Chapter 21: Light up the sky like a flame

Dreaming is a part of the human nature. We dream of many things, we desire, we want to be special, different from everyone else, to believe and pretend that there's no one else in the world exactly the same. We dream of flying, of fire, of love, of immortality. And sometimes, when we realize that this dream has come true, it turns to a nightmare, and all we would want to do is to get rid of it, but we can't. Because it is not our nature.

For several times he had thought that he had succeeded. Unfortunately, so far he hadn't and some scars indicated this very well on his left forearm. He had been suffering for hours and hours with Claire since her head regenerated so rapidly that he couldn't see well enough what he needed. But he didn't release her so he had many opportunities to try and he had realized that he was in need of those. He picked up a piece of china that had already been covered by the stains of his blood. He cut his arm and he felt pain – again pain, what he had become so familiar with and what he hoped will end soon forever. He watched excited as the wound closed rapidly. At last, he thought. Just for checking it, he cut himself once again but the wound healed immediately. If Claire didn't die, it didn't really matter for him. He wasn't hungry for killing, he was just hungry to be more powerful, immortal and maybe the mightiest person on the Earth. If he really got Claire's ability, nobody was able to stop him. This new situation altered his mind and his feelings and made him hungry for risk so he released Claire.

She jumped up, towards Noah's corpse. He expected her to begin to cry but instead she reached for his gun and tried to shoot Sylar. At the first bullet, he stopped it using telekinesis. It was a natural reflex for him. But after that, he let the bullets fly and hit him, as she pulled the trigger many times. He felt the pain but it took just a few seconds for his body to spit out the bullets and become unharmed again. When she saw this, she dropped the gun. She was full of shock and fear.

"Now what?" she asked.

"I don't need you any more. I'm going to look for something else."

"You mean someone else."

He nodded.

"Who was she?" asked Claire. "You didn't kill him so she didn't have an ability."

He shrugged his shoulder.

"Someone who didn't have the courage to face something she didn't understand. That's enough of questions for today. It would be a huge pleasure to see you again."

He flew by her, pushed her away, broke the room's window and flew away, leaving her staring at him and thinking about her next step.

Peter simply couldn't believe his eyes when he opened them. He remembered when he closed his eyes, hugged Caitlin and in the next moment, they were in a deserted New York. Maybe he just had to loosen his mind. When he concentrated too hard, like when he wanted to go back to save Nathan, he failed and ended somewhere in a totally different time and place. He stared around, watching the Red Square like if it was a world wonder. But if he managed to make his way here, he could have been something like that, too. He looked up and his eyes met Nicolai's ones. Peter got into his head fast – he was wondering about how familiar this place was, the time of his childhood spent in an orphanage, on the streets of Moscow and then... the film in his mind came to an end as he thought that he had dug too deep. He wouldn't do this to someone who had helped him.

Instead, he tried to concentrate on the future – to view another film, another story. He was stopped in mid-air again, Sylar holding him tight. And then, he heard a gunshot.

"What is going to happen here?" asked Peter, wondering.

"I don't know exactly." answered Nicolai. He was much more confident than Peter was. "The only thing I know is that he is heading here. Right now." he added darkly.

And Peter was very concerned about what would happen if he came here. He couldn't imagine his abilities failing again and he couldn't afford that mistake.

"Lucky the alarm went off in time." said Matt.

"It could have gone luckier." Nathan added. Although the mission was successful, he was concerned and even a bit terrified. He didn't expect Suresh to make a such desperate and dangerous move and nevertheless, he didn't expect the security system to almost let them go away. There was one thing he simply wasn't able to understand: how could Suresh get into the building without getting noticed, down to Rains' cell. After that, it was clear what had happened.

And even through that, Nathan's real concern wasn't the doctor, instead Claude Rains, the invisible man who succeeded in getting away and wasn't found. And more than that, the person who helped them in this action was a far greater thing to worry about. Was it Starnov pulling the strings again? Or was he just getting too paranoid?

"Molly Walker's not a threat until she stays here in sight." Nathan said. " In fact, she could help us a lot."

"I has started the adoption process." interrupted Matt. "And if I become her father legally, I'll want to know about every plan involving her."

"Relax, I don't want to mess up with you. And I want to keep her as far away from the front line as I can. I just need her help, her gift sometimes. The world is getting more and more dangerous." He sighed. "What do you want with Suresh?"

"What do you want with him?"

