Gemini hadn't been entirely truthful to either Cyclops or Vertigo. The truth was she had no idea how her father would react to her being invited to join the ranks of the X-Men. Pyro kept his feelings on most matters close to his chest, and it often took some amount of coaxing from Gemini before he would even share them with his daughter. She wasn't even sure what his feelings towards the X-Men were. It was true that he was now taking a more active role at the school – the stealth exercise for the little kids had been his idea – but she had no idea how he stood in relation to the ideals that Xavier had laid down for his charges to follow. While perhaps she no longer regarded Pyro with the same near idol-worship she'd felt as a child, she still loved and highly respected her foster father. She desperately wanted to know his opinion, and be reassured that she had his blessing on what she was taking part in tomorrow.

She found him in his room, sitting in his chair and staring at the small photograph that sat on the table. He seemed to have been spending a lot of time doing this recently, and Gemini wasn't sure what to make of it. She knew who the girl in the photograph was: a 17-year old named Jacqueline Cartier, a mutant girl who Dad had fallen in love with years ago, before Gemini was born. Jacqueline had been killed by humans, murdered in front of Pyro's eyes, and it was that grisly experience which had driven him to take over the Brotherhood after Magneto's death, in an attempt to destroy humanity and gain revenge for Jacqueline's demise.

Now those times were over. While she knew he still hadn't fully come to terms with the loss, and possibly never would, Pyro had lost his thirst for revenge. Those responsible for Jacqueline's death had also gone to their grave, and she guessed he was too tired and bitter and sorrowful to carry on the fight any longer. He had adopted Gemini as his daughter and devoted himself to her care and upbringing. That had been three years ago. Now that she was seventeen and growing increasingly independent, he was spending more and more of his time alone, brooding silently over his terrible memories and the love that had been stolen away from him.

"Dad," she said as she entered the room. "Got a minute?"

Pyro looked over, and smiled at his daughter, "Sure, honey. What's up?"

"I've got some news. And, well, I'm not too sure how much you're going to like it."

"Cyclops asked you to join the X-Men, didn't he?"

How did he know that? Gemini wondered.

"Yeah," she said.

"So what answer did you give him?"

"Well, he didn't ask us to give him an answer on the spot. He wants us to go with him on a mission tomorrow, so we can, you know, see what it's like to do what they do."

Pyro said nothing. Gemini waited, then grew impatient, "So, I – uh – I guess I wanted to know what you think."

"Well, what do you think? That's the important thing."

"I want to do it," she said, then quickly added. "I want to go with them on the mission, I mean. I'm not saying I want to join them. I don't know yet."

"OK. Well, I'm not going to stand in your way, if that's what you're worried about. It's your decision. It's your life, and you've got to shape it the way you want. Not the way I want."

"Yeah. Thanks, Dad. I guess my problem is I don't really know what I'd be letting myself in for if I did agree to join them."

"Why don't you ask Cassandra? She joined up, didn't she?"

"Yeah, last year. Good idea, I'll talk to her. Thanks, Dad."

Pyro watched as his daughter hurried from the room, on her way to the communications room downstairs. When he heard her footsteps descending the stairs, he stood, walked over and closed the door. Silence fell over the room once more, and he resumed his seat. His gaze once more fell upon the photograph of the girl he had once loved.

- - -

It was several rings before somebody picked up on the other end of the line.

"Uh – hello?" came a very tired voice. "London office."

"Hey, Helios, it's Gemini," said the girl. "Can I talk to Cassie?"

He yawned, "Do you have any idea what time of night it is here?"

Gemini's eyes suddenly widened. She'd clean forgotten about the time difference! She looked at her watch. Great. It would be the middle of the night in London!

"Sorry!" she said quickly. "I forgot. I'm not used to you guys being so far away."

"Don't worry about it," he said. "We weren't getting much sleep anyway."

"Why, what's wrong?"

Helios sighed, "Cassandra's having…visions. Or something, I dunno. She keeps moaning in her sleep, or waking up screaming."

"What's the matter with her?"

"Dunno. She says she doesn't want to talk about it. I said 'Well, if you can't tell your fiancé, who can you tell?' but it didn't change her mind."

"I'll talk to her," said Gemini. "I mean, maybe it's, like, a girl thing."

"Yeah, could be. She's awake now, I'll put her on. I'm going back to sleep."

The phone evidently changed hands, and an equally tired-sounding Cassandra answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, Cassie, it's Gemini. Are you OK?"

