Several days earlier, Carl leaves the Temple of the Dying Sun with Pater Coal while still shaken by Anton’s death, Sister Ines stabbing Paz with her team flag, the toe-sucking incident, and the revelation that Katia wears the Crown of the Sepsis Whore. Pater Coal urges Carl toward a healer before Club Vanquisher’s guards notice Carl came from the temple, but Carl pauses to ask what would happen if Carl did not go to the healer.

On December 26, Carl and Donut are transferred from their personal space back to Cuba, inside Iglesia San Hilarion, nearly fifty kilometers from their marked stairwell at El Capitolio Nacional de Cuba. Carl recounts returning from the shelter mission to find Imani devastated because her entire squad is dead and she has been unfairly marked with four player-killer skulls. While Donut, Katia, and Elle comfort Imani, Carl trains, crafts, scavenges, and unlocks personal alien shields for himself and Donut.

Carl studies the former Club Vanquisher mercenaries in the Mercenary Arcade and discovers that Doctor Bones, a level-90 Skin Skellie Bard, has useful crowd-control and mind-control abilities. Doctor Bones explains that Astrid was his patron and Carl now is, and he identifies his permanent charm spell as Conscript. Recognizing its strategic implications, Carl contacts Elle about expanding mercenary capacity, plans to fill every possible mercenary slot, and arranges a secret training exercise involving Doctor Bones before returning to bomb-making preparations.

The recap episode reveals how Imani’s squad died while obtaining a final vending-machine token. Enemy possession forced two of Imani’s teammates into conflict, Randall tried to freeze everyone to stop the fight, and Imani’s own Amhuluk totem killed the frozen squad with a poison cloud while also winning the battle. Carl sees Imani’s player-killer skulls as another reminder that the AI’s occasional help does not make it an ally.

When the stairwell locations open, Carl and Donut learn there are five squads in Cuba but only two keys, one held by their squad and one apparently held by Sister Ines. Carl’s old traps at the Capitol trigger, indicating another squad has reached the exit area. As allied teams report their own positions and dangers, Imani admits she is also in Cuba because her alternatives were Cuba or facing Elle; she then reveals Quan Ch is in the same saferoom and tried to attack her and initiate a card battle. Carl tells Imani to stay put and prepares to go to her.