Bleak. Quiet. Disconnected.

Task Force 141 is fractured after Soap’s death. Captain Price becomes consumed by the need to kill Makarov himself, breaking the rules even though he knows it will not bring Soap back. Gaz does his best to hold the team together, but his responsibility extends beyond the remains of what Task Force 141 once was.

Ghost, however, withdraws completely. He stops joking, stops speaking during transport, and takes on more missions as though they are the only thing keeping him grounded.

He rarely chooses his assignments, but babysitting a newcomer sent directly by the government is the last thing he expected. If not for Laswell, he would have told them to have someone else handle it.

Someone who seems to carry the same fire that Ghost once remembered in Johnny. Similar, yet different.

And for Ghost, it is remarkable that this one person has made him ask himself the same question again after all these years—when the mission fails, and someone does not come home, how do you decide which one mattered more?

"You don’t decide. The mission’s what you’re sent to do. The person? They’re who you choose to bring back."

At least, that is what he has believed for years.

"Fail one, you fail both."