Shadows of Identity

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The six of them arrived at MJ’s old apartment late in the evening. The city outside buzzed with life, but a thick silence cloaked the room as they stood in front of the box Nani had mentioned. The same box he had seen yesterday but couldn’t open.

But now they opened it.

The files spread across the desk looked like something from a spy movie. Half-burnt papers, torn documents, coded notes, and a pen drive that had everyone holding their breath. The air in MJ’s apartment was heavy as the team sat around the cluttered table, eyes locked on the fragments of the past.

“I didn’t even know he had this,” Nani whispered, his hands trembling slightly as he flipped through the photos. Most of them were blurry—some faces scratched out, others half-burned—but a few stood out. His parents.

Junior knelt beside Nani, a comforting hand resting on his knee. “We’ll figure this out. Together.”

Mark, who had been inspecting the pen drive on his laptop, finally spoke. “There’s encrypted data in here—deep encryption. Military-grade. This wasn’t MJ’s doing. This was their research. Your parents weren’t just working government jobs… they were part of something bigger.”

“Something dangerous,” Tee added, reading a charred document out loud. “‘Project Nyx: Classified Level 7…Human Trials… Anomaly Study Protocol…’ What the hell were they into?”

Nani stared at the words. The name Nyx echoed in his head like a distant nightmare.

As the team kept decoding, a story began to unfold—his parents were researchers, yes, but part of a secret branch of government operations focused on high-risk anomalies. MJ had discovered this, and it seemed he had quietly started digging, keeping it all hidden until now.

Sky leaned over, watching Nani closely. “Why didn’t he tell you?”

“Because he wanted to protect me,” Nani said, quietly. “That idiot always tried to carry things alone.”

But the moment they stepped out of MJ’s apartment, the world didn’t wait for them to catch their breath.

---

Nani again sneaked out...

At the hospital, Nani stood beside his  body—his own body—with MJ’s soul still trapped inside. The air felt heavy with unspoken words.

“You idiot,” Nani muttered, voice tight. “You knew everything about them. And you didn’t tell me. You kept it all to yourself—why? You think I didn’t deserve to know? They were my parents too!”

His voice cracked. “I know you were trying to protect me... but I lost them too, MJ. I lost you too. And now I’m stuck living a life that’s not even mine—being hunted, threatened, and all of this because I don’t even know the full story!”
MJ! You kept everything secret and I—I just kept running behind you like a fool thinking you trusted me.”

His fists clenched. “You should’ve told me.”

He sat beside the bed, face in his hands. “I’m scared and I miss you soo much. Please come back Mj...”

Back at HQ…

The atmosphere shifted.

They were being watched.

Nani noticed it first. A man in a black coat at the street corner, the same car parked outside the HQ every night, muffled footsteps behind him when he went to the convenience store. The others noticed too. MJ’s files had drawn attention—and the enemies weren’t hiding anymore.