Yvette was born in a rural area in Russia in 1988, far from any border and in a community that lived its daily life without as much as any other would. During her childhood years she wasn't that aware of the political climate in the world, because which child would be? Some years were good, some were bad, but her family was healthy and strong and she went through her days at home helping her mother and arguing with her siblings sometimes. All in all, she remembers it as a good life. An ideal life, in a way. All of this changed though, in such short a time that it seems impossible that she was living the same human life before and after the event.
One evening when the family were preparing for supper a man broke into their house. He had black hair that stood on end, and some kind of energy crackling between his fingers. Yvette didn't understand why, but he was very angry at something, and he kept looking over his shoulder, as if expecting someone to come after him. He demanded money from her father, and things. But the family had very little and what they could give didn't satisfy him. Papa tried to explain it was all they had, but he wasn't believed, and finally the stranger sent something. White hot, burning, crashing into Yvette's mother. She died screaming.
There was a struggle. Father tried to defend his children, and the sons tried to help. All died. Finally, the man turned to kill the twelve year old girl, but someone else came in and stopped him. Yvette doesn't remember quite how that happened, but the black haired man ran away, and the other tried to calm her down. His fingers touched her lips and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. Her face rotted, fell away, and there was such a terrible pain. It shook her, right through the core, and then… it lessened again, in moments. She didn't understand how any of this happened, but pulled back none the less. Too scared to make much sense of anything that was happening.
She hadn't much more than pulled back from the stranger when the first man returned through the door. There was another flah of energy and then the one that had tried to comfort her fell down to the floor. Yvette saw the glimmer of the gun in his jacket, reached out for it. Took it. Aimed. Fired. It was luck more than anything, but the black haired one was dead on the floor. She turned the gun to the second man, who was twitching where he lay, though he wasn't dead. She was scared, shaking even, but murder doesn't come easy to a child, and this one had tried to help her. She thought, anyway.
The gun fell from her hands.
After that day Yvette's life was thoroughly changed. Kazimir, who had been chasing the Evolved and caught up with him at that house, offered her a choice that day. He could let her join her family in death, or come with him. She chose life that day, and followed a serial killer away from the only home she'd known. Together, they discovered the peculiarities of her newly discovered ability, the one that had allowed her to remain alive despite having the lower part of her face rotted away. He taught her German and English, let her get a good education, and personally trained her in self defense as well as weaponry. She knows her way around most handguns, as well as how to handle a knife in a fight and how to defend herself with hands and feet.
In honor of the man that she sees as a second father, she has taken his last name. Volken.
From the moment Kazimir touched her face Yvette has lived with the constant pain of having the lower part of her face removed, an injury that should have rightly killed her. However, that shock jumpstarted her own evolved ability: She's able to transfer her injuries and pain to others, or take those injuries upon herself. At first she could only use this ability through touch, but after many years of training she has refined her skills. The pain remains, however, and that injury is one she hasn't been able to get rid of. Nor is it likely that she ever will.
Yvette was and is aware of the work Kazimir does, and that if he succeeds he will one day reach the point where only they remain. To finish his work he will then have to kill both her and himself, and she knows that this is a thought that pains him. She's helped him in his work, when she got a bit older. Not as an assassin, but she has among other things been there to take the pain of those he's tortured, to allow them sanity enough to answer him. Then? They got it back again. While she is aware of Vanguard and what they do, very few of the members know of her existance, and even fewer still have seen her as Kazimir has tried to keep her distanced from what he does.
Little is publicly known among the Vanguard about Yvette. She was introduced to Amato Salucci, Feng Daiyu, Edmond Rasoul, Munin, and Ethan Holden while in Russia perusing an Evolved. Yvette's assistance in that mission was a point of speculation among Vanguard associates at the time, for she did not say a single word to Kazimir — or any other Vanguard member — for their entire mission.
After this mission, Yvette would not be seen again until shortly after Eileen Ruskin was recruited to the Vanguard. Kazimir organized a brief meeting with the young mute shortly before departing from London to depart for America with Amato and Munin. Yvette was never seen again by Vanguard members, though mention of her has been said in passing when Kazimir mentions european agents. Strangely, Yvette was not listed as one of Ethan's agents during his command of the Vanguard's European branch, and while her status as an Evolved is known, her power has never been detailed to other members.
Some among the Vanguard do not even know of her existence.
