Heroes, "Grave New World" ensemble, rated R [2/5]
Fandom: Heroes
Title: Grave New World
Chapter Title: The Becoming
Author: paynesgrey
Artist: rebelle_elle
Type: Gen, Het, Darkfic
Word Count: ~21,000
Rating: R
Characters: Sylar, Elle, Noah, Sandra, Claire, Peter, Angela, Rene (the Haitian), Noah Jr., Nathan, OCs
Pairings: Noah/Sandra, Sylar/Elle, implied Peter/Claire, Claire/Rene
Warnings violence, torture, character death, implied incest
Notes: This is a supposed future after Nathan's press conference at the end of Season 2 that lead up to the events of "I am Become Death" in Season 3. AU. Done for heroes_bigboom. Thank you to rtwofan for the beta job and rebelle_elle for her artwork contribution.
Summary: After Nathan Petrelli’s revelation, the world panics and rejects people with special abilities. As fear and darkness spread, those who were once villains become the victims, a family is destroyed, and an innocent woman is forced to fight.
Artwork: Link
Other URLs: FFnet | AO3
Part Two: The Becoming
Nine months later…
Elle was screaming from unbearable pain. Medical orderlies restrained her hands with metal clamps as she cried and tried to push the offensive child out her body and into the doctor’s hands. She glared several times at the other doctor watching her from the other side of the glass of her room. He had a contemptible smile on his face that she couldn’t wait to sear off.
Why was this happening to her? She never wanted to give birth; she knew she would never be a mother. Her own mother had abandoned her, and her father … well, he wasn’t hear any longer to yell at her or beat her down either.
And this baby… who was the father? They didn’t tell her, and even though she knew they were using her. This was just another experimentation to take advantage of her powers. The father had to be powerful; what other reason would they impregnate someone like her if not to make a child who would grow up to be even stronger?
She didn’t care about the child. Some months she did, and other months she dreamed of leaving it, just like her own mother had left her. But she couldn’t. She cried in her cell, and it would tickle at her powers, subduing her, warning her that if she cried too much, she could short out.
Though, Elle doubted this doctor would even let her keep the baby anyway. She was just a tool to him, and so was her baby.
Once she killed him, once she got out of her, she’d take her baby and run away, leaving this whole facility a pile of charred rubble and ash.
Pain shot through Elle’s spine and burned the nerves in her body and she screamed again. Another cry followed, louder and more distressed. When she looked through her propped-up legs she saw her baby and watched them clean him and cut the cord. Her baby had soft brown hair, and lots of it. Before she could reach for him, they doused her with a bucket of cold water again as they began to clean her up, trying to subdue her powers. The head doctor came in and took her baby into his arms and cooed at it. Her skin itched, and she wanting nothing more than to shock off his head. How dare he touch her baby? How dare he take him away!
“Ah, there you are little one. You are going to be a very powerful soldier someday,” he said, and he drew his gaze away from the child and met Elle’s raging eyes.
“See there is your proud mama. You will never know her,” he said, mocking Elle as she was still restrained, lying in the miniature pool where she gave birth. The orderlies backed away, gearing up to throw water on her again. The doctor laughed at her. “You will never know your father, Sylar either.” Elle froze, unable to process what he was saying. Was it the truth or was he just messing with her? Did they really force her to have Sylar’s baby?
“You…you made me have Sylar’s baby for your sick experiment?” she hollered, fighting and pulling at her restraints. “I’ll kill you, bastard!” she screamed, and the room was suddenly filled with uncontrollable, wild lightening that seeped inside her and made her scream along with the orderlies next to her. The doctor quickly slipped out of the room and evaded the charge.
Suddenly, as electrical bursts filled the room, the sprinklers came on automatically, which only added to the physical pain Elle was feeling. Still, she couldn’t make it stop. Her powers tied into her grief and anger and were going haywire, and she could hear her baby crying in the other closed off room. The windows must have been made of something to deter her powers because the doctor was unaffected. She was almost glad because then her baby would be struck too. She watched as the doctor handed her baby to a nurse, a wet nurse presumably, and the two of them began walking away as the doctor shot her one last insidious smile.
Elle wept, and soon her powers began to flicker and fade out. The water in the pool in which she was restrained to give birth turned into steam, and the room was charred and burnt as water from the sprinklers started to dry. Then, the doctor and wet nurse left her there with the dead orderlies, in her own filth and sorrow, and she passed out from the pain with her tears as the last thing to dry.
