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Reva was born on a far-off little planet called Ara V. Her father, Destin Fonder, was a genius scientist and engineer, and was a part of the pioneering of Generation 2 Androids- sapient, feeling androids with emotions and the ability to grow.
However, despite this illustrious career, Destin was content to live in a peaceful, countryside planet. He preferred to be left alone with his work- He was an empathetic person, perhaps too empathetic. When he was around others, he couldn't help himself from feeling their struggles as his own and wanting to fix them. But after his wife passed away, he knew he couldn't live that way and raise Reva, and so he moved to where he could live peacefully.
Reva, as a result, grew up around machines and people in equal measure. Her father was, well, eccentric. He treated almost anything as if it was a person, down to a cleaning robot or a coffee machine. Reva herself inherited this empathetic nature, though spending most of her time around machines led her to become the kind of person whose emotions don't show on her face.
That's not to say Reva was isolated- She took a bus into the city for school and she had plenty of friends there. Overall, her life was surprisingly normal. Though her father was a genius, Reva herself was only above average. She didn't care much for programming or engineering, and instead enjoyed stories and books, even attempting to write her own.
This normal life lasted until she was seventeen years old.
One night, she was returning home, same as always. She was taking an automated bus, same as always. The sole passenger, same as always.
A monster from space, unfortunately, was not the same as always. It was small, weak. But this somehow let it slip through all of the established detection methods as well. And it happened to land near Reva's bus, knocking it over.
Reva found herself face to face with a monster. A fledgling, sure, that no soul artist would break a sweat to fight. But Reva wasn't a soul artist. But she was cornered by the fallen bus, and couldn't flee. She was terrified, but the only way she could survive was to fight. Trembling, a flicker of power seemed to awaken in her…
It wasn't enough. Reva Fonder died there, killed by a monster.
She then woke up back at her father's laboratory.
She was relieved, of course. All of that, she assumed, had just been a bad dream. Even if the lab seemed to be a lot… more disorganized. A mess, even. And dark. Reva was the one who kept the lab clean, so she knew this was odd.
It wasn't until she found her father that she understood. Her father, slumped over his desk, breathing shallow. As she ran to him, she was struck by how different he was- His hair had gone gray, his cheeks were gaunt, he'd become so thin… But his smile remained the same, as he looked at her.
But with tears in his eyes, all he could do was apologize. He told her- Her life would be so much more difficult now, more difficult than she deserved. But, he begged her, please live on anyway. Her life was too precious, too beautiful.
And just like that, he breathed his last, his final words wishing for Reva to find happiness.
Reva was confused, frightened, and devastated. She tried to call for help, but the phone lines were dead. She tried to take a bus to the city, but the stop was gone. All she could do was run.
So she did. Her mind a blur, she started running, and didn't stop until she reached the city. And even then, exhausted, she pushed herself further. She found a house that belonged to one of her friends from school, and…
The friend opened the door, and for a long moment, neither of them recognized each other. The woman here was almost ten years too old to be Reva’s friend, and was carrying an infant. And Reva, well… Reva looked exactly as she had on the day she fought the monster.
In talking to each other, in fear and confusion, Reva learned that eight years had passed since that day. The body she now inhabited was a machine- It seemed as though it had a pulse, it seemed warm, but there were signs that couldn’t be hidden, the whir of a computer, the metal in her bones.
But she was herself, she argued. She had memories- Memories her father wouldn’t have been able to just program in if she was just a copy. And even besides that, making an android copy of a person was impossible. Especially if she had ‘died’. She couldn’t believe it.
Eventually, Reva and her friend came to a conclusion: If anyone would know who, and what, Reva is now, it would have to be Soul Sanctum. Surely they would be able to tell if she was a human soul brought back, or if she was just a machine who thought she was a human. They were the authority on souls, so Reva knew- They could tell her she was still herself. And maybe this bizarre nightmare would end.
Of course, getting to Soul Sanctum wasn’t easy, especially when she was legally dead. But, through the help of her friend and persistence in begging for help, she soon made it.
And to her confusion, a court began. With her as the subject, to determine if she was even human. Horror built up in her heart, but she was sure this would get resolved. She knew she was, and surely, the most brilliant soul artists, the galaxy’s authority on souls, would understand…
And Grandmaster Cado, the greatest authority and highest power in the galaxy, made two decrees: First, that she indeed had a human soul. And second, that she was an abomination, a blasphemy against life itself, and must be destroyed.
It was in a holding cell, waiting to be destroyed, that Reva snapped for the first time. In constant denial of her self and her state, constantly denying her soul’s awakening and her death, her soul had folded in on itself like a pressure cooker that had been sealed too tight. And finally, the stress… broke through.
