A/N: Okay, I'm just here to explain the focal character changes I've just decided on and posted on my summery. Only this segment of the fic features the entire ensemble characters, while segments two and three will feature the spotlight returning and focusing on the prequel's focal characters: Peter, Elle and my OC, along with some other characters occasionally taking the spotlight--like Claire and Matt for example. And the OC MIGHT dip off the map for a little while... Now please forgive my ever-rambling mind and enjoy this latest chapter. :)


Caitlin McKenna and Dean Matthews, Dublin

"What did you do?" Caitlin asked as she watched the steady Dublin traffic through the hospital room's window.

"I didn't do anything!" Dean exclaimed defensively. He let out a loud sigh and shook his head. "This is what I get for trying to help someone: stuck in a crazy future that's changing around us."

"Things are changing." Caitlin emphasized. "Can you blame me for thinking that you're the one doing it?"

Dean just looked at her and frowned. "As a general rule, I don't like to mess with the Space/Time Continuum—okay, I made the rule up about forty-five minutes ago, but I'm still gonna stick by it. I just want to get back to our time and leave it the hell alone."

Caitlin stared at Dean as though she was looking at a crazy person. "Do you even know how to get back?" She asked, causing Dean to shrug unconcernedly.

"It can't be that hard. Click my heels three times, maybe jump down a rabbit hole."

"Is this really the time for jokes?" Caitlin said. "We could be stuck here!"

"We don't even know where here is." Dean said calmly. "Things changed, Caitlin. Not even ten minutes ago, this place was a virus-filled wasteland. Something happened and I don't know what."

"But you can get us back, right?" Caitlin asked worriedly.

Dean hesitated. "…I… I dunno. I hope so. I haven't done anything like this before, not even close." He furrowed his brow in deep thought. "I've been thinking about how to get back and I think the only reason I haven't been able to is because you're here—thanks for that by the way. I have no idea why or how this place changed but frankly I don't really care, it's not like we have to deal with the virus crap anymore, right?"

Caitlin shrugged. "I don't know. I can barely wrap my head around the idea that time travel is possible! I mean, aren't you at all curious about what will happen to you?"

Dean frowned and looked at her strangely. "Not really, chances are I'll still be doing what I've always done: Working for the people who track people like me."

"Is that why you were in Cork?" Caitlin said. "I remember you saying you were looking for the woman who killed my brother."

Dean visibly froze and suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Yeah, about that; I really hope you learn to let go of the past." He said evasively. "People like me and the woman who killed your brother don't think about life the same way you do?"

"How do you think about then?" Caitlin asked curiously.

"People are put into two categories: Those who help and those who stand in your way. I heard a lot about what happened in Cork later on. Your brother lied to the woman about Peter, so she killed him. It's that simple."

Caitlin's mouth opened slightly, she didn't think she had ever met somebody who thought of people in that way. "What about reasoning—motives?" Caitlin argued. "Do you even think about why they're standing in your way? Maybe they're the one's doing the right thing?"

"Maybe," Dean shrugged indifferently. "But when you've been with the people I work with for more than a few years, you'll find that morality loses its meaning and that reasoning is lost in the wind. Its better that way, it's easier to see things in grey than in black and white. It makes doing cruel things bearable. I used to think like you, but I changed. I kill and feel nothing, I torture and feel nothing. I couldn't have done those things if I wasn't the way I am now."

"It just mean's you've lost what makes you human, Dean."

That comment made Dean freeze and look at her thoughtfully. Caitlin could tell that he had never thought of that before. "Humanity's overrated." Dean said in response, his tone telling Caitlin he didn't want to talk about that subject any more. "Let's go. I'm going to try and get us out of here, Caitlin. Just don't blame me if it doesn't work."

Caitlin watched as Dean held out his hand for her. Caitlin nodded and smiled, reaching out and grasping Dean's hand.

He smiled back and closed his eyes. His brow furrowed and his face shook but the effect he was trying for was immediate. Caitlin felt the world shift and the small hospital room disappeared.

When the shifting stilled, Caitlin looked around the new environment with wide-eyes. They were in the middle of a darkened street Caitlin didn't recognise. It looked like the environment of a town. She could faintly see a river running along in the distance. People shuffled across the pavement, ignoring Dean and Caitlin's sudden appearance. They all seemed sorrowful and withdrawn and the tension that hung in the air could almost be smelt.

"Where are we?" Caitlin asked Dean. She turned to face the man and saw him breathing heavily and wiping his mouth. Caitlin thought she saw some blood on the side of his fist. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Dean insisted as he wiped his hand on his jacket. "And we're in Hartsdale, not too far from the place I live, I think. But something is definitely different though."

"What?"

"I… I dunno… I guess everything just seems too solemn—" He cut off as a bright light flashed into his eyes.

