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.

Chapter 17: Damaged

Jacobs led them to a room and asked them to wait a minute while he explained the situation to Jonah and the council.

Claire was so nervous. She knew she was right, she had to be right, but part of her worried about the reception they'd receive. How would he take the news? Would he remember them? Would he remember her?

It seemed like an eternity from the time Jacobs disappeared into the room until he rejoined them.

"Ready?" he asked Claire.

She nodded, feeling a bit faint.

It was almost too good to be true.

Jacobs opened the door and ushered them inside. Albert met them at the door, shook each of their hands and smiled warmly. Claire's eyes fell next on David who didn't look quite so happy to see them, nodding crisply and saying nothing. Beatrice was further in the room, standing in the back beside him.

Beside Peter.

Claire smiled broadly, so relieved to see him.

She thought she might be dreaming, she had to be dreaming, but knew she wasn't. It was really him. It was really Peter, alive and standing there in front of her.

"Hi," he said, coming forward and extending a hand to her. "Jacobs said you know me."

Claire took his hand in her own and felt like she might cry.

Peter smiled at her, that smile she couldn't forget and never thought she'd see again. A little crooked and completely endearing.

It was him, even if he didn't know it.

Claire suddenly realized why he was smiling; she'd never let go of his hand.

"Sorry," she said, blushing. "It's just… it's really good to see you."

Niki nodded in agreement beside her, unable to keep from staring.

"Please, sit down," Beatrice offered, indicating the chairs on the other side of the table from where they stood.

"Thank you," Claire said, taking her up on it.

"Why don't Micah and I go and get something to eat," Jacobs stated. "Is that alright?"

Niki nodded in agreement.

"But…"

Niki shook her head sharply, stopping any further entreaty on her son's part.

Jacobs and Micah left, leaving the rest of them to sort it all out; something easier said than done.

"I don't know what to say," Claire said, still smiling. "It's so strange. We thought you had died. We looked and never found… How… What happened to you? Where did you go? "

"I really couldn't say," Peter said, sitting opposite her and rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "A lot of it's fuzzy."

"How did you get here?" Claire asked. "Do you…"

"I've always been here," he answered. "It's all… that's as far as my memories go."

"Don't you remember…"

"I'm sorry," he interrupted. "I really am, but I don't know you. I thought I might recognize… I hoped I would, but neither of you are familiar. I'm sorry, I wish I did know you. I wish…"

He trailed off and only shrugged.

"You don't remember anything?" Niki asked, repeating Claire's unfinished sentiment. "Nothing at all? Not Claire or Isaac? Me or Micah? What about Mohinder, do you remember him? Hiro? Does none of this…"

"What about your brother?" Claire interrupted. "Do you remember him?"

Peter looked momentarily confused before shutting his eyes and shaking his head abruptly, leaning back in his chair.

"No," he said. "It's all… it's just gone. I remember, sometimes I remember… it isn't much. Was there someone named Angela…"

"Your mother," Claire said hopefully. "Angela was your mother's name."

"Was?" he asked. "What happened to her?"

"She," Claire hesitated, "um, she died. She was killed not long before the explosion."

"By who?"

Claire and Niki looked at one another, unsure if they should tell him or not.

"I deserve to know," he insisted. "If you really think I'm this guy Peter, shouldn't I know?"

"You don't remember," Claire said with a sigh. "You really don't. It's how you got that scar."

Peter reached up and traced the scar's path with his fingers. It started just above his left eyebrow before slipping down the bridge of his nose, ending underneath his right eye. It had always left him with an uneasy feeling; he'd always wondered how it had happened.

"You were at your mother's home," Claire continued. "And, uh, someone broke in. They killed her, but they were looking... You tried to stop him but… Hiro saved you. He stopped…"

Claire looked at Niki for assurance. She wasn't used to telling near perfect strangers all their secrets.

Peter wasn't the problem. She'd tell Peter whatever he wanted to know, it was the others. The three council members were also in the room. Claire wasn't sure how much too say in front of them.

Niki nodded slightly and Claire felt like she could continue.

"He stopped time. Hiro, he stopped time and got you out of there. He brought you to me, but by then it was too late to stop it from scarring. It healed but it was a very deep a cut. You wouldn't stay long enough. You wanted to get back…"

"I don't understand," Peter said. "Do you heal people? Is that what you do?"

"No," Claire answered. "Not exactly."

"What about my brother?" Peter asked, wanting to move on. He didn't like talking about his scar, even if he couldn't remember how it had happened. "You said I had a brother. Where is he? Is he, did he die too?"

"No," Claire said with a small shake of her head.

"Is he with you?" Peter asked growing a little more animated, excited even. "With your friends? Jacobs said you have more friends coming, is he…"

Claire just shook her head again, looking once more to Niki.

"Your brother is Nathan Petrelli," Niki said. "The Nathan Petrelli, head of the Order."

"No," Peter instantly dismissed.

"This is absurd," David finally broke in. "You expect us to believe this? What are you after? Who sent you here?"

