Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

Timeline: set in Heroes s1. None of the events in this story have any real resemblance to the plot of any of the Twilight books.

Warnings: Elle and Bella are kind of OOC, but I think once the different ways their characters developed prior to this story are explained it'll all make sense.

Pairings: Peter/Bella friendship/pre-romance, established Edward/Elle, all others are canon.

This was originally conceived as a standalone story, but then I decided to tie it in with my previous Heroes/Twilight fic Lightning Strikes. For those of you who still want to read it on its own, here's a brief rundown of things you need to know from LS to make this easier to understand:

1) Elle came to Forks before Bella, resulting in Edward meeting her first and falling in love with her instead. Bella did eventually move there and cross paths with Edward, but nothing romantic ever happened between them.

2) While snooping in the records of the facility where she lived and worked, Elle found documents showing that in her human life, Alice Cullen was Angela Petrelli's sister. They were sent to Coyote Sands to be studied, and while they were there James hunted Alice down, resulting in her being turned. Angela and Alice are now aware of their connection, but Angela hasn't told the rest of her family anything about Alice or vampires and Alice has kept her distance from them while still monitoring them via her visions.

3) Elle's last assignment as an agent was Gabriel Gray/Sylar, and their interaction proceeded more or less the same as in canon, until Edward's presence caused things to go sideways and Elle ended up so badly hurt that Edward had to make her a vampire to save her, which had some unforeseen side effects on her mind and personality, hence any OOC-ness you may notice in her. The Quileutes are currently unaware that he broke their treaty by changing her, and they have to stay away from Forks in order to keep it that way or trouble will ensue.

More will be revealed as you read on, but if you have any pressing questions feel free to ask me.

Prologue: Vendetta

Los Angeles, CA

The house had been a hive of activity all day, crawling with police, crime scene technicians, medical examiners, and even a couple of FBI agents, but now night had fallen, the law enforcement personnel had gone home, the bodies had been removed, and the house was deserted - except for one man. He stood outside, the moonlight glinting off his horn-rimmed glasses, watching the empty street until a single car cruised up. He hadn't seen this particular car before but nevertheless knew it was the one he was waiting on - it was expensive, flashy, and sported such darkly tinted windows that he couldn't make out anything of the interior. He knew, however, that the people inside it would have no trouble seeing out.

The car stopped a few houses down the street from the murder scene so as not to arouse suspicion if any insomniac neighbors happened to be looking out their windows, and two teenagers got out and walked the remaining distance. As he observed the female of the pair, Noah Bennet couldn't help feeling slightly unsettled - a vampire's quick, graceful movements were always disconcerting to humans, but more so in the case of this particular vampire…because she hadn't been a vampire the last time he saw her. Elle Bishop was still recognizable, but her face had become white and bloodless - although it'd been pretty bloodless last time Noah laid eyes on her too, what with so much of her blood having drained out of her body - and her features were more angular and inhumanly perfect. The most startling change, though, was in her eyes; formerly gray, they were now a deep gold that matched her companion's.

The other vampire moved half a step in front of her when they reached Noah; his protective instincts were obviously still intact even though Elle, who had never been anywhere close to defenseless, was now practically impervious to damage. "Hello, Noah."

He greeted the two vampires with a polite nod. "Edward, Elle. You're not easy to get hold of these days."

"Maybe we just didn't want to talk to you."

Both Noah Bennet and Edward Cullen ignored Elle's remark; they were too used to her blunt, sarcastic, and often cutting ways to be surprised or offended. The latter said, "Given your very persistent efforts to contact us, we thought we had better meet with you although we can't stay long - California is not a good place to be a vampire."

"So it'd be great if you could just tell us what's so important that you left Carlisle all those messages at work," Elle added. "Who died?"

Noah raised his eyebrows.

"A substantial amount of blood was spilled in that house - more than one or perhaps even two people could survive losing," Edward explained, "so naturally Elle deduced that someone recently died here. And since you asked us to meet you at this address, I presume you wanted to call our attention to that fact."

"You're right. Follow me, please - there's something I think you need to see." Noah led the way into the house - all three of them ignoring the yellow crime scene tape across the front door - and straight to the kitchen table, where a large puddle of frozen blood surrounded one of the chairs. "The man of the house, James Walker, was found frozen solid in this chair with the top of his skull removed. It looks like he died here, but as you can see the temperature's nowhere near low enough to freeze a body. His wife was found pinned to the stair's railing, leading the police to believe there were multiple assailants because one person couldn't have lifted her that high. I disagree."

"You mean you think whoever killed these people is like me… I mean, like I used to be?" Elle asked.

"An evolved human, yes. I don't suspect a vampire since, as Edward pointed out, this climate's too sunny for your kind."

"Also, none of us would have wasted so much blood," Edward interjected.

Noah nodded. "James Walker's scalping is also significant. He had cryokinetic abilities. His wife was an ordinary woman, and her head was left intact. Primatech's scientists have posited that posthumans' special abilities have their roots in the person's brain-"

"So somebody opened up the guy's brain to take away his power? Why?"

"To have it for themselves, maybe. Elle, do you remember your last assignment with the Company?"

"I don't think either of us are likely to forget Gabriel Gray any time soon," Edward said sharply. He was suddenly tense, his fingers curled into claws, his voice carrying a hint of a growl.

"Yeah, it's hard to forget a guy who almost kills you." Uncharacteristically, Elle was completely, deadly serious. "Do you think he did this?"

