Reunion, the armed Infected organization that brought down Chernobog, sets its sights on Lungmen next. Rhodes Island joins hands with the Lungmen Guard Department to stop them.

But mid-operation, Misha, the girl the Guard Department was protecting, is seized and dragged off by a Reunion ambush — into the hands of a woman in red.

This is the story of the chase to get Misha back. But at the end of that chase, what Rhodes Island finds is the back of the very person they fought so hard to save.

1. The Girl Who Must Be Reclaimed

Captain Ch'en initially draws a line, saying she has no obligation to tell Amiya Misha's secret. But faced with the argument that information is needed to fight the Infected, she finally speaks.

Misha's father was an important figure in Chernobog, so there may be information locked in her mind that Reunion covets. Just how much Misha herself knows, no one but Misha can say.

With Reunion's next target being Lungmen, they must be stopped from exploiting Chernobog in any way. Losing Misha to Reunion was Ch'en's own failure too. There's no time to spare.

A joint operation begins: the Guard Department handles the assault, Rhodes Island the reconnaissance and strike. Short on scouts, Rhodes Island decides to borrow outside help.

The name Amiya calls is Penguin Logistics. Sniper Exusiai and Vanguard Texas step out on another job together.

The captured Reunion suspects won't talk even under interrogation, seeming like simple puppets who know nothing. Ch'en orders that a confession be extracted by any means necessary.

Hoshiguma, an elite of the Special Investigations Team who joins them, confesses she struggled to handle that single enemy who abducted Misha, even with her whole team thrown at it — the enemy had immense strength, yet seemed as if her mind was somewhere else entirely. Introduced to Amiya as Rhodes Island's leader, she hears the operational plan and acknowledges Amiya's skill.

2. The Man Who Threw Away His Name

The one who appears before the captured Misha isn't the woman in red, but Reunion's leader, Skullshatterer. When Misha calls him by his old name, he cuts her off flatly — the person who used that name is already dead.

Skullshatterer tells Misha of his past. In the era when Ursus treated the Infected worse than livestock, military police dragged him from his home, and his mother, beaten mercilessly, never once let go of her son's hand.

All that was left on the snow was a trail of blood. If only they'd been a little faster — if Reunion had been just a little faster — this suffering wouldn't exist, he grinds through his teeth.

Misha still says she hates seeing fellow Infected hurt each other. Skullshatterer answers — when Chernobog let the Infected quarantined in the frozen mines die, who stood up for them?

Who exactly among us is innocent?

— Skullshatterer

To him, Reunion is the first hope the Infected have ever gotten their hands on — because Talulah leads them against every cruelty. Rhodes Island, meanwhile, is nothing but a traitor: an Infected organization that sides with Lungmen to kill its own kind.

Misha slowly opens her heart to his pain, too — thinking he must have suffered so long, that everyone carries painful memories. If Reunion really can protect everyone, she begins to waver.

And yet he's gentle with Misha alone. Just as Reunion protects everyone, he will protect her without fail — never letting her get hurt again.

3. Warm-Up

Meanwhile, Exusiai and Texas make quick work of Reunion's sentries. No personal grudge, but a contract is a contract, they say — a logistics company's basic job is to fulfill its contracts faithfully.

Twenty Reunion members fall in an instant before Exusiai's explosive rounds and Texas's dual blades. That combination is still something else. This commotion signals Rhodes Island's main force to launch its raid.

Meanwhile, in the abandoned mine, Skullshatterer teaches Misha how to fire a gun — pulling the trigger, gripping Originium, focusing her mind to detonate the ammunition with Arts.

Misha's palm grows steadily warmer. Skullshatterer is delighted — he says he senses something similar between them, that she must surely be his... but before he can finish, word arrives of Rhodes Island's raid.

Misha pleads with him — Rhodes Island would help the Infected, let's at least talk to them. It falls on deaf ears with Skullshatterer. Talk with the ones who've killed countless of his people?

Do the Infected really have no other path than killing each other, and dying by each other's hands?

