A hoarse cough, followed quickly by groans of pain and dry sobs as Vera pressed her back against the wall in wherever the fuck she was. She was sitting down, arms trembling and she shook her head frantically as the man before her knelt in front of her.

"You're panicking," Ivan Berk spoke carefully. "It takes time getting used to." He didn't regard the empty plastic capsule she dropped.

All Vera could see in the scarce light was just a few features illuminated on Ivan, his yellow coat being obvious, with her right eye and nothing but numbers and warnings flashing scanning by her left one. It looked like little dots and lines kept trying to connect themselves to Ivan's features for Vera to see something but the system wasn't working properly for her to even know.

She lifted her cold, pale hands ahead of her, palms facing out to keep Ivan from getting closer. Her broken voice managed words, "Wh-why would you do this to me? Why not leave me to die?"

It was true that Vera had died. Or basically did. When Ivan scoured the wreckage briefly, he knew he had seen Vera before the attack and was right when he found her body. Her heart was struggling to work but it was pounding enough for him to drag her away.

"You're special," Ivan said with a kindness, a feigned kindness, in his voice.

"Stop." Vera choked out and flinched her hands away from him when he stirred a little. She tried to appear as though she could fight and resist him, but they both knew she was terrified of him.

Ivan was amused. He looked down for a moment at his augmented hands that had another hit of Neon in them. "Why would I do this?" he spoke in almost a whisper. Ivan looked up at Vera again, "Do you know what I've been through?" He poked her chest and Vera flinched again from the contact. "The pain, the hate, the discrimination?" He poked her again. "What your father did to me? You watched. You were there that day."

Vera started shaking her head again and her face twisted to that of fear and near tears, "I didn't want any of it. I couldn't stop any of them-" She let out a low scream as Ivan suddenly grabbed the back of her head and entangled his augmented fingers in her dirty black hair roughly.

Ivan leaned closer to her but still kept his face a good distance from hers. He wasn't intending on hurting her physically. He just wanted to scare her which he had down. Even though he acted malicious, he wasn't trying to torture Vera. Besides, she was his sister now. She was one of them.

"This is revenge." Ivan admitted. "A personal vendetta. Your dad is the face of the police in Prague. It will hurt his image- hurt him to see what happened to you but the fact is, these augmentations saved you." He let go of her hair but remained where he was, "I'm not trying to make him see our way. But I hope that you can."

Before Vera could remark, the door opened to the small room she was in. It was like a cell, there was a bed, a chair and a radio on a small table. The man in the doorway was massive and more terrifying than Ivan was. His entire body blocked the doorway and all light trying to find its way in.

"Brother," the man spoke with a very thick accent. "They are asking questions. You should leave."

Ivan had his head turned away from Vera when her retinal display finally began to work. In her vision, she could see information about Ivan placed before her. He was married to a woman named Melissa. He was born in 2002, just a year older than her, and he suffered from the incident two years ago but managed to save his wife from his outburst. Ivan was also the culprit behind the bombing.

"Would Melissa condone your actions?" Vera mustered the courage to ask which successfully drew Ivan's attention completely to her.

"How-?" Ivan began but then stopped and smiled slightly. He looked into her glowing golden eye that spiraled like a camera lense. "It seems to work."

"Brother." The other man spoke again with impatience. He was gone however before Vera could look up at him.

Ivan put the other hit of Neon in Vera's still trembling hand and spoke with what might have actually been genuine kindness this time, "This is all I'm allowed to give you right now but this might be the last time we see each other. It will help with the pain for now so try to save it." He stood up, "Farewell sister."


Vera refused to look at herself for nearly the entire time she was there. There being Golem City, she learned. She wasn't with the other inhabitants however. There were no police. It didn't take long for her to realize that she was in ARC territory and she was surrounded by those who were the resistance.

She rarely spoke to anyone. She didn't want to; couldn't make herself do it. When she bathed, she kept her eyes averted down from any mirror that may be nearby. She could tell that she was sickly thin and by close observation, she could see metal pads under her fingertips on both hands. There were scars on her chest from her being obviously cut open and that made her nearly vomit at the thought. Thanks to Ivan, she had also developed a pretty unhealthy addiction to Neon.

With experimentation and curiosity, she learned what her augmented eye could do, and learned that it was wired all the way to her left hand. One day as she sat idle, she watched another ARC member walking alone. He was 42, divorced twice and had three children that were all naturals. He was a war veteran that was discharged shortly after the incident. It seemed like any Aug she looked at, she was able to see their bio and if she delved deep enough, she could see their past.

Vera kept her eyes on the war veteran and her fingers twitched every now and then as she flipped through his files on her display. When she accessed another part of his system, she quickly squeezed her hand shut and reopened it. The man suddenly stopped moving. Her fingers twitched again and he looked down at his hands. One more twitch and he face palmed himself.

