Chapter 13: Under pressure

Micah felt quite confused. He was happy, really happy that he was with Niki again. His mother came back from death and this made him feel confident. But for some reason, he couldn't rejoice over it totally. He thought that the change was too quick, but soon he realized that this wasn't the only problem. Niki was driving much faster than she used to. They were already in Las Vegas, when his doubts burst out.

"Why are we running, Mom?"

"We?" asked Niki back. She looked a bit confused as well. "We're not running. I just want to see our home again." With his right hand, he softly touched Micah's arm. "Everything will be just as normal as possible it is."

"You're lying." he said harshly.

She took a deep breath.

"There will be danger there. Soon, it will look like it suffered another hurricane."

"And you're running away? With all your powers? You should be hurrying there, trying to stop it."

"I can't..."

"Why?" he shouted.

"Because I can't stop bullets, Micah. Death missed me by an inch and don't want to face it again, without any..." She suddenly turned silent.

Micah looked in front of the car. So far, he haven't realized that they turned into the street of their home. And he wasn't happy about what he saw.

"That's our house." he murmured. And the house was surrounded by many firefighters and their cars. They couldn't see too much more because of the smoke but they were sure that a tragedy had happened there.

Niki slowly stopped and parked the car. Then, she subsided on the steering wheel and began to cry. Now, Micah touched his mother softly.

"I can fix it." he whispered. "I can get us money." But that didn't help her.

Waiting again, thought Matt. He was just staying and waiting around Ridgway Jewelry for more than one day and he was getting impatient. Although he hasn't seen the jeweler who was cooperating with Malsky's assassin, the place was quite scary for him. He tried to read the people's mind around him without raising any suspicion but it was useless. No one knew anything about his wife or the kidnapping. They were just busy, frightened, worrying about their business, their money. No one knew that Matt was there for something much more important. After many new hours of useless waiting, he decided to have lunch. After all, he couldn't feed himself with diamonds.

He was walking down the avenue, looking for a restaurant, when the public phone beside him suddenly rang. He looked around: no one was around him as this district wasn't one of the most crowded ones. He stepped in and picked it up.

"Matt Parkman." hissed a high, boy-like voice. "We have your wife."

"Hey." he interrupted. "I want proof. Prove me that she is alive."

"One question." he hissed.

There was a short pause then Matt heard Janice's soft voice.

"Matt? Are you there?" she whispered.

"What was I doing when you told me that you were pregnant?" he asked quickly.

There was another short pause. He could almost see Janice thinking about why did she get this question.

"You were mending the pipes."

Matt took a deep sigh.

"Your task is pretty simple." began the boy again. "Find out where Primatech is."

Matt was very surprised about this question. He expected money or something more valuable than this. But, if they knew Primatech, they could have been pretty much in the whole mess.

"It's in Hartsdale." he answered.

"Misfired." hissed the voice. "The Company was moved. I want to know where. You have as much time as you want. But I would hurry, for your wife's sake."

"Hey! Wait!" shouted Matt. "Why do you want to know it? I might help you."

But there was no answer.

Claire and Noah Bennet had a busy night, so there was no wonder that Claire overslept the whole trip back to their home. Noah was wondering. He tried to remember when was the last time she was sleeping so peacefully, such like a small child, her head on his shoulders. They left Nicholas behind, Noah let him run and they got in a company car. Noah didn't know if Nicholas will stay here, around Claire but for this moment, he didn't care about him. Father and daughter, they were together. Just before they reached their home, his cell phone rang. He was wondering who could call him so early in the morning, since it was about 7 o'clock. He had to realize that it was Bob.

"What's it?" he asked but he felt that Claire hugged him.

"How about going on a business trip again?" Noah suddenly felt the hug vanishing in one moment.

"You told me there will be no more." he hissed.

"For a while. But circumstances have changed. And things aren't getting better. The Haitian was captured on his last mission and you do know his importance."

"And what about Claire's importance now, Bob?" he argued.

"This wasn't our agreement." he said as he raised his voice. "And speaking of her, could you give the phone to her?"