++
Sandra Bennet caught him taking a phone call. She should have known her husband would never just give up. She caught him talking to a pre-paid unknown phone and he had to confess. Noah was still taking orders from Angela Petrelli.
Of course, this was all in exchange for Claire’s freedom and safety. This was what her husband tried to tell her, but she just sighed and let it sink it. No matter what he said, she knew that secretly he enjoyed his job as a Company man, and even the government or Pinehearst could take that away from him.
“Why didn’t you just tell me, Noah? I would have understood if it was for Claire,” Sandra said, rubbing her temple. Her husband held her arms and pulled her close, and automatically, she rested against his chest, her face nuzzling into his warmth.
“I didn’t think you would approve. Plus,” and he paused and she waited for the rest of the excuse, “if the government came, I didn’t want to risk you or Lyle with that knowledge. If anyone was going to fall for this, it should only be me.”
“What about Claire?” Noah had said she and Peter would be fighting too. “Noah, it’s much too dangerous for her.”
“I couldn’t argue with Angela on that, Sandra,” he said, kissing her forehead, and she watched him continue with information she could tell was hurting him. “Despite what you think, Claire just hasn’t been just running. She and Peter have been fighting and liberating specials from camps for a long time, almost a year.”
“You knew this?” she asked him, a little perturbed. Her stomach suddenly felt unsettled. Something about her little girl fighting and going up against the government just didn’t feel right. Instantly, she was terrified for her, despite knowing that her daughter couldn’t physically get hurt. But she knew that her daughter could still feel, and she could still get scared and lonely like anyone else.
His lips thinned, but her husband remained calm, trying to keep her calm as well. “Rene told me he’s done some missions with them.” Noah titled his head to one side. “Sandra, they’ve been doing a lot of good, saving a lot of people. I admit I wasn’t happy with the idea at first, but our Claire bear wanted to fight, and she’s an adult now. Even Peter couldn’t keep her from fighting.”
Sandra smirked slightly, and she felt a little better despite her deep worries. She knew, well… they both knew that Claire would be okay, especially when she was with Peter.
“I still worry about her too,” Noah said finally, squeezing her in another hug. Sandra settled against him with a sigh as he rubbed her shoulders up and down. “Like father, like daughter,” she said languidly, and the two of them held each other before Rene was supposed to arrive, bringing old times back to them again.
“So where do you have to go?” she asked after a long silence. Noah pulled away from her and she met his confident, placid face - the hardened, trained expression that made him so good at his job, so she supposed.
“Coyote Sands. There’s a high profile facility there where most of the worst experiments are taking place, some as bad as breeding specials with other specials,” Noah said stonily with a lilt of disapproval in his tone, and he pulled out his gun to load it. Sandra almost started when he cocked it. “Once we liberate the government’s most prized specials and release news of the truth of their experiments, then, they’ll know the rebels mean business.”
“Suddenly, this is a rebellion? Not too long ago you were catching these people and holding them just like the government is,” Sandra said, crossing her arms.
“You and I both know things are different now, especially where Claire is concerned,” Noah said, and she saw him hide a few more guns on his person while they both waited for his former partner to arrive.
“So what then? What happens after the government notices this big rebellion and that their prisoners are banding against them? Won’t Claire be in even more danger?” Sandra asked.
Noah nodded once but didn’t seem worried. “Angela doesn’t seem to think so. There’s something else going on with Pinehearst and the government that we don’t know about yet, but we will very soon.”
“Makes you regret not accepting their job offer, doesn’t it?” she scoffed, but her husband shook his head.
“Angela’s working on it. She has a source inside Pinehearst; someone that could do a better job than I could,” Noah said, and they both heard the back porch door open, alerting them that Rene had probably slipped inside.
“Who?” Sandra asked, and Noah was already shifting toward Rene who was waiting for him in the kitchen doorway.
“Senator Nathan Petrelli,” Noah said with a small smirk. “Who has now been promoted as Pinehearst’s acting CEO as well.”
“Acting CEO? Wait, Claire’s birth father, that shady politician, is in charge of Pinehearst, the company responsible for lobbying the internment and experimentation of people like Claire? That doesn’t make sense! Why would a father even do that?” Sandra’s head hurt, but more than anything, she was worried and angry at all this obvious foul play.
“Well, the real CEO of Pinehearst, this mysterious founder, has never really surfaced. Some say he’s crippled and has his people make all his decisions. His latest decision was to take on Nathan Petrelli, and now Angela believes we can get better inside information,” Noah answered.
