Revelations by SLynn
Summary: In the end is the beginning. Sequel to 'Resurrection'.
Spoilers: AU after 'Fallout'
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing and will return them all when I'm done, virtually untouched.
Notes: Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially on a roll! Enjoy!
Chapter 29: Reality
It had been too much to watch. Matt wasn't sure what had come over him, only that it had been too much to watch. Claire might not have realized it, but Jenny had been killing her. She'd been slowly suffocating her mind. Matt knew it and he'd only meant to stop it; he hadn't realized what he was actually doing until it was too late. And he wasn't done yet.
Walking swiftly down the corridors, the gun he'd lifted from the dead guard pressed tightly in his hand. Matt already knew where she'd go. He could still hear her frantic thoughts in his head.
He paused only once when the lights began to flicker and go out. It slowed Matt down, but not much. He was still able to follow the sound inside his head.
As he rounded the last corner, something changed. The fearful voice he'd been following dimmed, replaced by a steady buzz of static-like noise. This hall, this last one, was still lit. The lights were harsh, making it appear too white to be real, and the walls were stretching and pulling him towards the end where Jenny stood waiting.
Matt's head began to ache as he stared at her. She looked different. Her skin was gray against the whiteness of her surroundings and when she did finally look at him, she fixed him with a gaze that was hard to match.
"You're in over your head, Matthew."
When she'd said it, her voice boomed and echoed and changed. It wasn't just Jenny.
It was Claire. It was Audrey. It was Janice.
His mother; his father. Claire's father.
Peter. Sylar. Nathan. Anthony.
Rapid cycles of voices and images filled not just his head, but his eyes, causing him to stagger backwards briefly. But Matt was determined. Shaking it off as best he could, he took his first step forward.
"You can't stop me."
The voices were louder now and nearer too. The images, the people he knew, surrounding him. Matt tried to focus, tried to remember that it wasn't real. Jenny was just trying to distract him. She didn't want him here, so this is where he needed to be.
He took another step.
"You're nothing compared to me."
It was blinding now, the hall gone and in it's place a tunnel of light. The harshness of it forced him to shut his eyes, and yet still he saw it. None of it would go away. None of it would leave. The only way to end it was to end her. To reach Jenny and make her stop.
Three more steps forward and blood started to drip from his nose.
"Give up and go back now."
His head throbbed from the noise and the surroundings. The blood was now coming from his ears. Image upon image racked his brain making it more difficult than ever to keep concentrating on what he was doing and why he was here. It would be easy to give up, but he couldn't.
Another five steps, all staggered, but complete. He was nearly to her now. Almost there.
"When you die, I'll be the only one with you."
"I know," Matt agreed, struggling to speak. "Anthony told me how it ends."
Lunging the last few feet, Matt had made it. As soon as he tried to close his arms around her though, she was gone. Everything was gone. The hallway was once more just a hallway, complete with emergency lights stuttering to stay alive. The voices, the images, the noise: all of it gone.
Shaking his head he saw now that the distance was actually about ten feet, but it had felt like miles. And instead of Jenny, there was a door.
Matt wiped his hand across his nose out of habit; the blood didn't concern him. He had to prepare himself for this. He had to be ready. Pausing, readjusting his grip on the gun he still held on to in his right hand, Matt reached with his left to slowly the pull the door open.
"Matt?"
He froze.
"Don't believe her."
Matt held the gun up, turning from one to the other, completely baffled.
"She's the one. It's her, not me. Can't you tell?"
It was a perfect imitation that Jenny, whichever one she was, had no doubt been working on for some time using Matt's memories of Claire.
"What is she doing to you?" Claire, the one on the left, asked, taking a tentative step forward.
"Stay back," Matt said, immediately swinging the gun on her.
They were completely identical in every regard and each moved and spoke…
"Matt," Claire, the one on his right, said now. "Maybe you should just put the gun down and…"
"I'm not putting down the gun," Matt barked, turning it on her now instead. "Not until I know…"
"Okay," Claire-on-his-left agreed, holding her hands up tentatively to try and relax him. "It's okay, Matt, please…"
"Shut up," he snapped, his eyes darting between them.
There was something more going on here, and he couldn't figure it out; something more than just a masquerade. It was making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, but there was no placing it.
"Damn it," he said, moving the gun back and forth between them; the strain starting to show in his voice. "I can't tell… I can't tell which…"
"Shoot us both then," Claire-on-the-right said.
"Matt?" the other Claire called out, anything else she might have said drowned out by the sound of the first shot.
He'd done just as she'd said, shot Claire-on-the right square in the chest. Matt had paused briefly, turned the gun to the other Claire, before finally hearing it. The one stray thought that gave the whole game away and let the pieces all fall into place. It was in the space of a blink, and it was then that he turned the gun to the empty space between the two women.
