Chapter 2 – Let It Bleed Again
Let It Bleed Some More Follow up
By devilishlysas
Summary: A follow up Chapter to Let It Bleed Some More, my slightly darker take on the now AU Let It Bleed episode. Many thanks to those that have continued to read these stories and post reviews. This is for those people that asked for a follow up way back when and those so recently who've been reviewing again for inspiring me to re-read and repost to these old fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes and I find that incredibly depressing.
PG-13 oneshot
Claire watched the bright dancing lights of the carnival from their vantage point on the hill above, tucking her wind blown hair behind her ear. She'd flown with Nathan and Peter enough times but somehow, because this had been Sylar holding her too close, it was so very different. Like the air around them had been charged, she'd hated every lingering touch of his flesh against hers as he'd took the opportunity to hold her closer than he'd ever have once dared. Even now as they stood he was inches behind her, his hands on her shoulders.
She couldn't see the tattoo on his arm, but it had left a pretty solid impression in her mind. How had this happened, how had she ended up here with him? Their last conversation in the hotel room had been all kinds of disturbing, even before he'd killed her father, now looking back on it, and knowing his desire was her... she couldn't repress the shudder he no doubt felt run all through her. He stepped closer and she could feel the hard lines of his chest moulding into her smaller frame, the feel of his warm breath against the back of her neck forced her eyes shut. Revulsion was hardly the word. The grip of his hands tightened as he slid his hands in a fluid motion down the length of her arms to grasp her waist.
"So much life down there... so much power." He commented his eyes on the carnival that was Samuel's home. "To think I missed you by mere moments, I wonder if I had seen you here, when they were trying to tame me, if it would have bought it all flooding back." His hand rose to her spine and slipped under the tank top she let out a hiss and flinched as he made contact with the sensitive skin there. She tried to pull away but his other hand on her hip held her firm, he didn't even need his abilities to hold her fast and it sickened her. "So many memories Claire, and yours would have been the one that pulled me screaming back to the monster I am meant to be." He murmured and she tried to keep her mind blank, not certain of how this new ability of his worked, his ability to know everything at a touch was downright disturbing. His lips brushed her ear and she spun her head to face him, almost head butting him with the speed of it, until their faces were inches apart forcing him to look her in the eye. She wanted him to stop touching her, to stop being so unbearably close, but it never seemed to work that way, he was also too close to her, always too invasive. A shudder rose along her spine at the lingering memory of his fingers sliding across her grey matter, of feeling his breath against her face as he explored a part so intimate he never should have been able to touch it like he had.
"Would you like me to make Samuel pay for the hope they made you feel that you could be accepted there, only to cruelly squash?" His voice startled her from the disturbing memory, it wasn't where she'd thought they had both gone, he seemed to be sifting through her memories of her time with Samuel's little carnival.
Sylar inched his head closer and Claire found herself leaning back fractionally, not willing to share a breath with him, hating that if he wanted he could force her to so easily. He could force her to do anything. Just like in that hotel room, her body completely at his mercy. He didn't.
"I'll take your silence as a yes." He smirked imperceptibly as he traced his hand along her spine.
Claire turned her head away, unable to stomach the smug satisfaction he was taking from all this and refocused on the task at hand. "Do you have a plan?"
"I thought we might just walk up to the doors and knock. After all, Samuel has big plans for me." The bitterness in his voice was not imagined and she kept her head turned, she didn't want to sympathise with him, but she knew exactly how it felt to have everyone decide what your life should be. "He wants you too Claire." Claire froze, not wanting him to elaborate. "Did you really think he'd go to all that trouble of getting you there, of trying to make it your choice, to show you a life where your ability was embraced. To make you part of their oh so special family." His hand left her hip and rose to the back of her neck, until she felt the stubble of his cheek brush hers, melding them together again.
"What does he want from me?" She pressed certain Sylar had figured it out.
"What does anyone want from you?" she felt his smirk as he pressed a kiss to her cheek, the softness of his lips in contrast to the stubble and she pulled away, surprised when he released her and she was able to put a pace between them. Her arms instantly rose to wrap around herself protectively. She thought about his answer, thought about all the people who had come after her in her life. Her ability, it was always about her ability.
