A/N: Sorry for the delay, guys!! Not a very well-written chapter, sorry!

My best friend wanted to make a point that my readers were Heroes fanatics, so I excluded the name of the mysterious blonde woman so that you guys could guess. Not very hard, since I already pointed out everything.

Chapter Seven

"Sacred Steps"

Hope when there is none. Pray when faith has left. These are the only weapons at your arsenal as the world comes crashing down.

Somewhere in Russia

No one heard the fast whoosh streaking through their courtyards of nothingness. No one saw the blinding light trekking through the thick, Russian snow. Those who did just shrugged it off and went back to their morning coffee or their lazy newsletter sitting on the couch.

No one would ever imagine that that blinding light was not a miracle, not a sign from God, merely a blonde woman zooming through the scenery. It was a space filled with stars and skies, and snow that covered the grounds. But the woman knew better: she knew this was just a mirage.

It was merely an illusion that played tricks with her eyes, and she knew that beyond the seemingly endless snow was her destination. She zoomed right into a mountain, and saw said mountain disappear behind her like smoke. The young woman chuckled as she saw a big white building.

It fit right into the snow; so much so, the woman was sometimes confused where the door was. But she learned over the months. She stopped her running, and her appearance became more evident. Straight blonde hair cut into a sharp bob, sweet, delicate features on her face and she was wearing a coat for warmth.

She opened the door. Inside, light bounced off the marble floors and the white walls that covered the building. Every inch of the space was white, and it looked like an infirmary. Some of the men that walked through the halls nodded a polite hello to the woman, to which she responded with an equally insensitive smile.

She passed numerous rooms, and numerous blank-stared men and women and she went to her room. Once she reached a hallway, she stopped. On her right were some more white, mysterious rooms ending at a white door that she knew opened to a more colorful place.

On her left, however, was an ominous-looking room. What made it ominous was the fact that it was the only black room in sight. The woman smiled and pressed a button to get inside.

Inside, it was much lighter, dimmed by a few lights on countertops. On tables sat a few nerdy men with white lab coats and vials and test tubes surrounding them.

"Miss!" one of them said to her. "I'm glad you could make it!"

He was a fortyish man, with a balding scalp and a bulging belly. Savage, that was his name. He wore glasses on top of his nose as he smiled.

"I heard you got something interesting," she smirked.

"I do, miss, I do," he said excitedly. He led her to one section of the room, only occupying a few test tubes.

"We did it, Miss," Savage said excitedly.

He was nudging to a few test tubes, with the name smudged with water. She could make out the 'RE' of the formula's name. The woman grew concerned. This was the formula he told her about, the effect it would make to the world was somewhat scary to think about.

"T-that's it?" she pointed to the test tube, her voice trembling.

"Yes, miss. Is everything alright?" Savage asked.

The woman let herself cool down in front of the eyes of this agent, and answered, "Yes, I'm fine. Now we can get Knox outta prison."

Petrelli Mansion, NYC

Who was he fuckin' kidding? Of course he thought about Claire: her subtle images kept popping once in a while in his head. He knew better; he knew that he didn't want to make this mistake.

Not again. Not only was he hurting himself, he was hurting Mia. Peter wanted to say that he realized this sooner, but, unfortunately, that record went to Mia. In fact, she slapped his face to do so.

"Whoa, mister," Mia said, pulling away. As he rubbed his face, he realized that he should've been grateful. As he cooled down, he gave Mia his signature lopsided grin and said, "Thanks."

"No problem. Just let me know when you're ready to talk about all of this," Mia said. She stood up and paced the kitchen floor.

"Talk about what exactly?" Peter asked. Mia gave him her serious look and said,

"You've gotta be shittin' me! There's helluva lot to talk about! About this thing between us, plus about Claire!" Peter looked away, his face still hurting but his main reason was for not looking Mia in the eyes.

"I don't need to talk about Claire," he said.

"Peter…" Mia said. "Yes, you do."

