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Aurora

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier

Prime Marvel Universe

Aurora's History

Early years

Born in Canada, Jeanne-Marie and her twin brother, Jean-Paul, were separated in infancy after their parents died in a car accident which caused them both to grow up without knowledge of the other. She was raised at Madame Dupont's School for Girls, a hyper-religious school in Quebec. Extremely nervous and introverted to the point of suicide, she soon discovered her mutant powers of flight, believing them to be a divine gift due to her strict religious upbringing. Telling her story to Soeur Anne, Jeanne-Marie was severely and inhumanly disciplined for "blasphemy". This incident began the Multiple Personality Disorder she would suffer for the rest of her life - her primary personality of a prim and proper, repressed woman, and a secondary personality of an uninhibited extrovert. As with most disorders of this type she could not remember what she did when reverting back to Jeanne-Marie. Because her problem wasn't understood or really looked at it caused her to be punished even more severely. Soon she buried the personality as well as the knowledge of her powers deep within her mind. At one time she even contemplated jumping off the roof of the school to see if her powers would save her. Instead she finished school and began teaching. Both personalities strongly disliked the other, and would switch in fear, despair, or severe stress.

Leaving school and learning of her acceptance as a schoolteacher, Beaubier's uninhibited personality exerted herself to revel in joy. She was attacked by muggers, however, and used her powers to defend herself. She used her powers to defend herself against one of them when Wolverine, who was nearby at the time, noticed the commotion and stopped the second mugger. He told Jeanne-Marie that she should seek James Hudson in Ottawa. Noting her strong resemblance to Jean-Paul Beaubier, Hudson contacted him when she arrived. The two reunited and joined Alpha Flight as Aurora and Northstar.

The extroverted Beaubier personality revealed in the superhero aspect of her life, adventuring with Alpha Flight and having many affairs, including a long romantic relationship with fellow teammate Walter Langkowski (aka Sasquatch). Langkowski, at Beaubier's request, performed an experiment that would negate the twin's need for contact with each other to release their powers.

Later, when Alpha Flight sought the magic of the Fire Fountain which had briefly made Aurora's personality a cohesive whole, Loki, in revenge for Alpha Flight's tampering with his earlier schemes led the Beaubier twins to believe they were not mutants, but half-elves. Loki claimed that Beaubier's mental dysfunction (and her brother's current physical disease) was due to the broken gestalt that separated their powers. Aurora used her power on Northstar, which seemed to cure his illness and leave herself powerless. Loki transported Jeanne-Marie to a convent in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré which helped her regain a healed psyche but allowing her powers to manifest slightly differently (releasing inner light). When her former lover Walter Langkowski was on trial, she travelled to see him and used her powers to aid him in seeing through illusions. Sister Beaubier was forced by Talisman to return to Alpha Flight to help rescue her brother, who was trapped in Asgard by Loki. The two remained with the team.

Beaubier's powers soon changed until they significantly resembled her original ones. She decided to join Gamma Flight in the role of a psychiatric counsellor when she was captured by the super-villain Headlok. Headlok's psychological torture brought back the split personalities Beaubier had before. The result of returning to this condition created a psychic backlash that left Headlok dead and Beaubier able to escape.

During her time with Alpha Flight, she fell in love with her teammate Wildheart, formerly known as Wild Child. Beaubier pursued Wildheart mostly due to his handsome appearance, a recent physical condition of his that was created by the government's scientists. However, when Wildheart's appearance began to revert to his original inhuman visage, Wildheart left Beaubier and Alpha Flight, unaware that this sudden departure may have exasperated the deterioration of Beaubier's fragile psyche.

She was soon abducted under mysterious circumstances, presumably on behalf of the Canadian government. She was rescued by the mutant Havok during the time he was leading the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Havok brought Aurora to the extra-dimensional Dark Beast, who believed he may be able to cure her once and for all. Havok, eventually revealing himself to be a double-agent, challenged the Dark Beast and the Brotherhood disbanded. Havok set Beaubier free and told her to return to Alpha Flight. Aurora was eventually located by her brother, and accompanied him in joining the original Alpha Flight members Shaman, Sasquatch, and James Hudson to uncover the truth about the latest activities of Department H. The original Alphans ended up assisting the officially sanctioned Alpha Flight against the latest bearer of the name Weapon X, and afterwards combined into one Alpha Flight team. During her time with the team, Beaubier was exposed to a strain of sentient bacteria, which ultimately removed her multiple personalities once again.

