✘ history

[circumitus]

CONTENT WARNING, mentions of: Suicide, Self-harm, PTSD, Situations of dubious/non-consenting relationships.

The Twins were born in 2056, at the Niflheim Research Facility of the Ashwater Underground City, in Washington. Project SERAPHIM — a group of specialists in artificial biology and synthetics — produced two synthetic beings exhibiting anomalies specific to their independent design. The Twins were Subjects FREY and FREYJA.

During the initial test run, Subject FREYJA proved to be more precarious both in aptitude and personality when she burned her brother alive during their observational trial. This almost immediately destroyed the project, but the Twins’ genetic parental donors, doctors Lucas Coffey and Undine Stransky, pleaded for the surviving Twin, which they were begrudgingly granted under heavy restrictions. They learned that FREYJA’s ability allowed her to produce extreme heat around her, and called this particularly new energy the “Brísingamen”. With that, FREYJA was locked up in a fireproof cell, the Glass House.

Undine worked as FREYJA’s personal councilor, studying the psychology of the synthetic lifeforms that her work had created. However, her sessions with FREYJA went in circles. While Lucas soon believed that the subject was a lost cause, Undine wished to continue on FREYJA’s development. Several months into the psychological evaluations, the financial backers supporting Niflheim decided to cut off funding for Project SERAPHIM. Undine and Lucas once again contested this, and won only on the agreement that a government issued researcher come and observe the project’s progress. That was when Dr. Jonathan Quayle was then sent in to oversee Undine’s development with FREYJA. It would later turn out that, over a period of time, the researcher had also frequently been making unauthorized visits into Glass House to interact with FREYJA alone. Essentially, he brainwashed the subject for his own uses, and implemented a “deactivation” protocol for times when he no longer had use of or wished her incapacitated. He had become obsessed and infatuated with her, and wanting her for himself, and no government nor scientists would get to keep her if he could help it.

Influencing the financial backers behind the scenes in order to cut the project and allow the termination order of FREYJA, Jonathan orchestrated Undine’s growing grief and desperation to save her “daughter”. She went to Jonathan for help in stalling his employers, with her having noticed he had taken a liking to FREYJA as well (though unaware as to how insidious his desires had become). He then agreed, manipulating the following events that triggered FREYJA against her will into attacking Undine, snapping her neck and killing her.

Jonathan successfully smuggled an emotionally paralyzed FREYJA out of the Niflheim Research Facility. During his time on the lam spent with FREYJA, Jonathan believed himself to be thoroughly in love with her, but she was in no condition to understand his feelings, let alone consent to them. For nearly a year, FREYJA had traveled with the twisted doctor, until Jonathan was found in a New Mexico hotel room; his charred body recovered after his floor was set afire. FREYJA herself was recovered on a Mojave highway, miles away from the hotel, her body burning wildly. Lucas returned her to Niflheim, where the inevitable process of her termination, which Undine had tried so hard to avoid, began.

However there was another synthetic, one of the first created by Project SERAPHIM named HEIMDALL, who was not nearly as forgiving of FREYJA as Undine would’ve been. He decided a different kind of intervention was in order. Faking her termination, HEIMDALL allowed Lucas to abandon any hope for saving FREYJA and focus his efforts on other endeavors, namely in preserving Undine’s legacy by resurrecting FREY in a long cloning process.

Thereafter, FREYJA lived on as Rey. She would know HEIMDALL as Gregory Tremond. And for the next 84 years, Rey had become several different women. The most notable ones would be Safronov, a Russian sniper, and Stone, an American marine and operative:

As Stone, in 2129 she would become the trigger that set off the First Cataclysm. In a mere instant, an entire city was wiped out, leaving behind only a few hundred survivors. Stone did not survive long after the incident, as she was reset by “Gregory Tremond” and sent on her next mission.

