'This mansion is entirely too big for its own good,' Dawn decided. She had wandered her home's expansive halls in search of her fraternal twin sister for the last fifteen minutes with no luck. The hallways were big and twisting, with panels of wood casting a somber look to the whole place. Expensive knickknacks lined the walls. Dawn paid them no heed on her search. She was used to the way her home was decorated, though it usually impressed guests to the governor's mansion.

Dawn and Wade Welles were both petite in frame with similarly shaped faces. Their main striking difference was that Dawn's hair was blond and her eyes blue, while Wade's hair was a deep chestnut, and her eyes dark brown. Both girls however, had short boyish cuts. They preferred it that way. Less hair meant less hassle.

"Wade! You in here?" she called out into the hallway.

"Over here," responded a muffled voice from the house's large library. Dawn smiled. It was her sister's favorite room.

She wandered in, and found Wade sitting inside a huge mountain of books, arranged in some kind of haphazard manner. Her sister was holding a pair of flash cards face down in front of her, and looked deep in concentration.

Dawn sighed. She knew it. Wade was worried about the testing today. "You're practicing aren't you?" she said mildly.

Wade looked up. Her expression became a little scared. "Yeah...you knew huh?"

Dawn shook her head and tried to make light of the situation. "Even if we didn't have the twin thing going sis, your worry would scream at me from miles away."

Wade looked sad for a moment. "It comes so easily to you..." she said softly. "I barely passed my testing five years ago. What if I don't now? This is the big one."

Dawn made her way over to her sister and gave her a hug. "You'll pass. I know you will."

Wade made a face. "Be realistic for a second will you Dawn?" She took her sister's hands in her own. "I might not."

"You know I can't...even think about that." replied Dawn with a grimace.

"Hey!" Wade teased lightly, attempting to mask her fear. "I don't much relish the idea of being sent off to a drone camp either."

"That's not funny," responded Dawn. "Here. I'll help you practice."

They'd been practicing for two hours straight. Dawn was beginning to see what her sister had meant about being realistic. Though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she knew in her heart that Wade was not doing very well.

She held a card in front of her. On it was a picture of a dog. She sighed softly. It was getting late, and the psychic relevance testers would be here any moment. Then they would both be separated for their testing...and their results.

"O.K. Wade," she said softly, trying to sound optimistic, "let's try the visualization exercise again."

Wade nodded heavily. She hadn't gotten a visualization right all afternoon, but she wouldn't try to point that out to her sister.

"All right," said Dawn, staring intently at the card. 'Please just get it Wade...just get it right,' she thought, willing herself not to cry. She finally spoke and her voice quavered slightly. "What am I looking at?"

Wade shut her eyes and looked like she was trying to concentrate with her whole being. She sat for so long that Dawn felt a spark of hope rise.

Wade let out a small breath and opened her eyes. She looked frustrated and sad. "A house?" she guessed, knowing that she was wrong.

Dawn felt her spark of hope vanish into despair. She shook her head, not trusting her voice.

Wade looked terribly frightened. "Well that's it then," she said. "If I can't pass with you..."

Dawn's expression became fierce. "I don't care if you don't pass Wade," she said, almost angrily. "They will not take you away!"

Wade put a hand on her twin's shoulder. She could feel Dawn shudder at the contact. "It's the way the laws work Dawn," she said gently, hoping her fear wasn't infecting both of them.

But Dawn of course, saw right through her. "Then the laws are WRONG," she said intensely.

Wade nodded. She'd felt that way for some time. But never so much as now, when it seemed that those very laws were going to uproot her entire life.

"If you really feel that way," she said slowly as Dawn nodded vigorously, "then I want you to promise me something."

Dawn clasped her sister's hands. "What? I'll promise anything."

"When they....they...take me," said Wade, visibly trembling now.

Tears filled Dawn's eyes and she shook her head back and forth in denial, but Wade squeezed her hands tightly, and she looked to see her sister's eyes mirroring her own.

"When they take me," Wade continued, "Work to change it. Try and find me...don't let them...I don't want to stay there...please Dawn...."

Openly crying now, Dawn threw her arms around her sister. "I won't let anything happen to you," she said between tears. "I promise you that."

Wade nodded within the hug, and her own tears wet Dawn's shoulder.

There were levels of testing and different forms of testees. For the more advanced, the tests could be formidable to the naked eye. But truthfully they really weren't if one possessed the abilities needed for them in the first place.

First they had tested Dawn's empathy skills. It was determined that she ranked in the 93rd percentile for this sensing test.

Next they had asked her to demonstrate her healing abilities. On and on it went: telepathy, projection, psi skills, levitation.

All in all the testers seemed most pleased. Fifth Seer level skills they had said, the highest there was, and they had patted her on the back like she had planned to be born with that level of sensing or something. Like anyone could really help what level they were born with. She shook her head. Life was really screwed up sometimes.

She was sitting in the living room's spacious picture window. She knew Wade was in the other room. She also knew that if Wade didn't pass...there would be a big black van that would pull up to the house. So she sat, chafing her hands, and staring down the tree lined street where there mansion occupied a large chunk of land.

