The world rejected the old gods. So Concord built new ones — flawless, beautiful, and engineered to never ask "why."
Scene: Concord Spire – Broadcast Arena, 08:00 a.m.
The cameras were already rolling before the audience arrived.
Drones hovered like bees. Micro-adjustments to lighting. Heroic angles. Perfect framing.
The world had turned against the Zodiac's old image.
But today?
Today they'd fall in love again.
Because today, Concord revealed their next generation.
The lights dimmed.
The feed switched to global priority override.
Then a voice spoke — cold, warm, artificial:
"In uncertain times, humanity needs strength. It needs symbols.Not chaos. Not anarchy.Not memory."
And then:
"Introducing: The Celestials."
Scene: The Reveal
Three figures stepped forward.
All in uniform.
All glowing faintly with controlled bio-luminescence.
They didn't blink.They didn't wave.They didn't smile too wide.
They were designed for comfort.
The first: broad-shouldered, golden skin, gravitational core manipulation. Codename: Pillar
The second: white hair, high-velocity burst and instant teleportation. Codename: Trace
The third: soft voice, amber eyes, identical face to Ava pre-break…Codename: Echo.
Scene: Rook Watching from Underground Hub
Rook stood in the war room, arms crossed, watching the screen without blinking.
Aya cursed softly. "That's her. That's Ava's face."
Tessa stepped forward, breath stuck in her throat.
But Ava?
Ava didn't say a word.
She just stepped closer to the screen.
Her eyes locked onto her copy's.
And deep inside her code, something triggered:
Internal System — Ava's Glitch Log
[Genetic overlay detected][Clone memory fragments syncing][Conflict: suppressed emotional recursion vs identity anchor]
Her heart wasn't real.
But the tremor in her fingers was.
She whispered:
"She has my voice. But not my choices."
Scene: Public Response
The announcement hit social channels like a bomb.
"New heroes look amazing!""Are they bio-augmented?""Finally, someone we can trust.""Echo reminds me of the old days…"
But then the whispers began.
"Didn't she look like that girl in the leak?""Are they cloning Ava?""Wait… is that even legal?"
And someone posted side-by-side footage of Ava crying in her glitch phase…
...and Echo smiling from the stage.
Scene: Rook's Reaction
He didn't move.
He just said:
"They're not fixing their image.They're building replacements."
Tessa looked at Ava.
"What do we do?"
Ava answered without turning away.
"We take her back."
"Not because she's me.But because she thinks she is."
Scene: Celestial Training Facility – Behind the Curtain
Echo stood alone in a white cube room.
No windows. No clocks.
She stared at a wall playing a loop of Ava's old memories — reformatted, cleaned, edited.
A voice whispered into her neural interface:
"You were born from betrayal.But you were raised for obedience."
She didn't respond.
But her reflection in the white floor?
Flickered.
Final Scene: Resistance War Table
Rook updated the board.
A new priority appeared:
TARGET: CELESTIAL PROGRAMFirst strike: Psychological.Second: Extraction.Third: Proof of fabrication.
Tessa added a handwritten line under it:
"If we don't destroy this now,they'll never need to kill us again."