Chapter Seven: Past Demons
May 11, 2007
Sylar glanced up as Bennet entered his room again, once more followed by The Haitian. He shrugged as he watched them enter and sit down. "So what do you want now?"
"I heard from our A/V techs that have been watching you in this room that you've looked at the laptop." Bennet cocked his head to the side as he watched Sylar. "Any questions?"
"Sure." Sylar smirked. "Does Ava kill or cause the death of EVERY man she ends up sleeping with?"
Bennet glared at him. "Ava's had some very unfortunate things happen to her in her life, as you've read-"
"-Unfortunate." Sylar snorted. "That's rich. Her high school boyfriend is dead because of her, her boyfriend Thompson is dead because of her-"
"-Thompson was NEVER her boyfriend." Bennet shook his head. "He used her. He took advantage of her when she was young and naïve and spent the last nine years basically raping her, first here and later in her own apartment."
"Yeah, because she continued to be so naïve last year." Sylar grinned as Bennet's glare hardened further. "She had an affair with him for nine years, until you popped a cap in his melon." He leaned forward, smirking. "Did you do it for her? Did you do it because you were jealous that she was giving it up to Thompson instead of you?"
"No." Bennet snarled. "I did it because he threatened my family, was about to kill Matt Parkman and because he was trying to kill me. I didn't find out about her and Thompson until after he was dead." He leaned forward. "Avery was seventeen years old when she came to us. She was an innocent, scared kid. I have watched over her, protected her and trained her for the last ten years. She's like a daughter to me and if you EVER dare to imply anything else again, I will rip your tongue out and shove it up your ass before I break your neck, that stupid-ass prophecy be damned."
"Prophecy?" Sylar raised an eyebrow. "What prophecy?"
Bennet smirked. "Too busy reading up on the woman who kicked your ass to read anything else, I see." He laughed softly as he stood up. "It's too early for me to discuss anything else with you, you're too busy trying to figure out how to hurt Avery to even begin wondering why we've kept you alive all these months when we could have just had her kill you at any time." Bennet glanced over at Sylar as the younger man glared angrily up at him. "And she would have done it too, no matter how much she cared about you. You know I'm right, you've read her file, after all."
As soon as Bennet left, Sylar stood and began to pace the floor of his cell, glancing over at the laptop on the bed. Finally, he sat down and re-opened the laptop, glaring up at a camera as it began to boot up. "Let's find out about this stupid-ass prophecy." He muttered.
May 20, 1999
Ava sat up in bed, looking around as she realized that Brighton had already left for the day to go to work. She sighed as she climbed out of bed and put on her clothes, frowning as she wondered how she could run away with him. She had fallen deeply in love with him in the past month. Ava walked around his apartment, smiling softly to herself as she thought about a future with him. She imagined herself running away with him, marrying him and having a family, while making love every night with the same intensity that they'd made love every night repeatedly since she'd met him. She smiled wider as she found a note on the breakfast table, kissing after reading it. "I'll be home for lunch, Darling. I'll bring home a surprise for you."
Her smile faded as she thought about Thompson's orders to find evidence against Brighton and kill him. She closed her eyes, tears seeping from under the lids as she thought about having to return to the United States, to Thompson's waiting grasp. Ava shuddered with revulsion as she thought about Thompson and the way he touched her. The rough way he would have sex with her, compared to the gentle lovemaking that Brighton had introduced to her was as different as night and day. She knew that, no matter what, she couldn't return to Thompson and his rough hands that hit too quickly if she struggled against him and covered her mouth when she'd start crying. She shook her head, opening her eyes as she wiped away tears. She knew that she had to find a way to run with Brighton, she had to leave the organization and Thompson, even if it meant leaving Bennet and Claude, her two best friends behind to bear his wrath.
