Deep in the night, somewhere along the mountain range, where lush trees and plants bloom. Animals, Big and small, varying from different species, roam freely. The quiet and lonely night was supposed to be peaceful.

Among the forest was a massive mansion, it was supposed to be grand and exquisite. But a sea burning fire had taken it away. Red lights illuminated the forest as the fire roared with might. Inside the mansion countless screaming and roaring gunshots inside.

In one of the rooms at the back end of the mansion, a crying woman is sitting on the floor, tears stained her face, but it wasn't able to hide her beauty. In the depth of her foxy eyes, despair could be seen, yet a faint and flickering light of hope stubbornly remains. She was carrying a crying newborn and a small child at the age of five beside her, hugging her, deeply afraid and confused. They were being held by a man who seems to be her husband. With blood flowing from his forehead. He was gnashing his teeth from all the anger, pain, Countless complex emotions he feels in his heart.

There were men at door, each wearing a camouflage suit, ex-military men, hired to be the guards of mansion. Armed with rifle guns, their clothes stained with blood and dust. Exchanging bullets with the enemy. The leader among the group shouted to the couple.

"Hurry up headmaster! We won't be able to hold on!"

The headmaster went daze for a moment, before he seemingly came to a decision, he looked at his wife and gave her long loving kiss on her lips, he looked at his two sons, one who was only 5 years old, named Kiel, and the other one, a newborn, who he named Izakel. It pained him a lot to realize that his newborn son might not be able to feel the love of a father. he knew in his heart that his hopes of coming out alive from situation was close to a null.

He knelt in front of his son, Kiel. Taking out a pendant of a roaring lion head that was made out of expensive jade from his clothes and wore it on his son's neck. "My son, wear this pendant of mine, this will be the key that would lead you to all the answers you'll be looking for in the future. Consider it as my advance gift to you, for your birthday next week, treasure it buddy" he gave him a long fatherly hug.

He stood up went to the guard, stretching his arm "give me a gun"

The guard surprised by the words spoken by his headmaster, he looked at his squad leader with an expression of asking for help before replying in a panic "B-But, s-sir you can't, it's our duty to serve you to th-..."

"Give him the gun, boy" Squad leader intervened

"b-b-but sir!..."

"I said just give it to him!" the squad leader was named Arnold, he has been the head of guards for the headmaster's family for a long time. He was one of the people who knew Leo the most, he knew that once he made a decision, he would always see it to the end, he was stubborn like his late father.

Leo was given a rifle, he stared at it before taking a deep breath. He looked at his wife and softly spoke "Take the kids to the passage Lara, leave now!"

Lara stood up, crying and panicking, she came running to her husband and tightly held his arm, not willing to letting go. "AND YOU'RE GONNA STAY!!?? NO! don't! don't do this! we can escape, we need you Leo, please, please don't."

Leo gently caressed his wife face "Just go, don't worry about me. I'll be right behind you. I won't leave you guys alone." He shifted his gaze to the Arnold, he ordered "escort my family to safety"

She lowered her face and started crying more, moments later, she looked up and looked at Leo with hesitation. She hugged him tight before pulling herself out of his arms. She went to a wall, pulled down a candle holder, It made a clicking and clanking sounds. Seconds later, the wall next to it started going up revealing a narrow passage. She went inside with Arnold following from behind. before they could get far. A sound was heard that made their heart jolt. They stiffly turned their heads to the origin of the noise.

What they saw was a black helicopter, gazing at them like a ferocious predator eyeing it's next meal. Leo hurriedly looked at his wife, shouting;

"RUUUUUUUNNNNN!"

Lara, awakened from Leo's shout, was terrified and tried to run away, but before she could make a step. Swooshing sound was heard as fire came of the helicopter's rocket pad, shooting out a bunch of missiles. Arnold with his fast reaction, held Lara and her two sons to shield them from the incoming blast.

Bright fiery red lights reflected Kiel's pupils, along with the deafening booming sound that rendered his ears ringing.

And the next thing he knew, darkness was all he could see.

....

"Kiel! Kiel! Kiel!"

He was woken by a voice, calling his name. His face was pale, and was covered in sweat.

"Kiel..."

He heard his name again, he looked beside him, it was his wife, Amy, a blonde western woman. tightly holding his hand, worried. She says. "Is everything alright Kiel? did that nightmare came back? how come? it's been a long time since the last time."

He caressed his wife's hands and assured her.

"don't worry honey, I'm alright. that nightmare would definitely go away. Go back to sleep, I'll just freshen up myself"

Amy looked at him in worry before going back to sleep. He stood up and went to the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror, even though his face was pale, he still looked handsome. Finely shaped brows, sharp eyes and a chiseled jaw line. Kiel was turning 48 years old, even though, he looked quite young despite his age.

'How come I've dream of that again? this must be from stress.'

He looked towards the pendant in his chest.

'the same pendant as the man gave me in the dream....' Some part of him believed the nightmare was real. but most of him didn't. Its been a long time since he started searching about the people appearing in his dream, but to no avail, there wasn't a single clue. years past and he started believing that these were the things his mind came up with.

He washed his face to cool himself up, and calmed his rapidly beating heart before going back to his bedroom. He looked at the clock on the wall, it was 3:13 am in the middle of night. He shifted his to his wife who was fast asleep, he gently fixed her blanket and went laid down beside her to continue sleeping,

Tumbling from side and to side, trying his best to fall asleep. He looked at the clock again, it's only been 5 minutes. He couldn't sleep, thinking about the nightmare he had.