Peter looked back at her and saw that this wasn't the same Mia he kissed a few moments ago, or the Mia he slept with the night before. This Mia was broken, with threatening tears coming to her.

This Mia was much more vulnerable, and for some reason, this Mia reminded him of his Claire. His Claire he saved at Homecoming, the cheerleader that always needed to be saved, that always needed Peter by her side. The Claire he fell in love with.

"You know, I've been in love before, and have it's almost the same as your situation," Mia sat back down. "James was married to my sister. You might think fine, that wasn't really an obstacle like you and Claire. But he loved my sister; he made no move to leave her. So, he was family."

Peter looked at Mia. For the days he'd known her, he never thought of Mia actually having a family, a sister, a brother-in-law, a mom and dad. She was the kind of person he always thought would do fine on her own, would be happy without a strong rock to hold on to.

"It hurt me, Peter. Just like it's hurting you. But I couldn't take it. I kept running, running away from him. So I ultimately ran away from home," Mia continued. "But you, you can't run. She needs you, just as much as he didn't need me. I became different, I changed. Do not make the same mistakes. Stay." The last word was said with desperation on Mia's case.

Once again, Peter looked away from the raven-haired beauty and said, "I'm in love with Claire."

He paused for a while, and continued, still looking away. "I'm in love with my niece. I want to change it, but I can't change the fact that I love her. I love her in a way no uncle should love his niece. But I can't help it. I smile every time I see her, my heart breaks every time she cries. I wanna punch every guy she's ever dated because I know she deserves better. I wanna…I wanna love her without being afraid of what Nathan would do, what the world would do,"

Peter finally looked up, "But I can't. Because I'm still afraid."

Mia surprised him with what she was about to do. Her hand was covering her face in a way a sensitive woman would at a crappy romantic movie. Mia removed her hand, and placed them on his cheek. She then brought him into her embrace.

Sanders-Hawkins Residence, Las Vegas

The previous night

"No, Peter, you are not dragging me son into this!" Niki yelled to her friend on the phone.

He called several moments before, and asked for Micah's help. He was asking Niki for her son's ability. And she thought Peter was the good guy. "You have his ability; can't you just file through that brain of yours to use it?" Niki asked.

"It doesn't work like that! Micah's ability is hard to access, it takes time," Peter explained. "Can't you just talk to him?"

"This is not about his preference. It's about his safety, Peter," Niki argued.

Niki pressed her hand on the kitchen counter, and sighed. She looked up, and realized she wasn't alone. Micah was standing there, in his sleeping clothes, with a tired-looking Molly by his side.

"I'll call you back, Pete," Niki said into the phone. She heard a 'Niki!' as she hung up.

"What's up, Mom?" Micah asked. "That was Peter, wasn't it? What did he want?"

Niki looked at her son, and answered, "He wanted to use your ability, Micah. And I said no."

"But, Mom!" Micah said, like a five-year-old boy asking for a toy he saw in the window. "He needs my help, and I am going to give it to him!"

"You're a just a teenager, Micah!" Niki argued.

Micah felt a tug on his arm by Molly, and turned back to see her shaking her head. The teenager glanced to his best friend then to his mother.

Micah then answered, "I'm helping them." He walked to the phone and proceeded to call the younger Petrelli. "Peter?"

Mia went to sleep, since it was already about 3 a.m. after they finished talking, where they agreed kissing and/or sex were off-limits. Peter, on the other hand, did not.

He couldn't, but, dear Lord, did he try. He tried, but ended up tossing and turning at which point he already wanted to give up. At each turn, at each strangle of his bed sheets, he thought of Claire. He thought that his feelings weren't secret anymore, Mia knew now.

In some ways, it was better; he finally had someone that could understand, someone that could talk to him, no judgment at all. On the other hand, now there was a bigger chance of Claire finding out.

Peter crawled out of bed, and walked downstairs. He could at least watch the miseries of others on TV while wallowing in his own. But, problem was, someone was already sprawled on the couch.

"Peter," Claire said. She was wearing nothing more than a white tank top and super short shorts, which made it harder for Peter to control himself.