'What are you two doing?" A man asked from the sidewalk. By his uniform, Caitlin assumed he was a cop. He certainly had the authority that came with being an officer of the law. "Don't you know it's dangerous out here? Curfew's in less then fifteen minutes!"

Dean raised a hand to protect his eyes from the harsh glare of the police officer's flashlight. "I'm sorry. We've been out of town for a while. What curfew?"

The cop flicked off his flashlight and approached them, frowning at Dean's ignorance. "You look familiar." He said after examining Dean's face. "Where have you been?"

"Just out, you know a very long and extended honeymoon of travelling the world." He said as he hooked his arm through Caitlin's and pulled her close. "But now we're back to settle down." He smiled widely and surprisingly convincingly.

The cop frowned and looked at Caitlin. She smiled her own smile and let Dean do the talking.

"We haven't been here for a while," Dean lied, "and we haven't heard of a curfew either. What's happened?"

The cop accepted Dean's explanation without a second thought, turning his flashlight off and tucking it back into his belt. "The curfew's there for your safety; there are these people out there, murderers, rapists and arsonists; they caused all of New York to go into a state of emergency back in 2008 and we still haven't come out of it. That's why we have the curfew, nobody's allowed out without a pass after seven o'clock in the evening. I'm sure you should have heard of it, when'd you say you got back?"

"Just today actually," Dean answered, "the things you miss, right?"

The cop nodded and frowned. "You really do look familiar, what did you say your name was?"

"Oh, it's Matthew Parker and this is Caitlin." Dean said as he gestured to Caitlin.

The cop nodded but still looked at Dean suspiciously. "Okay, you two. Move along."

As the cop turned away, Dean stepped forward. "Hey…ah…wait. What date is it?"

"May twenty-second, 2009. Were you two honeymooning under a rock or something?"

Caitlin felt her jaw drop and an expression of astonishment appeared on her face. Another year! Dean had brought them another year into the future!

"Thanks." Dean said, managing to keep the grin on his face despite his shock.

The cop just shook his head and left the pair, disappearing around a corner and losing himself in the streets.

Dean turned back to Caitlin and swore angrily. "Another year; damn it!" He stamped his foot against the ground. "I don't know what the hell went wrong. I thought of home and we arrived here!"

"Well this technically is your home." Caitlin said, feeling a smile creep on her face as she watched Dean rant. "You mustn't have been specific enough or something."

"This is pissing me off. Come on, I'm trying it again." Dean grabbed Caitlin's hand and closed his eyes. Suddenly he doubled over in pain, his hand flying to his mouth as his body was racked with a coughing fit. "Damn, not again. I thought they fixed this!" He muttered.

"Dean, what's happening?!" Caitlin asked as she bent down beside him. She immediately noticed blood staining his lips and the fist he had used to cover his coughs.

"I can't teleport. I've strained myself too hard." He managed to stand upright and grumbled something under his breath. "I thought this happened when I changed, not like this." He laughed, causing him to lapse into another coughing fit. "They got it wrong!"

"They got what wrong?" Caitlin asked worriedly.

"We need help." Dean said as he broke into a dizzy walk, wiping his mouth again and removing flecks of blood. "I know a place where we can wait until I'm fit again."

Caitlin only nodded and followed Dean, ready to steady him if he fell. He really did look tired and haggard. He looked like he had gone through hell; he looked a lot worse then when they were back in Ireland and that hadn't been too long ago at all.

She began to fear that the person who was probably her last chance back home might die before he could get them back.


Noah Bennet and Lily Miles, Roosevelt Hospital, New York. Present Day.

The sight of Elle lying comatose on the bed didn't spark any emotion aside from pity. The blonde had her hair pulled out of her face and a bandage wrapped around her forehead where she had connected with the windscreen. The rest of her body was layered by cuts and abrasions. She could have been called a warning to people who didn't wear their seatbelts.

Lily noticed that the cast that had been used to restrict her gunshot wound had been removed and the wound had been inspected and probably documented by the hospital and already passed onto NYPD. It was just another mess that Lily had to clean up later. It was something she didn't mind doing though, it was necessary.

"I checked." Noah's voice sounded from the entrance of the hospital room. "No one's going to be disturbing you."

Lily nodded and smiled, sweeping a strand of dark hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. She reached across to Elle's bedside table and picked up a syringe she had stolen from one of the drawers in the room.

She quickly filled the syringe with Claire's blood with experienced and careful hands. When the syringe was filled with the little blood the vial had to offer. Lily pressed the needle of the syringe at the crook of Elle's elbow.

She hesitated as she suddenly felt an emotion come from the unconscious girl. It was so faint, Lily almost didn't catch it, but she immediately knew what it was. It was the emotion she felt in every person, no matter what else they happened to be feeling at the time: Fear.