"Get him stable and let him go wherever he wants. He's persuadable. And he's not indispensable at all. But I'm concerned when attacks like this one can happen."

Matt nodded.

"Just one more talk to him." said Matt, after a short break. "I just want to make him realize the consequences of his actions."

"No mind-mining?" asked Nathan.

"Not at all." he answered, but he seemed to think for a few seconds, considering the idea.

Monica could hardly imagine that Wiklum, this fragile old man who she had to guard for very long hours, could run and move so fast and look so excited. She had a hard time following him, because her ability didn't really allow her to gain super strength so that she could carry Samuel at the old man's speed. She was afraid sometime when he got out of sight, but after just a few seconds, he turned back, looked at them angrily but actually showed them the way. After a few minutes, she realized that she had known where they were going, not just because she was familiar with the city around them but she knew that they had moved on the same route, a few hours ago when he talked about his challenge and led her to a ghost of a dead person, resting in an abandoned store.

She also had a lot of trouble with Samuel. He was bleeding quite badly and she was afraid that he wouldn't be able to make it to their destination – especially because she didn't know what did Wiklum want to do there.

As they reached the same deserted store building, she thought that things would get a little bit easier. But as Samuel saw the building, he immediately started shouting.

"Why the hell did you bring me here?"

"Why?" Monica asked but Wiklum jumped between them, raising his cane which looked as old as he was, if he was going to hit Samuel. He took a step backwards, slowly sat down and started crying.

"Why did you do this?" Monica shouted as he made Wiklum turn around. In the next moment, she realized that he didn't understand anything so she tried to repeat the question in French.

"I need time. If I get it, he'll be fine. If I don't, he'll die."

She still didn't know what was he thinking of but let him go. He sat down in front of the store counter and started singing slowly in a language that Monica couldn't understand. She was wondering what was Wiklum doing when Samuel called out her name.

"My brother." he stammered. "He died in here. We lost our parents a long time ago and he was the last member of my family. We wanted to live a normal life but we didn't have the money to start it, and because we were foreigners we didn't want to raise even more suspicion with our abilities.

"Your brother had an ability, too?" asked Monica.

Samuel nodded curtly but she wasn't able to ask more questions as Wiklum pushed her away and put his hands on Samuel's wound. He began concentrating and singing again, and the wound slowl healing. When he finished, Samuel stood up, now totally healthy. He was shocked.

"Where did you get that ability?" he asked. "That was my brother's one."

Before he could get angry because of Wiklum's silence, Monica interrupted them and tried to translate Samuel's question.

"Your brother gave it to me as I did what he wanted and brought you here."

Samuel couldn't believe his ears and that could be seen on his face.

"He has an ability, too." explained Monica. "He can talk with dead people. As you can see, he can also borrow abilities from them."

"He sees you." interrupted Wiklum. "And he's disappointed with you. He doesn't want vengeance. And he knows it's not your nature."

After Monica had translated for him, he desperately asked.

"What should I do?"

"Stop it."

Samuel nodded and turned to Monica.

"Would you come with me? I might need your help."

"Do you know what to do?"

"I don't. But he's right. At least, I must try it. For my brother. War won't bring him back. Unfortunately." he whispered.

"I'm ashamed of myself." he said as they walked out of the store.

Mohinder was wondering if someone might visit him but wasn't actually happy when he realized who was his visitor. In his heart, he was eager and even a bit desperate to see Kamala, instead Matt opened the door of the hospital room. Well, who else could have he expected?

He didn't know what he should say, instead he tried to think with Matt's head, and while doing that, he couldn't imagine why didn't he receive some penitence. Matt was much more powerful, he had thought that Mohinder was his friend and now he betrayed him. Or at least help someone to harm him pretty badly, and he wasn't thinking about the physical injury. He just wanted Molly to have a safe life but now he realized that he wasn't the right person to give this to her. He wasn't blind enough to do what the company wanted with her and now he was the one who had to suffer. He was weak, trying to fight someone what was bigger than himself.

"Look beside you." whispered Matt.

"I've done it." replied Mohinder immediately and he told the truth. Molly's bed was behind his one as she was also hit by a bullet and fell unconscious. She was still sleeping and although she was far away from danger, she looked so fragile. He remembered the first time when the three of them met. At that time, he tried to defend her from a possibly mortal threat, now he had become a threat like that.

"What do you want with her?" asked Mohinder.