“That is if you can trust Senator Petrelli,” Sandra snorted. Noah nodded and he and Rene were heading out the door.
“That’s the big question, isn’t it? Can we trust Senator Petrelli?” After another kiss, her husband and his partner were gone, retreating back into the shadows and on their way toward the desert. Sandra prayed for them, and she prayed for Claire.
She hoped to God they could trust Nathan Petrelli as well.
++
For many months, Gabriel Gray had dreamed a lot. Some dreams, he had dreamed them as Sylar, his hands dripping with blood as people screamed and begged in the background. Faces of those he had murdered haunted him, promising him a harsher future, an afterlife where he would pay for all of his sins.
Other times he was a boy again, watching as a nameless woman’s skull was split open and her life bled onto the asphalt. Then he would look up to see a man who he thought was his father, only to see into a blurred face where only the sinister smile was clear.
Always, the dreams came with blood, and somewhere in between dreams, he fell into deep contemplation. If he ever got out of this facility, what would his life be like? Would he continue to murder and steal powers (to become so powerful he’d only be hunted more)? It was the task that was most natural to him, even though he felt so alone. Even though he would die someday (if he ever got his hands on the cheerleader) and then would he pay for his transgressions? Who would be so bold and powerful to kill him? This Dr. Crabtree had proven himself worthy enough.
Sometimes Sylar was even scared. Maybe it wasn’t Sylar who was scared; maybe deep inside it was Gabriel, once a small whisper he could ignore, telling him to stop, to repent, to change his life and never kill again.
The voice was louder now, moral and insufferable, and sometimes it made sense and Sylar would listen. He had nothing better to do - he dreamed, he thought, and he reflected. He couldn’t move his hands or legs, and they kept him constantly drugged. Some days he didn’t even feel alive at all.
That was until Sylar saw him. It wasn’t Dr. Crabtree, but rather the infant boy he and the nurse held before him. They were grinning like monsters, and they told him that this was his son - a child from his DNA, and he would never get to hold him. He would never name him, and he would never see his son’s first steps.
Something inside him stirred - not the force of murder, not the disregard for human life. No. An energy was born, something that only a child of his own flesh would inspire. He wanted to see his son. He wanted to know the mother. He wanted to name him.
Sylar reached inside himself, tapping in all powers. They hovered on the tips of his psyche, and Gabriel began to cheer within him, coming to the surface, ready to bring him to normalcy again. As Gabriel he could be that father. He could destroy all their plans and save his son. He would bring them down - death for them would only be a matter of defense, a consequence of saving and protecting his son.
Until then, he waited and planned. He still couldn’t move; he wouldn’t deny the truth. Dr. Crabtree was anything but stupid. He was cautious and knew just how to imprison him. But Sylar wouldn’t stay here long. He’d break out soon, and he would see his son.
He would prove the doctor wrong, and he would make him pay for this. Then, for the sake of his son, Dr. Crabtree’s blood would be the last to paint his hands.
++
Elle woke stitched up and sore, healing from her pregnancy but still restrained and covered in soaked blankets. The orderlies (new ones, the other ones were dead) made sure to keep her soaked, dousing her with the hose regularly before the nurses would check on her to see how she was healing.
Then, when she couldn’t dread the worst, she saw the head doctor again, and she heard him talking to the wet nurse. Her newborn son was nowhere in sight. They were both scrutinizing her, and the doctor seemed pleased.
“We’ll let her heal up and when she’s ready again, we’ll use her for another,” the doctor said. “This time, we’ll use a different male”
“Someone stronger than Sylar? Do we have someone like that?” the nurse asked conversationally.
The doctor grinned, showing a mouth full of perfect teeth. “We just got a new shipment today. Someone called the German is very powerful. He has the power of magnetic manipulation. Electric manipulation and magnets, doesn’t that sound interesting?” He laughed, and Elle continued to glare at him as he drew his eyes away. The wet nurse looked at her and Elle saw the fear, but not so long as she was next to the doctor.
“Doctor,” said a voice beside him, and Elle watched as an orderly seemed disturbed as he approached him. Obviously, this doctor was the highest rank here. If Elle took him out, she figured she could walk all over the others, no problem.
“What is it? I’m very busy,” he said perturbed.
“We have...um, a problem,” said the orderly, and as Elle noticed this man’s anxiety, things started to get interesting. “People have breached security. Um, it’s the rebels.”
