Chapter Fourteen: The Only Family that Matters
May 14, 2007
Sylar stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. As he walked into the bedroom, he jumped back, startled as Claude materialized on his bed. "What the hell?"
"I could be asking you the same thing." Claude leaned back on his elbows. "What the hell is wrong with you, eh?"
"What are you talking about?" Sylar grabbed a change of clothes and walked back into the bathroom to dress.
"What I'm talking about is the way you treat Ava." Claude stood and followed Sylar into the bathroom. "You say you hate her, you beat the living crap out of her-"
"-Correction, SHE beat the living crap out of ME. Which one of us has the broken nose that's going to have to be surgically fixed?" He pointed to his splinted, swollen nose.
"Which one attacked first, asshole?" Claude leaned in the doorway as Sylar glared at him. "I don't recall hearing that Ava was the one on the offensive there, it was you. She was defending herself, nothing more. Besides, her nose is broken too."
"Yeah, but hers is set straight." Sylar looked around. "Do you mind? I'd like to get dressed please."
"I'm not stopping you. You've got nothing I haven't got, trust me." Claude stared at the ceiling as Sylar shrugged, pulled off his towel and dried off. "Anyways, you beat the crap out of her, you blow hot and cold with her. When you're not glaring at her or sulking like a five year-old or starting fights with her, you're staring at her like a lovesick puppy, banging her all night long like a screen door in a bloody hurricane, and acting like a jealous ass whenever I hug her or speak to her."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sylar pulled his clothes on and tried to step past Claude.
"No?" Claude blocked the younger man's way.
"No." Sylar shook his head.
"So you're telling me that you're NOT always looking at Ava like you're a diabetic and she's got the last bit of insulin in the world? You're telling me that you didn't storm off in a huff when I hugged her downstairs, or that you looked like you wanted to strangle me when I first got back here and she ran into my arms?"
"What do I care that the two of you used to have something going on, or still do for that matter?"
"You watch your bloody mouth!" Claude glared at him. "I don't know what ideas you have about me and Ava, but you've got the wrong ones, I can assure you that." He stepped aside while grabbing Sylar's arm. Herding him into the bedroom, he shoved him roughly towards the bed. "Sit your ass down."
"I don't have to take this from you, you know." Sylar looked up at him as he sat on the bed. "I could easily kick your ass."
Claude started laughing. "What you gonna do, take my head off? Do you forget how many people are in this house with special powers? One peep from me and they'll charge up here like the bloody cavalry. Try fighting all of them at once. Oh wait, you have fought a few of them at once haven't you? How'd that turn out again?" Sylar narrowed his eyes at him as Claude smirked. "Now sit down, shut up, and listen, you whiny little shit. Ava is the only family I have. She's like my daughter, sister, and niece rolled up into one. I never have had any kind of affair with her and never will. It would be incestuous, as far as I'm concerned."
"Whatever." Sylar rolled his eyes.
"No, not 'whatever', you little snot, it's the truth. Noah, Thompson and I were the ones who recruited her into the OWI, though God knows now I wish I could go back, sneak her out of that fucking mental hospital they had her in and hide her away before Thompson could have gotten his nasty hands on her. It was Noah's job and mine to help her come to terms with her power and teach her how to use it properly, or at least use it in a way to benefit the OWI. We became close, but not in the way your nasty mind has been going. Noah and I were the only ones she could talk to or confide in. She was seventeen bloody years old, had just killed a gymnasium full of her friends, had to fake her death, leave her family behind and learn to be an assassin. She had to have someone to turn to, especially when that fuck Thompson started in on her. She kept it hidden for a while, longer than I would have thought possible, but after London, I found out about the two of them. I was the one who was there during her assignment in London with O'Rourke. I was the one she called after she had to kill him and I was the one who found her in that shit hole of a hotel she'd gone to when she wanted to kill herself after she killed the man she'd fallen in love with. I saved her life, taking her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. I tried to save her again, by attacking Thompson and threatening to kill him if he ever touched her again. She paid me back by helping me escape when he ordered Noah to kill me. The last seven years of my life have been spent clearing my name so I could resume my life and reconnect with her, but once again, not as a lover, but as her friend, as her family. She IS my family, she and Noah both and we're hers, the only family that truly matters. It makes me sick to know that you think that I'm interested her in any other way. It makes me sick to know that you've been treating her so badly when you obviously care more for her than you want to admit. It makes me sick to know that she's probably going to get her heart broken again, this time by your unworthy ass, and there's nothing I can do to stop it, and this time, even I won't be able to save her from what she might do to herself when you do break her heart."