"After all that happened tonight?" asked Noah.

"After that. Give me Claire."

He didn't know any better. He looked at Claire, looked in her eyes, her face that told him she was so innocent and distracted. And she will now feel betrayed again and he had no one to blame for that except himself. He was wondering about his new partner. Who will it be? He knew most of them from the last years, but he couldn't imagine any of them on his side. The phone beeped as Claire put it down. She was still staring at it.

"Dad!" she whispered.

"What's the matter, Claire?"

"We're partners." Noah thought he could blow the whole car up with his anger.

Monica simply stared out of Suresh's car without even one word, for a while. She didn't know where they were heading. She didn't even know where they were, actually. After she was brought in, the world seemed to have turned inside out for her. Unknown places, unknown people. She knew she didn't want this. And she felt she didn't have the right to talk or suggest anything. The time when she just wanted to be someone more than a girl from the ghetto seemed if it was ages ago. For her, fate has proven that she was not a good leader. She was so passionate that she didn't listen to the word of thinking. She thought she could be disturbed, taken. And now, despite all of her tries, she was. None of them spoke until she became so amused because of the sunset over the prairie that her question rose to her lips without her notice.

"Where are we? And where are we going?" she asked quietly.

Mohinder didn't say a word but his deep breath told everything.

"I'm just following the way."

For a short time, silence fell.

"What does that mean?" asked Monica.

"My home is in the East. So I'm heading there."

"Is that so simple?" she asked.

Mohinder sighed. Monica noticed that Kamala touched her shoulder, probably trying to answer before he does but she couldn't."

"No it's not that." he said slowly. "I don't know why did I choose this. And this annoys me. All I know is that we must stay on the road, constantly moving. If we stop, they'll find us and come for us. I'm tending to let both of you go, going back and taking Molly. If she's with me, the hunt might end." Another deep sigh. "We're in the western region of Texas."

Suddenly, Monica felt like she was saved. She interrupted Suresh.

"So, we're in Texas and going to the East, right? So we're heading to Louisiana?" she asked and confidence and happiness could be easily felt in her voice. And she really just wanted to get back to her family.

"Yes, you're right." answered Suresh.

"I'm near home!" she almost shouted this sentence. "You could drop me off here. If I'm with family, I won't be in trouble.

Nobody answered so she asked.

"Can that be an option?" she asked loudly.

"Yes." answered Mohinder, much more quietly.

She turned to Kamala (although she didn't really care about her opinion) but it seemed she managed to fall asleep. Shortly, they reached a town, and, beside a single street lamp, Mohinder stepped into the breaks that made all of them wake up. He saw a familiar face.

Maya didn't have the time and the opportunity to learn much from Ann, so she turned to the tales and spirits of her childhood, her memories. She was trying not the get overrun by all of her demons, but in the seemingly abandoned apartment of Reginald Rios, she couldn't do much more. At nights, she looked around his books, read all of the papers she could find, looking at the photo of the hated man, who killed her partner. She was a bit surprised because of her contact to Ann, because they didn't know each other really. Sometimes, she thought about this, mostly during her prays that became severe in this situation, and she thought this was because she had killed so many people before, and had to value life, especially without her brother. There was no way back, she was the one destined to stop this.

During daytime, she tried to turn outside, not to play hide and seek with all of her fears. She checked all of the morgues she had managed to find, but she couldn't find any sign of Rios. She walked through the streets, trying to get familiar with the places her enemy had known. Many days have gone away, without anything extraordinary. As she walked back to the apartment a night, she found a collapsed figure in front of the door. She suddenly became terrified, she thought she found one of his victims, but as he touched the man, he moved. Slowly,he looked up on her and raised his hand.

"Please"he rattled "help me, senorita. Take this pendant from me. 200 boliviano. Senorita! Help me!" His voice was very weak as he moved his hand towards his neck and picked a seemingly gold pendant, with the shape of the sun.

Maya was totally confused. She didn't except him to do this. She expected him to collapse, maybe to die, or to attack her, looking for a weak prey, like several people. Like their smugglers who were killed miles away.

