BIOGRAPHY - Page 6
Aurora didn’t find any peace, though. The constant struggle in her psyche and the random switching of personalities kept her from living a normal life. Eventually, she decided to commit suicide, and for once all her different personalities were in agreement. Just as Aurora was about to pull the trigger of the gun she was pointing at her head, her brother Northstar appeared, stopping her from shooting herself. Northstar had been through a series of troubling events himself, and was now under the influence of the Children of the Vault, a newly-emerged sub-species.
The Children brought Aurora under their mental control before they slightly altered the twins’ powers, adding a concussive element to the dazzling burst of light they created upon touching each other. With this new ability, Northstar and Aurora were sent to surprise-attack the X-Men, and they gave Xavier’s students a run for the money before they were detained. During the battle, Aurora was further confused by Mystique, who took advantage of Aurora's disorder and shape-shifted into one of Aurora’s personalities. Mystique then argued with “her other self” and threatened to not go back into her head, leaving Jeanne-Marie all by herself. Obviously, this was a rather terrifying idea for Aurora, as she tried to force the renegade persona back in her head - physically. [X-Men (2nd series) #189-190]
Once the X-Men had dealt with the Children of the Vault, they started to look for a way to undo the brainwashing of Aurora and Northstar. They hoped that they could use a virtual reality device of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s in combination with the telepathic powers of Cable and Emma Frost to make Northstar and Aurora re-live their entire lives, memory by memory, though without the psychic fault lines. However, halfway through the process, the X-Men were attacked by Exodus and the experiment apparently 
mis-fired, resulting in a mind-meld between Northstar and Aurora. When they woke up, they found that they were thinking each other’s thoughts and that they were more like one person with two minds, rather than separate individuals. Panicking, they tried to run away, only to realize they couldn’t outrun each other. The twins then faced their fears and linked hands, creating another one of their light bursts. In the past, this aspect of their powers had been shown to possess some healing capacities, and it worked this time as well, restoring brother and sister to their rightful selves. As an unexpected bonus, Aurora’s shattered psyche was apparently merged into one identity as well. [X-Men Annual (2nd series) (2007) #1]
Although they aided the X-Men during the Skrull's takeover of Earth, Aurora and Northstar did not remain among the X-Men. Instead, they got their lives together and, while many of their teammates from the original Alpha Flight were slain by the Collective, the twins founded Team Northstar Extreme Snowsports, with Aurora taking the role of Chief Operating Officer. The twins, along with Northstar's new boyfriend, Kyle Jinadu, were at Mt. Shasta in California when Northstar was approached by Wolverine to re-join the X-Men. [Secret Invasion: X-Men #2, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #508]
At some point, Aurora began therapy and the Jeanne-Marie persona once again became dominant. During one of her therapy sessions, the psychiatrist placed a device on Jeanne-Marie's head to run some tests. In truth, the psychiatrist had sold out to Norman Osborn, who wanted Aurora on his Dark X-Men team. The device was a thalamzier, which in layman's terms would block a person's consciousness. In Jeanne-Marie, however, it brought the Aurora personality back to dominance. Aurora put on the red and white version of her classic costume that Osborn had made for her and, stealing his gun, she took out the psychiatrist who betrayed her. Osborn then explained to Aurora that, in return for bringing her back to dominance, she would work for him. Aurora, however, wasn't interested and told Osborn that she knew crazy when she saw it, referring to him, and asked why she would start taking orders from someone who was still broken.
Osborn was not to be denied and, when she started to leave, he activated another part of the device on Aurora's head that effectively nuked a personality. Osborn told Aurora that now she couldn't retreat back to Jeanne-Marie, and so she had no option but to go with his guards who had come to collect her. Nevertheless, Aurora began to fight them, slipping into a new personality 
each time Osborn used the device to take her out. Each of the personalities had some distinct trait to them, with their own interests and fighting style. Eventually, Osborn was about to shoot Aurora in the head at close range, until the eighth personality, a committed masochist, removed the device from her head and put it on Osborn's. Aurora then thanked Osborn for his “generous” offer, but declined him and departed without further trouble. [Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3]
When the Chaos King killed Nightmare, plunging the mortals of Earth into a deep sleep, Aurora and Northstar were somehow immune to this. They met up with the only other surviving members of the original Alpha Flight, Snowbird and Sasquatch. Sasquatch then re-introduced them to Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman and Marrina, each of whom he had managed to have pulled from the afterlife with the help of the Great Beasts, in exchange for helping them against their common enemy, the Chaos King.
