That night…
Everyone gathered around the great table to celebrate their new headquarters.
MASSIN and YASSIN joined the feast,
but two remained confined to their rooms:
SAMA and MOHITO.
SOLIMON asked GHAZLAN.
"Isn't SAMA coming?"
GHAZLAN replied softly.
"She doesn't feel well,"
ZAKI interjected.
"And MOHITO?"
OBASO answered:
"He's not hungry either."
AYOUB wondered.
"Are they really, okay?"
SOLIMON stood up from the table.
"I'll check on SAMA,"
AYOUB asked
"And MOHITO?"
"It's better to leave him be; he's not fond of gatherings," SOLIMON said as he left.
Tension hovered over the table.
SHOUTNA said calmly.
"Let us continue our meal."
Downstairs…
SAMA's room was tightly closed,
as if she remained captive to that cold cell in the lab.
The air inside was heavy,
carrying broken breaths and whispers of pain.
SOLIMON knocked gently,
waiting patiently.
When SAMA opened…
Her swollen eyes told a story of pain deeper than words.
"May I come in?"
SOLIMON asked in a low voice.
She stepped aside for him,
and he entered slowly,
then reached out toward the light switch.
"I really don't like dark rooms…" he said,
trying to thread a note of lightness into the suffocating air.
But SAMA kept staring at the floor,
as if afraid that raising her head would make whatever remained inside her collapse.
SOLIMON stopped and looked at her for a long moment…
sorrow plain in his eyes.
"You know…
You don't have to carry all of this alone."
She lifted her head with difficulty,
as if resisting the weight of an entire world.
"You are truly… kind-hearted."
She hesitated for a moment,
then continued in a broken voice:
"If we had met you earlier…
My sister would have loved you so much."
A silent gasp escaped her,
as if the air refused to enter her chest.
"Whenever I remember…
It feels like everything passed so fast.
I didn't comprehend what happened… I can't—" she swallowed her tears
"—I can't forgive myself for what happened to her."
She glanced around her small room,
as though searching the corners for her sister's shadow.
"DO YOU KNOW…
My sister and I once dreamed we would live in a palace like this.
A childish dream… maybe naive."
She gave a pained smile.
"We grew up in the poor neighborhoods of TZARIA.
We were left alone after our parents abandoned us.
I used to sell cigarettes in the streets…
endured the cold and insults so that I could return to her."
She lowered her voice, as if confessing something that hurt:
"She always greeted me with a smile…
despite hunger,
despite illness,
despite everything.
We would scrape together a little money—
just enough to one day buy a small house."
She sighed and whispered:
"All we dreamed of…It
was a warm place.
A place we wouldn't fear losing."
SOLIMON bowed his head in turn,
as if her words had reopened an old wound…
a wound that he knew well,
the kind of loss that becomes an unhealing scar.
"You're all strong…
Whenever I look at you,
I see myself as a burden upon you," SAMA added
SOLIMON replied sadly.
"I am no different from you,"
SOLIMON left his head and started talking:
"I lived in a small, peaceful village…
I had an older brother and a younger sister…
My father was a carpenter and my mother a housewife…
We were happy…" His voice trembled.
"Then the civil war came…
The army deemed our village part of the rebellion…
I saw my parents being killed before my eyes and could do nothing.
I only watched." SOLIMON gripped his hands in remorse.
"Then they took us — and my siblings — to the organization…
and the real hell began."
He closed his eyes for a moment, then continued:
"We tried to revolt under my older brother's leadership,
But it was a massacre…
My little sister died.
She died without ever seeing the outside world again." He sighed.
"My brother and I managed to escape,
but soldiers chased us.
My brother told me to flee alone:
'You must survive at all costs…'
Those were his last words as he stayed behind trying to hold them off."
SOLIMON bit his teeth,
remembering he only ran.
SAMA watched SOLIMON steadily.
He fell silent, then whispered:
"I ran through the dark forest until I collapsed exhausted.
Then I saw him…"
SOLIMON took adeep bread
"A boy with a black mask and red eyes.
I thought it was the end…
I lost consciousness.
To wake up to the sound of voices and a strange smell…
And the boy sat on the couch watching me.
When he noticed I was awake,
He ran out of the room.
Then five people came with him…
the HOUNDS.
I sat on the bed suspiciously."
"BORBAKI approached me:
He said I was the last survivor of the lab,
and that they found me by chance while trying to break in.
All that remained of the lab was my weapon ."
"Then the masked boy came closer…
I was terrified,
they laughed and told him to take off his mask.
It was MOHITO.
He was the one who found me in the forest and protected me.
He told me softly:
'You are safe now.'"
SOLIMON looked at the rooftop of the room
"I wondered then: Is there truly safety in this world?
I asked them to leave me alone for a while…
And I went back to sleep thinking of all I had lost.
Then… their laughter rose."
SOLIMON smiled with nostalgia.
