A/N: We're setting up some major plot threads for Morgan to get tangled up in, so I hope you all enjoy the direction the fic is going to go from here on out!
As always, I have to send love to the people over at the Fanfiction Treehouse Discord! Come join us at /9XG3U7a.

Cerberus Revenants crowd into the small conference room. Some continue to wear their headgear, some have it removed, and many others have removed their Blood Veils altogether. I understand why. These Veils are so much heavier than most, and I've got one that's smaller than everyone else's! Speaking of which, seeing for the first time how buff all the men and women on this unit are is making me feel a little out of place. I mean, I don't doubt that I can fight just as well as anyone else here despite my distinct lack of muscular bulk. Those two Cerberus Revenants I fought with during Operation Queenslayer, Davis and Naomi, were super buff as well, and I could at least keep up with them. Still, they and everyone else look intimidating.

Aside from that, it surprises me to see how much the unit has increased since the end of Operation Queenslayer. In all honesty, I had assumed that the unit would lose its importance after the Queen had been dealt with, yet here we are, amassing new Revenants into the group nearly every day. It's an indicator of how dire circumstances still are; those of us who survived after the operation need to look to an authority group while we progress back to peace.

Gregorio must have foreseen the unit's importance way back when he first formed it.

Ah, speak of the devil and he appears. Gregorio himself walks to the front of the room and stands atop the podium near the corner. "Good, it seems everyone is here. I know most of you are still exhausted from your current duties, so I'll keep it brief."

The wide monitor built into the wall behind him turns on, displaying the screen of Gregorio's tablet. He navigates through a folder which, from what I can briefly catch, seems to contain a plethora of information about Operation Queenslayer. If I had to guess, they were the same information withheld in the document Mido had given me when I reawoke in his laboratory. Or, at least, part of it was in that file, seeing as there are a few other documents in Gregorio's directory that I don't recognize. Judging by the intrigue and confusion among the rest of my peers, I'm not the only one who believes this.

Our attention is soon directed to a series of images aligned across the screen. Gregorio lifts his hand and guides our gazes to them. "These are pictures taken by our scouts during the aftermath of Operation Queenslayer. I'm sure that, to many of you, these environments are already familiar."

He enlarged one image in particular, and when he does, my heart nearly skips a beat.

"This is the most recent photograph of the area where the Queen was slain. I want you all to make a big note of the Thorns of Judgment protruding here," he points to the massive spikes lining the background. "These thorns, in particular, appeared not long after the operation's conclusion. Though we still don't know the nature of them, we have noticed that these are more peculiar than the rest. Take a look here."

More images from the scout team appear on the screen. Some of them depict the same area in different angles, while others look like pictures taken from completely different areas altogether. Gregorio lines each one up in a specific arrangement, and the resulting collage formed by them makes me seize up.

It's a fissure in the ground. The thorns are encircling a deep, dark ravine.

No, Morgan, temper your feelings. The chances that there's hope are slim. Don't you dare start thinking that your dream had any meaning—

"We've discovered that in between these thorns is a network of underground passageways teeming with the Lost," Gregorio explains. "They stretch deep below the earth, and our preliminary investigations have judged that the passageways lead far from the epicenter of these thorns."

I hold my hands up to my mouth in disbelief, choking back the tears that I didn't know still existed. The Revenants around stare at me with concern and confusion, but Gregorio smiles at me knowingly.

"Our scouts have dubbed these passageways as the 'Depths,' and we now have sufficient reason to believe that we may find something of vital importance relating to the Queen there. Thus," the display on the monitor closes as Gregorio steps away from the podium, "I'll be assigning a majority of you to conduct formal investigations of these Depths."

A dark ravine surrounded by darkness, with nothing but the bloodthirsty members of the Lost roaming the paths within. One so deep that if you were to look up above, you could only see the light of the day breaking in through the fissures, like a bolt tearing through the sky.

My dream had meaning. There's hope.

My dream had meaning. There's hope. Are you waiting for me there?

The meeting was adjourned not long after. We were all dismissed from the conference room as quickly as we gathered inside. I immediately set off, soon returning to the medical wing and into Aurora's lab for the supplies I'll need.