"I'm sure of it. This is just the latest in a string of similar murders across the country, and there's no doubt in my mind that he's behind them all." Noah's gaze slid away from Elle, who was now staring disbelievingly at him - she couldn't imagine anyone less likely to become a serial killer than the Gabriel Gray she'd met two years ago - to Edward. "It's a shame you didn't kill him when you had the chance."

Edward stared back unblinkingly, not deigning to respond to the slightly reproachful comment. It was true that he could have killed Gray very easily, but that wasn't what he was there for; he'd only been in the clockmaker's apartment because Elle was there, and when the encounter took a life-threatening turn, getting her out safely was the only thing that mattered to him. He'd barely succeeded - she had been hurt so badly that he had to change her to keep her alive, and if he had stopped to make sure Gray was dead, she might not have survived at all. Besides, Noah Bennet had been there too; he could've killed Gabriel Gray himself if he thought the man was too dangerous to be allowed to go free, but he hadn't because doing so would have meant disobeying orders. If his belief that Gray was responsible for several grisly murders had any truth to it, he probably felt guilty about that now. Putting the blame for Gray's continued existence on me would no doubt ease his conscience, but it isn't my job to clean up Primatech's messes. Elle was my only reason for having any involvement whatsoever with that organization, and I thought we'd seen the last of them when her association with the Company was terminated.

He suddenly regretted granting Noah's request for a meeting just to stop him from pestering Carlisle; it wasn't like he'd inconvenienced the doctor that much, and Edward had a feeling Noah was about to cause a massive amount of inconvenience for him and Elle. We should have done as Alice asked and gone to New York instead.

"Are you saying this is Edward's fault? You can't even say for sure that Gabriel killed these people!" Elle snarled, defending her mate.

Noah almost backed away, stopping himself just in time. He'd never been afraid of Elle when she was human and he was determined not to start now, but it was undeniably worrisome to have a vampire giving you the sort of glare she was giving him now. "Yes, I can. Come with me." He forced himself to turn his back on her and walked into the living room. She and Edward made no sound as they followed him, but he knew they were right behind him; their proximity made the back of his neck prickle uncomfortably.

The Walkers' killer had used their blood to write a message on the living room wall: I'M COMING FOR YOU, ELLE.

"Gabriel Gray may not be the only person with the ability to steal powers from someone else, but he is the only one you've come into contact with. He's left threats like this at the scenes of his other murders; it looks like he's holding a grudge against Edward for injuring him and you because… I'm not entirely sure what his issue with you is," Noah said grimly.

"He was pretty pissed when he found out I was only making nice with him because the Company wanted to research his power-stealing thing," Elle offered. "So if for some reason he thinks killing people I've never even heard of is the way to get back at me, I guess we should stop him."

Edward was surprised, not because she took it for granted that he would help her - of course he would - but because he hadn't expected her to care about Gray's victims. After all, as she'd just pointed out, they were unknown to her, and sometimes Elle didn't even care about people she did know. "And how will we do that?"

"Well, first we have to find him. I'm an okay tracker - better than you."

"That isn't a very high recommendation of your skills, my dear," Edward replied, prompting Elle to stick out her tongue at him.

###

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked as they drove away, leaving Noah to make his own way home from California. "Gabriel Gray is not your sole responsibility."

Elle slid down in her seat and braced her feet on the dashboard, then straightened up again when it started to cave under the pressure. She hadn't been a vampire long enough to have lost all her human habits, which sometimes led to accidents now that she was strong enough to dent cars. "I know he isn't; there were other people involved, and the whole thing wasn't my idea. I didn't even want to do it, but they made me…and I didn't say no." She paused to give Edward a chance to argue, but he said nothing - after all, she had had a hand in helping Gray unlock his killer instincts even if she hadn't been the driving force behind it. "I don't see anyone else stepping up to stop him. Besides, we don't have anything better to do."

"That's not entirely true. I spoke to Alice earlier today, and she asked if we would consider going to New York to keep an eye on her nephews - she saw 'some very interesting things' in their future. She'd go herself, but living so close to so many humans would be very hard for Jasper, and she doesn't want to leave him."

Elle's nose wrinkled as she thought it over; Angela and Arthur Petrelli weren't her favorite people, but she'd never met their sons. Guess I should give the boys a chance - they might not be as bad as their parents. Gabriel will still be around in a couple weeks. "Sure, New York City. Could be fun. You'll never guess who else is there."

Edward scanned her thoughts, but Elle had become rather adept at not thinking about things she didn't want him to hear, leaving him clueless. "Who?"

"Bella - she moved there for college and landed some new internship she's all excited about. You're not gonna believe who her boss is: Nathan Petrelli. And I told her she could use our old place in Manhattan, but I bet she wouldn't mind sharing it with us if we ask nice."

"I'm sure she would do anything you asked of her." The bond between Elle and Bella Swan was something of a mystery to Edward; he understood why Bella looked up to Elle, but he could never figure out the reason for Elle's apparent fondness for the clumsy human, especially since she'd had nothing but contempt for her when they first met, calling her a spineless wimp. But then, Elle had become much kinder since her conversion from human to vampire repaired the residual brain damage from tests Primatech performed on her when she was a child - tests her father had sanctioned - doing away with the resulting emotional instability and giving her a fresh perspective on her life…

…And Bella was far from spineless these days. The old saying 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' had proven true in her case. Alice hadn't been very specific about what she saw happening to her human nephews, but if Bella was soon to start working for Nathan, things were certainly about to get very interesting for him.

Next chapter will pick up in episode 1x01, and Peter will meet Bella.