Quickword to readers!

Before you start reading i'd like to point out that in this story the time is different. So all of the events of the original Divergent trilogy happened but they actually happened in our time and not in the future. I thought that would be easier for future reference. Also I do not wish to fool any readers so you should know that this is not not a Tobias and Tris story. This is Tobias and another character of my own creation. Tris still dies and this is him trying to find a life after her.

You should also know that this is kind of a Divergent and Heroes crossover. DON'T WORRY IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THE SERIES! You do not need to know the plot line of Heroes to understand this story. In fact, the only character I'll be using from the series is Mohinder Suresh. Aside from that only the whole aspect of powers is what I take from the series.

And...I think that's all that's left to say. I appreciate reviews, they let me know if I'm doing something wrong and I can try to fix it so please be honest tell me what you think. Even if all you have to say are profanities bring them on! I love a good laugh.

Enjoy!

chapter 1

The alarm of my clock rang with a shrill sound through my apartment. I reached to turn off the irritating machine as fast as possible. It was unnecessary, really, I tended to wake before it even went off. With a groan I raised myself off the bed and stretched my arms feeling relaxed as the tension left my muscles. I sat for a moment looking around my belongings.

Roughly four years had passed since everything in Chicago had changed, since factions had been eradicated from our society, since we'd lost some of the closest people to us. It was difficult, assimilating all of the information that lay just beyond the fence that had kept us in for so long, but we've gotten this far. The city of Chicago now lives in moderate peace, even now it is still undergoing changes. People from the outside began to trickle in while some from in here chose to leave, Marcus amongst them. But those that left were few, it was hard enough trying to live in a world without factions, trying to embrace the freedom that their elimination brought; but to move away and leave everything they ever knew behind was daunting to the majority of the population. If I were to be honest with myself I'd admit I was one of those people. I'd once thought I'd be able to do it. To leave Chicago and find a new life with her, somewhere else. But that future had vanished along with her. Now it only felt right to stay here and help rebuild this city, and rebuild myself in the process.

Despite the lack of factions it seemed that there were some things about me that time would never be able to change. My apartment, though its location wasn't near the former abnegation and dauntless sectors, looked as though it could just as easily belong to them. It was a clean space, but impersonal. Scantly furnished, with only furniture of utmost necessity. The lack of decorum made it feel cold; I suppose it could have potential for more. But I hardly spent time in here as it is, it was just a place for me to sleep.

I'd always been a solitary person, since I was but a boy, though I often wondered if that was my nature or if it had merely been a result of my fathers efforts to alienate me from our faction members. But since her death I found solitude wasn't a very safe place anymore. Unwanted thoughts creeped into my mind during those times and made it hard to see that life still had to go on. But I found refuge amongst my friends who I could always count on to remind me that I had to live for the good times, no matter how scarce, or superficial they might be.

I was about to get up from the bed to go about my usual routine when a loud hammering on my door startled me a little.

"Open up four! Don't think we've forgotten!" Zeke's voice thundered through the door. I groaned a little but could not keep from smiling and then I remembered why they were here. I turned 22 today.

Celebrating birthdays was still a strange custom to me and arguably not one that I enjoyed much. Even so I reached for the white t-shirt at the end of my bed and pulled it on as I made to open the door. Zeke, Shauna and Christina awaited there with broad grins on each of their faces. They walked into the apartment without so much as asking, but it didn't bother me.

"Oh don't worry there's still more people coming." Christina assured me though she knew big crowds that focused on celebrating me wasn't something I particularly enjoyed. But if there was one thing I could count on my friends doing, it was annoying me.

"Your mom is on the way along with some other people" Shauna informed, "she also thinks that it will do you some good to get into the habit of celebrating."

"Can't imagine why." I murmured to myself.

Though she never completely recovered from her wound Shauna had been strong and learned how to move around with her automated leg supports. Her paralyzed state would have never been accepted amongst the dauntless; I suppose it was especially good for her that the factions were no longer in place.

I left them to get comfortable in the living room and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. The bathroom was the only room in the house that had a mirror. I suppose old habits do die hard. I wasn't as averse to seeing my reflection as I used to be, but I never paid much attention to it either. But as I stood in the bathroom waiting for the water to warm I stared for longer than I usually did.

