Two nights later, after giving my healed shoulder an extra day of rest, I was back in the training barn with Beckett, and he was back to his usual broody self.

"Come on," he said, standing behind me and egging me on, "keep it up. Punch harder and remember the combination."

My fists were moving in rapid succession as I repeated a training combination against one of the speed balls – working my upper body and muscle memory as I held my feet shoulder width apart. I'd gotten a hang of the rhythm quickly – right, right, left, left, repeat – but as my arms began to tire and sweat started to pile up in the gloves I wore, I gave the bag one last punch before taking a step back.

"Tired?" Beckett asked, crossing his arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow as I turned his way.

Shaking my head, I bent down to grab the water bottle I'd brought down with me. "Just needed some water," I replied, slowing down my breathing as I took long gulps, "but just wondering," I continued with curiosity, "are you purposefully giving me solo drills so that I won't have to fight you?"

It'd been nagging me for the last thirty minutes, as he'd moved me from one apparatus to another, that he was holding back because he knew that I'd hurt myself a few days back. I was fine – which I'd told him flat out when we'd started tonight, but from the way his shoulders tensed momentarily, it was clear he was treating me with precaution.

"I knew it," I said accusingly, before he could deny it, "you don't think I can handle it."

"It's not that – "

"I don't know what misconceived notion you have in your head, but I'm fine," I stressed, pulling off my gloves and dropping them to the floor as a stream of anger began to pulse through my veins. Walking with heavy footsteps towards the center of the room, I turned back to face Beckett with my hands on my hips. "So... are we going to train for real, or are you going to keep treating me like an invalid?"

His stubble-covered jaw twitched with annoyance, but he fought back against the wariness that filled his mind by stepping up onto the mat.

"Good choice," I said, limbering up as I shifted my weight from side to side.

Once he was about a foot away from me, I moved into my defensive stance, and when he did the same, I didn't waste a second before going on the attack. I punched my right fist forward, aiming for his chin, though it was easily dodged as he leaned back and awaited my next move. My next few punches came with similar results - him dodging expertly as I threw my all into trying to land a hit.

The anger within me built up with each hit that he successfully avoided, and a will to show him exactly what I could do washed over me.

Moving forward, I purposefully left my guard down as I swung a fist towards his face, and when he ducked, lightly tapping the opening I'd given him, I lifted my knee towards his stomach. However, my plan didn't work out quite as I'd hoped. Just as my knee met his ribcage, he grabbed a hold of my leg and pulled slightly, throwing me off balance and sending me hard down onto the mat.

The air whooshed out of my lungs and I struggled momentarily to regain my breath.

"Are you okay?" Beckett asked, leaning over me as he offered me a hand. Accepting the help, I managed to nod as I made my way back onto my own two feet, albeit rather wobbly. "Because if you're not, we can stop for the night."

"We don't need to stop," I wheezed, frustration seeping in as I drew in a breath and slowly released it, "I'm fine."

"Aspen," he said carefully, "you don't need to push yourself."

My fists tightened at my sides. "Yes I do," I replied, my voice low and steady, "because if I don't – " I gulped, unable to continue as the alternative settled into my mind.

"What? What is so important that you're willing to hurt yourself?"

"Because if I can't handle fighting you," I started, my voice cracking as I lowered my gaze, "how am I supposed to be able to hold off the Gemini Clan?"

I heard a heavy sigh leave his lips, though my eyes stayed glued to floor. "That's what all this is about?" he asked, and I nodded slowly. "Fuck, Aspen. Seriously? I thought you just wanted to get ahead in your training, not go chasing after the impossible."

"I – "

There was nothing I could say to defend myself however, as my voice was quickly overpowered by Beckett's. "I can tell you right now that you won't be able to match up to the agents of the Gemini Clan." His words did nothing if not cut at my confidence. "You're here for a reason – to stay safe, and if you ever tried to fight back against the Gemini Clan, it wouldn't last long. You can train all you want, but these people, they're faster, they're stronger, and they don't care if you get hurt in the process."

My shoulders were tight as I tried to hold myself together, though I couldn't help but flinch at the aggression attached to his words.

"Once you get that through your head – that fighting isn't about winning, but having the strength to put yourself in danger to help someone else, then maybe I can help you." He shook his head, his words quieter and filled with protest. "But right now, I can't."

