Waves

First Wave agents were already in New York. They activated into a Dark Zone JTF was quitting. They died, vanished, or turned. Second Wave was a national call-up aimed at a city that had already become factions. The Agent of the first game is Second Wave; the ghosts they trip over are First.

D.C. is a third rhythm — not a numbered wave so much as a reconstruction of the network itself after the blackout. Warlords of New York then sends those D.C. agents back into the original theatre, which is how the two games become one file.

If someone says 'the Division failed,' ask which wave. The answers are different.