Claire Bennet

New York, New York

The air was thick with tension. Across from her sat Heidi and Nathan, and the two of them sat, barely hiding the stress from her. Claire could see it creeping in at the sides of their faces, like they were wearing masks to keep something from her.

The restaurant was nice; it wasn't too fancy, just fancy enough for her to be wearing a dress. All three of them picked at their food.

"So, Claire," Heidi spoke up. "Where are you from?"

"Texas," Claire said, trying to be polite. Her mind raced through the tips Peter had given her before she left. He'd told her everything he could about dinner with Heidi, and she tried to follow each one. She'd been staying in Peter's guest room to ease the situation without her constant presence.

"Wow," Heidi said, and Claire could just hear the awkwardness ooze from her… Well, whatever Heidi was to her. She still wasn't calling Nathan Dad or anything, so how could Heidi expect to Claire to call her mom? This was completely beyond her. How was this supposed to go?

In the back of her mind, she heard Peter's answer when she asked him the same thing. No one knows, that's the fun of it. Just go, play it by ear, and remember what I told you. No one, least of all Nathan, is expecting you and Heidi to just immediately hit it off. Yeah, easy for him to say, probably laid up in bed, taking it easy.

"Have you decided where you're going to live, yet?" Heidi asked, bringing Claire back to the present.

"Pardon?" she asked.

"Where you're going to live?" Heidi asked. "I know your dad's still in town, but you still have a mom in Texas who loves you. Besides, someone your age should be in school. Are you going to stay in New York, or back to Texas?"

Claire shrugged. "I haven't given it a lot of thought. Before, I was sticking around and waiting for Peter to come back. Now, I don't really know." She forced it out. Claire had hoped no one would ever bring it up, at least not until she knew what she wanted to do. She looked over at Nathan, who was examining his food very closely.

"I just thought that if you wanted to stick around," Heidi said, "we could get you into the same private school that Nathan and Peter went to. The Petrelli name still goes a long way." Heidi seemed to fluster at that, and then added, "Not that you have to take the Petrelli name." Nathan almost sank under the table.

"That would be good, but still," Claire said, trying not to be forced into a decision now. "I'm just not sure."
Then, Heidi said the words that made everything seem so much better. "You're always welcome with us, Claire. Always."

Hiro Nakamura

Hart Center, Tokyo, Japan

"You don't have to do this, Hiro," Ando said, trying to persuade his friend to stop.

Hiro shook his head. "I have to know who killed my father, Ando, and just maybe, I can stop it."

"You've tried to change the past before, remember? It didn't work out so well." Sakura stared at them with wonder, trying to figure out what they were saying.

Hiro squinted his eyes, focusing on one spot in history, and let himself go into the time stream.

When he opened them, he wasn't in Japan, anymore. He didn't know where he was. The place looked like a war zone, with plumes of black smoke rising out of craters. He could smell the ocean nearby, but that meant little to him. That could be anywhere. Hiro could barely tell which was the sun was headed, the sky was so dark.

To his right were the destroyed remains of a city, the skeletons of buildings half-heartedly reaching to the sky amid the smoke and smog. Hiro sniffed, bringing in the smell of rot and decay. (What happened here?)

"War happened," a voice said, and a striking figure appeared behind him, putting his hand on Hiro's shoulder. "Hiro Nakamura, it's been too long."

Hiro spun around, reaching for the hilt of his sword. The person looked familiar, but Hiro just couldn't place the face. It was half hidden by shadow, and one eye was covered with a patch. The hand that fell from his shoulder was the strangers left, and it had been replaced by a metal one. How it worked, Hiro did not know, but then again, he didn't know how he could teleport through time and space.

"Who are you?" Hiro asked.

"You'll know in time," the stranger said. "Follow me." The stranger turned and walked away, away from the city. Hiro had no choice but to follow him.

Hiro was lead over the mutilated landscape, around craters with smoke streaming out of them, over waters that didn't look entirely clean or safe to drink, through wreckage of cars, some still with bodies in them.

"We never saw it coming," the stranger said. "The war took us all by surprise. Over half of the survivors are now in camps, like the ones Germany had in World War II. A few people remain to fight the enemy. For those who have fallen, we built this."

The stranger held his metal hand out to a long shiny black wall. It stretched to both horizons. Upon closer inspection, Hiro could see that there were thousands of names carved on it. Leaning in to read the names, Hiro asked, "What happened?"

The Stranger sighed. "Hiro, look at me." Hiro did, and he saw the rest of the man's face, much more clearly now. It was the aged, long face of Ando. "Do you know where we are?"

Hiro shook his head.

"This is the remains of the once great city of New York. I can tell by looking at you what you're thinking and no, there wasn't another exploding man." Ando gazed over at the churning sea. "The year is 2010, four years after Peter Petrelli nearly destroyed the city, and now they have done it."

"What happened?" Hiro asked again, more urgently this time. Ando ignored him.

Ando put his hand on the wall and rubbed the names with his fingers. "Look, here you are. Hiro Nakamura died a hero to millions." Tears began to fall from Ando's face. "Right before Peter Petrelli, right after Claire Bennet." Hiro's eyes lit up with recognition. "That's right. It was a raid. For so long, we thought it was Peter doing this to us but no, that night he came to help us. He was, for a fleeting moment, our last chance."

"What are you doing here?" Hiro asked, trying to get something out of his future friend.

"You told me to be here," Ando said. "Right after you get back, you'll tell me all about it. I'll run it through my mind again and again. Why didn't you tell me what would happen to me?" He looked at his metal hand. "For years afterwards, I hated you for it. I told myself that you knew that if you told me, I would never go with you, but I knew that was foolish. Then, I realized what you did for me, giving me my own chance at being a hero."