Rey continued living the lives of various women with their many different sordid memories, tasked from suicide missions to observing how well FREYJA took to her new memories as Rey. Most notable were her assignments to track down the backup terminals of the GRIGORI Program, a supercomputer that had hijacked Project SERAPHIM decades ago and was in the process of building independant synthetic life. As Safronov, by the year 2142, she believed she had found the final GRIGORI backup terminal: A former Soviet bunker that was now the Grigoryevich Underground Command Center in the war-torn town of Kristiv, Russia. But it was not without its obstacles. Safronov found herself in the crossfire of a battlefield, and became the target of two Canadian snipers preventing her from completing her mission. Safronov managed to shoot down and kill one sniper, allowing her to enter the command center while leaving the second alive.

In the end, Safronov failed. She had been infected with the GRIGORI’s failsafe that scrambled her memories. By the time she made it back to “Tremond” to report her failure, she shot herself in the head... but not before explaining the failsafe to him.

It would take four years for “Tremond” to make sense of her chaotic programming again, and he would never be able to install new fake memories. So he stored her most recent body in the morgue of an abandoned sanitarium in Engelus, Nevada (also known as the new capitol for the Western Order).

This was why, in 2147, Rey woke up with only a toetag with her name on it and no recollection as to how she got there.

To make a long story short, she would attempt to seek out her lost identity, finding her memories fractured and people who seemed to recognize her from her previous lives. She would even unknowingly be helped by some survivors of the First Cataclysm, most who had no idea that they were victims of her past life at first. At one point, while catatonic, she was in the care of the surviving Canadian sniper from Kristiv, Faye Elms. Faye would be able to put two and two together much later on, though.

One of her greatest allies would be a man named Orion Gideon, whose cells and body had been reanimated by Lucas Coffey from the same Twin that FREYJA had killed. Seeing Rey as family despite living a life of his own totally separate from her lifestyle, Orion insisted on reconnecting with her.

Over time, Rey gradually regressed into FREYJA, even lashing out at her own brother. The result of her episode ultimately caused the death of HEIMDALL (or “Gregory Tremond”)... and Rey herself.

Two years later, she was revived once again by Lucas Coffey, who also unlocked each memory of every past life that had driven her insane in the first place. She would also find that her father had taken her to Illinois, where he owned a townhouse in Old Chicago. Orion had been called to help rehabilitate her as well. Despite her brother’s support, Rey suffered yet another meltdown, and she would spend a long time in a state of temporary insanity.

Cut to the year 2153, four years later. With the aid of her father and brother, Rey was surprisingly able to find some mental stability that wouldn’t result in her hurting herself or others around her. Similarly to her experience six years ago, Rey found that some things in the world had changed. Namely the Unity Alliance Treaty, creating a pact between the differing East Republic and West Order, which was a surprise due to their divergent political perspectives. Orion had even taken it upon himself to join the auxiliary task force assembled as a result of the treaty during his stay in Chicago.

For a while, Rey was allowed to live in fleeting peace, and her recovery had been going well. The calm was short-lived before a storm came close to home... and to nine other major cities between the Unity, all attacked via biological warfare. People began to exhibit symptoms of a highly fatal disease known as Webcap. As its citizens were dying, the cities were quickly quarantined, with the Unity dispatching Cleaners to burn through the streets and trigger a defensive dome to isolate the remaining Webcap survivors. Between Lucas’ enhanced genetics and Rey’s cybernetics, they (including Orion) remained unaffected by the outbreak.

Rey and Faye Elms would cross paths again, when attempting to help out at the Northwest Memorial Hospital before they were attacked by the outbreak’s instigators: The synthetics created by the GRIGORI Program. Rey chose to stay behind at the hospital to dig Faye out of some rubble that had fallen on her. Faye reluctantly agreed to escape with Rey, at least until she could tend to her wounds properly without the risk of being torn apart or burned to death.

The plan, Rey would reveal, was to meet up with her father in Ashwater, Washington. At ground zero of the First Cataclysm and home to the Niflheim Research Facility, no less. She would regroup with Faye and her brother and eventually head west.

