(no subject)
Title: Define Dangerous
Characters: Sylar, Claire.
Spoilers: Up to Season 2.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2003
Chapter: 9/?
Previously: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8
Summary: While escaping the Company, Sylar meets up with someone from his past. Together, they must piece together some semblance of normality after years of captivity. Future AU.
The next morning Sylar woke beside Claire as sunlight streamed in through the curtains. He lay there, slowly waking and watching her sleep. He had to admit that she was beautiful; one more butterfly that should have been added to his collection years ago. Yet, here she was, sleeping soundly in a room that he himself had paid for, albeit with money that technically wasn't his own. Not that that man from Texas really needed the cash where he was now.
She wiggled her nose in her sleep as her hand kneaded the pillow, a little girl lost in the woods and here he was the big bad wolf. This quiet time, in between arguments and planning and driving and escaping, this was what made everything all worth while.
He would be hard pressed to admit it but she made him feel sorta special. Like this was the right thing to do, despite all evidence that he should have killed her by now. She was in his care, he was the one who had gotten her to safety and was bringing her back to where she belonged. All he ever wanted in life was for someone to think he was special, unique, someone who was worth something. A hero.
It was better than witnessing her frozen over with fear the night before. The way her voice caught in her throat and then her stepping gently towards the lightswitch so as not to provoke him. Walking on eggshells, his mother used to call it when Gabriel's father got into one of his moods. He used to swear he wouldn't turn into someone like his father, the angry man with the threatening voice and footsteps you could hear coming down the hall after you. So much for that plan. The only way to placate that man was to become exactly like him.
He sighed and rose from bed. In a week or so, he would hand Claire off to Peter and she would be his problem. Once Sylar was gone from her life, Claire would never have to worry about him losing control again. She would never be hurt by him. She would never get to see the destruction he left in his wake. It would be safer that way, for both of them. He could do what he wanted, live the kind of life that came naturally to him, violence included. And she would be safe.
One more week. A few more days.
For now he needed to worry about getting his powers back.
It was the cold that woke Claire that morning in the motel room. The chill that got right down to her bones could not be kept away by blankets alone. She opened her eyes to see the motel room frozen over and icicles hanging from almost every surface. Sylar stood in the middle of this winter wonderland, perfecting his aim as he turned everything he touched to ice.
Claire shivered out a greeting as she huddled deeper under the blankets. “W-what are you-u d-doing?”
“Cryokinesis.” Sylar answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His hair was still wet from the shower but he showed no signs of being cold. Instead, he beamed with a glowing enthusiasm for the talent he was working towards developing. “One of my many talents.”
“One of your stolen talents, you mean?”
Whether the annoyed tone in her voice was because of the means he had gone to get those powers or because she had woken up freezing cold because he wanted to play Frosty, Claire wasn't completely sure. Six of one; half a dozen of the other. At least his powers were working again, so hopefully their plan wouldn't backfire too much on them. Despite the fact that she couldn't trust him, there was comfort in knowing that he was a powerful ally, when he chose to stay on her side at least.
There was a beauty to this spectacle though, she supposed. Even though the temperature would have made the mercury drop out the bottom of a thermometer the air was quiet and still. Like after the huge snowstorm back a few years ago when she'd spent the holidays with the Petrelli family out in their upstate New York mansion.
“You should get ready soon.” His voice interrupted her reverie. He touched the lamp, making the light in the room look as if it were sunlight coming through a frozen lake. Then the light bulb shattered into several pieces. With the shades drawn down across the window, the room grew substantially darker. “Checking out before the motel manager comes to check on what we've done with his place would be a good idea.”
“Maybe you shouldn't have destroyed the place then.” She offered as she began building up a fort for herself within a burrow of blankets and pillows. Getting up and ready was going to be hell, she could already imagine the way it would feel to place her feet outside the meager warmth the bed provided. She silently hoped he hadn't touched the bathroom yet. There was no way she was stripping down to bare nakedness amidst an icy, rigid landscape if it resembled the rest of the room in any way. “They do tend to frown on that.”
He shrugged off her comment, too happy that his powers were working again to feel much of anything else. He frowned, feigning shocked and hurt feelings. “Destroying things is what I do, Claire. You should know this by now.”
“Trust me, I know.” She muttered under the blankets.
He shot her a look, raising one bushy eyebrow. “I heard that.”
“Cryokinesis, superhearing.. are all your other powers working today too?” She wasn't sure how many he had obtained over the years and a part of her really didn't want to. Each of these stolen powers came from another death; one more person to add to the growing list of people destroyed because they were different. “Maybe they were on the fritz last night because you needed to get some rest.”
