Spirit Boy
Title: Spirit Boy
Rating: PG
Summary: Claire’s found love with her different kind of knight. But is their luck about to catch up with them?
Spoilers: 3x13 and Vol. 4 speculation
Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I’m simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.
A/N: Follow up to “Different Kind of Knight” and also inspired by yet another Kane song, “Spirit Boy“.
~~
It had been two months since the fire at Primatech. Two months since Claire had left with Sylar. Two months without her family and with only him.
She had never been happier.
But beneath that she knew they both still had cause to worry. Sylar hadn’t exactly given up killing and the hunt for him was still somewhat on. It always would be with her father. Both fathers actually as she had heard of Nathan’s plot to round them all up.
That was part of the reason she didn’t fault Sylar for continuing to kill. She agreed the men sent after them deserved it. And he had vowed to protect her - whether she liked it or not.
Another week passed and she knew Sylar could feel it too. Nathan had ways of finding out where any and every special was. More and more of the people she had considered to be friends had been taken in. Hiro Nakamura, Matt Parkman, even Peter. Claire knew then if Nathan was willing to endanger his own brother’s life that there would be nothing keeping him from taking her in too.
“We have to leave,” Sylar stated as soon as he burst through the door of their current motel room, not even closing the door behind him as he reached forward and grabbed her hand.
Even through her stun and surprise, she could see his clothes and skin were covered in blood, a few recent wounds of his healing even still. It was then she knew the fear hadn’t been for nothing. They were finally there, the men her father had sent after them. Of course having taken off with Sylar made it all the easier for them to find her too but not even that had been enough to get her to leave him. They were connected, everything he had done was because of her, surviving, fighting, even dying. Now both would be forced to do all of that again.
“What happened?” she asked him, struggling to keep up with his fast pace.
“Someone’s here. He found us,” was all Sylar said just before they made it to their most recent stolen car. Normally they would have relied on his abilities but when that seemed to be how their fellow specials were being tracked and caught they decided the mortal way was best.
“Who?” Claire demanded.
“That’s far enough, Sylar,” the man’s voice spoke, the sound of a safety being clicked off of a gun an instant later.
“Dad?” Claire called out when she saw Noah walking towards them.
“You’re not taking my daughter anywhere,” he continued, his gun still aimed on Sylar. He was here for Claire, not him. If he had it his way he could load him full of lead, surely one bullet could manage to hit the spot at the back of his neck to kill him for good.
“You’d rather have me locked away with Nathan doing God knows what to me?!” Claire cried.
“At least you’d be away from him,” she heard him mutter. “Even in Nathan’s hands you’d be in less danger,” Noah added louder.
“Really? Who was keeping her safe when he was rounding up his own girlfriend and brother, huh? And who, even in this moment, is more focused on killing me than protecting Claire?”
“I will kill you,” Noah spat as he clicked the safety off.
“No!” Claire screamed.
“You would choose a monster over your own father?” he demanded to her.
“No,” she shook her head sadly. “I’m choosing Sylar over a monster.” With that she looked to him and nodded. She knew he would know what she meant.
Sylar didn’t need any more incentive. His finger was in the air faster than Noah could blink and already he was bellowing out as the skin at his neck began to be torn.
He was dead in moments and though part of Claire regretted it she knew it had to be done. Her father would never stop hunting her otherwise, she would never be safe. Sylar truly was her only saving grace now.
“Can you still look at me?” Sylar asked an hour later when they made their way into another motel room.
She turned to him, her tears having been dried by the night wind as Sylar had driven. “I told you to do it. If anything I expected you to gloat.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” he sighed as he moved close and took her into his arms. “I know you loved him.”
“I just need to know you won’t betray me like he did.”
With those soulful, saddened green eyes staring up at him, what else could he say? “Never.”
Another week passed. Things seemed to be as normal for them as they could be, still on the run, still hiding, still lying about who they were, still hiding their abilities as well as they could.
But there was one late afternoon, just as the bright red sun had begun to set that both Sylar and Claire were happy with their supposed normalcy.
Sure some may have winced at the idea that she was wearing a long white gown for the man who had shot her daddy down, but she smiled her whole walk down the aisle and to his side.
Things were finally going their way and while some might have thought they would be caught there was nothing either of them wouldn’t do to keep each other safe. All they had to do was outlive the rest and both only smiled at the idea.
The End