If you want to read a better-formatted version, please go to my Fanfiction Livejournal theblackmonster.
A/N: Oh, god. Uh, this has AngryBitterEvil!Peter in it. Well, and Empath!Peter, as I like him with that power. And, emphasis on angry, bitter, and evil. At Nathan.
This doesn't exactly follow any episode. It's more of like, a possibility than anything else, like an aftermath of Genesis if it had gone differently.
(Okay, and just to say, as of now I have no idea if Peter is an empath or not, but in this fic he is an empath. Whether that actually is the power he has on the show or not.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes.
Warnings: None, really. (Although I suppose there are tiny, tiny hints of Nathan/Peter in it, if you want to look at the fic through slash-colored glasses.)
Destructive Love
"Hello, Nathan."
Consciousness returned to Nathan in waves.
The darkness surrounding his mind receded as he opened his eyes, only to give way to a new kind of murky darkness. Whatever lights had once illuminated whatever room he was in now were few and far between, and the only other person he could see through the darkness occupying the room was Peter.
Peter, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him. Peter, whose eyes Nathan had always been able to find light within. Something pure, virtuous. Something that could cause the darkness in anyone or any place to fade away, if only slightly.
The only thing reflecting in those eyes now were callousness and something that seemed to resemble malice.
"Peter, what happened? Where are we?"
Peter stood, and if Nathan could have, he would have lifted his head or even sat up to follow the movements of Peter pacing in the barely lit room. Unfortunately any kind of movement caused the world to start fading back into a darker blackness.
For now he would have to watch Peter from the floor.
"You know, I can't ever recall you apologizing to me, Nathan. At least any apology that you've ever meant. The only things I can remember hearing from you are empty promises and lies. Don't you think that means something significant?"
The coldness and bitterness held within Peter's voice shocked him, and before this very moment he never would have thought Peter's voice could sound so cruel. He had never known Peter to be this way.
"Peter-"
"I can't even remember an 'I love you' that you ever really meant. Did you think it would make you weak if when you said it you meant it? Did you think it was weak of me that I needed for you to say it to me and mean it?"
Peter stopped his pacing and turned to look at him, and Nathan wanted nothing more than to glance away at the look in Peter's eyes, but he knew he couldn't. Instead he held Peter's gaze.
"I never thought you were weak, Peter."
Peter was the one that broke the glance, and even as he continued pacing the floor, moving in between the light and shadows and darkness of the room, Nathan could feel the anger radiating off of him.
"Of course you did. You've always thought I was weak, Nathan. Always. You can't fool me anymore. I know everything you've ever known, every lie you've ever told to me."
The last was said as an angry growl, and Nathan couldn't help but flinch as Peter moved away from the light and deeper into the shadows. Seconds later there was the sound of something being slammed and breaking, and Nathan couldn't help but flinch again.
This was not his Peter.
"What's wrong with you? This isn't like you."
"This isn't like me? What would you like me to be for you then, Nathan? Weak? Willing? I've always been everything you ever wanted me to be for you, but that was never enough. I was willing to be everything you wanted, and this me? I would've thought you'd be proud."
Laughter filled the room, sounding broken and harsh as it echoed throughout it, and Nathan almost closed his eyes to it as Peter stepped back into the light. He didn't want to see the smirk that appeared on Peter's face, most of all he didn't want to hear the laughter and how broken Peter had sounded.
If anything he wanted everything Peter was saying to be a lie, but he knew at least some of it was true. It shouldn't have been, but it was. But he had never wanted to be the reason Peter was as broken as he was now.
"I never would have wanted you like this, I could never be proud of who you are right now. You aren't even yourself. What happened to make you become this way?"
"The only difference between who I was and who I am now is that I'm stronger. The only thing that happened to me was you. You made me weak, but I'm so much stronger now than you'll ever be. You don't control me anymore, Nathan."
Peter shouldn't've had to be this way.
"I never had any power over you, Peter. I never controlled you."
"The only thing you've ever done to me was lie, over and over again. Control me and make me do everything you wanted, make me give you everything that I was and could be. But now I know, you can't lie to me anymore. I'm better than you now."
The light directly over Peter flickered away, and for a moment he could no longer see him. For all he knew Peter had just been swallowed up by the darkness. Then there was the sound of movement, footsteps echoing on the floor, and his eyes adjusted, and Peter was there again.
Crouched down in front of him.
Looking more broken and bitter, and his eyes looked black and filled with more hatred than he would ever care or want to see on Peter's face ever again.