Matt fired the gun until it was empty, and as soon as he hit his mark, the Claire he had shot disappeared. Jenny sprawled backwards, crashing into the lab table in a storm of bullets. Matt continued to advance on her, even after the gun began to 'click' instead of fire. Stopping to stand over her. Staring down in disbelief before dropping the gun.
"Matt?" Claire called out as she placed a hand tentatively on his arm, trying gently to move him from the spot. "Let's go. Let's… let's get out of here. Right now, Matt. Please."
"Is she…"
"Yes," Claire answered, unable to give the body more than a brief glance. "She's dead. Let's…"
"It's over?"
"It's over," Claire repeated, finally succeeding in pulling him a few feet towards the door.
"I couldn't tell," Matt said, shaking his head. "I couldn't tell you apart. It wasn't until I realized that you couldn't see… You thought I'd lost it. You didn't know what she was doing… Couldn't see yourself there…"
"You're hurt," Claire sobbed, the weight of it all starting to crash upon her. "Let me…"
"I'm fine," Matt insisted, stumbling out of her grasp and back into the hallway before doubling over in a wave of nausea.
"Oh, God," Claire said, rushing to his side. "What did she do to you? What…"
Claire took his face in her hands and tried to suppress the cry that wanted so desperately to escape. He was bleeding now, badly, from his nose and mouth; even from his ears. Matt's left eye had gone completely white, blinded and scarred in some way that Claire wasn't sure how.
"I'll make it okay," she said, trying to hold him still as he'd begun to shake.
"No," he mumbled, his voice thick. "Claire…"
"You're going to be fine," she shouted back at him angrily. "I won't… After all this…"
"It's what I was supposed to do…"
"No," she said, shaking her head and refusing to let go of him. "You're supposed to stay with me."
"Claire," he said, his voice getting weaker as he spoke. "You should know… You do know, don't you? I know I never…"
"Shut up," she said quickly, talking over his words. "You're not going to die. I won't let you."
"You can't keep me alive forever…"
"I can for now."
Matt tried to repress a laugh and only partially succeeded. It came out instead like a cough, but the bleeding had finally stopped.
"I'm sorry," he gasped. "I'm sorry for this and I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't want…"
"I know you didn't," Claire said with a nod, fixating on his eyes; slowly clearing up the longer she watched.
"You know then," he said, placing his hands over hers. "You…"
"I love you, too," she said, smiling through her tears.
"Hey, I'm the mind reader here," Matt said, breathing easier and sitting more upright than before.
"Well, then I shouldn't have to tell you."
Matt held her gaze for a moment before sighing and shaking his head, realizing there was so much still wrong between them. So many awful things he couldn't forgive himself for. Hoping she wasn't letting her concern for him mask her contempt. Searching her thoughts, looking for a sign that it wasn't so very terrible as he feared.
"He told you," he said, finally looking like himself again. "Nathan told you…"
"You knew?"
"Not at first," Matt admitted, not happy to be dwelling on their last meeting before this. "I thought… I was wrong."
"Can you stand?" Claire asked, apparently unaffected by his confession.
Matt nodded, letting her help him to his feet and he knew it wasn't that Claire was carried away in the moment. She still loved him the way he loved her; it was all he had left now.
"Why did you do this?" she asked as they began to walk slowly down the hallway. "Matt, you didn't have to. You didn't…"
"Yes, I did."
"Was it her? Did she…"
Claire's voice trailed off as Matt suddenly froze in his tracks. Looking up, her first instinct was to run, but not away. Claire had actually taken a step forward when Matt's hand closed tightly around her arm and pulled her backwards.
"Wait," he said in a rush. "It could be…"
"She's dead, Matt," Claire said quietly. "It can't be her. She's dead. It has to be…"
"Claire?" the voice at the end of the hall called out. "Matt? Is that…"
"It's him," Claire said certainly, breaking into a smile she didn't think she still had in her. "It's Peter. It is, I know it is."
Only Claire seemed sure. Both men continued to stare warily at one another until Matt had heard enough. He let go of her arm, he let go of her, and watched as she ran the rest of the way right into Peter's arms.
Matt dropped his head to give them at least the appearance of privacy, turning his thoughts briefly to his last talk with Anthony.
Anthony had told him so many things, so many contradictory things, that at the time it was hard to imagine any of them would come true. But he'd gone along blindly, hopefully, and here they were. Anthony had said they'd get help, and here was Peter. He'd said that Jenny would try and kill Claire, and she had. Anthony had told Matt that he'd be the one to kill Jenny, and that came true too.
Matt was starting to believe that that ending Anthony kept promising him was actually a reality.
