Revelations pt 10
Title: Revelations
Author: SLynn
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairs: Ensemble, Matt, Peter/Claire
Spoilers: AU after "Fallout"
Beta By: tripp3235
Disclaimer: I’m just borrowing and will return them all when I’m done, virtually untouched.
Summary:
In the end is the beginning. Part three of my 'Apocalypse' arc. The entire timeline can be found HERE!
Previous chapters for just this story found HERE!
x-posted heroes_fic/paire_love
Chapter 10: Involved
“Hello,” Jenny called out as she entered the dusty office where Anthony, her official scribe, resided.
She hated coming in here. Jenny hated it in almost every way imaginable, but it was necessary. She had to keep a watch on him in the same way she had to keep a watch on Matt and all of the others. It was part of the job.
“Hello,” she repeated, walking briskly toward his desk in the dead center of the room.
“I’m almost done,” Anthony said, not even looking up from his writing. “Almost. Just one minute. One. One and it will be finished. The end. The real end.”
“Is this one better than the last?” Jenny asked sharply.
“I don’t know yet,” Anthony answered, his pen still flying across the page. “I haven’t read it yet.”
She sighed, looking around the room for something to occupy her attention while she waited.
“Here,” he said, pulling together numerous pages and shuffling them in order. “Here it is. It’s done. Done. I’ve finished.”
Jenny took them without a word of thanks and immediately riffled through to the end, reading the contents with a smile.
“Is it good?”
“So far,” Jenny answered.
“So…” Anthony stammered, gazing up at her with an almost painful expression. “Can I rest now? Can I sleep? I haven’t in days. It’s been days. I’ve counted. If it’s done I can, right? You said if it was the right ending I could rest.”
Jenny continued to scan the pages to ensure it was all intact. Sometimes the little freak left a page or two out by mistake. Today, however, it looked as if he’d gotten it right.
“Yes,” she finally said. “I think so. You’ve earned a nap. But not a long one. I may need you to write up something new for me soon.”
“Thank you. Thank you. Really. A rest, it’s all I need. A few hours and I’ll be back writing more than before. Whatever you ask. Whatever you want.”
Jenny gave him a small, condescending smile, before turning to go.
Anthony watched her leave, sitting back and sighing in his chair, finally at ease; waiting with no plans of resting at the moment.
There was still too much left to write.
****
They had dropped her off and returned to their hideout as quickly as possible. They knew they had plenty of time to make it back and begin monitoring Primatech’s headquarters, but Hiro had been insistent that they hurry. Hiro wanted to be absolutely certain that they saw Lauren being brought in, and as luck would have it, they did.
It was no more than a quick glimpse, a brief flicker of bottle-blond hair against the autumn night sky, but they’d all three seen her and were convinced.
So far things were going well. As well as this plan could.
Now came the hard part.
Now they waited.
****
It had been terrifying.
No matter how many times Lauren had gone over what might happen, what probably would happen once she was in the Republic’s custody, the actual event had been terrifying.
She’d done exactly as they’d rehearsed. Kept her mind as clear as possible, focusing only on her ‘official’ reason for being there. They knew that Primatech had duplicated Matt’s power, were using it as some sort of perverse lie detector, but they weren’t positive how powerful a tool it was.
Lauren had never spent a lot of time with Matt. She’d barely even met him, so she had no real idea what he could do or how well. It didn’t really matter. There was one thing they all agreed on; that no matter what Matt could do, it was doubtful a machine could do it any better. That was just not how any of their powers worked. They needed emotion to really get a good result.
Still, Lauren had to be very careful. But, given everything that could have gone wrong and didn’t, she felt relieved.
They’d tested and tagged her straight away before rushing her off toward the capital, toward the headquarters building they knew housed all of Primatech’s highest priority experiments.
The same building that hopefully held Peter.
Once inside it was another whirlwind of activity. They first ran her through a decontamination shower, took even more blood, shot x-rays, and performed a CATSCAN. It was an intense rush and Lauren got the feeling they hadn’t had anyone new to experiment on in quite some time.
Finally she was strapped down into a chair and left alone for nearly an hour in a small, padded room with a single observation window.
