Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight or Heroes; I just like borrowing from them and twisting things to suit my own purposes.
So, here's the sequel to Perfect Storm, and unlike its predecessor this story can't be read as a standalone since it picks up directly where the last one left off. The first part of it will be based on Heroes s2, and then go completely AU for the second half. Also, I've decided this will be my last Heroes/Twilight crossover; I've really enjoyed my time in this fandom, but I think I've pretty much exhausted all the possibilities here.
Chapter 1: The Day the Whole World Went Away
"Stay with me...please..."
But no matter what Peter did, Bella wouldn't wake up. Even though her airway was clear, she seemed unable to breathe, and he had to face the fact that maybe he couldn't save her. Maybe he should take her to a hospital, although he didn't see how he could possibly make it before she suffered permanent brain damage, even if he flew. He needed to get her there right now...
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he and Bella were instantly transported to the nearest emergency room. Peter had almost forgotten the Japanese time traveler who seemed able to appear wherever he wanted, and he had no idea how he'd tapped into the man's power without thinking of him, nor did he care; he was just glad it had happened. "Help! I need some help here!"
The hospital staff leapt into action, loading Bella onto a gurney and wheeling her away while one of them jumped up there with her and started performing CPR to keep oxygen in her blood. "Keep her alive no matter what it takes, you understand?" Peter called after them.
"Excuse me." A nurse was tugging on his sleeve. "Can you tell me what happened?"
He spent the next fifteen minutes answering questions about the events leading up to Bella's sudden loss of consciousness (had she had too much to drink? Taken drugs? Had a seizure?), everything he knew about her medical history (which admittedly wasn't much; as far as he could tell she had always been perfectly healthy), and her next of kin. The nurse seemed a bit skeptical of his cover story, which gave the impression that he and Bella were just strolling through Kirby Plaza when she collapsed for no apparent reason, and kept looking curiously at his burned shirt, but decided not to pursue the issue; the police could do that, if the doctors suspected foul play.
He hurried off to report his findings, and Peter thought he should probably get out of there before someone called the cops, but he didn't. He couldn't leave without knowing whether they had been able to revive Bella, even if staying meant getting arrested. As he headed for the waiting room, it occurred to him that he was bound to attract unwanted attention if he walked in looking like he'd just escaped a firebombing, and then he remembered Candice the shapeshifter, who had changed her clothes as well as her face. Maybe he could use her power to make himself look less scorched and disheveled. Closing his eyes, he focused on the image he wanted to project, then opened them to find his clothes exactly as they had been before he exploded.
Mastering some new ability usually sent a surge of exhilaration through him, but any excitement he might have felt was quickly snuffed out by the almost reflexive thought that flashed through his mind - I've gotta tell Bella about this - before his subconscious caught up with reality and he remembered that he might not get to tell her anything ever again.
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After what seemed like a very long time, one of the doctors who had worked on Bella came out to the waiting area to let him know what had happened. "Your friend is...stable," she told Peter, although she didn't look as cheerful as most doctors did when reporting a successful outcome.
"But?"
The doctor hesitated. "It's a strange case," she said slowly. "There's no outward sign of injury, but she seems to have suffered severe trauma to her brain. We'll need to run more tests, get a second and maybe even a third opinion as we explore treatment options..." She was trying to reassure him, but her thoughts told a different story. Whatever happened to that girl, it left her in bad shape - she can't even breathe on her own. There's a good chance she's never going to wake up.
"She'll never wake up?" Peter repeated in a voice that sounded calm only because he was too shell-shocked to get upset. "Are you sure?"
The doctor blinked; she didn't think she'd said that part out loud. "It's really too early to tell. We haven't-"
"Can I see her?"
"Are you family?"
"She doesn't have any family nearby; her father lives in Washington."
The doctor nodded sympathetically. "You can stay with her as long as you want. I bet he'll be glad she isn't alone." She showed him to the ICU, where Bella was being carefully monitored as they tried to work out the cause of her condition. "I'll check back with you after I make my rounds. Press the call button if there's any change, okay?"
Peter nodded absently, never taking his eyes off the motionless form in the bed. Someone had cleaned the blood off her face and closed her eyes - she might have looked peaceful if not for the breathing tube down her throat and all the other wires and tubes hooked into her body, some wrapped around her hands while others snaked under her hospital gown, connecting her to a host of machines. He sat down on the edge of her bed, careful not to disturb the equipment as he reached out and touched her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Bella. This is all my fault; I thought I was a hero, that I would save the world, but instead I almost destroyed it. I would have, if it wasn't for you. You're the real hero."
Being heroic didn't sound as good as it had when he first discovered his powers, though. Of course he was glad the city was safe, but he couldn't help feeling that Bella's life was too high a price to pay for saving it - maybe she wasn't technically dead yet, but according to that doctor she might as well be. If someone had to die, it should've been me. It seemed horribly unfair that the explosion had been his fault, yet he had walked away without a scratch while Bella lay here with a machine breathing for her.