"I'll run away." She whispered to herself. "WE'LL run away. We'll do it tonight. I'll tell him everything. He loves me, he'll understand. He has more than enough money to keep us on the run and keep us safe until they get tired of looking for us. We'll leave tonight." She nodded as she turned and ran back to Brighton's bedroom. She'd practically moved in with him in the last month, keeping most of her clothes in his apartment. She quickly pulled all of her clothes out of the drawers and closet, folding them on the bed before turning to find a suitcase. She went to Brighton's closet, which she'd searched time and time again in the last month, praying she wouldn't find any evidence and breathing a sigh of relief when her searches had turned up empty. She began to pull his clothes out of the closet, tossing them on the bed haphazardly. She sighed with relief as she spotted his luggage and pulled it out. Unzipping the suitcases, she quickly filled them with their clothes and went back into his closet to find more. As she passed over the spot where his suitcases were, she frowned as she realized that the floor seemed to give. Bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, she realized that the floor was springier underneath her. "No." She whispered to herself. "Please no."
She knelt down and felt around the edges of the carpet along the baseboards, her heart pounding as she found a loose edge of carpet. As she pulled back on the carpet, she spied the loose floor boards underneath. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she lifted up the boards. "No." She shook her head as she saw the bomb-making materials. Ava sat back on her heels, her heart plummeting into her stomach as she buried her face in her hands, realizing that Thompson had been right about Brighton.
Choking back a sob, she shook her head in denial. "No, it's not true, it can't be." She moaned.
"Sorry Darlin', but it's true."
As she stood and spun around, she felt Brighton's fist connecting with her cheek, knocking her to the floor of the closet. She lay on the floor as Brighton leaned in the closet doorway, staring at her sadly as she broke down in tears, her body wracked with sobs. "You had to be nosy, didn't you? I had a feeling you were an agent, but I hoped that you'd grown to care about me the way I cared about you. You really were something, I'll give you that. Which group are you with, Darlin'? CIA? Scotland Yard? Interpol? They trained you very well, made you quite the Mata Hari." He leaned down to glare at her as she turned to look up at him. "You're nothing but a whore for them, you do realize that, right?" He stood up straight. "It didn't stop me from falling for you though, you were just THAT good! I'd even decided that you weren't an agent after all, until I came home for lunch and found you in here. I was going to tell you everything tonight. I was going to ask you to work with me."
"Why? Why did you do this? Why DO you do this?" Ava sat up, staring up at Brighton with a heartbroken look on her face. "Why would you think I would agree to HELP you with this?"
"Because of the money. Stockbrokerage is a good job and it pays the bills, but it didn't give me the money I needed to retire the way I'm planning. This does. I thought you'd understand."
"Understand?" Ava slowly stood up. "Understand that you KILL people for money? You thought I'd understand that you're giving every person with a special power a bad name, you bastard? You thought I'd understand that you made me love you while you lied to my face?" She shook her head. "The only thing that I understand is now, I have to finish this job."
"That's quite unfortunate. You loved me, yes? I loved you. I still do, Erin."
"My name isn't Erin." Ava shook her head. "And this? I might have loved you, but this isn't real."
"This is real." Brighton reached into his pocket as Ava glared at him, directing the power within her at him. He looked up at her, his eyes widening with surprise as blood began to gush from his nose.
"What are you doing?" He shook his head. "Erin. No. NO!" He screamed as he collapsed, gurgling for a moment before he died.
Ava collapsed on the floor, sobbing loudly. She crawled over to Brighton and reached into his pocket, her sobs growing louder as she saw the black velvet box. She set it aside as she cradled his head in her lap, rocking back and forth as she wailed.
May 11, 2007
Sylar looked up from the laptop as he heard a door open in Ava's room. As she walked into the room carrying two trays, he returned to the files on the computer. "What do you want?"
"I thought you'd want some lunch."
"Not hungry."
Ava set one tray on his bed and nodded to the laptop. "Bennet told me he gave you that. He said it had the files on it about the prophecy."
Sylar looked up at her, grinning from ear to ear. "Yeah, that's pretty interesting. The idea that I'd actually WORK alongside all of you after all the shit you've pulled these last six months? That's rich!" He glanced back down at the computer. "That's not ALL Bennet put on there, though."
Ava frowned. "Oh?"
"No." Sylar smirked. "So, tell me about Brighton O'Roarke."
Ava backed away from the bed. "No." She turned and left the room, setting the tray in her hands on her bed.
