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Backstory
Ethan was born to newly-wed scientists, Marion and Jonathan Greyson. He was more of an accidental addition to the family, the first child they weren't yet ready for. His mother was a bio-engineer, to be specific and his father a chemist. They met and fell in love while working on a classified scientific project for the government. Marion was the team leader and Jonathan an additional help to the team since he was an exceptional chemist.
The project focused on enhancing human DNA with a special formula. The thing was supposed to make the soldiers stronger. Something went wrong and the test subjects showed serious side effects. Marion was going crazy from all the stress and pressure on her. By the time Ethan was born, she was barely handling her life and the only thing grounding her was her ever-supportive husband Jonathan. He even took the responsibility and led the project while she had to rest as pregnant.
When Ethan came to this world at last, she wasted no more time on maternity leave and went back to work full force. Ethan usually stayed with a nanny. The woman was nice but spoke to him mostly in French, hence making him bilingual. His parents were like strangers to him even if he was so little he could barely comprehend their work and behavior.
The year he turned four was an especially bad one for his mother. She was so close to finding the right solution to the formula's side effects. It took her years but she was on the verge of a great discovery. And then the worst stage of her life came with new pressure on her - the government felt like she wasn't showing any positive results and threatened to stop the project. She was even more engrossed in the work than before.
The final straw for her was when Ethan's nanny broke a leg and couldn't come. Ethan wasn't yet in kindergarten and Marion couldn't find a new nanny on such short notice so she made a decision. A wrong one. She took her four-year-old son to the scientific facility where she worked along with her husband.
There, Ethan was left in an office with a student, barely an adult himself, who was helping with the project as well. The man wasn't that important since he was left with babysitting. Thinking Ethan was playing with his plane toys, he left to get himself a coffee from a cafeteria but upon his return, Ethan was gone from the office. The four-year-old threw his plane around, making it fly for a few seconds before it hit the ground. During his game, he stumbled into a lab. No one was currently inside so there was no one who would notice the small kid.
He continued throwing the plane around but it flew a little higher and landed on a shelf. He was eager to get it back and started climbing the glass shelves. He was just inches away from the toy when the brittle glass shelf below his feet cracked and broke. He immediately tripped and tried to save himself by clutching the other shelves but he was sent flying to the ground, the shelf and all its contents falling right on top of him.
Someone heard the commotion and ran inside the laboratory. Ethan was instantly transported to a hospital.
He had just minor injuries from the fall and some cuts from the glass but what they feared was that some of the chemicals or the special formula that were in the cabinet could have somehow affected him. As many tests soon proved, something was wrong with him. The formula made him strong and altered his DNA, it enhanced his senses and everything it was supposed to, but some of the side effects persisted. The part of the wolf DNA used in the formula made its consumers grow fangs and claws and their eyes shone yellow, almost golden. Ethan shared all these side effects with the test subjects but as opposed to them, he was in a better control. The test subjects had the fangs and claws permanently, that was the biggest issue but Ethan's DNA was influenced by the other chemicals, not just the formula, and made the fangs, claws and glowing eyes appear only when he was feeling a strong emotion. Mostly anger, hate or surprise.
His parents tried to cover up the accident but were unable to, the government found out and stopped the project, considering it too dangerous to continue. Everyone working was tied by contract to stay silent with great fines and even imprisonment possible, were they to talk about the nature of the project to an outsider. Since it was a failure, it stayed classified.
Marion was actually pregnant again, with Ethan's future sister Ava and unaware of it. By trying to find out what combination of chemicals affected her son, Marion unconsciously exposed her baby to the same chemicals. She thought Ethan could die from the chemicals so in her rush, she wasn't exactly careful with the chemicals and breathed in quite an amount. Soon after, she found out about the pregnancy and did a test on herself. The baby in her had already had a different set of DNA. Just like Ethan, but in a smaller portion, the child would still have some of the side effects from the formula, but they would be easier to control. On the other hand, the child would never be quite as strong as her brother.
Ava was born, and just as the tests predicted, she was special like her brother. Jonathan was having a hard time coping with his kids' newly acquired abilities. It was up to Marion to solve this issue, he selfishly retreated to the university, where he became a respected chemistry professor after the project was ended.
Marion was struggling to keep her sanity. She wasn't working anymore, losing her greatest passion. She had to fire the French nanny who wouldn't understand what was happening to the kids. Much to Ethan's dismay, he liked the lady more than his own parents. But with his enhanced abilities, he quickly found out there had to be major changes done to their life.