— Misha

He leaves for the battlefield with a promise to return without fail. Let's go home together, he says.

4. The Hooded Target

The enemy proves stronger than expected, so Skullshatterer calls for reinforcements — the mysterious woman who handles explosives, W. She says merely protecting Misha isn't enough, and lays out one more game.

The target W points to is the command post directing all of Rhodes Island's battles — the hooded figure sticking close to Amiya's side. None other than the Doctor.

Kill just that one, and pop! Rhodes Island's whole head comes right off.

— W

While W's Casters provide cover and her subordinates draw attention as decoys, Skullshatterer himself decides to go after the Doctor, leaving behind a request to take care of Misha.

Sand blows across the wasteland, blocking visibility. Franka and Liskarm circle around to scout the high ground, but despite it being perfect ambush terrain, they can't find a single footprint or scent. Something's off from top to bottom, Franka clicks her tongue.

Franka's blade instead cuts down Reunion fighters lying in wait beneath the ruins to ambush them. Disappointed to find nothing but incompetent cowards, Franka is scolded by Liskarm not to let the enemy slip away. While they bicker, Reunion pulls back and starts forming ranks.

Then they put forward one massive fighter. Liskarm flinches, wondering if it could be a Sarkaz, but with the joint operation underway with the Guard Department, Amiya stops him — sensitive matters can wait for later.

5. A Blade From Below

That massive enemy was bait. After dealing with one squad, all those Infected vanish without a trace — no footprints, no sound, no scent. Something is badly wrong.

The strangeness was underfoot the whole time. The enemy had been targeting the Doctor from underground. Exusiai shouts a warning, and Hoshiguma shields the Doctor, blocking Skullshatterer's surprise attack with her shield, 'Hannya.'

But Skullshatterer says he doesn't need to break through the shield. His weapon's temperature spikes rapidly — he intended to self-destruct and take the Doctor with him.

At that instant, Amiya steps in front — she can't let the Doctor be hurt. And a power no one has ever seen erupts from her fingertips.

Skullshatterer falls to his knees. He curses that someone with this much power turned a blind eye to his people's suffering, and that people like her will never be forgiven — then collapses.

Watching from a distance, Misha lets out a short, quiet scream.

6. I Didn't Want You to See This

The dust clears, and the Guard Department pushes for the next operation. But Amiya can't compose herself before the Doctor — she just took a life with that power.

What upsets her isn't hurting someone in itself, but that with the Doctor so close by, she showed him herself taking another's life.

If it's power I use for the Doctor's sake, I won't regret it — even if it means taking the life of someone with their own story.

— Amiya

Still, what pains her is never finding a better way. She always says she wants to save the Infected from suffering, yet when it truly matters, she talks herself into a choice that takes their lives instead.

She's truly weak, Amiya confesses. But no matter what happens, no matter how much time passes, she promises to protect the Doctor.

7. I Hear Them, These Voices

At Skullshatterer's death, Reunion surges back to reclaim him. The battlefield turns to chaos again, and amid it W appears, pinning Hoshiguma down with long-range bombardment — purely for fun.

Ch'en's reinforcements surround W, but she stays perfectly at ease even when told to drop her weapon. She's not here for Ch'en today, she says, and hands Amiya a phone — someone wants to talk to you.

W leaves a flashbang as a parting gift and slips away in an instant. Amiya answers cautiously, and Misha's voice comes through from the other end.

Misha recalls a memory she'd forgotten — no, not forgotten, just something she didn't want to remember. The day Reunion tore down her home and took her father away, her little brother cried out her name in front of her, and she turned away, hiding in her room.

The boy she met again had already given up on so much, yet loved his sister just the same. Misha, afraid of that, ran away again — from the innocent child who'd just started asking her for help with homework.

Who in this world was ever innocent to begin with?

— Misha

Amiya holds on desperately — it wasn't her who hurt innocent citizens, and it's not too late to change now. But Misha's answer is already set.

