Resurrection by SLynn
Summary: It wasn't their destiny to stop an explosion. It was their destiny to stop him. Sequel to 'Apocalypse'.
Spoilers: Up to 'Fallout'
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing and will return them all when I'm done, virtually untouched.
Chapter 28: Concentrate
He knew it was shock. Mohinder had seen it often enough to recognize it in himself, but the realization did no good whatsoever. He couldn't shake it.
Mohinder sat exactly where they'd placed him, barely blinking, hardly moving, and stared out the window in disbelief.
It had all happened so fast.
They'd been in the tunnels. They'd come out of the tunnels. They'd gone into the building and then…
The Order had been waiting for them.
Marissa had tried to talk him out of it, had tried to tell him that they would fight for him, but Mohinder knew it was pointless. They only wanted him, and so he'd go.
Mohinder had agreed to come out, to surrender, and that was to be that.
Stupid mistake.
Maybe that's why Marissa had been so adamant. Maybe she knew. She probably had, better than Mohinder.
He should have known better.
No sooner than they had him by the arm, they'd opened fire.
The colony didn't stand a chance.
The screams. The explosions. People running with nowhere to go.
Mohinder was never going to forget it; he was going to have nightmares about it for the rest of his life. His biggest mistake. His stupidest…
He should have known better by now than to believe in the humanity of others.
And now he sat and waited in a helicopter outside of City Hall; hands bound as he stared out the window without seeing a thing, until finally a distant movement brought him back to himself.
There were people approaching.
Finally.
Mohinder tried not to get his hopes up too high, but he had a feeling he already knew who he was waiting for and he wasn't disappointed.
Once the group had closed the distance by half, Mohinder sighed in relief to see Claire and Nathan. He knew he shouldn't be happy to see them in this situation, but he couldn't help himself.
At least they were alive.
Mohinder watched, eager for more information, as the guards slid Nathan in beside him and Claire to the spot directly in front and facing him.
Nathan was the only one of the two that made any kind of eye contact, any sign of recognition at all to the other man. And even that was meager. Nathan simply smiled briefly, tightly, and gave Mohinder a nod before turning his eyes back on City Hall; staring in the same fashion as Claire had been since they joined him.
Mohinder looked as well, unaware of exactly what he was looking for until he suddenly remembered.
"Matt and Micah," he uttered just under his breath. "Where are they? Are they…"
"There he is," Nathan interjected, motioning with his head as his hands were also bound. "I told you he'd be fine, Claire. See. Nothing to worry about."
Claire didn't seem to feel the same. She still continued to fidget in her seat looking tense and uneasy.
"But Micah," Mohinder repeated. "I thought…"
"It was a trick," Claire said softly, her eyes still following Matt's progress towards them. "He was never… he wasn't there. It was her. She'd…"
Mohinder looked again and didn't have to ask any more questions. He knew who Claire meant by 'her'. He remembered 'her' well.
Jenny Yi.
Mohinder hadn't noticed before, had only been looking at his friend, but there she was. Larger than life and leading Matt by the arm.
"Dear God," Mohinder whispered, shaking his head and clasping his hands together hard. "I'm not ready for this. Not again."
"I'd suggest you try to be," Nathan said, not with sarcasm but with honest feeling.
"Quiet," Claire said just as they'd arrived.
"Dr. Suresh," Jenny said, stepping back as one of the guards helped Matt into the empty spot to Claire's right. "So nice of you to join us. We've met before, but of course you might not recognize me."
"I recognize you," Mohinder returned, having gained some strength from Nathan's bracing words. "Last time I saw you, you were crying in the corner."
"Things change," Jenny said, the smile slipping momentarily from her lips. "Things always change. In fact, they already have. Last time we were all gathered like this, wasn't someone else with us? I think… yes, there was someone else. Isn't that right, Matt?"
Until that moment Matt had sat, much like Mohinder before him, nearly motionless in the helicopter; completely overcome by a combination of grief, and shock, and pain.
But as soon as she'd done it, as soon as Jenny had alluded to Audrey, he snapped his head around in her direction with an unrecognizable look of hate etched in every feature.
Jenny only issued a short, crisp laugh and smiled brighter than before.
"Too bad she can't be here, isn't it?" she continued to taunt. "She's going to miss all of the fun."
Before he realized he was doing it, Matt moved to attack her. He'd never hated, truly hated someone like this before, and he simply couldn't stop himself from doing it, but Jenny could.
Matt hadn't even gotten up out of his seat before a searing pain ripped down his back, shocking him so harsh and abruptly that he cried out involuntarily.
"I warned you, Matt," Jenny said, obviously delighted by the agony she was causing. "I showed you what it can do. That was only a four; not even halfway there yet. Don't keep testing me."