I hadn't changed much in the past four years…at least it didn't seem like it to me. Though, of course, the changes are so subtle that they are unnoticeable until one day you see yourself and are suddenly fifty. But if I looked hard enough then I found the changes. My features have matured, the angles of my face are sharper and scruff had begun to form along my jaw, chin and upper lip. One thing I had stopped doing; the abnegation haircut. My hair was longer now, it wasn't straight, but it wasn't completely curly either I knew i'd be getting a slight trim soon. I looked and felt my age

Shaking my head quickly I got into the shower and then proceeded to get ready for the day.

There weren't as many people as I had been led to believe, but I was glad for them. My friends were all gathered around talking comfortably amongst each other. I looked and only half listened but that was normal. Even now I was still not completely healed from what we experienced, from my loss; but living was bearable now, I didn't fear living anymore.

A soft hand with long slender fingers rested on my shoulder, "Penny for your thoughts?" My mother asked as she leaned in to give me a small kiss on the cheek. This was easier now, having her around, being her son and having a mother. I smiled easily towards her as she took a seat next to me.

"Not much…it's a nice Sunday." I commented, it was already noon and the sun was out and was starting to melt the snow from last night.

"How are you?" she asked seriously. While my relationship with her had improved over time it didn't mean I was comfortable talking to her about deeper things. But it wasn't just her, I was very protective of my thoughts, of my feelings.

But I answered truthfully as I stared out the window, after all I had nothing to hide about that question. "I'm okay, just as always." I smiled in reassurance but I knew it didn't reach my eyes because I knew why she was asking. I knew they were all still cautious about my emotional state because there were days in which everything was especially hard; days in which I could not remember to live for the good moments, days in which there were no good moments and the loneliness was crippling.

"You know I think a change of environment would be good for you. It helped me a lot and there is so much to see out there, so much to experience, so many people to meet."

I pursed my lips and let her interpret that. I had no interest in the world outside of this city. To leave meant to leave my friends, and I don't think I could bear that. It had nothing to do with her memory, leaving the city where so much happened between each other would not take away her memory, that was impossible it would follow me wherever I went; and it's not like I wanted to forget her even if I could. I had that chance once but I wouldn't try to make that mistake again.

"We could go together." She continued.

"I can't leave my job." This was somewhat true, I'd advanced a lot in the past four years but I could leave it just as easily. "I don't think it's a good idea." I finally confessed.

"Just mull over it." Her voice was gentle and soothing. It was the voice of a mother, and I was glad to have one again.

"Hey look!" Our attention was drawn towards Christina who was looking out the window. "An eclipse!"

I'd heard of eclipses, though I'd never seen one for myself. Everyone in the house made their way out excitedly to witness this phenomenon, Evelyn and I followed suit.

We all try to gaze at the sky as the moon moves between the sun and the earth but the sun is still too bright.

"We're lucky." I turn and see Richard my neighbor as he looks up at the sky through dark sunglasses. He's an older man about fifty or so but I enjoy talking to him he is a history expert and i've learned so much about the world thanks to him.

"Why is that?" I asked trying to catch another glimpse of the moons movements. Richard holds out a spare pair of sunglasses and hands them to me. I put them on and find that I can see the sky comfortably now.

"Seems like we'll be able to experience a total eclipse."

I look questioningly at him and he explains. "They don't happen often but when they do the moon covers the entire disk of the sun. Its shadow might just get cast upon us.

"You mean only we will see the eclipse?" I ask.

"No, it can be seen everywhere else but the shadow of the moon only falls on a minuscule part of the earth.

I look back up and see that the moon is now covering half of the sun and I feel breathless as I am once again reminded of how inferior my presence is compared to the universe. I think of her now. She would have loved to see this.

My throat suddenly feels tight and I feel I might choke if I keep looking up. Turning my face down I removed the sunglasses and offer them to Evelyn so she can take a look. I look around at my friends as they all look up in awe at the sky.

I like to believe that Tris can see this phenomenon from somewhere else. But i'm not entirely sure I believe in any kind of existence after this life.

A sudden darkness pulls me from my musings and I look up to see the moon perfectly positioned before the sun, all that is visible is a ring around the dark circle that is the moon, and it's beautiful.

