In this chap­ter, Mick­ey and Berto are engaged in a crit­i­cal mis­sion in a des­o­late envi­ron­ment, fac­ing their fears and the con­se­quences of past actions. As they hov­er over a crevasse, Mick­ey ques­tions Berto about Six, who was tak­en by the creep­ers. Berto reveals he had lied ini­tial­ly, clar­i­fy­ing that the creep­ers didn’t eat Six but dis­sect­ed him, leav­ing a lin­ger­ing sense of betray­al for Mick­ey. Berto con­fess­es to his fear of the creep­ers, pro­vid­ing insight into why he didn’t act to save Mick­ey dur­ing ear­li­er events.

As they descend into the crevasse, Mick­ey grap­ples with the moral impli­ca­tions of their mis­sion. Equipped with destruc­tive weapons—bubble bombs made from antimatter—he feels uneasy about using them against sen­tient crea­tures. Despite Eight’s insis­tence that they pro­ceed to avoid dire con­se­quences from their com­mand, Mick­ey recalls a pre­vi­ous encounter where a creep­er saved him, com­pli­cat­ing his emo­tion­al response to their mis­sion.

Once sep­a­rat­ed, Mick­ey finds him­self nav­i­gat­ing through dark tun­nels, antic­i­pat­ing dan­ger from the creep­ers that seem aware of their pres­ence. He soon views an expan­sive cav­ern swarm­ing with hun­dreds of creep­ers, real­iz­ing the poten­tial risk they pose. The atmos­phere shifts dras­ti­cal­ly when com­mu­ni­ca­tion from Eight ceas­es; an unset­tling void replaces their con­ver­sa­tion, cul­mi­nat­ing in the grim con­fir­ma­tion that Eight is dead.

In a moment charged with ten­sion, Mick­ey faces a deci­sion: to pull the trig­ger on his weapons or to explore an alter­nate path. He expe­ri­ences a sur­re­al shift as a giant creep­er con­fronts him, demand­ing to know if he is “Prime.” Instead of suc­cumb­ing to fear and vio­lence, Mick­ey, in a moment of defi­ance and hope, claims to be Prime, draw­ing an unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion with the crea­ture. This leap of faith sig­ni­fies a poten­tial for com­mu­ni­ca­tion and under­stand­ing, set­ting the stage for a piv­otal encounter between Mick­ey and the very beings they had intend­ed to destroy.