A/N: Sorry for making you wait so long. And sorry for making Peter so stupid. But I really don't love his character. I don't mind it, but he's just not my favorite. I'm too lazy to go back and rewrite this story so its less like "why didn't he just do this?" Anyway, review please!

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"ELLE!" Peter shouted and looked around outside in the hallway. All he could see was blood spots on the floor. With rising panic he ran back inside and grabbed the hotel phone. "Shit! Come on!" he shouted impatiently. "Pick up!"

"Peter?" Noah's voice answered.

"They got Elle, they got her," he said frantically.

"Calm down-"

"Don't tell me to calm down! They have Claire and now Elle!"

"What happened?"

"I was in the shower and when I come out she's not there and the door is wide open and there's blood out there!"

"Leave now Peter," Noah said.

"What?!"

"Leave! You're no good to them dead," Noah said gravely.

"But-"

"Do it!" Noah shouted. Peter grunted and hung up. He put on his shirt and picked up his essentials. He left the room leaving nothing that could trace he was there.

---

"Let her out," Bob said referring to Claire who was about to break the bathroom door down. Vince nodded and unlocked the bathroom door. Claire stumbled out and looked absolutely distressed. Her face was a mess of bruises and her ponytail looked like it was falling apart.

"Claire," Bob said. "You did an excellent job of bringing Elle back to us. You should consider working with us."

"I didn't mean to bring her back to this hell," Claire answered defiantly. Elle cringed knowing that Bob would use the taser on Claire. She was right. Claire only gritted her teeth together and bared it which made Vince and Elle's father even angrier.

"You think you're tough don't you?" Vince asked. "But without your power you're nothing."

"I'm tougher than you'll ever be," Claire said for the sake of answering back.

"Claire don't," Elle said worried for her friend's safety. She looked like she was getting worn down quickly without being able to heal.

"You should listen to your friend," Vince sneered and kicked Claire in the stomach before picking her up and punching her stomach again and then threw her down.

"Don't!" Elle cried and dashed to help Claire.

"You two are pathetic," Bob said shaking his head. "Lock them up." Vince nodded and put both of them back in the bathroom. Claire groaned once the door was shut and crawled over next to the toilet and used all her strength to push herself up. Then she leaned over and began to throw up. She was exhausted but felt her hair being pulled back and Elle gently patting her back.

"You're okay," Elle said gently not caring that her arm felt like it was on fire. "You're going to be okay." Claire couldn't respond and just finished throwing up. Elle grabbed a face cloth and wiped Claire's mouth as she helped her sit against the wall.

"Sick?"

"I think it's whatever they put in me," Claire said feeling nauseous.

"Here," Elle said and cupped her hands as best she could so she could take some tap water and give it to Claire.

"Thanks," she said. "Elle how have you survived all these years?"

"I don't know," Elle responded sadly. "He just won't let me die. I wish sometimes he had. It might've been better than all the pain."

"That's sick," Claire said and leaned her head on Elle's shoulder since they were sitting next to each other.

"I hate him," Elle said blankly. She felt responsible for Claire. It was all her fault Claire was in this mess and Claire thought the reverse.

"We'll get through this," Claire reassured her. "Peter will come."

"Maybe," Elle said doubtfully.

"I'm sorry," Claire said with her head resting on Elle's shoulder.

"Sorry?"

"If I had just gone with you when we first met and or stopped you from going back or something we wouldn't be in this mess," Claire said.

"But you saved me," Elle protested. "You saved me from my dad. I don't care what you say. It's not your fault. It's my dad's fault."

"He's going to pay," Claire said. "He's going to pay for what he did to you all these years. Then he's going to pay for what he's done to me."

"He didn't do anything severe right?"

"Nothing I can imagine as severe as what you're used to," she responded.

"Good," Elle said relieved and leaned her head on Claire's. "I'm so glad my dad made me find you Claire. It's been the only good thing in my life."

"I'm glad I met you too, even though you hated me at first," Claire said playfully.

"I know, sorry. I'm a bitch I admit it."

"No you're not," Claire said softly. "I don't believe that. You have a hard life. No one can blame you for acting the way you did. But I know you've changed in just the few days you've been with me and Peter. By the way are you two, you know, together?" Claire imagined Elle's face lighting up but just kept her head on her shoulder and couldn't see her expression.

"Not yet," Elle said forcing a laugh. "But I've only really known him as long as I've really known you. It's only been a few days since you helped me escape. But he makes me forget everything. It's like for once a guy isn't using me."

"That's good," Claire said. "You don't have to answer this Elle but honestly how many guys have there been? Like bad ones."

"Um, well, if you mean abusive like in anyway, then, I don't know," Elle responded sadly. "My dad, Adam, and I'd like to think it stops there. But it doesn't. That guy Vince out there beat me up when I was younger. He's about four years older but when I was twelve I remember making him mad. So he beat me up. There was one guy who I had to help out with in a cell and he tried to rape me but one of the lab techs was watching and stopped him. One lab tech once was left in charge of me only a year ago and tried to touch me but I shocked him first so he hurt me. Then—"

"Stop," Claire said grabbing Elle's hand that was shaking. "You don't need to tell me anymore. It's okay." Elle didn't respond and just sat there wondering what her father planned to do to them.

"Claire what's it like going to school?" she asked curiously. It seemed like there was nothing better to talk about. Claire gave a small laugh.

"You followed me to school didn't you?"