"Happy birthday." Richard says to me.

I hear the cheers from my friends as they all look at what is happening and their happiness is contagious, I walk towards them and laugh a little as Christina reaches to put an arm over my shoulder. These are the moments I live for…

1 month later

Its Sunday eight in the morning and I'm about to head out for a run when I hear a rushed knock on the door. Though I haven't had the need to fight in four years my mind is still alert and I notice the urgency in the pounding of the door. I hurry to open the door, thinking that someone might be in trouble and Zeke pushes his way in and looks around wildly. His hair is in a wild state of disarray; he ran all the way from his home I assume.

"Zeke?" I ask worriedly and hurry over to steady him. "What is it? Is it Shauna? Is she alright?"

He nods and takes deep breaths. "Yeah, I mean she has to be or else she wouldn't be able to-" he stops right there and looks as though he is thinking

"What?" I ask impatiently now. "She wouldn't be able to what?"

"She is running." Zeke now whispers and looks at me as though he is deranged.

I stare a moment trying to make sense of what he is trying to tell me but it doesn't make sense. "What?"

"You need to come with me." He didn't wait for me to respond he pulled me around and started to run. I follow without thinking. "We woke up this morning," he explained through breaths. "but when she sat up she didn't get into the chair, she stood up and ran."

"What!" I stopped as I realized the impossibility, but Zeke continued to run without bothering to look if I was still following. I ran again easily falling into step with him. I didn't ask for any more explanations, it was something I'd just have to see when she we arrived at his house.

"Shauna?" he called as we entered. Their apartment, though lacking in decorum, felt more lived in than my own. There were many more personal possessions. "Where are you?"

"In here!" she called from the bedroom. I was breathing hard trying to catch my breath but I heard how she called out nervously. We rushed into the room and turned to look at her. I immediately turned away when I saw her, I felt my face flush with embarrassment, she was sitting on the bed in nothing else but her underclothes.

"Honestly Four?" Shauna called exasperated, "It's as though you've never seen a woman half naked."

Some part of me was relieved by her reaction. It meant that she wasn't in trouble.

"Would you care to explain why Zeke stormed into my house mumbling incoherencies about you running." I was still turned away from her, while I had previously seen half clothed people I was still not comfortable with looking at my best friends wife half clothed.

"Turn around and you'll see."

And I did, and there was a moment of complete silence in the room. Underwear aside, Shauna stood beside the bed. It was as though she'd never even been paralyzed.

"You can walk?" I heard the astonishment within my voice.

"Well,…" she looked to Zeke uncertainly but all he could do was stand there grinning like an idiot.

"Well?" I pushed.

"I should be able to right? But when I do." She took a step forward and then she was gone. Zeke and I looked around but she had disappeared from the room.

"Over here!" She called from the living room.

She stood on the other side of the room, the fireplace. "But how? You just disappeared." I racked my head trying to make sense of the impossibility of what was happening.

"I didn't disappear, I ran." Beneath the elation she was feeling I could see the worry. "I just wanted to take a step, but its like I can't control it. I only stopped because the wall is here."

I looked between the two of them, "You just woke up and this happened? You haven't been feeling any different?"

"No…I mean I'd been feeling some pain which is odd considering that I'm paralyzed. I was going to get it checked out but…"

"When did you start feeling that way?" I could ask all the questions I wanted but that didn't mean I was any close to understanding what was happening.

"Uhm a little less than a month." She admitted.

I looked to Zeke but he was now frowning, deep in thought. Trying to figure out, iIm sure, what was going on.

"Okay…" I finally said while I thought hard. "Zeke go get Shauna's chair and help her get dressed. Shauna you should keep from trying to walk, or run, until we have some idea about what's happening. I'm going call Matthew." I reached for their house phone.

"Not a doctor?"

I shook my head quickly. "This isn't normal, what doctor would know what to make of this? No, we need Matthew, he's trustworthy and he must have some sort of idea," I quickly dialed his number and explained to him that he was needed.

There was a look of wonder in Matthews face as he witnessed what Shauna could do. I recognized that look in his face, I'd seen it before on the Erudite. The desire for knowledge, though it wasn't unsettling on him.