"Guess so. What's up?"

"Um – Helios says you're not sleeping well?"

"No. I'm…I'm having some pretty intense dreams."

"Intense? What do you mean by that?"

"I don't really wanna talk about it. So, uh, why are you calling us at this time in the morning? I guess there can't be an emergency, or you've have told me already."

"I'm sorry, Cassie, I forgot about the time difference. I just forgot. Stuff just slips my mind sometimes, you know how it is."

"Yeah, I know. So what's up?"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Ask away."

"The X-Men have asked me to join them," Gemini explained. "And, well, I'm not sure whether I'm ready for the commitment. I mean, I think I can agree with what it is they're trying to do. But I don't know whether or not I'm ready to devote the rest of my life to it. Anyway, my dad suggested I talk to you about it, since you made the same decision last year."

"I don't know how much I can help you, to be honest," said Cassandra. "I wasn't really in the same position. When Dominic asked me to marry him, he was already committed to his role with the X-Men. We talked about it and agreed that I would make the same commitment. It's an integral part of our life together. We knew we couldn't get married if one of us was committed to it and the other wasn't."

"Hmm…I see."

"What does Atlas think about it? Have they asked him too?"

"Yeah. I haven't really spoken to him about it. I think he probably feels the same as me: happy to go along with it, but wondering if it's the right time. But then he and I aren't really in the same situation as you and Helios. We're certainly nowhere near getting engaged."

"Well, talk to him. See what he thinks."

"OK. Thanks, Cassie. They've also asked me – asked us – to go along with them on a mission tomorrow, to give us a taste of what it's like."

"Yeah, they did the same for me, to make sure I knew what I was asking to join up to. Are you going on the mission?"

"Yeah."

"Well, see how you feel after that. And talk to Atlas. And call me back if you still feel unsure."

"OK, Cassie."

"Right, I'm going back to bed now."

"Right. Sleep well. See you later."

They hung up.

Gemini decided she would take Cassandra's advice, and went off in search of Atlas. Hopefully he was inside somewhere. If he was outside in the gardens or the woods, it was virtually impossible to find him. Even when he wasn't deliberately hiding, Atlas had a strange ability to blend in and disappear into any woodland environment. She headed upstairs to check the guys' bedroom. On the way she passed Chronos. His eyes strayed towards her chest and stayed there.

Creep, she thought, three years you've known me and you still stare at me like you've never seen a woman before.

"Have you seen Atlas?" she asked.

He obviously hadn't been expecting the question as he reacted in surprise, his eyes moving up to meet hers for a second, before returning to their original target.

"No, haven't seen him."

Gemini walked on past him, knowing full well that he'd now be staring at her backside. A few years ago it would have made her angry. Now she just pitied him. She turned the corner at arrived at the guys' dorm. The door was open, which was good, as she didn't really feel like knocking. Gemini glanced inside the room, but there was no sign of Atlas. Only Vertigo was there, lying on his bed reading something – probably a porn magazine. She turned back and headed downstairs. Maybe Atlas would be in the games room. Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs –

"Auntie Alex!"

Gemini turned in astonishment, just as a tiny three-year old girl came hurrying down the hallway towards her.

"Athena!" she cried in delight.

She kneeled down and gathered up her little niece in an affectionate cuddle.

"What are you doing here, honey?" asked the surprised teenager. "Shouldn't you be home in Florida? Where's your Mommy?"

"Mommy's back there," said the tiny child.

Gemini carried her niece back the way the little girl had just come, until she found Athena's mother: Gemini's older sister.

"Hey, Alex!"

"Hi, Melody!" the duplicator smiled brightly. "What brings you here? I thought it was my turn to visit you!"

"It is, but that's not why I'm here. I mean, I wanted to see you, but there is another reason."

"Such as?"

"Your professors told you about the conference on mutant rights that's taking place tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, I'm one of the keynote speakers."

The girl raised her eyebrows, "Really? Wow! I knew you were doing some work to try and promote mutant rights, but I didn't know you'd planned anything this big!"

"It's taken a lot of preparation. I couldn't have done it without your professors' help."

"How long are you staying?"

"For as long as the conference, and then a little while after that. I also wanted to take another look around the school. That's the third reason why I'm here."

"How come?"

"Because when Athena's ready to start school, I'm going to bring her here."

Gemini frowned, "Huh? But Athena's not – "

She turned to look at the little girl she held in her arms.