Sylar followed her, standing in the doorway between their two rooms, grinning as she took deep breaths to control herself, her back to him. "I read all about him. It's in a file in there. He had a special ability similar to my original one. We both saw how things worked. He used his ability to create bombs and you were sent to screw him until he gave up the information, weren't you?"
"Shut up." Ava whispered, still turned away from Sylar.
"You were sent to distract him with your body while you got evidence on him so you could kill him with your little 'psionic bullets'. But you ran into a teeny little problem. You fell in love with him."
"Shut up." Ava's voice began to grow louder.
"He lied to you about what he did and who he really was, but that's cool because you were lying too. You didn't take it so well though, did you? The minute you found out that he was a bomb-making lying little shit, you stroked his brain out."
"Shut up."
"And yet, even though he'd lied to you and proven himself to be a killer, you still couldn't take what you'd done. You couldn't handle killing the man you loved, the man who loved you back, could you? That's why after he died, you took the engagement ring he had in his pocket, the ring that his coworkers said he was going to give you that day, the day you killed him. You took that ring, you packed your bags, you raided his medicine cabinet and his wine cellar, you went to a hotel room and you tried to commit sui-"
"-I SAID SHUT UP!" Ava spun around to glare at Sylar, feeling the control of her powers start to slip away. She gasped as Sylar was tossed like a rag doll through the air, landing on his back in the middle of his cell. "Oh shit!" She ran into his room as he lay on his back, struggling to catch his breath. "Sylar?" She knelt beside him, cradling his head in her lap as she stroked his forehead. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."
She yelped as he reached out, grasping her wrists with his hands. "Take your lying, fucking hands off of me you little government whore." He wheezed.
Ava jumped back as if she'd been slapped. "What did you just call me?"
Sylar rolled over and stood up, glaring at her. "Oh, you heard me. Did you just hear that bell Honey? Round two just started and it's time to open another can of whoop ass!"
May 20, 1999
Claude grabbed his phone as it rang. Before he could say anything he heard a voice. He recognized the sound of Ava's voice right away. "It's done. I found the evidence. It's in the floor of his closet. He had a false floor, you see."
"Ava, where are you?" Claude stood up, his heart pounding at the dead, monotone sound in her voice. "Ava, what happened?"
"He found me. He's dead. I killed him. Thompson will be proud."
"Where are you, Ava?" Claude closed his eyes as he ran his fingers through his hair. Just a kid, she's just a kid really, why did Thompson have to make HER do this? She's just a bloody kid!
"Don't try to find me, okay? Promise me you won't find me?"
"Ava, what's going on?" He could hear her start to sob as her voice began to grow thick.
"I can't live like this anymore. I can't live in a world where I kill the ones I love." Claude began to pace frantically as Ava began to slur her words. "I loved him Claude, and he loved me. He had a ring for me. He was going to propose-"
"-Ava, Darling. Where are you? What have you done? Are you okay?"
"I'll be okay soon. He called me Darling too, you know. He's on the floor of his bedroom now. I killed him."
"I know, Sweetie. Where are YOU?"
"Don't try to find me. I can't go back. I can't be around him and his hands and what he makes me do." Claude could hear her start sobbing louder. "I can't bear the thought of him touching me anymore."
"Who? Brighton?" Claude frowned as the phone went dead. "SHIT!" He dialed Thompson's number, speaking the moment the man picked up. "It's Raines. She did it. She found the evidence and killed O'Roarke but I don't know where she is and she doesn't sound good. Use the satellite and track her. Do it now!" He waited as Thompson quickly found her coordinates and gave him the address. "Send someone to extract us as soon as bloody possible. This whole thing has seriously messed her up." He slammed his cell phone shut and ran out of the door of the apartment, hailing a cab to the address Thompson had tracked her at.