“So? Take them down! Use Mika. He’s been waiting for a fight,” the doctor said, unconcerned. His nonchalance did not subdue his orderly.
“Mika won’t be enough. It’s him...” the orderly said, his voice turning stern at the last word.
The doctor became angry and he shook the orderly, who only squealed with fear. Elle continued to watch as the minion cowered in front of him. “Who the devil do you mean?”
“The man with glasses,” he said, so low Elle could barely hear it, but time seemed to stop for her. She watched, her eyes widening as the doctor was finally showing some emotion after seeming so confident, so strong and assured. “And the Haitian.”
“Oh, well, this does change things.” The doctor cleared his throat and his touch became gentler toward his subordinate. “We must perform the red security protocol. First, I will inform Homeland Security.” The man nodded, and soon he was gone, carrying out his orders. The doctor began to move, but in a quick second, he turned and met Elle’s eyes.
She smirked at him, and his brow furrowed. Then, she laughed.
Noah Bennet was coming here, and for the first time in a long time - as long as she’d been here, Elle Bishop felt hope.
++
Sirens blared so loudly that they brought Sylar out of his usual drug-induced haze. He could hear footsteps running frantically, and among other things, he heard gunshots and screaming. Explosions rocked the facility, and he could smell fire and smoke in the air.
The place was burning. The people who kept him were dying or fleeing, and Sylar wondered if he would die here, helpless in the wake of fire, or if he would finally be free. He put his faith in his latter option, and when the power went out and the machine keeping him drugged went dark, he started to feel the effects slowly subsiding. He managed to move his eyes slightly with the lightest sway of his head, and through the window of the room holding him, he saw a phantom man float by. It was a man that he’d seen before. The man stopped, met his eyes, and Sylar was grinning inside, feeling the muscles slightly tug at his lips.
The shadow man looked at him with haunting white eyes against his dark skin, and then he slid away. Smoke covered his exit, and little by little, Sylar’s powers were helping him gain movement and equilibrium of his body again.
“It’s Sylar,” said a voice, which Sylar recognized as Noah Bennet. He was somewhere near him, but he couldn’t see where. He was still lying on the table, struggling with all his might to move. His thoughts were premature. Maybe he was dreaming and not escaping at all.
“I found Elle Bishop,” said his shadowy friend, the Haitian, who may have been the reason Sylar’s quickly returning powers were only being masked again. “She has given birth. She’s alive, but barely.”
Sylar seemed interested in this. Could it be...? Was Elle the mother of his son? Is that what they did to her and him? Of course! It all made sense. They were the most powerful specials here, and this nefarious government Dr. Crabtree felt they were the best of all prisoners for breeding stock.
“They were breeding specials here. I wonder if Elle wasn’t the only one,” Noah’s voice said, and finally he came into view. He looked down at Sylar, same stony face as ever.
“There are two other women here. I freed them, but they did not give birth. I suppose they would have gotten to them in time,” his partner said. Noah nodded.
“So Elle is the only one. What about the baby she gave birth to?”
“Gone. I haven’t found it,” the Haitian said. Sylar used all his might, trying to move a finger. Noah Bennet noticed.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Noah said. He turned around and saw the dead machine. He turned to his partner. “Stay with him. He’s waking up and getting his powers back. Where is Elle?”
“She is down the hall, two rooms down. I removed her restraints, but she isn’t conscious yet.”
“Okay, she can stay put for now. I heard the sprinklers go on, so this building should be fine from fire. We just have to wrap this up before the authorities get here. I’m going to look for any others you didn’t free,” he said, and he paused and touched his friend’s shoulder encouragingly. “I’m going to look for the guy in charge. Hopefully I’ll find a baby too.”
Sylar silently cheered for Noah Bennet. Always a father... even if it were someone else’s child. He supposed taking in Claire Bennet had changed him in that way. If anyone could save his son, it was the man with glasses.
When he left, Sylar started to gain consciousness, feeling his muscles moving, even in a mundane way with the Haitian’s powers subduing him. When he had the capacity to speak again, he looked into the shadowy man’s eyes and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t fight you. I’m not going to hurt anyone.” He tried to sound sincere with his shaky, croaked voice.
The Haitian looked down at him impassively, but he cocked his head with mild curiosity. Sylar supposed the man was trying to decide on whether or not he could really believe him.
Sylar didn’t really blame him for his doubts.