"Giving her a family." The doctor sighed. "What did you expect? You caused great danger for her. She doesn't even trust you any more, I suppose."

"Then why is she lying next to me?"

"Because you are not a real threat." It was a bit calming to hear this from Matt. "But you should tell us who had helped you."

"You might know that the invisible man had hit you."

"I know." interrupted Matt. "But he wasn't alone. Someone brought you down there. Who was that?"

Mohinder gulped.

"Someone who played a huge role in making my decision about her."

"Why do you say it out loudly? I can get in your head."

"I've learned things about this company what made me think about its purpose. It is not as white as you see it. I could tell you things changing your world view. But I don't want you to know about the ghosts of the past. Maybe they won't haunt you, then. If you respect me, you won't try to read it out of my head."

"Shouldn't I know about what has lead you here, to break in a facility like this?"

"I can answer in thousands of words or in one: love."

"I really can't understand you." sighed Matt.

"I won't make any more attempts like this." said Mohinder. "If you need my help, I'll stay here to cure her but after that I'm going back to India. It's an unfortunate thing that an event like this made me realize that I don't want such a dangerous life."

"Luckily the consequences can be corrected." said Matt. "Have a good journey."

Hiro opened his eyes. The room he was in wasn't like the Yamagato office as he remembered. Everything was white around him but that was all he could see. Soon he realized why – because he didn't have glasses on. He looked for it with his hands and put it up. As he looked around, he knew immediately that he was in a hospital room. But how did he get here?

He looked beside him and saw his sister sitting at his bed, almost asleep.

"Kimiko." he said quietly.

As she heard her name, she slowly opened her eyes. She wore the same dirty clothes in which she was kept in Ozaki's prison. She smiled but he couldn't smile back.

"At last you woke up." she said.

"I wish I wouldn't." he murmured.

"Why?" she asked.

"How did I get here?"

"You fell when we got into the office. The doctors say it's post-traumatic shock or I don't know. The main thing is that you're getting healthier."

"If I was a samurai, I wouldn't deserve life. I should commit seppuku." he said darkly.

She laid her hand on his shoulder.

"I failed. I abandoned you." he said.

"How could you say that? You came to me in the first moment."

"But I could and I should have rescued you. I should have used my ability wiser."

Her voice got quieter and soon it changed to a whisper.

"If you could do these things, I totally understand why did our father paid so much attention for you. You used your gift as wise as you could."

"No, I didn't." argued Hiro. "I failed to rescue you and I dishonored our family. We got into the hands of the family's sworn enemies. Our father's attention was vain."

"No, it wasn't. We are still Kimiko and Hiro Nakamura, one of Japan's mightiest people. And we'll help justice win this battle."

Hiro wished if he could be so optimistic and that justice really won. He didn't if there was any justice for him. How could these villains be caught? They can get out from every trap. And they couldn't even tell the police about that because they sounded crazy.

And most of all, he wasn't sure if he could accept the role of a businessman, an ordinary person without any special ability. A role which he had desperately tried to escape from.

After a few minutes what seemed just walking around without any exact destination to target, Samuel turned round and led Monica out to the suburbs of New Orleans. She was thinking about his plan much but she decided not to ask him. Although, she realized soon that they are heading to locations what were full of gang members and opportunities to find them – if anyone was so silly to do that. Samuel climbed down to the sewer and she followed him a bit disgusted. They walked quite a long distance and climbed up near a site what was abandoned by many years. It wasn't a popular meeting place even before this since it was actually a junkyard.

"Why here?" she asked.

"Because there are many things to shoot." he answered darkly.

"I don't get it."

"Gang members come here often to practice shooting. And mostly, they are alone. Come on, let's hide."

They didn't have to wait a lot, after about ten minutes of silence, a young guy wearing red clothes with gang symbols appeared. Although he didn't seem much older than Monica, a small gun was in his hand.

"Restrain him somehow, please." he whispered.

"You also did this when you were alone." she replied angrily. She didn't want to get used, even by him.

He shrugged his shoulder.

"It would have been easier if you helped me." In a few moments, he disappeared in the surrounding junk. She waited for anything to happen. After a short time, he jumped out of the junk and grabbed the gangster's head with the palms of his hands. His mouth moved but she didn't understand what was he saying so she also came out from the junk.

"No more war." he hissed. It was quite similar to Wiklum's singing. "You will never attack anyone else. Even if your life is in danger. No more attacks, no more war. Spread peace..."