Vera was up and already scurrying from the scene before he could look around. When she was alone again, she looked down at her left hand. She could hack into augmented individuals and control them briefly. Why would she be given this overzealous augment when all she needed was a new eye? Was she some kind of experiment?

As she walked away, a camera followed her and the large man from a few days ago watched on the other side with a satisfied smile on his face.

After more practice, she also learned that she could also shut off individual's bios if she wanted so she didn't invade their privacy.

Vera wasn't sure how much longer she was in Golem City when she sat alone one night, or day, she didn't know, and just got done inhaling another dose of Neon. As she dropped the empty capsule and leaned against the wall with her head tilted upwards, she thought about her life.

What had she become? She was an aug. Not too long ago she was a natural. Just a normal girl who wanted to leave the horrible city of Prague behind. She wanted to be an artist, a painter in America. She didn't even know the last time she had drawn anything. Maybe her dad was right. She should have just listened to him and stayed. If she had stayed home that day, she would still be alive in her old life. This new one she was forced into didn't seem real. She didn't want to believe it to be. Not only was she augmented and stranded; pronounced dead to the rest of the world, but she was a lowly junkie too. The Neon didn't even help with the pain that much anymore. She closed her eyes tightly as a tear forced itself out of her only organic eye.

Later that night she was woken to the sound of a body hitting the floor. When she heard more grunting, Vera hesitantly sat up in her bed. She told herself to just lay back down but after another thud, she was on her feet. She wanted to see what was happening.

When Vera exited to the other, more open area of the complex, she saw the first unconscious body and quickly covered her mouth to stifle a startled scream. Her heart rate had picked up from the sudden rush of fear. Someone had infiltrated them.

Too curious, Vera made herself follow the bodies without waking any of those out cold. Even though ARC wasn't hostile towards her, she didn't consider herself actually one of them and if this was about the bombing of Ruzicka Station, then whoever the attacker was had justification. Vera knew it was Ivan Berk and Ivan was a part of ARC.

Vera slowed her step and knelt down around a corner just in time to see the attacker choking another man out to unconsciousness. Her eyes went wide. The man was just a black figure but he was definitely augmented for his info pulled up in her vision.

"Adam Jensen…," Vera spoke nearly inaudibly. Born in 1993, EX-SWAT, previous head of security for Sarif Industustries, currently working for both the Juggernaut Collective and Interpol…. When she skimmed and saw where he's killed before, she immediately reacted by pulling up his control center. She still wasn't sure exactly who he was but she couldn't let a murder just roam around anymore. When she closed her hand and opened it again in attempts to hack him, it proved to be much harder than the ARC member she had hacked the other day.

Adam didn't move forward when he felt an odd sensation hit his body. It felt as though someone was tugging at his being and it suddenly hit again. He quickly looked around and immediately saw pale girl hiding from around the corner, hand out and facing him. When his shielded eyes hit hers, the fear was unmistakable along her face. A hacker, Adam observed. He's had both good and bad experiences with hackers and if this one could somehow hack individuals, then she needed to be stopped.

One swift movement of his arm and his nanoblade was out. In another moment before Vera could even react, he was there and she was in his grasp. A black metal hand was clenched strongly on the collar of her dingy shirt with his other arm drawn back and ready to end her.

But he hesitated and so did she.

Vera knew immediately now who this man was. It was the same man at the train station. The one she had ran into.

All Adam could see was scars on the left side of her face where the glass was and instead of a bloody mess of an eye now was a new, prosthetic golden one. Her right eye remained the same pale blue that he remembered. He remembered who she was. Even though she couldn't see his eyes, they fell to her hands which were clutching his. Pale, small, cold, frail fingers desperately clutched at his larger, black carbon hand.

"Please…," Vera said in a low mumble. As soon as she realized who he was, she had switched off his info to her. She chose to trust Adam immediately and didn't want to delve into more of his past and secrets.

Adam slowly put away his nanoblade but she still remained in his grasp. He remained there too long and didn't notice the two other guards walking into the room with them and the other unconscious body.

"Hey-!" one yelled and raised their rifle immediately towards Adam but Vera had her hand raised to the man. Adam watched her fingers twitch and close before the man had turned to the other guard with him and hit him violently in the face with the blunt of the weapon, knocking him out cold before he then slammed his head against the wall to knock himself out next.

Adam wasn't sure of what he just witnessed but he looked back at the sick looking woman with him. "What did you do?"

Vera didn't know how to explain it so instead she answered, "I can help you. Just please take me away from here." She noticed his grip lighten but his hand remained and so did her right one.

"Where to?" Adam asked. He didn't know this woman, or at least not on a personal level but the innocence he had seen in her now and at the train station was obvious. She was also now augmented and Adam knew that it couldn't have been by her choice. He saw her body. She wasn't in any state to speak for herself.

"Home." Vera's voice broke as she answered.