Carter stared at Eden, trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing. The last time he had seen Eden, she was an angel, aloof and glowing with holy light, teaching him how to be a hero.
This Eden was dressed in HIS duster, her hair cut short and the only glow at all coming from her hands…where her own version of his whammy flames burned.
That was the other thing that was throwing him…he had seen others with his fire…Vally, her future self, future Valencia's brother and daughter…but never true whammy flames, emotion manipulating fires.
This Eden…was the Metatron of this Universe.
"My name is not Eden." The woman snarled. "My name is Sarah Daniels…now get the hell away from my dad!" She fired another blast, Carter raising his hand and catching it, letting the fire be absorbed by his own.
"Calm down…" He held out his own hand, undoing the whammy done to the others. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Eden/Sarah glared at him. "There is something up with you…I can feel your emotions warring." She fired another blast, Carter catching it. "How…"
Carter burst into his Metatron form.
"You are not the only one with gifts, Eden…" He held out his arms wide. "But some of us are stronger than you."
Eden/Sarah raised an eyebrow…before igniting into her own Metatron form. "Is that so?" She ran at him, managing to get a punch in due to his shock. "And my name is SARAH!"
Carter caught her fist, flames sucking in as he entered his final, ascended form. "Ok Sarah…" Carter ground out, growing frustrated, "I will ask again…calm…down!"
"You first." She stated, headbutting him.
Carter snapped his head back, moving to grab her hand again…
Only for him to fall to his knees, Sarah joining him, their flames snuffed out in an instant as their eyes glowed pink, weakness filling their limbs.
"Bad daddy." Vally said sternly, her in own ascended form, her energy-body shimmer as she stared down the two of them, tapping her foot. "Bad Aunt Eden…time out!" She slammed her hands down, and Carter and Sarah fell to the ground, weak as kittens.
"Vally…" Madrid said slowly, walking towards her.
Vally looked up at her mother, noticing the others were watching her in shock. "Too much?"
"Yup."
She focused, and Carter and Sarah felt their powers return, as well as their strength. "Sorry daddy, sorry Aunt Eden." Vally said as she hugged Madrid's leg, body returning to normal.
Malcolm slowly approached the two, before grabbing each by the ear, Carter and Sarah yelping as he dragged them up. "Well then, now that we are done having the whammy measuring contest, can we go inside and figure out how we are going to save the world?"
^&^&^&^
"This is just too strange." Carter muttered, running his fingers through his hair. He was sitting his living room, with his parents…except the photos in there were of Sarah, and his parents were checking her over for injuries and staring at him like he was the interloper.
"This is the strangest thing for you?" Claire asked. "The travel through dimension thingie…that's fine…but this is too strange?"
"It is for me." Sarah said, applying an icepack to her neck. Se held out her hands, letting the flames dance on her fingers. "Granted…it was a close race…"
Helena glared at Carter. "You honestly want us to believe that you are a timetraveler…"
"Suvivors of universal convergence." Malcolm interjected. "Huge difference."
"Whatever. You are survivors of this whatsit, where, in your 'dimension', I am your mother and Vic was your father?" She shook her head, leaning back. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gray, but you are not getting me to buy that."
"Daniels." Carter corrected. "My name is Carter Daniels."
"Not offended in the slightest." Gabriel muttered.
"Actually, it is Ellis." Vic stated, to the surprise of his wife and daughter. "And you are my grandson."
Carter smirked slightly."Good to see something didn't change in this world."
"Dad?" Sarah whispered. "What are you…"
"I told you a few months ago I was your biological grandfather." Vic stated, for a moment aging himself into an old man before reverting to normal. "I told you that your father…a drunk and a womanizer, had many children. Carter…is the last."
"Last scion of the House of Ellis." Carter muttered.
Sarah shook her head. "He's…actually my brother?"
"Yes."
Helena held up a hand. "That's nice and touching…but just because they share a dad doesn't mean Carter here is being honest about the dimension thing."
Carter leaned forward. "There is a way to prove it." He turned to Sarah. "Call upon your flames."
"What?"
Carter moved to stand beside her, his own hand glowing. "You have learned how to control emotions without calling out the name. But there is more to that. You can change the chemicals in the brain, you can see how they flow. Focus on Madrid…feel what she is feeling…sense her honesty."
Sarah took a calming breath before igniting her fingers, focusing on Madrid. Vally watched on, cradled her mother's arms, as Sarah's eyes began to glow.
"She's telling the truth…I can feel it." Sarah said at long last. "This is…amazing."
Carter smiled slightly. "You have only scratched the surface of what these powers can do."
"Why are you here?" Helena asked.
Malcolm tapped the coffee table. "That's the rub, Mrs. Daniels. We 5…we are trapped in this dimension. And I would personally like to get back to one where things make sense. Granted, I enjoy being Prime Minister and all that…but I think the Malcolm of this dimension would like control. To do that, we need a dead time traveler alive and kicking."
