Chronos lay on his back, on his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about Gemini. Why wouldn't she ever speak to him? He'd known he was in love with her from the first moment he'd set eyes on her. He'd tried everything he could think of to get her attention. He'd tried talking to her, sitting next to her, telling her she looked great…he couldn't stop staring at her. She was like a magnet to his eyes. It was like everything that was perfect and lovely about the female form had been brought together and put into one girl. It was because of her that he'd first agreed to stay at the school. Regardless of what it might take, he was determined to win her heart and make her his wife one day.

OK, so she was going out with Atlas just now, and had been for as long as he could remember, but that could change. There was nothing special about Atlas. Chronos knew he could offer Gemini so much more. He desperately wanted to spend some time with her, instead of just hanging about with Vertigo all the time. He closed his eyes, and sighed. He had no idea how he ought to approach her. He kept having these dreams, these fantasies, about her being in mortal danger, and him coming to her rescue. She would be on the very point of death, and he would freeze time around her, and carry her away to safety. Her gratitude would make her fall in love with him, and that would be that. They would live happily ever after. Huh. If only it could work out that easily. Unfortunately, Gemini wasn't the kind of girl who liked to play damsel-in-distress. She had far more experience of life-or-death situations than he had. If anything, it would probably work out the other way round, her saving him. He didn't think he could bear it if that happened.

There was also the problem of the girl's father. Pyro was still obsessively protective of his daughter when it came to her dating. Somehow Atlas had managed to win Pyro's trust, and was permitted to go out with Gemini. Chronos knew he didn't have Pyro's trust – the fire-starter had made that clear enough on several occasions. The boy wouldn't have been surprised if Gemini wore a chastity belt, to which Pyro had the only key. Well, regardless of that, the simple fact was that there was no way he could get near Gemini without first getting past Pyro. That was only the first problem, and Chronos didn't even know how to deal with it. Vertigo might have known – he could always smooth-talk people into giving him what he wanted – but Chronos was too embarrassed to ask.

Just as he was thinking about Vertigo, the ninja's voice cut into his thoughts, "Hello – who's this?"

"What?" said Chronos, sitting up.

Vertigo was kneeling on his bed, looking down out of the window, and Chronos moved over to see what had caught his attention. Their bedroom window had a view of the front gardens of the estate, and the path that led to the front door of the mansion. It was down this path that the object of Vertigo's attention was now walking. She was a girl probably in her late teens, tall (for a girl) and blonde, dressed in a white top and blue denim mini-skirt, carrying a bag over her shoulder. She continued to walk towards the school until the two boys' view of her was blocked.

"Wow," said Vertigo. "Nice legs. I wonder what she's doing here."

"You think she's come to stay here?"

"Let's go find out!"

The ninja immediately jumped from his bed and slipped through the doorway. Chronos, caught by surprise, hurried after him. He wasn't used to Vertigo moving any faster than his usual lazy saunter. Vertigo could move pretty fast when he chose, but he needed sufficient incentive in order to expend the energy required. Chronos was still struggling to keep up as Vertigo reached the bottom of the stairs and moved into the deserted hallway. Both of them looked towards the front door. They heard footsteps from outside, then the sound of the door-knocker being struck three times.

"Act casual," Vertigo instructed his companion.

Chronos tried his best. Strolling easily over to the door, Vertigo pulled it open. Standing outside, as he had hoped and expected, was the blonde girl.

"Can I help you?" he said smoothly.

"I – I don't know," she answered.

"Well, what brings you here?"

She looked at him blankly, "I – I don't really know that either."

Vertigo raised an eyebrow.

"Well, where are you from?" Chronos interjected.

"I don't know," she said.

"You don't know?"

"I don't remember."

"You don't remember?"

The girl was holding a piece of paper in her hands, and she held it out to them, "Look, I'm trying to reach the address that's on here."

"Xavier's School for the Gifted, Westchester, New York," Vertigo read. "Well, that's here."

She looked relieved. He asked, "So – what brings you to our door?"

"I told you, I don't know."

"OK…why are you trying to reach that address? This address, I mean."

"I don't know. It's the only clue I have."

"What are you talking about?"

The girl sighed, "I don't know! I don't know why I'm here! I don't remember where I came from or why I was trying to get here! I don't remember anything!"

"You've lost your memory?" Vertigo guessed.

