Chapter 4

The Difference of Worlds

Sylar followed Kassy down several different alley ways. She had her eyes closed and was following her sense of other specials nearby. The rest were following after them at nearly a run. Kassy stopped abruptly and opened her eyes.

"In here. I can feel a bunch of them in here." Kassy said as she stared up at a large brick building.

Sylar let his electricity erupt from his hands. If they had hurt her they would all die. He saw Kassy go into her battle mode. Her eyes darkened and she lifted her hands, covering them in fire. Peter took Sylars telekinesis and prepared himself.

"Hiro and Sam, you stay here." Peter ordered.

They didn't look pleased about staying behind but they nodded. Sylar pointed his hand at the door and blew it in with all his force. The three of them raced in hands blazing. There were shouts from other within as they ran into a large bunker area. There were beds and tents set up all around. Sylar expected to be attacked right away but instead many were fleeing. They appeared to be mostly women and children and he thought he heard them shouting things like 'They're here' and 'They've come for her'. However, as soon as they entered the hallways men rushed upon them. They really weren't even worth Sylars time. He threw them aside and continued down the hall on his search for Claire. He was about to turn down another hall when he stopped. He should turn around and go back outside. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. He began to turn but stopped again. Where the hell had that idea come from? He looked around and saw Kassy standing over an unconscious Matt Parkman. Kassy made an apologetic face.

"Sorry alternate Matt Parkman."

He smiled at her before continuing on his way.

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Peter felt the building shake and frowned. Jason stopped what he was doing and looked at him in question. "What was that?"

Claire smiled. "He's here."

The way she said it sent a chill up his spine.

"Who is here? Nathan?"

Her eyes flicked to him and she frowned. "No, I told you I'm not with Nathan. My advice is to let me go now before they hurt you."

He glared at her. He wasn't going to be intimidated by her false confidence.

"Wait here." Peter growled as he turned out the door. What the hell could have caused that shake? He walked quickly down the halls to the main room. He only had a few more turns to go when someone ran around the hall in front of him. He didn't recognize her. Perhaps under different circumstance he would have thought her beautiful, but now he only saw a threat. He noticed her eyes go wide for a second when she saw him, as if with recognition. But a second later she looked completely hostile. Her hands lit up in fire and her lip curled in a sneer.

"Where is Claire?"

"I should have known daddy would send his goons after her." Peter glared.

Nathan was too much of a coward to come himself. He had sent some powerful body guards instead.

"Yeah, I don't know what you are talking about. Just tell me where Claire is and I won't hurt you."

Peter gave a short laugh. "Yeah, and we can all just be friends?"

"Look, trust me. I'm the one you want to talk to here. Because once my brother gets here it's going to be cut off heads first ask questions later. So I'll ask you again. Where. Is. Claire?"

Peter smiled. "I killed her."

Shock and hurt crossed the woman's face. It almost looked like she really cared about Claire. After a moment it was replaced by fury.

"You better hope you are lying."

The woman raced at him full force. He powered up his electric ability and fired a bolt at her. To his great surprise she deflected it. Before he could throw another she slammed into him with an invisible force. He flew back five feet and landed on his back. He rolled out of the way just as she brought her fist down. Her hand smashed right through the concrete. She pulled her hand out of the hole and he watched as her knuckles heeled themselves.

"Hmm, an empath?"

She kicked her leg out and caught him in the shin. His breath hissed out through his teeth in pain. He threw her backwards with his mind, attempting the slam her into the wall. However she was too powerful, and used her telekinesis to stop her impact. Her face smacked into the wall though and he raced at her. He lifted his fist to hit her but she raised her hand. His fist came down on her finger and there was snap. One of her blue painted nails snapped off and clicked to the ground.

There was a second where she was frozen, staring at the broken nail. But the look she wore when she looked back up at him chilled him to the core. It was the look of a mad woman. Her already large eyes were round and furious and her teeth were bared like an animal. She let out a cry and he was thrown back. The force of the throw slammed him against the wall. She held up a hand, pinning him there. The force was so powerful he couldn't even use one of his powers.

"Seriously?" she shrieked. "All I wanted was one nice night out with my friends! Just one! But can we have even have that? No! We get sucked into some stupid alternate reality where the coffee sucks and everyone is driving some stupid sports car! And then Claire gets kidnapped! I mean, of course she does! Why wouldn't she? Something like this always happens to us! I mean really do we live in some crazy T.V. show or what? And now this!" she nearly screamed, nodding to the broken nail.