"This is…" he shook his head as if trying to clear it while Zeke helped Shauna back into her chair. "I've heard things of course…but I didn't think it possible."

"You know what this is or not?" Shauna snapped.

"I think…but I can't be sure…" he sat down on the couch and continued to stare at Shauna's legs with amazement.

"Matthew?" My tone was harder than I meant for it to be. "Care to give us some insight into what is going on in your head?"

"Right, I'm sorry. Listen I can't speak with certainty but I've heard things from people, really they're more like legends because there hasn't been anything to back up the claims, at least nothing that scientists know about because if they did then I'm sure-"

"GET ON WITH IT!" Shauna bellowed making Zeke flinch a little.

"Sorry." Mathew turned a little pink. "There are stories about people with certain…gifts, if you will, some sort of genetical enhancement I believe that gives them abnormal abilities. Now I can't be sure about how true this is because like I said there's nothing to back it up. Really they could be mere stories."

"Then how do you explain what just happened?" Zeke cut in.

"I don't know." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and bit his lip thoughtfully. "I'll do some research and try to get back to you as soon as possible. Do you think I might be able to take some blood samples?"

I observed as he set out to work but my mind was elsewhere. It was wondering about the possibilities that the stories might be true. If so what the hell was that supposed to mean? How could it even be possible?

And then another thought rose in my mind. I thought of the factions and the danger that Divergence posed to the Erudite. An image of dead Abnegation members on the street resurfaced and my throat felt tighter.

If there was one thing I learned it was that difference was danger to people in power. To be different was to be persecuted for it. If these stories were true then there was a reason why no one knew if they were real or not; it was because it'd be dangerous to uncover something like that.

Mankind was dangerous when it felt threatened and very little could stop it.

"You should try to learn to control it." Matthew said. "I'm sure that with some effort you could slow down enough to walk."

"I'd hate to try it in open space though." She grumbled. "I feel like I might never stop."

"No Shauna, listen to me." I hurried to her side and kneeled before her. "No one can see this. They have to go on thinking you can't walk."

She nodded, no one questioned it. They all understood that as wonderful as it was that she had regained movement of her legs it was also very dangerous to have others find out.

"Should we tell Christina?"

I shook my head, I trusted Christina, she was (next to Zeke) one of my best friends. But the less people knew the better.

"Not until we have some more answers."

"Done!" Mathew called and began to pick up his things. "Now a warning, this might take a long time. I suspect there will be very little research on anything of this nature, if anything at all.

I stayed a little longer after Matthew left and discussed what was happening with Zeke.

"Do you think someone might try to hurt her?" He finally asked when there had been too much silence between us. I watched him preparing lunch, the morning had passed by in a blur.

"I wouldn't let my guard down."

"Once a Dauntless always a Dauntless." He grinned.

I smiled tightly, "Well we have to learn from the past don't we?"

I joined them for lunch and as I watched their usual playful exchanges I noticed a newfound hope in their expressions, in their voices. In all the confusion of what was happening I'd forgotten to feel properly happy that she was all well again. It was a gift anyone in her position would yearn for. That's what Matthew had called it; a gift, and that's exactly what it looked like to me, a wonderful gift. Almost like a dream.

Three months later

Matthew was right, information on the subject is scarce and though he made interesting discoveries about Shauna's blood he has no definitive answers. But yet another abnormality surged in the times that had followed.

A little over a month later Christina became sick. It continued for a few days until one day I received a frantic call from her in the middle of the night asking me to hurry to her apartment. She hadn't called her mother as she didn't want to frighten her.

I was not ready for what I was about to see. Five replicas of Christina calmly walked around the house. Only one looked particularly sick by the sight.

I stumbled out of the house, away from what I'd just seen and I had to take a couple of breaths before going in to make sure that I wasn't going crazy. Christina seemed just as scared as I but once we verified that what we were seeing was indeed real I sat and told her what had happened with Shauna.

Her replicas had all lounged around the house without really paying attention to us, I wondered if they had any level of awareness. Matthew went through the same process of extracting some blood samples but he looked just as I felt; worried.

He stayed with us until Christina fell asleep at which point all the other five copies of her dissolved into thin air.

"I'm going to stay with her until she feels better." I assured him. "I don't know what those things are but I'm not sure they're entirely harmless."

