Trust Issues

Peter peered around the corner, watching how five men heaved the three wounded women onto stretchers. As far as he could see they were not wounded too bad. A few stitches and the injuries would be treated sufficiently. But they were in the hands of the Company now and he couldn´t take the chance that they´d treat them at all. So he waited for the right moment and when he was sure the guards were not paying attention, he attacked.

Taking out the guards was easy, with the strength and agility he´d gotten from Dr. Suresh. A minute after his attack had started, it was already over. But the really tricky part was to get the others away. He had three unconscious women and two of them were shot.

He quickly checked on Lauren and Gretchen and to his great relief, he truly found their wounds minor. Except for the fact that they were sedated, they seemed to be fine – or they would be fine, as soon as the wounds would be bandaged. What Peter didn´t understand was that Claire was unconscious too.

She wasn´t wounded – of course not, her body would heal every wound at once. But that was exactly the point. Her regenerating metabolism would also eliminate every sort of sedative at once, except it was given to her on a permanent base. And there was no hose in her nose or an IV on her arm or anything. So why was she unconscious? She shouldn´t be.

"She´s imprisoned within her own mind." Bennet´s voice startled him.

Peter flinched, looked up, into the unreadable face of Noah Bennet. He stood at the corner as if he´d watched him all this time.

"Where do you come from?" Peter asked.

"I just arrived." was all Noah said, still way too calm.

Peter hesitated one more second, uncertain. But then his mind went back to Claire. "Within her mind?" he repeated. "How? Who did this?"

"A man named Frederic Roth." Noah told him, stepping up beside him. "He´s very powerful, Peter. But don´t worry. I have a plan to bring her back."

"What plan?"

Instead of receiving an answer, Peter felt a stitch in his neck. He swirled around, bewildered, staring into Noah´s unreadable eyes. Unreadable for people who didn´t know him. But even if Peter hadn´t known him, the empty shot Noah pulled out of his neck, was more than enough, to understand.

"What are you doing, Noah?" Peter stumbled back.

"I´m sorry, Peter." Bennet sighed. "I´m doing this for Claire."

Slowly Peter´s vision started to blur. It became harder to keep his balance every second. Still he was conscious enough to realize that the guards he´d knocked out earlier, were not as unconscious as he´d believed them to be. The men got up, even got accompanied by some more. They started to surround him.

Noah seemed to stand in their midst as if this was completely normal. His gaze was sad. But he wouldn´t do anything to help Peter either. "She´ll never … forgive you." he brought out, before he broke down to his knees.

The last thing Peter heard before everything around him went dark, was Noah´s response. Sad, once again, accepting.

"I know."

...

Bennet gently stroke his daughter´s cheek, barely touching. He sighed. Next to him Peter lay on the ground, unconscious, helpless. Noah knew what he´d done. He knew it very well. And he also knew that Peter was right. As soon as Claire found out what he´d done, that he´d traded Peter for her, she wouldn´t only be mad with him, she would downright hate him. "You did well, Noah." he heard the voice of Roth, coming from above him.

Noah looked up, to the camera and loudspeaker under the ceiling. Around him the guards took the stretchers, ready to bring the sleeping women away.

"We had a deal." Noah reminded, looking straight into the camera.

"And it will be kept." Roth´s voice answered. "The women will be taken care off and Claire … as well."

Noah looked after her, until the stretcher with his daughter was gone around the corner. He hoped he´d done the right thing. Even if she´d hate him for that, all a father could do was trying to protect his child. He needed a few seconds, to tear his mind away from Claire and back to Peter.

"What will happen to him?" he asked, turning back to the camera.

For a while there was only silence answering him. But then Roth spoke up again. He didn´t address Noah, though.

"Henderson." he said and one of the guards straightened. "Finish him." Roth ordered.

Noah stared at the man next to him, shocked. The guard grabbed his gun, ready to use it and Noah´s head flew around, staring into the camera. Not that he hadn´t known Roth´s goal, to kill all Specials, but to stand by and watch Peter being shot, knowing that he was the one who´d made it possible …

He wanted to stop the man, wanted to drag the gun out of his hand and knock him out. But he couldn´t. He was outnumbered and even if he wasn´t. He had to think about Claire. So he didn´t do anything.

The guard cocked his gun and aimed it at Peter. At his head. And then everything happened too fast for Noah to even compute.

"Freeze, douchbags!" someone shouted through the hallway, making all the guards swirl around.

Before they had a chance to aim at their unexpected attackers, their guns got dragged out of their hands by an invisible force. The clattering sounds when they hit the ground were followed by the surprised groans of the men, when the same force shoved them backwards, against the wall. A moment later the guards had guns in their faces, held by two detectives and two civilians.