"A girl can only take so much before she snaps!"

This girl was genuinely scaring him. It had been a long time since he was really scared. He had no clue what she was talking about. Both her and Claire had said something about an alternate reality. Just then there were footsteps coming up the hall. He glanced over and saw a strange sight. A tall dark man was walking briskly towards them and beside the man walled… him.

"What the hell?" he muttered.

The dark man glared and stepped in front of him. "Peter where is Claire."

How did he know his name? Oh, right. He was standing right next to him. Only this other Peter didn't have a scar and he looked wimpier.

"What's going on?"

"We're from an alternate reality. We don't belong here. We're just trying to get back home and we need Claire." Other Peter said.

Peter glared at him. He didn't want to believe him, but it was pretty hard to deny when the proof was staring right at him. He nodded.

"Fine, let me down."

The woman didn't look like she was going to let go but the dark man put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright Kassy."

"No Sylar. He broke my nail."

"Seriously? You are such a woman!"

She growled at him.

"Kassy let him go. He has to take us to Claire."

With a sigh she let him drop. He straightened himself up.

"I think you should invest in some anger management classes." He muttered at her.

"Oh, that was just me be being irritated. You don't want to see me get angry."

He led them down several hallways. He really hoped Jason hadn't taken it upon himself to kill this other Claire. He had a feeling the people behind him wouldn't be very happy. They rounded the corner into the room. Jason was holding Claire up by the back of her hair and had his sword pressed to her throat. The man named Sylar practically snarled as he threw Jason across the room. Claire collapsed back into her chair. Sylar raced towards her and when she saw him her whole face lit up. He knew then in that second that this wasn't his Claire. His Claire never smiled like that, not anymore at least.

Sylar pulled her into a hug and pressed his lips to hers.

"Try to not fall behind next time."

She rolled her eyes. "So sorry to inconvenience you."

"Ok, will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Pater asked.

All of the others glanced at him. It was his other self that stepped forward.

"We aren't from this world. Our universe is parallel to yours. We were accidentally pulled in when we approached a special whose ability we didn't know. Now we're just trying to get back home. We need to find the portal door."

He raised an eyebrow. "I see. Now I can't help but ask" he said as he looked between his other self and Claire "What is your world like?"

The other Peter shrugged. "It's good. We've started a new company together, helping specials. Why, what happened in this world to make it this way?"

"Claire was raised by Nathan. Somehow along the way he corrupted her. A few years ago they started rounding us up. Anyone who was special got locked in their facility. I tried to stop them and Claire decided I was a threat. She has been hunting me ever since. I can see that your Claire is good, but the one here isn't. She is dangerous and ruthless and if she catches you, you won't escape."

Sylar nodded. "Then we won't let her catch us."

There was a commotion in the hallways and they all turned as two of his men dragged a tall teenage kid and a small Asian man into the room.

"We found them lurking around outside. Do you want us to kill them?" One of his guys asked.

Kassy threw both of his men into the wall. "I dare you to try it."

Having someone of her power strength around would really be handy. His men rubbed their backs and glared at her, but he waved them away. Now that she wasn't a direct threat to him he could see that was quite interesting.

"You should all stay the night. You must be tired, jumping through dimensions and all."

"We really want to get home as soon as possible." Other Peter frowned.

"Yes and the portal door will still be there tomorrow. Rest is in your best interest."

Sylar and Peter looked like they were going to argue but Kassy held up her hand.

"He's right. I'm exhausted and I just want to get some sleep. I vote sleeping here for the night."

"Yeah me too." nodded Sam.

"You don't get a vote." Sylar glared at him.

"Well I think we should stay too." Claire spoke up.

Sylar looked at her like she was crazy. "They just kidnapped you and were about to kill you."

"Only because they thought I was the version of myself that is hunting them. Kassy's right. We need to sleep and get some rest before going off on some big adventure. We'll be ok for one night."

Sylar made a face but didn't disagree.

"I'll have some bunks made up for you." Peter nodded.

He turned and strode from the room. He was going to have to have a discussion with Kassy.