"What use is my ability to him?" She turned facing him now, her monster. The man with the plan as he tried to build bridges she was more than happy to leave in ruins. The idea that she was stood here now, on a hillside alone with him, more apart from her family than she had ever been, her family had protected her from him for so long, all for nothing. She'd chosen to be here... what the hell was wrong with her?
Sylar was eyeing her quietly, as if he could read what was happening in her head, he slid his hands into his pockets almost deliberately, making himself look somehow less threatening in his dark shirt and jeans with his midnight stare boring into her. "Immortality Claire is the holy grail." She rolled her eyes ignoring the blazing look he was levelling her with at her apparent ungratefulness. "Their powers are finite Claire, all of them. And they all have a price, a cost, a toll they force on the body. And when they are dead and gone, so is that ability. Trust me, I have seen enough of their hollow corpses to know." She didn't need the reminder. "Your power is limitless. The ability to see forever, to move through all of time, to carry your legacy with you. To see and do everything, everywhere. If I could have chosen one ability, just one, it was always yours."
"And Samuel, how is he going to use this great gift of mine?" Claire snapped, unmoved by his impassioned speech, the idea of forever, of time stretching out onwards towards eternity was the most terrifying thing she could envision. A curse that no one should have to endure... it was intolerable.
"If I had to guess," his expression suggested it was something more than a guess as he took slow steps towards her as if daring her to back up. "I would say he wanted to make you his legacy, his immortal witness, a voice for his special family to carry into the ages."
Claire snorted with derision, hardly ladylike, but she couldn't care less. "Then he's just another ego driven idiot." She sighed, almost wishing it was something more, someone who genuinely had a vision, a goal, something worth all those lofty ideals he had been toting.
Sylar stopped in front of her, reminding her just how tall he was as he stared down his long nose at her. "They always disappoint you don't they, these potential father figures." She didn't rise to his bait, keeping her lips pursed.
"So we waltz straight in, like the prodigal son and daughter returned. Come back to help him achieve his great vision?"
There was no warning, his mouth was simply over hers, her surprised breath allowing him entrance as he kissed her hard and fast, the sweep of his tongue in her mouth sending a jolt of something unbearable through her as he withdrew far enough that she couldn't swing at him if she chose to. Stunned she could do nothing but stare at him, the urge to wipe her mouth rose and she squashed it, she needed Sylar... she was more certain of it now than she had ever been before.
"Don't do that." Her voice shook and she took a calming breath, rage, revulsion and something she refused to name causing it. "Ever." She added, eyeing him with what she hoped reflected her fury at his presumption. He could touch her, he could control her, but she'd be damned if she ever let him take something so intimate again.
Sylar was impossibly still as he stared at her, every fibre of his being seemed to resonate a suppressed menace that she'd always associated with him. "Admit it Claire, here and now, alone with no one to judge you, that you feel the connection between us. We are like the flipsides of the same coin, everything in our lives conspiring to bring us together, to make us so very alike."
She didn't laugh, because it wasn't funny. He was insane. "We are nothing alike Sylar."
He rolled his eyes now, the menace he radiated retreating some as the man emerged from behind the monster. "We have more in common than you think, don't forget I've seen inside your head Claire, seen your desires." he brushed his fingers over his lips and Claire felt a chill sweep her at the implications of just what that kiss had meant, the memory of Lydia's ability clear in her mind now, somehow he'd taken it. It sickened her the idea that he could see inside her like that, could know her like that... or worse, that what he saw hadn't dissuaded him from this ridiculous notion that she was the same as him.
"Let's go get this over with." She chose to ignore it for now, after all if she could deal with Samuel and his carnival, then perhaps she could put this thing with Sylar behind her. The part of her mind that held the fear of this man monster knew better, remembered all too well his declarations earlier in her dorm room, his desire to find love and she was the unfortunate target for his new affections, if she ever hadn't been. She'd seen his determination before, his single minded focus on what he wanted, for three years he'd chased her and her ability, until he'd carved it out of her still conscious brain. She had no doubt he'd put the same effort into this new sick desire of his. But she couldn't focus on that now, couldn't be distracted, Samuel was a threat to the whole world, in comparison to that, Sylar's sick intentions for her paled.