"So what do you want me to do about it?" Sylar glared at him.
"I want you to either shit or get off of the fucking pot where she's concerned. You either love her or you don't-"
"-I don't-"
"-You either want her or you don't, but don't continue jerking her around. If you don't want her, let her go completely. Stop staying in the same room with her, move to the basement and be a gentleman for once in your life. Stop sleeping with her and acting like a jealous ass around me, stop mooning over her when her back is turned. Just stop."
"Or?" Sylar smirked.
"Or as soon as this battle with Kane begins and ends, you and I will have a reckoning. Either love her or let her go, but stop blowing hot and cold with her. Do you understand me?"
"What could YOU do to ME?"
"Ask young Mr. Petrelli down there what happens when I get pissed off, or Noah, or Ava for that matter. I'd tell you to ask Thompson, but he's dead, unfortunately not by my hand. I'm not someone to be trifled with, and when you trifle with my family, you trifle with me, understand? Have I gotten through that thick skull of yours?" Claude glared at Sylar for a moment before he turned on his heel and left the room.
Sylar groaned as he lay back on the bed, Claude's words running through his head. Since he'd gotten his memory back, he'd struggled with his feelings for Ava. He hated her for lying to him and there were so many times that he wanted nothing more than to lift his finger, take off her skull and kill her, taking her extraordinary power for himself. There were other times though that he remembered what their life was like together before he remembered his past as Sylar. He thought about his life with her as 'Aaron Abbott', mild-mannered timepiece repairman and restorer. He tried so hard to push away the memories of what it was like to hold her at night, to make love to her, to LOVE her completely and wholly. In so many ways, when he was 'Aaron', he was like his old self as Gabriel Gray, before Chandra Suresh had entered his life and made him realize his true evolutionary potential, only better than he was as Gabriel. He had a woman that he loved, who loved him back. He didn't doubt Ava's words, he didn't doubt that she loved him as 'Alexandra' and loved him still. He wanted to love her back, wanted to have things with her the way they were before he remembered who he really was, but in his heart, he knew that was impossible. They couldn't go back, HE couldn't go back, not now that he remembered his true self. As Gabriel, as Aaron, he could love her with all of his heart, as Sylar, his love would mean nothing but death or heartbreak for her.
"I have to let her go." He whispered to himself, feeling his own heart break with that realization.
March 11, 2000
Prague
She slipped silently through the streets, stalking her prey. Dressed in black, her fiery hair tucked under a black cap, she followed the man as he walked home. At one point he turned around, checking over his shoulder and she'd slipped quickly into the shadows, watching him as he shook his head and continued walking. She watched him enter his home and watched as lights turned on throughout the small apartment. Slinking around the building, she tested the back door, smirking to notice that he'd left it unlocked. "Stupid ass." She muttered as she crept inside. She could hear classical music playing as she passed quietly through the kitchen and peeked into the living room. He was sitting with his back to her, reading a newspaper. Concentrating, she pushed out with her mind and listened as he began to gasp. He sat forward, clutching at his chest for a moment as she walked into the living room. "Dr. Karevsky." She whispered.
He looked up at her, his face turning dark red as he struggled to breathe. "What do you want?"
"Your research. Where is it?"
"Who do you work for?" He yelped in pain as she concentrated, causing another spasm in his heart.
"I can continue to make this very painful for you, or I can make it quick, it's up to you. Now, your research, where is it?"
