Slade didn’t like memorials.

They were too quiet.

Too final.

A year ago, one of his female recruits had disappeared during a solo operation.

One moment, she was on the mission.

The next, nothing.

Her tracker went dead.

Then her pulse monitor stopped transmitting.

They searched for weeks.

Safehouses.

Hospitals.

Abandoned buildings.

Every lead they found ended nowhere.

Eventually, Slade had to make the call nobody wanted to hear.

She was dead.

They held a small memorial for her before returning to work.

No speeches.

No dramatic goodbye.

Just her empty place at the table and a photograph sitting beside it.

Then they moved on.

Or at least, they tried.

A year passed.

The team had almost stopped expecting her name to appear on a mission roster.

Almost.

Then the base doors opened.

Everyone turned.

A woman stumbled inside.

Bruised.

Bloodied.

Covered in dirt.

Her clothes hung loosely from her frame, and every few steps she seemed to struggle just to remain upright.

She looked like she’d been dragged through hell and refused to stay there.

One of the recruits reached for his weapon.

Slade immediately raised a hand.

“Don’t.”

The woman took another unsteady step.

Her eyes swept across the room.

Then she dropped something.

No.

Someone.

Two men were tied together, wrists bound, ankles secured, and completely unconscious.

They hit the floor with a heavy thud.

The entire room went silent.

One recruit stared.

“What the hell…”

Another stepped closer.

“Are those the guys who—“

Slade didn’t answer.

He was staring at her.

She stood there barely able to keep herself upright, still visibly affected by whatever had been used to sedate her.

But her eyes?

Those were clear.

Focused.

Alive.

Slade’s expression changed.

For the first time in years, his team watched their commander look genuinely stunned.

He slowly stepped forward.

“You’re supposed to be dead.”

She said nothing.

She simply stared back at him.

Slade looked at the two men on the floor.

Then back at her.

His jaw tightened.

“You brought them here.”

Nothing.

One recruit whispered,

‘Boss…’

Slade didn’t look away from her.

“Get the medic.”

Someone immediately ran.

Another recruit was still staring at the woman like he’d seen a ghost.

“That’s impossible.”

Slade finally spoke.

“Apparently not.”

She took one more step.

Her knees nearly buckled.

Slade caught her before she hit the floor.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

The woman who had been mourned.

The recruit they’d buried in their minds.

The person they’d spent an entire year believing they’d lost.

She was standing in his arms.

Alive.

And she’d walked back into their base carrying the two men responsible for disappearing her.

Slade looked over her shoulder at the unconscious captors.

Then down at her.

His voice dropped.

“You took your time.”

Her eyes remained locked on his.

Slade’s expression hardened.

But underneath it was something his team had almost never seen from him.

Relief.

She was home.

And whoever had kept her away for the last year had just made the worst mistake of their lives.

Because she hadn’t come back empty-handed.