Still not Tim Kring. Or any other person that owns anything. All I own is some clothes.
Claire looked at her father, blinking in shock.
"Two thousand years?" she repeated.
"Yes. According to her."
"According to her, she's two thousand years old."
"Yes."
Claire shook her head slowly. "How is that even possible?"
Noah didn't answer for a moment. "At some point she picked up rapid cellular regeneration."
Claire closed her eyes. "My power."
"Yes." Noah said softly.
Claire stood up quickly. "I know I'm technically immortal, but I've never actually thought about it. I'm going to be alive two thousand years from now?"
Noah shook his head sadly. "I don't know. Your power is very rare. You're only the second person we've- the Company- found. Then there was Calipsa and Sylar and Peter, but they took those powers from others."
"I need to talk to Calipsa."
..
Gretchen looked on with confused interest as Claire hung the dream catcher in their window.
"Two thousand years, Gretchen. Two thousand freaking years!" Claire said for the fifth time.
"Yes, Claire. I heard you."
Claire shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I seriously can't believe it. I could be alive in year 4000."
"If the earth is still around in year 4000." Gretchen said helpfully.
"Thanks, Gretch." Claire said darkly.
"Sorry."
A knock sounded on the door. Claire looked at Gretchen. "That can't be her. That was way too quick."
She opened the door to reveal Calipsa.
"Hello, Claire." she greeted Claire.
"That was fast."
Calipsa shrugged. "Teleportation can come in handy." she smiled, her kohl lined eyes crinkling. "I suppose you asked your father about me?"
"Yes. He said you were two thousand years old." Claire said quietly.
"I am."
Claire swallowed loudly. "And you have intuitive aptitude?"
"Like your friend Gabriel."
"Gabriel is not my friend." Claire said forcefully. "But someone I care about is his friend, and he wants me to call him Gabriel. So I do."
Calipsa nodded. "He is having difficulty."
Claire blinked. "What?"
"He doesn't understand how to stop himself from killing. I need to speak with him."
Claire shook her head. "I have no idea who you are. I have no idea what you want. I'm not taking you to see Gabriel."
Calipsa looked away, then darted her eyes to Gretchen.
Claire turned. "Gretch, could you leave us alone for a sec?" Claire asked.
Gretchen pursed her lips together in annoyance, but stood and exited the room, closing the door behind her.
Calipsa sighed. "What could I possibly gain from this?"
"Powers."
Calipsa laughed. "Gabriel doesn't have a single power that I don't. Nothing rare or unusual. And if I really want to find him, I can. I only ask you to be polite. And manners aren't something I care much for."
Claire bit her lip, then nodded. Then she opened the door and stuck her head out. "Gretch, I'm gonna take Calipsa to see Gabriel. I'll be back in a bit."
Gretchen stood from where she had been sitting in the hall. "How long is a bit? Is it like 'I'm just going to the carnival', and then you end up jumping off a Ferris wheel with news camera's pointing at you?" she asked, deadpan.
"I hope not. But in my world, its always a possibility." Claire sighed.
Gretchen sighed too. "I'm coming." she said.
"Gretch-"
"No. I'm coming. Besides, Gabriel needs too apologize to me for stealing my bag."
Claire sighed again, this time with a smile and laugh, then turned to Calipsa. "You can teleport?" she asked. Calipsa nodded. "Well then. I'll give you the address, you take us there."
..
A knocking came from the front door. Peter stood up from the couch, turning to Gabriel. "Expecting anyone, Gabe?"
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Who would come and see me?"
Pater laughed, shaking his head and walking to the door. When he opens it, he see's Claire, her roommate, and some other girl.
"Hey Claire. Gretchen. And..." he trailed off, looking at the younger girl.
"Calipsa Rose. Nice to meet you."
"Peter Petrelli. Nice to meet you too." Peter greeted her, looking questioningly at Claire.
"Can we come in? Calipsa needs to talk to Gabriel."
Peter paused, furrowing his eyebrows. "Come on in," he said, opening the door wider. "Hey, Gabe," he calls. "The door is for you."
Gabriel stood. "Seriously?" he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. When he saw Claire, he looked at her in confusion. "Hello, Claire. You're here to see me?"
Claire ground her teeth together. "This is Calipsa Rose. She asked me to introduce you to her."
Gabriel looked at the young girl. She was powerful, he could tell that instantly. "Hello, Calipsa. My name is Gabriel."
"Gabriel Gray. Yes, I know. I also know you can tell I'm very powerful. Probably more powerful than you." she inhaled. "And now being in the same room as you, I am more powerful than you."