She ended up vaporizing the holding bars of her cell with a burst of power she refused to admit to, and she ran. She ran, and ran, stowing away in the cargo hold of a ship leaving, before she ended up on another planet entirely… Until some Soul Sanctum goons came after her, intent on fulfilling Cado’s orders to see her destroyed. And Reva’s power, while strong, was unreliable at best.
Fortunately, she encountered another impossibility- Stacia, an android soul artist. Stacia had no idea what was going on there, really- All Stacia knew was that someone needed help, and she was there. She stepped in, and challenged the Soul Sanctum enforcer. And not expecting that she could be a true soul artist or a threat, the enforcer accepted, and was soundly thrashed. Reva then joined Stacia as her disciple- Ostensibly to learn to control her power, but mostly, to stay safe.
After a misadventure that had them befriend a ship named the Nine Yards, the three of them set out for another planet, where they encountered a businessman willing to assist them. He would help them out, because they needed help, and he would support androids- He was happily married to an android, even.
Reva felt some concern, but couldn’t place why, and so with Stacia, accepted his offer. And in talking to Kitty, the businessman’s ‘wife’, she discovered what the concern was- She and Stacia developed an immediate rapport with Kitty, and found soon that she had an illegal module installed that forced her to be obedient to him, among other horrifying illegal modifications. Reva’s indignation and fury at this swelled to a peak, and she resolved to help Kitty, no matter what.
When confronted with his crimes, Kitty’s owner simply offered them two choices: First, be turned over to Soul Sanctum to be destroyed. Second, to be installed with obedience modules themselves, and give him a full android harem.
Stacia and Reva immediately countered with a third choice: Beat the living daylights out of this guy and his whole security detail, and free Kitty from his clutches.
While Stacia handled the head of security, a soul artist who reported directly to Soul Sanctum, Reva was left to deal with the rest of security. Which, while they weren’t soul artists, was still several people. With guns. And Reva had never properly awakened her soul power, leaving her in trouble.
But as her back was to the wall, it wasn’t her own danger that finally made her snap. It was the fury she felt on behalf of her new friend. She was tired of running away, if running away would only put others in more danger. Her father asked her to live on, and that meant she had to live, not just survive.
With her soul awakened, she simultaneously pioneered her first technique, unique to her: The ability to be two at once. A manifestation of her bizarre state, where she was both human and machine, allowed her to manifest as two separate beings, and with that second self, she thoroughly trounced the security detail.
With his security thoroughly defeated, and Stacia’s opponent retreated, Kitty’s master’s final resort was to simply force Kitty to fight them herself, despite Kitty having no combat capabilities. But the true, genuine connection she felt towards her new friends, and her new understanding of just what a monster her master was, combined, and Kitty snapped. She tore her own obedience module out, and took the name Cassi, defying her owner and setting out to live her own life.
After a fateful encounter with another soul artist named Jiyu, the three androids and their ship began to found what would become the Machine Soul Movement.
The group had several misadventures after this- Most important to Reva, a soul artist who was disciple to Cado wanted to take her apart. He thought if he could reverse engineer what was used to create her, then he could become truly immortal, and thus, depose Cado and rule the galaxy himself. Reva had to clash with him a few times, though their fights were never conclusive due to outside interference, until finally, he declared they would meet in the North Star Tournament.
The North Star Tournament was a tournament for soul artists to compete and refine their arts, and a spectacle for the rest of the galaxy to look at and admire soul artists. The winner would be granted one boon from Cado himself, of whatever they could ask for. Reva and Stacia entered, with the idea of simply using the tournament to gain visibility- The galaxy wouldn’t be able to deny them if they kept using soul arts in plain sight for everyone to see. The Nine Yards entered as well, using a drone as a proxy. Cassi, however, decided to take a break, as a structured tournament was the worst possible battlefield for her soul arts.
As the three entered and climbed their way up the ranks quickly, the disciple of Cado watched with bated breath, waiting for his chance to take Reva apart…
Until Cado advanced his own plans, and Nine Yards’ main ship body was captured. Reva immediately dropped out of the tournament to go help her friend, because that was much more important to her than some stupid grudge match with a guy she didn’t care about.
As the tournament progressed, and chaos started to erupt, Jiyu and Stacia had their fight, and Reva didn’t see it- She and Cassi had gone to try to free the Nine Yards. And they did well- They found the ship, and even were fighting off the security holding it there. Stacia came to join them, and for a while, they held their own, but simply put… It was impossible to overcome the sheer numbers Soul Sanctum had on their side.
Impossible until Jiyu showed up, now on their side, anyway.
Cado himself descended to try to crush them, but Jiyu and Stacia held him off, though Stacia got cut in half for her troubles. But when all seemed lost, at the last moment, Nine Yards awoke to its own true power, and using a Soul Art in a new, impossible way, it teleported itself, and the Machine Soul Movement members (and Jiyu) across the galaxy, to safety.
