The birth of Juliette Fournier was an unexpected one, on a cold Christmas day in 1994. Complications arose almost immediately from the time Juliette was born, because Juliette Fournier was not born as she should have been, Juliette Fornier was born as twins. Shock, confusion and disbelief came over her mother on the day of their darling daughter's birth. She was born a week premature, an unexpected bout of pain had gripped her mother while heavy with the pregnancy. Just one week prior, an ultrasound had confirmed that Juliette Fournier was indeed a single, solitary child. The unexplained presence of not only an identical, but conjoined twin baffled medical professionals in Belgium where they were born.
Word of the children's birth spread quickly after their birth, eliciting a visit from the Company to investigate the strange presence of a mystery twin born conjoined to another. After a thourough inquiry into the children, the parents, and the hospital staff the Company concluded that the child was gifted, but could not explain the mysterious manifestation of a second body.
Quietly discrediting and quieting reports of the birth in Belgium, the children were brought to the Company's American branch in 1996 for further study and the proper— and dangerous— surgery required to separate conjoined twins connected at the skull. While both of the infants shared a small portion of brain tissue, surgeons were able to successfully separate the twins, additionally thanks to the assistance of Daniel Linderman's miraculous ability in healing the surgical scars and any lasting trauma. It was perhaps this choice that may have given researchers their first insight into what this child could do.
In her infancy, Juliette Fournier (whom were renamed to Julie and Liette, divisions of the full name Juliette) professed no visible Evolved ability, despite considerable testing confirming the likelihood of this. As her first several years passed on, she became something of a pet project for Arthur Petrelli's research teams, brought to the Odessa Texas facility where she was studied alongside the likes of Odessa Knutson.
Julie and Liette did not manifest their first power until 2003, when during indoor playtime, Julie had climbed to the top of a series of shelves in their containment room, and fallen, striking her head on the concrete floor. Watchers for the girls arrived immediately from their supervision positions, but were stunned to see Liette healing her sister's wounds. It was assumed at this point the sisters had a form of healing, perhaps sympathetic between the two. Trials of healing on animals proved to be a revelation, when it was shown that only one of the two siblings could heal at any given time. When Julie was healing, Liette could not, and vice-versa.
Over time, it became clear that the two possessed a unique bond developed in the unexplained circumstances of their birth. Over time, the twins began to exhibit additional powers ranging from Telekinesis to X-Ray vision to Pain Manipulation. Just as quickly as they were gaining new abilities, ones that the twins has shared for over a year were no longer being used. Extensive research and further testing came to show that all the abilities the twins expressed were those they were directly exposed to and affected by. They could retain a reactive genetic imprint of this ability in their bodies for a period of time nearly nine months long, before it would degenerate and become garbage data in their genetic structure. However, it became garbage data, it did not disappear. Meaning that Julie and Liette effectively could become genomic codices of Evolved abilities. The "marker" was left in the DNA of whomever last had and utilized the ability before it decayed fully, and is not expressed in the alternate twin.
In 2006, when it became clear that Arthur Petrelli felt threatened by those around him and began putting together contingency plans for an attempt on his life (as evidenced by having Pinehearst secretly purchased out from under anyone in the Company) he felt that Julie and Liette's ability was simply too valuable to be left alone and potentially lost. The twins (then 12) were "officially" to be transported from Odessa, Texas to the Chicago, Illinois Company facility for a range of new tests and observation, as well as cataloging of evolved abilities in Julie and Liette's genetic information.
The transport plane suffered an engine failure and accident, leading to the deaths of both of the twins, according to Company records. Arthur had the twins no where near their transport plane, and were delivering them to Fort Lee New Jersey where they would become a part of the Pinehearst's research into the Formula, using Julie and Liette codices in their DNA to aid in the development of the new generation of Formula. It was from Julie and Liette's DNA that doctor Alison Meier was able to develop the Generation 1 and Generation 2 Advent Virus.
At Pinehearst, the twins were treated much as they were in Company care, well-trained lab rats. Confined to the basement levels of Pinehearst where only a handful of Arthur's researchers were present, the next three years would see the twins becoming research templates by which Dr.Meier, and later Dr.Zimmerman would perform research on the Formula. Neither Jennifer Chesterfield nor Mason Chesterfield were ever aware of the twins' existence at Pinehearst.
During the fall of Pinehearst in 2009, neither Julie nor Liette were able to be secreted away to safety by Arthur, due to the surprise attack the ambush presented. Beset by enemies on all sides, Arthur was killed and Pinehearst demolished by Phoenix, but not before the still surviving test subjects in the sub-basement levels were killed or severely wounded in the collapse. When the United States Government began picking through Pinehearst's remains, it was the twin sisters held in their subterranean research lab that were discovered, along with the bodies of Edward Ray and countless research artifacts not destroyed in the demolition of the building's ground floor.
Barely alive, Julie and Liette were brought to a government research center in Cambridge Massachusetts, formerly the Commonwealth Institute of Scientific Research, now simply known only as The Institute. Here, the two girls stay under the watchful eye of Dr.Luis, who treats them like his surrogate daughters. Both Liette and Julie have become a part of the research project developing Amplification drugs.
Differing from their Pinehearst treatment, especially after having much of Arthur's research data on hand, Julie and Liette are no longer kept together for their research. Since their arrival at the Institute in the summer of 2009, Julie has remained sequestered in the Institute laboratories, and Liette has been placed (with supervisors) in the field to collect data on the Evolved. Dr.Luis realized that the distance which the twins can transmit genetic data seems limitless, and is unexplained in its manifestation.
This change of environment means that Julie is without her sister, and slowly growing resentful of Liette's freedom, while Liette resents being separated from her only family which has begun to have the girls growing up in two very different directions from one another. Liette is learning about the world around her and growing up on her own, while Julie is remaining the sheltered child, but becoming increasingly resentful of her situation.
The Institute's goals are twofold. One, utilize Julie as a test of different evolved abilities under the effects of the Amplification drug as they are found by Liette. Two, Liette and her watchers serve as observers of the Evolved situation from a street level. Having lived sheltered much of her life, she assumes the Institute caretakers of her well-being, and is used to performing strange, unusual, or frankly fun requests as tests. She has been instructed not to speak of the Institute, her reasons for being, or her ability with others and follows these orders while her watchers carefully monitor her experiences and contact.
