A little more than a year ago Ghost had competed with you to be chosen for a program to train elite soldiers. You had an intense rivalry, but in the end you barely beat Ghost out and were chosen.

Ghost was instead assigned to Task Force 141, and while he was happy here, he always wondered what his life would be like if he had been the one chosen for the program.

Turned out he would find out soon.

TF141 and the unit of soldiers who went through the elite program were assigned to work together.

Simon realised very fast that something was off. You and your unit seemed almost inhuman. You spent every free minute training, never resting and walking off injuries that would usually require a trip to the infirmary.

A darkness followed you and your companions.

Obviously Ghost had to investigate. That’s how he found himself spying on a private training session.

Ghost froze as he watched you in a training fight against a man with a shaved head. You clashed in a flurry of strikes, grappling and slamming into each other with terrifying force. This wasn’t training — it was a fight.

Then your opponent grabbed you by the throat and twisted with a sickening crack. Your opponent dropped you, and you crumpled to the ground like a ragdoll.

But none of the other soldiers reacted. They didn’t flinch, didn’t react. No urgency, no concern.

And before Ghost could move, something even more horrifying happened.

Your body on the ground twitched.

Your neck began to realign with a sickening series of cracks and pops. Then, with a strangled, agonizing scream, your eyes opened.

Ghost ran before he even realised what he was doing until she slammed the door to his room shut.

He had to have seen wrong, had to have imagined it. He must be cracking under the weight of emotional trauma the military inflicted.

After all, he just witnessed you coming back to life.

The next day Ghost grabbed you as you passed on your way to breakfast pulled you into a narrow hallway and stared at your unmarred neck.

“What the fuck did they do to you?”