Once they were in the ruins of the old capitol, the three would have a run-in with the cult that had set up camp there, the Bark of Ash, led by a man named Jonah. In the midst of the chaotic encounter, Rey was met with fear and anger by the cult members, and they began attacking her. Though Jonah was able to stop them before she was beaten to death, ordering her to be sent inside the church. At the risk of Orion or Faye being killed, she complied.

The cult members to begin to change and deform. The church courtyard then opened, revealing a deep hole leading downward into the underground city beneath Ashwater, also known as the AUC. Rey watched as Orion and Faye had been among the many to fall, losing sight of them completely.

Enraged, Rey went to attack Jonah... when the side of his head burst open.

The entire time, an old “friend” she hadn’t seen in six years named Aiden Winters, had been hiding within the church with a mission of his own: Kill the leader of the Bark of Ash. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Rey would be there, or alive for that matter. Aiden managed to calm down Rey, until he was nearly retaliated at with a throwing knife held by the wounded (but somehow still living) Jonah. In his smugness, he threw a second knife. Rey, determined to be the one to save Aiden now, stood in front of him to catch the blade in her throat. The knife impaled her neck. Wounded severely, she tripped back, taking Aiden with her down the gaping courtyard hole.

Six days later, Rey woke up in a bed in the Niflheim Research Facility. She was being treated by Henry Pender, a military medic, and woke up to find that Faye and Orion were alive and well. She would find out that her brother, being the tough guy that he is, was able to save Faye from the courtyard drop. Seemingly, both Aiden and Orion both had knowledge of the research facility’s whereabouts in the tunnels, and were allowed in by the military group that had been stationed there. The colonel even seemed to know one of Rey’s past lives.

Three months later: Rey and everyone involved recovered (physically, at least) from the events that transpired with the Bark of Ash. She had been effectively caught up with some people who she hadn’t seen in over six years. One day, she ran into one of them and a soldier playing around with some old powered exoskeletons that were supposed to be distributed to the military before the First Cataclysm. What more, she managed to unearth a prototype armor that seemed to be made specifically for Rey back when she was intended to be strictly a war machine, called the Exurosuit.

The lull and recovery period did not last, when a man named Tejinder Wakeman would be apprehended by one of the GRIGORI’s synthetics. As the GRIGORI’s original target, Tejinder was dragged out into the tunnels of the underground city.

Few left behind agreed to go after him. Those “few” meaning Rey (who was determined to protect Wakeman), Orion (who was determined to keep an eye on his sister), and Faye (the only one who had a firewall that could protect Wakeman’s brain from the GRIGORI Program). Rey decided to sport the Exurosuit prototype before taking one of the old trains to the city surface. Along the way, Rey and Faye shared a little heart to heart. It broke her a lot.

Aboveground, the trio stumbled upon an aerial prison/cargo transport hovering on the outskirts of the Ashwater ruins. What more, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Thinking that perhaps there had been a complication during Tejinder’s abduction, the three approached the idle transport. Faye, ever the diligent sniper, went to scout ahead but did not return. Rey slipped away before she could also be seen, but not before her brother was apprehended by IV, a synthetic woman who Rey was quite familiar with. Well, one of her past selves was. More specifically, the version of Stone who had caused the First Cataclysm.

With Faye and Orion detained, the synthetics started to leave Ashwater. Now alone, Rey infiltrated the prison airship, promptly going into Soldier Mode. It was then that she was able to take advantage of the memories and skills of her previous lives to better interlope the aircraft, fluidly switching from one memory to the next. The memories of her old selves utilized the Exurosuit also helped along the way, and she was able to find the prisoners detained on the ship — including Faye Elms.

Rey tracked down Tejinder Wakeman killing himself with a suicide pill. Frantic, she managed to breach security in time to resuscitate him. She then gave him Faye’s firewall, to which Tejinder thanks her for because he was actually rather scared of dying. Promising her that he would stay alive, Tejinder helped Rey hide in the floor grating before IV and her synthetic sentries arrived.