"You don't have to believe it for it to be true," Niki said firmly, earning a smile from Albert. "Why would we make this up?"

"Hundreds of reasons," he scoffed.

"Name one," she returned.

"We don't need to do this," Beatrice said, standing up and placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. The man she knew as Jonah.

Claire shifted uncomfortable in her chair. Not liking the accusations coming from David. Liking less how easily Peter reached up and squeezed the other woman's hand in his.

"They're not lying," Albert added. "If they were, I could see it. There's no deception here. Nothing intentional at least."

"Does that mean I am who they think I am?" Peter asked.

"It means that they think so," Albert returned vaguely.

"So I'm back at square one," he said. "No offense, to either of you, but I can't believe what you're telling me. That if all of this happened I wouldn't somehow remember some of it. That I wouldn't remember…"

"You need to tell him everything," Niki said turning to Claire.

"There's more?" Peter asked.

"Are you…" Claire began.

"It's the only way he'll believe you," Niki cut in. "Even if he doesn't, these three are going to want to hear it. They need to hear it."

Claire looked around the room; all eyes were on her now staring back expectantly.

"I'm not sure…"

"Just tell them what you remember," Niki urged. "What you can."

"Okay," she said hesitantly. "It was here, in New York, three years ago. Isaac had painted these pictures of an explosion. Hiro had witnessed it. We all knew it was coming…"

Peter leaned forward, suddenly caught by the expression on her face. He didn't want to say it, to get her hopes up, but it was familiar. He really didn't recognize her face, but the expression, that expression just now was very familiar to him.

"Go on," Niki said gently.

"You had a dream that you caused it," Claire continued. "That you were the reason behind the explosion. Matt had tried to convince you that it wasn't true. We all tried. He knew a man, a man who could emit radiation. Matt was certain… But so were you… In the end it turned out to be Sylar."

"What do you know about Sylar?" David questioned.

"More than I want to," Claire returned.

"Later," Beatrice admonished David before turning back to Claire. "Please, continue with your story."

"Sylar had the list," Claire explained, condensing as much as she could. "He knew which of us had abilities, even if he didn't exactly know what those abilities might be. He didn't care, he just wanted them. It's what he did. He could see into people, see how it all worked. Whatever it is that makes us this way, he could see it."

"And he could mimic it? After he saw them," Peter added. "He could change his own…"

"Yes," Claire said quickly. "He could see it and alter his own makeup somehow to match. No one was ever quite sure how he did it but..."

"He took their brains."

"That's right," Claire nodded.

Peter looked at her with a mixture of dread and curiosity. Almost as if he didn't want to know the rest but couldn't help and listen.

"By the time he arrived back in New York he was nearly unstoppable. He's gained so much power… we didn't know what to do. And he was looking for us. Somehow he had found out who was meant to stop him and he was hunting us down."

"Sylar killed my mother."

Claire nodded.

"Was he looking for me? I don't…" Peter said, shaking his head again in an odd way. "I don't have any ability. Why would he be hunting me down? Why would I even be helping you if there was nothing…"

"He wasn't looking for you," Claire supplied for him. "He was looking for Nathan."

"Nathan Petrelli is not one of us," David cut in once more angrily. "That's a rumor. A false…"

"No he does," Peter said quickly. "He can fly."

"You remember," Claire said brightly.

"I don't know where that came from," Peter quickly admitted, confusion setting in once more.

"Please," Beatrice said, urging her to continue.

"We knew we were running out of time," Claire went on, "so we came up with a plan. There was no way to contain Sylar, we knew he had to be killed. You…"

"I don't do anything," Peter said harshly. "I don't believe…"

"Yes you do," Niki shot back. "You can absorb other people's powers temporarily. At least, you used to. I don't know if Sylar took it from you or if you just don't remember how, maybe you don't want to remember, but you are like us."

Peter shook his head and looked down at the table between them.

"The plan was that you, me, Hiro and Matt were to lure him out," Claire said, determined to go on. "I was to stay with you, to keep you from getting hurt. Matt was going to warn us, he could hear his thoughts; he was going to tell us what to expect. Hiro was going to stop time and give us any advantages he could."

"When it came down to it," Niki added, "I was supposed to hold him back. Hold him down so my husband could stop his heart. Nathan was going to get us out of there if he had to, if it got bad."

"But that didn't happen."

"No," Claire said shaking her head. "Like I said, he was on to us. Isaac had painted when and where it was supposed to happen but I guess the future sometimes changes. He was early. He cornered me, you and Matt. Without Hiro and the others…"

Claire paused to check her emotions.

"You told us to run," Claire finished. "You told Matt to get me out of there, to find help. You wanted us to save ourselves. Neither of us wanted to go, but we knew that alone… without everyone working together, there was no way… He was just too strong."

"There was no explosion?" Peter asked quietly.

"None."

"And all this damage," he continued, leaning in as if they were the only two in the room, "all this destruction, it was me? It was me and Sylar?"

Claire looked him straight in the eyes and could only nod.