Noah´s mind had only so much as taken in the fact that the situation had changed completely. That those detectives and the two civilians, on which he´d never raised a bet on, were accompanied by Sylar the serial killer. And then all the sudden, he faced a gun of his own – held by a very grim looking Indian scientist. Noah slowly raised his hands.

"What´s going on here, Noah?" Mohinder demanded to know. "What are you doing?"

"Please, let me explain." Noah said. He glanced at Sylar, who knelt down next to Peter, checking his pulse. "Roth made me do this." Noah explained. "I tried to save Claire and the others."

"By sacrificing Peter?" Sylar snapped.

Bennet threw him a glance. "You´re hardly the right person to judge me for this."

"But I am." Mohinder said, inching the gun a little closer to Noah´s face. "You were the one who brought me here. You sent me on this mission. I believed you were earnest."

"I was. I still am." Noah assured him. "Please. Before we go on. You need to disable this camera up there. He´s watching us through it."

They all looked up, at the spot Bennet had pointed at and a moment later, the camera got hit by two bullets. One from Lassiter´s gun and one from Shawn´s. The surprised glance they both shared afterward, was followed by a smirk.

...

In his office, Roth looked at the now gray screen of his surveillance monitor, huffing angrily. Eventually he turned his attention to another monitor. The one that showed him the infirmary of this building. Claire Bennet lay there, on her stretcher, still peacefully asleep. Roth smiled.

"Seems your daddy doesn´t quite understand the meaning of the word agreement." he said into the empty room. "Maybe we should do something about it, what do you say?"

Claire of course didn´t react to his words. But that was all right. He didn´t need her to react to him. She´d react to something else instead.

With a determined smile on his lips, he stared at her image on the screen and concentrated. He would have to dig deep.

...

"You´ve got to believe me." Bennet said. "I didn´t want this. But this man we´re fighting here has something I didn´t foresee. He´s one of them. Of you."

"We know." Shawn said. "He´s a mind controller."

"Right." Bennet affirmed, startled. "He showed me you guys lying in the cells. After what he told me, you should be imprisoned within your minds. Just like Claire. How did you get out?"

"We had some help." Shawn said.

"From whom?"

"That´s not important now." Lassiter said, coming back to the gathering after he and Juliet had locked the guards in a small room. "There are more urgent things right now. For example. How do we know that we can trust you? Maybe we should lock him up with the others."

"Please." Bennet begged. "I only tried to protect my daughter. Roth said there was no one left that could fight him. But now that you´re free …"

"You´ll change sides again?" Lassiter asked, daring.

"I never was on Roth´s side." Bennet emphasized.

"It doesn´t quite look that way." Gus pointed at Peter.

"Roth extorted me. I saw no other way than to do what he wanted."

"He´s telling the truth." Sylar stated, matter of factly, making everybody look at him. "I can tell." he pointed at his own head, indicating a complying ability, and shook his head. "But right now we don´t have the time to judge the morally gray Noah Bennet anyway. We´ve got to take care of Peter. And then we have to take care of Roth."

"Great plan." Lassiter said, sarcastically. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

"There must be some anti tranquilizer somewhere in the building." Sylar replied. "You think one of our friends in there might know
where?"

Lassiter turned his head halfway to the door, his eyes never leaving Sylar. It was Juliet who went to the door, ready to open it, if he wouldn´t. Lassiter hurried after her, cursing under his breath.

When he reached her, he didn´t need to say it. She understood him without words. Shawn came to their support, just before Lassiter opened the door. They kept the captured men at gunpoint, while Lassiter eyed them, warily.

"You." he pointed at one. "Come out."

The man obeyed. After the door was locked again, Lassiter pushed him against the wall.

"We need something to wake this man up." he hissed, pointing at Peter. "You´ll tell us where to find the medicine for that and you don´t wanna lie to me, pal."

The man looked into Lassiter´s stern eyes and then around, at the rest of them.

"The infirmary is highly secured." he told them. "You´ll never get there. But there is a medicine cabinet downstairs. There´re no guards posted there tonight."

"All right." Lassiter nodded and pushed the man forward. "Lead the way."

...

It was the production hall they were led to. A big unlit hall, work benches standing everywhere, some of them still littered with the remains of today´s work. The guard led them to a door in the back of the hall. It was a small room with only one table, a chair and a few shelves.

Mohinder lay Peter down on the table, while Sylar cracked the lock of the little medicine cabinet. The others gathered at the door, waiting, watching them.

"Which one is it?" Sylar asked, looking at Mohinder helplessly.

The scientist reached past him, picking the right bottle without a word. He looked at Peter, hesitating.

"I´ll need something to inject it." he realized, already searching the shelves with his eyes.

