Inside the factory, the lights reflected off faces that had never met before.
"We're back!" AYOUB and TAHARA announced together, their cheerful tone barely masking the exhaustion of a long battle.
"Welcome back," ADEL greeted warmly, though his eyes stayed sharply observant.
The two turned to find GHAZLANE standing near the door, her wide eyes following the group as though she had stepped into a world of legends.
Beside her stood SAMA, tense, hands intertwined, facing her first encounter with so many new faces.
They approached ADEL and whispered, "Who are those two?"
"I'll tell you everything later. Let's all meet first," ADEL replied briskly.
While everyone exchanged greetings, SAMA approached SOLIMON after noticing the tension in his features.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly, her tone full of concern.
"Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry," he answered with a smile he tried to make reassuring,
though it couldn't fully hide the weight he carried inside—like someone who had failed to protect something precious.
"Everyone, rest for now. We'll gather shortly," SHOUTNA announced, his voice calm but firm.
ZAKI stepped forward: "And what about these two?" He pointed toward BOW and AXE, bound in the corner.
"Put them in one of the rooms. BELL, can your unit guard them?" SHOUTNA asked, turning to the leader of the HOUNDS.
"Alright," BELL replied sharply, eyeing the captives with eyes that knew how to read enemies.
As everyone dispersed, ADEL approached MOHITO and whispered, "There's something you need to see."
He led him to a small room at the far end of the factory and slowly opened the door.
"What is he doing here?" MOHITO asked, eyes widening in shock as he stared at the restrained figure inside.
"He followed the team here… so SHOUTNA locked him up," ADEL replied seriously.
In the dim room, ODEL sat, his eyes reflecting a mixture of fear and curiosity.
He had stumbled into a world he wasn't prepared to face—and the world of the "SHADOWS" was not ready to welcome him either.
MOHITO fell silent for a moment, his sharp gaze studying ODEL, who sat in eerie stillness. The air in the cramped room felt heavy, broken only by ODEL's breaths.
"Can you leave us alone for a moment?" MOHITO asked ADEL in a calm yet unquestionable tone.
"Of course. There are still final arrangements to handle," ADEL said as he backed away, casting one last worried look at the two.
MOHITO closed the door slowly, then turned to face ODEL, his eyes piercing.
"Why didn't you stay away from this world? I warned you."
Silence settled again.
Finally, with a quiet voice carrying a hint of defiance, he answered:
"I always suspected you were hiding something… but I never imagined you'd be this dangerous."
MOHITO didn't respond.
He turned his gaze toward the shadowed corner of the room, avoiding ODEL's eyes.
But MOHITO's silence only fueled ODEL's anger.
"You're a real danger to LOUVNA! Do you understand that?"
MOHITO finally turned, and their eyes collided in a silent confrontation.
But before either could speak, ADEL's voice echoed from behind the door:
"Everyone gathers in the main hall immediately!"
The firm tone diffused the tension between them for a moment, leaving a question hanging in the air:
What would this new meeting reveal?
**************
SHOUTNA sat on a chair in the centre of the room,
his head bowed as though carrying the world's secrets on his shoulders.
When he heard the approaching footsteps, he slowly raised his head, like someone waking from a deep dream.
His eyes wandered across the faces of those present,
one by one, as if counting the souls he saved and the souls he lost.
"I said everyone…" His voice was quiet, carrying unbearable weight.
ADEL looked around, puzzled. "But we're all here, SHOUTNA."
SOLIMON stepped forward: "Do you mean even the captives?"
"Yes. I want everyone to hear this story." His eyes locked with MOHITO's for a moment, then shifted to the others.
MIZYANI opened the door for the two captives. "Come with me."
AXE looked at him with distrust. "You think you'll win our favour after treating our wounds and not killing us?"
MIZYANI turned toward them, his eyes burdened with old fatigue. "I don't need your favour. But I can't watch war comrades suffer while I stand by."
BOW and AXE looked at him in silence
"War comrades…"BOW whispered
MOHITO brought ODEL as well.
Silence dominated as everyone entered and sat in an incomplete circle around SHOUTNA.
The atmosphere pulsed with painful expectation.
SHOUTNA began speaking in a calm, broken voice:
"During the days I was held captive, I had nothing but my memories as company.
Memories that haunt me like an unforgiving ghost.
I wondered: Is this our fate? Is this the end of our long journey?"
He exhaled deeply, as if summoning the courage to face his past demons.
"If there was a beginning… it was in that place I can never forget.
The White Room…"
As the words left his lips, the hall shifted instantly.
