Disclaimer: I don't Heroes, and the fundamental concept of this story was inspired by rain and leaves' "Four Months Later" and is used with his permission
Feedback: I'd like it, trust me
A Leap to Safety
As Adam looked up at the building before him, he couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of what was coming up.
Oh, getting into the vault wouldn't be easy, of course, but he had a few updated Company passes he'd picked up from Maury- before that unfortunate incident with his son put him out of action, of course; children could be such trouble at times- that should make everything easier; one advantage of being locked up for so long was that nobody thought to tell the general staff what you looked like. There were probably only around a dozen or so people apart from the Company founders who knew what he really looked like, and the odds of any of them being here at this time were slim…
"Adam?" a voice said from off to the side.
Spinning around, Adam blinked slightly in surprise at the sight of a familiar young blonde woman standing just behind him- he vaguely thought her name was Elle; at his age names started to blur a shocking amount-, before she raised her hands and launched a powerful burst of blue electricity at him.
Adam didn't even hesitate; with the reflexes that had protected him from many a head wound- the only thing he hadn't allowed himself to get killed by; it might only be a theory that a headshot could kill him, but he didn't want to find out-, he ducked down, pulled out the gun he'd acquired from Victoria's house, and fired it directly at Elle, hitting her right in the shoulder. Even as she fell to the ground, screaming in pain as she clutched at her latest injury, Adam was already moving his gun to fire at the other man…
"NO!" a voice yelled; turning around, Adam just had time to see that 'Claire' girl leaping towards him, in a manoeuvre that owed more to desperation rather than any planned attack strategy.
Once again, Adam barely hesitated; recalling that this girl's powers were the same as his own, he quickly spun his gun around- she'd given him far too much advanced warning to realistically take him off-guard; she must have hoped that surprise would work in her favour- and fired another shot, striking her directly between the eyes and sending her falling to the ground mid-jump.
"Claire!" the outraged voice of the third figure- Elle's latest partner; he wasn't too concerned about this guy, given that Company policy meant he'd almost certainly be a normal human rather than having any potentially threatening powers- yelled, prompting Adam to turn back around to glare pointedly at the man before him, his gun now pointing at Adam's head.
"You really think you can do it?" he asked, glancing briefly at the gun in his own hand as he smiled slightly at the man before him. "I'm pretty fast, after all-"
"You. Shot. CLAIRE," the other man said, his grip tightening on the gun as he glared at Adam.
"Yeah, I did," Adam replied, smiling slightly at the man before him (He didn't bother to feel guilty when he said that; given his daughter's feelings for Peter, it was highly unlikely he'd ever have been able to win her over to his point of view, and right now he had more important long-term issues to worry about than his own unnecessary offspring).
Then, apparently without even thinking about it, he raised the gun and fired it once again, striking the other man directly in the eye- those glasses really made for a very convenient target- and sending him falling to the ground, blood leaking from the hole where his eye had once been and no sign of movement as he lay on the floor before him.
In some ways, it was almost pathetic; was this the best the Company he'd helped found had to stop him?
Ah well, he mused, tucking the gun back into his pocket as he turned around to enter the factory before him, at least it makes things easier.
In a matter of minutes, his destiny would be fulfilled…
As he flew down towards the warehouse, his arms around Matt's waist as he carried the detective along for the ride- with Nathan nearby he essentially only needed to concentrate on maintaining his strength as his body automatically duplicated his brother's ability, and it was easier carrying Matt this way than having him ride on his back or something like that-, Peter's eyes automatically settled on the sight of the three bodies lying around the entrance, two clearly dead and one evidently injured but still alive, judging by the blood coming from her shoulder.
As soon as he'd released his grip on Matt after landing- Nathan setting down a couple of feet away from him-, Peter quickly examined the bodies. The injured one he swiftly identified as Elle- from what he could tell her injury was only a basic wound to the shoulder; sore, but nothing she couldn't recover from on her own-, while the other two…
His blood ran cold.
"Claire!" he yelled, hurrying over to pick up the still form of the girl he'd only just allowed himself to acknowledge his love for, blood trickling from a small hole in her forehead as she stared blankly ahead of herself, her eyes glassing over in death…
NO! Peter vowed, not even bothering to glance at the other body- he vaguely registered that it was Claire's father, but he didn't have time to think about that right now- as he picked up her body; he couldn't do anything for the older man, but Claire could still be saved.
All he had to do was be very, very, very careful…
Raising his hand over her forehead, Peter aimed his fingers at the bullet hole, concentrating for a few moments before he finally saw his objective; the bullet, moving at a gradual speed to limit any further damage, emerged from Claire's head to settle in between Peter's fingers, the hole almost automatically closing up even as Peter tossed the bullet off to one side.
For a moment, as Peter stared down at the small blonde figure he held in his arms, watching as Claire's eyes cleared and she began to breath once again, wishing that he could spare the time to tell her what he had so recently learned about the reality of their relationship to each other…
But he shook that thought of; as pleasant as those thoughts might be, if he didn't stop Adam in time, then the world that he and Claire had so recently witnessed would come to pass.
He wouldn't- he couldn't- let that happen.
All his life, he'd felt as though he was living in other peoples' shadows; now, faced with something that only he could do for the first time in what seemed like forever, he wasn't going to hesitate.
"Keep an eye on her," he said, laying Claire down as he looked over at Matt and Nathan. "I'll take care of Adam."
With that, he stood up, his feet rose a few feet from the ground, and he proceeded to turn and fly directly into the warehouse, his gaze fixed on a tall man with dirty blonde hair walking down the middle of the warehouse interior.