Lily delved deeper into Elle's emotions. Over the years, Lily had learnt that emotions could paint a clearer picture of somebody than anything else could. Underneath Elle's fear, emotions such as anger and hate were faintly recognisable. It was a combination that often emerged in nightmares.

Lily pulled out of Elle's emotions and held the syringe ready above Elle's clearly visible vein. She pushed the syringe into the blonde's vein and injected her with Claire's blood. The red fluid was forced into Elle's bloodsteam until there was nothing left in the syringe.

She pulled the syringe out and placed it back on the beside table along with the empty vial. For a moment Lily feared that it hadn't worked and that she had wasted the last of the Company's stock. She felt a grin break out on her face as Elle's heart monitor showed that the blonde's heart was beating stronger.

Lily pulled back the dressing on Elle's gunshot and watched as the half-healed wound closed over until nothing was left but pale, unblemished skin.

She stepped back and nodded to Noah who was watching from the door. He nodded in return and set off to find the agent Lily had planted in the hospital. they had planned this on their trip here and they had both agreed on their tasks now and their roles after this was done.

Lily pulled a chair from across the room and sat next to Elle's bed, watching the blonde as her injuries slowly healed. She accessed her ability and began to smooth over Elle's emotions, slowly dissipating the fear and making sure she was calm inside.

Elle's eyes slowly flickered open and Lily felt confusion fill her.

"What's…? What's going on?" Elle asked haltingly. "Where am I?"

Lily leaned forward. "What do you remember last?" She demanded.

Elle glanced at her then closed her eyes. "I remember… I remember going into daddy's office to look for my files… and…" Elle's eyes flew open and she looked at Lily wide-eyed. "I remember Sylar taking Suresh hostage and I fought him off."

Lily nodded and manipulated the fear out of Elle's body, keeping her calm and steady. "There was a crash a few days ago. Sylar flipped your car. You went through the windshield, Elle."

"I… I remember." Elle said quietly, waiting for a moment as she felt Claire's small amount of blood travel through her body, healing her cuts and giving her strength. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Lily suspiciously. "Why are you being so nice to me? You don't like me."

"Maybe not, but I certainly don't hate you, Elle." Lily said. "I wasn't going to let you die. Not when I need you to do something for me."

"And here comes the quid-pro-quo." Elle muttered. "What do you want? Just tell me so I can say no."

"It can wait till Noah gets back and you're fully recovered. But I can tell you that you'll be gone from this hospital by tonight. And I don't think you'll say no either, you won't want to do it, but you will anyway."

Elle just sighed and settled comfortably back in her pillows. "If I have to do it, it better be something fun then." She looked downcast for a moment. "I was having nightmares, Lil. Bad ones too—the worse I've ever had."

"I know." Lily replied soothingly. She was startled by Elle's use of the pet-name she had been given. She hadn't heard it in years.

"Everyone was dead: You, daddy, Suresh, Dean, Claire, Peter, everyone. There was this woman who controlled the nightmares who showed me how they all died and told me it was my fault. She said her name was Sophie and that she was going to show me these things until the day I die."

Lily noticed a tear slip down Elle's cheek. She must have been terrified. "Talk to me about it, Elle and I'll make it go away."

Elle shook her head, ignoring Lily's words of comfort, she didn't even give any indication she had heard Lily. "It was like a list of who's going to be killed and when and how. And she was showing me it and calling me number one."

Lily felt fear rising in her own chest. Elle was telling the truth, she could tell by her emotions that the electrifying blonde believed the nightmares would eventually come true. "Talk to me Elle! In the dreams, how did you die?"

Elle breathed deeply and answered Lily in a shaky voice.

"It was Sylar. He kills me."


Caitlin McKenna and Dean Matthews, Hartsdale, New York, 2009.

"So these people are the ones who sent you to Ireland in the first place." Caitlin asked as she followed Dean through a deserted Hartsdale road. They had turned into this street a little while ago and Dean insisted that it led to a building. After a few minutes of walking, Caitlin could finally see it in the distance.

"Yeah," answered Dean, "they'll understand that we need to get back… I hope. If they can't, we'll just have to wait a little longer until my body recovers."

"About that, do you know what's happening with your ability?"

"Nope, no clue at all."

"But it's your ability!" Caitlin persisted.

"And what a pain in the ass it's being."

Caitlin shook her head and settled into a gloomy silence. The last thing she wanted to do was go to where Dean was taking her, but what choice did she have? It was either seek out help from the people who employed the girl who killed Ricky, or go off on her own and be stuck in this future. Despite Dean's promise that they would probably be there a day at the most, she remained uneasy about the entire situation.

"Hey, Caitlin." Dean said suddenly, stopping and turning around to face her. "What you said back in Dublin, about me losing my humanity. What did you mean?"

