"Mom, can you tell me the story of the Ouroboros?" –
The little girl asks, still wide awake on her futon, with her mother stroking her hair tenderly.
"You really want to know the story, don't you, my dear?"
"Of course! It is the history of our clan. Besides, Dad said it's a love story."
"A love story indeed. Although many think it's more a story of pain." - The woman added wistfully, clearing her throat and preparing to tell the story.
"In a distant village, there was a very powerful warrior, but he was very sad..."
"Why was he sad, mommy?"
"He was sad because he had deceived the Shinigami, thinking it was his enemy."
"But it wasn't?" - The little girl tries to guess.
"No, he wasn't. The Shinigami is the last and most compassionate friend of all creatures. He takes us to a beautiful place, where there is no pain, no tears, and only love and good things."
"Like chocolate cake?"
The mother smiled and nodded, continuing the story.
"But the warrior didn't believe that; he thought the Shinigami would take him to a horrible place, with fire and rains brimstone and eternal suffering. Because he was told that's where bad people go and the warrior thought he was the worst. You see, this warrior had hurt many people and had failed to save his wife from an evil man. So he was afraid to go there when he died. When the time finally came, he tricked the Shinigami: he used a power that shouldn't be used and anchored his soul to Earth, and that trapped him in our world."
"What happened then, mom? Has he become a ghost?"
"Oh, no. Worse than a ghost, because ghosts can ask the Shinigami to take them at any time when they finally decide to leave this Earth. What the warrior did was much more serious than refusing to go with the Shinigami: he placed his soul in the body of the serpent that was in the same place where he had died. The warrior then lived countless years like that animal, and he regretted what he had done because he realized that he was trapped in the serpent's body. He didn't age, and he didn't get sick, and then he realized he couldn't die."
"Was he a snake? Eeewww! But he didn't stay like a snake forever... Did he?"
"No. The warrior then devoured his own tail so he could find the Shinigami again and beg to take him wherever the Shinigami took him."
"And then he went to the place with nice things like chocolate cake?"
"Not yet; the Shinigami could not take the warrior, because when he changed his body to that of an animal he did something forbidden by the Divinity. But God has mercy on all his creatures and told the Shinigami to put the warrior's soul into a human again. Thus, the warrior returned to being human... And it's time for you to sleep."
"But mommy... Does the story... end like that?" - The little girl yawns, almost closing her eyes. – " What about the love?"
"Tomorrow I'll continue, sweetheart."
Sometimes she wondered how long it took her clan's ancestral to realize he was desperate to die.
[She didn't take long].
She never liked assassination missions. There was a huge difference between killing in battle and planning someone's death.
But, like a good Shadow Of Nation, she knows exactly the steps to take to commit murder and go unnoticed. The most important thing was knowing her target, so she studies him as she would any other target.
She discovers his routine, what he likes, what he hates, and everything she can.
He's a high school dropout, just a guy who had made the wrong decisions and couldn't get out of them. He had a wild life: he lived in clandestine parties, was part of a street faction, vandalized, stole, and took drugs in every possible way.
With that kind of life, killing him would be easy.
She could have chosen an overdose, considered it a drunken accident, thought whether it would be worth starting a war between the local criminal factions and having a few more dead thugs for free – which she dismissed quickly, slightly flustered by the ease with which she dismissed the lives of people who had nothing to do with his revenge.
In the end, she decided to use his allergy. The man was allergic to coffee, albeit to a moderate degree. (The Beacon Hills hospital did not have a reliable security system, she realized.)
But she was a doctor and a professional murderer. She knew how to amplify the effects of an allergy without it being detected as deliberate poisoning.
The murder was simple enough, really.
She went to the snack bar he always went to on Saturdays, placed an order, and just as the waitress was distracted wondering why the hell the light was falling—an electromagnetic interference instrument Ayla had in her schoolbag—she picked up the decaffeinated coffee from the tray and exchanged it for the customer's extra-strength coffee order next to him, placing a substance that would increase the allergy quickly and was not identified in the necropsy.
When the light came back on and the waitress went to take the orders, in a short time her mother's killer was choking and his epiglottis was closing from the inside.
