Saanvi Mehta (Fl)

Age: 25

Profession: Cybersecurity Analyst | Software Developer

Hometown: Pune

Relationship Status: Independent → Controlled → Wife by Final Chapter

Personality:

> Introspective, loyal, believes in redemption

> A coder with romantic optimism

> Begins the story strong, ends it trapped—without realizing it

> Chooses love when she should’ve chosen herself

Family:

Father: Sameer Mehta

Mother: Pallavi Mehta

Quote:

> “He felt safe… maybe because I stopped checking for exits.”

Rudra Malhotra (Ml)

Age: 29

Profession: Tech CEO | Surveillance Architect | Founder of Mirror_Maze

Location: Pune → Mumbai

Relationship Status: Secretly Obsessed → Marries Saanvi by End

Personality:

> Obsessive, charismatic, and impossibly intelligent

> Master manipulator in the garb of a quiet, reliable lover

> Never raises his voice—but you’ll never forget what he says

> Believes “healing” her meant quietly redesigning her mind

Key Traits:

> Silent dominance, faux empathy, deadly patience, surgical strategy.

Family:

Elder brother: Reyan Malhotra

Father: Brigadier Veer Malhotra

Mother: Neeta Malhotra

Quote:

“I never needed her to love me. I just needed her to believe I could love.”

......................

THE MALHOTRA FAMILY

🎖 Brigadier Veer Malhotra

Profession: General in the Indian Army

Location: Stationed out-of-state, rarely home

Personality: Stoic, disciplined, emotionally absent

Role: Passive Father Figure — His absence enabled Rudra’s unchecked evolution

🌸 Neeta Malhotra

Profession: High-society socialite, silent matriarch

Personality: Image-obsessed, icy polite, knows more than she admits

Relationship with Saanvi: Polished on the surface, but emotionally indifferent

Quote:

> "Love changes men. But not men like Rudra. They just get better at pretending."

⚖️ Reyan Malhotra

Age: 32

Profession: Tech Lawyer, Corporate Consultant

Location: Mumbai

Relationship Status: Single

Personality:

Sharp-witted, calculating, and respected in the tech world

Often described as ruthless in his dealings but charismatic when needed

Fiercely loyal to family, especially Rudra, though he disagrees with some of his methods

Keeps an arm’s-length distance from the messier parts of his family’s affairs

Often perceived as the ‘cool-headed’ lawyer who makes things disappear

His reputation in corporate circles is both admired and feared, especially at hackathons

Family Dynamics:

As Rudra’s elder brother, Reyan is the mediator, the one who smooths over conflicts—yet, he remains emotionally distant and often leaves difficult situations to Rudra

Has a complicated relationship with their mother, Neeta, who prefers Rudra over him for his quiet obedience

Quote:

> “I’m not the one who builds the walls. I just make sure they’re legally sound.”

......................

THE MEHTA FAMILY

🧾 Sameer Mehta

Profession: Local Businessman (Owns tech supplies & hardware store in Pune)

Personality: Honest, modest, deeply loving but emotionally distant

Role: Proud of Saanvi’s achievements; believed Rudra was a blessing

Quote:

> “A man who waits patiently is a man who truly loves.”

(He never realized Rudra’s patience was weaponized.)

📚 Pallavi Mehta

Profession: School Principal

Personality: Sharp, practical, emotionally alert

Role: First to sense something off with Rudra—her instincts are always right

Quote:

> “Love doesn’t make you hide. Fear does.”

......................

SIDE CHARACTERS

🧠 Aryan Deshmukh

Age: 28

Profession: Ethical Hacker | Cyber Forensics | Former College Senior

Location: Pune → Disappears mid-story

Relationship: Ex-friend turned silent protector of Saanvi

Role: The Firewall that Failed

Personality:

Cynical, fiercely intelligent, protective

Once had unspoken feelings for Saanvi

Discovered Mirror_Maze. Tried to warn her. Vanished before she believed.

Quote:

> “You don’t need chains when you can code someone’s trust.”

🗞 Ananya Iyer

Age: 26

Profession: Investigative Tech Journalist

Location: Last seen in Pune

Caste/Ethnicity: Tamil Iyer

Role: Saanvi’s best friend | The whistleblower who vanished

Personality:

Bold, sarcastic, deeply loyal

Had the evidence to destroy Rudra’s system

Her encrypted blog file almost reached Saanvi—until it didn’t

Quote:

> “If love looks like surveillance, don’t call it romance. Call it what it is—reprogramming.”

🛡 Kabir Kapoor

Age: 30

Profession: Cybersecurity Consultant | Once employed at Malhotra Enterprises

Role: Internal mole who fed intel to Aryan and Ananya

Fate: Disappeared after refusing to alter logs of Mirror_Maze

Personality:

Reserved, morally firm, once loyal to Rudra

Saw the code and understood what Rudra had really built

Likely killed or hidden off-grid

Quote:

> “You built God Mode over her life, Rudra. You just called it love.”