It was the year he was supposed to start first grade but he now couldn't. Ava was too small and Marion forbade him from even going to his sister's room in fear that he might accidentally hurt her. It saddened Ethan, but he was keen on learning to control his new abilities so he could play with Ava. He already loved her very much and was protective of her.
Marion was teaching him control over his emotions and also homeschooling him. When she had few spare minutes between taking care of two young kids, she worked on a way to rid Ethan and Ava of the formula she had created with her scientific team.
She wasn't successful at all. Jonathan grew even more distant, Ethan barely even talked to him in the mornings before their father had the chance to leave. Ethan was sure their father feared them to some extent. When Jonathan started cheating on Marion with one of his older students and threatened to leave the family if she didn't find the cure for their kids, Marion couldn't take it anymore. She overdosed on sleeping pills. Ethan found her dead body the next day. He was having a hard time controlling his feral side but he calmed down because someone had to take care of Ava who was only two. Their father wasn't home, he didn't return the previous night. He was probably cheating on Marion as she took the pills that ended her life.
Ethan called him and since Marion was dead, Jonathan couldn't just leave his kids. They were his responsibility as well and since they were special, he couldn't just put them in foster homes. His disdain quickly showed and he started being verbally abusive to an already teenage Ethan, Ava wasn't as exposed to the abuse because she was still younger. It wasn't a nice childhood but Jonathan provided all they needed. He homeschooled the two of them himself. He wasn't very fond of kids and was like a stranger to them. He was more of a strict teacher to Ava than a father. He treated her considerably better than Ethan.
Ava knew Jonathan became verbally abusive towards Ethan but being the overprotective brother Ethan was, he made sure she stayed out of it. This made her hate her father. When Ethan was old enough to attend high school, Jonathan allowed it. Ethan had enough control over his werewolf side. When Ava was younger, she started calling herself a werewolf, so that's what Ethan thought of himself, too. They were basically werewolves, they were just accidentally made in a laboratory.
During his teen years, Ethan was already a handsome young man and used his good looks in his favour. Not just his looks though, he used his enhanced abilities to get into a football team, but he wasn't reckless by far and made sure no one would find out. During the years there, he pretended to be someone else, although not entirely. He was known as a great sportsman, who called everyone, no matter their status or appearance, a pet name. It was just something he did and was easily remembered.
His so-called friends were bullies and drunkards, party animals - a classical behaviour for teenage football players but Ethan never participated in the torment of younger students, but he also didn't stop them. He only stepped in when it was getting too out of hand, it wasn't too often though. He didn't want to get involved in a fight since he knew he would win and could reveal his condition.
He never opened up to anyone, not even the people he casually dated from time to time. The boys he hung out with could be considered friends, but for him, they were just a nice cover, he didn't want to be an outsider so he made sure he was labelled a football player. He kept his grades average to fit in and raise no suspicions, but in reality, he was far more advanced than his classmates and could easily be a straight As student, but he didn't want that kind of spotlight. It didn't bother him that most of the school brushed him off as a little dumber footballer. As long as they didn't know the truth about him, he was fine.
He already graduated by the time his sister was to attend high school. But since his father was starting to get out of hand, Ethan decided to move away and took his sister with him. She didn't protest in the slightest. Their father never really loved them, maybe Ethan in the beginning, but that all changed with Ethan's accident. He had to find work to provide for himself and his sister, who started attending public high school, though not the same one as Ethan, and immediately fell in love with it. She could finally make friends and be the social butterfly she always wanted to be. She even met often with her old French nanny and Ethan often joined their meetings, since he was really close with the woman before she was fired. Ava is still in high school and a popular girl, but not like her brother was. She had great grades and participated in almost every school project. She loved leading and working with people and everyone liked her.
Ethan currently works various jobs so that he can afford college later, for himself and Ava as well. Their mother left them some money from her life insurance and their father feels a little guilty and sends them money from time to time, he is still a respected professor.
Ava doesn't yet know what job she wants in the future, other than that something with people, but she encourages her brother to go to college already because it's something he really wants and he is basically a genius like their parents and wants to follow in their mother's footsteps as a bioengineer.
While going from one job to another, he self-studies biology, chemistry and engineering. Ava is very supportive because she knows what made him so interested in bioengineering in the first place - their werewolf part. He wants to find a cure for them. However much his enhanced senses and abilities helped him in the past, he still feels controlled by the constant fear of what would happen if anyone found out or what would happen if he lost control even once. Ava doesn't mind all that much because unlike him, she has it easier.