Chapters: Part One | Part Three | Part Four | Epilogue
Title: Grave New World
Chapter Title: The Becoming
Author: paynesgrey
Artist: rebelle_elle
Type: Gen, Het, Darkfic
Word Count: ~21,000
Rating: R
Characters: Sylar, Elle, Noah, Sandra, Claire, Peter, Angela, Rene (the Haitian), Noah Jr., Nathan, OCs
Pairings: Noah/Sandra, Sylar/Elle, implied Peter/Claire, Claire/Rene
Warnings violence, torture, character death, implied incest
Notes: This is a supposed future after Nathan's press conference at the end of Season 2 that lead up to the events of "I am Become Death" in Season 3. AU. Done for heroes_bigboom. Thank you to rtwofan for the beta job and rebelle_elle for her artwork contribution.
Summary: After Nathan Petrelli’s revelation, the world panics and rejects people with special abilities. As fear and darkness spread, those who were once villains become the victims, a family is destroyed, and an innocent woman is forced to fight.
Artwork: Link
Other URLs: FFnet | AO3
Part Two: The Becoming
Nine months later…
Elle was screaming from unbearable pain. Medical orderlies restrained her hands with metal clamps as she cried and tried to push the offensive child out her body and into the doctor’s hands. She glared several times at the other doctor watching her from the other side of the glass of her room. He had a contemptible smile on his face that she couldn’t wait to sear off.
Why was this happening to her? She never wanted to give birth; she knew she would never be a mother. Her own mother had abandoned her, and her father … well, he wasn’t hear any longer to yell at her or beat her down either.
And this baby… who was the father? They didn’t tell her, and even though she knew they were using her. This was just another experimentation to take advantage of her powers. The father had to be powerful; what other reason would they impregnate someone like her if not to make a child who would grow up to be even stronger?
She didn’t care about the child. Some months she did, and other months she dreamed of leaving it, just like her own mother had left her. But she couldn’t. She cried in her cell, and it would tickle at her powers, subduing her, warning her that if she cried too much, she could short out.
Though, Elle doubted this doctor would even let her keep the baby anyway. She was just a tool to him, and so was her baby.
Once she killed him, once she got out of her, she’d take her baby and run away, leaving this whole facility a pile of charred rubble and ash.
Pain shot through Elle’s spine and burned the nerves in her body and she screamed again. Another cry followed, louder and more distressed. When she looked through her propped-up legs she saw her baby and watched them clean him and cut the cord. Her baby had soft brown hair, and lots of it. Before she could reach for him, they doused her with a bucket of cold water again as they began to clean her up, trying to subdue her powers. The head doctor came in and took her baby into his arms and cooed at it. Her skin itched, and she wanting nothing more than to shock off his head. How dare he touch her baby? How dare he take him away!
“Ah, there you are little one. You are going to be a very powerful soldier someday,” he said, and he drew his gaze away from the child and met Elle’s raging eyes.
“See there is your proud mama. You will never know her,” he said, mocking Elle as she was still restrained, lying in the miniature pool where she gave birth. The orderlies backed away, gearing up to throw water on her again. The doctor laughed at her. “You will never know your father, Sylar either.” Elle froze, unable to process what he was saying. Was it the truth or was he just messing with her? Did they really force her to have Sylar’s baby?
“You…you made me have Sylar’s baby for your sick experiment?” she hollered, fighting and pulling at her restraints. “I’ll kill you, bastard!” she screamed, and the room was suddenly filled with uncontrollable, wild lightening that seeped inside her and made her scream along with the orderlies next to her. The doctor quickly slipped out of the room and evaded the charge.
Suddenly, as electrical bursts filled the room, the sprinklers came on automatically, which only added to the physical pain Elle was feeling. Still, she couldn’t make it stop. Her powers tied into her grief and anger and were going haywire, and she could hear her baby crying in the other closed off room. The windows must have been made of something to deter her powers because the doctor was unaffected. She was almost glad because then her baby would be struck too. She watched as the doctor handed her baby to a nurse, a wet nurse presumably, and the two of them began walking away as the doctor shot her one last insidious smile.
Elle wept, and soon her powers began to flicker and fade out. The water in the pool in which she was restrained to give birth turned into steam, and the room was charred and burnt as water from the sprinklers started to dry. Then, the doctor and wet nurse left her there with the dead orderlies, in her own filth and sorrow, and she passed out from the pain with her tears as the last thing to dry.