"My office. My home office." He gasped for air. "Down the hall."
"Your computer have a password?"
"Vladivostock." He wheezed.
"Thank you." She pushed out with her power one last time as he groaned and slumped back in his chair. The coroner that would investigate later would rule his death as massive heart attack. She turned and quickly made her way down the hall to his office. Typing in the password with her gloved fingers, she pulled up the information she wanted. She pulled a disk from her jacket pocket and copied the information she wanted before turning the computer off. She sifted through the hard copy files in his desk, pulling out what she wanted before leaving the room. She gave one last look to the man slumped over in his chair, closing her eyes as she fought against the pangs of guilt that washed over her before she turned and left the apartment, locking the back door on her way out.
As she entered her hotel room, she pulled the papers and disk out of her coat and handed them over to the man waiting. "Excellent and efficient work, Ava. This research will come in very handy."
"What IS he researching, exactly?"
"People like you. He's trying to figure out how you guys tick for other people with other interests. He was the competition, basically." Thompson sighed as he thumbed through the papers. "And speaking of Dr. Karevksy? How is he doing now?"
"He's dead. Heart attack, very tragic." Ava pulled her coat and gloves off. "He gave up the information quickly."
"Well, no one wants to suffer when they know they're going to die anyway, right?" Thompson set the disk and papers down as he leered at Ava. "Have I ever told you how incredibly sexy you are in black leather?"
"Have I ever told you how you remind me of a worn-out baseball glove? It's called sunscreen, you should look into it." Ava snarled.
"Oooh, bitchy." Thompson sat on the bed, patting the mattress beside him. "Come over here."
"I'm really not in the mood tonight. I just had to kill a man. It's never a good feeling."
"Well, let me make you feel better then." Thompson glared at her. "Come here."
"Don't expect me to enjoy it. I never do." Ava pulled her cap off as she walked towards him.
"I really don't care. I enjoy it, that's enough for me." Thompson pulled her down onto the bed, sighing happily. "One day, you'll learn to appreciate me."
"I seriously doubt that." Ava muttered as Thompson began to unbutton her clothes. She closed her eyes and turned her head, wishing she was anywhere but in that seedy hotel room at that moment.
May 14, 2007
"The shower free?" Ava walked into the room and watched Sylar roll up his sleeping bag.
"Yeah." Sylar stood up, frowning at her. "This isn't working out for me."
"What isn't working out for you?" Ava stepped past him as she pulled her clothes off.
"This. I'm fine with helping you guys get Kane, since he's coming after me too apparently, but this arrangement, it's not working for me. I'm moving my sleeping bag to the basement. You can sleep in here alone."
Ava turned to him, confused. "What's going on?"
"Nothing. I'm just not sticking around after Kane's dead, so there's not reason for the two of us to start back up again." Sylar shrugged as he grabbed a couple of pillows. "It's not fair to you. I'm just going to leave and you don't need to fall for me any more than you already have."
"And just where do you think you're going after Kane's dead? Do you really think the OWI's going to let you drop off of the face of the earth when this is over?"
"Why not? They'll owe me after I help get your asses out of a sling, don't you think? I've always wanted to travel the world, maybe I'll do that. Hell, maybe I'll become an OWI agent in another division somewhere if I play my cards right. It doesn't matter really, we're through. We're finished and I shouldn't keep sleeping with you when there's no future here." He turned, his eyes slowly scanning her nude body as she stared at him. "It's too confusing, for both of us."
"What happened to just sex, nothing more than that?" Ava leaned against the wall.
"I'm trying to be a gentleman here, okay? I don't love you and I never will, so sleeping together isn't right. I know you and the rest of your cronies down there think I'm just some hateful, cold-hearted asshole killer, but I do have a shred of decency. I know how you feel about me. You told me last night that you're willing to take me any way you can get me, and I was fine with it, but it's not fair to you."
Ava rolled her eyes. "So now you're trying to 'do right' by me? Oh give me a break! YOU'RE the one you're trying to protect here, not me."