"Good thinking. Listen I wanted to tell you something but I didn't think I ought say it in front of her, she seemed distressed enough."

"She's stronger than you might think." I was quick to defend.

"All right yeah but what I wanted to say was that I came into contact with someone that seems to have information about what could be happening to Shauna and Christina. I've talked to him but so far it's all been theoretical discussions, but he seems to know about this. I didn't think it wise to tell him about Shauna, i'm not sure if this person is trustworthy. I was going to talk to Zeke and Shauna tomorrow about it. What do you think?"

I pondered over the information for a moment. The fact that Christina had come down with this ability made me wonder if there were other people going through the same thing. But how could we know who to trust?

"What do you know of this person?"

"His name is Mohinder Suresh, his father used to do research on human evolution and it seems that he is now moving into that field as well. He strongly believes that humans are evolving and coming to acquire certain traits that give them astonishing abilities. A lot like what is happening to Shauna and Christina."

"Does he have any proof?"

"I don't know."

"Find out won't you?"

Now a month later and we were all gathered around my living room. Christina, unable to control what was happening to her was forced to quit her job and stay indoors. Shauna's luck was no better.

"Shouldn't he be here by now?" Christina groaned.

"Oh go away won't you!" another Christina, and the real one I presume, snapped at her clone. I snickered a little, it was a rather humorous scene. I wasn't the only one who seemed to think that way because the others laughed too.

"It's not as bad as I thought it'd be you know?" Zeke joked, "Having multiple Christina's. I thought it would be a nightmare."

"It is a nightmare." Christina grumbled as she eyed her clone warily and sent us all into another wave of laughter. But our laughs came to a sudden halt when we heard the knock on the door. He was here.

Matthew jumped to his feet and went to open the door before I could even get up. Out of all of us I think he was the most eager to meet Dr. Suresh. The rest of us seemed rather apprehensive.

"Hello, I'm Mohinder Suresh, you must be Matthew"

I couldn't see the man but there was a pronounced accent to his voice that I'd never heard before.

"Yes, it's so nice to finally meet you." Matthew said sounding rather excited. "Come in please."

Once Matthew was out of the way we all got a better look at the man. I expected someone old, at least as old as my neighbor, but Dr. Suresh looked to be in his early thirties. He was a thin average height man with dark brown skin and slightly long curly black hair. His black eyes were warm with a smile as he appraised all of us.

"Hello," he greeted us again in his strange accent. We all returned the greeting somewhat warily.

"Oh uhm, this is Cecile, she'll be assisting me today."

At the mention of someone else I finally caught sight of a girl that stood beside Dr. Suresh. I call her girl but in reality she seemed to be nearly as old as I. She was thin, not tall but not too short either and she was pale. Her blond hair seemed nearly as pale as her skin and her eyes were ice blue against the paleness of her skin. She smiled politely at all of us and I saw that she was attractive at least by conventional standards. Her eyes turned to me and I realized that I'd been staring for just a little too long. I looked towards Dr. Suresh but noticed out of the corner of my eyes that she smiled coyly at having caught me staring.

"I understand that it must have been very hard to have decided to contact me." Dr. Suresh finally spoke. "But I assure you that you can trust me. My father has researched this for most of his life and I'm continuing that research." He cast his eyes down for a moment before straightening again. As wary as I was of the situation there was something…trustworthy about Mohinder. Maybe it was calm and patient manner of speaking.

"Before you show me anything I would like to explain to you a bit about who I work for. I work for the Beaumont institution this is a private institution aimed at conducting further research about people like Cecile."

Cecile smiled and waved her hand a little. There was something unsettling about her expression. Her smile didn't quite touch her eyes and even her smile seemed slightly cold; it was as though there was no emotion to her expression.

"You mean she has these-"

"Abilities?" Mohinder finished for Christina. "Yes, in fact her family, the Beaumont's, founded the institution a few decades ago. We focus on conducting research trying to find ways of helping people that are just discovering these abilities as each ability is unique from the others."

"Wait-" I stopped him, unable to keep from asking my own questions. "You mean to tell us that everyone knows about this?"

