Chapter 7: The Maze
The ride was bumpy, but somehow fun. As the other companions before, Sylar and Regina struggled at first with keeping their balance in the TARDIS. Luckily they belonged to the people who didn´t throw up.
When they finally landed on the planet, The Doctor walked to the door immediately.
"Here we are." He said, leaving his TARDIS excitedly.
He had wanted to go to this planet for quite a long time. Sylar and Regina seemed to be the right companions.
He turned back to them to see how they were doing. Sylar was just stepping out of the TARDIS, looking a little suspicious. Regina was standing a few feet away from him, looking around.
They were standing on a stony area. In the most directions nothing was to be seen but stones. Only a little to their left was what seemed to be an extremely huge building.
The Doctor knew that there was no roof. In fact it wasn´t even a building, but a maze. A maze hiding a secret. And dangers. That was why he thought that Sylar and Regina were the right choice to go here with. The two of them seemed to be quite powerful and strong. Yet sort of… lost. Perhaps he could help them finding themselves with this journey.
And he himself was really interested in finding out what was in the maze. There were so many stories.
"I guess we are going in this building." Sylar stepped next to him.
"Right. It´s a maze. I hope you brought your toothbrush, this might take some time."
Without waiting for an answer, The Doctor headed towards the walls.
As he got closer to them, he saw that the walls were really impressive. They were made of what seemed to be white marble with golden and black lines. They were at least 20 feet tall. Still he could think of species tall enough to look over them.
Kind of unfair.
A few feet to his left was the gate which lead into the maze.
"So what is waiting for us in this labyrinth? Treasures? Mythical creatures? The well with the water of eternal youth? The death?" Regina asked.
"I don´t know. That´s the fun about it. It will be an adventure." The Doctor answered, smiling wildly.
"If there are mythical creatures I hope, there are imps. They´re sort of funny." Sylar grinned, sounding a little sarcastic.
"They are not as nice as everyone thinks." The Doctor said.
"Actually they´re total beasts." Regina corrected him.
"However, Imps or no Imps, what are we waiting for? Let´s find out what´s in there!"
Excited The Doctor stepped through the gate, Sylar and Regina right behind him.
Inside of the maze, the walls were hedges.
How very classical!
A little to his right hung a stone sign. He headed over to see what was written on it.
"These are the rules. Or better the rule as it´s only one…"
Before he could say what the rule was he heard a hiss and something bright and hot flew past him and hit the hedges. For a second it was burning but it quickly extinguished and the wall looked unharmed.
"NO! Stop! We are NOT to destroy the walls! That's the ONLY rule." He exclaimed, whirling around.
Regina just rolled her eyes.
"We would be much faster."
"The thing about mazes is that you search your way and not just … mow down everything." He shook his head. "Luckily the punishment will just happen after the third time."
"So we can try something else." Sylar said as The Doctor wanted to turn around.
Before he could stop the other man, he had already lifted his hand.
Nothing happened.
For a moment the three of them watched the wall. Then Regina said. "Well, this was really spectacular. I´m impressed."
"Your fireball didn´t help either." Sylar sounded a little aggressive.
"I wonder what this hedges are made of." The Doctor said getting his screwdriver out and pointing it at the wall.
At this moment the ground started shaking and then the walls started moving.
"Nonono! I didn´t do anything. Stop."
One of the hedges moved towards them and they had no other choice than backing away from it.
After about a minute the moving stopped. The gate was now out of their view.
"Ok, at least now we know what will happen if we don´t obey the rule." Sylar commented.
"And we know that it´s very fussy." The Doctor added, a little offended. "However this won´t stop us. Let´s go on."
They walked for about an hour, debating whether there might be other groups and if they would get punished if the other group disobeyed the rules. After a while their talking changed the topic to the lives they had lived. Seemingly, Sylar and Regina, both came from the year 2015 and from the earth. The Doctor noted that Regina was way more surprised by the concept of time travel than Sylar was. After a while of trying to find out what they did back there, he had the impression, that they all were keeping secrets. Well, he couldn´t force them to tell him everything. He didn´t tell them about Gallifrey either. It was too early, and maybe they thought so too. He wouldn´t press the subject. At least not now.
It started getting dark and since it was cold they decided to start a fire. After a while, they found a room which seemed suitable.
The Doctor and Regina started preparing the fire.
"I will have a look around here. Perhaps I will find something." Sylar said.
"Be careful, we don´t know what awaits us in here." The Doctor warned him.
"I will be fine." With that he left the room.
It was nice having some time on his own. The Doctor had talked almost constantly.
Sylar had just intended to walk around their room, but that wasn´t this easy since he was in a maze after all. So he walked along the wall separating him from the others. At the beginning he had the feeling that it worked well, but after a while he was getting unsure. Shouldn´t he be back by now?
Ten minutes later he had to admit that he was lost. He had listened, trying to hear the voices of his companions, but even with his enhanced hearing it hadn´t worked. He had to be too far away. And finding his way back was now even harder because it was dark. Really dark. He couldn´t even see what was only some feet away from him.
He stopped, thinking about what he should do now. Perhaps it was best to just sit down and wait till the next morning.
So he sat down on the wall. That was when he realized he was hungry. It was not The Hunger, not the craving to be special, he just wanted something to eat. In the TARDIS they had eaten and they had packed something too. But unfortunately he had left his bag with the others. So stupid.