The pain subsiding Matt fell back into place, sweating heavily and looking nauseous.
No one spoke. No one dared.
Jenny, seeming to sense that they were all sufficiently cowed, nodded and the guard slid the door shut and locked them in.
"Are you alright?" Claire whispered urgently, leaning low and speaking directly into Matt's ear.
"What was that all about?" Nathan asked with as much fervor as Claire had. "Parkman, what's happened?"
The three of them watched him intently as he seemed to pull himself together; to snap whatever it was that had hold of him.
"Franco," Matt finally said, his voice hoarse; his head still in his hands and his eyes still looking down.
"Franco?" Nathan repeated, not understanding. "What? I don't… Did she get him too?"
Matt laughed, but there was no humor in it.
"Yeah," he answered after a pause. "She did. She got him alright."
"No," Claire said in an awful hush.
"What?" Mohinder asked. "What's happened? What about Franco?"
"It wouldn't be the first time," Nathan said with a bit of hostility. "He's switched sides before."
"No," Claire repeated, shaking her head vehemently. "No. It can't be true. He's… No, Matt you must have misunderstood. She must have tricked…"
"He killed Audrey."
Matt was looking right into her eyes as he said it, but she could hardly believed it was him. She didn't want to. The look in his eyes. The sound of his voice. It was so… it was so dead. It was so unlike him, so different from the person she knew.
And she knew Matt; Claire knew Matt better than anyone else. She'd seen him at his best and at his worst, but nothing had prepared her for this moment; for this tone and for this look. It wasn't something she'd ever expected to see. Not from him.
"No," Mohinder said loudly, breaking the moment between them. "No," he repeated, louder this time. "She can't… He couldn't have. No, Matt. No!"
"She showed me," Matt said quietly, turning his eyes away from Claire and back to the floor.
"She showed you Audrey?" Nathan questioned as gently as he could.
"No," Matt said, his voice still flat. "She showed me the memory. She pulled it from his head. From Franco. She showed me that and…"
"She could have made it up," Nathan offered quickly. "That's what she does."
"No, it's not," Matt argued, finally showing a bit of life. "That's not how Jenny works. She can't make up memories, she can only access them. Use them to make you see what you don't want to, but she can't change the memory itself. Not yet at least."
Nathan gave a quick glance out the window. They'd be taking off soon, he could tell. They needed to finish up this conversation quick. There was no telling if they'd get a chance to talk like this again.
"Park-- Matt," he said, leaning in as close as he could given their confines, "you can't be sure. Unless you've seen her for yourself, you can't be. You shouldn't just take her word for anything. She's full of lies. You said it yourself, 'not yet'. Maybe she can manipulate…"
"I'm not just taking her word," Matt said, meeting Nathan's eyes with his own. "I'm taking Franco's."
Nathan straightened up and nodded gravely.
Mohinder merely shook his head and turned to stare out the window again, deeper in shock than before.
Claire was on the verge of saying something, but before she could the door rattled open again.
"Everyone ready?" Jenny asked, moving back as two guards stepped into her place.
"I'm coming in," the guard nearest them said, the one that wasn't armed. "I'm going to buckle everyone in and that's it. I don't want any funny business, alright?"
No one answered him, which he took to mean that they complied.
It was done in a few minutes, the man clearly uneasy and not wishing to linger with them any longer than he had to.
"All secure, ma'am," he said to Jenny as he hopped back out of the helicopter.
"Good," she said with a nod. "You're flying this one?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Then let's go," she snapped, climbing into the passengers seat up front.
Nathan swung his head around as soon as the door shut on them again. The helicopter they were in was smaller than the others spread out in the streets. It looked modified and clearly had only one purpose, to transport prisoners. He imagined it still had guns of some sort, but there were no gunners on the side like the rest of the helicopters had. All in all, it looked as if they'd be flying back in a group of seven.
"Where are we going?" Mohinder asked as soon as they were off the ground.
He had to practically yell out his question, the noise was so great.
"The capital," Nathan hollered. "At least, I think that's where."
Mohinder nodded, staring back out the window again and realizing that of course no one really knew. Jenny wouldn't tell them. She'd prefer to make them wait.
Matt was sitting up again, not really looking at or seeing anything.
Claire watched him for a long moment before catching Nathan's eye. He was also looking at Matt, apparently worried; it was hard to tell with Nathan sometimes.
She started to speak again when Matt clutched her hands in his. His eyes no longer looked lifeless; they looked terrified.
"What?" Claire asked quickly, straining to see what had caused such a reaction.
Nathan craned his body around so that he too could take a look, but all he could see out the pilot's window was the two helicopters in front of them.