👩‍💻 Kavya

Age: 25

Profession: Fellow Cybersecurity Analyst | Hacker | Saanvi's College Friend

Location: Pune → Mumbai

Role: The Bridge Between Friends and Family | Aryan’s Confidante

Personality:

Playful, mischievous, and ever-curious

A rising star in her field, but often overlooked by her more dominant peers

Fast friends with Saanvi, and become close with Aryan and others in the story

Discovered some of Rudra’s schemes but didn’t immediately act—keeps secrets for her own safety

Can shift between a calm, calculated demeanor and an enthusiastic, spontaneous personality

Relationship Dynamics:

Is a crucial ally to Aryan, occasionally playing the "spy" role within Rudra’s tech empire

Bridges the communication gap, allowing Aryan to keep tabs on Rudra’s actions without getting directly involved

Quote:

> “Sometimes, you just have to break the code before it breaks you.”

🔒 Hidden Layers

“Mirror_Maze”: Surveillance AI that categorizes emotional behavior

“BittersweetBytes.exe”: Final execution file confirming control

Echo: Rudra’s internal AI that helps simulate empathy—coded with fragments of Saanvi’s personality

...****************...

...POV: Saanvi Mehta...

...****************...

The glow of Saanvi Mehta’s laptop was the only light in the room, casting shadows across her soft brown face as her fingers danced across the keyboard. The silence of her dorm was pierced only by the occasional ping from her gaming console—a subtle reminder that the world inside the screen never slept.

> "RogueViper has entered the lobby."

Her lips curled.

He was always online when she was. Almost… eerily so.

Saanvi rolled her neck and sat up straighter. Her long black hair tumbled down her back like silk, slightly frizzy from her post-shower bun. She wasn’t one of those girls who dolled up for online gaming. She played for escape, not attention.

And yet… she always found herself anticipating this one username.

RogueViper.

Whoever he was, he played with surgical precision, spoke in clipped sentences, and rarely used voice chat. But he always seemed to know what she’d do next—like he was one keystroke ahead of her thoughts.

She told herself it was just instinct. Compatibility.

Still, something about him stuck.

Tonight’s arena was a three-hour coding-and-combat crossover tournament on ByteBattles, a gaming platform exclusive to top-tier Indian universities. Players coded traps, launched attacks, and defended bases using actual logic statements.

Saanvi had joined for fun.

Her partner? Assigned anonymously.

Of course, she was paired with RogueViper.

> [Viper]: I’ll cover the left flank. You handle the encryption trap.

Her fingers paused.

> [CodeQueen]: Got it. You always guess my play. Creepy, much?

> [Viper]: Guess? Or do I just know you too well? ;)

She blinked.

It was the first time he’d ever flirted.

Before she could respond, the round began, pulling her back into the storm. Her focus snapped into place—muscle memory and logic taking over. Lines of code blinked across her HUD as she launched commands and counter-hacks. Together, they moved like one being, coordinating with eerie synchronicity.

Their duo was unstoppable.

And they won.

Of course they did.

> [System]: Victory – CodeQueen + RogueViper

Prize: Invite to ByteSummit Pune – Final Round IRL

Her heart skipped.

The ByteSummit was real-world.

Physical.

Offline.

......................

Later that night...

Saanvi pulled on an oversized hoodie and wandered into the common room of her all-girls tech dorm at I.I.T.E.—Indian Institute of Tech & Engineering, Pune’s elite private university.

The students here weren’t just smart; they were legacy. Born from CEOs, politicians, and tech royalty.

Saanvi was one of the few on merit—not money.

“Playing with that Viper guy again?” her best friend Ananya asked, eyes still on her textbook, but voice edged with concern.

Saanvi flopped onto the beanbag beside her. “He’s good. Like… scary good.”

“Good how? Code-wise or stalker-wise?”

Saanvi chuckled. “It’s a game, Ana. Don’t be so paranoid.”

But Ananya wasn’t smiling. She pushed her glasses up, fixing Saanvi with a serious look.

“You realize he knows everything about your play style. And tonight? That ‘too well’ line? That’s not random.”

“I think he was just teasing,” Saanvi said, trying to sound casual.

But… the phrasing had replayed in her mind.

Ananya sighed. “Just be careful, okay? There are weirdos in this world. Especially in tech.”

...----------------...

Across campus...

Rudra Malhotra sat in his minimalist room—back straight, face expressionless, hands resting on a mechanical keyboard that purred like a predator.

Dual monitors glowed before him—on one, the frozen game screen. On the other, lines of terminal code streamed endlessly.

Behind him: a wall of photos.

Saanvi.

Her smile in blurry frames.

Her walking through campus.

Her laughing with friends.

Every digital trace he could find, he had archived.

She didn’t know. Not really.

He found her during a routine crawl of the ByteBattles codebase. She was precise. Brilliant. Obsessive.

Just like him.

He never meant to fall into the spiral. But once he found her…

He couldn’t unfold her.

She has his algorithm now.

And tomorrow?

He’d meet her offline.

......................

Next Day – ByteSummit Computer Lab

Saanvi stepped into the high-security lab, badge clipped to her hoodie, heart pounding. Rows of sleek machines, security cameras, and a buzz of competition filled the room.

Then she saw him.

