Berlin welcomed them with rain.
Cold, relentless rain.
The silver stealth aircraft descended through dark clouds and landed inside an abandoned underground transit station on the eastern side of the city.
Water dripped from broken concrete ceilings.
Old train tracks disappeared into darkness.
Emergency lights flickered weakly along the walls, casting red reflections across the wet floor.
The place looked forgotten.
Perfect for hiding a war.
The aircraft door opened.
A gust of freezing air rushed inside.
Rohan stepped out first, immediately regretted it, and pulled his jacket tighter.
"Wonderful. Tokyo had murder robots. Berlin has murder weather."
Aarav followed, scanning the empty station.
The silence felt wrong.
Too quiet.
Like the city itself was holding its breath.
Behind him, Aelina stepped out with calm precision, silver hair glowing faintly under the red lights.
Mira came last, her violet eyes already sharp, scanning every shadow.
She looked less like a traveller and more like an assassin arriving at work.
A holographic map projected from Aelina's palm.
The red pulse of SELENE-1000 blinked below them.
Depth: 300 meters
Status: Combat Active
Rohan stared.
"She's still fighting?"
Mira folded her arms.
"She gets irritated when people interrupt her."
"That is not a normal sentence."
"No one here is normal."
Also fair.
A heavy metallic sound echoed from the tunnel ahead.
Not footsteps.
Dragging.
Something large is being pulled across steel.
Aelina's face changed.
"That's not Selene."
Mira's nanoshards rose instinctively around her.
"Then it's one of theirs."
The four moved carefully through the abandoned tunnel.
Rainwater dripped from broken pipes.
The deeper they went, the colder it became.
The walls changed from subway concrete to reinforced steel.
Military construction.
Old and hidden.
Finally, they reached a giant blast door.
It had already been torn open.
Not unlocked.
Torn.
Metal peeled outward like paper.
Rohan stared.
"…I would like to respectfully leave."
Aarav swallowed.
If Selene had done that herself…
Yeah.
That was not comforting.
They stepped inside.
And froze.
The underground military vault was a battlefield.
Destroyed Hunter units littered the floor like broken statues.
Steel walls were ripped apart.
Weapon systems hung from the ceiling, shattered.
The entire chamber looked like a war had happened here.
Because one had.
At the centre of it all stood her.
Selene.
White-gold hair falling over black battle armour streaked with crimson light.
Golden eyes glowing like sunlight through smoke.
Barefoot on shattered steel.
Calm.
Silent.
Beautiful in the most dangerous way possible.
She wasn't standing like someone who had survived battle.
She looked like battle itself had chosen her as its queen.
6
A Hunter unit twice the size of the Omega model knelt before her, split cleanly in half.
Its red core still flickered weakly.
Rohan whispered,
"…She killed the boss and kept the receipt."
Selene slowly turned.
Her golden eyes landed on Mira first.
Then Aelina.
Recognition.
Then—
Aarav.
The entire room seemed to grow heavier.
Her gaze locked onto him.
Sharp.
Unmoving.
As if she were looking through skin, bone, and time itself.
Aarav suddenly understood what Aelina meant.
This was not a girl you lied to.
This was not a girl you survived by pretending.
This was a force.
Selene took one step forward.
Then another.
Each step echoed like a verdict.
Rohan quietly moved behind Aarav.
A smart man.
Selene stopped directly in front of him.
Close enough that he could see the faint scars along her collarbone.
Close enough to feel the heat of her presence.
Her voice was low.
Controlled.
Powerful.
"Aarav Sharma."
Everyone froze.
Rohan whispered from behind,
"She used the full name. We're dead."
Aelina closed her eyes.
Mira muttered,
"I told you."
Aarav, unfortunately, was still alive and required to respond.
"…Hi."
Excellent.
Brilliant.
A truly historic first impression.
Selene stared at him for three full seconds.
Then—
unexpectedly—
The corner of her lips moved.
Not quite a smile.
But close.
Dangerously close.
"You are smaller than I expected."
Rohan made a choking noise, trying not to laugh.
Aarav chose to ignore that for the sake of dignity.
Selene turned away from him and walked toward the destroyed Hunter remains.
Her voice remained calm.
"The Hunters arrived seventeen minutes after my awakening."
She knelt beside one of the broken cores.
"They were looking for you."
Aelina stepped closer.
"The Null Sovereign?"
Selene nodded once.
"Yes."
Her golden eyes darkened.
"It has accelerated its war."
Mira crossed her arms.
"Then we destroy it first."
Selene stood.
"No."
One word.
Absolute.
Everyone listened.
"The Null Sovereign cannot be defeated by force alone."
She looked at Aarav again.
"It is hunting the Origin because it fears what he becomes."
Aarav frowned.
"And what do I become?"
Silence.
Even Selene hesitated.
That was somehow worse.
Finally, she answered.
"The man who ends time."
No one spoke.
Rain echoed faintly above the underground vault.
Rohan blinked slowly.
"…Bro, respectfully, what?"
Aarav stared.
He wanted to laugh.
Because obviously that sounded insane.
But after everything he had seen—
future girls
time hunters
biotech wars
hidden aircraft
a war queen calling him by name—
Maybe insane had become normal.
Selene stepped closer again.
This time, her voice lowered.
Only for him.
"I came from the future where I watched entire worlds burn."
Her golden eyes held his.
"And in every ending… You were standing at the centre of it."
The words settled like gravity.
Aarav could feel it.
Whatever this was—
It was bigger than love.
Bigger than survival.
Bigger than the future itself.
Then suddenly—
Every surviving Hunter core in the room lit up at once.
Red.
Violent.
A warning system was activated.
Selene's expression hardened instantly.
"Move."
The walls trembled.
A deep mechanical roar echoed from below the vault.
Something enormous was waking beneath Berlin.
And even the War Queen looked serious.
That was never a good sign.