InsaneJournal

To call her a complex woman, would not be nearly enough to express Rhiona in just a few words. She has spent her entire life surrounded by Irish Mob figures. Both the hierarchy and the lowest of the low had all known her father well if not already considering him an extended family member. So to say the 'mob mentality' came to her at a young age, would be correct.

She is very much a Chameleon in many ways. Not only adapting to her surroundings, but adapting to 'who' she need's to be. It is no secret to the Mob that she has extensive skills in the art of the Con, and with such she gains a secure control on her own feelings, emotions, and state of mind. This perhaps being the main reason many consider her a 'bitch' if not worse. Her thoughts being that any signs of emotion are a sign of weakness, and that just can't happen in her line of work.

This is not to say that she is completely void of all emotion, that's hardly the case really. Hiding it very well she wears her heart on her sleeve, and it often is damaged time and time again...as is her liver.

Do to her high demand of privacy with what little life of her own she leads, she does not often go by her actual name. Mainly because very few actually know it, thus since her parent's death and her welcoming into the family she has been known as simply 'Cross' rumored to be due to the rarely seen but rather large cross she wears on her skin.

Plush green fields were forever far from such a life that Mykael McKenna would involve himself in, as well as his children in the end. Her father's dealings within the streets of his homeland would prove to pave the way for at least one of his children, if not all of them.

Rhiona's youth would be spent only partly in Dublin. For reasons her father would not share, and those that his wife knew to ask about, they would pick up and made the move to the States when Rhiona was just six year's old. South Boston would be an appreciative home for the McKenna family, a tightly knit community dominately made up of Irish Catholic's all living in relatively low-income apartment complexes and housing. It has always been very well known that anything that happened within the community, often remained known to only those within the community. There came no difference to that unspoken rule no matter what your 'occupation' would be.

Growing up she would watch her father, as years went on she would learn from him. Despite her mother's efforts to keep her as far from that life as possible for sanity sake and to save her family as she seen it, Rhiona had already rooted herself and aligned her heart with a second family. Throughout high school she would manage a life just like any other young woman's. Only most knew not to mess with the blue eyed brunette, already taking to sparring with her father and his associates. Rhi would prove to be more than a worthy apponent, and a quick learner as well. The methods of her after-school life were unheard of by most families, but this was what a normal life consist of for her, as well as most of her siblings. College had posed a possibility in her future, though she wasn't so sure that was the correct route for her to travel at the time.

Though her family had always been deeply rooted in religion it was imperitive for her father to have ties within all walks of life. One of these ties included more than a few heavily trained IRA members that were of the unsavory sort. Mykael McKenna would not be able to see it throughout Rhiona's lifespan but he was setting up the building blocks to create a calculated monster. Taken away from the troubles she was already getting herself into, and the people she was quickly surrounding herself with her father would force her to see the error of her ways. The mess that she could make, the wolves that were not to have her. Rhiona would be sent home, not to her mother's care, but to relatives back home in Dublin so that she could get herself a decent education.

Mykael thought that she would be able to correct her path, and make a better life for herself there, the world had very different plans however. Mykael and Abigail McKenna would be put onto bent knee and assassinated in cold blood. There were no rumor's to what had happened, or who had done it. Mykael McKenna's blood, sweat, and tears had always belonged to the Irish. He was a valuable asset, and a deeply routed connection not only to Ireland, but Boston and New York City for various means as well. One of the other families sought to rid the Irish of this prominent figure, and with time they were able to do so. Now it's just a matter of who pulled the trigger, and who ordered the hit.

Once word had traveled to Ireland, it would be set in stone. Rhiona would make the trip across town to visit the faces she hadn't seen since she was small girl. They had all known her father well, and heard of Rhiona's troublesome ways back in the States. Stubborn and persistent she would make an agreement with the family, one that would remain in only two minds and theirs alone. Though vengeance was not the brightest of lights to have shine from the heart it would be the brightest from her own.

Graduating from the University after a few years she would have the US equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a background in Criminal Behavioral Studies. Most people would have gone on to pursue a career in Justice with a background as well rounded as her own, that was not Rhiona's case. Having done her own research, her own means of mental and physical training with the aide of the unknown as her study cases she would develop a kinship with what could be matched in horror with most Terroristic groups of the past and present. The physical brutality came naturally to her, and what did not she trained relentlessly with the dependency of her family and those trusted most to obtain the knowledge and know-how.

Rhiona would call Ireland her home for a number of years, working for those that were now truly her family. Never to have one of her own, as far as any records could show at the least. Meanwhile the turmoil in Chicago would be rumbling at a steady boil, Rhiona would be making plans to finally move back to the States. A tip off from another member would be given that Rhiona may just find it very useful as well as helpful to move to Chicago. The possibility of her parent's killer still alive and well, and living there was strong. It was also wearily noted by those that had looked after her that it could very well be a hoax, or even a well thought out plan to finish off the rest of the McKenna clan. Rhiona would take the risk however, and move to Chicago.

Since then Rhiona has lived an albeit quiet life. The social world far from known to her as many other's would see it. Her work life consisted of taking shifts at The Holy Ground, just don't confuse her for one of the 'flirty' girls and you'll be fine. Family life, consisted of just that. Her loyalties strong as the blood pumping through her veins, her experience well placed within the organization. Doing what she does best, and taking the utmost enjoyment out of every moment of it.