"I guess so! All I remember is arriving at the train station with these clothes and this bag! Inside I found a piece of paper with this address. I asked around and found it was close enough to walk to, so – well, here I am."

"Here you are," he agreed.

"Now I just want to find out why I was coming here, and what happened, and why I can't remember!"

"Are you a mutant?" asked Chronos.

She blinked, "I don't know. I told you, I don't remember anything before today. Besides, what's that got to do with anything?"

Chronos looked at Vertigo. The ninja was still looking at the girl, admiring her figure. She frowned at them impatiently, "Look, is there someone who can help me? This is driving me nuts!"

"Sure, we'll help you," Vertigo said in a smooth voice. "Won't we?"

"Oh, yeah," said Chronos.

She looked at them expectantly. Vertigo asked, "Is there anything else in the bag?"

"Not much. Tissues, make-up and stuff. My train ticket, but half of it's been torn off. It doesn't say where I got here from."

"Why do you think you were coming here?" Chronos said.

Sounding frustrated, she snapped, "Look, I keep telling you I can't remember! I'd be delighted if I could just remember my own name, let alone why I came here!"

"Do you know what this place is?" said Vertigo.

"No, but I'm guessing from the description that it's a school," she said sarcastically. "For the gifted."

"Yes, it is. That's why we're here. We're gifted. Are you gifted too? Maybe that's why you were coming here."

"Maybe," she went on in the same sarcastic vein. "Or for all we know, I'm an itinerant one-woman circus, here to perform for twenty dollars a showing."

Vertigo looked at her deadpan, "Cool. I've got twenty dollars. I'll even lend you some juggling balls."

"You're making fun of me," she glared at him.

"No, no, this is how people normally act. You've just forgotten."

"Yeah, very funny, creep. I may have lost my memory but I still remember what an asshole is. And I'm looking at a pair of them right now."

"Hey, I didn't say anything," Chronos protested.

"Is there anyone else here I can talk to?" she demanded.

Chronos looked around, just as Shock and Rogue appeared from the door of one of the classrooms.

"Yeah. Come in," he said.

He and Vertigo watched as the girl brushed past them on her way into the building. The two X-Women stopped their conversation as they saw her approaching. When she was out of earshot, Chronos muttered, "That was a bit cruel, wasn't it?"

Vertigo said nothing. He continued to stare at the girl's legs until Shock led her off elsewhere. Then he turned to Chronos as if the younger boy hadn't spoken, and said, "Hey, are you going on the mission tomorrow?"

"What? Oh, yeah," said Chronos.

"Why?"

Because I want to impress Gemini, he was too embarrassed to say.

"Uh, I guess it sounds interesting," he said lamely. "What about you?"

"Oh, I don't have any choice," Vertigo said lazily. "If I say no, Cyclops will show me the door and tell me to go get a job."

"You ever think of doing that?"

"Getting a job? You serious?"

"Well, what are you gonna do with your life? You don't want to get a job. It sounds like you don't wanna stay on here either. What else is there?"

Vertigo sighed, "I dunno…I don't think there's anything that would make me happy. I'd really like to go to back to the life I had before."

"You mean when you were in the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah. It was great. We didn't have all these stupid rules and moral issues that the X-Men force down our throats. Pyro pretty much let us do whatever we wanted when we weren't on a mission. Even when we were, he didn't care how we got things done, as long as we got them done. On top of that, we had a definite goal and we strove towards it. We saw what needed to be done, and just did it. Here – I dunno – they just seem to sit around talking about what should be done instead of doing it. They're not making any progress towards their goal."

"Isn't that what the conference tomorrow is about?"

"No, it's just more talking. Nothing's going to change as a result. I just don't see the point."

"Well…what would you do instead?"

"I don't see what was wrong with the way we did things before."

"What, you mean releasing a plague to kill off the human population? Come on, Vertigo, you can't be serious. You're kidding, right?"

"I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat."

- - -

After Melody had settled into her room, she put Athena to bed for the night, then told Gemini she was going to discuss some things with Cyclops regarding the conference. The mention of the conference reminded Gemini what she had been planning to do before the unexpected appearance of her older sister. She'd been going to look for Atlas and ask him what his thoughts were about the X-Men's offer of membership, and the invitation to go on the mission the following day.