A gunshot interrupted him. Monica turned round and saw another gang member, dressed in green, pointing his gun on Samuel and changing his target to her fast. She dropped, rolled aside so that she was covered by the brainwashed gangster. She felt something cold at her shoulder while he fired two other shots. It was the first guy's gun. She reacted instinctively. As she heard another shot, she jumped aside and fired two shots towards the gangster. The bullets hit him, so he dropped the gun and collapsed. As she got sure that their attacker won't get up soon, she climbed to Samuel. He was wounded much harder than the first time this day. The bullet got into his chest which was bleeding heavily.

"The war will end soon." he rattled as Monica took his dusty head into her hands. "Without me, there's no source."

"But how will it stop? And what about you? It's not a one-person job."

"They'll kill each other. No source."

"And what about you?" she asked as she, trying to pull him away, to get him to Wiklum as fast as she could. Now was the time when she really started to realize what had happened.

"Don't worry about me." rattled Samuel. "I'm with family." And he closed his eyes.

Mohinder got better very fast. A few hours after waking up and talking to Matt Parkman, he could get put of bed as the drugs rushed out of his body. He was alone with Molly, only disturbed by nurses at just a few times. Sometimes he thought that this was intentional: they wanted to have a look at her, watching the slow process of her recovery. The only thing they couldn't imagine was that what kind of a torture was this to him. Despite what he had done in the past, he loved Molly, and it hurt him that he couldn't show any sign of this to her. Even instead.

He went to bed with strange feelings, he was ashamed and yet sure about his feelings and what were the reasons of his actions. He just drove on a dangerous path and maybe this was his only weakness. He was a bit too altruistic, he wanted to help too many people. As he closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep, he heard a whisper, calling out his name. As he opened his eyes again, two people were standing beside here bed: Kamala and Claude Rains.

"Why did you come here?" he asked, shocked.

"Because I'm sure about what I should do." she whispered.

"You've put yourself in great danger." he replied.

"Just like you did when you jumped in front of me. You couldn't even know what were they using." She took a deep breath. "I've told you what do I feel. I think it's up to you know."

He slowly sat up and kissed her.

"You lot seem quite sure about what you're doing." interrupted Claude.

"What are you going to do?" asked Mohinder and Kamala at the same time.

"It's not really about me. There's some mess I've made. I have to deal with things my way."

Mohinder thought he didn't really want to know what that meant.ű

"And what are you going to do?" asked Claude. "He's goddamn right, you both are in danger here."

They looked at each other and he thought that he saw something, a small flame lighting in her eyes which reminded him at his dream before he met her.

"I think I will go back to India. Taking up my job at the university."

"Say we." Kamala added. "I won't leave you."

They turned to each other again and the flame in her eyes was clearly to be seen.

"We don't have much time." warned them Claude. "We must get out before they find out that we were here. You should meet again in Madras."

She looked at Claude and nodded. Then, she turned back to Mohinder.

"I'll wait for you there."

"You have told me it's my time." whispered Peter to Nicolai. They had been sitting on a simple bench in Moscow for many hours and he was getting bored and frightened as it was slowly getting dark. Nicolai wouldn't actually have said a word if he hadn't been asked, which Peter didn't manage too many times. He was silently watching around like he saw something Peter didn't.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the exact time. But he'll be here, I'm sure of that."

"You're sure?" he asked, intrigued. "And aren't you afraid? Or I could ask, are you mad or something?"

He just shrugged his shoulder.

"You know that I'm going to face a serial killer and I'm not sure if I can use my abilities!"

"You'll be able to." he answered calmly.

"And what if he sneaks around and cuts my head down before I could do anything?"

For the first time, Nicolai turned to him and looked in his eyes but he didn't say anything. He just looked completely confident about what was going to happen.

In the next moment, he began shouting as he was pushed away by an invisible force.

Peter jumped up and turned around, just to face his nemesis.

"Hi, then." Sylar said quietly. He was smiling grimly. "Familiar situation, isn't it?"

Before Peter could move, he grabbed his throat with telekinesis and slowly began to cut his forehead. Peter realized he had nothing to lose. He tried to concentrate and to break free from Sylar's choke. He looked like he was fighting hard to hold back Peter's efforts. Finally, Peter managed to get free, he released himself. He didn't know how much time did he spend strangled but he was sweating heavily and drops of blood dropped from his head to the ground. At all, he was alive. He looked up at Sylar, and he saw his grim smile but with a small bit of disappointment. Before he could attack again, Peter fought back, firing all of his anger towards him in a huge telekinetic blast what blew a hole in his chest.

