The Vision-Training-

Nameless would then then be brought back to the second soul he devoured this one was a woman. His eyes would drift close. It seemed so mundane. It seemed so normal of a thing. And that's why Gemini was doing it. Her visits with Emma and Dyson had renewed her yearning for a natural life - free of abilities, free of the Company. But that normalcy was out of reach; the most "natural" thing she could think of doing in New York City, to fake a semblance of a normal life, was to hail a taxicab. Nameless's eyes tried to open but the visions seemed to suck him back in.

Of course, some of that normal life had been returned to her; she no longer had Anne Marie's touch. She no longer had Matt Parkman's telepathy. She no longer had an over her past abilities, in fact. Only the residual effect of her adoptive muscle memory remained - she could still replicate actions she had once seen, but no longer could she record them.

The sun was already setting to the west, casting shades of orange and red glow. This was reflected in the windows of the skyscrapers surrounding the sidewalk that Gemini strode down now, waiting for a passing cab to notice her.

Putting aside her wishful thinking, Gemini's mind went back to the work at hand. The team was coming together. Saying it was doing so "nicely" may be a bit of a reach, however.

There was Matt Parkman, of course - powerful, experienced, determined. There was Gemini - no longer with abilities and compromised due to interpersonal struggles that she hadn't yet revealed to anyone. No one knew of her leap from the building or subsequent rescue by Saint, yet.

But now there was Dyson. He was a teenager with time-traveling sons to look after. Though she would never mention it to him, Gemini's only reasoning for approaching the boy was his ability and skillfulness. Had the boy been lacking in either, Gemini would not have requested his involvement in such a dangerous task.

And then there was Emma. Gemini still felt conflicted about asking the woman for help - the woman was deaf. To hell with political correctness; with such dangers to be face, any disability could end in disaster. But Emma had an ability and she was willing to help. If nothing else, her kindhearted nature would provide them with an alternative viewpoint. And after Gemini's attack on Dylan West, Gemini felt that she needed someone like that present.

But a team of four was nothing; the Company was organized. Matt hadn't known the number of employees, but he had guessed it to be in the dozens - at the very least. So Gemini was continuing her search for more to aid them.

If she could find them, that was. For a span of time, it seemed like Gemini could find them with ease. She even had an inkling of an idea that she had an ability that helped her do so. But now that ability was gone. It was as good a guess as any to assume someone was a special. How would she find them at this rate?

Stepping from the sidewalk and into the street, she swung open the rear door of the first empty taxi cab that had stopped for her. Climbing into the backseat, she shut the door and looked back out the window as the red, slowly turning to purple and black, sky in the distance.

What she wouldn't give to be doing anything else in the world right now...

"West End, please,"she said quietly to the cab driver, her eyes remaining glued to the window for any signs of specials that they may pass.


The end of the day was, in some ways, the hardest part- when you had to push through those final few minutes without exploding before you reached freedom- but that had been especially so lately, for Jack. This time was so boring! When he wasn't busy occupying himself with his job or out finding some way to cause trouble, the extra time grated on his nerves like sandpaper. He'd been here for what, two years? A little more than that? And he still couldn't think of himself as a person of 2011. Gah. 500 years was a lot longer when you had to go through it twice, once personally and once in the history books.

And... he wasn't exactly going through it a whole man. Not when there was a Gemini-shaped hole in his heart. He smiled wryly at the description. Ahh, Jack. What would your squadmates think of you now? Sinister soldier to helpless romantic- that's me! He gave a slight chuckle; perhaps this time had its own set of benefits after all. He couldn't imagine what someone from this era of free love would think of the New Spartan code of ethics on the subject!

As for the evening itself, he could look forward to going to some bar, getting drunk, and doing something stupid. Jack remembered one time when he had visited a laboratory that did testing on monkeys and observed that bored monkeys would often engage in blatantly self-destructive behavior- well, humans were just a bigger kind of monkey, weren't they? A kind that was supposedly smarter and a lot less hairy? Well, that explained what Jack had been doing lately, going from thrill to thrill, using his powers to cause trouble, and drinking a lot. A bored monkey. Yeah, the descriptor fit.