My breath hitched as he took several steps backwards, drawing away from me before he turned on his heel and didn't look back. Confusion flooded my mind, but as I sank to the mat, circling my arms around my knees, I could feel the pain slowly seeping in – more prominent than anything a physical injury could ever bring.

----------

That night was restless, and as I laid awake in bed, Beckett's words danced through my head on a repetitive loop.

You won't be able to match up to the agents of the Gemini Clan.

They're faster, they're stronger, and they don't care if you get hurt.

Unable to shut off my brain, I ended up tossing and turning for hours before I finally managed to fall asleep around three in the morning. Though when I awoke bright and early the next morning, the remains of tears stained my cheeks. In an effort to rid the distress from my features, I jumped in the shower and let the spray fall over me, hoping that it would wash away more than just the tears, but my thoughts as well.

As the day passed, I managed to keep myself busy with other tasks - from paying attention in my French lesson to having lunch with Finn and stopping by to see Kira. When my distractions ran out however, I found myself alone, isolated in my room as I flipped through the last of the closed cases from the previous year.

Unfortunately, a majority of them revolved around the Gemini Clan.

It seemed as though whispers of the Gemini Clan growing stronger had begun in late October, and once their name was out there, they hadn't seen the point in hiding in the shadows. At first, it had started out with unexplained breaking and entering charges and government databases being hacked for personal information, but no one had been able to figure out who was responsible.

They had covered their tracks well, but then they'd made one small mistake – they'd pulled up my information on the government databases.

As my eyes latched onto my name scrawled across the bottom of the page, I froze. Noting that the entry was from the beginning of December, I quickly read it over again, and again, making sure that I hadn't made a mistake or misunderstood.

But I hadn't. It was my name that had alerted Division 27 of the Gemini Clan's activity.

My mind raced and I couldn't understand how I was connected to all of this, but all I could do was keep reading. I didn't want a half-assed reply to the questions I was dying to ask – I had to know the truth.

Every report following was related to work the Division was doing to stop the Gemini Clan, and after rereading them multiple times, the handwritten words were firmly ingrained into my mind.

Stepping up from simple hacking and breaking and entering, they'd moved on to abducting and torturing high-profile citizens that were privy to highly classified information. The Division had caught on quickly that the previously hacked files belonged to each of the victims of abduction and had put their best agents on surveillance to intercept the attacks.

For some, the protection had worked, but others weren't as lucky.

When the clock had struck midnight on the 31st of December, a total of four victims had been killed at the hands of the Gemini Clan after refusing to give up vital security information or knowledge pertaining to classified research experiments. The agents belonging to Division 27 had been unable to gather enough intel on what exactly the Gemini Clan was after, and during their efforts, two agents – a man and a woman, had been killed while out on assignment.

Flipping the binder shut, I didn't know what to think. On one hand, this binder had contained everything I had asked for – more information about what this place was and what exactly the agents worked so hard for, but on the other hand, it'd left me more confused than I'd been in the first place. I'd thought reading this would give me answers, but instead, all I had was more questions.

When I finally pulled myself out of my head, I realized it was late. The sun had already set beyond the trees and the darkening sky had begun to glow with stars as they appeared one by one.

I'd managed to skip dinner – far too immersed in my reading, and while I knew there would still be some food leftover in the Grand Hall, I didn't think I was capable of holding much down. My mind was too scattered, and every thought linked back to the Gemini Clan, causing the pit of my stomach to fill with unease. When my leg began to shake – a nervous tick I hadn't known I possessed, I knew I couldn't stay holed up in my room for the remainder of the night, no matter how much I wanted to.

Hoping fresh air would do me some good, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and headed down the hall, stepping out into the cool night air minutes later. Crossing my arms across my chest in an attempt to fight off the wind, I made my way along the path that lead towards the forest that surrounded the Division. It was the same walk I'd taken my first night here – the night I'd tried to leave, but this time, I stayed. As I reached the trees, I turned and walked along the line, making my way slowly around the grounds and occasionally weaving in and out to keep myself in the shadows. 

