1Josephine Hazel Kiana Wou Chan slipped into the shadows of a valley, holding her breathe as fifty or so dark figures rushed in. Peering through the darkness, she saw that each gangster was holding a 9mm auto loading pistol. Her eyes settled on the shadow dragon sewed into each arm sleeve, it was a symbol from her past. One she tried hard to forget, yet for some reason, this one past kept haunting her. She had easily forgotten all her other past lives, her memories never resurfaced with the exception of this one. What was so significant about this one? Why couldn't she get away?
As she watched, a young girl walked over to a woman with dark brown hair, her brown eyes were sharp as they pierced the darkness. It felt like she was staring straight at Jo, yet they past over her and continued searching.
"Kell, she's not here and we've searched everywhere. Should we move on?"
"No. We saw her come in here, she's probably hiding somewhere." The voice was cold and emotionless, reflecting the woman's own cold nature.
That name, she knew that name, Jo sifted through her head, trying to place the name with the many faceless figures inside her mind. Cleared her thoughts, she stiffened as Kell walked into the valley and stood about a foot away from Jo's hiding spot. After what seemed like an eternity to Jo, Kell finally walked back out and left with the rest of the group. Jo slowly let out her breathe, blowing a few strands of blue tipped hair, creeping out with a hasty look, she retreated back home.
Back in her rented apartment, Jo dug around until she found Oro, the computer she had built when she was little. It was covered in dust, having been forgotten like all her other memories. Switching it on, Jo frowned and searched through another pile, grinning, she found what she was looking for, a pair of goggles. With a quick stretch her fingers began tapping away at Oro, surfing the net. After hacking into a few things for fun and just plain practice, Jo leaned back and yawned. Rubbing her stomach, she looked down at the silver wolf tattoo that stared at her with yellow eyes.
"Jo's hungry too, Mara Jo, let's go get some food to eat!" Leaping to her feet, she waltzed into the kitchen to raid through her cabinets. Halting to a stop, she narrowed her eyes at the person standing in the center of her kitchen.
"How did you get into Jo's kitchen? Are you trying to steal Jo's food?!" she yelled as she got closer. As she got closer, she saw that the woman had dark purple hair and wore a shirt with a raven on it; she sighed and stopped edging closer to her weapons, this was serious.
"Why are here?"
"You know why I'm here Wolf."
"Don't call me that!" Jo snapped as she grabbed her daggers and placed them across the woman's throat. At the same time the barrel of a gun was placed at her chest.
"You've gotten slow, now if you're done playing around, can we get to the business of why I'm here?"
"Fine, it's not like I can make you do anything else Rayne." Jo put her daggers away and poured a cup of coffee for her former team mate. Rayne was a member of The Ravens, the gang Jo used to be very connected with. Rayne was second only to Mara in the gang and Mara was the leader. Even though she fought using a gun, her battles weren't easy, especially when you're always battling a sharpshooter just as good as yourself.
"We need to talk-"
"I noticed that…"
"Will you let me talk for even one-"
"Are you done yet?"
"Jo! Look, you know why I'm here. The Shadows have been hunting you and I just came to find you to try and-"
"Help, look I know and some help. I left for a reason Rayne and I'm not going to go back, Jo never goes back remember? I don't even know why I still remembe, I shouldn't at all."
"Jo, let me finish, Umi is looking for your head this time. This isn't a game; she wants to take over the Ravens."
"So why doesn't she?"
"Jo, Mara left the Ravens to you." Jo could here the emphasis on you, she knew what Rayne meant, but she didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to go back.
"Rayne leave me alone! I'm not apart of that anymore! I don't care what Umi does, if I die, then I die and that will be the end of the Silver Wolf. I'm fine with that, I don't care what she does or wants to do. All I want to do is live how I want."
"And how many times are you going to try and live how you want? We've been tracking you, Jo; you've left behind so many pasts, so many lives. How many times are you going to start over until you're happy? You know what? Forget it, I don't even know why I try anymore, you're just as stubborn as Mara was."
"Can you stop talking about Mara! It's always Mara this and Mara that, I'm grateful for Mara. But it doesn't mean I'm going to follow her footsteps, she accomplished her end of the deal and I did mine. There isn't anymore than that."
"So now Mara means nothing to you? Why do you call that tattoo Mara Jo? Why do you still remember this past?"
Jo was silent, standing up as she asked Rayne to leave, with the excuse that she needed to think. They both knew she was lying, but Rayne left anyway, she always knew when Jo wanted to be left alone.
With much less energy then she had before, Jo returned to her room without getting the food she had set out to get and lay on her bed staring at Oro's screen. Flexing her fingers again, she tapped a single button bringing up a picture of a woman and child. In the picture, the blonde haired woman was laughing as the little girl made faces at the camera.
"Mara." She whispered softly, staring at the picture, Jo couldn't stop the tears that rolled down her face now. Suddenly, she just couldn't take it anymore, slamming her finger down on the keyboard the picture disappeared from view. Looking over at the door Rayne exited, Jo thought about the conversation, seconds later she had grabbed her daggers and heading out to the roof, it was time for a little training.