Chapter 42- Stay With Me
When Gabriel awoke, the first thing he noticed was the thick, metallic taste of blood in his mouth and it made him sick. He slowly opened his eyes and marveled at the way everything sounded muffled and so far away although he was right in the middle of the action, crumpled like a rag doll against the very rock he sought refuge from. It took a minute or two more to realize that Peter was laying on him still unconscious with Spock only a few feet away and…more…bodies…in uniform. The stark realization at what he was seeing was like a cold splash of water to his brain. He was smack in the middle of his painting. Despite all of his precautions and careful watchfulness the painting came true just as he always secretly knew it would.
Peter stirred ever so slightly and immediately moaned in pain. He didn't need to look at his body to know that something was terribly wrong. Everything felt all wrong like his limbs were bending in places that were never meant to be and his chest ached with each breath. He had never experienced pain like that before, not even falling over the wall onto concrete with Sylar hurt that much as he remembered it. He gave an involuntary shudder and weakly coughed up a good amount of blood that quickly soaked into the ground beneath him and he watched it slip away just as he knew his life was. He had been around enough trauma and death to know that he didn't have much longer to live and his only regret was not being faster or stronger so he might have saved Spock.
Gabriel shifted and slowly moved so as not to jostle Peter's broken body too much in order to sit up and the result was Peter laying languidly in his lap, face pale as death and in obvious agony. Gabriel looked down at his nemesis and felt nothing but a vague sense of loss and the notion that he shouldn't be made to suffer so long before dying. It was something that he never really pondered before- even the times when he was trying to kill him- what would life be like without him? Peter was his nemesis most of the time but he was also the only other person like him as far as he knew and he was painfully aware that he had a very long stretch of life ahead of him. And although he knew that invariably things would change as time passed until the life he knew was only a faded memory, knowing that Peter was still in the world would have made it a little more bearable even if he never saw him. Just the knowledge that some semblance of his life remained in the form of Peter- some tangible evidence that he really did have a normal life at one time might be enough. As he replayed the memory of the explosion in his head, things didn't match up to the general law of physics as he understood them. Then a startling conclusion occurred to him and he bent slightly to whisper, "Peter, did…did you try to shield me from the blast?" Peter's hazel eyes widened slightly and the smallest of smirks formed on his blue lips and Gabriel sighed. "Idiot."
"It worked." He weakly protested.
"I think you take the whole hero thing a little too seriously." Gabriel chided. "Really, Peter, you need help."
"Not anymore." He replied although Gabriel could barely hear him. His eyes were growing glassy and to make matters worse, a Romulan was approaching with his weapon raised and aimed at the two of them- obviously intent on finishing the job. Gabriel instinctively sat upright, clutching Peter close with one hand and reached out in an effort to stop the Romulan as though he still had his powers. Just past the guard he could see Nathan slowly getting to his feet and just above him, the waning eclipse and it was then that everything changed. He had a plan- he had to keep the Romulan at bay and Peter hanging on long enough for the sun to restore their powers. "Nathan!" He screamed with everything he had. If there was anyone who would move heaven and earth to protect Peter it was Nathan.
Nathan turned in the direction of the voice screaming his name to see exactly what Sylar had painted in his room and it sent chills up his spine. Before he even had time to think, his feet were carrying him at breakneck speed toward his brother and his would be attacker. He hit the Romulan from behind with such force he almost knocked himself out in the process, but his military training kept him alert and he recovered the gun to hold it over his new captive. As he looked into the Romulan's eyes he debated whether or not he should kill him. Being a pilot, Nathan knew he killed people in the war- probably innocent civilians too- but he was high above it all and never had to look his victim in the eye. And the same was true of the secret government project he was overseeing- the 10:00 reports were a daily reminder of his legacy but he never directly ordered them killed. There was a certain personal responsibility that he never had to deal with before then and he wondered how Sylar had the fortitude to watch the life fade from his victim's eyes time and again.
Gabriel held Peter as gently as he could without letting him slip from his grip and he felt as though he were fighting a losing battle. "Peter," he quietly said looking nervously at the man's waxy pallor, "you're almost there. You have to hold on just a little longer. The eclipse is almost over and Nathan is here. You don't want to leave him and Claire do you?" He gave a small desperate laugh and added, "Who will protect them from me when I get my powers back?"