The cab pulled up at a seedy hotel on the outskirts of London. Claude rushed inside and, after bribing the desk clerk, got a key to Ava's room. He entered the room, his heart pounding as he saw her sprawled on the bed, a half-empty bottle of wine beside her and empty bottles of pills surrounding her. "Ava." He choked on a sob and pulled her into his arms, slapping her face to try and revive her. "Don't do this to me, Kid!" He turned and called for an ambulance before returning to her, pulling her into his lap as he rubbed her hands, staring at the diamond ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. "Damn you for this, Thompson. I knew she wasn't ready for something this intense."
May 11, 2007
Bennet answered the phone and bolted upright in his chair as he heard the reports from the A/V tech. "Oh hell!" He jumped out of his chair and rushed out of his office, waving to The Haitian to join him as he ran down the hall.
Peter, Niki, Matt, Candice and Mohinder all stared at each other, then jumped out of their chairs and followed Bennet and The Haitian as they sprinted down the hall towards Ava and Sylar's cells.
"Okay, what time is it?" Candice asked.
"Twelve-thirty." Niki answered.
"What time did he wake up?"
"Seven."
"So it's been less than six hours? SHIT! Ava's going to win the damn bet!" Candice made a face.
"Not if she started the fight." Niki shook her head. "Remember, she starts it, she forfeits her bet!"
They all arrived at the observation booth, their eyes widening at the fight going on inside. Sylar's lunch was scattered all over the floor, being eaten by Mac in between excited barks at his owners fighting. Sylar staggered away from Ava as she smashed him over the head with his tray. "Throw that at me will you, you jackass!"
Sylar reached out, sending the tray flying with a flick of his fingers, then pinned her against a wall. "How did it feel, huh? How did it feel being lied to the way he lied to you? You loved him and he was lying all along about who he really was! NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL!" He staggered back again as he was hit with an unseen force. "STOP MENTALLY HITTING ME!"
"Then stop flinging trays at me and pinning me to walls!" Ava struggled to get down as Sylar glared at her. "Don't MAKE me hurt you again, dammit!"
"Oh, you mean as opposed to the hurt you've already inflicted?" Sylar stomped towards her. "I'm not talking about the pounding head and nose here, Baby, I'm talking about lying to me about who we BOTH were these last six months!"
Bennet turned to The Haitian. "We need to get in there before they tear that place apart. Go ahead and block their powers."
The Haitian nodded. Everyone noticed how Sylar looked around, confused as Ava slid down the wall. He ignored the people watching at the window as he stomped towards her and started slapping at her. "That's for lying to me! That's for making me think I was some chump named Aaron Abbott! That's for making me think we were married! And this is for making me think that I loved you!" As he slapped at her, she ducked and punched him in the stomach, shoving him back away from her. Sylar ignored the pain and ran at her again, grabbing a handful of her hair.
Matt's eyes widened as he turned to his companions. "Did this REALLY devolve into a slapping and hair-pulling fight? What the hell? Are they adults or two third-grade girls?"
"Let me go you big girl!" Ava struggled to free herself as Sylar yanked at her hair. "What in the HELL is wrong with you?"
Bennet and The Haitian ran into the room and tried to pull them apart as they slapped at each other, shrieking.
"You lied to me about EVERYTHING!" Sylar yelled as he pulled at her hair, slapping at The Haitian and Bennet as they tried to pull them apart. "You lied about loving me! You lied about who we were! You lied about our lives together, you little bitch!"
"That's enough!" Bennet finally pulled them apart and tried to straighten his glasses. "What has gotten INTO the two of you?" His eyes widened as Ava turned around and punched him in the face.
"Why did you have to tell him about Brighton?" She backed away from him, sobbing. "WHY?"
Sylar glared at her. "So I would know that I wasn't the first man you fucked and lied to while pretending to love, that's why!"
Bennet shook his head. "No! I did it so maybe Sylar would actually know YOU instead of Alexandra!" He glared at Sylar. "I should have known he'd use it to push you further away instead of maybe understanding you better."
Sylar sneered at Ava as she struggled to compose herself. "The only thing I know, is that she's nothing but a government-paid whore and I'm getting off lucky being in this cell instead of lying on the floor of our house dead, the way Brighton O'Roarke did."
Ava glared at Sylar. "I'm not a whore." She snarled.
Sylar smirked as Ava glared hatefully at him. "You were paid to fuck me, what would YOU call it?"