Alpha Flight debated the complexities of Sasquatch's plan, for he believed Alpha Flight could betray the Great Beasts, and somehow keep their friends alive in the process. The heroes began to fight the Chaos King's hordes and, during the battle, Aurora told her brother that they belonged alongside their friends – not with the X-Men. However, some of Alpha Flight began to realize what Snowbird knew all along – the cost of working with the Great Beasts. As civilians around them woke from their slumber, they transformed into flesh-eating Wendigo. Half of Alpha Flight turned, 
knowing they had to oppose the Great Beasts, while the other half (including Aurora), believed that helping the Great Beasts was the only way. Aurora was desperate for Alpha Flight to be together again but, when Snowbird defeated the Great Beasts, the Chaos King destroyed them all. Alpha Flight expected their friends to return to the afterlife, but that did not transpire. Further. when the Chaos King was eventually defeated, Aurora got her wish – as the deceased members of Alpha Flight remained alive. [Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1, Chaos War #5]
With Alpha Flight reformed, Aurora and Sasquatch resumed their interest in each other, although Aurora turned him down when he asked her to dinner. They also worked side-by-side against the terrorist called Citadel, who was trying to disrupt election day in Canada’s federal election. Although Citadel was defeated, the controversial Unity Party, led by the long-thought dead Gary Cody, won the election by a landslide. At the same time, Alpha Flight, now operating alongside Department H once more, had become the media darlings of Canada. [Alpha Flight (4th series) #0.1]
Aurora initially relished working with Alpha Flight once more, although Northstar continued to keep his distance from his former team. Aurora continued to work alongside Sasquatch and the two maintained their flirtatious nature with each other, like during battle against Attuma's forces which took place during a time when fear plagued planet Earth. When the battle raged out of control however, Northstar, who was spending his time in both Montreal with Kyle, and in San Francisco with the X-Men, reluctantly aided his former teammates. Aurora found herself arguing with her 
brother, accusing him of only showing up to take credit and not helping out during the crisis. Northstar, however, had noticed Aurora acting strangely, believing her dissociative identity disorder to be a problem for her once more. Aurora just told Northstar that he was jealous. In the aftermath of the battle, though, Gary Cody, now Prime Minister of Canada, enacted the Emergencies Act, which essentially enforced martial law across Canada. Alpha Flight found themselves the victim of this when Boxbots captured them. [Alpha Flight (4th series) #1]
As a captive of the Canadian government, Aurora was subjected to memories of what happened to her at the orphanage when she used her powers. She grew increasingly unstable at these memories, and was shown the captive Monsieur Laclos, the social worker who used to harm her. She was given the opportunity to get her revenge on him, and all that was required of her in return was “unity.” Aurora was then subjected to the Unity process, which her teammate Vindicator had recently undergone. At the same time, Northstar had broken into the government facility out of which Unity was operating and found the recently resurrected Puck. They launched a rescue of their former teammates but, when they found Aurora, she was furious, as she believed Unity was going to save her.
To complicate matters, Jeanne-Marie was now the dominant personality. Alpha Flight regrouped and escaped the Unity facility, taking refuge in a nearby tavern, where they soon learned they had been branded wanted criminals. Aurora, meanwhile, slipped away from them unnoticed and flew to the old orphanage in Quebec, where she literally fought against herself – the Aurora and Jeanne-Marie personalities struggling with each other, with Jeanne-Marie wanting to undergo the Unity process to get revenge on Laclos. Eventually, one of the personalities shoved a shard of glass into their side and Aurora, claiming to be whole, returned to her teammates. [Alpha Flight 4th series) #2-3]
However, the Jeanne-Marie persona appeared dominant, limiting her to that personality’s way of thinking. For instance, while speaking with her brother, she expressed that she wished he would find a nice girl to settle down with and make her some nieces and nephews. By this time Alpha Flight had learned that the Unity Party was working for their old enemy, the Master of the World. Determined to overthrow the corrupt government, Alpha Flight began gathering civilian allies but soon discovered they needed funds to pay the Taskmaster to train their new allies. Aurora accompanied Snowbird, Guardian and Puck on a bank robbery assignment. However, during the mission, Aurora freaked out, unable to assist her teammates against the bank guards. Later, back at Alpha Flight's camp, Aurora ran away from Walter Langkowski when he tried to make a pass at her. Jeanne-Marie was still very much dominant and she flew to Ottawa, where she confronted the Master of the World. Telling him that Aurora was a sickness that she wanted her excised, Jeanne-Marie offered to tell the Master the location of Alpha Flight's camp. Imprisoned in her own psyche, Aurora was visited by Shaman's astral form. When she told him that she thought she could control Jeanne-Marie, Shaman pointed out that this gave Alpha Flight an advantage – albeit a risky one for Aurora. [Alpha Flight (4th series) #4-5]
When Wolverine arrived in Canada to help his former teammates with their troubles, a battle broke out between him and Guardian. During the fight, Aurora learned that the machine Sasquatch had been building could reverse the Unity process. After this revelation, Aurora flew away and returned with the Master's team, Alpha Strike – led by Vindicator. Jeanne-Marie revealed herself to her brother and proclaimed that she was free to be her true self at last. She battled Northstar and told him that the Master would remove his sick obsession with men, and that they could be a real family at last. However, when an out of control Sasquatch saw Northstar and Aurora fighting, he grabbed Northstar to protect Aurora. This prompted the Aurora persona to reveal herself again. Arguing with Jeanne-Marie, she pointed out that her hate for her would kill their brother. While the rest of Alpha Flight dealt with the Master of the World, Aurora struggled again with herself, forgiving Jeanne-Marie for her actions. In the process, the two personalities achieved real unity of their own when their psyches healed. A physical manifestation of this merger was that Aurora now had one blue and one brown eye.
Her crisis of personality solved, Aurora calmed Sasquatch down from harming Northstar and then had Kyle, who had been kidnapped by Unity, placed into the Unity-reversing machine, successfully healing him. In the aftermath, the Master was defeated, the Unity party taken down and Alpha Flight reclaimed their heroic status. [Alpha Flight (4th series) #7-8]
When Northstar and Kyle's wedding day drew near, Aurora and Alpha Flight ventured to New York, where Aurora gave her brother a box of sentimental tokens for the wedding. Although Aurora wondered if the marriage was happening too quickly, she eventually told Northstar that she only wanted him to be happy. [Astonishing X-Men (3rd series) #51]