Night descended on the city with a heavy slowness, as if the darkness itself hesitated to approach this land.
The helicopter's engine alone rent the silence as it moved through the dark sky.
The faces of the group were still… no victory, no joy, only neutral looks, as if nothing had happened.
The helicopter landed inside the base courtyard.
A row of soldiers stood at attention, waiting to receive MAYNO and GHAZLANE.
But when the SHADOWS disembarked… no one greeted them.
No one approached them.
Even the air seemed to distance itself from their path.
SHOUTNA was the first to step out.
MOHITO was the last to get down.
Their footsteps made no echo. The ground here keeps secrets.
With a pale face, MAYNO said, "I'll go report."
GHAZLANE followed him with heavy steps, her eyes still carrying the look of shock.
SHOUTNA followed them, "I'll be right back."
The SHADOWS stood waiting among the soldiers' stares.
They were heroes, but no one applauded.
Ghosts moving in the name of a homeland that did not know them.
Souls were reshaped so they would not feel.
*********************************
Inside the Operations Room
Colonel KLAUS was standing.
A man in his fifties, his back straighter than usual; his silence held knowledge… or sin.
SHOUTNA put the metal case on the table. He said nothing more than:
"The mission is completed."
KLAUS opened the case. One look. Then he closed it.
"Two hours and seventeen minutes."
A tone neither admiration nor coldness… a tone of someone who knew this would happen no matter what.
"Excellent record."
He said it without looking at anyone.
"I will leave," Shoutna said, as if it were an administrative matter.
"I will raise the report to His Majesty," KLAUS replied.
SHOUTNA left.
He did not close the door behind him. He didn't need to.
KLAUS turned to MAYNO and GHAZLANE.
His eyes did not ask—they only knew.
"How was the mission?"
GHAZLANE answered quickly, almost defensively:
"A complete victory. They did not know what hit them."
KLAUS did not blink.
"I am not asking about the result."
He looked at MAYNO.
"The fate of this mission was decided the moment it was announced.
Did you think these people might fail?
The original mission was to monitor them and form an idea of their weak points," KLAUS continued.
MAYNO lowered his voice:
"I'm not sure they have weak points, sir."
A short silence. Heavy. Real.
"The Front was not a threat to them," MAYNO added.
"They weren't even… serious."
The air in the room tightened.
KLAUS finally raised his head:
"That is what we wanted to confirm."
MAYNO, in a tired voice:
"May we be dismissed?"
A single nod from KLAUS—like a verdict.
They headed out.
**************************
The shadows were strolling across the courtyard.
No glances back. No boasting. No weariness.
MAYNO said in a low voice, as if discovering the truth only now:
"Now I understand."
"What?" GHAZLANE whispered.
His eyes were on MOHITO, walking in the thin mist, without a shadow… or perhaps with a shadow deeper than sight.
"Why do they call them the Shadows?" he continued in a voice almost like fear.
"They do not move in the shadow, GHAZLANE…
They are the shadow itself."
Suddenly, the night outside the base seemed wider. Deeper. More… lonely.
**************************************
The iron gate of the headquarters closed slowly behind them with a long metallic sound.
The street was almost empty; only the light posts, stretching along the road like silent sentinels, remained.
MOHITO stepped out first.
His steps are steady—neither haste nor hesitation.
SHOUTNA followed, hands in his pockets, looking at the ground, as if walking inside his head rather than the street.
The rest of the team drifted slightly away… each returning to his inner world.
A light silence passed between them… not a silence of tension, but of those who know things that cannot be spoken.
SHOUTNA stopped by a parked car.
He leaned on it with his shoulder and looked at MOHITO standing before him.
SHOUTNA was calm, without confrontation:
"They said it was a successful mission."
MOHITO did not reply immediately.
He was looking at the sky—or perhaps looking at nothing.
"Success is a big word.
Sometimes… bigger than the truth."
A tiny, fleeting smile appeared at the corner of SHOUTNA's mouth—not mockery, but comprehension.
"They don't care about truth. They care about the result."
MOHITO lowered his gaze and looked straight at him:
"And you? What do you care about?"
SHOUTNA did not answer right away.
He knew this question was not simple… and that the answer was not ready.
"To not lose ourselves along the way."
MOHITO continued to look at him with unreadable eyes.
A car passed on the street, its light flashing over their faces for a brief moment, then gone.