Peter's eyes widened as he turned to Niki. "I think Round Three is about to start. We need to get in there and pull them apart before they clash again."
"Why me?" Niki shook her head. "I'm not going in there."
"Super strength, Baby." He took her arm and led her towards the room.
Ava shook her head as Sylar started laughing at her. "I'm NOT a whore!"
"Call yourself what you want." Sylar walked to the bed and sat down. "Hell, I certainly enjoyed it. You definitely earned your paycheck these last few months."
"YOU SON OF A-" She lunged at him as Peter and Niki ran into the room and grabbed her. "Let me GO! I'm going to KILL him!"
"No." Niki shook her head as she pulled Ava out of the room. "You're coming with me to cool off, that's what you're going to do."
"Yeah! Go ahead and cool off, Babe!" Sylar smirked. "And when you're done, take another handful of pills and wash them down with some wine. Maybe this time you'll do the job right!" He yelped as Bennet stomped forward and punched him in the face.
"That's IT!" Bennet shook his head. "Get Angela Petrelli and Kaito Nakamura back on the phone. There's got to be another way around this without using HIM! He's not worth the aggravation."
Ava pulled away from Niki and stomped back towards Sylar. "I might have lied to you about my name and yours, I might have lied to you about being your wife, but the one thing I NEVER lied to you or Brighton O'Roarke about was the way I felt about either of you. You know something else? You can sit there and talk about how you don't care one bit about me either, but I know the truth. You wouldn't be this upset if you didn't care about me back." She looked down at him. "But no matter how much I love you, I will NEVER forgive you for throwing my past up in my face or for calling me a whore, so you can stay in here, fucking rot and go straight to hell." She turned and stomped out of the room with Niki running behind her.
Bennet nodded and turned to Peter. "I know this is asking a lot, but can you stay in here in Ava's room until we can figure something else out? I don't want her back in here with him and you can use her power to keep him in line."
"Sure." Peter glared down at Sylar as the man turned away from them on the bed, sulking. "I'll stay here until Mom and Kaito decide what to do with him."
"Thanks." Bennet gave Sylar a final withering glance before he left the room.
"Nice. Real nice." Peter shook his head as Sylar ignored him. "What she just said was true, man. She may have lied to you about a lot of things, but the way she felt about you? That was true. She used to come to work every day and beat herself up over having to lie to you. She worried about whether or not she'd have to end up killing you. I never told anyone this, but she used to sit at her desk and plan ways to take you and run off, just the two of you. She wanted everyone to just let you go. You never knew any of that about her, but it's true. She loved you so much, she was willing to overlook everything you'd done and just run off with you so she wouldn't have to kill you. And you called her a whore. Good one."
"Go to Hell." Sylar muttered.
"I would, but I know you'll be there eventually and who wants to spend eternity with your hateful ass?" Peter turned and walked into Ava's room, slamming the door behind him before sitting on the couch and turning on the television.
May 21, 1999
"How much did they pump out of her stomach?" Thompson glowered at Claude as they stood outside of Ava's hospital room.
"Enough bloody painkillers to stock a pharmacy." Claude grimaced. "Apparently she got them out of O'Roarke's medicine chest before she left his apartment." He turned to go into her room with Thompson, sighing sadly as she lay in the hospital bed. "She hasn't come around yet. The doctors say if she's not awake after twenty-four hours-"
"-I know." Thompson sighed as he looked down at her. "So much potential, ruined. I've told her and told her not to let her emotions get away from her. It's one thing to enjoy sex with your mark, it's another to fall in love with them. Stupid girl."
"She's not stupid!" Claude glared at him. "She's just a scared kid. I told you it was too soon to send her out on an assignment like this. She wasn't mature enough."
"That's why I sent you with her." Thompson glanced coolly at Claude before returning his gaze to Ava. "You were SUPPOSED to stay invisible and stay with her whenever you could. If you had been there in the apartment with her, this wouldn't have happened."