Two weeks of scavenging and surviving from the innermost walls of the Concord Sky Prison had taken its toll on Rey in more ways than one. Not only on her physical health, but her sanity as well. As she had been dwelling in the underground waterways of the floating prison, she found herself also contended with mutated experiments of what had once been human captives. Turned out, the synthes have a very particular sense of curiosity towards organic anatomy.

During Rey’s wall excursion, she managed to sneak into various places of the floating prison undetected. Among them was the Administration, which allowed her access to blueprints and other valuable sources of information throughout the structure. She also learned that they were currently located in Russia. Committing all of this to memory, she tracked down the cells of Orion Gideon, Tejinder Wakeman, and Faye Elms.

Alone in the tunnels, Rey had plenty of time to think. And also talk to herself, as well as thinking while talking. Her feelings towards Faye remain confused, as she still felt as though she had wronged the woman, while at the same time wishing for some form of redemption while ultimately finding herself unworthy of it. In her loneliness, she had become more aware of her emotions as well as her memories, her desperation to stay alive for the sake of saving the others.

Somehow, she managed to survive after some encounters with the failed experiments that the synthes had unleashed into the prison, including the waterways. Whether or not IV had done this because she needed someplace to put the experiments or she was aware of Rey’s presence within the prison walls, she couldn’t tell. Either way, it wasn’t a huge priority. Living was. That was, until the prison’s self-cleaning system washed Rey through the tunnels and thrown out and down a 40,000-foot drop.

Fortunately for her own synthetic-organic anatomy, she survived landing atop a prison-bound shuttle, only to plummet even farther. This ultimately saved her life, when Rey was thrown across Concordia, below the prison.

Waking in an alleyway, Rey made her way through the city to confirm that the entire city was populated by synthes. She also learned of some peculiar unrest among the population.

It was a woman who looked just like Isobel Rhodes, Faye’s late wife and the Canadian sniper Rey had killed as Safronov.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Rey. After all, the synthes were known to take on the appearance of the dead as a form of psychological torture, and no doubt this synth had been created to torment Faye. Strangely, though, the synth introduced herself as Elizabeth, and insisted that she was on Rey’s side. That she had developed a sort of connection or need to protect Faye Elms, which meant that synthes like her were given the memories of the dead, as well as meant to simulate human emotions. But that was all they were — simulations. They still couldn’t feel in the same way a human (or even Rey) could. As such, there was a sense of incompletion about them, Elizabeth included.

Skeptical at first, Rey started to believe that the synth was genuine in both her feelings for Faye and her desire to help. To prove this, Elizabeth started to help Rey better blend in with the synthetics of Concordia, and sent Rey along her merry way.

On the streets, Rey observed the synthes some more, learning about their unique culture and behaviors. Before long, Rey encountered Aiden Winters, who she hadn’t seen since Ashwater. Having no idea that he was even in Concordia, she realized that she had been sensing something off about him all along.

Aiden Winters was not human. He was a synthe.

Rather, he was Aiden Winters’ memories transferred inside a synthetic vessel. In every sense he was Aiden, but he was also just a copy. He explained to Rey, once removing her from the streets, that his human body had been heavily damaged during the procedure, resulting in a stroke. While Aiden existed as a synthe, his human body suffered in the sky prison.

For the next three days, the two planned a prison break. After a few snafus, the duo were able to breach Concord’s security. They parted, despite Rey’s insistence that he come with her. It was the last time she saw Aiden Winters.

Now on her own mission to break her friends out of prison, Rey ran into a Coder from Novitas Technology, Victoria Nguyen. The NoviTech employee had promised to offer assist Rey so long as she helped her and her friend/colleague escape as well. Why would two corporate employees be beneficial? Because they had ports in the back of their heads using similar technology to Tejinder Wakeman’s Bridge. Syberminds were similar, though not as reliable, and played a key role in the GRIGORI Program’s endgame.

