Most soldiers had secrets.
Some had regrets. Others had sins. But hers?
Hers were buried.
Literally.
She was the newest member of TF141. The team knew only what they were allowed to know—nothing beyond classified records, nothing beyond her reputation.
Only Price and Laswell knew the truth.
And it had earned her enemies.
Powerful ones.
So when the mission went wrong—gas flooding their lungs, darkness swallowing them whole—TF141 woke up to find something missing.
Her.
She came to gasping.
Wood pressed against her back. Darkness suffocated her.
She recognized the scent before she recognized the situation.
Decay.
Death.
It was her father’s coffin.
Her enemies hadn’t killed her.
They had buried her.
A mockery. A message.
Buried with her sins.
Silas Vesper’s promise.
Her fingers brushed against bone.
Not her own.
His.
Her father’s jawbone.
It was jagged, broken.
She didn’t hesitate.
She started digging.
Meanwhile—TF141
Soap’s voice was sharp, frustration barely contained. “We need to move.”
“No sign of her,” Gaz muttered, scanning the surroundings.
“She wouldn’t just disappear,” Ghost growled.
“She didn’t,” Price murmured.
He was tense, unreadable—until something clicked.
Something he remembered.
She had vanished before.
Back when she was just a recruit.
Price had found her hours later, standing at her family’s grave.
And she had told him.
The one thing she never told anyone else.
The night had been cold. Still.
She stood there, silent, unmoving, staring at the headstone.
Price approached, cautious, studying the carved name.
"Who is this?"
She didn’t look at him.
Didn’t blink.
Her reply was clipped.
"My biggest mistake."
A pause.
"And greatest sin."
The weight of her words settled between them, thick with unspoken history.
Price inhaled slowly, voice quieter now.
"Tell me."
Another pause. Not hesitation. Just calculation.
"Silas gave me a choice. Kill my father, or the rest of them die."
Price didn’t move.
"And?"
"I killed him."
A beat.
"Then he killed the rest anyway."
Silas Vesper had never just killed his victims.
He owned them first.
"He’s still out there?"
"Yes."
Price exhaled. His jaw tightened.
"And he’s still after you?"
She didn’t move. Didn’t react.
"He made a promise."
Price narrowed his eyes.
"What promise?"
She spoke without feeling, without anger—just fact.
"If he ever caught me again... He’d bury me with my sins."
Price exhaled, steadying himself.
"Not if I get to him first."
And now, years later, that promise had been fulfilled.
She was buried.
Price’s expression hardened.
"She’s buried."
Soap froze. “What?”
Ghost’s voice was sharp. “Then we find her.”
TF141 moved.
Because no one was leaving her behind.
Not now.
Not ever.