8. Don't Come

Misha declares she's Infected now too, and will stand with the Infected. Returning to the uninfected exactly what they've done to the Infected is the punishment they deserve.

Yet Misha still questions herself — if it's all just mutual revenge, where does this tragedy even begin? If Ursus hadn't treated the Infected worse than livestock, no one would have ever hated Ursus in the first place.

Amiya tells her Skullshatterer is already dead, and that Rhodes Island will protect her without fail if she comes back. Misha answers only with a quiet line drawn between them — you're Infected too, so you should understand.

Amiya acknowledges it — everyone at Rhodes Island understands her pain, but becoming Infected doesn't change anything. She says she's coming right now.

Don't come.

— Misha

Misha says she's just pathetic and weak. Still, she wants to take even the smallest first step forward. Reunion is Infected, and so is she, she repeats, apologizing again and again before the call cuts off. No matter how many times Amiya calls her name, there's no answer.

9. What Was Called a Miracle

Misha won't leave Skullshatterer's body. W pushes her to leave, mocking that she's only being kept around for her use — but Misha doesn't waver.

W states coldly that she has no strength left to carry Skullshatterer back to Chernobog. This person called Ch'en shows no mercy to anyone, she says, so let's go now together. Misha refuses, saying it gives her chills — don't think you'll get anything from me.

Misha repeats that she'll bring Skullshatterer back. This boy can protect everyone, she insists, he'll surely do it — everyone, just like her, are Infected who've lost their place, people who deserve protection.

And in the middle of the all-out battle that follows, the dead Skullshatterer rises again. Reunion cheers, calling it a miracle — their leader has returned.

The returned Skullshatterer tells his comrades urging him to go back to Ursus together to think of themselves first, to hurry and leave. Then he stands alone against the enemy, saying he'll protect them. Amiya realizes this is no miracle at all.

Why...... why are you doing this...... don't......

— Amiya

10. The One Who Picks Up Masks

Facing Skullshatterer again, Amiya freezes. This time her hands won't move. All she can manage is: Doctor, what should I do?

Then Ch'en steps forward — enough, it's time to end all of this. She finishes Skullshatterer in Amiya's place, then quietly offers a word to the frozen girl.

Fate is unfair by nature. If you want to resent someone, resent me.

— Ch'en

After the battle ends, Ch'en speaks to Amiya about the mask Skullshatterer left behind. Misha didn't do anything wrong, and this isn't punishment for a sin, she says. Misha simply chose that outcome herself, and no one has the right to stop her or blame her for it.

Amiya wavers. She always believed she had a duty to help everyone, so why did it end this way — she no longer knows if what Rhodes Island does is truly right.

Ch'en admits the Guard Department could never do what Rhodes Island does — recklessly taking in the Infected of their own will, trying to save them by means that aren't harsh. That's something only Rhodes Island tries to do.

Then she brings up the mask again. If Amiya, who isn't even one of their own, picks up their masks, someday a room will be filled with masks like this. Even so, if she's willing, she should take it — this is her own matter, no one else's.

If you're prepared to bear the weight of a leader's duty, then make your own choices, and take responsibility for their outcomes.

— Ch'en

Epilogue — Fates Entangled

Amiya thanks Ch'en and takes Skullshatterer's mask with her, believing there's one more way to give the Infected hope besides eradicating Oripathy — breaking this very chain of suffering and hatred.

Ch'en leaves Amiya with one last piece of advice. If Reunion is willing to listen to her words, help them — but don't hesitate before those who'd devote the rest of their lives to madness. The Guard Department will clean up the scene, she says, and pass the news to that doctor.

Unable to save either Misha or Skullshatterer in the end, the operation draws to a close. Watching it all from a distance, W hums to herself — that people's fates always end up tangled together.

The story of hearing, from the very girl she set out to save, that she didn't want to be saved. No one yet knows where to begin breaking the chain of hatred, but that day, for the first time, Amiya carries someone else's mask back to her own room — taking on the duty of a leader, and its weight, as her own.