Finally, Sylar was dead, he thought and that he was going to watch him bleed out in front of his eyes.

But suddenly, he began to regenerate rapidly and in a few moments, he was standing again, looking as healthy as he could.

"You see." he hissed. "You can't kill me but you can help me a lot. If I had your ability, I wouldn't have to kill so much."

"Damn you!" he shouted and he fired a jolt of lightning against him. He wanted to see Sylar die and he intended to make that happen. After a few moments of pain he flew up. Peter suddenly realized what he was doing. He wondered who had he killed to gain this ability and the first person with this ability came to his mind: Nathan. He possibly had another reason to kill this bastard and it was vengeance. He flew up, after Sylar and fired many lightning bolts towards him but he couldn't hit him. Suddenly, Sylar turned down and landed on the ground of the square. Peter rushed after him but he was stopped in mid-air like he had seen it before. Sylar grabbed him with his telekinesis and he had to fight again but this time he was angrier and more tired.

"Let it go." Sylar said. "If your abilities work, you won't suffer a lot and you won't die after all. Just like Claire hadn't."

"After what you have done to all of us?" Peter shouted as he remembered the people he had killed. And the pain he had caused for everyone.

"I'm not going to regret that. It was natural."

"Sonofabitch." hissed Peter.

Suddenly, someone shot a gun and hit Sylar in his chest. Slowly, he looked down waiting for the wound to regenerate but it didn't. He looked down and saw that his pure chest was bleeding again. He concentrated on the healing process but it didn't have any use. He fell on his knees and dropped Peter when losing his consciousness. He wasn't able to gulp, instead he spat some blood on the ground. Two other shots roared into the night and his head blew away. As Peter got up he saw Nicolai holding a gun in his hand.

"How did you do that?" he asked, terribly surprised.

"Like I'll do this." He raised the gun and shot Peter's knees.

Peter fell to the ground, beside Sylar's dead body.

"What?" he stammered as tears rushed in his eyes.

"I've never told you my true ability, Peter Petrelli." His voice was full of hate and disgust now. "I can gain control over others' abilities, making them stop or forcing them to use it."

"Why?" cried Peter. He tried to fire lightning towards Nicolai but he was right. He wasn't able to do anything. He didn't even regenerate. Just like Sylar before. Except, his hands were beginning to glow as Nicolai took over his radioactive ability.

"Because your family slaughtered mine. That's all. And now, you're becoming an instrument of my vengeance." His voice was raising slowly. "I was the one who killed your brother at the press conference, and I even managed to kill your mother in your own home. But I needed you, this was your fate. I couldn't let you around me with your abilities, so I suppressed them. But now, I need you and your ability to wipe out this whole city."

Now, Peter was concentrating to stop going nuclear again. But there was no use.

"And now, I'm going away, unharmed, to accomplish my further plans." As he was speaking, his voice was getting slowly quieter as he got further from Peter.

He looked up to the sky. He was used again. Used by Nicolai, just like he had been used by Adam Monroe. The difference was, that he managed to help the evil side to win. He was a much more dangerous villain than Adam was.

He looked up to the sky again, at the stars. Sometimes, he saw some small light bursts around him. He remembered the Kirby Plaza accident. He remembered that Nathan was there for him. But now, he was alone and there was no help. His only escape way, the stars and the dark sky was locked away from him. He focused for the final time before blowing up and accidentally killing millions of people.

As he was surrounded by heat and light, he could feel that his feet were leaving the ground.

End of Volume Three

Volume Four: Crisis Course

Claire was surrounded by a lot of heavy books. She had a difficult time adapting to the university life and stuff. Especially that she attended to a medical university and naturally, one of the more difficult ones.

But now, she was concentrating on the phone, although he should have learned.

"As I've told you." she said angrily. "I am finished with the Company." She listened for a while.

"You might understand what has happened to me. I've lost my father because of your purposes and your mission, whatever you call that. All I want to do is to live a normal life, without being hunted. Like everyone else. Like an ordinary student. As Claire Horner."

Someone knocked on the door. She went to the door, looked out and opened it.

"Sorry, I've got to go." she said. She put down her cell phone, dropped it to her bed and turned to her guest.