Sylar smiled, his hand outstretched knowing she'd have to take it, she hesitated not looking at him as she grasped it, trying not to think much of anything know she knew about his ability to peer into her soul at a mere touch. Clearly he liked to make an entrance, she'd expected him to take them to the front door, instead he rose up and over the carnival, aiming squarely for the trailers that were their homes, for the bodies clustered there.
A shout went up and the crowd beneath scattered as Sylar landed so heavily that she felt her ankle snap and instantly reform as he straightened, his eyes for one man alone.
"Samuel." The tone of Sylar's voice sent a cold sweep of fear and expectation through her, but clearly Samuel didn't know Sylar like he did, his smug smile spoke volumes... the idiot thought he'd won.
"Gabriel." He flung his arms wide as if expecting the killer to embrace him like a father. Sylar didn't move, she released his hand, feeling loathing resonating through her and wanting to heave at the intensity of it... Sylar was transmitting it to her and it was all she could do to look at the man that was causing it. How could he look so calm when he felt like that inside?
"Gabriel is dead." Sylar smiled thinly. "Many thanks for your assistance with that. To think I could have been poor lost little Gabriel forever if you hadn't wanted the monster back so badly." There was a bite to him that even Samuel seemed to pick up on now as he dropped his arms, his movement forward halted as the Carnies that had scattered began to form a circle around them now.
Samuel gave her a look, she couldn't read it, but he seemed surprised to find her stood so calmly beside Sylar. "Claire, it is so good to see you again." He smiled warmly, it seemed to genuinely reach her eyes, reminding her of the promises he'd made, the way she'd believed him until he'd had to lock her in a trailer. His gaze fell back to Sylar dropping to the tattoo emblazoned on his arm. "I see you followed your heart then. I told you it would lead you to answers."
"Oh it has." Sylar agreed, placing his hand on her shoulder and it took a monumental effort for her not to shrug it off. For the first time she wished she wasn't stood in her tartan slacks and tank top in which she'd dressed for bed what seemed like forever ago tonight. Tension seemed to ripple through the crowd as Claire scanned one face after the other, they felt it...could see it now in Sylar and she wondered at just how different he had been before with them. How could they have ever thought him harmless enough to let into their fold?
"So." Samuel rubbed his hands together with obvious glee, trying to take hold of this situation and spread it to the nervous crowd. "Have you come to join us for good, both of you, because you know you are both always welcome here." he was striding into the centre and Claire felt the grip Sylar had on her shoulder tighten fractionally.
Sylar smirked and Samuel paused fractionally, "No. It's not really our scene is it Claire?" he drew her into the conversation and she risked a look at him, seeing hate swirling behind his eyes. He hated Samuel, all that talk of her using him to save the world, he'd have done this just for the sheer pleasure of wiping Samuel off the face of the earth leaving as bloody a stain as possible. "This existence, it hardly befits two people who'll outlive the Sun no does it?" Sylar took his eyes off her and aimed his barb solely at Samuel, certain in his belief that it was the one thing that Samuel wanted... an immortal legacy.
Apparently he wasn't wrong, Claire saw Samuel flinch, his fists tightening and she felt a distinctive rumbling of earth beneath her feet.
Sylar lifted an eyebrow, but disdain seemed to fill his expression as almost effortlessly he lifted off the ground, taking her with him. "You're earthbound Samuel, for all your talk of power, everything you think you can gain by having all these abilities around you, charging you up. You're still a pitiful limited little man." Rage rippled across Samuel's face at Sylar's words and she flinched at the laugh that exploded from the serial killer beside her as he floated above them like some avenging fallen angel.
"But this isn't my party." Sylar conceded, "It's Claire's." He dropped her and she landed solidly on her feet unable to feel if muscles or bones protested as she stood up straight, staring down the man she'd wanted so desperately to believe could help her live a life that wasn't constantly in fear of who and what she was. She lifted her face feeling the intensity of Samuel's gaze boring into her as the tremors continued beneath her feet, as Sylar hovered above them. Samuel wanted acceptance, wanted his family his ability to be known, wanted the world to see them. He'd been ignored and reviled too long. So much so that he'd force them to acknowledge him and his power the only way he knew how... in a brutal display of power that would change the world forever. The world would find out about them in the worst way possible, through fear. The memories were still fresh, of the drugs that had pumped through her system, the orange jump suit, the helplessness of her own father's as the will of the government had turned on them, turning on those that had dared reveal themselves to be different.