So what now? Maybe he could fly. Not over the hedges, but he could take a look. If the fire was still burning, the chances were high, that he would see them. Even if the hedges would move again, Sylar would know in which direction to walk. So, he stood. He took off, only to fall down a moment later. He hadn´t collided with anything, the ability had just stopped to work.
Sylar thought back to a women he had met, a few years ago, she had the ability to look through walls. Then, he hadn´t thought the ability was worth another kill, after all he had wanted to change. Now, he wondered if it would help him, finding his
way back. He didn´t suppose so, given his abilities didn´t work properly here.
He would have to wait until sunrise, so he leaned against a hedge. Maybe he could sleep a few hours, his enhanced hearing would warn him, if…
"Are you lost?" A voice right next to him asked.
Sylar jumped up, almost screaming.
Why hadn´t he heard anything? He had an enhanced hearing after all.
"Are you fine?" The voice asked.
Can she see me?
It was a female voice he realized now, but it wasn´t Regina. She sounded too nice.
"I´m fine." He answered, heart bumping wild.
He tried to find the source of the voice, but couldn´t, although it sounded like she was standing just a foot away from him.
"My name is Vy`an. I can help you, if you want. I know a lot."
Sylar remained silent. He didn´t know if he could trust her. Who knew which magical beings or whatever lived here.
"I don´t want to hurt you. I want to help you because I´m a good person. Good people do things like this." Vy`an added. "I can´t tell you where the maze ends -that´s a secret- but if you are looking for someone I can help you find them. I have been here for quite a long time and have a feeling for this."
Then why are you still here?
He decided that he could give it a try. Even if she turned out to be dangerous he could defend himself and kill her if it was necessary.
He didn´t think this was likely to happen. Even though her voice was this of a women about his age, she sounded like a child. And she really might help him. He just had to be careful.
"I have lost my companions. You said you could find them?" He finally said.
"Oh, yes. I think so. How can I call you?" She sounded cheerful.
"I am Sylar."
"Just some minutes ago I saw someone. I don´t know if they belong to you, but we could start there, can´t we?"
Sylar nodded.
"Great, this way."
She can see in the dark.
He had to admit that this was the main reason why he had decided to stay with her. He wanted this ability.
And even though he didn´t want to, the smirk appeared on his face as he followed her in the dark.
Regina watched The Doctor drawing a map. It was nearly an hour since Sylar had left and she started wondering whether something had happened to him.
"We should look for Sylar. This map is useless when the walls move again." She told the Doctor impatiently.
"Perhaps they won´t move again. It´s on us whether they do or not. But you are right we should look for him." He said jumping up.
"The question is how do we find him. It´s dark and we´re in a maze. Of course we can just run around and hope meeting him by chance, only most likely we will get lost too. On the other hand we don´t really know where to go ourselves so we can take that risk."
"And what about your map?"
"Well, at the moment it´s quite useless, but if I continue drawing it and the walls don´t move again it might eventually help us."
Regina shrugged. "If you say so."
Then she extinguished their fire and they left.
"We should try to stay together. Obviously it´s not easy to find someone again once you have lost him." She told The Doctor as they walked into the darkness.
"Yes, good idea."
They walked in silence for a while, only occasionally calling Sylar´s name.
Every now and then The Doctor asked her to ignite the fire, so he could add something to his map.
"How long have you known him?" He suddenly asked her.
"About a day longer than I know you. Why do you ask?"
"I might be wrong, but you seem to be worried about him."
"Do you think I should just sit around doing nothing? I think we´re here to find the secret of the labyrinth, aren´t we? Sitting in that room won´t bring us anywhere." She didn´t know why she felt this offended by his guess. Perhaps she was just tired of people wondering about what she was feeling or what she wasn´t feeling.
"Ok, I´m sorry I didn´t mean to offend you. It was just a question." He apologized quickly.
"Just shut up then." She told him, increasing her pace.
Sylar had followed Vy`an for a few minutes now. The Hunger was growing stronger with every step he took. He had to admit that he didn´t want to find the others anymore, he only wanted this ability. -He didn´t want to find the others afterwards, they would see the blood on his hands. NO, he wanted the Doctor to take him home, home where he was in control of the Hunger. NO, he wanted to accompany the Doctor. There could be people with abilities on other planets. He would collect them all. He would become the most powerful being in existence. He would… No No. No.-Feeling so desperate Sylar looked in the direction where he expected Vy`an, she really seemed to be a good person. She wanted to help him.
And besides he wasn´t that killer anymore. Or was he? What was he? Monster or hero?
Still he couldn´t help but think about how great it must be to see in the dark. You had an advantage to the people who couldn´t, you didn´t need to worry about something lingering in the dark. He was so much more.
Vy`an stopped him.
"I think we´re close to them now." She said, sounding happy. Happy that she could help him, a stranger. A stranger who might be dangerous. Who was dangerous.
At this moment he couldn´t fight it any longer.
With a quick movement of his hand he threw her against the wall, not needing to see her for that.
He had to think of all the times, he had done this. It felt so usual, almost normal.
Her shocked scream hurt him. But this didn´t stop him. It never had. Never would.
"I´m sorry." He whispered, smirking. "But you have something what I need."
With that he started cutting.
