A Walking Shadow: Fall Beneath The Ashes
By: PhoenixJustice
Disclaimer: Heroes is owned by Tim Kring. I only own this story and make no profit from this.
Warning: T for sexual content, slash, incest, violence, language, etc
Pairing(s): Sylar/Elle, Nathan/Peter, Matt/Daphne, past!Claude/past!HRG and Adam/Hiro if you squint, etc
Setting: Post Episode 11- "The Eclipse, Part Two", spoilers from the whole series.
Summary: After the Eclipse, the Heroes and Villains alike try to piece things back together.
Flashbacks are (usually) in italic, as are other languages, when spoken.
A/N:...Things almost always turn out WAYYYYYY differently than I expect, when I start writing something, lol.
We are always concerned with changing the world. That is just an escape. I have always felt that people who are concerned with others changing are really escaping from their own frustrations, their own conflicts, their own anxieties, their own anguish. They are focusing their minds on something else, because they cannot change themselves. It is easier to try to change the world than to change oneself. --Osho
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Part One-
"And differing judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where."
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The whole situation was very, very surreal; to watch herself as a baby getting handed over to her father. She had traveled through time; this was also very surreal. She glances at the person who had dragged her here to begin with. She knew who he was; Hiro Nakamura. But she had never talked with him before and had only briefly met him at Kirby Plaza.
He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he watches the sight in front of them, apparently unaware of her looking.
"So," she starts. "Why are we her--"
The rest of what she was going to say gets muffled by his hand over her mouth. He waits until she looks like she was going to be quiet and lets go. He puts a finger to his mouth again and points back to the scene in front of them. A young boy sitting at the table pushes his glasses up in the same exact way Hiro just had. ...Was that young boy Hiro? Had Hiro been present at the time she had been handed over to her father?
He wondered just why this moment was so important and how it related to him getting his memories back. He was afraid. He was scared of just what he would remember; it felt like, just under the surface of consciousness, there were memories that would make him feel anguish again. As if he had something happen to him, or done something to someone else, which caused a lot of pain to him and to others.
In front of them, his father hands baby Claire over to the other man.
"And if she ever shows any sign of a power--you will immediately hand her back over to us; do you understand?"
His father, ever authorative. He felt the pangs of loss from his father's death when at the same time, it felt just like yesterday that his father sat at the edge of his bed and told him the Kensei stories.
"Of course, Kaito-san," replied the other man. He glances at the squirming bundle in his arms as Kaito walks over to the glass table where his younger self was sitting, playing a handheld game and apparently oblivious to all the goings on.
"Hiro," said Kaito, sharply. "I am going to speak to Bennet inside for a moment. You are to remain out here, understood?"
Young Hiro nods absently, never looking up from his game, legs kicking under the table. "Yes, tou-san."
Kaito nods in satisfaction and he gestures for Bennet to follow him inside, with Bennet awkwardly trying to situate baby Claire in his arms, obviously unused to handling an infant. Claire felt herself smothering a smile at his bumbling. The two men leave and Hiro and Claire stand there for a few moments, after moving to make sure they weren't seen by the men, watching Young Hiro play his game. Nothing else was happening.
"I don't understand," Hiro murmured. "What else is supposed to happen? I don't remember this time, obviously...but how can being here help me get back my memory?"
Meanwhile, while Hiro tries to think of what he could do, and Claire trying to figure out just what Hiro was saying--she didn't know japanese!--Young Hiro finally looks up from his game, brows furrowing and glances around.
"Hello?" Young Hiro says suddenly. No one was there. "I thought I heard something get knocked over..."
"You've got keen ears, kid."
Young Hiro, his older counterpart, and Claire all stare in shock as a man suddenly appears, standing in front of the table. His hair was slicked back and he wore a suit; stubble was starting to slowly creep up on his face. He moves his shoulders around a bit, as if unused to the suit, whereas Claire thought a suit was practically a second skin to her father. He looked familiar to her, but she couldn't place where. It felt as if something was missing from her memory--and there probably was; it wouldn't surprise her if many memories had been taken from her--she obviously wouldn't remember them being taken.
"Claude-san," Hiro mutters suddenly, causing Claire to look over at him. He didn't appear to realize what he said.
"Claude?" She repeats.
"Wow! You are Invisible Man!" Exclaimed Young Hiro suddenly, dropping his game to the table as he raises his arms up.
The said invisible man grins at the child. "Yeah, I am. I'm Claude. And I know who you are, Hiro-san. I work for your father."
"You work for tou-san?" Young Hiro asked questioningly. "Does he know you can turn invisible?"
"Oh yes he does; he has many Special people who work for him, and many regular folks like Bennet as well. One of us, one of them."
"Why are you here? Is there something I can help with?" Young Hiro asked eagerly.