When the door did at last reopen two men entered the room and glowered down at her.
Lauren felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach. This couldn’t be good. It just couldn’t be good at all.
She hadn’t expected this.
“So,” the taller of the two said, stepping closer and bending at the waist so that he could look her straight in the eye, “it says here you’ve come from Colorado. Interesting.”
“Yes,” she managed, looking down at her lap. “I have. I was living there alone and heard…”
“And your name was what again?” the man asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Lori. Lori Thompsen.”
The blond man stood up straight again, turning slightly to look at his colleague.
“Well,” he finally said to the other man. “What do you think? Is she one of yours, Peter?”
****
“Peter,” Linderman said, rising this time to greet him as if he was an old friend, “thank you for coming.”
“I didn’t realize I had a choice,” Peter returned, opting to stand even after a chair was offered to him.
“One always has a choice,” Linderman returned, leaning back against his desk as he spoke; a gesture Peter now could place. It was uncanny. It was almost exactly the same posture Nathan assumed when he wanted to appear relaxed, but not overly so. Nathan did it when he wanted to put others at ease; when he wanted a favor.
“What do you want?”
“I hope you are being treated well,” Linderman continued, ignoring Peter’s question. “Is there anything you need? Anything you require?”
“Just to know why you’ve dragged me back up here,” Peter answered firmly.
Linderman cleared his throat as he stood tall, evidently tired of playing nice and ready to try a direct approach.
“I’m in need of your assistance.”
“I’ve already told you that I won’t…”
“This won’t require you to use your powers,” Linderman interrupted.
“Then what do you want?”
“We’ve picked up a new subject,” the older man answered. “A woman. A young woman.”
Peter held his tongue, not wanting to ask anything that might give away his real interest in this mystery person.
“We think she is from your colony.”
“The colony survived?” Peter asked, surprised. He’d been told nothing about it one way or another.
“Some did.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Peter asked. “Identify her?”
“Yes, that’s it exactly.”
“Why would I do that?” Peter continued to question. “Why would I tell you anything about any one of my friends? What would it even matter if she is from the colony? One person is hardly a threat to your organization. Especially not one person you already have under your control.”
“You won’t help us?”
“No,” said Peter flatly.
“Fine,” Linderman returned, walking over to his desk and pushing the intercom button once. Immediately after a tall, blond man with sharp features and thinning hair came walking briskly into the room.
“Yes, Mr. Linderman?” he asked.
“Dr. Hahn,” Linderman said, potentially ignoring Peter’s presence in the room. “Mr. Petrelli has decided not to cooperate. You have permission to terminate the subject.”
“Yes, sir,” Dr. Hahn said with a twisted smile.
“What?” Peter snapped. “You can’t be serious. You’re just going to kill this woman just like that? Without even knowing if… without knowing anything at all?”
“What else can we do,” Linderman returned, “you refuse to help.”
“That’s no reason to kill her.”
“She’s been deceptive,” Hahn provided. “The tests prove it. She is lying about something to us.”
“So she has to die because of it?”
“She doesn’t have to die, Peter,” Linderman interjected. “She is going to die because you will not oblige us.”
Peter turned his back on the two men, shaking his head in disbelief.
This was how it started. This would be the beginning of his involvement. Absently he wondered if this is how it happened to Nathan as well; to his parents. If they had also been forced to make some sick choice in this same fashion.
Even if he refused today, tomorrow there would be some new test. Tomorrow it could be two innocent lives, or three, or worse.
He was afraid to begin; afraid to say yes and not willing to say no. He couldn’t let someone be killed because of this. It was too petty. It was too insane.
But what if it was someone from the colony? What would he say or do? What would they do to her if they found out?
“Peter,” Linderman gently chided. “Have you changed your mind yet?”
Sighing, Peter turned to face him once again.
“Okay,” he said, resigned to his fate. “I’ll do it, but only if you promise me not to...”
Peter stopped, realizing he had no room to negotiation. Linderman didn’t have to give him an inch and he knew it.
“Dr. Hahn will accompany you,” Linderman said, showing them both to the door with a smile.