She continued using the electromagnetic instrument just to make sure no one could call an ambulance in time.
And while the waitress and the other diners panicked over the man's slumped body, she was sure to have many tears streaming down her face and a scared expression. In case anyone was looking.
When she left, tears were still streaming down her face.
She cries for her mother, Miranda Lahey.
She cries for the Hale, who was also a victim of that man.
And she cries for Ayla Lahey.
[Because now she couldn't pretend that she was a little girl without blood on her hands].
Camden enlists in the army that year.
His father looks proud but also worried.
They have a small family celebration and Ayla hugs her older brother and thanks him for everything. Because she saw how quickly he grew up to help pay the household bills, how much of his time he took to care for her and Isaac, and how he did things he didn't want to do just so his father would be happier.
He's a good brother. She loves him.
And the thought of him becoming a soldier makes her as proud and worried as her own father.
She puts a stop to the whole going out all the time thing, the paranoia, and the lies.
She does everything she can to make her father and her little twin brother happy.
Ayla tries to suppress the dark feeling that her happy little family is getting smaller and smaller.
A year later, Camden Lahey dies on duty.
11 years. She's only 11 years old and her family is slipping through her fingers like water, and she has no idea what to do to stop it.
"Perhaps", she thinks, "I am cursed".
[So she runs away - for her curse kill no more anyone else she loves].
"Are you sure you want to go, Ayla?" – John Lahey asks, adjusting her blue scarf for the fifth consecutive time.
"Daddy, we're already here. My registration is already done, you've already met the teachers, the psychologist, and the dean, and you've already seen the dorms and the entire university. Twice."
"I know, I know, I just… I can't believe my daughter is starting college already." – He says, taking her hand and finally entering the building. The sign California Institute of Technology makes him stop again, swallow hard and face the younger one.
"You're going to call me every day to let me know if everything's okay. Stay away from parties. And drinks. And drugs and..."
"Okay, okay, got it, relax." - She assures, squeezing the adult's hand.
"And don't go hanging out with college boys."
"Dad. I am 12 years old. If a "college boy" says "hi" the wrong way, I call the police. After kicking where the sun doesn't shine."
John laughs, ruffling his daughter's hair.
"That's my little girl."
Ayla smiles back at her father, already missing him. It's too bad Isaac couldn't come along and his father left him with neighbor Louise. Even though she had already said goodbye to him, it still would have been nice to hug him again.
" I love you." — He says when he can no longer postpone his departure. She hugs him.
"I love you too, Daddy. Take good care of Isaac while I'm here, okay?"
He shakes his head:
"Ok."
Years later, she discovers it was a lie.
Her father did not take good care of her little brother.
Their father broke him.
And, like Isaac, she hates him for it.
[But they also love him. They will never stop loving him].
College is the most exciting thing she's had in her life since discovering the supernatural. She hadn't felt so intellectually challenged in a long time. The last time she was like this was when she apprenticed to the best doctor in her village. Now, she directed her dedication to aeronautical engineering with the same fervor she had dedicated herself to medicine.
When Ayla saw a plane for the first time, still without the memories of her past life, she knew that, somehow, she would work in something related to them. That didn't change even after she remembered her past life - in fact, it only spurred her away from the medical field once and for all.
She didn't want to be a doctor again; she can't take losing anyone anymore. If she were a doctor, she would have to face that impotence she felt every time a patient just couldn't make it out of her hospital alive.
Then she drowns in the intoxicating pleasure of calculations, physics, structure, and avian materials, everything is new. Her excited awed demeanor with each new class is as close to childish as she's ever been in this world.
On summer break, when she returns to Beacon Hills and spends time with her family, she is happy. And her happiness rubs off on the male family members, who are more than willing to spend as much time as possible with the girl.
When she asks about how they were doing before the summer, they reply that they were doing great. Ayla hears how Isaac has this new friend named Victor who is really good at video games, and his father talks about how his best athletes were going to win that year's state competition. She believes it, because, in those days, the two of them look absolutely radiant, just like her.
