The Nightstalkers

Disclaimers: I don't own anything. That's what you want to hear, right? "hides boxset"

AN: An A.U.. Another short Sylar/Claire fic that's been bugging me for a while. Damn plot bunnies hopping all over the place.

Summary: After another battle of powers with Peter, Sylar vows to kill the medic once & for all. But he had been thrown so far ahead in time & left with no way to get back. When he finds Claire, he realizes just how dire his predicament is. She no longer remembers him. Can his beloved cheerleader crack that stone he has for a heart? Can he find a way back before the world falls apart?

(1) Forgotten

Sylar flew into the cloud, hoping Peter would follow. He pulled the vapors around himself to hide & waited.

"I won't let you get away so easily, Sylar!" Peter threatened as he plunged into the cloud.

"You think this is easy?" Sylar released a small burst of electricity. It erupted in the cloud like a lightening bolt, striking Peter down. He slowly drifted to the ground & landed light as a feather close to Peter who was still picking himself off the dirt. "Hmm, you're right. This is easy," Sylar scoffed before catching Peter by the throat, using force alone. "You're hardly a challenge." He tossed the medic back several feet into the wall of the nearest building. He walked towards him as Peter crumpled at the base of the wall. "More like an annoyance."

Peter stood up & cracked his neck. Shooting a dark glare at the killer still advancing on him, he seethed in a low voice, "You're history, Sylar! It ends now!"

"Yes," Sylar grinned, lifting his finger to make his deadly cut. "It does. You don't have all your powers any more. All you can do is fly at the moment. So I can put you down."

"Oh I switched while waiting for you to land," Peter hissed, nodding to someone standing close to him.

Sylar blinked. Peter & his friend had vaporized before his eyes. "Hiro's power?" He muttered a moment before his nose snapped sideways on the very wall he had just put Peter against.

Peter had teleported behind him & shoved Sylar forward. "Yep! Teleportation & time travel." He clapped one hand on Sylar's shoulder for a moment. Sylar spun around, hand up to cut, hoping to slice into Peter's throat.

Three large trees fell instead. Peter was nowhere in sight & Sylar was standing in what seemed to be a meadow, but the grass was withered & yellow. Sylar wiped the blood away from his face as his wounds healed, then groaned loudly. "What did you do to me now?"

Looking around, he could see that he was alone in a dying wilderness. The trees were mostly brown. The ones he had cut down had been bleached white. There were no more buildings or people around. He began walking forward, hoping to find a way out of this place & get back to civilization.

Sylar flew upwards to look at where he was. The deadwood forest stretched for miles in all directions. He moved over the grayed landscape for almost an hour but found no one. The sun was starting to set & the bony branches cast long shadows over the ground. He landed among the trees & leaned against one large white one for a moment, trying to figure out where he was. "I better still be in America, Peter, or I'm really going to make you miserable when I get back!" The tree fell away from him, causing him to stumble forward away from it. Sylar glared at the dead log now lying on the ground, then kicked it. "I'm going to KILL you!" He shouted at the darkening sky.

Sylar was about to take flight again, this time to go higher & get beyond this strange place, but he paused when he heard water running. He went down the ridge to find a stream flowing to the edge of a cliff. It plunged into a large pool at the bottom. He saw someone swimming in it & silently slipped down the steep incline.

Staying among the brambles, he moved closer to the edge of the lake at the bottom of the waterfall. Here, things were greener & the lush plants provided better coverage. By now, he could see that it was a woman swimming naked in the water. She had long blonde hair. He watched her come out to stand on the shore, swishing her wet hair sideways to wring it out. He gasped under breath. "Claire?" He could only stare. He had always wanted to see her like this. He had obsessed over her for ages, but now that it was happening, he felt uneasy. It wasn't like her to go skinny dipping in wild lakes. He knew her better than that since he was the perfect stalker after all. He stood up.

Claire looked straight at him. At first, she was startled, seeing him there, then slightly confused as to why he was there. They stared at each other for a long moment of silence. Sylar wondered if she had forgotten that she wasn't dressed for she just looked at him as if questioning his very existence.

"Someone please say something," Sylar whispered under breath as they continued to gaze at each other.

Claire suddenly moved. It made Sylar jump a little. She picked up her dress, then looked beyond him towards the setting sun. He glanced around but saw nothing. Looking back at her, he noticed she had already covered herself at last & she was starting to move away from him, as if no longer caring he was there. Thoroughly confused, he watched her leave.