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Sylar lay in his bunk and stared into the dark. All he wanted was to be back in his own home with Claire curled up against him and snoring slightly. Why did these things always happen to him? Was it the universe trying to compensate for the bad he had done? Hadn't he repented enough? He ran a hand over his face. Who knew what other craziness they were going to find in these other universes? He really didn't want to know. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep but before he could get far with that something nudged against him. His eyes snapped open and he rolled over to see Claire sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Claire? Are you ok?"

She nodded. "I was just cold. I've… I've gotten used to sleeping next to you. I know that it's small and a tight fit but do you think I could…"

Before she could say any more he pulled her down next to him. It really was a tight fit but he didn't care.

"Claire, whatever it is you want, you don't even have to ask. I'll do whatever it is."

She smiled against his chest. "Do you think that's what love is?"

He nuzzled his face against her hair. "You're the first person I've ever felt it with, so I can't really say."

"Do you know what the worst part of today was?"

"Um, being pulled into an alternate universe?"

"Well, besides that. It was seeing how much Peter hates me. I've done so many horrible things."

"No Claire, it wasn't you. This Claire isn't you."

"But it is. She has my exact D.N.A. All it would have taken for me to be a monster was to be raised by someone else."

"Claire" he said softly "that's how it could be with anyone."

She shook her head. "From what Peter has said, I've killed and hunted people. Sylar, in this world, I'm you."

Sylar was silent for a while as he thought about that. In a way, it was true. In this world he was dead, but someone had still rose up and taken his place. Only here it was Claire. She killed and captured specials because they were different. Claire moved so that she was looking up at him.

"I've always had trouble understanding you. I judged you and hated you so much, when all along I had the potential to do exactly what you did."

He stared down at her. "Claire, we all have the potential to be monsters. Evil isn't born, it's made. I wasn't evil as a child or even as a teenager. Hell, it wasn't even until my power manifested. It's the actions and environment of everything around us that shapes us."

She buried her face into his shirt.

"Get some sleep Claire. Tomorrow we attempt to get back home."

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Kassy ran water over her face. Her hair was a mess and she was still wearing the same clothes she had been wearing yesterday. There was a knock at the door. Kassy turned and saw alternate Peter standing in the doorway.

"Hello Kassy."

"Peter." She nodded.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Oh yeah, because a hard bunk bed in a dark room with shady people makes me feel all cozy."

He smirked as he walked closer. "Sorry about that. Fighting you yesterday, I mean."

"From where I stood that wasn't a fight, that was you getting your ass kicked."

He laughed "Touché. You're pretty handy in a fight."

"Well a girl has to have some good qualities."

He walked around so that he was standing beside her. "I actually think you have a lot of good qualities."

She stopped rubbing at her face and stared at him. "What are you doing?"

"Um, complimenting you?"

"Yeah well I don't need your compliments."

"Ok, ok." He laughed. "But seriously. You are very talented. We could use you around here."

"I'm not one for being used."

"That's not what I meant."

"Yeah I know what you meant. I'm not staying here."

"How did you know I was going to ask that? Do you have the ability to read people or something?"

She couldn't help but smile, remembering when Sylar had asked her just that. "Only a natural one."

He shook his head. "You are something else Kassy."

Before she could respond he leaned in and kissed her. She was frozen for a second. She had to admit, back when she had first met Peter she had thought he was cute and had even considered him. But once she had met Hiro that had all gone away. She shoved him roughly away.

"Don't ever do that again. I'm with Hiro."

"I just had to know how it felt, just once."

"You don't even know me."

"I don't have too. I know that you are smart and powerful and you don't take any ones crap. You are a strong leader and yet you are fair and just. I just met you last night, yet I know it already. Maybe if I had more time I could show you."

She stared at him. "You know that I'm here, in this universe."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"The other version of me. I'm not sure what I'm like here, but maybe I would be the same."

"Maybe I'll just have to go find you." He smiled.

She shook her head. "You're a lot more dramatic than my Peter."

"Is that bad?"

She considered it. "No, not necessarily. Hell, maybe if you had been this way in my world we would have ended up together. But my version of you likes good girls."

He smiled. "Well then I guess him and I are complete opposites."

She turned and began to walk past him, but stopped so that their faces were right next to each other. "Go find me. Maybe this version of me needs you just as much as you need someone."

She walked out of the room and left him staring after her.