"Senorita! This is my last treasure. It'll protect you from your enemies. Please, a shaman have this to me, down in Machu Picchu."

"I don't know what prize does it have." stammered Maya. "And I don't have any boliviano." said she, trying to remember the name of the currency.

"It'll bring fortune to you..." he rattled.

Just like it did to you, thought Maya. But he wore it around neck, just like she wore the cross, so it might be important to him. He was desperate and afraid. Just like she was a few months ago. And as she remembered to herself in the past, she took a hundred dollars, gave it to him and took the pendant. She knew, that this money might be his last chance. And most of the people do deserve a second chance.

Bob stepped back because of the shock. As he was trying to get into his new office in New Mexico, he suddenly someone he didn't expect. Nathan Petrelli was standing beside his desk, looking at some of his papers.

"How did you get here?" asked Bob.

"You've left the window open. You can guess." answered Nathan with a calm, soft voice. For a few moments, he didn't spoke so Bob decided to ask a more urgent question.

"And what do you want from me?"

"I want to know what game are you playing with me. My mother's murdered, I had been shot before and Peter attacked and left me. What is this, Bob?"

"I don't know anything about Peter..."

"Then do!" he shouted. "He might be the most important for all of us."

"I'm not used to mess up family issues..."

"Speaking about those, what's the matter with her?" He showed the file he was reading: Elle's one. "It says, she's disappeared and you don't know from where did she phone you. That's not ordinary, Bob. Someone's after us."

Bob took a deep sigh.

"I suppose you didn't know that the idea of Primatech came from your parents. Angela was working for the CIA during the cold war, and from one of her missions she brought really bad news. She found a special individual on the other side. Even with her abilities, this made her afraid. We decided to deal with the question. At that time, there were only five of us and Victoria couldn't come with us since she didn't have an ability. There were your parents, Linderman and me."

"We've found this individual and killed him. We made it look like a robbery – took some of the jewelry and then we demolished the house. But Linderman found something much more interesting. A family photo with the child of this man. We looked for him but we haven't found any sign of his life, so we let it go. Until your assassination. A few days after it, she came to me and told me that she had spoken with Nicolai, and asked me to find him. The problem is, that he's very good at hiding."

"Why couldn't you let him go like so many years before?" asked Nathan.

"Because he confessed. He told your mother that he shot you and I suppose that he's the one responsible of Angela's murder."

"That's why we have to find Peter. He might go after him."

"He can protect himself..."

"And what about me?" he interrupted.

"In the given situation, it was safer to tell the public that you're dead, to make Nicolai forget you."

"So you've sacrificed my mother for me, didn't you?" he shouted. "And for what? I'm just an agent of you, I can't make a difference in the world. That's what Peter's case taught me."

"No that's not what it did. It taught that you can..."

"Shut up!" shouted Nathan so loud that it made Bob going silent. "You thought you have given my life back. Instead, you played a huge part in taking it." He rushed to the window and before Bob could stop him, he jumped out. But he knew that Nathan didn't die.

"Have you found anything?" asked Ando from Wang but she didn't answer. She was in some kind of a trance, staring at her microscope. Ando was getting bored. Since he couldn't do anything with his hand, he was forced to hide, to sit and wait, and to see Hiro's impatient mood. He wanted some results form the doctor's tests but there weren't any. He was about losing his faith in her. But Ando remained beside her, because he knew that if she finds something, it will change the world. He knew it and even told it to his friend, but he was desperate to hear the doctor's words. Slowly, she took another sample of Hiro's blood and put down Ando's one.

Suddenly, she took a deep but short breath. He knew that she was surprised.

"Have you found anything?" he asked again.

"I might have done." she answered, for the first time. She stood up form her microscope and picked Hiro's blood out of it.

"In this sample, there are the white cells of your friend's blood. They are different from yours."

"You've find the reason?" Ando interrupted hastily.

"No." she answered sadly. "I can only make two consequences from the result. Since the mutation is in the white cells, I suppose that these abilities are simply a new kind immune reaction."