Hahn walked very quickly, evidently unafraid of Peter in the way others around them were. Every time they’d approach someone in the hall, the person always ended up giving Peter a double-take before practically leaping aside.
In another life, another time, Peter might have found it amusing.
“Here we are,” Hahn said as they approached a cell similar to the one Peter had seen earlier on his little tour with Linderman. “Shall we begin?”
Peter nodded curtly and as soon as the door opened, he knew.
Linderman and Hahn didn’t just suspect this was a colony member, they knew it was. Hahn even gave him an obnoxious wink, forcing Peter to fight back the urge to rip the other man apart.
Lauren had done a decent job disguising herself, but Peter still had no trouble recognizing her immediately. And as awful as it felt seeing her tied up and prisoner the way she was before him, he could tell she was horrified to see him.
She had to know that the gig was up.
“So,” Dr. Hahn said, stepping closer and bending at the waist so that he could look her straight in the eye, “it says here you’ve come from Colorado. Interesting.”
“Yes,” she managed, looking down at her lap. “I have. I was living there alone and heard…”
“And your name was what again?”
“Lori. Lori Thompsen.”
He stood up straight again and looked at Peter with a sick smirk.
“Well,” he finally said to him. “What do you think? Is she one of yours, Peter?”
Peter didn’t know what to do. Did they really not know who she was? If Peter lied and said it wasn’t her and they did, they were both screwed. If he told the truth and said it was, same thing.
It was a real mess.
“Peter?” Hahn repeated, positively staring at him now.
Figuring if he was going to do this, he might as well do it right, Peter took a few steps closer and bent down similar to the fashion Hahn had done to peer into her face.
“I don’t know her,” he finally said with a shrug as he stood back up.
“You don’t,” Hahn said flatly.
“No,” Peter denied. “There weren’t a lot of girls her age in the colony.”
“That’s right,” Hahn said, and to Peter’s horror he produced a file. “There weren’t. In fact, there were only two women of about this young lady’s age who had powers. One, who we both can agree, she is not. The other…”
Hahn pointed to a name, one of few that were highlighted, on what appeared to be a master list of all the colony members.
Peter had just enough time to not only read ‘Lauren Taylor’ but also ‘Micah Sanders’ and ‘Mohinder Suresh’.
“What is this of?” Peter asked, waving a hand at the list and hoping to get another look.
“It is of those assumed alive,” the doctor said, snapping the file shut.
“And you think that this woman is…”
“Lauren Taylor,” Hahn provided.
“Are you Lauren Taylor?” Peter asked her directly.
“No,” she denied, quickly and adamantly. “I don’t know what you’re even talking about. What colony? What… I told you, I came here from Colorado. Alone. I’ve been alone.”
“You are going to continue this little charade?” Hahn asked, turning from one to the other.
“What charade? I’m not…”
Lauren didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence; Hahn had slapped her hard across the face midway through it and Peter snapped.
In an instant Peter had Hahn pinned to the wall with one hand wrapped tightly around the good doctor’s throat.
“Don’t do that again,” Peter said quietly, squeezing the breath right from him.
Lauren was in too much shock to give herself away. She didn’t have the voice to call out for him to stop. It had all happened so quickly. Peter had acted so quickly that his entire movement had been a blur.
“Let him go!” a new voice shouted down from the speakers in the ceiling. “Drop him, Petrelli. Drop him now!”
Peter didn’t blink and he didn’t move. Not one inch. For the first time in a long time, Peter could feel his powers again. He knew that if he wanted to, at this moment, he could squeeze the life out of Dr. Hahn.
“Petrelli!” the voice in the ceiling snapped again.
Peter finally let go, but he didn’t back away.
The other man stood there, sputtering for breath, as Peter continued to stare him down.
“That is not Lauren Taylor,” Peter said with a quiet intensity. “You could have saved us both a lot of trouble if you’d have just asked me about Lauren in the first place. Lauren was killed by Sylar the night your little group came up to Boston and kidnapped me. I don’t know who that woman is and I don’t care, but remember this. Remember this as a warning. You’re not going to get away with that around me. I will not stand by and watch you hurt anyone. Do you understand?”
“You’re crazy,” the man whispered, hardly daring to look him in the eyes.