"…you need my father's blood." Vic stated.
"We know you took the last vial of Adam Monroe's blood, Vic." Madrid stated. "We need it."
Helena shook her head. "This is insane…"
"They are telling the truth, mom." Sarah stated. "They need the vial."
Vic sighed, leaning back against the couch. "There is no other way?"
"None that we have found." Ellie admitted.
Helena stood up, pacing in front of them all. "You can't be serious Vic! You swore you'd never let that vial go…that it was too dangerous…"
The window behind Helena shattered.
Time slowed to a crawl as Helena looked down, staring dumbly at the blood gushing from her chest, a trickle of it leaking from her open mouth before she fell.
"Helena!"
"Mom!"
Malcolm's eyes went white. "DOWN!"
It was too late.
The second bullet ripped through Vic's chest, sending him crashing to the floor. Carter dove in front of the window, bellowing as another two bullets ripped through him, his wounds healing. Gabriel shook himself from his shock, sending furniture to block the window.
Sarah trembled as she crawled towards her mouth, hands fluttering like bird wings as she stared down at Helena's still, lifeless eyes. "No…no no no…" She began to chant, over and over.
"Oh God." Tina whispered.
Carter fell to his knees, tears in his eyes as he neared his mother. "Oh…oh…" He stammered, unable to say anything more.
"Grandma?" Vally whispered before Madrid forced her to look away.
"Carter…" Vic whispered, Claire and Audrey trying to stop the flow of blood. "Sarah…"
The two children that called him father dragged themselves to his side. "Daddy." Sarah whispered.
"D-d-d-dad…" Carter stuttered.
Vic smiled weakly. "Sarah…its going to be…ok. I love you."
"Daddy…daddy don't…"
"Carter…" Vic managed to get out. "Nathan…Nathan has…the vial."
And with that, Vic Daniels was gone.
"Daddy!" Sarah scaremed, wrapped her arms around his cooling form. Carter sat their, still and mute, taking it all in.
Audrey and Claire backed away, feeling like intruders at the scene.
Vally sobbed in her mother's arms.
Malcolm's eyes returned to normal. "It was too fast…there was nothing we could have done…I'm sorry." Ellie wrapped her arms around him.
"Who?" Carter said, his voice eerily calm. "Who did this?"
Malcolm focused, tracing the chaos lines… "The Human's First Group…they are wait outside for us to come out…they are going to shoot us down."
Carter kept his back to all of them, tense. "There are no words left."
And then the moodshifted.
Like a jetfighter preparing to take off, a terrible hum filled the house. Carter slowly rose, Sarah following him a moment later, their bodies seeming to almost grow larger before those gathered. The silver whammy flames were gone, replaced by fire as black as pitch. Carter slowly turned his head, and red glowing eyes stared back at them.
"Maybe we should…" Madrid began, before Vally trembled, her own pink flames suddenly going blood red, eyes dark. Madrid nearly dropped her daughter at the sight.
"Run." Malcolm whispered.
"What?" Gabriel whispered.
"We need to run…now."
He grabbed Ellie's hand and bolted for the back, the others confused and still only for a moment before Carter and Eden's flames erupted, lashing out at all around them. Madrid was the only one to remain, Vally's own flames the only thing protecting her.
"Carter!" She called out.
He turned to them two of them, blazing eyes causing Madrid's soul to quiver. "Vally." He stated. No other words were needed.
Madrid screamed as Vally activated her power, the red flames ripping through the four of them. Sarah fell to her knees, Madrid trembled, and Carter doubled over as Vally once more amplified their abilities. Madrid balled her hand into a fist as she felt the new strength and speed invade her limbs. Sarah rose up, using a fingernail to cut her arm and watching as the wound healed. Vally merely watched, body trembling with anticipation.
Carter went into his ascended form.
^&^&^&^
"Sir." The Human's First agent called out, rushing to his commanding officer. The Officer kept his sniper rifle trained on the window that had been covered. "We are getting reports of lifeforms making their way out the back door."
"Send a squad around then…shoot to kill."
"We still have 3 in the living room…a possible fourth…a small one…"
"The toddler, Valencia Gray." The sniper stated. "Keep targeted on them."
"If they emerge?"
"Shoot to kill."
"And the toddler?"
The sniper shrugged. "Shoot to k-"
The front of the house exploded.
The agents, being nearly a quarter of a mile away, still took a step back as wood and drywall blew out from the house. They watched as three figures emerged, the only one not covered in black flames cradling a red fireball in her arms.
"Seems we got Carter Gray's attention." The sniper stated, taking his shot.
The bullet struck Carter right in the chest.
He continued towards them, his flames glowing hotter.
"Miss." THe agent trembled.
The sniper shook his head in disbelief. "No…killshot." It was the last thing he got to say before the attack came.
Sarah Daniels' hands began to charge up, the jetfire engine hum that always came whenever the whammy flames grew more intense now deafening. She brought her hand up, palm outstretched.