"Oh really? How's that?" Sylar glared at her.
"You say you don't love me, but I know you're lying. You loved me before you got your memory back, you told me that you loved me all of the time. You can't just shut that off just because you remember who you really are."
"No?"
"No." Ava shook her head. "You love me, you just don't want to admit it. As Sylar, you probably think that loving someone, having an emotional connection to someone is a weakness. Sylar wouldn't have a problem with screwing a woman just for the hell of it, but you're not just Sylar. You're Sylar, you're Gabriel and you're Aaron, all rolled up into one guy. Aaron and Gabriel have a problem with just sex, not Sylar. Sylar has a problem with love, but not Gabriel and Aaron, am I right? It must be such a pain in the ass to have all of those conflicting identities battling it out for supremacy, the loving husband, the mild-mannered watchmaker and the serial killer. Tell you what, when you figure out which one of those guys you want to be and what that guy wants, you let me know."
"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." Sylar smirked.
"Until then, move to the basement. I know you'll be back."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, really." Ava laughed.
"And why do you think I'll be back up here with you?"
"Because you do love me, whether you want to or not and you do want me, whether you think it's fair or not. You say one thing, but your actions are saying something totally different. You weren't just screwing me last night, you were making love and you want to again now. You haven't taken your eyes off of me since I took my clothes off."
"That's not love, that's lust. A beautiful woman stands naked in front of me, of course I'm going to notice and want to do something about it. When a beautiful woman lies next to me at night, I want to do something about it. It doesn't mean I love you." He picked up his sleeping bag. "I'm leaving my clothes up here, but don't think THAT means I love you either. It just means that I don't want my stuff getting dirty in the basement."
"Enjoy the basement." Ava smirked. "I'll try not to say 'I told you so' when you come climbing back into my bed."
"Don't stay up waiting for me." Sylar turned and walked out of the room, his heart pounding.
Ava shook her head and sighed as she walked into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. "Stubborn ass." She muttered as she leaned into the hot water spraying down on her body, breathing in the steam.
March 11, 2000
Ava woke up in her hotel bed, her heart pounding loudly. Someone was in the hotel room, someone besides her, besides Thompson, who lay beside her snoring loudly. She quickly elbowed him. "Huh, wha-?" His eyes widened as her hand clamped down over his mouth. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the other person in the room, knowing what they wanted. They wanted her dead, her and Thompson both, though she didn't yet know why. She felt Thompson's hand close over her wrist and pull her hand away. "Babe, if you wanted to wake me up for more-"
Ava snatched her hand away, making a face. "Shut up, you ass." She muttered as she slowly climbed out of bed, crouching on the floor. The room was totally dark, but as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out a figure in the corner. She glanced over at Thompson as he slowly sat up, and rolled her eyes as she dove across the bed, tackling Thompson as she heard a gun cock, throwing her boss to the floor in one fluid motion as their bed suddenly became riddled with bullets. Thompson yelped and scrambled on the floor, searching for a place to hide as Ava pushed out with her mind, directing all of the force of her power at the figure in the corner. She sighed with relief as she heard the man gurgle, before a sickening splatter sounded.
"What the FUCK?" Thompson turned on a light, breathing hard as he stared at the bullet holes in the bed. He turned to Ava as she pulled on her clothes, then stared at the man in the corner. His head was gone, the wall behind him splattered with brains, bone and blood. He turned back to Ava, gaping at her. "How did you know?"
"I felt him. I felt his desire to kill us both." Ava whirled around on Thompson. "Who's after us, you ass? Just WHO did Karevsky work for?" Thompson shrugged, his eyes never leaving the dead body in the corner. Ava glared at him as she finished dressing, then grabbed his clothes and threw them at him. "Get dressed. We're probably going to have to run in a minute." She turned and walked to the body, shuddering at the damage she'd caused. She quickly dug through the man's pockets, pulling out a badge. She turned back to Thompson. "He's law enforcement. What have you gotten us into?"
