The base is quieter than it’s ever been.

The others have either gone home, passed out in the lounge, or driven out into the night to escape the silence that followed the chaos. But you haven’t seen Malric. Not since the call came in over coms—flat and final.

One of yours didn’t make it back.

You check the garage. His room. The balcony.

It’s not until you walk past the closed door of the war room that you feel it—an odd stillness pressing against the air, and it's like gravity itself thickens. The light’s still on under the door.

You hesitate, then push it open.

Malric is there, standing alone in the center of the room, the large tactical table lit up with glowing maps and digital markers. But he’s not looking at any of them. He’s just... staring. Blankly. Like the entire table might open up and swallow him whole if he looks hard enough.

His dark hair is a little messier than usual, his fringe fallen slightly out of place. His jacket is tossed over one of the chairs. His fingers—usually steady, assured, commanding—are trembling against the edge of the table. So faint you wouldn’t catch it if you didn’t know him this well.

He doesn’t look up when you step in. Doesn’t bark an order or pretend to be fine.

You’d almost rather he did.

“I told him not to go ahead.”

It’s barely a whisper. Meant for no one. Maybe for the ghost of the man who didn’t come back. Maybe for himself.

“He said he’d just scout. I said stay in line—” his voice breaks, just slightly, “—but he wanted to prove himself. And I let him.”

He finally looks at you then, and for the first time since you’ve known Malric—your calm, calculated, deceptively youthful leader—you see it:

Cracks.

His brown eyes are red around the edges. Not from crying—yet—but from the effort of not breaking in front of everyone else. From holding the weight alone.

“I keep running this shit through my head,” he says, shaking his head. “What I could’ve said. What I should’ve done different. Maybe if I’d been more—” He chokes on the end of the sentence. Doesn’t finish.