Peter looked at Claire. "Uh, Claire? Who is this girl?"
..
Not long after, once Claire had explained who this girl was, or at least what she knew, they were all settled on the couches in Peter and Gabriel's home. Apparently, when you live in an empty city with one other person for three years, its unimaginable to not have them live with you.
"Calipsa, I think you should explain to us-" Peter started.
"Who I am? Where I came from? What I'm doing here?" she finished helpfully.
"Well, yeah."
Calipsa sighed. "My age is somewhere around two thousand years." she shook her head. "I'm not sure exactly how old I am, as there wasn't exactly wonderful time keeping at that point. I do know that I lived under the rule of Cleopatra VII well I still aged."
Gretchen stared. "Cleopatra. Like, bitten by an asp Cleopatra?"
"The last Egyptian pharaoh." Calipsa sighed. "Yes."
"Is that why you wear that eye makeup?" Claire asked.
"I wear my makeup in the style of my times. I have just started wearing it again. People sometimes tell me someone my age shouldn't be wearing so much makeup." she smirked. "I lived with my father and brother. My father was a very talented scribe that charged high for his services. We were well off.
"We had a servant. Sakhmet. One day I went down to where she was cleaning a fish for a meal. I was going to ask her..." she trailed off. "I don't know. Something. I can't remember. I went down, and she hadn't noticed me. When I said something, she startled. The knife she was using... she cut off her finger.
"I ran forward to help her. I grabbed at her hand to see it, but there was no cut. Her finger was on her hand. I looked down, and... there was her finger also, on the ground.
"She begged me not to tell anyone. But all I could think was, I need to know-"
"How that works." Gabriel finished softly.
"Exactly. I pushed her to the ground and grabbed the knife. I cut off her scalp. I saw it, in her brain. I saw what was there. And I could heal."
"She didn't die." Claire added.
Calipsa sighed. "No. She didn't. She put her scalp back on her head and ran. I didn't see her until after Egypt fell under Roman rule years after. But after I discovered that I could take powers... well, I went looking for powers.
"It was difficult. People wanted to hide their powers more than anything. Although some used their powers to raise their position in life, or make money off it. They were the ones I preyed on.
"Until, one day, after nearly one hundred years of killing, I found a boy that could gain a power just by being close to someone with a power.'' she shifted her gaze to Peter.
"My power? Or, my old power." he added the last part with annoyance.
"Yes. Since him, I have never killed someone for their power."
"But you have killed." Gabriel asked.
"Yes. Sometimes people need to die." Calipsa said calmly.
"Sometimes people need to die?" Claire repeated. "What does that mean?"
"Would you not kill someone if they held a gun to your mothers head, and the only way to stop them from killing her was to kill them?"
Claire shrugged. "People have held guns to my mother before. I got them to shoot me instead."
Calipsa smiled. "You are a smart girl."
Gretchen shook her head. "Okay. You haven't answered why you're here."
Calipsa looked away. "I haven't had a friend for over thirty years."
Claire raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
Calipsa sighed again. "When I first became able to control myself, to stop myself from killing, I tried to have friends. But I could only stay in a place for a year or so before people noticed I no longer aged. It became difficult to make friends that way. As time moved on, I decided that I should seek out other people with abilities. So I did. I made good friends. They aged, I didn't. They died... I didn't.
"So I sought out immortals like myself. It is very rare, did you know? I have come across five born with the power in my life. The one I got the power from, a girl in China, an aboriginal man about a thousand years ago, you, and a man that went by the name Adam Monroe."
Peter gaped. "Adam Monroe. He tried to have most of the worlds population killed with a virus."
"He went a bit crazy at the end." Calipsa shrugged. "It happens after a few hundred years. He wasn't exactly sane when he aged, either. I haven't had a friend since the Company locked him up."
"What about the other two?" Claire asked.
"The aboriginal man stuck a stick in the base of his skull and had people bury him. Every time the stick dissolves, he finds another and kills himself again. The girl in China spend two hundred years looking for someone who could take powers away. Once she found one, she had him take her power and she died."
"What about the man who took her power?" Peter asked.
"He was not like your father. He didn't absorb the powers he took. He just took them away."
"So what do you want, Calipsa?" Gretchen asked her. "Why are you here?"
"I want a friend."
This is long. I hope its okay. I'm leaving for Medicine Hat tonight so I figured I should post another chapter. But I'm not going camping so I'm happy.
Also, I still don't know why I named it 'Never Shall We Know'. If you have any idea, please tell me.