"Nathan." Peter smiled as he tried to turn his head to look for his older brother- his hero that never let him down- well, mostly. It was most unfortunate then that when Peter's eyes finally focused enough to see his brother clad in a yellow shirt standing over a vanquished foe that he was soon the one at the disadvantage as a fresh battalion of Romulans swarmed the area and brought him to his knees with a shot to the back of his head with the butt of a weapon.
McCoy and Matt watched in horror as the Romulans began dragging their prisoners back into the building to no doubt execute them there or as McCoy hoped, use them as aces in a new round of negotiations. At least that would buy them enough time to do…something dammit. Nathan and Spock were the first to go and he knew he had to do something before all of them got drug back into the rat hole. So, against his better judgment he darted out from beside the ship and grabbed the closest Starfleet uniform to him which just happened to be Jim and did an admirable job of an impromptu fireman's carry back to the ship. Despite not being particularly athletic, adrenaline more than made up for his lack of physical prowess and he again set out for the next one and then the next until he had a neat pile of bodies consisting of Jim, Chekov, and Noah. With each rescue he deftly dodged and weaved his way around Romulans and explosions like a bootlegger running from the law in the backwoods of Georgia. Although he was out of breath, he started back for Sylar and Peter, but something stopped him cold.
Gabriel looked to the sky and felt the gentle warmth of the sun spill over his face and light the surface of the hellish planet. He could feel a change within his body- a tingling as his powers came back online and his body began to heal from the abuse it had taken. He felt stronger, more keenly intelligent, and more sinister as the inner darkness once more took hold. Sylar was back with a vengeance and once more Gabriel was locked away deep within his psyche, unsure of when or if he would ever be released again.
Peter too began to change. His color began to turn from pale to a pinkish healthy hue and his twisted limbs began to straighten and snap back into place as though they were never broken. This was nearly as painful as having them broken, but he was glad to be back from the very brink of death because Sylar was right: he had to stay and keep him in check as best he could. He sat up and turned to his unlikely partner. "Thanks for saving me, you could have let me die."
The coldness in Sylar's eyes told Peter the party was over and it was back to the status quo. "Why would I deny myself the pleasure?" He asked rhetorically. Peter sighed and nodded before taking notice of a group of Romulan guards that stood watching in awe. Undoubtedly they watched him heal instantly, but he didn't feel as though he owed them an explanation. But seeing them brought back what he hoped was just a hallucination of his dying brain: they had Nathan and they would now feel the wrath of gods- or demigods anyway.
"Kirk to the Enterprise." Jim's tired voice called over the system's communications.
"Aye, Captain!" Scotty answered excitedly. The way things had devolved so quickly on the surface compounded with Jim's tendency to be in the middle of it all had him a bit worried. "Are ya' alright, Sir?"
There was a half minute or so of heavy breathing and in the background the crew could hear McCoy bark, "Hold still, dammit!" before Jim gave a weak and completely unconvincing "Yeah."
"Great! Do ya' want us to beam you up then?" He asked hopefully. The truth was he didn't like sitting so close to the surface when he knew the Romulans had the capability and weapons range to attack. Some people hated drifting aimlessly in space, but not Scotty because it meant they weren't getting into trouble and there was no place he would rather be than nowhere.
"Sorta." Jim confirmed. "Listen Scotty, I want you to get Matt, Chekov, and Noah and have a med team waiting for them. Things have gotten a little complex down here and we need to get Spock and Nathan- the Romulans have them."
"Aye, Sir. Will ya' be needing any more reinforcements?" No matter the staggering improbability of Jim's luck, even Scotty couldn't imagine him not needing help on this one.
"Nah. Looks like the eclipse is over," Jim laughed mysteriously, "and I think we have at least one very motivated evolved human that is worth at least 10 of our men. Get the men off the surface and standby for us."
"Aye, Sir." He wanted to wish him luck or tell him to be careful, bit he knew Jim didn't need luck and wouldn't listen to the warning anyway, so he saved his breath and worked the controls at Chekov's station to run the transporters.
"Are they coming back?" Claire asked hopefully.