Shawn looked around the hall. When he spotted something on one of the nearest benches, he picked it up.

"How about this?" he offered, returning to the cabinet.

Mohinder looked at the little device for a moment. He didn´t seem too happy about the idea of using a tool that was meant to put microchips together for a needle, but he took it anyway.

"I´ll try." he said and immediately started to work.

"You need anything?" Sylar asked. "Can I help you somehow?"

"Don´t distract me." Mohinder said without looking at him and kept working.

Sylar remained where he was for another minute, before he turned around and left the room.

Bennet eyed him warily, but so did almost everybody, so there was nothing he could do about it.

"We should secure the doors." Lassiter decided. "They´ll come for us very soon."

Some of the others nodded, in agreement, and Sylar heard a very faint, almost inaudible sound, coming from the other end of the hall. He turned around, and spotted the source of that sound.

His reaction was pure instinct – he jumped forward and grabbed Juliet, swirling her around.

"Look out!" was all he managed to cry, before the bullets started to hammer into his back.

Juliet cried out, in shock and actually tried to catch his fall when he went down. But only for a second, before Shawn grabbed her arm, dragging her away, to take cover behind a working bench.

Immediately the air was full of shots, coming from both directions. It was like a positional warfare, with them here and the others over there. They even had their own personal first body lying on the frontline. Sylar didn´t move anymore so he was at least temporally dead.

Lassiter was in his element. He was shooting with two guns at once, as if he were in a western. After he´d emptied his clips, he cried for Gus, to take over for him. Gus, his back pressed into the bench, stared at him wide eyed, but when he faced the demanding gaze of the detective, he did his best to obey. He held the gun over the edge of the bench and blindly shot into the air. Lassiter reloaded his guns and took over again.

Behind the second bench, Shawn was shooting too, taking turns with Juliet, until his clip was empty.

The only one that didn´t even think about shooting to hold back these attackers, was the guard that had led them here. In this whole ultimately life threatening situation, he´d been pretty much forgotten and when he realized his advantage, he hurried to make his move, over to the small closet. His task had been to take out this one Special and now he had a chance to take out two of them. Petrelli and this scientist. He grabbed a sharp tool from the working bench in alternative for a gun, but this funny doctor he could take out with a kitchen knife if necessary. And an unconscious man would be no problem either. So while the others were busy trying not to get shot, he snuck through the door, into the small back-room.

He was ready to attack immediately, expecting to find the scientist bowed over Petrelli or crouched in a corner in fear. But instead he only found the still unconscious Petrelli on the table, no sign of Suresh whatsoever. What the hell?

He was about to look around, but he didn´t get to finish his turn. Something hit him on the nose, from out of nowhere and he stumbled back. It took him only a few seconds to find his orientation again and he was ready to attack whoever´d dared to hit him. He raised the tool he´d brought as a weapon, ready to stab his attacker in the heart, and was rewarded with the muzzle of a gun.

"Drop it." Suresh demanded.

The Company guard grabbed his own weapon a little tighter. But so did Suresh.

"I wouldn´t do that." the scientist warned. When the guard still hesitated, he shook his head, once, very quick. "Back off, man. I´m a scientist."

Finally the guard realized that a stabbing tool was no match for a gun, held by an obviously mad scientist and opened his fist. The tool fell to the ground and a moment later, the guard followed, efficiently knocked out by Suresh´s elbow.

...

Outside Bennet was crouching behind the bench not so far from Shawn and Juliet.

"Give me a gun." he cried over the noise of the shooting.

Shawn threw him an estimating glance, only for a few seconds before he had to keep shooting.

"I can help." Bennet insisted. But in this moment a gun got cocked, only a few feet behind him.

"No, you can´t." a totally unexpected voice said.

Bennet turned around and looked into the stone cold eyes of his daughter … and the muzzle of the gun she was aiming at him.

...

Inside the back-room, Mohinder waited for Peter to wake up, hoping that he hadn´t poisoned him by using this bad excuse for an injection needle. But then the young man opened his eyes, blinking at him, confused.

"Mohinder." he mumbled. "What´s going on?"

But the newest shots that rang out behind them, were already answer enough. A few bullets found their way through the open door, and Mohinder cried out, doubling over, holding his bleeding shoulder.

Peter reacted on instinct and rolled himself off the table, grabbing Mohinder on his way down and dragged him into cover.

...

"How could you do this?" Claire asked, an expression of pure hate in her eyes.

Bennet thought he´d never seen her face so hard ever before. And this hate was meant all for him.

Shawn and Juliet glanced at her too, unable to decide what to do. Claire was standing in a dead spot, so she was not effected by the shooting that still went on in the hall. What also meant she could totally focus on aiming at her father.