She doesn't know that before her arrival father and son felt the house empty, their hearts heavy and very strange when interacting with each other without anyone but the two of them.
John tries, but Isaac isn't much into sports, nor is he particularly talkative or good at studies. The adult doesn't know how to approach now that neither Miranda nor Camden nor Ayla are there to make things more natural. As the months go by, he tries a little less. And Isaac, the 12-year-old preteen, has no idea how to connect with his father.
She asks Isaac once when they get older if there was a Victor.
[There was not].
She looks up the news from that year's state swim championships.
[None of the candidates was a student of her father].
She realizes then the River of Lies that ran in her family.
[And she's afraid it was her fault for starting it.]
At age 13, her second year at college was just as good as the first and, already used to the pace of study, she decides to return to her more... peculiar activities. Of course, she wasn't going to get involved with the criminal world or the supernatural world, but being aware of the information was harmless. (That ordering of wolfsbane, vervain, and other herbs that could possibly harm supernatural creatures definitely didn't count as getting involved. Neither did her highly suspicious extra projects where she used the college lab and made her own weapons. It was all for self-defense).
By the end of the year, she had mapped all the known packs, discovered a few new creatures besides werewolves, and knew where to find the right person for every possible crime in Pasadena, California. Which turned out to be very useful since, in the last few days of the school year, she had to track down one of the packs and take care of those sadistic freaks.
That wasn't her fault.
As it turns out, her roommate Gwen, the 18-year-old who practically styled herself "your new big sister" the moment she saw Ayla, broke out of a perfectly normal and predictable routine and the former warrior's paranoia struck.
Gwen had left for a party and said she'd be back before midnight, because for some ridiculous reason, Gwen wouldn't leave Ayla alone all night in the dorm. She was annoying, but when Gwen didn't come back, Ayla just knew something was wrong. Gwen wasn't answering her cell phone, so Ayla tracked it down. When she saw that the dot on the map was the location of a pack known for being violently territorial and with some rather strange rumors about recruiting betas, she let out a string of obscenities, reaching for her "self-defense-kit 1" bag of smoke bombs, electric taser and kunai and the "self-defense-kit 2" bag, which was where she kept things for supernatural creatures. She hadn't expected to use half of those things, but the comfort of having them close at hand was the intention.
Leaving the college campus on her good old-fashioned bicycle to see what the hell her roommate had gotten into, Ayla found her an hour later inside the pack house, along with a few other roommates who had gone to the party with her.
She sealed off all the exits with ash and placed a wolfsbane-scented diffuser inside. 15 minutes later, when the pack was unconscious from wolfsbane poisoning, she released Gwen and the girl's two other friends. While the three were still disoriented and in fear, Ayla called an FBI agent who was also a werewolf and who she had learned was after this pack for various crimes, but who had never been arrested due to lack of evidence.
When he arrived, Gwen and the other two were more than willing to testify about the kidnapping and murder of one of their friends.
When they were all in the dorm, Gwen told him that apparently they had been kidnapped because the alpha wanted new betas, and they always did a version of "gladiators", where the last one alive got the alpha's bite. Talk about being primitive.
But something good came out of it all. Mr. Campbell, an FBI agent, and a werewolf came to her the next day saying he owed her one (and also asking how, by all that was holy, she had his number, knew he was behind the pack and that he was a werewolf).
Ayla just smiled mysteriously, not really answering him. She was, however, well aware of that particular man because he was one of the potential alphas she would choose to bite her. Not that any of her candidates knew that.
Now, she had an opportunity and knowing him personally, she liked the kind of man she inferred he was. From then on, she already knew who her alpha would be.
Maximilian Campbell saw her as someone with a strong sense of justice, observant and intelligent, though too curious for her own good.
The child prodigy who had called him was also a highly valuable informant, to his growing astonishment. After a year, he didn't even question how she knew certain things anymore.
He came to see her, over time, as a niece or something like that.
Eventually, she became pack.
That year, Ayla noticed that during the vacation period, her father and brother were awkward with each other.
She thinks Isaac might be depressed, and starts exchanging letters with him when she goes back to college (because, in her opinion, even though cell phones and video calls are amazing for quick communication, the good old letter was still better for maintaining bonds - but she could be biased. There were no cell phones in her past life, only letter communication).