"Aye, lass." Scotty smiled. "At least some of them."
"I want to see my father." She stated resolutely as though she expected an argument from the acting captain. She also wanted to see Chekov, but she didn't think it wise to say it out loud.
"Go on then," Scotty nodded shooing her toward the elevators, "ya' might want to just go to sickbay since that's where they'll be goin'."
"Do you remember how to get there?" Uhura asked politely while she waited on the turbolift.
"Yeah, I think I can manage." Claire nodded at the woman who was probably only a few years older than herself. Uhura smiled and returned to her work deciphering the messages that streamed into her ear and Claire had something of a quarter life crisis at the sight of her. Here was this woman fairly close in age doing some very important work and what had she done in her life? Taken a few classes in college and generally felt useless- that's what. She had this amazing ability of not getting hurt and living a very long time and she was wasting it when she should have followed her uncle's example and used them to help people. She could be a firefighter, or a military pilot like Nathan, or she could work in medicine like Mohinder or even be a cop and protect people like Matt, but she felt as though she was doing nothing of particular importance to anyone and she hated that feeling.
When she arrived in the hospital area, she saw Matt standing by her father's bed where he was sitting while a medical person scanned a burn on his arm with a laser. "Are you sure?" She heard him ask Matt when she approached.
"Yeah, it was the last thing I did before we came up here." He answered emphatically. "I know for a fact that Peter was planning on kicking some serious alien ass to get Nathan back and Sylar just wanted revenge on one alien in particular, but you know him as well as I do. He will kill 100 just to get to the one."
"Dad." She smiled as she pretended not to hear what Matt had just said.
"Hey, Claire bear." Noah smiled also pretending not to have just had that conversation. So much of his life was built on pretense and he deeply regretted it but saw no other way to keep his little girl safe from the ugly truths in the world- even for just awhile longer.
"Are you ok?" She asked gesturing to the woman who was still operating the laser.
"Yeah." Noah nodded as though being blown up was on par with stubbing one's toe, "they call this thing a dermal regenerator. Works wonders! I wish we had something like this." He was actually amazed as he watched the laser repair his burned and lacerated skin as though it never happened.
Claire was only mildly impressed because she could do the same thing much faster on her own. "Is Peter ok?" She asked already knowing the answer, but she wanted to hear it for herself.
"Yeah, he's fine." Matt answered quickly. "The eclipse is over, so everything's back to normal." Whatever normal meant…
Claire thought the same, but didn't feel like arguing the point. "Ok, well I will leave you two to… whatever." She smiled as she turned away towards Mohinder's lab. She never really had much interaction with him, but the few times she did she found him to be level headed and calm- just what she needed right then. By his lab, in the same bed where Peter had rested while he was in his coma, was Chekov. He seemed to be alone and suffering, so she felt compelled to at least check on him. "Hey." She said awkwardly as she tentatively put her hands on the side of his bed.
He opened his blue eyes and smiled at the sight of her despite being in pain and gave his best "Hello" without sounding too pathetic.
She had to admit that he looked a little worse for wear since she last saw him bounding to the elevators enthusiastically to take his assignment. His clothing was smudged with dirt and torn, and he was bleeding in various places from what looked like shrapnel. "What happened?" She asked moving her hand to his arm lightly. Holding his hand as she did to try to comfort Peter when he was ill seemed a little too intimate, but she hoped it was just as good.
A light buzz of generalized excitement filled his body and he no longer felt much pain at her touch, and his smile became relaxed and brighter. "I don't know." He admitted. "Ve vere on our vay to pick up Peter, Spock, and Sylar and vhen ve landed, it vas all fighting and people running. I saw Peter helping Spock and I also saw a bomb coming for them, so captain Kirk, your father and I ran to try to get to them first. Vhen I voke up I vas laying on the ground by the ship and now I am here."
"Why isn't anyone taking care of you? Where are the doctors?" She asked looking around.
"They vill come. I can vait." He declared stoically.
She gave a small smile and patted his arm lightly so as not to accidently cause anymore pain. "Then I will wait with you. Is that ok?" She couldn't say what she was meant to do with her life, but for the moment she felt as though she had a purpose.
His eyes softly gleamed as he slowly nodded his head. "I vould like that wery much."