Pulling out of traffic he brought his taxi up next to the sidewalk where a woman with a small child had signaled her interest in a taxi. She wore a hood, but Jack thought nothing of it; there were all kinds in New York- that was one thing that hadn't changed in 500 years. Like so many other customers before her, she got in the back and directed him to their destination.

“Roger,” said Jack, looking up in his mirror at her. What he saw there stopped him cold. The taxi had already begun rolling, but before it had gone two feet Jack slammed on the brakes and turned around as best he could in the driver's seat to face the woman, an expression on his face of something like joy, something like relief, and something like disgust.

“Gemini, what the hell?!?! Where have you been!? I've been worried sick! And now you just get in without so much as a 'Hi, Jack, how are you doing?' Is this some kind of sick prank? Is that what this all was?”

Gemini shifted the toddler in her arms absent-mindedly, only a small part of her brain recognizing that he was with her on this venture. Since her fall - fall, as she felt increased guilt at admitting that she had jumped off the rooftop - Gemini's mind had been scattered. Though it seemed her abilities had been completely removed, she still went about in a cautious, almost paranoid way. Even now, for example, she still held Isaac in her covered arms and hands. Gemini refused to be as naive as she once had been; she would not open herself to the same disastrous results that she had achieved after meeting Anne Marie LeBeau.

Out of the corner of her eye, the taxi cab driver shifted in his seat, suddenly exploding with words. Distracted with her mind elsewhere, coupled with the increased paranoia as of late, Gemini jumped in her seat, spinning in place to put herself between the toddler in her arms and the mad driver... who knew her name.

Who was this man, this Jack? And what, perchance, was the "all this" that the man referred to? Gemini wracked her brains desperately, still eying the man as if there was a possibility that he had escaped from an insane asylum. She was certain that she had not crossed a man by the name of Jack in all her time since... well, since she could remember. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about..." She said softly, afraid that he may very well explode once again if she ventured to speak too loudly.

Though her amnesia had been a major problem during her first few months in New York City, it had greatly lost prominence once Gemini had begun to consistently surround herself with the same people - Isaac, Naomi, Matt, Dyson, and Emma. Thus, the idea that Gemini knew this Jack pre-amnesia was slow to come to mind. But when it did, her face lit up with amazement.
"Wait - you know... you know who I am?"

He couldn't help exploding at her. Did she have any idea what she'd put him through? All these months, and not even a word! Not just about her, but about Isaac... his son! And then she was just going to get in like nothing was wrong? No. Just no. No way he was going to take that all in stride. He was nearly livid at the thought that she had just been putting him on while he had been worried sick over her. She knew his limitations! He couldn't even risk reporting her as missing to the police! If she knew all that he'd done to find her- looking in homeless shelters, taking midnight trips to the morgue... and then she did this to him?

But her answer stopped his anger dead in its tracks. She said she had no idea, yet his eyes informed him his love was now back inside his taxi cab. But she looked truthful when she said she knew nothing. What was going on? A twin sister? Gemini had never mentioned one, but then again her entire life before him in general had been something she wanted to put behind her, to escape from. But she had a baby boy! What were the odds of that? It had to be the same woman. But there was no sign of recognition on her face- and if she had been all right, why hadn't she come home?

“You don't recognize me?” he asked, the anger in his voice melting into concern. “It's me, Gemini. Jack. Omega Jack, or Jack Tenant, or whatever. I'm...” his voice failed him. None of that so much as seemed to reach her. Tilting his head slightly, he finished with, “I'm Isaac's father.”

How could she not know him? If this had been his own time, he would have said a telepath or the like had gotten to her. But in this era specials were not yet the dominant race, and surely such things would be far rarer. Besides, why in the world would anyone do that?