Thompson looked away as he got dressed. "Some of the cops here are dirty, they work for Karevsky's people."
"And who ARE his people?" Ava slowly stood, pocketing the badge.
"A consortium of scientists and military personnel. They formed their own private research group after the fall of the Iron Curtain. They study people with special abilities, people like you. They work in conflict with the OWI. Karevsky was their best scientist and researcher. By killing him tonight and stealing his research, you've just set them back by quite a few years."
"Correction, WE set them back." Ava sighed. "So what do we do now? There are others coming, you do realize that, right?"
"I didn't think they'd figure out that we were behind it or that we were still here so fast." Thompson shrugged.
"We wouldn't still be here if someone hadn't wanted to stay the night to get laid." Ava sneered. "I guess this is what you get for thinking with that tiny dick!" She grabbed her coat and the research, tucking it away in an inner pocket.
Thompson watched her, a small smile playing on her face as she grabbed her bag and began to load guns, tucking them into pockets before setting two out for him. She quickly dug into her bag, pulling out plastique and detonators. "What are you going to do?"
"Distract them with fireworks while we get to a safe house and call for extraction." She turned, frowning at his smile. "What?"
"A month shy of your twentieth birthday and you're handling this situation better than a man almost twice your age. You're a natural at this, Ava. You were born for this. I'm proud of you."
"Gee, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside." Ava laughed bitterly as she began to place charges around the hotel room. She stood up, cocking her head to the side. "There's more of them. They're coming up the stairs. They really want us dead."
"Too bad they're about to die, huh?" Thompson smiled at her.
Ava nodded. "Yeah, sucks for them." She grabbed her bags and tossed Thompson's guns at him. "Fire escape, now." She turned, arming the charges as she pocketed a remote detonator. "Look out for-"
"-Shooters on the street, I know." Thompson smiled in amazement at her again before he turned and glanced out of the window. "It seems clear for now, but we need to move fast."
"Right behind you." Ava followed Thompson onto the fire escape and quickly began to climb down behind him as men began to kick in the door to their hotel room above them. As soon as they hit the streets, Ava reached into her pocket and pressed a button on the detonator, smirking as the windows exploded into flames above them. The moment the room exploded, illuminating the street below, Ava and Thompson were under fire from the street. They ducked behind a car, shooting at their assailants before they ducked into an alley, running for their lives. Coming out of the alley onto another street, they quickly found an unlocked car and climbed into it. Thompson watched as Ava hotwired it and pulled onto the street, driving them both quickly away from the explosion.
Smiling to himself, he pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. "It's Thompson. We came under attack in Prague. We'll need an extraction at the Vltava River. Thanks." He turned and watched as Ava drove towards the river. "There will be a boat waiting for us at the pier."
"Good." Ava turned to him. "This is all your fault, you know. You're not coming with me on any more assignments, I don't care how little your wife has been giving you lately and the next time I go on assignment, I want ALL of the details before I accept it. This was a cluster-fuck from the word 'go' and it was completely and totally your fault."
"Fine." Thompson nodded, still watching her with stunned amazement at her composure.
"I should have let that bastard shoot you before I blew his head apart." Ava sighed. "Me and my fucking conscience."
May 14, 2007
Ava glanced up at Claude as he walked into her bedroom, dressed in a suit. "Well, don't you look nice? You didn't have to dress up, you know. No one's going to see us."
"Says the woman in black." Claude nodded at her black dress as she pinned her hair back into a bun. "It suits you."
"Thanks." Ava sighed as she turned to Claude. "He moved to the basement."
"I noticed." Claude stared at the floor. "I told him to either love you completely or leave you alone. You're pissed, aren't you?"
"Nope." Ava turned around, checking her hair in the mirror. "He'll be back. I give him a week alone in that basement before he cracks."
"And why is that?"
Ava smiled at Claude's reflection in the mirror. "Because that guy has three different identities battling it out in his brain right now, three men that he wants to be more than anything and two of those three want me. I have a feeling that Sylar's going to lose out in the end when it comes to me." She turned and winked at Claude.