The others stopped when they noticed they were falling behind.
MOHITO asked in his usual tone,
"Did you manage to pass your message?"
SHOUTNA smiled faintly and replied to MOHITO's question,
"So, you have discovered the matter."
"This was all from your orchestration," MOHITO added.
ZARYOUH, who had been eavesdropping, asked, "What does that mean?"
SHOUTNA, turning, proposed gently:
"What do you say we head to the factory?"
And so, even after the mission ended, the shadow itself continued to move among the team.
**********************************************
When we reached the factory, we opened the door to find our comrades waiting inside.
Their expressions ranged from worry to curiosity.
"So, you're back, you rogue!" MASNAS rushed at us angrily, but his eyes said something else: he was worried about us.
SOLIMON and I exchanged a glance.
He knew the time had come to speak the truth.
"Let's go inside," I suggested quietly. "It's time for explanations."
We gathered in the main hall of the factory.
The atmosphere was charged with anticipation.
Even AYOUB, usually the joker, stopped joking.
"Our mission was to assassinate AMMAR," I began to explain.
"The man who united the War Front."
I paused, then finished: "SHOUTNA manufactured AMMAR and funded him to force the Kingdom to target him."
MESNAS shouted, "What?!"
I continued: "After the rising voices criticizing us and trying to box in our capabilities, SHOUTNA set up this mission to show the leaders how dangerous we are."
I turned to SHOUTNA: "Is my inference correct?"
SHOUTNA smiled quietly and began to explain:
"The fault of the Kingdom's leaders is that they think they are the only corrupt people.
In truth, dealing with a corrupt government is the easiest thing.
You have to pay more, and you can buy anyone's loyalty. The only language of corruption is money and interests."
SHOUTNA stepped into the center, letting his gaze pass over us.
"Infiltrating the leadership was easy.
I planted some informants there to monitor the intelligence movements. I noticed they began investigating us without the King knowing.
At first, I paid it no mind, but I discovered that the covert sector had started to move."
SHOUTNA's tone intensified.
"I could not risk fighting on two fronts. One had to be destroyed before the other could open.
I searched well for a person capable of uniting the Front, the biggest threat to the kingdom, and I chose AMMAR…
With a few promises and directions, everything was ready.
And the Kingdom had already planted a spy inside the Front."
SHOUTNA looked at me directly: "So all I had to do was wait for the leak of the news."
He finished his words with a firm look:
"I learned one thing in our last confrontation with the Organization: you cannot confront it honestly.
If we are not ready to make the necessary sacrifices, we will never win."
Silence reigned. Everyone exchanged looks, not knowing what to say after that confession.
The silence hung for a moment, heavy as lead.
MIZIANI said in a low voice: "You manipulated everyone… truly."
But then SOLIMON leaned forward, his direct gaze piercing the walls SHOUTNA had wrapped around himself.
"Your wisdom has guided us always, but this time you were wrong." His words were gentle as the last rain, yet solid as rock.
"None of us—no matter how wounded—has the right to decide the fate of others from behind a veil.
This is a game in which we've become like those who hunted us."
He lowered his voice to a tender whisper carrying a lifetime of loyalty:
"You need not carry this weight alone… Didn't we swear once?
We are not merely mission mates. We are family."
There was no reproach in his voice, only the revival of an old promise about to be buried under the ash of missions and blood.
SHOUTNA said nothing at first.
His features seemed to plunge into silent struggle, as if tall walls were collapsing inside him.
Then, slowly, a rare smile spread across his lips—different.
It was not the smile of a confident leader… but of a human who had finally found harbor after a long swim in a sea of loneliness.
He spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, warm for the first time:
"You are right… We are together in this. Until the end."
His words spread through the place like fire in dry tinder.
We were not merely in agreement, but took an oath.
That oath reflected on every surrounding face—from doubt and hesitation to firm resolve, from confusion to decisive clarity.
We were finally… an unshakable block.
night's calm and the cold breeze that passed through the factory's small windows carried the group's smiles—priceless to behold.
We left the factory heading to our homes.
As we departed, I paused and glanced once more at the sky.
It was not as empty as I was used to seeing.
The deep blue was replacing the gray, and the stars seemed brighter.
Perhaps it was because of the company I was keeping, or maybe I was the one beginning to change.
The world around me began to take on a more vibrant appearance.
Or so I thought then.