I lay out the mission dossier atop the desk near her computer. According to the documents within, this confidential operation is expected to last for at least a few months. Like Gregorio had mentioned during the briefing, these so-called "Depths" are vast and expansive, apparently to an astounding degree. The cartographers claim that they have yet to find a single dead end after weeks of investigations. Admittedly, the initial scouting teams weren't composed of Revenants who were suited for combat, so progressing past the Lost infesting the place was probably limited.

All chosen Cerberus Revenants taking part in this will be assigned to an exploration team in a sector of the Depths assigned to them. Each team will consist of two Cerberus Revenants working under the supervision of a few human researchers. If anyone encounters something of interest, they are to cease all activity and contact Gregorio for additional orders. On paper, everything is simple, though, with the lack of information we've got regarding the Depths in general, it's undeniably clear that we're going in blind on something dangerous.

I glance at the empty satchel sitting at the leg of the table. If we're being separated into pairs, then I'll no doubt serve the role as medic for whoever I'll be working with. That means I'll need medicine for the both of us, needles of Vivifiers in case we need to retreat, additional blood packs to satiate any sudden thirst, and empty glass vials to collect samples on the field.

Man, It's been a while since I've been out on active field duty, what with the months I've spent on standby since the end of Operation Queenslayer. How odd it is to feel nostalgic for something as basic as prepping for a new mission. It may be that I'm excited over this new chance to actually do something.

Of course, I'm not so arrogant as to believe that Gregorio is doing this for me. He's a pragmatic man, one whose focus is entirely directed towards building a brighter future. He treats time as a precious resource. As such, he wouldn't waste any of it on a fruitless excursion. So when he says that there's reason to believe in the existence of something vital for our future, then something is there. At the same time, I'd like to believe that we were of the same mind regarding one thing.

My sibling—our Queenslayer—could be somewhere down in those Depths. Though, the chances of that are impossible.

If a Revenant suffers a fatal cardiac injury, then only two scenarios may follow: either the BOR Parasite incubating in their heart will perish entirely, or it is starved when the host's blood supply dries up. The latter is what most Revenants fear on a daily basis, because if the BOR Parasite is subject to bloodthirst, then they'll trigger a frenzy reaction within their hosts, setting them on the path to becoming a member of the Lost. When this happens, the Revenant will be left as nothing but a savage husk of their former self, roaming the land for even the most meager drop of blood.

Thankfully, it only takes a simple measure to prevent this from occurring. All you have to do is supply a Revenant with blood, and the parasite will be able to subsist for a while longer. It is technically easier said than done, but as of right now we're managing to get it done successfully. There are enough human survivors protected within the walls of the government center who are willing to donate their blood in safe amounts. Many of the staff at the center are humans themselves, and part of their duties is to donate their blood at specific intervals. Not only that, our scouts are finding more and more human survivors every day.

The former, however, is something irreversible. When the BOR Parasite itself is killed, it will lead to total organ failure in the host. Blood rots from inside the body until every cell has degenerated, causing the body as a whole to undergo severe atrophy. The host disperses, unable to stitch themselves back together without the power of the BOR Parasite to facilitate their reawakening. The residual ash left behind after their death is the remains of their body.

If both Jack and Gregorio witnessed the Queenslayer disperse into ashes, then it would be impossible for them to have reawakened. Their Parasite must have been obliterated upon death.

But what if? What if we're about to see the first exception to what we believed had been the definitive rule?

I had spent years alongside Aurora's side researching this very phenomenon. I had surrendered my own humanity and transformed myself into a Revenant in order to advance our research. I of all people have seen for myself the ash piling atop the corpses of humans left by the Queen's decimation. Therefore, I should know for a fact that no Revenant can ever hope to reawaken if their heart has been destroyed.

But what if? That's all I can think about. That's why I have to go because, if I don't, I'll end up regretting it for the rest of my life.

After filling up the satchel, I sling it around my arm and hoist my poleaxe-halberd thingy behind my back.

There's still one thing worrying me.

I turn to Louis, who still sleeps soundly in his bed. It's been so long since the BOR Parasite had been implanted in him, yet he continues to show no sign of reawakening. I'm worried that when I leave, he might undergo some sort of drastic complication, and I won't be there to stabilize him. How can I face Karen if something happens to her little brother? After all, he's the only person I have left, and I may be the only one he has left.