"I wasn't really paying attention," Elle admitted. "I wanted to get you and get out."

"Oh ," Claire said as she thought about how to explain what school was like. "It's nothing really exciting."

"It has to be," Elle insisted. "There are so many people and you can learn so many things. Don't they let you even choose some of the stuff you want to learn? Then there are like dances and you can play sports and things like that right?" Claire didn't know how to respond right away and for a moment she thought about it from Elle's perspective. She's never experienced a real school she's only been kept in some facility where they teach her what they want to know, Claire realized.

"Well when you talk like that you make me feel like a brat for not appreciating school," Claire said with a smile and lifted her head off Elle's shoulder.

"You're right it is actually kind of cool to look back and see how much I've learned and yeah dances are fun," Claire explained. "The only sport I did was cheerleading and I played volleyball when I was younger. The only thing that ruins school is certain kinds of people like you know the typical bitches and jackass jocks. But other than that it's usually its fun hanging out with people from school. Well, you know, unless they know you're not like them. I guess people would get scared if they knew."

"Yeah," Elle said imagining going to a normal school with Claire and maybe even Peter.

"What about you? What did they teach you?"

"Whatever they wanted me to know," Elle shrugged. "They taught me basic stuff, like spelling and reading and simple math like algebra. They always said they didn't want to waste their time teaching me geometry. Don't know why. I stopped like having to do school kind of work four or five years ago. I was fourteen. I guess that's a year before you started high school. But the lab techs that taught me were always really lazy and didn't really care if I learned or not. I think my dad just wanted to be able to say he did teach me something when I was younger. He says I'm too stupid to learn anything though."

"You're not stupid Elle, just like you're not a bitch or a whore," Claire reassured her.

"My dad used to tell me all sorts of things and I'd believe him," Elle said in a sad voice. "He'd say I was stupid or I was bitch or a slut or that I was useless. Oh and a killer."

"I know Elle but it's not true," Claire said again. "Hey if we get out of this mess I'll pull out some old school stuff and help you out okay?"

"That'd be cool," Elle said with a smile that was quickly wiped once she thought about the "if" part.

---

"Call Bennet using this phone," Bob said handing Vince a disposable cell phone. Vince nodded and waited patiently as the phone rang.

"Peter?"

"Guess again," Vince said in a chilling voice. "Remember me?"

"How could I forget you, Vince Drake," Noah returned coldly.

"Careful what you say Noah, I've got your daughter and her little friend. She's as free spirited as you are. She's not afraid to speak her mind or to do as she feels. But right now her ability is a little…unavailable. Much easier to kill don't you agree? I think I heard her throwing up just a little earlier…"

"Don't say another word about my daughter," Noah threatened.

"Why don't you just say hi to her?" Vince asked and walked over to the bathroom door and banged on it. Inside Claire and Elle grabbed each other in fear as they gasped. "Relax, Claire, just come to the door and say hi to your dad." He held the phone out to the door.

"Dad!" Claire shouted.

"See she's alive Bennet but she may not be for much longer," he laughed.

"Get to your point already Vince, what do you want?"

"Tell Peter Petrelli to surrender to us and we'll let the girls live."

"That's not enough. You have to let them go."

"Only if we feel generous."

"You were always a stubborn jackass," Noah said and hung up not even bothering to trace the call. He knew Bob wasn't stupid and would have taken care of making it untraceable.

"Smash the phone," Bob told Vince who did as he was told.

---

"Did you ever have free time in the…what do you call where you live…or lived?"

"We called it the Hartsdale facility," Elle answered. "I call it hell on Earth. Yeah, actually my free time was spent either sitting in my room all alone with nothing to do or visiting the devils of the facilities."

"Adam?"

"And others."

"What about when you didn't have free time?"

"Oh that's easy," Elle said. "I was either out hunting people down and bring them back, helping with 'patients' in the facilities, or getting punished by my dad. Claire… I've killed people. I didn't want to, honest. They were either hurting me or I was forced to. Like if someone was torturing you wouldn't you try to do anything to get them to stop?"

"Yeah, Elle I get it, it's okay I believe you," she said.

"Sorry I'm not used to people doing that," Elle said. Claire turned her head to look at Elle. She had such sadness in her eyes and Claire couldn't get over the fact that this sweet girl had such a terrible life. She just couldn't understand how someone could do that to her.

"Elle what exactly did your father do to you?"

Elle looked at her with a heartbreaking smile that made Claire want to cry. "You care about me." It wasn't a question or a confused statement. It simply was appreciative and loving.

"You're my hero," Claire said.

"And you're mine. Don't forget that," she said. Then after a long pause she said, "He'd kill me for telling you."

"That's okay, I won't let him," Claire said softly.

"Well I told you he used my electricity against me because I'm not immune to it," Elle told her.

"How?"

"He'd electrocute me using wires and shit," Elle said bitterly. "Remember the whole dripping water thing? Yeah well I don't know how he came up with that. He probably has too much time on his hands. But I'd get anxiety attacks all the time especially when it was raining lightly outside. I hate rain. It conducts electricity."

"That's awful," Claire mumbled.

"Yeah."

---

"I know what room they're in," Peter said to Noah over the phone. "When I was in Mohinder's apartment I picked up little Molly's power."

"Excellent," Noah said. "I'll meet you in the lobby."

"Yes sir," Peter agreed. He hung up the pay phone. Revenge was going to be sweet.