ALIASES: Monet, Monet Twins, Penance
REAL NAMES: Claudette and Nicole St. Croix
NATIONALITY: Algerian
TEAM AFFILIATION: Generation X
AGE: Each girl is 8 years old
POWER: Nicole: Her abilities seem to more of a physical nature. Body merging, flight, enhanced strength, invunerability are possible powers, total powers are unknown.
Claudette: Her abilities seem to be more of a mental nature. Reality warping/spell casting, telepathy, high intellegence are possible powers, total powers are unknown. Claudette is autistic.
NOTE: Twins are distinguished by charm necklaces. Nicole (left) wears a cresent moon necklace, Claudette (right) wears a full moon necklace.
FIRST APPEARANCE: Uncanny X-Men #316 (as Monet), Generation X #31 (as the twins), Generation X #40 (as Penance)

Nicole and Claudette, the 8 year old twins, are the youngest members of the St. Croix family. The St. Croix children consisted of Monet (M), Marius (Emplate) and the twins Nicole and Claudette. Their mother, only ever heard of as "Mere" (deceased), and their father, Ambassador Cartier St. Croix were of a high social status where the family lived in luxury in Algeria. Monet was the typical rich, self-centered snob while Marius was the furious brooding older brother. The twins were the forgotten children, the ones who were left in the shadows of their attention getting older siblings. This didn't distract them however, they had their problems but were content even though they were in the background.

It wasn't until the day that Marius became furious with Monet, did the twins do something against their family. As told in a flashback by Nicole in GenX #40, we see that Marius has turned their older sister Monet, into a creature that Marius deemed "Penance". Furious that their older brother Marius had invaded their home once again, they confronted him and Claudette banished Marius to his dimension with her powers. With Monet and Marius gone, only the twins were left. Thinking that Monet was the "Apple of their father's eye", the twins decided to merge into the form of Monet so that their father would not know what had happened to his precious daughter. (Why they thought he wouldn't notice the twins missing is beyond me though) It was then, in a way, that the twins first made their appearance in the comic world. It was in Uncanny X-Men #316 that "Monet" was first seen. You see, after the twins had merged into the Monet form, she hadn't spoken a word in three months so that her father would not find out about what had happened. He then sent her on her way to see Professor X in hopes that he would find out what's wrong with her. The twins complied but were ambushed along the way by a Phalanx and captured. That was when they first met up in GenX as they were kept in a form of prison with her fellow mutants. The charade continued even after they escaped and they joined the team known as Generation X.

They played their cards well and their secret was kept for quite a long time. It was in Generation X #31 that their luck finally ran out and they were discovered. In this issue, while in a battle with Sentinels, they were caught in the destruction of the building they were fighting the Sentinels in. Skin's cousin Gil had set some gasoline on fire in the basement of the building they were in, in hopes of destroying the Sentinels. Unfortunately, Monet had not left the building in time to escape safely. Even though the Monet form has a high invunerability power, the twins were badly hurt and they could not hold together the Monet form any longer. When Synch used his powers to search for his teammates in the wreckage, he was shocked as he pulled two unconscious twin girls from the rubble. From that point, the team began to wonder if there really was a Monet. That answer came in GenX #40 when Synch accidently synched to the twins while he was unconscious after having been beat up by Dorian and Weasel in GenX #39. He learned what secrets the twins had been hiding and he told them to tell everyone what had happened to make them take the Monet form. They did so in GenX #40 (as I had mentioned above) After telling this story on how they took the place of Monet when the real Monet was transformed by Marius, they felt badly for masquarading as their older sister while she had been trapped in the Penance form for so long. With tears streaming down her face, Nicole decided they should do something about that. She grabbed Claudette's hand and they merged into the Monet form again. They then grabbed Penance's hand and merged into her body. In a flash of light, they seperated once again only to find that the real Monet had been released. The twins used their powers to kick the "Real Monet" out of the Penance shell and they took her place in Penance form. From this day on, the twins are now trapped in the form of Penance.

The twins have not been shown for very long in the book, they continue to be the characters in the shadows. Perhaps this is for the best, perhaps not, for these twins have strong powers, especially when they combine. As seperate beings, these twins are very secretive and therefore their total amount of powers is unknown. With only limited glimpses of these twins, we hardly know the amount of powers they have, let alone which twin has which power. The powers known so far seem to be as follows, but don't take me word on it, you never know when it comes to these twins. Nicole seems to be a mutant who has more physical powers than anything. She possibly has powers such as body merging, flight, enhanced strength, and invunerability. Claudette's seem to be more related to mental powers such as reality warping/spell casting, telepathy, and perhaps high intellegence. Now this does not entirely surprise me seeing that Claudette has a unique problem, she is autistic and therefore she is mostly blank and unresponsive. She tends to stay in her own world, does her own things while unaware of the outside world. This is possibly the explaination as to why Monet would suddenly blank out for no apparant reason. It is thought that at that time, it was Claudette who had control of the Monet form rather than Nicole. Perhaps now, Generation X will find out more from their sister, and themselves, on how to help the young 8 year olds learn of their powers and learn to cope and grow in this world.

Still a little confused on how Monet, the twins and Penance all came to be? See the MMM-emories, a picture layout of events for the Monet/Penance senario that led up to GenX #40. The image is taken from "X-Men Universe #1".