Nelith has been trying to atone for what the Uraddan government made her do to the citizens of other countries and her own. Her skills in slicing through anything for as long as she wanted the molecular blade to go made her well-known, feared, and despised in equal measure. When she had been extracted from Uradda, years of work and therapy made her independent and got her into a useful position at Z Tech.
She had tried to socialize herself, but the BDC rejected her when she took offense to a simulation and sliced the machine into several pieces. All subsequent applicants were tested in a different manner.
Called to meet with foreign representatives, Nelith looks at their outrage and is surprised when the head of the lab brings up the compilation file of how Nelith was trained.
Dmitri watches the video of the making of the Blade of Uradda, and he can't reconcile the woman in front of him with the creature on the vids. She survived, and when she meets his gaze, the beasts that occupy him send searing recognition that she was his mate. They just had to convince him.