"It's too soon Samuel. The world isn't ready for us." She watched the frown cross his features, as if he couldn't comprehend what she was saying. "My own father locked me up and pumped me full of drugs when the government found out about us... what do you think they'll do to you, to these people?"
Samuel smiled, as if welcoming the challenge. "We aren't afraid Claire, we're stronger together, this is our home, our family, if they try and take it they will get what they deserve."
Claire turned taking in the crowds and shaking her head in despair. "He's brainwashed you all into thinking you have a chance. Your hopelessly outnumbered by every human being on the planet." She looked up at Sylar, floating above them, "Sylar is the most powerful person on this planet, and they locked him up and took away his abilities, stripped his mind and his memories. Do you really think you'll do any better?"
Samuel was vibrating now and the earth was vibrating with him. "They will not ignore us anymore. They will see, all of them, just what we can do!" he bellowed, drawing calls of support from his followers.
"You're going to get them all killed and start a war that will never end between us."
"So be it." Samuel snapped.
"No." Claire snarled furious at this man's arrogance now. "I'll be the one that has to see it, I'll be the one forced to live it long after your dead." She hissed stalking towards him. "What happens when you're all dead and it's just me and him!" she pointed heavenward at Sylar, "Do you think the world will remember how powerful, how special you all were?" Realising he would never see past his own ambition, she turned to the crowd, to the people all around her so desperate for acceptance, to understand their place in a world they seemed so apart from. "Will you die for nothing... for him?" she pointed furiously back at Samuel. "He'll hurt countless hundreds just to put you all front and centre of a firing squad. Your families." She stared pointedly at the children that were scattered throughout the crowd. "You're happy here, together, protected, able to live a life that I have always dreamed off, a life without fear, with your abilities out in the open." She was pleading and praying to god it was enough to reach them. "Why can't that be enough, its more than most people get, more than I will get if I live a thousand lifetimes!" Her eyes lifted to Sylar, his shadow above her was more symbolic than she'd have liked, her life would always be invaded by the obsessive desires of the monster who she would never be able to escape.
There were murmurs in the crowd, a few turned away, turning their back on Samuel and returning to their homes. Some, but not all.
"Well Cheerleader, no one can say you didn't try to end this without bloodshed." Sylar's voice cut through the silence like a knife and as one they all seemed to be reminded of the danger. Samuel reacted first, she felt the ground beneath her simply vanish as it disappeared into a hole that threatened to swallow her. The force of a telekinetic shove to her back send her flying into solid ground instead followed by a shriek of agony as Samuel was lit up with wave after wave of lightening pouring from Sylar. A couple of them tried to fight, there was a fireball hurled here, an attempt to pop Sylar out of existence there, but he was worse than some avenging angel, he was like a plague from above, cutting them down like the ants they seemed to be to him. Peter had been the only thing that had ever stood a chance against him, and yet Sylar had bested him time and time again. Unstoppable.
With that Claire ran. Unable to hear the screams, or see the blood soaked ground, she flew through the carnival, thankful they'd at least waited until it was closed to the public. People ran with her, some of them impossibly young to witness what they had. She made it almost out of the entrance when a body landed heavily in front of her, rolling to a stop at her feet.
Samuel was still alive. His eyes cracked open and the rattling sound of agonised breathing came from his mouth. Claire stared down pitifully at him, before following his panicked furious gaze to his tormentor who touched down neatly beside her. "As promised." Sylar pointed to the poor man that she suspected would have been better off dead. "Samuel has been stopped."
"You didn't kill him?" she asked hesitantly, not even sure herself if that was what she'd wanted.
Sylar quirked an eyebrow at her and then down at the ruin of a man, who probably wouldn't survive the next few minutes anyway. "I thought you'd want that honour, to be the hero Claire and put a stop to the devious madman's plan to destroy the world once and for all."
Claire closed her mouth and stared back at Samuel, knowing full well that she couldn't kill him.
"He's in agony if it helps." Sylar pointed out causing tears to pool in her eyes. "Technically it would be a merciful act."
"I can't." She stared back at him seeing the derision on his face as he stared at her.
"But you'd have me do it wouldn't you Claire-bear?" he taunted, stalking to her and grasping her face in his hands with a little more force than she'd expected. "This is why the hero always fails, because they don't have what it takes to finish the job, can't in the end, do the difficult thing at the cost of their own pristine conscience."