My movements were mindless as the words I'd read stayed at the forefront of my thoughts. It wasn't something I could forget easily – the fact that my name alone could clue this Division into the Gemini Clan's actions. I knew there was more to the story that hadn't been recorded; there had to be. However even after three laps of the grounds, I was still unable to come up with a plausible explanation.

My frustrations grew with each step I took, and after rounding the grounds once more, I turned to head back inside, only to stop short when I noticed Catherine standing there. She nodded and greeted the other agents who passed, but as an unsettling feeling settled over me, I had a gut feeling that she was there to see me.

Continuing towards her, the desire to flee and avoid an inevitable conversation coursed through me, but I pushed it down, knowing that, while I might not like what I'd hear, I had to know the answers to the questions circling my head.

Mainly, how I was linked to the Gemini Clan.

"I could see you weaving through the trees from my office," she said, nodding towards the tree line behind me and confirming what I already knew – that she was here to talk to me. "Wanted to check on you; make sure that I wouldn't have to send an agent out looking for you again."

I shook my head, managing the briefest of smiles despite my nerves. "No, I wasn't running away," I said, "just thinking."

"Anything I could help with?"

Biting my lip, I nodded. Sitting down on one of the benches that lined the walkway, waiting to speak until she did the same, watching me with a curious expression. "I finished the binder that Joe gave me," I started, my voice quiet, yet thick with emotion.

Understanding filled her eyes before they clouded over with an unrecognizable emotion. "I see."

"Everything was so intense at the end of last year," I trailed off, my heart squeezing painfully at the thought of two of her agents being killed on duty, "but what am I missing? What happened after everything settled?"

"We regrouped," she said, as though the answer was simple. "It was a new year and we needed a new mindset after losing two of our top agents. The Gemini Clan was stronger than we thought, and we were forced to reach out and get support from a few other divisions. Now we have three other divisions – 4, 19, and 25, helping with the on-going investigations."

I gulped. "And have you gotten any closer to taking them down?"

Although I expected the answer, it didn't hurt any less when Catherine sighed and shook her head. "No, unfortunately, we haven't," she replied. "Since we lost agents late last year, we've been careful with sending out agents on direct assignments unless they're absolutely needed – like when we had agents tailing you."

"But that's what I don't understand," I said with frustration, my fists tightening to the point where my fingernails bit into the skin of my palm, "how am I connected to all of this in the first place? Why did my name alert your agents that the Gemini Clan was behind everything that had happened last fall?

She dropped her gaze, almost nervously, as she replied. "My agents didn't figure it out – nothing about your name would've been triggering for them. It's just another name among many."

My eyebrows creased. "Then how – "

"I was the one who made the connection."

"You?" I asked, astonished. "But, how?"

"I've been a part of S.I.C.O for a long time – I grew up here," she replied, detaching her emotions from her words. "I was able to figure out who you were, and it wasn't long before I made the connection between you and the Gemini Clan."

"What connection?" I asked, begging for a straightforward answer. "What did they want with me? How did they know who I was? "

This didn't make any sense. I had no connection to Division 27. To S.I.C.O. Not unless –

My eyes widened, and seeing the realization sink into Catherine's features that I had figured it out, I knew that the track my thoughts had turned onto was the right one. "My parents?" I asked, my voice thick with disbelief.

Catherine nodded slowly.

This confirmation sparked a whole new pile of questions. "Who are they then?" I asked in a rush, and when she didn't respond right away, I continued. "Are they still alive? Did you know them?"

She gulped, and instead of appearing as the confident woman I knew her to be, she looked incredibly skittish and unsure of herself. "They're still alive," she finally replied after a prolonged silence, "and I... I knew your father."

"Well if you knew my father, you must've known who – "

No.

No – it couldn't be.

But no matter how many times I tried to push the thought out of my mind, I couldn't help but focus on the way she averted her eyes and the way her shoulders tensed up as I went silent. There was no denying it – she knew what I had figured out.

When her gaze finally lifted to meet mine, my throat went dry as I noticed all the little things I had never thought about before. Her hair – how it was the same dark shade as my own. The way her nose curved slightly to the left like mine did, and while I didn't have the same colour eyes, I saw a resemblance in her that I saw every time I looked in a mirror.

I didn't even need to say the words, because deep in my heart, I already knew that it was true.

Catherine Sommers was my mother.