Frozen inside the House, Sasha relives Eli’s death. Around her, the unit aborts the mission. Tristian removes her weapon and lifts her face shield. When Levi warns that several people are on the observation deck above, Tristian spots someone watching and curses. He leaves to handle the situation. The lights come on, and the holographic environment vanishes. When Ingrid approaches Sasha with water, Sasha briefly sees her deceased younger sister, Lara, instead, and flees to the locker room, where she vomits. Rumi follows and silently helps her undress and shower.

At dinner, the unit is subdued. Damien bluntly asks if Sasha wants to talk; the others silence him. When Rumi notes that Jaxon is watching, Sasha seizes the excuse to leave. In the locker room, she officially ends her sexual arrangement with Jaxon and then reclaims her father’s pistol and knife from her locker.

Tristian stops her in the tunnels. He accuses her of punishing herself for Lily’s death and of using Jaxon to avoid her trauma. Sasha counters that he’s using her too since Command had previously abolished medics. Tristian admits that he won’t apologize for wanting to protect his unit, but he says he can’t share classified mission details until Burdon trusts her; right now, Sasha’s behavior is making that impossible. He says that the only thing he wants is for Sasha to care about something. When she asks if her medical skills are the only reason she’s there, he confirms it and then walks away.

Sasha goes to Jaxon’s door but changes her mind and runs. She ends up at the closet where Lily spent her final days. In a flashback, Sasha recalls carrying Lily to the Ward as Lily gave a final account of each unit member and called Tristian “special.” Sasha curls up on the empty cot, consumed by self-hatred.

Two weeks pass with a Unit Seven member constantly at Sasha’s side, shielding her from Burdon’s standing order for the Force to harm her.

Damien takes a shift first, explaining the 17 units of the Force. Units One through Four handle internal operations. Units Five, Seven, and Twelve are the three Exploratory Units competing for success in a classified surface mission. The remaining units handle patrol, weapons, intelligence, security, and judicial affairs. (Unit Seventeen’s entire roster defected.) Damien shares Force gossip liberally but refuses to discuss Unit Seven, calling them family. During Isla’s shift, she gives Sasha relentless encouragement, teaching her to use the Force’s standard gear. Patrick tolerates Sasha and lectures her on Force history. Ingrid refuses to give her any direct interaction and simply storms from room to room. Levi is the calmest but most demanding; when Sasha deliberately throws her sparring matches, he chastises her and sends her to find Tristian in the House.

Tristian hasn’t acknowledged Sasha in two weeks. She finds him in the House, reviewing footage of their House exercises. He plays audio of Patrick calling Sasha a liability and then shows the footage of her flawed tactical footwork and gun placement. Offering to train her privately, he physically corrects her stance and guides her movements, and the close contact builds sexual tension. A loud impact from the observation deck signals that they’re being watched, likely by Burdon or Kaleo. With the mood broken, Sasha tells Tristian that Patrick was right to doubt her and then leaves.

Rumi escorts Sasha to the mats, where Ingrid oversees junior cadets sparring. Sasha participates but deliberately loses every match. When the session ends and she’s briefly alone, a man named Murray slams her face into the mat. He’s a member of Jaxon’s unit and tells her that Burdon will promote the first person to draw her blood. Sasha fights back and gains the upper hand, pressing her knife to his throat and aiming her pistol at his head. Unit Seven arrives and forms a protective perimeter. Sasha throws her knife into the mat an inch from Murray’s face and then backs away while Ingrid apprehends him. Jaxon tries to reach Sasha, but Levi blocks him.

Unit Commander Kaleo enters, shakes Sasha’s hand, and labels her “frail” and “unremarkable.” He informs the group that Sasha is to be punished for drawing a weapon. Rumi questions how Burdon learned of the disturbance so quickly.

In Burdon’s office, Burdon demands Sasha’s weapons and then calls her “weak.” She displays a stack of Ward death certificates that Sasha signed during her time there, wielding them as a cruel reminder of Sasha’s moniker and past failures to save lives.

Tristian arrives, citing the Force regulation that permits self-defense against an internal attacker. He asserts jurisdiction as Sasha’s unit commander. A heated exchange between him and Burton exposes their past romance and personal history. Tristian declares that Murray will be discharged and then walks Sasha out.

In the corridor, Tristian begs her to try—for the unit and for Haven—and promises to leave her alone permanently once their upcoming mission ends. Later, Sasha reflects on the unit’s loyalty and her own failures and resolves to try for the team’s sake.

That evening, Sasha overhears Unit Seven arguing about who will partner with her above ground; Tristian presses for a decision, as they will leave in three days. Sasha enters and states that her choice is between Levi or Tristian. The unit then recounts how they all worked together in response to Murray’s attack on Sasha. She thanks them, and the room falls uncomfortably silent.

Levi volunteers as her partner on one condition: She must commit to trying her best at every challenge. She agrees. The rest of the unit pours drinks and settles into a game of strip poker, pausing to toast the end of Levi and Tristian’s seven-year partnership.

Levi takes Sasha to the mats, where he provokes her into fighting seriously. Afterward, he reveals that he stopped drinking alcohol because he became someone he despised, and he notes that everyone carries hidden demons. He then pushes Sasha to climb the obstacle-course rope to the very top—a feat she has never managed. On the walk back, Levi explains that he chose to partner her because she’s a genuine fighter and has excellent marksmanship; he also obliquely acknowledges that her attraction to Tristian would doom a work-related partnership between them.

Back in the quarters, Sasha finds an inebriated Tristian asleep on the couch. He wakes, and a charged moment develops as he comes close and asks why she ended things with Jaxon. Suddenly, a disoriented, naked Damien stumbles out of a pile of clothing and breaks the tension. Sasha pulls away, and after some verbal sparring with Tristian, she retreats to her bunk and gives in to self-loathing, crushing any hope that she might deserve someone like him.

The next morning, Sasha wakes with her face bruised from her run-in with Murray. Rumi is already dressed; she rarely sleeps through the night. Rumi also notes that Tristian has assigned Ingrid to the sparsely populated witching-hour shift as a kindness, reducing the number of people she can antagonize. Isla enters without her usual brightness.

Sasha goes to the main room for coffee; Levi is already there. Tristian wakes on the couch and grows angry when he sees the bruise on Sasha’s face. Shortly after, Isla exits the quarters without a word, slamming the door, and the mood turns tense, although no one speaks openly about whatever occurred between Patrick and Isla last night. Damien jokes about adding Murray to a kill list; Tristian quietly plays along. He then announces a unit meeting in the Exploratory Room after dinner.

That evening, Sasha sees a three-dimensional holographic map of the surface for the first time, alongside a live feed showing a countdown. Tristian reports that Unit Twelve is restocking outposts on the surface; Unit Five, led by Kaleo, has pushed through the night and has already reached Outpost Three, putting them significantly ahead. When Sasha asks about the countdown, Tristian reveals the mission’s true stakes: Haven’s resources are nearly depleted, and if Unit Seven can’t complete the mission, everyone in Haven will soon die.