Gemini

This is my August Teslen GW fic – Stargazing – or at least the beginning of it.

Things you need to know: Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces) are the two twin top stars in the constellation of Gemini, they were also (in mythology) twin brothers. There are many different versions of the stories about them, but in the version I'm using they both had different fathers: Pollux's father was Zeus so he was immortal, but Castor was not. When Castor was mortally wounded Pollux opted – with the help of Zeus – to share his immortality with his brother, and the twins shared their time between Hades and Olympus, also becoming part of the constellation Gemini. The Spartans associated them with dual kingship. The brothers 'eloped' with the daughters of their uncle Leucippus, who were already engaged to their cousins. When taking revenge on these same cousins they sort of inadvertently helped start the Trojan war by leaving Helen – their sister – with Paris.

Sorry if this isn't all correct – I tried my best, so let's call it AU, as it will be later anyway.

Set early season 2.

The way this is written may seem slightly odd, maybe OOC, but you'll see why. Unbeta'd, disclaimed. Enjoy :D

Chapter 1 - Stargazing

Helen looked up.

Correction: Helen opened her eyes and found that she was looking up.

Helen kept looking up.

It was a beautiful night; by the depth of darkness she judged it to be about two in the morning, but she couldn't be bothered to raise her arm to check the watch that she may or may not have been wearing. It wasn't as if it really mattered anyway – as far as she could remember there was nowhere she had to be anytime soon. Well, there were lots of places that maybe she should be, where they would like her to be; but nothing urgent. The world wasn't ending today.

Or maybe it was. She couldn't really remember, but she was sure Will would come and find her if it was, so it wouldn't matter if she just lay here for a while, and admired the beautiful night.

The stars were twinkling temptingly down at her, the surrounding trees suddenly giving way to their conquered night. She'd always wondered (to herself at least) whether there was life out there, among those twinkling stars. She'd only told Ashley about that, when her daughter had been about eight and had had an obsessive stage with space. Helen had been surprised with the fascination, after all, they saw plenty of weird, alien-like things everyday; there was enough on earth to keep you occupied – so she blamed too much sci-fi. But Helen had been happy to sit up and talk about it, long past both their bed times; exploring the possibilities, wondering aloud to each other about what people from other worlds would look like. Helen had for once let go of her scientific-self and let herself laugh with glee at the preposterous and improbable ideas they came up with: red smurfs with elephant trunks had been her favourite.

They'd talked about travelling to other worlds, Ashley excitedly exclaiming that she'd like to visit Saturn one day, and wondering if they would have met aliens when she was old enough to get a job. Helen had hummed and they'd fallen into silence.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter." Ashley broke the serene atmosphere after a moment.

Helen had looked at her, puzzled. "Why ever not?"

"Cos if I'm too old to go to Saturn and meet aliens you can always go, and tell them hi from me."

Helen still remembered that her daughter's innocent reply had shocked her to the core; the childish understanding of her mother's longevity only serving to remind her that she would be likely to outlive her. Ashley had fallen asleep soon afterwards, and Helen had cradled her small body throughout the night.

A particularly bright star served to bring Helen back to the present. She stared at it for a while, before realising that it wasn't a star at all. The little flashing lights were a tell tale sign that it was in fact a plane. She followed its descent with her eyes – it would probably land not too far away – before a familiar line of three stars caught her attention.

Orion's belt; a navigational aide for many over the years.

She traced the stars that made up the distinctive form of Orion: Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel...

She'd always loved this particular constellation, maybe because she felt an affinity with The Hunter: chasing the prey to the farthest edges of the world, never giving up, planning everything to the letter only to have to abandon all strategies and just wing it – which was how she'd ended up where she was today. And Helen loved it; her fast-paced, thrilling life; always something to do, species to discover, friends to make.

Up from her fellow hunter's arm was the less distinctive Gemini, with its twin stars; Castor and Pollux. In Oxford one night, herself and Nikola had met in a small park that was now long gone, laid down on the grass and stared up at them. They'd joked about how they were those twins.

"We'll have many adventures together Nikola."

Nikola had hummed. "Yes; hunting strange boars, wrecking cities, stealing beautiful women from their fiancés..."

Helen slapped his shoulder playfully. "You can do enough of that for the both of us."

"Come now Helen, you're not jealous, are you?"

She laughed, but didn't answer. "Does that mean we're going to indirectly help to start another Trojan war?"

