Year 2098.

The Sino-American Trade War which escalated to 3rd World War had just ended!

To the masses of the world, this incident was nothing but a relief since the Nukes were not involved in it.

But to Vera Marlene this war was a total disaster. So for her like many others this didn't many anything.

Vera Marlene, a mere 9 years old girl was an American with her parents being American business persons and one of the many casualties of this war.

They died during the invasion of Australia by China during the war so as to stop US from using her defence bases in both Japan and Australia to counter China.

The same tactics that Japan used in World War 2 to pull the US into the war.

Coincidentally, Vera's parents happened to be on a trip there to open their company branch here so that Chinese dependence could be totally nullified by the Australia.

Unfortunately, this was also the reason for their deaths as they were just happened to be in range of the Chinese missiles.

This brought out a reaction from the former Indian forces for the rescue mission. And this was where Aarav met Vera who was a survivor of the attack.

From then on Vera became a part of the ISC.

This incident had a deep influence on Vera's life for many years.

This incident made her personality extremely cold.

She would always be seen smiling by everyone but that smile sent shivers down anyone's spine if they saw it.

It was totally different from the Vera that Reven knew!

It was right to say this incident corrupted her personality.

She never spoke about her parents to anyone. Even the psychiatrists who examined her couldn't take her out of her misery.

Her eyes contained a madness for revenge against the killers of her parents and this mad lust of hers came out as a weapon scientist after she joined the military in ISC.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately the law that made it compulsory for children to join the army was not made yet so she matured a normally like an adult compared to children after the 4th World War!

Year 2108, the 10th year since the War ended.

Began the 4th World War or the True Nuclear War!

The war that regressed human civilisation to maybe the 19th or the 20th century.

The war that made everyone question the very nature of humanity. People seemed to forget about anything like freedom, tolerance or peace. They became even more ferocious than those extinct carnivores.

She stayed in an orphanage until she turned 16 after which she finally joined the army as a strategist and weapon scientist to fulfil her wish to see blood of her enemies.

Year 2113.

The 4th World War finally ended.

With the end of the war Vera's revenge was also mostly done. China was now so weak that it would never become a full-fledged country and will mostly be under Russia.

She knew it was impossible to totally destroy the country out of the map so she compromised with whatever she got.

But…

Her trauma still remained! Her eyes filled with insanity still remained. Her insanity was now becoming more and more unbearable.

She didn't have many friends due to her being focused towards a single goal after her parent's death. So her life was also not much engaging and was becoming monotonous and depressing.

So she joined the Armed Academy which was the best decision of her life as she also met Aimee there.

From that point on Vera slowly but surely forgot about her trauma and slowly started to mingle with her only friend Aimee. Her insanity also subsidised a lot.

This period of her life was possibly the best and most enjoyable part of her life. She also found her love for music in this time period only!

After graduating from the Academy she got even more involved with her subject of choice i.e. Nano-Mechanics.

This technology was maybe one of the revolutionary technology that the 22nd century Earth had seen. Though not much was released about it and the secrets were guarded by the army.

The current Nano-Suits that Aimee and the MHS had were also a product of this technology only!

Like this, years passed until year 2119.

The year she met Reven!

To her Reven was an exceptional kid who had extraordinary talent for music which she always liked.

At the same time, to her he was a kid who didn't know about how the world of bonds worked. The moment she saw his eyes, she realized that the kid only saw the world with only one ideology.

_To Kill or to Get Killed!

A terrifying ideology which mostly turned people into murdering maniacs. Not an ideology which was needed to live a respectful life.

Though in this world the kid's ideology was the only one which was needed to survive.

Vera could see herself but in a much more devastated state in him.

After all the 3 years old kid had seen much of the cruelty of the world that her generation didn't have to face. So with Aimee's help and her hard-work she slowly but surely changed the kid.

No, it was better to say that she wanted and tried to change the kid. As she wasn't really much successful.

She could clearly see that in the eyes of the kid which was always pitch black devoid of any light. It was clearly saying that the kid's core ideology was already grafted and would not change ever.

Though she was unsuccessful but her work was not without results!

She could clearly see that the kid had shown changes from being completely indifferent with a façade of being engaging to actually showing interest and care towards people he cared about.

She could always see that when the kid talked with his father, Aarav.

So she and Aimee never stopped their tries and slowly but surely made a place for themselves in his heart too.

Though it was yet to be confirmed was it like that for every individual or only for some people.

Years passed and she finally met Cale Coburn, she first met him on a meeting with some other company which was supposed to supply her with raw materials for her Nano-Bots tests.

Cale had an impact on her life. The guy would appear out of nowhere after their first meeting and woo her. She also enjoyed this as never in her life she got that much attention from other sex.

Most of them would only look at her with reverence due to her scientific discoveries and her insane personality during those days. Also her work schedule was way too much to focus on anything like that.

Plus, he being Aimee's friend was also a part which influenced her lifestyle. So during her Academic years she didn't get much involved with opposite sex.

She didn't have any bar for a partner like Aimee. What she wanted was attention which she lacked very much so she decided to be in a relation with Cale.

Everything went good for some time but problems started to rise up as time passed. At first she thought that it was normal and happened in every relationship but slowly the tensions increased.

Then struck the Advent…

And after that the series of events which took place were known to all.

-----

The New Year night.

Vera could already see there was much difference between Reven and Cale. In fact, she could also see the hidden ruthlessness in Reven's eyes again whenever he would look at Cale.

She had many guesses but she believed that it was a false alarm. Or rather she hoped it was!

Before she could know about the truth, she was pulled into that portal and took place numerous mind-numbing instances.

But even in the midst of all this she still had this matter inside his mind.

Finally, with lots of planning and efforts they could get out of the dungeon but…

Then came the biggest shocker.

Reven being not able to pass through the portal.

For whatever reasons she felt the whole incident was not that simple.

"!!!"

She looked ahead as she saw Aimee releasing intense Ardor in anger and killing intent.

Just like that the gate closed.

But then…

At Aimee Seven-Link.

[Ding!]

[A message arrived from Reven.]

'Read it now!'

Aimee thought as the Ardor around her vanished abruptly making Vera and the others confused.

While everyone was looking at Aimee for some explanation when suddenly…

Her killing intent flared up again and this time it practically brought them to their knees.

Well, it was going to happen anyways after what she heard on Reven's message.

It started with-

"Its Cale…"

…..