"It's such a tragedy to see someone so young cut down in the prime of life, isn't it?"
He glanced up - and saw that the voice belonged to Daniel Linderman. "You! What the hell are you doing here?"
"Well, when I realized the nuclear holocaust had been averted, I turned my helicopter around and returned to investigate. With my resources, it wasn't terribly difficult to locate you - or at least it was easy to discover that your friend had been admitted to this hospital, and I was certain you would be wherever she was."
"What do you want?" Peter growled, clenching his fists as he fought the urge to punch the old man in the face. If only they were somewhere, anywhere else...but an intensive care unit, with all its critically ill patients and delicate equipment, was not a good place for a fistfight.
"What I've always wanted: to aid in the betterment of humankind."
"You've got a funny way of going about it."
Linderman sighed and arranged his face into an expression of contrition. "Perhaps it was misguided of me to think a large-scale disaster could be a catalyst for good, but you must understand that I believed the city's destruction was inevitable. I was merely trying to make the best of a bad situation."
"No, you wanted it to happen. You kidnapped Bella to try and stop her from helping me."
"As I said, I was misguided; I'd become so focused on how I would manage the explosion's aftermath that I no longer considered the possibility that it might be better if it didn't happen in the first place."
"So now you want me to believe you've seen the error of your ways? It's a little late for that." Peter's gaze flicked back to Bella. "The damage is done."
"Yes, but we can still stop something similar from happening to anyone else. The organization I work for once undertook research aimed at creating a vaccine to neutralize the abilities of dangerous people like Sylar and yourself-"
"'Neutralize'? You mean you can take away our powers?"
"That was the idea, yes."
Peter got in Linderman's face again. "So you could've stopped Sylar's killing spree any time you wanted, you could've kept me from exploding, but you just let it all happen?!"
"No, I didn't - haven't I already said I believed there was no way to stop the explosion? Sadly, our vaccine was never completed - we weren't able to create a working formula, and then we lost our top scientist - but due to recent events, I think it's time we take that project off the shelf."
"You keep saying 'we'..."
"Yes, I'd very much like your help to make my vision of a world where someone like Sylar could easily be rendered powerless a reality. You have exceptional power, Peter - you would be the ultimate test of our efforts."
"You want me to be your guinea pig?" The idea that he would agree to that was ridiculous...on the other hand, would getting rid of his powers really be so bad? In the end, they'd brought him nothing but grief. All the good he'd thought he would do had turned out to be just a pipe dream; the only thing he had accomplished with his so-called gifts was destroying the girl he loved. Really, what good had any of them done? They hadn't exactly solved all the world's problems - in fact, the world would have been better off if people like Sylar and Ted had been normal. Then there were the ones like Nathan and Claire who just wanted to live their lives free of the complications and danger that came with being different, but couldn't because of something they never asked for and had no choice in. Maybe everybody would be better off if all these special abilities just went away...
Sensing that Peter was starting to come around to his way of thinking, Linderman added one final push. "And of course if we didn't have to devote valuable resources to dealing with threats like Sylar, we could focus more on other ways of helping people, such as improving modern medicine. We might even be able to find a remedy for Miss Swan's unfortunate condition."
The empath's eyes widened ever so slightly; he looked at Bella again, then back at Linderman. "You really think you could do that?"
"I believe it's a definite possibility."
Peter's answer was immediate and decisive. "If you can help her, I'll do whatever you want."
Linderman beamed; people were so easy to manipulate when they were blinded by emotion. "Excellent!" He pulled back the privacy curtain around Bella's bed and motioned to the Haitian, who had been lurking out of sight, making sure Linderman's ploy wasn't ruined by Peter reading his mind at an inopportune moment. "Have you finished the memory wipes?"
The Haitian nodded. "No one will remember that we were here."
"Memory wipes?"
"Secrecy is an unfortunate necessity in our line of work, Peter," Linderman patiently explained. "I assure you the procedure is entirely harmless and painless." It was mostly true - a person had to be subjected to repeated memory wipes over a long period of time before suffering serious residual damage, and if there was any pain involved, it was instantly forgotten. "Now, if you'll follow my colleague outside..."
He lingered for a moment after Peter left with the Haitian, staring into Bella's still, expressionless face. He could heal her right now, but he had no intention of doing so. Awake, she had been nothing but trouble, whereas in her current state she made a very useful bargaining chip to hold over Peter; besides, while he liked to think he was above such pettiness, he had to admit that it was rather satisfying to see the stubbornly defiant girl who had been directly responsible for helping Peter thwart his plans reduced to a lifeless shell. No, he told himself, I do believe it's best if Bella Swan stays right where she is.