A frown flashed across his face, and with a sudden burst of energy he tore Marty from the case on his wrist. “Hold still,” he said, holding the broader, flat side to face her, the device as always resembling the latest iPhone, but entirely ice-colored and with no external buttons. With a flick of his fingers across the screen on the other side, he activated the medical scanner technology. Heart rate slightly elevated, but that could be from the excitement. Pupils not dilated- that was consistent with her telling the truth. And-

He groaned, bowed his head and closed his eyes when he saw the reading. Massive frontal lobe trauma. Unhealed schisms in the brain matter. New neutron networking around the fractured area. In short, a set of symptoms consistent with global retrograde amnesia. “Oh, Gemini...” he said, now extremely concerned. “I'm so sorry. I didn't realize- of course you don't remember. No, it's not your fault. Have you even seen a doctor for this? No, of course you haven't.” She never would. Snapping Marty back into his case, Jack turned back to the rode and switched the car into drive. “Buckle up. Let's get you to the hospital.”

As confused as she was over the entire incident, Gemini felt the goosebumps rise as her blood turned to ice at the three words:

I'm Isaac's father.

The world swam and the man's - Jack's - further words were blotted at as the cab's interior swam before her eyes. Only as something made contact with her skin, did Gemini return to full attention. She inhaled deeply, having forgotten to breathe for several seconds as her heart hammered away in her chest. She flinched, pulling away from the mechanism at the same moment Jack retracted his arm.

Isaac's father? The thought was insane; it had been a far-fetched idea originally. Gemini had long since ruled finding the man an impossibility. There had been no hope. In the back of her mind, she'd assumed it had been a deadbeat father that had run out - easier to believe than to stress, wondering what the man was doing without his lover and child.

But now here he was. Unless he shared the same ability as Matt, Gemini could see no possible way - to her knowledge - of how he would know both her name and the child's. Still, the revelation of actually finding the man seemed to defy all logic, rendering her brain incapable of completing a single thought - grasping for words that were just out of reach.

The man wasn't abnormal by any means. Jack - handsome in his own way - didn't stand out at all in Gemini's mind, much like how her discovery of Isaac had not brought back any long lost memories. It was just a man that she felt no ill-will nor strong love for as she gazed upon him now.

The car shuddered to life as Jack shifted it into drive and began to edge back out into the city traffic once again. Snapping back into focus, Gemini caught Jack's last sentence. Hospital? No, she... Her mind wasn't working; not from the amnesia at the moment, but from the shock of actually finding Jack. What had she been doing?

"I can't... I've got to... to..." Got to what? She wasn't going anywhere specific, was she? No, Gemini had been looking for something. No! She'd been looking for someone, anyone with an ability. Anyone willing and able to stand against the Company. "Specials!" she blurted out, upon remembering. "I've got to find..." Her voice trailed off, as Gemini pondered new questions:

Did Jack know? Was he a special as well?

He zoomed up the crowded streets with as little regard for the speed limit as a regard for human life permitted. But only half his mind was there- the rest looked in his rearview mirror, stealing as much time to study Gemini as he dared, watching the confusion, the... dread? Rush across her face. He hoped it wasn't that- but he didn't know exactly why she had run off, did he? A wave of doubt slapped him; it was possible, in the end, she only wanted to get away from him. But almost as soon as the possibility occurred to him, his feelings rose up in angry protest. No, no! Not true; there had been nothing between them when she left- it was to only be for a few minutes! And every sign said she spoke the truth about losing her memory. And yet...

He'd scoured the papers every day since she vanished. Nothing, not a single sign of the woman he remembered. It was all he'd been able to do- one of the inconveniences of being displaced in time was that he was a man without records in the present day. No birth certificate was listed for him, no social security number was associated with his name- and that meant a whole host of problems in dealing with the authorities. To be honest, Jack wasn't quite sure exactly what it all would have entailed. He found it easier to not discover the consequences. That had been his thinking behind not going to the police on the matter. But seeing her now made him doubt; if she had been wondering, confused, through the streets, would it not have been better to take the risk?

No, it was too hasty to think such things, he reminded himself. He had not yet all information to make that decision. She was injured; that was the thing to focus on. Getting her help. Get her to a doctor.

Behind him, Gemini began stumbling, stuttering over her words, some form of protest he ignored until a particular word pricked his hearing. “Yes, yes, special!” he exclaimed eagerly. “Special, that's me! You remember it!” There was something of relief in his voice, something of excitement as well. Because that meant there was hope for her after all, for the recovery of what they had had before. A moment could bring back a piece; time could restore more. But her face was gripped by confusion, and he forced himself to push her too hard just yet. He knew she was injured, however little else he knew. That was the crux of the situation.