Dawn had never been much for praying. But she prayed now. If only by some miracle Wade could pass! This was the last round of testing...'oh please...please God....let her pass,' she thought feverishly.

In the other room, Wade had been dealing with a much simpler set of tests. She was frightened to death. "God...If I miss another one," she thought feverishly.

The testers stared at her with a look of disdain that she had never felt before in her life. It frightened her so badly that she wanted to cry as they laid another set of flashcards in front of her face.

Wade couldn't understand societies emphasis on psychic powers. She found it be highly prejudiced, which bothered her to the core.

Her sister dawn was slightly less enthusiastic about denouncing the system. But today she had gotten a strike to the face, hadn't she?

Wade sighed. They had led such seperate lives from the hash realities of their world. It scared her to think she might have to face those realities again.

Dawn still sat by the picture window. it looked out into a broad expanse of tree line street that bordered the houses large meadow. She sighed softly.

"Wade'll pass." she thought fiercely. "I just know she will!" She let a tear drop onto her nose and sighed again.

Wasn't there that the resistance group that Wade followed in the news so closely? Dawn shook her head, pushing away her worries for a moment. 'I should just go buy her a guerilla outfit or something.' she thought with a slight sigh, breaking the tone of thoughts.

She glanced at her watch. 'How much longer can this take?' she thought with a sad sigh.

As if to answer her question, her father came down the stairs shortly with a business-like stern look on his face. He was followed by two shorter men in suits, who were the lackeys they appeared as.

Dawn stiffened slightly. Her father was shielding heavily. Of course that was pretty typical for him. But at the same time, she shivered. She had a bad feeling...a scared feeling. It was not a fun experience to say the least. She shivered again.

There were suddenly goosebumps on her arms. "Dad?" she said tenatively.

He mumbled a response and Dawn pulled her knees to her chest. Her father was not exactly what one would call a kind man. Don Welles was known for unscrupulous business dealings. He was also governor of the state of California, and not exactly on the best of terms with his daughters. He looked away from her pointedly and glanced at the mailla envelope in his hand.

"Yes," he said to one of the hovering lackeys. "All the arrangements have been made and I feel as though this has been a long time coming." He laughed shortly. "I've seen it coming for years. But you know what they say eh? Can't have two stars can we?"

Dawn tried again. "Dad."

Thi s time he pointedly ignored her. "Dad listen." she said again.

He finally graced her with a withering glare that could have turned a marine into a scared child.

"What is it?" he said with a sigh.

Dawn looked at him incredulously. Didn't the man give at all a care out the results of his daughter's test results?

She fely her lower lip tremble and felt like she might cry. "I..." she began. "But she was stopped short by the sight of the black van that was pulling up to the driveway in front of her.

'Oh god..." she thought feviorishly. 'That...can't be can it?'

"Nooooo" she breathed softly.

And tghen just as suddenly, she spun to face her father. "Where's Wade?" she demanded. It was the most ferocious utterance ever to grace her lips when directed at him. Usually she avoided him entirely. But today her sister was on the line. And she refused to be left in the dark when it came to that fact. 'I need to know,' she thought. 'I need to find Wade.' she started out the door with a stomp and she went searching for Wade's familiar face. As she rounded the familiar hallway, she looked up in shocked horro as two men were leading her very red faced and crying sister by the arms.

"I..." she stammered.

Wade sniffled and looked at Dawn hopelessy. Dawn felt her heart beat hammer in her ears. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening! She caught her breath sharply. "Wade?" she said softly. "I...I...can't believe this.' She was yammering about nothing, and her insides were melting in front of her eyes. Her father entered the hallway then with a stern expression on his face.

Wade met her eyes with red filled vision. "Call Logan," she said hoarsely. "Call Logan."

Logan? What on earth...but Dawn wasn't about to deny her sister anything at the moment. Maybe she could talk to her fathr before Wade got in the van. She had to talk some sense into him!

The men were forcibly leading Wade by the shoulders and Dawn felt her face grown hot and angry with outrage as the roughly manhhandled her sister.

"Let go of her, you goons!" she cried out, grabbing one man by the shirt and the other attempting to grab her sister's hand.

A short scuffle followed, but Dawn's small frame was no match for the two twin men in black.

She turned next to try and appeal to her cold-faced father, a man she had trembled in fear before for most of her life. "Dad...you have to stop this!" she cried out sharply, her voice ringing in her own ears.

He looked at her with an irritatated expression. "It's the law honey," he said in a condescing tone that made her feel like she was three years old and had just been told no for an extra lollipop.

"This law isn't right Dad," Dawn cried again. "Wade is a person...she's your daughter!"

There was a slight pain behind Don's eyes as her answered, "I am the governor. I have to make an example for the people. Surely you know that."

Dawn knew. And she also sensed that no matter how much she pleaded, he wouldn't change his mind. Tears began streaming down her face and she watched, held back from any further struggling by the icy grip of her father's arm.

"Wade!" she cried out into the chill air. "Wade!"

"I'll get you back Wade." she said firmly. "I promise."