THE WATCHER: REVOLUTION
By Rapwizzy Debaron
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Episode 19: Glass Skies
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They emerged into a new world.
Above the smoking crater that was once Lab 9, the sky stretched pale and endless—too soft, too blue for a place born of ash and blood. It felt… wrong. Like a lie dressed in sunlight.
> Freedom shouldn't look this clean.
Jax coughed against the burn in his lungs, glancing at Alira. Her skin glistened with sweat and soot, hair matted to her face, but her eyes—those eyes—they were awake now. Not Omega. Not subject. Just… her.
> "Where are we?" she asked, voice rough.
> "Edge of the Sector Line," he said, checking his fractured comm. "They won't follow us here. Too exposed."
Alira looked up.
> "The sky looks fake."
> "Everything does, once you escape."
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They found shelter in a derelict outpost—a forgotten lookout built into the cliffs, half-swallowed by vines and time. Dust choked the air. The beds were rusted skeletons. The solar panels still groaned faintly in the wind, catching broken shards of sun.
It was perfect.
> Broken enough to be safe.
Silent enough to grieve.
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That night, she didn't sleep.
Jax pretended to. But in truth, he watched her—how she sat at the window, knees to chest, staring at the glass like it held answers she couldn't speak aloud.
> "You never stopped watching, did you?" she said without turning.
> "Habit," he muttered. "And maybe… fear."
> "Of me?"
> "Of what they did to you."
She said nothing.
But her fingers curled tighter around her arms.
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> "Sometimes I hear them," she whispered. "The ones I… touched. The ones I broke."
Jax sat up, voice quiet.
> "You didn't ask for any of this."
> "Does that make it better?"
> "No. But it means you're not the monster they tried to make."
A long silence.
Then—
> "They called me Project Halo," she said. "I used to think it meant I'd be an angel. Something beautiful. Untouchable. Holy."
She turned to him, eyes rimmed in moonlight.
> "But angels don't kill, Jax. Not like I did."
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> "No," he agreed softly. "They fall."
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Somewhere far below, the Sector's emergency lights still flickered.
The world thought they were dead.
Omega erased.
Project Halo terminated.
And in that illusion—they were finally free.
But Jax knew better.
> They'd never stop looking.
Because what she was... didn't die in fire.
It learned to run.
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The next morning, she wore one of the old military jackets left behind. It hung off her shoulders like a forgotten name.
> "We need new identities," she said, buttoning the collar.
> "Already working on it."
> "And a plan."
> "That too."
She glanced at him, something almost playful flickering in her expression.
> "You're not the same scared boy from the academy."
> "And you're not a ghost anymore."
> "So what are we?"
Jax didn't answer.
But his gaze burned with something raw.
Not possession. Not salvation.
> Recognition.
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They left the outpost just before noon, disappearing into the crumbling forests between sectors.
Untraceable.
Unforgiven.
Unstoppable.
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But they weren't alone.
Miles away, in the hollowed-out servers of Omega Central Command, a blinking cursor returned online.
> [REBOOTING FILE: HALO.219]
A shadow leaned toward the screen, features hidden beneath a blood-red mask.
> "She's alive," he murmured.
> "And she still remembers."
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TO
BE CONTINUED…
🖋️ By Rapwizzy Debaron
🔻 Next: Episode 20 – The Masked One
A figure from Alira's past steps out of the shadows—someone who knows the truth about Project Halo's origin… and isn't ready to let her go.