Chapter 8- Visitors

"Congress's definition of torture in those laws - the infliction of severe mental or physical pain - leaves room for interrogation methods that go beyond polite conversation."
-John Yoo

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Ando bounced his leg nervously as he stared down at his cell phone. It took nearly an entire bottle of sake to get him to that point, but he wasn't sure if the nausea he felt was due to the drink or his own anxiety. He knew it shouldn't have been that hard, but he stared at the phone as his finger hovered over the keypad and he read his text message for the hundredth time. "I'M SORRY. WE SHOULD…" He licked his lips. Should what? Get together for drinks? Talk? Do the limbo? He couldn't think of a good ending, although the message seemed to start well enough. He was sorry for what happened and for some of the things he said, but he stood by his original intent and he wasn't sure that his overall view on the war had changed. He began to wonder if it was a bad idea.

He was sure that Hiro was probably busy fighting and didn't have time to check his messages anyway. Besides, why did it always have to be him to say he was sorry? Hiro had months to come around, but his silence on the matter was deafening. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if it was even possible for the two of them to remain friends if they weren't exactly united on the topic of war. They had always been on the same team, engaging in the same missions even if they had minor disagreements along the way. But was that even possible now that there was so much at stake? It seemed fine enough when the two of them were road tripping to Texas and Vegas on the say so of an indie comic book, but the consequences were serious. People were dying and disappearing and it only seemed that it would get worse.

He swallowed and thought hard. He had a choice to make- he could stay in Canada and remain safe while Hiro possibly died alone, or he could jump back into the fray and at least know that if he died he did it being a good friend, which would be an honorable thing. His fingers typed with great speed and he quickly hit the send button before he had too much time to think about it. "I'M SORRY. WE SHOULD DO THIS TOGETHER."

He blinked in surprise when Hiro responded immediately- in person. "I was about to give up," he smiled as he pushed his glasses up on his face, "but I knew you had more honor than a coward."

Ando nearly jumped out of his skin. "Hiro!" He shouted with a relieved smile at the sight of his friend. He quickly fell back into the familiar Japanese banter. "How did you know where I was?"

"Foursquare." He shrugged gesturing to his friend's phone. "You checked in before you texted me. Congratulations on being mayor of the bar." Even though it meant that his friend spent more time at the establishment than anyone else, he felt it good practice to acknowledge his accomplishment even if it was a bit pathetic. "So, are you ready to join the mission?" And do something more important with your life…

Ando looked tense. "I don't want to fight, Hiro." He said miserably. "But I will go."

Hiro understood it better than his friend could have imagined and he gave a slight nod. "Not all battle is done on the field, but to wait for luck is the same as waiting for death. Your brothers and sisters need you, and it is fortunate that you come now."

"Why?" He asked mystified. There was a sudden change in his friend that he had never quite seen before. It was as if all the joy was gone from him and all that was left was an intense, world weary man.

"Claire Bennet was my partner." He responded darkly. "She is missing and I can't find her."

Ando's heart sank. "Has she been captured?" He knew from news reports that it happened a lot and he could only imagine what they couldn't report on.

"I don't know, but I can't call or message her. Her phone is out of service." He removed his phone from his pocket and began typing a message. "The only person who might know would be Rebel."

Ando furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Who's Rebel?"

Hiro grinned. "I have no idea."

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Claire playfully tossed her glossy, red apple into the air time and again in an effort to stay amused, but it only lasted for so long. Her lunch had been delivered through a slot in the door by hands covered in black gloves. Every effort to obscure her captor's humanity had been made down to covering every millimeter of exposed skin to deidentify them. They never spoke to her and they tried to maintain as little contact as possible. It was like being in solitary confinement and it was absurd. She understood it for some specials like her mother who could shoot fire or Sylar who could kill in an astounding variation of ways, but her power was solely her own- she couldn't harm anyone with her ability and she wasn't particularly physically intimidating. It was likely standard protocol, but in her case it was entirely unnecessary. That's why she was surprised when her door opened and a woman entered alone.

"Hello, Claire." The woman smiled warmly.

Claire wasn't as naive as she looked and she wasn't about to buy the good cop, bad cop routine. "Who are you?" She asked with just a hint of vinegar in her voice.

"Stephanie Carter." The woman replied. "I am an agent here. I was hoping I could talk to you."

"You can talk all you want." Claire lightly responded. "But it will probably be a one sided conversation."

Agent Carter nodded sadly. "I can understand why you might be a little hesitant to speak with me, but I wanted to do things differently. I don't want to hurt you, Claire, that's not why I'm here."

Claire gave her a steely look and flatly said, "You couldn't even if you wanted to."

"Your power, right?" Carter checked as she flipped through her folder. "You are a regen, but you were attacked by Sylar in your home in Costa Verde, California. Since that time you haven't had the ability to sense pain." She closed the folder and gave her a sympathetic look. "Either he did it on purpose or it was a careless mistake on his part, but he has permanently damaged you, Claire. He has hurt a lot of people. We could end this war if we could find him."

"Why?" She laughed incredulously. "So you can throw him in here? Experiment on him? It won't work, you know. Better people have tried and failed…" she narrowed her eyes and added, "miserably."