“Remember it.”
Author: SLynn
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairs: Ensemble, Matt, Peter/Claire
Spoilers: AU after "Fallout"
Beta By: tripp3235
Disclaimer: I’m just borrowing and will return them all when I’m done, virtually untouched.
Summary:
In the end is the beginning. Part three of my 'Apocalypse' arc. The entire timeline can be found HERE!
Previous chapters for just this story found HERE!
x-posted heroes_fic/paire_love
Chapter 10: Involved
“Hello,” Jenny called out as she entered the dusty office where Anthony, her official scribe, resided.
She hated coming in here. Jenny hated it in almost every way imaginable, but it was necessary. She had to keep a watch on him in the same way she had to keep a watch on Matt and all of the others. It was part of the job.
“Hello,” she repeated, walking briskly toward his desk in the dead center of the room.
“I’m almost done,” Anthony said, not even looking up from his writing. “Almost. Just one minute. One. One and it will be finished. The end. The real end.”
“Is this one better than the last?” Jenny asked sharply.
“I don’t know yet,” Anthony answered, his pen still flying across the page. “I haven’t read it yet.”
She sighed, looking around the room for something to occupy her attention while she waited.
“Here,” he said, pulling together numerous pages and shuffling them in order. “Here it is. It’s done. Done. I’ve finished.”
Jenny took them without a word of thanks and immediately riffled through to the end, reading the contents with a smile.
“Is it good?”
“So far,” Jenny answered.
“So…” Anthony stammered, gazing up at her with an almost painful expression. “Can I rest now? Can I sleep? I haven’t in days. It’s been days. I’ve counted. If it’s done I can, right? You said if it was the right ending I could rest.”
Jenny continued to scan the pages to ensure it was all intact. Sometimes the little freak left a page or two out by mistake. Today, however, it looked as if he’d gotten it right.
“Yes,” she finally said. “I think so. You’ve earned a nap. But not a long one. I may need you to write up something new for me soon.”
“Thank you. Thank you. Really. A rest, it’s all I need. A few hours and I’ll be back writing more than before. Whatever you ask. Whatever you want.”
Jenny gave him a small, condescending smile, before turning to go.
Anthony watched her leave, sitting back and sighing in his chair, finally at ease; waiting with no plans of resting at the moment.
There was still too much left to write.
****
They had dropped her off and returned to their hideout as quickly as possible. They knew they had plenty of time to make it back and begin monitoring Primatech’s headquarters, but Hiro had been insistent that they hurry. Hiro wanted to be absolutely certain that they saw Lauren being brought in, and as luck would have it, they did.
It was no more than a quick glimpse, a brief flicker of bottle-blond hair against the autumn night sky, but they’d all three seen her and were convinced.
So far things were going well. As well as this plan could.
Now came the hard part.
Now they waited.
****
It had been terrifying.
No matter how many times Lauren had gone over what might happen, what probably would happen once she was in the Republic’s custody, the actual event had been terrifying.
She’d done exactly as they’d rehearsed. Kept her mind as clear as possible, focusing only on her ‘official’ reason for being there. They knew that Primatech had duplicated Matt’s power, were using it as some sort of perverse lie detector, but they weren’t positive how powerful a tool it was.
Lauren had never spent a lot of time with Matt. She’d barely even met him, so she had no real idea what he could do or how well. It didn’t really matter. There was one thing they all agreed on; that no matter what Matt could do, it was doubtful a machine could do it any better. That was just not how any of their powers worked. They needed emotion to really get a good result.
Still, Lauren had to be very careful. But, given everything that could have gone wrong and didn’t, she felt relieved.
They’d tested and tagged her straight away before rushing her off toward the capital, toward the headquarters building they knew housed all of Primatech’s highest priority experiments.
The same building that hopefully held Peter.
Once inside it was another whirlwind of activity. They first ran her through a decontamination shower, took even more blood, shot x-rays, and performed a CATSCAN. It was an intense rush and Lauren got the feeling they hadn’t had anyone new to experiment on in quite some time.
Finally she was strapped down into a chair and left alone for nearly an hour in a small, padded room with a single observation window.
