Year - 2199
Day: 365
Time - 11:59
Location: LFC Menhun District

 "Ten! Nine! Eight!..." The crowd chanted, fingers falling as they counted down seconds from ten, each person on their toes, the group radiating excitement and anticipation. The fuses to fireworks were being lit, while low flying planes began opening their hulls ready to dump buckets of confetti and balloons over those gathered below.

"Seven! Six! Five!.." It seemed that everyone in the world was counting, glasses in hand, bottles of old wine shaken to explode. Even those far away from the chanting crowd, those amongst the districts of rundown buildings and boarded up windows, were reading themselves for celebration. Where streets were usually empty and full of echoing gunshots, they now were filled with chanting and excitement. It was as if the world forgot its problems for a moment, for those few ten seconds.

There was one woman however, tucked away in a dark corner of a forgotten room, who was not equipping herself to shout with joy when the countdown finished. Instead, she sat hunched over in the twilight, moonbeams filtering through wooden beams, only barely illuminating her face. Despite her position of solitude, the woman was not alone. Clutched to her chest was a small child, an infant, crying out in the darkness. The woman cupped the baby's face gently, smiling weakly down at her daughter, whispering words of comfort. The infant's cries silenced, and with one impossibly small hand, gripped her mothers finger, a look of peace crossing her face as she looked into the woman's eyes.

"Four! Three! Two!.." The countdown was a second away from completion, when the woman, the mother, stared down at her daughter and made a promise. It was a simple promise, one made by countless parents to their children in the past, sworn over sleeping innocence, wanting nothing more than the best possible for them. Yet something about it was different. There were no starry eyed gazes, or words said knowing them to be nothing but empty and full of grandeur. The woman's promise was uttered in one breath, eyes locked with the infant in her arms. When she spoke, she did so with conviction, swearing not just to her daughter but to herself as well.

"One..." The count had a second left, one second before the world exploded with cheers. Yet as the world readied themselves to celebrate the end of the century, welcoming the future hundred years with open arms, a more important event was underway. For in the final seconds of 2199, more was changing than just the calendar. For in that dark corner of the forgotten and barren room, a woman was making her promise to her child.

"I'm going to change this world for you. All for you Ekaja. All for you. I promise."

"ZEROOOOO!!!" For miles the cheer could be heard, shouts coming from everywhere. The century of 2100 had ended and 2200 had begun, and with it, came the whisper of a promise for a new and better world that unbeknownst to anyone, even the woman uttering the words herself, would be met and fulfilled. The turn of the century was over, and with a mothers promise, a new era had just begun.