"No, to the public our institution is just a facility focusing on things such as stem cells and genetically pure and damaged individuals, although those of us that work there have long realized that these are serious misconceptions used to justify human beings actions. However what we really do is work to help people like Cecile control their abilities and find a way to live a quiet life so they may go unnoticed by the world. At the same time we further our knowledge about people like her."

"So this is dangerous?" Shauna asked. "Is that why you hide people?"

Suresh nodded seeming a little apprehensive. "We believe it important to keep this as quiet as possible. The numbers of people like this are small but we expect the numbers to keep growing as the generations go by. However it's been our history to eradicate that which we don't know or understand. Information like this in the wrong hands could be fatal to many innocent people. So we strive to help these people."

"How do you find them?"

"We have a very sophisticated, if not complicated, system of tracking. However i suspect that someone would have been sent to this particular city soon if Matthew had not contacted me."

"Why is that?"

"We noticed a possible correlation between the solar eclipse that took place about four months ago with the sudden surge in numbers of people with abilities. We wondered if the fact that this particular city fell into the shadow of the eclipse had any effect upon it's civilians. It seems that it might have."

"Are there any other people here who are going through this?"

"We're not sure yet. That's partly what we came here to figure out."

I heard the sound of something vibrating and the girl, Cecile, pulled out a sleek looking phone from her pocket.

"Hello?" Her voice was smooth, attractive even, but lacking as much emotion as her expression; she was an odd woman. "Yes we're here. Suresh is speaking with them… alright." she turned the phone to him. "Dad wants to talk to you."

Mohinder excused himself and left the house to answer the call in silence.

"So what exactly can you do?" Zeke asked, glancing at her quizzically.

Cecile stare at him for a moment with her strange blue eyes and then she raised her hands, palms up, to her middle and I felt my eyes become larger as I saw a current of electricity form between her fingers, as though she held lightning in her hands.

She dropped her hands, ending the current and looked around, seeming pleased at having impressed us.

"How do you do that?" Christina asked, but unlike the others rather than looking impressed she was guarded and I understood why. Cecile seemed to be very aware of her power, and I was sure that she could do so much more than a light show. That along with her detached demeanor made me feel like I had to be vigilant around her, I realized who she reminded me of; Jeanine.

"They thought it would be better for you all if you could have proof of what Mohinder was saying. Most usually do." Her eyes turned to me looking at me for longer than was normal but that didn't seem to bother or embarrass her; she was bold and confident and I felt naked in a very uncomfortable way under her gaze. I turned my eyes away and I felt my expression fall into a slight scowl, hoping that might make her look away, but to no avail.

"so you always go with Suresh on these…trips?" Matthew asked.

She looked at Matthew dismissively and answered, "Not all the time, sometimes they take my sister." She looked around my house and her distaste was very clear on her face. A small part of me wondered if her sister was just as unpleasant as she. I wanted to ask but I didn't want her eyes falling to me again, but Shauna asked for me.

"What can she do?"

"Nothing of importance." Cecile answered with a tone of finality. She tried to seem disinterested but there was a sour look on her face at the mention of her sister.

"Okay!" Mohinder entered the house once more and broke the tension that Cecile seemed to bring along with her. "Where were we?"

He was adequately impressed when he witnessed what Shauna and Christina could do, Cecile on the other hand seemed, if anything, bored.

"We want to know how to control it." Shauna said when Suresh and Matthew had begun talking animatedly about genetics and the human brain.

Suresh cleared his throat loudly and brought his attention back to us. "Of course, I would imagine you would. And because as I mentioned earlier it's not wise that too many people know about it I'd like to invite you both to spend some time at our institute in California."

Shauna and Christina looked at each other dubiously.

"You'd help us?" Christina asked.

"Of course! It's a rather large place. It used to be a university and while it still serves half of that purpose we've also used it for other matters. We can provide you with temporary housing for as long as it takes you to get a good grip on your abilities. It always takes different amounts of time and effort for different people. Sometimes as they get to know their ability and get comfortable they find that they can extend their power. In return all that we would like is to study you and your progress during your stay. We have a particular interest in learning if the faction system could have some correlation to the development of your abilities. You two are the first people from the faction system to have developed special abilities."

I wanted to object but I simply pursed my lips, this was, after all, a choice for them to make, not me. Had it been my situation I don't think I would have been too thrilled about being another experiment to a group of people, not again.

