"Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature." -Plato, The Symposium
Su’s Struggle with Being Human
Su’s journey of self-discovery was anything but ordinary. From a young age, she sensed that her existence was different—fragmented, somehow incomplete. It wasn’t just the fact that she was an identical twin; it was the secrets and untold stories surrounding her birth that haunted her. Su and her sister Ora weren’t just identical twins; they were mirror twins, a rare phenomenon where twins develop as perfect reflections of each other. It was as if nature had used the same blueprint twice but with one crucial twist—each was the opposite of the other.
This concept fascinated Su, especially when she reflected on Plato’s ancient myth. According to the philosopher, humans were originally created as powerful beings with four arms, four legs, and two faces.
But fearing their strength, Zeus split them apart, condemning them to spend their lives searching for their missing halves. Su often felt like she was living out her own version of this myth—except in her case, she wasn’t just split into two, but four. Her other halves were not just metaphorical twin flames; they were real, living siblings who had been separated from her and Ora.
The Unsolved Mystery of the Vera Tetrads
The full scope of Su and Ora’s fragmented existence came to light in a way neither of them could have anticipated. One evening, while flipping through channels, they stumbled upon a rerun of Vanished, a show about unsolved abductions. As the episode unfolded, they were stunned to see a segment about missing twins—a case that struck too close to home. The details were chillingly familiar: the hospital, the year, and, most haunting of all, their parents’ names—Abraham and Emmanuella Vera, known to the twins as Av and Em.
The episode recounted the mysterious the disappearance of two newborn boys, Eitan and Sef Vera, who had vanished from the hospital just days after their birth. Despite an initial flurry of media attention, the case quickly went cold, and the twins were presumed dead. As Su and Ora watched in stunned silence, emotions stormed within them. How had their parents kept such a monumental secret? How could they have lived their entire lives not knowing they had twin brothers who were taken from them?
Confrontation and Revelation
Confronting their parents was inevitable. The next day, Su and Ora sat down with their parents, Av and Em, demanding answers. Their parents, caught off guard by their daughters’ discovery, had no choice but to reveal the truth they had kept buried for so long.
“We were going to tell you,” Em began, her voice trembling. “But as the years passed, it became harder and harder to talk about. The pain… it never went away.”
Av nodded, tears welling up in his eyes. “We thought we could protect you from the truth. But we were wrong.”
The Vera parents revealed the details of that fateful day when Eitan and Sef were taken. They had lived in silence, trying to cope with the unimaginable loss. But as Su and Ora pressed for more details, they uncovered an even darker truth—one that went far beyond a simple abduction.
The NASI VAIL HER and HIM Project
The disappearance of Eitan and Sef was no accident—it was a carefully orchestrated act by the NASI VAIL, a clandestine organization focused on eugenics, genetic profiling, and social engineering. The organization had deemed the Vera quadruplets to be of special interest due to their unique genetic profiles. Eitan and Sef had been abducted for further experimentation as part of a series of secret projects.
The NASI VAIL had a very specific project in mind: Project Pegasus. This top-secret initiative involved time travel experiments, where the twins were separated across different timelines to study whether their genetic bond would allow them to find each other again, even when manipulated by the fabric of time itself.
In parallel, Project Monarch came into play, further manipulating the twins’ perceptions and experiences to assess the effects of trauma and psychological conditioning. The Veras, left in the dark, had no idea that their family had been torn apart by forces beyond their control—forces that were playing with the very essence of time, identity, and human connection.
The NASI VAIL Human Eugenics Research (HER) project, initiated after the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure, was among the most secretive and controversial eugenics programs ever undertaken. The project’s goal was to identify and propagate genetic traits considered desirable for human advancement—specifically, traits that aligned with the interests of those in power. Conversely, individuals deemed genetically inferior were targeted by covert sterilization protocols aimed at reducing the so-called “defective” population. The Veras, considered “superior stock” due to their rare and desirable genetic markers, became unwitting participants in this dark experiment.
Their family wasn’t just a random target; the union of Av and Em, and the birth of the Vera tetrads, had been meticulously orchestrated by the NASI VAIL. The HER project was a sister project to the Human Identity Mapping (HIM) initiative, which sought to gather and analyze genetic, physiological, and behavioral data on a global scale. Together, these programs allowed the NASI VAIL to identify individuals with desirable genetic traits and monitor and manipulate their lives.
The decade during which Su and her siblings were born coincided with a notable rise in multiple births—a trend that couldn’t be fully explained by natural causes alone. Behind the scenes, the NASI VAIL was conducting covert trials, selectively targeting families with unique genetic profiles. Their focus was on rare genetic traits, such as uncommon blood types, enhanced intelligence, resilience to diseases, and latent psychic abilities. Unbeknownst to them, the Veras had been chosen as subjects precisely because they possessed these sought-after qualities.
Parting of the Red Sea
As Su and Ora grew older, they became increasingly haunted by vivid, unsettling dreams—visions of drowning in a vast, tumultuous Red Sea. The water, thick and churning, felt both foreign and familiar. Each night, they struggled to stay afloat in the relentless waves, their arms flailing in desperation. But amidst the chaos, there was always a moment when they grasped onto tiny baby feet—feet that seemed to slip away no matter how tightly they tried to hold on. The experience was eerily identical for both sisters, as though their minds were connected in this strange dream world.
These recurring dreams left them both intrigued and deeply disturbed. They couldn’t fully explain the meaning behind the visions, but the dreams carried with them a palpable sense of loss. It was as if their missing brothers were reaching out to them, calling through the depths of their subconscious, trying to bridge the invisible divide that had separated them for so long.
The revelation of their brothers’ existence shattered the fragile illusion of normalcy the Veras had painstakingly maintained. Their family motto, “Veritas in Lumine, Virtus in Numeris”—Truth in Light, Strength in Numbers, became more than just words; it became a guiding force as they embarked on a journey to uncover the full extent of the NASI VAIL’s shadowy influence on their lives. The Veras believed that by confronting the truth, they could find the strength to challenge the forces that had torn their family apart.
For Su and Ora, the truth was both a burden and a revelation, reshaping their understanding of their own existence. The dreams of the Red Sea that had haunted them for years were no longer just abstract nightmares but echoes of a deeper truth. The inexplicable connection they felt to something greater now made sense—those visions were not figments of their imagination but reflections of a fragmented unity that transcended time and space.
In the story of the Vera tetrads, the ancient wisdom of Plato found new meaning. This was not a quest to find the missing half of their soul, as the myth suggested, but a journey toward wholeness—a healing of the wounds inflicted not by divine whims, but by human ambition and the relentless pursuit of control. The path to understanding their true selves lay in confronting the shadows of their past and reclaiming the fragmented pieces of their shared destiny.
The tetrads embodied their family motto: “Veritas in Lumine, Virtus in Numeris,” and they knew the truth would find the light, just as their strength would be at its zenith when united with their numbers.