Some of them had their faces freeze
while others pressed their lips together in a heavy silence
as if the shadow of fear had passed between them.
Even AXE and BOW exchanged a knowing look.
The name alone was enough to resurrect memories that bound them all—despite their different histories.
"It's pure white that hid the red of blood. Its suffocating silence choked the screams of our pain."
SHOUTNA's voice cracked as he dove deeper into memory.
"We were nothing but numbers in their records…
animals for experimentation wearing human faces."
His hands trembled as the old wounds reopened.
"Days repeated like an endless loop:
from the cold of the cells to the deadly white of that room, where injections and experiments never ended.
They burned us, electrocuted us, and cut parts of our bodies to see how much we could endure.
If you collapsed from exhaustion… they beat you until you stood.
If you didn't stand… You disappeared forever."
ODEL looked at MOHITO with wide, shocked eyes.
"I watched faces vanish one by one.
Numbers changed, names forgotten.
In the end, we felt nothing.
We were machines made of flesh… with no emotions, no memories… no future."
SHOUTNA slowly stood, each step heavy with the weight of his past, and walked toward the window.
His back held the entirety of the unspoken tragedy.
"Then came that day… the day everything changed.
A man in a formal suit told me: 'You're ready.'
I was nothing more than a number whose usefulness as a test subject had ended…
and whose usefulness as a weapon was beginning."
He turned toward them, his eyes glimmering with painful recollection:
"When I stepped outside for the first time…
I saw the sky…
I felt the warmth of the sun on my skin for the first time in years.
In that moment… the loop broke.
Time started moving again."
He returned to his chair, then looked at MIZYANI, ADEL, and ZARIOUH—standing close together—pain and solidarity etched into their faces.
"That's when I met those three… we became a team.
They took our blood to forge OUR weapons,
took our humanity to forge their soldiers.
And I convinced myself I had no choice but to play by their rules."
His voice rose slightly, charged with accumulated pain:
"But every mission, every assassination… killed a part of my soul.
I told myself, 'We either win or die.'
But over time, I realised there was a loss greater than death…
The loss of one's soul."
He paused as though confronting a ghost, then continued:
"Then came the most important mission: hunting down a group that defected from the organisation.
The 'HOUNDS…
led by… BORBAKI."
At the name, heavy looks filled the room—its weight unmistakable.
"In that dark forest, they surrounded us.
I expected death.
But instead… BORBAKI extended his hand and said:
'You're not our enemies. Your victims like us.'"
SHOUTNA closed his eyes, revisiting that pivotal moment:
"I still remember all your faces then…
Faces worn by battle, yet still clear in vision.
In your eyes, I saw myself for the first time…"
"SOLIMAN watching from the tree's shadow like a wary hawk,
MOHITO perched above on a branch, his gaze flickering between us with silent curiosity.
CLAY, ZICK, NABEEL, BELL… and then… BORBAKI."
SHOUTNA's voice nearly broke:
"In that moment… the SHADOWS were born.
From the ashes of betrayal and despair, a new will emerged.
We began attacking their laboratories, destroying their centres, saving whoever we could."
He looked around at the faces before him, counting the souls he carried:
"Eventually… this group formed.
Our group."
Then he sighed, bitter with hard-earned lessons:
"But arrogance was our fatal sin…
When we heard of a meeting between the organisation's leaders, we thought victory was close.
We didn't know we were walking into a perfect trap."
His eyes filled with deep sorrow.
"The Elite Unit…
The Twelve Demons…
Led by AZRION.
That was the first time we truly tasted despair.
We were on the brink of extinction."
He whispered, as though reliving it:
"BORBAKI ordered me to take the survivors and flee.
He said: 'Someone must live to continue the mission.'
We carried the wounded and dying and ran.
Behind us, we heard the explosion…"
He paused, then continued, voice broken:
"We found his final message.
He told us to come to this kingdom, to his friend, the king.
He said: 'There, you will start again.'"
SHOUTNA looked around the room, face by face.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Even the air seemed to listen.
"And now… here we are.
From a white room to a world colored by blood and hope.
From numbers to humans.
From victims to fighters."
He turned his back on them.
"That's all I have…
Now you decide what to do with this truth."
He cast MOHITO a deep, knowing look,
then walked away toward the rooftop,
leaving behind a room full of ghosts.
The truth was not liberation—it was a maze built of fog.
Every path led to a past they couldn't defeat
and a future they couldn't escape.
And in that moment, they all realised
they were no longer searching for freedom—
They had become the very cages that trapped it.