“That's not it, Claire,” Sylar shook his head and then began practicing levitating the broken shards of the lightbulb, moving them around each other like the parts of a very big atom. His features grew dark, the enthusiasm he once held seeming to dissipate a little bit. He sighed before divulging his secret. “They did something to me down there. I don't know why I let them, why I didn't stop them sooner.. maybe I got too used to following orders.. they were injecting me with something.”
Claire was silent, her memory recalling tortures acted out on her by the company. There were nights when she lost her voice due to screaming so much. Nights when she would have killed herself if the only the pain would stop. They weren't people down there. They were animals. Lab rats with no choice but to go along with whatever their captors wanted.
Though she never received any injections, the company threatened her with the thought of them. The drugs were used to control the uncontrollable, to make even the unwilling submit.
“It pushed my powers down to the parts of my brain that I couldn't reach. I tried..” His voice shook with the pain of losing a very important part of himself and the anger at those who had subjected him to such treatment. “I tried so many times to reach out and utilize those parts of my brain, to make it all work again like it used to. So many times I failed. The drug put my ability to alter my DNA to sleep so I couldn't reorganize my brain in order to escape its effects. I couldn't do anything.” He shook his hand and the lightbulb bits went flying into the wall, shattering into even smaller pieces. “There was nothing I could do to stop.. them.. from destroying everything I had.”
Claire was quiet, letting him grieve for their lost freedom in peace. She knew the feeling. The company destroyed everything that she held special in her own life, wiping it out one night with little regard to the person they were demolishing. Like the pieces of the lightbulb, each of them had broken into too many pieces to put back together the same way.
Then she remembered something West had told her many years ago and said it slowly out loud so the both of them could hear and heed the words. “They'll only win if you let them.”
His mood lightened just a bit. “You may be right. I still have my powers, don't I? Whether or not they keep shorting out on me, I'll make them work again.” He nodded, acknowledging the truth behind her words. Then he sailed her bag of clothes, which he had thankfully not frozen, over to her. “You should take a shower. I promise not to peek at you.”
“I'll be locking the door just in case.” She plucked the bag from the air and shot him a grin. Then she stuck her feet back into her shoes that were beside the bed. An icy floor was the last thing she wanted to experience this soon after waking up.
“You're a tease, Claire Bennet.”
She laughed but stopped half-way to the bathroom, a more serious thought crossing her mind, “Hey, Sylar, if the company ever comes for us.. well, I wanted to thank you for this brief time-out you've given me. It's been a nice vacation away from their crap.”
“Claire, if the company ever comes for us again, I'll kill them.” The menacing glare in his eyes wasn't directed at her but at a thousand employees. An army of people whom he swore to take down, one by one and piece by piece. “I slipped up last time, got careless and stupid. There's nothing in the world I wouldn't do to stay out of that place. Nothing.”
The little hairs on the back of her neck rose as a shiver ran from her head straight down to her toes. Claire was sure it wasn't because of the temperature.
Sylar was packing the rest of his belongings into a bag when he heard Claire stepping out of the shower. He picked up the noise of the shower curtain moving and her soft footsteps into the small tiled area just behind the door. She'd been in there for a half hour now. That girl could waste hot water like nobody's business.
What was soft, lilting noises suddenly became screeching and slamming of things inside the bathroom. He needed to shake his head to make the ringing stop after the screaming calmed down. Of course his superhearing had to come back right in time for him to nearly burst an eardrum from Claire's manic episode. He phased through the door to find her up on the counter and pointing to a something that was moving behind the sink.
“Cockroach! Cockroach!” She repeated as if stuck in replay.
He bent down and peeked behind the sink. It was a little thing, not worth all the hollering and yelling. Sylar wasted no time slamming his boot onto it's shell, crunching the little sucker until it was a pile of goo and exoskeleton.
Then he moved to help Claire down from the counter top. Her wet hair hung in strands around her face which was blushed red from fading fear and possibly a little embarrassment. She smacked his hand away and pointed towards the door. “I'm naked. Get out!”
“What no thank you?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, knowing how much it creeped her out when he made mock advances at her. As Claire grabbed a towel from off the rack and wrapped it around herself quickly, she held her mouth set in a deep frown until he finally threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine. I'm leaving. Next time I'm going to let the bugs eat you.”
Unlocking the door, he exited and let her finish getting dressed alone.