"Listen, Claire." Shawn tried to speak up and immediately faced the muzzle of her gun.

"You stay out of this." she demanded. "I mean it."

"Please, Claire." Bennet begged and the gun went back to him. "I was only trying to protect you."

"She´s not talking about you sedating Peter." the slurred voice of Sylar spoke up, behind him.

They all turned around. The killer leaned against the corner of the working bench, his shirt covered with blood. He was panting but his eyes were clear.

"There´s something else behind it." he said, looking at Claire. "Roth did something to her. To her mind. She´s not herself."

"I´m more myself than ever." Claire assured him. "You betrayed us all." she accused her father. "You are the reason why Gretchen is dead. You let her die and Lauren. And you claimed that you loved her. There is nothing in this world that means anything to you, is there?"

"That´s not true, Claire." Bennet said. "And Gretchen and Lauren are not dead. They are alive."

"Stop lying to me!" Claire shouted. "I saw them both die. And you … you just stood there and watched. But you won´t hurt anyone anymore. I´ll make sure of it."

"Claire, please don´t."

"Claire." Sylar slowly crawled past Shawn and Juliet, his eyes on the girl with the gun. "You have to fight these memories. They´re not real. Roth planted them in your head, to drive you against us. You´re stronger than this. Come on, you know your father wouldn´t do something like that."

"Shut up." Claire demanded, her voice trembling with tears. "You´re both murderers."

Sylar reached Noah, but he didn´t look at him.

"I´m a murderer." he told Claire, using the moment of distraction to place himself between her and Noah. "So if you need to shoot someone, then shoot me." he said.

Shawn raised his brows, stunned over this scene. The way Sylar knelt there, his arms spread and Noah in his back, it almost looked as if he was proposing.

Claire pulled back her own tears once again. She shook her head, the anger returning to her. And then she just pulled the trigger, with no warning, her eyes as cold as ice.

Sylar flinched when the bullet hit him but he didn´t move away. He even smiled.

"It´s all right." he said. "I guess, I deserve that … But your father doesn´t. Especially not from you."

Claire shot him again, the rage in her eyes getting stronger. Again Sylar doubled over, when the pain shot through his abdomen. He supported himself with one hand, panting heavily, but he was still standing his ground. Shawn felt strangely reminded of a certain day on the pier, a few months ago.

"Look at him, Claire." Sylar kept talking. "Look into his eyes and tell me if you can truly believe that he did, what Roth made you see."

Claire looked at her father and for a moment, the hate in her eyes softened a little. But the moment passed and she aimed her gun at Noah´s head. The shot rang out and Bennet flinched. But he wasn´t hit. Sylar was. He´d jumped into the line of fire, caught the bullet for him one more time. This time he didn´t flinch longer than a second and out of the movement, he lunged at Claire. His attack came so unexpected to her that she lost her gun, almost instantly. Bennet lunged forward as well, grabbing his daughter, trying to fend her furious attacks,when she tried to fight him.

Shawn and Juliet were so intrigued by that scenario that the shooting behind them was forgotten.

Eventually Bennet had his daughter in a relatively fast grip, despite her persistent efforts to free herself. Sylar took her face in his hands, making her look at him.

"You must stop that, Claire." he said. "This is not you. Wake up, Claire. Wake up."

"What are you doing?" Bennet asked.

"Waking her up from that nightmare."

Sylar threw a brief glance over his shoulder at Shawn and Juliet, before he faced Noah again.

"You´ve got to help me." he said. "She´ll rather listen to you than to me. Come on. Wake up, Claire. Wake up. Wake up."

Noah watched the killer, talking to his daughter. Claire was still struggling, trying to avoid the killer´s gaze. But her struggles had eased, just a little. When Noah finally chipped in, it was the pure desperation, Shawn could tell. He might have done anything in this moment, if it promised him to get his daughter back. The one that was mad with him for blowing her outcome to the world, but who didn´t want to shoot him in the head.

"Wake up, Claire." he spoke along with the murderer. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

Eventually, Claire´s struggles stopped, and then her legs gave in. She just broke down, boneless. Noah caught her, going down to his knees along with her, holding her like a little child. Claire´s hands found the cloth of his sleeves and she clung to it, her shoulders rocking. She was crying.

"It´s all right, Claire-Bear." Noah said, rocking her gently. "I´m here. Everything´s all right." He squeezed her a little tighter, placing a kiss on her head, and another one.

„Aaawww." Shawn exclaimed, moved by this amazing scene before him.

He was about to throw a dreamy glance at Jules, to share that warm feeling with her, this scene had caused in his stomach. And then all the sudden, the hall around them seemed to explode.