Chapter 4: Initiation
When Peter and Sylar came out to partake of dinner later that day, a sound round of applause went off from the carnival people. Claire joined in smiling, although she was quite sure she was not clapping for anybody else than her uncle.
The two men both took the sounds and signs of appreciation shyly and Claire was certain they would've taken off if certain people like Hiro and Noah would've not required of them to stay out in the open to be scrutinized. Quite a few of Lauren's fellow agents was still around too, discreetly standing by the trailers, helping with the repairs, or playing cards inside.
Her bogeyman appeared shaky and uncertain among the people, both looks of his new to Claire, and odd. Given his unsteadiness, it was perhaps not too surprising that his previous protector, Peter walked close to him, keeping a hand either on Sylar's arm, shoulder or back as the two made their way to the evening gathering of the carnival people, a pastime they were intent on keeping going, along with calling themselves a big family. Claire did not take her eyes off the two men, the whole phenomenon of their alleged friendship had her spellbound.
Sylar felt a lot better than he looked. Although his preternatural strength was merely seeping back into him bit by bit, hope was filling him up with a type of power he never knew before. He was out of the nightmare of his own mind and on the way to redemption in a manner that already dozens of people believed in him. Even though not the way he meant it, Samuel was right. He belonged with these people, this was his home where he could start his new life. If only Claire didn't keep looking at him that pryingly and suspiciously.. He reciprocated the smile Jennie Bowman gave him and rounded a chair to sit down by the table next to Peter while touching the high back of the chair..
Peter reached out for him as he doubled over, his hand convulsively holding onto the wood he accidentally touched a moment ago. Several other arms followed and they eventually managed to pry his fingers off the object in question and lay him onto the ground gingerly. His mind cleared quickly after that, and he grabbed Peter's hand to pull himself up into a sitting position again.
"No, stay down, Sylar," Peter opposed, "you're very pale, you worried me there."
His friend waved him off, "clairvoyance," he explained and sat up by himself, "that chair belonged to a man called Arnold. He did time manipulation and well, a lot of decades fit into that short few seconds I touched the chair," he rubbed his forehead, then gave a laborious sigh, "where is Hiro?"
The Japanese man in question was standing right in front of him and given that he had been hanging about in the back earlier, Claire had to wonder if he had actually teleported himself into the middle of the action. Certain was that Hiro was very keen to talk to the killer for some reason. "What have you seen, brain man?" He knelt by Sylar to grab his shoulders intensely, "have you seen Charlie?"
"Yes," Sylar confirmed, carefully avoiding that chair as he pushed himself up and onto another chair. "Yes," he repeated, gathering himself together and brushing the hair out his eyes.
"Where is she?" Hiro asked impatently. He had waited long enough and thought the answer will elude him forever.
Sylar moaned and dried the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, nodding, "I'm not sure of the order of things as happened, it all seemed a bit of a muddle."
"I don't care about chronological order! Where is Charlie?" Hiro pressed.
Peter put a hand on Sylar's shoulder, feeling the need to intervene as the whole gathering looked on curious and a little more close by than he would have imagined Sylar would be comfortable with at the moment, "give him some time to gather his thoughts."
"Samuel," Sylar established, "Samuel told Arnold to take Charlie out to a small, uninhabited Pacific island during the second world war and leave her there."
Despite their recent experiences with their ex leader, an appalled murmur went through the crowd, while Hiro sat down in Arnold's chair, downcast, "are you sure, brain man?"
Sylar raised a halting hand for a moment, signalling that he wasn't finished yet, "but he did not have the heart to do it. He did not take her anywhere."
"What do you mean?" Peter probed softly, yet intrigued.
"She's right here at the carnival, she's always been. Frozen in time and hidden out of sight by being taken out the time space continuum," he raised his head, his gaze stopping by the old, unfortunate time traveller's trailer, "not even a second would've passed for her."
Hiro ran away in that direction, ambling up and down the length of the trailer frowning, stopping at every step to close his eyes for a moment. Everybody was frozen by accident a couple of times as he probed the space in question, but eventually a big smile appeared on his lips. He blinked once more and out of nowhere, a startled Charlie appeared.
The happy Japanese did not let her be uneasy for very long, but got her into his arms and gave her that very overdue kiss in front of everyone, clapping and cheering disregarded. "It's over Charlie," he explained gleefully eventually, "no more Samuel, no more kidnappings, no more illnesses and no more crazy jumps in time."
"How can you be so sure?" Charlie asked rather shy with all the onlookers and glancing in every direction uncomfortably.
He picked her up and spun her around instead, setting her down by the now standing close by Sylar. "He helped me save you and his future has changed. Everything has changed," he declared on a jovial voice that did make some wonder if he had lost his mind.
Charlie turned to Sylar, "thank you for saving my life. Again," she said in her kind manner.
"The pleasure's mine," the killer echoed Hiro's optimistic smile and grabbed Peter's arms, "yes. Yes, well what do you think?"
"I think it's a great start for the Brave New World," Peter looked round the dozens of evolved humans who could now have a real chance at a happy life.
Tbc