Tears ran down her face now as she stared up at him, hating her own hypocrisy. "I'd kill you given half the chance." She promised him, knowing absolutely that was one murder she would happily take onto her conscience. Sylar smirked back, clearly believing her as he leant in close, his hands still cradling her face like they were sharing some tender moment.
"I know." He breathed, crushing his lips against her closed ones and ignoring her previous assertion that he'd never kiss her again, he pulled back so their eyes locked as he lifted his hand away from her, holding it aloft in her eyeline. "That's why I'm doing this for you." The moment seemed to freeze as he stared at her, the monster, doing what she couldn't, his hand twisted violently and she heard the distinctive crack of a neck snapping, heard the soft thud as Samuel's head hit the ground... dead. The world rushed back around them and they were still standing there, his hand cradling her face as he drew the murderous one back to his side.
And like that it was done. The next threat probably just around the corner. Never ending. Claire's shoulders slumped as she avoided looking at the body of Samuel, focusing instead on Sylar, who was watching her carefully, as if waiting for her to come to some decision that right now seemed beyond her.
"I would say that bridge of ours has earned a foundation at the very least." Sylar spoke first, his eyes left hers briefly to take in the sight of others emerging from the woodwork. Clearly he decided not to outstay their welcome, he stooped to scoop her up into his arms and shot into the air, leaving the ground miles behind them, until they were floating so high that people became impossible to see.
"Now what?" she asked him quietly, not entirely certain she wanted his answer.
He dropped her feet until she could rest them on his, letting her out of the clichéd grasp he'd had her in as they floated. She wasn't worried about falling, even if she did she'd heal, most likely Sylar would catch her anyway.
"That's up to you Claire." He seemed to shrug, for the first time she realised he seemed tired, that swirling energy that always seemed to emanate from him seemed dimmed somehow. "I've no doubt there will be some other catastrophe to stop. Some scheme by someone that puts you and your family in danger. You aren't destined for a quiet normal life Claire."
"And you?" she pressed, "You think you are?"
Sylar stared seemingly through her, "I am a killer. I'm trying to fight my nature, it should be easier with you around, but instead I find myself killing for you. Better I suppose then killing purely for the fun of it."
"Comforting." Claire muttered, her eyes shifting to take in the view beneath them, it really was breathtaking, the whole world reduced to inky blackness broken by the twinkling of artificial lights as normal people, with normal lives settled down for sleep. "Is there another way, another life?" she queried, not sure why she was asking the madman.
Sylar was watching her carefully she could feel his gaze on her as she continued to stare at the nightscape. "You could come with me." She didn't immediately freeze at the suggestion which was enough to cause concern about her mental health after what she'd just seen at the Carnival. "We could travel, see the world, live a life away from this, just exist for a while. We both have forever to wander Claire, why not start now?"
Claire turned finally after the silence lapsed between them whilst she considered it. She met his oddly uneasy stare. "You do realise I hate you?" she asked quietly, not trying to sound churlish, but genuinely reminding him of the simple fact. "Some days it's all I can do to not imagine killing you. The most powerful moment of my life, was when I slipped that blade of glass into the back of your head."
Sylar cocked his head, the hands grasping her biceps tightened a fraction but that was the only reaction he gave to her words, clearly he'd been expecting something like it.
"But I suppose that makes you right about me doesn't it. That we're alike? I don't imagine normal people fantasize about killing someone, or remember it feeling good when they finally do it." She paused looking up at him, "And we are going to be stuck on this tiny planet together for a long time. I don't want to live constantly worrying about where you are, or what I'll do when I see you."
His dark heavy eyebrow arched in surprise. "So we're bridge building?"
Claire shrugged. "I've got time to kill. Worst that happens is we drive each other nuts, kill each other and call it a day." She pointed a finger hard at his chest. "But I'm warning you," she threatened wanting to be clear here and now, "I am repulsed by you, just the smell of your aftershave makes me sick to my stomach, the feel of your skin makes mine crawl, so if you even think about..." he kissed her cutting off the sentence and breaking that rule with abandon as he pulled her body close to his. He broke away as her fist connected with his chin and let out a laugh, his smirk irrepressible as he brushed a hand over his stinging chin, "We'll just have to work on that."