Agent Carter sat gingerly on the edge of her cot. "Claire, like you I too have an ability and I don't want to see any more of our kind suffer and die. That's why I took this job. Even you have to realize that people like Sylar are different from us. The world can accept those with abilities, people like you and I, if they can see that we are ordinary people that happen to be gifted with extraordinary skills. But it's specials like Sylar who are a danger not only to us, but the entire world. You can help end the war not by fighting the government, but by helping us reconcile our kind with ordinary citizens." She paused and lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "I'll tell you this, Claire. You were brought here as a proxy for Sylar. The government is developing a secret weapon that will kill him and other regens like you. I don't want to see you have to suffer for him, so I changed your orders."

"To what?" She asked suspiciously.

"My program- the Chimera project. I have a person down the hall from you who just got here. We don't know anything about him, even after several rounds of testing." She looked pleadingly at the former cheerleader. "I don't think he has any idea of his ability, but they will kill him if they can't get answers."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" This sounded fishy to be sure.

"Just talk to him. Maybe he will feel more comfortable with another special." She gave a small smile and added, "Even if he doesn't know anything, the two of you might enjoy the company." She glanced around at the drab cement walls. "It's got to be better than being in here all alone."

"And then what? You use the information against him? Against us?" She guessed none too pleased to be pegged for a turncoat.

"No, Claire." Carter sighed. "My purpose is to save his life, not hasten the end of it. My program has certain…perks…for those who participate. It's not an 'us vs. them' mentality that will win this war and the project's goal is to integrate specials, not destroy them."

"Except for Sylar." She nodded bitterly as she stood up. "I'll go talk to this person, but you are out of luck because I don't know where Sylar is. I haven't seen or talked to him since the war started." She noted the small smile that appeared fleetingly across the agent's lips and she followed her out the door and into the hallway of the facility. She was immediately pushed aside by a gurney with a body on it covered in a white sheet. The paramedic gave her a wary look and continued down the hall while she glanced in the direction that he came. She paused only briefly when she passed the cell next to hers and spotted West pacing by the far wall. She stumbled despite herself and Carter noticed.

She looked knowingly at Claire and then at West. "Do you know him?" She asked.

"No," Claire shook her head, "I…I just thought I was the only one here." It wasn't a terribly good lie, but it was at least somewhat believable. She couldn't let them know that there was any connection between them least they try to use it to their advantage. Carter didn't seem to entirely believe her, but she let it go and led her into the last cell of the corridor. She stopped just inside the threshold and held her breath at the sight of the young man's body strapped to his cot- limp and unaware that he had visitors. His lunch tray sat untouched on the floor and just on the other side of the bed lie another body covered by a sheet.

"This is Damian." Carter gestured to the room's occupant. "We'll have your things brought in shortly." She noticed the remaining body and seemed disturbed. "I'm sorry, I was told that they were ready." She cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Obviously not."

Claire was listening, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from her supposed new friend. "Wait…what?" She asked confused. "You said I had to talk to him, not stay in here!" Suddenly it was shades of Sylar and the room felt claustrophobic.

"We thought it best that you have plenty of time to develop trust." She said quietly.

"I'm not staying here." She declared. "Did he kill those people? I'm not doing this!"

"We don't know." Carter replied honestly. "But you will be fine."

Claire was almost enraged when it all finally clicked. Her voice was cold and flat. "Because I won't die no matter what he does. An immortal lab rat." All she got was a slightly apologetic smile as Carter exited the room and she was left standing there with an unconscious man. She should have known better than to fall for her lies. She cautiously approached the cot and looked down at him. He looked exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes and he was pale as death, making the deep bruises in his elbows where he had received countless injections dark as ink splots on paper. His lips were slightly parted and cracked from dehydration, but there was nothing she could do for him but sit and wait for him to wake up. There wasn't going to be much conversation for the time being, that much was clear. She sat in the corner of the room with her knees drawn to her chest and her eyes locked on him. She barely noticed when the paramedic returned to drag the remaining body out of the room by the ankles, one arm slipping from under the sheet as if were waving one last goodbye. She might have been curious to know that the victim was wearing a white lab coat.

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Peter opened the door to the Siegel estate and blinked several times at the visitor. Ever so slowly, his face began to contort almost spasmodically as he tried to maintain his decorum, but he was just so surprised and elated he couldn't keep it together and he broke out into a wide smile. "Nathan?" He laughed, half expecting it to be a joke of some kind. He looked past his brother out into the drive expecting to see a fleet of black government cars with little American flags waving gently in the evening breeze, but there were none.

"Pete." Nathan smiled at his haggard looking brother. "You look…" he knew he should be tactful, but it was his brother. "…you look like hell."

Peter squinted at him and smirked. "You look old. Get in here before someone sees you." Nathan graciously bowed and waited for him to shut the door before wrapping his younger brother in a friendly bear hug. "God, I missed you, Pete." He confessed, giving him an extra hard squeeze to emphasize his point.

"Thanks." He gasped. It felt like he was being suffocated by a boa constrictor. When he finally let him go and he caught his breath again, he asked, "Does Maria know you're here? I'm sure she would have told me…"

"No, she doesn't know." He replied, giving him a sly grin. "Neither does my security team, so unfortunately we have to keep this short."