As Peter tore through the warehouse at full flying speed, he only just had time to register that everyone around him seemed to have stopped mid-motion before he found himself crashing into the short form of a man he was fairly sure he recognised, sending both of them crashing to the ground- Peter was just grateful he'd managed to slow his descent once he'd seen this guy standing between him and Adam; hit the guy too hard and he could have ended up splattered against a wall-, the other man's sword sent flying out of his hand as Adam turned to look at the new arrivals.
So much for the element of surprise… Peter mused, before he glanced down at the man he'd just run into and saw who it was.
"Hiro?" he said, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Peter Petrelli?" Hiro Nakamura asked, looking back at Peter in shock. "What are-?"
"Carp?" Adam yelled, prompting Peter and Hiro to glance over in Adam's direction, just in time to see him aim a gun in their direction, Hiro's sword now clutched in one hand.
Peter didn't spare time wondering why Adam seemed to recognise Hiro by another name- for all he knew Adam's insanity had affected his vision-; before Adam could do anything else, Peter stretched out with his mind and yanked Hiro's sword out of Adam's hand, promptly returning the blade to its rightful owner before he stood up to glare at the man before him.
"You used me," he said simply.
Adam shrugged.
"We're all tools of destiny, Peter; I'm just operating on a… larger scale than most people," he replied, an almost casual smile on his face as though he was certain he was going to come out of this confrontation victorious. "The world needs to start over again; God had the right idea with the flood-"
"You're not God," Peter interjected, raising both hands before him, one crackling with electricity as the other turned blue from the icy power he had so recently learned was part of Sylar's arsenal. "And you're going down."
Before Adam could respond to that statement, Peter- acting more on impulse than anything; he'd accessed both powers at once mainly to see if he could- thrust out the ice-wielding hand towards Adam, pinning his enemy to the opposite wall even as he automatically froze time; the last thing he wanted was to attract too much attention from Company employees.
"Whoa…" Hiro's voice said from off to the side, the young Japanese man walking forward to stare as Peter covered Adam's body in a rapid layer of ice, only halting when Adam had been frozen completely solid. "Cool…"
"Uh… yeah," Peter said- he briefly wondered if that word choice had been a deliberate attempt at a joke on Hiro's part, before he decided it wasn't worth asking and pushed that thought aside. "So… you know Adam?"
"Yes," Hiro replied, his tone brief and to the point in a manner that Peter had originally only heard from Hiro's older self during that first meeting in the subway train so many months ago. "What did he do to you?"
"He tried to trick me into helping him release a virus that would destroy ninety-three percent of humanity by this time next year," Peter replied- Hiro's comments at least confirmed that he knew what Adam was capable of-, before he turned to look at Hiro. "You?"
"He killed my father," Hiro replied simply.
"And?" Peter asked.
He didn't even need telepathy to know that there was more to the story than what Hiro had just told him; the normally expressive Japanese man was acting far too withdrawn for that to be his only reason for trying to find Adam.
"And…" Hiro began, pausing for a moment before he finished. "And he only began this path because I betrayed him."
Peter blinked.
"Huh?" he asked, looking at Hiro in confusion.
"After Sylar threw me away in Kirby Plaza," Hiro began, his gaze flicking briefly to look regretfully at Adam's unconscious form before he turned back to look at Peter, "I teleported away on instinct, and found myself back in Japan in the past- I later learned that I was in 1671-, and encountered Tazeko Kensei; you are aware of his story?"
"Kensei… wait a minute, wasn't he some Japanese hero or something?" Peter asked, looking uncertainly at Hiro. "I know Linderman picked up his sword for his collection…"
"Yes," Hiro said, nodding in confirmation at Peter before he continued. "Learning that Kensei was not the man history recorded him to be, I attempted to help him fulfil his destiny… only to learn that he, like the cheerleader, could heal himself."
Peter blinked.
Hold on a minute…
"Are you saying… he's Tazeko Kensei?" he asked, indicating Adam in shock. "I knew he was old, but…"
He shook his head slightly as he looked at the man before him. "Whoa…"
"I know," Hiro said, nodding grimly before he continued. "I tried to guide him along his true path, but…"
"You screwed up and things didn't work out that way, huh?" Peter said, placing a sympathetic hand on Hiro's shoulder.
He didn't know what his friend had done to result in things turning out the way he assumed they had turned out, but Peter was certain of one thing; the last thing Hiro Nakamura needed right now was someone reminding him of something he'd clearly prefer not to talk about.
For a moment the two men simply stood in silence, staring at the man who'd given them so much only to betray them when they'd needed him, before Hiro finally spoke.
"What now?" he asked, indicating Adam's immobilised body before them.
Peter paused for a moment, lost in thought at the implications that Hiro's comment had just created in his mind.
If this was any other man before him, Peter wouldn't hesitate to stand back and allow Hiro to cut Adam's head off.
Adam had lived for over four centuries… he'd seen so much of humanity… probably witnessed so much history taking place… seen so many of the horrors mankind could inflict on itself… and yet, in the end, all he could think of to do with his knowledge was add to that suffering by causing death on a larger scale.
If it were any other man, Peter wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
But this wasn't any other man.
The man before him had fathered Claire.
No matter what other acts of evil he'd committed in his life, he was also the only reason that Claire Bennet existed, bringing a light and life into Peter's world that he would otherwise have never known.
The fact that he was a part of Claire, no matter how little he might deserve to be- the fact that he'd shot her in the head did little to improve Peter's opinion of him- was the only thing keeping Adam Monroe alive right now.
Peter wouldn't- couldn't- kill the man who had been responsible- however indirectly- for giving life to the woman he already knew he loved.
Fortunately, his powers did give him and Hiro other options ways of dealing with the bastard…