However, despite this illustrious career, Destin was content to live in a peaceful, countryside planet. He preferred to be left alone with his work- He was an empathetic person, perhaps too empathetic. When he was around others, he couldn't help himself from feeling their struggles as his own and wanting to fix them. But after his wife passed away, he knew he couldn't live that way and raise Reva, and so he moved to where he could live peacefully.
Reva, as a result, grew up around machines and people in equal measure. Her father was, well, eccentric. He treated almost anything as if it was a person, down to a cleaning robot or a coffee machine. Reva herself inherited this empathetic nature, though spending most of her time around machines led her to become the kind of person whose emotions don't show on her face.
That's not to say Reva was isolated- She took a bus into the city for school and she had plenty of friends there. Overall, her life was surprisingly normal. Though her father was a genius, Reva herself was only above average. She didn't care much for programming or engineering, and instead enjoyed stories and books, even attempting to write her own.
This normal life lasted until she was seventeen years old.
One night, she was returning home, same as always. She was taking an automated bus, same as always. The sole passenger, same as always.
A monster from space, unfortunately, was not the same as always. It was small, weak. But this somehow let it slip through all of the established detection methods as well. And it happened to land near Reva's bus, knocking it over.
Reva found herself face to face with a monster. A fledgling, sure, that no soul artist would break a sweat to fight. But Reva wasn't a soul artist. But she was cornered by the fallen bus, and couldn't flee. She was terrified, but the only way she could survive was to fight. Trembling, a flicker of power seemed to awaken in her…
It wasn't enough. Reva Fonder died there, killed by a monster.
She then woke up back at her father's laboratory.
She was relieved, of course. All of that, she assumed, had just been a bad dream. Even if the lab seemed to be a lot… more disorganized. A mess, even. And dark. Reva was the one who kept the lab clean, so she knew this was odd.
It wasn't until she found her father that she understood. Her father, slumped over his desk, breathing shallow. As she ran to him, she was struck by how different he was- His hair had gone gray, his cheeks were gaunt, he'd become so thin… But his smile remained the same, as he looked at her.
But with tears in his eyes, all he could do was apologize. He told her- Her life would be so much more difficult now, more difficult than she deserved. But, he begged her, please live on anyway. Her life was too precious, too beautiful.
And just like that, he breathed his last, his final words wishing for Reva to find happiness.
Reva was confused, frightened, and devastated. She tried to call for help, but the phone lines were dead. She tried to take a bus to the city, but the stop was gone. All she could do was run.
So she did. Her mind a blur, she started running, and didn't stop until she reached the city. And even then, exhausted, she pushed herself further. She found a house that belonged to one of her friends from school, and…
The friend opened the door, and for a long moment, neither of them recognized each other. The woman here was almost ten years too old to be Reva’s friend, and was carrying an infant. And Reva, well… Reva looked exactly as she had on the day she fought the monster.
In talking to each other, in fear and confusion, Reva learned that eight years had passed since that day. The body she now inhabited was a machine- It seemed as though it had a pulse, it seemed warm, but there were signs that couldn’t be hidden, the whir of a computer, the metal in her bones.
But she was herself, she argued. She had memories- Memories her father wouldn’t have been able to just program in if she was just a copy. And even besides that, making an android copy of a person was impossible. Especially if she had ‘died’. She couldn’t believe it.
Eventually, Reva and her friend came to a conclusion: If anyone would know who, and what, Reva is now, it would have to be Soul Sanctum. Surely they would be able to tell if she was a human soul brought back, or if she was just a machine who thought she was a human. They were the authority on souls, so Reva knew- They could tell her she was still herself. And maybe this bizarre nightmare would end.
Of course, getting to Soul Sanctum wasn’t easy, especially when she was legally dead. But, through the help of her friend and persistence in begging for help, she soon made it.
And to her confusion, a court began. With her as the subject, to determine if she was even human. Horror built up in her heart, but she was sure this would get resolved. She knew she was, and surely, the most brilliant soul artists, the galaxy’s authority on souls, would understand…
And Grandmaster Cado, the greatest authority and highest power in the galaxy, made two decrees: First, that she indeed had a human soul. And second, that she was an abomination, a blasphemy against life itself, and must be destroyed.
It was in a holding cell, waiting to be destroyed, that Reva snapped for the first time. In constant denial of her self and her state, constantly denying her soul’s awakening and her death, her soul had folded in on itself like a pressure cooker that had been sealed too tight. And finally, the stress… broke through.