When the door did at last reopen two men entered the room and glowered down at her.
Lauren felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach. This couldn’t be good. It just couldn’t be good at all.
She hadn’t expected this.
“So,” the taller of the two said, stepping closer and bending at the waist so that he could look her straight in the eye, “it says here you’ve come from Colorado. Interesting.”
“Yes,” she managed, looking down at her lap. “I have. I was living there alone and heard…”
“And your name was what again?” the man asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Lori. Lori Thompsen.”
The blond man stood up straight again, turning slightly to look at his colleague.
“Well,” he finally said to the other man. “What do you think? Is she one of yours, Peter?”
****
“Peter,” Linderman said, rising this time to greet him as if he was an old friend, “thank you for coming.”
“I didn’t realize I had a choice,” Peter returned, opting to stand even after a chair was offered to him.
“One always has a choice,” Linderman returned, leaning back against his desk as he spoke; a gesture Peter now could place. It was uncanny. It was almost exactly the same posture Nathan assumed when he wanted to appear relaxed, but not overly so. Nathan did it when he wanted to put others at ease; when he wanted a favor.
“What do you want?”
“I hope you are being treated well,” Linderman continued, ignoring Peter’s question. “Is there anything you need? Anything you require?”
“Just to know why you’ve dragged me back up here,” Peter answered firmly.
Linderman cleared his throat as he stood tall, evidently tired of playing nice and ready to try a direct approach.
“I’m in need of your assistance.”
“I’ve already told you that I won’t…”
“This won’t require you to use your powers,” Linderman interrupted.
“Then what do you want?”
“We’ve picked up a new subject,” the older man answered. “A woman. A young woman.”
Peter held his tongue, not wanting to ask anything that might give away his real interest in this mystery person.
“We think she is from your colony.”
“The colony survived?” Peter asked, surprised. He’d been told nothing about it one way or another.
“Some did.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Peter asked. “Identify her?”
“Yes, that’s it exactly.”
“Why would I do that?” Peter continued to question. “Why would I tell you anything about any one of my friends? What would it even matter if she is from the colony? One person is hardly a threat to your organization. Especially not one person you already have under your control.”
“You won’t help us?”
“No,” said Peter flatly.
“Fine,” Linderman returned, walking over to his desk and pushing the intercom button once. Immediately after a tall, blond man with sharp features and thinning hair came walking briskly into the room.
“Yes, Mr. Linderman?” he asked.
“Dr. Hahn,” Linderman said, potentially ignoring Peter’s presence in the room. “Mr. Petrelli has decided not to cooperate. You have permission to terminate the subject.”
“Yes, sir,” Dr. Hahn said with a twisted smile.
“What?” Peter snapped. “You can’t be serious. You’re just going to kill this woman just like that? Without even knowing if… without knowing anything at all?”
“What else can we do,” Linderman returned, “you refuse to help.”
“That’s no reason to kill her.”
“She’s been deceptive,” Hahn provided. “The tests prove it. She is lying about something to us.”
“So she has to die because of it?”
“She doesn’t have to die, Peter,” Linderman interjected. “She is going to die because you will not oblige us.”
Peter turned his back on the two men, shaking his head in disbelief.
This was how it started. This would be the beginning of his involvement. Absently he wondered if this is how it happened to Nathan as well; to his parents. If they had also been forced to make some sick choice in this same fashion.
Even if he refused today, tomorrow there would be some new test. Tomorrow it could be two innocent lives, or three, or worse.
He was afraid to begin; afraid to say yes and not willing to say no. He couldn’t let someone be killed because of this. It was too petty. It was too insane.
But what if it was someone from the colony? What would he say or do? What would they do to her if they found out?
“Peter,” Linderman gently chided. “Have you changed your mind yet?”
Sighing, Peter turned to face him once again.
“Okay,” he said, resigned to his fate. “I’ll do it, but only if you promise me not to...”
Peter stopped, realizing he had no room to negotiation. Linderman didn’t have to give him an inch and he knew it.
“Dr. Hahn will accompany you,” Linderman said, showing them both to the door with a smile.
Hahn walked very quickly, evidently unafraid of Peter in the way others around them were. Every time they’d approach someone in the hall, the person always ended up giving Peter a double-take before practically leaping aside.