"What?" Claire repeated, louder this time than before.
"It fell."
"Fell? What fell?" Nathan asked, turning now to look out and down the window to his immediate left. "What are you…"
Nathan's voice died in his throat as their helicopter banked a hard right, giving him an excellent view of the ground and of the helicopter Matt had seen fall now in a burning heap on the street below.
"Is it… is it Sylar?" Mohinder asked, his attention fully caught as he strained to see anything significant out his own window.
"It can't be," Claire said.
The helicopter banked left his time, sending the four of them sliding in their seats.
"Oh, God," Mohinder cried out.
They all turned and looked as the helicopter that had been next to them began to spin uncontrollably; spiraling faster and faster in a dive, ultimately hitting a nearby building and bursting into flames.
"It has to be Sylar," Mohinder said. "No one else… no one else can do that."
Their helicopter jerked again to the right, circling back toward whatever it was causing the problems.
"Why are they going back?" Claire asked, growing frantic. "Why are they going back?"
"They want to catch him," Matt said, turning back toward his window.
There was a burst of gunfire from the helicopter just to their left, followed by several more. The convoy only had five helicopters left, but all of them seemed to be locking in on one single building.
They'd found their target.
Near as he could tell amid the confusion, the helicopter that had first opened fire was the next to be dropped. Just like the first one, the main rotor just stopped dead and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Claire turned as much as she could in her seat, still holding tight to Matt's hands, and tried to see for herself what was happening out of his window. Mohinder had leaned in toward Nathan, also trying to get a look at whatever it was happening.
There was more gunfire, more jolts, until finally they were close enough to the building in question to see that there was someone on the roof.
"Is it him?" Mohinder asked, still unable to see much of anything.
"No," Nathan said so quietly that it was almost went unheard.
He looked across the cabin at Matt wanting confirmation of what he'd witnessed. The look he received in return was all he needed.
Micah.
The convoy, now only four strong, drew closer, and there was no mistaking it anymore. Micah was the one on that roof, bringing down helicopters as if he was swatting flies.
They opened fire again and Matt turned away, afraid of seeing what would happen if they didn't miss.
But they did because the next thing he knew there was the now familiar whine of an engine being overworked and one more helicopter began to doing loops and spins Matt never thought possible of that type of machine.
Claire and Mohinder still didn't know. They couldn't get close enough to look for themselves, the angle too steep and their seatbelts too firm. Matt didn't want to tell them, and it appeared that neither did Nathan.
Amazingly, they swung lower.
Jenny was apparently either angry or intrigued, that could be the only explanation. She didn't care how many of her people died in the attempt, only that she got what she wanted.
Now they were so close, that on the next pass, Matt and Nathan were practically eye level with Micah.
Claire gasped as she recognized Micah, shaking her head in a convulsive manner. Mohinder said nothing, only sat back against his own chair, refusing to watch any longer.
But that was it.
Not only could they see him, Micah could see them.
As soon as Micah made eye contact, as slight and brief as it had been, with first Claire and then Matt, the spell seemed broken.
Micah looked around him as though not certain how or why he was there and then made a break for it.
"Run," Claire said under her breath. "Run."
A few more burst of gunfire and then they were turning again.
"Did he…"
"He made it," Nathan told Mohinder, sighing heavily and leaning back in his seat.
Claire rested her head on Matt's shoulder, trying hard to hold back the tears that had spontaneously sprung to her eyes.
Matt dipped his head down low, saying something to Claire that neither Mohinder nor Nathan could make out. Whatever it was, it seemed to do the trick. Claire no longer looked frightened or tearful when she looked up again.
Mohinder couldn't watch them anymore, it felt like an intrusion, but Nathan couldn't turn away.
Matt and Claire exchanged a few more looks, looks that obviously conveyed some type of message, but neither of them had spoken. He was beginning to doubt that they needed to.
Nathan watched until Claire gave a slight nod to Matt and then returned her head to his shoulder and shut her eyes, still holding onto his hands.
He watched a moment longer until he realized that Matt was now watching him in return.
Nathan cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed, and then made to look away but Matt shook his head slightly at him and continued to stare back.
Finally Matt turned away, seemingly disgusted, but Nathan could not tell if it was with him or with himself.
For half a minute or more Nathan continued to watch the other man as he stared out the window, oblivious to the scenery that passed before his eyes and obviously in deep thought.
Nathan couldn't understand what had just happened, or what was happening right now. And maybe he just wanted to believe it, maybe it wasn't real, but he was quite certain that while Matt had been making eye contact with him just a moment before he had heard something.
Nathan could have sworn he heard a single word, quiet but urgent, whispered to him inside his head using Matt's voice.
'Concentrate.'
