A/N:Some business to take care of. Firstly, the major body of the work is my own but Heroes and all of its characters do not belong to me and are the property of Tim Kring, NBC, and any other number of Powers That Be.

This is my Heroes fanfic. It takes place a number of years after "Powerless". This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to me, personally. It's far enough away from the current storyline that I can take as many liberties as I'd like with the characters, but it's also so far away that you, the readers, are missing a lot of the "history" that just isn't key to my main story. I could, conceivably, write out in excruciating detail what has happened in the years between "Powerless" and "Not in Cruelty, Not in Wrath", but I am neither that creative nor that available to do so. :D

What follows is a series of "one-shots," for lack of a better word. Each chapter is pretty short and I've adopted a fairly sparse, dialogue-driven writing style for this, but they all work together to form a cohesive story (I hope). I'm not sure if this style will work out, but that's what experimenting is for.

Also, as a point of interest, the blurbs the precede each of them are usually lifted from songs or poems or possibly from Heroes. These are just flavor text that I felt deal well with the theme of the story or with Heroes.

Anyways, sorry for the long introductory note. It probably just doubled the word count of my first chapter. On with the show.

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Is there a hero somewhere, someone who appears and saves the day? Someone who holds out a hand and turns back time?

Choose. It is a simple command, an imperative that dominates all of human life. We feel that many of our choices are inconsequential, so insignificant that we are barely aware of them at all. But choices, even the ones we never knew we were making, must never be taken for granted. For when nature or God looks down at us, it can see all choices. It can see patterns and chains; the very fabric of the world.

Some choices get us something more: a better life, growth, wisdom.

Others have the ability to hurt those around us.

And still others have the power to destroy everything we hold dear.

Choices are dangerous, but they all afford us the opportunity to grow and change. Without them, humanity would all be for naught.

January 1st, 1972

"How are you feeling today, Xander?" There was a short groan of awareness before the boy sat up on his cot, rubbing his eyes under the harsh fluorescent light. He fixed emerald eyes on Daniel, the man who woke him. He was standing behind the glass and Xander, he deduced, was in some kind of holding cell. He swept his dark hair back in one motion and returned to eyeing Daniel.

"I think I could be better." Daniel chuckled politely.

"You must forgive us the accommodations."

"Must I?" Daniel chuckled again.

"I can see that we're going to get along just fine. What do you remember, exactly?" Xander hopped off of his cot and began to walk the uncomfortably small length of his cell.

"I remember being jumped…."

"Again, you must forgive us for that."

"Those were your men."

"Indeed. But what else about that day?" Xander stopped pacing for just a moment. He rubbed his left temple, where a small bruise had formed, and then place his hands behind his back and continued to walk.

"The man by the river…."

"Yes. It's really quite something. We've never seen a power like yours before."

"There are other powers?"

"Oh yes, there may be many powers out there. That's what we do here. We research and experiment and we help the gifted to grow into their abilities. We also heal the world, Xander." The boy stopped pacing again, his interest clearly piqued and Daniel smiled at this. Xander approached the glass as Daniel spoke more softly. "Yes, Xander, the world is in desperate need of our help. Of your help. I've seen what you can do and I know, deep in my heart, that you can be the hero this world needs."

"But…but how?"

"First things first, my lad. We must see exactly what it is you can do. But I have high hopes that you can accomplish wondrous things…"