"Athena, honey," said Melody. "Show Auntie Alex what you can do."

The small child squirmed round in Gemini's arms until she was facing the other way. Two or three bags sat on the floor just inside the doorway – obviously Melody's luggage – and little Athena seemed to have focussed her attention on them. She inhaled, taking a deep breath, and then suddenly released it, exhaling as hard as she could towards the bags. For a moment nothing happened, then the luggage swayed and fell on to its side.

"Wow," Gemini said. "What was that?"

"Her mutation," Melody explained. "Her lungs have some strange ability to compress air and then release it with incredible force. That's all I know so far. I only found out about it recently. I caught her trying to blow the cookie tin off the shelf in the kitchen. Didn't I, honey?"

"Can I have a cookie now?" said Athena. "You said I could have one when we got here!"

The teenager looked confused, "But – but I thought mutations didn't start showing until puberty. She's only three."

"I know," said Melody. "I don't really understand it myself. Some scientists are saying that mutations are appearing earlier in kids' lives as time goes on. Something to do with rapid evolution. That's their theory, anyway."

"So that's why you want to bring her here? Wow, that's awesome! We won't have to travel hundreds of miles to visit each other any more!"

Melody nodded, then her face turned serious, "You understand why I didn't want to put her into a regular school."

"Totally. I know exactly what she'd go through."

The young mother sighed, "I feel like a hypocrite, almost, because here I am championing human-mutant peace, and yet I won't send my daughter to a school with humans."

"There's nothing wrong with that. It's still too early. Things will get better, but until then…"

Melody said nothing. Gemini's attempt to reassure her sister didn't appear to have worked. She was about to try and think of something else to say, when she was suddenly interrupted:

"Jacqueline?!" a voice cried from the stairs.

Pyro came running downstairs, and across the hall towards them. Frightened, Athena clutched Gemini. As he got closer, her foster father stopped. He stared at Melody, and then blinked, "Oh. Melody. I mean, uh, Ms…I'm sorry. I – I thought – you remind me of somebody."

"Dad? You all right?"

"Yeah, Gemini, I'm OK. Your sister just – looks a bit like – you know. With the way the light was sitting – and I wasn't expecting to see her here…"

Melody extended her hand, "Nice to meet you again, Mr, uh…?"

"Just call me Pyro," he said, shaking her hand. "I don't use any other name."

"Hey, Dad," said Gemini. "We have another mutant in the family."

"We do?"

"Sure thing. Athena, this is my daddy."

Athena turned shy and wouldn't say anything to Pyro, burying her face in Gemini's chest. Pyro said to Melody, "Can I take your bags upstairs? Do you know which room you'll be staying in?"

"I think so," said Melody, then turned to her sister. "Alex, I'll need a few minutes to settle in and get unpacked. Can I leave Athena with you?"

"Sure."

"Wait, I almost forgot. Have you heard any word from Symphony?"

Gemini winced at the name, and shook her head, "No, and I'm glad. As far as I know, she still thinks I'm dead."

"I guess so," said Melody.

"Why?"

"Oh, I've been trying to get in touch with her. Since Mom died, I haven't heard from her at all."

Alexandra shrugged. Nobody really knew what had become of Symphony. She'd been the middle sister of three, her age exactly halfway between Melody's and Alexandra's. Foolkiller had taken Gemini away from her family when she was eight, and she hadn't seen Symphony since then – but even back then, Symphony had been difficult, the black sheep of the family. She had hung around with the wrong kids at school. She had been caught trying cigarettes and soft drugs at the age of ten. She had shouted and sworn at her mother, and tried to slash Melody with a knife when her older sister attempted to talk sense into her. Symphony had bullied Gemini constantly, knowing that her mother hated her younger sister for being a mutant. Gemini wasn't really too unhappy that she had never seen her middle sister again. All she knew was what Melody had told her since then – Symphony had dropped out of school at fourteen and gone off to get a job with some modelling agency. She had always been the most beautiful of the three sisters, and had never missed an opportunity to remind the other two of that fact. That was the last the family had heard of her. After that, their mother had died, and Melody had believed Gemini to be dead also.

"Why do you want to get back in touch with her?" Gemini asked. "I thought she hated our guts. Remember what she used to do when we were kids?"

"Well, she may have changed. As you said, we were kids. Maybe Symphony's still as horrible as ever, but it's worth giving her a chance."

Alexandra brightened, "I guess. Well, let me know if you find out anything."

"Yeah, I will. See you in a bit."