A/N: I had to throw a few French dialogues in there. I'm sorry. (But not really.) I put the translation in bold so that it'll be easier for you to find. Enjoy!

She walked back home. Well, what used to be her home. A small apartment that Ellie and she managed to make comfortable after weeks of redecorating and painting. She quietly knocked on the door at the end of the small hallway.

"Ellie?"

"Come in" said a muffled voice inside.

Thea walked into her room. The little girl was sitting on her single bed, a couple of boxes still opened on the floor, filled with her belongings. A whole year that she managed to put in boxes.

The little girl was holding a picture in her hands. It was her, still a baby. Thea was holding her in her arms. A tall strong man with short brown hair was putting a solid arm on her shoulder, and holding a frail blonde woman in the other.

"Je ne savais pas que tu avais cette photo". (I didn't know you had that picture) Thea said with a smile as she sat next to Ellie. "C'est le jour où maman et papa t'ont adoptée. Je ne me souviens pas les avoir connu si heureux. " (That's the day mom and dad adopted you. I think it's the happiest I had ever seen them.)

"Tu avais quel âge?" (How old were you?)

"J'avais 18 ans. J'étais tellement excitée! J'avais toujours voulu avoir une petite sœur, et te voilà. Un cadeau tombé du ciel. Je n'arrive pas à croire que c'était i ans déjà. J'ai l'impression que c'était une autre vie " (I was 18. I was so excited! I had always wanted a little sister and then you arrived. A gift from the sky. I can't believe this was already 8 years ago. Seems like a lifetime ago.)

"Je sais. Ça l'était pour moi, littéralement." (I know. It literally was, for me anyway).

They shared a knowing laugh. Then Ellie's dark eyes saddened.

"I don't remember much about France. About them."

Thea knew Ellie preferred talking in English, especially when she was upset. It came more naturally to her, which made Thea's heart tighten every time. She loved her mother tongue so much. She wanted Ellie to share that love, to have those beautiful memories of the Loire's proud chateaus and landscapes. But she couldn't blame her. They had both left France when Ellie was 3. Sometimes, Thea herself felt like those memories were fading away, leaving a blurry image in her mind like an old movie you watched a long time ago. She even had to change her own first name. The correct spelling was "Théa", but it had caused too many questions concerning her origins, her past. Something she was trying really hard to keep buried. So Thea it was.

"I know sweetie. I wish you would. They loved you so very much."

She brought her closer to her, the little girl's head resting on her shoulder. She felt a warm liquid wet her white shirt.

"I'm so sorry to put you through this again Ellie" she whispered, fighting the tears that were threatening to flow. She had to be strong for her. "Sometimes I honestly think that you would be better off without me. You would have a normal life, without all the drama and the moving and the pain… you deserve so much better."

The little girl raised her red eyes to meet her sister's.

"I know you're doing everything you can, and that's enough for me. You've been the best sister I could have hoped for. I love you."

Thea could feel her sister's love flowing in her veins like warm silk. She ran her hand through her short black hair.

"I love you too baby girl. We'll have a normal life very soon, I promise."

Thea truly believed it. But she had no idea how wrong she was.

...

"Home sweet home!" Claimed Thea, a little too enthusiastic to sound genuine.

She pushed the door to enter their new apartment. It was a large and luminous loft, with light wooden floor, a nice open kitchen and a blue navy and burgundy themed decoration. It had a large mezzanine with too single beds separated by a wooden screen.

Ellie jumped on her bed, actually looking excited.

"It's not that bad" she said, looking out her window where she could almost see Central Park. "How did we get such a nice apartment with your laboratory technician salary again?"

"I'm an engineer in Biotechnology, you little brat. And the guy renting us this place is one of dad's old colleagues."

"I thought we were avoiding everything related to our past?"

Thea sighed and crashed on her sister's bed, suddenly feeling exhausted. She didn't want to share everything she knew with her sister because it was a lot to take, but she didn't know how to lie to her either. She decided that being honest with her could keep her from doing some snooping around on her own and get in a lot of trouble.

"We are. But this guy has a job for me. And it could even help us understand what happened to mom and dad."

Ellie sat up straight, her eyes widening.

"Really? How?"

"He is offering to let me continue mom and dad's research."

Ellie raised an eyebrow.

"You mean that boring stuff we found in dad's belongings, about DNA and what not?"

"It wasn't just a bunch of sciency stuff Ellie, he was working on biologically induced mutations. There were making some extraordinary progress, especially with the help of a few gifted people."