..to be continued..
Characters: Sylar, Claire.
Spoilers: Up to Season 2.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2003
Chapter: 9/?
Previously: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8
Summary: While escaping the Company, Sylar meets up with someone from his past. Together, they must piece together some semblance of normality after years of captivity. Future AU.
The next morning Sylar woke beside Claire as sunlight streamed in through the curtains. He lay there, slowly waking and watching her sleep. He had to admit that she was beautiful; one more butterfly that should have been added to his collection years ago. Yet, here she was, sleeping soundly in a room that he himself had paid for, albeit with money that technically wasn't his own. Not that that man from Texas really needed the cash where he was now.
She wiggled her nose in her sleep as her hand kneaded the pillow, a little girl lost in the woods and here he was the big bad wolf. This quiet time, in between arguments and planning and driving and escaping, this was what made everything all worth while.
He would be hard pressed to admit it but she made him feel sorta special. Like this was the right thing to do, despite all evidence that he should have killed her by now. She was in his care, he was the one who had gotten her to safety and was bringing her back to where she belonged. All he ever wanted in life was for someone to think he was special, unique, someone who was worth something. A hero.
It was better than witnessing her frozen over with fear the night before. The way her voice caught in her throat and then her stepping gently towards the lightswitch so as not to provoke him. Walking on eggshells, his mother used to call it when Gabriel's father got into one of his moods. He used to swear he wouldn't turn into someone like his father, the angry man with the threatening voice and footsteps you could hear coming down the hall after you. So much for that plan. The only way to placate that man was to become exactly like him.
He sighed and rose from bed. In a week or so, he would hand Claire off to Peter and she would be his problem. Once Sylar was gone from her life, Claire would never have to worry about him losing control again. She would never be hurt by him. She would never get to see the destruction he left in his wake. It would be safer that way, for both of them. He could do what he wanted, live the kind of life that came naturally to him, violence included. And she would be safe.
One more week. A few more days.
For now he needed to worry about getting his powers back.
It was the cold that woke Claire that morning in the motel room. The chill that got right down to her bones could not be kept away by blankets alone. She opened her eyes to see the motel room frozen over and icicles hanging from almost every surface. Sylar stood in the middle of this winter wonderland, perfecting his aim as he turned everything he touched to ice.
Claire shivered out a greeting as she huddled deeper under the blankets. “W-what are you-u d-doing?”
“Cryokinesis.” Sylar answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His hair was still wet from the shower but he showed no signs of being cold. Instead, he beamed with a glowing enthusiasm for the talent he was working towards developing. “One of my many talents.”
“One of your stolen talents, you mean?”
Whether the annoyed tone in her voice was because of the means he had gone to get those powers or because she had woken up freezing cold because he wanted to play Frosty, Claire wasn't completely sure. Six of one; half a dozen of the other. At least his powers were working again, so hopefully their plan wouldn't backfire too much on them. Despite the fact that she couldn't trust him, there was comfort in knowing that he was a powerful ally, when he chose to stay on her side at least.
There was a beauty to this spectacle though, she supposed. Even though the temperature would have made the mercury drop out the bottom of a thermometer the air was quiet and still. Like after the huge snowstorm back a few years ago when she'd spent the holidays with the Petrelli family out in their upstate New York mansion.
“You should get ready soon.” His voice interrupted her reverie. He touched the lamp, making the light in the room look as if it were sunlight coming through a frozen lake. Then the light bulb shattered into several pieces. With the shades drawn down across the window, the room grew substantially darker. “Checking out before the motel manager comes to check on what we've done with his place would be a good idea.”
“Maybe you shouldn't have destroyed the place then.” She offered as she began building up a fort for herself within a burrow of blankets and pillows. Getting up and ready was going to be hell, she could already imagine the way it would feel to place her feet outside the meager warmth the bed provided. She silently hoped he hadn't touched the bathroom yet. There was no way she was stripping down to bare nakedness amidst an icy, rigid landscape if it resembled the rest of the room in any way. “They do tend to frown on that.”
He shrugged off her comment, too happy that his powers were working again to feel much of anything else. He frowned, feigning shocked and hurt feelings. “Destroying things is what I do, Claire. You should know this by now.”
“Trust me, I know.” She muttered under the blankets.
He shot her a look, raising one bushy eyebrow. “I heard that.”
“Cryokinesis, superhearing.. are all your other powers working today too?” She wasn't sure how many he had obtained over the years and a part of her really didn't want to. Each of these stolen powers came from another death; one more person to add to the growing list of people destroyed because they were different. “Maybe they were on the fritz last night because you needed to get some rest.”