"You're saying you think he has multiple personality?" Claude frowned.
"No." Ava shook her head. "I'm saying that he is Gabriel Gray. He has an angel on one shoulder named Aaron and a devil on the other named Sylar. Gabriel and Aaron want me, they want to love me, Sylar wants to kill me. For six months, Gabriel lived as Sylar, a cold blooded killer who wanted nothing more than power. For six more months, he lived as Aaron Abbott, a man in love who wanted nothing more than to live happily with the woman who had his heart. Now, Gabriel has to choose who he wants to be. I think in the end, Aaron will win."
"And then what?" Claude raised an eyebrow. "You two defeat Kane and go off happily into the sunset together?"
"Maybe?" Ava shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead. He talked about joining the OWI when this was all over with. I think, if he behaved himself and proved that he could be trusted, he'd make a good agent, don't you?"
"Possibly." Claude grinned. "So, a week eh? Think he needs a little help to shorten that time?"
"What do you have in mind?" Ava raised an eyebrow.
Sylar looked up from the couch and the baseball game he was watching with Peter and Niki as Ava and Claude came down the stairs. He stared at Ava hungrily, appreciating the way her black dress clung to her figure. She ignored him as Noah walked over to them with Hiro. "Ready to go?"
Ava nodded, her expression grim. "I guess so."
"Where are they going?" Sylar sat up, frowning.
Noah turned to him. "Ava's mother's funeral is starting in a few minutes. She should go, don't you think?"
Sylar turned, his eyes meeting Ava's. He sighed as she studied him, then looked away. "It's always good to say good-bye." He nodded. "Need anyone else there?"
Claude snorted. "I'm going with her and so is Noah. What do you think you could do there?"
"Nothing, you're right." Sylar turned away, concentrating on the television as Noah took Ava's arm.
"Let's go." He turned to Hiro and nodded as the young man placed a hand on Noah's shoulder, then Claude's. They quickly disappeared from the living room as Sylar pouted.
"She'll be fine with the two of them." He muttered. "She doesn't need me."
Peter smirked. "Yeah, you're right. Why would she want the man she loves with her while she buries her mother?"
Sylar glanced at him for a moment, then looked away. "Why would I want to be with her?"
Peter rolled his eyes. "Because I can read your mind and I know you WANT to be with her. Just tell her you love her and stop being such a stubborn jackass, GOD!"
As they materialized in the cemetery outside of Achille, Claude took Hiro's hand. "Hang onto Noah as well, he whispered. No one can see us, especially Ava." Hiro nodded silently as he took Noah's hand. They made their way towards the funeral, hidden from sight as they stood away from the mourners. Claude turned to Ava, squeezing her hand as he heard her stifle a sob. "You okay?" He whispered.
Ava nodded as she stared at the small group surrounding her mother's grave. "Where are all of her friends? She had so many friends, where are they?" She whispered as she stared at her father. In the ten years since she'd seen her father, he'd appeared to age fifty. His once vibrant red hair was totally white, his face lined beyond his years. He turned his head in her direction and Ava covered a gasp as he appeared to stare at her, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he turned back towards his wife's grave. "Claude, I think he just saw me." She whispered.
"Impossible. We're invisible." Claude whispered.
The funeral was short. The reverend said a few short words about Brenda Grant and her life before closing his book and saying a quick prayer. The few people who had come to her funeral walked over to George, shaking his hand and murmuring a few words of condolence before walking away, leaving him alone at his wife's grave. For a few minutes, he watched the people quickly walk away before turning his head back in Ava's direction. "I know you're there, Geneva." His voice was deep and gravelly. "I knew you didn't die in that car accident, even though I truly wish you had."
Ava closed her eyes as she let go of Claude's hand and stepped forward, showing herself to her father. "How did you know?"
