Apocalypse by SLynn

Summary: Three years have passed since the explosion and life has drastically changed for everyone. This isn't the world they imagined they'd be saving.

Spoilers: Up to 'Fallout'

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing and will return them all when I'm done, virtually untouched.

Notes: Thanks again for all the reviews and comments! I've given up on ever notifying me, so if I'm a bit slow to respond, I'm sorry. Thanks again Tripp3235 for the help!

Chapter 25: Abduction

…

"You were supposed to bring her to me."

"And I will. My men are…"

"Your men haven't been able to bring her in so far. For the past three years."

"Yes, but…"

"Mr. Petrelli, I don't like surprises. And I don't like failure."

"I assure you that whoever has told you that they have Claire Bennet is lying. My men are bringing her in as we speak."

"You have confirmation of this."

"I do," Peter lied without hesitation.

…

"That's all I remember of it."

Beatrice paced the room uneasily.

"It was so strange," he continued to explain. "It felt so real. I've never had one this strong before. "

"You've been through a lot these past few days," she said, trying to placate him.

"Do you think that maybe it's a memory?"

"What…"

"No," he said, already shaking his head and answering his own question, "it wasn't a memory. I know… it felt like it was new. Like it was happening now. I was in it, but it wasn't me. I was taking the place of…"

Beatrice stared at him, silently hoping he wouldn't make the connection.

"They said my brother was Nathan Petrelli," he said after a pause. "Is it possible I was seeing him? Seeing it through his eyes…"

"Anything is possible, Jonah."

"But if I was, and it's real… Claire's in danger."

"Well, we don't know if it's real or not," Beatrice asked.

"But we can't risk that."

"No," Beatrice said slowly. "We can't."

"I'm going to talk to her," he said, already standing; his mind made up. "I'm going to talk to her and see if… I don't know if she will still, but I have to ask if she'll help me."

"Why wouldn't she help you?" she asked with some surprise.

"We had a fight of sorts," he said hesitantly. "She doesn't like the way things are ran around here. She thinks it's unfair."

"We try very hard…"

"I know," he cut off. "I tried to explain it but… She thinks that the people without gifts are expected to do too much of the labor."

"If she wanted a mission all she had to do was ask," Beatrice returned, somewhat thankful. It was like a blessing in disguise. "In fact, we've been meaning to send a few people out towards Lady Liberty. See if we've had any new arrivals. If she'd like, she can go. Her and Maggie. Tonight. I think they'd do well."

He wasted no time, but finding Claire hadn't turned out to be an easy thing. Peter had checked everywhere he could think of. He'd stopped by her room, by Niki's room, in the common areas, but she just seemed to have disappeared.

"Where's Claire?"

Ando looked up at Peter and shook his head.

"I haven't seen her this morning," he answered. "She was pretty upset last night…"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry about that, but…"

"Don't apologize to me," Ando said quickly.

Peter nodded, eyes shut tightly.

"I really need to talk to her," he continued. "I had this dream, this really strange dream and I keep feeling like… I don't know, like something bad…"

Ando gave him a curious look.

"What kind of dream?" he asked.

"It's kind of hard to explain," Peter answered with a shake of his head.

Ando just stared at him.

"I was talking to someone," he started to explain. "Telling someone that I was going to give Claire over to them."

"Are you sure it was you?" Ando asked, remembering well how Peter's dreams used to work; wondering if it was still the same.

Peter gave him an odd look.

"No," he answered. "No, I don't think it was. I think it might have been… it might have been my brother."

"Nathan?" Ando asked, clearly alarmed. "You're sure?"

Peter just nodded.

"Let's go," Ando said, moving quickly out of the room. "We need to find her. Now."

Claire sat on the railings near the train tracks, the same place Peter had brought her to talk that first night they'd arrived.

"I just don't… How could he change so much?" she asked.

"People change," Niki answered, leaning with her back against the railing. "It happens all the time. It has been three years."

"I know," Claire sighed. "I guess I just thought… I'm just disappointed."

"Men will do that," Niki said with a dry smile.