Her father... She doesn't know what to think. He seems fine around her, but around Isaac, he oscillates between acting like Isaac is one of his students, often being much more critical than he should be, and disastrous attempts to interact with him.
God. It was like seeing her old team all over again: socially stunted idiots. Back then, her teacher was the depressed and introverted one who didn't have the slightest knack for interacting with his students and she was a highly critical girl who didn't know how to talk to her teammates. The less she said about the hyperactive member and the partner with anger issues, the better.
As she enjoys her stay, she realizes that they lacked something in common, something to connect them. In one of Isaac's letters, she realized that fishing could be that common ground. She encouraged him to approach their father and hoped that would be enough to bring them closer together.
And it was. That year, at least.
[Because the following year, drinking would finally become a problem that John Lahey would no longer be able to control].
"Anything important for today? Or are you like that because you're going home tomorrow to see the "lovely twin brother" and "dear daddy" of yours?" – Gwen asked, seeing Ayla's goofy smile as she marked another day on the calendar with an "X".
"You can try to tease all you like; I'm not ashamed to love them so much."
Ayla said, not really answering the question. Gwen didn't need to know that she chose that day, the penultimate day before entering the break, to get the bite.
"I know, I know, I actually think it's adorable. Really." - Gwen replies, leaving the dorm for whatever appointment she had. Ayla hummed, grabbing her coat and heading off campus herself, all the while thinking that this would make a great 14th birthday present. A little early, but whatever. When she realized that Agent Campbell would need a "little push" to bite her, she calculatedly let it leak through the streets that the lone alpha had a weakness: her.
That piece of information had been circulating since the beginning of the year and she knew they were now ready to act. And by them, she meant the many enemies of Maximillian Campbell, the lone alpha.
He was a feared alpha. He didn't have a pack, and yet no one could steal power from him. A legend. She couldn't have picked a better alpha.
She bought a chocolate ice cream and sat on the bench in the square, knowing full well that she had been watched for at least a week and that today she was going to be kidnapped. She made a point of not having anything remotely resembling a weapon in her purse and the feeling of being without any means of defense was like being naked.
The kidnapping took place while she was halfway through her ice cream – and for that alone she hoped that Max would really make them suffer because that was really good ice cream, thank you. The enemies that wanted to hurt Maximilian Campbell had somehow caught up with her and held her hostage, demanding that the lone alpha fulfill such and such demands.
In true Hollywood style, he and his FBI team showed up to rescue her, and there was gunfire, blood, snarling, and clawing everywhere. There was only one detail – she was going to die because one of the betas had really slammed her down the flight of stairs and she had somehow managed to puncture her lungs halfway through. Everyone on the team knew she wasn't going to make it.
"He gets ugly crying." – She thinks, already feeling her last breaths. A part of her is terribly guilty of making him cry, and of how heartbroken her father and brother would be if Max didn't end up making the decision she had planned. Another part whispers that if she dies, she might finally find some relief because she's more than ready to let the shinigami take her. Although she is afraid that this would not happen. Again.
"No, no, no, not you too, you impossible girl! Who's going to be my little informant, huh? Who's going to be the annoying little genius who drives me crazy at every opportunity and randomly shows up next door? Who am I going to complain to about the idiots in this town?"
So he makes the decision to save her, as she figured he would after all. It was a minimal risk, she'd justify herself, but deep down she didn't know if she was happy that he'd saved her.
Max has great partners; they turn a blind eye to what he does – Ayla is sure there's some sort of rule that FBI werewolves couldn't go out and turn dying people by biting them.
Agent Campbell would take a few days off, saying he wouldn't let her go to another city alone after what had happened because of him, and how she would be going through a lot of body changes in the next few days. She couldn't resist teasing him by saying that she already had this conversation with Gwen. His resigned sigh that he was now stuck with a smartass that would give him an eternal headache was absolutely hilarious.