“Look, don't try too hard,” he said. “We'll get you some help. I promise...”

Gemini was still just as bewildered as when Jack turned back and yelled at her moments before. Injured? It seemed like an odd take on her predicament. Her memory loss was an injury, but - from her perspective - it wasn't much of one. She had no idea what she couldn't remember and, because of that, the significance of not remembering anything was diminished. Granted, it would have been a rather large help to remember who this man before her had been.

But... Isaac's father?

"I'm... we're fine! I'm not sick, I'm not incapable, I just..." As her voice faded away, she gave the rearview mirror a pleading look. There was nothing that could be done for her memory, that she was aware of. Gemini could be monitored and tested, but... it seemed unlikely that there was a cure-all medication that would have all the lost details pop back into her head.

Looking into the rearview mirror at the man's face, Gemini studied him for several moments. Jack was still just as unrecognizable as before. No deep, buried feelings of loved crawled up. But the thought of such feelings opened up a vast canyon of loneliness inside of her.

Dyson had someone he loved. Even Matt was dating someone, though Gemini had never met her.

Strangely enough, she had never considered chasing after romantic feelings for anyone. Honestly, Gemini felt like she hadn't had time. Her life thus far had been about three things: helping people, taking care of Isaac, and - most recently - taking down the Company. None of these opened up the possibility of getting to know single men on a deeper level.

But now, sharing the cab with a man who fathered the child that she cradled in her arms...

It was... weird, which was an exceptional thing in itself, given the things that Gemini had been able to do and had encountered over the past few months.

"Who... who were we, Jack?" she asked cautiously, trying to imagine the answer to come.

Her face. How he remembered it! The pleading, supplicative expressive it wore now, conjuring up so many old memories. It had been a year before when she had first sat in his cab, wearing that same look. He had been unable to refuse it then. He could not refuse it now.

Slowly, he pulled the cab to a stop in a parking space and turned off the light on the top. For a moment or two- but it felt like more in his mind- he stared at her, like a man might look at a desert oasis and ponder if it is mirage or not. A decision.

“God, Gemini, I'm an asshole. I'm so sorry. You don't need any of this.”

He turned the cab off. “Let's just go inside. I'll tell you everything.” A smile, sweet, subtle, and inviting came to his lips. “I'll get you your favorite.” Outside, the hanging sign read Starbucks.

He exited the vehicle, going around to open her door for her and taking her arm, gently as if she was made of glass, then using Marty to lock the doors. Inside, the line was short and he was able to walk right up to the counter to place his order. “Grande Caramel Mocha. Tall black coffee, decaf.” He picked the cups up from the side and went to sit down with her at the table, pushing the Mocha in front of her. Another moment passed as he began to drink, staring at her. It was not an attempt at awkwardness, nor did he lack things to say, but somehow it all seemed to fall short of the situation here. How did you just pick up where you left off? They'd both been wanderers when they met, strangers in a strange land who found a connection to each other. Now everything was gone, severed, snapped. How did you just pick that up?

“Look, are you sure you're okay?” He said at last. “I mean, I've got no idea what this is all like... what you're going through...”

Inside his skull, Marty's AI whirred to life, and Jack, on hearing the machine's advice, snapped the bot free from the case on his wrist and put it on the table. It was about the size and shape of an iPhone, but with no buttons or other visible controls, and only one color, a metallic, ice-like white. It'd be easier this way. He spun his fingers on the screen, and a picture appeared. Gemini, in a straw hat, sunglasses, and two-piece bathing suit, reclining on a chair near what must have been a pool in summer. He pushed the picture towards her so she could see, then flicked Marty's side so the picture changed again. This time it was of both of them, grinning, heads pressed together, as they lay side by side on either a bed or a couch. Flick. Another picture, this one of an extremely pregnant Gemini holding her belly with a look of excitement and mingled fear. Flick, flick, flick. He went through the pictures one by one. Gemini on a balcony with the rising sun and New York skyline behind her. Gemini in a hospital bed with a small red bundle that must have been a newborn Isaac. A few others, of varying quality, and Jack pushed Marty towards her altogether to let her browse as she pleased.

