Onyx’s past lives

*“Words like ‘steal’ and ‘thief’ are so limiting… I acquire the forbidden.”* — Spoilers for *Past Due* follow.

## Onyx’s past lives

### **Related pages**

* Alex’s past lives
* Family
* Onyx
* **Onyx’s past lives**
* Reincarnation

The past lives and arcane history of Onyx.

## History

Onyx remembers little of most of her past incarnations, including the first known one. However, they were all Practitioners and they were all pursued by the Family.⁠ Other similiarities are that they were usually women, and that they had dark hair, a preference for dark clothes, and a strong talent for magics of the mind.⁠

### First incarnation

Proto-Onyx was born into the Family, a ruthless and highly influential clan of Practitioners. Her guardian angel was Joel, who kept by her even though she was a Practitioner. Proto-Onyx could see him and other angels, and lonely and curious she summoned him and bound him to a circle. This was discovered by her family, who took Joel captive.⁠

Unable to free Joel from captivity and torture, he told her to flee. She reached Egypt, where she assisted Ramesses II and Merneptah to resist them.⁠⁠ She also cast a spell engraved on stone tablets in an attempt to free herself from the past and remorse for capturing Joel, crafted to influence her future lives as well.⁠⁠

### Second incarnation

Her second incarnation was reborn in Egypt and retained knowledge of the Family, possibly through the earlier spell on the tablets. She probably assisted Ramesses III against the Family. While looking over the dead and wounded after a battle she was cursed by a dying Malike to never find anyone to defend her.⁠

### Elena

Elena was a Romani woman who lived through World War 2, and thus also the Romani genocide. She was part of a group that Simon saved from German soldiers, costing his own life in return. She comforted him in his final moments, recognizing Simon as someone who had lived through too much strife and sorrow.⁠

Elena took upon herself to bring Simon’s belongings to his fiancée Marie in Paris. She gave Marie most of the items, keeping only his dog tags. Soon after, members of the Family confronted Elena. After a short exchange, she let Kashvi cast the reawakening spell, altering its effects while holding Simon’s dog tags.⁠ The new effect of the spell was to make sure Simon and she would meet again.⁠⁠ However, the spell required such power that it killed her.⁠

Simon’s actions broke Malike’s curse on her soul.⁠

During the ritual to settle Alex’s traumatic memories of past lives, Onyx and Elena melded together and appeared as one person.⁠ This is because Elena’s soul was later reincarnated as Onyx.

For more information, see Elena.

## Theories

Donald's disparaging remarks to Rachel about letting Alex meet “that filthy Gypsy witch” implies that Simon’s encounter with Elena somehow altered his destiny enough that he gained some freedom from his guardian angel’s influence, or at least that Donald believes so.⁠

In effect, they mutually saved each other: Simon broke the curse on Onyx, and Elena broke part of Donald’s hold on Alex.

The stone tablets displayed in Alexandria also implies that the first Onyx managed a spell that influenced her future lives, and possibly tied her to Joel.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2  *Past Due*, chapter 20
2. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 26
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1  *Past Due*, chapter 10
4. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 21
5. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 4
6. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 8
7. ↑  *Good Intentions*, Prologue
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1  *Past Due*, Prologue
9. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 9
10. ↑  *Past Due*, chapter 27
11. ↑  *Natural Consequences*, chapter 10
12. ↑  *Natural Consequences*, chapter 13