Consultant for Tritoch, Inc. by day, flame-slinging super heroine by night, Aria Soleil swings both ways.
Aria was born quietly to Samuel and Rita Soleil in the small rural town of Flax. In all observable aspects she was a normal, though perhaps troubled girl. In her youth, she argued constantly with her parents and all forms of authority in an ongoing struggle to discover and form her own identity. This tension culminated at the age of sixteen when she chose to run away from home. She stole one of the family cars and fled to the sprawling urban metropolis Polopin, the only city she had visited more than once (her mother, a social worker, often commuted there).
Though Aria thought herself tough-minded due to her rebellious attitude, in reality she was quite sheltered from danger. The city, however, presented her with danger in abundance. Hungry and not knowing her way around in the large city, she exited the freeway deep inside the city and stopped at small shop to purchase soup and bread. She returned to find her stolen car in the process of being stolen. As she ran towards the vehicle screaming for help, the thief started the engine and sped away, while onlookers went about their business, seeming not to notice, much less care.
Emotionally exhausted, Aria walked in a daze to a nearby alley, sat down, curled up, and fell asleep in broad daylight. She awoke to a middle-aged woman dressed in worn-down fur standing over her. The woman told Aria she would take her to a safe place. Fifteen minutes later, Aria and the woman, Ghendy, arrived at a small apartment in the Polopin projects.
Ghendy's apartment was warm, and Aria graciously (and in retrospect, naively) accepted her offer of food. Ghendy was pleased to have such a young companion in her household, and considered herself lucky to have stumbled upon Aria. Once the drugs Ghendy had mixed into Aria's meal began to take effect, Ghendy led Aria to a bedroom. Using Aria's sedated body like a tool, Ghendy shamelessly satisfied years of her own sexual repression.
For the next three and a half years, Aria lived in a dream-like state with Ghendy. To say that Ghendy kept her against her will might be correct, but most of the time Aria was too well-drugged to think about will. She slept during the day and acted as Ghendy's plaything in the evening. Ghendy ruthlessly experimented on Aria with a wide variety of drugs, some personally synthesized.
On Aria's nineteenth birthday, Ghendy selected a variety of drugs for Aria, as usual. However, this particular combination flipped a switch in Aria's mind. Like a rush of water, Aria felt energy flowing into her, seemingly from another dimension. The energy cleansed her and brought her back to a clear state of mind for the first time in years. Feeling the energy coursing through her, she released it from her hands, burning Ghendy until there was little left but bone. Then she rolled off of the bed and cried, again, for the first time in years.
Aria found that practice strengthened her magical abilities. She spent the next week learning to control her newfound attunement with this magical energy, and destroyed a good portion of Ghendy's apartment in the process.
Fortunately, Ghendy's drug stockpile was quite substantial. With these assets and her newfound defense mechanism, Aria accumulated a large sum of money in a short amount of time. For fear of being seen as a freak, Aria did not to return to her parents nor did she expose herself to the outside world. She used her money to educate herself and began working for Tritoch, Inc. at the age of twenty-two. By twenty-four, she was traveling to a wide variety of locations as a consultant for Tritoch. She hid her connection with magical energy at all costs, hoping to fit in, succeed, and be a normal human being.
It was on a business trip that she encountered Paragon City for the first time. There, in plain daylight, were many "freaks" such as her, defending a city from rampant crime. Seeing crime on the open streets of a dense city summoned memories of her experiences with Ghendy. That day she informed Tritoch that she would be changing locations or quitting.
Not wanting to lose an intelligent and valuable employee, Tritoch relented and allowed Aria to continue her work stationed in Paragon City. This scenario allowed Aria to separate the two identities that had struggled inside her since nineteen, and perhaps since birth.
Now, during the day, Aria helps Paragon City's struggling businesses get back on their feet. After "work" is done, the real work of ridding Paragon City of all sorts of incarnations of Ghendy begins.
