The base gate closed with a metallic clang.
Silence.
Kael shuffled his feet, his uniform torn and dirty with soot. His left shoulder throbbed, a deep cut left by one of HelionTech's machines. Lyon was right behind, his arm bandaged and his face more closed than ever. Aria walked in front, her gaze fixed, as if trying not to show that she was also affected.
The group had returned… but not in one piece.
"Cell C activated. Injured tracking starting." The automated voice from the base echoed, cold, contrasting with the heat of the blood on the uniforms.
Kael sat on one of the benches in the medical area and let out a heavy sigh. Each breath seemed to require more energy than before. His thoughts still echoed with the screams and gunshots of the mission. The ambush. The chaos. The feeling of helplessness in the face of a force that always seemed one step ahead.
"You almost lost your arm out there," Aria commented, breaking the silence as she wiped the dried blood from her own forehead.
Kael just nodded.
"They knew we were going. They were waiting."
"They always know," Lyon said, throwing himself into a chair, staring at the floor. "As if they were inside our heads."
Silence again.
The tension in the room was palpable. Each one carried a part of the defeat, even though they had escaped alive.
Kael closed his eyes. He felt the solar energy pulsing weakly inside him. The mission had drained more than he expected. The fusion with the light was still unstable, and in that confrontation, he realized it in the worst way.
"I saw a boy, he couldn't have been more than twelve years old… trapped in a capsule." Like a living battery — he murmured, almost to himself.
Aria stopped moving.
"They're using children now," she finished, her voice deep.
Kael felt a knot form in his stomach.
"I wish I could have gotten him out of there."
"This wasn't supposed to be a rescue mission," Lyon replied, his voice harsher than usual. "But you decided to play the hero in the middle of the enemy camp. We almost died because of it."
Kael looked up, his tone firm:
"And since when did we become accomplices by omission? If it means saving lives, I'll act. Even if it means going head to head with you."
Lyon jumped to his feet, but Aria stepped between them, the knife still dirty in her hands.
"Enough. You want to kill each other, wait until you heal." She looked at them both coldly. "If you want to be soldiers, start acting like one." Because out there, no one hesitates to pull the trigger.
Kael took a deep breath and looked away. The flame inside him trembled. Not from pain… but from anger. From helplessness. And from the certainty that this was just the beginning.
In the next room, the other allies watched in silence. Each one felt that something had changed.
On the mission, Kael had faced HelionTech head on.
But now… he would have to face something more difficult: keeping the group together.