In another life, another time, Peter might have found it amusing.
“Here we are,” Hahn said as they approached a cell similar to the one Peter had seen earlier on his little tour with Linderman. “Shall we begin?”
Peter nodded curtly and as soon as the door opened, he knew.
Linderman and Hahn didn’t just suspect this was a colony member, they knew it was. Hahn even gave him an obnoxious wink, forcing Peter to fight back the urge to rip the other man apart.
Lauren had done a decent job disguising herself, but Peter still had no trouble recognizing her immediately. And as awful as it felt seeing her tied up and prisoner the way she was before him, he could tell she was horrified to see him.
She had to know that the gig was up.
“So,” Dr. Hahn said, stepping closer and bending at the waist so that he could look her straight in the eye, “it says here you’ve come from Colorado. Interesting.”
“Yes,” she managed, looking down at her lap. “I have. I was living there alone and heard…”
“And your name was what again?”
“Lori. Lori Thompsen.”
He stood up straight again and looked at Peter with a sick smirk.
“Well,” he finally said to him. “What do you think? Is she one of yours, Peter?”
Peter didn’t know what to do. Did they really not know who she was? If Peter lied and said it wasn’t her and they did, they were both screwed. If he told the truth and said it was, same thing.
It was a real mess.
“Peter?” Hahn repeated, positively staring at him now.
Figuring if he was going to do this, he might as well do it right, Peter took a few steps closer and bent down similar to the fashion Hahn had done to peer into her face.
“I don’t know her,” he finally said with a shrug as he stood back up.
“You don’t,” Hahn said flatly.
“No,” Peter denied. “There weren’t a lot of girls her age in the colony.”
“That’s right,” Hahn said, and to Peter’s horror he produced a file. “There weren’t. In fact, there were only two women of about this young lady’s age who had powers. One, who we both can agree, she is not. The other…”
Hahn pointed to a name, one of few that were highlighted, on what appeared to be a master list of all the colony members.
Peter had just enough time to not only read ‘Lauren Taylor’ but also ‘Micah Sanders’ and ‘Mohinder Suresh’.
“What is this of?” Peter asked, waving a hand at the list and hoping to get another look.
“It is of those assumed alive,” the doctor said, snapping the file shut.
“And you think that this woman is…”
“Lauren Taylor,” Hahn provided.
“Are you Lauren Taylor?” Peter asked her directly.
“No,” she denied, quickly and adamantly. “I don’t know what you’re even talking about. What colony? What… I told you, I came here from Colorado. Alone. I’ve been alone.”
“You are going to continue this little charade?” Hahn asked, turning from one to the other.
“What charade? I’m not…”
Lauren didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence; Hahn had slapped her hard across the face midway through it and Peter snapped.
In an instant Peter had Hahn pinned to the wall with one hand wrapped tightly around the good doctor’s throat.
“Don’t do that again,” Peter said quietly, squeezing the breath right from him.
Lauren was in too much shock to give herself away. She didn’t have the voice to call out for him to stop. It had all happened so quickly. Peter had acted so quickly that his entire movement had been a blur.
“Let him go!” a new voice shouted down from the speakers in the ceiling. “Drop him, Petrelli. Drop him now!”
Peter didn’t blink and he didn’t move. Not one inch. For the first time in a long time, Peter could feel his powers again. He knew that if he wanted to, at this moment, he could squeeze the life out of Dr. Hahn.
“Petrelli!” the voice in the ceiling snapped again.
Peter finally let go, but he didn’t back away.
The other man stood there, sputtering for breath, as Peter continued to stare him down.
“That is not Lauren Taylor,” Peter said with a quiet intensity. “You could have saved us both a lot of trouble if you’d have just asked me about Lauren in the first place. Lauren was killed by Sylar the night your little group came up to Boston and kidnapped me. I don’t know who that woman is and I don’t care, but remember this. Remember this as a warning. You’re not going to get away with that around me. I will not stand by and watch you hurt anyone. Do you understand?”
“You’re crazy,” the man whispered, hardly daring to look him in the eyes.
“Remember it.”