"Louis, I'm sorry," I whisper as I grasp his hand, "I shouldn't leave you, I know that. But I can't stay. If there's even a chance that my sibling is alive, then I have to take it and find them."

No response. Of course. Forgive me, Louis. I'll be back as soon as possible, okay?

Ah… sorry, Louis. I may not make it back at all.

I reach for the handle of my poleaxe, yanking the blades out from the head of a Lost. Blood as dark as oil spills out and pools on the ground, adding onto the black stream trailing underneath my every step. I watch as it coats the rim of my boots. Its thickness is unlike any of the blood I've seen from any Revenant or human. Could a sip of it fill the parasite writhing in my heart? Will it ease the aching of my veins? Is it the wellspring that feeds the existence of the horrors we face each and every day?

I lick my lips.

At first, the operation proceeded without a hitch. My team was flown to the central ravine enclosed by the Thorns of Judgment, where we descended to the Depths below. After setting up a central camp at our designated zone, my temporary partner and I began our investigation of the passageways available to us. The first month consisted of gaining positional data for our cartographers back in the government center and of collecting samples from the organisms in the Depths. Rather, my partner slaughtered the Lost in our way, and I collected samples of blood from the corpses left behind during the carnage. Halfway through the second month, fortunately, the group of researchers working alongside us had successfully identified traces of the Queen's blood in some of the samples we brought back. We finally had a trail to follow.

Of course, if the blood of the Queen is involved, powerful beasts are sure to appear. And they did.

I'm not sure if they were drawn in the scent of her blood or by the scent of ours. Regardless, they launched an assault on our camp. Though we weren't equipped to fend off a sudden invasion, my partner managed to draw the aggression of the stronger Lost, while I defended the powerless researchers from the stragglers.

Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for them to switch their tactics. Instead of wasting their efforts trying to take down my partner, they decided to swarm me with as many forces as they can amass. I can handle a group of them, and maybe I can take down a horde if the situation calls for it. But going against a horde on my own while protecting regular humans? Even a combat medic like myself hasn't had to do something as difficult as that. Their strategy changed so quickly that I had little time to think of a good plan of defense, so I immediately went with my gut feeling.

I darted down the nearest passageway, abandoning the researchers and my partner.

Against any other enemy, this would be a horrible move to make, but I took a gamble. Experience has taught me how the Lost normally fight, and the way they fight is by taking down the easier threats. So when they started swarming me instead of my partner, I knew that they saw me as the easiest threat, and therefore their prime priority. Even though the normal human researchers, who certainly stood no chance against these monsters, would have been easier targets, the Lost had viewed them differently. It's because they are so weak that they aren't priorities. Once they take down my partner and me, the researchers would just be easy pickings.

Luckily, my gamble paid off. The swarm had indeed followed me down the winding path, ignoring the powerless researchers back at camp.

From there, though, I didn't think about which path was best to take or which area would be best to lead the Lost to. All I could think to do was continue running further and further inside, drawing them away from my team as far as possible. So, I ran.

It shouldn't be surprising that I would eventually find myself stuck at a dead end. At that point, there was nothing left to do but fight my way back out.

Emerging from that situation alive was no small feat, though when compared to the hell I witnessed when the Queen first frenzied, I'm not sure if getting through this was impressive in any measure. Especially since the skirmish only left me weakened, injured, and thirsting for blood. I can't recall how many days have passed since then.

The weight of the poleaxe slung against my back is starting to feel heavier and heavier. I left my satchel back at camp when I fled, so I have neither blood packets to drink from nor Vivifiers to reawaken with. I can kill myself here, but there's no guarantee that I'll be sane when my body disperses and stitches itself back at the Mistle back at camp.

Either I find my way back, or I frenzy.

… Ugh, my vision is starting to blur. It's like there's a thick red fog obscuring everything in front of me. Other Revenants like to joke about this, saying that when we undergo bloodthirst, we fail to see anything save for the color red. Gonna be honest, this isn't as funny as they made it out to be.

But I won't stop here. I can't stop here. If my sibling—if you're down here, then I won't stop until I've found you, even if all there's left to find is a pile of ashes. And if that's all there is waiting for me? Then I'll add my own ashes to yours.