When she stepped onto a hidden path, Claire looked back at him. "Come! Hurry!"

"What? You want me to follow you?" Sylar asked. "Now that's a first."

"Come on!" Claire urged, almost terrified of something. But it wasn't of him for once. Quick as a deer, she was already running up the trail.

Sylar flew upwards to meet her at the top. But she never emerged. He couldn't find where the trail led to the summit. He dropped back down but in the gathering darkness it was hard to see where Claire had gone off to. He was about to call her but something whacked him from behind, screeching loudly. For the second time that day, Sylar was thrown forward. He quickly got up. He felt more than heard his attacker swooping in for a second blow. Sylar threw himself sideways & saw the beast glide by close to the ground. He snatched it with his power, throwing the creature against the rocks. It shrieked & squirmed, almost strong enough to break free of Sylar's forceful grip but he hung on.

"What the hell are you?" Sylar asked himself, slowly moving forward.

The thing was about eight feet tall & had membranes on its sides for gliding. It had spikes for teeth. Sylar raised his free hand & cut across the chest, splitting the beast open in a shower of blood. It screamed one last time, then quivered & fell still. He stepped forward to examine it, but heard another screech in the distance, then again but closer. There were others out there.

"What are you doing?" Claire had returned. She grabbed his arm. "You killed it without trapping it first? How?" He opened his mouth to reply but she pulled on him. "Never mind. Tell me inside. Now let's go!" She all but dragged him back up the trail & he soon found out why it didn't appear at the top.

They went into the cliff in an opening behind the waterfall. Claire bolted it shut then lifted a torch & led the way down the hall. The firelight cast dancing shadows on the damp rock. The tunnel soon opened up into a spacious cave lined with torches on the sides. Claire put hers in a stand by three others near the middle of the place then turned to him.

"What is this place?" Sylar asked.

Claire seemed to hesitate before answering. "My home."

"Really?" Sylar deflated slightly. She hadn't lied but he knew she didn't live here. Right? "Why aren't you back in Costa Verde?"

Claire put her hands up. "Slow down," she spoke evenly, as if thinking every word over. "You talk." She turned her head a little, like an owl. "Too fast. What is this place you mention?"

Sylar blinked. What the hell was going on? "Costa Verde?" She nodded silently. "Uh, it's a city by the ocean."

"You've seen the ocean?" Claire asked. "It has been many ages since I have." She turned & walked down another tunnel at the opposite end of the cave.

Sylar was about to follow, when he thought of something. "Not where, Peter. When? Oh I'm going to kill you for this!" He hurried after Claire. He found her in another cave that was lower than the one they had just come out of. The stream flowed through here, coming in from an opening.

Claire moved upto a large cage & checked it over. "Who are you?"

"Sylar."

"Sylar," She repeated to herself, then turned back to the cage. "How did you kill that beast out there?"

Sylar could only stare at her, realizing that she didn't remember him. Had someone erased Claire's memories? "It's an ability I have. I can move things just by thinking about it. That's how I caught that thing, then I just sliced it open with my power."

"I watched you," Claire said. "I've never seen such power before."

But she had! Worse, she had been at the brutal receiving end of them, too. "Are you sure?" Sylar asked, still not sensing any lies.

"I've been alone for centuries," Claire said, making Sylar gasp. "The human race is extinct. I'm only here since I can't die." She turned to him. "Or so that's what I had believed for such a long time. How are you here?"

"I have your power," Sylar replied softly.

"You can't die either?" Claire asked. Sylar shook his head, but then his whole body began to shake. Claire merely clasped a bar on the cage & waited. "It does that," She said once the tremor was over. "Two or three quakes a day. You'll get used to them."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Claire shrugged.

Sylar leaned against the cage. "You haven't told me your name?"

Claire looked at him for a long time. "I don't remember."

"You don't remember your own name?"

"I told you," Claire said. "I haven't seen or spoken to anyone in a very long time."

"You speak quite well, though," Sylar pointed out.

"I have a few books I used to keep reading," Claire began. "I thought I should keep it up in case I ever found someone. But I stopped since no one seemed to turn up." She moved closer to him. "Then you came."

"It's an accident," Sylar shrugged.