"Are you going to help me stop it, whatever it is?" Hiro asked. He didn't even hope for an answer that made sense.

Ando surprised him. "No. There is nothing I can do."

Hiro nodded and turned to walk away. Ando called him back.

"You're going to help you." Hiro spun around, confused, and there, in the hands of Ando was a red notebook. "You wrote it, up until you died, writing in all the keys leading up to the start of the war. I finished after you died. Oh, and you told me one more thing to tell you." Ando took a deep breath. "The key to finding your father's killer is to search for the Prometheus Group. Your father knows all about it. It's in his files. Peter Petrelli can help."

Ando handed Hiro the notebook, just as a helicopter appeared over the ruined city.

"Go, now! If there's going to be a chance to avoid this, you must leave now!"
Hiro clutched the book to his chest and slammed his eyes shut. He disappeared just as the gunship opened fire, killing Ando.

Hiro opened his eyes, and looked into the face of Ando, unharmed, without the eye patch. He was whole again. Hiro pulled him into a hug, dropping the notebook between them.

Sylar

Seattle, Washington

Nobody would think twice about him in this neighborhood. The whole place was filled with killers. What was one more?

In the back of his mind, Sylar could hear the ticking of the clock and marveled at his own plan. Soon, he would bring about the destruction of the Prometheus Group, and then kill one of his greatest enemies.

The Agent stepped out of the abandoned building right on cue. "Parkman," Sylar said, curtly.

Matt nodded. "If you don't want this to go south, you'd better tell me everything you got on Prometheus."

"I know it's not just one guy, no one is this powerful. I know about the Nome Facility. What you don't know is the All-Gift project, headed by Dr. Baker. There were four subjects in the project: Peter Petrelli, Jon Baker, Legion, and myself. We were sent to gather the gifts they told us to." Matt wrote down the names in a little notebook, along with everything else Sylar said.

"The one you should be wary of is Julie Donovan," Sylar continued. "I have no idea what her ability is, if she even has one, but the lady is vindictive. What few people knew was that she was in charge of Nome Facility. Find her, find your answers."

"That isn't enough," Parkman told him, and Sylar sneered. As if the meaningless little cop could keep him! The Agent's eyebrow went up. And Sylar checked his thoughts. It wouldn't do to have this worthless peon interfering with the Plan.

"It's all there is," Sylar said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Maybe this will help you. It's how they gave me assignments. Good talking to you, Agent Parkman." Sylar took flight, leaving Matt behind. With one quick glance down, he ascertained that his plan was working. Parkman didn't even reach for his gun.

Noah Bennet

Hart Center, New York, New York

He sat at his desk, staring out the window, conflicted. He couldn't tell if Claire having dinner with the Petrelli's was a good thing. On one hand, she deserved to know where she came from. On the other, Noah wanted her to himself. She was, after all, his Claire-Bear, and he shouldn't have to share her with this putz.

The door to his office opened and in stepped the last meeting Noah had that day. The man was average height, slightly portly, and balder than ten year old tires. Bob pulled his glasses off his face, rubbed the lens with his shirt, and grimaced. "Noah, good to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same to you." Noah turned to face him. "What do you want?"

"Protection."

"From who? I know the company is still in operation outside the country. Who could possibly pose a threat?"

Bob's grimace grew. "Have you heard of the Prometheus Group?" Noah shook his head. "Well, the truth of it is, they are trying to kill me and everyone else involved with the company. Their starting with the heads, but they'll move one to family members soon, and possibly agents and former agents of the company. Even if they don't, Claire is with the Petrelli's now, isn't she?"

Not for the first time in his life did Noah want to knock the teeth out of Bob's head. "Get out."
"Wait, I have an offer for you," Bob said, trying desperately to get back into good graces with Noah, even after the veiled threat. "The company is shutting down. Let's say we can't deal with the competition. Anyway, I'm offering you all of our files and facilities if you'll just help us."

"Give me the files, and I'll get back to you," Noah said, leaning back. "As I'm sure you know, I'm not in charge of the Agency. I'll have to take it up with him. Consider the files a show of good faith." Noah held out his hand. "You, of course, will take up residency here immediately, whether you like it or not."

Frowning so deep, his face looked like it was melting; Bob handed over his briefcase, and settled in to wait for the Director.

Matt Parkman

Seattle, Washington

The line at the airport was intolerably long, and Hector was impatiently arguing with the clerk. Matt sat in a nearby chair, avoiding the gaze of anyone suspicious. He still suspected the Prometheus Group was going to swarm Seattle, looking for him and Molly.

After an hour of arguing, Hector fell into the chair next to him, with two tickets. "If only you'd tell me why it's so damn important to get to Nome tonight, maybe I could have found a reason to argue. Instead, I got us two tickets that leave at three in the morning, and I don't know why."

"There's somebody there, in Nome," Matt said, giving into Hector's pleading. "She's got the information we need."
Hector's eyes lit up. Matt could feel the excitement flow out of him.

Legion

Seattle, Washington

He leaned over the unconscious body of Gabriel Gray, grinning. "Finally, we'll get enough power to take on Peter ourself, with your help of course." He leaned in close to Sylar's face. "Give us a kiss." He slammed his face into Sylar's, sucking him in. Legion's right hand found Sylar's left check.

In a moment, there was nothing left of Sylar but a pile of clothes. Legion stood, feeling rejuvenated.

In just a few days, the rally would draw hundreds of people with talents to Seattle. Soon, he would finally be able fight the ever growing Peter Petrelli. He grinned, unnaturally wide. His teeth were rotting, and his eyes had gone from once blue to a horrible sickly yellow. He never felt better.