After her abduction, he took her to the hospital. She was already healing when she got to the building, and the doctors claimed she would be fine to leave the hospital the very next morning. He called her father and Gwen, giving them both an abridged and heavily edited version of what happened. He spent hours convincing her father that "No, Mr. Lahey, it was nothing serious; no, you don't need to catch a plane now, because tomorrow she will be discharged and will be able to take the planned flight; yes, I will take her personally, to ensure her safety."
And after that, Max stayed all night in the hospital room with her because no doctor could talk him out of it. Despite what he had claimed to his father, he was actually afraid the bite would go wrong at any moment, she noticed.
At one point, when she felt the transformation complete, he woke when he heard her sobbing. He nearly had a heart attack when he realized she was crying.
"What? What? Are you feeling bad? I need to call the doctors, my God, the bite went wrong..."
"No; it didn't. I'm fine." - She laughs a little, wiping her face with the back of her hands. At his confused look, she explains what triggered his reaction. – "I feel it; the power within me, healing me, I feel it intensely; and it's beautiful."
Max looks at her not knowing what to say; he was a born werewolf, and all of his pack before were, so he just squeezed her hand in a gesture of emotional support, thinking it was a completely normal reaction for a beta werewolf.
He didn't know that no beta werewolf would ever feel the way she did that day.
Because she hadn't turned into a werewolf, unlike what he initially assumed would, all those years ago when he found out about Cora and decided he needed the bite.
No; she had regained what she had lost. She has chakra again.
It's something like a miracle, she thinks. She feels the energy in her veins, with every breath, from the top of her hair to her little toe.
She felt her old chakra pathways being filled in, her chakra core being fully replenished, and all she could think is that is how someone would feel if they lost a body member and managed to get it back completely.
Max realizes that she is not a werewolf in a few days; the man is not in the FBI for nothing. She also doesn't even try to hide it, because she doesn't want to deceive him, even though now, with her powers back, she could very easily.
"How come you don't seem surprised by that? No, more importantly, how is your father okay with you hanging out all the time?" – He asks her with narrowed eyes. They are at the coffee shop in the Withe Oak neighborhood and Ayla decides it's best to answer the first question. It's not like she could explain that there was actually a clone of her walking around with her dad and her brother.
"You know how you keep asking me how I knew about the more…ah…mystical aspects of life? That's because here in the city I used to be friends with a person like you. I met Cora at a very young age and she ended up telling me about her condition. Her mother Talia was very wise and powerful, she also told me interesting things."
Max appreciates how, even though they seem alone, she never openly says what they are talking about.
"Like a war veteran" – he thinks again. It was another one of her intriguing quirks that he didn't think he'd ever understand.
"Your friend's mom isn't one of the troubled assholes I deal with, is she?"
The youngest's expression softens into something melancholy.
"No. She was not."
The man looks at her with understanding, only then realizing that Ayla was speaking in the past.
"What happened?"
"Fire, four years ago. There was only one survivor, but there were aftereffects. He's still in the hospital, and I never..."
She clears her throat, shakes her head, and moves on.
"Anyway, Talia said how the condition might not be the same for everyone who didn't have it from birth."
If Max didn't know her better, he wouldn't have noticed how her shoulders hunched the tiniest bit and how she looked really shaken up by talking about it. He doesn't insist, however; he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't talk about anything she didn't want to talk about.
"I heard something like that once. Personally, I had never seen it happen, but... it makes sense. Now we just need to figure out how your condition manifests itself. I will ask some contacts when I return to Pasadena."
She nods but thinks in her heart that it would be a waste of effort. She doesn't think there was another person like her in this world. Although the Ouroboros myth existed in this world as well, so she might be wrong and some of her ancestors actually reincarnated before.
When Max returns to California, she finds herself missing the man. He might be one of the few to whom she was more like herself before she was Ayla Lahey, and he wasn't judgmental or awkward. Maybe because she didn't ask him why he was a lone alpha. There was an easy companionship between them and she decided that one day she would tell him.
Everything.
Author's Note:
I think I forget to say, so: You will notice that some references from the character's past life remind you of a famous anime. It's purposeful. It's not a crossover just because I realized that the reader doesn't need to have watched the anime to understand that the main character had been a warrior in her past life.