Peter tried not to look disappointed, but he should have known from the lack of secret service agents that something was amiss. "So…you…you flew here?" He asked amused.

"Yeah, I did." Nathan nodded, a little irritated that Peter found it funny that the head of the specials project used a hidden ability to get himself there.

"Pretty risky." Peter commended. "I'll take you back. It's faster and no one will see you."

Nathan gave him a small nod of thanks. "So how have you been?" He asked genuinely concerned. "I haven't heard from you since…" he couldn't bring himself to finish his thought.

Peter quickly caught on to his brother's discomfort. "I'm doing ok." He smiled warmly. "Partly thanks to you, I hear." Nathan gave him a tight smile. He wouldn't admit he had a hand in it and he could never take a compliment. He was happy working in the shadows so long as was able to help those he cared most about. "Anyway, Maria's in the lab with Mohinder and Sylar."

Nathan's eyes widened slightly. "Sylar's here? Why?" He hadn't heard from him since they left England and he could only imagine the killer was less than happy with the way things were going, but he didn't really want to have an in depth discussion about it, let alone be caught in the same house with the very man he was tasked with finding.

"I brought him here." Peter explained while he led him to the secured door to the lab. "That little S2 project you have going really does wonders. It almost killed him."

"Really?" He asked intrigued. "And it isn't my project, Pete. It's Senator McCaskey's."

"Whatever." Peter mumbled as he punched in the access code on the keypad. Semantics really didn't matter to him anymore. "He's not the only one out there putting his head on the chopping block for this, you know. He's just lucky enough to have survived it."

Nathan looked around the lab as he descended the stairs. He knew that Maria had a secret operation going on and he also knew she was a woman of means, but her lab was quite impressive for a private endeavor. She and Mohinder were at a blackboard chatting softly amongst themselves while Sylar sat at a table looking on as though he were trying to figure out the diagram hastily drawn on the board in bright white chalk. He was also the first to notice the new arrivals and he regarded Nathan with an arched eyebrow. Maybe it was the harsh lighting, but Nathan thought his ultimate weapon looked a little paler than he remembered, making his dark eyes all the more menacing.

"Maria," Peter called cheerily, "you have a visitor."

She turned and smiled. "Nathan! How nice to see you. I didn't know you were coming."

"I apologize," he smoothly deflected, "I should have called, but I wanted this to be as low profile as possible. I hope you understand."

"Of course." She agreed. "I just would have had dinner ready, or something more hospitable. All I can offer you is a drink."

"Thank you, but I probably shouldn't drink and fly." He chuckled. Peter and Mohinder smiled at the joke, but Sylar remained stubbornly sour. "Anyway, I was hoping we could make this quick if you have a minute."

"I heard about Claire, I'm sorry." She consoled.

Mohinder and Sylar looked at her slightly alarmed and it was clear that not everyone in the room was on the same page. "What has happened to Claire?" Mohinder asked with a sense of dread.

"She was captured." Nathan confirmed. "But I am hopeful that we can rectify that." He gave a sidelong glance to Sylar who held his stare stonily. "Sylar, I understand you have had something of a setback."

"You could say that." He replied sarcastically. "But I too am hopeful that it will be rectified."

"I understand your frustration, but you have the best shot at helping us get her back. And it's more than that." He gave a forlorn look to Maria. "Why didn't you tell me Damian had an ability when you recommended him as an intern in my office?"

She looked shocked. "He doesn't. No one in his family does. They are part of the ladder, but they are like me; no abilities but a conviction that the system was unjust."

"Well, apparently he does." He sighed. "And now he's being held in the same facility as Claire."

"What will happen to him?" She asked hesitantly. "He's a good kid, Nathan. I asked you to take him because all his life he has been overlooked and I thought maybe it would be a good experience for him. He's bright, he just needs someone to mentor him."

Nathan looked absolutely miserable. She was right, Damian was a good kid and he was starting to get a sense of that right before he was snatched from his hospital bed. He had a lot of potential and maybe could have been great at something if he wasn't so easy to ignore. "His future isn't bright." He quietly admitted. "They will torture him until he breaks or dies. Not because of his ability- whatever it's supposed to be- but because of me."

Maria blanched at his honest assessment. "Why you?"

"Because of who he is." Sylar summed up grimly. "They will make an example of him."

"We can't let that happen." Peter declared. "We have to get him and Claire out. Where are they?"

"At a facility in northern Virginia. But this is serious, Pete. They have S2 in all guns now and soon they will have a perfected formula thanks to the blood Sylar left on his last mission."

"I'll try to be less messy next time I'm shot point blank with a 50 caliber assault rifle." Sylar snarked. "Perhaps use my telekinesis to keep my blood and guts from flying everywhere."

"I'm sure that's not what he was implying." Mohinder said gently. "I think he's just urging caution. We can't afford to lose either you or Peter."

He gave a slight nod and his voice was eerily calm. "I can get her and this other kid out. I have a plan." It was music to Nathan's ears and he couldn't wait to update Noah.