Hailey Morei

~* Background

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Hailey Morei was born in New York City in 2001 to David and Lisa Morei. She is the younger sister of Adrian Morei, who she looked up to every day of her life. She believed that their life together would always be a happy one, but their parents were always working, so she was left home alone with Adrian, despite the fact he was bed-ridden his entire life.

One day, Adrian's condition worsened, and Hailey in her desperation pleaded to her father to do something. "He won't wake up! Adrian isn't breathing!" She remembered screaming. Her brother was soon taken away, her father mumbling something about "an experimental procedure". But at the time, she didn't care. All she wanted was her brother to be okay.

Adrian came out of the procedure alive, and suddenly, he was able to walk for the first time in his life. She had never seen her brother so happy and excited, finally able to do things that he only ever dreamed of. Even simple things such as walking or jumping brought a light to her brother's face that she never saw before. She and Adrian could play together so much more now, and it was all that she needed to be happy.

But their happiness wasn't meant to last. One day soon after that, her parents just disappeared without a trace, without any word. Adrian and Hailey were forced into an orphanage, and her brother worked hard and fought harder to keep her safe from the brutalities of that place. They had many close calls, but Adrian kept himself in shape and stood guard, even late at night, just so Hailey could get some sleep in security. He became a different person, colder and more violent, all for her sake.

Their misfortunes seemed to end when they were adopted by the prominent Yuy family, the minds behind the powerful Yuy Corporation. Their quality of life dramatically improved, and Hailey was glad to see her brother finally able to relax, his body a lot more worn down than he was letting on. They quickly became friends with the Yuy heirs, Shugo and Soran, and it seemed life would be a lot better from then on. Adrian and Hailey Yuy. It had a nice ring to it.

Adrian had taken up a new name by this point: Valo. It was to distance himself from the parents who he was convinced had just up and abandoned them. Having acquired a job at Yuy Corporation as a leader in Research and Development from a record young age, Adrian was always hard at work to prove his worth to the family who took him and his sister in, as well as doing his best to take care of his sister himself. They ended up moving out soon enough, but remained in close contact with the Yuys. But the real reason they had moved out was a darker one...

Hailey had contracted the same life threatening disease that nearly claimed Adrian's life previously. Her body was incredibly frail, and she couldn't walk for long before her body succumbed to the fatigue. She soon required assistance from Adrian nearly every waking moment, and he tirelessly cared for her without fail. The difference this time was that their parents weren't there. There was no research. There was no cure that they knew of, as even Adrian didn't know what kind of procedure it was that had saved his life. He would spend any time he wasn't taking care of his sister in his lab or researching, trying to create a cure.

When everything failed, Adrian became a vigilante. He would scour the city, fighting in the darkest pits of the city's underworld, trying to find all sorts of drugs and medicines hidden from public consumption. But no matter what tests he ran, no matter what mixtures he created, no matter how intelligent he had become in the process, nothing ever worked. It wasn't until Adrian came home one day, riddled with bullet holes and bleeding everywhere, that Hailey had figured out his secret. She did her best to help him for once, telling him "I don't want you to spend your whole life on me... you need to live your life too, Adrian... even if it means you can't save me. I just want you to be happy." They sat there, holding each other and crying the rest of the night.

One night, after Adrian had helped her with her homework, he had gone to his lab again. It wasn't long before the alarms on the house went off, and armored soldiers had burst into the home, taking Hailey hostage. Adrian came out, weapons in hand and attempted to fight off their attackers, but they had subdued him and captured them both, taking them back to their base. She had no idea who they were, and it didn't seem like Adrian had a clue either. He was locked in a cell, while Hailey was taken into the heart of the fortress... shocked to find her father there with another man.

"Hailey. It's good to see you again, my daughter. How would you like to be healthy again?"

Hailey stared at her father in shock, speechless. If he was alive this whole time, why hadn't he come home? He knew where they were, if he was the one who sent those soldiers... why would he hurt Adrian if he was going to help her? Why didn't he tell Adrian he could cure her? Where was mom? Why couldn't they be a family again?

All of these thoughts ran through Hailey's head as she stood there wordlessly. She had missed her dad. She wanted nothing more than to just run up and hug him. But she shared her brother's same sense of cautious. She wasn't stupid. She knew something was wrong. She wanted to go home with Adrian. She wanted her brother to be there.

Alarms would sound, and the man with her father would speak. "It seems like they're on their way." He said, and soon enough, the doors to the large room they were in would burst open. Leading the charge was a large man with red hair and an eye patch, fitting the description of the School Captain that Adrian would talk about often. And right behind him was Adrian himself. The look on her brother's face told her that he was just as shocked as she was to see their father standing there.

Soldiers would begin to pour in, and Macht would shout. "Valo, behind me!" They fought the guards off with relative ease, Hailey shocked to see how powerful they were, before the masked man with her father would crash down into the arena, pulling Macht away. This left Adrian with herself and their father. Adrian opened his mouth to ask "Why?", but their father just charged forward, bringing his fist down at Adrian. He barely backed away as their father's fist struck the ground with enough force to create a large crater. Adrian tried to talk to him, but he kept striking relentlessly, creating a giant sword out of the ground itself as he attacked his son.

The fights continued for a period of time as Hailey continued to watch, too scared to even speak. The battle was so fierce that the foundation of the building itself began to crumble as her father and the other man brought out strange powers, Adrian and Macht struggling just to stay alive. In their desperation, they seemed to reveal some powers of their own, but it wasn't enough. Worn out and cornered, Adrian and Macht were running out of options. The damage to the structure had caused it to start collapsing slowly, and in a flash, everything seemed to change.

"MACHT, LOOK OUT!"

A large piece of rubble from the ceiling was crashing down from above, and Adrian would push Macht out of the way, being crushed by the rubble himself. Hailey screamed as she witnessed this, and the dust cleared to reveal her brother trapped underneath, a pool of his own blood seeping out from underneath him. Even from this distance, she could see the metal wires piercing through his torso. He was dying. Gasping for breath desperately, Valo begged Macht to run, and with the building starting to collapse around them, he had little choice, especially against two powerful foes. In the ensuing chaos, Macht would barely manage to get away, and Hailey's father would walk up to her brother.

"Don't worry. Once you die, it won't hurt anymore."

His words were cruel, and he would turn away from Adrian, walking away without a second look. "It seems Project: VALOR was a failure. Do with him as you please." He spoke to the other man as he grabbed his daughter, leading her away rather forcefully despite her attempts to resist. She was too weak, but she wanted to run to Adrian. She could see him lying there, bleeding out and dying but still reaching out to her, no words able to come out of his mouth due to his punctured lungs. His eyes told her everything. He was desperate, wanting her safety even in his final moments. As her father brought her out of the room, she heard the other man's last words to Adrian before the doors shut...

"We meet again, my Wraith..."

Hailey didn't see her brother again after that. She was subjected to strange experiments against her will, strapped down to a bed inside of a dark cell with no windows. Despite her attempts to resist, and her screams, she wasn't being let out. Her father didn't even acknowledge her. One day, she was injected with something different and placed into a tube, sleep coming for her almost instantaneously. In her sleep, she had met someone, unbeknownst to her that she was living inside of her mind. She introduced herself to Hailey as The Banshee, but that Hailey could call her whatever she wanted. Hailey was scared at first, but soon grew close to her new companion, as she was the only friend she had in this strange place. Together, they ended up giving her the name Emily Casanova.