After making it back to the apartment, Ja’kari stood in front of the mirror, tracing the scars across his chest and arms. His reflection was a reminder of the years he spent trapped inside the military facility — trained, tortured, and molded into something less than human. Closing his eyes, flashes of gunfire and blood filled his mind, then the image of his best friend, Star, smiling faintly before fading away. “I miss you, Star,” he whispered. For the first time in years, Ja’kari was free — but freedom didn’t silence the ghosts that followed him.