"Mutants?"

"Yes."

Her little sister's fear felt a metallic taste on Thea's tongue. It had only been a few weeks since the attack of this weird blue guy. Half the city had been destroyed by an equally weird guy in a helmet. Ellie had still nightmares about this day that would keep her up all night. And although she would never admit it, so did Thea. But not because she was scared it could happen again. Because she knew she was one of them.

The little girl remained silent for a while. Her dark and soft skin seemed paler.

"Thea" she finally said, "are you going to have to use your powers too?"

The blonde girl sighed and closed her eyes.

"I don't know sweetie. I don't want to, I mean we're here because I couldn't control them last time. But I need to find out what happened to mom and dad. I have to."

Ellie looked pensive.

"I think you should try. You could kick the bad mutants' ass with your powers."

"Miss Elisabeth Lapelluys! You are 9, you're not supposed to say ass. Anyway, that invention that our parents were working on can be extremely dangerous if in the hands of someone with not so good intentions. I'm guessing it would have something to do with their disappearance."

"Is that what the people who are after us want? Mom and dad's invention?"

"Probably. All the more reasons for me to finish what they started before they do, whoever they are."

...

"That can't be good."

"Indeed, my child."

The old scientist was looking at a pile of old files scattered on a desk over her shoulder. Thea had gone to the lab her dad used to work in as soon as she could. The sun was barely out when she had silently left her apartment. She had hired a nanny to take Ellie to school and bring her back home. She hated herself for missing her first day in her new school, but there was nothing else she could do.

And there she was, standing in the very room her parents used to roam, discuss and work. It was a large room separated in two by a large bay window. On one side were a massive desk and a tall cabinet, both filled with dozens, if not hundreds of files. On the other side was a laboratory, with large benches covered with flasks, microscopes and dozens of other equipments. Both sides were dusty and messy, as if they had been left in a hurry. It was chilling, that feeling that a part of them was still here, stuck for as long as their work was unfinished. She ignored the thrill that ran up her spine.

No one had entered that room since Thea's parents had left it. Robert, the old scientist who offered her the job, explained that everyone in the facility was too scared to even go near it. In fact, a few weeks before disappearing, Marie and Pascal had been acting weird, paranoid and aggressive. Their work had clearly put them in some sort of danger, although they had always refused to discuss it with Robert. The day they had vanished, Robert had heard screams and struggling coming from their office. When he had burst into the room, they were gone.

The document she was looking at was hand-written. She could make out most of it, but part of it was covered in blood. Hence her previous observation. It was some sort of recipe to make a complex molecule that could apparently modify a target gene. But something was missing. Next to the drawing of the molecule, Pascal had drawn some kind of lock. Underneath it was a key, and a name that had been underlined several times.

Thea.

The young women tried to even her breathing.

"What does that mean?" she asked with a trembling voice.

"I wish I could tell you" answered the old man while shaking his head.

Both of them stared at the paper, hoping for it to start speaking on its own.

"Why did you call me? Why now? Not too long ago I didn't even know my parents were working on this."

Robert sighed and slowly sat down on an old chair.

"I think they were trying to keep you and Ellie away from all this. You were already 21 when they moved in America, but you were still their little girl. And Ellie was a child. They were trying to protect you. I wanted to respect that, but lately some of their work has resurfaced."

"What do you mean?"

"Some people have been asking questions. A couple of agents from the CIA asked me to show them these very files."

"The CIA? What on earth could they possibly want with this?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that put in the wrong hands, what they were creating could end up in chaos."

Thea exhaled, worried.

"Did you give them the files?"

"No, it's all here. I told them they disappeared with your parents. They have no right to search this building without a warrant. But since the latest attacks on New York and the rest of the world, things are moving fast. Things are changing, and not for the better I'm afraid. That's why I called you. Even when you were younger, you were already a brilliant scientist. If someone is able to finish your parents' work, it's you."

A light smile appeared on his face.

"Although I had to move heaven and earth to find you. You did a good job running away and protecting Ellie."

"Not good enough" she answered with a sad smile.

Robert gently tapped her shoulder.

"I'm sorry to burden you with all this."

"It's ok. I have to get to the bottom of this."

He nodded and silently left the room, closing the door behind him. Thea sighed and leaned back in her chair. She pensively wiggled her hands in front of her as a red glow appeared on the tip of her fingers.

"Maybe you won't be so useless after all" she whispered.