Dina was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1985, to Patrick and Meagan Murphy. Patrick was a dockworker, and Meagan a homemaker, who spent most of her time raising the rather large family, including Dina's brothers Michael and Miles. Money was tight, and life was hard but good.
Of course, all that was going to change when Dina was still young. Patrick wasn't just a dockworker, but a member of the Irish Republican Army, and he'd also brought her oldest brother Michael into things. It proved to be not the best of plans when both her father and brother were killed by the authorities when trying to set a bomb.
Thankfully, family and loyalty counts for a good deal, and some of her father's friends (as well as being fellow IRA members) took to looking after the family. Meagan got a job as a waitress to help pay the bills, which mostly left Miles and Dina on their own. Dina was nine; Miles was fourteen.
Unfortunately, put a young boy in charge of babysitting his sister, add some frequently-present terrorists, and add the anger and upset of a pair of children angry at losing their father, and you can almost spell out how this story goes. Miles began to get more and more involved with the IRA as well, and Dina too…at first mostly being dragged along, but in time soaking up the politics, the anger, the zeitgeist of the group by being around them. She was too young to do much in the way of fighting, but she could carry messages, move supplies and the like.
When she was twelve, there was a splintering. The IRA was going to make peace. Only some of the more violent, radical, and angry members weren't ready for peace. They broke off, forming a group called the True Irish Republican Army, or TIRA. Both Miles and Dina went with them, joining the splinter group.
Time passed. Dina moved from just running supplies and messages to being an active member of TIRA. People underestimated a woman, and she was frequently able to get bombs into places that men might have been more scrutinized. They also tended to hesitate in a fight with her…usually just enough to let her get the shot off first. Everything was going well…until one night in 2004.
Dina was out trying to plant an explosive near the courthouse. Unfortunately, she didn't know that the guards were on a heightened state of alert due to a tip from a TIRA member who'd gone snitch. They had extra patrols out. She was caught, and things ended up in a firefight. She killed two of the guards, and managed to start getting away from the courthouse, but not without taking a couple rounds herself. She ran, stumbling through alleys and darkened streets, police sirens pursuing her.
And then she had the blind dumb luck to stumble right into Kazimir and Amato, who were traveling in Ireland at the time, on their own tasks. It was a surprise to both…and moreso when Amato found he couldn't read her. She passed out moments thereafter, bleeding badly.
However, Kazimir was intrigued by someone with this odd…resistance. Moreso when a quick testing touch proved her immune to -his- ability as well. Someone like that, with her skills…was someone he could use. He arranged to get her out of Ireland, and had her nursed back to health. And when she'd recovered, he came to her with an offer. A chance to pay the debt she owed him. A chance to put herself into a position of power. To smite the wicked and make things right.