Claude starts to shake his head but stops himself. "Actually there is." He turns around and pulls something out from behind a large flowerpot. It was a teddy bear. "Give this to Bennet for little Claire would you? I doubt the man will give her anything of the sort--at least in the beginning. The man forgets sometimes what it is to live for something besides the job." He hands the bear to Young Hiro, muttering under his breath; "I just hope he learns to remember."
Young Hiro nods and holds onto the bear. Claude suddenly glances over in Hiro and Claire's direction and his eyes widen. Young Hiro glances over when Claude takes a step forward.
"Maybe we should head out there?" Hiro suggested to Claire. Claire just shakes her head, obviously not understanding what he was saying.
"He said 'maybe we should head out there.'" Claude says suddenly, eyeing them with interest. Claire glances at Hiro who nods and she shrugs and follows Hiro out to the balcony, unable to think of anything else; they were here for a reason...apparently, and having Hiro teleport them out would just defeat the purpose. Plus, she was intrigued now. The bear thing...
Claude glances at the two of them and frown works its way to his face when he takes a better look at Hiro. He glances at Young Hiro, who was looking at them all with a bemused look on his face, and back to Hiro.
"And who might you two be?" Claude asked, eyeing them with a bit of suspicion. "Because you, my asian friend, look an awful lot like Hiro over here," He jerks a thumb over at Young Hiro. At Hiro's confused look he repeats what he said in Japanese.
"I'm--" Hiro glances at his younger counterpart. "My name is--"
"Hiro!"
Everybody jumps at the sudden sound of Kaito's voice.
"Inside! Now!"
Young Hiro jumps out of his chair, grabbing his handheld, clutching the bear and gives them all one last look before heading inside.
"I'm Hiro Nakamura." Hiro says in a rush.
Claude's eyebrows raise. "Really now? How about that. So it really is genetic after all. Do you have the same power as your father?"
This time Hiro's eyebrows raise. "My tou-san has a power?"
"Hello," Claire interrupted suddenly, sounding a bit miffed. "Clue the girl in who doesn't understand Japanese would you?"
Claude turns to look at her. "And you are?"
"I'm Claire Bennet."
Claude lets out a low whistle. "And this day just gets better and better. So, Claire, what are you and Hiro doing here, and why? Are you a time-traveler?"
She shakes her head. "No, that's not me--that's him." She points to Hiro, who looks bemused, pointing at himself questioningly. "I...regenerate."
"Like Adam Monroe..." Claude mutters.
Hiro visibly starts at that name, taking a step forward, looking at Claude with almost desperate eyes.
"Adam?" Hiro says questioningly.
"Yeah, it's this bloke I met down in Level 5 one day, I found out he could regenerate too; he showed me." He repeats this in English for Claire. "He said he'd been down there for a very long time, years and years, but he still looked so young. I came down a few times afterward to talk with him; I'm the invisible man, so I could slip in there easy as could be."
"Actually..." Claude's brows furrow. "I think there was something he told me...something about betrayal; said he'd been betrayed by the person who he cared about most in the world."
Hiro lets out a low sound in his throat.
"Hiro?" Claire asks questioningly.
Hiro suddenly lets out a loud yell, dropping to his knees and clutching his head.
"No, no," Hiro says suddenly in English, eyes shut in pain. "I didn't--I didn't mean to! I'm sorry, Kensei! So sorry--"
Footsteps suddenly were heard, coming their way. Claude whips his head around towards them.
"Get out of here now! Hurry!" He barks.
Claire pulls one of Hiro's arms from his head. "Hiro! Come on! We've got to get out of here!"
He just lets out a low moan.
"Hiro!"
He stands up, eyes opening. He looked in pain and sadness was easily visible on his face, tears running down his face. "I remember...everything."
She glances at Claude who gives a small little smile.
"See you later then, Claire-bear. Go!"
Her last glimpses were of Claude and the approaching of Kaito Nakamura as she and Hiro teleport away; she thought Kaito might have seen her face as they teleported away.
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He glances down at her, having stopped in the middle of what he had been doing. Blood trickles down her forehead, but miraculously it heals up, as if she had been Claire with her powers, and not Elle with what she had.
"...Elle?"
She opens her eyes and looks up at him. She smiles.
"...Feels nice to be back," she says weakly.
He lets out a bark of laughter as he leans down and kisses her.
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She awakens, eyes wide. Something had happened; something major, to cause about this sudden change. Things were not going exactly as she had saw them. And while stuff like that happened on occasion, never to this degree.
"Hello, mother."
She turns her head quickly, gasping.
Sylar smiles at her, glancing at the blonde woman who walks next to him, grabbing his arm and smiling at him, before turning to look at Angela.
"I believe you know, Elle. Though...not so much the way she is now. Things have changed, in many ways."
He grins.