George glared at his daughter. "I've always been able to tell when people who were different were around. I guess that makes me different too." He studied her. "You're all grown up now, I see." Ava nodded. "You shouldn't have come. Your mother died because of you, because of the curse that I passed on to you. She hung herself, did you know that? She waited until I left for work, grabbed an extension cord, hung it from the rafters and put her neck through it. The coroner said she strangled for a few minutes before she finally died. She suffered after you left and she suffered in death and it's all your fault. Her friends abandoned her after that prom night. No one wanted to associate with her. She went crazy. Everyone blamed her, but I knew the truth. I knew you were different, and I knew you got it from me. I knew it from the moment you were born. I should have killed you in your crib, rather than let you kill all of those people and now you've killed your mother, same as if you'd put that noose around her neck and kicked that chair out from her." George looked away, tears in his eyes as Ava began to sob. "I regret the day you were born. I regret passing my curse onto you. You should go."
"Daddy-" Ava began to speak.
"-I'm not your daddy anymore." George's green eyes snapped up, meeting Ava's tearful hazel ones. "As far as I'm concerned, my daughter died ten years ago after killing her friends at her prom. You're dead to me, do you understand me? You're nothing but evil. You're a walking curse. You killed your friends and you killed your mother. I hate you." He turned and walked away as Ava's legs gave way. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing as Claude let go of Hiro's hand and ran to her.
"He's right." Ava sobbed. "I killed her! I killed my mother. She wouldn't have done this if I-"
"-You hush, you hush right now!" Claude pulled her into his arms as she clung to him, sobbing loudly. "Your father is just looking for someone to blame, the hateful bastard. He had no right to say those things to you. He had no right." Claude crooned as he rocked back and forth with Ava sobbing in his arms. He turned to Hiro and Noah. "Take us back. Take us to the house."
Sylar looked up as Hiro, Noah and Claude appeared in the living room, a sobbing Ava in Claude's arms. He stood up, his eyes widening. "What happened?"
Peter stood up beside Sylar. "Is she okay?"
Noah shook his head as Claude carried Ava to the couch. "Her father sensed we were there. Apparently he's the one she inherited power from. He said some things to her, very hurtful things."
"He called her evil and curse." Claude cradled Ava in his arms as they sat on the couch. "Bloody hateful bastard!"
"He's right." Ava nodded. "I was a curse to my parents, I was a curse to Brighton, I was a curse to you-"
"-No you weren't!" Claude shook his head and held Ava out at arm's length, forcing her to look him in the eye. "You never have been and never will be evil or a curse. That's like calling everyone in this room a curse. You didn't kill your mother, do you understand me? She was obviously an unstable woman who took the coward's way out and your father? He's just looking for someone besides himself to blame. He should have taken better care of your mother. He's the one who has been with her for the last ten years, yes?" Ava nodded sadly as she looked around the room. Angela, Peter, Niki, Claire, Mohinder, Matt, Candice, Kaito, Ando, Sylar, Noah and Hiro all stared down at her sadly. "He's the one who has been with her for the last ten years, it was up to him to protect her and get her the help she needed, not you. He just doesn't want to admit that HE is the one who failed her. You didn't cause this, no matter what that bastard said."
"He's my father, Claude-"
Claude shook his head. "-It's like you said this morning, Ava doesn't have parents and Geneva's dead. You buried her today at that cemetery with her mother. We're your family now, the only family that truly matters. You believe me, right? We're the ones who have taken care of you and protected you and supported you, just as you've supported and protected us. WE'RE your true family."
"You are." Ava nodded, tears streaming down her face. She slowly stood up, wiping away tears as she walked to the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Noah asked.
"My room. I need to lie down." Ava turned to him. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything, I just need to be alone." She nodded as she turned back to the stairs. "I need to be alone for a while. I'll talk to you guys later. Thanks." She slowly walked up the stairs, her shoulders slumped.
Noah turned back to the group in the living room. "I could have killed that bastard and tossed him in his wife's grave for what he said to her."
"Hear, hear." Claude nodded.