Nikola grinned cheekily. "You never know. Taking revenge on Griffin and Watson for that trick they pulled yesterday could be fun."

Helen had heard the frown in Nikola's voice, and remembered how that particular prank hadn't gone down well, mainly because Nikola had ended up with bright pink hair for several hours afterwards. In an attempt to distract him from plotting the downfall of two of her friends, she pulled him back to their conversation.

"So which one are you then?"

"Pollux, obviously; what with being a vampire now and all."

"Pollux wasn't a vampire. An abnormal maybe, but not a vampire."

"Says you."

"Nikola, don't be daft!"

"Me, daft? Never. Even so, that wasn't what I meant." Helen had known that anyway, but it didn't hurt to tease him. "What I meant, was that – at least according to some versions – Pollux was immortal, and now so am I."

"Does that mean I can call you Polly then?"

Nikola turned his head, eyes wide. "Don't you dare."

"Why not...Polly?"

"Helen..." The deeper tone in his voice told her his fangs were out. But it didn't bother her anymore – she knew he wouldn't hurt her.

"Polly..." she countered.

Nikola flopped his head backwards again, giving a dramatic sigh. "You're insufferable."

"But you love me for it." There was a pause, and Helen wondered if her light-hearted tone had caught him off guard. She was just about to speak again she felt his hand seek out her own and give it a quick squeeze, before retreating.

"And I always will. Never change." He whispered.

"I'll try." She whispered back.

"Helen, if I could, like Pollux did for Castor, I would share my immortality with you." It was a surprisingly sincere, caring statement, and Helen's eyes couldn't help but start to fill with tears. Repeating his earlier gesture, she reached out and gave his hand a quick squeeze, to show she appreciated the comment. She saw him smile slightly, before he continued. "Although, I could just bite you, make you a vampire, and we could rule the world together: dual kingship, if you will."

Helen laughed, one part of her glad to be back on familiar ground with her friend, another saddened that he'd swept aside his emotions once more.

They stared up at the stars some more.

Helen stared up at the stars some more; wishing that Nikola was here with her now. But as usual he'd run away, legged it as soon as he could after the incident with...Ashley.

She'd understood it, really she had; he'd invented the weapon that she'd pointed at her daughter, which could have killed her daughter. It didn't matter that she hadn't used against her, that in the end Ashley had...it didn't matter: Ashley had died and his actions had led to it. Or at least that was how he'd seen it, and she hadn't confronted him, hadn't reassured him, had just...her actions had probably only convinced him of his guilt, and he'd fled.

Helen still couldn't help but feel disappointed.

She turned her attention back to the stars, which she was pretty sure had moved slightly from when she'd first started looking.

Taurus caught her eye next.

It wasn't really one she'd been that interested in before, although she had stared at it for a long time when Henry had once – quite accurately – stated that it looked much more like a bent fork than a bull. Staring at it some more now, Helen eventually came to the conclusion that it was actually a giant K. K for Knowledge, K for Killing, K for...Kleenex. Yes, she decided, some helpful god had left her a message in the sky: get some tissues and mop up that awful red stain on your shirt, and that one on your leg, and you arm...

Now that she concentrated, Helen could tell that the sky had definitely become several shades lighter while she was...pondering. Still pitch black, but a lighter pitch black.

Helen smiled.

For the first time in a long while she felt at peace: just lying here in the cool grass, alone, staring up at the sky. Her generally constant headache had retreated to a dull ache, and as time passed she felt as if it was finally receding altogether.

And then the stars started going out. One by one at the bottom of her vision, and possibly beyond, though she wasn't going to move her head to find out, as that probably had a nice red stain on it too, and she wouldn't want to rub it in or it'd be hellish to remove. Bright little stars just vanishing, the blackness creeping steadily upwards: Saiph, Rigel...until the Hunter was gone. Next went the Kleenex, although it started disappearing before Orion's head. After Taurus several more stars lost their lives in the fruitless battle against the dreadful darkness before Gemini succumbed. Castor and Pollux blinked as the stars above them vanished, but remained stubbornly in place. In fact, they seemed to Helen to be getting bigger, gradually resembling two shapes that looked vaguely like eyes; lovely, familiar, blue eyes.

Maybe they come bearing Kleenex...and then the darkness got them too.

*grins* Sorry if you're confused, but the second chapter should be up soon and hopefully clear things up :) I'd love to know what you all thought.