"Well, I don't exactly have a lot of experience in that department."

"Are you kidding me? It's been you and me in a house full of guys for nearly two years," Niki said laughing. "You should have plenty."

Claire laughed.

"But it's different," she said, looking at her feet and shaking her head. "You know, I kind of had… maybe the smallest of crushes…"

"It's the hair," Niki supplied.

Claire laughed harder at that.

"But really," Claire continued. "Am I wrong? Even with the memory loss, I just can't understand how he could be this almost completely different person."

"He's not that different," Niki argued.

Claire said nothing.

"He's really not," Niki repeated. "Maybe it's because you did have the smallest of crushes on him, but Peter… Peter never had the greatest self confidence."

"Yeah, but…"

"I'm not saying he isn't great," Niki continued. "He is. And I'm not saying that the Peter we knew wouldn't have done anything his power to help any one of us. He always put others before himself. Everyone before himself."

Claire nodded.

"I'm only saying that it's been three years. He can't remember any of us, his family, his life. All he has is this past year, this new life."

"So I should maybe give him a break?"

"Yes," Niki said with a nod.

Claire sat quietly, considering it all. Trying to set it all right in her head.

"Thanks," Claire said quietly.

"Any time."

"So, do you think…"

Claire stopped suddenly as she heard a strange pop sound and felt something bounce off the back of her neck.

She and Niki both turned at the same time, looking at the object with a strange curiosity.

A dart.

Niki understood a split second before Claire did; they were in trouble.

Not saying anything, not waiting for her to move on her own, Niki took Claire by the arm and began to run for the entrance.

"Take them down!" they heard a man yell from a short distance away. "Don't let them get inside!"

That's when the gunfire started.

Niki and Claire had no where to go. They were still to far away from the door and had zero cover.

So far the men weren't aiming at them, just firing to keep them out in the open.

And they were moving in.

"Claire!"

Both women turned at once, seeing Peter and Ando running out the door; running towards them.

"No!" Niki yelled, still hunched down. "Get back! Go inside and get help!"

Only Ando listened, Peter kept coming towards them.

"Peter, no!" Claire shouted.

And as she did it, she stood upright. Fully upright.

The sound was sickening.

Niki and Peter both watched, horrified, as Claire's entire body went slack from the bullet that had ripped through her body, through her chest.

"No!" Peter yelled, running towards them now at full speed. "Claire, no!"

The man who shot Claire then turned, and Niki knew, she just knew what was going to happen next, but wasn't quick enough to stop it.

The man fired off three shots, all of them hitting their mark, before she reached him.

It wasn't pretty.

Niki wrenched the man's arm up, taking the gun, with such force that the snap was audible. She'd nearly ripped his arm off.

As she wheeled around, ready to return fire on the approaching men, she was met with a sharp blow to the head.

Niki staggered backwards, seeing stars and just trying to stay on her feet.

"Leave her!" she heard someone shout. "We're not after her; we've got who we came for!"

"Get away from her," Niki shouted, firing wildly and striking two of the attackers.

One of them fired back, hitting her in the arm and sending her off balance, crashing to the ground.

"Go! Go!"

Niki struggled to her feet, ignoring the pain she felt, franticly trying to stop what was happening, but they were already moving away.

Claire still looked unconscious in their arms, but Niki could see the blood had stopped flowing; she was healing, if not already completely healed.

Clutching her own arm, Niki tried running after them but was forced to stop when several more shots rang out all around her.

"Niki!"

She turned, seeing Ando coming towards her with a few of colony members, all carrying guns. He made straight for her as the rest of the group headed off in the direction that the men who took Claire had gone in.

"What's happened?" he asked, tentatively reaching for her injured arm. "Where's Claire? Where's…"

"Peter," she finished for him, moving quickly to where he had fallen.

Niki kneeled down beside him.

"Oh God," she said, seeing the blood pooled on his chest. "I tried to tell him not to. Not to run…"

Peter gasped. He gasped and sat up.

Both Niki and Ando jumped.

Peter took a few shuddery breaths, shook his head as if to clear it and then began to frantically look around him.