++
Sandra Bennet caught him taking a phone call. She should have known her husband would never just give up. She caught him talking to a pre-paid unknown phone and he had to confess. Noah was still taking orders from Angela Petrelli.
Of course, this was all in exchange for Claire’s freedom and safety. This was what her husband tried to tell her, but she just sighed and let it sink it. No matter what he said, she knew that secretly he enjoyed his job as a Company man, and even the government or Pinehearst could take that away from him.
“Why didn’t you just tell me, Noah? I would have understood if it was for Claire,” Sandra said, rubbing her temple. Her husband held her arms and pulled her close, and automatically, she rested against his chest, her face nuzzling into his warmth.
“I didn’t think you would approve. Plus,” and he paused and she waited for the rest of the excuse, “if the government came, I didn’t want to risk you or Lyle with that knowledge. If anyone was going to fall for this, it should only be me.”
“What about Claire?” Noah had said she and Peter would be fighting too. “Noah, it’s much too dangerous for her.”
“I couldn’t argue with Angela on that, Sandra,” he said, kissing her forehead, and she watched him continue with information she could tell was hurting him. “Despite what you think, Claire just hasn’t been just running. She and Peter have been fighting and liberating specials from camps for a long time, almost a year.”
“You knew this?” she asked him, a little perturbed. Her stomach suddenly felt unsettled. Something about her little girl fighting and going up against the government just didn’t feel right. Instantly, she was terrified for her, despite knowing that her daughter couldn’t physically get hurt. But she knew that her daughter could still feel, and she could still get scared and lonely like anyone else.
His lips thinned, but her husband remained calm, trying to keep her calm as well. “Rene told me he’s done some missions with them.” Noah titled his head to one side. “Sandra, they’ve been doing a lot of good, saving a lot of people. I admit I wasn’t happy with the idea at first, but our Claire bear wanted to fight, and she’s an adult now. Even Peter couldn’t keep her from fighting.”
Sandra smirked slightly, and she felt a little better despite her deep worries. She knew, well… they both knew that Claire would be okay, especially when she was with Peter.
“I still worry about her too,” Noah said finally, squeezing her in another hug. Sandra settled against him with a sigh as he rubbed her shoulders up and down. “Like father, like daughter,” she said languidly, and the two of them held each other before Rene was supposed to arrive, bringing old times back to them again.
“So where do you have to go?” she asked after a long silence. Noah pulled away from her and she met his confident, placid face - the hardened, trained expression that made him so good at his job, so she supposed.
“Coyote Sands. There’s a high profile facility there where most of the worst experiments are taking place, some as bad as breeding specials with other specials,” Noah said stonily with a lilt of disapproval in his tone, and he pulled out his gun to load it. Sandra almost started when he cocked it. “Once we liberate the government’s most prized specials and release news of the truth of their experiments, then, they’ll know the rebels mean business.”
“Suddenly, this is a rebellion? Not too long ago you were catching these people and holding them just like the government is,” Sandra said, crossing her arms.
“You and I both know things are different now, especially where Claire is concerned,” Noah said, and she saw him hide a few more guns on his person while they both waited for his former partner to arrive.
“So what then? What happens after the government notices this big rebellion and that their prisoners are banding against them? Won’t Claire be in even more danger?” Sandra asked.
Noah nodded once but didn’t seem worried. “Angela doesn’t seem to think so. There’s something else going on with Pinehearst and the government that we don’t know about yet, but we will very soon.”
“Makes you regret not accepting their job offer, doesn’t it?” she scoffed, but her husband shook his head.
“Angela’s working on it. She has a source inside Pinehearst; someone that could do a better job than I could,” Noah said, and they both heard the back porch door open, alerting them that Rene had probably slipped inside.
“Who?” Sandra asked, and Noah was already shifting toward Rene who was waiting for him in the kitchen doorway.
“Senator Nathan Petrelli,” Noah said with a small smirk. “Who has now been promoted as Pinehearst’s acting CEO as well.”
“Acting CEO? Wait, Claire’s birth father, that shady politician, is in charge of Pinehearst, the company responsible for lobbying the internment and experimentation of people like Claire? That doesn’t make sense! Why would a father even do that?” Sandra’s head hurt, but more than anything, she was worried and angry at all this obvious foul play.
“Well, the real CEO of Pinehearst, this mysterious founder, has never really surfaced. Some say he’s crippled and has his people make all his decisions. His latest decision was to take on Nathan Petrelli, and now Angela believes we can get better inside information,” Noah answered.