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"Something happened in the future, a future which does not exist anymore. But so many things have happened to mess with time and the sudden direct changing of the future by many important events has caused a rift. This allowed Elle to remember everything, including her other powers. Time is trying to repair itself; to heal the large damage it sustained in such a short time. It also will make everyone remember her who know her; those who were made to forget her as she was before, with her powers, and possibly many of the events that have happened that no one remembers now. Just like how her memories have returned even after you ordered the Haitian to remove her memories, and ours." His voice was calm but the slightest edge in it; the calm made her shiver worse than if he had screamed at her.
"I did what I what had to be done," she replies flatly. "It had to be done; she was too dangerous to keep around as she was. Seeing her powers develop like they had...it was the only way, save killing her."
Elle remains eerily silent, not like Angela remembered her, even with memories flooding in her; perhaps her time away did some sort of good, but her presence back was a danger.
"You knew what she meant to me and you still went behind my back and did it anyway!" His eyes flash, his temper starting to show itself.
"And you dare complain to me. It has only been weeks since I have done so, hardly any reason to complain so loudl--"
"It wasn't weeks," Elle finally speaks up, her voice low and barely checked emotion. "It was years. Years. I got sent back; I lost my memory of everything and I had to relive... everything again, well most things anyway; there was still a lot I didn't know. And after all of those years, I finally remember everything and that...was because of the rift and only because of that..."
She shakes her head, pushing her blonde hair out of her face to look at Angela, her face unusually serious. "I suppose I can thank you for one thing though; all that time let me grow up, since I had to do it the hard way." She laughs with a bit of bitterness. "I get my memories back, but then what do you know! My brain floods with too many sudden memories and so I start to overload on electricity...you know...my body's way of compensating after all I had been through. Like how you made me forget Gabriel," she said snarkily. "And suddenly I found myself with many bits and pieces of memory that I had forgotten. I remembered everything that had happened, and what I could do." She lets out a breath. "If Claire hadn't gone with me to Pinehearst when she did and I saw Sylar...who knows what would have happened. That was the turning point that helped me remember."
"Better that you hadn't remembered at all." Angela replies coolly, ignoring the glares from Sylar and Elle. "You know that you are a danger. You can resurrect people, Elle. Well and truly, more than regenerative blood can do. And not only that, but other things as well. That makes you a liability. Were you to get in the wrong hands..."
"And who says your hands aren't the wrong ones?" Replied Elle. "You might be better than Arthur, but you also wanted to blow up New York City, so that doesn't exactly make you much better. And Arthur might have went along with your little ruse that Gabriel is your son when he isn't, but you are the one who started it; all so you could manipulate him, since you couldn't manipulate Peter and Nathan anymore."
"Oh, but don't worry, Mother," Sylar says sarcastically. "We're on your side in this--Arthur needs to be stopped, after all."
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She blinks rapidly as her eyes take in where they had ended up; a comic book shop. The shop guys behind the counter's eyes bulge as she and Hiro suddenly appear.
"Hiro! You're back!" Said Ando. "How--how did it go?"
"I remember," Hiro says tonelessly, in English, not looking at anything in particular as Claire moves away from him and looks around at everyone. A blonde chick, the two guys behind the counter,one with a beard, one without and...
"Matt Parkman?" She says incredulously. What were the odds that she would meet him again?
"Claire," said Matt, looking just as surprised to see her.
"Bennet's kid?" Said the blonde girl.
"Holy crap, dude, it's Claire!" Said one of the comic book guys, the beardless one.
"Anyway, we should go," said Matt. "Daphne, I know what you said before, but I really don't think that splitting up would be the best idea--"
"It'd be faster," argued Daphne. "I can get there like 'that!'" She snaps her fingers.
"Wait," said Ando. "Hiro could just teleport you to where you need to go."
Hiro was silent.
"Wait, what am I missing?" Asked Claire, confused.
Ando turns to her. "We need to find the messenger who received Isaac Mendez's last drawings; he could paint the future. It's very important that we get those."
"Well, I need to get back home." She glances over at Hiro who was still eerily quiet. "There's a lot I need to talk about with my parents; so if you could just teleport me back..."
"I want to find Adam," Hiro says suddenly. "I--I need to talk with him."
"Adam Monroe?" Daphne asks. "He's...he's dead. I saw what happened to him. I was about to leave Pinehearst when I heard screams; I ran up and saw Arthur Petrelli drain him of his powers."
The color drains out of Hiro's face; he looked utterly crushed. "No! You must be mistaken! You're lying! He can heal--"
"Hiro, the man had lived for over four hundred years. His powers were the reason he still lived." Said Matt, reasonably. "If they were taken away..."
Hiro just shakes his head in denial. "No! I don't believe you! He is stronger than that! He wouldn't die--he can't--not before I tell him..."
He suddenly teleports away without another word.
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He lands on the balcony of what used to be Isaac Mendez's loft, facing out towards the city, the first place he had thought of.
"I've been waiting for you, carp."
Hiro whips around and his eyes widen.
Adam smiles warmly at him.
"I've missed you, Hiro."
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I hope you enjoyed this!
Let me know what you thought!
--PhoenixJustice