Caitlin paused and looked at Dean in surprise; he had the look of a child who had been told something they didn't fully understand. "You said you didn't feel anything when you killed or tortured people. Humans are meant to feel emotion: Sympathy, guilt, even if it's just a little bit. It's what makes us, well, human."

Dean processed her words thoughtfully. "I think I do feel them, but I just ignore it. I have this friend—well more of an acquaintance, actually—and she always used to say that if you keep pushing emotion away, it'll build up and overcome you. It even happened to this agent back when I was sixteen. There was this man named Claude Raines—he was a brilliant agent, he taught me how to pull out my abilities when The Company took me in—he was terminated because he hid one of us 'specials'. My acquaintance said that he pushed away emotion until it finally spilled out."

"Maybe you need to stop ignoring it then?" Caitlin advised.

"Maybe." Dean replied thoughtfully. He then surprised Caitlin by staring her straight in the eyes and saying: "You know I'm gonna get us out of this right? I'm not going to leave you here."

"I know, Dean." Caitlin smiled.

Dean nodded and continued to walk. Caitlin increased her pace until she was walking right beside her. It wasn't long until they reached what Dean said was the Hartsdale branch of The Company.

It was separate from the rest of the town and looked like it had been abandoned. It was completely dark through the windows. Caitlin noticed that some of the windows on the ground floor had been smashed. But aside from those instances, the building looked completely normal.

"This is where you live?" Caitlin asked sceptically. "It looks deserted."

Dean didn't answer immediately, instead jogging forward towards the front door. "I think it is deserted." He finally said, gesturing for Caitlin to join him.

"Then how are we going to get help?"

"I dunno, but right now it doesn't matter. Remember there's a curfew. If we get caught outside it will lead to questions that we can't answer and eventually prison."

Caitlin sighed as Dean pushed open the main door and emerged into the building's foyer.

It was surprisingly clean and tidy for a deserted building, Caitlin instantly decided. If anything it looked like people were still living here. She squinted through the faint light and tried to see anything that looked remotely like a person.

"Stay close." Dean whispered to her. "This is a surprisingly big place; it's pretty easy to get lost in here."

Caitlin nodded and was surprised and more than a little relieved when Dean slipped his hand into hers. He gave it a comforting squeeze and led her towards a stairwell right next to an elevator.

They climbed the stairs in silence. This entire environment was giving Caitlin the jitters; it reminded her too much of all those old, clichéd haunted house horror movies.

They had just finished climbing the flights of stairs and had just headed out into the floor Dean claimed the laboratory was on when Caitlin caught a glimpse of flashing metal, metal that looked unsettlingly like a knife.

"Dean!" She shouted urgently.

Dean spun around swiftly and hissed in pain as the knife that had been heading for his shoulder instead sliced a shallow gash across his forearm.

Caitlin stepped back, her moth wide-open in shock as she watched Dean grab the knife wielder's arm and try to force the weapon out of the person's grip. They struggled for a few seconds, more then enough time for Caitlin to get a clear glimpse of the attacker.

She immediately knew it was a woman, judging by her small frame and length of blonde hair. Caitlin could see fear framing the blonde woman's face as it twisted with effort. She had reacted out of fright and the desire to survive more than anything else that could motivate her to such actions.

"Stop! Stop it!" Caitlin yelled at Dean. She was surprised when he ignored her shouts and finally managed to wrench the knife from the blonde woman's hand with a sickening twisting gesture.

The woman gasped in pain as the sudden movement broke three of her fingers. Her shock only lasted a moment before she leapt at Dean again, desperately grabbing at the knife.

Dean stumbled back, being caught off guard by the blonde's second unexpected attack. He did the only thing someone with his life-experience and training taught him to do instinctively. Without thought or hesitation, Dean steadied and drove the knife into the blonde woman's body.

The blonde woman gasped in pain and then crumpled against Dean, looking up at him accusingly.

Breathing heavily from his exertion, Dean pushed the blonde woman back and removed the knife. Blood dripped in thick red drops off of the knife, spreading with the other blood that was streaming from the woman's stab wound.

Caitlin watched in shock as Dean seemed to recognise the woman. "Oh no," he said as the knife hung loosely from his fingers.

Caitlin's eyes widened as the blonde woman gasped and choked, lifting her head to watch the stab wound heal through the rip the knife had made in her sweatshirt.

"You stabbed me!" The woman said accusingly to Dean as she sat up and began to snap her broken fingers back into place with a sickening crunch. "And you broke my fingers!"

"Claire?" Dean said in astonishment. "What the hell are you—?"

"I should be the one asking you that!" Claire Bennet cut across him. "What the hell are you doing coming from the ground floor? You said you were going to use the roof when you got back, not the front door. You nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought they had found us!"

Dean just stared in complete astonishment and Caitlin knew that the same thought running through his head was running through hers: What the hell is going on here?