The lack of light in the room and surrounding Peter only made him seem even more like darkness himself.
"How are you better? This isn't the person you're supposed to be. This isn't a better version of you, Peter, you're not stronger now. Whomever you're trying to be isn't stronger now."
"I'm stronger now because of who I am now. You're not the only one with powers. Flying only means you'll eventually fall, but I'm not the one who's going to fall, Nathan, you are."
Nathan stilled at Peter's words, and Peter only smirked once again.
"Peter, I can't fly. That's insane. People can't fly. No one has any kind of power."
Peter only sighed then, and Nathan could tell that the anger vanished significantly, although it was still there. Before where there had been fire to Peter's anger, now there was only a sense of exhaustion to it.
As if his anger had been turned from boiling to just a low kind of simmer, but so that some amount of fire and anger was still there in him.
"Stop lying to me. I know you can fly, I know that you know you can fly. When you jumped off that building you started to fall, but then you flew. And when you did you were so nervous that you could fly, that you started to fall once again. But you caught yourself, and you flew."
"I never-"
Something changed in Peter then, and his eyes no longer held any kind of hate, any kind of malice. They didn't even hold much of anything. They still appeared dark, but more in a concentration than anything else.
There was a sense of calm to Peter, something that resembled the way Peter had been.
"You almost felt free, but you didn't want to feel that kind of freedom. You wanted to forget about that moment, but you never could. You want normalcy over the ability to fly. You didn't want to want the power to fly, but you did anyway."
Nathan frowned, and shook his head, not caring that blackness started to spread in from the edges of his vision.
"You can't know this. It- It isn't possible, you were never there, Peter."
As the world came back into focus, Nathan glanced at Peter, and his eyes had lost their look of concentration. There still was a sort of calm to him, and a lack of hatred, and his eyes seemed to hold a little warmth.
But there was still coldness in them, but Peter smiled softly as he spoke. His smile was only like his eyes, though. A knowing kind of smile that didn't hold much emotion in it.
"You're right, I was never there. But I felt everything you did when you fell, Nathan. I felt everything you felt when you flew. I feel everything you feel now."
The world seemed to tilt for Nathan as Peter stood, and there was blackness creeping into the edges of his vision once again, even though he knew he hadn't moved at all. Except for his eyes to follow Peter standing.
This was a thing of confusion for him.
Logically this shouldn't make sense at all.
"How? I don't understand. Is this, is that your power?"
"It doesn't matter. But you'll fall again, Nathan, very soon. And you won't fly this time. They'll make sure of it."
"They? Who is 'they'?"
The darkness returned to Peter, then, and Nathan could see the malice and ice return to his eyes as Peter moved closer and closer to the edges of the black of the room.
"The men who brought you here, of course. You didn't really think I managed to bring you here by myself, did you? They're very interested in you, Nathan. You're important to them, but I'm important too. They have plans for you. For the both of us."
"What plans? This is insane, this. Things like this don't happen."
Peter stepped into the light briefly, and Nathan closed his eyes as a grin appeared on Peter's face. The sound of footsteps echoed around the room, but even as they did he could tell Peter had moved away from the light and was stepping into the darkness.
Moving away from him, and he knew the darkness was embracing Peter as much as Peter was embracing it.
"I've already told you the plans for you. You're going to fall, and you can't catch yourself or fly this time. They'll make you fall and you'll never be able to put yourself back together again. It's happening even now, Nathan."
Nathan's eyes shot open and he turned to face Peter, or the direction that Peter should have been in, but the only thing he could see was darkness. The footsteps had stopped and he could see nothing.
It was as if he were the only person in the room.
He was the only person left in the light.
"Peter, wait- You can't- You can't just leave me here like this. I'm your brother, and whatever those men told you, whatever they have over you, whatever powers they have over you, it isn't worth it."
There was a sound of a door opening, and Nathan squinted into the darkness, desperately trying to find Peter in it, but there was nothing he could see in it. Peter might as well have already left him.
"You know the interesting thing about empaths, Nathan? They can sense everything about a person. All of their lies, and the truth behind their words. All of their deceptions."
Nathan couldn't see Peter pause at the door that had just been opened, but he could feel him do so. The room only held silence for a few moments, before Peter's voice broke through it, and somehow seemed to cause the room to grow colder.
"I've heard that sometimes if we can't learn to control our power it starts to control us. Do you think that's true, Nathan?"
The door closed and all the lights that barely managed to light the room flickered out, one by one. Peter was gone, and the only thing he had to keep him company in the silence was the darkness.