If anyone was around to witness this moment, they might have found it interesting to see how the three beings now covered in flames commanded their fires. Sarah held her hand out wide, as if giving them a warning to stop before she blasted them with her power. Vally wielded her flames as only a little girl could, like a magician casting spells, throwing out the fire like softballs.
Carter's hand never opened. The moment he had entered that mint, those many months ago, he had always attacked with a fist, as if his hand were a cannon. The blast came from his whole arm, the recoil like a shotgun.
Madrid had already sprouted extra arms, , usning them to move Vally to her back and keep her there, the others going for her guns. She twisted and danced about, springing her and there as she aided her husband as best she could. Madrid was like a gymnast doing her floor routine, every hit having the second benefit of launching her into the next assault. Men fell before they could raise their weapons, and when they believed her to be to far away to attack, that's when she would spring through the air and land on top of them.
Vally was not a mere observer either. Her eyes flashes dark as she fired blast after blast, sending long waves out that had men and women on the gorund, no longer able even to summon the strength to move. The image of yet another set of grandparents taken from her burned in her mind, and her words to her father's birth mother echoed all about her. "You hurt my daddy…so I hurt you"
Sarah was Helena's daughter. It was clear in how she battled. She appeared to be moving without purpose, but that was merely a front, a cover for the fact that she was always looking for the best shot. She protected herself and watched out for her allies, using her attacks not only to take out enemies but protect them. If a body could be used as a shield or a weapon picked up, it was an opportunity she never let slip.
Carter was the Metatron. The Voice of God. Emotion given form. And in this moment, rage was all he proclaimed. He moved like a freight train, going for the most damage he could. A whammy blast shot out like tank fire, every punch reducing bone to dust. At times he would become so focused on beating an already dead corpse that other agents would swarm around him, only to scream as his skin ripped open and his flames exploded like hellfire.
It was after one blast that he and Sarah saw him. The sniper. Their parents' killer.
"Bennet." Carter snarled.
Noah Bennet dropped his rifle and pulled out to handguns, unloading the clips at Carter's head.
The Metatron merely sidestepped them, letting them kill the agent trying to sneak up behind him.
"Why?" Sarah demanded, marching towards him.
Bennet sneered as he took several steps back. "Just finishing what your mother started, Sarah." He taunted. He glared at Carter. "And what that fire should have finished." Carter continued towards him. "You both should be dead…and those traitors in their harbored you." He took out a grenade. "But they died for the cause…they will be remembered well for their sacrifice…somewhere in that house Victor Daniels has Adam Monroe's blood…and we will use it to correct the mistake that is your kind."
Bennet moved to throw the grenade.
Carter's hands latched onto his own, locking over the explosive.
BOOM
Bennet screamed as his hands were blown clear away, Carter trembling slightly as his grew back. Sarah was on him in an instant, holding him by the throat and punching him till his nose shattered, blood covering Bennet's face.
Carter's body pulsed.
"You have long wondered Bennet, when sleep alludes you and you find yourself alone in the darkness…are those you hate human? I am sure you have convinced yourself they are not. But I tell you this…if they are more than human…" Carter spread his arms out. "Then I am a god."
And with that, he exploded.
^&^&^&^
It was several minutes later that Malcolm finally gave the ok for the others to return back to the house. Gabriel and Claire had been able to deal with the handful of agents sent to capture them, and now they were returning to the scene of tragedy.
What awaited them was utter destruction.
Bodies lay torn apart on the Daniels' family front lawn, as well as the fields that surrounded it. Madrid sat slumped against a tree, Vally nearly asleep in her arms, warn out. The body of Noah Bennet had been driven onto a telephone pole, his face twisted in fear and agony as his dead hands still clutched the wooden pole that shot up from his chest, as if trying to yank it out.
Carter and Sarah stood, looking at their parents' killer.
"If you do this…if you separate our universes…will they live?" Sarah asked.
Carter gulped. "Mine…not yours."
Sarah's tears fell. "But will they live…even if it is another version?"
"…yes."
Sarah turned to him. "Then I will help you…on one condition." Carter waited. "When you go back…when you return to them…I'm coming with you."
Carter licked his lips. "Are you sure? They won't remember you."
Sarah closed her eyes, tears falling. "Better that then…there is nothing left for me here."
Carter wrapped an arm around her as they cried.
Author's Note: I am glad, at long last, I was able to get around to describing what the whammy flames SOUND like. Some people have asked if they sounded like Meredith's flames, but whenever Carter charges his fist, it sounds like a jet engine or some sci machine machine revving up. The musical equivilant, I guess, would be the Joker's theme from The Dark Knight…a violin string growing tighter and tighter but the tension never breaks.
Originally, I debated keeping the idea that Sarah (Eden) would return with Carter a secret, but I just felt this chapter was too sad not to throw that in. Of course, fans that have good memories will remember that future Valencia makes reference to an "Aunt Sarah" who she will later name her daughter after.