4

Homecoming IV

Claire stepped out on the concrete ground. The air was even more chilly now, but she didn't feel it. All of a sudden, the only thing she felt was emptiness. She had caught sight of the body.

She didn't understand how, but on the ground in front of her, in the middle of the amphitheatre, lay the man she cared for more than anyone else in the world. Her father coughed up a bubble of blood. He was alive?

Speechless, she crouched beside him and put a hand on his faint cheek.

"Claire?" he breathed. She sobbed. "Claire! You're... Alive! How can that be? I... Saw you..."

"Dad, what happened? Why did you come?" Claire cried. She felt so confused.

The man... The man in the cap had grabbed Jackie in the changing rooms, but Claire had lunged herself at him without a second thought, and forced him to let go of her. Jackie ran, but Claire couldn't. He had hurt her. She wondered for a second if Jackie was all right.

"Dad, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have run away, it's all my fault..." Her words were barely audiable through her sobbing. But Noah heard her.

"It doesn't matter... Doesn't... You're all right, and that's..."

"Dad?"

He fell silent, his gaze focused on something behind Claire. She spun around, and saw the man. He was still there, standing on the highest row of benches.

He seemed surprised to see her. She quickly understood why. Just like her father, this man had thought she was dead. And now she sat here in front of them, without a single scratch.

She crawled backwards in terror, reluctantly further away from her father. Sylar raised his hand once more, determined to correct his mistake of killing the wrong cheerleader. This was obviously the one he intended to take in the first place.


Peter couldn't find his way out of the building. He hated the way it was built. Not that it mattered. Not that anything mattered anymore. The cheerleader was dead, and according to the Hiro Nakamura he had met, this was the only thing that couldn't be allowed to happen. The only goal he had set up in life, he had missed. The world would fall. The bomb would go off. And it was his fault. All incompetent Peter's fault.

He reached a great door. He could see people outside it. People?

Without hesitation, he went outside and met an astonishing view.


Noah Bennet roared at Sylar, coughing up more blood doing this. Claire screamed, and closed her eyes. Next thing she knew, she felt something slip by her, and she just had to open her eyes again. A new man took place between her father and the dark man. His coat fluttered as he came to a halt. She stared at the back of his dark-haired head, and didn't even dare to breathe.
Peter wasn't afraid any more. Suddenly, it was all obvious to him. The cheerleader was here. Sylar was here. This was it. It was time to save the world. He no longer needed a watch to realize that.

He closed his fists and dashed forward, straight towards Sylar. The murderer wasn't prepared for the impact, and tumbled backwards when Peter thrusted himself at him. They both fell backwards, over the edge...


Claire gasped loudly, still sitting on the ground. That was all her body could do. The two men had gone out of sight. Her father coughed and moaned. The hands of a clock somewhere beneath them moved. They read 8:12.

"Dad..." she wispered.

"Claire, call an ambulance," Noah ordered faintly. "And... Don't go downstairs... Don't look..."

But he couldn't summon the power to speak further. Instead, he went into a fainting state.

Claire sat still for a second. Then she took her father's cellphone from his pocket and made the call. But she didn't stay with him. She ran when she talked. She ran towards the stairwell.