Weapon X

Unfortunately, Beaubier later regressed into her fractured mental state and was remanded to a mental institution once more. Months later she was freed from the asylum by Wild Child on behalf of the new Weapon X program which (under the auspices of the mysterious Director) hoped to use the program's mutants for the benefit of humankind, even if that meant performing deadly missions and interning mutant captives. Beaubier was experimented on to relieve her mental condition and she joined the Weapon X program, although she rejected Wild Child due to his new freakish appearance.

Beaubier served the Weapon X program wholeheartedly, often attempting to seduce her superior, the Director, and performed missions such as recruiting other mutants to join the program. One such mission was a trap set by Weapon X turncoat Sabretooth, who seriously injured Beaubier as an example, leaving her horribly scarred. It was only with the Director's financial and emotional support that she recovered, albeit scarred like him. Beaubier began to have genuine feelings for the Director, although he refused to reciprocate.

Afterwards, unable to deny another urge, the Director entered Aurora's bedroom and the two kindled their romantic relationship. Soon, Beaubier urged the Director to have surgery to have his scars removed. However, agent Brent Jackson, who hoped to stage a coup against the Director, confronted the Director with the idea that he was a "mutie lover" due to his relationship. Too preoccupied with the idea, the Director lashed out at Beaubier, beating her unconscious. Afterward, he apologized, explaining his conflicting feelings, and Beaubier reluctantly accepted.

Soon, the Weapon X agent Brent Jackson had formed a resistance group with fellow agents and joined with the mutant Cable's team, the Underground. The Underground was able to infiltrate the Weapon X complex, ousting the Director and nearly crippling the program. The Director was nearly killed by traitor agent Washout, and as he contemplated his escape, Colcord flew into a rage, blaming his loss of control over his recent obsession with his new face and with Beaubier. Taking shards of glass, Colcord disfigured himself once more. He was rescued by Madison Jeffries and, with Colcord urging Beaubier, the three escaped the Weapon X complex using Beaubier's superhuman speed.

Children of the Vault & X-Men

Aurora would later return with Northstar. Just as she was about to kill herself, he stopped her. Under control by the Children of the Vault they attacked the X-Mansion and fought the X-Men. She was however taken out by Mystique's quick thinking. Her mind was later saved by SHIELD equipment.

Secret Invasion & Dark Reign

During the Skrull Invasion Aurora and Northstar assisted in fighting against the Skrulls in San Francisco. She was later in regular therapy, in order to repress her Aurora persona.

In the wake of the Invasion, Norman Osborn assumed control S.H.I.E.L.D and turned it into H.A.M.M.E.R., and assemble his own team of X-Men.

Aurora - with her rebellious personality dominant was one of Osborn's choices, thus Osborn developed a headset for her that would electro-shock the weaker personality into dormancy. However she managed to overcome this by revealing she had mentally created a small cadre of other personalities to awaken her should her mind ever be tampered with again and with that she forcefully declined the offer.

Returning to Alpha Flight

Aurora and her brother were later reunited with their friends from Alpha Flight when they returned from the dead. When the team was reformed she decided to join, but Northstar did not. This lead to much tension between the two siblings. The tension only got worse when Northstar showed up displaying considerable concern over Aurora's mental health. Other than her stress directly linked to fighting with her brother, she seemed well-balanced and happy, even engaging in heavy flirting with Sasquatch.

Fear Itself

The Serpent's invasion of Midgard was used by the Unity Party, lead publicly by Gary Cody, to gain power in Canada.

Schism

Later Aurora, Northstar and presumably the rest of Alpha Flight were deployed by Emma Frost to destroy rogue and defective Sentinels that had been activated around the world in response to Kid Omega's attack on a U.N. arms summit - setting the stage for the Schism between the X-Men.

All-New, All-Different

Aurora became a member of the Alpha Flight space program.