Hereos fic: One Of Them
I wrote a Hereos fic. Eep!
Title: One Of Them
Author: lady1raven
Fandom: Heroes
Characters: Claude
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Turning invisible used to be just something Claude could do, not who he was.
Spoilers for 1x17, "Company Man"
*****
It was the Company's fault, really. When Claude first joined, he only had a vague feeling of connection to them.
(No proper name for them had caught on, and so they ended up just being them. Maybe that was the start of it.)
Sure, they might share a genetic quirk, share being different, but the others couldn't turn invisible and Claude couldn't see out of other people's eyes, or bend his bones like putty, or any of the other dozens of things he learned were possible.
Claude already had people to call his own. Friends and family back home, and now his partner and co-workers. He called his mum on Sundays, kept up with his favorite rugby team, knocked back a few drinks with Bennet while insulting American beer, fed birds in the park, and flirted with the pretty girl down the street.
Turning invisible was just something he could do, not who he was.
But the Company called the people with powers them, as though they were one people. That gets under your skin after a while. Especially when the Company got under poor Herbert Tanner's skin, peeled it back so they could attach electrodes directly to muscle.
For a company orchestrating a brilliant conspiracy, they were incredibly daft at handling people. Like that plan for Company members to adopt children who might grow up to have powers.
Right. Tell a man to raise a child, then ask him not to love her.
Tell a man he's one of them, then ask him to hunt and tag them like wild animals.
Ask a man to watch human beings get cut up like lab rats.
That'll turn out well.
Somewhere along the line, Claude started believe the us versus them undercurrent that ran through the Company. Even if the Company hadn't picked Claude's side for him by labeling him as one of them, the nightmares about dissection would have.
And if neither of those had been enough to make up his mind, hearing the order for his death would've done the trick.
All he'd done was keep one of his own kind alive. She was just a teenage girl, albeit a teenage girl who had a habit of making lightning appear out of nowhere. People with uncontrolled, dangerous, visible abilities were almost certain to be killed.
Claude had started to think that the visible part was the most important. The Company couldn't control them if people knew about them, and control seemed more important than human lives.
He'd taught her enough control to hide, then taught her enough fear to make sure that she would keep hiding. Then it turned out he didn't have enough fear of his own. He'd trusted Bennet, believed in the decency of his fellow man, and got two scars for his trouble.
Once he was sure the Company thought he was dead, he started following his former associates around. Got a good, long look at what he'd already suspected.
None of them cared.
Tell a man to raise a child, ask him not to love her, and he will. Ask a man to hunt and tag his own people like animals, and he will. Ask a man to watch human beings get cut up like lab rats, and he will. Ask a man to murder his partner and friend, and he will.
Claude wasn't any better. He'd worked for the Company for too long to make up for it by saving one person. He'd killed for the Company, ruined God knew how many lives, and being sorry for it didn't change a damn thing.
The Company called Claude's mum with deepest condolences over her son dying in a work-related accident. They moved another Company member into his old house, and Claude knew that going near anything from his old life would put him at risk.
The more visible one of them was, the more likely it was they'd be killed. That gave Claude a natural advantage. He started out only being invisible most of the time, reappearing to buy food, book hotel rooms, chat with a friendly-looking stranger.
He could never shake the feeling that, no matter how much he thought that his brief periods of visibility wouldn't lead the Company to him, he wasn't safe. After all, he didn't know what new powers the Company was getting a hold of, and he'd underestimated them before. He'd thought he was safe when he got in the car with Bennet.
So one day, he decided to never be seen again. It got to him, which he'd expected. Being alone all the time is enough to drive anyone batty. He had too much time to think, and he saw too many people being the horrible wretches he'd come to expect.
It didn't matter. Being alone, being unseen, meant being alive.
Invisibility became who he was.
*****
ETA: Crossposted to heroes_claude. Many thanks to darlas_mom for praising and reccing this!
Title: One Of Them
Author: lady1raven
Fandom: Heroes
Characters: Claude
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Turning invisible used to be just something Claude could do, not who he was.
Spoilers for 1x17, "Company Man"
*****
It was the Company's fault, really. When Claude first joined, he only had a vague feeling of connection to them.
(No proper name for them had caught on, and so they ended up just being them. Maybe that was the start of it.)
Sure, they might share a genetic quirk, share being different, but the others couldn't turn invisible and Claude couldn't see out of other people's eyes, or bend his bones like putty, or any of the other dozens of things he learned were possible.
Claude already had people to call his own. Friends and family back home, and now his partner and co-workers. He called his mum on Sundays, kept up with his favorite rugby team, knocked back a few drinks with Bennet while insulting American beer, fed birds in the park, and flirted with the pretty girl down the street.
Turning invisible was just something he could do, not who he was.
But the Company called the people with powers them, as though they were one people. That gets under your skin after a while. Especially when the Company got under poor Herbert Tanner's skin, peeled it back so they could attach electrodes directly to muscle.
For a company orchestrating a brilliant conspiracy, they were incredibly daft at handling people. Like that plan for Company members to adopt children who might grow up to have powers.
Right. Tell a man to raise a child, then ask him not to love her.
Tell a man he's one of them, then ask him to hunt and tag them like wild animals.
Ask a man to watch human beings get cut up like lab rats.
That'll turn out well.
Somewhere along the line, Claude started believe the us versus them undercurrent that ran through the Company. Even if the Company hadn't picked Claude's side for him by labeling him as one of them, the nightmares about dissection would have.
And if neither of those had been enough to make up his mind, hearing the order for his death would've done the trick.
All he'd done was keep one of his own kind alive. She was just a teenage girl, albeit a teenage girl who had a habit of making lightning appear out of nowhere. People with uncontrolled, dangerous, visible abilities were almost certain to be killed.
Claude had started to think that the visible part was the most important. The Company couldn't control them if people knew about them, and control seemed more important than human lives.
He'd taught her enough control to hide, then taught her enough fear to make sure that she would keep hiding. Then it turned out he didn't have enough fear of his own. He'd trusted Bennet, believed in the decency of his fellow man, and got two scars for his trouble.
Once he was sure the Company thought he was dead, he started following his former associates around. Got a good, long look at what he'd already suspected.
None of them cared.
Tell a man to raise a child, ask him not to love her, and he will. Ask a man to hunt and tag his own people like animals, and he will. Ask a man to watch human beings get cut up like lab rats, and he will. Ask a man to murder his partner and friend, and he will.
Claude wasn't any better. He'd worked for the Company for too long to make up for it by saving one person. He'd killed for the Company, ruined God knew how many lives, and being sorry for it didn't change a damn thing.
The Company called Claude's mum with deepest condolences over her son dying in a work-related accident. They moved another Company member into his old house, and Claude knew that going near anything from his old life would put him at risk.
The more visible one of them was, the more likely it was they'd be killed. That gave Claude a natural advantage. He started out only being invisible most of the time, reappearing to buy food, book hotel rooms, chat with a friendly-looking stranger.
He could never shake the feeling that, no matter how much he thought that his brief periods of visibility wouldn't lead the Company to him, he wasn't safe. After all, he didn't know what new powers the Company was getting a hold of, and he'd underestimated them before. He'd thought he was safe when he got in the car with Bennet.
So one day, he decided to never be seen again. It got to him, which he'd expected. Being alone all the time is enough to drive anyone batty. He had too much time to think, and he saw too many people being the horrible wretches he'd come to expect.
It didn't matter. Being alone, being unseen, meant being alive.
Invisibility became who he was.
*****
ETA: Crossposted to heroes_claude. Many thanks to darlas_mom for praising and reccing this!