Jayla Kyren

Jayla Melissa Kyren was Kienan's second girlfriend, now deceased. The daughter of Dr. Rachel Kyren and the sister of Mendel Kyren, Jayla Kyren was born into a life of privilege and ended her life nearly anonymous.

Born into the Kyren family, the head of a prestigious religious firm on Gandymede, Jayla lacked her brother's aptitude for the business and generally spent her early years playing in the garden, often climbing a certain tree in that garden. She would remember these as the happiest times in her life.

As she grew to adolescence and young adulthood, Jayla began to chafe against the expectations of her family and their plans to groom her for the family business and quit school. This was the beginning of the self-destructive tendency that would soon rule her life. Ultimately, she moved beyond her family's reach, living off her allowance until she came to Kuran colony.

Little of her time at Kuran colony is known prior to her meeting Kienan Ademetria, which she did at a party held by one of her friends in upper-class Kuran society. Perhaps attracted by his enigmatic nature or the irresistible feeling of danger he seemed to radiate, they began a romantic relationship.

But Kienan, recently separated from Silhouette, was unwilling to reach out to her, and Jayla found he wasn't the person to fix what she felt was broken in herself, and she soon began drinking and using drugs, most specifically the narcotic Rush. This further alienated Kienan from her, and their relationship lasted three months before Jayla walked out on him.

Jayla, now cut off from her family's monetary support, soon fell to prostitution to support her drug habit, ending up as a regular in Gao's House of [I still can't remember the name] Kienan attempted a reconciliation upon learning this, but was rebuked. Kienan would respect her wishes, occasionally stepping in to protect her, but they would have no further contact for the rest of her life.

While working as a call girl, Jayla would meet, befriend, and fall in love with the woman named Sauvage. While their love did make Jayla happier than she could ever remember being, the damage had been done, and her demons would eventually consume her when she took her own life.

Though Jayla was dead, in a sense it could be said her spirit continued to haunt Kienan for many years after her death. Most keenly felt in his guilt for not saving her or somehow, by being with her, ruining her, but also in terms of those who would seek vengeance in her name. Sauvage would attempt to revenge herself on Kienan for her death, and Dr. Rachel Kyren attempted to engineer a clone of her daughter to use as a weapon of retribution against him. This clone, named "Jayla-2," was force-grown to adulthood and left feral, as Kyren only ever intended to use her to kill Kienan.

She had grown another clone, this one code-named "J-3" that was meant to be a more complete restoration of her daughter. However, as Kyren died before she could oversee the cloning process, J-3 would ultimately end up just as much of a hybrid between alien and human genetics as her predecessor had, and a major flaw in her assembly would lead to fatal degeneration if left untreated.

Ultimately, the two clones would encounter each other, having taken very different paths. Jayla-2, having been restored by the Haxan, possessed all the memories of Jayla Kyren, but lacking any emotional connection to them intended to live her own life. J-3, in the meantime, was convinced she was Jayla Kyren reincarnated. Despite her misgivings, Jayla-2 attempted to cure J-3, but she refused. Unable to help, and unwilling to have contact with a life she no longer felt was in any way hers, Jayla-2 left J-3 in the company of Mendel Kyren, who pledged to care for her the rest of her days.