I'm surrounded by darkness. The scent of iron hangs thick in the air, and the muffled sounds of dripping blood echo around me. Far up above me is a streak of light, one that tears through the sky like a bolt of lightning following the cracks of the earth. Perhaps this is the deepest part of this ravine, though I doubt this is as far as the Depths go.

With my hand held against the craggy wall to my side, I drag my feet forward, letting my fingers guide me down the path. As I do, I eventually come across an object laid down on the path before me, accidentally kicking it with my feet prior to realizing that it's there. Before I can register what it is, a repugnant stench attacks my senses, bypassing the filters of my mask. It's horrid, so disgustingly rotten that I'm overcome with nausea and nearly retch altogether. I navigate around it, but the path beyond seems to be littered with these objects, as indicated by how often my feet keep knocking against them. The odor grows stronger still, and then I pick up on another scent.

The fresh scent of blood.

Corpses. Piled around me were the corpses of Revenants and humans alike. I push the thought out of my mind as I trudge through the pile of bodies.

Eventually, I see a red light glowing in the distance. Its luminous glare pierces through the haze of blood in my eyes, entrancing me, guiding me to it, away from the wall I've clung to. My mind becomes enraptured by the crimson glow it emits, so much so that I don't think twice about taking a step right off the ledge, tumbling down from someplace high up.

I roll down the rugged wall, and though the height of my plummet isn't anything drastic, my impact on the floor is substantial nonetheless. I already feel so weak, so thirsty.

"I'm right here."

…What?

"I'm right here," says a voice from far ahead, "I'm right here."

Dazed, desperate, I crawl towards the voice. It pulls me, leading me towards the ethereal crimson light ahead of me. It repeats over and over, "I'm right here," "I'm right here," and I recognize it, yet I can neither form a name nor a face that matches it. Still it calls to me, still does the light glow. Harsher and harsher, brighter and brighter, closer and closer.

I'm so thirsty.

My body loses the last ounce of strength I had, but I'm right there. Right where the voice is coming from. Right next to that light drawing me in. If I can just… reach for it…

"Agh!"

A piercing pain unlike anything else I've ever felt before assails me the moment I grab the shining object. Its crimson light blinds me, leaving me lost in a red abyss. I try to let go, but I can't move my fingers.

I-It's stabbed my hand!

I scream, and my hoarse voice reverberates throughout the walls around me. The pain from my hand soon spreads, overtaking my entire body within seconds. I feel my blood pulsate, vibrate, pound inside me. My heart, my chest, my parasite squirms more and more with each passing moment.

I'm so thirsty, I'm so thirsty, I'm so thirsty, I'm so thirsty—

And I hear the voice once more. "I'm right here."

It's been over half a year since the Queen frenzied. Her rage had scattered the ashes of many Revenants and taken the lives of many humans. Fortunately, many survived, and many more were brought back from death.

Yet, you're still asleep, Morgan.

Aurora looks over the vital signs monitor. Her lips press into a thin line when she sees the screen; perhaps it's showing lower numbers than she's hoping for. Meanwhile, Karen examines your unconscious body, conducting a pseudo-physical examination. At least, she attempts to conduct one. I imagine it must be harder to do so with an unresponsive patient.

All the while, I sit near your bed with my hands clasped together, unable to do anything.

"Morgan will be okay," the other researchers say, "Morgan's gone through so much worse," the other Revenants say. I've heard those words repeated to me over and over again, and I've become disgusted at how easily they dismiss your very life like so. I don't want to hear them assure me that you'll wake up tomorrow or the next day. I don't want to hear them tell me to hold onto hope and not give into my despair. I don't want to hear another word out of their disgusting, selfish mouths.

I just want you back.

"Ggh…!"

Your body squirms, your hands clutch at the sheets of the bed, and you gasp for air. Are you having a nightmare?

I reach for your hand and grasp it between mine, just as you did for me when we were younger. Whenever I was sad, angry, pained, you were there to hold mine as you swore that you would never leave my side. That you'll always be here for me.

If I can return the favor, even by a little bit…

I lean in closer to you and whisper, "I'm right here."

Liquid oozes onto my lips. Its salty, metallic taste spreads throughout my tongue, clouding my senses in an intoxicating haze. I savor the taste for as long as it lasts, and when I think I've lapped up the final drop, more of it is poured out for me. More and more, I keep drinking, enjoying the sensation as it flows down my throat, invigorating me from within. It clears my mind, relieving me of the fear and anxiety that overtook me not so long ago.