"So it's just luck?" asked Ando.

"I wouldn't consider it luck. I would consider it as evolution. But there's more than this. If the white cells mutate, the ordinary reaction is cancer. But this doesn't look like it. It modifies the whole body. This situation take a long time for cancer. This looks more like virus, spreading so quickly that it modifies the whole body in minutes."

Ando just looked amused. He didn't really understand the meaning of the words. She continued on with a faint smile.

"If Suresh was here, he would be totally upset because my guess was right."

Marie stepped in confidently. She didn't want to expose her fear. As the door opened, Gabriel almost jumped towards her, waiting for information.

"Is Matt Parkman here?" he asked.

"No, he 's out of town. They think he's in LA, but he disappeared there. But might I have something more interesting for you."

"What?" he was slowly getting angry and thought about if she was trustworthy.

"I think I recognized the building on the third picture."

"You did?" asked Sylar.

"Yeah, but please, tell me something about you."

He decided not to expose himself, although he didn't really believe that she could overcome him with the waitress's supreme memory on his side. He just remained in silence and listened. Her heart was beating like a hard rock band's drum. He nodded.

"You have some abilities. You might be a very powerful one them. What do you think about ethics?"

"Do you want to hear if I consider myself an overman?"

"I just want to know your opinion. Think about it, who would believe me if I told them you were more than anybody? That you're special? But I want to hear about this topic from someone who

really is special."

"You've read the book. It's evolution. Evolution does not know ethics. It's... no, we are a radical change of paradigms. Extreme times are ahead of us and extreme circumstances will come. We must answer it. In the best way we can. Now tell me about that building."

She ran into her room and she came back in a second, with a book in her hands. It was Nietzsche's one again.

"Can you fly us to Moscow? I think it's the Kremlin." And surprisingly, in one moment, she hugged him.

Mohinder looked like he saw a ghost or something even worse. And he was about that. During driving on the main street of Odessa, he suddenly saw Peter Petrelli under a light, just sitting still, looking really desperate. He stopped the car as quickly as he could.

"Peter!" he shouted. "What's the matter?"

He looked up slowly, his face was messy, and he looked like he had been crying for hours.

"Mohinder! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"That doesn't matter." he answered hastily. "And you? In the middle of nowhere?"

"You should know that it's not the middle of nowhere. And, in fact, I would rather be in the middle of nowhere than here." He took a deep sigh, and suddenly burst out before Mohinder could answer. "My abilities! They don't... they don't work!"

"Peter, slow down! What are you talking about?"

"I can't control my abilities. I attacked my brother, and I didn't want to. And then, I fled and I don't know how did I end up here."

"Peter, your abilities are not out of control. You are out of it."

"But why?" screamed Peter.

Mohinder stood there, he began to think but he didn't know if he could give him some advice.

"What happened to you? Since your ability is connected with your emotions, if you had an emotional shock, it might have an effect on your abilities..."

"Emotional shock? My mother had lied to me during her whole life and I couldn't even speak with her because someone killed her. Do you call this an emotional shock?!"

Suddenly, something happened. Peter could sense that someone else was there and he thought his mind was being read. He thought about Suresh could replace Claude Rains, if anyone can teach him to control this kind of mess, to make him regain control again. Over himself.

"You..." a woman screamed behind them. "You know about him."

Both of them turned back, just to see Kamala. She was collapsing and Monica could hardly hold her.

"Know about who?" asked Mohinder and Peter, just at the same time.

No answer came, so Peter stepped closer and started to read her mind. He knew she was thinking about Claude, too.

"What do you know about him?" he shouted.

"Peter!" said Mohinder, but he pushed him back with one slap. He saw the girl, Claude and another man, probably Indian, too. They were standing in front of a cathedral or something.

"Please!" she stammered. "They have protected me. Don't expose them."

"You were reading my mind." he shouted. "Why? And how do you know him? What did he do for you? And when?"

"Peter!" shouted Mohinder again. "Your hands."