Tall. Sharp jawline. Unruly black hair. A charcoal hoodie with no logo. Eyes flickering between calm and unreadable.

He looked… normal.

Too normal.

“Hey. You’re Saanvi, right?” he asked.

Her brows lifted. “Yeah. And you are…?”

He smiled. And for a single flicker—just a heartbeat—something about it felt off.

“Rudra Malhotra. I’m your partner.”

She froze.

“You’re…” Her voice dropped. “You’re a RogueViper?”

His smile widened. Just slightly.

“Log in,” he said softly.

“Let’s win this.”

End of Chapter One.

...****************...

...POV: Rudra Malhotra...

...****************...

The moment she smiled at him in that lab—unguarded, surprised, warm—Rudra knew it was working.

Saanvi had no idea.

No idea that he’d known her long before she ever logged into ByteBattles.

No idea he’d once rewritten segments of her gaming AI just for practice—then slowly, deliberately, embedded his own logic patterns into hers until she unknowingly began mirroring him.

No idea that the laptop she used had been silently infiltrated months ago with observer scripts.

And certainly no idea that she was the one girl in this entire, code-drenched campus he couldn’t delete from his mind.

“Nice to finally meet you, Viper,” she said, laughing softly.

Her voice echoed in Rudra’s mind long after it left her lips.

He played shy, brushing a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think you’d agree to compete offline.”

Saanvi shrugged, pulling her hoodie sleeves over her palms. “Well, I figured it’s just another game, right? Same rules. Just… no screen between us.”

> There was never a screen between us, Saanvi.

Only you didn’t know that.

“Right,” Rudra replied, his voice was warm. Just enough charm to disarm.

They walked together to their assigned station—Table 7.

He had made sure of that. Weeks ago, he’d bribed a junior tech assistant on the summit team to rig pairings and station maps.

Now, they were side by side.

Perfect view. Perfect control.

As they sat, Rudra glanced over at her posture—straight back, curious eyes. Her fingers stretched, eager for the keyboard.

“Here,” he offered her a hair tie from his hoodie pocket. “You always tie your hair before a serious match.”

She blinked. “How do you—?”

“Lucky guess,” he said with a grin.

> Lie. He’d watched her do it on countless old livestreams she’d forgotten to delete.

Saanvi took it, her cheeks slightly flushed.

The competition began: twenty teams. Ten minutes.

Build a defense system using live logic scripting to protect a simulated data vault while attempting to breach others’.

Points for originality, efficiency, and syntax clarity.

Rudra typed quickly, then slowed—just a little. He wanted her to lead.

To feel like the star.

He glanced sideways. Her eyes narrowed in focus. Lips pursed in concentration. She muttered strings of code like spells.

He could’ve watched her forever.

But the danger of obsession wasn’t in staring too long.

It was in forgetting to pretend you weren’t.

...----------------...

An hour later, they were declared first place winners.

As applause filled the lab, Saanvi turned to him—flushed, glowing, victorious.

“I’ve never felt this synced with someone in code before.”

He smiled, slow and soft.

“It’s not just code, Saanvi.”

She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Rudra leaned in slightly, just enough to feel the hum of confusion shift into thrill in her chest.

“When two minds align—when logic and instinct match perfectly—it stops being a game. It becomes...”

His voice dropped, deliberate.

“Inevitable.”

She didn’t reply.

But her breath hitched.

And that was enough.

......................

Later that night – Campus Café

Saanvi stirred her cold coffee as Ananya stared across the table at her.

“Okay. Explain it again,” Ananya said, clearly unimpressed. “You found out RogueViper is actually that hot-but-quiet Rudra guy from your software systems class?”

Saanvi nodded.

“And he just happens to be your anonymous gaming partner for months. And now you’re winning competitions together like it’s some Bollywood hacker romance?”

Saanvi smirked. “You’re being dramatic.”

Ananya crossed her arms. “You’re being naïve. Don’t you think it’s a little too… convenient?”

“He’s just good at the game,” Saanvi replied, trying not to sound defensive.

Ananya’s eyes narrowed. “And he knew you tie your hair before matches because what? Divine insight?”

Saanvi faltered.

“I don’t know. Maybe he just… notices things. That’s rare. And honestly? Kinda sweet.”

> No, Saanvi, Ananya thought grimly.

That’s not sweet. That’s dangerous.

......................

Elsewhere – Rudra’s Room

Back in his dorm, Rudra opened a locked drawer beneath his bed. Inside were:

A hard drive labeled Saanvi_Livestreams_2019–2022

An old notebook filled with scribbled lines: her former usernames, passwords guessed through brute force, school achievements

A worn-out photo from her 10th-grade science fair, pixelated but precious

He touched the edge of the photo gently, as if it might vanish.

“She thinks she chose me,” he murmured.

On his monitor, a mirrored window showed Saanvi’s system in real time—her keystrokes, her screen, her audio.

She was talking to herself again.

> “He’s nice,” she said softly. “Different. I don’t feel so alone when he’s around.”

Rudra smiled.

She didn’t feel alone.

Good.

Because she wasn’t.

And she never would be again.

End of Chapter Two.