What was that dream? I remember hearing someone say my name, but when I try to recall the events I just saw, I end up coming up with nothing but a blank picture. The voice that spoke those words, "I'm right here," who were they? Why did they sound so familiar to me? And what was I even doing before seeing that strange dream?

As I'm thinking, more liquid is poured into my mouth. Mmm, that tastes good. I can practically feel the BOR Parasite easing its grip on my heart, replenishing my strength.

Wait, hold on, that means I'm drinking blood, right? The parasite doesn't respond to anything else. Did someone finally rescue me? Oh thank goodness, they came in time! Hah, I was seriously close to succumbing to the thirst back there. I mean, I think I was?

I should definitely thank the people who found me. I open my eyes and—ohmygodwhyisKarenwearingsomethingsorevealing?!

"K-Karen," I avert my eyes as quick as I can and even cover them with my arm to reinforce it, "I appreciate you feeding me blood, but the lap pillow is a bit unnecessary, and if you're going to wear that kind of thing, you should only let Aurora see it!"

"Karen? Aurora? Who are they?"

Huh? That's not Karen's voice.

Although hesitant, I lower my arm to look at the girl looming over me, and I become speechless. Lengthy hair that trails down to her neck, with a color as white as the purest of snow. Glassy eyes that glow with the radiance of a rising sun. Those are physical traits that Karen certainly doesn't have, for sure. At the same time, this girl looks exactly like her, from the overall shape of her head down to the individual quirks in each of her facial features. They're so eerily similar that it's harder trying to convince myself that she isn't Karen rather than the other way around.

As if influenced by my own confusion, the girl tilts her head to the side, unsure of what to do next. I reach up to touch her face, and as the tips of my fingers brush against her pale cheeks, she too pokes at mine. Now I know for sure she's real and that I'm not just hallucinating a really cute girl.

"Did you feed me blood?" I ask, to which she wordlessly nods. To this, I smile. "Thank you so much. You don't know who I am, yet you fed me your blood when I was at my worst. You practically saved my life."

"You are mistaken," she says, "you did not drink mine."

"I-I didn't? Well, whose blood did I drink?"

Only then did I notice the strange red capsule held in her other hand. She holds it near to my face, allowing me to see the bountiful blood still contained within. "I fed you this."

"What? Where did you get this from?"

She points up, and I look past her face. I see more of the red containers hanging from the branches of an ivory tree, each one as beautiful as the last. Are they all some sort of fruit special to this tree alone? I can't tell, but one of them happens to fall from its tree branch, landing beside my hand with a clatter. The girl picks it up and hands it to me, so I examine it.

It's hefty, more so than I expected, and it has a metallic touch to it. The shape of it is reminiscent of a teardrop, and its color is deeper than the color of the container I supposedly drank from. I wouldn't even begin to know how to open this, but I eventually figure out how with the help of the girl's guidance. At the very apex of the "fruit" is a soft and easily pierced segment. I bite into it with my front teeth and start drinking the contents within.

That's… good! What the heck, is this seriously the blood I just drank?

I sit up, pulling myself off of the girl's lap and gulping down the treat in my hands. I've never tasted blood this rejuvenating before! When I swallow it down, I feel its warmth blanketing my throat as if cleansing me from within. And there's so much left to feed from in the container, more than my standard blood packet can carry. I need to know more about this tree. I have to!

"Excuse me, miss? Could you tell me about these fruits and what they—"

My eyes fall upon another girl sitting against the trunk of the tree. She looks out to the space in front of her absentmindedly, rocking herself back and forth as if enjoying a moment of aimless peace. Then I see the girl sleeping near her, resting atop a blue cloth draped along the floor. Beyond them are several other girls, each either sleeping or staring at me with intrigue.

And each one of them looks exactly the same as each other.

I'm rendered speechless by the sight of them, and before I can even begin to process it all, one of the girls sits down next to me and tugs at my sleeve. "Are you our Successor?" she asks

Then, as if prompted by her question, all the other girls affix their gazes onto me, repeating the words she just spoke. "Are you our Successor?"

What… what in the world is going on?