Before, Peter didn't have the slightest dirty thoughts about his niece; they were mostly collections of how great he thought Claire was. Her smiles, her laughs, and her whole personality. But now, it seemed that Peter was developing less than innocent thoughts about his niece.

Claire sat up to make more room for Peter. They watched the TV silently for the next few minutes, both knowing the other wasn't really concentrating. It was Claire who broke the silence.

"Are we normal, Peter?" Claire asked.

It was an out-of-the-blue question, since what she really wanted to ask was, "Can I punch Mia right now?"

Peter looked at her, and just those eyes already made Claire weak. She didn't know how he did that, how he made her loose herself.

"Honestly? No. Not at all," Peter answered, to which Claire laughed.

"I know we're not normal, since I have the ability to re-grow my kidney, while you, well, you can do anything you want," Claire said. "But are we normal? With Hannah being our future daughter and all."

Peter was hoping this conversation would never ever come, but it was inevitable that it would.

"I think that Hannah was her parents' daughter, not ours. I mean, judging by what Hannah told us, her parents were really in love with each other, and that's not us," Peter said.

It was killing him to say those words, because, really, all he wanted to do was stay silent and kiss Claire as hardest as he could.

"Right," Claire answered, her voice trembling.

"Are we okay now?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, yeah, we're okay now," Claire smiled.

For two days now, she was hoping the whole Mia thing would blow off, because, as much as she wanted to hurt the woman, she also missed hanging out with Peter. The little things that made her heart miss a beat, the awkward jokes that made her laugh nonetheless, and feeling his skin against hers.

Peter gave her his crooked smile, and the two resumed back to the TV. Claire lied down, and put her legs on Peter's lap. Before, it used to be considered normal for the two, but now, Peter was biting down his biggest smile.

They stayed up all night, at when the clock strung 10, everyone was joining them. Hannah woke up first, wearing a big grin that told Peter that she was happy her parents were finally happy together.

She immediately forgot her rage towards her father and sat in front of them as they talked. Mia and Evan followed. Mia made a point to stay away from the happy family and just wallow away in the nearest corner.

Heidi and the boys came down, and saw the whole team just sitting there minding their own business, and decided not to bother them until it was time to go.

"Bye, Uncle Peter!" Monty said, as he followed his brother and mother out the door. Peter waved a goodbye to his nephew.

Someone knocked on the door, which made Peter think it was just Heidi and the boys forgetting something to school.

"I'll get it," Claire said, getting up. She did so, and by the look on her face, Peter figured it wasn't just Heidi and the boys.

Claire came back to the group with a chubby Japanese man with a skinnier one by his side. He was smiling to the group, and lifted his arms in his signature move: "Yataa!"

"Hiro, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in over a year!" Claire said, sitting down opposite the dynamic duo.

"I just come back from the past," Hiro said.

How 'past'?" Peter asked.

"400 years ago," Hiro answered.

"Whoa," Evan said. Hiro blinked at the teenager, and Claire realized they hadn't been properly introduced.

"Hiro, this is Evan," she said, pointing to the waving brown-haired teenager, "Mia," to the raven-haired vixen, "and Hannah."

Hannah was smiling at the Japanese man, the one that taught her the way of the sword. Speaking of swords, Hannah saw that Hiro was carrying one. But it wasn't a normal sword, it was the Kensei.

"You have the Kensei!" Hannah said excitedly.

Hiro looked at her and asked, "You know Kensei Takezo?"

"Yeah, you used to talk about him a lot," Hannah smiled. Oops, Hannah thought.

"But I do not know you," Hiro said.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorta from the future," Hannah said guiltily.

"You from future?" Hiro asked, to which Hannah nodded. "B-but space-time continuum!"

A/N: I warned you this wasn't a well-written chap, but hope you guys will still review! Anyways, Adam IS gone, he will not make an appearance in this story, we clear? And yes, Micah will find something (ooo)..Feel free to ask any questions if confused.

-Aly