"I told you that I didn't like hearing the two of them. She told me she could handle it." Claude stared at the floor. "But you're right about one thing, I should have been there for her more. She told me she was falling for him. She told me that she was in love with him. I should have told you to sod off and pulled her out before this happened to her. Poor kid." He sat beside her and squeezed her hand gently. "Come on Ava. Wake up, Sweetie."
"She's not going to wake up." Thompson smirked. "She's in a coma and it's probably irreversible, thanks to your ineptitude! You can't even control a nineteen year old girl."
"That's enough out of you, you bastard!" Claude stood up and stomped towards Thompson. He stopped as he heard Ava moan softly behind him. "Ava?" He turned around and half-ran back to her side. Claude touched her cheek gently. "Come on, Kiddo. Wake up. You can do it."
"Claude?" Ava's eyes fluttered open as she focused on him. "What happened?"
"You took a bloody pharmacy, that's what happened. I owe you an ass-kicking when you get out of here."
"I took-?" Ava's eyes filled with tears as she remembered what happened. "I killed him." She whispered.
"I know, I'm sorry." Claude kissed her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Ava."
Ava glanced over his shoulder as Thompson smiled at her. "You." She whispered.
"It's good that you're awake!" Thompson walked over to her other side and kissed her cheek, smirking as she recoiled from him. "Welcome back, Honey. We're going to bring you back home with us soon and everything will be fine. You'll see."
"Get away from me." She whispered.
Thompson smirked at her. "I understand being upset for now, but you'll be better once you get home, with us where we can all take care of you." He winked at her and left the room.
"He's right." Claude nodded. "You're going to be just fine. Me, Thompson, Bennet, we're going to watch over you and pull you through this, you'll see." Ava began to whisper softly as Claude bent down, placing his ear to her lips. His eyes widened as he heard her words before she closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep. He sat up and glanced out of the window into the hallway, noticing that Thompson had his back to them. "No way." He looked down at Ava as she slept, then looked over at Thompson again, glaring. "Bloody bastard will pay for this." He whispered.
May 11, 2007
Ava sat at her desk, staring off into space as Niki hovered around her. "Do you need anything?" She asked.
Ava shook her head. "No. I just want to have the day off and go home."
"That sounds like a good idea." She looked up as Bennet walked into the room. "Go home, either to the farmhouse or your place in Lubbock. Get some rest. You've had a rough day."
"Is he okay?" Ava asked. "I can't go. Someone has to stay down there and keep him out of trouble."
"Peter's there. He's agreed to stay the night." Noah nodded. "He's got quite an arsenal at his disposal, Sylar won't be able to get away from him."
"Okay." Ava stood up. "I'm sorry I hit you. I was upset and-"
"-And I did a stupid thing, putting your file on that laptop. I honestly thought that maybe, if Sylar read what you've been through, he'd be more apt to go easy on you, maybe understand you better. I should have known he'd use it as ammunition against you."
Ava nodded. "I'll be back tomorrow. I'll go back down there tomorrow."
"No." Bennet shook his head. "To hell with Kane and Kaito and Angela. I'm putting a stop to this nonsense. He's an animal. He's never going to change enough to let us trust him. There's got to be another way around this prophecy without involving him and I'll find it."
"Give him another chance." Ava sighed. "He's pissed, he's hurt, he's been through a lot. Maybe without me around, he'll be more apt to cooperate." She headed towards the door. "But if you need me to come back and deal with him, I'll gladly do it. I'll help him work with you if I'm needed."
"Okay." Bennet watched as Ava left.
"So if we don't use Sylar, what next?" Niki asked.
Bennet sighed and slumped against Ava's desk. "I have no freakin' clue. Maybe Peter can convince him to work with us. If he doesn't, we're completely screwed."
She drove to the farmhouse and walked inside, making a face at the disarray the house was still in after her fight with Sylar. Sighing, she walked upstairs to the bedroom and opened a drawer in the closet. Digging around towards the very back of the drawer, she found what she was looking for. Ava began to cry as she opened the small, red velvet pouch and pulled out the black velvet box. She opened it and took the diamond ring out as she sat on the bed, sliding it on the fourth finger of her left hand. Curling up on the bed, she cried herself to sleep.