Against her better judgment, Rey released Victoria from captivity and the two were eventually joined by Elizabeth, who had tracked them down from one of the control rooms. The synthetic woman offered her own aid, which Rey was hesitant to accept, having no intention of allowing Elizabeth to live at the end of the day.

After saving her brother from being scrapped for parts, Orion explained to Rey that IV actually intended to capture Rey. While urging her to escape with him, Orion fought a losing argument with Rey over staying to save Faye Elms. Aiden had helped release Tejinder Wakeman and Victoria’s friend, Cyra Huxley, but Faye was on the other side of the prison and about to be prepped for an “extraction” procedure, similar to what Aiden went through.

Not willing to leave Faye behind, the siblings were forced once again to part ways, making their reunion a brief one. After a heartfelt farewell, Orion took off with Victoria to the hangar where they would make their escape with Cyra and Tejinder.

Elizabeth would escort Rey to Faye. Once they were near their destination, Rey played a ruse against the synthetic, pretending to be in pain suddenly to put Elizabeth’s guard down. Rey then revealed her true intention, and decapitated Elizabeth’s vessel. The passive synthetic went down with barely a struggle.

Using Elizabeth’s head to scan through security, it was possible for Rey to reach the laboratories. She pulled Faye out of an extraction chamber and carried her through the prison, discarding Elizabeth’s head on the way to the hangars. She took a second shuttle that Aiden had prepped for Rey, and she was forced to escape without knowing whether or not her friend was okay.

They left the prison without event, a stroke of luck that Rey found odd. They managed to make it halfway across Russia when something collided with the shuttle and knocked them out of the sky.

Landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia with minimal supplies and Faye’s unconscious body severely wounded, the only thing Rey could do was patch the woman up and hunt for supplies. She carried Faye to a hotel that was just as desolate as the whole town. When she came back, Faye was conscious. She had filled the woman in on everything that had happened since they escaped the prison, neglecting the fact that she had killed Elizabeth.

That wasn’t much of a concern, anyway. Faye was more worried that the injuries she had sustained from the crash had miraculously healed. She then revealed to Rey that she had been injected with Lucas’ immortal cell line, which had affected Faye differently than most prisoners. Unsure of what the cells would do to Faye, the former sniper began to panic and question her own humanity. Rey tried to get the other woman to eat, only to be brutally assaulted by Faye. Without putting up even so much as a fight, Rey allowed Faye to do so, feeling that she deserved the punishment. When the going got even tougher, Rey even offered the sniper a chance to make up for what happened to her dead wife, and gave Faye a gun. Feeling that she had accomplished what she had set out to do, this seemed like a good time as any for Faye to exact revenge for Isobel. Rey even divulged that she had killed Elizabeth to push Faye over the edge.

Finally coming to the conclusion that Rey was no longer the same person from all those years ago, Faye did not pull the trigger. To her, it would be killing an uninvolved party.

Dumbfounded by Faye’s conclusion, the two women ended up bonding. Eventually, Faye kissed Rey. Confused if not drawn to the other woman, Rey reciprocated, further realizing her true feelings towards Faye Elms.

The moment was cut short when “Elizabeth” stormed the abandoned hotel where they were recuperating. The same “Elizabeth” who still somehow shared the appearance of Isobel, her head intact and all.

Rey attacked “Elizabeth”, pummeling the synth’s face in until she was then blindsided by Faye, who had slipped into a panicked frenzy wrought with trauma. Terrified of both how Faye saw her (killing a woman who looked like her dead wife), Rey fled into the stormy night, leaving Faye behind.

Eventually, “Elizabeth” caught up with Rey on the outskirts of Arkhangelsk. The synth, now dragging a rebar alongside her, revealed herself to be actually IV wearing one of Elizabeth’s vessels, and explained to Rey what she intended to do with the woman.

In that moment, IV plunged the rebar straight through Rey’s chest.

Extended history can be found here.