Lian Yen
First Referenced:
The New Exodus Vanguard (Part 1)
Other References:
The New Exodus Vanguard (Various parts)
Lian Yen is a member of The New Exodus Vanguard, and part of the team lead by Kendrick Merrill. She is of Chinese heritage, however her age and true background is largely unknown.
During induction, Lian claimed to have joined the Vanguard after her remaining family, consisting of her grandfather, had been wiped out. She paired up with Bill Nash during the drunken revelry prior to departing the staging area of The New Exodus Vanguard, although it has since transpired that this was purely an act to fit in with the team and hide her true nature.
Lian appears to possess a form of split personality, which craves to murder and torture others, generally men, who she exploits through sexual attraction. She has murdered many times in the past, generally using paralytic substances to draw out the process for her victim. Despite this, Lian prefers to carry out her murders in a restrained and clean fashion, to minimize the chance of being exposed or caught.
Lian is skilled in deception, both practicing it and recognizing it in others, which she utilizes to great effect when exploring within the population of Amber Two to determine their shared secret. Despite her skill in hiding her true nature, Kendrick Merrill recognized her hidden vicious streak during their induction to the Vanguard forces.
After her capture on Amber Two, Lian was subject to an aborted autopsy when she was mistakenly assumed to be dead, due to a number of paralytic agents she had taken. The autopsy came to an abrupt end when Lian recovered from her paralysis and murdered the medical staff undertaking the autopsy. She did however have her hair shaved off, and a partial incision was made in her skull by a bone saw.
Lian's defective mental state, responsible for her murderous impulses, also proved to be a saving grace for the other members of her team when they encountered a Purple Slice reality. The effects of Purple Slice cancelled out Lian's murderous impulses, allowing her to remain sane and functional, and carry out a rescue when all other members of her team were afflicted. The lingering effects of her brief sanity allowed Lian to experience a normal emotional state, and to express her love for her fellow teammates. After repeated trips through the Purple Slice reality to retrieve each member of the team, Lian's mental state reached a breaking point. She could no longer control her murderous urges and attempts to torture and kill several members of the vanguard. Edgar Brace offers to let her kill him first instead of the others but tricks her, pinning her to the ground and nearly killing her.
Upon being pinned to the ground Lian shows remorse for her actions and explains to the vanguard that she has always been this way but never wanted to take her urges out on them. The vanguard then decides what to do with her and splits into two disagreeing groups. Mona Wygant, [[Randy Ellwood], Bill Nash, and Jennifer Pixley are for Lian staying, stating it's possible her immunity to insanity could be an asset. Carmen Faulkner, Cheng Yao, Kendrick Merrill think it's too dangerous to have her as a part of the group. Upon seeing this divide Edgar Brace tosses Lian a gun and tells her that the only way to unify the group is to kill herself, eliminating the choice. Lian puts the gun to her head and pulls the trigger only to find it was unloaded. Although Carmen, Cheng, and Kendrick are still wary they allow her to stay after proving she would kill herself for the well being of the team.
After this incident Lian forms an emotional bond with Bill. She tries to calm him down when they are captured by Her Glory and tries to give him hope by telling him they would settle down somewhere once this is all over. Bill listens to her and calms down momentarily but is overcome by fear and uses his Amethyst Suicide Device. Lian considers using her own afterwards but decides to stay to possibly help the rest of her squad.
After the explosion in Her Glory's palace, Lian escapes through a portal with Bill and Mona. Upon reaching the other side the reality of her situation sinks in and she loses grip of her sanity. She struggles aloud with herself and Edgar tries to help her. Lian stabs Edgar multiple times then runs away screaming, "I'm sorry." Lian shoots herself in the head but fails to kill herself and is only grazed.
Lian eventually ends up on the Zkirax homeworld. Thinking her squad is dead, Lian no longer has any reason to restrain herself and kills multiple Zkirax citizens, although she avoids killing the humans that are also residing there. After rescuing Cheng, Lian is the second stop during the Week of Hell. When discovered by the vanguard, Lian initially tries to attack them, then upon realizing who they were and that Edgar was still alive, she silently rejoins the group.
When the group finds themselves in the midst of the Grey Riders, Lian contacts Kendrick privately and tells him that they should kill their leader now while they have the chance. Lian and Kendrick ambush the Leader of the Grey Riders, but are easily defeated. After Kendrick is captured, Lian escapes and radios the rest of the squad. Lian later returns to the squad in a Grey Rider uniform and is mysteriously silent about what happened and how she obtained it. Later, when the Grey Riders ambush the squad, Lian mysteriously disappears.
Traits: Insane, psychopathic serial killer, who seems to take some delight in drawing out the process of killing others. Exhibits some aspects of obsessive-compusive disorder. Skilled in hand-to-hand combat and deception. Emotionally distant due to her psychopathic traits, channeling emotional reactions inwards until they can be released in a controlled fashion. Deeply loyal and loving of her teammates, despite her insanity.