Claire put a hand on his arm. "I'm glad you came here. I always had a feeling there would be someone out there somewhere like me. Will you stay a while?"

"I don't have any other place to go at the moment," Sylar replied. "Claire. I'm going to call you Claire."

"Uh wow," Claire stepped back, almost bashful. "A friend & a name all at once."

The place trembled again for a moment. "Shouldn't we get away from here?" Sylar slowly let go of the cage once he could stand again.

"Where would we go?" Claire asked. "Anything within a day's reach will still shake. There isn't much cover out there from the Nightstalkers."

"Nightstalkers? That thing I killed?" Sylar said. "What exactly are those things?"

"They come out at night & eat anything they can catch," Claire answered. "Sometimes one will stray in here. That's what this cage is for. I kill them when they're caught. Usually shoot them with an arrow. They're not hard to kill if they aren't moving. But I guess you already know that. You must have killed plenty with that power of yours."

"I've never seen one until now," Sylar admitted.

Claire stared at him. "Is that even possible? There's a place on Earth they don't live?"

"Place. Time, more like," Sylar said. "I'm not from around here."

"I can see that," Claire replied. "Where do you come from?"

"New York."

"New York?" Claire exclaimed. "I've read about that place in a couple of books. Are we close to New York?"

"I have no idea," Sylar replied. "I don't even know where I am."

"Well, how did you get here then?"

"Peter transported me," Sylar muttered.

"Peter. Is he a friend of yours?"

"HA!" Sylar scoffed loudly. "No. Hell no! We've hated each other since we first met. I would rather die than be friends with the likes of him. Am I ever going to kill him if I get back!"

"So there are others in New York?" Claire mused to herself. "If only there was a way to get there."

"I will try to fly there tomorrow," Sylar said.

"You can fly?" Claire asked. Sylar replied by flying upto the domed ceiling of the cave. Claire had both hands over her mouth by the time he came back down. "You have many powers?"

"Yes, I do. Peter used to as well, but now he can only have one at a time."

Claire finished resetting her trap, then walked by Sylar, heading back up to the previous cave. "I'd like to meet him," she said once Sylar had crossed the threshold into the living quarters. She closed the door & locked it with two beams of wood. "I have some fish ready. Are you hungry? You can tell me about New York & Peter." She pulled something out of the fire at the far end of the room where a small vent leading out to the sky could let the smoke out. She put the fish onto two small boards, then sat down beside Sylar on the floor near the center of the cave.

"What year is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure anymore," Claire admitted. "It's uh, seventy-two ... something or other."

Sylar had to put his plate aside before he dropped it. "Could you repeat that please?"

"Seventy-two, something. I think seventy-two eighty or there about. Why?"

Sylar pressed the tips of his fingers of both hands to his nose for a moment. "I'm gonna crucify that guy!" Five thousand years? Peter had tossed him five thousand years into the future? No way!

"Peter, again?" Claire laughed. "Are you sure you aren't friends?"

"That idiot catapulted me five freaking millennia into the future!" Sylar retorted. "If I ever find a way to time travel, he's going to die!"

Claire was still snickering. "What year is it supposed to be for you then?"

"Two thousand nine."

"That is far back," said Claire. "I can't remember it. I don't even know when I was born, but I have been around for a few millennia anyway. What?" She sheepishly glanced around, then back at him. "What?" She asked again, still amused.

Sylar was looking at her in a way that usually would terrify anyone. He slowly stood up. "I know," he said. "I know everything about you. I was there."

"Really?" Claire finished off the last bit of her fish. "How? I've never seen you before."

That confirmed it. Claire had forgotten things because it was too long ago. She had forgotten him because Peter had ended it as he had promised. She didn't remember Peter either which probably meant that someone had taken Peter out at last. "I got my Regen ability from you," Sylar said. "You can't die & neither can I. You seriously don't remember me coming for you, to get your ability?"

Claire shook her head. "No. It was too long ago, I guess. But I'm glad you did. I'm not alone anymore." Sylar could only stare at her, not believing she would say something like that. She took his hand for a moment. "If you go to New York, can you take me with you? I'd like to find other survivors."

Sylar picked her up in his arms for a moment. "Yes, I can carry you easily." He put her down. "But I should warn you, I don't think the New York of today will be anything like your books."

"It's still better than here," Claire pointed out. "It's by the ocean, isn't it? I'd like to see the ocean again."