“That is if you can trust Senator Petrelli,” Sandra snorted. Noah nodded and he and Rene were heading out the door.
“That’s the big question, isn’t it? Can we trust Senator Petrelli?” After another kiss, her husband and his partner were gone, retreating back into the shadows and on their way toward the desert. Sandra prayed for them, and she prayed for Claire.
She hoped to God they could trust Nathan Petrelli as well.
++
For many months, Gabriel Gray had dreamed a lot. Some dreams, he had dreamed them as Sylar, his hands dripping with blood as people screamed and begged in the background. Faces of those he had murdered haunted him, promising him a harsher future, an afterlife where he would pay for all of his sins.
Other times he was a boy again, watching as a nameless woman’s skull was split open and her life bled onto the asphalt. Then he would look up to see a man who he thought was his father, only to see into a blurred face where only the sinister smile was clear.
Always, the dreams came with blood, and somewhere in between dreams, he fell into deep contemplation. If he ever got out of this facility, what would his life be like? Would he continue to murder and steal powers (to become so powerful he’d only be hunted more)? It was the task that was most natural to him, even though he felt so alone. Even though he would die someday (if he ever got his hands on the cheerleader) and then would he pay for his transgressions? Who would be so bold and powerful to kill him? This Dr. Crabtree had proven himself worthy enough.
Sometimes Sylar was even scared. Maybe it wasn’t Sylar who was scared; maybe deep inside it was Gabriel, once a small whisper he could ignore, telling him to stop, to repent, to change his life and never kill again.
The voice was louder now, moral and insufferable, and sometimes it made sense and Sylar would listen. He had nothing better to do - he dreamed, he thought, and he reflected. He couldn’t move his hands or legs, and they kept him constantly drugged. Some days he didn’t even feel alive at all.
That was until Sylar saw him. It wasn’t Dr. Crabtree, but rather the infant boy he and the nurse held before him. They were grinning like monsters, and they told him that this was his son - a child from his DNA, and he would never get to hold him. He would never name him, and he would never see his son’s first steps.
Something inside him stirred - not the force of murder, not the disregard for human life. No. An energy was born, something that only a child of his own flesh would inspire. He wanted to see his son. He wanted to know the mother. He wanted to name him.
Sylar reached inside himself, tapping in all powers. They hovered on the tips of his psyche, and Gabriel began to cheer within him, coming to the surface, ready to bring him to normalcy again. As Gabriel he could be that father. He could destroy all their plans and save his son. He would bring them down - death for them would only be a matter of defense, a consequence of saving and protecting his son.
Until then, he waited and planned. He still couldn’t move; he wouldn’t deny the truth. Dr. Crabtree was anything but stupid. He was cautious and knew just how to imprison him. But Sylar wouldn’t stay here long. He’d break out soon, and he would see his son.
He would prove the doctor wrong, and he would make him pay for this. Then, for the sake of his son, Dr. Crabtree’s blood would be the last to paint his hands.
++
Elle woke stitched up and sore, healing from her pregnancy but still restrained and covered in soaked blankets. The orderlies (new ones, the other ones were dead) made sure to keep her soaked, dousing her with the hose regularly before the nurses would check on her to see how she was healing.
Then, when she couldn’t dread the worst, she saw the head doctor again, and she heard him talking to the wet nurse. Her newborn son was nowhere in sight. They were both scrutinizing her, and the doctor seemed pleased.
“We’ll let her heal up and when she’s ready again, we’ll use her for another,” the doctor said. “This time, we’ll use a different male”
“Someone stronger than Sylar? Do we have someone like that?” the nurse asked conversationally.
The doctor grinned, showing a mouth full of perfect teeth. “We just got a new shipment today. Someone called the German is very powerful. He has the power of magnetic manipulation. Electric manipulation and magnets, doesn’t that sound interesting?” He laughed, and Elle continued to glare at him as he drew his eyes away. The wet nurse looked at her and Elle saw the fear, but not so long as she was next to the doctor.
“Doctor,” said a voice beside him, and Elle watched as an orderly seemed disturbed as he approached him. Obviously, this doctor was the highest rank here. If Elle took him out, she figured she could walk all over the others, no problem.
“What is it? I’m very busy,” he said perturbed.
“We have...um, a problem,” said the orderly, and as Elle noticed this man’s anxiety, things started to get interesting. “People have breached security. Um, it’s the rebels.”