She ended up vaporizing the holding bars of her cell with a burst of power she refused to admit to, and she ran. She ran, and ran, stowing away in the cargo hold of a ship leaving, before she ended up on another planet entirely… Until some Soul Sanctum goons came after her, intent on fulfilling Cado’s orders to see her destroyed. And Reva’s power, while strong, was unreliable at best.
Fortunately, she encountered another impossibility- Stacia, an android soul artist. Stacia had no idea what was going on there, really- All Stacia knew was that someone needed help, and she was there. She stepped in, and challenged the Soul Sanctum enforcer. And not expecting that she could be a true soul artist or a threat, the enforcer accepted, and was soundly thrashed. Reva then joined Stacia as her disciple- Ostensibly to learn to control her power, but mostly, to stay safe.
After a misadventure that had them befriend a ship named the Nine Yards, the three of them set out for another planet, where they encountered a businessman willing to assist them. He would help them out, because they needed help, and he would support androids- He was happily married to an android, even.
Reva felt some concern, but couldn’t place why, and so with Stacia, accepted his offer. And in talking to Kitty, the businessman’s ‘wife’, she discovered what the concern was- She and Stacia developed an immediate rapport with Kitty, and found soon that she had an illegal module installed that forced her to be obedient to him, among other horrifying illegal modifications. Reva’s indignation and fury at this swelled to a peak, and she resolved to help Kitty, no matter what.
When confronted with his crimes, Kitty’s owner simply offered them two choices: First, be turned over to Soul Sanctum to be destroyed. Second, to be installed with obedience modules themselves, and give him a full android harem.
Stacia and Reva immediately countered with a third choice: Beat the living daylights out of this guy and his whole security detail, and free Kitty from his clutches.
While Stacia handled the head of security, a soul artist who reported directly to Soul Sanctum, Reva was left to deal with the rest of security. Which, while they weren’t soul artists, was still several people. With guns. And Reva had never properly awakened her soul power, leaving her in trouble.
But as her back was to the wall, it wasn’t her own danger that finally made her snap. It was the fury she felt on behalf of her new friend. She was tired of running away, if running away would only put others in more danger. Her father asked her to live on, and that meant she had to live, not just survive.
With her soul awakened, she simultaneously pioneered her first technique, unique to her: The ability to be two at once. A manifestation of her bizarre state, where she was both human and machine, allowed her to manifest as two separate beings, and with that second self, she thoroughly trounced the security detail.
With his security thoroughly defeated, and Stacia’s opponent retreated, Kitty’s master’s final resort was to simply force Kitty to fight them herself, despite Kitty having no combat capabilities. But the true, genuine connection she felt towards her new friends, and her new understanding of just what a monster her master was, combined, and Kitty snapped. She tore her own obedience module out, and took the name Cassi, defying her owner and setting out to live her own life.
After a fateful encounter with another soul artist named Jiyu, the three androids and their ship began to found what would become the Machine Soul Movement.
The group had several misadventures after this- Most important to Reva, a soul artist who was disciple to Cado wanted to take her apart. He thought if he could reverse engineer what was used to create her, then he could become truly immortal, and thus, depose Cado and rule the galaxy himself. Reva had to clash with him a few times, though their fights were never conclusive due to outside interference, until finally, he declared they would meet in the North Star Tournament.
The North Star Tournament was a tournament for soul artists to compete and refine their arts, and a spectacle for the rest of the galaxy to look at and admire soul artists. The winner would be granted one boon from Cado himself, of whatever they could ask for. Reva and Stacia entered, with the idea of simply using the tournament to gain visibility- The galaxy wouldn’t be able to deny them if they kept using soul arts in plain sight for everyone to see. The Nine Yards entered as well, using a drone as a proxy. Cassi, however, decided to take a break, as a structured tournament was the worst possible battlefield for her soul arts.
As the three entered and climbed their way up the ranks quickly, the disciple of Cado watched with bated breath, waiting for his chance to take Reva apart…
Until Cado advanced his own plans, and Nine Yards’ main ship body was captured. Reva immediately dropped out of the tournament to go help her friend, because that was much more important to her than some stupid grudge match with a guy she didn’t care about.
As the tournament progressed, and chaos started to erupt, Jiyu and Stacia had their fight, and Reva didn’t see it- She and Cassi had gone to try to free the Nine Yards. And they did well- They found the ship, and even were fighting off the security holding it there. Stacia came to join them, and for a while, they held their own, but simply put… It was impossible to overcome the sheer numbers Soul Sanctum had on their side.
Impossible until Jiyu showed up, now on their side, anyway.
Cado himself descended to try to crush them, but Jiyu and Stacia held him off, though Stacia got cut in half for her troubles. But when all seemed lost, at the last moment, Nine Yards awoke to its own true power, and using a Soul Art in a new, impossible way, it teleported itself, and the Machine Soul Movement members (and Jiyu) across the galaxy, to safety.