"You said you don't believe in this idea of genetically pure and damaged people right?"

"That's not strictly true, though to put those labels to people is rather problematic. We believe that this phenomenon does not explain peoples violent natures. I think you would all agree that humans are too complex to simply be defined in terms of genes."

I nodded absentmindedly, I appreciated his view on the subject.

"However there is a significant difference in genes between what people see as genetically 'pure' and 'damaged' people. In no way am I trying to say that one group is better than the other, but we want to know if this could also come into play when trying to understand where these abilities come from.

"I'm sure there are still so many other questions that you have to ask, That's why I urge you to take into consideration my invitation. You don't have to decide today, Matthew has my number if any of you wish to contact me. I think it would also be a good experience, recently we've had an increase in population on the campus. More people have arrived to learn how to use their abilities in the best and safest manner possible. You might enjoy seeing other gifted people as yourselves." I looked around the room at my friends, they didn't seem so apprehensive any longer. In fact there was evident interest in each of their faces, even I was interested.

"Matthew I took the liberty of researching your background on your previous job at the bureau and I decided to put in a good word for you amongst my superiors. I think they would like to give you a spot in our research team if you have any interest."

I noticed how Matthews eyes lit up at the possibility, he pulled on the green string around his neck just a bit too hard.

"Yeah i'll think about it."

Suresh nodded and smiled cordially at all of us. His smile was very white in contrast to his dark skin.

"Cecile and I must leave now, we have other matters to tend to. It has been a pleasure to meet all of you and I hope to see you two soon." He pointed at Christina and Shauna. A few minutes later and he was gone, leaving us all to discuss the influx of information we'd just been given.

"So what do you think?" Christina asked two days later. She, Shauna and Matthew had decided to take Mohinder's offers. Zeke would be accompanying Shauna as well. What I thought about that was that it would be very lonely here for a while, but I didn't think it fair to mope about that when they were all so excited.

"I think I might actually have to start spending time with Caleb for the time you will all be away." I tried to joke.

Christina laughed. While I'd fixed my problems with Caleb a long time ago I still did all I could to stay away from him as much as possible. He was a constant reminder of her and her fate.

"You could come with us." She suddenly said. She wasn't looking at me, she was busying herself with the dinner she was cooking. Her family was coming for dinner and she'd invited me and Evelyn.

I laughed a little but there was no humor. "I don't think so."

"Why not?" She immediately demanded.

"Because I can't leave my job." I responded automatically.

She snorted, "Who do you want to fool? You and I know that you could care less about your job."

"I do care about the politics of this city you know, even if it doesn't seem like it. Someone has to help restore this city don't you think?"

"Yeah I know you care, you just don't care enough. Come on Four live a little, I think a change of air would be good for you."

"You know you're the second person to say that."

"Well, your mother is a wise woman; Despite everything."

"I don't think that's the best idea." I reached into the cupboards of her small kitchen and took out the plates. They would soon arrive.

"Tell me, what can you possibly do all alone in this city besides work? What kind of a life is that? You're allowed to live you know." She stopped stirring the pot and turned to look at me, a serious look set on her dark eyes. "She would want you to. If taking some time away was what was best for you then she would have encouraged you to go.

You're not running away from everything except a stifling routine. Remember to live for the good moments, this could be one of them. Besides I'm sure Johanna would be fine with you taking off as much time as you need. You never even take vacations, it's only fair. Oh for heaven's sake!"

She stumbled back into the counter. I was still not used to seeing this, how her body seemed to split and form an identical copy of herself.

"How the hell is this considered a damn gift!" she growled and grabbed a saucepan, raising it in a threatening manner towards her double. "You go into that room and stay in there until I tell you to come out, understood?"

Her double did as it was told and disappeared. I laughed openly at the expression on her face and continued setting the table.

"I might just take you up on that offer if it means I get to experience more of those incidents." She shoved me playfully.

We had a good relationship going on and I knew that being away from her and my closest friends for so much time would be difficult. Maybe that's what made me decide to join them. Maybe a part of me really felt like it was time for a change. Maybe I felt dauntless enough to take a step into a world I knew nothing about, but I was glad I took that chance.