“I had some deja vu back there when I saw you,” he said. “You looked just like the first time I met you.” A sip of the coffee. “You looked pretty scared the first time you got in. Just you and a little carpet bag. I asked you where you wanted to go, and you said, 'I don't care. Anywhere but here.' Well, that's not much good to a cabbie, and I starting driving around asking you what you wanted. I got a little angry, actually. Eventually you told me to let you out at a particular street corner, and then it came out that you didn't have any money. You started crying. It just looked like something horrible had been done to you then- so I couldn't say no. I took you over to my place.

“I asked who you were, and you said, 'Call me Gemini.' That was all I ever got out of you. Whatever you were running from, it wasn't pretty.” He sighed. “I know the value of a place to stay, so I let you stay the night. And I couldn't just kick you out the next day. So you just stayed and stayed... and after a while you just sort of lived there.” He smiled again. “I didn't mind.

“There's probably a more beautiful way of putting it, but let's just be quick. We were lovers. I guess there are worse things that happen. And then Isaac came along, and we were a regular family- until a few months ago.”

A shadow passed over Jack's face. “We went out for dinner. You and I had had an argument, and that was my peace offering. Halfway through dinner you got up to visit the ladies' room- and that was the last time I saw you until today.” Jack shook his head, a disbelieving expression on his face.

“I was devastated. I thought you'd given up on me. I spent two days looking for you, and when I came home I found the sitter had given Isaac to the police. I couldn't go to them. So I just... gave up, I guess,” he said sheepishly. “What else was there to do?

“And then, today,” he said, “a wonder happens.” He felt as though light exploded inside him at the words- he wanted to kiss her, only his respect for what she must be feeling holding him back. He rushed to tie up what loose ends he could in the tale.

“That's all I know. As for what happened before you met me, you never told me. I tried to loosen your tongue by telling you my own secrets- but no luck.” He shrugged. “And that's what there is.”

Silently - stunned and, yes, a little afraid - Gemini followed through the paces. She sat, unsure of what to do or how to respond as Jack exited the taxi and opened the door, escorting her into a Starbucks. Supporting Isaac in one arm and the other arm entangled with Jack's, she wasn't able to analyze the sign has they moved swiftly past it. What was a Starbucks? As the two entered the building, however, she paused for a moment, inhaling deeply.

That smell!

Gemini shuddered before moving forward again, standing in line as Jack ordered for the both of them. Whatever that smell was, it was incredible. She watched over the counter as the baristas moved about fixing their drinks. When they were through, she accompanied Jack to a table to the side where she continued her stunned silence - though, now, also taking in the aroma.

As Jack placed the gadget before her again, she stared at it, expectantly. There she was! Much more tan and a little fuller than she was currently, but... there was no mistaking her. Absent-mindedly, she sipped the coffee without even realizing it was in her hand. It was a second nature act, completely void of thought - somewhere in her subconscious mind, she even anticipated the hotness of the beverage as it carefully poured between her lips, across her tongue, and down her throat.

Gemini had known this man - he had proven that. She had even loved him - the little boy in her lap reaching for Marty on the table was proof of that. It was a lot to take in.

But something was stirring inside of her. She wanted to take it in. She wanted to believe more. She wanted to know more. The stirring, the information, the pictures - it all left a craving inside of her, an emptiness needing to be filled. Gemini desired to learn more about Jack, to possibly return to where they were. Her gloved hand quivering, Gemini slid in her finger across the screen as Jack had done, looking back through the photos. She wanted to be that woman again, the one that looked so happy to be in that man's arms.

Looking up to Jack again, she recalled their brief conversation in the car, among with his reference to "secrets." He had called himself special. He was like her.

"Okay," she managed finally, licking her lips nervously. "I believe you." It was a stupid thing to say, given the photos... but such things could've been forged, could they not? But she looked so happy, so stress-free... she had once had a life.

"What do we... what do we do?" she asked softly, again afraid of the potential answer. "I don't know what to do, it's... overwhelming." Nameless's eyes would open his hands gripping the chair. How many more of these was he going to have.