"I stepped out of my room to find them gathered,
eating soup.
CLAY asked me:
'Do you want some?'
and MOHITO whispered: 'I don't think he's ready for it.'"
"He was truly different then."
SOLIMON looked up as if reliving the moment.
"That soup was the worst thing I've ever eaten…
as if it were cooked in hell.
Yet despite that bitter taste and my urge to vomit…
It brought comfort.
Tears fell from my eyes without my control…
I couldn't stop myself as I cried like a small child.
MOHITO stepped toward me slowly…
without saying anything,
He just stood by my side while everyone watched from behind —
as if to tell me:
'I am here.'"
"Then I regained what I had lost…
a place I could call home."
He continued heavily:
"But the organization keeps taking from us what we love
and we lost BORBAKI
We all fell into despair, especially MOHITO.
SOLIMAN tightened his hand
"That's why this time I had to be the one to lend him a hand."
"I moved forward as my brother told me,
as BORBAKI taught me,
and as MOHITO helped me."
SOLIMON turned to SAMA and held her hand.
"SAMA…
I want you to live.
If you ever feel helpless,
we will all lend you support…
So let us be the pillar you lean on."
SAMA looked at SOLIMON with tear-filled eyes:
"Please… help me to live."
Suddenly…
The door shook violently,
and two people tumbled into the room at once,
crashing to the floor in a noisy chaos that shattered the silence.
"Damn it! I told you not to push me!"
MESNAS groaned as he got up,
shooting ZAKI an obvious look of accusation.
Both of them lifted their heads toward SOLIMON and SAMA…
They froze,
then said together in one awkward, trembling voice:
"Uh… sorry!"
SOLIMON looked at them,
his face red,
struggling to steady his voice:
"Since…
Since when have you two been here?"
MESNAS gave a sly smirk
as he brushed the dust off his clothes:
"Trust me…
You don't want to know."
"Damn both of you!"
SOLIMON shouted,
embarrassment boiling over to the point he didn't know where to hide his face.
Within moments,
everyone had gathered at the door.
"What's going on here?"AYOUB asked, surprised at the chaos before him.
SAMA stood to the side,
cheeks burning with embarrassment,
while SOLIMON held MESNAS and ZAKI,
both of whom pretended innocence
and kept repeating their apologies in exaggerated, ridiculous ways.
And when the others heard the short story of what had happened…
They all burst into laughter.
A warm,
genuine laughter…
the kind that felt like the warmth of a home SAMA hadn't known in a very long time.
SOLIMON extended his hand to her gently:
"Come… let's go eat together."
SAMA looked at his outstretched hand,
then at the smiling faces around her…
For the first time,
She felt this wasn't another cell,
nor a room trapping her alone.
She smiled shyly,
then took his hand.
and walked out with them…
A small step outside the room,
but to her,
It felt like the first step out of the darkness entirely.
Upstairs… MOHITO watched the scene.
"Aren't you going to join them?"
SHOUTNA asked as he approached.
MOHITO shook his head.
"This corner suits me better."
He knew that these shared memories would become the shield to protect them in the coming days…
In a world full of darkness,
These common moments were the light guiding them to safety.
****************
But safety…
was nothing more than a fleeting illusion.
Deep within the organization's main headquarters,
inside the secret command chamber —
a room that knew no light and recognized no warmth —
THE JOKER stood perfectly still.
Before him,
Five massive screens flickered in the darkness like the heartbeat of a demon preparing to awaken.
The faces on the screens were distorted…
but they didn't need clarity;
Their voices alone were enough to tear apart any semblance of calm.
One of them exploded with rage:
"They destroyed the entire TZARIA headquarters…
and killed KLAUS!"
The words burst out like the roar of a wounded beast.
Another voice, cold as needles:
"A small price…
compared to what we gained.
We finally know…
The location of the MIRACLE BOY."
A heavy silence settled,
before a third voice spoke —
confident, dry, merciless:
"I will handle it personally.
I won't allow those insects to tamper with decades of work."
Another leader responded from the adjacent screen:
"Very well,
Commander of the Fifth Battalion…
The mission is yours.
Our grand plan is nearing completion…
and there is no room for error."
Then —
as if they suddenly remembered he existed —
All eyes turned toward THE JOKER.
"And you?"
The question struck the darkness like a slap.
THE JOKER slowly raised his head…
A strange smile carved itself across his lips —
stretched, twisted, a
nd fully revealed:
"Me?"
He let out a short… fractured laugh.
"I'll simply watch this time.
Because I… don't like anyone sharing the spectacle."
He turned his back to the screens,
the fading light leaving his face in shadow while his eyes glimmered with a sickly shine.
Then he whispered —
a sound barely audible,
as if meant for only one person in the world:
"What will you do now… my old friend?"
And outside…
behind the fragile walls of temporary peace…
something stirred.
Darkness creeping.
A plan sharpening its fangs.
And a war… finally beginning to smile.