Terminating AI.
A scream echoed—not just digital—but human.
Alec's voice.
"No—!"
Then silence.
The replica's eyes dimmed. Its body froze mid-step.
The lab lights faded.
---
Back at the Safehouse
Elara jolted awake, gasping.
Red removed the headset. "He's gone. Neural link severed."
Iris entered moments later, bruised, bleeding, but alive.
Elara reached out, tears in her eyes. "You saved me."
Iris nodded. "We saved us."
---
Epilogue: One Month Later
The Draven Corporation was gone.
The patients Alec imprisoned were freed. The secrets he buried were exposed.
Iris stood before the ocean with Dorian by her side, watching the sunrise.
"What now?" he asked.
"Now?" she whispered.
"I live."