'Sigh. I can't sleep..... I guess I'll just whoop myself up with some breakfast' coming to a decision, he headed to the kitchen downstairs. He prepared a simple breakfast, two eggs paired with a bacon and a cup of rice. He savored the smell before he ate slowly to let more time pass.

'ahh.. nothings better than good food.'

*footsteps*

Kiel was busy eating when he heard footsteps, he was about to turn around, when his vision went black

"Guess who?" He heard a low girly voice, still , he knew who it was.

"Pumpkinnnnnn, why're you awake? You should sleep some more, you have school later. It's not proper to sleep at your first day. I don't want to get called so early in this school year" Kiel chuckling as he scolded, he looked at his daughter, Aya, a petite with blonde hair. turning 18 this year, She looks a lot more like her mother. The only things she got from Kiel was his warm yet introverted personality and his love for food.

"Alright, alright dad I get it, hehehe. I just got out of the toilet when I smelled something delicious coming from the kitchen, I followed it and here I saw you." Aya said as she put her face closer to the food and hungrily savored the tasty fragrance it gave.

"What? Want me to cook you some? Go do it yourself, you know girls at your age should start learning about home chores, and that includes cooking. How can you be a good wife if you can't cook" With a wide smile, he teased.

"Why should I cook when there's you? And what good wife? I'm still 17 years old, and I haven't graduated yet and you want me to marry early? You don't want me anymore? please cook some for me daddy." Aya held his father's sleeve as she stared with sad and teary eyes.

"Of course not! Seriously you....."

Kiel hugged his daughter and continued

"You're mother should start teaching you how to cook" Kiel knew he couldn't resist when her daughter stares at him like that, he had always spoiled her as she was their only child. With sleeves up, he started making another dish, it was his daughter's favorite, pancakes! He made sure to make it tastier for his daughter,.

"You guys… why wasn't I invited? Come on, me too! So what's the menu? Pancakes? Ohhh. I love that, make me some too!" His wife came in, joining the fun.

"Sure sure, anything for my dear wife, the more the merrier!" Kiel chuckled,

Time passed as they laughed and enjoyed eating together.

"Oh! Its almost 5:00 a.m, you guys should get dressed too." He exclaimed as he looked as his watch. He usually go to work early as to avoid getting stuck in traffic due to rush hour.

The other two was surprised when they heard the time for a moment before looking at the clock, realizing they were about to be late, they started preparing with their mouths full of food.

Kiel, seeing this chuckled, he too started to get dressed.

...

Kiel arrive at his work. It was a research facility, where all the inventions of the company he is working for, are made and researched. As he got near the guard post, he was stopped by a group of soldiers. The leader among the group approached window and knocked.

Kiel had the windows go down and took out his Id, on it was his name, Kiel Davis, below it was his job title "Chief Mechanical"

Kiel graduated college from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, since he had always been fascinated by concepts of engines or anything that has gears in it, reading and learning about them was the only hobby he got during his childhood. He was an introverted back then, not having any friends. The only people he was close with was the caretaker in the orphanage, who he treated as his own mother.

While the other soldiers move around Kiel's car with devices in their hands, infrared laser lights could be seen coming out of these devices, scanning the car for anything suspicious. The squad leader also took out a device, but it was smaller. It was used for scanning Ids, just to make sure they weren't fake.

Seconds later, a beeping sound was heard from the device. A word "Passed" in green color was shown on the screen of the device, indicating that the Id was legitimate.

"Good morning, Mr. Davis, here's your Id" said the leader as he gave the Id back to Kiel,

"thank you. There's seems to be a lot of guards stationed right now" Kiel asked in curiosity. He looked around the vicinity. He had already noticed it since he arrived, more soldiers could be seen more from any vicinity of the facility.

"Oh that. It was an order from the higher-ups, someone with great status seems to be coming to this facility" Kiel was surprised, as they rarely get any visitor. 'hmm… it must be some investors, checking the projects progress'

While Kiel was still mulling over the reason, one of the soldier approached the the leader and gave him a thumbs up, indicating clearance.

"OK, Mr. Kiel, you're good to go" the leader gestured to the person inside the the post and had the barrier lifted up.

'It's really tighter than usual' He thought as more soldiers could be seen guarding inside, he drove his car to his parking slot, before making his way to the locker room. he got to his locker and started changing.

"Hey.. you've seen the guards?" he heard as he was changing into his mechanic uniform. It was his long time friend, Jake. They have been friends since college, he was one of the few people he was on close terms.

"Hey, yeah I've seen, the head guard back in the outpost said someone important is coming here. I wonder who's that person is." Kiel said in curiosity.

"yeah… I also wonder, it would be great if it was a beauty, " Jake said as his eyebrows were jumping up and down

"haha.. women has always been the only thing you got in your mind, seriously we're already nearing our 50's and you got Isabel" Kiel laughingly retorted, since way back then even in college, women was the only thing he had in his mind. Either he was asleep or busy chasing after women, though he was always flatly rejected, this guy didn't the have phrase "giving up" in his dictionary, which Kiel admire.

"so what? 50? Heck I'm still energetic as bull, and its fine if I'm looking, just don't tell my wife, hahaha" He laughed as he joked, Kiel was about to reply when he felt someone called him from behind. He looked behind to find one of his coworker.

"Chief, Sir Clark seems to be looking for you, he wants you to come and report to his office."

"Sir Clark? I see, I'll go see him right now, I'll see you later Jake." Kiel waved his goodbye and headed off.

'hmm. I wonder why the chief had me called?'