"Where's Claire?" he asked. "Where is she? Did they… did they take her?"

"How…" Niki started to ask.

"How what?" Peter returned, getting to his feet.

"They shot you," Niki said blankly. "I saw them. They shot you three times."

Peter looked down at his chest, touching the blood on this shirt before lifting it up to check for himself.

He didn't even have a scratch.

"How did you…" Niki still stuttered. "You weren't close enough. You never got close enough to Claire to…"

"We can't worry about that now," Peter said dismissively, and like it or not Niki knew he was right.

"They're gone," one of the colony members who had gone out after them said. "They had a helicopter. There was no way…"

"Go make sure the council knows," Peter said, hurrying the man off.

"Who were they?" Niki asked, mostly to herself.

"They're from the Order," Peter answered.

Niki gave him a hard look.

"I had a dream," he said, shaking his head and refusing to meet her gaze. "That they were, that Nathan…"

Peter shook his head again, harder this time and walked away from the two of them.

"What are we going to do?" Ando asked Niki. "We have to go after her. We have to save her."

"I know," Niki said quietly. "Damn it, I do. But how? How are we going to save her?"

A wave of déjà vu washed across Peter like a tide.

They'd done this before.

"You're arm," Ando was saying now. "You should have that looked at."

"Later," Niki said. "It's a graze. It's fine."

"Doesn't it…"

"What were you both saying," Peter said, turning back towards them. "Something about saving… Have we done this? Claire said that… she'd told me…"

Ando and Niki watched; they could nearly see the pieces falling into place inside Peter's head.

"Save…" he repeated softly. "We did this…"

"No," Ando said gently. "You did. You…"

"Save the cheerleader. Save the world."

Peter turned away from them in confusion, but this was an entirely new kind of confusion.

It was coming back. It was slow, but it was returning. The paintings. The warnings. The gathering. The final battle. All of it now.

"We've got… we've got to go after them," Peter said. "We've got to keep them from… from whatever it is…"

Peter scrubbed a hand furiously across his face.

"How did this? How… when I was gone, what…?"

"Sit down," Niki ordered.

Peter didn't even think of disobeying. He felt too weak to do anything but listen and comply.

"Do you remember that day?" Ando asked, clasping hold of him by the shoulder.

He nodded.

"I told them to run for it," Peter said. "I made them go. I thought I might…"

And that's when he realized. Running a hand across his chest, he remembered that as well. Why he hadn't needed to be close to Claire to use her powers. Those last few minutes, those last looks that had been haunting him in his dreams. That brief time when he'd been just close enough to Sylar and just close enough to Claire to see how it was done. To see how to adapt his own body. To see…

"What's happened?"

The three of them looked up at David, Beatrice and Albert.

"Charles said there was a shooting," Beatrice said. "An abduction. What…"

"They took Claire," Peter said, getting to his feet.

"Who took Claire, Jonah?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "That's not my name. I remember. I remember now. Everything. It just, it came back."

"That's excellent," she responded somewhat stoically, but Peter didn't notice.

Niki did.

"So what are we going to do?" Ando asked expectantly.

"You mean when are we going to leave," Niki corrected.

"We should go now," Peter said immediately. "They're probably halfway there. We can't catch them but we can…"

"Slow down," Beatrice interrupted. "We shouldn't rush…"

"We should what?" Niki asked. "I'm sorry, are you coming with us?"

"No, but…"

"Then stay out of it."

"Niki," Peter said.

"No," Niki shot back. "This has nothing to do with her."

"I was only offering to help," Beatrice said calmly.

"We don't need your help."

"Have it your way," she said, but continued to look at Peter.

"We should leave tonight," Niki said. "As soon as we can. Now even. We know where D.L. and the others were headed. Where they planned to stay, we can meet up with them. Tell them the situation has changed."

Both men nodded in agreement.

"How soon do you think we can be ready?" she asked to Ando.

"An hour tops."

She nodded before turning her full attention to Peter.

"Are you with us?" she asked.

He didn't hesitate.

"Of course."