He wasn't in the mansion – she had established that already – so he had to be outside somewhere. Gemini sighed, and resigned herself to the potentially exhaustive search to find him within the surrounding woodland. She headed downstairs and through the front door, wondering where would be the best place to start. The mid-evening sky was just starting to darken now as the sun slipped towards the horizon. There was a slightly chilly evening wind, and she shivered, still only wearing her summer dress. She could have gone inside to change, but she figured she'd warm up once she'd started walking. And the wind wouldn't be so bad in the trees.

As she headed across the gardens towards the trees, another gust of wind caught her hair, and brought a cascade of cherry blossom around her face. For a moment it reminded her of confetti, and that made her think of Cassandra and Dominic's upcoming wedding. She still thought of him as Helios, but Cassie wanted her to call him Dominic. The wedding wasn't far off, and she knew the two of them were spending most of their spare time planning it. It was to be held in England, as Dominic's family were paying most of the expenses. Cassie didn't have any relatives to speak of. Gemini had been eager to start shopping for a new dress straight away, but she needed to know what Cassandra's colour scheme was first.

She watched the cherry blossom dancing away on the wind, and she imagined Cassandra walking down the aisle. She knew her friend would look absolutely amazing; Cassie was extremely pretty and had the perfect figure for a wedding dress. Dominic didn't look bad in a suit either, though he hardly ever wore one, or anything smart for that matter. That was going to be one of Cassie's first ambitions as a new wife, to sort out her new husband's wardrobe!

Gemini's mind moved from the near future to the more distant future. She pictured herself walking down the aisle as a bride. What would that be like? On one hand she guessed it was every girl's dream to be dressed and prepared as the beautiful bride, but on the other hand, it was such an enormous commitment to make, to promise to share the rest of your life with another person. It alarmed her in a way that her friends were making that commitment so early in life. Dominic was almost 20 but Cassie was just 17. Barring any mishap, they'd be spending the next 50 or more years of their lives together. How could somebody make a decision that big? How could two people possibly get to know each other so well that they could be confident of their relationship surviving that long through everything that life might throw at it?

Maybe it's just because I don't know anyone that closely, she thought, maybe it's different for everyone else. She knew that there were rumours, whispers, people talking together, people who had seen that Gemini had been dating Atlas for going on 3 years now. That was about the length of time Dominic and Cassie had been together before engagement, and some people were wondering if there was another marriage coming in the near future. Gemini doubted it. Not that she didn't love Atlas, but she knew she wasn't in any way ready for anything as huge as a marriage commitment. She was pretty sure Atlas felt the same, but sometimes she did worry slightly: what if he did feel they were ready? What if one day he decided to propose? What would she say? Was she allowed to say 'not yet, please ask me again later'? Was she allowed to say anything other than a straight 'yes' or 'no'?

"Hey," came his voice from behind her, startling her.

She jumped, then turned to smile at him, "Hey!"

"Were you looking for me?"

"Yeah. Hug?"

Atlas slid his hands around her small shoulders, and held her gently in his arms. That was about as much physical contact as she was happy for him, or anyone, to have. Sometimes she would let him kiss her, but never anything more than a short meeting of the lips. She had suffered so much as a child, and she was so glad that Atlas understood how difficult it was for her to have a physical relationship.

"What do you think about tomorrow?" she asked. "About the mission, I mean. And about their offer in general, I guess."

"I'm not sure," he said. "I'm thinking it would be stupid not to go. If it turns out we hate what they do, we don't have to join up. But at the same time – "

" – it's like the thin end of a wedge?" she guessed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Even if we are still allowed to say 'no' after we go on the mission, it still feels like we've taken a step towards saying 'yes'."

"Yeah," he said. "And as much as I like being here, and I don't wanna go around killing people any more, it still feels like a really big step. Everything up until now has been like small increments, a little bit here, a little thing there, and us moving closer and closer towards being X-Men."

"And this feels like the final step," she agreed. "After this, there might be no turning back."

"What does your dad think?"

"He told me to ask Cassie. Who told me to ask you."

Atlas gently stroked her back, "I think it's important that whatever decision we make, we make it together. You and me, on one side or the other."

"I agree, totally," Gemini said, resting her head in his chest. "I'm so much stronger with you alongside me."

"Likewise. And we both think it's best to go on the mission and then see what happens afterwards, right?"

She nodded, and cuddled him contentedly, "Yeah, let's do that."