“So? Take them down! Use Mika. He’s been waiting for a fight,” the doctor said, unconcerned. His nonchalance did not subdue his orderly.
“Mika won’t be enough. It’s him...” the orderly said, his voice turning stern at the last word.
The doctor became angry and he shook the orderly, who only squealed with fear. Elle continued to watch as the minion cowered in front of him. “Who the devil do you mean?”
“The man with glasses,” he said, so low Elle could barely hear it, but time seemed to stop for her. She watched, her eyes widening as the doctor was finally showing some emotion after seeming so confident, so strong and assured. “And the Haitian.”
“Oh, well, this does change things.” The doctor cleared his throat and his touch became gentler toward his subordinate. “We must perform the red security protocol. First, I will inform Homeland Security.” The man nodded, and soon he was gone, carrying out his orders. The doctor began to move, but in a quick second, he turned and met Elle’s eyes.
She smirked at him, and his brow furrowed. Then, she laughed.
Noah Bennet was coming here, and for the first time in a long time - as long as she’d been here, Elle Bishop felt hope.
++
Sirens blared so loudly that they brought Sylar out of his usual drug-induced haze. He could hear footsteps running frantically, and among other things, he heard gunshots and screaming. Explosions rocked the facility, and he could smell fire and smoke in the air.
The place was burning. The people who kept him were dying or fleeing, and Sylar wondered if he would die here, helpless in the wake of fire, or if he would finally be free. He put his faith in his latter option, and when the power went out and the machine keeping him drugged went dark, he started to feel the effects slowly subsiding. He managed to move his eyes slightly with the lightest sway of his head, and through the window of the room holding him, he saw a phantom man float by. It was a man that he’d seen before. The man stopped, met his eyes, and Sylar was grinning inside, feeling the muscles slightly tug at his lips.
The shadow man looked at him with haunting white eyes against his dark skin, and then he slid away. Smoke covered his exit, and little by little, Sylar’s powers were helping him gain movement and equilibrium of his body again.
“It’s Sylar,” said a voice, which Sylar recognized as Noah Bennet. He was somewhere near him, but he couldn’t see where. He was still lying on the table, struggling with all his might to move. His thoughts were premature. Maybe he was dreaming and not escaping at all.
“I found Elle Bishop,” said his shadowy friend, the Haitian, who may have been the reason Sylar’s quickly returning powers were only being masked again. “She has given birth. She’s alive, but barely.”
Sylar seemed interested in this. Could it be...? Was Elle the mother of his son? Is that what they did to her and him? Of course! It all made sense. They were the most powerful specials here, and this nefarious government Dr. Crabtree felt they were the best of all prisoners for breeding stock.
“They were breeding specials here. I wonder if Elle wasn’t the only one,” Noah’s voice said, and finally he came into view. He looked down at Sylar, same stony face as ever.
“There are two other women here. I freed them, but they did not give birth. I suppose they would have gotten to them in time,” his partner said. Noah nodded.
“So Elle is the only one. What about the baby she gave birth to?”
“Gone. I haven’t found it,” the Haitian said. Sylar used all his might, trying to move a finger. Noah Bennet noticed.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Noah said. He turned around and saw the dead machine. He turned to his partner. “Stay with him. He’s waking up and getting his powers back. Where is Elle?”
“She is down the hall, two rooms down. I removed her restraints, but she isn’t conscious yet.”
“Okay, she can stay put for now. I heard the sprinklers go on, so this building should be fine from fire. We just have to wrap this up before the authorities get here. I’m going to look for any others you didn’t free,” he said, and he paused and touched his friend’s shoulder encouragingly. “I’m going to look for the guy in charge. Hopefully I’ll find a baby too.”
Sylar silently cheered for Noah Bennet. Always a father... even if it were someone else’s child. He supposed taking in Claire Bennet had changed him in that way. If anyone could save his son, it was the man with glasses.
When he left, Sylar started to gain consciousness, feeling his muscles moving, even in a mundane way with the Haitian’s powers subduing him. When he had the capacity to speak again, he looked into the shadowy man’s eyes and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t fight you. I’m not going to hurt anyone.” He tried to sound sincere with his shaky, croaked voice.
The Haitian looked down at him impassively, but he cocked his head with mild curiosity. Sylar supposed the man was trying to decide on whether or not he could really believe him.
Sylar didn’t really blame him for his doubts.
Chapters: Part One | Part Three | Part Four | Epilogue