He looked at his hands. They were burning in radiation, just like before Kirby Plaza, even burning his clothes down. How could this be again? Is it his destiny to blow up a city? He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

And in the next moment, he disappeared.

Using his ability and the shades of the night, Nathan flew back home as fast as he could. He didn't want to be noticed but all of the doors and windows were locked so he had to break one. He was so confused, having to break in his own apartment. He looked around in all of the rooms, his brain stormed with memories. He walked down to the dining room, remembered the moment when he told his father that he had decided to run for congress. And so many moments, just passed on and gone away. He won't leave any mark in time. He'll not be powerful one he could have been. And he has lost Peter, too. He didn't wanted to say in front of him, but he could have said many times, how important he was for Nathan. But his father would have considered it as a weakness.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He couldn't imagine anybody using this number except Peter but it was another voice that he was hearing on the phone.

"Nathan. I'm Matt Parkman. I need your help. I must know where the Primatech Headquarters are right now..."

Hearing the Company's name, he suddenly became so angry that he threw away his phone and it broke apart.

After Noah and Claire have boarded Noah received a cell phone call but she hasn't heard one single word out of it so after the conversation she decided to ask her father what's the situation they were facing.

"What do we have to do? Where are we heading exactly?" she asked.

"For a business trip, rest of the family sitting in Nevada well protected." Noah answered ironically. "We're going to some place I would never wanted to see again. We're going to Moscow."

"Moscow? Why?"

"Because the Haitian disappeared, on a mission."

"Our job is to get him back?"

Noah nodded curtly.

"Cool." she said. "Do you speak Russian?"

Another nod.

"Could you teach me?"

"Claire, you have to understand that taking you with me on this trip is against my will. I would have rather brought someone else."

"Why?" she shouted.

"You've seen what Elle has become."

"But Dad, I'm not her."

"I just don't want to show you how awful place the world can be. I don't want to show you what they can do and what they can make out of this beautiful planet."

"Dad, I'm almost eighteen and I can't get hurt." she whispered "Finding a better partner than me would have been a difficult task. Mom and Lyle are not in danger. I'm the only one bringing trouble and you can handle it."

Noah took a deep breath and paused for a few seconds.

"I hope this opinion of yours won't change too soon."

"As I hear, Doctor, your results are very promising..." stated Bob, after he called Wang into his office.

"Promising but far from total."

He laughed faintly.

"I know that you're always reaching for the stars. You told me that you need something. Can I know what that would be?"

"I need a villain."

"Why?"

"I need to kill someone. Someone of us." she stated as Bob's face fell.

"Doctor, I gave you money and support. I gave you the freedom you wanted. I really don't understand in what kind of ways do you want to develop the research."

"I need to kill someone with abilities so I could see how the new ability affects my DNA. I have to replicate what Sylar is doing."

"So, there isn't another option." said Bob with a bitter voice.

"Unless you bring Sylar here."

In the moment Peter had disappeared, Kamala blacked out, too and none of the two could wake her up, so they just pulled her to the back seats of the car. Naturally they checked if she was alive and she was definitely breathing, just knocked out simply. Mohinder decided not to waste more time here.

"Who was this?" asked Monica.

"A former friend of mine." answered Mohinder.

"What did he do with her?"

"I don't know. I think he was trying to read her mind. And she tried to fight it."

"Reading her mind? That sounds quite aggressive."

"Oh, he's not a bad man at all. Powerful, yeah, but he's one of the good guys. He just found something that should have lied deep and wasn't able to take a good hold of it, I think."

Just like I did, thought Monica.

The night's shadows covered Peter up so nobody noticed him appearing beside a small house in a town he didn't know. He needed a few seconds to stop his ability and even with this speed, he almost ignited the flat that was made out of wood. He thought about some place he could sleep and buy some clothes as the most of his shirt and some parts of his jeans were burned down in the radiation. After a few minutes of searching, he found an inn, named the Black Mustang. Luckily, there were about five guests and a barkeeper in the hall of the inn. He right stepped to the barkeep, and tried to begin what he needed when someone with a strange accent, called his name.

"Peter! Peter Petrelli!"