“That's not it, Claire,” Sylar shook his head and then began practicing levitating the broken shards of the lightbulb, moving them around each other like the parts of a very big atom. His features grew dark, the enthusiasm he once held seeming to dissipate a little bit. He sighed before divulging his secret. “They did something to me down there. I don't know why I let them, why I didn't stop them sooner.. maybe I got too used to following orders.. they were injecting me with something.”
Claire was silent, her memory recalling tortures acted out on her by the company. There were nights when she lost her voice due to screaming so much. Nights when she would have killed herself if the only the pain would stop. They weren't people down there. They were animals. Lab rats with no choice but to go along with whatever their captors wanted.
Though she never received any injections, the company threatened her with the thought of them. The drugs were used to control the uncontrollable, to make even the unwilling submit.
“It pushed my powers down to the parts of my brain that I couldn't reach. I tried..” His voice shook with the pain of losing a very important part of himself and the anger at those who had subjected him to such treatment. “I tried so many times to reach out and utilize those parts of my brain, to make it all work again like it used to. So many times I failed. The drug put my ability to alter my DNA to sleep so I couldn't reorganize my brain in order to escape its effects. I couldn't do anything.” He shook his hand and the lightbulb bits went flying into the wall, shattering into even smaller pieces. “There was nothing I could do to stop.. them.. from destroying everything I had.”
Claire was quiet, letting him grieve for their lost freedom in peace. She knew the feeling. The company destroyed everything that she held special in her own life, wiping it out one night with little regard to the person they were demolishing. Like the pieces of the lightbulb, each of them had broken into too many pieces to put back together the same way.
Then she remembered something West had told her many years ago and said it slowly out loud so the both of them could hear and heed the words. “They'll only win if you let them.”
His mood lightened just a bit. “You may be right. I still have my powers, don't I? Whether or not they keep shorting out on me, I'll make them work again.” He nodded, acknowledging the truth behind her words. Then he sailed her bag of clothes, which he had thankfully not frozen, over to her. “You should take a shower. I promise not to peek at you.”
“I'll be locking the door just in case.” She plucked the bag from the air and shot him a grin. Then she stuck her feet back into her shoes that were beside the bed. An icy floor was the last thing she wanted to experience this soon after waking up.
“You're a tease, Claire Bennet.”
She laughed but stopped half-way to the bathroom, a more serious thought crossing her mind, “Hey, Sylar, if the company ever comes for us.. well, I wanted to thank you for this brief time-out you've given me. It's been a nice vacation away from their crap.”
“Claire, if the company ever comes for us again, I'll kill them.” The menacing glare in his eyes wasn't directed at her but at a thousand employees. An army of people whom he swore to take down, one by one and piece by piece. “I slipped up last time, got careless and stupid. There's nothing in the world I wouldn't do to stay out of that place. Nothing.”
The little hairs on the back of her neck rose as a shiver ran from her head straight down to her toes. Claire was sure it wasn't because of the temperature.
Sylar was packing the rest of his belongings into a bag when he heard Claire stepping out of the shower. He picked up the noise of the shower curtain moving and her soft footsteps into the small tiled area just behind the door. She'd been in there for a half hour now. That girl could waste hot water like nobody's business.
What was soft, lilting noises suddenly became screeching and slamming of things inside the bathroom. He needed to shake his head to make the ringing stop after the screaming calmed down. Of course his superhearing had to come back right in time for him to nearly burst an eardrum from Claire's manic episode. He phased through the door to find her up on the counter and pointing to a something that was moving behind the sink.
“Cockroach! Cockroach!” She repeated as if stuck in replay.
He bent down and peeked behind the sink. It was a little thing, not worth all the hollering and yelling. Sylar wasted no time slamming his boot onto it's shell, crunching the little sucker until it was a pile of goo and exoskeleton.
Then he moved to help Claire down from the counter top. Her wet hair hung in strands around her face which was blushed red from fading fear and possibly a little embarrassment. She smacked his hand away and pointed towards the door. “I'm naked. Get out!”
“What no thank you?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, knowing how much it creeped her out when he made mock advances at her. As Claire grabbed a towel from off the rack and wrapped it around herself quickly, she held her mouth set in a deep frown until he finally threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine. I'm leaving. Next time I'm going to let the bugs eat you.”
Unlocking the door, he exited and let her finish getting dressed alone.
..to be continued..